“ The painter’s interest in the lad did much to confirm his artistic proclivities; and, having studied at home for two years, Mulready applied for advice to Banks the sculptor, who sent him to a drawing school and permitted him to work in his own studio. In 1800 he was admitted a student of the Academy, and two years later he gained the silver palette of the Society of Arts. ”

“ Considerable diversion was created in the city to-day [May 1, 1840] by the appearance of the new penny-post devices for envelopes, half-sheet letters, and bits of sticking-plaster for dabbing on to letters. . . . [The elephants on the Mulready cover] are symbolic of the lightness and rapidity with which Mr Rowland Hill’s penny-post is to be carried on. . . . Withal the citizens are rude enough to believe that these graphic embellishments will not go clown at the price of 1s. 3d. ”