of General Sherman, painted in 1866. He had been in England, and had studied under Leslie and Sir Thomas Lawrence. He painted portraits of his Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, the Duke of Hamilton, the Duke of Norfolk, Allison the historian, and Samuel Rogers. He always held a high social position wherever he went. He was a grand-looking man, and in his old age, with a white beard, he sat to an artist for a head of St. Peter. A characteristic of his portraits was their suggestiveness of temperament and character. But in the fine lines which Nature draws upon the living face the artist should be inspired to read that half-hidden handwriting. In this Chester Harding excelled, and therefore his pictures of Webster are valuable. His conversation was always rare and instructive, and never more aageeable than when he talked of Mr. Webster.
I remember one anecdote of Mr. Webster's immense personal charm told me by Mr. W. W. Story, of Rome. "James Lowell and I," said he, "were very angry with Webster for staying in old Tyler's cabinet, and as he was to speak in Faneuil Hall on the evening of the 30th of September, 1842, we determined to go in and hoot at him and to show him that he had incurred our displeasure. There were three thousand people there, and we felt sure they would hoot with us, young as we were.
"But we reckoned without our host. Mr. Webster, beautifully dressed, stepped calmly forward. His great eyes looked, as I shall always think, straight at me. I pulled off my hat; James pulled off his. We both became cold as ice and respectful as Indian coolies. I saw James turn pale; he said I was livid. And when the great creature began that most beautiful exordium our scorn turned to deepest admiration, from abject contempt to belief and approbation."
