To B.R. Haydon E.
Fragment
13
Three Mile Cross
August 13th 1820.
.
My dear Sir
My Father would have answered your very kind letter immediately had he not been expecting from day to day to go to town where he intended to have the pleasure of seeing you. He is still thinking of going tomorrow or Tuesday - but I cannot bear this appearance of neglect & shall write as a venture to be franked off from Reading or taken to London by my father as may happen. — We shall be infinitely obliged to you for one puppy (only one) which shall be a joint property between Papa & me — Will you name it? I should like it to have a name of your
chusing
choosing
beginning with an M remember — such old coursers as we must not depart from the rule. — Mr. Webb will be enchanted with his brace — he had been unfortunate this year & never had so few puppies in his life — I should
be enchanted too with your kind liberality to our friend if I were not afraid that by sending so many into this quarter you had deprived yourself of the opportunity of obliging other people I only say, what I so often think that you are a thousand times too good. — The puppies may be sent whenever you like — only write a line to give notice. — I have not seen Mr. Webb since we heard from you, but have no more doubt of his hospitality to your greyhounds than I should have of his hospitality to myself — at all events if not there they could be here — but they would be better there amongst green fields & with so many other dogs than here shut up in a close stable or lying along the side of the road. Send them certainly. The coursing season will begin in about six weeks — perhaps later — it will depend on the weather — The ground is now as hard as a rock & will require a fortnight’s soaking to make it fit for the dog’s feet. We all look forward
to this coursing season, my dear Sir, with very unusual pleasure I assure you.
Before I received your touching letter I had seen your noble & manly appeal in the
London Magazine
Reference to Haydon's recent article On the Relative Encouragement of Sculpture and of Painting in England in London Magazine August 1820, vol. 2, no. 8. pp. 207-9 . In the article, Haydon makes the case for the public purchase of Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem
& wondered how any one with a guinea in his purse & a heart of flesh in his bosom could resist such a statement.—I am not however so much surprised at the failure of the subscription. Vanity I am afraid is the soul of English patronage — &
that inimitable picture has perhaps a better chance of being purchased for the éclat of the thing than of being bestowed upon a church in the unostentatious manner you proposed — It will certainly be bought I am quite sure of that — probably by some parvenu who will like it the better for costing a large sum. I cannot think why the
King does not purchase that & popularity at a stroke He could do nothing half so wise — Have the
Mulgraves no personal interest with him? Has the subject been hinted to him? Forgive me if these questions seem impertinent
they proceed from an interest too strong to be
represt
repressed
. — It is indeed a comfort my dear Sir that that divine Image should so strong a possession of your soul — Nothing but that could have sustained you through such a suspense & agitation as you have suffered — Do you intend the face in
the small picture to be an exact resemblance of the Christ in your
Triumphal Entrance Certainly the “Sin no more” is the very expression he ought to have — but how difficult to catch! You will do it though I am sure? — In the mean time pray take care of your health & your eyes — strong excitement is not good for you. Pray take care.
I have as yet only seen some extracts from Mr. Keats’s new Poems — Those extracts seem to be finer than anything that has been written these 200 years — finer than Wordsworth even — more Dantesque — a compound of Chaucer & the old Florentine. — I hope & trust he will live to answer his barbarous Critics by many such works. You may
a
ttack the Scotch nevertheless — no fear but they will give you plenty of cause — I likeLetter breaks off her as a fragment