In 1804, Wilkie left the Trustees' Academy and returned to Cults. He established himself in the manse there, and began his first important subject-picture, "Pitlessie Fair" ("illustration"), which includes about 140 figures, and in which he introduced portraits of his neighbours and of several members of his family circle. In addition to this elaborate figure-piece, Wilkie was much employed at the time upon portraits, both at home and in Kinghorn, St Andrews and Aberdeen. In the spring of 1805 he left Scotland for London, carrying with him his "Bounty-Money, or the Village Recruit", which he soon disposed of for £6, and began to study in the schools of the Royal Academy. One of his first patrons in London was Robert Stodart, a pianoforte maker, a distant connection of the Wilkie family, who commissioned his portrait and other works and introduced the young artist to the dowager countess of Mansfield. This lady's son was the purchaser of the "Village Politicians", which attracted great attention when it was exhibited in the Royal Academy of 1806, where it was followed in the succeeding year by "The Blind Fiddler", a commission from the painter's lifelong friend Sir George Beaumont.