Inscription
on verso of mount in pen and ink: The story of Britain's disgrace / Thought nothing so sure / His pen to secure / As to give the Historien a Place / But art 'tis in vain / 'Tis the curse of his reign / That his projects should never succeed / Though he wrote not a line / Great Britain's decline / In the Author's example we read / His book well describes / How corruption and bribes / O'er threw the great Empire of Rome / and his writing dec... [This is a variation on a poem on Edward Gibbon that seems to have first appeared in The Gentleman's Magazine in 1781.]
Provenance
(Campbell Fine Art, London); Donald Vogler, Portland, OR; gift to NGA, 2017.
Bibliography
- 1925
- Lumsden, E.S. "The etchings of John Clerk of Eldin." Print Collector's Quarterly 12 (1925): no. 34
- 2012
- Bertram, Geoffrey. The Etchings of John Clerk of Eldin. Taunton, 2012: no. 50
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