same guardians you left with us; they keep off every wind. We hear the west howl at a distance, the south bounds on high over our thatch, and smiling on our cottage says: "You lay too low for my anger to injure." As to the east and north, I believe they cannot get past the Turret.[1] My wife joins with me in duty and affection to you. Please to remember us both in love to Mr. and Mrs. Flaxman, and believe me to be your affectionate, enthusiastic, hope-fostered visionary, William Blake.
17.
Extract from a Letter from William Hayley to George Romney.
3rd February 1801.
... I have taught him [Blake], he says, to paint in miniature, and in truth he has made a very creditable copy from your admirable portrait of the dear departed bard, from which he will also make an engraving.[2] ...
- ↑ Of Hayley's house.
- ↑ The original drawing was executed by Romney while on a visit to Hayley at Eartham in 1792, and was the inspiration of Cowper's sonnet To George Romney, Esq.; it has recently passed from the possession of Bertram Vaughan Johnson, Esq., into the National Portrait Gallery. It was engraved by Blake, and appears as the frontispiece of the first volume of Hayley's Life of
