In 1779 he seems to have paid one of his infrequent visits to his wife in Kendal, and to have refreshed himself by a sight of his native county; but he was soon back again and hard at work.
It was perhaps at about this time that he first made the acquaintance of William Hayley, a poet, who had a great celebrity at that time, but whose chief work, "The Triumphs of Temper," is now never read.
The influence of this man upon Romney was not good, and of it his son, the Rev. John Romney, in after years spoke with much bitterness. Romney was, as has been already stated, fond of building work, and pleased to see an opportunity of increasing a house or studio; and this propensity of his was encouraged by Hayley, who loved to make a sensation and to live in a large house; and although Hayley was fond of Romney and brought him many commissions, yet on the whole the judgment of later days is certainly to the effect that it would have been better for Romney if he had never met this attractive friend.
For over twenty years the two men continued fast friends, and Romney used often to go down to stay with Hayley at Eartham, near Chichester, and spent some weeks during each autumn with him. He decorated part of the house, painting some delightful pictures to be placed in the new library that Hayley built; and he met there many pleasant friends, amongst whom were the poet Cowper and his friend Mrs. Unwin, in connection with whom is the chief claim that Hayley has for remembrance, and also the young sculptor Flaxman, for whom Romney acquired a deep friendship.
Hayley was a man of fine taste, personal fascination and amiability, and fond of associating with men of culture and quality; and it is for his friends rather than for any work that he himself did that his memory is kept in honour. Romney is said to have first met him when, returning from Kendal, he stopped awhile at Tabley as the guest of Sir John Leicester; and, as they were all of them great admirers of Pope, the acquaintance began which lasted for so many years, brought them into contact with Cowper and with Gibbon, and eventually made Hayley one of the biographers of Romney.
In 1790 Romney again went to Paris, this time accompanied by his friend Hayley and by the Rev. Thomas Carwardine, whose portrait he had painted.
They were well received in that city, and visited many of the chief galleries, with introductions from the English Ambassador, who at the time was Lord Gower, afterwards second Marquess of Stafford and first Duke of Sutherland.
During this visit Hayley is said to have obtained the first of several loans that he got from Romney and never repaid. In this case it was £100.
On his return to London he was again almost overwhelmed with work, as more than ever he had become the fashion, and his portraits were desired by all who could afford to sit to him. The strain, however, of such constant work was beginning to tell upon the artist, who by this time was sixty years old, and he was glad of any excuse to leave town for a while to rest himself in the country.
He took a little cottage at Hampstead, to which he could retire for quiet; he stayed more and more with Hayley at Eartham, desiring some of his clients to come to him there, that in the quiet of that restful spot he might do fuller justice to their charms than he was able to do amid the turmoils of London life.