On his return to the UK Wilkie completed the "Reception of the King at the Entrance of Holyrood Palace" – a curious example of a union of his earlier and later styles, a "mixture" which was very justly pronounced by Haydon to be "like oil and water". His "Preaching of John Knox before the Lords of the Congregation" had also been begun before he left for abroad; but it was painted throughout in the later style, and consequently presents a more satisfactory unity and harmony of treatment and handling. It was one of the most successful pictures of the artist's later period.