Page:Pen And Pencil Sketches - Volume I.djvu/137

In the sketch called “Genius, &c.,” Calderon and I are portrayed blowing tobacco smoke into an ants’ nest while resting during a breezy walk on a Sunday morning on the sea-girt cliffs. The shadow of F.W. thrown on the crisp and chalky turf indicates his sense of horror at our proceed- ings. One week-day morning donkeys were hired and ridden by Mrs. Calderon and Miss Walker, while the rest of the party tramped on foot. Calderon is depicted endeavouring to persuade one of the animals to mend his pace, not by any of the brutal methods peculiar to professional donkey- boys, but by gentle pressure and laying on of hands. During our stay, F.W. and I made the acquaintance of a good-natured genial farmer named Hunt, who lived in a quaint old-fashioned stone- built house some little distance from the town. The first time we went to his place he showed us over the farm, its belongings and buildings, the garden and the orchard. While doing the latter he would discourse learnedly on different varieties of apple, presenting Walker at every period of his lecture with a cucumber or a vegetable marrow. In short, he so loaded the young painter with produce of one kind or another, that he looked like a walking Covent Garden in miniature, and had much ado to carry all his gifts at once. I felt bound to introduce this sketch, as without it