This, with many other similar disappointments of help which we had confidently relied upon, caused the project to hang fire, until at last, in 1880, we resolved to abandon the idea of an Illustrated Bible, and publish some of the engravings we had made in a folio under the title of "Dalziel's Bible Gallery."
That our difficulties in carrying out the elaborate project we had formed began at an early date, the following extract from a letter by Sir John Millais, dated February 8th, 1863, will show:
"There is a decided move in the matter of 'The Bible.' Hunt, Watts, and Leighton will not, I expect, work for you, as they say they are, with me, in honour bound to work for the publisher who first made the proposal. There can be no doubt but that we should, in such a case, work together.
"Yours very faithfully, "JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS."
The "publisher who first made the proposal" here referred to was Mr. Joseph Cundall, who was not at that time in business as a publisher, but had formed a project of publishing an "Illustrated Bible." His progress in the matter merely consisted in his having commissioned the several artists named by Millais, with two or three others, while his actual purchase was three small drawings of minor importance. These, with his "priority of claim," we subsequently purchased from him. We never used the drawings, however, not considering them favourable specimens.
In a letter, which is without date, showing how earnestly Millais laboured and how anxious he was to give his most perfect work in producing the charming series of illustrations to "The Parables of Our Lord," he says:
"I send off by post the Parable of 'The Leaven which the woman hid in the three measures of meal'; she is mixing the leaven in the last of the three. The girl at the back I have made near the oven with one of the loaves, and the other rests against the wall of the window."
_By permission of Messrs. Herbert Virtue & Co., Ltd._]
"It is almost unnecessary for me to say that I cannot produce these quickly even if supposing I give _all my_ time to them. They are separate pictures, and so I exert myself to the utmost to make them as complete as possible. I can do ordinary illustrations as quickly as most men, but these designs can scarcely be regarded in the same light--each Parable I illustrate perhaps a dozen times before I fix, and the 'Hidden Treasures' I have altered on the wood at least six times. The manipulation of the drawings takes much less time than the arrangement, although you cannot but see how carefully they are executed. Believe me, I will not again halt in the work, but will supply you regularly, although I may occasionally delay in the production. I know you will take every care in the cutting, so I will not say anything about that. I enclose with the block a few remarks.