one morning when he came down to breakfast. John told him of his
mother's anxiety at receiving only one letter from him since his
departure, of her fits of crying, of the grief of Captain Borrow's
dog at the loss of his master. He also explained the reason for his
being in London. He had been invited to paint the portrait of Robert
Hawkes, an ex-mayor of Norwich, for a fee of a hundred guineas.
Lacking confidence in his own ability, he had declined the honour and
suggested that Benjamin Haydon should be approached. At the request
of a deputation of his fellow citizens, which had waited upon him, he
had undertaken to enter into negotiations with Haydon. He even
undertook to come up to London at his own expense, that he might see
his old master and complete the bargain. Borrow subsequently
accompanied his brother when calling upon Haydon, and was enabled to
give a thumbnail-sketch of the painter of the Heroic at work that has
been pronounced to be photographic in its faithfulness.

John returned to Norwich about a fortnight later accompanied by
Haydon, who was to become the guest of his sitter, {47a} and George
was left to the compilation of Celebrated Trials. Sir Richard
Phillips appears to have been a man as prolific of suggestion as he
was destitute of tact. He regarded his authors as the instruments of
his own genius. Their business it was to carry out his ideas in a
manner entirely congenial to his colossal conceit. His latest author
he exposed "to incredible mortification and ceaseless trouble from
this same rage for interference."

The result of all this was an attack of the "Horrors." Towards the
end of May, Roger Kerrison received from Borrow a note saying that he
believed himself to be dying, and imploring him to "come to me
immediately." The direct outcome of this note was, not the death of