you are sufficiently satisfied with it, or are prepared for the fastidious eye, and minute criticism, of the original artist.

"Believe me to remain,

"Dear Sir,

"Your obliged and faithful servant,

"THOMAS LAWRENCE.

“To F. C. Lewis, Esq, Sen., Charlotte

Street, Rathbone Place."

CHAPTER V.

Recovery of a Michael Angelo.--Sir Joshua's mistake.-Notions of an accurate Copy.-Reviving a Raphael.-Kindness to Nephews.-The Exhibition of 1825.-Portrait of Master Lambton.-Criticisms.-Private Correspondence.A public Dinner at Bristol.-Address to the Academy.— Newspaper criticism.-Lectures at the Academy Opinions upon the great Masters.-Observations upon Sir Thomas's Lectures of 1821, 1825, and 1826.-Death of Fuseli and of Flaxman.-Private Correspondence upon Works of Art in Paris.-Raphael's Drawings in the Louvre. -A Letter from Sir George Beaumont.-A list of Presents from foreign Princes.

ABOUT the year 1810, Mr. Ottley had accidentally picked up an old drawing that had belonged to Sir Joshua Reynolds, who had written under it the name of Donatello, in indication of his attributing it to the pencil of that artist. The science of antiquities has been justly termed the science of conjectures. If a knowledge of paintings could be called a science, it might appropriate to itself the cognomina of the vague and conjectural. The differences of opinion upon the originality of paintings are almost infi

nite; and each scrutinizer, in a short period, differs from himself as much as he ever differed from others. Mr. Ottley, however, an undisputed judge, of the finest discrimination, was intimately acquainted with the style and works of Michael Angelo, the god of Sir Joshua's idolatry; and he wrote under the drawing in pencil, "a presso Michael Angelo." Being at Paris in 1820, Mr. Ottley by chance saw in a shop the original drawing, and immediately became its purchaser. The subject was an old Sorceress or Prophetess; one of the finest of Michael Angelo's productions. On his return to England, Mr. Ottley presented it to Sir Thomas Lawrence, who wrote to him the following note, upon the spur of the moment of its arrival:

"Russell Square, Wednesday Morning.

"MY DEAR SIR,

"The Beauty is arrived. The copy is tolerably accurate; but it is just in what it differs that the superior grandeur of the original consists.

"Do come and dine with me to-day at five. I know that you will forgive my going to a prior engagement at half-past nine in the evening.

"Believe me ever,

"Most truly yours,

"THOMAS LAWRENCE."

Donatello died in 1366, about one hundred and forty years before Michael Angelo was born. The mistake was curious in such a man as Sir Joshua: but Lawrence's letter conveys an odd idea of "a tolerably accurate" copy: i. e. a copy of a grand master, that differs only in the points of grandeur.

Sir Thomas Lawrence, on another occasion, was availing himself of Mr. Ottley's skill, in attempting to revive the metallic white in a painting of Raphael's.

"TO W. Y. OTTLEY, ESQ.

"MY DEAR SIR,

"Sunday Morning.

"This is a beautiful morning for reviving the lights on Raphael.

"I am entirely alone, and we could be working side by side, for I am obliged to draw.

"We are not the less devout, because adoring the Divinity in the faculties of Raphaele, or with a grateful spirit exercising our own.

"Ever, my dear Sir,

"Yours,

T. L.

In the following letter is an allusion to a celebrated hound of Sir Walter Scott's, which Sir

Thomas Lawrence intended to have introduced

into one of his portraits.

"Russell Square, Nov. 7th, 1824.

"MY DEAR MADAM,

"I take the liberty to send to Dr. Hughes the accompanying opinions and tribute of an artist.

"I would very gladly make fit apology for my presumption in doing so; but I can find it only in the long constancy of your kindness, and in the respectful mention made in these pages, of names that I know are dear to you-Sir Joshua and Mr. Kemble, Mr. West and Mrs. Siddons.

"Have you had more letters from Sir Walter? How sincerely sorry I am to learn that his favourite hound is dead. A selfish regret has great part in this feeling, for the fine animal was to have been my subject.

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May your happiness in the talent and genius of your son, be long secured by his health. This I know to be the most insinuating prayer that I can offer for you at this moment, when all possible conciliation is so necessary to me.

"With best remembrance to the Doctor, I beg you to believe me,