he second is at least as fine. [_Sketch._] The landscape
effect is the opal-like sky and bright light full of moisture after
rain--heavy clouds hang above--the mountains are a leaden blue--and
the sky of all exquisite pale shades of bright colour. Down the wet
moor road comes the group. Two very tall, dark-eyed Connaught
"boys"--one with a set face and his hands in his pockets looking
straight out of the picture--the other with a yearning of Keltic
emotion looking back at the hills as if his heart was breaking. The
strapping young sergeant looks very grave; but an "old soldier" behind
is lighting his pipe, and a bugler is holding back a dog. One of the
best faces is that of the drummer who walks first, and whose
13-year-old face is so furrowed about the brow with oppressive
anxiety--very truthful!

_The Remnants of an Army_ is of course overpowering by the mere
subject, and it is nobly painted. The man and his horse are wonderful
alike. There is nothing to touch these two. But I _would_ like to
steal Peter Graham's _The Seabirds' Resting-Place_. Such penguins
sitting on wet rocks with wet Fucus _growing on_ them! Such myriads
more in the _sea-mist_ that hides the horizon-line--sitting on distant
rocks!--and _such_ green waves--by the light of a sunbeam into one of
which you see Laminaria fronds and lumps of Fucus tossing up and down.
You feel wet and ozoney to come near it! There are some very fine
men's portraits, and Orchardson's _Gamblers Hard Hit_ is the best
thing of his, I think, that I know....

... There is a very beautiful old gun in the Arsenal upon a
gun-carriage with wheels thus [_Sketch_], and with bas-reliefs of St.
Paul and the Viper. It is needless to say the gun came from the island
called Melita! But for cunning workmanship and fine bold designs and
delicate execution the Chinese guns are the ones! I am taking rubbings
of the patterns for decorative purposes! They were taken in the war.

There is yet one picture I must tell you of--"_A Musical Story by
Chopin_"--the boy playing to a group of lads and a tutor. His utterly
absorbed face is _admirable_. It is a very pretty thing. Not
marvellous, but very good.

August 5, 1879.

* * * * *

I must tell you that it is _on the cards_ that Caldecott is going to
do a coloured picture for me _to write to_, for the October No. of
_A.J.M._ (so that it will bind up with the 1879 volume and be the
Frontispiece). He is so fr