Skinner had learned
everything and forgotten everything. And this puts me in mind of
another of her wicked sayings about Dr. Skinner. She told me one day
that he had the harmlessness of the serpent and the wisdom of the
dove.
But to return to Dr. Skinner's library; over the chimney-piece there
was a Bishop's half length portrait of Dr. Skinner himself, painted by
the elder Pickersgill, whose merit Dr. Skinner had been among the
first to discern and foster. There were no other pictures in the
library, but in the dining-room there was a fine collection, which the
Doctor had got together with his usual consummate taste. He added to
it largely in later life, and when it came to the hammer at
Christie's, as it did not long since, it was found to comprise many of
the latest and most matured works of Solomon Hart, O'Neil, Charles
Landseer, and more of our recent Academicians than I can at the moment
remember. There were thus brought together and exhibited at one view
many works which had attracted attention at the Academy Exhibitions,
and as to whose ultimate destiny there had been some curiosity. The
prices realised were disappointing to the executors, but, then,
these things are so much a matter of chance.
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