CHAP. 
The King's personal Friendship jbr Mr. West.-_ Ci;-mm- 
stances which led to the Establishment gf the Royal 
Academy.  First Exhibition qf the Worhs gf British 
Artists.  The Departure qf Regulus Jinished, and taken 
to Buckingham Ifouse.  Anecdote Qf Kirby.  The 
Formation qf the Royal Academy. -Anecdote Qf Reynolds. 
 The Academy instituted. 
THE King, at the period when he was pleased 
to take Mr. West under his own particular 
patronage, possessed great conversational powers, 
"and a considerable tincture of humour. He 
had read much, and his memory was singularly 
exact and tenacious: his education had, indeed, 
been conducted with great prudence, and, in- 
dependent of a much larger stock of literary 
information than is commonly acquired by 
princes, he was fairly entitled to be regarded as 
an accomplished gentleman. For the fine arts 
he had not, perhaps, any natural taste; he had, 
however, been carefully instructed in the prin- 
ciples of architecture by Chambers, of delineation