late before I got home. Your letter and fivepound note I received safe, I cannot express how much obliged I am to you. When I look back at the many stops and turns, &c., which have occurred since I came here, I cannot but believe that there must be a Providence which directs and guides all our actions in a certain way to a certain point,-at least I think it is a fine consolation to believe so

At Mr. Haydon's I am daily, and here I am introduced to all kinds of known characters, authors, poets, painters, sculptors, &c., not only of this, but of every other country of Europe

London, Feb. 11th, 1818.

To Mr. J. Bewick, Newcastle-on-Tyne.

DEAR BROTHER AND SISTER,-How do you do? I hope you are quite settled and happy; I hear you have taken a house. I have an opportunity of sending this by a friend, Mr. Harvey (pupil of Bewick the engraver); he is a very clever fellow, and I have no doubt but he will get on. I found him in an obscure part of the town. He has very few acquaintances,

and wants bringing forward (his genius would bring him out). I have introduced him to the Landseers, &c. He has the right feeling, and as I said something to you about craniology, he has a good frontispiece. Will you give my best respects to Bewick, and son and daughters, and give them my address? I shall be happy to see any of them if they come to town.

I have been at two or three very intellectual dinners since I came. Amongst the company were Horatio Smith (author of Rejected Addresses), Keats the poet, Hazlitt the critic, Haydon, Hunt the publisher, &c., &c. I expect you will have got the numbers of Annals of Art from Bewick. I have taken rooms at No. 15 Nassau Street (Middlesex Hospital), unfurnished. It will be rather expensive for me just now, but it suits my purpose.

I have been drawing the skeleton of a lion, &c., for comparative anatomy, and a head in the British Museum.

Hazlitt is giving lectures on poetry; they are said to be the finest lectures that ever were delivered. He gave me a ticket of admission; I have attended.

He is the Shakespeare prose writer of our glorious country; he outdoes all in truth, style, and originality, you must read his Shakespeare's characters.

I am, dear brother and sister,
Yours affectionately,

WILLIAM BEWICK.

Mr. J. Bewick, Newcastle-on Tyne.

London, March 20th, 1818.

MY DEAR BROTHER,-There will be published in the Annals of Art for the 1st of April a caricature representing Haydon and his pupils. Your brother is made most conspicuous, being placed in the centre, and figuring away in a most energetic style. I have had an impression given me.

in the shape of a bird, he has

Haydon is flying kicked his palette and is blowing a

and colours behind him, trumpet as director of the public taste, with two large pens before him denoting his authorship. It will be the best thing for us that has happened, for it connects us altogether, brings us into public notice, and if we produce anything it will make it tell so much the more. The fools! they cannot see that the more they talk

ENVIOUS CRITICS.

43

about us the better for us; they cannot annihilate our works; they cannot criticise our drawings, so they show their jealousy in this way. You are free from all this glorious work, this jealousy, this envy. Write to me as soon as you can. Mrs. Harvey's brother is coming to town, endeavour to send a letter by him if he comes soon.

My love to Ann, and that you may both live and die happy, with a religious sense of duty towards your Creator, is the prayer and hope of your brother,

WM. BEWICK.

Mr. J. Bewick, Newcastle-on-Tyne.

CHAPTER III.

VISIT TO DARLINGTON-BELZONI-HARASSED IN CIRCUMSTANCES

ENGAGED ON A LARGE PAINTING 'JACOB AND RACHEL NOTICES OF BEWICK'S PICTURES - HAYDON'S 'LAZARUS' INVOLVED IN CONSEQUENCE OF HAYDON'S BANKRUPTCY.

In the period which intervenes between the last letter and that which follows, Bewick appears to have visited his friends in the north; but during that time he seems to have been by no means forgetful of his vocation, enlarging his views of the domain of art by the practical study of it.

The circle of his ac

quaintances was gradually enlarged; and among others, he obtained the friendship of Allan, the distinguished Scottish artist, and late President of the Royal Scottish Academy. A painting on which he had been working diligently for some time was got ready for exhibition in the British Gallery in January 1822;