_To the Editor._
Sir,--Allow me to draw your attention to a veteran, who in the Egyptian
expedition lost his sight by the ophthalmy, and now asks alms of the
passenger in the little avenue leading from Sadler’s Wells to Spa
Fields, along the eastern side of the New River Head.
His figure, sir, would serve for a model of Belisarius, and even his
manner of soliciting would be no disgrace to the Roman general. I am not
expert at drawing portraits, yet will endeavour by two or three lines to
give a slight conception of this. His present height is full six feet,
but in his youth it must have been nearly two inches more; as the weight
of about sixty-five years has occasioned a slight curvature of the
spine. His limbs are large and muscular, his shoulders broad, his chest
capacious, the lines of his countenance indicate intelligence; his
motion is not graceful, for he appears to step without confidence,
occasioned no doubt by his blindness.
Now, sir, give his head no other covering than a few very short grey
hairs, and button him up close in the remains of a dragoon dress, and
you have his likeness as exact as an unskilful artist can give it.