Clayton's taste for decorative work gradually took the form of stained glass, and his success in that way became so extensive that the art of Book Illustration sank into the background. Although not really one of the P.R.B., he was of them, and with them in all their ways and works. If the Royal Academy had a more extensive scale of fitness for the honour, there is no man to our knowledge whose great ability as a true artist better deserves the distinction of R.A.
[Illustration: THERE'S NAE LUCK ABOUT THE HOUSE.
_By permission of Messrs. George Routledge & Sons._]
[Illustration: Bowerswell Perth August 16. 57.
Both the illustrations are so perfectly cut that I have nothing to say, and therefore will keep both the proofs, as I should like to have them--Perhaps you may just fine down one or two lines in the "There's nae luck" the upper line of the womans hand Run the shading of the mans shoulder more into the outline also the little girls left leg should the mans shoe and run a little more decided light down the dogs nose Beyond these trivial corrections I see nothing. I shall be glad to see how the "Moses" drawings cut, these two are most satisfactory
Edward Duncan, George Dodgson and F. W. Topham, with a few other members of the "Old Society of Painters in Water Colours," formed a club for outdoor sketching, the rule being that at a selected spot all should sit down as close to each other as possible, taking various points of view according to individual taste. One day whilst at work in a field on the banks of the Upper Thames, they saw a sturdy farmer coming towards them looking very fierce and angry. When he got near the party he said:
"What be you lot o' lazy devils a-doing in my field?"
"Is that fit work for men? When the young ladies from Miss Gray's boarding school come down to 'sketch' I say let 'em; if it pleases them, it don't hurt me, an' there be no harm; but when I see a lot of great hulking men like you fellows about such nonsense it makes me fair angry! Why, domn it, you might be doing a lot o' good work o' some sort! I would rather break stones by the roadside for a shilling a day than fool away my time like you be doing. You ought to be ashamed o' yourselves, you ought!"