_Family of Etty the Artist._--In the _Diary_ of Ralph Thoresby, F. R.
S., 1702, vol. i. p. 366., occurs the following passage:--
"Evening sat up too late with a parcel of artists I had got on my
hands; Mr. Gyles, the famousest painter of glass perhaps in the
world, and his nephew, Mr. Smith, the bell-founder (from whom I
received the ringing or gingling spur, and that most remarkable,
with a neck six inches and a half long); Mr. Carpenter the
statuary, and Mr. Etty the painter, with whose father, Mr. Etty,
senr, the architect, the most celebrated Grinlin Gibbons wrought
at York, but whether apprenticed with him or not I remember not
well. Sate up full late with them."
Thoresby at this time was at York. Were these Ettys ancestors of the
late William Etty? In the "Autobiography" published in the _Art
Journal_, it is stated that his father was a miller at York, but the
account goes no farther back. It would be interesting to ascertain how
far this was a case of hereditary genius. Is anything known of the "Etty
the Painter," and "Etty, Sen., the architect," to whom Thoresby alludes?
and are any of their works extant?