Page:Nollekens and His Times, Volume 2.djvu/436

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424
NOLLEKENS'S CONTEMPORARIES.

visitors. As I have said master and mistress, it is proper that the biographer of a centurion to come should not be misled, and conclude that Mr. Northcote had been a married man. His sister keeps his house, and then happiness seems to exist in the society of each other; they listen to each other's anecdotes with the pleasure of old friends, and receive their visitors with true hospitality.

A late worthy friend, who would now and then make my fireside-party smile, has declared, that Mr. Northcote's sister appeared to him like Northcote in petticoats; and they certainly are wonderfully alike. There is, indeed, one most honourable circumstance which this celebrated artist has to boast of, namely, that his pictures, whenever they have been resold at auctions, have always been knocked down for more than four times their original price; and what is more, they have generally been purchased by persons of high rank and taste. Lord Egremont has; perhaps, the finest, specimens of his pencil.

One day, as Fuseli, Northcote, and Legat, the Engraver, were walking from Hampstead to London, the two latter gentlemen were extolling the talent of Brown, the Draughtsman, who was. so much noticed by Mr. Townley. Fuseli, after having listened to the Artist's praise,