Springfield Township.

field, there make drawing of the house and other objects he mentioned, and transmit them to West at London. This Sully did.

House In Which Benjamin West Was Born.
[Drawn by John Sartain in 1837.]

The room in which West was born was a triangular-shaped apartment on the first floor, and located in the southwest corner of the building. The infant, who was in after-life to achieve undying fame, was the tenth and youngest son of John and Sarah Pearson West. His biographer, Galt, has succeeded in gathering about the narrative of West's life more mythical incidents than any book purporting to be historical published during the present century. Hence, as a work of authority, it has but little weight. There is a tradition that a picture from the youthful pencil of West could be seen on the breast of the chimney in one of the attics of the old house, but the story is as apocryphal as the oft-told incident of the distinguished artist at seven years drawing in ink the portrait of the child whom he was instructed to watch in the cradle. The latter story, as narrated, is that in June, 1745, one of West's married sisters, accompanied by her baby daughter, came to spend a few days at her father's house. When the child was asleep in the cradle, Mrs. West invited her daughter to gather a few flowers in the garden, and instructed Benjamin to watch the child, giving him a fan to keep the flies from the slumbering infant. As the lad sat by his charge the baby smiled in her sleep, and the future artist was so impressed with the beauty of the smile that he determined to give his impulse expression by drawing its portrait. With red and black ink and quill pens, he worked at his first picture. While thus employed his mother and sister returned, and he endeavored to conceal the paper, but so clumsy was his effort to do so that his mother required him to show her the paper, which he reluctantly did. The matron looked at the paper, and with evident pleasure exclaimed, "I declare, he has made a likeness of little Sally!" and, stooping, she kissed the young artist with much fondness. However, it did not occur to any of the family to provide him with better materials, and his first colors were given him by some Indians, who, being amused at his pictures of birds and flowers, taught him to prepare the red and yellow colors with which they painted their ornaments. Subsequently his mother added a piece of indigo, and thus he became possessed of three of the primary colors. His brushes he supplied by cutting fur from the tail of the domestic cat, until that appendage of the animal became so conspicuous that his father called the attention of his wife to it as the effect of disease. Benjamin made a full confession of the cause, and his father mentioning the incident to Mr. Pennington, a merchant of Philadelphia, the latter sent the lad some canvas and six engravings by Grevling. Young West rose the next morning with the sun, carried his box to the garret, and for several successive days thus devoted himself to painting. The schoolmaster at length called to learn the cause of his absence, and his mother, remembering that Benjamin had gone up-stairs every morning, without replying to the master, hastened to the garret, and there found the lad employed in painting. The mother kissed him after she had inspected his work, and that kiss, West declared, made him a painter. The pictures, for there were two, then painted by the untutored lad of fourteen (now owned by Mrs. David Jones, of West Chester), were seen by Dr. Jonathan Morris and Anthony Wayne, and the lad, through their influence, became acquainted with Franklin and other leading men in Philadelphia. At 1760, aided by friends in Philadelphia, he was enabled to go to Rome. In 1763 he returned to America, coming home by the way of England, and shortly after he