1846-47 CROMWELL'S PORTRAIT 283 



At the end of this month the portrait of Crom- 

 well which Owen had had copied from the original 

 in the Pitti Palace at Florence arrived at the 

 College of Surgeons. As the original had been 

 painted in Cromwell's lifetime for the then Grand 

 Duke, this portrait was considered one of the 

 most trustworthy likenesses of the Protector. 

 Carlyle had been looking forward with some 

 eagerness to seeing the portrait, and as soon as 

 it arrived both he and his wife came over to see 

 it. The diary thus records his visit : — 



1 Mr. Carlyle has a portrait of Cromwell, 

 but in quite a different style ; he greatly admired 

 our picture, and studied it attentively. It is 

 curious how like his books Carlyle's conversation 

 is. He grew very eloquent when telling us of the 

 way in which he was plagued by people who would 

 insist upon sending him their books. Young 

 ladies especially often wanted his opinion on 

 their poetry. " I hate poetry," he said comically. 

 I asked him if he hated Home's " Orion." " Ah," 

 he said, " Home's a clever man." We walked 

 about in the museum, looking chiefly at fossils.' 



' 3rd. — More people to see Cromwell. He has 

 held quite a levee.' 



