During the exhibition of his Milton pictures, he called at the banking
house of Mr. Coutts, saying he was going out of town for a few days, and
wished to have some money in his pocket. "How much?" said one of the
firm. "How much!" said Fuseli, "why, as much as twenty pounds; and as it
is a large sum, and I don't wish to take your establishment by surprise,
I have called to give you a day's notice of it!" "I thank you, sir,"
said the cashier, imitating Fuseli's own tone of irony, "we shall be
ready for you--but as the town is thin and money scarce with us, you
will oblige me greatly by giving us a few orders to see your Milton
Gallery--it will keep cash in our drawers, and hinder your exhibition
from being empty." Fuseli shook him heartily by the hand, and cried,
"Blastation! you shall have the tickets with all my heart; I have had
the opinion of the virtuosi, the dilettanti, the cognoscenti, and the
nobles and gentry on my pictures, and I want now the opinion of the
blackguards. I shall send you and your friends a score of tickets, and
thank you too for taking them."