620 ifctnas of tbe 1Rofc, IRtfle, an& Gun 



remember, Sir John Millais had nothing of the con- 

 ventional artist about him, but looked the beau-ideal 

 of a jolly, sporting country gentleman. A good story 

 is told of this deceptive appearance of his. He went 

 one day to a noted phrenologist named Donovan to 

 have his character told from his bumps. Donovan, who 

 was a shrewd man, had round his room busts of eminent 

 men, to whom he would draw the attention of those 

 who came to consult him, often gathering from their 

 remarks all that he wished to know about them. But 

 Millais was not to be drawn. " Who is the old cock ? " 

 he asked when Donovan pointed to a bust of Daniel 

 Maclise. At the end of the interview Donovan drew 

 up the character of his visitor, and described him as 

 a shrewd man of business, with a great taste for mathe- 

 matics, but utterly deficient in imagination, and in 

 everything that goes to the making of an artist ; had 

 no sense of colour, for example could probably not 

 tell pink from green. " Do you know who I am ? " 

 roared the outraged painter, shaking the paper in 

 Donovan's face. " I am Millais." Donovan tried to 

 get the paper back, but the libelled and indignant 

 artist insisted upon carrying it away as a triumphant 

 proof of the humbug of phrenology. 



Amongst Millais' early friends was John Leech, who 

 initiated him into the mysteries of hunting. In later 

 days Millais returned the compliment by introducing 

 Leech to the joys of salmon-fishing, deer-stalking, and 

 grouse-shooting. Mr. John Guille Millais, in his charming 

 Life of his father, tells the following good story of Leech's 

 first experience with a salmon : 



