208 NORTHCOTE. 



sheriffs and representatives in parliament for that 



county. " 



**##### 



" Northcote was exceedingly jealous of rivalry in his 

 profession, but was still sufficiently ingenuous to ac- 

 knowledge it ; for he used to narrate a description of 

 the feelings he experienced in witnessing what he con- 

 ceived to be one of the finest efforts of his contempo- 

 raries. He was one day observing that painters are 

 occasionally insensible to, or dissatisfied with, some 

 effect which has struck observers as being a fine concep- 

 tion in their woiks, and they have therefore removed it 

 to substitute something which they thought would be 

 better; he illustrated this remark by the following 

 story : " 



" Whilst Opie was painting the death of James, now 

 in the Guildhall of London, every body came to me 

 teasing me with 'what a fine picture he was painting' 

 and at last they worried me so with their praises of it 

 that I could no longer go on without seeing it. So I 

 went up to Hampstead, where lie was painting ; and 

 when I entered the room I was astounded : the picture 

 had the finest effect I ever witnessed ; the light on the 

 figures gleamed up from below a trap door, by which 

 the murderers were entering the king's chamber: 

 ' Oh !' I said to myself, ' go home, %o home; it is all 

 over with you !' I did 2.0 home and brooded over what 

 I had seen I could think of nothing else it perfectly 

 haunted me I could not work on my own pictures for 

 thinking of the effect of his ; and "at last, unable to 

 bear it any longer, I determined to go there again ; 

 and when I entered the room I saw to my great comfort 

 that Opie had rubbed all the fine effect out.' ' 

 ######* 



Mr. Northcote painted upwards of two thousand 

 pictures, and the prints from his numerous works, 

 which may be seen all over the country, fully prove 

 how industrious he was. " 

 We may make further quotations from this work in the next %'olume 



