[172] Charles Robert Leslie, historical painter, 1794-1859, was born of American parents, but studied art in London under Washington Allston. A pencil sketch, for which Coleridge sat to him in 1820, is in my possession. Mr. Hamo Thornycroft, R. A., after a careful inspection of other portraits and engravings of S. T. Coleridge, modelled the bust which now (thanks to American generosity) finds its place in Poets' Corner, mainly in accordance with this sketch.
[173] _Letters, Conversations, and Recollections of S. T. Coleridge_, London, 1836, i. 1-3.
[174] The Prospectus of the Lectures on the History of Philosophy was printed in Allsop's _Letters_, etc., as Letter xliv., November 26, 1818, but the announcement of the time and place has been omitted. A very rare copy of the original prospectus, which has been placed in my hands by Mrs. Henry Watson, gives the following details:--
"This course will be comprised in Fourteen Lectures, to commence on Monday evening, December 7, 1818, at eight o'clock, at the Crown and Anchor, Strand; and be continued on the following Mondays, with the intermission of Christmas week--Double Tickets, admitting a Lady and Gentleman, Three Guineas. Single Tickets, Two Guineas. Admission to a Single Lecture, Five Shillings. An Historical and Chronological Guide to the course will be printed."
A reporter was hired at the expense of Hookham Frere to take down the lectures in shorthand. A transcript, which I possess, contains numerous errors and omissions, but is interesting as affording proof of the conversational style of Coleridge's lectures. See, for further account of Lectures of 1819, _Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a Narrative_, by J. Dykes Campbell, pp. 238, 239.
[175] Thomas Phillips, R. A., 1770-1845, painted two portraits of Coleridge, one of which is in the possession of Mr. John Murray, and was engraved as the frontispiece of the first volume of the _Table Talk_; and the other in that of Mr. William Rennell Coleridge, of Salston, Ottery St. Mary. The late Lord Chief Justice used to say that the Salston picture was "the best presentation of the outward man." No doubt it recalled his great-uncle as he remembered him. It certainly bears a close resemblance to the portraits of Coleridge's brothers, Edward and George, and of other members of the family.