50.) This instrument figures in a portrait of himself
which he painted for Thrale about 1775. See also Zoffany's
picture of the 'Academicians gathered about the model in the
Life School at Somerset House,' 1772, where he is shown
employing it to catch the conversation of Wilton and Chambers.
"and only took snuff". Sir Joshua was a great snuff-taker. His
snuff-box, described in the Catalogue as the one 'immortalized
in Goldsmith's 'Retaliation',' was exhibited, with his
spectacles and other personal relics, at the Grosvenor Gallery
in 1883-4. In the early editions this epitaph breaks off
abruptly at the word 'snuff.' But Malone says that half a line
more had been written. Prior gives this half line as 'By
flattery unspoiled --,' and affirms that among several erasures
in the manuscript sketch devoted to Reynolds it 'remained
unaltered.' ('Life', 1837, ii. 499.) See notes to ll.
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