ΤΟ

Dear Madam,

Kensington, 25th May, 1840.

You are kind in inquiring about my labours on the subject of Knox. The picture proceeds, and, as it advances, improves by details and incidents casting up to add to the apparent reality of the scene. I find, however, that a good deal of contrivance is required to fill up the expected material of such an event. I had a call lately from Dr. Sommers, who expressed much interest about it, and about the circumstances attendant upon that early celebration of the

sacrament.

I had, however, to request him to make due allowance for what was necessary to make up a picture. With a certain class of subjects it is necessary to put in much that is imaginary, or without authority, and to leave out much unadapted for painting. The hall, which you have stated as modernised, I am obliged to restore to what will recal an ancient hall of that period: the chimney I ornament; decorate the walls with the pilasters now there to suit; and I must try to renew the carved screen which you say divided the room, in old times, from the entrance. I also put in more people, and those more varied in rank than could well have been there. I mean to put in the Lord and Lady Lorn, the Regent Murray, perhaps also Morton, and the aged Earl of Argyll. I also wish to introduce, in a prominent place, the knight of St. John (Sir James Sandilands), and, whether right or wrong, in armour. A large wine-cooler is also made prominent; and, as suggested by Dr. Sommers's account of the

parish, a Calder witch is to be placed conspicuous. This, you will doubtless say, is a mixture; but it is of that sort which, whether consistent with truth or not, is certainly required to make up that kind of compound that goes to the formation of what we call a picture.

Allow me to repeat how much I feel gratified by the interest you have upon all occasions taken in this work; and that I would feel delighted if I had the pleasure of seeing you, and of hearing you pronounce upon its merits.

I am, &c.

D. W.

At the public auction of Wilkie's works after his death, a highly-finished sketch of this fine picture was sold for eighty-four pounds; the picture itself, or all that was ever painted of it, for one hundred and eightynine pounds. The latter purchase was made by the Royal Scottish Academy; and no portion of their funds was ever better spent in the purchase of a work of art.

CHAPTER VIII.

66

WILKIE AT THE HAGUE, COLOGNE, MUNICH, VIENNA, AND CONSTANTINOPLE.-EXTRACTS FROM JOURNAL.PAINTS THE LETTERWRITER," AND THE TARTAR RELATING THE NEWS OF THE CAPTURE OF ACRE. LETTERS TO MR. AND MISS WILKIE, MR. MOON, MR. YOUNG, MR. COLLINS, R. A., AND SIR PETER LAURIE.

In the autumn of 1840 Sir David set out suddenly on his journey to the East: for this, rumour assigned sundry reasons, some of them probable, and few of them true. It was said that he went charged with royal commissions from home to paint for the palace galleries portraits of the young ruler of Turkey and the old ruler of Egypt. This was in its turn contradicted, by the assurance that this great painter was regarded but coldly in the high places of the land, and was, on court authority, held deficient in that grace of style which captivates the high bred and the polished. This gave way to a third rumour, that he longed for "fresh fields and pastures new," and desired to merit the applause of the multitude by pictures of remote scenes and strange manners and employments. The devout had a rumour of their own, that Wilkie was on a visit to the Holy Land, to realise those visions present to his mind when he first opened the Bible in the village of Cults, and behold Jerusalem as it came in glory from the hand of Solomon, or sunk in sorrow under the sword of Titus. While a fifth party, who were intimate with the state

of his health, whispered that he went on a tour to the warmer regions of the East in the hope that their sunnier shores and more odorous vales would do for him what they had done for some who less deserved the mercy of health. That truth claimed a share in these rumours it would be idle to deny: we may say with certainty that he went with enlarging notions of his art; that he was not encumbered with royal commissions, and hoped amendment to his health by a visit to a land endeared to his heart by a thousand associations, and all of them devout. He was accompanied by William Woodburn, of St. Martin's Lane, a gentleman of agreeable manners and conversant with the art in which Wilkie himself excelled. They first made their way to Holland; visited the Galleries of Rotterdam and Amsterdam, and then turned their steps to Munich, resolved to penetrate to Constantinople, by following the course of the Danube, and from thence, if war and plague permitted, to waft themselves to Syria, and conclude their tour by dropping down into Egypt, with memory and sketch-book full of Jerusalem, its holy hills, and memorable valleys.

JOURNAL.

1840, 15th August. Went on board the Batavier steamer, at 7 o'clock, with Mr. William Woodburn, and next day sailed down the Thames; dined at Margate Point, and at 6 o'clock in the following morning reached Rotterdam without absolute sea-sickness.

17th. Started for the Hague; spoke with the Hon. W. Liddel and his family, and went to the hotel of Marshal Turenne. Saw the pictures in the Museum;

they were nearly as I saw them in 1816, with the addition of The Anatomist by Rembrandt, -a splendid picture, in the manner of The Ship Builder. Saw the pictures of M. Verstolk Van Soelen; some fine Dutch pictures: Hobbima, Cuyp, Ruysdael, Vandervelde, and others. But what pleased me above all was an Old Woman's Head by Rembrandt, possessed formerly by Lord Charles Townshend. Afternoon went to the palace of the Prince of Orange, whose splendid rooms, most richly furnished, were filled-three of them at least-with the drawings of Michael Angelo and Raphael, which, though in plain oak frames, yet gave an interest to the suite of apartments highly creditable to the taste of the Prince for the high class of art. These drawings were collected by Sir Thomas Lawrence. One feels wearied with the perfections of the minor Dutch paintings, and finds relief in contemplating even the imperfect sketches and incomplete thoughts of those great Italians. My friend Woodburn used to say when we were in Italy that all collectors begin with Dutch pictures, but end with Italian.

TO THOMAS WILKIE.

The Hague, 17th August, 1840.

On reaching Rotterdam at 6 o'clock this morning I got on shore without any attendant derangements, such as on former occasions I have so often suffered from after a sea-voyage. I find Mr. Woodburn most thoughtful and obliging, and, knowing