not forget to write on the subject to my friends at Can- 1833 ton, and have the honour to be, “Sir, "Your most faithful servant, GuMostaunty "Sir Edward Thomason, &c. &c." 66 My dear Sir, "Florence, April 25th, 1833. "The bearer, Prince Jerome Pignatelli, is a very particular friend of mine; he is about going to England to see a country he has not yet visited, and as Birmingham is too interesting a place to escape the attention of a traveller, I take the liberty of giving him these few lines, trusting to your usual politeness, and knowing that no person can better put him upon the way of seeing everything that is worth notice. Believe me, much at your service, "My dear Sir. "Yours most sincerely, StameGran "Sir E. Thomason, Kt." "Sir, "Windsor Castle, June 8, 1833. "I have to apologise for my apparent inattention, in not having replied sooner to your letter; but having been honoured with the Queen's command to VOL. II. R 1833. transmit to you the accompanying medal, which her Majesty has been graciously pleased to order for you as a special mark of her Majesty's approbation, I delayed writing until the medal was completed. “It will, I doubt not, greatly enhance the value of this medal in your estimation, to know that it was engraved in compliment to her Majesty, under the particular direction of Mr. Chantrey, after his admired bust of the King, and that, although it has been otherwise published, none but such as bear the emblem of royalty on the reverse are struck by her Majesty's special command. "I have the honour to be, "Sir, "Your most obedient servant, Denbigh "Sir Edward Thomason, &c., Birmingham." "June, 1833. "Dear Sir, "We shall not easily forget the high pleasure we received to-day at your interesting establishment. It is enough to make one envy the heads that wear a crown, for the first time, merely for the favour of adequately paying tribute to merit such as yours. “I am, dear Sir, very truly yours, Charlotte R Eaton "To Sir Edward Thomason, Knt.” LINES WRITTEN BY MISS CHARLOTTE A. EATON, On seeing the splendid Bronze Vase, and Series of Medals, May 25th. "Princes and heroes perish from the earth, And leave, at best, a questionable name; "Trophies of sanguinary actions pass, And fade the wasting breath of time before; "The humble petition of Sir Edward Thomason, of Birmingham, in England, a Knight of Great Britain, a Knight Chevalier of seven Foreign Orders, to his Celestial and Imperial Majesty the Emperor of China, &c., &c., &c. "That your petitioner has, for more than thirty years, endeavoured in all that has laid in his power to improve the arts, sciences, and manufactures, and your petitioner has at his establishment unique works of art, the admiration of all strangers visiting your petitioner's manufactories. Your petitioner has, after much study, labour, and expense, completed a unique work of art in a series of sixty large medals, illustrative of the Holy Scriptures, the allegory of which is embodied from pictures of the ancient masters, Rubens, Raphael, Guido, Dominechino, Michael Angelo, &c. And your petitioner has had the gratification to present to your petitioner's own Sovereign, King William the Fourth, a series in five volumes, struck from the dies, which his Most Gracious 1833 |