Robert Millhouse by Ernest George GillickThe question of portraiture most taxed the least experienced of the sculptors. Ernest Gillick faced an apparent dearth of images for both Thomas Miller and Robert Millhouse. With regard to the latter it was initially suggested that, rather than commissioning a new memorial, Millhouse's tomb in the general cemetery be renovated. It was subsequently observed that an inscription had been placed on this grave 'some years later by his friend Dr. Spencer T. Hall' and 'an oak in Sherwood Forest, under which Millhouse and Spencer Hall took refuge during a storm, bears the name of the poet.'
In the event portraits were forthcoming from James R. Millhouse, the poet's son and a resident of the United States for some forty-four years. He had written to the mayor of Nottingham after reading about the Holbrook bequest and the lack of his father's likeness. He directed them to possible sources and added that his father was some 5ft 9in in height with 'high florid ruddy complexion and light curly hair.' Gillick's low relief of Millhouse, in profile and holding a quill was presumably based on such information.
