16.
To William Hayley.
Felpham, 26th November 1800.
Dear Sir, — Absorbed by the poets 1 Milton, Homer, Camoens, Ercilla, Ariosto, and Spenser, whose physiognomies have been my delightful study, Little Tom^ has been of late unattended
Blake was at work upon a series of heads of the poets, to be a frieze for Hayley's new library at Felpham. On the nth September 1 80 1 he writes again : "Mr. Hayley's library ... is still unfinished, but is in a finishing way and looks well." Within twenty years of Hayley's death, the villa was sold and the heads were taken down and dispersed. Eighteen of them subsequently came into the possession of William Russell, who lent four of them to the Burhngton Fine Arts Club Exhibition (1876). I have been unable to trace their present whereabouts, and it is even rumoured that they have perished by fire. They are said to have been painted in oil (or possibly " fresco
