about #30,000 on naval improvements, and, as is often the case, he was
wholly neglected by the Government.
...]

To return to my father's profession as a portrait painter. He had
given so much assistance to Mr. Miller, while acting as his chief
draughtsman in connection with the triple and twin ships, and also
while attending him at Leith and elsewhere, that it had considerably
interfered with his practice; though everything was done by him con
amore, in the best sense of the term. In return for this, however,
Mr. Miller made my father the generous offer of a loan to enable him to
visit Italy, and pursue his studies there. It was the most graceful
mode in which Mr. Miller could express his obligations. It was an
offer pure and simple, without security, and as such was thankfully
accepted by my father.

In those days an artist was scarcely considered to have completed his
education until he had studied the works of the great masters at
Florence and Rome. My father left England for Italy on the 30th of
December 1782. He reached Rome in safety, and earnestly devoted
himself to the study of art. He remained in Italy for the greater part
of two years. He visited Florence, Bologna, Padua, and other cities
where the finest artistic works were to be found. He made studies and
drawings of the best of them, besides making sketches from nature of
the most remarkable places he had visited. He returned to Edinburgh at
the end of 1784, and immediately resumed his profession of a portrait
painter. He was so successful that in a short time he was enabled to
repay his excellent friend Miller the #500 which he had so generously
lent him a few years before.