represent you in your proper colours (to borrow a term of your art), both here and to your friends at London, unless you perform your agreement. You will also see yourself and your behaviour painted in one of the public papers; as I am persuaded it is one of the most flagrant and scandalous breaches of faith I ever met with, and therefore merits a public exposition, and deserves to be exhibited as an object of public detestation. If you had come over only to make this picture tolerable, you would, by my recommendation, have got two or three more. Cave litem, perfide pictor." An attorney's note lowered the Doctor's tone, and brought him to reason. Artists seldom find such rough customers as that learned man.

The time of Romney was not solely occupied in the manufacture of portraits, male and female; he had found leisure to make a score or so of compositions, chiefly of a cabinet size. Some twelve of them were copies after engravings, I apprehend, rather than originals; but the remaining eight, such as they were, seem to have been all his own: viz.-1. Lear wakened by Cordelia; 2. Lear in the storm, tearing off his robes; 3. A landscape with figures; 4. A quarrel; 5. A Shandean piece; 6. A droll scene in an alehouse; 7. A group of heads by candle-light; 8. A tooth drawn by candle-light. These pictures he exhibited in the Town-hall of Kendal ; distributed free admissions; and then dispersed the whole by means of a lottery composed of eighty tickets, price half a guinea each. Of these early works the fate of four only has been traced with certainty. "Lear wakened by Cor

delia" was, after the lapse of many years, found in a broker's shop in London, and sent to Adam Walker, the natural philosopher, one of the earliest friends of Romney, -the same who supplied the world with information concerning the family of Hogarth. Mrs. Romney was the model for Cordelia. "Lear in the storm, tearing off his robes," is now the property of Mr. Braddyll of Conishead Priory; this was the very first attempt, and a bold one it was, which Romney made in poetic painting. The whole scene is seen in the strong light and shade of torches: there is a visible observance of nature; and, with lamentable deficiency in drawing, there is force of character. The "landscape with figures" was lost sight of till the year 1798, when the painter, accompanied by his son, went into the north of England with the intention of purchasing a house. The latter looked at a solitary painting hanging in the gallery of Barfield, a residence advertised for sale, and asked the owner by whom it was painted. "By the famous Romney, sir," was the answer. "I cast a significant glance at Mr. Romney," says his son, said nothing

Con viso, che tacendo dicea, taci;

"but

for we were not known. I then proceeded to examine it with more attention. It represents a party, consisting of three gentlemen and two ladies, going on board a boat on a lake. The ladies show great timidity, so natural to the female character under the impression of danger; which expression is frequently accompanied with

a certain degree of grace; but are politely urged by their attendant gallants. The colouring is beautifully clear, and as fresh as if recently painted. The execution evinces great facility and freedom of handling, and the touches are spirited and neat. The landscape also shows that he would have excelled in that branch of the art, had he made it his particular study. I have heard Mrs. Romney speak with much delight of a party of pleasure which she and her husband made with some friends to Bowness and the island on Windermere lake." That such things dwelt on her memory is a proof of the worth of her heart; she loved to recall the kind looks and gentle acts of her husband during the days of her youth, and dwelt with no bitterness of feeling on his long and unaccountable estrangement.

The fourth and last of those works is "the Shandean piece," which found its way into the possession of the late Sir Allan Chambre. It represents Dr. Slop, all splashed with his journey, ushered by Obadiah_into_the parlour where Walter Shandy and Uncle Toby are discoursing on the nature of woman. The figures seem heavy and inert; the expression of the group has, however, had its admirers. The "Death of Le Fevre" is an attempt of a higher order. "The figures," says Adam Walker, "were about eighteen inches high, and wonderfully expressive. The dying lieutenant was looking at Uncle Toby, who sat mute at the foot of the bed; and by the motion of his hand was recommending his son to his care. The boy was kneeling by the bedside,

and, with eyes that expressed his anguish of heart, was as it were turning from a dying to a living father, begging protection; a most pathetic figure, Trim was standing at a distance, in his usual attitude, with a face full of grief. What became of this admirable picture I cannot tell." Enquiries have been made after this work in vain. Romney took it with him to London. He was introduced to Sterne at York, where Steele painted his portrait; and it has been imagined from this, that personal civilities and mutual acknowledgments of genius had passed, at this early period, between Romney and Yorick. Of this, however, there are no proofs; and, indeed, Romney himself, in one of his conversations, seems rather to discountenance the story.

As it has pleased Cumberland, and others of Romney's occasional companions, to represent him as a man coarse and illiterate, even after he had achieved his reputation, I may as well, before he leaves, for London, the mountains and lakes of Westmoreland, enquire into his attainments. It is true that he was taken from school

in his eleventh year, that from that period all regular instruction ceased, — and, that if knowledge could only be gained in "halls and colleges," Romney must be classed with the illiterate; but knowledge he certainly had found somewhere, and that, too, before he made his appearance in the metropolis. Nature had given him strong talents, a keen eye, curiosity, and imagination; the exercise of his profession kept him in constant collision with people of various orders; in a word, nature and society held their leaves

open before him; and out of these universal volumes, with such aid of printed books as chance might throw in his way, Romney had, somehow or other, educated himself much better than ninety-nine out of a hundred, in any university in the world, ever were or will be. Were I called upon to furnish proof of these assertions with regard to the painter, it would be almost enough to quote one early letter of his to Adam Walker. The friends were separated: but in dreams they conversed together; and this is Romney's account of one of those imaginary meetings:"Did I not find more pleasure in imaginative excursions than in bodily enjoyments, I would not give two-pence for this world. But I say my imagination took a journey a journey it often takes; never a day comes but it is wandering to that same Preston. What it can find there so attractive, God knows. However, when I had travelled over that vast tract of land in half a second, the first object that saluted my sight was a tall lean figure, walking with an important air, as erect as the dancing master in Hogarth's Analysis. Who can this be?' I said: 'I certainly must know the person; but he seems so disguised in importance and gravity, which look so like burlesque, that I can scarce forbear smiling.' As he approached nearer, he turned his face towards me- - with an earnest look made a stand-threw off his disguise, —by drawing up the muscles of his cheeks and hiding his eyes. I stood motionless three seconds then ran up to him, caught hold of his hand with the eagerness with which sincere friends generally meet, My dear Walker, how do you