sketch the scenery around Bristol. Cumberland's daughter Eliza and probably also his son George Cumberland, Jr. sometimes joined these excursions. His friend Stothard also participated occasionally. Cumberland believed that painting should be directly from nature; he produced small landscape studies which avoided the picturesque. His watercolours were similar in style to those of his friend John Linnell. It was Cumberland's son George, a pupil of Linnell, who introduced Linnell to Blake in 1818. Cumberland became a close friend of Edward Bird, and godfather to his son. He did not have the resources to be Bird's patron, but he would lend Bird items from his art collection to study. In 1814 when Bird asked for help in gaining a royal commission, Cumberland introduced him to Charles Long, who then arranged with the Prince Regent for Bird to conduct royal portrait studies aboard the royal yacht. On Bird's death in 1819 Cumberland successfully petitioned the Royal Academy to provide a pension for Bird's widow. Cumberland helped many of the Bristol artists through recommendations and introductions to his influential friends. In 1820 when Francis Danby exhibited The Upas Tree of Java at the British Institution, Cumberland exerted his influence to promote its favourable reception. In 1822 when Danby, Branwhite and Johnson were about to visit London, Cumberland ensured that Thomas Lawrence, Thomas Stothard and others were alerted. There is evidence from their correspondence that Cumberland often suggested subjects for Danby to paint. It has been suggested that the influence of Blake may also have been transmitted to Danby. Danby's second exhibited painting was Disappointed Love, shown at the Royal Academy in 1821. Its subject is reminiscent of Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience, while the work's neoclassical figure of a girl evokes Cumberland's Thoughts on Outline. A later watercolour, A Scene from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1832) is very reminiscent of Blake's illustrations for The Book of Thel. Cumberland had been the recipient from Blake of one of the 16 early copies of The Book of Thel and one of For Children: The Gates of Paradise, only five of which now survive. He also had copies of America a Prophecy, Europe a Prophecy, The Song of Los, Visions of the Daughters of Albion and Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Blake died in 1827. The last engraving that Blake made was a visiting card for Cumberland, who had sent the plate to