But none of these English pictures, and few even of his Italian ones, can compare in dignity and beauty with his notable Welsh views. He certainly visited Wales before 1766 for in that year he exhibited two views from North Wales, “Carnarvon Castle” and “Northwest View of Snowdon.” It seems very likely that when he was painting at Manchester and Chester in 1760 he took the opportunity to visit his old home, but there are no dated Welsh pictures before 1766. But even this date gives him no predecessors among artists painting in Wales except men so inferior as John Boydell and Anthony Devis. Other Welsh pictures were exhibited by Wilson in 1771 and 1774. In 1775 Boydell published “Six Views in Wales,” engravings by Byrne and Rooker from Wilson’s pictures. Britton in his “Fine Arts in England” (1805) said that “Wilson’s ‘Six Views’ were the most important topographical views ever published in England.” But they only partially represent the great amount of work done by Wilson on Welsh subjects. In the Print Room of the British Museum are engravings from many other fine Welsh pictures such as “The Great Bridge over the Taafe,” engraved by Canot, “Kilgarren Castle,” engraved by Elliott, “Pembroke Castle” by Mason, “Carnarvon Castle” by Byrne, “Snowdon Hill” by Woollett, “The Summit of Cader Idris” by E. and M. Rooker. Even in the engravings these are pictures of very great nobility and charm. One original “Snowdon” picture is in the Manchester Art Gallery. It is called “A Welsh Valley with Snowdon Hill” and is of the rarest beauty. The rough foreground slopes, the distant mountain bathed in light and delicately outlined against the softest of skies, the mists rising from the hidden valleys, are magically combined into a picture adequate in its presentation of the facts of Nature, and having, also, a strong poetic and imaginative appeal. A beautiful print after Wilson in the British Museum is another, “Snowdon Hill,” by Woollett. The loneliness, the serenity, the majesty, and the beauty of mountain regions are portrayed by Wilson with an essentially modern feeling. [Illustration: KILGARREN CASTLE _By Richard Wilson_]