There are gaps in the correspondence of this period.  Many of the letters from both sides of the Atlantic seem never to have reached their destination, owing to the disturbed state of affairs arising from the war between the two countries.

The young artist had gone in October, 1813, to Bristol, at the earnest solicitation of friends in that city, and seems to have spent a pleasant and profitable five months there, painting a number of portraits.  He refers to letters written from Bristol, but they were either never received or not preserved.  Of other letters I have only fragments, and some that are quoted by Mr. Prime in his biography have vanished utterly.  Still, from what remains, we can glean a fairly good idea of the life of the young man at that period.  His parents continually begged him to leave politics alone and to tell them more of his artistic life, of his visits to interesting places, and of his intercourse with the literary and artistic celebrities of the day.

We, too, must regret that he did not write more fully on these subjects, for there must have been a mine of interesting material at his disposal.  We also learn that there seems to have been a strange fatality attached to the little statuette of the “Dying Hercules,” for, although he packed it carefully and sent it to Liverpool on June 18, 1813, to be forwarded to his parents, it never reached them until over two years later.  The superstitious will say that the date of sending may have had something to do with this.

Up to this time everything, except the attitude of England towards America, had been couleur de rose to the enthusiastic young artist.  He was making rapid progress in his studies and was receiving the encomiums of his fellow artists and of the critics.  His parents were denying themselves in order to provide the means for his support, and, while he was duly appreciative of their goodness, he could not help taking it more or less as a matter of course.  He was optimistic with regard to the future, falling into the common error of gifted young artists that, because of their artistic success, financial success must of necessity follow.  He had yet to be proved in the school of adversity, and he had not long to wait.  But I shall let the letters tell the story better than I can.  The last letter from him to his parents from which I have quoted was written on August 12 and 26, 1813.

On March 12, 1814, he writes from London after his return from Bristol:—­

“There is a great drawback to my writing long letters to you; I mean the uncertainty of their reaching you.

“Mama’s long letter gave me particular pleasure.  Some of her observations, however, made me smile, especially the reasons she assigns for the contempt and hatred of England for America.  First, I am inclined to doubt the fact of there being so many infidel Americans in the country; second, if there were, there are not so many religious people here who would take the pains to enquire whether they had religion or not; and third, it is not by seeing the individual Americans that an opinion unfavorable to us is prevalent in England....