10 
A number of his works in oil, which he brought to Washington, were 
only copies from the productions of his masters or other p.inters, and 
should not be taken as standards of his ability. 
His water color paintings of flowers and insects and a few natural 
history objects, are most exquisite examples of artistic illustration, and 
are drawn to the life, showing the expenditure ofa vast amount of labor 
and patience, and giving assurance in the artist of a fair eye for color. 
As arule they are painted with little attention to modeling, the color 
being laid on heavily, stippled and frequently lacking in transpareucy, 
and without attempt at composition in the sense of making pictures of 
them. But they are very realistic and sometimes quite decorative. 
Many of his early drawings of the Florida insects are as exquisitely fin- 
ished, though with his later originals he took less pains. When Mar- 
garet Fuller first saw some of the flower paintings she would hardly be- 
lieve that they had not been done under the microscope, so delicate was 
the work. Whether or not his extreme shortsightedness made it diffi- 
cult for him to paint in any other manner, it is impossible to say, how- 
ever well adapted to the labors of bis after life this special kind of work 
may have been. He could not have painted broadly had he desired to 
do so, for his almost microscopic vision saw everything in the minutest 
detail. This explains, too, why his after engravings of insects, par. 
ticularly of larvae, lack in action. 
After finishing his journeyings in Europe and having turned his back 
upon Munich, the study of art was still an absorbing interest with him. 
On his return to England he took up his abode at Leeds for a short time, 
and, in a room set apart for the purpose of a studio, and surrounded by 
pets of every conceivable description, he continued to paint with assi- 
duity. And it is pleasant to learn that his love of natural history shared 
equally with his love ofart. Many delightful reminiscences of the young 
painter-naturalist (who was now about twenty-three years old), are re- 
called by those who knew him at this time, all indicating the manner of 
life which he afterwards followed. Mr. Oates thus writes of him in a 
memorial sent to Professor Riley : 
He would sit before his easel with a favorite lizard nestled in his breast, his coat 
pockets tenanted by snakes, and a blackbird perched upon his shoulder, whilst hang- 
ing on the walls of his apartment might be seen some tiny gauze cages, daintily con- 
structed for the reception of tame spiders, which were periodically supplied with flies. 
There were also in the room a variety of other birds and such quadrupeds as mice, 
rats, and guineapigs, all pets in a greater or less degree. Glover’s early school friend, 
previously referred to, still living at Whitby in Yorkshire, particularly recollects vis- 
iting him in this apartment on one occasion when he was painting a bunch of grapes, 
his blackbird as usual upon his shoulder. Glover had just completed the painting of 
the grapes, when the fancy seized him to add a fly, as though it had alighted on the 
fruit. This he did, and had scarcely withdrawn his hand from the work, when the 
blackbird darted from its master’s shoulder and pecked lustily at the phantom fly. 
About this time Glover had begun to give some attention to copper-plate engraving, 
and also carved in wood. He sustained a great sorrow in the death of a littie girl, the 
child of a first cousin, who was devotedly attached to him and for whose amusement he 
