As a book illustrator he became so popular that no collection of varied art seemed complete without one or more of his exquisitely graceful pictures.
He was a great lover of music, and would often dream away the idle hours, as he called them, on his favourite instrument, the zither; and _a propos_, surely there was much sweet and even grand music in his groups of birds, such as "The rooks sat high" and "The mother kite watching and guarding her nest."
In our long connection with the firm of Thomas Nelson & Sons, of Edinburgh, we made a large number of drawings and did much engraving for their books. The work was mostly of an instructive and amusing kind for young people. Among the various artists employed upon their publications, Keeley Halswell, who at that time resided in Edinburgh, did a great many drawings. The Messrs. Nelson had an art department in connection with their vast establishment. In this branch William Small was a pupil; and there he illustrated many of their story books before he came to London to take a first place amongst the most distinguished artists in black and white. Small became an important contributor to the _Graphic_ in its early days, and made many drawings for _Good Words_ and other magazines of Strahan's. He also made a few clever drawings for Buchanan's "North Coast Poems."
"_The careless words had scarcely Time from his lips to fall, When the Lady of Castle Windeck Came round the ivy wall._
"_He saw the glorious maiden In her snow-white drapery stand, A bunch of keys at her girdle, The beaker high in her hand._"
"The Lady of Castle Windeck."--W. CULLEN BRYANT.
_Published by Messrs. D. Appleton & Co., New York._]
We saw much of Mr. William Nelson, the eldest brother, during his visits to London, which were by no means infrequent. He was a man with a large, warm heart, and kindly, genial disposition, and though holding broad views in most matters, he (like the majority of his countrymen in the last generation) looked for many years with the greatest aversion on all things theatrical, and from his early training considered "the door of the theatre as the gate to destruction." At one of his quiet dinner parties Madame Antoinette Stirling and her husband were present, and the talk naturally turned on music and the drama, when he related the following as his first introduction to theatrical entertainments: