Note 119 — EXCURSION V.
Reading edition
Opie was a parish apprentice to a person of the name of Wheeler, a house carpenter, in the village of Saint Agnes; Dr. Walcott, better known by his poetical appellation of Peter Pindar, having been struck, during his occasional visits to the village, by some rude sketches in chalk which were shewn him as the productions of this poor lad, invited him to his house at Truro, supplied him with the necessary materials, and enabled him to set up as an itinerant portrait painter, from which station he rose to be Professor of Painting to the Royal Academy.