LETTERS OF WILLIAM BLAKE 181
same as the seven plates, the price twenty guineas each, half to be prepaid by P. The subjects I cannot do better than those already chosen, as they are the most eminent among animals, viz.: the Lion, the Eagle, the Horse, the Dog. Of the dog species, the two ballads are so pre-eminent, and my designs for them please me so well, that I have chosen that design in our last number, of the dog and crocodile, and that of the dog defending his dead master from the vultures. Of these five I am making little high finished pictures,[1] the size the engravings are to be, and I am hard at it to accomplish in time what I intend. Mr. P. says he will send Mr. Seagrave the paper directly.
The journeymen printers throughout London are at war with their masters, and are likely to get the better. Each party meets to consult against the other. Nothing can be greater than the violence on both sides; printing is suspended in London, except at private presses. I hope this will become a source of advantage to our friend Seagrave.
The idea of seeing an engraving of Cowper by the hand of Caroline Watson[2] is, I assure you, a
- ↑ The original sketch, in india ink, for the "Ballad of the Eagle" is in the collection of W. Graham Robertson, Esq.: the remainder have disappeared.
- ↑ Romney's crayon portrait of Cowper, engraved by Blake for the first edition of Hayley's Life of Cowper, was re-engraved by Caroline Watson, in 1805, for the frontispiece of the 8vo edition.
