Do you recollect that, when we first made Bob's
acquaintance, he showed Sidney Kirkwood a medal of his own design
and casting? His daily work at die-sinking had of course supplied
him with this suggestion, and he still found pleasure in work of the
same kind. In days before commercialism had divorced art and the
handicrafts, a man with Bob's distinct faculty would have found
encouragement to exercise it for serious ends; as it was, he
remained at the semi-conscious stage with regard to his own
aptitudes, and cast leaden medals just as a way of occupying his
hands when a couple of hours hung heavy on them. Partly with the
thought of amusing the dolorous Jack, yet more to win laudation, he
brought forth DOW a variety of casts and moulds and spread them on
the table. His latest piece of work was a medal in high relief
bearing the heads of the Prince and Princess of Wales surrounded
with a wreath. Bob had no political convictions; with complacency he
drew these royal features, the sight of which would have made his
father foam at the mouth. True, he might have found subjects
artistically more satisfying, but he belonged to the people, and the
English people.
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