14 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 



as a friend ; Constable presented him with an impression 

 of the plates from his works, endorsed with a gratifying 

 inscription ; even the misanthropic Turner, when he came 

 to Berwick, visited him. These names are passably 

 good vouchers, I think. But, besides this. Good's 

 works have been deemed worthy to adorn the walls 

 of the National Gallery, the Tate Gallery, the South 

 Kensington Museum, and the Fitzwilliam Museum at 

 Cambridge. 



Yet Berwick knows him not ! And yet his paintings 

 are of a character to appeal most powerfully to all who 

 have a " warm side " to this town and district ; for 

 they epitomize the life, character, costume, of the said 

 district, as these things were a century ago. In fact, 

 what Meissonnier attempted by a process of reconstruction 

 to effect for the 18th century in France, that by the 

 far simpler and surer process of observation Good did for 

 his own period in his own town. So, if we want to see 

 what the local smugglers, fishermen, fiddlers, shepherds, 

 egg-sellers, readers of news-letters, ancient dames and young 

 hopefuls of our great-great-grandfathers' days were like, 

 and what they wore, it is to Good's pictures that we 

 must turn. 



Sometimes, as in the admirable picture of " A Lesson 

 in Punctuality," in the possession of Mrs Smith of this 

 town, he gives us an actual portrait of a local celebrity ; 

 and I believe that, were the facts known to us, we 

 should find that this was a common practice with him. 

 As for his technique, it has won the admiration and respect 

 of artists. The figures in his pictures are set before us 

 to the life, deftly and cleanly painted, with a pleasant 

 feeling for colour. They also frequently exhibit a peculiar 

 beauty in the lighting, to which Mr James Wallace of 

 the Art School in this town has drawn my attention, 

 and which he ascribes to the employment by the artist 

 of cross lights. In his methods, as distinct from his 

 subjects, Good comes nearer, perhaps, to Metsu or to 



