THE SQUIRE'S PRAISE OF GENIUS.

15

caused him to run away and hide himself on these occasions, while new sensations thrilled every nerve and agitated his whole frame, and he felt that he must live for other and nobler objects than those which occupied the men and women around him. When a fox-hunting squire saw the collection of my works, he would expatiate to my mother on the heavenly gifts of genius; how those gifted with it pushed themselves forward in the world, overcame all difficulties, cleared the fences, and reached their goal.

Then, ma'am,' he would say, 'fame, riches, and honours come "thick as leaves that strew the Vale of Vallombrosa," as the great poet hath it; and he would leave my poor mother in an ecstasy from which it would have been sin in my father to have roused her. What glory it is to have praise in youth for any rare skill, physical or mental !

The part of the country where we lived at the period of which I write, had acquired fame for its peculiar breed of cattle, which it has ever since maintained. Exhibitions of the most extraordinary mountains of fat made the tour of the three kingdoms; paintings and engrav

16

ITINERANT ARTIST.

ings of these bovine wonders were fashionable; and it is not strange if a young artist should copy a series of these monsters. I accordingly had drawn, on large paper, bulls, oxen, and heifers, the most famous on record. With these I also executed sets of fox-hunting and greyhound-coursing, large views of the lakes, the scenery of Wales, the various picturesque rivers, and remarkable places or noble seats.

An unfortunate son of the brush arriving in the town and proposing to teach, I hastened by stealth, unknown to any of my friends, to his studio, and took my place for a set of six lessons, and accomplished under his tuition what to me was a fresh delight. It was a miniature of a beautiful girl, with a white veil spreading from the back of her head over her crimson satin dress, which showed in varied transparency the form beneath, she might be a bride, most beautiful she appeared to my wondering eyes,-the graduated effect of the veil, in its soft transparency, seeming magical to me. This professor had been on intimate terms with Morland, and had advanced him from time to time sums of money until he had

ANOTHER DICK TINTO.'

17

no more to advance. He said, whenever he went to Morland for the restitution of his accumulated debts he always left him with an addition to the sum due; but yet he loved him, he said, and was charmed with his genius and his society.

Another of these. itinerant geniuses was detained in our town by sickness; he was a son of the sock and buskin,' but being accomplished in the arts, and no longer able to

strut his hour upon the stage,' he wished to teach drawing; and to him I went for six lessons more in water-colours. Here I drew single figures, grotesque or humorous, taken mostly from such subjects as he painted. My portfolios being crammed with an extensive and miscellaneous collection, and my age approaching seventeen, I turned my thoughts to a higher pursuit, and became wholly absorbed in the study and practice of oil-painting, the smell of which was to me aliment and perfume inexpressible. In these times of eight-horse waggons and stage - coaches there were no establishments to supply you with artists' colours from the shops in London, as there are

VOL. I.

C

18

PICTURE OF A BROTHER CHIP.

now; so I had recourse for my first supply of necessaries, colours, oils, varnishes, canvas, the loan of an easel and palette, and so forth, to one of those country artists who, uniting the fine arts to a department of trade, have, by a very celebrated bard, been denominated the 'Dick Tintos' of the provinces, and, like most English artists, adapt the supply of their genius to the demand. Thus he was at once house, sign, coach, and heraldry painter, while for all who might be pleased to patronise his graphic pencil, he ventured upon the higher departments of art, landscape or portraits, as well as those luminous displays yclept 'transparencies,' painted upon a system of glazing of the Venetian school. As this universal genius made up his own materials, and ground his own colours, there was no difficulty in obtaining from him whatever I needed.

And here let me endeavour to place before the reader's eye the picture of a 'brother chip,' long lost to the provincial world of art and science,-I say science, for he was scientific as well as everything else, by turns, being in fact a universal genius; and there was nothing

A UNIVERSAL GENIUS.

19

in the heavens above, the earth beneath, or the waters that encompass it about, of which he did not know something. His acquirements, indeed, were extraordinary. Self-taught and unappreciated, he lived and died a recluse, known but to few; his acquisitions of information were scarcely known to himself; it was only when subjects were brought under discussion that he found himself prepared to enter on subtle arguments and nice distinctions that would have surprised and delighted learned professors. Like many unfortunate geniuses, he was eccentric in person and manners. His figure was ungainly. By an accident in early life he was lame in one leg, and crippled in one hand and foot, and his head appeared (as well as his nose) to have been knocked to one side, perhaps by the same accident. He met your gaze with one eye only, and if by some chance you caught a glance of the other you would observe that there was a decided obliquity of vision in that organ, which he invariably kept closed in company. He was decidedly a bookworm, and when poring over some mouldy old tome he wore a pair of wide-rimmed spectacles,