400 REMINISCENCES OF 



increased by the occurrence the picture is meant to 

 represent, I do hope that your Pytchley friends will 

 abandon their wish, so very natural under the circum- 

 stances, to have you, where they have so often seen 

 you, on your favourite horse, and adopt the artist's 

 suggestion. He says the picture would be too large 

 for any moderate-sized room with the horse, and 

 moreover that the one that he proposes in lieu of it 

 would be infinitely more valuable as a family portrait 

 to descend as an heir-loom to all future inhabitants 

 of Charleton. However, as the dealer of the last 

 century, Hobson, used to say to his customers, it is 

 Hobson's choice, both as to the disinclination of the 

 artist to paint a man on a horse and the price you 

 and your hounds would be 500 guineas. 



" Grant asked how are you to be painted if you are 

 going abroad, which looks as if he were willing to under- 

 take the picture, as he proposes painting it, forthwith. 

 I could not answer the question. Mrs. Thomson's 

 health is your first object ; but to have your picture 

 painted amounts almost to a duty you owe your family 

 as well as those friends you leave to their great regret. 

 " I am, etc., 



"CHARLES EARLE." 



"27 SUSSEX PLACE, 



" REGENT'S PARK, N.W. 



" MY DEAR EARLE, 



" When you asked me about Thomson's 

 picture, I mentioned my regular charge for a full- 

 length was 400 guineas, and that the portrait of three 

 hounds would be 100 extra. But on thinking over 



