Paris, he said, "I'm d----d sorry for it!"

Mr. Murray, about this time, began to adorn his dining-room with
portraits of the distinguished men who met at his table. His portraits
include those of Gifford, [Footnote: This portrait was not painted for
Mr. Murray, but was purchased by him.] by Hoppner, R.A.; Byron and
Southey, by Phillips; Scott and Washington Irving, by Stewart Newton;
Croker, by Eddis, after Lawrence; Coleridge, Crabbe, Mrs. Somerville,
Hallam, T. Moore, Lockhart, and others. In April 1815 we find Thomas
Phillips, afterwards R.A., in communication with Mr. Murray, offering to
paint for him a series of Kit-cat size at eighty guineas each, and in
course of time his pictures, together with those of John Jackson, R.A.,
formed a most interesting gallery of the great literary men of the
time, men and women of science, essayists, critics, Arctic voyagers, and
discoverers in the regions of Central Africa.

Byron and Southey were asked to sit for their portraits to Phillips.
Though Byron was willing, and even thought it an honour, Southey
pretended to grumble. To Miss Barker he wrote (November 9, 1815):


"Here, in London, I can find time for nothing; and, to make things
worse, the Devil, who owes me an old grudge, has made me sit to Phillips
for a picture for Murray. I have in my time been tormented in this
manner so often, and to such little purpose, that I am half tempted to
suppose the Devil was the inventor of portrait painting."


Meanwhile Mr. Murray was again in treaty for a share in a further work
by Walter Scott. No sooner was the campaign of 1815 over, than a host of