en in
so cramped a hand, to read in this hardworking part of your week. But
you can read a bit at odd times, you know: or none at all. Anyhow 'tis
time to have done. I am going to walk with Lusia. So farewell

P.S. I always direct to you as 'Mr. Barton' because I know not if
Quakers ought to endure Squiredom. How I long to shew you my Constable!

Pray let me know how Mr. Jenney is. I think that we shall get down to
Suffolk the end of next week.

LONDON, _Febr_. 25/42.

MY DEAR BARTON,

Your reason for liking your Paul Veronese (what an impudence to talk so
to a man who has just purchased a real Titian!) does not quite disprove
my theory. You like the picture because you like the verses you once
made upon it: you associate the picture (naturally enough) with them: and
so shall I in future, because I like the verses too. But then you ask
further, what made you write the verses if you were not moved by the
picture imprimis? Why you know the poetic faculty does wonders, as
Shakespeare tells us, in imagining the forms of things unseen, etc., and
so you made a merit where there was none: and have liked that merit ever
since. But I will not disturb you any further in your enjoyment: if you
have a vision of your own, why should I undo it?

Yesterday I was busily employed in painting over my Opie, which had
suffered by heat, or something of that kind. I borrowed Laurence's
palette and brushes and lay upon the floor two hours patching over and
renovating. The picture is really greatly improved, and I am more
reconciled to it. It has now to be varnished: and then I hope some fool
will be surprised into giving 4 pounds for it, as I did. I have selected
an advantageous position for it in a dealer's shop, just under a rich
window that excludes the light.

On second thoughts I shall not send you down my Twilight: but bring it
with me. I like it much, and do not repent the purchase. As to the
difficulty of bringing down so many pictures, I shall travel by the
steamer; which will bear any quantity. The great new purchase, spoken of
in yesterday's letter, will also go with me: it will be insured at a high
valuation before it is entrusted to the Deep, of whose treasures I don't
at all wish it to become one. My Titian is a great hit: if not by him,
it is as near him as ever was painted. But you would not care six straws
for it. The history of the finest theory of colouring lies in those few
inches of canvas. B