So much was thought of the discovery of its being _possible_ to take a view beyond the old rule of sixty degrees, that they went to London, and then he took the view from the top of the Albion Mills, as was stated in Vol. iv., p. 54.
That was three quarters of a circle, and was exhibited in Castle Street, Leicester Square. Afterwards the whole circle was attempted. The idea of painting a view more than sixty degrees, was suggested by his mother. His father did not work at them, he being a portrait painter; but _he_ did, young as he was. Mr. Robert Barker and his wife were both Irish; but Henry Aston the son was born in Glasgow.
As I have not seen the _Athenæum_, I send the following notes, in uncertainty whether or not they may prove acceptable to MR. COLLIER.
_Sion y Cent_, i.e. John a Kent, or John of Kentchurch, is very generally believed in Wales to have been Owen Glendowr; though some few--unable to account for the mysterious disappearance of the hero--are still firmly convinced that he sleeps, like Montezuma and various other mighty men, in some deep cavern, surrounded by his warriors, until the wrongs of his country shall call him forth once more to lead them on to battle.
The following extracts are from notes appended [by the editors] to some poems of John a Kent which are published amongst the "Iolo MSS." by the "Welsh MSS. Society."
"... John of Kent, as he is called, is said to have been a priest at Kentchurch in Herefordshire, on the confines of Wales, about the beginning of the fifteenth century. He still enjoys a high degree of popularity, in the legendary stories of the principality, as a powerful magician. There is in the possession of Mr. Scudamore, of Kentchurch, an ancient painting of a monk, supposed to be a portrait of John of Kent; and as the family of Scudamore is descended from a daughter of Owen Glendowr, at whose house that chieftain is believed to have passed in concealment a portion of the latter part of his life, it has been supposed that John of Kentchurch was no other than Owen Glendowr himself," &c. &c.--Page 676., note to the poem on _The Names of God_.
"... The author was a priest of Kentchurch in Herefordshire, on the confines of Monmouthshire and Breconshire, and is said to have lived in the time of Wickliffe, and to have been of his party. As the parish of Kentchurch is adjacent to that of Oldcastle, the residence of Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, it is by no means impossible that John of Kentchurch may also have favoured the same opinions; and may in some measure sanction the idea."