Soon after my Isle of Wight excursion I became a pupil of Orrin Smith, the engraver, who was not only a great enthusiast in his profession, but had the knack of inspiring those associated with him with much of his own zeal. It was at this time that I got to know Kenny Meadows, who was a near neighbour of Smith's, and had for some time past been drawing a series of characteristic heads for “Bell's Life in London,” wherein he had shewn himself equally felicitous in depicting graceless blackguards as he was known to be in drawing graceful cupids and other subjects which admitted of his giving scope to a somewhat exuberant fancy.

Another artist I became acquainted with was Edward Chatfield, who, in his days of innocence, while he was a pupil of Haydon's with the Landseers and others, had inconsiderately obliged the unthrifty painter of colossal canvasses by putting his name to a bill, and been thereby mulcted of a considerable slice of his modest fortune. Chatfield was looked upon as a promising artist, a rather clever magazine writer, and a passionate student of Shakspeare. He had his painting room and lived at Smith's house in Judd-street, and here he also died, while I was still a pupil, leaving behind him an unfinished picture, on which he had put forth his best powers, representing the wives of soldiers ordered abroad drawing lots to settle which of them should enjoy the coveted privilege of embarking with their husbands.