ruffles and broad cuffs, his knee-breeches, buckles, long waistcoat, and the rest of his garments of those days, thus uniting in one acclaim.  The reader may judge whether or not such applause was deserved by the picture, which tells its own story.  The parrot in the background was occasionally used by Reynolds; see the portrait of Elizabeth, Countess of Derby, and the engraving from it by W. Dickinson.[29] It has been said that the only example of Reynolds’s practice in signing pictures on the border of the robes of his sitters appears in Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse; nevertheless, this picture of Cornelia shows at least one exception to that asserted rule.  The border of Lady Cockburn’s dress in the original is inscribed in a similar manner thus:—­“1775, Reynolds pinxit.”  The picture was begun in 1773, and is now in the possession of Sir James Hamilton, of Portman Square, who married the daughter of General Sir James Cockburn, one of the boys in the picture.  It is noteworthy that all these children successively inherited the baronetcy; one of them—­the boy who looks over his mother’s shoulder—­was Admiral Sir George Cockburn, Bart., on board whose ship, the Northumberland, Napoleon was conveyed to St. Helena.  Sir James, the eldest brother, was afterwards seventh baronet; Sir William, the third brother, was eighth baronet of the name, was Dean of York, and married a daughter of Sir R. Peel.  The lady was Augusta Anne, daughter of the Rev. Frances Ascough, D.D., Dean of Bristol, married in 1769, the second wife of Sir James Cockburn, sixth baronet of Langton, in the county of Berwick, M.P.  She was niece of Lord Lyttleton.  For this picture in March, 1774, Reynolds received L183 15s.  This was probably the whole price, and for a work of no great size, but wealthy in matter, the amount was small indeed.  It includes four portraits.  After comparison of the facts that the engravings, by C.W.  Wilkin, in stipple, and by S.W.  Reynolds, mezzotint, are dated, on the robe as aforesaid, “1775,” and its exhibition in 1774, the year in which it was paid for, we may guess that the signature and date were added by the painter after exhibiting it, and probably while he worked on it, with the advantage of having compared the painting with others in the Royal Academy.  The landscape recalls that glimpse of halcyon country of which we caught sight in The Infant Academy—­its trees, its glowing sky, are equally adaptable to both subjects.  The picture was exhibited at the British Institution in 1843, and was then the property of Sir James Cockburn, Bart., whose portrait it contains.

    English Children as painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds (London,
    1867).

FOOTNOTES: 

[29] Rather we should say, see the engraving only.  The picture is one of the very few prime works by Reynolds which has disappeared without records of its loss.