Christopher Pitt, Dorset Poet; Sir James Thornhill, Dorset Painter

Christopher Pitt (1699-1748) born Blandford, Dorset.

"How are deluded humankind
By empty shows betray'd!
In all their hopes and schemes they find
A nothing or a Shade."

( from On a Shadow, An Ode)

From Invitation to a Friend at Court

"To these sweet solitudes without delay
Break from the world's impertinence away.

Soon as the sun the face of Nature gilds

For health and pleasure will we range the fields,

O'er her gay scenes and op'ning beauties run,

While all the vast creation is our own".

Sir James Thornhill At Work
(Sir James Thornhill, Dorset painter, born Stalbridge, Dorset; 1675/6-1734)

 
To Sir James Thornhill (1718)

"While thy swift art unravels Nature's maze,
And imitates her works and treads her ways,
Nature with wonder sees herself outdone,
And claims thy fair creation for her own:
Thy figures in such lively strokes excel

They give those passions which they seem to feel;
Each various feature some strong impulse hears,
Wraps us in joy or melts us all to tears;
Each piece with such transcendent art is wrought
That we could almost say thy pictures thought."

In memory of
CHR. PITT, Clerk, M. A.

Very eminent for his talents in poetry, and yet more for the universal candour of his mind, and the primitive simplicity of his manners. He lived innocent, and died beloved. Apr. 13- 1748. aged 48.

Sherborne House Thornhill Mural
Charborough House (Staircase murals and The Judgement of Paris)