father of the future premier. Sir John was so pleased with the
execution, that he gave the young workman ten pounds as a present.
But in spite of occasional encouragement like this, Gibson felt
himself at Liverpool, as he says, "chained down by the leg, and
panting for liberation."

In 1817, when he was just twenty-seven, he determined to set off to
London. He took with him good introductions from Mr. Roscoe to Mr.
Brougham (afterwards Lord Chancellor), to Christie, the big
picture-dealer, and to several other influential people. Later on,
Roscoe recommended him to still more important leaders in the world
of art--Flaxman the great sculptor, Benjamin West, the Quaker
painter and President of the Royal Academy, and others of like
magnitude. Mr. Watson Taylor, a wealthy art patron, gave Gibson
employment, and was anxious that he should stop in London. But
Gibson wanted more than employment; he wanted to LEARN, to perfect
himself, to become great in his art. He could do that nowhere but
at Rome, and to Rome therefore he was determined to go. Mr. Taylor
still begged him to wait a little. "Go to Rome I will," Gibson
answered boldly, "even if I have to go there on foot."

He was not quite reduced to this heroic measure, however, for his
Liverpool friends made up a purse of 150 pounds for him (we may be
sure it was repaid later on); and with that comparatively large sum
in his pocket the young stone-cutter started off gaily on his
continental tour, from which he was not to return for twenty-seven
years. He drove from Paris to Rome, sharing a carriage with a
Scotch gentleman; and when he arrived in the Pope's city (as it
then was) he knew absolutely not a single word of Italian, or of
any other language on earth save Welsh and English. In those days,