'As I have mentioned where Opies are _not_ to be found, I ought to state where they _are_--I mean in Cornwall, if not removed lately. Sir John St. Aubyn has the greatest number--I think seven or eight. These include two portraits of his grandfather, Sir J. St. Aubyn; one of his grandmother; one of Captain James; one of Miss Bunn;[130] one of Dolly Pentreath; and one--the best of all--of Mrs. Bell, housekeeper at Clowance. This last was much admired at one of the R.A. Winter Exhibitions. Lady Falmouth told me she had three, if not four, Opies. Mrs. Boscawen, you know, was an early patroness of the painter, and invited him to breakfast, when old Mr. Polwhele sent him into the kitchen. The Hon. Mrs. Gilbert has four, including a beggar;--another beggar is at Enys. Mrs. J. M. Williams, at Carhayes, has two, both fancy pictures. At Scorrier, Mr. G. Williams has two. At Penrose, Mr. Rogers's, there are two or three. At Prideaux Place, Mr. Prideaux Brune's, there are two; one being a dog's head, the other his own portrait. At Tregullow there are two, one being his mother with Bible;--there are several copies of this.' FOOTNOTES: [112] On an examination of the list of the members, it will be found that Cornwall has produced about the usual average of the English counties. [113] Opie painted Bone's portrait, and presented it to him, 1795; also one of Bartolozzi, the engraver, which is preserved in the National Portrait Gallery. [114] A blowing-house is a building where tin ore was smelted prior to the construction of the larger smelting-works. The first Mrs. Opie had the name changed to one more consonant with her notions of connubial felicity. Opie's second wife thus sketched it in a letter dated 'St. Agnes, 11th mo. 26th, 1832:' 'Yesterday I dined at Harmony Cot, where my husband and all the family were born and bred. It is a most sequestered cottage, whitewashed and thatched; a hill rising high above it, and another in front; trees and flower-beds before it, which in summer must make it a pretty spot. _Now_ it is not a tempting abode; but there are two good rooms, and I am glad I have seen it.' [115] When Polwhele wrote, some seventy or eighty years ago, this picture was in the possession of Richard Hoskins, Esq., of Carennis. [116] Mr. Rogers, in his 'Opie and his Works,' has thus classified the 760 works catalogued: Portraits (counting each head in family groups) 508 Sacred Subjects 22 Historical 17 Shakespeare 11 Poetical and Fancy 134 Landscape 5 Supplementary and addenda (various) 63 ---- 760 He exhibited altogether 143 pictures at the Royal Academy.