the elaborate fancifulness of his imagery. Watts had more of the
full-blooded Englishman in his nature, and his art was simpler, grander,
more universal. If we may compare them with the great men of the
Renaissance, Burne-Jones recalled the grace of Botticelli, Watts the
richness and power of Veronese or of Titian.

Those who went to Little Holland House and saw the circle of the
Prinseps adorned by these artists, and by such writers as Tennyson,
Henry Taylor,[33] and Thackeray, had a singular impression of harmony
between the men and their surroundings; and if they had been asked who
best expressed the spirit of these gatherings, they would probably have
pointed to the 'Signor', as Watts came to be called among his intimate
friends--to the slight figure with the small delicately-shaped head, who
seemed to recall the atmosphere of Florence in the Middle Ages, when art
was at once a craft and a religion. But few who saw the grace and
old-fashioned courtesy with which he moved among young and old would
have guessed what fire and persistency were in him, that he would
outlive all his generation, and be still wielding a vigorous brush in
the early years of the century to come.

[Note 33: Sir Henry Taylor, author of _Philip van Artevelde_ and
other poems, and a high official of the Colonial Office.]

One interlude in this busy yet tranquil life came in 1856 when he was
asked to accompany Sir Charles Newton's party to the coast of Asia
Minor. Newton was to explore the ruins of Halicarnassus on behalf of the
British Government, and a man-of-war was placed at his disposal. The
opportunity of seeing Grecian lands in this leisurely fashion was too
good to be missed, and Watts spent eight happy months on board. He
showed his power of adapting himself to a new situation, made friends
with the sailors, and sang 'Tom Bowling' at their Christmas concert.
Incidentally he visited Constantinople, as it was necessary to get a
'firman' from the Porte, was commended to the famous ambassador Lord
Stratford de Redcliffe and painted two portraits of him, one of which is
in the National Portrait Gallery to-day. He also enjoyed a cruise
through the Greek Islands, where the scenery with its rich colour and
bold pure outlines was specially calculated to charm him. He painted few
landscapes in his long career, but both in Italy and in Greece it was
the distant views of mountain peaks that led him to give expression to
his delight in the beauty of