has a wooded
landscape background. Below the print of this picture is engraved
these lines:--

"This youngest of the Graces here we view
So like in Beauty to the other two
Whoe'er compares their Features and their Frame
Will know at once that Gunning is her name."

There is an engraved picture of the two sisters together--based on
Cotes's portrayals--called "The Hibernian Sisters." Maria is sitting
on the left, looking toward the right, with a dog on her lap; the
younger is on the right, looking to the front, and holds a fan in her
hand. In the background is a garden wall. Cupids surmount the
picture. The inscription is in this fashion:--

"Hibernia long with spleen beheld
Her Favorite Toasts by ours excelled.
Resolved to outvie Britannia's Fair
By her own Beauties,--sent a pair."

Reynolds painted them both, in 1753; but he failed to give them the
charm we would expect. Unless Sir Joshua's engravers belie him, he did
not make Maria even ordinarily fair to look upon. These pictures are
not classed among his masterpieces. There is a picture of Maria by B.
Wilson the engraver, made before she left Ireland. In it the features
are handsome and the figure graceful, though over-dressed, and the
whole impression is of a matron in her thirties rather than a maid in
her teens. The picture we give of her is from a whole-length by Gavin
Hamilton, a Scotch artist, a friend of Burns, born in Lanark about
1730. He must have been a precocious genius, for this picture was
engraved by McArdell, and published in 1754. Hamilton passed the
greater part of his life in Rome, painting classical subjects and
pursuing archaeological investigations. He died there, in 1797.
Portraiture was probably a pecuniary pursuit before the classics
claimed him. His portraits savor somewhat of the affectations of the
"curtain and column" school. His canvas of Elizabeth shows her
standing on a terrace with a low dress and long hair, a veil loosely
tied across her chest. Her left hand rests on the head of a greyhound.
There is a seat to the left and trees in the background.

Houston engraved a portrait of Maria after a drawing by J. St.
Liotard. This is a three-quarter length figure. Her hair is in large
plaits twined with a muslin veil on her head. The dress is open at the
throat, showing a necklace. There is a wide belt with large clasps.
Her left elbow rests on her knee. Perhaps the most satisfactory
pictures of the Beautie