214 ON SURREY HILLS. 



rounds it, — a wonderful and true study of southern 

 brook tangle, is before me as I write. Some day I 

 hope it will be before the public also. A noted im- 

 pressionist, whose acquaintance this friend had once 

 made in town, — for his canvasses do occasionally 

 grace the walls of the Academy — heard him speak 

 of this lovely place, and became fired with a desire 

 to paint here. He asked my friend if he would 

 direct him to the spot. " Certainly," was the reply ; 

 and at an appointed time he met the London town 

 man at the nearest railway station. After that they 

 had a five miles' walk before them, and art was dis- 

 cussed as they went : from Michael Angelo right 

 down to Millet and Landseer — all were trotted out 

 and jumbled together most glibly by the impres- 

 sionist. My friend, much the elder man — by years, 

 that is — listened in silence, as middle-aged people are 

 wont to do nowadays, in the presence of their juniors. 

 He had a small canvas under his arm. The fine 

 picture that now hangs before me he had left with 

 the kindly occupier of the manor farm. When they 

 arrived at the spot the town man strolled round to 

 my friend's easel, and then the expression of his face 

 altered, and it grew longer considerably. Holding 



