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 work that he thought worth preserving was a fairly competent series of drawings of the City of London School’s sports at Stamford Bridge in the Daily Graphic in the spring of 1890. But as early as 1887 he was painting water-colours of scenes near Leith Hill and on Wimbledon Common which, though academic and conventional, show an unusually fresh talent and fineness of execution. He painted many other promising water-colour landscapes in the south and west of England during his years in the Westminster Fire Office. A water-colour of Winchelsea was accepted by the Royal Academy in 1888, and sold for two guineas.

We are fortunate in having Rackham’s own reminiscences and his considered opinion of this strenuous period in the office and the school. They are contained in a letter to Mr W. E. Dawe, a young man who found himself in much the same dilemma as Rackham had done, and who wrote to ask Rackham’s advice in 1909, when he was at the height of his fame. The letter is a remarkable example of disinterested generosity from a busy professional to an anxious beginner entirely unknown to him. ‘16 Chalcot Gardens, South Hampstead, N.W.

‘Dear Mr Dawe,

‘I was much interested by your letter and it will need rather a long letter to answer it satisfactorily. As you say you appear to be in much the same case as myself in having to go out into the world & earn your living at the age of 17; (and for the next seven years or so I worked as hard as I could out of business hours (9–5) to equip my self as an artist – not being able to embark on a professional career till was nearly 25, & then for many years getting the barest living from my profession & having to do much distasteful hack work.)

‘Now above all I do not want to be damping, but you must bear with my putting the case very plainly.