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A Second Set of John White Drawings?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Virginia F. Stern
Virginia F. Stern*
Affiliation:
New York City
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Extract

Scadbury Park in Chislehurst, Kent, is the site of the once glorious manor of the Walsingham family, a seat presided over from 1589 to 1630 by Thomas IV, favorite of Queen Elizabeth, cousin of Sir Francis Walsingham, and patron of poets Thomas Watson, Christopher Marlowe, and George Chapman. The original moated manor house is now in ruins, but there is extant among the family papers of Major John Marsham-Townshend, present owner of the Scadbury estate (and through the Betensons a collateral descendant of the Walsinghams), an informative document of 1727 entitled ‘An inventory of the household goods and furniture of the dwelling of the Hon Sr Ed Betenson at Scadbery in Kent, May 26th 1727.’ This manuscript excites speculative interest because of its listing of thirty Indian pictures.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , Spring 1968 , pp. 24 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1968

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References

1 Richard Betenson, father of Edward, purchased the manor in 1655 from the son of Thomas Walsingham rv, a collateral relative. As a result of financial difficulties, Thomas v at this time disposed of all his Kentish properties and retired to Saffron Walden in Essex to a simpler mode of living. See Webb, E. A., Miller, G. W., and Beckwith, J., History of Chislehurst (London: George Allen, 1899), p. 148.Google Scholar

2 Queen Elizabeth visited Scadbury Manor in 1597. This was evidently the chamber which she used at that time and possibly on other visits.

3 The five little landscapes are grouped with the Indian pictures so they may also have been part of the same series.

4 E. A. Webb et al., p. 13.

5 Godfrey, Walter H., The English Staircase: an Historical Account of its Characteristic Types to the End of the XVIIIth Century (London: Batsford, 1911), pp. 14–19 and plates.Google Scholar

6 Wraight, A. D. & Stern, Virginia F., In Search of Christopher Marlowe (New York: Vanguard, 1965), p. 257.Google Scholar

7 In the entire lengthy inventory there are only four other pictures not listed with frame, and one print of Paris described as ‘wthout frame.’

8 Hulton, Paul and Quinn, David Beers, The American Drawings of John White, 1577- 1590 (London: B. M.; and Chapel Hill: U. of N. C. Press, 1964)Google Scholar, v. 1 make the following statements: ‘A further set of drawings from sketches was made by White probably in 1588, from which the well-known plates in Theodor de Bry's America, pt. 1, were engraved.

These, where the subjects are the same, must have varied only in small details from the former [the B. M. watercolor drawings] (p. 2 5 ) … . Of the fate of the De Bry set of original drawings nothing is known’ (p. 27).

9 Of these sixteen horizontal pictures we have corresponding watercolors of thirteen: ten vertical and three square.

10 The two maps used at the start of this section are larger than full page and are also laid out in this manner.

11 The fire was in a warehouse adjacent to the auction rooms of Sotheby, Wilkinson, & Hodge, where the volume of drawings was awaiting sale (Hulton and Quinn, 1,28).

12 In 1590 America, pt. I, was printed in four versions: Latin, French, German, and English (Hulton and Quinn, I, 26).

13 See title page of the final section in America, pt. 1.

14 David Beers Quinn, ed., Roanoke Voyages (Hakluyt Society, 1952), 1, 359.

15 Hulton and Quinn, 1, 26.

16 Ibid.

17 ‘The Kiwasa plate in America, pt. 1 … may have been invented in De Bry's workshop' (Hulton and Quinn, 1, 26, n. 4). For analysis of suspicious elements see also p. 93. 18 The idol's head looks more oriental than American Indian, as does the high-necked, white, close-fitting jacket. The boot-like moccasins and beads around the thighs also seem questionable, as does the canopied structure in which the idol is seated.

19 Thomas Watson's Meliboeus (1590) refers to Thomas IV as chief mourner at Sir Francis Walsingham's funeral. From this and other references inferring their closeness (e.g., Calendar of State Papers, Foreign, 1586-88, p. 229), it seems that Thomas had been almost like a son to the older man.

20 Stevens refers to the originals of plates VIII and XLI of America, pt II (Henry Stevens, Thomas Hariot, London: Privately Printed, 1900, pp. 62-63).