Note 30 — Chapter III · A.D. 1818 TO A.D. 1824.

At a later date, when appointments were given to Dyce and others to superintend the Schools of Design, Haydon—who believed himself not only the originator of all modern English movements for promoting the Fine Arts, but the one competent authority respecting them—was bitterly indignant that he was not invited to accept the directorship of the new institution. He asserted the peculiar incompetence of Dyce, and spoke very frankly of his colleagues. See Haydon’s “Correspondence,” 1876, ii., p. 475. No doubt Haydon rightly estimated his own powers in this respect; his real vocation was teaching, which was at that time a faculty rarer than it is now, when we are by no means overstocked with good teachers, practical or literary, in art. He was never so happy as when giving technical counsel, or in lecturing; his published “Lectures” are probably the most practical and potent of their class.