given unequivocal proofs of a distinguished taste. We see the shade of the youth, destined to become so illustrious a man, of middling stature, florid complexion, regular but rather blunt features, a calm intelligent eye, pleasing aspect, and graceful, easy manners. Industry is one of his leading characteristics, and he works hard in copying the drawings of Guercino; and so skilfully are these copies executed, that many mistake and preserve them as originals. In this method of instruction, adopted by Hudson, we detect his own want of a scientific acquaintance with the principles of his art, and recognise one reason why his pupil was ever deficient in the knowledge of the anatomy of form-a serious drawback on an artist's power; but at the same time Reynolds found in it, no doubt, a discipline highly favourable to the culture of a correct eye, a free hand, and an easy touch-attainments in which he has had few equals. The instructor soon became jealous of the pupil; and the latter had to quit Great Queen-street, and remove for a while to lodge with his uncle in the Temple, whence he speedily repaired to Devonshire, his native county. In these movements we cannot follow him; much less can we accompany him to Italy, where he spent some time in studying, with critical acumen and most refined taste, the works of the most celebrated masters. To his career in London we must confine ourselves; and this, so far as our knowledge of him extends, will keep us chiefly in the neighbourhood already indicated.

Before, however, we pass over his connection with Hudson, we may relate a curious circumstance mentioned by Northcote, as illustrative of the low state of art as cultivated by the master under whom Reynolds received his first lessons, and of the mechanical habits of his early career. Hudson, to get over the critical difficulty of well-disposing the hands in a portrait, used to tuck one in the waistcoat, and hide the other by putting a hat under the arm. Reynolds caught the trick, and so natural did it come to him, that it is

positively stated, when he was requested to paint some one with a hat on, he took care to put a hat under the arm too. Nor can we forget another story connected with Reynolds' youthful days under Hudson's tutorship. He was once sent by his master to an auction, where he observed a great bustle by the door. He soon heard the name of Mr. Pope whispered. Everybody drew back as the poet entered, and formed a line on each side, all being eager to shake hands with him as he passed. Reynolds was behind; but as he was reaching under another person's arm to catch the coveted honour, Pope immediately accepted the grasp of the young artist, little thinking of the future importance of the hand he then received in his own. Amidst that crowd of departed shadows, it is interesting to notice two illustrious ones, brought by accident into contiguity; and it is also curious to see how great was the popularity of the bard, and how easily the multitude obtained his friendly notice.

At the end of the year 1752, we find Reynolds established as an artist in a house in St. Martin's-lane, about opposite to May'sbuildings; his youngest sister Fanny being installed as housekeeper. "He found at first such opposition as genius is commonly doomed to meet with, and does not always overcome. The boldness of his attempts, the freedom of his conceptions, and the brilliancy of his colouring, were considered as innovations upon the established and orthodox system of portrait manufacture. The artists raised their voices first; and of these, Hudson, who had just returned from Rome, was loudest." The originality of Reynolds's efforts, however, could not fail to attract public attention, which was speedily followed by public favour. A picture of a Turkish boy brought to his studio numerous visitors, and greatly served to promote and increase his fame. Reynolds now painted heads for ten guineas, half length for twenty, and whole length for forty. The rich were smitten with such a desire to have themselves represented in the new and tasteful style of the popular painter,

that they soon added increasing wealth to his increasing celebrity, and enabled him to remove to a much more handsome and expensive place of abode. He took a large house on the north side of Newport-street, No. 5, still used as a picture gallery.

"There," says Northcote, "the desire of perpetuating the form of self-complacency crowded his sitting-room with women who wished to be transmitted as angels, and with men who wanted to appear as heroes and philosophers." His work so increased that he had to employ assistants, and to raise his terms to twelve, twenty-four, and forty-eight guineas, which were the prices his late master Hudson received. Afterwards they became fifteen, thirty, and sixty guineas; and before leaving the house in Newport-street they had so risen as to begin with twenty. Dr. Johnson related that he had heard the artist confess, at this time, that he received six sitters a day, and found it necessary to keep a list of those who were waiting for vacancies to occur. The lexicographer's intimacy with the great painter commenced soon after his return from Italy, and we find them often in company with each other in Newportstreet. Opposite to the artist there lived the daughters of Admiral Cotterell, whom Johnson visited, and there it was that Reynolds first met him. An amusing anecdote is told of them as they were one evening together at the house of these ladies. The Duchess of Argyle and another lady of rank came in, and engrossed conversation with the Misses Cotterell-an offence sure to rouse the ire of the great critic; so, to mortify the pride of these aristocratic dames, by giving them to suppose that they were in very humble company, he said to Reynolds, loud enough to be heard by all in the room, "How much do you think you and I could get a week, if we were to work as hard as we could ?"

Johnson took about an equal fancy to Reynolds and his sister, saying of the former-"There goes a man whom property cannot spoil;" and of the latter, "that he never saw one but her who

could bear the application of a microscope to the mind." No doubt the lady greatly supported her influence with the eccentric philosopher by sedulously accommodating herself to his penchant for tea; and the story of his parody of Percy's Ballads, addressed to Miss Reynolds, has been often told:

"Oh hear it then, my Renny dear,

Nor hear it with a frown,

You cannot make the tea so fast
But I can gulp it down."

St. Martin's-lane and Newport-street only prepared for the still palmier days and brighter splendour of Leicester-square. Thither Reynolds removed in 1760, there to enjoy for the rest of life such a tide of prosperity as rarely rolls its treasures at the feet of genius. The building lately occupied by the Western Literary and Scientific Institution is the house in which he took up his permanent and final abode. Great alterations have been made at the back of the edifice by the construction of a theatre for public lectures, but the other rooms and the staircase seem to retain their original form, and much of their original appearance. Here we can easily picture Reynolds in his glory. He is an early riser, but does not breakfast till nine. At ten begins the chief business of his art. Step into his studio. It is of octagonal form, twenty feet long and sixteen broad. The window is high and small, above nine feet from the ground, and not more than half the common size. And there, raised eighteen inches from the floor, stands the chair for his sitters -the famous chair often occupied by beauty, rank, and fashion, but above all by genius; by the author of the "Rambler;" by the bard who sung the "Deserted Village;" the chair immortalized in the painting of the Tragic Muse, not less celebrated than the chair of Pindar in the Temple of Delphi. Reynolds is busy examining designs and touching uncompleted portraits till eleven, from which time till four he is engaged with sitters. Dr. Beattie enters, well

known as a champion for reason and religion against the fallacies of David Hume. Reynolds is engaged on a fine portrait of the Scotch philosopher and divine, with two figures beside him representing Truth and Falsehood. The easel is just by the little window. There stands the artist looking at his subject, and holding a pallet, not on his thumb, but by means of a large handle. Then turning to the canvass, he lays on with a pencil of nineteen inches those colours which glow with so much richness and radiance.

The hours of toil over, Reynolds takes a ride in his carriage, which, as it draws up at the door, you might mistake for the Lord Mayor's coach, so elaborately are the panels adorned with allegorical paintings. Richly decorated vehicles are not uncommon, but this is decidedly in advance of the fashion. "It is too showy," says Miss Reynolds. "What, would you have one like an apothecary's carriage ?" asks her brother, showing that a love of display is one of his weaknesses, and that he has a rather vulgar notion of the attributes of dignity pertaining to his profession. The coachman, however, delights in his master's taste, for people pay him to get a sight of the carriage. At dinner, Sir Joshua is surrounded by the élite of intelligence and talent, who, while they share in an elegantly furnished repast, are as much gratified by the conversation of their host. There is Johnson in his drab attire, and Percy in clerical costume, and Burke and Garrick in the fashion of the day; while Goldsmith appears in a fashion of his own, exhibiting with much satisfaction his "plum-coloured coat." Reynolds added to the taste of an artist the habits of a gentleman, and tended greatly by the purity of his conversation, and the virtue of his character, to discourage and repress, as far as his influence extended, those social excesses which were usual in his days, especially the earlier ones, among all classes.

Reynolds was now a great man, caressed by the mighty and served by the humble; admired by the cultivated, and wondered