The Cotman Letters 1834

Almighty, be accomplished. No man can be more happy even in prospect than I now am. I am prepared to work – the only way to be appreciated in such society. My House may be a little way from London, but my town House will be the King’s College, where all my letters, etc. may be sent.
Yesterday, for ’tis now Friday morning, ½ past one o’clock, Master Walter Bulwer and myself, after calling on the Principal, walked on the Terrace (almost a summer’s day) of Somerset House – such a place of which I enclose a very rough Sketch & which gives little idea of the splendour of the Place. This walk will be added to the College, of which it is in fact part & parcel – for the College is the New Wing. The Terrace is about the same height from the Water as the parapet of the Waterloo Bridge, seen in the distance, about 50 or 60 feet, if not more. The Contrary View commands, from the opposite end of the Terrace, nearly the same features – only substituting St Paul’s & a few more churches in the room of Westminster Abbey – the first looking West, the other East. You can form no idea of its magnificence. It must utterly astonish you. The Terrace is a place not for a King to walk upon but an ARTIST and an Emperor. ‘Bravo’! you’ll say. ‘Never mind that,’ I shall beg to add as a rejoinder.
The Principal is a most kind hearted man (and you all well know I am a pessimist(?) fine-variant?) treats me mildly & friendly with advice – told me that I was in the hands of Friends, and said he would on Saturday (to-morrow) write a Card to be placed in the Hall as terms for me to offer to the higher Classes – should they wish to engage me as their master.
With all these prospects before me I am almost tempted to ask myself – ‘Am I awake?’ Good health & good spirits tell me ‘Yes’ – and wide awake too, to take advantage of the tide that awaits our Barge. My Friends have all known my weak points. Bulwer noticed one day in the streets of