’Did you know that Colonel Mannering was a draughtsman?  I believe not, for he scorned to display his accomplishments to the view of a subaltern.  He draws beautifully, however.  Since he and Julia left Mervyn Hall, Dudley was sent for there.  The squire, it seems, wanted a set of drawings made up, of which Mannering had done the first four, but was interrupted by his hasty departure in his purpose of completing them.  Dudley says he has seldom seen anything so masterly, though slight; and each had attached to it a short poetical description.  Is Saul, you will say, among the prophets?  Colonel Mannering write poetry!  Why, surely this man must have taken all the pains to conceal his accomplishments that others do to display theirs.  How reserved and unsociable he appeared among us! how little disposed to enter into any conversation which could become generally interesting!  And then his attachment to that unworthy Archer, so much below him in every respect; and all this because he was the brother of Viscount Archerfield, a poor Scottish peer!  I think, if Archer had longer survived the wounds in the affair of Cuddyboram, he would have told something that might have thrown light upon the inconsistencies of this singular man’s character.  He repeated to me more than once, “I have that to say which will alter your hard opinion of our late Colonel.”  But death pressed him too hard; and if he owed me any atonement, which some of his expressions seemed to imply, he died before it could be made.

’I propose to make a further excursion through this country while this fine frosty weather serves, and Dudley, almost as good a walker as myself, goes with me for some part of the way.  We part on the borders of Cumberland, when he must return to his lodgings in Marybone, up three pair of stairs, and labour at what he calls the commercial part of his profession.  There cannot, he says, be such a difference betwixt any two portions of existence as between that in which the artist, if an enthusiast, collects the subjects of his drawings and that which must necessarily be dedicated to turning over his portfolio and exhibiting them to the provoking indifference, or more provoking criticism, of fashionable amateurs.  “During the summer of my year,” says Dudley, “I am as free as a wild Indian, enjoying myself at liberty amid the grandest scenes of nature; while during my winters and springs I am not only cabined, cribbed, and confined in a miserable garret, but condemned to as intolerable subservience to the humour of others, and to as indifferent company, as if I were a literal galley slave.”  I have promised him your acquaintance, Delaserre; you will be delighted with his specimens of art, and he with your Swiss fanaticism for mountains and torrents.

’When I lose Dudley’s company, I am informed that I can easily enter Scotland by stretching across a wild country in the upper part of Cumberland; and that route I shall follow, to give the Colonel time to pitch his camp ere I reconnoitre his position.  Adieu!  Delaserre.  I shall hardly find another opportunity of writing till I reach Scotland.’