Millais' sketches are 'prodigious'! Millais is the painter of the age." "Capable, it seems to me, of almost everything, if his life and strength be spared," said the younger Ruskin to Miss Mitford.] Another portrait was painted--in words--by one of his audience at Edinburgh on November 1, when he gave the opening lecture of his course, his first appearance on the platform.

The account is extracted from the _Edinburgh Guardian_ of November 19, 1853: "Before you can see the lecturer, however, you must get into the hall, and that is not an easy matter, for, long before the doors are opened, the fortunate holders of season tickets begin to assemble, so that the crowd not only fills the passage, but occupies the pavement in front of the entrance and overflows into the road.

At length the doors open, and you are carried through the passage into the hall, where you take up, of course, the best available position for seeing and hearing....

After waiting a weary time ...

the door by the side of the platform opens, and a thin gentleman with light hair, a stiff white cravat, dark overcoat with velvet collar, walking, too with a slight stoop, goes up to the desk, and looking round with a self-possessed and somewhat formal air, proceeds to take off his great-coat, revealing thereby, in addition to the orthodox white cravat, the most orthodox of white waistcoats....