Life in London, 153 



from his private secretary, saying that it had been placed 

 in his collection. That picture is worth three hundred 

 guineas : sell it, and do not give it away.' I thanked 

 him, exhibited the picture, refused three hundred guineas 

 for it soon after, kept it several years, and at last sold it 

 for one hundred guineas to my generous friend John 

 Heppenstall of Sheffield, England, and invested the 

 amount in spoons and forks for my good wife. 



" Without the sale of these pictures I was a bank- 

 rupt, when my work was scarcely begun, and in two days 

 more I should have seen all my hopes of the publication 

 blasted ; for Mr. Havell (the engraver) had already called 

 to say that on Saturday I must pay him sixty pounds. 

 I was then not only not worth a penny, but had actually 

 borrowed five pounds a few days before to purchase ma- 

 terials for my pictures. But these pictures which Sir 

 Thomas sold for me enabled me to pay my borrowed 

 money, and to appear full-handed when Mr. Havell call- 

 ed. Thus I passed the Rubicon ! 



" At that time I painted all day, and sold my work 

 during the dusky hours of evening, as I walked through 

 the Strand and other streets where the Jews reigned; 

 popping in and out of Jew-shops or any others, and 

 never refusing the offers made me for the pictures I car- 

 ried fresh from the easel. Startling and surprising as 

 this may seem, it is nevertheless true, and one of the cu- 

 rious events of my most extraordinary life. Let me add 

 here, that I sold seven copies of the * Entrapped Otter ' 

 in London, Manchester, and Liverpool, besides one copy 

 presented to my friend Mr. Richard Rathbone. In other 

 pictures, also, I have sold from seven to ten copies, 

 merely by changing the course of my rambles ; and 

 strange to say, that when in after years and better times 

 I called on the different owners to whom I had sold the 

 copies, I never found a single one in their hands. Anif 

 . 7* 



