Chapter XII: Letter XI: To Madox Brown, Hampstead

“Summat on the Dook” means the poem _Wellington’s Funeral_.

14 Chatham Place, Blackfriars.
29 November 1852.

My dear Brown,

Hunt, Millais, Stephens, and Deverell, will be here on Thursday
evening, not with any reference to exhibition projects, which
are likely to result, I believe, in exhibiting nothing but our
usual inconsistency. I absented myself from Hunt’s on Friday, but
understand that such is the case. I met the fellows at Stephens’
last night, where I invited them for Thursday, and now write
to get you; intending also to invite the Seddons, Collins, and
perhaps Hannay.

I saw a portrait which Stephens is painting of his father, and
which is almost as surprising an advance on former productions as
Seddon’s landscape.

I should be immensely glad to see you this evening if you can
call in late after the school. Before, I suppose, is impossible,
but I am sure to be at home, and can give you half my bed if you
like. I am getting my rooms a little in order now; yet I fear
they will scarcely be decent by Thursday, as the window seems an
endless job.

D. G. R.

I have asked the Seddons for to-night.

P.S.--Do come to-night: to-morrow I am engaged. I have done
“summat on the Dook.”