and submitted photographs of the work he had modelled. "But, Mr.
Gibson," said the old soldier, looking at them curiously, "you
haven't followed my idea." "No," answered the sculptor, "I have
followed MY OWN." "You are very stubborn," said Wellington.
"Duke," answered the sturdy sculptor, "I am a Welshman, and all the
world knows that we are a stubborn race." The Iron Duke ought to
have been delighted to find another man as unbending as himself,
but he wasn't; and in the end he refused the figure, which Gibson
sold instead to Lady Marian Alford.

For twenty-seven years Gibson remained at Rome, working assiduously
at his art, and rising gradually but surely to the very first place
among then living sculptors. His studio now became the great
centre of all fashionable visitors to Rome. Still, he made no
effort to get rich, though he got rich without wishing it; he
worked on merely for art's sake, not for money. He would not do as
many sculptors do, keep several copies in marble of his more
popular statues for sale; he preferred to devote all his time to
new works. "Gibson was always absorbed in one subject," says Lady
Eastlake, "and that was the particular work or part of a work--were
it but the turn of a corner of drapery--which was then under his
modelling hands. Time was nothing to him; he was long and
fastidious." His favourite pupil, Miss Hosmer, once expressed
regret to him that she had been so long about a piece of work on
which she was engaged. "Always try to do the best you can," Gibson
answered. "Never mind how long you are upon a work--no. No one
will ask how long you have been, except fools. You don't care what
fools think."

During his long life at Rome, he was much cheered by the presence