MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--Your very welcome lines arrived auspiciously a few days ago. I need not say how delighted I am that you are not displeased with the two compositions of your old pupil, and that you recognise in them a not unworthy effort. I am especially grateful to you that while giving your approbation you have enclosed a criticism, and only regret that you have blamed but one thing, where there are unfortunately so many faults. I shall endeavour, if these cartoons ever come to be carried out, as far as possible to repress the faults which you remark in "Peace"; for, as I am by all means passionate for the true _Hellenic_ art, and am touched beyond everything by its noble simplicity and its unaffected directness, so the _Roman_ or Napoleonic at its highest is antipathetic to me--I had almost said disgusting. The two compositions are intended for a large court (where there are objects from all parts of the world and of all epochs); they will not, however, stand _near_, but opposite to one another. The figures will be life-size, the foremost ones almost colossal. The "Arts of Peace" I transported to Greece, partly out of sympathy, and partly on account of the special beauty of the Greek ceramic and jewel work; the conduct of arms seemed to me to find its highest expression in mediæval Italy, and I gladly seized this opportunity to tread the old path again in which my feet now so seldom wander. If you really believe that my old friends in Frankfurt will be interested in these works, I shall be extremely pleased if you will put them in the Gallery; I wish only one thing, namely, that it may be made quite clear to the spectator that they are merely _cartoons_; their entire lack of effect would otherwise be surprising. But the Pinta, of which you write, haunts my mind! If I had only time to run over myself!--but it is impossible. Once more heartiest greetings, from your devoted pupil, FRED LEIGHTON. The Prince Consort, I believe, first conceived the idea of decorating spaces on the walls of the Victoria and Albert Museum with frescoes, as a memorial of the nation's gratitude on the close of the Crimean War, and mentioned the subject to Leighton. It was not, however, till 1868 that Sir Henry Cole approached him officially on the subject in the following letter:-- _July 14, 1868._