Page:The letters of William Blake (1906).djvu/46

 xl them still stupefied by their fall, many of them bound and wallowing in liquid fire. The painting of the fire throughout is a wonderful achievement. Some years later, after Blake's death, a third work from his hand found its way to Petworth, being purchased by Lord Egremont from Mrs. Blake. It is an illustration of the characters in Spenser's Faery Queen, and was intended to be the companion to the famous picture of the Canterbury Pilgrimage, which is the principal item in the Descriptive Catalogue.

From the year 1809, in which the Descriptive Catalogue was published, until the time of his introduction to Linnell, we have no letters from Blake's pen. It is not likely, indeed, that many were written by him during these years, as he seems for some time to have isolated himself from nearly all his friends, and to have lived a solitary life. His commissions became fewer and fewer, and it is certain that he was sadly oppressed by poverty.

It was in 1818 that Blake first made the acquaintance of John Linnell the painter, through the introduction of his old friend, George Cumberland. One of the first things which Linnell did for Blake was to present him to his own former master, John Varley, who, both as astrologer and artist, was able to take a lively interest in the genius of his new friend. A considerable intimacy