VI
Old Times at the Law School
In the reading-room of Austin Hall hangs a striking old painting—a group of three-quarter length figures suggesting the work of Copley, but in reality from the brush of Feke, a young Newport Quaker.[1] A red-coated gentleman stands stiffly at a table, surrounded by admiring female relatives. He is Isaac Royall, Brigadier-General of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, representative to the Great and General Court, member of the Council, Church of England Tory, wealthy land- and slave-owner, and famous bon vivant. His magnificent mansion at Medford is still standing, and of its owner the comfortable tradition is preserved that “no gentleman of his time gave better dinners or drank costlier wines.”
Despite his red coat and his martial title (in the militia) General Royall was one of the most timorous of mortals. The moment that the Battle of Lexington—whose smoke he could almost smell from his own door-
- ↑ Robert Feke (1705–50) is an American primitive whose work is extremely rare. He was a sailor in early life, and learned to paint while a prisoner in Spain. This is the earliest of his known portraits which can be definitely dated (1741).
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