He was at Weston when Mrs.Unwin was attacked with paralysis, and displayed his resource by trying to cure her with an electric-machine.
At Eartham, on the coast of Sussex, he had, by an expenditure beyond his means, made for himself a little paradise, where it was his delight to gather a distinguished circle.

To this place he gave the pair a pressing invitation, which was accepted in the vain hope that a change might do Mrs.Unwin good.
From Weston to Eartham was a three days' journey, an enterprise not undertaken without much trepidation and earnest prayer.

It was safely accomplished, however, the enthusiastic Mr.Rose walking to meet his poet and philosopher on the way.

Hayley had tried to get Thurlow to meet Cowper.

A sojourn in a country house with the tremendous Thurlow, the only talker for whom Johnson condescended to prepare himself, would have been rather an overpowering pleasure; and perhaps, after all, it was as well that Hayley could only get Cowper's disciple, Hurdis, afterwards professor of poetry at Oxford, and Charlotte Smith.
At Eartham, Cowper's portrait was painted by Romney.
Romney, expert infallibly to trace On chart or canvas not the form alone And semblance, but, however faintly shown The mind's impression too on every face, With strokes that time ought never to erase, Thou hast so pencilled mine that though I own The subject worthless, I have never known The artist shining with superior grace; But this I mark, that symptoms none of woe In thy incomparable work appear: Well: I am satisfied it should be so Since on maturer thought the cause is clear; For in my looks what sorrow could'st thou see When I was Hayley's guest and sat to thee.
Southey observes that it was likely enough there would be no melancholy in the portrait, but that Hayley and Romney fell into a singular error in mistaking for "the light of genius" what Leigh Hunt calls "a fire fiercer than that either of intellect or fancy, gleaming from the raised and protruded eye." Hayley evidently did his utmost to make his guest happy.