OF THE NAMES OF PICTURES 203 



title. But again, it is so beautiful that a fit title is 

 very hard to find. I have been wearying my brain 

 to make one. 



Landscape painters, I have always observed, 

 are extraordinarily well-educated men. Whenever 

 I have had occasion to look into the catalogue 

 of a picture exhibition, I have found that most of 

 the landscapes and seascapes have a few lines of 

 verse attached to them by way of title. Thus : 



No. 1909. JOHNSON WILLIAMS. 



For men may come and men may go, 

 But I go on for ever. 



No. 2846. CROWLE HARBINGER. 



The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, 

 The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea, 

 The ploughman homewards plods his weary way, 

 And leaves the world to darkness and to me. 



More, the poetry always fits the picture to 

 admiration. 



Now, it is evident that men who are able to do 

 this sort of thing have an astonishing knowledge 

 of their poets. I can imagine Johnson Williams, 

 for instance, painting away at his little stream 

 while, through his memory, the poesy of rivers, 

 miles of it, millions of gallons of it, passes, until, 

 at a given moment, the lines inevitable present 

 themselves before him and he knows the title 



