Here he commenced his own work as a portrait-painter, and from at first painting signboards he soon became known as a clever worker, and was employed by the persons of quality in the neighbourhood to paint their portraits.
Many of the neighbouring landowners employed him, and at this time the artist set about painting historical scenes also and landscapes, in order to turn his time to profitable account. Many of these he sold at Kendal Town Hall by a system of lottery that was then very popular.
By such work the young couple were enabled to save £100, and with some of this money Romney determined to make his way up to London, as he felt that the limited scope that he had in the north was cramping his powers and that he was capable of greater things.
He had but two children, a son and a little daughter, and his wife, who loved him profoundly, was quite prepared to sacrifice herself in order that her husband might prosper. Therefore, taking with him but £30 of their joint savings, and leaving the remainder for her and the children, Romney left his native county for the great and distant city on March 14th, 1762.
The little daughter whom he left behind him died in the following year, and Mrs. Romney, with her son, removed to the house of her father-in-law, John Romney, with whom she continued to live.
During the whole time of his sojourn in London, which, with the exception of brief visits in 1767 and 1779, lasted till 1799, Romney appears to have continued on terms of the closest affection with his wife, and to have remitted to her constantly such sums of money as she required; but he never brought her up to London, and, as has been stated, only visited her in Kendal twice during the thirty-seven years which he spent in London.
This is the incident in the life of the artist upon which much stress has been laid by malevolent writers, and hard things have been said without number about Romney for his so-called desertion of his wife.
It must be remembered, however, that Romney's son and biographer does not say any hard things about his father in this matter, nor does he upbraid him for leaving his wife far away in the Fells. Mrs. Romney did not write letters of expostulation to her husband, or demand that she should be brought up to London; and when her husband returned to her as an invalid, she received him lovingly and nursed him with great devotion till his death. She in no way suffered pecuniary loss by his absence, as he regularly sent sums of money to her; and when their son was old enough to come to town, Romney had him to his house, treated him with the greatest affection, and took him about with him.
Surely it ill beseems those who consider the life of this gifted artist so to condemn his action, when those who were the ones best fitted to blame him specially abstained from doing so!
Mrs. Romney, be it remembered, came of very humble parentage, and was a homely person of but slight education. She appears to have had her own circle of friends in the places where she lived, to have been a person of simple tastes, not anxious to mix in the world of fashion or to receive its comments and its sneers. She would have been in all probability unhappy in London, have in no wise enjoyed the life that her husband lived, and have been an encumbrance to him and a clog on his progress; and Romney very possibly feared to expose her simplicity to the contempt of the people of fashion whom he met and whose portraits he painted.