rdship was
represented in his scarlet uniform of Captain of the Guard, with a
light-brown periwig, a cuirass under his coat, a blue ribbon, and a fall
of Bruxelles lace. Many of her ladyship's friends admired the piece beyond
measure, and flocked to see it; Bishop Atterbury, Mr. Lesly, good old Mr.
Collier, and others amongst the clergy, were delighted with the
performance, and many among the first quality examined and praised it;
only I must own that Dr. Tusher happening to come up to London, and seeing
the picture (it was ordinarily covered by a curtain, but on this day Miss
Beatrix happened to be looking at it when the doctor arrived), the Vicar
of Castlewood vowed he could not see any resemblance in the piece to his
old pupil, except perhaps, a little about the chin and the periwig; but we
all of us convinced him, that he had not seen Frank for five years or
more; that he knew no more about the fine arts than a ploughboy, and that
he must be mistaken; and we sent him home assured that the piece was an
excellent likeness. As for my Lord Bolingbroke, who honoured her ladyship
with a visit occasionally, when Colonel Esmond showed him the picture he
burst out laughing, and asked what devilry he was engaged on? Esmond owned
simply that the portrait was not that of Viscount Castlewood, besought the
secretary on his honour to keep the secret, said that the ladies of the
house were enthusiastic Jacobites, as was well known; and confessed that
the picture was that of the Chevalier St. George.

The truth is, that Mr. Simon, waiting upon Lord Castlewood one day at
Monsieur Rigaud's, whilst his lordship was sitting for his picture,
affected to be much struck with a piece representing the chevalier,
whereof the head only was finished, and purchased it of the painter for a
hundred crowns. It had been intended the artist said, for Miss Oglethorpe,
the prince's mistress, but that young lady quitting Paris, had left the
work on the artist's hands; and taking this piece home, when my lord's
portrait arrived, Colonel Esmond, alias Monsieur Simon, had copied the
uniform and other accessories from my lord's picture to fill up Rigaud's
incomplete canvas: the colonel all his life having been a practitioner of
painting, and especially followed it during his long residence in the
cities of Flanders, among the masterpieces of Vandyck and Rubens. My
grandson hath the piece, such as it is, in Virginia now.

At the commencement of the month of