John Constable: Toward a Complete Chronology. - Reed College

"Constable told me He was at the dinner given on Monday
Novr. 23rd at the Thatched House Tavern by the Students of
the British Institution"; etc. Discusses Benjamin West and
other artists. (Farington VIII, pp. 3153-54; see also JCC IV, p.
14)
1807 Dec 2 Letter from mother in East Bergholt to J.C. in London, "Be
assured it will give us pleasure to see you" and "It was very
kind and sisterly of dear Mrs. Whalley to call in Percy Street
and think of you." (JCC I, p. 21)
1807 Dec 9 Letter from sister Mary in East Bergholt to J.C. in London
saying "how glad we shall all be to have you of our Xmas
party" and "Cousin Jane Gubbins intends leaving us next
week, and she hopes to see you before she goes to Epsom. .
. . she will stay one night in East Ham." (JCC I, p. 23)
1807 Dec 12 Farington records: "Mr. David Pike Watt's I dined at." Diagram
of seating arrangement shows Mr. Watts at the head of the
table, with, clockwise to his left, Farington, Dr. Crotch,
Carlisle, Watts Junr., Constable, Danielle, Stothard, Northcote,
and West. "Constable spoke of a picture of Card Players
now painting by Wilkie as being most admirably executed as
far as is done. He was with Wilkie yesterday who told Him
that when He has made a sketch for a picture & settled His
design, He then walks about looking for a person proper to be
a model for completing each character in his picture, & He
paintseverything from the life. He sd. He sometimes walks
abt. for a Week before He can meet with the character of
Head &c. that will suit Him. . . .
"Constable remarked upon the high opinion Wordsworth
entertains of Himself. He told Constable that while He was a
boy going to Hawkeshead school, His mind was often so
possessed with images, so lost in extraordinary conceptions,
that He was held by a wall not knowing but he was part of it.
He also desired a Lady, Mrs. Loyd, near Windermere when
Constable was present to notice the singular formation of His
skull. Coleridge remarked that this was the effect of intense
thinking. I observed to Constable if so, He must have
thought in His Mother's womb. At Carlise's, Sotheby sd. that
Wordsworth's poetry not only surpassed any that had ever
been written but wd. probably never be equalled. Thus do