208 AN ANGLER AT LARGE 



will save my friends from the pain of asking 

 certain questions. If beneath a sketch, when I 

 exhibit it, I have written, Willows, not Haystacks, 

 those who look at it will be able to concentrate 

 their attention wholly on the treatment and other 

 technical qualities. Their minds will be distracted 

 by no doubts as to its general significance. Again, 

 the words, A Beech in a Grass Field, legibly 

 inscribed, under the study which I showed to 

 Mrs. Slattery the other day, will put the species 

 of tree and the nature of the ground which I have 

 drawn, beyond question. I shall no longer have 

 to explain the absence of reflection. Nor will 

 Slattery cry out, " Oh, come ! That's not bad of 

 our pig-stye," when I am showing him my mono- 

 chrome of the church. 



