Page:Life of William Blake, Gilchrist.djvu/257

 Mr. Hoare here spoken of, was the well-known and accomplished Prince Hoare, painter and son of a painter, who studied in Rome under Mengs in 1776, with Fuseli and Northcote for companions. He was the author of some twenty slight dramatic pieces, among them the long popular No Song; No Supper, and of many essays on subjects connected with the Fine Arts; and was made Foreign Secretary of the Royal Academy in 1799; in which capacity he published the Extracts from a Correspondence with the Academies of Vienna and St. Petersburg on the Cultivation of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture alluded to. March 12th, Blake writes:—

I begin with the latter end of your letter and grieve more for Miss Poole's ill-health than for my failure in sending the proofs, though I am very sorry that I cannot send before Saturday's coach. Engraving is Eternal Work. The two plates are almost finished. You will receive proofs of them from Lady Hesketh, whose copy of Cowper's letters ought to be printed in letters of gold and ornamented with jewels of Heaven, Havilah, Eden, and all the countries where jewels abound. I curse and bless Engraving alternately because it takes so much time and is so intractable, though capable of such beauty and perfection. My wife desires me to express her love to you, praying for Miss Poole's perfect recovery, and we both remain,

Your affectionate,

.

The plates mentioned are probably the two tame engravings already described for the supplementary third volume of Cowper's Life and Letters.

Which of Romney's works should be chosen to illustrate his Life was still under discussion. Blake writes':—

April 2nd, 1804.

* * Mr. Flaxman advises that the drawing of Mr. Romney's which shall be chosen instead of the Witch (if that cannot be recovered) be Hecate, the figure with the torch and snake, which he thinks one of