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Samuel Rogers and his Contemporaries
Lord Dudley to Samuel Rogers, [December 1825]
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
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Preface
Vol. I Contents
Chapter I. 1803-1805.
Chapter II. 1805-1809.
Chapter III. 1810-1812.
Chapter IV. 1813-1814.
Chapter V. 1814-1815.
Chapter VI. 1815-1816.
Chapter VII. 1816-1818.
Chapter VIII. 1818-19.
Chapter IX. 1820-1821.
Chapter X. 1822-24.
Chapter XI. 1825-1827.
Vol. II Contents
Chapter I. 1828-1830.
Chapter II. 1831-34.
Chapter III. 1834-1837.
Chapter IV. 1838-41.
Chapter V. 1842-44.
Chapter VI. 1845-46.
Chapter VII. 1847-50.
Chapter VIII. 1850
Chapter IX. 1851.
Chapter X. 1852-55.
Index
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‘Park Lane: Friday morning.
‘My dear Rogers,—
‘Fugit improbus et me
Sub cultro linquit.

I am sorry you did not stay, as it might have saved some embarrassment by enabling us to settle everything

1 See Crabb Robinson’s Diary, vol. ii., p. 525.

424 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES  
at once, which we agreed was very desirable. The case, I found, was too urgent to admit of delay. I therefore engaged to finish what is required before dinner-time to-day. He also expressed a wish that the transaction should not be talked of just yet; and to that I, of course, readily consented. But the difficulty about the Raphael still remains. This is unluckily, but naturally, the object I most desire to possess, and which he is most unwilling to part with. You will, I am sure, recollect that in our first conversation in this room, even before I had seen it, I spoke of it as my greatest inducement, except that of rendering a service to Sir T. L., to entertain the proposal made to me. Besides, the arrangement cannot be easily made without it. The Rembrandt I must absolutely decline taking. It’s merit is of a sort which my ignorance of art prevents me from perceiving, and the price of it, though not too high for so great a work, is vastly beyond what I can think of giving for a single picture. But if I bar the Rembrandt, and he also bars the Raphael, the remainder of the pictures will fall too far short of the value to which we ought at least to approximate. All this makes a difficulty, out [of] which I shall not be able to extricate myself without your friendly aid and mediation. I should be really sorry to insist upon a condition that should be painful to Sir T. L., and yet you will, I am sure, feel that it is rather hard upon me to take a picture that I want knowledge and taste to admire, particularly as the very nature of the case cuts me off from all those advantages of consultation and consideration and botheration that generally precede transactions of this kind. Pray
SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE'S DIFFICULTIES425
think of this matter and tell me what you think when I see you.

‘Your’s ever truly,
D.’