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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/6756-8.txt b/6756-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c049ec6 --- /dev/null +++ b/6756-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10530 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Memoirs of the Nineteenth Century +by George Paston + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Little Memoirs of the Nineteenth Century + +Author: George Paston + +Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6756] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on January 23, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE MEMOIRS OF THE 19TH C. *** + + + + +Produced by Steve Schulze, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. +This file was produced from images generously made available by the +CWRU Preservation Department Digital Library + + + + + + +LITTLE MEMOIRS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY + +BY GEORGE PASTON + + +1902 + + + +PREFACE + +_For these sketches of minor celebrities of the nineteenth century, +it has been my aim to choose subjects whose experiences seem to +illustrate the life--more especially the literary and artistic +life--of the first half of the century; and who of late years, at any +rate, have not been overwhelmed by the attentions of the minor +biographer. Having some faith in the theory that the verdict of +foreigners is equivalent to that of contemporary posterity, I have +included two aliens in the group. A visitor to our shores, whether he +be a German princeling like Pückler-Muskau, or a gilded democrat like +N. P. Willis, may be expected to observe and comment upon many traits +of national life and manners that would escape the notice of a native +chronicler. + +Whereas certain readers of a former volume--'Little Memoirs of the +Eighteenth Century'--seem to have been distressed by the fact that the +majority of the characters died in the nineteenth century, it is +perhaps meet that I should apologise for the chronology of this +present volume, in which all the heroes and heroines, save one, were +born in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. But I would +venture to submit that a man is not, necessarily, the child of the +century in which he is born, or of that in which he dies; rather is he +the child of the century which sees the finest flower of his +achievement._ + + + + +CONTENTS + +BENJAMIN ROBERT HAYDON, + +LADY MORGAN (SYDNEY OWENSON) + +NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS + +LADY HESTER STANHOPE + +PRINCE PÜCKLER-MUSKAU IN ENGLAND + +WILLIAM AND MARY HOWITT + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +BENJAMIN ROBERT HAYDON, + +LADY MORGAN + +NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS + +LADY HESTER STANHOPE ON HORSEBACK + +LADY HESTER STANHOPE IN EASTERN COSTUME + +PRINCE PÜCKLER-MUSKAU + +MARY HOWITT + + + + +BENJAMIN ROBERT HAYDON + +PART I + + +If it be true that the most important ingredient in the composition of +the self-biographer is a spirit of childlike vanity, with a blend of +unconscious egoism, few men have ever been better equipped than Haydon +for the production of a successful autobiography. In naïve simplicity +of temperament he has only been surpassed by Pepys, in fulness +of self-revelation by Rousseau, and his _Memoirs_ are not +unworthy of a place in the same category as the _Diary_ and the +_Confessions_. From the larger public, the work has hardly +attracted the attention it deserves; it is too long, too minute, too +heavily weighted with technical details and statements of financial +embarrassments, to be widely or permanently popular. But as a human +document, and as the portrait of a temperament, its value can hardly +be overestimated; while as a tragedy it is none the less tragic +because it contains elements of the grotesque. Haydon set out with the +laudable intention of writing the exact truth about himself and his +career, holding that every man who has suffered for a principle, and +who has been unjustly persecuted and oppressed, should write his own +history, and set his own case before his countrymen. It is a fortunate +accident for his readers that he should have been gifted with the +faculty of picturesque expression and an exceptionally keen power of +observation. If not a scholar, he was a man of wide reading, of deep +though desultory thinking, and a good critic where the work of others +was concerned. He seems to have desired to conceal nothing, nor to set +down aught in malice; if he fell into mistakes and misrepresentations, +these were the result of unconscious prejudice, and the exaggerative +tendency of a brain that, if not actually warped, trembled on the +border-line of sanity. He hoped that his mistakes would be a warning +to others, his successes a stimulus, and that the faithful record of +his struggles and aspirations would clear his memory from the +aspersions that his enemies had cast upon it. + +Haydon was born at Plymouth on January 26, 1786. He was the lineal +descendant of an ancient Devonshire family, the Haydons of Cadbay, who +had been ruined by a Chancery suit a couple of generations earlier, +and had consequently taken a step downwards in the social scale. His +grandfather, who married Mary Baskerville, a descendant of the famous +printer, set up as a bookseller in Plymouth, and, dying in 1773, +bequeathed his business to his son Benjamin, the father of our hero. +This Benjamin, who married the daughter of a Devonshire clergyman +named Cobley, was a man of the old-fashioned, John Bull type, who +loved his Church and king, believed that England was the only great +country in the world, swore that Napoleon won all his battles by +bribery, and would have knocked down any man who dared to disagree +with him. The childhood of the future historical painter was a +picturesque and stirring period, filled with the echoes of revolution +and the rumours of wars. The Sound was crowded with fighting ships +preparing for sea, or returning battered and blackened, with wounded +soldiers on board and captured vessels in tow. Plymouth itself was +full of French prisoners, who made little models of guillotines out of +their meat-bones, and sold them to the children for the then +fashionable amusement of 'cutting off Louis XVI.'s head.' + +Benjamin was sent to the local grammar-school, whose headmaster, Dr. +Bidlake, was a man of some culture, though not a deep classic. He +wrote poetry, encouraged his pupils to draw, and took them for country +excursions, with a view to fostering their love of nature. Mr. Haydon, +though he was proud of Benjamin's early attempts at drawing, had no +desire that he should be turned into an artist, and becoming alarmed +at Dr. Bidlake's dilettante methods, he transferred his son to the +Plympton Grammar-school, where Sir Joshua Reynolds had been educated, +with strict injunctions to the headmaster that the boy was on no +account to have drawing-lessons. On leaving school at sixteen, +Benjamin, after, a few months with a firm of accountants at Exeter, +was bound apprentice to his father for seven years, and it was then +that his troubles began. + +'I hated day-books, ledgers, bill-books, and cashbooks,' he tells us. +'I hated standing behind the counter, and insulted the customers; I +hated the town and all the people in it.' At last, after a quarrel +with a customer who tried to drive a bargain, this proud spirit +refused to enter the shop again. In vain his father pointed out to him +the folly of letting a good business go to ruin, of refusing a +comfortable independence--all argument was vain. An illness, which +resulted in inflammation of the eyes, put a stop to the controversy +for the time being; but on recovery, with his sight permanently +injured, the boy still refused to work out his articles, but wandered +about the town in search of casts and books on art. He bought a fine +copy of Albinus at his father's expense, and in a fortnight, with his +sister to aid, learnt all the muscles of the body, their rise and +insertion, by heart. He stumbled accidentally on Reynold's +_Discourses_, and the first that he read placed so much reliance +on honest industry, and expressed so strong a conviction that all men +are equal in talent, and that application makes all the difference, +that the would-be artist, who hitherto had been held back by some +distrust of his natural powers, felt that at last his destiny was +irrevocably fixed. He announced his intention of adopting an +art-career with a determination that demolished all argument, and, in +spite of remonstrances, reproaches, tears, and scoldings, he wrung +from his father permission to go to London, and the promise of support +for the next two years. + +On May 14, 1804, at the age of eighteen, young Haydon took his place +in the mail, and made his first flight into the world. Arriving at the +lodgings that had been taken for him in the Strand in the early +morning, he had no sooner breakfasted than he set off for Somerset +House, to see the Royal Academy Exhibition. Looking round for +historical pictures, he discovered that Opie's 'Gil Bias' was the +centre of attraction in one room, and Westall's 'Shipwrecked Boy' in +another. + +'I don't fear you,' he said to himself as he strode away. His next +step was to inquire for a plaster-shop, where he bought the Laocoön +and other casts, and then, having unpacked his Albinus, he was hard at +work before nine next morning drawing from the round, and breathing +aspirations for High Art, and defiance to all opposition. 'For three +months,' he tells us, 'I saw nothing but my books, my casts, and my +drawings. My enthusiasm was immense, my devotion for study that of a +martyr. I rose when I woke, at three or four, drew at anatomy till +eight, in chalks from casts from nine till one, and from half-past two +till five--then walked, dined, and to anatomy again from seven till +ten or eleven. I was resolute to be a great painter, to honour my +country, and to rescue the Art from that stigma of incapacity that was +impressed upon it. + +After some months of solitary study, Haydon bethought him of a letter +of introduction that had been given him to Prince Hoare, who was +something of a critic, having himself failed as an artist. Hoare +good-naturedly encouraged the youth in his ambitions, and gave him +introductions to Northcote, Opie, and Fuseli. + +To Northcote, who was a Plymouth man, Haydon went first, and he gives +a curious account of his interview with his distinguished +fellow-countryman, who also had once cherished aspirations after high +art. Northcote, a little wizened old man, with a broad Devonshire +accent, exclaimed on hearing that his young visitor intended to be a +historical painter: 'Heestorical painter! why, ye'll starve with a +bundle of straw under yeer head.' As for anatomy, he declared that it +was no use. 'Sir Joshua didn't know it; why should you want to know +what he didn't? Michael Angelo! What's he to do here? You must paint +portraits here.' 'I won't,' said young Haydon, clenching his teeth, +and he marched off to Opie. He found a coarse-looking, intellectual +man who, after reading the introductory letter, said quietly, 'You are +studying anatomy--master it--were I your age, I would do the same.' +The last visit was to Fuseli, who had a great reputation for the +terrible, both as artist and as man. The gallery into which the +visitor was ushered was so full of devils, witches, ghosts, blood and +thunder, that it was a palpable relief when nothing more alarming +appeared than a little old and lion-faced man, attired in a flannel +dressing-gown, with the bottom of Mrs. Fuseli's work-basket on his +head! Fuseli, who had just been appointed Keeper of Academy, received +the young man kindly, praised his drawings, and expressed a hope that +he would see him at the Academy School. + +After the Christmas vacation of 1805, Haydon began to attend the +Academy classes, where he struck up a close friendship with John +Jackson, afterwards a popular portrait-painter and Royal Academician, +but then a student like himself. Jackson was the son of a village +tailor in Yorkshire, and the _protége_ of Lord Mulgrave and Sir +George Beaumont. The two friends told each other their plans for the +future, drew together in the evenings, and made their first +life-studies from a friendly coalheaver whom they persuaded to sit to +them. After a few months of hard work, Haydon was summoned home to +take leave of his father, who was believed to be dying. The invalid +recovered, and then followed another period of torture for the young +student--aunts, uncles, and cousins all trying to drive the stray +sheep back into the commercial fold. Exhausted by the struggle, Haydon +at last consented to relinquish his career, and enter the business. +Great was his delight and surprise when his father refused to accept +the sacrifice--which was made in anything but a cheerful spirit--and +promised to contribute to his support until he was able to provide for +himself. + +In the midst of all these domestic convulsions came a letter from +Jackson, containing the announcement that there was 'a raw, tall, +pale, queer Scotchman just come up, an odd fellow, but with something +in him. He is called Wilkie.' 'Hang the fellow!' said Haydon to +himself. 'I hope with his "something" he is not going to be a +historical painter.' On his return to town, our hero made the +acquaintance of the queer young Scotchman, and was soon admitted to +his friendship and intimacy. Wilkie's 'Village Politicians' was the +sensation of the Exhibition of 1806, and brought him two important +commissions--one from Lord Mulgrave for the 'Blind Fiddler,' and the +other from Sir George Beaumont for the 'Rent-Day.' It was now +considered that Wilkie's fortune was made, his fame secure, and if his +two chief friends--Haydon and Jackson--could not help regarding him +with some natural feelings of envy, it is evident that his early +success encouraged them, and stimulated them to increased effort. + +Haydon had been learning fresh secrets in his art, partly from an +anatomical 'subject' that he had obtained from a surgeon, and partly +from his introduction, through the good offices of Jackson, to the +works of Titian at Stafford House, and in other private collections, +there being as yet no National Gallery where the student could study +the old masters at his pleasure. Haydon was now panting to begin his +first picture, his natural self-confidence having been strengthened by +a letter from Wilkie, who reported that Lord Mulgrave, with whom he +was staying, was much interested in what he had heard of Haydon's +ambitions. Lord Mulgrave had suggested a heroic subject--the Death of +Dentatus--which he would like to see painted, and he wished to know if +this commended itself to Haydon's ideas. This first commission for a +great historical picture--for so he understood the suggestion--was a +triumph for the young artist, who felt himself gloriously rewarded for +two years of labour and opposition. He had, however, already decided +on the subject of his first attempt--Joseph and Mary resting on the +road to Egypt. On October 1,1806, after setting his palette, and +taking his brush in hand, he knelt down, in accordance with his +invariable custom throughout his career, and prayed fervently that God +would bless his work, grant him energy to create a new era in art, and +rouse the people to a just estimate of the moral value of historical +painting. + +Then followed a happy time. The difficulties of a first attempt were +increased by his lack of systematic training, but Haydon believed, +with Sir Joshua, that application made the artist, and he certainly +spared no pains to achieve success. He painted and repainted his heads +a dozen times, and used to mix tints on a piece of paper, and carry +them down to Stafford House once a week in order to compare them with +the colouring of the Titians. While this work was in progress, Sir +George and Lady Beaumont called to see the picture, which they +declared was very poetical, and 'quite large enough for anything' (the +canvas was six feet by four), and invited the artist to dinner. This +first dinner-party, in what he regarded as 'high life,' was an +alarming ordeal for the country youth, who made prodigious +preparations, drove to the house in a state of abject terror, and in +five minutes was sitting on an ottoman, talking to Lady Beaumont, and +more at ease than he had ever been in his life. In truth, bashfulness +was never one of Haydon's foibles. + +The Joseph and Mary took six months to paint, and was exhibited in +1807. It was considered a remarkable work for a young student, and was +bought the following year by Mr. Hope of Deepdene. During the season, +Haydon was introduced to Lord Mulgrave, and with his friends Wilkie +and Jackson frequently dined at the Admiralty, [Footnote: Lord +Mulgrave had recently been appointed First Lord of the Admiralty.] +where they met ministers, generals, great ladies and men of genius, +and rose daily in hope and promise. Haydon now began the picture of +the 'Death of Siccius Dentatus' that his patron had suggested, but he +found the difficulties so overwhelming that, by Wilkie's advice, he +decided to go down to Plymouth for a few months, and practise +portrait-painting. At fifteen guineas a head, he got plenty of +employment among his friends and relations, though he owns that his +portraits were execrable; but as soon as he had obtained some facility +in painting heads, he was anxious to return to town to finish his +large picture. Mrs. Haydon was now in declining health, and desiring +to consult a famous surgeon in London, she decided to travel thither +with her son and daughter. Unfortunately her disease, angina pectoris, +was aggravated by the agitation of the journey, and on the road, at +Salt Hill, she was seized with an attack that proved fatal. Haydon was +obliged to return to Devonshire with his sister, but as soon as the +funeral was over he set off again for town, where his prospects seemed +to justify his exchanging his garret in the Strand for a first floor +in Great Marlborough Street. + +He found the practice gained in portrait-painting a substantial +advantage, but he still felt himself incapable of composing a heroic +figure for Dentatus. 'If I copied nature my work was mean,' he +complains; 'and if I left her it was mannered. How was I to build a +heroic form like life, yet above life?' He was puzzled to find, in +painting from the living model, that the markings of the skin varied +with the action of the limbs, variations that did not appear in the +few specimens of the antique that had come under his notice. Was +nature wrong, he asked himself, or the antique? During this period of +indecision and confusion came a proposal from Wilkie that they should +go together to inspect the Elgin Marbles then newly arrived in +England, and deposited at Lord Elgin's house in Park Lane. Haydon +carelessly agreed, knowing nothing of the wonders he was to see, and +the two friends proceeded to Park Lane, where they were ushered +through a yard to a dirty shed, in which lay the world-famous Marbles. + +'The first thing I fixed my eyes on,' to quote Haydon's own words, +'was the wrist of a figure in one of the female groups, in which were +visible the radius and ulna. I was astonished, for I had never seen +them hinted at in any wrist in the antique. I darted my eye to the +elbow, and saw the outer condyle visibly affecting the shape, as in +nature. That combination of nature and repose which I had felt was so +much wanting for high art was here displayed to midday conviction. My +heart beat. If I had seen nothing else, I had beheld sufficient to +help me to nature for the rest of my life. But when I turned to the +Theseus, and saw that every form was altered by action or repose-when +I saw that the two sides of his back varied as he rested on his elbow; +and again, when in the figure of the fighting metope, I saw the muscle +shown under one armpit in that instantaneous action of darting out, +and left out in the other armpits; when I saw, in short, the most +heroic style of art, combined with all the essential detail of +everyday life, the thing was done at once and for ever.... Here were +the principles which the great Greeks in their finest time +established, and here was I, the most prominent historical student, +perfectly qualified to appreciate all this by my own determined mode +of study.' + +On returning to his painting-room, Haydon, feeling utterly disgusted +with his attempt at the heroic in the form and action of Dentatus, +obliterated what he calls 'the abominable mass,' and breathed as if +relieved of a nuisance. Through Lord Mulgrave he obtained an order to +draw from the Marbles, and devoted the next three months to mastering +their secrets, and bringing his hand and mind into subjection to the +principles that they displayed. 'I rose with the sun,' he writes, with +the glow of his first enthusiasm still upon him, 'and opened my eyes +to the light only to be conscious of my high pursuit. I sprang from my +bed, dressed like one possessed, and passed the day, noon, and the +night, in the same dream of abstracted enthusiasm; secluded from the +world, regardless of its feelings, impregnable to disease, insensible +to contempt.' He painted his heads, figures, and draperies over and +over again, feeling that to obliterate was the only way to improve. +His studio soon filled with fashionable folk, who came to see the +'extraordinary picture painted by a young man who had never had the +advantages of foreign travel.' Haydon believed, with the simplicity of +a child, in all these flattering prophecies of glory and fame, and +imagined that the Academy would welcome with open arms so promising a +student, one, moreover, who had been trained in its own school. He +redoubled his efforts, and in March 1809, 'Dentatus' was finished. + +'The production of this picture,' he naively explains, 'must and will +be considered as an epoch in English art. The drawing in it was +correct and elevated, and the perfect forms and system of the antique +were carried into painting, united with the fleshy look of everyday +life. The colour, light and shadow, the composition and the telling of +the story were complete.' His contemporaries did not form quite so +flattering an estimate of the work. It was badly hung, a fate to which +many an artist of three-and-twenty has had to submit, before and +since; but Haydon writes as if no such injustice had been committed +since the world began, and was persuaded that the whole body of +Academicians was leagued in spite and jealousy against him. Lord +Mulgrave gave him sixty guineas in addition to the hundred he had +first promised, which seems a fair price for the second work of an +obscure artist, but poor Haydon fancied that his professional +prospects had suffered from the treatment of the Academy, that people +of fashion (on whose attentions he set great store) were neglecting +him, and that he was a marked man. A sea-trip to Plymouth with Wilkie +gave his thoughts a new and more healthy turn. Together, the friends +visited Sir Joshua's birthplace, and roamed over the moors and combes +of Devonshire. Before returning to town, they spent a delightful +fortnight with Sir George Beaumont at Coleorton, where, says Haydon, +'we dined with the Claude and Rembrandt before us, and breakfasted +with the Rubens landscape, and did nothing, morning, noon, and night, +but think of painting, talk of painting, and wake to paint again.' + +During this visit, Sir George gave Haydon a commission for a picture +on a subject from _Macbeth_. After it was begun, he objected to +the size, but our artist, who, throughout his life, detested painting +cabinet pictures, refused to attempt anything on a smaller scale. He +persuaded Sir George to withhold his decision until the picture was +finished, and promised that if he still objected to the size, he would +paint him another on any scale he pleased. While engaged on 'Macbeth,' +he competed with 'Dentatus' for a hundred guinea prize offered by the +Directors of the British Gallery for the best historical picture. +'Dentatus' won the prize, but this piece of good fortune was +counterbalanced by a letter from Mr. Haydon, senior, containing the +announcement that he could no longer afford to maintain his son. This +was a heavy blow, but after turning over pros and cons in his own +mind, Haydon came to the conclusion that since he had won the hundred +guinea prize, he had a good chance of winning a three hundred guinea +prize, which the Directors now offered, with his 'Macbeth,' and +consequently that he had no occasion to dread starvation. 'Thus +reasoning,' he says, 'I borrowed, and praying God to bless my +emotions, went on more vigorously than ever. _And here began debt +and obligation, out of which I have never been, and shall never be, +extricated, as long as I live.'_ + +This prophecy proved only too true. But Haydon, though he afterwards +bitterly regretted his folly in exchanging independence for debt, and +his pride in refusing to paint pot-boilers in the intervals of his +great works, firmly believed that he, with his high aims and fervent +desire to serve the cause of art, was justified in continuing his +ambitious course, and depending for maintenance on the contributions +of his friends. Nothing could exceed the approbation of his own +conduct, or shake his faith in his own powers. 'I was a virtuous and +diligent youth,' he assures us; 'I never touched wine, dined at +reasonable chop-houses, lived principally in my study, and cleaned my +own brushes, like the humblest student.' He goes to see Sebastian del +Piombo's 'Lazarus' in the Angerstein collection, and, after writing a +careful criticism of the work, concludes: 'It is a grand picture; a +great acquisition to the country, and an honour to Mr. Angerstein's +taste and spirit in buying it; yet if God cut not my life permanently +short, I hope I shall leave one behind me that will do more honour to +my country than this has done to Rome. In short, if I live, I will--I +feel I shall, (God pardon me if this is presumption. June 31, 1810.)' + +At this time Haydon devoted a good deal of his leisure to reading +classic authors, Homer, Æschylus, and Virgil, in order to tune his +mind to high thoughts. Nearly every day he spent a few hours in +drawing from the Elgin Marbles, and he piously thanks God that he was +in existence on their arrival. He spared no pains to ensure that his +'Macbeth' should be perfect in poetry, expression, form and colour, +making casts and studies without end. His friends related, as a +wonderful specimen of his conscientiousness, that, after having +completed the figure of Macbeth, he took it out in order to raise it +higher in the picture, believing that this would improve the effect. +'The wonder in ancient Athens would have been if I had suffered him to +remain,' he observes. 'Such is the state of art in this country!' + +In 1811 Haydon entered into his first journalistic controversy, an +unfortunate departure, as it turned out, since it gave him a taste for +airing his ideas in print. Leigh Hunt, to whom he had been introduced +a year or two before, had attacked one of his theories, relative to a +standard figure, in the _Examiner_. Haydon replied, was replied +to himself, and thoroughly enjoyed the controversy which, he says, +consolidated his powers of verbal expression. Leigh Hunt he describes +as a fine specimen of a London editor, with his bushy hair, black +eyes, pale face, and 'nose of taste.' He was assuming yet moderate, +sarcastic yet genial, with a smattering of everything and mastery of +nothing; affecting the dictator, the poet, the politician, the critic, +and the sceptic, whichever would, at the moment, give him the air, to +inferior minds, of a very superior man.' Although Haydon disliked +Hunt's 'Cockney peculiarities,' and disapproved of his republican +principles, yet the fearless honesty of his opinions, the unhesitating +sacrifice of his own interests, the unselfish perseverance of his +attacks upon all abuses, whether royal or religious, noble or +democratic, made a deep impression on the young artist's mind. + +Towards the end of 1811 the new picture, which represents Macbeth +stepping between the sleeping grooms to murder the king, was finished, +and sent to the British Gallery. It was well hung, and was praised by +the critics, but Sir George declined to take it, though he offered to +pay Haydon a hundred pounds for his trouble, or to give him a +commission for a picture on a smaller scale. Haydon petulantly refused +both offers, and thus after three years' work, and incurring debts to +the amount of six hundred pounds, he found himself penniless, with his +picture returned on his hands. This disappointment was only the +natural result of his own impracticable temperament, but to Haydon's +exaggerative sense the whole world seemed joined in a conspiracy +against him. 'Exasperated by the neglect of my family,' he writes, +'tormented by the consciousness of debt, cut to the heart by the +cruelty of Sir George, and enraged at the insults of the Academy, I +became furious.' His fury, unfortunately, found vent in an attack upon +the Academy and its methods, through the medium of the _Examiner_, +which was the recognised vehicle of all attacks upon authority. +The onslaught seems to have been justified, though whether +it was judicious is another question. The ideals of English artists +during the early years of the nineteenth century had sunk very low, +and the standard of public taste was several degrees lower. +Portrait-painting was the only lucrative branch of art, and the +Academy was almost entirely in the hands of the portrait-painters, who +gave little encouragement to works of imagination. The burden of the +patron, which had been removed from literature, still rested upon +painting, and the Academicians found it more to their interest to +foster the ignorance than to educate the taste of the patron. + +Over the signature of 'An English Student,' Haydon not only exposed +the inefficiency of the Academy, but advocated numerous reforms, chief +among them being an improved method of election, the establishment of +schools of design, a reduction in the power of the Council, and an +annual grant of public money for purposes of art. In these days, when +the Academicians are no longer regarded as a sacred body, it is hard +to realise the commotion that these letters made in art circles, +whether professional or amateur. The identity of the 'English Student' +was soon discovered, and 'from that moment,' writes Haydon, 'the +destiny of my life was changed. My picture was caricatured, my name +detested, my peace harassed. I was looked at like a monster, abused +like a plague, and avoided like a maniac.' There is probably some +characteristic exaggeration in this statement, but considering the +power wielded at this time by the Academy and its supporters, Haydon +would undoubtedly have done better, from a worldly point of view, to +keep clear of these controversies. The prudent and sensible Wilkie was +much distressed at his friend's ebullition of temper, and earnestly +advised him to follow up the reputation his brush had gained for him, +and leave the pen alone. 'In moments of depression,' wrote Haydon, +many years later, 'I often wished I had followed Wilkie's advice, but +then I should never have acquired that grand and isolated reputation, +solitary and unsupported, which, while it encumbers the individual, +inspires him with vigour proportioned to the load.' + +On April 3, 1812, Haydon records in his journal: 'My canvas came home +for Solomon, twelve feet ten inches by ten feet ten inches--a grand +size. God in heaven, grant me strength of body and vigour of mind to +cover it with excellence. Amen--on my knees.' His design was to paint +a series of great ideal works, that should stand comparison with the +productions of the old masters, and he had chosen the somewhat +stereotyped subject of the Judgment of Solomon, because Raphael and +Rubens had both tried it, and he intended to tell the story better! He +was now, at the beginning of this ambitious project, entirely without +means. His father had died, and left him nothing, and his 'Macbeth' +had not won the £300 premium at the British Gallery. His aristocratic +friends had temporarily deserted him, but the Hunts assisted him with +the ready liberality of the impecunious. John lent him small sums of +money, while Leigh offered him a plate at his table till Solomon was +finished, and initiated him into the mysteries of drawing and +discounting bills. + +Haydon already owed his landlord two hundred pounds, but that seemed +to him no reason for moving into cheaper rooms. He called the man up, +and represented to him that he was about to paint a great masterpiece, +which would take him two years, during which period he would earn +nothing, and be unable to pay any rent. The landlord, surely a unique +specimen of his order, deliberated rather ruefully over the prospect +set before him, rubbed his chin, and muttered: 'I should not like ye +to go--it's hard for both of us; but what I say is, you always paid me +when you could, and why should you not again when you are able?... +Well, sir, here's my hand; I'll give you two years more, and if this +does not sell--why then, sir, we'll consider what is to be done.' + +Thus a roof was provided, but there was still dinner to be thought of, +since, if a man works, he must also eat. 'I went to the house [John o' +Groat's] where I had always dined,' writes Haydon, 'intending to dine +without paying for that day. I thought the servants did not offer me +the same attention. I thought I perceived the company examine me--I +thought the meat was worse. My heart sank, as I said falteringly, "I +will pay you to-morrow." The girl smiled, and seemed interested. As I +was escaping with a sort of lurking horror, she said, "Mr. Haydon, my +master wishes to see you." "My God," thought I, "it is to tell me he +can't trust!" In I walked like a culprit. "Sir, I beg your pardon, but +I see by the papers you have been ill-used; I hope you won't be +angry--I mean no offence; but I just wish to say, as you have dined +here many years and always paid, if it would be a convenience during +your present work to dine here till it is done--so that you may not be +obliged to spend your money here when you may want it--I was going to +say that you need be under no apprehension--hem! for a dinner."' This +handsome offer was condescendingly accepted, and the good man seemed +quite relieved. + +While Solomon was slowly progressing at the expense of the landlord +and the eating-house keeper, Haydon spent his leisure in literary +rather than artistic circles. At Leigh Hunt's he met, and became +intimate with Charles Lamb, Keats, Hazlitt, and John Scott. In January +1813 he writes: 'Spent the evening with Leigh Hunt at West End. His +society is always delightful. I do not know a purer, more virtuous +partner, or a more witty and enlivening man. We talked of his +approaching imprisonment. He said it would be a great pleasure if he +were certain to be sent to Newgate, because he should be in the midst +of his friends.' Hazlitt won our hero's liking by praising his +'Macbeth.' 'Thence began a friendship,' Haydon tells us, 'for that +interesting man, that singular mixture of friend and fiend, radical +and critic, metaphysician, poet, and painter, on whose word no one +could rely, on whose heart no one could calculate, and some of whose +deductions he himself would try to explain in vain.... Mortified at +his own failure [in painting] he resolved that as he had not +succeeded, no one else should, and he spent the whole of his +after-life in damping the ardour, chilling the hopes, and dimming the +prospects of patrons and painters, so that after I once admitted him, +I had nothing but forebodings of failure to bear up against, croakings +about the climate, and sneers at the taste of the public.' + +By the beginning of 1814 Solomon was approaching completion, but the +artist had been reduced to living for a fortnight on potatoes. He had +now been nearly four years without a commission, and three without any +help from home, so that it is not surprising to learn that he felt +completely broken down in body and mind, or that his debts amounted to +£1100. A frame was procured on credit, and, failing any more suitable +place of exhibition, the picture was sent to the Water-colour Society. +At the private view, the Princess of Wales and other eminent critics +pronounced against the Solomon, but as soon as the public were +admitted, the tune changed, and John Bull vowed it was the finest work +of art ever produced in England. If posterity has not indorsed this +judgment, the Solomon is at least regarded, by competent critics, as +Haydon's most successful work. 'Before the doors had been open half an +hour,' writes Haydon, 'a gentleman opened his pocket-book, and showed +me a £500 note. "Will you take it?" My heart beat--my agonies of want +pressed, but it was too little. I trembled out, "I cannot." The +gentleman invited me to dine, and when we were sitting over our wine, +agreed to give me my price. His lady said, "But, my dear, where am I +to put my piano?" and the bargain was at an end!' On the third day Sir +George Beaumont and Mr. Holwell Carr came to the Exhibition, having +been deputed to buy the picture for the British Gallery. While they +were discussing its merits, one of the officials went over, and put +'sold' on the frame, whereupon the artist says he thought he should +have fainted. The work had been bought at the price asked, £700, by +two Plymouth bankers, Sir William Elford (the friend and correspondent +of Miss Mitford) and Mr. Tingecombe. + +Poor Haydon now thought that his fortune was secure. He paid away £500 +to landlord and tradesmen in the first week, and though this did not +settle half his debts, it restored his credit. The balance was spent +in a trip to Paris with Wilkie, Paris being then (May 1814) the most +interesting place on earth. All the nations of Europe were gathered +together there, and the Louvre was in its glory. So absorbed and +fascinated was Haydon by the actual life of the city, that he finds +little to say about the works of art there collected. Yet his first +visit was to the Louvre, and he describes with what impetuosity he +bounded up the steps, three at a time, and how he scolded Wilkie for +trotting up with his usual deliberation. 'I might just as well have +scolded the column,' he observes. 'I soon left him at some Jan Steen, +while I never stopped until I stood before the "Transfiguration." My +first feeling was disappointment. It looked small, harsh and hard. +This, of course, is always the way when you have fed your imagination +for years on a work you know only by prints. Even the "Pietro Martyre" +was smaller than I thought to find it; yet after the difference +between reality and anticipation had worn away, these great works +amply repaid the study of them, and grew up to the fancy, or rather +the fancy grew up to them.... It will hardly be believed by artists +that we often forgot the great works in the Louvre in the scenes +around us, and found Russians and Bashkirs from Tartary more +attractive than the "Transfiguration"; but so it was, and I do not +think we were very wrong either. Why stay poring over pictures when we +were on the most remarkable scene in the history of the earth.' + +On his return to London, Haydon was gratified by the news that his +friend and fellow-townsman, George Eastlake, had proposed and carried +a motion that he should be presented with the freedom of his native +city, as a testimony of respect for his extraordinary merit as a +historical painter. Furthermore, the Directors of the British Gallery +sent him a hundred guineas as a token of their admiration for his +latest work. But no commission followed, either from a private patron +or public body. However, the artist, nothing daunted, ordered a larger +canvas, and set vigorously to work on a representation of 'Christ's +Entry into Jerusalem,' a picture which occupied him, with intervals of +illness and idleness, for nearly six years. + +The year 1815 was too full of stir and excitement for a man like +Haydon, who was always keenly interested in public affairs, to devote +himself to steady work. The news of Waterloo almost turned his brain. +On June 23 he notes: 'I read the _Gazette_ [with the account of +Waterloo] the last thing before going to bed. I dreamt of it, and was +fighting all night; I got up in a steam of feeling, and read the +_Gazette_ again, ordered a _Courier_ for a month, and read all +the papers till I was faint.... 'Have not the efforts of the +nation,' I asked myself, 'been gigantic?' To such glories she only +wants to add the glories of my noble art to make her the grandest +nation in the world, and these she shall have if God spare my life.... + +'_June_ 25.--Dined with Hunt. I give myself credit for not +worrying him to death at this news. He was quiet for some time, but +knowing it must come, and putting on an air of indifference, he said, +"Terrible battle this, Haydon." "A glorious one, Hunt." "Oh yes, +certainly," and to it we went. Yet Hunt took a just and liberal view +of the situation. As for Hazlitt, it is not to be believed how the +destruction of Napoleon affected him; he seemed prostrated in mind and +body; he walked about unwashed, unshaved, hardly sober by day, and +always intoxicated by night, literally, without exaggeration, for +weeks, until at length, wakening as it were from his stupor, he at +once left off all stimulating liquors, and never touched them after.' + +It is in this year that we find the first mention in the Journal of +Wordsworth, who, throughout his life, was one of Haydon's most +faithful friends and appreciative admirers. On April 13, the artist +records: 'I had a cast made yesterday of Wordsworth's face. He bore it +like a philosopher.... We afterwards called on Hunt, and as Hunt had +previously attacked him, and now has reformed his opinions, the +meeting was interesting. Hunt paid him the highest compliments, and +told him that as he grew wiser and got older, he found his respect for +his powers, and enthusiasm for his genius, increase.... I afterwards +sauntered with him to Hampstead, with great delight. Never did any man +so beguile the time as Wordsworth. His purity of heart, his kindness, +his soundness of principle, his information, his knowledge, and the +intense and eager feelings with which he pours forth all he knows, +affect, interest, and enchant one. I do not know any one I would be so +inclined to worship as a purified being.' + +The new picture was not far advanced before the painter was once again +at the end of his resources, though not of his courage. Fifty guineas +were advanced to him by Sir George Beaumont, who had now commissioned +a picture at two hundred guineas, and Mr. (after Sir George) Phillips, +of Manchester, gave him a commission of £500 for a sacred work, paying +one hundred guineas down. But these advances melted rapidly away in +the expenses attendant on the painting of so ambitious a work as the +'Entry into Jerusalem.' Towards the close of the year Haydon's health +began to suffer from his excessive application, his sight weakened, +and he was often unable to paint for months at a time. Under these +afflictions, he was consoled by receiving permission to take casts of +the Elgin Marbles, the authenticity of which treasures had recently +been attacked by the art-critic, Knight Payne, who declared that they +were not Greek at all, but Roman, of the time of Hadrian. Such was the +effect of Payne Knight's opinion that the Marbles went down in the +public estimation, the Government hesitated to buy them for the +nation, and they were left neglected in a damp shed. Haydon was +furious at this insult to the objects of his idolatry, whose merits he +had been preaching in season and out of season since the day that he +first set eyes upon the Theseus and the Ilissus. At this critical +moment he found himself supported by a new and powerful champion in +the person of Canova, who had just arrived in England. Canova at once +admitted that the style of the Marbles was superior to that of all +other known marbles, and declared that they were well worth coming +from Rome to see. 'Canova's visit was a victory for me,' writes +Haydon, who had received the sculptor at his studio, and introduced +him to some of the artistic lions of London. 'What became now of all +the sneers at my senseless insanity about the Marbles? I, unknown, +with no station or rank, might have talked myself dumb; but for +Canova, the great artist of Europe, to repeat word for word what I had +been saying for seven years! His opinion could not be gainsaid.' + +If our troubles are apt to come not in single file, but in 'whole +battalions,' our triumphs also occasionally arrive in squadrons, or +such at least was Haydon's experience. Hard upon Canova's departure +came a letter from Wordsworth, enclosing three sonnets, the last of +which had, he avowed, been inspired by a letter of Haydon's on the +struggles and hardships of the artist's life. This is now the familiar +sonnet beginning, 'High is our calling, Friend,' and concluding: + + 'Great is the glory, for the strife is hard.' + +'Now, reader,' writes the delighted recipient, 'was not this glorious? +And you, young student, when you are pressed down by want in the midst +of a great work, remember what followed Haydon's perseverance. The +freedom of his native town, the visit of Canova, and the sonnet of +Wordsworth, and if that do not cheer you up, and make you go on, you +are past all hope.... It had, indeed, been a wonderful year for me. +The Academicians were silenced. All classes were so enthusiastic and +so delighted that, though I had lost seven months with weak eyes, and +had only accomplished The Penitent Girl, The Mother, The Centurion and +the Samaritan Woman, yet they were considered so decidedly in advance +of all I had yet done, that my painting-room was crowd by rank, +beauty, and fashion, and the picture was literally taken up as an +honour to the nation.' + +But, alas! neither the sonnets of poets nor the homage of the great +would pay for models and colours, or put bread into the artist's +mouth. Haydon could only live by renewed borrowing, for which method +of support he endeavours, without much success, to excuse himself. +Once in the clutches of professional money-lenders, he confesses that +'the fine edge of honour was dulled. Though my honourable discharge of +what I borrowed justified my borrowing again, yet it is a fallacious +relief, because you must stop sooner or later; if you are punctual, +and if you can pay in the long-run, why incur the debt at all? Too +proud to do small, modest things, that I might obtain fair means of +subsistence as I proceeded with my great work, I thought it no +degradation to borrow, to risk the insult of refusal, and be bated +down like the meanest dealer. Then I was liberal in my art; I spared +no expense for casts and prints, and did great things for the art by +means of them.... Ought I, after such efforts as I had made, to have +been left in this position by the Directors of the British Gallery or +the Government?' + +The year 1816 was distinguished in Haydon's life as the epoch of his +first, or, more accurately, his last serious love-affair. He was of a +susceptible temperament, and seems to have been a favourite with +women, whom he inspired with his own strong belief in himself; but he +demanded much of the woman who was to be his wife, and hitherto he had +not found one who seemed worthy of that exalted position. He had long +been acquainted with Maria Foote, the actress, for whom he entertained +a qualified admiration, and by her he was taken one day to a friend's +house where, 'In one instant, the loveliest face that was ever created +since God made Eve, smiled gently at my approach. The effect of her +beauty was instantaneous. On the sofa lay a dying man and a boy about +two years old. We shortly took leave. I never spoke a word, and after +seeing M---- home, I returned to the house, and stood outside, in +hopes that she would appear at the window. I went home, and for the +first time in my life was really, heartily, thoroughly, passionately +in love. I hated my pictures. I hated the Elgin Marbles. I hated +books. I could not eat, or sleep, or think, or write, or talk. I got +up early, examined the premises and street, and gave a man +half-a-crown to let me sit concealed, and watch for her coming out. +Day after day I grew more and more enraptured, till resistance was +relinquished with a glorious defiance of restraint. Her conduct to her +dying husband, her gentle reproof of my impassioned air, riveted my +being. But I must not anticipate. Sufficient for the present, O +reader, is it to tell thee that B. R. Haydon is, and for ever will be, +in love with that woman, and that she is his wife.' + +The first note that Haydon has preserved from his friend Keats is +dated November 1816, and runs: + + +'MY DEAR SIR,--Last evening wrought me up, and I cannot forbear +sending you the following.--Yours imperfectly, + +JOHN KEATS.' + +The 'following' was nothing less than the noble sonnet, +beginning--'Great spirits now on earth are sojourning,' with an +allusion to Haydon in the lines: + + 'And lo! whose steadfastness would never take + A meaner sound than Raphael's whispering.' + +Haydon wrote an enthusiastic letter of thanks, gave the young poet +some good advice, and promised to send his sonnet to Wordsworth. +'Keats,' he records, 'was the only man I ever met who seemed and +looked conscious of a high calling, except Wordsworth. Byron and +Shelley were always sophisticating about their verses; Keats +sophisticated about nothing. He had made up his mind to do great +things, and when he found that by his connection with the +_Examiner_ clique he had brought upon himself an overwhelming +outcry of unjust aversion, he shrank up into himself, his diseased +tendencies showed themselves, and he died a victim to mistakes, on the +part of friends and enemies alike.' + +Haydon gives a curious account of his first meeting with Shelley, +which took place in the course of this year. The occasion was a +dinner-party at James Smith's house, when Keats and Horace Smith were +also among the guests. 'I seated myself,' writes Haydon,' right +opposite Shelley, as I was told afterwards, for I did not then know +what hectic, spare, weakly, yet intellectual-looking creature it was, +carving a bit of broccoli or cabbage in his plate, as if it had been +the substantial wing of a chicken. In a few minutes Shelley opened the +conversation by saying in the most feminine and gentle voice, "As to +that detestable religion, the Christian--" I looked astounded, but +casting a glance round the table, I easily saw that I was to be set at +that evening _vi et armis_.... I felt like a stag at bay, and +resolved to gore without mercy. Shelley said the Mosaic and Christian +dispensation were inconsistent. I swore they were not, and that the +Ten Commandments had been the foundation of all the codes of law on +the earth. Shelley denied it. I affirmed they were, neither of us +using an atom of logic.' This edifying controversy continued until all +parties grew very warm, and said unpleasant things to one another. +After this dinner, Haydon made up his mind to subject himself no more +to the chance of these discussions, but gradually to withdraw from +this freethinking circle. + +The chief artistic events of the year, from our hero's point of view, +were, the final settlement of the Elgin Marbles question, and his own +attempt to found a school. The Committee appointed by Government to +examine and report upon the Marbles refused to call Haydon as a +witness on Lord Elgin's side, but the artist embodied his views on the +subject in a paper which appeared in both the _Examiner_ and the +_Champion_. This article, which was afterwards translated into +French and Italian, contained a scathing attack on Payne Knight, and +was said by Sir Thomas Lawrence to have saved the Elgin Marbles, and +ruined Haydon. However this may be, the Government, it will be +remembered, decided to buy the treasures for £35,000, a sum +considerably less than that which Lord Elgin had spent on bringing +them to England. + +The School of Haydon was first instituted with three distinguished +pupils in the persons of the three Landseer brothers, to whom were +afterwards added William Bewick, Eastlake, Harvey, Lance, and +Chatfield. Haydon set his disciples to draw from the Raphael Cartoons, +two of which were brought up from Hampton Court to the British +Gallery, and, as soon as they were sufficiently advanced, he sent them +to the Museum to draw from the Elgin Marbles. 'Their cartoons,' he +writes, 'drawn full size, of the Fates, of Theseus and the Ilissus, +literally made a noise in Europe. An order came from the great Goethe +at Weimar for a set for his own house, the furniture of which having +been since bought by the Government, and the house kept up as it was +in Goethe's time, the cartoons of my pupils are thus preserved, whilst +in England the rest are lying about in cellars and corners/ The early +days of the School thus held out a promise for the future, which +unfortunately was not fulfilled. Haydon contrived to involve two or +three of his pupils in his own financial embarrassments, by inducing +them to sign accommodation bills, a proceeding which broke up the +establishment, and brought a lasting stain upon his reputation. + +In 1817 Haydon was introduced to Miss Mitford, who greatly admired his +work, and a warm friendship sprang up between the pair. In May, Miss +Mitford wrote to Sir William Elford: 'The charm of the Exhibition is a +chalk-drawing by Mr. Haydon taken, _as he tells me_, from a +mother who had lost her child. It is the very triumph of expression. I +have not yet lost the impression which it made upon my mind and +senses, and which vented itself in a sonnet.' A visit to the studio +followed, and Miss Mitford was charmed with the room, the books, the +great unfinished picture, and the artist himself--with his +_bonhomie_, _naïveté_, and enthusiasm. With all her heart she +admires the noble, independent spirit of Haydon, who, she +declares, is quite one of the old heroes come to life again--one of +Shakespeare's men, full of spirit, endurance, and moral courage. She +concludes her account with an expression of regret that he should be +'such a fright.' Now Haydon is generally described by his +contemporaries as a good-looking man, though short in stature, with an +antique head, aquiline features, and fine dark eyes. His later +portraits are chiefly remarkable for the immensely wide mouth with +which he seems to be endowed, but in an early sketch by Wilkie he is +represented as a picturesque youth with an admirably modelled profile. + +To Miss Mitford we owe a quaint anecdote of our hero, which, better +than pages of analysis, depicts the man. It appears that Leigh Hunt, +who was a great keeper of birthdays and other anniversaries, took it +into his head to celebrate the birthday of Papa Haydn by giving a +dinner, drinking toasts, and crowning the composer's bust with +laurels. Some malicious person told Haydon that the Hunts were +celebrating his birthday, a compliment that struck him as natural and +well deserved. Hastening to Hampstead, he broke in upon the company, +and addressed to them a formal speech, in which he thanked them for +the honour they had done him, but explained that they had made a +little mistake in the day! As a pendant to this anecdote, Miss Mitford +relates that Haydon told her he had painted the head of his Christ +seven times, and that the final head was a portrait of himself. It is +only fair to remember that he always regarded it as the least +successful part of the work. + +While the picture was in progress, Haydon decided to put in a side +group with Voltaire as a sceptic, and Newton as a believer. This idea, +founded on the intentional anachronisms of some of the old masters, +was afterwards extended, Hazlitt being introduced as an investigator, +and Wordsworth bowing in reverence, with Keats in the background. The +two poets had never yet met in actual life, but in December 1817, +Wordsworth being then on a visit to London, Haydon invited Keats to +meet him. The other guests were Charles Lamb and Monkhouse. +'Wordsworth was in fine cue,' writes Haydon, 'and we had a glorious +set-to-on Homer, Shakespeare, Milton, and Virgil. Lamb got exceedingly +merry, and exquisitely witty, and his fun, in the midst of +Wordsworth's solemn intonations of oratory, was like the sarcasm and +wit of the fool in the intervals of Lear's passion.' Although the +specimens of wit recorded no longer seem inspired, we can well believe +Haydon's statement that it was an immortal evening, and that in all +his life he never passed a more delightful time. We have abundant +testimony to the fact that the artist-host was himself an +exceptionally fine talker. Hazlitt said that 'Haydon talked well on +most subjects that interest one; indeed, better than any painter I +ever met.' Wordsworth and Talfourd echoed this opinion, and Miss +Mitford tells us that he was a most brilliant talker--racy, bold, +original, and vigorous, 'a sort of Benvenuto Cellini, all air and +fire.' + +It was not until January 1820 that the 'Entry into Jerusalem' was +finished, when the artist, though absolutely penniless, engaged the +great room at the Egyptian Hall for its exhibition, at a rent of £300. +His friends helped him over the incidental expenses, and in a state of +feverish excitement he awaited the opening day. Public curiosity had +been aroused about the work, and early in the afternoon there was a +block of carriages in Piccadilly; the passage was thronged with +servants, and soon the artist was holding what he described as a +'regular rout at noonday.' While Keats and Hazlitt were rejoicing in a +corner, Mrs. Siddons swept in, and in her loud, deep, tragic tones, +declared that the head of Christ was completely successful. By her +favourable verdict, Haydon, who had his doubts, was greatly consoled, +not because Mrs. Siddons had any reputation as an art-critic, but +because he recognised that she was an expert on the subject of +dramatic expression. A thousand pounds was offered for the picture and +refused, while the net profits from the exhibition, in London alone, +amounted to £1300. Haydon has been commonly represented as an unlucky +man, who was always neglected by the public and the patrons, and never +met with his professional deserts. But up to this time, as has been +seen, he had found ready sympathy and admiration from the public, +practical aid during the time of struggle from his friends, and a fair +reward for his labours. With the exhibition of the 'Entry into +Jerusalem,' his reputation was at its zenith; a little skilful +engineering of the success thus gained might have extricated him from +his difficulties, and enabled him to keep his head above water for the +remainder of his days. But, owing chiefly to his own impracticability, +his story from this point is one of decline, gradual at first, but +increasing in velocity, until the end came in disaster and despair. + + + + +PART II + + +Even while Haydon was in the first flush of his success, there were +signs that he had achieved no lasting triumph. Sir George Beaumont +proposed that the British Gallery should buy the great picture, but +the Directors refused to give the price asked--£2000. An effort to +sell it by subscription fell through, only, £200 being paid into +Coutts'. When the exhibition closed in London, Haydon took his +masterpiece to Scotland, and showed it both in Edinburgh and in +Glasgow, netting another £900, which, however, was quickly eaten up by +hungry creditors. The picture was too big to tempt a private +purchaser, and in spite of the admiration it had aroused, it remained +like a white elephant upon its creator's hands. + +On his return to town, after being fêted by Sir Walter Scott, +Lockhart, and 'Christopher North,' Haydon finished his commission for +Sir George Phillips, 'Christ Sleeping in the Garden,' which, he +frankly admitted, was one of the worst pictures he ever painted. +Scarcely was this off his easel than he was inspired with a tremendous +conception for the 'Raising of Lazarus.' He ordered a canvas such as +his soul loved, nineteen feet long by fifteen high, and dashed in his +first idea. He was still deeply in debt, still desperately in love +(his lady was now a widow), and the new picture would take at least +two years to paint. Nevertheless, he worked away with all his +customary energy, and prayed fervently that he might paint a great +masterpiece, never doubting but that his prayers would be heard. + +With the end of this year, 1820, Haydon's Autobiography breaks off, +and the rest of his life is told in his Journals and Letters. At the +beginning of 1821, when he was fairly at work on his Lazarus, he +confides to his Journal his conviction that difficulties are to be his +lot in pecuniary matters, and adds: 'My plan must be to make up my +mind to meet them, and fag as I can--to lose no single moment, but +seize on time that is free from disturbance, and make the most of it. +If I can float, and keep alive attention to my situation through +another picture, I will reach the shore. I am now clearly in sight of +it, and I will yet land to the sound of trumpets, and the shouts of my +friends.' + +In spite of his absorption in his work, Haydon found time for the +society of his literary friends. On March 7, he records: 'Sir Walter +Scott, Lamb, Wilkie, and Procter have been with me all the morning, +and a delightful morning we have had. Scott operated on us like +champagne and whisky mixed.... It is singular how success and the want +of it operate on two extraordinary men, Walter Scott and Wordsworth. +Scott enters a room and sits at table with the coolness and +self-possession of conscious fame; Wordsworth with a mortified +elevation of the head, as if fearful he was not estimated as he +deserved. Scott can afford to talk of trifles, because he knows the +world will think him a great man who condescends to trifle; Wordsworth +must always be eloquent and profound, because he knows that he is +considered childish and puerile.... I think that Scott's success would +have made Wordsworth insufferable, while Wordsworth's failures would +not have rendered Scott a whit less delightful. Scott is the companion +of Nature in all her moods and freaks, while Wordsworth follows her +like an apostle, sharing her solemn moods and impressions.' + +In these rough notes, unusual powers of observation and insight into +character are displayed. That Haydon also had a keen sense of humour +is proved by his account of an evening at Mrs. Siddons' where the +hostess read aloud _Macbeth_ to her guests. 'She acts Macbeth +herself much better than either Kemble or Kean,' he writes. 'It is +extraordinary the awe that this wonderful woman inspires. After her +first reading the men retired to tea. While we were all eating toast +and tinkling cups and saucers, she began again. It was like the effect +of a mass-bell at Madrid. All noise ceased; we slunk to our seats like +boors, two or three of the most distinguished men of the day, with the +very toast in their mouths, afraid to bite. It was curious to see +Lawrence in this predicament, to hear him bite by degrees, and then +stop, for fear of making too much crackle, his eyes full of water from +the constraint; and at the same time to hear Mrs. Siddons' 'eye of +newt and toe of frog,' and to see Lawrence give a sly bite, and then +look awed, and pretend to be listening.' + +In the spring of 1821 Haydon lost two intimate friends, John Scott, +who was killed by Christie in the Blackwood duel, and Keats, who died +at Rome on February 23. He briefly sums up his impressions of the dead +poet in his Journal. 'In fireside conversation he was weak and +inconsistent, but he was in his glory in the fields.... He was the +most unselfish of human creatures: unadapted to this world, he cared +not for himself, and put himself to inconvenience for the sake of his +friends. He had an exquisite sense of humour, and too refined a notion +of female purity to bear the little arts of love with patience.... He +began life full of hopes, fiery, impetuous, ungovernable, expecting +the world to fall at once beneath his powers. Unable to bear the +sneers of ignorance or the attacks of envy, he began to despond, and +flew to dissipation as a relief. For six weeks he was scarcely sober, +and to show what a man does to gratify his appetites when once they +get the better of him, he once covered his tongue and throat, as far +as he could reach, with Cayenne pepper, in order to appreciate the +"delicious coldness of claret in all its glory"--his own expression.' + +June 22, 1821, is entered in the Journal as 'A remarkable day in my +life. I am arrested!' This incident, unfortunately, became far too +common in after-days to be at all remarkable, but the first touch of +the bailiff's hand was naturally something of a shock, and Haydon +filled three folio pages with angry comments on the iniquity of the +laws against debtors. He was able, however, to arrange the affair +before night, and the sheriff's officer, whose duty it was to keep him +in safe custody during the day, was so profoundly impressed by the +sight of the Lazarus, that he allowed his prisoner to go free on +parole. This incident has been likened to that of the bravoes arrested +in their murderous intent by the organ-playing of Stradella; and also +to the case of the soldiers of the Constable who, when sacking Rome, +broke into Parmigiano's studio, but were so struck by the beauty of +his pictures that they protected him and his property. + +In despite of debts, difficulties, and the lack of commissions, +Haydon, who had now been in love for five years, was married on +October 10, 1821, to the young widow, Mary Hyman, who was blessed with +two children, and a jointure of fifty pounds a year. His Journal for +this period is full of raptures over his blissful state, as also are +his letters to his friends. To Miss Mitford he writes from Windsor, +where the honeymoon was spent: 'Here I am, sitting by my dearest Mary +with all the complacency of a well-behaved husband, writing to you +while she is working quietly on some unintelligible part of a lady's +costume. You do not know how proud I am of saying _my wife_. I +never felt half so proud of Solomon or Macbeth, as I am of being the +husband of this tender little bit of lovely humanity.... There never +was such a creature; and although her face is perfect, and has more +feeling in it than Lady Hamilton's, her manner to me is perfectly +enchanting, and more bewitching than her beauty. I think I shall put +over my painting-room door, "Love, solitude, and painting."' On the +last day of the year, according to his wont, Haydon sums up his +feelings and impressions of the past twelve months. 'I don't know how +it is, but I get less reflective as I get older. I seem to take things +as they come without thought. Perhaps being married to my dearest +Mary, and having no longer anything to hope in love, I get more +content with my lot, which, God knows, is rapturous beyond +imagination. Here I sit sketching, with the loveliest face before me, +smiling and laughing, and "solitude is not." Marriage has increased my +happiness beyond expression. In the intervals of study, a few minutes' +conversation with a creature one loves is the greatest of all reliefs. +God bless us both! My pecuniary difficulties are great, but my love is +intense, my ambition is intense, and my hope in God's protection +cheering. Bewick, my pupil, has realised my hopes in his picture of +"Jacob and Rachel." But it is cold work talking of pupils when one's +soul is full of a beloved woman! I am really and truly in love, and +without affectation, I can talk, write, or think of nothing else.' + +But if a love-match brings increased happiness, it also brings +weightier cares and responsibilities. Haydon's credit had been in a +measure restored by the success of his last picture, but his creditors +seemed to resent his marriage, and during the months that followed, +gave him little peace. He was obliged, in the intervals of painting, +to rush hither and thither to pacify this creditor, quiet the fears of +that, remove the ill-will of a third, and borrow money at usurious +interest from a fourth in order to keep his engagements with a fifth. +In spite of all his compromises and arrangements, he was arrested more +than once during this year, but so far he had been able to keep out of +prison. His favourite pupil Bewick, who sat to him for the head of +Lazarus (being appropriately pale and thin from want of food) has left +an account of the difficulties under which the picture was painted. 'I +think I see the painter before me,' he writes, 'his palette and +brushes in the left hand, returning from the sheriff's officer in the +adjoining room, pale, calm, and serious--no agitation--mounting his +high steps and continuing his arduous task, and as he looks round to +his pallid model, whispering, "Egad, Bewick, I have just been +arrested; that is the third time. If they come again, I shall not be +able to go on."' + +On December 7, the Lazarus was finished, and five days later Haydon's +eldest son Frank was born. The happy father was profoundly moved by +his new responsibilities, as well as by his wife's suffering and +danger. On the last day of 1822 he thanks his Maker for the happiest +year of his life, and also 'for being permitted to finish another +great picture, which must add to my reputation, and go to strengthen +the art.... Grant it triumphant success. Grant that I may soon begin +the "Crucifixion," and persevere with that, until I bring it to a +conclusion equally positive and glorious.' Haydon's prayers, which +have been not inaptly described as 'begging letters to the Almighty,' +are invariably couched in terms that would be appropriate in an appeal +to the President of a Celestial Academy. As his biographer points out, +he prayed as though he would take heaven by storm, and although he +often asked for humility, the demands for this gift bore very little +proportion to those for glories and triumphs. + +The Lazarus, though it showed signs of haste and exaggeration, natural +enough considering the conditions under which it was painted, was +acclaimed as a great work, and the receipts from its exhibition were +of a most satisfactory nature, mounting up to nearly two hundred +pounds a week. Instead of calling his creditors together, and coming +to some arrangement with them, Haydon, rendered over-confident by +success, spent his time in preparing a new and vaster canvas for his +conception of the Crucifixion. The sight of crowds of people paying +their shillings to view the Lazarus roused the cupidity of one of the +creditors, who, against his own interests, killed the goose that was +laying golden eggs. On April 13, an execution was put in, and the +picture was seized. A few days later Haydon was arrested, and carried +to the King's Bench, his house was taken possession of, and all his +property was advertised for sale. + +On April 22, he dates the entry in his Journal, 'King's Bench,' and +consoles himself with the reflection that Bacon, Raleigh, and +Cervantes had also suffered imprisonment. His friends rallied round +him at this melancholy period. Lord Mulgrave, Sir George Beaumont, +Scott and Wilkie, giving not only sympathy but practical help. At his +forced sale a portion of his casts and painting materials was bought +in by his friends in order that he might be enabled to set to work +again as soon as he was released from prison. A meeting of creditors +was called, and Haydon addressed to them a characteristic letter, +begging to be spared the disgrace of 'taking the Act,' and complaining +of the hardship of his treatment in being torn from his family and his +art, after devoting the best years of his life to the honour of his +country. But as the creditors cared nothing for the honour of the +country, he was compelled to pass through the Bankruptcy Court, and on +July 25 he regained his freedom. It was now his desire to return to +his dismantled house, and, without a bed to lie upon, or a shilling in +his pocket, to finish his gigantic 'Crucifixion.' But his wife, the +long-suffering Mary, persuaded him to abandon this idea, to retire to +modest lodgings for a time, and to paint portraits and cabinet-pictures +until better fortune dawned. + +Haydon yielded to her desire, but he never ceased to regret what he +considered his degradation. He would have preferred to allow his +friends and creditors to support himself and his family, while he +worked at a canvas of unsaleable size, a proceeding that most men +would regard as involving a deeper degradation than painting +pot-boilers. + +Haydon began his new career by painting the 'portrait of a gentleman.' +'Ah, my poor lay-figure,' he groans, 'he, who bore the drapery of +Christ and the grave-clothes of Lazarus, the cloak of the centurion +and the gown of Newton, was to-day disgraced by a black coat and +waistcoat. I apostrophised him, and he seemed to sympathise, and bowed +his head as if ashamed to look me in the face.' Haydon's detestation +of portrait-painting probably arose from the secret consciousness that +he was not successful in this branch of his art. His taste for the +grandiose led him to depict his sitters larger than life, if not +'twice as natural.' His objection to painting small pictures was +partly justified by his weakness of sight. It was easy for him to dash +in heads on a large scale in a frenzy of inspiration, but he seemed to +lack the faculty for 'finish.' The faults of disproportion and +apparent carelessness that disfigure many of his works, are easily +accounted for by his method of painting, which is thus described by +his son Frederick, who often acted as artist's model:-- + +'His natural sight was of little or no use to him at any distance, and +he would wear, one over the other, two or three pairs of large round +concave spectacles, so powerful as greatly to diminish objects. He +would mount his steps, look at you through one pair of glasses, then +push them all back on his head, and paint by the naked eye close to +the canvas. After some minutes he would pull down one pair of his +glasses, look at you, then step down, walk slowly backwards to the +wall, and study the effect through one, two, or three pairs of +spectacles; then with one pair only look long and steadily in the +looking-glass at the side to examine the reflection of his work; then +mount his steps and paint again. How he ever contrived to paint a head +or limb in proportion is a mystery to me, for it is clear that he had +lost his natural sight in boyhood. He is, as he said, the first blind +man who ever successfully painted pictures.' + +Unfortunately, Haydon's self-denial in painting portraits was not well +rewarded, for commissions were few, and the clouds began to gather +again. One of his sitters had to be appealed to for money for coals, +and if such appeals were frequent, the scarcity of sitters was hardly +surprising. On one occasion he pawned all his books, except a few old +favourites, for three pounds, and entries like the following are of +almost daily occurrence in the Journal:--'Obliged to go out in the +rain, I left my room with no coals in it, and no money to buy any.... +Not a shilling in the world. Sold nothing, and not likely to. Baker +called, and was insolent. If he were to stop the supplies, God knows +what would become of my children! Landlord called--kind and sorry. +Butcher called, respectful, but disappointed. Tailor good--humoured, +and willing to wait.... Walked about the town. I was so full of grief, +I could not have concealed it at home.' + +In the midst of all his harassing anxieties, Haydon was untiring in +his efforts to obtain employment of the heroic kind that his soul +craved. He had begun to realise that he had small chance of disposing +of huge historical pictures to private patrons, and that his only hope +rested with the Government. Even while confined in prison he had +persuaded Brougham to present a petition to the House of Commons +setting forth the desirability of appointing a Committee to inquire +into the state of national art, and by a regular distribution of a +small portion of the public funds, to give public encouragement to the +professors of historical painting. No sooner did he regain his freedom +than Haydon attacked Sir Charles Long with a plan for the decoration +of the great room of the Admiralty, to be followed by the decoration +of the House of Lords and St. Paul's Cathedral. This was but the +beginning of a long series of impassioned pleadings with public men in +favour of national employment for historical painters. Silence, snubs, +formal acknowledgments, curt refusals, all were lost upon Haydon, who +kept pouring in page after page of agonised petition on Sir Charles +Long, the Duke of Wellington, Lord Grey, Lord Melbourne, and Sir +Robert Peel, and seemed to be making no way with any of them. + +Haydon thought himself ill-used, throughout his life, by statesmen and +patrons, and many of his friends were of the same opinion. But both he +and they ignored the fact that it is impossible to create an +artificial market for works of art for which there is no spontaneous +popular demand. A despotic prince may, if he chooses, give his court +painter _carte blanche_ for the decorations of national buildings, +and gain nothing but glory for his liberality, even when it +is exercised at the expense of his people. But in a country that +possesses a constitutional government, more especially when that +country has been impoverished by long and costly wars, the minister +who devotes large sums to the encouragement of national art has the +indignation of an over-taxed populace to reckon with. It is little +short of an insult to offer men historic frescoes when they are +clamouring for bread. Haydon was unfortunate in his period, which was +not favourable for a crusade on behalf of high art. The recent +pacification of the Continent, and the opening up of its treasures, +tempted English noblemen and plutocrats to invest their money in old +masters to the neglect of native artists, who were only thought worthy +to paint portraits of their patrons' wives and children. We who have +inherited the Peel, the Angerstein, and the Hertford collections, can +scarcely bring ourselves to regret the sums that were lavished on +Flemish and Italian masterpieces, sums that might have kept our Barrys +and Haydons from bankruptcy. + +In January 1824 Haydon left his lodgings, and took the lease of a +house in Connaught Terrace, for which he paid, or promised to pay, a +hundred and twenty pounds a year, a heavy rent for a recently +insolvent artist. Fortunately, he acquired with the house a landlord +of amazing benevolence, who took pot-boilers in lieu of rent, and +meekly submitted to abuse when nothing else was forthcoming. As soon +as he was fairly settled, Haydon arranged the composition of a large +picture of 'Pharaoh dismissing Moses,' upon which he worked in the +intervals of portrait-painting. A curious and obviously impartial +sketch of him, as he appeared at this time, is drawn by Borrow in his +_Lavengro_. The hero's elder brother comes up to town, it may be +remembered, to commission a certain heroic artist to paint an heroic +picture of a very unheroic mayor of Norwich. The two brothers go +together to the painter of Lazarus, and have some difficulty in +obtaining admission to his studio, being mistaken by the servant for +duns. They found a man of about thirty-five, with a clever, +intelligent countenance, sharp grey eyes, and hair cut _à la_ +Raphael. He possessed, moreover, a broad chest, and would have been a +very fine figure if his legs had not been too short. He was then +engaged upon his Moses, whose legs, in Lavengro's opinion, were also +too short. His eyes glistened at the mention of a hundred pounds for +the mayor's portrait, and he admitted that he was confoundedly short +of money. The painter was anxious that Lavengro should sit to him for +his Plutarch, which honour that gentleman firmly declined. Years +afterwards he saw the portrait of the mayor, a 'mighty portly man, +with a bull's head, black hair, a body like a dray horse, and legs and +thighs corresponding; a man six foot high at the least. To his bull's +head, black hair and body, the painter had done justice; there was one +point, however, in which the portrait did not correspond with the +original--the legs were disproportionately short, the painter having +substituted his own legs for those of the mayor, which, when I +perceived, I rejoiced that I had not consented to be painted as +Pharaoh, for if I had, the chances are that he would have served me in +exactly the same way as he had served Moses and the mayor.' + +The painting of provincial mayors was so little to Haydon's taste that +by the close of this year we find him in deep depression of spirits, +unrelieved by even a spark of his old sanguine buoyancy. 'I candidly +confess,' he writes, 'I find my glorious art a bore. I cannot with +pleasure paint any individual head for the mere purpose of domestic +gratification. I must have a great subject to excite public +feeling.... Alas! I have no object in life now but my wife and +children, and almost wish I had not them, that I might sit still and +meditate on human grandeur and human ambition till I died.... I am not +yet forty, and can tell of a destiny melancholy and rapturous, bitter +beyond all bitterness, cursed, heart-breaking, maddening. But I dare +not write now. The melancholy demon has grappled my heart, and crushed +its turbulent beatings in his black, bony, clammy, clenching fingers.' + +It was just when things seemed at their darkest, when the waters +threatened to overwhelm the unfortunate artist, that a rope was thrown +to him. His legal adviser, Mr. Kearsley, a practical and prosperous +man, came forward with an offer of help. He agreed to provide £300 for +one year on certain conditions, in order that Haydon might be freed +from pressure for that period, and be in a position to ask a fair +price for his work. When not engaged on portraits, he was to paint +historical pictures of a saleable size. The advance was to be secured +on a life insurance, and to be repaid out of the sale of the pictures, +with interest at four per cent. This offer was accepted with some +reluctance, and the following year was one of comparative peace and +quiet. The Journal gives evidence of greater ease of mind, and renewed +pleasure in work. Haydon's love for his wife waxed rather than waned +with the passing of the years, and his children, of whom he too soon +had the poor man's quiverful, were an ever-present delight. 'My +domestic happiness is doubled,' he writes about this time. 'Daily and +hourly my sweet Mary proves the justice of my choice. My boy Frank +gives tokens of being gifted at two years old, God bless him! My +ambition would be to make him a public man.... I have got into my old +delightful habits of study again. The mixture of literature and +painting I really think the perfection of human happiness. I paint a +head, revel in colour, hit an expression, sit down fatigued, take up a +poet or historian, write my own thoughts, muse on the thoughts of +others, and hours, troubles, and the tortures of disappointed ambition +pass and are forgotten.' + +Portraits, and one or two commissions for small pictures, kept Haydon +afloat throughout this year, but a widespread commercial distress in +the early part of 1826 affected his gains, and in February he records +that for the last five weeks he has been suffering the tortures of the +Inferno. He was persuaded, much against his will, to send his pictures +to the Academy, and he was proportionately annoyed at the adverse +criticism that greeted his attempts at portraiture. This attack he +regarded as the result of a deep-laid plot to injure him in a +lucrative branch of his art. He consoled himself by beginning a large +picture of 'Alexander taming Bucephalus,' the 'finest subject on +earth.' Through his friend and opposite neighbour, Carew the sculptor, +Haydon made an appeal to Lord Egremont, that generous patron of the +arts, for help or employment, in response to which Lord Egremont +promised to call and see the Alexander. There is a pathetic touch in +the account of this visit, on which so much depended. Lord Egremont +called at Carew's house on his way, and Haydon, who saw him go in, +relates that 'Dear Mary and I were walking on the leads, and agreed +that it would not be quite right to look too happy, being without a +sixpence; so we came in, I to the parlour to look through the blinds, +and she to the nursery.' Happily, the patron was favourably impressed +by the picture, and promised to give £600 for it when it was finished. +In order to pay his models Haydon was obliged to pawn one of his two +lay-figures, since he could not bring himself to part with any more +books. 'I may do without a lay-figure for a time,' he writes, 'but not +without old Homer. The truth is I am fonder of books than of anything +on earth. I consider myself a man of great powers, excited to an art +which limits their exercise. In politics, law, or literature they +would have had a full and glorious swing, and I should have secured a +competence.' + +The fact that Haydon was more at home among the literary men of his +acquaintance than among his fellow-artists was a natural result of his +intense love of books, and his keen interest in contemporary history. +And it is evident that his own character and work impressed his +poetical friends, for we find that not only Wordsworth and Keats, but +Leigh Hunt, Charles Lamb, Miss Mitford, and Miss Barrett addressed to +him admiring verses. For Byron, whom he never knew, Haydon cherished +an ardent admiration, and the following interesting passage, comparing +that poet with Wordsworth, occurs in one of his letters to Miss +Mitford, who had criticised Byron's taste:-- + +'You are unjust, depend upon it,' he writes, 'in your estimate of +Byron's poetry, and wrong in ranking Wordsworth beyond him. There are +things in Byron's poetry so exquisite that fifty or five hundred years +hence they will be read, felt, and adored throughout the world. I +grant that Wordsworth is very pure, very holy, very orthodox, and +occasionally very elevated, highly poetical, and oftener insufferably +obscure, starched, dowdy, anti-human, and anti-sympathetic, but he +never will be ranked above Byron, nor classed with Milton.... I +dislike his selfish Quakerism, his affectation of superior virtue, his +utter insensibility to the frailties, the beautiful frailties of +passion. I was walking with him once in Pall Mall; we darted into +Christie's. In the corner of the room was a beautiful copy of the +"Cupid and Psyche" (statues) kissing. Cupid is taking her lovely chin, +and turning her pouting mouth to meet his, while he archly bends down, +as if saying, "Pretty dear!"... Catching sight of the Cupid as he and +I were coming out, Wordsworth's face reddened, he showed his teeth, +and then said in a loud voice, "_The Dev-v-vils!_" There's a +mind! Ought not this exquisite group to have softened his heart as +much as his old, grey-mossed rocks, his withered thorn, and his +dribbling mountain streams? I am altered very much about Wordsworth +from finding him too hard, too elevated, to attend to the voice of +humanity. No, give me Byron with all his spite, hatred, depravity, +dandyism, vanity, frankness, passion, and idleness, rather than +Wordsworth with all his heartless communion with woods and grass.' + +An attempt on Haydon's part to reconcile himself with his old enemies, +the Academicians, ended in failure. He heads his account of the +transaction, 'The disgrace of my life.' He was received with cold +civility by the majority of the artists to whom he paid conciliatory +visits, and when he put his name down for election, he received not a +single vote. A more agreeable memory of this year was a visit to +Petworth, where, as he records, with Pepysian _naiveté_, 'Lord +Egremont has placed me in one of the most magnificent bedrooms I ever +saw. It speaks more of what he thinks of my talents than anything that +ever happened to me.... What a destiny is mine! One year in the King's +Bench, the companion of gamblers and scoundrels--sleeping in +wretchedness and dirt on a flock-bed--another reposing in down and +velvet in a splendid apartment in a splendid house, the guest of rank, +fashion, and beauty.' Haydon's painting-room was now, as he loved to +see it, crowded with distinguished visitors, who were anxious to +inspect the picture of Alexander before it was sent to the Exhibition. +Among them came Charles Lamb, who afterwards set down some impressions +and suggestions in the following characteristic fashion:-- + + +'DEAR RAFFAELE HAYDON, + +'Did the maid tell you I came to see your picture? I think the face +and bearing of the Bucephalus-tamer very noble, his flesh too +effeminate or painty.... I had small time to pick out praise or blame, +for two lord-like Bucks came in, upon whose strictures my presence +seemed to impose restraint; I plebeian'd off therefore. + +'I think I have hit on a subject for you, but can't swear it was never +executed--I never heard of its being--"Chaucer beating a Franciscan +Friar in Fleet Street." Think of the old dresses, houses, etc. "It +seemeth that both these learned men (Gower and Chaucer) were of the +Inner Temple; for not many years since Master Buckley did see a record +in the same house where Geoffrey Chaucer was fined two shillings for +beating a Franciscan Friar in Fleet Street."--_Chaucer's Life, by T. +Speght_.--Yours in haste (salt fish waiting). + +'C. LAMB.' + +In June Haydon was again arrested, and imprisoned in the King's Bench. +Once more he appealed to Parliament by a petition presented by +Brougham, and to the public through letters to the newspapers. +Parliament and the larger public turned a deaf ear, but private +friends rallied to his support. Scott, himself a ruined man, sent a +cheque and a charming letter of sympathy, while Lockhart suggested +that a subscription should be raised to buy one or more pictures. A +public meeting of sympathisers was convened, at which it was stated +that Haydon's debts amounted to £1767, while his only available asset +was an unfinished picture of the 'Death of Eucles.' Over a hundred +pounds was subscribed in the room, and it was decided that the Eucles +should be raffled in ten-pound shares. The result of these efforts was +the release of the prisoner at the end of July. + +During this last term of imprisonment Haydon witnessed the masquerade, +or mock election by his fellow-prisoners, and instantly decided that +he would paint the scene, which offered unique opportunities for both +humour and pathos. This picture, Hogarthian in type, was finished and +exhibited before the close of the year. The exhibition was moderately +successful, but the picture did not sell, and Haydon was once more +sinking into despair, when the king expressed a desire to have the +work sent down to Windsor for his inspection. Hopes were raised high +once more, and this time were not disappointed. George IV. bought the +'Mock Election,' and promptly paid the price of five hundred guineas. +Thus encouraged, Haydon set to work with renewed spirit on a companion +picture, 'Chairing the Member,' which was finished and exhibited, with +some earlier works, in the course of the summer. The king refused to +buy the new work, but it found a purchaser at £300, and the net +receipts from the two pictures and their exhibition amounted to close +upon £1400, a sum which, observes Haydon, in better circumstances and +with less expense, would have afforded a comfortable independence for +the year! + +The Eucles occupied the artist during the remainder of 1828, and early +in 1829 he began a new Hogarthian subject, a Punch and Judy show. He +was still painting portraits when he could get sitters, and on April +15, he notes: 'Finished one cursed portrait--have only one more to +touch, and then I shall be free. I have an exquisite gratification in +painting portraits wretchedly. I love to see the sitters look as if +they thought, "Can this be Haydon's--the great Haydon's painting?" I +chuckle. I am rascal enough to take their money, and chuckle more.' It +must be owned that Haydon thoroughly deserved his ill-success in this +branch of his art. When 'Punch' was finished the king sent for it to +Windsor, but though he admired, he did not buy, and the picture +eventually passed into the possession of Haydon's old friend, Dr. +Darling, who had helped him out of more than one difficulty. A large +representation of 'Xenophon and the Retreat of the Ten Thousand' was +now begun, but before it was finished the painter was once more in +desperate straits. In vain he sent up urgent petitions to his Maker +that he might be enabled to go through with this great work, +explaining in a parenthesis, 'It will be my greatest,' and concluding, +'Bless its commencement, its progress, its conclusion, and its effect, +for the sake of the intellectual elevation of my great and glorious +country.' + +In May 1830, Haydon was back again in the King's Bench, where he had +begun to feel quite at home. He presented yet another of his +innumerable petitions to Parliament in favour of Government +encouragement of historical painting, through Mr. Agar Ellis, but as +the ministry showed no desire to encourage this particular historical +painter, he passed through the Bankruptcy Court, and returned to his +family on the 20th of July. During his period of detention, George IV. +had died, and Haydon has the following comment on the event:--'Thus +died as thoroughbred an Englishman as ever existed in this country. He +admired her sports, gloried in her prejudices, had confidence in her +bottom and spirit, and to him alone is the destruction of Napoleon +owing. I have lost in him my sincere admirer; and had not his wishes +been continually thwarted, he would have given me ample and adequate +employment.' + +Although Haydon had regained his freedom, his chance of maintaining +himself and his rapidly increasing family by his art seemed as far +away as ever. By October 15th he is at his wits' end again, and writes +in his Journal: 'The harassings of a family are really dreadful. Two +of my children are ill, and Mary is nursing. All night she was +attending to the sick and hushing the suckling, with a consciousness +that our last shilling was going. I got up in the morning +bewildered--Xenophon hardly touched--no money--butcher impudent--all +tradesmen insulting. I took up my private sketch-book and two prints +of Napoleon (from a small picture of 'Napoleon musing at St. Helena') +and walked into the city. Hughes advanced me five guineas on the +sketch-book; I sold my prints, and returned home happy with £8, 4s. in +my pocket.... (25th) Out selling my prints. Sold enough for +maintenance for the week. Several people looked hard at me with my +roll of prints, but I feel more ashamed in borrowing money than in +honestly selling my labours. It is a pity the nobility drive me to +this by their neglect.' + +In December came another stroke of good-luck. Sir Robert Peel called +at the studio, and gave the artist a commission to paint, on a larger +scale, a replica of his small sketch of 'Napoleon at St. Helena.' +Unluckily, there was a misunderstanding about the price. Peel asked +how much Haydon charged for a whole length figure, and was told a +hundred pounds, which was the price of an ordinary portrait. Taking +this to be the charge for the Napoleon, he paid no more. Haydon, who +considered the picture well worth £500, was bitterly disappointed, and +took no pains to conceal his feelings. Peel afterwards sent him an +extra thirty pounds, but the subject remained a grievance to Haydon +for the rest of his life, and Peel, who had intended to do the artist +a good turn, was so annoyed by his complaints, that he never gave him +another commission. The Napoleon, though its exhibition was not a +success, was one of Haydon's most popular pictures, and the engraving +is well known. Wordsworth admired it exceedingly, and on June 12, sent +the artist the 'Sonnet to B. R. Haydon, composed on seeing his picture +of Napoleon in the island of St. Helena,' beginning: + + 'Haydon! let worthier judges praise the skill.' + +The close of this year was a melancholy period to poor Haydon. He lost +his little daughter, Fanny, and his third son, Alfred, was gradually +fading away. Out of eight children born to this most affectionate of +fathers, no fewer than five died in infancy from suffusion of the +brain, due, it was supposed, to the terrible mental distresses of +their mother. 'I can remember,' writes Frederick Haydon, one of the +three survivors, 'the roses of her sunken cheeks fading away daily +with anxiety and grief. My father, who was passionately attached to +both wife and children, suffered the tortures of the damned at the +sight before him. His sorrow over the deaths of his children was +something more than human. I remember watching him as he hung over his +daughter Georgiana, and over his dying boy Harry, the pride and +delight of his life. Poor fellow, how he cried! and he went into the +next room, and beating his head passionately on the bed, called upon +God to take him and all of us from this dreadful world. The earliest +and most painful death was to be preferred to our life at that time.' + +By dint of borrowing in every possible quarter, generally at forty per +cent. interest, and inducing his patrons to take shares in his +Xenophon, Haydon managed to get through the winter, though his +children were often without stockings. William IV. consented to place +his name at the head of the subscribers' list, and Goethe wrote a +flattering letter, expressing his desire to take a ticket for the +'very valuable painting,' and assuring the artist that 'my soul has +been elevated for many years by the contemplation of the important +pictures (the cartoons from the Elgin Marbles) formerly sent to me, +which occupy an honourable station in my house.' Xenophon was +exhibited in the spring of 1832 without attracting much attention, the +whole nation being engrossed with the subject of Reform. Haydon, +though a high Tory by birth and inclination, was an ardent champion of +the Bill, as he had been for that of Catholic Emancipation. His brush +was once more exchanged for the pen, and he not only poured out his +thoughts upon Reform in his Journal, but wrote several letters on the +subject to the _Times_, which he considered the most wonderful +compositions of the kind that had ever been penned. After the passing +of the Bill he congratulates himself upon having contributed to the +grand result, and adds: 'When my colours have faded, my canvas +decayed, and my body has mingled with the earth, these glorious +letters, the best things I ever wrote, will awaken the enthusiasm of +my countrymen. I thanked God I lived in such a time, and that he +gifted me with talent to serve the great cause.' + +On reading the account of the monster meeting of the Trades Unions at +Newhall Hill, Birmingham, it occurred to Haydon that the moment when +the vast concourse joined in the sudden prayer offered up by Hugh +Hutton, would make a fine subject for a picture. Accordingly, he wrote +to Hutton, and laid the suggestion before him. The Birmingham leaders +were attracted by the idea, and the picture was begun, but support of +a material kind was not forthcoming, and the scheme had to be +abandoned. Lord Grey then suggested that Haydon should paint a picture +of the great Reform Banquet, which was to be held in the Guildhall on +July 11. The proposal was exactly to the taste of the public-spirited +artist, who saw fame and fortune beckoning to him once more, and +fancied that his future was assured. He was allowed every facility on +the great day, breakfasted and dined with the Committee at the +Guildhall, was treated with distinction by the noble guests, many of +whom sent to take wine with him as he sat at work, and in short, to +quote his own words, 'I was an object of great distinction without +five shillings in my pocket--and this is life!' + +Lord Grey, on seeing Haydon's sketches of the Banquet, gave him a +commission for the picture at a price of £500, half of which he paid +down at once, and thus saved the painter from the ruin that was again +impending. Then followed a period of triumphant happiness. The leading +men of the Liberal party sat for their heads, and Haydon had the +longed-for opportunity of pressing upon them his views about the +public encouragement of art by means of grants for the decoration of +national buildings. Although it does not appear that he made a single +convert, he was quite contented for the time being with the ready +access to ministers and noblemen that the occasion afforded him, and +his Journal is filled with expressions of his satisfaction. We hear of +Lord Palmerston's good-humoured elegance, Lord Lansdowne's amiability, +Lord Jeffrey's brilliant conversation, and, most delightful of all, +Lord Melbourne's frank, unaffected cordiality. Melbourne, it appears, +enjoyed his sittings, for he asked many questions about Hazlitt, Leigh +Hunt, Keats, and Shelley, and highly appreciated Haydon's anecdotes. +Needless to add, he did not allow himself to be bored by the artist's +theories. + +The sittings for the Reform picture continued through 1833, and the +early part of 1834. Haydon was kept in full employment, but domestic +sorrows marred his satisfaction in his interesting work. In less than +twelve months, he lost two sons, Alfred and Harry, the latter a child +of extraordinary promise. 'The death of this beautiful boy,' he +writes, 'has given my mind a blow I shall never effectually recover. I +saw him buried to-day, after passing four days sketching his dear head +in his coffin--his beautiful head. What a creature! With a brow like +an ancient god!' In August Haydon was arrested again, and hurried away +for a day and night of torture, during which, he confesses, he was +very near putting an end to himself; but advances from the Duke of +Cleveland and Mr. Ellice brought him release, and in a few hours he +was at home again, 'as happy and as hard at work as ever.' + +In April 1834, the Reform picture was exhibited, but the public was +not interested, and Haydon lost a considerable sum over the +exhibition. The price of the commission had long since gone to quiet +the clamours of his creditors. On May 12 he writes: 'It is really +lamentable to see the effect of success and failure on people of +fashion. Last year, all was hope, exultation, and promise with me. My +door was beset, my house besieged, my room inundated. It was an +absolute fight to get in to see me paint. Well, out came the work--the +public felt no curiosity--it failed, and my door is deserted, no +horses, no carriages. Now for executions, insults, misery, and +wretchedness.' Then follows the old story. 'June 7.--Mary and I in +agony of mind. All my Italian books, and some of my best historical +designs, are gone to a pawnbroker's. She packed up her best gowns and +the children's, and I drove away with what cost me £40, and got £4. +The state of degradation, humiliation, and pain of mind in which I sat +in that dingy back-room is not to be described.' + +Haydon now began a picture of 'Cassandra and Agamemnon,' and in July +he received a commission to finish it for the Duke of Sutherland, who +had more than once saved him from ruin. On this occasion the Duke's +advances barely sufficed to stave off disaster. Studies, prints, +clothes, and lay-figures were pawned to pay for the expenses of the +work, and on October comes the entry: 'Directly after the Duke's +letter came with its enclosed cheque, an execution was put in for the +taxes. I made the man sit for Cassandra's hand, and put on a Persian +bracelet. When the broker came for his money, he burst out laughing. +There was the fellow, an old soldier, pointing in the attitude of +Cassandra--up right and steady as if on guard. Lazarus' head was +painted just after an arrest; Eucles was finished from a man in +possession; the beautiful face in Xenophon, after a morning spent in +begging mercy of lawyers; and now Cassandra's head was finished in an +agony not to be described, and her hand completed from a broker's +man.' + + + + +PART III + + +On October 16, 1884, the Houses of Parliament were burned down. 'Good +God!' writes Haydon, 'I am just returned from the terrific burning of +the Houses of Parliament. Mary and I went in a cab, and drove over the +bridge. From the bridge it was sublime. We alighted, and went into a +public-house, which was full. The feeling among the people was +extraordinary--jokes and radicalism universal.... The comfort is that +there is now a better prospect of painting the House of Lords. Lord +Grey said there was no intention of taking the tapestry down; little +did he think how soon it would go.' Haydon's hopes now rose high. For +many years, as we have seen, he had been advocating, in season and out +of season, the desirability of decorating national buildings with +heroic paintings by native artists, and, with the need for new Houses +of Parliament, it seemed as if at last his cause might triumph. Once +more he attacked the good-humoured but unimpressionable Lord +Melbourne, and presented another petition to Parliament through Lord +Morpeth. But in any case it would be years before the new buildings +were ready for decoration, and in the meantime he would have been +entirely out of employment if his long-suffering landlord had not +allowed him to paint off a debt with a picture of 'Achilles at the +Court of Lycomedes.' + +In the summer of this year Mr. Ewart obtained his Select Committee to +inquire into the best means of extending a knowledge of the arts and +the principles of design among the people; and further, to inquire +into the constitution of the Royal Academy, and the effects produced +thereby. Haydon, overjoyed at such a sign of progress, determined to +aid the inquiry by giving a lecture on the subject at the London +Mechanics' Institute, under the auspices of Dr. Birkbeck. The lecture +was a success, for Haydon's natural earnestness and enthusiasm enabled +him to interest and impress an audience, and Dr. Birkbeck assured him +that he had made a 'hit.' This was the beginning of his career as a +lecturer, by which for several years he earned a small but regular +income. But meanwhile ruin was again staring him in the face. On +September 26 he writes: 'The agony of my necessities is really +dreadful. For this year I have principally supported myself by the +help of my landlord, and by pawning everything of value I have +left.... Lay awake in misery. Threatened on all sides. Doubtful +whether to apply to the Insolvent Court to protect me, or let ruin +come. Improved the picture, and not having a shilling, sent out a pair +of my spectacles, and got five shillings for the day. (29th) Sent the +tea-urn off the table, and got ten shillings for the day. Shall call +my creditors together. In God I trust.' + +The meeting of the creditors took place, and Haydon persuaded them to +grant him an extension of time until June, 1836. Thus relieved from +immediate anxiety he set to work on his picture with renewed zest. The +most remarkable trait about him, observes his son Frederick, was his +sanguine buoyancy of spirits. 'Nothing ever depressed him long. He was +the most persevering, indomitable man I ever met. With us at home he +was always confident of doing better next year. But that next year +never came.... Blest as he was with that peculiar faculty of genius +for overcoming difficulties, he might have found life tame without +them. I remember his saying once, he was not sure he did not relish +ruin as a source of increased activity of mind.' But the struggle had +begun to tell upon his powers, if not upon his spirits, and he was now +painting pictures for bread; repeating himself; despatching a work in +a few days that in better times he would have spent months over; ready +to paint small things, since great ones would not sell; fighting +misery at the point of his brush, and obliged to eke out a livelihood +by begging and borrowing, in default of worse expedients such as bills +and cognovits. A less elastic temperament and a less vigorous +constitution would have broken down in one year of such a fight. +Haydon kept it up for ten.' + +The first half of 1836 went by in the usual struggle, and in September +Haydon was thrown into prison for the fourth time. On November 17 he +passed through the Insolvency Court, and on the following Sunday he +records: 'Went to church, and returned thanks with all my heart and +soul for the great mercies of God to me and my family during my +imprisonment.... (29th) Set my palette to-day, the first time these +eleven weeks and three days. I relished the oil; could have tasted the +colour; rubbed my cheeks with the brushes, and kissed the palette. Ah, +could I be let loose in the House of Lords!' In the absence of +commissions, he now turned to lecturing as a means of support. He +lectured in Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham, as well as +in London, and did good service by agitating for the establishment of +local schools of design, and by arousing in the minds of the wealthy +middle classes some faint appreciation of the claims of art. + +A valuable result of these lectures was the extension of Haydon's +acquaintance among the shrewd merchant princes of the north, who +recognised his artistic sincerity, and were inclined to hold out to +him a helping hand. Through the influence of Mr. Lowndes, a Liverpool +art-patron, Haydon received a commission to paint a picture of 'Christ +blessing Little Children,' for the Blind Asylum at Liverpool, at a +price of £400. So elated was he at this unexpected piece of good +fortune that, with characteristic sanguineness, he seems to have +thought that all his troubles were at an end for ever. Even his pious +dependence on heavenly support diminished with his freedom from care, +and he notes in a Sunday entry: 'Went to church, but prosperity, +though it makes me grateful, does not cause me such perpetual +religious musings as adversity. When on a precipice, where nothing but +God's protection can save me, I delight in religious hope, but I am +sorry to say my religion ever dwindles unless kept alive by risk of +ruin. My piety is never so intense as when in a prison, and my +gratitude never so much alive as when I have just escaped from one.' + +The year 1838 passed in comparative peace and comfort. The picture for +the asylum was finished about the end of August, when Haydon +congratulated his Maker on the fact that he (Haydon) had paid his rent +and taxes, laid in his coals for the winter, and enjoyed health, +happiness, and freedom from debt--fresh debt, be it understood--ever +since this commission. Going down to Liverpool to hang his work, it +was proposed to him by Mr. Lowndes that he should paint a picture of +the Duke of Wellington on the field of Waterloo, twenty years after +the battle. This was a subject after Haydon's own heart, for the Duke +had always been his ideal hero, his king among men. Overflowing with +pride and delight, he prays that Providence will so bless this new +commission that 'the glorious city of Liverpool may possess the best +historical picture, and the grandest effort of my pencil in +portraiture. Inspired by history, I fear not making it the grandest +thing.' + +The Liverpool committee wrote to the Duke, to ask if he would consent +to give sittings to Haydon, and received a promise that he would sit +for his head as soon as time could be found. Meanwhile, Haydon set to +work upon the horse, which was copied from portraits of Copenhagen. +While he was thus engaged, D'Orsay called at the studio, and bestowed +advice and criticism upon the artist, which, for once, was thankfully +received. Haydon relates how D'Orsay 'took my brush in his dandy +glove, which made my heart ache, and lowered the hind-quarters by +bringing over a bit of the sky. Such a dress! white greatcoat, blue +satin cravat, hair oiled and curling, hat of the primest curve, gloves +scented with eau-de-Cologne, primrose in tint, skin in tightness. In +this prime of dandyism, he took up a nasty, oily, dirty hog-tool, and +immortalised Copenhagen by touching the sky. I thought after he was +gone, "This won't do--a Frenchman touch Copenhagen!" So out I rubbed +all he had touched, and modified his hints myself.' + +As there was no chance of the Duke's being able to sit at this time, +owing to the pressure of public business, Haydon made a flying visit +to Brussels, in order to get local colour for the field of Waterloo. A +few weeks later he was overjoyed at receiving an invitation to spend a +few days at Walmer, when the Duke promised to give the desired +sittings. On October 11, 1839, he went down 'by steam' to Walmer, +where he was heartily welcomed by his host. His Journal contains a +long and minute account of his visit, from which one or two anecdotes +may be quoted. Haydon's fellow-guests were Sir Astley Cooper, Mr. +Arbuthnot, and Mr. Booth. The first evening the conversation turned, +among other topics, upon the Peninsular War. 'The Duke talked of the +want of fuel in Spain-of what the troops suffered, and how whole +houses, so many to a division, were pulled down, and paid for, to +serve as fuel. He said every Englishman who has a house goes to bed at +night. He found bivouacking was not suitable to the character of the +English soldier. He got drunk, and lay down under any hedge, and +discipline was destroyed. But when he introduced tents, every soldier +belonged to his tent, and, drunk or sober, he got to it before he went +to sleep. I said, "Your grace, the French always bivouac." "Yes," he +replied, "because French, Spanish, and all other nations lie anywhere. +It is their habit. They have no homes."' + +The next morning, after his return from hunting, the Duke gave a first +sitting of an hour and a half. 'I hit his grand, manly, upright +expression,' writes Haydon. 'He looked like an eagle of the gods who +had put on human shape, and got silvery with age and service.... I +found that to imagine he could not go through any duty raised the +lion. "Does the light hurt your grace's eyes?" "Not at all," and he +stared at the light as much as to say, "I'll see if you shall make me +give in, Signor Light." 'Twas a noble head. I saw nothing of that +peculiar expression of mouth the sculptors give him, bordering on +simpering. His colour was beautiful and fleshy, his lips compressed +and energetic.' The next day, being Sunday, there was no sitting, but +Haydon was charmed at sharing a pew with his hero, and deeply moved by +the simplicity and humility with which he followed the service. +'Arthur Wellesley in the village church of Walmer,' he writes, 'was +more interesting to me than at the last charge of the Guards at +Waterloo, or in all the glory and paraphernalia of his entry into +Paris.' + +It is probable that the Duke was afraid of being attacked by Haydon on +the burning question of a State grant for the encouragement of +historical painting, a subject about which he had received and +answered many lengthy letters, for on each evening, when there was no +party, he steadily read a newspaper, the _Standard_ on Saturday, +and the _Spectator_ on Sunday, while his guest watched him in +silent admiration. On the Monday morning, the hero came in for another +sitting, looking extremely worn, his skin drawn tight over his face, +his eyes watery and aged, his head slightly nodding. 'How altered from +the fresh old man after Saturday's hunting,' says Haydon. 'It affected +me. He looked like an aged eagle beginning to totter from its perch.' +A second sitting in the afternoon concluded the business, and early +next morning Haydon left for town. 'It is curious,' he comments, 'to +have known thus the two great heads of the two great parties, the Duke +and Lord Grey. I prefer the Duke infinitely. He is more manly, has no +vanity, is not deluded by any flattery or humbug, and is in every way +a grander character, though Lord Grey is a fine, amiable, venerable, +vain man.' + +During the remainder of the year, Haydon worked steadily, and finished +his picture. On December 2 he notes: 'It is now twenty-seven years +since I ordered my Solomon canvas. I was young--twenty-six. The whole +world was against me. I had not a farthing. Yet I remember the delight +with which I mounted my deal table and dashed it in, singing and +trusting in God, as I always do. When one is once imbued with that +clear heavenly confidence, there is nothing like it. It has carried me +through everything. I think my dearest Mary has not got it; I do not +think women have in general. Two years ago I had not a farthing, +having spent it all to recover her health. She said to me, "What are +we to do, my dear?" I replied, "Trust in God." There was something +like a smile on her face. The very next day came the order for £400 +from Liverpool, and ever since I have been employed.' Alas, poor Mary! +who had been chiefly occupied in bearing children and burying them, +that must have been rather a melancholy smile upon her faded face. + +During the first part of 1840, Haydon seems to have been chiefly +engaged in lecturing, the only picture on the stocks being a small +replica of his Napoleon Musing for the poet Rogers. In February he was +enabled to carry out one of the dreams of his life, namely, the +delivery of a series of lectures upon art in the Ashmolean Museum at +Oxford, under the patronage of the Vice-Chancellor. The experiment was +a triumphant success, and he exclaims, with his usual pious fervour, +'O God, how grateful ought I to be at being permitted the distinction +of thus being the first to break down the barrier which has kept art +begging to be heard at the Universities.' He describes the occasion as +one of the four chief honours of his life, the other three being +Wordsworth's sonnet, 'High is our calling,' the freedom of his native +town, and a public dinner that was given in his honour at Edinburgh. +On March 14 he arrived home, 'full of enthusiasm and expecting (like +the Vicar of Wakefield) every blessing--expecting my dear Mary to hang +about my neck, and welcome me after my victory; when I found her out, +not calculating I should be home till dinner. I then walked into town, +and when I returned she was at home, and hurt that I did not wait, so +this begat mutual allusions which were anything but loving or happy. +So much for anticipations of human happiness!' + +On June 12,1840, Haydon notes: 'Excessively excited and exhausted. I +attended the great Convention of the Anti-Slavery Society at +Freemasons' Hall. Last Wednesday a deputation called on me from the +Committee, saying they wished for a sketch of the scene. The meeting +was very affecting. Poor old Clarkson was present, with delegates from +America, and other parts of the world.' A few days later, Haydon +breakfasted with Clarkson, and sketched him with 'an expression of +indignant humanity.' In less than a week fifty heads were dashed in, +the picture, when finished, containing no fewer than a hundred and +thirty-eight; in fact, as the artist remarked, with a curious +disregard of natural history, it was all heads, like a peacock's tail. +Haydon took a malicious pleasure in suggesting to his sitters that he +should place them beside the negro delegate; this being his test of +their sincerity. Thus he notes on June 30: 'Scobell called. I said, "I +shall place you, Thompson, and the negro together." Now an +abolitionist, on thorough principle, would have gloried in being so +placed. He sophisticated immediately on the propriety of placing the +negro in the distance, as it would have much greater effect. Lloyd +Garrison comes to-day. I'll try him, and this shall be my method of +ascertaining the real heart.... Garrison met me directly. George +Thompson said he saw no objection. But that was not enough. A man who +wishes to place a negro on a level with himself must no longer regard +him as having been a slave, and feel annoyed at sitting by his side.' +A visit to Clarkson at Playford Hall, Ipswich, was an interesting +experience. Clarkson told the story of his vision, and the midnight +voice that said 'You have not done your work. There is America.' +Haydon had been a believer all his life in such spiritual +communications, and declares, 'I have been so acted on from seventeen +to fifty-five, for the purpose of reforming and refining my great +country in art.' + +In 1841 the Fine Arts Committee appointed to consider the question of +the decoration of the new Houses of Parliament, sat to examine +witnesses, but Haydon was not summoned before them, a slight which he +deeply felt. With an anxious heart he set about making experiments in +fresco, and was astonished at what he regarded as his success in this +new line of endeavour. During the past year, the Anti-Slavery +Convention picture, and one or two small commissions, had kept his +head above water, but now the clouds were beginning to gather again, +his difficulties being greatly increased by the fact that he had two +sons to start in the world. The eldest, Frank, had been apprenticed, +at his own wish, to an engineering firm, but tiring of his chosen +profession, he desired to take orders, and, as a university career was +considered a necessary preliminary to this course, he was entered at +Caius College, Cambridge. The second son, Frederick, Haydon fitted out +for the navy, and in order to meet these heavy extra expenses, he was +compelled to part with his copyright of the 'Duke at Waterloo' for a +wholly inadequate sum. + +In the spring of 1842 the Fine Arts Commission issued a notice of the +conditions for the cartoon competition, intended to test the capacity +of native artists for the decoration of the House of Lords. The joy +with which Haydon welcomed this first step towards the object which he +had been advocating throughout the whole of his working life, was +marred by the painful misgiving that he would not be allowed to share +the fruits of victory. When he had first begun his crusade, he had +felt himself without a rival in his own branch of art, not one of his +contemporaries being able to compete with him in a knowledge of +anatomy, in strength of imagination, or in the power of working on a +grand scale. But now he was fifty-six years old, there were younger +men coming on who had been trained in the principles of his own +school, and he was painfully aware that he had made many enemies in +high places. Still, in spite of all forebodings, he continued his +researches in fresco-painting, and wrote vehement letters to the +papers, protesting against the threatened employment of Cornelius and +other German artists. + +During this year Haydon was working intermittently at two or three +large pictures, 'Alexander conquering the Lion,' 'Curtius leaping into +the Gulf,' and the 'Siege of Saragossa,' for the days were long past +when one grand composition occupied him for six years. That the wolf +was once again howling at the door is evidenced by the entry for +February 6. 'I got up yesterday, after lying awake for several hours +with all the old feelings of torture at want of money. A bill coming +due of £44 for my boy Frank at Caius. Three commissions for £700 put +off till next year. My dear Mary's health broken up.... I knew if my +debt to the tutor of Caius was not paid, the mind of my son Frank +would be destroyed, from his sensitiveness to honour and right. As he +is now beating third-year men, I dreaded any check.' In these straits +he hastily painted one or two small pot-boilers, borrowed, deferred, +pawned his wife's watch, and had the satisfaction of bringing his son +home 'crowned as first-prize man in mathematics.' For one who was in +the toils of the money-lenders, who was only living from hand to +mouth, and who had never made an investment in his life, to give his +son a university career, must be regarded, according to individual +feeling, either as a proof of presumptuous folly or of childlike trust +in Providence. + +As soon as his pictures were off his hands, Haydon began his +competition cartoons of 'The Curse of Adam and Eve,' and 'The Entry of +Edward the Black Prince and King John into London.' He felt that it +was beneath his dignity as a painter of recognised standing to compete +with young unknown men who had nothing to lose, but in his present +necessities the chance of winning one of the money prizes was not to +be neglected. In the absence of any lucrative employment he was only +able to carry on his work by pawning his lay-figure, and borrowing off +his butterman. Small wonder that he exclaims: 'The greatest curse that +can befall a father in England is to have a son gifted with a passion +and a genius for high art. Thank God with all my soul and all my +nature, my children have witnessed the harrowing agonies under which I +have ever painted, and the very name of painting, the very thought of +a picture, gives them a hideous taste in their mouths. Thank God, not +one of my boys, nor my girl, can draw a straight line, even with a +ruler, much less without one.' + +In the course of this year Haydon began a correspondence with Miss +Barrett, afterwards Mrs. Browning, with whom he was never personally +acquainted, though he knew her through her poems, and through the +allusions to her in the letters of their common friend, Miss Mitford. +The paper friendship flourished for a time, and Haydon, who was a keen +judge of character, recognised that here was a little Donna Quixote +whose chivalry could be depended on in time of trouble. More than +once, when threatened with arrest, he sent her paintings and +manuscripts, of which she took charge with sublime indifference to the +fact that by so doing she might be placing herself within reach of the +arm of the law. One of the pictures that were placed in her +guardianship was an unfinished portrait of 'Wordsworth musing upon +Helvellyn.' Miss Barrett was inspired by this work with the sonnet +beginning: + + 'Wordsworth upon Helvellyn! Let the cloud + Ebb audibly along the mountain wind'; + +and concluding with the fine tribute: + + 'A vision free + And noble, Haydon, hath thine art released. + No portrait this with academic air, + This is the poet and his poetry.' + +The year 1843 brought, as Haydon's biographer points out, 'the +consummation of what he had so earnestly fought for, a competition of +native artists to prove their capability for executing great +monumental and decorative works; but with this came his own bitter +disappointment at not being among the successful competitors. In all +his struggles up to this point, Haydon had the consolation of hope +that better times were coming. But now the good time for art was at +hand, and he was passed over. The blow fell heavily--indeed, I may +say, was mortal. He tried to cheat himself into the belief that the +old hostile influences to which he attributed all his misfortunes, had +been working here also, and that he should yet rise superior to their +malice. He would not admit to himself that his powers were +impaired--that he was less fit for great achievements in his art than +he had been when he painted Solomon and Lazarus. But if he held this +opinion, he held it alone. It was apparent to all, even to his warmest +friends, that years of harass, humiliation, distraction, and conflict +had enfeebled his energies, and led him to seek in exaggeration the +effect he could no longer attain by well-measured force. His restless +desire to have a hand in all that was projected for art, had wearied +those in authority. He had shown himself too intractable to follow, +and he had not inspired that confidence which might have given him a +right to lead.' + +Although Haydon loudly proclaimed his conviction that, in face of the +hostility against him, his cartoons would not be successful, even +though they were as perfect as Raphael's, yet it is obvious that he +had not altogether relinquished hope. In a letter to his old pupil, +Eastlake, who was secretary to the Fine Arts Commission, he says: 'I +appeal to the Royal Commission, to the First Lord, to you the +secretary, to Barry the architect, if I ought not to be indulged in my +hereditary right to do this, viz., that when the houses are ready, +cartoons done, colours mixed, and all at their posts, I shall be +allowed, _employed_ or _not employed_, to take the brush, and +dip into the _first_ colour, and put the _first_ touch on the +_first_ intonaco. If that is not granted, I'll haunt every noble +Lord and you, till you join my disturbed spirit on the banks of +the Styx.' + +On June 1, Haydon placed his two cartoons in Westminster Hall, and +thanked his God that he had lived to see that day, adding with +unconscious blasphemy, 'Spare my life, O Lord, until I have shown thy +strength unto this generation, thy power unto that which is to come.' +The miracle for which he had secretly hoped, while declaring his +certainty of failure, did not happen. On June 27 he heard from +Eastlake that his cartoons were not among those chosen for reward. +Half stunned by the blow, anticipated though it had been, he makes but +few comments on the news in his Journal, and those are written in a +composed and reasonable tone. 'I went to bed last night in a decent +state of anxiety,' he observes. 'It has given a great shock to my +family, especially to my dear boy, Frank, and revived all the old +horrors of arrest, execution, and debt. It is exactly what I expected, +and is, I think, intentional.... I am wounded, and being ill from +confinement, it shook me. (_July 1st_) A day of great misery. I +said to my dear love, "I am not included." Her expression was a study. +She said, "We shall be ruined." I looked up my letters, papers, and +Journals, and sent them to my dear AEschylus Barrett. I burnt loads of +private letters, and prepared for executions. Seven pounds was raised +on my daughter's and Mary's dresses.' + +The three money prizes were awarded to Armitage, Cope, and Watts, but +it was announced that another competition, in fresco, would be held +the following year, when the successful competitors would be intrusted +with the decoration of the House of Lords. Haydon did not enter for +this competition, but, as will presently appear, he refused to allow +that he was beaten. On September 4 he removed his cartoons from +Westminster Hall, with the comment: 'Thus ends the cartoon contest; +and as the very first inventor and beginner of this mode of rousing +the people when they were pronounced incapable of relishing refined +works of art without colour, I am deeply wounded at the insult +inflicted. These Journals witness under what trials I began them--how +I called on my Creator for His blessing--how I trusted in Him, and how +I have been degraded, insulted, and harassed. O Lord! Thou knowest +best. I submit.' + +During the year Haydon had finished his picture of 'Alexander and the +Lion,' which he considered one of his finest works, though the British +Gallery declined to hang it, and no patron offered to buy it. He had +also painted for bread and cheese innumerable small replicas of +'Napoleon at St. Helena' and the 'Duke at Waterloo' for five guineas +apiece. By the beginning of 1844 his spirits had outwardly revived, +thanks to the anodyne of incessant labour, and he writes almost in the +old buoyant vein: 'Another day of work, God be thanked! Put in the sea +[in "Napoleon at St. Helena"]; a delicious tint. How exquisite is a +bare canvas, sized alone, to work on; how the slightest colour, thin +as water, tells; how it glitters in body; how the brush flies--now +here--now there; it seems as if face, hands, sky, thought, poetry, and +expression were hid in the handle, and streamed out as it touched the +canvas. What magic! what fire! what unerring hand and eye! what power! +what a gift of God! I bow, and am grateful.' On March 24 he came to +the fatal decision to paint his own original designs for the House of +Lords in a series of six large pictures, and exhibit them separately, +a decision founded, as he believed, on supernatural inspiration. +'Awoke this morning,' he writes, 'with that sort of audible whisper +Socrates, Columbus, and Tasso heard! "Why do you not paint your own +designs for the House on your own foundation, and exhibit them?" I +felt as if there was no chance of my ever being permitted to do them +else, without control also. I knelt up in my bed, and prayed heartily +to accomplish them, whatever might be the obstruction. I will begin +them as my next great works; I feel as if they will be my last, and I +think I shall then have done my duty. O God! bless the beginning, +progression, and conclusion of these six great designs to illustrate +the best government to regulate without cramping the energies of +mankind.' + +In July the frescoes sent in for competition were exhibited in +Westminster Hall, and in the result six artists were commissioned to +decorate the House of Lords, Maclise, Redgrave, Dyce, Cope, Horsley, +and Thomas. 'I see,' writes Haydon, 'they are resolved that I, the +originator of the whole scheme, shall have nothing to do with it; so I +will (trusting in the great God who has brought me thus far) begin on +my own inventions without employment.' The first of the series was +'Aristides hooted by the Populace,' and the conditions under which it +was painted are described in his annual review of the year's work: 'I +have painted a large Napoleon in four days and a half, six smaller +different subjects, three Curtiuses, five Napoleons Musing, three +Dukes and Copenhagens, George IV., and the Duke at Waterloo--half done +Uriel--published my lectures--and settled composition of Aristides. I +gave lectures at Liverpool, sometimes twice a day, and lectured at the +Royal Institution. I have not been idle, but how much more I might +have done!' + +In 1845 Haydon exhibited his picture of 'Uriel and Satan' at the +Academy, and 'after twenty-two years of abuse,' actually received a +favourable notice in the _Times_, For the Uriel he was paid £200, +but five other pictures remained upon his hands, their estimated value +amounting to nearly a thousand pounds, and he was left to work at his +_Aristides_ with barely ten shillings for current expenses, and +not a single commission in prospect. 'What a pity it is,' he observes, +'that a man of my order--sincerity, perhaps genius [in the Journal a +private note is here inserted, "not _perhaps_"], is not employed. +What honour, what distinction would I not confer on my great country! +However, it is my destiny to perform great things, not in consequence +of encouragement, but in spite of opposition, and so let it be.' In +the latter part of the year came one or two minor pieces of good +fortune for which Haydon professed the profoundest gratitude, +declaring that he was not good enough to deserve such blessings. The +King of Hanover bought a Napoleon for £200, and a pupil came, who paid +a like sum as premium. His son, Frank, who had taken his degree, +changed his mind again about his profession, and now 'shrank from the +publicity of the pulpit.' Haydon applied to Sir Robert Peel for an +appointment for the youth, and Peel, who seems to have shown the +utmost patience and kindness in his relations with the unfortunate +artist, at once offered a post in the Record Office at £80 a year, an +offer which was gladly accepted. + +Thus relieved of immediate care, Haydon set to work on the second +picture of his series, 'Nero playing the Lyre while Rome was burning.' +The effect of his conception, as he foresaw it in his mind's eye, was +so terrific that he 'fluttered, trembled, and perspired like a woman, +and was obliged to sit down.' Under all the anxiety, the pressure, and +the disappointment of Haydon's life, it must be remembered that there +were enormous compensations in the shape of days and hours of absorbed +and satisfied employment, days and hours such as seldom fall to the +lot of the average good citizen and solvent householder. The following +entry alone is sufficient proof that Haydon, even in his worst +straits, was almost as much an object of envy as of compassion: +'Worked with such intense abstraction and delight for eight hours, +with five minutes only for lunch, that though living in the noisiest +quarter of all London, I never remember hearing all day a single cart, +carriage, knock, cry, bark of man, woman, dog, or child. When I came +out into the sunshine I said to myself, "Why, what is all this driving +about?" though it has always been so for the last twenty-two years, so +perfectly, delightfully, and intensely had I been abstracted. If that +be not happiness, what is?' + +Haydon had now staked all his hopes upon the exhibition in the spring +of 1846 of the first two pictures in his series, 'Aristides' and +'Nero.' If the public flocked to see them, if it accorded him, as he +expected, its enthusiastic support, he hoped that the Commission would +be shamed into offering him public employment. If, on the other hand, +the exhibition failed, he must have realised that he would be +irretrievably ruined, with all his hopes for the future slain. +Everything was to be sacrificed to this last grand effort. 'If I lose +this moment for showing all my works,' he writes, 'it can never occur +again. My fate hangs on doing as I ought, and seizing moments with +energy. I shall never again have the opportunity of connecting myself +with a great public commission by opposition, and interesting the +public by the contrast. If I miss it, it will be a tide not taken at +the flood.' + +By dint of begging and borrowing, the money was scraped together for +the opening expenses of the exhibition, and Haydon composed a +sensational descriptive advertisement in the hope of attracting the +public. The private view was on April 4, when it rained all day, and +only four old friends attended. On April 6, Easter Monday, the public +was admitted, but only twenty-one availed themselves of the privilege. +For a few days Haydon went on hoping against hope that matters would +improve, and that John Bull, in whose support he had trusted, would +rally round him at last. But Tom Thumb was exhibiting next door, and +the historical painter had no chance against the pigmy. The people +rushed by in their thousands to visit Tom Thumb, but few stopped to +inspect 'Aristides' or 'Nero.' 'They push, they fight, they scream, +they faint,' writes Haydon, 'they see my bills, my boards, my +caravans, and don't read them. Their eyes are open, but their sense is +shut. It is an insanity, a rabies, a madness, a furor, a dream. Tom +Thumb had 12,000 people last week, B. R. Haydon 133 1/2 (the half a +little girl). Exquisite taste of the English people!... (_May,_ +18_th_) I closed my exhibition this day, and lost £111, 8s. 10d. +No man can accuse me of showing less energy, less spirit, less genius +than I did twenty-six years ago. I have not decayed, but the people +have been corrupted. I am the same, they are not; and I have suffered +in consequence.' + +In defiance of this shipwreck of all his hopes, and the heavy +liabilities that hung about his neck, this indomitable spirit began +the third picture of his unappreciated series, 'Alfred and the First +British Jury.' He had large sums to pay in the coming month, and only +a few shillings in the house, with no commissions in prospect. He +sends up passionate and despairing petitions that God will help him in +his dreadful necessities, will raise him friends from sources +invisible, and enable him to finish his last and greatest works. +Appeals for help to Lord Brougham, the Duke of Beaufort, and Sir +Robert Peel brought only one response, a cheque for £50 from Peel, +which was merely a drop in the ocean. Day by day went by, and still no +commissions came in, no offers for any of the large pictures he had on +hand. Haydon began to lose confidence in his ability to finish his +series, and with him loss of self-confidence was a fatal sign. The +June weather was hot, he was out of health, and unable to sleep at +night, but he declined to send for a doctor. His brain grew confused, +and at last even the power to work, that power which for him had spelt +pride and happiness throughout his whole life, seemed to be leaving +him. + +On June 16 he writes: 'I sat from two till five staring at my picture +like an idiot, my brain pressed down by anxiety, and the anxious looks +of my dear Mary and the children.... Dearest Mary, with a woman's +passion, wishes me at once to stop payment, and close the whole thing. +I will not. I will finish my six under the blessing of God, reduce my +expenses, and hope His mercy will not desert me, but bring me through +in health and vigour, gratitude and grandeur of soul, to the end.' The +end was nearer than he thought, for even Haydon's brave spirit could +not battle for ever with adverse fate, and the collapse, when it came, +was sudden. The last two or three entries in the Journal are +melancholy reading. + +'_June_ 18.--O God, bless me through the evils of this day. My +landlord, Newton, called. I said, "I see a quarter's rent in thy face, +but none from me." I appointed to-morrow night to see him, and lay +before him every iota of my position. Good-hearted Newton! I said, +"Don't put in an execution." "Nothing of the sort," he replied, half +hurt. I sent the Duke, Wordsworth, dear Fred and Mary's heads to Miss +Barrett to protect. I have the Duke's boots and hat, Lord Grey's coat, +and some more heads. + +'20_th_.--O God, bless us through all the evils of this day. +Amen. + +'21_st,_.--Slept horribly. Prayed in sorrow, and got up in +agitation. + +'22_nd_.--God forgive me. Amen. + + +FINIS OF B. R. HAYDON. + + '"Stretch me no longer on this rough world"--_Lear_.' + +This last entry was made between ten and eleven o'clock on the morning +of June 22. Haydon had risen early, and gone out to a gunmaker's in +Oxford Street, where he bought a pair of pistols. After breakfast, he +asked his wife to go and spend the day with an old friend, and having +affectionately embraced her, shut himself in his painting-room. Mrs. +Haydon left the house, and an hour later Miss Haydon went down to the +studio, intending to try and console her father in his anxieties. She +found him stretched on the floor in front of his unfinished picture of +'Alfred and the First Jury,' a bullet-wound in his head, and a +frightful gash across his throat. A razor and a small pistol lay by +his side. On the table were his Journal, open at the last page, +letters to his wife and children, his will, made that morning, and a +paper headed: 'Last thoughts of B. R. Haydon; half-past ten.' These +few lines, with their allusions to Wellington and Napoleon, are +characteristic of the man who had painted the two great soldiers a +score of times, and looked up to them as his heroes and exemplars. + +'No man should use certain evil for probable good, however great the +object,' so they run. 'Evil is the prerogative of the Deity. +Wellington never used evil if the good was not certain. Napoleon had +no such scruples, and I fear the glitter of his genius rather dazzled +me. But had I been encouraged, nothing but good would have come from +me, because when encouraged I paid everybody. God forgive me the evil +for the sake of the good. Amen.' + +This tragic conclusion to a still more tragic career created a +profound sensation in society, and immense crowds followed the +historical painter to his grave. Among all his friends, perhaps few +were more affected by his death than one who had never looked upon his +face--his 'dear Æschylus Barrett, 'as he called her. Certain it is +that, with the intuition of genius, Elizabeth Barrett understood, +appreciated, and made allowances for the unhappy man more completely +than was possible to any other of his contemporaries. Clear-sighted to +his faults and weaknesses, her chivalrous spirit took up arms in +defence of his conduct, even against the strictures of her poet-lover. +'The dreadful death of poor Mr. Haydon the artist,' she wrote to her +friend Mrs. Martin, a few days after the event, 'has quite upset me. I +thank God that I never saw him--poor gifted Haydon.... No artist is +left behind with equal largeness of poetical conception. If the hand +had always obeyed the soul, he would have been a genius of the first +order. As it is, he lived on the slope of genius, and could not be +steadfast and calm. His life was one long agony of self-assertion. +Poor, poor Haydon! See how the world treats those who try too openly +for its gratitude. "Tom Thumb for ever" over the heads of its giants.' + +'Could any one--_could my own hand even have averted what has +happened_?' she wrote to Robert Browning on June 24, 1846. 'My head +and heart have ached to-day over the inactive hand. But for the moment +it was out of my power, and then I never fancied this case to be more +than a piece of a continuous case, of a habit fixed. Two years ago he +sent me boxes and pictures precisely so, and took them back +again--poor, poor Haydon!--as he will not this time.... Also, I have +been told again and again (oh, never by _you_, my beloved) that +to give money _there_, was to drop it into a hole in the ground. +But if to have dropped it so, dust to dust, would have saved a living +man--what then?... Some day, when I have the heart to look for it, you +shall see his last note. I understand now that there are touches of +desperate pathos--but never could he have meditated self-destruction +while writing that note. He said he should write six more +lectures--six more volumes. He said he was painting a new background +to a picture which made him feel as if his soul had wings... and he +repeated an old phrase of his, which I had heard from him often +before, and which now rings hollowly to the ears of my memory--that he +_couldn't and wouldn't die_. Strange and dreadful!' + +Directly after Haydon's death a public meeting of his friends and +patrons was held, at which a considerable sum was subscribed for the +benefit of his widow and daughter. Sir Robert Peel, besides sending +immediate help, recommended the Queen to bestow a small pension on +Mrs. Haydon. The dead man's debts amounted to £3000, and his assets +consisted chiefly of unsaleable pictures, on most of which his +creditors had liens. In his will was a clause to the effect that 'I +have manuscripts and memoirs in the possession of Miss Barrett, of 50 +Wimpole Street, in a chest, which I wish Longman to be consulted +about. My memoirs are to 1820; my journals will supply the rest. The +style, the individuality of Richardson, which I wish not curtailed by +an editor.' Miss Mitford was asked to edit the Life, but felt herself +unequal to the task, which was finally intrusted to Mr. Tom Taylor. + +Haydon's _Memoirs_, compiled from his autobiography, journals, +and correspondence, appeared in 1853, the same year that saw the +publication of Lord John Russell's _Life of Thomas Moore_. To the +great astonishment of both critics and public, Haydon's story proved +the more interesting of the two. 'Haydon's book is the work of the +year,' writes Miss Mitford. 'It has entirely stopped the sale of +Moore's, which really might have been written by a Court newspaper or +a Court milliner.' Again, the _Athenæum_, a more impartial +witness, asks, 'Who would have thought that the Life of Haydon would +turn out a more sterling and interesting addition to English biography +than the Life of Moore?' But the highest testimony to the merits of +the book as a human document comes from Mrs. Browning, who wrote to +Miss Mitford on March 19, 1854, 'Oh, I have just been reading poor +Haydon's biography. There is tragedy! The pain of it one can hardly +shake off. Surely, surely, wrong was done somewhere, when the worst is +admitted of Haydon. For himself, looking forward beyond the grave, I +seem to understand that all things, when most bitter, worked ultimate +good to him, for that sublime arrogance of his would have been fatal +perhaps to the moral nature, if further developed by success. But for +the nation we had our duties, and we should not suffer our teachers +and originators to sink thus. It is a book written in blood of the +heart. Poor Haydon!' Mr. Taylor's Life was supplemented in 1874 by +Haydon's _Correspondence and Table-talk_, together with a +_Memoir_ written in a tone of querulous complaint, by his second +son, Frederick, who, it may be noted, had been dismissed from the +public service for publishing a letter to Mr. Gladstone, entitled +_Our Officials at the Home Office_, and who died in the Bethlehem +Hospital in 1886. His elder brother, Frank, committed suicide in 1887. + +On the subject of Haydon's merits as a painter the opinion of his +contemporaries swung from one extreme to another, while that of +posterity perhaps has scarcely allowed him such credit as was his due. +It is certain that he was considered a youth of extraordinary promise +by his colleagues, Wilkie, Jackson, and Sir George Beaumont, yet there +were not wanting critics who declared that his early picture, +'Dentatus,' was an absurd mass of vulgarity and distortion. Foreign +artists who visited his studio urged him to go to Rome, where he was +assured that patrons and pupils would flock round him; while, on the +other hand, he was described by a native critic (in the _Quarterly +Review_) as one of the most defective painters of the day, who had +received more pecuniary assistance, more indulgence, more liberality, +and more charity than any other artist ever heard of. But the best +criticism of his powers, though it scarcely takes into account the +gift of imagination which received so many tributes from the poets, is +that contributed to Mr. Taylor's biography by Mr. Watts, R.A. + +'The characteristics of Haydon's art,' he writes, 'appear to me to be +great determination and power, knowledge, and effrontery... Haydon +appears to have succeeded as often as he displays any real anxiety to +do so; but one is struck with the extraordinary discrepancy of +different parts of the work, as though, bored by a fixed attention +that had taken him out of himself, yet highly applauding the result, +he had scrawled and daubed his brush about in a sort of intoxication +of self-glory... In Haydon's work there is not sufficient +forgetfulness of self to disarm criticism of personality. His pictures +are themselves autobiographical notes of the most interesting kind; +but their want of beauty repels, and their want of modesty +exasperates. Perhaps their principal characteristic is lack of +delicacy and refinement of execution.' While describing Haydon's touch +as woolly, his surfaces as disagreeable, and his draperies as +deficient in dignity, Mr. Watts admits that his expression of anatomy +and general perception of form are the best by far that can be found +in the English school. Haydon had looked forward in full confidence to +the favourable verdict of posterity, and to an honourable position in +the National Gallery for the big canvases that had been neglected by +his contemporaries. It is not the least of life's little ironies that +while not a single work of his now hangs in the National Gallery, his +large picture of Curtius leaping into the Gulf occupies a prominent +position in one of Gatti's restaurants. [Footnote: Three of Haydon's +pictures, however, are the property of the nation. Two, the 'Lazarus' +and 'May-day,' belong to the National Gallery, but have been lent to +provincial galleries. One, the 'Christ in the Garden,' belongs to the +South Kensington Museum, but has been stored away.] + +As a lecturer, a theoriser, and a populariser of his art, Haydon has +just claims to grateful remembrance. Though driven to paint +pot-boilers for the support of his family, he never ceased to preach +the gospel of high art; he was among the first to recognise and +acclaim the transcendent merits of the Elgin Marbles; he rejoiced with +a personal joy in the purchase of the Angerstein collection as the +nucleus of a National Gallery; he scorned the ignoble fears of some of +his colleagues lest the newly-started winter exhibitions of old +masters should injure their professional prospects; he used his +interest at Court to have Raphael's cartoons brought up to London for +the benefit of students and public; he advocated the establishment of +local schools of design, and, through his lectures and writings, +helped to raise and educate the taste of his country. + +Haydon has painted his own character and temperament in such vivid +colours, that scarcely a touch need be added to the portrait. He was +an original thinker, a vigorous writer, a keen observer, but from his +youth up a disproportion was evident in the structure of his mind, +that pointed only too clearly to insanity. His judgment, as Mr. Taylor +observes, was essentially unsound in all matters where he himself was +personally interested. His vanity blinded him throughout to the +quality of his own work, the amount of influence he could wield, and +the extent of the public sympathy that he excited. He was essentially +religious in temperament, though his religion was so assertive and +egotistical in type that those who hold with Rosalba that where there +is no modesty there can be no religion, [Footnote: Rosalba said of Sir +Godfrey Kneller, 'This man can have no religion, for he has no +modesty.'] might be inclined to deny its existence. From the very +outset of his career Haydon took up the attitude of a missionary of +high art in England--and therewith the expectation of being crowned +and enriched as its Priest and King. He clung to the belief that a man +who devoted himself to the practice of a high and ennobling art ought +to be supported by a grateful country, or at least by generous +patrons, and he could never be made to realise that Art is a stern and +jealous mistress, who demands material sacrifices from her votaries in +exchange for spiritual compensations. If a man desires to create a new +era in the art of his country, he must be prepared to lead a monastic +life in a garret; but if, like Haydon, he allows himself a wife and +eight children, and professes to be unable to live on five hundred a +year, he must condescend to the painting of portraits and pot-boilers. +The public cannot be forced to support what it neither understands nor +admires, and, in a democratic state, the Government is bound to +consult the taste of its masters. + +Haydon's financial embarrassments were perhaps the least of his +trials. As has been seen, he had fallen into the hands of the +money-lenders in early youth, and he had never been able to extricate +himself from their clutches. But so many of his friends and +colleagues--Godwin, Leigh Hunt, and Sir Thomas Lawrence among +others--were in the same position, that Haydon must have felt he was +insolvent in excellent company. As long as he was able to keep himself +out of prison and the bailiffs out of his house, he seems to have +considered that his affairs were positively nourishing, and at their +worst his financial difficulties alone would never have driven him to +self-destruction. Mrs. Browning was surely right when she wrote:--'The +more I think the more I am inclined to conclude that the money +irritation was merely an additional irritation, and that the despair, +leading to revolt against life, had its root in disappointed ambition. +The world did not recognise his genius, and he punished the world by +withdrawing the light... All the audacity and bravery and +self-calculation, which drew on him so much ridicule, were an agony in +disguise--he could not live without reputation, and he wrestled for +it, struggled for it, _kicked_ for it, forgetting grace of +attitude in the pang. When all was vain he went mad and died... Poor +Haydon! Think what an agony life was to him, so constituted!--his own +genius a clinging curse! the fire and the clay in him seething and +quenching one another!--the man seeing maniacally in all men the +assassins of his fame! and with the whole world against him, +struggling for the thing that was his life, through day and night, in +thoughts and in dreams ... struggling, stifling, breaking the hearts +of the creatures dearest to him, in the conflict for which there was +no victory, though he could not choose but fight it. Tell me if +Laocoön's anguish was not as an infant's sleep compared to this.' + +Haydon wrote his own epitaph, and this, which he, at least, believed +to be an accurate summary of his misfortunes and their cause, may +fitly close this brief outline of his troubled life:-- + +'HERE LIETH THE BODY + +OF + +BENJAMIN ROBERT HAYDON, + +An English Historical Painter, who, in a struggle to make the People, +the Legislature, the Nobility, and the Sovereign of England give due +dignity and rank to the highest Art, which has ever languished, and, +until the Government interferes, ever will languish in England, fell a +Victim to his ardour and his love of country, an evidence that to seek +the benefit of your country by telling the Truth to Power, is a crime +that can only be expiated by the ruin and destruction of the Man who +is so patriotic and so imprudent. + +'He was born at Plymouth, 26th of January 1786, and died on the [22nd +of June] 18[46], believing in Christ as the Mediator and Advocate of +Mankind:-- + +'"What various ills the Painter's life assail, Pride, Envy, Want, the +Patron and the Jail."' + + + + +LADY MORGAN (SYDNEY OWENSON) + +PART I + + +[Illustration: Sydney Owenson, afterwards Lady Morgan, From a drawing +by Sir Thomas Lawrence.] + +'What,' asks Lady Morgan in her fragment of autobiography, 'what has a +woman to do with dates? Cold, false, erroneous dates! Her poetical +idiosyncrasy, calculated by epochs, would make the most natural points +of reference in a woman's autobiography.' The matter-of-fact Saxon +would hardly know how to set about calculating a poetical idiosyncrasy +by epochs, but our Celtic heroine was equal to the task; at any rate, +she abstained so carefully throughout her career from all unnecessary +allusion to what she called 'vulgar eras,' that the date of her birth +remained a secret, even from her bitterest enemies. Her untiring +persecutor, John Wilson Croker, declared that Sydney Owenson was born +in 1775, while the _Dictionary of National Biography_ more +gallantly gives the date as 1783, with a query. But as Sir Charles +Morgan was born in the latter year, and as his wife owned to a few +years' seniority, we shall probably be doing her no injustice if we +place the important event between 1778 and 1780. + +Lady Morgan's detestation for dates was accompanied by a vivid +imagination, an inaccurate memory, and a constitutional inability to +deal with hard facts. Hence, her biographers have found it no easy +task to grapple with the details of her career, her own picturesque, +high-coloured narrative being not invariably in accord with the +prosaic records gathered from contemporary sources. For example, +according to the plain, unvarnished statement of a Saxon chronicler, +Lady Morgan's father was one Robert MacOwen, who was born in 1744, the +son of poor parents in Connaught. He was educated at a hedge-school, +and on coming to man's estate, obtained a situation as steward to a +neighbouring landowner. But, having been inspired with an unquenchable +passion for the theatre, he presently threw up his post, and through +the influence of Goldsmith, a 'Connaught cousin,' he obtained a +footing on the English stage. + +The Celtic version of this story, as dictated by Lady Morgan in her +old age, is immeasurably superior, and at any rate deserves to be +true. Early in the eighteenth century, so runs the tale, a +hurling-match was held in Connaught, which was attended by all the +gentry of the neighbourhood. The Queen of Beauty, who gave away the +prizes, was Sydney Crofton Bell, granddaughter of Sir Malby Crofton of +Longford House. The victor of the hurling-match was Walter MacOwen, a +gentleman according to the genealogy of Connaught, but a farmer by +position. Young, strong, and handsome, MacOwen, like Orlando, +overthrew more than his enemies, with the result that presently there +was an elopement in the neighbourhood, and an unpardonable +_mésalliance_ in the Crofton family. The marriage does not appear +to have been a very happy one, since MacOwen continued to frequent all +the fairs and hurling-matches of the country-side, but his wife +consoled herself for his neglect by cultivating her musical and +poetical gifts. She composed Irish songs and melodies, and gained the +title of Clasagh-na-Vallagh, or Harp of the Valley. Her only son +Robert inherited his father's good looks and his mother's artistic +talents, and was educated by the joint efforts of the Protestant +clergyman and the Roman Catholic priest. + +When the boy was about seventeen, a rich, eccentric stranger named +Blake arrived to take possession of the Castle of Ardfry. The +new-comer, who was a musical amateur, presently discovered that there +was a young genius in the neighbourhood. Struck by the beauty of +Robert MacOwen's voice, Mr. Blake offered to take the youth into his +own household, and educate him for a liberal profession, an offer that +was joyfully accepted by Clasagh-na-Vallagh. The patron soon tired of +Connaught, and carried off his _protégé_ to London, where he +placed him under Dr. Worgan, the famous blind organist of Westminster +Abbey. At home, young MacOwen's duties were to keep his employer's +accounts, to carve at table, and to sing Irish melodies to his guests. +He was taken up by his distant kinsman, Goldsmith, who introduced him +to the world behind the scenes, and encouraged him in his aspirations +after a theatrical career. + +Among the young Irishman's new acquaintances was Madame +Weichsel, _prima donna_ of His Majesty's Theatre, and mother of +the more celebrated Mrs. Billington. The lady occasionally studied her +roles under Dr. Worgan, when MacOwen played the part of stage-lover, +and, being of an inflammable disposition, speedily developed into a +real one. This love-affair was the cause of a sudden reverse of +fortune. During Mr. Blake's absence from town, Robert accompanied +Madame Weichsel to Vauxhall, where she was engaged to sing a duet. Her +professional colleague failing to appear, young MacOwen was persuaded +to undertake the tenor part, which he did with pronounced success. But +unfortunately Mr. Blake, who had returned unexpectedly from Ireland, +was among the audience, and was angered beyond all forgiveness by this +premature _début_. When Robert went home, he found his trunks +ready packed, and a letter of dismissal from his patron awaiting him. +A note for £300, which accompanied the letter, was returned, and the +prodigal drove off to his cousin Goldsmith, who, with characteristic +good-nature, took him in, and promised him his interest with the +theatrical managers. + +According to Lady Morgan's account, Robert Owenson, as he now called +himself in deference to the prevailing prejudice against both the +Irish and the Scotch, was at once introduced to Garrick, and +allowed to make his _début_ in the part of Tamerlane. But, from +contemporary evidence, it is clear that he had gained some experience +in the provinces before he made his first appearance on the London +boards, when his Tamerlane was a decided failure. Garrick refused to +allow him a second chance, but after further provincial touring, he +obtained another London engagement, and appeared with success in such +parts as Captain Macheath, Sir Lucius O'Trigger, and Major O'Flaherty. + +Owenson had been on the stage some years when he fell in love with +Miss Jane Hill, the daughter of a respectable burgess of Shrewsbury. +The worthy Mr. Hill refused his consent to his daughter's marriage +with an actor, but the dashing _jeune premier_, like his father +before him, carried off his bride by night, and married her at +Lichfield before her irate parent could overtake them. Miss Hill was a +Methodist by persuasion, and hated the theatre, though she loved her +player. She induced her husband to renounce his profession for a time, +and to appear only at concerts and oratorios. But the stage-fever was +in his blood, and after a short retirement, we find him, in 1771, +investing a part of his wife's fortune in a share in the Crow Street +Theatre, Dublin, where he made his first appearance with great success +in his favourite part of Major O'Flaherty, one of the characters in +Cumberland's comedy, _The West Indian_. He remained one of the +pillars of this theatre until 1782, when Ryder, the patentee, became a +bankrupt. Owenson was then engaged by Richard Daly to perform at the +Smock Alley Theatre, and also to fill the post of assistant-manager. + +By this time Sydney had made her appearance in the world, arriving on +Christmas Day in some unspecified year. According to one authority she +was born on ship-board during the passage from Holyhead to Dublin, but +she tells us herself that she was born at her father's house in Dublin +during a Christmas banquet, at which most of the leading wits and +literary celebrities of the capital were present. The whole party was +bidden to her christening a month later, and Edward Lysaght, equally +famous as a lawyer and an improvisatore, undertook to make the +necessary vows in her name. In spite of this brilliant send-off, +Sydney was not destined to bring good fortune to her father's house. A +few years after her birth Owenson, having quarrelled with Daly, +invested his savings in a tumble-down building known as the Old Music +Hall, which he restored, and re-named the National Theatre. The season +opened with a grand national performance, and everything promised +well, when, like a bomb-shell, came the announcement that the +Government had granted to Richard Daly an exclusive patent for the +performance of legitimate drama in Dublin. Mr. Owenson was thus +obliged to close his theatre at the end of his first season, but he +received some compensation for his losses, and was offered a +re-engagement under Daly on favourable terms, an offer which he had +the sense to accept. + +A short period of comparative calm and freedom from embarrassment now +set in for the Owenson family. Mrs. Owenson was a careful mother, and +extremely anxious about the education of her two little girls, Sydney +and Olivia. There is a touch of pathos in the picture of the prim, +methodistical English lady, who hated the dirt and slovenliness of her +husband's people, was shocked at their jovial ways and free talk, +looked upon all Papists as connections of Antichrist, and hoped for +the salvation of mankind through the form of religion patronised by +Lady Huntington. She was accustomed to hold up as an example to her +little girls the career of a certain model child, the daughter of a +distant kinsman, Sir Rowland Hill of Shropshire. This appalling infant +had read the Bible twice through before she was five, and knitted all +the stockings worn by her father's coachman. The lively Sydney +detested the memory of her virtuous young kinswoman, for she had great +difficulty in mastering the art of reading, though she learned easily +by heart, and could imitate almost anything she saw. At a very early +age she could go through the whole elaborate process of hair-dressing, +from the first papillote to the last puff of the powder-machine, and +amused herself by arranging her father's old wigs in one of the +windows, under the inscription, 'Sydney Owenson, System, Tête, and +Peruke Maker.' + +Mr. Owenson found his friends among all the wildest wits of Dublin, +but his wife's society was strictly limited, both at the Old Music +Hall, part of which had been utilised as a dwelling, and at the +country villa that her husband had taken for her at Drumcondra. Yet +she does not appear to have permitted her religious prejudices to +interfere with her social relaxations, since her three chief intimates +at this time were the Rev. Charles Macklin (nephew of the actor), a +great performer on the Irish pipes, who had been dismissed from his +curacy for playing out the congregation on his favourite instrument; a +Methodist preacher who had come over on one of Lady Huntingdon's +missions; and a Jesuit priest, who, his order being proscribed in +Ireland, was living in concealment, and in want, it was believed, of +the necessaries of life. These three regularly frequented the Old +Music Hall, where points of faith were freely discussed, Mrs. Owenson +holding the position of Protestant Pope in the little circle. In order +that the discussions might not be unprofitable, the Catholic servants +were sometimes permitted to stand at the door, and gather up the +crumbs of theological wisdom. + +Female visitors were few, one of the most regular being a younger +sister of Oliver Goldsmith, who lived with a grocer brother in a +little shop which was afterwards occupied by the father of Thomas +Moore. Miss Goldsmith was a plain, little old lady, who always carried +a long tin case, containing a rouleaux of Dr. Goldsmith's portraits, +which she offered for sale. Sydney much preferred her father's +friends, more especially his musical associates, such as Giordani the +composer, and Fisher the violinist, who spent most of their time at +his house during their visits to Dublin. The children used to hide +under the table to hear them make music, and picked up many melodies +by ear. When Mr. Owenson was asked why he did not cultivate his +daughter's talent, he replied, 'If I were to cultivate their talent +for music, it might induce them some day to go upon the stage, and I +would rather buy them a sieve of black cockles to cry about the +streets of Dublin than see them the first _prima donnas_ of +Europe.' + +The little Owensons possessed one remarkable playfellow in the shape +of Thomas Dermody, the 'wonderful boy,' who was regarded in Dublin as +a second Chatterton. A poor scholar, the son of a drunken country +schoolmaster, who turned him adrift at fourteen, Dermody had wandered +up to Dublin, paying his way by reciting poetry and telling stories to +his humble entertainers, with a few tattered books, one shirt, and two +shillings for all his worldly goods. He first found employment as +'librarian' at a cobbler's stall, on which a few cheap books were +exposed for sale. Later, he got employment as assistant to the +scene-painter at the Theatre Royal, and here he wrote a clever poem on +the leading performers, which found its way into the green-room. +Anxious to see the author, the company, Owenson amongst them, invaded +the painting-room, where they found the boy-poet, clad in rags, his +hair clotted with glue, his face smeared with paint, a pot of size in +one hand and a brush in the other. The sympathy of the kind-hearted +players was aroused, and it was decided that something must be done +for youthful genius in distress. Owenson invited the boy to his house, +and, by way of testing his powers, set him to write a poetical theme +on the subject of Dublin University. In less than three-quarters of an +hour the prodigy returned with a poem of fifty lines, which showed an +intimate acquaintance with the history of the university from its +foundation. A second test having been followed by equally satisfactory +results, it was decided that a sum of money should be raised by +subscriptions, and that Dermody should be assisted to enter the +university. Owenson, with his wife's cordial consent, took the young +poet into his house, and treated him like his own son. Unfortunately, +Dermody's genius was weighted by the artistic temperament; he was +lazy, irregular in his attendance at college, and not particularly +grateful to his benefactors. By his own acts he fell out of favour, +the subscriptions that had been collected were returned to the donors, +and his career would have come to an abrupt conclusion, if it had not +been that Owenson made interest for him with Lady Moira, a +distinguished patron of literature, who placed him in the charge of +Dr. Boyd, the translator of Dante. Dermody must have had his good +points, for he was a favourite with Mrs. Owenson, and the dear friend +of Sydney and Olivia, whom he succeeded in teaching to read and write, +a task in which all other preceptors had failed. + +In 1788 Mrs. Owenson died rather suddenly, and the home was broken up. +Sydney and Olivia were at once placed at a famous Huguenot school, +which had originally been established at Portarlington, but was now +removed to Clontarf, near Dublin. For the next three years the +children had the benefit of the best teaching that could then be +obtained, and were subjected to a discipline which Lady Morgan always +declared was the most admirable ever introduced into a 'female +seminary' in any country. Sydney soon became popular among her +fellows, thanks to her knowledge of Irish songs and dances, and it is +evident that her schooldays were among the happiest and most healthful +of her early life. The school was an expensive one, and poor Owenson, +who, with all his faults, seems to have been a careful and +affectionate father, found it no easy matter to pay for the many +'extras.' + +'I remember once,' writes Lady Morgan,' our music-teacher complained +to my father of our idleness as he sat beside us at the piano, and we +stumbled through the overture to _Artaxerxes_. His answer to her +complaint was simple and graphic--for, drawing up the sleeve of a +handsome surtout, he showed the threadbare sleeve of the black coat +beneath, and said, touching the whitened seams, "I should not be +driven to the subterfuge of wearing a greatcoat this hot weather to +conceal the poverty of my dress beneath, if it were not that I wish to +give you the advantage of such instruction as you are now +neglecting."' The shaft went home, and the music-mistress had no +occasion to complain again. After three years the headmistress retired +on her fortune, the school was given up, and the two girls were placed +at what they considered a very inferior establishment in Dublin. Here, +however, they had the delight of seeing their father every Sunday, +when the widower, leaving the attractions of the city behind, took his +little daughters out walking with him. To this time belong memories of +early visits to the theatre, where Sydney saw Mrs. Siddons for the +first and last time, and Miss Farren as Susan in the _Marriage of +Figaro_, just before her own marriage to Lord Derby. During the +summer seasons Mr. Owenson toured round the provinces, and generally +took his daughters with him, who seem to have been made much of by the +neighbouring county families. + +In 1794 the too optimistic Owenson unfortunately took it into his head +that it would be an excellent speculation to build a summer theatre at +Kilkenny. Lord Ormond, who took an interest in the project, gave a +piece of land opposite the castle gates, money was borrowed, the +theatre quickly built, and performers brought at great expense from +Dublin. During the summer the house was filled nightly by overflowing +audiences, and everything promised well, when the attorney who held a +mortgage on the building, foreclosed, and bills to an enormous amount +were presented. Mr. Owenson suddenly departed for the south of +Ireland, having been advised to keep out of the way until after the +final meeting of his creditors. His two daughters were placed in +Dublin lodgings under the care of their faithful old servant, Molly +Atkins, until their school should reopen. + +Sydney had been requested to write to her father every day, and as she +was passionately fond, to quote her own words, of writing about +anything to any one, she willingly obeyed, trusting to chance for +franks. Some of these youthful epistles were preserved by old Molly, +the packet being indorsed on the cover, 'Letters from Miss Sydney +Owenson to her father, God pity her!' But the young lady evidently did +not consider herself an object of pity, for she writes in the best of +spirits about the books she is reading, the people she is meeting, and +all the little gaieties and excitements of her life. Somebody lends +her an _Essay on the Human Understanding_, by Mr. Locke, Gent., +whose theories she has no difficulty in understanding; and somebody +else talks to her about chemistry (a word she has never heard at +school), and declares that her questions are so _suggestive_ +(another new word) that she might become a second Pauline Lavosier. +She puts her new knowledge to practical effect by writing with a piece +of phosphorus on her bedroom wall, 'Molly, beware!' with the result +that Molly is frightened out of her wits, the young experimenter burns +her hand, and the house is nearly set on fire. The eccentric Dermody +turns up again, now a smart young ensign, having temporarily forsaken +letters, and obtained a commission through the interest of Lord Moira. +He addresses a flattering poem to Sydney, and passes on to rejoin his +regiment at Cork, whence he is to sail for Flanders. + +Mr. Owenson's affairs did not improve. He tried his fortune in various +provincial theatres, but the political ferment of the years +immediately preceding the Union, the disturbed state of the country, +and the persecution of the Catholics, all spelt ruin for theatrical +enterprises. As soon as Sydney realised her true position she rose to +the occasion, and the letter that she wrote to her father, proposing +to relieve him of the burden of her maintenance, is full of affection +and spirit. It will be observed that as yet she is contented to +express herself simply and naturally, without the fine language, the +incessant quotations, and the mangled French that disfigured so much +of her published work. The girl, who must now have been seventeen or +eighteen, had seen her father's name on the list of bankrupts, but it +had been explained to her that, with time and economy, he would come +out of his difficulties as much respected as ever. Having informed him +of her determination not to return to school, but to support herself +in future, she continues:-- + +'Now, dear papa, I have two novels nearly finished. The first is +_St. Clair_; I think I wrote it in imitation of _Werther_, which +I read last Christmas. The second is a French novel, suggested +by my reading the _Memoirs of the Duc de Sully_, and falling in +love with Henri IV. Now, if I had time and quiet to finish them, I am +sure I could sell them; and observe, sir, Miss Burney got £3000 for +_Camilla_, and brought out _Evelina_ unknown to her father; +but all this takes time.' Sydney goes on to suggest that Olivia shall +be placed at a school, where Molly could be taken as children's maid, +and that she herself should seek a situation as governess or companion +to young ladies. + +Through the good offices of her old dancing-master, M. Fontaine, who +had been appointed master of ceremonies at the castle, Sydney was +introduced to Mrs. Featherstone, or Featherstonehaugh, of Bracklin +Castle, who required a governess-companion to her young daughters, and +apparently did not object to youth and inexperience. The girl's +_début_ in her employer's family would scarcely have made a +favourable impression in any country less genial and tolerant than the +Ireland of that period. On the night of her departure M. Fontaine gave +a little _bal d'adieu_ in her honour, and as the mail passed the +end of his street at midnight, it was arranged that Sydney should take +her travelling-dress with her to the ball, and change before starting +on her journey. Of course she took no count of the time, and was gaily +dancing to the tune of 'Money in Both Pockets,' with an agreeable +partner, when the horn sounded at the end of the street. Like an Irish +Cinderella, away flew Sydney in her muslin gown and pink shoes and +stockings, followed by her admirers, laden with her portmanteau and +bundle of clothes. There was just time for Molly to throw an old cloak +over her charge, and then the coach door was banged-to, and the little +governess travelled away through the winter's night. In the excitement +of an adventure with an officer _en route_, she allowed her +luggage to be carried on in the coach, and arrived at Bracklin, a +shivering little object, in her muslin frock and pink satin shoes. Her +stammered explanations were received with amusement and sympathy by +her kind-hearted hosts, and she was carried off to her own rooms, 'the +prettiest suite you ever saw,' she tells her father, 'a study, +bedroom, and bath-room, a roaring turf fire in the rooms, an open +piano, and lots of books scattered about. Betty, the old nurse, +brought me a bowl of laughing potatoes, and gave me a hearty "Much +good may it do you, miss"; and didn't I tip her a word of Irish, which +delighted her.... Our dinner-party were mamma and the two young +ladies, two itinerant preceptors, a writing and elocution master, and +a dancing-master, and Father Murphy, the P.P.--such fun!--and the Rev. +Mr. Beaufort, the curate of Castletown.' + +Miss Sydney was quite at her ease with all these new acquaintances, +and so brilliant were her sallies at dinner that, according to her own +account, the men-servants were obliged to stuff their napkins down +their throats till they were nearly suffocated. The priest proposed +her health in a comic speech, and a piper having come up on purpose to +'play in Miss Owenson,' the evening wound up with the dancing of Irish +jigs, and the singing of Irish songs. One is inclined to doubt whether +Sydney's instructions were of much scientific value, but it is evident +that she enjoyed her occupation, was the very good friend of both +employers and pupils, and knew nothing of the snubs and neglect +experienced by so many of our modern Jane Eyres. + +The death of Mrs. Featherstone's mother, Lady Steele, who had been one +of the belles of Lord Chesterfield's court, placed a fine old house in +Dominic Street, Dublin, at the disposal of the family. At the head of +the musical society of Dublin at that date was Sir John Stevenson, who +is now chiefly remembered for his arrangement of the airs to Moore's +Melodies. One day, while giving a lesson to the Miss Featherstones, +Sir John sung a song by Moore, of whom Sydney had then never heard. +Pleased at her evident appreciation, Stevenson asked if she would like +to meet the poet, and promised to take her and Olivia to a little +musical party at his mother's house. Moore had already made a success +in London society, which he followed up in the less exclusive circles +of Dublin, and it was only between a party at the Provost's and +another at Lady Antrim's that he could dash into the paternal shop for +a few minutes to sing a couple of songs for his mother's guests. But +the effect of his performance upon the Owenson sisters was electrical. +They went home in such a state of spiritual exaltation, that they +forgot to undress before getting into bed, and awoke to plan, the one +a new romance, the other a portrait of the poet. + +Sydney had already finished her first novel, _St. Clair_, which +she determined to take secretly to a publisher. We are given to +understand that this was her first independent literary attempt, +though she tells us that her father had printed a little volume of her +poems, written between the ages of twelve and fourteen. This book +seems to have been published, however, in 1801, when the author must +have been at least one-and-twenty. It was dedicated to Lady Moira, +through whose influence it found its way into the most fashionable +boudoirs of Dublin. Be this as it may, Sydney gives a picturesque +description of her early morning's ramble in search of a publisher. +She eventually left her manuscript in the reluctant hands of a Mr. +Brown, who promised to submit it to his reader, and returned to her +employer's house before her absence had been remarked. The next day +the family left Dublin for Bracklin, and as Sydney had forgotten to +give her address to the publisher, it is not surprising that, for the +time being, she heard no more of her bantling. Some months later, when +she was in Dublin again, she picked up a novel in a friend's house, +and found that it was her own _St. Clair_. On recalling herself +to the publisher's memory, she received the handsome remuneration +of--four copies of her own work! The book, a foolish, high-flown +story, a long way after _Werther_, had some success in Dublin, +and brought its author--literary ladies being comparatively few at +that period--a certain meed of social fame. + +Mr. Owenson, who had left the stage in 1798, was settled at Coleraine +at this time, and desired to have both his daughters with him. +Accordingly, Sydney gave up her employment, and tried to make herself +contented at home. But the dulness and discomfort of the life were too +much for her, and after a few months she took another situation as +governess, this time with a Mrs. Crawford at Fort William, where she +seems to have been as much petted and admired as at Bracklin. There is +no doubt that Sydney Owenson was a flirt, a sentimental flirt, who +loved playing with fire, but it has been hinted that she was inclined +to represent the polite attentions of her gallant countrymen as +serious affairs of the heart. She left behind her a packet of +love-letters (presented to her husband after her marriage), and some +of these are quoted in her _Memoirs_. The majority, however, +point to no very definite 'intentions' on the part of the writers, but +are composed in the artificially romantic vein which Rousseau had +brought into fashion. Among the letters are one or two from the +unfortunate Dermody, who had retired on half-pay, and was now living +in London, engaged in writing his Memoirs (he was in the early +twenties) and preparing his poems for the press. + +'Were you a Venus I should forget you,' he writes to Sydney, 'but you +are a Laura, a Leonora, and an Eloisa, all in one delightful +assemblage.' He is evidently a little piqued by Sydney's admiration of +Moore, for in a letter to Mr. Owenson he asks, 'Who is the Mr. Moore +Sydney mentions? He is nobody here, I assure you, of eminence.' A +little later, however, he writes to Sydney: 'You are mistaken if you +imagine I have not the highest respect for your friend Moore. I have +written the review of his poems in a strain of panegyric to which I am +not frequently accustomed. I am told he is a most worthy young man, +and I am certain myself of his genius and erudition.' Dermody's own +career was nearly at an end. He died of consumption in 1802, aged only +twenty-five. + +If Sydney scandalised even the easy-going society of the period by her +audacious flirtations, she seems to have had the peculiarly Irish +faculty of keeping her head in affairs of the heart, and dancing in +perfect security on the edge of a gulf of sentiment. Her work helped +to steady her, and the love-scenes in her novels served as a +safety-valve for her ardent imagination. Her father, notoriously +happy-go-lucky about his own affairs, was a careful guardian of his +daughters' reputation, while old Molly was a dragon of propriety. +Sydney, moreover, had acquired one or two women friends, much older +than herself, such as the literary Lady Charleville, and Mrs. Lefanu, +sister of Sheridan, who were always ready with advice and sympathy. +With Mrs. Lefanu Sydney corresponded regularly for many years, and in +her letters discusses the debatable points in her books, and enlarges +upon her own character and temperament. Chief among her ambitions at +this time was that of being 'every inch a woman,' and she was a firm +believer in the fashionable theory that true womanliness was +incompatible with learning. 'I dropped the study of chemistry,' she +tells her friend, 'though urged to it by, a favourite preceptor, lest +I should be less the _woman_. Seduced by taste and a thousand +arguments to Greek and Latin, I resisted, lest I should not be a +_very woman_. And I have studied music as a sentiment rather than +as a science, and drawing as an amusement rather than as an art, lest +I should become a musical pedant, or a masculine artist.' + +In 1803, the Crawfords having decided to leave Fort William and live +entirely in the country, Sydney, who had a mortal dread of boredom, +gave up her situation, and returned to her father, who was now settled +near Strabane. Here she occupied her leisure in writing a second +novel, _The Novice of St. Dominic_, in six volumes. When this was +completed, Mrs. Lefanu advised her to take it to London herself, and +arrange for its publication. Quite alone, and with very little money +in her pocket, the girl travelled to London, and presented herself +before Sir Richard Phillips, a well-known publisher, with whom she had +already had some correspondence. If we may believe her own testimony, +Sir Richard fell an easy victim to her fascinations, and there is no +doubt that he was very kind to her, introduced her to his wife, and +found her a lodging. Better still, he bought her book (we are not told +the price), and paid her for it at once. The first purchases that she +made with her own earnings were a small Irish harp, which accompanied +her thereafter wherever she went, and a black 'mode cloak.' After her +return to Ireland, Phillips corresponded with her, and gave her +literary advice, which is interesting in so far as it shows what the +reading public of that day wanted, or was supposed to want. + +'The world is not informed about Ireland,' wrote the publisher, 'and I +am in a condition to command the light to shine. I am sorry you have +assumed the novel form. A series of letters addressed to a friend in +London, taking for your model the letters of Lady Mary Wortley +Montagu, would have secured you the most extensive reading. A +matter-of-fact and didactic novel is neither one thing nor the other, +and suits no class of readers. Certainly, however, _Paul and +Virginia_ would suggest a local plan; and it will be possible by +writing three or four times over in six or eight months to produce +what would _command_ attention.' Sir Richard concluded his advice +with the assurance that his correspondent had it in her to write an +immortal work, if she would only labour it sufficiently, and that her +_third_ copy was certain to be a monument of Irish genius. Miss +Owenson was the last person to act upon the above directions; her +books read as if they were dashed off in a fine frenzy of composition. +Perhaps she feared that her cherished womanliness would be endangered +by too close an attention to accuracy and style. + +The _Novice_, which appeared in 1804, was better than _St. +Clair_, but such success as it enjoyed must have been due to the +prevailing scarcity of first-rate, or even second-rate novelists, +rather than to its own intrinsic merits. The public taste in fiction +was not fastidious, and could swallow long-winded discussions and +sentimental rhodomontade with an appetite that now seems almost +incredible. The _Novice_ is said to have been a favourite with +Pitt in his last illness, but if this be true, the fact points rather +to the decay of the statesman's intellect than to the literary value +of the book. Still the author was tasting all the sweets of fame. She +was much in request as a literary celebrity, and somebody had actually +written for permission to select the best passages from her two books +for publication in a work called _The Morality of English +Novels_. + +In the same year, 1804, an anonymous attack upon the Irish stage in +six _Familiar Epistles_ was published in Dublin. So cruel and +venomous were these epistles that one actor, Edwin, is believed to +have died of chagrin at the attack upon his reputation. An answer to +the libel presently appeared, which was signed S. O., and has been +generally attributed to Sydney Owenson. The _Familiar Epistles_ +were believed to be the work of John Wilson Croker, then young and +unknown, and it may be that the lifelong malignity with which that +critic pursued Lady Morgan was due to this early crossing of swords. +Sydney herself was fond of hinting that Croker, in his obscure days, +had paid her attentions which she, as a successful author, had not +cared to encourage, and that wounded vanity was at the bottom of his +hatred. + +The next book on which Miss Owenson engaged was, if not her best, the +one by which she is best known, namely, _The Wild Irish Girl_. +The greater part of this was written while she was staying with Sir +Malby Crofton at Longford House, from whose family, as has been seen, +she claimed to be descended. Miss Crofton sat for the portrait of the +heroine, and much of the scenery was sketched in the wild romantic +neighbourhood. About the same time she collected and translated a +number of Irish songs which were published under the title of _The +Lay of the Irish Harp_. She thus anticipated Moore, and other +explorers in this field, for which fact Moore at least gives her +credit in the preface to his own collection. She was not a poet, but +she wrote one ballad, 'Kate Kearney,' which became a popular song, and +is not yet forgotten. + +The story of _The Wild Irish Girl_ is said to have been founded +upon an incident in the author's own life. A young man named Everard +had fallen in love with her, but as he was wild, idle, and penniless, +his father called upon her to beg her not to encourage him, but to use +her influence to make him stick to his work. Sydney behaved so well in +the matter that the elder Mr. Everard desired to marry her himself, +and though his offer was not accepted, he remained her staunch friend +and admirer. The 'local colour' in the book is carefully worked up; +indeed, in the present day it would probably be thought that the story +was overweighted by the account of local manners and customs. +Phillips, alarmed at the liberal principles displayed in the work, +which he thought would be distasteful to English patriots, refused at +first to give the author her price. To his horror and indignation Miss +Owenson, whom he regarded as his own particular property, instantly +sent the manuscript to a rival bookseller, Johnson, who published for +Miss Edgeworth. Johnson offered £300 for the book, while Phillips had +only offered £200 down, and £50 on the publication of the second and +third editions respectively. The latter, however, was unable to make +up his mind to lose the treasure, and after much hesitation and many +heart-burnings, he finally wrote to Miss Owenson:-- + + +'DEAR BEWITCHING AND DELUDING SYKEN,--Not being able to part from you, +I have promised your noble and magnanimous friend, Atkinson [who was +conducting the negotiations], the £300.... It will be long before I +forgive you! At least not till I have got back the £300 and another +£100 along with it.' Then follows a passage which proves that the +literary market, in those days at any rate, was not overstocked: 'If +you know any poor bard--a real one, no pretender--I will give him a +guinea a page for his rhymes in the _Monthly Magazine_. I will +also give for prose communications at the rate of six guineas a +sheet.' + +_The Wild Irish Girl_, whose title was suggested by Peter Pindar, +made a hit, more especially in Ireland, and the author woke to find +herself famous. She became known to all her friends as 'Glorvina,' the +name of the heroine, while the Glorvina ornament, a golden bodkin, and +the Glorvina mantle became fashionable in Dublin. The book was +bitterly attacked, probably by Croker, in the _Freeman's +Journal_, but the best bit of criticism upon it is contained in a +letter from Mr. Edgeworth to Miss Owenson. 'Maria,' he says, 'who +reads as well as she writes, has entertained us with several passages +from _The Wild Irish Girl_, which I thought superior to any parts +of the book I had read. Upon looking over her shoulder, I found she +had omitted some superfluous epithets. Dared she have done this if you +had been by? I think she would; because your good sense and good taste +would have been instantly her defenders.' It must be admitted that all +Lady Morgan's works would have gained by the like treatment. + +In an article called 'My First Rout,' which appeared in _The Book of +the Boudoir_ (published in 1829), Lady Morgan describes a party at +Lady Cork's, where she was lionised by her hostess, the other guests +having been invited to meet the Wild Irish Girl. The celebrities +present were brought up and introduced to Miss Owenson with a running +comment from Lady Cork, which, though it must be taken with a grain of +salt, is worth transcribing:-- + +'Lord Erskine, this is the Wild Irish Girl you were so anxious to +meet. I assure you she talks quite as well as she writes. Now, my +dear, do tell Lord Erskine some of those Irish stories you told us at +Lord Charleville's. Mrs. Abington says you would make a famous +actress, she does indeed. This is the Duchess of St. Albans--she has +your _Wild Irish Girl_ by heart. Where is Sheridan? Oh, here he +is; what, you know each other already? _Tant mieux._ Mr. Lewis, +do come forward; this is Monk Lewis, of whom you have heard so +much--but you must not read his works, they are very naughty.... You +know Mr. Gell; he calls you the Irish Corinne. Your friend, Mr. Moore, +will be here by-and-by. Do see, somebody, if Mrs. Siddons and Mr. +Kemble are come yet. Now pray tell us the scene at the Irish baronet's +in the Rebellion that you told to the ladies of Llangollen; and then +give us your blue-stocking dinner at Sir Richard Phillips'; and +describe the Irish priests.' + +At supper Sydney was placed between Lord Erskine and Lord Carysfort, +and was just beginning to feel at her ease when Mr. Kemble was +announced. Mr. Kemble, it soon became apparent, had been dining, and +had paid too much attention to the claret. Sitting down opposite Miss +Owenson, he fixed her with an intense and glassy stare. Unfortunately, +her hair, which she wore in the fashionable curly 'crop,' aroused his +curiosity. Stretching unsteadily across the table, he suddenly, to +quote her own words, 'struck his claws into my locks, and addressing +me in his deepest tones, asked, "Little girl, where did you buy your +wig?"' Lord Erskine hastily came to the rescue, but Kemble, rendered +peevish by his interference, took a volume of _The Wild Irish +Girl_ out of his pocket, and after reading aloud one of the most +high-flown passages, asked, 'Little girl, why did you write such +nonsense, and where did you get all those hard words?' Sydney +delighted the company by blurting out the truth: 'Sir, I wrote as well +as I could, and I got the hard words out of Johnson's Dictionary.' +That Kemble spoke the truth in his cups may be proved by the following +sentence, which is a fair sample of the general style of the book: +'With a character tinctured with the brightest colouring of romantic +eccentricity [a father is describing his son, the hero], but marked by +indelible traces of innate rectitude, and ennobled by the purest +principles of native generosity, the proudest sense of inviolable +honour, I beheld him rush eagerly on life, enamoured of its seeming +good, incredulous of its latent evils, till, fatally entangled in the +spells of the latter, he fell an early victim to their successful +allurements.' + +_The Wild Irish Girl_ was followed by _Patriotic Sketches_ +and a volume of poems, for which Sir Richard Phillips offered £100 +before he read them. A little later, in 1807, an operetta called +_The First Attempt_, or the _Whim of the Moment_, the libretto +by Miss Owenson and the music by T. Cooke, was performed at +the Dublin Theatre. The Duke of Bedford, then Lord-Lieutenant, +attended in state, the Duchess wore a Glorvina bodkin, and the +entertainment was also patronised by the officers of the garrison and +all the liberal members of the Irish bar. The little piece, in which +Mr. Owenson acted an Irish character, was played for several nights, +and brought its author the handsome sum of £400. This, however, seems +to have been Sydney's first and last attempt at dramatic composition. + +The family fortunes had improved somewhat at this time, for Olivia, +who had gone out as a governess, became engaged to Dr., afterwards Sir +Arthur Clarke, a plain, elderly little gentleman, who, however, made +her an excellent husband. Having a good house and a comfortable +income, he was able to offer a home to Mr. Owenson and to the faithful +Molly. For the present, Sydney, though always on excellent terms with +her brother-in-law, preferred her independence. She established +herself in lodgings in Dublin, and made the most of the position that +her works had won for her. Her flirtations and indiscretions provided +the town with plenty of occasion for scandal, and there is a tradition +that one strictly proper old lady, on being asked to chaperon Miss +Owenson to the Castle, replied that when Miss Owenson wore more +petticoats and less paint she would be happy to do so. Yet another +tradition has been handed down to the effect that Miss Owenson +appeared at one of the Viceregal balls in a dress, the bodice of which +was trimmed with the portraits of her rejected lovers! + +Foremost among our heroine's admirers at this time was Sir Charles +Ormsby, K.C., then member for Munster, He was a widower, deeply in +debt, and a good deal older than Sydney, but if there was no actual +engagement, there was certainly an 'understanding' between the pair. +In May, 1808, Miss Owenson was on a visit to the Dowager Lady Stanley +of Alderley at Penrhôs (one of the new friends her celebrity had +gained for her), whence she wrote a sentimental epistle to Sir Charles +Ormsby. The Sir John Stanley mentioned in the letter was the husband +of Maria Josepha Holroyd, to whom he had been married in 1796. + +'The figure and person of Lady Stanley are inimitable,' writes Sydney. +'Vandyck would have estimated her at millions. Though old, her +manners, her mind, and her conversation are all of the best school.... +Sir John Stanley is a man _comme il y en a peu_. Something at +first of English reserve; but when worn off, I never met a mind more +daring, more independent in its reflections, more profound or more +refined in its ideas. He said a thousand things like you; I am +convinced he has loved as you love. We sat up till two this morning +talking of Corinne.... I have been obliged to sing "Deep in Love" so +often for my handsome host, and every time it is _as for you_ I +sing it.' The letter concludes with the words, '_Aimons toujours +comme à l'ordinaire_.' The pair may have loved, but they were +continually quarrelling, and their intimacy was finally broken a year +or two later. Lady Morgan preserved to the end of her days a packet of +love-letters indorsed, 'Sir Charles Montague Ormsby, Bart., one of the +most brilliant wits, determined _roués_, agreeable persons, and +ugliest men of his day.' + +The summer of this year, 1808, Miss Owenson spent in a round of visits +to country-houses, and in working, amid many distractions, at her +Grecian novel, _Ida of Athens_. After the first volume had gone +to press, Phillips took fright at some of the opinions therein +expressed, and refused to proceed further with the work. It was then +accepted by Longmans, who, however, were somewhat alarmed at what they +considered the Deistical principles and the taint of French philosophy +that ran through the book. Ida is a houri and a woman of genius, who +dresses in a tissue of woven air, has a taste for philosophical +discussions, and a talent for getting into perilous situations, from +which her strong sense of propriety invariably delivers her. This book +was the subject of adverse criticism in the first number of the +_Quarterly Review_, the critic being, it is believed, Miss +Owenson's old enemy, Croker. As a work of art, the novel was certainly +a just object of ridicule, but the personalities by which the review +is disfigured were unworthy of a responsible critic. + +'The language,' observes the reviewer, 'is an inflated jargon, +composed of terms picked up in all countries, and wholly irreducible +to any ordinary rules of grammar and sense. The sentiments are +mischievous in tendency, profligate in principle, licentious and +irreverent in the highest degree.' The first part of this accusation +was only too well founded, but the licentiousness of which Lady +Morgan's works were invariably accused in the _Quarterly Review_, +can only have existed in the mind of the reviewer. One cannot but +smile to think how many persons with a taste for highly-spiced fiction +must have been set searching through Lady Morgan's novels by these +notices, and how bitterly they must have been disappointed. The review +in question concludes with the remark that if the author would buy a +spelling-book, a pocket-dictionary, exchange her raptures for common +sense, and gather a few precepts of humility from the Bible, 'she +might hope to prove, not indeed a good writer of novels, but a useful +friend, a faithful wife, a tender mother, and a respectable and happy +mistress of a family.' This impertinence is thoroughly characteristic +of the days when the _Quarterly_ was regarded as an amusing but +frivolous, not to say flippant, publication. + +_Ida of Athens_ received the honour of mention in a note to +_Childe Harold_. 'I will request Miss Owenson,' writes Byron, +'when she next chooses an Athenian heroine for her four volumes, to +have the goodness to marry her to somebody more of a gentleman than a +"Disdar Aga" (who, by the way, is not an Aga), the most impolite of +petty officers, the greatest patron of larceny Athens ever saw (except +Lord E[lgin]), and the unworthy occupant of the Acropolis, on a +handsome stipend of 150 piastres (£8 sterling), out of which he has to +pay his garrison, the most ill-regulated corps in the ill-regulated +Ottoman Empire. I speak it tenderly, seeing I was once the cause of +the husband of Ida nearly suffering the bastinado; and because the +said Disdar is a turbulent fellow who beats his wife, so that I exhort +and beseech Miss Owenson to sue for a separate maintenance on behalf +of Ida.' + +In 1809 Lady Abercorn, the third wife of the first Marquis, having +taken a sudden fancy to Miss Owenson, proposed that she should come to +Stanmore Priory, and afterwards to Baron's Court, as a kind of +permanent visitor. A fine lady of the old-fashioned, languid, idle, +easily bored type, Lady Abercorn desired a lively, amusing companion, +who would deliver her from the terrors of a solitude _à deux,_ +make music in the evenings, and help to entertain her guests. It was +represented to Sydney that such an invitation was not lightly to be +refused, but as acceptance involved an almost total separation from +her friends, she hesitated to enter into any actual engagement, and +went to the Abercorns for two or three months as an ordinary visitor. +Lord Abercorn, who was then between fifty and sixty, had been married +three times, and divorced once. So fastidious a fine gentleman was he +that the maids were not allowed to make his bed except in white kid +gloves, and his groom of his chambers had orders to fumigate his rooms +after liveried servants had been in them. He is described as handsome, +witty, and blasé, a _roué_ in principles and a Tory in politics. +Nothing pleased Lady Morgan better in her old age, we are told, than +to have it insinuated that there had been 'something wrong' between +herself and Lord Abercorn. + +In January, 1810, Sydney writes to Mrs. Lefanu from Stanmore Priory to +the effect that she is the best-lodged, best-fed, dullest author in +his Majesty's dominions, and that the sound of a commoner's name is +refreshment to her ears. She is surrounded by ex-lord-lieutenants, +unpopular princesses (including her of Wales) deposed potentates +(including him of Sweden), half the nobility of England, and many of +the best wits and writers. She had sat to Sir Thomas Lawrence for her +portrait, and sold her Indian novel, _The Missionary,_ for a +famous price. Lord Castlereagh, while staying at Stanmore, heard +portions of the work read aloud, and admired it so much that he +offered to take the author to London, and give her a rendezvous with +her publisher in his own study. Stockdale, the publisher, was so much +impressed by his surroundings that he bid £400 for the book, and the +agreement was signed and sealed under Lord Castlereagh's eye. _The +Missionary_ was not so successful as _The Wild Irish Girl,_ +and added nothing to the author's reputation. + +It was not until the end of 1810 that Miss Owenson decided to become a +permanent member of the Abercorn household. About this time, or a +little later, she wrote a short description of her temperament and +feelings, from which a sentence or two may be quoted. 'Inconsiderate +and indiscreet, never saved by prudence, but often rescued by pride; +often on the verge of error, but never passing the line. Committing +myself in every way _except in my own esteem_--without any +command over my feelings, my words, or writings--yet full of +self-possession as to action and conduct.' After describing her +sufferings from nervous susceptibility and mental depression, she +continues: 'But the hand that writes this has lost nothing of the +contour of health or the symmetry of youth. I am in possession of all +the fame I ever hoped or ambitioned. I wear not the appearance of +twenty years; I am now, as I generally am, sad and miserable.' + +In 1811 Dr. Morgan, a good-looking widower of about eight-and-twenty, +accepted the post of private physician to Lord Abercorn. He was a +Cambridge man, an intimate friend of Dr. Jenner's, and possessed a +small fortune of his own. When he first arrived at Baron's Court, Miss +Owenson was absent, and he heard so much of her praises that he +conceived a violent prejudice against her. On her return she set to +work systematically to fascinate him, and succeeded even better than +she had hoped or desired. In Lady Abercorn he had a warm partisan, but +it may be suspected that the ambitious Miss Owenson found it hard to +renounce all hopes of a more brilliant match. The Abercorns having +vowed that Dr. Morgan should be made Sir Charles, and that they would +push his fortunes, Sydney yielded to their importunities so far as to +write to her father, and ask his consent to her engagement. + +'I dare say you will be amazingly astonished,' she observes, 'but not +half so much as I am, for Lord and Lady Abercorn have hurried on the +business in such a manner that I really don't know what I am about. +They called me in last night, and, more like parents than friends, +begged me to be guided by them--that it was their wish not to lose +sight of me ... and that if I accepted Morgan, the man upon earth they +most esteemed and approved, they would be friends to both for +life--that we should reside with them one year after our marriage, so +that we might lay up our income to begin the world. He is also to +continue their physician. He has now £500 a year, independent of his +practice. I don't myself see the thing quite in the light they do; but +they think him a man of such great abilities, such great worth and +honour, that I am the most fortunate person in the world.' + +To her old friend, Mrs. Lefanu, she writes in much the same strain. +'The licence and ring have been in the house these ten days, and all +the settlements made; yet I have been battling off from day to day, +and have only ten minutes back procured a little breathing time. The +struggle is almost too great for me. On one side engaged, beyond +retrieval, to a man who has frequently declared to my friends that if +I break off he will not survive it! On the other, the dreadful +certainty of being parted for ever from a country and friends I love, +and a family I adore.' + +The 'breathing time' was to consist of a fortnight's visit to her +sister, Lady Clarke, in Dublin, in order to be near her father, who +was in failing health. The fortnight, however, proved an exceedingly +elastic period. Mr. Owenson was not dangerously ill, the winter season +was just beginning, and Miss Owenson was more popular than ever. Her +unfortunate lover, as jealous as he was enamoured, being detained by +his duties at Baron's Court, could only write long letters of +complaint, reproach, and appeal to his hard-hearted lady. Sydney was +thoroughly enjoying herself, and was determined to make the most of +her last days of liberty. She admitted afterwards that she had behaved +very badly at this time, and deserved to have lost the best husband +woman ever had. + +'I picture to myself,' writes poor Dr. Morgan, 'the thoughtless and +heartless Glorvina trifling with her friend, jesting at his +sufferings, and flirting with every man she meets.' He sends her some +commissions, but declares that there is only one about which he is +really anxious, 'and that is to love me _exclusively_; to prefer +me to every other good; to think of me, speak of me, write to me, and +look forward to our union as to the completion of every wish, as I do +by you. Do this, and though you grow as ugly as Sycorax, you will +never lose in me the fondest, most doating, affectionate of husbands. +Glorvina, I was born for tenderness; my business in life is _to +love_.... I read part of _The Way to Keep Him_ this morning, +and I see now you take the widow for your model; but it won't do, for +though I love you in _every_ mood, it is only when you are true +to nature, passionate and tender, that I adore you. You are never less +interesting to me than when you _brillez_ in a large party.' + +The fortnight's leave of absence had been granted in September, and by +the end of November Dr. Morgan is thoroughly displeased with his +truant _fiancée_, and asks why she could not have told him when +she went away, that she intended to stay till Christmas. 'I know, he +writes, 'this is but a specimen of the roundabout policy of all your +countrywomen. How strange it is that you, who are in general +_great_ beyond every woman I know, philosophical and magnanimous, +should _in detail_ be so often ill-judging, wrong, and (shall I +say) little?' In December Sydney writes to say that she will return +directly after Christmas, and declares that the terrible struggle of +feeling, which she had tried to forget in every species of mental +dissipation, is now over; friends, relatives, country, all are +resigned, and she is his for ever! A little later she shows signs of +wavering again; she cannot make up her mind to part from her invalid +father just yet; but this time Dr. Morgan puts his foot down, and +issues his ultimatum in a stern and manly letter. He will be trifled +with no longer. Sydney must either keep her promise and return at +Christmas, or they had better part, never to meet again. 'The love I +require,' he writes, 'is no ordinary affection. The woman who marries +me must be _identified_ with me. I must have a large bank of +tenderness to draw upon. I must have frequent profession and frequent +demonstration of it. Woman's love is all in all to me; it stands in +place of honours and riches, and what is yet more, in place of +tranquillity of mind.' + +This letter, backed by one from Lady Abercorn, brought Sydney to her +senses. In the first days of the new year (1812) she arrived at +Baron's Court, a little shamefaced, and more than a little doubtful of +her reception. The marquis was stiff, and the marchioness stately, but +Sir Charles, who had just been knighted by the Lord Lieutenant, was +too pleased to get his lady-love back, to harbour any resentment +against her. A few days after her return, as she was sitting over the +fire in a morning wrapper, Lady Abercorn came in and said: + +'Glorvina, come upstairs directly and be married; there must be no +more trifling.' + +The bride was led into her ladyship's dressing-room, where the +bridegroom was awaiting her in company with the chaplain, and the +ceremony took place. The marriage was kept a secret from the other +guests at the time, but a few nights later Lord Abercorn filled his +glass after dinner, and drank to the health of 'Sir Charles and Lady +Morgan.' + + + + +PART II + + +The marriage, unpromising as it appeared at the outset, proved an +exceptionally happy one. Sir Charles was a straightforward, worthy, if +somewhat dull gentleman, with no ambition, a nervous distaste for +society, and a natural indolence of temperament. To his wife he gave +the unstinted sympathy and admiration that her restless vanity craved, +while she invariably maintained that he was the wisest, brightest, and +handsomest of his sex. She seems to have given him no occasion for +jealousy after marriage, though to the last she preserved her passion +for society, and her ambition for social recognition and success. The +first year of married life, which she described as a period of storm, +interspersed with brilliant sunshine, was spent with the Abercorns at +Baron's Court. + +'Though living in a palace,' wrote Sydney to Mrs. Lefanu, early in +1812, 'we have all the comfort and independence of a home.... As to +me, I am _every inch a wife_, and so ends that brilliant thing +that was Glorvina. _N.B._--I intend to write a book to explode +the vulgar idea of matrimony being the tomb of love. Matrimony is the +real thing, and all before but leather and prunella.' In a letter to +Lady Stanley she paints Sir Charles in the romantic colours +appropriate to a novelist's husband. 'In _love_ he is Sheridan's +Falkland, and in his view of things there is a _mélange_ of +cynicism and sentiment that will never suffer him to be as happy as +the inferior million that move about him. Marriage has taken nothing +from the _romance_ of his passion for me; and by bringing a sense +of _property_ with it, has rendered him more exigent and nervous +about me than before.' + +The luxury of Baron's Court was probably more than counterbalanced by +the inevitable drawbacks of married life in a patron's household, +where the husband, at least, was at that patron's beck and call. +Before the end of the year, the Morgans were contemplating a modest +establishment of their own, and Sydney had set to work upon a novel, +the price of which was to furnish the new house. Mr. Owenson had died +shortly after his daughter's marriage, and Lady Morgan persuaded her +husband to settle in Dublin, in order that she might be near her +sister and her many friends. A house was presently taken in Kildare +Street, and Sir Charles, who had obtained the post of physician to the +Marshalsea, set himself to establish a practice. Lady Morgan prided +herself upon her housewifely talents, and in a letter dated May, 1813, +she describes how she has made their old house clean and comfortable, +all that their means would permit, 'except for one little bit of a +room, four inches by three, which is fitted up in the _Gothic_, +and I have collected into it the best part of a very good cabinet of +natural history of Sir Charles's, eight or nine hundred volumes of +choice books in French, English, Italian, and German, some little +curiosities, and a few scraps of old china, so that, with muslin +draperies, etc., I have made no contemptible set-out.... With respect +to authorship, I fear it is over; I have been making chair-covers +instead of systems, and cheapening pots and pans instead of selling +sentiment and philosophy.' + +In the midst of all her domestic labours, however, Lady Morgan +contrived to finish a novel, _O'Donnel_, which Colburn published +in 1814, and for which she received £550. The book was ill-reviewed, +but it was an even greater popular success than _The Wild Irish +Girl_. The heroine, like most of Lady Morgan's heroines, is +evidently meant for an idealised portrait of herself, and the great +ladies by whom she is surrounded are sketched from Lady Abercorn and +certain of the guests at Baron's Court. The Liberal, or as they would +now be called, Radical principles inculcated in the book gave bitter +offence to the author's old-fashioned friends, and increased the +rancour of her Tory reviewers. But _O'Donnel_ found numerous +admirers, among them no less a person than Sir Walter Scott, who notes +in his diary for March 14, 1826: 'I have amused myself occasionally +very pleasantly during the last few days by reading over Lady Morgan's +novel of _O'Donnel_, which has some striking and beautiful +passages of situation and description, and in the comic part is very +rich and entertaining. I do not remember being so pleased with it at +first. There is a want of story, always fatal to a book on the first +reading--and it is well if it gets the chance of a second.' + +The following year, 1815, France being once again open to English +travellers, the Morgans paid a visit to Paris, Lady Morgan having +undertaken to write a book about what was then a strange people and a +strange country. The pair went a good deal into society, and made many +friends, among them Lafayette, Cuvier, the Comte de Ségur, Madame de +Genlis, and Madame Jerome Bonaparte. Sydney, whose Celtic manners were +probably more congenial to the French than Anglo-Saxon reserve, seems +to have received a great deal of attention, and her not over-strong +head was slightly turned in consequence. + +'The French admire you more than any Englishwoman who has appeared +here since the Battle of Waterloo,' wrote Madame Jerome Bonaparte to +Lady Morgan, after the latter had returned to Ireland. 'France is the +country you should reside in, because you are so much admired, and +here no Englishwoman has received the same attentions since you. I am +dying to see your last publication. Public expectation is as high as +possible. How happy you must be at filling the world with your name as +you do! Madame de Staël and Madame de Genlis are forgotten; and if the +love of fame be of any weight with you, your excursion to Paris was +attended with brilliant success.' + +Madame de Genlis, in her _Memoirs_, gives a more soberly-worded +account of the impression produced by Lady Morgan on Parisian society. +The author of _France_ is described as 'not beautiful, but with +something lively and agreeable in her whole person. She is very +clever, and seems to have a good heart; it is a pity that for the sake +of popularity she should have the mania of meddling in politics.... +Her vivacity and rather springing carriage seemed very strange in +Parisian circles. She soon learned that good taste of itself condemned +that kind of demeanour; in fact, gesticulation and noisy manners have +never been popular in France.' The spoilt little lady was by no means +satisfied with this portrait, and Sir Charles, who was away from home +at the time the _Memoirs_ appeared, writes to console her. 'You +must not mind that lying old witch Madame de Genlis' attack upon you,' +says the admiring husband. 'I thought she would not let you off +easily; you were not only a better and younger (and _I_ may say +_prettier_) author than herself, but also a more popular one.' + +Over the price to be paid for _France_, to which Sir Charles +contributed some rather heavy chapters on medical science, political +economy, and jurisprudence, there was the usual battle between the +keen little woman and her publisher. Colburn, having done well with +_O'Donnel_, felt justified in offering £750 for the new work, but +Lady Morgan demanded £1000, and got it. The sum must have been a +substantial compensation for the wounds that her vanity received at +the hands of the reviewers. _France_, which made its appearance +in 1817, in two volumes quarto, was eagerly read and loudly abused. +Croker, in the _Quarterly Review_, attacked the book, or rather +the author, in an article which has become almost historic for its +virulence. Poor Lady Morgan was accused of bad taste, bombast and +nonsense, blunders, ignorance of the French language and manners, +general ignorance, Jacobinism, falsehood, licentiousness, and impiety! +The first four or five charges might have been proved with little +difficulty, if it were worth while to break a butterfly on a wheel, +but it was necessary to distort the meaning and even the text of the +original in order to give any colour to the graver accusations. + +Croker had discovered, much to his delight, that the translator of the +work (which was also published in Paris) had subjoined a note to some +of Lady Morgan's scraps of French, in which he confessed that though +the words were printed to look like French, he could not understand +them. The critic observes, _à propos_ of this fact, 'It is, we +believe, peculiar to Lady Morgan's works, that her English readers +require an English translation of her English, and her French readers +a French translation of her French.' This was a fair hit, as also was +the ridicule thrown upon such sentences as 'Cider is not held in any +estimation by the _véritables Amphitryons_ of rural _savoir +faire_.' Croker professes to be shocked at Lady Morgan's mention of +_Les Liaisons Dangereuses_, having hitherto cherished the hope +that 'no British female had ever seen this detestable book'; while his +outburst of virtuous indignation at her mention of the 'superior +effusions' of Parny, which some Frenchman had recommended to her, is +really superb. 'Parny,' he exclaims, 'is the most beastly, the most +detestably wicked and blasphemous of all the writers who have ever +disgraced literature. _Les Guerres des Dieux_ is the most +dreadful tissue of obscenity and depravity that the devil ever +inspired to the depraved heart of man, and we tremble with horror at +the guilt of having read unwittingly even so much of the work as +enables us to pronounce this character of it.' + +Croker concludes with the hope that he has given such an idea of this +book as might prevent, in some degree, the circulation of trash which, +under the name of a '_Lady_ author,' might otherwise have found +its way into the hands of young persons of both sexes, for whose +perusal it was, on the score both of morals and politics, utterly +unfit. Such a notice naturally defeated its own object, and +_France_ went triumphantly through several editions. The review +attracted almost as much attention as the book, and many protests were +raised against it. 'What cruel work you make with Lady Morgan,' wrote +Byron to Murray. 'You should recollect that she is a woman; though, to +be sure, they are now and then very provoking, still as authoresses +they can do no great harm; and I think it a pity so much good +invective should have been laid out upon her, when there is such a +fine field of us Jacobin gentlemen for you to work upon.' The Regent +himself, according to Lady Charleville's report, had said of Croker: +'D----d blackguard to abuse a woman; couldn't he let her _France_ +alone, if it be all lies, and read her novels, and thank her, by +Jasus, for being a good Irishwoman?' + +Lady Morgan, as presently appeared, was not only quite able to defend +herself, but to give as good as she got. Peel, in a letter to Croker, +says: 'Lady Morgan vows vengeance against you as the supposed author +of the article in the _Quarterly_, in which her atheism, profanity, +indecency, and ignorance are exposed. You are to be the +hero of some novel of which she is about to be delivered. I hope she +has not heard of your predilection for angling, and that she will not +describe you as she describes one of her heroes, as "seated in his +_piscatory_ corner, intent on the destruction of the finny +tribe."' 'Lady Morgan,' it seems, replies Croker, 'is resolved to make +me read one of her novels. I hope I shall feel interested enough to +learn the language. I wrote the first part of the article in question, +but was called away to Ireland when it was in the press; and I am +sorry to say that some blunders crept in accidentally, and one or two +were premeditatedly added, which, however, I do not think Lady Morgan +knows enough of either English, French, or Latin to find out. If she +goes on, we shall have sport.' + +Early in 1818 Colburn wrote to suggest that the Morgans should proceed +to Italy with a view to collaborating in a book on that country, and +offered them the handsome sum of £2000 for the copyright. By this time +Sir Charles had lost most of his practice, owing to his publication of +a scientific work, _The Outlines of the Physiology of Life_, +which was considered objectionably heterodox by the Dublin public. +There was no obstacle, therefore, to his leaving home for a lengthened +period, and joining his wife in her literary labours. In May, the pair +journeyed to London _en route_ for the South, Lady Morgan taking +with her the nearly finished manuscript of a new novel, _Florence +Macarthy_. With his first reading of this book Colburn was so +charmed, that he presented the author with a fine parure of amethysts +as a tribute of admiration. + +According to the testimony of impartial witnesses, Lady Morgan made as +decided a social success in Italy as she had done a couple of years +earlier in France. Moore, who met the couple in Florence, notes in his +diary for October 1819: 'Went to see Sir Charles and Lady Morgan; her +success everywhere astonishing. Camac was last night at the Countess +of Albany's (the Pretender's wife and Alfieri's), and saw Lady Morgan +there in the seat of honour, quite the queen of the room.' In Rome the +same appreciation awaited her. 'The Duchess of Devonshire,' writes her +ladyship, 'is unceasing in her attentions. Cardinal Fesche +(Bonaparte's uncle) is quite my beau.... Madame Mère (Napoleon's +mother) sent to say she would be glad to see me; we were received +quite in an imperial style. I never saw so fine an old lady--still +quite handsome. The pictures of her sons hung round the room, all in +royal robes, and her daughters and grandchildren, and at the head of +them all, _old Mr. Bonaparte_. She is full of sense, feeling, and +spirit, and not the least what I expected--vulgar.' + +_Florence Macarthy_ was published during its author's absence +abroad. The heroine, Lady Clancare, a novelist and politician, a +beauty and a wit, is obviously intended for Lady Morgan herself, while +Lady Abercorn figures again under the title of Lady Dunore. But the +most striking of all the character-portraits is Counsellor Con +Crawley, who was sketched from Lady Morgan's old enemy, John Wilson +Croker. According to Moore, Croker winced more under this caricature +than under any of the direct attacks which were made upon him. Con +Crawley, we are told, was of a bilious, saturnine constitution, even +his talent being but the result of disease. These physical +disadvantages, combined with an education 'whose object was +pretension, and whose principle was arrogance, made him at once a +thing fearful and pitiable, at war with its species and itself, ready +to crush in manhood as to sting in the cradle, and leading his +overweening ambition to pursue its object by ways dark and +hidden--safe from the penalty of crime, and exposed only to the +obloquy which he laughed to scorn. If ever there was a man formed +alike by nature and education to betray the land which gave him birth, +and to act openly as the pander of political corruption, or secretly +as the agent of defamation; who would stoop to seek his fortune by +effecting the fall of a frail woman, or would strive to advance it by +stabbing the character of an honest one; who could crush aspiring +merit behind the ambuscade of anonymous security, while he came +forward openly in defence of the vileness which rank sanctified and +influence protected--that man was Conway Crawley.' + +The truth of the portraiture of the whole Crawley family--exaggerated +as it may seem in modern eyes--was at once recognised by Lady Morgan's +countrymen. Sir Jonah Barrington, an undisputed authority on Irish +manners and character, writes: 'The Crawleys are superlative, and +suffice to bring before my vision, in their full colouring, and almost +without a variation, persons and incidents whom and which I have many +a time encountered.' Again, Owen Maddyn, who was by no means +prejudiced in Lady Morgan's favour, admits that her attack on Croker +had much effect in its day, and was written on the model of the Irish +school of invective furnished by Flood and Grattan. As a novelist, he +held that she pointed the way to Lever, and adds: 'The rattling +vivacity of the Irish character, its ebullient spirit, and its +wrathful eloquence of sentiment and language, she well portrayed; one +can smell the potheen and turf smoke even in her pictures of a +boudoir.' In this sentence are summed up the leading characteristics, +not only of _Florence Macarthy_, but of all Lady Morgan's +national romances. + +_Italy_ was published simultaneously in London and Paris in June, +1821, and produced an even greater sensation than the work on France, +though Croker declared that it fell dead from the press, and devoted +the greater part of his 'review' in the _Quarterly_ to an +analysis of Colburn's methods of advertisement. Criticism of a penal +kind, he explained, was not called for, because, 'in the first place, +we are convinced that this woman is wholly _incorrigible_; +secondly, we hope that her indelicacy, vanity, and malignity are +inimitable, and that, therefore, her example is very little dangerous; +and thirdly, though every page teems with errors of all kinds, from +the most disgusting to the most ludicrous, they are smothered in such +Boeotian dulness that they can do no harm.' In curious contrast to +this professional criticism is a passage in one of Byron's letters to +Moore. 'Lady Morgan,' writes the poet, 'in a _really excellent_ +book, I assure you, on Italy, calls Venice an ocean Rome; I have the +very same expression in _Foscari_, and yet you know that the play +was written months ago, and sent to England; the _Italy_ I +received only on the 16th.... When you write to Lady Morgan, will you +thank her for her handsome speeches in her book about _my_ books? +Her work is fearless and excellent on the subject of Italy--pray tell +her so--and I know the country. I wish she had fallen in with +_me_; I could have told her a thing or two that would have +confirmed her positions.' + +Almost simultaneously with the appearance of _Italy_, Colburn +printed in his _New Monthly Magazine_ a long, vehement, and +rather incoherent attack by Lady Morgan upon her critics. The editor, +Thomas Campbell, explained in an indignant letter to the _Times_, +that the article had been inserted by the proprietor without being +first submitted to the editorial eye, and that he was in no way +responsible for its contents. Colburn also wrote to the _Times_ +to refute the _Quarterly_ reviewer's statements regarding the +sales of _Italy_, and publicly to declare his entire satisfaction +at the result of the undertaking, and his willingness to receive from +the author another work of equal interest on the same terms. In short, +never was a book worse reviewed or better advertised. + +The next venture of the indefatigable Lady Morgan, who felt herself +capable of dealing with any subject, no matter how little she might +know of it, was a _Life of Salvator Rosa_. This, which was her +own favourite among all her books, is a rather imaginative work, which +hardly comes up to modern biographical standards. The author seems to +have been influenced in her choice of a subject rather by the +patriotic character of Salvator Rosa than by his artistic attainments. +Lady Morgan was once asked by a fellow-writer where she got her facts, +to which she replied, 'We all imagine our facts, you know--and then +happily forget them; it is to be hoped our readers do the same.' +Nevertheless, she seems to have taken a good deal of trouble to 'get +up' the material for her biography; it was in her treatment of it that +she sometimes allowed her ardent Celtic imagination to run away with +her. About this time Colburn proposed that Sir Charles and Lady Morgan +should contribute to his magazine, _The New Monthly_, and offered +them half as much again as his other writers, who were paid at the +rate of sixteen guineas a sheet. For this periodical Lady Morgan wrote +a long essay on _Absenteeism_ and other articles, some of which +were afterwards republished. + +In the spring of 1824 the Morgans came to London for the season, and +went much into the literary society that was dear to both their +hearts. Lady Caroline Lamb took a violent fancy to Lady Morgan, to +whom she confided her Byronic love-troubles, while Lady Cork, who +still maintained a salon, did not neglect her old _protégée_. The +rough notes kept by Lady Morgan of her social adventures are not +usually of much interest or importance, as she had little faculty or +inclination for Boswellising, but the following entry is worth +quoting:-- + +'Lady Cork said to me this morning when I called Miss ---- a nice +person, "Don't say nice, child, 'tis a bad word." Once I said to Dr. +Johnson, "Sir, that is a very nice person." "A _nice_ person," he +replied; "what does that mean? Elegant is now the fashionable term, +but it will go out, and I see this stupid _nice_ is to succeed to +it. What does nice mean? Look in my Dictionary; you will see it means +correct, precise."' + +At Lydia White's famous _soirées_ Lady Morgan met Sydney Smith, +Washington Irving, Hallam, Miss Jane Porter, Anacreon Moore, and many +other literary celebrities. Her own rooms were thronged with a band of +young Italian revolutionaries, whose country had grown too hot to hold +them, and who talked of erecting a statue to the liberty-loving +Irishwoman when Italy should be free. Dublin naturally seemed rather +dull after all the excitement and delights of a London season, but +Lady Morgan, though she loved to grumble at her native city, had not +yet thought of turning absentee herself. Her popularity with her +countrymen (those of her own way of thinking) had suffered no +diminution, and her national celebrity was proved by the following +verse from a ballad which was sung in the Dublin streets:-- + + 'Och, Dublin's city, there's no doubtin', + Bates every city on the say; + 'Tis there you'll hear O'Connell spoutin', + And Lady Morgan making tay; + For 'tis the capital of the finest nation, + Wid charmin' peasantry on a fruitful sod, + Fightin' like divils for conciliation, + An' hatin' each other for the love of God.' + +Our heroine was hard at work at this time upon the last of her Irish +novels, _The O'Briens and the O'Flaherties_, which was published +early in 1827, and for the copyright of which Colburn paid her £1350. +It was the most popular of all her works, especially with her own +country-folk, and is distinguished by her favourite blend of politics, +melodrama, local colour, and rough satire on the ruling classes. The +reviews as usual accused her of blasphemy and indecency, and so severe +was the criticism in the _Literary Gazette_, then edited by +Jerdan, that Colburn was stirred up to found a new literary weekly of +his own, and, in conjunction with James Silk Buckingham, started the +_Athenaeum_. Jerdan had asserted in the course of his review that 'In +all our reading we never met with a description which tended so +thoroughly to lower the female character.... Mrs. Behn and Mrs. +Centlivre might be more unguarded; but the gauze veil cannot hide the +deformities, and Lady Morgan's taste has not been of efficient power +to filter into cleanliness the original pollution of her infected +fountain.' Lady Morgan observes in her diary that she has a right to +be judged by her peers, and threatens to summon a jury of matrons to +say if they can detect one line in her pages that would tend to make +any honest man her foe. + +There were other disadvantages attendant upon celebrity than those +caused by inimical reviewers. No foreigner of distinction thought a +visit to Dublin complete without an introduction to our author, who +figures in several contemporary memoirs, not always in a flattering +light. That curious personage, Prince Pückler Muskau, was travelling +through England and Ireland in 1828, and has left a little vignette of +Lady Morgan in the published record of his journey. 'I was very +eager,' he explains, 'to make the acquaintance of a lady whom I rate +so highly as an authoress. I found her, however, very different from +what I had pictured to myself. She is a little, frivolous, lively +woman, apparently between thirty and forty, neither pretty nor ugly, +but by no means inclined to resign all claims to the former, and with +really fine expressive eyes. She has no idea of _mauvaise honte_ +or embarrassment; her manners are not the most refined, and affect the +_aisance_ and levity of the fashionable world, which, however, do +not sit calmly or naturally upon her. She has the English weakness of +talking incessantly of fashionable acquaintances, and trying to pose +for very _recherché_, to a degree quite unworthy of a woman of +such distinguished talents; she is not at all aware how she thus +underrates herself.' The _Quarterly Review_ seized upon this +passage with malicious delight. The prince, as the reviewer points +out, had dropped one lump of sugar into his bowl of gall; he had +guessed Lady Morgan's age at between thirty and forty.' Miss Owenson,' +comments the writer, who was probably Croker, 'was an established +authoress six-and-twenty years ago; and if any lady, player's daughter +or not, knew what _she_ knew when she published her first work at +eight or nine years of age (which Miss Owenson must have been at that +time according to the prince's calculation), she was undoubtedly such +a juvenile prodigy as would be quite worthy to make a _case_ for +the _Gentleman's Magazine_.' + +Another observer, who was present at some of the Castle festivities, +and who had long pictured Lady Morgan in imagination as a sylphlike +and romantic person, has left on record his amazement when the +celebrated lady stood before him. 'She certainly formed a strange +figure in the midst of that dazzling scene of beauty and splendour. +Every female present wore feathers and trains; but Lady Morgan scorned +both appendages. Hardly more than four feet high, with a spine not +quite straight, slightly uneven shoulders and eyes, Lady Morgan glided +about in a close-cropped wig, bound with a fillet of gold, her large +face all animation, and with a witty word for everybody. I afterwards +saw her at the theatre, where she was cheered enthusiastically. Her +dress was different from the former occasion, but not less original. A +red Celtic cloak, fastened by a rich gold fibula, or Irish Tara +brooch, imparted to her little ladyship a gorgeous and withal a +picturesque appearance, which antecedent associations considerably +strengthened.' + +In 1829 _The Book of the Boudoir_ was published, with a preface +in which Lady Morgan gives the following naïve account of its genesis: +'I was just setting off to Ireland--the horses literally +putting-to--when Mr. Colburn arrived with his flattering proposition +[for a new book]. Taking up a scrubby manuscript volume which the +servant was about to thrust into the pocket of the carriage, he asked +what was that. I said it was one of my volumes of odds and ends, and +read him my last entry. "This is the very thing," he said, and carried +it off with him.' The book was correctly described as a volume of odds +and ends, and was hardly worth preserving in a permanent shape, though +it contains one or two interesting autobiographical scraps, such as +the account of _My First Rout_, from which a quotation has +already been given. A writer in _Blackwood_ reviewed the work in +a vein of ironical admiration, professing to be much impressed by the +author's knowledge of metaphysics as exemplified in such a sentence +as: 'The idea of cause is a consequence of our consciousness of the +force we exert in subjecting externals to the changes dictated by our +volition.' Unable to keep up the laudatory strain, even in joke, the +reviewer (his style points to Christopher North) calls a literary +friend to his assistance, who takes the opposite view, and declares +that the book is 'a tawdry tissue of tedious trumpery; a tessellated +texture of threadbare thievery; a trifling transcript of trite twaddle +and trapessing tittle-tattle.... Like everything that falls from her +pen, it is pert, shallow, and conceited, a farrago of ignorance, +indecency, and blasphemy, a tag-rag and bob-tail style of +writing--like a harlequin's jacket.' + +Lady Morgan bobbed up as irrepressibly as ever from under this torrent +of (so-called) criticism, made a tour in France and Belgium for the +purpose of writing more 'trapessing tittle-tattle,' and on her return +to London, such were the profits on blasphemy and indecency, bought +her first carriage. This equipage was a source of much amusement to +her friends in Dublin, 'Neither she nor Sir Charles,' we are told, +'knew the difference between a good carriage and a bad one--a carriage +was a carriage to them. It was never known where this vehicle was +bought, except that Lady Morgan declared it came from the first +carriage-builder in London. In shape it was like a grasshopper, as +well as in colour. Very high and very springy, with enormous wheels, +it was difficult to get into, and dangerous to get out of. Sir +Charles, who never in his life before had mounted a coach-box, was +persuaded by his wife to drive his own carriage. He was extremely +short-sighted, and wore large green spectacles out of doors. His +costume was a coat much trimmed with fur, and heavily braided. James +Grant, the tall Irish footman, in the brightest of red plush, sat +beside him, his office being to jump down whenever anybody was knocked +down, or run over, for Sir Charles drove as it pleased God. The horse +was mercifully a very quiet animal, and much too small for the +carriage, or the mischief would have been worse. Lady Morgan, in the +large bonnet of the period, and a cloak lined with fur hanging over +the back of the carriage, gave, as she conceived, the crowning grace +to a neat and elegant turn-out. The only drawback to her satisfaction +was the alarm caused by Sir Charles's driving; and she was incessantly +springing up to adjure him to take care, to which he would reply with +warmth, after the manner of husbands.' + +In 1880 Lady Morgan published her _France_ (1829-30). This book +was not a commission, but she had told Colburn that she was writing +it, and as he made her no definite offer, she opened negotiations with +the firm of Saunders and Otley. Colburn, who looked upon her as his +special property, was furious at her desertion, and informed her that +if she did not at once break off with Saunders and Otley, it would be +no less detrimental to her literary than to her pecuniary interest. +Undismayed by this threat, Lady Morgan accepted the offer of a +thousand pounds made her by the rival firm. Colburn, who was a power +in the literary market, kept his word. He advertised in his own +periodicals 'LADY MORGAN AT HALF-PRICE,' and stated publicly that in +consequence of the losses he had sustained by her former works, he had +declined her new book, and that copies of all her publications might +be had at half-price. In consequence of these and other machinations, +the new _France_, which was at least as good a book as the old +one, fell flat, and the unfortunate publishers were only able to make +one payment of £500. They tried to get their contract cancelled in +court, and Colburn, who was called as a witness, admitted that he had +done his best to injure Lady Morgan's literary reputation. Eventually, +the matter was compromised, Saunders and Otley being allowed to +publish Lady Morgan's next book, _Dramatic Scenes and Sketches_, +as some compensation for their loss; but of this, too, they failed to +make a success. + +The reviews of _France_ were few and slighting, the wickedest and +most amusing being by Theodore Hook. He quotes with glee the author's +complacent record that she was compared to Molière by the Parisians, +and that she had seen in a 'poetry-book' the following lines:-- + + 'Slendal (_sic_), Morgan, Schlegel-ne vous effrayez pas-- + Muses! ce sont des noms fameux dans nos climats.' + +'Her ladyship,' continues Theodore, 'went to dine with one of those +spectacle and sealing-wax barons, Rothschild, at Paris; where never +was such a dinner, "no catsup and walnut pickle, but a mayonese fried +in ice, like Ninon's description of Seveigne's (_sic_) heart," +and to all this fine show she was led out by Rothschild himself. After +the soup she took an opportunity of praising the cook, of whom she had +heard much. "Eh bien," says Rothschild, laughing, as well he might, +"he on his side has also relished your works, and here is a proof of +it." "I really blush," says Miladi, "like Sterne's accusing spirit, as +I give in the fact--but--he pointed to a column of the most ingenious +confectionery architecture, on which my name was inscribed in spun +sugar." There was a thing--Lady Morgan in spun sugar! And what does +the reader think her ladyship did? She shall tell in her own dear +words. "All I could do under my triumphant emotion I did. I begged to +be introduced to the celebrated and flattering artist." It is a +fact--to the cook; and another fact, which only shows that the Hebrew +baron is a Jew _d'esprit_, is that after coffee, the cook +actually came up, and was presented to her. "He," says her ladyship, +"was a well-bred gentleman, perfectly free from pedantry, and when we +had mutually complimented each other on our respective works, he bowed +himself out."' + +In spite of her egoism and her many absurdities, it seems clear from +contemporary evidence that in London, where she usually appeared +during the season, Lady Morgan had a following. The names of most of +the literary celebrities of the day appear amid the disjointed +jottings of her diary. We hear of 'that egregious coxcomb D'Israeli, +outraging the privilege a young man has of being absurd'; and Sydney +Smith 'so natural, so _bon enfant_, so little of a wit _titré_'; +and Mrs. Bulwer-Lytton, handsome, insolent, and unamiable; and +Allan Cunningham, 'immense fun'; and Thomas Hood, 'a grave-looking +personage, the picture of ill-health'; and her old critical enemy, +Lord Jeffrey, with whom Lady Morgan started a violent flirtation. +'When he comes to Ireland,' she writes, 'we are to go to Donnybrook +Fair together; in short, having cut me down with his tomahawk as +a reviewer, he smothers me with roses as a man. I always say of +my enemies before we meet, "Let me at them."' + +The other literary women were naturally the chief object of interest +to her. Lady Morgan seems to have been fairly free from professional +jealousy, though she hated her countrywoman, Lady Blessington, with a +deadly hatred. Mrs. Gore, then one of the most fashionable novelists, +she finds 'a pleasant little _rondelette_ of a woman, something +of my own style. We talked and laughed together, as good-natured women +do, and agreed upon many points.' The learned Mrs. Somerville is +described as 'a simple, little, middle-aged woman. Had she not been +presented to me by name and reputation, I should have said she was one +of the respectable twaddling matrons one meets at every ball, dressed +in a snug mulberry velvet gown, and a little cap with a red flower. I +asked her how she could descend from the stars to mix among us. She +said she was obliged to go out with a daughter. From the glimpse of +her last night, I should say there was no imagination, no deep moral +philosophy, though a great deal of scientific lore, and a great deal +of _bonhomie_.' For 'poor dear Jane Porter,' the author of +_Scottish Chiefs_, Lady Morgan felt the natural contempt of a +'showy woman' for one who looks like a 'shabby canoness.' 'Miss +Porter,' she records, 'told me she was taken for me the other night, +and talked to _as such_ by a party of Americans. She is tall, +lank, lean, and lackadaisical, dressed in the deepest black, with a +battered black gauze hat, and the air of a regular Melpomene. I am the +reverse of all this, and _sans vanité_, the best-dressed woman +wherever I go. Last night I wore a blue satin, trimmed fully with +magnificent point-lace, and stomacher _à la Sévigné_, light blue +velvet hat and feathers, with an aigrette of sapphires and diamonds.' +As Lady Morgan at this time was nearer sixty than fifty, rouged +liberally, and made all her own dresses, her appearance in the costume +above described must at least have been remarkable. + +Lady Morgan's last novel, a Belgian story called _The Princess, or +the Béguine_, was published by Bentley in 1834, and for the first +edition she received, £350, a sad falling-off from the prices received +in former days. As her popularity waned, she grew discontented with +life in Dublin, 'the wretched capital of wretched Ireland,' as she +calls it, and in a moment of mental depression she entered the +characteristic query,'_Cui bono?_' in her diary. To the same +faithful volume she confided complaints even of her beloved Morgan, +but the fact that she could find nothing worse to reproach him with +than a disinclination for fresh air and exercise, speaks volumes for +his marital virtue. A more serious trouble came from failing eyesight, +which in 1837 threatened to develop into total blindness. It was in +this year, when things seemed at their darkest, that a pension of £300 +a year was conferred on her by Lord Melbourne, 'in recognition of her +merits, literary and patriotic.' It was probably this unexpected +accession of income that decided the Morgans to leave Dublin, and +spend the remainder of their days in London. They found a pleasant +little house in William Street, Knightsbridge, a new residential +quarter which was just growing up under the fostering care of Mr. +Cubitt. Lady Morgan went 'into raptures over the pretty new quarter,' +and wrote some articles on Pimlico in the _Athenæum_. She also +got up a successful agitation for an entrance into Hyde Park at what +is now known as Albert Gate. For deserting Ireland, after receiving a +pension for patriotism, and writing against the evils of Absenteeism, +Lady Morgan was subjected to a good deal of sarcasm by her countrymen. +But, as she pointed out, her property in Ireland was personal, not +real, the tenant-farm of a drawing-room balcony, on which annual crops +of mignonette were raised for home consumption, being the only +territorial possession that she had ever enjoyed. + +Lady Morgan's eyesight must have temporarily improved with her change +of dwelling, for in 1839 the first part of her last work of any +importance, _Woman and her Master_, was published by Colburn, to +whom she had at last become reconciled. This book, which was never +finished, was designed to prove, among other things, that in spite of +the subordination in which women have been kept, and in spite of all +the artificial difficulties that have been put in their way, not only +have they never been conquered in spirit, but that they have always +been the depositaries of the vital and leading ideas of the time. The +book is more soberly written than most of Lady Morgan's works, but it +would probably be regarded by the modern reader as dull and +superficial. It was generally believed that Sir Charles had assisted +in its composition, and few men have ever wielded a heavier pen. The +pair only issued one more joint work, _The Book Without a Name_, +which appeared in 1842, and consisted chiefly of articles and sketches +that had already been published in the magazines. + +The Morgans now found their chief occupation and amusement in the +society which they attracted to their cheerful little house. One or +two sketches of the pair, as they appeared in their later days, have +been left by contemporaries. Chorley, an intimate friend, observes +that, like all the sceptics he ever approached, they were absurdly +prejudiced, and proof against all new impressions. 'Neither of them, +though both were literary and musical, could endure German literature +and music, had got beyond the stale sarcasms of the _Anti-Jacobin_, +or could admit that there is glory for such men as Weber, Beethoven, +and Mendelssohn, as well as for Cimarosa and Paisiello.... +Her familiar conversation was a series of brilliant, egotistic, +shrewd, and genial sallies, and she could be either caressing +or impudent. In the matter of self-approbation she had no +Statute of Limitation, but boasted of having taught Taglioni to dance +an Irish jig, and declared that she had created the Irish novel, +though in the next breath she would say that she was a child when Miss +Edgeworth was a grown woman.' Her blunders were proverbial, as when +she asked in all simplicity, 'Who was Jeremy Taylor?' and on being +presented to Mrs. Sarah Austin, complimented her on having written +_Pride and Prejudice_. + +Another friend, Abraham Hayward, used to say that Lady Morgan had been +transplanted to London too late, and that she was never free of the +corporation of fine ladies, though she saw a good deal of them. 'She +erroneously fancied that she was expected to entertain the company, be +it what it might, and she was fond of telling stories in which she +figured as the companion of the great, instead of confining herself to +scenes of low Irish life, which she described inimitably. Lady Cork +was accustomed to say, "I like Lady Morgan very much as an Irish +blackguard, but I can't endure her as an English fine lady."' + +In 1843 Sir Charles died rather suddenly from heart disease. His wife +mourned him sincerely, but not for long in solitude. She found the +anaesthetic for her grief in society, and after a few months of +widowhood writes: 'Everybody makes a point of having me out, and I am +beginning to be familiarised with my great loss. London is the best +place in the world for the happy and the unhappy; there is a floating +capital of sympathy for every human good or evil. I am a nobody, and +yet what kindness I am daily receiving.' Again, in 1845, after her +sister's death, she notes in her diary: 'The world is my gin or opium; +I take it for a few hours _per diem_--excitement, intoxication, +absence. I return to my desolate home, and wake to all the horrors of +sobriety.... Yet I am accounted the agreeable rattle of the great +ladies' coterie, and I talk _pas mal_ to many clever men all +day.... That Park near me, of which my beloved Morgan used to say, "It +is ours more than the Queen's, we use it daily and enjoy it +nightly"--that Park that I worked so hard to get an entrance into, I +never walk in it; it seems to me covered with crape.' + +Among the friends of Lady Morgan's old age were the Carter Halls, +Hepworth Dixon, Miss Jewsbury, Hayward, and Douglas Jerrold. Lord +Campbell, old Rogers, and Cardinal Wiseman frequented her +_soirées_, though with the last-named she had waged a pamphlet +war over the authenticity of St. Peter's chair at Rome. Rogers was +reported to be engaged to one of Lady Morgan's attractive nieces, the +Miss Clarkes, who often stayed with her. It was in allusion to this +rumour that he said, 'Whenever my name is coupled with that of a young +lady in this manner, I make it a point of honour to say I have been +refused.' To the last, we are told, Lady Morgan preserved the natural +vivacity and aptness of repartee that had made her the delight of +Dublin society half a century before. 'I know I am vain,' she said +once to Mrs. Hall, 'but I have a right to be. It is not put on and off +like my rouge; it is always with me.... I wrote books when your +mothers worked samplers, and demanded freedom for Ireland when Dan +O'Connell scrambled for gulls' eggs in the crags of Derrynane.... Look +at the number of books I have written. Did ever woman move in a +brighter sphere than I do? I have three invitations to dinner to-day, +one from a duchess, one from a countess, and the third from a +diplomatist, a very witty man, who keeps the best society in London.' + +Lady Morgan was fond of boasting that she had supported herself since +she was fourteen (for which read seventeen or eighteen), and insisted +on the advantage of giving every girl a profession by which she could +earn her living, if the need arose. Speaking to Mrs. Hall on the +subject of some girls who had been suddenly bereft of fortune, she +exclaimed: 'They do everything that is fashionable imperfectly; their +drawing, singing, dancing, and languages amount to nothing. They were +educated to marry, and had they had time, they might have gone off +with, and hereafter _from_, husbands. I desire to give every +girl, no matter her rank, a trade or profession. Cultivate what is +necessary to the position she is born to; cultivate all things in +moderation, but one thing to perfection, no matter what it is, for +which she has a talent: give her a staff to lay hold of; let her feel, +"This will carry me through life without dependence."' + +With the assistance of Miss Jewsbury Lady Morgan, in the last years of +her life, prepared a volume of reminiscences, which she called _The +Odd Volume_. This, which was published in 1859, only deals with a +short period of her career, and is of little literary interest. The +_Athenæum_, in the course of a laudatory review, observed that +'Lady Morgan had lived through the love, admiration, and malignity of +three generations of men, and was, in short, a literary Ninon, who +seemed as brisk and captivating in the year 1859 as when George was +Prince, and the author of "Kate Kearney" divided the laureateship of +society and song with Tom Moore.' + +Lady Morgan, though now an octogenarian, was by no means pleased at +these remarks. She still prided herself on her fascinations, was never +tired and never bored, and looked upon any one who died under a +hundred years of age as a suicide. 'You have more strength and spirit, +as well as more genius, than any of us,' wrote Abraham Hayward to her. +'We must go back to the brilliant women of the eighteenth century to +find anything like a parallel to you and your _soirées_.' But +bronchitis was an enemy with which even her high spirit was powerless +to cope. She had an attack in 1858, but threw it off, and on Christmas +Day gave a dinner, at which she told Irish stories with all her old +vivacity, and sang 'The Night before Larry was Stretched.' On St. +Patrick's Day, 1859, she gave a musical matinée, but caught cold the +following week, and after a short illness, died on April 16th. + +Thus ended the career of one of the most flattered and best abused +women of the century. Held up as the Irish Madame de Staël by her +admirers, and run down as a monster of impudence and iniquity by her +enemies, it is no wonder that her character, by no means innately +refined, became hardened, if not coarsened, by so unenviable a +notoriety. Still, to her credit be it remembered that she never lost a +friend, and that she converted more than one impersonal enmity (as in +the case of Jeffrey and Lockhart) into a personal friendship. In spite +of her passion for the society of the great, she wrote and worked +throughout her whole career for the cause of liberty, and she was ever +on the side of the oppressed. An incorrigible flirt before marriage, +she developed into an irreproachable matron, while her natural +frivolity and feather-headedness never tempted her to neglect her +work, nor interfered with her faculty for making most advantageous +business arrangements. 'With all her frank vanity,' we are told, 'she +had shrewd good sense, and she valued herself much more on her +industry than on her genius, because the one, she said, she owed to +her organisation, but the other was a virtue of her own rearing.' It +would be impossible to conclude a sketch of Lady Morgan more +appropriately than by the following lines of Leigh Hunt, which she +herself was fond of quoting, and in which her personal idiosyncrasies +are pleasantly touched off:-- + + 'And dear Lady Morgan, see, see, when she comes, + With her pulses all beating for freedom like drums, + So Irish, so modish, so mixtish, so wild; + So committing herself as she talks--like a child. + So trim, yet so easy--polite, yet high-hearted, + That truth and she, try all she can, won't be parted; + She'll put you your fashions, your latest new air, + And then talk so frankly, she'll make you all stare.' + + + + +NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS + +PART I + + +[Illustration: Nathaniel Parker Willis] + +Any fool, said a wise man, can write an interesting book if he will +only take the trouble to set down exactly what he has seen and heard. +Unfortunately, it is only a very special kind of fool who is capable +of recording exactly what he sees and hears--a rare bird who +flourishes perhaps once in a century, and is remembered long after +wiser men are forgotten. It is not contended that the subject of this +memoir was a fool in the crude sense of the word, though he was +responsible for a good deal of folly; but he was inspired by that +impertinent curiosity, that happy lack of dignity, and that passion +for the trivial and the intimate, which, when joined to a natural +talent for observation and a picturesque narrative style, enable the +possessor to illuminate a circle and a period in a fashion never +achieved by the most learned lucubrations of the profoundest scholars. +Thanks to his Boswellising powers, 'Namby-Pamby Willis,' as he was +called by his numerous enemies, has left an admirably vivid picture of +the literary society of London in the 'thirties,' a picture that +steadily increases in value as the period at which it was painted +recedes into the past. + +Willis came of a family that had contrived, not unsuccessfully, to +combine religion with journalism. His immediate forebears seem to have +been persons of marked individuality, and his pedigree was, for the +New World, of quite respectable antiquity. The founder of the family, +George Willis, was born early in the seventeenth century, and +emigrated to New England about 1730, where he worked at his trade of +brickmaking and building. Our hero's great-grandfather was a patriotic +sailmaker, who assisted at a certain historic entertainment, when tar, +feathers, and hot tea were administered gratis to his Majesty's +tax-collector at Boston. His wife, Abigail, was a lady of character +and maxims, who saved some tea for her private use when three hundred +cases were emptied into Boston Harbour, and exhorted her family never +to eat brown bread when they could get white, and never to go in at +the back door when they might go in at the front. The son of this +worthy couple conducted a Whig newspaper in Boston during the +Rebellion, and became one of the pioneer journalists of the West. His +son, Nathaniel's sire, was invited, in 1803, to start a newspaper at +Portland, Maine, where the future Penciller was born in 1806, one year +before his fellow-townsman Longfellow. + +A few years later, Mr. Willis returned to Boston, where, in 1816, he +started the _Boston Recorder_, the first newspaper, he was +accustomed to say, that had ever been run on religious lines. He seems +to have been a respectable, but narrow-minded man, who loved long +devotions and many services, and looked upon dancing, card-playing and +stage-plays as works of the Evil One. His redeeming points were a +sense of humour and a keen appreciation of female beauty, which last +characteristic he certainly bequeathed to his son. It was his custom +to sit round the fire with his nine children on winter evenings, and +tell them stories about the old Dutch tiles, representing New +Testament scenes, with which the chimney-corner was lined. The success +of these informal Scripture lessons led him to establish a religious +paper for young people called _The Youth's Companion_, in which +some of our hero's early verses appeared. His wife, Hannah Parker, is +described as a charming woman, lively, impulsive, and emotional. Her +son, Nathaniel, whose devotion to her never wavered, used to say, 'My +veins are teeming with the quicksilver spirit my mother gave me.' + +Willis the younger was sent to school at Boston, where he had Emerson +for a schoolfellow, and afterwards to the university of Yale, where he +wrote much poetry, and was well received in the society of the place +on account of his good looks, easy manners, and precocious literary +reputation. On leaving Yale, he was delivered of a volume of juvenile +poems, and then settled down in Boston to four years' journalistic +work. Samuel Goodrich, better known in England under his pseudonym of +'Peter Parley,' engaged him to edit some annuals and gift-books, an +employment which the young man found particularly congenial. In his +_Recollections_ Peter Parley draws a comparison between his two +contributors, Hawthorne and Willis, and records that everything Willis +wrote attracted immediate attention, while the early productions of +Hawthorne passed almost unnoticed. + +In 1829 Willis started on his own account with the _American Monthly +Magazine_, which had an existence of little more than two years. He +announced that he could not afford to pay for contributions, as he +expected only a small circulation, and he wrote most of the copy +himself. Every month there were discursive, gossiping editorial +articles in that 'personal' vein which has been worked with so much +industry in our own day. He took his readers into his confidence, +prattled about his japonica and his pastilles, and described his +favourite bird, a scarlet trulian, and his dogs, Ugolino and L. E. L., +who slept in the waste-paper basket. He professed to write with a +bottle of Rudesheimer and a plate of olives at his elbow, and it was +hinted that he ate fruit in summer with an amber-handled fork to keep +his palm cool! + +These youthful affectations had a peculiarly exasperating effect upon +men of a different type; and Willis became the butt of the more +old-fashioned critics, who vied with each other in inventing +opprobrious epithets to shower upon the head of this young puppy of +journalism. However, Nathaniel was not a person who could easily +be suppressed, and he soon became one of the most popular +magazine-writers of his time, his prose being described by an admirer +as 'delicate and brief like a white jacket--transparent like a lump of +sugar in champagne--soft-tempered like the sea-breeze at night.' +Unfortunately, the magazines paid but little, even for prose of the +above description, and Willis presently found himself in financial +difficulties; while, with all his acknowledged fascinations, he was +unlucky in his first love-affair. He became engaged to a beautiful +girl called Mary Benham, but her guardian broke off the match, and the +lady, who seems to have had an inclination for literary men, +afterwards married Motley, the historian of the Dutch Republic. + +In 1831 the _American Monthly Magazine_ ceased to appear, and +Willis, leaving Boston and his creditors without regret, obtained the +post of assistant-editor on the _New York Mirror_, a weekly paper +devoted to literature, light fiction, and the fine arts. It was the +property of Morris, author of the once world-famous song, 'Woodman, +spare that Tree,' and the editor-in-chief was Theodore Fay, a novelist +of some distinction. Soon after his appointment it was decided that +Willis should be sent to Europe as foreign correspondent of his paper. +A sum of about a hundred pounds was scraped together for his expenses, +and it was arranged that he should write weekly letters at the rate of +two guineas a letter. In the autumn of 1831 he sailed in a +merchant-vessel for Havre, whence he journeyed to Paris in November. +Here he spent the first five or six months of his tour, and here began +the series of 'Pencillings by the Way,' a portion of which gained him +rather an unwelcome notoriety in English society by reason of the +'personalities' it contained. When published in book form the +Pencillings were considerably toned down, and the proper names were +represented by initials, so that people who read them then for the +first time wondered what all the excitement had been about. As the +chapters which relate to England are of most interest to English +readers, Willis's continental adventures need only be briefly noticed. +The extracts here quoted are taken from the original letters as they +appeared in the _New York Mirror_, which differ in many respects +from the version that was published in London after the attack by the +_Quarterly Review_. + +In Paris Willis found himself in his element, and was made much of by +the Anglo-French community, which was then under the special patronage +of Lafayette. One of the most interesting of his new acquaintances was +the Countess Guiccioli, upon whose appearance and manners he comments +with characteristic frankness. + +'I met the Guiccioli yesterday in the Tuileries,' he writes shortly +after his arrival. 'She looks much younger than I anticipated, and is +a handsome blonde, apparently about thirty. I am told by a gentleman +who knows her that she has become a great flirt, and is quite spoiled +by admiration. The celebrity of Lord Byron's attachment would +certainly make her a very desirable acquaintance were she much less +pretty than she really is, and I am told her drawing-room is thronged +with lovers of all nations contending for a preference which, having +once been given, should be buried, I think, for ever.' A little later +he has himself been introduced to the Guiccioli, and he describes an +interview which he has had with her, when the conversation turned upon +her friendship with Shelley. + +'She gave me one of his letters to herself as an autograph,' he +narrates. 'She says he was at times a little crazy--_fou_, as she +expressed it--but there never was a nobler or a better man. Lord +Byron, she says, loved him as a brother.... There were several +miniatures of Byron hanging up in the room; I asked her if any of them +were perfect in the resemblance. "No," she said, "that is the most +like him," taking down a miniature by an Italian artist, "_mais il +était beaucoup plus beau--beaucoup--beaucoup_." She reiterated the +word with a very touching tenderness, and continued to look at the +portrait for some time.... She went on talking of the painters who had +drawn Byron, and said the American, West's, was the best likeness. I +did not tell her that West's portrait of herself was excessively +flattered. I am sure no one would know her, from the engraving at +least. Her cheek-bones are high, her forehead is badly shaped, and +altogether the frame of her features is decidedly ugly. She dresses in +the worst taste too, and yet for all this, and poetry and celebrity +aside, the countess is both a lovely and a fascinating woman, and one +whom a man of sentiment would admire at this age very sincerely, but +not for beauty.' + +The cholera frightened Willis away from Paris in April, but before he +left, the United States minister, Mr. Rives, appointed him honorary +attaché to his own embassy, a great social advantage to the young man, +who was thereby enabled to obtain the _entrée_ into court circles +in every country that he visited. At the same time the appointment +somewhat misled his numerous new acquaintances on the subject of his +social position, while the 'spurious' attachéship afterwards became a +weapon in the hands of his enemies. However, for the time being, the +young correspondent thoroughly enjoyed his novel experiences, and +contrived to communicate his enjoyment to his readers. His letters +were eagerly read by his countrymen, and are said to have been copied +into no less than five hundred newspapers. He eschewed useful +information, gave impressions rather than statistics, and was fairly +successful in avoiding the style of the guide-book. The summer and +autumn of 1832 were spent in northern Italy, Florence being the +traveller's headquarters. He had letters of introduction to half the +Italian nobility, and was made welcome in the court circles of +Tuscany. In the autumn he was flirting at the Baths of Lucca, and at +this time he had formed a project of travelling to London by way of +Switzerland. 'In London,' he writes to his sister, 'I mean to make +arrangements with the magazines, and then live abroad altogether. It +costs so little here, and one lives so luxuriously too, and there is +so much to fill one's mind and eye, that I think of returning to naked +America with ever-increasing repugnance. I love my country, but the +_ornamental_ is my vocation, and of this she has none.' This +programme was changed, and Willis spent the winter between Rome, +Florence, and Venice. Wherever he went he made friends, but his +progress was in itself a feat of diplomacy, and few people dreamt that +the dashing young attaché depended for his living upon his +contributions to a newspaper, payment for which did not always arrive +with desirable punctuality. 'I have dined,' he writes to his mother, +'with a prince one day, and alone in a cook-shop the next.' He +explains that he can live on about sixty pounds a year at Florence, +paying four or five shillings a week for his rooms, breakfasting for +fourpence, and dining quite magnificently for a shilling. + +In June 1833, Willis was invited by the officers of an American +frigate to accompany them on a six months' cruise in the +Mediterranean. This was far too good an offer to be refused, since it +would have been impossible to get a peep at the East under more ideal +conditions of travel. Willis's letters from Greece and Turkey are +among the best and happiest that he wrote, for the weather was +perfect, the company was pleasant (there were ladies on board), and +the reception they met with wherever they weighed anchor was most +hospitable; while the Oriental mode of life appealed to our hero's +highly-coloured, romantic taste. In the island of Ægina he was +introduced to Byron's Maid of Athens, once the beautiful Teresa Makri, +now plain Mrs. Black, with an ugly little boy, and a Scotch terrier +that snapped at the traveller's heels. He describes the +_ci-devant_ Maid of Athens as a handsome woman, with a clear dark +skin, and a nose and forehead that formed the straight line of the +Greek model. + +'Her eyes are large,' he continues, 'and of a soft, liquid hazel, and +this is her chief beauty. There is that looking out of the soul +through them which Byron always described as constituting the +loveliness that most moved him.... We met her as simple Mrs. Black, +whose husband's terrier had worried us at the door, and we left her +feeling that the poetry she called forth from the heart of Byron was +her due by every law of loveliness.' + +By this time the fame of the _Pencillings_ had reached London; +and at Smyrna Willis found a letter awaiting him from the _Morning +Herald_, which contained an offer of the post of foreign +correspondent at a salary of £200 a year. But as his letters would +have to be mainly political, and as he might be expected to act as +war-correspondent, which was scarcely in his line, he decided to +refuse the offer. On leaving the frigate he loitered through Italy, +Switzerland, and France to England, arriving at Dover on June 1, 1834. +While at Florence he had made the acquaintance of Walter Savage +Landor, who had given him some valuable letters of introduction to +people in England, among them one to Lady Blessington. Landor also put +into Willis's hands a package of books, whose temporary disappearance +through some mismanagement roused the formidable wrath of the old +poet. In his _Letter to an Author_, printed at the end of +_Pericles and Aspasia_, Landor describes the transaction (which +related to an American edition of the _Imaginary Conversations_), +and continues:-- + +'I regret the appearance of his book (the _Pencillings by the +Way_) more than the disappearance of mine.... My letter of +presentation to Lady Blessington threw open (I am afraid) too many +folding-doors, some of which have been left rather uncomfortably ajar. +No doubt his celebrity as a poet, and his dignity as a diplomatist, +would have procured him all those distinctions in society which he +allowed so humble a person as myself the instrumentality of +conferring. Greatly as I have been flattered by the visits of American +gentlemen, I hope that for the future no penciller of similar +composition will deviate in my favour to the right hand of the road +from Florence to Fiesole.' + +The end of this storm in a teacup was that the books, which had safely +arrived in New York, returned as safely to London, where they were +handed over to their rightful owner, but not in time, as Willis +complained, to keep him from going down to posterity astride the finis +to _Pericles and Aspasia_. Long afterwards he expressed his hope +that Landor's biographers would either let him slip off at Lethe's +wharf, or else do him justice in a note. Before this unfortunate +incident, Landor and Willis had corresponded on cordial terms. The old +poet wrote to say how much he envied his correspondent the evenings he +passed in the society of 'the most accomplished and graceful of all +our fashionable world, my excellent friend, Lady Blessington,' while +the American could not sufficiently express his gratitude for the +introduction to that lady, 'my lodestar and most valued friend,' as he +called her, 'for whose acquaintance I am so much indebted to you, that +you will find it difficult in your lifetime to diminish my +obligations.' + +Willis seems to have arrived in England prepared to like everything +English, and he began by falling in love with the Ship Hotel at Dover, +'with its bells that _would_ ring, doors that _would_ shut, +blazing coal fires [on June 1], and its landlady who spoke English, +and was civil--a greater contrast to the Continent could hardly he +imagined.' The next morning he was in raptures over the coach that +took him to London, with its light harness, four beautiful bays, and +dashing coachman, who discussed the Opera, and hummed airs from the +_Puritani_. He saw a hundred charming spots on the road that he +coveted with quite a heartache, and even the little houses and gardens +in the suburbs pleased his taste--there was such an _affectionateness_ +in the outside of every one of them. Regent Street he declares to be +the finest street he has ever seen, and he exclaims, 'The Toledo of +Naples, the Corso of Rome, the Rue de la Paix, and the Boulevards +of Paris are really nothing to Regent Street.' + +Willis called on Lady Blessington in the afternoon of the day after +his arrival, but was informed that her ladyship was not yet down to +breakfast. An hour later, however, he received a note from her +inviting him to call the same evening at ten o'clock. She was then +living at Seamore House, while D'Orsay had lodgings in Curzon Street. +Willis tells us that he found a very beautiful woman exquisitely +dressed, who looked on the sunny side of thirty, though she frankly +owned to forty, and was, in fact, forty-five. Lady Blessington +received the young American very cordially, introduced him to the +magnificent D'Orsay, and plunged at once into literary talk. She was +curious to know the degree of popularity enjoyed by English authors in +America, more especially by Bulwer and D'Israeli, both of whom she +promised that he should meet at her house. + +'D'Israeli the elder,' she said, 'came here with his son the other +night. It would have delighted you to see the old man's pride in him. +As he was going away, he patted him on the head, and said, "Take care +of him, Lady Blessington, for my sake. He is a clever lad, but wants +ballast. I am glad he has the honour to know you, for you will check +him sometimes when I am away...." D'Israeli the younger is quite his +own character of Vivian Grey, crowded with talent, but very +_soigné_ of his curls, and a bit of a coxcomb. There is no +reverse about him, however, and he is the only _joyous_ dandy I +ever saw.' Then the conversation turned upon Byron, and Willis asked +if Lady Blessington had known La Guiccioli. 'No; we were at Pisa when +they were together,' she replied. 'But though Lord Blessington had the +greatest curiosity to see her, Lord Byron would never permit it. "She +has a red head of her own," said he, "and don't like to show it." +Byron treated the poor creature dreadfully ill. She feared more than +she loved him.' + +On concluding this account of his visit, Willis observes that there +can be no objection to his publishing such personal descriptions and +anecdotes in an American periodical, since 'the English just know of +our existence, and if they get an idea twice a year of our progress in +politics, they are comparatively well informed. Our periodical +literature is never even heard of. I mention this fact lest, at first +thought, I might seem to have abused the hospitality or the frankness +of those on whom letters of introduction have given me claims for +civility.' Alas, poor Willis! He little thought that one of the most +distinguished and most venomous of British critics would make a long +arm across the Atlantic, and hold up his prattlings to ridicule and +condemnation. + +The following evening our Penciller met a distinguished company at +Seamore House, the two Bulwers, Edward and Henry; James Smith of +'Rejected Addresses' fame; Fonblanque, the editor of the +_Examiner_; and the young Duc de Richelieu. Of Fonblanque, Willis +observes: 'I never saw a worse face, sallow, seamed, and hollow, his +teeth irregular, his skin livid, his straight black hair uncombed. A +hollow, croaking voice, and a small, fiery black eye, with a smile +like a skeleton's, certainly did not improve his physiognomy.' +Fonblanque, as might have been anticipated, did not at all appreciate +this description of his personal defects, when it afterwards appeared +in print. Edward Bulwer was quite unlike what Willis had expected. 'He +is short,' he writes, 'very much bent, slightly knock-kneed, and as +ill-dressed a man for a gentleman as you will find in London.... He +has a retreating forehead, large aquiline nose, immense red whiskers, +and a mouth contradictory of all talent. A more good-natured, +habitually smiling, nerveless expression could hardly be imagined.' +Bulwer seems to have made up for his appearance by his high spirits, +lover-like voice, and delightful conversation, some of which our +Boswell has reported. + +'Smith asked Bulwer if he kept an amanuensis. "No," he said, "I +scribble it all out myself, and send it to the press in a most +ungentlemanlike hand, half print, half hieroglyphics, with all its +imperfections on its head, and correct in the proof--very much to the +dissatisfaction of the publisher, who sends me in a bill of £16, 6s. +4d. for extra corrections. Then I am free to confess I don't know +grammar. Lady Blessington, do you know grammar? There never was such a +thing heard of before Lindley Murray. I wonder what they did for +grammar before his day! Oh, the delicious blunders one sees when they +are irretrievable! And the best of it is the critics never get hold of +them. Thank Heaven for second editions, that one may scratch out one's +blots, and go down clean and gentlemanlike to posterity." Smith asked +him if he had ever reviewed one of his own books. "No, but I could! +And then how I should like to recriminate, and defend myself +indignantly! I think I could be preciously severe. Depend upon it, +nobody knows a book's faults so well as its author. I have a great +idea of criticising my books for my posthumous memoirs. Shall I, +Smith? Shall I, Lady Blessington?"' + +Willis fell into conversation with the good-natured, though gouty +James Smith, who talked to him of America, and declared that there +never was so delightful a fellow as Washington Irving. 'I was once,' +he said, 'taken down with him into the country by a merchant to +dinner. Our friend stopped his carriage at the gate of his park, and +asked if we would walk through the grounds to the house. Irving +refused, and held me down by the coat-tails, so that we drove on to +the house together, leaving our host to follow on foot. "I make it a +principle," said Irving, "never to walk with a man through his own +grounds. I have no idea of praising a thing whether I like it or not. +You and I will do them to-morrow by ourselves."' 'The Rejected +Addresses,' continues Willis, 'got on his crutches about three o'clock +in the morning, and I made my exit with the rest, thanking Heaven +that, though in a strange country, my mother-tongue was the language +of its men of genius.' + +One of the most interesting passages in the _Pencillings_ is that +in which Willis describes a breakfast at Crabb Robinson's chambers in +the Temple, where he met Charles and Mary Lamb, a privilege which he +seems thoroughly to have appreciated. 'I never in my life,' he +declares, 'had an invitation more to my taste. The _Essays of +Elia_ are certainly the most charming things in the world, and it +has been, for the last ten years, my highest compliment to the +literary taste of a friend to present him with a copy.... I arrived +half an hour before Lamb, and had time to learn something of his +peculiarities. Some family circumstances have tended to depress him of +late years, and unless excited by convivial intercourse, he never +shows a trace of what he once was. He is excessively given to +mystifying his friends, and is never so delighted as when he has +persuaded some one into a belief in one of his grave inventions.... +There was a rap at the door at last, and enter a gentleman in black +small clothes and gaiters, short and very slight in his person, his +hair just sprinkled with grey, a beautiful, deep-set, grey eye, +aquiline nose, and a very indescribable mouth. His sister, whose +literary reputation is very closely associated with her brother's, +came in after him. She is a small, bent figure, evidently a victim to +ill-health, and hears with difficulty. Her face has been, I should +think, a fine, handsome one, and her bright grey eye is still full of +intelligence and fire.... + +'I had set a large arm-chair for Miss Lamb. "Don't take it, Mary," +said Lamb, pulling it away from her very gravely. "It looks as if you +were going to have a tooth drawn." The conversation was very local, +but perhaps in this way I saw more of the author, for his manner of +speaking of their mutual friends, and the quaint humour with which he +complained of one, and spoke well of another, was so completely in the +vein of his inimitable writings, that I could have fancied myself +listening to an audible composition of new Elia. Nothing could be more +delightful than the kindness and affection between the brother and +sister, though Lamb was continually taking advantage of her deafness +to mystify her on every topic that was started. "Poor Mary," he said, +"she hears all of an epigram but the point." "What are you saying of +me, Charles?" she asked. "Mr. Willis," said he, raising his voice, +"admires your _Confessions of a Drunkard_ very much, and I was +saying that it was no merit of yours that you understood the subject." + +'The conversation presently turned upon literary topics, and Lamb +observed: "I don't know much of your American authors. Mary, there, +devours Cooper's novels with a ravenous appetite with which I have no +sympathy. The only American book I ever read twice was the _Journal +of Edward Woolman_, a Quaker preacher and tinker, whose character +is one of the finest I ever met. He tells a story or two about negro +slaves that brought the tears into my eyes. I can read no prose now, +though Hazlitt sometimes, to be sure--but then Hazlitt is worth all +the modern prose-writers put together." I mentioned having bought a +copy of _Elia_ the last day I was in America, to send as a +parting gift to one of the most lovely and talented women in the +country. "What did you give for it?" asked Lamb. "About +seven-and-six." "Permit me to pay you that," said he, and with the +utmost earnestness he counted the money out on the table. "I never yet +wrote anything that would sell," he continued. "I am the publisher's +ruin. My last poem won't sell a copy. Have you seen it, Mr. Willis?" I +had not. "It is only eighteenpence, and I'll give you sixpence towards +it," and he described to me where I should find it sticking up in a +shop-window in the Strand. + +'Lamb ate nothing, and complained in a querulous tone of the veal pie. +There was a kind of potted fish, which he had expected that our friend +would procure for him. He inquired whether there was not a morsel left +in the bottom of the last pot. Mr. Robinson was not sure. "Send and +see," said Lamb, "and if the pot has been cleaned, bring me the lid. I +think the sight of it would do me good." The cover was brought, upon +which there was a picture of the fish. Lamb kissed it with a +reproachful look at his friend, and then left the table and began to +wander round the room with a broken, uncertain step, as if he almost +forgot to put one leg before the other. His sister rose after a while, +and commenced walking up and down in the same manner on the opposite +side of the table, and in the course of half an hour they took their +leave.' Landor, in commenting on this passage, says it is evident that +Willis 'fidgeted the Lambs,' and seems rather unaccountably annoyed at +his having alluded to Crabb Robinson simply as 'a barrister.' + +In London Willis appears to have fallen upon his feet from the very +first. To the end of his life he looked back upon his first two years +in England as the happiest and most successful period in his whole +career. It was small wonder that he became a little dazzled and +intoxicated by the brilliancy of his surroundings, which spoilt him +for the homelier conditions of American life. 'What a star is mine,' +he wrote to his sister Julia, three days after landing at Dover. 'All +the best society of London exclusives is now open to me--_me!_ +without a sou in my pocket beyond what my pen brings me, and with not +only no influence from friends at home, but with a world of envy and +slander at my back.... In a literary way I have already had offers +from the _Court Magazine_, the _Metropolitan_, and the _New +Monthly_, of the first price for my articles. I sent a short +tale, written in one day, to the _Court Magazine_, and they gave +me eight guineas for it at once. I lodge in Cavendish Square, the most +fashionable part of the town, paying a guinea a week for my lodgings, +and am as well off as if I had been the son of the President.' + +Willis was constantly at Lady Blessington's house, where he met some +of the best masculine society of the day. At one dinner-party among +his fellow-guests were D'Israeli, Bulwer, Procter (Barry Cornwall), +Lord Durham, and Sir Martin Shee. It was his first sight of Dizzy, +whom he found looking out of the window with the last rays of sunlight +reflected on the gorgeous gold flowers of an embroidered waistcoat. A +white stick with a black cord and tassel, and a quantity of chains +about his neck and pocket, rendered him rather a conspicuous object. +'D'Israeli,' says our chronicler, 'has one of the most remarkable +faces I ever saw. He is vividly pale, and but for the energy of his +action and the strength of his lungs, would seem a victim to +consumption. His eye is as black as Erebus, and has the most mocking, +lying-in-wait expression conceivable. His mouth is alive with a kind +of impatient nervousness, and when he has burst forth with a +particularly successful cataract of expression, it assumes a curl of +triumphant scorn that would be worthy of Mephistopheles. A thick, +heavy mass of jet-black ringlets falls over his left cheek almost to +his collarless stock, while on the right temple it is parted and put +away with the smooth carefulness of a girl's, and shines most +unctuously with "thy incomparable oil, Macassar."' Willis was always +interested in dress, being himself a born dandy, and he was inclined +to judge a man by the cut of his coat and the set of his hat. On this +occasion he remarks that Bulwer was very badly dressed as usual, while +Count D'Orsay was very splendid, but quite indefinable. 'He seemed +showily dressed till you looked to particulars, and then it seemed +only a simple thing well fitted to a very magnificent person.' + +The conversation ran at first on Sir Henry Taylor's new play, +_Philip van Artevelde_, which the company thought overrated, and +then passed to Beckford, of _Vathek_ fame, who had already +retired from the world, and was living at Bath in his usual eccentric +fashion. Dizzy was the only person present who had met him, and, +declares Willis, 'I might as well attempt to gather up the foam of the +sea as to convey an idea of the extraordinary language in which he +clothed his description. There were at least five words in every +sentence which must have been very much astonished at the use to which +they were put, and yet no others apparently could so well have +conveyed his idea. He talked like a racehorse approaching the +winning-post, every muscle in action, and the utmost energy of +expression flowing out in every burst. It is a great pity he is not in +Parliament.' + +At midnight Lady Blessington left the table, when the conversation +took a political turn, but D'Israeli soon dashed off again with a +story of an Irish dragoon who was killed in the Peninsular. 'His arm +was shot off, and he was bleeding to death. When told he could not +live, he called for a large silver goblet, out of which he usually +drank his claret. He held it to the gushing artery, and filled it to +the brim, then poured it slowly out upon the ground, saying, "If that +had been shed for old Ireland." You can have no idea how thrillingly +this little story was told. Fonblanque, however, who is a cold +political satirist, could see nothing in a man's "decanting his +claret" that was in the least sublime, so "Vivian Grey" got into a +passion, and for a while was silent.' + +Willis was now fairly launched in London society, literary and +fashionable. He went to the Opera to hear Grisi, then young and +pretty, and Lady Blessington pointed out the beautiful Mrs. Norton, +looking like a queen, and Lord Brougham flirting desperately with a +lovely woman, 'his mouth going with the convulsive twitch that so +disfigures him, and his most unsightly of pug-noses in the strongest +relief against the red lining of the box.' He breakfasted with 'Barry +Cornwall,' whose poetry he greatly admired, and was introduced to the +charming Mrs. Procter and the 'yellow-tressed Adelaide,' then only +eight or nine years old. Procter gave his visitor a volume of his own +poems, and told him anecdotes of the various authors he had known, +Hazlitt, Lamb, Keats, and Shelley. Another interesting entertainment +was an evening party at Edward Bulwer's house. Willis arrived at +eleven, and found his hostess alone, playing with a King Charles' +spaniel, while she awaited her guests. + +'The author of _Pelham_,' he writes, 'is a younger son, and +depends on his writings for a livelihood; and truly, measuring works +of fancy by what they will bring, a glance round his luxurious rooms +is worth reams of puffs in the Quarterlies. He lives in the heart of +fashionable London, entertains a great deal, and is expensive in all +his habits, and for this pay Messrs. Clifford, Pelham, and Aram--most +excellent bankers. As I looked at the beautiful woman before me, +waiting to receive the rank and fashion of London, I thought that +close-fisted old literature never had better reason for his partial +largess.' + +Willis was astonished at the neglect with which the female portion of +the assemblage was treated, no young man ever speaking to a young lady +except to ask her to dance. 'There they sit with their mammas,' he +observes, 'their hands before them in the received attitude; and if +there happens to be no dancing, looking at a print, or eating an ice, +is for them the most entertaining circumstance of the evening. Late in +the evening a charming girl, who is the reigning belle of Naples, came +in with her mother from the Opera, and I made this same remark to her. +"I detest England for that very reason," she said frankly. "It is the +fashion in London for young men to prefer everything to the society of +women. They have their clubs, their horses, their rowing matches, +their hunting, and everything else is a _bore_! How different are +the same men at Naples! They can never get enough of one there."... +She mentioned several of the beaux of last winter who had returned to +England. "Here have I been in London a month, and these very men who +were at my side all day on the Strada Nuova, and all but fighting to +dance three times with me of an evening, have only left their cards. +Not because they care less about me, but because it is not the +fashion--it would be talked about at the clubs; it is _knowing_ +to let us alone."' + +There were only three men at the party, according to Willis, who could +come under the head of _beaux_, but there were many distinguished +persons. There was Byron's sister, Mrs. Leigh, a thin, plain, +middle-aged woman, of a serious countenance, but with very cordial, +pleasing manners. Sheil, the famous Irish orator, small, dark, +deceitful, and talented-looking, with a squeaky voice, was to be seen +in earnest conversation with the courtly old Lord Clarendon. +Fonblanque, with his pale, dislocated-looking face, was making the +amiable, with a ghastly smile, to Lady Stepney, author of _The Road +to Ruin_ and other fashionable novels. The bilious Lord Durham, +with his Brutus head and severe countenance, high-bred in appearance +in spite of the worst possible coat and trousers, was talking politics +with Bowring. Prince Moscowa, son of Marshal Ney, a plain, +determined-looking young man, was unconscious of everything but the +presence of the lovely Mrs. Leicester Stanhope. Her husband, +afterwards Sir Leicester, who had been Byron's companion in Greece, +was introduced to Willis, and the two soon became on intimate terms. + +In the course of the season Willis made the acquaintance of Miss +Mitford, who invited him to spend a week with her at her cottage near +Reading. In a letter to her friend, Miss Jephson, Miss Mitford says: +'I also like very much Mr. Willis, an American author, who is now +understood to be here to publish his account of England. He is a very +elegant young man, more like one of the best of our peers' sons than a +rough republican.' The admiration was apparently mutual, for Willis, +in a letter to the author of _Our Village_, says: 'You are +distinguished in the world as the "gentlewoman" among authoresses, as +you are for your rank merely in literature. I have often thought you +very enviable for the universality of that opinion about you. You +share it with Sir Philip Sidney, who was in his day the +_gentleman_ among authors. I look with great interest for your +new tragedy. I think your mind is essentially dramatic; and in that, +in our time, you are alone. I know no one else who could have written +_Rienzi_, and I felt _Charles I._ to my fingers' ends, as one +feels no other modern play.' + +Willis was less happy in his relations with Harriet Martineau, to whom +he was introduced just before her departure for America. 'While I was +preparing for my travels,' she writes, in her own account of the +interview, 'an acquaintance brought a buxom gentleman, whom he +introduced under the name of Willis. There was something rather +engaging in the round face, brisk air, and _enjouement_ of +the young man; but his conscious dandyism and unparalleled +self-complacency spoiled the satisfaction, though they increased the +inclination to laugh.... He whipped his bright little boot with his +bright little cane, while he ran over the names of all his +distinguished fellow-countrymen, and declared that he would send me +letters to them all.' Miss Martineau further relates that the few +letters she presented met with a very indifferent reception. Her +indignation increased when she found that in his private +correspondence Willis had given the impression that she was one of his +most intimate friends. In his own account of the interview he merely +says: 'I was taken by the clever translator of Faust to see the +celebrated Miss Martineau. She has perhaps at this moment the most +general and enviable reputation in England, and is the only one of the +literary clique whose name is mentioned without some envious +qualification.' + +A budget of literary news sent to the _Mirror_ includes such +items as that 'D'Israeli is driving about in an open carriage with +Lady S., looking more melancholy than usual. The absent baronet, whose +place he fills, is about to bring an action against him, which will +finish his career, unless he can coin the damages in his brain. Mrs. +Hemans is dying of consumption in Ireland. I have been passing a week +at a country-house, where Miss Jane Porter [author of _Scottish +Chiefs_] and Miss Pardoe [author of _Beauties of the Bosphorus_] +were staying. Miss Porter is one of her own heroines grown old, +a still noble wreck of beauty.... Dined last week with Joanna +Baillie at Hampstead--the most charming old lady I ever saw. +To-day I dine with Longman, to meet Tom Moore, who is living +_incog._ near this Nestor of publishers, and pegging hard at his +_History of Ireland_.... Lady Blessington's new book makes a +great noise. Living as she does twelve hours out of the twenty-four in +the midst of the most brilliant and intellectually exhausting circle +in London, I only wonder how she found time to write it. Yet it was +written in six weeks! Her novels sell for a hundred pounds more than +any other author's, except Bulwer's. Bulwer gets £1400; Lady +Blessington, £400; Mrs. Norton, £250; Lady Charlotte Bury, £200; +Grattan, £300; and most other authors below this. Captain Marryat's +gross trash sells immensely about Wapping and Portsmouth, and brings +him in £500 or £600 the book--but that can scarce be called +literature. D'Israeli cannot sell a book _at all_, I hear. Is not +that odd? I would give more for one of his books than for forty of the +common saleable things about town.' + +One more description of a literary dinner at Lady Blessington's may be +quoted before Willis's account of this, his first and most memorable +London season, is brought to an end. Among the company on this +occasion were Moore, D'Israeli, and Dr. Beattie, the King's physician, +who was himself a poet. Moore had been ruralising for a year at +Slopperton Cottage, and, before his arrival, D'Israeli expressed his +regret that he should have been met on his return to town with a +savage article in _Fraser_ on his supposed plagiarisms. Lady +Blessington declared that he would never see it, since he guarded +himself against the sight and knowledge of criticism as other people +guarded against the plague. Some one remarked on Moore's passion for +rank. 'He was sure to have five or six invitations to dine on the same +day,' it was said, 'and he tormented himself with the idea that he had +perhaps not accepted the most exclusive. He would get off from an +engagement with a countess to dine with a marchioness, and from a +marchioness to accept the invitation of a duchess. As he cared little +for the society of men, and would sing and be delightful only for the +applause of women, it mattered little whether one circle was more +talented than another.' At length Mr. Moore was announced, and the +poet, 'sliding his little feet up to Lady Blessington, made his +compliments with an ease and gaiety, combined with a kind of +worshipping deference, that were worthy of a prime minister at the +Court of Love.... His eyes still sparkle like a champagne bubble, +though the invader has drawn his pencillings about the corners; and +there is a kind of wintry red that seems enamelled on his cheek, the +eloquent record of the claret his wit has brightened. His mouth is the +most characteristic feature of all. The lips are delicately cut, and +as changeable as an aspen; but there is a set-up look about the lower +lip--a determination of the muscle to a particular expression, and you +fancy that you can see wit astride upon it. It is arch, confident, and +half diffident, as if he were disguising his pleasure at applause, +while another bright gleam of fancy was breaking upon him. The +slightly tossed nose confirms the fun of his expression, and +altogether it is a face that sparkles, beams, and radiates.' + +The conversation at dinner that night was the most brilliant that the +American had yet heard in London. Sir Walter Scott was the first +subject of discussion, Lady Blessington having just received from Sir +William Gell the manuscript of a volume on the last days of Sir Walter +Scott, a melancholy chronicle of ruined health and weakened intellect, +which was afterwards suppressed. Moore then described a visit he had +paid to Abbotsford, when his host was in his prime. 'Scott,' he said, +'was the most manly and natural character in the world. His +hospitality was free and open as the day; he lived freely himself, and +expected his guests to do the same.... He never ate or drank to +excess, but he had no system; his constitution was Herculean, and he +denied himself nothing. I went once from a dinner-party at Sir Thomas +Lawrence's to meet Scott at another house. We had hardly entered the +room when we were set down to a hot supper of roast chicken, salmon, +punch, etc., and Sir Walter ate immensely of everything. What a +contrast between this and the last time I saw him in London! He had +come to embark for Italy, quite broken down both in mind and body. He +gave Mrs. Moore a book, and I asked him if he would make it more +valuable by writing in it. He thought I meant that he should write +some verses, and said, "I never write poetry now." I asked him to +write only his name and hers, and he attempted it, but it was quite +illegible.' + +O'Connell next became the topic of conversation, and Moore declared +that he would be irresistible if it were not for two blots on his +character, viz. the contributions in Ireland for his support, and his +refusal to give satisfaction to the man he was willing to attack. +'They may say what they will of duelling,' he continued, 'but it is +the great preserver of the decencies of society. The old school which +made a man responsible for his words was the better.' Moore related +how O'Connell had accepted Peel's challenge, and then delayed a +meeting on the ground of his wife's illness, till the law interfered. +Another Irish patriot refused a meeting on account of the illness of +his daughter, whereupon a Dublin wit composed the following epigram +upon the two:-- + + 'Some men with a horror of slaughter, + Improve on the Scripture command. + And honour their--wife and their daughter-- + That their days may be long in the land.' + +Alluding to Grattan's dying advice to his son, 'Always be ready with +the pistol,' Moore asked, 'Is it not wonderful that, with all the +agitation in Ireland, we have had no such men since his time? The +whole country in convulsion--people's lives, fortune, religion at +stake, and not a gleam of talent from one's year's end to another. It +is natural for sparks to be struck out in a time of violence like +this--but Ireland, for all that is worth living for, _is dead_! +You can scarcely reckon Sheil of the calibre of the spirits of old, +and O'Connell, with all his faults, stands alone in his glory.' + +In the drawing-room, after dinner, some allusion to the later +Platonists caused D'Israeli to flare up. His wild black eyes +glistened, and his nervous lips poured out eloquence, while a whole +ottomanful of noble exquisites listened in amazement. He gave an +account of Thomas Taylor, one of the last of the Platonists, who had +worshipped Jupiter in a back-parlour in London a few years before. In +his old age he was turned out of his lodgings, for attempting, as he +said, to worship his gods according to the dictates of his conscience, +his landlady having objected to his sacrificing a bull to Jupiter in +her parlour. The company laughed at this story as a good invention, +but Dizzy assured them it was literally true, and gave his father as +his authority. Meanwhile Moore 'went glittering on' with criticisms +upon Grisi and the Opera, and the subject of music being thus +introduced, he was led, with great difficulty, to the piano. Willis +describes his singing as 'a kind of admirable recitative, in which +every shade of thought is syllabled and dwelt upon, and the sentiment +of the song goes through your blood, warming you to the very eyelids, +and starting your tears if you have a soul or sense in you. I have +heard of women fainting at a song of Moore's; and if the burden of it +answered by chance to a secret in the bosom of the listener, I should +think that the heart would break with it. After two or three songs of +Lady Blessington's choice, he rambled over the keys a while, and then +sang 'When first I met thee' with a pathos that beggars description. +When the last word had faltered out, he rose and took Lady +Blessington's hand, said Good-night, and was gone before a word was +uttered. For a full minute after he closed the door no one spoke. I +could have wished for myself to drop silently asleep where I sat, with +the tears in my eyes and the softness upon my heart.' + + + + +PART II + + +Having received invitations to stay with Lord Dalhousie and the Duke +of Gordon, Willis went north at the beginning of September, 1834. The +nominal attraction of Scotland he found, rather to his dismay, was the +shooting. The guest, he observes, on arriving at a country-house, is +asked whether he prefers a flint or a percussion lock, and a +double-barrelled Manton is put into his hands; while after breakfast +the ladies leave the table, wishing him good sport. 'I would rather +have gone to the library,' says the Penciller. 'An aversion to +walking, except upon smooth flag-stones, a poetical tenderness on the +subject of putting birds "out of their misery," and hands much more at +home with the goose-quill than the gun, were some of my private +objections to the order of the day.' At Dalhousie, the son of the +house, Lord Ramsay, and his American visitor were mutually astonished +at each other's appearance when they met in the park, prepared for a +morning's sport. + +'From the elegant Oxonian I had seen at breakfast,' writes Willis, 'he +(Lord Ramsay) was transformed into a figure something rougher than his +Highland dependant, in a woollen shooting-jacket, pockets of any +number and capacity, trousers of the coarsest plaid, hobnailed shoes +and leather gaiters, and a habit of handling his gun that would have +been respected on the Mississippi. My own appearance in high-heeled +French boots and other corresponding gear, for a tramp over stubble +and marsh, amused him equally; but my wardrobe was exclusively +metropolitan, and there was no alternative.' It was hard and exciting +work, the novice discovered, to trudge through peas, beans, turnips, +and corn, soaked with showers, and muddied to the knees till his +Parisian boots were reduced to the consistency of brown paper. He came +home, much to his own relief, without having brought the blood of his +host's son and heir on his head, and he made a mental note never to go +to Scotland again without hobnailed boots and a shooting-jacket. + +On leaving Dalhousie Willis spent a few days in Edinburgh, where he +breakfasted with Professor Wilson, _alias_ Christopher North. The +Professor, he says, talked away famously, quite oblivious of the fact +that the tea was made, and the breakfast-dishes were smoking on the +table. He spoke much of Blackwood, who then lay dying, and described +him as a man of the most refined literary taste, whose opinion of a +book he would trust before that of any one he knew. Wilson inquired if +his guest had made the acquaintance of Lockhart. 'I have not,' replied +Willis. 'He is almost the only literary man in London I have not met; +and I must say, as the editor of the _Quarterly Review_, and the +most unfair and unprincipled critic of the day, I have no wish to know +him. I never heard him well spoken of. I have probably met a hundred +of his acquaintances, but I have not yet seen one who pretended to be +his friend.' Wilson defended the absent one, who, he said, was the +mildest and most unassuming of men, and dissected a book for pleasure, +without thinking of the feelings of the author. + +The breakfast had been cooling for an hour when the Professor leant +back, with his chair still towards the fire, and 'seizing the teapot +as if it were a sledge-hammer, he poured from one cup to the other +without interrupting the stream, overrunning both cup and saucer, and +partly flooding the tea-tray. He then set the cream towards me with a +carelessness that nearly overset it, and in trying to reach an egg +from the centre of the table, broke two. He took no notice of his own +awkwardness, but drank his cup of tea at a single draught, ate his egg +in the same expeditious manner, and went on talking of the "Noctes," +and Lockhart, and Blackwood, as if eating his breakfast were rather a +troublesome parenthesis in his conversation.' Wilson offered to give +his guest letters to Wordsworth and Southey, if he intended to return +by the Lakes. 'I lived a long time in their neighbourhood,' he said, +'and know Wordsworth perhaps as well as any one. Many a day I have +walked over the hills with him, and listened to his repetition of his +own poetry, which, of course, filled my mind completely at the time, +and perhaps started the poetical vein in me, though I cannot agree +with the critics that my poetry is an imitation of Wordsworth's.' + +'Did Wordsworth repeat any other poetry than his own?' + +'Never in a single instance, to my knowledge. He is remarkable for the +manner in which he is wrapped up in his own poetical life. Everything +ministers to it. Everything is done with reference to it. He is all +and only a poet.' + +'What is Southey's manner of life?' + +'Walter Scott said of him that he lived too much with women. He is +secluded in the country, and surrounded by a circle of admiring +friends, who glorify every literary project he undertakes, and +persuade him, in spite of his natural modesty, that he can do nothing +wrong. He has great genius, and is a most estimable man.' + +On the same day that he breakfasted with Wilson, this fortunate +tourist dined with Jeffrey, with whom Lord Brougham was staying. +Unluckily, Brougham was absent, at a public dinner given to Lord Grey, +who also happened to be in Edinburgh at the time. Willis was charmed +with Jeffrey, with his frank smile, hearty manner, and graceful style +of putting a guest at his ease. But he cared less for the political +conversation at table. 'It had been my lot,' he says, 'to be thrown +principally among Tories (_Conservatives_ is the new name) since +my arrival in England, and it was difficult to rid myself at once of +the impressions of a fortnight passed in the castle of a Tory earl. My +sympathies on the great and glorious occasion [the Whig dinner to Lord +Grey] were slower than those of the rest of the company, and much of +their enthusiasm seemed to me overstrained. Altogether, I entered less +into the spirit of the hour than I could have wished. Politics are +seldom witty or amusing; and though I was charmed with the good sense +and occasional eloquence of Lord Jeffrey, I was glad to get upstairs +to _chasse-café_ and the ladies.' + +Willis aggravated a temporary lameness by dancing at the ball that +followed the Whig banquet, and was compelled to abandon a charming +land-route north that he had mapped out, and allow himself to be taken +'this side up' on a steamer to Aberdeen. Here he took coach for +Fochabers, and thence posted to Gordon Castle. At the castle he found +himself in the midst of a most distinguished company; the page who +showed him to his room running over the names of Lord Aberdeen and +Lord Claude Hamilton, the Duchess of Richmond and her daughter, Lady +Sophia Lennox, Lord and Lady Stormont, Lord and Lady Mandeville, Lord +and Lady Morton, Lord Aboyne, Lady Keith, and twenty other lesser +lights. The duke himself came to fetch his guest before dinner, and +presented him to the duchess and the rest of the party. In a letter to +Lady Blessington Willis says: 'I am delighted with the duke and +duchess. He is a delightful, hearty old fellow, full of fun and +conversation, and she is an uncommonly fine woman, and, without +beauty, has something agreeable in her countenance. _Pour +moi-méme_, I get on better everywhere than in your presence. I only +fear I talk too much; but all the world is particularly civil to me, +and among a score of people, no one of whom I had ever seen yesterday, +I find myself quite at home to-day.' + +The ten days at Gordon Castle Willis afterwards set apart in his +memory as 'a bright ellipse in the usual procession of joys and +sorrows.' He certainly made the most of this unique opportunity of +observing the manners and customs of the great. The routine of life at +the castle was what each guest chose to make it. 'Between breakfast +and lunch,' he writes, 'the ladies were usually invisible, and the +gentlemen rode, or shot, or played billiards. At two o'clock a dish or +two of hot game and a profusion of cold meats were set on small +tables, and everybody came in for a kind of lounging half meal, which +occupied perhaps an hour. Thence all adjourned to the drawing-room, +under the windows of which were drawn up carriages of all +descriptions, with grooms, outriders, footmen, and saddle-horses for +gentlemen and ladies. Parties were then made up for driving or riding, +and from a pony-chaise to a phaeton and four, there was no class of +vehicle that was not at your disposal. In ten minutes the carriages +were all filled, and away they flew, some to the banks of the Spey or +the seaside, some to the drives in the park, and all with the +delightful consciousness that speed where you would, the horizon +scarce limited the possessions of your host, and you were everywhere +at home. The ornamental gates flying open at your approach; the herds +of red deer trooping away from the sound of your wheels; the stately +pheasants feeding tamely in the immense preserves; the stalking +gamekeepers lifting their hats in the dark recesses of the +forest--there was something in this perpetual reminder of your +privileges which, as a novelty, was far from disagreeable. I could +not, at the time, bring myself to feel, what perhaps would be more +poetical and republican, that a ride in the wild and unfenced forest +of my own country would have been more to my taste.' + +Willis came to the conclusion that a North American Indian, in his +more dignified phase, closely resembled an English nobleman in manner, +since it was impossible to astonish either. All violent sensations, he +observes, are avoided in high life. 'In conversation nothing is so +"odd" (a word that in English means everything disagreeable) as +emphasis, or a startling epithet, or gesture, and in common +intercourse nothing is so vulgar as any approach to "a scene." For all +extraordinary admiration, the word "capital" suffices; for all +ordinary praise, the word "nice"; for all condemnation in morals, +manners, or religion, the word "odd.".... What is called an +overpowering person is immediately shunned, for he talks too much, and +excites too much attention. In any other country he would be +considered amusing. He is regarded here as a monopoliser of the +general interest, and his laurels, talk he never so well, overshadow +the rest of the company.' + +On leaving Gordon Castle, Willis crossed Scotland by the Caledonian +Canal, and from Fort William jolted in a Highland cart through Glencoe +to Tarbet on Lomond. Thence the regulation visits were paid to Loch +Katrine, the Trossachs and Callander. Another stay at Dalhousie Castle +gave the tourist an opportunity of seeing Abbotsford, where he heard +much talk of Sir Walter Scott. Lord Dalhousie had many anecdotes to +tell of Scott's school-days, and Willis recalled some reminiscences of +the Wizard that he had heard from Moore in London. 'Scott was the soul +of honesty,' Moore had said. 'When I was on a visit to him, we were +coming up from Kelso at sunset, and as there was to be a fine moon, I +quoted to him his own rule for seeing "fair Melrose aright," and +proposed to stay an hour and enjoy it. "Bah," said Scott. "I never saw +it by moonlight." We went, however, and Scott, who seemed to be on the +most familiar terms with the cicerone, pointed to an empty niche, and +said to him: "I think I have a Virgin and Child that will just do for +your niche. I'll send it to you." "How happy you have made that man," +I said. "Oh," said Scott, "it was always in the way, and Madam Scott +is constantly grudging it house-room. We're well rid of it." Any other +man would have allowed himself at least the credit of a kind action.' + +After a stay at a Lancashire country-house, Willis arrived at +Liverpool, where he got his first sight of the newly-opened railway to +Manchester. In the letters and journals of the period, it is rather +unusual to come upon any allusion to the great revolution in +land-travelling. We often read of our grandfathers' astonishment at +the steam-packets that crossed the Atlantic in a fortnight, but they +seem to have slid into the habit of travelling by rail almost as a +matter of course, much as their descendants have taken to touring in +motor-cars. Willis the observant, however, has left on record his +sensations during his first journey by rail. + +'Down we dived into the long tunnel,' he relates, 'emerging from the +darkness at a pace that made my hair sensibly tighten, and hold on +with apprehension. Thirty miles in the hour is pleasant going when one +is a little accustomed to it, it gives one such a pleasant contempt +for time and distance. The whizzing past of the return trains, going +in the opposite direction with the same degree of velocity--making you +recoil in one second, and a mile off the next--was the only thing +which, after a few minutes, I did not take to very kindly.' + +Willis adds to our obligations by reporting the cries of the newsboys +at the Elephant and Castle, where all the coaches to and from the +South stopped for twenty minutes. On the occasion that our traveller +passed through, the boys were crying 'Noospipper, sir! Buy the morning +pippers, sir! _Times, Herald, Chrinnicle,_ and _Munning Post_, +sir--contains Lud Brum's entire innihalation of Lud Nummanby--Ledy +Flor 'Estings' murder by Lud Melbun and the Maids of Honour--debate +on the Croolty-Hannimals Bill, and a fatil catstrophy in conskens +of loosfer matches! Sixpence, only sixpence!' + +In November Willis returned to London, and took lodgings in Vigo +Street. During the next ten months he seems to have done a good deal +of work for the magazines, and to have been made much of in society as +a literary celebrity. His stories and articles, which appeared in the +_New Monthly Magazine_ under the pseudonym of Philip Slingsby, +were eagerly read by the public of that day. He was presented at +court, admitted to the Athenacum and Travellers' Clubs, and patronised +by Lady Charlotte Bury and Lady Stepney, ladies who were in the habit +of writing bad novels, and giving excellent dinners. Madden, Lady +Blessington's biographer, who saw a good deal of Willis at this time, +says that he was an extremely agreeable young man, somewhat +over-dressed, and a little too _démonstratif_, but abounding in +good spirits. 'He was observant and communicative, lively and clever +in conversation, having the peculiar art of making himself agreeable +to ladies, old and young, _dégagé_ in his manner, and on exceedingly +good terms with himself.' + +Not only had Willis the _entrée_ into fashionable Bohemia, but he +was well received in many families of unquestionable respectability. +Elderly and middle-aged ladies were especially attracted by his +flattering attentions and deferential manners, and at this time two of +his most devoted friends were Mrs. Shaw of the Manor House, Lee, a +daughter of Lord Erskine, and Mrs. Skinner of Shirley Park, the wife +of an Indian nabob. Their houses were always open to him, and he says +in a letter to his mother: 'I have two homes in England where I am +loved like a child. I had a letter from Mrs. Shaw, who thought I +looked low-spirited at the opera the other night. "Young men have but +two causes of unhappiness," she writes, "love and money. If it is +_money_, Mr. Shaw wishes me to say you shall have as much as you +want; if it is _love_, tell us the lady, and perhaps we can help +you." I spend my Sundays alternately at their splendid country-house, +and at Mrs. Skinner's, and they can never get enough of me. I am often +asked if I carry a love-philter with me.' + +At Shirley Park, Willis struck up a friendship with Jane Porter, and +made the acquaintance of Lady Morgan, Praed, John Leech, and Martin +Tupper. Mrs. Skinner professed to be extremely anxious to find him a +suitable wife, and in a confidential letter to her, he writes: 'You +say if you had a daughter you would give her to me. If you _had_ +one, I should certainly take you at your word, provided this +_exposé_ of my poverty did not change your fancy. I should like +to marry in England, and I feel every day that my best years and best +affections are running to waste. I am proud to _be_ an American, +but as a literary man, I would rather _live_ in England. So if +you know of any affectionate and _good_ girl who would be content +to live a quiet life, and could love your humble servant, you have +full power to dispose of me, _provided_ she has five hundred a +year, or as much more as she likes. I know enough of the world to cut +my throat, rather than bring a delicate woman down to a dependence on +my brains for support.' + +In March of this year, 1835, Willis produced his _Melanie, and other +Poems_, which was 'edited' by Barry Cornwall. He received the +honour of a parody in the _Bon Gaultier Ballads_, entitled 'The +Fight with the Snapping Turtle, or the American St. George.' In this +ballad Willis and Bryant are represented as setting out to kill the +Snapping Turtle, spurred on by the offer of a hundred dollars reward. +The turtle swallows Willis, but is thereupon taken ill, and having +returned him to earth again, dies in great agony. When he claims the +reward, he is informed that:-- + + 'Since you dragged the tarnal crittur + From the bottom of the ponds, + Here's the hundred dollars due you + _All in Pennsylvanian bonds._' + +At the end of the poem is a drawing of a pair of stocks, labelled 'The +only good American securities,' Willis seems to have been too busy to +Boswellise this season, but we get a glimpse of him in his letters to +Miss Mitford, and one or two of the notes in his diary are worth +quoting. On April 22 he writes to the author of _Our Village_ in +his usual flattering style: 'I am anxious to see your play and your +next book, and I quite agree with you that the drama is your +_pied_, though I think laurels, and spreading ones, are sown for +you in every department of writing. Nobody ever wrote better prose, +and what could not the author of _Rienzi_ do in verse. For +myself, I am far from considering myself regularly embarked in +literature, and if I can live without it, or ply any other vocation, +shall vote it a thankless trade, and save my "entusymussy" for my wife +and children--when I get them. I am at present steeped to the lips in +London society, going to everything, from Devonshire House to a +publisher's dinner in Paternoster Row, and it is not a bad _olla +podrida_ of life and manners. I dote on "England and true English," +and was never so happy, or so at a loss to find a minute for care or +forethought.' + +In his diary for June 30, Willis notes: 'Breakfasted with Samuel +Rogers. Talked of Mrs. Butler's book, and Rogers gave us suppressed +passages. Talked critics, and said that as long as you cast a shadow, +you were sure that you possessed substance. Coleridge said of Southey, +"I never think of him but as mending a pen." Southey said of +Coleridge, "Whenever anything presents itself to him in the form of a +duty, that moment he finds himself incapable of looking at it."' On +July 9 we have the entry: 'Dined with Dr. Beattie, and met Thomas +Campbell.... He spoke of Scott's slavishness to men of rank, but said +it did not interfere with his genius. Said it sunk a man's heart to +think that he and Byron were dead, and there was nobody left to praise +or approve.... He told a story of dining with Burns and a Bozzy +friend, who, when Campbell proposed the health of _Mr_. Burns, +said, "Sir, you will always be known as _Mr_. Campbell, but +posterity will talk of _Burns_." He was playful and amusing, and +drank gin and water.' + +While staying with the Skinners in August, Willis met his fate in the +person of Miss Mary Stace, daughter of a General Stace. After a week's +acquaintance he proposed to her, and was accepted. She was, we are +told, a beauty of the purest Saxon type, with a bright complexion, +blue eyes, light-brown hair, and delicate, regular features. Her +disposition was clinging and affectionate, and she had enjoyed the +religious bringing up that her lover thought of supreme importance to +a woman. General Stace agreed to allow his daughter £300 a year, which +with the £400 that Willis made by his pen, was considered a sufficient +income for the young couple to start housekeeping upon. + +Willis, who had promised to pay Miss Mitford a visit in the autumn, +writes to her on September 22, to explain that all his plans were +altered. 'Just before starting with Miss Jane Porter on a tour that +was to include Reading,' he says, 'I went to a picnic, fell in love +with a blue-eyed girl, and (after running the gauntlet successfully +through France, Italy, Greece, Germany, Asia Minor, and Turkey) I +renewed my youth, and became "a suitor for love." I am to be married +(_sequitur_) on Thursday week.... The lady who is to take me, as +the Irish say, "in a present," is some six years younger than myself, +gentle, religious, relying, and unambitious. She has never been +whirled through the gay society of London, so is not giddy or vain. +She has never swum in a gondola, or written a sonnet, so has a proper +respect for those who have. She is called pretty, but is more than +that in _my_ eyes; sings as if her heart were hid in her lips, +and _loves_ me.... We are bound to Paris for a month (because I +think amusement better than reflection when a woman makes a doubtful +bargain), and by November we return to London for the winter, and in +the spring sail for America to see my mother. I have promised to live +mainly on this side of the water, and shall return in the course of a +year to try what contentment may be sown and reaped in a green lane in +Kent.' + +While the happy pair were on their honeymoon, Lady Blessington had +undertaken to see the _Pencillings by the Way_ through the press. +For the first edition Willis received £250, but he made, from first to +last, about a thousand pounds by the book. Its appearance in volume +form had been anticipated by Lockhart's scathing review in the +_Quarterly_ for September 1835. The critic, annoyed at Willis's +strictures on himself in the interview with Professor Wilson, attacked +the _Pencillings_, as they had appeared in the _New York Mirror_, +with all proper names printed in full, and many personal +details that were left out in the English edition. Lockhart always +knew how to stab a man in the tenderest place, and he stabbed Willis +in his gentility. After pointing out that while visiting in London and +the provinces as a young American sonneteer of the most +ultra-sentimental delicacy, the Penciller was all the time the regular +paid correspondent of a New York Journal, he observes that the letters +derive their powers of entertainment chiefly from the light that they +reflect upon the manners and customs of the author's own countrymen, +since, from his sketches of English interiors, the reader may learn +what American breakfast, dinners, and table-talk are _not_; or at +all events what they were not in those circles of American society +with which the writer happened to be familiar. + +'Many of _this person's_ discoveries,' continues Lockhart, +warming to his work, 'will be received with ridicule in his own +country, where the doors of the best houses were probably not opened +to him as liberally as those of the English nobility. In short, we are +apt to consider him as a just representative--not of the American mind +and manners generally--but only of the young men of fair education +among the busy, middling orders of mercantile cities. In his letters +from Gordon Castle there are bits of solid, full-grown impudence and +impertinence; while over not a few of the paragraphs is a varnish of +conceited vulgarity which is too ludicrous to be seriously +offensive.... We can well believe that Mr. Willis depicted the sort of +society that most interests his countrymen, "born to be slaves and +struggling to be lords," their servile adulation of rank and talent; +their stupid admiration of processions and levees, are leading +features of all the American books of travel.... We much doubt if all +the pretty things we have quoted will so far propitiate Lady +Blessington as to make her again admit to her table the animal who has +printed what ensues. [Here follows the report of Moore's conversation +on the subject of O'Connell.] As far as we are acquainted with English +or American literature, this is the first example of a man creeping +into your home, and forthwith, before your claret is dry on his lips, +printing _table-talk on delicate subjects, and capable of +compromising individuals_.' + +The _Quarterly_ having thus given the lead, the rest of the Tory +magazines gaily followed suit. Maginn flourished his shillelagh, and +belaboured his victim with a brutality that has hardly ever been +equalled, even by the pioneer journals of the Wild West. 'This is a +goose of a book,' he begins, 'or if anybody wishes the idiom changed, +the book of a goose. There is not an idea in it beyond what might +germinate in the brain of a washerwoman.' He then proceeds to call the +author by such elegant names as 'lickspittle,' 'beggarly skittler,' +jackass, ninny, haberdasher, 'fifty-fifth rate scribbler of +gripe-visited sonnets,' and 'namby-pamby writer in twaddling albums +kept by the mustachioed widows or bony matrons of Portland Place.' + +The people whose hospitality Willis was accused of violating wrote to +assure him of the pleasure his book had given them. Lord Dalhousie +writes: 'We all agree in one sentiment, that a more amusing and +delightful production was never issued by the press. The Duke and +Duchess of Gordon were here lately, and expressed themselves in +similar terms.' Lady Blessington did not withdraw her friendship, but +Willis admits, in one of his letters, that he had no deeper regret +than that his indiscretion should have checked the freedom of his +approach to her. As a result of the slashing reviews, the book sold +with the readiness of a _succés de scandale_, though it had been +so rigorously edited for the English market, that very few +indiscretions were left. + +The unexpurgated version of the _Pencillings_ was, however, +copied into the English papers and eagerly read by the persons most +concerned, such as Fonblanque, who bitterly complained of the libel +upon his personal appearance, O'Connell, who broke off his lifelong +friendship with Moore, and Captain Marryat, who was furious at the +remark that his 'gross trash' sold immensely in Wapping. Like +Lockhart, he revenged himself by an article in his own magazine, the +_Metropolitan_, in which he denounced Willis as a 'spurious +attaché,' and made dark insinuations against his birth and parentage. +This attack was too personal to be ignored. Willis demanded an +apology, to which Marryat replied with a challenge, and after a long +correspondence, most of which found its way into the _Times_, a +duel was fixed to take place at Chatham. At the last moment the +seconds managed to arrange matters between their principals, and the +affair ended without bloodshed. This was fortunate for Willis, who was +little used to fire-arms, whilst Marryat was a crack shot. + +In his preface to the first edition of the _Pencillings_ Willis +explains that the ephemeral nature and usual obscurity of periodical +correspondence gave a sufficient warrant to his mind that his +descriptions would die where they first saw the light, and that +therefore he had indulged himself in a freedom of detail and topic +only customary in posthumous memoirs. He expresses his astonishment +that this particular sin should have been visited upon him at a +distance of three thousand miles, when the _Quarterly_ reviewer's +own fame rested on the more aggravated instance of a book of +personalities published under the very noses of the persons described +(_Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk_). After observing that he was +little disposed to find fault, since everything in England pleased +him, he proceeds: 'In one single instance I indulged myself in +strictures upon individual character.... I but repeated what I had +said a thousand times, and never without an indignant echo to its +truth, that the editor of that Review was the most unprincipled critic +of the age. Aside from its flagrant literary injustice, we owe to the +_Quarterly_ every spark of ill-feeling that has been kept alive +between England and America for the last twenty years. The sneers, the +opprobrious epithets of this bravo of literature have been received in +a country where the machinery of reviewing was not understood, as the +voice of the English people, and animosity for which there was no +other reason has been thus periodically fed and exasperated. I +conceive it to be my duty as a literary man--I _know_ it is my +duty as an American--to lose no opportunity of setting my heel on this +reptile of criticism. He has turned and stung me. Thank God, I have +escaped the slime of his approbation.' + +The winter was spent in London, and in the following March Willis +brought out his _Inklings of Adventure_, a reprint of the stories +that had appeared in various magazines over the signature of Philip +Slingsby. These were supposed to be real adventures under a thin +disguise of fiction, and the public eagerly read the tawdry little +tales in the hope of discovering the identities of the _dramatis +personæ_. The majority of the 'Inklings' deal with the romantic +adventures of a young literary man who wins the affection of high-born +ladies, and is made much of in aristrocratic circles. The author +revels in descriptions of luxurious boudoirs in which recline +voluptuous blondes or exquisite brunettes, with hearts always at the +disposal of the all-conquering Philip Slingsby. Fashionable fiction, +however, was unable to support the expense of a fashionable +establishment, and in May 1836 the couple sailed for America. Willis +hoped to obtain a diplomatic appointment, and return to Europe for +good, but all his efforts were vain, and he was obliged to rely on his +pen for a livelihood. His first undertaking was the letterpress for an +illustrated volume on American scenery; and for some months he +travelled about the country with the artist who was responsible for +the illustrations. On one of his journeys he fell in love with a +pretty spot on the banks of the Owego Creek, near the junction with +the Susquehanna, and bought a couple of hundred acres and a house, +which he named Glenmary after his wife. + +Here the pair settled down happily for some five years, and here +Willis wrote his pleasant, gossiping _Letters from Under a +Bridge_ for the _New York Mirror_. In these he prattled of his +garden, his farm, his horses and dogs, and the strangers within his +gates. Unfortunately, he was unable to devote much attention to his +farm, which was said to grow nothing but flowers of speed, but was +forced to spend more and more time in the editorial office, and to +write hastily and incessantly for a livelihood. In 1839, owing to a +temporary coolness with the proprietor of the _Mirror_, Willis +accepted the proposal of his friend, Dr. Porter, that he should start +a new weekly paper called the _Corsair_, one of a whole crop of +pirate weeklies that started up with the establishment of the first +service of Atlantic liners. In May 1839 the first steam-vessel that +had crossed the ocean anchored in New York Harbour, and thenceforward +it was possible to obtain supplies from the European literary markets +within a fortnight of publication. It was arranged between Dr. Parker +and Willis that the cream of the contemporary literature of England, +France, and Germany should be conveyed to the readers of the +_Corsair_, and of course there was no question of payment to the +authors whose wares were thus appropriated. + +The first number of the _Corsair_ appeared in January 1839, but +apparently piracy was not always a lucrative trade, for the paper had +an existence of little more than a year. In the course of its brief +career, however, Willis paid a flying visit to England, where he +accomplished a great deal of literary business. He had written a play +called _The Usurer Matched_, which was brought out by Wallack at +the Surrey Theatre, and is said to have been played to crowded houses +during a fairly long run, but neither this nor any of his other plays +brought the author fame or fortune. During this season he published +his _Loiterings of Travel_, a collection of stories and sketches, +a fourth edition of the _Pencillings_, an English edition of +_Letters from Under a Bridge_, and arranged with Virtue for works +on Irish and Canadian scenery. In addition to all this, he was +contributing jottings in London to the _Corsair_. As might be +supposed, he had not much time for society, but he met a few old +friends, made acquaintance with Kemble and Kean, went to a ball at +Almack's, and was present at the famous Eglinton Tournament, which +watery catastrophe he described for his paper. One of the most +interesting of his new acquaintances was Thackeray, then chiefly +renowned as a writer for the magazines. On July 26 Willis writes to +Dr. Porter:-- + +'I have engaged a new contributor to the _Corsair_. Who do you +think? The author of _Yellowplush_ and _Major Gahagan_. He has +gone to Paris, and will write letters from there, and afterwards +from London for a guinea a _close_ column of the _Corsair_--cheaper +than I ever did anything in my life. For myself, I think him the +very best periodical writer alive. He is a royal, daring, fine +creature too.' In his published _Jottings_, Willis told his readers +that 'Mr. Thackeray, the author, breakfasted with me yesterday, +and the _Corsair_ will be delighted to hear that I have engaged +this cleverest and most gifted of all the magazine-writers of +London to become _a regular correspondent of the Corsair_.... +Thackeray is a tall, athletic-looking man of about forty-five +[he was actually only eight-and-twenty], with a look of talent that +could never be mistaken. He is one of the most accomplished +draughtsmen in England, as well as the most brilliant of +periodical writers.' Thackeray only wrote eight letters for the +_Corsair_, which were afterwards republished in his _Paris +Sketch-book_. There is an allusion to this episode in _The +Adventures of Philip_, the hero being invited to contribute to a +New York journal called _The Upper Ten Thousand_, a phrase +invented by Willis. + +When the _Corsair_ came to an untimely end, Willis had no +difficulty in finding employment on other papers. He is said to have +been the first American magazine-writer who was tolerably well paid, +and at one time he was making about a thousand a year by periodical +work. That his name was already celebrated among his own countrymen +seems to be proved by the story of a commercial gentleman at a Boston +tea-party who 'guessed that Goethe was the N.P. Willis of Germany.' +The tales written about this time were afterwards collected into a +volume called _Dashes at Life with a Free Pencil_. Thackeray made +great fun of this work in the _Edinburgh Review_ for October +1845, more especially of that portion called 'The Heart-book of Ernest +Clay.' 'Like Caesar,' observed Thackeray, 'Ernest Clay is always +writing of his own victories. Duchesses pine for him, modest virgins +go into consumption and die for him, old grandmothers of sixty forget +their families and their propriety, and fall on the neck of this "Free +Pencil."' He quotes with delight the description of a certain Lady +Mildred, one of Ernest Clay's numerous loves, who glides into the room +at a London tea-party, 'with a step as elastic as the nod of a +water-lily. A snowy turban, from which hung on either temple a cluster +of crimson camellias still wet with the night-dew; long raven curls of +undisturbed grace falling on shoulders of that indescribable and dewy +coolness which follows a morning bath.' How naively, comments the +critic, does this nobleman of nature recommend the use of this rare +cosmetic! + +In spite of his popularity, Willis's affairs were not prospering at +this time. He had received nothing from the estate of his +father-in-law, who died in 1839, his publisher failed in 1842, and he +was obliged to sell Glenmary and remove to New York, whence he had +undertaken to send a fortnightly letter to a paper at Washington. This +was the year of Dickens's visit to America, and Willis was present at +the 'Boz Ball,' where he danced with Mrs. Dickens, to whom he +afterwards did the honours of Broadway. In 1843 Willis made up his +difference with Morris, and again became joint-editor of the +_Mirror_, which, a year later, was changed from a weekly to a +daily paper. His contributions to the journal consisted of stories, +poems, letters, book-notices, answers to correspondents, and editorial +gossip of all kinds. + +In March 1845 Mrs. Willis died in her confinement, leaving her +(temporarily) broken-hearted husband with one little girl. 'An angel +without fault or foible' was his epitaph upon the woman to whom, in +spite of his many fictitious _bonnes fortunes_, he is said to +have been faithfully attached. But Willis was not born to live alone, +and in the following summer he fell in love with a Miss Cornelia +Grinnell at Washington, and was married to her in October, 1846. The +second Mrs. Willis was nearly twenty years younger than her husband, +but she was a sensible, energetic young woman, who made him an +excellent wife. + +The title of the _Mirror_ had been changed to that of _The Home +Journal_, and under its new name it became a prosperous paper. +Willis, who was the leading spirit of the enterprise, set himself to +portray the town, chronicling plays, dances, picture-exhibitions, +sights and entertainments of all kinds in the airy manner that was so +keenly appreciated by his countrymen. He was recognised as an +authority on fashion, and his correspondence columns were crowded with +appeals for guidance in questions of dress and etiquette. He was also +a favourite in general society, though he is said to have been, next +to Fenimore Cooper, the best-abused man of letters in America. One of +his most pleasing characteristics was his ready appreciation and +encouragement of young writers, for he was totally free from +professional jealousy. He was the literary sponsor of Aldrich, Bayard +Taylor, and Lowell, among others, and the last-named alludes to Willis +in his _Fable for Critics_ (1848) in the following flattering +lines: + + 'His nature's a glass of champagne with the foam on't, + As tender as Fletcher, as witty as Beaumont; + So his best things are done in the heat of the moment. + * * * * * + He'd have been just the fellow to sup at the 'Mermaid,' + Cracking jokes at rare Ben, with an eye to the barmaid, + His wit running up as Canary ran down,-- + The topmost bright bubble on the wave of the town.' + +After 1846 Willis wrote little except gossiping paragraphs and other +ephemera. In answer to remonstrances against this method of frittering +away his talents, he was accustomed to reply that the public liked +trifles, and that he was bound to go on 'buttering curiosity with the +ooze of his brains.' He read but little in later life, nor associated +with men of high intellect or serious aims, but showed an +ever-increasing preference for the frivolous and the feminine. In 1850 +he published another volume of little magazine stories called +_People I have Met_. This appeared in London as well as in New +York, and Thackeray again revenged himself for that close column which +had been rewarded by an uncertain guinea, by holding up his former +editor to ridicule. With mischievous delight he describes the +amusement that is to be found in N.P. Willis's society, 'amusement at +the immensity of N.P.'s blunders; amusement at the prodigiousness of +his self-esteem; amusement always with or at Willis the poet, Willis +the man, Willis the dandy, Willis the lover--now the Broadway +Crichton--once the ruler of fashion and heart-enslaver of Bond Street, +and the Boulevard, and the Corso, and the Chiaja, and the +Constantinople Bazaars. It is well for the general peace of families +that the world does not produce many such men; there would be no +keeping our wives and daughters in their senses were such fascinators +to make frequent apparitions among us; but it is comfortable that +there should have been a Willis; and as a literary man myself, and +anxious for the honour of that profession, I am proud to think that a +man of our calling should have come, should have seen, should have +conquered as Willis has done.... There is more or less of truth, he +nobly says, in these stories--more or less truth, to be sure there +is--and it is on account of this more or less truth that I for my part +love and applaud this hero and poet. We live in our own country, and +don't know it; Willis walks into it, and dominates it at once. To know +a duchess, for instance, is given to very few of us. He sees things +that are not given to us to see. We see the duchess in her carriage, +and gaze with much reverence on the strawberry-leaves on the panels, +and her grace within; whereas the odds are that that lovely duchess +has had, one time or the other, a desperate flirtation with Willis the +Conqueror. Perhaps she is thinking of him at this very moment, as her +jewelled hand presses her perfumed handkerchief to her fair and +coroneted brow, and she languidly stops to purchase a ruby bracelet at +Gunter's, or to sip an ice at Howell and James's. He must have whole +mattresses stuffed with the blonde or raven or auburn tresses of +England's fairest daughters. When the female English aristocracy read +the title of _People I have Met_, I can fancy the whole female +peerage of Willis's time in a shudder; and the melancholy marchioness, +and the abandoned countess, and the heart-stricken baroness trembling +as each gets the volume, and asks of her guilty conscience, "Gracious +goodness, is the monster going to show up me?"' + +In 1853 Willis, who had been obliged to travel for the benefit of his +declining health, took a fancy to the neighbourhood of the Hudson, and +bought fifty acres of waste land, upon which he built himself a house, +and called the place Idlewild. Here he settled down once more to a +quiet country life, took care of his health, cultivated his garden, +and wrote long weekly letters to the _Home Journal_. He had by +this time five children, middle age had stolen upon him, and now that +he could no longer pose as his own allconquering hero, his hand seems +to have lost its cunning. His editorial articles, afterwards published +under the appropriate title of _Ephemera_, grew thinner and +flatter with the passing of the years; yet slight and superficial as +the best of them are, they were the result of very hard writing. His +manuscripts were a mass of erasures and interlineations, but his copy +was so neatly prepared that even the erasures had a sort of 'wavy +elegance' which the compositors actually preferred to print. His +mannerisms and affectations grew upon him in his later years, and he +became more and more addicted to the coining of new words and phrases, +only a few of which proved effective. Besides the now well-worn term, +the 'upper ten thousand,' he is credited with the invention of +'Japonicadom,' 'come-at-able,' and 'stay-at-home-ativeness.' One or +two of his sayings may be worth quoting, such as his request for +Washington Irving's blotting-book, because it was the door-mat on +which the thoughts of his last book had wiped their sandals before +they went in; and his remark that to ask a literary man to write a +letter after his day's work was like asking a penny-postman to take a +walk in the evening for the pleasure of it. + +On the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Willis went to Washington as +war-correspondent of his paper. It does not appear that he saw any +harder service than the dinners and receptions of the capitol, since +an opportune fit of illness prevented his following the army to Bull's +Run. The correspondent who took his place on the march had his career +cut short by a Southern bullet. Willis, meanwhile, was driving about +with Mrs. Lincoln, with whom he became a favourite, although she +reproached him for his want of tact in speaking of her 'motherly +expression' in one of his published letters, she being at that time +only thirty-six. He met Hawthorne at Washington, and describes him as +very shy and reserved in manner, but adds, 'I found he was a lover of +mine, and we enjoyed our acquaintance very much.' One of the minor +results of the great Civil War was the extinguishing of Willis's +literary reputation; his frothy trifling suddenly became obsolete when +men had sterner things to think about than the cut of a coat, or the +etiquette of a morning call. The nation began to demand realities, +even in its fiction, the circulation of the _Home Journal_ fell +off, and Willis, who had always affected a horror of figures and +business matters generally, found himself in financial difficulties. +He was obliged to let Idlewild, and return, in spite of his rapidly +failing health, to the editorial office at New York. + +The last few years of Willis's career afford a melancholy contrast to +its brilliant opening. Health, success, prosperity--all had deserted +him, and nothing remained but the editorial chair, to which he clung +even after epileptic attacks had resulted in paralysis and gradual +softening of the brain. The failure of his mental powers was kept +secret as long as possible, but in November, 1866, he yielded to the +entreaties of his wife and children, knocked off work for ever, and +went home to die. His last few months were passed in helpless +weakness, and he only occasionally recognised those around him. The +end came on January 20, 1867, his sixty-first birthday. + +Selections from Willis's prose works have been published within recent +years in America, and a new edition of his poems has appeared in +England, while a carefully written Life by Mr. De Beers is included in +the series of 'American Men of Letters.' But in this country at least +his fame, such as it is, will rest upon his sketches of such +celebrities as Lamb, Moore, Bulwer, D'Orsay, and D'Israeli. As long as +we retain any interest in them and their works, we shall like to know +how they looked and dressed, and what they talked about in private +life. It is impossible altogether to approve of the Penciller--his +absurdities were too marked, and his indiscretions too many--yet it is +probable that few who have followed his meteor-like career will be +able to refrain from echoing Thackeray's dictum: 'It is comfortable +that there should have been a Willis!' + + + + +LADY HESTER STANHOPE + +PART I + + +[Illustration: Lady Hester Stanhope from a drawing by R. J. Hamerton] + +There are few true stories that are distinguished by a well-marked +moral. If we study human chronicles we generally find the ungodly +flourishing permanently like a green bay-tree, and the righteous +apparently forsaken and begging his bread. But it occasionally happens +that a human life illustrates some moral lesson with the triteness and +crudity of a Sunday-school book, and of such is the career of Lady +Hester Stanhope, a Pitt on the mother's side, and more of a Pitt in +temper and disposition than her grandfather, the great Commoner +himself. Her story contains the useful but conventional lesson that +pride goeth before a fall, and that all earthly glory is but vanity, +together with a warning against the ambition that o'erleaps itself, +and ends in failure and humiliation. That humanity will profit by such +a lesson, whether true or invented for didactic purposes, is doubtful, +but at least Nature has done her best for once to usurp the seat of +the preacher, 'to point a moral and adorn a tale.' Lady Hester, who +was born on March 12,1776, was the eldest daughter of Charles, third +Earl of Stanhope, by his first wife Hester, daughter of the great Lord +Chatham. Lord Stanhope seems to have been an uncomfortable person, who +combined scientific research with democratic principles, and contrived +to quarrel with most of his family. In order to live up to his +theories he laid down his carriage and horses, effaced the armorial +bearings from his plate, and removed from his walls some famous +tapestry, because it was 'so d----d aristocratical.' If one of his +daughters happened to look better than usual in a becoming hat or +frock, he had the garment laid away, and something coarse put in its +place. The children were left almost entirely to the care of +governesses and tutors, their step-mother, the second Lady Stanhope (a +Grenville by birth) being a fashionable fine lady, who devoted her +whole time to her social duties, while Lord Stanhope was absorbed by +his scientific pursuits. The home was not a happy one, either for the +three girls of the first marriage, or for the three sons of the +second. In 1796 Rachel, the youngest daughter, eloped with a Sevenoaks +apothecary named Taylor, and was cast off by her family; and in 1800 +Griselda, the second daughter, married a Mr. Tekell, of Hampshire. In +this year Hester left her home, which George III used to call +Democracy Hall, and went to live with her grandmother, the Dowager +Lady Stanhope. + +On the death of Lady Stanhope in 1803, Lady Hester was offered a home +by her uncle, William Pitt, with whom she remained until his death in +1806. Pitt became deeply attached to his handsome, high-spirited +niece. He believed in her sincerity and affection for himself, admired +her courage and cleverness, laughed at her temper, and encouraged her +pride. She seems to have gained a considerable influence over her +uncle, and contrived to have a finger in most of the ministerial pies. +When reproached for allowing her such unreserved liberty of action in +state affairs, Pitt was accustomed to reply, 'I let her do as she +pleases; for if she were resolved to cheat the devil himself, she +would do it.' 'And so I would,' Lady Hester used to add, when she told +the story. If we may believe her own account, Pitt told her that she +was fit to sit between Augustus and Mæcenas, and assured her that 'I +have plenty of good diplomatists, but they are none of them military +men; and I have plenty of good officers, but not one of them is worth +sixpence in the cabinet. If you were a man, Hester, I would send you +on the Continent with 60,000 men, and give you _carte blanche_, +and I am sure that not one of my plans would fail, and not one soldier +would go with his boots unblacked.' This admiration, according to the +same authority, was shared by George III, who one day on the Terrace +at Windsor informed Mr. Pitt that he had got a new and superior +minister in his room, and one, moreover, who was a good general. +'There is my new minister,' he added, pointing at Lady Hester. 'There +is not a man in my kingdom who is a better politician, and there is +not a woman who better adorns her sex. And let me say, Mr. Pitt, you +have not reason to be proud you are a minister, for there have been +many before you, and will be many after you; but you have reason to be +proud of her, who unites everything that is great in man and woman.' + +All this must, of course, be taken with grains of salt, but it is +certain that Lady Hester occupied a position of almost unparalleled +supremacy for a woman, that she dispensed patronage, lectured +ministers, and snubbed princes. On one occasion Lord Mulgrave, who had +just been appointed Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, found a +broken egg-spoon on the breakfast-table at Walmer, and asked, 'How can +Mr. Pitt have such a spoon as this?' 'Don't you know,' retorted Lady +Hester, 'that Mr. Pitt sometimes uses very slight and weak instruments +wherewith to effect his ends?' Again, when Mr. Addington wished to +take the title of Lord Raleigh, Lady Hester determined to prevent what +she regarded as a desecration of a great name. She professed to have +seen a caricature, which she minutely described, representing Mr. +Addington as Sir Walter Raleigh, and the King as Queen Elizabeth. Mr. +Pitt, believing the story, repeated it to Addington and others, with +the result that messengers were despatched to all the print-shops to +buy up the whole impression. Of course no such caricature was to be +found, but the prospective peer had received a fright, and chose the +inoffensive title of Lord Sidmouth. Lady Hester despised Lord +Liverpool for a well-meaning blunderer, but she hated and distrusted +Canning, whom she was accustomed to describe as a fiery, red-headed +Irish politician, who was never staunch to any person or any party; +and she declared that by her scoldings she had often made him blubber +like a schoolboy. It cannot be supposed that her ladyship was popular +with the numerous persons, high and low, who came under the ban of her +displeasure, or suffered from her pride; but she was young, handsome, +and witty, her position was unassailable, and as long as her uncle +chose to laugh at her insolence and her eccentricities, no lesser +power presumed to frown. + +For her beauty in youth we must again take her own account on trust, +since she never consented to sit for her portrait, and in old age her +recollection of her vanished charms may have been coloured by some +pardonable exaggeration. 'At twenty,' she told a chronicler, 'my +complexion was like alabaster, and at five paces distant the sharpest +eyes could not discover my pearl necklace from my skin. My lips were +of such a beautiful carnation that, without vanity, I can assure you, +very few women had the like. A dark-blue shade under the eyes, and the +blue veins that were observable through the transparent skin, +heightened the brilliancy of my features. Nor were the roses wanting +in my cheeks; and to all this was added a permanency in my looks that +no sort of fatigue could impair.' She was fond of relating an anecdote +of a flattering impertinence on the part of Beau Brummell, who, +meeting her at a ball, coolly took the earrings out of her ears, +telling her that she should not wear such things, as they hid the fine +turn of her cheek, and the set of head upon her neck. Lady Hester +frankly admitted, however, that it was her brilliant colouring that +made her beauty, and once observed, in reply to a compliment on her +appearance: 'If you were to take every feature in my face, and lay +them one by one on the table, there is not a single one that would +bear examination. The only thing is that, put together and lighted up, +they look well enough. It is homogeneous ugliness, and nothing more.' + +With Pitt's death in January, 1806, as by the stroke of a magic wand, +all the power, all the glory, and all the grandeur came to a sudden +end, and the great minister's favourite niece fell to the level of a +private lady, with a moderate income, no influence, and a host of +enemies. On his deathbed, Pitt had asked that an annuity of £1500 +might be granted to Lady Hester, but in the end only £1200 was awarded +to her, a trifling income for one with such exalted ideas of her own +importance. A house was taken in Montagu Square, where Lady Hester +entertained her half-brothers, Charles and James Stanhope, when their +military duties allowed of their being in town. Here she led but a +melancholy life, for her means would not allow of her keeping a +carriage, and she fancied that it was incompatible with her dignity to +drive in a hackney-coach, or to walk out attended by a servant. In +1809 Charles Stanhope, like his chief, Sir John Moore, fell at +Corunna. Charles was Lady Hester's favourite brother, and tradition +says that Sir John Moore was her lover. Be that as it may, she broke +up her establishment in town at this time, and retired to a lonely +cottage in Wales, where she amused herself in superintending her dairy +and physicking the poor. But she suffered in health and spirits, the +contrast of the present with the past was too bitter to be endured in +solitude, and in 1810 she decided to go abroad, and spend a year or +two in the south. A young medical man, Dr. Meryon, [Footnote: +Afterwards Lady Hester's chronicler.] was engaged to accompany her as +her travelling physician, and the party further consisted of her +brother, James Stanhope, and a friend, Mr. Nassau Sutton, together +with two or three servants. Lady Hester was only thirty when her uncle +died, but it does not seem to have been considered that she required +any chaperonage, either at home or on her travels, nor does it appear +that Lord Stanhope (who lived till 1816) took any further interest in +her proceedings. + +On February 10, 1810, the travellers sailed for the Mediterranean on +board the frigate _Jason_. It is not necessary to follow them +over the now familiar ground of the early part of their tour. +Gibraltar (whence Captain Stanhope left to join his regiment at +Cadiz), Malta, Athens, Constantinople, these were the first +stopping-places, and in each Lady Hester was treated with great +respect by the authorities, and went her own way in defiance of all +native customs and prejudices. At Athens her party was joined by Lord +Sligo, who was making some excavations in the neighbourhood, and by +Lord Byron, who had just won fresh laurels by swimming the Hellespont. +Lady Hester formed but a poor opinion of the poet, whose affectations +she used to mimic with considerable effect. 'I think Lord Byron was a +strange character,' she said, many years later. 'His generosity was +for a motive, his avarice was for a motive; one time he was mopish, +and nobody was to speak to him; another, he was for being jocular with +everybody.... At Athens I saw nothing in him but a well-bred man, like +many others: for as for poetry, it is easy enough to write verses; and +as for the thoughts, who knows where he got them? Many a one picks up +some old book that nobody knows anything about, and gets his ideas out +of it. He had a great deal of vice in his looks--his eyes set close +together, and a contracted brow. O Lord! I am sure he was not a +liberal man, whatever else he might be. The only good thing about his +looks was this part [drawing her hand under her cheek, and down the +front of her neck], and the curl on his forehead.' + +The winter of 1810 was passed at Constantinople, and the early part of +1811 at the Baths of Brusa. As Lady Hester had decided to spend the +following winter in Egypt, a Greek vessel was hired for herself and +her party, which now consisted of two gentlemen, Mr. Bruce and Mr. +Pearce, besides her usual retinue, and on October 23 the travellers +set sail for Alexandria. After experiencing contrary winds for two or +three weeks, the ship sprang a leak, and the cry of 'All hands to the +pumps' showed that danger was imminent. Lady Hester took the +announcement of the misfortune with the greatest calmness, dressed +herself, and ordered her maid to pack a small box with a few +necessaries. It soon became evident that the ship could not keep +afloat much longer, and that the passengers and crew must take to the +long-boat if they wished to escape with their lives. They contrived, +in spite of the high sea that was running, to steer their boat into a +little creek on a rock off the island of Rhodes, and here, without +either food or water, they remained for thirty hours before they were +rescued, and taken ashore. Even then their state was hardly less +pitiable, for they were wet through, had no change of clothes, and +possessed hardly enough money for their immediate necessities. Lady +Hester described her adventure in the following letter, dated Rhodes, +December, 1811:-- + +'I write one line by a ship which came in here for a few hours, just +to tell you we are safe and well. Starving thirty hours on a bare +rock, without even fresh water, being half naked and drenched with +wet, having traversed an almost trackless country over dreadful rocks +and mountains, laid me up at a village for a few days, but I have +since crossed the island on an ass, going for six hours a day, which +proves I am pretty well, now, at least.... My locket, and the valuable +snuff-box Lord Sligo gave me, and two pelisses, are all I have +saved--all the travelling-equipage for Smyrna is gone; the servants +naked and unarmed; but the great loss of all is the medicine-chest, +which saved the lives of so many travellers in Greece.' + +As they had lost nearly all their clothes, and knew that it would be +impossible to procure a European refit in these regions, the +travellers decided to adopt Turkish costumes. Dr. Meryon made a +journey to Smyrna, where he raised money, and bought necessary +articles for the shipwrecked party at Rhodes. On his return, laden +with purchases, after an absence of five weeks, 'the packing-cases +were opened [to quote his own description], and we assumed our new +dresses. Ignorant at that time of the distinctions of dress which +prevail in Turkey, every one flattered himself that he was habited +becomingly. Lady Hester and Mr. Bruce little suspected, what proved to +be the case, that their exterior was that of small gentry, and Mr. +Pearce and myself thought we were far from looking like +_Chaôoshes_ with our yatagans stuck in our girdles.' Lady Hester, +it may be noted, had determined to adopt the dress of a Turkish +gentleman, in order that she might travel unveiled, a proceeding that +would have been impossible in female costume. + +The offer of a passage on a British frigate from Rhodes to Alexandria +was gladly accepted by Lady Hester and her friends, and on February +14, 1812, they got their first glimpse of the Egyptian coast. After a +fortnight spent in Alexandria, they proceeded to Cairo, where the +pasha, who had never seen an Englishwoman of rank before, desired the +honour of a visit from Lady Hester. In order to dazzle the eyes of her +host, she arrayed herself in a magnificent Tunisian costume of purple +velvet, elaborately embroidered in gold. For her turban and girdle she +bought two cashmere shawls that cost £50 each, her pantaloons cost +£40, her pelisse and waistcoat £50, her sabre £20, and her saddle £35, +while other articles necessary for the completion of the costume cost +a hundred pounds more. The pasha sent five horses to convey herself +and her friends to the palace, and much honour was shown her in the +number of silver sticks that walked before her, and in the privilege +accorded to her of dismounting at the inner gate. After the interview, +the pasha reviewed his troops before his distinguished visitor, and +presented her with a charger, magnificently caparisoned, which she +sent to England as a present to the Duke of York, her favourite among +all the royal princes. + +The next move was to Jaffa, where preparations were made for the +regulation pilgrimage to Jerusalem. In her youth Lady Hester had been +told by Samuel Brothers, the Prophet, that she was to visit Jerusalem, +to pass seven years in the desert, to become the Queen of the Jews, +and to lead forth a chosen people. Now, as she journeyed towards the +Holy City with her cavalcade of eleven camels and thirteen horses, she +saw the first part of the prophecy fulfilled, and laughingly avowed +that she expected to see its final accomplishment. Lady Hester had now +replaced her gorgeous Tunisian dress by a travelling Mameluke's +costume, consisting of a satin vest, a red cloth jacket shaped like a +spencer, and trimmed with gold lace, and loose, full trousers of the +same cloth. Over this she wore a flowing white burnous, whose folds +formed a becoming drapery to her majestic figure. In this costume she +was generally mistaken by the natives for a young Bey with his +moustaches not yet grown, but we are told that her assumption of male +dress was severely criticised by the English residents in the Levant. + +From Jerusalem the party made a leisurely tour through Syria, visiting +Cæsarea, Acre, Nazareth, Sayda, where Lady Hester was entertained by +her future enemy, the Emir Beshyr, prince of the Drûzes, and on +September 1, 1812, arrived at Damascus, where a lengthened stay was +made. Lady Hester had been warned that it would be dangerous for a +woman, unveiled and in man's dress, to enter Damascus, which was then +one of the most fanatical towns in all the Turkish dominions. But the +granddaughter of Pitt feared neither Turk nor Christian, and rode +through the streets daily with uncovered face, and though crowds +assembled to see her start, she received honours instead of the +expected insults. 'A grave yet pleasing look,' writes her chronicler, +'an unembarrassed yet commanding demeanour, met the ideas of the +Turks, whose manners are of this caste.... When it is considered how +fanatical the people of Damascus were, and in what great abhorrence +they held infidels; that native Christians could only inhabit a +particular quarter of the town; and that no one of these could ride on +horseback within the walls, or wear as part of his dress any coloured +cloth or showy turban, it will be a matter for surprise how completely +these prejudices were set aside in favour of Lady Hester, and of those +persons who were with her. She rode out every day, and according to +the custom of the country, coffee was poured on the ground before her +horse to do her honour. It was said that, in going through a bazaar, +all the people rose up as she passed, an honour never paid but to a +pasha, or to the mufti.' + +From the moment of her arrival at Damascus, Lady Hester had busied +herself in arranging for a journey to the ruins of Palmyra. The +expedition was considered not only difficult but dangerous, and she +was assured that a large body of troops would be necessary to protect +her from the robber tribes of the desert. While the practicability of +the enterprise was still being anxiously discussed by her Turkish +advisers, Lady Hester received a visit from a certain Nasar, son of +Mahannah, Emir of the Anizys [Footnote: Dr. Meryon's somewhat erratic +spelling of Oriental names is followed throughout this memoir.] (the +collective name given to several of the Bedouin tribes ranging that +part of the desert), who told her that he had heard of her proposed +expedition, and that he came to warn her against attempting to cross +the desert under military escort, since in that case she would be +treated as an enemy by the tribes. But, he added, if she would place +herself under the protection of the Arabs, and rely upon their honour, +they would pledge themselves to conduct her from Hamah to Palmyra and +back again in safety. The result of this interview was that Lady +Hester declined the pasha's offer of troops, and leaving the doctor to +wind up affairs at Damascus she departed alone, ostensibly for Hamah, +a city on the highroad to Aleppo. But having secretly arranged a +meeting with the Emir Mahannah in the desert, she rode straight to his +camp, accompanied by Monsieur and Madame Lascaris, who were living in +the neighbourhood, and by a Bedouin guide. In a letter to General +Oakes, dated January 25, 1813, she gives the following account of her +first experiment upon the good faith of the Arabs:-- + +'I went with the great chief, Mahannah el Fadel (who commands 40,000 +men), into the desert for a week, and marched for three days with +their camp. I was treated with the greatest respect and hospitality, +and it was the most curious sight I ever saw; horses and mares fed +upon camel's milk; Arabs living upon little else except rice; the +space around me covered with living things; 1600 camels coming to +water from one tribe only; the old poets from the banks of the +Euphrates singing the praises of the ancient heroes; women with lips +dyed bright blue, and nails red, and hands all over flowers and +different designs; a chief who is obeyed like a great king; starvation +and pride so mixed that really I could not have had an idea of it.... +However, I have every reason to be perfectly contented with their +conduct towards me, and I am the Queen with them all.' + +The preparations for the journey occupied nearly two months, the +cavalcade being on a magnificent scale. Twenty-two camels were to +carry the baggage, twenty-five horsemen formed the retinue, in +addition to the Bedouin escort, led by Nasar, the Emir's son. Still +the risk was great, for Lady Hester carried with her many articles of +value, and of course was wholly at the mercy of her conductors, who +got their living by plunder. But she sought the remains of Zenobia as +well as the ruins of Palmyra, and had set her heart upon seeing the +city which had been governed by one of her own sex, and owed its chief +magnificence to her genius. Mr. Bruce, writing to General Oakes just +before the start, observes: 'If Lady Hester succeeds in this +undertaking, she will at least have the merit of being the first +European female who has ever visited this once celebrated city. Who +knows but she may prove another Zenobia, and be destined to restore it +to its ancient splendour?' + +The cavalcade set out on March 20, a sum of about £50 being paid over +to the Emir for his escort, with the promise of twice as much more on +the safe return of the party. The journey seems to have been +uneventful save for the occasional sulks of the Bedouin leader, and +the petty thefts of his followers. The inhabitants of Palmyra had been +warned of the approach of the 'great white queen,' who rode a mare +worth forty purses, and had in her possession a book which instructed +her where to find treasure, and a bag of herbs with which she could +transmute stones into gold. By way of welcome a body of about two +hundred men, armed with matchlocks, went out to meet her, and +displayed for her amusement a mock attack on, and defence of, a +caravan. The guides led the cavalcade up through the long colonnade, +which is terminated by a triumphal arch, the shaft of each of the +pillars having a projecting pedestal, or console, on which a statue +once stood. 'What was our surprise,' writes Dr. Meryon, 'to see, as we +rode up the avenue, that several beautiful girls had been placed on +these pedestals in the most graceful postures, and with garlands in +their hands.... On each side of the arch other girls stood by threes, +while a row of six was arranged across the gate of the arch with +thyrsi in their hands. While Lady Hester advanced, these living +statues remained immovable on their pedestals; but when she had +passed, they leaped to the ground, and joined in a dance by her side. +On reaching the triumphal arch, the whole in groups, both men and +girls, danced round her. Here some bearded elders chanted verses in +her praise, and all the spectators joined in the chorus. Lady Hester +herself seemed to partake of the emotions to which her presence in +this remote spot had given rise. Nor was the wonder of the Palmyrenes +less than our own. They beheld with amazement a woman who had ventured +thousands of miles from her own country, and crossed a waste where +hunger and thirst were the least of the perils to be dreaded.' It may +be observed that the people of Syria, excited by the achievements of +Sir Sydney Smith, had begun to imagine that their land might be +occupied by the English, and perhaps regarded Lady Hester as an +English princess who had come to prepare the way, if not to take +possession. + +The travellers were only allowed a week in which to examine the ruins +of Palmyra, being hurried away by Prince Nasar on the plea that an +attack was expected from a hostile tribe. After resting for a time at +Hamah, and taking an affectionate farewell of their friendly Bedouins +(Lady Hester was enrolled as an Anizy Arab of the tribe of Melken), +they journeyed to Laodicea, which was believed to be free from the +plague that was raging in other parts of Syria, and here the summer +months were spent. In October Mr. Bruce received letters which obliged +him to return at once to England, and, as Dr. Meryon observes, 'he +therefore reluctantly prepared to quit a lady in whose society he had +so long travelled, and from whose conversation and experience of the +world so much useful knowledge was to be acquired.' Lady Hester had +now renounced the idea of returning to Europe, at any rate for the +present. She had some thoughts of taking a journey overland to +Bussora, and had also entered into a correspondence with the chief of +the Wahabys, with a view to travelling across the desert to visit him +in his capital of Deráych; but she finally decided on remaining for +some months longer in Syria. She had heard of a house, once a +monastery, at Mar Elias, near Sayda (the ancient Sidon), which could +be hired for a small rent. The house was taken, the luggage shipped to +Sayda, and Lady Hester and her doctor were preparing to follow, when +both fell ill of a malignant fever, which they believed to be a +species of plague. For some time Lady Hester's life was despaired of, +but thanks to her splendid constitution, she pulled through, though +she was not strong enough to leave Laodicea until January, 1814. + +Lady Hester had now become a sojourner instead of a traveller in the +East, and, abandoning European customs altogether, she conformed +entirely to the mode of life of the Orientals. Mar Elias, which was +situated on a spur of Mount Lebanon, in a barren and rocky region, +consisted of a one-storied stone building with flat roofs, enclosing a +small paved court. 'Since her illness,' writes Dr. Meryon, 'Lady +Hester's character seemed to have changed. She became simple in her +habits, almost to cynicism. Scanning men and things with a wonderful +intelligence, she commented upon them as if the motives of human +action were laid open to her inspection.' The plague having again +broken out in the neighbourhood, the party at Mar Elias were insulated +upon their rock, and during the early days of their tenancy were in +much the same position as the crew of a well-victualled ship at sea, +having abundance of fresh provisions, but no books, no newspapers, and +no intercourse with the outer world. + +In the autumn an expedition to the ruins of Baalbec was undertaken, +and at Beyrout, on the way home, a servant brought the news that a +Zâym, or Capugi Bashi, [Footnote: Nominally a door-keeper, according +to Dr. Meryon, but actually a Turkish official of high rank.] was at +that town on his road to Sayda, and was reported to be going to +capture Lady Hester, and carry her to Constantinople. Her ladyship +received the announcement with her usual composure, and it turned out +that she had long expected the Capugi Bashi, and knew the object of +his visit. Scarcely had the travellers arrived at Mar Elias than a +message came to Lady Hester, requesting her to meet the Zâym at the +house of the governor of Sayda, since it was not customary for a +Turkish official to go to a Christian's house. But in this case the +haughty Moslem had reckoned without his host. Lady Hester returned so +spirited an answer that the Zâym at once ordered his horses, and +galloped over to Mar Elias. The doctor and the secretary, knowing +nothing of the mission, felt considerable doubt of his intentions, and +put loaded pistols in their girdles, determined that if he had a +bowstring under his robes, no use should be made of it while they had +a bullet at his disposal. In the Turkish dominions, it must be +understood, a Capugi Bashi seldom comes into the provinces unless for +some affair of strangling, beheading, confiscation, or imprisonment, +and his presence is the more dreaded, as it is never known on whose +head the blow will fall. + +In this case, fortunately, the Capugi's visit had no sinister motive. +The fact was now divulged that Lady Hester had been given a +manuscript, said to have been copied by a monk from the records of a +Frank monastery in Syria, which disclosed the hiding-places of immense +hoards of money buried in certain specified spots in the cities of +Ascalon and Sayda. Lady Hester, having convinced herself of the +genuineness of the manuscript, had written to the Sultan through Mr., +afterwards Sir Robert, Liston, for permission to make the necessary +excavations, at the same time offering to forego all pecuniary benefit +that might accrue from her labours. The custom of burying money in +times of danger is so common in the East that credence was easily lent +to the story, while the fact that treasure might lie for centuries +untouched, even though the secret of its existence was known to +several persons, was possible in a country where digging among ruins +always excites dangerous suspicions in the minds of the authorities, +and where the discovery of a jar of coins almost invariably leads to +the ruin of the finder, who is supposed to keep back more than he +reveals. + +The Sultan evidently believed that the matter was worth examination, +for he had sent the Capugi from Constantinople to invest Lady Hester +with greater authority over the Turks than had ever been granted even +to a European ambassador. It was arranged that the first excavations +should be made at Ascalon, and though Lady Hester, having only just +returned from Baalbec, felt disinclined to set out at once on another +long journey, the Zâym urged her to lose no time, and himself went on +to Acre to make the necessary preparations. As her income barely +sufficed for her own expenditure, she resolved to ask the English +Government to pay the cost of her search, holding that the honour +which would thereby accrue to the English name was a sufficient +justification for her demand. + +'I shall beg of you,' she said to Dr. Meryon, 'to keep a regular +account of every article, and will then send in my bill to Government +by Mr. Liston; when, if they refuse to pay me, I shall put it in the +newspapers, and expose them. And this I shall let them know very +plainly, as I consider it my right, and not as a favour; for if Sir A. +Paget put down the cost of his servants' liveries after his embassy to +Vienna, and made Mr. Pitt pay him, £70,000 for four years, I cannot +see why I should not do the same.' + +On February 15, 1815, Lady Hester left Mar Elias on horseback, +followed by her usual retinue, and on arriving at Acre spent about +three weeks in preparing for the work at Ascalon. In compliance with +the firmans sent by the Porte to all the governors of Syria, she was +treated with distinctions usually paid to no one under princely rank. +'Whenever she went out,' writes Dr. Meryon, 'she was followed by a +crowd of spectators; and the curiosity and admiration which she had +very generally excited throughout Syria were now increased by her +supposed influence in the affairs of Government, in having a Capugi +Bashi at her command.... No Turk now paid her a visit without wearing +his mantle of ceremony, and every circumstance showed the ascendency +she had gained in public opinion.' In addition to her own six tents, +twenty more were furnished for her suite, besides twenty-two +tent-pitchers, twelve mules to carry the baggage, and twelve camels to +carry the tents. To Lady Hester's use was appropriated a gorgeous +tilted palanquin or litter, covered with crimson cloth, and ornamented +with gilded balls. In case she preferred riding, her mare and her +favourite black ass were led in front of the litter. A hundred men of +the Hawàry cavalry escorted the procession, which left Acre on March +18, and arrived at Jaffa ten days later. Here a short halt was made, +and on the last day of March they set off for Ascalon, their animals +laden with shovels, pickaxes, and baskets. On arriving at their +destination the tents were pitched in the midst of the ruins, while a +cottage was fitted up for Lady Hester without the walls. Orders were +at once despatched to the neighbouring villages for relays of +labourers to work at the excavations. These men received no pay, being +requisitioned by Government, but they were well fed and humanely +treated by their English employer. The excavations were carried on for +about a fortnight on the site indicated in the mysterious paper. +During the first three days nothing was found except bones, fragments +of pillars, and a few vases and bottles; but on the fourth day a fine, +though mutilated, colossal statue was discovered, which apparently +represented a deified king. Dr. Meryon made a sketch of the marble, +and pointed out to Lady Hester that her labours had at least brought +to light a treasure that would be valuable in the eyes of lovers of +art, and that the ruins would be memorable for the enterprise of a +woman who had rescued the remains of antiquity from oblivion. To his +astonishment and dismay she replied, 'It is my intention to break up +the statue, and have it thrown into the sea, precisely in order that +such a report may not get abroad, and I lose with the Porte all the +merit of my disinterestedness.' In vain Dr. Meryon represented that +such an act would be an unpardonable vandalism, and was the less +excusable since the Turks had neither claimed the statue, nor +protested against its preservation. Her only answer was: 'Malicious +people may say I came to search for antiquities for my country, and +not for treasures for the Porte. So, go this instant, take with you +half-a-dozen stout fellows, and break it into a thousand pieces.' +Michaud, in his account of the affair, says that the Turks clamoured +for the destruction of the statue, believing that the trunk was full +of gold, and that Lady Hester had it broken up in order to prove to +them their error. Be this as it may, reports were afterwards +circulated in Ascalon that the statue had actually contained treasure, +half of which was handed over to the Porte, and half kept by Lady +Hester. + +On the sixth day two large stone troughs were discovered, upon which +lay four granite pillars. This sight revived the hopes of the +searchers, for it was thought that the mass of granite could not have +fallen into such a position accidentally, but must have been placed +there to conceal something of value. Great was the disappointment of +all concerned when, on removing the pillars, the troughs were found to +be empty. The excavations of the next four days having produced +nothing of any value, the work was brought to an end, by Lady Hester's +desire, on April 14. She had come to the conclusion that when Gezzar +Pasha embellished the city of Acre by digging for marble among the +ruins of Ascalon, he had been fortunate enough to discover the +treasure, and she believed that his apparent mania for building was +only a cloak to conceal his real motives for excavating. The officials +and soldiers were handsomely rewarded for their trouble, and Lady +Hester set out on her homeward journey, minus her tents, palanquin, +military escort, and other emblems of grandeur, but with no loss of +dignity or serenity. + +On returning to Mar Elias, she caused some excavations to be made near +Sayda, but with no better success, and after a few days the work was +abandoned. Lady Hester had been obliged to borrow a sum of money for +her expenses from Mr. Barker, the British consul at Aleppo, and now, +observes Dr. Meryon, 'as she had throughout proposed to herself no +advantage but the celebrity which success would bring on her own name +and that of the English nation, and as she had acted with the +cognisance of our minister at Constantinople, she fancied that she had +a claim upon the English Government for her expenses. Accordingly, she +sent our ambassador an account of her proceedings, and after showing +that all she had done was for the credit of her country, she asserted +her right to be reimbursed. She was unsuccessful, however, in her +application, and the expenses weighed heavily upon her means. Yet +hitherto she had never been in debt, and by great care and economy she +still contrived to keep out of it.' + +Lady Hester having apparently decided to spend the remainder of her +days in Syria, Dr. Meryon informed her that he was anxious to return +to his own country, but that he would not leave her until a substitute +had been engaged. Accordingly, Giorgio, the Greek interpreter, was +despatched to England to engage the doctor's successor, and to execute +a number of commissions for his mistress. During the autumn Lady +Hester was actively employed in stirring up the authorities to avenge +the death of a French traveller, Colonel Boutin, who had been murdered +by the Ansarys on the road between Hamah and Laodicea. As the pasha of +the district had made no effort to trace or punish the murderers, she +had taken the matter into her own hands, holding that the common cause +of travellers demanded that such a crime should not go unpunished. Dr. +Meryon vainly tried to dissuade her from this course of action, urging +that the French consuls were bound to sift the affair, and that she, +in taking so active a part, was exposing herself to the vengeance of +the mountain tribes. As usual, the only effect of remonstrance was to +make her more determined to persevere in the course she had marked out +for herself. In the result, she succeeded in inducing the pasha to +send a punitive expedition into the mountains, and herself directed +the commandant, by information secretly obtained, where the criminals +were to be found. Mustafa Aga Berber, governor of the district, led +the expedition, and carried fire and sword into the Ansary country. It +was reported that he burnt the villages of the assassins, and sent +several heads to the pasha as tokens of his victories. Lady Hester +received a vote of thanks from the French Chamber of Deputies, after a +speech by Comte Delaborde, explaining the services she had rendered. + +News of the great events that were taking place in France had now +reached Sayda, and Lady Hester, whose foible it was to think that the +successors of Pitt could do no right, was highly displeased at the +action of the British Government. She gave vent to her sentiments in +the following letter, dated April 1816, to her cousin the Marquis +(afterwards Duke) of Buckingham:-- + +'You cannot doubt that a woman of my character and (I presume to say) +understanding must have held in contempt and aversion all the +statesmen of the present day, whose unbounded ignorance and duplicity +have brought ruin on France, have spread their own shame through all +Europe, and have exposed themselves not only to ridicule, but to the +curses of present and future generations. One great mind, one single, +enlightened statesman, whose virtues had equalled his talents, was all +that was wanting to effect, at this unexampled period, the welfare of +all Europe, by taking advantage of events the most extraordinary that +have occurred in any era.... Cease therefore to torment me. I will not +live in Europe, even were I, in flying from it, compelled to beg my +bread. Once only will I go to France, to see you and James, but only +that once. I will not be a martyr for nothing. The granddaughter of +Chatham, the niece of the illustrious Pitt, feels herself blush that +she was born in England--that England who has made her accursed gold +the counterpoise to justice; that England who puts weeping humanity in +irons, who has employed the valour of her troops, destined for the +defence of her national honour, as the instrument to enslave a +freeborn people; and who has exposed to ridicule and humiliation a +monarch [Louis XVIII.] who might have gained the goodwill of his +subjects if those intriguing English had left him to stand or fall +upon his own merits.' + +The announcement of the arrival of the Princess of Wales at Acre, and +the possibility that she might extend her journey to Sayda, induced +Lady Hester to embark for Antioch, where she professed to have +business with the British consul. It was considered an act of great +daring on her part to go into a district inhabited entirely by the +Ansárys, on whom she had lately wrought so signal a vengeance. But the +Ansárys had apparently no desire to bring upon themselves a second +punitive expedition, and though Lady Hester spent most of her time in +a retired cottage outside the town, in defiance of the warning that +her life was in danger, the tribes forbore to molest her. In September +she returned to Mar Elias; and, a few weeks later, Giorgio returned +from England, bringing with him an English surgeon and twenty-seven +packing-cases filled with presents, to be distributed among Lady +Hester's Turkish friends and acquaintances. On January 18, 1817, Dr. +Meryon, having initiated his successor into Eastern manners and +customs, took leave of his employer, and sailed for Europe, little +thinking that he would ever set foot in Syria again. + + + + +PART II + + +During the next ten or twelve years, we get but a few scanty glimpses +of the white Queen of the Desert. After Dr. Meryon's departure, Lady +Hester removed to a house in the village of Dar Jôon, or Djoun, a few +miles from Mar Elias. To this house she added considerably, laid out +some magnificent gardens, and enclosed the whole within high walls, +after the manner of a mediaeval fortress. Here she seems to have +passed her time in encouraging the Drûzes to rise against Ibrahim +Pasha, intriguing against the British consuls, and attempting to +bolster up the declining authority of the Sultan. In the intervals of +political business she occupied herself with superintending her +building and gardening operations, physicking the sick, and +tyrannising over her numerous servants. At Mar Elias, which she still +kept in her own hands, she maintained an eccentric old Frenchman, +General Loustaunau,[Footnote: Dr. Meryon's spelling.] who had formerly +been in the service of a Hindu rajah, but who, in his forlorn old age, +had wandered to Syria, and there, by dint of applying scriptural texts +to contemporary events, had earned the title of a prophet. Like Samuel +Brothers, he prophesied marvellous things of Lady Hester's future, +which she, rendered credulous by her solitary life in a mystic land, +where her own power and importance were the chief facts in her mental +horizon, came at length to believe. + +In the _Memoirs of a Babylonian Princess_ by the Emira Asmar, +daughter of the Emir Abdallah Asmar, the author tells us that as a +girl she paid a long visit to the Emir Beshyr, prince of the Drûzes. +During this visit, which apparently took place in the early +'twenties,' she was sent with a present of fruit to a neighbour's +house, and there found a guest, a tall and splendid figure, arrayed in +masculine costume, and engaged in smoking a narghila. The stranger, +who talked Arabic with elegance and fluency, discoursed on the subject +of astrology, and tried to dissuade the Emira from taking a projected +journey to the west, where she declared the sun had set, and the +hearts of the people retained not a spark of the virtues of their +forefathers. 'Soon afterwards,' continues the author, 'she rose, and +took her departure, attended by a large retinue. A spirited charger +stood at the gate, champing the bit with fiery impatience. She put her +foot in the stirrup, and vaulting nimbly into the saddle, which she +bestrode like a man, started off at a rapid pace, galloping over rocks +and mountains in advance of her suite, with a fearlessness and address +that would have done honour to a Mameluke.' The stranger was, of +course, none other than Lady Hester Stanhope, who, at that time, was +on friendly terms with the Emir Beshyr, afterwards her bitterest +enemy. + +In 1826 Lady Hester wrote to invite Dr. Meryon to return to her +service for a time, and he, who seems all his life to have 'heard the +East a-calling,' could not resist the invitation, though his movements +were now hampered by a wife and children. He began at once to make +preparations for his departure, but was unable to start before +September 1827. Meanwhile, Lady Hester had been gulled by an English +traveller, designated as 'X.' in her letters, who had induced her to +believe that he was empowered by the Duke of Sussex, the Duke of +Bedford, and a committee of Freemasons, to offer her such sums as +would extricate her out of her embarrassments, and to settle an income +upon her for life. How a woman who professed to have an almost +supernatural insight into the characters and thoughts of men, could +have been deceived by this story, it is hard to understand; but +apparently the difficulties of her situation, occasioned by her custom +of making large presents to the pashas in order to keep up her +authority, as well as by her benevolence to the poor in her +neighbourhood, rendered her willing to catch at any straw for help. +This 'X' had promised to send her a hundred purses for her current +expenses, and to bring out from England masons and carpenters to +enlarge her dwelling, in order that she might entertain the many +distinguished people who desired to come and see her. In a letter to +Dr. Meryon on this subject, Lady Hester writes:-- + +'If X.'s story is true, and my debts, amounting to nearly 10,000 +pounds, are to be paid, then I shall go on making sublime and +philosophical discoveries, and employing myself in deep, abstract +studies. In that case I shall want a mason, carpenter, etc., income +made out 4000 pounds a year, and 1000 pounds more for people like you, +and 500 pounds ready money that I may stand clear. In the event that +all that has been told me is a lie.... I shall give up everything for +life to my creditors, and throw myself as a beggar on Asiatic charity, +and wander far without one parra in my pocket, with the mare from the +stable of Solomon in one hand, and a sheaf of the corn of Beni-Israel +in the other. I shall meet death, or that which I believe to be +written, which no mortal can efface. On September 7, Dr. Meryon and +his family embarked at Leghorn for Cyprus, but on nearing Candia their +merchant brig, which was taking out stores to the Turks, was attacked +by a Greek vessel, whose officers took possession of the cargo, and +also of all the passengers' property, except that belonging to the +English party, which they left unmolested. The Italian captain was +obliged to put back to Leghorn, and here Dr. Meryon heard the news of +the battle of Navarino, and of the shelter afforded by Lady Hester +Stanhope to two hundred refugee Europeans from Sayda. By this time she +was at daggers-drawn with the Emir Beshyr, whose rival she had helped +and protected. The Emir revenged himself by publishing in the village +an order that all her native servants were to return to their homes, +upon pain of losing their property and their lives. 'I gave them all +their option,' she writes. 'And most of them remained firm. Since +that, he has threatened to seize and murder them here, which he shall +not do without taking my life too. Besides this, he has given orders +in all the villages that men, women, and children who render me the +smallest service shall be cut in a thousand pieces. My servants cannot +go out, and the peasants cannot approach the house. Therefore, I am in +no very pleasant situation, being deprived of the necessary supplies +of food, and what is worse, of water; for all the water here is +brought on mules' backs up a great steep.' + +Dr. Meryon was unable to resume his voyage at this time, but in 1828, +the news that a malignant fever had attacked the household at Jôon, +and carried off Lady Hester's companion, Miss Williams, gave rise to +fresh plans for a visit to Syria. The doctor had, however, so much +difficulty in overcoming his wife's fears of the voyage, that it was +not until November, 1830, that he could induce her to embark at +Marseilles on a vessel bound for the East. The party arrived at +Beyrout on December 8, and found that Lady Hester had sent camels and +asses to bring them on their way, together with a characteristic note +to the effect that it would give her much pleasure to see the doctor, +but that, as for his family, they must not expect any other attentions +than such as would make them comfortable in their new home. She hoped +that Dr. Meryon would not take this ill, as she had warned him that +she did not think English ladies could make themselves happy in Syria, +and, therefore, he who had chosen to bring them must take the +consequences. This letter was but the first of a long series of +affronts put upon Mrs. Meryon, the result of Lady Hester's dislike of +her own sex, and probably also of her objection to the presence of +another Englishwoman in a spot where she had reigned so long as the +only specimen of her race. + +A cottage had been provided in the village of Jôon for the travellers, +and the ladies were escorted thither by the French secretary, while +the doctor hastened to report himself to Lady Hester, who received him +with the greatest cordiality, kissing him on both cheeks, and placing +him beside her on the sofa. Remembering her overweening pride of +birth, he was astonished at his reception, more especially as, in the +early part of her travels, she had never even condescended to take his +arm, that honour being reserved exclusively for members of the +aristocracy. He found her ladyship in good health and spirits, but +barely provided with the necessaries of life, having been robbed of +nearly all her articles of value by the native servants during her +last illness. A rush-bottomed chair, a deal table, dishes of common +yellow earthenware, bone-handled knives and forks, and two or three +silver spoons, were all that remained of her former grandeur, and the +dinner was on a par with the furniture. + +The house, which had been hired at a rental of £20 from a Turkish +merchant, had been greatly enlarged, and the gardens, with their +summer-houses, covered alleys, and serpentine walks, were superior to +most English gardens of the same size. Lady Hester's constant outlay +in building arose from her idea that people would fly to her for +succour and protection during the revolutions that she believed to be +impending all over the world; her camels, asses, and mules were kept +with the same view, and her servants were taught to look forward with +awe to events of a supernatural nature, when their services and +energies would be taxed to the utmost. In choosing a solitary life in +the wilderness, far removed from all the comforts and pleasures of +civilisation, Lady Hester seems to have been actuated by her craving +for absolute power, which could not be gratified in any European +community. It was her pleasure to dwell apart, surrounded by +dependants and slaves, and out of reach of that influence and +restraint which are necessarily endured by each member of a civilised +society. She had become more violent in her temper than formerly, and +treated her servants with great severity when they were negligent of +their duties. Her maids and female slaves she punished summarily, and +boasted that there was nobody who could give such a slap in the face, +when required, as she could. At Mar Elias her servants, when tired of +her tyranny, frequently absconded by night, and took refuge in Sayda, +only two miles away; but at Dar Joon their retreat was cut off by +mountain tracts, inhabited only by wolves and jackals, and they were +consequently almost helpless in the hands of their stern mistress. The +establishment at this time consisted of between thirty and forty +servants, labourers, and slaves, most of whom are described as dirty, +lazy, and dishonest. Between them they did badly the work that +half-a-dozen Europeans would have done respectably, but then the +Europeans would not have stood the slaps and scoldings that the +natives took as a matter of course. + +For the last fifteen years Lady Hester had seldom left her bed till +between two and five o'clock in the afternoon, nor returned to it +before the same hour next morning; while for four years she had never +stirred beyond the precincts of her own domain, though she took some +air and exercise in the garden. Except when she was asleep, her bell +was incessantly ringing, her servants were running to and fro, and the +whole house was kept in commotion. During the greater part of the day +she sat up in bed, writing, talking, scolding, and interviewing her +work-people. Few of her _employés_ escaped from her presence +without reproof, and as no one was allowed to exercise his own +discretion in his work, her directing spirit was always in the full +flow of activity. 'On one and the same day,' says Dr. Meryon,' I have +known her to dictate papers that concerned the political welfare of a +pashalik, and descend to trivial details about the composition of a +house-paint, the making of butter, drenching a sick horse, choosing +lambs, or cutting out a maid's apron. The marked characteristic of her +mind was the necessity that she laboured under of incessantly +talking.' Her conversations, we are told, frequently lasted for seven +or eight hours at a stretch, and at least one of her visitors was kept +so long in discourse that he fainted away with fatigue. Dr. Meryon +bears witness to her marvellous colloquial powers, her fund of +anecdote, and her talent for mimicry, but observes that every one who +conversed with her retired humbled from her presence, since her +language was always calculated to bring men down to their proper +level, to strip off affectation, and to expose conceit. + +At this time her political influence was on the wane, but a few years +previously, when her financial affairs were in a more flourishing +condition, and when it was observed that the pashas valued her opinion +and feared her censure, she had obtained an almost despotic power over +the neighbouring tribes. A remarkable proof of her personal courage, +and also of the supernatural awe with which she was regarded, was +shown by her open defiance of the Emir Beshyr, in whose principality +she lived, but who was unable to reduce her, either by threats or +persecution, to even a nominal submission to his rule. Not only did +she give public utterance to her contemptuous opinion of the Emir, but +she openly assisted his relation and rival, the Sheikh Beshyr; yet no +vengeance either of the bowstring or the poisoned cup rewarded her +rebellion or her intrigues. + +Her religious views, at this time, were decidedly complicated in +character. She firmly believed in astrology, of which she had made a +special study, and to some extent in demonology. But more remarkable +was her faith in the early coming of a Messiah, or Mahedi, on which +occasion she expected to play a glorious part. The prophecies of +Samuel Brothers and of General Loustaunau had taken firm possession of +her mind, more especially since their words had been corroborated by a +native soothsayer, Metta by name, who brought her an Arabic book +which, he said, contained allusions to herself. Finding a credulous +listener, he read and expounded a passage relating to a European woman +who was to come and live on Mount Lebanon at a certain epoch, and +obtain power and influence greater than a sultan's. A boy without a +father was to join her there, whose destiny was to be fulfilled under +her wing; while the coming of the Mahedi, who was to ride into +Jerusalem on a horse born saddled, would be preceded by famine, +pestilence, and other calamities. For a long time Lady Hester was +persuaded that the Due de Reichstadt was the boy in question, but +after his death she fixed upon another youth. In expectation of the +coming of the Mahedi she kept two thoroughbred mares, which no one was +suffered to mount. One of these animals, named Laila, had a curious +malformation of the back, not unlike a Turkish saddle in shape, and +was destined by its mistress to bear the Mahedi into Jerusalem, while +on the other, Lulu, Lady Hester expected to ride by his side on the +great day. 'Hundreds and thousands of distressed persons,' she was +accustomed to say, 'will come to me for assistance and shelter. I +shall have to wade in blood, but it is the will of God, and I shall +not be afraid.' Borne up by these glorious expectations, she never +discussed her debts, her illnesses, and her other trials, without at +the same time picturing to herself a brighter future, when the neglect +with which she had been treated by her family would meet with its just +punishment, and her star would rise again to gladden the world, and +more especially those who had been faithful to her in the time of +adversity. + +As soon as Mrs. Meryon was settled in her new home, and had recovered +from the fatigue of the journey, Lady Hester appointed a day for her +reception. What happened at the momentous interview we are not told, +except that at the close Lady Hester attired her visitor in a handsome +Turkish spencer of gold brocade, and wound an embroidered muslin +turban round her head. Unfortunately, Mrs. Meryon, not understanding +the Eastern custom of robing honoured guests, took off the garments +before she went away, and laid them on a table, a grievous breach of +etiquette in her hostess's eyes. Still, matters went on fairly +smoothly until, about the end of January, a messenger came from +Damascus to ask that Dr. Meryon might be allowed to go thither to cure +a friend of the pasha's, who had an affection of the mouth. Lady +Hester was anxious that the doctor should obey the call, but, greatly +to her annoyance, he entirely declined to leave his wife and children +alone for three or four weeks in a strange land, where they could not +make themselves understood by the people about them. In vain Lady +Hester tried to frighten Mrs. Meryon into consenting to her husband's +departure by assuring her that there were Dervishes who could inflict +all sorts of evil on her by means of charms, if she persisted in her +refusal. Mrs. Meryon quietly replied that her husband could go if he +chose, but that it would not be with her goodwill. From that hour was +begun a system of hostility towards the doctor's wife, which never +ceased until her departure from the country. + +Lady Hester was not above taking a leaf out of the book of her own +enemy, the Emir Beshyr, for she used her influence to prevent the +villagers from supplying the wants of the recalcitrant family, who now +began to make preparations for their departure. They were obliged, +however, to wait for remittances from England, and also for Lady +Hester's consent to their leaving Jôon, since none of the natives +would have dared lend their camels or mules for such a purpose, and +even the consular agents at Sayda would have declined to mix +themselves up in any business which might bring upon them the +vengeance of the Queen of the Desert. Meanwhile, a truce seems to have +been concluded between the principals, and Lady Hester again invited +the doctor's visits, contenting herself with sarcastic remarks about +henpecked husbands, and the caprices of foolish women. She graciously +consented to dispense with his services about the beginning of April, +and promised to engage a vessel at Sayda to convey him and his family +to Cyprus. Before his departure she produced a list of her debts, +which then amounted to £14,000. The greater part of this sum, which +had been borrowed at a high rate of interest from native usurers, had +been spent in assisting Abdallah Pasha, the family of the Sheikh +Beshyr, and many other victims of political malignity. + +The unwonted luxury of an admiring and submissive listener led the +lonely woman to discourse of the glories of her youth, and the virtues +of her hero-in-chief, William Pitt. She spoke of his passion for Miss +Eden, daughter of Lord Auckland, who, she said, was the only woman she +could have wished him to marry. 'Poor Mr. Pitt almost broke his heart, +when he gave her up,' she declared. 'But he considered that she was +not a woman to be left at will when business might require it, and he +sacrificed his feelings to his sense of public duty.... "There were +also other reasons," Mr. Pitt would say; "there is her mother, such a +chatterer!--and then the family intrigues. I can't keep them out of my +house; and, for my king and country's sake, I must remain a free man." +Yet Mr. Pitt was a man just made for domestic life, who would have +enjoyed retirement, digging his own garden, and doing it cleverly +too.... He had so much urbanity too! I recollect returning late from a +ball, when he was gone to bed fatigued; there were others besides +myself, and we made a good deal of noise. I said to him next morning, +"I am afraid we disturbed you last night." "Not at all," he replied; +"I was dreaming of the masque of _Comus_, and when I heard you +all so gay, it seemed a pleasant reality...." Nobody would have +suspected how much feeling he had for people's comforts, who came to +see him. Sometimes he would say to me, "Hester, you know we have got +such a one coming down. I believe his wound is hardly well yet, and I +heard him say that he felt much relieved by fomentations of such an +herb; perhaps you will see that he finds in his chamber all that he +wants." Of another he would say, "I think he drinks asses' milk; I +should like him to have his morning draught." And I, who was born with +such sensibility that I must fidget myself about everybody, was sure +to exceed his wishes.' + +After describing Mr. Pitt's kindness and consideration towards his +household, Lady Hester related a pathetic history of a faithful +servant, who, in the pecuniary distress of his master, had served him +for several years with the purest disinterestedness. 'I was so touched +by her eloquent and forcible manner of recounting the story,' writes +the soft-hearted doctor, 'and with the application I made of it to my +own tardiness in going to her in her distress, together with my +present intention of leaving her, that I burst into tears, and wept +bitterly. She soothed my feelings, endeavoured to calm my emotions, +and disclaimed all intention of conveying any allusion to me. This led +her to say how little malice she ever entertained towards any one, +even those who had done her injury, much less towards me, who had +always shown my attachment to her; and she added that, even now, +although she was going to lose me, her thoughts did not run so much on +her own situation as on what would become of me; and I firmly believed +her.' + +Dr. Meryon sailed from Sayda on April 7, 1831, and for the next six +years we only hear of the strange household on Mount Lebanon through +the reports of chance visitors. After the siege of Acre by Ibrahim +Pasha in the winter of 1831-32, the remnant of the population fled to +the mountains, and Lady Hester, whose hospitality was always open to +the distressed, declares that for three years her house was like the +Tower of Babel. In 1832 Lamartine paid a visit to Jôon, which he has +described in his _Voyage en Orient_. He seems to have been +graciously received, though his hostess candidly informed him that she +had never heard his name before. He explained, rather to her +amusement, that he had written verses which were in the mouths of +thousands of his countrymen, and she having read his character and +destiny, assured him that his Arabian descent was proved by the high +arch of his instep, and that, like every Arab, he was a poet by +nature. Lamartine, in return, represents himself as profoundly +impressed by his interview with this 'Circe of the East,' denies that +he perceived in her any traces of insanity, and declares that he +should not be surprised if a part of the destiny she prophesied for +herself were realised--at least to the extent of an empire in Arabia, +or a throne in Jerusalem. + +Lady Hester formed a less favourable opinion of M. Lamartine than she +allowed him to perceive, and she was greatly annoyed at the passages +referring to herself that appeared in his book. Speaking of him and +his visit some years later, she observed: 'The people of Europe are +all, or at least the greater part of them, fools, with their +ridiculous grins, their affected ways, and their senseless habits.... +Look at M. Lamartine getting off his horse half-a-dozen times to kiss +his dog, and take him out of his bandbox to feed him, on the route +from Beyrout; the very muleteers thought him a fool. And then that way +of thrusting his hands into his pockets, and sticking out his legs as +far as he could--what is that like? M. Lamartine is no poet, in my +estimation, though he may be an elegant versifier; he has no sublime +ideas. Compare his ideas with Shakespeare's--that was indeed a real +poet.... M. Lamartine, with his straight body and straight fingers, +pointed his toes in my face, and then turned to his dog, and held long +conversations with him. He thought to make a great effect when he was +here, but he was grievously mistaken.' It may be noted that all Lady +Hester's male visitors 'pointed their toes in her face,' in the hope +of being accredited with the arched instep that she held to be the +most striking proof of long descent. Her own instep, she was +accustomed to boast, was so high that a little kitten could run +underneath it. + +A far more lifelike and picturesque portrait of Lady Hester than that +by Lamartine has been sketched for us by Kinglake in his +_Eothen_. In a charming passage which will be familiar to most +readers, he relates how the name of Lady Hester Stanhope was as +delightful to his childish ears as that of Robinson Crusoe. Chief +among the excitements of his early days were the letters and presents +of the Queen of the Desert, who as a girl had been much with her +grandmother, Lady Chatham, at Burton Pynsent, and there had made the +acquaintance of Miss Woodforde of Taunton, afterwards Mrs. Kinglake. +The tradition of her high spirit and fine horsemanship still lingered +in Somersetshire memories, but Kinglake had heard nothing of her for +many years, when, on arriving at Beyrout in 1835, he found that her +name was in every mouth. Anxious to see this romantic vision of his +childhood, he wrote to Lady Hester, and asked if she would receive his +mother's son. A few days later, in response to a gracious letter of +invitation, Kinglake made his pilgrimage to Jôon. + +The house at this time, after the storm and stress of the Egyptian +invasion, had the appearance of a deserted fortress, and +fierce-looking Albanian soldiers were hanging about the gates. +Kinglake was conducted to an inner apartment where, in the dim light, +he perceived an Oriental figure, clad in masculine costume, which +advanced to meet him with many and profound bows. The visitor began a +polite speech which he had prepared for his hostess, but presently +discovered that the stranger was only her Italian attendant, Lunardi, +who had conferred on himself a medical title and degree. Lady Hester +had given orders that her guest should rest and dine before being +introduced to her, and he tells us that, in spite of the homeliness of +her domestic arrangements, he found both the wine and the cuisine very +good. After dinner he was ushered into the presence of his hostess, +who welcomed him cordially, and had exactly the appearance of a +prophetess, 'not the divine Sibyl of Domenichino, but a good, +business-like, practical prophetess.' Her face was of astonishing +whiteness, her dress a mass of white linen loosely folded round her +like a surplice. As he gazed upon her, he recalled the stories that he +had heard of her early days, of the capable manner in which she had +arranged the political banquets and receptions of Pitt, and the awe +with which the Tory country gentlemen had regarded her. That awe had +been transferred to the sheikhs and pashas of the East, but now that, +with age and poverty, her earthly power was fading away, she had +created for herself a spiritual kingdom. + +After a few inquiries about her Somersetshire friends, the prophetess +soared into loftier spheres, and discoursed of astrology and other +occult sciences. 'For hours and hours this wonderful white woman +poured forth her speech, for the most part concerning sacred and +profane mysteries.' From time to time she would swoop down to worldly +topics, 'and then,' as her auditor frankly observes, 'I was +interested.' She described her life in the Arab camps, and explained +that her influence over the tribes was partly due to her long sight, a +quality held in high esteem in the desert, and partly to a brusque, +downright manner, which is always effective with Orientals. She +professed to have fasted physically and mentally for years, living +only on milk, and reading neither books nor newspapers. Her unholy +claim to supremacy in the spiritual kingdom was based, in Kinglake's +opinion, on her fierce, inordinate pride, perilously akin to madness, +though her mind was too strong to be entirely overcome. As a proof of +Lady Hester's high courage, he notes the fact that, after the fall of +Acre, her house was the only spot in Syria and Palestine where the +will of Mehemet Ali and his fierce lieutenant was not law. Ibrahim +Pasha had demanded that the Albanian soldiers should be given up, and +their protectress had challenged him to come and take them. This +hillock of Dar Jôon always kept its freedom as long as Chatham's +granddaughter lived, and Mehemet Ali confessed that the Englishwoman +had given him more trouble than all the insurgents of Syria. Kinglake +did not see the famous sacred mares, but before his departure he was +shown the gardens by the Italian secretary, who was in great distress +of mind because he could not bring himself to believe implicitly in +his employer's divine attributes. He said that Lady Hester was +regarded with mingled respect and dislike by the neighbours, whom she +oppressed by her exactions. The few 'respected' inhabitants of Mount +Lebanon apparently claimed the right to avail themselves of their +neighbours' goods; and the White Queen's establishment was supported +by contributions from the surrounding villages. This is quite a +different account from that given by Dr. Meryon, who always represents +Lady Hester as a generous benefactress, admired and adored in all the +country-side. + +In 1836 Lady Hester discovered another mare's nest in the shape of a +legacy which she chose to believe was being kept from her by her +enemies. In August of this year she wrote to Dr. Meryon, who was then +living at Nice, and invited him to come and assist her in settling her +debts, and getting possession of this supposititious property. 'A +woman of high rank and good fortune,' she continues, 'who has built +herself a _palais_ in a remote part of America, has announced her +intention of passing the rest of her life with me, so much has she +been struck with my situation and conduct. [Footnote: This was the +Baroness de Feriat, who did not carry out her intention.] She is +nearly of my age, and thirty-seven years ago--I being personally +unknown to her--was so taken with my general appearance, that she +never could divest herself of the thoughts of me, which have ever +since pursued her. At last, informed by M. Lamartine's book where I +was to be found, she took this extraordinary determination, and in the +spring I expect her. She is now selling her large landed estate, +preparatory to her coming. She, as well as Leila the mare, is in the +prophecy. The beautiful boy has also written, and is wandering over +the face of the globe till destiny marks the period of our meeting.... +I am reckoned here the first politician in the world, and by some a +sort of prophet. Even the Emir wonders, and is astonished, for he was +not aware of this extraordinary gift; but yet all say--I mean +enemies--that I am worse than a lion when in a passion, and that they +cannot deny I have justice on my side.' + +After his former experience of Lady Hester's hospitality it is +surprising that the doctor should have been willing to accept this +invitation, and still more surprising that his wife should have +consented to accompany him to Syria. But the East was still +'a-calling,' and the almost hypnotic influence which her ladyship +exercised over her dependants seems to have lost none of its efficacy. +Accordingly, as soon as the Meryons could arrange their affairs, they +embarked at Marseilles, landing at Beyrout on July 1, 1837. Here the +doctor received a letter from Lady Hester, recommending him to leave +his family at Beyrout till he could find a house for them at Sayda. +'For your sake,' she continued, 'I should ever wish to show civility +to all who belong to you, but caprice I will never interfere with, for +from my early youth I have been taught to despise it.' Here was signal +proof that the past had not been forgotten, and that war was still to +be waged against the unfortunate Mrs. Meryon. In defiance of Lady +Hester's orders, the whole family proceeded to Sayda, whence Dr. +Meryon rode over to Dar Jôon. He received a warm personal welcome, but +his hostess persisted in her statement that there was no house in the +village fit for the reception of his womenkind, as nearly all had been +damaged by recent earthquakes. It was finally arranged that Mrs. +Meryon and her children should go for the present to Mar Elias, which +was then only occupied by the Prophet Loustaunau. + +At this time Lady Hester's financial affairs were becoming desperate, +and she had even been reduced to selling some of her handsome +pelisses. Yet she still maintained between thirty and forty servants, +and when it was suggested to her that she might reduce her +establishment, she was accustomed to reply, 'But my rank!' Her +live-stock included the two sacred mares, three 'amblers,' five asses, +a flock of sheep, and a few cows. A herd of a hundred goats had +recently been slaughtered in one day, because their owner fancied that +she was being cheated by her goatherd. Now she decided to have the +three 'amblers' shot, because the grooms treated them improperly. The +under-bailiff received orders to whisper into the ear of each horse +before his execution, 'You have worked enough upon the earth; your +mistress fears you might fall, in your old age, into the hands of +cruel men, and she therefore dismisses you from her service.' This +order was carried out to the letter, with imperturbable gravity. + +After a short experience of the inconvenience of riding to and fro +between Jôon and Mar Elias, Dr. Meryon persuaded his employer to allow +him to bring his family to a cottage in the village; but the nearer +the time approached for their arrival, the more she seemed to regret +having assented to the arrangement. Frequent and scathing were her +lectures upon the exigent ways of women, who, she argued, should be +simple automata, moved only by the will and guidance of their masters. +She lost no opportunity of throwing ridicule on Dr. Meryon's desire to +have his family near him, in order that he might pass his evenings +with them, pointing out that 'all sensible men take their meals with +their wives, and then retire to their own rooms to read, write, or do +what best pleases them. Nobody is such a fool as to moider away his +time in the slipslop conversation of a pack of women.' Petty +jealousies, quite inconsistent with her boasted philosophy, were +perpetually tormenting her. One of the many monopolies claimed by her +was that of the privilege of bell-ringing. The Mahometans, as is well +known, never use bells in private houses, the usual summons for +servants being three claps of the hands. But Lady Hester was a +constant and vehement bell-ringer, and as no one else in the +country-side possessed house-bells, it was generally believed that the +use of them was a special privilege granted her by the Porte. She was +therefore secretly much annoyed when the Meryons presumed to hang up +bells in their new home. She made no sign of displeasure, but one +morning it was discovered that the ropes had been cut and the bells +carried off. Cross-examination of the servants elicited the fact that +one of Lady Hester's emissaries had arrived late at night, wrenched +off the bells, and taken them away. Some weeks later the Lady of Jôon +confessed that she had instigated the act, and declared that if the +Meryons' bells had hung much longer her own would not have been +attended to. + +Soon after the doctor's arrival, Lady Hester had dictated a letter to +Sir Francis Burdett, in whom she placed great confidence, informing +him of the property that she believed was being withheld from her, and +requesting him to make inquiries into the matter. When not engaged in +correspondence, discussing her debts, and scolding her servants, she +was pouring out floods of conversation, chiefly reminiscences of her +youth and diatribes against the men and manners of the present day, +into the ears of the long-suffering doctor. 'From her manner towards +other people,' he observes, 'it would have seemed that she was the +only person in creation privileged to abuse and to command; others had +nothing to do but to obey. She was haughty and overbearing, born to +rule, impatient of control, and more at her ease when she had a +hundred persons to govern than when she had only ten. Had she been a +man and a soldier, she would have been what the French call a _beau +sabreur_, for never was any one so fond of wielding weapons, and +boasting of her capacity for using them, as she was. In her bedroom +she always had a mace, which was spiked round the head, a steel +battle-axe, and a dagger, but her favourite weapon was the mace.' +Absurd as it may sound, it was probably her military vanity that led +her to belittle the Duke of Wellington, of whose reputation she seems +to have felt some personal jealousy. Yet she bears testimony to the +esteem in which 'Arthur Wellesley' was held by William Pitt. + +'I recollect, one day,' she told the doctor, 'Mr. Pitt came into the +drawing-room to me, and said, "Oh, how I have been bored by Sir Sydney +Smith coming with his box full of papers, and keeping me for a couple +of hours, when I had so much to do." I observed to him that heroes +were generally vain, and that Lord Nelson was so. "So he is," replied +Mr. Pitt, "but not like Sir Sydney. And how different is Arthur +Wellesley, who has just quitted me! He has given me such clear details +upon affairs in India; and he talked of them, too, as if he had been a +surgeon of a regiment, and had nothing to do with them; so that I know +not which to admire most, his modesty or his talents, and yet the fate +of India depends upon them." Then, doctor, when I recollect the letter +he wrote to Edward Bouverie, in which he said he could not come down +to a ball because his only corbeau coat was so bad he was ashamed to +appear in it, I reflect what a rise he has had in the world. He was at +first nothing but what hundreds of others are in a country town--he +danced hard and drank hard. His star has done everything for him, for +he is not a great general. He is no tactician, nor has he any of those +great qualities that make a Caesar, a Pompey, or even a Bonaparte. As +for the battle of Waterloo, both French and English have told me that +it was a lucky battle for him, but nothing more. I don't think he +acted well at Paris, nor did the soldiers like him.' + +About the end of October Lady Hester took to her bed, and did not +leave it till the following March. She had suffered from pulmonary +catarrh for several years, which disappeared in the summer, but +returned every winter with increased violence. Her practice of +frequent bleeding had brought on a state of complete emaciation, and +left very little blood in her body. If she had lived like other +people, and trusted to the balmy air of Syria, Dr. Meryon was of +opinion that nothing serious need have been apprehended from her +illness. But she seldom breathed the outer air, and took no exercise +except an occasional turn in the garden. She was always complaining +that she could get nothing to eat; yet, in spite of her profession (to +Kinglake) that she lived entirely on milk, we are told that her diet +consisted of forcemeat balls, meat-pies, and other heavy viands, and +that she seldom remained half an hour without taking nourishment of +some kind. 'I never knew a human being who took nourishment so +frequently,' writes Dr. Meryon, 'and may not this in some measure +account for her frequent ill-humour?' + +During her illness the doctor read aloud Sir Nathaniel Wraxall's +_Memoirs_ and the _Memoirs of a Peeress_, edited by Lady Charlotte +Bury, both of which books dealt with persons whom Lady Hester +had known in her youth. In return she regaled him with stories +of her own glory, of Mr. Pitt's virtues, of the objectionable habits +of the Princess of Wales, and of the meanness of the Regent in +inviting himself to dinner with gentlemen who could not afford to +entertain him, the whole pleasantly flavoured by animadversions on the +social presumption of medical men, and descriptions of the methods by +which formerly they were kept in their proper place by aristocratic +patients. At this time, the beginning of 1838, Lady Hester was +anxiously expecting an answer from Sir Francis Burdett about her +property, and, hearing from the English consul at Sayda that a packet +had arrived for her from Beyrout, which was to be delivered into her +own hands, her sanguine mind was filled with the hope of coming +prosperity. But when the packet was opened, instead of the +long-expected missive from Sir Francis, it proved to be an official +statement from Colonel Campbell, Consul-General for Egypt, that in +consequence of an application made to the British Government by one of +Lady Hester's chief creditors, an order had come from Lord Palmerston +that her pension was to be stopped unless the debt was paid. When she +read the letter Dr. Meryon feared an outburst of fury, but Lady +Hester, who, for once, was beyond violence, began calmly to discuss +the enormity of the conduct both of Queen and Minister. + +'My grandfather and Mr. Pitt,' she said, 'did something to keep the +Brunswick family on the throne, and yet the granddaughter of the old +king, without hearing the circumstances of my getting into debt, or +whether the story is true, sends to deprive me of my pension in a +strange land, where I may remain and starve.... I should like to ask +for a public inquiry into my debts, and for what I have contracted +them. Let them compare the good I have done in the cause of humanity +and science with the Duke of Kent's debts. I wonder if Lord Palmerston +is the man I recollect--a young man from college, who was always +hanging about waiting to be introduced to Mr. Pitt. Mr. Pitt used to +say, "Ah, very well; we will ask him to dinner some day." Perhaps it +is an old grudge that makes him vent his spite.' Colonel Campbell's +letter had given the poor lady's heart, or rather her pride, a fatal +stab, and the indignity with which she had been treated preyed upon +her health and spirits. She now determined to send an ultimatum to the +Queen, which was to be published in the newspapers if ministers +refused to lay it before her Majesty. This document, which was dated +February 12, 1838, ran as follows:-- + +'Your Majesty will allow me to say that few things are more +disgraceful and inimical to royalty than giving commands without +examining all their different bearings, and casting, without reason, +an aspersion upon the integrity of any branch of a family that had +faithfully served their country and the House of Hanover. As no +inquiries have been made of me of what circumstances induced me to +incur the debts alluded to, I deem it unnecessary to enter into any +details on the subject. I shall not allow the pension given by your +royal grandfather to be stopped by force; but I shall resign it for +the payment of my debts, and with it the name of British subject, and +the slavery that is at present annexed to it; and as your Majesty has +given publicity to the business by your orders to your consular +agents, I surely cannot be blamed for following your royal example. + +'HESTER LUCY STANHOPE.' + +This was accompanied by a long letter to the Duke of Wellington, in +which Lady Hester detailed her services in the East, and expressed her +indignation at the treatment she had received. She was now left with +only a few pounds upon which to maintain her house-hold until March, +when she could draw for £300, apparently the quarter's income from a +legacy left her by her brother, but of this sum £200 was due to a +Greek merchant at Beyrout. The faithful doctor collected all the money +he had in his house, about eleven pounds, and brought it to her for +her current expenses, but with her usual impracticability she gave +most of it away in charity. Still no letter came from Sir Francis +Burdett, and the unfortunate lady, old, sick, and wasted to a +skeleton, lay on her sofa and lamented over her troubles in a fierce, +inhuman fashion, like a wounded animal at bay. In the course of time a +reply came from Lord Palmerston, in which he stated that he had laid +Lady Hester's letter before the Queen, and explained to her Majesty +the circumstances that might be supposed to have led to her writing +it. The communications to which she referred were, he continued, +suggested by nothing but a desire to save her from the embarrassments +that might arise if her creditors were to call upon the Consul-General +to act according to the strict line of his duty. This letter did +nothing towards assuaging Lady Hester's wrath. In her reply she +sarcastically observed:-- + +'If your diplomatic despatches are all as obscure as the one that now +lies before me, it is no wonder that England should cease to have that +proud preponderance in her foreign relations which she once could +boast of.... It is but fair to make your lordship aware that, if by +the next packet there is nothing definitely settled respecting my +affairs, and I am not cleared in the eyes of the world of aspersions, +intentionally or unintentionally thrown upon me, I shall break up my +household, and build up the entrance-gate to my premises; there +remaining as if I was in a tomb till my character has been done +justice to, and a public acknowledgment put in the papers, signed and +sealed by those who have aspersed me. There is no trifling with those +who have Pitt blood in their veins upon the subject of integrity, nor +expecting that their spirit would ever yield to the impertinent +interference of consular authority, etc., etc.' It must be owned that +there is a touch of unconscious humour in Lady Hester's terrible +threat of walling herself up, a proceeding which would only make +herself uncomfortable and leave her enemies at peace. For the present +matters went on much as usual at Dar Jôon. No household expenses were +curtailed, and thirty native servants continued to cheat their +mistress and idle over their work. In March, that perambulating +princeling, his Highness of Pückler-Muskau, arrived at Sayda, whence +he wrote a letter to Lady Hester, begging to be allowed to pay his +homage to the Queen of Palmyra and the niece of the great Pitt. 'I +have the presumption to believe, madam,' he continued, 'that there +must be some affinity of character between us. For, like you, my lady, +I look for our future salvation from the East, where nations still +nearer to God and to nature can alone, some day, purify the rotten +civilisation of decrepid Europe, in which everything is artificial, +and where we are menaced with a new kind of barbarism--not that with +which states begin, but with which they end. Like you, madam, I +believe that astrology is not an empty science, but a lost one. Like +you, I am an aristocrat by birth and by principle; because I find a +marked aristocracy in nature. In a word, madam, like you, I love to +sleep by day and be stirring by night. There I stop; for in mind, +energy of character, and in the mode of life, so singular and so +dignified, which you lead, not every one who would can resemble Lady +Hester Stanhope.' + +Lady Hester was flattered by this letter, and told the doctor that he +must ride into Sayda to see the prince, and tell him that she was too +ill to receive him at present, but would endeavour to do so a few +weeks later. The prince was established with his numerous suite in the +house of a merchant of Sayda. Mehemet Ali had given him a special +firman, requiring all official persons to treat him in a manner +suitable to his rank, his whole expenditure being defrayed by cheques +on the Viceroy's treasury. The prince, unlike most other distinguished +travellers who were treated with the same honour, took the firman +strictly according to the letter, and could boast of having traversed +the whole of Egypt and Syria with all the pomp of royalty, and without +having expended a single farthing. Dr. Meryon describes his Highness +as a tall man of about fifty years of age, distinguished by an +unmistakable air of birth and breeding. He wore a curious mixture of +Eastern and Western costume, and had a tame chameleon crawling about +his pipe, with which he was almost as much occupied as M. Lamartine +with his lapdog. The prince stated that he had almost made up his mind +to settle in the East, since Europe was no longer the land of liberty. +'I will build myself a house,' he said, 'get what I want from Europe, +make arrangements for newspapers, books, etc., and choose some +delightful situation; but I think it will be on Mount Lebanon.' + +In his volume of travels in the East called _Die Rückkehr_, +Prince Pückler-Muksau has given an amusing account of the negotiations +that passed between himself and Lady Hester on the subject of his +visit. For once the niece of Pitt had found her match in vanity and +arrogance; and if the prince's book had appeared in her lifetime, it +is certain that she would not long have survived it. His Highness +describes how he bided his time, as though he were laying siege to a +courted beauty, and almost daily bombarded the Lady of Jôon with +letters calculated to pique her curiosity by their frank and original +style. At last, 'in order to be rid of him,' as she jokingly said, +Lady Hester consented to receive him on a certain day, which, from his +star, she deemed propitious to their meeting. Thereupon the prince, +who intended that his visit should be desired, not suffered, wrote to +say that he was setting out for an expedition into the desert, but +that on his return he would come to Jôon, not for one day, but for a +week. This impertinence was rewarded by permission to come at his own +time. + +Great preparations were made for the entertainment of this +distinguished visitor. The scanty contents of the store and china +cupboards were spread out before the lady of the house, who infused +activity into the most sluggish by smart strokes from her stick. The +epithets of beast, rascal, and the like, were dealt out with such +freedom and readiness, as to make the European part of her audience +sensible of the richness and variety of the Arabian language. On +Easter Monday, April 15, the prince, followed by a part of his suite, +and five mule-loads of baggage, rode into the courtyard. He wore an +immense Leghorn hat lined with green taffetas, a Turkish scarf over +his shoulders, and blue pantaloons of ample dimensions. From the +excellent fit of his Parisian boots, it was evident that he felt his +pretensions to a thoroughbred foot were now to be magisterially +decided. The prince has given his own impression of his hostess, whom +he describes as a thorough woman of the world, with manners of +Oriental dignity and calm. With her pale, regular features, dark, +fiery eyes, great height, and sonorous voice, she had the appearance +of an ancient Sibyl; yet no one, he declares, could have been more +natural and unaffected in manner. She told him that since she had lost +her money, she had lived like a dervish, and assimilated herself to +the ways of nature. 'My roses are my jewels,' she said, 'the sun and +moon my clocks, fruit and water my food and drink. I see in your face +that you are a thorough epicure; how will you endure to spend a week +with me?' The prince, who had already dined, replied that he found she +did not keep her guests on fruit and water, and assured her that +English poverty was equivalent to German riches. He spent six or seven +hours _tête-a-tête_ with his hostess each evening of his stay, +and declares that he was astonished at the originality and variety of +her conversation. He had the audacity to ask her if the Arab chief who +accompanied her to Palmyra had been her lover, but she, not +ill-pleased, assured him that there was no truth in the report, which +at one time had been generally believed. She said that the Arabs +regarded her neither as man or woman, but as a being apart. + +Before leaving, the prince introduced his 'harem,' consisting of two +Abyssinian slaves, to Lady Hester, and was presented, in his turn, to +the sacred mares, which had lost their beauty, and grown gross and +unwieldy under their _régime_ of gentle exercise and unlimited +food. Leila licked the prince's hand when he caressed her, and Leila's +mistress was thereby convinced that her guest was a 'chosen vessel.' +She confided to him all her woes, the neglect of her relations and the +ill-treatment of the Government, and gave him copies of the +correspondence about her pension, which he promised to publish in a +German newspaper. To Dr. Meryon she waxed quite enthusiastic over his +Highness's personal attractions, the excellent cut of his coat, and +the handiness with which he performed small services. 'I could +observe,' writes the doctor, towards the end of the visit, 'that she +had already begun to obtain an ascendency over the prince, such as she +never failed to do over those who came within the sphere of her +attraction; for he was less lofty in his manner than he had been at +first, and she seemed to have gained in height, and to be more +disposed to play the queen than ever.' + +This, alas, was the last time that Lady Hester had the opportunity of +playing the queen, or entertaining a distinguished guest at Dar Jôon. +In June, when the packet brought no news of her imaginary property, +and no apology from Queen or Premier, she began at last to despair. +'The die is cast,' she told Dr. Meryon, 'and the sooner you take +yourself off the better. I have no money; you can be of no use to +me--I shall write no more letters, and shall break up my +establishment, wall up my gate, and, with a boy and girl to wait upon +me, resign myself to my fate. Tell your family they may make their +preparations, and be gone in a month's time.' Early in July Sir +Francis Burdett's long-expected letter arrived, but brought with it no +consolation. He could tell nothing of the legacy, but wrote in the +soothing, evasive terms that might be supposed suitable to an elderly +lady who was not quite accountable for her ideas or actions. As there +was now no hope of any improvement in her affairs, Lady Hester decided +to execute her threat of walling up her gateway, a proceeding which, +she was unable to perceive, injured nobody but herself. She directed +the doctor to pay and dismiss her servants, with the exception of two +maids and two men, and then sent him to Beyrout to inform the French +consul of her intention. On his return to Jôon he found that Lady +Hester had already hired a vessel to take himself and his family from +Sayda to Cyprus. He was reluctant to leave her in solitude and +wretchedness, but knowing that when once her mind was made up, nothing +could shake her resolution, he employed the time that remained to him +in writing her letters, setting her house in order, and taking her +instructions for commissions in Europe. He also begged to be allowed +to lend her as much money as he could spare, and she consented to +borrow a sum of 2000 piastres (about £80), which she afterwards +repaid. + +On July 30, 1838, the masons arrived, and the entrance-gate was walled +up with a kind of stone screen, leaving, however, a side-opening just +large enough for an ass or cow to enter, so that this much-talked-of +act of self-immurement was more an appearance than a reality. On +August 6, the faithful doctor took an affectionate leave of the +employer, who, as Prince Pückler-Muskau bears witness, was accustomed +to treat him with icy coldness, and sailed for western climes. To the +last, he tells us, Lady Hester dwelt with apparent confidence on the +approaching advent of the Mahedi, and still regarded her mare Leila as +destined to bear him into Jerusalem, with herself upon Lulu at his +side. It is to be hoped that the poor lady was able to buoy herself up +with this belief during the last and most solitary year of her +disappointed life. About once a month, up to the date of her death, +she corresponded with Dr. Meryon, who was again settled at Nice. Her +letters were chiefly taken up with commissions, and with shrewd +comments upon the new books that were sent out to her. + +'I should like to have Miss Pardoe's book on Constantinople,' she +writes in October, 1838, 'if it is come out for strangers (_i.e._ +in a French translation); for I fear I should never get through with +it myself. This just puts me in mind that one of the books I should +like to have would be Graham's _Domestic Medicine_; a good Red +Book (_Peerage_, I mean); and the book about the Prince of Wales. +I have found out a person who can occasionally read French to me; so +if there was any very pleasing French book, you might send it--but no +Bonapartes or "present times"--and a little _brochure_ or two +upon baking, pastry, gardening, etc.... + +'_Feb._ 9, 1839.--The book you sent me (_Diary of the Times of +George IV_., by Lady Charlotte Bury) is interesting only to those +who were acquainted with the persons named: all mock taste, mock +feeling, etc., but that is the fashion. "I am this, I am that"; who +ever talked such empty stuff formerly? I was never named by a +well-bred person.... Miss Pardoe is very excellent upon many subjects; +only there is too much of what the English like--stars, winds, black +shades, soft sounds, etc.... + +'_May_ 6.--Some one--I suppose you--sent me the _Life of Lord +Edward Fitzgerald_. It is _I_ who could give a true and most +extraordinary history of all those transactions. The book is all +stuff. The duchess (Lord Edward's mother) was my particular friend, as +was also his aunt; I was intimate with all the family, and knew that +noted Pamela. All the books I see make me sick--only catchpenny +nonsense. A thousand thanks for the promise of my grandfather's +letters; but the book will be all spoilt by being edited by young men. +First, they are totally ignorant of the politics of my grandfather's +age; secondly, of the style of the language used at that period; and +absolutely ignorant of his secret reasons and intentions, and the +_real_ or apparent footing he was upon with many people, friends +or foes. I know all that from my grandmother, who was his secretary, +and, Coutts used to say, the cleverest _man_ of her time in +politics and business.' + +This was the last letter that Dr. Meryon received from his old friend +and patroness. She slowly wasted away, and died in June 1839, no one +being aware of her approaching end except the servants about her. The +news of her death reached Beyrout in a few hours, and the English +consul, Mr. Moore, and an American missionary (Mr. Thomson, author of +_The Land and the Book_) rode over to Jôon to bury her. By her +own desire she was interred in a grave in her garden, where a son of +the Prophet Loustaunau had been buried some years before. Mr. Thomson +has described how he performed the last rites at midnight by the light +of lanterns and torches, and notes the curious resemblance between +Lady Hester's funeral service and that of the man she loved, Sir John +Moore. Together with the consul, he examined the contents of +thirty-five rooms, but found nothing but old saddles, pipes, and empty +oil-jars, everything of value having been long since plundered by the +servants. The sacred mares, now grown old and almost useless, were +sold for a small sum by public auction, and only survived for a short +time their return to an active life. + +In 1845 Dr. Meryon published his so-called _Memoirs of Lady Hester +Stanhope_, which are merely an account of her later years, and a +report of her table-talk at Dar Jôon. In 1846 he brought out her +_Travels_, which were advertised as the supplement and completion +of the _Memoirs_. From these works, and from passing notices of +our heroine, we gain a general impression of wasted talents and a +disappointed life. That she was more unhappy in her solitude than, in +her unbending nature, she would avow, observes her faithful friend and +chronicler, the record of the last years of her existence too plainly +demonstrates. Although she derived consolation in retirement from the +retrospect of the part she had played in her prosperity, still there +were moments of poignant grief when her very soul groaned within her. +She was ambitious, and her ambition had been foiled; she loved +irresponsible command, but the time had come when those over whom she +ruled defied her; she was dictatorial and exacting, but she had lost +the influence which alone makes people tolerate control. She incurred +debts, and was doomed to feel the degradation consequent upon them. +She thought to defy her own nation, and they hurled the defiance back +upon her. She entertained visionary projects of aggrandisement, and +was met by the derision of the world. In a word, Lady Hester died as +she had lived, alone and miserable in a strange land, bankrupt in +affection and credit, because, in spite of her great gifts and innate +benevolence, her overbearing temper had alienated friends and kinsfolk +alike, and her pride could endure neither the society of equals, nor +the restraints and conventions of civilised life. + + + + +PRINCE PÜCKLER-MUSKAU IN ENGLAND + +PART I + + +[Illustration: PRINCE PÜCKLER-MUSKAU] + +During the early and middle decades of the nineteenth century there +was no more original and picturesque figure among the minor +celebrities of Germany--one might almost say of Europe--than that of +his Highness, Hermann Ludwig Heinrich, Prince Pückler-Muskau. +Throughout his long career we find this princeling playing many +parts--at once an imitation Werter, a sentimental Don Juan, a dandy +who out-dressed D'Orsay, a sportsman and traveller of Münchhausen +type, a fashionable author who wrote German with a French accent and a +warrior who seems to have wandered out of the pages of mediæval +romance. Yet with all his mock-heroic notoriety, the _toller +Pückler_ was by no means destitute of those practical qualities +which tempered the Teutonic Romanticism, even in its earliest and most +extravagant developments. He was skilled in all manly exercises, a +brave soldier, an intelligent observer, and--his most substantial +claim to remembrance--the father of landscape-gardening in Germany, a +veritable magician who transformed level wastes into wooded landscapes +and made the sandy wildernesses blossom like the rose. + +To English readers the prince's name was once familiar as the author +of _Briefe eines Verstorbenen_ (Letters of a Dead Man), which +contain a lively account of his Highness' sojourn in England and +Ireland between the years 1826 and 1828. These letters, which were +translated into English under the title of _The Tour of a German +Prince_, made a sensation, favourable and otherwise, in the early +'thirties,' owing to the candid fashion in which they dealt with our +customs and our countrymen. The book received the high honour of a +complimentary review from the pen of the aged Goethe. 'The writer +appears to be a perfect and experienced man of the world,' observes +this distinguished critic; 'endowed with talents and a quick +apprehension; formed by a varied social existence, by travel and +extensive connections. His journey was undertaken very recently, and +brings us the latest intelligence from the countries which he has +viewed with an acute, clear, and comprehensive eye. We see before us a +finely-constituted being, born to great external advantages and +felicities, but in whom a lively spirit of enterprise is not united to +constancy and perseverance; whence he experiences frequent failure and +disappointment.... The peculiarities of English manners and habits are +drawn vividly and distinctly, and without exaggeration. We acquire a +lively idea of that wonderful combination, that luxuriant growth--of +that insular life which is based in boundless wealth and civil +freedom, in universal monotony and manifold diversity; formal and +capricious, active and torpid, energetic and dull, comfortable and +tedious, the envy and derision of the world. Like other unprejudiced +travellers of modern times, our author is not very much enchanted with +the English form of existence: his cordial and sincere admiration is +often accompanied by unsparing censure. He is by no means inclined to +favour the faults and weaknesses of the English; and in this he has +the greatest and best among themselves upon his side.' + +As these Letters were not written until the prince had passed his +fortieth year, it will be necessary, before considering them in +detail, to give a brief sketch of his previous career. Hermann Ludwig +was the only son of Graf von Pückler of Schloss Branitz, and of his +wife, Clementine, born a Gräfin von Gallenberg, and heiress to the +vast estate of Muskau in Silesia. Both families were of immense +antiquity, the Pücklers claiming to trace their descent from Rüdiger +von Bechlarn, who figures in the _Nibelungenlied_. Our hero was +born at Muskau in October 1785, and spent, according to his own +account, a wretched and neglected childhood. His father was harsh, +miserly, and suspicious; his mother, who was only fifteen when her son +was born, is described as a frivolous little flirt. The couple, after +perpetually quarrelling for ten or twelve years, were divorced, by +mutual consent, in 1797, and the Gräfin shortly afterwards married one +of her numerous admirers, Graf von Seydewitz, with whom she lived as +unhappily as with her first husband. Her little son was educated at a +Moravian school, and in the holidays was left entirely to the care of +the servants. After a couple of years at the university of Leipzig, he +entered the Saxon army, and soon became notorious for his good looks, +his fine horsemanship, his extravagance, and his mischievous pranks. +Military discipline in time of peace proved too burdensome for the +young lieutenant, who, after quarrelling with his father, getting +deeply into debt, and embroiling himself with the authorities, threw +up his commission in 1804. Muskau having become much too hot to hold +him, he spent the next years in travelling about the Continent, always +in pecuniary difficulties, and seldom free from some sentimental +entanglement. + +In 1810 Graf Pückler died, and his son stepped into a splendid +inheritance. Like Prince Hal, the young Graf seems to have taken his +new responsibilities seriously, and to have devoted himself, with only +too much enthusiasm, to the development and improvement of his +estates. In the intervals of business he amused himself with an +endless series of love-affairs, his achievements in this respect, if +his biographer may be believed, more than equalling those of Jupiter +and Don Giovanni put together. Old and young, pretty and plain, noble +and humble, native and foreign, all were fish that came to the net of +this lady-killer, who not only vowed allegiance to nearly every +petticoat that crossed his path, but--a much more remarkable +feat--kept up an impassioned correspondence with a large selection of +his charmers. After his death, a whole library of love-letters was +discovered among his papers, all breathing forth adoration, ecstasy or +despair, and addressed to the Julies, Jeannettes, or Amalies who +succeeded one another so rapidly in his facile affections. These +documents, for the most part carefully-corrected drafts of the +originals, were indorsed, 'Old love-letters, to be used again if +required!' + +In 1813 the trumpet of war sounded the call to arms, and the young +Graf entered the military service of Prussia, and was appointed +aide-de-camp to the Duke of Saxe-Weimar. He distinguished himself in +the Netherlands, was present at the taking of Cassel, and in the +course of the campaign played a part in a new species of duel. A +French colonel of Hussars, so the story goes, rode out of the enemy's +lines, and challenged any officer in the opposing army to single +combat. Pückler accepted the challenge, and the duel was fought on +horseback--presumably with sabres--between the ranks of the two +armies, the soldiers on either side applauding their chosen champion. +At length, after a fierce struggle, Germany triumphed, and the brave +Frenchman bit the dust. Whether the tale be true or apocryphal, it is +certain that numerous decorations were conferred upon the young +officer for his brilliant services, that he was promoted to the rank +of colonel, and appointed civil and military governor of Brüges. +Pückler took part in the triumphal entry of the Allies into Paris, and +afterwards accompanied the Duke of Saxe-Weimar to London, where he +shared in all the festivities of the wonderful season of 1815, studied +the English methods of landscape-gardening, and made an unsuccessful +attempt to marry a lady of rank and fortune. + +After his return to Muskau the Graf continued his work on his estate, +which, in spite of a sandy soil and other disadvantages, soon became +one of the show-places of Germany. Having discovered a spring of +mineral water, he built a pump-room, a theatre, and a gaming-saloon, +and named the establishment Hermannsbad. The invalids who frequented +the Baths must have enjoyed a lively 'cure,' for besides theatrical +performances, illuminations, fireworks and steeplechases, the Graf was +always ready to oblige with some sensational achievement. On one +occasion he leapt his horse over the parapet of a bridge into the +river, and swam triumphantly ashore; while on another he galloped up +the steps of the Casino, played and won a _coup_ at the tables +without dismounting, and then galloped down again, arriving at the +bottom with a whole neck, but considerable damage to his horse's legs. + +In 1816 Pückler became acquainted with Lucie, Gräfin von Pappenheim, a +daughter of Prince Hardenberg, Chancellor of Prussia. The Gräfin, a +well-preserved woman of forty, having parted from her husband, was +living at Berlin with her daughter, Adelheid, afterwards Princess +Carolath, and her adopted daughter, Herminie Lanzendorf. The Graf +divided his attentions equally between the three ladies for some time, +but on inquiring of a friend which would make the greatest sensation +in Berlin, his marriage to the mother or to one of the daughters, and +being told his marriage to the mother, at once proposed to the +middle-aged Gräfin, and was joyfully accepted. The reason for this +inappropriate match probably lay deeper than the desire to astonish +the people of Berlin, for Pückler, with all his surface romanticism, +had a keen eye to the main chance. His Lucie had only a moderate +dower, but the advantage of being son-in-law to the Chancellor of +Prussia could hardly be overestimated. Again, the Graf seems to have +imagined that in a marriage of convenience with a woman nine years +older than himself, he would be able to preserve the liberty of his +bachelor days, while presenting the appearance of domestic +respectability. + +As soon as the trifling formality of a divorce from Count Pappenheim +had been gone through, the marriage took place at Muskau, to the +accompaniment of the most splendid festivities. As may be supposed, +the early married life of the ill-assorted couple was a period of +anything but unbroken calm. Scarcely had the Graf surrendered his +liberty than he fell passionately in love with his wife's adopted +daughter, Helmine, a beautiful girl of eighteen, the child, it was +believed, of humble parents. Frederick William III. of Prussia was one +of her admirers, and had offered to marry her morganatically, and +create her Herzogin von Breslau. But Helmine gave her royal suitor no +encouragement, and he soon consoled himself with the Princess +Liegnitz. Lucie spared no pains to marry off the inconvenient beauty, +but Pückler frustrated all her efforts, implored her not to separate +him from Helmine, and suggested an arrangement based upon the domestic +policy of Goethe's _Wahlverwandschaften_. But Lucie was unreasonable +enough to object to a _ménage à trois_, and at length succeeded +in marrying Helmine to a Lieutenant von Blucher. + +In 1822 the Graf accompanied his father-in-law to the Congress of +Aix-la-Chapelle, and shortly afterwards was raised to princely rank, +in compensation for the losses he had sustained through the annexation +of Silesia by Prussia. By this time the prince's financial affairs +were in so desperate a condition, thanks to the follies of his youth +and the building mania of his manhood, that a desperate remedy was +required to put them straight again. Only one expedient presented +itself, and this Lucie, with a woman's self-sacrifice, was the first +to propose. During a short absence from Muskau she wrote to her +husband to offer him his freedom, in order that he might be enabled to +marry a rich heiress, whose fortune could be used to clear off the +liabilities that pressed so heavily on the estate. The prince at first +refused to take advantage of this generous offer. He had become +accustomed to his elderly wife, who acted as his colleague and helper +in all that concerned his idolised Muskau, and upon whose sympathy and +advice he had learned to depend. But as time went on he grew +accustomed to the idea of an amicable divorce, and at length persuaded +himself that such a proceeding need make no real difference to Lucie's +position; in fact, that it would be an advantage to her as well as to +himself. For years past he had regarded her rather in the light of a +maternal friend than of a wife, and the close _camaraderie_ that +existed between them would remain unbroken by the advent of a young +bride whom Lucie would love as her own child. A divorce, it must be +remembered, was a common incident of everyday life in the Germany of +that epoch. As we have seen, Pückler's father and mother had dissolved +their marriage, and Lucie had been divorced from her first husband, +while her father had been married three times, and had separated from +each of his wives. + +The matter remained in abeyance for a year or two, and it was not +until 1826, when the prince probably felt that he had no time to lose, +that the long-talked-of divorce actually took place. This curious +couple, who appeared to be more tenderly attached to each other now +than they had ever been before, took a touching farewell in Berlin. +The princess then returned to Muskau, where she remained during her +ex-husband's absence as his agent and representative, while the prince +set out for England, which country was supposed to offer the best +hunting-ground for heiresses. Week by week during his tour, Pückler +addressed to his faithful Lucie long, confidential letters, filled +with observations of the manners and customs of the British +barbarians, together with minute descriptions of his adventures in +love and landscape-gardening. + +The prince, though at this time in his forty-first year, was still, to +all appearance, in the prime of life, still an adept in feats of skill +and strength, and not less romantic and susceptible than in the days +of his youth. With his high rank, his vast though encumbered estates, +his picturesque appearance, and his wide experience in affairs of the +heart, he anticipated little difficulty in carrying off one of the +most eligible of British heiresses; but he quite forgot to include the +hard-hearted, level-headed British parent in his reckoning. The +prince's first letter to Lucie, who figures in the published version +as Julie, is dated Dresden, September 7, 1826, and begins in right +Werterian strain:-- + +'My dear friend--The love you showed me at our parting made me so +happy and so miserable that I cannot yet recover from it. Your sad +image is ever before me; I still read deep sorrow in your looks and in +your tears, and my own heart tells me too well what yours suffered. +May God grant us a meeting as joyful as our parting was sorrowful! I +can only repeat what I have so often told you, that if I felt myself +without you, my dearest friend, in the world, I could enjoy none of +its pleasures without an alloy of sadness; that if you love me, you +will above all things watch over your health, and amuse yourself as +much as you can by varied occupation.' There are protestations of this +kind in nearly every letter, for the prince's pen was always tipped +with fine sentiment and vows of eternal devotion came more easily to +him than the ordinary civilities of everyday life to the average man. + +A visit to Goethe at Weimar, on the traveller's leisurely journey +towards England, furnished his notebook with some interesting +specimens of the old poet's conversation. 'He received me,' writes the +prince, 'in a dimly-lighted room, whose _clair obscure_ was +arranged with some _coquetterie_; and truly the aspect of the +beautiful old man, with his Jovelike countenance, was most stately.... +In the course of conversation we came to Walter Scott. Goethe was not +very enthusiastic about the Great Unknown. He said he doubted not that +he wrote his novels in the same sort of partnership as existed between +the old painters and their pupils; that he furnished the plot, the +leading thoughts, the skeleton of the scenes, that he then let his +pupils fill them up, and retouched them at the last. It seemed almost +to be his opinion that it was not worth the while of a man of Scott's +eminence to give himself up to such a number of minute and tedious +details. "Had I," he said, "been able to lend myself to the idea of +mere gain, I could formerly have sent such things anonymously into the +world, with the aid of Lenz and others--nay, I could still, as would +astonish people not a little, and make them puzzle their brains to +find out the author; but after all, they would be but manufactured +wares...." + +'He afterwards spoke of Lord Byron with great affection, almost as a +father would of a son, which was extremely grateful to my enthusiastic +feelings for this great poet. He contradicted the silly assertion +that _Manfred_ was only an echo of his _Faust_. He extremely +regretted that he had never become personally acquainted with Lord +Byron, and severely and justly reproached the English nation for +having judged their illustrious countryman so pettily, and understood +him so ill.' The conversation next turned on politics, and Goethe +reverted to his favourite theory that if every man laboured +faithfully, honestly, and lovingly in this sphere, were it great or +small, universal well-being and happiness would not long be wanting, +whatever the form of government. The prince urged in reply that a +constitutional government was first necessary to call such a principle +into life, and adduced the example of England in support of his +argument. 'Goethe immediately replied that the choice of the example +was not happy, for that in no country was selfishness more omnipotent; +that no people were perhaps essentially less humane in their political +or their private relations; that salvation came, not from without, by +means of forms of government, but from within, by the wise moderation +and humble activity of each man in his own circle; and that this must +ever be the chief source of human felicity, while it was the easiest +and the simplest to attain.' + +The prince seems always to have played the part of Jonah on board +ship, and on the occasion of his journey to England, he had a terrible +passage of forty hours, from Rotterdam to the London Docks. As soon as +he could get his carriage, horses, and luggage clear of the customs, +he hastened to the Clarendon Hotel, where he had stayed during his +first visit to London. Unlike the American, N. P. Willis, he had come +armed with many prejudices against England and the English, few of +which he succeeded in losing during the two years of his sojourn among +us. In his first letter from London, dated October 5, 1826, he writes: +'London is now so utterly dead to elegance and fashion that one hardly +meets a single equipage, and nothing remains of the _beau monde_ +but a few ambassadors. The huge city is at the same time full of fog +and dirt, and the macadamised streets are like well-worn roads. The +old pavement has been torn up, and replaced by small pieces of +granite, the interstices between which are filled up with gravel; this +renders the riding more easy, and diminishes the noise, but on the +other hand changes the town into a sort of quagmire.' The prince +comments favourably on the improvements that had recently been carried +out by Nash the architect, more especially as regards Regent Street +and Portland Place, and declares that the laying out of the Regent's +Park is 'faultless,' particularly in the disposition of the water. + +The comfort and luxury of English hotels, as well as of private +houses, is a subject on which the traveller frequently enlarges, and +in this first letter he assures his Lucie that she would be delighted +with the extreme cleanliness of the interiors, the great convenience +of the furniture, and the good manners of the serving-people, though +he admits that, for all that pertains to luxury, the tourist pays +about six times as much as in Germany. 'The comfort of the inns,' he +continues, 'is unknown on the Continent; on your washing-table you +find, not one miserable water-bottle with a single earthenware jug and +basin, and a long strip of towel, but positive tubs of porcelain in +which you may plunge half your body; taps which instantly supply you +with streams of water at pleasure; half-a-dozen wide towels, a large +standing mirror, foot-baths and other conveniences of the toilet, all +of equal elegance.' + +The prince took advantage of the dead season to explore the city and +other unfashionable quarters of the town. He was delighted with the +excellent side-pavements, the splendid shops, the brilliant gas-lamps, +and above all (like Miss Edgeworth's Rosamund) with 'the great glass +globes in the chemists' windows, filled with liquid of a deep red, +blue or green, the light of which is visible for miles(!)' Visits to +the Exchange, the Bank, and the Guildhall were followed by a call on +Rothschild, 'the Grand Ally of the Grand Alliance,' at his house of +business. 'On my presenting my card,' says our hero, 'he remarked +ironically that we were lucky people who could afford to travel about, +and take our pleasure, while he, poor man, had such a heavy burden to +bear. He then broke out into bitter complaints that every poor devil +who came to England had something to ask of him.... After this the +conversation took a political turn, and we of course agreed that +Europe could not subsist without him; he modestly declined our +compliments, and said, smiling, 'Oh no, you are only jesting; I am but +a servant, with whom people are pleased because he manages their +affairs well, and to whom they allow some crumbs to fall as an +acknowledgment.' + +On October 19 the prince went to Newmarket for the races. During his +stay he was introduced to a rich merchant of the neighbourhood, who +invited him to spend a couple of days at his country-house. He gives +Lucie a minute account of the manners and customs of an English +_ménage_, but these are only interesting to the modern reader in +so far as they have become obsolete. For example: 'When you enter the +dining-room, you find the whole of the first course on the table, as +in France. After the soup is removed, and the covers are taken off, +every man helps the dish before him, and offers some to his neighbour; +if he wishes for anything else, he must ask across the table, or send +a servant for it, a very troublesome custom.... It is not usual to +take wine without drinking to another person. If the company is small, +and a man has drunk with everybody, but happens to wish for more wine, +he must wait for the dessert, if he does not find in himself courage +to brave custom.' + +On his return to town the prince, who had been elected a member of the +Travellers' Club, gives a long dissertation on English club life, not +forgetting to dwell on the luxury of all the arrangements, the +excellent service, and the methodical fashion in which the +gaming-tables were conducted. 'In no other country,' he declares, 'are +what are here emphatically called "business habits" carried so +extensively into social and domestic life; the value of time, of +order, of despatch, of routine, are nowhere so well understood. This +is the great key to the most striking, national characteristics. The +quantity of material objects produced and accomplished--_the work +done_--in England exceeds all that man ever effected. The causes +that have produced these results have as certainly given birth to the +dulness, the contracted views, the inveterate prejudices, the +unbounded desire for, and deference to wealth which characterise the +great mass of Englishmen.' + +During this first winter in London the prince was a regular attendant +at the theatres, and many were the dramatic criticisms that he sent to +his 'friend' at Muskau. He saw Liston in the hundred and second +representation of Paul Pry, and at Drury Lane found, to his amazement +that Braham, whom he remembered as an elderly man in 1814, was still +first favourite. 'He is the genuine representative of the English +style of singing,' writes our critic, 'and in popular songs is the +adored idol of the public. One cannot deny him great power of voice +and rapidity of execution, but a more abominable style it is difficult +to conceive.... The most striking feature to a foreigner in English +theatres is the natural coarseness and brutality of the audiences. The +consequence is that the higher and more civilised classes go only to +the Italian Opera, and very rarely visit their national theatre. +English freedom has degenerated into the rudest licence, and it is not +uncommon in the midst of the most affecting part of a tragedy, or the +most charming cadenza of a singer, to hear some coarse expression +shouted from the gallery in a stentor voice. This is followed, either +by loud laughter and applause, or by the castigation and expulsion of +the offender.' + +The poor prince saw Mozart's _Figaro_ announced for performance +at Drury Lane, and looked forward to hearing once more the sweet +harmonies of his Vaterland. 'What, then, was my astonishment,' he +exclaims, in justifiable indignation, 'at the unheard-of treatment +which the masterpiece of the immortal composer has received at English +hands! You will hardly believe me when I tell you that neither the +count, the countess, nor Figaro sang; these parts were given to mere +actors, and their principal airs were sung by other singers. To add to +this the gardener roared out some interpolated English popular songs, +which suited Mozart's music just as a pitch-plaster would suit the +face of the Venus de' Medici. The whole opera was, moreover, arranged +by a certain Mr. Bishop; that is, adapted to English ears by means of +the most tasteless and shocking alterations. The English national +music, the coarse, heavy melodies of which can never be mistaken for +an instant, has to me, at least, something singularly offensive, an +expression of brutal feeling both in pain and pleasure that smacks of +"roast-beef, plum-pudding, and porter."' + +Another entertainment attended by our hero about this time was the +opening of Parliament by George IV., who had not performed this +ceremony for several years. 'The king,' we are told, 'looked pale and +bloated, and was obliged to sit on the throne for a considerable time +before he could get breath enough to read his speech. During this time +he turned friendly glances and condescending bows towards some +favoured ladies. On his right stood Lord Liverpool, with the sword of +state and the speech in his hand, and the Duke of Wellington on his +left. All three looked so miserable, so ashy-grey and worn out, that +never did human greatness appear to me so little worth.... In spite of +his feebleness, George IV. read his _banale_ speech with great +dignity and a fine voice, but with that royal nonchalance which does +not concern itself with what his Majesty promises, or whether he is +sometimes unable to decipher a word. It was very evident that the +monarch was heartily glad when the _corvée_ was over.' + +In one of his early letters the traveller gives his friend the +following account of the manner in which he passes his day: 'I rise +late, read three or four newspapers at breakfast, look in my +visiting-book to see what visits I have to pay, and either drive to +pay them in my cabriolet, or ride. In the course of these excursions, +I sometimes catch the enjoyment of the picturesque; the struggle of +the blood-red sun with the winter fogs often produces wild and +singular effects of light. After my visits I ride for several hours +about the beautiful environs of London, return when it grows dark, +dress for dinner, which is at seven or eight, and spend the evening +either at the theatre or some small party. The ludicrous routs--at +which one hardly finds standing-room on the staircase--have not yet +commenced. In England, however, except in a few diplomatic houses, you +can go nowhere in the evening without a special invitation.' + +The prince seems to have been bored at most of the parties he +attended; partly, perhaps, out of pique at finding himself, so long +accustomed to be the principal personage in his little kingdom of +Muskau, eclipsed in influence and wealth by many a British commoner. +Few persons that he met in the London of that day amused him more than +the great Rothschild, with whom he dined more than once at the +banker's suburban villa. Of one of these entertainments he writes: +'Mr. Rothschild was in high good-humour, amusing and talkative. It was +diverting to hear him explain to us the pictures round his room (all +portraits of the sovereigns of Europe, presented through their +ambassadors), and talk of the originals as his very good friends, and +in a certain sense his equals. "Yes," said he, "the Prince of ----- +once pressed me for a loan, and in the same week on which I received +his autograph letter, his father wrote to me also from Rome, to beg +me, for Heaven's sake, not to have any concern in it, for that I could +not have to do with a more dishonest man than his son...." He +concluded by modestly calling himself the dutiful and generously paid +agent and servant of these high potentates, all of whom he honoured +equally, let the state of politics be what it might; for, said he, +laughing, "I never like to quarrel with my bread and butter." It shows +great prudence in Mr. Rothschild to have accepted neither title nor +order, and thus to have preserved a far more respectable independence. +He doubtless owes much to the good advice of his extremely amiable and +judicious wife, who excels him in tact and knowledge of the world, +though not, perhaps, in acuteness and talents for business.' + +Although the prince had not as yet entered the ranks of authors, he +was always interested in meeting literary people, such as Mr. Hope, +author of _Anastasius_, Mr. Morier of _Hadji Baba_ fame, and +Lady Charlotte Bury, who had exchanged the celebrity of a beauty for +that of a fashionable novelist. 'I called on Lady Charlotte,' he says, +'the morning after meeting her, and found everything in her house +brown, in every possible shade; furniture, curtains, carpets, her own +and her children's dresses, presented no other colour. The room was +without looking-glasses or pictures, and its only ornaments were casts +from the antique.... After I had been there some time, the celebrated +publisher, Constable, entered. This man has made a fortune by Walter +Scott's novels, though, as I was told, he refused his first and best, +_Waverley_, and at last gave but a small sum for it. I hope the +charming Lady Charlotte had better cause to be satisfied with him.' +Towards the end of December, his Highness's head-gardener, Rehde, a +very important functionary at Muskau, arrived in London to be +initiated into the mysteries of English landscape-gardening. Together +the two enthusiasts, master and man, made a tour of some of the +principal show-places of England, including Stanmore Priory, Woburn +Abbey, Cashiobury, Blenheim, Stowe, Eaton, Warwick, and Kenilworth, +besides many of lesser note. At the end of the excursion, which lasted +three weeks, the prince declared that even he was beginning to feel +satiated with the charms of English parks. On his return to London he +was invited to spend a few days with Lord Darnley at Cobham, and +writes thence some further impressions of English country-house life. +He was a little perturbed at being publicly reminded by his elderly +host that they had made each other's acquaintance thirty years before. + +'Now, as I was in frocks at the time he spoke of,' observes the +prince, 'I was obliged to beg for a further explanation, though I +cannot say I was much delighted at having my age so fully discussed +before all the company, for you know I claim to look not more than +thirty. However, I could not but admire Lord Darnley's memory. He +recollected every circumstance of his visit to my parents with the +Duke of Portland, and recalled to me many a little forgotten +incident.' + +The _vie de château_ the traveller considered the most agreeable +side of English life, by reason of its freedom, and the absence of +those wearisome ceremonies which in Germany oppressed both host and +guests. The English custom of being always _en évidence_, +however, occasioned him considerable surprise. 'Strangers,' he +observes, 'have generally only one room allotted to them, and +Englishmen seldom go into this room except to sleep, and to dress +twice a day, which, even without company, is always _de rigueur_; +for all meals are usually taken in public, and any one who wants to +write does it in the library. There, also, those who wish to converse, +give each other _rendezvous_, to avoid the rest of the society. +Here you have an opportunity of gossiping for hours with the young +ladies, who are always very literarily inclined. Many a marriage is +thus concocted or destroyed between the _corpus juris_ on the one +side, and Bouffler's works on the other, while fashionable novels, as +a sort of intermediate link, lie on the tables in the middle. + +Early in February the prince paid a visit to Brighton, where he made +the acquaintance of Count D'Orsay, and was entertained by Mrs. +Fitzherbert. He gives a jaundiced account of two entertainments, a +public ball and a musical _soirée_, which he attended while at +Brighton, declaring--probably with some truth--that the latter is one +of the greatest trials to which a foreigner can be exposed in England. +'Every mother,' he explains, 'who has grown-up daughters, for whom she +has had to pay large sums to the music-master, chooses to enjoy the +satisfaction of having the youthful talent admired. There is nothing, +therefore, but quavering and strumming right and left, so that one is +really overpowered and unhappy; and even if an Englishwoman has a +natural capacity for singing, she seldom acquires either style or +science. The men are much more agreeable _dilettanti_, for they +at least give one the diversion of a comical farce. That a man should +advance to the piano with far greater confidence than a David, strike +with his forefinger the note which he thinks his song should begin +with, and then _entonner_ like a thunder-clap (generally a tone +or two lower than the pitch), and sing through a long aria without an +accompaniment of any kind, except the most wonderful distortions of +face, is a thing one must have seen to believe it possible, especially +in the presence of at least fifty people.' + +By the middle of April the season had begun in town, and the prince +soon found himself up to the eyes in invitations for balls, dinners, +breakfasts, and _soirées_. We hear of him dining with the Duke of +Clarence, to meet the Duchess of Kent and her daughter; assisting at +the Lord Mayor's banquet, which lasted six hours, and at which the +chief magistrate made six-and-twenty speeches, long and short; +breakfasting with the Duke of Devonshire at Chiswick, being nearly +suffocated at the routs of Lady Cowper and Lady Jersey, and attending +his first ball at Almack's, in which famous assemblage his +expectations were woefully disappointed. 'A large, bare room,' so runs +his description, 'with a bad floor, and ropes round it, like the space +in an Arab camp parted off for horses; two or three badly-furnished +rooms at the side, in which the most wretched refreshments are served, +and a company into which, in spite of all the immense difficulty of +getting tickets, a great many nobodies had wriggled; in which the +dress was as tasteless as the _tournure_ was bad--this was all. +In a word, a sort of inn-entertainment--the music and lighting the +only good things. And yet Almack's is the culminating point of the +English world of fashion.' + +Unfortunately for his readers, the prince was rather an observer than +an auditor; for he describes what he sees vividly enough, but seldom +takes the trouble to set down the conversation that he hears. Perhaps +he thought it hardly worth recording, for he complains that in England +politics had become the main ingredient in social intercourse, that +the lighter and more frivolous pleasures suffered by the change, and +that the art of conversation would soon be entirely lost. 'In this +country,' he unkindly adds, 'I should think it [the art of +conversation] never existed, unless, perhaps, in Charles II.'s time. +And, indeed, people here are too slavishly subject to established +usages, too systematic in all their enjoyments, too incredibly kneaded +up with prejudices; in a word, too little vivacious to attain to that +unfettered spring and freedom of spirit, which must ever be the sole +basis of agreeable society. I must confess that I know none more +monotonous, nor more persuaded of its own pre-eminence than the +highest society of this country. A stony, marble-cold spirit of caste +and fashion rules all classes, and makes the highest tedious, the +lowest ridiculous.' + +In spite of his dislike to politics as a subject of conversation, his +Highness attended debates at the House of Lords and the House of +Commons, and was so keenly interested in what he heard that he +declared the hours passed like minutes. Canning had just been +intrusted by George IV. with the task of forming a government, but had +promptly been deserted by six members of the former Ministry, +including Wellington, Lord Eldon, and Peel, who were now accused of +having resigned in consequence of a cabal or conspiracy against the +constitutional prerogative of the king to change his ministers at his +own pleasure. In the House of Commons the prince heard Peel's attack +on Canning and the new government, which was parried by Brougham. 'In +a magnificent speech, which flowed on like a clear stream, Brougham,' +we are told, 'tried to disarm his opponent; now tortured him with +sarcasms; now wrought upon the sensibility, or convinced the reason, +of his hearers. The orator closed with the solemn declaration that he +was perfectly impartial; that he _could_ be impartial, because it +was his fixed determination never, and on no terms, to accept a place +in the administration of the kingdom.... [Footnote: In 1831 Brougham +accepted office as Lord Chancellor.] Canning, the hero of the day, now +rose. If his predecessor might be compared to a dexterous and elegant +boxer, Canning presented the image of a finished antique gladiator. +All was noble, simple, refined; then suddenly his eloquence burst +forth like lightning-grand and all-subduing. His speech was, from +every point of view, the most complete, as well as the most +irresistibly persuasive--the crown and glory of the debate.' + +On the following day the prince heard some of the late ministers on +their defence in the House of Lords. 'Here,' he observes, 'I saw the +great Wellington in terrible straits. He is no orator, and was obliged +to enter upon his defence like an accused person. He was considerably +agitated; and this senate of his country, though composed of men whom +individually, perhaps, he did not care for, appeared more imposing to +him _en masse_ than Napoleon and his hundred thousands. He +stammered much, interrupted and involved himself, but at length he +brought the matter tolerably to this conclusion, that there was no +"conspiracy." He occasionally said strong things--probably stronger +than he meant, for he was evidently not master of his material. Among +other things, the following words pleased me extremely: "I am a +soldier and no orator. I am utterly deficient in the talents requisite +to play a part in this great assembly. I must be more than insane if I +ever entertained the thought, of which I am accused, of becoming Prime +Minister."... [Footnote: In January 1828 the duke became Prime +Minister.] When I question myself as to the total impression of this +day, I must confess that it was at once elevating and melancholy--the +former when I fancied myself an Englishman, the latter when I felt +myself a German. This twofold senate of the people of England, in +spite of all the defects and blemishes common to human institutions, +is yet grand in the highest degree; and in contemplating its power and +operation thus near at hand, one begins to understand why it is that +the English nation is, as yet, the first on the face of the earth.' + +The traveller was by no means exclusively occupied in hearing and +seeing new things. With that strain of practicality which contrasted +so oddly with his sentimental and romantic temperament, he kept firmly +before his eyes the main object of his visit to England. He had +determined at the outset not to sell himself and his title for less +than £50,000, but he confesses that, as time passed on, his demands +became much more modest. His matrimonial ventures were all faithfully +detailed to the presumably sympathising Lucie, for whose sake, the +prince persuaded himself, he was far more anxious for success than for +his own. But he had not counted on the many obstacles with which he +found himself confronted, chief among them being his relations with +his former wife. It was known that the ex-princess was still living at +Muskau with all the rights and privileges of a _chátelaine_, +while the prince never disguised his attachment to her, and openly +kept her portrait on his table. English mothers who would have +welcomed him as a son-in-law were led to believe that the divorce was +only a blind, and that the prince's marriage would be actually, if not +legally, a bigamous union. The satirical papers represented him as a +fortune-hunter, a Bluebeard who had ill-treated his first wife, and +declared that he had proposed for the hand of the dusky Empress of +Hayti, then on a visit to Europe. + +Still our hero obstinately pursued his quest, laying siege to the +heart of every presentable-looking heiress to whom he was introduced, +and if attention to the art of the toilet could have gained him a rich +bride, he would not long have been unsuccessful. In dress he took the +genuine interest and delight of the dandy of the period, and +marvellous are the descriptions of his costume that he sends to Lucie. +For morning visits, of which he sometimes paid fifty in one day, he +wore his hair dyed a beautiful black, a new hat, a green neckerchief +with gaily coloured stripes, a yellow cashmere waistcoat with metal +buttons, an olive-green frock-coat and iron-grey pantaloons. On other +occasions he is attired in a dark-brown coat, with a velvet collar, a +white neckerchief, in which a thin gold watch-chain is entwined, a +waistcoat with a collar of _cramoisie_ and gold stars, an +under-waistcoat of white satin, embroidered with gold flowers, full +black pantaloons, spun silk stockings, and short square shoes. Style +such as this could only be maintained at a vast outlay, from the +German point of view, the week's washing-bill alone amounting to an +important sum. According to the prince's calculation, a London +exquisite, during the season of 1827, required every week twenty +shirts, twenty-four pocket-handkerchiefs, nine or ten pairs of summer +trousers, thirty neckerchiefs, a dozen waistcoats and stockings _à +discértion_. 'I see your housewifely ears aghast, my good Lucie,' +he writes, 'but as a dandy cannot get on without dressing three or +four times a day, the affair is quite simple.' + +However much the prince may have enjoyed the ceremony of the toilet, +he strongly objected to the process of hair-dyeing, and his letters +are full of complaints of his sufferings and humiliation while +undergoing the operation, which, he declares, is a form of slow +poison, and also an unpleasant reminder that he is really old, but +obliged to play the part of youth in order to attain an object that +may bring him more misery than happiness. As soon as he is safely +married to his heiress, he expresses his determination of looking his +full age, so that people might say 'What a well-preserved old man!' +instead of '_Voilà, le ci-devant jeune homme_!' Still, with all +this care and thought, heiresses remained coy, or more probably their +parents were 'difficult.' The prince's highly-developed personal +vanity was wounded by many a refusal, and so weary did he become of +this woman-hunt, that in one letter to Lucie, dated March 5, 1827, he +exclaims, 'Ah, my dearest, if you only had 150,000 thalers, I would +marry you again to-morrow!' + + + + +PART II + + +The summer months were spent in visits to Windsor and other parks near +London, and in a tour through Yorkshire. In October his Highness was +back in town, and engaged in a new matrimonial venture. He writes to +Lucie that 'the fortune in question is immense, and if I obtain it, I +shall end gloriously.' In the correspondence published after the +prince's death is the draft of a letter to Mr. Bonham of Titness Park, +containing a formal proposal for the hand of his daughter, 'Miss +Harriet,' and detailing (with considerable reservations) the position +of his financial affairs. Muskau, he explains, is worth £4,000 a year, +an income which in Germany is equivalent to three times as much in +England. 'Everything belonging to me,' he continues, 'is in the best +possible order; a noble residence at Muskau, and two smaller chateaux, +surrounded with large parks and gardens, in fact, all that make enjoy +life (sic) in the country is amply provided for, and a numerous train +of officious (sic) of my household are always ready to receive their +young princess at her own seat, or if she should prefer town, the +court of Prussia will offer her every satisfaction.' Owing to the fact +that Muskau was mortgaged for £50,000, he was forced, he confesses, to +expect an adequate fortune with his wife, a circumstance to which, if +he had been otherwise situated, he should have paid little attention. + +This missive was accompanied by a long letter, dated Nov. 1, 1827, to +'Miss Harriet,' in which the suitor explains the circumstances of his +former marriage, and of his divorce, the knowledge of which has +rendered her uneasy. 'It is rather singular,' he proceeds, 'that in +the very first days after my arrival, you, Miss Harriet, were named to +me, together with some other young ladies, as heiresses. Now I must +confess, at the risk of the fact being doubted in our industrious +times, that I myself had a prejudice against, and even some dread of +heiresses. I may say that I proved in some way these feelings to exist +by marrying a lady with a very small fortune, and afterwards in +England by never courting any heiresses further as common civility +required. My reasons for so doing are not without foundation. In the +first instance, I am a little proud; in the second, I don't want any +more than I possess, though I should not reject it, finding it in my +way, and besides all this, rich young maidens are not always very +amiable.' The prince continues that he had gone, out of principle, +into all kinds of society, and seen many charming and handsome girls, +but had not been able to discover his affinity. At last, after +renouncing the idea of marriage, he heard again of Miss Harriet +Bonham, not of her fortune this time, but of her many excellent +qualities, and the fact that she had refused several splendid offers. +His curiosity was now at last aroused; he sought an opportunity of +being introduced to her, and--'Dearest Miss Harriet, you know the +rest. I thought--and I protest it by all that is sacred--I thought +when I left you again, that here at last I had found united all and +everything I could wish in a future companion through life. An +exterior the most pleasing, a mind and person equally fit for the +representation of a court and the delight of a cottage, and above all, +that sensibility, that goodness of heart, and that perfect absence of +conceitedness which I value more than every other accomplishment.... I +beheld you, besides all your more essential qualities, so quick as +lively, so playful as whitty (_sic_), and nothing really seemed +more bewitching to me as when a hearty, joyful laugh changed your +thoughtful, noble features to the cheerful appearance of a happy +child! And still through every change your and your friends' +conversation and behaviour always remained distinguished by that +perfect breeding and fine tact which, indeed, is to private life what +a clear sky is to a landscape....' + +There is a great deal mere to the same effect, and it is sad to think +that all this trouble, all this expenditure of ink and English +grammar, was thrown away. Papa Bonham could not pay down the fortune +demanded by the prince without injuring the other members of his +family; [Footnote: Mr. Bonham's eldest daughter was the second wife of +the first Lord Garvagh.] and although Miss Harriet deplores 'the cruel +end of all our hopes,' the negotiations fell through. + +The prince consoled himself for his disappointment with a fresh round +of sight-seeing. He became deeply enamoured of a steam-engine, of +which newly-invented animal he sends the following picturesque +description to Lucie: 'We must now be living in the days of +the _Arabian Nights_, for I have seen a creature to-day far +surpassing all the fantastic beings of that time. Listen to the +monster's characteristics. In the first place, its food is the +cheapest possible, for it eats nothing but wood or coals, and when not +actually at work, it requires none. It never sleeps, nor is weary; it +is subject to no diseases, if well organised at first; and never +refuses its work till worn out by great length of service. It is +equally active in all climates, and undertakes all kinds of labour +without a murmur. Here it is a miner, there a sailor, a +cotton-spinner, a weaver, or a miller; and though a small creature, it +draws ninety tons of goods, or a whole regiment of soldiers, with a +swiftness exceeding that of the fleetest mail-coaches. At the same +time, it marks its own measured steps on a tablet fixed in front of +it. It regulates, too, the degree of warmth necessary to its +well-being; it has a strange power of oiling its inmost joints when +they are stiff, and of removing at pleasure all injurious air that +might find the way into its system; but should anything become +deranged in it, it warns its master by the loud ringing of a bell. +Lastly, it is so docile, in spite of its enormous strength (nearly +equal to that of six hundred horses), that a child of four years old +is able in a moment to arrest its mighty labours by the pressure of +his little finger. Did ever a witch burnt for sorcery produce its +equal?' + +A few weeks later we hear of one manifestation of the new power, which +did not quite come up to the expectations of its admirers. On January +16, 1828, the prince writes: 'The new steam-carriage is completed, and +goes five miles in half an hour on trial in the Regent's Park. But +there was something to repair every moment. I was one of the first of +the curious who tried it; but found the smell of oiled iron, which +makes steamboats so unpleasant, far more insufferable here. Stranger +still is another vehicle to which I yesterday intrusted my person. It +is nothing less than a carriage drawn by a paper kite, very like those +the children fly. This is the invention of a schoolmaster, who is so +skilful in the guidance of his vehicle, that he can get on very fairly +with half a wind, but with a completely fair one, and good roads, he +goes a mile in three-quarters of a minute. The inventor proposes to +traverse the African deserts in this manner, and has contrived a place +behind, in which a pony stands like a footman, and in case of a calm, +can he harnessed to the carriage.' + +In the early part of 1828 Henriette Sontag arrived in London, and the +prince at once fell a victim to her charms. The fascinating singer, +then barely three-and-twenty, was already the idol of the public, at +the very summit of her renown. Amazing prices were paid for seats when +she was announced to appear. Among his Highness's papers was found a +ticket for a box at the opera on 'Madame Sontag's night,' on which he +notes that he had sold a diamond clasp to pay the eighty guineas +demanded for the bit of cardboard. He was in love once again with all +the ardour of youth, and for the moment all thoughts of a marriage of +convenience were dismissed from his mind. He was now eager for a +love-match with the fair Henriette, whose attractions had rendered him +temporarily forgetful of those of Muskau. But Mademoiselle Sontag, +though carried away by the passionate wooing of the prince, actually +remembered that she had other ties, probably her engagement to Rossi, +to which it was her duty to remain true. She told her lover that he +must learn to forget her, and that when they parted at the conclusion +of the London season, they must never meet again. The prince was +heart-broken at the necessity for separation, and we are assured that +he never forgot Henriette Sontag (though she had many successors in +his affections), and that after his return to Germany he placed a +gilded bust of the singer in his park, in order that he might have her +image ever before his eyes. + +In the hope of distracting his thoughts from his disappointment, +Prince Pückler decided to make a lengthened tour through Wales and +Ireland, and with this object in view he set out in July 1828. Before +his departure, however, he had an interesting rencontre at a +dinner-party given by the Duchess of St. Albans-the _ci-devant_ +Harriet Melton. 'I arrived late,' says the prince, in his account of +the incident, 'and was placed between my hostess and a tall, very +simple, but benevolent-looking man of middle age, who spoke broad +Scotch--a dialect anything but agreeable; and would probably have +struck me by nothing else, if I had not discovered that I was sitting +next to ----, the Great Unknown! It was not long ere many a sally of +dry, poignant wit fell from his lips, and many an anecdote told in the +most unpretending manner. His eye, too, glanced whenever he was +animated, with such a clear, good-natured lustre, and such an +expression of true-hearted kindness, that it was impossible not to +conceive a sort of affection for him. Towards the end of the dinner he +and Sir Francis Burdett told ghost-stories, half terrible, half +humorous, one against the other.... A little concert concluded the +evening, in which the very pretty daughter of the great bard--a +healthy-looking Highland beauty--took part, and Miss Stephens sang +nothing but Scottish ballads.' + +Before entering upon a new field of observation, the prince summed up +his general impressions of London society with a candour that cannot +have been very agreeable to his English readers. The goddess of +Fashion, he observes, reigns in England alone with a despotic and +inexorable sway; while the spirit of caste here receives a power, +consistency, and completeness of development unexampled in any other +country. 'Every class of society in England, as well as every field, +is separated from every other by a hedge of thorns. Each has its own +manners and turns of expression, and, above all, a supreme and +absolute contempt for all below it.... Now although the aristocracy +does not stand _as such_ upon the pinnacle of this strange social +edifice, it yet exercises great influence over it. It is, indeed, +difficult to become fashionable without being of good descent; but it +by no means follows that a man is so in virtue of being +well-born--still less of being rich. Ludicrous as it may sound, it is +a fact that while the present king is a very fashionable man, his +father was not so in the smallest degree, and that none of his +brothers have any pretensions to fashion; which unquestionably is +highly to their honour.' The truth of this observation is borne out by +the story of Beau Brummell, who, when offended by some action of the +Regent's, exclaimed, 'If this sort of thing goes on, I shall cut +Wales, and bring old George into fashion!' + +'A London exclusive of the present day,' continues our censor, 'is +nothing more than a bad, flat, dull imitation of a French _roué_ +of the Regency, Both have in common selfishness, levity, boundless +vanity, and an utter want of heart. But what a contrast if we look +further! In France the absence of all morality and honesty was in some +degree atoned for by the most refined courtesy, the poverty of soul by +agreeableness and wit. What of all this has the English dandy to +offer? His highest triumph is to appear with the most wooden manners, +as little polished as will suffice to avoid castigation; nay, to +contrive even his civilities so that they are as near as may be to +affronts--this is the style of deportment that confers on him the +greatest celebrity. Instead of a noble, high-bred ease, to have the +courage to offend against every restraint of decorum; to invert the +relation in which his sex stands to women, so that they appear the +attacking, and he the passive or defensive party; to cut his best +friends if they cease to have the strength and authority of fashion; +to delight in the ineffably _fade_ jargon and affectations of his +set, and always to know what is "the thing"--these are the +accomplishments that distinguish a young "lion" of fashion. Whoever +reads the best of the recent English novels--those by the author of +_Pelham_--may be able to abstract from them a tolerably just idea +of English fashionable society, provided he does not forget to deduct +qualities which the national self-love has erroneously claimed +--namely, grace for its _roués_, seductive manners and witty +conversation for its dandies.' + +The foregoing is a summary of the prince's lengthy indictment against +London society. 'I saw in the fashionable world,' he observes in +conclusion, 'only too frequently, and with few exceptions, a profound +vulgarity of thought; an immorality little veiled or adorned; the most +undisguised arrogance; and the coarsest neglect of all kindly feelings +and attentions haughtily assumed for the sake of shining in a false +and despicable refinement; even more inane and intolerable to a +healthy mind than the awkward stiffness of the declared Nobodies. It +has been said that vice and poverty form the most revolting +combination; since I have been in England, vice and boorish rudeness +seem to me to form a still more disgusting union.' + +The prince's adventures in Wales and Ireland, with the recital of +which he has filled up the best part of two volumes, must here be +dismissed in as many paragraphs. On his tour through Wales, he left +his card on the Ladies of Llangollen, who promptly invited him to +lunch. Fortunately, he had previously been warned of his hostesses' +peculiarities of dress and appearance. 'Imagine,' he writes, 'two +ladies, the elder of whom, Lady Eleanor Butler, a short, robust woman, +begins to feel her years a little, being nearly eighty-three; the +other, a tall and imposing person, esteems herself still youthful, +being only seventy-four. Both wore their still abundant hair combed +straight back and powdered, a round man's hat, a man's cravat and +waistcoat, but in the place of "inexpressibles," a short petticoat and +boots: the whole covered by a coat of blue cloth, of quite a peculiar +cut. Over this Lady Eleanor wore, first the grand cordon of the order +of St. Louis across her shoulders; secondly, the same order round her +neck; thirdly, the small cross of the same in her buttonhole; and, +_pour comble de gloire_, a golden lily of nearly the natural size +as a star. So far the effect was somewhat ludicrous. But now you must +imagine both ladies with that agreeable _aisance_, that air of +the world of the _ancien régime_, courteous, entertaining, +without the slightest affectation, speaking French as well as any +Englishwoman of my acquaintance; and, above all, with that essentially +polite, unconstrained, simply cheerful manner of the good society of +that day, which in our hard-working, business age appears to be going +to utter decay.' + +Thanks to his letters of introduction and the friendships that he +struck up on the road, the prince was able occasionally to step out of +the beaten tourist tracks, and to see something of the more intimate +side of Irish social life. He has given a lively and picturesque +account of his experiences, which included an introduction to Lady +Morgan, [Footnote: See page 142.] and to her charming nieces, the Miss +Clarkes (who made a profound impression on his susceptible heart), a +sentimental journey through Wicklow, a glance at the humours of +Donnybrook Fair, a visit to O'Connell at Derrinane Abbey, a peep into +the wilds of Connaught, an Emancipation dinner at Cashel, where he +made his _début_ as an English orator, and an expedition to the +lakes of Killarney. All this, which was probably novel and interesting +to the German public, contains little that is not familiar to the +modern English reader. The sketch of O'Connell is sufficiently vivid +to bear quotation. + +'Daniel O'Connell,' observes the prince, after his visit to Derrinane, +'is no common man--though the man of the commonalty. His power is so +great that at this moment it only depends on him to raise the standard +of rebellion from one end of the island to the other. He is, however, +too sharp-sighted, and much too sure of attaining his ends by safer +means, to wish to bring on any such violent crisis. He has certainly +shown great dexterity in availing himself of the temper of the country +at this moment, legally, openly, and in the face of Government, to +acquire a power scarcely inferior to that of the sovereign; indeed, +though without arms or armies, in some instances far surpassing it. +For how would it have been possible for his Majesty George IV. to +withhold 40,000 of his faithful Irishmen for three days from whisky +drinking? which O'Connell actually accomplished in the memorable Clare +election. The enthusiasm of the people rose to such a height that they +themselves decreed and inflicted a punishment for drunkenness. The +delinquent was thrown into the river, and held there for two hours, +during which time he was made to undergo frequent submersions.... On +the whole, O'Connell exceeded my expectations. His exterior is +attractive, and the expression of intelligent good-humour, united with +determination and prudence, which marks his countenance, is extremely +winning. He has perhaps more of persuasiveness than of large and lofty +eloquence; and one frequently perceives too much design and manner in +his words. Nevertheless, it is impossible not to follow his powerful +arguments with interest, to view the martial dignity of his carriage +without pleasure, or to refrain from laughing at his wit.... He has +received from Nature an invaluable gift for a party-leader, a +magnificent voice, united to good lungs and a strong constitution. His +understanding is sharp and quick, and his acquirements out of his +profession not inconsiderable. With all this his manners are, as I +have said, winning and popular, though somewhat of the actor is +noticeable in them; they do not conceal his very high opinion of +himself, and are occasionally tinged by what an Englishman would call +_vulgarity_. But where is there a picture without shade?' + +The prince's matrimonial projects had been pursued only in +half-hearted fashion during this year, and on his return to England in +December, he seems to have thrown up the game in despair. On January +2, 1829, he turned his back on our perfidious shores, and made a short +tour in France before proceeding to Muskau. In one of his letters to +Lucie he admits that on his return journey he had plenty of material +for reflection. Two precious years had been wasted, absence from his +dearest friend had been endured, a large sum of money had been spent +in keeping up a dashing appearance--and all in vain. He consoles +himself with the amazing reflection that Parry had failed in three +attempts to reach the North Pole, and Bonaparte, after heaping victory +on victory for twenty years, had perished miserably in St. Helena! + +But if the prince had not accomplished his design of carrying off a +British heiress, his sojourn in England brought him a prize of a +different kind--namely, the laurel crown of fame. His _Briefe eines +Verstorbenen_, the first volumes of which were published +anonymously in 1830, was greeted with an almost unanimous outburst of +admiration and applause. The critics vied with each other in praising +a work in which, according to their verdict, the grace and piquancy of +France were combined with the analytical methods and the profound +philosophy of Germany. In England, as was only to be expected, the +chorus of applause was not unmixed with hisses and catcalls. The +author had, however, been exceptionally fortunate in his translator, +Sarah Austin, whose version of the Letters, entitled _The Tour of a +German Prince_, was described by the _Westminster Review_ as +'the best modern translation of a prose work that has ever appeared, +and perhaps our only translation from the German. As an original work, +the ease and facility of the style would be admired; as a translation, +it is unrivalled.' Croker reviewed the book in the _Quarterly_ in +his accustomed strain of playful brutality, rejoiced savagely over the +numerous blunders, [Footnote: The most amusing of these is the +derivation of the Prince of Wales' motto 'Ich dien' from two Welsh +words, 'Eich deyn,' said to signify 'This is your man!'] and credited +the author with almost as many blasphemies as Lady Morgan herself. The +_Edinburgh_, in a more impartial notice, observed that a great +part of the work had no other merit than that of being an act of +individual treachery against the hospitalities of private life, and +commented on the fact that while the masterpieces of Goethe +and Schiller were still untranslated, the _Tour of Prince +Pückler-Muskau_ had been bought up in a month. + +The prince was far too vain of his unexpected literary success to +preserve his anonymity, and the ink-craving having laid hold upon him, +he lost no time in setting to work upon another book. The semblance of +a separation between himself and Lucie had now been thrown aside. +During the summer months they lived at Muskau, where they laboured +together over plans for the embellishment of the gardens, while in the +winter they kept up a splendid establishment in Berlin. The sight of a +divorced couple living together seems to have shocked the Berliners +far more than that of a married couple living apart, but to Pückler, +as a chartered 'original,' much was forgiven. At this time he went a +good deal into literary society, and became intimate with several +women-writers, among them the Gräfin Hahn-Hahn, Rahel, and that +amazing lady, Bettine von Arnim. With the last-named he struck up an +intellectual friendship which roused the jealousy of Lucie, and was +finally wrecked by Bettine's attempts to obtain a spiritual empire +over the lord of Muskau. + +In 1832 the prince's debts amounted to 500,000 thalers, and he was +obliged once again to face the fact that he could only save himself +from ruin by a wealthy marriage, or by the sale of his estate. In a +long letter he laid the state of the case before his faithful +companion, pointing out that even at forty-seven, he, with his title +and his youthful appearance, might hope to secure a bride worth +300,000 thalers, but that as long as his ex-wife remained at Muskau he +was hardly likely to be successful in his matrimonial speculations. +Lucie again consented to sacrifice herself in the good cause; but the +prince, a man of innumerable _bonnes fortunes_ according to his +own account, was curiously unfortunate as a would-be Benedick. The +German heiresses were no more propitious to his suit than the English +ones had been; and though, as he plaintively observes, he would have +liked nothing better than to be a Turkish pasha with a hundred and +fifty sultanas, he was unable to obtain a single Christian wife. + +In 1834 the prince published two books, _Tutti Frutti_, a +collection of stories and sketches, and _Observations on +Landscape-Gardening_. _Tutti Frutti_ was by no means so +popular as the _Briefe eines Verstorbenen_, but the +_Observations_ took rank as a standard work. The project of a +journey to America having been abandoned, the prince now determined to +spend the winter in Algiers, leaving Lucie in charge at Muskau. This +modest programme enlarged itself into a tour in the East, which lasted +for more than five years. The travellers adventures during this period +have been described in his _Semilasso in Africa, Aus Mehemet's +Reich, Die Rückkehr_, and other works, which added to their +author's fame, and nearly sufficed to pay his expenses. We hear of him +breaking hearts at Tunis and Athens, shooting big game in the Soudan, +astonishing the Arabs by his horsemanship, and meddling in Egyptian +politics. It was not until 1838 that, moved by Lucie's complaints of +her loneliness, he reluctantly abandoned his plan of settling in the +East, and turned his face towards Europe. On the homeward journey he +made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and turned out of his course for the +visit to Lady Hester Stanhope that has already been described. + +His Highness arrived at Vienna in the autumn of 1839, bringing in his +suite an Abyssinian slave-girl, Machbuba, whom he had bought a couple +of years before, and who had developed such wonderful qualities of +head and heart, that he could not bring himself to part from her. But +Lucie obstinately refused to receive Machbuba at Muskau, and declared +that the prince's reputation would be destroyed for ever, if he +brought a favourite slave under the same roof as his 'wife,' and thus +sinned against the laws of outward seemliness. So Machbuba and the +master who, like another Pygmalion, seems to have endowed this dusky +Galatea with a mind and soul, remained at Vienna, where the +Abyssinian, clad in a picturesque Mameluke's costume, accompanied the +prince to all the public spectacles, and became a nine days' wonder to +the novelty-loving Viennese. But the severity of a European winter +proved fatal to poor Machbuba, consumption laid its grip upon her, and +it was as a dying girl that at last she was taken to the Baths of +Muskau. Lucie received this once-dreaded rival kindly, but at once +carried off the prince for a visit to Berlin, and in the absence of +the master whom she worshipped with a spaniel-like devotion, Machbuba +breathed her last. The slave-girl was laid to rest amid all the pomp +and ceremony of a state funeral, the principal inhabitants of Muskau +and the neighbourhood followed her to her grave, and on the Sunday +following her death the chaplain delivered a eulogy on Machbuba's +virtues, and the fatherly benevolence of her master. + +The prince was temporarily broken-hearted at the death of his +favourite, but his mercurial spirits soon reasserted themselves, and a +round of visits to the various German courts restored him to his +accustomed self-complacency. The idea of selling Muskau, and thus +ridding himself of the burden of his debts, once more occupied his +mind. A handsome offer for the estate had been refused a few years +before, in compliance with the wishes of Lucie, who loved Muskau even +better than its master, and had appealed to the king to prevent the +sale. But in 1845 came another offer from Count Hatzfeld of 1,700,000 +thalers, which, in spite of Lucie's tears and entreaties, the prince +decided to accept. Although it cost him a sharp pang to give up to +another the spot of earth on which he had lavished so much time, so +much labour, and so much money, he fully appreciated the advantage of +an unembarrassed income and complete freedom of movement. + +For a year or two after the sale, he led a wandering life, with Berlin +or Weimar for his headquarters. In 1846, shortly before his sixtieth +birthday, he met, so he confided to the long-suffering Lucie, the only +woman he had ever loved, or at least the only woman he had ever +desired to marry. Unfortunately, the lady, who was young, beautiful, +clever, of high rank, large fortune, and angelic disposition, had been +married for some years to a husband who is described as ugly, +ill-tempered, jealous, and incredibly selfish. The prince's letters at +this period are filled with raptures over the virtues of his new +_inamorata_, and lamentations that he had met her too late. For +though his passion was returned the lady was a strict Catholic, for +whom a divorce was out of the question, and for once this hardened +Lothario shrank from an elopement, with the resultant stain upon the +reputation of the woman he loved. In 1846 he parted from his affinity, +who survived the separation little more than a year, and retired with +a heavy heart to his paternal castle of Branitz, near Kottbus, where +he occupied himself in planting a park and laying out gardens. Branitz +was only about a tenth part the size of Muskau, and stood in the midst +of a sandy waste, but at more than sixty years of age the prince set +himself, with all the ardour of youth, to conjure a paradise out of +the wilderness. Forest trees were transplanted, lakes and canals dug, +hills appeared out of the level fields, and, in short, this +'earth-tamer,' as Rahel called him, created not only a park, but a +complete landscape. + +The remainder of our hero's eventful career must be briefly +summarised. In 1851 he made a flight to England to see the Great +Exhibition. Here he renewed his acquaintance with many old friends, +among them the Duchess of Somerset, who told him that she had known +his father well twenty-five years before. The prince, who has been +described as a male Ninon de L'Enclos, was naturally delighted at +being mistaken for his own son. In 1852 the work at Branitz was so far +advanced that its lord invited Lucie to come and take up her abode at +the Schloss. But the poor lady's troubled life was nearing its close. +She had a paralytic stroke in the autumn of this year, and remained an +invalid until her death, which took place at Branitz in May, 1854. + +In the loneliness that followed, the prince amused himself by keeping +up a lively correspondence with his feminine acquaintance, for whom, +even at seventy, he had not lost his fascinations. His celebrity as an +author and a traveller brought him many anonymous correspondents, and +he never wearied of reading and answering the sentimental effusions of +his unknown admirers. In 1863 he paid a visit incognito to Muskau, the +first since he had left it eighteen years before, though Branitz was +but a few leagues away. He was recognised at once, and great was the +joy in the little town over the return of its old ruler, who was +honoured with illuminations, the discharge of cannon, and torchlight +processions. The estate had passed into the hands of Prince Frederick +of the Netherlands, who had carried out all its former master's plans, +and added many improvements of his own. Pückler generously admired the +splendour that he had had so large a share in creating, and then went +contentedly back to his _kleine Branitz_, his only regret being +that he could not live to see it, like Muskau, in the fulness of its +matured beauty. In 1866, when war broke out between Prussia and +Austria, this grand old man of eighty-one volunteered for active +service, and begged to be attached to the headquarters' staff. His +request was granted, and he went gallantly through the brief campaign, +but was bitterly disappointed because he was not able to be present at +the battle of Koniggrätz, owing to the indisposition of the king, upon +whom he was in attendance. + +In 1870, when France declared war against Prussia, he again +volunteered, and was deeply mortified when the king declined his +services on account of his advanced age. For the first time he seems +to have realised that he was old, and it is probable that the +disappointment preyed upon his spirits, for his strength rapidly +declined, his memory failed, and on February 4,1871, after a brief +illness, he sank peacefully to rest. He was buried in a tomb that he +had built for himself many years before, a pyramid sixty feet high, +which stood upon an acre of ground in the centre of an artificial +lake. The two inscriptions that the prince chose for his sepulchre +illustrate, appropriately enough, the sharply contrasting qualities of +his strange individuality--his romantic sentimentality, and his +callous cynicism. The first inscription was a line from the Koran: + + 'Graves are the mountain summits of a far-off, fairer world.' + +The second, chosen presumably for the sake of the paradox, was the +French apothegm: + + 'Allons + Chez + Pluto plutôt plus tard.' + + + + +WILLIAM AND MARY HOWITT + + +PART I + + +[Illustration: Mary Howitt From a portrait by Margaret Gillies] + +The names of William and Mary Howitt are inextricably associated with +the England of the early nineteenth century, with the re-discovery of +the beauty and interest of their native land, with the renaissance of +the national passion for country pleasures and country pursuits, and +with the slow, painful struggle for a wider freedom, a truer humanity, +a fuller, more gracious life. The Howitts had no genius, nor were they +pioneers, but, where the unfamiliar was concerned, they were +open-minded and receptive to a degree that is unfortunately rare in +persons of their perfect uprightness and strong natural piety. If they +flashed no new radiance upon the world, they were always among the +first to kindle their little torches at the new lamps; and they did +good service in handing back the light to those who, but for them, +would have had sat in the shadow, and flung stones at the +incomprehensible illuminations. + +Of the two minds, Mary's was the finer and the more original. It was +one of those everyday miracles--the miracles that do happen--that in +spite of the severity, the narrowness, the repression of her early +training, she should have forced her way through the shell of rigid +sectarianism, repudiated her heritage of drab denials, and opened both +heart and mind to the new poetry, the new art, and the new knowledge. +In her husband she found a kindred spirit, and during the more than +fifty years of their pilgrimage together their eyes were ever turned +towards the same goal. Though not equally gifted, they were equally +disinterested, equally enlightened, and equally anxious for the +advancement of humanity. They took themselves and their vocation +seriously, and produced an immense quantity of careful, conscientious +work, the work of honest craftsmen rather than artists, with the +quality of a finished piece of cabinet-making, or a strip of fine +embroidery. + +Mary Howitt was the daughter of Samuel Botham, a land-surveyor at +Uttoxeter. His father, the descendant of a long line of Staffordshire +yeomen, Quakers by persuasion, loved a roaming life, and having +married a maltster's widow with a talent for business management, was +left free to indulge his own propensities. He seems to have had a +talent for medical science of an empirical kind, for he dabbled in +magnetism and electricity, and wandered about the country collecting +herbs for headache--snuffs, and healing ointments. Samuel, as soon as +he had served his apprenticeship, found plenty of employment in the +neighbourhood, the country gentlemen, who had taken alarm at the +revolutionary ideas newly introduced from France, being anxious to +have their acres measured, and their boundaries accurately defined. +While at work upon Lord Talbot's Welsh estates in 1795, he became +attracted by a 'convinced' Friend, named Ann Wood. The interesting +discovery that both had a passion for nuts, together with the gentle +match-making of a Quaker patriarch, led to an engagement, and the +couple were married in December, 1796. + +Ann Wood was the granddaughter of William Wood, whose contract for +supplying Ireland with copper coin (obtained by bribing the Duchess of +Kendal) was turned into a national grievance by Swift, and led to the +publication of the _Drapier Letters_. Although Wood's half-pence +were admitted to be excellent coin, and Ireland was short of copper, +the feeling against their circulation was so intense, that Ministers +were obliged to withdraw the patent, Wood being compensated for his +losses with a grant of £3000 a year for a term of years, and 'places' +for some of his fifteen children. Ann's father, Charles, when very +young, was appointed assay-master to Jamaica. After his return to +England in middle life he married a lively widow, went into business +as an iron-master near Merthyr Tydvil, and distinguished himself by +introducing platinum into Europe, having first met with the semi-metal +in Jamaica, whither it had been brought from Carthagena in New Spain. +After his death, Ann, the only serious member of a 'worldly' family, +found it impossible to remain in the frivolous atmosphere of her home, +and determined, in modern fashion, to 'live her own life.' After +spending some years as governess or companion in various families, she +became converted to Quaker doctrines, and was received into the +Society of Friends. + +Samuel Botham took his bride to live in the paternal home at +Uttoxeter, where the preparation of the old quack doctor's herbal +medicines caused her a great deal of discomfort. In the course of the +next three years two daughters were born to the couple; Anna in 1797, +and Mary on March 12, 1799. At the time of Mary's birth her parents +were passing through a period of pecuniary distress, owing to a +disastrous speculation; but with the opening of the new century a +piece of great good fortune befell Samuel Botham. He was one of the +two surveyors chosen to enclose and divide the Chase of Needwood in +the county of Stafford. In the early years of the nineteenth century +there was, unfortunately for England, a mania for enclosing commons, +and felling ancient forests. Needwood, which extended for many miles, +contained great numbers of magnificent old oaks, limes, and hollies, +and no less than twenty thousand head of deer. In after years, Mary +Howitt often regretted that her family should have had a hand in the +destruction of so vast an extent of solitude and beauty, in a country +that was already thickly populated and trimly cultivated. Still, for +the nine years that the work of 'disafforesting' lasted, the two +little girls got a great deal of enjoyment out of the ruined Chase, +spending long summer days in its grassy glades, while their father +parcelled out the land and marked trees for the axe. + +In her _Autobiography_ [Footnote: Edited by her daughter +Margaret, and published by Messrs. Isbister in 1889.] Mary declares +that it is impossible for her to give an adequate idea of the +stillness and isolation of her childish life. So intense was the +silence of the Quaker household, that, at four years old, Anna had to +be sent to a dame's school in order that she might learn to talk; +while even after both children had attained the use of speech, their +ignorance of the right names for the most ordinary feelings and +actions obliged them to coin words of their own. 'My childhood was +happy in many respects,' she writes. 'It was so, as far as physical +health, the enjoyment of a beautiful country, and the companionship of +a dearly loved sister could make it--but oh, there was such a cloud +over all from the extreme severity of a so-called religious education, +it almost made cowards and hypocrites of us, and made us feel that, if +this were religion, it was a thing to be feared and hated.' The family +reading consisted chiefly of the writings of Madame Guyon, Thomas à +Kempis, and St. Francis de Sales, while for light literature there +were Telemachus, Fox's _Book of Martyrs_, and a work on the +_Persecution of the Friends_. But it is impossible for even the +most pious of Quakers to guard against all the stratagems by which the +spirit of evil--or human nature--contrives to gain an entrance into a +godly household. In the case of the Botham children an early knowledge +of good and evil was learnt from an apparently respectable nurse, who +made her little charges acquainted with most of the scandals of the +neighbourhood, accustomed their infant ears to oaths, and--most +terrible of all--taught them to play whist, she herself taking dummy, +and transforming the nursery tea-tray into a card-table. In that +silent household it was easy to keep a secret, and though the little +girls often trembled at their nurse's language, they never betrayed +her confidence. + +In 1806 another daughter, Emma, was born to the Bothams, and in 1808 a +son, Charles. In the midst of their joy and amazement at the news that +they had a brother, the little girls asked each other anxiously: 'Will +our parents like it?' Only a short time before a stranger had inquired +if they had any brothers, and they had replied in all seriousness: 'Oh +no, our parents do not approve of boys.' Now, much to their relief, +they found that their father and mother highly approved of their own +boy, who became the spoilt darling of the austere household. A new +nurse was engaged for the son and heir, a lady of many love-affairs, +who made Mary her confidante, and induced the child, then nine years +old, to write an imaginary love-letter. The unlucky letter was laid +between the pages of the worthy Madame Guyon, and there discovered by +Mr. Botham. Not much was said on the subject of the document, which +seems to have been considered too awful to bear discussion; but the +children were removed from the influence of the nurse, and allowed to +attend a day-school in the neighbourhood, though only on condition +that they sat apart from the other children in order to avoid +contamination with possible worldlings. + +In 1809 the two elder sisters were sent to a Quaker school at Croydon, +where they found themselves the youngest, the most provincial, and the +worst dressed of the little community. Even in advanced old age, Mary +had a keen memory for the costumes of her childhood, and the +mortification that these had caused her. On their arrival at school +the little girls were attired in brown pelisses, cut plain and +straight, without plait or fold, and hooked down the front to obviate +the necessity for buttons, which, being in the nature of trimmings, +were regarded as an indulgence of the lust of the eye. On their heads +they wore little drab beaver bonnets, also destitute of trimmings, and +so plain in shape that even the Quaker hatter had to order special +blocks for their manufacture. The other girls were busy over various +kinds of fashionable fancy-work, but the little Bothams were expected, +in their leisure moments, to make half-a-dozen linen shirts for their +father, button-holes and all. They had never learnt to net, to weave +coloured paper into baskets, to plait split straw into patterns, nor +any of the other amateur handicrafts of the day. But they were clever +with their fingers, and could copy almost anything that they had seen +done. 'We could buckle flax or spin a rope,' writes Mary. 'We could +drive a nail, put in a screw or draw it out. We knew the use of a +glue-pot, and how to paper a room. We soon furnished ourselves with +coloured paper for plaiting, and straw to split and weave into net; +and I shall never forget my admiration of a pattern of diamonds woven +with strips of gold paper on a black ground. It was my first attempt +at artistic handiwork.' + +After a few months at Croydon the girls were recalled to Uttoxeter on +account of their mother's illness; and as soon as she recovered they +were despatched to another Friends' school at Sheffield. In 1812, when +Mary was only thirteen and Anna fifteen, their education was supposed +to be completed, and they returned home for good. But Mr. Botham was +dissatisfied with his daughters' attainments, and engaged the master +of the boys' school to teach them Latin, mathematics, and the use of +the globes. The death of this instructor obliged them thenceforward to +rely on a system of self-education. 'We retained and perfected our +rudimentary knowledge,' Mary writes, 'by instructing others. Our +father fitted up a school-room for us in the stable-loft, where, twice +a week, we were allowed to teach poor children. In this room, also, we +instructed our dear little brother and sister. Our father, in his +beautiful handwriting, used to set them copies, texts of Scripture, +such as he no doubt had found of a consolatory nature. On one +occasion, however, I set the copies, and well remember the tribulation +I experienced in consequence. I always warred in my mind against the +enforced gloom of our home, and having for my private reading at that +time Young's _Night Thoughts_, came upon what seemed to me the +very spirit of true religion, a cheerful heart gathering up the +joyfulness of surrounding nature; on which the poet says: "'Tis +impious in a good man to be sad." How I rejoiced in this!--and +thinking it a great fact which ought to be noised abroad, wrote it +down in my best hand as a copy. It fell under our father's eye, and +sorely grieved he was at such a sentiment, and extremely angry with me +as its promulgator.' + +The sisters can never have found the time hang heavy on their hands, +for in addition to their educational duties, their mother required +them to be expert in all household matters; while, in their scanty +hours of leisure, they attempted, in the face of every kind of +discouragement, to satisfy their strong natural craving for beauty and +knowledge. 'We studied poetry, botany, and flower-painting,' Mary +writes. 'These pursuits were almost out of the pale of permitted +Quaker pleasures, but we pursued them with a perfect passion, doing in +secret that which we dared not do openly, such as reading Shakespeare, +the elder novelists, and translations of the classics. We studied +French and chemistry, and enabled ourselves to read Latin, storing our +minds with a whole mass of heterogeneous knowledge. This was good as +far as it went, but I now deplore the secrecy, the subterfuge, and the +fear under which this ill-digested, ill-arranged knowledge was +obtained.' + +The young Quakeresses picked up ideas and models for their artistic +handicraft from the most unlikely sources. A shop-window, full of +dusty plaster medallions for mantelpiece decorations, gave them their +first notions of classic design. The black Wedgwood ware was to be +seen in nearly every house in Uttoxeter, while a few of the more +prosperous inhabitants possessed vases and jugs in the pale blue ware, +ornamented with graceful figures. These precious specimens the Botham +sisters used to borrow, and contrived to reproduce the figures by +means of moulds made of paper pulp. They also etched flowers and +landscapes on panes of glass, and manufactured 'transparencies' out of +different thicknesses of cap-paper. 'I feel a sort of tender pity for +Anna and myself,' wrote Mary long afterwards, 'when I remember how we +were always seeking and struggling after the beautiful, and after +artistic production, though we knew nothing of art. I am thankful that +we made no alms-baskets, or hideous abortions of that kind. What we +did was from the innate yearnings of our souls for perfection in form +and colour; and our accomplished work, though crude and poor, was the +genuine outcome of our own individuality.' + +It was one of the heaviest crosses of Mary's girlish days that she and +Anna were not permitted to exercise their clever fingers, and indulge +their taste for the beautiful, in their own dress. But they found a +faint vicarious pleasure in making pretty summer gowns, and +embroidering elaborate muslin collars for a girl-friend who was +allowed to wear fashionable clothes, and even to go to balls. Even +their ultra-plain costumes, however, could not disguise the fact that +Anna and Mary Botham were comely damsels, and they had several suitors +among the young men-Friends of Uttoxeter. But the sisters held a low +opinion of the mental endowments of the average Quaker, an opinion +that was only shaken by a report of the marvellous attainments of +young William Howitt of Heanor, who was said to be not only a scholar, +but a born genius. William's mother, Phoebe, herself a noted amateur +healer, was an old friend of Mary's grandfather, the herbal doctor, +but the young people had never met. However, in the autumn of 1818, +William paid a visit to some relations at Uttoxeter, and there made +the acquaintance of the Botham girls, who discovered that this young +man-Friend shared nearly all their interests, and was full of sympathy +with their studies and pursuits. + +Before the end of the year Mary Botham was engaged to William Howitt, +he being then six-and-twenty and she nineteen. 'The tastes of my +future husband and my own were strongly similar,' she observes, 'so +also was our mental culture; but he was in every direction so far in +advance of me as to become my teacher and guide. Knowledge in the +broadest sense was the aim of our intellectual efforts; poetry and +nature were the paths that led to it. Of ballad poetry I was already +enamoured, William made me acquainted with the realistic life-pictures +of Crabbe; the bits of nature and poetry in the vignettes of Bewick; +with the earliest works of Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Shelley, and the +first marvellous prose productions of the author of _Waverley_.' + +After an engagement lasting a little more than two years, William and +Mary were married on April 16, 1821, the bride wearing her first silk +gown--a pretty dove-colour--and a white silk shawl, finery which +filled her soul with rapture. The couple spent the honeymoon in the +bridegroom's native Derbyshire, visiting every spot of beauty or haunt +of old tradition in that country of the romantic and the picturesque. +Incorporated in his wife's _Autobiography _is William Howitt's +narrative of his parentage and youthful days, which is supplemented by +his _Boys' Country Book_, the true story of his early adventures +and experiences. The Howitts, he tells us, were descended from a +family named Hewitt, the younger branch of which obtained Wansley +Hall, near Nottingham, through marriage with an heiress, and changed +the spelling of their name. His ancestors had been, for generations, a +rollicking set, all wofully lacking in prudence and sobriety. +About the end of the seventeenth century, one Thomas Howitt, +great-great-grandfather of William, married Catherine, heiress of the +Charltons of Chilwell. But Thomas so disgusted his father-in-law by +his drunken habits that Mr. Charlton disinherited his daughter, who +loyally refused to leave her husband, and left his property to a +stranger who chanced to bear his name. After this misfortune the +Howitts descended somewhat in the social scale, and, having no more +substance to waste, reformed their ways and forsook all riotous +living. William's father, who held a post as manager of a Derbyshire +colliery, married a Quaker lady, Phoebe Tantum of the Fall, Heanor, +and was himself received into the Society of Friends in 1783. + +William received a good plain education at a Quaker school at +Ackworth, and grew up a genuine country lad, scouring the lanes on his +famous grey pony, Peter Scroggins, the acknowledged leader of the +village lads in bird-nesting and rat-hunting expeditions, and taking +his full share of the work on his father's little farm. Long +afterwards he used to say that every scene in and about Heanor was +photographed with absolute distinctness on his brain, and he loved to +recall the long days that he had spent in following the plough, +chopping turnips for the cattle, tramping over the snow-covered fields +after red-wing and fieldfare, collecting acorns for the swine, or +hunting through the barns for eggs. The Howitt family was much less +strict than that of the Bothams, for in the winter evenings the boys +were allowed to play draughts and dominoes, while at Christmas there +were games of forfeits, blind-man's buff, and fishing for the ring in +the great posset-pot. + +On leaving school at fifteen, William amused himself for a couple of +years on the farm, though, curiously enough, he never thought of +becoming a farmer in good earnest; indeed, at this time he seems to +have had no distinct bias towards any profession. Mr. Howitt had +somehow become imbued with Rousseau's doctrine that every boy, +whatever his position in life, should learn a mechanical handicraft, +in order that, if all else failed, he might be able to earn his own +living by the labour of his hands. Having decided that William should +learn carpentering, the boy was apprenticed for four years to a +carpenter and builder at Mansfield, on the outskirts of Sherwood +Forest. The four precious years were practically thrown away, except +for the enjoyment obtained from long solitary rambles amid the +picturesque associations of the Forest, and the knowledge of natural +history gained from close observation of the wild life of that +romantic district. + +It was not until his twenty-first birthday that William's indentures +were out, and as he was still unable to make up his mind about a +profession--it must be remembered that the law, the church, the army +and navy were all closed to a Quaker--he spent the next seven years at +home, angling in the streams like his favourite hero, Isaac Walton, +and striving, by dint of hard study, to make up the many deficiencies +in his education. He taught himself Latin, French, and Italian, +besides working at botany, chemistry, and the dispensing of medicines. +It was during these seven years of uncertainty and experiment that +William read Washington Irving's _Sketches of Geoffrey Crayon_, +which produced a strong impression on his mind. With the inspiration +of this book hot upon him, he made a tour on foot through the Peak +country, and afterwards wrote an account of his adventures in what he +fondly believed to be the style of Geoffrey Crayon. The paper was +printed in a local journal under the title of _A Pedestrian +Pilgrimage through the Peak_, by Wilfrid Wendle. This was not +William Howitt's first literary essay, some stanzas of his on Spring, +written when he was only thirteen, having been printed in the +_Monthly Magazine_, with his name and age attached. + +With the prospect of marriage it was thought desirable that William +should have some regular calling. Without, so far as appears, passing +any examinations or obtaining any certificates, he bought the business +of a chemist and druggist in Hanley, and thither, though with no +intention of settling permanently in the Potteries, he took his bride +as soon as the honeymoon was over. Only seven months were spent at +Hanley, and in December, 1821, the couple were preparing to move to +Nottingham, where William had bought the good-will of another +chemist's business. But before settling down in their new home, the +Howitts undertook a long pedestrian tour through Scotland and the +north of England, in the course of which they explored the Rob Roy +country, rambled through Fife, made acquaintance with the beauties of +Edinburgh, looked in upon Robert Owen's model factories at New Lanark, +got a glimpse of Walter Scott at Melrose, were mistaken for a runaway +couple at Gretna Green, gazed reverently on Rydal Mount, and tramped +in all no less than five hundred miles. An account of the tour was +contributed to a Staffordshire paper under the title of _A Scottish +Ramble in the Spring of 1822_, by Wilfrid and Wilfreda Wendle. + +It was not until August, 1822, that the pair established themselves in +a little house at Nottingham. Of the chemist's business we hear +practically nothing in Mary's narrative, but a great deal about the +literary enterprises in which husband and wife collaborated. They +began by collecting the poems, of which each had a large number ready +written, and, in fear and trembling, prepared to submit them to the +verdict of critics and public. 'It seems strange to me,' wrote Mary, +when she informed her sister of this modest venture, 'and I cannot +reconcile myself to the thought of seeing my own name staring me in +the face in every bookseller's window, or being pointed at and peeped +after as a writer of verses.' In April, 1823, _The Forest Minstrel +and other Poems_, by William and Mary Howitt, made its appearance +in a not particularly appreciative world. The verses were chiefly +descriptive of country sights and sounds, and had been produced, as +stated in the Preface, 'not for the sake of writing, but for the +indulgence of our own overflowing feelings.' The little book created +no sensation, but it was kindly noticed, and seems to have attracted a +few quiet readers who, like the writers, were lovers of nature and +simplicity. + +During these early years at Nottingham the Howitts kept up, as far as +their opportunities allowed, with the thought and literature of their +day, and never relaxed their anxious efforts after 'mental +improvement.' William's brother, Richard, himself a budding poet, was +at this time an inmate of the little household, which was increased in +1824 by the birth of a daughter, Anna Mary. Although the couple still +remained in the Quaker fold, they were gradually discarding the +peculiar dress and speech of the 'plain' Friends. They were evidently +regarded as terribly 'advanced' young people in their own circle, and +shocked many of their old acquaintances by the catholicity of their +views, by their admiration of Byron and Shelley, and by the liberal +tone of their own productions. Like most of the lesser writers of that +day, they found their way into the popular Keepsakes and Annuals, +which Mary accurately describes as 'a chaffy, frivolous, and +unsatisfactory style of publication, that only serves to keep a young +author in the mind of the public, and to bring in a little cash.' In +1826 Mrs. Howitt was preparing for the press a new volume of poems by +herself and her husband, _The Desolation of Eyam_, and in a +letter to her sister, now transformed into Mrs. Daniel Wilson, she +describes her sensations while awaiting the ordeal of critical +judgment, and expresses her not very flattering opinion of the +contemporary reviewer. + +'Nobody that has not published,' she observes, 'can tell the almost +painful excitement which the first opinions occasion. Really, for some +days I was quite nervous. William boasted of possessing his mind in +wise passivity, and truly his imperturbable patience was quite an +annoyance; I therefore got Rogers's beautiful poem on Italy to read, +and so diverted my thoughts. Everything in the literary world is done +by favour and connections. It is a miracle to me how our former +volume, when we were quite unknown, got favourably noticed. In many +cases a book is reviewed which has never been read, or even seen +externally.' + +By this time the young authors who, to use Mary's own phrase, hungered +and thirsted after acquaintances who were highly gifted in mind or +profound in knowledge, had acquired one or two literary friends and +correspondents, among them Mrs. Hemans, Bernard Barton, the Quaker +poet, and the Alaric Watts's of Keepsake fame. An occasional notice of +the Howitts and their little household may be found in contemporary +works by forgotten writers. For example, Sir Richard Phillips, in the +section devoted to Nottingham of his quaintly-worded _Personal Tour +through the United Kingdom _(1828), observes: 'Of Messrs. Howitt, +husband and wife, conjugal in love and poetry, it would be vain for me +to speak. Their tasteful productions belong to the nation as well as +to Nottingham. As a man of taste Mr. Howitt married a lady of taste; +and with rare amiability they have jointly cultivated the Muses, and +produced some volumes of poetry, consisting of pieces under their +separate names. The circumstance afforded a topic for ridicule to some +of those anonymous critics who abuse the press and disgrace +literature; but no one ventured to assail their productions.' Spencer +Hall, a fellow-townsman, became acquainted with the Howitts in 1829, +and in his _Reminiscences_ describes William as a bright, neat, +quick, dapper man of medium height, with a light complexion, blue +eyes, and brisk, cheery speech. Mary, he tells us; was always neatly +dressed, but with nothing prim or sectarian in her style. 'Her +expression was frank and free, yet very modest, and she was blessed +with an affectionate, sociable spirit.' + +A presentation copy of _The Desolation of Eyam_ was sent to the +Howitts' favourite poet, Wordsworth, who, in acknowledging their +'elegant volume,' declared that, though he had only had time to turn +over the leaves, he had found several poems which had already afforded +him no small gratification. The harmless little book was denounced by +the _Eclectic Review_ as 'anti-Quakerish, atheistical, and +licentious in style and sentiment, 'but the authors were consoled by a +charming little notice of their contributions to the Annuals in the +_Noctes Ambrosianae_ for November, 1828. 'Who are these three +brothers and sisters, the Howitts, sir?' asks the Shepherd of +Christopher North, in the course of a discussion of the Christmas +gift-books, 'whose names I see in the adverteesements?' + +_North_. I don't know, James. It runs in my head that they are +Quakers. Richard and William seem amiable and ingenious men, and +Sister Mary writes beautifully. + +_Shepherd_. What do you mean by beautifully? That's vague. + +_North_. Her language is chaste and simple, her feelings tender +and pure, and her observation of nature accurate and intense. Her +'Sketches from Natural History' in the _Christmas Box_ have much +of the moral--nay, rather the religious spirit--that permeates all +Wordsworth's smaller poems, however light and slight the subject, and +show that Mary Howitt is not only well-read in the book of Bewick, but +also in the book from which Bewick has borrowed all--glorious +plagiarist--and every other inspired zoologist-- + +_Shepherd_. The Book o' Natur'.' + +The great event of 1829 for the Howitts was a visit to London, where +they were the guests of Alaric and Zillah Watts, with whom they had +long maintained a paper friendship. 'What wilt thou say, dear Anna,' +writes Mary in December, 'when I tell thee that William and I set out +for London the day after to-morrow. I half dread it. I shall wish +twenty times for our quiet fireside, where day by day we read and talk +by ourselves, and nobody looks in upon us. I keep reasoning with +myself that the people we shall see in London are but men and women, +and perhaps, after all, no better than ourselves. If we could but +divest our minds of _self_, as our dear father used to say we +should do, it would be better and more comfortable for us. Yet it is +one of the faults peculiar to us Bothams that, with all the desire +there was to make us regardless of self, we never had confidence and +proper self-respect instilled into us, and the want of this gives us a +depressing feeling, though I hope it is less seen by others than by +ourselves.... We do not intend to stay more than a week, and thou may +believe we shall have enough to do. We have to make special calls on +the Carter Halls, Dr. Bowring, and the Pringles, and are to be +introduced to their ramifications of acquaintance. Allan Cunningham, +L. E. L., and Thomas Roscoe we are sure to see.' + +In Miss Landon's now forgotten novel, _Romance and Reality_, +there is a little sketch of Mary Howitt as she appeared at a literary +_soirée_, during her brief visit to London. The heroine, Miss +Arundel, is being initiated into the mysteries of the writing world by +her friend, Mrs. Sullivan, when her attention is arrested by the sight +of 'a female in a Quaker's dress--the quiet, dark silk dress--the hair +simply parted on the forehead--the small, close cap--the placid, +subdued expression of the face, were all in strong contrast to the +crimsons, yellows, and blues around. The general character of the +large, soft eyes seemed sweetness; but they were now lighted up with +an expression of intelligent observation--that clear, animated, and +comprehensive glance which shows it analyses what it observes. You +looked at her with something of the sensation with which, while +travelling along a dusty road, the eye fixes on some green field, +where the hour flings its sunshine and the tree its shadow, as if its +pure fresh beauty was a thing apart from the soil and tumult of the +highway. "You see," said Mrs. Sullivan, "one who, in a brief +interview, gave me more the idea of a poet than most of our modern +votaries of the lute.... She is as creative in her imaginary poems as +she is touching and true in her simpler ones."' + +Though there were still giants upon the earth in those far-off days, +the general standard of literary taste was by no means exalted, a fact +which Mary Howitt could hardly be expected to realise. She seems to +have taken the praises lavished on her simple verses over-seriously, +and to have imagined herself in very truth a poet. She was more +clear-sighted where the work of her fellow-scribes was concerned, and +in a letter written about this time, she descants upon the dearth of +good literature in a somewhat disillusioned vein. After expressing her +desire that some mighty spirit would rise up and give an impulse to +poetry, she continues: 'I am tired of Sir Walter Scott and his +imitators, and I am sickened of Mrs. Hemans's luscious poetry, and all +her tribe of copyists. The libraries set in array one school against +another, and hurry out the trashy volumes before the ink of the +manuscript is fairly dry. Dost thou remember the days when Byron's +poems first came out, now one and then another, at sufficient +intervals to allow of digesting them? And dost thou remember our first +reading of _Lalla Rookh_? It was on a washing-day. We read and +clapped our clear-starching, read and clapped, and read again, and all +the time our souls were not on this earth.' + +There was one book then in course of preparation which Mary thought +worthy to have been read, even in those literary clear-starching days. +'Thou hast no idea,' she assures her sister, 'how very interesting +William's work, now called _A Book of the Seasons_, has become. +It contains original sketches on every month, with every +characteristic of the season, and a garden department which will fill +thy heart brimful of all garden delights, greenness, and boweriness. +Mountain scenery and lake scenery, meadows and woods, hamlets, farms, +halls, storm and sunshine--all are in this most delicious book, +grouped into a most harmonious whole.' Unfortunately, publishers were +hard to convince of the merits of the new work, the first of William +Howitt's rural series, and it was declined by four houses in turn. The +author at last suggested that a stone should be tied to the unlucky +manuscript, and that it should be flung over London Bridge; but his +wife was not so easily disheartened. She was certain that the book was +a worthy book, and only needed to be made a little more 'personable' +to find favour in the eyes of a publisher. Accordingly, blotted sheets +were hastily re-copied, new articles introduced, and passages of +dubious interest omitted, husband and wife working together at this +remodelling until their fingers ached and their eyes were as dim as an +owl's in sunshine. Their labours were rewarded by the acceptance of +the work by Bentley and Colburn, and its triumphant success with both +critics and public, seven editions being called for in the first few +months of its career. + +'Prig it and pocket it,' says Christopher North, alluding to the +_Book of the Seasons_ in the _Noctes_ for April, 1831. ''Tis +a jewel.' + +'Is Nottingham far intil England, sir?' asks the simple Shepherd, to +whom the above advice is given. 'For I would really like to pay the +Hooits a visit this simmer. Thae Quakers are what we micht scarcely +opine frae first principles, a maist poetical Christian seck.... The +twa married Hooits I love just excessively, sir. What they write canna +fail o' being poetry, even the most middlin' o't, for it's aye wi' +them the ebullition o' their ain feeling and their ain fancy, and +whenever that's the case, a bonny word or twa will drap itself intil +ilka stanzy, and a sweet stanzy or twa intil ilka pome, and sae they +touch, and sae they win a body's heart.' + +The year 1831 was rendered memorable to the Howitts, not only by their +first literary success, but also by an unexpected visit from their +poetical idol, Mr. Wordsworth. The poet, his wife and daughter, were +on their way home from London when Mrs. Wordsworth was suddenly taken +ill, and was unable to proceed farther than Nottingham. Her husband, +in great perplexity, came to ask advice of the Howitts, who insisted +that the invalid should be removed to their house, where she remained +for ten days before she was able to continue her journey. Wordsworth +himself was only able to stay one night, but in that short time he +made a very favourable impression upon his host and hostess. +'He is worthy of being the author of _The Excursion_, _Ruth_, and +those sweet poems so full of human sympathy,' writes Mary. 'He is a +kind man, full of strong feeling and sound judgment. My greatest +delight was that he seemed so pleased with William's conversation. +They seemed quite in their element, pouring out their eloquent +sentiments on the future prospects of society, and on all subjects +connected with poetry and the interests of man. Nor are we less +pleased with Mrs. Wordsworth and her lovely daughter, Dora. They are +the most grateful people; everything that we do for them is right, and +the very best it can be.' + +During the next two or three years Mary produced a volume of dramatic +sketches, called _The Seven Temptations_, which she always +regarded as her best and most original work, but which was damned by +the critics and neglected by the public; a little book of natural +history for children; and a novel in three volumes, called _Wood +Leighton_, which seems to have had some success. _The Seven +Temptations_, it must be owned, is a rather lugubrious production, +probably inspired by Joanna Baillie's _Plays on the Passions_. +The scene of _Wood Leighton_ is laid at Uttoxeter, and the book +is not so much a connected tale as a series of sketches descriptive of +scenes and characters in and about the author's early home. It is +evident that Mrs. Botham and Sister Anna looked somewhat +disapprovingly upon so much literary work for the mistress of a +household, since we find Mary writing in eager defence of her chosen +calling. + +'I want to make thee, and more particularly dear mother, see,' she +explains, 'that I am not out of my line of duty in devoting myself so +much to literary occupation. Just lately things were sadly against us. +Dear William could not sleep at night, and the days were dark and +gloomy. Altogether, I was at my wits' end. I turned over in my mind +what I could do next, for till William's _Rural Life_ was +finished we had nothing available. Then I bethought myself of all +those little verses and prose tales that for years I had written for +the juvenile Annuals. It seemed probable I might turn them to some +account. In about a week I had nearly all the poetry copied; and then +who should come to Nottingham but John Darton [a Quaker publisher]. He +fell into the idea immediately, took what I had copied up to London +with him, and I am to have a hundred and fifty guineas for them. Have +I not reason to feel that in thus writing I was fulfilling a duty?' + +In 1833 William Hewitt's _History of Priestcraft_ appeared, a +work which was publicly denounced at the Friends' yearly meeting, all +good Quakers being cautioned not to read it. William hitherto had +lived in great retirement at Nottingham, but he was now claimed by the +Radical and Nonconformist members of the community as their spokesman +and champion. In January, 1834, he and Joseph Gilbert (husband of Ann +Gilbert of _Original Poems_ fame) were deputed to present to the +Prime Minister, Lord Grey, a petition from Nottingham for the +disestablishment of the Church of England. The Premier regretted that +he could not give his support to such a sweeping measure, which would +embarrass the Ministry, alarm both Houses of Parliament, and startle +the nation. He declared his intention of standing by the Church to the +best of his ability, believing it to be the sacred duty of Government +to maintain an establishment of religion. To which sturdy William +Howitt replied that to establish one sect in preference to another was +to establish a party and not a religion. + +Civic duties, together with the excitements of local politics, proved +a sad hindrance to literary work, and in 1836 the Howitts, who had +long been yearning for a wider intellectual sphere, decided to give up +the chemist's business, and settle in the neighbourhood of London. +Their friends, the Alaric Watts's, who were living at Thames Ditton, +found them a pretty little house at Esher, where they would be able to +enjoy the woods and heaths of rural Surrey, and yet be within easy +reach of publishers and editors in town. Before settling down in their +new home, the Howitts made a three months' tour in the north, with a +view to gathering materials for William's book on _Rural +England_. They explored the Yorkshire dales, stayed with the +Wordsworths at Rydal, and made a pilgrimage to the haunts of their +favourite, Thomas Bewick, in Northumberland. Crossing the Border they +paid a delightful visit to Edinburgh, where they were made much of by +the three literary cliques of the city, the Blackwood and Wilson set, +the Tait set, and the Chambers set. + +'Immediately after our arrival,' relates Mary, 'a public dinner was +given to Campbell the poet, at which the committee requested my +husband's attendance, and that he would take a share in the +proceedings of the evening by proposing as a toast, "Wordsworth, +Southey, and Moore." This was our first introduction to Professor +Wilson (Christopher North) and his family. I sat in the gallery with +Mrs. Wilson and her daughters, one of whom was engaged to Professor +Ferrier. We could not but remark the wonderful difference, not only in +the outer man, but in the whole character of mind and manner, between +Professor Wilson and Campbell--the one so hearty, outspoken, and +joyous, the other so petty and trivial.' + +Robert Chambers constituted himself the Hewitts' cicerone in +Edinburgh, showing them every place of interest, and presenting them +to every person of note, including Mrs. Maclehose (the Clarinda of +Burns), and William Miller, the Quaker artist and engraver, as intense +a nature-worshipper as themselves. From Edinburgh they went to +Glasgow, where they took ship for the Western Isles. Their adventures +at Staffa and Iona, their voyage up the Caledonian Canal, and the +remainder of their experiences on this tour, were afterwards described +by William Howitt in his _Visits to Remarkable Places_. + + + + +PART II + + +In September, 1836, the Howitts took possession of their Surrey home, +West End Cottage, an old-fashioned dwelling, with a large garden, an +orchard, a meadow by the river Mole, and the right of boating and +fishing to the extent of seven miles. The new life opened with good +prospects of literary and journalistic employment, William Howitt's +political writings having already attracted attention from several +persons of power and influence in the newspaper world. On December 3 +of this year, Mary wrote to inform her sister that, 'In consequence of +an article that William wrote on Dymond's _Christian Morality_, +Joseph Hume, the member for Middlesex, wrote to him, and has opened a +most promising connection for him with a new Radical newspaper, _The +Constitutional_. O'Connell seems determined to make him the editor +of the _Dublin Review_, and wrote him a most kind letter, which +has naturally promoted his interest with the party. I cannot but see +the hand of Providence in our leaving Nottingham. All has turned out +admirably.' + +Unfortunately for these sanguine anticipations, the newspaper +connections on which the Howitts depended for a livelihood, now that +the despised chemist's business had been given up, proved but hollow +supports. O'Connell had overlooked the trifling fact that a Quaker +editor was hardly fitted to conduct a journal that was emphatically +and polemically Catholic; and though he considered that William Howitt +was admirably adapted to deal with literary and political topics, he +was obliged to withdraw his offer of the editorship. A more crushing +disappointment arose out of the engagement on _The Constitutional_. +Mr. Howitt, according to his wife, did more for the paper than any +other member of the staff. 'He worked and wrote like any slave,' +she tells her sister. 'In the end, after a series of the most +harassing and vexatious conduct on the part of the newspaper +company, he was swindled out of every farthing. Oh, it was a most +mortifying and humiliating thing to see men professing liberal and +honest principles act so badly. A month ago, when in the very depths +of discouragement and low spirits, I set about a little volume for +Darton, to be called _Birds and Flowers_, and have pretty nearly +finished it. William, in the mean time, has finished his _Rural +Life_, and sold the first edition to Longman's.' + +The manager of the unlucky paper was Major Carmichael Smith, who, when +matters grew desperate, sent for his step-son, Thackeray, then acting +as Paris correspondent for a London daily. 'Just as I was going out of +the office one day,' writes William, 'I met on the stairs a tall, thin +young man, in a dark blue coat, and with a nose that seemed to have +had a blow that had flattened the bridge. I turned back, and had some +conversation with him, being anxious to know how he proposed to carry +on a paper which was without any funds, and already deeply in debt. He +did not seem to know any more than I did. I thought to myself that his +step-father had not done him much service in taking him from a +profitable post for the vain business of endeavouring to buoy up a +desperate speculation. How much longer _The Constitutional_ +struggled on, I know not. That was the first time I ever saw or heard +of William Makepeace Thackeray.' + +The Howitts were somewhat consoled for their journalistic losses by +the triumphant success of _Rural Life in England_. The reading +public which, during the previous century, had swallowed mock +pastorals, made in Fleet Street, with perfect serenity, was now, +thanks to the slowly-working influence of Wordsworth and the other +Lake poets, prepared for a renaissance of nature and simplicity in +prose. Miss Mitford's exquisite work had given them a distaste for the +'jewelled turf,' the 'silver streams,' and 'smiling valleys' which +constituted the rustic stock-in-trade of the average novelist; and +they eagerly welcomed a book that treated with accuracy and +observation of the real country. William Howitt's straightforward, +undistinguished style was acceptable enough in an age when even men of +genius seem to have written fine prose without knowing it, and tripped +up not infrequently over the subtleties of English grammar. His lack +of imagination and humour was more than atoned for, in the uncritical +eyes of the 'thirties,' by the easy loquacity of his rural gossip, and +the varied information with which he crammed his pages. The Nature of +those days was a simple, transparent creature, with but small +resemblance to the lady of moods, mystery, and passion who is so +overworked in our modern literature. No one dreamt of going into +hysterics over the veining of a leaf, or penning a rhapsody on the +outline of a rain-cloud; nor could it yet be said that, 'if everybody +must needs blab of the favours that have been done him by roadside, +and river-brink, and woodland walk, as if to kiss and tell were no +longer treachery, it will soon be a positive refreshment to meet a man +who is as superbly indifferent to Nature as she is to him.' [Footnote: +Lowell] + +The Howitts took great delight in the pleasant Surrey country, so +different from the dreary scenery around Nottingham, and Mary's +letters contain many descriptions of the woods and commons and shady +lanes through which the family made long expeditions in a little +carriage drawn by Peg, their venerable pony. Driving one day to Hook, +they met Charles Dickens, then best known as 'Boz,' in one of his long +tramps, with Harrison Ainsworth as his companion. When Dickens's next +work, _Master Humphrey's Clock_, appeared, the Howitts were +amused to see that their stout and wilful Peg had not escaped the +novelist's keen eye, but had been pressed into service for Mr. +Garland's chaise. + +On another occasion, in July 1841, William, while driving with a +friend, was attacked by two handsome, dark-eyed girls, dressed in +gipsy costume, who ran one on each side of the carriage, begging that +the kind gentleman would give them sixpence, as they were poor +strangers who had taken nothing all day. Mr. Howitt, who had made a +special study of the gipsy tribe, perceived in an instant that these +were only sham Romanys. He paid no attention to their pleading, but +observed that he hoped they would enjoy their frolic, and only wished +that he were as rich as they. Subsequently, he discovered that the +mock-gipsies, who had been unable to coax a sixpence out of him, were +none other than the beautiful Sheridan sisters, the Duchess of +Somerset, and Mrs. Blackwood (afterwards Lady Dufferin), whose husband +had lately taken Bookham Lodge. + +During the four years spent at Esher, Mary seems to have been too much +occupied with the cares of a young family to use her pen to much +purpose. She produced little, except a volume of _Hymns and Fireside +Verses_, but she frequently assisted her husband in his work. +William, industrious as ever, published, besides a large number of +newspaper articles, his _Boys' Country Book_, the best work of +the kind ever written, according to the _Quarterly Review_; and +his _History of Colonisation and Christianity_, in which he took +a rapid survey of the behaviour of the Christian nations of Europe to +the inhabitants of the countries they conquered in all parts of the +world. It was the reading of this book that led Mr. Joseph Pease to +establish the British India Society, which issued, in a separate form, +the portion of the work that related to India. Mr. Howitt next set to +work upon another topographical volume, his _Visits to Remarkable +Places_, in which he turned to good account the materials collected +in his pedestrian rambles about the country. + +In 1840 the question of education for the elder children became +urgent, and the Howitts, who had heard much of the advantages of a +residence in Germany from their friends, Mrs. Hemans, Mrs. Jameson, +and Henry Chorley, decided to give up their cottage at Esher, and +spend two or three years at Heidelberg. Letters of introduction from +Mrs. Jameson gave them the _entrée_ into German society, which +they found more to their taste than that of their native land. 'For +the sake of our children,' writes Mary, 'we sought German +acquaintances, we read German, we followed German customs. The life +seemed to me easier, the customs simpler and less expensive than in +England. There was not the same feverish thirst after wealth as with +us; there was more calm appreciation of nature, of music, of social +enjoyment.' In their home on the Neckar, the Howitts, most adaptable +of couples, found new pleasures and new amusements with each season of +the year. In the spring and summer they explored the surrounding +country, wandered through the deep valleys and woods, where the grass +was purple with bilberries, visited quaint, half-timbered homesteads, +standing in the midst of ancient orchards, or followed the +swift-flowing streams, on whose banks the peasant girls in their +picturesque costumes were washing and drying linen. In the autumn the +whole family turned out on the first day of the vintage, and worked +like their neighbours. 'It was like something Arcadian,' wrote Mary +when recalling the scene. 'The tubs and baskets piled up with enormous +clusters, the men and women carrying them away on their heads to the +place where they were being crushed; the laughter, the merriment, the +feasting, the firing--for they make as much noise as they can--all was +delightful, to say nothing of the masquerading and dancing in the +evening, which we saw, though we did not take part in it.' In the +winter the strangers were introduced to the Christmas Tree, which had +not yet become a British institution: while with the first snow came +the joys of sleighing, when wheel-barrows, tubs, baskets, everything +that could be put on runners, were turned into sledges, and the boys +were in their glory. + +During the three years that were spent at Heidelberg, William +Howitt wrote his _Student Life in Germany_, _German Experiences_, +and _Rural and Domestic Life in Germany_, works which contain a +great deal of more or less valuable information about the country and +the people, presented in a homely, unpretentious style. Mary was no +less industrious, having struck a new literary vein, the success of +which was far to surpass her modest anticipations. 'I have been very +busy,' she writes in 1842, 'translating the first volume of a charming +work by Frederica Bremer, a Swedish writer; and if any publisher will +give me encouragement to go on with it, I will soon complete the work. +It is one of a series of stories of everyday life in Sweden--a +beautiful book, full of the noblest moral lessons for every man and +woman.' In the summer of 1841 the Howitts, accompanied by their elder +daughter, Anna, made a long tour through Germany and Austria, in the +course of which they collected materials for fresh works, and visited +the celebrities, literary and artistic, of the various cities that lay +in their route. At Stuttgart they called on Gustav Schwab, the poet, +and visited Dannecker's studio; at Tübingen they made the acquaintance +of Uhland, and at Munich that of Kaulbach, then at the height of his +fame. By way of Vienna and Prague they travelled to Dresden, where, +through the good offices of Mrs. Jameson, they were received by Moritz +Retzsch, whose _Outlines_ they had long admired. At Berlin they +made friends with Tieck, on whom the king had bestowed a pension and a +house at Potsdam; while at Weimar they were entertained by Frau von +Goethe, whose son, Wolfgang, had been one of their earliest +acquaintances at Heidelberg. This interesting tour is described at +length in the _Rural and Domestic Life of Germany_. + +Another year was spent at Heidelberg, but the difficulties of +arranging the business details of their work at such a distance from +publishers and editors, brought the industrious couple back to London +in the spring of 1843. 'On our return to England,' writes Mary, 'I was +full of energy and hope. Glowing with aspiration, and in enjoyment of +great domestic happiness, I was anticipating a busy, perhaps +overburdened, but, nevertheless, congenial life. It was to be one of +darkness, perplexity, discouragement.' The Howitts had scarcely +entered into possession of a new house that they had taken at Clapton, +when news came from Heidelberg, where the elder children had been left +at school, that their second son, Claude, had developed alarming +symptoms of disease in the knee-joint. It was known that he had been +slightly injured in play a few weeks before, but no danger had been +anticipated. Mr. Howitt at once set out for Heidelberg, and returned +with the invalid, on whose case Liston was consulted. The great +surgeon counselled amputation, but to this the parents refused their +consent, except as a last resource. Various less heroic modes of +treatment were tried, but poor Claude faded away, and died in March, +1844, aged only ten years and a half. This was the heaviest trial that +the husband and wife had yet experienced, for Claude had been a boy of +brilliant promise, whom they regarded as the flower of their flock. +Only a few months before his accident his mother had written in the +pride of her heart: 'Claude is the naughtiest of all the children, and +yet the most gifted. He learns anything at a glance. Claude is born to +be fortunate; he is one that will make the family distinguished in the +next generation. He has an extraordinary faculty for telling stories, +either of his own invention or of what he reads.' + +A lesser cause of trouble and anxiety arose out of the translation of +Miss Bremer's novels. 'When we first translated _The Neighbours_,' +writes Mary, 'there was not a house in London that would undertake +its publication. We published it and the other Bremer novels at our +own risk, but such became the rage for them that our translations +were seized by a publisher, altered, and reissued as new ones.' +The success of these books was said to be greater than that of +any series since the first appearance of the Waverley novels. Cheap +editions were multiplied in the United States, and even the boys who +hawked the books about the streets were to be seen deep in _The +Home_ or _The H. Family_. In a letter to her sister written +about this time, Mary expatiates on the annoyance and loss caused by +these piracies. 'It is very mortifying,' she observes, 'because no one +knew of these Swedish novels till we introduced them. It obliges us to +hurry in all we do, and we must work almost day and night to get ours +out in order that we may have some little chance.... We have embarked +a great deal of money in the publication, and the interference of the +upstart London publisher is most annoying. Mlle. Bremer, however, has +written a new novel, and sends it to us before publication. We began +its translation this week, and hope to be able to publish it about the +time it will appear in Sweden and Germany.' + +In addition to her translating work, Mrs. Howitt was engaged at this +time upon a series of little books, called _Tales for the People and +their Children_, which had been commissioned by a cheap publisher. +These stories, each of which illustrated a domestic virtue, were +punctually paid for: and though they were never advertised, they +passed swiftly through innumerable editions, and have been popular +with a certain public down to quite recent times. Perhaps the most +attractive is the _Autobiography of a Child_, in which Mary told +the story of her own early days in her pretty, simple style, with the +many little quaint touches that gave all her juvenile stories an +atmosphere of truth and reality. Her quick sympathy with young people, +and her knowledge of what most appealed to the childish mind, was +probably due to her vivid remembrance of her own youthful days, and to +her affectionate study of the 'little ways' of her own children. Many +are the original traits and sayings that she reports to her sister, +more especially those of her youngest boy, Charlton, who had inherited +his parents' naturalistic tastes in a pronounced form, and preferred +the Quakers' meeting-house to any other church or chapel, because +there was a dog-kennel on the premises! + +About a year after her return to England, Mrs. Howitt turned her +attention to Danish literature, finding that, with her knowledge of +Swedish and German, the language presented few difficulties. In 1845 +she translated Hans Andersen's _Impromsatore_, greatly to the +satisfaction of the author, who begged that she would continue to +translate his works, till he was as well known and loved in England as +he was on the Continent. Appreciation, fame, and joy, declared the +complacent poet, followed his footsteps wherever he went, and his +whole life was full of sunshine, like a beautiful fairy-tale. Mary +translated his _Only a Fiddler_; _O. T., or Life in Denmark_; +_The True Story of My Life_; and several of the _Wonderful Stories +for Children_. The _Improvisatore_ was the only one that went +into a second edition, the other works scarcely paying the cost +of publication. Hans Andersen, however, being assured that Mrs. +Howitt was making a fortune of the translations, came to England +in 1847 to arrange for a share of the profits. Though disappointed +in his hope of gain, he begged Mrs. Howitt to translate the whole +of his fairy-tales, which had just been brought out in a +beautifully-illustrated German edition. Much to her after regret, she +was then too much engrossed by other work to be able to accede to his +proposal. The relations between Hans Andersen and his translator were +marred, we are told, by the extreme sensitiveness and egoism of the +Dane. Mrs. Howitt narrates, as an example of his childish vanity, the +following little incident which occurred during his visit to England +in the summer of 1847:-- + +'We had taken him, as a pleasant rural experience, to the annual +hay-making at Hillside, Highgate, thus introducing him to an English +home, full of poetry and art, sincerity, and affection. The ladies of +Hillside--Miss Mary and Margaret Gillies, the one an embodiment of +peace and an admirable writer, whose talent, like the violet, kept in +the shade; the other, the warm-hearted painter--made him welcome.... +Immediately after our arrival, the assembled children, loving his +delightful fairy-tales, clustered round him in the hay-field, and +watched him make them a pretty device of flowers; then, feeling +somehow that the stiff, silent foreigner was not kindred to +themselves, stole off to an American, Henry Clarke Wright, whose +admirable little book, _A Kiss for a Blow_, some of them knew. +He, without any suggestion of condescension or difference of age, +entered heart and soul into their glee, laughed, shouted, and played +with them, thus unconsciously evincing the gift which had made him +earlier the exclusive pastor of six hundred children in Boston. Soon +poor Andersen, perceiving himself neglected, complained of headache, +and insisted on going indoors, whither Mary Gillies and I, both +anxious to efface any disagreeable impression, accompanied him; but he +remained irritable and out of sorts.' + +It was in 1845 or 1846 that the Howitts made the acquaintance of +Tennyson, whose poetry they had long admired. 'The retiring and +meditative young poet, Alfred Tennyson, visited us,' relates Mary, +'and cheered our seclusion by the recitation of his exquisite poetry. +He spent a Sunday night at our house, when we sat talking together +till three in the morning. All the next day he remained with us in +constant converse. We seemed to have known him for years. So in fact +we had, for his poetry was himself. He hailed all attempts at +heralding a grander, more liberal state of public opinion, and +consequently sweeter, nobler modes of living. He wished that we +Englanders could dress up our affections in more poetical costume; +real warmth of heart would gain rather than lose by it. As it was, our +manners were as cold as the walls of our churches.' Another new friend +was gained through William Howitt's book, _Visits to Remarkable +Places_. When the work was announced as 'in preparation,' the +author received a letter, signed E. C. Gaskell, drawing his attention +to a beautiful old house, Clopton Hall, near Stratford-on-Avon. The +letter described in such admirable style the writer's visit to the +house as a schoolgirl, that William wrote to suggest that she ought to +use her pen for the public benefit. This timely encouragement led to +the production of _Mary Barton_, the first volume of which was +sent in manuscript for Mr. Howitt's verdict. A few months later Mrs. +Gaskell came as a guest to the little house at Clopton, bringing with +her the completed work. + +In 1846 William Howitt took part in a new journalistic venture, his +wife, as usual, sharing his labours and anxieties. He became first +contributor, and afterwards editor and part-proprietor of the +_People's Journal_, a cheap weekly, through the medium of which +he hoped to improve the moral and intellectual condition of the +working classes. 'The bearing of its contents,' wrote Mary, in answer +to some adverse criticism of the new paper, 'is love to God and man. +There is no attempt to set the poor against the rich, but, on the +contrary, to induce them to be careful, prudent, sober and +independent; above all, to be satisfied to be workers, and to regard +labour as a privilege rather than as a penalty, which is quite our +view of the matter.' The combination of business and philanthropy +seldom answers, and the Howitts, despite the excellence of their +intentions, were unlucky in their newspaper speculations. At the end +of a few months it was discovered that the manager of the _People's +Journal_ kept no books, and that the affairs of the paper were in +hopeless confusion. William Howitt, finding himself responsible for +the losses on the venture, tried to cure the evil by a hair of the dog +that had bitten him. He withdrew from the _People's Journal_, +and, with Samuel Smiles as his assistant, started a rival paper on the +same lines, called _Howitts Journal_. But, as Ebenezer Elliott, +the shrewd old Quaker, remarked, apropos of the apathy of the +working-class public: 'Men engaged in a death struggle for bread will +pay for amusement when they will not for instruction. They woo +laughter to unscare them, that they may forget their perils, their +wrongs, and their oppressors. If you were able and willing to fill the +journal with fun, it would pay.' The failure of his paper spelt ruin +to its promoter; his copyrights, as well as those of his wife, were +sacrificed, and he was obliged to begin the world anew. + +The Howitts seem to have kept up their spirits bravely under this +reverse, and never for a moment relaxed in their untiring industry. +They moved into a small house in Avenue Road, St. John's Wood, and +looked around them for new subjects upon which to exercise their +well-worn pens. Mary hoped to get employment from the Religious Tract +Society, which had invited her to send in a specimen story, but she +feared that her work would hardly be considered sufficiently orthodox, +though she had introduced one of the 'death-bed scenes,' which were +then in so much request. As she anticipated, the story was returned as +quite unsuitable, and thereupon she writes to her sister in some +depression: 'Times are so bad that publishers will not speculate in +books; and when I have finished the work I am now engaged on, I have +nothing else certain to go on with.' However, writers so popular with +the public as the Howitts were not likely to be left long without +employment. Mary seems to have been the greater favourite of the two, +and the vogue of her volume of collected _Poems and Ballads_, +which appeared in 1847, strikes the modern reader with amazement. Some +idea of the estimation in which she was then held is proved by Allan +Cunningham's dictum that 'Mary Howitt has shown herself mistress of +every string of the minstrel's lyre, save that which sounds of broil +and bloodshed. There is more of the old ballad simplicity in her +composition than can be found in the strains of any living poet +besides.' Another critic compared Mrs. Hewitt's ballads to those of +Lord Macaulay, while Mrs. Alaric Watts, in her capacity of Annual +editor, wrote to assure her old friend and contributor that, 'In thy +simplest poetry there are sometimes turns so exquisite as to bring the +tears to my eyes. Thou hast as much poetry in thee as would set up +half-a-dozen writers.' The one dissentient voice among admiring +contemporaries is that of Miss Mitford, who writes in 1852: 'I am for +my sins so fidgety respecting style that I have the bad habit of +expecting a book that pretends to be written in our language to be +English; therefore I cannot read Miss Strickland, or the Howitts, or +Carlyle, or Emerson, or the serious parts of Dickens.' It must be +owned that the Howitts are condemned in fairly good company. + +The work of both husband and wife suffered from the inevitable defects +of self-education, and also from the narrowness and seclusion of their +early lives. Mary possessed more imagination and a lighter touch than +her husband, but her attempts at adult fiction were hampered by her +ignorance of the world, while her technique, both in prose and verse, +left something to be desired. It is evident that the publishers and +editors of the period were less critical than Miss Mitford, for, in +1848, we find that Mrs. Howitt was invited to write the opening volume +of Bradshaw's series of Railway novels, while in February 1850, came a +request from Charles Dickens for contributions to _Household +Words_. 'You may have seen,' he writes, 'the first dim announcements +of the new, cheap literary journal I am about to start. Frankly, I +want to say to you that if you would write for it, you would delight +me, and I should consider myself very fortunate indeed in enlisting +your services.... I hope any connection with the enterprise would +be satisfactory and agreeable to you in all respects, as I should +most earnestly endeavour to make it. If I wrote a book I could +say no more than I mean to suggest to you in these few lines. +All that I leave unsaid, I leave to your generous understanding.' + +The Howitts were keenly interested in the gradual awakening of the +long-dormant, artistic instincts of the nation, the first signs of +which became faintly visible about the end of the forties. 'Down to +that time,' observes Mary, 'the taste of the English people had been +for what appealed to the mind rather than to the eye, and the general +public were almost wholly uneducated in art. By 1849 the improvement +due to the exertions of the Prince Consort, the Society of Arts, and +other powers began to be felt; while a wonderful impulse to human +taste and ingenuity was being given in the preparation of exhibits for +the World's Fair.' The gentle Quakeress who, in her youth, had +modelled Wedgwood figures in paper pulp, and clapped her +clear-starching to the rhythm of _Lalla Rookh_, was, in middle +life, one of the staunchest supporters of the Pre-Raphaelite Brethren, +and that at a time when the President of the Royal Academy had +announced his intention of hanging no more of their 'outrageous +productions.' Through their friend, Edward La Trobe Bateman, the +Howitts had been introduced into the Pre-Raphaelite circle, and +familiarised with the then new and startling idea that artistic +principles might be carried out in furniture and house-decoration. +Less than three-quarters of a century before, Mary's father had been +sternly rebuked by her grandfather for painting a series of lines in +black and grey above the parlour fireplace to represent a cornice. +This primitive attempt at decoration was regarded as a sinful +indulgence of the lust of the eye! With the simple charity that was +characteristic of them, William and Mary saw only the best side of +their new friends, the shadows of Bohemian life being entirely hidden +from them. 'Earnest and severe in their principles of art,' observes +Mrs. Howitt naively, 'the young reformers indulged in much jocundity +when the day's work was done. They were wont to meet at ten, cut +jokes, talk slang, smoke, read poetry, and discuss art till three +A.M.' + +The couple had by this time renounced their membership of the Society +of Friends, but they had not joined any other religious sect, though +they seem to have been attracted by Unitarian doctrines. 'Mere +creeds,' wrote Mary to her sister, 'matter nothing to me. I could go +one Sunday to the Church of England, another to a Catholic chapel, a +third to the Unitarian, and so on; and in each of them find my heart +warmed with Christian love to my fellow-creatures, and lifted up with +gratitude and praise to God.' For many years the house in Avenue Road +was, we are told, a meeting-place for all that was best and brightest +in the world of modern thought and art. William Howitt was always +ready to lend an attentive and unbiassed ear to the newest theory, or +even the newest fad, while Mary possessed in the fullest degree the +gift of companionableness, and her inexhaustible sympathy drew from +others an instant confidence. Her arduous literary labours never +impaired her vigorous powers of mind or body, and she often wrote till +late into the night without appearing to suffer in either health or +spirits. She is described as a careful and energetic housewife; +indeed, her husband was accustomed to say that he would challenge any +woman who never wrote a line, to match his own good woman in the +management of a large household. + +In 1851 came the first tidings of the discovery of gold in Australia, +and nothing was talked of but this new Eldorado and the wonderful +inducements held out to emigrants. William Howitt, who felt that he +needed a change from brain-work, suddenly resolved on a trip with his +two sons to this new world, where he would see his youngest brother, +Dr. Godfrey Howitt, who had settled at Melbourne. He was also anxious +to ascertain what openings in the country there might be for his boys, +both of whom had active, outdoor tastes, which there seemed little +chance of their being able to gratify in England. In June, 1852, the +three male members of the family, accompanied by La Trobe Bateman, +sailed for Australia, while Mary and her two daughters, the elder of +whom had just returned from a year in Kaulbach's studio at Munich, +moved into a cottage called the Hermitage, at Highgate, which belonged +to Mr. Bateman, and had formerly been occupied by Rossetti. Here they +lived quietly for upwards of two years, working at their literary or +artistic occupations, and seeing a few intimate friends. Mary kept her +husband posted up in the events that were taking place in England, and +we learn from her letters what were the chief topics of town talk in +the early fifties. + +'Now, I must think over what news there is,' she writes in April, +1853. 'In the political world, the proposed new scheme of Property and +Income Tax, which would make everybody pay something; and the proposal +for paying off a portion of the National Debt with Australian gold. In +the literary world, the International Copyright, which some expect +will be in force in three months. In society in general, the strange +circumstantial rumour of the Queen's death, which, being set afloat on +Easter Monday, when no business was doing, was not the offspring of +the money market. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kean, who were here the other +day, spoke of it, saying truly that for the moment it seemed to +paralyse the very heart of England.... [May 4th.] The great talk now +is Mrs. Beecher Stowe and spirit-rapping, both of which have arrived +in England. The universality of the latter phenomena renders it a +curious study. A feeling seems pervading all classes and all sects +that the world stands on the brink of some great spiritual revelation. +It meets one in books, in newspapers, on the lips of members of the +Church of England, Unitarians, and even Freethinkers. Poor old Robert +Owen, the philanthropist, has been converted, and made a confession of +faith in public. One cannot but respect a man who, in his old age, has +the boldness to declare himself as having been blinded and mistaken +through life.' + +In December, 1854, William Howitt returned from his travels without +any gold in his pockets, but with the materials for his _History of +Discovery in Australia and New Zealand._ Thanks to what he used to +call his four great doctors, Temperance, Exercise, Good Air, and Good +Hours, he had displayed wonderful powers of activity and endurance +during his exploration of some almost untracked regions of the new +world. At sixty years of age he had marched twenty miles a day under a +blazing sun for weeks at a time, worked at digging gold for twelve +hours a day, waded through rivers, slept under trees, baked his own +bread, washed his own clothes, and now returned in the pink of +condition, with his passion for wandering only intensified by his +three years of an adventurous life. The family experiences were +diversified thenceforward by frequent change of scene, for William was +always ready and willing to start off at a moment's notice to the +mountains, the seaside, or the Continent. But whether the Howitts were +at home or abroad, they continued their making of many books, so that +it becomes difficult for the biographer to keep pace with their +literary output. Together or separately they produced a _History of +Scandinavian Literature, The Homes and Haunts of the Poets, a Popular +History of England_, which was published in weekly parts, a +_Year-Book of the Country_, a _Popular History of the United +States_, a _History of the Supernatural_, the _Northern Heights +of London_, and an abridged edition of _Sir Charles Grandison_, +besides several tales for young people, and contributions to +magazines and newspapers. + +Even increasing age had no power to narrow their point of view, or to +blunt their sympathy with every movement that seemed to make for the +relief of the oppressed, the welfare of the nation, or the advancement +of the human race. Just as in youth they had championed the cause of +Catholic Emancipation and of political Reform, so in later years we +find them advocating the Repeal of the Corn Laws, taking part in the +Anti-Slavery agitation, working for improvement in the laws that +affected women and children, and supporting the Bill for the +Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. A more debatable subject--that of +spiritualism--was investigated by them in a friendly but impartial +spirit. 'In the spring of 1856, 'writes Mrs. Howitt, 'we had become +acquainted with several most ardent and honest spirit mediums. It +seemed right to my husband and myself to try and understand the nature +of these phenomena in which our new acquaintance so firmly believed. +In the month of April I was invited to attend a _séance_ at +Professor de Morgan's, and was much astonished and affected by +communications purporting to come to me from my dear son Claude. With +constant prayer for enlightenment and guidance, we experimented at +home. The teachings that seemed given us from the spirit-world were +often akin to those of the gospel; at other times they were more +obviously emanations of evil. I felt thankful for the assurance thus +gained of an invisible world, but resolved to neglect none of my +common duties for spiritualism.' Among the Hewitts' fellow-converts +were Robert Chambers, Robert Owen, the Carter Halls and the Alaric +Watts's; while Sir David Brewster and Lord Brougham were earnest +inquirers into these forms of psychical phenomena. + +In 1865 William Howitt was granted a pension by Government, and a year +later the couple moved from Highgate to a cottage called the Orchard, +near their former residence at Esher. Of their four surviving +children, only Margaret, the youngest, was left at home. Anna, already +the author of a very interesting book, _An Art Student at +Munich_, had, as her mother observes, taken her place among the +successful artists and writers of her day, 'when, in the spring of +1856, a severe private censure of one of her oil-paintings by a king +among critics so crushed her sensitive nature, as to make her yield to +her bias for the supernatural, and withdraw from the arena of the fine +arts.' In 1857 Anna became the wife of Alfred Watts, the son of her +parents' old friends, Alaric and Zillah Watts. The two boys, Alfred +and Charlton, born explorers and naturalists, both settled in +Australia. Alfred, early in the sixties, had explored the district of +Lake Torrens, a land of parched deserts, dry-water-courses, and +soda-springs, whose waters effervesced tartaric acid; and had opened +up for the Victorian Government the mountainous district of Gippsland, +with the famous gold-field of the Crooked River. In 1861 he had been +employed to head the relief-party that went in search of the +discoverer, Robert O'Hara Burke, and his companions, and a year later +he brought back the remains of the ill-fated explorers to Melbourne +for public burial. Later in life he was successfully employed in +various Government enterprises, and published, in collaboration with a +friend, a learned work on the aborigines of Australia. + +Charlton Howitt, the younger son, after five years' uncongenial work +in a London office, emigrated to Australia in 1860. His quality was +quickly recognised by the Provincial Government, which, in 1862, +appointed him to command an expedition to examine the rivers in the +province of Canterbury, with a view to ascertaining whether they +contained gold. So admirably was the work accomplished that, on his +return to Christchurch, he was intrusted with the task of opening up +communications between the Canterbury plains and the newly-discovered +gold and coal district on the west coast. 'This duty was faithfully +performed, under constant hardships and discouragement,' relates his +mother. 'But a few miles of road remained to be cut, when, at the end +of June, 1863, after personally rescuing other pioneers and wanderers +from drowning and starvation in that watery, inhospitable forest +region, Charlton, with two of his men, went down in the deep waters of +Lake Brunner; a fatal accident which deprived the Government of a +valued servant, and saddened the hearts of all who knew him.' + +After four peaceful years at Esher, the _Wanderlust_, that gipsy +spirit, which not even the burden of years could tame, took possession +of William and Mary once more, and they suddenly decided that they +must see Italy before they died. In May, 1870, they let the Orchard, +and, aged seventy-seven and seventy-one respectively, set out on their +last long flight into the world. The summer was spent on the Lake of +Lucerne, where the old-world couple came across that modern of the +moderns, Richard Wagner, and his family. By way of the Italian Lakes +and Venice they travelled, in leisurely fashion, to Rome, where they +celebrated their golden wedding in April, 1871. The Eternal City threw +its glamour around these ancient pilgrims, who found both life and +climate exactly suited to the needs of old age. 'I prized in Rome,' +writes Mrs. Howitt, 'the many kind and sympathetic friends that were +given to us, the ease of social existence, the poetry, the classic +grace, the peculiar and deep pathos diffused around; above all, the +stirring and affecting historic memories.... From the period of +arrival in Rome, I may truly say that the promise in Scripture, "At +evening time there shall be light," was, in our case, fulfilled.' + +The simple, homely life of the aged couple continued unbroken amid +their new surroundings. William interested himself in the planting of +Eucalyptus in the Campagna, as a preventive against malaria, and had +seeds of different varieties sent over from Australia, which he +presented to the Trappist monks of the Tre Fontani. He helped to +establish a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, and +struck up a friendship with the gardeners and custodians of the +Pincio, to whom he gave expert advice on the subject of the creatures +under their charge. The summer months were always spent in the Tyrol, +where the Howitts had permanent quarters in an old mansion near +Bruneck, called Mayr-am-Hof. Here William was able to indulge in his +favourite occupation of gardening. He dug indefatigably in a field +allotment with his English spade, a unique instrument in that land of +clumsy husbandry, and was amazed at the growth of the New Zealand +spinach, the widespread rhubarb, the exuberant tomatoes, and towering +spikes of Indian corn. Thanks to the four great doctors before +mentioned, he remained hale and hearty up to December, 1878, in which +month he celebrated his eighty-seventh birthday. A few weeks later he +was attacked by bronchitis, which, owing to an unsuspected weakness of +the heart, he was unable to throw off. He died in his house on the Via +Sistina, close to his favourite Pincio, on March 3, 1879. + +Mrs. Howitt now finally gave up the idea of returning to end her days +in England. Her husband and companion of more than fifty years was +buried in the Protestant Cemetery at Home, and when her time came, she +desired to be laid by his side. The grant of a small pension added to +the comfort of her last years, and was a source of much innocent pride +and gratification, for, as she tells her daughter Anna, 'It was so +readily given, so kindly, so graciously, for my literary merits, by +Lord Beaconsfield, without the solicitation or interference of any +friend or well-wisher.' In May, 1880, she writes to a friend from +Meran about 'a project, which seems to have grown up in a wonderful +way by itself, or as if invisible hands had been arranging it; that we +should have a little home of our own _im heiligen Land Tirol_. +This really is a very great mercy, seeing that the Tyrol is so +beautiful, the climate so beneficial to health, and the people, taken +as a whole, so very honest and devout. Our little nest of love, which +we shall call "Marienruhe," will be perched on a hill with beautiful +views, surrounded by a small garden.' On September 29, 1881, Mrs. +Howitt and her daughter, Margaret, slept, for the first time, in their +romantically-situated new home near Meran. + +At Marienruhe, the greater portion of the last seven years of Mary +Howitt's life was spent in peace and contentment. Here she amused +herself with writing her 'Reminiscences' for _Good Words_, which +were afterwards incorporated in her _Autobiography_. Age had no +power to blunt her interest in the events of the day, political or +literary, and at eighty-seven we find her reading with keen enjoyment +Froude's _Oceana_ and Besant's _All Sorts and Conditions of +Men_, books that dealt with questions which she and her husband had +had at heart for the best part of a lifetime, and for which they had +worked with untiring zeal. Of the first she writes to a friend: 'We +much approve of his (Froude's) very strong desire that our colonies +should, like good, faithful, well-trained children, be staunch in love +and service to old Mother England. How deeply we feel on this subject +I cannot tell you; and I hope and trust that you join strongly in this +truly English sentiment.' Of the second she writes to Mrs. Leigh +Smith: 'I am more interested than I can tell you in _All Sorts and +Conditions of Men_. It affects me like the perfected fruit of some +glorious tree which my dear husband and I had a dim dream of planting +more than thirty years ago, and which we did, in our ignorance and +incapacity, attempt to plant in soil not properly prepared, and far +too early in the season. I cannot tell you how it has recalled the +hopes and dreams of a time which, by the overruling Providence of God, +was so disastrous to us. It is a beautiful essay on the dignity of +labour.' + +The last few years of Mary Howitt's life were saddened by the deaths +of her beloved sister, Anna, and her elder daughter, Mrs. Watts, but +such blows are softened for aged persons by the consciousness that +their own race is nearly run. Mary had, moreover, one great spiritual +consolation in her conversion, at the age of eighty-three, to the +doctrines of Roman Catholicism In spite of her oft-repeated +protestations against the likelihood of her 'going over,' in spite of +her declaration, openly expressed as late as 1871, that she firmly +believed in the anti-Christianity of the Papacy, and that she and her +husband were watching with interest the progress of events which, they +trusted, would bring about its downfall, Mrs. Howitt was baptized into +the Roman Church in May, 1882. Her new faith was a source of intense +happiness to the naturally religious woman, who had found no refuge in +any sectarian fold since her renunciation of her childish creed. In +1888, the year of the Papal Jubilee, though her strength was already +failing, she was well enough to join the deputation of English +pilgrims, who, on January 10, were presented to the Pope by the Duke +of Norfolk. In describing the scene, the last public ceremony in which +she took part, she writes: 'A serene happiness, almost joy, filled my +whole being as I found myself on my knees before the Vicar of Christ. +My wish was to kiss his foot, but it was withdrawn, and his hand given +to me. You may think with what fervour I kissed the ring. In the +meantime he had been told my age and my late conversion. His hands +were laid on my shoulders, and, again and again, his right hand in +blessing on my head, whilst he spoke to me of Paradise.' + +Having thus achieved her heart's desire, it seemed as if the last tie +which bound the aged convert to earth was broken. A few days later she +was attacked by bronchitis, and, after a short illness, passed away in +her sleep on January 30, 1888, having nearly completed her +eighty-ninth year. To the last, we are told, Mary Howitt's sympathy +was as warm, her intelligence as keen as in the full vigour of life, +while her rare physical strength and pliant temper preserved her in +unabated enjoyment of existence to the verge of ninety. Although many +of her books were out of print at the time of her death, it was said +that if every copy had been destroyed, most of her ballads and minor +poems could have been collected from the memories of her admirers, who +had them--very literally--by heart. + +William and Mary Howitt, it may be observed in conclusion, though not +leaders, were brave soldiers in the army of workers for humanity, and +if now they seem likely to share the common lot of the rank and +file--oblivion--it must be remembered that they were among those +favoured of the gods who are crowned with gratitude, love, and +admiration by their contemporaries. To them, asleep in their Roman +grave, the neglect of posterity brings no more pain than the homage of +modern critics brings triumph to the slighted poet who shares their +last resting-place. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Memoirs of the Nineteenth +Century, by George Paston + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE MEMOIRS OF THE 19TH C. *** + +This file should be named 6756-8.txt or 6756-8.zip + +Produced by Steve Schulze, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. +This file was produced from images generously made available by the +CWRU Preservation Department Digital Library + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + diff --git a/6756-8.zip b/6756-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7d7fd56 --- /dev/null +++ b/6756-8.zip diff --git a/6756-h.zip b/6756-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5994a0b --- /dev/null +++ b/6756-h.zip diff --git a/6756-h/6756-h.htm b/6756-h/6756-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eb20eb2 --- /dev/null +++ b/6756-h/6756-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,10413 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> + <title>Little Memoirs of the Nineteenth Century</title> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Memoirs of the Nineteenth Century +by George Paston + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. 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Having +some faith in the theory that the verdict of foreigners is equivalent to +that of contemporary posterity, I have included two aliens in the group. +A visitor to our shores, whether he be a German princeling like +Pückler-Muskau, or a gilded democrat like N. P. Willis, may be +expected to observe and comment upon many traits of national life and +manners that would escape the notice of a native chronicler.</i></p> + +<p><i>Whereas certain readers of a former volume--'Little Memoirs of +the Eighteenth Century'--seem to have been distressed by the fact that +the majority of the characters died in the nineteenth century, it is +perhaps meet that I should apologise for the chronology of this present +volume, in which all the heroes and heroines, save one, were born in the +last quarter of the eighteenth century. But I would venture to submit +that a man is not, necessarily, the child of the century in which he is +born, or of that in which he dies; rather is he the child of the century +which sees the finest flower of his achievement.</i></p> + +<p style="font-weight: bold;"><br> +</p> + +<p style="font-weight: bold;"><br> +CONTENTS</p> + +<p><small><a href="#HAYDON">BENJAMIN ROBERT HAYDON</a><br> +<a href="#MORGAN">LADY MORGAN (SYDNEY OWENSON)</a><br> +<a href="#WILLIS">NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS</a><br> +<a href="#STANHOPE">LADY HESTER STANHOPE</a><br> +<a href="#MUSKAU">PRINCE PÜCKLER-MUSKAU IN ENGLAND</a><br> +<a href="#HOWITT">WILLIAM AND MARY HOWITT</a></small><br> +<br> +</p> + +<p style="font-weight: bold;"> LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</p> + +<p><small><a href="#HAYDON">BENJAMIN ROBERT HAYDON</a><br> +<a href="#MORGAN"> LADY MORGAN</a><br> +<a href="#WILLIS"> NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS</a><br> +<a href="#STANHOPE"> LADY HESTER STANHOPE ON HORSEBACK</a><br> +<a href="#STANHOPE2"> LADY HESTER STANHOPE IN EASTERN COSTUME</a><br> +<a href="#MUSKAU"> PRINCE PÜCKLER-MUSKAU</a><br> +<a href="#HOWITT"> MARY HOWITT</a></small><br> +</p> +<hr style="width: 100%; height: 2px;"> + +<p><br> +</p> + +<p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><a name="HAYDON"></a><big><big> +BENJAMIN ROBERT HAYDON</big><br> +</big><br> +</p> +<div style="text-align: center;"> </div> +<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="images/Haydon.jpg" + title="Benjamin Robert Haydon. From a portrait by Fornlin." + alt="Benjamin Robert Haydon. From a portrait by Fornlin." + style="width: 388px; height: 536px;"><br> +<br> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 20%;"> </div> +<div style="text-align: center;"> </div> + +<p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;">PART I</p> + +<p> If it be true that the most important ingredient in the composition +of the self-biographer is a spirit of childlike vanity, with a blend of +unconscious egoism, few men have ever been better equipped than Haydon +for the production of a successful autobiography. In naïve +simplicity of temperament he has only been surpassed by Pepys, in +fulness of self-revelation by Rousseau, and his <i>Memoirs</i> are not +unworthy of a place in the same category as the <i>Diary</i> and the <i>Confessions</i>. +From the larger public, the work has hardly attracted the attention it +deserves; it is too long, too minute, too heavily weighted with +technical details and statements of financial embarrassments, to be +widely or permanently popular. But as a human document, and as the +portrait of a temperament, its value can hardly be overestimated; while +as a tragedy it is none the less tragic because it contains elements of +the grotesque. Haydon set out with the laudable intention of writing the +exact truth about himself and his career, holding that every man who has +suffered for a principle, and who has been unjustly persecuted and +oppressed, should write his own history, and set his own case before his +countrymen. It is a fortunate accident for his readers that he should +have been gifted with the faculty of picturesque expression and an +exceptionally keen power of observation. If not a scholar, he was a man +of wide reading, of deep though desultory thinking, and a good critic +where the work of others was concerned. He seems to have desired to +conceal nothing, nor to set down aught in malice; if he fell into +mistakes and misrepresentations, these were the result of unconscious +prejudice, and the exaggerative tendency of a brain that, if not +actually warped, trembled on the border-line of sanity. He hoped that +his mistakes would be a warning to others, his successes a stimulus, and +that the faithful record of his struggles and aspirations would clear +his memory from the aspersions that his enemies had cast upon it.</p> + +<p>Haydon was born at Plymouth on January 26, 1786. He was the lineal +descendant of an ancient Devonshire family, the Haydons of Cadbay, who +had been ruined by a Chancery suit a couple of generations earlier, and +had consequently taken a step downwards in the social scale. His +grandfather, who married Mary Baskerville, a descendant of the famous +printer, set up as a bookseller in Plymouth, and, dying in 1773, +bequeathed his business to his son Benjamin, the father of our hero. +This Benjamin, who married the daughter of a Devonshire clergyman named +Cobley, was a man of the old-fashioned, John Bull type, who loved his +Church and king, believed that England was the only great country in the +world, swore that Napoleon won all his battles by bribery, and would +have knocked down any man who dared to disagree with him. The childhood +of the future historical painter was a picturesque and stirring period, +filled with the echoes of revolution and the rumours of wars. The Sound +was crowded with fighting ships preparing for sea, or returning battered +and blackened, with wounded soldiers on board and captured vessels in +tow. Plymouth itself was full of French prisoners, who made little +models of guillotines out of their meat-bones, and sold them to the +children for the then fashionable amusement of 'cutting off Louis XVI.'s +head.'</p> + +<p>Benjamin was sent to the local grammar-school, whose headmaster, Dr. +Bidlake, was a man of some culture, though not a deep classic. He wrote +poetry, encouraged his pupils to draw, and took them for country +excursions, with a view to fostering their love of nature. Mr. Haydon, +though he was proud of Benjamin's early attempts at drawing, had no +desire that he should be turned into an artist, and becoming alarmed at +Dr. Bidlake's dilettante methods, he transferred his son to the Plympton +Grammar-school, where Sir Joshua Reynolds had been educated, with strict +injunctions to the headmaster that the boy was on no account to have +drawing-lessons. On leaving school at sixteen, Benjamin, after, a few +months with a firm of accountants at Exeter, was bound apprentice to his +father for seven years, and it was then that his troubles began.</p> + +<p>'I hated day-books, ledgers, bill-books, and cashbooks,' he tells +us. 'I hated standing behind the counter, and insulted the customers; I +hated the town and all the people in it.' At last, after a quarrel with +a customer who tried to drive a bargain, this proud spirit refused to +enter the shop again. In vain his father pointed out to him the folly of +letting a good business go to ruin, of refusing a comfortable +independence--all argument was vain. An illness, which resulted in +inflammation of the eyes, put a stop to the controversy for the time +being; but on recovery, with his sight permanently injured, the boy +still refused to work out his articles, but wandered about the town in +search of casts and books on art. He bought a fine copy of Albinus at +his father's expense, and in a fortnight, with his sister to aid, learnt +all the muscles of the body, their rise and insertion, by heart. He +stumbled accidentally on Reynold's <i>Discourses</i>, and the first +that he read placed so much reliance on honest industry, and expressed +so strong a conviction that all men are equal in talent, and that +application makes all the difference, that the would-be artist, who +hitherto had been held back by some distrust of his natural powers, felt +that at last his destiny was irrevocably fixed. He announced his +intention of adopting an art-career with a determination that demolished +all argument, and, in spite of remonstrances, reproaches, tears, and +scoldings, he wrung from his father permission to go to London, and the +promise of support for the next two years.</p> + +<p>On May 14, 1804, at the age of eighteen, young Haydon took his place +in the mail, and made his first flight into the world. Arriving at the +lodgings that had been taken for him in the Strand in the early morning, +he had no sooner breakfasted than he set off for Somerset House, to see +the Royal Academy Exhibition. Looking round for historical pictures, he +discovered that Opie's 'Gil Bias' was the centre of attraction in one +room, and Westall's 'Shipwrecked Boy' in another.</p> + +<p>'I don't fear you,' he said to himself as he strode away. His next +step was to inquire for a plaster-shop, where he bought the Laocoön +and other casts, and then, having unpacked his Albinus, he was hard at +work before nine next morning drawing from the round, and breathing +aspirations for High Art, and defiance to all opposition. 'For three +months,' he tells us, 'I saw nothing but my books, my casts, and my +drawings. My enthusiasm was immense, my devotion for study that of a +martyr. I rose when I woke, at three or four, drew at anatomy till +eight, in chalks from casts from nine till one, and from half-past two +till five--then walked, dined, and to anatomy again from seven till ten +or eleven. I was resolute to be a great painter, to honour my country, +and to rescue the Art from that stigma of incapacity that was impressed +upon it.</p> + +<p>After some months of solitary study, Haydon bethought him of a +letter of introduction that had been given him to Prince Hoare, who was +something of a critic, having himself failed as an artist. Hoare +good-naturedly encouraged the youth in his ambitions, and gave him +introductions to Northcote, Opie, and Fuseli.</p> + +<p>To Northcote, who was a Plymouth man, Haydon went first, and he +gives a curious account of his interview with his distinguished +fellow-countryman, who also had once cherished aspirations after high +art. Northcote, a little wizened old man, with a broad Devonshire +accent, exclaimed on hearing that his young visitor intended to be a +historical painter: 'Heestorical painter! why, ye'll starve with a +bundle of straw under yeer head.' As for anatomy, he declared that it +was no use. 'Sir Joshua didn't know it; why should you want to know what +he didn't? Michael Angelo! What's he to do here? You must paint +portraits here.' 'I won't,' said young Haydon, clenching his teeth, and +he marched off to Opie. He found a coarse-looking, intellectual man who, +after reading the introductory letter, said quietly, 'You are studying +anatomy--master it--were I your age, I would do the same.' The last +visit was to Fuseli, who had a great reputation for the terrible, both +as artist and as man. The gallery into which the visitor was ushered was +so full of devils, witches, ghosts, blood and thunder, that it was a +palpable relief when nothing more alarming appeared than a little old +and lion-faced man, attired in a flannel dressing-gown, with the bottom +of Mrs. Fuseli's work-basket on his head! Fuseli, who had just been +appointed Keeper of Academy, received the young man kindly, praised his +drawings, and expressed a hope that he would see him at the Academy +School.</p> + +<p>After the Christmas vacation of 1805, Haydon began to attend the +Academy classes, where he struck up a close friendship with John +Jackson, afterwards a popular portrait-painter and Royal Academician, +but then a student like himself. Jackson was the son of a village tailor +in Yorkshire, and the <i>protége</i> of Lord Mulgrave and Sir +George Beaumont. The two friends told each other their plans for the +future, drew together in the evenings, and made their first life-studies +from a friendly coalheaver whom they persuaded to sit to them. After a +few months of hard work, Haydon was summoned home to take leave of his +father, who was believed to be dying. The invalid recovered, and then +followed another period of torture for the young student--aunts, uncles, +and cousins all trying to drive the stray sheep back into the commercial +fold. Exhausted by the struggle, Haydon at last consented to relinquish +his career, and enter the business. Great was his delight and surprise +when his father refused to accept the sacrifice--which was made in +anything but a cheerful spirit--and promised to contribute to his +support until he was able to provide for himself.</p> + +<p>In the midst of all these domestic convulsions came a letter from +Jackson, containing the announcement that there was 'a raw, tall, pale, +queer Scotchman just come up, an odd fellow, but with something in him. +He is called Wilkie.' 'Hang the fellow!' said Haydon to himself. 'I hope +with his "something" he is not going to be a historical painter.' On his +return to town, our hero made the acquaintance of the queer young +Scotchman, and was soon admitted to his friendship and intimacy. +Wilkie's 'Village Politicians' was the sensation of the Exhibition of +1806, and brought him two important commissions--one from Lord Mulgrave +for the 'Blind Fiddler,' and the other from Sir George Beaumont for the +'Rent-Day.' It was now considered that Wilkie's fortune was made, his +fame secure, and if his two chief friends--Haydon and Jackson--could not +help regarding him with some natural feelings of envy, it is evident +that his early success encouraged them, and stimulated them to increased +effort.</p> + +<p>Haydon had been learning fresh secrets in his art, partly from an +anatomical 'subject' that he had obtained from a surgeon, and partly +from his introduction, through the good offices of Jackson, to the works +of Titian at Stafford House, and in other private collections, there +being as yet no National Gallery where the student could study the old +masters at his pleasure. Haydon was now panting to begin his first +picture, his natural self-confidence having been strengthened by a +letter from Wilkie, who reported that Lord Mulgrave, with whom he was +staying, was much interested in what he had heard of Haydon's ambitions. +Lord Mulgrave had suggested a heroic subject--the Death of +Dentatus--which he would like to see painted, and he wished to know if +this commended itself to Haydon's ideas. This first commission for a +great historical picture--for so he understood the suggestion--was a +triumph for the young artist, who felt himself gloriously rewarded for +two years of labour and opposition. He had, however, already decided on +the subject of his first attempt--Joseph and Mary resting on the road to +Egypt. On October 1,1806, after setting his palette, and taking his +brush in hand, he knelt down, in accordance with his invariable custom +throughout his career, and prayed fervently that God would bless his +work, grant him energy to create a new era in art, and rouse the people +to a just estimate of the moral value of historical painting.</p> + +<p>Then followed a happy time. The difficulties of a first attempt were +increased by his lack of systematic training, but Haydon believed, with +Sir Joshua, that application made the artist, and he certainly spared no +pains to achieve success. He painted and repainted his heads a dozen +times, and used to mix tints on a piece of paper, and carry them down to +Stafford House once a week in order to compare them with the colouring +of the Titians. While this work was in progress, Sir George and Lady +Beaumont called to see the picture, which they declared was very +poetical, and 'quite large enough for anything' (the canvas was six feet +by four), and invited the artist to dinner. This first dinner-party, in +what he regarded as 'high life,' was an alarming ordeal for the country +youth, who made prodigious preparations, drove to the house in a state +of abject terror, and in five minutes was sitting on an ottoman, talking +to Lady Beaumont, and more at ease than he had ever been in his life. In +truth, bashfulness was never one of Haydon's foibles.</p> + +<p>The Joseph and Mary took six months to paint, and was exhibited in +1807. It was considered a remarkable work for a young student, and was +bought the following year by Mr. Hope of Deepdene. During the season, +Haydon was introduced to Lord Mulgrave, and with his friends Wilkie and +Jackson frequently dined at the Admiralty, [Footnote: Lord Mulgrave had +recently been appointed First Lord of the Admiralty.] where they met +ministers, generals, great ladies and men of genius, and rose daily in +hope and promise. Haydon now began the picture of the 'Death of Siccius +Dentatus' that his patron had suggested, but he found the difficulties +so overwhelming that, by Wilkie's advice, he decided to go down to +Plymouth for a few months, and practise portrait-painting. At fifteen +guineas a head, he got plenty of employment among his friends and +relations, though he owns that his portraits were execrable; but as soon +as he had obtained some facility in painting heads, he was anxious to +return to town to finish his large picture. Mrs. Haydon was now in +declining health, and desiring to consult a famous surgeon in London, +she decided to travel thither with her son and daughter. Unfortunately +her disease, angina pectoris, was aggravated by the agitation of the +journey, and on the road, at Salt Hill, she was seized with an attack +that proved fatal. Haydon was obliged to return to Devonshire with his +sister, but as soon as the funeral was over he set off again for town, +where his prospects seemed to justify his exchanging his garret in the +Strand for a first floor in Great Marlborough Street.</p> + +<p>He found the practice gained in portrait-painting a substantial +advantage, but he still felt himself incapable of composing a heroic +figure for Dentatus. 'If I copied nature my work was mean,' he +complains; 'and if I left her it was mannered. How was I to build a +heroic form like life, yet above life?' He was puzzled to find, in +painting from the living model, that the markings of the skin varied +with the action of the limbs, variations that did not appear in the few +specimens of the antique that had come under his notice. Was nature +wrong, he asked himself, or the antique? During this period of +indecision and confusion came a proposal from Wilkie that they should go +together to inspect the Elgin Marbles then newly arrived in England, and +deposited at Lord Elgin's house in Park Lane. Haydon carelessly agreed, +knowing nothing of the wonders he was to see, and the two friends +proceeded to Park Lane, where they were ushered through a yard to a +dirty shed, in which lay the world-famous Marbles.</p> + +<p>'The first thing I fixed my eyes on,' to quote Haydon's own words, +'was the wrist of a figure in one of the female groups, in which were +visible the radius and ulna. I was astonished, for I had never seen them +hinted at in any wrist in the antique. I darted my eye to the elbow, and +saw the outer condyle visibly affecting the shape, as in nature. That +combination of nature and repose which I had felt was so much wanting +for high art was here displayed to midday conviction. My heart beat. If +I had seen nothing else, I had beheld sufficient to help me to nature +for the rest of my life. But when I turned to the Theseus, and saw that +every form was altered by action or repose-when I saw that the two sides +of his back varied as he rested on his elbow; and again, when in the +figure of the fighting metope, I saw the muscle shown under one armpit +in that instantaneous action of darting out, and left out in the other +armpits; when I saw, in short, the most heroic style of art, combined +with all the essential detail of everyday life, the thing was done at +once and for ever.... Here were the principles which the great Greeks in +their finest time established, and here was I, the most prominent +historical student, perfectly qualified to appreciate all this by my own +determined mode of study.'</p> + +<p>On returning to his painting-room, Haydon, feeling utterly disgusted +with his attempt at the heroic in the form and action of Dentatus, +obliterated what he calls 'the abominable mass,' and breathed as if +relieved of a nuisance. Through Lord Mulgrave he obtained an order to +draw from the Marbles, and devoted the next three months to mastering +their secrets, and bringing his hand and mind into subjection to the +principles that they displayed. 'I rose with the sun,' he writes, with +the glow of his first enthusiasm still upon him, 'and opened my eyes to +the light only to be conscious of my high pursuit. I sprang from my bed, +dressed like one possessed, and passed the day, noon, and the night, in +the same dream of abstracted enthusiasm; secluded from the world, +regardless of its feelings, impregnable to disease, insensible to +contempt.' He painted his heads, figures, and draperies over and over +again, feeling that to obliterate was the only way to improve. His +studio soon filled with fashionable folk, who came to see the +'extraordinary picture painted by a young man who had never had the +advantages of foreign travel.' Haydon believed, with the simplicity of a +child, in all these flattering prophecies of glory and fame, and +imagined that the Academy would welcome with open arms so promising a +student, one, moreover, who had been trained in its own school. He +redoubled his efforts, and in March 1809, 'Dentatus' was finished.</p> + +<p>'The production of this picture,' he naively explains, 'must and +will be considered as an epoch in English art. The drawing in it was +correct and elevated, and the perfect forms and system of the antique +were carried into painting, united with the fleshy look of everyday +life. The colour, light and shadow, the composition and the telling of +the story were complete.' His contemporaries did not form quite so +flattering an estimate of the work. It was badly hung, a fate to which +many an artist of three-and-twenty has had to submit, before and since; +but Haydon writes as if no such injustice had been committed since the +world began, and was persuaded that the whole body of Academicians was +leagued in spite and jealousy against him. Lord Mulgrave gave him sixty +guineas in addition to the hundred he had first promised, which seems a +fair price for the second work of an obscure artist, but poor Haydon +fancied that his professional prospects had suffered from the treatment +of the Academy, that people of fashion (on whose attentions he set great +store) were neglecting him, and that he was a marked man. A sea-trip to +Plymouth with Wilkie gave his thoughts a new and more healthy turn. +Together, the friends visited Sir Joshua's birthplace, and roamed over +the moors and combes of Devonshire. Before returning to town, they spent +a delightful fortnight with Sir George Beaumont at Coleorton, where, +says Haydon, 'we dined with the Claude and Rembrandt before us, and +breakfasted with the Rubens landscape, and did nothing, morning, noon, +and night, but think of painting, talk of painting, and wake to paint +again.'</p> + +<p>During this visit, Sir George gave Haydon a commission for a picture +on a subject from <i>Macbeth</i>. After it was begun, he objected to +the size, but our artist, who, throughout his life, detested painting +cabinet pictures, refused to attempt anything on a smaller scale. He +persuaded Sir George to withhold his decision until the picture was +finished, and promised that if he still objected to the size, he would +paint him another on any scale he pleased. While engaged on 'Macbeth,' +he competed with 'Dentatus' for a hundred guinea prize offered by the +Directors of the British Gallery for the best historical picture. +'Dentatus' won the prize, but this piece of good fortune was +counterbalanced by a letter from Mr. Haydon, senior, containing the +announcement that he could no longer afford to maintain his son. This +was a heavy blow, but after turning over pros and cons in his own mind, +Haydon came to the conclusion that since he had won the hundred guinea +prize, he had a good chance of winning a three hundred guinea prize, +which the Directors now offered, with his 'Macbeth,' and consequently +that he had no occasion to dread starvation. 'Thus reasoning,' he says, +'I borrowed, and praying God to bless my emotions, went on more +vigorously than ever. <i>And here began debt and obligation, out of +which I have never been, and shall never be, extricated, as long as I +live.'</i></p> + +<p>This prophecy proved only too true. But Haydon, though he afterwards +bitterly regretted his folly in exchanging independence for debt, and +his pride in refusing to paint pot-boilers in the intervals of his great +works, firmly believed that he, with his high aims and fervent desire to +serve the cause of art, was justified in continuing his ambitious +course, and depending for maintenance on the contributions of his +friends. Nothing could exceed the approbation of his own conduct, or +shake his faith in his own powers. 'I was a virtuous and diligent +youth,' he assures us; 'I never touched wine, dined at reasonable +chop-houses, lived principally in my study, and cleaned my own brushes, +like the humblest student.' He goes to see Sebastian del Piombo's +'Lazarus' in the Angerstein collection, and, after writing a careful +criticism of the work, concludes: 'It is a grand picture; a great +acquisition to the country, and an honour to Mr. Angerstein's taste and +spirit in buying it; yet if God cut not my life permanently short, I +hope I shall leave one behind me that will do more honour to my country +than this has done to Rome. In short, if I live, I will--I feel I shall, +(God pardon me if this is presumption. June 31, 1810.)'</p> + +<p>At this time Haydon devoted a good deal of his leisure to reading +classic authors, Homer, Æschylus, and Virgil, in order to tune his +mind to high thoughts. Nearly every day he spent a few hours in drawing +from the Elgin Marbles, and he piously thanks God that he was in +existence on their arrival. He spared no pains to ensure that his +'Macbeth' should be perfect in poetry, expression, form and colour, +making casts and studies without end. His friends related, as a +wonderful specimen of his conscientiousness, that, after having +completed the figure of Macbeth, he took it out in order to raise it +higher in the picture, believing that this would improve the effect. +'The wonder in ancient Athens would have been if I had suffered him to +remain,' he observes. 'Such is the state of art in this country!'</p> + +<p>In 1811 Haydon entered into his first journalistic controversy, an +unfortunate departure, as it turned out, since it gave him a taste for +airing his ideas in print. Leigh Hunt, to whom he had been introduced a +year or two before, had attacked one of his theories, relative to a +standard figure, in the <i>Examiner</i>. Haydon replied, was replied to +himself, and thoroughly enjoyed the controversy which, he says, +consolidated his powers of verbal expression. Leigh Hunt he describes as +a fine specimen of a London editor, with his bushy hair, black eyes, +pale face, and 'nose of taste.' He was assuming yet moderate, sarcastic +yet genial, with a smattering of everything and mastery of nothing; +affecting the dictator, the poet, the politician, the critic, and the +sceptic, whichever would, at the moment, give him the air, to inferior +minds, of a very superior man.' Although Haydon disliked Hunt's 'Cockney +peculiarities,' and disapproved of his republican principles, yet the +fearless honesty of his opinions, the unhesitating sacrifice of his own +interests, the unselfish perseverance of his attacks upon all abuses, +whether royal or religious, noble or democratic, made a deep impression +on the young artist's mind.</p> + +<p>Towards the end of 1811 the new picture, which represents Macbeth +stepping between the sleeping grooms to murder the king, was finished, +and sent to the British Gallery. It was well hung, and was praised by +the critics, but Sir George declined to take it, though he offered to +pay Haydon a hundred pounds for his trouble, or to give him a commission +for a picture on a smaller scale. Haydon petulantly refused both offers, +and thus after three years' work, and incurring debts to the amount of +six hundred pounds, he found himself penniless, with his picture +returned on his hands. This disappointment was only the natural result +of his own impracticable temperament, but to Haydon's exaggerative sense +the whole world seemed joined in a conspiracy against him. 'Exasperated +by the neglect of my family,' he writes, 'tormented by the consciousness +of debt, cut to the heart by the cruelty of Sir George, and enraged at +the insults of the Academy, I became furious.' His fury, unfortunately, +found vent in an attack upon the Academy and its methods, through the +medium of the <i>Examiner</i>, which was the recognised vehicle of all +attacks upon authority. The onslaught seems to have been justified, +though whether it was judicious is another question. The ideals of +English artists during the early years of the nineteenth century had +sunk very low, and the standard of public taste was several degrees +lower. Portrait-painting was the only lucrative branch of art, and the +Academy was almost entirely in the hands of the portrait-painters, who +gave little encouragement to works of imagination. The burden of the +patron, which had been removed from literature, still rested upon +painting, and the Academicians found it more to their interest to foster +the ignorance than to educate the taste of the patron.</p> + +<p>Over the signature of 'An English Student,' Haydon not only exposed +the inefficiency of the Academy, but advocated numerous reforms, chief +among them being an improved method of election, the establishment of +schools of design, a reduction in the power of the Council, and an +annual grant of public money for purposes of art. In these days, when +the Academicians are no longer regarded as a sacred body, it is hard to +realise the commotion that these letters made in art circles, whether +professional or amateur. The identity of the 'English Student' was soon +discovered, and 'from that moment,' writes Haydon, 'the destiny of my +life was changed. My picture was caricatured, my name detested, my peace +harassed. I was looked at like a monster, abused like a plague, and +avoided like a maniac.' There is probably some characteristic +exaggeration in this statement, but considering the power wielded at +this time by the Academy and its supporters, Haydon would undoubtedly +have done better, from a worldly point of view, to keep clear of these +controversies. The prudent and sensible Wilkie was much distressed at +his friend's ebullition of temper, and earnestly advised him to follow +up the reputation his brush had gained for him, and leave the pen alone. +'In moments of depression,' wrote Haydon, many years later, 'I often +wished I had followed Wilkie's advice, but then I should never have +acquired that grand and isolated reputation, solitary and unsupported, +which, while it encumbers the individual, inspires him with vigour +proportioned to the load.'</p> + +<p>On April 3, 1812, Haydon records in his journal: 'My canvas came +home for Solomon, twelve feet ten inches by ten feet ten inches--a grand +size. God in heaven, grant me strength of body and vigour of mind to +cover it with excellence. Amen--on my knees.' His design was to paint a +series of great ideal works, that should stand comparison with the +productions of the old masters, and he had chosen the somewhat +stereotyped subject of the Judgment of Solomon, because Raphael and +Rubens had both tried it, and he intended to tell the story better! He +was now, at the beginning of this ambitious project, entirely without +means. His father had died, and left him nothing, and his 'Macbeth' had +not won the £300 premium at the British Gallery. His aristocratic +friends had temporarily deserted him, but the Hunts assisted him with +the ready liberality of the impecunious. John lent him small sums of +money, while Leigh offered him a plate at his table till Solomon was +finished, and initiated him into the mysteries of drawing and +discounting bills.</p> + +<p>Haydon already owed his landlord two hundred pounds, but that seemed +to him no reason for moving into cheaper rooms. He called the man up, +and represented to him that he was about to paint a great masterpiece, +which would take him two years, during which period he would earn +nothing, and be unable to pay any rent. The landlord, surely a unique +specimen of his order, deliberated rather ruefully over the prospect set +before him, rubbed his chin, and muttered: 'I should not like ye to +go--it's hard for both of us; but what I say is, you always paid me when +you could, and why should you not again when you are able?... Well, sir, +here's my hand; I'll give you two years more, and if this does not +sell--why then, sir, we'll consider what is to be done.'</p> + +<p>Thus a roof was provided, but there was still dinner to be thought +of, since, if a man works, he must also eat. 'I went to the house [John +o' Groat's] where I had always dined,' writes Haydon, 'intending to dine +without paying for that day. I thought the servants did not offer me the +same attention. I thought I perceived the company examine me--I thought +the meat was worse. My heart sank, as I said falteringly, "I will pay +you to-morrow." The girl smiled, and seemed interested. As I was +escaping with a sort of lurking horror, she said, "Mr. Haydon, my master +wishes to see you." "My God," thought I, "it is to tell me he can't +trust!" In I walked like a culprit. "Sir, I beg your pardon, but I see +by the papers you have been ill-used; I hope you won't be angry--I mean +no offence; but I just wish to say, as you have dined here many years +and always paid, if it would be a convenience during your present work +to dine here till it is done--so that you may not be obliged to spend +your money here when you may want it--I was going to say that you need +be under no apprehension--hem! for a dinner."' This handsome offer was +condescendingly accepted, and the good man seemed quite relieved.</p> + +<p>While Solomon was slowly progressing at the expense of the landlord +and the eating-house keeper, Haydon spent his leisure in literary rather +than artistic circles. At Leigh Hunt's he met, and became intimate with +Charles Lamb, Keats, Hazlitt, and John Scott. In January 1813 he writes: +'Spent the evening with Leigh Hunt at West End. His society is always +delightful. I do not know a purer, more virtuous partner, or a more +witty and enlivening man. We talked of his approaching imprisonment. He +said it would be a great pleasure if he were certain to be sent to +Newgate, because he should be in the midst of his friends.' Hazlitt won +our hero's liking by praising his 'Macbeth.' 'Thence began a +friendship,' Haydon tells us, 'for that interesting man, that singular +mixture of friend and fiend, radical and critic, metaphysician, poet, +and painter, on whose word no one could rely, on whose heart no one +could calculate, and some of whose deductions he himself would try to +explain in vain.... Mortified at his own failure [in painting] he +resolved that as he had not succeeded, no one else should, and he spent +the whole of his after-life in damping the ardour, chilling the hopes, +and dimming the prospects of patrons and painters, so that after I once +admitted him, I had nothing but forebodings of failure to bear up +against, croakings about the climate, and sneers at the taste of the +public.'</p> + +<p>By the beginning of 1814 Solomon was approaching completion, but the +artist had been reduced to living for a fortnight on potatoes. He had +now been nearly four years without a commission, and three without any +help from home, so that it is not surprising to learn that he felt +completely broken down in body and mind, or that his debts amounted to +£1100. A frame was procured on credit, and, failing any more +suitable place of exhibition, the picture was sent to the Water-colour +Society. At the private view, the Princess of Wales and other eminent +critics pronounced against the Solomon, but as soon as the public were +admitted, the tune changed, and John Bull vowed it was the finest work +of art ever produced in England. If posterity has not indorsed this +judgment, the Solomon is at least regarded, by competent critics, as +Haydon's most successful work. 'Before the doors had been open half an +hour,' writes Haydon, 'a gentleman opened his pocket-book, and showed me +a £500 note. "Will you take it?" My heart beat--my agonies of want +pressed, but it was too little. I trembled out, "I cannot." The +gentleman invited me to dine, and when we were sitting over our wine, +agreed to give me my price. His lady said, "But, my dear, where am I to +put my piano?" and the bargain was at an end!' On the third day Sir +George Beaumont and Mr. Holwell Carr came to the Exhibition, having been +deputed to buy the picture for the British Gallery. While they were +discussing its merits, one of the officials went over, and put 'sold' on +the frame, whereupon the artist says he thought he should have fainted. +The work had been bought at the price asked, £700, by two Plymouth +bankers, Sir William Elford (the friend and correspondent of Miss +Mitford) and Mr. Tingecombe.</p> + +<p>Poor Haydon now thought that his fortune was secure. He paid away +£500 to landlord and tradesmen in the first week, and though this +did not settle half his debts, it restored his credit. The balance was +spent in a trip to Paris with Wilkie, Paris being then (May 1814) the +most interesting place on earth. All the nations of Europe were gathered +together there, and the Louvre was in its glory. So absorbed and +fascinated was Haydon by the actual life of the city, that he finds +little to say about the works of art there collected. Yet his first +visit was to the Louvre, and he describes with what impetuosity he +bounded up the steps, three at a time, and how he scolded Wilkie for +trotting up with his usual deliberation. 'I might just as well have +scolded the column,' he observes. 'I soon left him at some Jan Steen, +while I never stopped until I stood before the "Transfiguration." My +first feeling was disappointment. It looked small, harsh and hard. This, +of course, is always the way when you have fed your imagination for +years on a work you know only by prints. Even the "Pietro Martyre" was +smaller than I thought to find it; yet after the difference between +reality and anticipation had worn away, these great works amply repaid +the study of them, and grew up to the fancy, or rather the fancy grew up +to them.... It will hardly be believed by artists that we often forgot +the great works in the Louvre in the scenes around us, and found +Russians and Bashkirs from Tartary more attractive than the +"Transfiguration"; but so it was, and I do not think we were very wrong +either. Why stay poring over pictures when we were on the most +remarkable scene in the history of the earth.'</p> + +<p>On his return to London, Haydon was gratified by the news that his +friend and fellow-townsman, George Eastlake, had proposed and carried a +motion that he should be presented with the freedom of his native city, +as a testimony of respect for his extraordinary merit as a historical +painter. Furthermore, the Directors of the British Gallery sent him a +hundred guineas as a token of their admiration for his latest work. But +no commission followed, either from a private patron or public body. +However, the artist, nothing daunted, ordered a larger canvas, and set +vigorously to work on a representation of 'Christ's Entry into +Jerusalem,' a picture which occupied him, with intervals of illness and +idleness, for nearly six years.</p> + +<p>The year 1815 was too full of stir and excitement for a man like +Haydon, who was always keenly interested in public affairs, to devote +himself to steady work. The news of Waterloo almost turned his brain. On +June 23 he notes: 'I read the <i>Gazette</i> [with the account of +Waterloo] the last thing before going to bed. I dreamt of it, and was +fighting all night; I got up in a steam of feeling, and read the <i>Gazette</i> +again, ordered a <i>Courier</i> for a month, and read all the papers +till I was faint.... 'Have not the efforts of the nation,' I asked +myself, 'been gigantic?' To such glories she only wants to add the +glories of my noble art to make her the grandest nation in the world, +and these she shall have if God spare my life....</p> + +<p>'<i>June</i> 25.--Dined with Hunt. I give myself credit for not +worrying him to death at this news. He was quiet for some time, but +knowing it must come, and putting on an air of indifference, he said, +"Terrible battle this, Haydon." "A glorious one, Hunt." "Oh yes, +certainly," and to it we went. Yet Hunt took a just and liberal view of +the situation. As for Hazlitt, it is not to be believed how the +destruction of Napoleon affected him; he seemed prostrated in mind and +body; he walked about unwashed, unshaved, hardly sober by day, and +always intoxicated by night, literally, without exaggeration, for weeks, +until at length, wakening as it were from his stupor, he at once left +off all stimulating liquors, and never touched them after.'</p> + +<p>It is in this year that we find the first mention in the Journal of +Wordsworth, who, throughout his life, was one of Haydon's most faithful +friends and appreciative admirers. On April 13, the artist records: 'I +had a cast made yesterday of Wordsworth's face. He bore it like a +philosopher.... We afterwards called on Hunt, and as Hunt had previously +attacked him, and now has reformed his opinions, the meeting was +interesting. Hunt paid him the highest compliments, and told him that as +he grew wiser and got older, he found his respect for his powers, and +enthusiasm for his genius, increase.... I afterwards sauntered with him +to Hampstead, with great delight. Never did any man so beguile the time +as Wordsworth. His purity of heart, his kindness, his soundness of +principle, his information, his knowledge, and the intense and eager +feelings with which he pours forth all he knows, affect, interest, and +enchant one. I do not know any one I would be so inclined to worship as +a purified being.'</p> + +<p>The new picture was not far advanced before the painter was once +again at the end of his resources, though not of his courage. Fifty +guineas were advanced to him by Sir George Beaumont, who had now +commissioned a picture at two hundred guineas, and Mr. (after Sir +George) Phillips, of Manchester, gave him a commission of £500 for +a sacred work, paying one hundred guineas down. But these advances +melted rapidly away in the expenses attendant on the painting of so +ambitious a work as the 'Entry into Jerusalem.' Towards the close of the +year Haydon's health began to suffer from his excessive application, his +sight weakened, and he was often unable to paint for months at a time. +Under these afflictions, he was consoled by receiving permission to take +casts of the Elgin Marbles, the authenticity of which treasures had +recently been attacked by the art-critic, Knight Payne, who declared +that they were not Greek at all, but Roman, of the time of Hadrian. Such +was the effect of Payne Knight's opinion that the Marbles went down in +the public estimation, the Government hesitated to buy them for the +nation, and they were left neglected in a damp shed. Haydon was furious +at this insult to the objects of his idolatry, whose merits he had been +preaching in season and out of season since the day that he first set +eyes upon the Theseus and the Ilissus. At this critical moment he found +himself supported by a new and powerful champion in the person of +Canova, who had just arrived in England. Canova at once admitted that +the style of the Marbles was superior to that of all other known +marbles, and declared that they were well worth coming from Rome to see. +'Canova's visit was a victory for me,' writes Haydon, who had received +the sculptor at his studio, and introduced him to some of the artistic +lions of London. 'What became now of all the sneers at my senseless +insanity about the Marbles? I, unknown, with no station or rank, might +have talked myself dumb; but for Canova, the great artist of Europe, to +repeat word for word what I had been saying for seven years! His opinion +could not be gainsaid.'</p> + +<p>If our troubles are apt to come not in single file, but in 'whole +battalions,' our triumphs also occasionally arrive in squadrons, or such +at least was Haydon's experience. Hard upon Canova's departure came a +letter from Wordsworth, enclosing three sonnets, the last of which had, +he avowed, been inspired by a letter of Haydon's on the struggles and +hardships of the artist's life. This is now the familiar sonnet +beginning, <br> +</p> + +<p> 'High is our calling, Friend,' <br> +</p> + +<p>and concluding:</p> + +<p> 'Great is the glory, for the strife is hard.'</p> + +<p>'Now, reader,' writes the delighted recipient, 'was not this +glorious? And you, young student, when you are pressed down by want in +the midst of a great work, remember what followed Haydon's perseverance. +The freedom of his native town, the visit of Canova, and the sonnet of +Wordsworth, and if that do not cheer you up, and make you go on, you are +past all hope.... It had, indeed, been a wonderful year for me. The +Academicians were silenced. All classes were so enthusiastic and so +delighted that, though I had lost seven months with weak eyes, and had +only accomplished The Penitent Girl, The Mother, The Centurion and the +Samaritan Woman, yet they were considered so decidedly in advance of all +I had yet done, that my painting-room was crowd by rank, beauty, and +fashion, and the picture was literally taken up as an honour to the +nation.'</p> + +<p>But, alas! neither the sonnets of poets nor the homage of the great +would pay for models and colours, or put bread into the artist's mouth. +Haydon could only live by renewed borrowing, for which method of support +he endeavours, without much success, to excuse himself. Once in the +clutches of professional money-lenders, he confesses that 'the fine edge +of honour was dulled. Though my honourable discharge of what I borrowed +justified my borrowing again, yet it is a fallacious relief, because you +must stop sooner or later; if you are punctual, and if you can pay in +the long-run, why incur the debt at all? Too proud to do small, modest +things, that I might obtain fair means of subsistence as I proceeded +with my great work, I thought it no degradation to borrow, to risk the +insult of refusal, and be bated down like the meanest dealer. Then I was +liberal in my art; I spared no expense for casts and prints, and did +great things for the art by means of them.... Ought I, after such +efforts as I had made, to have been left in this position by the +Directors of the British Gallery or the Government?'</p> + +<p>The year 1816 was distinguished in Haydon's life as the epoch of his +first, or, more accurately, his last serious love-affair. He was of a +susceptible temperament, and seems to have been a favourite with women, +whom he inspired with his own strong belief in himself; but he demanded +much of the woman who was to be his wife, and hitherto he had not found +one who seemed worthy of that exalted position. He had long been +acquainted with Maria Foote, the actress, for whom he entertained a +qualified admiration, and by her he was taken one day to a friend's +house where, 'In one instant, the loveliest face that was ever created +since God made Eve, smiled gently at my approach. The effect of her +beauty was instantaneous. On the sofa lay a dying man and a boy about +two years old. We shortly took leave. I never spoke a word, and after +seeing M---- home, I returned to the house, and stood outside, in hopes +that she would appear at the window. I went home, and for the first time +in my life was really, heartily, thoroughly, passionately in love. I +hated my pictures. I hated the Elgin Marbles. I hated books. I could not +eat, or sleep, or think, or write, or talk. I got up early, examined the +premises and street, and gave a man half-a-crown to let me sit +concealed, and watch for her coming out. Day after day I grew more and +more enraptured, till resistance was relinquished with a glorious +defiance of restraint. Her conduct to her dying husband, her gentle +reproof of my impassioned air, riveted my being. But I must not +anticipate. Sufficient for the present, O reader, is it to tell thee +that B. R. Haydon is, and for ever will be, in love with that woman, and +that she is his wife.'</p> + +<p>The first note that Haydon has preserved from his friend Keats is +dated November 1816, and runs:</p> + +<p> 'MY DEAR SIR,--Last evening wrought me up, and I cannot forbear +sending you the following.--Yours imperfectly,</p> + +<p>JOHN KEATS.'</p> + +<p>The 'following' was nothing less than the noble sonnet, +beginning--'Great spirits now on earth are sojourning,' with an allusion +to Haydon in the lines: </p> + +<p> 'And lo! whose steadfastness would never take<br> + A meaner sound than Raphael's whispering.'</p> + +<p>Haydon wrote an enthusiastic letter of thanks, gave the young poet +some good advice, and promised to send his sonnet to Wordsworth. +'Keats,' he records, 'was the only man I ever met who seemed and looked +conscious of a high calling, except Wordsworth. Byron and Shelley were +always sophisticating about their verses; Keats sophisticated about +nothing. He had made up his mind to do great things, and when he found +that by his connection with the <i>Examiner</i> clique he had brought +upon himself an overwhelming outcry of unjust aversion, he shrank up +into himself, his diseased tendencies showed themselves, and he died a +victim to mistakes, on the part of friends and enemies alike.'</p> + +<p>Haydon gives a curious account of his first meeting with Shelley, +which took place in the course of this year. The occasion was a +dinner-party at James Smith's house, when Keats and Horace Smith were +also among the guests. 'I seated myself,' writes Haydon,' right opposite +Shelley, as I was told afterwards, for I did not then know what hectic, +spare, weakly, yet intellectual-looking creature it was, carving a bit +of broccoli or cabbage in his plate, as if it had been the substantial +wing of a chicken. In a few minutes Shelley opened the conversation by +saying in the most feminine and gentle voice, "As to that detestable +religion, the Christian--" I looked astounded, but casting a glance +round the table, I easily saw that I was to be set at that evening <i>vi +et armis</i>.... I felt like a stag at bay, and resolved to gore +without mercy. Shelley said the Mosaic and Christian dispensation were +inconsistent. I swore they were not, and that the Ten Commandments had +been the foundation of all the codes of law on the earth. Shelley denied +it. I affirmed they were, neither of us using an atom of logic.' This +edifying controversy continued until all parties grew very warm, and +said unpleasant things to one another. After this dinner, Haydon made up +his mind to subject himself no more to the chance of these discussions, +but gradually to withdraw from this freethinking circle.</p> + +<p>The chief artistic events of the year, from our hero's point of +view, were, the final settlement of the Elgin Marbles question, and his +own attempt to found a school. The Committee appointed by Government to +examine and report upon the Marbles refused to call Haydon as a witness +on Lord Elgin's side, but the artist embodied his views on the subject +in a paper which appeared in both the <i>Examiner</i> and the <i>Champion</i>. +This article, which was afterwards translated into French and Italian, +contained a scathing attack on Payne Knight, and was said by Sir Thomas +Lawrence to have saved the Elgin Marbles, and ruined Haydon. However +this may be, the Government, it will be remembered, decided to buy the +treasures for £35,000, a sum considerably less than that which +Lord Elgin had spent on bringing them to England.</p> + +<p>The School of Haydon was first instituted with three distinguished +pupils in the persons of the three Landseer brothers, to whom were +afterwards added William Bewick, Eastlake, Harvey, Lance, and Chatfield. +Haydon set his disciples to draw from the Raphael Cartoons, two of which +were brought up from Hampton Court to the British Gallery, and, as soon +as they were sufficiently advanced, he sent them to the Museum to draw +from the Elgin Marbles. 'Their cartoons,' he writes, 'drawn full size, +of the Fates, of Theseus and the Ilissus, literally made a noise in +Europe. An order came from the great Goethe at Weimar for a set for his +own house, the furniture of which having been since bought by the +Government, and the house kept up as it was in Goethe's time, the +cartoons of my pupils are thus preserved, whilst in England the rest are +lying about in cellars and corners/ The early days of the School thus +held out a promise for the future, which unfortunately was not +fulfilled. Haydon contrived to involve two or three of his pupils in his +own financial embarrassments, by inducing them to sign accommodation +bills, a proceeding which broke up the establishment, and brought a +lasting stain upon his reputation.</p> + +<p>In 1817 Haydon was introduced to Miss Mitford, who greatly admired +his work, and a warm friendship sprang up between the pair. In May, Miss +Mitford wrote to Sir William Elford: 'The charm of the Exhibition is a +chalk-drawing by Mr. Haydon taken, <i>as he tells me</i>, from a mother +who had lost her child. It is the very triumph of expression. I have not +yet lost the impression which it made upon my mind and senses, and which +vented itself in a sonnet.' A visit to the studio followed, and Miss +Mitford was charmed with the room, the books, the great unfinished +picture, and the artist himself--with his <i>bonhomie</i>, <i>naïveté</i>, +and enthusiasm. With all her heart she admires the noble, independent +spirit of Haydon, who, she declares, is quite one of the old heroes come +to life again--one of Shakespeare's men, full of spirit, endurance, and +moral courage. She concludes her account with an expression of regret +that he should be 'such a fright.' Now Haydon is generally described by +his contemporaries as a good-looking man, though short in stature, with +an antique head, aquiline features, and fine dark eyes. His later +portraits are chiefly remarkable for the immensely wide mouth with which +he seems to be endowed, but in an early sketch by Wilkie he is +represented as a picturesque youth with an admirably modelled profile.</p> + +<p>To Miss Mitford we owe a quaint anecdote of our hero, which, better +than pages of analysis, depicts the man. It appears that Leigh Hunt, who +was a great keeper of birthdays and other anniversaries, took it into +his head to celebrate the birthday of Papa Haydn by giving a dinner, +drinking toasts, and crowning the composer's bust with laurels. Some +malicious person told Haydon that the Hunts were celebrating his +birthday, a compliment that struck him as natural and well deserved. +Hastening to Hampstead, he broke in upon the company, and addressed to +them a formal speech, in which he thanked them for the honour they had +done him, but explained that they had made a little mistake in the day! +As a pendant to this anecdote, Miss Mitford relates that Haydon told her +he had painted the head of his Christ seven times, and that the final +head was a portrait of himself. It is only fair to remember that he +always regarded it as the least successful part of the work.</p> + +<p>While the picture was in progress, Haydon decided to put in a side +group with Voltaire as a sceptic, and Newton as a believer. This idea, +founded on the intentional anachronisms of some of the old masters, was +afterwards extended, Hazlitt being introduced as an investigator, and +Wordsworth bowing in reverence, with Keats in the background. The two +poets had never yet met in actual life, but in December 1817, Wordsworth +being then on a visit to London, Haydon invited Keats to meet him. The +other guests were Charles Lamb and Monkhouse. 'Wordsworth was in fine +cue,' writes Haydon, 'and we had a glorious set-to-on Homer, +Shakespeare, Milton, and Virgil. Lamb got exceedingly merry, and +exquisitely witty, and his fun, in the midst of Wordsworth's solemn +intonations of oratory, was like the sarcasm and wit of the fool in the +intervals of Lear's passion.' Although the specimens of wit recorded no +longer seem inspired, we can well believe Haydon's statement that it was +an immortal evening, and that in all his life he never passed a more +delightful time. We have abundant testimony to the fact that the +artist-host was himself an exceptionally fine talker. Hazlitt said that +'Haydon talked well on most subjects that interest one; indeed, better +than any painter I ever met.' Wordsworth and Talfourd echoed this +opinion, and Miss Mitford tells us that he was a most brilliant +talker--racy, bold, original, and vigorous, 'a sort of Benvenuto +Cellini, all air and fire.'</p> + +<p>It was not until January 1820 that the 'Entry into Jerusalem' was +finished, when the artist, though absolutely penniless, engaged the +great room at the Egyptian Hall for its exhibition, at a rent of +£300. His friends helped him over the incidental expenses, and in +a state of feverish excitement he awaited the opening day. Public +curiosity had been aroused about the work, and early in the afternoon +there was a block of carriages in Piccadilly; the passage was thronged +with servants, and soon the artist was holding what he described as a +'regular rout at noonday.' While Keats and Hazlitt were rejoicing in a +corner, Mrs. Siddons swept in, and in her loud, deep, tragic tones, +declared that the head of Christ was completely successful. By her +favourable verdict, Haydon, who had his doubts, was greatly consoled, +not because Mrs. Siddons had any reputation as an art-critic, but +because he recognised that she was an expert on the subject of dramatic +expression. A thousand pounds was offered for the picture and refused, +while the net profits from the exhibition, in London alone, amounted to +£1300. Haydon has been commonly represented as an unlucky man, who +was always neglected by the public and the patrons, and never met with +his professional deserts. But up to this time, as has been seen, he had +found ready sympathy and admiration from the public, practical aid +during the time of struggle from his friends, and a fair reward for his +labours. With the exhibition of the 'Entry into Jerusalem,' his +reputation was at its zenith; a little skilful engineering of the +success thus gained might have extricated him from his difficulties, and +enabled him to keep his head above water for the remainder of his days. +But, owing chiefly to his own impracticability, his story from this +point is one of decline, gradual at first, but increasing in velocity, +until the end came in disaster and despair.<br> +<br> +</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 20%;"> + +<p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"> PART II</p> + +<p> Even while Haydon was in the first flush of his success, there were +signs that he had achieved no lasting triumph. Sir George Beaumont +proposed that the British Gallery should buy the great picture, but the +Directors refused to give the price asked--£2000. An effort to +sell it by subscription fell through, only, £200 being paid into +Coutts'. When the exhibition closed in London, Haydon took his +masterpiece to Scotland, and showed it both in Edinburgh and in Glasgow, +netting another £900, which, however, was quickly eaten up by +hungry creditors. The picture was too big to tempt a private purchaser, +and in spite of the admiration it had aroused, it remained like a white +elephant upon its creator's hands.</p> + +<p>On his return to town, after being fêted by Sir Walter Scott, +Lockhart, and 'Christopher North,' Haydon finished his commission for +Sir George Phillips, 'Christ Sleeping in the Garden,' which, he frankly +admitted, was one of the worst pictures he ever painted. Scarcely was +this off his easel than he was inspired with a tremendous conception for +the 'Raising of Lazarus.' He ordered a canvas such as his soul loved, +nineteen feet long by fifteen high, and dashed in his first idea. He was +still deeply in debt, still desperately in love (his lady was now a +widow), and the new picture would take at least two years to paint. +Nevertheless, he worked away with all his customary energy, and prayed +fervently that he might paint a great masterpiece, never doubting but +that his prayers would be heard.</p> + +<p>With the end of this year, 1820, Haydon's Autobiography breaks off, +and the rest of his life is told in his Journals and Letters. At the +beginning of 1821, when he was fairly at work on his Lazarus, he +confides to his Journal his conviction that difficulties are to be his +lot in pecuniary matters, and adds: 'My plan must be to make up my mind +to meet them, and fag as I can--to lose no single moment, but seize on +time that is free from disturbance, and make the most of it. If I can +float, and keep alive attention to my situation through another picture, +I will reach the shore. I am now clearly in sight of it, and I will yet +land to the sound of trumpets, and the shouts of my friends.'</p> + +<p>In spite of his absorption in his work, Haydon found time for the +society of his literary friends. On March 7, he records: 'Sir Walter +Scott, Lamb, Wilkie, and Procter have been with me all the morning, and +a delightful morning we have had. Scott operated on us like champagne +and whisky mixed.... It is singular how success and the want of it +operate on two extraordinary men, Walter Scott and Wordsworth. Scott +enters a room and sits at table with the coolness and self-possession of +conscious fame; Wordsworth with a mortified elevation of the head, as if +fearful he was not estimated as he deserved. Scott can afford to talk of +trifles, because he knows the world will think him a great man who +condescends to trifle; Wordsworth must always be eloquent and profound, +because he knows that he is considered childish and puerile.... I think +that Scott's success would have made Wordsworth insufferable, while +Wordsworth's failures would not have rendered Scott a whit less +delightful. Scott is the companion of Nature in all her moods and +freaks, while Wordsworth follows her like an apostle, sharing her solemn +moods and impressions.'</p> + +<p>In these rough notes, unusual powers of observation and insight into +character are displayed. That Haydon also had a keen sense of humour is +proved by his account of an evening at Mrs. Siddons' where the hostess +read aloud <i>Macbeth</i> to her guests. 'She acts Macbeth herself much +better than either Kemble or Kean,' he writes. 'It is extraordinary the +awe that this wonderful woman inspires. After her first reading the men +retired to tea. While we were all eating toast and tinkling cups and +saucers, she began again. It was like the effect of a mass-bell at +Madrid. All noise ceased; we slunk to our seats like boors, two or three +of the most distinguished men of the day, with the very toast in their +mouths, afraid to bite. It was curious to see Lawrence in this +predicament, to hear him bite by degrees, and then stop, for fear of +making too much crackle, his eyes full of water from the constraint; and +at the same time to hear Mrs. Siddons' 'eye of newt and toe of frog,' +and to see Lawrence give a sly bite, and then look awed, and pretend to +be listening.'</p> + +<p>In the spring of 1821 Haydon lost two intimate friends, John Scott, +who was killed by Christie in the Blackwood duel, and Keats, who died at +Rome on February 23. He briefly sums up his impressions of the dead poet +in his Journal. 'In fireside conversation he was weak and inconsistent, +but he was in his glory in the fields.... He was the most unselfish of +human creatures: unadapted to this world, he cared not for himself, and +put himself to inconvenience for the sake of his friends. He had an +exquisite sense of humour, and too refined a notion of female purity to +bear the little arts of love with patience.... He began life full of +hopes, fiery, impetuous, ungovernable, expecting the world to fall at +once beneath his powers. Unable to bear the sneers of ignorance or the +attacks of envy, he began to despond, and flew to dissipation as a +relief. For six weeks he was scarcely sober, and to show what a man does +to gratify his appetites when once they get the better of him, he once +covered his tongue and throat, as far as he could reach, with Cayenne +pepper, in order to appreciate the "delicious coldness of claret in all +its glory"--his own expression.'</p> + +<p>June 22, 1821, is entered in the Journal as 'A remarkable day in my +life. I am arrested!' This incident, unfortunately, became far too +common in after-days to be at all remarkable, but the first touch of the +bailiff's hand was naturally something of a shock, and Haydon filled +three folio pages with angry comments on the iniquity of the laws +against debtors. He was able, however, to arrange the affair before +night, and the sheriff's officer, whose duty it was to keep him in safe +custody during the day, was so profoundly impressed by the sight of the +Lazarus, that he allowed his prisoner to go free on parole. This +incident has been likened to that of the bravoes arrested in their +murderous intent by the organ-playing of Stradella; and also to the case +of the soldiers of the Constable who, when sacking Rome, broke into +Parmigiano's studio, but were so struck by the beauty of his pictures +that they protected him and his property.</p> + +<p>In despite of debts, difficulties, and the lack of commissions, +Haydon, who had now been in love for five years, was married on October +10, 1821, to the young widow, Mary Hyman, who was blessed with two +children, and a jointure of fifty pounds a year. His Journal for this +period is full of raptures over his blissful state, as also are his +letters to his friends. To Miss Mitford he writes from Windsor, where +the honeymoon was spent: 'Here I am, sitting by my dearest Mary with all +the complacency of a well-behaved husband, writing to you while she is +working quietly on some unintelligible part of a lady's costume. You do +not know how proud I am of saying <i>my wife</i>. I never felt half so +proud of Solomon or Macbeth, as I am of being the husband of this tender +little bit of lovely humanity.... There never was such a creature; and +although her face is perfect, and has more feeling in it than Lady +Hamilton's, her manner to me is perfectly enchanting, and more +bewitching than her beauty. I think I shall put over my painting-room +door, "Love, solitude, and painting."' On the last day of the year, +according to his wont, Haydon sums up his feelings and impressions of +the past twelve months. 'I don't know how it is, but I get less +reflective as I get older. I seem to take things as they come without +thought. Perhaps being married to my dearest Mary, and having no longer +anything to hope in love, I get more content with my lot, which, God +knows, is rapturous beyond imagination. Here I sit sketching, with the +loveliest face before me, smiling and laughing, and "solitude is not." +Marriage has increased my happiness beyond expression. In the intervals +of study, a few minutes' conversation with a creature one loves is the +greatest of all reliefs. God bless us both! My pecuniary difficulties +are great, but my love is intense, my ambition is intense, and my hope +in God's protection cheering. Bewick, my pupil, has realised my hopes in +his picture of "Jacob and Rachel." But it is cold work talking of pupils +when one's soul is full of a beloved woman! I am really and truly in +love, and without affectation, I can talk, write, or think of nothing +else.'</p> + +<p>But if a love-match brings increased happiness, it also brings +weightier cares and responsibilities. Haydon's credit had been in a +measure restored by the success of his last picture, but his creditors +seemed to resent his marriage, and during the months that followed, gave +him little peace. He was obliged, in the intervals of painting, to rush +hither and thither to pacify this creditor, quiet the fears of that, +remove the ill-will of a third, and borrow money at usurious interest +from a fourth in order to keep his engagements with a fifth. In spite of +all his compromises and arrangements, he was arrested more than once +during this year, but so far he had been able to keep out of prison. His +favourite pupil Bewick, who sat to him for the head of Lazarus (being +appropriately pale and thin from want of food) has left an account of +the difficulties under which the picture was painted. 'I think I see the +painter before me,' he writes, 'his palette and brushes in the left +hand, returning from the sheriff's officer in the adjoining room, pale, +calm, and serious--no agitation--mounting his high steps and continuing +his arduous task, and as he looks round to his pallid model, whispering, +"Egad, Bewick, I have just been arrested; that is the third time. If +they come again, I shall not be able to go on."'</p> + +<p>On December 7, the Lazarus was finished, and five days later +Haydon's eldest son Frank was born. The happy father was profoundly +moved by his new responsibilities, as well as by his wife's suffering +and danger. On the last day of 1822 he thanks his Maker for the happiest +year of his life, and also 'for being permitted to finish another great +picture, which must add to my reputation, and go to strengthen the +art.... Grant it triumphant success. Grant that I may soon begin the +"Crucifixion," and persevere with that, until I bring it to a conclusion +equally positive and glorious.' Haydon's prayers, which have been not +inaptly described as 'begging letters to the Almighty,' are invariably +couched in terms that would be appropriate in an appeal to the President +of a Celestial Academy. As his biographer points out, he prayed as +though he would take heaven by storm, and although he often asked for +humility, the demands for this gift bore very little proportion to those +for glories and triumphs.</p> + +<p>The Lazarus, though it showed signs of haste and exaggeration, +natural enough considering the conditions under which it was painted, +was acclaimed as a great work, and the receipts from its exhibition were +of a most satisfactory nature, mounting up to nearly two hundred pounds +a week. Instead of calling his creditors together, and coming to some +arrangement with them, Haydon, rendered over-confident by success, spent +his time in preparing a new and vaster canvas for his conception of the +Crucifixion. The sight of crowds of people paying their shillings to +view the Lazarus roused the cupidity of one of the creditors, who, +against his own interests, killed the goose that was laying golden eggs. +On April 13, an execution was put in, and the picture was seized. A few +days later Haydon was arrested, and carried to the King's Bench, his +house was taken possession of, and all his property was advertised for +sale.</p> + +<p>On April 22, he dates the entry in his Journal, 'King's Bench,' and +consoles himself with the reflection that Bacon, Raleigh, and Cervantes +had also suffered imprisonment. His friends rallied round him at this +melancholy period. Lord Mulgrave, Sir George Beaumont, Scott and Wilkie, +giving not only sympathy but practical help. At his forced sale a +portion of his casts and painting materials was bought in by his friends +in order that he might be enabled to set to work again as soon as he was +released from prison. A meeting of creditors was called, and Haydon +addressed to them a characteristic letter, begging to be spared the +disgrace of 'taking the Act,' and complaining of the hardship of his +treatment in being torn from his family and his art, after devoting the +best years of his life to the honour of his country. But as the +creditors cared nothing for the honour of the country, he was compelled +to pass through the Bankruptcy Court, and on July 25 he regained his +freedom. It was now his desire to return to his dismantled house, and, +without a bed to lie upon, or a shilling in his pocket, to finish his +gigantic 'Crucifixion.' But his wife, the long-suffering Mary, persuaded +him to abandon this idea, to retire to modest lodgings for a time, and +to paint portraits and cabinet-pictures until better fortune dawned.</p> + +<p>Haydon yielded to her desire, but he never ceased to regret what he +considered his degradation. He would have preferred to allow his friends +and creditors to support himself and his family, while he worked at a +canvas of unsaleable size, a proceeding that most men would regard as +involving a deeper degradation than painting pot-boilers.</p> + +<p>Haydon began his new career by painting the 'portrait of a +gentleman.' 'Ah, my poor lay-figure,' he groans, 'he, who bore the +drapery of Christ and the grave-clothes of Lazarus, the cloak of the +centurion and the gown of Newton, was to-day disgraced by a black coat +and waistcoat. I apostrophised him, and he seemed to sympathise, and +bowed his head as if ashamed to look me in the face.' Haydon's +detestation of portrait-painting probably arose from the secret +consciousness that he was not successful in this branch of his art. His +taste for the grandiose led him to depict his sitters larger than life, +if not 'twice as natural.' His objection to painting small pictures was +partly justified by his weakness of sight. It was easy for him to dash +in heads on a large scale in a frenzy of inspiration, but he seemed to +lack the faculty for 'finish.' The faults of disproportion and apparent +carelessness that disfigure many of his works, are easily accounted for +by his method of painting, which is thus described by his son Frederick, +who often acted as artist's model:--</p> + +<p>'His natural sight was of little or no use to him at any distance, +and he would wear, one over the other, two or three pairs of large round +concave spectacles, so powerful as greatly to diminish objects. He would +mount his steps, look at you through one pair of glasses, then push them +all back on his head, and paint by the naked eye close to the canvas. +After some minutes he would pull down one pair of his glasses, look at +you, then step down, walk slowly backwards to the wall, and study the +effect through one, two, or three pairs of spectacles; then with one +pair only look long and steadily in the looking-glass at the side to +examine the reflection of his work; then mount his steps and paint +again. How he ever contrived to paint a head or limb in proportion is a +mystery to me, for it is clear that he had lost his natural sight in +boyhood. He is, as he said, the first blind man who ever successfully +painted pictures.'</p> + +<p>Unfortunately, Haydon's self-denial in painting portraits was not +well rewarded, for commissions were few, and the clouds began to gather +again. One of his sitters had to be appealed to for money for coals, and +if such appeals were frequent, the scarcity of sitters was hardly +surprising. On one occasion he pawned all his books, except a few old +favourites, for three pounds, and entries like the following are of +almost daily occurrence in the Journal:--'Obliged to go out in the rain, +I left my room with no coals in it, and no money to buy any.... Not a +shilling in the world. Sold nothing, and not likely to. Baker called, +and was insolent. If he were to stop the supplies, God knows what would +become of my children! Landlord called--kind and sorry. Butcher called, +respectful, but disappointed. Tailor good--humoured, and willing to +wait.... Walked about the town. I was so full of grief, I could not have +concealed it at home.'</p> + +<p>In the midst of all his harassing anxieties, Haydon was untiring in +his efforts to obtain employment of the heroic kind that his soul +craved. He had begun to realise that he had small chance of disposing of +huge historical pictures to private patrons, and that his only hope +rested with the Government. Even while confined in prison he had +persuaded Brougham to present a petition to the House of Commons setting +forth the desirability of appointing a Committee to inquire into the +state of national art, and by a regular distribution of a small portion +of the public funds, to give public encouragement to the professors of +historical painting. No sooner did he regain his freedom than Haydon +attacked Sir Charles Long with a plan for the decoration of the great +room of the Admiralty, to be followed by the decoration of the House of +Lords and St. Paul's Cathedral. This was but the beginning of a long +series of impassioned pleadings with public men in favour of national +employment for historical painters. Silence, snubs, formal +acknowledgments, curt refusals, all were lost upon Haydon, who kept +pouring in page after page of agonised petition on Sir Charles Long, the +Duke of Wellington, Lord Grey, Lord Melbourne, and Sir Robert Peel, and +seemed to be making no way with any of them.</p> + +<p>Haydon thought himself ill-used, throughout his life, by statesmen +and patrons, and many of his friends were of the same opinion. But both +he and they ignored the fact that it is impossible to create an +artificial market for works of art for which there is no spontaneous +popular demand. A despotic prince may, if he chooses, give his court +painter <i>carte blanche</i> for the decorations of national buildings, +and gain nothing but glory for his liberality, even when it is exercised +at the expense of his people. But in a country that possesses a +constitutional government, more especially when that country has been +impoverished by long and costly wars, the minister who devotes large +sums to the encouragement of national art has the indignation of an +over-taxed populace to reckon with. It is little short of an insult to +offer men historic frescoes when they are clamouring for bread. Haydon +was unfortunate in his period, which was not favourable for a crusade on +behalf of high art. The recent pacification of the Continent, and the +opening up of its treasures, tempted English noblemen and plutocrats to +invest their money in old masters to the neglect of native artists, who +were only thought worthy to paint portraits of their patrons' wives and +children. We who have inherited the Peel, the Angerstein, and the +Hertford collections, can scarcely bring ourselves to regret the sums +that were lavished on Flemish and Italian masterpieces, sums that might +have kept our Barrys and Haydons from bankruptcy.</p> + +<p>In January 1824 Haydon left his lodgings, and took the lease of a +house in Connaught Terrace, for which he paid, or promised to pay, a +hundred and twenty pounds a year, a heavy rent for a recently insolvent +artist. Fortunately, he acquired with the house a landlord of amazing +benevolence, who took pot-boilers in lieu of rent, and meekly submitted +to abuse when nothing else was forthcoming. As soon as he was fairly +settled, Haydon arranged the composition of a large picture of 'Pharaoh +dismissing Moses,' upon which he worked in the intervals of +portrait-painting. A curious and obviously impartial sketch of him, as +he appeared at this time, is drawn by Borrow in his <i>Lavengro</i>. +The hero's elder brother comes up to town, it may be remembered, to +commission a certain heroic artist to paint an heroic picture of a very +unheroic mayor of Norwich. The two brothers go together to the painter +of Lazarus, and have some difficulty in obtaining admission to his +studio, being mistaken by the servant for duns. They found a man of +about thirty-five, with a clever, intelligent countenance, sharp grey +eyes, and hair cut <i>à la</i> Raphael. He possessed, moreover, a +broad chest, and would have been a very fine figure if his legs had not +been too short. He was then engaged upon his Moses, whose legs, in +Lavengro's opinion, were also too short. His eyes glistened at the +mention of a hundred pounds for the mayor's portrait, and he admitted +that he was confoundedly short of money. The painter was anxious that +Lavengro should sit to him for his Plutarch, which honour that gentleman +firmly declined. Years afterwards he saw the portrait of the mayor, a +'mighty portly man, with a bull's head, black hair, a body like a dray +horse, and legs and thighs corresponding; a man six foot high at the +least. To his bull's head, black hair and body, the painter had done +justice; there was one point, however, in which the portrait did not +correspond with the original--the legs were disproportionately short, +the painter having substituted his own legs for those of the mayor, +which, when I perceived, I rejoiced that I had not consented to be +painted as Pharaoh, for if I had, the chances are that he would have +served me in exactly the same way as he had served Moses and the mayor.'</p> + +<p>The painting of provincial mayors was so little to Haydon's taste +that by the close of this year we find him in deep depression of +spirits, unrelieved by even a spark of his old sanguine buoyancy. 'I +candidly confess,' he writes, 'I find my glorious art a bore. I cannot +with pleasure paint any individual head for the mere purpose of domestic +gratification. I must have a great subject to excite public feeling.... +Alas! I have no object in life now but my wife and children, and almost +wish I had not them, that I might sit still and meditate on human +grandeur and human ambition till I died.... I am not yet forty, and can +tell of a destiny melancholy and rapturous, bitter beyond all +bitterness, cursed, heart-breaking, maddening. But I dare not write now. +The melancholy demon has grappled my heart, and crushed its turbulent +beatings in his black, bony, clammy, clenching fingers.'</p> + +<p>It was just when things seemed at their darkest, when the waters +threatened to overwhelm the unfortunate artist, that a rope was thrown +to him. His legal adviser, Mr. Kearsley, a practical and prosperous man, +came forward with an offer of help. He agreed to provide £300 for +one year on certain conditions, in order that Haydon might be freed from +pressure for that period, and be in a position to ask a fair price for +his work. When not engaged on portraits, he was to paint historical +pictures of a saleable size. The advance was to be secured on a life +insurance, and to be repaid out of the sale of the pictures, with +interest at four per cent. This offer was accepted with some reluctance, +and the following year was one of comparative peace and quiet. The +Journal gives evidence of greater ease of mind, and renewed pleasure in +work. Haydon's love for his wife waxed rather than waned with the +passing of the years, and his children, of whom he too soon had the poor +man's quiverful, were an ever-present delight. 'My domestic happiness is +doubled,' he writes about this time. 'Daily and hourly my sweet Mary +proves the justice of my choice. My boy Frank gives tokens of being +gifted at two years old, God bless him! My ambition would be to make him +a public man.... I have got into my old delightful habits of study +again. The mixture of literature and painting I really think the +perfection of human happiness. I paint a head, revel in colour, hit an +expression, sit down fatigued, take up a poet or historian, write my own +thoughts, muse on the thoughts of others, and hours, troubles, and the +tortures of disappointed ambition pass and are forgotten.'</p> + +<p>Portraits, and one or two commissions for small pictures, kept +Haydon afloat throughout this year, but a widespread commercial distress +in the early part of 1826 affected his gains, and in February he records +that for the last five weeks he has been suffering the tortures of the +Inferno. He was persuaded, much against his will, to send his pictures +to the Academy, and he was proportionately annoyed at the adverse +criticism that greeted his attempts at portraiture. This attack he +regarded as the result of a deep-laid plot to injure him in a lucrative +branch of his art. He consoled himself by beginning a large picture of +'Alexander taming Bucephalus,' the 'finest subject on earth.' Through +his friend and opposite neighbour, Carew the sculptor, Haydon made an +appeal to Lord Egremont, that generous patron of the arts, for help or +employment, in response to which Lord Egremont promised to call and see +the Alexander. There is a pathetic touch in the account of this visit, +on which so much depended. Lord Egremont called at Carew's house on his +way, and Haydon, who saw him go in, relates that 'Dear Mary and I were +walking on the leads, and agreed that it would not be quite right to +look too happy, being without a sixpence; so we came in, I to the +parlour to look through the blinds, and she to the nursery.' Happily, +the patron was favourably impressed by the picture, and promised to give +£600 for it when it was finished. In order to pay his models +Haydon was obliged to pawn one of his two lay-figures, since he could +not bring himself to part with any more books. 'I may do without a +lay-figure for a time,' he writes, 'but not without old Homer. The truth +is I am fonder of books than of anything on earth. I consider myself a +man of great powers, excited to an art which limits their exercise. In +politics, law, or literature they would have had a full and glorious +swing, and I should have secured a competence.'</p> + +<p>The fact that Haydon was more at home among the literary men of his +acquaintance than among his fellow-artists was a natural result of his +intense love of books, and his keen interest in contemporary history. +And it is evident that his own character and work impressed his poetical +friends, for we find that not only Wordsworth and Keats, but Leigh Hunt, +Charles Lamb, Miss Mitford, and Miss Barrett addressed to him admiring +verses. For Byron, whom he never knew, Haydon cherished an ardent +admiration, and the following interesting passage, comparing that poet +with Wordsworth, occurs in one of his letters to Miss Mitford, who had +criticised Byron's taste:--</p> + +<p>'You are unjust, depend upon it,' he writes, 'in your estimate of +Byron's poetry, and wrong in ranking Wordsworth beyond him. There are +things in Byron's poetry so exquisite that fifty or five hundred years +hence they will be read, felt, and adored throughout the world. I grant +that Wordsworth is very pure, very holy, very orthodox, and occasionally +very elevated, highly poetical, and oftener insufferably obscure, +starched, dowdy, anti-human, and anti-sympathetic, but he never will be +ranked above Byron, nor classed with Milton.... I dislike his selfish +Quakerism, his affectation of superior virtue, his utter insensibility +to the frailties, the beautiful frailties of passion. I was walking with +him once in Pall Mall; we darted into Christie's. In the corner of the +room was a beautiful copy of the "Cupid and Psyche" (statues) kissing. +Cupid is taking her lovely chin, and turning her pouting mouth to meet +his, while he archly bends down, as if saying, "Pretty dear!"... +Catching sight of the Cupid as he and I were coming out, Wordsworth's +face reddened, he showed his teeth, and then said in a loud voice, "<i>The +Dev-v-vils!</i>" There's a mind! Ought not this exquisite group to have +softened his heart as much as his old, grey-mossed rocks, his withered +thorn, and his dribbling mountain streams? I am altered very much about +Wordsworth from finding him too hard, too elevated, to attend to the +voice of humanity. No, give me Byron with all his spite, hatred, +depravity, dandyism, vanity, frankness, passion, and idleness, rather +than Wordsworth with all his heartless communion with woods and grass.'</p> + +<p>An attempt on Haydon's part to reconcile himself with his old +enemies, the Academicians, ended in failure. He heads his account of the +transaction, 'The disgrace of my life.' He was received with cold +civility by the majority of the artists to whom he paid conciliatory +visits, and when he put his name down for election, he received not a +single vote. A more agreeable memory of this year was a visit to +Petworth, where, as he records, with Pepysian <i>naiveté</i>, +'Lord Egremont has placed me in one of the most magnificent bedrooms I +ever saw. It speaks more of what he thinks of my talents than anything +that ever happened to me.... What a destiny is mine! One year in the +King's Bench, the companion of gamblers and scoundrels--sleeping in +wretchedness and dirt on a flock-bed--another reposing in down and +velvet in a splendid apartment in a splendid house, the guest of rank, +fashion, and beauty.' Haydon's painting-room was now, as he loved to see +it, crowded with distinguished visitors, who were anxious to inspect the +picture of Alexander before it was sent to the Exhibition. Among them +came Charles Lamb, who afterwards set down some impressions and +suggestions in the following characteristic fashion:--</p> + +<p> 'DEAR RAFFAELE HAYDON,</p> + +<p>'Did the maid tell you I came to see your picture? I think the face +and bearing of the Bucephalus-tamer very noble, his flesh too effeminate +or painty.... I had small time to pick out praise or blame, for two +lord-like Bucks came in, upon whose strictures my presence seemed to +impose restraint; I plebeian'd off therefore.</p> + +<p>'I think I have hit on a subject for you, but can't swear it was +never executed--I never heard of its being--"Chaucer beating a +Franciscan Friar in Fleet Street." Think of the old dresses, houses, +etc. "It seemeth that both these learned men (Gower and Chaucer) were of +the Inner Temple; for not many years since Master Buckley did see a +record in the same house where Geoffrey Chaucer was fined two shillings +for beating a Franciscan Friar in Fleet Street."--<i>Chaucer's Life, by +T. Speght</i>.--Yours in haste (salt fish waiting).</p> + +<p>'C. LAMB.'</p> + +<p>In June Haydon was again arrested, and imprisoned in the King's +Bench. Once more he appealed to Parliament by a petition presented by +Brougham, and to the public through letters to the newspapers. +Parliament and the larger public turned a deaf ear, but private friends +rallied to his support. Scott, himself a ruined man, sent a cheque and a +charming letter of sympathy, while Lockhart suggested that a +subscription should be raised to buy one or more pictures. A public +meeting of sympathisers was convened, at which it was stated that +Haydon's debts amounted to £1767, while his only available asset +was an unfinished picture of the 'Death of Eucles.' Over a hundred +pounds was subscribed in the room, and it was decided that the Eucles +should be raffled in ten-pound shares. The result of these efforts was +the release of the prisoner at the end of July.</p> + +<p>During this last term of imprisonment Haydon witnessed the +masquerade, or mock election by his fellow-prisoners, and instantly +decided that he would paint the scene, which offered unique +opportunities for both humour and pathos. This picture, Hogarthian in +type, was finished and exhibited before the close of the year. The +exhibition was moderately successful, but the picture did not sell, and +Haydon was once more sinking into despair, when the king expressed a +desire to have the work sent down to Windsor for his inspection. Hopes +were raised high once more, and this time were not disappointed. George +IV. bought the 'Mock Election,' and promptly paid the price of five +hundred guineas. Thus encouraged, Haydon set to work with renewed spirit +on a companion picture, 'Chairing the Member,' which was finished and +exhibited, with some earlier works, in the course of the summer. The +king refused to buy the new work, but it found a purchaser at +£300, and the net receipts from the two pictures and their +exhibition amounted to close upon £1400, a sum which, observes +Haydon, in better circumstances and with less expense, would have +afforded a comfortable independence for the year!</p> + +<p>The Eucles occupied the artist during the remainder of 1828, and +early in 1829 he began a new Hogarthian subject, a Punch and Judy show. +He was still painting portraits when he could get sitters, and on April +15, he notes: 'Finished one cursed portrait--have only one more to +touch, and then I shall be free. I have an exquisite gratification in +painting portraits wretchedly. I love to see the sitters look as if they +thought, "Can this be Haydon's--the great Haydon's painting?" I chuckle. +I am rascal enough to take their money, and chuckle more.' It must be +owned that Haydon thoroughly deserved his ill-success in this branch of +his art. When 'Punch' was finished the king sent for it to Windsor, but +though he admired, he did not buy, and the picture eventually passed +into the possession of Haydon's old friend, Dr. Darling, who had helped +him out of more than one difficulty. A large representation of 'Xenophon +and the Retreat of the Ten Thousand' was now begun, but before it was +finished the painter was once more in desperate straits. In vain he sent +up urgent petitions to his Maker that he might be enabled to go through +with this great work, explaining in a parenthesis, 'It will be my +greatest,' and concluding, 'Bless its commencement, its progress, its +conclusion, and its effect, for the sake of the intellectual elevation +of my great and glorious country.'</p> + +<p>In May 1830, Haydon was back again in the King's Bench, where he had +begun to feel quite at home. He presented yet another of his innumerable +petitions to Parliament in favour of Government encouragement of +historical painting, through Mr. Agar Ellis, but as the ministry showed +no desire to encourage this particular historical painter, he passed +through the Bankruptcy Court, and returned to his family on the 20th of +July. During his period of detention, George IV. had died, and Haydon +has the following comment on the event:--'Thus died as thoroughbred an +Englishman as ever existed in this country. He admired her sports, +gloried in her prejudices, had confidence in her bottom and spirit, and +to him alone is the destruction of Napoleon owing. I have lost in him my +sincere admirer; and had not his wishes been continually thwarted, he +would have given me ample and adequate employment.'</p> + +<p>Although Haydon had regained his freedom, his chance of maintaining +himself and his rapidly increasing family by his art seemed as far away +as ever. By October 15th he is at his wits' end again, and writes in his +Journal: 'The harassings of a family are really dreadful. Two of my +children are ill, and Mary is nursing. All night she was attending to +the sick and hushing the suckling, with a consciousness that our last +shilling was going. I got up in the morning bewildered--Xenophon hardly +touched--no money--butcher impudent--all tradesmen insulting. I took up +my private sketch-book and two prints of Napoleon (from a small picture +of 'Napoleon musing at St. Helena') and walked into the city. Hughes +advanced me five guineas on the sketch-book; I sold my prints, and +returned home happy with £8, 4s. in my pocket.... (25th) Out +selling my prints. Sold enough for maintenance for the week. Several +people looked hard at me with my roll of prints, but I feel more ashamed +in borrowing money than in honestly selling my labours. It is a pity the +nobility drive me to this by their neglect.'</p> + +<p>In December came another stroke of good-luck. Sir Robert Peel called +at the studio, and gave the artist a commission to paint, on a larger +scale, a replica of his small sketch of 'Napoleon at St. Helena.' +Unluckily, there was a misunderstanding about the price. Peel asked how +much Haydon charged for a whole length figure, and was told a hundred +pounds, which was the price of an ordinary portrait. Taking this to be +the charge for the Napoleon, he paid no more. Haydon, who considered the +picture well worth £500, was bitterly disappointed, and took no +pains to conceal his feelings. Peel afterwards sent him an extra thirty +pounds, but the subject remained a grievance to Haydon for the rest of +his life, and Peel, who had intended to do the artist a good turn, was +so annoyed by his complaints, that he never gave him another commission. +The Napoleon, though its exhibition was not a success, was one of +Haydon's most popular pictures, and the engraving is well known. +Wordsworth admired it exceedingly, and on June 12, sent the artist the +'Sonnet to B. R. Haydon, composed on seeing his picture of Napoleon in +the island of St. Helena,' beginning: </p> + +<p> 'Haydon! let worthier judges praise the skill.'</p> + +<p>The close of this year was a melancholy period to poor Haydon. He +lost his little daughter, Fanny, and his third son, Alfred, was +gradually fading away. Out of eight children born to this most +affectionate of fathers, no fewer than five died in infancy from +suffusion of the brain, due, it was supposed, to the terrible mental +distresses of their mother. 'I can remember,' writes Frederick Haydon, +one of the three survivors, 'the roses of her sunken cheeks fading away +daily with anxiety and grief. My father, who was passionately attached +to both wife and children, suffered the tortures of the damned at the +sight before him. His sorrow over the deaths of his children was +something more than human. I remember watching him as he hung over his +daughter Georgiana, and over his dying boy Harry, the pride and delight +of his life. Poor fellow, how he cried! and he went into the next room, +and beating his head passionately on the bed, called upon God to take +him and all of us from this dreadful world. The earliest and most +painful death was to be preferred to our life at that time.'</p> + +<p>By dint of borrowing in every possible quarter, generally at forty +per cent. interest, and inducing his patrons to take shares in his +Xenophon, Haydon managed to get through the winter, though his children +were often without stockings. William IV. consented to place his name at +the head of the subscribers' list, and Goethe wrote a flattering letter, +expressing his desire to take a ticket for the 'very valuable painting,' +and assuring the artist that 'my soul has been elevated for many years +by the contemplation of the important pictures (the cartoons from the +Elgin Marbles) formerly sent to me, which occupy an honourable station +in my house.' Xenophon was exhibited in the spring of 1832 without +attracting much attention, the whole nation being engrossed with the +subject of Reform. Haydon, though a high Tory by birth and inclination, +was an ardent champion of the Bill, as he had been for that of Catholic +Emancipation. His brush was once more exchanged for the pen, and he not +only poured out his thoughts upon Reform in his Journal, but wrote +several letters on the subject to the <i>Times</i>, which he considered +the most wonderful compositions of the kind that had ever been penned. +After the passing of the Bill he congratulates himself upon having +contributed to the grand result, and adds: 'When my colours have faded, +my canvas decayed, and my body has mingled with the earth, these +glorious letters, the best things I ever wrote, will awaken the +enthusiasm of my countrymen. I thanked God I lived in such a time, and +that he gifted me with talent to serve the great cause.'</p> + +<p>On reading the account of the monster meeting of the Trades Unions +at Newhall Hill, Birmingham, it occurred to Haydon that the moment when +the vast concourse joined in the sudden prayer offered up by Hugh +Hutton, would make a fine subject for a picture. Accordingly, he wrote +to Hutton, and laid the suggestion before him. The Birmingham leaders +were attracted by the idea, and the picture was begun, but support of a +material kind was not forthcoming, and the scheme had to be abandoned. +Lord Grey then suggested that Haydon should paint a picture of the great +Reform Banquet, which was to be held in the Guildhall on July 11. The +proposal was exactly to the taste of the public-spirited artist, who saw +fame and fortune beckoning to him once more, and fancied that his future +was assured. He was allowed every facility on the great day, breakfasted +and dined with the Committee at the Guildhall, was treated with +distinction by the noble guests, many of whom sent to take wine with him +as he sat at work, and in short, to quote his own words, 'I was an +object of great distinction without five shillings in my pocket--and +this is life!'</p> + +<p>Lord Grey, on seeing Haydon's sketches of the Banquet, gave him a +commission for the picture at a price of £500, half of which he +paid down at once, and thus saved the painter from the ruin that was +again impending. Then followed a period of triumphant happiness. The +leading men of the Liberal party sat for their heads, and Haydon had the +longed-for opportunity of pressing upon them his views about the public +encouragement of art by means of grants for the decoration of national +buildings. Although it does not appear that he made a single convert, he +was quite contented for the time being with the ready access to +ministers and noblemen that the occasion afforded him, and his Journal +is filled with expressions of his satisfaction. We hear of Lord +Palmerston's good-humoured elegance, Lord Lansdowne's amiability, Lord +Jeffrey's brilliant conversation, and, most delightful of all, Lord +Melbourne's frank, unaffected cordiality. Melbourne, it appears, enjoyed +his sittings, for he asked many questions about Hazlitt, Leigh Hunt, +Keats, and Shelley, and highly appreciated Haydon's anecdotes. Needless +to add, he did not allow himself to be bored by the artist's theories.</p> + +<p>The sittings for the Reform picture continued through 1833, and the +early part of 1834. Haydon was kept in full employment, but domestic +sorrows marred his satisfaction in his interesting work. In less than +twelve months, he lost two sons, Alfred and Harry, the latter a child of +extraordinary promise. 'The death of this beautiful boy,' he writes, +'has given my mind a blow I shall never effectually recover. I saw him +buried to-day, after passing four days sketching his dear head in his +coffin--his beautiful head. What a creature! With a brow like an ancient +god!' In August Haydon was arrested again, and hurried away for a day +and night of torture, during which, he confesses, he was very near +putting an end to himself; but advances from the Duke of Cleveland and +Mr. Ellice brought him release, and in a few hours he was at home again, +'as happy and as hard at work as ever.'</p> + +<p>In April 1834, the Reform picture was exhibited, but the public was +not interested, and Haydon lost a considerable sum over the exhibition. +The price of the commission had long since gone to quiet the clamours of +his creditors. On May 12 he writes: 'It is really lamentable to see the +effect of success and failure on people of fashion. Last year, all was +hope, exultation, and promise with me. My door was beset, my house +besieged, my room inundated. It was an absolute fight to get in to see +me paint. Well, out came the work--the public felt no curiosity--it +failed, and my door is deserted, no horses, no carriages. Now for +executions, insults, misery, and wretchedness.' Then follows the old +story. 'June 7.--Mary and I in agony of mind. All my Italian books, and +some of my best historical designs, are gone to a pawnbroker's. She +packed up her best gowns and the children's, and I drove away with what +cost me £40, and got £4. The state of degradation, +humiliation, and pain of mind in which I sat in that dingy back-room is +not to be described.'</p> + +<p>Haydon now began a picture of 'Cassandra and Agamemnon,' and in July +he received a commission to finish it for the Duke of Sutherland, who +had more than once saved him from ruin. On this occasion the Duke's +advances barely sufficed to stave off disaster. Studies, prints, +clothes, and lay-figures were pawned to pay for the expenses of the +work, and on October comes the entry: 'Directly after the Duke's letter +came with its enclosed cheque, an execution was put in for the taxes. I +made the man sit for Cassandra's hand, and put on a Persian bracelet. +When the broker came for his money, he burst out laughing. There was the +fellow, an old soldier, pointing in the attitude of Cassandra--up right +and steady as if on guard. Lazarus' head was painted just after an +arrest; Eucles was finished from a man in possession; the beautiful face +in Xenophon, after a morning spent in begging mercy of lawyers; and now +Cassandra's head was finished in an agony not to be described, and her +hand completed from a broker's man.'<br> +<br> +</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 20%;"> + +<p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"> PART III</p> + +<p> On October 16, 1884, the Houses of Parliament were burned down. +'Good God!' writes Haydon, 'I am just returned from the terrific burning +of the Houses of Parliament. Mary and I went in a cab, and drove over +the bridge. From the bridge it was sublime. We alighted, and went into a +public-house, which was full. The feeling among the people was +extraordinary--jokes and radicalism universal.... The comfort is that +there is now a better prospect of painting the House of Lords. Lord Grey +said there was no intention of taking the tapestry down; little did he +think how soon it would go.' Haydon's hopes now rose high. For many +years, as we have seen, he had been advocating, in season and out of +season, the desirability of decorating national buildings with heroic +paintings by native artists, and, with the need for new Houses of +Parliament, it seemed as if at last his cause might triumph. Once more +he attacked the good-humoured but unimpressionable Lord Melbourne, and +presented another petition to Parliament through Lord Morpeth. But in +any case it would be years before the new buildings were ready for +decoration, and in the meantime he would have been entirely out of +employment if his long-suffering landlord had not allowed him to paint +off a debt with a picture of 'Achilles at the Court of Lycomedes.'</p> + +<p>In the summer of this year Mr. Ewart obtained his Select Committee +to inquire into the best means of extending a knowledge of the arts and +the principles of design among the people; and further, to inquire into +the constitution of the Royal Academy, and the effects produced thereby. +Haydon, overjoyed at such a sign of progress, determined to aid the +inquiry by giving a lecture on the subject at the London Mechanics' +Institute, under the auspices of Dr. Birkbeck. The lecture was a +success, for Haydon's natural earnestness and enthusiasm enabled him to +interest and impress an audience, and Dr. Birkbeck assured him that he +had made a 'hit.' This was the beginning of his career as a lecturer, by +which for several years he earned a small but regular income. But +meanwhile ruin was again staring him in the face. On September 26 he +writes: 'The agony of my necessities is really dreadful. For this year I +have principally supported myself by the help of my landlord, and by +pawning everything of value I have left.... Lay awake in misery. +Threatened on all sides. Doubtful whether to apply to the Insolvent +Court to protect me, or let ruin come. Improved the picture, and not +having a shilling, sent out a pair of my spectacles, and got five +shillings for the day. (29th) Sent the tea-urn off the table, and got +ten shillings for the day. Shall call my creditors together. In God I +trust.'</p> + +<p>The meeting of the creditors took place, and Haydon persuaded them +to grant him an extension of time until June, 1836. Thus relieved from +immediate anxiety he set to work on his picture with renewed zest. The +most remarkable trait about him, observes his son Frederick, was his +sanguine buoyancy of spirits. 'Nothing ever depressed him long. He was +the most persevering, indomitable man I ever met. With us at home he was +always confident of doing better next year. But that next year never +came.... Blest as he was with that peculiar faculty of genius for +overcoming difficulties, he might have found life tame without them. I +remember his saying once, he was not sure he did not relish ruin as a +source of increased activity of mind.' But the struggle had begun to +tell upon his powers, if not upon his spirits, and he was now painting +pictures for bread; repeating himself; despatching a work in a few days +that in better times he would have spent months over; ready to paint +small things, since great ones would not sell; fighting misery at the +point of his brush, and obliged to eke out a livelihood by begging and +borrowing, in default of worse expedients such as bills and cognovits. A +less elastic temperament and a less vigorous constitution would have +broken down in one year of such a fight. Haydon kept it up for ten.'</p> + +<p>The first half of 1836 went by in the usual struggle, and in +September Haydon was thrown into prison for the fourth time. On November +17 he passed through the Insolvency Court, and on the following Sunday +he records: 'Went to church, and returned thanks with all my heart and +soul for the great mercies of God to me and my family during my +imprisonment.... (29th) Set my palette to-day, the first time these +eleven weeks and three days. I relished the oil; could have tasted the +colour; rubbed my cheeks with the brushes, and kissed the palette. Ah, +could I be let loose in the House of Lords!' In the absence of +commissions, he now turned to lecturing as a means of support. He +lectured in Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham, as well as in +London, and did good service by agitating for the establishment of local +schools of design, and by arousing in the minds of the wealthy middle +classes some faint appreciation of the claims of art.</p> + +<p>A valuable result of these lectures was the extension of Haydon's +acquaintance among the shrewd merchant princes of the north, who +recognised his artistic sincerity, and were inclined to hold out to him +a helping hand. Through the influence of Mr. Lowndes, a Liverpool +art-patron, Haydon received a commission to paint a picture of 'Christ +blessing Little Children,' for the Blind Asylum at Liverpool, at a price +of £400. So elated was he at this unexpected piece of good fortune +that, with characteristic sanguineness, he seems to have thought that +all his troubles were at an end for ever. Even his pious dependence on +heavenly support diminished with his freedom from care, and he notes in +a Sunday entry: 'Went to church, but prosperity, though it makes me +grateful, does not cause me such perpetual religious musings as +adversity. When on a precipice, where nothing but God's protection can +save me, I delight in religious hope, but I am sorry to say my religion +ever dwindles unless kept alive by risk of ruin. My piety is never so +intense as when in a prison, and my gratitude never so much alive as +when I have just escaped from one.'</p> + +<p>The year 1838 passed in comparative peace and comfort. The picture +for the asylum was finished about the end of August, when Haydon +congratulated his Maker on the fact that he (Haydon) had paid his rent +and taxes, laid in his coals for the winter, and enjoyed health, +happiness, and freedom from debt--fresh debt, be it understood--ever +since this commission. Going down to Liverpool to hang his work, it was +proposed to him by Mr. Lowndes that he should paint a picture of the +Duke of Wellington on the field of Waterloo, twenty years after the +battle. This was a subject after Haydon's own heart, for the Duke had +always been his ideal hero, his king among men. Overflowing with pride +and delight, he prays that Providence will so bless this new commission +that 'the glorious city of Liverpool may possess the best historical +picture, and the grandest effort of my pencil in portraiture. Inspired +by history, I fear not making it the grandest thing.'</p> + +<p>The Liverpool committee wrote to the Duke, to ask if he would +consent to give sittings to Haydon, and received a promise that he would +sit for his head as soon as time could be found. Meanwhile, Haydon set +to work upon the horse, which was copied from portraits of Copenhagen. +While he was thus engaged, D'Orsay called at the studio, and bestowed +advice and criticism upon the artist, which, for once, was thankfully +received. Haydon relates how D'Orsay 'took my brush in his dandy glove, +which made my heart ache, and lowered the hind-quarters by bringing over +a bit of the sky. Such a dress! white greatcoat, blue satin cravat, hair +oiled and curling, hat of the primest curve, gloves scented with +eau-de-Cologne, primrose in tint, skin in tightness. In this prime of +dandyism, he took up a nasty, oily, dirty hog-tool, and immortalised +Copenhagen by touching the sky. I thought after he was gone, "This won't +do--a Frenchman touch Copenhagen!" So out I rubbed all he had touched, +and modified his hints myself.'</p> + +<p>As there was no chance of the Duke's being able to sit at this time, +owing to the pressure of public business, Haydon made a flying visit to +Brussels, in order to get local colour for the field of Waterloo. A few +weeks later he was overjoyed at receiving an invitation to spend a few +days at Walmer, when the Duke promised to give the desired sittings. On +October 11, 1839, he went down 'by steam' to Walmer, where he was +heartily welcomed by his host. His Journal contains a long and minute +account of his visit, from which one or two anecdotes may be quoted. +Haydon's fellow-guests were Sir Astley Cooper, Mr. Arbuthnot, and Mr. +Booth. The first evening the conversation turned, among other topics, +upon the Peninsular War. 'The Duke talked of the want of fuel in +Spain-of what the troops suffered, and how whole houses, so many to a +division, were pulled down, and paid for, to serve as fuel. He said +every Englishman who has a house goes to bed at night. He found +bivouacking was not suitable to the character of the English soldier. He +got drunk, and lay down under any hedge, and discipline was destroyed. +But when he introduced tents, every soldier belonged to his tent, and, +drunk or sober, he got to it before he went to sleep. I said, "Your +grace, the French always bivouac." "Yes," he replied, "because French, +Spanish, and all other nations lie anywhere. It is their habit. They +have no homes."'</p> + +<p>The next morning, after his return from hunting, the Duke gave a +first sitting of an hour and a half. 'I hit his grand, manly, upright +expression,' writes Haydon. 'He looked like an eagle of the gods who had +put on human shape, and got silvery with age and service.... I found +that to imagine he could not go through any duty raised the lion. "Does +the light hurt your grace's eyes?" "Not at all," and he stared at the +light as much as to say, "I'll see if you shall make me give in, Signor +Light." 'Twas a noble head. I saw nothing of that peculiar expression of +mouth the sculptors give him, bordering on simpering. His colour was +beautiful and fleshy, his lips compressed and energetic.' The next day, +being Sunday, there was no sitting, but Haydon was charmed at sharing a +pew with his hero, and deeply moved by the simplicity and humility with +which he followed the service. 'Arthur Wellesley in the village church +of Walmer,' he writes, 'was more interesting to me than at the last +charge of the Guards at Waterloo, or in all the glory and paraphernalia +of his entry into Paris.'</p> + +<p>It is probable that the Duke was afraid of being attacked by Haydon +on the burning question of a State grant for the encouragement of +historical painting, a subject about which he had received and answered +many lengthy letters, for on each evening, when there was no party, he +steadily read a newspaper, the <i>Standard</i> on Saturday, and the <i>Spectator</i> +on Sunday, while his guest watched him in silent admiration. On the +Monday morning, the hero came in for another sitting, looking extremely +worn, his skin drawn tight over his face, his eyes watery and aged, his +head slightly nodding. 'How altered from the fresh old man after +Saturday's hunting,' says Haydon. 'It affected me. He looked like an +aged eagle beginning to totter from its perch.' A second sitting in the +afternoon concluded the business, and early next morning Haydon left for +town. 'It is curious,' he comments, 'to have known thus the two great +heads of the two great parties, the Duke and Lord Grey. I prefer the +Duke infinitely. He is more manly, has no vanity, is not deluded by any +flattery or humbug, and is in every way a grander character, though Lord +Grey is a fine, amiable, venerable, vain man.'</p> + +<p>During the remainder of the year, Haydon worked steadily, and +finished his picture. On December 2 he notes: 'It is now twenty-seven +years since I ordered my Solomon canvas. I was young--twenty-six. The +whole world was against me. I had not a farthing. Yet I remember the +delight with which I mounted my deal table and dashed it in, singing and +trusting in God, as I always do. When one is once imbued with that clear +heavenly confidence, there is nothing like it. It has carried me through +everything. I think my dearest Mary has not got it; I do not think women +have in general. Two years ago I had not a farthing, having spent it all +to recover her health. She said to me, "What are we to do, my dear?" I +replied, "Trust in God." There was something like a smile on her face. +The very next day came the order for £400 from Liverpool, and ever +since I have been employed.' Alas, poor Mary! who had been chiefly +occupied in bearing children and burying them, that must have been +rather a melancholy smile upon her faded face.</p> + +<p>During the first part of 1840, Haydon seems to have been chiefly +engaged in lecturing, the only picture on the stocks being a small +replica of his Napoleon Musing for the poet Rogers. In February he was +enabled to carry out one of the dreams of his life, namely, the delivery +of a series of lectures upon art in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, +under the patronage of the Vice-Chancellor. The experiment was a +triumphant success, and he exclaims, with his usual pious fervour, 'O +God, how grateful ought I to be at being permitted the distinction of +thus being the first to break down the barrier which has kept art +begging to be heard at the Universities.' He describes the occasion as +one of the four chief honours of his life, the other three being +Wordsworth's sonnet, 'High is our calling,' the freedom of his native +town, and a public dinner that was given in his honour at Edinburgh. On +March 14 he arrived home, 'full of enthusiasm and expecting (like the +Vicar of Wakefield) every blessing--expecting my dear Mary to hang about +my neck, and welcome me after my victory; when I found her out, not +calculating I should be home till dinner. I then walked into town, and +when I returned she was at home, and hurt that I did not wait, so this +begat mutual allusions which were anything but loving or happy. So much +for anticipations of human happiness!'</p> + +<p>On June 12,1840, Haydon notes: 'Excessively excited and exhausted. I +attended the great Convention of the Anti-Slavery Society at Freemasons' +Hall. Last Wednesday a deputation called on me from the Committee, +saying they wished for a sketch of the scene. The meeting was very +affecting. Poor old Clarkson was present, with delegates from America, +and other parts of the world.' A few days later, Haydon breakfasted with +Clarkson, and sketched him with 'an expression of indignant humanity.' +In less than a week fifty heads were dashed in, the picture, when +finished, containing no fewer than a hundred and thirty-eight; in fact, +as the artist remarked, with a curious disregard of natural history, it +was all heads, like a peacock's tail. Haydon took a malicious pleasure +in suggesting to his sitters that he should place them beside the negro +delegate; this being his test of their sincerity. Thus he notes on June +30: 'Scobell called. I said, "I shall place you, Thompson, and the negro +together." Now an abolitionist, on thorough principle, would have +gloried in being so placed. He sophisticated immediately on the +propriety of placing the negro in the distance, as it would have much +greater effect. Lloyd Garrison comes to-day. I'll try him, and this +shall be my method of ascertaining the real heart.... Garrison met me +directly. George Thompson said he saw no objection. But that was not +enough. A man who wishes to place a negro on a level with himself must +no longer regard him as having been a slave, and feel annoyed at sitting +by his side.' A visit to Clarkson at Playford Hall, Ipswich, was an +interesting experience. Clarkson told the story of his vision, and the +midnight voice that said 'You have not done your work. There is +America.' Haydon had been a believer all his life in such spiritual +communications, and declares, 'I have been so acted on from seventeen to +fifty-five, for the purpose of reforming and refining my great country +in art.'</p> + +<p>In 1841 the Fine Arts Committee appointed to consider the question +of the decoration of the new Houses of Parliament, sat to examine +witnesses, but Haydon was not summoned before them, a slight which he +deeply felt. With an anxious heart he set about making experiments in +fresco, and was astonished at what he regarded as his success in this +new line of endeavour. During the past year, the Anti-Slavery Convention +picture, and one or two small commissions, had kept his head above +water, but now the clouds were beginning to gather again, his +difficulties being greatly increased by the fact that he had two sons to +start in the world. The eldest, Frank, had been apprenticed, at his own +wish, to an engineering firm, but tiring of his chosen profession, he +desired to take orders, and, as a university career was considered a +necessary preliminary to this course, he was entered at Caius College, +Cambridge. The second son, Frederick, Haydon fitted out for the navy, +and in order to meet these heavy extra expenses, he was compelled to +part with his copyright of the 'Duke at Waterloo' for a wholly +inadequate sum.</p> + +<p>In the spring of 1842 the Fine Arts Commission issued a notice of +the conditions for the cartoon competition, intended to test the +capacity of native artists for the decoration of the House of Lords. The +joy with which Haydon welcomed this first step towards the object which +he had been advocating throughout the whole of his working life, was +marred by the painful misgiving that he would not be allowed to share +the fruits of victory. When he had first begun his crusade, he had felt +himself without a rival in his own branch of art, not one of his +contemporaries being able to compete with him in a knowledge of anatomy, +in strength of imagination, or in the power of working on a grand scale. +But now he was fifty-six years old, there were younger men coming on who +had been trained in the principles of his own school, and he was +painfully aware that he had made many enemies in high places. Still, in +spite of all forebodings, he continued his researches in +fresco-painting, and wrote vehement letters to the papers, protesting +against the threatened employment of Cornelius and other German artists.</p> + +<p>During this year Haydon was working intermittently at two or three +large pictures, 'Alexander conquering the Lion,' 'Curtius leaping into +the Gulf,' and the 'Siege of Saragossa,' for the days were long past +when one grand composition occupied him for six years. That the wolf was +once again howling at the door is evidenced by the entry for February 6. +'I got up yesterday, after lying awake for several hours with all the +old feelings of torture at want of money. A bill coming due of £44 +for my boy Frank at Caius. Three commissions for £700 put off till +next year. My dear Mary's health broken up.... I knew if my debt to the +tutor of Caius was not paid, the mind of my son Frank would be +destroyed, from his sensitiveness to honour and right. As he is now +beating third-year men, I dreaded any check.' In these straits he +hastily painted one or two small pot-boilers, borrowed, deferred, pawned +his wife's watch, and had the satisfaction of bringing his son home +'crowned as first-prize man in mathematics.' For one who was in the +toils of the money-lenders, who was only living from hand to mouth, and +who had never made an investment in his life, to give his son a +university career, must be regarded, according to individual feeling, +either as a proof of presumptuous folly or of childlike trust in +Providence.</p> + +<p>As soon as his pictures were off his hands, Haydon began his +competition cartoons of 'The Curse of Adam and Eve,' and 'The Entry of +Edward the Black Prince and King John into London.' He felt that it was +beneath his dignity as a painter of recognised standing to compete with +young unknown men who had nothing to lose, but in his present +necessities the chance of winning one of the money prizes was not to be +neglected. In the absence of any lucrative employment he was only able +to carry on his work by pawning his lay-figure, and borrowing off his +butterman. Small wonder that he exclaims: 'The greatest curse that can +befall a father in England is to have a son gifted with a passion and a +genius for high art. Thank God with all my soul and all my nature, my +children have witnessed the harrowing agonies under which I have ever +painted, and the very name of painting, the very thought of a picture, +gives them a hideous taste in their mouths. Thank God, not one of my +boys, nor my girl, can draw a straight line, even with a ruler, much +less without one.'</p> + +<p>In the course of this year Haydon began a correspondence with Miss +Barrett, afterwards Mrs. Browning, with whom he was never personally +acquainted, though he knew her through her poems, and through the +allusions to her in the letters of their common friend, Miss Mitford. +The paper friendship flourished for a time, and Haydon, who was a keen +judge of character, recognised that here was a little Donna Quixote +whose chivalry could be depended on in time of trouble. More than once, +when threatened with arrest, he sent her paintings and manuscripts, of +which she took charge with sublime indifference to the fact that by so +doing she might be placing herself within reach of the arm of the law. +One of the pictures that were placed in her guardianship was an +unfinished portrait of 'Wordsworth musing upon Helvellyn.' Miss Barrett +was inspired by this work with the sonnet beginning: </p> + +<p> 'Wordsworth upon Helvellyn! Let the cloud<br> + Ebb audibly along the mountain wind';</p> + +<p>and concluding with the fine tribute: </p> + +<p> +'A vision free<br> + And noble, Haydon, hath thine art released.<br> + No portrait this with academic air,<br> + This is the poet and his poetry.'</p> + +<p>The year 1843 brought, as Haydon's biographer points out, 'the +consummation of what he had so earnestly fought for, a competition of +native artists to prove their capability for executing great monumental +and decorative works; but with this came his own bitter disappointment +at not being among the successful competitors. In all his struggles up +to this point, Haydon had the consolation of hope that better times were +coming. But now the good time for art was at hand, and he was passed +over. The blow fell heavily--indeed, I may say, was mortal. He tried to +cheat himself into the belief that the old hostile influences to which +he attributed all his misfortunes, had been working here also, and that +he should yet rise superior to their malice. He would not admit to +himself that his powers were impaired--that he was less fit for great +achievements in his art than he had been when he painted Solomon and +Lazarus. But if he held this opinion, he held it alone. It was apparent +to all, even to his warmest friends, that years of harass, humiliation, +distraction, and conflict had enfeebled his energies, and led him to +seek in exaggeration the effect he could no longer attain by +well-measured force. His restless desire to have a hand in all that was +projected for art, had wearied those in authority. He had shown himself +too intractable to follow, and he had not inspired that confidence which +might have given him a right to lead.'</p> + +<p>Although Haydon loudly proclaimed his conviction that, in face of +the hostility against him, his cartoons would not be successful, even +though they were as perfect as Raphael's, yet it is obvious that he had +not altogether relinquished hope. In a letter to his old pupil, +Eastlake, who was secretary to the Fine Arts Commission, he says: 'I +appeal to the Royal Commission, to the First Lord, to you the secretary, +to Barry the architect, if I ought not to be indulged in my hereditary +right to do this, viz., that when the houses are ready, cartoons done, +colours mixed, and all at their posts, I shall be allowed, <i>employed</i> +or <i>not employed</i>, to take the brush, and dip into the <i>first</i> +colour, and put the <i>first</i> touch on the <i>first</i> intonaco. If +that is not granted, I'll haunt every noble Lord and you, till you join +my disturbed spirit on the banks of the Styx.'</p> + +<p>On June 1, Haydon placed his two cartoons in Westminster Hall, and +thanked his God that he had lived to see that day, adding with +unconscious blasphemy, 'Spare my life, O Lord, until I have shown thy +strength unto this generation, thy power unto that which is to come.' +The miracle for which he had secretly hoped, while declaring his +certainty of failure, did not happen. On June 27 he heard from Eastlake +that his cartoons were not among those chosen for reward. Half stunned +by the blow, anticipated though it had been, he makes but few comments +on the news in his Journal, and those are written in a composed and +reasonable tone. 'I went to bed last night in a decent state of +anxiety,' he observes. 'It has given a great shock to my family, +especially to my dear boy, Frank, and revived all the old horrors of +arrest, execution, and debt. It is exactly what I expected, and is, I +think, intentional.... I am wounded, and being ill from confinement, it +shook me. (<i>July 1st</i>) A day of great misery. I said to my dear +love, "I am not included." Her expression was a study. She said, "We +shall be ruined." I looked up my letters, papers, and Journals, and sent +them to my dear AEschylus Barrett. I burnt loads of private letters, and +prepared for executions. Seven pounds was raised on my daughter's and +Mary's dresses.'</p> + +<p>The three money prizes were awarded to Armitage, Cope, and Watts, +but it was announced that another competition, in fresco, would be held +the following year, when the successful competitors would be intrusted +with the decoration of the House of Lords. Haydon did not enter for this +competition, but, as will presently appear, he refused to allow that he +was beaten. On September 4 he removed his cartoons from Westminster +Hall, with the comment: 'Thus ends the cartoon contest; and as the very +first inventor and beginner of this mode of rousing the people when they +were pronounced incapable of relishing refined works of art without +colour, I am deeply wounded at the insult inflicted. These Journals +witness under what trials I began them--how I called on my Creator for +His blessing--how I trusted in Him, and how I have been degraded, +insulted, and harassed. O Lord! Thou knowest best. I submit.'</p> + +<p>During the year Haydon had finished his picture of 'Alexander and +the Lion,' which he considered one of his finest works, though the +British Gallery declined to hang it, and no patron offered to buy it. He +had also painted for bread and cheese innumerable small replicas of +'Napoleon at St. Helena' and the 'Duke at Waterloo' for five guineas +apiece. By the beginning of 1844 his spirits had outwardly revived, +thanks to the anodyne of incessant labour, and he writes almost in the +old buoyant vein: 'Another day of work, God be thanked! Put in the sea +[in "Napoleon at St. Helena"]; a delicious tint. How exquisite is a bare +canvas, sized alone, to work on; how the slightest colour, thin as +water, tells; how it glitters in body; how the brush flies--now +here--now there; it seems as if face, hands, sky, thought, poetry, and +expression were hid in the handle, and streamed out as it touched the +canvas. What magic! what fire! what unerring hand and eye! what power! +what a gift of God! I bow, and am grateful.' On March 24 he came to the +fatal decision to paint his own original designs for the House of Lords +in a series of six large pictures, and exhibit them separately, a +decision founded, as he believed, on supernatural inspiration. 'Awoke +this morning,' he writes, 'with that sort of audible whisper Socrates, +Columbus, and Tasso heard! "Why do you not paint your own designs for +the House on your own foundation, and exhibit them?" I felt as if there +was no chance of my ever being permitted to do them else, without +control also. I knelt up in my bed, and prayed heartily to accomplish +them, whatever might be the obstruction. I will begin them as my next +great works; I feel as if they will be my last, and I think I shall then +have done my duty. O God! bless the beginning, progression, and +conclusion of these six great designs to illustrate the best government +to regulate without cramping the energies of mankind.'</p> + +<p>In July the frescoes sent in for competition were exhibited in +Westminster Hall, and in the result six artists were commissioned to +decorate the House of Lords, Maclise, Redgrave, Dyce, Cope, Horsley, and +Thomas. 'I see,' writes Haydon, 'they are resolved that I, the +originator of the whole scheme, shall have nothing to do with it; so I +will (trusting in the great God who has brought me thus far) begin on my +own inventions without employment.' The first of the series was +'Aristides hooted by the Populace,' and the conditions under which it +was painted are described in his annual review of the year's work: 'I +have painted a large Napoleon in four days and a half, six smaller +different subjects, three Curtiuses, five Napoleons Musing, three Dukes +and Copenhagens, George IV., and the Duke at Waterloo--half done +Uriel--published my lectures--and settled composition of Aristides. I +gave lectures at Liverpool, sometimes twice a day, and lectured at the +Royal Institution. I have not been idle, but how much more I might have +done!'</p> + +<p>In 1845 Haydon exhibited his picture of 'Uriel and Satan' at the +Academy, and 'after twenty-two years of abuse,' actually received a +favourable notice in the <i>Times</i>, For the Uriel he was paid +£200, but five other pictures remained upon his hands, their +estimated value amounting to nearly a thousand pounds, and he was left +to work at his <i>Aristides</i> with barely ten shillings for current +expenses, and not a single commission in prospect. 'What a pity it is,' +he observes, 'that a man of my order--sincerity, perhaps genius [in the +Journal a private note is here inserted, "not <i>perhaps</i>"], is not +employed. What honour, what distinction would I not confer on my great +country! However, it is my destiny to perform great things, not in +consequence of encouragement, but in spite of opposition, and so let it +be.' In the latter part of the year came one or two minor pieces of good +fortune for which Haydon professed the profoundest gratitude, declaring +that he was not good enough to deserve such blessings. The King of +Hanover bought a Napoleon for £200, and a pupil came, who paid a +like sum as premium. His son, Frank, who had taken his degree, changed +his mind again about his profession, and now 'shrank from the publicity +of the pulpit.' Haydon applied to Sir Robert Peel for an appointment for +the youth, and Peel, who seems to have shown the utmost patience and +kindness in his relations with the unfortunate artist, at once offered a +post in the Record Office at £80 a year, an offer which was gladly +accepted.</p> + +<p>Thus relieved of immediate care, Haydon set to work on the second +picture of his series, 'Nero playing the Lyre while Rome was burning.' +The effect of his conception, as he foresaw it in his mind's eye, was so +terrific that he 'fluttered, trembled, and perspired like a woman, and +was obliged to sit down.' Under all the anxiety, the pressure, and the +disappointment of Haydon's life, it must be remembered that there were +enormous compensations in the shape of days and hours of absorbed and +satisfied employment, days and hours such as seldom fall to the lot of +the average good citizen and solvent householder. The following entry +alone is sufficient proof that Haydon, even in his worst straits, was +almost as much an object of envy as of compassion: 'Worked with such +intense abstraction and delight for eight hours, with five minutes only +for lunch, that though living in the noisiest quarter of all London, I +never remember hearing all day a single cart, carriage, knock, cry, bark +of man, woman, dog, or child. When I came out into the sunshine I said +to myself, "Why, what is all this driving about?" though it has always +been so for the last twenty-two years, so perfectly, delightfully, and +intensely had I been abstracted. If that be not happiness, what is?'</p> + +<p>Haydon had now staked all his hopes upon the exhibition in the +spring of 1846 of the first two pictures in his series, 'Aristides' and +'Nero.' If the public flocked to see them, if it accorded him, as he +expected, its enthusiastic support, he hoped that the Commission would +be shamed into offering him public employment. If, on the other hand, +the exhibition failed, he must have realised that he would be +irretrievably ruined, with all his hopes for the future slain. +Everything was to be sacrificed to this last grand effort. 'If I lose +this moment for showing all my works,' he writes, 'it can never occur +again. My fate hangs on doing as I ought, and seizing moments with +energy. I shall never again have the opportunity of connecting myself +with a great public commission by opposition, and interesting the public +by the contrast. If I miss it, it will be a tide not taken at the flood.'</p> + +<p>By dint of begging and borrowing, the money was scraped together for +the opening expenses of the exhibition, and Haydon composed a +sensational descriptive advertisement in the hope of attracting the +public. The private view was on April 4, when it rained all day, and +only four old friends attended. On April 6, Easter Monday, the public +was admitted, but only twenty-one availed themselves of the privilege. +For a few days Haydon went on hoping against hope that matters would +improve, and that John Bull, in whose support he had trusted, would +rally round him at last. But Tom Thumb was exhibiting next door, and the +historical painter had no chance against the pigmy. The people rushed by +in their thousands to visit Tom Thumb, but few stopped to inspect +'Aristides' or 'Nero.' 'They push, they fight, they scream, they faint,' +writes Haydon, 'they see my bills, my boards, my caravans, and don't +read them. Their eyes are open, but their sense is shut. It is an +insanity, a rabies, a madness, a furor, a dream. Tom Thumb had 12,000 +people last week, B. R. Haydon 133 1/2 (the half a little girl). +Exquisite taste of the English people!... (<i>May,</i> 18<i>th</i>) I +closed my exhibition this day, and lost £111, 8s. 10d. No man can +accuse me of showing less energy, less spirit, less genius than I did +twenty-six years ago. I have not decayed, but the people have been +corrupted. I am the same, they are not; and I have suffered in +consequence.'</p> + +<p>In defiance of this shipwreck of all his hopes, and the heavy +liabilities that hung about his neck, this indomitable spirit began the +third picture of his unappreciated series, 'Alfred and the First British +Jury.' He had large sums to pay in the coming month, and only a few +shillings in the house, with no commissions in prospect. He sends up +passionate and despairing petitions that God will help him in his +dreadful necessities, will raise him friends from sources invisible, and +enable him to finish his last and greatest works. Appeals for help to +Lord Brougham, the Duke of Beaufort, and Sir Robert Peel brought only +one response, a cheque for £50 from Peel, which was merely a drop +in the ocean. Day by day went by, and still no commissions came in, no +offers for any of the large pictures he had on hand. Haydon began to +lose confidence in his ability to finish his series, and with him loss +of self-confidence was a fatal sign. The June weather was hot, he was +out of health, and unable to sleep at night, but he declined to send for +a doctor. His brain grew confused, and at last even the power to work, +that power which for him had spelt pride and happiness throughout his +whole life, seemed to be leaving him.</p> + +<p>On June 16 he writes: 'I sat from two till five staring at my +picture like an idiot, my brain pressed down by anxiety, and the anxious +looks of my dear Mary and the children.... Dearest Mary, with a woman's +passion, wishes me at once to stop payment, and close the whole thing. I +will not. I will finish my six under the blessing of God, reduce my +expenses, and hope His mercy will not desert me, but bring me through in +health and vigour, gratitude and grandeur of soul, to the end.' The end +was nearer than he thought, for even Haydon's brave spirit could not +battle for ever with adverse fate, and the collapse, when it came, was +sudden. The last two or three entries in the Journal are melancholy +reading.</p> + +<p>'<i>June</i> 18.--O God, bless me through the evils of this day. My +landlord, Newton, called. I said, "I see a quarter's rent in thy face, +but none from me." I appointed to-morrow night to see him, and lay +before him every iota of my position. Good-hearted Newton! I said, +"Don't put in an execution." "Nothing of the sort," he replied, half +hurt. I sent the Duke, Wordsworth, dear Fred and Mary's heads to Miss +Barrett to protect. I have the Duke's boots and hat, Lord Grey's coat, +and some more heads.</p> + +<p>'20<i>th</i>.--O God, bless us through all the evils of this day. +Amen.</p> + +<p>'21<i>st,</i>.--Slept horribly. Prayed in sorrow, and got up in +agitation.</p> + +<p>'22<i>nd</i>.--God forgive me. Amen.</p> + +<p> FINIS OF B. R. HAYDON.</p> + +<p> '"Stretch me no longer on this rough world"--<i>Lear</i>.'</p> + +<p>This last entry was made between ten and eleven o'clock on the +morning of June 22. Haydon had risen early, and gone out to a gunmaker's +in Oxford Street, where he bought a pair of pistols. After breakfast, he +asked his wife to go and spend the day with an old friend, and having +affectionately embraced her, shut himself in his painting-room. Mrs. +Haydon left the house, and an hour later Miss Haydon went down to the +studio, intending to try and console her father in his anxieties. She +found him stretched on the floor in front of his unfinished picture of +'Alfred and the First Jury,' a bullet-wound in his head, and a frightful +gash across his throat. A razor and a small pistol lay by his side. On +the table were his Journal, open at the last page, letters to his wife +and children, his will, made that morning, and a paper headed: 'Last +thoughts of B. R. Haydon; half-past ten.' These few lines, with their +allusions to Wellington and Napoleon, are characteristic of the man who +had painted the two great soldiers a score of times, and looked up to +them as his heroes and exemplars.</p> + +<p>'No man should use certain evil for probable good, however great the +object,' so they run. 'Evil is the prerogative of the Deity. Wellington +never used evil if the good was not certain. Napoleon had no such +scruples, and I fear the glitter of his genius rather dazzled me. But +had I been encouraged, nothing but good would have come from me, because +when encouraged I paid everybody. God forgive me the evil for the sake +of the good. Amen.'</p> + +<p>This tragic conclusion to a still more tragic career created a +profound sensation in society, and immense crowds followed the +historical painter to his grave. Among all his friends, perhaps few were +more affected by his death than one who had never looked upon his +face--his 'dear Æschylus Barrett, 'as he called her. Certain it is +that, with the intuition of genius, Elizabeth Barrett understood, +appreciated, and made allowances for the unhappy man more completely +than was possible to any other of his contemporaries. Clear-sighted to +his faults and weaknesses, her chivalrous spirit took up arms in defence +of his conduct, even against the strictures of her poet-lover. 'The +dreadful death of poor Mr. Haydon the artist,' she wrote to her friend +Mrs. Martin, a few days after the event, 'has quite upset me. I thank +God that I never saw him--poor gifted Haydon.... No artist is left +behind with equal largeness of poetical conception. If the hand had +always obeyed the soul, he would have been a genius of the first order. +As it is, he lived on the slope of genius, and could not be steadfast +and calm. His life was one long agony of self-assertion. Poor, poor +Haydon! See how the world treats those who try too openly for its +gratitude. "Tom Thumb for ever" over the heads of its giants.'</p> + +<p>'Could any one--<i>could my own hand even have averted what has +happened</i>?' she wrote to Robert Browning on June 24, 1846. 'My head +and heart have ached to-day over the inactive hand. But for the moment +it was out of my power, and then I never fancied this case to be more +than a piece of a continuous case, of a habit fixed. Two years ago he +sent me boxes and pictures precisely so, and took them back again--poor, +poor Haydon!--as he will not this time.... Also, I have been told again +and again (oh, never by <i>you</i>, my beloved) that to give money <i>there</i>, +was to drop it into a hole in the ground. But if to have dropped it so, +dust to dust, would have saved a living man--what then?... Some day, +when I have the heart to look for it, you shall see his last note. I +understand now that there are touches of desperate pathos--but never +could he have meditated self-destruction while writing that note. He +said he should write six more lectures--six more volumes. He said he was +painting a new background to a picture which made him feel as if his +soul had wings... and he repeated an old phrase of his, which I had +heard from him often before, and which now rings hollowly to the ears of +my memory--that he <i>couldn't and wouldn't die</i>. Strange and +dreadful!'</p> + +<p>Directly after Haydon's death a public meeting of his friends and +patrons was held, at which a considerable sum was subscribed for the +benefit of his widow and daughter. Sir Robert Peel, besides sending +immediate help, recommended the Queen to bestow a small pension on Mrs. +Haydon. The dead man's debts amounted to £3000, and his assets +consisted chiefly of unsaleable pictures, on most of which his creditors +had liens. In his will was a clause to the effect that 'I have +manuscripts and memoirs in the possession of Miss Barrett, of 50 Wimpole +Street, in a chest, which I wish Longman to be consulted about. My +memoirs are to 1820; my journals will supply the rest. The style, the +individuality of Richardson, which I wish not curtailed by an editor.' +Miss Mitford was asked to edit the Life, but felt herself unequal to the +task, which was finally intrusted to Mr. Tom Taylor.</p> + +<p>Haydon's <i>Memoirs</i>, compiled from his autobiography, journals, +and correspondence, appeared in 1853, the same year that saw the +publication of Lord John Russell's <i>Life of Thomas Moore</i>. To the +great astonishment of both critics and public, Haydon's story proved the +more interesting of the two. 'Haydon's book is the work of the year,' +writes Miss Mitford. 'It has entirely stopped the sale of Moore's, which +really might have been written by a Court newspaper or a Court +milliner.' Again, the <i>Athenæum</i>, a more impartial witness, +asks, 'Who would have thought that the Life of Haydon would turn out a +more sterling and interesting addition to English biography than the +Life of Moore?' But the highest testimony to the merits of the book as a +human document comes from Mrs. Browning, who wrote to Miss Mitford on +March 19, 1854, 'Oh, I have just been reading poor Haydon's biography. +There is tragedy! The pain of it one can hardly shake off. Surely, +surely, wrong was done somewhere, when the worst is admitted of Haydon. +For himself, looking forward beyond the grave, I seem to understand that +all things, when most bitter, worked ultimate good to him, for that +sublime arrogance of his would have been fatal perhaps to the moral +nature, if further developed by success. But for the nation we had our +duties, and we should not suffer our teachers and originators to sink +thus. It is a book written in blood of the heart. Poor Haydon!' Mr. +Taylor's Life was supplemented in 1874 by Haydon's <i>Correspondence +and Table-talk</i>, together with a <i>Memoir</i> written in a tone of +querulous complaint, by his second son, Frederick, who, it may be noted, +had been dismissed from the public service for publishing a letter to +Mr. Gladstone, entitled <i>Our Officials at the Home Office</i>, and +who died in the Bethlehem Hospital in 1886. His elder brother, Frank, +committed suicide in 1887.</p> + +<p>On the subject of Haydon's merits as a painter the opinion of his +contemporaries swung from one extreme to another, while that of +posterity perhaps has scarcely allowed him such credit as was his due. +It is certain that he was considered a youth of extraordinary promise by +his colleagues, Wilkie, Jackson, and Sir George Beaumont, yet there were +not wanting critics who declared that his early picture, 'Dentatus,' was +an absurd mass of vulgarity and distortion. Foreign artists who visited +his studio urged him to go to Rome, where he was assured that patrons +and pupils would flock round him; while, on the other hand, he was +described by a native critic (in the <i>Quarterly Review</i>) as one of +the most defective painters of the day, who had received more pecuniary +assistance, more indulgence, more liberality, and more charity than any +other artist ever heard of. But the best criticism of his powers, though +it scarcely takes into account the gift of imagination which received so +many tributes from the poets, is that contributed to Mr. Taylor's +biography by Mr. Watts, R.A.</p> + +<p>'The characteristics of Haydon's art,' he writes, 'appear to me to +be great determination and power, knowledge, and effrontery... Haydon +appears to have succeeded as often as he displays any real anxiety to do +so; but one is struck with the extraordinary discrepancy of different +parts of the work, as though, bored by a fixed attention that had taken +him out of himself, yet highly applauding the result, he had scrawled +and daubed his brush about in a sort of intoxication of self-glory... In +Haydon's work there is not sufficient forgetfulness of self to disarm +criticism of personality. His pictures are themselves autobiographical +notes of the most interesting kind; but their want of beauty repels, and +their want of modesty exasperates. Perhaps their principal +characteristic is lack of delicacy and refinement of execution.' While +describing Haydon's touch as woolly, his surfaces as disagreeable, and +his draperies as deficient in dignity, Mr. Watts admits that his +expression of anatomy and general perception of form are the best by far +that can be found in the English school. Haydon had looked forward in +full confidence to the favourable verdict of posterity, and to an +honourable position in the National Gallery for the big canvases that +had been neglected by his contemporaries. It is not the least of life's +little ironies that while not a single work of his now hangs in the +National Gallery, his large picture of Curtius leaping into the Gulf +occupies a prominent position in one of Gatti's restaurants. [Footnote: +Three of Haydon's pictures, however, are the property of the nation. +Two, the 'Lazarus' and 'May-day,' belong to the National Gallery, but +have been lent to provincial galleries. One, the 'Christ in the Garden,' +belongs to the South Kensington Museum, but has been stored away.]</p> + +<p>As a lecturer, a theoriser, and a populariser of his art, Haydon has +just claims to grateful remembrance. Though driven to paint pot-boilers +for the support of his family, he never ceased to preach the gospel of +high art; he was among the first to recognise and acclaim the +transcendent merits of the Elgin Marbles; he rejoiced with a personal +joy in the purchase of the Angerstein collection as the nucleus of a +National Gallery; he scorned the ignoble fears of some of his colleagues +lest the newly-started winter exhibitions of old masters should injure +their professional prospects; he used his interest at Court to have +Raphael's cartoons brought up to London for the benefit of students and +public; he advocated the establishment of local schools of design, and, +through his lectures and writings, helped to raise and educate the taste +of his country.</p> + +<p>Haydon has painted his own character and temperament in such vivid +colours, that scarcely a touch need be added to the portrait. He was an +original thinker, a vigorous writer, a keen observer, but from his youth +up a disproportion was evident in the structure of his mind, that +pointed only too clearly to insanity. His judgment, as Mr. Taylor +observes, was essentially unsound in all matters where he himself was +personally interested. His vanity blinded him throughout to the quality +of his own work, the amount of influence he could wield, and the extent +of the public sympathy that he excited. He was essentially religious in +temperament, though his religion was so assertive and egotistical in +type that those who hold with Rosalba that where there is no modesty +there can be no religion, [Footnote: Rosalba said of Sir Godfrey +Kneller, 'This man can have no religion, for he has no modesty.'] might +be inclined to deny its existence. From the very outset of his career +Haydon took up the attitude of a missionary of high art in England--and +therewith the expectation of being crowned and enriched as its Priest +and King. He clung to the belief that a man who devoted himself to the +practice of a high and ennobling art ought to be supported by a grateful +country, or at least by generous patrons, and he could never be made to +realise that Art is a stern and jealous mistress, who demands material +sacrifices from her votaries in exchange for spiritual compensations. If +a man desires to create a new era in the art of his country, he must be +prepared to lead a monastic life in a garret; but if, like Haydon, he +allows himself a wife and eight children, and professes to be unable to +live on five hundred a year, he must condescend to the painting of +portraits and pot-boilers. The public cannot be forced to support what +it neither understands nor admires, and, in a democratic state, the +Government is bound to consult the taste of its masters.</p> + +<p>Haydon's financial embarrassments were perhaps the least of his +trials. As has been seen, he had fallen into the hands of the +money-lenders in early youth, and he had never been able to extricate +himself from their clutches. But so many of his friends and +colleagues--Godwin, Leigh Hunt, and Sir Thomas Lawrence among +others--were in the same position, that Haydon must have felt he was +insolvent in excellent company. As long as he was able to keep himself +out of prison and the bailiffs out of his house, he seems to have +considered that his affairs were positively nourishing, and at their +worst his financial difficulties alone would never have driven him to +self-destruction. Mrs. Browning was surely right when she wrote:--'The +more I think the more I am inclined to conclude that the money +irritation was merely an additional irritation, and that the despair, +leading to revolt against life, had its root in disappointed ambition. +The world did not recognise his genius, and he punished the world by +withdrawing the light... All the audacity and bravery and +self-calculation, which drew on him so much ridicule, were an agony in +disguise--he could not live without reputation, and he wrestled for it, +struggled for it, <i>kicked</i> for it, forgetting grace of attitude in +the pang. When all was vain he went mad and died... Poor Haydon! Think +what an agony life was to him, so constituted!--his own genius a +clinging curse! the fire and the clay in him seething and quenching one +another!--the man seeing maniacally in all men the assassins of his +fame! and with the whole world against him, struggling for the thing +that was his life, through day and night, in thoughts and in dreams ... +struggling, stifling, breaking the hearts of the creatures dearest to +him, in the conflict for which there was no victory, though he could not +choose but fight it. Tell me if Laocoön's anguish was not as an +infant's sleep compared to this.'</p> + +<p>Haydon wrote his own epitaph, and this, which he, at least, believed +to be an accurate summary of his misfortunes and their cause, may fitly +close this brief outline of his troubled life:--</p> + +<p>'HERE LIETH THE BODY</p> + +<p>OF</p> + +<p>BENJAMIN ROBERT HAYDON,</p> + +<p>An English Historical Painter, who, in a struggle to make the +People, the Legislature, the Nobility, and the Sovereign of England give +due dignity and rank to the highest Art, which has ever languished, and, +until the Government interferes, ever will languish in England, fell a +Victim to his ardour and his love of country, an evidence that to seek +the benefit of your country by telling the Truth to Power, is a crime +that can only be expiated by the ruin and destruction of the Man who is +so patriotic and so imprudent.</p> + +<p>'He was born at Plymouth, 26th of January 1786, and died on the +[22nd of June] 18[46], believing in Christ as the Mediator and Advocate +of Mankind:--</p> + +<p>'"What various ills the Painter's life assail, Pride, Envy, Want, +the Patron and the Jail."'<br> +<br> +</p> +<hr style="width: 100%; height: 2px;"><br> + +<p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><big><a name="MORGAN"></a><big>LADY +MORGAN</big> <br> +(SYDNEY OWENSON)<br> +</big><br> +</p> +<div style="text-align: center;"> </div> +<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="images/Morgan.jpg" + title="Sydney Owenson, afterwards Lady Morgan, From a drawing by Sir Thomas Lawrence." + alt="Sydney Owenson, afterwards Lady Morgan, From a drawing by Sir Thomas Lawrence." + style="width: 388px; height: 548px;"><br> +<br> +</div> +<div style="text-align: center;"> </div> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 20%;"> + +<p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;">PART I</p> + +<p>'What,' asks Lady Morgan in her fragment of autobiography, 'what has +a woman to do with dates? Cold, false, erroneous dates! Her poetical +idiosyncrasy, calculated by epochs, would make the most natural points +of reference in a woman's autobiography.' The matter-of-fact Saxon would +hardly know how to set about calculating a poetical idiosyncrasy by +epochs, but our Celtic heroine was equal to the task; at any rate, she +abstained so carefully throughout her career from all unnecessary +allusion to what she called 'vulgar eras,' that the date of her birth +remained a secret, even from her bitterest enemies. Her untiring +persecutor, John Wilson Croker, declared that Sydney Owenson was born in +1775, while the <i>Dictionary of National Biography</i> more gallantly +gives the date as 1783, with a query. But as Sir Charles Morgan was born +in the latter year, and as his wife owned to a few years' seniority, we +shall probably be doing her no injustice if we place the important event +between 1778 and 1780.</p> + +<p>Lady Morgan's detestation for dates was accompanied by a vivid +imagination, an inaccurate memory, and a constitutional inability to +deal with hard facts. Hence, her biographers have found it no easy task +to grapple with the details of her career, her own picturesque, +high-coloured narrative being not invariably in accord with the prosaic +records gathered from contemporary sources. For example, according to +the plain, unvarnished statement of a Saxon chronicler, Lady Morgan's +father was one Robert MacOwen, who was born in 1744, the son of poor +parents in Connaught. He was educated at a hedge-school, and on coming +to man's estate, obtained a situation as steward to a neighbouring +landowner. But, having been inspired with an unquenchable passion for +the theatre, he presently threw up his post, and through the influence +of Goldsmith, a 'Connaught cousin,' he obtained a footing on the English +stage.</p> + +<p>The Celtic version of this story, as dictated by Lady Morgan in her +old age, is immeasurably superior, and at any rate deserves to be true. +Early in the eighteenth century, so runs the tale, a hurling-match was +held in Connaught, which was attended by all the gentry of the +neighbourhood. The Queen of Beauty, who gave away the prizes, was Sydney +Crofton Bell, granddaughter of Sir Malby Crofton of Longford House. The +victor of the hurling-match was Walter MacOwen, a gentleman according to +the genealogy of Connaught, but a farmer by position. Young, strong, and +handsome, MacOwen, like Orlando, overthrew more than his enemies, with +the result that presently there was an elopement in the neighbourhood, +and an unpardonable <i>mésalliance</i> in the Crofton family. The +marriage does not appear to have been a very happy one, since MacOwen +continued to frequent all the fairs and hurling-matches of the +country-side, but his wife consoled herself for his neglect by +cultivating her musical and poetical gifts. She composed Irish songs and +melodies, and gained the title of Clasagh-na-Vallagh, or Harp of the +Valley. Her only son Robert inherited his father's good looks and his +mother's artistic talents, and was educated by the joint efforts of the +Protestant clergyman and the Roman Catholic priest.</p> + +<p>When the boy was about seventeen, a rich, eccentric stranger named +Blake arrived to take possession of the Castle of Ardfry. The new-comer, +who was a musical amateur, presently discovered that there was a young +genius in the neighbourhood. Struck by the beauty of Robert MacOwen's +voice, Mr. Blake offered to take the youth into his own household, and +educate him for a liberal profession, an offer that was joyfully +accepted by Clasagh-na-Vallagh. The patron soon tired of Connaught, and +carried off his <i>protégé</i> to London, where he placed +him under Dr. Worgan, the famous blind organist of Westminster Abbey. At +home, young MacOwen's duties were to keep his employer's accounts, to +carve at table, and to sing Irish melodies to his guests. He was taken +up by his distant kinsman, Goldsmith, who introduced him to the world +behind the scenes, and encouraged him in his aspirations after a +theatrical career.</p> + +<p>Among the young Irishman's new acquaintances was Madame Weichsel, <i>prima +donna</i> of His Majesty's Theatre, and mother of the more celebrated +Mrs. Billington. The lady occasionally studied her roles under Dr. +Worgan, when MacOwen played the part of stage-lover, and, being of an +inflammable disposition, speedily developed into a real one. This +love-affair was the cause of a sudden reverse of fortune. During Mr. +Blake's absence from town, Robert accompanied Madame Weichsel to +Vauxhall, where she was engaged to sing a duet. Her professional +colleague failing to appear, young MacOwen was persuaded to undertake +the tenor part, which he did with pronounced success. But unfortunately +Mr. Blake, who had returned unexpectedly from Ireland, was among the +audience, and was angered beyond all forgiveness by this premature <i>début</i>. +When Robert went home, he found his trunks ready packed, and a letter +of dismissal from his patron awaiting him. A note for £300, which +accompanied the letter, was returned, and the prodigal drove off to his +cousin Goldsmith, who, with characteristic good-nature, took him in, and +promised him his interest with the theatrical managers.</p> + +<p>According to Lady Morgan's account, Robert Owenson, as he now called +himself in deference to the prevailing prejudice against both the Irish +and the Scotch, was at once introduced to Garrick, and allowed to make +his <i>début</i> in the part of Tamerlane. But, from contemporary +evidence, it is clear that he had gained some experience in the +provinces before he made his first appearance on the London boards, when +his Tamerlane was a decided failure. Garrick refused to allow him a +second chance, but after further provincial touring, he obtained another +London engagement, and appeared with success in such parts as Captain +Macheath, Sir Lucius O'Trigger, and Major O'Flaherty.</p> + +<p>Owenson had been on the stage some years when he fell in love with +Miss Jane Hill, the daughter of a respectable burgess of Shrewsbury. The +worthy Mr. Hill refused his consent to his daughter's marriage with an +actor, but the dashing <i>jeune premier</i>, like his father before +him, carried off his bride by night, and married her at Lichfield before +her irate parent could overtake them. Miss Hill was a Methodist by +persuasion, and hated the theatre, though she loved her player. She +induced her husband to renounce his profession for a time, and to appear +only at concerts and oratorios. But the stage-fever was in his blood, +and after a short retirement, we find him, in 1771, investing a part of +his wife's fortune in a share in the Crow Street Theatre, Dublin, where +he made his first appearance with great success in his favourite part of +Major O'Flaherty, one of the characters in Cumberland's comedy, <i>The +West Indian</i>. He remained one of the pillars of this theatre until +1782, when Ryder, the patentee, became a bankrupt. Owenson was then +engaged by Richard Daly to perform at the Smock Alley Theatre, and also +to fill the post of assistant-manager.</p> + +<p>By this time Sydney had made her appearance in the world, arriving +on Christmas Day in some unspecified year. According to one authority +she was born on ship-board during the passage from Holyhead to Dublin, +but she tells us herself that she was born at her father's house in +Dublin during a Christmas banquet, at which most of the leading wits and +literary celebrities of the capital were present. The whole party was +bidden to her christening a month later, and Edward Lysaght, equally +famous as a lawyer and an improvisatore, undertook to make the necessary +vows in her name. In spite of this brilliant send-off, Sydney was not +destined to bring good fortune to her father's house. A few years after +her birth Owenson, having quarrelled with Daly, invested his savings in +a tumble-down building known as the Old Music Hall, which he restored, +and re-named the National Theatre. The season opened with a grand +national performance, and everything promised well, when, like a +bomb-shell, came the announcement that the Government had granted to +Richard Daly an exclusive patent for the performance of legitimate drama +in Dublin. Mr. Owenson was thus obliged to close his theatre at the end +of his first season, but he received some compensation for his losses, +and was offered a re-engagement under Daly on favourable terms, an offer +which he had the sense to accept.</p> + +<p>A short period of comparative calm and freedom from embarrassment +now set in for the Owenson family. Mrs. Owenson was a careful mother, +and extremely anxious about the education of her two little girls, +Sydney and Olivia. There is a touch of pathos in the picture of the +prim, methodistical English lady, who hated the dirt and slovenliness of +her husband's people, was shocked at their jovial ways and free talk, +looked upon all Papists as connections of Antichrist, and hoped for the +salvation of mankind through the form of religion patronised by Lady +Huntington. She was accustomed to hold up as an example to her little +girls the career of a certain model child, the daughter of a distant +kinsman, Sir Rowland Hill of Shropshire. This appalling infant had read +the Bible twice through before she was five, and knitted all the +stockings worn by her father's coachman. The lively Sydney detested the +memory of her virtuous young kinswoman, for she had great difficulty in +mastering the art of reading, though she learned easily by heart, and +could imitate almost anything she saw. At a very early age she could go +through the whole elaborate process of hair-dressing, from the first +papillote to the last puff of the powder-machine, and amused herself by +arranging her father's old wigs in one of the windows, under the +inscription, 'Sydney Owenson, System, Tête, and Peruke Maker.'</p> + +<p>Mr. Owenson found his friends among all the wildest wits of Dublin, +but his wife's society was strictly limited, both at the Old Music Hall, +part of which had been utilised as a dwelling, and at the country villa +that her husband had taken for her at Drumcondra. Yet she does not +appear to have permitted her religious prejudices to interfere with her +social relaxations, since her three chief intimates at this time were +the Rev. Charles Macklin (nephew of the actor), a great performer on the +Irish pipes, who had been dismissed from his curacy for playing out the +congregation on his favourite instrument; a Methodist preacher who had +come over on one of Lady Huntingdon's missions; and a Jesuit priest, +who, his order being proscribed in Ireland, was living in concealment, +and in want, it was believed, of the necessaries of life. These three +regularly frequented the Old Music Hall, where points of faith were +freely discussed, Mrs. Owenson holding the position of Protestant Pope +in the little circle. In order that the discussions might not be +unprofitable, the Catholic servants were sometimes permitted to stand at +the door, and gather up the crumbs of theological wisdom.</p> + +<p>Female visitors were few, one of the most regular being a younger +sister of Oliver Goldsmith, who lived with a grocer brother in a little +shop which was afterwards occupied by the father of Thomas Moore. Miss +Goldsmith was a plain, little old lady, who always carried a long tin +case, containing a rouleaux of Dr. Goldsmith's portraits, which she +offered for sale. Sydney much preferred her father's friends, more +especially his musical associates, such as Giordani the composer, and +Fisher the violinist, who spent most of their time at his house during +their visits to Dublin. The children used to hide under the table to +hear them make music, and picked up many melodies by ear. When Mr. +Owenson was asked why he did not cultivate his daughter's talent, he +replied, 'If I were to cultivate their talent for music, it might induce +them some day to go upon the stage, and I would rather buy them a sieve +of black cockles to cry about the streets of Dublin than see them the +first <i>prima donnas</i> of Europe.'</p> + +<p>The little Owensons possessed one remarkable playfellow in the shape +of Thomas Dermody, the 'wonderful boy,' who was regarded in Dublin as a +second Chatterton. A poor scholar, the son of a drunken country +schoolmaster, who turned him adrift at fourteen, Dermody had wandered up +to Dublin, paying his way by reciting poetry and telling stories to his +humble entertainers, with a few tattered books, one shirt, and two +shillings for all his worldly goods. He first found employment as +'librarian' at a cobbler's stall, on which a few cheap books were +exposed for sale. Later, he got employment as assistant to the +scene-painter at the Theatre Royal, and here he wrote a clever poem on +the leading performers, which found its way into the green-room. Anxious +to see the author, the company, Owenson amongst them, invaded the +painting-room, where they found the boy-poet, clad in rags, his hair +clotted with glue, his face smeared with paint, a pot of size in one +hand and a brush in the other. The sympathy of the kind-hearted players +was aroused, and it was decided that something must be done for youthful +genius in distress. Owenson invited the boy to his house, and, by way of +testing his powers, set him to write a poetical theme on the subject of +Dublin University. In less than three-quarters of an hour the prodigy +returned with a poem of fifty lines, which showed an intimate +acquaintance with the history of the university from its foundation. A +second test having been followed by equally satisfactory results, it was +decided that a sum of money should be raised by subscriptions, and that +Dermody should be assisted to enter the university. Owenson, with his +wife's cordial consent, took the young poet into his house, and treated +him like his own son. Unfortunately, Dermody's genius was weighted by +the artistic temperament; he was lazy, irregular in his attendance at +college, and not particularly grateful to his benefactors. By his own +acts he fell out of favour, the subscriptions that had been collected +were returned to the donors, and his career would have come to an abrupt +conclusion, if it had not been that Owenson made interest for him with +Lady Moira, a distinguished patron of literature, who placed him in the +charge of Dr. Boyd, the translator of Dante. Dermody must have had his +good points, for he was a favourite with Mrs. Owenson, and the dear +friend of Sydney and Olivia, whom he succeeded in teaching to read and +write, a task in which all other preceptors had failed.</p> + +<p>In 1788 Mrs. Owenson died rather suddenly, and the home was broken +up. Sydney and Olivia were at once placed at a famous Huguenot school, +which had originally been established at Portarlington, but was now +removed to Clontarf, near Dublin. For the next three years the children +had the benefit of the best teaching that could then be obtained, and +were subjected to a discipline which Lady Morgan always declared was the +most admirable ever introduced into a 'female seminary' in any country. +Sydney soon became popular among her fellows, thanks to her knowledge of +Irish songs and dances, and it is evident that her schooldays were among +the happiest and most healthful of her early life. The school was an +expensive one, and poor Owenson, who, with all his faults, seems to have +been a careful and affectionate father, found it no easy matter to pay +for the many 'extras.'</p> + +<p>'I remember once,' writes Lady Morgan,' our music-teacher complained +to my father of our idleness as he sat beside us at the piano, and we +stumbled through the overture to <i>Artaxerxes</i>. His answer to her +complaint was simple and graphic--for, drawing up the sleeve of a +handsome surtout, he showed the threadbare sleeve of the black coat +beneath, and said, touching the whitened seams, "I should not be driven +to the subterfuge of wearing a greatcoat this hot weather to conceal the +poverty of my dress beneath, if it were not that I wish to give you the +advantage of such instruction as you are now neglecting."' The shaft +went home, and the music-mistress had no occasion to complain again. +After three years the headmistress retired on her fortune, the school +was given up, and the two girls were placed at what they considered a +very inferior establishment in Dublin. Here, however, they had the +delight of seeing their father every Sunday, when the widower, leaving +the attractions of the city behind, took his little daughters out +walking with him. To this time belong memories of early visits to the +theatre, where Sydney saw Mrs. Siddons for the first and last time, and +Miss Farren as Susan in the <i>Marriage of Figaro</i>, just before her +own marriage to Lord Derby. During the summer seasons Mr. Owenson toured +round the provinces, and generally took his daughters with him, who seem +to have been made much of by the neighbouring county families.</p> + +<p>In 1794 the too optimistic Owenson unfortunately took it into his +head that it would be an excellent speculation to build a summer theatre +at Kilkenny. Lord Ormond, who took an interest in the project, gave a +piece of land opposite the castle gates, money was borrowed, the theatre +quickly built, and performers brought at great expense from Dublin. +During the summer the house was filled nightly by overflowing audiences, +and everything promised well, when the attorney who held a mortgage on +the building, foreclosed, and bills to an enormous amount were +presented. Mr. Owenson suddenly departed for the south of Ireland, +having been advised to keep out of the way until after the final meeting +of his creditors. His two daughters were placed in Dublin lodgings under +the care of their faithful old servant, Molly Atkins, until their school +should reopen.</p> + +<p>Sydney had been requested to write to her father every day, and as +she was passionately fond, to quote her own words, of writing about +anything to any one, she willingly obeyed, trusting to chance for +franks. Some of these youthful epistles were preserved by old Molly, the +packet being indorsed on the cover, 'Letters from Miss Sydney Owenson to +her father, God pity her!' But the young lady evidently did not consider +herself an object of pity, for she writes in the best of spirits about +the books she is reading, the people she is meeting, and all the little +gaieties and excitements of her life. Somebody lends her an <i>Essay on +the Human Understanding</i>, by Mr. Locke, Gent., whose theories she has +no difficulty in understanding; and somebody else talks to her about +chemistry (a word she has never heard at school), and declares that her +questions are so <i>suggestive</i> (another new word) that she might +become a second Pauline Lavosier. She puts her new knowledge to +practical effect by writing with a piece of phosphorus on her bedroom +wall, 'Molly, beware!' with the result that Molly is frightened out of +her wits, the young experimenter burns her hand, and the house is nearly +set on fire. The eccentric Dermody turns up again, now a smart young +ensign, having temporarily forsaken letters, and obtained a commission +through the interest of Lord Moira. He addresses a flattering poem to +Sydney, and passes on to rejoin his regiment at Cork, whence he is to +sail for Flanders.</p> + +<p>Mr. Owenson's affairs did not improve. He tried his fortune in +various provincial theatres, but the political ferment of the years +immediately preceding the Union, the disturbed state of the country, and +the persecution of the Catholics, all spelt ruin for theatrical +enterprises. As soon as Sydney realised her true position she rose to +the occasion, and the letter that she wrote to her father, proposing to +relieve him of the burden of her maintenance, is full of affection and +spirit. It will be observed that as yet she is contented to express +herself simply and naturally, without the fine language, the incessant +quotations, and the mangled French that disfigured so much of her +published work. The girl, who must now have been seventeen or eighteen, +had seen her father's name on the list of bankrupts, but it had been +explained to her that, with time and economy, he would come out of his +difficulties as much respected as ever. Having informed him of her +determination not to return to school, but to support herself in future, +she continues:--</p> + +<p>'Now, dear papa, I have two novels nearly finished. The first is <i>St. +Clair</i>; I think I wrote it in imitation of <i>Werther</i>, which I +read last Christmas. The second is a French novel, suggested by my +reading the <i>Memoirs of the Duc de Sully</i>, and falling in love +with Henri IV. Now, if I had time and quiet to finish them, I am sure I +could sell them; and observe, sir, Miss Burney got £3000 for <i>Camilla</i>, +and brought out <i>Evelina</i> unknown to her father; but all this +takes time.' Sydney goes on to suggest that Olivia shall be placed at a +school, where Molly could be taken as children's maid, and that she +herself should seek a situation as governess or companion to young +ladies.</p> + +<p>Through the good offices of her old dancing-master, M. Fontaine, who +had been appointed master of ceremonies at the castle, Sydney was +introduced to Mrs. Featherstone, or Featherstonehaugh, of Bracklin +Castle, who required a governess-companion to her young daughters, and +apparently did not object to youth and inexperience. The girl's <i>début</i> +in her employer's family would scarcely have made a favourable +impression in any country less genial and tolerant than the Ireland of +that period. On the night of her departure M. Fontaine gave a little <i>bal +d'adieu</i> in her honour, and as the mail passed the end of his street +at midnight, it was arranged that Sydney should take her +travelling-dress with her to the ball, and change before starting on her +journey. Of course she took no count of the time, and was gaily dancing +to the tune of 'Money in Both Pockets,' with an agreeable partner, when +the horn sounded at the end of the street. Like an Irish Cinderella, +away flew Sydney in her muslin gown and pink shoes and stockings, +followed by her admirers, laden with her portmanteau and bundle of +clothes. There was just time for Molly to throw an old cloak over her +charge, and then the coach door was banged-to, and the little governess +travelled away through the winter's night. In the excitement of an +adventure with an officer <i>en route</i>, she allowed her luggage to +be carried on in the coach, and arrived at Bracklin, a shivering little +object, in her muslin frock and pink satin shoes. Her stammered +explanations were received with amusement and sympathy by her +kind-hearted hosts, and she was carried off to her own rooms, 'the +prettiest suite you ever saw,' she tells her father, 'a study, bedroom, +and bath-room, a roaring turf fire in the rooms, an open piano, and lots +of books scattered about. Betty, the old nurse, brought me a bowl of +laughing potatoes, and gave me a hearty "Much good may it do you, miss"; +and didn't I tip her a word of Irish, which delighted her.... Our +dinner-party were mamma and the two young ladies, two itinerant +preceptors, a writing and elocution master, and a dancing-master, and +Father Murphy, the P.P.--such fun!--and the Rev. Mr. Beaufort, the +curate of Castletown.'</p> + +<p>Miss Sydney was quite at her ease with all these new acquaintances, +and so brilliant were her sallies at dinner that, according to her own +account, the men-servants were obliged to stuff their napkins down their +throats till they were nearly suffocated. The priest proposed her health +in a comic speech, and a piper having come up on purpose to 'play in +Miss Owenson,' the evening wound up with the dancing of Irish jigs, and +the singing of Irish songs. One is inclined to doubt whether Sydney's +instructions were of much scientific value, but it is evident that she +enjoyed her occupation, was the very good friend of both employers and +pupils, and knew nothing of the snubs and neglect experienced by so many +of our modern Jane Eyres.</p> + +<p>The death of Mrs. Featherstone's mother, Lady Steele, who had been +one of the belles of Lord Chesterfield's court, placed a fine old house +in Dominic Street, Dublin, at the disposal of the family. At the head of +the musical society of Dublin at that date was Sir John Stevenson, who +is now chiefly remembered for his arrangement of the airs to Moore's +Melodies. One day, while giving a lesson to the Miss Featherstones, Sir +John sung a song by Moore, of whom Sydney had then never heard. Pleased +at her evident appreciation, Stevenson asked if she would like to meet +the poet, and promised to take her and Olivia to a little musical party +at his mother's house. Moore had already made a success in London +society, which he followed up in the less exclusive circles of Dublin, +and it was only between a party at the Provost's and another at Lady +Antrim's that he could dash into the paternal shop for a few minutes to +sing a couple of songs for his mother's guests. But the effect of his +performance upon the Owenson sisters was electrical. They went home in +such a state of spiritual exaltation, that they forgot to undress before +getting into bed, and awoke to plan, the one a new romance, the other a +portrait of the poet.</p> + +<p>Sydney had already finished her first novel, <i>St. Clair</i>, +which she determined to take secretly to a publisher. We are given to +understand that this was her first independent literary attempt, though +she tells us that her father had printed a little volume of her poems, +written between the ages of twelve and fourteen. This book seems to have +been published, however, in 1801, when the author must have been at +least one-and-twenty. It was dedicated to Lady Moira, through whose +influence it found its way into the most fashionable boudoirs of Dublin. +Be this as it may, Sydney gives a picturesque description of her early +morning's ramble in search of a publisher. She eventually left her +manuscript in the reluctant hands of a Mr. Brown, who promised to submit +it to his reader, and returned to her employer's house before her +absence had been remarked. The next day the family left Dublin for +Bracklin, and as Sydney had forgotten to give her address to the +publisher, it is not surprising that, for the time being, she heard no +more of her bantling. Some months later, when she was in Dublin again, +she picked up a novel in a friend's house, and found that it was her own <i>St. +Clair</i>. On recalling herself to the publisher's memory, she received +the handsome remuneration of--four copies of her own work! The book, a +foolish, high-flown story, a long way after <i>Werther</i>, had some +success in Dublin, and brought its author--literary ladies being +comparatively few at that period--a certain meed of social fame.</p> + +<p>Mr. Owenson, who had left the stage in 1798, was settled at +Coleraine at this time, and desired to have both his daughters with him. +Accordingly, Sydney gave up her employment, and tried to make herself +contented at home. But the dulness and discomfort of the life were too +much for her, and after a few months she took another situation as +governess, this time with a Mrs. Crawford at Fort William, where she +seems to have been as much petted and admired as at Bracklin. There is +no doubt that Sydney Owenson was a flirt, a sentimental flirt, who loved +playing with fire, but it has been hinted that she was inclined to +represent the polite attentions of her gallant countrymen as serious +affairs of the heart. She left behind her a packet of love-letters +(presented to her husband after her marriage), and some of these are +quoted in her <i>Memoirs</i>. The majority, however, point to no very +definite 'intentions' on the part of the writers, but are composed in +the artificially romantic vein which Rousseau had brought into fashion. +Among the letters are one or two from the unfortunate Dermody, who had +retired on half-pay, and was now living in London, engaged in writing +his Memoirs (he was in the early twenties) and preparing his poems for +the press.</p> + +<p>'Were you a Venus I should forget you,' he writes to Sydney, 'but +you are a Laura, a Leonora, and an Eloisa, all in one delightful +assemblage.' He is evidently a little piqued by Sydney's admiration of +Moore, for in a letter to Mr. Owenson he asks, 'Who is the Mr. Moore +Sydney mentions? He is nobody here, I assure you, of eminence.' A little +later, however, he writes to Sydney: 'You are mistaken if you imagine I +have not the highest respect for your friend Moore. I have written the +review of his poems in a strain of panegyric to which I am not +frequently accustomed. I am told he is a most worthy young man, and I am +certain myself of his genius and erudition.' Dermody's own career was +nearly at an end. He died of consumption in 1802, aged only twenty-five.</p> + +<p>If Sydney scandalised even the easy-going society of the period by +her audacious flirtations, she seems to have had the peculiarly Irish +faculty of keeping her head in affairs of the heart, and dancing in +perfect security on the edge of a gulf of sentiment. Her work helped to +steady her, and the love-scenes in her novels served as a safety-valve +for her ardent imagination. Her father, notoriously happy-go-lucky about +his own affairs, was a careful guardian of his daughters' reputation, +while old Molly was a dragon of propriety. Sydney, moreover, had +acquired one or two women friends, much older than herself, such as the +literary Lady Charleville, and Mrs. Lefanu, sister of Sheridan, who were +always ready with advice and sympathy. With Mrs. Lefanu Sydney +corresponded regularly for many years, and in her letters discusses the +debatable points in her books, and enlarges upon her own character and +temperament. Chief among her ambitions at this time was that of being +'every inch a woman,' and she was a firm believer in the fashionable +theory that true womanliness was incompatible with learning. 'I dropped +the study of chemistry,' she tells her friend, 'though urged to it by, a +favourite preceptor, lest I should be less the <i>woman</i>. Seduced by +taste and a thousand arguments to Greek and Latin, I resisted, lest I +should not be a <i>very woman</i>. And I have studied music as a +sentiment rather than as a science, and drawing as an amusement rather +than as an art, lest I should become a musical pedant, or a masculine +artist.'</p> + +<p>In 1803, the Crawfords having decided to leave Fort William and live +entirely in the country, Sydney, who had a mortal dread of boredom, gave +up her situation, and returned to her father, who was now settled near +Strabane. Here she occupied her leisure in writing a second novel, <i>The +Novice of St. Dominic</i>, in six volumes. When this was completed, +Mrs. Lefanu advised her to take it to London herself, and arrange for +its publication. Quite alone, and with very little money in her pocket, +the girl travelled to London, and presented herself before Sir Richard +Phillips, a well-known publisher, with whom she had already had some +correspondence. If we may believe her own testimony, Sir Richard fell an +easy victim to her fascinations, and there is no doubt that he was very +kind to her, introduced her to his wife, and found her a lodging. Better +still, he bought her book (we are not told the price), and paid her for +it at once. The first purchases that she made with her own earnings were +a small Irish harp, which accompanied her thereafter wherever she went, +and a black 'mode cloak.' After her return to Ireland, Phillips +corresponded with her, and gave her literary advice, which is +interesting in so far as it shows what the reading public of that day +wanted, or was supposed to want.</p> + +<p>'The world is not informed about Ireland,' wrote the publisher, 'and +I am in a condition to command the light to shine. I am sorry you have +assumed the novel form. A series of letters addressed to a friend in +London, taking for your model the letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, +would have secured you the most extensive reading. A matter-of-fact and +didactic novel is neither one thing nor the other, and suits no class of +readers. Certainly, however, <i>Paul and Virginia</i> would suggest a +local plan; and it will be possible by writing three or four times over +in six or eight months to produce what would <i>command</i> attention.' +Sir Richard concluded his advice with the assurance that his +correspondent had it in her to write an immortal work, if she would only +labour it sufficiently, and that her <i>third</i> copy was certain to be +a monument of Irish genius. Miss Owenson was the last person to act upon +the above directions; her books read as if they were dashed off in a +fine frenzy of composition. Perhaps she feared that her cherished +womanliness would be endangered by too close an attention to accuracy +and style.</p> + +<p>The <i>Novice</i>, which appeared in 1804, was better than <i>St. +Clair</i>, but such success as it enjoyed must have been due to the +prevailing scarcity of first-rate, or even second-rate novelists, rather +than to its own intrinsic merits. The public taste in fiction was not +fastidious, and could swallow long-winded discussions and sentimental +rhodomontade with an appetite that now seems almost incredible. The <i>Novice</i> +is said to have been a favourite with Pitt in his last illness, but if +this be true, the fact points rather to the decay of the statesman's +intellect than to the literary value of the book. Still the author was +tasting all the sweets of fame. She was much in request as a literary +celebrity, and somebody had actually written for permission to select +the best passages from her two books for publication in a work called <i>The +Morality of English Novels</i>.</p> + +<p>In the same year, 1804, an anonymous attack upon the Irish stage in +six <i>Familiar Epistles</i> was published in Dublin. So cruel and +venomous were these epistles that one actor, Edwin, is believed to have +died of chagrin at the attack upon his reputation. An answer to the +libel presently appeared, which was signed S. O., and has been generally +attributed to Sydney Owenson. The <i>Familiar Epistles</i> were believed +to be the work of John Wilson Croker, then young and unknown, and it may +be that the lifelong malignity with which that critic pursued Lady +Morgan was due to this early crossing of swords. Sydney herself was fond +of hinting that Croker, in his obscure days, had paid her attentions +which she, as a successful author, had not cared to encourage, and that +wounded vanity was at the bottom of his hatred.</p> + +<p>The next book on which Miss Owenson engaged was, if not her best, +the one by which she is best known, namely, <i>The Wild Irish Girl</i>. +The greater part of this was written while she was staying with Sir +Malby Crofton at Longford House, from whose family, as has been seen, +she claimed to be descended. Miss Crofton sat for the portrait of the +heroine, and much of the scenery was sketched in the wild romantic +neighbourhood. About the same time she collected and translated a number +of Irish songs which were published under the title of <i>The Lay of +the Irish Harp</i>. She thus anticipated Moore, and other explorers in +this field, for which fact Moore at least gives her credit in the +preface to his own collection. She was not a poet, but she wrote one +ballad, 'Kate Kearney,' which became a popular song, and is not yet +forgotten.</p> + +<p>The story of <i>The Wild Irish Girl</i> is said to have been founded +upon an incident in the author's own life. A young man named Everard had +fallen in love with her, but as he was wild, idle, and penniless, his +father called upon her to beg her not to encourage him, but to use her +influence to make him stick to his work. Sydney behaved so well in the +matter that the elder Mr. Everard desired to marry her himself, and +though his offer was not accepted, he remained her staunch friend and +admirer. The 'local colour' in the book is carefully worked up; indeed, +in the present day it would probably be thought that the story was +overweighted by the account of local manners and customs. Phillips, +alarmed at the liberal principles displayed in the work, which he +thought would be distasteful to English patriots, refused at first to +give the author her price. To his horror and indignation Miss Owenson, +whom he regarded as his own particular property, instantly sent the +manuscript to a rival bookseller, Johnson, who published for Miss +Edgeworth. Johnson offered £300 for the book, while Phillips had +only offered £200 down, and £50 on the publication of the +second and third editions respectively. The latter, however, was unable +to make up his mind to lose the treasure, and after much hesitation and +many heart-burnings, he finally wrote to Miss Owenson:--</p> + +<p> 'DEAR BEWITCHING AND DELUDING SYKEN,--Not being able to part from +you, I have promised your noble and magnanimous friend, Atkinson [who +was conducting the negotiations], the £300.... It will be long +before I forgive you! At least not till I have got back the £300 +and another £100 along with it.' Then follows a passage which +proves that the literary market, in those days at any rate, was not +overstocked: 'If you know any poor bard--a real one, no pretender--I +will give him a guinea a page for his rhymes in the <i>Monthly Magazine</i>. +I will also give for prose communications at the rate of six guineas a +sheet.'</p> + +<p><i>The Wild Irish Girl</i>, whose title was suggested by Peter +Pindar, made a hit, more especially in Ireland, and the author woke to +find herself famous. She became known to all her friends as 'Glorvina,' +the name of the heroine, while the Glorvina ornament, a golden bodkin, +and the Glorvina mantle became fashionable in Dublin. The book was +bitterly attacked, probably by Croker, in the <i>Freeman's Journal</i>, +but the best bit of criticism upon it is contained in a letter from Mr. +Edgeworth to Miss Owenson. 'Maria,' he says, 'who reads as well as she +writes, has entertained us with several passages from <i>The Wild Irish +Girl</i>, which I thought superior to any parts of the book I had read. +Upon looking over her shoulder, I found she had omitted some superfluous +epithets. Dared she have done this if you had been by? I think she +would; because your good sense and good taste would have been instantly +her defenders.' It must be admitted that all Lady Morgan's works would +have gained by the like treatment.</p> + +<p>In an article called 'My First Rout,' which appeared in <i>The Book +of the Boudoir</i> (published in 1829), Lady Morgan describes a party at +Lady Cork's, where she was lionised by her hostess, the other guests +having been invited to meet the Wild Irish Girl. The celebrities present +were brought up and introduced to Miss Owenson with a running comment +from Lady Cork, which, though it must be taken with a grain of salt, is +worth transcribing:--</p> + +<p>'Lord Erskine, this is the Wild Irish Girl you were so anxious to +meet. I assure you she talks quite as well as she writes. Now, my dear, +do tell Lord Erskine some of those Irish stories you told us at Lord +Charleville's. Mrs. Abington says you would make a famous actress, she +does indeed. This is the Duchess of St. Albans--she has your <i>Wild +Irish Girl</i> by heart. Where is Sheridan? Oh, here he is; what, you +know each other already? <i>Tant mieux.</i> Mr. Lewis, do come forward; +this is Monk Lewis, of whom you have heard so much--but you must not +read his works, they are very naughty.... You know Mr. Gell; he calls +you the Irish Corinne. Your friend, Mr. Moore, will be here by-and-by. +Do see, somebody, if Mrs. Siddons and Mr. Kemble are come yet. Now pray +tell us the scene at the Irish baronet's in the Rebellion that you told +to the ladies of Llangollen; and then give us your blue-stocking dinner +at Sir Richard Phillips'; and describe the Irish priests.'</p> + +<p>At supper Sydney was placed between Lord Erskine and Lord Carysfort, +and was just beginning to feel at her ease when Mr. Kemble was +announced. Mr. Kemble, it soon became apparent, had been dining, and had +paid too much attention to the claret. Sitting down opposite Miss +Owenson, he fixed her with an intense and glassy stare. Unfortunately, +her hair, which she wore in the fashionable curly 'crop,' aroused his +curiosity. Stretching unsteadily across the table, he suddenly, to quote +her own words, 'struck his claws into my locks, and addressing me in his +deepest tones, asked, "Little girl, where did you buy your wig?"' Lord +Erskine hastily came to the rescue, but Kemble, rendered peevish by his +interference, took a volume of <i>The Wild Irish Girl</i> out of his +pocket, and after reading aloud one of the most high-flown passages, +asked, 'Little girl, why did you write such nonsense, and where did you +get all those hard words?' Sydney delighted the company by blurting out +the truth: 'Sir, I wrote as well as I could, and I got the hard words +out of Johnson's Dictionary.' That Kemble spoke the truth in his cups +may be proved by the following sentence, which is a fair sample of the +general style of the book: 'With a character tinctured with the +brightest colouring of romantic eccentricity [a father is describing his +son, the hero], but marked by indelible traces of innate rectitude, and +ennobled by the purest principles of native generosity, the proudest +sense of inviolable honour, I beheld him rush eagerly on life, enamoured +of its seeming good, incredulous of its latent evils, till, fatally +entangled in the spells of the latter, he fell an early victim to their +successful allurements.'</p> + +<p><i>The Wild Irish Girl</i> was followed by <i>Patriotic Sketches</i> +and a volume of poems, for which Sir Richard Phillips offered £100 +before he read them. A little later, in 1807, an operetta called <i>The +First Attempt</i>, or the <i>Whim of the Moment</i>, the libretto by +Miss Owenson and the music by T. Cooke, was performed at the Dublin +Theatre. The Duke of Bedford, then Lord-Lieutenant, attended in state, +the Duchess wore a Glorvina bodkin, and the entertainment was also +patronised by the officers of the garrison and all the liberal members +of the Irish bar. The little piece, in which Mr. Owenson acted an Irish +character, was played for several nights, and brought its author the +handsome sum of £400. This, however, seems to have been Sydney's +first and last attempt at dramatic composition.</p> + +<p>The family fortunes had improved somewhat at this time, for Olivia, +who had gone out as a governess, became engaged to Dr., afterwards Sir +Arthur Clarke, a plain, elderly little gentleman, who, however, made her +an excellent husband. Having a good house and a comfortable income, he +was able to offer a home to Mr. Owenson and to the faithful Molly. For +the present, Sydney, though always on excellent terms with her +brother-in-law, preferred her independence. She established herself in +lodgings in Dublin, and made the most of the position that her works had +won for her. Her flirtations and indiscretions provided the town with +plenty of occasion for scandal, and there is a tradition that one +strictly proper old lady, on being asked to chaperon Miss Owenson to the +Castle, replied that when Miss Owenson wore more petticoats and less +paint she would be happy to do so. Yet another tradition has been handed +down to the effect that Miss Owenson appeared at one of the Viceregal +balls in a dress, the bodice of which was trimmed with the portraits of +her rejected lovers!</p> + +<p>Foremost among our heroine's admirers at this time was Sir Charles +Ormsby, K.C., then member for Munster, He was a widower, deeply in debt, +and a good deal older than Sydney, but if there was no actual +engagement, there was certainly an 'understanding' between the pair. In +May, 1808, Miss Owenson was on a visit to the Dowager Lady Stanley of +Alderley at Penrhôs (one of the new friends her celebrity had +gained for her), whence she wrote a sentimental epistle to Sir Charles +Ormsby. The Sir John Stanley mentioned in the letter was the husband of +Maria Josepha Holroyd, to whom he had been married in 1796.</p> + +<p>'The figure and person of Lady Stanley are inimitable,' writes +Sydney. 'Vandyck would have estimated her at millions. Though old, her +manners, her mind, and her conversation are all of the best school.... +Sir John Stanley is a man <i>comme il y en a peu</i>. Something at +first of English reserve; but when worn off, I never met a mind more +daring, more independent in its reflections, more profound or more +refined in its ideas. He said a thousand things like you; I am convinced +he has loved as you love. We sat up till two this morning talking of +Corinne.... I have been obliged to sing "Deep in Love" so often for my +handsome host, and every time it is <i>as for you</i> I sing it.' The +letter concludes with the words, '<i>Aimons toujours comme à +l'ordinaire</i>.' The pair may have loved, but they were continually +quarrelling, and their intimacy was finally broken a year or two later. +Lady Morgan preserved to the end of her days a packet of love-letters +indorsed, 'Sir Charles Montague Ormsby, Bart., one of the most brilliant +wits, determined <i>roués</i>, agreeable persons, and ugliest +men of his day.'</p> + +<p>The summer of this year, 1808, Miss Owenson spent in a round of +visits to country-houses, and in working, amid many distractions, at her +Grecian novel, <i>Ida of Athens</i>. After the first volume had gone to +press, Phillips took fright at some of the opinions therein expressed, +and refused to proceed further with the work. It was then accepted by +Longmans, who, however, were somewhat alarmed at what they considered +the Deistical principles and the taint of French philosophy that ran +through the book. Ida is a houri and a woman of genius, who dresses in a +tissue of woven air, has a taste for philosophical discussions, and a +talent for getting into perilous situations, from which her strong sense +of propriety invariably delivers her. This book was the subject of +adverse criticism in the first number of the <i>Quarterly Review</i>, +the critic being, it is believed, Miss Owenson's old enemy, Croker. As a +work of art, the novel was certainly a just object of ridicule, but the +personalities by which the review is disfigured were unworthy of a +responsible critic.</p> + +<p>'The language,' observes the reviewer, 'is an inflated jargon, +composed of terms picked up in all countries, and wholly irreducible to +any ordinary rules of grammar and sense. The sentiments are mischievous +in tendency, profligate in principle, licentious and irreverent in the +highest degree.' The first part of this accusation was only too well +founded, but the licentiousness of which Lady Morgan's works were +invariably accused in the <i>Quarterly Review</i>, can only have +existed in the mind of the reviewer. One cannot but smile to think how +many persons with a taste for highly-spiced fiction must have been set +searching through Lady Morgan's novels by these notices, and how +bitterly they must have been disappointed. The review in question +concludes with the remark that if the author would buy a spelling-book, +a pocket-dictionary, exchange her raptures for common sense, and gather +a few precepts of humility from the Bible, 'she might hope to prove, not +indeed a good writer of novels, but a useful friend, a faithful wife, a +tender mother, and a respectable and happy mistress of a family.' This +impertinence is thoroughly characteristic of the days when the <i>Quarterly</i> +was regarded as an amusing but frivolous, not to say flippant, +publication.</p> + +<p><i>Ida of Athens</i> received the honour of mention in a note to <i>Childe +Harold</i>. 'I will request Miss Owenson,' writes Byron, 'when she next +chooses an Athenian heroine for her four volumes, to have the goodness +to marry her to somebody more of a gentleman than a "Disdar Aga" (who, +by the way, is not an Aga), the most impolite of petty officers, the +greatest patron of larceny Athens ever saw (except Lord E[lgin]), and +the unworthy occupant of the Acropolis, on a handsome stipend of 150 +piastres (£8 sterling), out of which he has to pay his garrison, +the most ill-regulated corps in the ill-regulated Ottoman Empire. I +speak it tenderly, seeing I was once the cause of the husband of Ida +nearly suffering the bastinado; and because the said Disdar is a +turbulent fellow who beats his wife, so that I exhort and beseech Miss +Owenson to sue for a separate maintenance on behalf of Ida.'</p> + +<p>In 1809 Lady Abercorn, the third wife of the first Marquis, having +taken a sudden fancy to Miss Owenson, proposed that she should come to +Stanmore Priory, and afterwards to Baron's Court, as a kind of permanent +visitor. A fine lady of the old-fashioned, languid, idle, easily bored +type, Lady Abercorn desired a lively, amusing companion, who would +deliver her from the terrors of a solitude <i>à deux,</i> make +music in the evenings, and help to entertain her guests. It was +represented to Sydney that such an invitation was not lightly to be +refused, but as acceptance involved an almost total separation from her +friends, she hesitated to enter into any actual engagement, and went to +the Abercorns for two or three months as an ordinary visitor. Lord +Abercorn, who was then between fifty and sixty, had been married three +times, and divorced once. So fastidious a fine gentleman was he that the +maids were not allowed to make his bed except in white kid gloves, and +his groom of his chambers had orders to fumigate his rooms after +liveried servants had been in them. He is described as handsome, witty, +and blasé, a <i>roué</i> in principles and a Tory in +politics. Nothing pleased Lady Morgan better in her old age, we are +told, than to have it insinuated that there had been 'something wrong' +between herself and Lord Abercorn.</p> + +<p>In January, 1810, Sydney writes to Mrs. Lefanu from Stanmore Priory +to the effect that she is the best-lodged, best-fed, dullest author in +his Majesty's dominions, and that the sound of a commoner's name is +refreshment to her ears. She is surrounded by ex-lord-lieutenants, +unpopular princesses (including her of Wales) deposed potentates +(including him of Sweden), half the nobility of England, and many of the +best wits and writers. She had sat to Sir Thomas Lawrence for her +portrait, and sold her Indian novel, <i>The Missionary,</i> for a famous +price. Lord Castlereagh, while staying at Stanmore, heard portions of +the work read aloud, and admired it so much that he offered to take the +author to London, and give her a rendezvous with her publisher in his +own study. Stockdale, the publisher, was so much impressed by his +surroundings that he bid £400 for the book, and the agreement was +signed and sealed under Lord Castlereagh's eye. <i>The Missionary</i> +was not so successful as <i>The Wild Irish Girl,</i> and added nothing +to the author's reputation.</p> + +<p>It was not until the end of 1810 that Miss Owenson decided to become +a permanent member of the Abercorn household. About this time, or a +little later, she wrote a short description of her temperament and +feelings, from which a sentence or two may be quoted. 'Inconsiderate and +indiscreet, never saved by prudence, but often rescued by pride; often +on the verge of error, but never passing the line. Committing myself in +every way <i>except in my own esteem</i>--without any command over my +feelings, my words, or writings--yet full of self-possession as to +action and conduct.' After describing her sufferings from nervous +susceptibility and mental depression, she continues: 'But the hand that +writes this has lost nothing of the contour of health or the symmetry of +youth. I am in possession of all the fame I ever hoped or ambitioned. I +wear not the appearance of twenty years; I am now, as I generally am, +sad and miserable.'</p> + +<p>In 1811 Dr. Morgan, a good-looking widower of about +eight-and-twenty, accepted the post of private physician to Lord +Abercorn. He was a Cambridge man, an intimate friend of Dr. Jenner's, +and possessed a small fortune of his own. When he first arrived at +Baron's Court, Miss Owenson was absent, and he heard so much of her +praises that he conceived a violent prejudice against her. On her return +she set to work systematically to fascinate him, and succeeded even +better than she had hoped or desired. In Lady Abercorn he had a warm +partisan, but it may be suspected that the ambitious Miss Owenson found +it hard to renounce all hopes of a more brilliant match. The Abercorns +having vowed that Dr. Morgan should be made Sir Charles, and that they +would push his fortunes, Sydney yielded to their importunities so far as +to write to her father, and ask his consent to her engagement.</p> + +<p>'I dare say you will be amazingly astonished,' she observes, 'but +not half so much as I am, for Lord and Lady Abercorn have hurried on the +business in such a manner that I really don't know what I am about. They +called me in last night, and, more like parents than friends, begged me +to be guided by them--that it was their wish not to lose sight of me ... +and that if I accepted Morgan, the man upon earth they most esteemed and +approved, they would be friends to both for life--that we should reside +with them one year after our marriage, so that we might lay up our +income to begin the world. He is also to continue their physician. He +has now £500 a year, independent of his practice. I don't myself +see the thing quite in the light they do; but they think him a man of +such great abilities, such great worth and honour, that I am the most +fortunate person in the world.'</p> + +<p>To her old friend, Mrs. Lefanu, she writes in much the same strain. +'The licence and ring have been in the house these ten days, and all the +settlements made; yet I have been battling off from day to day, and have +only ten minutes back procured a little breathing time. The struggle is +almost too great for me. On one side engaged, beyond retrieval, to a man +who has frequently declared to my friends that if I break off he will +not survive it! On the other, the dreadful certainty of being parted for +ever from a country and friends I love, and a family I adore.'</p> + +<p>The 'breathing time' was to consist of a fortnight's visit to her +sister, Lady Clarke, in Dublin, in order to be near her father, who was +in failing health. The fortnight, however, proved an exceedingly elastic +period. Mr. Owenson was not dangerously ill, the winter season was just +beginning, and Miss Owenson was more popular than ever. Her unfortunate +lover, as jealous as he was enamoured, being detained by his duties at +Baron's Court, could only write long letters of complaint, reproach, and +appeal to his hard-hearted lady. Sydney was thoroughly enjoying herself, +and was determined to make the most of her last days of liberty. She +admitted afterwards that she had behaved very badly at this time, and +deserved to have lost the best husband woman ever had.</p> + +<p>'I picture to myself,' writes poor Dr. Morgan, 'the thoughtless and +heartless Glorvina trifling with her friend, jesting at his sufferings, +and flirting with every man she meets.' He sends her some commissions, +but declares that there is only one about which he is really anxious, +'and that is to love me <i>exclusively</i>; to prefer me to every other +good; to think of me, speak of me, write to me, and look forward to our +union as to the completion of every wish, as I do by you. Do this, and +though you grow as ugly as Sycorax, you will never lose in me the +fondest, most doating, affectionate of husbands. Glorvina, I was born +for tenderness; my business in life is <i>to love</i>.... I read part +of <i>The Way to Keep Him</i> this morning, and I see now you take the +widow for your model; but it won't do, for though I love you in <i>every</i> +mood, it is only when you are true to nature, passionate and tender, +that I adore you. You are never less interesting to me than when you <i>brillez</i> +in a large party.'</p> + +<p>The fortnight's leave of absence had been granted in September, and +by the end of November Dr. Morgan is thoroughly displeased with his +truant <i>fiancée</i>, and asks why she could not have told him +when she went away, that she intended to stay till Christmas. 'I know, +he writes, 'this is but a specimen of the roundabout policy of all your +countrywomen. How strange it is that you, who are in general <i>great</i> +beyond every woman I know, philosophical and magnanimous, should <i>in +detail</i> be so often ill-judging, wrong, and (shall I say) little?' In +December Sydney writes to say that she will return directly after +Christmas, and declares that the terrible struggle of feeling, which she +had tried to forget in every species of mental dissipation, is now over; +friends, relatives, country, all are resigned, and she is his for ever! +A little later she shows signs of wavering again; she cannot make up her +mind to part from her invalid father just yet; but this time Dr. Morgan +puts his foot down, and issues his ultimatum in a stern and manly +letter. He will be trifled with no longer. Sydney must either keep her +promise and return at Christmas, or they had better part, never to meet +again. 'The love I require,' he writes, 'is no ordinary affection. The +woman who marries me must be <i>identified</i> with me. I must have a +large bank of tenderness to draw upon. I must have frequent profession +and frequent demonstration of it. Woman's love is all in all to me; it +stands in place of honours and riches, and what is yet more, in place of +tranquillity of mind.'</p> + +<p>This letter, backed by one from Lady Abercorn, brought Sydney to her +senses. In the first days of the new year (1812) she arrived at Baron's +Court, a little shamefaced, and more than a little doubtful of her +reception. The marquis was stiff, and the marchioness stately, but Sir +Charles, who had just been knighted by the Lord Lieutenant, was too +pleased to get his lady-love back, to harbour any resentment against +her. A few days after her return, as she was sitting over the fire in a +morning wrapper, Lady Abercorn came in and said:</p> + +<p>'Glorvina, come upstairs directly and be married; there must be no +more trifling.'</p> + +<p>The bride was led into her ladyship's dressing-room, where the +bridegroom was awaiting her in company with the chaplain, and the +ceremony took place. The marriage was kept a secret from the other +guests at the time, but a few nights later Lord Abercorn filled his +glass after dinner, and drank to the health of 'Sir Charles and Lady +Morgan.'<br> +<br> +</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 20%;"> + +<p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"> PART II</p> + +<p> The marriage, unpromising as it appeared at the outset, proved an +exceptionally happy one. Sir Charles was a straightforward, worthy, if +somewhat dull gentleman, with no ambition, a nervous distaste for +society, and a natural indolence of temperament. To his wife he gave the +unstinted sympathy and admiration that her restless vanity craved, while +she invariably maintained that he was the wisest, brightest, and +handsomest of his sex. She seems to have given him no occasion for +jealousy after marriage, though to the last she preserved her passion +for society, and her ambition for social recognition and success. The +first year of married life, which she described as a period of storm, +interspersed with brilliant sunshine, was spent with the Abercorns at +Baron's Court.</p> + +<p>'Though living in a palace,' wrote Sydney to Mrs. Lefanu, early in +1812, 'we have all the comfort and independence of a home.... As to me, +I am <i>every inch a wife</i>, and so ends that brilliant thing that +was Glorvina. <i>N.B.</i>--I intend to write a book to explode the +vulgar idea of matrimony being the tomb of love. Matrimony is the real +thing, and all before but leather and prunella.' In a letter to Lady +Stanley she paints Sir Charles in the romantic colours appropriate to a +novelist's husband. 'In <i>love</i> he is Sheridan's Falkland, and in +his view of things there is a <i>mélange</i> of cynicism and +sentiment that will never suffer him to be as happy as the inferior +million that move about him. Marriage has taken nothing from the <i>romance</i> +of his passion for me; and by bringing a sense of <i>property</i> with +it, has rendered him more exigent and nervous about me than before.'</p> + +<p>The luxury of Baron's Court was probably more than counterbalanced +by the inevitable drawbacks of married life in a patron's household, +where the husband, at least, was at that patron's beck and call. Before +the end of the year, the Morgans were contemplating a modest +establishment of their own, and Sydney had set to work upon a novel, the +price of which was to furnish the new house. Mr. Owenson had died +shortly after his daughter's marriage, and Lady Morgan persuaded her +husband to settle in Dublin, in order that she might be near her sister +and her many friends. A house was presently taken in Kildare Street, and +Sir Charles, who had obtained the post of physician to the Marshalsea, +set himself to establish a practice. Lady Morgan prided herself upon her +housewifely talents, and in a letter dated May, 1813, she describes how +she has made their old house clean and comfortable, all that their means +would permit, 'except for one little bit of a room, four inches by +three, which is fitted up in the <i>Gothic</i>, and I have collected +into it the best part of a very good cabinet of natural history of Sir +Charles's, eight or nine hundred volumes of choice books in French, +English, Italian, and German, some little curiosities, and a few scraps +of old china, so that, with muslin draperies, etc., I have made no +contemptible set-out.... With respect to authorship, I fear it is over; +I have been making chair-covers instead of systems, and cheapening pots +and pans instead of selling sentiment and philosophy.'</p> + +<p>In the midst of all her domestic labours, however, Lady Morgan +contrived to finish a novel, <i>O'Donnel</i>, which Colburn published +in 1814, and for which she received £550. The book was +ill-reviewed, but it was an even greater popular success than <i>The +Wild Irish Girl</i>. The heroine, like most of Lady Morgan's heroines, +is evidently meant for an idealised portrait of herself, and the great +ladies by whom she is surrounded are sketched from Lady Abercorn and +certain of the guests at Baron's Court. The Liberal, or as they would +now be called, Radical principles inculcated in the book gave bitter +offence to the author's old-fashioned friends, and increased the rancour +of her Tory reviewers. But <i>O'Donnel</i> found numerous admirers, +among them no less a person than Sir Walter Scott, who notes in his +diary for March 14, 1826: 'I have amused myself occasionally very +pleasantly during the last few days by reading over Lady Morgan's novel +of <i>O'Donnel</i>, which has some striking and beautiful passages of +situation and description, and in the comic part is very rich and +entertaining. I do not remember being so pleased with it at first. There +is a want of story, always fatal to a book on the first reading--and it +is well if it gets the chance of a second.'</p> + +<p>The following year, 1815, France being once again open to English +travellers, the Morgans paid a visit to Paris, Lady Morgan having +undertaken to write a book about what was then a strange people and a +strange country. The pair went a good deal into society, and made many +friends, among them Lafayette, Cuvier, the Comte de Ségur, Madame +de Genlis, and Madame Jerome Bonaparte. Sydney, whose Celtic manners +were probably more congenial to the French than Anglo-Saxon reserve, +seems to have received a great deal of attention, and her not +over-strong head was slightly turned in consequence.</p> + +<p>'The French admire you more than any Englishwoman who has appeared +here since the Battle of Waterloo,' wrote Madame Jerome Bonaparte to +Lady Morgan, after the latter had returned to Ireland. 'France is the +country you should reside in, because you are so much admired, and here +no Englishwoman has received the same attentions since you. I am dying +to see your last publication. Public expectation is as high as possible. +How happy you must be at filling the world with your name as you do! +Madame de Staël and Madame de Genlis are forgotten; and if the love +of fame be of any weight with you, your excursion to Paris was attended +with brilliant success.'</p> + +<p>Madame de Genlis, in her <i>Memoirs</i>, gives a more +soberly-worded account of the impression produced by Lady Morgan on +Parisian society. The author of <i>France</i> is described as 'not +beautiful, but with something lively and agreeable in her whole person. +She is very clever, and seems to have a good heart; it is a pity that +for the sake of popularity she should have the mania of meddling in +politics.... Her vivacity and rather springing carriage seemed very +strange in Parisian circles. She soon learned that good taste of itself +condemned that kind of demeanour; in fact, gesticulation and noisy +manners have never been popular in France.' The spoilt little lady was +by no means satisfied with this portrait, and Sir Charles, who was away +from home at the time the <i>Memoirs</i> appeared, writes to console +her. 'You must not mind that lying old witch Madame de Genlis' attack +upon you,' says the admiring husband. 'I thought she would not let you +off easily; you were not only a better and younger (and <i>I</i> may say <i>prettier</i>) +author than herself, but also a more popular one.'</p> + +<p>Over the price to be paid for <i>France</i>, to which Sir Charles +contributed some rather heavy chapters on medical science, political +economy, and jurisprudence, there was the usual battle between the keen +little woman and her publisher. Colburn, having done well with <i>O'Donnel</i>, +felt justified in offering £750 for the new work, but Lady Morgan +demanded £1000, and got it. The sum must have been a substantial +compensation for the wounds that her vanity received at the hands of the +reviewers. <i>France</i>, which made its appearance in 1817, in two +volumes quarto, was eagerly read and loudly abused. Croker, in the <i>Quarterly +Review</i>, attacked the book, or rather the author, in an article +which has become almost historic for its virulence. Poor Lady Morgan was +accused of bad taste, bombast and nonsense, blunders, ignorance of the +French language and manners, general ignorance, Jacobinism, falsehood, +licentiousness, and impiety! The first four or five charges might have +been proved with little difficulty, if it were worth while to break a +butterfly on a wheel, but it was necessary to distort the meaning and +even the text of the original in order to give any colour to the graver +accusations.</p> + +<p>Croker had discovered, much to his delight, that the translator of +the work (which was also published in Paris) had subjoined a note to +some of Lady Morgan's scraps of French, in which he confessed that +though the words were printed to look like French, he could not +understand them. The critic observes, <i>à propos</i> of this +fact, 'It is, we believe, peculiar to Lady Morgan's works, that her +English readers require an English translation of her English, and her +French readers a French translation of her French.' This was a fair hit, +as also was the ridicule thrown upon such sentences as 'Cider is not +held in any estimation by the <i>véritables Amphitryons</i> of +rural <i>savoir faire</i>.' Croker professes to be shocked at Lady +Morgan's mention of <i>Les Liaisons Dangereuses</i>, having hitherto +cherished the hope that 'no British female had ever seen this detestable +book'; while his outburst of virtuous indignation at her mention of the +'superior effusions' of Parny, which some Frenchman had recommended to +her, is really superb. 'Parny,' he exclaims, 'is the most beastly, the +most detestably wicked and blasphemous of all the writers who have ever +disgraced literature. <i>Les Guerres des Dieux</i> is the most dreadful +tissue of obscenity and depravity that the devil ever inspired to the +depraved heart of man, and we tremble with horror at the guilt of having +read unwittingly even so much of the work as enables us to pronounce +this character of it.'</p> + +<p>Croker concludes with the hope that he has given such an idea of +this book as might prevent, in some degree, the circulation of trash +which, under the name of a '<i>Lady</i> author,' might otherwise have +found its way into the hands of young persons of both sexes, for whose +perusal it was, on the score both of morals and politics, utterly unfit. +Such a notice naturally defeated its own object, and <i>France</i> went +triumphantly through several editions. The review attracted almost as +much attention as the book, and many protests were raised against it. +'What cruel work you make with Lady Morgan,' wrote Byron to Murray. 'You +should recollect that she is a woman; though, to be sure, they are now +and then very provoking, still as authoresses they can do no great harm; +and I think it a pity so much good invective should have been laid out +upon her, when there is such a fine field of us Jacobin gentlemen for +you to work upon.' The Regent himself, according to Lady Charleville's +report, had said of Croker: 'D----d blackguard to abuse a woman; +couldn't he let her <i>France</i> alone, if it be all lies, and read her +novels, and thank her, by Jasus, for being a good Irishwoman?'</p> + +<p>Lady Morgan, as presently appeared, was not only quite able to +defend herself, but to give as good as she got. Peel, in a letter to +Croker, says: 'Lady Morgan vows vengeance against you as the supposed +author of the article in the <i>Quarterly</i>, in which her atheism, +profanity, indecency, and ignorance are exposed. You are to be the hero +of some novel of which she is about to be delivered. I hope she has not +heard of your predilection for angling, and that she will not describe +you as she describes one of her heroes, as "seated in his <i>piscatory</i> +corner, intent on the destruction of the finny tribe."' 'Lady Morgan,' +it seems, replies Croker, 'is resolved to make me read one of her +novels. I hope I shall feel interested enough to learn the language. I +wrote the first part of the article in question, but was called away to +Ireland when it was in the press; and I am sorry to say that some +blunders crept in accidentally, and one or two were premeditatedly +added, which, however, I do not think Lady Morgan knows enough of either +English, French, or Latin to find out. If she goes on, we shall have +sport.'</p> + +<p>Early in 1818 Colburn wrote to suggest that the Morgans should +proceed to Italy with a view to collaborating in a book on that country, +and offered them the handsome sum of £2000 for the copyright. By +this time Sir Charles had lost most of his practice, owing to his +publication of a scientific work, <i>The Outlines of the Physiology of +Life</i>, which was considered objectionably heterodox by the Dublin +public. There was no obstacle, therefore, to his leaving home for a +lengthened period, and joining his wife in her literary labours. In May, +the pair journeyed to London <i>en route</i> for the South, Lady Morgan +taking with her the nearly finished manuscript of a new novel, <i>Florence +Macarthy</i>. With his first reading of this book Colburn was so +charmed, that he presented the author with a fine parure of amethysts as +a tribute of admiration.</p> + +<p>According to the testimony of impartial witnesses, Lady Morgan made +as decided a social success in Italy as she had done a couple of years +earlier in France. Moore, who met the couple in Florence, notes in his +diary for October 1819: 'Went to see Sir Charles and Lady Morgan; her +success everywhere astonishing. Camac was last night at the Countess of +Albany's (the Pretender's wife and Alfieri's), and saw Lady Morgan there +in the seat of honour, quite the queen of the room.' In Rome the same +appreciation awaited her. 'The Duchess of Devonshire,' writes her +ladyship, 'is unceasing in her attentions. Cardinal Fesche (Bonaparte's +uncle) is quite my beau.... Madame Mère (Napoleon's mother) sent +to say she would be glad to see me; we were received quite in an +imperial style. I never saw so fine an old lady--still quite handsome. +The pictures of her sons hung round the room, all in royal robes, and +her daughters and grandchildren, and at the head of them all, <i>old +Mr. Bonaparte</i>. She is full of sense, feeling, and spirit, and not +the least what I expected--vulgar.'</p> + +<p><i>Florence Macarthy</i> was published during its author's absence +abroad. The heroine, Lady Clancare, a novelist and politician, a beauty +and a wit, is obviously intended for Lady Morgan herself, while Lady +Abercorn figures again under the title of Lady Dunore. But the most +striking of all the character-portraits is Counsellor Con Crawley, who +was sketched from Lady Morgan's old enemy, John Wilson Croker. According +to Moore, Croker winced more under this caricature than under any of the +direct attacks which were made upon him. Con Crawley, we are told, was +of a bilious, saturnine constitution, even his talent being but the +result of disease. These physical disadvantages, combined with an +education 'whose object was pretension, and whose principle was +arrogance, made him at once a thing fearful and pitiable, at war with +its species and itself, ready to crush in manhood as to sting in the +cradle, and leading his overweening ambition to pursue its object by +ways dark and hidden--safe from the penalty of crime, and exposed only +to the obloquy which he laughed to scorn. If ever there was a man formed +alike by nature and education to betray the land which gave him birth, +and to act openly as the pander of political corruption, or secretly as +the agent of defamation; who would stoop to seek his fortune by +effecting the fall of a frail woman, or would strive to advance it by +stabbing the character of an honest one; who could crush aspiring merit +behind the ambuscade of anonymous security, while he came forward openly +in defence of the vileness which rank sanctified and influence +protected--that man was Conway Crawley.'</p> + +<p>The truth of the portraiture of the whole Crawley +family--exaggerated as it may seem in modern eyes--was at once +recognised by Lady Morgan's countrymen. Sir Jonah Barrington, an +undisputed authority on Irish manners and character, writes: 'The +Crawleys are superlative, and suffice to bring before my vision, in +their full colouring, and almost without a variation, persons and +incidents whom and which I have many a time encountered.' Again, Owen +Maddyn, who was by no means prejudiced in Lady Morgan's favour, admits +that her attack on Croker had much effect in its day, and was written on +the model of the Irish school of invective furnished by Flood and +Grattan. As a novelist, he held that she pointed the way to Lever, and +adds: 'The rattling vivacity of the Irish character, its ebullient +spirit, and its wrathful eloquence of sentiment and language, she well +portrayed; one can smell the potheen and turf smoke even in her pictures +of a boudoir.' In this sentence are summed up the leading +characteristics, not only of <i>Florence Macarthy</i>, but of all Lady +Morgan's national romances.</p> + +<p><i>Italy</i> was published simultaneously in London and Paris in +June, 1821, and produced an even greater sensation than the work on +France, though Croker declared that it fell dead from the press, and +devoted the greater part of his 'review' in the <i>Quarterly</i> to an +analysis of Colburn's methods of advertisement. Criticism of a penal +kind, he explained, was not called for, because, 'in the first place, we +are convinced that this woman is wholly <i>incorrigible</i>; secondly, +we hope that her indelicacy, vanity, and malignity are inimitable, and +that, therefore, her example is very little dangerous; and thirdly, +though every page teems with errors of all kinds, from the most +disgusting to the most ludicrous, they are smothered in such Boeotian +dulness that they can do no harm.' In curious contrast to this +professional criticism is a passage in one of Byron's letters to Moore. +'Lady Morgan,' writes the poet, 'in a <i>really excellent</i> book, I +assure you, on Italy, calls Venice an ocean Rome; I have the very same +expression in <i>Foscari</i>, and yet you know that the play was +written months ago, and sent to England; the <i>Italy</i> I received +only on the 16th.... When you write to Lady Morgan, will you thank her +for her handsome speeches in her book about <i>my</i> books? Her work is +fearless and excellent on the subject of Italy--pray tell her so--and I +know the country. I wish she had fallen in with <i>me</i>; I could have +told her a thing or two that would have confirmed her positions.'</p> + +<p>Almost simultaneously with the appearance of <i>Italy</i>, Colburn +printed in his <i>New Monthly Magazine</i> a long, vehement, and rather +incoherent attack by Lady Morgan upon her critics. The editor, Thomas +Campbell, explained in an indignant letter to the <i>Times</i>, that +the article had been inserted by the proprietor without being first +submitted to the editorial eye, and that he was in no way responsible +for its contents. Colburn also wrote to the <i>Times</i> to refute the <i>Quarterly</i> +reviewer's statements regarding the sales of <i>Italy</i>, and publicly +to declare his entire satisfaction at the result of the undertaking, and +his willingness to receive from the author another work of equal +interest on the same terms. In short, never was a book worse reviewed or +better advertised.</p> + +<p>The next venture of the indefatigable Lady Morgan, who felt herself +capable of dealing with any subject, no matter how little she might know +of it, was a <i>Life of Salvator Rosa</i>. This, which was her own +favourite among all her books, is a rather imaginative work, which +hardly comes up to modern biographical standards. The author seems to +have been influenced in her choice of a subject rather by the patriotic +character of Salvator Rosa than by his artistic attainments. Lady Morgan +was once asked by a fellow-writer where she got her facts, to which she +replied, 'We all imagine our facts, you know--and then happily forget +them; it is to be hoped our readers do the same.' Nevertheless, she +seems to have taken a good deal of trouble to 'get up' the material for +her biography; it was in her treatment of it that she sometimes allowed +her ardent Celtic imagination to run away with her. About this time +Colburn proposed that Sir Charles and Lady Morgan should contribute to +his magazine, <i>The New Monthly</i>, and offered them half as much +again as his other writers, who were paid at the rate of sixteen guineas +a sheet. For this periodical Lady Morgan wrote a long essay on <i>Absenteeism</i> +and other articles, some of which were afterwards republished.</p> + +<p>In the spring of 1824 the Morgans came to London for the season, and +went much into the literary society that was dear to both their hearts. +Lady Caroline Lamb took a violent fancy to Lady Morgan, to whom she +confided her Byronic love-troubles, while Lady Cork, who still +maintained a salon, did not neglect her old <i>protégée</i>. +The rough notes kept by Lady Morgan of her social adventures are not +usually of much interest or importance, as she had little faculty or +inclination for Boswellising, but the following entry is worth quoting:--</p> + +<p>'Lady Cork said to me this morning when I called Miss ---- a nice +person, "Don't say nice, child, 'tis a bad word." Once I said to Dr. +Johnson, "Sir, that is a very nice person." "A <i>nice</i> person," he +replied; "what does that mean? Elegant is now the fashionable term, but +it will go out, and I see this stupid <i>nice</i> is to succeed to it. +What does nice mean? Look in my Dictionary; you will see it means +correct, precise."'</p> + +<p>At Lydia White's famous <i>soirées</i> Lady Morgan met Sydney +Smith, Washington Irving, Hallam, Miss Jane Porter, Anacreon Moore, and +many other literary celebrities. Her own rooms were thronged with a band +of young Italian revolutionaries, whose country had grown too hot to +hold them, and who talked of erecting a statue to the liberty-loving +Irishwoman when Italy should be free. Dublin naturally seemed rather +dull after all the excitement and delights of a London season, but Lady +Morgan, though she loved to grumble at her native city, had not yet +thought of turning absentee herself. Her popularity with her countrymen +(those of her own way of thinking) had suffered no diminution, and her +national celebrity was proved by the following verse from a ballad which +was sung in the Dublin streets:-- </p> + +<p> 'Och, Dublin's city, there's no doubtin',<br> + Bates every city on the say;<br> + 'Tis there you'll hear O'Connell spoutin',<br> + And Lady Morgan making tay;<br> + For 'tis the capital of the finest nation,<br> + Wid charmin' peasantry on a fruitful sod,<br> + Fightin' like divils for conciliation,<br> + An' hatin' each other for the love of God.'</p> + +<p>Our heroine was hard at work at this time upon the last of her Irish +novels, <i>The O'Briens and the O'Flaherties</i>, which was published +early in 1827, and for the copyright of which Colburn paid her +£1350. It was the most popular of all her works, especially with +her own country-folk, and is distinguished by her favourite blend of +politics, melodrama, local colour, and rough satire on the ruling +classes. The reviews as usual accused her of blasphemy and indecency, +and so severe was the criticism in the <i>Literary Gazette</i>, then +edited by Jerdan, that Colburn was stirred up to found a new literary +weekly of his own, and, in conjunction with James Silk Buckingham, +started the <i>Athenaeum</i>. Jerdan had asserted in the course of his +review that 'In all our reading we never met with a description which +tended so thoroughly to lower the female character.... Mrs. Behn and +Mrs. Centlivre might be more unguarded; but the gauze veil cannot hide +the deformities, and Lady Morgan's taste has not been of efficient power +to filter into cleanliness the original pollution of her infected +fountain.' Lady Morgan observes in her diary that she has a right to be +judged by her peers, and threatens to summon a jury of matrons to say if +they can detect one line in her pages that would tend to make any honest +man her foe.</p> + +<p>There were other disadvantages attendant upon celebrity than those +caused by inimical reviewers. No foreigner of distinction thought a +visit to Dublin complete without an introduction to our author, who +figures in several contemporary memoirs, not always in a flattering +light. That curious personage, Prince Pückler Muskau, was +travelling through England and Ireland in 1828, and has left a little +vignette of Lady Morgan in the published record of his journey. 'I was +very eager,' he explains, 'to make the acquaintance of a lady whom I +rate so highly as an authoress. I found her, however, very different +from what I had pictured to myself. She is a little, frivolous, lively +woman, apparently between thirty and forty, neither pretty nor ugly, but +by no means inclined to resign all claims to the former, and with really +fine expressive eyes. She has no idea of <i>mauvaise honte</i> or +embarrassment; her manners are not the most refined, and affect the <i>aisance</i> +and levity of the fashionable world, which, however, do not sit calmly +or naturally upon her. She has the English weakness of talking +incessantly of fashionable acquaintances, and trying to pose for very <i>recherché</i>, +to a degree quite unworthy of a woman of such distinguished talents; +she is not at all aware how she thus underrates herself.' The <i>Quarterly +Review</i> seized upon this passage with malicious delight. The prince, +as the reviewer points out, had dropped one lump of sugar into his bowl +of gall; he had guessed Lady Morgan's age at between thirty and forty.' +Miss Owenson,' comments the writer, who was probably Croker, 'was an +established authoress six-and-twenty years ago; and if any lady, +player's daughter or not, knew what <i>she</i> knew when she published +her first work at eight or nine years of age (which Miss Owenson must +have been at that time according to the prince's calculation), she was +undoubtedly such a juvenile prodigy as would be quite worthy to make a <i>case</i> +for the <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>.'</p> + +<p>Another observer, who was present at some of the Castle festivities, +and who had long pictured Lady Morgan in imagination as a sylphlike and +romantic person, has left on record his amazement when the celebrated +lady stood before him. 'She certainly formed a strange figure in the +midst of that dazzling scene of beauty and splendour. Every female +present wore feathers and trains; but Lady Morgan scorned both +appendages. Hardly more than four feet high, with a spine not quite +straight, slightly uneven shoulders and eyes, Lady Morgan glided about +in a close-cropped wig, bound with a fillet of gold, her large face all +animation, and with a witty word for everybody. I afterwards saw her at +the theatre, where she was cheered enthusiastically. Her dress was +different from the former occasion, but not less original. A red Celtic +cloak, fastened by a rich gold fibula, or Irish Tara brooch, imparted to +her little ladyship a gorgeous and withal a picturesque appearance, +which antecedent associations considerably strengthened.'</p> + +<p>In 1829 <i>The Book of the Boudoir</i> was published, with a preface +in which Lady Morgan gives the following naïve account of its +genesis: 'I was just setting off to Ireland--the horses literally +putting-to--when Mr. Colburn arrived with his flattering proposition +[for a new book]. Taking up a scrubby manuscript volume which the +servant was about to thrust into the pocket of the carriage, he asked +what was that. I said it was one of my volumes of odds and ends, and +read him my last entry. "This is the very thing," he said, and carried +it off with him.' The book was correctly described as a volume of odds +and ends, and was hardly worth preserving in a permanent shape, though +it contains one or two interesting autobiographical scraps, such as the +account of <i>My First Rout</i>, from which a quotation has already +been given. A writer in <i>Blackwood</i> reviewed the work in a vein of +ironical admiration, professing to be much impressed by the author's +knowledge of metaphysics as exemplified in such a sentence as: 'The idea +of cause is a consequence of our consciousness of the force we exert in +subjecting externals to the changes dictated by our volition.' Unable to +keep up the laudatory strain, even in joke, the reviewer (his style +points to Christopher North) calls a literary friend to his assistance, +who takes the opposite view, and declares that the book is 'a tawdry +tissue of tedious trumpery; a tessellated texture of threadbare +thievery; a trifling transcript of trite twaddle and trapessing +tittle-tattle.... Like everything that falls from her pen, it is pert, +shallow, and conceited, a farrago of ignorance, indecency, and +blasphemy, a tag-rag and bob-tail style of writing--like a harlequin's +jacket.'</p> + +<p>Lady Morgan bobbed up as irrepressibly as ever from under this +torrent of (so-called) criticism, made a tour in France and Belgium for +the purpose of writing more 'trapessing tittle-tattle,' and on her +return to London, such were the profits on blasphemy and indecency, +bought her first carriage. This equipage was a source of much amusement +to her friends in Dublin, 'Neither she nor Sir Charles,' we are told, +'knew the difference between a good carriage and a bad one--a carriage +was a carriage to them. It was never known where this vehicle was +bought, except that Lady Morgan declared it came from the first +carriage-builder in London. In shape it was like a grasshopper, as well +as in colour. Very high and very springy, with enormous wheels, it was +difficult to get into, and dangerous to get out of. Sir Charles, who +never in his life before had mounted a coach-box, was persuaded by his +wife to drive his own carriage. He was extremely short-sighted, and wore +large green spectacles out of doors. His costume was a coat much trimmed +with fur, and heavily braided. James Grant, the tall Irish footman, in +the brightest of red plush, sat beside him, his office being to jump +down whenever anybody was knocked down, or run over, for Sir Charles +drove as it pleased God. The horse was mercifully a very quiet animal, +and much too small for the carriage, or the mischief would have been +worse. Lady Morgan, in the large bonnet of the period, and a cloak lined +with fur hanging over the back of the carriage, gave, as she conceived, +the crowning grace to a neat and elegant turn-out. The only drawback to +her satisfaction was the alarm caused by Sir Charles's driving; and she +was incessantly springing up to adjure him to take care, to which he +would reply with warmth, after the manner of husbands.'</p> + +<p>In 1880 Lady Morgan published her <i>France</i> (1829-30). This book +was not a commission, but she had told Colburn that she was writing it, +and as he made her no definite offer, she opened negotiations with the +firm of Saunders and Otley. Colburn, who looked upon her as his special +property, was furious at her desertion, and informed her that if she did +not at once break off with Saunders and Otley, it would be no less +detrimental to her literary than to her pecuniary interest. Undismayed +by this threat, Lady Morgan accepted the offer of a thousand pounds made +her by the rival firm. Colburn, who was a power in the literary market, +kept his word. He advertised in his own periodicals 'LADY MORGAN AT +HALF-PRICE,' and stated publicly that in consequence of the losses he +had sustained by her former works, he had declined her new book, and +that copies of all her publications might be had at half-price. In +consequence of these and other machinations, the new <i>France</i>, +which was at least as good a book as the old one, fell flat, and the +unfortunate publishers were only able to make one payment of £500. +They tried to get their contract cancelled in court, and Colburn, who +was called as a witness, admitted that he had done his best to injure +Lady Morgan's literary reputation. Eventually, the matter was +compromised, Saunders and Otley being allowed to publish Lady Morgan's +next book, <i>Dramatic Scenes and Sketches</i>, as some compensation +for their loss; but of this, too, they failed to make a success.</p> + +<p>The reviews of <i>France</i> were few and slighting, the wickedest +and most amusing being by Theodore Hook. He quotes with glee the +author's complacent record that she was compared to Molière by +the Parisians, and that she had seen in a 'poetry-book' the following +lines:-- </p> + +<p> 'Slendal (<i>sic</i>), Morgan, Schlegel-ne vous +effrayez pas--<br> + Muses! ce sont des noms fameux dans nos climats.'</p> + +<p>'Her ladyship,' continues Theodore, 'went to dine with one of those +spectacle and sealing-wax barons, Rothschild, at Paris; where never was +such a dinner, "no catsup and walnut pickle, but a mayonese fried in +ice, like Ninon's description of Seveigne's (<i>sic</i>) heart," and to +all this fine show she was led out by Rothschild himself. After the soup +she took an opportunity of praising the cook, of whom she had heard +much. "Eh bien," says Rothschild, laughing, as well he might, "he on his +side has also relished your works, and here is a proof of it." "I really +blush," says Miladi, "like Sterne's accusing spirit, as I give in the +fact--but--he pointed to a column of the most ingenious confectionery +architecture, on which my name was inscribed in spun sugar." There was a +thing--Lady Morgan in spun sugar! And what does the reader think her +ladyship did? She shall tell in her own dear words. "All I could do +under my triumphant emotion I did. I begged to be introduced to the +celebrated and flattering artist." It is a fact--to the cook; and +another fact, which only shows that the Hebrew baron is a Jew <i>d'esprit</i>, +is that after coffee, the cook actually came up, and was presented to +her. "He," says her ladyship, "was a well-bred gentleman, perfectly free +from pedantry, and when we had mutually complimented each other on our +respective works, he bowed himself out."'</p> + +<p>In spite of her egoism and her many absurdities, it seems clear from +contemporary evidence that in London, where she usually appeared during +the season, Lady Morgan had a following. The names of most of the +literary celebrities of the day appear amid the disjointed jottings of +her diary. We hear of 'that egregious coxcomb D'Israeli, outraging the +privilege a young man has of being absurd'; and Sydney Smith 'so +natural, so <i>bon enfant</i>, so little of a wit <i>titré</i>'; +and Mrs. Bulwer-Lytton, handsome, insolent, and unamiable; and Allan +Cunningham, 'immense fun'; and Thomas Hood, 'a grave-looking personage, +the picture of ill-health'; and her old critical enemy, Lord Jeffrey, +with whom Lady Morgan started a violent flirtation. 'When he comes to +Ireland,' she writes, 'we are to go to Donnybrook Fair together; in +short, having cut me down with his tomahawk as a reviewer, he smothers +me with roses as a man. I always say of my enemies before we meet, "Let +me at them."'</p> + +<p>The other literary women were naturally the chief object of interest +to her. Lady Morgan seems to have been fairly free from professional +jealousy, though she hated her countrywoman, Lady Blessington, with a +deadly hatred. Mrs. Gore, then one of the most fashionable novelists, +she finds 'a pleasant little <i>rondelette</i> of a woman, something of +my own style. We talked and laughed together, as good-natured women do, +and agreed upon many points.' The learned Mrs. Somerville is described +as 'a simple, little, middle-aged woman. Had she not been presented to +me by name and reputation, I should have said she was one of the +respectable twaddling matrons one meets at every ball, dressed in a snug +mulberry velvet gown, and a little cap with a red flower. I asked her +how she could descend from the stars to mix among us. She said she was +obliged to go out with a daughter. From the glimpse of her last night, I +should say there was no imagination, no deep moral philosophy, though a +great deal of scientific lore, and a great deal of <i>bonhomie</i>.' +For 'poor dear Jane Porter,' the author of <i>Scottish Chiefs</i>, Lady +Morgan felt the natural contempt of a 'showy woman' for one who looks +like a 'shabby canoness.' 'Miss Porter,' she records, 'told me she was +taken for me the other night, and talked to <i>as such</i> by a party of +Americans. She is tall, lank, lean, and lackadaisical, dressed in the +deepest black, with a battered black gauze hat, and the air of a regular +Melpomene. I am the reverse of all this, and <i>sans vanité</i>, +the best-dressed woman wherever I go. Last night I wore a blue satin, +trimmed fully with magnificent point-lace, and stomacher <i>à la +Sévigné</i>, light blue velvet hat and feathers, with an +aigrette of sapphires and diamonds.' As Lady Morgan at this time was +nearer sixty than fifty, rouged liberally, and made all her own dresses, +her appearance in the costume above described must at least have been +remarkable.</p> + +<p>Lady Morgan's last novel, a Belgian story called <i>The Princess, +or the Béguine</i>, was published by Bentley in 1834, and for the +first edition she received, £350, a sad falling-off from the +prices received in former days. As her popularity waned, she grew +discontented with life in Dublin, 'the wretched capital of wretched +Ireland,' as she calls it, and in a moment of mental depression she +entered the characteristic query,'<i>Cui bono?</i>' in her diary. To the +same faithful volume she confided complaints even of her beloved Morgan, +but the fact that she could find nothing worse to reproach him with than +a disinclination for fresh air and exercise, speaks volumes for his +marital virtue. A more serious trouble came from failing eyesight, which +in 1837 threatened to develop into total blindness. It was in this year, +when things seemed at their darkest, that a pension of £300 a year +was conferred on her by Lord Melbourne, 'in recognition of her merits, +literary and patriotic.' It was probably this unexpected accession of +income that decided the Morgans to leave Dublin, and spend the remainder +of their days in London. They found a pleasant little house in William +Street, Knightsbridge, a new residential quarter which was just growing +up under the fostering care of Mr. Cubitt. Lady Morgan went 'into +raptures over the pretty new quarter,' and wrote some articles on +Pimlico in the <i>Athenæum</i>. She also got up a successful +agitation for an entrance into Hyde Park at what is now known as Albert +Gate. For deserting Ireland, after receiving a pension for patriotism, +and writing against the evils of Absenteeism, Lady Morgan was subjected +to a good deal of sarcasm by her countrymen. But, as she pointed out, +her property in Ireland was personal, not real, the tenant-farm of a +drawing-room balcony, on which annual crops of mignonette were raised +for home consumption, being the only territorial possession that she +had ever enjoyed.</p> + +<p>Lady Morgan's eyesight must have temporarily improved with her +change of dwelling, for in 1839 the first part of her last work of any +importance, <i>Woman and her Master</i>, was published by Colburn, to +whom she had at last become reconciled. This book, which was never +finished, was designed to prove, among other things, that in spite of +the subordination in which women have been kept, and in spite of all the +artificial difficulties that have been put in their way, not only have +they never been conquered in spirit, but that they have always been the +depositaries of the vital and leading ideas of the time. The book is +more soberly written than most of Lady Morgan's works, but it would +probably be regarded by the modern reader as dull and superficial. It +was generally believed that Sir Charles had assisted in its composition, +and few men have ever wielded a heavier pen. The pair only issued one +more joint work, <i>The Book Without a Name</i>, which appeared in +1842, and consisted chiefly of articles and sketches that had already +been published in the magazines.</p> + +<p>The Morgans now found their chief occupation and amusement in the +society which they attracted to their cheerful little house. One or two +sketches of the pair, as they appeared in their later days, have been +left by contemporaries. Chorley, an intimate friend, observes that, like +all the sceptics he ever approached, they were absurdly prejudiced, and +proof against all new impressions. 'Neither of them, though both were +literary and musical, could endure German literature and music, had got +beyond the stale sarcasms of the <i>Anti-Jacobin</i>, or could admit +that there is glory for such men as Weber, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn, +as well as for Cimarosa and Paisiello.... Her familiar conversation was +a series of brilliant, egotistic, shrewd, and genial sallies, and she +could be either caressing or impudent. In the matter of self-approbation +she had no Statute of Limitation, but boasted of having taught Taglioni +to dance an Irish jig, and declared that she had created the Irish +novel, though in the next breath she would say that she was a child when +Miss Edgeworth was a grown woman.' Her blunders were proverbial, as when +she asked in all simplicity, 'Who was Jeremy Taylor?' and on being +presented to Mrs. Sarah Austin, complimented her on having written <i>Pride +and Prejudice</i>.</p> + +<p>Another friend, Abraham Hayward, used to say that Lady Morgan had +been transplanted to London too late, and that she was never free of the +corporation of fine ladies, though she saw a good deal of them. 'She +erroneously fancied that she was expected to entertain the company, be +it what it might, and she was fond of telling stories in which she +figured as the companion of the great, instead of confining herself to +scenes of low Irish life, which she described inimitably. Lady Cork was +accustomed to say, "I like Lady Morgan very much as an Irish blackguard, +but I can't endure her as an English fine lady."'</p> + +<p>In 1843 Sir Charles died rather suddenly from heart disease. His +wife mourned him sincerely, but not for long in solitude. She found the +anaesthetic for her grief in society, and after a few months of +widowhood writes: 'Everybody makes a point of having me out, and I am +beginning to be familiarised with my great loss. London is the best +place in the world for the happy and the unhappy; there is a floating +capital of sympathy for every human good or evil. I am a nobody, and yet +what kindness I am daily receiving.' Again, in 1845, after her sister's +death, she notes in her diary: 'The world is my gin or opium; I take it +for a few hours <i>per diem</i>--excitement, intoxication, absence. I +return to my desolate home, and wake to all the horrors of sobriety.... +Yet I am accounted the agreeable rattle of the great ladies' coterie, +and I talk <i>pas mal</i> to many clever men all day.... That Park near +me, of which my beloved Morgan used to say, "It is ours more than the +Queen's, we use it daily and enjoy it nightly"--that Park that I worked +so hard to get an entrance into, I never walk in it; it seems to me +covered with crape.'</p> + +<p>Among the friends of Lady Morgan's old age were the Carter Halls, +Hepworth Dixon, Miss Jewsbury, Hayward, and Douglas Jerrold. Lord +Campbell, old Rogers, and Cardinal Wiseman frequented her <i>soirées</i>, +though with the last-named she had waged a pamphlet war over the +authenticity of St. Peter's chair at Rome. Rogers was reported to be +engaged to one of Lady Morgan's attractive nieces, the Miss Clarkes, who +often stayed with her. It was in allusion to this rumour that he said, +'Whenever my name is coupled with that of a young lady in this manner, I +make it a point of honour to say I have been refused.' To the last, we +are told, Lady Morgan preserved the natural vivacity and aptness of +repartee that had made her the delight of Dublin society half a century +before. 'I know I am vain,' she said once to Mrs. Hall, 'but I have a +right to be. It is not put on and off like my rouge; it is always with +me.... I wrote books when your mothers worked samplers, and demanded +freedom for Ireland when Dan O'Connell scrambled for gulls' eggs in the +crags of Derrynane.... Look at the number of books I have written. Did +ever woman move in a brighter sphere than I do? I have three invitations +to dinner to-day, one from a duchess, one from a countess, and the third +from a diplomatist, a very witty man, who keeps the best society in +London.'</p> + +<p>Lady Morgan was fond of boasting that she had supported herself +since she was fourteen (for which read seventeen or eighteen), and +insisted on the advantage of giving every girl a profession by which she +could earn her living, if the need arose. Speaking to Mrs. Hall on the +subject of some girls who had been suddenly bereft of fortune, she +exclaimed: 'They do everything that is fashionable imperfectly; their +drawing, singing, dancing, and languages amount to nothing. They were +educated to marry, and had they had time, they might have gone off with, +and hereafter <i>from</i>, husbands. I desire to give every girl, no +matter her rank, a trade or profession. Cultivate what is necessary to +the position she is born to; cultivate all things in moderation, but one +thing to perfection, no matter what it is, for which she has a talent: +give her a staff to lay hold of; let her feel, "This will carry me +through life without dependence."'</p> + +<p>With the assistance of Miss Jewsbury Lady Morgan, in the last years +of her life, prepared a volume of reminiscences, which she called <i>The +Odd Volume</i>. This, which was published in 1859, only deals with a +short period of her career, and is of little literary interest. The <i>Athenæum</i>, +in the course of a laudatory review, observed that 'Lady Morgan had +lived through the love, admiration, and malignity of three generations +of men, and was, in short, a literary Ninon, who seemed as brisk and +captivating in the year 1859 as when George was Prince, and the author +of "Kate Kearney" divided the laureateship of society and song with Tom +Moore.'</p> + +<p>Lady Morgan, though now an octogenarian, was by no means pleased at +these remarks. She still prided herself on her fascinations, was never +tired and never bored, and looked upon any one who died under a hundred +years of age as a suicide. 'You have more strength and spirit, as well +as more genius, than any of us,' wrote Abraham Hayward to her. 'We must +go back to the brilliant women of the eighteenth century to find +anything like a parallel to you and your <i>soirées</i>.' But +bronchitis was an enemy with which even her high spirit was powerless to +cope. She had an attack in 1858, but threw it off, and on Christmas Day +gave a dinner, at which she told Irish stories with all her old +vivacity, and sang 'The Night before Larry was Stretched.' On St. +Patrick's Day, 1859, she gave a musical matinée, but caught cold +the following week, and after a short illness, died on April 16th.</p> + +<p>Thus ended the career of one of the most flattered and best abused +women of the century. Held up as the Irish Madame de Staël by her +admirers, and run down as a monster of impudence and iniquity by her +enemies, it is no wonder that her character, by no means innately +refined, became hardened, if not coarsened, by so unenviable a +notoriety. Still, to her credit be it remembered that she never lost a +friend, and that she converted more than one impersonal enmity (as in +the case of Jeffrey and Lockhart) into a personal friendship. In spite +of her passion for the society of the great, she wrote and worked +throughout her whole career for the cause of liberty, and she was ever +on the side of the oppressed. An incorrigible flirt before marriage, she +developed into an irreproachable matron, while her natural frivolity and +feather-headedness never tempted her to neglect her work, nor interfered +with her faculty for making most advantageous business arrangements. +'With all her frank vanity,' we are told, 'she had shrewd good sense, +and she valued herself much more on her industry than on her genius, +because the one, she said, she owed to her organisation, but the other +was a virtue of her own rearing.' It would be impossible to conclude a +sketch of Lady Morgan more appropriately than by the following lines of +Leigh Hunt, which she herself was fond of quoting, and in which her +personal idiosyncrasies are pleasantly touched off:-- </p> + +<p> 'And dear Lady Morgan, see, see, when she +comes,<br> + With her pulses all beating for freedom like +drums,<br> + So Irish, so modish, so mixtish, so wild;<br> + So committing herself as she talks--like a +child.<br> + So trim, yet so easy--polite, yet high-hearted,<br> + That truth and she, try all she can, won't be +parted;<br> + She'll put you your fashions, your latest new +air,<br> + And then talk so frankly, she'll make you all +stare.'<br> +<br> +</p> +<hr style="width: 100%; height: 2px;"><br> + +<p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><big><a name="WILLIS"></a> <big>NATHANIEL +PARKER WILLIS</big><br> +<br> +</big></p> +<div style="text-align: center;"> </div> + +<p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><big><img + src="images/Willis.jpg" title="Nathaniel Parker Willis" + alt="Nathaniel Parker Willis" style="width: 388px; height: 608px;"><br> +<br> +</big></p> +<div style="text-align: center;"> </div> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 20%;"> + +<p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;">PART I</p> + +<p>Any fool, said a wise man, can write an interesting book if he will +only take the trouble to set down exactly what he has seen and heard. +Unfortunately, it is only a very special kind of fool who is capable of +recording exactly what he sees and hears--a rare bird who flourishes +perhaps once in a century, and is remembered long after wiser men are +forgotten. It is not contended that the subject of this memoir was a +fool in the crude sense of the word, though he was responsible for a +good deal of folly; but he was inspired by that impertinent curiosity, +that happy lack of dignity, and that passion for the trivial and the +intimate, which, when joined to a natural talent for observation and a +picturesque narrative style, enable the possessor to illuminate a circle +and a period in a fashion never achieved by the most learned +lucubrations of the profoundest scholars. Thanks to his Boswellising +powers, 'Namby-Pamby Willis,' as he was called by his numerous enemies, +has left an admirably vivid picture of the literary society of London in +the 'thirties,' a picture that steadily increases in value as the period +at which it was painted recedes into the past.</p> + +<p>Willis came of a family that had contrived, not unsuccessfully, to +combine religion with journalism. His immediate forebears seem to have +been persons of marked individuality, and his pedigree was, for the New +World, of quite respectable antiquity. The founder of the family, George +Willis, was born early in the seventeenth century, and emigrated to New +England about 1730, where he worked at his trade of brickmaking and +building. Our hero's great-grandfather was a patriotic sailmaker, who +assisted at a certain historic entertainment, when tar, feathers, and +hot tea were administered gratis to his Majesty's tax-collector at +Boston. His wife, Abigail, was a lady of character and maxims, who saved +some tea for her private use when three hundred cases were emptied into +Boston Harbour, and exhorted her family never to eat brown bread when +they could get white, and never to go in at the back door when they +might go in at the front. The son of this worthy couple conducted a Whig +newspaper in Boston during the Rebellion, and became one of the pioneer +journalists of the West. His son, Nathaniel's sire, was invited, in +1803, to start a newspaper at Portland, Maine, where the future +Penciller was born in 1806, one year before his fellow-townsman +Longfellow.</p> + +<p>A few years later, Mr. Willis returned to Boston, where, in 1816, he +started the <i>Boston Recorder</i>, the first newspaper, he was +accustomed to say, that had ever been run on religious lines. He seems +to have been a respectable, but narrow-minded man, who loved long +devotions and many services, and looked upon dancing, card-playing and +stage-plays as works of the Evil One. His redeeming points were a sense +of humour and a keen appreciation of female beauty, which last +characteristic he certainly bequeathed to his son. It was his custom to +sit round the fire with his nine children on winter evenings, and tell +them stories about the old Dutch tiles, representing New Testament +scenes, with which the chimney-corner was lined. The success of these +informal Scripture lessons led him to establish a religious paper for +young people called <i>The Youth's Companion</i>, in which some of our +hero's early verses appeared. His wife, Hannah Parker, is described as a +charming woman, lively, impulsive, and emotional. Her son, Nathaniel, +whose devotion to her never wavered, used to say, 'My veins are teeming +with the quicksilver spirit my mother gave me.'</p> + +<p>Willis the younger was sent to school at Boston, where he had +Emerson for a schoolfellow, and afterwards to the university of Yale, +where he wrote much poetry, and was well received in the society of the +place on account of his good looks, easy manners, and precocious +literary reputation. On leaving Yale, he was delivered of a volume of +juvenile poems, and then settled down in Boston to four years' +journalistic work. Samuel Goodrich, better known in England under his +pseudonym of 'Peter Parley,' engaged him to edit some annuals and +gift-books, an employment which the young man found particularly +congenial. In his <i>Recollections</i> Peter Parley draws a comparison +between his two contributors, Hawthorne and Willis, and records that +everything Willis wrote attracted immediate attention, while the early +productions of Hawthorne passed almost unnoticed.</p> + +<p>In 1829 Willis started on his own account with the <i>American +Monthly Magazine</i>, which had an existence of little more than two +years. He announced that he could not afford to pay for contributions, +as he expected only a small circulation, and he wrote most of the copy +himself. Every month there were discursive, gossiping editorial articles +in that 'personal' vein which has been worked with so much industry in +our own day. He took his readers into his confidence, prattled about his +japonica and his pastilles, and described his favourite bird, a scarlet +trulian, and his dogs, Ugolino and L. E. L., who slept in the +waste-paper basket. He professed to write with a bottle of Rudesheimer +and a plate of olives at his elbow, and it was hinted that he ate fruit +in summer with an amber-handled fork to keep his palm cool!</p> + +<p>These youthful affectations had a peculiarly exasperating effect +upon men of a different type; and Willis became the butt of the more +old-fashioned critics, who vied with each other in inventing opprobrious +epithets to shower upon the head of this young puppy of journalism. +However, Nathaniel was not a person who could easily be suppressed, and +he soon became one of the most popular magazine-writers of his time, his +prose being described by an admirer as 'delicate and brief like a white +jacket--transparent like a lump of sugar in champagne--soft-tempered +like the sea-breeze at night.' Unfortunately, the magazines paid but +little, even for prose of the above description, and Willis presently +found himself in financial difficulties; while, with all his +acknowledged fascinations, he was unlucky in his first love-affair. He +became engaged to a beautiful girl called Mary Benham, but her guardian +broke off the match, and the lady, who seems to have had an inclination +for literary men, afterwards married Motley, the historian of the Dutch +Republic.</p> + +<p>In 1831 the <i>American Monthly Magazine</i> ceased to appear, and +Willis, leaving Boston and his creditors without regret, obtained the +post of assistant-editor on the <i>New York Mirror</i>, a weekly paper +devoted to literature, light fiction, and the fine arts. It was the +property of Morris, author of the once world-famous song, 'Woodman, +spare that Tree,' and the editor-in-chief was Theodore Fay, a novelist +of some distinction. Soon after his appointment it was decided that +Willis should be sent to Europe as foreign correspondent of his paper. A +sum of about a hundred pounds was scraped together for his expenses, and +it was arranged that he should write weekly letters at the rate of two +guineas a letter. In the autumn of 1831 he sailed in a merchant-vessel +for Havre, whence he journeyed to Paris in November. Here he spent the +first five or six months of his tour, and here began the series of +'Pencillings by the Way,' a portion of which gained him rather an +unwelcome notoriety in English society by reason of the 'personalities' +it contained. When published in book form the Pencillings were +considerably toned down, and the proper names were represented by +initials, so that people who read them then for the first time wondered +what all the excitement had been about. As the chapters which relate to +England are of most interest to English readers, Willis's continental +adventures need only be briefly noticed. The extracts here quoted are +taken from the original letters as they appeared in the <i>New York +Mirror</i>, which differ in many respects from the version that was +published in London after the attack by the <i>Quarterly Review</i>.</p> + +<p>In Paris Willis found himself in his element, and was made much of +by the Anglo-French community, which was then under the special +patronage of Lafayette. One of the most interesting of his new +acquaintances was the Countess Guiccioli, upon whose appearance and +manners he comments with characteristic frankness.</p> + +<p>'I met the Guiccioli yesterday in the Tuileries,' he writes shortly +after his arrival. 'She looks much younger than I anticipated, and is a +handsome blonde, apparently about thirty. I am told by a gentleman who +knows her that she has become a great flirt, and is quite spoiled by +admiration. The celebrity of Lord Byron's attachment would certainly +make her a very desirable acquaintance were she much less pretty than +she really is, and I am told her drawing-room is thronged with lovers of +all nations contending for a preference which, having once been given, +should be buried, I think, for ever.' A little later he has himself been +introduced to the Guiccioli, and he describes an interview which he has +had with her, when the conversation turned upon her friendship with +Shelley.</p> + +<p>'She gave me one of his letters to herself as an autograph,' he +narrates. 'She says he was at times a little crazy--<i>fou</i>, as she +expressed it--but there never was a nobler or a better man. Lord Byron, +she says, loved him as a brother.... There were several miniatures of +Byron hanging up in the room; I asked her if any of them were perfect in +the resemblance. "No," she said, "that is the most like him," taking +down a miniature by an Italian artist, "<i>mais il était beaucoup +plus beau--beaucoup--beaucoup</i>." She reiterated the word with a very +touching tenderness, and continued to look at the portrait for some +time.... She went on talking of the painters who had drawn Byron, and +said the American, West's, was the best likeness. I did not tell her +that West's portrait of herself was excessively flattered. I am sure no +one would know her, from the engraving at least. Her cheek-bones are +high, her forehead is badly shaped, and altogether the frame of her +features is decidedly ugly. She dresses in the worst taste too, and yet +for all this, and poetry and celebrity aside, the countess is both a +lovely and a fascinating woman, and one whom a man of sentiment would +admire at this age very sincerely, but not for beauty.'</p> + +<p>The cholera frightened Willis away from Paris in April, but before +he left, the United States minister, Mr. Rives, appointed him honorary +attaché to his own embassy, a great social advantage to the young +man, who was thereby enabled to obtain the <i>entrée</i> into +court circles in every country that he visited. At the same time the +appointment somewhat misled his numerous new acquaintances on the +subject of his social position, while the 'spurious' attachéship +afterwards became a weapon in the hands of his enemies. However, for the +time being, the young correspondent thoroughly enjoyed his novel +experiences, and contrived to communicate his enjoyment to his readers. +His letters were eagerly read by his countrymen, and are said to have +been copied into no less than five hundred newspapers. He eschewed +useful information, gave impressions rather than statistics, and was +fairly successful in avoiding the style of the guide-book. The summer +and autumn of 1832 were spent in northern Italy, Florence being the +traveller's headquarters. He had letters of introduction to half the +Italian nobility, and was made welcome in the court circles of Tuscany. +In the autumn he was flirting at the Baths of Lucca, and at this time he +had formed a project of travelling to London by way of Switzerland. 'In +London,' he writes to his sister, 'I mean to make arrangements with the +magazines, and then live abroad altogether. It costs so little here, and +one lives so luxuriously too, and there is so much to fill one's mind +and eye, that I think of returning to naked America with ever-increasing +repugnance. I love my country, but the <i>ornamental</i> is my vocation, +and of this she has none.' This programme was changed, and Willis spent +the winter between Rome, Florence, and Venice. Wherever he went he made +friends, but his progress was in itself a feat of diplomacy, and few +people dreamt that the dashing young attaché depended for his +living upon his contributions to a newspaper, payment for which did not +always arrive with desirable punctuality. 'I have dined,' he writes to +his mother, 'with a prince one day, and alone in a cook-shop the next.' +He explains that he can live on about sixty pounds a year at Florence, +paying four or five shillings a week for his rooms, breakfasting for +fourpence, and dining quite magnificently for a shilling.</p> + +<p>In June 1833, Willis was invited by the officers of an American +frigate to accompany them on a six months' cruise in the Mediterranean. +This was far too good an offer to be refused, since it would have been +impossible to get a peep at the East under more ideal conditions of +travel. Willis's letters from Greece and Turkey are among the best and +happiest that he wrote, for the weather was perfect, the company was +pleasant (there were ladies on board), and the reception they met with +wherever they weighed anchor was most hospitable; while the Oriental +mode of life appealed to our hero's highly-coloured, romantic taste. In +the island of Ægina he was introduced to Byron's Maid of Athens, +once the beautiful Teresa Makri, now plain Mrs. Black, with an ugly +little boy, and a Scotch terrier that snapped at the traveller's heels. +He describes the <i>ci-devant</i> Maid of Athens as a handsome woman, +with a clear dark skin, and a nose and forehead that formed the straight +line of the Greek model.</p> + +<p>'Her eyes are large,' he continues, 'and of a soft, liquid hazel, +and this is her chief beauty. There is that looking out of the soul +through them which Byron always described as constituting the loveliness +that most moved him.... We met her as simple Mrs. Black, whose husband's +terrier had worried us at the door, and we left her feeling that the +poetry she called forth from the heart of Byron was her due by every law +of loveliness.'</p> + +<p>By this time the fame of the <i>Pencillings</i> had reached London; +and at Smyrna Willis found a letter awaiting him from the <i>Morning +Herald</i>, which contained an offer of the post of foreign +correspondent at a salary of £200 a year. But as his letters would +have to be mainly political, and as he might be expected to act as +war-correspondent, which was scarcely in his line, he decided to refuse +the offer. On leaving the frigate he loitered through Italy, +Switzerland, and France to England, arriving at Dover on June 1, 1834. +While at Florence he had made the acquaintance of Walter Savage Landor, +who had given him some valuable letters of introduction to people in +England, among them one to Lady Blessington. Landor also put into +Willis's hands a package of books, whose temporary disappearance through +some mismanagement roused the formidable wrath of the old poet. In his <i>Letter +to an Author</i>, printed at the end of <i>Pericles and Aspasia</i>, +Landor describes the transaction (which related to an American edition +of the <i>Imaginary Conversations</i>), and continues:--</p> + +<p>'I regret the appearance of his book (the <i>Pencillings by the Way</i>) +more than the disappearance of mine.... My letter of presentation to +Lady Blessington threw open (I am afraid) too many folding-doors, some +of which have been left rather uncomfortably ajar. No doubt his +celebrity as a poet, and his dignity as a diplomatist, would have +procured him all those distinctions in society which he allowed so +humble a person as myself the instrumentality of conferring. Greatly as +I have been flattered by the visits of American gentlemen, I hope that +for the future no penciller of similar composition will deviate in my +favour to the right hand of the road from Florence to Fiesole.'</p> + +<p>The end of this storm in a teacup was that the books, which had +safely arrived in New York, returned as safely to London, where they +were handed over to their rightful owner, but not in time, as Willis +complained, to keep him from going down to posterity astride the finis +to <i>Pericles and Aspasia</i>. Long afterwards he expressed his hope +that Landor's biographers would either let him slip off at Lethe's +wharf, or else do him justice in a note. Before this unfortunate +incident, Landor and Willis had corresponded on cordial terms. The old +poet wrote to say how much he envied his correspondent the evenings he +passed in the society of 'the most accomplished and graceful of all our +fashionable world, my excellent friend, Lady Blessington,' while the +American could not sufficiently express his gratitude for the +introduction to that lady, 'my lodestar and most valued friend,' as he +called her, 'for whose acquaintance I am so much indebted to you, that +you will find it difficult in your lifetime to diminish my obligations.'</p> + +<p>Willis seems to have arrived in England prepared to like everything +English, and he began by falling in love with the Ship Hotel at Dover, +'with its bells that <i>would</i> ring, doors that <i>would</i> shut, +blazing coal fires [on June 1], and its landlady who spoke English, and +was civil--a greater contrast to the Continent could hardly he +imagined.' The next morning he was in raptures over the coach that took +him to London, with its light harness, four beautiful bays, and dashing +coachman, who discussed the Opera, and hummed airs from the <i>Puritani</i>. +He saw a hundred charming spots on the road that he coveted with quite +a heartache, and even the little houses and gardens in the suburbs +pleased his taste--there was such an <i>affectionateness</i> in the +outside of every one of them. Regent Street he declares to be the finest +street he has ever seen, and he exclaims, 'The Toledo of Naples, the +Corso of Rome, the Rue de la Paix, and the Boulevards of Paris are +really nothing to Regent Street.'</p> + +<p>Willis called on Lady Blessington in the afternoon of the day after +his arrival, but was informed that her ladyship was not yet down to +breakfast. An hour later, however, he received a note from her inviting +him to call the same evening at ten o'clock. She was then living at +Seamore House, while D'Orsay had lodgings in Curzon Street. Willis tells +us that he found a very beautiful woman exquisitely dressed, who looked +on the sunny side of thirty, though she frankly owned to forty, and was, +in fact, forty-five. Lady Blessington received the young American very +cordially, introduced him to the magnificent D'Orsay, and plunged at +once into literary talk. She was curious to know the degree of +popularity enjoyed by English authors in America, more especially by +Bulwer and D'Israeli, both of whom she promised that he should meet at +her house.</p> + +<p>'D'Israeli the elder,' she said, 'came here with his son the other +night. It would have delighted you to see the old man's pride in him. As +he was going away, he patted him on the head, and said, "Take care of +him, Lady Blessington, for my sake. He is a clever lad, but wants +ballast. I am glad he has the honour to know you, for you will check him +sometimes when I am away...." D'Israeli the younger is quite his own +character of Vivian Grey, crowded with talent, but very <i>soigné</i> +of his curls, and a bit of a coxcomb. There is no reverse about him, +however, and he is the only <i>joyous</i> dandy I ever saw.' Then the +conversation turned upon Byron, and Willis asked if Lady Blessington had +known La Guiccioli. 'No; we were at Pisa when they were together,' she +replied. 'But though Lord Blessington had the greatest curiosity to see +her, Lord Byron would never permit it. "She has a red head of her own," +said he, "and don't like to show it." Byron treated the poor creature +dreadfully ill. She feared more than she loved him.'</p> + +<p>On concluding this account of his visit, Willis observes that there +can be no objection to his publishing such personal descriptions and +anecdotes in an American periodical, since 'the English just know of our +existence, and if they get an idea twice a year of our progress in +politics, they are comparatively well informed. Our periodical +literature is never even heard of. I mention this fact lest, at first +thought, I might seem to have abused the hospitality or the frankness of +those on whom letters of introduction have given me claims for +civility.' Alas, poor Willis! He little thought that one of the most +distinguished and most venomous of British critics would make a long arm +across the Atlantic, and hold up his prattlings to ridicule and +condemnation.</p> + +<p>The following evening our Penciller met a distinguished company at +Seamore House, the two Bulwers, Edward and Henry; James Smith of +'Rejected Addresses' fame; Fonblanque, the editor of the <i>Examiner</i>; +and the young Duc de Richelieu. Of Fonblanque, Willis observes: 'I +never saw a worse face, sallow, seamed, and hollow, his teeth irregular, +his skin livid, his straight black hair uncombed. A hollow, croaking +voice, and a small, fiery black eye, with a smile like a skeleton's, +certainly did not improve his physiognomy.' Fonblanque, as might have +been anticipated, did not at all appreciate this description of his +personal defects, when it afterwards appeared in print. Edward Bulwer +was quite unlike what Willis had expected. 'He is short,' he writes, +'very much bent, slightly knock-kneed, and as ill-dressed a man for a +gentleman as you will find in London.... He has a retreating forehead, +large aquiline nose, immense red whiskers, and a mouth contradictory of +all talent. A more good-natured, habitually smiling, nerveless +expression could hardly be imagined.' Bulwer seems to have made up for +his appearance by his high spirits, lover-like voice, and delightful +conversation, some of which our Boswell has reported.</p> + +<p>'Smith asked Bulwer if he kept an amanuensis. "No," he said, "I +scribble it all out myself, and send it to the press in a most +ungentlemanlike hand, half print, half hieroglyphics, with all its +imperfections on its head, and correct in the proof--very much to the +dissatisfaction of the publisher, who sends me in a bill of £16, +6s. 4d. for extra corrections. Then I am free to confess I don't know +grammar. Lady Blessington, do you know grammar? There never was such a +thing heard of before Lindley Murray. I wonder what they did for grammar +before his day! Oh, the delicious blunders one sees when they are +irretrievable! And the best of it is the critics never get hold of them. +Thank Heaven for second editions, that one may scratch out one's blots, +and go down clean and gentlemanlike to posterity." Smith asked him if he +had ever reviewed one of his own books. "No, but I could! And then how I +should like to recriminate, and defend myself indignantly! I think I +could be preciously severe. Depend upon it, nobody knows a book's faults +so well as its author. I have a great idea of criticising my books for +my posthumous memoirs. Shall I, Smith? Shall I, Lady Blessington?"'</p> + +<p>Willis fell into conversation with the good-natured, though gouty +James Smith, who talked to him of America, and declared that there never +was so delightful a fellow as Washington Irving. 'I was once,' he said, +'taken down with him into the country by a merchant to dinner. Our +friend stopped his carriage at the gate of his park, and asked if we +would walk through the grounds to the house. Irving refused, and held me +down by the coat-tails, so that we drove on to the house together, +leaving our host to follow on foot. "I make it a principle," said +Irving, "never to walk with a man through his own grounds. I have no +idea of praising a thing whether I like it or not. You and I will do +them to-morrow by ourselves."' 'The Rejected Addresses,' continues +Willis, 'got on his crutches about three o'clock in the morning, and I +made my exit with the rest, thanking Heaven that, though in a strange +country, my mother-tongue was the language of its men of genius.'</p> + +<p>One of the most interesting passages in the <i>Pencillings</i> is +that in which Willis describes a breakfast at Crabb Robinson's chambers +in the Temple, where he met Charles and Mary Lamb, a privilege which he +seems thoroughly to have appreciated. 'I never in my life,' he declares, +'had an invitation more to my taste. The <i>Essays of Elia</i> are +certainly the most charming things in the world, and it has been, for +the last ten years, my highest compliment to the literary taste of a +friend to present him with a copy.... I arrived half an hour before +Lamb, and had time to learn something of his peculiarities. Some family +circumstances have tended to depress him of late years, and unless +excited by convivial intercourse, he never shows a trace of what he once +was. He is excessively given to mystifying his friends, and is never so +delighted as when he has persuaded some one into a belief in one of his +grave inventions.... There was a rap at the door at last, and enter a +gentleman in black small clothes and gaiters, short and very slight in +his person, his hair just sprinkled with grey, a beautiful, deep-set, +grey eye, aquiline nose, and a very indescribable mouth. His sister, +whose literary reputation is very closely associated with her brother's, +came in after him. She is a small, bent figure, evidently a victim to +ill-health, and hears with difficulty. Her face has been, I should +think, a fine, handsome one, and her bright grey eye is still full of +intelligence and fire....</p> + +<p>'I had set a large arm-chair for Miss Lamb. "Don't take it, Mary," +said Lamb, pulling it away from her very gravely. "It looks as if you +were going to have a tooth drawn." The conversation was very local, but +perhaps in this way I saw more of the author, for his manner of speaking +of their mutual friends, and the quaint humour with which he complained +of one, and spoke well of another, was so completely in the vein of his +inimitable writings, that I could have fancied myself listening to an +audible composition of new Elia. Nothing could be more delightful than +the kindness and affection between the brother and sister, though Lamb +was continually taking advantage of her deafness to mystify her on every +topic that was started. "Poor Mary," he said, "she hears all of an +epigram but the point." "What are you saying of me, Charles?" she asked. +"Mr. Willis," said he, raising his voice, "admires your <i>Confessions +of a Drunkard</i> very much, and I was saying that it was no merit of +yours that you understood the subject."</p> + +<p>'The conversation presently turned upon literary topics, and Lamb +observed: "I don't know much of your American authors. Mary, there, +devours Cooper's novels with a ravenous appetite with which I have no +sympathy. The only American book I ever read twice was the <i>Journal +of Edward Woolman</i>, a Quaker preacher and tinker, whose character is +one of the finest I ever met. He tells a story or two about negro slaves +that brought the tears into my eyes. I can read no prose now, though +Hazlitt sometimes, to be sure--but then Hazlitt is worth all the modern +prose-writers put together." I mentioned having bought a copy of <i>Elia</i> +the last day I was in America, to send as a parting gift to one of the +most lovely and talented women in the country. "What did you give for +it?" asked Lamb. "About seven-and-six." "Permit me to pay you that," +said he, and with the utmost earnestness he counted the money out on the +table. "I never yet wrote anything that would sell," he continued. "I am +the publisher's ruin. My last poem won't sell a copy. Have you seen it, +Mr. Willis?" I had not. "It is only eighteenpence, and I'll give you +sixpence towards it," and he described to me where I should find it +sticking up in a shop-window in the Strand.</p> + +<p>'Lamb ate nothing, and complained in a querulous tone of the veal +pie. There was a kind of potted fish, which he had expected that our +friend would procure for him. He inquired whether there was not a morsel +left in the bottom of the last pot. Mr. Robinson was not sure. "Send and +see," said Lamb, "and if the pot has been cleaned, bring me the lid. I +think the sight of it would do me good." The cover was brought, upon +which there was a picture of the fish. Lamb kissed it with a reproachful +look at his friend, and then left the table and began to wander round +the room with a broken, uncertain step, as if he almost forgot to put +one leg before the other. His sister rose after a while, and commenced +walking up and down in the same manner on the opposite side of the +table, and in the course of half an hour they took their leave.' Landor, +in commenting on this passage, says it is evident that Willis 'fidgeted +the Lambs,' and seems rather unaccountably annoyed at his having alluded +to Crabb Robinson simply as 'a barrister.'</p> + +<p>In London Willis appears to have fallen upon his feet from the very +first. To the end of his life he looked back upon his first two years in +England as the happiest and most successful period in his whole career. +It was small wonder that he became a little dazzled and intoxicated by +the brilliancy of his surroundings, which spoilt him for the homelier +conditions of American life. 'What a star is mine,' he wrote to his +sister Julia, three days after landing at Dover. 'All the best society +of London exclusives is now open to me--<i>me!</i> without a sou in my +pocket beyond what my pen brings me, and with not only no influence from +friends at home, but with a world of envy and slander at my back.... In +a literary way I have already had offers from the <i>Court Magazine</i>, +the <i>Metropolitan</i>, and the <i>New Monthly</i>, of the first +price for my articles. I sent a short tale, written in one day, to the <i>Court +Magazine</i>, and they gave me eight guineas for it at once. I lodge in +Cavendish Square, the most fashionable part of the town, paying a guinea +a week for my lodgings, and am as well off as if I had been the son of +the President.'</p> + +<p>Willis was constantly at Lady Blessington's house, where he met some +of the best masculine society of the day. At one dinner-party among his +fellow-guests were D'Israeli, Bulwer, Procter (Barry Cornwall), Lord +Durham, and Sir Martin Shee. It was his first sight of Dizzy, whom he +found looking out of the window with the last rays of sunlight reflected +on the gorgeous gold flowers of an embroidered waistcoat. A white stick +with a black cord and tassel, and a quantity of chains about his neck +and pocket, rendered him rather a conspicuous object. 'D'Israeli,' says +our chronicler, 'has one of the most remarkable faces I ever saw. He is +vividly pale, and but for the energy of his action and the strength of +his lungs, would seem a victim to consumption. His eye is as black as +Erebus, and has the most mocking, lying-in-wait expression conceivable. +His mouth is alive with a kind of impatient nervousness, and when he has +burst forth with a particularly successful cataract of expression, it +assumes a curl of triumphant scorn that would be worthy of +Mephistopheles. A thick, heavy mass of jet-black ringlets falls over his +left cheek almost to his collarless stock, while on the right temple it +is parted and put away with the smooth carefulness of a girl's, and +shines most unctuously with "thy incomparable oil, Macassar."' Willis +was always interested in dress, being himself a born dandy, and he was +inclined to judge a man by the cut of his coat and the set of his hat. +On this occasion he remarks that Bulwer was very badly dressed as usual, +while Count D'Orsay was very splendid, but quite indefinable. 'He seemed +showily dressed till you looked to particulars, and then it seemed only +a simple thing well fitted to a very magnificent person.'</p> + +<p>The conversation ran at first on Sir Henry Taylor's new play, <i>Philip +van Artevelde</i>, which the company thought overrated, and then passed +to Beckford, of <i>Vathek</i> fame, who had already retired from the +world, and was living at Bath in his usual eccentric fashion. Dizzy was +the only person present who had met him, and, declares Willis, 'I might +as well attempt to gather up the foam of the sea as to convey an idea of +the extraordinary language in which he clothed his description. There +were at least five words in every sentence which must have been very +much astonished at the use to which they were put, and yet no others +apparently could so well have conveyed his idea. He talked like a +racehorse approaching the winning-post, every muscle in action, and the +utmost energy of expression flowing out in every burst. It is a great +pity he is not in Parliament.'</p> + +<p>At midnight Lady Blessington left the table, when the conversation +took a political turn, but D'Israeli soon dashed off again with a story +of an Irish dragoon who was killed in the Peninsular. 'His arm was shot +off, and he was bleeding to death. When told he could not live, he +called for a large silver goblet, out of which he usually drank his +claret. He held it to the gushing artery, and filled it to the brim, +then poured it slowly out upon the ground, saying, "If that had been +shed for old Ireland." You can have no idea how thrillingly this little +story was told. Fonblanque, however, who is a cold political satirist, +could see nothing in a man's "decanting his claret" that was in the +least sublime, so "Vivian Grey" got into a passion, and for a while was +silent.'</p> + +<p>Willis was now fairly launched in London society, literary and +fashionable. He went to the Opera to hear Grisi, then young and pretty, +and Lady Blessington pointed out the beautiful Mrs. Norton, looking like +a queen, and Lord Brougham flirting desperately with a lovely woman, +'his mouth going with the convulsive twitch that so disfigures him, and +his most unsightly of pug-noses in the strongest relief against the red +lining of the box.' He breakfasted with 'Barry Cornwall,' whose poetry +he greatly admired, and was introduced to the charming Mrs. Procter and +the 'yellow-tressed Adelaide,' then only eight or nine years old. +Procter gave his visitor a volume of his own poems, and told him +anecdotes of the various authors he had known, Hazlitt, Lamb, Keats, and +Shelley. Another interesting entertainment was an evening party at +Edward Bulwer's house. Willis arrived at eleven, and found his hostess +alone, playing with a King Charles' spaniel, while she awaited her +guests.</p> + +<p>'The author of <i>Pelham</i>,' he writes, 'is a younger son, and +depends on his writings for a livelihood; and truly, measuring works of +fancy by what they will bring, a glance round his luxurious rooms is +worth reams of puffs in the Quarterlies. He lives in the heart of +fashionable London, entertains a great deal, and is expensive in all his +habits, and for this pay Messrs. Clifford, Pelham, and Aram--most +excellent bankers. As I looked at the beautiful woman before me, waiting +to receive the rank and fashion of London, I thought that close-fisted +old literature never had better reason for his partial largess.'</p> + +<p>Willis was astonished at the neglect with which the female portion +of the assemblage was treated, no young man ever speaking to a young +lady except to ask her to dance. 'There they sit with their mammas,' he +observes, 'their hands before them in the received attitude; and if +there happens to be no dancing, looking at a print, or eating an ice, is +for them the most entertaining circumstance of the evening. Late in the +evening a charming girl, who is the reigning belle of Naples, came in +with her mother from the Opera, and I made this same remark to her. "I +detest England for that very reason," she said frankly. "It is the +fashion in London for young men to prefer everything to the society of +women. They have their clubs, their horses, their rowing matches, their +hunting, and everything else is a <i>bore</i>! How different are the +same men at Naples! They can never get enough of one there."... She +mentioned several of the beaux of last winter who had returned to +England. "Here have I been in London a month, and these very men who +were at my side all day on the Strada Nuova, and all but fighting to +dance three times with me of an evening, have only left their cards. Not +because they care less about me, but because it is not the fashion--it +would be talked about at the clubs; it is <i>knowing</i> to let us +alone."'</p> + +<p>There were only three men at the party, according to Willis, who +could come under the head of <i>beaux</i>, but there were many +distinguished persons. There was Byron's sister, Mrs. Leigh, a thin, +plain, middle-aged woman, of a serious countenance, but with very +cordial, pleasing manners. Sheil, the famous Irish orator, small, dark, +deceitful, and talented-looking, with a squeaky voice, was to be seen in +earnest conversation with the courtly old Lord Clarendon. Fonblanque, +with his pale, dislocated-looking face, was making the amiable, with a +ghastly smile, to Lady Stepney, author of <i>The Road to Ruin</i> and +other fashionable novels. The bilious Lord Durham, with his Brutus head +and severe countenance, high-bred in appearance in spite of the worst +possible coat and trousers, was talking politics with Bowring. Prince +Moscowa, son of Marshal Ney, a plain, determined-looking young man, was +unconscious of everything but the presence of the lovely Mrs. Leicester +Stanhope. Her husband, afterwards Sir Leicester, who had been Byron's +companion in Greece, was introduced to Willis, and the two soon became +on intimate terms.</p> + +<p>In the course of the season Willis made the acquaintance of Miss +Mitford, who invited him to spend a week with her at her cottage near +Reading. In a letter to her friend, Miss Jephson, Miss Mitford says: 'I +also like very much Mr. Willis, an American author, who is now +understood to be here to publish his account of England. He is a very +elegant young man, more like one of the best of our peers' sons than a +rough republican.' The admiration was apparently mutual, for Willis, in +a letter to the author of <i>Our Village</i>, says: 'You are +distinguished in the world as the "gentlewoman" among authoresses, as +you are for your rank merely in literature. I have often thought you +very enviable for the universality of that opinion about you. You share +it with Sir Philip Sidney, who was in his day the <i>gentleman</i> among +authors. I look with great interest for your new tragedy. I think your +mind is essentially dramatic; and in that, in our time, you are alone. I +know no one else who could have written <i>Rienzi</i>, and I felt <i>Charles +I.</i> to my fingers' ends, as one feels no other modern play.'</p> + +<p>Willis was less happy in his relations with Harriet Martineau, to +whom he was introduced just before her departure for America. 'While I +was preparing for my travels,' she writes, in her own account of the +interview, 'an acquaintance brought a buxom gentleman, whom he +introduced under the name of Willis. There was something rather engaging +in the round face, brisk air, and <i>enjouement</i> of the young man; +but his conscious dandyism and unparalleled self-complacency spoiled the +satisfaction, though they increased the inclination to laugh.... He +whipped his bright little boot with his bright little cane, while he ran +over the names of all his distinguished fellow-countrymen, and declared +that he would send me letters to them all.' Miss Martineau further +relates that the few letters she presented met with a very indifferent +reception. Her indignation increased when she found that in his private +correspondence Willis had given the impression that she was one of his +most intimate friends. In his own account of the interview he merely +says: 'I was taken by the clever translator of Faust to see the +celebrated Miss Martineau. She has perhaps at this moment the most +general and enviable reputation in England, and is the only one of the +literary clique whose name is mentioned without some envious +qualification.'</p> + +<p>A budget of literary news sent to the <i>Mirror</i> includes such +items as that 'D'Israeli is driving about in an open carriage with Lady +S., looking more melancholy than usual. The absent baronet, whose place +he fills, is about to bring an action against him, which will finish his +career, unless he can coin the damages in his brain. Mrs. Hemans is +dying of consumption in Ireland. I have been passing a week at a +country-house, where Miss Jane Porter [author of <i>Scottish Chiefs</i>] +and Miss Pardoe [author of <i>Beauties of the Bosphorus</i>] were +staying. Miss Porter is one of her own heroines grown old, a still noble +wreck of beauty.... Dined last week with Joanna Baillie at +Hampstead--the most charming old lady I ever saw. To-day I dine with +Longman, to meet Tom Moore, who is living <i>incog.</i> near this Nestor +of publishers, and pegging hard at his <i>History of Ireland</i>.... +Lady Blessington's new book makes a great noise. Living as she does +twelve hours out of the twenty-four in the midst of the most brilliant +and intellectually exhausting circle in London, I only wonder how she +found time to write it. Yet it was written in six weeks! Her novels sell +for a hundred pounds more than any other author's, except Bulwer's. +Bulwer gets £1400; Lady Blessington, £400; Mrs. Norton, +£250; Lady Charlotte Bury, £200; Grattan, £300; and +most other authors below this. Captain Marryat's gross trash sells +immensely about Wapping and Portsmouth, and brings him in £500 or +£600 the book--but that can scarce be called literature. D'Israeli +cannot sell a book <i>at all</i>, I hear. Is not that odd? I would give +more for one of his books than for forty of the common saleable things +about town.'</p> + +<p>One more description of a literary dinner at Lady Blessington's may +be quoted before Willis's account of this, his first and most memorable +London season, is brought to an end. Among the company on this occasion +were Moore, D'Israeli, and Dr. Beattie, the King's physician, who was +himself a poet. Moore had been ruralising for a year at Slopperton +Cottage, and, before his arrival, D'Israeli expressed his regret that he +should have been met on his return to town with a savage article in <i>Fraser</i> +on his supposed plagiarisms. Lady Blessington declared that he would +never see it, since he guarded himself against the sight and knowledge +of criticism as other people guarded against the plague. Some one +remarked on Moore's passion for rank. 'He was sure to have five or six +invitations to dine on the same day,' it was said, 'and he tormented +himself with the idea that he had perhaps not accepted the most +exclusive. He would get off from an engagement with a countess to dine +with a marchioness, and from a marchioness to accept the invitation of a +duchess. As he cared little for the society of men, and would sing and +be delightful only for the applause of women, it mattered little whether +one circle was more talented than another.' At length Mr. Moore was +announced, and the poet, 'sliding his little feet up to Lady +Blessington, made his compliments with an ease and gaiety, combined with +a kind of worshipping deference, that were worthy of a prime minister at +the Court of Love.... His eyes still sparkle like a champagne bubble, +though the invader has drawn his pencillings about the corners; and +there is a kind of wintry red that seems enamelled on his cheek, the +eloquent record of the claret his wit has brightened. His mouth is the +most characteristic feature of all. The lips are delicately cut, and as +changeable as an aspen; but there is a set-up look about the lower +lip--a determination of the muscle to a particular expression, and you +fancy that you can see wit astride upon it. It is arch, confident, and +half diffident, as if he were disguising his pleasure at applause, while +another bright gleam of fancy was breaking upon him. The slightly tossed +nose confirms the fun of his expression, and altogether it is a face +that sparkles, beams, and radiates.'</p> + +<p>The conversation at dinner that night was the most brilliant that +the American had yet heard in London. Sir Walter Scott was the first +subject of discussion, Lady Blessington having just received from Sir +William Gell the manuscript of a volume on the last days of Sir Walter +Scott, a melancholy chronicle of ruined health and weakened intellect, +which was afterwards suppressed. Moore then described a visit he had +paid to Abbotsford, when his host was in his prime. 'Scott,' he said, +'was the most manly and natural character in the world. His hospitality +was free and open as the day; he lived freely himself, and expected his +guests to do the same.... He never ate or drank to excess, but he had no +system; his constitution was Herculean, and he denied himself nothing. I +went once from a dinner-party at Sir Thomas Lawrence's to meet Scott at +another house. We had hardly entered the room when we were set down to a +hot supper of roast chicken, salmon, punch, etc., and Sir Walter ate +immensely of everything. What a contrast between this and the last time +I saw him in London! He had come to embark for Italy, quite broken down +both in mind and body. He gave Mrs. Moore a book, and I asked him if he +would make it more valuable by writing in it. He thought I meant that he +should write some verses, and said, "I never write poetry now." I asked +him to write only his name and hers, and he attempted it, but it was +quite illegible.'</p> + +<p>O'Connell next became the topic of conversation, and Moore declared +that he would be irresistible if it were not for two blots on his +character, viz. the contributions in Ireland for his support, and his +refusal to give satisfaction to the man he was willing to attack. 'They +may say what they will of duelling,' he continued, 'but it is the great +preserver of the decencies of society. The old school which made a man +responsible for his words was the better.' Moore related how O'Connell +had accepted Peel's challenge, and then delayed a meeting on the ground +of his wife's illness, till the law interfered. Another Irish patriot +refused a meeting on account of the illness of his daughter, whereupon a +Dublin wit composed the following epigram upon the two:-- </p> + +<p> 'Some men with a horror of slaughter,<br> + Improve on the Scripture command.<br> + And honour their--wife and their daughter--<br> + That their days may be long in the +land.'</p> + +<p>Alluding to Grattan's dying advice to his son, 'Always be ready with +the pistol,' Moore asked, 'Is it not wonderful that, with all the +agitation in Ireland, we have had no such men since his time? The whole +country in convulsion--people's lives, fortune, religion at stake, and +not a gleam of talent from one's year's end to another. It is natural +for sparks to be struck out in a time of violence like this--but +Ireland, for all that is worth living for, <i>is dead</i>! You can +scarcely reckon Sheil of the calibre of the spirits of old, and +O'Connell, with all his faults, stands alone in his glory.'</p> + +<p>In the drawing-room, after dinner, some allusion to the later +Platonists caused D'Israeli to flare up. His wild black eyes glistened, +and his nervous lips poured out eloquence, while a whole ottomanful of +noble exquisites listened in amazement. He gave an account of Thomas +Taylor, one of the last of the Platonists, who had worshipped Jupiter in +a back-parlour in London a few years before. In his old age he was +turned out of his lodgings, for attempting, as he said, to worship his +gods according to the dictates of his conscience, his landlady having +objected to his sacrificing a bull to Jupiter in her parlour. The +company laughed at this story as a good invention, but Dizzy assured +them it was literally true, and gave his father as his authority. +Meanwhile Moore 'went glittering on' with criticisms upon Grisi and the +Opera, and the subject of music being thus introduced, he was led, with +great difficulty, to the piano. Willis describes his singing as 'a kind +of admirable recitative, in which every shade of thought is syllabled +and dwelt upon, and the sentiment of the song goes through your blood, +warming you to the very eyelids, and starting your tears if you have a +soul or sense in you. I have heard of women fainting at a song of +Moore's; and if the burden of it answered by chance to a secret in the +bosom of the listener, I should think that the heart would break with +it. After two or three songs of Lady Blessington's choice, he rambled +over the keys a while, and then sang 'When first I met thee' with a +pathos that beggars description. When the last word had faltered out, he +rose and took Lady Blessington's hand, said Good-night, and was gone +before a word was uttered. For a full minute after he closed the door no +one spoke. I could have wished for myself to drop silently asleep where +I sat, with the tears in my eyes and the softness upon my heart.'<br> +<br> +</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 20%;"> + +<p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"> PART II</p> + +<p> Having received invitations to stay with Lord Dalhousie and the Duke +of Gordon, Willis went north at the beginning of September, 1834. The +nominal attraction of Scotland he found, rather to his dismay, was the +shooting. The guest, he observes, on arriving at a country-house, is +asked whether he prefers a flint or a percussion lock, and a +double-barrelled Manton is put into his hands; while after breakfast the +ladies leave the table, wishing him good sport. 'I would rather have +gone to the library,' says the Penciller. 'An aversion to walking, +except upon smooth flag-stones, a poetical tenderness on the subject of +putting birds "out of their misery," and hands much more at home with +the goose-quill than the gun, were some of my private objections to the +order of the day.' At Dalhousie, the son of the house, Lord Ramsay, and +his American visitor were mutually astonished at each other's appearance +when they met in the park, prepared for a morning's sport.</p> + +<p>'From the elegant Oxonian I had seen at breakfast,' writes Willis, +'he (Lord Ramsay) was transformed into a figure something rougher than +his Highland dependant, in a woollen shooting-jacket, pockets of any +number and capacity, trousers of the coarsest plaid, hobnailed shoes and +leather gaiters, and a habit of handling his gun that would have been +respected on the Mississippi. My own appearance in high-heeled French +boots and other corresponding gear, for a tramp over stubble and marsh, +amused him equally; but my wardrobe was exclusively metropolitan, and +there was no alternative.' It was hard and exciting work, the novice +discovered, to trudge through peas, beans, turnips, and corn, soaked +with showers, and muddied to the knees till his Parisian boots were +reduced to the consistency of brown paper. He came home, much to his own +relief, without having brought the blood of his host's son and heir on +his head, and he made a mental note never to go to Scotland again +without hobnailed boots and a shooting-jacket.</p> + +<p>On leaving Dalhousie Willis spent a few days in Edinburgh, where he +breakfasted with Professor Wilson, <i>alias</i> Christopher North. The +Professor, he says, talked away famously, quite oblivious of the fact +that the tea was made, and the breakfast-dishes were smoking on the +table. He spoke much of Blackwood, who then lay dying, and described him +as a man of the most refined literary taste, whose opinion of a book he +would trust before that of any one he knew. Wilson inquired if his guest +had made the acquaintance of Lockhart. 'I have not,' replied Willis. 'He +is almost the only literary man in London I have not met; and I must +say, as the editor of the <i>Quarterly Review</i>, and the most unfair +and unprincipled critic of the day, I have no wish to know him. I never +heard him well spoken of. I have probably met a hundred of his +acquaintances, but I have not yet seen one who pretended to be his +friend.' Wilson defended the absent one, who, he said, was the mildest +and most unassuming of men, and dissected a book for pleasure, without +thinking of the feelings of the author.</p> + +<p>The breakfast had been cooling for an hour when the Professor leant +back, with his chair still towards the fire, and 'seizing the teapot as +if it were a sledge-hammer, he poured from one cup to the other without +interrupting the stream, overrunning both cup and saucer, and partly +flooding the tea-tray. He then set the cream towards me with a +carelessness that nearly overset it, and in trying to reach an egg from +the centre of the table, broke two. He took no notice of his own +awkwardness, but drank his cup of tea at a single draught, ate his egg +in the same expeditious manner, and went on talking of the "Noctes," and +Lockhart, and Blackwood, as if eating his breakfast were rather a +troublesome parenthesis in his conversation.' Wilson offered to give his +guest letters to Wordsworth and Southey, if he intended to return by the +Lakes. 'I lived a long time in their neighbourhood,' he said, 'and know +Wordsworth perhaps as well as any one. Many a day I have walked over the +hills with him, and listened to his repetition of his own poetry, which, +of course, filled my mind completely at the time, and perhaps started +the poetical vein in me, though I cannot agree with the critics that my +poetry is an imitation of Wordsworth's.'</p> + +<p>'Did Wordsworth repeat any other poetry than his own?'</p> + +<p>'Never in a single instance, to my knowledge. He is remarkable for +the manner in which he is wrapped up in his own poetical life. +Everything ministers to it. Everything is done with reference to it. He +is all and only a poet.'</p> + +<p>'What is Southey's manner of life?'</p> + +<p>'Walter Scott said of him that he lived too much with women. He is +secluded in the country, and surrounded by a circle of admiring friends, +who glorify every literary project he undertakes, and persuade him, in +spite of his natural modesty, that he can do nothing wrong. He has great +genius, and is a most estimable man.'</p> + +<p>On the same day that he breakfasted with Wilson, this fortunate +tourist dined with Jeffrey, with whom Lord Brougham was staying. +Unluckily, Brougham was absent, at a public dinner given to Lord Grey, +who also happened to be in Edinburgh at the time. Willis was charmed +with Jeffrey, with his frank smile, hearty manner, and graceful style of +putting a guest at his ease. But he cared less for the political +conversation at table. 'It had been my lot,' he says, 'to be thrown +principally among Tories (<i>Conservatives</i> is the new name) since my +arrival in England, and it was difficult to rid myself at once of the +impressions of a fortnight passed in the castle of a Tory earl. My +sympathies on the great and glorious occasion [the Whig dinner to Lord +Grey] were slower than those of the rest of the company, and much of +their enthusiasm seemed to me overstrained. Altogether, I entered less +into the spirit of the hour than I could have wished. Politics are +seldom witty or amusing; and though I was charmed with the good sense +and occasional eloquence of Lord Jeffrey, I was glad to get upstairs to <i>chasse-café</i> +and the ladies.'</p> + +<p>Willis aggravated a temporary lameness by dancing at the ball that +followed the Whig banquet, and was compelled to abandon a charming +land-route north that he had mapped out, and allow himself to be taken +'this side up' on a steamer to Aberdeen. Here he took coach for +Fochabers, and thence posted to Gordon Castle. At the castle he found +himself in the midst of a most distinguished company; the page who +showed him to his room running over the names of Lord Aberdeen and Lord +Claude Hamilton, the Duchess of Richmond and her daughter, Lady Sophia +Lennox, Lord and Lady Stormont, Lord and Lady Mandeville, Lord and Lady +Morton, Lord Aboyne, Lady Keith, and twenty other lesser lights. The +duke himself came to fetch his guest before dinner, and presented him to +the duchess and the rest of the party. In a letter to Lady Blessington +Willis says: 'I am delighted with the duke and duchess. He is a +delightful, hearty old fellow, full of fun and conversation, and she is +an uncommonly fine woman, and, without beauty, has something agreeable +in her countenance. <i>Pour moi-méme</i>, I get on better +everywhere than in your presence. I only fear I talk too much; but all +the world is particularly civil to me, and among a score of people, no +one of whom I had ever seen yesterday, I find myself quite at home +to-day.'</p> + +<p>The ten days at Gordon Castle Willis afterwards set apart in his +memory as 'a bright ellipse in the usual procession of joys and +sorrows.' He certainly made the most of this unique opportunity of +observing the manners and customs of the great. The routine of life at +the castle was what each guest chose to make it. 'Between breakfast and +lunch,' he writes, 'the ladies were usually invisible, and the gentlemen +rode, or shot, or played billiards. At two o'clock a dish or two of hot +game and a profusion of cold meats were set on small tables, and +everybody came in for a kind of lounging half meal, which occupied +perhaps an hour. Thence all adjourned to the drawing-room, under the +windows of which were drawn up carriages of all descriptions, with +grooms, outriders, footmen, and saddle-horses for gentlemen and ladies. +Parties were then made up for driving or riding, and from a pony-chaise +to a phaeton and four, there was no class of vehicle that was not at +your disposal. In ten minutes the carriages were all filled, and away +they flew, some to the banks of the Spey or the seaside, some to the +drives in the park, and all with the delightful consciousness that speed +where you would, the horizon scarce limited the possessions of your +host, and you were everywhere at home. The ornamental gates flying open +at your approach; the herds of red deer trooping away from the sound of +your wheels; the stately pheasants feeding tamely in the immense +preserves; the stalking gamekeepers lifting their hats in the dark +recesses of the forest--there was something in this perpetual reminder +of your privileges which, as a novelty, was far from disagreeable. I +could not, at the time, bring myself to feel, what perhaps would be more +poetical and republican, that a ride in the wild and unfenced forest of +my own country would have been more to my taste.'</p> + +<p>Willis came to the conclusion that a North American Indian, in his +more dignified phase, closely resembled an English nobleman in manner, +since it was impossible to astonish either. All violent sensations, he +observes, are avoided in high life. 'In conversation nothing is so "odd" +(a word that in English means everything disagreeable) as emphasis, or a +startling epithet, or gesture, and in common intercourse nothing is so +vulgar as any approach to "a scene." For all extraordinary admiration, +the word "capital" suffices; for all ordinary praise, the word "nice"; +for all condemnation in morals, manners, or religion, the word +"odd.".... What is called an overpowering person is immediately shunned, +for he talks too much, and excites too much attention. In any other +country he would be considered amusing. He is regarded here as a +monopoliser of the general interest, and his laurels, talk he never so +well, overshadow the rest of the company.'</p> + +<p>On leaving Gordon Castle, Willis crossed Scotland by the Caledonian +Canal, and from Fort William jolted in a Highland cart through Glencoe +to Tarbet on Lomond. Thence the regulation visits were paid to Loch +Katrine, the Trossachs and Callander. Another stay at Dalhousie Castle +gave the tourist an opportunity of seeing Abbotsford, where he heard +much talk of Sir Walter Scott. Lord Dalhousie had many anecdotes to tell +of Scott's school-days, and Willis recalled some reminiscences of the +Wizard that he had heard from Moore in London. 'Scott was the soul of +honesty,' Moore had said. 'When I was on a visit to him, we were coming +up from Kelso at sunset, and as there was to be a fine moon, I quoted to +him his own rule for seeing "fair Melrose aright," and proposed to stay +an hour and enjoy it. "Bah," said Scott. "I never saw it by moonlight." +We went, however, and Scott, who seemed to be on the most familiar terms +with the cicerone, pointed to an empty niche, and said to him: "I think +I have a Virgin and Child that will just do for your niche. I'll send it +to you." "How happy you have made that man," I said. "Oh," said Scott, +"it was always in the way, and Madam Scott is constantly grudging it +house-room. We're well rid of it." Any other man would have allowed +himself at least the credit of a kind action.'</p> + +<p>After a stay at a Lancashire country-house, Willis arrived at +Liverpool, where he got his first sight of the newly-opened railway to +Manchester. In the letters and journals of the period, it is rather +unusual to come upon any allusion to the great revolution in +land-travelling. We often read of our grandfathers' astonishment at the +steam-packets that crossed the Atlantic in a fortnight, but they seem to +have slid into the habit of travelling by rail almost as a matter of +course, much as their descendants have taken to touring in motor-cars. +Willis the observant, however, has left on record his sensations during +his first journey by rail.</p> + +<p>'Down we dived into the long tunnel,' he relates, 'emerging from the +darkness at a pace that made my hair sensibly tighten, and hold on with +apprehension. Thirty miles in the hour is pleasant going when one is a +little accustomed to it, it gives one such a pleasant contempt for time +and distance. The whizzing past of the return trains, going in the +opposite direction with the same degree of velocity--making you recoil +in one second, and a mile off the next--was the only thing which, after +a few minutes, I did not take to very kindly.'</p> + +<p>Willis adds to our obligations by reporting the cries of the +newsboys at the Elephant and Castle, where all the coaches to and from +the South stopped for twenty minutes. On the occasion that our traveller +passed through, the boys were crying 'Noospipper, sir! Buy the morning +pippers, sir! <i>Times, Herald, Chrinnicle,</i> and <i>Munning Post</i>, +sir--contains Lud Brum's entire innihalation of Lud Nummanby--Ledy Flor +'Estings' murder by Lud Melbun and the Maids of Honour--debate on the +Croolty-Hannimals Bill, and a fatil catstrophy in conskens of loosfer +matches! Sixpence, only sixpence!'</p> + +<p>In November Willis returned to London, and took lodgings in Vigo +Street. During the next ten months he seems to have done a good deal of +work for the magazines, and to have been made much of in society as a +literary celebrity. His stories and articles, which appeared in the <i>New +Monthly Magazine</i> under the pseudonym of Philip Slingsby, were +eagerly read by the public of that day. He was presented at court, +admitted to the Athenacum and Travellers' Clubs, and patronised by Lady +Charlotte Bury and Lady Stepney, ladies who were in the habit of writing +bad novels, and giving excellent dinners. Madden, Lady Blessington's +biographer, who saw a good deal of Willis at this time, says that he was +an extremely agreeable young man, somewhat over-dressed, and a little +too <i>démonstratif</i>, but abounding in good spirits. 'He was +observant and communicative, lively and clever in conversation, having +the peculiar art of making himself agreeable to ladies, old and young, <i>dégagé</i> +in his manner, and on exceedingly good terms with himself.'</p> + +<p>Not only had Willis the <i>entrée</i> into fashionable +Bohemia, but he was well received in many families of unquestionable +respectability. Elderly and middle-aged ladies were especially attracted +by his flattering attentions and deferential manners, and at this time +two of his most devoted friends were Mrs. Shaw of the Manor House, Lee, +a daughter of Lord Erskine, and Mrs. Skinner of Shirley Park, the wife +of an Indian nabob. Their houses were always open to him, and he says in +a letter to his mother: 'I have two homes in England where I am loved +like a child. I had a letter from Mrs. Shaw, who thought I looked +low-spirited at the opera the other night. "Young men have but two +causes of unhappiness," she writes, "love and money. If it is <i>money</i>, +Mr. Shaw wishes me to say you shall have as much as you want; if it is <i>love</i>, +tell us the lady, and perhaps we can help you." I spend my Sundays +alternately at their splendid country-house, and at Mrs. Skinner's, and +they can never get enough of me. I am often asked if I carry a +love-philter with me.'</p> + +<p>At Shirley Park, Willis struck up a friendship with Jane Porter, and +made the acquaintance of Lady Morgan, Praed, John Leech, and Martin +Tupper. Mrs. Skinner professed to be extremely anxious to find him a +suitable wife, and in a confidential letter to her, he writes: 'You say +if you had a daughter you would give her to me. If you <i>had</i> one, I +should certainly take you at your word, provided this <i>exposé</i> +of my poverty did not change your fancy. I should like to marry in +England, and I feel every day that my best years and best affections are +running to waste. I am proud to <i>be</i> an American, but as a literary +man, I would rather <i>live</i> in England. So if you know of any +affectionate and <i>good</i> girl who would be content to live a quiet +life, and could love your humble servant, you have full power to dispose +of me, <i>provided</i> she has five hundred a year, or as much more as +she likes. I know enough of the world to cut my throat, rather than +bring a delicate woman down to a dependence on my brains for support.'</p> + +<p>In March of this year, 1835, Willis produced his <i>Melanie, and +other Poems</i>, which was 'edited' by Barry Cornwall. He received the +honour of a parody in the <i>Bon Gaultier Ballads</i>, entitled 'The +Fight with the Snapping Turtle, or the American St. George.' In this +ballad Willis and Bryant are represented as setting out to kill the +Snapping Turtle, spurred on by the offer of a hundred dollars reward. +The turtle swallows Willis, but is thereupon taken ill, and having +returned him to earth again, dies in great agony. When he claims the +reward, he is informed that:-- </p> + +<p> 'Since you dragged the tarnal crittur<br> + From the bottom of the ponds,<br> + Here's the hundred dollars due you<br> + <i>All in Pennsylvanian bonds.</i>'</p> + +<p>At the end of the poem is a drawing of a pair of stocks, labelled +'The only good American securities,' Willis seems to have been too busy +to Boswellise this season, but we get a glimpse of him in his letters to +Miss Mitford, and one or two of the notes in his diary are worth +quoting. On April 22 he writes to the author of <i>Our Village</i> in +his usual flattering style: 'I am anxious to see your play and your next +book, and I quite agree with you that the drama is your <i>pied</i>, +though I think laurels, and spreading ones, are sown for you in every +department of writing. Nobody ever wrote better prose, and what could +not the author of <i>Rienzi</i> do in verse. For myself, I am far from +considering myself regularly embarked in literature, and if I can live +without it, or ply any other vocation, shall vote it a thankless trade, +and save my "entusymussy" for my wife and children--when I get them. I +am at present steeped to the lips in London society, going to +everything, from Devonshire House to a publisher's dinner in Paternoster +Row, and it is not a bad <i>olla podrida</i> of life and manners. I dote +on "England and true English," and was never so happy, or so at a loss +to find a minute for care or forethought.'</p> + +<p>In his diary for June 30, Willis notes: 'Breakfasted with Samuel +Rogers. Talked of Mrs. Butler's book, and Rogers gave us suppressed +passages. Talked critics, and said that as long as you cast a shadow, +you were sure that you possessed substance. Coleridge said of Southey, +"I never think of him but as mending a pen." Southey said of Coleridge, +"Whenever anything presents itself to him in the form of a duty, that +moment he finds himself incapable of looking at it."' On July 9 we have +the entry: 'Dined with Dr. Beattie, and met Thomas Campbell.... He spoke +of Scott's slavishness to men of rank, but said it did not interfere +with his genius. Said it sunk a man's heart to think that he and Byron +were dead, and there was nobody left to praise or approve.... He told a +story of dining with Burns and a Bozzy friend, who, when Campbell +proposed the health of <i>Mr</i>. Burns, said, "Sir, you will always be +known as <i>Mr</i>. Campbell, but posterity will talk of <i>Burns</i>." +He was playful and amusing, and drank gin and water.'</p> + +<p>While staying with the Skinners in August, Willis met his fate in +the person of Miss Mary Stace, daughter of a General Stace. After a +week's acquaintance he proposed to her, and was accepted. She was, we +are told, a beauty of the purest Saxon type, with a bright complexion, +blue eyes, light-brown hair, and delicate, regular features. Her +disposition was clinging and affectionate, and she had enjoyed the +religious bringing up that her lover thought of supreme importance to a +woman. General Stace agreed to allow his daughter £300 a year, +which with the £400 that Willis made by his pen, was considered a +sufficient income for the young couple to start housekeeping upon.</p> + +<p>Willis, who had promised to pay Miss Mitford a visit in the autumn, +writes to her on September 22, to explain that all his plans were +altered. 'Just before starting with Miss Jane Porter on a tour that was +to include Reading,' he says, 'I went to a picnic, fell in love with a +blue-eyed girl, and (after running the gauntlet successfully through +France, Italy, Greece, Germany, Asia Minor, and Turkey) I renewed my +youth, and became "a suitor for love." I am to be married (<i>sequitur</i>) +on Thursday week.... The lady who is to take me, as the Irish say, "in +a present," is some six years younger than myself, gentle, religious, +relying, and unambitious. She has never been whirled through the gay +society of London, so is not giddy or vain. She has never swum in a +gondola, or written a sonnet, so has a proper respect for those who +have. She is called pretty, but is more than that in <i>my</i> eyes; +sings as if her heart were hid in her lips, and <i>loves</i> me.... We +are bound to Paris for a month (because I think amusement better than +reflection when a woman makes a doubtful bargain), and by November we +return to London for the winter, and in the spring sail for America to +see my mother. I have promised to live mainly on this side of the water, +and shall return in the course of a year to try what contentment may be +sown and reaped in a green lane in Kent.'</p> + +<p>While the happy pair were on their honeymoon, Lady Blessington had +undertaken to see the <i>Pencillings by the Way</i> through the press. +For the first edition Willis received £250, but he made, from +first to last, about a thousand pounds by the book. Its appearance in +volume form had been anticipated by Lockhart's scathing review in the <i>Quarterly</i> +for September 1835. The critic, annoyed at Willis's strictures on +himself in the interview with Professor Wilson, attacked the <i>Pencillings</i>, +as they had appeared in the <i>New York Mirror</i>, with all proper +names printed in full, and many personal details that were left out in +the English edition. Lockhart always knew how to stab a man in the +tenderest place, and he stabbed Willis in his gentility. After pointing +out that while visiting in London and the provinces as a young American +sonneteer of the most ultra-sentimental delicacy, the Penciller was all +the time the regular paid correspondent of a New York Journal, he +observes that the letters derive their powers of entertainment chiefly +from the light that they reflect upon the manners and customs of the +author's own countrymen, since, from his sketches of English interiors, +the reader may learn what American breakfast, dinners, and table-talk +are <i>not</i>; or at all events what they were not in those circles of +American society with which the writer happened to be familiar.</p> + +<p>'Many of <i>this person's</i> discoveries,' continues Lockhart, +warming to his work, 'will be received with ridicule in his own country, +where the doors of the best houses were probably not opened to him as +liberally as those of the English nobility. In short, we are apt to +consider him as a just representative--not of the American mind and +manners generally--but only of the young men of fair education among the +busy, middling orders of mercantile cities. In his letters from Gordon +Castle there are bits of solid, full-grown impudence and impertinence; +while over not a few of the paragraphs is a varnish of conceited +vulgarity which is too ludicrous to be seriously offensive.... We can +well believe that Mr. Willis depicted the sort of society that most +interests his countrymen, "born to be slaves and struggling to be +lords," their servile adulation of rank and talent; their stupid +admiration of processions and levees, are leading features of all the +American books of travel.... We much doubt if all the pretty things we +have quoted will so far propitiate Lady Blessington as to make her again +admit to her table the animal who has printed what ensues. [Here follows +the report of Moore's conversation on the subject of O'Connell.] As far +as we are acquainted with English or American literature, this is the +first example of a man creeping into your home, and forthwith, before +your claret is dry on his lips, printing <i>table-talk on delicate +subjects, and capable of compromising individuals</i>.'</p> + +<p>The <i>Quarterly</i> having thus given the lead, the rest of the +Tory magazines gaily followed suit. Maginn flourished his shillelagh, +and belaboured his victim with a brutality that has hardly ever been +equalled, even by the pioneer journals of the Wild West. 'This is a +goose of a book,' he begins, 'or if anybody wishes the idiom changed, +the book of a goose. There is not an idea in it beyond what might +germinate in the brain of a washerwoman.' He then proceeds to call the +author by such elegant names as 'lickspittle,' 'beggarly skittler,' +jackass, ninny, haberdasher, 'fifty-fifth rate scribbler of +gripe-visited sonnets,' and 'namby-pamby writer in twaddling albums kept +by the mustachioed widows or bony matrons of Portland Place.'</p> + +<p>The people whose hospitality Willis was accused of violating wrote +to assure him of the pleasure his book had given them. Lord Dalhousie +writes: 'We all agree in one sentiment, that a more amusing and +delightful production was never issued by the press. The Duke and +Duchess of Gordon were here lately, and expressed themselves in similar +terms.' Lady Blessington did not withdraw her friendship, but Willis +admits, in one of his letters, that he had no deeper regret than that +his indiscretion should have checked the freedom of his approach to her. +As a result of the slashing reviews, the book sold with the readiness of +a <i>succés de scandale</i>, though it had been so rigorously +edited for the English market, that very few indiscretions were left.</p> + +<p>The unexpurgated version of the <i>Pencillings</i> was, however, +copied into the English papers and eagerly read by the persons most +concerned, such as Fonblanque, who bitterly complained of the libel upon +his personal appearance, O'Connell, who broke off his lifelong +friendship with Moore, and Captain Marryat, who was furious at the +remark that his 'gross trash' sold immensely in Wapping. Like Lockhart, +he revenged himself by an article in his own magazine, the <i>Metropolitan</i>, +in which he denounced Willis as a 'spurious attaché,' and made +dark insinuations against his birth and parentage. This attack was too +personal to be ignored. Willis demanded an apology, to which Marryat +replied with a challenge, and after a long correspondence, most of which +found its way into the <i>Times</i>, a duel was fixed to take place at +Chatham. At the last moment the seconds managed to arrange matters +between their principals, and the affair ended without bloodshed. This +was fortunate for Willis, who was little used to fire-arms, whilst +Marryat was a crack shot.</p> + +<p>In his preface to the first edition of the <i>Pencillings</i> Willis +explains that the ephemeral nature and usual obscurity of periodical +correspondence gave a sufficient warrant to his mind that his +descriptions would die where they first saw the light, and that +therefore he had indulged himself in a freedom of detail and topic only +customary in posthumous memoirs. He expresses his astonishment that this +particular sin should have been visited upon him at a distance of three +thousand miles, when the <i>Quarterly</i> reviewer's own fame rested on +the more aggravated instance of a book of personalities published under +the very noses of the persons described (<i>Peter's Letters to his +Kinsfolk</i>). After observing that he was little disposed to find +fault, since everything in England pleased him, he proceeds: 'In one +single instance I indulged myself in strictures upon individual +character.... I but repeated what I had said a thousand times, and never +without an indignant echo to its truth, that the editor of that Review +was the most unprincipled critic of the age. Aside from its flagrant +literary injustice, we owe to the <i>Quarterly</i> every spark of +ill-feeling that has been kept alive between England and America for the +last twenty years. The sneers, the opprobrious epithets of this bravo of +literature have been received in a country where the machinery of +reviewing was not understood, as the voice of the English people, and +animosity for which there was no other reason has been thus periodically +fed and exasperated. I conceive it to be my duty as a literary man--I <i>know</i> +it is my duty as an American--to lose no opportunity of setting my heel +on this reptile of criticism. He has turned and stung me. Thank God, I +have escaped the slime of his approbation.'</p> + +<p>The winter was spent in London, and in the following March Willis +brought out his <i>Inklings of Adventure</i>, a reprint of the stories +that had appeared in various magazines over the signature of Philip +Slingsby. These were supposed to be real adventures under a thin +disguise of fiction, and the public eagerly read the tawdry little tales +in the hope of discovering the identities of the <i>dramatis +personæ</i>. The majority of the 'Inklings' deal with the +romantic adventures of a young literary man who wins the affection of +high-born ladies, and is made much of in aristrocratic circles. The +author revels in descriptions of luxurious boudoirs in which recline +voluptuous blondes or exquisite brunettes, with hearts always at the +disposal of the all-conquering Philip Slingsby. Fashionable fiction, +however, was unable to support the expense of a fashionable +establishment, and in May 1836 the couple sailed for America. Willis +hoped to obtain a diplomatic appointment, and return to Europe for good, +but all his efforts were vain, and he was obliged to rely on his pen for +a livelihood. His first undertaking was the letterpress for an +illustrated volume on American scenery; and for some months he travelled +about the country with the artist who was responsible for the +illustrations. On one of his journeys he fell in love with a pretty spot +on the banks of the Owego Creek, near the junction with the Susquehanna, +and bought a couple of hundred acres and a house, which he named +Glenmary after his wife.</p> + +<p>Here the pair settled down happily for some five years, and here +Willis wrote his pleasant, gossiping <i>Letters from Under a Bridge</i> +for the <i>New York Mirror</i>. In these he prattled of his garden, his +farm, his horses and dogs, and the strangers within his gates. +Unfortunately, he was unable to devote much attention to his farm, which +was said to grow nothing but flowers of speed, but was forced to spend +more and more time in the editorial office, and to write hastily and +incessantly for a livelihood. In 1839, owing to a temporary coolness +with the proprietor of the <i>Mirror</i>, Willis accepted the proposal +of his friend, Dr. Porter, that he should start a new weekly paper +called the <i>Corsair</i>, one of a whole crop of pirate weeklies that +started up with the establishment of the first service of Atlantic +liners. In May 1839 the first steam-vessel that had crossed the ocean +anchored in New York Harbour, and thenceforward it was possible to +obtain supplies from the European literary markets within a fortnight of +publication. It was arranged between Dr. Parker and Willis that the +cream of the contemporary literature of England, France, and Germany +should be conveyed to the readers of the <i>Corsair</i>, and of course +there was no question of payment to the authors whose wares were thus +appropriated.</p> + +<p>The first number of the <i>Corsair</i> appeared in January 1839, but +apparently piracy was not always a lucrative trade, for the paper had an +existence of little more than a year. In the course of its brief career, +however, Willis paid a flying visit to England, where he accomplished a +great deal of literary business. He had written a play called <i>The +Usurer Matched</i>, which was brought out by Wallack at the Surrey +Theatre, and is said to have been played to crowded houses during a +fairly long run, but neither this nor any of his other plays brought the +author fame or fortune. During this season he published his <i>Loiterings +of Travel</i>, a collection of stories and sketches, a fourth edition +of the <i>Pencillings</i>, an English edition of <i>Letters from Under +a Bridge</i>, and arranged with Virtue for works on Irish and Canadian +scenery. In addition to all this, he was contributing jottings in London +to the <i>Corsair</i>. As might be supposed, he had not much time for +society, but he met a few old friends, made acquaintance with Kemble and +Kean, went to a ball at Almack's, and was present at the famous Eglinton +Tournament, which watery catastrophe he described for his paper. One of +the most interesting of his new acquaintances was Thackeray, then +chiefly renowned as a writer for the magazines. On July 26 Willis writes +to Dr. Porter:--</p> + +<p>'I have engaged a new contributor to the <i>Corsair</i>. Who do you +think? The author of <i>Yellowplush</i> and <i>Major Gahagan</i>. He +has gone to Paris, and will write letters from there, and afterwards +from London for a guinea a <i>close</i> column of the <i>Corsair</i>--cheaper +than I ever did anything in my life. For myself, I think him the very +best periodical writer alive. He is a royal, daring, fine creature too.' +In his published <i>Jottings</i>, Willis told his readers that 'Mr. +Thackeray, the author, breakfasted with me yesterday, and the <i>Corsair</i> +will be delighted to hear that I have engaged this cleverest and most +gifted of all the magazine-writers of London to become <i>a regular +correspondent of the Corsair</i>.... Thackeray is a tall, +athletic-looking man of about forty-five [he was actually only +eight-and-twenty], with a look of talent that could never be mistaken. +He is one of the most accomplished draughtsmen in England, as well as +the most brilliant of periodical writers.' Thackeray only wrote eight +letters for the <i>Corsair</i>, which were afterwards republished in +his <i>Paris Sketch-book</i>. There is an allusion to this episode in <i>The +Adventures of Philip</i>, the hero being invited to contribute to a New +York journal called <i>The Upper Ten Thousand</i>, a phrase invented by +Willis.</p> + +<p>When the <i>Corsair</i> came to an untimely end, Willis had no +difficulty in finding employment on other papers. He is said to have +been the first American magazine-writer who was tolerably well paid, and +at one time he was making about a thousand a year by periodical work. +That his name was already celebrated among his own countrymen seems to +be proved by the story of a commercial gentleman at a Boston tea-party +who 'guessed that Goethe was the N.P. Willis of Germany.' The tales +written about this time were afterwards collected into a volume called <i>Dashes +at Life with a Free Pencil</i>. Thackeray made great fun of this work +in the <i>Edinburgh Review</i> for October 1845, more especially of that +portion called 'The Heart-book of Ernest Clay.' 'Like Caesar,' observed +Thackeray, 'Ernest Clay is always writing of his own victories. +Duchesses pine for him, modest virgins go into consumption and die for +him, old grandmothers of sixty forget their families and their +propriety, and fall on the neck of this "Free Pencil."' He quotes with +delight the description of a certain Lady Mildred, one of Ernest Clay's +numerous loves, who glides into the room at a London tea-party, 'with a +step as elastic as the nod of a water-lily. A snowy turban, from which +hung on either temple a cluster of crimson camellias still wet with the +night-dew; long raven curls of undisturbed grace falling on shoulders of +that indescribable and dewy coolness which follows a morning bath.' How +naively, comments the critic, does this nobleman of nature recommend the +use of this rare cosmetic!</p> + +<p>In spite of his popularity, Willis's affairs were not prospering at +this time. He had received nothing from the estate of his father-in-law, +who died in 1839, his publisher failed in 1842, and he was obliged to +sell Glenmary and remove to New York, whence he had undertaken to send a +fortnightly letter to a paper at Washington. This was the year of +Dickens's visit to America, and Willis was present at the 'Boz Ball,' +where he danced with Mrs. Dickens, to whom he afterwards did the honours +of Broadway. In 1843 Willis made up his difference with Morris, and +again became joint-editor of the <i>Mirror</i>, which, a year later, +was changed from a weekly to a daily paper. His contributions to the +journal consisted of stories, poems, letters, book-notices, answers to +correspondents, and editorial gossip of all kinds.</p> + +<p>In March 1845 Mrs. Willis died in her confinement, leaving her +(temporarily) broken-hearted husband with one little girl. 'An angel +without fault or foible' was his epitaph upon the woman to whom, in +spite of his many fictitious <i>bonnes fortunes</i>, he is said to have +been faithfully attached. But Willis was not born to live alone, and in +the following summer he fell in love with a Miss Cornelia Grinnell at +Washington, and was married to her in October, 1846. The second Mrs. +Willis was nearly twenty years younger than her husband, but she was a +sensible, energetic young woman, who made him an excellent wife.</p> + +<p>The title of the <i>Mirror</i> had been changed to that of <i>The +Home Journal</i>, and under its new name it became a prosperous paper. +Willis, who was the leading spirit of the enterprise, set himself to +portray the town, chronicling plays, dances, picture-exhibitions, sights +and entertainments of all kinds in the airy manner that was so keenly +appreciated by his countrymen. He was recognised as an authority on +fashion, and his correspondence columns were crowded with appeals for +guidance in questions of dress and etiquette. He was also a favourite in +general society, though he is said to have been, next to Fenimore +Cooper, the best-abused man of letters in America. One of his most +pleasing characteristics was his ready appreciation and encouragement of +young writers, for he was totally free from professional jealousy. He +was the literary sponsor of Aldrich, Bayard Taylor, and Lowell, among +others, and the last-named alludes to Willis in his <i>Fable for Critics</i> +(1848) in the following flattering lines: </p> + +<p> 'His nature's a glass of champagne with the foam on't,<br> + As tender as Fletcher, as witty as Beaumont;<br> + So his best things are done in the heat of the moment.<br> + * +* * * +*<br> + He'd have been just the fellow to sup at the 'Mermaid,'<br> + Cracking jokes at rare Ben, with an eye to the barmaid,<br> + His wit running up as Canary ran down,--<br> + The topmost bright bubble on the wave of the town.'</p> + +<p>After 1846 Willis wrote little except gossiping paragraphs and other +ephemera. In answer to remonstrances against this method of frittering +away his talents, he was accustomed to reply that the public liked +trifles, and that he was bound to go on 'buttering curiosity with the +ooze of his brains.' He read but little in later life, nor associated +with men of high intellect or serious aims, but showed an +ever-increasing preference for the frivolous and the feminine. In 1850 +he published another volume of little magazine stories called <i>People +I have Met</i>. This appeared in London as well as in New York, and +Thackeray again revenged himself for that close column which had been +rewarded by an uncertain guinea, by holding up his former editor to +ridicule. With mischievous delight he describes the amusement that is to +be found in N.P. Willis's society, 'amusement at the immensity of N.P.'s +blunders; amusement at the prodigiousness of his self-esteem; amusement +always with or at Willis the poet, Willis the man, Willis the dandy, +Willis the lover--now the Broadway Crichton--once the ruler of fashion +and heart-enslaver of Bond Street, and the Boulevard, and the Corso, and +the Chiaja, and the Constantinople Bazaars. It is well for the general +peace of families that the world does not produce many such men; there +would be no keeping our wives and daughters in their senses were such +fascinators to make frequent apparitions among us; but it is comfortable +that there should have been a Willis; and as a literary man myself, and +anxious for the honour of that profession, I am proud to think that a +man of our calling should have come, should have seen, should have +conquered as Willis has done.... There is more or less of truth, he +nobly says, in these stories--more or less truth, to be sure there +is--and it is on account of this more or less truth that I for my part +love and applaud this hero and poet. We live in our own country, and +don't know it; Willis walks into it, and dominates it at once. To know a +duchess, for instance, is given to very few of us. He sees things that +are not given to us to see. We see the duchess in her carriage, and gaze +with much reverence on the strawberry-leaves on the panels, and her +grace within; whereas the odds are that that lovely duchess has had, one +time or the other, a desperate flirtation with Willis the Conqueror. +Perhaps she is thinking of him at this very moment, as her jewelled hand +presses her perfumed handkerchief to her fair and coroneted brow, and +she languidly stops to purchase a ruby bracelet at Gunter's, or to sip +an ice at Howell and James's. He must have whole mattresses stuffed with +the blonde or raven or auburn tresses of England's fairest daughters. +When the female English aristocracy read the title of <i>People I have +Met</i>, I can fancy the whole female peerage of Willis's time in a +shudder; and the melancholy marchioness, and the abandoned countess, and +the heart-stricken baroness trembling as each gets the volume, and asks +of her guilty conscience, "Gracious goodness, is the monster going to +show up me?"'</p> + +<p>In 1853 Willis, who had been obliged to travel for the benefit of +his declining health, took a fancy to the neighbourhood of the Hudson, +and bought fifty acres of waste land, upon which he built himself a +house, and called the place Idlewild. Here he settled down once more to +a quiet country life, took care of his health, cultivated his garden, +and wrote long weekly letters to the <i>Home Journal</i>. He had by +this time five children, middle age had stolen upon him, and now that he +could no longer pose as his own allconquering hero, his hand seems to +have lost its cunning. His editorial articles, afterwards published +under the appropriate title of <i>Ephemera</i>, grew thinner and +flatter with the passing of the years; yet slight and superficial as the +best of them are, they were the result of very hard writing. His +manuscripts were a mass of erasures and interlineations, but his copy +was so neatly prepared that even the erasures had a sort of 'wavy +elegance' which the compositors actually preferred to print. His +mannerisms and affectations grew upon him in his later years, and he +became more and more addicted to the coining of new words and phrases, +only a few of which proved effective. Besides the now well-worn term, +the 'upper ten thousand,' he is credited with the invention of +'Japonicadom,' 'come-at-able,' and 'stay-at-home-ativeness.' One or two +of his sayings may be worth quoting, such as his request for Washington +Irving's blotting-book, because it was the door-mat on which the +thoughts of his last book had wiped their sandals before they went in; +and his remark that to ask a literary man to write a letter after his +day's work was like asking a penny-postman to take a walk in the evening +for the pleasure of it.</p> + +<p>On the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Willis went to Washington +as war-correspondent of his paper. It does not appear that he saw any +harder service than the dinners and receptions of the capitol, since an +opportune fit of illness prevented his following the army to Bull's Run. +The correspondent who took his place on the march had his career cut +short by a Southern bullet. Willis, meanwhile, was driving about with +Mrs. Lincoln, with whom he became a favourite, although she reproached +him for his want of tact in speaking of her 'motherly expression' in one +of his published letters, she being at that time only thirty-six. He met +Hawthorne at Washington, and describes him as very shy and reserved in +manner, but adds, 'I found he was a lover of mine, and we enjoyed our +acquaintance very much.' One of the minor results of the great Civil War +was the extinguishing of Willis's literary reputation; his frothy +trifling suddenly became obsolete when men had sterner things to think +about than the cut of a coat, or the etiquette of a morning call. The +nation began to demand realities, even in its fiction, the circulation +of the <i>Home Journal</i> fell off, and Willis, who had always affected +a horror of figures and business matters generally, found himself in +financial difficulties. He was obliged to let Idlewild, and return, in +spite of his rapidly failing health, to the editorial office at New York.</p> + +<p>The last few years of Willis's career afford a melancholy contrast +to its brilliant opening. Health, success, prosperity--all had deserted +him, and nothing remained but the editorial chair, to which he clung +even after epileptic attacks had resulted in paralysis and gradual +softening of the brain. The failure of his mental powers was kept secret +as long as possible, but in November, 1866, he yielded to the entreaties +of his wife and children, knocked off work for ever, and went home to +die. His last few months were passed in helpless weakness, and he only +occasionally recognised those around him. The end came on January 20, +1867, his sixty-first birthday.</p> + +<p>Selections from Willis's prose works have been published within +recent years in America, and a new edition of his poems has appeared in +England, while a carefully written Life by Mr. De Beers is included in +the series of 'American Men of Letters.' But in this country at least +his fame, such as it is, will rest upon his sketches of such celebrities +as Lamb, Moore, Bulwer, D'Orsay, and D'Israeli. As long as we retain any +interest in them and their works, we shall like to know how they looked +and dressed, and what they talked about in private life. It is +impossible altogether to approve of the Penciller--his absurdities were +too marked, and his indiscretions too many--yet it is probable that few +who have followed his meteor-like career will be able to refrain from +echoing Thackeray's dictum: 'It is comfortable that there should have +been a Willis!'<br> +<br> +</p> +<hr style="width: 100%; height: 2px;"> + +<p><br> +</p> + +<p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><big><a + name="STANHOPE"></a> <big>LADY HESTER STANHOPE</big><br> +<br> +</big></p> +<div style="text-align: center;"> </div> +<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="images/Stanhope1.jpg" + title="Lady Hester Stanhope. From a drawing by R. J. Hamerton" + alt="Lady Hester Stanhope. From a drawing by R. J. Hamerton" + style="width: 388px; height: 608px;"><br> +</div> +<div style="text-align: center;"> <br> +</div> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 20%;"> + +<p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;">PART I</p> + +<p>There are few true stories that are distinguished by a well-marked +moral. If we study human chronicles we generally find the ungodly +flourishing permanently like a green bay-tree, and the righteous +apparently forsaken and begging his bread. But it occasionally happens +that a human life illustrates some moral lesson with the triteness and +crudity of a Sunday-school book, and of such is the career of Lady +Hester Stanhope, a Pitt on the mother's side, and more of a Pitt in +temper and disposition than her grandfather, the great Commoner himself. +Her story contains the useful but conventional lesson that pride goeth +before a fall, and that all earthly glory is but vanity, together with a +warning against the ambition that o'erleaps itself, and ends in failure +and humiliation. That humanity will profit by such a lesson, whether +true or invented for didactic purposes, is doubtful, but at least Nature +has done her best for once to usurp the seat of the preacher, 'to point +a moral and adorn a tale.' Lady Hester, who was born on March 12,1776, +was the eldest daughter of Charles, third Earl of Stanhope, by his first +wife Hester, daughter of the great Lord Chatham. Lord Stanhope seems to +have been an uncomfortable person, who combined scientific research with +democratic principles, and contrived to quarrel with most of his family. +In order to live up to his theories he laid down his carriage and +horses, effaced the armorial bearings from his plate, and removed from +his walls some famous tapestry, because it was 'so d----d +aristocratical.' If one of his daughters happened to look better than +usual in a becoming hat or frock, he had the garment laid away, and +something coarse put in its place. The children were left almost +entirely to the care of governesses and tutors, their step-mother, the +second Lady Stanhope (a Grenville by birth) being a fashionable fine +lady, who devoted her whole time to her social duties, while Lord +Stanhope was absorbed by his scientific pursuits. The home was not a +happy one, either for the three girls of the first marriage, or for the +three sons of the second. In 1796 Rachel, the youngest daughter, eloped +with a Sevenoaks apothecary named Taylor, and was cast off by her +family; and in 1800 Griselda, the second daughter, married a Mr. Tekell, +of Hampshire. In this year Hester left her home, which George III used +to call Democracy Hall, and went to live with her grandmother, the +Dowager Lady Stanhope.</p> + +<p>On the death of Lady Stanhope in 1803, Lady Hester was offered a +home by her uncle, William Pitt, with whom she remained until his death +in 1806. Pitt became deeply attached to his handsome, high-spirited +niece. He believed in her sincerity and affection for himself, admired +her courage and cleverness, laughed at her temper, and encouraged her +pride. She seems to have gained a considerable influence over her uncle, +and contrived to have a finger in most of the ministerial pies. When +reproached for allowing her such unreserved liberty of action in state +affairs, Pitt was accustomed to reply, 'I let her do as she pleases; for +if she were resolved to cheat the devil himself, she would do it.' 'And +so I would,' Lady Hester used to add, when she told the story. If we may +believe her own account, Pitt told her that she was fit to sit between +Augustus and Mæcenas, and assured her that 'I have plenty of good +diplomatists, but they are none of them military men; and I have plenty +of good officers, but not one of them is worth sixpence in the cabinet. +If you were a man, Hester, I would send you on the Continent with 60,000 +men, and give you <i>carte blanche</i>, and I am sure that not one of +my plans would fail, and not one soldier would go with his boots +unblacked.' This admiration, according to the same authority, was shared +by George III, who one day on the Terrace at Windsor informed Mr. Pitt +that he had got a new and superior minister in his room, and one, +moreover, who was a good general. 'There is my new minister,' he added, +pointing at Lady Hester. 'There is not a man in my kingdom who is a +better politician, and there is not a woman who better adorns her sex. +And let me say, Mr. Pitt, you have not reason to be proud you are a +minister, for there have been many before you, and will be many after +you; but you have reason to be proud of her, who unites everything that +is great in man and woman.'</p> + +<p>All this must, of course, be taken with grains of salt, but it is +certain that Lady Hester occupied a position of almost unparalleled +supremacy for a woman, that she dispensed patronage, lectured ministers, +and snubbed princes. On one occasion Lord Mulgrave, who had just been +appointed Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, found a broken +egg-spoon on the breakfast-table at Walmer, and asked, 'How can Mr. Pitt +have such a spoon as this?' 'Don't you know,' retorted Lady Hester, +'that Mr. Pitt sometimes uses very slight and weak instruments wherewith +to effect his ends?' Again, when Mr. Addington wished to take the title +of Lord Raleigh, Lady Hester determined to prevent what she regarded as +a desecration of a great name. She professed to have seen a caricature, +which she minutely described, representing Mr. Addington as Sir Walter +Raleigh, and the King as Queen Elizabeth. Mr. Pitt, believing the story, +repeated it to Addington and others, with the result that messengers +were despatched to all the print-shops to buy up the whole impression. +Of course no such caricature was to be found, but the prospective peer +had received a fright, and chose the inoffensive title of Lord Sidmouth. +Lady Hester despised Lord Liverpool for a well-meaning blunderer, but +she hated and distrusted Canning, whom she was accustomed to describe as +a fiery, red-headed Irish politician, who was never staunch to any +person or any party; and she declared that by her scoldings she had +often made him blubber like a schoolboy. It cannot be supposed that her +ladyship was popular with the numerous persons, high and low, who came +under the ban of her displeasure, or suffered from her pride; but she +was young, handsome, and witty, her position was unassailable, and as +long as her uncle chose to laugh at her insolence and her +eccentricities, no lesser power presumed to frown.</p> + +<p>For her beauty in youth we must again take her own account on trust, +since she never consented to sit for her portrait, and in old age her +recollection of her vanished charms may have been coloured by some +pardonable exaggeration. 'At twenty,' she told a chronicler, 'my +complexion was like alabaster, and at five paces distant the sharpest +eyes could not discover my pearl necklace from my skin. My lips were of +such a beautiful carnation that, without vanity, I can assure you, very +few women had the like. A dark-blue shade under the eyes, and the blue +veins that were observable through the transparent skin, heightened the +brilliancy of my features. Nor were the roses wanting in my cheeks; and +to all this was added a permanency in my looks that no sort of fatigue +could impair.' She was fond of relating an anecdote of a flattering +impertinence on the part of Beau Brummell, who, meeting her at a ball, +coolly took the earrings out of her ears, telling her that she should +not wear such things, as they hid the fine turn of her cheek, and the +set of head upon her neck. Lady Hester frankly admitted, however, that +it was her brilliant colouring that made her beauty, and once observed, +in reply to a compliment on her appearance: 'If you were to take every +feature in my face, and lay them one by one on the table, there is not a +single one that would bear examination. The only thing is that, put +together and lighted up, they look well enough. It is homogeneous +ugliness, and nothing more.'</p> + +<p>With Pitt's death in January, 1806, as by the stroke of a magic +wand, all the power, all the glory, and all the grandeur came to a +sudden end, and the great minister's favourite niece fell to the level +of a private lady, with a moderate income, no influence, and a host of +enemies. On his deathbed, Pitt had asked that an annuity of £1500 +might be granted to Lady Hester, but in the end only £1200 was +awarded to her, a trifling income for one with such exalted ideas of her +own importance. A house was taken in Montagu Square, where Lady Hester +entertained her half-brothers, Charles and James Stanhope, when their +military duties allowed of their being in town. Here she led but a +melancholy life, for her means would not allow of her keeping a +carriage, and she fancied that it was incompatible with her dignity to +drive in a hackney-coach, or to walk out attended by a servant. In 1809 +Charles Stanhope, like his chief, Sir John Moore, fell at Corunna. +Charles was Lady Hester's favourite brother, and tradition says that Sir +John Moore was her lover. Be that as it may, she broke up her +establishment in town at this time, and retired to a lonely cottage in +Wales, where she amused herself in superintending her dairy and +physicking the poor. But she suffered in health and spirits, the +contrast of the present with the past was too bitter to be endured in +solitude, and in 1810 she decided to go abroad, and spend a year or two +in the south. A young medical man, Dr. Meryon, [Footnote: Afterwards +Lady Hester's chronicler.] was engaged to accompany her as her +travelling physician, and the party further consisted of her brother, +James Stanhope, and a friend, Mr. Nassau Sutton, together with two or +three servants. Lady Hester was only thirty when her uncle died, but it +does not seem to have been considered that she required any chaperonage, +either at home or on her travels, nor does it appear that Lord Stanhope +(who lived till 1816) took any further interest in her proceedings.</p> + +<p>On February 10, 1810, the travellers sailed for the Mediterranean on +board the frigate <i>Jason</i>. It is not necessary to follow them over +the now familiar ground of the early part of their tour. Gibraltar +(whence Captain Stanhope left to join his regiment at Cadiz), Malta, +Athens, Constantinople, these were the first stopping-places, and in +each Lady Hester was treated with great respect by the authorities, and +went her own way in defiance of all native customs and prejudices. At +Athens her party was joined by Lord Sligo, who was making some +excavations in the neighbourhood, and by Lord Byron, who had just won +fresh laurels by swimming the Hellespont. Lady Hester formed but a poor +opinion of the poet, whose affectations she used to mimic with +considerable effect. 'I think Lord Byron was a strange character,' she +said, many years later. 'His generosity was for a motive, his avarice +was for a motive; one time he was mopish, and nobody was to speak to +him; another, he was for being jocular with everybody.... At Athens I +saw nothing in him but a well-bred man, like many others: for as for +poetry, it is easy enough to write verses; and as for the thoughts, who +knows where he got them? Many a one picks up some old book that nobody +knows anything about, and gets his ideas out of it. He had a great deal +of vice in his looks--his eyes set close together, and a contracted +brow. O Lord! I am sure he was not a liberal man, whatever else he might +be. The only good thing about his looks was this part [drawing her hand +under her cheek, and down the front of her neck], and the curl on his +forehead.'</p> + +<p>The winter of 1810 was passed at Constantinople, and the early part +of 1811 at the Baths of Brusa. As Lady Hester had decided to spend the +following winter in Egypt, a Greek vessel was hired for herself and her +party, which now consisted of two gentlemen, Mr. Bruce and Mr. Pearce, +besides her usual retinue, and on October 23 the travellers set sail for +Alexandria. After experiencing contrary winds for two or three weeks, +the ship sprang a leak, and the cry of 'All hands to the pumps' showed +that danger was imminent. Lady Hester took the announcement of the +misfortune with the greatest calmness, dressed herself, and ordered her +maid to pack a small box with a few necessaries. It soon became evident +that the ship could not keep afloat much longer, and that the passengers +and crew must take to the long-boat if they wished to escape with their +lives. They contrived, in spite of the high sea that was running, to +steer their boat into a little creek on a rock off the island of Rhodes, +and here, without either food or water, they remained for thirty hours +before they were rescued, and taken ashore. Even then their state was +hardly less pitiable, for they were wet through, had no change of +clothes, and possessed hardly enough money for their immediate +necessities. Lady Hester described her adventure in the following +letter, dated Rhodes, December, 1811:--</p> + +<p>'I write one line by a ship which came in here for a few hours, just +to tell you we are safe and well. Starving thirty hours on a bare rock, +without even fresh water, being half naked and drenched with wet, having +traversed an almost trackless country over dreadful rocks and mountains, +laid me up at a village for a few days, but I have since crossed the +island on an ass, going for six hours a day, which proves I am pretty +well, now, at least.... My locket, and the valuable snuff-box Lord Sligo +gave me, and two pelisses, are all I have saved--all the +travelling-equipage for Smyrna is gone; the servants naked and unarmed; +but the great loss of all is the medicine-chest, which saved the lives +of so many travellers in Greece.'</p> + +<p>As they had lost nearly all their clothes, and knew that it would be +impossible to procure a European refit in these regions, the travellers +decided to adopt Turkish costumes. Dr. Meryon made a journey to Smyrna, +where he raised money, and bought necessary articles for the shipwrecked +party at Rhodes. On his return, laden with purchases, after an absence +of five weeks, 'the packing-cases were opened [to quote his own +description], and we assumed our new dresses. Ignorant at that time of +the distinctions of dress which prevail in Turkey, every one flattered +himself that he was habited becomingly. Lady Hester and Mr. Bruce little +suspected, what proved to be the case, that their exterior was that of +small gentry, and Mr. Pearce and myself thought we were far from looking +like <i>Chaôoshes</i> with our yatagans stuck in our girdles.' +Lady Hester, it may be noted, had determined to adopt the dress of a +Turkish gentleman, in order that she might travel unveiled, a proceeding +that would have been impossible in female costume.</p> + +<p>The offer of a passage on a British frigate from Rhodes to +Alexandria was gladly accepted by Lady Hester and her friends, and on +February 14, 1812, they got their first glimpse of the Egyptian coast. +After a fortnight spent in Alexandria, they proceeded to Cairo, where +the pasha, who had never seen an Englishwoman of rank before, desired +the honour of a visit from Lady Hester. In order to dazzle the eyes of +her host, she arrayed herself in a magnificent Tunisian costume of +purple velvet, elaborately embroidered in gold. For her turban and +girdle she bought two cashmere shawls that cost £50 each, her +pantaloons cost £40, her pelisse and waistcoat £50, her +sabre £20, and her saddle £35, while other articles +necessary for the completion of the costume cost a hundred pounds more. +The pasha sent five horses to convey herself and her friends to the +palace, and much honour was shown her in the number of silver sticks +that walked before her, and in the privilege accorded to her of +dismounting at the inner gate. After the interview, the pasha reviewed +his troops before his distinguished visitor, and presented her with a +charger, magnificently caparisoned, which she sent to England as a +present to the Duke of York, her favourite among all the royal princes.</p> + +<p>The next move was to Jaffa, where preparations were made for the +regulation pilgrimage to Jerusalem. In her youth Lady Hester had been +told by Samuel Brothers, the Prophet, that she was to visit Jerusalem, +to pass seven years in the desert, to become the Queen of the Jews, and +to lead forth a chosen people. Now, as she journeyed towards the Holy +City with her cavalcade of eleven camels and thirteen horses, she saw +the first part of the prophecy fulfilled, and laughingly avowed that she +expected to see its final accomplishment. Lady Hester had now replaced +her gorgeous Tunisian dress by a travelling Mameluke's costume, +consisting of a satin vest, a red cloth jacket shaped like a spencer, +and trimmed with gold lace, and loose, full trousers of the same cloth. +Over this she wore a flowing white burnous, whose folds formed a +becoming drapery to her majestic figure. In this costume she was +generally mistaken by the natives for a young Bey with his moustaches +not yet grown, but we are told that her assumption of male dress was +severely criticised by the English residents in the Levant.</p> + +<p>From Jerusalem the party made a leisurely tour through Syria, +visiting Cæsarea, Acre, Nazareth, Sayda, where Lady Hester was +entertained by her future enemy, the Emir Beshyr, prince of the +Drûzes, and on September 1, 1812, arrived at Damascus, where a +lengthened stay was made. Lady Hester had been warned that it would be +dangerous for a woman, unveiled and in man's dress, to enter Damascus, +which was then one of the most fanatical towns in all the Turkish +dominions. But the granddaughter of Pitt feared neither Turk nor +Christian, and rode through the streets daily with uncovered face, and +though crowds assembled to see her start, she received honours instead +of the expected insults. 'A grave yet pleasing look,' writes her +chronicler, 'an unembarrassed yet commanding demeanour, met the ideas of +the Turks, whose manners are of this caste.... When it is considered how +fanatical the people of Damascus were, and in what great abhorrence they +held infidels; that native Christians could only inhabit a particular +quarter of the town; and that no one of these could ride on horseback +within the walls, or wear as part of his dress any coloured cloth or +showy turban, it will be a matter for surprise how completely these +prejudices were set aside in favour of Lady Hester, and of those persons +who were with her. She rode out every day, and according to the custom +of the country, coffee was poured on the ground before her horse to do +her honour. It was said that, in going through a bazaar, all the people +rose up as she passed, an honour never paid but to a pasha, or to the +mufti.'</p> + +<p>From the moment of her arrival at Damascus, Lady Hester had busied +herself in arranging for a journey to the ruins of Palmyra. The +expedition was considered not only difficult but dangerous, and she was +assured that a large body of troops would be necessary to protect her +from the robber tribes of the desert. While the practicability of the +enterprise was still being anxiously discussed by her Turkish advisers, +Lady Hester received a visit from a certain Nasar, son of Mahannah, Emir +of the Anizys [Footnote: Dr. Meryon's somewhat erratic spelling of +Oriental names is followed throughout this memoir.] (the collective name +given to several of the Bedouin tribes ranging that part of the desert), +who told her that he had heard of her proposed expedition, and that he +came to warn her against attempting to cross the desert under military +escort, since in that case she would be treated as an enemy by the +tribes. But, he added, if she would place herself under the protection +of the Arabs, and rely upon their honour, they would pledge themselves +to conduct her from Hamah to Palmyra and back again in safety. The +result of this interview was that Lady Hester declined the pasha's offer +of troops, and leaving the doctor to wind up affairs at Damascus she +departed alone, ostensibly for Hamah, a city on the highroad to Aleppo. +But having secretly arranged a meeting with the Emir Mahannah in the +desert, she rode straight to his camp, accompanied by Monsieur and +Madame Lascaris, who were living in the neighbourhood, and by a Bedouin +guide. In a letter to General Oakes, dated January 25, 1813, she gives +the following account of her first experiment upon the good faith of the +Arabs:--</p> + +<p>'I went with the great chief, Mahannah el Fadel (who commands 40,000 +men), into the desert for a week, and marched for three days with their +camp. I was treated with the greatest respect and hospitality, and it +was the most curious sight I ever saw; horses and mares fed upon camel's +milk; Arabs living upon little else except rice; the space around me +covered with living things; 1600 camels coming to water from one tribe +only; the old poets from the banks of the Euphrates singing the praises +of the ancient heroes; women with lips dyed bright blue, and nails red, +and hands all over flowers and different designs; a chief who is obeyed +like a great king; starvation and pride so mixed that really I could not +have had an idea of it.... However, I have every reason to be perfectly +contented with their conduct towards me, and I am the Queen with them +all.'</p> + +<p>The preparations for the journey occupied nearly two months, the +cavalcade being on a magnificent scale. Twenty-two camels were to carry +the baggage, twenty-five horsemen formed the retinue, in addition to the +Bedouin escort, led by Nasar, the Emir's son. Still the risk was great, +for Lady Hester carried with her many articles of value, and of course +was wholly at the mercy of her conductors, who got their living by +plunder. But she sought the remains of Zenobia as well as the ruins of +Palmyra, and had set her heart upon seeing the city which had been +governed by one of her own sex, and owed its chief magnificence to her +genius. Mr. Bruce, writing to General Oakes just before the start, +observes: 'If Lady Hester succeeds in this undertaking, she will at +least have the merit of being the first European female who has ever +visited this once celebrated city. Who knows but she may prove another +Zenobia, and be destined to restore it to its ancient splendour?'</p> + +<p>The cavalcade set out on March 20, a sum of about £50 being +paid over to the Emir for his escort, with the promise of twice as much +more on the safe return of the party. The journey seems to have been +uneventful save for the occasional sulks of the Bedouin leader, and the +petty thefts of his followers. The inhabitants of Palmyra had been +warned of the approach of the 'great white queen,' who rode a mare worth +forty purses, and had in her possession a book which instructed her +where to find treasure, and a bag of herbs with which she could +transmute stones into gold. By way of welcome a body of about two +hundred men, armed with matchlocks, went out to meet her, and displayed +for her amusement a mock attack on, and defence of, a caravan. The +guides led the cavalcade up through the long colonnade, which is +terminated by a triumphal arch, the shaft of each of the pillars having +a projecting pedestal, or console, on which a statue once stood. 'What +was our surprise,' writes Dr. Meryon, 'to see, as we rode up the avenue, +that several beautiful girls had been placed on these pedestals in the +most graceful postures, and with garlands in their hands.... On each +side of the arch other girls stood by threes, while a row of six was +arranged across the gate of the arch with thyrsi in their hands. While +Lady Hester advanced, these living statues remained immovable on their +pedestals; but when she had passed, they leaped to the ground, and +joined in a dance by her side. On reaching the triumphal arch, the whole +in groups, both men and girls, danced round her. Here some bearded +elders chanted verses in her praise, and all the spectators joined in +the chorus. Lady Hester herself seemed to partake of the emotions to +which her presence in this remote spot had given rise. Nor was the +wonder of the Palmyrenes less than our own. They beheld with amazement a +woman who had ventured thousands of miles from her own country, and +crossed a waste where hunger and thirst were the least of the perils to +be dreaded.' It may be observed that the people of Syria, excited by the +achievements of Sir Sydney Smith, had begun to imagine that their land +might be occupied by the English, and perhaps regarded Lady Hester as an +English princess who had come to prepare the way, if not to take +possession.</p> + +<p>The travellers were only allowed a week in which to examine the +ruins of Palmyra, being hurried away by Prince Nasar on the plea that an +attack was expected from a hostile tribe. After resting for a time at +Hamah, and taking an affectionate farewell of their friendly Bedouins +(Lady Hester was enrolled as an Anizy Arab of the tribe of Melken), they +journeyed to Laodicea, which was believed to be free from the plague +that was raging in other parts of Syria, and here the summer months were +spent. In October Mr. Bruce received letters which obliged him to return +at once to England, and, as Dr. Meryon observes, 'he therefore +reluctantly prepared to quit a lady in whose society he had so long +travelled, and from whose conversation and experience of the world so +much useful knowledge was to be acquired.' Lady Hester had now renounced +the idea of returning to Europe, at any rate for the present. She had +some thoughts of taking a journey overland to Bussora, and had also +entered into a correspondence with the chief of the Wahabys, with a view +to travelling across the desert to visit him in his capital of +Deráych; but she finally decided on remaining for some months +longer in Syria. She had heard of a house, once a monastery, at Mar +Elias, near Sayda (the ancient Sidon), which could be hired for a small +rent. The house was taken, the luggage shipped to Sayda, and Lady Hester +and her doctor were preparing to follow, when both fell ill of a +malignant fever, which they believed to be a species of plague. For some +time Lady Hester's life was despaired of, but thanks to her splendid +constitution, she pulled through, though she was not strong enough to +leave Laodicea until January, 1814.</p> + +<p>Lady Hester had now become a sojourner instead of a traveller in the +East, and, abandoning European customs altogether, she conformed +entirely to the mode of life of the Orientals. Mar Elias, which was +situated on a spur of Mount Lebanon, in a barren and rocky region, +consisted of a one-storied stone building with flat roofs, enclosing a +small paved court. 'Since her illness,' writes Dr. Meryon, 'Lady +Hester's character seemed to have changed. She became simple in her +habits, almost to cynicism. Scanning men and things with a wonderful +intelligence, she commented upon them as if the motives of human action +were laid open to her inspection.' The plague having again broken out in +the neighbourhood, the party at Mar Elias were insulated upon their +rock, and during the early days of their tenancy were in much the same +position as the crew of a well-victualled ship at sea, having abundance +of fresh provisions, but no books, no newspapers, and no intercourse +with the outer world.</p> + +<p>In the autumn an expedition to the ruins of Baalbec was undertaken, +and at Beyrout, on the way home, a servant brought the news that a +Zâym, or Capugi Bashi, [Footnote: Nominally a door-keeper, +according to Dr. Meryon, but actually a Turkish official of high rank.] +was at that town on his road to Sayda, and was reported to be going to +capture Lady Hester, and carry her to Constantinople. Her ladyship +received the announcement with her usual composure, and it turned out +that she had long expected the Capugi Bashi, and knew the object of his +visit. Scarcely had the travellers arrived at Mar Elias than a message +came to Lady Hester, requesting her to meet the Zâym at the house +of the governor of Sayda, since it was not customary for a Turkish +official to go to a Christian's house. But in this case the haughty +Moslem had reckoned without his host. Lady Hester returned so spirited +an answer that the Zâym at once ordered his horses, and galloped +over to Mar Elias. The doctor and the secretary, knowing nothing of the +mission, felt considerable doubt of his intentions, and put loaded +pistols in their girdles, determined that if he had a bowstring under +his robes, no use should be made of it while they had a bullet at his +disposal. In the Turkish dominions, it must be understood, a Capugi +Bashi seldom comes into the provinces unless for some affair of +strangling, beheading, confiscation, or imprisonment, and his presence +is the more dreaded, as it is never known on whose head the blow will +fall.</p> + +<p>In this case, fortunately, the Capugi's visit had no sinister +motive. The fact was now divulged that Lady Hester had been given a +manuscript, said to have been copied by a monk from the records of a +Frank monastery in Syria, which disclosed the hiding-places of immense +hoards of money buried in certain specified spots in the cities of +Ascalon and Sayda. Lady Hester, having convinced herself of the +genuineness of the manuscript, had written to the Sultan through Mr., +afterwards Sir Robert, Liston, for permission to make the necessary +excavations, at the same time offering to forego all pecuniary benefit +that might accrue from her labours. The custom of burying money in times +of danger is so common in the East that credence was easily lent to the +story, while the fact that treasure might lie for centuries untouched, +even though the secret of its existence was known to several persons, +was possible in a country where digging among ruins always excites +dangerous suspicions in the minds of the authorities, and where the +discovery of a jar of coins almost invariably leads to the ruin of the +finder, who is supposed to keep back more than he reveals.</p> + +<p>The Sultan evidently believed that the matter was worth examination, +for he had sent the Capugi from Constantinople to invest Lady Hester +with greater authority over the Turks than had ever been granted even to +a European ambassador. It was arranged that the first excavations should +be made at Ascalon, and though Lady Hester, having only just returned +from Baalbec, felt disinclined to set out at once on another long +journey, the Zâym urged her to lose no time, and himself went on +to Acre to make the necessary preparations. As her income barely +sufficed for her own expenditure, she resolved to ask the English +Government to pay the cost of her search, holding that the honour which +would thereby accrue to the English name was a sufficient justification +for her demand.</p> + +<p>'I shall beg of you,' she said to Dr. Meryon, 'to keep a regular +account of every article, and will then send in my bill to Government by +Mr. Liston; when, if they refuse to pay me, I shall put it in the +newspapers, and expose them. And this I shall let them know very +plainly, as I consider it my right, and not as a favour; for if Sir A. +Paget put down the cost of his servants' liveries after his embassy to +Vienna, and made Mr. Pitt pay him, £70,000 for four years, I +cannot see why I should not do the same.'</p> + +<p>On February 15, 1815, Lady Hester left Mar Elias on horseback, +followed by her usual retinue, and on arriving at Acre spent about three +weeks in preparing for the work at Ascalon. In compliance with the +firmans sent by the Porte to all the governors of Syria, she was treated +with distinctions usually paid to no one under princely rank. 'Whenever +she went out,' writes Dr. Meryon, 'she was followed by a crowd of +spectators; and the curiosity and admiration which she had very +generally excited throughout Syria were now increased by her supposed +influence in the affairs of Government, in having a Capugi Bashi at her +command.... No Turk now paid her a visit without wearing his mantle of +ceremony, and every circumstance showed the ascendency she had gained in +public opinion.' In addition to her own six tents, twenty more were +furnished for her suite, besides twenty-two tent-pitchers, twelve mules +to carry the baggage, and twelve camels to carry the tents. To Lady +Hester's use was appropriated a gorgeous tilted palanquin or litter, +covered with crimson cloth, and ornamented with gilded balls. In case +she preferred riding, her mare and her favourite black ass were led in +front of the litter. A hundred men of the Hawàry cavalry escorted +the procession, which left Acre on March 18, and arrived at Jaffa ten +days later. Here a short halt was made, and on the last day of March +they set off for Ascalon, their animals laden with shovels, pickaxes, +and baskets. On arriving at their destination the tents were pitched in +the midst of the ruins, while a cottage was fitted up for Lady Hester +without the walls. Orders were at once despatched to the neighbouring +villages for relays of labourers to work at the excavations. These men +received no pay, being requisitioned by Government, but they were well +fed and humanely treated by their English employer. The excavations were +carried on for about a fortnight on the site indicated in the mysterious +paper. During the first three days nothing was found except bones, +fragments of pillars, and a few vases and bottles; but on the fourth day +a fine, though mutilated, colossal statue was discovered, which +apparently represented a deified king. Dr. Meryon made a sketch of the +marble, and pointed out to Lady Hester that her labours had at least +brought to light a treasure that would be valuable in the eyes of lovers +of art, and that the ruins would be memorable for the enterprise of a +woman who had rescued the remains of antiquity from oblivion. To his +astonishment and dismay she replied, 'It is my intention to break up the +statue, and have it thrown into the sea, precisely in order that such a +report may not get abroad, and I lose with the Porte all the merit of my +disinterestedness.' In vain Dr. Meryon represented that such an act +would be an unpardonable vandalism, and was the less excusable since the +Turks had neither claimed the statue, nor protested against its +preservation. Her only answer was: 'Malicious people may say I came to +search for antiquities for my country, and not for treasures for the +Porte. So, go this instant, take with you half-a-dozen stout fellows, +and break it into a thousand pieces.' Michaud, in his account of the +affair, says that the Turks clamoured for the destruction of the statue, +believing that the trunk was full of gold, and that Lady Hester had it +broken up in order to prove to them their error. Be this as it may, +reports were afterwards circulated in Ascalon that the statue had +actually contained treasure, half of which was handed over to the Porte, +and half kept by Lady Hester.</p> + +<p>On the sixth day two large stone troughs were discovered, upon which +lay four granite pillars. This sight revived the hopes of the searchers, +for it was thought that the mass of granite could not have fallen into +such a position accidentally, but must have been placed there to conceal +something of value. Great was the disappointment of all concerned when, +on removing the pillars, the troughs were found to be empty. The +excavations of the next four days having produced nothing of any value, +the work was brought to an end, by Lady Hester's desire, on April 14. +She had come to the conclusion that when Gezzar Pasha embellished the +city of Acre by digging for marble among the ruins of Ascalon, he had +been fortunate enough to discover the treasure, and she believed that +his apparent mania for building was only a cloak to conceal his real +motives for excavating. The officials and soldiers were handsomely +rewarded for their trouble, and Lady Hester set out on her homeward +journey, minus her tents, palanquin, military escort, and other emblems +of grandeur, but with no loss of dignity or serenity.</p> + +<p>On returning to Mar Elias, she caused some excavations to be made +near Sayda, but with no better success, and after a few days the work +was abandoned. Lady Hester had been obliged to borrow a sum of money for +her expenses from Mr. Barker, the British consul at Aleppo, and now, +observes Dr. Meryon, 'as she had throughout proposed to herself no +advantage but the celebrity which success would bring on her own name +and that of the English nation, and as she had acted with the cognisance +of our minister at Constantinople, she fancied that she had a claim upon +the English Government for her expenses. Accordingly, she sent our +ambassador an account of her proceedings, and after showing that all she +had done was for the credit of her country, she asserted her right to be +reimbursed. She was unsuccessful, however, in her application, and the +expenses weighed heavily upon her means. Yet hitherto she had never been +in debt, and by great care and economy she still contrived to keep out +of it.'</p> + +<p>Lady Hester having apparently decided to spend the remainder of her +days in Syria, Dr. Meryon informed her that he was anxious to return to +his own country, but that he would not leave her until a substitute had +been engaged. Accordingly, Giorgio, the Greek interpreter, was +despatched to England to engage the doctor's successor, and to execute a +number of commissions for his mistress. During the autumn Lady Hester +was actively employed in stirring up the authorities to avenge the death +of a French traveller, Colonel Boutin, who had been murdered by the +Ansarys on the road between Hamah and Laodicea. As the pasha of the +district had made no effort to trace or punish the murderers, she had +taken the matter into her own hands, holding that the common cause of +travellers demanded that such a crime should not go unpunished. Dr. +Meryon vainly tried to dissuade her from this course of action, urging +that the French consuls were bound to sift the affair, and that she, in +taking so active a part, was exposing herself to the vengeance of the +mountain tribes. As usual, the only effect of remonstrance was to make +her more determined to persevere in the course she had marked out for +herself. In the result, she succeeded in inducing the pasha to send a +punitive expedition into the mountains, and herself directed the +commandant, by information secretly obtained, where the criminals were +to be found. Mustafa Aga Berber, governor of the district, led the +expedition, and carried fire and sword into the Ansary country. It was +reported that he burnt the villages of the assassins, and sent several +heads to the pasha as tokens of his victories. Lady Hester received a +vote of thanks from the French Chamber of Deputies, after a speech by +Comte Delaborde, explaining the services she had rendered.</p> + +<p>News of the great events that were taking place in France had now +reached Sayda, and Lady Hester, whose foible it was to think that the +successors of Pitt could do no right, was highly displeased at the +action of the British Government. She gave vent to her sentiments in the +following letter, dated April 1816, to her cousin the Marquis +(afterwards Duke) of Buckingham:--</p> + +<p>'You cannot doubt that a woman of my character and (I presume to +say) understanding must have held in contempt and aversion all the +statesmen of the present day, whose unbounded ignorance and duplicity +have brought ruin on France, have spread their own shame through all +Europe, and have exposed themselves not only to ridicule, but to the +curses of present and future generations. One great mind, one single, +enlightened statesman, whose virtues had equalled his talents, was all +that was wanting to effect, at this unexampled period, the welfare of +all Europe, by taking advantage of events the most extraordinary that +have occurred in any era.... Cease therefore to torment me. I will not +live in Europe, even were I, in flying from it, compelled to beg my +bread. Once only will I go to France, to see you and James, but only +that once. I will not be a martyr for nothing. The granddaughter of +Chatham, the niece of the illustrious Pitt, feels herself blush that she +was born in England--that England who has made her accursed gold the +counterpoise to justice; that England who puts weeping humanity in +irons, who has employed the valour of her troops, destined for the +defence of her national honour, as the instrument to enslave a freeborn +people; and who has exposed to ridicule and humiliation a monarch [Louis +XVIII.] who might have gained the goodwill of his subjects if those +intriguing English had left him to stand or fall upon his own merits.'</p> + +<p>The announcement of the arrival of the Princess of Wales at Acre, +and the possibility that she might extend her journey to Sayda, induced +Lady Hester to embark for Antioch, where she professed to have business +with the British consul. It was considered an act of great daring on her +part to go into a district inhabited entirely by the Ansárys, on +whom she had lately wrought so signal a vengeance. But the +Ansárys had apparently no desire to bring upon themselves a +second punitive expedition, and though Lady Hester spent most of her +time in a retired cottage outside the town, in defiance of the warning +that her life was in danger, the tribes forbore to molest her. In +September she returned to Mar Elias; and, a few weeks later, Giorgio +returned from England, bringing with him an English surgeon and +twenty-seven packing-cases filled with presents, to be distributed among +Lady Hester's Turkish friends and acquaintances. On January 18, 1817, +Dr. Meryon, having initiated his successor into Eastern manners and +customs, took leave of his employer, and sailed for Europe, little +thinking that he would ever set foot in Syria again.<br> +<br> +</p> + +<p style="text-align: center;"><a name="STANHOPE2"></a><img + src="images/Stanhope2.jpg" + title="Lady Hester Stanhope. From a drawing by R. J. Hamerton" + alt="Lady Hestor Stanhope. From a drawing by R. J. Hamerton." + style="width: 388px; height: 608px;"> <br> +<br> +</p> +<div style="text-align: center;"> </div> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 20%;"> + +<p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"> PART II</p> + +<p> During the next ten or twelve years, we get but a few scanty +glimpses of the white Queen of the Desert. After Dr. Meryon's departure, +Lady Hester removed to a house in the village of Dar Jôon, or +Djoun, a few miles from Mar Elias. To this house she added considerably, +laid out some magnificent gardens, and enclosed the whole within high +walls, after the manner of a mediaeval fortress. Here she seems to have +passed her time in encouraging the Drûzes to rise against Ibrahim +Pasha, intriguing against the British consuls, and attempting to bolster +up the declining authority of the Sultan. In the intervals of political +business she occupied herself with superintending her building and +gardening operations, physicking the sick, and tyrannising over her +numerous servants. At Mar Elias, which she still kept in her own hands, +she maintained an eccentric old Frenchman, General Loustaunau,[Footnote: +Dr. Meryon's spelling.] who had formerly been in the service of a Hindu +rajah, but who, in his forlorn old age, had wandered to Syria, and +there, by dint of applying scriptural texts to contemporary events, had +earned the title of a prophet. Like Samuel Brothers, he prophesied +marvellous things of Lady Hester's future, which she, rendered credulous +by her solitary life in a mystic land, where her own power and +importance were the chief facts in her mental horizon, came at length to +believe.</p> + +<p>In the <i>Memoirs of a Babylonian Princess</i> by the Emira Asmar, +daughter of the Emir Abdallah Asmar, the author tells us that as a girl +she paid a long visit to the Emir Beshyr, prince of the Drûzes. +During this visit, which apparently took place in the early 'twenties,' +she was sent with a present of fruit to a neighbour's house, and there +found a guest, a tall and splendid figure, arrayed in masculine costume, +and engaged in smoking a narghila. The stranger, who talked Arabic with +elegance and fluency, discoursed on the subject of astrology, and tried +to dissuade the Emira from taking a projected journey to the west, where +she declared the sun had set, and the hearts of the people retained not +a spark of the virtues of their forefathers. 'Soon afterwards,' +continues the author, 'she rose, and took her departure, attended by a +large retinue. A spirited charger stood at the gate, champing the bit +with fiery impatience. She put her foot in the stirrup, and vaulting +nimbly into the saddle, which she bestrode like a man, started off at a +rapid pace, galloping over rocks and mountains in advance of her suite, +with a fearlessness and address that would have done honour to a +Mameluke.' The stranger was, of course, none other than Lady Hester +Stanhope, who, at that time, was on friendly terms with the Emir Beshyr, +afterwards her bitterest enemy.</p> + +<p>In 1826 Lady Hester wrote to invite Dr. Meryon to return to her +service for a time, and he, who seems all his life to have 'heard the +East a-calling,' could not resist the invitation, though his movements +were now hampered by a wife and children. He began at once to make +preparations for his departure, but was unable to start before September +1827. Meanwhile, Lady Hester had been gulled by an English traveller, +designated as 'X.' in her letters, who had induced her to believe that +he was empowered by the Duke of Sussex, the Duke of Bedford, and a +committee of Freemasons, to offer her such sums as would extricate her +out of her embarrassments, and to settle an income upon her for life. +How a woman who professed to have an almost supernatural insight into +the characters and thoughts of men, could have been deceived by this +story, it is hard to understand; but apparently the difficulties of her +situation, occasioned by her custom of making large presents to the +pashas in order to keep up her authority, as well as by her benevolence +to the poor in her neighbourhood, rendered her willing to catch at any +straw for help. This 'X' had promised to send her a hundred purses for +her current expenses, and to bring out from England masons and +carpenters to enlarge her dwelling, in order that she might entertain +the many distinguished people who desired to come and see her. In a +letter to Dr. Meryon on this subject, Lady Hester writes:--</p> + +<p>'If X.'s story is true, and my debts, amounting to nearly +£10,000, are to be paid, then I shall go on making sublime and +philosophical discoveries, and employing myself in deep, abstract +studies. In that case I shall want a mason, carpenter, etc., income made +out £4000 a year, and £1000 more for people like you, and +£500 ready money that I may stand clear. In the event that all +that has been told me is a lie.... I shall give up everything for life +to my creditors, and throw myself as a beggar on Asiatic charity, and +wander far without one parra in my pocket, with the mare from the stable +of Solomon in one hand, and a sheaf of the corn of Beni-Israel in the +other. I shall meet death, or that which I believe to be written, which +no mortal can efface. On September 7, Dr. Meryon and his family embarked +at Leghorn for Cyprus, but on nearing Candia their merchant brig, which +was taking out stores to the Turks, was attacked by a Greek vessel, +whose officers took possession of the cargo, and also of all the +passengers' property, except that belonging to the English party, which +they left unmolested. The Italian captain was obliged to put back to +Leghorn, and here Dr. Meryon heard the news of the battle of Navarino, +and of the shelter afforded by Lady Hester Stanhope to two hundred +refugee Europeans from Sayda. By this time she was at daggers-drawn with +the Emir Beshyr, whose rival she had helped and protected. The Emir +revenged himself by publishing in the village an order that all her +native servants were to return to their homes, upon pain of losing their +property and their lives. 'I gave them all their option,' she writes. +'And most of them remained firm. Since that, he has threatened to seize +and murder them here, which he shall not do without taking my life too. +Besides this, he has given orders in all the villages that men, women, +and children who render me the smallest service shall be cut in a +thousand pieces. My servants cannot go out, and the peasants cannot +approach the house. Therefore, I am in no very pleasant situation, being +deprived of the necessary supplies of food, and what is worse, of water; +for all the water here is brought on mules' backs up a great steep.'</p> + +<p>Dr. Meryon was unable to resume his voyage at this time, but in +1828, the news that a malignant fever had attacked the household at +Jôon, and carried off Lady Hester's companion, Miss Williams, gave +rise to fresh plans for a visit to Syria. The doctor had, however, so +much difficulty in overcoming his wife's fears of the voyage, that it +was not until November, 1830, that he could induce her to embark at +Marseilles on a vessel bound for the East. The party arrived at Beyrout +on December 8, and found that Lady Hester had sent camels and asses to +bring them on their way, together with a characteristic note to the +effect that it would give her much pleasure to see the doctor, but that, +as for his family, they must not expect any other attentions than such +as would make them comfortable in their new home. She hoped that Dr. +Meryon would not take this ill, as she had warned him that she did not +think English ladies could make themselves happy in Syria, and, +therefore, he who had chosen to bring them must take the consequences. +This letter was but the first of a long series of affronts put upon Mrs. +Meryon, the result of Lady Hester's dislike of her own sex, and probably +also of her objection to the presence of another Englishwoman in a spot +where she had reigned so long as the only specimen of her race.</p> + +<p>A cottage had been provided in the village of Jôon for the +travellers, and the ladies were escorted thither by the French +secretary, while the doctor hastened to report himself to Lady Hester, +who received him with the greatest cordiality, kissing him on both +cheeks, and placing him beside her on the sofa. Remembering her +overweening pride of birth, he was astonished at his reception, more +especially as, in the early part of her travels, she had never even +condescended to take his arm, that honour being reserved exclusively for +members of the aristocracy. He found her ladyship in good health and +spirits, but barely provided with the necessaries of life, having been +robbed of nearly all her articles of value by the native servants during +her last illness. A rush-bottomed chair, a deal table, dishes of common +yellow earthenware, bone-handled knives and forks, and two or three +silver spoons, were all that remained of her former grandeur, and the +dinner was on a par with the furniture.</p> + +<p>The house, which had been hired at a rental of £20 from a +Turkish merchant, had been greatly enlarged, and the gardens, with their +summer-houses, covered alleys, and serpentine walks, were superior to +most English gardens of the same size. Lady Hester's constant outlay in +building arose from her idea that people would fly to her for succour +and protection during the revolutions that she believed to be impending +all over the world; her camels, asses, and mules were kept with the same +view, and her servants were taught to look forward with awe to events of +a supernatural nature, when their services and energies would be taxed +to the utmost. In choosing a solitary life in the wilderness, far +removed from all the comforts and pleasures of civilisation, Lady Hester +seems to have been actuated by her craving for absolute power, which +could not be gratified in any European community. It was her pleasure to +dwell apart, surrounded by dependants and slaves, and out of reach of +that influence and restraint which are necessarily endured by each +member of a civilised society. She had become more violent in her temper +than formerly, and treated her servants with great severity when they +were negligent of their duties. Her maids and female slaves she punished +summarily, and boasted that there was nobody who could give such a slap +in the face, when required, as she could. At Mar Elias her servants, +when tired of her tyranny, frequently absconded by night, and took +refuge in Sayda, only two miles away; but at Dar Joon their retreat was +cut off by mountain tracts, inhabited only by wolves and jackals, and +they were consequently almost helpless in the hands of their stern +mistress. The establishment at this time consisted of between thirty and +forty servants, labourers, and slaves, most of whom are described as +dirty, lazy, and dishonest. Between them they did badly the work that +half-a-dozen Europeans would have done respectably, but then the +Europeans would not have stood the slaps and scoldings that the natives +took as a matter of course.</p> + +<p>For the last fifteen years Lady Hester had seldom left her bed till +between two and five o'clock in the afternoon, nor returned to it before +the same hour next morning; while for four years she had never stirred +beyond the precincts of her own domain, though she took some air and +exercise in the garden. Except when she was asleep, her bell was +incessantly ringing, her servants were running to and fro, and the whole +house was kept in commotion. During the greater part of the day she sat +up in bed, writing, talking, scolding, and interviewing her work-people. +Few of her <i>employés</i> escaped from her presence without +reproof, and as no one was allowed to exercise his own discretion in his +work, her directing spirit was always in the full flow of activity. 'On +one and the same day,' says Dr. Meryon,' I have known her to dictate +papers that concerned the political welfare of a pashalik, and descend +to trivial details about the composition of a house-paint, the making of +butter, drenching a sick horse, choosing lambs, or cutting out a maid's +apron. The marked characteristic of her mind was the necessity that she +laboured under of incessantly talking.' Her conversations, we are told, +frequently lasted for seven or eight hours at a stretch, and at least +one of her visitors was kept so long in discourse that he fainted away +with fatigue. Dr. Meryon bears witness to her marvellous colloquial +powers, her fund of anecdote, and her talent for mimicry, but observes +that every one who conversed with her retired humbled from her presence, +since her language was always calculated to bring men down to their +proper level, to strip off affectation, and to expose conceit.</p> + +<p>At this time her political influence was on the wane, but a few +years previously, when her financial affairs were in a more flourishing +condition, and when it was observed that the pashas valued her opinion +and feared her censure, she had obtained an almost despotic power over +the neighbouring tribes. A remarkable proof of her personal courage, and +also of the supernatural awe with which she was regarded, was shown by +her open defiance of the Emir Beshyr, in whose principality she lived, +but who was unable to reduce her, either by threats or persecution, to +even a nominal submission to his rule. Not only did she give public +utterance to her contemptuous opinion of the Emir, but she openly +assisted his relation and rival, the Sheikh Beshyr; yet no vengeance +either of the bowstring or the poisoned cup rewarded her rebellion or +her intrigues.</p> + +<p>Her religious views, at this time, were decidedly complicated in +character. She firmly believed in astrology, of which she had made a +special study, and to some extent in demonology. But more remarkable was +her faith in the early coming of a Messiah, or Mahedi, on which occasion +she expected to play a glorious part. The prophecies of Samuel Brothers +and of General Loustaunau had taken firm possession of her mind, more +especially since their words had been corroborated by a native +soothsayer, Metta by name, who brought her an Arabic book which, he +said, contained allusions to herself. Finding a credulous listener, he +read and expounded a passage relating to a European woman who was to +come and live on Mount Lebanon at a certain epoch, and obtain power and +influence greater than a sultan's. A boy without a father was to join +her there, whose destiny was to be fulfilled under her wing; while the +coming of the Mahedi, who was to ride into Jerusalem on a horse born +saddled, would be preceded by famine, pestilence, and other calamities. +For a long time Lady Hester was persuaded that the Due de Reichstadt was +the boy in question, but after his death she fixed upon another youth. +In expectation of the coming of the Mahedi she kept two thoroughbred +mares, which no one was suffered to mount. One of these animals, named +Laila, had a curious malformation of the back, not unlike a Turkish +saddle in shape, and was destined by its mistress to bear the Mahedi +into Jerusalem, while on the other, Lulu, Lady Hester expected to ride +by his side on the great day. 'Hundreds and thousands of distressed +persons,' she was accustomed to say, 'will come to me for assistance and +shelter. I shall have to wade in blood, but it is the will of God, and I +shall not be afraid.' Borne up by these glorious expectations, she never +discussed her debts, her illnesses, and her other trials, without at the +same time picturing to herself a brighter future, when the neglect with +which she had been treated by her family would meet with its just +punishment, and her star would rise again to gladden the world, and more +especially those who had been faithful to her in the time of adversity.</p> + +<p>As soon as Mrs. Meryon was settled in her new home, and had +recovered from the fatigue of the journey, Lady Hester appointed a day +for her reception. What happened at the momentous interview we are not +told, except that at the close Lady Hester attired her visitor in a +handsome Turkish spencer of gold brocade, and wound an embroidered +muslin turban round her head. Unfortunately, Mrs. Meryon, not +understanding the Eastern custom of robing honoured guests, took off the +garments before she went away, and laid them on a table, a grievous +breach of etiquette in her hostess's eyes. Still, matters went on fairly +smoothly until, about the end of January, a messenger came from Damascus +to ask that Dr. Meryon might be allowed to go thither to cure a friend +of the pasha's, who had an affection of the mouth. Lady Hester was +anxious that the doctor should obey the call, but, greatly to her +annoyance, he entirely declined to leave his wife and children alone for +three or four weeks in a strange land, where they could not make +themselves understood by the people about them. In vain Lady Hester +tried to frighten Mrs. Meryon into consenting to her husband's departure +by assuring her that there were Dervishes who could inflict all sorts of +evil on her by means of charms, if she persisted in her refusal. Mrs. +Meryon quietly replied that her husband could go if he chose, but that +it would not be with her goodwill. From that hour was begun a system of +hostility towards the doctor's wife, which never ceased until her +departure from the country.</p> + +<p>Lady Hester was not above taking a leaf out of the book of her own +enemy, the Emir Beshyr, for she used her influence to prevent the +villagers from supplying the wants of the recalcitrant family, who now +began to make preparations for their departure. They were obliged, +however, to wait for remittances from England, and also for Lady +Hester's consent to their leaving Jôon, since none of the natives +would have dared lend their camels or mules for such a purpose, and even +the consular agents at Sayda would have declined to mix themselves up in +any business which might bring upon them the vengeance of the Queen of +the Desert. Meanwhile, a truce seems to have been concluded between the +principals, and Lady Hester again invited the doctor's visits, +contenting herself with sarcastic remarks about henpecked husbands, and +the caprices of foolish women. She graciously consented to dispense with +his services about the beginning of April, and promised to engage a +vessel at Sayda to convey him and his family to Cyprus. Before his +departure she produced a list of her debts, which then amounted to +£14,000. The greater part of this sum, which had been borrowed at +a high rate of interest from native usurers, had been spent in assisting +Abdallah Pasha, the family of the Sheikh Beshyr, and many other victims +of political malignity.</p> + +<p>The unwonted luxury of an admiring and submissive listener led the +lonely woman to discourse of the glories of her youth, and the virtues +of her hero-in-chief, William Pitt. She spoke of his passion for Miss +Eden, daughter of Lord Auckland, who, she said, was the only woman she +could have wished him to marry. 'Poor Mr. Pitt almost broke his heart, +when he gave her up,' she declared. 'But he considered that she was not +a woman to be left at will when business might require it, and he +sacrificed his feelings to his sense of public duty.... "There were also +other reasons," Mr. Pitt would say; "there is her mother, such a +chatterer!--and then the family intrigues. I can't keep them out of my +house; and, for my king and country's sake, I must remain a free man." +Yet Mr. Pitt was a man just made for domestic life, who would have +enjoyed retirement, digging his own garden, and doing it cleverly +too.... He had so much urbanity too! I recollect returning late from a +ball, when he was gone to bed fatigued; there were others besides +myself, and we made a good deal of noise. I said to him next morning, "I +am afraid we disturbed you last night." "Not at all," he replied; "I was +dreaming of the masque of <i>Comus</i>, and when I heard you all so +gay, it seemed a pleasant reality...." Nobody would have suspected how +much feeling he had for people's comforts, who came to see him. +Sometimes he would say to me, "Hester, you know we have got such a one +coming down. I believe his wound is hardly well yet, and I heard him say +that he felt much relieved by fomentations of such an herb; perhaps you +will see that he finds in his chamber all that he wants." Of another he +would say, "I think he drinks asses' milk; I should like him to have his +morning draught." And I, who was born with such sensibility that I must +fidget myself about everybody, was sure to exceed his wishes.'</p> + +<p>After describing Mr. Pitt's kindness and consideration towards his +household, Lady Hester related a pathetic history of a faithful servant, +who, in the pecuniary distress of his master, had served him for several +years with the purest disinterestedness. 'I was so touched by her +eloquent and forcible manner of recounting the story,' writes the +soft-hearted doctor, 'and with the application I made of it to my own +tardiness in going to her in her distress, together with my present +intention of leaving her, that I burst into tears, and wept bitterly. +She soothed my feelings, endeavoured to calm my emotions, and disclaimed +all intention of conveying any allusion to me. This led her to say how +little malice she ever entertained towards any one, even those who had +done her injury, much less towards me, who had always shown my +attachment to her; and she added that, even now, although she was going +to lose me, her thoughts did not run so much on her own situation as on +what would become of me; and I firmly believed her.'</p> + +<p>Dr. Meryon sailed from Sayda on April 7, 1831, and for the next six +years we only hear of the strange household on Mount Lebanon through the +reports of chance visitors. After the siege of Acre by Ibrahim Pasha in +the winter of 1831-32, the remnant of the population fled to the +mountains, and Lady Hester, whose hospitality was always open to the +distressed, declares that for three years her house was like the Tower +of Babel. In 1832 Lamartine paid a visit to Jôon, which he has +described in his <i>Voyage en Orient</i>. He seems to have been +graciously received, though his hostess candidly informed him that she +had never heard his name before. He explained, rather to her amusement, +that he had written verses which were in the mouths of thousands of his +countrymen, and she having read his character and destiny, assured him +that his Arabian descent was proved by the high arch of his instep, and +that, like every Arab, he was a poet by nature. Lamartine, in return, +represents himself as profoundly impressed by his interview with this +'Circe of the East,' denies that he perceived in her any traces of +insanity, and declares that he should not be surprised if a part of the +destiny she prophesied for herself were realised--at least to the extent +of an empire in Arabia, or a throne in Jerusalem.</p> + +<p>Lady Hester formed a less favourable opinion of M. Lamartine than +she allowed him to perceive, and she was greatly annoyed at the passages +referring to herself that appeared in his book. Speaking of him and his +visit some years later, she observed: 'The people of Europe are all, or +at least the greater part of them, fools, with their ridiculous grins, +their affected ways, and their senseless habits.... Look at M. Lamartine +getting off his horse half-a-dozen times to kiss his dog, and take him +out of his bandbox to feed him, on the route from Beyrout; the very +muleteers thought him a fool. And then that way of thrusting his hands +into his pockets, and sticking out his legs as far as he could--what is +that like? M. Lamartine is no poet, in my estimation, though he may be +an elegant versifier; he has no sublime ideas. Compare his ideas with +Shakespeare's--that was indeed a real poet.... M. Lamartine, with his +straight body and straight fingers, pointed his toes in my face, and +then turned to his dog, and held long conversations with him. He thought +to make a great effect when he was here, but he was grievously +mistaken.' It may be noted that all Lady Hester's male visitors 'pointed +their toes in her face,' in the hope of being accredited with the arched +instep that she held to be the most striking proof of long descent. Her +own instep, she was accustomed to boast, was so high that a little +kitten could run underneath it.</p> + +<p>A far more lifelike and picturesque portrait of Lady Hester than +that by Lamartine has been sketched for us by Kinglake in his <i>Eothen</i>. +In a charming passage which will be familiar to most readers, he +relates how the name of Lady Hester Stanhope was as delightful to his +childish ears as that of Robinson Crusoe. Chief among the excitements of +his early days were the letters and presents of the Queen of the Desert, +who as a girl had been much with her grandmother, Lady Chatham, at +Burton Pynsent, and there had made the acquaintance of Miss Woodforde of +Taunton, afterwards Mrs. Kinglake. The tradition of her high spirit and +fine horsemanship still lingered in Somersetshire memories, but Kinglake +had heard nothing of her for many years, when, on arriving at Beyrout in +1835, he found that her name was in every mouth. Anxious to see this +romantic vision of his childhood, he wrote to Lady Hester, and asked if +she would receive his mother's son. A few days later, in response to a +gracious letter of invitation, Kinglake made his pilgrimage to +Jôon.</p> + +<p>The house at this time, after the storm and stress of the Egyptian +invasion, had the appearance of a deserted fortress, and fierce-looking +Albanian soldiers were hanging about the gates. Kinglake was conducted +to an inner apartment where, in the dim light, he perceived an Oriental +figure, clad in masculine costume, which advanced to meet him with many +and profound bows. The visitor began a polite speech which he had +prepared for his hostess, but presently discovered that the stranger was +only her Italian attendant, Lunardi, who had conferred on himself a +medical title and degree. Lady Hester had given orders that her guest +should rest and dine before being introduced to her, and he tells us +that, in spite of the homeliness of her domestic arrangements, he found +both the wine and the cuisine very good. After dinner he was ushered +into the presence of his hostess, who welcomed him cordially, and had +exactly the appearance of a prophetess, 'not the divine Sibyl of +Domenichino, but a good, business-like, practical prophetess.' Her face +was of astonishing whiteness, her dress a mass of white linen loosely +folded round her like a surplice. As he gazed upon her, he recalled the +stories that he had heard of her early days, of the capable manner in +which she had arranged the political banquets and receptions of Pitt, +and the awe with which the Tory country gentlemen had regarded her. That +awe had been transferred to the sheikhs and pashas of the East, but now +that, with age and poverty, her earthly power was fading away, she had +created for herself a spiritual kingdom.</p> + +<p>After a few inquiries about her Somersetshire friends, the +prophetess soared into loftier spheres, and discoursed of astrology and +other occult sciences. 'For hours and hours this wonderful white woman +poured forth her speech, for the most part concerning sacred and profane +mysteries.' From time to time she would swoop down to worldly topics, +'and then,' as her auditor frankly observes, 'I was interested.' She +described her life in the Arab camps, and explained that her influence +over the tribes was partly due to her long sight, a quality held in high +esteem in the desert, and partly to a brusque, downright manner, which +is always effective with Orientals. She professed to have fasted +physically and mentally for years, living only on milk, and reading +neither books nor newspapers. Her unholy claim to supremacy in the +spiritual kingdom was based, in Kinglake's opinion, on her fierce, +inordinate pride, perilously akin to madness, though her mind was too +strong to be entirely overcome. As a proof of Lady Hester's high +courage, he notes the fact that, after the fall of Acre, her house was +the only spot in Syria and Palestine where the will of Mehemet Ali and +his fierce lieutenant was not law. Ibrahim Pasha had demanded that the +Albanian soldiers should be given up, and their protectress had +challenged him to come and take them. This hillock of Dar Jôon +always kept its freedom as long as Chatham's granddaughter lived, and +Mehemet Ali confessed that the Englishwoman had given him more trouble +than all the insurgents of Syria. Kinglake did not see the famous sacred +mares, but before his departure he was shown the gardens by the Italian +secretary, who was in great distress of mind because he could not bring +himself to believe implicitly in his employer's divine attributes. He +said that Lady Hester was regarded with mingled respect and dislike by +the neighbours, whom she oppressed by her exactions. The few 'respected' +inhabitants of Mount Lebanon apparently claimed the right to avail +themselves of their neighbours' goods; and the White Queen's +establishment was supported by contributions from the surrounding +villages. This is quite a different account from that given by Dr. +Meryon, who always represents Lady Hester as a generous benefactress, +admired and adored in all the country-side.</p> + +<p>In 1836 Lady Hester discovered another mare's nest in the shape of a +legacy which she chose to believe was being kept from her by her +enemies. In August of this year she wrote to Dr. Meryon, who was then +living at Nice, and invited him to come and assist her in settling her +debts, and getting possession of this supposititious property. 'A woman +of high rank and good fortune,' she continues, 'who has built herself a <i>palais</i> +in a remote part of America, has announced her intention of passing the +rest of her life with me, so much has she been struck with my situation +and conduct. [Footnote: This was the Baroness de Feriat, who did not +carry out her intention.] She is nearly of my age, and thirty-seven +years ago--I being personally unknown to her--was so taken with my +general appearance, that she never could divest herself of the thoughts +of me, which have ever since pursued her. At last, informed by M. +Lamartine's book where I was to be found, she took this extraordinary +determination, and in the spring I expect her. She is now selling her +large landed estate, preparatory to her coming. She, as well as Leila +the mare, is in the prophecy. The beautiful boy has also written, and is +wandering over the face of the globe till destiny marks the period of +our meeting.... I am reckoned here the first politician in the world, +and by some a sort of prophet. Even the Emir wonders, and is astonished, +for he was not aware of this extraordinary gift; but yet all say--I mean +enemies--that I am worse than a lion when in a passion, and that they +cannot deny I have justice on my side.'</p> + +<p>After his former experience of Lady Hester's hospitality it is +surprising that the doctor should have been willing to accept this +invitation, and still more surprising that his wife should have +consented to accompany him to Syria. But the East was still 'a-calling,' +and the almost hypnotic influence which her ladyship exercised over her +dependants seems to have lost none of its efficacy. Accordingly, as soon +as the Meryons could arrange their affairs, they embarked at Marseilles, +landing at Beyrout on July 1, 1837. Here the doctor received a letter +from Lady Hester, recommending him to leave his family at Beyrout till +he could find a house for them at Sayda. 'For your sake,' she continued, +'I should ever wish to show civility to all who belong to you, but +caprice I will never interfere with, for from my early youth I have been +taught to despise it.' Here was signal proof that the past had not been +forgotten, and that war was still to be waged against the unfortunate +Mrs. Meryon. In defiance of Lady Hester's orders, the whole family +proceeded to Sayda, whence Dr. Meryon rode over to Dar Jôon. He +received a warm personal welcome, but his hostess persisted in her +statement that there was no house in the village fit for the reception +of his womenkind, as nearly all had been damaged by recent earthquakes. +It was finally arranged that Mrs. Meryon and her children should go for +the present to Mar Elias, which was then only occupied by the Prophet +Loustaunau.</p> + +<p>At this time Lady Hester's financial affairs were becoming +desperate, and she had even been reduced to selling some of her handsome +pelisses. Yet she still maintained between thirty and forty servants, +and when it was suggested to her that she might reduce her +establishment, she was accustomed to reply, 'But my rank!' Her +live-stock included the two sacred mares, three 'amblers,' five asses, a +flock of sheep, and a few cows. A herd of a hundred goats had recently +been slaughtered in one day, because their owner fancied that she was +being cheated by her goatherd. Now she decided to have the three +'amblers' shot, because the grooms treated them improperly. The +under-bailiff received orders to whisper into the ear of each horse +before his execution, 'You have worked enough upon the earth; your +mistress fears you might fall, in your old age, into the hands of cruel +men, and she therefore dismisses you from her service.' This order was +carried out to the letter, with imperturbable gravity.</p> + +<p>After a short experience of the inconvenience of riding to and fro +between Jôon and Mar Elias, Dr. Meryon persuaded his employer to +allow him to bring his family to a cottage in the village; but the +nearer the time approached for their arrival, the more she seemed to +regret having assented to the arrangement. Frequent and scathing were +her lectures upon the exigent ways of women, who, she argued, should be +simple automata, moved only by the will and guidance of their masters. +She lost no opportunity of throwing ridicule on Dr. Meryon's desire to +have his family near him, in order that he might pass his evenings with +them, pointing out that 'all sensible men take their meals with their +wives, and then retire to their own rooms to read, write, or do what +best pleases them. Nobody is such a fool as to moider away his time in +the slipslop conversation of a pack of women.' Petty jealousies, quite +inconsistent with her boasted philosophy, were perpetually tormenting +her. One of the many monopolies claimed by her was that of the privilege +of bell-ringing. The Mahometans, as is well known, never use bells in +private houses, the usual summons for servants being three claps of the +hands. But Lady Hester was a constant and vehement bell-ringer, and as +no one else in the country-side possessed house-bells, it was generally +believed that the use of them was a special privilege granted her by the +Porte. She was therefore secretly much annoyed when the Meryons presumed +to hang up bells in their new home. She made no sign of displeasure, but +one morning it was discovered that the ropes had been cut and the bells +carried off. Cross-examination of the servants elicited the fact that +one of Lady Hester's emissaries had arrived late at night, wrenched off +the bells, and taken them away. Some weeks later the Lady of Jôon +confessed that she had instigated the act, and declared that if the +Meryons' bells had hung much longer her own would not have been attended +to.</p> + +<p>Soon after the doctor's arrival, Lady Hester had dictated a letter +to Sir Francis Burdett, in whom she placed great confidence, informing +him of the property that she believed was being withheld from her, and +requesting him to make inquiries into the matter. When not engaged in +correspondence, discussing her debts, and scolding her servants, she was +pouring out floods of conversation, chiefly reminiscences of her youth +and diatribes against the men and manners of the present day, into the +ears of the long-suffering doctor. 'From her manner towards other +people,' he observes, 'it would have seemed that she was the only person +in creation privileged to abuse and to command; others had nothing to do +but to obey. She was haughty and overbearing, born to rule, impatient of +control, and more at her ease when she had a hundred persons to govern +than when she had only ten. Had she been a man and a soldier, she would +have been what the French call a <i>beau sabreur</i>, for never was any +one so fond of wielding weapons, and boasting of her capacity for using +them, as she was. In her bedroom she always had a mace, which was spiked +round the head, a steel battle-axe, and a dagger, but her favourite +weapon was the mace.' Absurd as it may sound, it was probably her +military vanity that led her to belittle the Duke of Wellington, of +whose reputation she seems to have felt some personal jealousy. Yet she +bears testimony to the esteem in which 'Arthur Wellesley' was held by +William Pitt.</p> + +<p>'I recollect, one day,' she told the doctor, 'Mr. Pitt came into the +drawing-room to me, and said, "Oh, how I have been bored by Sir Sydney +Smith coming with his box full of papers, and keeping me for a couple of +hours, when I had so much to do." I observed to him that heroes were +generally vain, and that Lord Nelson was so. "So he is," replied Mr. +Pitt, "but not like Sir Sydney. And how different is Arthur Wellesley, +who has just quitted me! He has given me such clear details upon affairs +in India; and he talked of them, too, as if he had been a surgeon of a +regiment, and had nothing to do with them; so that I know not which to +admire most, his modesty or his talents, and yet the fate of India +depends upon them." Then, doctor, when I recollect the letter he wrote +to Edward Bouverie, in which he said he could not come down to a ball +because his only corbeau coat was so bad he was ashamed to appear in it, +I reflect what a rise he has had in the world. He was at first nothing +but what hundreds of others are in a country town--he danced hard and +drank hard. His star has done everything for him, for he is not a great +general. He is no tactician, nor has he any of those great qualities +that make a Caesar, a Pompey, or even a Bonaparte. As for the battle of +Waterloo, both French and English have told me that it was a lucky +battle for him, but nothing more. I don't think he acted well at Paris, +nor did the soldiers like him.'</p> + +<p>About the end of October Lady Hester took to her bed, and did not +leave it till the following March. She had suffered from pulmonary +catarrh for several years, which disappeared in the summer, but returned +every winter with increased violence. Her practice of frequent bleeding +had brought on a state of complete emaciation, and left very little +blood in her body. If she had lived like other people, and trusted to +the balmy air of Syria, Dr. Meryon was of opinion that nothing serious +need have been apprehended from her illness. But she seldom breathed the +outer air, and took no exercise except an occasional turn in the garden. +She was always complaining that she could get nothing to eat; yet, in +spite of her profession (to Kinglake) that she lived entirely on milk, +we are told that her diet consisted of forcemeat balls, meat-pies, and +other heavy viands, and that she seldom remained half an hour without +taking nourishment of some kind. 'I never knew a human being who took +nourishment so frequently,' writes Dr. Meryon, 'and may not this in some +measure account for her frequent ill-humour?'</p> + +<p>During her illness the doctor read aloud Sir Nathaniel Wraxall's <i>Memoirs</i> +and the <i>Memoirs of a Peeress</i>, edited by Lady Charlotte Bury, +both of which books dealt with persons whom Lady Hester had known in her +youth. In return she regaled him with stories of her own glory, of Mr. +Pitt's virtues, of the objectionable habits of the Princess of Wales, +and of the meanness of the Regent in inviting himself to dinner with +gentlemen who could not afford to entertain him, the whole pleasantly +flavoured by animadversions on the social presumption of medical men, +and descriptions of the methods by which formerly they were kept in +their proper place by aristocratic patients. At this time, the beginning +of 1838, Lady Hester was anxiously expecting an answer from Sir Francis +Burdett about her property, and, hearing from the English consul at +Sayda that a packet had arrived for her from Beyrout, which was to be +delivered into her own hands, her sanguine mind was filled with the hope +of coming prosperity. But when the packet was opened, instead of the +long-expected missive from Sir Francis, it proved to be an official +statement from Colonel Campbell, Consul-General for Egypt, that in +consequence of an application made to the British Government by one of +Lady Hester's chief creditors, an order had come from Lord Palmerston +that her pension was to be stopped unless the debt was paid. When she +read the letter Dr. Meryon feared an outburst of fury, but Lady Hester, +who, for once, was beyond violence, began calmly to discuss the enormity +of the conduct both of Queen and Minister.</p> + +<p>'My grandfather and Mr. Pitt,' she said, 'did something to keep the +Brunswick family on the throne, and yet the granddaughter of the old +king, without hearing the circumstances of my getting into debt, or +whether the story is true, sends to deprive me of my pension in a +strange land, where I may remain and starve.... I should like to ask for +a public inquiry into my debts, and for what I have contracted them. Let +them compare the good I have done in the cause of humanity and science +with the Duke of Kent's debts. I wonder if Lord Palmerston is the man I +recollect--a young man from college, who was always hanging about +waiting to be introduced to Mr. Pitt. Mr. Pitt used to say, "Ah, very +well; we will ask him to dinner some day." Perhaps it is an old grudge +that makes him vent his spite.' Colonel Campbell's letter had given the +poor lady's heart, or rather her pride, a fatal stab, and the indignity +with which she had been treated preyed upon her health and spirits. She +now determined to send an ultimatum to the Queen, which was to be +published in the newspapers if ministers refused to lay it before her +Majesty. This document, which was dated February 12, 1838, ran as +follows:--</p> + +<p>'Your Majesty will allow me to say that few things are more +disgraceful and inimical to royalty than giving commands without +examining all their different bearings, and casting, without reason, an +aspersion upon the integrity of any branch of a family that had +faithfully served their country and the House of Hanover. As no +inquiries have been made of me of what circumstances induced me to incur +the debts alluded to, I deem it unnecessary to enter into any details on +the subject. I shall not allow the pension given by your royal +grandfather to be stopped by force; but I shall resign it for the +payment of my debts, and with it the name of British subject, and the +slavery that is at present annexed to it; and as your Majesty has given +publicity to the business by your orders to your consular agents, I +surely cannot be blamed for following your royal example.</p> + +<p>'HESTER LUCY STANHOPE.'</p> + +<p>This was accompanied by a long letter to the Duke of Wellington, in +which Lady Hester detailed her services in the East, and expressed her +indignation at the treatment she had received. She was now left with +only a few pounds upon which to maintain her house-hold until March, +when she could draw for £300, apparently the quarter's income from +a legacy left her by her brother, but of this sum £200 was due to +a Greek merchant at Beyrout. The faithful doctor collected all the money +he had in his house, about eleven pounds, and brought it to her for her +current expenses, but with her usual impracticability she gave most of +it away in charity. Still no letter came from Sir Francis Burdett, and +the unfortunate lady, old, sick, and wasted to a skeleton, lay on her +sofa and lamented over her troubles in a fierce, inhuman fashion, like a +wounded animal at bay. In the course of time a reply came from Lord +Palmerston, in which he stated that he had laid Lady Hester's letter +before the Queen, and explained to her Majesty the circumstances that +might be supposed to have led to her writing it. The communications to +which she referred were, he continued, suggested by nothing but a desire +to save her from the embarrassments that might arise if her creditors +were to call upon the Consul-General to act according to the strict line +of his duty. This letter did nothing towards assuaging Lady Hester's +wrath. In her reply she sarcastically observed:--</p> + +<p>'If your diplomatic despatches are all as obscure as the one that +now lies before me, it is no wonder that England should cease to have +that proud preponderance in her foreign relations which she once could +boast of.... It is but fair to make your lordship aware that, if by the +next packet there is nothing definitely settled respecting my affairs, +and I am not cleared in the eyes of the world of aspersions, +intentionally or unintentionally thrown upon me, I shall break up my +household, and build up the entrance-gate to my premises; there +remaining as if I was in a tomb till my character has been done justice +to, and a public acknowledgment put in the papers, signed and sealed by +those who have aspersed me. There is no trifling with those who have +Pitt blood in their veins upon the subject of integrity, nor expecting +that their spirit would ever yield to the impertinent interference of +consular authority, etc., etc.' It must be owned that there is a touch +of unconscious humour in Lady Hester's terrible threat of walling +herself up, a proceeding which would only make herself uncomfortable and +leave her enemies at peace. For the present matters went on much as +usual at Dar Jôon. No household expenses were curtailed, and +thirty native servants continued to cheat their mistress and idle over +their work. In March, that perambulating princeling, his Highness of +Pückler-Muskau, arrived at Sayda, whence he wrote a letter to Lady +Hester, begging to be allowed to pay his homage to the Queen of Palmyra +and the niece of the great Pitt. 'I have the presumption to believe, +madam,' he continued, 'that there must be some affinity of character +between us. For, like you, my lady, I look for our future salvation from +the East, where nations still nearer to God and to nature can alone, +some day, purify the rotten civilisation of decrepid Europe, in which +everything is artificial, and where we are menaced with a new kind of +barbarism--not that with which states begin, but with which they end. +Like you, madam, I believe that astrology is not an empty science, but a +lost one. Like you, I am an aristocrat by birth and by principle; +because I find a marked aristocracy in nature. In a word, madam, like +you, I love to sleep by day and be stirring by night. There I stop; for +in mind, energy of character, and in the mode of life, so singular and +so dignified, which you lead, not every one who would can resemble Lady +Hester Stanhope.'</p> + +<p>Lady Hester was flattered by this letter, and told the doctor that +he must ride into Sayda to see the prince, and tell him that she was too +ill to receive him at present, but would endeavour to do so a few weeks +later. The prince was established with his numerous suite in the house +of a merchant of Sayda. Mehemet Ali had given him a special firman, +requiring all official persons to treat him in a manner suitable to his +rank, his whole expenditure being defrayed by cheques on the Viceroy's +treasury. The prince, unlike most other distinguished travellers who +were treated with the same honour, took the firman strictly according to +the letter, and could boast of having traversed the whole of Egypt and +Syria with all the pomp of royalty, and without having expended a single +farthing. Dr. Meryon describes his Highness as a tall man of about fifty +years of age, distinguished by an unmistakable air of birth and +breeding. He wore a curious mixture of Eastern and Western costume, and +had a tame chameleon crawling about his pipe, with which he was almost +as much occupied as M. Lamartine with his lapdog. The prince stated that +he had almost made up his mind to settle in the East, since Europe was +no longer the land of liberty. 'I will build myself a house,' he said, +'get what I want from Europe, make arrangements for newspapers, books, +etc., and choose some delightful situation; but I think it will be on +Mount Lebanon.'</p> + +<p>In his volume of travels in the East called <i>Die Rückkehr</i>, +Prince Pückler-Muksau has given an amusing account of the +negotiations that passed between himself and Lady Hester on the subject +of his visit. For once the niece of Pitt had found her match in vanity +and arrogance; and if the prince's book had appeared in her lifetime, it +is certain that she would not long have survived it. His Highness +describes how he bided his time, as though he were laying siege to a +courted beauty, and almost daily bombarded the Lady of Jôon with +letters calculated to pique her curiosity by their frank and original +style. At last, 'in order to be rid of him,' as she jokingly said, Lady +Hester consented to receive him on a certain day, which, from his star, +she deemed propitious to their meeting. Thereupon the prince, who +intended that his visit should be desired, not suffered, wrote to say +that he was setting out for an expedition into the desert, but that on +his return he would come to Jôon, not for one day, but for a week. +This impertinence was rewarded by permission to come at his own time.</p> + +<p>Great preparations were made for the entertainment of this +distinguished visitor. The scanty contents of the store and china +cupboards were spread out before the lady of the house, who infused +activity into the most sluggish by smart strokes from her stick. The +epithets of beast, rascal, and the like, were dealt out with such +freedom and readiness, as to make the European part of her audience +sensible of the richness and variety of the Arabian language. On Easter +Monday, April 15, the prince, followed by a part of his suite, and five +mule-loads of baggage, rode into the courtyard. He wore an immense +Leghorn hat lined with green taffetas, a Turkish scarf over his +shoulders, and blue pantaloons of ample dimensions. From the excellent +fit of his Parisian boots, it was evident that he felt his pretensions +to a thoroughbred foot were now to be magisterially decided. The prince +has given his own impression of his hostess, whom he describes as a +thorough woman of the world, with manners of Oriental dignity and calm. +With her pale, regular features, dark, fiery eyes, great height, and +sonorous voice, she had the appearance of an ancient Sibyl; yet no one, +he declares, could have been more natural and unaffected in manner. She +told him that since she had lost her money, she had lived like a +dervish, and assimilated herself to the ways of nature. 'My roses are my +jewels,' she said, 'the sun and moon my clocks, fruit and water my food +and drink. I see in your face that you are a thorough epicure; how will +you endure to spend a week with me?' The prince, who had already dined, +replied that he found she did not keep her guests on fruit and water, +and assured her that English poverty was equivalent to German riches. He +spent six or seven hours <i>tête-a-tête</i> with his hostess +each evening of his stay, and declares that he was astonished at the +originality and variety of her conversation. He had the audacity to ask +her if the Arab chief who accompanied her to Palmyra had been her lover, +but she, not ill-pleased, assured him that there was no truth in the +report, which at one time had been generally believed. She said that the +Arabs regarded her neither as man or woman, but as a being apart.</p> + +<p>Before leaving, the prince introduced his 'harem,' consisting of two +Abyssinian slaves, to Lady Hester, and was presented, in his turn, to +the sacred mares, which had lost their beauty, and grown gross and +unwieldy under their <i>régime</i> of gentle exercise and +unlimited food. Leila licked the prince's hand when he caressed her, and +Leila's mistress was thereby convinced that her guest was a 'chosen +vessel.' She confided to him all her woes, the neglect of her relations +and the ill-treatment of the Government, and gave him copies of the +correspondence about her pension, which he promised to publish in a +German newspaper. To Dr. Meryon she waxed quite enthusiastic over his +Highness's personal attractions, the excellent cut of his coat, and the +handiness with which he performed small services. 'I could observe,' +writes the doctor, towards the end of the visit, 'that she had already +begun to obtain an ascendency over the prince, such as she never failed +to do over those who came within the sphere of her attraction; for he +was less lofty in his manner than he had been at first, and she seemed +to have gained in height, and to be more disposed to play the queen than +ever.'</p> + +<p>This, alas, was the last time that Lady Hester had the opportunity +of playing the queen, or entertaining a distinguished guest at Dar +Jôon. In June, when the packet brought no news of her imaginary +property, and no apology from Queen or Premier, she began at last to +despair. 'The die is cast,' she told Dr. Meryon, 'and the sooner you +take yourself off the better. I have no money; you can be of no use to +me--I shall write no more letters, and shall break up my establishment, +wall up my gate, and, with a boy and girl to wait upon me, resign myself +to my fate. Tell your family they may make their preparations, and be +gone in a month's time.' Early in July Sir Francis Burdett's +long-expected letter arrived, but brought with it no consolation. He +could tell nothing of the legacy, but wrote in the soothing, evasive +terms that might be supposed suitable to an elderly lady who was not +quite accountable for her ideas or actions. As there was now no hope of +any improvement in her affairs, Lady Hester decided to execute her +threat of walling up her gateway, a proceeding which, she was unable to +perceive, injured nobody but herself. She directed the doctor to pay and +dismiss her servants, with the exception of two maids and two men, and +then sent him to Beyrout to inform the French consul of her intention. +On his return to Jôon he found that Lady Hester had already hired +a vessel to take himself and his family from Sayda to Cyprus. He was +reluctant to leave her in solitude and wretchedness, but knowing that +when once her mind was made up, nothing could shake her resolution, he +employed the time that remained to him in writing her letters, setting +her house in order, and taking her instructions for commissions in +Europe. He also begged to be allowed to lend her as much money as he +could spare, and she consented to borrow a sum of 2000 piastres (about +£80), which she afterwards repaid.</p> + +<p>On July 30, 1838, the masons arrived, and the entrance-gate was +walled up with a kind of stone screen, leaving, however, a side-opening +just large enough for an ass or cow to enter, so that this +much-talked-of act of self-immurement was more an appearance than a +reality. On August 6, the faithful doctor took an affectionate leave of +the employer, who, as Prince Pückler-Muskau bears witness, was +accustomed to treat him with icy coldness, and sailed for western +climes. To the last, he tells us, Lady Hester dwelt with apparent +confidence on the approaching advent of the Mahedi, and still regarded +her mare Leila as destined to bear him into Jerusalem, with herself upon +Lulu at his side. It is to be hoped that the poor lady was able to buoy +herself up with this belief during the last and most solitary year of +her disappointed life. About once a month, up to the date of her death, +she corresponded with Dr. Meryon, who was again settled at Nice. Her +letters were chiefly taken up with commissions, and with shrewd comments +upon the new books that were sent out to her.</p> + +<p>'I should like to have Miss Pardoe's book on Constantinople,' she +writes in October, 1838, 'if it is come out for strangers (<i>i.e.</i> in +a French translation); for I fear I should never get through with it +myself. This just puts me in mind that one of the books I should like to +have would be Graham's <i>Domestic Medicine</i>; a good Red Book (<i>Peerage</i>, +I mean); and the book about the Prince of Wales. I have found out a +person who can occasionally read French to me; so if there was any very +pleasing French book, you might send it--but no Bonapartes or "present +times"--and a little <i>brochure</i> or two upon baking, pastry, +gardening, etc....</p> + +<p>'<i>Feb.</i> 9, 1839.--The book you sent me (<i>Diary of the Times of +George IV</i>., by Lady Charlotte Bury) is interesting only to those who +were acquainted with the persons named: all mock taste, mock feeling, +etc., but that is the fashion. "I am this, I am that"; who ever talked +such empty stuff formerly? I was never named by a well-bred person.... +Miss Pardoe is very excellent upon many subjects; only there is too much +of what the English like--stars, winds, black shades, soft sounds, +etc....</p> + +<p>'<i>May</i> 6.--Some one--I suppose you--sent me the <i>Life of Lord +Edward Fitzgerald</i>. It is <i>I</i> who could give a true and most +extraordinary history of all those transactions. The book is all stuff. +The duchess (Lord Edward's mother) was my particular friend, as was also +his aunt; I was intimate with all the family, and knew that noted +Pamela. All the books I see make me sick--only catchpenny nonsense. A +thousand thanks for the promise of my grandfather's letters; but the +book will be all spoilt by being edited by young men. First, they are +totally ignorant of the politics of my grandfather's age; secondly, of +the style of the language used at that period; and absolutely ignorant +of his secret reasons and intentions, and the <i>real</i> or apparent +footing he was upon with many people, friends or foes. I know all that +from my grandmother, who was his secretary, and, Coutts used to say, the +cleverest <i>man</i> of her time in politics and business.'</p> + +<p>This was the last letter that Dr. Meryon received from his old +friend and patroness. She slowly wasted away, and died in June 1839, no +one being aware of her approaching end except the servants about her. +The news of her death reached Beyrout in a few hours, and the English +consul, Mr. Moore, and an American missionary (Mr. Thomson, author of <i>The +Land and the Book</i>) rode over to Jôon to bury her. By her own +desire she was interred in a grave in her garden, where a son of the +Prophet Loustaunau had been buried some years before. Mr. Thomson has +described how he performed the last rites at midnight by the light of +lanterns and torches, and notes the curious resemblance between Lady +Hester's funeral service and that of the man she loved, Sir John Moore. +Together with the consul, he examined the contents of thirty-five rooms, +but found nothing but old saddles, pipes, and empty oil-jars, everything +of value having been long since plundered by the servants. The sacred +mares, now grown old and almost useless, were sold for a small sum by +public auction, and only survived for a short time their return to an +active life.</p> + +<p>In 1845 Dr. Meryon published his so-called <i>Memoirs of Lady +Hester Stanhope</i>, which are merely an account of her later years, and +a report of her table-talk at Dar Jôon. In 1846 he brought out her <i>Travels</i>, +which were advertised as the supplement and completion of the <i>Memoirs</i>. +From these works, and from passing notices of our heroine, we gain a +general impression of wasted talents and a disappointed life. That she +was more unhappy in her solitude than, in her unbending nature, she +would avow, observes her faithful friend and chronicler, the record of +the last years of her existence too plainly demonstrates. Although she +derived consolation in retirement from the retrospect of the part she +had played in her prosperity, still there were moments of poignant grief +when her very soul groaned within her. She was ambitious, and her +ambition had been foiled; she loved irresponsible command, but the time +had come when those over whom she ruled defied her; she was dictatorial +and exacting, but she had lost the influence which alone makes people +tolerate control. She incurred debts, and was doomed to feel the +degradation consequent upon them. She thought to defy her own nation, +and they hurled the defiance back upon her. She entertained visionary +projects of aggrandisement, and was met by the derision of the world. In +a word, Lady Hester died as she had lived, alone and miserable in a +strange land, bankrupt in affection and credit, because, in spite of her +great gifts and innate benevolence, her overbearing temper had alienated +friends and kinsfolk alike, and her pride could endure neither the +society of equals, nor the restraints and conventions of civilised life.<br> +</p> +<hr style="width: 100%; height: 2px;"><br> + +<p style="text-align: center;"><big><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a + name="MUSKAU"></a> <big>PRINCE PÜCKLER-MUSKAU IN ENGLAND</big></span></big><br> +<br> +</p> +<div style="text-align: center;"> </div> + +<p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><img + src="images/Muskau.jpg" title="PRINCE PÜCKLER-MUSKAU" + alt="PRINCE PÜCKLER-MUSKAU" style="width: 394px; height: 624px;"><br> +<br> +</p> +<div style="text-align: center;"> </div> +<div style="text-align: center;"> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 20%;"><br> +<span style="font-weight: bold;">PART I</span><br> +</div> + +<p>During the early and middle decades of the nineteenth century there +was no more original and picturesque figure among the minor celebrities +of Germany--one might almost say of Europe--than that of his Highness, +Hermann Ludwig Heinrich, Prince Pückler-Muskau. Throughout his long +career we find this princeling playing many parts--at once an imitation +Werter, a sentimental Don Juan, a dandy who out-dressed D'Orsay, a +sportsman and traveller of Münchhausen type, a fashionable author +who wrote German with a French accent and a warrior who seems to have +wandered out of the pages of mediæval romance. Yet with all his +mock-heroic notoriety, the <i>toller Pückler</i> was by no means +destitute of those practical qualities which tempered the Teutonic +Romanticism, even in its earliest and most extravagant developments. He +was skilled in all manly exercises, a brave soldier, an intelligent +observer, and--his most substantial claim to remembrance--the father of +landscape-gardening in Germany, a veritable magician who transformed +level wastes into wooded landscapes and made the sandy wildernesses +blossom like the rose.</p> + +<p>To English readers the prince's name was once familiar as the author +of <i>Briefe eines Verstorbenen</i> (Letters of a Dead Man), which +contain a lively account of his Highness' sojourn in England and Ireland +between the years 1826 and 1828. These letters, which were translated +into English under the title of <i>The Tour of a German Prince</i>, +made a sensation, favourable and otherwise, in the early 'thirties,' +owing to the candid fashion in which they dealt with our customs and our +countrymen. The book received the high honour of a complimentary review +from the pen of the aged Goethe. 'The writer appears to be a perfect and +experienced man of the world,' observes this distinguished critic; +'endowed with talents and a quick apprehension; formed by a varied +social existence, by travel and extensive connections. His journey was +undertaken very recently, and brings us the latest intelligence from the +countries which he has viewed with an acute, clear, and comprehensive +eye. We see before us a finely-constituted being, born to great external +advantages and felicities, but in whom a lively spirit of enterprise is +not united to constancy and perseverance; whence he experiences frequent +failure and disappointment.... The peculiarities of English manners and +habits are drawn vividly and distinctly, and without exaggeration. We +acquire a lively idea of that wonderful combination, that luxuriant +growth--of that insular life which is based in boundless wealth and +civil freedom, in universal monotony and manifold diversity; formal and +capricious, active and torpid, energetic and dull, comfortable and +tedious, the envy and derision of the world. Like other unprejudiced +travellers of modern times, our author is not very much enchanted with +the English form of existence: his cordial and sincere admiration is +often accompanied by unsparing censure. He is by no means inclined to +favour the faults and weaknesses of the English; and in this he has the +greatest and best among themselves upon his side.'</p> + +<p>As these Letters were not written until the prince had passed his +fortieth year, it will be necessary, before considering them in detail, +to give a brief sketch of his previous career. Hermann Ludwig was the +only son of Graf von Pückler of Schloss Branitz, and of his wife, +Clementine, born a Gräfin von Gallenberg, and heiress to the vast +estate of Muskau in Silesia. Both families were of immense antiquity, +the Pücklers claiming to trace their descent from Rüdiger von +Bechlarn, who figures in the <i>Nibelungenlied</i>. Our hero was born +at Muskau in October 1785, and spent, according to his own account, a +wretched and neglected childhood. His father was harsh, miserly, and +suspicious; his mother, who was only fifteen when her son was born, is +described as a frivolous little flirt. The couple, after perpetually +quarrelling for ten or twelve years, were divorced, by mutual consent, +in 1797, and the Gräfin shortly afterwards married one of her +numerous admirers, Graf von Seydewitz, with whom she lived as unhappily +as with her first husband. Her little son was educated at a Moravian +school, and in the holidays was left entirely to the care of the +servants. After a couple of years at the university of Leipzig, he +entered the Saxon army, and soon became notorious for his good looks, +his fine horsemanship, his extravagance, and his mischievous pranks. +Military discipline in time of peace proved too burdensome for the young +lieutenant, who, after quarrelling with his father, getting deeply into +debt, and embroiling himself with the authorities, threw up his +commission in 1804. Muskau having become much too hot to hold him, he +spent the next years in travelling about the Continent, always in +pecuniary difficulties, and seldom free from some sentimental +entanglement.</p> + +<p>In 1810 Graf Pückler died, and his son stepped into a splendid +inheritance. Like Prince Hal, the young Graf seems to have taken his new +responsibilities seriously, and to have devoted himself, with only too +much enthusiasm, to the development and improvement of his estates. In +the intervals of business he amused himself with an endless series of +love-affairs, his achievements in this respect, if his biographer may be +believed, more than equalling those of Jupiter and Don Giovanni put +together. Old and young, pretty and plain, noble and humble, native and +foreign, all were fish that came to the net of this lady-killer, who not +only vowed allegiance to nearly every petticoat that crossed his path, +but--a much more remarkable feat--kept up an impassioned correspondence +with a large selection of his charmers. After his death, a whole library +of love-letters was discovered among his papers, all breathing forth +adoration, ecstasy or despair, and addressed to the Julies, Jeannettes, +or Amalies who succeeded one another so rapidly in his facile +affections. These documents, for the most part carefully-corrected +drafts of the originals, were indorsed, 'Old love-letters, to be used +again if required!'</p> + +<p>In 1813 the trumpet of war sounded the call to arms, and the young +Graf entered the military service of Prussia, and was appointed +aide-de-camp to the Duke of Saxe-Weimar. He distinguished himself in the +Netherlands, was present at the taking of Cassel, and in the course of +the campaign played a part in a new species of duel. A French colonel of +Hussars, so the story goes, rode out of the enemy's lines, and +challenged any officer in the opposing army to single combat. +Pückler accepted the challenge, and the duel was fought on +horseback--presumably with sabres--between the ranks of the two armies, +the soldiers on either side applauding their chosen champion. At length, +after a fierce struggle, Germany triumphed, and the brave Frenchman bit +the dust. Whether the tale be true or apocryphal, it is certain that +numerous decorations were conferred upon the young officer for his +brilliant services, that he was promoted to the rank of colonel, and +appointed civil and military governor of Brüges. Pückler took +part in the triumphal entry of the Allies into Paris, and afterwards +accompanied the Duke of Saxe-Weimar to London, where he shared in all +the festivities of the wonderful season of 1815, studied the English +methods of landscape-gardening, and made an unsuccessful attempt to +marry a lady of rank and fortune.</p> + +<p>After his return to Muskau the Graf continued his work on his +estate, which, in spite of a sandy soil and other disadvantages, soon +became one of the show-places of Germany. Having discovered a spring of +mineral water, he built a pump-room, a theatre, and a gaming-saloon, and +named the establishment Hermannsbad. The invalids who frequented the +Baths must have enjoyed a lively 'cure,' for besides theatrical +performances, illuminations, fireworks and steeplechases, the Graf was +always ready to oblige with some sensational achievement. On one +occasion he leapt his horse over the parapet of a bridge into the river, +and swam triumphantly ashore; while on another he galloped up the steps +of the Casino, played and won a <i>coup</i> at the tables without +dismounting, and then galloped down again, arriving at the bottom with a +whole neck, but considerable damage to his horse's legs.</p> + +<p>In 1816 Pückler became acquainted with Lucie, Gräfin von +Pappenheim, a daughter of Prince Hardenberg, Chancellor of Prussia. The +Gräfin, a well-preserved woman of forty, having parted from her +husband, was living at Berlin with her daughter, Adelheid, afterwards +Princess Carolath, and her adopted daughter, Herminie Lanzendorf. The +Graf divided his attentions equally between the three ladies for some +time, but on inquiring of a friend which would make the greatest +sensation in Berlin, his marriage to the mother or to one of the +daughters, and being told his marriage to the mother, at once proposed +to the middle-aged Gräfin, and was joyfully accepted. The reason +for this inappropriate match probably lay deeper than the desire to +astonish the people of Berlin, for Pückler, with all his surface +romanticism, had a keen eye to the main chance. His Lucie had only a +moderate dower, but the advantage of being son-in-law to the Chancellor +of Prussia could hardly be overestimated. Again, the Graf seems to have +imagined that in a marriage of convenience with a woman nine years older +than himself, he would be able to preserve the liberty of his bachelor +days, while presenting the appearance of domestic respectability.</p> + +<p>As soon as the trifling formality of a divorce from Count Pappenheim +had been gone through, the marriage took place at Muskau, to the +accompaniment of the most splendid festivities. As may be supposed, the +early married life of the ill-assorted couple was a period of anything +but unbroken calm. Scarcely had the Graf surrendered his liberty than he +fell passionately in love with his wife's adopted daughter, Helmine, a +beautiful girl of eighteen, the child, it was believed, of humble +parents. Frederick William III. of Prussia was one of her admirers, and +had offered to marry her morganatically, and create her Herzogin von +Breslau. But Helmine gave her royal suitor no encouragement, and he soon +consoled himself with the Princess Liegnitz. Lucie spared no pains to +marry off the inconvenient beauty, but Pückler frustrated all her +efforts, implored her not to separate him from Helmine, and suggested an +arrangement based upon the domestic policy of Goethe's <i>Wahlverwandschaften</i>. +But Lucie was unreasonable enough to object to a <i>ménage +à trois</i>, and at length succeeded in marrying Helmine to a +Lieutenant von Blucher.</p> + +<p>In 1822 the Graf accompanied his father-in-law to the Congress of +Aix-la-Chapelle, and shortly afterwards was raised to princely rank, in +compensation for the losses he had sustained through the annexation of +Silesia by Prussia. By this time the prince's financial affairs were in +so desperate a condition, thanks to the follies of his youth and the +building mania of his manhood, that a desperate remedy was required to +put them straight again. Only one expedient presented itself, and this +Lucie, with a woman's self-sacrifice, was the first to propose. During a +short absence from Muskau she wrote to her husband to offer him his +freedom, in order that he might be enabled to marry a rich heiress, +whose fortune could be used to clear off the liabilities that pressed so +heavily on the estate. The prince at first refused to take advantage of +this generous offer. He had become accustomed to his elderly wife, who +acted as his colleague and helper in all that concerned his idolised +Muskau, and upon whose sympathy and advice he had learned to depend. But +as time went on he grew accustomed to the idea of an amicable divorce, +and at length persuaded himself that such a proceeding need make no real +difference to Lucie's position; in fact, that it would be an advantage +to her as well as to himself. For years past he had regarded her rather +in the light of a maternal friend than of a wife, and the close <i>camaraderie</i> +that existed between them would remain unbroken by the advent of a young +bride whom Lucie would love as her own child. A divorce, it must be +remembered, was a common incident of everyday life in the Germany of +that epoch. As we have seen, Pückler's father and mother had +dissolved their marriage, and Lucie had been divorced from her first +husband, while her father had been married three times, and had +separated from each of his wives.</p> + +<p>The matter remained in abeyance for a year or two, and it was not +until 1826, when the prince probably felt that he had no time to lose, +that the long-talked-of divorce actually took place. This curious +couple, who appeared to be more tenderly attached to each other now than +they had ever been before, took a touching farewell in Berlin. The +princess then returned to Muskau, where she remained during her +ex-husband's absence as his agent and representative, while the prince +set out for England, which country was supposed to offer the best +hunting-ground for heiresses. Week by week during his tour, Pückler +addressed to his faithful Lucie long, confidential letters, filled with +observations of the manners and customs of the British barbarians, +together with minute descriptions of his adventures in love and +landscape-gardening.</p> + +<p>The prince, though at this time in his forty-first year, was still, +to all appearance, in the prime of life, still an adept in feats of +skill and strength, and not less romantic and susceptible than in the +days of his youth. With his high rank, his vast though encumbered +estates, his picturesque appearance, and his wide experience in affairs +of the heart, he anticipated little difficulty in carrying off one of +the most eligible of British heiresses; but he quite forgot to include +the hard-hearted, level-headed British parent in his reckoning. The +prince's first letter to Lucie, who figures in the published version as +Julie, is dated Dresden, September 7, 1826, and begins in right +Werterian strain:--</p> + +<p>'My dear friend--The love you showed me at our parting made me so +happy and so miserable that I cannot yet recover from it. Your sad image +is ever before me; I still read deep sorrow in your looks and in your +tears, and my own heart tells me too well what yours suffered. May God +grant us a meeting as joyful as our parting was sorrowful! I can only +repeat what I have so often told you, that if I felt myself without you, +my dearest friend, in the world, I could enjoy none of its pleasures +without an alloy of sadness; that if you love me, you will above all +things watch over your health, and amuse yourself as much as you can by +varied occupation.' There are protestations of this kind in nearly every +letter, for the prince's pen was always tipped with fine sentiment and +vows of eternal devotion came more easily to him than the ordinary +civilities of everyday life to the average man.</p> + +<p>A visit to Goethe at Weimar, on the traveller's leisurely journey +towards England, furnished his notebook with some interesting specimens +of the old poet's conversation. 'He received me,' writes the prince, 'in +a dimly-lighted room, whose <i>clair obscure</i> was arranged with some <i>coquetterie</i>; +and truly the aspect of the beautiful old man, with his Jovelike +countenance, was most stately.... In the course of conversation we came +to Walter Scott. Goethe was not very enthusiastic about the Great +Unknown. He said he doubted not that he wrote his novels in the same +sort of partnership as existed between the old painters and their +pupils; that he furnished the plot, the leading thoughts, the skeleton +of the scenes, that he then let his pupils fill them up, and retouched +them at the last. It seemed almost to be his opinion that it was not +worth the while of a man of Scott's eminence to give himself up to such +a number of minute and tedious details. "Had I," he said, "been able to +lend myself to the idea of mere gain, I could formerly have sent such +things anonymously into the world, with the aid of Lenz and others--nay, +I could still, as would astonish people not a little, and make them +puzzle their brains to find out the author; but after all, they would be +but manufactured wares...."</p> + +<p>'He afterwards spoke of Lord Byron with great affection, almost as a +father would of a son, which was extremely grateful to my enthusiastic +feelings for this great poet. He contradicted the silly assertion that <i>Manfred</i> +was only an echo of his <i>Faust</i>. He extremely regretted that he +had never become personally acquainted with Lord Byron, and severely and +justly reproached the English nation for having judged their illustrious +countryman so pettily, and understood him so ill.' The conversation next +turned on politics, and Goethe reverted to his favourite theory that if +every man laboured faithfully, honestly, and lovingly in this sphere, +were it great or small, universal well-being and happiness would not +long be wanting, whatever the form of government. The prince urged in +reply that a constitutional government was first necessary to call such +a principle into life, and adduced the example of England in support of +his argument. 'Goethe immediately replied that the choice of the example +was not happy, for that in no country was selfishness more omnipotent; +that no people were perhaps essentially less humane in their political +or their private relations; that salvation came, not from without, by +means of forms of government, but from within, by the wise moderation +and humble activity of each man in his own circle; and that this must +ever be the chief source of human felicity, while it was the easiest and +the simplest to attain.'</p> + +<p>The prince seems always to have played the part of Jonah on board +ship, and on the occasion of his journey to England, he had a terrible +passage of forty hours, from Rotterdam to the London Docks. As soon as +he could get his carriage, horses, and luggage clear of the customs, he +hastened to the Clarendon Hotel, where he had stayed during his first +visit to London. Unlike the American, N. P. Willis, he had come armed +with many prejudices against England and the English, few of which he +succeeded in losing during the two years of his sojourn among us. In his +first letter from London, dated October 5, 1826, he writes: 'London is +now so utterly dead to elegance and fashion that one hardly meets a +single equipage, and nothing remains of the <i>beau monde</i> but a few +ambassadors. The huge city is at the same time full of fog and dirt, and +the macadamised streets are like well-worn roads. The old pavement has +been torn up, and replaced by small pieces of granite, the interstices +between which are filled up with gravel; this renders the riding more +easy, and diminishes the noise, but on the other hand changes the town +into a sort of quagmire.' The prince comments favourably on the +improvements that had recently been carried out by Nash the architect, +more especially as regards Regent Street and Portland Place, and +declares that the laying out of the Regent's Park is 'faultless,' +particularly in the disposition of the water.</p> + +<p>The comfort and luxury of English hotels, as well as of private +houses, is a subject on which the traveller frequently enlarges, and in +this first letter he assures his Lucie that she would be delighted with +the extreme cleanliness of the interiors, the great convenience of the +furniture, and the good manners of the serving-people, though he admits +that, for all that pertains to luxury, the tourist pays about six times +as much as in Germany. 'The comfort of the inns,' he continues, 'is +unknown on the Continent; on your washing-table you find, not one +miserable water-bottle with a single earthenware jug and basin, and a +long strip of towel, but positive tubs of porcelain in which you may +plunge half your body; taps which instantly supply you with streams of +water at pleasure; half-a-dozen wide towels, a large standing mirror, +foot-baths and other conveniences of the toilet, all of equal elegance.'</p> + +<p>The prince took advantage of the dead season to explore the city and +other unfashionable quarters of the town. He was delighted with the +excellent side-pavements, the splendid shops, the brilliant gas-lamps, +and above all (like Miss Edgeworth's Rosamund) with 'the great glass +globes in the chemists' windows, filled with liquid of a deep red, blue +or green, the light of which is visible for miles(!)' Visits to the +Exchange, the Bank, and the Guildhall were followed by a call on +Rothschild, 'the Grand Ally of the Grand Alliance,' at his house of +business. 'On my presenting my card,' says our hero, 'he remarked +ironically that we were lucky people who could afford to travel about, +and take our pleasure, while he, poor man, had such a heavy burden to +bear. He then broke out into bitter complaints that every poor devil who +came to England had something to ask of him.... After this the +conversation took a political turn, and we of course agreed that Europe +could not subsist without him; he modestly declined our compliments, and +said, smiling, 'Oh no, you are only jesting; I am but a servant, with +whom people are pleased because he manages their affairs well, and to +whom they allow some crumbs to fall as an acknowledgment.'</p> + +<p>On October 19 the prince went to Newmarket for the races. During his +stay he was introduced to a rich merchant of the neighbourhood, who +invited him to spend a couple of days at his country-house. He gives +Lucie a minute account of the manners and customs of an English <i>ménage</i>, +but these are only interesting to the modern reader in so far as they +have become obsolete. For example: 'When you enter the dining-room, you +find the whole of the first course on the table, as in France. After the +soup is removed, and the covers are taken off, every man helps the dish +before him, and offers some to his neighbour; if he wishes for anything +else, he must ask across the table, or send a servant for it, a very +troublesome custom.... It is not usual to take wine without drinking to +another person. If the company is small, and a man has drunk with +everybody, but happens to wish for more wine, he must wait for the +dessert, if he does not find in himself courage to brave custom.'</p> + +<p>On his return to town the prince, who had been elected a member of +the Travellers' Club, gives a long dissertation on English club life, +not forgetting to dwell on the luxury of all the arrangements, the +excellent service, and the methodical fashion in which the gaming-tables +were conducted. 'In no other country,' he declares, 'are what are here +emphatically called "business habits" carried so extensively into social +and domestic life; the value of time, of order, of despatch, of routine, +are nowhere so well understood. This is the great key to the most +striking, national characteristics. The quantity of material objects +produced and accomplished--<i>the work done</i>--in England exceeds all +that man ever effected. The causes that have produced these results have +as certainly given birth to the dulness, the contracted views, the +inveterate prejudices, the unbounded desire for, and deference to wealth +which characterise the great mass of Englishmen.'</p> + +<p>During this first winter in London the prince was a regular +attendant at the theatres, and many were the dramatic criticisms that he +sent to his 'friend' at Muskau. He saw Liston in the hundred and second +representation of Paul Pry, and at Drury Lane found, to his amazement +that Braham, whom he remembered as an elderly man in 1814, was still +first favourite. 'He is the genuine representative of the English style +of singing,' writes our critic, 'and in popular songs is the adored idol +of the public. One cannot deny him great power of voice and rapidity of +execution, but a more abominable style it is difficult to conceive.... +The most striking feature to a foreigner in English theatres is the +natural coarseness and brutality of the audiences. The consequence is +that the higher and more civilised classes go only to the Italian Opera, +and very rarely visit their national theatre. English freedom has +degenerated into the rudest licence, and it is not uncommon in the midst +of the most affecting part of a tragedy, or the most charming cadenza of +a singer, to hear some coarse expression shouted from the gallery in a +stentor voice. This is followed, either by loud laughter and applause, +or by the castigation and expulsion of the offender.'</p> + +<p>The poor prince saw Mozart's <i>Figaro</i> announced for performance +at Drury Lane, and looked forward to hearing once more the sweet +harmonies of his Vaterland. 'What, then, was my astonishment,' he +exclaims, in justifiable indignation, 'at the unheard-of treatment which +the masterpiece of the immortal composer has received at English hands! +You will hardly believe me when I tell you that neither the count, the +countess, nor Figaro sang; these parts were given to mere actors, and +their principal airs were sung by other singers. To add to this the +gardener roared out some interpolated English popular songs, which +suited Mozart's music just as a pitch-plaster would suit the face of the +Venus de' Medici. The whole opera was, moreover, arranged by a certain +Mr. Bishop; that is, adapted to English ears by means of the most +tasteless and shocking alterations. The English national music, the +coarse, heavy melodies of which can never be mistaken for an instant, +has to me, at least, something singularly offensive, an expression of +brutal feeling both in pain and pleasure that smacks of "roast-beef, +plum-pudding, and porter."'</p> + +<p>Another entertainment attended by our hero about this time was the +opening of Parliament by George IV., who had not performed this ceremony +for several years. 'The king,' we are told, 'looked pale and bloated, +and was obliged to sit on the throne for a considerable time before he +could get breath enough to read his speech. During this time he turned +friendly glances and condescending bows towards some favoured ladies. On +his right stood Lord Liverpool, with the sword of state and the speech +in his hand, and the Duke of Wellington on his left. All three looked so +miserable, so ashy-grey and worn out, that never did human greatness +appear to me so little worth.... In spite of his feebleness, George IV. +read his <i>banale</i> speech with great dignity and a fine voice, but +with that royal nonchalance which does not concern itself with what his +Majesty promises, or whether he is sometimes unable to decipher a word. +It was very evident that the monarch was heartily glad when the <i>corvée</i> +was over.'</p> + +<p>In one of his early letters the traveller gives his friend the +following account of the manner in which he passes his day: 'I rise +late, read three or four newspapers at breakfast, look in my +visiting-book to see what visits I have to pay, and either drive to pay +them in my cabriolet, or ride. In the course of these excursions, I +sometimes catch the enjoyment of the picturesque; the struggle of the +blood-red sun with the winter fogs often produces wild and singular +effects of light. After my visits I ride for several hours about the +beautiful environs of London, return when it grows dark, dress for +dinner, which is at seven or eight, and spend the evening either at the +theatre or some small party. The ludicrous routs--at which one hardly +finds standing-room on the staircase--have not yet commenced. In +England, however, except in a few diplomatic houses, you can go nowhere +in the evening without a special invitation.' The prince seems to have +been bored at most of the parties he attended; partly, perhaps, out of +pique at finding himself, so long accustomed to be the principal +personage in his little kingdom of Muskau, eclipsed in influence and +wealth by many a British commoner. Few persons that he met in the London +of that day amused him more than the great Rothschild, with whom he +dined more than once at the banker's suburban villa. Of one of these +entertainments he writes: 'Mr. Rothschild was in high good-humour, +amusing and talkative. It was diverting to hear him explain to us the +pictures round his room (all portraits of the sovereigns of Europe, +presented through their ambassadors), and talk of the originals as his +very good friends, and in a certain sense his equals. "Yes," said he, +"the Prince of ----- once pressed me for a loan, and in the same week on +which I received his autograph letter, his father wrote to me also from +Rome, to beg me, for Heaven's sake, not to have any concern in it, for +that I could not have to do with a more dishonest man than his son...." +He concluded by modestly calling himself the dutiful and generously paid +agent and servant of these high potentates, all of whom he honoured +equally, let the state of politics be what it might; for, said he, +laughing, "I never like to quarrel with my bread and butter." It shows +great prudence in Mr. Rothschild to have accepted neither title nor +order, and thus to have preserved a far more respectable independence. +He doubtless owes much to the good advice of his extremely amiable and +judicious wife, who excels him in tact and knowledge of the world, +though not, perhaps, in acuteness and talents for business.'</p> + +<p>Although the prince had not as yet entered the ranks of authors, he +was always interested in meeting literary people, such as Mr. Hope, +author of <i>Anastasius</i>, Mr. Morier of <i>Hadji Baba</i> fame, and +Lady Charlotte Bury, who had exchanged the celebrity of a beauty for +that of a fashionable novelist. 'I called on Lady Charlotte,' he says, +'the morning after meeting her, and found everything in her house brown, +in every possible shade; furniture, curtains, carpets, her own and her +children's dresses, presented no other colour. The room was without +looking-glasses or pictures, and its only ornaments were casts from the +antique.... After I had been there some time, the celebrated publisher, +Constable, entered. This man has made a fortune by Walter Scott's +novels, though, as I was told, he refused his first and best, <i>Waverley</i>, +and at last gave but a small sum for it. I hope the charming Lady +Charlotte had better cause to be satisfied with him.' Towards the end of +December, his Highness's head-gardener, Rehde, a very important +functionary at Muskau, arrived in London to be initiated into the +mysteries of English landscape-gardening. Together the two enthusiasts, +master and man, made a tour of some of the principal show-places of +England, including Stanmore Priory, Woburn Abbey, Cashiobury, Blenheim, +Stowe, Eaton, Warwick, and Kenilworth, besides many of lesser note. At +the end of the excursion, which lasted three weeks, the prince declared +that even he was beginning to feel satiated with the charms of English +parks. On his return to London he was invited to spend a few days with +Lord Darnley at Cobham, and writes thence some further impressions of +English country-house life. He was a little perturbed at being publicly +reminded by his elderly host that they had made each other's +acquaintance thirty years before.</p> + +<p>'Now, as I was in frocks at the time he spoke of,' observes the +prince, 'I was obliged to beg for a further explanation, though I cannot +say I was much delighted at having my age so fully discussed before all +the company, for you know I claim to look not more than thirty. However, +I could not but admire Lord Darnley's memory. He recollected every +circumstance of his visit to my parents with the Duke of Portland, and +recalled to me many a little forgotten incident.'</p> + +<p>The <i>vie de château</i> the traveller considered the most +agreeable side of English life, by reason of its freedom, and the +absence of those wearisome ceremonies which in Germany oppressed both +host and guests. The English custom of being always <i>en +évidence</i>, however, occasioned him considerable surprise. +'Strangers,' he observes, 'have generally only one room allotted to +them, and Englishmen seldom go into this room except to sleep, and to +dress twice a day, which, even without company, is always <i>de rigueur</i>; +for all meals are usually taken in public, and any one who wants to +write does it in the library. There, also, those who wish to converse, +give each other <i>rendezvous</i>, to avoid the rest of the society. +Here you have an opportunity of gossiping for hours with the young +ladies, who are always very literarily inclined. Many a marriage is thus +concocted or destroyed between the <i>corpus juris</i> on the one side, +and Bouffler's works on the other, while fashionable novels, as a sort +of intermediate link, lie on the tables in the middle.</p> + +<p>Early in February the prince paid a visit to Brighton, where he made +the acquaintance of Count D'Orsay, and was entertained by Mrs. +Fitzherbert. He gives a jaundiced account of two entertainments, a +public ball and a musical <i>soirée</i>, which he attended while +at Brighton, declaring--probably with some truth--that the latter is one +of the greatest trials to which a foreigner can be exposed in England. +'Every mother,' he explains, 'who has grown-up daughters, for whom she +has had to pay large sums to the music-master, chooses to enjoy the +satisfaction of having the youthful talent admired. There is nothing, +therefore, but quavering and strumming right and left, so that one is +really overpowered and unhappy; and even if an Englishwoman has a +natural capacity for singing, she seldom acquires either style or +science. The men are much more agreeable <i>dilettanti</i>, for they at +least give one the diversion of a comical farce. That a man should +advance to the piano with far greater confidence than a David, strike +with his forefinger the note which he thinks his song should begin with, +and then <i>entonner</i> like a thunder-clap (generally a tone or two +lower than the pitch), and sing through a long aria without an +accompaniment of any kind, except the most wonderful distortions of +face, is a thing one must have seen to believe it possible, especially +in the presence of at least fifty people.'</p> + +<p>By the middle of April the season had begun in town, and the prince +soon found himself up to the eyes in invitations for balls, dinners, +breakfasts, and <i>soirées</i>. We hear of him dining with the +Duke of Clarence, to meet the Duchess of Kent and her daughter; +assisting at the Lord Mayor's banquet, which lasted six hours, and at +which the chief magistrate made six-and-twenty speeches, long and short; +breakfasting with the Duke of Devonshire at Chiswick, being nearly +suffocated at the routs of Lady Cowper and Lady Jersey, and attending +his first ball at Almack's, in which famous assemblage his expectations +were woefully disappointed. 'A large, bare room,' so runs his +description, 'with a bad floor, and ropes round it, like the space in an +Arab camp parted off for horses; two or three badly-furnished rooms at +the side, in which the most wretched refreshments are served, and a +company into which, in spite of all the immense difficulty of getting +tickets, a great many nobodies had wriggled; in which the dress was as +tasteless as the <i>tournure</i> was bad--this was all. In a word, a +sort of inn-entertainment--the music and lighting the only good things. +And yet Almack's is the culminating point of the English world of +fashion.'</p> + +<p>Unfortunately for his readers, the prince was rather an observer +than an auditor; for he describes what he sees vividly enough, but +seldom takes the trouble to set down the conversation that he hears. +Perhaps he thought it hardly worth recording, for he complains that in +England politics had become the main ingredient in social intercourse, +that the lighter and more frivolous pleasures suffered by the change, +and that the art of conversation would soon be entirely lost. 'In this +country,' he unkindly adds, 'I should think it [the art of conversation] +never existed, unless, perhaps, in Charles II.'s time. And, indeed, +people here are too slavishly subject to established usages, too +systematic in all their enjoyments, too incredibly kneaded up with +prejudices; in a word, too little vivacious to attain to that unfettered +spring and freedom of spirit, which must ever be the sole basis of +agreeable society. I must confess that I know none more monotonous, nor +more persuaded of its own pre-eminence than the highest society of this +country. A stony, marble-cold spirit of caste and fashion rules all +classes, and makes the highest tedious, the lowest ridiculous.'</p> + +<p>In spite of his dislike to politics as a subject of conversation, +his Highness attended debates at the House of Lords and the House of +Commons, and was so keenly interested in what he heard that he declared +the hours passed like minutes. Canning had just been intrusted by George +IV. with the task of forming a government, but had promptly been +deserted by six members of the former Ministry, including Wellington, +Lord Eldon, and Peel, who were now accused of having resigned in +consequence of a cabal or conspiracy against the constitutional +prerogative of the king to change his ministers at his own pleasure. In +the House of Commons the prince heard Peel's attack on Canning and the +new government, which was parried by Brougham. 'In a magnificent speech, +which flowed on like a clear stream, Brougham,' we are told, 'tried to +disarm his opponent; now tortured him with sarcasms; now wrought upon +the sensibility, or convinced the reason, of his hearers. The orator +closed with the solemn declaration that he was perfectly impartial; that +he <i>could</i> be impartial, because it was his fixed determination +never, and on no terms, to accept a place in the administration of the +kingdom.... [Footnote: In 1831 Brougham accepted office as Lord +Chancellor.] Canning, the hero of the day, now rose. If his predecessor +might be compared to a dexterous and elegant boxer, Canning presented +the image of a finished antique gladiator. All was noble, simple, +refined; then suddenly his eloquence burst forth like lightning-grand +and all-subduing. His speech was, from every point of view, the most +complete, as well as the most irresistibly persuasive--the crown and +glory of the debate.'</p> + +<p>On the following day the prince heard some of the late ministers on +their defence in the House of Lords. 'Here,' he observes, 'I saw the +great Wellington in terrible straits. He is no orator, and was obliged +to enter upon his defence like an accused person. He was considerably +agitated; and this senate of his country, though composed of men whom +individually, perhaps, he did not care for, appeared more imposing to +him <i>en masse</i> than Napoleon and his hundred thousands. He +stammered much, interrupted and involved himself, but at length he +brought the matter tolerably to this conclusion, that there was no +"conspiracy." He occasionally said strong things--probably stronger than +he meant, for he was evidently not master of his material. Among other +things, the following words pleased me extremely: "I am a soldier and no +orator. I am utterly deficient in the talents requisite to play a part +in this great assembly. I must be more than insane if I ever entertained +the thought, of which I am accused, of becoming Prime Minister."... +[Footnote: In January 1828 the duke became Prime Minister.] When I +question myself as to the total impression of this day, I must confess +that it was at once elevating and melancholy--the former when I fancied +myself an Englishman, the latter when I felt myself a German. This +twofold senate of the people of England, in spite of all the defects and +blemishes common to human institutions, is yet grand in the highest +degree; and in contemplating its power and operation thus near at hand, +one begins to understand why it is that the English nation is, as yet, +the first on the face of the earth.'</p> + +<p>The traveller was by no means exclusively occupied in hearing and +seeing new things. With that strain of practicality which contrasted so +oddly with his sentimental and romantic temperament, he kept firmly +before his eyes the main object of his visit to England. He had +determined at the outset not to sell himself and his title for less than +£50,000, but he confesses that, as time passed on, his demands +became much more modest. His matrimonial ventures were all faithfully +detailed to the presumably sympathising Lucie, for whose sake, the +prince persuaded himself, he was far more anxious for success than for +his own. But he had not counted on the many obstacles with which he +found himself confronted, chief among them being his relations with his +former wife. It was known that the ex-princess was still living at +Muskau with all the rights and privileges of a <i>chátelaine</i>, +while the prince never disguised his attachment to her, and openly kept +her portrait on his table. English mothers who would have welcomed him +as a son-in-law were led to believe that the divorce was only a blind, +and that the prince's marriage would be actually, if not legally, a +bigamous union. The satirical papers represented him as a +fortune-hunter, a Bluebeard who had ill-treated his first wife, and +declared that he had proposed for the hand of the dusky Empress of +Hayti, then on a visit to Europe.</p> + +<p>Still our hero obstinately pursued his quest, laying siege to the +heart of every presentable-looking heiress to whom he was introduced, +and if attention to the art of the toilet could have gained him a rich +bride, he would not long have been unsuccessful. In dress he took the +genuine interest and delight of the dandy of the period, and marvellous +are the descriptions of his costume that he sends to Lucie. For morning +visits, of which he sometimes paid fifty in one day, he wore his hair +dyed a beautiful black, a new hat, a green neckerchief with gaily +coloured stripes, a yellow cashmere waistcoat with metal buttons, an +olive-green frock-coat and iron-grey pantaloons. On other occasions he +is attired in a dark-brown coat, with a velvet collar, a white +neckerchief, in which a thin gold watch-chain is entwined, a waistcoat +with a collar of <i>cramoisie</i> and gold stars, an under-waistcoat of +white satin, embroidered with gold flowers, full black pantaloons, spun +silk stockings, and short square shoes. Style such as this could only be +maintained at a vast outlay, from the German point of view, the week's +washing-bill alone amounting to an important sum. According to the +prince's calculation, a London exquisite, during the season of 1827, +required every week twenty shirts, twenty-four pocket-handkerchiefs, +nine or ten pairs of summer trousers, thirty neckerchiefs, a dozen +waistcoats and stockings <i>à discértion</i>. 'I see your +housewifely ears aghast, my good Lucie,' he writes, 'but as a dandy +cannot get on without dressing three or four times a day, the affair is +quite simple.'</p> + +<p>However much the prince may have enjoyed the ceremony of the toilet, +he strongly objected to the process of hair-dyeing, and his letters are +full of complaints of his sufferings and humiliation while undergoing +the operation, which, he declares, is a form of slow poison, and also an +unpleasant reminder that he is really old, but obliged to play the part +of youth in order to attain an object that may bring him more misery +than happiness. As soon as he is safely married to his heiress, he +expresses his determination of looking his full age, so that people +might say 'What a well-preserved old man!' instead of '<i>Voilà, +le ci-devant jeune homme</i>!' Still, with all this care and thought, +heiresses remained coy, or more probably their parents were 'difficult.' +The prince's highly-developed personal vanity was wounded by many a +refusal, and so weary did he become of this woman-hunt, that in one +letter to Lucie, dated March 5, 1827, he exclaims, 'Ah, my dearest, if +you only had 150,000 thalers, I would marry you again to-morrow!'<br> +<br> +</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 20%;"> + +<p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"> PART II</p> + +<p> The summer months were spent in visits to Windsor and other parks +near London, and in a tour through Yorkshire. In October his Highness +was back in town, and engaged in a new matrimonial venture. He writes to +Lucie that 'the fortune in question is immense, and if I obtain it, I +shall end gloriously.' In the correspondence published after the +prince's death is the draft of a letter to Mr. Bonham of Titness Park, +containing a formal proposal for the hand of his daughter, 'Miss +Harriet,' and detailing (with considerable reservations) the position of +his financial affairs. Muskau, he explains, is worth £4,000 a +year, an income which in Germany is equivalent to three times as much in +England. 'Everything belonging to me,' he continues, 'is in the best +possible order; a noble residence at Muskau, and two smaller chateaux, +surrounded with large parks and gardens, in fact, all that make enjoy +life (sic) in the country is amply provided for, and a numerous train of +officious (sic) of my household are always ready to receive their young +princess at her own seat, or if she should prefer town, the court of +Prussia will offer her every satisfaction.' Owing to the fact that +Muskau was mortgaged for £50,000, he was forced, he confesses, to +expect an adequate fortune with his wife, a circumstance to which, if he +had been otherwise situated, he should have paid little attention.</p> + +<p>This missive was accompanied by a long letter, dated Nov. 1, 1827, +to 'Miss Harriet,' in which the suitor explains the circumstances of his +former marriage, and of his divorce, the knowledge of which has rendered +her uneasy. 'It is rather singular,' he proceeds, 'that in the very +first days after my arrival, you, Miss Harriet, were named to me, +together with some other young ladies, as heiresses. Now I must confess, +at the risk of the fact being doubted in our industrious times, that I +myself had a prejudice against, and even some dread of heiresses. I may +say that I proved in some way these feelings to exist by marrying a lady +with a very small fortune, and afterwards in England by never courting +any heiresses further as common civility required. My reasons for so +doing are not without foundation. In the first instance, I am a little +proud; in the second, I don't want any more than I possess, though I +should not reject it, finding it in my way, and besides all this, rich +young maidens are not always very amiable.' The prince continues that he +had gone, out of principle, into all kinds of society, and seen many +charming and handsome girls, but had not been able to discover his +affinity. At last, after renouncing the idea of marriage, he heard again +of Miss Harriet Bonham, not of her fortune this time, but of her many +excellent qualities, and the fact that she had refused several splendid +offers. His curiosity was now at last aroused; he sought an opportunity +of being introduced to her, and--'Dearest Miss Harriet, you know the +rest. I thought--and I protest it by all that is sacred--I thought when +I left you again, that here at last I had found united all and +everything I could wish in a future companion through life. An exterior +the most pleasing, a mind and person equally fit for the representation +of a court and the delight of a cottage, and above all, that +sensibility, that goodness of heart, and that perfect absence of +conceitedness which I value more than every other accomplishment.... I +beheld you, besides all your more essential qualities, so quick as +lively, so playful as whitty (<i>sic</i>), and nothing really seemed +more bewitching to me as when a hearty, joyful laugh changed your +thoughtful, noble features to the cheerful appearance of a happy child! +And still through every change your and your friends' conversation and +behaviour always remained distinguished by that perfect breeding and +fine tact which, indeed, is to private life what a clear sky is to a +landscape....'</p> + +<p>There is a great deal mere to the same effect, and it is sad to +think that all this trouble, all this expenditure of ink and English +grammar, was thrown away. Papa Bonham could not pay down the fortune +demanded by the prince without injuring the other members of his family; +[Footnote: Mr. Bonham's eldest daughter was the second wife of the first +Lord Garvagh.] and although Miss Harriet deplores 'the cruel end of all +our hopes,' the negotiations fell through.</p> + +<p>The prince consoled himself for his disappointment with a fresh +round of sight-seeing. He became deeply enamoured of a steam-engine, of +which newly-invented animal he sends the following picturesque +description to Lucie: 'We must now be living in the days of the <i>Arabian +Nights</i>, for I have seen a creature to-day far surpassing all the +fantastic beings of that time. Listen to the monster's characteristics. +In the first place, its food is the cheapest possible, for it eats +nothing but wood or coals, and when not actually at work, it requires +none. It never sleeps, nor is weary; it is subject to no diseases, if +well organised at first; and never refuses its work till worn out by +great length of service. It is equally active in all climates, and +undertakes all kinds of labour without a murmur. Here it is a miner, +there a sailor, a cotton-spinner, a weaver, or a miller; and though a +small creature, it draws ninety tons of goods, or a whole regiment of +soldiers, with a swiftness exceeding that of the fleetest mail-coaches. +At the same time, it marks its own measured steps on a tablet fixed in +front of it. It regulates, too, the degree of warmth necessary to its +well-being; it has a strange power of oiling its inmost joints when they +are stiff, and of removing at pleasure all injurious air that might find +the way into its system; but should anything become deranged in it, it +warns its master by the loud ringing of a bell. Lastly, it is so docile, +in spite of its enormous strength (nearly equal to that of six hundred +horses), that a child of four years old is able in a moment to arrest +its mighty labours by the pressure of his little finger. Did ever a +witch burnt for sorcery produce its equal?'</p> + +<p>A few weeks later we hear of one manifestation of the new power, +which did not quite come up to the expectations of its admirers. On +January 16, 1828, the prince writes: 'The new steam-carriage is +completed, and goes five miles in half an hour on trial in the Regent's +Park. But there was something to repair every moment. I was one of the +first of the curious who tried it; but found the smell of oiled iron, +which makes steamboats so unpleasant, far more insufferable here. +Stranger still is another vehicle to which I yesterday intrusted my +person. It is nothing less than a carriage drawn by a paper kite, very +like those the children fly. This is the invention of a schoolmaster, +who is so skilful in the guidance of his vehicle, that he can get on +very fairly with half a wind, but with a completely fair one, and good +roads, he goes a mile in three-quarters of a minute. The inventor +proposes to traverse the African deserts in this manner, and has +contrived a place behind, in which a pony stands like a footman, and in +case of a calm, can he harnessed to the carriage.'</p> + +<p>In the early part of 1828 Henriette Sontag arrived in London, and +the prince at once fell a victim to her charms. The fascinating singer, +then barely three-and-twenty, was already the idol of the public, at the +very summit of her renown. Amazing prices were paid for seats when she +was announced to appear. Among his Highness's papers was found a ticket +for a box at the opera on 'Madame Sontag's night,' on which he notes +that he had sold a diamond clasp to pay the eighty guineas demanded for +the bit of cardboard. He was in love once again with all the ardour of +youth, and for the moment all thoughts of a marriage of convenience were +dismissed from his mind. He was now eager for a love-match with the fair +Henriette, whose attractions had rendered him temporarily forgetful of +those of Muskau. But Mademoiselle Sontag, though carried away by the +passionate wooing of the prince, actually remembered that she had other +ties, probably her engagement to Rossi, to which it was her duty to +remain true. She told her lover that he must learn to forget her, and +that when they parted at the conclusion of the London season, they must +never meet again. The prince was heart-broken at the necessity for +separation, and we are assured that he never forgot Henriette Sontag +(though she had many successors in his affections), and that after his +return to Germany he placed a gilded bust of the singer in his park, in +order that he might have her image ever before his eyes.</p> + +<p>In the hope of distracting his thoughts from his disappointment, +Prince Pückler decided to make a lengthened tour through Wales and +Ireland, and with this object in view he set out in July 1828. Before +his departure, however, he had an interesting rencontre at a +dinner-party given by the Duchess of St. Albans-the <i>ci-devant</i> +Harriet Melton. 'I arrived late,' says the prince, in his account of the +incident, 'and was placed between my hostess and a tall, very simple, +but benevolent-looking man of middle age, who spoke broad Scotch--a +dialect anything but agreeable; and would probably have struck me by +nothing else, if I had not discovered that I was sitting next to ----, +the Great Unknown! It was not long ere many a sally of dry, poignant wit +fell from his lips, and many an anecdote told in the most unpretending +manner. His eye, too, glanced whenever he was animated, with such a +clear, good-natured lustre, and such an expression of true-hearted +kindness, that it was impossible not to conceive a sort of affection for +him. Towards the end of the dinner he and Sir Francis Burdett told +ghost-stories, half terrible, half humorous, one against the other.... A +little concert concluded the evening, in which the very pretty daughter +of the great bard--a healthy-looking Highland beauty--took part, and +Miss Stephens sang nothing but Scottish ballads.'</p> + +<p>Before entering upon a new field of observation, the prince summed +up his general impressions of London society with a candour that cannot +have been very agreeable to his English readers. The goddess of Fashion, +he observes, reigns in England alone with a despotic and inexorable +sway; while the spirit of caste here receives a power, consistency, and +completeness of development unexampled in any other country. 'Every +class of society in England, as well as every field, is separated from +every other by a hedge of thorns. Each has its own manners and turns of +expression, and, above all, a supreme and absolute contempt for all +below it.... Now although the aristocracy does not stand <i>as such</i> +upon the pinnacle of this strange social edifice, it yet exercises great +influence over it. It is, indeed, difficult to become fashionable +without being of good descent; but it by no means follows that a man is +so in virtue of being well-born--still less of being rich. Ludicrous as +it may sound, it is a fact that while the present king is a very +fashionable man, his father was not so in the smallest degree, and that +none of his brothers have any pretensions to fashion; which +unquestionably is highly to their honour.' The truth of this observation +is borne out by the story of Beau Brummell, who, when offended by some +action of the Regent's, exclaimed, 'If this sort of thing goes on, I +shall cut Wales, and bring old George into fashion!'</p> + +<p>'A London exclusive of the present day,' continues our censor, 'is +nothing more than a bad, flat, dull imitation of a French <i>roué</i> +of the Regency, Both have in common selfishness, levity, boundless +vanity, and an utter want of heart. But what a contrast if we look +further! In France the absence of all morality and honesty was in some +degree atoned for by the most refined courtesy, the poverty of soul by +agreeableness and wit. What of all this has the English dandy to offer? +His highest triumph is to appear with the most wooden manners, as little +polished as will suffice to avoid castigation; nay, to contrive even his +civilities so that they are as near as may be to affronts--this is the +style of deportment that confers on him the greatest celebrity. Instead +of a noble, high-bred ease, to have the courage to offend against every +restraint of decorum; to invert the relation in which his sex stands to +women, so that they appear the attacking, and he the passive or +defensive party; to cut his best friends if they cease to have the +strength and authority of fashion; to delight in the ineffably <i>fade</i> +jargon and affectations of his set, and always to know what is "the +thing"--these are the accomplishments that distinguish a young "lion" of +fashion. Whoever reads the best of the recent English novels--those by +the author of <i>Pelham</i>--may be able to abstract from them a +tolerably just idea of English fashionable society, provided he does not +forget to deduct qualities which the national self-love has erroneously +claimed --namely, grace for its <i>roués</i>, seductive manners +and witty conversation for its dandies.'</p> + +<p>The foregoing is a summary of the prince's lengthy indictment +against London society. 'I saw in the fashionable world,' he observes in +conclusion, 'only too frequently, and with few exceptions, a profound +vulgarity of thought; an immorality little veiled or adorned; the most +undisguised arrogance; and the coarsest neglect of all kindly feelings +and attentions haughtily assumed for the sake of shining in a false and +despicable refinement; even more inane and intolerable to a healthy mind +than the awkward stiffness of the declared Nobodies. It has been said +that vice and poverty form the most revolting combination; since I have +been in England, vice and boorish rudeness seem to me to form a still +more disgusting union.'</p> + +<p>The prince's adventures in Wales and Ireland, with the recital of +which he has filled up the best part of two volumes, must here be +dismissed in as many paragraphs. On his tour through Wales, he left his +card on the Ladies of Llangollen, who promptly invited him to lunch. +Fortunately, he had previously been warned of his hostesses' +peculiarities of dress and appearance. 'Imagine,' he writes, 'two +ladies, the elder of whom, Lady Eleanor Butler, a short, robust woman, +begins to feel her years a little, being nearly eighty-three; the other, +a tall and imposing person, esteems herself still youthful, being only +seventy-four. Both wore their still abundant hair combed straight back +and powdered, a round man's hat, a man's cravat and waistcoat, but in +the place of "inexpressibles," a short petticoat and boots: the whole +covered by a coat of blue cloth, of quite a peculiar cut. Over this Lady +Eleanor wore, first the grand cordon of the order of St. Louis across +her shoulders; secondly, the same order round her neck; thirdly, the +small cross of the same in her buttonhole; and, <i>pour comble de gloire</i>, +a golden lily of nearly the natural size as a star. So far the effect +was somewhat ludicrous. But now you must imagine both ladies with that +agreeable <i>aisance</i>, that air of the world of the <i>ancien +régime</i>, courteous, entertaining, without the slightest +affectation, speaking French as well as any Englishwoman of my +acquaintance; and, above all, with that essentially polite, +unconstrained, simply cheerful manner of the good society of that day, +which in our hard-working, business age appears to be going to utter +decay.'</p> + +<p>Thanks to his letters of introduction and the friendships that he +struck up on the road, the prince was able occasionally to step out of +the beaten tourist tracks, and to see something of the more intimate +side of Irish social life. He has given a lively and picturesque account +of his experiences, which included an introduction to Lady Morgan, +[Footnote: See page 142.] and to her charming nieces, the Miss Clarkes +(who made a profound impression on his susceptible heart), a sentimental +journey through Wicklow, a glance at the humours of Donnybrook Fair, a +visit to O'Connell at Derrinane Abbey, a peep into the wilds of +Connaught, an Emancipation dinner at Cashel, where he made his <i>début</i> +as an English orator, and an expedition to the lakes of Killarney. All +this, which was probably novel and interesting to the German public, +contains little that is not familiar to the modern English reader. The +sketch of O'Connell is sufficiently vivid to bear quotation.</p> + +<p>'Daniel O'Connell,' observes the prince, after his visit to +Derrinane, 'is no common man--though the man of the commonalty. His +power is so great that at this moment it only depends on him to raise +the standard of rebellion from one end of the island to the other. He +is, however, too sharp-sighted, and much too sure of attaining his ends +by safer means, to wish to bring on any such violent crisis. He has +certainly shown great dexterity in availing himself of the temper of the +country at this moment, legally, openly, and in the face of Government, +to acquire a power scarcely inferior to that of the sovereign; indeed, +though without arms or armies, in some instances far surpassing it. For +how would it have been possible for his Majesty George IV. to withhold +40,000 of his faithful Irishmen for three days from whisky drinking? +which O'Connell actually accomplished in the memorable Clare election. +The enthusiasm of the people rose to such a height that they themselves +decreed and inflicted a punishment for drunkenness. The delinquent was +thrown into the river, and held there for two hours, during which time +he was made to undergo frequent submersions.... On the whole, O'Connell +exceeded my expectations. His exterior is attractive, and the expression +of intelligent good-humour, united with determination and prudence, +which marks his countenance, is extremely winning. He has perhaps more +of persuasiveness than of large and lofty eloquence; and one frequently +perceives too much design and manner in his words. Nevertheless, it is +impossible not to follow his powerful arguments with interest, to view +the martial dignity of his carriage without pleasure, or to refrain from +laughing at his wit.... He has received from Nature an invaluable gift +for a party-leader, a magnificent voice, united to good lungs and a +strong constitution. His understanding is sharp and quick, and his +acquirements out of his profession not inconsiderable. With all this his +manners are, as I have said, winning and popular, though somewhat of the +actor is noticeable in them; they do not conceal his very high opinion +of himself, and are occasionally tinged by what an Englishman would call <i>vulgarity</i>. +But where is there a picture without shade?'</p> + +<p>The prince's matrimonial projects had been pursued only in +half-hearted fashion during this year, and on his return to England in +December, he seems to have thrown up the game in despair. On January 2, +1829, he turned his back on our perfidious shores, and made a short tour +in France before proceeding to Muskau. In one of his letters to Lucie he +admits that on his return journey he had plenty of material for +reflection. Two precious years had been wasted, absence from his dearest +friend had been endured, a large sum of money had been spent in keeping +up a dashing appearance--and all in vain. He consoles himself with the +amazing reflection that Parry had failed in three attempts to reach the +North Pole, and Bonaparte, after heaping victory on victory for twenty +years, had perished miserably in St. Helena!</p> + +<p>But if the prince had not accomplished his design of carrying off a +British heiress, his sojourn in England brought him a prize of a +different kind--namely, the laurel crown of fame. His <i>Briefe eines +Verstorbenen</i>, the first volumes of which were published anonymously +in 1830, was greeted with an almost unanimous outburst of admiration and +applause. The critics vied with each other in praising a work in which, +according to their verdict, the grace and piquancy of France were +combined with the analytical methods and the profound philosophy of +Germany. In England, as was only to be expected, the chorus of applause +was not unmixed with hisses and catcalls. The author had, however, been +exceptionally fortunate in his translator, Sarah Austin, whose version +of the Letters, entitled <i>The Tour of a German Prince</i>, was +described by the <i>Westminster Review</i> as 'the best modern +translation of a prose work that has ever appeared, and perhaps our only +translation from the German. As an original work, the ease and facility +of the style would be admired; as a translation, it is unrivalled.' +Croker reviewed the book in the <i>Quarterly</i> in his accustomed +strain of playful brutality, rejoiced savagely over the numerous +blunders, [Footnote: The most amusing of these is the derivation of the +Prince of Wales' motto 'Ich dien' from two Welsh words, 'Eich deyn,' +said to signify 'This is your man!'] and credited the author with almost +as many blasphemies as Lady Morgan herself. The <i>Edinburgh</i>, in a +more impartial notice, observed that a great part of the work had no +other merit than that of being an act of individual treachery against +the hospitalities of private life, and commented on the fact that while +the masterpieces of Goethe and Schiller were still untranslated, the <i>Tour +of Prince Pückler-Muskau</i> had been bought up in a month.</p> + +<p>The prince was far too vain of his unexpected literary success to +preserve his anonymity, and the ink-craving having laid hold upon him, +he lost no time in setting to work upon another book. The semblance of a +separation between himself and Lucie had now been thrown aside. During +the summer months they lived at Muskau, where they laboured together +over plans for the embellishment of the gardens, while in the winter +they kept up a splendid establishment in Berlin. The sight of a divorced +couple living together seems to have shocked the Berliners far more than +that of a married couple living apart, but to Pückler, as a +chartered 'original,' much was forgiven. At this time he went a good +deal into literary society, and became intimate with several +women-writers, among them the Gräfin Hahn-Hahn, Rahel, and that +amazing lady, Bettine von Arnim. With the last-named he struck up an +intellectual friendship which roused the jealousy of Lucie, and was +finally wrecked by Bettine's attempts to obtain a spiritual empire over +the lord of Muskau.</p> + +<p>In 1832 the prince's debts amounted to 500,000 thalers, and he was +obliged once again to face the fact that he could only save himself from +ruin by a wealthy marriage, or by the sale of his estate. In a long +letter he laid the state of the case before his faithful companion, +pointing out that even at forty-seven, he, with his title and his +youthful appearance, might hope to secure a bride worth 300,000 thalers, +but that as long as his ex-wife remained at Muskau he was hardly likely +to be successful in his matrimonial speculations. Lucie again consented +to sacrifice herself in the good cause; but the prince, a man of +innumerable <i>bonnes fortunes</i> according to his own account, was +curiously unfortunate as a would-be Benedick. The German heiresses were +no more propitious to his suit than the English ones had been; and +though, as he plaintively observes, he would have liked nothing better +than to be a Turkish pasha with a hundred and fifty sultanas, he was +unable to obtain a single Christian wife.</p> + +<p>In 1834 the prince published two books, <i>Tutti Frutti</i>, a +collection of stories and sketches, and <i>Observations on +Landscape-Gardening</i>. <i>Tutti Frutti</i> was by no means so popular +as the <i>Briefe eines Verstorbenen</i>, but the <i>Observations</i> +took rank as a standard work. The project of a journey to America having +been abandoned, the prince now determined to spend the winter in +Algiers, leaving Lucie in charge at Muskau. This modest programme +enlarged itself into a tour in the East, which lasted for more than five +years. The travellers adventures during this period have been described +in his <i>Semilasso in Africa, Aus Mehemet's Reich, Die Rückkehr</i>, +and other works, which added to their author's fame, and nearly +sufficed to pay his expenses. We hear of him breaking hearts at Tunis +and Athens, shooting big game in the Soudan, astonishing the Arabs by +his horsemanship, and meddling in Egyptian politics. It was not until +1838 that, moved by Lucie's complaints of her loneliness, he reluctantly +abandoned his plan of settling in the East, and turned his face towards +Europe. On the homeward journey he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and +turned out of his course for the visit to Lady Hester Stanhope that has +already been described.</p> + +<p>His Highness arrived at Vienna in the autumn of 1839, bringing in +his suite an Abyssinian slave-girl, Machbuba, whom he had bought a +couple of years before, and who had developed such wonderful qualities +of head and heart, that he could not bring himself to part from her. But +Lucie obstinately refused to receive Machbuba at Muskau, and declared +that the prince's reputation would be destroyed for ever, if he brought +a favourite slave under the same roof as his 'wife,' and thus sinned +against the laws of outward seemliness. So Machbuba and the master who, +like another Pygmalion, seems to have endowed this dusky Galatea with a +mind and soul, remained at Vienna, where the Abyssinian, clad in a +picturesque Mameluke's costume, accompanied the prince to all the public +spectacles, and became a nine days' wonder to the novelty-loving +Viennese. But the severity of a European winter proved fatal to poor +Machbuba, consumption laid its grip upon her, and it was as a dying girl +that at last she was taken to the Baths of Muskau. Lucie received this +once-dreaded rival kindly, but at once carried off the prince for a +visit to Berlin, and in the absence of the master whom she worshipped +with a spaniel-like devotion, Machbuba breathed her last. The slave-girl +was laid to rest amid all the pomp and ceremony of a state funeral, the +principal inhabitants of Muskau and the neighbourhood followed her to +her grave, and on the Sunday following her death the chaplain delivered +a eulogy on Machbuba's virtues, and the fatherly benevolence of her +master.</p> + +<p>The prince was temporarily broken-hearted at the death of his +favourite, but his mercurial spirits soon reasserted themselves, and a +round of visits to the various German courts restored him to his +accustomed self-complacency. The idea of selling Muskau, and thus +ridding himself of the burden of his debts, once more occupied his mind. +A handsome offer for the estate had been refused a few years before, in +compliance with the wishes of Lucie, who loved Muskau even better than +its master, and had appealed to the king to prevent the sale. But in +1845 came another offer from Count Hatzfeld of 1,700,000 thalers, which, +in spite of Lucie's tears and entreaties, the prince decided to accept. +Although it cost him a sharp pang to give up to another the spot of +earth on which he had lavished so much time, so much labour, and so much +money, he fully appreciated the advantage of an unembarrassed income and +complete freedom of movement.</p> + +<p>For a year or two after the sale, he led a wandering life, with +Berlin or Weimar for his headquarters. In 1846, shortly before his +sixtieth birthday, he met, so he confided to the long-suffering Lucie, +the only woman he had ever loved, or at least the only woman he had ever +desired to marry. Unfortunately, the lady, who was young, beautiful, +clever, of high rank, large fortune, and angelic disposition, had been +married for some years to a husband who is described as ugly, +ill-tempered, jealous, and incredibly selfish. The prince's letters at +this period are filled with raptures over the virtues of his new <i>inamorata</i>, +and lamentations that he had met her too late. For though his passion +was returned the lady was a strict Catholic, for whom a divorce was out +of the question, and for once this hardened Lothario shrank from an +elopement, with the resultant stain upon the reputation of the woman he +loved. In 1846 he parted from his affinity, who survived the separation +little more than a year, and retired with a heavy heart to his paternal +castle of Branitz, near Kottbus, where he occupied himself in planting a +park and laying out gardens. Branitz was only about a tenth part the +size of Muskau, and stood in the midst of a sandy waste, but at more +than sixty years of age the prince set himself, with all the ardour of +youth, to conjure a paradise out of the wilderness. Forest trees were +transplanted, lakes and canals dug, hills appeared out of the level +fields, and, in short, this 'earth-tamer,' as Rahel called him, created +not only a park, but a complete landscape.</p> + +<p>The remainder of our hero's eventful career must be briefly +summarised. In 1851 he made a flight to England to see the Great +Exhibition. Here he renewed his acquaintance with many old friends, +among them the Duchess of Somerset, who told him that she had known his +father well twenty-five years before. The prince, who has been described +as a male Ninon de L'Enclos, was naturally delighted at being mistaken +for his own son. In 1852 the work at Branitz was so far advanced that +its lord invited Lucie to come and take up her abode at the Schloss. But +the poor lady's troubled life was nearing its close. She had a paralytic +stroke in the autumn of this year, and remained an invalid until her +death, which took place at Branitz in May, 1854.</p> + +<p>In the loneliness that followed, the prince amused himself by +keeping up a lively correspondence with his feminine acquaintance, for +whom, even at seventy, he had not lost his fascinations. His celebrity +as an author and a traveller brought him many anonymous correspondents, +and he never wearied of reading and answering the sentimental effusions +of his unknown admirers. In 1863 he paid a visit incognito to Muskau, +the first since he had left it eighteen years before, though Branitz was +but a few leagues away. He was recognised at once, and great was the joy +in the little town over the return of its old ruler, who was honoured +with illuminations, the discharge of cannon, and torchlight processions. +The estate had passed into the hands of Prince Frederick of the +Netherlands, who had carried out all its former master's plans, and +added many improvements of his own. Pückler generously admired the +splendour that he had had so large a share in creating, and then went +contentedly back to his <i>kleine Branitz</i>, his only regret being +that he could not live to see it, like Muskau, in the fulness of its +matured beauty. In 1866, when war broke out between Prussia and Austria, +this grand old man of eighty-one volunteered for active service, and +begged to be attached to the headquarters' staff. His request was +granted, and he went gallantly through the brief campaign, but was +bitterly disappointed because he was not able to be present at the +battle of Koniggrätz, owing to the indisposition of the king, upon +whom he was in attendance.</p> + +<p>In 1870, when France declared war against Prussia, he again +volunteered, and was deeply mortified when the king declined his +services on account of his advanced age. For the first time he seems to +have realised that he was old, and it is probable that the +disappointment preyed upon his spirits, for his strength rapidly +declined, his memory failed, and on February 4,1871, after a brief +illness, he sank peacefully to rest. He was buried in a tomb that he had +built for himself many years before, a pyramid sixty feet high, which +stood upon an acre of ground in the centre of an artificial lake. The +two inscriptions that the prince chose for his sepulchre illustrate, +appropriately enough, the sharply contrasting qualities of his strange +individuality--his romantic sentimentality, and his callous cynicism. +The first inscription was a line from the Koran: </p> + +<p> 'Graves are the mountain summits of a far-off, fairer +world.'</p> + +<p>The second, chosen presumably for the sake of the paradox, was the +French apothegm: </p> + +<p> 'Allons<br> + Chez<br> + Pluto plutôt plus tard.'<br> +</p> +<hr style="width: 100%; height: 2px;"> + +<p style="text-align: center;"><big><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a + name="HOWITT"></a> <big>WILLIAM AND MARY HOWITT</big></span></big><br> +<br> +</p> +<div style="text-align: center;"> </div> +<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="images/Howitt.jpg" + title="Mary Howitt From a portrait by Margaret Gillies" + alt="Mary Howitt From a portrait by Margaret Gillies" + style="width: 394px; height: 534px;"><br> +</div> +<div style="text-align: center;"> <br> +</div> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 20%;"> + +<p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"> PART I</p> + +<p>The names of William and Mary Howitt are inextricably associated +with the England of the early nineteenth century, with the re-discovery +of the beauty and interest of their native land, with the renaissance of +the national passion for country pleasures and country pursuits, and +with the slow, painful struggle for a wider freedom, a truer humanity, a +fuller, more gracious life. The Howitts had no genius, nor were they +pioneers, but, where the unfamiliar was concerned, they were open-minded +and receptive to a degree that is unfortunately rare in persons of their +perfect uprightness and strong natural piety. If they flashed no new +radiance upon the world, they were always among the first to kindle +their little torches at the new lamps; and they did good service in +handing back the light to those who, but for them, would have had sat in +the shadow, and flung stones at the incomprehensible illuminations.</p> + +<p>Of the two minds, Mary's was the finer and the more original. It was +one of those everyday miracles--the miracles that do happen--that in +spite of the severity, the narrowness, the repression of her early +training, she should have forced her way through the shell of rigid +sectarianism, repudiated her heritage of drab denials, and opened both +heart and mind to the new poetry, the new art, and the new knowledge. In +her husband she found a kindred spirit, and during the more than fifty +years of their pilgrimage together their eyes were ever turned towards +the same goal. Though not equally gifted, they were equally +disinterested, equally enlightened, and equally anxious for the +advancement of humanity. They took themselves and their vocation +seriously, and produced an immense quantity of careful, conscientious +work, the work of honest craftsmen rather than artists, with the quality +of a finished piece of cabinet-making, or a strip of fine embroidery.</p> + +<p>Mary Howitt was the daughter of Samuel Botham, a land-surveyor at +Uttoxeter. His father, the descendant of a long line of Staffordshire +yeomen, Quakers by persuasion, loved a roaming life, and having married +a maltster's widow with a talent for business management, was left free +to indulge his own propensities. He seems to have had a talent for +medical science of an empirical kind, for he dabbled in magnetism and +electricity, and wandered about the country collecting herbs for +headache--snuffs, and healing ointments. Samuel, as soon as he had +served his apprenticeship, found plenty of employment in the +neighbourhood, the country gentlemen, who had taken alarm at the +revolutionary ideas newly introduced from France, being anxious to have +their acres measured, and their boundaries accurately defined. While at +work upon Lord Talbot's Welsh estates in 1795, he became attracted by a +'convinced' Friend, named Ann Wood. The interesting discovery that both +had a passion for nuts, together with the gentle match-making of a +Quaker patriarch, led to an engagement, and the couple were married in +December, 1796.</p> + +<p>Ann Wood was the granddaughter of William Wood, whose contract for +supplying Ireland with copper coin (obtained by bribing the Duchess of +Kendal) was turned into a national grievance by Swift, and led to the +publication of the <i>Drapier Letters</i>. Although Wood's half-pence +were admitted to be excellent coin, and Ireland was short of copper, the +feeling against their circulation was so intense, that Ministers were +obliged to withdraw the patent, Wood being compensated for his losses +with a grant of £3000 a year for a term of years, and 'places' for +some of his fifteen children. Ann's father, Charles, when very young, +was appointed assay-master to Jamaica. After his return to England in +middle life he married a lively widow, went into business as an +iron-master near Merthyr Tydvil, and distinguished himself by +introducing platinum into Europe, having first met with the semi-metal +in Jamaica, whither it had been brought from Carthagena in New Spain. +After his death, Ann, the only serious member of a 'worldly' family, +found it impossible to remain in the frivolous atmosphere of her home, +and determined, in modern fashion, to 'live her own life.' After +spending some years as governess or companion in various families, she +became converted to Quaker doctrines, and was received into the Society +of Friends.</p> + +<p>Samuel Botham took his bride to live in the paternal home at +Uttoxeter, where the preparation of the old quack doctor's herbal +medicines caused her a great deal of discomfort. In the course of the +next three years two daughters were born to the couple; Anna in 1797, +and Mary on March 12, 1799. At the time of Mary's birth her parents were +passing through a period of pecuniary distress, owing to a disastrous +speculation; but with the opening of the new century a piece of great +good fortune befell Samuel Botham. He was one of the two surveyors +chosen to enclose and divide the Chase of Needwood in the county of +Stafford. In the early years of the nineteenth century there was, +unfortunately for England, a mania for enclosing commons, and felling +ancient forests. Needwood, which extended for many miles, contained +great numbers of magnificent old oaks, limes, and hollies, and no less +than twenty thousand head of deer. In after years, Mary Howitt often +regretted that her family should have had a hand in the destruction of +so vast an extent of solitude and beauty, in a country that was already +thickly populated and trimly cultivated. Still, for the nine years that +the work of 'disafforesting' lasted, the two little girls got a great +deal of enjoyment out of the ruined Chase, spending long summer days in +its grassy glades, while their father parcelled out the land and marked +trees for the axe.</p> + +<p>In her <i>Autobiography</i> [Footnote: Edited by her daughter +Margaret, and published by Messrs. Isbister in 1889.] Mary declares that +it is impossible for her to give an adequate idea of the stillness and +isolation of her childish life. So intense was the silence of the Quaker +household, that, at four years old, Anna had to be sent to a dame's +school in order that she might learn to talk; while even after both +children had attained the use of speech, their ignorance of the right +names for the most ordinary feelings and actions obliged them to coin +words of their own. 'My childhood was happy in many respects,' she +writes. 'It was so, as far as physical health, the enjoyment of a +beautiful country, and the companionship of a dearly loved sister could +make it--but oh, there was such a cloud over all from the extreme +severity of a so-called religious education, it almost made cowards and +hypocrites of us, and made us feel that, if this were religion, it was a +thing to be feared and hated.' The family reading consisted chiefly of +the writings of Madame Guyon, Thomas à Kempis, and St. Francis de +Sales, while for light literature there were Telemachus, Fox's <i>Book +of Martyrs</i>, and a work on the <i>Persecution of the Friends</i>. +But it is impossible for even the most pious of Quakers to guard against +all the stratagems by which the spirit of evil--or human +nature--contrives to gain an entrance into a godly household. In the +case of the Botham children an early knowledge of good and evil was +learnt from an apparently respectable nurse, who made her little charges +acquainted with most of the scandals of the neighbourhood, accustomed +their infant ears to oaths, and--most terrible of all--taught them to +play whist, she herself taking dummy, and transforming the nursery +tea-tray into a card-table. In that silent household it was easy to keep +a secret, and though the little girls often trembled at their nurse's +language, they never betrayed her confidence.</p> + +<p>In 1806 another daughter, Emma, was born to the Bothams, and in 1808 +a son, Charles. In the midst of their joy and amazement at the news that +they had a brother, the little girls asked each other anxiously: 'Will +our parents like it?' Only a short time before a stranger had inquired +if they had any brothers, and they had replied in all seriousness: 'Oh +no, our parents do not approve of boys.' Now, much to their relief, they +found that their father and mother highly approved of their own boy, who +became the spoilt darling of the austere household. A new nurse was +engaged for the son and heir, a lady of many love-affairs, who made Mary +her confidante, and induced the child, then nine years old, to write an +imaginary love-letter. The unlucky letter was laid between the pages of +the worthy Madame Guyon, and there discovered by Mr. Botham. Not much +was said on the subject of the document, which seems to have been +considered too awful to bear discussion; but the children were removed +from the influence of the nurse, and allowed to attend a day-school in +the neighbourhood, though only on condition that they sat apart from the +other children in order to avoid contamination with possible worldlings.</p> + +<p>In 1809 the two elder sisters were sent to a Quaker school at +Croydon, where they found themselves the youngest, the most provincial, +and the worst dressed of the little community. Even in advanced old age, +Mary had a keen memory for the costumes of her childhood, and the +mortification that these had caused her. On their arrival at school the +little girls were attired in brown pelisses, cut plain and straight, +without plait or fold, and hooked down the front to obviate the +necessity for buttons, which, being in the nature of trimmings, were +regarded as an indulgence of the lust of the eye. On their heads they +wore little drab beaver bonnets, also destitute of trimmings, and so +plain in shape that even the Quaker hatter had to order special blocks +for their manufacture. The other girls were busy over various kinds of +fashionable fancy-work, but the little Bothams were expected, in their +leisure moments, to make half-a-dozen linen shirts for their father, +button-holes and all. They had never learnt to net, to weave coloured +paper into baskets, to plait split straw into patterns, nor any of the +other amateur handicrafts of the day. But they were clever with their +fingers, and could copy almost anything that they had seen done. 'We +could buckle flax or spin a rope,' writes Mary. 'We could drive a nail, +put in a screw or draw it out. We knew the use of a glue-pot, and how to +paper a room. We soon furnished ourselves with coloured paper for +plaiting, and straw to split and weave into net; and I shall never +forget my admiration of a pattern of diamonds woven with strips of gold +paper on a black ground. It was my first attempt at artistic handiwork.'</p> + +<p>After a few months at Croydon the girls were recalled to Uttoxeter +on account of their mother's illness; and as soon as she recovered they +were despatched to another Friends' school at Sheffield. In 1812, when +Mary was only thirteen and Anna fifteen, their education was supposed to +be completed, and they returned home for good. But Mr. Botham was +dissatisfied with his daughters' attainments, and engaged the master of +the boys' school to teach them Latin, mathematics, and the use of the +globes. The death of this instructor obliged them thenceforward to rely +on a system of self-education. 'We retained and perfected our +rudimentary knowledge,' Mary writes, 'by instructing others. Our father +fitted up a school-room for us in the stable-loft, where, twice a week, +we were allowed to teach poor children. In this room, also, we +instructed our dear little brother and sister. Our father, in his +beautiful handwriting, used to set them copies, texts of Scripture, such +as he no doubt had found of a consolatory nature. On one occasion, +however, I set the copies, and well remember the tribulation I +experienced in consequence. I always warred in my mind against the +enforced gloom of our home, and having for my private reading at that +time Young's <i>Night Thoughts</i>, came upon what seemed to me the +very spirit of true religion, a cheerful heart gathering up the +joyfulness of surrounding nature; on which the poet says: "'Tis impious +in a good man to be sad." How I rejoiced in this!--and thinking it a +great fact which ought to be noised abroad, wrote it down in my best +hand as a copy. It fell under our father's eye, and sorely grieved he +was at such a sentiment, and extremely angry with me as its promulgator.'</p> + +<p>The sisters can never have found the time hang heavy on their hands, +for in addition to their educational duties, their mother required them +to be expert in all household matters; while, in their scanty hours of +leisure, they attempted, in the face of every kind of discouragement, to +satisfy their strong natural craving for beauty and knowledge. 'We +studied poetry, botany, and flower-painting,' Mary writes. 'These +pursuits were almost out of the pale of permitted Quaker pleasures, but +we pursued them with a perfect passion, doing in secret that which we +dared not do openly, such as reading Shakespeare, the elder novelists, +and translations of the classics. We studied French and chemistry, and +enabled ourselves to read Latin, storing our minds with a whole mass of +heterogeneous knowledge. This was good as far as it went, but I now +deplore the secrecy, the subterfuge, and the fear under which this +ill-digested, ill-arranged knowledge was obtained.'</p> + +<p>The young Quakeresses picked up ideas and models for their artistic +handicraft from the most unlikely sources. A shop-window, full of dusty +plaster medallions for mantelpiece decorations, gave them their first +notions of classic design. The black Wedgwood ware was to be seen in +nearly every house in Uttoxeter, while a few of the more prosperous +inhabitants possessed vases and jugs in the pale blue ware, ornamented +with graceful figures. These precious specimens the Botham sisters used +to borrow, and contrived to reproduce the figures by means of moulds +made of paper pulp. They also etched flowers and landscapes on panes of +glass, and manufactured 'transparencies' out of different thicknesses of +cap-paper. 'I feel a sort of tender pity for Anna and myself,' wrote +Mary long afterwards, 'when I remember how we were always seeking and +struggling after the beautiful, and after artistic production, though we +knew nothing of art. I am thankful that we made no alms-baskets, or +hideous abortions of that kind. What we did was from the innate +yearnings of our souls for perfection in form and colour; and our +accomplished work, though crude and poor, was the genuine outcome of our +own individuality.'</p> + +<p>It was one of the heaviest crosses of Mary's girlish days that she +and Anna were not permitted to exercise their clever fingers, and +indulge their taste for the beautiful, in their own dress. But they +found a faint vicarious pleasure in making pretty summer gowns, and +embroidering elaborate muslin collars for a girl-friend who was allowed +to wear fashionable clothes, and even to go to balls. Even their +ultra-plain costumes, however, could not disguise the fact that Anna and +Mary Botham were comely damsels, and they had several suitors among the +young men-Friends of Uttoxeter. But the sisters held a low opinion of +the mental endowments of the average Quaker, an opinion that was only +shaken by a report of the marvellous attainments of young William Howitt +of Heanor, who was said to be not only a scholar, but a born genius. +William's mother, Phoebe, herself a noted amateur healer, was an old +friend of Mary's grandfather, the herbal doctor, but the young people +had never met. However, in the autumn of 1818, William paid a visit to +some relations at Uttoxeter, and there made the acquaintance of the +Botham girls, who discovered that this young man-Friend shared nearly +all their interests, and was full of sympathy with their studies and +pursuits.</p> + +<p>Before the end of the year Mary Botham was engaged to William +Howitt, he being then six-and-twenty and she nineteen. 'The tastes of my +future husband and my own were strongly similar,' she observes, 'so also +was our mental culture; but he was in every direction so far in advance +of me as to become my teacher and guide. Knowledge in the broadest sense +was the aim of our intellectual efforts; poetry and nature were the +paths that led to it. Of ballad poetry I was already enamoured, William +made me acquainted with the realistic life-pictures of Crabbe; the bits +of nature and poetry in the vignettes of Bewick; with the earliest works +of Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Shelley, and the first marvellous prose +productions of the author of <i>Waverley</i>.'</p> + +<p>After an engagement lasting a little more than two years, William +and Mary were married on April 16, 1821, the bride wearing her first +silk gown--a pretty dove-colour--and a white silk shawl, finery which +filled her soul with rapture. The couple spent the honeymoon in the +bridegroom's native Derbyshire, visiting every spot of beauty or haunt +of old tradition in that country of the romantic and the picturesque. +Incorporated in his wife's <i>Autobiography </i>is William Howitt's +narrative of his parentage and youthful days, which is supplemented by +his <i>Boys' Country Book</i>, the true story of his early adventures +and experiences. The Howitts, he tells us, were descended from a family +named Hewitt, the younger branch of which obtained Wansley Hall, near +Nottingham, through marriage with an heiress, and changed the spelling +of their name. His ancestors had been, for generations, a rollicking +set, all wofully lacking in prudence and sobriety. About the end of the +seventeenth century, one Thomas Howitt, great-great-grandfather of +William, married Catherine, heiress of the Charltons of Chilwell. But +Thomas so disgusted his father-in-law by his drunken habits that Mr. +Charlton disinherited his daughter, who loyally refused to leave her +husband, and left his property to a stranger who chanced to bear his +name. After this misfortune the Howitts descended somewhat in the social +scale, and, having no more substance to waste, reformed their ways and +forsook all riotous living. William's father, who held a post as manager +of a Derbyshire colliery, married a Quaker lady, Phoebe Tantum of the +Fall, Heanor, and was himself received into the Society of Friends in +1783.</p> + +<p>William received a good plain education at a Quaker school at +Ackworth, and grew up a genuine country lad, scouring the lanes on his +famous grey pony, Peter Scroggins, the acknowledged leader of the +village lads in bird-nesting and rat-hunting expeditions, and taking his +full share of the work on his father's little farm. Long afterwards he +used to say that every scene in and about Heanor was photographed with +absolute distinctness on his brain, and he loved to recall the long days +that he had spent in following the plough, chopping turnips for the +cattle, tramping over the snow-covered fields after red-wing and +fieldfare, collecting acorns for the swine, or hunting through the barns +for eggs. The Howitt family was much less strict than that of the +Bothams, for in the winter evenings the boys were allowed to play +draughts and dominoes, while at Christmas there were games of forfeits, +blind-man's buff, and fishing for the ring in the great posset-pot.</p> + +<p>On leaving school at fifteen, William amused himself for a couple of +years on the farm, though, curiously enough, he never thought of +becoming a farmer in good earnest; indeed, at this time he seems to have +had no distinct bias towards any profession. Mr. Howitt had somehow +become imbued with Rousseau's doctrine that every boy, whatever his +position in life, should learn a mechanical handicraft, in order that, +if all else failed, he might be able to earn his own living by the +labour of his hands. Having decided that William should learn +carpentering, the boy was apprenticed for four years to a carpenter and +builder at Mansfield, on the outskirts of Sherwood Forest. The four +precious years were practically thrown away, except for the enjoyment +obtained from long solitary rambles amid the picturesque associations of +the Forest, and the knowledge of natural history gained from close +observation of the wild life of that romantic district.</p> + +<p>It was not until his twenty-first birthday that William's indentures +were out, and as he was still unable to make up his mind about a +profession--it must be remembered that the law, the church, the army and +navy were all closed to a Quaker--he spent the next seven years at home, +angling in the streams like his favourite hero, Isaac Walton, and +striving, by dint of hard study, to make up the many deficiencies in his +education. He taught himself Latin, French, and Italian, besides working +at botany, chemistry, and the dispensing of medicines. It was during +these seven years of uncertainty and experiment that William read +Washington Irving's <i>Sketches of Geoffrey Crayon</i>, which produced +a strong impression on his mind. With the inspiration of this book hot +upon him, he made a tour on foot through the Peak country, and +afterwards wrote an account of his adventures in what he fondly believed +to be the style of Geoffrey Crayon. The paper was printed in a local +journal under the title of <i>A Pedestrian Pilgrimage through the Peak</i>, +by Wilfrid Wendle. This was not William Howitt's first literary essay, +some stanzas of his on Spring, written when he was only thirteen, having +been printed in the <i>Monthly Magazine</i>, with his name and age +attached.</p> + +<p>With the prospect of marriage it was thought desirable that William +should have some regular calling. Without, so far as appears, passing +any examinations or obtaining any certificates, he bought the business +of a chemist and druggist in Hanley, and thither, though with no +intention of settling permanently in the Potteries, he took his bride as +soon as the honeymoon was over. Only seven months were spent at Hanley, +and in December, 1821, the couple were preparing to move to Nottingham, +where William had bought the good-will of another chemist's business. +But before settling down in their new home, the Howitts undertook a long +pedestrian tour through Scotland and the north of England, in the course +of which they explored the Rob Roy country, rambled through Fife, made +acquaintance with the beauties of Edinburgh, looked in upon Robert +Owen's model factories at New Lanark, got a glimpse of Walter Scott at +Melrose, were mistaken for a runaway couple at Gretna Green, gazed +reverently on Rydal Mount, and tramped in all no less than five hundred +miles. An account of the tour was contributed to a Staffordshire paper +under the title of <i>A Scottish Ramble in the Spring of 1822</i>, by +Wilfrid and Wilfreda Wendle.</p> + +<p>It was not until August, 1822, that the pair established themselves +in a little house at Nottingham. Of the chemist's business we hear +practically nothing in Mary's narrative, but a great deal about the +literary enterprises in which husband and wife collaborated. They began +by collecting the poems, of which each had a large number ready written, +and, in fear and trembling, prepared to submit them to the verdict of +critics and public. 'It seems strange to me,' wrote Mary, when she +informed her sister of this modest venture, 'and I cannot reconcile +myself to the thought of seeing my own name staring me in the face in +every bookseller's window, or being pointed at and peeped after as a +writer of verses.' In April, 1823, <i>The Forest Minstrel and other +Poems</i>, by William and Mary Howitt, made its appearance in a not +particularly appreciative world. The verses were chiefly descriptive of +country sights and sounds, and had been produced, as stated in the +Preface, 'not for the sake of writing, but for the indulgence of our own +overflowing feelings.' The little book created no sensation, but it was +kindly noticed, and seems to have attracted a few quiet readers who, +like the writers, were lovers of nature and simplicity.</p> + +<p>During these early years at Nottingham the Howitts kept up, as far +as their opportunities allowed, with the thought and literature of their +day, and never relaxed their anxious efforts after 'mental improvement.' +William's brother, Richard, himself a budding poet, was at this time an +inmate of the little household, which was increased in 1824 by the birth +of a daughter, Anna Mary. Although the couple still remained in the +Quaker fold, they were gradually discarding the peculiar dress and +speech of the 'plain' Friends. They were evidently regarded as terribly +'advanced' young people in their own circle, and shocked many of their +old acquaintances by the catholicity of their views, by their admiration +of Byron and Shelley, and by the liberal tone of their own productions. +Like most of the lesser writers of that day, they found their way into +the popular Keepsakes and Annuals, which Mary accurately describes as 'a +chaffy, frivolous, and unsatisfactory style of publication, that only +serves to keep a young author in the mind of the public, and to bring in +a little cash.' In 1826 Mrs. Howitt was preparing for the press a new +volume of poems by herself and her husband, <i>The Desolation of Eyam</i>, +and in a letter to her sister, now transformed into Mrs. Daniel Wilson, +she describes her sensations while awaiting the ordeal of critical +judgment, and expresses her not very flattering opinion of the +contemporary reviewer.</p> + +<p>'Nobody that has not published,' she observes, 'can tell the almost +painful excitement which the first opinions occasion. Really, for some +days I was quite nervous. William boasted of possessing his mind in wise +passivity, and truly his imperturbable patience was quite an annoyance; +I therefore got Rogers's beautiful poem on Italy to read, and so +diverted my thoughts. Everything in the literary world is done by favour +and connections. It is a miracle to me how our former volume, when we +were quite unknown, got favourably noticed. In many cases a book is +reviewed which has never been read, or even seen externally.'</p> + +<p>By this time the young authors who, to use Mary's own phrase, +hungered and thirsted after acquaintances who were highly gifted in mind +or profound in knowledge, had acquired one or two literary friends and +correspondents, among them Mrs. Hemans, Bernard Barton, the Quaker poet, +and the Alaric Watts's of Keepsake fame. An occasional notice of the +Howitts and their little household may be found in contemporary works by +forgotten writers. For example, Sir Richard Phillips, in the section +devoted to Nottingham of his quaintly-worded <i>Personal Tour through +the United Kingdom </i>(1828), observes: 'Of Messrs. Howitt, husband +and wife, conjugal in love and poetry, it would be vain for me to speak. +Their tasteful productions belong to the nation as well as to +Nottingham. As a man of taste Mr. Howitt married a lady of taste; and +with rare amiability they have jointly cultivated the Muses, and +produced some volumes of poetry, consisting of pieces under their +separate names. The circumstance afforded a topic for ridicule to some +of those anonymous critics who abuse the press and disgrace literature; +but no one ventured to assail their productions.' Spencer Hall, a +fellow-townsman, became acquainted with the Howitts in 1829, and in his <i>Reminiscences</i> +describes William as a bright, neat, quick, dapper man of medium height, +with a light complexion, blue eyes, and brisk, cheery speech. Mary, he +tells us; was always neatly dressed, but with nothing prim or sectarian +in her style. 'Her expression was frank and free, yet very modest, and +she was blessed with an affectionate, sociable spirit.'</p> + +<p>A presentation copy of <i>The Desolation of Eyam</i> was sent to the +Howitts' favourite poet, Wordsworth, who, in acknowledging their +'elegant volume,' declared that, though he had only had time to turn +over the leaves, he had found several poems which had already afforded +him no small gratification. The harmless little book was denounced by +the <i>Eclectic Review</i> as 'anti-Quakerish, atheistical, and +licentious in style and sentiment, 'but the authors were consoled by a +charming little notice of their contributions to the Annuals in the <i>Noctes +Ambrosianae</i> for November, 1828. 'Who are these three brothers and +sisters, the Howitts, sir?' asks the Shepherd of Christopher North, in +the course of a discussion of the Christmas gift-books, 'whose names I +see in the adverteesements?'</p> + +<p><i>North</i>. I don't know, James. It runs in my head that they are +Quakers. Richard and William seem amiable and ingenious men, and Sister +Mary writes beautifully.</p> + +<p><i>Shepherd</i>. What do you mean by beautifully? That's vague.</p> + +<p><i>North</i>. Her language is chaste and simple, her feelings tender +and pure, and her observation of nature accurate and intense. Her +'Sketches from Natural History' in the <i>Christmas Box</i> have much of +the moral--nay, rather the religious spirit--that permeates all +Wordsworth's smaller poems, however light and slight the subject, and +show that Mary Howitt is not only well-read in the book of Bewick, but +also in the book from which Bewick has borrowed all--glorious +plagiarist--and every other inspired zoologist--</p> + +<p><i>Shepherd</i>. The Book o' Natur'.'</p> + +<p>The great event of 1829 for the Howitts was a visit to London, where +they were the guests of Alaric and Zillah Watts, with whom they had long +maintained a paper friendship. 'What wilt thou say, dear Anna,' writes +Mary in December, 'when I tell thee that William and I set out for +London the day after to-morrow. I half dread it. I shall wish twenty +times for our quiet fireside, where day by day we read and talk by +ourselves, and nobody looks in upon us. I keep reasoning with myself +that the people we shall see in London are but men and women, and +perhaps, after all, no better than ourselves. If we could but divest our +minds of <i>self</i>, as our dear father used to say we should do, it +would be better and more comfortable for us. Yet it is one of the faults +peculiar to us Bothams that, with all the desire there was to make us +regardless of self, we never had confidence and proper self-respect +instilled into us, and the want of this gives us a depressing feeling, +though I hope it is less seen by others than by ourselves.... We do not +intend to stay more than a week, and thou may believe we shall have +enough to do. We have to make special calls on the Carter Halls, Dr. +Bowring, and the Pringles, and are to be introduced to their +ramifications of acquaintance. Allan Cunningham, L. E. L., and Thomas +Roscoe we are sure to see.'</p> + +<p>In Miss Landon's now forgotten novel, <i>Romance and Reality</i>, +there is a little sketch of Mary Howitt as she appeared at a literary <i>soirée</i>, +during her brief visit to London. The heroine, Miss Arundel, is being +initiated into the mysteries of the writing world by her friend, Mrs. +Sullivan, when her attention is arrested by the sight of 'a female in a +Quaker's dress--the quiet, dark silk dress--the hair simply parted on +the forehead--the small, close cap--the placid, subdued expression of +the face, were all in strong contrast to the crimsons, yellows, and +blues around. The general character of the large, soft eyes seemed +sweetness; but they were now lighted up with an expression of +intelligent observation--that clear, animated, and comprehensive glance +which shows it analyses what it observes. You looked at her with +something of the sensation with which, while travelling along a dusty +road, the eye fixes on some green field, where the hour flings its +sunshine and the tree its shadow, as if its pure fresh beauty was a +thing apart from the soil and tumult of the highway. "You see," said +Mrs. Sullivan, "one who, in a brief interview, gave me more the idea of +a poet than most of our modern votaries of the lute.... She is as +creative in her imaginary poems as she is touching and true in her +simpler ones."'</p> + +<p>Though there were still giants upon the earth in those far-off days, +the general standard of literary taste was by no means exalted, a fact +which Mary Howitt could hardly be expected to realise. She seems to have +taken the praises lavished on her simple verses over-seriously, and to +have imagined herself in very truth a poet. She was more clear-sighted +where the work of her fellow-scribes was concerned, and in a letter +written about this time, she descants upon the dearth of good literature +in a somewhat disillusioned vein. After expressing her desire that some +mighty spirit would rise up and give an impulse to poetry, she +continues: 'I am tired of Sir Walter Scott and his imitators, and I am +sickened of Mrs. Hemans's luscious poetry, and all her tribe of +copyists. The libraries set in array one school against another, and +hurry out the trashy volumes before the ink of the manuscript is fairly +dry. Dost thou remember the days when Byron's poems first came out, now +one and then another, at sufficient intervals to allow of digesting +them? And dost thou remember our first reading of <i>Lalla Rookh</i>? +It was on a washing-day. We read and clapped our clear-starching, read +and clapped, and read again, and all the time our souls were not on this +earth.'</p> + +<p>There was one book then in course of preparation which Mary thought +worthy to have been read, even in those literary clear-starching days. +'Thou hast no idea,' she assures her sister, 'how very interesting +William's work, now called <i>A Book of the Seasons</i>, has become. It +contains original sketches on every month, with every characteristic of +the season, and a garden department which will fill thy heart brimful of +all garden delights, greenness, and boweriness. Mountain scenery and +lake scenery, meadows and woods, hamlets, farms, halls, storm and +sunshine--all are in this most delicious book, grouped into a most +harmonious whole.' Unfortunately, publishers were hard to convince of +the merits of the new work, the first of William Howitt's rural series, +and it was declined by four houses in turn. The author at last suggested +that a stone should be tied to the unlucky manuscript, and that it +should be flung over London Bridge; but his wife was not so easily +disheartened. She was certain that the book was a worthy book, and only +needed to be made a little more 'personable' to find favour in the eyes +of a publisher. Accordingly, blotted sheets were hastily re-copied, new +articles introduced, and passages of dubious interest omitted, husband +and wife working together at this remodelling until their fingers ached +and their eyes were as dim as an owl's in sunshine. Their labours were +rewarded by the acceptance of the work by Bentley and Colburn, and its +triumphant success with both critics and public, seven editions being +called for in the first few months of its career.</p> + +<p>'Prig it and pocket it,' says Christopher North, alluding to the <i>Book +of the Seasons</i> in the <i>Noctes</i> for April, 1831. ''Tis a jewel.'</p> + +<p>'Is Nottingham far intil England, sir?' asks the simple Shepherd, to +whom the above advice is given. 'For I would really like to pay the +Hooits a visit this simmer. Thae Quakers are what we micht scarcely +opine frae first principles, a maist poetical Christian seck.... The twa +married Hooits I love just excessively, sir. What they write canna fail +o' being poetry, even the most middlin' o't, for it's aye wi' them the +ebullition o' their ain feeling and their ain fancy, and whenever that's +the case, a bonny word or twa will drap itself intil ilka stanzy, and a +sweet stanzy or twa intil ilka pome, and sae they touch, and sae they +win a body's heart.'</p> + +<p>The year 1831 was rendered memorable to the Howitts, not only by +their first literary success, but also by an unexpected visit from their +poetical idol, Mr. Wordsworth. The poet, his wife and daughter, were on +their way home from London when Mrs. Wordsworth was suddenly taken ill, +and was unable to proceed farther than Nottingham. Her husband, in great +perplexity, came to ask advice of the Howitts, who insisted that the +invalid should be removed to their house, where she remained for ten +days before she was able to continue her journey. Wordsworth himself was +only able to stay one night, but in that short time he made a very +favourable impression upon his host and hostess. 'He is worthy of being +the author of <i>The Excursion</i>, <i>Ruth</i>, and those sweet poems +so full of human sympathy,' writes Mary. 'He is a kind man, full of +strong feeling and sound judgment. My greatest delight was that he +seemed so pleased with William's conversation. They seemed quite in +their element, pouring out their eloquent sentiments on the future +prospects of society, and on all subjects connected with poetry and the +interests of man. Nor are we less pleased with Mrs. Wordsworth and her +lovely daughter, Dora. They are the most grateful people; everything +that we do for them is right, and the very best it can be.'</p> + +<p>During the next two or three years Mary produced a volume of +dramatic sketches, called <i>The Seven Temptations</i>, which she +always regarded as her best and most original work, but which was damned +by the critics and neglected by the public; a little book of natural +history for children; and a novel in three volumes, called <i>Wood +Leighton</i>, which seems to have had some success. <i>The Seven +Temptations</i>, it must be owned, is a rather lugubrious production, +probably inspired by Joanna Baillie's <i>Plays on the Passions</i>. The +scene of <i>Wood Leighton</i> is laid at Uttoxeter, and the book is not +so much a connected tale as a series of sketches descriptive of scenes +and characters in and about the author's early home. It is evident that +Mrs. Botham and Sister Anna looked somewhat disapprovingly upon so much +literary work for the mistress of a household, since we find Mary +writing in eager defence of her chosen calling.</p> + +<p>'I want to make thee, and more particularly dear mother, see,' she +explains, 'that I am not out of my line of duty in devoting myself so +much to literary occupation. Just lately things were sadly against us. +Dear William could not sleep at night, and the days were dark and +gloomy. Altogether, I was at my wits' end. I turned over in my mind what +I could do next, for till William's <i>Rural Life</i> was finished we +had nothing available. Then I bethought myself of all those little +verses and prose tales that for years I had written for the juvenile +Annuals. It seemed probable I might turn them to some account. In about +a week I had nearly all the poetry copied; and then who should come to +Nottingham but John Darton [a Quaker publisher]. He fell into the idea +immediately, took what I had copied up to London with him, and I am to +have a hundred and fifty guineas for them. Have I not reason to feel +that in thus writing I was fulfilling a duty?'</p> + +<p>In 1833 William Hewitt's <i>History of Priestcraft</i> appeared, a +work which was publicly denounced at the Friends' yearly meeting, all +good Quakers being cautioned not to read it. William hitherto had lived +in great retirement at Nottingham, but he was now claimed by the Radical +and Nonconformist members of the community as their spokesman and +champion. In January, 1834, he and Joseph Gilbert (husband of Ann +Gilbert of <i>Original Poems</i> fame) were deputed to present to the +Prime Minister, Lord Grey, a petition from Nottingham for the +disestablishment of the Church of England. The Premier regretted that he +could not give his support to such a sweeping measure, which would +embarrass the Ministry, alarm both Houses of Parliament, and startle the +nation. He declared his intention of standing by the Church to the best +of his ability, believing it to be the sacred duty of Government to +maintain an establishment of religion. To which sturdy William Howitt +replied that to establish one sect in preference to another was to +establish a party and not a religion.</p> + +<p>Civic duties, together with the excitements of local politics, +proved a sad hindrance to literary work, and in 1836 the Howitts, who +had long been yearning for a wider intellectual sphere, decided to give +up the chemist's business, and settle in the neighbourhood of London. +Their friends, the Alaric Watts's, who were living at Thames Ditton, +found them a pretty little house at Esher, where they would be able to +enjoy the woods and heaths of rural Surrey, and yet be within easy reach +of publishers and editors in town. Before settling down in their new +home, the Howitts made a three months' tour in the north, with a view to +gathering materials for William's book on <i>Rural England</i>. They +explored the Yorkshire dales, stayed with the Wordsworths at Rydal, and +made a pilgrimage to the haunts of their favourite, Thomas Bewick, in +Northumberland. Crossing the Border they paid a delightful visit to +Edinburgh, where they were made much of by the three literary cliques of +the city, the Blackwood and Wilson set, the Tait set, and the Chambers +set.</p> + +<p>'Immediately after our arrival,' relates Mary, 'a public dinner was +given to Campbell the poet, at which the committee requested my +husband's attendance, and that he would take a share in the proceedings +of the evening by proposing as a toast, "Wordsworth, Southey, and +Moore." This was our first introduction to Professor Wilson (Christopher +North) and his family. I sat in the gallery with Mrs. Wilson and her +daughters, one of whom was engaged to Professor Ferrier. We could not +but remark the wonderful difference, not only in the outer man, but in +the whole character of mind and manner, between Professor Wilson and +Campbell--the one so hearty, outspoken, and joyous, the other so petty +and trivial.'</p> + +<p>Robert Chambers constituted himself the Hewitts' cicerone in +Edinburgh, showing them every place of interest, and presenting them to +every person of note, including Mrs. Maclehose (the Clarinda of Burns), +and William Miller, the Quaker artist and engraver, as intense a +nature-worshipper as themselves. From Edinburgh they went to Glasgow, +where they took ship for the Western Isles. Their adventures at Staffa +and Iona, their voyage up the Caledonian Canal, and the remainder of +their experiences on this tour, were afterwards described by William +Howitt in his <i>Visits to Remarkable Places</i>.<br> +<br> +</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 20%;"> + +<p style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"> PART II</p> + +<p> In September, 1836, the Howitts took possession of their Surrey +home, West End Cottage, an old-fashioned dwelling, with a large garden, +an orchard, a meadow by the river Mole, and the right of boating and +fishing to the extent of seven miles. The new life opened with good +prospects of literary and journalistic employment, William Howitt's +political writings having already attracted attention from several +persons of power and influence in the newspaper world. On December 3 of +this year, Mary wrote to inform her sister that, 'In consequence of an +article that William wrote on Dymond's <i>Christian Morality</i>, +Joseph Hume, the member for Middlesex, wrote to him, and has opened a +most promising connection for him with a new Radical newspaper, <i>The +Constitutional</i>. O'Connell seems determined to make him the editor +of the <i>Dublin Review</i>, and wrote him a most kind letter, which +has naturally promoted his interest with the party. I cannot but see the +hand of Providence in our leaving Nottingham. All has turned out +admirably.'</p> + +<p>Unfortunately for these sanguine anticipations, the newspaper +connections on which the Howitts depended for a livelihood, now that the +despised chemist's business had been given up, proved but hollow +supports. O'Connell had overlooked the trifling fact that a Quaker +editor was hardly fitted to conduct a journal that was emphatically and +polemically Catholic; and though he considered that William Howitt was +admirably adapted to deal with literary and political topics, he was +obliged to withdraw his offer of the editorship. A more crushing +disappointment arose out of the engagement on <i>The Constitutional</i>. +Mr. Howitt, according to his wife, did more for the paper than any +other member of the staff. 'He worked and wrote like any slave,' she +tells her sister. 'In the end, after a series of the most harassing and +vexatious conduct on the part of the newspaper company, he was swindled +out of every farthing. Oh, it was a most mortifying and humiliating +thing to see men professing liberal and honest principles act so badly. +A month ago, when in the very depths of discouragement and low spirits, +I set about a little volume for Darton, to be called <i>Birds and +Flowers</i>, and have pretty nearly finished it. William, in the mean +time, has finished his <i>Rural Life</i>, and sold the first edition to +Longman's.'</p> + +<p>The manager of the unlucky paper was Major Carmichael Smith, who, +when matters grew desperate, sent for his step-son, Thackeray, then +acting as Paris correspondent for a London daily. 'Just as I was going +out of the office one day,' writes William, 'I met on the stairs a tall, +thin young man, in a dark blue coat, and with a nose that seemed to have +had a blow that had flattened the bridge. I turned back, and had some +conversation with him, being anxious to know how he proposed to carry on +a paper which was without any funds, and already deeply in debt. He did +not seem to know any more than I did. I thought to myself that his +step-father had not done him much service in taking him from a +profitable post for the vain business of endeavouring to buoy up a +desperate speculation. How much longer <i>The Constitutional</i> +struggled on, I know not. That was the first time I ever saw or heard of +William Makepeace Thackeray.'</p> + +<p>The Howitts were somewhat consoled for their journalistic losses by +the triumphant success of <i>Rural Life in England</i>. The reading +public which, during the previous century, had swallowed mock pastorals, +made in Fleet Street, with perfect serenity, was now, thanks to the +slowly-working influence of Wordsworth and the other Lake poets, +prepared for a renaissance of nature and simplicity in prose. Miss +Mitford's exquisite work had given them a distaste for the 'jewelled +turf,' the 'silver streams,' and 'smiling valleys' which constituted the +rustic stock-in-trade of the average novelist; and they eagerly welcomed +a book that treated with accuracy and observation of the real country. +William Howitt's straightforward, undistinguished style was acceptable +enough in an age when even men of genius seem to have written fine prose +without knowing it, and tripped up not infrequently over the subtleties +of English grammar. His lack of imagination and humour was more than +atoned for, in the uncritical eyes of the 'thirties,' by the easy +loquacity of his rural gossip, and the varied information with which he +crammed his pages. The Nature of those days was a simple, transparent +creature, with but small resemblance to the lady of moods, mystery, and +passion who is so overworked in our modern literature. No one dreamt of +going into hysterics over the veining of a leaf, or penning a rhapsody +on the outline of a rain-cloud; nor could it yet be said that, 'if +everybody must needs blab of the favours that have been done him by +roadside, and river-brink, and woodland walk, as if to kiss and tell +were no longer treachery, it will soon be a positive refreshment to meet +a man who is as superbly indifferent to Nature as she is to him.' +[Footnote: Lowell]</p> + +<p>The Howitts took great delight in the pleasant Surrey country, so +different from the dreary scenery around Nottingham, and Mary's letters +contain many descriptions of the woods and commons and shady lanes +through which the family made long expeditions in a little carriage +drawn by Peg, their venerable pony. Driving one day to Hook, they met +Charles Dickens, then best known as 'Boz,' in one of his long tramps, +with Harrison Ainsworth as his companion. When Dickens's next work, <i>Master +Humphrey's Clock</i>, appeared, the Howitts were amused to see that +their stout and wilful Peg had not escaped the novelist's keen eye, but +had been pressed into service for Mr. Garland's chaise.</p> + +<p>On another occasion, in July 1841, William, while driving with a +friend, was attacked by two handsome, dark-eyed girls, dressed in gipsy +costume, who ran one on each side of the carriage, begging that the kind +gentleman would give them sixpence, as they were poor strangers who had +taken nothing all day. Mr. Howitt, who had made a special study of the +gipsy tribe, perceived in an instant that these were only sham Romanys. +He paid no attention to their pleading, but observed that he hoped they +would enjoy their frolic, and only wished that he were as rich as they. +Subsequently, he discovered that the mock-gipsies, who had been unable +to coax a sixpence out of him, were none other than the beautiful +Sheridan sisters, the Duchess of Somerset, and Mrs. Blackwood +(afterwards Lady Dufferin), whose husband had lately taken Bookham Lodge.</p> + +<p>During the four years spent at Esher, Mary seems to have been too +much occupied with the cares of a young family to use her pen to much +purpose. She produced little, except a volume of <i>Hymns and Fireside +Verses</i>, but she frequently assisted her husband in his work. +William, industrious as ever, published, besides a large number of +newspaper articles, his <i>Boys' Country Book</i>, the best work of the +kind ever written, according to the <i>Quarterly Review</i>; and his <i>History +of Colonisation and Christianity</i>, in which he took a rapid survey +of the behaviour of the Christian nations of Europe to the inhabitants +of the countries they conquered in all parts of the world. It was the +reading of this book that led Mr. Joseph Pease to establish the British +India Society, which issued, in a separate form, the portion of the work +that related to India. Mr. Howitt next set to work upon another +topographical volume, his <i>Visits to Remarkable Places</i>, in which +he turned to good account the materials collected in his pedestrian +rambles about the country.</p> + +<p>In 1840 the question of education for the elder children became +urgent, and the Howitts, who had heard much of the advantages of a +residence in Germany from their friends, Mrs. Hemans, Mrs. Jameson, and +Henry Chorley, decided to give up their cottage at Esher, and spend two +or three years at Heidelberg. Letters of introduction from Mrs. Jameson +gave them the <i>entrée</i> into German society, which they found +more to their taste than that of their native land. 'For the sake of our +children,' writes Mary, 'we sought German acquaintances, we read German, +we followed German customs. The life seemed to me easier, the customs +simpler and less expensive than in England. There was not the same +feverish thirst after wealth as with us; there was more calm +appreciation of nature, of music, of social enjoyment.' In their home on +the Neckar, the Howitts, most adaptable of couples, found new pleasures +and new amusements with each season of the year. In the spring and +summer they explored the surrounding country, wandered through the deep +valleys and woods, where the grass was purple with bilberries, visited +quaint, half-timbered homesteads, standing in the midst of ancient +orchards, or followed the swift-flowing streams, on whose banks the +peasant girls in their picturesque costumes were washing and drying +linen. In the autumn the whole family turned out on the first day of the +vintage, and worked like their neighbours. 'It was like something +Arcadian,' wrote Mary when recalling the scene. 'The tubs and baskets +piled up with enormous clusters, the men and women carrying them away on +their heads to the place where they were being crushed; the laughter, +the merriment, the feasting, the firing--for they make as much noise as +they can--all was delightful, to say nothing of the masquerading and +dancing in the evening, which we saw, though we did not take part in +it.' In the winter the strangers were introduced to the Christmas Tree, +which had not yet become a British institution: while with the first +snow came the joys of sleighing, when wheel-barrows, tubs, baskets, +everything that could be put on runners, were turned into sledges, and +the boys were in their glory.</p> + +<p>During the three years that were spent at Heidelberg, William Howitt +wrote his <i>Student Life in Germany</i>, <i>German Experiences</i>, +and <i>Rural and Domestic Life in Germany</i>, works which contain a +great deal of more or less valuable information about the country and +the people, presented in a homely, unpretentious style. Mary was no less +industrious, having struck a new literary vein, the success of which was +far to surpass her modest anticipations. 'I have been very busy,' she +writes in 1842, 'translating the first volume of a charming work by +Frederica Bremer, a Swedish writer; and if any publisher will give me +encouragement to go on with it, I will soon complete the work. It is one +of a series of stories of everyday life in Sweden--a beautiful book, +full of the noblest moral lessons for every man and woman.' In the +summer of 1841 the Howitts, accompanied by their elder daughter, Anna, +made a long tour through Germany and Austria, in the course of which +they collected materials for fresh works, and visited the celebrities, +literary and artistic, of the various cities that lay in their route. At +Stuttgart they called on Gustav Schwab, the poet, and visited +Dannecker's studio; at Tübingen they made the acquaintance of +Uhland, and at Munich that of Kaulbach, then at the height of his fame. +By way of Vienna and Prague they travelled to Dresden, where, through +the good offices of Mrs. Jameson, they were received by Moritz Retzsch, +whose <i>Outlines</i> they had long admired. At Berlin they made friends +with Tieck, on whom the king had bestowed a pension and a house at +Potsdam; while at Weimar they were entertained by Frau von Goethe, whose +son, Wolfgang, had been one of their earliest acquaintances at +Heidelberg. This interesting tour is described at length in the <i>Rural +and Domestic Life of Germany</i>.</p> + +<p>Another year was spent at Heidelberg, but the difficulties of +arranging the business details of their work at such a distance from +publishers and editors, brought the industrious couple back to London in +the spring of 1843. 'On our return to England,' writes Mary, 'I was full +of energy and hope. Glowing with aspiration, and in enjoyment of great +domestic happiness, I was anticipating a busy, perhaps overburdened, +but, nevertheless, congenial life. It was to be one of darkness, +perplexity, discouragement.' The Howitts had scarcely entered into +possession of a new house that they had taken at Clapton, when news came +from Heidelberg, where the elder children had been left at school, that +their second son, Claude, had developed alarming symptoms of disease in +the knee-joint. It was known that he had been slightly injured in play a +few weeks before, but no danger had been anticipated. Mr. Howitt at once +set out for Heidelberg, and returned with the invalid, on whose case +Liston was consulted. The great surgeon counselled amputation, but to +this the parents refused their consent, except as a last resource. +Various less heroic modes of treatment were tried, but poor Claude faded +away, and died in March, 1844, aged only ten years and a half. This was +the heaviest trial that the husband and wife had yet experienced, for +Claude had been a boy of brilliant promise, whom they regarded as the +flower of their flock. Only a few months before his accident his mother +had written in the pride of her heart: 'Claude is the naughtiest of all +the children, and yet the most gifted. He learns anything at a glance. +Claude is born to be fortunate; he is one that will make the family +distinguished in the next generation. He has an extraordinary faculty +for telling stories, either of his own invention or of what he reads.'</p> + +<p>A lesser cause of trouble and anxiety arose out of the translation +of Miss Bremer's novels. 'When we first translated <i>The Neighbours</i>,' +writes Mary, 'there was not a house in London that would undertake its +publication. We published it and the other Bremer novels at our own +risk, but such became the rage for them that our translations were +seized by a publisher, altered, and reissued as new ones.' The success +of these books was said to be greater than that of any series since the +first appearance of the Waverley novels. Cheap editions were multiplied +in the United States, and even the boys who hawked the books about the +streets were to be seen deep in <i>The Home</i> or <i>The H. Family</i>. +In a letter to her sister written about this time, Mary expatiates on +the annoyance and loss caused by these piracies. 'It is very +mortifying,' she observes, 'because no one knew of these Swedish novels +till we introduced them. It obliges us to hurry in all we do, and we +must work almost day and night to get ours out in order that we may have +some little chance.... We have embarked a great deal of money in the +publication, and the interference of the upstart London publisher is +most annoying. Mlle. Bremer, however, has written a new novel, and sends +it to us before publication. We began its translation this week, and +hope to be able to publish it about the time it will appear in Sweden +and Germany.'</p> + +<p>In addition to her translating work, Mrs. Howitt was engaged at this +time upon a series of little books, called <i>Tales for the People and +their Children</i>, which had been commissioned by a cheap publisher. +These stories, each of which illustrated a domestic virtue, were +punctually paid for: and though they were never advertised, they passed +swiftly through innumerable editions, and have been popular with a +certain public down to quite recent times. Perhaps the most attractive +is the <i>Autobiography of a Child</i>, in which Mary told the story of +her own early days in her pretty, simple style, with the many little +quaint touches that gave all her juvenile stories an atmosphere of truth +and reality. Her quick sympathy with young people, and her knowledge of +what most appealed to the childish mind, was probably due to her vivid +remembrance of her own youthful days, and to her affectionate study of +the 'little ways' of her own children. Many are the original traits and +sayings that she reports to her sister, more especially those of her +youngest boy, Charlton, who had inherited his parents' naturalistic +tastes in a pronounced form, and preferred the Quakers' meeting-house to +any other church or chapel, because there was a dog-kennel on the +premises!</p> + +<p>About a year after her return to England, Mrs. Howitt turned her +attention to Danish literature, finding that, with her knowledge of +Swedish and German, the language presented few difficulties. In 1845 she +translated Hans Andersen's <i>Impromsatore</i>, greatly to the +satisfaction of the author, who begged that she would continue to +translate his works, till he was as well known and loved in England as +he was on the Continent. Appreciation, fame, and joy, declared the +complacent poet, followed his footsteps wherever he went, and his whole +life was full of sunshine, like a beautiful fairy-tale. Mary translated +his <i>Only a Fiddler</i>; <i>O. T., or Life in Denmark</i>; <i>The +True Story of My Life</i>; and several of the <i>Wonderful Stories for +Children</i>. The <i>Improvisatore</i> was the only one that went into +a second edition, the other works scarcely paying the cost of +publication. Hans Andersen, however, being assured that Mrs. Howitt was +making a fortune of the translations, came to England in 1847 to arrange +for a share of the profits. Though disappointed in his hope of gain, he +begged Mrs. Howitt to translate the whole of his fairy-tales, which had +just been brought out in a beautifully-illustrated German edition. Much +to her after regret, she was then too much engrossed by other work to be +able to accede to his proposal. The relations between Hans Andersen and +his translator were marred, we are told, by the extreme sensitiveness +and egoism of the Dane. Mrs. Howitt narrates, as an example of his +childish vanity, the following little incident which occurred during his +visit to England in the summer of 1847:--</p> + +<p>'We had taken him, as a pleasant rural experience, to the annual +hay-making at Hillside, Highgate, thus introducing him to an English +home, full of poetry and art, sincerity, and affection. The ladies of +Hillside--Miss Mary and Margaret Gillies, the one an embodiment of peace +and an admirable writer, whose talent, like the violet, kept in the +shade; the other, the warm-hearted painter--made him welcome.... +Immediately after our arrival, the assembled children, loving his +delightful fairy-tales, clustered round him in the hay-field, and +watched him make them a pretty device of flowers; then, feeling somehow +that the stiff, silent foreigner was not kindred to themselves, stole +off to an American, Henry Clarke Wright, whose admirable little book, <i>A +Kiss for a Blow</i>, some of them knew. He, without any suggestion of +condescension or difference of age, entered heart and soul into their +glee, laughed, shouted, and played with them, thus unconsciously +evincing the gift which had made him earlier the exclusive pastor of six +hundred children in Boston. Soon poor Andersen, perceiving himself +neglected, complained of headache, and insisted on going indoors, +whither Mary Gillies and I, both anxious to efface any disagreeable +impression, accompanied him; but he remained irritable and out of sorts.'</p> + +<p>It was in 1845 or 1846 that the Howitts made the acquaintance of +Tennyson, whose poetry they had long admired. 'The retiring and +meditative young poet, Alfred Tennyson, visited us,' relates Mary, 'and +cheered our seclusion by the recitation of his exquisite poetry. He +spent a Sunday night at our house, when we sat talking together till +three in the morning. All the next day he remained with us in constant +converse. We seemed to have known him for years. So in fact we had, for +his poetry was himself. He hailed all attempts at heralding a grander, +more liberal state of public opinion, and consequently sweeter, nobler +modes of living. He wished that we Englanders could dress up our +affections in more poetical costume; real warmth of heart would gain +rather than lose by it. As it was, our manners were as cold as the walls +of our churches.' Another new friend was gained through William Howitt's +book, <i>Visits to Remarkable Places</i>. When the work was announced +as 'in preparation,' the author received a letter, signed E. C. Gaskell, +drawing his attention to a beautiful old house, Clopton Hall, near +Stratford-on-Avon. The letter described in such admirable style the +writer's visit to the house as a schoolgirl, that William wrote to +suggest that she ought to use her pen for the public benefit. This +timely encouragement led to the production of <i>Mary Barton</i>, the +first volume of which was sent in manuscript for Mr. Howitt's verdict. A +few months later Mrs. Gaskell came as a guest to the little house at +Clopton, bringing with her the completed work.</p> + +<p>In 1846 William Howitt took part in a new journalistic venture, his +wife, as usual, sharing his labours and anxieties. He became first +contributor, and afterwards editor and part-proprietor of the <i>People's +Journal</i>, a cheap weekly, through the medium of which he hoped to +improve the moral and intellectual condition of the working classes. +'The bearing of its contents,' wrote Mary, in answer to some adverse +criticism of the new paper, 'is love to God and man. There is no attempt +to set the poor against the rich, but, on the contrary, to induce them +to be careful, prudent, sober and independent; above all, to be +satisfied to be workers, and to regard labour as a privilege rather than +as a penalty, which is quite our view of the matter.' The combination of +business and philanthropy seldom answers, and the Howitts, despite the +excellence of their intentions, were unlucky in their newspaper +speculations. At the end of a few months it was discovered that the +manager of the <i>People's Journal</i> kept no books, and that the +affairs of the paper were in hopeless confusion. William Howitt, finding +himself responsible for the losses on the venture, tried to cure the +evil by a hair of the dog that had bitten him. He withdrew from the <i>People's +Journal</i>, and, with Samuel Smiles as his assistant, started a rival +paper on the same lines, called <i>Howitts Journal</i>. But, as +Ebenezer Elliott, the shrewd old Quaker, remarked, apropos of the apathy +of the working-class public: 'Men engaged in a death struggle for bread +will pay for amusement when they will not for instruction. They woo +laughter to unscare them, that they may forget their perils, their +wrongs, and their oppressors. If you were able and willing to fill the +journal with fun, it would pay.' The failure of his paper spelt ruin to +its promoter; his copyrights, as well as those of his wife, were +sacrificed, and he was obliged to begin the world anew.</p> + +<p>The Howitts seem to have kept up their spirits bravely under this +reverse, and never for a moment relaxed in their untiring industry. They +moved into a small house in Avenue Road, St. John's Wood, and looked +around them for new subjects upon which to exercise their well-worn +pens. Mary hoped to get employment from the Religious Tract Society, +which had invited her to send in a specimen story, but she feared that +her work would hardly be considered sufficiently orthodox, though she +had introduced one of the 'death-bed scenes,' which were then in so much +request. As she anticipated, the story was returned as quite unsuitable, +and thereupon she writes to her sister in some depression: 'Times are so +bad that publishers will not speculate in books; and when I have +finished the work I am now engaged on, I have nothing else certain to go +on with.' However, writers so popular with the public as the Howitts +were not likely to be left long without employment. Mary seems to have +been the greater favourite of the two, and the vogue of her volume of +collected <i>Poems and Ballads</i>, which appeared in 1847, strikes the +modern reader with amazement. Some idea of the estimation in which she +was then held is proved by Allan Cunningham's dictum that 'Mary Howitt +has shown herself mistress of every string of the minstrel's lyre, save +that which sounds of broil and bloodshed. There is more of the old +ballad simplicity in her composition than can be found in the strains of +any living poet besides.' Another critic compared Mrs. Hewitt's ballads +to those of Lord Macaulay, while Mrs. Alaric Watts, in her capacity of +Annual editor, wrote to assure her old friend and contributor that, 'In +thy simplest poetry there are sometimes turns so exquisite as to bring +the tears to my eyes. Thou hast as much poetry in thee as would set up +half-a-dozen writers.' The one dissentient voice among admiring +contemporaries is that of Miss Mitford, who writes in 1852: 'I am for my +sins so fidgety respecting style that I have the bad habit of expecting +a book that pretends to be written in our language to be English; +therefore I cannot read Miss Strickland, or the Howitts, or Carlyle, or +Emerson, or the serious parts of Dickens.' It must be owned that the +Howitts are condemned in fairly good company.</p> + +<p>The work of both husband and wife suffered from the inevitable +defects of self-education, and also from the narrowness and seclusion of +their early lives. Mary possessed more imagination and a lighter touch +than her husband, but her attempts at adult fiction were hampered by her +ignorance of the world, while her technique, both in prose and verse, +left something to be desired. It is evident that the publishers and +editors of the period were less critical than Miss Mitford, for, in +1848, we find that Mrs. Howitt was invited to write the opening volume +of Bradshaw's series of Railway novels, while in February 1850, came a +request from Charles Dickens for contributions to <i>Household Words</i>. +'You may have seen,' he writes, 'the first dim announcements of the +new, cheap literary journal I am about to start. Frankly, I want to say +to you that if you would write for it, you would delight me, and I +should consider myself very fortunate indeed in enlisting your +services.... I hope any connection with the enterprise would be +satisfactory and agreeable to you in all respects, as I should most +earnestly endeavour to make it. If I wrote a book I could say no more +than I mean to suggest to you in these few lines. All that I leave +unsaid, I leave to your generous understanding.'</p> + +<p>The Howitts were keenly interested in the gradual awakening of the +long-dormant, artistic instincts of the nation, the first signs of which +became faintly visible about the end of the forties. 'Down to that +time,' observes Mary, 'the taste of the English people had been for what +appealed to the mind rather than to the eye, and the general public were +almost wholly uneducated in art. By 1849 the improvement due to the +exertions of the Prince Consort, the Society of Arts, and other powers +began to be felt; while a wonderful impulse to human taste and ingenuity +was being given in the preparation of exhibits for the World's Fair.' +The gentle Quakeress who, in her youth, had modelled Wedgwood figures in +paper pulp, and clapped her clear-starching to the rhythm of <i>Lalla +Rookh</i>, was, in middle life, one of the staunchest supporters of the +Pre-Raphaelite Brethren, and that at a time when the President of the +Royal Academy had announced his intention of hanging no more of their +'outrageous productions.' Through their friend, Edward La Trobe Bateman, +the Howitts had been introduced into the Pre-Raphaelite circle, and +familiarised with the then new and startling idea that artistic +principles might be carried out in furniture and house-decoration. Less +than three-quarters of a century before, Mary's father had been sternly +rebuked by her grandfather for painting a series of lines in black and +grey above the parlour fireplace to represent a cornice. This primitive +attempt at decoration was regarded as a sinful indulgence of the lust of +the eye! With the simple charity that was characteristic of them, +William and Mary saw only the best side of their new friends, the +shadows of Bohemian life being entirely hidden from them. 'Earnest and +severe in their principles of art,' observes Mrs. Howitt naively, 'the +young reformers indulged in much jocundity when the day's work was done. +They were wont to meet at ten, cut jokes, talk slang, smoke, read +poetry, and discuss art till three A.M.'</p> + +<p>The couple had by this time renounced their membership of the +Society of Friends, but they had not joined any other religious sect, +though they seem to have been attracted by Unitarian doctrines. 'Mere +creeds,' wrote Mary to her sister, 'matter nothing to me. I could go one +Sunday to the Church of England, another to a Catholic chapel, a third +to the Unitarian, and so on; and in each of them find my heart warmed +with Christian love to my fellow-creatures, and lifted up with gratitude +and praise to God.' For many years the house in Avenue Road was, we are +told, a meeting-place for all that was best and brightest in the world +of modern thought and art. William Howitt was always ready to lend an +attentive and unbiassed ear to the newest theory, or even the newest +fad, while Mary possessed in the fullest degree the gift of +companionableness, and her inexhaustible sympathy drew from others an +instant confidence. Her arduous literary labours never impaired her +vigorous powers of mind or body, and she often wrote till late into the +night without appearing to suffer in either health or spirits. She is +described as a careful and energetic housewife; indeed, her husband was +accustomed to say that he would challenge any woman who never wrote a +line, to match his own good woman in the management of a large household.</p> + +<p>In 1851 came the first tidings of the discovery of gold in +Australia, and nothing was talked of but this new Eldorado and the +wonderful inducements held out to emigrants. William Howitt, who felt +that he needed a change from brain-work, suddenly resolved on a trip +with his two sons to this new world, where he would see his youngest +brother, Dr. Godfrey Howitt, who had settled at Melbourne. He was also +anxious to ascertain what openings in the country there might be for his +boys, both of whom had active, outdoor tastes, which there seemed little +chance of their being able to gratify in England. In June, 1852, the +three male members of the family, accompanied by La Trobe Bateman, +sailed for Australia, while Mary and her two daughters, the elder of +whom had just returned from a year in Kaulbach's studio at Munich, moved +into a cottage called the Hermitage, at Highgate, which belonged to Mr. +Bateman, and had formerly been occupied by Rossetti. Here they lived +quietly for upwards of two years, working at their literary or artistic +occupations, and seeing a few intimate friends. Mary kept her husband +posted up in the events that were taking place in England, and we learn +from her letters what were the chief topics of town talk in the early +fifties.</p> + +<p>'Now, I must think over what news there is,' she writes in April, +1853. 'In the political world, the proposed new scheme of Property and +Income Tax, which would make everybody pay something; and the proposal +for paying off a portion of the National Debt with Australian gold. In +the literary world, the International Copyright, which some expect will +be in force in three months. In society in general, the strange +circumstantial rumour of the Queen's death, which, being set afloat on +Easter Monday, when no business was doing, was not the offspring of the +money market. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kean, who were here the other day, +spoke of it, saying truly that for the moment it seemed to paralyse the +very heart of England.... [May 4th.] The great talk now is Mrs. Beecher +Stowe and spirit-rapping, both of which have arrived in England. The +universality of the latter phenomena renders it a curious study. A +feeling seems pervading all classes and all sects that the world stands +on the brink of some great spiritual revelation. It meets one in books, +in newspapers, on the lips of members of the Church of England, +Unitarians, and even Freethinkers. Poor old Robert Owen, the +philanthropist, has been converted, and made a confession of faith in +public. One cannot but respect a man who, in his old age, has the +boldness to declare himself as having been blinded and mistaken through +life.'</p> + +<p>In December, 1854, William Howitt returned from his travels without +any gold in his pockets, but with the materials for his <i>History of +Discovery in Australia and New Zealand.</i> Thanks to what he used to +call his four great doctors, Temperance, Exercise, Good Air, and Good +Hours, he had displayed wonderful powers of activity and endurance +during his exploration of some almost untracked regions of the new +world. At sixty years of age he had marched twenty miles a day under a +blazing sun for weeks at a time, worked at digging gold for twelve hours +a day, waded through rivers, slept under trees, baked his own bread, +washed his own clothes, and now returned in the pink of condition, with +his passion for wandering only intensified by his three years of an +adventurous life. The family experiences were diversified thenceforward +by frequent change of scene, for William was always ready and willing to +start off at a moment's notice to the mountains, the seaside, or the +Continent. But whether the Howitts were at home or abroad, they +continued their making of many books, so that it becomes difficult for +the biographer to keep pace with their literary output. Together or +separately they produced a <i>History of Scandinavian Literature, The +Homes and Haunts of the Poets, a Popular History of England</i>, which +was published in weekly parts, a <i>Year-Book of the Country</i>, a <i>Popular +History of the United States</i>, a <i>History of the Supernatural</i>, +the <i>Northern Heights of London</i>, and an abridged edition of <i>Sir +Charles Grandison</i>, besides several tales for young people, and +contributions to magazines and newspapers.</p> + +<p>Even increasing age had no power to narrow their point of view, or +to blunt their sympathy with every movement that seemed to make for the +relief of the oppressed, the welfare of the nation, or the advancement +of the human race. Just as in youth they had championed the cause of +Catholic Emancipation and of political Reform, so in later years we find +them advocating the Repeal of the Corn Laws, taking part in the +Anti-Slavery agitation, working for improvement in the laws that +affected women and children, and supporting the Bill for the Prevention +of Cruelty to Animals. A more debatable subject--that of +spiritualism--was investigated by them in a friendly but impartial +spirit. 'In the spring of 1856, 'writes Mrs. Howitt, 'we had become +acquainted with several most ardent and honest spirit mediums. It seemed +right to my husband and myself to try and understand the nature of these +phenomena in which our new acquaintance so firmly believed. In the month +of April I was invited to attend a <i>séance</i> at Professor de +Morgan's, and was much astonished and affected by communications +purporting to come to me from my dear son Claude. With constant prayer +for enlightenment and guidance, we experimented at home. The teachings +that seemed given us from the spirit-world were often akin to those of +the gospel; at other times they were more obviously emanations of evil. +I felt thankful for the assurance thus gained of an invisible world, but +resolved to neglect none of my common duties for spiritualism.' Among +the Hewitts' fellow-converts were Robert Chambers, Robert Owen, the +Carter Halls and the Alaric Watts's; while Sir David Brewster and Lord +Brougham were earnest inquirers into these forms of psychical phenomena.</p> + +<p>In 1865 William Howitt was granted a pension by Government, and a +year later the couple moved from Highgate to a cottage called the +Orchard, near their former residence at Esher. Of their four surviving +children, only Margaret, the youngest, was left at home. Anna, already +the author of a very interesting book, <i>An Art Student at Munich</i>, +had, as her mother observes, taken her place among the successful +artists and writers of her day, 'when, in the spring of 1856, a severe +private censure of one of her oil-paintings by a king among critics so +crushed her sensitive nature, as to make her yield to her bias for the +supernatural, and withdraw from the arena of the fine arts.' In 1857 +Anna became the wife of Alfred Watts, the son of her parents' old +friends, Alaric and Zillah Watts. The two boys, Alfred and Charlton, +born explorers and naturalists, both settled in Australia. Alfred, early +in the sixties, had explored the district of Lake Torrens, a land of +parched deserts, dry-water-courses, and soda-springs, whose waters +effervesced tartaric acid; and had opened up for the Victorian +Government the mountainous district of Gippsland, with the famous +gold-field of the Crooked River. In 1861 he had been employed to head +the relief-party that went in search of the discoverer, Robert O'Hara +Burke, and his companions, and a year later he brought back the remains +of the ill-fated explorers to Melbourne for public burial. Later in life +he was successfully employed in various Government enterprises, and +published, in collaboration with a friend, a learned work on the +aborigines of Australia.</p> + +<p>Charlton Howitt, the younger son, after five years' uncongenial work +in a London office, emigrated to Australia in 1860. His quality was +quickly recognised by the Provincial Government, which, in 1862, +appointed him to command an expedition to examine the rivers in the +province of Canterbury, with a view to ascertaining whether they +contained gold. So admirably was the work accomplished that, on his +return to Christchurch, he was intrusted with the task of opening up +communications between the Canterbury plains and the newly-discovered +gold and coal district on the west coast. 'This duty was faithfully +performed, under constant hardships and discouragement,' relates his +mother. 'But a few miles of road remained to be cut, when, at the end of +June, 1863, after personally rescuing other pioneers and wanderers from +drowning and starvation in that watery, inhospitable forest region, +Charlton, with two of his men, went down in the deep waters of Lake +Brunner; a fatal accident which deprived the Government of a valued +servant, and saddened the hearts of all who knew him.'</p> + +<p>After four peaceful years at Esher, the <i>Wanderlust</i>, that +gipsy spirit, which not even the burden of years could tame, took +possession of William and Mary once more, and they suddenly decided that +they must see Italy before they died. In May, 1870, they let the +Orchard, and, aged seventy-seven and seventy-one respectively, set out +on their last long flight into the world. The summer was spent on the +Lake of Lucerne, where the old-world couple came across that modern of +the moderns, Richard Wagner, and his family. By way of the Italian Lakes +and Venice they travelled, in leisurely fashion, to Rome, where they +celebrated their golden wedding in April, 1871. The Eternal City threw +its glamour around these ancient pilgrims, who found both life and +climate exactly suited to the needs of old age. 'I prized in Rome,' +writes Mrs. Howitt, 'the many kind and sympathetic friends that were +given to us, the ease of social existence, the poetry, the classic +grace, the peculiar and deep pathos diffused around; above all, the +stirring and affecting historic memories.... From the period of arrival +in Rome, I may truly say that the promise in Scripture, "At evening time +there shall be light," was, in our case, fulfilled.'</p> + +<p>The simple, homely life of the aged couple continued unbroken amid +their new surroundings. William interested himself in the planting of +Eucalyptus in the Campagna, as a preventive against malaria, and had +seeds of different varieties sent over from Australia, which he +presented to the Trappist monks of the Tre Fontani. He helped to +establish a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, and struck +up a friendship with the gardeners and custodians of the Pincio, to whom +he gave expert advice on the subject of the creatures under their +charge. The summer months were always spent in the Tyrol, where the +Howitts had permanent quarters in an old mansion near Bruneck, called +Mayr-am-Hof. Here William was able to indulge in his favourite +occupation of gardening. He dug indefatigably in a field allotment with +his English spade, a unique instrument in that land of clumsy husbandry, +and was amazed at the growth of the New Zealand spinach, the widespread +rhubarb, the exuberant tomatoes, and towering spikes of Indian corn. +Thanks to the four great doctors before mentioned, he remained hale and +hearty up to December, 1878, in which month he celebrated his +eighty-seventh birthday. A few weeks later he was attacked by +bronchitis, which, owing to an unsuspected weakness of the heart, he was +unable to throw off. He died in his house on the Via Sistina, close to +his favourite Pincio, on March 3, 1879.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Howitt now finally gave up the idea of returning to end her +days in England. Her husband and companion of more than fifty years was +buried in the Protestant Cemetery at Home, and when her time came, she +desired to be laid by his side. The grant of a small pension added to +the comfort of her last years, and was a source of much innocent pride +and gratification, for, as she tells her daughter Anna, 'It was so +readily given, so kindly, so graciously, for my literary merits, by Lord +Beaconsfield, without the solicitation or interference of any friend or +well-wisher.' In May, 1880, she writes to a friend from Meran about 'a +project, which seems to have grown up in a wonderful way by itself, or +as if invisible hands had been arranging it; that we should have a +little home of our own <i>im heiligen Land Tirol</i>. This really is a +very great mercy, seeing that the Tyrol is so beautiful, the climate so +beneficial to health, and the people, taken as a whole, so very honest +and devout. Our little nest of love, which we shall call "Marienruhe," +will be perched on a hill with beautiful views, surrounded by a small +garden.' On September 29, 1881, Mrs. Howitt and her daughter, Margaret, +slept, for the first time, in their romantically-situated new home near +Meran.</p> + +<p>At Marienruhe, the greater portion of the last seven years of Mary +Howitt's life was spent in peace and contentment. Here she amused +herself with writing her 'Reminiscences' for <i>Good Words</i>, which +were afterwards incorporated in her <i>Autobiography</i>. Age had no +power to blunt her interest in the events of the day, political or +literary, and at eighty-seven we find her reading with keen enjoyment +Froude's <i>Oceana</i> and Besant's <i>All Sorts and Conditions of Men</i>, +books that dealt with questions which she and her husband had had at +heart for the best part of a lifetime, and for which they had worked +with untiring zeal. Of the first she writes to a friend: 'We much +approve of his (Froude's) very strong desire that our colonies should, +like good, faithful, well-trained children, be staunch in love and +service to old Mother England. How deeply we feel on this subject I +cannot tell you; and I hope and trust that you join strongly in this +truly English sentiment.' Of the second she writes to Mrs. Leigh Smith: +'I am more interested than I can tell you in <i>All Sorts and +Conditions of Men</i>. It affects me like the perfected fruit of some +glorious tree which my dear husband and I had a dim dream of planting +more than thirty years ago, and which we did, in our ignorance and +incapacity, attempt to plant in soil not properly prepared, and far too +early in the season. I cannot tell you how it has recalled the hopes and +dreams of a time which, by the overruling Providence of God, was so +disastrous to us. It is a beautiful essay on the dignity of labour.'</p> + +<p>The last few years of Mary Howitt's life were saddened by the deaths +of her beloved sister, Anna, and her elder daughter, Mrs. Watts, but +such blows are softened for aged persons by the consciousness that their +own race is nearly run. Mary had, moreover, one great spiritual +consolation in her conversion, at the age of eighty-three, to the +doctrines of Roman Catholicism In spite of her oft-repeated +protestations against the likelihood of her 'going over,' in spite of +her declaration, openly expressed as late as 1871, that she firmly +believed in the anti-Christianity of the Papacy, and that she and her +husband were watching with interest the progress of events which, they +trusted, would bring about its downfall, Mrs. Howitt was baptized into +the Roman Church in May, 1882. Her new faith was a source of intense +happiness to the naturally religious woman, who had found no refuge in +any sectarian fold since her renunciation of her childish creed. In +1888, the year of the Papal Jubilee, though her strength was already +failing, she was well enough to join the deputation of English pilgrims, +who, on January 10, were presented to the Pope by the Duke of Norfolk. +In describing the scene, the last public ceremony in which she took +part, she writes: 'A serene happiness, almost joy, filled my whole being +as I found myself on my knees before the Vicar of Christ. My wish was to +kiss his foot, but it was withdrawn, and his hand given to me. You may +think with what fervour I kissed the ring. In the meantime he had been +told my age and my late conversion. His hands were laid on my shoulders, +and, again and again, his right hand in blessing on my head, whilst he +spoke to me of Paradise.'</p> + +<p>Having thus achieved her heart's desire, it seemed as if the last +tie which bound the aged convert to earth was broken. A few days later +she was attacked by bronchitis, and, after a short illness, passed away +in her sleep on January 30, 1888, having nearly completed her +eighty-ninth year. To the last, we are told, Mary Howitt's sympathy was +as warm, her intelligence as keen as in the full vigour of life, while +her rare physical strength and pliant temper preserved her in unabated +enjoyment of existence to the verge of ninety. Although many of her +books were out of print at the time of her death, it was said that if +every copy had been destroyed, most of her ballads and minor poems could +have been collected from the memories of her admirers, who had +them--very literally--by heart.</p> + +<p>William and Mary Howitt, it may be observed in conclusion, though +not leaders, were brave soldiers in the army of workers for humanity, +and if now they seem likely to share the common lot of the rank and +file--oblivion--it must be remembered that they were among those +favoured of the gods who are crowned with gratitude, love, and +admiration by their contemporaries. To them, asleep in their Roman +grave, the neglect of posterity brings no more pain than the homage of +modern critics brings triumph to the slighted poet who shares their last +resting-place.<br> +</p> + +<p><br> +</p> +<hr style="width: 100%; height: 2px;"> + +<p><br> +</p> + + + + + + + +<pre> + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Memoirs of the Nineteenth +Century, by George Paston + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE MEMOIRS OF THE 19TH C. *** + +This file should be named 6756-h.htm or 6756-h.zip + +Produced by Steve Schulze, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. +This file was produced from images generously made available by the +CWRU Preservation Department Digital Library + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/6756-h/images/Haydon.jpg b/6756-h/images/Haydon.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3ec9322 --- /dev/null +++ b/6756-h/images/Haydon.jpg diff --git a/6756-h/images/Haydon.png b/6756-h/images/Haydon.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f8465be --- /dev/null +++ b/6756-h/images/Haydon.png diff --git a/6756-h/images/Howitt.jpg b/6756-h/images/Howitt.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cbd8ea2 --- /dev/null +++ b/6756-h/images/Howitt.jpg diff --git a/6756-h/images/Howitt.png b/6756-h/images/Howitt.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b490c08 --- /dev/null +++ b/6756-h/images/Howitt.png diff --git a/6756-h/images/Morgan.jpg b/6756-h/images/Morgan.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b79fe9a --- /dev/null +++ b/6756-h/images/Morgan.jpg diff --git a/6756-h/images/Morgan.png b/6756-h/images/Morgan.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7300d58 --- /dev/null +++ b/6756-h/images/Morgan.png diff --git a/6756-h/images/Muskau.jpg b/6756-h/images/Muskau.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b948765 --- /dev/null +++ b/6756-h/images/Muskau.jpg diff --git a/6756-h/images/Muskau.png b/6756-h/images/Muskau.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1abc74b --- /dev/null +++ b/6756-h/images/Muskau.png diff --git a/6756-h/images/Stanhope1.jpg b/6756-h/images/Stanhope1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c8a67a9 --- /dev/null +++ b/6756-h/images/Stanhope1.jpg diff --git a/6756-h/images/Stanhope1.png b/6756-h/images/Stanhope1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d306df4 --- /dev/null +++ b/6756-h/images/Stanhope1.png diff --git a/6756-h/images/Stanhope2.jpg b/6756-h/images/Stanhope2.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7031536 --- /dev/null +++ b/6756-h/images/Stanhope2.jpg diff --git a/6756-h/images/Stanhope2.png b/6756-h/images/Stanhope2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9ff4514 --- /dev/null +++ b/6756-h/images/Stanhope2.png diff --git a/6756-h/images/Willis.jpg b/6756-h/images/Willis.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..43b133d --- /dev/null +++ b/6756-h/images/Willis.jpg diff --git a/6756-h/images/Willis.png b/6756-h/images/Willis.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4372f30 --- /dev/null +++ b/6756-h/images/Willis.png diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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