which Mrs. Blake, with due pride as well as gratitude, replied by forwarding him a copy of the Songs of Innocence and Experience, which she described as, in her estimation, especially precious from having been Blake's own.' It is a very late example, the water-mark of the paper bearing date 1825; and certainly, as to harmony of colour and delicacy of execution, is not, throughout, equal to some of the early copies. But, as the leaves were evidently numbered by Blake himself, the figures being in the same colour as the engraved writing, it has been here followed,-thanks to the courtesy of its present owner, the Rev. Charles Foster,-in regard to the order of the Songs as reprinted in Vol. II.

A note to Mr. Swinburne's Critical Essay (pp. 81-83), contains the following interesting reminiscence of Mrs. Blake from the lips of Mr. Seymour Kirkup, who, as the reader will remember, was one of the few visitors to Blake's Exhibition in 1809. After Blake's death, a gift of £100 was sent to 'his widow by the Princess Sophia. Mrs. Blake sent back 'the money with all due thanks, not liking to take or keep 'what, as it seemed to her, she could dispense with, while 'many, to whom no chance or choice was given, might have 'been kept alive by the gift. One complaint only she was 'ever known to make during her husband's life, and that 'gently," Mr. Blake was so little with her, though in the 'body they were never separated; for he was incessantly 'away in Paradise," which would not seem to have been 'far off.'

Mr. Cary, the translator of Dante, also purchased a drawing -Oberon and Titania: and a gentleman in the far north, Mr. James Ferguson, an artist who writes from Tynemouth, took copies of three or four of the Engraved Books. Neither was Mrs. Blake wanting in efforts to help herself, so far as it lay within her own power to do so. She was an excellent saleswoman, and never committed the mistake of showing too many things at one time. Aided by Mr. Tatham, she also filled in, within Blake's lines, the colour of the Engraved

Books; and even finished some of the drawings-rather against Mr. Linnell's judgment. Of her husband she would always speak with trembling voice and tearful eyes as 'that 'wonderful man,' whose spirit, she said, was still with her, as in death he had promised. Him she worshipped till the end. The manner of her own departure, which occurred Somewhat suddenly, was characteristic, and in harmony with the tenor of her life. When told by the doctor that the severe attack of inflammation of the bowels which had seized her and which, always self-negligent, she had suffered to run to a height before calling in medical aid, would terminate in mortification, she sent for her friends, Mr. and Mrs. Tatham, and, with much composure, gave minute directions for the performance of the last sad details; requesting, among other things, that no one but themselves should see her after death, and that a bushel of slaked lime should be put in the coffin, to secure her from the dissecting knife. She then took leave of Miss Blake, and passed the remaining time—about five hours-calmly and cheerfully; 'repeating texts of Scripture, 'and calling continually to her William, as if he were only in the next room, to say that she was coming to him, and 'would not be long now.' This continued nearly till the end. She died in Mrs. Tatham's arms, at four o'clock in the morning, on or about the 18th of October, 1831, at the age of sixty-nine; and was buried beside her husband in Bunhill Fields. The remaining stock of his works, still considerable, she bequeathed to Mr. Tatham, who administered her few effects-effects, in an artistic sense, so precious. They have since been widely dispersed; some destroyed.

Blake left no surviving blood relative, except his sister, concerning whom only the scantiest particulars are now to be gleaned. She had had in her youth, it is said, some pretensions to beauty, and even in age retained the traces of it; her eyes, in particular, being noticeably fine. She was decidedly a lady in demeanour, though somewhat shy and proud; with precise old-maidish ways. To this may be

added that she survived her brother many years, and sank latterly, it is to be feared, into extreme indigence; at which point we lose sight of her altogether. Where or when she died, I have been unable to discover. Miss Blake has crossed our path but once casually during the course of this narrative, during the Felpham days, when she made one in her brother's household.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

SUPPLEMENTARY.

AMID unavoidable regrets that all it seems possible to glean regarding a life of great gifts and independent aims, which has passed away beneath the very eyes of many now living, is already exhausted, it remains only to add a few further notes of critical or personal detail; a few pages of summary, and of matters accessory to the main subject.

To begin with the first of these :—

The reader has already seen that Blake applied the term fresco to his own pictures in a somewhat unusual sense. According to the literal meaning of the word, he cannot be said to have ever painted a fresco in his life. To Mr. Linnell I am indebted for the following explanation of the matter-an explanation which also throws light on the cause of the lamentable decay into which some of Blake's 'frescos' and temperas have already fallen. 'He evidently founded his ' claim to the name fresco on the material he used, which was water-colour on a plaster ground (literally glue and whiting); 'but he always called it either fresco, gesso, or plaster. And he ' certainly laid this ground on too much like plaster on a wall. When so laid on to canvas or linen, it was sure to 'crack, and, in some cases, for want of care and protection 'from damp, would go to ruin. Some of his pictures in this ' material on board have been preserved in good condition,

' and so have a few even on cloth. They come nearer to 'tempera in process than to anything else, inasmuch as white. 'was laid on and mixed with the colours which were tempered 'with common carpenter's glue.' Nollekens Smith also tells us that Blake 'would, in the course of painting a picture, 'pass a very thin transparent wash of glue-water over the 'whole of the parts he had worked upon, and then proceed 'with his finishing.' Those who may be curious to have a minute description of how to manipulate these materials may find one in an Italian treatise entitled Di Cennino Cennini, Trattato della Pittura messo in luce la prima volta con annotazioni dal Cavaliere Giuseppe Tambroni. Roma; Coi Torchj di Paolo Sabriucci, 1822; of which chap. xix. headed Colla di Spichi, is specially devoted to the subject. 'I believe,' writes Mr. Linnell, 'that the first copy of Cennino Cennini's 'book seen in England was the one I obtained from Italy, 'and gave to Blake, who soon made it out, and was gratified 'to find that he had been using the same materials and 'methods in painting as Cennini describes, particularly the 'carpenter's glue.'

Blake was a severe designer, says another friend, on the same topic,—and the richness of oils did not please him, nor comport with his style; nay, so vehement an antagonist was he to oils (see Descriptive Catalogue), that he used to assert that all really great works were in water-colour; and, regarding the plaster ground and the absence of an oily vehicle as the important and distinguishing characteristic of fresco, and the peculiarity from which it takes its name,—that of being executed on a wet surface, as a comparatively trivial one he, naturally enough, took pleasure in adopting that designation for his own pictures.

A few fragmentary notes concerning Blake's principles or practice, written down as they were gathered, have not yet been included here. Though slight they are not without

interest, and it will be better not to omit them.

He worked at literature and art at the same time, keeping