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 He is a very large man, and was dressed in a dirty brown coat and waistcoat, with breeches that were brown also (though they had been crimson), and an old black wig : his shirt collar and sleeves were unbuttoned ; his stockings were down about his feet, which had on them, by way of slippers, an old pair of shoes. He had not been up long when we called on him, which was near one o'clock : he seldom goes to bed till near two in the morning ; and Mr. Reynolds tells me he generally drinks tea about an hour after he has supped *. We had been some time with him before he began to talk, but at length he began, and, faith, to some purpose ! every thing he says is as correct as a second edition 2 : 't is almost impossible to argue with him, he is so sententious and so knowing.

I asked him, if he had seen Mr. Reynolds's pictures lately. 'No, Sir.' * He has painted many fine ones.' { I know he has/ he said, * as I hear he has been fully employed.' I told him, I imagined Mr. Reynolds was not much pleased to be overlooked by the Court 3, as he must be conscious of his superior merit. ' Not at all displeased,' he said, ' Mr. Reynolds has too much good sense to be affected by it : when he was younger he believed it would have been agreeable ; but now he does not want their favour. It has ever been more profitable to be popular among the people than favoured by the King: it is no reflection on Mr. Reynolds not to be employed by them ; but it will be a reflection for ever on the Court not to have employed him. The King, perhaps, knows nothing but that

calling on Richardson, ' while he was knighted, when Johnson, who was at

talking, perceived a person standing that time an abstainer, ' drank one

at a window in the room, shaking his glass of wine to the health of Sir

head, and rolling himself about in a Joshua Reynolds.' Ante, ii. 322. See

strange ridiculous manner. He con- also Life, iv. 366.

eluded that he was an ideot, whom ( It has often been remarked that

his relations had put under the care the King never commissioned Sir

of Mr. Richardson.' It was Johnson. Joshua for a single picture ; indeed

Life, i. 146. he never sat to him but once, when

1 ' With tea solaces the midnight.' his portrait was painted by him for Ib. i. 313, n. 4. the Royal Academy. 3 Northcote's

2 Ante, ii. 391. Reynolds, ii. 80.

3 Five years later Reynolds was

VOL. II. D d he

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