nolds offered to repeat it to all comers;
and a score or more of sincere men paid over five pounds into the hands
of Sir Joshua, and took his note for one thousand pounds, payable when
Washington landed in England a prisoner.

Old Ursa Major had small patience with Reynolds' political prophecies;
he called America a land of pirates and half-breed cutthroats, and would
have bet Sir Joshua to a standstill--only he had conscientious scruples
about betting, and besides, hadn't any money.

Goldsmith and Burke, of course, sided with Reynolds in his American
sympathies, and Garrick referred to them as "My friends, the three Irish
Gentlemen."

A frequent visitor at the studio at this time was Angelica Kauffman, who
deserves a volume instead of a mere mention. She came up from
Switzerland, unknown, and made her way to the highest artistic circles in
London. She had wit and beauty, and painted so well that Reynolds
admitted she taught him a few tricks in the use of color. She produced
several portraits of Reynolds, and Reynolds painted several of her; and
the daughter of Thackeray wrote a novel which turns on the assumption
that they were lovers.

There certainly was a fine comradeship existing between them; but whether
Reynolds was ever capable of an all-absorbing passion there is much
doubt. He was married to his work.

Reynolds had many intimate friends among women: Peg Woffington, Mrs.
Clive, Mrs. Thrale, Hannah More, Fanny Burney and others. With them all
there went the same high, chivalrous and generous disinterestedness. He
was a friend to each in very fact.

When the Royal Academy was formed in Seventeen Hundred Sixty-eight,
Reynolds was made its president, and this office he held until the close
of his life. He was not one of the chief promoters of the Academy at the
beginning, and the presidency was half forced upon him. He might have
declined the honor then had the King not made him a knight, and showed
that it was his wish that Reynolds should accept. Sir Joshua, however,
had more ballast in his character than any other painter of his time, and
it was plain that without his name at the head the Academy would be a
thing for smiles and quiet jokes.

The thirty-four charter members included the names of two Americans,
Copley and West, and of one woman, Angelica Kauffman.

And it is here worthy of note that although the Methodist Church still
refuses to allow women to sit as delegates in its General Conference,