Smee.'
"'Indeed it was lucky for some of us you devoted yourself to high art,
Gandish,' Mr. Smee says, and sips the wine and puts it down again, making
a face. It was not first-rate tipple, you see.
"'Two girls,' continues that indomitable Mr. Gandish. 'Hidea for 'Babes
in the Wood.' 'View of Paestum,' taken on the spot by myself, when
travelling with the late lamented Earl of Kew. 'Beauty, Valour, Commerce,
and Liberty, condoling with Britannia on the death of Admiral Viscount
Nelson,'--allegorical piece drawn at a very early age after Trafalgar.
Mr. Fuseli saw that piece, sir, when I was a student of the Academy, and
said to me, 'Young man, stick to the antique. There's nothing like it.'
Those were 'is very words. If you do me the favour to walk into the
Hatrium, you'll remark my great pictures also from English istry. An
English historical painter, sir, should be employed chiefly in English
istry. That's what I would have done. Why ain't there temples for us,
where the people might read their history at a glance, and without
knowing how to read? Why is my 'Alfred' 'anging up in this 'all? Because
there is no patronage for a man who devotes himself to Igh art.
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