at the west end of Oxford Street, laughing. I never saw him again
alive.

"The whole of the next day he was busily engaged finishing his
picture of Arundel Mill and Castle. One or two of his friends who
called on him saw that he was not well, but they attributed this to
confinement and anxiety with his picture, which was to go in a few
days to the Exhibition. In the evening he walked out for a short time
on a charitable errand connected with the Artists' Benevolent Fund.
He returned about nine o'clock, ate a hearty supper, and, feeling
chilly, had his bed warmed--a luxury he rarely indulged in. It was
his custom to read in bed; between ten and eleven he had read himself
to sleep, and his candle, as usual, was removed by a servant. Soon
after this, his eldest son, who had been at the theatre, returned
home, and, while preparing for bed in the next room, his father awoke
in great pain, and called to him. So little was Constable alarmed,
however, that he at first refused to send for medical assistance. He
took some rhubarb and magnesia, which produced sickness, and he drank
copiously of warm water, which occasioned vomiting, but the pain
increasing, he desired that Mr Michele, his near neighbour, should be
sent for, who very soon attended. In the mean time Constable had
fainted, his son supposing he had fallen asleep. Mr Michele instantly
ordered some brandy to be brought; the bed-room of the patient was at
the top of the house, the servant had to run down-stairs for it, and
before it could be procured life was extinct; and within half an hour
of the first attack of pain.

"A _post-mortem_ investigation was made by Professor Partridge, in
the presence of Mr George Young and Mr Michele, but, strange to say,
the extreme pain Constable had suffered could only be traced to
indigestion, no indications of disease were any where discovered,
sufficient, in the opinion of those gentlemen, to have produced at
that time a fatal result. Mr Michele, in a letter to me, describing
all he had witnessed, says, 'It is barely possible that the prompt
application of a stimulant might have sustained the vital principle,
and induced reaction in the functions necessary to the maintenance of
life.'

"Constable's eldest son was prevented from attending the funeral by