Title: Portrait of the Rev William Bull

Towne Roystone ?
Pastel on paper
Provenance: gift of Miss E. Bull, 1997
Museum No. OLNCN.2656

John Newton introduced Cowper to his friend the Rev. William Bull (1738-1814), an Independent minister at Newport Pagnell. When Newton left Olney for London in 1780, he was worried that Cowper would miss his friendship and support, so encouraged Bull to take him under his wing.

Cowper found Bull a most engaging companion, who could be 'lively without levity and pensive without dejection', addressing one letter to him as 'Charissime Taurorum' (dearest of Bulls).

Bull began to ride over to Olney every week, a distance of about 6 miles. In fine weather he and Cowper would repair to the Summer House so that Bull could enjoy a smoke, and where a loose floorboard concealed his clay pipes. He always brought his own special tobacco in a box. One day he left it behind, and Cowper (a non-smoker) returned it to him with a rhyming letter:

The tobacco was 'Orinoco', and the concluding lines address the nymph of that river:

So may thy votaries increase,
And fumigation never cease.
May Newton with renewed delights,
Perform thine odoriferous rites,
While clouds of incense half-divine
Involve thy disappearing shrine,
And so may smoke-inhaling Bull
Be always filling, never full.