s slow to move; inventions
leave him cold, and imagination is not to be weighed in the scale
against dividends and quick returns. The Company declined the offer on
the ground of expense, while their architect is said to have been
seriously alarmed at the idea of any one tampering with his building.

Another proposal met with a heartier response. The men of law proved
more generous than the men of commerce. The new Hall at Lincoln's Inn
was being built by Mr. Philip Hardwick, in the Tudor style. Benchers and
architect alike cordially welcomed Watts's offer to decorate a blank
wall with fresco. The work could only be carried on during the legal
vacations, and it proved a long business owing to the difficulties of
the process and to the interruptions caused by the artist's ill-health.
Watts planned it in 1852, began work in 1853, and did not put the
finishing touch till 1859. The subject was a group of famous lawgivers,
in which the chief figures were Moses, Mahomet, Justinian, Charlemagne,
and Alfred, and it stands to-day as the chief witness to his powers as a
designer on a grand scale.

Before this he had already dedicated to national service his gift of
portrait-painting. The head of Lord John Russell, painted in 1851, is
one of the earliest portraits known to have been painted with this
intention, though it is impossible to fix with accuracy the date when
such a scheme took shape. In 1899, with the same patriotic intention, he
was at work on a painting of Cecil Rhodes. In this half-century of
activity he might have made large sums of money, if he had responded to
the urgent demands of those men and women who were willing to pay high
prices for the privilege of sitting to him; but few of them attained
their object. His earlier achievements were limited to a few families
from whom he had received help and encouragement when he was unknown.
First among these to be remembered are the various generations of that
family whose name is still preserved at South Kensington in the Ionides
collection of pictures. Next came the Hollands, of whom he painted many
portraits at Florence; and a third circle, naturally enough, was that
of the Prinseps. In general he was most unwilling to undertake, as a
mere matter of business, commissions from individuals unknown to him. He
found portrait-painting most exhausting in its demands upon him. He
threw his whole soul into the work, straining to see and to reproduce
all that was most noble i