xxiii LETTERS TO MARCO 147 



I have begun a garden picture, but at 

 present am at a loss for models, as my 

 favourite one has unfortunately engaged her- 

 self at the R.A. school, and the local girls 

 and young ladies about here are of little use, 

 except for the head, as they can neither take 

 nor keep a pose. You know well my im- 

 patience, and will sympathise with me. To 

 pass the time away, I went for a little excur- 

 sion with my wife last week : first to Marl- 

 borough to see my boys, and then across 

 what to me was unknown land, through 

 Swindon to Cheltenham, where Alice is at 

 the college. After that we came back to 

 Cirencester, with which I was much de- 

 lighted ; the large church there is very fine 

 indeed, and full of good bits, notably a wall- 

 painting of St. Christopher and the Child 

 Christ. The masonry of the tower, with its 

 huge buttresses at its base spreading out like 

 the great roots of an elm or poplar, is most 

 interesting, the stones being worked diagon- 

 ally ; it looks to me as though it was origin- 



