His melancholy was abated by an unexpected visit from his soldier-artist brother (April 29th, 1824), of whom, after an affectionate embrace, he asked: "How is my mother, and how is the dog?" Old Mrs. Borrow, down in Willow Lane, was getting past her fits of crying over the loss of her husband, and frequently had the Prayer Book in her hand, but oftener the Bible. John Borrow had been offered one hundred pounds by a Committee to paint Robert Hawkes, Mayor of Norwich in 1822, a prominent draper, who became extremely popular for "the nobly liberal spirit in which he sustained the splendour of civic hospitality." Mr. T. O. Springfield, commonly called "T.O.," was spokesman of the Committee--a little watchmaker with a hump, Borrow called him. Dr. Knapp denies that he was a watchmaker, but such he was in his early days, though he became very wealthy through speculations in silk, and Mayor of Norwich 1829 and 1836. Quite a character, his tombstone in the Rosary cemetery bears this honourable record: "A merciful magistrate, a successful merchant, A consistent politician, A benevolent benefactor, He devoted the energies of a vigorous intellect, and the sympathies of a warm heart, to the prosperity of his native city and the welfare of its inhabitants. Beloved, honoured and regretted, He died April 24th, 1855." John did not feel equal to painting little Mr. Hawkes "striding under the Norman arch out of the cathedral," but said, "I can introduce you to a great master of the heroic, fully competent to do justice to your mayor." "T.O." thought the money should not go to London, but John prevailed, and so came up to London to interview B. R. Haydon, who, owning himself confoundedly hard up, at once accepted the commission. But George comes in as Haydon's _beau ideal_ for that face of Pharaoh the artist desired to paint; later on Borrow asked Haydon for a sitting, saying he would "sooner lose a thousand pounds than not have the honour of appearing in the picture." No trace of any such portrait can be found. Haydon's portrait of Hawkes hangs in St. Andrew's Hall in close proximity to that of his friend "T.O.," painted by Philip Westcott. [Picture: Marshland Shales] "I have often thought," says Borrow, very characteristically, "what a capital picture might have been made by my brother's friend, if, instead of making the mayor issue out of the Norman arch, he had painted him moving under the sign of the Checquers (_sic_), or the Three Brewers, with mace--yes, with mace--the mace appears in the picture issuing out of the Norman arch behind the mayor--but likewise with Snap, and with whiffler, quart pot, and frying-pan, Billy Blind, and Owlenglass, Mr. Petulengro, and Pakomovna."