Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his circle (Cheyne Walk life)

RECOLLECTIONS

OF

DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI
AND HIS CIRCLE

Recollections of Dante Gabriel
Rossetti and His Circle

Recollections of Dante Gabriel
Rossetti and His Circle

(CHEYNE WALK LIFE}

BY THE LATE

HENRY TREFFRY DUNN

EDITED AND ANNOTATED BY

GALE PEDRICK

With a Prefatory Note by William Michael Rossetti

NEW YORK: JAMES POTT & COMPANY

LONDON : ELKIN MATHEWS

1904

PRINTED BY R. FOLKARD AND SON,

22, DEVONSHIRE STREET, QUEEN SQUARE, BLOOMSBURY,
LONDON, W.C.

CONTENTS

PAGE

Editorial Note I

Prefatory Note, by William Michael Rossetti .... 5
Biographical Note of Henry Treffry Dunn - » ... 9

CHAPTER I. A Premonition — A Trip to Holland — James
Shepherd— Heatherley's — William Gorman Wills— Charles
Augustus Howell— Two Portraits of Dante - - - n

CHAPTER II. No. 16, Cheyne Walk — Dante Gabriel Rossetti
—The Studio—" Lady Lilith"— " Beata Beatrix "—" The
Loving Cup" 17

CHAPTER III. Blake's "Songs of Innocence" — Alexander
Gilchrist— William Michael Rossetti— The Tobacco Box-
Blue Nankin — James McNeil Whistler — The Prse-Raphaelite
Brotherhood— William Bell Scott— Ford Madox Brown —
Theo Marzials — Rossetti's indifference to music — His curio
hunts — First ideas and sketches — John Ruskin — Robert
Browning — Algernon Charles Swinburne — William Morris —
Tennyson reading " Maud " 22

CHAPTER IV. Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, & Co.— Edward
Burne Jones — " St. George and the Dragon " — " Parable of
the Vineyard " — Ernest Gambart — The Llandaff triptych —
" Girlhood of Mary Virgin " — Rossetti's bed and bed-room
—The "Germ"— "Poems"— James Collinson— Walter
Howell Deverell - 32

CHAPTER V. Rossetti's " pets " — The poetry-loving racoon —
The disreputable armadillos — The quarrelsome kangaroos
— The noisy peacock — The curious deer — The morose parrot 38

CHAPTER VI. Story of the blue Nankin dish— lonides Brothers
— Leonard R. Valpy — George Howard — George Price Boyce
— George Cruikshank — John William Inchbold 43

2038871

CONTENTS

PAGE

CHAPTER VII. Rossetti's dinners— Frederick Sandys— George
Augustus Sala — Westland Marston — Lady Nicotine — The
Tichborne trial 51

CHAPTER VIII. Rossetti and Spiritualism and Mesmerism —
Some mediums — Daniel Home — Bergheim— The Master of
Lindsay — Theodore Watts-Dunton— A mesmeric entertain-
ment ----55

CHAPTER IX. Influence of the occult upon Rossetti — "Rose
Mary " — Swinburne's ecstasy — "Proserpine " — " Cassan-
dra"— John Trivett Nettleship — Edward Hughes — Lewis
Carroll — Longfellow — Rossetti's methods — An appraisement
of his work — Conclusion 62

" Autumn Leaves," by Henry Treffry Dunn 70

Notes 73

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI, oil painting by Henry Treffry

Dunn Frontispiece

TOBACCO Box, from a drawing by Edith Hume 25

TENNYSON READING " MAUD," from a sepia sketch by Dante

Gabriel Rossetti 30

BED IN WHICH ROSSETTI WAS BORN, from a water-colour by

Henry Treffry Dunn 35

CORNER OF THE DINING-ROOM AT No. 16, CHEYNE WALK,

from a sepia drawing by Henry Treffry Dunn 50

THE CRYSTAL BALL, from a design of Henry Treffry Dunn's,

by his sister, Edith Hume 69

EDITORIAL NOTE.

THE position reached and maintained by Dante Gabriel
Rossetti in the domain of Art and Poetry, the remark-
able influence which he exerted upon the second Re-
naissance in Art and Letters witnessed by the nineteenth
century, and, moreover, the glamour which yet illumines
his individuality, and the high esteem in which his ac-
complishments are justly held, proffer, it is suggested, an
ample apology, if such be needed, for rescuing these
Recollections from the obscurity of the annals of the
family to which the author belonged, and giving them
the publicity of print.

Whatever pertains to the mission and conquests of a
man of genius— his ideals, methods, and struggles — is of
great and permanent value. It necessarily commands
universal respe6l, and sometimes should evoke emula-
tion. But at the same time such knowledge, generally
speaking, is beyond the understanding of the non-scientific
and insufficiently-versed 'mind. It is the human side of
genius which receives the widest comprehension, and

appeals with the larger force to our sympathies, which
in fa6l reveals, through its frailties and idiosyncrasies, the
kinship of genius with mediocrity and ineptitude, and
indeed, enables us to understand more fully the incidence
of genius.

By reason of the homely and personal touches which
he is qualified to give, the experiences and knowledge
gained of an individuality by a constant and observant
companion reveal, when related, far more convincingly
than any official life based upon correspondence or post-
humous compilation could do, the character, the humanity
of the subjecl. And hence, whatever value these Recol-
leftions may possess as such, their chief lies in the faft
that they convey the personality, and describe the thoughts
and actions of the great poet-painter as they appeared to
one long privileged to enjoy familiar association with
him, and who had consequently unique opportunities for
gauging his weakness as well as his strength.

That they have also a certain illuminating value
will, I think, be conceded. It is not difficult to imagine
ourselves, as we read, silent but welcome guests at those
brilliant gatherings which are so vividly described, to
conjure up the dominating figures in Art and Poetry

with whom we are brought so frequently into contaft, to
listen to the sparkling conversation and the flow of wit
and reason, or to laugh at the smart repartee ; neither is
it hard to realise that power of inspiring enthusiasm and
making proselytes which Rossetti possessed in so marked
a degree, nor the extraordinary magnetism of his complex
individuality.

Viewed solely from the literary standpoint, that
these memories have a certain charm and quality in this
regard, will not, I think, be denied.

I wish to acknowledge the great indebtedness of the
surviving sisters of Henry Treffry Dunn and my wife,
his niece, as well as of myself, to Mr. William Michael
Rossetti for kindly correcting the manuscript of the
Recollections and affording valuable information con-
cerning points which were undefined ; also, for penning
an introductory note, and generously placing at my
disposal for the purpose the originals of the illustrations
which appear in this volume, and to express to him their
and my warm thanks for his interest and generosity.

GALE PEDRICK.

no, ST. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON.
September, 1903.

PREFATORY NOTE BY WILLIAM
MICHAEL ROSSETTI.

HAVING been invited to write a few words of introduc-
tion to the reminiscences of my brother, Dante Gabriel
Rossetti, left by Mr. Henry Treffry Dunn, I very readily
assent. I was personally cognizant of most of the cir-
cumstances here related, and am therefore qualified to
state whether this account of them is or is not a genuine
contribution to my brother's biography.

I have no hesitation in saying that it is perfectly
genuine, and gives, from the writer's point of view, a
very fair notion of what Dante Rossetti did in those
years, and what he was like. The narrative was not
known to me until May last, when a transcript of it was
produced to me by Mrs. Hume, a sister of Mr. Dunn.
I read it with satisfaction, and made, on points of detail,
various observations to which the Editor, Mr. Gale
Pedrick, has been so good as to pay heedful and ample
attention.

It will be apparent to the readers of this narrative that
in the years which it covers, Mr. Dunn saw as much of
Dante Rossetti as any other person whatsoever did,' or
indeed more, if one looks to continuous day-by-day
association. He witnessed his comings-out and goings-in,
and was highly familiar with his methods of work as a
painter. Every look of his countenance, every intonation
of his voice, every mood of his temper — sunny, overcast,
or variously shifting — was known to the narrator.

My own acquaintance with Mr. Dunn covered the
whole period of his connection with my brother, and
extended to a couple of years or so beyond the death of
the latter, April, 1882. After that date, as it happened,
I did not meet him again. I had a very sincere regard
for Mr. Dunn, perceiving him to be upright and straight-
forward in all his dealings, a valuable professional auxiliary
for my brother to have secured, and always anxious to
serve Rossetti's true interests in matters outside the pic-
torial range. He did a good deal towards keeping things
straight in an establishment where the master's rather
unthrifty and negligent habits in household affairs might
easily have made them crooked. Mr. Dunn was a
pleasant and helpful companion, conversant with several

7

matters unrelated to the artistic career. I should have
liked to see a portrait of him in this volume. In default
of that, I may say that he was a man of middle height,
with a narrow visage, a rather dark but ruddy complexion,
dark, telling eyes, and a full crop of hair, prematurely
grey.

LONDON, September, 1903.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE OF HENRY
TREFFRY DUNN.

HENRY TREFFRY DUNN, the author of these Recollec-
tions, was born at Truro, in 1838. For some time he
was engaged as a clerk in the Cornish Bank of his native
city, but when about twenty-four years of age, the artistic
instinct strong within him, he abandoned the desk for the
palette and brush, and adopted painting as a profession.
Soon after, as he himself relates, he received an introduc-
tion to Dante Gabriel Rossetti. At once he was irre-
sistibly attracted by the magnetism which formed one of
the most noteworthy facets of the personality of that
poet, painter, and leader of men, and came under the spell
of that influence which he possessed over all around him,
and none were ever able or willing to liberate themselves
from. He forthwith took up his residence with Rossetti.
Many years of close comradeship and daily intercourse
followed between the chief and his disciple, and it was
the good fortune of the latter, during this period, to meet
on terms of intimacy those men of distinction — the

10

record of whose achievements constitutes the history of
Poetry, Art, and Letters in the nineteenth century — whom
Rossetti collected around him, and to be constantly
present at those frequent and prolonged meetings in the
dimly-lit studio at Cheyne Walk, which were famous for
their intellectual charm and brilliancy.

Henry Treffry Dunn was himself a painter of no
mean ability, but for the most part he was content to
remain under the shadow cast by the towering genius
and capacity of the master. One of his works hangs in
the council chamber of his native city — a portrait of
Dr. Barham.

As may be gathered and inferred from his Recollec-
tions, in common with all who enjoyed his friendship he
felt a deep affeftion for Rossetti as a man, and a profound
admiration for him as a poet and painter. He is expressly
mentioned by Mr. William Michael Rossetti as one of
his brother's friends in the Preface to the Collected Works
of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. He died in February, 1899.
Both he and his chief have long since solved the tre-
mendous mysteries of life and death, upon which they
were wont so often to speculate together.

EDITOR.

RECOLLECTIONS

CHAPTER I.

A premonition — a trip to Holland — James Shepherd — Heatberleys —
William Gorman Wills — Charles Augustus Honuell — Two portraits
of T>ante.

SEVERAL years ago, when discharging the duties of a
clerk in a banking establishment (located in the extreme
west of England) in a somewhat listless fashion, one or
two associates and myself regularly subscribed for the
Illustrated London News. One item contained in a par-
ticular issue of that journal remains indelibly engraven
upon my mind. Whilst studying its contents on the
morning of its arrival, during the ten minutes grace
allowed us after the mid-day meal, I recoiled! seeing a
paragraph containing a quotation from a letter which had
appeared in a recent number of the Athenesum. This
was to the effect that Mr. D. G. Rossetti had not given
up oil for water-colour, but that he still practised both.
As far as I could then see, the intimation in no way
affected me. I was simply attracted by it through the
keen interest I felt towards painting, and a yearning long
experienced to adopt Art as a profession.

12 RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI

"D. G. Rossetti?" I enquired of myself— " why,
I never heard of him. Who is he ? and what kind of
pictures does he paint ? "

Thereupon I fell into a reverie over the announce-
ment I had seen, and gradually and convincingly a strange
presagementi came to me that some day, not very far off,
I should not only meet and know this man, but even be
closely associated with him in his profession.

Months elapsed; summer began to wane, and I to
make preparation for my annual fortnight's holiday. I
had a great desire for a long time to see something of
Holland, and by dint of economy I had managed to put
sufficient together to enable me to realise it. I also
determined, if the limited time of my interval allowed,
to obtain a glimpse of the Rhine. 1 got to London,
and, with the aid of a Bradskaw, made out the route
to Harwich. There I took the steamboat, and after a
night's voyage, which was somewhat rough and tem-
pestuous, I landed at an early hour in the morning in the
Boompjes at Rotterdam.

To get something to eat was my first consideration,
and after wandering vainly about the streets for some
time in search of a place of refreshment, I at last espied
a coffee-tavern. Unaware that Dutch was the pre-
vailing language of the greater part of the inhabitants
of Rotterdam, I fancied there would be no difficulty
in making known my wants with the few phrases of
French and German that I had managed to pick up, but

AND HIS CIRCLE 13

I was soon to be undeceived. Entering the house, I
seated myself at the nearest table and rang for attendance.
Presently, a slovenly, unkempt girl, broad of face, made
her appearance, and in what German I could command
I asked her to provide me with some breakfast. She
nodded her head, stared in bewilderment, and said some-
thing in reply which was perfectly unintelligible ; so, my
German failing, I tried again in the few words of French
I could remember. This seemed even more perplexing
to her, and shaking her head once more, she went away
with a grin on her expansive face. Anon, she returned
with her mistress, who was even more fat and "Dutchier"
looking than the maid, and both stood with their arms
akimbo gazing at me with curiosity. Again I essayed
to make myself understood, but only to find that in lan-
guage the effort was fruitless. Suddenly a happy thought
struck me. Pulling out my sketch-book, I hastily drew
a plate with a chop on it, a knife and fork, a couple of
eggs, and a cup and saucer. To their delight, this gave
them a clear idea that it was something to eat and drink
that I wanted, and in a very short time I was furnished
with a substantial and well-cooked meal.1

I lingered for some days about this delightful old
Rotterdam, sketching its quaint nooks and corners here
and there, and then took a hasty run up the Rhine, as
far as Mayence. My time, however, was getting short,
and reluctantly I had to think of returning home again.
On the return journey there were a good many tourists —

14 RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI

homeward bound like myself— on the boat. One of
them, James Shepherd,2 took an interest in my sketches.
He entered into conversation with me, and when I ex-
pressed a strong desire to adopt Art as a means of obtaining
a livelihood, he encouraged me in the idea, and assured
me, that if I ever went to London with that intention
he would give me all the assistance he could. I noted
the address which he gave me, and promised to make use
of it as soon as circumstances allowed.

A year afterwards I finally resolved to take my
chance as an artist, and to follow Art altogether. Ac-
cordingly, I gave up my situation in the bank, and soon
made my way once more to London, when I entered
myself as a student at a nursery for beginners, known as
" Heatherley's."3 Here quite a new life opened to me,
and here I found quite a fresh and more congenial set of
companions. One of them was the late William Gorman
Wills4 — he had not then written his Charles 7.,5 which
was to place him in the first rank as a dramatist — with
whom I formed a close friendship which lasted until his
death.

As yet I had earned nothing, and as my funds were
beginning to run low, I bethought me of my Rhine
friend's promise of assistance. I resolved to call upon
him and acquaint him with my position, which I did
without further loss of time. He received me very cor-
dially, and before I left gave me an introduction to Charles
Augustus Howell,6 an intimate, so my friend informed

AND HIS CIRCLE 15

me, of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who he thought might
be persuaded to do something for me in the way of em-
ployment. Upon hearing the name of Rossetti mentioned,
I instantly recalled the announcement I had once seen in
the Illustrated London News, and the premonition I had
then received, and felt that what was then so strangely
presaged was actually about to come to pass.

I lost no time in writing to Mr. Howell. In reply,
he invited me over to Brixton, where he resided, to lunch
with him, when my work and capabilities could be fully
discussed. And taking with me a few sketches of what
I considered most likely to find favour in his sight and
pave my way to a meeting with Rossetti, I accordingly
found myself at Brixton by the time appointed.

Mr. Howell received me with great kindness, and
was so genial and so encouraging in his criticism, that I
soon felt quite at my ease and most sanguine as to the
future. Lunch was followed by a cigarette and a very
pleasant chat,' in the course of which I gathered much
about Rossetti, as well as concerning John Ruskin.

As a start, my host gave me a commission to make
facsimile copies of two heads of Dante that were in his
study, but the owner of which was Rossetti. The
history of these heads, as related by Howell, was both
curious and interesting to me, since it opened up a field
of literature and art of which I was hitherto almost
ignorant. The first was a copy of a fresco discovered
by Baron Seymour Kirkup7 in an old chapel at Florence8

1 6 RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI

(where for a couple of centuries or more it had lain hidden
under repeated coats of whitewash), which had been drawn
from the poet himself by his friend Giotto, who is alluded
to in his Purgatorio as the coming rival of Cimabue.9
The second was a copy of an old Italian oil, or rather
fresco painting, of the same period judging from the style
of work, by an unknown artist.

Both paintings were most characteristic, and required
very careful reproduction, but I managed this successfully
enough to please Rossetti and make him wish to see me,
and, an early day having been arranged, I called upon
him.

CHAPTER II.

No. 1 6, Cheyne Walk '-'Dante Gabriel Rossetti—The studio— " Lady
Lilitb "— " Beata Beatrix "—" 'The Loving Cup"

MY appointment took me, for the first time since I had
been in London, to Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, in one of the
most picturesque houses of which Rossetti lived.10 En-
tering by the fine old gateway of seventeenth century
ironwork, before ascending the flight of stone steps
leading to the street door, I paused for a moment to look
at the house itself. A profusion of jasmine in full bloom
spread over the lower part of its walls, and it gave me the
impression that at one time it must have formed the
central portion of a much larger and statelier mansion.
A large old-fashioned knocker in the shape of a dragon
adorned the street door. I found, however, it was not a
very easy dragon to perform a respedlable rat-tat upon,
by reason of the awkwardness of its shape (I did not
quite know whether to take it by its head or tail) and
the stiffness in its joints which age had rendered.

On gaining admission, I was ushered into one of the
prettiest, and one of the most curiously-furnished and old-
fashioned sitting-rooms that it had ever been my lot to
see. Mirrors of all shapes, sizes and designs, lined the

c

1 8 RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI

walls, so that whichever way I gazed I saw myself looking
at myself. What space remained was occupied by pic-
tures, chiefly old, and all of an interesting character.
The mantelpiece was a most original compound of
Chinese black-laquered panels, bearing designs of birds,
animals, flowers and fruit in gold relief, which had a very
good effedl, and on either side of the grate a series of old
blue Dutch tiles, mostly displaying Biblical subjects
treated in the serio-comic fashion that existed at the
period, were inlaid. The fire-grate itself was a beauti-
fully-wrought example of eighteenth century design and
workmanship in brass, and had fire-irons and fender to
match. And in one corner of the room stood an old
English china cupboard, inside of which was displayed a
quantity of Spode ware. I sat down on a cosy little sofa,
with landscapes and figures of the Cipriani period painted
on the panels,11 and whilst admiring this curious collec-
tion of things the door opened behind me, and, turning
round, I found myself face to face with Dante Gabriel
Rossetti.

It was in the month of June, i863,ic that this, my
first meeting with Rossetti, took place. He must have
been then about 35 years of age.13 His face conveyed to
me the existence of underlying currents of strong pas-
sions impregnated with melancholy.14 His eyes were
dark grey, and deeply set ; the eyebrows dark, thick, and
well arched ; the forehead large and well rounded, and
the strongly-formed brows produced a remarkable fulness

AND HIS CIRCLE 1 9

at the ridge of the nose, such as I have often noticed in
men possessed of great individuality. A thick, but not
heavy moustache partly concealed a well-formed and
somewhat sensuous mouth, and at this time he wore a
trimmed beard of a deep chestnut brown, with the
cheeks shaven ; his hair was much darker in colour,
curly, and inclined to thinness. He was about 5 feet
7? inches in height — his drawing-room door was a faith-
ful recorder not only of his own stature but that of most
of his intimate friends. Although there was a tendency
to a rather too extensive form with him, this was not
particularly noticeable, owing to his shapely figure and
easy carriage. He possessed a voice which was peculiarly
rich and musical in tone ; and when, later, I had oppor-
tunities of hearing him read his poems, which he did
from time to time to some of his intimate friends, it was
delightful to listen to him. His hands were small and
very white.15 Of jewellery he made no display; all that
he wore was an old-fashioned gold chain attached to his
watch. He was equally unassuming in dress. For
studio use he generally wore a loose overcoat, with
capacious pockets into which he could easily thrust a
good-sized memorandum book, which was indispensable to
him, as it was his custom to jot down his thoughts either
for poetry or painting as they arose in his mind.

Rossetti invited me into his studio, a large and
roomy apartment, well lighted, and liberally stocked with
Chippendale chairs and lounges, and various other inviting

C — 2

2O RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI

rests whereon one might sit at ease and enjoy a survey of
his pictures, which stood about on easels. Several cabi-
nets of old English and Spanish design and workmanship
filled up the odd nooks and corners that were left.

Inviting me to look at what he was then engaged
upon, Rossetti drew my attention to his painting of
Lady Lilith. It was the portrayal of a beautiful woman,
sumptuously seated in some mediaeval kind of chair,
combing out a cataraft of golden hair that fell in
masses over her shoulders. By her side was a mirror of
curious form, in which was reflected the greenery of the
forest glade, through which the glinting sunlight pierced
here and there, lighting up the densely-leaved branches
of the trees, and a large red double poppy in a goblet of
old Venetian glass stood near her. The dreamy beauty
of the woman, and the rich colour in which the whole
picture was steeped excited my admiration.16 I desired
to know its meaning, and in answer to my enquiry he
told me it was suggested by Lilith.

"Who was she?" I asked.

Rossetti then told me the Talmudic legend con-
cerning her,17 and then I understood the allusion to her
in Faust, where Goethe introduces Lilith into the witch
scene on the Hartzbrocken, and makes Faust ask the
same question in almost the same words that I had used.18
I am sorry to say Rossetti repainted the face some years
later, for what reason I could never divine, and to my
thinking he by no means improved upon the original.

AND HIS CIRCLE 21

Generally speaking, I hold it a dangerous experiment to
alter a first conception ; the charm, the quality of colour,
and the inspiration are so apt to be lost.19

Other works, both in oil and water-colour, were about
the studio. One of them that attracted my attention
very much was the touching picture, Beata Beatrix,™
which was presented to the National Gallery by Lady
Mount Temple21 after the death of Rossetti. I afterwards
learnt from my friend Howell that the face of Beatrice
was painted from Mrs. Rossetti, who had died some time
in the previous year.22

There was yet another of his works that incited
my interest. He called it The Loving Cup.23 Rossetti
wanted a replica made in water-colours, and it was on
this that he wished me to make my first essay.

Although I was in considerable doubt as to whether
I could do it or not — his water-colour work was so dif-
ferent in method of execution to anything I had yet
seen — I was delighted with the opportunity afforded me,
and said that I would try, so arrangements were made
there and then for me to come and make a beginning.
The beginning, I am happy to say, came to a good
ending. Rossetti liked my replica so well, that when it
was completed he set me to work upon something else.

CHAPTER III.

Blake's u Songs of Innocence " — Alexander Gilchrlst — William Michael
Rotsetti — The tobacco box — Blue Nankin — James McNeil Whistler
— The Pr*-Raphaelite Brotherhood— William Bell Scott— Ford
Madox Brown — Theo Marxials — Rossetti's indifference to music-
als curio hunts — First ideas and sketches — John Ruskin — Robert
Bronuning — Algernon Charles Swinburne — William Morris —
Tennyson reading " Maud."

To return to Rossetti and the studio. His well-stocked
Chippendale bookcase suggesting, I suppose, we began to
converse upon books and then about William Blake24, for
whose works I had a great reverence and admiration.
Observing this, Rossetti went to the shelves and took
down a little, unpretentious volume that looked just like
a schoolboy's exercise book. Such it was originally in-
tended to be, but the use to which it had been put made
it very precious in my sight, for on turning over the
leaves I saw it was filled with Blake's first thoughts
for his Songs of Innocence, interspersed with pen-and-ink
and slightly-coloured pencil designs for the same.83
Rossetti told me he had bought the book many years pre-
viously86 from one of the attendants in the British
Museum, who had let him have it for half-a-sovereign,
and it was from this manuscript collection that the

RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI 23

recently published edition, over which he and the late
Alexander Gilchrist27 collaborated28 had its origin.89 This
rare little book fetched over one hundred guineas at
the sale of Rossetti*s effedts which took place after his
death.

When the Blake manuscript was well conned and
discussed, another curiosity took its place, in the form of
Hypnerotomachla Poliphi/i,30 of great interest to book
collectors, because the numerous woodcuts illustrating
the text are said to have been designed by Botticelli.31
Rossetti's copy was faulty, as it kcked the original title-
page and binding ; but this did not interfere with my
enjoyment of the designs. Many other books there were
in that Chippendale case of a similar kind, such as the
Nuremberg Chronicle, with its quaint and interesting illus-
trations.

As the afternoon wore on, William Michael
Rossetti,'2 the painter's brother, came in. He generally
spent three evenings a week at Cheyne Walk. I had
heard and seen his name pretty frequently in connection
with critical papers upon Art which had from time to
time caught my eye in some of the periodicals that came
in my way. William Michael Rossetti I soon got to
like, and as he was a smoker it gave me an opportunity
of producing my pipe and blowing a cloud with him. A
special tobacco box, always on the mantelpiece, was re-
served for William Michael Rossetti, who invariably
brought a two-ounce packet of some choice brand of

24 RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI

tobacco which generally disappeared by the time his next
visit came about. A good many of the visitors to
Cheyne Walk were smokers, and if their own stock ran
short, William Michael Rossetti's was usually drawn
upon. The box itself was a bit of i8th century pewter
work, four-square shaped, designed in high relief with
sporting and rural scenes. I always intended to make a
cast of it for my own use, and as a memento of the house,
but never did so.

Rossetti's fancy for collecting old blue Nankin and
other china was just at this time in full swing. James
McNeil Whistler33 had set the example with his " Long
Elizas,"34 and was closely followed by Rossetti and
Howell. Each tried to outvie the other in picking up
the choicest pieces of " Blue " to be met with. A pair of
splendid blue hawthorn ginger pots stood on a table in
the studio. These were not the first ginger pots I had
seen ; I recolleft that when a boy they were common
enough — of course, not such magnificent specimens as
these were, but very good ones — although they were then
thought very little of, and many a one such as would
fetch ten or fifteen shillings now were given away to
anybody who chose to ask for them. The two haw-
thorn pots in question were certainly beautiful, and ex-
quisite in their blue and design, nevertheless when
Rossetti informed me he had paid sixty pounds each for
them, I confess I was astounded. The investment, how-
ever, proved a good one, as some time later, when money

THE TOBACCO Box.

AND HIS CIRCLE 2j

was needed, the pair was disposed of for six hundred
pounds.35

Whilst the hawthorn pots were being admired and
discussed, Rossetti was hastily pulling out drawer after
drawer from an old cabinet that stood in one of the
recesses of the room. He was searching for something
suitable to paint round the neck of the girl in his picture
The Loving Cup, and before him lay a rare store of
necklaces, featherwork, Japanese crystals, and knick-
knacks of all kinds, sufficient to stock a small window.
At length his choice was made of a necklace, and when
this was satisfactorily settled, his costumes, which were
kept in a large wardrobe at the back of the studio, were
overhauled for one that was needed for another painting
which he had in progress.

In going towards this wardrobe, I noticed upon one
of the walls of the studio a gilt frame containing about
half a dozen drawings and sketches, chiefly by members
of the Prseraphaelite Brotherhood,36 with the names of
John Everett Millais,37 William Holman Hunt,38 Thomas
Woolner,39 William Bell Scott,40 Ford Madox Brown,41
and James McNeil Whistler attached.

Wherever I went, I noticed musical instruments of
some kind or another ; all were old and mostly stringed — -
mandolines, lutes, dulcimers, and barbarous-looking things
of Chinese fashioning, which I imagine it would have
been a great trial to the nerves to hear played upon — and
yet in all the after years that I lived in the house I never

28 RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI

heard a note of music. It had no home there. Our
neighbours in the next house, however, were abounding
in it, and often in the summer evenings, when the win-
dows would be thrown wide open, the fine baritone of
Theo Marzials,42 who was frequently there, would come
floating into our front rooms. Rossetti had a great ad-
miration for Marzials as a poet, and often spoke of the
high quality of his poems and songs, which were then
becoming very popular and much discussed. But for
music itself he did not care a whit, and was very much of
the opinion of Dr. Johnson, who, when once he was
asked if he liked music, replied that perhaps of all noises
it was the most bearable !

In relation to this indifference to music shewn by
Rossetti, I recolle6t in the course of one of our conversa-
tions whilst working together, something led to his giving
me an idea of what he thought of Handel's Messiah^
which was at the time being performed at one of the
Crystal Palace festivals. Once, he said, he had been
induced by a friend to listen to it, and it seemed to him
that everybody got up and shouted at him as loudly as
possible ! Another time, Mr. Leyland43 took him to the
Royal Opera House to hear Fidelia. The next morning
I was curious to know what he had to say in regard to
such a masterpiece, but he could not give me a clear idea
of what it was all about. The only notion he had of it
was that of a man who was taken out of prison, where
he had been for a couple of days without food, and who,

AND HIS CIRCLE 29

when a loaf of bread was given to him, instead of eating
it like any starving man would do, burst out into a long
solo over it lasting for ten minutes — which he thought
was obviously absurd !

But the musical instruments were only a few of the
many odds and ends of all sorts that were stacked away
wherever a place could be found for them. Anything
Rossetti saw in his rambles that might be of possible use
to him for a pidlure he would buy. He delighted to take
an evening's walk through Leicester Square, visiting the
various curiosity shops in that neighbourhood, or through
Hammersmith, a district where many a Chippendale
chair or table could be met with and bought for next to
nothing, such things not being then in the repute that
they have become since the taste for Queen Anne houses
and fittings sprang up.44

On returning to the studio, we found there Howell,
who had dropped in, and now the flow of talk became
lively. Howell had a lot to say, and it consisted of the
most astounding experiences and adventures he had gone
through. He had just left Whistler, and was full of a
" long Eliza " he had picked up somewhere, of his etching
of old Battersea Bridge,45 of which he had been shown
a proof, and of his latest witticism.46 The main object,
however, of Howell's visit was to get from Rossetti a
drawing he had made of a lady. I infer some bargaining
had been going on between them, and that the drawing
formed part of the bargain, but as Rossetti prized it

3O RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI

highly, to gain possession of it was not a very easy matter
and required much diplomacy.

I now had an opportunity of looking over and ad-
miring a series of Rossetti's first ideas and sketches for
many of his pictures, and studies of heads, which were
contained in a large, thick book, lying on a little cabinet
in a distant corner. It was a great and unexpected treat
to see this collection, a most varied one, amongst which
were many carefully finished likenesses, some in red
chalk, and others in pencil and in pen and ink, including
pencil sketches of John Ruskin 4T (not bearded then),
Robert Browning,*8 Algernon Charles Swinburne,4^
William Morris,50 and other well-known men.

At last we came to the page at which the drawing
Ho well had come to secure was affixed. It was a beau-
tiful face, delicately drawn, and shaded in pencil, with a
background of pale gold. Howell, with an adroitness
which was remarkable, shifted it from the book into
his own pocket, and neither I nor Rossetti ever saw it
again.

As we turned over the contents of this volume, a
small, hasty, but exceedingly realistic pen and ink sketch,
that had nearly got passed over, arrested my attention.
It was of Tennyson,51 seated and reading out his poem
Maud. This reading took place in Browning's London
residence, in the presence of Browning, Mrs. Browning,
Rossetti, and his brother.52 Whoever possesses the little
sketch ought to prize it very highly.53

AND HIS CIRCLE 3!

The pages of the book were still being turned over,
slowly, by reason of the accompanying flow of lively
recollections and stories of this or that individual whose
face formed the subjecl of a sketch. The book was a
rich record of past days and memories. And many a
tender little sketch of his late wife was to be found
there, with the same sad, beautiful weary expression that
had struck me so much in his Beata Beatrix.5*

CHAPTER IV.

Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, £r* Co. — Edward Burnt Jones—" St.
George and the Dragon "—" Parable of the Vineyard " — Ernest
Gambart — The Llandaff triptych — " Girlhood of Mary Virgin" —
Rossettfs bed and bed-room— The " Germ " — " Poems " — James
Collinson— Walter Harwell De-vereU.

ROSSETTI was now, at this period, in the prime and full-
ness of his mental powers. He was in that happy state
when all that he painted was eagerly sought after. The
abundance of his work in the years previous to my meet-
ing him shewed ample proof, both in pen and pencil, that
those years had been busy ones. And although as yet
his poems were only known to a few of his friends, he
had written enough to justify him in publishing a volume
which, but for a strange romance in his life, would have
appeared long ere it did.55

It was now that the association56 started by William
Morris, having its home in Queen Square, Bloomsbury,
and for its object, it is said, the education of the upper
classes in the knowledge and right discernment of the
really beautiful in Art, began to bring forth fruit. Its
work-contributing members were Morris, Rossetti, Ford
Madox Brown, Edward Burne-Jones,57 and one or two
others, with Morris as manager and controller. For this

RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI 33

firm Rossetti made numerous designs for their stained
glass department, and what always struck me in these
conceptions of his was, that they worked up as finely into
pictures as stained glass which, as far as my observation
goes, is rarely the case in the majority of glass designers'
inventions. For instance, his series of six illustrations for
the story of St. George and the Dragon^ and the very
fine way in which he has treated the Parable of the Fine-
yard^ rendered it unnecessary to make any alterations
in them when some years later they were turned into
important pictures.60

In both series of designs — for St. George and the
Dragon and the Parable of the Vineyard — Rossetti made
great use of his friends, and introduced their heads
freely into his conceptions.61 In one of the compart-
ments of the Parable he has William Morris, who is
generally the strong, wicked man of the lot, concealed
by a door, in the act of dropping a big stone on the
head of the Lord of the Vineyard's collector who has
called for the vintage dues.62 In the last of the set he
re-appears in a very dejedled state, and in the company
of the rest of the bad husbandmen,63 amongst whom are
to be seen Algernon Charles Swinburne and Ernest
Gambart,64 the then great picture dealer, all wobegone
and roped together, on their way to receive condign
punishment. Edward Burne-Jones, by reason of his
gentle disposition and refined face, was the " good boy "
of Rossetti's designs. Howell figures twice in the Saint

D

34 RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI

George and the Dragon story — first, as St. George himself
in the a<5t of slaying the monster, and next in the final
scene, where he enters triumphantly into the city with
the Princess, as her deliverer, the dragon's head being
borne in front of the procession as a trophy of his prowess.
The cartoons of this romance were framed and used to
hang from the staircase wall, but three of them having
been removed and turned into water-colours — The Casting
Lots for the Victim^ The Slaying of the Dragon, and the
Triumphant Entry — the rest were taken down and given
away or lost.

Sketches for the wings of the altar piece of Llandaff
Cathedral were also noticeable works. The sub] e6ts
were David as shepherd for the one, and David as Psalmist
and King, for the other. Rossetti always spoke very
slightingly of this triptych to me, and considered it as a
work that he would rather not discuss. But it surprised
me by its originality and breadth of treatment when it
made its appearance after his death in the exhibition of
his collected works held at Burlington House. In execu-
tion it was by no means so weak as he had always led me
to believe.65

Passing through a dark part of a back hall, my foot
caught the corner of a pifture stacked with others against
the wall. I picked it up and found it to be a photograph.
Seeing me looking at this, Rossetti told me it was taken
from the first picture he had ever painted in oils, which
was exhibited in the Hyde Park Gallery, instituted by

AND HIS CIRCLE 35

the little band of the Praeraphaelite Brotherhood in
i849,66 when he was about twenty years of age. The
subject was " Mary the Virgin," who is represented
seated, and embroidering a white lily upon a piece of
dark-coloured cloth or silk, under the guidance of S.
Elizabeth. In the foreground is a lily, growing from a
vase, which she is evidently copying, whilst a child angel
is employed in watering it.67 I learnt from Rossetti, that
it was to a great extent painted under the instruction of
Ford Madox Brown, from whom he had gained much of
his knowledge in the practice of oil painting, and who
had contributed to the same exhibition a work of his
own, the subje6l being taken from King Lear.68

Howell, who had joined us, wanted to show me a
bit of old oak carving in Rossetti's bedroom, and, as the
door was open, we went in. I thought it a most un-
healthy place to sleep in. Thick curtains, heavy with
crewel work in ijth century designs of fruit and
flowers (which he had bought out of an old furnishing
shop somewhere in the slums of Lambeth), hung closely
drawn round an antiquated four-post bedstead.69 A
massive panelled oak mantelpiece reached from the floor
to the ceiling, fitted up with numerous shelves and cup-
board-like recesses, all filled with a medley of brass repousse
dishes, blue china vases filled with peacock feathers,
oddly-fashioned early English and foreign candlesticks,
Chinese monstrosities in bronze, and various other
curiosities, the whole surmounted by an ebony and ivory

D 2

36 RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI

crucifix. The only modern thing I could see anywhere
in the room was a Bryant and May's match box ! On
the other side of the bed was an old Italian inlaid chest
of drawers, which supported a large Venetian mirror
in a deeply-carved oak frame. Two or three very un-
inviting chairs, that were said to have belonged to
Chang the Giant — and their dimensions seemed to
warrant that statement, as they took up a considerable
amount of space — and an old-fashioned sofa, with three
little panels let into the back, whereon Rossetti had
painted the figures of Amor, Amans, and Amata, com-
pleted the furniture of the room. With its rich, dark
green velvet seats and luxurious pillows, this sofa looked
very pretty and formed the only comfortable piece of
furniture visible.

The deeply-recessed windows, that ought to have
been thrown open as much as possible to the fresh air
and cheerful garden outlook, were shrouded with curtains
of heavy and sumptuously-patterned Genoese velvet.
On this fine summer's day, light was almost excluded
from the room. The gloom of the place made one feel
quite depressed and sad. Even the little avenue of lime-
trees outside the windows helped to reduce the light, and
threw a sickly green over everything in the apartment.
It was no wonder poor Rossetti suffered so much from
insomnia !

A few pictures, not of a very cheerful description,
hung on the walls where there was space. One, I re-

AND HIS CIRCLE 37

member, was particularly gruesome. It represented a
woman all forlorn in an oar-and-rudderless boat, with its
sail flapping in the wind about her, alone on a wide
expanse of water. In the distance was a city in flames,,
over which the artist had inscribed The City of 'Destruction,
in the sky were numerous winged dragons and demons,
whilst swarming around were horrible sea monsters, all
intent upon upsetting the boat. It was not a bad pidhire
as far as finish and colour went, but the subjecl: was too
dreadful.

On returning to the studio we found Rossetti
engaged over some letters. Four little magazines called
the Germ70 were lying on the table, and these I looked
over with much interest. The Germ was a collection of
prose and poetry published monthly, with an etching in
each number contributed by one of the members of the
brotherhood. Only four numbers made their appearance,
the receipts arising from their sale not being sufficient to
cover the cost of production. Rossetti contributed the
poems the Blessed Damozel, and My Sister's Sleep^ and a
romance entitled Hand and Soul.11 My Sister's Sleep79
was afterwards included in his volume of Poems and
Ballads** that came out some time after. The etchings
were by Holman Hunt, Ford Madox Brown, James
Collinson,?4 and Walter Howell Deverell.75

CHAPTER V.

Rossettfs "pets" — The poetry- loving racoon — The disreputable arma-
dillos— The quarrelsome kangaroos — The noisy peacock— The
curious deer — The morose parrot.

AN hour or two of daylight yet remained, and so we
sallied out into the garden to see Rossetti's pets, or his
animals rather, as it would be wrong to describe them as
pets. Experience of Rossetti, and close intercourse with
him, led me to the conclusion that the Poet-painter had
not any great love for animals, nor knew much about their
habits. It was simply a passion he had for collecting,
just as he had for books, pictures and china, which im-
pelled him to convert his house into a sort of miniature
South Kensington Museum and Zoo combined.

His collection of queer, outlandish creatures was
mostly kept in a series of wire-woven, outhouse compart-
ments, located in one portion of the garden. In one of
them I noticed a large packing-case covered over by a
heavy skb of Sicilian marble. My curiosity led me to
enquire of Rossetti what it contained, when he told me
there was a racoon inside. On hearing that I had never
seen such a creature, he asked me to help him remove
the stone, and then, to my astonishment, he put his hand

RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI 39

in quickly, seized the " coon " by the scruff of its neck,
hauled it out, and held it up, in a plunging, kicking,
teeth-showing state for me to look at, remarking —
" Does it not look like a devil ? " to which I agreed.
It seemed to me a most dangerous creature to tackle,
and I would not have held it as he did upon any
consideration.

This beast gave a world of trouble and annoyance
by constantly escaping. At one time it suddenly dis-
appeared, and no one knew what had become of it until
there came a letter from a lady, who lived some doors
away, containing a bill for eggs destroyed by the "coon,"
which had made its way regularly down a chimney into
her henroost ! With some difficulty it was captured, and
once more put back into what appeared safe keeping, but
ere a few weeks had elapsed it was out again on the war-
path. This time no trace could be found of it, until the
necessity arose of looking up a lot of Rossetti's manuscript
poetry, lying in the bottom drawer of the massive Eliza-
bethan wardrobe, when, to my surprise, I found the
manuscript gnawed into little bits ! The " coon " had
been hiding there all the while, prowling about the house
at night in search of food. This accounted for certain
mysterious noises which had occurred in the dark hours
of the night — sounds, as it were, of a faint, flat footfall
up and down the stairs, which to the housekeeper, who
had just lost her husband and was in a chronically hys-
terical state, seemed to be that of his ghost I Eventually

4O RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI

the troublesome creature had to be sent back to Jamrach,
the great animal importer of Liverpool, from whom it
was purchased originally.

There were two other curiosities — a pair of arma-
dillos which, under the idea that they were harmless,
had the run of the garden. They, too, seemed to have
caught the contagion for mischief. Now and then our
neighbour's garden would be found to have large heaps
of earth thrown up, and some of his choicest plants
lying waste over the beds. This was the work of the
armadillos. As in the racoon escapades, letters of com-
plaint were received, and so baits were laid for the pests
in the form of bits of beef saturated with prussic acid.
The beef disappeared, and so, it was hoped, had the ar-
madillos; but no — after about three months they re-
appeared in a sadly mangy and out-at-elbows state ; they
had evidently shed their scales during their absence, and new
ones were forming. I suppose that after taking the dose
of poison, feeling the worse for it, they must have betaken
themselves to a hospital, and were just discharged as con-
valescent. Very soon after their return, I am sorry to say
they slid back into their old mischievous habits, and at
last had to be made over to the Zoological Gardens,
where no doubt they were better guarded.

Amongst this curious collection of odd animals were
a couple of kangaroos — mother and son. As far as my
observation went, I do not think they lived on very good
terms with each other. At any rate, the mother was

AND HIS CIRCLE 4!

found dead one morning, murdered by her bloodthirsty
son. There must have been an unusually fierce quarrel
over family matters in the night, with this as a conse-
quence. Nemesis, however, overtook the wicked son,
for he also was found dead in his cage some few days
after, but whether he committed suicide through remorse,
or whether the racoon, who was strongly suspected,
polished him off, was an open verdi6t.

When I first became acquainted with Rossetti, he
had a peacock, a troublesome creature, which gave great
annoyance to the neighbours by its continual shrill trum-
petings. The complaints received were so numerous
that the bird had to be got rid of, and a clause was intro-
duced into the leases of Lord Cadogan's property, that
no peacocks should be kept in the gardens of his tenants!

Before these complaints were made, a fallow deer
was added to the collection — a graceful, beautiful creature,
which, from its first introduction to the garden evinced
the greatest curiosity in regard to the peacock. Perhaps
it was the feeling of surprise experienced by the animal
at the peacock continually displaying its gorgeous tail,
which induced it to follow the bird up and down the
garden, and eventually to stamp out every feather the tail
of the poor thing possessed.

Amongst the indoor pets was a singularly wicked
and morose parrot. Its sole delight seemed to be to get
visitors to stroke its head, and then, without any warning,
suddenly to fasten upon their fingers and finish up with a

42 RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI

sly, low chuckle. Now and then the parrot would utter
quite apropos sentences in the most unexpected manner.
One Sunday morning, I recolleft, Rossetti was sitting in
his lounge chair, and warming his feet. The bells from
the neighbouring church of S. Luke were in full swing*
For some time the parrot had been unusually silent, when
all of a sudden it broke the silence with the exclamation,
" You ought to be in church now ! " It is possible the
servants had taught it this speech, but, at any rate, it
gave Rossetti great amusement, and he was never tired of
relating the story to his friends.

CHAPTER VI.

Story of the blue Nankin dish — lonides Brothers — Leonard R. Valpy —
George Howard — George Price Boyce- — George Cruikshank — •
John William Incbbold.

BETWEEN Rossetti and Howell there existed a friendly
rivalry as to who could display the finest show of old
Nankin. Howell, perhaps, possessed the greatest facility
of the two for picking up china bric-a-brac — or anything
that was worth buying — from the fact that his time was
generally spent in ferreting out all the old shops in the
most likely neighbourhoods, as well as in the various sale
rooms which he was always frequenting. He had, more-
over, a keen eye for what was good, together with an
unrivalled amount of assurance, that assisted him wonder-
fully in all his bargains with dealers, who were wont to
get the advantage of customers less acute.

On one occasion, Howell's rambles took him to
some out-of-the-way and unfrequented part of Hammer-
smith, which at that time abounded in small furniture-
dealers' shops. Often, some very valuable thing might
have been purchased there for a few shillings, that at
present could not be procured for pounds. In one of
these old furniture shops, Howell, with hawk-like eye,

44 RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI

espied the corner of a blue dish peeping out from a pile
of miscellaneous odds and ends in the window. It was
not so much the shape of this visible portion of crockery
but the colour, that attracted him ; it was the blue, the
sweet, rich blue, only to be found in the choicest Nankin.
He entered the shop, and began prying about, asking the
price of first this thing and then that in the window
until at length, as though by an accident, the whole of
the dish that had lain almost hidden was exposed to view.
O heavens ! What a thrill of delight passed through
his soul when it was pulled out for inspection. It was a
veritable piece of Imperial ware, and a fine specimen,
too ! His mind was made up. Have it he must ; but,
not to appear too anxious to get possession of it, he com-
menced by buying one or two things he did not want
rather above their value, and then, by artful cozening,
got the dish thrown in as a final make-weight to his other
purchases for next to nothing. His afternoon's work
was done ; he had secured a prize which would fill Dante
Gabriel's soul with envy when he saw it. A cab was
called, and away he drove home, chuckling with delight
to himself over his acquisition.

That evening was spent in arranging the menu of a
choice little dinner, which was to be given in order to
display his treasure, and in selecting the names of those
of his friends who should be chosen to see the dish. Invi-
tations were written and duly sent. Dear Gabriel's namev
of course, was first on the list j then that of Whistler—

AND HIS CIRCLE 45

better known amongst his friends as " Jimmy " — as he
was one of the triumvirate of Chinese worshippers; then
came the lonides Brothers,76 Leonard R. Valpy,77 George
Howard,78 George Price Boyce,79 Burne- Jones, Morris,
old George Cruikshank,80 John William Inchbold,81 and
several others who were habitues of the house.

As it had got about that Howell had something to
show that would knock them all into fits, there were no
absentees. The table was set, and the guests had all
arrived, brought thither not only by the prospe6l of
spending a pleasant evening, but also by curiosity to see
what Howell had to exhibit. When the substantial part
of the feast came to a full end, Howell felt his guests
were in a sufficiently appreciative state of mind, and so
the dish, for the advent of which each one of the party
had been on the tip-toe of expe&ation, was at length
produced, Howell himself bringing it in, carefully wiping
it with a silk handkerchief. There was a concentrated
" Oh ! " from all assembled at the table, which, having
been partially cleared, had space enough to allow the
dish to be placed in its centre, that all could view and
admire it. And it bore the closest inspection, for it was
certainly as good a piece of Nankin as could be found in
the best of a lucky day's hunt. Rossetti waxed en-
thusiastic over it ; he turned it round, and examined it
from every point of view, and not a flaw could he find,
nor the ghost of a crack, or a suspicion of an inequality
of colour in it. Everyone congratulated Howell on his

46 RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI

being the possessor of such a beautiful specimen of
" Blue." After it had been admired and breathed upon,
coveted and delighted in, fondled and gushed over, hustled
and almost fought for — in short, after having created as
much squabbling and controversy as, once upon a time,
the partition of Poland did among the Powers, the dish
was tenderly removed by its owner, and carefully de-
posited in its shrine on a cabinet in an adjoining room.

As there were ladies present, a little music was
indulged in, but as a rule Howell's parties were chiefly
composed of people who were not very musically in-
clined. As in Rossetti's house, the place abounded in
musical instruments, but never a one that could be played
upon ; all were of antiquated construction, only to be
looked at, and talked about in a hushed whisper of ad-
miration for their workmanship and adornments. It was
now getting well on towards midnight, and most of the
party began to think of getting home — Howell's Fulham
villa was not a very easy place to get at, and after twelve
o'clock it was only by chance a cab could be found.
Whilst the ladies of the party were upstairs wrapping
themselves up for their journey, and the men were down-
stairs occupied with their hats and overcoats, Rossetti
was hanging about the hall in a thoughtful kind of way.
He had on the Inverness cape which he generally wore
at night, and I saw him go into the room where the dish
was deposited, to have, as I thought, a last look at the
treasure, but — shall I tell it ? — he hastily dislodged that

AND HIS CIRCLE 47

dish by stealth, concealed it beneath the cape of his
cloak and carefully wrapped its ample folds around it,
that none could perceive what he carried under his arm.
Having so done, he took leave of Howell and his wife in
the most charmingly innocent manner possible.

We walked towards Cheyne Walk together, but on
the road Rossetti hailed a cab that happened to be in
view, and the rest of the distance was soon got over. On
our arrival at his door, having dismissed the cabman, he
let himself in, and pulling out the dish from under his
cape had a good look at it by the gaslight in the hall,
chuckling the while with glee, for in his mind's eye he
saw the long face Howell would pull on discovering his
loss. He cautioned me not to let him know anything
which would give him a clue as to the disappearance of
the dish, or its place of concealment. Then, finding his
way to the back hall, he proceeded to carefully hide it in
the recesses of the massive oak wardrobe that stood there,
and the more effectually to conceal it, swathed it round
and round with model's dresses and other artistic draperies
for the custody of which the wardrobe was employed.
Having done all this to his satisfaction, Rossetti took his
candle and went to bed.

Next morning, when he made his appearance at the
breakfast table, we had our usual chat respecting the day's
work, and whatever else required to be discussed. In the
course of our conversation, Rossetti said, suddenly,

"Dunn, I shall give a return party to that of

48 RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI

Howell's last night. This is Tuesday : I'll ask him for
Friday, and tell him he must come as I have picked up
a piece of c Blue ' that I think will rival his."

Accordingly, he wrote him a note to that effedl,
and also dispatched invitations to most of those who were
present at Howell's party, and to a good many more,
making altogether enough to fill the dining table, which
was able to accommodate at least twenty.

On the afternoon of the day of the dinner, Howell
called in a cab, bringing his faftotum with him, a useful
fellow by whom he was generally accompanied in his ex-
peditions. He left his man waiting in the cab, and on
gaining admission to the house, and hearing that Rossetti
was in the studio, he went in and found us both there.
After an inordinately long confabulation over everything
that could be talked about, but without a word concern-
ing the dish, Howell, by and bye, went from the room
upon some pretext or other and left Rossetti busily paint-
ing away. As I afterwards learnt, Howell guessed pretty
shrewdly who had his dish, and where it was to be found.
Instin6l took him to the old wardrobe ; softly opening its
massive doors, he peeped in, then searching about with
his hands, felt his precious dish underneath the pile of
draperies that Rossetti had heaped over it. To remove
these and disentangle his property was the work of a few
seconds ; recovering his prize, he softly stole away along
the back hall, round to the front door, which he opened,
and went out to his man who was waiting his instruc-

AND HIS CIRCLE 49

tions. To him he handed the dish through the window,
receiving in return another of the same size and shape.
Howell went back, and after putting this dish into the
wardrobe in the place of the other, re-entered the studio,
and with the accompaniment of Irish cold and the indis-
pensable cigarette, resumed the conversation for another
hour or so. When he could find nothing more to talk
about, he took his leave in order to dress for the dinner.
Rossetti was strangely unsuspicious of Howell's move-
ments; I suppose he thought the hiding place he had
fixed upon was so secure, that it never occurred to him to
go and see what Howell had been up to and whether the
dish was still there.

At the appointed hour, our guests came flocking in
until the whole of them had arrived. When they were
assembled in the dining-room, and had taken their seats
around the table they formed a goodly company. The
dinner was well served, a professional cook having been
engaged to prepare it, and a distinct success ; the wine
was excellent and the conversation sparkling. At last,
Howell managed to divert the talk to the subject of Blue
china, and the dish of his that had excited so much
admiration on the night of his party, whereupon Rossetti
declared he had something just as fine. Howell chal-
lenged him to produce it, so off went Rossetti to the
wardrobe most confidently: he fished out the dish and
brought it away swathed in drapery, just as he supposed
he had left it. In a few minutes he returned to the

£

5O RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI

dining-room with the package, and began to carefully re-
move the wrappings. As the dish became uncovered, a
curious, puzzled expression came over his face, and when
it was entirely exposed to view, he stood still in blank
astonishment. For a few moments he was silent j then
his pent-up feelings burst out in a wild cry.

" Confound it ! See what the spirits have done ! "88
Everyone rose to look at the dish. A dish it was,
certainly, but what a dish ! Instead of the beautiful
piece of Nankin that was expected, there was only an old
Delft thing, cracked, chipped, and discoloured through
the numerous bakings it had undergone. The whole
party, with the exception of Howell, who looked as grave
as a judge, burst into a roar of laughter. Rossetti soon
recovered himself and laughed as heartily as any of his
guests at Howell's ingenious revenge.

CHAPTER VII.

Roisettfs dinners — Frederick Sandys — George Augustus Sola — West land
Marston — Lady Nicotine — The Ticbborne trial.

ROSSETTI'S greatest pleasure was to gather around him
those whom he liked, and his little social dinners, when
they took place, were events to be remembered.83 When
the party was an exceptional one — I mean as regards the
number of friends invited — the table was laid in the so-
called drawing-room, an apartment comprising the entire
width of the house and boasting of five windows, which
afforded an extensive and interesting view of Chelsea
Reach and its picturesque old wooden bridge. It was a
beautiful room by day, when the sun streamed in and lit
up the curious collection of Indian cabinets, couches, old
Nankin, and the miscellaneous odds and ends with which
it was crowded almost to the point of superfluity ; and at
night, when the heavy Utrecht velvet curtains were
drawn and the dining table was extended to its utmost
limits, when the huge Flemish, brass-wrought candelabra
with its two dozen wax lights, that hung suspended from
the ceiling midway over the table, was lit up, and the
central, old-fashioned epergne was filled with flowers, the
room was filled with a pleasant warmth and glow antici-
patory of the company expected.

E — 2

52 RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI

On such occasions, Rossetti would relinquish his
poetry or painting, and devote half-an-hour or so to
allotting to his guests the several places that they were to
occupy.

" Dunn," he would say to me, " we'll have Howell
here ; so-and-so is slow and he shall sit next to him ;
he'll be sure to be amused and wake up when that droll
fellow begins pouring out his Niagara of lies. And
here," he would add, " Sandys8* shall have his place, just
opposite, so that whatever Howell relates, Fred shall have
a chance of capping his romances with some more racy."
And thus with each guest ; all were placed as he con-
sidered would be most conducive to the harmony of the
evening. And so happily did Rossetti arrange matters, that
his dinners never failed to be indeed festivals of exuberant
hilarity. Christopher North's Noctes Ambroslance might
have equalled, but certainly did not surpass them, for wit
and humour danced rampant up and down the table.
At such times, would be present Burne-Jones, George
Augustus Sala,85 Westland Marston,86 Ford Madox
Brown, Morris, and other well-known men.

But it was not really until the feast was over, and
an adjournment to the studio came about, that the
night's enjoyment commenced. If the conversation took a
turn to suit Rossetti's humour, he was pretty sure to be
first and foremost in the fun.87 Howell was the greatest
romancer of all the Rossetti circle, and he had always
some monstrous story to tell about anybody who happened

AND HIS CIRCLE 53

to be enjoying notoriety at the time, with whom he
would claim to have a perfect intimacy. Rossetti had a
keen relish for these yarns, and would roll back in his
chair with delight at Howell's latest adventures, the
relation of which used to proceed in the most plausible
and convincing manner possible. Fred Sandys was also
a splendid raconteur, and these two men between them
would keep us all listening and set us all laughing until
long past midnight.

Smoking was indulged in by most of Rossetti's
friends, although he, to his frequent regret, could never
venture to touch either pipe, cigar, or cigarette. William
Michael Rossetti, however, made up for his brother's
inability on this score. Swinburne was also a non-smoker.
I do not think I ever saw him attempt even a cigarette.
Howell was never without one ; from morn till night he
smoked, and the amount of cigarette ends he threw away
in a day might well have made a good ounce weight of
tobacco.

During the period in which these convivialities were
rife, the Tichborne trial88 formed the all-absorbing topic
of the day, and though Rossetti as a rule carefully avoided
reading the newspapers, he nevertheless took a keen
interest in the claimant, and followed the record of the
case closely from day to day ; that the claimant was an
impostor, I believe was his conviction at an early stage of
the proceedings. It was upon one of these evenings,,
when the conversation respecting the great case had set

54 RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI

in, and the opinions of those present as to the rights and
wrongs of it fizzed about as confusedly as squibs on a
Guy Fawkes night, that Rossetti propounded a highly
original solution of the question.

" Let," he said, very gravely, " the carcass of an ox be
taken into the court, and let the claimant be brought
forward and told that he must cut that ox up in the
presence of the judge and jury. It would be seen at a
glance," he maintained, "whether that man had ever
been a butcher; unconsciously he would hold the knife
in a way no tyro could, and unconsciously he would set
to the task of cutting up the carcass and betray himself
at every slash he made."

Such was Rossetti's idea. It was an ingenious one,
but whether reliable or not was a matter of opinion, and
led to a protrafted discussion in which nobody was con-
vinced.

CHAPTER VIII.

Rossetti and Spiritualism and Mesmerism — Some mediums — Daniel
Home — Bergheim — The Master of Lindsay — Theodore Watts-
Dunton — A mesmeric entertainment.

IT was about the first year or so of my intimacy with
Rossetti that table-turning, spirit-rapping, planchettes,
and spiritualism under its many phases had taken hold of
society, and provided the trifles of the day. Whether
Rossetti had any real belief in spiritualism, or whether he
wanted to persuade himself that he had, I can hardly say.
He was of a highly imaginative nature, and everything
that appertained to the mystic had a strange fascination
for him. In spiritualism he took an interest for some
time; he went to all the private seances to which he
happened to be invited, and now and again would give
me an account of some of them, when such well-known
mediums as Mrs. Guppy,a9 Mrs. Fawcett,90 and Daniel
Home,91 and others were present.

The result of witnessing the performances of these
professionals was that Rossetti thought that he, too,
would have little seances at home, and from time to time
Whistler, Bell Scott, and a few other friends would meet
together at Cheyne Walk to have their own experiences

56 RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI

of the matter. On these occasions the spirit-rapping
and gyrations of tables would be carried on until the
uncanny hour of midnight. As each of the experi-
menters was suspicious of his neighbour's honesty when
the table became rampant, the results were mostly un-
satisfactory. At one or two of these meetings, I re-
member, some remarkable messages were received from
the spirits, which could not be accounted for.

Mesmerism Rossetti had a reasonable faith in. He
was in a great measure led to this belief from having met
one night, at a friend's house, a Mr. Bergheim,92 who
possessed extraordinary powers in this direction. So im-
pressed was he with what he had seen on this occasion
that he asked him to come one evening to Cheyne Walk
to give a proof of his mesmeric powers to a few friends
he intended to invite to meet him, and who would be
interested in Bergheim's experiments. Amongst the
party were Morris, the Master of Lindsay,93 Leyland,
Sala, and Theodore Watts-Dunton.94 Watts-Dunton
used to be Rossetti's confidant of much that he did not
speak of to his general friends.

The entertainment in question was held in a lordly
pleasure marquee, which Rossetti had caused to be erefted
in the spacious garden at the rear of the house. This
tent was furnished in a very luxurious manner : couches,
comfortable chairs, many-countried cabinets, Persian rugs,
and such flowers as were in bloom were dispersed pro-
fusely within, and gave it a delightful Eastern appearance.

AND HIS CIRCLE 57

When all the party were assembled, conversation
upon the occult became general. After awhile, the
Master of Lindsay related a wondrous story : that some
time previously he was with Home the spiritualist — whose
name was then on everybody's tongue — and saw him,
whilst in a mesmerised state, rise from off the floor and
ascend to the ceiling of the apartment he was in, which
was a very lofty one, sufficiently lofty, indeed, to enable
the narrator to catch hold of Home's foot as he rose above
his head, and to find that in spite of all endeavour to
keep him down he still ascended, leaving his shoe in his
hand. And also that, on another occasion, he had seen
him float out of one of the windows of the room they
occupied into the open air, and re-appear a few minutes
afterwards floating through the next. This was related
by the Master of Lindsay in such perfect belief and sim-
plicity, that we could but listen and, wondering, accept
his assertions accordingly.

Of course, Howell had something equally wonderful
to tell, and, as far as I recolleft, it was in connection
with Richard Burton,95 the traveller and orientalist, with
whom he professed to have gone through supernatural
experiences of a most astounding nature. Then arose
and spoke Sala. He had just come up from the Broad-
moor criminal lunatic asylum, and he gave us a most
interesting account of some of the inmates confined there
for murder. He had seen Constance Kent.96 Usually
she was very quiet and reserved, but she had recurrent

58 RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI

fits of madness that came on with the full moon. Then
her depravity would break out and find vent in the most
violent actions and Billingsgate language, so that it was
only with the greatest difficulty she could be managed.
It was on one of these occasions he had seen her. Ed-
ward Oxford,97 who shot at the Queen some years ago,
he also mentioned as having seen. There was nothing
remarkable about him in any way. He was ve«y quiet,
and employed in doing portions of the rough painting-
work that was required in the establishment. Another
and much more interesting criminal was the artist,
Richard Dadd,98 who was detained there for murdering
his father on Blackheath Common many years ago. A
terrible idea had weaved itself into his disordered brain —
that it was his mission to kill the devil! And that
notion, worming itself deeper and deeper into all his
thoughts, caused him to wake up one morning with the
conviction that his father was the devil. He took him for
a walk and slew him. The Broadmoor authorities were
allowed to furnish him with paints and brushes, and other
necessaries for painting, and much of his time was occu-
pied in making designs of the wildest and most ghastly
character. Sala found him at work upon a picture of
Job suffering from the plague of boils. The boils were
depicted in every stage, and in the most microscopic
manner, and he seemed to take a delight in painting
them, licking his brush over an extra ulcerous one.
There were a good many of his designs, so Sala said,

AND HIS CIRCLE 59

about the cell he occupied, all painted with extreme
finish and photographic minuteness. One especially
noticeable was of Richard III., after having slain his two
nephews. He was depifted as holding up his sword high
aloft, and catching in his mouth the blood drops as they
fell. Then, in parenthesis, Sala told us how Dadd,
having killed his father, escaped from the scene of his
crime and took his guilty flight to Dover, and from
thence crossed the Channel with the intention of going
to Paris. On his way thither, he still found himself in
doubt as to whether, after all, he had accomplished his
mission or not. In the compartment of the railway car-
riage that he had taken a place in, was a fellow-traveller.
They entered into a conversation which lasted well-nigh
the whole journey. Dadd, still in doubt, began to fancy
his companion was the devil incarnate, whom it was his
mission to kill. Through the window of the carriage he
gazed at the heavens and looked for a sign from it. The
sun was setting and the sky full of threatening rain-
clouds. It seemed borne in upon him that if the sun
sank in serene and unclouded splendour, his fellow-
traveller's life must be spared, but if otherwise, he saw
his duty and was resolved to do it. The sun sunk below
the horizon cloudlessly, and his companion little knew
of the fate he had escaped.

These various relations were interrupted by the
arrival of the two young women whom Bergheim had
arranged should be his mediums for the evening. Hear-

6O RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI

ing that they were on their way to the tent, he mes-
merized them before they appeared, so that they both
entered in a clairvoyant state. Rossetti's surprise at this
was great. Not long after, Bergheim asked him to a£t
in an improvised little drama that he had thought of.
Rossetti was to be a sailor, and aft with the medium
selected as though he were going to join his ship, which
was about to sail on a long-service cruise. So, taking his
cue, he told her a prettily-concocled tale of his being
ordered away that night on Her Majesty's service, which
the girl listened to with the greatest emotion. Another
of the party then came forward, and represented himself
as a naval officer sent by the captain to take him aboard ;
the anchor having been weighed, the captain was anxious
to set sail. When this was told her, and she found her
sailor must leave her, she got into a terribly excited state,
and threatened to stab the man who would separate
them. At last, however, she allowed Rossetti to be
taken away, and as soon as he had disappeared through
the tent awning and could no more be seen, she fell to
the ground in a fit of hysterical weeping.

Another of the party, a somewhat heavy man, was
then asked to lie down on the ground, which he did.
The mesmerist direfted the medium's attention to him,
scolding her as if she were a careless nursemaid in charge
of a small child, and telling her that there was a carriage
and a pair of runaway horses galloping down a supposed
lane, and that unless she could rescue the child in time it

AND HIS CIRCLE 6 1

would inevitably be run over and killed. In a terrible
fright, she ran to the supposititious child, picked him up
and carried him away to a safe place with all the ease
that a grown-up young woman would a child of three or
four years of age.

There were many other scenes of a similar kind
ena6led, until Bergheim thought his mediums were ex-
hausted. When he restored them to their usual condition,
by a few passes and a smart tap on the shoulder, I asked
one of them if she knew what she had been doing, but
she seemed quite unconscious of what had taken place,
save that she thought sleep had overcome her, in which
she dreamt something too indistinct to remember. I
witnessed all these things, and to me they appeared quite
unaccountable. If the two girls brought hither by Berg-
heim were in collusion with him, why they must have
been equal to the best addresses that ever trod the stage.
Even granting that they were a6ling their parts, I cannot
make out how the medium who lifted up one of us off
the ground could have got her strength, for it was done
without any undue exertion, and she was but an ordinary
type of a little London milliner.

CHAPTER IX.

Influence of the occult upon Rossetti — " Rose Mary " — Swinburne's
ecstasy — "Proserpine" — "Cassandra"— John Trivett Nettle ship
— Ed-ward Hughes— Lewis Carroll — Longfellow — Rossetti s
methods — An appraisement of bis 'work — Conclusion.

In recalling the foregoing scenes, I have many times
asked myself why I should relate them, and whether such
things were not too trivial to set down in writing ? And
my answer to myself was always, that the interest dis-
played by Rossetti towards everything bearing on the
occult gave an insight to his nature, and however incon-
sequential these incidents may appear, they show how
largely both his poetry and his painting were influenced
by the bent of his mind in that direction, and his yearning
for the unseen. He would often talk about spiritualism
for hours, and many were the curious experiences of ours
which we revealed to each other. And, as in a discon-
nected dream, the conversation would sometimes wander
into paths not thought of before, and hence these rela-
tions occasionally had their uses.

I recollecl: on one occasion I had just come from
visiting a neighbour — a lady who possessed the original
dreaming stone of Dr. Dee" which she allowed me to

RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI 63

look at. It was a small, unpretentious bit of crystal, but
having such a reputation as it had, I felt as though I too
must have a look into it. Full half-an-hour I spent in
gazing into it, but I saw nothing. Perhaps the time was
not long enough, or perhaps I was not in tune ; during
the afternoon, however, I learnt that my hostess had seen
much and written much more from the pages of anti-
quated lore that it had unfolded to her — Hebrew, Sanscrit,
and heaven only knows what else had been opened up to
her enlightened vision.

Full of all this mysterious discourse, I went back to
Rossetti and told him all. He listened to my narration
with the greatest interest. I spoke of the dreaming stone
as the magic " Beryl."

" What did you call it ? " he asked.

I repeated its name — the " Beryl."

" Good," he responded, " that is the very word I
want for the title of my poem ; it never occurred to me
before. I shall now use it ; it is better than crystal in
every way; it is more rhythmical, and has a greater
seeming of mysticism in its sound. Moreover, it is one
of the mystic stones named in Revelations"

So from that time he substituted the word " Beryl "
for "crystal," and built up a wondrous poem with a
sonorous title.100

Swinburne was a frequent visitor at Cheyne Walk,
and I remember well his calling one evening when
Rossetti was absent on some china-collecting expedition.

64 RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI

It had been a very sultry day, and with the advancing
twilight, heavy thunder-clouds were rolling up. The
door opened and Swinburne entered. He appeared in an
abstracted state-, and for a few minutes sat silent. Soon,
something I had said anent his last poem set his thoughts
loose. Like the storm that had just broken, so he began
in low tones to utter lines of poetry. As the storm
increased, he got more and more excited and carried away
by the impulse of his thoughts, bursting into a torrent of
splendid verse that seemed like some grand air with the
distant peals of thunder as an intermittent accompani-
ment. And still the storm waxed more violent, and the
vivid flashes of lightning became more frequent. But
Swinburne seemed unconscious of it all, and whilst
he paced up and down the room, pouring out bursts of
passionate declamation, faint electric sparks played round
the wavy masses of his luxuriant hair. I lay on the sofa
in a corner of the studio and listened in wonder and with
a curious awe, for it appeared to me as though the very
figures in the pictures that were on the easels standing
about the room were conscious of and sympathized with
the poet and his outpourings. The Proserpine101 gazed
out more mournfully than I had been wont to see her
gaze ; her longing to return to earth seemed to have
Swinburne as an additional reason for it. On the other
side looked out through her frame the Blessed Damozel,10*
and " from the golden bar of heaven " Cassandra,™3 away
in the farthermost part of the studio, peered through the

AND HIS CIRCLE 65

gloom, as though joining with the others in watching the
poet as he impetuously strode up and down the room,
each flash of lightning revealing him as one inspired, his
wealth of hair giving forth a scintillation of tiny ele6tric
sparks which formed, as it were, a faint halo round his
head.104 Amidst the rattle of the thunder he still
continued to pour out his thoughts, his voice now
sinking low and sad, now waxing louder as the storm
listed.

How long his ecstasy would have lasted I know
not. I was wondering, when the sounds of a latchkey
and the closing of the hall door were heard. In another
minute Rossetti entered the studio, boisterously shaking
off the raindrops from his Inverness cape, and with a
" Hullo ! old fellow ! " welcomed Swinburne. Divesting
himself of his cape, he lit the gas, sat down with his
friend, and the night began anew. Their conversation,
upon many things, went on hour after hour, until the
dawn began to appear, and I arose as one in a dream, and
betook myself to bed.

John Trivett Nettleshipi05 would sometimes bring his
sketches of wondrous, yet hardly worked-out ideas.
Those of the Blake-like kind amazed and delighted
Rossetti with their audacity of treatment. Nettleship's
intense admiration of Browning's poetry and his almost
idolatrous worship of the fantastic endeared him to
Rossetti : in fa6t, had he known him a few years earlier,
he would surely have found in him a valuable collabora-

F

66 RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI

teur in the book exhibiting the poetic genius of Blake
that he, in conjunction with Gilchrist, brought out.106
Rossetti was greatly interested in Nettleship and all he
did. He regarded him as a genius, and the various
anecdotes which I told him from time to time concern-
ing Nettleship and his peculiarities vastly amused him
and excited his curiosity.

Ted Hughes107 once showed a little pifture to
Rossetti — or he saw it at Hughes' house — entitled
Hushed Music, which delighted him very much. He
spoke to me afterwards about it on several occasions,
remarking that such a work gave fine promise of greater,
and that Hughes would surely make a name for himself.

"Lewis Carroll,"108 the author of Alice in Won-
derland^ was another frequent visitor at Cheyne Walk
in the early days of Rossetti's occupancy of the house
there. Being an adept in the art of photography, he
took several very good studies there. One of Rossetti,
his mother, and his sister Christina, seated on a little
flight of steps that led to the back hall-door, was es-
pecially happy in the likeness and arrangement of the
family group.

One day Longfellow,10^ who had not long arrived
in London from a tour in Italy, called on Rossetti. He
was a grand-looking man, although somewhat short, with
a fine silver-white beard, and still a goodly amount of
snow-white hair on his head. He had absolutely no
knowledge of painting, and his remarks concerning pic-

AND HIS CIRCLE 67

tures were not only childish, but indicated an utter
indifference to them. Although having just completed
his translation of the Paradiso portion of Dante's trilogy,
he seemed quite at a loss to know what Rossetti's pictures
represented.

From the midnight gatherings and conversations
that I have mentioned, it will be seen that Rossetti's
hours were very late ones. As a matter of course, he
was not an early riser, and it was not his wont to com-
mence work much before eleven o'clock in the morning.
But when he did, he began right earnestly.

When a design germinated in his brain, it was all
thought out and shaped into a pen-and-ink or pencil
reality before the subjeft was transferred to canvas.
When the sketch was to his liking, then came the
question, What model was best fitted for the subject ?
And exercising the same fastidiousness as when composing
poetry, several drawings of the model's face would be
made ere he was satisfied. This accounts for such a
number of carefully-finished chalk heads continually
cropping up. They are all valuable, because they tend
to show the progress and development of his most notable
pictures. When all these careful preliminaries had been
gone through, the painting would be commenced. But
never in a hurry : no attempt was made to partially cover
his canvas at once ; his invariable rule being to do so
much in the time that the model was present as could
be well done, and required no alteration the next day.

F 2

68 RECOLLECTIONS OF D. G. ROSSETTI

Alterations, he maintained, meant muddling, and were
the death of colour.

All Rossetti's best works glow with rich tones and
qualities. In the matter of drawing, however, I am
obliged to confess he was not so strong. His curious
habit of giving oft-times an unduly long neck to a figure
threw him into difficulties in regard to the due propor-
tions of the human body. For his models, he did not
rely upon those who were stridlly professional. He pre-
ferred finding a face for himself, and often a work would
be delayed in the execution because the desired face could
not be immediately found.

FINIS.

Che ,5am Sara.

The Crystal Bail, from a dtsign of Henry Treffry Dunn's, by his sister,

Edith Hume.

AUTUMN LEAVES.
(Verses for a picture]

FAST fall the leaves, blown by the Autumn blast,
In swirling heaps on the green sward they lie,
Sweet memories of the Springtime greenery

And the golden glories of Summer past.

The last red flushes of the sinking sun

Shed over all a wondrous mystery,

On toil-worn age nearing eternity,
And the young hearts whose lives are but begun.

And with departing light the conscience grieves
O'er bygone days, and golden hours misspent
In selfish deeds and empty merriment,

To find, where fruit should be, but withered leaves.

HENRY TREFFRY DUNN.
February 27, 1891.

NOTES

NOTES.

1. The device is time-honoured; and recently I
was amused to see it exercised, by a well-known author,.
to explain to an obtuse hairdresser the particular fashion
in which he desired his hair and beard trimmed.

2. Of Blairgowrie. He fought in the Russian-
Turkish War, and was afterwards awarded a medal for
bravery. Subsequently he entered the Volunteer De-
partment of the War Office. He died on the 26th July,
1867. His marriage with a sister of the author of
these Recollections was to have been solemnized two
weeks later, and it may be here mentioned, as an indica-
tion of the benevolence of Rossetti's disposition, that
when she came to London, for the purpose of seeing her
affianced before he was buried, he made her and her
mother his guests, in order to well rest themselves between
the the two long journeys from Cornwall to London and
back.

3. A well-known Art school, situated in Newman
Street.

4. Dramatist, author, and painter, 1828 — 1891.

5. This play was produced at the Lyceum, at
which theatre Wills was retained as dramatist, in Sep-
tember, 1872. Although inferior in form to its prede-
cessor, Medea in Corinth^ which contains his best workx
it sprang into high favour with the public, and assisted
Henry Irving to confirm the reputation he had pre-
viously achieved in The Bells. Several plays, of uneven,
merit, followed from Wills' pen in quick succession.

74 NOTES

/

6. The son of an Englishman and a Portuguese
mother, who was born in Portugal towards 1849. He
was very intimate with Rossetti and his circle from 1864,
but got out of favour with the circle from about 1869.
He adled as Ruskin's secretary from circa 1865 to 1868,
and as Rossetti's selling agent from 1872 to 1876. He
possessed a keen artistic perception, and was well versed
in all matters pertaining to Art. As these Recollections
show, he had also a wit that was as clever as it was
inimitable. He died towards 1888.

7. Mr. Seymour Kirkup, an English painter who
settled in Florence circa 1824, and was ennobled as a
Barone of the Italian kingdom. He was particularly
known for having, towards 1840, made the discovery
referred to. Throughout the greater part of his life he
was a fervent spiritualist, and professed to hold intercourse
with the spirit of Dante. In a letter to Rossetti, he
informed him that the poet had drawn part of his own
portrait and written his name under it to oblige him.
He died at a great age, about 1880.

8. In the Bargello.

9. Canto xi. :

" In painting Cimabue thought that he

Should hold the field, now Giotto has the cry,
So that the other's fame is growing dim.
So has our Guido from the other taken

The glory of our tongue, and he perchance
Is born, who from the nest shall chase them both."
Longfellow 's Translation.

10. No. 1 6, a fine old building, with an extensive
garden and a frontage commanding the river, to which
Rossetti removed, in the Autumn of 1862, from No. 59,
Lincoln's Inn Fields. At No. 14, Chatham Place, Black-
friars Bridge (now demolished) he had lived for several
years before occupying for a few months the chambers in

NOTES 75

Lincoln's Inn Fields. It constituted an eminently con-
genial residence for him, notwithstanding that the studio
was inadequate for his needs. Originally his brother,
Mr. William Michael Rossetti, Algernon Charles Swin-
burne, and George Meredith occupied certain rooms,
but, as regards the poet and novelist, not for any great
length of time ; the first-named continued a partial occu-
pant until 1873. In this house, of which he held a lease,
Rossetti was domiciled until his death, although from
1871 he often stayed at Kelmscott Manor House (near
Lechlade, Gloucestershire,) of which he and William
Morris, the celebrated poet and art designer, were joint
tenants. At Kelmscott he was entirely settled from the
autumn of 1872 to the summer of 1874, seldom coming
to London during that period ; but at the end of that
time he finally returned to London. A portrait of Mrs.
Morris, which Rossetti painted, is now in the National
Portrait Gallery on deposit.

11. Giov. Batt. Cipriani, painter and designer, and
a member of the Royal Academy, was born in 1727, at
Florence, and died in 1787, curiously enough at Chelsea.

12. Mr. W. M. Rossetti thinks that H. T. Dunn
antedates his first knowledge of Rossetti. He fancies the
date was 1867 instead of 1863. His own first meeting
with Dunn was, he says, at Howell's house, a few days
before 2ist May, 1867 ; and this he knows from his diary
as recently published, Rossetti Papers^ 1862-70. He is,
besides, as good as certain that Howell was never in
England between an early day in 1858 and some date in
1864. At the date given by H. T. Dunn of his first
meeting with Rossetti, the latter had achieved a recog-
nized position as a painter, and enjoyed, although a
limited a by no means inconsiderable repute as a poet.
He was a non-exhibiting painter, however ; in the early
years of his artistic career he determined to absolutely

76 NOTES

refrain from exhibition, and to this resolve he remained
faithful.

13. If 1867 was the adlual year of the meeting,,
his age was then 39. " Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti,.
who at an early stage of his professional career modified
his name into Dante Gabriel Rossetti, was born on
1 2th May, 1828, at No. 38 Charlotte Street, Portland
Place, London. In blood he was three-fourths Italian,
and only one-fourth English ; being on the father's side
wholly Italian (Abruzzese), and on the mother's side half
Italian (Tuscan) and half English. His father was
Gabriele Rossetti, born in 1783 at Vasto, in the
Abruzzi, Adriatic coast, in the then kingdom of Naples.
Gabriele Rossetti (died 1854) was a man of letters, a
custodian of ancient bronzes in the Museo Borbonico
of Naples, and a poet; he distinguished himself by
patriotic lays towards the date of the grant of a Constitu-
tion by Ferdinand I. of Naples in 1820. The King,
after the fashion of Bourbons and tyrants, revoked the
constitution in 1821, and persecuted the abettors of it,
and Rossetti had to escape for his freedom, or perhaps
even for his life. He settled in London towards 1824,
married, and became Professor of Italian in King's
College, London, publishing also various works of bold
speculation in the way of Dantesque commentary and
exposition. His wife was Frances Mary Lavinia Polidori
(died 1886), daughter of Gaetano Polidori (died 1853),
a teacher of Italian and literary man who had in early
youth been secretary to the poet Alfieri, and who-
published various books, including a complete translation
of Milton's poems. Frances Polidori was English on the
side of her mother, whose maiden name was Pierce." —
PREFACE, by Mr. W. M. Rossetti, to The Collected Works
of Dante Gabriel l^ossetti.

14. "The prevailing expression of" his "face'*

NOTES 77

was "that of a fiery and dictatorial mind concentrated
into repose." — Ibid. In the February of 1862, Rossetti
was overwhelmed with grief and dismay by the death of
his wife. " He was always and essentially of a dominant
turn, in intellect and temperament a leader. He was
impetuous and vehement, and necessarily therefore im-
patient ; easily angered, easily appeased, although the
embittered feelings of his later years obscured this amiable
quality to some extent ... in family affection
warm and equable and (except in relation to our mother,
for whom he had a fondling love) not demonstrative.
Never on stilts in matters of the intellect, or of aspiration,
but steeped in the sense of beauty, and loving, if not
always practising, the good . . . and anti-scientific
to the marrow. Throughout his youth and early man-
hood I considered him to be markedly free from vanity,
though certainly well-equipped in pride ; the distinction
between these two tendencies was less definite in his
closing years . . . good-natured and hearty without
being complaisant or accommodating; reserved at times,
yet not haughty ; desultory enough in youth, diligent and
persistent in maturity ; self-centred always, and brushing
aside whatever traversed his purpose or his bent." —
PREFACE, by Mr. W. M. Rossetti, to the Collected Works.
In 1870 Rossetti published his volume of Poems.
" For some considerable while it was hailed with general
and lofty praise, chequered by only moderate stricture or
demur; but late in 1871 Mr. Robert Buchanan published,
under a pseudonym, in the Contemporary Review, a very
hostile article, named The Fleshly School of Poetry^ attack-
ing the poems on literary and more especially on moral
grounds. . . . The assault produced on Rossetti an
effecl altogether disproportionate to its intrinsic import-
ance; indeed, it developed in his character an excess of
sensitiveness and of distempered brooding which his
nearest relatives and friends had never before surmised.

78 NOTES

. . . Unfortunately, there was in him already only too-
much of morbid material on which this venom of detrac-
tion was to work. For some years the state of his eye-
sight had given very grave cause for apprehension, he
himself fancying from time to time that the evil might
end in absolute blindness, a fate with which our father
had been formidably threatened in his closing years.
From this or other causes insomnia had ensued, coped
with by far too free a use of chloral, which may have
begun towards the beginning of 1870. In the summer
of 1872 he had a dangerous crisis of illness; and from,
that time forward, but more especially from the middle
of 1874, he became secluded in his habits of life and often
depressed, fanciful, and gloomy." — Ibid.

15. " The appearance of my brother was to my eye
rather Italian than English, though I have more than
once heard it said that there was nothing observable to
bespeak foreign blood. He was of rather low, middle
stature, say five feet seven and a-half, like our father;
and, as the years advanced, he resembled our father not a
little in a characteristic way, yet with highly obvious
divergences. Meagre in youth, he was at times
decidedly fat in mature age. The complexion, clear and
warm, was also dark, but not dusky or sombre. The hair
was dark and somewhat silky; the brow grandly spacious
and solid ; the full-sized eyes blueish-grey ; the nose
shapely, decided, and rather projecting, with an aquiline
tendency, and large nostrils, and perhaps no detail in the
face was more noticeable at a first glance than the very
strong indentation at the spring of the nose below the
forehead; the mouth moderately well shaped, but with
a rather thick and unmoulded underlip; the chin unre-
markable ; the line of the jaw, after youth was passed,
full-rounded and sweeping; the ears well-formed and
rather small than large. His hips were wide, his hands

NOTES 79

and feet small ; the hands very much those of the artist
or author type, white, delicate, plump, and soft as a
woman's. His gait was resolute and rapid, his general
aspect compact and determined. . . . Some people
regarded Rossetti as eminently handsome ; few, I think,
would have refused him the epithet of well-looking.
. . . He wore moustaches from early youth, shaving
his cheeks: from 1870, or thereabouts, he grew whiskers
and beard, moderately full and auburn tinted, as well as
moustaches. His voice was deep and harmonious; in the
reading of poetry, remarkably rich, with rolling swell and
musical cadence." — Ibid.

1 6. This painting does not represent the legendary
and supernatural being named Lilith. It is an oil paint-
ing called Lady Lilithy to intimate that the work should
be understood as depicting the allurements of physical
beauty uncombined with moral beauty. Rossetti made of
it some water-colour replicas and illustrated the picture
by the following sonnet, which is now known as Body's
Beauty : —

" Of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is told

(The witch he loved before the gift of Eve)

That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could deceive,

And her enchanted hair was the first gold.

And still she sits, young while the earth is old,
And, subtly of herself contemplative,
Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave,

Till heart and body and life are in its hold.

" The rose and poppy are her flowers ; for where
Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent

And soft-shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare ?
Lo ! as that youth's eyes burned at thine, so went
Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent

And round his heart one strangling golden hair."

17. That Adam had a wife so named before the
creation of Eve. According to Rabbinical mythology,

8O NOTES

she was changed into a night spedlre, especially hostile to
newly-born infants. The legend had a peculiar fascina-
tion for Rossetti. He introduces the supernatural Lilith
into his poem Eden Bower.

1 8. Walpurgis Night. Scene 31.

Faust. And who is that ?
Mtphistopbeles. Do thou observe her well.

That's Lilith.
Faust. Who ?
Meph. Adam's first damosel.
Be on thy guard against her lovely hair,

That tire of hers in which she peerless shines !

When with its charm a youngster she entwines,
She will not soon release him. So beware !

Webtfs Translation.

19. Mr. William M. Rossetti has already expressed his
own opinion that the alteration referred to was detrimental
to the work. Fortunately a photograph of the painting
in its original state exists. When Rossetti re-painted the
face, he employed a different model.

20. This picture has often been called the Dying
Beatrice, but not with stri6l correctness. Its true title
is as given. It represents Beatrice in a trance, which is
to be understood as symbolically suggesting death, but she
is not intended to be really dead, nor yet dying.

21. She had at an earlier date been Mrs. Cowper-
Temple. Mr. W. M. Rossetti, in speaking of the
extremely cordial relations which subsisted between his
brother and the principal purchasers of his pictures, ex-
pressly mentions this lady as one of his friends.

22. See Note 12. February, 1862. After a lengthy
engagement, Rossetti, in the spring of 1860, married
Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal, originally a milliner's assistant,
and the daughter of a Sheffield cutler. As will be seen,
their wedded life was of short duration. She had given
birth to a still-born infant. Miss Siddal was gifted with

NOTES 8 I

considerable artistic and poetic fancy herself. She pro-
duced several water-colours and designs which, albeit
based upon her husband's style, display genuine originality
and some considerable skill.

23. This is a pidlure of a single female half-figure,
now in the possession of Mr. T. H. Ismay.

24. Poet, engraver, and painter, 1757-1827. In
reciting the names of those poets whose influence tended
to nurture the mind of his brother, and helped to educe
its own poetic endowment, Mr. W. M. Rossetti mentions
the name of Blake as receiving his peculiar meed of
homage.

25. Mr. W. M. Rossetti has kindly drawn atten-
tion to the facl: that this book contained a number of
miscellaneous designs by no means limited to such as
apply to the Songs of Innocence. There were also a great
many writings in verse and prose in it.

26. 1847.

27. Biographer, 1828-61. Wrote the Life of Blake.
Rossetti was intimate with and had a deep esteem for him.
He died as he was approaching the end of his excellent
and now fully-appreciated labours on the Life, which
was originally published, with selections from Blake's
poems and other writings in 1863. Another edition
appeared in 1880.

28. The author of these Recollections errs in as-
signing a collaboratorship to Rossetti. Rossetti supplied
Gilchrist with some valuable material, but not with any
contributory writing of his own. Having died before the
book was published, but not before it was substantially
completed, his widow, Anne Gilchrist, prepared it for the
press. But as she considered it expedient to avail herself
of Rossetti's assistance in certain defined portions of the
work, he undertook all the editing of Blake's writings in

82 NOTES

prose and verse which form Vol. II. He is also credited
with certain passages in Vol. I. In the Collected Works
of Dante Gabriel Rossettiy Mr. W. M. Rossetti gives the
remarks of his brother upon the poems ; preceded by the
supplementary chapter which he made to the Lifey and
followed by his comments upon the designs to the Book
of yob) and upon certain points connected with the
designs to the Jerusalem. The large majority of these
observations appeared in the original edition ; part of the
Jerusalem section belongs only to that of 1880. A few
of the opening phrases in the supplementary chapter
must, Mr. W. M. Rossetti thinks, be Gilchrist's own,
but he has not been at the pains of detaching them.
Nothing else of any substantial bulk or importance was,
he says, written by his brother for Gilchrist's book.

29. This statement goes too far. At a time when
he knew nothing about the MS. book, nor yet about
Rossetti, Gilchrist undertook to write the Life^ and wrote
a good deal of it. Afterwards, knowing Rossetti and the
book, he fairly completed it, but not absolutely, as he
died suddenly.

30. By Colonna, circa 1490.

31. Mr. W. M. Rossetti observes here, that the
designs seem quite unlike Botticelli's, and that Giovanni
Bellini has, with less obvious improbability, more gener-
ally been suggested. His own view, however, is that
connoisseurs regard the authorship of the designs as
extremely uncertain.

32. Poet and critic, author of Fine Art, &c., the
third child and second son of Gabriele Rossetti, born in
1829. There were four children altogether, all honour-
ably known in connection with Literature and Art,
namely, Maria Francesca, author of A Shadow of Dante,
Dante Gabriel, William Michael, and Christina, the

NOTES 83

author of Goblin Market^ The Prince's Progress, and other
works in prose and verse.

33. Painter and etcher, 1835-1903. President of
the Society of British Artists 1886-1888. An artist
friend of Rossetti's.

34. Specimens of China porcelain in which figures
of slim Chinese ladies are painted. Mr. W. M. Rossetti
points out that the correct phrase is " Lange leises " —
/'.*., long (tall or slim) damsels — this being the name
given to porcelain of the kind by the Dutch. It is
written in the manuscript of the Recollections as printed,
and no doubt the proper phrase has often been so cor-
rupted. Possibly here a witticism of Whistler's may be
detected.

35. Mr. W. M. Rossetti doubts these figures. He
rather thinks that Rossetti gave more than ^120 for the
pair (say ^200), and his belief is that on their being sold
by him to the dealer he had bought them of, he only
received the same price which he had given.

36. In 1848, Rossetti co-operated with two of his
fellow-students in painting, John Everett Millais and
William Holman Hunt — his leading colleagues — and
with the sculptor, Thomas Woolner, in forming the
so-called Pras-Raphaelite Brotherhood. There were
three other members, James Collinson, Frederic George
Stephens, and William Michael Rossetti. The words of
the latter will best describe the movement : — " A great
deal of discussion has arisen from time to time as to what
were the motives of these young men in forming their
association, and why they called themselves Prae-Ra-
phaelites ... In the briefest terms . . . the
movement was partly one of protest and partly one of
performance ; protest against the general intellectual
flimsiness and vapid execution of British Art in those

G 2

84 NOTES

days, and performance in the way of serious personal
thought in invention and design, and serious personal
minute study of Nature as the solid substratum of all
genuine execution. The name " Prae-Raphaelite " was
adopted, not because the young men wanted to imitate
early and immature works of art (which, in fad!:, they
never did), but to indicate that they would not be hide-
bound by any rules or traditions, Raphaelite or Post-
Raphaelite, which they might not find ratified by visible
nature and their own minds. From the very beginning
of the movement, the men painted in styles differing the
one from the other, although with some common princi-
ples of work to found upon ; and after some four years of
association they sundered, each on his own track. Millais
became justly celebrated for facile and striking realism,
somewhat obvious in point of thought; and Holman
Hunt for strenuous well-pondered purpose and unflinching
precision of execution. Rossetti, on the other hand,
pursued beauty as his main objedt, combined with ideal
or symbolic suggestiveness.

37. Painter, 1829-1896; A.R.A., 1853; R.A.,
1863; P.R.A., 1896; created a baronet, 1885. As
already implied, he and Rossetti were fellow-students
together at the Royal Academy — Millais in the Painting
School, Rossetti in the Antique School. He was on
terms of unrestricted intimacy with Rossetti in youth,
as were all the Prae-Raphaelites, but, owing to death and
other causes, Rossetti lost sight of all of them, except
Stephens, eventually.

38. Painter, 1827. Also a fellow-student of
Rossetti's at the Royal Academy, and the third Prae-
Raphaelite.

39. Sculptor and poet, 1826; A.R.A., 1871 ; R.A.,
1876; Professor of Sculpture in the Royal Academy,
1877-79; tne f°urtn Prse-Raphaelite.

NOTES 85

40. Poet, painter, and etcher, 1811. Author of
Poems by a Painter^ &c. His autobiographical notes
were published in 1892, soon after his death.

41. Painter, 1821-93. Alluded to by Mr. W. M.
Rossetti as, first and foremost, his brother's chief intimate
through life, " on the unexhausted resources of whose
affeftion and converse he drew incessantly for long
years." Ford Madox Brown bore an important part in
directing Rossetti's studies, and greatly influenced for
good his subsequent life. They became acquainted a few
months before the time the Pre-Raphaelite scheme was
put forward. Although he did not think fit to join the
Brotherhood in any direft or complete sense — because he
disbelieved in the advantages of cliques — he bore a weighty
part in supporting the movement, and did more than any
other to sway its members. And he always felt a keen
sympathy towards the aspirations he largely assisted to
mould. The friendship existing between Brown and
Rossetti, which almost amounted to brotherhood, and
extended over the latter's after life, was formed in this
way. In March, 1848, Rossetti, who had been profoundly
struck with his work, wrote Brown for permission to
attend his studio as a pupil, warmly extolling his paintings,
and adding that if he ever did anything on his own ac-
count, it would be under the influence of his inspiration.
Brown courteously granted the request which had been
made, and accordingly Rossetti entered his studio, not as
a paying pupil, but as a friend. They were ultimately
separated by Brown's removal to Manchester for the
purpose of executing the frescos in the Town Hall
there.

42. Poet and musician, born somewhere towards
1850, and living abroad, whither he went several years
ago. About 1875, he published a volume of poems
which, although rather odd, display much ability. He

86 NOTES

then became more noted in musical matters, and was a
semi-professional vocalist.

43. The Liverpool shipowner, of Prince's Gate,
now deceased. He was one of the principal purchasers
of Rossetti's pictures. Rossetti stood towards him in an
extremely friendly relation. Whistler painted for Leyland
the famous " Peacock Room," and then quarrelled with
him.

44. The taste of the collector, by which Rossetti
was always strongly influenced, asserted itself at an early
age.

45. One of the famous " Thames Series " of plates,
a series which contains the finest etched plates of modern
times. Whistler came to London about 1862, and, on
discovering the artistic charms of Chelsea, he also went
to reside there.

46. An acknowledged and daring epigrammatist,
Whistler's sayings were always a source of unbounded
amusement to his friends. "Why bring in Velasquez?"
is perhaps the most characteristic of his replies, which
was addressed to a gushing lady who had insisted on
assuring him that he and Velasquez were the greatest
painters of this or any age.

47. Art and miscellaneous writer, 1819 — 1901.
In after times he became an eloquent and stedfast
advocate of the Prae-Raphaelites. Rossetti was ex-
tremely intimate with and derived much help from him
in his professional career.

48. Poet, 1812-1889. In enumerating the various
poetic influences to which Rossetti was subjecl, his
brother says : — " Lastly came Browning, and for a time,
like the serpent-rod of Moses, swallowed up all the rest.
This was still at an early age of life ; for I think the year
1 847 cannot certainly have been passed before my brother

NOTES 87

was deep in Browning. The readings or fragmentary
recitations of Bells and Pomegranates, Paracelsus, and,
above all, Sordello, are something to remember from a
now distant past" (PREFACE to the Collected Works}.
Browning's poems furnished Rossetti with subjedts. His
first water-colour painting, an illustration to Browning's
Laboratory, was painted as early as 1849. About the
year following, Rossetti made the personal acquaintance
of Browning, of whose poetry he was one of the first
appreciators, and a genuine and friendly intercourse, ex-
tending over several years, ensued. One day, Rossetti
saw in the British Museum Pauline, which had been
published anonymously; he identified it with Browning,
and ventured to write to the great poet to tell him so.
He received a cordial response, and thus their friendship
came about.

49. Poet and critic, 1837, a staunch, fervent, and
sympathetic friend of Rossetti's. As already noted, he
originally occupied certain apartments at No. 16, Cheyne
Walk. Rossetti first became aquainted with him in
1857, when ne was known among his intimates to be a
youth of brilliant promise. He rose towards celebrity
from 1861, in which year his first poetic volume was
published. When the poet-painter and Edward Burne-
Jones were at work on the paintings at the Union Club,
Oxford, Swinburne entered the room with Mr. (after-
wards Dr.) George Birkbeck Hill, who introduced him
to Rossetti. For Swinburne Rossetti had a very friendly
and affectionate feeling, which continued undiminished up
to the latter's death, although he lost sight of him towards
1872.

50. Poet, artist, and socialist, 1834-96. Another
true, ardent, and sympathetic friend of Rossetti's. They
became acquainted through Burne-Jones and, as in the
case of Swinburne, Rossetti had a warm and friendly

88 NOTES

feeling for Morris, which continued right up to his death,
although they did not meet after 1877. As already
noticed, they jointly occupied Kelmscott Manor, and, as
mentioned in the Recollections, they were for some time
associated in business.

51. Poet, 1809 — 1892. According to his brother,
in the mind of Rossetti when he was quite a youth
and hardly out of boyhood, Tennyson reigned along
with Keats, and Edgar Poe and Coleridge along with
Tennyson.

52. This is a somewhat well-known incident, the
details of which have already been accurately published
by Mr. W. M. Rossetti and others. The latter thinks
there was one other person present — possibly Ford Madox
Brown.

53. The original sketch, as made on the spot, was
presented to Browning, and, it is presumed, is now owned
by his son. Rossetti made one or two copies, and one
version is in the possession of his brother.

54. Rossetti made a very large number of drawings
of her from 1850 onwards, and especially between 1853
and 1857. ^n tne Victoria and Albert Museum there
is one in pen-and-ink, in which she is depidled standing.

55. It was a long-cherished projeft of Rossetti's to
bring out a volume of original poems in or about 1862,
but its fulfilment was delayed until 1870 through a
strange and romantic incident. His affedlion for his wife
was very deep, and when, after a short period of married
life, she died, he was so distraught with grief that he re-
solved to sacrifice his scheme to her memory, and accord-
ingly buried in her coffin the MSS. of the poems. He
was pressed in subsequent years to have them exhumed,
and as time went by, he was persuaded that the sacrifice
was neither necessary nor desirable. In 1869 the manu-

NOTES 89

scripts were recovered and published in the following
year. Howell undertook the task of exhumation ; all
was found as originally left, although the manuscripts had
to undergo a long process of disinfection before they
could be made use of.

56. Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, and Co.

57. Painter, 1833-98, A.R.A. 1885, created a Ba-
ronet, 1894. A staunch and sympathetic comrade of
Rossetti's, whose influence was always strong upon him.
He originally intended to enter the Church, but coming
under the sway of Rossetti at Oxford, he abandoned the
idea and adopted painting as a profession. Rossetti's dis-
position towards him was always cordial and affedtionate,
and he kept in close touch with him almost to the last.

58. It is uncertain where this series exists in glass.

59. The designs of the Parable were executed for
the church of S. Martin-on-the-Hill, Scarborough. The
series begins with the Labourers of the Vineyard, and
ends with the procession of the rebellious vineyard
workers to punishment.

60. Some of the St. George and the Dragon series,
perhaps all, were turned into water-colour pictures (and
bought by the late Mr. Geo. Rae, of Birkenhead); but
Mr. W. M. Rossetti is strongly of opinion that this was
not done with the Parable series.

61. Into his first exhibited painting, hereafter
noted, Rossetti introduced the portraits of his mother and
his sister Christina. In the first of his Three Designs
from Tennyson's Poems — " Mariana in the South " — the
face of his wife is seen j again, with that of his sister,
in the second — " King Arthur c watched by weeping
Queens ' in the vale of Avalon " ; and again in the third
— " S. Cecilia." Queen Guinevere (now in the Dublin

go NOTES

National Gallery) is the first, or very nearly the first,
head that Rossetti drew from Mrs. Morris.

62. Mr. W. M. Rossetti here remarks that this is
not quite correct. The person who drops the stone is of
quite different physique from Morris, he says, and bears
some resemblance to Val Prinsep. The head of Morris
occurs, however, in the same design; he is putting his
head out through a wicket, wearing a smile of hypocri-
tical civility, whilst the other man, his accomplice, casts
down the stone.

63. The painter's brother fails to recognise Morris
in the last of the set at all.

64. A Belgian who was famous as a picture dealer
in London from circa 1850 until 1875, when he retired
and became Consul for Spain at Nice. He died at a
great age about 1902, and his pictures, &c., were recently
sold at Christie's.

65. " Among the works of importance between
which and the poems no direct connection can be traced,
a few stand prominently forward. Formost amongst
these is this triptych. The various divisions of this are
curious as exemplifying the boldness with which, at this
period, and subsequently, Rossetti threw off the tram-
mels of Prae-Raphaelitism, and, while adhering to the
mysticism, the recurrent phases of which mark his entire
life, hesitated not to employ costume and effects which
commended themselves by pidturesqueness and beauty
rather than by archaic correctness. In richness of colouring
and in impressiveness this work remains one of the most
striking oil paintings of Rossetti's middle period." — Life
of Dante Gabriel Rossetti^ by Joseph Knight.

66. It has been pointed out by Mr. W. M.
Rossetti, that this Gallery was not instituted by the
Prae-Raphaelites in 1849, but that it began a year or two

NOTES 91

earlier, and had nothing to do with the Prae-Raphaelites,
except that Rossetti and Ford Madox Brown exhibited
there two or three times.

67. The full title of this picture is the Girlhood
of Mary Virgin. It was painted late in 1848 and in
the Spring of 1849, an<^ shewn in the latter year. The
first completed oil pidture of Rossetti's is a head of
Christina Rossetti (June, 1848); then began the Girl-
hood of Mary Virgin, and then, before this was finished,
came the head of Gabriele Rossetti (October, 1848).
The tutor of the B. Virgin (it is the Annunciation lily,
of course, which she is embroidering) in the picture
under notice, is not S. Elizabeth, but S. Anna, the mother
of Mary ; in the background occurs her father, S.
Joachim. The head of the B. Virgin is that of Rossetti's
sister Christina; that of S. Anna was done from his
mother. In this pifture the mystic adoration and faith
of medievalism is wonderfully and finely realized.

68. Cordelia at the Bedside of Lear — Rossetti sat
for the head of the fool. The picture now belongs to
Mrs. Rae, of Birkenhead.

69. This bed, in which Rossetti was born, had
belonged to his father and mother, but was now the
property of the painter.

70. First published in the early months of 1850.
It was brought out by the Prae-Raphaelites with the co-
operation of some friends, and afterwards called Art and
Poetry.

71. The first verses and the first prose published by
Rossetti. He contributed various other poems also.

72. And the Blessed Damozel likewise.

73. Poems by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (London,
1870), not the Ballads and Sonnets (1881), which
Henry T. Dunn evidently had in mind.

92 NOTES

74. Painter, and one of the Prae-Raphaelite Brother-
hood, his membership of which, however, after a short
time he resigned.

75. A disciple of the Prae-Raphaelites, and an artist
of considerable skill, who died prematurely.

76. A leading Greek family in London. Constan-
tine lonides bought many pictures by Rossetti and others,
and has left the whole collection to the Victoria and
Albert Museum.

77. Solicitor and pifture buyer, who died towards
1887.

78. Now Earl of Carlisle ; an amateur painter and
a friend of Burne- Jones.

79. An early associate of Rossetti's ; he first knew
Rossetti towards 1852, and was one of the earliest pur-
chasers of his works. He was at first studying as an
architect, but changed to landscape-painting, and produced
many excellent water-colour landscapes, fine in feeling
and colour, without much ambition in subject. He was
a member of the old Water-colour Society and died
towards 1900.

80. Etcher, painter, and caricaturist, 1792-1878.

8 1. Landscape painter; one of the first to follow
the Prae-Raphaelite lead. He died towards 1890, and has
a pidture in the National British Gallery.

82. Rossetti was always intensely superstitious in
grain. According to his brother, any writing about
devils, spedtres, or the supernatural generally, whether in
poetry or prose, had a fascination for him ; at one time—
say 1844 — his supreme delight was the blood-curdling
romance of Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer.

83. According to the same authority, Rossetti, from
an early period of life, had a large circle of friends, and

NOTES 93

could always have commanded any amount of intercourse
with any number of ardent or kindly well-wishers. He
was constant and helpful as a friend, where he perceived
constancy to be reciprocated ; free-handed and heedless of
expenditure, whether for himself or others; extremely
natural, and therefore totally unaffected in tone and
manner. He was very generally and very greatly liked
by persons of extremely diverse character, and it might
almost be said that no one ever disliked him.

84. A distinguished painter and designer, still
living at an advanced age. He has done some excellent
portraits and fine woodcut designs. One of his principal
works is an oil pifture, Medea.

85. Journalist and miscellaneous writer, 1828-
1895.

86. LL.D. Poet and dramatist, 1819-1890.

87. Rossetti was keenly alive to the laughable as
well as the grave or solemn side of things, and had on
the whole a sufficiency of high spirits. These were
much affected in and after the Spring of 1872, in conse-
quence of the publication of Robert Buchanan's attack in
pamphlet form, and the exaggerated or morbid ideas
which Rossetti conceived on the subject.

88. 1871-4.

89. Still alive ; now Mrs. Guppy Volckman.

90. Of Barnard Castle.

9 1 . An extremely celebrated medium, now deceased.
A famous aftion was heard against him, which he lost.
Mr. W. M. Rossetti does not think his brother ever saw
him.

92. An Austrian, of early middle age at this time,
who spoke English well, and who, it will be seen, gave
some surprising demonstrations at Rossetti's house. He

94 NOTES

does not appear to have been professionally connected
with spiritualism. Mr. W. M. Rossetti saw him once at
Cheyne Walk.

93. Sir Coutts Lindsay, founder of the Grosvenor
Gallery.

94. Poet and critic, the author of Aylwin (b. 1836).
His " intellectual companionship and incessant assiduity
of friendship did more than anything else towards as-
suaging the discomforts and depression of his closing
years," writes Mr. W. M. Rossetti, in reference to Mr.
Watts-Dunton's association with his brother. They
became acquainted through Dr. Hake, the poet, and
Rossetti died in his friend's presence, April gth, 1882.
Mr. W. M. Rossetti considers that it must be through a
defecl: of memory Mr. Watts-Dunton is stated to have
been present at this mesmeric entertainment. That
affair, it seems to him, was probably not later than 1871,
and Mr. Watts-Dunton was not known to Rossetti until
late in 1872.

95. Sir Richard Burton, 1821-1890.

96. Of the " Road Murder." She was the daugh-
ter of a man reported to be a natural son of the Duke of
Kent, and therefore a half-niece of Queen Victoria. At
the age of fifteen or so she murdered, out of spite, a
brother (or half brother) of hers, aged perhaps three.
She was not known to be the murderess, but after some
four or five years she confessed it, having come under
religious influences. She pleaded guilty and was sen-
tenced to death, but the sentence was commuted. When
sentenced, she was, of course, regarded as sane; it is
doubtful if she was ever considered otherwise or detained
at Broadmoor.

97. loth June, 1840.

NOTES 95

98. He made a considerable reputation as a painter
towards 1845. At one time he was confined in Bedlam,
where Mr. W. M. Rossetti once saw him.

99. Mathematician and astrologer, 1527-1608.

100. It is implied here that the name of the poem
is Beryl. This is not the case. The title is Rose Mary.
The author of these Recollections refers to the Beryl-
Songs so entitled, which follow the three divisions of
the poem, concerning which Mr. W. M. Rossetti
writes : — " This poem was written in the early autumn
of 1871. The Beryl-Songs are a later addition, say
1879. The very general opinion has been that they
were better away, and I cannot but agree with it. I
have heard my brother say that he wrote them to show
that he was not incapable of the daring rhyming and
rhythmical exploits of some other poets. As to this
point, readers must judge. It is at any rate true, that in
making the word * Beryl ' the pivot of his experiment, a
word to which there are the fewest possible rhymes, my
brother weighted himself heavily/' — NOTES to Collected
Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

" Rose Mary is regarded by many as the author's
highest poetic accomplishment. It is, at least, a mag-
nificent ballad, using, with unrivalled effect a mystical
Eastern conception, and charged with the subtlest and
the most poetical significance." — Life of Dante Gabriel
Rossetti, by Joseph Knight.

101. She is represented in Hades, holding the
pomegranate, of which (according to mythological legend)
she ate a single seed, and was thereby interdicted from
returning to earth. Of this subje6t, there are two oil-
paintings, about equally successful.

102. Rossetti painted two rather large oil pictures
from his poem The Blessed Damozel — one for Mr. Graham,

96 NOTES

tirca 1875, the other for Mr. Leyland, circa 1878. In
the earlier and better of the two, groups of lovers re-united
in heaven are introduced in the background, but not in
the other.

103. Daughter of Priam, King of Troy, who
possessed the gift of prophecy. Apollo ordained that
she should be discredited. She was captured, on the fall
of Troy, by Agamemnon, and executed at Mycenae by
Clytemnestra. The picture shows Hector sallying forth
to his last fatal battle, and his sister prophesying his
death. Helen, who is arming Paris, is incensed at some
words which Cassandra has let fall concerning her. As
the princess, though she always presaged the truth, was
never credited, her brother Deiphobus is endeavouring to
silence her.

104. Mr. W. M. Rossetti points out that the date
of this incident could not be later than 1868 or so, and
that the Proserpine picture was not painted until 1872
or 1873, and cannot have been at Cheyne Walk till late
in 1874. After it was painted, he doubts if Swinburne
was ever once in the house, and says the same remark
applies still more strongly to The Blessed Damozel picture.
There might, however, he adds, have been some drawings
of both subjects in the studio, and it is to these, perhaps,
the author of these Recollections refers.

105. Painter, b. 1841, d. 1902.

106. See Note 28.

107. Edward Hughes, painter, and nephew of
Arthur Hughes, another good painter.

1 08. The Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, b. 1832,
d. 1898.

109. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American
poet, 1807.

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