Haydon notes in his diary, under date 25th May 1832, 'I passed
Lawrence's house (Russell Square). Nothing could be more melancholy or
desolate. I knocked, and was shown in. The passages were dusty; the
paper torn; the parlours dark; the painting-room, where so much beauty
had once glittered, forlorn; and the whole appearance desolate and
wretched--the very plate on the door green with mildew.
'I went into the parlour, which used to be instinct with life; "Poor Sir
Thomas; always in trouble," said the woman who had the care of the
house, "always something to worrit him." I saw his bed-room--small
--only a little bed--the mark of it was against the wall. Close to his
bed-room was an immense room (where was carried on his manufactory of
draperies, etc.), divided, yet open over the partitions. It must have
been five or six small rooms turned into one large workshop. Here his
assistants worked. His painting-room was a large back drawing-room; his
show-room a large front one. He occupied a parlour and a bed-room; all
the rest of the house was turned to business. Any one would think that
people of fashion would visit from remembrance the house where they had
spent so many happy hours. Not they. They shun a disagreeable sensation.
They have no feeling--no poetry. It is shocking. It is dirty!'
Bitter Mr. Haydon. Perhaps it was not that he loved Lawrence more, but
that he loved his patrons less. For the people of fashion who were
caring so little about the dead Lawrence, cared not at all for the
living Haydon.