such progress, that when the students'
drawings were examined, previously to sending them up to South
Kensington, all my work was approved. I was then set to draw from the
cast in chalk, although I had only been at the school for a month. I
tried for all the four subjects at the May examination, and was
fortunate enough to pass three of them, and obtained as a prize
Packett's 'Sciography.' I worked hard during the next year, and sent up
seventeen works; for one of these, the 'Venus de Milo,' I gained a
studentship.

"I then commenced the study of human anatomy, and began water-colour
painting, reading all the works upon art on which I could lay my hand.
At the May examination of 1873, I completed my second-grade
certificate, and at the end of the year of my studentship, I accepted
the office of teacher in the School of Art. This art-training created
in me a sort of disgust for photography, as I saw that the science of
photography had really very little genuine art in it, and was more
allied to a mechanical pursuit than to an artistic one. Now, when I
look back on my past ideas, I clearly see that a great deal of this
disgust was due to my ignorance and self-conceit.

"In 1874, I commenced painting in tempora, and then in oil, copying the
pictures lent to the school from the South Kensington Art Library. I
worked also from still life, and began sketching from nature in oil and
water-colours, sometimes selling my work to help me to buy materials
for art-work and scientific experiments. I was, however, able to do
very little in the following year, as I was at home suffering from
sciatica. For nine months I could not stand erect, but had to hobble
about with a stick. This illness caused me to give up my teachership.

"Early in 1876 I returned to Darlington. I went on with my art studies
and the science of chemistry; though I went no further in heliochromy.
I pushed forward with anatomy. I sent about fifteen works to South
Kensington, and gained as my third-grade prize in list A the
'Dictionary of Terms used in Art' by Thomas Fairholt, which I found a
very useful work. Towards the end of the year, my father, whose health
was declining, sent for me home to assist him in the school. I now
commenced the study of Algebra and Euclid in good earnest, but found it
tough work. My father, though a fair mathematician, was unable to give
me any instruction; for he had been seized with paralysis, from which
he never rec