enjoyment in political cabals, in the petty 
enmities of partizans, or the factions intrigues 
Qf party leaders. He was by his art wholly 
enchanted, and saw in the prospect before him 
an adequate recompense in fame for all his 
exertions, his days of labour, and his nights of 
study. The historical pictures for Windsor 
Castle cost him many a patient hour of mid- 
night research; for the means to assist his 
composition, especially in architecture, and the 
costume of the time, were then far from being 
so easy of access as they are at present. A long 
period of preference for classic literature, and 
the illustration of the Greek and Roman story, 
had Withdrawn the public taste from the no 
less glorious events of our own annals. To 
mark, tlierefbre, the epoch, and manners of tl1e 
age ot' Poictiers and Cressy, of the institution 
of the Garter, and the other heroic and mag- 
nificent incidents of the reign of Edward the 
Third, with that historical truth which the 
artist thought essential to historical painting, 
required the inspection of many an ancient 
yolume, and much antiquarian research. In 
the Composition for the Institution of the