“MY LORD,--I do not know, if by having lived several years in England, and having the honour to be a R.A., I may be sufficiently entitled to join with the artists of Great Britain in their request, or better to say, in returning thanks to your Lordship for patronising them in a point so very essential, which is to assist them in obtaining the free importation of their own studies, models, or designs, collected for their improvement during their own stay abroad. “The heavy duty set upon articles of that nature causes that the artist, whose circumstances do not permit him to pay perhaps a considerable sum, must either be deprived of what he keeps most valuable, or buy his own works at the public sale at the Custom House. This I have myself experienced on my coming to England,--and I mention it here, in consequence of the opinion of some of my friends, who think that my assertion, added to what other artists may have reported to that purpose, may be of some use to obtain their object. “I heard from Dr. Bates,[333] and Mr. Reveley,[334] the architect, how very much your Lordship is inclined to support the earnest supplication drawn up by some of the artists, which proves your Lordship to be a protector of the fine arts, and of those who profess them. Consequently I have some reason to hope that I may not be judged too impertinent for addressing these lines to you. I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, my Lord, your Lordship’s most obliged humble servant, “ANGELICA KAUFFMANN. “TRINITÀ DE’ MONTI, _the 26th Dec. 1787_.” This year, my laborious work, entitled _Antiquities of Westminster_, was delivered to its numerous and patient subscribers.[335] The following congratulatory letter is one of the many with which I have been honoured by its extensive and steady friends:-- “LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL CLOSE, _Thursday, 2nd July 1807_. “Mr. White[336] presents his best respects to Mr. Smith. His precious little box, from some unaccountable delay in Cambridge, did not arrive till yesterday evening, accompanied by a letter, which receives this early acknowledgment. Though Mr. White has not had leisure to inspect critically the literary portion of Mr. Smith’s elegant and splendid volume, yet his whole time since it came has been occupied in studying and admiring its numerous, accurate, and highly finished engravings, which alone give it a superiority to any book of art’s illustration which Mr. White can at present recollect. Mr. Smith’s offer of a few loose prints is peculiarly kind and acceptable; and Mr. White so far avails himself of it.