The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1899-02-25
EARLY SETTLERS IN CECIL.
THE LESLIE-BAKER FAMILY.
Robert Leslie Who Settled ON the
West Side of the North East
River i'm Cecil County.

sister, Margaret Leslie, he embarked for
London, April 29th, 1898.
His eldest son, Charles Ro' ert Leslie,
was born in London, October 10Th, 1874.
Thomas Jefferson, his second son, was also
born in London in 1876. He graduated at
West Point, and was for many years pay
master in the United States Army. He
was stationed in New York, hut paid in
Newport, New London and Philadelphia.
and was sometimes sent to Florida, Louis
lana, and the Carolinas He married Miss
Gertrude Pearson, of Albany, N. Y.
in 1899, Robert Leslie returned with his
family to America. Arriving in Phiadcl,
| phia he found his business had been badly
managed a law suit with the executors
al his deceased partner was in progress.
/ This law suit turned out to he tedious and
expensive, and before it was decided Mr..
! Leslie died, after an illness of one week.
There was 40 little property left that
| MIS-. Leslie was obliged to open a boarding
| house, and the eldest sister, Eliza, taught
drawing to support the family. A letter to
her sister, MIS-. Daniel McCauley, dated
| October 10th, 1921, gives picture of their
life at this time
"My business is now almost as bad as it
can possibly he. The price of boarding has
now fallen so low that nothing is to be
made by il. l could not get on at all if il
were not for the assistance | receive from
my son Tom, now living in Washington.
| My daughters, Eliza and Ann, work at
ccIouring maps and painting feather fans,
| hut even that kind of work is hard to get
and very Improbable compared with what
it used to he My son Charles, is still in
London, and will remain there some years
longer. He is doing as we'll as any of the
! young painters, but London being such an
expensive place TO live, he finds it all be
can do to support himself comfortably"
Charles Robert Leslie who afterward be
came one OF the Masters of the English
School o! Painting, was sent to the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania, where he received
moderate education, and at the age of four
teen was apprenticed to Messrs. Bradford
and lnskeep, booksellers, in Philadelphia.
At the end of three years, Mr.. Bradford
having discovered his talent for drawing,
offered to release him from his indentures
and to raise fund for sending him to
England.
Before leaving Philadelphia Mr. Sully
gave Leslie his first lesson in oil painting,
painted picture in his presence, gave him
his palette and brushes and told him to
proceed in the same way with copy OF his
own. Sully gave him letters to Mr.. West,
who received him with kindness, assisted
and encouraged him, and on at least one
occasion gave him substantial aid, by sell
ing for him picture which by misunder-
standing had been rejected at an exhibi,
ton.
Leslie tells us the first original compost
ton that made him known was the ''Sir
Roger de Coverly going to Church."
scene from the spectator. This picture, and
''The May Day in the time of Queen Eliza
BETH" demand attention as works OF
time when the artist had felt the influence
Of neither Of two painters who materially
affected his later practice, Newton on the
one hand and Constable on the other. His
pictures are inspired by literature, and
given the requisite knowledge OF the sub
iect they tell their story with point and
humor.'
HIS biographer says GAS an illustrator
conceptions he ranks among the frst-if
not as the very first of English painters"
His power of rendering character, particul
arly of the humorous kind, is exhibited in
his "Uncle Toby and the Widow Wad-
man, "Sancho and the Duchess"
1t may not seem a very high place in art
says Tom Taylor, to claim for Leslie, which
sets him on a level with Washington Irving
in literature. But Leslie loved Irving so
well, and admired his work so heartily,
that | am sure Leslie would not complain
OF the parallel. In ISL Leslie ana wash
ington Irving made an excursion to Bir-
mingham and into Derbyshire. 1t was
during this trip that they were detained at
Oxford, over Sunday, by an unceasipg rain,
which suggested to the author the SIX etch,
"a Rainy Sunday at a Country Inn"
Among Leslie friends and patrons we're
Lord and Lady Holland, and Lord Eyre
mont. The latter he speaks of as the most
munifcent nobleman in England. In 1896
he invited Leslie and family to visit him
time to the end Of his life they were invited
regularly every year. Petworth at the
present time contains the first collection of
p;ot,,reu in Epolap1 'Tbara ara aeyan