the first gentry of North Wales, who happened then to be in town. Thus is delivered his amiable character: Gentilibus fuis compofitus Robertus Pennant, Filius 2dus Pyercei Pennant, de Bychton, Et Katherine, fororis Roberti Davies, Qui cum omnia obiiffet munera Defideratus æque ac notus deceffit Etatis A 24. M.DC.XXXIX. My worthy father was painted at the age of fifteen, moft MY FATHER. aukwardly in a long flowing wig. He was brought up at Thiftleworth, under Creech, the tranflator of Lucretius; after that his education was neglected, but he was abnormis fapiens, and of the best of hearts. He paffed a ufeful and worthy life to a good old age; and departed, with every expreffion of piety and refignation, on January 1ft, 1763, aged 78. My good and religious mother is painted in oil, over the MOTHER. chimney-piece; fhe is dreffed in blue, her neck naked, her treffes auburn, long, and flowing. The painter was Mr. who lived at Wrexham Fellowes, an artist of fome merit, ELIZABETH PENNANT. JOHN MYTTON. Houblon, lord mayor of London in 1695, lord of the admiralty in the time of King William, and the firft governor of the bank of England. See more of his history in my account of London, p. 455. I have often been affured by fome of my aunts, that (with their father and mother) they had often danced to the number of eight couple. My mother was born September 6th, 1689, and married to my father December 24th, 1724. The courtship was carried on at Wynn-ftay, and the nuptials performed at the neighboring church of Rhiwabon. That good man Sir Watkin Williams Wynne, in a frolic, jumped on the box, and drove the bride and bridegroom to the church-door. This excellent woman died in London of the fmall-pox, in the year 1744. She, near to her dying moment, called me to the bed-fide, and prefented me with her filver etwee, and looked as if fhe could have delivered her tender adieu in the Auguftan style (which 1 engraved on it) VIVE MEMOR AMORIS NOSTRI, ET VALE! THE portrait of my venerable aunt, Elizabeth Pennant, was drawn in water colors, in her old age, by Mofes Griffith, and does him much credit. It is a very strong likeness, dreffed in the old fashion, with a long white handkerchief flung carelessly over her cap; the countenance fhews the goodness of her heart. I fpeak gratefully of a friend, who doated on me and mine. I loft this valuable woman October 2d, 1775; who, with all the consciousness of a well-spent life, quitted the earthly ftage with the utmost tranquillity. My refpected uncle John Mytton, of Halften, born September 11th, 1690, closes the list of relations. His countenance in dicates dicates the fweet difpofition he poffeffed, and 11 his features are amiable. His drefs, a grey tye-wig, a blue coat, with a scarlet mantle flung over one arm. He was bred a merchant, and spent much of his time in Portugal; but fucceeding his eldest brother Richard in his eftate, retired to Halfton, where he ended his benevolent life. I MUST not forget a fhade of my affectionate uncle James JAMES MYTTON, Mytton, fifth fon of the fame houfe, and brother to the laft, the kind friend of my youth, with whom I lived long, and strove, to the best of my power, to reap from him every advantage that his good fenfe, good heart, and polished manners, wifhed to inftil into my fufceptible mind. I CONCLUDE the accounts of the portraits of our family with my own, in a Vandyk dress, by Mr. Willes, an ingenious artist, who afterwards quitted the pencil and obtained holy orders, to which be did no difcredit. Mofes Griffith furnished this room with other reduced portraits. That from the fine picture of Sir Roger Moftyn, knight, (of whom more will be faid when I arrive at the house) is an admirable performance. SUPERIOR even to the portrait of Sir Roger Mostyn is that of Humphrey Lloyd, taken from the original, on board, in poffeffion of the Reverend John Lloyd, of Afton, in Shropshire. This illuf trious perfon was fenator, philofopher, hiftorian, and phyfician. He represented the town of Denbigh, in 1653. He is celebrated alfo as an accomplished gentleman, eloquent, and an excellent rhetorician. Camden fpeaks of his great skill in the antiquities of his country. He married a fifter of John lord Lumley: and formed D SIR ROGER MOSTYN, KNT. HUMPHREY formed his brother-in-law's library, which now is the most va- SIR JOHN WYNNE, HWY PERY KLOD NA GOLYD. On the other fide is the following infcription: Etatis 34. A. Dñi. 1561. Vera effigies incliti Artium Profefforis, earumque alumni Humfredi Lloyd, Cambro-Britanni et Denbighenfis, ortus antiquâ Rofindalorum familiâ; qui floruit temporibus Maria et Elizabetha beata memoria regin. Obiitq. An. Dni. 1568, et cum patribus in ecclefia parochiali de Denbigh fepultus. He was buried at Whichchurch, near Denbigh, with a very neat monument. He is represented kneeling at an altar beneath a range of small arches, and dreffed in a Spanish habit. THIS is over the chimney-piece; above him is the portrait of Sir John Wynne, knight, who died on his travels at Lucca, in 1614. (It is taken from the original at Wynn-ftay). He was buried there, in the parish of St. John's. I have feen numbers of his letters, which fhew him to have been a moft obfervant man. He was eldest son of Sir John Wynne, of Gwedir. He is in black, has a large ruff, laced turn-over, and others at his wrifts, a white girdle ftuck with points, and a white belt paffing over his shoulders and breaft. His countenance is good, his hair fhort and dark, his beard small and peaked. THE THE next is oppofite to the other, a head of Sir Richard Wynne, baronet, grandfon to old Sir John, and laft of the male line. ABOVE Sir John Wynne is a very fine head of Charles I. by Vandyk. He is elegantly dressed in a red jacket, flashed and laced. This was purchased at the fale of the late colonel Norton, of Southwick, in Hampshire, by my worthy friend the late Pufey Brooke, efq. and gratefully prefented by him to the late Mr. Edwards, of Brynford, to whom he lay under obligations. It was on his death prefented to my father, and decreed to remain an heir-lome in the family. OPPOSITE to Charles I. is another Charles, great grandson to the unfortunate monarch. It is a head in oil-colors, after the original by Huffey. He was a man uncommonly handsome : his fine brown hair is tied behind, and curled on the fides; his body and arms are clad in armor. In the field he certainly took too great care of his perfon, but I believe the armor to have been the painter's choice. His highness had given himfelf the two orders, for both the blue and the green ribbon grace his fhoulders. THIS picture was originally the property of the late Sir William Meredith, baronet. He fuddenly veered from the Stuart to the Brunswick line; and thinking it unfafe to have a Stuart, even in canvas, prefented it to my very worthy mother-in-law, Elizabeth Falconer, a true votary of exiled royalty. On her death, the choice of any of her perfonality having been, in the most friendly manner, offered by her fon the Rev. James Falconer, D. D. I fixed on this. The period of Jacobitifm was over; but I remember D 2 SIR RICHARD WYNNE, BART. CHARLES I. HIS GREAT GRANDSON. |