Already we have an impression of John Hopton the man, however hazy it might be. He is beginning to emerge from his background. We will never get him clear; he will never stand out in the foreground; he will always be a figure in a landscape. It is his landscape certainly, but he does not dominate it with his individuality as say Gainsborough's Mr and Mrs Andrews do theirs. Or, more to our point, as the Pastons blaze forth, dazzling us with their personalities. They, and their part of the landscape, come before us so brilliantly that other characters in other places, obscure in comparison (we peer closely to try to perceive them), appear not merely dull but also so ill-suited as to be not at all fitting. The Pastons, their friends, enemies, and neighbours are larger than life; or at least, so marvellously well-drawn are they (by themselves and by each other), that that is what they have become.