On one occasion when visiting Lord Leighton's studio, he was painting a charming picture entitled "Persephone," the coming of spring. He had painted some brown figs in the foreground. Mr. Rathbone remarked that in spring the figs should be green. Lord Leighton replied, "You are right," and dabbing his thumb into some green paint on his palette he smeared the figs with green, and when the picture was finished they remained green; but inasmuch as you see green and brown figs on a fig-tree at the same time, in spring and in autumn, Lord Leighton was not incorrect, and brown figs would, I think, have better suited his colour scheme. Mr. Byam Shaw painted a picture of "the Princes in the Tower" at Ludlow Castle, and looking out of the tower upon the landscape beyond, the eye rested upon a copse of larches, but as larches were not grown in England for a hundred years after the incident portrayed in the picture, they had to be painted out and other trees substituted. Visiting the studio of Mr. Greiffenhagen we found him engaged upon a pastoral idyll, a shepherd boy embracing a red-headed girl in a field of poppies. He had as his models an Italian and his boy. Upon my remarking upon this, he explained his only inducement to paint the subject was a promise made by two of his friends, who were engaged to be married, to sit as his models. They came, and appeared to greatly enjoy the situation; but alas! they got married and did not return, and he was obliged to finish his picture with this Italian and his boy. It was a lovely picture, and now adorns our permanent collection. One is much impressed when visiting the studios by the comparative poverty of the profession. I don't suppose the average income of the London artist exceeds £200 to £300 per annum. They paint pictures but do not sell them. Formerly they were able to supplement their incomes by working in black and white, but machine processes have now superseded black and white, and the architect and house decorator have dealt pictorial art a severe blow by introducing styles of decoration which leave no room for the picture.