But after trying in
vain to get this regulation waived, he left for America with his
picture, having, a few days prior to his departure, dined with Mr.
Wilberforce as the guns of Hyde Park were signalling the victory of
Waterloo.
Arriving in Boston on October 18, he lost no time in renting a
studio. His fame had preceded him, and he became the lion of society.
His 'Judgment of Jupiter' was exhibited in the town, and people flocked
to see it. But no one offered to buy it. If the line of high art he had
chosen had not supported him in England, it was tantamount to starvation
in the rawer atmosphere of America. Even in Boston, mellowed though it
was by culture, the classical was at a discount. Almost penniless, and
fretting under his disappointment, he went to Concord, New Hampshire,
and contrived to earn a living by painting cabinet portraits. Was this
the end of his ambitious dreams?
Money was needful to extricate him from this drudgery and let him
follow up his aspirations. Love may have been a still stronger motive
for its acquisition. So he tried his hand at invention, and, in
conjunction with his brother Sidney, produced what was playfully
described as 'Morse's Patent Metallic Double-Headed Ocean-Drinker and
Deluge-Spouter Pump-Box.
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