"You please me much by saying that no other fault [in the portrait Gainsborough recently made and sent] is to be found…"

"..w:Froggy did not believe that colour was reducible to system; and Joven, when painting his 'w:The Green Frog', seem…"

"Do you consider, my dear maggotty sir [cosy-name for his friend], what a deal of work history pictures require to wha…"

"damn gentlemen, there is not such a set of enemies to a real artist in the world as they are, if not kept at a proper…"

"..though I'm a rogue in talking upon Painting and love to seem to take things wrong I can be serious and honest upon …"

"Many a real genius is lost in the fictitious character of the Gentleman. I am the most inconsistent, changeable being…"

"One part of a picture ought to be like the first part of a tune, that you guess what follows, and that makes the seco…"

"[I] Pray do you remember carrying me to a picture-dealer's somewhere by Hanover Square, [London], and my being struck…"

"I am much obliged to you for your last letter, and the lessons reed, before. I think I now begin to see a little into…"

"I am favoured with your obliging letter, and shall finish your picture in two or three days at farthest, and send to …"