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 WILLIAM ALLINGHAM
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited 
 
 LONDON ■ BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
 MELBOURNE 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO 
 ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 
 
 TORONTO 
 
 I
 
 (jL'-ilit'atn . 'illtiicflitini
 
 William Allinerham 
 
 A Diary 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 H. ALLINGHAM and D. RADFORD 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED 
 ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON 
 
 I 908
 
 c 
 
 ISAAC FOOT ' 
 LIBRARY 
 
 First Edition 1907 
 Reprinted 1908
 
 / 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 During the last ten years of his life at our quiet home 
 in Surrey my Husband began, in the intervals of his 
 literary work, to writeliTs Autobiography. 
 
 I find in one of his note-books this memorandum : 
 ' There are two tenable theories of Life, and conse- 
 quently of Autobiography : 
 
 One : accept a set of conventional rules and abide 
 by them. 
 
 Two — - admit your limitations, attend to what 
 interests you and try always to be sincere.' 
 
 Readers of this book will decide for themselves 
 which of these lines my Husband followed— both in 
 his life and in describing it. 
 
 Unfortunately, he wrote in detailed narrative only 
 of the period dealing with his childhood, and some later 
 portions — such as the accounts of his intercourse with 
 Carlyle and Tennyson : nothing was left ready for 
 publication. 
 
 I owe much to the late Mrs. Birkbeck Hill for her 
 competent selection and arrangement of a great part 
 of the matter for this book at the outset : and my 
 thanks are due to Mrs. Ernest Radford for her valuable 
 
 V
 
 vl PREFACE 
 
 help in the literary work of the editorship, and to 
 Miss Toulmin Smith for the Index. 
 
 The different portions of the Autobiography are 
 placed in chronological order, with the extracts from 
 the diaries and note-books — the final selection of these 
 from the large mass of material has been the subject of 
 my anxious consideration for many years. 
 
 The responsibility of the publication rests with me 
 alone. 
 
 HELEN ALLINGHAM.
 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. ] 
 
 [824-1846 1 
 
 II. 
 
 [846-1848 
 
 
 
 
 
 31 
 
 III. 
 
 [849-1850 
 
 
 
 
 
 45 
 
 IV. ] 
 
 [851-1853 
 
 
 
 
 
 60 
 
 ( 
 
 continued) 1850- 
 
 1863 
 
 
 
 
 66 
 
 V. ] 
 
 [863 
 
 
 
 
 
 82 
 
 VI. ] 
 
 [864 
 
 
 
 
 
 96 
 
 VII. 
 
 [865 
 
 
 
 
 
 III 
 
 VIII. ] 
 
 [866 
 
 
 
 
 
 130 
 
 IX. 
 
 [867 
 
 
 
 
 
 148 
 
 X. 
 
 [868 
 
 
 
 
 
 170 
 
 XI. 
 
 [869-1870 
 
 
 
 
 
 197 
 
 XII. 
 
 [871-1872 
 
 
 
 
 
 203 
 
 XIII. 
 
 1873-1874 
 
 
 
 
 
 219 
 
 XIV. ] 
 
 [875 
 
 
 
 
 
 235 
 
 XV. 
 
 [876 
 
 
 
 
 
 243 
 
 XVI. 
 
 [877 
 
 
 
 
 
 • 253 
 
 XVII. 
 
 1878-1879 
 
 
 
 
 
 262 
 
 Vll
 
 Vlll 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 XVIII. 1880 2^5 
 
 XIX. 1881-1883 308 
 
 XX. 1884 322 
 
 XXI. 1885-1886 . . . . . 342 
 
 XXII. 1887 351 
 
 xxiii. 1888-1889 371 
 
 List of Works 39° 
 
 Index ..•••••* 393
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 William Allingham, from an early photograph 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 TO FACE PAGE 
 
 Cover intended for Day and Night Songs, from a Design in 
 Colour by D. G. Rossetti ...... 
 
 William Allingham, from a Photograph taken in 1857 
 
 Carlyle, in his Drawing-Room at Cheyne Row, from a Water- 
 Colour Drawing by H. Allingham (1878-9) 
 
 William Allingham, from a Water-Colour Drawing by H 
 Allingham (about 1880) ..... 
 
 William Allingham, from a Water-Colour Drawing by H 
 Allingham (about 1884) . . 
 
 Facsimile Letter from William Allingham to Mr. Barnes 
 
 Tennyson in his Study at Farringford, from a Water-Colour 
 Drawing by H. Allingham (1890) . . . . 
 
 7+ 
 
 271 
 307 
 
 323 
 
 342 
 
 365 
 
 IX
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 1 824-1 846 
 
 The little old Town where I was born has a Voice of 
 its own, low, solemn, persistent, humming through the 
 air day and night, summer and winter. Whenever I 
 think of that Town I seem to hear the Voice. The 
 River which makes it, rolls over rocky ledges into the 
 tide ; before, spreads a great Ocean in sunshine or 
 storm ; behind, stretches a many-islanded Lake. On the 
 south runs a wavy line of blue Mountains ; and on the 
 north, over green or rocky hills, rise peaks of a more 
 distant range. The trees hide in glens, or cluster near 
 the river ; gray rocks and boulders lie scattered about 
 the windy pastures. The sky arches wide over all, 
 giving room to multitudes of stars by night, and long 
 processions of clouds blown from the sea ; but also, in 
 the childish memory where these pictures live, to deeps 
 of celestial blue in the endless days of summer. 
 
 An odd, out-of-the-way little Town, ours, on the 
 extreme western verge of Europe ; our next neighbours, 
 sunset way, being citizens of the great New Republic, 
 which indeed, to our imagination, seemed little if at all 
 further off than England in the opposite direction. 
 
 I was born in a little House, the most westerly of a 
 row of three, in a street running down to the Harbour. 
 Opposite was a garden wall, with rose-bushes hanging 
 over. If I can remember anything of this first house, 
 which perhaps I cannot, it is the top of the kitchen stairs 
 
 B
 
 2 BALLYSHANNON 1824-1846 
 
 at the end of the passage, and the dark unknown abyss 
 below. My first appearance in this odd sort of world 
 was in the blustery month of March, two days after the 
 festival of Ireland's patron saint. 
 
 From the House that I was born in we moved to one 
 somewhat larger, two doors eastward, when I was one 
 year and four months old, and lived there a little more 
 than two years. Of this second House I certainly retain 
 many impressions. A picture of the Sitting Room, with 
 its darkish carpet of geometric pattern, and its ruddy 
 fire, its window, door, table, chairs, and sofa, in certain 
 relative positions, is dimly revivable. The two or three 
 steps at the front door, and the longer flight leading 
 down into the kitchen, are indented, as it were, on my 
 memory. Steps and stairs are very remarkable objects 
 to most children, I should think, in their earlier stages 
 in the art of walking. A sense of toil and danger is 
 connected with them, — and of awe ; they are something 
 like what Alpine precipices are to grown-up people. 
 
 And when this state of mind is gradually overcome, 
 it blends with the triumphant feeling of power in 
 mounting and descending these difficult heights, and 
 penetrating at will new regions in the remotest recesses 
 of the House. 
 
 An early expedition of mine down the kitchen stairs 
 led me into a piece of ill-luck, the consequences of which, 
 trivial as it seemed at the time, have woven themselves 
 into the whole texture of my life, have sensibly lessened 
 its whole share of pleasure and added to it daily and 
 almost hourly vexations. I had crept down the back- 
 stairs to the kitchen, and was pattering across the stone 
 floor, unnoticed by a woman busily engaged in ' getting 
 up ' some of the household linen. She snatched a ' flat- 
 iron ' which had been standing in front of the fire, and, 
 turning quickly round to carry it to the smoothing 
 table, encountered Little Me unlucky ! — nor was she 
 able to check herself soon enough to keep the hot iron 
 from touching my left eye. General agitation followed,
 
 1824-1846 BALLYSHANNON 3 
 
 no doubt. I had to spend some days in a darkened 
 room, and compared myself (Aunt Bess told me after- 
 wards) to old Isaac, whose eyes were dim, so that he 
 could not see. 
 
 The effect of this accident on my sight was not dis- 
 covered for years afterwards ; its effects on my comfort 
 and character no one knows or even suspects but 
 myself. 
 
 While in this house, I received a small box of water- 
 colour paints (I have it still) from my god-mother, 
 Mrs. Jane Dixon. I was seated one day at the parlour 
 table in my little arm-chair, screwed on to the top of 
 its table to bring it to a proper height, and with paint- 
 box, brushes, and cup of water, was dabbing and daub- 
 ing away on various pieces of paper, to the envy of a 
 playfellow, who was at the same table, but had only 
 some bright coloured picture books for his share — a 
 tame amusement compared to painting one's own 
 pictures. My mother or nurse hinted that I might 
 share the use of the paint-box with my companion, but 
 the sense of property was too strong, and I refused. 
 When it appeared that the loan would be disagreeable 
 to me, no more was said : but then I began to turn the 
 matter over in my mind, and secretly bethought me — 
 ' We shall all have to die in a few years ; it is not worth 
 while saving up these paints so carefully ' — and I inti- 
 mated my willingness to lend them. There was no sort 
 of moral notion in it ; and as to how I first got the 
 impression of death, I have no clue. It was very likely 
 by means of ' the dead-bell,' which tolled for funerals, 
 and whose every slow stroke, in the Church tower on 
 the hill, used to sound through the sleepy little Town, 
 and in later years of youth, to smite upon my heart. 
 
 It may easily have been among the first things to 
 awaken a child's curious questionings. The notion of 
 Death at this earlier time was not associated, as far as I 
 can recall, with the slightest dread or awe, or feeling of 
 any kind except that (which is perhaps one of the last
 
 4 BALLYSHANNON 1824-1846 
 
 we should suspect in a child of three years old) of the 
 transitory character of all human possessions. 
 
 Later, at the age perhaps of six or seven, I was for a 
 time fully possessed with the conviction that I should never 
 die — that I, for one, must in some way or other escape 
 death. No reasoning led up to this idea, and no effort, 
 voluntary or involuntary, was made to define the mode 
 of exemption or the consequences. There was simply a 
 perception of a fact which had become apparent — as of 
 a mountain on the horizon on an exceptionally clear 
 day, new, dim, but undeniable, — the fact that / should 
 not die ; nor did I take much notice of it, — there it 
 was ; and when the mental atmosphere gradually 
 changed, it was invisible again. 
 
 In my fourth year (autumn of 1827) our family 
 changed house again ; father, mother, myself, and a 
 sister a year and a half younger. The move was only 
 across the street, but the new abode, known as The 
 Cottage, had a character of its own. It was an irregu- 
 larly built house of two stories, with the general 
 shape of the letter L, standing among gardens and 
 shrubberies. The front and the south gable were half- 
 covered with clematis, which embowered the parlour 
 windows in summer ; and some wall-trained evergreen 
 fringed the one window of the Nursery with dark 
 sharply-cut leaves, in company with a yellow blossoming 
 Pyrus japonica. Opposite the hall door, a good-sized 
 Walnut Tree growing out of a small grassy knoll 
 leaned its wrinkled stem towards the house, and 
 brushed some of the second-story panes with its 
 broad fragrant leaves. To sit at that little upper-floor 
 window (it belonged to a lobby) when it was open to 
 a summer twilight, and the great Tree rustled gently 
 and sent one leafy spray so far that it even touched my 
 face, was an enchantment beyond all telling. Killarney, 
 Switzerland, Venice could not, in later life, come near it. 
 
 On three sides the Cottage looked on flowers and 
 branches, which I count as one of the fortunate chances
 
 1S24-1846 BALLYSHANNON 5 
 
 of my childhood, — the sense of natural beauty thus 
 receiving its due share of nourishment, and of a kind 
 suitable to those early years. Grandeur of scenery is 
 lost on a young child ; I doubt if any landscape 
 impresses him, however impressionable. Little things, 
 close at hand, make his pleasures and troubles. I was 
 enchanted with our flower-beds and little shrubberies ; 
 and in a grass-field to which we were sometimes brought, 
 a quarter of a mile away, there was a particular charm 
 in two or three gray rocks encrusted with patches of 
 moss ; but of the distant view of the Atlantic Ocean I 
 took no notice at this time. 
 
 My Father was fond of flowers and we had a good 
 show of all the old-fashioned kinds in their seasons. I 
 loved the violet and lily of the valley, and above all 
 the rose — all roses, and we had many sorts, damask, 
 cabbage, ' Scotch,' moss, and white roses in multitude 
 on a great shady bush that overhung the little street at 
 our garden-foot. The profusion of these warm-scented 
 white roses gave a great feeling of summer wealth and 
 joy, but my constant favourite was the ' Monthly Rose,' 
 in colour and fragrance the acme of sweetness and 
 dehcacy combined, and keeping up, even in winter 
 time, its faithful affectionate companionship. 
 
 Before the front door grew my dear Walnut Tree 
 out of its little mound, beyond which the narrow drive 
 curved in something of a figure of S to the stable and 
 byre, its little shrubbery on either side shady enough 
 with lilacs and laburnums to yield forest haunts to the 
 childish fancy. Two or three fig-trees there were 
 also, whose fruit swelled but never ripened ; and their 
 crooked boughs were chiefly interesting as perches, 
 from which strange altitudes one could look down on 
 the household trafiic, horse and foot. Near the north 
 shrubbery's edge grew tufts of daffodil, and at one 
 place it was overhung by a tall gable thickly clad with 
 ancient ivy. This gable did not appertain to us ; its 
 one little window high up, nearly buried in dark leaves,
 
 6 BALLYSHANNON 18241846 
 
 belonged to an Inscrutable and most mysterious interior. 
 The Great Pyramid could not give me, in later life, so 
 profound a sense of antiquity and awfulness as this old 
 hay-barn gave to the little boy. 
 
 Our own more familiar outhouses were highly 
 interesting, each in its own way ; the stable for my 
 father's one or two horses, where perpetual twilight 
 reigned and characteristic odours, with its forks and 
 curry-combs, slope-lidded corn-bin, and trap-door to 
 the hay-loft above ; next the stable, the harness-room, 
 and over this an apple-loft, of most memorable fragrancy ; 
 a little higher up the yard, the byre with its two or 
 three deliberate -stepping, sweet -breathed cows, and 
 another loft ; and close by in a corner the little stable, 
 wood with thatched roof, of Sheltie, the brown-bear-like 
 pony with long mane and tail, which I rode, and whose 
 eccentricities gave birth to most exciting personal 
 adventures. He was fond of standing nearly bolt 
 upright on his hind legs, when I was fain to hug his 
 thick mane. He often had views of his own as to 
 the best road to take, and, suddenly refusing to move 
 forward, would turn round and round like a wheel, 
 then abruptly gallop off in the direction of his stable. 
 One eventful day when I was riding Sheltie about our 
 home limits one of the gates happened to be open, and 
 we passed out unobserved into the street where the 
 pony immediately quickened his pace and, taking the 
 law into his own hands, carried me out of the town and 
 along country roads into a wild unknown region. If 
 I had any alarm or misgiving the joy of novelty over- 
 came it, yet there was a sense of relief when my self- 
 willed steed stopped before the field gate of a farm of my 
 father's about two miles out, which I then recognised, 
 having visited it in his gig once or twice before. The 
 pony had been there at grass and recollected his good 
 times. The cottagers ran out with many exclamations 
 of wonder at sight of us, and one of them, holding 
 Sheltie's bridle, brought me home again, full of a
 
 1824-1846 BALLYSHANNON 7 
 
 delightful sense of adventure and the importance of 
 having been missed. 
 
 ^ My Father had this small farm on lease, and also a 
 large field near the town, called ' The Big Meadow,' in 
 which grazing was let to some neighbours' milch cows 
 along with our own ; but he was not a farmer, and 
 his agricultural produce went mainly to supply his 
 own family and my grandmother's, the surplus being 
 sold. 
 
 His business was that of a merchant — a wide 
 designation, and in his case applicable enough ; he 
 imported timber, slates, coal and iron, and owned at 
 various times five or six ships, trading chiefly to Canada 
 and the Baltic for timber. There were no exports, 
 save now and again of human beings to Quebec. The 
 emigration was small then to what it became in after 
 years, but enough to make ' going to Ameriky ' one of 
 the most familiar phrases in daily life. My father went 
 out every morning to his office, which was on the other 
 side of the street from our house, and seldom returned 
 till dinner time, half-past four. This and other house- 
 hold facts I became aware of by their recurrence, but 
 took little or no note of them. Every child rates 
 things for himself. Curiosity, mixed with imagination 
 and the love of beauty, was naturally strong in me ; but 
 even at this early age, unless I am mistaken, it sought 
 its food in the interests and characteristics belonging to 
 nature and life in general ; or rather say that, while 
 rapidly and vividly receptive of all kinds of novel 
 impressions, I strove unfailingly and quite unconsciously 
 to group them according to some principle, refer them 
 to some ideal — though it must be owned that, in the 
 first decade of one's earthly career, principles and ideals 
 are usually of an unsubstantial fantastic sort. 
 
 The persons moving around me were as person<e 
 merely, and in and for themselves individually interested 
 
 1 The Allinghams had migrated from England and settled at Bally- 
 shannon, Co. Donegal, in the time of Elizabeth.
 
 8 BALLYSHANNON 1824-1846 
 
 me little or nothing. I intend all through this record 
 to avoid ' philosophising,' and give recollections and 
 impressions as simply as may be. What it indicated (if 
 anything special) I know not to this hour, but in these 
 first years I do not remember to have felt any emotion 
 of affection either for my parents or for anybody else. 
 Caresses (if that is to be taken into account) I never 
 had any share of from my parents ; they were both 
 undemonstrative in that way by nature, and my mother's 
 constant invalidism and my father's hasty temper 
 kept us children at a distance from both. Yet, cold- 
 ness was never reckoned one of my faults, and later, say 
 from twelve years old, my attachments to persons were 
 warm and constant. 
 
 I dimly recollect my mother as thin, pale, delicate, 
 gentle in voice and movement, with soft dark hair and 
 an oval face slightly sun-freckled. She was kind, sweet, 
 and friendly, and a great favourite with all who knew 
 her ; but her ill-health and early death left us, alas ! 
 to learn these her merits by hearsay and to love her 
 shadowy memory when the mild presence had vanished 
 for ever. 
 
 She was married in 1823, and bore the following 
 children : — 
 
 William . 
 
 . born March 19, 1824. 
 
 Catherine 
 
 „ March 25, 1826. 
 
 John 
 
 „ December 12, 1827. 
 
 Jane 
 
 „ August 25, 1829. 
 
 Edward . 
 
 . „ August 22, 1 83 1 
 
 (who only lived a few months), 
 
 and a still-born son on May 27, 1833, at which time 
 she was already far gone in 'a decline,' due rather to 
 exhaustion than disease. 
 
 She died on Tuesday evening, July 2, 1833. She 
 was perhaps not made for longevity, but with more 
 wisdom in its atmosphere her dear and sweet life might 
 have been preserved for many years.
 
 1824-1846 BALLYSHANNON 9 
 
 I only recollect her as an invalid, and we children 
 were not allowed to be much with her. But now and 
 again she sung a little to the pianoforte, and two songs 
 of that time have still for me a charm not their own — 
 ' The Bonnie Breastknots,' and ' It wasn't for you that 
 I heard the bells ringing.' 
 
 From my nurses and others I picked up a large 
 number of tunes, for I had a decided ' ear for music,' 
 and Ireland is, or used to be, a country with its air full 
 of singing, whistling, and lilting. Fiddlers abounded, 
 pipers were not scarce ; the fame of harpers lingered, 
 but I never heard the Irish Harp till I went South. 
 
 My father (on the passage, in these years, between 
 thirty and forty) was a short, active, black-haired man, 
 with very light gray eyes, quick, impatient, curious as 
 to the externals of objects, and easily amused, but dis- 
 regardful of whatever did not immediately interest him. 
 He had a turn for arithmetic, and was exact in the 
 money part of all dealings ; punctual also as to set 
 hours, and letter-writing. 
 
 In continuation of unbroken family custom, he was 
 an unswerving adherent of the Established Church ; 
 but in politics he had left the Radicalism of his early 
 life for a kind of Toryism, which consisted mainly in 
 reading a newspaper on that side, and giving a vote 
 accordingly at the county election. 
 
 Honesty, prudence, industry, regularity, conformity, 
 — few men will break down with these ; and my father 
 had these, under fashions peculiar to himself. He had, 
 moreover, though thrifty, a kind of open-handedness, 
 or dislike and impatience of stint ; and, above all and 
 best of all, an inherent aversion from every sort of 
 double-dealing and deception, and a total incapacity to 
 practise them. This sincerity, which was often naive 
 and sometimes impolite — he had in common with his 
 brothers and sisters ; his mother was of the same 
 nature, and it has descended to her grandchildren. I 
 feel it is no merit in myself, but an inheritance, a some-
 
 lo BALLYSHANNON 1824-1846 
 
 thing like the shape of my limbs, that I have always 
 an uneasy longing to undeceive people in every case, 
 trivial or important, whether connected with myself 
 or others, where the slightest misconception seems to 
 exist. This tendency (strangely associated with extreme 
 shyness in admitting any personal intimacy) often runs 
 into absurdity, and I am sure I have often left people 
 puzzled by explaining to them more than enough, and 
 setting them perhaps a'search for supposed motives. 
 The tendency is native, and will work. This turn of 
 mind also urges me to point out without delay all the 
 faults I see in any person or thing, even when my 
 admiration is very great, and although I am aware of 
 the certainty of breeding misconceptions thereby. 
 
 Both mind and body were exceedingly active, and I 
 was irresistibly drawn to pry into and examine all kinds 
 of objects and places, climb up ladders, walls, gates, trees, 
 sometimes no doubt committing breakage or causing 
 alarm. But there was not the least tinge of malice in 
 my nature, or capability of being pleased by the 
 destruction of anything or the annoyance of anybody, 
 and a wise and sympathetic senior could without special 
 effort have done wonders for my education and happi- 
 ness. I used often to wonder how it could have 
 happened that I was so much wickeder than everybody 
 else. I should have suffered much more hurt and 
 harm by it but for certain compensations. My great 
 curiosity and interest in outward things, and delight in 
 their beauty and novelty, along with much activity of 
 imagination, or rather fantasy, tended to save me ; and 
 at my Grandmother's house — but a little way off, and 
 to which I went as often as I could — I found something 
 of that atmosphere of affection and confidence which is 
 so suitable to the free growth of any tender young 
 soul. 
 
 My Grandmother (my father's mother, Jane Hamil- 
 ton her maiden name) managed to live by a very few 
 simple rules (without even knowing these, as rules). 
 
 I
 
 1824-1846 BALLYSHANNON 1 1 
 
 and managed to do it as well or better than most people. 
 She cared about her own household, first and last ; 
 maintained regular hours and a good larder ; was kind 
 to her servants, but kept them in their place ; petted 
 her grandchildren, and took a great deal of snufF, She 
 had a family Bible, with the births of her numerous sons 
 and daughters — eighteen in all, I think, but many of 
 these died in childhood — recorded in old-fashioned 
 writing on the fly-leaves, and a thick old cookery-book 
 bound in black leather ; and these I believe were all 
 her books. But she used to sit in the winter evenings, 
 with her cat on her knee, knitting stockings and 
 listening with apparent pleasure to Aunt Maryanne 
 reading the Waverley Novels, and would sometimes 
 make a remark on an extraordinary incident or character 
 — generally on some piece of villainy, and to this effect, 
 ' They ought to have hanged him ! ' From this it may 
 be guessed that the modern scruples about capital 
 punishment had never intruded on her mind ; and 
 indeed, as far as I can recollect, she was in doubt about 
 nothing : if it was an old thing it had its label attached, 
 if a novelty she kept it at arm's length. Even the 
 rotation of our planet upon its axis (though not exactly 
 a new opinion) she never believed in. The bare notion 
 of such a turning and twirling would have been enough 
 to make her head light. 
 
 I now know that my Grandmother's was a small 
 house, but if I were to describe it from the impressions 
 of those years it would be spacious and many-roomed, 
 with a long, dim, lofty Entrance Hall, wide enough to 
 be the scene of many fancied adventures. The stairs 
 at its end mounted to a landing with flower-stands and 
 a window, and thence to a Drawing-room with what I 
 thought a large window to the street, a little room off 
 this, and two bedrooms looking to the back. Another 
 flight climbed to an upper lobby and the garrets. At 
 the end of the hall, between the foot of the staircase and 
 the kitchen door, was a door, generally locked, whence
 
 12 BALLYSHANNON 1824-1846 
 
 a few descending stairs led to a curious back-room 
 with hen-coops, a smell of live animals, an ancient wooden 
 partition, and a window dim with old crusted dirt ; 
 and from this a dark flight of stone steps descended to 
 a truly mysterious and almost awful region, a dim back- 
 kitchen paved with rude flags, with a well of living 
 water of unknown depth in a recess of the wall. 
 
 Into the Hall (where an old fashioned lamp of 
 elongated shape, which I never saw lighted, hung from 
 the ceiling) opened the door of the Parlour, next the 
 street, and my Grandmother's bedroom to the back of 
 the house, both on the left hand as you came in ; and 
 on the right, close to the head of the back-stairs, the 
 Kitchen door. Another door on the right, belonging 
 to a Store-room usually entered from the Kitchen, I 
 never saw opened but twice or thrice, each opening an 
 event and a revelation ; a press stood against it on the 
 inner side, and a green hall-chair on the outer. Near 
 the hall-door lay an oval mat, and at the stair-foot 
 another, made of ' bent,' a coarse grass that grows on 
 the sandhills by the sea ; these mats being finger-woven 
 and carried round for sale by barefooted women and 
 girls, one or more of whom called nearly every day to 
 ask, ' D'ye want any mats ? ' 
 
 The Kitchen was floored with square red tiles. Its 
 one tall window, with thick window sashes, beside 
 which was the washing-tub on its stand, looked out on 
 a little back-yard. Opposite the door stood a long 
 ' dresser ' with its rows of plates 'and dishes, tin 
 porringers and strainers ; and under this, in the corner 
 next the window, was the place of a large tub of fresh 
 water which, with its clear olive depth and round 
 wooden dipper swimming like a boat on its tremulous 
 surface, used to give me great delight, judging (as I do 
 in this and similar cases) by my distinct impressions of 
 the forms and colours. 
 
 From my own experience I judge that a child's 
 little camera obscura, however sensitive to the picturesque,
 
 1824-1846 BALLYSHANNON 13 
 
 cannot include it on a large scale. There were moun- 
 tains in daily sight, where I lived, and a large cataract 
 in the river close by ; I must also have seen the ocean 
 sometimes, which was but three miles distant, yet it 
 was none of these that impressed me with a sense of 
 beauty and mystery, but the water-tub and the well, 
 flowers and leaves, and, very particularly, a heap of 
 gray rocks, touched with moss and in one part laced 
 with briars, in a certain green field to which the nurse 
 used often to bring us. 
 
 No doubt I was a troublesome youngster, super- 
 abundantly active, and there were two things which 
 probably helped to make me unacceptable. I was a 
 peculiar-looking, and, no doubt in the opinion of many, 
 an ugly little chap, with an odd cast in his gray eyes ; 
 secondly, I was never done asking questions, and hardly 
 ever satisfied with the answers I received. I could 
 read fluently at a very early age, and I remember 
 nothing of being taught. But I do remember, before I 
 could read, learning a sentence in the Bible Story Book by 
 heart, and then making a pretence of reading it — out 
 of vain-glory. The little woodcuts in that book — a 
 duodecimo in two volumes — impressed me more than 
 any pictures I have seen since. A wide lonely land- 
 scape of hills and water, with the sun looking down 
 upon them, heading the chapter called ' The Last Day,' 
 remains, in its effect on my mind, the grandest of all 
 works of art. It was a woodcut about an inch long, 
 and no doubt entirely commonplace in itself. I wonder 
 whether something intrinsically great would have 
 impressed me more. Probably not. 
 
 With my sisters I was always on good terms, but I 
 cannot remember that they ever seemed to count much 
 then in my life. Places had more reality than persons. 
 My mind was busy with imaginations which gave 
 mysterious importance to every nook of house and 
 garden ; and when I began to catch glimpses of things 
 in a wider range, and to overhear hints of a more
 
 14 BALLYSHANNON 1824-1846 
 
 wonderful world outside of this, magic pictures formed 
 themselves within me of such heavenly beauty as no 
 experience has matched. These had a consistency of 
 their own, and recurred till they left impressions that 
 resembled real memories, and have, 1 doubt not, made 
 and do still make a large part of the scenery of my 
 Dreams. Beautiful Dreams (I mean in sleep) have 
 been no trivial part of the pleasures of my life. Certain 
 Dreams show up again and again, like the opening of a 
 familiar page. Sometimes there is an interval of years 
 between two appearances of the same Dream. There 
 are several Dreams, each distinct, of Lakes, of Rivers, 
 of Mountains, of Woodlands, of Cities, of Great Build- 
 ings, of Strange Countries ; a Dream of a Cave, and a 
 Dream of a Gothic Ruin, a Dream of Flying, a Dream 
 of Death, and many more. Dreamland has its own 
 geography, of places wherein all strange adventures and 
 experiences are possible. 
 
 My brother John and I had not much in common ; 
 but one Sunday evening, I remember (this must have 
 been in our second lustrum, perhaps well on in it), we 
 were on the stairs of the Church gallery — a big boy 
 quarrelled with me and suddenly made as though he 
 would throw me over the railing. I was rescued 
 quickly, but during the momentary struggle I saw 
 John's face, who was some steps higher up, looking 
 down with an expression of alarm and horror which 1 
 never afterwards forgot, and which gave me a new 
 feeling towards him from that day. He never knew 
 this ; of such slight incidents and lasting effects life 
 is full. 
 
 The said Church (of the United English and Irish 
 Establishment) was an important object in my childish 
 life. To me it was a spacious and awe-inspiring Edifice, 
 with windows of peculiar shape, and a square Tower 
 which was the measure of height, — ' as high as the 
 church steeple.' The broad path curved up to it from 
 a tall old iron gate, through grassy hillocks and ancient
 
 1824-1846 BALLYSHANNON 15 
 
 tombstones, some of them quaintly carved. The 
 Church stood on the highest ground, and commanded a 
 wide prospect, from its tower-top a panoramic one. 
 Eastward you saw the river rushing down its rocky dell, 
 and behind this some of the hill tops that guard the 
 unseen great Lake out of which it flows. To the south, 
 at a distance of some ten miles, a long range of blue 
 Mountains takes wonderful colours from the changing 
 skies, and in their foldings run up shadowy valleys into 
 a mystical inner region. Between this range and the 
 little gray Town with its long stone bridge, at your feet, 
 spreads the Moy [math = ph'in) — scene of many an 
 ancient fight and foray, an expanse, sloping to the 
 north, of rugged pasture, broken here and there with a 
 rocky copse or farm-shading grove, and many low green 
 rath-crowned hills. So one's gaze travelling round to 
 the west, and over the sand-hills and foamy harbour- 
 bar, gladly rests on the great line of the Atlantic Ocean, 
 the nearest land out yonder being two thousand miles 
 away. For north horn of the Bay rises the great 
 rocky precipice called Slieve League, and round to 
 the north and along the northen horizon peer up other 
 blue mountain-peaks above a middle distance of gorsy 
 slopes and wind-swept sheep-runs, sprinkled with gray 
 rocks and boulders, and hinting to a familiar eye the 
 green circle of a Rath on many a low hill. Mullina- 
 shee (Fairy Hill) this eminence is called on which 
 the Church stands ; and not only from it but many 
 another height extensive prospects are visible, with 
 a wide sky overhead, and a pomp and change of cloud- 
 pictures such as I have never seen elsewhere. 
 
 Even the streets of the Town afford many a glimpse 
 of green fields, blue mountains, or flowing waters. 
 
 The Town and its horizon-circle belonged to each 
 other (in my imagination at least) and gave me a sense 
 of large space and infinite variety, very diff'erent no 
 doubt from the image of Ballyshannon in the mind 
 of some passing traveller who sees the poor dull little
 
 1 6 BALLYSHANNON 1824-1846 
 
 place, perhaps on one of those by no means unfrequent 
 wet days, and wonders how any human being can 
 wilHngly live there. But neither was I alone in my 
 feeling. The people of Ballyshannon had, and I hope 
 have, their full share of that warm attachment to 
 famihar localities which is notable in the Irish. 
 
 ' When a stranger Stan's on the Bridge and luks up 
 an' down, mustn't he be delighted ! ' said a native to me ; 
 and I never heard of any one going to live elsewhere 
 who failed to ' think long for the ould place,' and, for 
 a time at least, cherish the hope of returning. 
 
 Travelling at the time I am speaking of was a rare 
 adventure to poor and even to middle-class people. 
 The journey to Dublin was long and costly, and 
 England a strange country which few even dreamt of 
 seeing, except two or three shopkeepers who went once 
 a year to Manchester and Leeds to buy goods, and the 
 * harvest-men,' who brought back home their wages, 
 against the winter, and who like their neighbours 
 invariably thought and spoke of ' the Enghsh 'as of a 
 foreign people, though never, that I heard, uncivilly, un- 
 less when some disputation arose. ' Ameriky,' far off as 
 it was, was a more familiar name and idea ; nearly all 
 the letters received and dispatched by the poorer people 
 were from or to that land of promise. The passage- 
 money was but a few pounds, very often sent over by 
 those already in the West, and the emigrants could in 
 many cases embark in their own familiar harbour. I 
 never heard any one express the least fear of the dangers 
 and hardships of the long voyage in an often tightly- 
 packed and ill-found sailing-ship ; but great was the 
 grief at leaving home and ' the ould counthry,' and 
 vehemently, though not affectedly, demonstrative were 
 the frequent parting scenes. 
 
 It has always been supposed that some countries 
 have, so to speak, a peculiar magnetic attraction for the 
 souls of their children, and I found plenty of reason. In 
 the conduct of my neighbours as well as my own con- 
 
 i.
 
 1824-1846 BALLYSHANNON 17 
 
 sciousness, to count Ireland as one of these well-beloved 
 mother-lands. This home-love is strongest in the 
 dwellers in her wild and barren places, rock-strewn 
 mountain glens and windy sea-shores, notwithstanding 
 the chronic poverty in which so many of them live. In 
 these remote and wild parts Erin is the most character- 
 istically herself, and the most unlike to Saxon England. 
 Her strange antiquities, visible in gray mouldering 
 fragments ; her ancient language, still spoken by some, 
 and everywhere present in place-names, as well as phrases 
 and turns of speech ; her native genius for music ; her 
 character — reckless, variable, pertinacious, enthusiastic ; 
 her manners — reconciling delicate respect with easy 
 familiarity ; her mental movements — quick, humorous, 
 imaginative, impassioned ; her habits of thought as to 
 property, social intercourse, happiness ; her religious 
 awe and reverence ; all these, surviving to the present 
 day, under whatever difficulties, have come down from 
 times long before any England existed, and cling to 
 their refuge on the extreme verge of the Old World, 
 among lonely green hills, purple mountains, and rocky 
 bays, bemurmured day and night by the Western Ocean. 
 
 I never came back to the Ballyshannon country after 
 an absence, without thinking that it looked to be the 
 oldest place I ever saw. 
 
 This impression was aided by the character of its 
 superabundant surface rocks — gray gneiss, gray mica- 
 schist masked with yellow lichens, dark gray limestone, 
 weather-stained, or knobbly with mysterious fossils ; 
 and the fields too are commonly intersected with rude 
 fences of loose gray stones picked from the soil. But 
 hints and tastes of a richer scenery were not wanting, 
 and all the more prized for their rareness. Productive 
 gardens and orchards there were about the Town, plenty 
 of flowers and fruit, few trees of any size (mostly 
 sycamores and ashes), but here and there a little grove 
 shaded the lawn and avenue of a modest country house, 
 and a mile or two up the rapid River thick copses 
 
 c
 
 1 8 BALLYSHANNON 1824-1846 
 
 mingled with large trees embowered the water-side. 
 A small well-wooded park in that region, called Camlin, 
 seemed to me the very type of rich sylvan beauty, and 
 my imagination no doubt soon caught rumours and 
 formed pictures better than could ever be realised of 
 the great Lake beyond, with its forested promontories 
 and ' an island for every day in the year,' In the 
 opposite quarter, that is on the west, our landscape 
 reached the extreme of bareness, rough rocky pastures, 
 miles of rabbit-warren and sea-strand, sward of Atlantic 
 headlands shaven by the salt gale as by a scythe, with 
 here and there a hawthorn bush or still rarer hedge, 
 stretching wildly away to the eastward as though fain 
 to flee altogether, almost the only arboreal things to be 
 found far or near. The wild shore and boundless tossing 
 sea, ebb and flow of the tide, ships, fishermen, wrecks, 
 new lands beyond the sunset, these helped no little to 
 feed and stimulate the childish imagination. 
 
 But of all the external things among which I found 
 myself, nothing impressed me so peculiarly as the Sound, 
 the Voice, which ceased not day or night ; the hum of 
 the Waterfall, rolling continually over its rock ledge 
 into the deep salt pool beneath. In some moods it 
 sounded like ever-flowing Time itself made audible. 
 
 The pool below the cataract was one of the chief 
 scenes of the salmon-flshing, so important to the town, 
 and summer idlers had an untiring pleasure in lounging 
 on the high green bank to watch the boats swiftly casting 
 out and slowly hauling in their nets. Angling on the 
 upper waters brought us every year, from April or May 
 till August, a succession of visitors, often English, and 
 we were further and more permanently enlivened by 
 the presence of troops, Ballyshannon being an important 
 military post, the gate between Connaught and Ulster. 
 At the beginning of the century it had Infantry, Cavalry, 
 and Artillery Barracks, fully occupied, I think, up to 
 181 5. The Cavalry Barrack had been allowed to fall 
 into ruin, and its black grass-grown walls had a strange
 
 1824-1846 BALLYSHANNON 19 
 
 and fascinating horror for the boyish mind ; but the 
 Infantry Barrack was always more or less occupied, and 
 the marching of the red-coats (especially to and from 
 church), the playing of the bands, and the various bugle- 
 calls at their regular times of the day, made a great 
 impression. The Officers too were an interesting and 
 frequently varying element in society. Officers arriv- 
 ing were sometimes billeted on private houses, and I 
 remember the presence of mysterious military guests in 
 our house more than once, on these terms. These, no 
 doubt, were occasions of emergency, when it was suddenly 
 found expedient to strengthen the garrison on rumour 
 of an intended ' rising,' or in consequence of some 
 unusual display of lawlessness. I came early to the 
 consciousness that I was living in a discontented and 
 disloyal country ; it seemed the natural state of things 
 that the humbler class — which was almost synonymous 
 with Roman Catholic, should hate those above them in 
 the world, and lie in wait for a chance of despoiling 
 them. Yet I never for a moment believed this of any 
 of the individuals of this class amongst whom I lived. 
 I used to fancy and sometimes dream frightfully of a 
 swarm of fierce men seizing the town, bursting into the 
 houses, etc. ; of soldiers drawn out in rank with levelled 
 guns, of firing, bloodshed, and all horror. 
 
 Once there was something like an approach to 
 realisation. It must have been at a time when our 
 garrison was temporarily withdrawn or reduced to a 
 detachment, that a rude army of ' Whiteboys ' actually 
 marched through the town, armed with scythes, pikes, 
 and I know not what. I was turned six years old then. 
 I remember being at the corner of our lane, holding 
 somebody's hand or lifted in somebody's arms, and 
 have a most dim yet authentic memory-picture of a 
 dark wild procession of men, crowded closely together, 
 holding and brandishing things over their heads. It 
 streamed past us up the long hill of the Main Street, 
 and I daresay I was taken home before it had passed
 
 20 BALLYSHANNON 1824-1846 
 
 by, for in the dim picture it is always seen passing on 
 and up interminably, a dark throng with pikes and 
 scythes held aloft. I looked with curiosity unmixed 
 with dread ; but it was probably after this that the 
 dread showed itself in dramatic forms in my dreams. 
 I have been told that my Aunt Bess on this day was 
 walking through the Purt (a long straggling street on 
 the south side of the river) when she met the mad 
 looking multitude with their pikes, etc. Some one said, 
 ' That is Miss Allingham going to visit the poor,' and 
 they opened a way for her to pass through. 
 
 No outrage at all, I believe, was done by the 
 'Whiteboys,' or whatever they were ; and in fact I 
 have never, since I was born, known or heard of any 
 political or secret society offence in our Town or its 
 district. Ballyshannon was a sort of island of peace in 
 my day, as it had been for generations, and I hope is 
 carrying on the good tradition. We were far from 
 centres of excitement and agitation ; Dublin remote, 
 the nearest considerable towns some twenty-five and 
 thirty miles distant, and the scene of our county elections 
 to Parliament (very seldom contested) still further 
 away. We were a Borough (with two members) in 
 old College Green days, but had luckily lost that 
 privilege, which is a real curse to a small town. News- 
 papers were unknown to the humbler, and rare with 
 the middle classes. All the country gentry and nearly 
 all the well-to-do people were Protestants, having 
 the ascendency naturally belonging to money and 
 education, and their connection with a State-privileged 
 Church was, I imagine, less noticeable ; that is, there 
 was little if any political feeling on this head, though 
 plenty of theological aversion and contempt on both 
 sides ; and in any sort of public dispute or collision, 
 Catholics and Protestants (Orangemen, mostly of the 
 small farmer class, were those who were apt to show 
 up on such occasions) ranged themselves as by instinct, 
 or chemical affinity, on opposite sides.
 
 1824-1846 BALLYSHANNON 21 
 
 Along with other helps to a comparatively tranquil 
 existence, Ballyshannon had a most peace-loving and 
 peace-making Parish Priest in Father John Cummins, 
 whose big figure wrapt in voluminous coats, big stick, 
 good-humoured big face crowned with reddish bob- 
 wig and wide-brimmed hat, was one of the permanent 
 institutions of our social existence throughout my 
 boyhood and youth-hood, whatever curates might come 
 and go. My father had no difficulty in exchanging 
 many a neighbourly greeting and chat with Father 
 Cummins, whose burly person standing on such occasions 
 with legs apart, whose good-humoured brogue and 
 hearty laugh that shook him all over, — 'Upon me 
 conshince, Misther Alligham ! ' — I well remember. He 
 told one day with a big laugh how grateful another 
 Protestant neighbour was on getting back some stolen 
 goods by virtue of the Confessional, saying earnestly — 
 ' I protest, Mr. Cummins, this restitution of property 
 is a gr-rand fayture in your religion ! ' and my Father 
 too was sometimes advantaged by the same means. 
 Father Cummins was nothing of a theologian, but he 
 was duly proud of his great ancient Church, and used 
 sometimes to ask an opponent with dignity the well- 
 known question — ' Where was your Church before 
 Luther.? Tell me that, sir!' He lived in a neat 
 thatched cottage at the top of the town, with an elderly 
 housekeeper, and a boy who drove him to distant parts 
 of the parish in an old-fashioned jaunting-car, the 
 pony, fat and sleek as a mole, being seldom allowed 
 to go at faster pace than a quick walk. The good 
 priest's great dread was of taking cold. He believed 
 in fast-shut doors and windows, huge fires, heaps of 
 bedclothes, and nobody but his housekeeper ever knew 
 how manv coats, waistcoats, and other integuments 
 he was accustomed to wear. In diet I believe he was 
 moderate, and he lived to old age without ever making 
 an enemy. His successor, a tallish, dark, lean, shy 
 man, was no less peaceable in life and teaching.
 
 22 BALLYSHANNON 1824-1846 
 
 ' The Rector,' as he was always called, but properly 
 the Vicar of Kilbarron, at the time when I appeared 
 upon the scene in a very small part, was the Reverend 
 Robert Packenham, brother to the wealthy lay rector, 
 who took the name of Conolly for his aunt's property 
 and was the chief landowner in our parts and long 
 M.P. for the county. 
 
 I was probably about four years old when they 
 began to take me to church on Sundays. The edifice 
 appeared to me spacious, lofty, and venerable. It was 
 cruciform, with round-topped windows, the ground floor 
 filled with high pews. There were three galleries, — 
 ' the Singing Gallery ' over the west door ; ' the Soldiers' 
 Gallery ' in the north transept ; ' the Country Gallery ' 
 in the south transept, used mostly by small farmers and 
 their families. The townsfolk and the country gentry 
 had pews in the body of the church ; some very poor 
 people sat on benches in the aisle, and, at the other end of 
 the scale, two families had notably large and comfortable 
 pews, the Conollys in the right-hand corner as you came 
 in by the west door, the Tredennicks ^ of Camlin in the 
 left. The Tredennick pew was a place of mystic and 
 luxurious seclusion to my fancy, a sort of imperium in 
 imperio. Its woodwork completely partitioned it off from 
 the aisle, but chance peeps showed a snugly cushioned and 
 carpeted interior, and even a special little fireplace with 
 its special little bright fire on winter Sundays. In later 
 days I knew a high lady who deemed it proper to go 
 regularly to church once a week, but evaded part of 
 the tedium by taking with her a novel or other amusing 
 book, decently veiled in a dark cover. With such a 
 pew as this she could have made herself very comfort- 
 able ; but if anything of the kind occurred there (which 
 probably never did) I had no suspicions of it. 
 
 Essentially, neither service nor sermon had the very 
 slightest interest or meaning for me, but the sense of a 
 solemn stringency of rule and order was deeply im- 
 
 1 The Tredennicks, originally of a Cornish family.
 
 1824-1846 BALLYSHANNON 23 
 
 pressed, and the smallest infraction, it was felt, might 
 have unimaginable consequences. A child's prayer- 
 book falling from the gallery astounded like an earth- 
 quake ; and once, I remember, when the congregation 
 suddenly started up in the midst of the service, pew 
 doors were thrown open, and people ran out into the 
 aisles (a lady had fainted) — it was really as if the Day 
 of Judgment had come. Connected with Church and 
 churchyard was a thought, vague, vast, unutterably 
 awful, of that Last Day, with Eternity behind it : yet 
 it was definitely localised too, and it seemed that not 
 only the Rising but the Judging of our particular dead 
 must be in our own Churchyard. 
 
 A terrible thought of Eternity sometimes came, 
 weighing upon me like a nightmare, — on and on and 
 on, always beginning and never ending, never ending 
 at all, for ever and ever and ever, — till the mind, 
 fatigued, fell into a doze as it were and forgot. I 
 suppose this was connected, though not definitely, with 
 the idea of a state of punishment. The suggestion of 
 eternal happiness took no hold upon my imagination ; 
 my earliest thought of Heaven pictured it as a Sunday 
 street in summer, with door-steps swept and the shutters 
 of the shops closed. Later, there was a vague flavour 
 of Church and psalmody. 
 
 Our Pew, painted like the rest a yellowish colour 
 supposed to imitate oak, was half-way up the Church, 
 on the right-hand side of the central aisle, and had the 
 distinction of a tall flat Monument of wood (or it 
 seemed tall), painted black in George the Second taste, 
 rising on the wall behind it. Atop was a black urn 
 with faded gold festoons ; at each side a pilaster with 
 faded gold flutings ; and there was a long inscription 
 in faded gold letters. 
 
 It seems to me very curious that, after sitting so 
 many an hour, so many a year, in that Pew, and 
 recollecting numberless little things around me there, 
 I cannot find in my memory one word of that
 
 24 BALLYSHANNON 1824-1846 
 
 inscription, except 'Sacred' in a line by itself at the 
 top, in Old English letters — not even the chief name, 
 which was a lady's, (a remote and very slightly 
 interesting relation or connection of ours, she must 
 have been) nor the import of those Roman symbols 
 which so ingeniously disguise a date to modern eyes. 
 The wording no doubt was highly conventional, as 
 nearly as possible meaningless, and felt by the child to 
 be a sort of dull puzzle which after some attempts it 
 was better to avoid. Had it been verse^ of even 
 moderate quality, it would have fixed itself in my 
 memory ; with point, it would have stuck there for 
 ever. 
 
 My usual place in the pew (habitude, or customari- 
 ness, or whatever it may be called, being naturally 
 strong in me) was the left-hand corner next the door, 
 as you went in. Standing on the seat, I could look up 
 and down the aisle, and sometimes rest my arms and 
 head on a little triangular shelf that fitted into the 
 corner. When I had, against the grain, to sit down, 
 I kept looking at the faces of the people near to me 
 in the Pew, and the countenance of a certain half-pay 
 Army Lieutenant, ruddy, swarthy, with a longish nose 
 somewhat bulbous at the end, holds a very dispropor- 
 tionate place in my memory, because he generally sat 
 in full view. The tedium of the service was also 
 mitigated by the interest which I acquired in watching 
 for the regular recurrence of its various stages, with 
 the attitudes — of sitting, standing, or kneeling — 
 appropriate to each. Certain phrases were greeted as 
 milestones upon the journey ; and at the end of the 
 sermon (usually the most trying part of all, and of 
 indefinite length) the words, ' Now to God the Father,' 
 etc., caused an unfailing gush of inner satisfaction. 
 There was something curious and amusing in the 
 Litany with its responses, but it was mostly meaningless 
 to me, as indeed was the Service as a whole (both at 
 this time and later in life). The mystic phraseology
 
 1824-1846 BALLYSHANNON 25 
 
 had of course its effect, as any other such would have 
 had, and the regular recurrence and solemn repetition 
 of the performance. The gathering together, too, of 
 neighbours, rich and poor, old and young, as in the 
 presence of the Universal Father and Ruler, has an 
 impressiveness different from anything else in daily life. 
 If it could indeed be done simply and purely ' in spirit 
 and in truth ' ! But here, in our small community, a 
 section only of the neighbours drew together at the 
 set solemn seasons ; another section, though animated 
 by the same motives, drew together in different place 
 and manner, drew apart from the former gathering, 
 many of whom came from the same households ; and 
 in the very act of worship both sections displayed and 
 emphasised feelings of mutual suspicion, contempt and 
 animosity. 
 
 Once or twice I was taken clandestinely to mass by 
 a nurse, on some Saint's Day most likely, and stood or 
 sat for a while just inside the Chapel door. It felt 
 like a strange adventure, with some flavour of horror, 
 but more of repulsiveness, from the poverty of the 
 congregation and the intonation of the priests. I 
 remember arguing with my nurse Kitty Murray, (who 
 only died this year, 1883, at the supposed age of 
 ninety-three — but I don't think it was she who took 
 me to the chapel), for the superiority of Protestantism 
 because * the Catholics, you see, are poor people ' ; to 
 which Kitty replied, ' It may be different in the next 
 world.' A good answer, I felt, and attempted no 
 retort ; being indeed at no time of my life addicted to 
 argue for argument's sake, or for triumph. 
 
 Although very brisk in body and mind, my health 
 from the first was considered delicate. I was thin and 
 pale, and for several years — between my fifth and 
 eighth, perhaps — there was a swallowing of nauseous 
 doses to be gone through several times a day. But 
 this was nothing to the Surgeon's frequent visits with 
 his horrible lancet, in consequence of a swelling on
 
 26 BALLYSHANNON 1824-1846 
 
 the middle finger of the right hand (which remains 
 contracted), and even in memory the bitter pain of the 
 repeated cuttings makes me wince. My Aunt Bess 
 used to ' dress it,' a disagreeable operation for both of 
 us. She was the Maiden Aunt of the family, at this 
 time between forty and fifty, very charitable and 
 helpful from an unwavering sense of duty, and inflexibly 
 ' low-church ' in her religious opinions and practices. 
 She did her duty by me, as by everybody, with 
 firmness, regularity, and a general good sense; what was 
 missing in her ministrations was that soothing personal 
 atmosphere of love and sympathy which does everybody 
 good without eifort, and especially children. This 
 blessing I should doubtless have enjoyed from my dear 
 Mother, had her short married life been more fortunate. 
 At my grandmother's, besides my Aunt Bess, lived two 
 younger Aunts, Maryanne and Everina. Aunt Everina 
 glides through my memory little more than a mild 
 pale shadow, straight and slender, and low-voiced. She 
 had by nature a pictorial gift, and painted in water- 
 colour, — flowers, landscapes, portraits of friends and 
 neighbours — as well as one might be expected to do 
 who had no training and never saw any examples of 
 good work. Aunt Everina's health was delicate, and 
 she was perhaps about twenty-eight years old when 
 she died. 
 
 Aunt Maryanne, the youngest, or voungest but one, 
 of my Grandmother's large family was, both in person 
 and temper, short and brisk with nez retrousse and 
 lively gray eyes. She was quick and excitable, spoke 
 fast, and a troublesome child would pretty soon feel 
 her hands as well as her tongue. She was a Poetess, 
 and wrote much on local and family subjects, but her 
 simple ambition never even dreamed of actual print, 
 and contented itself with sheets of note-paper, and little 
 stitched books, neatly written out in something like 
 printing letters, and given away to her friends. I have 
 in my desk a ballad of hers on my father's approach-
 
 1824-1846 BALLYSHANNON 27 
 
 ing wedding — ' Will's to be married to Maggie,' etc. — 
 O Time ! 
 
 Aunt Maryanne was a voracious novel-reader. The 
 winter evenings come clearly before me ; my Grand- 
 mother in her arm-chair by the fire, with close cap, 
 knitting incessantly, her snuff-box on a little table, an 
 old cat called ' Norway ' snoozing on the hearthrug 
 and sometimes jumping into her lap ; Aunt Bess also 
 knitting, grave and silent ; Aunt Maryanne reading 
 aloud a Waverley Novel. I used to sit with paper and 
 pencil, ' drawing ' and also listening to the story. At 
 any thrilling crisis ejaculations of interest or excitement 
 were heard, and the end of a chapter often gave rise to 
 comments, always on the incidents and characters, just 
 as though they were real, never on the literary merits 
 of the work or the abilities of the author. Criticism 
 of the latter kind was all but unknown in our circle, 
 and surely its estate was the more gracious. 
 
 When I acquired, no one knew how, the art of 
 reading rapidly, and at once applied it to every readable 
 thing that came my way, I used sometim.es to find my 
 Aunt's novel in the daytime and take a run into the 
 story in advance of the evening reading. On one or per- 
 haps two occasions when I afterwards sat listening, I was 
 unable to resist the temptation to give a hint of what 
 was coming, whereupon Aunt Maryanne, starting up 
 from her chair, clutched me firmly with both hands and 
 bundled me out of the room — a very justifiable assault. 
 Scott of course furnished the staple of the winter 
 evenings' entertainment ; but some minor story-tellers 
 contributed to the amusement. I remember Gait's 
 Laurie Todd, and Horace Smith's Brambletye House, 
 with the catchword, ' Think of that, young man ! ' 
 
 I think the Waverley Novels that most impressed 
 me in those earty' days were Guy Mannering, The 
 Antiquary, Ivanhoe, Kenilworth, The Talisman, but 
 there were scenes in Waverley, The Fortunes of Nigel, 
 Quentin Durward, The Fair Maid of Perth, The
 
 2 8 BALLYSHANNON 1824-1846 
 
 Pirate^ The Monastery^ vivid as any real experience. 
 In Poetry Scott again was first favourite, and the verse- 
 novels of The Lady of the Lake and Marmion} 
 
 [Here William Allingham's account of his childhood 
 ends. 
 
 The following reminiscences of his schooldays are 
 given from two letters, the first written by his brother 
 John in 1904, the second by an old schoolfellow, Mr. 
 Robert Crawford, the Engineer : — ] 
 
 ' I can recall Willy since the thirties of last century, i.e. 
 since he was seven or eight years old. In 1837 or 1838 he and 
 I occupied the same bedroom in the old Bank House on the 
 Mall. It had one window loolcing west — a gable window — 
 and off the room was a closet containing a number of books 
 and pamphlets in the Norwegian and English languages. I 
 remember the great storm of January 1839, and the window 
 of our room being blown in, notwithstanding a feather bed 
 being placed against it. Willy, I think, used sometimes to 
 walk in his sleep at that time. He was very agile and expert 
 at all juvenile games. He was then attending Wray's School 
 in Church Lane, then the only school in Ballyshannon — 
 indifferently attended by Catholics and Protestants. Wray 
 taught Latin — nothing else. Willy left this school in the 
 Spring of 1837 to go to a boarding-school at Killeshandra, 
 Co. Cavan, kept by one Robert Allen, a commonplace person 
 of the cocksure evangelical type. After a short time there 
 my father got him into the Provincial Bank at Ballyshannon 
 (of which he was Manager). This was in 1838, when Willy 
 was fourteen years old : in December 1839 he was moved to 
 the Armagh branch of the Bank — and later to the Strabane 
 and Enniskillen branches in succession.' 
 
 ' He was a particularly bright and clever boy, and conquered 
 the most difficult lessons with a facility that made him an 
 object of envy to his less brilliant comrades. He devoted just 
 sufficient time to his prescribed lessons to enable him to hold 
 
 ^ Some passages from this account of Allingham's childhood were 
 published, with Mrs. Allingham's permission, by Dr. George Birkbeck 
 Hill in his Introduction to Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti to William 
 Allingham, 1854-70.
 
 1824-1846 BALLYSHANNON 29 
 
 his own with class-work, while he diligently pursued investiga- 
 tions on his own account in a far wider field of learning. As 
 a result he frequently caused surprise to his seniors, by the 
 fixed opinions he held upon many subjects usually supposed to 
 be suited only to the comprehension of intellects of maturity, 
 and by the clear manner in which he expressed his convictions 
 concerning them. He was a great lover of Nature in all her 
 phases, and particularly humane towards dumb animals, of 
 which, however, so far as I know, he never made pets. Sports 
 he abstained from, on principle, considering them cruel.' 
 
 [Allingham's recollections of boarding-school were 
 by no means happy. 
 
 He was still delicate in health, and an accident at 
 this time to his sore finger produced severe inflammation 
 of the arm, and necessitated surgical treatment. He 
 was at Killeshandra for a year only ; at the age of 
 fourteen his school education was brought abruptly to 
 an end. 
 
 His father, now married again, had been out of 
 health for some time, and told by a doctor that he 
 could not live very much longer : he determined, 
 therefore, to put William, at once, in the way of earn- 
 ing his own living, and found him a place in the Bank 
 at Ballyshannon. 
 
 Here the lad began a seven years' service to his 
 uncongenial work. The sudden end to the possibility 
 of all further organised study and education was, to 
 him, a deep disappointment and lasting regret. 
 
 In December 1839 he was moved to the Armagh 
 branch of the Bank, and here he was, at first, often very 
 lonely and homesick. 
 
 From Strabane Allingham wrote on May 11, 1841, 
 asking his father to send him '• Elia^ first series, and 
 Shelley poems. I shall return Elia second part and 
 Lamb's Tales. Johnson's Poets are very welcome and a 
 great treat.' 
 
 In the summer of 1843, at the age of nineteen, he 
 paid his first visit to London.
 
 30 BALLYSHANNON 1824-1846 
 
 The following was written to his father at this time.] 
 
 Norfolk Hotel, Surrey St., 
 Strand, July 22, 1843. 
 
 My dear Father — Here I am in a very quiet place, within 
 twenty yards of the busiest street in London. 
 
 I slept in Oxford, the night before last, and saw most of 
 the city, the Bodleian Library, etc. I have seen no place equal 
 to it, to please my taste. Old churches, colleges and halls at 
 every step, and plenty of old houses with gables to the street 
 and latticed windows. 
 
 I can find my way here capitally. I walked this morning, 
 before breakfast, to St. Paul's, round by Newgate St., Holborn, 
 and Drury Lane. A matter of between two and three miles, 
 I should think. 
 
 I write to let you know where I am. Of my journey I 
 will tell you no more at present, except the following facts, 
 which I thought rather droll — 
 
 1st, then, — at Stafford, in the neighbourhood of the great 
 potteries, we had a horn vessel to drink from. 
 
 2ndly, at Birmingham (the World's Toyshop) a large 
 shop had no ' Chinese Tumblers.' 
 
 3rdly, at the Angel Hotel, Oxford, the bedroom was sup- 
 plied with a Cambridge Bible — and lastly, the first tune I heard 
 in London was the 'Sprig of Shillelagh.' — Yours, my dear 
 father, truly, W. Allingham, Junior. 
 
 [After seven years in the Bank, Allingham obtained, 
 at the age of twenty-two, a post in the Customs. An 
 account of this is given, as follows, in the few remaining 
 pages of this first part of his autobiography.]
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 1 846-1 848 
 
 Heartsick of more than seven years of bank-clerking, 
 I found a door suddenly opened, not into an ideal 
 region or anything like one, but at least into a roadway 
 of life somewhat less narrow and tedious than that in 
 which I was plodding. My father was offered a place 
 in the Customs for my brother ; John was too young 
 for the post ; it could not be kept vacant and was 
 offered to me. In the spring or summer of 1846 I 
 gladly took leave for ever of discount ledgers and 
 current accounts, and went to Belfast for two months' 
 instruction in the duties of Principal Coast Officer of 
 Customs, a tolerably well-sounding title, but which 
 carried with it a salary of but £So ^ year. I put up at 
 a Temperance Hotel in Waring Street, slept soundly 
 (O Youth !) in a small front room in that narrow noisy 
 thoroughfare, trudged daily about the docks and 
 timber yards learning to measure logs, piles of planks, 
 and, more troublesome, ships for tonnage : indoors 
 part of time practised Customs book-keeping, and talked 
 to the clerks about literature and poetry in a way that 
 excited some astonishment, but, on the whole, as I found 
 at parting, a certain degree of curiosity and respect. 
 
 I preached Tennyson to them, hitherto an unknown 
 name, and recited bits from Locksley Hal/, meeting at 
 first a cold reception, but afterwards better acknowledg- 
 ment. One of the head- clerks came up to me one 
 
 31
 
 32 BELFAST 1846 
 
 morning with the greeting, ' Well, I've read Locksley 
 Hall^ and it's a very fine poem ! ' 
 
 I don't recollect being at a theatre in Belfast. I went 
 a few times to a music hall, but my spare time was 
 mostly spent in reading and haunting book-sellers' 
 shops, where I venture to say I laid out a good deal 
 more than most people in proportion to my income, 
 and managed to catch glimpses of many books which I 
 could not afford or did not care to buy. From Belfast 
 I repaired to the little town of Donegal, and entered on 
 my office of Principal Coast Officer of the district, a 
 very large one extending over many miles of coast, the 
 greater part of it wild and rocky and lying exposed to 
 the full violence of Atlantic gales and waves. Visiting 
 wrecks was part of my duty, which sometimes demanded 
 long journeys in stormy weather over rugged hilly roads, 
 on an outside car, with various attendant discomforts 
 which would now seem appalling. But these expedi- 
 tions on the whole were pleasures, and have left 
 pleasurable memories. They were part of the freer 
 physical life upon which I entered in passing from the 
 Bank to the Customs. Her Majesty's Customs at 
 Donegal occupied a narrow little first-floor room in 
 Dillon's Hotel, a good-sized and comfortably kept house, 
 where I also boarded and lodged at moderate annual 
 rate, having a back room where my meals were served 
 to me separately, by particular favour, and the chairs, 
 tables, and sometimes the floor, were piled and littered 
 with books of all sizes, old and new. Here I could sit 
 reading for hours every day with little interruption, 
 stepping across the passage when wanted at my office 
 to receive notice of the arrival of a vessel, or sign her 
 papers when outward-bound, or make out a Light-Bill 
 (so much for each Lighthouse passed on the voyage), 
 or witness the engagement or paying-ofF of seamen. 
 Outdoors, there came the occasional visiting of vessels, 
 measurement of logs and deals, and ' bread-stuffs ' 
 (chiefly maize) and — by far the most troublesome
 
 1846 DONEGAL 23 
 
 business, but the most interesting — the examination of 
 the fittings and provisions of Emigrant ships, and 
 the calling over, when ready for sea, of the lists of 
 Passengers, who came forward one by one, men, women, 
 and children, to pass the doctor and myself. There 
 were also visits to coastguard stations, to navy and 
 other Pensioners, and now and again, as I have said, 
 to a Wreck, usually at some distant part of the 
 coast. 
 
 I was the only Customs Officer in the district, which 
 suited my mood perfectly, but no doubt helped to foster 
 the feeling of isolation which is so strong in me. My 
 district was officially ' in the Port of Sligo,' to which 
 I sent monthly accounts, and the collector visited me 
 once a quarter, and I was also in some respects under 
 the sub-collector of Ballyshannon ; but there was seldom 
 any interference. My family name was a guarantee in 
 itself ; I discharged my functions intelligently and con- 
 scientiously, as well as with popularity, and the nature 
 of them and of the locus in quo^ gave me a scope and 
 freedom of action, and a personal respect everywhere, 
 not usually associated with so humble an official position 
 as mine. I enjoyed my new position on the whole, 
 without analysis, as a great improvement on the Bank ; 
 and, for the rest, my inner mind was brimful of love 
 and poetry, and usually, all external things appeared 
 trivial save in their relations to it. 
 
 Yet I am reminded by old memoranda that there 
 were sometimes over-clouding anxieties, sometimes, but 
 not very frequently, from lack of money, more often 
 from longing for culture, conversation, and opportunity ; 
 oftenest from fear of a sudden development of some 
 form of lung disease, the seeds of which I supposed to 
 be sown in my bodily constitution. I can recall few 
 details of my first year at Donegal. 
 
 I used to go over often to Ballyshannon in the evening 
 and return in the morning, or from Saturday to Monday, 
 sleeping at my Father's ; generally travelling by the 
 
 D
 
 34 DONEGAL 1847 
 
 Derry and Sligo mail-coach, and kept up all my old 
 intimacies with the places and people by the Erne. 
 
 I had for literary correspondents Leigh Hunt, 
 George Giliillan, and Samuel Ferguson ; and for love- 
 correspondent, F., whose hand-writing always sent a 
 thrill through me at the first glance and the fiftieth 
 perusal. What a day it was when one of those letters 
 reached me ! — all the more prized for the difficulties 
 that beset their transmission. I loved an Ideal, angelic- 
 ally fine, impossible to hurt or destroy as a dream of 
 Heaven ; but it had a very sweet little human core, 
 which (I am thankful) keeps its spring -flower-like 
 tenderness in my memory. Appropinquity can breed 
 love, it can sometimes sully or kill it. Fate kept us 
 mostly separated in space even while we were one in 
 spirit ; our rare meetings were, to me at least, mystic- 
 ally sacred occasions. 
 
 [The story of William Allingham's life, in strict auto- 
 biographic form, ends at this point. He wrote out, 
 from his note-books, conversations he had had with 
 interesting men, evidently with the intention of incor- 
 porating them in his account, but beyond this date 
 nothing was completed. 
 
 The story is continued in diary form, the first entry 
 being in June of the following year.] 
 
 1847. — ^^ June this year I took my holiday and 
 went to London, and on the evening of my arrival went 
 to the Princess's Theatre to see Macready in Macbeth. 
 He disappointed me ; his elocution grated ; but I was 
 struck by the way he delivered one phrase — ' There's 
 no such thing ! ' 
 
 Next night to Norma at Her Majesty's Theatre — a 
 * command ' night and a great squeeze, but I got a 
 good seat in the pit. Jenny Lind is not physically well- 
 fitted for the part of Norma, and her girlishness was 
 made more noticeable by the stoutness of her Adalgisa 
 (Barroni). She had also against her the fixed notions of
 
 1847 LONDON 35 
 
 the public as to the character and person of Norma (a 
 kind of Medea) being very different from every one 
 who had represented it before her, A punster might 
 say she was ab-Normal. Grisi too had appeared in 
 it {her best character perhaps) only three days before. 
 Yet Jenny Lind's personation was not only very fine 
 (her singing, of course, most beautiful), but carried her 
 audience with her throughout. Her bitter disappoint- 
 ment was very sad, her shame and agony in the last 
 scene truly affecting. Her pity for Adalgisa was most 
 tenderly expressed : — 
 
 Ah sventurata ! del tuo premier mattino 
 Gia turbato e il sereno ! 
 
 And in the subsequent scene, when Adalgisa says, 
 ' How pale thou art ! ' the tone of Norma's reply — 
 ' Pallor di morte,' — sank into one's heart. Jenny Lind 
 is the only actress I ever saw that I could imagine 
 myself in love with. She is too good for the stage, 
 
 Thursday^ June 17. — Covent Garden Opera. Grisi 
 in Norma. She looks the part better than Jenny does, 
 and had a specially grand moment when she rushed up 
 the altar-steps and smote the sacred shield. But she 
 never touched my heart like the Swedish lady. 
 
 Wednesday^ June 23. — Found Edwardes Square, 
 Kensington, and Leigh Hunt's house, No. 32, left card. 
 
 Thursday., June 24. — Note from Leigh Hunt. 
 
 Friday., June 25. — To Edwardes Square, saw cab 
 with white horse driving away from No. 32, knocked, 
 and found that it was Leigh Hunt, who had just gone 
 off ' to the rehearsal of his play.' This was the Play to 
 be acted for his benefit by Dickens and others. If I 
 had been one minute sooner he might have taken me 
 with him — perhaps even into the theatre ! wild thought ! 
 
 Sunday Evening., June 27. — 32 Edwardes Square, 
 and find Leigh Hunt at last. I was shown into the 
 Study, an^ had some minutes to look round at the 
 Book-cases, Busts, old framed engravings, and to glance
 
 ./ 
 
 36 LONDON 1847 
 
 at some of the books on the table, diligently marked 
 and noted in the well-known neatest of hand-writings. 
 Outside the window climbed a hop on its trellis. The 
 door opened and in came the Genius Loci, a tallish 
 young old man, in dark dressing-gown and wide 
 turned-down shirt-collar, his copious iron-gray hair 
 falling almost to his shoulders. The friendly brown 
 eyes, simple yet fine-toned voice, easy hand-pressure, 
 gave me greeting as to one already well-known to him. 
 Our talk fell first on reason and instinct ; he maintained 
 (for argument's sake, I thought) that beasts may be 
 equal or superior to men. He has a light earnestness 
 of manner, and toleration for almost every possible 
 different view from his own. Of freewill he said, ' I 
 would much rather be without it. I should like to feel 
 myself taken care of in the arms of beneficent power. 
 — Paganini incomparable ; when he came forward and 
 struck "the first chord, my neighbour in the Opera pit (an 
 Italian) exclaimed in a low voice, " O Dio ! " Violin, 
 or better violino, is the name for his instrument. Com- 
 mon English players 7?^^Z?, it is a good word for their 
 playing. Macready is not a genius, he is our best actor 
 now because there is no other. He keeps a fine house, 
 but is not in what is called the best society.' 
 
 I ask him about certain highly interesting men. 
 ' Dickens — a pleasant fellow, very busy now, lives in an 
 old"house in Devonshire Terrace, Marylebone. 
 ' Carlyle — I know him well. 
 
 ' Browning — lives at Peckham, because no one else 
 does ! "a. born poet, but loves contradictions. Shake- 
 speare and Milton write plainly, the Sun and Moon 
 write plainly, and why can't Browning ,?' I suggested 
 he was the Turner of poetry, to which Leigh Hunt 
 
 , replied, ' Now, you've said it ! He's a pleasant fellow, 
 
 { has few readers, and will be glad to find you admire 
 
 I him.'(! !) 
 
 ' ' I shall now be able to see my friends oftener, and 
 will take an opportunity of asking Dickens, Carlyle,
 
 1847 LONDON 37 
 
 and Browning to meet you.' (Gracious Powers ! ! !) 
 ' I would do so for few.' 
 
 ' Moxon isnot a publisher but a secreter of books. 
 
 'Browning says, "People may find my publisher 
 after a careful search, but myself scarcely at all." 
 
 ' If I see Dickens at Mr. Talfourd's on Tuesday, I'll 
 mention you to him.' 
 
 Jenny Lind — I said I admired and loved her so much 
 that I wished she would leave the stage, to which Leigh 
 Hunt replied : ' Would not that be a pity, when the 
 public sympathises with her sweet genius } ' 
 
 W. A. — ' I doubt that : the public is a bad judge 
 of the finest things.' L. H. agreed, 
 
 W. A. — 'It is pleasant to walk home from the 
 theatre on a fine night, perhaps the best part of the 
 amusement.' 
 
 L. H. — ' And one is going to rest.' 
 
 Speaking of his poem, ' The Glove and the Lions,' I 
 objected to the knight's flinging the glove in the lady's 
 face, but Leigh Hunt argued for it : ' He treated her as 
 no woman. Every one admits the justice of it — except 
 you^ now — Browning ? Oh, he is sure to take the opposite 
 view from everybody else ! ' I said it would make me 
 suspect the knight of having been frightened, ' cowardice 
 is passionate.' ' That's true,' said Leigh Hunt. 
 
 Walked back, under a lovely moon, to Surrey Street, 
 
 Strand. ^-— 
 
 ' 'Friday^ July 2, Evening. — Leigh Hunt's. He was 
 tired, but asked me to stay. 
 
 L. H. — ' I hate Dante : in reading him I first found 
 that a great Poet can be an unamiable man. Words- 
 worth was personally very disagreeable. I am asked to 
 meet Hans Christian Andersen, now in London. Can't 
 understand why people want to see tne — I am used to 
 myself. O yes, I like to see some men of letters. 
 Dislike mountains, can't bear height, my legs shudder 
 at the thought of it. — London is the best place for you ; 
 why don't you try and live in it ^ ' Walk back.
 
 ./ 
 
 38^^ LONDON 1847 
 
 -'^ Monday^ July 5. — A short interview with Hans 
 Andersen. He had not English enough to allow of our 
 conversing, asked me to write to him ; but I have 
 nothing to say save that I love him, and many people 
 tell him that. He is tall and lanky, with queer long 
 face, but friendliness and intelligence shining through. 
 Feels out-of-sorts in London. 
 
 JVednesday^ July 7. — Evening at Leigh Hunt's. I 
 give him Yityvjoodi's HieYWifiy' of Blessed Angels. 'A 
 nice book to have ! ' he remarks. ' I see you are of a 
 giving turn.' Religion, ' Painful to see any assemblage 
 of fellow-creatures we cannot join. Ask a man why he 
 does not worship Brahma, and he will begin to give you 
 reasons. Believers in any form of religion don't like to 
 be reminded of the possibility of doubt.' I met Andersen 
 the other day at dinner and we were mutually unintelli- 
 gible. I had the pleasure of feeling his arm, his arm in 
 mine, on the way to dinner ; it was the thinnest arm I 
 ever felt. He looks like a man in the last stage of con- 
 sumption ; but, observe, I don't know that he is in the 
 last stage of consumption. He looks like a large child, 
 a sort of half-angel. There were many people of rank 
 present, yet no one in the room looked more distingue 
 than Andersen, the shoe-maker's son.' 
 
 Sunday, July 11. — At Leigh Hunt's. He looks 
 ^ wonderfully different in the street from in the house. 
 ■' There, a spare old man in a frock-coat and black stock, 
 f with weak eyes and rather careworn look ; here, a 
 I young man (though of sixty), with luxuriant if gray 
 \ locks, open shirt collar and flowing dressing-gown, 
 f bright face, and the easiest way of talking in the world, 
 \ He is fond of droll paradox, full of delicate appreciation, 
 
 tgay, gentle, good-humoured, with a natural gift, well 
 cultivated, of finding out the ' soul of goodness in things 
 evil.' 
 
 Monday, July 12. — Having received a civil little 
 note signed ' S.R.' giving me leave, I went to Mr. 
 Rogers's house in St. James's Place, and was shown
 
 1847 DONEGAL 39 
 
 through three rooms hung with good pictures. In the 
 parlour Raphael's ' Christ in the Garden,' Guercino 
 (Mr, Rogers's favourite, the servant says). Landscape 
 by Rubens, Guide's ' Crown of Thorns,' Rembrandt, 
 etc. 
 
 Tuesday^ July 13. — Liverpool. Coach to George's 
 Dock, Maiden City steamer. Walk, dull narrow lanes 
 between huge warehouses, numbers of Irish. Breakfast 
 in small hotel. Steamer — Cumberland mountains. Isle 
 of Man — gentleman on deck remarked that was ' a fine 
 island to be out in the sea.' Drunken sailor-passengers 
 at horseplay on deck, afterwards fell asleep in a heap. 
 
 Wednesday^ July 14. — Came on deck at Moville, 
 beautiful morning ; the Foyle looked spacious and fine 
 as we glided up to Derry. 
 
 Friday^ July 16. — Coach, fine day; Strabane, 
 Stranorlar, and through Barnesmore Gap to Donegal. 
 Old James greets me with his kind old smile and says, 
 ' Sure, you've seen all sorts of elegance.' 
 
 July 17. — To Ballyshannon. My father in the 
 garden. 
 
 Monday^ July 19. — Coach to Donegal. Then car to 
 Killybegs on Customs duty : horse falls. 
 
 Tuesday, July 20. — Killybegs. Walked over Carn- 
 tullagh to Bruckless to my good friends the Barretts. 
 I prefer the rocky grandeur of this prospect to the 
 luscious richness seen from Richmond Hill. Woman 
 gathering wild heartsease ' for tea ' : they use many 
 herbs thus. Dine at Bruckless ; go up river in boat. 
 
 July 11. — Bruckless; boat to Killybegs, passing 
 rocks with caverns. — Visit three vessels, Andromeda, 
 South Durham and another Brig. Land and visit Roman 
 Catholic Church, where is a good copy of a Murillo for 
 altarpiece. Boat again, heavy rain. 
 
 * Sowing wide the fruitless main,' — good line: whose } 
 why, Leigh Hunt's. He has many happy lines and 
 phrases. I feel in succession clammy, damp, wet, then 
 rivulets running down the backs of my legs. Bruckless.
 
 40 DONEGAL 1847 
 
 Barrett lends me a suit of his clothes, a world too wide, 
 including a monstrous dress coat with brass buttons. 
 Dinner, Dr. M. and ladies, Sam Cassidy, etc. Songs, 
 loo, supper, hot lobster — bed 2,30. 
 
 Thursday^ October ^%. — Donegal. Set out for Lochrus 
 on Customs duty. Outside car, moors and bare 
 mountains to Ardara, when the groves of Woodhill give 
 a softening. The sun set into a jagged cloud breathing 
 flame from its openings, rested on the dark mountains, 
 disappeared, leaving a gloomy memory which soon faded 
 too. Then the wind blew colder, the road became 
 indistinct, the moors blended into a dim waste. Dine 
 at Ardara, snug little room, adorned with pictures of 
 Christ entering Jerusalem, Mary Queen of Scots, and 
 Byron in a very large turn-down collar, with his arm 
 round the waist of a lady with dark eyes and ringlets. 
 A young naval officer in another room, who smokes 
 cigars. Biddy says with pride, ' O, Ardara's never 
 without a stranger ! ' Driving back — in calm cold air, 
 the stars shone in intense points of light all over the 
 sky, the Heavenly Plough at rest in the unfurrowed 
 air, the Pleiades glittering in the east, and we travelling 
 straight south from the Polar Star. Then the moon- 
 dawn spread up the sky, and above a low black outline 
 of hills was lifted the bright snow-cold Presence, show- 
 ing the solitary road and ghostly brown moorland 
 stretching away on either side. 
 
 November i . — Donegal — dry, but gloomy and blow- 
 ing. Order Miss Barrett's poems and Hood's poems — 
 receive first number of Hewitt's Journal. 
 
 Friday^ November 5. — The poor crazy man who likes 
 to be called Mister Gallagher says he ' finds his head 
 rather hypothetical to day ' ; attributes it ' to the 
 familiarity of the atmosphere.' Howitf s Journal has 
 my ' Hallow Eve Chant ' inaccurately printed. Play 
 on the fiddle. 
 
 November 9. — Emerson is in Manchester. I wrote 
 to him to-day. • ■
 
 iS48 DONEGAL 41 
 
 Friday^ November 12. — Donegal Fair. Went to 
 Ballyshannon, a fine clear cold day. Heard saying, 
 ' Like Manus, I may go where I like,' and asked origin 
 of it. One Manus died and came before St. Peter, 
 who was sending Catholics off in one direction and 
 Protestants in another. ' What are you ' '^. says St. 
 Peter. ' Nothing at all,' says Manus. ' Then go where 
 you like.' 
 
 Saturday^ November 13, 1847. — Mendelssohn dead I 
 Wrote lines, ' By the shore, a plot of ground.' 
 
 IVednesday^ November 24. — Letter from Emerson. 
 
 November 30. — Visit Poorhouse, Tom Read, crazy 
 man with small sharp black eyes ; sometimes keeps a 
 piece of iron on his head to do his brain good ; plays 
 on a fiddle, the first and second strings only packthread, 
 ' Ain kind Dearie,' ' Pandun o' Rafferty,' grunting and 
 groaning all the while, and groaning fiercely when he 
 struck a note out of tune. I promise him strings. 
 ' Does your Honour live far away .'' ' 
 
 December 3. — Irish Idylls. Read Blot in the 
 ''Scutcheon. Bravo, Browning ! 
 
 Decetnber 5. — Dream — dine with the Queen, who 
 asks me to ' try her custard pudding.' I ask if Her 
 Majesty knows the song of ' Miss Baily,' and recite it to 
 her. Cobbett's Tear in America good. Cobbett was 
 a Man. ' 
 
 "December 21. — Carlyle on Johnson : unfair cut at 
 poor Keats — ' If a man can be killed by a review, let it 
 be done.* If Carlyle is a sturdy big-boned man, let him 
 be thankful and considerate. 
 
 [In the following year nothing is recorded in the 
 diary at any length until September.] 
 
 Saturday, September 16, 1848. — Donegal. To Inver. 
 Cranny by field-path. The MacMunn family friendly 
 and cheerful, both old and young, a pleasure to see. 
 The freshness and innocence of the country on every- 
 thing in such a household.
 
 42 DONEGAL 1848 
 
 Drive back, to Donegal ; slanting sunrays and 
 shadows on the blue hills. Pastoral vale of Killymard, 
 some barley still green, some in stocks, oats mostly ripe, 
 little wheat. I like to think of the Cranny family. 
 Great the boon of a sweet face ! Immense the benefit 
 of a good matron — doing, helping, encouraging, check- 
 ing, soothing, suggesting, guiding everything and 
 everywhere, without fuss, almost unnoticed. Watching 
 every wheel and pivot, every movement of the little 
 commonwealth's mechanism, and with a soft feather 
 and light touch applying the oil of gentleness wherever 
 needed, so that the whole runs smoothly, without grate 
 or jar, and with only the soft hum of happy employ- 
 ment, as of bees among blossoms. O the beauty of a 
 household rich in innocence, industry, and mutual love ! 
 
 Ultonians, in whom Scotch and English order and 
 decency are blended with Irish heartiness, are a good 
 kind of people, and the peculiar wild fun and tender 
 fancy belonging to the Kelts are, not seldom, transfused 
 among those who have lived so long in the midst of 
 Irish customs, traditions, music, and scenery, — not to 
 speak of intermarriages. MacMunn is doubtless a 
 Scotch name, in spite of the saying, ' Per O atque Mac 
 veros cognoscis Hibernos.' Perhaps Hiberni stands 
 for Kelts. A question : if Scotch Kelts be taken as 
 descended from Irish (Scotic) ancestors, how comes 
 there to be such a crowd of Macs amonor the Low- 
 
 o 
 
 landers, and many of them with emphatically Lowland 
 characteristics ^ 
 
 Glimpse of happy domestic life at Cranny to-dav 
 delightful. Delightful also to drive back at evening to 
 the certainty of rest, retirement, books, and perhaps 
 something good from the Post Office — which may this 
 moment be on our table waiting to greet us. 
 
 Sunday, Septembey 17. — Fine morning, but a smell 
 of winter in the sunny air ; night frosts. On Martin's 
 car to Ballyshannon. Dull wide sky. Thoughts on 
 things in general. Are there not moods when earth
 
 i848 DUBLIN 43 
 
 life seems long enough, and to fall asleep for ever 
 nothing to repine at ? Yes, but these are not the best 
 moods. Between the third and fourth mile-stone my 
 mind brightens, without any traceable cause. Perhaps 
 God will leave the human race on the Earth planet 
 until, in the aggregate, they shall have ransacked and 
 learned everything possible to them about its nature 
 and laws. 
 
 Tuesday^ September 19. — Ballyshannon — fine. Prac- 
 tise violin with Hagarty, 12 to 2. Wet evening. 
 Violin again, Haydn and Mozart. 
 
 September 26. — Dine at Peter Kelly's, nine priests at 
 table — much song-singing afterwards. 
 
 Sunday, October 8. — Dublin. Conviction of O'Brien. 
 Church. Anthem, fine voices. Mere harmony soon 
 cloys. 
 
 As to the Religious Service, who came here for that ? 
 Ah, if there were one sufficient faith and worship for 
 all — how happy, peaceful, perfect a privilege it were to 
 come together, how noble to be a Minister, and how 
 noble it would behove a Minister to be ! 
 
 Tuesday y October 10. — Dublin; to Hawkins St. 
 Theatre to see Jenny Lind in Sonnambula^ her opening 
 night here. An hour at door, crowd thickening, rush 
 and crush upstairs to lower gallery. Curtain rises, the 
 charming Jenny has to wait till the reiterated greetings 
 subside. ' Three cheers for Jenny Lind ! ' (from the 
 gallery). ' Wan cheer more ! ' 'A cheer for her 
 Mother ! ' at which Amina smiled. Then we had 
 Come per me sereno^ etc., all to perfection, but sung 
 as I fancied more floridly than when I heard her 
 in London. She looks thinner. Flower-scene most 
 exquisite and touching ! O fiore — Ah non credea^ the 
 flowers falling through her hands as she sings. Ah ! 
 non giunge not very good, I thought ; encored, on 
 account of its difficulty. Half a dozen to a dozen 
 bouquets were thrown, no extraordinary excitement. 
 When curtain fell 1 rushed down and made my way
 
 44 
 
 DUBLIN 
 
 1 
 
 into the pit in the hope of getting one of Amina's 
 flowers which had fallen near the footlights, but it 
 was gone. Cold air outside, crowd, Jenny's carriage, 
 police. 
 
 The Theatre at best a hollow, unwholesome, unsatis- 
 fying excitement. 
 
 October 14. — Opera again. La Figlia del Reggim- 
 mento. Jenny's camp manner, dashing shake of the 
 hand, etc., but no way bold or impudent. 
 
 December 29. — Chateaubriand. He is not entirely 
 free from some of the particular sins of French writing. 
 He affects Byronism. 
 
 To Session Court : girl convicted of stealing a purse 
 and sentenced to seven years' transportation ; she is 
 removed shrieking violently. It seems a severe sentence. 
 
 Wrote to Henry Sutton.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 1849-1850 
 
 Monday^ January i, Donegal, 1849. — Write on slavery. 
 Black V. White (is writing for pay advisable ?) Walk 
 to mill. Hungry — dinner — violin, Tennyson's poems. 
 Reverend Jos. Welsh and English land-agent Wilson, 
 after attending investigation into the Wray explosion, 
 came to a snack in my room. Wilson looked into my 
 Tennyson, and saying, ' Now this is what I call stuff I ' 
 began to read out part of i^none. I said, ' Let me look 
 at it,' and put the book in my pocket without another 
 word. He appeared rather stunned. How Tennyson 
 gives the effect of everything, — enriched with a peculiar 
 glow ! Violin again. 
 
 Friday^ January 5. — Frost. Customs accounts. To 
 Killybegs by Mail-Car, walk up the long hills, slip on 
 skates and skate a little by the road-side, then run after 
 the car, warm. Denis laughing. 
 
 Inver. Sun sinking, deep red globe with a stroke 
 of black cloud in the centre ; now an arch, as it were 
 the open gate of Heaven revealing glory within ; now 
 a ruby moon ; now the last look from a deep eye of 
 radiance, and — all's gone. 
 
 Wrote ' Crucible.' Read aloud. 
 
 January 8. — At Killybegs. Read Tennyson and 
 Wittick's Norway. Fairy Song : ' Wee folk, good 
 folk,' etc. Violin. 
 
 Thursday., March 15. — Ballyshannon. Plant ivy 
 
 45
 
 46 BALLYSHANNON 1849 
 
 round the Old Barrack ruins, accompanied by three 
 pairs of slate castanets. Walk through fields at Cool- 
 colly, with sycamores, green mounds, and rillet hid 
 within a hedge, a place of mysterious beauty to me in 
 old old days of childhood ; and so across the Abbey 
 river, round Legaltion Lough, and home. Mem.: the 
 word ' brook ' not used here : they say ' river ' or 
 ' water ' ; and ' water ' is also applied to large streams. 
 After dinner down the Mall ; boys with hoops leaping 
 wall. Aboard Kent. Sailors on boat, a coarse and 
 reckless set. 
 
 People catching young eels {lifogues) no thicker 
 than twine, in bags ; they are cooked into the shape of 
 cakes or small cheeses. But this catching of the fry is 
 not allowed. Tea. French. 
 
 Mr. Heagney (the Collector) remarks on hearing 
 of the death of a retired Customs officer whom he 
 knew, ' It's a queer world this ! There's a man gone 
 that had eleven and eightpence a day — eleven and 
 eightpence ! I wonder where Moses and Aaron are now, 
 and David and Goliath, and all these. They were 
 certainly here — they certainly were. And Nero and 
 Caligula too — bad, bad men, tyrants — tye-ranny — tye- 
 rrannous ! — not a chirp in them ! ' Some ships were 
 waiting in the bay for a chance of crossing the bar. I 
 asked, ' Will they get in to-day .'' ' Mr. H. (ironically), 
 ' Ay ! — there's a line of breakers as white as Ananias's 
 wall at Jerusalem, and the Alps and Apennines out 
 beyond them. Get in ! ' 
 
 Sunday^ June 24. — Ballyshannon. Have been ap- 
 pointed Controller of Customs at Ramsey, Isle of Man, 
 at _^i20 a year. Letter to-day ordering me to go. 
 Last Sunday here — for how long } 
 
 Thursday^ June 28. — Walk along river by Upper Fall 
 to Stonewold. Then Jane, Clarissa, sister Jane and I 
 by riverside, grassy headlands, leafy gulfs, rushing 
 white steam (described in Music Master') to Camlin. 
 
 Saturday 30. — Coach to Dublin. Dawn purple and
 
 1849 DUBLIN 47 
 
 gold, plains of Meath, the round sun rises. Very like 
 the first morning I ever entered Dublin. 
 
 Dine at Professor MacGauley's, Marlboro' St. Smell 
 of machine oil. Scientific Bachelor's menage — viands, 
 roast beef, and boiled mutton. Scampish looking 
 young woman waited. At dinner, Bishop Denvir 
 (Catholic), Dr. O'Connell, D.D., Priest Laffan, Dr. 
 Stapleton, M.D., Uncles John and James, John-James 
 and Edward, W.A., and the host. Priest LafFan has 
 red cheeks and black eyes, big calves and rich voice, — 
 sure to be a singer. After dinner much talking and 
 laughing, but the bishop silent. 
 
 Shakespeare's morality, and that of the other 
 Elizabethan Dramatists. Catholicity. Uncle John 
 (tho' his wife is devoted to the Church) is well known 
 to be thoroughly heterodox. Dr. O'Connell fell to 
 bantering him. ' You would make as good a clergyman 
 as any of us, sir ! You'd only have to speak dog- 
 matically and correctly ' {i.e. no matter what you 
 believed). Uncle John shook his head. Presently 
 O'Connell exclaimed (he was very talkative), ' O my 
 God ! — I saw some children in the street to-day fighting 
 about a marble, and I longed to be like them, all their 
 happiness centred in that !' 
 
 Uncle John, — ' I shouldn't care for such happiness.' 
 
 Dr. Stapleton. — ' To mortify the flesh, that's the 
 whole thing ; the flesh ; to mortify the flesh.' 
 
 Then O'Connell told us how he answered ' Old 
 Whately ' on some logical point and got the better of 
 him. After this came a discussion on hypocrisy, 
 MacGauley arguing that it was better for public morals 
 when a man concealed his vices. Dr. S. exclaimed, 
 ' Give me the rock that shows its head above the 
 billows.' Then they came back to religion, and Uncle 
 John said some plain things about the incredibility of 
 much that is taught under that name, backed by his 
 brother-in-law, Dan Brett, a shrewd and gentlemanly 
 old Dubliner. Dr. O'Connell turned on Brett, seeking
 
 48 DUBLIN 1849 
 
 to pose him, — ' Do you believe in a God ? ' to which 
 Dan quietly replied, ' I decline answering that question, 
 because I consider it offensive.' On which the professor 
 proposed that we should go to the workshop. The 
 silent bishop had already gone thither, and we found 
 him mending an engine-band. 
 
 The Church of Rome, entrenched within elaborate 
 logical lines, fears no assault made according to logical 
 rule. She knows that the existence of the Deity can 
 neither be proved nor disproved by argument, and 
 that the opponent who says ' Yes ' or ' No ' to this 
 question may be made to look foolish. 
 
 We looked at furnace, etc., and passed into the 
 lecture-theatre and workshop. A large bottle labelled 
 Liq. Ammon. Fortiss. stood on a shelf. Dr. Stapleton 
 remarking knowingly, ' Mac never has this good,' 
 pulled out the stopper and put his nose over the 
 bottle, but immediately jerked his head aside as if he 
 had received a blow — as in fact he had. We all felt 
 the violent smell, and there was laughter ; but in the 
 course of a few minutes all one side of the doctor's face 
 grew red and swollen, tho' he was in too jovial a mood 
 to notice it much. We saw models of various engines, 
 microscopes, electric machine, air-pumps, and what not. 
 Then we returned to the parlour again and more liquid 
 applications, internal this time, and not ammonia. The 
 D.D. and M.D. showed the effects plainly in both 
 the manner and substance of their speech. They pro- 
 posed ' changing professions.' 
 
 Dr. S. — ' I'll teach you how to manage the ladies, — 
 and I know that you could do it well. I could make the 
 ladies cry at my sermons and give lots of money ; 
 they'd say, " what a fine man he is ! " ' 
 
 Our host had discovered something that wanted 
 setting right in the workshop and stayed behind. Dr. 
 O'C. : ' Poor Mac ! he'll be so annoyed. Go down for 
 him, tell him to come up till we have a game of cards.' 
 After an argument between MacGauley and John-
 
 iS49 RAMSEY 49 
 
 James on valves, our party took leave and mounted a 
 back outside-car in Gloucester Street, which was driven 
 with erratic speed. Uncle John remarked in his usual 
 placid way, ' 1 look on myself as in some danger now,' 
 and my cousin gave anecdotes of upsets but we got 
 safe home. 
 
 Sunday^ July i . — Dine at Seafield. Uncle John tells 
 of sturdy beggar who accosted him with a menacing 
 look, ' If I'm not fed, I'll ate a man ! ' to which Uncle 
 J, answered quietly, ' Don't spare him on my account.' 
 
 July 2. — North Wall. Isle of Man steamer. 
 
 Douglas^ Isle of Man ^ July 3. — Custom-House : walk 
 about narrow streets. Sign declaration. Collector 
 Baldwin gentlemanly and clever, says of Isle of Man : 
 ' It's a queer place — a very queer place ! ' Doesn't like 
 it. Coach for Ramsey. Hilly road : horses crawl 
 up and dash down alarmingly. Driver and guard both 
 boys, the first of Lancashire parentage, the other, ' Joe,' 
 of Irish. Manx language. Green hills and valleys 
 with the level sea behind, just like Ireland. Cloven 
 stones : Irish Joe shows the superior 'cuteness of his 
 breed, and looseness of statement as well. Hill into 
 Laxey — I walk up hill beyond ; talk to a girl sing- 
 ing by the roadside and to a boy herding cows, and 
 find them frank and civil. We see King Orry's grave 
 on the hill. Joe sings ' His courting coat on,' and 
 some Manx songs. I sing. View of Ramsey, Albert 
 Tower, etc. To Albert Hotel ; pay six shillings for 
 carriage of trunks, etc. Tea and bed. 
 
 Ramsey^ Wednesday, July 4. — Ask if I can go to 
 the Tynwald to-morrow. 
 
 Ramsey, Thursday, July 5. — 6 o'clock — fine market- 
 place ; coach. Crowds on the road. Coach passengers 
 hearty and conversational. Dumpling-faced woman in 
 black satin, with black eyes and hair to match. Pretty 
 wooded road takes us past Bishop's Court, lying low, 
 with neat pastures, the palace of ' Sodor and Man,' a 
 Bishop who has several other ecclesiastics to help him 
 
 £
 
 50 RAMSEY 1849 
 
 in supervising the church affairs of an island of 50,000 
 souls, mostly Methodists, ' Sodor,' whatever it was, 
 non est inventus : Bishop should go and look for it. 
 Coach ; crowds on the road. Kirkmichael (Kirmickle) ; 
 into a barer country with peep of the sea, and so to 
 St. John's, where we see booths and people, and the tent 
 upon ancient Tynwald Hill itself, a little grassy mound 
 about twelve feet high, cut into three terraces and a 
 flight of steps. I go into the empty tent, no one 
 questioning. Take a sketch. Soldiers march in, play- 
 ing Fulla-la-la-lu. Coach arrives with band. Crowd 
 moves slowly about as at a small country fair. In the 
 church, the more fashionable folk : the portly deemster 
 and the dapper deemster, both bowing and smirking 
 among their numerous acquaintances. The building 
 new and showy, with painted windows and confectionery 
 chandeliers. Enter Governor Hope, a tall red-haired, 
 light-complexioned Scot, in green uniform, high-plumed 
 cocked hat resting on his arm. A stout butcher-like 
 parson then goes through the service. Then out, the 
 procession is formed and moves to the hill, which is 
 now thronged. A functionary stands at the door of 
 the tent and reads something which few can hear, but 
 which is understood to be the Laws recently passed by 
 the House of Keys. A small man next me is in extreme 
 anxiety to hear and see — calls out ' Silence there ! ' — 
 ' Down with that parasol ! ' then to me, * Can you hear 
 what they're saying ? Is it Manx ? Has he a wig 
 on ? ' ' No, but he has a pair of spectacles.' All over 
 here. They return to church, some huzza, Hope 
 enchanted, smiles and waves his golden hair ; when his 
 hat and feathers are on he looks at least ten feet 
 high. Then the booths are full of countryfolk, male and 
 female, with mugs of ale, etc. Fiddlers — soldiers — 
 band. Drovers with horses. Fishermen — drunken 
 men and boys. Wearisome. 6 o'clock, coach at 
 last, driver drunk, galloping down hills, swaying and 
 shaking, a dangerous journey; one woman-passenger
 
 i849 LONDON 51 
 
 frightened ; — dumpling-faced woman doesn't mind, ' has 
 enjoyed herself jo much ! ' — eats ginger-bread. Another 
 stout young woman only says, ' Eh, law ! ' when the 
 coach lurches. The driver grows benevolent, says often, 
 ' Bless you, sir — bless you — bless you ! ' We get safe 
 back to Ramsey after all. The Manx horses seem used 
 to this sort of travelling, and I suppose they manage 
 their drivers. 
 
 July 6. — A man at table d'hcte to-day, dark, long- 
 haired, notable looking ; as he sat after dinner with 
 wine and cigar a thought flashed — Could it be Alfred 
 Tennyson ! Talked a little with him, and Tennyson 
 quickly vanished. 
 
 Sunday^ July 11. — Talk metaphysics with Schiller 
 (' relation of the poet '). He calls himself a Progression- 
 ist. We spoke of Swedenborg. Performance of Faust 
 at Frankfort — Richter, Goethe, Carlyle, etc. 
 
 Monday^ July 23. — Leave come — preparations. 
 Steamer. 
 
 Wednesday^ July 25. — London — Norfolk Hotel, 
 Surrey Street. Cholera bad. Never thought about it ! 
 Out to visit Vernon Gallery. Drury Lane pit, found 
 The Beggar s Opera very dull, and Sims Reeves, in spite 
 of his voice, a vulgar singer. 
 
 July 26. — To Cheyne Row, Chelsea. Mr. Carlyle 
 not returned, and may not for another month. Edwardes 
 Square — Leigh Hunt not in. 
 
 Saturday^ July 2^. — Fine. Royal Academy. Turner's 
 'Wreck Buoy ' — Webster's * Slide,' Mulready's 'Women 
 Bathing,' Martin's blue ' Happy Valley.' Stanfield's 
 water looks like beer after Turner's prismatic crystal. 
 Landseer's ' Dying Lion,' Leslie's ' Don Quixote and the 
 Chaplain.' Water Colour Exhibition. 
 
 August 3. — Lincoln's Inn. St. Mary Axe, Duke's 
 Place, Synagogue. There remains a higher feeling than 
 curiosity in witnessing the religious ceremonies of this 
 ancient Race in the heart of a great alien City, and in 
 the 1 849th year of a rival Era.
 
 52 LONDON 1849 
 
 Sunday, August 5. — To Kentish Town and walk to 
 Highgate Cemetery, terrace, catacombs, yews, view of 
 London. Out to churchyard to find Coleridge's grave, 
 locked ; inquire for sexton's house, he is ' at church ' ; 
 so I have to peep through gate at what a man tells 
 me is the railing round C.'s grave, under an ivied 
 wall. Look then at the house where he lived with 
 Dr. Oilman (now Surgeon Brendon's), plain corner 
 house of last century with dormer windows and large 
 window in gable, shaded by a mimosa. Some fine elms 
 and beeches are ranged in front, and tall trees rise 
 behind. Out of one window looks a black cat, perhaps 
 belonging to the Witch of Christabel. Splendid evening, 
 sun-lighted road, down Highgate Hill on omnibus. 
 Fleet Street. Chop at 'The Cock.' Curious old 
 mantelpiece, which I sketched on fly-leaf of Poe's 
 Poems, bought at a book-stall. Had the waiter ever 
 heard of a Mr. Tennyson } — ' Mr. Tennyson, sir ^ — 
 No, sir.' Tried the other waiter : he had heard of 
 him, but had never seen him. 
 
 I. — 'You're not "the plump head-waiter".?' — 'Oh, 
 you mean William, sir. He's here every day but 
 Sunday.' 
 
 Thursday, August^. — Chop at ' Cock' with half a pint 
 of port to drink the Poet's health. The veritable 
 William waited on me. 
 
 ' Are you Mr. Tennyson's friend ' } 
 
 William. — ' He says so, sir.' 
 
 This answer puzzled me. (Does William think it 
 was a liberty to put him in rhyme ?) ' Has he been 
 often here } ' 
 
 W. — ' I don't know his appearance at all, sir. A 
 gen'elman might be coming 'ere for twenty years 
 without my knowing his name. Thousands 'ave asked 
 me the same question, and some won't believe but that 
 I know all about it. But I don't. I should like to 
 see him, — very much. I'm told he's breaking, sir. 
 I should like to see him.' William evidently felt
 
 iS49 LONDON 53 
 
 sorrowful, and in a manner aggrieved, at never having 
 identified the man who spoke of him so familiarly. 
 
 August II. — To Colchester. Find Henry Sutton's 
 lodging. Talk, then out to walk. Visit the castle by 
 twilight, the time for all ruins. Sutton gives me a 
 letter to Mr. Patmore. 
 
 August 15. — Letter from Mr. Coventry Patmore, 
 very kind, and made me happy : ticket for Museum 
 Library enclosed. 
 
 August 16. — To British Museum. I ask for Mr. 
 Patmore, and am shown in to him — a tall, thin, mild- 
 faced young man, very kind. We talk about Blake. 
 We walk through the rooms. 
 
 Friday^ August 17. — To Slater, publisher, and talked 
 to him about a new edition of Blake's poems : civil, 
 and seems inclined to publish. 
 
 Saturday, August 18. — British Museum Library: 
 Mr. Patmore. He helps me to look up Blake, but 
 without success ; they seem to have nothing of his. 
 We look at books of Middle Age Art ; saints and 
 demons. P. tells me he has written a book or article 
 on architecture, with a quite new theory, — ' You will 
 be surprised it has not been hit upon before. Can 
 you walk up with me this evening "? ' — ' Yes.' 
 
 On the way to Camden Town he told me about 
 his new poem. 
 
 Neat small house on left-hand side of road, near a 
 railway bridge. Mrs. Patmore — ' Emily.' Tea and 
 cake. Two small sitting-rooms with folding door 
 between : front room has engraved portraits of Words- 
 worth and Faraday over the mantelpiece ('the two 
 greatest men of our time '), a round table with ten or 
 a dozen books, and plaster cast of a statuette of Puck — 
 just alighted on a mushroom and about to push with 
 his toe a bewildered frog which a snake is on the point 
 of snapping up. You can see that he saves the frog 
 out of fun mostly, and to tease the snake. He is a 
 sturdy elf, plainly, yet not humanly, masculine. A
 
 54 LONDON 1849 
 
 very original bit of work, by ' a young artist named 
 Woolner.' In the back room P.'s writing-table at the 
 window, with a few bookshelves beside it. I noticed 
 Coleridge's Table Talk and Aids to Reflection^ and Keats's 
 Remains. Then we started on a walk northward. 
 Patmore thoroughly agrees with me that artistic form 
 is necessary to poetry. ' Tennyson perhaps likes the 
 " Vision of Sin " best of his own poems. He said it was 
 suggested to him by a line rejected from another poem.' 
 (This line is, I afterwards learned, ' A little grain of 
 conscience made him sour.') 
 
 We came to Hampstead Heath, and looked past a 
 foreground of fir-trees over a wide undulating prospect 
 tufted with trees, and richly cultivated, a lake shining 
 in the distance under the evening sky. On the other 
 side huge London lying sombre and silent. We were 
 just in time to see the effect of the lighting of the 
 lamps. The dusky mass awoke, and here and there, 
 and soon all over, glowed with multitudinous sparks, — 
 ' like,' said Patmore, ' the volcanic crust of the earth 
 not yet cooled ' — or like the advancing judgment of 
 the Last Day : no ark avails against that fiery deluge. 
 The evening was growing cold as we returned to 
 Highgate and descended the hill, P. showing me on 
 the way the house, in a sort of crescent with trees 
 before it, where he formerly lived, and where Emerson 
 and Tennyson sat at his table and liked each other. 
 
 Incidentally a poem was mentioned, ' The Pilot's 
 
 Daughter,' which it seems Emerson showed to Patmore. 
 
 r ' It was mine,' I said ; ' I sent it to Emerson in a 
 
 ■: letter ' (Patmore surprised). ' Are you the writer of 
 
 ^; that ^ I must take care what I say ! ' Then he went 
 
 f on to ask me how much poetry I had written : had I 
 
 \ as many verses as would fill seventy pages ? ' Seventy 
 
 pages like that would be something uncommon ! ' (this 
 
 is mighty encouraging !) After some supper Patmore 
 
 showed me in MS. his poem of' The Storm,' or 'The Two 
 
 Journeys.' Tennyson's mark is on the margin in various
 
 1849 RAMSEY 55 
 
 places : ' + T.' Patmore said : ' When Tennyson finds 
 anything in poetry that touches him — not pathos, but 
 a happy hne or epithet — the tears come into his eyes.' 
 He went on to tell me : ' I have in this room perhaps 
 the greatest literary treasure in England — the manu- 
 script of Tennyson's next poem. It is written in a thing 
 like a butcher's account-book. He left it behind him 
 in his lodging when he was up in London and wrote to 
 me to go and look for it. He had no other copy, and 
 he never remembers his verses. I found it by chance, 
 in a drawer ; if I had been a little later it would prob- 
 ably have been sold to a butter-shop.' Before I went 
 away Patmore took out this MS. book from a cabinet 
 and turned over the leaves before my longing eyes, but 
 Tennyson had told him not to show it to anybody. 
 Mrs. Patmore had copied it out for the press, and T. 
 gave her the original. 
 
 I was not even told the title at this time. It was In 
 Memoriam. 
 
 ' It is the best thing he has ever done,' said 
 Patmore. 
 
 Sunday, August 19. — Dinner at Mr. Patmore's. Dis- 
 cussion on writing poetry — he for consciousness, I for 
 unconsciousness : he thinks a poet ought to know 
 exactly what he wants to do and how to set about it ; 
 I am for knowing all one can, but also for poetising 
 without conscious reference to rules and precedents. I 
 produce my verses — 'Pilot's Daughter,' 'By the 
 Shore,' ' Fairies,' etc. P. praises, and proposes a joint 
 publication. 
 
 Tuesday, August 21. — Eugene P. calls and we walk 
 westward and into Hyde Park. In Piccadilly we meet .; ^J^j 
 Leigh Hunt and I greet him. As we say good-bye 
 Eugene Patmore says, ' I am very glad to have seen 
 Leigh Hunt — he's much pleasanter-looking than I 
 expected, — an excellent face.' Leigh Hunt is now |_ jr 
 sixty-five. If I ever have any doubts about him, they It ^ ^ 
 vanish at one glance of his eye. 
 
 I
 
 56 RAMSEY 1849 
 
 September 4. — Unexpected letter : appointed Sub- 
 Controller at Ballyshannon. ;^i2o a year. 
 
 Ramsey^ October 10. — Walk on shore — into coffee- 
 room : characteristic island scene : Mr. G. at table, a 
 plate of sandwiches before him, nodding stiffly off his chair 
 with half-closed eyes : T. asleep on the sofa. I waken 
 G. for half a minute, when he goes to sofa and lies down, 
 half on T., half on a chair. 1 sketch them. Landlord 
 comes in. ' When you've done with them I want to 
 get 'em off.' Sketch done, I waken them with a tune 
 on the poker and fire shovel : G. puts a bed-chamber 
 candlestick twice on his head before he is convinced 
 it is not his hat ; they get away somehow. Island of 
 Trinculos and Calibans, no Prospero, alas no Miranda. 
 
 Monday^ October 15. — 'Steamer coming ! seen cross- 
 ing the bay,' hurry to boat, with Manx kitten in a 
 basket (G. declares it was stolen from him). Men 
 pull fast, one swinging a lantern for signal — ' She mayn't 
 wait for you ! ' — ' She's brought to ! ' Alongside, I 
 tumble up, boxes ditto ; one of the men — ' You were 
 very near being left behind.' 
 
 Saloon, chat. On deck, Ramsey light in the 
 distance, Point of Ayr brilliant. Good-bye ! 
 
 Manx kitten escapes and is recovered after an excit- 
 ing hunt. Close to Mull of Galloway. Talk with 
 Captain C. Below, all turned in but Mr. L. Mr. F. 
 shows his jolly red John Browdie face over the edge of 
 his berth. Next to him a drunken gentleman trying 
 hard to repeat — 
 
 She walks the water like a-a-a thingolife. 
 
 As if t'dare (stage whisper) th' el'ments, t'strife. 
 
 I turn in, drest. In the morning some one asks, 
 * Steward, where are we now ^ ' 
 
 Steward (aggrieved, with an Ulster accent) : ' Ah, 
 it's a shame for you to be always asking me questions ! 
 You haven't given me a bit a' pace the whole night.' 
 
 ' I only asked you once.*
 
 ,850 BALLYSHANNON 57 
 
 * You've been askin' me all night.' 
 
 It was human, and not a bit insolent. Can an 
 Englishman of the serving class assert himself without 
 insolence ,'' 
 
 Five in the morning, off Portrush, Mr. F. up and 
 others. Drunken gentleman lowered over the side into 
 a boat. I turn to sleep again, till I hear, ' within four 
 miles of Derry,' when up and on deck to a cold fine 
 morning and beautiful broad river. Land at wharf, 
 car to inn, walk up town and back to breakfast. Then 
 railway, and with my cousin Sam Watt to Strabane. 
 Sims's Hotel, greet and am greeted by various — all 
 seems as if it had happened already. 
 
 Wednesday^ October 17. — Up about 7. Wet and 
 windy. O for a coach, not an outside-car ! Tom the 
 waiter (blackish, bilious, middle-aged little man) in a 
 chronic rage with nobody in particular, just as formerly. 
 A coach is to go. Cup of tea. Inside seat 9s. 9d. — 
 Donegal. Letter from Arthur Clough, which I read in 
 coach. Home. Custom-House. 
 
 I forgot to record that on my day of leaving the 
 Bibulous Island, while waiting for the steamer I ordered 
 and drank a glass of whisky toddy, thereby making a 
 sensation in the hotel, for up till then I had never 
 drunk a drop of alcohol in Mona, partly from economy, 
 but more to keep at arm's length the continual incite- 
 ment to liquid excess. If one considers the case as a 
 moraUst, I don't know whether I was right or wrong to 
 take this toddy in extremis. It put me, at all events, 
 in the true light as a voluntary abstainer not a vowed 
 teetotaller, and I am as unwilling to be thought better 
 than I am — as worse. 
 
 Bally shannon., March 25, 1850. — Read announce- 
 ment of new poem by Browning, ' Christmas Eve and 
 Easter Day ' — what will he do with it } 
 
 Saturday^ April 6. — Abbey River, Washpool : sit 
 under shadow of ruined house with back to a rock.
 
 58 BALLYSHANNON 1850 
 
 reading Emerson on Plato, to the tune of running 
 water, — a good accompaniment to study. 
 
 Sunday^ April 7. — A guinea from Household Words 
 for ' Lady Alice,' with a compliment from Dickens. 
 Walk, Rockfields, the valley edge ; Hanagan's steps. 
 After tea wrote ' The Touchstone.' Bed late. 
 
 Friday^ April 12. — Busy at Office. Goethe's Auto- 
 biography. Riverside, lie on grass, hat off, scribbling 
 down poems ; an ant or spider sometimes crossing the 
 sunny page ; bee bustling in my ear. For some days 
 I have written a poem every evening ; am beginning 
 to know how to write poetry. 
 
 Monday^ 22. — Bundoran, walk on shore towards the 
 caves. Read Emerson on Swedenborg, high and pleasant 
 thoughts ; look over the Atlantic to America and 
 to Emerson. Thought of a tragedy. Evening — 
 ' Flowers and Poets.' 
 
 Thursday, April 25. — Letter from Patmore, returning 
 ' The Music Master ' ; is going to show my lyrics to 
 Tennyson. Copy twelve new ones and send them with 
 letter. 
 
 Saturday, April 2'j. — Fine — Stonewold — rode brown 
 mare. Home and find Wordsworth is gone ! Rode 
 back to Stonewold, chanting an improvised psalm to 
 the departed spirit. Do not tell of the death : nobody 
 to care. Sunset beautiful. 
 
 Sunday, April 28. — Lines on Wordsworth's death. 
 Evening — revise ' The Music Master.' 
 
 Tuesday, May 2. — Very fine. Fair Day. Women 
 trying to sell cow, ' As honest a little cow as stands in 
 the fair.' 
 
 Down the Mall with Thoreau's book, tVeek on 
 the Concord and Merrimac Rivers, green slope near the 
 Coves. Boat, floating. Thoreau's nature and freshness, 
 mixed with impatience. Back to town and sit on wall 
 to watch the Fair. 
 
 London, Friday, July 19. — With Woolner, two
 
 iS5o LONDON 59 
 
 Rossettis, and Buchanan Reid in omnibus to Chelsea, to 
 Holman Hunt's lodging, large first-floor room looking 
 on river, near the old church. Deverell — much talk on 
 pictures, etc. ; we have coffee and fruit ; some lie on 
 the floor smoking. 
 
 Elegiac poem — 'To N. P. Rogers, Esq., in Heaven.' 
 Painter proposing to call his picture ' Gil Bias about 
 to endeavour to assume an air of unconcern while 
 waiting on the robbers in their cave ' — a very subtle 
 shade of expression. ' Bring some milk from the 
 pantry,' — Tipsy man in reply : ' Is it done up in paper 
 or lying about loose ^ ' 
 
 Hunt's picture of ' Claudio and Isabella ' ; he has to 
 be at the Royal Academy every morning now at seven, 
 copying for somebody. As it was now late, and his 
 guests showed no wish to depart. Hunt lay down on 
 three chairs for a nap ; but they only made merry of 
 his drowsiness, proposed to sit on him, etc., and so the 
 time lounged on till dawn was broad upon the river 
 and its trailing barges, and D. G. Rossetti (usual 
 Captain on such occasions and notorious night-bird) 
 uprooted himself at last from some cushion or easy- 
 chair, and all departed, after three o'clock, save myself, 
 to whom Hunt kindly offered a spare bed. 
 
 July 21. — To Mrs. Howitt's, tea. Miss Meteyard 
 and others. 
 
 September 7. — Letter from T. Carlyle, Ecclefechan, 
 recommends me to study general history and German. 
 
 September 17. — Letter and portrait from Leigh 
 Hunt. [In Mrs. AlHngham's possession.] — —
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 1851-1853 
 
 I VENTURED to Send my first volume of verse (1850) 
 to Tennyson from Ballyshannon. I don't think he 
 wrote to me, but I heard indirectly that he thought well 
 of it ; and during a visit to London in the summer of 
 1 85 1 Coventry Patmore, to my boundless joy, let me 
 know that I might call on the great Poet, then not long 
 married, and living at Twickenham. 
 
 Saturday^ June 28, was the appointed day, and in the 
 warm afternoon I walked from Twickenham Railway 
 Station to Montpelier Row, quite away from the 
 village. It proved to be a single row of about a dozen 
 moderate-sized houses, that seemed dropped by accident 
 among quiet fields and large trees, * Chapel House ' 
 where T. lived (so called I know not why) being the 
 last at the south end of the terrace, where I think the 
 byroad ended. 
 
 I was admitted, shown upstairs into a room with 
 books lying about, and soon came in a tall, broad- 
 shouldered swarthy man, slightly stooping, with loose 
 dark hair and beard. He wore spectacles, and was 
 obviously very near-sighted. Hollow cheeks and the 
 dark pallor of his skin gave him an unhealthy appear- 
 ance. He was a strange and almost spectral figure. 
 The Great Man peered close at me, and then shook 
 hands cordially, yet with a profound quietude of 
 manner. He was then about forty-one, but looked 
 
 60
 
 I85I LONDON 6 1 
 
 much older, from his bulk, his short-sight, stooping 
 shoulders, and loose careless dress. He looked tired, 
 and said he had been asleep and was suffering from hay- 
 fever. Mrs. Tennyson came in, very sweet and 
 courteous, with low soft voice, and by and by when I 
 rose to take leave she said, ' Won't you stay for dinner ? ' 
 which I was too happy to do. Mr. Tennyson went 
 out, and returning took me upstairs to his study — a 
 small room looking out to the back over gardens and 
 trees. He took up my volume of poems, saying, ' You 
 can see it is a good deal dirtier than most of the 
 books.' Then turning the pages, he made critical 
 remarks, mostly laudatory. Of ' Cross Examination ' he 
 said, ' I looked sharp at it to see if any of the rhymes 
 were forced.' He objected to ' rose ' and ' clothes ' in 
 ' The Touchstone ' (since corrected). Then he asked, 
 ' Do you dislike to hear your own things read ? ' and 
 receiving a respectfully encouraging reply, read two of 
 the ' iEolian Harps,' first, ' Is it all in vain .? ' then, 
 ' What saith the River ? ' The rich, slow solemn chant 
 of his voice glorified the little poems. In reading the 
 last line of the second — ' For ever, ever, ever fled 
 away ! ' he paused after the two ' evers ' and gave the 
 third as by an afterthought, thus adding greatly to the 
 impressiveness. He especially admired — 
 
 Night with her cold fingers 
 
 Sprinkles moonbeams on the dim sea-waste. 
 
 I said, ' That was Donegal Bay.' T. replied, ' I 
 knew you took it direct from nature.' The pieces never 
 seemed to me so good before or since. 
 
 At dinner there was talk of Wordsworth, etc. 
 T. spoke of George Meredith's poems, lately sent to 
 him, author only twenty-three ; ' I thanked him for it 
 and praised it — " Love in the Valley " best.' I said I 
 also knew the book, and had bought it. T. gets enough 
 poetry without buying : ' Thev send me nothing but 
 poetry ! ' — ' As if you lived on jam,' I said.
 
 62 LONDON 1851 
 
 T. — ' And such jam ! Yes, I did lately receive a 
 prose book, Critical Strictures on Great Authors^ " a 
 first hastily scribbled effusion," the writer said. There 
 was this in it, " We exhort Tennyson to abandon the 
 weeping willow with its fragile and earthward-tending 
 twigs, and adopt the poplar, with its one Heaven- 
 pointing finger." ' 'A pop'lar poet,' says I. 
 
 Aft:er Mrs. Tennyson had gone upstairs, Patmore was 
 announced. T. said, ' You didn't know Allingham was 
 here,' and it rejoiced me to hear the familiar mention 
 of my name. Over our port we talked of grave 
 matters. T. said his belief rested on two things, a 
 
 'Chief Intelligence and Immortality.' 'I could not 
 
 eat my dinner without a belief in immortality. If I 
 didn't believe in that, I'd go down immediately and jump 
 off Richmond Bridge.' Then to me, rather shortly, 
 * Why do you laugh } ' I murmured that there was 
 something ludicrous in the image of his jumping off 
 Richmond Bridge. ' Well,' he rejoined, ' in such a 
 case I'd as soon make a comic end as a tragic' I 
 went out to the garden, where were Mrs. Tennyson 
 with Mrs. Patmore and her sister. Returning to the 
 house there was tea, to which Tennyson came in, mutter- 
 ing as he entered the room ' we exhort Tennyson.' 
 
 I smiled. He said, ' What are you laughing at ? You 
 don't know what I'm saying.' I said ' O yes, I do.' 
 
 After tea he went upstairs and smoked, Patmore 
 and I sitting with him : English and Irish character- 
 istics ; the English an ill-mannered people. Edgar 
 Poe : T. did not know ' The Raven,' and I recited 
 some lines of it, to which T. listened attentively. New 
 Forest : Tom Taylor's story of artist painting in the 
 Forest suddenly seeing a little brown man, who had 
 crept up unseen and clutched his bottle : ' Gin } ' says 
 he ; ' Water,' says the painter, and the little brown man 
 immediately disappeared. When we took leave T. 
 came out to the gate and again shook hands with me. 
 I said, ' Ask me to find a lodge for you on the West
 
 1853 LONDON 63 
 
 coast of Ireland ' ; he, ' I should like it very much.' 
 We walked to Richmond railway station, I feeling that 
 a longing of my life had been fulfilled, and as if I had 
 been familiar for years with this great and simple 
 man. 
 
 In 1853, being in London, from Ireland, for a short 
 holiday, I wrote to Twickenham and had a kind reply 
 under the Poet's hand asking me to come, and adding 
 
 ' As my wife is not very well you must " tread 
 
 softly and speak low." ' So on Thursday the first of 
 November I went from Waterloo Station to Richmond 
 by rail, walked over Richmond Bridge — a fine day, 
 autumnal woodlands mirrored in the river, struck a field- 
 path on the left, and passing after a bit under some tall 
 trees emerged through a little gate upon the grass-plot 
 fronting Montpelier Terrace. As I came forward to 
 Chapel House two other men approached the door, one 
 of them something like T., and went in, not without a 
 suspicious glance or two at me. 
 
 I was soon in the Poet's much-longed-for presence, 
 who shook hands in the most delightful, simple, friendly 
 way, and asked me to stay and dine ; then said he had 
 to go away for a little and handed me a book for my 
 amusement. When he returned he was carrying in his 
 arms his baby son, called ' Hallam ' ; the child had a 
 ball to amuse him, which he liked to drop on the floor 
 exclaiming, ' Tha ! ' or ' Da ! ' as it fell. Then T. took 
 me up to wash my hands in the dressing-room, its 
 window looking across several gardens, and a sunset 
 sky shining through the trees. Returning to the 
 drawing-room I found Mrs. Tennyson — sweet, pale, 
 and kind ; Mr. Frederick Tennvson the eldest of the 
 brothers, and Mr. Edward FitzGerald {Omar Khayyam), 
 the two gentlemen whom I had encountered at the front 
 door. Mr. FitzGerald (' Fitz '), an old and intimate 
 friend, told droll stories with a quaint gravity, much 
 amusing Mrs. Tennyson in particular. One was about
 
 64 LONDON 1855 
 
 old Miss Edgeworth, whom he knew, and her turban. 
 She used to take it off for coolness and resume it when 
 visitors were announced. One day by some mischance 
 a strange gentleman came into the room and found her 
 writing with her almost bald pate plainly visible. 
 Miss E. started up with the greatest agility seized her 
 turban which lay close by and darted through an 
 opposite door, whence she quickly reappeared with 
 the decoration upon her head, but unluckily turned 
 wrong side foremost. He also told us of Mr. Edge- 
 worth's tombs of his three wives in the park at 
 Edge worthsto wn . 
 
 After dinner, poetry was the subject. Mr. Fitz- 
 Gerald stood up for Pope's ' Homer,' and tried in vain 
 to get T.'s approval. 
 
 * You think it very wonderful surely ? * 
 
 T. — ' I don't think I do.' 
 
 ' O yes, you do, Alfred ! ' 
 
 T. — ' No, I do not.' 
 
 Frederick T. set Schiller above Goethe, to which I 
 strongly objected. A. T. said : ' If one of you is for 
 Goethe and the other for Schiller, you'll never agree on 
 poetry.' Moore was mentioned ; his skilful versifica- 
 tion in fitting words to music. T. objected to the 
 line — 
 
 She is far from the land where her young hero sleeps. 
 
 I did not find much the matter with it, but T, 
 would not allow ' young hero ' to pass, the metre 
 requiring a dactyl there : ' I wonder you don't see,' 
 he said. ' Subaltern ' I suggested. ' Yes, that would 
 do, as far as sound goes.' We turned to Campbell's 
 * Soldier's Dream,' and T. objected to ' Our bugles sang 
 truce,' both for the two ss and the accentuation. Of 
 the two lines — 
 
 And thousands had sunk on the ground overpowered. 
 The weary to sleep and the wounded to die —
 
 1853 LONDON 65 
 
 he said, ' Those are perfect.' Then we spoke of 
 Shelley's accents, and I quoted — 
 
 Of the snake's adamantine voluminousness, 
 
 but without effect. I called Browning a vivid man, 
 to which T. assented, adding, * How he did flourish 
 about when he was here ! ' 
 
 Then came on Dickens' cockney History of England^ 
 Professor Aytoun (not praised), Thackeray's Book of 
 Snobs, and Mr. Martin Tupper. 
 
 I spilt some port on the cloth, and T,, with his 
 usual imperturbability spread salt on it, remarking as 
 he did so, ' I believe it never comes out ! ' Then we 
 went upstairs to tea. I praised the view from the 
 windows at the back. He said nothing would grow in 
 his own garden but stones : ' I believe they grow. I 
 pick up all I can see, and the next time I come there 
 are just as many.' Then T., Frederick T., Edward F. 
 and I to the study, where smoking and stories, some of 
 an ammoniacal saltness. When I took leave, Mr. 
 Frederick T. shook hands kindly, spite of our differences 
 of opinion, and T. came with me to the front garden 
 gate. 
 
 When I got to station the last train was gone, and 
 1 walked into London by Kew and Turnham Green, 
 followed all along Kew Garden wall by a possible 
 footpad, whom I outstept.
 
 CHAPTER IV {continued) 
 
 1850-1863 
 
 [From 1850 until 1853 Allingham held the post of 
 Custom-House Officer in his native town, Ballyshannon. 
 Under these dates the entries in his diaries were, for 
 the most part, in the form of memoranda. No fuller 
 record is forthcoming, the only account which he 
 wrote out in detail being that of his two visits to 
 Tennyson at Twickenham. The whole would doubtless 
 have served as material for the autobiography which he 
 began in later life. Wherever possible, extracts have 
 been made. 
 
 These quiet studious years were interrupted only by 
 visits to London, and by shorter visits, from time to 
 time, to Dublin and other places nearer home. Ailing- 
 ham's reading was wide and incessant. Besides keeping 
 abreast of current literature — in close touch with the 
 output of his many contemporaries — he worked 
 diligently at history, at Latin, at Greek ; and with 
 these studies found time also to practise his violin. 
 After the day's work and the evening's study he played 
 it, not infrequently, into the next morning's hours. 
 His quick appreciation of nature filled his note-book 
 with almost daily impressions. No effect of sea or sky, 
 mountain or lake, field or road, escaped him ; and to 
 the record of these larger impressions was added that 
 of a careful observation of the growth of leaves, of 
 flowers, and of the doings of the birds. Now it was 
 
 66
 
 i85o BALLYSHANNON 67 
 
 the sight of ' a beautiful greyhound,' the ' running of 
 a rabbit,' or the flight of a bird that arrested him, and 
 found a place among the memoranda he so faithfully 
 kept. 
 
 For comradeship, for experience of people and of 
 character, he was always ready. He never failed to 
 perceive the human incidents by the way : in the routine 
 of his daily life, or in the more varied opportunities of 
 travel — in the train, on the coach, by the roadside. 
 
 He was keenly ahve to the happenings in his own 
 town, and his sympathy was for the difficulties and 
 sufferings of the unfortunate no less than for the 
 interests and pleasures of the well-to-do. Those in 
 trouble were sure of his attention. He had that gift 
 of thoughtfulness which means so much to the sufferer. 
 In his heart the flower of kindness bloomed day by day 
 for those who needed sympathy. 
 
 He was often in the infirmary, to sit with a sick 
 neighbour, and in the National School to see how it 
 fared there with the children. To festive gatherings 
 he often contributed by singing, and he never failed to 
 attend the Ballyshannon Fairs. At one of these he 
 records how he went into a * show ' where there was 
 a gaming-table, and ' put on once,' — to see what it 
 was like, as, later, he ' once ' attended high mass. 
 
 His physical energy was as great as his mental 
 activity : AUingham was a rider, a skater, a swimmer, 
 and a great walker. Whenever he came upon young 
 people playing games, jumping or running, he joined 
 their sport, and was, as a rule, the winner. Even his 
 scanty notes at this time show what pleasure it gave 
 him to ' climb the rocks,' or row, or ' wade out bare- 
 legged to the fishing boats.' 
 
 To children his kindness was unfailing, and there 
 are many entries, through these peaceful years, of his 
 talks and games with the little ones about him. 
 
 In 1850 AUingham published his volume of Poems. 
 In the June of this year he was in London, for a few
 
 68 LONDON 1850 
 
 days, the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Clough at 
 University Hall, and went to Willis's Rooms to hear 
 one of Thackeray's Lectures on the English Humorists. 
 There he met Dickens, Forster, and Mrs. Carlyle, and 
 a few days later he dined with Thackeray and Father 
 Prout. Under this date he wrote, ' Thackeray hoaxes 
 us by describing the night as lovely, bright moon, 
 stars, etc. — is in fact raining, and cabs are sent for.' 
 
 He was also at a performance given at the Hanover 
 Square Rooms, in which Dickens played Boots, and 
 Mrs. Gamp ' in brown bonnet and corkscrew curls.' 
 
 During this time in London he saw a good deal of 
 William and Mary Howitt, then living, in St. John's 
 Wood, but his chief companions were Dante Gabriel 
 Rossetti and Woolner, and their party frequently 
 included William Rossetti, F. G, Stephens, Blanchard, 
 and Hannay. 
 
 He was often at the opera, and much of his time 
 was given to the study of the pictures of the Pre- 
 Raphaelite Brotherhood. 
 
 In August he was at home again, attending to 
 the Customs, and making constant notes of the 
 beautiful aspects of Ballyshannon, especially of the 
 sea. The following was written on October 2 1 of this 
 year : — 
 
 ' Shaded avenue of vaulted foliage, pillared with 
 slender stems. The trees, moved by the night-wind, 
 mingled their rustling with the rustling of the unseen 
 rivulet. In the foreground drooped, like a green 
 mist, the long pale leafage of a large sallow. Risen 
 behind the fluctuating shade there quivered through 
 it, in threads and sparks of fire, the loveliness of the 
 young golden moon ; and high above the highest dim 
 tree-tops came out one star, trembling.' 
 
 Through these years his reading included Homer, 
 Plato, Plutarch, Meredith's Poems, Coleridge, Emerson, 
 Gibbon, Dante, Swedenborg, Byron, Barnes, Bacon's 
 Essays — he read and walked every evening. But in
 
 1854 COLERAINE 69 
 
 spite of this rich company of minds he was sometimes 
 ' unhappy and discontented,' and regretted his want of 
 'a regular system of education.' 
 
 In September 1853 he left Ballyshannon, exchang- 
 ing his post for the Customs Office at Coleraine ; but 
 he found little to do in that town, and speaks of his 
 work there as ' morose duty.' His daily interest was 
 in reading, correspondence, and the writing of his 
 poems. He made several friends during his short 
 stay, and it was there the children (for whom he seems 
 to have always had sweets in his pocket) used to sing, 
 ' here comes the lozenge man,' when they saw him 
 coming. In October he went to Belfast to inquire 
 about some literary post with a publisher ; it evidently 
 came to nothing, for later in the same month he was 
 in London, on leave, once more among his old friends, 
 and constantly with Rossetti. 
 
 Early in 1854 Allingham gave up the Customs, 
 determined to try literary life in London. The 
 following letters, to his father and sister, were written 
 at this time.] 
 
 Coleraine, Feb. 12, 1854. 
 
 My dear Father — I have really and truly given up the 
 Customs — as I mentioned yesterday in a letter to Catherine — 
 and am to leave this on Thursday next for London via Belfast. 
 Having decided on the step, it would have been useless to 
 delay, especially as the opening of the London season is the 
 very best time for entering on my new occupation. How 
 precisely I am to be employed and what immediate income I 
 may expect out of it I think it better to defer speaking of till 
 I have made a beginning, but I will write you after my arrival 
 in London, and regularly afterwards, and I hope to pay you a 
 long visit in the latter part of the summer, and to see you 
 enjoying plenty of the open air. The Premier and the Home 
 Secretary are your seniors by half a dozen years each, and their 
 posts are no idle ones. 
 
 It is natural that my resolve should appear to you and others 
 to be a rash one — an unusual one I know it is, but the circum- 
 stances are unusual, and after giving the thing long consideration
 
 70 LONDON i8s4 
 
 I feel that I am right — whether I shall succeed or not to the 
 extent of my hopes. 
 
 I neither expect, nor desire much, to make more money, 
 for a year or two, than will support me respectably ; and mean- 
 while I shall endeavour to make what use I can of the means 
 afforded me by London to compensate for the defectiveness of 
 my education. 
 
 I know London pretty well — shall live regularly and quietly 
 — have many and good friends there, and hope to strengthen 
 and extend my acquaintance — and shall have opportunities, of 
 various kinds, quite unattainable elsewhere. If I have good 
 health, I see little risk in the enterprise, and incalculable 
 advantages. At all events, I could not be satisfied without 
 making the trial, and the step is irrevocably taken, so pray 
 don't throw cold water on it, which could only serve to make 
 me uncomfortable, without doing any good : and do not be 
 uneasy about it. As I shall probably make some calls on the 
 road I may not reach London before Monday or Tuesday 
 next. I do not yet know the address of my lodgings, but 
 letters sent, meanwhile, to the care of C. Patmore, Esq., 8 
 [The] Grove, Kentish Town, London, will reach me. 
 
 Give my best regards to all at home, and believe me, my 
 dear Father, yours most sincerely, W. A., Jr. 
 
 Derby, 
 
 Wednesday, Feb. 22, 1854. 
 
 My dear Catherine — I wrote to my father from Liver- 
 pool, and also sent him a Daily News with a long Ode of 
 mine called ' Peace and War,' which I hope has arrived. 
 
 I came here yesterday to spend a day or two with my friend 
 Mr. Gurney [not Coventry) Patmore, who is editor of the Derby 
 Mercury^ and may not reach London before Friday. ... I 
 dined with Mr. John Miller, a rich and well-known merchant, 
 who is a great picture buyer, and an admirer of Millais, Hunt, 
 etc. He has a fine family and is an agreeable acquaintance. 
 
 But I also met a man of greater interest — Nathaniel 
 Hawthorne. I called on him at his Consul's office, a dirty 
 little busy place on the line of docks, and was very kindly 
 received. He happened to have heard my name. He is about 
 forty-six years old, middle sized, hair dark, forehead bald, features 
 elegant though American, cheeks shaved, eyes dark. He is 
 very bashful in manner, and speaks little and in a low tone.
 
 1854 LONDON 71 
 
 He has not yet had time to visit London, but intends to do 
 so some time in Spring, when I hope to see more of him. 
 He looked oddly out of place in Liverpool. I w^ill virite again 
 from London w^hen I arrive, and meanwhile remain, my dear 
 Catherine, ever yours, W. A., Jr. 
 
 London, 50 Southampton Row, 
 Russell Sqr., March 8, 1854. 
 
 My dear Father — I was very glad to receive your kind 
 letters — also one, a day or two ago, from Catherine. I have 
 got into lodgings down in London, in a central situation. I 
 have at 1 7/- a week (which is thought low) a sitting-room and 
 bedroom which are comfortable enough, and the street is a 
 wide and good one, — but I am not sure that I am settled yet. 
 As to my employment, it will be writing for newspapers and 
 periodicals — of which more by and by ; but the subjects in 
 general would not be of much interest in Ballyshannon. 
 
 Whenever I do anything that I think you would like to see, 
 I will take care to send it to you. There was a little Nursery 
 Song of mine called ' Wishing ' in Household Words some weeks 
 ago. Mr. Dickens is going to write a story called ' Hard 
 Times,' as long as five monthly numbers, in Household IVords. 
 He lives within two streets of me, but I have not yet seen 
 him. I hear he writes all day and in the evening takes a long 
 walk in the direction of Hampstead or Highgate. 
 
 At first I cannot expect to do more than support myself, 
 and must feel some degree of anxiety as to my prospects, but 
 if my hopes of using properly the advantages of London be 
 not disappointed I shall in time make a good position. This 
 evening I bought 2 packets of flower seeds in Covent Garden 
 Market and sent them by post, one to you and the other to 
 Mr. Stubbs. As the packets are different, you can, if you like, 
 exchange some of the seeds with each other. I hope to see 
 some of them blowing in flowers in July. 
 
 I have had a note from Mr. Hawthorne, which I send you, 
 as you may like to see it. Pray return it at your leisure. . . . 
 Whenever you want anything done in London, let me know, 
 and I shall be most happy to attend to it, and with kindest 
 regards to all at home I remain my dear Father, always 
 affectionately yours, W. A., Jr. 
 
 [Immediately upon coming to London he was at 
 work for Household Words, The Athenaeum, and various 
 reviews.
 
 72 LONDON 1854 
 
 He walked and dined almost daily with Rossetti, 
 and gave him, certainly, one sitting for his portrait ; 
 but this was probably never finished — there is no 
 further record of it in the diaries. 
 
 During these months, also, he saw a great deal of 
 Clough, of old Mr. and Mrs. Rossetti, and of Christina 
 Rossetti. 
 
 Everything promised success along the lines of pro- 
 fessional journalism, but this profession was not con- 
 genial to Allingham, and the following letter to his 
 sister, in June of the same year, gives very definitely 
 his reasons for preferring his former way of life.] 
 
 London, i Queen Sqr., Bloomsbury, 
 June 3, 1854. 
 
 My dear Catherine — After many delays I began this note, 
 as above, three days ago, and was interrupted by somebody 
 coming in. I would have written to you long ago, but for the 
 way I was circumstanced. I still like London, and find I could 
 make quite as large an income by writing as I expected. I had 
 yesterday a letter from an editor who heard of my intention 
 of going away, offering me ;^ioo a year certain for doing 
 something for him once a fortnight, and this is the yd regular 
 engagement that has been offered to me, with others in pros- 
 pect \ so that if I would ' take off my coat to it ' (which is 
 what Thackeray advised), I could make at the very outset 
 ^300 or ;^400 a year. But to do this I must give myself up 
 entirely to desultory and ephemeral writing, truckle to editors 
 and people, and undergo countless anxieties and annoyances, 
 which would not at all suit me ; and therefore I think it much 
 better, all things considered, to return into quiet exile and 
 make the best of that. ... I believe all my friends here are 
 sorry I am going— though some, Carlyle in particular, think it 
 a blessed escape for me out of the profession of literature. . . . 
 On the ist of June I was at the Annual Meeting of Charity 
 Children in St. Paul's — very pretty to see. Countless rows of 
 boys and girls, each school with its own uniform, banners, 
 beadles, etc., ranged under the dome, all rising and sitting down 
 and singing together. After the service, it took them perhaps 
 half an hour to march out, by two doors, all in their new 
 clothes for the year. All the girls wear white mob caps and
 
 I8S4 LONDON 73 
 
 white aprons, but the gowns and ribbons of the different schools 
 vary in colour, — the prettiest dresses, I think, were buft frocks, 
 blue ribbons, and long yellow gloves. The beadles, in gold 
 laced gowns and cocked hats of immense size, walked in front 
 of each division, and were received with expressions of ad- 
 miration (sometimes ironical) by the crowd outside- — -but the 
 children seemed to make a pleasant impression on everybody. 
 I felt proud to recognise the regiment of 'Oueen Sqr., Blooms- 
 bury,' among this army of infantry. I have come to like 
 my lodgings very much and they are admired by all my 
 visitors ; being both quiet and lively — for though there is no 
 thoroughfare for carriages at the upper end of the Square, it has 
 a great many foot passengers and is full of children, having a 
 fine plane tree, several poplars and hawthorns, and a grass plot 
 in front of my three windows. I can go into the garden when 
 I like, and have the gardener to touch his gold-laced hat to 
 me, under the shadow of Queen Anne, whose statue and title 
 adorn the Square. Part of one of the lines of street leading 
 down from it to Holborn, and that thro' which I usually pass, 
 is Kingsgate Street, — in which there is an Easy Shaving shop ; 
 but Mr, Sweedlepipe seems to have given way to a successor, 
 and I have not ventured to inquire if Mrs. Gamp were 
 within. . . , 
 
 Tell Edward ^ his fish is admirable, and admired by artists. 
 Of course it is from a book ? Let him try some simple 
 thing from nature.— Best regards to all, from yours my dear 
 Catherine ever affectionately W. A., Jr. 
 
 [Allingham's friends, on the whole, thought his 
 decision to leave London wise. Carlyle, in particular, 
 declared himself ' very glad to heaF~it,' and added 
 characteristically, when saying good-bye, ' you'd have 
 gone from bad to worse ; now you can do your day's 
 work, and if you have anything to say or write, do so ; 
 and if no man will have it, you can say, " well, thank 
 God, I can do without selling it." ' 
 
 Allingham obtained another appointment in the 
 Customs at New Ross ; and on the eve of his departure 
 thence he was busy with a last sitting to Munro for his 
 bust (a cast of which is now in the possession of Mrs. 
 Allingham), and going over his Day and Night Songs 
 
 1 Allingham's hull-brother.
 
 74 NEW ROSS 1856 
 
 with Leigh Hunt, Rossetti ' doing ivy leaves on Day 
 and Night Songs' ^ 
 
 A remark of Kingsley's, which evidently pleased 
 Allingham, was recorded on one of these farewell days : 
 it was the description of the Atlantic wave as ' a wall 
 of water a mile long walking in and dashing itself into 
 ten thousand shivers against the cliffs.' 
 
 On July 5, he was at his new post, working at the 
 Music Master^ and in the autumn of this year he wrote, 
 among other poems, his well-known, ' Robin Redbreast.' 
 
 He quickly made himself acquainted with the walks 
 and excursions around Ross, and there are many little 
 pen-and-ink sketches in his diary of the places which 
 specially interested him. There is a pretty entry, this 
 spring, of an accidental meeting with three little children 
 in the rain, and of how they had to shelter together 
 under the laurels, and saw the horse-chestnut buds 
 bursting into leaf ; and of how they went home together 
 under an umbrella, and a pair of clear eyes ' came peep- 
 ing from under a little blue cloak.' 
 
 In July this year he went to the Lakes for his 
 holiday, and in November he was back in his old place 
 at Ballyshannon, having effected another exchange with 
 the Customs. Here reading went on as steadily as 
 ever : he added astronomy to his other studies, and his 
 notes show that he was often ' out late at night — to see 
 stars.' 
 
 Early in 1856 Allingham received the first number 
 of the Oxford and Cambridge Magazine^ praising The 
 Germ^ and writing of Rossetti's illustration to Ailing- 
 ham's poem, ' The Maids of Elfin Mere,' as ' the best 
 drawing that has ever appeared in illustration of a book.' 
 His annual visit to London, this year, took place in 
 May, and one of his first calls was with Arthur Hughes 
 upon Rossetti, who, however, was not at home, but 
 
 1 This refers to the design which Rossetti made for a cover to Ailing- 
 ham's Day and Night Songs ; as it was not used, a reproduction of it is 
 given on the opposite page.
 
 From a Design in Colour by D. G. Rossetti tor the Cover of 
 Dav and Night Songs.
 
 1857 LONDON 75 
 
 whose picture of Dante's Dream was discovered some- 
 where in the room. It was put on the easel, and 
 Allingham made a Httle note in his diary of the ' two 
 lovely figures' and * rainbow of angels.'^ The visitors 
 also came upon his picture called ' Found,' in one of 
 the many stages of its progress, — 'The calf in cart and 
 bit of wall,' Allingham writes — that calf which grew so 
 many times into a cow during the thirty years in which 
 the picture was being painted. 
 
 He made many excursions, this month, with Rossetti 
 and Miss Siddal, and he was always of the ' assemblage ' 
 which gathered so frequently at Rossetti's rooms. 
 
 One specially pleasant evening he recorded, when he 
 dined at Mr. and Mrs. Tom Taylor's with Tennyson 
 and Holman Hunt, and they sat under a walnut tree, 
 while Mrs. Tom Taylor sang ' The Brook,' and Hunt 
 and Tennyson talked about Jerusalem. 
 
 In March 1857 Allingham seems to have been in 
 Dublin, at a reception at the Castle, and at this time he 
 mentions a visit in Belfast to Mr. McCracken, one of 
 the first patrons of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. 
 
 In July of this year he was in London, seeing a 
 good deal of William Morris, at the Burne-Joneses, and 
 also at Morris's own rooms in Red Lion Square, when 
 the talk was of ' mediaevalism,' of ' beauty of form and 
 colour,' and of the subjects in which Morris was the 
 great master. 
 
 During this holiday there were many delightful 
 breakfast parties, which included Hughes, Whitley 
 Stokes, Stephens, Boyce, Hannay, Patmore, Rossetti, 
 Morris, and Burne-Jones. 
 
 Carlyle he saw many times during this visit, and he 
 records* at length a characteristic answer to a suggestion 
 of his that Carlyle should write his autobiography : — 
 
 'I would,' said Carlyle, 'as soon think of cutting 
 
 1 Rossetti gave Allingham a pencil study for this picture, in which 
 Allingham stood, for a few minutes, as model for profile and hand. It is 
 now in Mrs. Allingham's possession.
 
 76 PARIS 1858 
 
 my throat with my penknife when I get back home ! — 
 
 the biographers, too ; if those gentlemen would let me 
 
 ■■ alone I should be much obliged to them. I would say, 
 
 . as Shakespeare would say to Peter Cunningham, " Sweet 
 
 I friend, for Jesus' sake forbear ! " ' 
 
 This holiday was finished by AUingham at the Lakes, 
 where he visited the Tennysons at Coniston. In the 
 autumn there is, in his diary, mention of a letter in 
 connection with the Professorship of English at Cork, 
 which called forth a note of discontent : ' If I had [but] 
 entered Queen's College four years ago,' he says — ' dis- 
 satisfied and weary, twisted and deranged.' But the 
 mood does not last long : quite soon again he writes, 
 ' I lie on the grass in the sun, the bay and green hills 
 before me, and read Benvenuto Cellini's Autobiography.' 
 The following is an extract from a note-book, of 
 August 1858, of a meeting with Thackeray] : — 
 
 Returning to Paris, after a short tour in Switzer- 
 land and North Italy, I found Thackeray in the Hotel 
 Bristol with his two daughters. He not well — often in 
 bed till mid-day or later — struggling with (Pendennis), 
 but in the evening usually recovering himself. 
 
 I told him I had been with the Brownings (who were 
 then in Paris, staying in the Rue Castiglioni, No. 6). 
 
 ' Browning was here this morning,' Thackeray said, 
 j ' what spirits he has — almost too much for me in my 
 I weak state. He almost blew me out of bed ! ' 
 
 ' A wonderful fellow, indeed ! ' 
 
 ' Yes, and he doesn't drink wine.' 
 
 ' He's already screwed up to concert pitch.' 
 
 ' Far above it. But I can't manage his poetry. 
 What do you say ? ' 
 
 (I spoke highly of it), 
 
 ' Well, you see, I want poetry to be musical, to run 
 sweetly.' 
 
 ' So do I ' 
 
 ' Then that does for your friend B. ! '
 
 (C illi<ini - ~( Uiiujiuiin
 
 1858 PARIS 77 
 
 I spoke of Browning's other qualities as so splendid 
 as to make him, as it were, a law in himself. But 
 Thackeray only smiled and declined further discussion. 
 
 ' He has a good belief, in himself, at all events. I 
 suppose he doesn't care whether people praise him 
 or not.' 
 
 ' I think he does, very much.' 
 
 ' O does he ^ Then I'll say something about him 
 in a number.' 
 
 Thackeray took me to dine with him in the Palais 
 Royal. He noticed with quiet enjoyment every little 
 incident — beginning with the flourish with which our 
 waiter set down the dishes of Ostend oysters. After 
 tasting his wine Thackeray said, looking at me solemnly 
 through his large spectacles, ' One's first glass of wine 
 in the day is a great event.' 
 
 That dinner was delightful. He talked to me with 
 as much ease and familiarity as if I had been a favourite 
 nephew. 
 
 After dinner Thackeray proposed that we should go 
 to the Palais Royal Theatre, but on issuing forth he 
 changed his mind, and said we would call up Father 
 Prout. ' His quarters are close by. You know him, 
 don't you ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, I know that singing priest a little.' 
 
 He was then Paris Correspondent of the Globe^ and 
 his letters were much admired. It was said that the 
 Globe had been obliged to buy a fount of Greek type 
 by reason of Mahony's fondness for classical quotations. 
 
 In a narrow street at the back of the Palais Royal, 
 in a large lowish room on the ground floor, we found 
 the learned and witty Padre, loosely arrayed, reclining in 
 front of a book and a bottle of Burgundy. He greeted 
 us well, but in a low voice and said, ' Evening boys, 
 there's a young chap asleep there in the corner.' And 
 in a kind of recess we noted something like bed-clothes. 
 Thackeray was anxious to know who this might be, and 
 Prout explained that it was a young Paddy from Cork
 
 78 WEIMAR i8s9 
 
 or thereabouts, who had been on a lark in Paris and 
 spent his money. Prout found him 'hard up,' and know- 
 ing something of his friends in Ireland had taken him in 
 to board and lodge, pending the arrival of succour. 
 
 This piece of humanity was much to Thackeray's 
 taste, as you may suppose. Thackeray said the 
 Burgundy was ' too strong,' and had brandy and water 
 instead. 
 
 We talked among other things of Dickens. I 
 said how much a story of Dickens might be improved 
 by a man of good taste with a pencil in his hand, by 
 merely scoring out this and that. 
 
 Says Thackeray (with an Irish brogue), ' Young man, 
 you're threadin' on the tail o' me coat ! ' 
 
 1 did not understand at first, 
 
 ' What you've just said applies very much to your 
 humble servant's things.' 
 
 I disclaimed this, and Prout said emphatically, ' Not 
 a word too much in them ! ' 
 
 [In 1859 Allingham was in London in September — 
 * Three hours in D. G. R.'s rooms as of old ' — and the 
 month following he was travelling in Holland and 
 Germany. 
 
 He spent three days at Weimar, and on October 22 
 he writes in his diary] — 
 
 To Goethe's House, with Schuchardt, who was his 
 copyist for some years. 
 
 The hall. 
 
 The stairs (bronzed casts — one, a boy). 
 
 The lobby. 
 
 The reception rooms with glass cases, busts, drawers 
 of medals, etc. Torso (of a boy .'*) at end. 
 
 The working room, etc., low and plain. 
 
 First, clothes-room, old boots of the anklejack sort, 
 flannel shirts, dress coat, old hat (very big). Writing- 
 room, desks, little glass Napoleon, memoranda of annual 
 events : pasteboard pyramid ' for judging works of
 
 1862 LONDON 79 
 
 art,' on the sides, each a different colour, the words, 
 Verstandt, Vernunft, Sinnlichkeit, Phantasie. Cushion 
 for leaning arms on. 
 
 Bedroom, green arm-chair wherein he died, medicine- 
 bottle. Lumber-room beyond. I open shutter of 
 bedroom. 
 
 Book-room, narrow and dark, row of shelves in the 
 centre. Carlyle's German Romances (uncut), with C.'s 
 writing descriptive of sketches of his house in Scotland. 
 
 Dine with Mr. Marshall at the summer Club House 
 on the Hill, and have genial talk, then to his house ; he 
 shows his poems in the Republic of Letters^ gives me 
 Goethe's Letters of F. von Stein. 
 
 [On November 8 he writes : ' at home in this old 
 Ballyshannon,' and soon his 'Nightingale Valley' appears, 
 and he mentions letters of thanks, for copies, from 
 Rossetti, Patmore, Woolner, and Stokes. 
 
 On December 28 is entered : 'My father's birth- 
 day — seventy years.' 
 
 Allingham remained in Ballyshannon through i860, 
 1 861, 1862, but during the two earlier years he made 
 very few entries in his diaries. 
 
 In May i860 he was in London, and writes: ' In 
 Carlyle's garden, some twenty yards by six ; ivy at the 
 end. Three or four liliac bushes ; an ash stands on 
 your left ; a little copper beech on your right gives just 
 an umbrella to sit under when the sun is hot ; a vine 
 or two on one wall, neighboured by a jasmine — one 
 pear tree.' 
 
 In September 1862 Allingham exchanged his post 
 at Ballyshannon for one in the London Customs : but 
 work at the docks was not congenial, and this second 
 attempt to settle in London was again unsuccessful. 
 He seems to have been ill and depressed during this 
 time, and in October he was away on sick leave. 
 
 The great pleasure of the year was his intimacy with 
 the Burne-Joneses ; much of his time was spent with them.
 
 8o LONDON 1862 
 
 This autumn, also, he often saw WiUiam Morris, 
 in Red Lion Square, and went down several times with 
 him to the Red House. He writes of Mrs. Morris — 
 ' tall, wonderful.' 
 
 There are many pleasant pictures of the Burne- 
 Joneses — ' Edward drawing, Mrs, Edward cutting out 
 shoes for Pip ' ; or again, ' Mrs. Edward sings old 
 ballads and Rossetti's songs.' With them he also 
 frequently met Swinburne, Webb, and Faulkner. One 
 day he records, more fully, an evening with Rossetti, 
 ' lying on the grass in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and talking 
 with him of Christina's poems ; ' and an account of a 
 visit to the Carlyles on August 10 of this year, is 
 given here at length : — ] 
 
 Being up from Ballyshannon for a holiday, I was 
 at Cheyne Row to-day. Mrs. Carlyle received me with 
 great kindness. I had a new hat of some shape that 
 amused her ; she tried it on. Spoke of Thackeray's 
 new house, his dinners. Poodle Byng, T.'s daughters. 
 Carlyle has grayer hair than when I last saw him, and 
 patches of white in whisker. He spoke of competi- 
 tive examinations. 
 
 National Portrait Gallery — Lord Brougham. The 
 CommiTfee' wanted to put in Brougham's portrait, the 
 man still living, contrary to rule. C. opposed, and 
 added that when Brougham did die he would speedily 
 be forgotten. Lord Stanhope, Chairman, said with 
 polite surprise, ' Oh, a very remarkable man, surely — 
 great statesman, great orator!' 'No' (C. persisted), 
 ' Brougham had done nothing worth remembering 
 particularly ; and at all events the rules of the Gallery, 
 etc.,' and gained his point. 
 
 It was on this occasion that C. noticed Dizzy, who 
 was present as a member of the Committee, looking at 
 him in a noticeable way. ' He took no part in the 
 discussion,' C. said, ' but I could see that he was looking 
 at me with a face of brotherly recognition — a wholly 
 sympathetic expression.' C. used often to refer to this
 
 i863 BALLYSHANNON 8i 
 
 brotherly look of Dizzy (which, however, may not have 
 meant very much !) 'I found this look in his face — 
 although I had more than once or twice said hard things 
 of him publicly. I saw he entirely agreed with me as 
 to Brougham.' 
 
 It gave C. a little leaning to Dizzy when he thought 
 of it, tho' it did not change his opinion that D.'s 
 success was a scandal and shame for England. 
 
 [AUingham was back in Ballyshannon in December, 
 but there are no entries in his diary until March 1863, 
 when he was again in London arranging for another 
 exchange in the Customs. He was advised to take 
 Lymington, in Hampshire ; and when established there 
 his diaries are once more carefully kept. 
 
 The story continues in his own words.]
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 1863 
 
 Early in 1863 fortune not choice fixed my abode 
 at Lymington in Hampshire. ' You will be near 
 Tennyson,' said Carlyle, when I was taking leave of 
 him. ' I doubt if 1 shall see him,' I replied, dis- 
 heartened by a second failure to settle in London, and 
 disinclined for even the best company. ' Yes, yes,' 
 said C, ' you are sure to come together.' 
 
 I went to Lymington on Friday the 8th of May, 
 pleasant little old Town on its green hill, looking across 
 to the Isle of Wight some five miles away, to which a 
 steam -boat plied three or four times daily. I was 
 Lymington's Custom-House Officer, the only one, my 
 office being a small first-floor room over the Coastguard 
 Station, looking upon the little Harbour, (muddy at low 
 water, occupied chiefly by pleasure-yachts) and the woods 
 of Walhampton beyond. A little higher up a Ferry-Boat 
 rowed by a big man in a jersey, a Blue Giant, kept 
 crossing to and fro, and higher still was a Toll-Bridge, 
 to which the Boldre Water or Lymington River ran 
 down in its green valley, a quiet rural stream, from the 
 oaks, beeches, and brackens of the New Forest. 
 
 Depressed tho' I was, I felt a great deliciousness 
 in the quiet green lanes and hedges, thickets, woods 
 and distances ; and the evening after my arrival, stand- 
 ing at the field gate close to the Town, I heard four 
 nightingales. 
 
 82
 
 1863 LYMINGTON 83 
 
 On Wednesday I crossed the Solent in our Steam-boat 
 for the first time, and stood in Yarmouth, a quaint 
 little old place, with its little waterside castle, Governor's 
 House (now the George Inn), and the arms of Henry 
 the Eighth carved in stone on a weedy wall, return- 
 ing by the last boat. I talked with the ' Engineer ' of 
 the Steam-boat, a pleasant and intelligent young man. 
 We spoke a little of Tennyson, whom he knew well 
 by sight. I asked had he read any of the Bard's 
 writings ? and he replied quite simply and modestly 
 that he could not understand Mr. Tennyson's poetry, 
 he saw it was intended for people of higher education 
 than himself. Mr. T., he said, had smoked a pipe 
 with George (the steward) in crossing. 
 
 The young man, native of Lymington, who is 
 going to London by exchange with me, with money 
 advantage in his favour, seems well fitted for town life. 
 When I praised the landscape he remarked that he 
 was ' No judge of beauty,' and to my question as we 
 walked towards his house — ' Do the nightingales sing 
 down this way .'' ' he answered quietly, ' Very likely 
 they do, I shouldn't know a nightingale if I heard it.' 
 He was not in the least contemptuous, but absolutely 
 obtuse on such matters, and wished, no doubt, to let 
 me know that it was useless to bring them forward in 
 his company. One sees the practical advantage of 
 variety of character. This young man won't mind 
 Thames Street and the barrel organs. 
 
 May 12-13. — Lymington Pleasure Fair. Booths in 
 the streets with toys and sweets, noise and clatter. Shows 
 — some monkeys and a wild boar, a ' Zulu Caffir ' ; fat 
 woman (leaving her baby behind the scenes) does 
 conjuring tricks — Dancing-booth — Shooting-galleries. 
 Gypsies — black-eyed girls in tawdry bright attire, brown 
 old witches, gypsy young man lithe and tall, wonder- 
 fully handsome animal, a black panther — and about 
 as trustworthy ^ How Oriental these people keep I 
 The English rustic, getting drunk, bellows discordant
 
 84 LYMINGTON 1863 
 
 songs, tumbles down and snores, the Irishman quarrels 
 and strikes. Perhaps the kind of drink has something 
 to do with it. Pothouse beer is bad, but raw public- 
 house whisky is a frightful potation. What a country 
 is Ireland ! her chief manufacture is Calamity Water ^ 
 a name too of her own devisal. 
 
 Saturday^ May 23. — Hear of the death of my half- 
 brother Thomas at Raphoe Royal School, where he was 
 assistant-master — honest and diligent, with a tenacious 
 memory. He was successful at Dublin University — 
 showed no original faculty. 
 
 Wednesday^ June 24 — Heard Spurgeon preach in a 
 tent in a field beside the town. ' If any man thirst, 
 etc,' anecdotes — prayer — good lungs. Rain — Spurgeon 
 put on his hat, many opened umbrellas. After the 
 service, people came to shake hands with him, and I drew 
 near. He said, ' I must be gone. I trust God has given 
 us some souls this evening,' I walked behind him ; he 
 has a big body, short legs, flat feet : Anglo-Saxon ? — 
 large brain, no doubt. His mind a mystery to me, 
 but not interesting. 
 
 Sunday^ June 28. — In the evening walked sadly along 
 the shore of the Solent eastwards by Pylewell — return- 
 ing, brought home a glow-worm and put it in a white 
 lily, through which it shone. 
 
 It was not till Friday the 3rd of July that I first saw 
 Freshwater. I crossed by the evening boat, walked over 
 the bridge, and after two or three miles of beautiful 
 green-sided roads, spoilt here and there by Forts, 
 reached the enchanted realm of Farringford, but coast- 
 ing outside could not see the house and would not 
 of course enter any gate. In the dusk I saw the 
 ' noble Down ' rising up, its Beacon against the sky, 
 then got to the shore and the sea and white clifi^s. I 
 was thinking all the while of Tennyson, and felt very 
 doleful. Yet I had not the faintest thought of pre- 
 senting myself to him or wish, even, to meet him by 
 chance on his return (he was from home at this time).
 
 1863 LYMINGTON 85 
 
 I have lost the faith I used to have in people's wishing to 
 see me — perhaps it is merely one of the signs that youth 
 has passed away. But I feel a natural bond to him (I 
 say it in humility) and to a very few others, and only 
 in their company am better contented than to be with 
 nature and books. With these persons I feel truly 
 humble, yet at the same time easy. I understand and 
 am understood, with words or without words. It is not 
 fame that attracts me, it disgusts me rather. Fame 
 has cooled many friendships for me, never made or 
 increased one. Fame is a thing of the ' World,' and 
 the ' World ' is a dreadful separator. 
 
 In the late summer dusk I returned through charm- 
 ing narrow leafy roads — the Moon rose like a surprise. 
 
 At Lymington in these first months I was busy 
 doing Laurence Bloomfield, the last five chapters, 
 which were coming out month by month in Fraser s 
 Magazine. After this ' The Ballad Book ' for Mac- 
 millan occupied the best part of my leisure time — 
 much reading, comparing, selecting and copying of 
 Ballads, to perhaps little result. 
 
 Monday^ July 6. — At Southampton Dock Station 
 my eye was caught by a middle-sized but singularly 
 well-knit figure of a man, strong, light, easy of move- 
 ment, almost Greek in his poses but altogether natural 
 and unconscious. He turned his head and who was it 
 but Tom Sayers in a white hat, with a bunch of charms 
 to his watch-chain. The high-shouldered pugilist such 
 as Leech draws is not the genuine article. Sayers has 
 rather falling shoulders though wide and muscular, so 
 has Heenan, and Tom King. Ease and freedom of 
 movement characterises them all, especially Sayers. 
 They doubtless much enjoy life in their way, so long 
 as they keep within tolerable bounds, and the fighting 
 itself is a great animal pleasure. 
 
 Tuesday., Wednesday., 7-8. — Wandered in the New 
 Forest — view of the wide woodland from Emery Down. 
 Slept at the Crown, Lyndhurst — Church, window de-
 
 86 FRESHWATER 1863 
 
 signed by Jones ; Fresco, half done, of the ' Foolish 
 Virgins ' by Leighton. Lymington — a travelling circus 
 in the cricket-field, where I see Tom Sayers spar with 
 ' Young Brooks ' : noticeable, how slight the movements 
 Tom made to avoid a blow, moving his head some- 
 times so little, that his antagonist's glove rippled up 
 Tom's short hair — then Tom's hand went in like a 
 flash of lightning. 
 
 Saturday^ July 11. — Copy and send off Laurence 
 Bloomjield^ Chapter X,, to Froude. Train to South- 
 ampton, young Parson with pleasant voice arguing with 
 old working man, who said he cared no more for a clergy- 
 man than for a chimney sweep, and scolded bishops. 
 
 Tuesday^ August 4. — Mrs, Arthur Clough, the poet's 
 widow, who had written to let me know, reached 
 Lymington Terminus with her three children, also her 
 sister Mrs. Coltman and her children, where I met 
 them, and we crossed over to Yarmouth together, a 
 roughish passage. They went on to Freshwater to a 
 house they had taken there ; I returned to Lymington. 
 
 August 10. — A very kind letter from Charles 
 Kingsley, quite unsought for, offering me introductions 
 to ' Sam St. Barbe,' (the banker here) and Captain 
 Mildmay. Next day a letter from Rossetti, complain- 
 ing of being ' restless,' and asking if he shall come and 
 pay me a visit. I reply ' Yes,' but he finds it mighty 
 hard to make the start, and puts off time after time, 
 coming at last. 
 
 August 16. — Stick at L. Bloonifield, Chapter XL, 
 all day, zndfms/i. 
 
 Saturday^ August 29. — Came to Freshwater and 
 walked with Mrs. Clough and Mrs. Coltman on Afton 
 Down ; slept at the Albion Hotel, amid a noise of 
 waves. The Landlady a big dreadful woman with 
 fiery face. Next morning breakfasted at Mrs. Clough's. 
 They all went to Church. I was left at home with 
 Clough's letters and American diary, which or a 
 selection from them Mrs. C. thinks of publishing.
 
 1863 LYMINGTON 87 
 
 After an early dinner, we walked to Farringford and 
 found that the family were expected in about ten days. 
 Mr. Tennyson was ill (the woman said), and coming to 
 London from Harrogate. Mrs. Clough being an 
 intimate, we were admitted to the living rooms, and 
 saw plenty of books on shelves and tables, including 
 numerous presentation volumes of poetry, and the new 
 magazines — among which I noted with some satisfaction 
 Fraser with the new chapter of Laurence Bloomfield 
 (so lately teasing me in MS.). 
 
 Monday^ September 14. — Note from Mrs. Clough, 
 from Bournemouth — ' Mrs. Cameron will be glad 
 to see you at lunch, to meet Mr, Henry Taylor.' 
 Mrs. Clough was returning to the island to-day, and I 
 joined her with Mr. and Mrs. Coltman on the 3 o'clock 
 steamer. The Tennysons on board. T. and I just 
 spoke a few words, and then I went forward with 
 Mrs. Clough and kept out of his way. Returned to 
 Lymington. 
 
 Wednesday ^ September 16. — Southampton : Heard 
 Cardinal Wiseman lecture on ' Self-culture ' at the 
 Hartley Institute. An Irish priest, he, in general 
 appearance ; face like a shrewish old woman in 
 spectacles ; voice tuneless, accent a little mincing. 
 The substance of the lecture commonplace, the style 
 tawdry and paltry. 
 
 Saturday^ October 3. — Cross by 3 o'clock Boat, 
 invited to spend Sunday at Mrs. Clough's. Rainy and 
 roughish. The Coltmans are gone. Mrs. Clough 
 tells me I am invited to go to the Tennysons with 
 her to-night. (Hurrah !) We drove to Farringford, 
 picking up on the way Mr. Pollock (afterwards Sir 
 F. P.) and his son, a youth in spectacles. Drawing- 
 room, tea, Mrs. Tennyson in white, I can some- 
 times scarcely hear her low tones. Mrs. Cameron, 
 dark, short, sharp-eyed, one hears very distinctly. I 
 wandered to the book-table, where Tennyson joined 
 me. He praised Worsley's Odyssey. In a book of
 
 88 FARRINGFORD 1863 
 
 Latin versions from his own poetry he found some 
 sHps in Lord Lyttleton's Latin — ' Cytherea Venus,' 
 etc. ' Did I find Lymington very dull ? ' I told him 
 that since coming there I had heard Cardinal Wiseman 
 lecture (on ' Self-culture '), Spurgeon preach, and seen 
 Tom Sayers spar. ' More than I have,' he remarked. 
 In taking leave he said, ' Come to-morrow ! ' 
 
 Sunday^ October 4. — In the forenoon I walk over 
 alone to Farringford ; find first Mrs. T., the two boys, 
 and their tutor, Mr. Butterfield, fair-haired, modest- 
 mannered. T. at luncheon : ' John Wilson's Life — 
 leave such things alone ! they're done for money.' — 
 ' Entozoa — germs were mingled in a convict's food, 
 for experiment ; after his death the parasites were 
 found stuck all over him inside. Fancy one feeding 
 on your brain ! ' — ' What do we know of the feelings 
 of insects ? nothing. They may feel more pain than 
 we.' I think not. 
 
 T. takes me upstairs to his ' den ' on the top-story, 
 and higher, up a ladder, to the leads. He often comes 
 up here a-night to look at the heavens. One night he 
 was watching shooting-stars and tumbled through the 
 hatchway, falling on the floor below, a height of at 
 least ten feet I should say. The ladder probably broke 
 his fall and he was not hurt. I quoted ' A certain star 
 shot madly from his sphere.' 
 
 T. — -' I've never heard any Sea-Maid's music in Fresh- 
 water Bay, but I saw an old lady swimming one day.' 
 
 The view of sea and land is delectable, stretching 
 northward across the Solent up into the New Forest. 
 Then we went down and walked about the grounds, 
 looking at a cedar, a huge fern, an Irish yew. The 
 dark yew in Maud ' sighing for Lebanon ' he got at 
 Swainston, — Sir John Simeon's. In one place are some 
 little arches half-covered with ivy, which I pretend to 
 believe are meant for mock ruins. This T. repudiates. 
 He paused at a weed of goatsbeard, saying, ' It shuts 
 up at three.' Then we went down the garden, past a
 
 ,863 LYMINGTON 89 
 
 large tangled fig-tree growing in the open — ' It's like 
 a breaking wave,' says I. ' Not in the least,' says he. 
 Such contradictions, from him, are noway disagreeable : 
 and so to the farmyard. 
 
 ' Have you a particular feeling about a farmyard ^ ' 
 he asked, ' a special delight in it .'' I have. The first 
 time I read Shakespeare was in a haystack. — Othello — 
 I said, '* This man's overrated." Boys can't understand 
 Shakespeare, nor women.' We spoke a little of the 
 Shakespeare ' Ter-Centenary ' next year. 
 
 * Most people pronounce "Arbtitus" wrong, with 
 the second syllable long. Clematis, too, which should 
 be Cle-mStis.' 
 
 In the porch, or somewhere near it, I noticed a dusty 
 phial hanging with some dried brown stuff in it. ' It's 
 a Lar,' he said, with a twinkle in his eyes. ' And what 
 else is it ? ' I asked. ' An old bottle of Ipecacuanha.' 
 I thought the woodwork of the windows a rather crude 
 green : ' I don't know why you shouldn't like it,' he 
 said. We looked at the great magnolia stretching up 
 to the roof, then into the hall and saw some fossils. 
 ' Man is so small ! ' he said, ' but a fly on the wheel.' 
 Mrs. Clough was in the house and she and I now 
 departed, T. coming with us as far as the little south 
 postern opening on to the lane, afraid to go further. 
 He said he was one day pursued full cry along the road 
 by two fat women and sixteen children ! Another day 
 he saw a man's face, who had climbed on the outside 
 fence and was looking over into the garden : ' I said to 
 him, " It isn't at all pretty of you to be peeping 
 there! You'd better come down" — and he did.' 
 ' Was he like an educated man } ' ' Yes — or half- 
 educated.' In parting he said to me, ' We shall see 
 you sometimes .? ' — which gladdened me. 
 
 Mrs. Clough and I dined at Mrs. Cameron's. 
 
 Sunday, October 11. — Walk, Boldre, Hay ward Mill, 
 Common. Gypsies — old woman asks me to look at 
 her son who is very ill in waggon. I see him, lying
 
 90 LYMINGTON 1863 
 
 pale with heavy black eyes and tangled hair, speechless, 
 has ' lumps in his throat' she says — quinsy ? I promise 
 to send some one to him if I can. Call on Marshall, 
 the relieving officer, — ' at church,' leave a letter for him 
 about the sick gypsy. 
 
 Monday^ October 12. — Finish twelfth and last chapter 
 of Bloomfield and post it. 
 
 Saturday^ October 17. — Fine evening. New Forest. 
 Holmsley, Wilverly Post, heath and woods in front, 
 russet gold ; rest by a rivulet, thick beech woods, 
 cottage — the woman says it is unhealthy and very 
 lonesome — 
 
 Under the shade of melancholy boughs. 
 
 Two woodpeckers, green as parroquets. The setting 
 sun, the fiery ferns, the gold beechen-leaves. Lynd- 
 hurst, bed at Crown. 
 
 Sunday^ October 18. — To Rufus's Stone, moorlands 
 under heavy sky, thick embossment of russet golden 
 beech-woods filling the vales, blue distance — showers. 
 
 How many days of my life I pass without a word of 
 conversation. But am I not as well off as I deserve to be.'' 
 
 O days of youthful gladness ! 
 
 When I, a happy fool, 
 Thought failure, sickness, sadness, 
 
 Th' exception, not the rule. 
 
 Monday^ October 19. — News of the gypsy. * Getting 
 better ; lump broke.' Write to Southampton paper 
 against cutting down trees in ' the Ditches ' (old moat). 
 
 Thursday^ October 22. — I receive proof from i^r/^j^r'i^ 
 Mag. of the twelfth and last chapter of L. Bloom- 
 field. Eight of the chapters I have written month by 
 month (missing one month) for the magazine. So fate 
 would have it. It's not properly compacted as to plan, 
 and never will be now. But with indefinite time at 
 command I should most probably, as so often before, 
 have tried a dozen different shapes and ended by throw- 
 ing the thing aside. It has good work in it here and 
 there.
 
 1863 LYMINGTON 91 
 
 A story in 5000 lines, - 
 
 Where Homer's epic fervour shines. 
 
 Philosophy like Plato's — 
 Alas, I sing of Paddies, Priests, 
 And Pigs, those unromantic beasts, 
 
 Policemen and Potatoes ! 
 
 Friday^ October 23. — Very fine ; in the New Forest. 
 Holmsley — path to Burley, field -lane fern -banked, 
 delightful. Hamlet on its gorsev common, a big oak 
 among the hollies. Sat down and read Woolner's 
 Beautiful Lady which the post brought me to-day from 
 the author. Tender and sweet. Well tastes poetry 
 thus on a solitary ramble. I remember distinctly every 
 breathing of the verses which were in the first number 
 of The Germ, nearly fourteen years ago. Real love of 
 nature and delicate truth of touch ; with the quaint 
 guild-mark, so to speak, of the P. R. B. (I can't bear to 
 be verbally quaint myself, yet often like it in another). 
 
 I recollect my lady in a wood. 
 
 Keeping her breath and peering — (firm she stood 
 
 Her slim shape balanced on tip-toe — ) 
 
 Into a nest which lay below. 
 
 Leaves shadowing her brow. 
 
 the breeze 
 Lifts gold from leaf to leaf, as these 
 Ash-saplings move at ease. 
 
 Thackeray, I recollect, was much touched by Woolner's 
 poem, and by Hunt's etching to it of the Lover press- 
 ing his face down upon the new-made grave-mound. 
 But hopeless grief is too sad a subject for Art, save to 
 the Young. 
 
 Passing a Keeper's lodge, came to the ' Twelve 
 Apostles,' old oaks, most of them rugged hollow 
 pillars with a few living branches. Sunset light, 
 lonely road running through great beech-woods ; 
 double-dyed with sunset gold : I picture myself attacked 
 by ruffians, with various denouments. Such things 
 never do happen in the Forest. The gypsies only beg, 
 and perhaps filch. Pass Alum Green, the moon rising
 
 92 CHRISTCHURCH 1863 
 
 over the hamlet, and strike a dampish forest-path to 
 Brockenhurst road, where I enter a wayside inn, and 
 sit comfortably by a great peat-fire, two antlers above 
 the chimney, drinking beer and reading in Woolner's 
 book. Home by rail about 8, 
 
 I go on studying Old Ballads — (no original lyrics 
 coming now, alas !) Custom-house daily. Yachts, 
 steamers, pensioners, accounts, coastguard. Periodical 
 visits to Pitt's Deep, Buckler's Hard, Keyhaven, and 
 Hurst Castle, walking or riding. Boat and punt — 
 sailing, etc. Measuring vessels is the most troublesome 
 duty, boarding yachts and examining their stores the 
 most disagreeable. 
 
 Sunday^ December 13. — Walk from Lymington to 
 Christchurch, by cliffs and beach, — mean, straggling 
 little Town among flat watery fields, by a broad muddy 
 estuary. It has a huge and striking old gray Church, 
 part Norman, much decayed, and full of coughs and 
 rheumatisms for the worshippers, being very unfit for 
 the Protestant service. At evening service with a 
 regulation sermon. After which I found, at the east 
 end under a great window, the cenotaph to Shelley and 
 Mary, at which I stood looking while the Choir 
 practised their Christmas anthem in the empty dim- 
 lighted building. 
 
 The monument is of white marble, a woman support- 
 ing a dead man, life size, very like a Pieta : — odd 
 jumble of ideas. Bed at Newlyn's Hotel. Stars, 
 humming wind, frost .? 
 
 Next morning, pretty view from a bridge of the 
 great old Church, ivied ruin and large willow beside it — 
 everything else very ugly. By train through flooded 
 meadows to Ringwood, and on to Lymington. ' Good- 
 man Dodd,' etc. — wrote to my Father. 
 
 This man spreads himself out, gives ear to the foolish public, 
 That man shuts himself in, gives ear to a foolish clique ; 
 Foolish the public, the cliques, the ignorant ones and the knowing, 
 Wise the soul of a man who lets all go quietly by.
 
 i863 FARRINGFORD 93 
 
 Sunday^ December 20. — I lunched at Farringford. 
 We all helped in wheeling Mrs. Tennyson to the top 
 of High Down. Then A. T., the Tutor and myself 
 walked to Totland's Bay, the talk all upon Classic 
 Metres, of which he is full at present. I am invited 
 for Christmas. 
 
 Tuesday, December 22. — Feel out of sorts and as it 
 were stupefied ; write to Mrs. Tennyson declining the 
 Christmas invitation, which I was so glad to have ! On 
 the second day after, came a very kind note from 
 Mrs. T. renewing the invitation, and on the 26th I 
 went to Farringford. The post brought me a gift of 
 a purse from Mrs. Clough, 
 
 Saturday, December 16. — At Yarmouth I find Mrs. 
 Cameron shopping, who gives me a seat in her carriage, 
 and tells me she has a copy of Henry Taylor's 
 Works for me as a Christmas Box, In a subsequent 
 examination which she put me through as to my 
 opinion of H. T.'s poetry I fear my answering fell 
 decidedly below her expectation, for the Christmas Box 
 was never given, nor did either of us mention it 
 afterwards. 
 
 At Farringford I find F. T. Palgrave. Tennyson, 
 he, and I walk up High Down. 
 
 Dinner at six, the usual immediate move (with the 
 wine) to Drawing-room, and talk all about Classic 
 Metres, to which I naturally have little to contribute, 
 nor can I see that the discussion throws much if any 
 light on English metrical effects. 
 
 Farringford, Sunday, December 27. — A, T. comes 
 in to breakfast without greeting, which is sometimes his 
 way. I play at football with the two Boys. (Hallam 
 is about eleven, Lionel about nine.) Then walk with 
 A. T., Palgrave, H. and L. along High Down to the 
 Needles. Lionel talks to me ; he is odd, shy, sweet, 
 and, as his mother says, daimonisch. Hallam has 
 something of a shrewd satirical turn, but with great 
 good nature. To the cliff edge, then returning we
 
 94 FARRINGFORD 1863 
 
 creep up long slopes of down and rest at the Beacon. 
 Thistles and other growths crouch into the sward 
 from the fierce sea-winds. I quote ' a wrinkle of the 
 monstrous hill.' We talk of 'Christabel.' Race down, 
 I get first to the stile. After dinner more talk of 
 ' Classic Metres ' ; in the drawing-room, T. standing 
 on the hearth-rug repeated with emphasis (perhaps 
 apropos of metres) the following lines, in the following 
 way : — 
 
 Higgledy — piggledy, silver and gold, 
 
 There's — {ifs nothing very dreadful !) 
 
 There's a louse on my back 
 
 Seven years old. 
 
 He inches, he pinches. 
 
 In every part, 
 
 And if I could catch him 
 
 I'd tearr out his kearrt ! 
 
 The last line he gave with tragic fury. Prose often 
 runs into rhyme. T. imitated the waiter in some 
 old-fashioned tavern calling down to the kitchen — 
 ' Three gravies, two mocks, and a pea ' ! (soup under- 
 stood). On ' pea ' he raised the tone and prolonged it 
 very comically. 
 
 Farringford^ December 28. — A. T., Palgrave and I 
 walk to Alum Bay and look at the coloured clifFs, 
 smeary in effect, like something spilt. A. T. reproves 
 P. for talking so fast and saying ' of — of — of — of,' etc. 
 He also corrects me for my pronunciation (or so he 
 asserts) of ' dew.' ' There's no Jew on the grass ! ' 
 says he — ' there may be dew^ but that's quite another 
 thing.' He quotes Tom Moore's ' delicious night,' 
 etc. (four lines), with a little grunt of disapprobation at 
 the end. Home at four. T. goes to have his hot 
 bath. I revise Laurence Bloomfield (which Macmiilan 
 is printing) in the boys' room. 
 
 At dinner : Mr. and Mrs. Bradley of Marlborough, 
 Mr. and Mrs. Butler of Harrow. 
 
 In the drawing-room A. T., P., and the two Bs. all 
 on ' Classic Metres.' T. setting the schoolmasters right
 
 1863 LYMINGTON 95 
 
 more than once, I noticed. I asked Mr. Bradley after- 
 wards, when he called on me at Lymington, did he 
 think he could read one — any one — of Horace's Odes 
 as it was intended to be read ? He said he was sure he 
 could «o/. He has brought into use at Marlborough 
 the ' new ' pronunciation (Italian vowel sounds K for 
 C, etc.), which, he says, puzzles himself much more than 
 the boys. 1 like him much, and wish he were not a 
 Parson or that Parsonism were a different kind of thing. 
 I had the ladies all to myself, and we discoursed pro- 
 foundly on ' poets and practical people,' ' benevolence 
 true and false,' ' the gulf between certain people and 
 others,' etc. Mrs. T. confessed herself tired of hearing 
 about ' Classic Metres.' The company gone, T., P. and 
 I went to Palgrave's room, where the poet read to us the 
 ' Vision of Sin,' the ' Sea Fairies,' and part of the ' Lotos 
 Eaters,' — a rich and solemn music, but not at all heavy. 
 He will not admit that any one save himself can read 
 aloud his poems properly. He suffered me to try a 
 passage in the ' Lotos Eaters ' and said ' You do it better 
 than most people,' then read it himself and went on 
 some way further. Thus I got from him viva voce 
 part of a poem which has always seemed to me among 
 his most characteristic works. 
 
 December 29. — After breakfast I took leave of 
 Mrs. Tennyson and the boys. P. civilly invites me to 
 his house at York Gate. When I went to T.'s room he 
 said, ' Come whenever you like,' and as I went out 
 by the garden he came after me and saw me through 
 the gate. Truly friendly — a delightful visit ! I walked 
 to Yarmouth in happy mood and crossed to Lymington 
 on the steam-boat. 
 
 Wednesday^ December 30. — Walked to Pitt's Deep 
 and visited the Coastguard Station ; returned at dusk, 
 dirty roads, starry sky. Be content : what folly in a 
 poor man to wish for an easy life and at the same time 
 for much that he could only get by hard work.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 1864 
 
 I HAVE been an ' Official ' all my life, without the least 
 turn for it. I never could attain a true official manner^ 
 which is highly artificial and handles trifles with 
 ludicrously disproportionate gravity. True that ordi- 
 nary men are thus kept in order and the dull work of 
 the world got through : but for my own part I always 
 get back to the question, is it really necessary that 
 men should consume so much of their bodily and 
 mental energies in the machinery of civilised life ^. The 
 world seems to me to do much of its toil for that which 
 is not in any sense bread. Again, does not the latent 
 feeling that much of their striving is to no purpose 
 tend to infuse large quantities of sham into men's work ? 
 In the Government offices, of which I know something 
 by experience, I believe the clerks could do all they 
 really do in half the allotted time, and, moreover, that 
 much of their work when done is itself useless. 
 
 January 16, 1864. — Letter from Mrs. Tennyson, 
 asks me if I know of a house near Lymington that 
 would suit her Father and Sister (Mrs. Weld). I go to 
 the house-agents. Aubrey House might do. 
 
 January 17. — At Southampton. Arrival of the 
 Poonah P. & O. steam-ship. People returning from 
 India, greetings. Ayah on deck. A single one of 
 these brown slender women with black eyes and 
 undulatory movements (they must have soft bones), 
 
 96
 
 1864 FARRINGFORD 97 
 
 in muslin and gold ornaments, makes all Hindustan 
 real. How cold she must find this weather. Mail-bags 
 landed, 340 in number. 
 
 February 27. — -Wrote to the Papers proposing to 
 name the new bridge at Blackfriars ' Shakespeare 
 Bridge,' — with statues if they Hke. The Blackfriars and 
 the Globe Theatres stood near this place. A bridge is 
 the best place in London for statues. In vain. The 
 Times said it was not an English custom to give the 
 names of writers to our streets or public places. 
 Excellent argument. Ballad : ' The Abbot of Inis- 
 falen.' 
 
 March i . — Going on with Ballad Book. ' Grunsey 
 and Dodd ' appears in Macmillans Magazine this month. 
 
 Tuesday y March 22. — Dry haze, groaning east wind, 
 headache. I now believe the atmosphere with its 
 changes has much more to do with health and spirits 
 than I used to think possible. As we go on we find 
 that many ' old-fashioned notions ' have a good deal in 
 them. But we had not much east wind at Bally- 
 shannon. Poem : ' Emily.' 
 
 24 to 28. — At Farringford, for an Easter holiday. 
 Professor Jowett was staying at a neighbouring house 
 with two Oxford pupils, and came in to Tennyson's 
 every day. One day T., J., and myself on the shore, 
 throwing pebbles into the sea. Alas, I fear I have not 
 set down anything of the conversations. This is 
 usually the way when there is too much. 
 
 A man who keeps a diary pays 
 Due toll to many tedious days ; 
 But life becomes eventful — then 
 His busy hand forgets the pen. 
 Most books, indeed, are records less 
 Of fulness than of emptiness. 
 
 I recall an interesting talk with Professor Jowett at 
 Freshwater, one night that I walked with him from 
 Tennyson's to his lodging at the Terrace. The con- 
 versation turned to the subject of conventionalities, and 
 
 H
 
 98 ROMSEY 1864 
 
 I urged how lamentable it was to see men, and, especi- 
 ally, distinguished men, accepting in public, or even 
 actively supporting ideas which they abjured in their 
 own minds. This was my hobby and I rode it at a pace 
 that the Professor was probably little accustomed to, 
 yet he listened and answered not only with patience but 
 apparent interest, and when we arrived at his door 
 invited me, somewhat to my surprise, to come in and 
 continue the conversation, T remember, in a room 
 dimly lighted with one candle. He seemed to agree with 
 me in the main, but argued to the effect that by an 
 open and unguarded non-conformity a man might ruin 
 his career and lose all influence and authority. I said 
 in my usual impulsive style — ' Oh, he would find the 
 apparent obstacles to be only shadows on his road.' 
 To which J. replied gently, but with a tone of convic- 
 tion, ' I fear he would find them very real.' 
 
 He is a soft smooth round man, with fat soft 
 hands, and a very gentle voice and manner, but with 
 no weakness of will or lack of perseverance. He is 
 extremely cautious, but not in the least cowardly, — can 
 quietly make his way, doubtless, into very hard 
 substances, as some very soft creatures do (speaking 
 without disparagement). J. indeed has publicly shown 
 great frankness, for an Oxford don, and will be a 
 reformer ab intra. 
 
 I know full well how too impatient I always am, 
 how too-too lacking in savoir faire. Yet I don't think 
 I was wrong to speak freely to him, for once. Nay, I 
 don't see how any thinking man can be at perfect peace 
 with himself while his public conduct and private belief 
 are not in agreement. I do not know one English 
 Writer now living who is consistent. Emerson is : but 
 supposing he were an Englishman } an absurd supposi- 
 tion, for Emerson is entirely an American product. 
 
 Saturday, April 2. — To Embley Park, Romsey [the 
 home of Florence Nightingale's parents], invited from 
 Saturday to Monday. Mrs. Clough is there (she is niece
 
 1864 LYMINGTON 99 
 
 of Mrs. N, and cousin of Miss Florence Nightingale). 
 Large house in a rich park : a rhododendron avenue. 
 Immense drawing-room. Mr. Nightingale — tall, thin, 
 courtly, white-haired, with blue swallow- tailed coat 
 always buttoned ; in manner very quiet and sad. By his 
 desire I read from In Memoriam one evening, and the 
 poem seemed to impress him deeply. He and his wife 
 live alone at the end of their days in this great house. 
 Florence they never see and rarely, I think, hear from. 
 She secludes herself in London on the ground of 
 health and needing all her strength for public interests. 
 There is a statuette of her in the hall. 
 
 April 10. — Walked over to Brooke, Mr. Seely's, 
 with one of the Camerons, and saw Garibaldi in the 
 drawing-room, who, understanding me to be a poet, 
 called me ' mio caro,' and shook hands heartily. He 
 stood leaning sideways on a stick and looked of shorter 
 stature than I expected : his face exactly like the 
 portraits, the image of bravery, sincerity, and goodwill. 
 I took my leave quickly, as there were numerous 
 visitors to see the great General. 
 
 April 22. — Laurence Bloomfield published, Many 
 letters and notices of it came to me, mostly favour- 
 able. The Irishman newspaper calls me ' a mitigated 
 Whig,' but praises my pictures of the peasantry. 
 
 May 16. — Tennyson praises Z. Bloomfield^ and says 
 it was a very difficult thing to do. 
 
 May 23-25. — Visiting Rev. W. Barnes at Came, 
 Dorchester. 
 
 Tuesday^ May 31. — Mr. Gladstone quoted L. 
 Bloomfield last night in the House of Commons, 
 describing it, according to the Times report, as an ' ex- 
 tremely clever work.' The two lines he gave, apropos 
 of some proposed alteration of the spirit duties, were 
 these : — 
 
 Poor Paddy of all Christian men I think 
 On basest food pours down the vilest drink. 
 
 (Chap. xii. 11. 296-297.)
 
 lOO LONDON 1864 
 
 I opened the Times in a news-shop and felt a thrill 
 at seeing my own words so unexpectedly. 
 
 Monday^ June 6. — Very fine. Tennyson and the Boys 
 come across the Solent to me and we make an excursion 
 to Beaulieu Abbey. I take them through Walhampton 
 by the Fir-walk. 
 
 Tuesday^ June 7. — Lord Palmerston has recom- 
 mended me for a Civil List Pension of _^ 60 a year — 
 ' on account of the merit of his poetical writings,' 
 Serviceable : but do I like it ^ How much rather 
 would I do without it ! But I have no turn at all for 
 making money, that's certain, and perhaps I may give 
 some equivalent. 
 
 Saturday^ June 25. — To London. Parker's Hotel — 
 Surrey St. Georgie Jones and Philip — Lyceum, Hamlet. 
 
 Sunday., June 26. — To Warwick Crescent ; Pen 
 Browning, then enter the great Robert, who greets me 
 warmly and gives me ' Dramatis Personam.' He com- 
 mended Bloomfield with reservation — ' Not so poetical 
 as some of your things — but O so clever.' We talk of 
 Tennyson, etc. 
 
 Down to Chelsea and find D. G. Rossetti paint- 
 ing a very large young woman, almost a giantess, as 
 ' Venus Verticordia.' I stay for dinner and we talk about 
 the old P. R. Bs. Enter Fanny, who says something 
 of W. B. Scott which amuses us. Scott was a dark 
 hairy man, but after an illness has reappeared quite bald. 
 Fanny exclaimed, ' O my, Mr. Scott is changed ! He 
 ain't got a hye-brow or a hye-lash — not a 'air on his 
 'ead ! ' Rossetti laughed immoderately at this, so that 
 poor Fanny, good-humoured as she is, pouted at last — 
 ' Well, I know I don't say it right,' and I hushed him 
 up. 
 
 Monday., June 27. — Got down to Chelsea by half- 
 past eight to D. G. R.'s. Breakfasted in a small lofty 
 room on first floor with window looking on the garden. 
 Fanny in white. Then we went into the garden and 
 lay on the grass, eating strawberries and looking at the
 
 1864 LONDON loi 
 
 peacock. F. went to look at the ' chicking/ her plural 
 of chicken. Then Swinburne came in, and soon began 
 to recite — a parody on Browning was one thing ; and 
 after him Whistler, who talked about his own pictures — 
 Royal Academy — the Chinese painter-girl, Millais, etc. 
 I went off to Ned Jones's, found Mrs. Ned and Pip, 
 and F. Burton ; talked of Christianity, Dante, Tenny- 
 son and Browning, etc. Enter Miss Hill and another 
 lady, and Val Prinsep. 
 
 Wednesday^ June 29. — Dine at Bertolini's. Hay- 
 market, pit, Sothern in ' David Garrick ' and ' Dun- 
 dreary Married.' 
 
 Thursday^ June 30. — To Warwick Crescent to lunch 
 with Browning by invitation. Pen plays ' Chopin.' I 
 say to R, B., ' Did you ever play as well as that ? ' to 
 which he replied, ' A thousand times as well ! ' We 
 spoke of Tennyson. T. told B. he thought 'Sludge' 
 too long. B. answered, ' I hope he thought it too long! ' 
 — that is, Sludge, when the confession was forced from 
 him. Sludge is Home, the Medium, of whom Brown- 
 ing told me to-day a great deal that was very amusing. 
 Having witnessed a seance of Home's, at the house 
 of a friend of B.'s, Browning was openly called upon to 
 give his frank opinion on what had passed, in presence 
 of Home and the company, upon which he declared 
 with emphasis that so impudent a piece of imposture he 
 never saw before in all his life, and so took his leave. 
 Next day Browning's servant came into his room with 
 a visitor's card, and close behind followed the visitor 
 himself — no other than Mr. Home, who advanced with 
 a cordial smile and right hand outstretched in amity. 
 He bore no ill-will — not he ! Browning looked sternly 
 at him (as he is very capable of doing) and pointing to 
 the open door, not far from which is rather a steep 
 staircase, said — ' If you are not out of that door in 
 half a minute I'll fling you down the stairs.' Home 
 attempted some expostulation, but B. moved towards 
 him, and the Medium disappeared with as much grace
 
 102 LONDON 1864 
 
 as he could manage. ' And now comes the best of it 
 all,' said B. — ' What do you suppose he says of me ? 
 — You'd never guess. He says to everybody, " How 
 Browning hates me ! — and how I love him ! " ' He 
 further explains B.'s animosity as arising out of a 
 seance at Florence, where a ' spirit-wreath ' was placed 
 on Mrs. Browning's head, and none on her husband's. 
 
 B. spoke of London, parties, theatres, Sullivan, 
 Gounod, etc. : ' If I could do exactly as I liked I should 
 often go to an Opera or Play instead of to a party. I 
 could amuse myself a good deal better. I should 
 always treat myself to a good place.' 
 
 He spoke of his own poems — would rather write 
 music — longs also to be a sculptor ; 'If one could only 
 live six hundred years, or have two lives even.' We 
 went to the Underground Railway, Bishop's Road, 
 together. ' I am going ' (he said) ' to a house where 
 the eldest son is dead.' 
 
 I walked through the Park to Woolner's in Welbeck 
 Street, and found not only Woolner, but Tennyson 
 there (up for some days), and also F. Palgrave. 
 Woolner is engaged to dine with Novello, and I very 
 gladly agree to stay and keep Tennyson company. 
 T., P., and I walk in the Regent's Park, P. goes home. 
 T. and I dine together. He has the proof sheets of a 
 new book with him — some flitting notion of calling it 
 ' Idyls of the Hearth ' ? * Gladstone dined here on 
 Monday ' — Swinburne — Milnes — De Sade — Naked 
 model — ' the chastest thing I ever saw.' T. said he 
 must begin to correct his proofs, and with the word 
 came the sound of a barrel-organ, bringing dismay ! I 
 took my leave, promising to quash the music, in which 
 attempt I succeeded, seeing the grinding man well 
 out of the street, then walked off to 5 Blandford Square, 
 where I found Barbara L. S. B. and the Doctor,^ and also 
 Mrs. Clough and Bessie Parkes. 
 
 Plenty of friends and talks to-day. 
 
 ^ Dr. and Madame Bodichon.
 
 1864 LONDON 103 
 
 Woolner lifts to the skies a German animal sculptor, 
 Julius Haenel (43 Pyraneesche Strasse, Dresden), two 
 or three small bronzes by whom he shows me, and 
 admirable they are. H. finds it difficult to get money. 
 Woolner says, ' If Haenel had done the lions in Tra- 
 falgar Square people would have come from distant 
 countries to look at them.' 
 
 July I. — At the British Museum — Patmore ; he 
 tells me of his conversion to the Church of Rome and 
 intended marriage with Miss Byles. We talk of the 
 Rossettis, etc. (but our intimacy is a thing of the past). 
 I look at Ballad Books. Dine with Ned Jones and 
 Georgie (Gt. Russell St.). Little Philip. Picture of Circe. 
 
 Saturday^ July 1. — Tom Taylor, friendly as usual, 
 carries me to luncheon at Lavender Sweep, where are 
 Mrs. Taylor, her Father, Mr. Cipriani Potter, Miss 
 Beales. Thence to Macmillan's, for a family dinner, 
 large house at Balham, * The Elms.' Boys at see-saw in 
 the garden. Return to the T. T.'s, and with them in 
 a fly to a musical party at Charles Halle's, Cavendish 
 Square. Madame H., a French-American, is a pleasant 
 hostess. Kate Terry, Val Prinsep, Browning, Lady 
 Annabella King, Sir John Simeon, Miss Cushman, 
 Madame Parepa, etc. etc. 
 
 July 6. — Breakfast at Lord Houghton's, sixteen 
 guests. He introduces me to Captain Hamilton Aide, 
 who lives at Lyndhurst. Bishop W^ilberforce, Swin- 
 burne, Vambery the Hungarian traveller, Hon. Mr. 
 Stanley (of Alderley), supposed Mohammedan. Vam- 
 bery speaks, in beautiful English with a slight foreign 
 accent, of his travels in Central Asia disguised as a 
 Dervish. If discovered he would have been tortured 
 to death. A Dervish, he said, must observe the cere- 
 monies and fasts more strictly than an ordinary 
 Mohammedan, but he sometimes procures a relaxation 
 in this way : the Holy Man announces one morning 
 that he has had a dream^ in which permission has been 
 given to him to eat, drink, sleep, amuse himself as he
 
 I04 LONDON 1864 
 
 likes, for a certain number of days ; and he does so 
 accordingly, and is considered to be more holy than 
 ever. The Bishop of Oxford inquired, in his exquisitely 
 bland tones, ' Is it permitted to an ordinary Mussulman 
 to have a dream of this nature ? ' To which Vambery 
 replied, with the grave politeness which characterises 
 him, ' He might dream, my lord, but no one would pay 
 attention to it : one must be a Holy Man to have this 
 privilege,' — at which there was a good deal of laughter. 
 
 Vambery's account of his strange experiences was 
 made the more interesting by frequent interruptions 
 from Mr. S., who put questions, sometimes in a tone of 
 no very good breeding, with the view of making him 
 appear inaccurate, but Vambery always answered with 
 good temper as well as perfect success. He is going 
 back to Central Asia. * I hope ' (Lord H. said to 
 me after breakfast) ' S. won't get him murdered.' I 
 thought this breakfast very amusing ; Swinburne found 
 it dreadfully dull. 
 
 Thursday^ July 7. — Lunch with Browning : tell him 
 of the pseudo-Dervish and the English Mohammedan, 
 which amuses him. He wishes he had been at the 
 breakfast ; it seems he had an invitation, but too late. 
 Mr. Robert Lytton comes in — ' Joachim ; Tennyson ; 
 Browning's new poem in blank verse.' Out with B. 
 
 Friday^ July 8. — To Gabriel's, where are Madox 
 Brown and Webb. 
 
 Saturday^ July 9. — D. G. Rossetti and 1 dine at 
 Hotel de Provence, Leicester Square, then to Opera, 
 where Taylor has promised us places for ' Mirella.' 
 Gabriel, who detests music, soon went away ; I remained. 
 
 Sunday^ July 10. — E. B. Jones and I to Woolwich 
 by rail, return by river. Evening, Highgate : The 
 Howitts, friendly, walk back. 
 
 Wednesday^ July 13. — Dined at Tom Taylor's ; Mr. 
 Story (American Sculptor, who lives in Italy), wife and 
 daughter, Mr. E. M. Ward ; I next Miss Story, who is 
 chatty. Joke about the Bishop of Oxford, who told a
 
 1864 LONDON 105 
 
 lady he had had himself weighed, just as he came out 
 
 of his bath, and was exactly naming the weight. 
 
 ' With or without soap^ Bishop ? ' asked the lady. 
 Mrs. Taylor plays. Miss S. sings. Mrs. Story asks 
 me to call on them at 61 South Audley St. 
 
 Friday, July 15. — Dine and sleep at Macmillan's, 
 Balham. M. says he and his brother Daniel and his 
 sister used to have better conversations together on 
 literature than he ever heard since ' from Tennyson and 
 all the rest of them.' He gave his opinion of Goethe, 
 which was not high. A pleasant German lady played 
 the piano well ; we talked of Freiligrath, etc. 
 
 Sunday, July 17. — Hot. Browning having written 
 a note about me to Arthur Sullivan the composer, I 
 visited the latter to-day. He lives at 27 Claverton 
 Terrace, Pimlico, and is organist at some church — 
 perhaps in that neighbourhood. A. S. is short and 
 tight, with dark complexion and thick curly black hair 
 parted in the middle. Perhaps partly Jew ^ — a suspicion 
 confirmed by his Mother's appearance, who is stout 
 and dark. His Father, a South of Ireland man, is, I 
 believe, dead. 
 
 We talked of Operas and Songs : some notion 
 floating among us that I might furnish him with words 
 to set. He thinks Faust the best possible subject 
 for an Opera, and wishes it had fallen to his lot to set 
 it. Asks me if I can come to Covent Garden Theatre 
 on Tuesday evening : he plays the organ in the 
 Cathedral scene in Faust. I tell the traditionary 
 story of the origin of the name SulHvan, which seems 
 to interest him. An Irish Chieftain, famous for 
 generosity, had one day at his board a Stranger-Guest 
 — no unusual thing there. After the banquet this 
 man, who was in truth a bitter enemy, cried aloud, ' A 
 boon, O Chief! ' < Ask for what thou wilt,' said the 
 Chief, ' it shall be given thee.' 
 
 ' Give me thy right eye,' said the other. 
 
 And sooner than break his word the Chief plucked
 
 io6 LYMINGTON 1864 
 
 out his eye and ordered it to be given to that evil guest. 
 Henceforward the generous man was called Suil aon^ 
 the One Eyed. 
 
 By steamer to London Bridge and rail to Plumstead ; 
 after some wandering, find the Red House at last in 
 its rose-garden, and William Morris, and his queenly 
 wife crowned with her own black hair. 
 
 Monday, July 18. — The Red House, y-g- a.m. 
 Rose-trellis. Jenny and May, bright-eyed, curly-pated. 
 We hurry to the train. W, M. brusque, careless, with 
 big shoon. Daldy the Publisher in train, ' Nightingale 
 Valley.' I call on Samuel Laurence in Wells Street 
 and see portrait of Leigh Hunt, etc. Then to E. B. 
 J.'s, Gt. Russell St., where Swinburne comes in later. 
 
 Tuesday, July 19. — To S. Laurence's Studio and up 
 with him to Islington and have tea with his family. 
 To Covent Garden Theatre and behind the scenes to 
 Sullivan, watch him playing the organ ; Mr. Gye comes, 
 and afterwards I have a Stall-chair. Faust — Artot, 
 etc. Patti in box. (S. has no ideas outside of music.) 
 
 July 21. — Back to Lymington. The country looks 
 delightful, yellow corn, bending orchard boughs. 
 
 Monday, August 29. — To Aubrey House, where 
 Mr. and Mrs. Weld are now settled. It is near 
 Keyhaven, on the way to Hurst Castle, and has the 
 cliffs of the Island in full view. Walk back through 
 the marsh under bright stars. 
 
 October 8. — Crossed to Yarmouth in the steamer. 
 Mrs. Cameron on board and Anthony TroUope and 
 wife. I sat next Anthony outside the coach to Fresh- 
 water ; he asked a great many practical questions about 
 the houses and lands which we drove past — did not 
 seem interested about Tennyson. Told me he had been 
 in every parish in Ireland. He put up at Lambert's 
 Hotel. I to Tennyson's, where a friendly reception. 
 Macmillan here, also Mr. and Mrs. Pollock, the latter 
 literary in her talk. Macmillan read aloud ' Boadicea,' 
 Tennyson at one point interjected, ' What a fine line ! '
 
 i864 BOSCOMBE 107 
 
 (I forget what line it was). He also said, ' " Maud " is 
 wonderful ! ' 
 
 Monday^ October 10. — Farringford. Cricket with 
 the two boys. Mrs. Tennyson's Alma Song : ' French- 
 man, a hand in thine ! ' Poem : ' Dream of a Gate.' 
 
 October. — Mrs. Clough being at Bournemouth 
 invited me to visit her there, and I went over on Friday 
 the 28 th. 
 
 Friday., October 28. — Up at 7 — fog. Drive to 
 Christchurch, the sun breaking through fog. Enter 
 the great Priory Church and look at the Shelley 
 Monument. Call at the gate of Boscombe in passing 
 and leave Lord Houghton's note of introduction with 
 my card. After luncheon I walked out to Boscombe 
 and found Lady Shelley at home — a small lively pleasant 
 woman, who invited us to dinner for to-morrow. 
 Dinner-tea at Mrs, Clough's, and then I was left alone 
 to examine Clough's letters, and MS. lectures on English 
 Poetry. Mrs. C. wants advice as to what to publish. 
 
 Saturday., October 29. — Boscombe. Sir Percy and 
 Lady Shelley and two sisters of Percy Bysshe Shelley. I 
 sat between them at dinner, having taken in Shelley's 
 favourite sister, whose name is spelt ' Hellen.' She was 
 lively and chatty, and I looked at and listened to her 
 with great interest. She is tall, very slender, and must 
 have been graceful and handsome in her youth, I saw, 
 or fancied, a likeness to Shelley. She was sumptuous 
 in light purple silk, which became her. She looked 
 about fifty-six, but must be much more. Her sister, 
 who seemed rather younger, was much less lively, 
 Tennyson's name occurring in conversation. Miss 
 Hellen Shelley let it plainly appear that neither he nor 
 any modern poet was of the least interest in her 
 eyes. 
 
 ' After Shelley, Byron, and Scott, you know,' she said 
 to me, ' one cannot care about other poets,' 
 
 Somebody had once read to her a poem of Tenny- 
 son's, which she liked, but she could not remember
 
 io8 BOSCOMBE 1864 
 
 what it was. It seemed doubtful that she had ever 
 heard of Browning. 
 
 Mr. Grantley Berkeley at dinner — a tall strong 
 man over sixty, like a militaire. He lives in this 
 neighbourhood on small means, is a great sportsman, 
 and his talk worth listening to on the habits of animals, 
 etc. He doubts whether there is such a disease as 
 hydrophobia — thinks most or all of the deaths may be 
 due to the effects of a punctured wound or diseased 
 blood, helped by fright. Says he can't walk as he used 
 to do — ' My feet stick to the ground.' Describes a 
 quarrel with a game-keeper, in which he threw the man, 
 who was insolent, into the river. He is off-hand and 
 pleasant to talk to, enjoys society and private theatricals. 
 In the drawing-room we found Miss Hellen Shelley 
 stretched on a sofa, with two dainty white satin shoes 
 with rosettes peeping beyond the purple robe, and 
 looking really elegant. Her recollections of Leigh 
 Hunt were not of a friendly sort, so I did not pursue 
 the subject. She always speaks of her brother as 
 ' Bysshe.' A young lady sung an Italian song. I came 
 away about 10. Sir Percy Florence Shelley is a rather 
 short, fair and fattish man of forty-five. The nose, which 
 is like his mother's, projects when seen in profile, but 
 the front face is roundish and smooth, with small eyes, 
 and a bald forehead over which the pale light-brown 
 hair is partly drawn. His voice is very quiet but in a 
 high key (the only point reminding one of his father), 
 his words few, and whole manner placid, and even 
 apathetic. He likes yachting and private theatricals, 
 cares little or nothing for poetry or literature. He has 
 a thinly -humorous, lounging, self-possessed, quietly 
 contemptuous manner of comment and narration. 
 When I mentioned Tennyson's poetry. Sir Percy said 
 fellows had bored him a good deal with it at one time. 
 He never read any of it of his own accord — saw no 
 sense in it. 
 
 Sunday^ October 30. — A good while to-day over
 
 1864 LYMINGTON 109 
 
 Clough's letters : strange feeling, reading the private 
 letters of a man whom you knew. Walked alone at 
 twilight up the valley and through groves, then back 
 to dinner-tea, 
 
 Monday^ October 3 1 . — Fine, chilly. Return from 
 Bournemouth to Lymington. Walk with George 
 St. Barbe to Boldre Church, He knows Grantley 
 Berkeley, and has gone otter-hunting with him. 
 
 Tuesday^ November i, — Rev. Wm. Barnes comes on 
 my invitation to give a lecture at the Literary Institution. 
 He duly arrives by train at 3, and I gladly welcome 
 the good old poet. We walk about the Town and 
 he shows much interest in the Furniture Brokers' shops, 
 old china, pictures, etc. — and bargains for a little oil- 
 painting. Aide arrives, whom I have invited to meet 
 Barnes, I take them for a walk to Buckland Rings, 
 supposed ancient British Camp ; then dinner at my 
 lodging (which I hope went off tolerably), and we 
 moved to the Lecture Room. Mr. Barnes lectured on 
 ' West of England Speech,' and read some of his own 
 poems. What the audience liked best was ' A Bit o' 
 Sly Coortin',' which he gave at my particular request. 
 It was evident that on the whole he seemed to them 
 flat, in comparison with the paid Entertainers who 
 occasionally come round. Aide came back to sup with 
 us at my rooms, and then drove off to Lyndhurst, 
 Barnes promising to visit him there. B. and I chatted 
 till near i. 
 
 Wednesday^ November 2, — Wm. Barnes ; he praised 
 my Stratford-on-Avon dialogue, suggested some points 
 of dialect, but does not understand the Warwickshire. 
 I saw him into the train at 1.40. A man of simple 
 manners and virtuous life, and a true poet. Though he 
 is so much my elder, I was one of the first to make a 
 stir about him, in talk and by the Press. The Brownings, 
 Tennyson, Clough, Rossetti, etc. etc. — it was I who 
 introduced Barnes's Dorset Poems to each and all of 
 them. •
 
 no LYMINGTON 1864 
 
 I met in the street old ' Lawyer M.,' who said he 
 had been at the lecture last night, and ' thought it 
 the damnedest stuff he ever heard,' to which I made 
 brief reply. 
 
 Dined at Captain Mildmay's. Lord Eversley (bland 
 and courtly), Miss Shaw Lefevre, Mr. and Mrs. De la 
 Tour, Mr. Cornwallis West (heavy swell), etc., fine 
 dinner, powdered lacqueys. Mrs. Mildmay plays well 
 on the concertina ; Mrs. De la Tour sings ; Chat to 
 her and Miss Mildmay — Show them Astrologer's Bill, 
 etc. etc. The only bit of conversation I gleaned from 
 the late Speaker (Lord E.) was this : helping himself 
 to a lump of ice after dinner, he turned to me smiling 
 and said, with great grace of manner — ' Ice, I think, 
 is agreeable at all seasons.' 
 
 Saturday^ November 5. — To Aubrey House, where is 
 now settled old Mr. Sellwood (father of Mrs. Tennyson, 
 Mrs. Weld, and Mrs. Tennyson-Turner). He is tallish, 
 very thin, with white hair and beard. He was a con- 
 fidential Family-Solicitor of the old school, at Horncastle 
 in Lincolnshire. Weld (once Secretary to the Royal 
 Society) is a bit of a sportsman, is away from his family 
 a good deal, and writes slight books of travel — a 
 Summer here, a Winter there. 
 
 December 7. — To Forest Bank, to meet Barnes. 
 Aide sends carriage to Brockenhurst. At dinner Mrs. 
 Craufurd, Miss Burrard. Mr. Weld mentioned : I 
 describe him as ' geographically restless,' which amuses 
 them.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 1865 
 
 Monday^ January 2. — Proofs of my book, Fifty Modern 
 Poems^ from Bell and Daldy. 
 
 Wednesday, January 3. — Newman's Apologia and 
 his portrait ; the narrow refined bookish man. Does 
 all this about Oxford and the Fathers, etc. etc., really 
 matter .? 
 
 Thursday, January 5. — ' The Dial ' American Maga- 
 zine. I don't like mock- Emersonianism. Balzac's 
 Ursula ; is he an honest writer .? Droll correspondence 
 with E. B. Jones, who wrote me a letter from a sham 
 ' Mary Jane,' admirer of my poetry, enclosing her 
 photograph. I replied to Mary Jane, and enclosed it 
 to the care of E. B. J. His rejoinder. Carlyle's 
 Fredk., Vol. IV. — Swedenborg. 
 
 Monday, January 23. — At Farringford. Breakfast. 
 A. T. says my poems are * cleaner cut ' than most. 
 
 ' Are you going away .'' ' 
 
 ' Yes.' 
 
 ' You'd think it graceful of me to stay with you 
 now .? ' 
 
 I assured him I wished him to do exactly as he 
 liked. 
 
 ' Stay till three ' ; but I could not, so bade him 
 Good-bye. He asked me about E. B. Jones and said 
 he should like to know him better. 
 
 Mrs. T. tells me that her father likes Aubrey House.
 
 112 LYMINGTON 1S65 
 
 January 28. — I accept invitation to lecture in Dublin, 
 in May, on Poetry. 
 
 February 20. — Weld calls ; tells me that Woolner 
 is at Farringford. 
 
 Wednesday ^ March 8. — Woolner comes across from 
 Island in the 1.30 steamer, I meet him and go 
 on to Brockenhurst Church and show him the Old 
 Yew and Oak, with which he is well pleased and 
 promises to come down and visit me. I walk into the 
 Forest by Ladycross, get into swamp and have to try 
 back. Shower of sleet. Ruined cottage with two yews 
 beside it ; meet Under-Gamekeeper, who tells me he 
 lived in that old place twenty-one years ; has seven 
 children ; is now in a new cottage. 
 
 ' Which do you like best ? ' 
 
 ' I'd sooner be hanged at the Old Cottage than die 
 a natural death at the other ! ' — an odd way of express- 
 ing his feeling. 
 
 Heathy Dilton, farmyard, wood and ferns, Royden 
 Bridge, Boldre and Lymington. Dine at G. St. B.'s, 
 afterwards play Pope Joan and win is. Found it dull. 
 Conversation in the country always purely local. 
 
 Buckle, Vol. I. Madox Brown sends ticket and 
 catalogue for his Exhibition. 
 
 Thursday^ April 6. — To Farringford — luncheon ; I 
 praise the beauty of some trees, and A, T. comes out 
 to look at them ; ventures round the corner, and we 
 call at the Camerons'. I walk back to Yarmouth, and 
 when near the bridge meet the two Miss Thackerays, who 
 have just landed on the Island and are walking to Fresh- 
 water. I tell them the way, which is rather puzzling. 
 
 Saturday^ April 8. — To Freshwater: a colony: the 
 Miss Thackerays, the Prinseps, G. F. Watts, Miss 
 Stephen, Mrs. Baine, etc. 
 
 Thursday^ April 13. — To Salisbury; 14th, Stone- 
 henge ; 15th, Wilton, etc. ; i6th, Salisbury, Romsey. 
 I have described this tour in a ' Ramble.' 
 
 Friday^ May 12. — Leave from the Customs. Train
 
 i865 DUBLIN 113 
 
 to London. Talk with a fellow-passenger, who is much 
 in rich men's houses — Lord Ashley's, Lord Palmerston's, 
 etc., now going to Windsor Castle ; a House Decorator. 
 He says Tradesmen's Bills for the Royal Family are 
 always very closely looked into — a good example. 
 Euston Hotel, Princess's Theatre, Arrah-na-Pogue ; 
 the Irishism of it melts me, and especially Boucicault's 
 singing of * The Wearing of the Green,' which I hear 
 was prohibited by the authorities in Dublin on account 
 of the wild excitement it caused in the theatre. The 
 Irish dancers good. 
 
 Saturday^ May 13. — Euston to Chester, carriage 
 all to myself, read. At Chester came in a family 
 of foreigners, puzzling people. French } No. They 
 were highly conversable, and proved to be Signer 
 Quaglieni, an Italian, proprietor of a large circus now 
 about to open for the season in Dublin, and part of his 
 company, viz. his wife and several children, married 
 daughter with baby, and his son-in-law, whom he intro- 
 duced to me as ' a great man — enorme ! ' He is the 
 chief equestrian, I understood. They have been at 
 Brescia and other Italian towns, Vienna, Constantinople. 
 We had a good crossing to Kingston, steamer very 
 steady. We stayed on deck. Like most show-folk, 
 the circus people seemed happy enough, and on good 
 terms among themselves. One of the little girls, taking 
 slight hold of a man's hand, sprang on a post with 
 professional agility. 
 
 I am to be guest of my good friends Mr. and Mrs. 
 Samuel Ferguson. They are both out on my arrival, 
 and on their return give me a most warm and hos- 
 pitable reception. 
 
 Friday, May 19. — Dublin. Car with S. F. to 
 Stephen's Green — ' Chemical Preparation Room ' (jokes 
 about that). Introduced to chairman. Dr. E. Kennedy, 
 and committee, then march through door and find 
 myself in lecture-room, as depicted by S. F. Look 
 over audience and see people I know, but take no 
 
 I
 
 114 DUBLIN 1865 
 
 special note of any. After the chairman's introduction, 
 I read my lecture on Poetry for an hour, but often 
 departing from the written text into more colloquial 
 forms. I made no stumbles and felt no sensations of 
 fear, depression, elation, or any other sort. This I find 
 satisfactory to remember, and put along with some other 
 personal experiences as indicating character — such as, 
 the falling of a firework into a straw-yard and my 
 immediately climbing the wall and putting it out ; the 
 defending myself against two dogs, one a bloodhound, 
 in a solitary warren ; the recovery from a sudden qualm 
 on the scaffolding of a tower. The quality of coolness, 
 presence of mind, when face to face with occasion, can 
 only be discovered by trial, and it is agreeable to know 
 or believe that one possesses it. As long as a question 
 is open for decision I can be as vacillating as any one 
 alive. 
 
 Monday^ May 22. — Call at Ferguson's — invitation 
 from Petrie. I dine at the Ship Tavern, Abbey St., 
 and go with my cousin David and two young ladies to 
 Quaglieni's Circus, first to promenade then to reserved 
 seats. A handsome circus and good performance. I 
 have the honour of a personal greeting from the Signor 
 and some of the ladies of the company. His son-in- 
 law is clown. David and I drive out to Seafield and 
 have supper. 
 
 Tuesday 23. — Clontarf — Capel St., etc. Dine at 
 Petrie's : ^ his four daughters. Miss Green, Samuel 
 Ferguson. 
 
 Petrie says, ' College men are not those who do fine 
 original things.' Irish music ; violin, G. P., pianoforte, 
 Miss Petrie, delightfully expressive playing. S, F., 
 strange to say, has no feeling whatever for music. I 
 write my name in Bloomfield and Fifty Modern Poems. 
 Walk with Samuel Ferguson to Earl Street, and take 
 a car to Seafield : its driver happens to be one Murphy, 
 
 ^ George Petrie, antiquarian and musician, for whom Allingham had a 
 great affection and admiration.
 
 1865 DUBLIN 115 
 
 formerly in the Revenue Police at Ballyshannon. He 
 told me he drove ' Brown of Killybegs ' lately, and 
 how rejoiced Brown was to meet him. Brown was an 
 illicit distiller, and on one occasion Murphy fired a 
 musket ball through his hat. 
 
 Wednesday, May 24. — Move from Clontarf to the 
 Verdon Hotel. Call at Capel St. and see Mr. Dan 
 Brett, his legs swollen, sad, — novel reading his only 
 pleasure. Boys read stories, old people read novels, 
 the first curious about life, the second weary of it. 
 
 To Miss Allen's, West Row, and am photographed ; 
 Miss A. talkative, tallish, good-looking. Call at 
 Wilde's, and drive with him as far as Hospital, where 
 a patient is waiting for him — 'to have his eyelids 
 chopped oiF.' There is no doubt but surgeons enjoy 
 operating, and were it otherwise what tortures would 
 not surgeons suffer, and would they be able to do the 
 needful work so well ^ 
 
 N.B. — They are sometimes accused or suspected of 
 doing things which are not needful. Wilde was lately 
 in London ; praised the doctors there for ability — 
 adding, ' but we have plenty of fun and hlagardin 
 among us here ' — are not so stiff and stuck up, he 
 meant. 
 
 At Verdon Hotel, Catholic Bishop, M'^Gettigan — 
 greets me warmly and asks me to dine with him, which 
 I have to decline. Compliments about Bloomfield 
 (which contains, by the by, a sketch of him). The 
 hotel people are impressed by the Bishop's attentions 
 to me. He is a tall, very comely man, with a pleasant 
 brogue and simple manners — speaks and preaches in 
 Irish ad lib. A good man — if he were only not a 
 Bishop ! 
 
 Friday, May 26. — Dublin. Started by rail for 
 Enniskillen at half-past eight. In my carriage a man 
 going to Canada ; we talk about Darcy M'Gee, etc. 
 He had only just time to catch the Canadian Steamer 
 in Lough Foyle, but at Dundalk Junction the Derry
 
 1 1 6 BALLYSHANNON 1865 
 
 train went off without him, for which the railway 
 people's stupidity was chiefly blamable. I gave him my 
 card and promised to testify in writing to that effect. 
 
 To Enniskillen by Steamer down the lake to Belleek, 
 about 25 miles, then by 'Bus to Ballyshannon, and find 
 myself ' at home ' once more — among old faces and 
 places ; my Father appearing tolerably well for him, 
 and cheerful, though now over seventy. He drank 
 my health after dinner. Countless greetings from 
 friends. 
 
 Saturday^ May 27. — Ballyshannon — rainy — my 
 Father poorly. I sit with him and write letters. Little 
 Stewart Johnston, Jane's son. Dr. Sheil, Wm. Lipsett, 
 etc. Walk to the Abbey graveyard — is the ivy which 
 I planted growing ^ My bedroom is out in the yard, 
 a stable-loft adapted, ladder at one end, window, with- 
 out glass, at the other, with rustic back-gardens beneath, 
 and the blue head of Slieve League visible many miles 
 away. A long room, uncarpeted, with slanting roof. 
 I like it : no noises or bothers. 
 
 May 30. — Dinner, trout. Down the Mall, pool 
 filled, beautiful, tide in, salmon-boat hauling in the 
 Pool, always interesting. Chat with numerous friends 
 of all classes. 
 
 May 31. — Walk in the garden at midnight and 
 hear corncrake. 
 
 June I. — My old nurse, Madge McNulty, to whom 
 I am always ' Master Willy,' and indeed to most 
 people here. Jack McN. (who partly sat for ' Jack 
 Doran ')} 
 
 Friday, June 2. — To Bundoran. Uncle Edward's. 
 Visit Mrs. Tomes. 
 
 June 11. — Left old Ballyshannon for Dublin, taking 
 kindly leave of everybody. I don't think I have any 
 enemies hereabouts. My Father and I have been on 
 affectionate terms all the time. 
 
 Thursday, June 15. — Dublin to London. 
 
 ^ One of the characters in Laurence Eloomfield.
 
 1865 FARRINGFORD 117 
 
 Monday^ June 19. — London to Lymington. Lym- 
 ington looks very pretty, and the view from my 
 windows in Prospect Place is delightful. I send ' Home- 
 ward Bound' to Dalziel for his book. 
 
 June 23. — Very fine. Walk to Aubrey House, 
 Mrs. Weld, Agnes ; boat to Hurst Castle, the Jersey 
 steamer passes ; fortifications, shingle poppies. Dinner- 
 tea. Mr. Selwood — pleasant day — walk home by 
 field-paths under the stars. 
 
 Saturday^ June 24. — After Custom-House, steamer 
 to Island. Farringford, hid my bag — find some people 
 in the hay -field and Mrs. Cameron photographing 
 everybody like mad. 
 
 Went to house : A. T. says, ' Are you come to 
 stay } ' I confess the bag and we go to fetch it. Mrs. 
 Cameron focuses me, but it proves a failure and I 
 decline further operations. She thinks it a great 
 honour to be done by her. Dress for dinner. Mr. 
 King, the publisher, at dinner and Mrs. King. Talk 
 of Ireland, — -Petrie and other men, of whom A. T. 
 hardly knows the existence. The cholera. T.'s den 
 at top of house ; smoking, — Public Schools, Charter- 
 house, etc., effect of a few bad boys on the rest — 
 Tupper — Swinburne. The Kings take leave, are at 
 the Albion Hotel. I sit reading and A. T. comes 
 down to me, 
 
 Farringford^ Sunday^ June 25. — Fine — at breakfast 
 A. T. with his letters, one from D. of Argyll. Swin- 
 burne — Venables. Out and meet the Kings — Mrs. 
 Cameron. Return to Farringford. Dinner (which is 
 at 6.30 always). Sitting at claret in the drawing-room 
 we see the evening sunlight on the landscape. I go to 
 the top of the house alone ; have a strong sense of 
 being in Tennyson's ; green summer, ruddy light in 
 the sky. When I came down to drawing-room found 
 A. T. with a book in his hand ; the Kings expectant. 
 He accosted me, ' AUingham, would it disgust you if 
 I read " Maud " } W^ould you expire ? '
 
 ii8 FARRINGFORD 1865 
 
 I gave a satisfactory reply and he accordingly read 
 ' Maud ' all through, with some additions recently made. 
 His interpolated comments very amusing. 
 
 ' This is what was called namby-pamby ! ' — ' That's 
 wonderfully fine ! ' — ' That was very hard to read ; 
 could you have read it ? I don't think so.' 
 
 What strikes me most in ' Maud ' this time, as always, 
 is the section beginning, ' O that 'twere possible after 
 long grief and pain.' It contains the germ of the whole^ 
 and was written many years ago. 
 
 Upstairs, talk of Poe. I praise Emerson, to which 
 T. rather demurs but says little. By and by he asks 
 me to lend him Emerson's books, which I will gladly 
 do. I feel his naturalness much. 
 
 Monday^ June 26. — Cloudy. Farringford. A. T. 
 last night intended to come across with me and let me 
 show him some places. Now, at breakfast time, he 
 can't make up his mind. 
 
 The Queen is liberal minded, she thinks Churchmen 
 are in the way to ruin the Church by bigotry — likes 
 droll stories — story of great fire and little fire to burn 
 doll — When T. visited her she curtseyed very low in 
 receiving him — was there anything particular in this.^ 
 
 Another Majesty, Dowager Queen Emma of the 
 Sandwich Islands, is expected soon on a visit to 
 Farringford. 
 
 Saturday^ July 29. — To Farringford. After dinner 
 T. spoke of boys catching butterflies. 
 
 ' Why cut short their lives } — What are we ? We 
 are the merest moths. Look at that hill ' (pointing to 
 the one before the large window), ' it's four hundred 
 millions of years old ; — think of that ! Let the moths 
 have their little lives.' 
 
 Speaking of the Colonies, he said, ' England ought 
 to keep her colonies and draw them closer. She ought 
 to have their representatives sitting in London, either 
 in or in connection with the Imperial Parliament.' 
 
 Tennyson is always well at sea. ' To own a ship, a
 
 1865 FARRINGFORD 119 
 
 large steam-yacht,' he said, ' and go round the world — 
 that's my notion of glory.' 
 
 Of the Norwegian waterfalls he said, ' I never was 
 satisfied with water before. On the voyage out, stand- 
 ing at the door of the deck cabin, I saw a moving hill 
 of water pass the side of the ship. I got on the top of 
 the cabin, and saw the sea like a mountainous country, 
 all hill and valley, with foam for snow on the summits ; 
 — the finest thing I ever saw.' 
 
 Tennyson loathed the necessity, which he fancied 
 himself under, of writing for money, ' The fine thing 
 would be to have a good hereditary estate and a love 
 of literature.' Of the expenses of land-owning he said, 
 'it costs ^100 an acre, and brings in nothing yet.' 
 
 T. said he had read part of Carlyle's Frederick till 
 he came to, ' they did not strive to build the lofty 
 rhyme,' and then flung the book into a corner. 
 
 He read some extracts in the Spectator about poetry, 
 and referred to Carlyle's contemptuous way of speaking 
 of poets, saying, ' We are all tadpoles in a pool, one a 
 little larger or smaller than others ! ' How differently 
 Goethe would have spoken of this minor poet : ' he 
 was useful in his own time and degree.' — See MS. in 
 ' Minor Poets.' 
 
 ' I was at an hotel in Covent Garden, and went out 
 one morning for a walk in the Piazza. A man met 
 me, tolerably well - dressed but battered - looking. I 
 never saw him before that I know of. He pulled off 
 his hat and said, " Beg pardon, Mr. Tennyson, might I 
 say a word to you.?" I stopped. "I've been drunk 
 for three days and I want to make a solemn promise to 
 you, Mr. Tennyson, that I won't do so any more." I 
 said that was a good resolve, and I hoped he would keep 
 it. He said, " I promise you I will, Mr. Tennyson," and 
 added, " Might I shake your hand ? " I shook hands 
 with him, and he thanked me and went on his way.' 
 
 Thursday, August 10. — Steamer to Ryde, Spithead, 
 ships of war. Ryde pier, rich idlers, white shoes,
 
 I20 LYMINGTON 1865 
 
 yachts' boats. Steep streets, photographers, libraries, 
 fruiterers, hotels. Old town, country road, man 
 mowing barley. Sun Inn, old fashioned, cold meat and 
 ale. Portrait of Ellen Terry on the wall ; I say to 
 girl who waits (the landlady's daughter), ' I know who 
 that is.' Says she to me, ' Yes, it's Mrs. Watts — she's 
 staying here ' ; which much surprised me. 
 
 It seems she used to put up here in old times, when 
 playing at the Ryde Theatre, and now, being married 
 — and separated — she goes about by herself from place 
 to place, and has come for a while to her friendly old 
 quarters. She gave them this likeness on some former 
 visit. I was in hope of seeing her fair face again, but 
 she was gone to Sandown for the day. 
 
 Mem. — The privileges granted to Pleasure Yachts 
 appear to me utterly absurd and unjust. They pay no 
 lighthouse dues, no Port or Harbour Dues, no fees on 
 engaging or discharging men, all of which must be paid 
 by every merchant vessel. They are allowed to have 
 their 'stores' of dutiable goods, wine, tobacco, etc., 
 free of duty. So are merchant vessels, but on over-sea 
 voyages only, and in restricted measure. Why should 
 the rich owners of Pleasure Yachts be thus favoured } 
 The only reason I have heard given is that yachting is 
 a ' nursery for the Navy.' Is it .? 
 
 There are at least 7000 men and boys, all picked, 
 engaged in Yachts. From all I have observed and 
 heard here on the Solent, the most Yachtish piece of 
 water in the world, nobody that can possibly help it 
 ever goes from the idler and better paid Yachting 
 into either the Navy or the Merchant Service. The 
 gentlemen in livery who abound in Rotten Row and 
 elsewhere might almost as well be supposed a nursery 
 for the Army as yachting a nursery for the Navy. 
 
 Sunday., August 6. — Lonely. Walk, field -path, 
 Pennington Farm, standing corn. Ditch crowded with 
 wild-flowers. Would I had a companion ! 
 
 August 14. — Sunny. Yacht Pilgrim — the monkey
 
 1865 LYMINGTON 121 
 
 — am shown the young Millionaire's sea-journal and 
 observe such spelling as, ' addopt,' * to or three,' 
 * oceant,' — but of course he may spell as he likes. 
 
 Wednesday^ August 16. — Headache, depressed. 
 Walk to Aubrey House, meet Captain Barton, pleasant 
 friendly man ; he has a turn for languages ; has lived 
 near Buda, and knows Hungarian. Charles Tennyson 
 Turner, like Alfred, though of shorter stature. Manner 
 peculiar to the family, at once dignified, odd, very easy 
 and natural ! Way of speaking odd but distinct, and 
 the phraseology always original. Enter C. R. Weld 
 with fishing tackle and one trout, — talk on Natural 
 History — terrible to be attacked by an Eagle, ' like a 
 flying bulldog,' I say : ' Couldn't be anything much 
 worse than that,' says C. T. T. I like him much, and 
 we seem to take to each other. 
 
 Thursday^ August 31. — Steamer Solent to Portsmouth 
 to see the French Fleet now at Spithead, Solferino 
 and other iron-clads, black brutal hulks. We carry a 
 tricolour and cheer the French ships in passing. 
 
 Friday^ September i. — Very fine. C. House, pay 
 pensioners, then hurry off to Gosport to see more of 
 the French invasion ! High Street. A pleasant boatman 
 rows me past the old Victory to La Reine Hor tense 
 (curious juxtaposition !) moored in the middle of 
 Portsmouth Harbour, and I board and look through 
 the Imperial ship, bedrooms and all, shown round by 
 a polite young Frenchman, of what rank I know not. 
 When I thanked him at parting he replied, ' Pour 
 rien, M'sieur ' ! — exact equivalent of the Irish phrase 
 in similar case, ' I'm much obliged to you, Pat ' — 
 ' Nothing, sir.' 
 
 Portsmouth Hard — Oueen St., etc., crowds, taverns, 
 French and English sailors drunk together, some arm- 
 in-arm, mutually friendly and unintelligible. The 
 French turn up their straw hats all round. 1 said to old 
 boatman, ' They look pretty much like English sailors.' 
 He : ' Ah ! they tries to come as near us as they can ! '
 
 122 LYMINGTON 1865 
 
 Illuminations, crowds, noise. Queer bedroom atop of 
 a house — sleep I don't know how. (The world-wide 
 miracle of Sleep.) 
 
 Monday^ September 11. — Cloudy but warm — Institu- 
 tion — take the chair at ' Penny Reading ' : any use .'' 
 The people prefer rubbish. Linden arcade, brown 
 half-moon low in the east — mind ill at ease. 
 
 From thirty-five to forty-five 
 'Tis sometimes hard to keep alive, 
 Hopes are dying — when they're dead, 
 Joys are flying — when they're fled, 
 Perhaps we can be comforted. 
 
 Thursday^ September 14. — Fine, warm, windy. Trip 
 in steamer. On board a blind man singing to a 
 harmonium played by a woman : ' Became blind at 
 fifteen.' ' Those feel it less who are born blind,' I 
 suggested. ' Perhaps,' he answered, ' but I am glad to 
 have seen the world' We ran past the Needles, touched 
 at Bournemouth Pier and took in new passengers, then 
 came the cliffs of Swanage Bay, the Old Harry rock, 
 with tossing and sea-sickness. Landed at Swanage, an 
 out-of-the-world place, houses roofed with large gray 
 stones, narrow crooked street. Many stone-masons 
 here. Beyond, a valley with trees and brook. Lunched 
 at ' The Ship,' kept by Mrs. Diddlecomb, and back to 
 steamer — more tossing and discomfort, of which I had 
 a little. 
 
 On deck made friends with a quick bright Boy of 
 seven, whose father sat grave and silent reading letters 
 in a female hand. Boy and I talked oceans of nonsense. 
 Passengers got out at Bournemouth and Yarmouth ; 
 then we ran for Lymington by starlight, missed the 
 channel, and stuck in the mud. We had to land by 
 boat, some of the women frightened ; one, a smooth 
 fair woman, ' going to Leicester to-morrow,' threw her 
 arms round me, which was some compensation. The 
 oars sparkled as they dipped. Landed at the Bath, with 
 wet feet ; to Custom-House, and home to dinner.
 
 1865 LYMINGTON 123 
 
 September 20. — Walked to Aubrey. Met a poor 
 looking woman who asked, ' How far to Lymington ? ' 
 I answered, ' half a mile,' saw she looked very tired and 
 questioned her. Says she has walked twenty-two miles 
 to-day, on her way from Portland, where she has been 
 to see her son, who is in the Convict Prison (for theft). 
 
 ' My poor boy ! it wasn't altogether his fault, — he 
 fell into bad company — he has got three years. He got 
 the Governor's order for me to see him — he wouldn't 
 have asked for it if he had known how bad-off I was. 
 I walked down from London to see him, and now I'm 
 walking back. I saw him for about half an hour, in a 
 cage as you might sav.' 
 
 I fully believed her and gave her something, for 
 which she was very grateful. 
 
 ' God return it to you ! ' 
 
 What women suffer from husbands, and from 
 children ! 
 
 September 23. — Warm and bright — walk in Forest, 
 but without enjoyment — my thoughts astray. 
 
 September 27. — Old Mr. Rice's death-bed — asks to 
 see me and takes leave of me — the feeble white face of 
 a once strong man. The Reverend Mr. W. comes 
 and, he gone, I return for a moment. ' Have you 
 anything to say to me, Mr. Rice } ' — ' No.' 
 
 A quiet silent man (employed in Portsmouth 
 Harbour in youth — afterwards rope-spinner by trade), 
 who has gone steadily and I believe honestly along his 
 humble track in life. He is over threescore and ten, 
 his old wife is gone before him, his family are grown 
 up (three of his sons are masters of yachts, one keeps 
 a tavern), almost all his bodily powers have ebbed away, 
 tho' his mind seems unaltered. 
 
 ' What should the Old Man do but die } ' He is 
 entirely content it should be so, and has nothing to say 
 about it. 
 
 September 30. — Cross to Island. Mrs. Cameron on 
 board, with heaps of photographs. To Farringford after
 
 124 LYMINGTON 1865 
 
 5 o'clock, come in at the tail of a ' drawing-room ' in 
 honour of Queen Emma of the Sandwich Islands, to 
 whom I am presented — middle sized or rather less, 
 pleasant face, with black hair and dusky complexion. 
 (Her grandfather an English or American sailor ?) 
 Several parsons and parsonesses present. A few words 
 with Tennyson, who asks me if I will come for a 
 walk to-morrow. Drive with Lionel in ponychaise 
 down to the shore, then good-bye, and walk away, 
 lonely. Rasher at Inn. Out by moonlight, little bay, 
 chalk cliffs, moonshine on the sea. 
 
 Thursday^ October 5. — Walked up and down Lyming- 
 ton High Street and examined the forms of the separate 
 houses — some seventeenth — most eighteenth century } 
 One may live long in a town and never do this. Old 
 bricken chimneys are often beautiful, — new, in the same 
 class of buildings, never. 
 
 Where did the good taste, or instructive rightness, 
 in former days come from } — and whither has it fled } 
 
 Saturday^ October 7. — Decline St. B.'s dinner — walk 
 to Buckland, new green sprays, — short second Spring, 
 on Winter's edge. 
 
 Has anybody walked habitually alone as much as I } 
 Many, doubtless, — but none that I know. And who 
 fonder of congenial company } 
 
 October 13. — To Lyndhurst and visit Miss Dickson 
 at her new house 'The Bird's Nest.' Miss D., quick 
 and pleasant in talk — writes music (as ' Dolores ') and 
 sings her own songs very sweetly in a small voice. 
 Her setting of Tennyson's ' Brook ' is enormously 
 popular and has brought hundreds of pounds to the 
 publishers: she has got about ^\q by it altogether. 
 But (they would argue) it was a speculation, and the 
 success has helped her name. 
 
 Thursday^ 19. — Death of Lord Palmerston (he did me 
 a good turn), G. St. Barbe has told me about P. riding 
 over sometimes from Broadlands to the New Forest 
 Hunt, never wore an outside coat in any weather, at
 
 i865 LONDON 125 
 
 most turned up his collar. Generally liked, I should 
 guess, and a good deal trusted — without exciting any 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 To Farringford. Tennyson has been visiting Weimar, 
 which he declares to be ' the most interesting place in 
 Europe.' 
 
 He saw there (as I did) kind James Marshall, the 
 Grand Duchess's private secretary, and through him 
 Goethe's House, etc. 
 
 ' I touched Goethe's coffin,' said Tennyson, ' and I 
 thought of you then ' (looking at me). 
 
 I felt this as a very great compliment. Miss Simeon 
 asked, ' Why did you think of Mr. Allingham ^ ' 
 T. — ' You ignorant maid ! don't you know his 
 beautiful little poem about Weimar } ' 
 
 Friday, October 27. — To London. At E. B. J.'s, 41 
 Kensington Square. Rain. In driving from Waterloo 
 past Westminster Abbey saw crowd of people with 
 umbrellas — Lord Palmerston's funeral. 
 
 Saturday, October 28. — 41 Kensington Square — 
 two studios. ' Zephyr carrying Psyche ' — delightful 
 — precipice, green valley, Love's curly little castle 
 below. Designs of' St. George and Dragon.' Drawings 
 of Heads. Circe (a-doing), she stretching her arm 
 across. 
 
 Go to see Chang the Chinese Giant, and meet Lord 
 Houghton there, always friendly, invites me to come 
 with him on Sunday to Westminster Abbey to hear 
 funeral sermon on Palmerston — to call for him at the 
 Athenaeum Club. Mrs. Chang. The Dwarf, queer little 
 toad. Dine at Bertolini's. 
 
 Sunday, October 29. — With Lord Houghton to 
 Westminster Abbey. 
 
 He took me to the Deanery and introduced me to 
 Dean Stanley and Lady Augusta ; three or four others 
 were present. After a few minutes we moved to the 
 Abbey, entering by a special door ; the Dean went his 
 own way, and our party was taken in charge by a
 
 126 LYMINGTON 1865 
 
 special verger, who marched before us with his silver 
 staif and ushered us to seats in front of the pulpit. I 
 imagined myself for the time Marquis of Ballyshannon. 
 Dean S., looking in his skull-cap a hundred years old, 
 preached his funeral sermon on Lord Palmerston. He 
 made no pretence of giving any religious colour to it, 
 praised P.'s honour, courage, cheerful good sense, ' In 
 trying circumstances he never took fright,' said the 
 Dean, ' never was flurried, never desponded,' and so on. 
 
 We went out by one of the public doors, like 
 ordinary minor Christians. 
 
 Tuesday^ October 31. — Lymington, showers. Rev. 
 WilUam Barnes comes to me by invitation. I go up 
 from the Custom-House and find him sitting by my fire 
 in Prospect Place. We dine at 6.30 : to the Literary 
 Institution, where B. lectures on House and House-Life 
 — caves, huts, tents, etc.. Wives (laughter), Praise of the 
 good wife, — Odd lecture, rather puzzled everybody. 
 Had Dr. Adams and Doman to meet Barnes at supper. 
 
 Wednesday ^Novemher i. — Breakfast — Barnes. Showed 
 him the Ancient Laws of Ireland^ and read him some 
 of Gammer Gurtons Needle^ which he did not know 
 before. Both books interested him. Custom-House, 
 pay pensioners. Barnes has been invited to go with 
 me to Farringford, and we cross to Yarmouth, nearly 
 fouling a collier on the way. 
 
 B.'s old-fashioned ways, his gaiters, his long knitted 
 purse which he ties up in a knot, broad brimmed hat, 
 homely speech. 
 
 We drive in a fly to Farringford, where T., Mrs. 
 T., Miss T. meet us in the hall. T. and B. at once on 
 easy terms, having simple poetic minds and mutual 
 goodwill. Talk of Ancient Britons, barrows, roads, 
 etc. I to upper room and dress, T. comes in to me 
 and we go down together. Dinner : stories of ghosts 
 and dreams. To drawing-room as usual, where T. 
 has his port, B. no wine. T. says : ' modern fame 
 is nothing : I'd rather have an acre of land. I shall go
 
 1865 FARRINGFORD 127 
 
 down, down ! I am up now.' T. went upstairs by 
 himself. 
 
 Tea : enter Mrs, Cameron (in a funny red open- 
 work shawl) with two of her boys. T. reappears, and 
 Mrs. C. shows a small firework toy called ' Pharaoh's 
 Serpents,' a kind of pastile, which, when lighted, twists 
 about in a worm-like shape. Mrs. C. said they were 
 poisonous and forbade us all to touch. T. in defiance 
 put out his hand. 
 
 ' Don't touch 'em ! ' shrieked Mrs. C. ' You sha'n't, 
 Alfred ! ' But Alfred did. ' Wash your hands then I ' 
 But Alfred wouldn't, and rubbed his moustache instead, 
 enjoying Mrs. C.'s agonies. Then she said to him : 
 ' Will you come to-morrow and be photographed ? ' 
 He, very emphatically, ' No.' 
 
 She turned to me — ' You left a Great Poet out 
 of your Nightingale Valley^ and have been repenting 
 ever since in sackcloth and ashes — eh.''' She meant 
 Henry Taylor. 
 
 I tried to say that the volume was not a collection 
 of specimens of Poets, but she did not listen. Then 
 she said graciously, ' Come to-morrow and you shall be 
 taken.' 
 
 T. and I went out to the porch with Mrs. C, where 
 her donkey-chaise was waiting in the moonlight. 
 
 Tennyson now took Barnes and me to his top room. 
 Darwinism — ' Man from ape — would that really make 
 any difference } ' Huxley, Tyndall. 
 
 'Time is nothing,' said T., 'are we not all part 
 of Deity .'' ' ' Pantheism ^ ' hinted Barnes, who was not 
 at ease in this sort of speculation. ' Well I ' savs T., ' I 
 think I believe in Pantheism, of a sort.' Barnes to 
 bed, T. and I up ladder to the roof to look at Orion. 
 Then to my room, where more talk. He likes Barnes, he 
 says, ' but he is not accustomed to strong views theologic' 
 
 We talk of Browning, for whom T. has a very strong 
 personal regard. 'Browning must think himself the 
 greatest man living. I can't understand how he should
 
 128 LYMINGTON ises 
 
 care for my poetry. His new poem has 15,000 lines — 
 there's copiousness ! I can't venture to put out a thing 
 without care. Good-night.* Bed about one, sleep 
 middHng. 
 
 November 4. — Lymington. Fine — Measured the 
 Yacht Stella by girting, then rowed round by ferry and 
 bridge in the sunshine, and felt as if it were shining out 
 of old times. I seldom care to row in this shallow 
 muddy river. Homer. Letter from Phil Jones begin- 
 ning, ' Please, Mr. Allicum — ' 
 
 Wednesday^ November 8. — Fraser has a contemptuous 
 notice of my Fifty Modern Poems ^ which takes me 
 unpleasantly by surprise. What can Froude mean, after 
 all his private cream and sugar ^ 
 
 Saturday, November 18. — Fine. I meet Woolner at 
 the train and take him to my lodging. We cross to 
 Yarmouth together, and by fly to Farringford. 
 
 Sunday, November 19. — To breakfast at Farringford 
 — read Gladstone on Homer (not much use }) Stroll 
 with A. T. and Woolner before luncheon. Walk after 
 on the Downs, A. T., Woolner, Weld and I ; rain, and 
 shelter in an empty cottage. Woolner tells of Coventry 
 Patmore's new wealth from his second marriage, his 
 magnificent wines, etc. — has bought an estate in Sussex. 
 Catholic now. We climb to the edge of the Downs 
 and looked over the gray sea. 
 
 Woolner said, ' This is better than Welbeck St. ! ' 
 T., ' But it's lonesome. Sunday touches Sunday.' (He 
 meant that the weeks ran away without incident.) 
 
 Monday, November 27. — Studying Max Miiller these 
 days ; suppose he is a great authority on Language. 
 Walk, Pennington Common, moonlight — plan a set 
 of Japanese Poems (quasi -Japanese). Longing for 
 freedom. 
 
 Solentisms. — The folk who live by the Solent say 
 mash for marsh, 'ood for wood, waps for wasp, year 
 for here, postes for posts, haps for hasp, porching for 
 poaching ! acker is to stammer ; butt a beehive ; /'//
 
 1865 LYMINGTON 129 
 
 twist 'en ! ' means I'll do it — i.e. some troublesome feat. 
 They say shant us for sha'n't we, to he for to him, and 
 make many or most neuter objects masculine ; it being 
 a jocular saying among themselves, ' In 'Am'sheer every- 
 thing's 'e but a tom-cat — see one, and. There she 
 goes ! ' 
 
 November Heavy blasts shake the house. 
 
 Clough's Letters, Sorting old letters with kind 
 thoughts of old friends.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 1866 
 
 January 9. — Ride to Brockenhurst — sudden snow- 
 storm, careering between the trees and across the road 
 like a charge of wild cavalry ; wraps us in winter, clears 
 ofF. Froude writes apologetically about the review in 
 Fraser. {N.B. — The article was by a Scotch lawyer 
 named Skelton, at whose house near Edinburgh Froude 
 is in the habit of putting up.) Lewes's Goethe — don't 
 like it. L.'s opinions on Goethe's works occupy much 
 space, and might be almost wholly spared. 
 
 January 22. — Death of dear good George Petrie (in 
 Dublin, on the i8th). 
 
 Tuesday^ January 23. — Fine and spring-like, but 
 I not well — thinking of George Petrie all day — sad 
 and sweet recollections. In the mild sunshine of his 
 company I never had a vexed moment. His presence 
 like one of those tender old Irish airs which flowed so 
 lovingly from his violin. 
 
 Thursday^ February i . — From Custom-House window 
 see Tennyson on board the steamer as she passes,. and 
 hurry to station. Mrs. Tennyson and Lionel go off 
 in a fly to Aubrey. T. and I walk, by Pennington, 
 Everton, etc. Dark and moist day, some showers. 
 Talk of Plato and Greek manners. In Lymer Lane 
 we come to a Spring by the wayside. ' I'd give any- 
 thing,' T. said, ' to have such a one at Farringford.' 
 Crossed a brook which ' broadened on the road,' and 
 
 130
 
 1866 LYMINGTON 131 
 
 this also delighted him. ' Whenever I come to see 
 you,' he said, ' bring me to a Brook. I'd sooner have 
 it than a hundred ruined Castles.' 
 
 Saturday^ February 3. — To Brockenhurst by train, 
 where Aide meets me and we walk to Lyndhurst. 
 
 Forest Bank, dinner — Aide and his sweet courtly 
 old Lady Mother, ' Gussy ' Gore (son of Mrs. Gore 
 the novelist), and his wife, Paul Graham, etc. 
 
 Sunday, February 4. — Forest Bank. A. and Paul 
 Graham to church. I at home, look at A.'s sketch- 
 books (1847, etc.), chiefly of foreign scenes. Find Vol. 
 of my own poems, marked here and there. After 
 lunch, A. and I call at the Gore's — a curious place. The 
 house was a brewery, and an odd delightful room was 
 made of a storehouse and loft thrown together. 
 
 Mrs. Sartoris, who thought of taking the place before 
 the Gores, said it would be 'the romance of rheumatism.' 
 
 Dinner at 7. Drawing-room, fashionable chat of 
 Mrs, Aide and Paul Graham (who is just of age). 
 
 Thursday, February 15. — To Buckland Road, six 
 elms and a fir tree uprooted, top of fir carried across 
 road and plunged into the ground. Fiddle — try songs. 
 Lonelyish — supper, milk. 
 
 Whence or when I know not, 
 She will come at last, 
 And with one look will pay me 
 For all the lonely past. 
 
 March 20. — Showery, chilly. De Musset, essentially 
 trash .^ Meditations : what is life worth without love, 
 without faith .? 
 
 Friday, May 18. — Farringford. Walked with 
 Tennyson among the trees and lawns. T. said, ' White 
 lilac used to be my favourite flower.' 
 
 A. — ' It is something like a white peacock.' 
 
 Then I told him what Browning said to me about 
 a passage in the 'Princess' — 'Tennyson's taken to 
 white peacocks ! I always intended to use them. The 
 Pope has a number of white peacocks.'
 
 132 FARRINGFORD 1866 
 
 We went through the gate and down to Wisley 
 Green. T. remarked, ' I have not been outside my 
 own grounds before for ever so long.' 
 
 We spoke of Byron. T. greatly admired him in 
 boyhood, but does not now. 
 
 ' When I heard of his death (it was at Somersby, my 
 Father's rectory) 1 went out to the back of the house and 
 cut on a wall with my knife, " Lord Byron is dead." ' 
 
 ' Parts of Don Juan are good, but other parts badly 
 done. I like some of his small things.' 
 
 A. — ' Any of his Tales, or Mysteries, or Plays ^ ' 
 
 T.— 'No.' 
 
 A. — ' He was the one English writer who disparaged 
 Shakespeare. He was a Lord, and talked about, and he 
 wrote vulgarly, therefore he was popular.' 
 
 T. — ' Why am I popular .? I don't write very 
 vulgarly.' 
 
 A. — ' I have often wondered that you are, and 
 Browning wonders.' 
 
 T. — ' 1 believe it's because I'm Poet-Laureate. It's 
 something like being a lord.' 
 
 The true poetic crown, he said, was not made of 
 what we call laurel ; he showed me a specimen of the 
 classic laurel growing at Farringford (sent him, I think, 
 by Mr. Edward Lear), a small bush with pointed 
 twinkling leaves. 
 
 May 25. — A little excursion from Friday till 
 Monday. Wimbourne, Blandford, Salisbury, Fording- 
 bridge, Ringwood, etc. 
 
 Wednesday, June 13. — Breakfast at Farringford. 
 Letter from an Irishman, Belfast, addressed — 
 
 ' To the Laureate of England ' — 
 
 asking the meaning of something in In Memoriam. T. 
 in the lawn and meadow running about bareheaded (for 
 exercise), ' like a madman,' his sister says. 
 
 Friday, June 22. — Very fine. Train to Lyndhurst 
 Road and walk into Forest — beeches cut down — warm —
 
 1866 LYMINGTON 133 
 
 pretty country towards Dibden and Southampton. 
 Tents, with folk like Gypsies (but they say no\ peel- 
 ing rushes for rushlights : you leave a strip of green 
 on the pith for backbone. Beaulieu, the Duke's park, 
 old church and ruins. Village, tide in. Cottage hung 
 with roses, man in front garden tells me he has lived 
 there fifty-three years. I praise the beauty and quiet, 
 but he often thinks he * ought to a'pushed out into the 
 world — gone to London or some large place.' Boys 
 fishing for bass. The miller's, a piano going inside 
 (' it is the miller's daughter,' no doubt). Rasher and ale 
 at the inn. The young lady at the bar with short 
 curls and towny air finds it ' very dull here.' I walk 
 away at 20 to 9, sunset light over heath and forest, 
 long road. The night-jar whirring. 
 
 Saturday, July 14. — Returning to lodgings from 
 office find that a telegram has come and the servant 
 has gone out with it to find me, taking wrong way. 
 Frightened — my Father? Turns out to be very 
 pleasant, ' Crown Hotel, Lyndhurst. A. Tennyson 
 to W. AUingham. Will you come to us here ^. ' 
 Dine hastily and rush to train. 
 
 Sunday y July 15. — Breakfast at Crown 9.30. A. T., 
 Mrs. T., Hallam and Lionel. A. T. and I out at 12. 
 Swan Green, forest path, Halliday's Hill, we swim 
 through tall bracken. T. pauses midway, turns to 
 me, and says solemnly, ' I believe this place is quite 
 full of vipers ! ' After going a little further, he stopped 
 again and said, ' I am told that a viper-bite may make 
 a woman silly for life, or deprive a man of his 
 virility.' 
 
 We entered Mark Ash, a wood of huge solemn 
 Beech trees, the floor thick-matted with dead leaves ; a 
 few trees were broken or fallen ; some towered to a great 
 height before branching. We sat on the roots of a 
 mighty Beech. T. smoked. We shared in sandwiches 
 and brandy. Then he produced a little pocket As T'ou 
 Like It, and read some parts aloud.
 
 134 LYNDHURST 1866 
 
 Returned by Holm Hill — View to Isle of Wight, 
 with six or seven distances one behind another. T. 
 limps, his boots pinch him — paid £1 : 1 2 : 6 for them ; 
 his Bootmaker in the Burlington Arcade, highly fashion- 
 able. ' Writes to me, " Mr. Alfred Tennyson." ' 
 
 I suggested, ' he feels he is doing you an honour, 
 being plain Afr., in consenting to make your boots.' 
 
 T. — ' One day while he was measuring me, I called 
 his attention to my corns, and said, " Have you any 
 corns } " — From that moment he threw off all respect ! ' 
 
 We agreed that with the French, or Italians, or Irish 
 you can be familiar without breeding contempt. 
 
 We strike again into the woods and reach the hill 
 over Swan Green at 4. The donkey-chair with Mrs. T. 
 and the boys appears, and a stupid little donkey- 
 driver. It jolts down the rough wood-path. Huge 
 flies draw blood. 
 
 H., L,, and I go in search of the great Knight wood 
 Oak and find it, looking fresh and healthy, but one limb 
 lost. ' Kelt and Saxon.' Dine 7.30. T. on sofa at 
 window, pleasant chat. 
 
 ' I hate publishing ! have published much for book- 
 sellers' reasons. A grain of originality is a great 
 thing.' 
 
 ' True knowledge of people very hard to get at : 
 physiognomy is misleading.' 
 
 I argue against this and think that, if you can read 
 them, faces will tell you the truth. 
 
 T. — ' You may think you have insight when you 
 haven't.' 
 
 I out, and take a dark walk to corner of Fox Leas 
 and back. Owls shouting. Corncrakes. 
 
 Monday., July 16. — 'The Crown.' Breakfast — 
 rough waitress, poorly managed Inn. I pack up and 
 go down the Brockenhurst Road, A. T. having started 
 before me. At Fox Leas corner find him sitting under 
 a tree. Talk of a trip to Ireland. Good-bye, walk 
 to station, train to Lymington.
 
 1866 LYNDHURST 135 
 
 Wednesday^ July 18. — Considering about T. and 
 Ireland. Brockenhurst. Walk to Lyndhurst by 
 Holland's Wood and Pondhead. Inquire at two 
 places for lodgings, — 'taken.' Crown, all out, engage 
 a bedroom. 
 
 Dinner, A. T., Mrs. T., H. and L. The sherry 
 here, T. says, a compound of spirits of wine — a bottle 
 of it ' stunned me.' 
 
 We talk of plans and routes for a trip. T. has 
 decided against Connemara. T. and I out in starlight, 
 down street, lower road. He is surprised to find I 
 have a habit of taking a walk after dinner. 
 
 ' What is that star ^ ' 
 
 ' Arcturus.' 
 
 T. — ' I see it shuddering and tearing away ! — my 
 eyes are so bad. In the Plough each star is a wide 
 blot of misty light. 
 
 ' The old mail-coach travelling sometimes delightful. 
 
 ' I remember going from London to Bath in 
 spring outside the coach — all very fresh and bright, a 
 delicious day ! No words can express the heavenly 
 feeling I had.' 
 
 Dogs — T., ' When I lived in Epping Forest I had 
 a big mastiff; he once ate up a little dog.' 
 
 ' Did he bite people ? ' 
 
 ' Sometimes.' 
 
 Thursday^ July 19. — Lyndhurst, fine. Walk with 
 T., Fox Leas, Whitley Wood, Queen's Bower, brook 
 dry ; a heron rises. Another brook, brisk and clear, 
 which pleases T. ' I should like to lie in that pool 
 for an hour. Nothing so delightful to the mind as 
 a brook.' I say good-bye, cross Ober Green and hurry 
 to train, thunder-shower in the evening. 
 
 Sunday^ July ii. — T. and I walk to Swan Green, 
 turn off to Emery Down and into Compton Manor by 
 path which leads us into a Park and then flower-gardens. 
 We are posed, till a gardener shows us the way, with 
 the remark that, ' It is not liked that people should
 
 136 LYNDHURST ,866 
 
 come through the Manor.' We explain that we lost 
 our way. See a jay. Cross a brook. Take a wrong 
 turn to the left, and inquire at a cottage where 
 the folk are at dinner and civilly offer us beer. The 
 wood-paths puzzle us again. 
 
 T. says, ' I want some forest,' and leans over a gate 
 while I go scouting to the top of the hill and scratch 
 my new umbrella amid the brambles (important at the 
 time !) Reach Stony Cross Inn and make inquiries, 
 then back to T., who is lying under a hedge, reading. 
 He reads aloud from his book, Materialism of the 
 Present Time, by Paul Janet. 
 
 ' Vis inertias — matter can do nothing by itself — 
 there must be a Primary Motor,' 
 
 A huge hornet ; T. kills it. 
 
 ' A weekly paper called The Hornet — sweet name to 
 choose ! ' 
 
 To the Stony Cross Inn ; bread and cheese and 
 shandygaff {i.e. beer and ginger-beer), good ; civil girl. 
 We look at rooms upstairs, and T. opens a door 
 disclosing folk eating, and shuts it. View of woods 
 below the ridge. We descend ; felled trees, bare 
 spaces. 
 
 W. M. Thackeray — his letter about the ' Idylls ' — 
 ' While I am reading your splendid verses, here I lie 
 in bed ' — his sufferings. 
 
 On large famihes — Mill, Malthus, etc. 
 
 We look about for the big yews, and can't find them. 
 Ask Rural Postman, who says, ' The Sloden Yews are 
 all cut down. They were offered me, the whole of 'em, 
 for _;^50. It was the head place for Yews.' I think he 
 said they were bought for ;^30 by an upholsterer at 
 Southampton. We much vexed ; T. said he would 
 have paid ^^30 himself to have preserved this famous 
 Yew Wood, old beyond memory, and fit to live beyond 
 reckoning. The cutting probably done by order of 
 some London official down for the day. But surely 
 the Deputy Ranger here might have interposed.'' The
 
 1866 LONDON 137 
 
 wood is valuable, but very hard to cut and work. 
 We now had wide prospects Eastwards, over forest 
 and field, dale and down, towards Southampton and 
 Winchester. 
 
 After dinner we talk of dreams. T. said, ' In my 
 boyhood I had intuitions of Immortality — inexpressible ! 
 I have never been able to express them. I shall try 
 some day.' 
 
 I say that I too have felt something of that kind ; 
 whereat T. (being in one of his less amiable moods) 
 growls, ' I don't believe you have. You say it out 
 of rivalry.' 
 
 Tuesday, July 24. — Have got ten days' leave. 
 
 Wednesday, July 25. — To London by 10.20 train. 
 
 Thursday, July 26. — Note from Browning, just off 
 to Bretagne : on mourning paper ; his father dead. 
 
 July 27. — Dine at Tom Taylor's, Lavender Sweep. 
 In with them to Opera. 
 
 Monday, July 30. — Kensington Square. Studio. 
 Psyche drawings. Book planned, Morris, and ' lots 
 of stories and pictures.' 
 
 To D. G. R., Cheyne Walk. My old regard for 
 D. G. R. stirs within me, and would be as warm as 
 ever if he would let it. Fanny, Howell, D. G. R., 
 H., and I walk to Sloane St. ; talk of dining at the 
 Wellington (corner of St. James's St.), but do dine 
 or feed at a little a -la-mode beef-house off Sloane 
 Square. His pleasant easy manners. He is now acting 
 as Secretary to Ruskin. He tells about the subscription 
 for old George Cruikshank, of which he is Treasurer. 
 I promise £ i . 
 
 ' C. is very badly off ' 
 
 ' How can that be ? He has no children.' 
 
 ' A number ! ' 
 
 When we separated I turned the corner into Cheyne 
 Row, and seeing light in No. 5 went in. Upstairs 
 room, Carlyle, Miss Welsh (' Maggie '), Miss Jews- 
 bury, and an old bald man, to whom I was introduced
 
 138 LONDON 1866 
 
 by C. ' This is David Laing, well known to all 
 inquirers into Scottish affairs.' (Librarian to the 
 Signet Library, Edinburgh.) 
 
 They were looking over some engraved portraits, 
 and C. singled out one, asking pointedly, ' Whose face 
 do you call this .? ' Laing suggested that it might be 
 So-and so, or So-and-so, C. saying * No, no, no ! ' and 
 at last, ' I perceive that you can throw no light on the 
 matter.' It is his own conviction that this (a shrewd 
 humorous face with bald forehead and scanty beard) 
 is the only authentic portrait of John Knox. 
 
 Miss Welsh is ever cheerful and chirpy. Miss 
 Jewsbury asks me to visit her. Mr. Laing gone, 
 C. and I sit on chairs in the little back garden, under 
 the summer stars, he smoking. 
 
 The New Forest — adder, properly ' a nadder.' He 
 repeats, ' the poison of asps is under their tongues.' 
 He speaks approvingly of my paper on Petrie in 
 Fraser. ' Perhaps oi;^r- appreciative — but that is as 
 it should be in such a case.' C.'s last visit to Dublin 
 and intercourse with Petrie there. 
 
 ' Very amiable and good man ; but can get no good 
 of his writings.' 
 
 We walk out in the solitary streets. 
 
 ' Success of Prussia — nothing has pleased me so well 
 for forty years. I knew it must be. Bismarck a hero 
 — his disregard of the babble of people and newspapers, 
 and of his own parliament. 
 
 ' History of Ireland — I recommend you to try it. 
 You may do a very nice book in ten years ; not long, 
 about the length of my French Revolution. It's a book 
 that would have a large sale. Whatever poetic faculty 
 you may have would be shown in this form, etc. 
 
 ' The death of Hugh de Lacy, where was that ? ' 
 
 * At Durrow in Meath. Hugh de Lacy was looking 
 at a new castle he was building, when an Irishman 
 standing by suddenly pulled an axe from under his 
 loose coat, and at a blow struck off Hugh's head,
 
 i866 LONDON 139 
 
 stretched forward, doubtless. Head and body fell into 
 the castle ditch,' 
 
 ' I would have gone and looked at the spot if I 
 could have found it.' 
 
 As we parted he said, ' Come again some evening, 
 at eight.' 
 
 Then by solitary streets and devious ways I arrived 
 at Kensington Square, and found Ned, sleepy, returned 
 from a Reform Meeting in the Agricultural Hall, 
 Islington, whither he went with Faulkner. N. J. is 
 now a People's Man. 
 
 Tuesday, July 31. — Kensington Square. Rainy. 
 ' Reform Meeting. Couldn't hear the speeches.' 
 Studio, N. painting ; imitates old Connoisseur talking 
 of ' Greek Art,' etc. I in cab to D. G. R.'s. 
 W. M. R., friendly — back from Naples, Vesuvius, 
 Pompeii. Sandys, painter, large heavy man with short 
 yellowish hair parted in the middle. Tells me he 
 * wants a dreary moor to paint — is there such a thing 
 in the New Forest '^ ' Enter Swinburne (his hair cut). 
 Talk about ages : W. M. R. tells his experience of 
 Vesuvius. Swinburne's new volume is on the table. 
 Am asked to dine here on Friday. Swinburne asks 
 leave to stay the night. Kensington Square about 3. 
 Leave a note on table — ' Your respectfully drowsy 
 Friend — 3 a.m.' 
 
 Sleep not comfortably on my sofa. 
 
 Wednesday, August i. — Newspaper says cholera is 
 increasing. I ask Ned to come down to Lymington, 
 with wife and babes. Thinks of it. At dinner 
 William Morris, pleasant, learned about wines and 
 distilling. The Big Story Book, woodcut of Olympus 
 by N. Jones. M. and friends intend to engrave the 
 wood-blocks themselves — and M. will publish the 
 book at his warehouse. I like Morris much. He is 
 plain-spoken and emphatic, often boisterously, without 
 an atom of irritating matter. He goes about 12. 
 
 Thursday, August 2. — Waterloo, 5.10 train. Lord
 
 I40 LYMINGTON ,866 
 
 Cardigan (for Portsmouth), bustJe in station, hats 
 touched ; a thin old upright man with an air of 
 command ; face cold, but not exactly repulsive. 
 Bishop of Winchester (Wilberforce), shrewd, ruddy old 
 round face, young man with him (his son?), and a 
 clever looking little parson. 
 
 August 6. — Look at Miss Knight's rooms for the 
 Joneses, think they will do. Write. 
 
 Wednesday^ August 15. — Lodgings far from ready, 
 bring books. Meet Aubrey De Vere in Ashly Lane, 
 coming to call on me. Chat, ' going to Ireland, then 
 back to Bournemouth — Laurence Bloomfield^ etc' ; with 
 me to station. I to Brockenhurst. Here's Ned 
 and Madam and Pip and Baby ! They much like 
 Stanwell House. 
 
 Friday^ August 17. — Ned and I crossed to the Island 
 and visited Tennyson, who received us very friendlily 
 and took us up to his den. 
 
 Saturday^ August 18. — Very fine. South wind. Ned, 
 Georgie and I to Brockenhurst. Field-path, stiles, Ober 
 Green, heather : Queen's Bower. Sit by the little 
 bridge. Oakenshaw, big oak, brook, insects, big beech. 
 Ned sketches. I read aloud Robin Hood and the 
 Monk. Skirt New Park to other wood, they tired. 
 Ned does not paint down here (it's his holiday), and 
 only makes a few pencil sketches. He occupies himself, 
 when in the mood, with designs for the Big Book of 
 Stories in Verse by Morris, and has done several from 
 Cupid and Psyche ; also pilgrims going to Rome, and 
 others. He founds his style in these on old Woodcuts, 
 especially those in Hypnerotomachia^ of which he has a 
 fine copy. His work in general, and that of Morris 
 too, might perhaps be called a kind of New Renaissance. 
 
 Sunday, August 26. — Fine. Rail 4.5 to Brockenhurst. 
 The old Church. Service over, we peep in and 
 encounter the Vicar, Rev. ' Paddy ' Falls. I apologise, 
 introduce my friends. ' Come in. Why not .'' ' he says, 
 with a strong brogue and funny twinkle of eye. ' I
 
 1866 LYMINGTON 141 
 
 was just saying a few words to a poor woman — pouring 
 the " leperous distilment " into her ear.' I remarked 
 that we ought to have come in service-time. ' Not at all, 
 sir, not at all ! ' says Paddy politely, and showed us 
 round the church. N. and G. were delighted with this 
 Vicar (' hot from the service,' as Georgie remarked), 
 and thought the quotation ' leperous distilment ' very 
 happy. 
 
 Through Brockenhurst Park, where N. likes the 
 woods. Roydon. They tired — Boldre — Lymington 
 about 7, very tired. Ned comes to dine with me, not 
 Georgie. . . . He lauds Luini; speaks of the injustice of 
 the critics, ' wonder when people will begin to speak of 
 me decently.' With him to Stanwell : return and read 
 Carlyle's Cromwell. 
 
 Tice^daj;-yiwgust 28. — Rain, clears up. Yacht. Webb 
 comes by train, a room for him at Perry's. We dine 
 at Stanwell House. 
 
 Thursday ^ Jugtist 1^0. — Rail to Winchester, with N.,G., 
 and Webb — meet Morris there. All walk by the Close 
 and meadows to St. Cross. Old man, dining-hall ; 
 men's rooms, old cloisters, wooden arches — mixed up 
 with leaves and flowers. The Dole. Back by meadows 
 and streamlets. Dinner at ' The George,' tough mutton, 
 parsonic waiter, red-faced grinning Landlady, bill 19s. 
 
 Cathedral — west window, bits of old glass, choir, 
 side aisles. Lady chapel, wall paintings, etc. Morris 
 talked copiously and interestingly on all things, Webb 
 now and again on technicalities (also interesting). Ned 
 enjoyed the general charm and picturesqueness ; I also, 
 in my own way — but with the drawback of uncomfort- 
 ableness which I alwavs feel from the incongruity of 
 past and present, ot old intention and modern significance, 
 in these great and beautiful Edifices. 
 
 A Verger, tall, sallow, and melancholy, did not offer 
 his services, but made a remark or two which seemed 
 to imply, in a self-respecting manner, that he was ready 
 to go round with us officially if we cared for him.
 
 142 WINCHESTER iS66 
 
 But, taking slight notice of him, Morris discoursed 
 away, and the Verger hstened with the rest of us, at 
 one point civilly correcting Morris on a detail, and 
 pointing out the broken hand of a Knightly figure. I 
 made some sort of apology aside to this man for not 
 availing ourselves of his guidance. With a mournful 
 pride he confessed his sympathy with our views, saying, 
 ' I should do just the same myself. I never meet any 
 one in a place like this that I would care to have go 
 round with me.' 
 
 We went to the College. In the Chapel, bad glass 
 in imitation of old. To Dining Hall by outside stairs, 
 bread and butter on square slab of wood, beer, and tea 
 (a modern innovation). The Boys. I have my usual 
 feeling of no unkindly envy at the discipline and 
 training (the evils, very real, at present invisible). 
 Schoolroom — dormitory. Under gateway and out. 
 Old walls, then clear brisk river, little houses with 
 gardens, bridge, St. Giles's with little red-tiled steeple- 
 spire, — wide space. High Street, the downs rising 
 beyond. Old Hall, Assize Courts, Arthur's Round 
 Table ! View of City and Cathedral flushed with 
 sunset. Field-path to Station. Ned, G., and Morris 
 and I back to Lymington — Webb to London. M. 
 being hot wants to sit in a draught. When we got 
 to Stanwell House, Ned said, ' I'm very sorry, but 
 I've been so lazy I've not done a single thing for 
 the book,' to which Morris gave a slight grunt. Then 
 Ned produced his eight or nine designs for the wood- 
 blocks, whereupon Morris laughed right joyously and 
 shook himself. Supper, then took M. to the ' Nag's 
 Head ' for his bed. House-maid uncivil : a very stupid 
 ill-mannered set of humans in these parts. 
 
 Friday^ August 3 1 . — Carriagefrom ' Nag's Head ' takes 
 N., G., M., Phil and me to the sea at Milford. Milford 
 Church, in, good, ' time of Henry I., about,' Morris 
 says ; choir waggon-roofed. Hurst shingle, M. and N. 
 sprawl, won't walk. We bury Morris up to the neck
 
 1866 LYMINGTON 
 
 H3 
 
 in shingle. Surge, boats, sward. M. would like to 
 find lodgings in Milford. Return — they dine with me 
 at 7. Look at folio Virgil with plates, and Raleigh's 
 History of the World, etc. 
 
 Tuesday, September 4. — N. and G. sup with me. 
 Heywood's Woman Killed with Kindness^ and Heine's 
 honest Lottery Office Keeper (which delights N.), 
 
 After they go I read in Swinburne's volume, lent me 
 by Ned, but can't like it : great display of literary 
 power of a sort, to what result } so elaborated, so 
 violently emphatic, so really cold-blooded. 
 
 Wednesday 5.— Cloudy, showers. To Stanwell 
 House. The Joneses packing up. Baby Margaret, 
 asleep on large bed, her father has made like a grotesque 
 giantess, by means of gloves and shoes peeping out at 
 immense distances. Good-byes, including old Mrs. 
 G., who is eighty-eight, living at top of the house, 
 Nosegay, omnibus. Train for London, and so ends the 
 pleasant friendly visit. They would like, they say, to 
 come again, and to the same lodging. I walk back to 
 Lymington by the old church and Boldre. 
 
 Wednesday, September 19, — Southampton Exhibition. 
 Pictures — 'Sir Joshua,' Hunt's ' Awakening Conscience,' 
 Lear's ' Florence,' Lee's ' Caprera,' etc. Antiquities — 
 Indian and Chinese things, etc, etc. An Exhibition 
 always troubles my mind — why i' — it is heterogeneous 
 and confused, as a whole the very opposite of an artistic 
 thing. A Collection of whatever kind ought itself to be 
 a Work of Art — hard to manage this in a temporary 
 Exhibition, yet even here something might be done. 
 
 Monday, October i, — Clough as poet is reflective and 
 didactic. His landscape painting is noteworthy for 
 its truth and solidity. It is often too truthful to be 
 good as art, resembling rather a coloured photograph 
 than a picture. Something of the land-surveyor, one 
 might say, mingles with the poet. In everything, 
 indeed, he aims at exactness, sometimes with too 
 obvious an effort.
 
 144 LYMINGTON ' 1866 
 
 M^an^ shape the moment I God will shape the life. 
 
 [Allingham received a sudden intimation of his 
 Father's death — on October 7. He went at once to 
 Ballyshannon. 
 
 This was his last visit to Ireland.] 
 
 November 9. — Walk — the old pathway to Brocken- 
 hurst Church, through Mr. Morant's park, obstructed 
 by an oak lying across it, so that the rain has formed a 
 small morass. The Squire evidently allows it to lie 
 there for the annoyance of people using the path, which 
 he would fain shut up. What an ugly trick. Hear 
 guns, and see M. in shooting-dress, dark-haired, florid, 
 rather dandified man between thirty and forty, some- 
 thing like an opera Baritone. Daresay he would like to 
 shoot me for being on this path, which has certainly 
 been public since before the Norman Conquest, while 
 his family have only been here two or three generations. 
 The old Doomsday Book Church, with its yew and 
 hollow oak, always a delight to me. There is talk of 
 building, mainly by the Squire's wish, a new one in 
 another place — cutting one more of the threads that 
 join Past with Present. Of what use is John M. in the 
 world } Towards the village he has closed up lately a 
 beautiful bit of shady byroad. 
 
 On my return find a parcel by rail from Gabriel con- 
 taining the portfolio of photographs from drawings by 
 his poor Wife ; they are naturally full of his influence.^ 
 Also of two very beautiful pencil portraits of her by 
 his hand, one a head, the other full-length. 
 
 Short, sad and strange her life ; it must have seemed 
 to her like a troubled dream. She was sweet, gentle, 
 and kindly, and sympathetic to art and poetry. As to 
 art-power, it is not easy to make as much as a guess ; 
 and this portfolio hardly helps. But it is very interest- 
 ing, at least to those who knew her. Her pale face, 
 abundant red hair, and long thin limbs were strange 
 and affecting — never beautiful in my eyes. 
 
 ^ These are now in Mrs. Allingham's possession.
 
 1866 LYMINGTON 145 
 
 Sunday, November 11. — Milder weather, mind dull 
 and muddy. History of Ireland — lawlessness and turbu- 
 lency, robbery and oppression, hatred and revenge, 
 blind selfishness everywhere — no principle, no heroism. 
 What can be done with it '^. 
 
 Monday^ November 12. — Meet G. St. Barbe. He 
 applied viva voce, to oblige me, to the Parson of EUing- 
 ham, whom he knows, for leave for me to look over 
 the Parish Register. I want to see if I can discover any 
 traces of my ancestors (Allingham and Ellingham are, 
 I believe, identical), who came to the north-west of 
 Ireland in, Petrie thought, Elizabeth's reign. The old 
 Vicar answered gruffly, ' Shilling a year, shilling a 
 year ! ' that is, I must pay a fee of a shilling for each 
 year I look at. This might come to a good deal of 
 money, so I give the thing up. 
 
 November 13. — Out after midnight to look for 
 meteors, see many streaming like fiery arrows, mostly 
 from east to west. 
 
 Wednesday, November ii. — Farringford. Breakfast. 
 Letter for Tennyson from Poets sending specimens of 
 their work, and autograph seekers. T. says, ' I should 
 like to sneak about and get a cup of tea by myself.' 
 At which Mrs. T. smiles sweetly on us, T. added, in a 
 matter-of-fact way, ' I breakfasted alone for a quarter of 
 a century.' Mrs. T. asks me to stay, but go to Lymington 
 I must, so hurry off to Yarmouth, running part of the 
 way, to catch steamer. Cross again in the afternoon, 
 and walk to Farringford. Dinner. Parson F. defends 
 Church and State. Parson's wife angry, and shows it. 
 
 Drawing-room. — T. on the death of children, with- 
 out any reference to orthodox phrases or notions. 
 Mrs. F., driven out of her wits almost, declares what 
 he says to be ' mere chop-logic' After this he goes 
 upstairs leaving us silent and the parson's wife enraged, 
 
 T. and I upstairs — ' Swinburne — he has a metrical 
 swing. W. M. Rossetti's pamphlet.' 
 
 ' You shocked Mrs. F.'
 
 146 FARRINGFORD 1866 
 
 * Can't help it.' 
 
 Thursday^ November 22. — Farringford. After break- 
 fast T. reads a number of Songs of his under the general 
 title of The Window^ or, The Loves of the Wrens^ pre- 
 facing it by the remark, ' They're quite silly ! ' 
 
 These songs were privately printed some little time 
 ago at the press of Sir Ivor Guest. Arthur Sullivan 
 saw a copy and managed to get a promise from T. to 
 allow him to set them to music and publish them, all 
 together, on some half-profit arrangement. T. repented 
 of this and tried hard to back out. Some lines in them 
 one remembers like a nursery rhyme — 
 
 When the winds are up in the morning, 
 Vine, vine and eglantine. 
 Rose, rose and clematis 
 Kiss, kiss ! 
 
 There are naiVetes and niaiseries — 
 
 You are small, am I so tall ? 
 Cannot we come together ? 
 
 Why? 
 For it's easy to find a rhyme — 
 It's ay, ay, ay, ay, ay ! 
 
 In reading this, T. jumped round most comically, 
 like a cock-pigeon. He is the only person I ever saw 
 who can do the most ludicrous things without any loss 
 of dignity. 
 
 Reading the lines — 
 
 After-loves of maids and men 
 Are but meats cook'd up again, 
 
 he remarked, ' That's very like Shakespeare.' 
 
 December 2. — Letter from John. Irish Annals. 
 Walk, Shirley Holmes, — heavy shower ; shelter under 
 ivied porch of gatehouse, man looks out, I ask leave 
 
 he replies ' I doesn't know as it's any 'arm to 
 
 stand theer,' — a British welcome, or Anglo-Saxon 
 rather. Yellow sky under rain-cloud. 
 
 Saturday^ December 22. — To Tom Taylor's, Lavender
 
 1866 LONDON 147 
 
 Sweep, for Christmas. Clapham Junction, all trains late. 
 Reach the hospitable house about 7, in good time for 
 dinner. Then T. T. hurries me off to the Junction 
 again, and from Waterloo we take a cab to the Adelphi, 
 and see The Sister s Penance, with Kate Terry. The 
 Indian Mutiny scene, Ahmedvolah. In a stage-box the 
 Terry family (including Nellie) and their Yorkshire 
 friends. We just catch train at Waterloo and get home 
 about half-past twelve. 
 
 December 24. — Lavender Sweep. After City, a 
 steak at the Cock, in honour of Will Waterproof — but 
 where is now the ' plump head-waiter ' } Rail from 
 Blackfriars ; in the train a widow telling a man of her 
 son's death, sour-looking man opposite interposes ' I 
 doubt if your son died a right and happy death,' and 
 then goes out. I speak to the widow and try to take 
 away the dismal effect of this fellow's harsh words. 
 She tells me of her son, how good he was. After the 
 widow got out, one woman in the carriage said to 
 another ' we want something to cheer us up after that ' 
 — perhaps gin. 
 
 No people talk so freely as the lower class of 
 Londoners when thrown together. 
 
 Lavender Sweep. Children's party — The Terrys, 
 Burnands, etc. Game of Post Office, I blind the people. 
 Game of the Ring. Mistletoe. All gone. Chat by 
 the fire. 
 
 December 26. — Lavender Sweep. Goodbye. Bright 
 spring-like day. To Kensington Square. Ned. Studio. 
 He with me to Kensington Station and sees me off.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 1867 
 
 Friday^ January 24. — Lymington. Fine and vernal. 
 Ferry to steamer — delightful colours of earth, sky and 
 sea, a bloom upon the landscape. From the Solent 
 see the woody background of Lymington recede, the 
 Island approach with a welcome ; a boat with red 
 sails passes in the sunshine. I feel tranquilly happy. 
 Yarmouth, send two bottles of whisky to A. T. by 
 Lambert's driver. Walk to Farringford, field-path, 
 warm. Drawing-room. Mrs. T. (looking ill). Miss 
 T., T, He and I walk on the downs ; very friendly 
 talk. I said I felt happy to-day, but he — ' I'm not at 
 all happy — very unhappy.' He spoke of immortality 
 and virtue, — Man's pettiness. — ' Sometimes I have a 
 kind of hope.' His anxiety has always been great to 
 get some real insight into the nature and prospects of 
 the Human Race. He asks every person that seems 
 in the least likely to help him in this, reads every book. 
 When Vestiges of Creation appeared he gathered from 
 the talk about it that it came nearer to an explanation 
 than anything before it. T. got the volume, and (he 
 said to me), ' I trembled as I cut the leaves.' But alas, 
 neither was satisfaction there. 
 
 Plato : T. says he has not really got anything from 
 him. iEschylus is great ; he quoted from a Chorus in 
 the Agamemnon. 
 
 Women in towns, dangers to health, horrible
 
 1867 FRESHWATER 149 
 
 diseases, quack-doctors, etc. T. would have a strict 
 Contagious Diseases Act in force everywhere. 
 
 We go through kitchen garden, lane and gate to 
 the road as usual, where we take leave after some talk 
 upon Christ and the People. T. loves the spirit of 
 Christianity, hates many of the dogmas. 
 
 Friday^ February i. — T. is unhappy from his uncer- 
 tainty regarding the condition and destiny of man. Is 
 it dispiriting to find a great Poet with no better grounds 
 of comfort than a common person ? At first it is. 
 But how should the case be otherwise ? The poet has 
 only the same materials of sensation and thought as 
 ordinary mortals ; he uses them better ; but to step 
 outside the human limitations is not granted even to 
 him. The secret is kept from one and all of us. We 
 must turn eyes and thoughts to the finer and nobler 
 aspects of things, and never let the scalpel of Science 
 overbear pen, pencil and plectrum. A Poet's doubts 
 and anxieties are more comforting than a scientist's 
 certainties and equanimities. 
 
 Saturday, February 2. — T. and Lionel just starting 
 for a walk ; we took the green road at foot of downs, 
 T. had in his pocket a volume, or pamphlet, of Edwin 
 Waugh's Lancashire Songs, and when we paused he 
 read, ' Coam whoam to thy childre and me,' with praise. 
 We went to the end of the downs overlooking the 
 Needles. T. spoke of Campbell — his vanity — ' has 
 written fine things.' 
 
 Edge of cHft, wind blowing in from the sea ; a ship 
 ashore at Brook, 
 
 Sunday, February 3. — Walk with T. to Brook Bay, 
 ship ashore, the Fannie Larabee of Bath, large, three 
 masts, good model. There are people on the shore, 
 but T, doesn't seem to mind. We walked to next 
 point and saw a steamer ashore at Atherfield ; then 
 turned up to downs and came back by a path slanting 
 along the cliff side, like a frightful dream rather, my 
 head being lightish. T. tells of people who have fallen
 
 I50 LYMINGTON 1867 
 
 over, and at one place is a monumental stone to com- 
 memorate such an accident. I said (walking close 
 behind him) ' suppose I were to slip and catch hold 
 of you, and we both rolled down together,' on which 
 T. stopped and said, ' you'd better go on first.' 
 
 We talked of Dryden, Campbell, etc. T. told me he 
 was prevented from doing his Arthur Epic, in twelve 
 books, by John Sterling's Review of ' Morte d'Arthur ' 
 in the Quarterly. ' I had it all in my mind, could have 
 done it without any trouble. The King is the complete 
 man, the Knights are the passions.' Home a little late 
 for dinner. Afterwards T. rose to leave the room. 
 Matilda (I think) asked, ' Where are you going ? ' 
 
 * To read the Scriptures.' 
 
 Later in the drawing-room he read aloud some of 
 Goethe's lyrics. 
 
 Monday, February 18. — Mist. Steamer to Yarmouth. 
 Flags flying. The Queen expected from Osborne, 
 coming to take a look at this part of the island. I to 
 Farringford. I say to T., ' Perhaps the Queen wiU 
 visit you to-day.' He thinks it possible. 
 
 ' Then I had better go .? ' 
 
 ' No, stay by all means.' 
 
 Talking of the Queen, when T, was at Osborne 
 Her Majesty said to him, ' Cockneys don't annoy aj,' 
 to which T. rejoined, ' If I could put a sentry at each 
 of my gates I should be safe.' 
 
 * She was praising my poetry ; I said *' Every one 
 writes verses now. I daresay Your Majesty does." She 
 smiled and said, " No ! I never could bring two lines 
 together ! " ' 
 
 The Queen, I find, has steamed past Yarmouth, 
 landed at Alum Bay, and lunched there at the hotel. 
 
 March 30. — Ride to Hurst. Returning, I rode by 
 the edge of the sea, till in one place the horse suddenly 
 sank to his belly in the muddy sand. I had a real fright 
 for half a minute, and then we scrambled out, I don't 
 know how. At Keyhaven I got the horse well wisped.
 
 1867 LONDON 151 
 
 Wednesday^ April 3, — Farringford. Tennyson and 
 I busied ourselves in the shrubberies, transplanting 
 primroses with spade, knife, and wheelbarrow. After 
 dinner T. concocts an experimental punch with whisky 
 and claret — not successful. Talks of Publishers, anon 
 of higher things. He said, ' I feel myself to be a 
 centre — can't believe I shall die. Sometimes I have 
 doubts, of a morning. Time and Space appear thus 
 by reason of our boundedness.' 
 
 We spoke of Swedenborg, animals, etc., all with the 
 friendliest sympathy and mutual understanding. T, is 
 the most delightful man in the world to converse with, 
 even when he disagrees. 
 
 To my inn, where I woke in the dark, bitten, and 
 improvised two lines — 
 
 Who in a country inn lies ill at ease 
 On fozy feathers fill'd with furious fleas. 
 
 April 18 io 25. — In London, staying at Tom 
 Taylor's — old Mr. Barker is there. See Carlyle, 
 Browning, Ned Jones, etc. 
 
 Sunday J April 1 1 , — Lunch with Browning at War- 
 wick Crescent. Miss Browning. Swinburne's writing 
 'a fuzz of words.' Browning improvises, 
 
 Don't play with sharp tools, these are edge 'uns, 
 My Ned Jones ! 
 
 B.'s pet owl sits on its perch in a corner, B, calls 
 him ' a good man,' petting and stroking him. We 
 speak of William Morris, and B. wishes he could see 
 him : I say, ' Come with me to him,' and B. hesitates, 
 but ends by not finding it possible to-day. Enter Pen. 
 As Tou Like It — Mrs. Scott Siddons was ' so bad ! ' 
 Shakespeare's language ; he invented a great number of 
 words and phrases which have become common property — 
 
 The big round tears 
 Cours'd one another down his innocent nose. 
 
 Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens !
 
 152 LYMINGTON 1867 
 
 Now Byron says * swept,' and that's all very fine — but 
 give me the man who first said ' sweep.' 
 
 To Cheyne Row. C, asks about my Irish History^ 
 but is not satisfied to find me taking much trouble 
 about the ancient part, for which he cares very little, 
 the old Saints excepted. I fear, indeed know, that my 
 views and his are irreconcilable. He describes Mentone 
 — clear air, good peasant people near it. 
 
 Saturday^ May 4. — Lymington. By train to Brocken- 
 hurst and walk to Queen's Bower. The brook be- 
 starred with white flowers (water crowfoot), little fishes 
 gliding. Sit under the Big Oak reading As Tou 
 Like It, — and this might be Jacques's very brook in 
 Arden. Then through forest glades appears a carriage 
 with Aide, George du Maurier and his wife, and Miss 
 Middlecoat. 
 
 May 24. — To Winchester, St. Giles's Hill, Cathedral, 
 St. Cross, etc. 
 
 May 25. — Farnham (see Rambles by Patricius 
 Walker), Cobbett's Birthplace *The Jolly Farmer.' 
 Bishop's Park, fine old walls, great elms, deer. Moor 
 Park and Waverley, river, ruins, Crooksbury Hill 
 (dark firs). 
 
 May 26. — Guildford — Hog's Back, Liphook — Gray- 
 shot, and find the Tennyson house (they occupy the 
 best part of a large farmhouse). Lionel shows me the 
 piece of land which his Father thinks of buying to 
 build on. 
 
 May 27. — Morris's Jason, 'from his friend the 
 Author.' Medea oiFwith the Fleece — admirable. 
 
 Sunday, June 9. — Find with joy a book on my table, 
 by post, May-Day — gift from Emerson. 
 
 Monday, June 10. — Fine, warm. To Brockenhurst 
 by invitation to the Bowden Smiths, croquet, roses, hot 
 sun. Field-path to station, red campions and kingcups. 
 Down train comes in with Mrs. Cameron, queenly in a 
 carriage by herself surrounded by photographs. We 
 go to Lymington together, she talking all the time.
 
 1867 LONDON 153 
 
 ' I want to do a large photograph of Tennyson, and he 
 objects ! Says I make bags under his eyes — and 
 Carlyle refuses to give me a sitting, he says it's a kind 
 of Inferno ! The greatest men of the age (with strong 
 emphasis), Sir John Herschel, Henry Taylor, Watts, 
 say I have immortalised them — and these other men 
 object !! What is one to do Hm ? ' 
 
 This is a kind of interrogative interjection she often 
 uses, but seldom waits for a reply. I saw her off" in the 
 Steamer, talking to the last. Dine 7.30 — Sit on door- 
 step and hear corncrake in the moonlight. Haymaking 
 now. 
 
 June 18. — Very line. Picnic in Forest, School- 
 girls and grown folk, youths and maidens. A Club 
 Day also — children in waggons^ — noise and laughter — 
 wood walks. We dine on the grass at 2.15. 
 
 Friday 2%. — Hot. Leave of absence : Burnett, my 
 locum tenens^ appears, and I start for London, to stay 
 in Kensington Square. Find Georgie well, Ned at 
 Morris's — supper. 
 
 Saturday 29. — Kensington Square. Hot — call at 
 Lavender Sweep ; Mrs. Tom Taylor, Lucy, W^ycliffe. 
 Up Regent St. ; dusty, dry, ugly London. Dine at 7. 
 Ned and I in garden of square ; to us enter Mr. John 
 Simon (from next door) and his niece. Mr. S. a kind, 
 bright pleasant man and good talker, as well as eminent 
 surgeon, boyishly merry at times. He and his niece 
 run a race to the house, then he jumps on the low wall 
 and lies flat on it as if exhausted. Read Ruskin's 
 Lecture at Royal Institution on Art and Life. 
 
 Sunday 30. — Ned's Studio, ' St. George and Dragon,' 
 ' The First Mirror ' (nude models). To Queen's Square ; 
 Mrs. Morris, Jeannie and May. Enter Morris, frank and 
 friendly as usual — Supper. 
 
 Tuesday, July 1. — Ned, Howell and L Howell 
 ' going to be married in August ' — I congratulate him ; 
 
 he says * you are more encouraging than , who, 
 
 when I told him, said in an anxious tone —
 
 154 LYMINGTON 1867 
 
 ' My dear fellow, can't you get out of it ? ' 
 
 Morris and I to the Royalty Theatre, Black-eyed 
 Susan. M. seldom goes to the Theatre, and is bored a 
 good deal. Poor enough fun, indeed. With M. to 
 Queen Square. 
 
 July 4. — Queen Square. — Morris and I to West- 
 minster Abbey. Deanery, Cloisters — pleasant. 
 
 Wednesday^ July 17. — Lymington. Fine ; hurry 
 to steamer. Excursion to visit the French Fleet at 
 Spithead. At Yarmouth a large Tennyson party comes 
 on board — ^A. T., his brother Charles and Mrs. Charles, 
 Hallam and Lionel, two daughters of Fredk. Tenny- 
 son, from Jersey, and Matilda T. A. T. and I collogue. 
 At Cowes a bustle : the Queen embarking in her 
 steam-yacht. 
 
 We see the Fleet at Spithead, ' like Milan Cathedral.' 
 Rain comes on. The Queen having reached the French 
 Fleet — Ironclads, huge, black and ugly, — royal salutes 
 thunder, the yards are manned, but we can see very 
 little for the thick weather. Ryde Pier, Tennyson and 
 I land, among others ; the ladies ill and draggled. Pier 
 Hotel. A. T., Charles T., and I go up High Street 
 and out into a field beyond, where we sit on a balk of 
 wood, looking at some cows grazing, and A. T. smoking. 
 He quotes a sonnet of his brother's about elms and 
 calls it daimonisch. We return by lower road and all 
 go aboard again, where A. T., Sir Andrew Hammond 
 and I dine. The weather still thick with frequent 
 showers ; some want to turn homewards without 
 running through the Fleet, etc., as arranged. Captain 
 Cribb will do whatever the passengers wish, — where- 
 upon a debate below. In an interval of silence a deep 
 voice is heard grumbling out — ' I know it's not the 
 least use my saying anything, but I'm for going back,' 
 This was A. T., but the majority were plainly for going 
 on, and soon we steamed in the rain close to the dark 
 sullen row of huge Ironclads. Then fireworks, and we 
 turned homewards. We nestled down near the boiler,
 
 1867 LYMINGTON 155 
 
 A. T,, Lionel, W. A., and the rest — chatted, asked 
 riddles, and so we reached Yarmouth, where they 
 landed and I was left lonely again. Got back half an 
 hour after midnight. 
 
 July 19. — Writing Rambles. Walk, riverside, 
 honeysuckle, scabious, bluebell, ferns, more contented. 
 
 August 5. — Farringford, Bradley, etc. I continue to 
 like B. more and more. 
 
 Monday., August 19. — After dinner a thunderstorm 
 with rain. Night grows pitch dark. Tremendous 
 thunder and lightning for a long time. I put out my 
 candle and sit at window watching. The lightning 
 over the Island. A thunder-holt apparently falls on the 
 mainland eastwards. ' Tremble, thou wretch.' 
 
 Tuesday., August 20. — Hearing that the lightning did 
 mischief out eastwards, I cross Ferry, walk to Baddesley, 
 and find a two-story cottage burned, only the blackened 
 walls left ; the ivy and flowers scorched, and the apples 
 on some trees close by roasted on one side. Among a 
 heap of half-burnt things, mixed with charred wood and 
 ashes, lay some fused photographs of the old daguerreo- 
 type sort in metal frames, such as hang on cottage walls. 
 The Father stood grave and reserved, a girl, his 
 daughter, near him, both seeming stunned. The man 
 told me he went to the upper room during the thunder- 
 storm and sat down on a chair near the fireplace. 
 His wife was in bed, and two sons in another bed. 
 Suddenly the lightning darted through the thatched 
 roof and down through the floor of the room, and the 
 whole place was in a blaze in a moment. Up started 
 wife and sons, the feather beds were thrown out of 
 window, all rushed out into the rain, and nothing else 
 was saved from the fire. I ofi^ered to lend a little 
 money, but it was declined. 
 
 This was the work perhaps of the thunderbolt which 
 I saw fall last night ; the time fits. I could not find 
 that the lightning did anything as lightning save set the 
 house on fire ; this it did very effectually.
 
 156 DORCHESTER 1867 
 
 Friday^ August 23. — Very fine. Steamer 11.40 to 
 Yarmouth. Tennyson on the quay, also his brother 
 Frederick and two daughters. A. T. is going to Lyme 
 Regis alone. 
 
 ' 1 have wanted to see the Cobb there ever since I 
 first read Persuasion. Will you come } ' 
 
 Can I possibly } Yes, I will ! 
 
 We cross to Lymington. I rush up and make 
 hasty arrangements at Custom-House and lodgings ; 
 then off go A. T. and I, second class, to Dorchester. 
 A. T. smokes. (T. is a great novel reader, very fond of 
 Scott, but perhaps Miss Austen is his prime favourite.) 
 
 In our carriage a cockney Clock-winder, who gets 
 out at every Station to regulate the Railway Company's 
 clock. 
 
 Once safely incognito T. delights in talking to 
 people, but touch his personality and he shuts up like 
 an oyster. Ringwood, Wimborne, Poole harbour, 
 Wareham (mounds), Dorchester. Walk in the warm 
 afternoon, through stubble fields and reapers at work, 
 to the grand old Keltic fortress now called ' Maiden 
 Castle,' view the great green mounds, and lie on 
 a slope looking over autumnal landscape. Then 
 descend and return, finding corn-flowers and ' Succory 
 to match the sky.' Shall we stay to-night at 
 Dorchester } T. vacillates, at last agrees. We go to 
 the ' Antelope,' rooms not good — out, and into the 
 Museum, up a backyard, — British antiquities, Roman 
 pottery, etc. High Street, at its foot a clear little river, 
 the Frome. A tipsy cobbler accosts us. Riverside 
 walk through meadows. County Jail looks like a 
 pleasant residence. Return by back street to the 
 ' Antelope,' which produces a pint of good port at dinner. 
 The twilight being fine I propose that we should visit 
 William Barnes, whom T. personally knows, and whose 
 Poems in the Dorset dialect T. knows and likes. I 
 show the way to Came Vicarage, where I had enjoyed 
 hospitality from a Saturday to a Monday a year or two
 
 1867 LYME REGIS 157 
 
 before. The cottage-parsonage lies in a hollow among 
 trees about a mile from Dorchester, separated from the 
 public road by a little grass-plot and shrubbery. We 
 find the gate by starlight and reach the house door 
 between 9 and 10 o'clock. The worthy old Poet- 
 Vicar is truly delighted to see us, especially such a 
 guest as T. (whose poetry, he used to say, has a ' heart- 
 tone ' in it). 
 
 Barnes himself lets us in or comes out at once into 
 the passage — ' Here's an honour ! ' Little Miss Barnes 
 and Mrs. Shaw, a married daughter, appear. B. says, 
 ' put out something ! put out something ! ' with hos- 
 pitable fervour, tho' we lack no bodily refreshment. 
 Barnes himself, by the way, though not a teetotaller, is 
 an abstemious man, very plain and inexpensive in his 
 diet. We are pressed to stay but can't. Talk of Maiden 
 Castle, Irish duns and raths. T. tells his story of his 
 car-driver, ' The King of Connaught.' Then we go, 
 Barnes with us to near Dorchester, talking of British 
 Antiquities, Wareham, Sun-worship, etc. 
 
 Saturday^ August 25. — Dorchester — To Maiden 
 Newton — Bridport. We start off to walk to Lyme 
 Regis, leaving bag to come by carrier. Uphill, view of 
 sea, down to Chidiock, pretty village, old church, flowery 
 houses. We push on (as like two tramps as need be) 
 along the dusty road to Martin's Lake, sea on one hand, 
 shore hills on the other. Down a long hill to Char- 
 mouth, where we have beer and cheese in a little inn, 
 then T. smokes in the porch and chats to the waitress. 
 She says she is from the Isle of Wight. * So am I,' 
 says T., — ' what part '^. ' ' From Cowes,' says the girl. 
 ' I come from Freshwater,' says T., which surprises me, 
 — but he revels in the feeling of anonymosity. We 
 see Lyme below us and take a field-path. 
 
 Down into Lyme Regis, narrow old streets, modest 
 little Marine Parade. ' The Cups ' receives us in the 
 fair plump good-humoured person of a House-Keeper 
 Barmaid. T. gets a good bedroom and I a tolerable
 
 158 LYME REGIS 1867 
 
 one ; we go into garden sloping down-hill and out by 
 some back steps to a Mrs. Porter's, where the F. 
 Palgraves are lodging — not in. 
 
 Back to ' The Cups ' and order dinner ; then by myself 
 up steep street to top of the town, pleasant, view of 
 shore and headlands, little white town far off. Dinner. 
 Then T. and I out and sit on bench facing the sea, 
 talking with friendly openness. Marriage, — ' how can 
 I hope to marry ? Some sweet good woman would 
 take me, if I could find her.' T. says, ' O yes,' adding, 
 ' I used to rage against the social conditions that made 
 marriage so difficult.' 
 
 Sunday^ August 25. — Lyme Regis. Very fine. T. up 
 first and at my door. He has been on the Cobb, and 
 eats a hearty breakfast. We go down to the Cobb, 
 enjoying the sea, the breeze, the coast-view of Portland, 
 etc., and while we sit on the wall I read to him, out of 
 Persuasion., the passage where Louisa Musgrave hurts 
 her ankle. Palgrave comes, and we three (after Manor 
 House and some talk of Chatham) take a field-path 
 that brings us to Devonshire Hedge and past that 
 boundary into Devon. Lovely fields, an undercliff 
 with tumbled heaps of verdure, honeysuckle, hawthorns 
 and higher trees. Rocks peeping through the sward, 
 in which I peculiarly delight, reminding me of the 
 West of Ireland. I quote — 
 
 Bowery hollows crowned with summer sea. 
 
 T. (as usual), 'You don't say it properly ' — and repeats 
 it in his own sonorous manner, lingering with solemn 
 sweetness on every vowel sound,— a peculiar incomplete 
 cadence at the end. He modulates his cadences with 
 notable subtlety. A delightful place. We climb to the 
 top, find flat fields, and down again. Stile and path — 
 agrimony — we sit on a bank, talk of Morris, Ned 
 Jones, Swinburne, etc. Whitechapel Rock. Then 
 return by winding paths to the town. Miss Austen, 
 Scott, novel writing. P. counsels me to write a novel.
 
 1867 LYMINGTON 159 
 
 Inn, dinner, fat waitress, port. In the coffee-room a 
 gentleman, who joins in conversation — High Church, 
 etc.. State of England, — and speaks well but guardedly. 
 T. talks freely — human instincts, Comte, etc. 
 
 We go to Palgrave's, who says, ' thought you were 
 not coming.' They smoke. When T. and I are walk- 
 ing back to the Inn he takes my arm, and by and by asks 
 me not to go back to Lymington. I (alas !) have to 
 reply that I must. ' Well then,' says T., ' arrange your 
 business there and come back.' I doubted if I could. 
 ' Is it money } ' says he, — ' I'll pay your expenses.' 
 Most delicious ! that the man whose company I love 
 best should care about mine. Most mortifying ! for I 
 am tied by the leg. 
 
 Wednesday^ August 28. — Lymington. Letter from 
 M. D. Conway, ' on a little tour of the South Coast — 
 coming to Lymington with New York Tribune man to 
 visit you and try to persuade you to go to America.^ Letter 
 from Howell, at Hastings, giving an account of his 
 Wedding. Letter from Palgrave (dry) : ' Tennyson 
 asks me to say he hopes you will join us at Moreton 
 Hampstead — Dartmoor — au revoir.^ 
 
 August 30. — Yacht Mirella. Faraday is gone. 
 
 Monday^ September 2. — Very fine. Pay pensioners 
 — Train 2.30 brings Conway, but not his Tribune 
 friend. Secure him a bed at the ' Nag's Head,' then we 
 walk out by Pennington. Talk much of Emerson — 
 Magazine-writing, etc. Letter from D. G. Rossetti ! 
 ' Shall I come to you } ' I reply, ' Yes, by all means.' 
 
 Sunday^ September 8. — Very fine. D. G. Rossetti 
 coming to-morrow. Read his Early Italian Poets. 
 
 Mem. — Use him nobly while your guest. 
 
 Wednesday^ September 11. — Rainy. By 8.40 even- 
 ing train behold D. G. R. ! he wears a ventilating hat, 
 something like a policeman's helmet, in which he looks 
 short and broad, having grown stout. We have supper 
 and sit up talking till three. He has been troubled with 
 his eyes, but has brought down an unfinished picture,
 
 i6o LYMINGTON 1867 
 
 half-length female figure, intending to paint in back- 
 ground of roses. 
 
 Thursday^ September 12. — Very fine. My landlady 
 grumpy — ' didn't tell me of the gentleman,' etc. I 
 explain. We walk by the river-side to Roydon Farm, 
 path to Brockenhurst Church. Crown Inn. Rail to 
 Lymington. Dine 7 ; Bed about i. He had thought 
 Lymington to be on the very edge of the Forest. 
 
 Friday, September 13. — D. G. R. and I walk out to 
 Rope Hill, and Captain Barton shows us beautiful roses 
 and offers us some for the picture — a very kind man. 
 R. and I to Shirley Holmes and lie in the grassy circle 
 surrounded with oaks, hollies, etc., pierced with little 
 green alleys and tunnels, a fit place to act the Midsummer 
 Night's Dream in. We talk of the Forest Gypsies ; this 
 is one of their camping places. D. G. R. has some 
 notion of taking lodgings at Lymington. 
 
 Saturday, September 14. — Call D. G. R. He has 
 not yet opened his Picture case, so I undo the fastenings. 
 He finds that none of Captain B.'s roses are exactly of 
 the kind for him ; he wants the fresh-coloured loose- 
 leaved China rose. 
 
 I to Custom-House and then call at the Skinners, 
 Walk with Skinner, Q.C., and two daughters to Arne- 
 wood. The knowing and experienced talk of the 
 eminent lawyer makes me feel small. 
 
 I find D. G. R. on the sofa, has not been out, nor 
 looked at his picture, but been reading The Mill on the 
 Floss all day. 
 
 Sunday, September 15. — Call D. G. R. Registered 
 letter with bank notes, etc., ^\^^ : los. — for 'copy' 
 of Lilith. We write letters. Howell has proposed to 
 come here, R. writes to him, ' Come if you will.' Out 
 about 1.30 ; R. and I call at Pennington Cottage, and 
 young Skinner joins us. Milford Church — congregation 
 in it, but D. G. R. and S. go in all the same, take a look 
 and come out again — path, millpond, cliff, sea ; delight- 
 ful view. We talk of Home and other ' Spiritualists,'
 
 1867 LYMINGTON i6i 
 
 about whom D. G. R. has at the least a curiosity. 
 Back by Keyhaven and the Marsh. We are late, but 
 D. G. R. wont hurry. He says in a conclusive tone : 
 ' I never do anything I don't like.' Dine 6.30. We go 
 down and look at the river by moonlight. Bed about 2. 
 I argue that Maggie TulUver's lover Stephen is made 
 too mean and commonplace : R. doesn't agree. 
 
 Monday^ September 16. — Have had several pressing 
 notes from Mrs. Cameron to come and bring D. G. R. 
 to her — ' photograph you both.' 1 ask him will he 
 come to-day. Decidedly, ' No ! ' We walk through 
 Sowley Copse and lie under an oak by the pond-side, 
 reed-beds. R. says, ' You ought to have been a land- 
 scape painter. You notice everything.' (Sometimes to 
 the length of boredom, perhaps he meant.) 
 
 Then to Norley and the cottage burnt by lightning- 
 stroke. The scorched walls and trees remain much as 
 when I saw them. An old woman, who had been in the 
 house when it took fire, told us she was ' all skivered 
 with sparks.' R.'s comment on the whole was this — 
 ' What a damned world where such things can happen ! ' 
 In the garden was a little clump of box dipt into 
 the form of an arm-chair ; R. wanted to buy this, have 
 it dug up and transplanted to his garden at Chelsea, but 
 the bargain did not take effect. The live chair tickled 
 his imagination. (He afterwards got a similar box-bush 
 chair transplanted to his garden, but it soon died there.) 
 September 17. — I try to get R. over to the Island and 
 coax him as far as the pier, but it is rather windy, and 
 he entirely objects to be sea-sick, and doesn't want to 
 see either Mrs. Cameron or Tennyson. He takes no 
 interest whatever in the sea, ships, boats, etc. We go 
 by 1.45 train to Brockenhurst and walk by Whitley 
 Wood to Lyndhurst — see Leighton's fresco in the church. 
 Returning, we go over a roomy cottage-villa on the 
 roadside, 'To Let,' with a garden behind, and Rossetti 
 says in his emphatic tone, ' I think I had better take it 
 at once ! ' 
 
 M
 
 ib2 LYMINGTON 1867 
 
 Wednesday^ September 18. — Fine — D. G. R. and I 
 walk, to Boldre Church, Gilpin's tomb and its inscription ; 
 we talk of ' immortality,' but nothing new, and of 
 ' suicide,' which R. thinks ' silly.' There are traces of 
 superstition noticeable in him, none of religion. Back 
 by Pilley and Walhampton House. I visit the 
 Skinners : they are going to Arundel. Young Skinner 
 walks back with me. We find D. G. R. on the sofa. 
 
 Thursday^ September 19. — R. and I look round the 
 furniture brokers, he buys an old mirror and several 
 other things ' for a song,' but they will have to be done 
 up, ' otherwise you fill your house with dinginess.' 
 Then a walk. R. walks very characteristically, with a 
 peculiar lounging gait, often trailing the point of his 
 umbrella on the ground, but still obstinately pushing on 
 and making way, he humming the while with closed 
 teeth, in the intervals of talk, not a tune or anything 
 like one but what sounds like a sotto voce note of 
 defiance to the Universe. Then suddenly he will fling 
 himself down somewhere and refuse to stir an inch 
 further. His favourite attitude — on his back, one knee 
 raised, hands behind head. On a sofa he often, too, 
 curls himself up like a cat. He very seldom takes 
 particular notice of anything as he goes, and cares 
 nothing about natural history, or science in any form or 
 degree. It is plain that the simple, the natural, the 
 naive are merely insipid in his mouth ; he must have 
 strong savours, in art, in literature and in life. Colours, 
 forms, sensations are required to be pungent, mordant. 
 In poetry he desires spasmodic passion, and emphatic, 
 partly archaic, diction. He cannot endure Wordsworth, 
 any more than I can S. He sees nothing in Lovelace's 
 ' Tell me not. Sweet, I am unkind.' In foreign poetry, 
 he is drawn to Dante by inheritance (Milton, by the 
 way, he dislikes) ; in France he is interested by Villon 
 and some others of the old lyric writers, in Germany by 
 nobody. To Greek Literature he seems to owe nothing, 
 nor to Greek Art, directly. In Latin poetry he has
 
 1867 LYMINGTON 163 
 
 turned to one or two things of Catullus for sake of the 
 subjects. English imaginative literature — Poems and 
 Tales, here lies his pabulum : Shakespeare, the old 
 Ballads, Blake, Keats, Shelley, Browning, Mrs. Browning, 
 Tennyson, Poe being first favourites, and now Swin- 
 burne. Wuthering Heights is a Koh-i-noor among 
 novels, Sidonia the Sorceress ' a stunner.' Any writing 
 that with the least competency assumes an imaginative 
 form, or any criticism on the like, attracts his attention 
 more or less ; and he has discovered in obscurity, and 
 in some cases helped to rescue from it, at least in his 
 own circle, various unlucky books ; those, for example, 
 of Ebenezer Jones and Wells, authors of Joseph and 
 His Brethren and Stories after Nature. About these 
 and other matters Rossetti is chivalrously bold in 
 announcing and defending his opinions, and he has the 
 valuable quality of knowing what he likes and sticking 
 to it. In Painting the Early Italians with their quaint- 
 ness and strong rich colouring have magnetised him. 
 In Sculpture he only cares for picturesque and grotesque 
 qualities, and of Architecture as such takes, I think, no 
 notice at all. 
 
 Friday^ September 20. — D. G. R. and I take a short 
 walk to Pennington, then early dinner, and he departs 
 by the 5.45 train, I going with him to Brocken- 
 hurst. He did up his picture again without having 
 put a single touch upon it ; and while down here indeed 
 never once handled brush or pencil, partly to save his eves. 
 
 September 30. — Custom -House accounts. French 
 lesson from M. Meurzet. 
 
 Tuesday^ October 8. — Steamer to Yarmouth. To 
 Mrs. Cameron's, Henry Taylor, and his daughter Emily. 
 Luncheon. To Farringford, and walk with A. T. to 
 near Alum Bay. He thinks ' England is going down ' 
 — ' Christianity becoming extinct ? There's something 
 miraculous in man.' ' There's more in Christianity 
 than people now think.' 
 
 Publisher P. and rumours of insolvency, etc.
 
 1 64 LONDON 1867 
 
 Friday^ October 11. — To London — Waterloo at 3. 
 Cab to Chelsea, being invited to stay with D. G. R. 
 Well received ; Dinner in lower room, Fanny, Howell, 
 Madox Brown — Howell's stories, himself an actor in 
 all (' actor ' in the stage sense) ? He was at York 
 once at the time of a Convocation of Clergy, he had an 
 uncle an Archdeacon, and was allowed to dine with the 
 Clergy one evening, including several Bishops : ' They 
 all got drunk,' said Howell with historic simplicity. 
 Queer stories, such as Sir Robert Walpole used to 
 encourage. In the evening Dunn, R.'s assistant and 
 copyist. All sit late and supper being suggested, 
 Howell and Dunn go down to the kitchen and bring 
 up meat ; H. says he ' saw a mouse eating a haddock ' 
 downstairs. 3 o'clock, R. goes to bed, Howell and 
 Dunn go out in the rain to look for a cab, Madox Brown 
 and I wait, sleepy, in hall — cab at last. 
 
 Saturday, October 12. — Studio — Sibyl (with roses), 
 Iseult, etc. ; D. G. R., F. Call at Ned's and walk with 
 him in the Park : soppy and foggy. 
 
 Monday 14. — Note from Froude about Swift paper 
 for Fraser} Evening, with D. G. R. to Ned's. R. 
 lolls and runs down Raffael, Ned and Webb remon- 
 strate. No music. R. and I walking back take wrong 
 turn — ' This is bl — y ! ' He is very fond ot this expletive 
 — as well as other phrases (F. sometimes says, ' Rizetti, 
 I shall leave the room ! — I'll put you out in the scullery ! ' 
 etc.). Lounging chat till i or 2, with rusks and 
 sherry. 
 
 Tuesday, October 15. — Garden ; fierce Virginian owls 
 which dash against the bars of their cage to get at you 
 as you turn away : other creatures. Taylor's estimate 
 of Household Expenses ('for Greengrocer, ^58,' and 
 so on), ending with, ' This does not include Wild Beasts.' 
 I sit over proofs all day in the big room — post them. 
 Call at Morris's, ' out of town.' At Mrs. Rossetti's, 
 
 ^ Allingham's paper, afterwards published in his volume of Varieties 
 in Prose.
 
 1867 LONDON 165 
 
 Euston Square. The dear old lady looking strong 
 still, with her handsome full-coloured face and rich- 
 toned voice of sincere and touching intonations. She 
 says nothing clever but it's always a pleasure to be near 
 her. Miss R., Christina, and Miss Heaton. Mrs. R. 
 expresses her pleasure at Gabriel's having visited me, 
 thinks it has done him good, talks as if 1 were a sort 
 of Mentor to him, which makes me feel rather ashamed. 
 Away, rain, cab to Fitzroy Square ; upstairs, Madox 
 Brown, Mrs. B., Lucy, in green dress, Katty, young 
 half-sister with fair hair ; Marshall, Dunn. Piano, 
 Grog. 
 
 Wednesday^ October 16. — Call on Ned ; Italian 
 Model, a peasant woman — at Mr. Simon's. Call 
 on Froude. Back to Chelsea, then D. G. R. "^and 
 I to the Cafe de I'Europe, Haymarket, where we 
 meet Ned and dine. Ned goes, R. and I walk to 
 Queen's Square, Morris out. On the way I buy (for 
 I OS.) an old painting on panel, 'Virgin and Child,' ^ 
 which R. says is ' Flemish, before Rubens, Porbus 
 time.' Cab to Euston Road, to Taylor's lodging. 
 T. Morris, Webb, D. G. R. lounges. I say the rhyme 
 about ' There's a louse on my back Twenty years old ! ' 
 (which I heard Tennyson give). Morris repeats it with 
 furious emphasis and gestures, making us all shout with 
 laughter. Poor Taylor — tall, with eager hatchet face 
 — is ghastly thin but full of mental energy — vociferates, 
 then must stop to cough. ' Won't go away this winter.' 
 
 Cheyne Walk — call at Carlyle's. When the door 
 opens, see him in the passage ; he says in an angry voice 
 — ' Go away, sir ! I can do nothing with you.' I go 
 away, with reflections many and black. What can it 
 mean } 
 
 Call on Froude at Record Office, make up, and 
 renew FrajdT agreement in a way. He says 'Byron 
 was the greatest man of the century — greater than 
 Alfred ' {i.e. A. T.). I tell of Carlyle's rebufl^ which 
 
 1 Now in Mrs. Allingham's possession.
 
 1 66 LYMINGTON 1867 
 
 surprises him ; says he has strange moods. Cheyne 
 walk, D, G. R. and I (not like old times). 
 
 Thursday^ October 17. — Cheyne Walk, pack up, R. 
 lolling on the bed ; cab to Waterloo — train to Lymington. 
 
 N.B. — Very kind letter from Carlyle — did not 
 know me that day I called ; ' must blame my poor old 
 eyes. Allingham's company would have been very 
 welcome to me,' How I have tormented myself! 
 
 November 11. — Lymington. Evening, reading 
 Rousseau with M. Meurzet. Newsroom, Waterside. 
 
 Thursday^ November 14. — Gloomy day. Carlyle's 
 'Shooting Niagara' — object to parts. Carlylus Tyrannus. 
 
 Friday^ November 15. — Fine. Poetry again — in 
 spite of T. C. 
 
 Walk, Walhampton Hill, Portmore firs, hedges, 
 ferns, yellow oakleaves, harebells, children sweeping 
 up fallen leaves. Ferry. 
 
 Monday y November ic^. — Fine gray day ; Mrs Clough 
 has written to say she is coming, I meet her at 1 1 . 1 7 
 train and cross with her to Island : with her, her little 
 Blanche Athena, dark-eyed, pleasant, sweet little mouth. 
 At Yarmouth the Tennyson carriage. Farringford, 
 luncheon. A. T. on ' the Fenians.' Prince Consort's 
 Book, the Queen's autograph inscription — 
 
 'Alfred Tennyson, Esq., 
 
 Who so truly admired and appreciated the character of her 
 beloved Husband. Victoria R.' 
 
 Tuesday, November 26. — My last visit to London 
 was an unhappy one. In art, and still more in life, R. 
 and I have discords not to be resolved. Should we 
 ever have been or supposed ourselves such friends in 
 early days if we had lived constantly near each other ^ 
 Has he changed ^ If I have I am not aware of it. ' I 
 loathe and despise family life ! ' he said. 
 
 I long and pray for it — and O, how the years slip 
 away ! The only comfort is, ' You might have made a
 
 1867 FRESHWATER 167 
 
 mistake, an irremediable one — and it's not too late even 
 yet ! ' The ' Curtis ' Ballad. 
 
 Tuesday, December 24. — Steamer ; Parry ^ meets me, 
 we walk by muddy path and copse to Hook Hill : his 
 wife and baby (3 days old), both well ; luncheon. Take 
 up my quarters with Mrs, Curry at Myrtle Cottage, then 
 to Farringford with Parry. I introduce him to Mrs. 
 Tennyson. He soon retires. A. T. comes in with Sir 
 John Simeon. I go up the Downs alone, to Beacon ; 
 wide sea, misty landscape, western light, melancholy. 
 Myrtle Cottage — dine at Farringford, no guests. T. 
 rages against the Fenians — ' Kelts are all mad furious 
 fools ! ' 
 
 Irish landscape — 'I saw wonderful things there — 
 twenty different showers at once on a great expanse — a 
 vast yellow cloud with a little bit of rainbow stuck on 
 one corner ' (T. swept his arm round for the cloud and 
 then gave a nick in the air with his thumb for the bit 
 of rainbow) — ' I wish I could bring these things in I I 
 was travelling in Kerry through a great black landscape 
 — bogs. A lady beside me asked how I liked the 
 country ; I said, it might be greener ; to which she 
 replied indignantly, " And where then would the poor 
 man cut his bit of turf V ' 
 
 Away at 1 1 to Myrtle Cottage. 
 
 Wednesday, December 25. — Parry's ; walk with him 
 to sea-side, black rocks, breakers ghostly white, light at 
 sea. Back with him, tea. His childhood, etc. We walk 
 along the dark road to Albion Hotel, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Murrow personal acquaintances of C. P. P. tells of 
 his tribulations when his wife was confined. No bed, 
 lay down by a fire and went to sleep, wakened by 
 woman putting on pots and kettles ; went into another 
 room and fell asleep by the fire, wakened by some one 
 putting on pots and kettles there ; went out, nearly 
 asleep, and lay down in a passage, wakened by the 
 Doctor wiping his boots upon him, at which the 
 
 1 Clinton Parry, son of Gambler Parry, the architect.
 
 1 68 LYMINGTON 1867 
 
 Murrows laugh. Walking back P. explains to me 
 that Murrow (a Welshman) is ' a high Freemason ' — 
 * He doesn't call me " Sir " when we're alone. If you're 
 a Mason your Servant may be a higher Mason than 
 you. Garibaldi head of the Italian Masons, which 
 added greatly to his power. L. Napoleon a High 
 Mason, etc' 
 
 Has Freemasonry any real importance in the world's 
 affairs ? or is most of this mythical .'' 
 
 Friday, December 27. — Myrtle Cottage, fine, misty. 
 Farringford. T. in his big cloak on lawn. 
 
 ' Poe on metres — he knows nothing about them.' 
 
 Tauchnitz — T.'s poems smuggled in ; T. complained ; 
 Treasury letter, ' the public complain of much search- 
 ing.' Boys at football. Cold wind, fog, gray ; slender 
 moon in the west, and Venus. Myrtle Cottage. To 
 Farringford. Dine in the study — jokes and puns — 
 after dinner, pleasant talk. 
 
 T. — ' We remember Summer Walks in Winter, 
 Winter in Summer.' 
 
 T. reads the newspaper into metre. 
 
 T. says : ' Boys become beasts for a time — no con- 
 science : I don't know what it means, 
 
 ' I hate publishing ! The Americans forced me into 
 it again. I had my things nice and right, but when I 
 found they were going to publish the old forms I said, 
 By Jove, that won't do ! — My whole living is from the 
 sale of my books.' 
 
 He went upstairs by himself. When he came down 
 again spoke of Greek Poetry, — ' The Odyssey the most 
 delightful book in the world. Blank verse is the only 
 English metre to translate Homer in, and even that will 
 not do. Lofty Scriptural prose would be best.' 
 
 Of Latin Poetry he said, ' Virgil's is the most 
 finished of any ; Catullus is exquisite ; Lucretius wonder- 
 ful, but much of him hard and tiresome to read, and 
 very obscure.' Away — stars — Bed about i, 
 
 Saturday^ December 28, — Myrtle Cottage, cold, hoar-
 
 1867 FRESHWATER 169 
 
 frost, misty. Farringford, Lionel and his fiddle. 
 Henry Cameron comes, for rabbit-hunting. I walk to 
 Yarmouth, pretty byroad to shore, hartstongue ferns, 
 a primrose in bloom. Quay, Hallam with carriage and 
 ponies. Cold, foggy wind, gray sea. Steamer comes 
 in with Woolner and Mr. W. G. Clark of Cambridge. 
 We three walk off by shore and byroad. Show them 
 primrose — ' The rath primrose that forsaken dies.' 
 T.'s lines : — 
 
 the gloomy brewer's soul 
 Went by me, like a stork : 
 
 Why ' Stork .'' ' Clark says because the Stork was 
 an antimonarchical emblem. 
 
 To Farringford. At dinner Mr. Clark talks of 
 Rome, Greece, foreign travel (pleasant life). T. 
 denounces publisher P. Says he is trying Hebrew. 
 
 ' Do you (to Clark) know any Hebrew .? ' 
 
 C. — ' Only the letters.' 
 
 T. — ' Exactly ! the priests can't read their own 
 sacred books.' 
 
 C. (rather disconcerted). — ' The New Testament I 
 can, more or less.' (One forgets that C. is a Rev.) 
 
 Monday^ December 30. — Dine at Farringford. T. 
 discourses on ' Maud ' : I make him laugh by misquoting 
 lines about the shell, thus — 
 
 ' Did he stand at his own front-door 
 
 With a diamond stud in his frill ? ' 
 
 Tuesday^ 31. — Myrtle Cottage — fine. Take leave 
 at Farringford and at Mrs. Cameron's. Steamer to 
 Lymington, Custom-House, resume charge ; lodgings 
 — no dinner — all in confusion — 'not expected' — 
 Christmas Tree in Kitchen ; make the best of it and 
 give a picture to the lottery. Look over Midsummer 
 Night's Dream. No feeling about the Old Year, save 
 of depression.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 1868 
 
 January i. — Lymington. Pay pensioners. Engaged 
 to go to Lyndhurst to-day. 5.45 train to Brocken- 
 hurst, Aide's carriage, Forest Bank, A. and Mrs. A., 
 dinner at 7. Then to Sir Charles Burrard's. We read 
 the Midsummer Nighfs Dream, which goes well. 
 
 Monday, January 20. — Fine ; walk to Pitt's Deep — 
 vernal and pleasant ; Coastguard station. Beautiful 
 Sowley Copse — men destroying it by order of Lord 
 Henry Scott, since he finds he cannot close up the foot- 
 path — what a noble action ! 
 
 Tuesday, January 2 1 . — Fine ; Steamer brings Mr. 
 Cameron, white-haired Mrs. Prinsep, etc., for London. 
 I go with them as far as Brockenhurst, pleasant. Walk 
 to Lyndhurst, vernal, call at Miss Dickson's, poorly ; 
 friendly chat. She says, ' I thought you surly at first, 
 — like you now, — thrown away at Lymington.' Hurry 
 to Brockenhurst, hot, catch train. Dine 7 — rain — 
 sleep better. 
 
 Wednesday , January 11. — Rainy. Sir Percy Shelley 
 runs after me, and takes me aboard his yacht En- 
 chantress, pleasant chat with Lady Shelley: 'Come to 
 us to-morrow evening, if we're not gone.' Street — 
 stars, 
 
 Thursday, January 23. — Fine, frostyish ; Enchantress 
 gone. Walk, Pennington, etc. 
 
 Monday, February 3. — To London — very fine day. 
 
 170
 
 1868 LONDON 171 
 
 Mr. Burnett at Custom-House ; away 1.45. Clapham 
 Junction ; lovely evening, moon, Jupiter and Venus. 
 Lavender Sweep — friendly welcome as ever. Talk 
 with Tom Taylor. 
 
 A Comedy in hand, For Love or Money ; Mrs. T. 
 writing it from Tom's dictation ; they do some this 
 evening. 
 
 Tuesday, February 4. — Lavender Sweep, called at 
 7.30 ; WyclifFe, Lucy — Breakfast. In with T. T. to 
 Victoria. National Gallery, Egyptian Hall, Dudley 
 Gallery. Bond St., Mrs. Cameron's Exhibition of 
 Photographs, in charge of a pretty Brunette (Miss Kate 
 Shepherd) with sweet smile. Lavender Sweep — dinner. 
 Evening, T. T. dictating comedy, Mrs. T. writing, I 
 suggesting sometimes. Sleepy, yet awake in the night. 
 
 JVednesday, February 5. — Fine but windy. Walk 
 through old Wandsworth, like a country town, to 
 Putney, where are some large Georgian houses. Call 
 on Arthur Hughes, whose house faces the river, most 
 friendly. Arty, a pretty boy, little boy, girl. 
 
 Studio, pleasant chat ; yard, children feeding two 
 tame deer. A. H. walks with me to near Clapham. 
 
 T. T.'s, dress to dine at Conway's — find them at 
 dinner on the basement floor, Mr. and Mrs. C. and 
 Mr. Smalley, European Correspondent of New York 
 Tribune — lively chat. Then to Peter Taylor's, an 
 evening gathering. Conway and I walk, fine starry 
 night. Bed at his house ; lie long awake. 
 
 Friday, February 7. — Lavender Sweep — rail to 
 Chelsea, cab to Onslow Gardens and breakfast with 
 Froude, Mrs. F., two daughters, governess ; chat. 
 Study, where he has his cigar — State papers on Ireland, 
 praises my prose style. I feel awkward with him. 
 Call at Miss Thackeray's, close bv ; find her writing — 
 very friendly. Mrs. Cameron's Exhibition — ' I blew 
 the trumpet for it in the Pall Mall.' 
 
 Enter Mr. Leslie Stephen, tall and pale. Away 
 (pleasant). Call on Carlyle at 3. Find him in upstairs
 
 172 LONDON 1868 
 
 room, cap on, smoking. He talks of the Ballad of 
 Tranent Muir^ by Skirving, then takes me out with him 
 to walk, Hyde Park, Bayswater, and back. 
 
 ' Leigh Hunt a fine kind of man. I used to read 
 the Examiner with much interest when I was living 
 down in Scotland. Some used to talk of him as a 
 frivolous fellow, but when I saw him I found he had a 
 face as serious as death.' I asked C. if he dreamed 
 much. 
 
 ' Dreams ! my dreams are always disagreeable — 
 mere confusions — losing my clothes and the like, 
 nothing beautiful. The same dreams go on night after 
 night for a long time. I am a worse man in my dreams 
 than when awake — do cowardly acts, dream of being 
 tried for a crime. I long ago came to the conclusion 
 that my dreams are of no importance to me whatever. 
 
 ' Ireland — education at National Schools, not good, 
 what I saw of it, except at Glasnevin. To teach read- 
 ing and writing is not education : little good will follow 
 from that. I used to think almost every good would 
 follow from that. You must teach work^ you must 
 drill. 
 
 ' Criminal classes : I went with a Colonel of the 
 Guards to Whitechapel to see some of the dens, a few 
 policemen with us ; it was very melancholy, the places 
 were not dirty in general. The police know all the 
 regular rogues. In one place we heard some girls 
 laughing behind a screen ; I said in a rather loud voice, 
 " God pity you ! " upon which they suddenly fell silent. 
 We seemed to give no offence where we came ; but 
 one woman, tipsy, said to one of our policemen, 
 *' You're showing us to the Gentlemen, but if they want 
 to see the greatest rascal in London they'll take a look 
 at yourself, you — unmentionable ! " which I thought 
 to be not far from the truth.' 
 
 C. spent three days on the Grand Jury at Clerken- 
 well, over trivial cases, ' a great loss of time.' 
 
 ' Your " Ramble in the New Forest " very pretty and
 
 i86S LONDON 173 
 
 pleasant, the only thing in the Magazine I could read. 
 But you are rather losing your time. Go on with your 
 book on Ireland, I advise you.' 
 
 Back at 5 Cheyne Row, we find a carriage at the 
 door and a demonstrative man in the hall, who exclaims, 
 ' So I have found you ! ' 
 
 C. asks me to come again. I propose Sunday, my 
 only free day, but he says ' engaged on that day,' and 
 adds, ' it is unfortunate ' — evidently regretting that we 
 cannot meet again this time, as I also assuredly do. 
 (To-morrow I am engaged to lunch at Browning's.) 
 Over Battersea Bridge and up Pig Hill. Lavender 
 Sweep. Dinner — very sleepy, yet cannot sleep much. 
 
 Saturday^ February 8. — To Warwick Crescent. 
 Browning in his study, with proof sheets of his new 
 edition in six vols. 
 
 Tennyson and the Magazines ; The Spiteful Letter^ 
 B. said, ' I like the kind tone of it, but I think it gives 
 a wrong view about Fame. What absurdity to say, 
 " Wait a little and all will be past ! " You cannot say 
 that of anything in life. 
 
 Our echoes roll from soul to soul 
 And live for ever and for ever. 
 
 I like that better ! ' 
 
 Then we sat down to a luncheon-dinner. R. B., 
 Miss B. and self. B. said the Secretary of the A. Club 
 had posted his name as a defaulter, tho' the subscription 
 had been duly paid by his banker. ' I'll come down on 
 him like thunder ! It's not good to have the reputation 
 of being an easy-going man. I'll ask him how this 
 blunder came? "Blunder, sir.'*" he says — upon which 
 I open fire ! ' 
 
 B. shows me, in bird's-eye view only, the MS. of a 
 new Poem to be printed in July. 
 
 I go, meaning to walk to Chelsea and call on 
 Rossetti. R. B. says he will walk with me and seems 
 inclined to come on and see R. ' How long will it take .^ '
 
 174 LYMINGTON 1868 
 
 We cross Kensington Gardens, but opposite S. Kensington 
 Museum R. B. finds he can't come further. — ' Give my 
 love to Rossetti.' I give up Chelsea and walk towards 
 Fulham ; find the Grange with some trouble, Ned J., 
 Mrs. J., Mr. W. — dinner, pleasant chat. Mr. W., 
 learned in such, sings old Italian music by Stradella and 
 others. Baby Margaret. Pleasant House and large 
 garden. Very friendly. Catch train. Lavender Sweep 
 — the T. T.s not in yet. 
 
 Monday ^ February 10. — Very fine. Lavender Sweep, 
 walk, Clapham Common, pretty. Train to Lyming- 
 ton. Custom-House, relieve Burnett and take up old 
 routine. 
 
 Wednesday^ February 12. — Very fine. Walk, EfFord 
 Copse, first primroses ; the Island blue, sweet air, 
 thrushes. Dine — out. Stars — from some bird a 
 sudden single gush of song : a night-warbler } Spiritual 
 Wives — StufF ! 
 
 Tuesday ^February 18. — Browning's 'Sludge,' etc. 
 
 Mem. — Too often a want of solid basis for R. B.'s 
 brilliant and astounding cleverness. A Blot in the 
 ''Scutcheon is solid. How try to account for B.'s twists 
 and turns } I cannot. He has been and still is very 
 dear to me. But I can no longer commit myself to 
 his hands in faith and trust. Neither can I allow the 
 faintest shadow of a suspicion to dwell in my mind 
 that his genius may have a leaven of quackery. Yet, 
 alas ! he is not solid — which is a very different thing 
 from prosaic. A Midsummer Night's Dream is as 
 solid as anything in literature ; has imaginative cohe- 
 rency and consistency in perfection. Looking at forms 
 of poetic expression, there is not a single utterance in 
 Shakespeare, or of Dante as far as I know, enigmatic 
 in the same sense as so many of Browning's are. If 
 you suspect, and sometimes find out, that riddles pre- 
 sented to you with Sphinxian solemnity have no answers 
 that really fit them, your curiosity is apt to fall towards 
 freezing point, if not below it. Yet I always end by
 
 1868 FRESHWATER 175 
 
 striking my breast in penitential mood and crying 
 out, ' O rich mind ! wonderful Poet ! strange great 
 man ! ' 
 
 Thursday^ February 20. — Lymington. Walk, EfFord, 
 poor little moles executed, hanging on twigs. Talk 
 with the Gamekeeper, who is considerably like Carlyle 
 in person : Grouse — pheasants. 1 try to explain 
 something of Darwin's researches. Keeper's dog has 
 to be trained to fly at a man, so as to be ready for 
 poachers : ' I likes a good savage dog,' 
 
 Tuesday^ March i 7. — Windy. Steamer to Yarmouth, 
 walk to Farringford, A. T. friendly. His visit to 
 Cambridge ' delightful,' 
 
 ' What a dream of bliss to an Undergraduate, to 
 have lodgings and board for half a week at the Lodge ! ' 
 
 Upstairs, wt^ window in corner of study : ' have 
 desired it for years, sixteen years — done while I was 
 away.' 
 
 Thursday^ March 19. — Birthday. Begin sad ; grow 
 cheerfuller. C. Parry and wife from Island ; a great 
 rainbow. Tea at F. St. Barbe's. 
 
 Saturday^ March 21. — More cheerful again, but 
 Emma vexatious. O for a house of one's own ! 
 * Mary ' — ' Squire Curtis.' ^ Sleep better. 
 
 Thursday^ April 9. — Cross to Freshwater ; Mrs. 
 Norman (Mrs, Cameron's daughter), with her husband 
 and children. He is of Baring Brothers. ' His God- 
 father,' Mrs, C, said, 'gave him ^100,000 one 
 morning,' as a little surprise, Farringford — A, T. on 
 lawn, friendly as usual : ' Come to-night.' 
 
 Miss Thackeray asks me to dinner ; Fitzjames 
 Stephen coming to-morrow.' 
 
 Friday^ April 10. — Good Friday — Mrs. Curry's, 
 Miss Thackeray's : Fitzjames Stephen, tall, burly, 
 pleasant, the 'makings' of a judge, as we say in Ireland; 
 plain in dress. 
 
 To Farringford by field-path. Miss T., Fitzjames S. 
 
 1 AUingham's poems.
 
 176 LYMINGTON 1868 
 
 and I — beautiful sunlit prospects, Yarmouth in the dis- 
 tance, gleaming river. They go in — I flee. Luncheon 
 at Miss T.'s. We find A. T. and walk to the Beacon ; 
 meet one stranger, at sight of whom A. T. nearly 
 turns back. 
 
 Lincolnshire stories. Preachers : ' Coom in your 
 rags, coom in your filth, Jesus'll take ye, Jesus won't 
 refuse ye.' 'Time has two ends, and the Law cooms 
 down wi' a bang ! ' ' Glory ' a very favourite word. 
 
 Lincolnshire manners. ' One of my brothers met a 
 man in the lane near our house and said in a friendly 
 voice, "Good-night ! " to which the man replied, "Good 
 night — and dom you ! " I asked a man one day, " Do 
 you know what o'clock it is ? " he answered, " Noa ! and 
 I don't want to." ' 
 
 Grace said by Dissenting Minister according to the 
 nature of the feast. If a poor one, he snivelled and 
 sneered in a thin voice, ' O Lord, bless these miserable 
 creatures to our use,' etc. ; if a good spread, he rolled 
 out in unctuous tones : ' We desire to thank Thee, O 
 Lord, for all these mercies Thou hast provided for us.' 
 
 April 2 2^. — Lymington. Launch of a yacht. Walk 
 to Sowley Pond. Lord Henry Scott, after trying 
 illegally to close the Path (charming shady short-cut 
 from the dusty road) and failing, has now cut down 
 the trees and grubbed up all the hazels and hollies, 
 and left it a path through a bare field. Oaks lying 
 on the ground, piles of oak bark. The Magistrates 
 decided against his claim to shut the Path, the Judges 
 at Winchester decided against it, and now, instead of 
 humbly apologising, his Lordship does this ! 
 
 Monday, May 4. — Fine. Cross to Yarmouth. 
 Servant girl says, ' I took your advice, sir, not to go to 
 London ' ; had forgotten it, but it was good advice — 
 wonder whether my habit of talking with everybody 
 ever does real good ^ Perhaps. 
 
 Yarmouth, The King's Head, Mary Blandford, 
 drawing beer, gives me a lily of the valley ! Beer not-
 
 1868 LONDON 177 
 
 withstanding, a ladylike girl. Over Bridge, Golden 
 Hill with gorse in bloom (whence the name ?), nightin- 
 gale singing. Myrtle Cottage : yes, Mrs. Curry can 
 give me a room. Farringford — Mrs. T. just going to 
 drive, invites me into carriage, Mrs. T., Mr. Lecky 
 and I, Hallam on the box. We go by Afton and 
 near Brook. 
 
 L. does not see any use in knowing Authors 
 personally. In fact personality does not interest him 
 in any case, I suspect. We don't agree, evidently. 
 Still, we agree to get on our legs and walk back 
 together over the Downs. Ireland is low now (he 
 thhiks), intellectually : Tyndall her best representative. 
 He greatly admires Macaulay, also Buckle. Knows 
 Carlyle, but seldom if ever agrees with him. Dean 
 Milman stands high in L.'s estimation, ' a learned man 
 and very liberal, etc' 
 
 Joke (Milman's ?) — ' Churchmen may be divided 
 into Platitudinarians, Latitudinarians, and Altitudi- 
 narians.' I proposed to add ' Denarians,' i.e. loaves 
 and fishes men, but the vowel is changed. 
 
 Friday, May 15. — Having got leave of absence, I go 
 to London, 
 
 May 18. — To 16 Onslow Gardens to accept Miss 
 Thackeray's invitation. Find her with John Leech's 
 daughter Ada, thirteen, in black, very tall and slender, 
 with large eyes, long hair, full lips, looking sad : (Miss 
 T. as usual the Samaritan). Miss T. with proofs of a 
 story. ' Give it a name,' she says : ' Balm of Gilead ' 
 suggested. Invited to Mrs. Barnard's for this evening. 
 ' I don't want to go,' says Miss T., and we all sit on in 
 a dim light, talking peacefully. 
 
 Tuesday, May 19. — 18 Neville St. To 16 Onslow 
 Gardens. Breakfast 9.30, Miss T., Mrs. Stephen ; warm 
 day. With Leslie S. to Mrs. Brookfield's ; children's 
 party. Magdalen B., large fair girl of seventeen ; second 
 Miss Halle in blue, merry ; younger, Hke a Vandyck ; 
 May Sartoris ; Margery and Annie T., shy, I carry 
 
 N
 
 178 LONDON 1868 
 
 Annie ; Enter Miss Thackeray, Mrs. Marshall. Mrs. 
 Brookfield asks me to stay, and a merry joyous feast it 
 is, seven lively girls, the children at a long table — a picnic 
 indoors. Upstairs and dance Sir Roger, May S. and 
 I ; then a reel. She is going to a Ball to-night, this 
 is merely a w^het. Back to Neville Street, and with 
 Miss Thackeray and Mrs. Stephen to Mrs. Procter's. 
 Mrs. P., daughter Edith. Old Barry Cornvs^all, an 
 indistinct and almost mute figure, sitting on the landing ; 
 Robert Browning (who asks me for Friday) and his 
 sister ; Samuel Laurence, Leighton, etc. Box of cab 
 — 16 Onslow Gardens. 'Do have something! but O, 
 everything is locked up by Justine, and she's gone to 
 bed ! So Good-night.' 
 
 Thursday^ May 21. — 18 Neville St. Cab to Albe- 
 marle St. and breakfast with Lecky. Books on Witch- 
 craft, etc., and on Ireland. Rooms very quiet, no look- 
 out, has them from year to year : Christianity — morals, 
 pagan and mediaeval. 
 
 Meet Palgrave, ' choosing a picture' ; civil, walk with 
 him to York Gate : ' stay and dine ^ ' yes. 
 
 To Prince's Gate, Mr. Huth, Mrs. and Miss H., 
 various guests, including Miss Thackeray and her sister. 
 Library, gorgeous and rare books ; all the early editions of 
 Shakespeare. Mr. H. unlocks and lets me handle some. 
 
 To Mrs. Barnard's, South Eaton Place. Madame 
 Sainton-Dolby, Miss Ingelow. Little Miss Parr, who 
 writes novels as ' Holme Lee,' looked nice in a high 
 dress of lavender silk, like a quiet little old-maidish 
 governess. Miss Thackeray accosted her, and so did 
 I ; we spoke of the Isle of Wight, New Forest, etc. 
 ' London fatigues me,' she said : ' going to Dulwich 
 to-morrow.' As we drove home Miss Thackeray 
 exclaimed of one of the guests ; ' Horrid woman ! she 
 said to me, " I have been much pleased with some of 
 your efforts," and, *' You must have felt leaving that 
 nice house in Palace Gardens ! " but little Holme Lee's 
 a duck.'
 
 1868 LONDON 179 
 
 May 11. — Breakfast with Froude, 5 Onslow Gardens 
 — wife, two girls, little boy : Ireland, English cruelties, 
 massacre of women and children on Raghlin Island, 
 Sorley Buie looking on from mainland — ' he tore and 
 tormented himself,' Library : F. speaks of my Fraser 
 articles, says ' Carlyle has a greater regard for you 
 than for anybody almost.' Cab to Browning's, invited 
 to luncheon. R. B. (grayer). 
 
 Tennyson, the Magazines, Morris's Earthly Para- 
 dise^ etc. 
 
 ' We ought to take up the ball at the furthest point 
 to which it has been thrown. I should be sorry to 
 think that any one was in advance in any way of me in 
 my new Poem.' Perhaps not quite knowing what to 
 say I remarked bashfully : — 
 
 *I have always been a believer in you,' or to that effect. 
 
 R. B. — * I am glad to believe that, for your own 
 sake among other things.' 
 
 When he went out, I stayed for a chat with Miss 
 Sarianna. ' Robert, after writing Pauline, went to 
 St. Petersburg, overland, in connection with a diplomatic 
 mission, expenses only paid, and returned the same way 
 after six weeks' residence at St. Petersburg. He saw 
 the breaking up of the ice on the Neva, and the 
 ceremony of declaring the river open.' 
 
 Away — passing through Leicester Square, meet 
 Alan Skinner, and walk with him in the flower avenue 
 of Covent Garden, talking of the Home trial, the Eyre 
 case, etc. Then we dine at Bertolini's pleasantly. I 
 show him the local curiosity, old Mr. Seymour, now 
 eighty-two, who has dined here every day for the last 
 forty-three years : he comes at 5, stays till 8, sits 
 always in the box on the left-hand of the fire-place as 
 you go up the room, which is kept for him at this 
 time of day ; has the joint, college pudding, a gill of 
 Marsala ; puts his feet up and sleeps or snoozes for 
 about twenty minutes, then reads the Daily News, 
 fidgeting a good deal with the paper, for his hands
 
 i8o LONDON 1868 
 
 tremble. Finally he puts on hat, buttons coat up to 
 the throat, straightens his spine and walks down the 
 middle of the room very stiff and wooden, driving off, 
 the waiter says, to his house somewhere near the 
 Regent's Park. I should mention that when he comes 
 in every evening the waiter who receives him invariably 
 says, ' Good evening, Mr. Seymour : you are looking 
 very well this evening, Mr. Seymour.' Looks like a 
 solitary old bachelor, lawyer or attorney, dried up, 
 penurious ; the daily tavern dinner a sort of loophole 
 glimpse of the outside world. Save a word or two to 
 the waiters he never speaks to any one at Bert's. 
 Skinner departed and 1 went into the Alhambra and 
 see some good dancing, but the opera-glass is a terrible 
 disenchanter. Next me a bald civil quiet gentleman 
 with his wife and daughters. Leotard on the ' trapeze ' 
 wonderful. 
 
 May 25. — Lavender Sweep. To evening party at 
 Halle's. Mrs. Brookfield and her daughter, Mrs. and 
 Miss Sartoris — Leighton, Aid6, etc. — Santley, Titiens, 
 Trebelli (charming), Bettini, her husband, like a 
 German. Strauss plays violin. 
 
 I heard to-night some of the best music in London. 
 Did it enchant or even delight me } No. A grand 
 musical party is neither concert nor home-music ; and 
 besides, few public singers know how to sing in a 
 private room. 
 
 May 26. — Lunch at Browning's. Talk runs chiefly 
 on his forthcoming new Poem in many thousand lines. 
 He takes me into his study, and shows me the original 
 Book, a small brown quarto, printed account of the 
 trial of Count Guido, with some original MS. letters, 
 stitched in at the end pleading for his respite. B. 
 bought it off a stall in Florence for a few pence. He 
 has told the story over and over again to various 
 friends ; offered it to A. Trollope to turn into a novel, 
 but T, couldn't manage it ; then R. B. thought, ' why 
 not take it myself.'' '
 
 1868 LONDON i8i 
 
 ' I began it in rhymed couplets, like Laurence 
 Bloomfield^ but thought by and by I might as well have 
 my fling, and so turned to blank verse.' 
 
 At luncheon he went over the headings of the 
 chapters or books into which this very long Poem is 
 divided. ' And now ! can you advise me.'' I'm puzzled 
 about how to publish it. I want people not to turn 
 to the end, but to read through in proper order. 
 Magazine, you'll say : but no, I don't like the notion 
 of being sandwiched between Politics and Deer- 
 Stalking, say. I think of bringing it out in four 
 monthly volumes, giving people time to read and 
 digest it, part by part, but not to forget what has 
 gone before.' 
 
 Wednesday^ May 27. — Lavender Sweep ; very fine 
 — 11.30 to Clapham Junction and take train to Epsom 
 to see the Derby Race. Only one other person in my 
 carriage, young man from Southport near Liverpool. 
 Epsom, people on road, carriages crawling through 
 clouds of dust. Gypsies, etc. Sit on grass at Totten- 
 ham Corner and see first race without trouble. Then 
 down course and stand at rails opposite Grand Stand. 
 A pocket picked, dirty man accused, who says in candid 
 matter-of-fact way, ' I ain't got it.' 
 
 To Queen Square, to dine with Morris, and find, 
 just alighting, Mrs. Ned in a gorgeous yellow gown : 
 'tis a full dress party ! and I in velveteen jacket. Morris, 
 Ned J. (thin), D. G. R. (looking well), Boyce (' has been 
 ill'), F. M. Brown (oldened), Webb, Howell, Mr. 
 Wilfred Heeley, Publisher Ellis, and W. A. (ten men). 
 Mrs. Morris, Miss Burden, Mrs. Ned (gay), Mrs. 
 Howell, Mrs. Madox Brown (looks young with back 
 to the window), Lucy Brown, Miss Faulkner (I 
 between these), Mrs. Ellis, Miss Heeley (ten ladies). 
 Banquet, — ' Earthly Paradise,' I suggest, and Ned writes 
 this atop of the menu. A storm of talking. I away 
 with D. G. R. about i ; walk first, then cab to Cheyne 
 Walk, in and stay chatting and lounging till 3 in old
 
 1 82 LYMINGTON 1868 
 
 fashion. ' Come to-morrow, and we'll go up together 
 to my mother's.' 
 
 I walk to Lavender Sweep in daylight, passing some 
 revellers from Cremorne, and to bed about 4. 
 
 June 8. — To Carlyle's about 3. He is writing, but 
 soon comes out for a walk. On the door-step we find 
 Sir Charles Dilke and Hepworth Dixon come to solicit 
 C.'s vote for the former. C. does not ask them in, and 
 on hearing their errand declares briefly, ' I never gave a 
 vote in my life,' whereupon they depart. He talked 
 to me of Parliament and its absurdity, and how foolish 
 for any man to desire to sit night after night for many 
 hours in an ill-ventilated room, listening to the most 
 tedious stuff, etc. etc. I took leave of him at Albert 
 Gate, ' going back to Lymington to-day.' 
 
 He said in shaking hands, ' You won't walk many 
 more times with me^ which made me sad. 
 
 June 20. — Lymington. Coach to Freshwater, Mrs. 
 Cameron's ; long wait for lunch. Mrs. C. and her 
 household take no note of time. Meet girls going up- 
 stairs in fancy dresses, Mrs. C. has been photographing 
 a group, and appears carrying glass negative in her 
 coUodionised hands. ' Magnificent ! to focus them all 
 in one picture, such an effort ! ' 
 
 Enter Sir John Simeon with Mr. Austin Bruce (M.P. 
 for Merthyr-Tydvil). Sir J. presses me to go back 
 to Swainston with him. I hesitate, then agree, and we 
 walk off over the Downs. Dine at 8 — they talk of 
 Parliament behind the scenes : Dizzy often vinosus — 
 one evening he spoke in such a state (keeping his legs 
 with much difficulty) that Sir J. S. feared a public 
 scandal, and was in pain for the credit of the House. 
 {N.B. — Simeon is no scandal-monger.) 
 
 Monday^ July 20.- — Hot. Tennyson and Mrs. T. 
 on the steamer, 1 with them to Brockenhurst. ' To 
 London, the dentist ; then Scotland.' T. said of 
 Longfellow, ' A very gentlemanly man : seemed very 
 tired. We had ten at luncheon. They slept at the
 
 ,868 LYMINGTON 183 
 
 hotel, stayed two days. Little King Theodore of 
 Abyssinia now at Farringford with Captain Speedy. 
 
 * Longfellow — I didn't compliment him — told him 
 I didn't like his hexameters : he rather defended 
 them.' 
 
 We spoke of Swedenborg : T. says his Hell is 
 more striking than his Heaven ; praises Hinton's book 
 on Man and Nature. The up-train ; T. shakes my 
 hand warmly. It is always 'a real happiness to see him. 
 I walk to Queen's Bower, its brook and oak tree, back 
 by pretty path through New Park, and in by train. 
 
 Wednesday^ July 11. — Mrs. Cameron has a standing 
 and, I fear, incurable pique against me for not recognising 
 Henry Taylor as a great poet. Most gladly do I, any- 
 where, at any time, recognise a great poet, but I cannot 
 do so at second hand. Philip Van Artevelde is a 
 solid piece of work, with both form and substance ; 
 but, tho' written in verse, is the impression it leaves 
 more poetical than that left by Ivanhoe^ say .? The 
 * Literlude,' called The Lay of Elena, is a cultivated 
 effort, entirely out of place ; nothing can be more 
 modern in style, a mixture of Wordsworth, Coleridge, 
 Campbell and Henry Taylor, — the latter contributing a 
 certain pompous stiffness which he takes for dignity. 
 There is no magic in H. T.'s pen, whether it write 
 blank verse or rhyme. Rossetti much admires the two 
 snatches of song in the second part of Philip ; — they 
 have, for one thing, the flavour of quaintness which his 
 palate requires. ' Quoth tongue ' is pithy and pathetic, 
 but as to 
 
 Down lay in a nook my lady's brach, 
 
 how on earth came a lady's brach hunting in a 
 pack of boarhounds ^ and this first line is in itself 
 almost enough to justify a verdict against the writer 
 of — ' No lyrical ear ! ' What born Balladist but would 
 have said — 
 
 Down in a nook lay my lady's brach ?
 
 1 84 FRESHWATER 1868 
 
 August I o. — Steamer to Yarmouth and coach to 
 Freshwater. Lunch at Mrs. Cameron's ; Dr. Hooker 
 of Kew, Mr. Erasmus Darwin, his niece, Miss D. Dr. 
 Hooker is writing his Address as President of the British 
 Association, to meet this year at Norwich. He comes 
 with me to Farringford, where we find A. T. on the 
 lawn, sitting at a small table with books and tobacco. 
 Walk round garden, the three of us, Dr. H. giving the 
 names of various plants as we go along, ' Kuyphofia,' 
 etc. Tobacco plant about seven feet high — ' never saw 
 so fine a one in the tropics.' 
 
 August II. — To Freshwater ; engage bedroom over 
 little shop, and to the Darwins. Dr. Hooker in lower 
 room writing away at his Address ; going to put ' Peter 
 Bell's ' primrose into it and wants the exact words. 
 Upstairs Mrs. Darwin, Miss D. and Mr. Charles Darwin 
 himself, — tall, yellow, sickly, very quiet. He has his 
 meals at his own times, sees people or not as he chooses, 
 has invalid's privileges in full, a great help to a 
 studious man. Dr. Hooker and I to Plumley's Hotel 
 (where he is put up) ; T. and Hallam come in, and T. 
 calls me ' an ass ' for not taking a bed at Farringford. 
 1 to little shop, — and then to Farringford. After 
 dinner come in Mr. Erasmus Darwin, brother of 
 Charles, an old bachelor and invalid, living in London ; 
 Mrs. Darwin, and second Miss Darwin ; also Captain 
 Speedy, six feet and a half high, who has pleasant 
 manners. He talks of Abyssinia^ — -the churches there, 
 religion, slaughter of animals, the Trinity. The 
 Hindoos and Beloochs ' wept for Theodore.' 
 
 Little Alamayu (means ' I have seen the world '), 
 Theodore's son, is here at Freshwater in Speedy's 
 charge, by the Queen's wish. The little prince has a 
 native attendant, a young man who is devoted to him. 
 Speedy the other day overheard them amusing them- 
 selves by mimicking English people. Attendant comes 
 up in the character of an English lady, shakes hand — 
 ' How you do ^. '
 
 iS68 LYMINGTON 185 
 
 Alamayu replies — ' How you do ? ' 
 
 Attendant. — * How you like this country ? ' 
 
 Little Prince. — ' Ver' mush.' 
 
 Attendant. — ' Ah ! you like ver' mush ' — and so on. 
 
 T. complains of hotel charges, especially in England. 
 
 I say — ' They ought to let you go free, as a Poet.' 
 
 T. — ' They charge me double ! and I can't be 
 anonymous (turning to Mrs. Cameron) by reason of 
 your confounded photographs.' The party breaks up 
 about twelve, ' an orgie,' T. calls it. He comes out 
 with me and we wander some distance. Jupiter and a 
 half-moon in the sky ; talk of immortality. I go back 
 with him and find the door locked ! He rings and says 
 ' My wife will come,' but a servant woman comes. 
 Nobody guessed he was out. 
 
 August 12. — Freshwater. Pack bag, to Farringford. 
 Breakfast in the study, the boys pleasant ; Lionel back 
 from bathing ; A. T., letter from America for auto- 
 graph. 
 
 Mrs. T., ' Lionel going to Eton.' She dislikes 
 Darwin's theory. I sit in study : A. T. teaching 
 Hallam Latin — Catiline. 
 
 Charles Darwin expected, but comes not. Has 
 been himself called ' The Missing Link.' Luncheon. 
 Then T. and I walk into croquet -ground, talking of 
 Christianity. 
 
 ' What I want,' he said, ' is an assurance of im- 
 mortality.' 
 
 For my part I believe in God : can say no more. 
 
 Friday^ August 21. — Mrs. Cameron's: Captain 
 Speedy opens the door. Little Alamayu, pretty boy, 
 we make friends and have romps, he rides on my knee, 
 shows his toys. His Abyssinian attendant. They dress 
 to be photographed by Mrs. C, the Prince in a little 
 purple shirt and a necklace, Captain Speedy in a lion-skin 
 tippet, with a huge Abyssinian sword of reaping-hook 
 shape (' point goes into your skull '). Photograph- 
 ing room — Speedy grumbles a little, Mrs. C. poses
 
 1 86 LYMINGTON 1868 
 
 them. Photograph of Mrs. Tennyson's maid as 
 ' Desdemona.' 
 
 Sunday ^ August 23. — Kind note from Miss Thackeray, 
 to which I reply. (Suggest possible match between 
 Alamayu and little Margery— future Queen of Abys- 
 sinia.) 
 
 Saturday^ August 29. — To Esher (by invitation from 
 Mrs. Howitt). Arrive at ' The Orchard,' a pretty homely 
 cottage, where William Howitt, sturdy and white-haired, 
 welcomes me from the open window. Then Mary 
 Howitt, looking gray and worn, I am shown to my 
 trim little bedroom, adorned with various Christian 
 emblems. Outside, three tall poplars shoot up into 
 the blue sky. 
 
 Monday^ August 3 1 . — Good-bye. William Howitt to 
 the station with me and sees me off. Good people the 
 H.'s, but we should not long agree in the same house. 
 
 Stop at Basingstoke and walk into the town ; dullish, 
 snug houses with trim gardens. At Brockenhurst find 
 Aubrey de Vere, going to Freshwater, much talk till 
 he goes off in steamer. 
 
 Thursday, September 3. — Freshwater. Very fine. 
 Lionel and I on ponies, a gallop on the downs. 
 
 Hinton's Life in Nature (praised by A. T.). 
 
 I walk to Yarmouth, cross to Lymington, Custom 
 House, and back in the afternoon to dine at Farringford. 
 Dinner : A. T., Mrs. T., Lionel, Mr. Digby (tutor), 
 De Vere, and W. A. 
 
 De Vere — his talk of Catholicism, eloquently vague, 
 sliding into Newmanism and Jesuistry, The T,'s mildly 
 dissentient, I getting angry. T., De V. and I went 
 out under the stars ; I flared up at last and asked De V,, 
 ' Do you yourself entirely believe the account given by 
 the Roman Catholic Church of God and man } ' 
 
 De V, — ' I believe it all as surely as that I tread this 
 ground and see those stars.' 
 
 W. A. — ' And I don't believe one atom of it.' 
 
 Tennyson. — ' You have no point of contact, then.'
 
 1868 LYMINGTON 187 
 
 De V. and I walked off m the moonlight and said 
 good-night at Plumley's ; he going on, he said, to walk 
 upon the down. 
 
 Friday, September 4. — Freshwater. Mrs. Carter's 
 lodging. Very fine and sunny. To Farringford, meet 
 William with the ponies. Breakfast, then out to 
 croquet-lawn, sit in shade, reading odd numbers of a 
 Conservative magazine. A. T. comes, friendly ; says, 
 ' I saw a beast watching me ! I saw his legs behind 
 the ilex.' 
 
 September 20. — To Farringford. — Tennyson. — Is 
 writing his ' San Grail.' 
 
 ' I'm spoiling it. Will you take a turn '^. ' — then we 
 talk on Hinton's book, and on his brother Charles's 
 Sonnets. ' All is not chemistry and matter.' 
 
 We look at ducks and pigs. Little Alamayu sits 
 on my knee and looks at a book of animals. Zebra 
 especially interesting to him : that is the Abyssinian 
 name of the beast. The Elephant he calls 'zoon.' 
 
 T. said he had a rich cousin who drank hard and 
 talked loud. ' He used to quote Byron to me — 
 
 Over the waters of the dark blue sea — 
 
 and so forth, adding, " Poets have some sense." ' He 
 
 offered to lend me Castle B for our wedding 
 
 month — 'will you come down to B .'' then you 
 
 may go to Hell ! ' 
 
 A. T. then went upstairs and dulness set in. 
 
 September 26. — Vestiges of Creation. Depressing 
 scientific views of life. Call on foreign gentleman — Mr. 
 Quintinella, a Brazilian : Brazil, Paraguay, Spain, etc. 
 
 Thursday.^ October 8. — Fine ; walk to Brockenhurst, 
 lonely. Dine 7 — rain — out. Magee is made Bishop 
 of Peterborough, reflections thereupon ; when we met 
 at Ballyshannon he was a curate, and we stood on a 
 social level. But would you like to be a Bishop ? 
 Would anything induce you to be a Bishop } 
 
 Saturday, October 10. — To Southampton. Lunch
 
 1 88 FRESHWATER ms 
 
 at Dr. Bond's ; then with a party to the New Forest — 
 Miss Webster, Mr. and Mrs. Hankin, etc. Swan-Green, 
 Queen's Bower, rich red sunset through the trees ; old 
 oak and brook hke old friends now, yet how little they 
 care for us ! This longing for Nature to return us some 
 friendship, some affection, created Naiads, Dryads, and 
 Oreads. Yet how should a Poet turn back to these ? 
 and what then is he to do nowadays with his faculty of 
 imaginative song ? Cross Ober or Over-Green and 
 pick some Butcher's-Broom. 
 
 October 1 1 . — Very fine. Irish topography. Natural 
 History. Walk, Norley Wood : lakes of mist on 
 Beaulieu Heath. 
 
 October 12. — Dissatisfied : life slips by — to what 
 purpose ^ Lindley on plants. Walk to Keyhaven by 
 marsh. 
 
 October 15. — To Freshwater. Miss Thackeray at 
 St. John's Cottage, with Marjorie and Annie, and 
 maid Justine. Guests — Frederick Walker, the artist, 
 small, compact, jockey-like figure, large bluish eyes, 
 short but thick brown hair combed down over his fore- 
 head ; his small hand gives you a sinewy grip. 
 
 Miss Emma Irving, Captain Irving from India. We 
 have games with the children — fishing for mermaids 
 with gingerbread, etc. 
 
 Call at Terrace and find there Mrs. Ritchie and 
 three daughters. To Mrs. Cameron's where we all 
 dine (though the poor woman has a bad cold and her 
 husband and Ewan are in bed) at two round tables 
 put together. Ladies go. Men talk of billiards, 
 Sayers and Heenan, etc. Professor Owen's true ghost 
 story of the nigger's head falling out of a medical 
 student's bag, hopping down a steep street (in Lan- 
 caster .''), and bumping against the door of a man who 
 had been a slave-dealer, and who, seeing it, was near 
 frightened to death. Story of parish clerk who in 
 parson's absence essayed to console a dying parishioner. 
 * He was a bad chap, your Reverence.' * And what
 
 i868 FRESHWATER 1 8 9 
 
 did you say to comfort him ? ' — ' I told him he was 
 sure to go to Hell, and that he ought to be thankful to 
 have a Hell to go to.' 
 
 October 16. — Saw little Alamayu in the road; tv/o 
 of the De Havilland children came up, whom he kissed, 
 and then came the snuffy old Postman with his bag, 
 and the little Prince kissed him too — partly, perhaps, as 
 an important functionary who often bears tidings of 
 interest. Breakfast at Miss Thackeray's, enlivened by 
 the children. Walker is going on with a little picture 
 of a Girl watering flowers. 
 
 Walk to Yarmouth and cross to Lymington ; back 
 in the afternoon ; roughish sea and coldish on the 
 coach. Myrtle Cottage. Dine at Miss Thackeray's ; 
 the Miss Ritchies, F. Walker. Talk of George Eliot, 
 etc. F. W. and I have cigarettes, and then to 
 drawing-room, where I read aloud Shelley's Sonnet 
 ' Being your Slave,' and Leigh Hunt's ' Abou Ben 
 Adhem.' We fall to drawing pigs with our eyes shut 
 and dawdle away time till 12 o'clock. 
 
 October 17. — Freshwater. To breakfast at Miss 
 Thackeray's. To Farringford. A. T. and 1 down the 
 lane ; call at Miss T.'s, where they are at luncheon ; 
 then at Mrs. Cameron's. He says, as we approach 
 her house : ' Mrs. C. (using the initial, as he often 
 does) is so gushing ! ' She presently justified this by 
 saying fervently to T., while we spoke of F. Walker, 
 ' His soul is at your feet ! ' Says T., ' I hope his soles 
 are at his own feet.' We go to the shore with the 
 Ritchies ; T. throws a stick into the sea for dog to 
 fetch. 
 
 Mem. — I doubt if holds poetry in any honour, 
 
 or poets as such. I sought A. T. and worshipped him 
 as the well-head of an enchanting river of song : charm 
 of personality and surroundings came in addition, a fine 
 
 setting to the priceless jewel of his genius. , I 
 
 imagine, admires the poetry mainly because she admires 
 and loves the man.
 
 I90 LYMINGTON 1868 
 
 Monday^ October 19. — Cross to Yarmouth. We 
 find the Tennyson carriage at Miss Thackeray's ; 
 Mrs. T. asks the ladies, ' Will you take compassion 
 on him ^ ' that is, allow A. T. to walk with them ; and 
 they do consent. A. T, comes accordingly, and we 
 walk off (Mrs. R., Miss Augusta, Miss Emily, Nellie, 
 Miss Annie Prinsep, A. T., and W. A.) down old road, 
 by Afton Park fence, field-path through turnips to 
 Afton Down, see the barrows (ancient burial mounds), 
 cross the rough new military road, and by path to shore ; 
 geology — Wealden ; so on to Brook Point and the 
 fossil trees. T. (enjoying the girls' company) says : 
 ' If I could take a walk like this every day I shouldn't 
 be tired of Freshwater.' 
 
 I mentioning Yarmouth, he turns quickly on me : 
 * A rhyme to Yarmouth } quick, quick ! mustn't think ! ' 
 ' Charmouth ' the only perfect rhyme that occurred. 
 On the rocks an unknown demoiselle, to whom A. T. 
 ofi^ers his hand to help her over some slight difficulty. 
 She did not seem to know who he was. 
 
 Thursday^ October 22. — Lymington. Walk to Setley, 
 and find gypsies encamped. Coming back I overtake 
 a little girl carrying with difficulty two bags of sand, 
 and just as I am asking how far she is going, up 
 drives Rev. P. F. in his gig, who offers me a lift. I 
 say, ' Help this little girl with her two heavy bags,' 
 upon which his Reverence reddens and drives off. I 
 carry one of the bags. 
 
 Monday, October 26. — To Forest Bank, and (on 
 suggestion of Aide) call on La Marchesa Taglia-Carne, 
 who has taken the place for a time. She has been a 
 widow more than twelve months. 
 
 October 28. — A. and E. Ritchie by steamer, with 
 them to Brockenhurst, and show the old Church. 
 
 Walk alone into Forest, among coloured trees : 
 Whitley Wood, Gretnam, Tollgate, back by brook- 
 side, among beautiful beeches ; spindle tree seeds ; 
 maple yellow like a ripe quince.
 
 1868 BOSCOMBE 191 
 
 Daily News, 'Leigh Hunt Memorial — Browning 
 in the chair.' 
 
 Evening, moonlight. Moliere. 
 
 November 2. — Invited to Miss Dickson's. Pay 
 pensioners. Kind Miss D. in her pretty rooms, but 
 * not well,' — I wish the good soul could be well. Out 
 and walk in the dusk on Boldrewood Road, sunset 
 fading, dark trees, owls do cry. Already a drift of 
 withered leaves. Return and see, like a pale smoke, 
 the moon-dawn mounting. At dinner with Miss D. 
 and self, only Mr. Darwin, son of Charles Darwin. 
 
 Tuesday y November 3. — Lyndhurst. To Meet of 
 the Foxhounds at Bolton's Bench, carriages, horses, 
 hounds. 
 
 November 5. — Assembly Rooms, Election Meeting. 
 
 Sunday ^ November 1^. — Gray. Cheerfuller. Received 
 from Robert Browning by post Vol. I. of his new Poem, 
 The Ring and the Book. 
 
 Friday^ December 4. — Call on old Kirkwood, 
 pensioner ; hands crippled, cheerful face and voice, 
 cheerful heart to all appearance : tended by his old wife. 
 What is the secret of the cheerfulness of old poor 
 sick folk .'' Complete resignation the basis of it "? 
 
 Wednesday^ December 9. — Christchurch ; Boscombe. 
 Lady Shelley, luncheon, Sir Percy. Upstairs, cast of 
 Shelley monument at Christchurch. Bust of Mary 
 Wollstonecraft, bust and oil picture of Mrs. Shelley 
 — ' the noblest of creatures (says Lady S. to me), 
 entirely unselfish. I knew her before I married Percy ; 
 I was with her when she died. She lay ten days 
 motionless and speechless, only sometimes opening her 
 eyes wide. When she died, / felt sure Shelley was in 
 the room. Her look of joy was indescribable. Shelley's 
 daughter lanthe was brought up by low church clergy- 
 men, according to the wish of her Aunt Eliza ; she 
 was married to Mr. Esdaile, a squire, once a sporting 
 man, and her children have been brought up in Low 
 Church Calvinism. She visited us here at Boscombe :
 
 192 BOSCOMBE 1868 
 
 before she came she wanted to bargain that her father's 
 name should never be mentioned in her presence or 
 her children's, but this 1 refused to agree to. She 
 came to us, but when we gave a children's party she 
 would not let her children be present. She had prayers 
 or a religious service with them every evening, lasting 
 two hours. One day I left her alone in the Shelley 
 room, with the portrait, hair, books, letters and other 
 memorials of her father. She stayed a long time, and 
 when she came out I saw that she had been weeping. 
 She promised to send me some early poems in MS. in 
 return for a copy of the portrait ; but after she got 
 home she drew back from this, and I have not sent her 
 the copy which I had made for the purpose : there it is.* 
 
 Take leave and walk to Christchurch, Sir Percy along 
 with me half the way. Dismal road, empty barrack, 
 wretched suburb. Station ; the ugliest old little English 
 town 1 have seen, spite of a river and a Minster. 
 
 Commercial man in train describes Bournemouth 
 as * a rdtten place ' commercially. Brockenhurst, train 
 gone, got back to Lymington in a butcher's cart. 
 
 Saturday^ December 12. — Sir Percy Shelley's steam- 
 yacht Nokken at Inman's Quay, steward calls to invite 
 me. I find on board Sir P., and in the cabin Lady S. 
 and Miss ' Flossy ' Gibson. Engraving of Shelley for 
 me. We start, rather cold — Cowes, we put off in a boat. 
 Sir P. and a sailor row us in, and drive to Woodvale, 
 a semi-marine house with gables and a hall. Dinner — 
 music, drama, Norway, etc. Drawing-room, Norwegian 
 book with picture of ' Leerfossen,' my cousin Thoning's 
 waterfall. 
 
 Sunday^ December 13. — I walk into Cowes by road 
 near the sea, then upper road, muddy lanes, Floating 
 Bridge, then wide road with streets and villas, and the 
 rails and gates of Osborne House. I venture to ask 
 the dignified porter if one might walk a little way into 
 the park, to which he replied mildly and calmly, ' On 
 no consideration, sir.'
 
 1868 LONDON 193 
 
 Monday^ December 21. — 1.45 train to London. 
 Lodging at 44 Hans Place. 
 
 Tuesday^ December 22, — Tom Taylor at Richmond 
 Terrace, friendly as usual : ' all well — come to us on 
 Christmas Day ' ; gives me card for Picture Galleries, 
 see Wallis's Exhibition in Pall Mall. 
 
 Thursday^ December 24, — Call on Carlyle, ' out.' 
 On Froude, who is friendly, praises the Rambles. 
 On Miss Thackeray ; Mrs. Stephen, Marjorie, 
 Annie, Nellie Ritchie and brother : Christmas Tree. 
 Hans Place, — and to dinner at No. 1 9 : Mr. 
 Planche, with old, comic wrinkled face ; Mr. Walter 
 Cassell, good looking, kind, somewhat choice in 
 manner and voice. Ouida (Louise de la Ramee), in 
 green silk, sinister clever face, hair down, small hands 
 and feet, voice like a carving knife ; also her mother. 
 At dinner puns and jokes : Ouida silentish. The ladies 
 go to the drawing-room, upstairs, and when after an 
 interval we follow them we hear, before the door opens, 
 a voice going on inside like a saw, and on entering find 
 Ouida saying, in loud harsh tones — ' women are un- 
 generous, cruel, pitiless ! ' Planche, taking refuge on 
 an ottoman with a face expressing humorous alarm, 
 ' God bless my soul ! I think they're angels — I adore 
 them — they're the best half of the world.' 
 
 Ouida, with severity, — ' I entirely disagree. The 
 woman nearly always leads the man astray,' etc. etc. 
 ' Woman can't be impersonal.' 
 
 Mr. Cassell philosophises on the subject, rather 
 materialistically. Ouida departs, after inviting Planche 
 and me to visit her at the Langham Hotel, where she is 
 biding at present with her Mother and an immense Dog. 
 She carries a portrait of the latter round her neck in a 
 locket, which she detached after dinner and handed 
 round for inspection, with the remark, ' This is my 
 hero' (perhaps the hero of one of her books). She 
 asked somebody present ' Have you read my last 
 book.?' — 'Not yet.' 
 
 o
 
 194 LONDON 1868 
 
 ' But you must read it, you know ! ' 
 
 She said she had found America ' a mine of wealth ' 
 to her, in the payments for her novels. 
 
 Friday^ December 25. — Miss Thackeray's at 1.30, to 
 luncheon : Leslie Stephen and his wife : ' Come next 
 Sunday.' L. S.'s ' earliest recollections connected with 
 Kensington Gardens, The Yew Wood, seemed very 
 solemn' — America — Emerson — Authoress of Charles 
 Auchester. L. S. likes Lowell. 
 
 Saturday^ December 26. — To Froude's to luncheon. 
 Then to Carlyle's at three, shown upstairs, where I see 
 The Ring and the Book, part read, a Frederick snuff- 
 box, blue and gold, photographs of Mrs. Carlyle, 
 Biographie Universelle^ Revisal of Miscellanies going 
 on for Library Edition, ' volume in hand.' 
 
 Enter Carlyle, friendly ; we walk to Kensington 
 Gardens. The Ring and the Book ' a curiously minute 
 picture of Italian Society : not poetry at all.' 
 
 Dine at Tom Taylor's : — we go in to Ella's, to 
 a small music-party. Ella gives an abstract of a story 
 with musical illustrations, and is most vivacious and 
 amusing, as well as an attentive host. Then he gives 
 us part of William Tell. He overflows with anecdotes 
 
 of musical celebrities whom he has known. Miss , 
 
 who is dull and evangelical, one day expressed herself 
 shocked at E.'s vanity and frivolity, ' and at his age ! ' 
 I defended him, liked to see age cheerful, and thought 
 Ella had given much pleasure to others — and so he has. 
 So-called vain people, not fools, are usually amiable, 
 they wish to please. 
 
 Sunday, December 27. — Cab to Warwick Crescent, 
 to lunch by invitation with the great Robert. After 
 luncheon — Shelley, the drowning of S. — ' not in his right 
 senses — in the moon. Another man who lives in the 
 moon is Sir George Bowyer. I called on him to ask 
 some questions about Romana Homicidiorum Lex for 
 my book, but as to intelligible answers — you might as 
 well ask a butterfly to fly straight across this room !
 
 1868 LONDON 195 
 
 He referred me to an Italian friend of his, who was ten 
 times worse than himself.' 
 
 We go into the Study — small back-room looking 
 on balcony and back-green below, still talking of The 
 Ring and the Book, and R. B, asks me plump ' How 
 do you like it ? ' to which I return praise, and for the 
 present (with uneasy conscience) nothing but praise ; 
 don't know how to set about criticism, especially with 
 but half of the Poem as yet seen. B. again shows me 
 the original Book, and translates to me the letter of the 
 lawyer, de Archangelis, written on the day of the execu- 
 tion, saying, among other things, ' Guido is lamented 
 for by all respectable people.' 
 
 B. praises his own poem — ' It's admirable ! I've 
 ever so much more to tell,' 
 
 Shows me proofs of ' Pompilia ' ; also two rings of 
 pure gold, very soft ; Castellani of Rome makes them. 
 He gives me Volume II. of The Ring and the Book, re- 
 marking, ' Your first volume was one of six only. I 
 gave one to Gabriel Rossetti. I should like to give 
 to Morris and Ned Jones and William Rossetti. The 
 Athenaeum notice is good.' We walk out, — still talk 
 of The Ring and the Book : ' a builder will tell you 
 sometimes of a house, " there's twice as much work 
 underground as above," and so it is with my poem. 
 Guido's not escaping better, man won't give him post- 
 horses ; the Pope, as Providence ; Guido has time for 
 confession, etc' We part. I sit in an arbour and read 
 the first pages of ' Tertium Quid.' 
 
 To Hans Place, then walk to 12 Earl's Terrace, 
 Kensington, to dine with Du Maurier, 6 p.m. D. M. 
 in brown velvet coat, Mrs. D. M. in light robes ; 
 Poynter, T. Armstrong, and another. Children, little 
 girl on my knee, sturdy boy : talk, animals — 
 swallows, etc. 
 
 ' Ned Jones doing most wonderful things — three 
 Saints.' 
 
 Old Ballads — my Ballad Book.
 
 196 LONDON 1868 
 
 D. M. on his fear of blindness. 
 
 Monday^ December 28. — To Cheyne Row (heavy 
 rain). Parlour : 'Scotch lassie,' niece of Carlyle, lives 
 at Dumfries, has never been to London before, been 
 here about three months (,?)^ — National Gallery, the 
 Titians, etc. Speaks gravely and sensibly. Enter 
 T. C, very friendly and famihar : ' Go up, sir, to that 
 place there (drawing-room), and we'll see what can be 
 done.' A yellow gleam shows through the rain as we 
 go upstairs. Portrait of Landor on the stairs. 
 
 We started on our walk, passing through Hans 
 Place in a shower of rain. He spoke of his own writ- 
 ings — ' they gave me much trouble. I brought them 
 into the world with labour and sorrow, and I must 
 reckon most of them but small trash after all. Ay, 
 there's far too much dogmatism going : English funeral 
 service, for example. The Scotch way is better in that. 
 People write to me to try to bring me to Christ — ah 
 me ! If the Universe grinds me to nothing, I will hold 
 that to be best and say " Not my will but thine be 
 done." I don't pretend to understand the Universe — 
 it's a great deal bigger than I am. The Darwinian 
 Theory tried to meddle with things that are out of 
 man's reach : and besides — I don't care a straw about 
 all that ! People ought to be modester.' 
 
 In answer to a remark of mine one day Carlyle 
 blazed up — ' Write my autobiography } I would as 
 soon think of cutting my throat with my pen-knife 
 when I get back home ! The Biographers too ! If 
 those gentlemen would let me alone I should be much 
 obliged to them. I would say, as Shakespeare would 
 say to Peter Cunningham, " Sweet Friend, for Jesus' 
 sake forbear." ' 
 
 Tuesday^ December 29. — Return to Lymington. 
 
 December 31. — Fine. Walk to EfFord, sunset. 
 Evening, Methodist chapel. Watch Night. 
 
 1 Mary Carlyle Aitken, afterwards Mrs. Alexander Carlyle.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 1869-1870 
 
 January i. — Lymington. Write to various friends. 
 
 March 31, London. — Carlyle. — Insomnia. The Ring 
 and the Book. 
 
 C. — ' A set of people who cannot see over Browning 
 are determined to see in him all sorts of things.' 
 
 April. — Saw, one of these days, the Siamese Twins, 
 old and withered men. They were, by rumour, one 
 of the marvels of my childhood. 
 
 May 6, London. — To Albemarle St., and break- 
 fast with Lecky — his Morals^ Morley's attack in 
 Fortnightly . I attack Lecky for civility to Dogmatism 
 and talk rather sharply. He sees much on both sides ; 
 abhors the Utilitarians. He says, ' I began to write 
 in the usual way, with Poetry, and was much dis- 
 appointed to find my poems unnoticed, I believed in 
 them very strongly.' He gives me a book of his called 
 Religious Aspects of the Present Tifne. When I point 
 out some of the evils of Dogmatism, L. says, ' These 
 things are a great comfort to ignorant people ' ; at 
 another time he argues, when I press him as to orthodox 
 dogmas, ' practically these views are now inoperative.' 
 
 Contradictory .'' or is it that he thinks it better for 
 the less ignorant to make believe as to all these ' views,' 
 for the sake of comforting the ignorant ? 
 
 L. tells me he was ' intended for the Church,' to which 
 I reply, ' You would have been a Bishop.' 
 
 197
 
 198 FARRINGFORD 1869 
 
 He is a man of probity and intelligence, reads 
 diligently and remembers accurately ; but our minds 
 are not in touch — differently constituted as well as 
 differently trained. 
 
 May 7. — Dine at Bertolini's, and see old Mr. 
 Seymour in his accustomed corner. 
 
 May 9. — Mrs. Clough's. 20 Eaton Place, — Lady 
 Simeon, Venables, etc. 
 
 May 16. — Lymington. Mrs. S.'s — Table turning. 
 Mrs. S. attacks my want of faith. ' We know^ etc., 
 ' cerebration,' etc. (what can one say in such case ? and 
 silence offends). We try a table, and it does tilt and 
 knock and spells out a message to myself, ' You will 
 be much loved' (!) after which it runs about, we 
 dodging it up and down. What tiresome nonsense ! 
 
 Tuesday^ May 25. — Lymington. Invitation from 
 Mrs. Tennyson for to-day to meet ' Mr. and Mrs. Fields 
 and Miss {Biglow Papers) Lowell.' 3 o'clock steamer, 
 I find them on board and introduce myself. Low 
 water, land in boat, show the Americans the old George 
 Inn, and the quaint little lock-up ; their delight in old 
 houses, ivy, etc. pleasant to see. Dinner 6.30, brisk 
 chat. Mr. F.'s stories of Thackeray in Boston — ' all 
 the Lecture tickets sold. Then I can't do less than 
 put my feet out of the cab window,' and he did so. 
 Big oyster — ' feel as if I had swallowed a baby.' 
 
 Wednesday^ May 26. — Farringford. Lovely view 
 from bedroom window, over the trees Hurst Castle, 
 Solent, and England. Birds singing. 
 
 I had the great pleasure of accompanying Miss Mabel 
 Lowell in her first walk in English fields. There were 
 only us two. A Daisy was one of the first marvels, and 
 while she gathered it a Skylark sprang up singing into 
 the bright clouds. But an old cottage almost covered 
 with ivy surpassed everything. She stood gazing upon 
 it, lost in wonder and delight. They have ivy in 
 Mass^"^ as a potted plant only, taken indoors in winter. 
 Mrs. Cameron photographs M. L. I cross to
 
 1869 LYMINGTON 199 
 
 Lymington and return in the afternoon. After dinner, 
 a discussion on Ireland. A. T. as usual, while grant- 
 ing and liking the lyrical and humorous qualities of 
 the Kelts and their pleasant manners, calls it ' that 
 horrible island,' and will not allow that it has any 
 history of its own worth the least notice, knowing in 
 fact not a whit more of its history than does the 
 average Englishman — who knows, as nearly as possible, 
 nothing. To him, as to A. T., the very name of ' Brian 
 Boru ' is a joke. 
 
 I try to make Brian be seen as a real and important 
 historic personage, and win audience from the Americans, 
 and perhaps some attention, but A. T. plays his part 
 of the deaf adder, and we have to wind all up with a 
 laugh. 
 
 Thursday^ May 27. — Cross to Lymington with Miss 
 Lowell and the Fieldses. M. L. said Tennyson offered 
 her her choice among his books for a gift, and she 
 chose Maud — ' I found it was all right, he thought it 
 a good choice.' 
 
 IVednesday^ June 9. — Lymington. Letter from 
 ' Annie Fields,' dated from ' Gads Hill Place,' thanking 
 me for ' Touchstone,' ^ which she asked me to send her 
 in autograph. It seems it was much talked of in 
 America because Emerson recited it in his funeral 
 oration for John Brown : most of the papers gave it 
 as his. 
 
 Bed 2.30. 'Hear the lark begin his flight.' 
 
 Friday^ July 30. — Longman (by Tom Taylor's 
 advice) asks me to write verses to a set of fairy draw- 
 ings by Doyle. 
 
 A job of this kind likes me not, yet I accepted the 
 offer, and have found some pleasure in trying, chiefly 
 during rambles in the Forest, to bring the unconnected 
 designs within the compass of a little story in dialogue, 
 with some lyrics interspersed. Both artist and publisher 
 have left me entirely to myself in the matter, and it 
 
 1 Poem, in AUingham's Floiver Pieces.
 
 200 LYMINGTON 1869 
 
 remains to be seen how they will like ' Prince Brightkin,' 
 whom I have posted to-day to Paternoster Row. 
 
 Garden Party at the Tomlinsons, small ; Miss P., 
 Admiral Castle, Mrs. Telfer — who tells me something 
 of her history. We were talking of wild flowers ; 
 she said, ' the English wild flowers are beautiful, but 
 I never saw any in the world so lovely and profuse 
 as those of Siberia.' ' Siberia ! ' said I. Then she told 
 me that her Father was a young Russian Officer who, 
 for his liberal opinions, was banished to Siberia by 
 the Emperor Nicholas. He was not imprisoned but 
 restricted to certain limits of habitation, and his corre- 
 spondence had to pass through official hands. Before 
 leaving St. Petersburg he was permitted to marry a 
 young lady to whom he was engaged, and she accom- 
 panied him into exile. Their daughter (now Mrs. 
 Telfer, qui park) was born near Irkutsk ; they after- 
 wards lived at Tobolsk, and thus in her childhood she 
 was among the enchanting wild flowers of the Siberian 
 Springs, ' My Mother used to say they were the happiest 
 years of her life.'' They were years of youth, love, 
 enthusiasm, and the bright hope of one day returning to 
 their country. They did return ; but those years of exile 
 seemed in the light of memory sweeter than all others. 
 
 ' I can understand,' said I, ' why you love the 
 Siberian wild flowers.' 
 
 ' But they really are the most beautiful in the world,' 
 said she. 
 
 Tuesday, August 3. — Internal gloom. To Lyndhurst 
 (invited) ; Whitehorn meets me with Miss Dickson's 
 carriage : Bird's Nest, Miss D. and Mrs, A'ide. I walk 
 off over moor, Matley Wood — nothing good ! 
 
 Begin to feel better. Mem. — ' Songs of despair, O 
 Poet, only songs of despair,' ^ 
 
 Return by road. Dinner at 8. Miss Dickson and I talk 
 ' gloom, Lymington etc' She speaks wisely and kindly 
 as usual, but agrees that Lymington is no abiding-place. 
 
 ' Poem, in Allingham's Blackberries.
 
 1869 LYMINGTON 201 
 
 August 6. — Walk to Whilley Ridge ; cowboy says 
 the bull ' blared ' {i.e. bellowed). 
 
 Sunday^ August 22. — Out to Sway and Mead End, 
 dine under old tree, near sunset time. Shall I go to 
 Exeter, to British Association ^. 
 
 August 23. — Start for Exeter (having arranged for 
 Customs duty). Reception Room. Dr. Hooker, etc. 
 
 August 28. — Totnes, Dartmouth, Dean Prior 
 (Herrick), Brent, and back to Exeter. 
 
 (See Rambles by Patricius Walker.) 
 
 August 30. — Bideford ; Westward Ho (absurd 
 name). Clovelly. 
 
 August 31. — Back to Lymington. I love Devon. 
 
 October^ Lymington. — The Tennant family go to 
 Freshwater : they invite me to join in a little tour 
 through the Island. Cross to Portsmouth, run up to 
 Haslemere to visit Tennyson in his new house on 
 Blackdown. Kind reception, magnificent prospect. 
 
 October 13. — Move to Wellington Place ; write on 
 chimney-piece of bedroom : — 
 
 I hope that in this House I may 
 No evil do, no evil say. 
 
 Monday^ November i. — In Fairyland comes — a 
 muddle, no consultation having been made or proposed 
 between artist and poet. The former (in a huff prob- 
 ably) has put his own prose description to the 
 pictures. 
 
 Old Irish airs on violin. I love Ireland : were she 
 only not Catholic ! but would she be Ireland otherwise ^ 
 
 News Room. In Fairyland [Prince Brightkin]. 
 Daily News says ' charming poem.' 
 
 1870 
 
 [Through this year, the entries in Allingham's diaries 
 are too bare to be linked together in any continuous
 
 202 
 
 LYMINGTON 
 
 1870 
 
 narrative. He had been offered by Messrs. Longmans 
 the post of sub-editor of Eraser s Magazine with Mr, 
 Froude ; and in April he finally gave up the Customs 
 and came to live in London. He stayed for a week 
 with Mr. and Mrs. Tom Taylor, at Lavender Sweep, and 
 then found rooms near Onslow Square, within easy 
 distance of Cheyne Row. He was immediately busy 
 with the work of the Magazine ; and for several 
 weeks, in his diary many of the days have entered 
 against them only one word — proofs. 
 
 He was often with the Burne-Joneses, now living at 
 The Grange, in North End, Fulham, and there he met 
 Morris and Webb : he writes of walking from his rooms 
 to ' Ned's, by fields, with pear trees in blossom, green 
 hedges.' From time to time he dined with Rossetti — 
 and with Browning. There is a story of — ' Old Mr. 
 T , meeting Browning for the first time at a dinner- 
 table, said to him in his important manner — "Mr, 
 Browning, I have read some of your poetry, but I can't 
 make anything of it," B, replied, "I am delighted to 
 hear you say so. I have never met a reader of my 
 poetry who made that observation in such plain terms 
 as you have to me, yet I am sure a great many of them 
 don't really understand it one bit better than you do." ' 
 
 Carlyle was very ' friendly and encouraging ' about 
 AUingham's new prospects. He was frequently at 
 Cheyne Row ; but unfortunately there are no details 
 of the talks during this year. 
 
 One note we give as it stands : ' Mary tells me she 
 said to her Uncle — " People say Mr. Allingham is to 
 be your Boswell," and he replied, " Well, let him try 
 it. He's very accurate." ']
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 1871-1872 
 
 January 26. — Overtake Carlyle in King's Road. 'I 
 am glad to see you, I was going along in solitary reflec- 
 tions in this black element of frost.' 
 
 Speaking of some one lately dead, C. said, 'Ah yes, 
 he's out of this confused puddle that we must still go 
 floundering in a while longer. 
 
 ' Death and the Future, We know nothing — must 
 leave all that alone. I often think of Kant's notion — 
 no real Time or Space, these are only appearances — 
 and think it is true, I have often had a feeling (con- 
 trary as it is to all logic) that there is a Special Provi- 
 dence, — a leading by the Hand of a great friendly Power 
 above us.' 
 
 Europe seems determined to try the experiment of 
 doing without a God—' the world must be crucified 
 and brought through extreme sorrow to a better mind.' 
 
 C. spoke of the Scotch : John Knox : ' they are 
 degenerate now — in many ways (laughing) : the old- 
 fashioned lairds used to get drunk for ten days at a 
 time ! Even Burns had a true sincerity — not like 
 Tommy Moore.' 
 
 ' Maclise was a quiet shy man with much brogue. 
 His drawing of me in Eraser had a very considerable 
 likeness. Done from life in Eraser's back-parlour in 
 about twenty minutes.' 
 
 February 1. — At Carlyle's meet Tourguenefl^, and the 
 
 203
 
 204 LONDON 1871 
 
 talk turns upon Russia. T. says that every one speaks 
 good Russian in his country, not French, except the 
 lower people. He speaks well, softly, naturally, tell- 
 ingly, politely ; his gentle speech flowed round Carlyle's 
 rocks — a big strong man, over fifty, about 6^ feet, 
 good linguist, and curious about English Literature of 
 the time. 
 
 June 28. — In Battersea Park. We go by rose- 
 garden ; ask the gardener a question, and he answers 
 in a rude surly fashion ; we agree that these are 
 ' Saxon ' manners, and that the Irish have much 
 sweeter. We passed some tall foxgloves, which I 
 admired : ' Ah,' said he, without looking at them, ' old 
 Mother Nature is profuse in her gifts ! ' His insensi- 
 bility to the beauty of flowers is one of the odd things 
 in C, he allows it as a fact but does not feel it. 
 
 Mem. — He has little or no sense of smell. 
 
 He told me of an old man, a pauper (' bandster '), 
 who sang Border Ballads in the Annandale dialect ; C. 
 imitated him. Of ignorant old Scots wife who, speaking 
 of some family, said, ' There's twa sons, baith doin' 
 weel in Glasgie ; tane's an Imposter, and t'ither's a 
 Malefactor ' ; it was found that she meant ' Upholsterer ' 
 and ' Manufacturer.' 
 
 Once more the longest day is past, we recollected. 
 
 ' A day,' he mused, ' how strange ! A year — where 
 is it gone .'' Time — is it real, or not } Kant says it is 
 but our way of seeing things. I can conceive this, but 
 am not able entirely to accept the thought. " Forty 
 years make great odds in a lass " — ah, that's true 
 enough.' 
 
 He then spoke affectionately of his Mother and her 
 piety. 
 
 As we crossed Battersea Bridge coming back, C. 
 said, ' Leigh Hunt used to walk with me in the first 
 years after I came to Chelsea. He was sweet and 
 dignified, and his talk like the song of a nightingale. 
 
 He was delighted with everything in our house, —
 
 i87i LONDON 205 
 
 my Wife's playing of Scotch melodies, Scotch brose for 
 supper, — praised everything: gradually, however, he 
 found I was not a Shelley — had a foundation of 
 Presbyterianism which was not agreeable to him. He 
 met with much contradiction, and ceased to come to 
 walk with me ; but we continued very friendly.' 
 
 [Another day the talk ran on various men and 
 books.] 
 
 Pope : Rev. W. Elwin's edition of Pope an 
 absurdity, running down his author all the way. Pope 
 a systematic liar — nonsense ! ' His mendacities about 
 his writings mattered nothing or next to nothing at 
 all ; were merely like those of a young lady who says 
 no when she means yes.' 
 
 C. spoke of Life of Peacock (whom he called a poor 
 creature) — of Lord Houghton, and ran down Keats 
 and Shelley : ' Keats wanted a world of treacle ! ' 
 Milnes's Life, etc. — a book that interested me, I said, to 
 which C. retorted, ' That shows you to be a soft-horn ! ' 
 
 Of Browning's Balaustion, C. said ' I read it all twice 
 through, and found out the meaning of it. Browning 
 most ingeniously twists up the English language into 
 riddles — " There ! there is some meaning in this — can 
 you make it out ^ " I wish he had taken to prose. 
 Browning has far more ideas than Tennyson, but is 
 not so truthful. Tennyson means what he says, poor 
 fellow ! Browning has a meaning in his twisted sen- 
 tences, but he does not really go into anything, 
 or believe much about it. He accepts conventional 
 values.' 
 
 C. found considerable beauties in Ossian. In early 
 days (he told me) he read everything he could put 
 hands on — Roderick Random, with immense delight, 
 a bundle of old numbers of The Lady^s Magazine, 
 another of The Belfast and County Almanack, sewn 
 together. This had a department of Mathematical 
 Questions, all of which he worked out for himself. 
 
 We spoke of White's Life of Swedenborg, C. rather
 
 2o6 LONDON 1871 
 
 with praise, in which I could not agree. C. thought 
 there was a prurient element in Swedenborg which 
 accounted for much : but he never cared at all for the 
 great Swede, and had, I believe, no grasp of his 
 character. He has been reading Dr. T. Brown's 
 Lectures on Moral Philosophy : — ' might as well have 
 listened to a rookery.' 
 
 November 8. — With Carlyle. Old Saints. Shake- 
 speare : C. said with emphasis, ' The longer I live, the 
 higher I rate that much -belauded man.' He thought 
 that Shakespeare was much impressed with Christianity ; 
 to which I demurred. He repeated ' The cloud-capt 
 Towers,' etc., dwelling solemnly once more on — 
 
 We are such stuff 
 As dreams are made of, and our little life 
 Is rounded with a sleep — 
 
 He quoted Richter — 'These words created whole 
 volumes within me,' and mused, saying the words 
 again to himself, ' such stuff 2ls dreams are made of.' 
 
 To my mind, I confess this fine dramatic passage 
 seems of no very particular value when separated from 
 its context. 
 
 We agree about Scott as a poet, and, on the whole, 
 about Byron — Moore, too. 
 
 Spoke of Gray — the Elegy ^ Letters from the Lakes, 
 and passed to Goldsmith. At no time did C. show 
 himself so happy and harmonious as when talking on 
 some great literary subject with nothing in it to raise 
 his pugnacity. The books and writers who charmed 
 his youth — to return to these was to sail into sheltered 
 waters. 
 
 C. said, ' Writing is an art. After I had been at it 
 some time I began to perceive more and more clearly 
 that it is an art.' 
 
 November 11. — C, and Sir , who talked again 
 
 of the Poor Law. C. complained to me of having too 
 much of this from the worthy Baronet. I told him of
 
 1872 LONDON 207 
 
 the apprentice who, getting cow's liver for dinner day 
 after day, remarked at last that liver was very nice for 
 six months or so, but after that one wanted a change. 
 C. laughed, and thenceforward used to say, on occasion, 
 ' I've had another dish of liver ! ' 
 
 Story of the mulatto Scotch gentleman who told a 
 wandering Irishman asking help that he ought to go to 
 his own parish. Paddy looked him full in the face : 
 ' I'm thinking your Honour's a long way from your 
 parish too ! ' 
 
 1872 
 
 January i. — Bright Day, to Cheyne Row at 3. 
 On my greeting him Carlyle said, ' Yes, this is a New 
 Year. I don't expect it to be a better one than last, 
 rather worse.' 
 
 I said (remotely hinting at the need of resignation 
 or stoicism — if nothing better may be had), ' Every 
 creature can but have its own life — no more than that .'' ' 
 C. assented, ' Yes, that is the case.' 
 
 January 2. — Bright, vernal. To C. at 3. We 
 walked to Hyde Park. He spoke about a curious 
 old Scotchwoman Susy, a blacksmith's daughter. She 
 could do quadratic equations in her head, without any 
 mathematics ; when she had to solve a question she 
 thwarted it, that was her explanation of her method. 
 She wrote poetry, and used to say, ' Burns and me are 
 pure nature.' 
 
 Sir Charles Johnston, * a rich, wild man,' gave Susy 
 a cottage and kail-garden. 
 
 C. praised parts of The Ring and the Book very highly 
 — ' showing a most intimate acquaintance with Italian 
 life — better, I think, than anything else of Browning,' 
 he said. ' But the whole is on a most absurd basis. 
 The real story is plain enough on looking into it ; the 
 girl and the handsome young priest were lovers.' 
 
 I said that B. had neither given us the real story as
 
 2o8 LONDON 1872 
 
 he found it, nor, on the other hand, constructed a poem 
 out of it, and in reading The Ring and the Book I felt (as 
 I told B. himself) like a creature with one leg and one 
 wing, half hopping, half flying ; at which C. laughed. 
 C. said Thackeray's Irish Ballads were the best things 
 he ever wrote, and quoted (as he often did) with great 
 gusto and a strong brogue — 
 
 'Twould binifit your sowls 
 To see the butther'd rowls, 
 
 laughing heartily afterwards. 
 
 For Thackeray's novels, except Esmond^ he had 
 little praise. The fact is he has not read most of them. 
 
 He praises Laurence Bloomfield. 
 
 Wednesday^ January 24. — C, dictating to his niece 
 introduction to the Saga — Heimskringla, Norse chiefs. 
 
 Wednesday^ March 6. — Warm. Sit in Carlyle's 
 room while he is punctuating the Saga translation. 
 We walk to Hyde Park, dodging the carriages some- 
 times, at risk. (He may catch his death thus, for he 
 usually insists on crossing when he has made up his 
 mind to it, carrying his stick so as to poke it into a 
 horse's nose at need.) Call at Lady Ashburton's, and 
 back to Chelsea. 
 
 Monday^ March 11. — Death of Mazzini. 
 
 Wednesday ^ March 13. — Carlyle's at 3 — friendly. 
 
 ' Poor Mazzini ! lying dead there — all done, all 
 over. What a bright young man when he came in 
 here in 1836 and sat on that sofa! He got into 
 " solidarity " and all manner of absurdities. He used 
 to trouble himself about every wretched Italian who 
 was in any way political. There was one Italian who 
 fell in love with a danseuse and stabbed himself; 
 Mazzini took care of him, recovered him, and persuaded 
 the girl to marry him. Mazzini was indolent, rose late, 
 and smoked a good many cigars. His mother watched 
 over him and sent him ^^200 a year, which he never 
 took care of
 
 i872 LONDON 209 
 
 Easter Monday, April i . — Corner of Oakley Street, 
 see Carlyle in omnibus, help him out and walk home 
 with him. He speaks of a Scottish First of April 
 custom — ' Hunt the gowk ! A-pril ! ' 
 
 Friday, April 12. — to Carlyle at 3 — with him 
 to London Library : Ruskin's books, W. H. Brookfield, 
 Thackeray, etc. etc. ; the idle classes ; few pro- 
 ductive people. I had recommended Petrie's Round 
 Towers as an authentic memorandum on ancient 
 Ireland, but C. found it ' intolerably stupid.' 
 
 He cares to hear nothing about Ireland save what 
 feeds his prejudices. His is the least judicial of minds. 
 
 Monday, April 11. — Fine. To C. at 3. We 
 spoke of the Agricultural Labourers' Strike, and I was 
 somewhat surprised to find C. sympathising with the 
 men. Speaking of Slavery he said ' work by compul- 
 sion is little good. You must carry man's volition 
 along with you if you are to command to any 
 purpose.' 
 
 May II. — Carlyle, Froude, and I. C. talked against 
 painting, said it was all worthless except portrait-paint- 
 ing : F. chimed in with him, and remarked in his sub- 
 sarcastic manner, ' The connoisseurs tell us a Portrait is 
 no work of Art' — I said, ' O no ! ' 
 
 F. — ' Well, when I said to Ruskin that I cared for 
 no pictures but portraits, he replied, " That proves you 
 care nothing at all about art." ' 
 
 W. A. — 'But that was not saying that a good portrait 
 is not a work of art.' I did not go on ; it was merely 
 tedious and vexatious. 
 
 June 24. — To Cheyne Row — 3. C. in lower 
 room writing behind screen, calls out ' Are you there ,'' ' 
 He has been reading Fifine at the Fair, and saying every 
 now and again to Browning (though not present), 
 ' What the Devil do you mean } ' 
 
 July. — To C.'s and see Dr. Carlyle lately from Vichy, 
 looking hearty. C. speaks of his brother John. Trans- 
 lated Dante's Inferno ; was private physician to the Duke 
 
 p
 
 2IO LONDON 1872 
 
 of Buccleuch. Went to Rome and had good practice 
 there. 
 
 C. speaks of Falstaff in an odd way. ' It is no 
 picture of a man at all — merely a stage caricature to 
 make people laugh ; Doll Tearsheet, etc., inconceiv- 
 able ! ' 
 
 I could not in the least agree or, of course, in the 
 least shake him. He was speaking of the Sir John of 
 Henry IV. 
 
 ' Henry VI. is not Shakespeare's ; the writer of that 
 is a stupid man.' 
 
 He praises Henry V.^ and especially Agincourt. 
 He has often urged me to visit and describe the 
 battle-field ; but I have no enthusiasm for Henry V. — 
 a horror of him, rather. 
 
 One sometimes feels provoked — ' You have said 
 your say, and I'll say my say, not yours over again, 
 great as you are ! ' but I believe he is really in his heart 
 ready to allow any true honest feeling. 
 
 Sunday, September 22. — Returned from holiday at 
 Lynmouth ; go to Cheyne Row at 3, and find C. — 
 friendly. We walk to Kensington Gardens — sunshiny 
 but cold. Saint Elizabeth, Marbach, etc. C. quotes 
 Shakespeare's — 
 
 Fear no more the heat o' the sun. 
 
 Nor the furious winter's rages ; 
 Thou thy worldly task hast done. 
 
 Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages ; 
 
 ' One of the prettiest things ever written — that. It is 
 like the distant tinkle of evening bells. Much comes 
 of the rhymes — rhymes are valuable sometimes, answer- 
 ing somehow to the melody within a man's thought and 
 soul.' 
 
 (I was amused by this concession.) 
 
 But a man may have skill in metre, and little along 
 with it, we agreed ; and I quoted Moore's ' Harp that 
 once through Tara's halls.' C. said, 'Could not be
 
 i872 LONDON 211 
 
 better done — by a man who could not do it at all ! — do 
 anything worth having.' 
 
 C.'s ignorance of the technique of Poetry — i.e. the 
 form and body of it, is astonishing, and by me inexplic- 
 able. He has read a vast quantity of Poetry, and 
 admired much that he found there ; countless phrases 
 from Shakespeare and iVIilton are embedded in his 
 writings ; he always speaks of ^schylus, Dante, Shake- 
 speare, Goethe as men of the highest rank. Moreover, 
 he tried hard, tried over and over again, and in many 
 various metres, to write Poetry. In his verse you can 
 hear the sound of an original man, vigour, quaintness, 
 imagery are there, and for a few lines, less or more, the 
 movement may go right, but only by chance ; presently 
 it goes all awry. It is not a question of choosing or 
 happening to be rough, or of taking liberties : the 
 Writer, after reading many thousand lines of the best 
 Poets, remains entirely insensible to the structure of 
 verse, to the indispensable rules derived from the nature 
 of the human mind and ear. 
 
 He spoke of having once fainted — ' torrents of sleep 
 descended on the brain ; death, I have thought, will 
 be like that.' 
 
 September. — C. : ' I hear that Burns's nieces, the Miss 
 Beggs, are paupers. If every Burns' Club throughout 
 the world would give them one night's punch ! ' 
 
 ' Strauss's Life of Jesus^ a revolutionary and ill- 
 advised enterprise, setting forth in words what all 
 wise men had had in their minds for fifty years past, 
 and thought it fittest to hold their peace about.' (I 
 could not agree.) 
 
 Schiller — an account of his father and family has 
 lately appeared, and C. is going to translate this, and 
 add it to the people's edition of his Life of Schiller. 
 
 ' Perhaps you will let it first appear in Fraser ? ' 
 
 ' That cannot be, sir.' ^ 
 
 Duke of Wellington. I tell of his reprisals on the 
 
 1 Carlyle afterwards allowed it to appear in fraser.
 
 212 LONDON 1872 
 
 farmer at Walmer who prevented the Duke from 
 riding along a bridle-road on his farm. Duke rode 
 straight to the barracks, spoke to the commanding 
 officer, and in a few minutes a number of soldiers went 
 into a turnip-field at the back of the barracks and pulled 
 up all the turnips growing within a certain number of 
 yards of the wall, and flung them into the other part of 
 the field. The ground thus summarily cleared belonged 
 to Government, and the farmer aforesaid had cultivated 
 it on sufferance. 
 
 Cervantes : his poverty, his nobility and sweetness. 
 
 ' Don Quixote is a very pretty book : Jarvis's 
 translation I reckon best ; Smollett's is not good.' 
 
 He praised Smollett's own pathos, instancing the bit 
 from Humphrey Clinker of the blacksmith's wife. 
 
 * Cervantes began the Don^ I think, in a mere spirit 
 of raillery, but gradually saw his way to making a fine 
 character of him.' 
 
 C. read Don Quixote in Spanish at Craigenputtock. 
 
 October 'X,. — Carlyle's. Forster has lent C. Democratic 
 Vistas by Walt Whitman. C. was accustomed to say 
 of W. W., ' It is as though the town-bull had learnt to 
 hold a pen.' To-day he had a modicum of praise for 
 Walt. 
 
 ' Professor Clifford thinks that three angles of a 
 triangle may perhaps not be always equal to two right 
 angles.' 
 
 C. — ' Let him prove that, and I'll give him my head 
 for an ounce of tobacco. God bless us all, what deluges 
 of delirium are pouring out over the world ! ' 
 
 October 5. — 'Suicide of Justice .' C, as usual, 
 
 speaks of suicide in a matter-of-tact and rather sympa- 
 thetic tone : ' the Roman death — Venio, Proserpina ! etc' 
 
 C. looks through all the principal English Periodicals 
 and is uneasy to miss one, but seldom finds anything to 
 praise. I was surprised to-day to find him speaking 
 with some approval of a paper in the Fortnightly Review 
 on ' The Morality of Marriage,' advising people to
 
 1872 LONDON 213 
 
 restrict the number of children, on economic grounds. I 
 argued against the public discussion of such a subject in 
 such a tone. The question, if it arises, is one for private 
 decision in each case (wife's health for instance may be 
 weighty consideration), and is not to be settled by 
 general rules of frugality or economy. When children 
 are a burden, the constitution of society is accused. 
 Carlyle would not listen, and I was much hurt and 
 disturbed by his having, apparently, come round to a 
 grossly utilitarian view which he once abhorred, and 
 which he had strongly censured in Stuart Mill. But I 
 believe that all C. wishes to inculcate is self-denial, and 
 that he thought of nothing else. 
 
 He objects to Taine's book on England, — The 
 account of the Derby Day — boxing, etc. — ' 1 find it is 
 not true — it is incredible — inconceivable, etc. etc. ! ' 
 Now C. has never been at the Derby ; I have, — and 
 can believe it all. 
 
 October. — C. said, ' Plato has not been of much use to 
 me ; a high, refined man : " Odi profanum vulgus." 
 
 ' Socrates — I didn't get much benefit from him.^ 
 
 A. — ' His Discourse before his Death 1 ' 
 
 C. — ' Well, in such a case I should have made no 
 discourse ; should have wished to be left alone, to 
 profound reflections.' 
 
 We spoke of Candide and its author. 
 
 A. — ' Voltaire is always crapulous, often nasty, when 
 speaking of the relation of the sexes. Very different 
 from Fielding who, though he takes liberties, warmly 
 recognises true love.' 
 
 C. — ' And I believe Fielding was much attached to 
 his own wife.' 
 
 A. — ' I don't remember anything like love in 
 Voltaire's writings.' 
 
 C. — ' Voltaire is a very questionable sort of article.' 
 
 A. — ' But he hated injustice.' 
 
 C. — 'Oh, he abhorred that with his whole soul ! . . .' 
 
 A. — ' I saw Macbeth the other night ; with Phelps.
 
 214 LONDON 1872 
 
 The crowd of witches put on the stage is a great 
 mistake. The Incantation, — a poet nowadays would 
 hardly describe the brewage in detail, " Eye of newt 
 and toe of frog," etc. ; it would be thought vulgar and 
 ludicrous. Goethe avoided the like in Faust.' 
 
 C. — ' Yes ; but all that in the Cauldron Scene is very 
 clever too. It struck me often in reading Shakespeare 
 — this man knew a hundred times more about animals, 
 plants, and all the visible world than I do : how did he 
 learn it all ? What he needs for his purpose is ready 
 to hand.' 
 
 We walked into Hyde Park by the powder 
 magazine ; heavy rain came on, and we stood under 
 a plane tree, C. talking all the time vehemently on 
 Emigration and urging me to write upon it. I 
 intimated that I felt little capacity that way, but 
 would take down anything he dictated. C. laughed, 
 and said Sir Baldwyn Leighton had offered to send him 
 a short-hand writer who could write as fast as one spoke. 
 
 November i. — Dined at Mr. John Forster's, Palace 
 Gate House, Kensington. Mr. and Mrs. Forster, 
 Carlyle and Mary Aitken, Edward Emerson (son of 
 R. W. E.), and myself. 
 
 C.'s description of a charge at Waterloo got from 
 some eye-witness : two red lines^ one advancing, one 
 fixed — of dead and wounded. I told the account of 
 the battle given me by Tom Patten, an old soldier 
 at Ballyshannon, which amounted to this — he was 
 ' a'most smothered with smoke, and mortial hungry 
 (nothing to ait all day) ' ; when the French ran away 
 he prowled about for something to put between his 
 teeth, and by good luck found a live goose squatting 
 in a corner ; three or four other men came up and 
 would have taken it off him, but he defended the 
 goose at the point of the bayonet, and they agreed that 
 it should be cooked and shared ; so they plucked it, 
 made a little fire, and ' ait ' it half raw. 
 
 C. laughed, and agreed that we were apt to forget that
 
 i872 LONDON 215 
 
 hunger and thirst are often among the trials of a battle- 
 field. 
 
 November 3, Sunday. — Tennyson calls, with Knowles 
 — sits, looks at books. T. looks well and big. K. 
 asks me to dinner. Walk, Chelsea Bridge, up to 
 Clapham Common, dusk, walk about. Dinner — T. 
 repeats Lincolnshire Nursery Rhvmes, etc. 
 
 Art in writing : ' A little thing well done will out- 
 last a thousand great things not well done.' 
 
 Talk — Immortality. F. Harrison in Fortnightly. 
 
 T. — ' If I ceased to believe in any chance of another 
 life, and of a great Personality somewhere in the 
 Universe, I should not care a pin for anything. People 
 must have some religion.' 
 
 K. — ' I said to Manning — we're all coming back to 
 you by and by.' 
 
 T. — ' I have often thought the day of Rome would 
 come again.' 
 
 A. — ' We ought at least to try and hinder the worst 
 absurdities from coming back.' 
 
 I walk back, over Chelsea Bridge. 
 
 November 5. — To Carlyle's. We spoke of the 
 ' Immortality Dinner,' otherwise Metaphysical Society. 
 Fraser — paper on the stars. 
 
 C. — -' It seems the stars are racing along at an inex- 
 pressible rate of speed. But I care next to nothing about 
 it, let them race as they will. There are much grander 
 and more important subjects for contemplation.' 
 
 The Fenian meeting in Hyde Park on Saturday — 
 ' Fitzjames Stephen and I passed through the tail of it; 
 they were mainly London idlers. What are we coming 
 to } People intend to try Atheism awhile. They will 
 not find it answer.' 
 
 A. — ' When the main road of dogma has become a 
 quagmire, people will get back to Religion by byways, 
 as it were. Domestic love will not fail. The love of 
 Nature, too, I own I think a powerful help to religious 
 feeling.'
 
 2i6 LONDON 1872 
 
 C. (as I knew he would). — ' Ho ! there's not much 
 in that. A great deal of sham and affectation is in the 
 raptures people express about Nature ; ecstasies over 
 mountains and waterfalls, et cetera. I perceive that 
 most people really get much the same amount of good 
 out of all that that I do myself: I have a kind of 
 content in it ; but any kind of Nature does well enough. 
 I used to find the moorlands answer my purpose as well 
 as anything, — great, brown shaggy expanses, here and 
 there a huge boulder-stone — "There you lie, God knows 
 how long ! " ' 
 
 I intimated dissent, but knew that discussion would 
 be useless. 
 
 Coming back, we spoke of hand- writing ; bad 
 writing is hard on the printers, who lose wages by it. 
 
 C. — ' I could not be taught to write at school ; the 
 master gave it up in despair. I taught myself after- 
 wards. A hand should be legible, neat, and saving in 
 space. I was very economical in paper, perhaps too 
 much so — I used to bind myself to do so many pages of 
 writing every day, before I went out to other affairs. 
 I don't quite approve of your hand ; it looks hurried. 
 I like my own as well as any I have seen.' 
 
 November 6. — To C. at 3. Found him dictating to 
 Mary about Schiller ; description of S., — long nose, long 
 neck, awkward. 
 
 C. said, ' The veritable living Emerson was with me 
 to-day ; hair all gone from the back of his head, but 
 cheerful. He asked about Matthew Arnold, but I 
 could give him little satisfaction as to Matthew. He 
 mentioned you.' 
 
 Saturday^ November 9. — Note from Edward Emer- 
 son, ' Father at 1 1 Down St., hoping to see you in 
 the evening.' Walk to Down St. Emerson and his 
 daughter Ellen. He said, ' Carlyle called to-day — 
 his humour runs into everything, hearty laugh, excellent 
 company — has always something memorable to say in 
 choice language.'
 
 1872 LONDON 217 
 
 E. — ' London — much improved to the eye. 
 
 ' Matthew Arnold — his book on Homer good. 
 
 ' Dr. Wendell Holmes, — a man with us who writes 
 (perhaps you have not heard of him.''), said he could 
 find nothing to read ; everything appeared to him slow. 
 I said, " I have a book at home which is not slow," and 
 lent him Matthew Arnold on Homer. He said he 
 could read any quantity of books like that. 
 
 ' Matthew Arnold called on me when I was in 
 London before, but our interview was interrupted 
 before I got any good of him. 
 
 ' Canada — Americans will not take any definite step, 
 they feel that Canada must come into the Confederation, 
 and will of herself. American party in Canada always 
 at work.' 
 
 A. — ' Tennyson and Carlyle are for keeping together 
 the Empire — Canada, Australia, India, etc' 
 
 E. — ' Is not the case of India different } I think the 
 world would applaud England if, after due preparation, 
 she withdrew from India.' 
 
 Going now to Italy, Athens, perhaps Egypt, to 
 return to London in the Spring. ' My curiosity has 
 increased with years.' 
 
 December 23. — Carlyle's. Drove to Athenasum Club. 
 Natural scenery : ' any part of Nature is wonderful.' 
 
 His first view of the river Annan, ' running solemnly 
 down with a slight rippling.' 
 
 I said I dreamed much of wonderful landscapes. 
 Did he ,? 
 
 C. — 'I do work upon Scenery sometimes; I dreamed 
 every night, for about six months, of Ecclefechan as a 
 wild wide moorland.' 
 
 One day Carlyle said, ' I have for many years strictly 
 avoided going to church, or having anything to do 
 with Mumbo-Jumbo. I stood sponsor the other day 
 to Sir Baldwyn Leighton's child ; I didn't like it, but 
 was told it was only a form. I don't think it was 
 right. I have an unfortunate difficulty in saying No'
 
 21 8 LONDON 1872 
 
 Speaking of Memorials of a Quiet Life^ he said, * I 
 cried over it. It brought back my old world — I used 
 to ride to Hurstmonceaux in summer — couldn't stay 
 on the road. I was strong enough for anything then. 
 
 ' I was forced into resistance to the intellectual 
 position of the men (Julius and Augustus Hare), but 
 as to the women all was clear and right. They had 
 no doubts. Julius used to attack me for my heresies ; 
 always giving me due and grave notice. But when 
 the attack came, it was really so mild that it made no 
 impression on me one way or another.' 
 
 One day I found him with the Life of Beethoven^ 
 edited by Moscheles. 
 
 He said, ' 1 have been wading through it. I can 
 perceive that there may be a great deal of expression 
 in Beethoven's music, if I could understand it — as 
 I never could. We are to think that the greatest thing 
 a man can do is to write a sonata, which I cannot at all 
 believe ! ' 
 
 [Another day] — ' Goethe and Diderot are the only 
 critics of pictures who seem to me to talk sense. 
 Diderot explained what was told by the picture, and 
 afterwards how it ought to have been done.' 
 
 Carlyle was entirely against the use of any sort of 
 sedative and anaesthetic drug. The smallest dose of an 
 opiate made him feel poisoned. He held chloroform 
 in surgical operations to be a mistake : ' the pain a 
 natural accompaniment and has its use.' The only 
 medicine he believed in was blue-pill.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 1873-1874 
 
 London y January i, 1873. — ^^ Carlyle's at 3. He 
 gives me a book. We walk out. 
 
 This morning he said, ' after midnight, as Mary and 
 I were sitting together, we heard a chorus of male voices 
 outside the window singing Auld Lang Syne. We 
 peeped out, and saw five or six figures on the other side 
 of the street. I was really touched. I put up the 
 window and said " Good-night ! " one of them eagerly 
 replied '* Good-night ! " and then they all vanished silently 
 away.' Then with a laugh he added, ' Truly the songs 
 of Judah in a Babylonish land ' ! and afterwards quoted 
 Burns's burlesque lines : — 
 
 We hung our fiddles up to dreep, etc. 
 
 He spoke of * Hogmanay ' in the streets of Edin- 
 burgh, hot punch and kissing. 
 
 There used to be gangs of footpads in Edinburgh. 
 C. was once struck on the head by them and had his 
 hat broken. He saw three young men of this kind 
 hanged. 
 
 * Before that I had seen a man from Liddesdale, 
 Armstrong by name, hanged for horse-stealing. He 
 was a strong man, grimly silent. His body spun and 
 twitched horribly. I saw it before my eyes in the dark 
 and in daylight for weeks. At last I drew the horrible 
 figure on paper as exactly as I could, and thenceforth it 
 
 219
 
 220 LONDON 1873 
 
 ceased to haunt me. I saw another execution — of an 
 old woman who killed an infant, bastard of her son, and 
 who had the reputation of a witch. She declared they 
 could not hang her. She was a mere old wrinkled 
 wretched bundle of some sort.* 
 
 January 21. — C. picked up a bit of bread in the 
 street and put it on a ledge, blaming such ' waste of 
 food.' 
 
 He often praised Cobbett's Cottage Economy, ?in6 spoke 
 of a poor woman who took up straw-plaiting from it. 
 
 February 7. — Arranged with Messrs. Longman, 
 Green and Co. for the publication of an edition of the 
 Rambles of Patricius Walker. 
 
 March 16. — To C, Sir Baldwyn Leighton there, 
 who asks, ' What has Emerson written } ' 
 
 C. — ' Oh, many little books, which are very well worth 
 reading. English Traits can be highly recommended 
 to any Englishman's attention. Emerson often spins 
 things out to an extreme tenuity ; but he has a fine 
 lofty tone — the highest kind of thing America has to 
 show us ; and Emerson himself is very sweet and 
 equable in disposition.' 
 
 Carlyle and Emerson — they recognised each other 
 as no common men, liked each other, praised each 
 other ; each was idealised to the other by distance of 
 space and difference of circumstance, and in a way 
 represented to his friend a whole strange nation of 
 peculiar interest. 
 
 In the published correspondence are plentiful hints 
 that C. thought E. too much in the air, and E. thought 
 C. too much on the ground. 
 
 You hear E. calling ' Come up ! ' and C. calling 
 ' Come down ! ' 
 
 Carlyle's genius wants the poetic flavour of the 
 feminine. 
 
 Emerson to Carlyle — as an angel to a genie, as light 
 to fire. E. holds up a mild steady lamp, like the full 
 moon ; C. brandishes a huge torch.
 
 1873 LONDON 221 
 
 Saturday, April 19. — To South Kensington Museum, 
 Emerson and Browning in the porch, Miss E. inside. 
 Walk round musical instruments. Browning looks 
 fondly at Handel's favourite harpsicord, Michael Angelo's 
 ' Slave,' Donatello's 'St. George,' etc. Japanese temples : 
 devils as spouts. 
 
 B. says, ' Same on Christian temples, devils are 
 made to serve.' 
 
 W. A. — ' To remind people of what they must fear.' 
 
 Wednesday, April 23. — Call at Royal Institution, 
 2.40 ; upstairs Miss E., Tyndall, Huxley, Emerson ; 
 Huxley (looks ill), ' Indigestion — so depressing.' 
 
 W. A. — 'Carlyle boasts of having had it continuously 
 for fifty years — says it includes all the evils of life.' 
 
 H. — ' I believe it does.' 
 
 Tyndall opens book of Icebergs. 
 
 ' Your toes are tingling to climb them.' 
 
 ' Old love of mine. When at Tennyson's I climbed 
 down a precipice at Freshwater — nearly sacrificed 
 another guest. That was P., the publisher, a pity he 
 escaped.' 
 
 E., Miss E. and I in cab — past Garrick Club ; E. an 
 honorary member ; Blue Coat Schoolboys at play ; 
 Guildhall, Gog and Magog, New Free Library, 
 splendid room, write names. 
 
 Letter of Nelson from the Nile — * Britannia still 
 rules the waves, and that she may ever do so is the 
 sincere prayer of ... ' 
 
 Emerson much amused at this. Out by back way 
 and by desire to St. Giles's, Cripplegate ; Milton's tomb, 
 slab in aisle — bust moved from pillar, and put under a 
 foolish canopy against wall. 
 
 E. — ' Do many persons come to look at Milton's 
 grave } ' 
 
 Sexton. — ' Americans, sir.' 
 
 Crosby Hall, London Bridge, St. Saviour's ; Gower, 
 Massinger. Monument to (Wm.) ' Emerson, who 
 lived and died an honest man, 1695.'
 
 222 LONDON 1873 
 
 E. says he does not care for Massinger's writing ; 
 there are some good lines of Gower. 
 
 The Tabard looks very shabby and mean. 
 
 (Missed the Bull and the Green Dragon) return in 
 cab to Down St. 
 
 I show E. my little green edition of his Eight 
 Essays^ which I have long carried in my pocket ; he 
 looks carefully at my pencil marks. 
 
 His daughter says, ' that's just what Father likes to 
 see, hints of real opinions, etc, ; in a letter, that which 
 is omitted in sending is what he mostly wishes to see.' 
 
 E. asks what my marks mean — ' what is + 500 .f* ' 
 (Sin is but defeat). 
 
 A. — 'That the statement is 500 times questionable.' 
 
 After a short discussion E. said smiling, ' I agree 
 with the author.' 
 
 Talk till it is time for him to dress for dinner. 
 
 (At Lady Airlie's) — Poetry — 'The Touchstone ' ; E. 
 offers to make a selection of my poems for publication 
 in America — Good-bye. 
 
 Cold — hail, walk, Hyde Park. 
 
 Sunday^ April 27. — Call at the Priory on Mr. and 
 Mrs. Lewes — friendly reception. Mrs. Lewes had sent 
 me her 'reproachful regards.' 
 
 Carlyle, Emerson, Max Miiller on Language. Lewes 
 agrees that language makes an impassable gulf between 
 man and the lower animals, but this does not touch the 
 Darwinian theory. 
 
 Mrs. Lewes says ' Emerson would have liked to hear 
 some of Browning's opinions. Have you ever heard 
 any of Browning's opinions ^ ' 
 
 April 28. — At Carlyle's house about 3. He spent 
 about fifteen minutes in trying to clear the stem of a long 
 clay pipe with a brass wire, and in the end did not 
 succeed. The pipe was new, but somehow obstructed. 
 At last he sent for another one and smoked, and we got 
 out at last. (I never saw him smoke in public.) He 
 said Emerson had called on him on Sunday, and he 
 
 I
 
 1873 LONDON 223 
 
 meant to visit E. to-day at his lodging in Down Street. 
 We walked to Hyde Park by Queen's Gate, and west- 
 ward along the broad walk next to the ride, with the 
 Serpentine a field distant on the left hand. This was a 
 favourite route of his. I was well content to have the 
 expectation of seeing Emerson again, and, moreover, 
 Emerson and Carlyle together. We spoke of Masson's 
 Life of Milton^ a volume of which was on C.'s table. 
 He said Masson's praise of Milton was exaggerated. 
 ' Milton had a gift in poetry — of a particular kind. 
 
 ' Paradise Lost is absurd ; I never could take to it at 
 all, — though now and again clouds of splendour rolled 
 in upon the scene ' 
 
 ' But V Allegro and // Penseroso — you can find 
 nothing better.' I quoted — 
 
 Over some wide-water'd shore 
 Swinging slow with sullen roar. 
 
 C. — ' That is very good. He did not find that at 
 Horton.' 
 
 W. A. — ' At Cambridge, he might.' 
 
 C— ' No, no ! ' 
 
 W. A. — ' The bell over the levels ' 
 
 C. — ' It's the sound of the sea.'' 
 
 W. A. — ' The sound of a bell — the curfew.' 
 
 ^C. — * No, no ! The sound of the sea, — that is what 
 he is speaking of — 
 
 Swinging slow with sullen roar.' 
 
 We then discussed Emerson, whom C. described as 
 * a mild, pure, gentle spirit.' 
 
 Some one had said of Emerson that he spent his life 
 in ' making sentences ' ; 'an unfriendly remark,' said 
 C, ' yet with some truth in it.' But of whom may 
 not unfriendly things be said with some truth in them .? 
 And Emerson has made golden sentences, diamond 
 sentences, sentences to be always grateful for. 
 
 At Hyde Park Corner C. stopped and looked at 
 the clock.
 
 224 LONDON 1873 
 
 ' You are going to Down St., sir ? ' 
 
 ' No, it's too late.' 
 
 * The place is close at hand.' 
 
 ' No, no, it's half-past five.' 
 
 So he headed for Knightsbridge, and soon after I 
 helped him into a Chelsea omnibus, banning internally 
 the clay pipe (value a half-penny farthing) through 
 v^hich this chance (perhaps the last, for Emerson is 
 going away soon) was lost. 
 
 The chance never did come again. 
 
 Friday^ May 2. — Bright and mild. To Carlyle 
 3.15. We walk, Kensington Gardens. C. said, 'Here 
 is May — poor May ! not forward with her work this 
 time — Tyndall has not come near me lately ; I must 
 touch him up. O yes, he's very fond of me — but 
 perhaps he was vexed by an outburst of mine against 
 Darwinism. I find no one who has the deep abhorrence 
 of it that I have in my heart of hearts ! Science, falsely 
 so called. Tyndall is Irish, but not an inaccurate 
 Irishman. He is jocular, and not without a touch of 
 blarney. Has Huxley indigestion .? — lucky not to 
 have had experience of it sooner. Huxley attacks 
 Herbert Spencer, with many polite bows and recogni- 
 tions.' 
 
 Kensington Gardens — we sit on felled trees, amid a 
 strong odour of bark, which C. does not, I think, 
 perceive. He praises Charles Norton : ' a serious 
 man — he is attached to America, but sees well enough 
 too the dreadful plague of money-worship there, and 
 the manifold evils that are, and are to be, from that.' 
 
 Monday^ May 12. — Fine and warm. To C. 3.15. 
 ' Not seen you for a long time.' 
 
 He is smoking, throws a printed circular into the fire, 
 and denounces the Promoters of Companies — promoters 
 of Gambling — 'damnable fellows deserving to be horse- 
 whipt ' (emphasis on the second word). 
 
 Walk along the Fulham Road — Browning's Red 
 Cotton Night-Cap Country. C. tells the story very
 
 ,873 LONDON 225 
 
 clearly (he always likes doing this kind of feat), and 
 says there are ' ingenious remarks here and there ; but 
 nobody out of Bedlam ever before thought of choosing 
 such a theme.' 
 
 Agrees that B. may possibly take up the Tichborne 
 Case next. 
 
 Tuesday, May 13. — To C. 3.10. Walk, Gloucester 
 Road, Kensington Gardens, sit. 
 
 ' Browning w/// very likely do the Claimant by and by.' 
 
 ' And call it, what .'' Gammon and Spinach, perhaps.' 
 
 C. in Germany. N.B. — He has kept a longish diary 
 of his German tour. 
 
 In May and June I walked with Carlyle various 
 times, but made few notes of our conversations. 
 
 Monday, June 9. — Met Carlyle. We had been 
 talking, on some previous day or days, about Stratford 
 on Avon, to which I had paid a visit this May. When 
 I quoted the tombstone lines ' Good Friend, for Jesus 
 sake forbear,' etc., C. wished to correct me to ' Sweet 
 Friend,' and would not be gainsaid : indeed he has 
 used the ' Sweet Friend,' etc., several times in his 
 writings and very frequently in conversation, and would 
 not give it up save on compulsion. To-day I brought 
 proof in my pocket in the shape of a photograph of the 
 stone with its inscription clearly legible, and as we sat 
 on a tree-trunk I showed this to him in the quietest 
 possible way — (not the least air of triumph, overt or 
 covert). He looked at the photograph, said nothing or 
 very little (' Ah, well,' perhaps, or the like), and handed 
 it back without any formal retractation, though further 
 argument was plainly impossible ; and not long after- 
 wards (I mean a few weeks later) he was using his 
 beloved old formula, ' Sweet Friend,' as if nothing had 
 happened, and so continued. 
 
 June 30. — To C. at 3. In a new book he found 
 ' — Whatever are you doing .'' ' — ' an abominable word.' 
 
 We walked to Hyde Park, talking of Russian Tales, 
 Gaelic Tales, J. F. Campbell, and Macpherson. The 
 
 Q
 
 226 LONDON 1873 
 
 Highlanders C. once more declared to be of Scandinavian 
 origin. 
 
 Thornton Hunt is dead — ' Leigh Hunt was saying 
 one day, what a fine thing it would be if a subscrip- 
 tion could be made to abolish Hell\ but I remarked, 
 " Decidedly a bad investment, that would be ! " — which 
 grieved Hunt considerably.' 
 
 Saturday^ July 19. — To C.'s, carrying some books of 
 poetry to him. He is having a course of reading in 
 English Poetry, and I have lent him Hazlitt's Selections^ 
 Campbell's, etc. Walk, Carlyle, Mr. Robert Tait and 
 I ; C. speaks of Dryden's Alexander s Feast. 
 
 ' Handel's music decupled the effect of the poetry : 
 this is what music ought to do.' 
 
 Talking of scenery C. told of two rustic Scotchmen 
 who found themselves by some chance at Ailsa Craig ; 
 they stared in astonishment at the great sea-precipices. 
 At last one said to the other, ' Eh, Jock, Nature's 
 deevilish ! ' 
 
 The Smith near C.'s father. C. describes minutely 
 the situation of the smithy. ' Smith a great arguer ; 
 used to say, " Tak' ayther side ye like, an' I'll doon 
 ye ! " He was popularly said to make a pudding for 
 himself at Christmas time of horsenails, and this was 
 supposed to keep his bones green. Poor John ! poor 
 fellow ! ' 
 
 Monday^ July 28. — C. urges me to visit Crecy and 
 Agincourt on my holiday ; but the truth is that (while 
 I know what the lust of battle is, and read eagerly the 
 story of a well-fought fight, from Waterloo to Tom 
 Sayers) these old invasions of France by the English 
 seem to me acts of violent injustice, — disgusting and 
 useless butchery. 
 
 July 29. — Carlyle tells me he is ' sitting ' to Whistler. 
 If C. makes signs of changing his position W. screams 
 out in an agonised tone, ' For God's sake, don't move ! ' 
 
 C. afterwards said that all W.'s anxiety seemed to 
 be to get the coat painted to ideal perfection ; the face
 
 1873 LONDON 227 
 
 went for little. He had begun by asking two or three 
 sittings, but managed to get a great many. 
 
 At last C. flatly rebelled. He used to define W. as 
 the most absurd creature on the face of the earth. 
 
 C. — ' I met Cary, translator of Dante, a wise-looking 
 old man, but neglected to speak to him, through shy- 
 ness. The Kilmarnock weaver prayed, " The Lord gie 
 us a guid conceit o' oursells ! " — and I would have been 
 better of some additional share in every situation in my 
 life. Still, real self-conceit is the most poisonous thing 
 can get into a man's mind.' 
 
 August 28. — Left London by boat for Honfleur and 
 
 arrived there on the 30th 
 
 September 14. — Carlyle remarked, 'I believe I have 
 been a Ritter of some sort these twenty years or more. 
 The diploma is in the drawer yonder.' 
 
 W. A. — ' Have you ever put on the decoration ? ' 
 C. — ' There 's no decoration.' 
 
 Mary. — * O yes : the decoration's in the drawer with 
 the diploma.' 
 
 October 8. — I returned from a little tour in 
 Normandy, Brittany, Jersey and Guernsey. 
 
 October 9. — Carlyle. * Tom Paine has been entirely 
 misrepresented. When I read The Rights of Man I 
 found I agreed with him.' 
 
 I amused him by quoting from a speech of Lord 
 Derby (on Education), reported in the newspaper, * We 
 have no reason to despair of greatly limiting the area 
 and scope of imbecility in future.' He laughed loud 
 and said, ' that would be a very excellent thing if it 
 could be managed.' 
 
 Carlyle had thought much of writing a life of 
 Napoleon, or book of some kind upon him ; ' but the 
 more I looked into him,' he said, ' the more I perceived 
 him to be of the Brigand species.' 
 
 October 10, — I found C. had been reading Lanfrey's 
 book. He said, ' I am amazed at the character of 
 Napoleon, — it is most devilish ! '
 
 22 8 LONDON 1873 
 
 Napoleon must have been dreadfully disconcerting 
 to C.'s theory of Power and Goodness going together. 
 He used to deny that Napoleon was a great general ; 
 ' Circumstances (he would say) gave him unbounded 
 means, and he lavished them recklessly, he cared not 
 how many soldiers he lost : this is not Generalship.' 
 
 October 28. — Carlyle's. W. W. Story the sculptor. 
 S. and I speak of Browning. J. S. Mill's autobio- 
 graphy. I walk with Mr. Story to Alexandra Hotel. 
 He is returning to Rome through Paris. 
 
 November 7. — Lady Ashburton about Latin tutor 
 for her daughter. C. praises Mary B. 
 
 ' Tom Stanley going to stand for Maidstone against 
 Lubbock. Amberley, etc' 
 
 C. preaches morals ; and then talks without censure 
 of Goethe at Weimar and Frau von Stein. 
 
 Leslie Stephen writing on Jonathan Edwards. C. : 
 ' What is the use of it } — sticking like a wood-louse to 
 an old bed-post and boring one more hole in it. — There 
 is deep truth in Calvinism.' 
 
 November 17. — C. speaks of the second part of 
 Faust^ which he has been reading again : ' All this is 
 very inferior to Shakespeare.' 
 
 We talked of death — I recalled Goethe's conversation 
 with Falk on the day of Wieland's funeral, and how he 
 spoke of the continuance of existence after death as a 
 thing of course, and said some very remarkable things. 
 
 C. said, ' I have thought little of this, pro or con. I 
 long ago despaired of any response to such an inquiry.' 
 
 On another day about the same time he said to me, 
 ' Dying of old age is a painful process. Still, this may 
 be called an euthanasia, — and there are flaming glimpses 
 and glories sometimes among the deepening clouds.' 
 
 One day Carlyle said to me, ' Life's a Dream.' 
 
 Tennyson (who was in town) said to me the very 
 same words on, I think, the very same day, without any 
 reference having been made to the conversation with C, 
 and while talking on a difi^erent subject.
 
 1873 LONDON 229 
 
 C. has no belief at all in the efficiency of the 
 British Army : ' nobody connected with it has the least 
 knowledge of the art of war. Our officers ought to be 
 sent to Germany to learn something of this, and one 
 or two of our Royal Princes ought to go.' 
 
 December 2. — Germany and Frederick — Carlyle 
 visited various battlefields and ' found something to go 
 on ; Frederick occupied me thirteen years ; about 
 eight in writing ; I knew I should have mountains of 
 dust and rubbish to swallow. I thought I could manage 
 somehow brevi manu. But it was infinitely worse than 
 I had ever prefigured. I thought of nothing else for 
 eight years : used to go about and say to myself, " What 
 kind of man is this Frederick } What does all this 
 talk about him mean } incredible most of it, clearly 
 incredible." ' 
 
 W. A. — ' Did you read about nothing else } ' 
 C. — ' Hardly anything, — except something very 
 notable now and then. My mind was full of Frederick. 
 I used to ride a great deal then, and when I came in I 
 had usually an hour's bright talk or so (ah me !), and 
 then after dinner sat down to Frederick^ — she silent in 
 another corner of the room. Often, I think, she would 
 have been glad to speak to me — ah dear ! . . . Well, 
 it nearly killed me. It was the desire and longing of 
 my life to finish it. 
 
 ' When it was done I felt ill in body and much 
 discomposed.' 
 
 W. A.—' But it is done.' 
 
 C. (quietly and perhaps sadly) — 'Yes, it is done.' 
 C. despised oratory, yet much of his writing is akin 
 to Oratory. Whatever he takes up he impresses upon 
 you with all the emphasis of his forcible nature, and all 
 his skill of language. When the Reader has recovered 
 breath he may sometimes suspect that a claim has been 
 made upon his attention and nervous system, dispropor- 
 tionate to the real importance of the matter. 
 
 The Frederick Book might be called the reductio ad
 
 230 LONDON 1874 
 
 ahsurdum of Carlyleism. Yet, on the other hand, take 
 — that very Book. Suppose you care little or nothing at 
 all for the King of Prussia and his concerns, — if you 
 care for Literature and for Genius, here is a supreme 
 work of Literary Genius, here is the best that a truly 
 Great Man of the literary sort found himself able to 
 give you by the conscientious devotion of thirteen 
 laborious years ; here is spread out legibly before you 
 a world of wit, humour, picture, narrative, character, 
 history, thought, wisdom, shrewdness, learning, insight. 
 Open it where you will, the page is alive. 
 
 1874 
 
 January 23. — C. has a bad cold, very unusual with 
 him. We call at Froude's, who is gone out. C. 
 manages to get as far as Sloane St. — his laughing 
 always ends in a cough. 
 
 Speaks of Sartor Resartus. ' I did not then, and 
 never did, and do not now, think highly of Sartor. 
 And when I get letters such as often come from young 
 men — Oh, so impressed with Sartor ! it almost makes me 
 sick. But I thought I might perhaps get ^^150 for it.' 
 
 Sartor sold better than any of C.'s other books in the 
 cheap edition. He used to mention this, with a protest 
 against ' the foolish people ' who showed this preference 
 for a book ' of very little value.' 
 
 He often said, ' The only book of mine I care at all 
 about is the Cromwell.^ 
 
 C. told me he at first got Sartor printed with capital 
 letters to all the nouns, but on full consideration gave 
 up the plan. One complete copy was so printed, and 
 in after years he sent this away in a box of books, gift 
 to a needy individual whose name I forget (if he told 
 me). C. never heard more about said box, and thinks 
 it was perhaps lost in transit. So the Bookstall-hunter 
 may set down this unique copy of Sartor among his 
 possible discoveries.
 
 i874 LONDON 231 
 
 Mem. — Sartor Resartus : was the title suggested by 
 an old song called ' The Tailor Done-over ' ? 
 
 * The Niebelungen Lied is the prettiest thing we have 
 out of the Middle Ages. There is no English transla- 
 tion of it. That would be a fine thing for you to do, 
 it would be a lasting work. I felt, once, I had got into 
 it, and could have done it if I had been able to write 
 poetry.' 
 
 February 13. — Carlyle has received the German 
 order Pour le Merite — black ribbon with silver line 
 near each edge ; he dictates to Mary letters to the 
 Ambassador and to Berlin, but cannot phrase them to 
 his mind. 
 
 We walked to Palace Gate : returning saw the red 
 glare in the sky of a great fire. C. quoted — 
 A little spark makes muckle wark. 
 
 It was the Storehouse called Pantechnicon, near 
 Belgrave Square, which had boasted itself fire-proof. 
 
 'Lord Salisbury's article in the Quarterly (" Difficulties 
 of the Liberal Party ") is good, and so quietly worded ! 
 I thought with shame how impossible it would have 
 been for me to avoid bursting out into the most violent 
 language.' 
 
 C. — * Gordon Bennett, an Aberdeen man, pushed 
 himself into notice by scurrility. Somebody once said 
 to Daniel O'Connell in a London room, bringing forward 
 a stranger, " May I introduce to you Mr. Gordon 
 Bennett ^ " O'Connell replied " No, you may not. 
 Neither you nor any man alive may introduce to me Mr. 
 Gordon Bennett." Best thing I ever heard of Dan.' 
 
 W. A. — ' The blossoms are coming out.' 
 
 C. — ' Ah, yes, poor things ! ' 
 
 March 23. — To C.'s 3.30. C. lends me a pair of 
 ' model braces.' He highly admires some practical 
 little inventions, and thinks it must have been one of 
 the most ingenious of modern men who thought of 
 putting metal eyes into the lace-holes of boots and shoes. 
 Walk to Hyde Park — ' Forster's Dickens — next to
 
 232 LONDON 1874 
 
 BoswelU We crossed the crowded drive and Carlyle 
 was nearly run over ; on reaching the opposite foot-path 
 he laughed and quoted — 
 
 There's a sweet little Cherub that sits up aloft, 
 To keep watch o'er the life of poor Jack. 
 
 March 30. — Carlyle spoke of the first Nigger 
 Minstrels in this country ; some one took him to a 
 theatre to hear them. He was extremely tickled by 
 their ' tempest of enthusiasm about nothing at all ' ; and 
 imitated 'Who's dat knocking at the door' with energy. 
 
 Saturday^ April 5. — Easter Day. Carlyle, Mary and 
 I to Millais' Studio, ' North Pole ' (Trelawney).^ 
 
 J. E. M. big and stout, with cap on. 
 
 Tuesday^ April 20. — C. and I walk past Rajah's 
 fountain ; Carlyle (as his habit is) takes his hat off at 
 the spot where he supposes his Wife to have died, and 
 keeps it off for a quarter of a minute or so. 
 
 May 24. — Carlyle spoke of his College days. ' The 
 Mathematical Professor had no single word of encourage- 
 ment or advice to give me. I studied the Evidences 
 of Christianity for several years, with the greatest desire 
 to be convinced, but in vain. I read Gibbon, and then 
 first clearly saw that Christianity was not true. Then 
 came the most trying time of my life. I should either 
 have gone mad or made an end of myself had I not 
 fallen in with some very superior minds.' 
 
 He then imitated very comically the Professor of 
 Theology at Edinburgh, who was extremely emphatic 
 in addressing his class. ' The Devil, after succeeding 
 in his vile machinations retires to his infernal den and 
 grins with horrid satisfaction ! ' . . . This led to talk 
 on elocution, and C. repeated the lines — 
 
 There was a man of Thessaly, 
 And he was wondrous wise, etc., 
 
 in the manner of Macready, and did it with great point 
 and effect. 
 
 ^ Edward John Trelawney, the friend of Byron and Shelley, sat to 
 Millais for the old mariner in his picture, ' The North Pole.*
 
 i874 LONDON 233 
 
 May 27. — The post of Historiographer Royal for 
 Scotland was ' about to be offered ' to Carlyle, but the 
 attack on Dizzy in Shooting Niagara put a stop to this. 
 So C. told me to-day. 
 
 There was a throng at Hyde Park Corner, but C. 
 ran into the middle of the street, at a risk, to catch a 
 Chelsea omnibus. 
 
 June 2. — Walk with C. and Professor Bain to Hyde 
 Park, iTalk of size of heads. C. said (I think) 
 that his own head was 23I- inches round, one inch more 
 than Burns's. Goethe's head was large, Byron's small. 
 Browning's is small. Whewell's brain was found to 
 be shrunk. The brain of ordinary persons begins to 
 shrink at sixty, of superior men not till seventy, Grote's 
 head was large, but his brain was found to be light. 
 Greatest weight of a brain about 62 oz. 
 
 C.'s present height, five feet eleven — ' I used to 
 reckon myself six feet.' 
 
 Thursday^ June 25. — C, and I walked on the Chelsea 
 Embankment. He praised Wren, always a favourite 
 of his : ' I was some years in Chelsea before I took 
 particular notice of the Hospital, and then I perceived 
 it to be an honest, dignified structure, admirably adapted 
 to its uses. St. Paul's is a very fine thing.' 
 
 I hinted that the visible Dome is but a wooden shell 
 covering something like a glass-house chimney ; C. did 
 not take any notice of this fact, but went on with his 
 eulogy, 
 
 ' I remember (this was on his first visit to London) 
 catching a glimpse from Cheapside of the huge Dome, 
 its gold finger pointing to Heaven ; human creatures 
 creeping about (I one of them) on our petty errands. 
 It was and is the grandest building I ever saw,' 
 
 For Westminster Abbey, or for any Gothic building, 
 C, I think, cared nothing. 
 
 [In June of this year Allingham became editor of 
 Frasers Magazine^ and on August 22 he was married 
 to Helen Paterson. The diary begins again in October,
 
 234 LONDON 1874 
 
 when they are back in London, at their new home, 
 12 Trafalgar Square, Chelsea.] 
 
 Thursday^ October 8. — Helen and I about 9.30 to 
 5 Cheyne Row. Upstairs : Carlyle in gray dressing- 
 gown, reading. Mary Aitken ; C. returned lately 
 from Scotland. 
 
 ' Saw many things that were interesting and pathetic 
 to me — at Kirkcaldy, the Provost extremely attentive. 
 To Edinburgh ; wished to speak to no one, but could 
 not manage that. St. Andrews, curious place — ruins, 
 getting larger now.' 
 
 Tuesday^ October 13. — C. : 'Dizzy the most ambitious 
 of living men — was dreadfully unhappy in his time of 
 obscurity ; believes in nothing whatever but success. 
 Has undoubted toughness, the Jew quality — as Goethe 
 noted. His novels worth little or nothing. His address 
 to the young men of Glasgow almost as empty as if '* the 
 people's William " had made it. Dizzy no humour, 
 no love in his jesting. Even Swift had real humour, 
 could really banter and enjoy a joke, the grimmest real 
 humourist I know of. Gulliver merry reading.' 
 
 October or November. — Emerson Tennent — he went 
 to Greece in 1824, to help the cause. He had an 
 album in which Campbell promised to write something ; 
 it came back to Tennent with the following line in- 
 scribed in it — 
 
 My dear Sir, you are going away to Greece, and you have the 
 best wishes of, my dear Sir, Yours faithfully, Thomas Campbell. 
 
 C. — ' Spedding's Bacon : a most admirable work, 
 has brought together every fact with the utmost 
 diligence, honesty, and good judgment, and produced 
 a book of great value, which is almost unreadable from 
 its flatness and prolixity. He shows Bacon as a 
 thoroughly respectable character and an opulent mind. 
 Bacon had a power of swift deliberation — if that be 
 not a contradiction in terms. But he was an unfruitful 
 man in matters of science.'
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 1875 
 
 January 7. — Walk with Carlyle to Piccadilly. He 
 said, ' Froude's History of England is too long, ought 
 to be melted down to a third part. Fr. is hardly just 
 to Elizabeth, has brought up all her foibles. His treat- 
 ment of Mary is harsh. The sneer at her faded charms 
 in the execution scene gave me a shudder.' 
 
 January 11. — Helen and I call at Cheyne Row 
 about half past ten in the evening — show him proof of 
 Early Kings of Norway^ second article. (He is particular 
 to the minutest point, and rages against printers. Mary 
 copied out all the MS., with no small labour.) 
 
 January 15. — Carlyle calls at my house about 4. 
 I go with him in omnibus to Oxford Circus, and we 
 walk to Wells Street for Samuel Laurence's Studio. 
 The painter is gone for the day, but a civil pleasant 
 woman shows us in, and we see L.'s copy of the picture 
 which C. maintains to be of John Knox — also portrait of 
 Thackeray. We walk down Regent Street to Piccadilly. 
 C. in a very kind mood ; he into omnibus. 
 
 February i. — To C.'s at 10 in the evening. He 
 sitting with Mary, at work (correcting new edition of 
 Frederick). 
 
 ' This is a good number of Eraser. Froude is 
 coming home.' Vegetarianism. ■*" — ""^ 
 
 Has received from Disraeli an offer of the Grand 
 Cross of the Bath ; also intimation that the Oueen 
 
 235
 
 236 LONDON 1875 
 
 would provide money by pension or otherwise. , . . 
 ' rhis is magnanimous of Dizzy ! ' 
 
 I doubted that ; thought it would be a great triumph 
 to D. to be able to confer public favours on those who 
 had publicly despised him, and put famed and haughty 
 men under obligation to him. 
 
 April 2. — C. spoke of Sydney Smith, to whom he 
 was able to give no praise at all. ' The nature of true 
 Wit is very much misunderstood. Sydney said nothing 
 worth remembering. He said " it took a surgical 
 operation to get a joke into a Scotchman's head " ; the 
 thing is, that what Sydney presented was not a joke 
 worth admitting into any one's head, and the Scotchman 
 refused to have anything to do with it. The Scotch 
 are a people with a large appreciation of fun very 
 generally among them. ... I remember seeing Sydney 
 Smith setting himself to make a company laugh, and I 
 left him there at it, reflecting what a wretched ambition 
 it was in any man.' 
 
 June 12. — With Carlyle and Dr. John Carlyle to 
 Hyde Park Corner. Ruskin's pamphlet on the Royal 
 Academy — ' more coherent and reasonable than some 
 he has written. 
 
 ' I never was at a Royal Academy Exhibition. I 
 was taken in once to the Hall to see a bust of myself — 
 a wretched, absurd thing, — and should have been glad 
 at any time to hear of its having been dragged out by a 
 rope round its neck and pounded into lime-dust.' 
 
 He spoke of a debate long ago at the London 
 Library about the appointment of a Librarian. C. was 
 for one man, Gladstone for a certain Italian. C. said : 
 ' I discovered then that Gladstone had the art of 
 speaking. He and I were like Valentine and Orson. 
 I laid about me with a rough club, he got up in shining 
 armour and drew his sword. But all in vain, too ; by 
 no sleight of fence could he carry his point. 
 I ' The London Library is choked with foolish books.' 
 
 7«/y 6.— Thomas Campbell. C, a youth' at
 
 i875 LONDON 237 
 
 Edinburgh University, was greatly struck by Campbell's 
 lyrics — especially ' The Battle of the Baltic ' and 
 ' Lochiel ' ; and when coming to London procured an 
 introduction to the Poet. ' I found him one day in his 
 house somewhere near the Edgeware Road, and was 
 much disappointed ; — a little man in a black scratch 
 wig, luminous eyes, but unkind looking, with a belli- 
 gerent expression. He was unhappy and snappish, — 
 thought I wanted something of him in the way of 
 magazine work or literary introductions, — which I did 
 not at all ; and I soon took my leave.' 
 
 Friday^ July 23. — To Cheyne Row about 10.15 ^^ 
 the evening. Carlyle, Dr. C, Mary. My sketch of 
 Campbell to Bell's new edition. C. praised it on the 
 whole, but thought me ' rather stingy ' in my estimate 
 of Campbell's poetry. Talked of Dr. Beattie : ' It was 
 a curious thing, that shriek of joy which Beattie reports 
 as the last thing. No one but Beattie could give any 
 opinion as to what it meant. Probably it meant nothing 
 at all, — was a mere physical convulsion.' 
 
 ' Your poor friend PlimsoU ' — C. sympathised with 
 him. (He often calls the selfish shipowners 'Cannibals.') 
 
 Carlyle spoke with respect of sailors ; their occupa- 
 tion brought them into close contact with the eternal 
 verities of the universe. But, as matter of experience, 
 is the average sailor a superior man '^. 
 
 He learned smoking as a schoolboy. It is the only 
 ' creature comfort ' that has given him any satisfaction. 
 After working for some hours he always has ' an inter- 
 lude of tobacco.' He smokes long clay pipes, made at 
 Paisley, whence he gets them by the box. * No pipes 
 good for anything can be got in England.' He likes 
 best a new pipe, and used, when first I knew him, to 
 smoke a new pipe every day, its predecessor being put 
 out at night on the door-step for who would to carry 
 away. 
 
 I have more than once heard Carlyle talk about 
 Tennyson's smoking, and also T. of Carlyle's. Each
 
 238 LONDON 1875 
 
 thought the other smoked too much — or at all events 
 too strong tobacco. T. carefully dries his tobacco 
 before putting it into the pipe, which, he says, lessens 
 the strength, while C. asserts that this process makes 
 it stronger. T. has a wooden frame for his pipes, 
 I holding, I think, fourteen, which hangs over the 
 chimney-piece of his study, and he smokes No. i 
 to-day. No. 2 to-morrow, and so on, coming round in 
 J a fortnight to No. i again. 
 
 I Saturday, July 24. — Mr. William Black the 
 
 novelist wrote to me some days ago to ask if I could 
 take him to Carlyle — ' one of the few ambitions of 
 my life.' I asked leave ; and to-day Mr. B. lunched 
 with Helen and me, and I took him down to Cheyne 
 Row. C. received him civilly, and we three walked 
 by the Embankment, Chelsea Hospital, King's Road, 
 Ebury Square and back to Oakley Street. The talk 
 was mostly about Scotland. C. asked Mr. Black : 
 * Well, sir, and when are you going to seriously set 
 about writing a book .? ' 
 
 Mr. B. afterwards sent A Princess of Thule to 
 Cheyne Row. 
 
 August 4. — C, the Dr. and I walk. C. : ' Michelet 
 — very wise and truthful — a curious kind of historian 
 — puts in a good deal of strulduddery.' Bradlaugh 
 and Kenealy — Newman's ' Primitive Christianity ' 
 (article in Fraser). ' I could not read it. I know 
 Primitive Christianity was some sort of high and holy 
 enthusiasm. I do not in the least believe that God 
 came down upon earth and was a joiner and made 
 chairs and hog-troughs ; or came down at any time 
 more than He comes down now into the soul of every 
 devout man. There is no use in saying anything more 
 in the matter. Let it rest here.' 
 
 A. — ' People are still busy with the old dogmas, and 
 they still interfere with life, individual and social.' 
 
 C. — ' I don't want to see Christianity falling all 
 away to ruin — a bit faster than it is doing.'
 
 i875 LONDON 239 
 
 J. S. Mill on Religion — C. : * It is like the last mew 
 of a drowning kitten ! people speak as if " Comfort " 
 were the one thing ; as if Divine Providence had not 
 intended a man to go through many things and learn 
 much thereby, by labour and self-denial and mis- 
 fortune and even misery — John Mill wasted away his 
 soul.' 
 
 Tuesday^ October 5. — Back from Eastbourne — at C.'s 
 3.20. Carlyle and Mary back from Keston Lodge. C. 
 and I go out, rain, shelter in public-house, allowed 
 with scant civility, and then go back for his coat. 
 
 Carlyle never carried an umbrella ; in wet weather 
 a waterproof coat. He very seldom caught cold. 
 
 C. — ' We had a successful stay at Keston. Saw Sir 
 John Lubbock ; Charles Darwin several times. 
 
 ' I had not seen him for twenty years. He is a 
 pleasant y^/Zj-minded man (I thought this a very 
 curious phrase), with much observation and a clear way 
 of expressing it. Has long been an invalid. I asked 
 him if he thought there was a possibility of men 
 turning into apes again. He laughed much at this, 
 and came back to it over and over again.' 
 
 C. praises Owen's paper on ' Petroleum ' in Fraser. 
 
 October 12. — C.'s. Walk with him to Piccadilly. 
 
 Goethe's Spriiche very hard to translate. * I found, 
 when I was translating from the German writers that 
 each man has a tune : Goethe has his ; Richter has 
 his, and, when I got into it, all went on well. That 
 was the pleasantest kind of work I ever did. I could 
 do it in any mood — like basket-making. Goethe's 
 style is by far the most refined and most difficult to 
 render.' 
 
 Carlyle's intellectual position and attitude are, from 
 his own point of view, rightly chosen and unassailable. 
 He is not a learned man in the scholastic sense, being 
 anything but a purist in classical matters. He neither 
 had, nor cared to have, more than a rough working 
 knowledge of Greek and Latin, but he never let any
 
 240 LONDON 1875 
 
 quotation or reference pass, if he cared to look at it at 
 all, without getting at the real substance of it. 
 
 C. — ' I have often been invited to places with the 
 temptation of meeting Manning ; but he is perhaps of 
 all human creatures the one I would most decidedly 
 refuse to meet. If we did, it might possibly end in 
 actual blows, old as I am.' 
 
 November 5. — Helen went to Carlyle's to-day at 2, 
 to go on with his portrait. Browning came in. Lately 
 returned from Normandy. Had read in the news- 
 papers of C.'s being ill — not true : ' happy for your 
 sake, and still more for my own ; I have often lamented 
 not to have availed myself more of your company of late.' 
 
 He reminded C. how, long ago, C. used to come to 
 their house (at Camberwell) and ' talk Scotch ' to B.'s 
 mother (who was a Scotchwoman). 
 
 ' You told me the Scotch name for buns — cookies' 
 
 C. said, ' I hear you have been bringing out several 
 new Books rather lately. I always read your Books 
 and find them well worth it, but I have not seen these.' 
 
 B. — * I'm afraid of you in that way ! I'd sooner 
 trust my body to you than my book.' 
 
 C. — ' What is the last about .'' ' 
 
 B. — ' It's called Aristophanes'' Apology. I felt in a 
 manner bound to write it, so many blunders about 
 Aristophanes afloat, even among the so-called learned.' 
 
 C. praised B.'s translation from Euripides (Alcestis). 
 
 ' The very best translation I ever read,' and re- 
 commended him to do more. 
 
 B. looked at the portrait and said, ' Very like.' 
 
 C. passed my house about 4 to-day. I overtook 
 him in the Fulham Road and walked with him to 
 Lady Ashburton's door at Knightsbridge. He said, 
 ' Browning in his young days wore a turn-down shirt 
 collar with a ribbon for neck-tie, and a green coat. I 
 first met him one evening at Leigh Hunt's, a modest 
 youth, with a good strong face and a head of dark hair. 
 He said little, but what he said was good.'
 
 i875 LONDON 241 
 
 November 18. — On my way to Cheyne Row saw 
 Carlyle and Lecky in King's Road walking along, C. 
 looking small beside L., who overtopped and bent over 
 C. in speaking and listening. 
 
 C. asked for ' Madame and the Homunculus.' ^ ' A 
 Baby is the most wonderful of all phenomena in this 
 variegated world. Some of the women told Mary it 
 was a most lovely creature (smiling). Babies have na 
 features at first — they're small red things, but gradually 
 you come to discern some features.' 
 
 After this we spoke of Historians. ' Ranke a diligent 
 man, gave much about diplomacies useful in its way, no 
 picture of men or things. He hangs up a kind of — 
 well — a gray shadow, you might say, like an Ossian 
 ghost, " the stars dim twinkling through." Macaulay 
 like a Russian Steppe — green enough, but not a rock or 
 tree to break the monotony.' 
 
 I. — ' Macaulay tried much to make an effect by style.* 
 
 C. (smiling). — ' Then we can only say he did not 
 succeed.' i 
 
 The Slav people — C: 'An ugly, dirty, ill-conditioned 
 set of creatures, with all the worst qualities attributed 
 to the Irish, and none of the good. Their language 
 a mere jargon, with nothing in it worth knowing.' 
 
 L. — ' You have been among them } ' 
 
 C. — ' O yes, for some three weeks.' 
 
 L. (very mildly). — ' Is that long enough to judge of 
 a nation } ' 
 
 C. — ' Oh, I did not judge them by that alone. They 
 are most miserable, their houses filthy and unventilated 
 beyond imagination — smells centuries old ! ' 
 
 December i. — Carlyle and I walk in the snow and 
 dusk in Cromwell Road. We meet Leslie Stephen, 1 
 whose wife died on Sunday ; he turns and shakes hands, 
 but does not speak. Carlyle says ' I am very sorry 
 for you, sir. My own loss did not come in so 1 
 grievous a way.' S. departs without a word. | 
 
 1 Gerald Carlyle Allingham, born November 8, 1875. 
 
 R
 
 242 LONDON 1875 
 
 Carlyle, to me : ' We feel some pity in such cases, 
 — but small, small, small it is. I look back often to 
 those times of poverty in my life, and richer they seem 
 than all California ! And She going through it all so 
 nobly and so queenly, — without any recognition almost ! 
 Ah me ! . . . That winter I went to Mentone was 
 the saddest of my life. I used to go into an olive grove 
 and meditate most sadly on many things.' 
 
 ' Browning came on my birthday and talked loud. 
 He agreed with me about Shelley and his poetry.* 
 
 December 27 — C. returned to Shelley again to-day, 
 a subject I would fain avoid with him. ' Shelley had not 
 the least poetic faculty. I never could read anything 
 he wrote. It was all a shriek merely.' 
 
 I hope it is not wrong in me to avoid battles in 
 such a case. C. knows perfectly well that my opinion 
 is not his — that Shelley is a star in my sky. As to 
 Browning, I have with pain heard him of later years 
 speak slightingly of Shelley. The longer I know B. 
 (great and lovable as I must always hold him) the less 
 do I know how much weight to give to his utterances. 
 
 Shelley's conduct to his poor Harriet is entirely 
 inexcusable. It was the act of a wildly impulsive, 
 impatient, unregulated mind, always hurried headlong 
 by its moods. C. was only three years and four 
 months younger than Shelley, and his mind was already 
 formed before the latter became at all known to him. 
 
 It may be noted here that Emerson once told me 
 he could see nothing in Shelley's poetry, beyond some 
 pretty verses in ' The Skylark ' and ' The Cloud.' I 
 tried him with ' Ozymandias ' (he was just back from 
 Egypt). ' That is fine,' he said, and asked leave to look 
 at it, but I fear was hardly likely to alter his verdict. 
 Emerson said on this occasion, ' If I don't know what 
 Poetry is, I don't know anything.' 
 
 Perhaps I had secretly a similar prejudice in favour 
 of somebody else's judgment !
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 1876 
 
 Wednesday^ January 26. — Spring-like. Walk with 
 Carlyle and Froude, Hyde Park, 
 
 ' School proposed for Haddington in memory of 
 John Knox.' 
 
 Lord Amberley's death. (To W. A. ) — ' Emerson has 
 quoted from you about sleep.' Game Laws — ' do animals 
 enjoy being hunted } I asked a man how he would 
 feel if he had to run for his life with twelve devils at 
 his heels } ' 
 
 C. declared game laws bad, caused a ' waste of food- 
 producing power.' 
 
 Saturday^ January 29. — To C. 12.30, and stayed 
 three hours, examining with him Goethe's Sprilche, the 
 original, and an English translation by a lady. 
 
 C. said, ' She has rubbed down all the points with a 
 bathbrick.' 
 
 Froude comes in. 
 
 F. — *Jowett's Plato, a bald, tame, prosaic transla- 
 tion.' 
 
 C. — ' Plato's style is admirable, but he has nothing 
 particular to tell you.' 
 
 A. — ' One wonders how much is Socrates.' 
 
 C. — ' Socrates one suspects to be a myth mainly. I 
 could get nothing out of Plato ! What do you mean 
 then } — the devil a word ! ' 
 
 F. — ' You would have liked to meet him ^ ' 
 
 243
 
 244 LONDON 1876 
 
 C. — 'O yes, I daresay I should have found him 
 highly interesting in himself.' 
 
 Wednesday^ February 16. — We walk to Hyde Park. 
 C. helps a blind beggar-man over a wide crossing. 
 We meet Leighton, old King Cole/ and the Hon. and 
 Rev. Byng. Sit on bench in Park, where a man speaks 
 to us, but none of us know anything of him. 
 
 C. has had a letter from Mr. Norton (Mass.), ' turn- 
 ing much on Emerson, describing him as cheerful and 
 hopeful ; but E. says he has lately been affected with 
 a disease called Old Age (smiles). His memory for 
 names is defective. He is not inclined to write more ; 
 Emerson's last book, like the rest, full of fine airy 
 sayings. 
 I * Browning's Inn Album is the worst of all he has 
 \ given us ; and he has been growing worse and worse — 
 I with the exception of his Greek translations. The Ring 
 I and the Book — what a thing it is ! Browning has a 
 * great quantity of miscellaneous reading about him, but 
 
 Ino solid basis of knowledge in anything. Tennyson's 
 later things are better than B.'s. But Browning js a 
 man of great abilities.' 
 
 Thursday., February 17. — Helen, Miss Edith Mar- 
 tineau and I walking along Chelsea Embankment, 
 meet Carlyle with Mary. I ask C.'s leave aside to 
 introduce Miss E. M. to him. ' The sister of theologic 
 Martineau ^ ' he inquires. ' Daughter ' — on which he 
 speaks to Edith : ' How is your Father ^ I used to go 
 to your house in Liverpool.' Asks after Harriet 
 Martineau, now about seventy-three. 
 
 E. asks if her father may come and see Carlyle. 
 
 ' O yes, I shall be delighted to see him and hear 
 what he has to say of things.' 
 
 To Helen : ' Take care of your little son.' 
 
 Saturday., February 19. — Rev. James Martineau 
 called on me. Tyndall, Haeckel, and modern 
 materialism in general. 
 
 1 Sir Henry Cole.
 
 1876 LONDON 245 
 
 We went together to 5 Cheyne Row and were 
 shown into the parlour, where, after a few minutes, 
 enter Carlyle. He had already two waiting to walk 
 with him, and we walked slowly along the Embank- 
 ment eastward, and nearly as far as Vauxhall Bridge, 
 a body of five — Carlyle, Martineau, Froude, Lecky 
 and W, A, — too many for hearing well what C. said. 
 Froude and he turned back ; M., L. and I went on 
 to Westminster. Spoke of Newton's Principia. M, 
 thought he saw faults in the logic, e.g. ' Gravitation in 
 proportion to Mass ' — now, mass is weight, and weight 
 is gravitation. 
 
 Wednesday^ February 23. — Walk with Carlyle and 
 Froude. I ask C. has he read Mr. Martineau on 
 Tyndall in the Contemporary Review ? ' No, I care 
 nothing about it. It is an utterly contemptible theory, 
 that out of dead blind dust could spring the sense of 
 right and wrong ! Fit only for a dog, if a dog could 
 speculate. Don't come to me to certify that you have 
 an intellect, with such notions as these in your head.' 
 
 Monday, March 6. — Walk with Carlyle and Froude, 
 meet Longman and Spedding. We speak of Ruskin's 
 Fors (' my pets,' money accounts, etc.). 
 
 St. George's Society, which C. thinks an absurdity, 
 and gives nothing to. 
 
 Froude says Ruskin lamented to him the way he 
 was brought up — not like other boys, no out-door 
 games, etc. ' I might have had a son of my own and 
 been happy.' 
 
 I alone into St. James' Park, at liberty to greet the 
 new spring. Cool west wind, leaves budding, almond 
 bushes in bloom ; pleasant (though C. would never 
 admit it !) 
 
 I to Water Colour Gallery and find Helen. ' Ruskin 
 just gone — introduced himself, thanked me for Carlyle 
 portrait, asked me to do another showing the stronger 
 aspect.' 
 
 March 10. — At Hyde Park Corner meet Browning.
 
 246 LONDON 1876 
 
 ' How odd ! made sure I had just seen you in another 
 part of town and differently dressed. I don't quite 
 believe in dopfelgangers^ 
 
 Browning asks me about Byron article in Fraser^ and 
 praises it most warmly. ' Shouldn't mind if my name 
 were at iihe bottom of it. Only you did not say half a 
 hundredth part as much as might be said of Byron's 
 baseness and brutality. 
 
 ' I might have rated Byron higher intellectually than 
 you have done, in some respects, but what you have 
 said of him morally is mild to what he deserves.' 
 
 He then spoke of Disraeli. ' What a humbug he 
 is ! Won't I give it him one of these days ! ' Royal 
 Academy dinner, Dizzy's speech. ' What struclc him 
 most was " the imagination of the British School of Art, 
 amid ugly streets and dull skies, etc. etc." ' 
 
 Afterwards Disraeli came up to Browning and said, 
 ' What do you think of this Exhibition } ' 
 
 Browning wished to hear Disraeli's opinion. Disraeli 
 said — ' What strikes me is the utter and hopeless want 
 of imagination ' (as much as to say, you didn't think 
 me such a fool as I seemed in my speech !) 
 
 Browning told this to Gladstone, who said pungently, 
 ' It's hellish ! He is like that in the House too — it's 
 hellish!' 
 
 ' And so it is,' added Browning. 
 
 Friday^ March 24. — To Carlyle's. Lecky there 
 
 (L. up in all the newspaper and club gossip}T He 
 
 said The World gave what professed to be the substance 
 
 of Bismarck's letter to Carlyle, and all wrong from 
 
 ■ beginning to end. C. said ' it was a most flattering 
 
 thing to receive such a letter, saying that I had " raised 
 
 V a living statue of their great King " — could not be a 
 
 finer compliment. Nothing to make him write such a 
 
 '• letter but his own free will ; not a word of humbug in 
 
 it that one could see.' 
 \ Macaulay's Life by Trevelyan on the table : C. has 
 
 I just begun it. Lecky asked him, 'You read the first 
 
 1
 
 i876 
 
 LONDON 
 
 247 
 C. 
 
 two volumes of Macaulay's History^ I believe ? ' 
 assented, and L." ho dtDubt chuckled internally. 
 
 I said, ' How variable a thing National Character 
 seems to be ; take the England of Shakespeare, of 
 Cromwell, of Charles 11/ 
 
 C. Said, ' Shakespeare and Cromwell were brothers, 
 profoundly wise and sympathetic souls.' 
 
 W. A. — ' I meant Shakespeare's time. He was above 
 his time.' 
 
 C. (emphatically). — ' He was above everybody of 
 every time. No such man has been seen in the world. 
 
 We are such stuff as dreams are made of — 
 
 nothing so profound anywhere out of the Bible, or in it, 
 that I recollect. '' Such stuff'' — the same kind of thing. 
 I put The Tempest first of all (profound philosophy of 
 life in robes of romance).' 
 
 Lecky, — ' His last play, was it not } ' 
 
 C. — ' I recollect when I first heard of Shakespeare, 
 when I went to school at Annan, where there was 
 rather more acquaintance with things in general than 
 in our house. I had never heard of Shakespeare there : 
 my Father never, I believe, read a word of him in his 
 
 life. But one day in the street of Annan I found a 
 
 wandering Italian resting a board with very bad imagery 
 — " images " (C. imitated the cry), and among them a 
 figure leaning on a pedestal with " The Cloudcapt 
 towers," etc. Various passers-by looked on, and a 
 woman read aloud the verses, very badly, and then the 
 name below, " Shankespeare," that was the way she gave 
 it, "Shankespeare" (laughing).' 
 
 I tell the joke of the sailor reading, ' The Cloud — 
 Captain Towers — don't know the ship.' 
 
 Carlyle laughed and said, ' I've heard that.' 
 
 When Carlyle first came to London in 1824 he 
 went very seldom to the theatre — saw Kean once in 
 Shylock^ thought he exaggerated everything, and was 
 like a wild beast. Had seen him in Edinburgh in the
 
 248 LONDON 1876 
 
 same part of the Jew — Macready gave him a season 
 ticket for three seasons, and then he went often (he 
 always praises Macready). 
 
 Spoke again to-day with bitter contempt of ' Dar- 
 winism.' Lecture at Zion College to the Clergy against 
 Spontaneous Generation. 
 
 C. — ' No argument at all for it. But (he said, half 
 in soliloquy and with a tone of conviction) we shall get 
 rid at last of all forms, and that will be a blessed thing.' 
 Scotland greatly changed since his youth, a hundred 
 times as much wealth, and not a hundredth part as 
 much solid worth. 
 
 (L. queries and suggests dissent, but does not argue, 
 and rarely opposes.) 
 
 I say, the whole world of mankind is mixing — it 
 cannot be helped. Old local peculiarities are disappear- 
 ing. C. agrees. 
 
 April I . — Carlyle said, ' Just after I had got out of 
 my bath this morning and was drying myself — getting 
 into a kind of fury or exaltation of mind, I exclaimed, 
 " What the devil then am I, at all, at all ? after all 
 these eighty years I know nothing about it.'" 
 
 April 6, — Browning paid us a visit 3.15 to 4.30 
 about. He breakfasts every morning at 8, not later, 
 has luncheon at i. He tells me he has no dreams 
 worth remembering — no beautiful or clever dreams, 
 ' Except that a few times I have dreamed that I was 
 among the mountains near Asolo (of Pippa Passes)^ 
 and I said to myself, " I have often wished to see Asolo 
 a second time, but now here I am and I'll go and do it." 
 Once I dreamed I was seeing the elder Kean in 
 Richard the Thirds and he uttered a line which struck 
 me as immensely finer than anything else in the play, 
 or than I had ever heard perhaps, and I perceived it 
 was not Shakespeare's, but my own invention. It was 
 in the scene where the ghosts rise. When I woke I 
 still had hold of the stupendous line, and it was this — 
 And when I wake my dreams are madness — Damn me.
 
 i876 LONDON 249 
 
 ' I never dream but when out of sorts in healtFi.' 
 
 Browning looked at a photograph of himself on my 
 chimney-piece and said, ' There I am — and I don't 
 recollect when or where it was done, or anything 
 about it. I find gaps in my memory. The other day 
 I came by chance on an old letter of my own, telling 
 how I had seen Ristori in Camma — if that was the 
 word, and I could not and cannot recollect in the 
 very least what Camma is, or what I refer to : yet 
 there it was in my own handwriting — a judgment on 
 me for my opinion of my Grandfather, when I asked 
 him if he had seen Garrick in Richard the Third and 
 he replied " I suppose I have," and I thought " Bless my 
 soul ! shall / ever come to this." People compliment 
 me on my prodigious memory, because I have a knack 
 of remembering rhymes — " hog " and " dog," and so 
 forth ; but it's breaking down.' 
 
 B. took down Quarles's Emblems from the shelf, 
 and turned it over. ' Whose pencil marks are 
 these } ' 
 
 ' Mine,' I told him. 
 
 B. said, ' Quarles did a great deal for me — he was a 
 man of great gehius.' He read aloud passages here and 
 there — e.g. 
 
 She's empty : hark, she sounds, there's nothing there 
 But noise to fill thy ear, etc. 
 
 Trust not this hollow world ; she's empty ; hark, she sounds. 
 
 And with especial relish the close of the dialogue of 
 Eve and the Serpent — 
 
 Eve. — fruit's made for food : 
 
 I'll pull, and taste, and tempt my Adam too 
 To know the secrets of this dainty. 
 
 Serpent. — Do. 
 
 ' That's exquisite ! ' Browning said. 
 
 We talked of music. B. goes to all the best
 
 250 LONDON 1876 
 
 concerts and musical parties he can. Spoke of people 
 who know nothing at all of music. ' Last night at a 
 private house — Joachim playing "Beethoven" ; Mrs. P., 
 sitting next me, knew and cared absolutely nothing 
 about it.' 
 
 1 tried to say that there are people with no ear and 
 also people with some, though not much, and these 
 latter may, having sensitive and imaginative souls, be 
 much moved by what does reach them ; and I instanced 
 Carlyle — but had no sooner uttered the name than B., 
 more suo, snatched the ball out of my hands, and ran 
 off with it in another direction. 
 
 ' Carlyle talks the most utter rubbish about Beethoven, 
 knows absolutely nothing about it, etc. etc' And went 
 on to declare, in his rapid way, that no untrained person 
 could know or feel anything of this high music. ' It 
 cannot be reached per saltum — instead of a melody in 
 a song or ballad, you have, in the harmonies and 
 transitions, countless melodies melted and flowing and 
 mingling,' and so on. 
 
 Browning asked for Gerald, took him in his arms and 
 kissed him ; looked at Carlyle's mug.^ 
 
 Hardly looked at Helen's drawing — talked con- 
 h temptuously of Dizzy. ' Snobbishly changed his name 
 5 from D'Israeli to Disraeli. D. a great tyrant to every- 
 body. Told me he had never seen Carlyle, and I 
 brought him up to Boehm's Statue.' 
 
 April 18. — Carlyle called at my house to-day. 
 f Looking into little Gerald's face he placed his hand 
 lightly on the baby's head, saying solemnly, ' May God 
 bless thee ! ' He then placed his arm across his own 
 heart in a peculiar way, bowed his head and muttered 
 or sighed something. 
 
 September 6. — We came back from Margate on 
 Saturday. I called at Carlyle's on Sunday, and again 
 
 1 A silver mug given to Gerald, on which is inscribed, in facsimile of 
 Carlyle's hand-writing : ' Gerald Carlyle Allingham, his little Cuppie. 
 (T. C. 1875)'
 
 i876 LONDON 251 
 
 on Tuesday about three, but he was gone out both 
 times. To-day, about half past two, he and Mary 
 called here ; they went into the parlour. C. looking 
 well and very neatly dressed — a long dark frock-coat 
 and a straw hat dyed black. Says he is rather better 
 than he was. Goes out every day about two, takes an 
 omnibus to the top of Regent Street, walks along Port- 
 land Place and back again southward, and takes a 
 Brompton omnibus back again. To-day he wished to 
 walk with me. We went through S. K. station and up 
 through Brompton Churchyard to Hyde Park, and by 
 his favourite road, that between the Ride and the 
 Serpentine, sitting down a while on a free bench. He 
 has not been at the sea this year. ' Mary found a 
 lodging at Littlehampton which she thought would do, 
 but I dreaded noise. Have suffered dreadfully from 
 sleeplessness lately.' 
 
 We talked of the mischievousness and cruelty of 
 many human beings. 
 
 ' Many children are taught no kind of feeling for 
 others, and they come to care nothing about seeing or 
 doing hurt ; it amuses them. When I was in the habit 
 of riding about the suburbs of London, I found the 
 populace looked upon me as a kind of strange unfortu- 
 nate being, and the object they proposed to themselves 
 for the moment was to make me as much more uncom- 
 fortable as possible. One evening a crowd of idlers did 
 their best to make my horse jump over the parapet of a 
 small bridge. They didn't want me to be killed or 
 smashed, I suppose — didn't think about it, only wanted 
 some " fun." I rode through them, keeping my whip 
 ready — I may very likely have administered a lash or 
 two, I don't remember. Can you lend me some books ? 
 I am much at a loss for a g-ood book. I took to 
 Marlowe the other day, having heard much praise of 
 him. He's utterly absurd and intolerable. Yes, his 
 language is fine sometimes, but generally inflated beyond 
 all measure.'
 
 252 LONDON 1876 
 
 I quoted Ancient Pistol — 
 
 And hollow pamper'd jades of Asia, 
 Which cannot go but thirty miles a day ! 
 
 a quiz on Marlowe, and C. laughed. Faustus — scene 
 with the devils. * He's in terrible fear of the devils, 
 and yet he doesn't believe in any devils.' 
 
 W. A. — ' The Old Dramatists in general are very 
 disappointing.' 
 
 C. — ' Very, and Marlowe's the worst I have come 
 across — entirely illogical and unreasonable. In fact not 
 one but Shakespeare is worth anything. Well, Ben is 
 sensible and able — rather prosaic' 
 
 [C. said one day] — ' Ben Jonson had quite recog- 
 nisably an Annandale face. His Father was an 
 Annandale man, who spelt his name "Johnson." He 
 moved to Carlisle, where Ben was born.' 
 
 W. A. — ' Was his mother an Annandale woman ? ' 
 
 C. — ' I know not, but very likely she was. When 
 Johnson died, she married a bricklayer, who brought 
 up young Ben to his trade.' 
 
 Octoher 6. — Carlyle has been reading As You Like 
 It. He said that ' After Swift (whom he had been 
 looking into lately) it was like a sea-bath ; Shakespeare 
 was a man of many tMts^ most delicate and sweet.' 
 Carlyle always pronounced thoughts thus. It is touch- 
 ing to find him, in his old age, turning so warmly 
 to Shakespeare the Poet, and in his most poetical 
 utterances.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 1877 
 
 January 12. — With Carlyle — Christianity — age fifteen, 
 spoke to his mother — her horror. ' Did God Almighty 
 come down and make wheelbarrows in a shop ? ' She 
 lay awake at night for hours praying and weeping 
 bitterly. 
 
 ' This went on about ten years. Goethe drove me 
 out of it, taught me that the true things in Christianity 
 survived and were eternally true ; pointed out to me 
 the real nature of life and things — not that he did this 
 directly ; but incidentally, and let me see it rather than 
 told me. This gave me peace and great satisfaction.' 
 
 In omnibus — ' I have a notion of a carriage for 
 myself.' I approved — * but, oh dear ! I care little. I 
 see nothing but the shadows of coming events and 
 images of the past. They come back — very strange — 
 most vividly, early things In my life. 
 
 ' I am much disappointed In my reading In the Greek 
 dramatists — now reading Aristophanes, a blackguard 
 fellow. Disappointed with the Tragic Dramatists, too. 
 ^schylus's Prometheus very striking. One thing struck 
 me, the awful sense those Athenians, too, had of this 
 Human Life of ours.' 
 
 W. A.—' Alfierl— like Byron .? ' 
 
 C. — ' Yes, something, more sense. Racine much 
 the highest of the French Dramatists.' 
 
 He then spoke of ' that woman too — what call 
 
 253
 
 254 LONDON 1877 
 
 you her ? Prunty ? Bronte ? they are writing in such 
 a solemn tone about, God bless me ! I remember 
 reading her first novel and saying " this is a woman, and 
 very nearly mad." 'Tis in that she gives us a wooden 
 figure in the shape of a man, that gesticulates and 
 curses by machinery.' 
 
 * Rochester ^ ' 
 
 ' Ay, that's it ; not an atom of flesh and blood in it.' 
 
 I told him Swinburne's verdict, * the one supreme 
 masculine figure,' or something like that ; which amused 
 him a little. I added that there was a good deal of 
 real experience infused into Jane Eyre — and then let it 
 drop. We parted at the hall door, he saying, ' I'm 
 glad you are near me again. Come again soon.' 
 
 Some consider Carlyle's Scottish dogmatic breeding 
 to have been fortunate for him, but I cannot think so, 
 even though he believed this himself. It was burned 
 and branded into his youthful conscience and imagina- 
 tion. It could not be made to fit in with ' facts ' — 
 hence, what sufferings ! what rages ! He was con- 
 temptuous to those who held to Christian dogmas ; he 
 was angry with those who gave them up ; he was furious 
 with those who attacked him. If equanimity be the 
 mark of a Philosopher, he was, of all great-minded men, 
 
 I' the least of a Philosopher. 
 January 27. — To Carlyle about 10 in the evening — 
 very friendly and sympathetic about Fraser — says he 
 cannot at all understand Fr.'s conduct. * It may prove 
 to be a good thing for you, after all. I often thought 
 with dissatisfaction that you were giving up your time 
 to this Magazine. You must write something valuable, 
 as you are capable of doing.' He then praised Seven 
 Hundred Tears Ago. * I have read nothing so good 
 since in any Magazine.' ^ 
 
 1 After Mr. Froude's return from his official Colonial tour, the renewal 
 of his editorship of Eraser's Magazine was suggested, but the plan fell 
 through, and AUingham was asked to continue the management : this he 
 did until the publication of the Magazine ceased altogether, a few months 
 later.
 
 1877 LONDON 255 
 
 He came down to the street door and shook hands 
 with me again on the door-step. 
 
 Saturday^ March 3. — To C. about 2.30. Mary 
 and Madame Venturi in parlour. Portrait of De 
 Quincy — 'untruthful man; story of girl in Opium 
 Eater all untrue.' 
 
 At the top of Oakley Street we pause a moment at 
 the crossing to let a hansom-cab go by, but the Driver 
 on his part politely pulls up to give us time, saying, ' All 
 right, Mr. Carlyle ! ' C. and I get inside an omnibus. 
 Passing the Chinese Embassy we saw a servant in yellow 
 silk, and C. was reminded of the Learned Man in The 
 Two Fair Cousins, a Chinese novel which he always had 
 pleasure in recalling. He began telling the story, and 
 spoke as usual of the Author ' as a Man of Genius of the 
 dragon pattern.' He asked, ' Do you know the root of 
 the word ten } I made a guess at it when I was wash- 
 ing my feet the other morning. Zehen is " toes " in 
 German, and Zehn " ten " = " toe-en," as it were. I 
 took up the Arabic numerals one day, and made out 
 the meaning of the signs,' 
 
 I told him of my guess of the forms of many letters 
 of the alphabet coming from the shapes of the mouth 
 in saying them ; which was new to him and not without 
 interest. 
 
 April II. — C. very sympathetic about H.'s serious 
 illness.^ Millais is to paint him. 
 
 April 13. — Carlyle and Mary call : sorry about H. 
 
 Wednesday, May 16. — C. and I in Brompton and 
 Islington omnibus ; rain begins, and turns to a heavy 
 pour : so not alighting at Oxford Circus we go on and 
 on, to the Angel at last, and the omnibus stables, 
 whence, after a wait in the yard, we return S.W. with 
 fresh horses. C. shows me the street, next St. James's, 
 Pentonville, where he had his first London lodging. 
 Edward Irving lived in Myddelton Square. 
 
 * After the birth of her daughter, Eva Margaret, on February 21st of 
 this year, Mrs. Allingham was ill for several months.
 
 256 LONDON 1877 
 
 Turkey — ' Dizzy wants a war, to show himself like 
 a second Chatham. He's a very bad man.' 
 
 Thursday, May 24. — Modern Atheism — CHfford, etc. 
 C. said, * I know nothing whatever of God except what 
 I find within myself — a feeling of the eternal difference 
 between right and wrong.' 
 
 June 24. — Carlyle is going through Gibbon's Decline 
 and Fall (not read since his youth). ' I find it entirely 
 below my expectations, the style is laboriously anti- 
 thetical — and he doesn't lay out his history well ; there 
 are many chapters where a mere tabular statement 
 ought to have sufficed. I should have liked him also 
 to hang out more frequent general elucidations in the 
 way of dates. On the whole, it is very disappointing.' 
 
 I reminded C. that Gibbon was one of the -writers 
 whom he strongly recommended to me, many years ago, 
 saying, ' Gibbon is always worth meeting.' He replied, 
 ' Oh, one must read Gibbon to get any insight into this 
 wild history of mankind.' 
 
 The New Republic rather amused him, but he ' could 
 not believe the writer meant a single word he said.' 
 
 October. — To C.'s about 3.30. Mrs. Lecky there. To 
 Queen Anne St. and call on Erasmus Darwin. Talk of 
 Mr. Martin's Biography. Carlyle wrote to Athenaeum : 
 ' Mr. Frederick Martin has no authority to concern 
 himself with my life — of which he knows nothing.' 
 He remarked that many old things came back clearly 
 which he had not thought of for a great many years. 
 
 I asked how far back his memory went. He told 
 of something that happened when he was less than two 
 years old. ' An uncle of mine sent me the gift of a 
 small wooden can — they called it a noggie — to eat my 
 porridge from. The can had two bottoms and some 
 small pebbles between that rattled, — but this was a pro- 
 found secret to me at the time, the source of the rattling. 
 One day finding myself alone in the kitchen with my 
 noggie, I conceived the scheme of making some porridge 
 for myself, and for the first stage I poured water into
 
 1877 LONDON 257 
 
 my noggie and set this on the kitchen fire to boil. 
 After a little, however, it all suddenly blazed up, and 
 out I rushed shrieking with terror — I was under two, I 
 don't know how much. It must have been some 
 months later, probably in 1798, that we moved from 
 one house to another. A pathway and short-cut led 
 between the two, across a field known to the satirical 
 villagers as Pepper Field, because the owner was said 
 to have made his fortune in the West Indies. I was 
 allowed to suppose myself helping in the flitting, and I 
 recollect very well carrying the stoup or nozzle of a 
 watering pot across Pepper Field and blowing through 
 it like a horn, feeling at the same time a great exulta- 
 tion — some kind of false joy, I suppose, for I don't 
 think I was very happy at the time.' 
 
 Going out we found it was a quarter to six. ' Bless 
 me ! ' said C, ' what an old fool I have been to sit there 
 talking useless stuff when I ought to be at home,' and 
 we hurried to the omnibus as fast as age allowed. He 
 usually takes half an hour's sleep before dinner, and is 
 very methodical in all his ways. 
 
 C. to-day praised highly ' Modern Prophets ' in 
 Eraser^ said it would be a satisfaction to many minds. 
 ' You have left these Prophets " sitting on their seats of 
 honour," but you have been more good-natured to 
 them than I could have been — though there is plenty 
 of satirical pungency too.' 
 
 He asks leave to send the article to his brother, and 
 I tell him he is welcome to the copy. 
 
 Saturday, October 27. — To C. about 4. C. and I 
 to King's Road. Chelsea omnibus to Charing Cross. 
 We walk down the Embankment as far as Somerset 
 House, ' one of the most dignified buildings in London.' 
 
 Browning's Agamemnon. ' Oh yes, he called down 
 some months ago to ask if he might dedicate it to me. 
 I told him I should feel highly honoured. But — O 
 bless me ! Can you understand it, at all} I went carefully 
 into some parts of it and for my soul's salvation 
 
 s
 
 258 LONDON 1877 
 
 (laughs) couldn't make out the meaning. If any one 
 tells me this is because the thing is so remote from us — 
 I say things far remoter from our minds and experiences 
 have been well translated into English. The book of 
 Job, for instance. It's bad Hebrew, I understand, the 
 original of it, and a very strange thing to us. But the 
 translator said to himself, " the first thing I have to do 
 is to make this as intelligible as possible to the English 
 reader ; if I do not this I shall be — h'm — I shall be — 
 in fact damnedy But he succeeded most admirably, 
 and there are very few books so well worth reading as 
 our Book of Job. 
 
 ' Yes, Browning says I ordered him to do this transla- 
 tion — he winds up his preface (highly to his own 
 satisfaction, in a neat epigrammatic manner) by saying 
 so, — summing it all up in a last word ; and I did often 
 enough tell him he might do a most excellent book, 
 by far the best he had ever done, by translating the 
 Greek Dramatists — but O dear ! he's a very foolish 
 fellow. He picks you out the English for the Greek 
 word by word, and now and again sticks two or three 
 words together with hyphens ; then again he snips up 
 the sense and jingles it into rhyme ! I could have 
 told him he could do no good whatever under such 
 conditions.' 
 
 C. spoke of Swinburne — ' there is not the least 
 intellectual value in anything he writes.' 
 
 We spoke of the convicts Baxter and Swindlehurst, 
 and agreed that many business people of high repute 
 (even including some publishers) deserved no better a 
 fate. 
 
 November. — Carlyle, Lecky and I take omnibus to 
 Oxford Street, then walk up Portland Place. 
 
 The Brougham — ' Oh, I shall give that up — I find 
 instead of it being mine, I should be its. I cannot go 
 whither I would — the man cannot find out the places. 
 Mary, I believe, has some other plot : I must keep my 
 eye on her ! '
 
 ,877 LONDON 259 
 
 Sunday, November 25. — Ask Tollman at new bridge, 
 
 * Seen Mr. Carlyle ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, gone round other bridge, with two gentlemen.' 
 I over and meet them in Battersea Park. Carlyle, Sir 
 James Stephen, and a quick-eyed, good-looking, semi- 
 American old young man who talks very fluently and 
 well on China and Japan. * The Japanese are trying 
 the languages and systems of England, France, 
 Germany, Holland.' Describes the suicide, by order 
 of the Tycoon, of a noble who fired on some foreigners : 
 temple, by night — dirk or knife wrapt in silver paper 
 on small table of white wood. Speech — bows — throws 
 off upper garment — cuts his belly across — head cut off 
 by friend. 
 
 It is Mr. Mitford {Tales of Old Japan), now in the 
 Woods and Forests Department. 
 
 November 29. — ^Carlyle is very weary and depressed 
 — 'unwilling to live longer — but must be patient. 
 Mary is planning a horse and carriage. Omnibus has 
 advantages and is decidedly economical — but a carriage 
 might help me. But nothing can give me any 
 satisfaction at this date I have arrived at,' he adds. 
 
 * But I am better off than many a one. I am free of 
 an irritability of nerves that tortured me a year ago. 
 Things hurt me and rankled in me, I know not at all 
 why. The recollection, for instance, of some man I 
 knew forty years ago perhaps — often some one I had 
 but the slightest acquaintance with, or only knew by 
 eye — would suddenly, without any reason at all, come 
 into my mind, and prick into me in the most painful 
 manner. That is all over now.' 
 
 December. — H. and I dined at Surgeon Clover's ; 
 Mr. and Mrs. Stebbing, Mr, and Mrs. Townsend 
 (^Spectator). Clover was at Chislehurst during last 
 illness of the ' Emperor.' ' Empress very easy and 
 pleasant, and seemed so well pleased with anything I 
 ^aid that I never felt more at ease in my life. 
 
 ' Emperor said, " Now, you'll do what you think fit
 
 26o LONDON 1877 
 
 (about the chloroform), I know nothing about it." 
 Once, after waking up from sleep, he sighed and said, 
 " I thought I was at Sedan." 
 
 ' He forgot much of his English, not an unusual 
 thing in illness. His brain was very large : it was 
 weighed after his death and found to approach Cuvier's 
 in weight.' I told Clover what I heard Owen say of 
 him : Prince Louis Napoleon visited the Museum of 
 the College of Surgeons while Owen was Curator, 
 Owen observed him narrowly — ' And I came to the 
 conclusion, from his whole appearance, and especially 
 his i^ony conformation^ that he was certainly not of the 
 Napoleon family,' 
 
 December 5. — C.'s about 3.20 — dressing. Enter 
 Mary : ' Flowers for Birthday yesterday, and letters, 
 
 ' Mme. Venturi came at \ past 1 1 at night — couldn't 
 let her up ; we actually quarrelled, for the first time.' 
 
 Carlyle and I in the Chelsea omnibus to Charing 
 Cross : ' This is the second day of my eighty-third 
 year — no doubt of that ! Browning came down yester- 
 day, he has a great deal to say about many things. I 
 must go and see him, I told him frankly about the 
 Agamemnon^ after praising his fidelity, that I could make 
 nothing of his translation — could not understand it — 
 , had to turn to the Jesuit's book, R. B. admitted that 
 all said it was of no use.' 
 
 (I spoke of Athenaeum and Academy^ which praised 
 
 C. — ' I still exhorted him to give us, as the best 
 
 \ possible thing, a Greek Theatre, done like that from 
 
 Euripides in Balaustion. He said the Agamemnon text 
 
 .; is exceedingly corrupt (only one MS. known in the 
 
 f world), much mauled by commentators.' 
 
 We walk to Bedford Street — Civil Service Stores. 
 Can't at first find the clothing department. Carlyle has 
 a coat tried on (after careful inquiries as to whether 
 this is the coat ordered at such a time — and ' is this the 
 man that took my measure.'' etc, etc.'). Walk back
 
 i877 LONDON 261 
 
 to Charing Cross. He speaks oi" Johnson's house in 
 Gough Square, praises once more the English Dictionary. 
 Asks me what number of Fraser ' Modern Prophets ' 
 is in ? a blind old gentleman in Scotland wishes to 
 have it read to him. 
 
 C. asks me about MacMahon, and says, ' In a 
 century or less all Europe will be republican — demo- 
 cratic ; nothing can stop that. And they are finding 
 out their old religions, too, to be mere putrid heaps of 
 lies.' 
 
 Friday^ December 21. — To Carlyle's. Louis 
 Napoleon — ' Met him at dinner — he made up to me 
 rather, understanding me to be a writer, who might 
 perhaps be of help to him somehow. His talk was a 
 puddle of revolutionary nonsense. He was internally 
 a mass of darkness. I used to meet him often in the 
 street, mostly about Sloane Square, driving a cab, with 
 a little tiger behind ; his face had a melancholy look 
 that was rather affecting at first, but I soon recognised 
 that it was the sadness of an Opera Singer who cannot 
 get an engagement. When I heard of him afterwards 
 as Emperor, I said to myself, " Gad, sir, you've got an 
 opera engagement such as no one could possibly have 
 expected ! " ' 
 
 [One day the following talk took place.] 
 
 Carlyle, Lecky and I. 
 
 C. praised Sir Robert Peel, ' the only tolerably good 
 minister I have known.' Catholic Emancipation : 
 ' Peel resisted that a long time,' L. said. 
 
 C. — ' He could not venture sooner. You have no 
 notion what a feeling there was against it. In our 
 country, at least in the southern part, I knew of only 
 one other person besides myself who was in favour of it.' 
 
 L. — ' Lord Melbourne said, " All the wise men in 
 the kingdom were of one opinion on this, and all the 
 
 d d fools of the other ; and it turned out that all 
 
 the d d fools were right ! " ' 
 
 C. — ' Ouite true.'
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 1878-1879 
 
 Thursday^ January 10. — Fine but cold. To C. about 
 2.30, and drive with him in brougham, Lecky with us, 
 by Clapham, etc. He insists that Wandsworth is 
 ' Wodensworth ' ; I bring up the River Wandle, and 
 he makes out Wandle to be ' Woden's Dale.' He 
 then speaks of Ireland and Cromwell, we (especially L.) 
 silently dissenting. We drive in Richmond Park, see 
 deer ; get out and walk a little. Pass near Owen's 
 cottage and see a man like O., but who turns out not 
 to be any such man. 
 
 C. speaks with his usual contempt of Parliament, 
 but allows that it gives a safety-valve. 
 
 ; January 23. — Carlyle and I drive in brougham to 
 Richmond Park : ' People set about writing History in 
 an entirely wrong manner. They ought to try and see 
 
 I the people and events, and set them forth in due order 
 
 ^ and all possible clearness.' 
 
 On health C. said, ' I have had stomachic disturbance 
 ever since I was twenty ; otherwise quite healthy. It is 
 very curious, the head is still the same, only the 
 interest in things is nearly gone. I long ago felt that 
 the greatest comfort was to be able to say, " This will 
 not last for ever." Death is welcome whenever it comes. 
 One thing is firmly held to — God, who arranges and 
 decides all : this I am thankful to say I keep. And 
 whoever uses honestly the light placed in his own mind, 
 
 262 
 
 I
 
 i878 LONDON 263 
 
 acts as the voice of God telJs him, will find satisfaction 
 therein, and not otherwise.' 
 
 Saturday^ February 20. — To C. We drive to Queen 
 Anne St. and visit Erasmus Darwin in his warm 
 house (which he does not leave at this season). Talk 
 of Lecky's book ; of Turkey, etc. C. says, ' Dizzy was 
 on the point, months ago, of sending a fleet to Con- 
 stantinople. I wrote a letter in the newspaper — it was 
 no merit in me ; the information was given me from 
 unquestionable authority, and his scheme was blown up as 
 by a torpedo ! He thought of bringing me before the 
 House of Commons to be questioned as to my authority ; 
 but I was very easy about this, as I understood from a 
 competent adviser that I had nothing to do but say, " I 
 will not tell you." ' 
 
 Saturday^ March 2. — Carlyle, Dr. Carlyle and I to 
 King's Road and have our hair cut. I keep a lock of 
 C.'s, which has still some brown in it. He says, ' Curious 1 
 — that head (the Doctor's) is five or six years younger 
 than mine, the hair much whiter — softer too.' 
 
 We go in omnibus to Charing Cross. 
 
 C. — ' Dizzy will not be allowed by the country to go 
 to war. People show the most complete ignorance of 
 Russia — talk like so many raging jackasses.' 
 
 We spoke of Lionel Tennyson's wedding ; going to 
 Spain for the honeyrhoon. 
 
 Monday^ March 1 1. — To Cheyne Row 2.30. Drive 
 to Dover St. C. speaks with admiration of Ruskin. 
 ' A celestial brightness in him. His description of the 
 wings of birds the most beautiful thing of the kind that 
 can possibly be. His morality, too, is the highest and 
 purest. And with all this a wonderful folly at times ! 
 The St. George's Company is utterly absurd. I thought 
 it a joke at first.' 
 
 March 29. — To C. at 2.30 ; with him and Mrs. 
 Lecky in brougham to Browning's, 19 Warwick 
 Crescent. B. (in rough gray dress) received C. with 
 great emphasis.
 
 264 LONDON 1878 
 
 ' How good and dear of you to come ! dear Mr. 
 Carlyle ! How dear ! ' and took him upstairs on his 
 [ arm. 
 
 ^ Pen's large picture in drawing-room, ' The Worker 
 
 in Brass, Antwerp,' intended for Royal Academy. 
 Old man with hammer and punch finishing a metal dish 
 with rim of dolphins — medallion of Rubens on the floor 
 — pipe on stool — watch hanging on wall. 
 
 C, placed in an arm-chair, looked at the picture 
 without speaking ; B. went on describing it, from time 
 to time. At last C. said, looking at B., ' Antwerpen — 
 on the wharf — that is the meaning of the name. It 
 used to be said there was hand in it, but that is not so. 
 On the wharf \s the meaning.' 
 
 C. asked questions about Pen ; asked me, is the 
 medallion like Rubens ? but said nothing of the Picture. 
 
 C. asked B. the name of his new poem, but B. 
 evaded. * I'll let it speak for itself.' We departed ; 
 B. giving his arm to C. downstairs and out to the 
 carriage. 
 
 C. spoke of Darwinism. ' I don't care three ha'pence 
 for the Darwinian Theory.' By and by he said, ' It 
 is impossible to believe otherwise than that this world 
 is the work of an Intelligent Mind, The Power which 
 has formed us — He (or It — if that appears to any one 
 more suitable) has known how to put into the human 
 soul an ineradicable love of justice and truth. The 
 best bit for me in Kant is that saying of his, " Two 
 things strike me dumb with astonishment — the Starry 
 Heavens and the Sense of Right and Wrong in the 
 Human Soul." 
 
 ' These physical gentlemen ought to be struck 
 dumb if they properly consider the nature of the 
 Universe.' 
 
 Mrs. Lecky suggested that investigation as well as 
 reverence was natural to man, and would not Mr. 
 Carlyle permit inquiry "? 'Oh yes,' he said (half jestingly), 
 ' man is full of curiosity — but I would order these 
 
 I
 
 1878 SHERE 265 
 
 people to say as little as possible. Friedrich Wilhelm's 
 plan would be the right one with them, " Hold your 
 tongue or else — " ' 
 
 Carlyle has taken again to reading Goethe. 
 
 Saturday, March 30. — Helen and I to an evening 
 party at Tennyson's at 14 Eaton Square. Arrive 9.30. 
 Mrs, Tennyson on sofa. Mrs. Thackeray Ritchie and 
 husband, Browning, Gladstone and Mrs. Gladstone, 
 Paget, Duke of Argyll and daughter, Messrs. Matthew 
 Arnold, Lewis Morris, E. Gurney, F. Pollock. 
 Joachim plays ; T. and myself at end of piano. 
 
 He asks, ' Have you any politics .'' ' Says, ' I can't 
 agree with you about Russia — you're a damned Irish- 
 man ! I've hated Russia ever since I was born, and 
 I'll hate her till I die ! ' 
 
 W. A. — ' What do you think of Dizzy .? ' 
 
 T. — ' I hate Dizzy, and I love Gladstone ; still, I 
 want Russia snubbed.' 
 
 Spedding joined the conversation, and was also 
 against Russia as Russia. (Carlyle always supports 
 Russia as Russia.) 
 
 F. Locker, Aide, Mrs. Huxley (asks us for Sunday 
 week), Huxley girls. 
 
 May 2. — We all go to Shere, H. and I, Sonny and 
 Sissy. Cottage delightful — woods — bluebells. 
 
 [The AUinghams stayed all the summer in Mr. 
 Bray's pretty old cottage — AUingham, as usual, busy 
 with his own work, besides Fraser ; his wife painting 
 ' every day most assiduously.' There were pleasant 
 m.eetings with friends, too — Mr. Vernon Lushington, 
 Mrs. and Miss Procter (Mrs. P. ' loved the country — 
 for a few days ' !), Mr. and Mrs. Richmond Ritchie, 
 Mrs. Coleman Angell and her husband. But there are 
 no notes of talks at this time. 
 
 Allingham ' visited old John Linnell at his house 
 near Red Hill — eighty-six in June — deaf — hand steady': 
 also went to see George Eliot, at the Heights, Witley.] 
 
 October 24. — Chelsea. Returned after six months
 
 n 
 
 266 LONDON 187S 
 
 in the country (Shere and Dover). Mary Aitken came 
 in the evening. Her uncle is v^ell. 
 
 October 26. — To Carlyle's to-day about three, and 
 find him looking well. Mr. Paul Friedmann. 
 
 C, F., and 1 drive to Regent's Park, where I get 
 out. We talk of Shere Ali ; of Dizzy ; ' England is 
 disgraced ; never before has she had such a man at 
 her head.' 
 
 Heligoland agitating to join Germany, Carlyle 
 asks, ' was there an old religious establishment there 1 ' 
 
 Friedmann explains, ' Not HeiRgo but i7(?//goland, 
 which in old German means a rocky and sandy island. 
 The people,' he added, ' were pirates and wreckers and 
 would fain be so still. They will probably repent of 
 joining Germany. England may some day give the 
 island to Germany as quid pro quo."* 
 
 Monday, October 28. — Go down to C.'s at 5 p.m. 
 on business (M.'s American Railway Shares). C. (re- 
 turned from his drive) comes into the drawing-room 
 in his dressing-gown and sits down on the floor by 
 the fireside, his back to the wall, his face guarded from 
 the heat by a small screen hanging from the chimney- 
 piece. Rose, a sturdy young serving-wench of rather 
 rough manners, puts on his cap (which is shown in some 
 of H.'s drawings), hands him his pipe, ready filled, 
 and a spill — then a second spill, to provide against 
 failure of the first. He lights his pipe and smokes. 
 
 ' Mrs. Oliphant's book gives no picture of Irving, 
 except in the letters to his wife — Irving was, on the 
 whole, the finest fellow I have ever come across ' (and 
 yet, one must again reflect, what a fiitility was his life !) 
 
 Wednesday, October 30. — 10 p.m. Carlyle and Mary 
 call at our house and come upstairs — talk about Albury, 
 ' Henry Drummond ; he invited me to Albury for a 
 certain Saturday. I went, but D. was not there. The 
 servant evidently took me to have felonious intentions ; 
 but discovered by degrees I was not for stealing anything.' 
 
 C. tastes Helen's cup of milk. I show him engraved
 
 i878 LONDON 267 
 
 portrait of old Mr. William Bray/ in his ninety-seventh 
 year, and tell him of my visit to old John Linnell 
 (himself approaching ninety now), the painter and 
 engraver of it, and how I saw a portrait of Carlyle in 
 the studio, done some fifty years ago. C. remembers 
 sitting for it. 
 
 ' Entire failure as a likeness : was done for a Mr. 
 Cunningham, who would not have anything to do with 
 it when finished.' 
 
 Carlyle, coming away one day from a friend's house 
 where they had had a good luncheon, patted his niece 
 on the shoulder saying, ' Well Mary, we've had a 
 pleasant visit — but we're both rather drunk ! ' Mary 
 declared she had only taken water. 
 
 Wednesday^ November 6. — H. went again to-day 
 about 12.30 to C.'s, and brought back two life-like 
 sketches in colour. He was mild and genial to-day, 
 and bade her come again. 
 
 C. said to me, ' Your wife is the only person who 
 has made a successful portrait of me, though many 
 have tried.' 
 
 November 14. — To Carlyle's at 2.30, and found 
 him stepping — slowly climbing — into the usual hired 
 carriage. He said, ' I feel I may die any time.' 
 
 I asked, ' Did you ever in early life think yourself 
 near death } ' 
 
 ' Never,' he answered ; and then went on to tell 
 me of his Uncle Tom, the youngest of the brothers 
 — of a fine Roman character ; ' I looked up to him 
 with the greatest admiration and respect. He was ill, 
 and my mother used to sit up with him at night. (He 
 seems to have lived either in the same house or an 
 adjoining one.) One night I took the watch upon me, 
 to relieve her — I was about nineteen years of age — 
 and in the middle of the night it became clear that my 
 uncle was dying. He fixed his eyes upon me with a 
 
 1 Given to Allingham by Mr. Bray of Shcre ; now in Mrs Allingham's 
 possession.
 
 268 LONDON 1878 
 
 wild stare — bright blue eyes — and tried to lift his head 
 from the pillow, but could not do it, and the eyes kept 
 wide open till life went out of them — ah dear ! — it was 
 about three in the morning. It was then I first began 
 to make reflections upon death. He had no disease — 
 a general break-up, mostly from hard work.' 
 
 ' Had you any kind of orthodox belief in your mind 
 at that time ? ' 
 
 ' No, I had given all that up some time before, but 
 I said nothing about it one way or another. I had 
 asked my mother one day how it was known that 
 Solomon's Song was symbolical, representing Christ and 
 the Church, and she showed such boundless horror at 
 my question that I resolved on silence thenceforth.' 
 
 C. spoke of the folly of Tyndall and others who 
 went on about the origin of things ; ' I long ago 
 perceived that no man could know anything about that ; 
 but that the Universe could come together by chance 
 was, and is, altogether incredible. The evidence to me 
 of God — and the only evidence — is the feeling I have 
 deep down in the very bottom of my heart of right and 
 truth and justice. I believe that all things are governed 
 by Eternal Goodness and Wisdom, and not otherwise ; 
 but we cannot see and never shall see how it is all 
 managed.' 
 
 December 3. — To Carlyle's. Found Browning in 
 the drawing-room, talking earnestly to him — 'and 
 here's AUingham '—talk. Lord Beaconsfield. Browning 
 — ' I met him at dinner last spring, and he was got up 
 to look as much like a young man as he could.' 
 
 I. — ' Had you any talk with him ? ' 
 
 B. — ' Oh yes ; he came up and said, " I daresay 
 you don't recollect me " ; I assured him I did. 
 
 ' Then he said, " Oh yes, I remember you did me the 
 honour to introduce yourself to me at the Academy 
 dinner." 
 
 ' I said, " I beg your pardon, it was you who did me 
 that honour." '
 
 1878 LONDON 269 
 
 Decejnber 4. — Carlyle's birthday. Helen and I 
 went down about 2.30., and met the carriage, which pulled 
 up and allowed us to shake hands. Mary, Mrs. Lecky 
 and Mr. Graham were with him. He does not like 
 more than just a greeting on his birthday. 
 
 December 5. — Carlyle, Mary and I in carriage — drove 
 along the Embankment and stopped to see Cleopatra's 
 Needle. C. put his head out of window and took one 
 look, then leaned back, 'Ah yes — old Egyptian hands 
 made that a long time ago.' 
 
 We drove to Tower Hill. 
 
 I asked him a question to-day I had often wished to 
 ask : ' Do your thoughts ever turn to another life .'* ' 
 He answered : ' Oh, every day and every hour.' Then 
 he went on to say, in slow semi-soliloquy, ' We know 
 nothing. All is, and must be, utterly incomprehensible. 
 Annihilation would be preferable to me to this state I 
 am in. But I hold with Goethe ' (and he repeated the 
 verses in his own translation) — 
 
 /The Future hides in it 
 Gladness and sorrow ; 
 We press still thorow. 
 Nought that abides in it 
 Daunting us, — onward. 
 
 And solemn before us, 
 Veiled, the dark Portal, 
 Goal of all mortal : — 
 Stars silent rest o'er us, 
 Graves under us silent ! 
 
 'That is very fine,' he said, giving these two lines 
 again — 
 
 Stars silent rest o'er us, 
 Graves under us silent ! 
 
 Then went on- 
 
 While earnest thou gazest, 
 Comes boding of terror, 
 Come phantasm and error. 
 Perplexes the bravest 
 With doubt and misgiving.
 
 270 LONDON 1878 
 
 But heard are the Voices, — 
 Heard are the Sages, 
 The Worlds and the Ages : 
 ' Choose well ; your choice is 
 Brief and yet endless. 
 
 Here eyes do regard you, 
 
 In Eternity's stillness ; 
 
 Here is all fulness, / 
 
 Ye brave, to reward you ; 
 
 Work, and despair not.' 
 
 The last seven lines he gave with special distinctness. 
 Meanwhile we were driving slowly, with frequent stops, 
 through the dingy crowded Minories and Leadenhall 
 Street. 
 
 By and by he said, ' A thought that bewilders me 
 sometimes is the prodigious number of human beings 
 who have come and gone.' 
 
 W. A. — ' Against this we can set the immeasurable 
 Space around us and its innumerable Worlds.' 
 
 C. — ' I care very little about the stars. I look 
 round upon my fellow-creatures.' 
 
 W. A. — ' But the multitude of mighty Globes is a 
 physical fact, as much as any other.' 
 
 C. — ' Yes ' (letting the subject drop). 
 
 Again he resumed. ' One thing Browning told me 
 the other day was a saying of Huxley's, " In the 
 beginning was hydrogen." Any man who spoke thus in 
 my presence I would request to be silent — " No more of 
 that stuff, sir, to me ! (angrily). If you persevere I 
 will take means, such as are in my power, to get quit of 
 you without delay." ' 
 
 To Carlyle's. Mr. Paul Friedmann. We three 
 drove out. Talk on Prussian affairs, and especially 
 Bismarck, whom F. thinks a despot. I was surprised 
 at C.'s not coming forward to defend the Chancellor, 
 but he seems to have got fresh lights on B.'s character 
 lately. He remarked, ' I hear he is a terrible fellow at 
 eating and drinking.' F. confirmed this, adding ' he 
 says himself he never gets drunk, but his friends do not
 
 1878 LONDON 271 
 
 say so.' The book of conversations with B.'s secretary, 
 just pubhshed, was mentioned. I asked, ' was it 
 authentic ^ ' ' Oh yes, it could not have been published 
 without B.'s full consent. His object is to keep himself 
 before the public' 
 
 We then spoke of Morganatic marriages, on which F. 
 gave copious and apparently accurate information. He 
 said the ceremony is in no way peculiar, (he never heard 
 of the left hand being used) nor the status of the wife : the 
 only difference being in the succession of the children. 
 
 C. and F. entirely agreed with me as to the absurdity 
 of writing histories of centuries, or of treating those 
 artificial sections as real. The practice is very modern. 
 Histories of reigns, of great wars, or of famous person- 
 ages, were the usual forms of writing. 
 
 C. often declared that the driver was going wrong — 
 at last thrust his head suddenly out of the window, and 
 roared ' Where in the Devil's Grandmother's name are 
 you going ? ' 
 
 Carlyle has allowed Helen to sketch him as he reads 
 in his drawing-room from 12 to 2.30, and she has had 
 six sittings up to December 9. Helen writes — 
 
 ' The first morning I went at Mary's invitation ; 
 after shaking hands with me C. left the room ; when he 
 returned I had arranged my things on the sofa, and M. 
 then called his attention to " our special artist." He 
 said " What ? " and added, when he understood, " I'll 
 have nothing to do with any sketching." 
 
 ' At last M. persuaded him to let me stay, and he 
 sat down before the fire to read a translation of a 
 Russian poem (lent by Madame de Novikoff^ ; he called 
 the poet a " blathering blellum." 
 
 ' He often expressed a weariness of life, and wished 
 to be out of it ; and one day taking leave said, " Well, 
 ma'am, I wish you all prosperity, and that you may not 
 live to be seventy-two " (meaning eighty-two). 
 
 * One day he said, " As far as I can make out, the 
 best portrait-painter who ever lived was one Cooper, in
 
 272 
 
 LONDON 
 
 1878 
 
 /\ 
 
 Cromwell's time. When painting Cromwell, Cromwell 
 told llim to put in the wart, and he did. I have spent 
 much time in studying Cromwell's physiognomy." ' 
 
 ' Every day he asked after " AUingham and the 
 bairns." ' 
 
 Sunday^ December 29, — Carlyle and I in omnibus. 
 Rain, so we did not alight at Charing Cross, and 
 I suggested our going into St. Paul's — to which, to 
 my surprise, he agreed. He h^"n6t been there for 
 many years. We ascended the west steps and went in 
 by right-hand door. C. immediately pulled off his 
 broad hat and we soon, arm-in-arm, turned into centre 
 aisle. The Cathedral was lighted up and a sermon 
 going on under the Dome. 
 
 C. said, ' Ah, this is a fine place ! ' 
 
 I found seats on the edge of the seated congregation, 
 where we had a good view up into the dim dome and 
 along the vista of the choir. We could hear the 
 preacher's voice but not the words. I tried to keep 
 him till the end and the organ music. 
 
 ' There is no doubt a very fine organ,' he said, ' and 
 the Amen comes like nothing else in the world.' But 
 by and by he became impatient : ' We can hear nothing — 
 let us go.' So we glided out of our places, and went 
 to look at the Wellington Monument, but he declared 
 he could make out nothing of it. 
 
 He was full of praises of Wren and his work — ' the 
 grandest Cathedral he had ever seen,' — and spoke of his 
 first day in London. 
 
 He arrived by water from Leith, and went up to 
 Islington to Edward Irving whose guest he was. In 
 the evening he found himself in view of St. Paul's, and 
 has never forgotten the sight of it rising above the 
 crowd of little houses. 
 
 We walked up and down St. Paul's Churchyard, and 
 looked up at the dome—' Ay, it's a bonny thing.' 
 
 ' Wren — a grand man — I lived for many years beside 
 this Hospital of his before I took much notice of it.
 
 ,878 LONDON 273 
 
 and then I began to perceive that it was a building of 
 most thorough adaptation for its purpose — well con- 
 trived, well built in every particular.' 
 
 I remarked and C. agreed it was odd there should 
 be no street in all London called after the great 
 Architect. 
 
 When we parted he said, ' You have brought me 
 along in a most beautiful manner to-day — many thanks.' 
 
 1879 
 
 In the cold weather of the early part of the year I 
 saw Carlyle seldom. But in the end of January and in 
 February I had three or four drives with him. 
 
 Our visit to St. Paul's pleased him so well that he 
 went there on the five or six Sunday afternoons follow- 
 ing with Mary, and was much impressed by the organ. 
 
 One Saturday we drove in Richmond Park, C, Mr. 
 Friedmann and L 
 
 F. spoke of Kant, and that the Germans were re- 
 turning to him, which I was very glad to hear, C. 
 said [as often before], ' Kant's notions of time and space 
 struck me very much : I have felt greatly oppressed in 
 thinking of the long duration of Time Past, and Kant 
 offered a relief in the suggestion that Time may be 
 something altogether different from what we imagine, 
 I have no kind of definite belief or expectation what- 
 ever as to the Future — only that all will be managed 
 with wisdom, the very flower of wisdom,' 
 
 Another day, he and I drove through Clerkenwell 
 by a half-finished new street, and turned up to King's 
 Cross : I reminded him of Swedenborg as we passed 
 the corner of the jail, on which by the by is inscribed 
 ' Mount Pleasant.' 
 
 He said, ' Ah yes, Swedenborg was fond of London. 
 I never got much good of him. Emerson says he 
 came nearer the secret of the world than almost any- 
 body, but I never could see that he came near any 
 
 T
 
 274 LONDON 1879 
 
 secret at all. Still, I have a respect for him : I read 
 his books with considerable interest.' 
 
 A long time ago, speaking to me of Swedenborg, 
 C. said, ' he upset his platter ' : this is probably a pro- 
 verbial expression. 
 
 February 22. — Drove with Carlyle. — Darwin and 
 Haeckel. C. : ' For Darwin personally I have great 
 respect ; but ail that of " Origin of Species," etc., is of 
 little interest to me. What we desire to know is, who 
 is the Maker ? and what is to come to us when we have 
 shuffled off this mortal coil. Whoever looks into him- 
 self must be aware that at the centre of things is a 
 mysterious Demiurgus — who is God, and who cannot 
 in the least be adequately spoken of in any human words.' 
 
 March. — I asked C. if he was going to St. Paul's 
 to-morrow. — ' I think not, after what I got at West- 
 minster Abbey last Sunday ! ' ,.^— .^- --™».«^- 
 
 W. A. — ' How did you like the preacher } * 
 C. — ' Like him (glaring). I felt a very strong 
 appetite to lay my stick about his head ! I did not 
 say this aloud, but I thought it emphatically.' 
 
 * What was the sermon about .'' ' 
 
 * Oh, something about adversity and affliction, and 
 what fine things they are. I should say he would be 
 highly unwilling to undergo the slightest affliction he 
 could escape.' Then, raising his voice, * Oh, it's per- 
 fectly horrible — what was once a religious worship ! 
 He would have been greatly surprised if he could have 
 looked into me and have seen the strokes that were 
 prepared for him, and the kicks on his seat of honour.' 
 
 We then spoke of Dean Stanley, and C. repeated 
 his old saying about him that * he skated on the 
 thinnest ice of any theologian he had ever heard of.' 
 He added, ' but you can see when you look at his 
 face that he has no misgivings about the part he is 
 playing : he holds there are fine things underlying all 
 this.' 
 
 Drove with Carlyle. C. and I spoke of Hamlet.
 
 ,879 LONDON 275 
 
 C. said he was much struck on reading Hamlet again. 
 He made light of the difficulty about ^ no traveller 
 returns.' — * Oh, Shakespeare found it wonld not do to 
 bring in the ghost when he was discussing these grave 
 matters : Hamlet did not really believe in the ghost.' 
 I told him of the curious point as to the description 
 of the plot of the strolling actors' play beforehand by 
 one of the players : that it had been discovered that 
 this was customary in Denmark in old times, though 
 no instance of it is known in England. 
 
 About this time Carlyle's health suddenly worsened : 
 beginning it was thought from a chill, and the action of 
 his heart. He became alarmingly weak. He ceased 
 for a time to drive out : was very languid and slept 
 much : he sometimes looked very sunken and low. 
 
 One day I went down and creeping into the 
 drawing-room found him asleep on the sofa : — creeping 
 back again I met Ruskin coming up the stairs, by 
 appointment. Mary said it was time to awaken him 
 and did so. They greeted each other affectionately, 
 and Ruskin knelt on the floor, leaning over Carlyle as 
 they talked. Carlyle began to speak of Irish saints, 
 and referred to me for some account of Saint Bridget 
 and her shrine at Kildare, to which I added that Bride- 
 Well, that is St. Bride's well, had come to mean a prison. 
 
 This seemed to interest Ruskin particularly, and he I 
 remarked, ' We make prisons of the holiest and most 
 beautiful things ! ' 
 
 He then took leave, very affectionately kissing 
 Carlyle's hands ; and he and I walked together to my j 
 house where he greeted Helen with much empresse- i 
 ment^ and sat for about half an hour looking at her 
 drawings. He examined them through a pocket-micro- 
 scope : ' I am glad to see you paint sunshine : I am 
 always wanting Walter [Severn] to do so : he can paint 
 rainbows, but he prefers to paint gray days.' A lady 
 present remarked, ' There are so many gray days.' 
 
 Ruskin. — ' The Devil sends them.'
 
 276 LONDON 1879 
 
 The lady thought they had a charm ; but Ruskin 
 insisted that they always came from diabolical influence. 
 Sunday, May 4. — To Cheyne Row about 2.15. C. 
 complained, in her presence, of Mary's having ordered 
 the carriage to come to-day : he wanted to go in the 
 omnibus. I proposed to take him ; and, the carriage 
 not appearing in time, we walked slowly to Oakley 
 Street and got into his favourite vehicle — his first trip 
 of the kind these many weeks. The conductor showed 
 special attention, and C. got his favourite seat, namely, 
 next the door on the left-hand side — that on which the 
 conductor's perch is. At Temple Bar we got out, and 
 he consented to come into the Middle Temple, where 
 he said he had never been before in his life. We 
 entered, after a shght demur of the janitor (it being 
 Sunday), by the gate and lane leading to the porch of 
 the Temple Church. ' Close by,' I said, ' is Goldsmith's 
 grave.' 'Where is it .'' ' said C, and crept slowly on 
 my arm till we stood beside the simple but sufficient 
 monument, a stone about coffin length, and eighteen 
 inches high, I read aloud the inscriptions ; C. took 
 ; off his broad-flapped black hat saying, ' A salute.' I 
 1: followed his example, and thus we stood for a few 
 seconds. When our hats were on and we were turning 
 away, C. laughed and said, ' Strange times, Mr. Rigma- 
 role ! ' Then, * Poor Oliver ! — he said on his deathbed, 
 " I am not at ease in my mind." ' 
 
 We now heard the organ rolling in the Church, and 
 C. said, ' Can't we go in and sit down there ^. ' We 
 went to the porch, the great door yielded and showed 
 us, better than I hoped, plenty of seats just inside. 
 I We sat down in the middle of the round part. I 
 ' showed C. the recumbent figures of Templars, and he 
 said, with rather alarming audibility, ' Aye, they were 
 so poor that two of them rode on one horse, and they 
 were the richest and powerfullest of orders in their 
 day.' Then the organ and chanting began and filled 
 us both with responsive waves of feeling.
 
 i879 LONDON 277 
 
 Carlyle said one day, ' Black's Oliver Goldsmith is 
 v/orth nothing at all, he gives no credible Goldsmith.' 
 
 Friedmann. — ' The Vicar of Wakefield is given to 
 young Germans for their first book in English.' 
 
 C. — ' I read the Vicar again lately, and was dis- 
 appointed.' 
 
 W. A. thought the latter part of it much below 
 the beginning. 
 
 Monday^ June 10. — Helen, I and Sonny call at 
 Carlyle's about 2. Sonny (aged 3 J) says, 'How do 
 you do, Mr. Carlyle } ' C. shakes hands with him, and 
 puts a hand on the curly head, saying ' O, this is a very 
 good kind of article.' 
 
 [One day Mr. Lecky and AUingham drove out with 
 Carlyle.] 
 
 Carlyle discoursed on Cromwell and Ireland : L. and 
 I disagreeing with almost everything he said, but chiefly 
 in silence. What use in speaking ? on Irish affairs he 
 finds nobody but Froude to agree with him. The Duke 
 of Wellington — ' Lord Stanhope (L. told us) asked the 
 Duke one day in company. Why in a certain Peninsular 
 battle the French did not move in such and such a way } ' 
 — obviously, he implied, the proper thing to have done. 
 (Any one who has seen Lord Stanhope can easily picture 
 the self-satisfied manner in which the noble historian 
 would put this question.) The old Duke replied gruffly, 
 ' Because they were not damned fools ! ' 
 
 September 2. — Left home about 9 — Lancaster — 
 Carnforth — to the westward wide hills and vales and 
 misty mountain-land, ante-room and portals to the Lake 
 region. 
 
 Kendal, scatter of houses along the hill-side ; and 
 Lake-land, lying under clouds and mists. 
 
 Ullswater in the twilight, water gray and wintry, 
 woods and mountains beautiful, old trees hanging into 
 lake. 
 
 September 3. — To Patterdale — xA.ira Force — Penrith. 
 — Dumfries, Hotel. Read in Burns's Life.
 
 278 DUMFRIES 1879 
 
 September 4. — Dumfries, Seek Burns Street, not 
 easy to find — formerly ' Mill Hole.' New School 
 House with bust of R. B. ; and next door Burns's little 
 house, unaltered. Into the house. Portrait of R. B. 
 in lower room. Upstairs, — little room where he died 
 (certain .''), little closet where 'tis said he used to write. 
 Walk over Old Bridge, lane, thatched cottages — corn- 
 fields, hills, Criffel, wide cheerful prospect. 
 
 Cassilands — ' Mr. Carlyle gone — to the Hill,' I walk 
 down to town — speak to decent elderly man. 'Mr. 
 Carlyle ? — yes — he's been stopping here at Cassilands. 
 I never heard much about him till last year — I under- 
 stan' he's vera clever. No Sir, I never read any o' his 
 warks. What may he hae written ? ' (I told him.) 
 
 To the Hill, pretty red-stone house, in shrubbery, 
 with peep of the hills to eastward. 
 
 Portraits of Carlyle, Mary — Enter Mrs. Aitken. 
 The Doctor very ill, poor fellow : they don't know 
 what it is. A doctor has been here, ' but you know he 
 (i.e. Dr. Carlyle) has no belief in medical skill.' T. C. 
 with Mary and Alick, at Moffat.^ 
 
 Out. River, sweeping round, houses, low wall — 
 beautiful. Up Nith pathway, trees, fields, swift river 
 (reminds me of Erne). 
 
 ' Globe Tavern ' — small snug rooms, Burns's corner 
 and chair (boarded in), narrow forked entrance — rough 
 stable-yard — upstairs, writing on panes. 
 
 Gin a body meet a body 
 
 Comin' through the grain. 
 Gin a body kiss a body 
 
 The thing's a body's ain. 
 
 (There was, and perhaps is, a way through the 
 stable-yard and back lanes from the ' Globe ' to Burns's 
 house in Mill Hole.) 
 
 I also saw where he lived in Bank Street (i.e. river- 
 
 * Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Carlyle, newly married, had just been joined 
 by Mr. Carlyle at MofFat.
 
 i879 MOFFAT 279 
 
 bank ?) a few doors from the corner of the wide space 
 by the River (which reminded me of Ballyshannon). 
 
 September 5. — To Beattock — Moffat. Buccleuch 
 Arms — enter Mary, friendly greetings — then Alex- 
 ander. We go up into Carlyle's room — he shakes 
 hands in friendly wise. 
 
 After luncheon we four drive to the De'il's Beef-Tub. 
 
 Mary recalled Carlyle's first journey to Edinburgh, 
 on foot, at the age of fourteen. 
 
 C. — ' Ah yes — about seventy years ago, I came 
 through here, in the charge of a very decent man who 
 was driving two carts of potatoes up to Edinburgh. 
 When I got tired, he let me lie on the potatoes and 
 happed me in some sort of covering he had.' 
 
 On this youthful journey Carlyle peeped at the 
 source of the Annan in the De'il's Beef-Tub — a hollow 
 under Hartfell with steep sloping green sides, here and 
 there a streak of loose stones, and some little threads of 
 water slipping down. 
 
 Over the hill, not far, is the source of Tweed, which 
 I would fain have seen (there is a strong attraction in 
 river sources), but rain threatened. We saw a long 
 way down Annandale : Annan is doubtless the same as 
 Avon, Evan, etc. etc. — various forms of one of the 
 Gaelic words for water. 
 
 To-night we took up Burns, and Carlyle urged me 
 to read something — ' Let me see how you'll read it.' 
 I began ' The muckle deevil wi' a woodie Harle.' 
 
 He stopt me at every line, catechising. He then 
 read and repeated several pieces, showing great tenacity 
 and readiness of memory. He uttered a verse of ' Auld 
 Lang Syne ' in a kind of chant, evidently intended to 
 suggest that he was singing it, or could sing it if he 
 liked. One word of his version was different from 
 the words in the usual copies, and perhaps better : 
 instead of 
 
 An' here's a hand, my trusty fiere, 
 An' gie's a hand o' thine —
 
 28o 
 
 ECCLEFECHAN 
 
 1879 
 
 ^ 
 
 C. said, 
 
 — gic's a haud (a hold) o' thine. 
 
 September 6. — Moffat. Fine. In open carriage, C, 
 M., A., and I for Ecclefechan ; tKey going on to 
 Newlands to meet James Carlyle and others. 
 
 At Lockerbie we stopt half an hour to bait the 
 horses. I walked through the village and returning to 
 the carriage found him seated there (horses gone) with 
 his thick gray hair uncovered. Barefooted children ran 
 about, people stood at shop-doors, no one appeared to 
 F recognise him. As we approached Ecclefechan he talked 
 a little of the localities, pointed out the wooded hill 
 called Woodcockair, and Repentance Tower — also the 
 conspicuous flat - topt hill known as ' Burnswark ' 
 [Birrenswark], from which one can ' look down into 
 Yorkshire,' and on which stood a Roman city. We 
 ' skirted Ecclefechan, and they drove on after dropping 
 me. A (tw steps brought me into the village street 
 and before the humble house, or half-house, in which 
 Thomas Carlyle was born. The small stone building 
 has a gateway through the middle of it. On each side 
 of this gateway is a tenement — of three rooms. In 
 the right-hand tenement, in the [larger] room upstairs, 
 the son of James and Margaret Carlyle was born on 
 the '4th December 1795. The ascent to the upper 
 rooms is by a steep flight of stone steps direct from 
 the front door to a very small landing, from which the 
 little room (birth-room) opens. Behind the tenement 
 are two or three other rooms. 
 
 A brook emerges from an arch a little above the 
 Carlyle house, and runs down past half a dozen houses 
 — a source of perpetual pleasure to the tairns, some of 
 whom are always ' paidling ' and trying to catch little 
 fishes, which they call ' beardies.' In the other half of 
 the house I found a girl of nineteen. After some chat 
 I inquired had she ever seen Mr. Carlyle ^. ' O aye, 
 often enough.' ' Would you like to see him again ? ' 
 'No.'
 
 1879 ECCLEFECHAN 281 
 
 At half-past four, as agreed, the carriage came, and 
 stopt to take me up. Two or three small groups of 
 villagers looked our way, but there was no kind of 
 greeting or palpable recognition whatever. Imagine an 
 Irishman of equal fame seen in his native place ! 
 
 The scene of the family meeting, at which were 
 fourteen small nephews and nieces, was Newlands, a 
 farm occupied by one of James's sons. James is also 
 tenant of Thomas's Farm, Craigenputtock. ' James 
 never knew such bad times for farmers,' C. told me on 
 the way back. 
 
 At Lockerbie we again stopt half an hour. C. sat 
 in the carriage as before, I leant over the side and 
 talked to him. While we talked a biggish man came 
 out of the inn, — like a comfortable farmer, and bearing 
 a general resemblance to C. as many of the men do here 
 — he advanced to the carriage, took off his hat, and 
 said in a slow distinct voice without any expression in 
 his face or tone, ' 1 request the honour of shaking 
 hands with you. Sir ; I understand you're Mr. -Carlyle.' 
 C. looked at him, and after some seconds said, ' Who 
 are you. Sir } ' — the other, a little taken aback, ' O, I'm 
 only a farmer in the neighbourhood — I'm an admirer 
 of your writings. Sir, and I wished to shake hands with 
 you. I asked permission to shake hands with the 
 grandson of our national poet, Robert Burns, at 
 Lockerbie Station, and it was granted to me.' C. 
 slowly took off his glove and gave him a thin, brown 
 hand. ' Ye're lookin' fresh, Mr. Carlyle,' says the 
 farmer. ' Fresh,' returns C. — ' I'm very old and very 
 weak' — whereon the farmer, taking his hat off again, 
 withdrew, while C. muttered, 'I wish you well, Sir.' 
 We got back to Moffat about half-past eight — the 
 weather having threatened rain, but kept up all 
 through. 
 
 Sunday^ September 7. — I walked in the morning up 
 hill and by field path to Spa, some two miles, and drank 
 a glass of the water — pretty glen and rocky brook.
 
 282 MOFFAT 1879 
 
 In Moffat Street meet C. and Alick coming slowly 
 across — rain begins — C. sits on a doorstep — we notice 
 name on signboard ' Jannetson,' which C. says he never 
 saw elsewhere. Back to inn, where C. comes with me 
 into the common parlour and I read to him from the 
 guide book an account of the source of Annan, etc. 
 
 In the evening I came into his room. Burns again 
 — ' poor fellow — utterly misplaced — the best songster 
 ever lived.' 
 
 I said Burns showed no signs of improvement in 
 conduct as he grew older. Did his wife make any 
 attempts to reform him .? No, C. thought, she tried 
 little or nothing that way, thought it no use. 
 
 ' I was once brought to see Mrs. Burns in her old 
 age — she said little, nor did I, I had unspeakable 
 feelings in looking upon her, as though it were one of 
 the Greek tragic heroines — Clytemnestra herself! — 
 Bonnie Jean !— She was a quiet, grave person, no good 
 looks left.' C. spoke of how Burns took his death, 
 coming late out of the ' Globe,' drunk, and sitting 
 down on a stone (a louping-on-stane probably), which is 
 still in the close, on a cold, freezing winter's night. 
 
 Strange that no one looked after him. It was 
 doubtless too frequent a case to excite attention. 
 I C. said, ' I remember a man in Annandale telling me 
 I that he saw Burns lying dead-drunk in the back-yard of 
 
 ithe *' King's Head," and totally unheeded, save by a 
 passing look.' 
 
 Old John Tait, the sexton or bedrai, shewed me the 
 
 Mausoleum in St. Michael's churchyard of Dumfries, a 
 
 foolish kind of greenhouse or glass-case enclosing a 
 
 relievo of a clumsy Burns. 
 
 I Burns's body was moved hither from its original 
 
 f resting-place under a simple, and far more expressive, 
 
 j slab. 
 
 Carlyle told me, ' I went up one morning early, 
 before the graveyard was open, and climbed over the 
 wall ; there were many tombstones of Covenanters to
 
 i879 MOFFAT 283 
 
 I 
 be seen ; searching about in the grass I suddenly came 
 
 upon a flat stone with " Robert Burns " on it and the 
 dates : it was the most impressive experience of the i 
 kind I have had in my life.' 
 
 Old Sexton Tait told me something of a grandson 
 of the Poet, who died in Dumfries a few weeks ago at 
 the age of fifty-eight. He drank daily as much whisky 
 as he could get by ' sponging,' chiefly at the ' Globe 
 Tavern,' on folk who ' treated ' him in memory of the 
 National Bard. 
 
 He had in his middle life a recognisable likeness to 
 the Poet, and his father was still more like, ' with the 
 same black eyes (Carlyle told me) — only the soul 
 entirely wanting in them ; they had no depth, — their 
 darkness was like that of polished cannel coal.' This 
 third Robert, lately dead, ' used to say (the Sexton told 
 me) he would like to have his grave here ' — namely, 
 under a small tree in a corner of the enclosed ground, 
 in front of the mausoleum or glass-case. ' He kennt 
 weel he wadna be allowed inside.' 
 
 There are illegitimate Burnses, I believe, still breath- 
 ing vital air at Dumfries. Better for his countrymen, for 
 mankind, and indeed for his own memory, if much less 
 noise had been made about the unlucky one's grave, if 
 the stone had been left in the churchyard grass to be 
 found by one and another pilgrim, not without tears. 
 
 I quoted to Carlyle Goethe's remark that, to win 
 high popular success and fame a man must have, not 
 only genius, but opportunity, — Napoleon inherited the 
 French Revolution, Burns the old Scottish Songs. C. 
 did not appear to know how much Burns owed to the 
 old songs, as Mary and I went over some of the 
 instances. 
 
 C. said that while the Poet in his last illness was 
 staying at the Brow, some miles from Dumfries, he 
 heard one day a farm-labourer speaking of various 
 things he was busy upon, and Burns said with a deep
 
 284 LONDON 1879 
 
 sigh, ' Ah ! those were my happy days ' — meaning, when 
 he was thus occupied. To which Carlyle added, 
 * Gilbert Burns used often to say that his brother's 
 conversation was never afterwards so delightful as when 
 they two were working in the field, or digging peat 
 together. Robert was full of poetry and enthusiasm.' 
 
 September 8. — To the Grey Mare's Tail. 
 
 September 9. — Home — all well. Ready to start 
 to-morrow for Broadstairs. 
 
 October 18. — We returned to town from Broadstairs, 
 Oct. 15. I walked with my little son to Cheyne Row, 
 and met Mr. Carlyle coming out of the door to his 
 carriage ; he shook hands with Sonny, saying, ' Ah, he's 
 a bonny lad ! ' C. looks well, and even says ' Things 
 might be worse.' 
 
 December 4. — Helen and I to Cheyne Row. Carlyle's 
 eighty-fourth birthday. Mrs. Lecky there. Browning 
 and Ruskin are gone. C. on his sofa by the window, 
 warm and quiet, wearing a new purple and gold cap. 
 Gifts of flowers on the table. Birthday — ' O dear.' 
 He speaks of Ruskin, who, he says, is in better spirits 
 than he was. Asks me what I think of R.'s paper on 
 the clergy, in Contemporary Review. I own myself 
 puzzled as to his real meanings. C. : ' Oh yes, he 
 beheves all that — Can you lend me some book to read } 
 — a large book, that I can have satisfaction with.' 
 
 [AUingham notes during the winter : — ] 
 
 H. and I called on George Eliot, North Bank, first 
 time since Lewes's death. She seemed well and cheer- 
 ful, Herbert Spencer there. He talked of Art — 
 ' people don't know what to admire — the Old Masters 
 — folly ! The R.A. Exhibition better than all the Old 
 Masters. The art of painting greatly advanced, etc. 
 etc. St. Mark's a barbarous and unpleasing edifice.' 
 George Eliot denounced ' the rain, or perpetual drizzle 
 of criticism under which we live.' 
 
 George Eliot called. Carlyle portraits : H. 
 
 wished to do hers : G. E. said she would * consider.'
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 1880 
 
 Wednesday^ March 10. — I meet Carlyle's carriage in 
 the street and get in, Mary alights," Alick stays. We 
 drive through the Parks, looking green, to Swiss 
 Cottage. Carlyle, poor man, lies back crookedly in his 
 corner, noticing nothing of the outer world. Yet he 
 seems rather better than last time, a dim fire still in his 
 eyes, a dusky red in his cheeks. He talks of Erasmus 
 Darwin, the elder, with respect — has been reading a life 
 of him. ' The Loves of the Triangles is a poor thing. 
 The writer (Canning) knew very little about triangles.' 
 On politics he remarked, ' This time will be memorable 
 as the time when England was governed by a perfect 
 Charlatan.' 
 
 March 18. — Mary and Alick came to us in the 
 evening — Professor Tyndall and Mrs. T. had called on 
 Carlyle, who brightened up. They talked of the Fahr- 
 benlehre. C. hoped that Tyndall would get something 
 out of all the labour Goethe had given to this subject. 
 The Professor said Goethe had many excellent observa- 
 tions, but his theory was wrong. 
 
 Tyndall said, aside, to Mary, ' Say what he will 
 (of weakness), I never saw him looking grander.' 
 
 Afril 19. — To Carlyle's about 2.30, found him on 
 sofa, just awaked : Lecky by him. We got into the 
 carriage, and were driven through Hyde Park and 
 Regent's Park to Belsize Avenue, his most usual route ; 
 
 28;
 
 286 HASLEMERE isso 
 
 then turned, L. had met Renan and found him very 
 agreeable. Renan reads English, but does not speak it. 
 C. said, ' I am reading Shakespeare again. I read 
 Othello yesterday all through, and it quite distressed 
 me. O what a fellow that is — honest lago ! I was once 
 at this Play at Drury Lane (it would be in Macready's 
 time — but he did not do me any good in it), and when 
 Emilia said — 
 
 O the more angel she 
 And you the blacker devil I 
 
 a murmur swelled up from the whole audience into a 
 passionate burst of approval, the voices of the men 
 rising — in your imagination — like a red mountain, with 
 the women's voices floating round it like blue vapour, you 
 might say. I never heard the like of it.' (I thought 
 this a curious remark — the interpretation of sound by 
 colour in it.) 
 
 Lecky recalled Macaulay's remark that an Italian 
 audience would look on lago as a comic character ; 
 adding, ' I have seen the play in Italy and found it was 
 as Macaulay said. Tricking husbands is the habitual 
 occupation of the Comic Man of the Italian stage.' 
 
 I out in St. John's Wood, and call on George Eliot, 
 She was looking well in a high cap and black silk dress. 
 I told her of C. and Othello — ' the red mountain and 
 blue vapour.' ' Like an imaginative child's description,' 
 she said. 
 
 [In the spring of this year the Allinghams went to 
 Haslemere, where they remained through the summer. 
 Tennyson and his Son were in Italy, and the family 
 came to Blackdown later than usual.] 
 
 August 5. — Haslemere — very fine ; Helen and I 
 started about 3.30 to walk to Tennyson's, as invited. 
 In the shady lane the carriage overtook us, T. had 
 kindly called for us. He was in the carriage with his 
 little grandson, Alfred, in his nurse's lap, and Mr. 
 Fields, an American guest. Little Alfred, aged three, 
 had on the great Alfred's black sombrero, and the
 
 ,88o HASLEMERE 287 
 
 child's straw hat with a blue ribbon was stuck on the 
 top of the poet's huge head, and so they drove gravely 
 along. I followed on foot along the heath-fringed road 
 on Blackdown, overlooking the vast expanses of light 
 and shadow, golden cornfields, blue distances, from 
 Leith Hill to Chanctonbury Ring. Walked through 
 the house,^ ^ong hall open at each end, and found tea 
 on the further lawn, smooth, shut in with shrubs. 
 The view of the lower windows of the house is now 
 shut out by the growth of twigs and leaves. A. T. 
 in sombrero and gray suit, broad shouldered. He has 
 been at Venice, Cadore, etc., with Hallam. 
 
 T. took me to a top room and out on the balcony 
 to see * the enormous view.' ' I sometimes see a spire 
 out yonder (due east), but I don't know what it is.' 
 Horsham I suggest, adding, ' Field Place is near it, 
 Shelley's birthplace.' Below, H. sketched Don, the 
 handsome old setter, Hallam keeping him quiet. 
 
 T. — ' I gave Irving my Thomas a Becket. He said 
 .it was magnificent, but it would cost ^3000 to mount 
 it, — he couldn't afford the risk. If well put on the 
 stage, it would act for a time, and it would bring me 
 credit — but it wouldn't pay. The success of a piece 
 doesn't depend on its literary merit or even on its stage 
 effect, but on its hitting somehow. Miss Terry said 
 " we act mechanically after a long run — but on a first 
 night nobody suspects how we have our hearts in our 
 mouths ! " ' 
 
 T. did not much approve Irving's Shylock. ' He 
 made you pity Shylock too much. I told Miss Terry 
 she ought, as advocate, to stand on the steps to 
 gain advantage, instead of standing on the level — a 
 little female thing — and looking up at him. The 
 worst of writing for the stage is you must keep some 
 actor always in your mind.' 
 
 Sunday^ August 8. — Helen and I walked up — 
 
 1 Aldworth. This entry, with two earlier ones in 1863, has already 
 appeared in Hallam Lord Tennyson's Memoir of his Father.
 
 288 ALD WORTH isso 
 
 reached the house about 4. Tennyson on the front 
 terrace with his two dogs, Don and Grig. He asked 
 Helen had she brought her paints to finish Don's 
 portrait. ' No — why not ? Sunday ,'' No one with 
 wits in their brain would object. It's as allowable as 
 lawn-tennis. Boys play cricket now on a Sunday. It's 
 High Church to play cricket.' 
 
 Lord Lytton's return from India. T. spoke in his 
 favour. I object — the Afghan War, etc. 
 
 T. — ' How can we know the rights and wrongs ? ' 
 
 W. A. — ' An intelligent man has both the means 
 and the right to form an opinion on public affairs now- 
 a-days. The main particulars are soon published.' 
 
 T. — ' I was arguing with the Duke of Argyll about 
 Roumania and Turkey, and said to him. Why don't 
 you answer me ? He said, " You haven't read the 
 Blue Books." ' 
 
 Matthew Arnold — ' " Something outside of us that 
 makes for righteousness " — ugh ! ' (This is a sort of 
 grunt of disgust very usual with T.) 
 
 ' I was asked by some one in London, " Shall I ask 
 M. A. .? " I said I didn't much like dining with 
 Gods ! ' 
 
 T. praised in a general way Thyrsis and The Scholar- 
 Gipsy. 
 
 ' Thyrsis very artificial,' I thought. 
 
 ' So is Lycidas^ he said. 
 
 ' But Lycidas came first and was in the spirit of its age.' 
 
 I brought in my hand Ferguson's Poems, the volume 
 published in May. T. looked into it but soon put it 
 down. He read 'The Widow's Cloak' — 'I don't 
 much care for it ; I can't read anything, much less 
 poetry. On account of my eyes — yes — the doctor says 
 I must only read for half an hour at a time. I shouldn't 
 like both eyes to go. Everything now looks as in a 
 very dusky twilight.' 
 
 He asked had I read Browning's new volume ^ 
 ' " Clive " is the best.'
 
 i88o 
 
 ALDWORTH 28< 
 
 A letter from Browning this morning, about ' Clive,' 
 is produced. He says some reviewers have charged 
 him with altering the story of the duel because his 
 
 version is not that in the memoir by ; but there it 
 
 is clumsily done, and Clive's suicide is so slurred over, in 
 the same book, that you might take it to have been an 
 ordinary death. Browning had his version from Mrs. 
 Jameson (while travelling in her company on the 
 Continent) — she having just heard it told by Macaulay 
 at Lord Lansdowne's table. 
 
 At dinner — the account in a New York paper {^rhe 
 Tribune') of Lionel's wedding — 'the Poet Laureate, 
 bent figure and tottering gait.' 
 
 ' Why, there were five steps to come down, — no one 
 had told me of them ; I was looking for them in the 
 obscurity, lest I should tumble on my nose.' 
 
 Then T. spoke of satire in general. ' It's quite 
 dreadful to think of how satire will endure, no matter 
 how unfair, if well written. Look at Pope — 
 
 Now night descending, the proud scene was o'er. 
 But liv'd in Settle's numbers one day more. 
 
 The perfection of that brings tears into one's eyes — and 
 it pillories Settle for ever ! Everything will be in the 
 British Museum — even the newspapers.' 
 
 We agreed on the absurdity of accumulating news- 
 papers there, too many books even. But how select } 
 — Who is to be empowered to do it 1 
 
 A. — ' Carlyle declares his father was the strongest- 
 minded man he knew, yet he would admit no poetry 
 into his house.' 
 
 T. — ' He was right.' 
 
 A. — * Nor fiction of any sort.' 
 
 T. — ' There he was wrong. But I suppose he was 
 an old Puritan.' 
 
 T. denounced vivisection most fiercely : declared he 
 would not owe his own life to a cruel experiment on a 
 dog. 
 
 u
 
 290 ALDWORTH 1880 
 
 He made Helen taste his wine (Vouvray) from his 
 own glass, and took her into the drawing-room. 
 
 ' If the pronunciation of the English language were 
 forgotten, Browning would be held the greatest of 
 modern poets, having treated the greatest variety of 
 subjects in a powerful manner.' 
 
 (Calverley called Browning ' a well of English 
 defiled.') 
 
 Wednesday^ August 11. — About 4 Tennyson calls 
 with little Alfred and baby Charley (whom T. calls 
 ' The Philosopher '). 
 
 ' Don died on Sunday night. Hallam heard him 
 howling, and thought there might be strangers about.' 
 
 Tea in the garden under apple tree ; T. praises the 
 house, likes the steps in the garden, etc. 
 
 ' Done by an artist — that accounts for it.' ^ 
 
 Friday^ August 13. — Helen and I with the babes 
 to Tennyson's. He sits on chair beside us. Two 
 
 Miss s call (very old family). Tennyson tells us 
 
 afterwards ' A former Lord H , queer old fellow — 
 
 was found on his knees near the kitchen one day riddling 
 the cinders — he looked up and said, "Dick never 
 riddles 'em right." He kept his two daughters in the 
 nursery till they were thirty, and then they climbed 
 over the garden wall and ran away. The young ladies 
 to-day would have my autograph — ugh ! I said, 
 " the glory of your presence has got it. I would never 
 have sent it if you had asked by letter." ' 
 
 Fair and dark people — dark people are thinner 
 skinned. 
 
 T. — ' I am. A countryman in the North said, " A 
 wouldn't be as black as him for summat ! " At Dieppe 
 the touter appealed to me as French, Spanish, Italian — 
 and at last said in astonishment " Vous etes Anglais I " 
 But my brother Frederick, a white and rosy man, got 
 much more admiration when we travelled together — he 
 was adored by all the landladies and chambermaids.' 
 
 1 Cecil Lawson's cottage at Haslemere.
 
 i88o ALD WORTH 291 
 
 ' The New Forest is the finest thing in England, the 
 most peculiar. There are mountains elsewhere, and 
 cliffs, and lakes. When Palgrave and 1 came back 
 from Spain we went to the New Forest, and as we lay 
 under great trees with a green heaven above our heads 
 I said, " We saw nothing so fine as this in Spain," and 
 he said, " No." ' 
 
 August 20. — Helen and I walk to T.'s. Blackdown 
 now purple with ling and heather. Lawn : Mrs. 
 Tennyson in invalid chair. 
 
 Mr. Edward Lear coming on Monday — one of 
 twenty children — drew birds at fourteen to help his 
 family. Improvises on pianoforte. 
 
 A. T. and Hallam — Browning's Dramatic Idylls. 
 
 T.- — ' I wish he hadn't taken my word Idyll. I said 
 the other day and you took it as a jest, but I meant it 
 seriously, " if the pronunciation of the English language 
 were lost. Browning would be considered the greatest 
 of modern poets." ' 
 
 W. A. — 'A basis of good sense is often wanting 
 In him.' 
 
 T. — ' I don't perceive that.' 
 
 W. A. — ' What do you make of Fifine ? ' 
 
 T. — ' I couldn't make anything of it. I tried it 
 several times, and took it in my pocket on a walk — 
 that's the best way to try,' 
 
 W. A. — ' " Clive " is simpler. But why was Clive 
 afraid once in his life, as he confessed ? ' 
 
 T. — ' Because he had a pistol put to his head.' 
 
 W. A. — ' Not at all. When his friend thought so, 
 Clive swore at him furiously. Clive was afraid that his 
 antagonist might make him a present of his life — in 
 which case there would have been nothing for it but 
 suicide.' 
 
 Hallam. — '■ No doubt that's it.' 
 
 Sunday, August 22. — Hallam and Lionel Tennyson, 
 with Miss Ritchie, call on us after church. Helen and 
 I walk up to T.'s. At dinner, talk of Ireland.
 
 292 ALDWORTH 1880 
 
 The Church of Rome — I speak of its singleness of 
 aim but flexibility to circumstances, and variety of 
 resources. 
 
 Miss Ritchie began — 'They embrace so wonder- 
 fully ' — when T. cut in : ' Did they ever embrace you ? 
 Were you ever kissed by a dozen priests ? ' The 
 young lady laughed. 
 
 Miss Ritchie played Beethoven's ' Aurora ' Sonata 
 finely. T. came in and listened. 
 
 ' I wish I could understand it — I could perceive a 
 rushing as of a torrent — and flashes of light.' 
 
 Miss R. — ' I think it's exactly like sunrise — and very 
 like your poem too, " Out of the Deep." ' 
 
 Sunday^ August 29. — Hallam calls. Helen and I 
 walk up to Aldworth. Find A. T. on seat at end of 
 lower terrace, reading a large type New Testament. 
 We sit beside him. 
 
 Tennyson shows me a paper by Mr. Crookes (Roy, 
 Soc.) on 'Four Kinds of Matter,' Solid, Liquid, 
 Gaseous, and another which is imperceptible to the 
 senses (sometimes called ' Ether '). Molecules and 
 atoms. 
 
 T. said (or something like this) — ' I believe we never 
 see Matter : what we count the material world is only 
 an appearance.' 
 
 Huxley's question, ' Has a frog a Soul } ' 
 
 W. A. — ' I should first ask, " What do you mean by 
 Soul } " But Huxley says questions about " Soul " and 
 " the Future " don't interest him.' 
 
 T. — ' Then, surely, that shows defect in him ! 
 Tyndall's metaphysics are very shaky, I think. They 
 don't see that they are destroying their country. 
 
 ' Old Sedgwick told me he visited Laplace in his 
 last days and the old Astronomer said to him — " You 
 are an Englishman, suff'er me to say to you a word or 
 two on politics. Never emancipate the Catholics, and 
 never tamper with your glorious constitution." ' 
 
 Tennyson dislikes our quitting Afghanistan — ' the
 
 i88o ALDWORTH 293 
 
 want of continuity in our policy is the curse of our 
 country ; I believe Parliaments will be its ruin. We 
 might have ruled the Afghans and made them good 
 subjects, like the Sikhs.' 
 
 I said England had no business in Afghanistan. 
 Lord Beaconsfield's policy was disapproved by Lord 
 Lawrence, Lord Northbrook, and a majority of the 
 Council of India. T. stuck to his own views. I told 
 him, ' you always declare England to be right, whatever 
 she does.' 
 
 T. — ' I think she's often shockingly wrong. In this 
 case it's unsafe to draw back.' 
 
 Speaking of the Irish agitator who said, ' I think 
 their cattle will not much prosper,' — a speech followed 
 by the maiming of many animals, — he exclaimed, ' How 
 I hate that man — Ireland's a dreadful country ! I 
 heartily wish it was in the middle of the Atlantic' 
 
 ' Below the surface ? ' I asked. 
 
 ' No, no, a thousand miles away from England. I 
 like the Irish — I admit the charm of their manners — but 
 they're a fearful nuisance.' 
 
 ' Very troublesome,' I admitted, ' but there's some 
 truth in the popular Irish notion that nothing can be 
 got from England except by agitation.' 
 
 T. is a constant novel reader. ' What I dislike is 
 beginning a new novel. I should like to have a novel 
 to read in a million volumes, to last me my life.' 
 
 September 2. — Drove up to Tennyson's to dinner. 
 H. and I., Aubrey de Vere, Dr. Bradley, Mrs. and Miss 
 Bradley. 
 
 A. T., Aubrey de Vere and I talk of poetry. 
 
 T. and I agree on the odiousness of various readings 
 inserted on a poet's page — and of critical notes. 
 
 De Vere blames Ruskin for his recent remarks on 
 Wordsworth, — ' a Westmorland peasant, etc' 
 
 De V. wishes Wordsworth had written his magnum 
 opus, of which the Prelude was the beginning. 
 
 T. — ' His small things are the best. Even his
 
 294 ALDWORTH 1880 
 
 " Tintern Abbey," fine as it is, should have been much 
 compressed,' 
 
 De V. — ' But if it pleased the artistic sense more, 
 might it not appeal less to the sympathies ? ' 
 
 T, — ' A great deal might be left out.' 
 
 W. A. — ' One could turn the largest part of the 
 Excursion into prose, very seldom altering a word, 
 merely re-arranging. Here and there a line or a 
 passage of poetry would be left, like a quotation. It is 
 much easier to write bad blank verse than good prose.' 
 
 T. — ' And it is much easier to write rhyme than 
 good blank verse. I should not be sorry to lose any- 
 thing from a poet which is not beautiful poetry. One 
 plods over Wordsworth's long dreary plains of prose — 
 one knows there's a mountain somewhere, and now and 
 again you come to astonishing things. In old times, 
 when copying was costly, Catullus, Horace, and the 
 others gave only their best.' 
 
 De V. — ' Wordsworth ought to have done great 
 and perfect things, one fancies. He lived a poetic life, 
 he devoted himself to poetry, — How was it ^ ' 
 
 W. A. — ' For many years he never read any poetry 
 but his own. His mind became monotonous.' 
 
 De V. — ' I believe that is true. And he was con- 
 tinually touching and altering, and sometimes injuring 
 what he had written.' 
 
 W. A. — ' His experience of real life was neither 
 wide nor various. His material ran short.' 
 
 De V. — ' And yet, if he gives us a good deal of 
 dulness, might not the same be said of Homer and of 
 Milton.?' 
 
 T. (grunts) — ' No, no ! ' 
 
 De V. — ' Well, I find a great deal of Homer very 
 dull — and surely the last six books of Paradise Lost are 
 much below the first six .? ' 
 
 T — ' Possibly — but there's the charm of Milton's 
 style. He invented his verse — just as much as Virgil 
 invented his.'
 
 i88o ALDWORTH 295 
 
 De V. — ' I read to Wordsworth your 
 
 Of old sat Freedom on the heights, 
 
 and — 
 
 You ask me, why, tho' ill at ease, 
 
 and he said, *' Fine poetry and very stately diction." ' 
 
 T. said ' H'm ! ' contentedly. 
 
 W. A. — ' Coleridge was more essentially a Poet than 
 Wordsworth.' 
 
 T. — ' I don't know that.' 
 
 De V. — ' I think so. But how melancholy to think 
 that all his finest poems were produced in one single 
 year of his life. Then he went to Germany and took 
 to Metaphysics — such a pity ! ' 
 
 T. — ' But the man I count greater than them all — 
 Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, every one of 
 'em — is Keats, who died at twenty-five — thousands of 
 faults ! (twiddling the fingers of one hand in the air) — 
 but he's wonderful ! ' 
 
 De V. — ' He doesn't pall upon you ? ' 
 
 T.— ' No.' 
 
 De V. — ' Shelley used to be a great idol of yours.' 
 
 T. — ' O yes. We lived near the most prosaic village 
 in the world, a little beast ! where they had never heard 
 of anything. One day we went there to meet my brother 
 Frederick, who was coming back from somewhere, 
 and as we were driving home he whispered, " I've got a 
 poet who's much grander than Byron," and repeated 
 one line — 
 
 Waterfalls leap among wild islands green, 
 
 which I thought delicious, 
 
 ^ Alastor was the first poem of his I read. I said, 
 " This is what I want ! " — and still I like it the best, 
 though one can't tell how much these first loves are to 
 be trusted. The Revolt of Islam is splendid but gives 
 me a headache — it's fatiguing — all mountain tops and 
 glories.' 
 
 De V. agreed, and named as his favourites The Ode to
 
 296 ALDWORTH isso 
 
 the West Wind — Ode to Naples — (of which he recited 
 some lines, and another piece). 
 
 Tennyson quoted a passage from Shelley and said 
 ' what can you do with a man who has such command 
 of language ? But Keats was not wild and wilful, he 
 had always an intention. At the same time he was 
 daimonisch^ — he had a touch (he was a livery-stable 
 keeper's son — I don't know where he got it from, unless 
 from Heaven). 
 
 Perhaps the self-same song that found a path 
 Through the sad heart of Ruth when, sick for home, 
 She stood in tears amid the alien corn ; 
 The same that oft-times hath 
 Charm'd magic casements opening on the foam 
 Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn. 
 
 ' What can be lovelier ^ (He said the last two 
 lines again.) I once saw it printed " In fairyland 
 forlorn," which totally ruined it — one doesn't know 
 why.' 
 
 W. A. — ' " Fairyland " has been much used.' 
 
 When I shook hands with him he said, ' Good-night, 
 Statuette ! ' I laughed and said, ' I know what you 
 mean.' (A little poem in my Songs, Ballads and Stories, 
 a volume Hallam borrowed of me yesterday and which 
 T. had not seen before.) 
 
 T. — ' It's modest — and it may be quite true. No 
 one can in the least tell who will survive.' 
 
 We went out to the porch, T., Hallam, De Vere, 
 Helen and I, with lantern — brilliant starry night. 
 
 T. — ' Millions upon millions of suns.' 
 
 W. A. — ' And Whewell argues that the earth is 
 probably the only seat of conscious life. Suppose one 
 looking from a distance at the Earth, a dot among other 
 dots.' 
 
 T. — ' That's just what I said at the time.' 
 
 We parted, and H. and I followed our lantern-gleam 
 on the heath and down the shady lane to Haslemere. 
 
 September 19. — Rain — clears. H. and I walk to
 
 i88o ALDWORTH 297 
 
 Aldworth — glorious prospects, breadth of sunshine and 
 shadow — green woodlands, bounding hills, blue distances 
 — sweet cool air. Mrs. Tennyson very friendly. 
 
 T. — ' A lady the other day here — a very nice woman 
 (I don't altogether like the word, but I want it), was 
 praising a friend of yours. " Nice " is objectionable, but 
 it is useful — a '* nice " person is one that you're satisfied 
 with.' 
 
 W. A. — ' It used to mean fastidious, — discriminative, 
 but there's not much harm in its being turned about 
 and applied to the object.' 
 
 T. — ' No : it's something or somebody that satisfies 
 your niceness.' 
 
 Hallam takes H. and me down hill and shows us 
 old house which belonged to Denzil Holies. 
 
 Dinner, pleasant and lively talk. 
 
 T. — 'A Russian noble, who spoke English well, 
 said one morning to an English guest, *' I've shot two 
 peasants this morning." — " Pardon me, you mean 
 pheasants." *' No, indeed, two men — they were in- 
 solent and I shot them." ' 
 
 W. A. — ' In Ireland it's the other way.' 
 
 T. — ' Couldn't they blow up that horrible island with 
 dynamite and carry it off in pieces — a long way off ? ' 
 
 W. A. — ' Why did the English go there ? ' 
 
 T. — ' Why did the Normans come to England .'' 
 The Normans came over here and seized the country, 
 and in a hundred years the English had forgotten all 
 about it, and they were all living together on good 
 terms.' 
 
 (I demurred : T. went on, raising his voice). — ' The 
 same Normans went to Ireland, and the Irish with 
 their damned unreasonableness are raging and foaming 
 to this hour ! ' 
 
 W. A. — ' The Norman Duke had a claim on the 
 crown of England.' 
 
 T. — ' No rightful claim,' 
 
 W. A. — ' But suppose all these to be bygones. You
 
 298 ALD WORTH 1880 
 
 speak of a century, a short time in history — think what 
 Ireland had to complain of only in the last century — 
 the penal laws, and the deliberate destruction of their 
 growing industry by the English Government : what do 
 you say to that ? ' 
 
 T. — ' That was brutal ! Our ancestors were horrible 
 brutes ! And the Kelts are very charming and sweet 
 and poetic. I love their Ossians and their Finns and 
 so forth — but they are most damnably unreasonable ! ' 
 
 W. A. — ' They are most unfortunate.' 
 
 Hallam. — ' What would you do .-* ' 
 
 W. A. — ' This last phase of discontent is perhaps 
 the worst — flavoured with Americanism and general 
 irreverence ; but what I would have done long ago I 
 would try still — encourage peasant proprietorship to 
 the utmost possible.' 
 
 Hallam. — ' Get rid of all the landlords and give the 
 land to the people } ' 
 
 W. A. — ' Not at all. There are many good Irish 
 landlords, and they usually get on well with their tenants. 
 The peasant proprietors would have to be made grad- 
 ually, and on business principles.' 
 
 T. — ' What is the difference between an English 
 landlord and an Irish landlord .'' ' 
 
 W. A. — ' Is it a conundrum ? ' 
 
 T.— ' Not at all.' 
 
 (I tried to explain some great differences. T. came 
 back to his old point.) 
 
 T. — ' The Kelts are so utterly unreasonable ! The 
 stupid clumsy Englishman — knock him down, kick him 
 under the tail, kick him under the chin, do anything 
 to him, he gets on his legs again and goes on ; the Kelt 
 rages and shrieks and tears everything to pieces ! ' 
 
 Tennyson spoke of the ' sea of silver mist ' seen at 
 early morning from his windows at this season — also of 
 the effect of mist spread over the wide green woodland 
 and the sun shining on it — ' incredible ! Turner would 
 have tried it.'
 
 1880 ALDWORTH 299 
 
 Mrs. T. thought it a great pity that the French 
 Government was interfering with the ReHgious Orders — 
 even those that nursed the sick. I said they were deal- 
 ing with the Church of Rome as a great political power, 
 known to be adverse to the Republic. 
 
 T. spoke of Venice. ' We stayed too short a time 
 — the Giant's Stairs are very fine. Milan Cathedral 
 struck me far more than St. Mark's.' 
 
 I quoted — 
 
 A mount of marble ! a hundred spires ! 
 
 T. — ' Well, that's what it seemed like. Plenty to 
 object to, no doubt — but the great coloured windows 
 are wonderful. Putting together the little I have seen 
 of Italy, this time and the first time, I think the great 
 charm is the number of old cities, so various, each with 
 a character of its own.' 
 
 We talked of London. T. has a vague notion 
 that he would like to live there. ' Chelsea Embank- 
 ment is a charming place — I could live there all the 
 year.' Hallam (^sotto voce). — ' He always gets tired of 
 London in a fortnight.' 
 
 I referred to Emerson's essay (in Society and Solitude)., 
 that the feeling of Age is often less in ourselves than in 
 our consciousness of being looked upon as old by others. 
 
 T. (partly agreeing). — ' Yes ; I feel younger in some 
 ways than when I was fifty.' 
 
 In talking of London, we spoke of old nooks and 
 corners, old taverns, ' Bertolini's,' off Leicester Square, 
 now shut up ; old Mr. Seymour — who dined there 
 fifty years, etc. ; * The Cock' — 'Dick's.' 
 
 T. — * I had a room at " Dick's " once — I often dined 
 at " The Rainbow." ' 
 
 He has, amid his ruralism, longings now and again 
 for the humours of London streets ; but alas he cannot 
 easily go about without provoking notice. An Irish 
 flower girl said to T. in Regent St., ' Ah, sure now, 
 Misther Tinnison, ye'll buy this little nosegay ! '
 
 300 ALDWORTH 1880 
 
 September 23. — H. and I walked up to Aldworth to 
 dinner. 
 
 Dr. Johnson. — T. : ' I don't think I should have 
 liked his company, but I like Boswell's book.' 
 
 Byron. — T. : ' When a boy I used to worship him. 
 But I do think Byron great. His Vision of Judgment 
 is the most wonderful thing in the world.' Then T. 
 quoted from Don Juan — 
 
 Then rose from sea to sky the wild farewell, etc. 
 
 I said ' The Shipwreck ' as a whole was not good. 
 T. — ' The famous lines about the sea in Childe Harold 
 are abominably bad.' 
 
 We examined them. I suggested — 
 
 Thy waters washed them while they were free — 
 
 as possible, but T. truly thought ' washed ' was not like 
 Byron ; he was more likely to write ' wasted,' sense or 
 no sense. 
 
 Ruskin's criticisms on Byron in the Nineteenth 
 Century. ' After reading them I read " The Island " 
 through the other night.' 
 
 ' Well, did you find much in it } ' 
 
 *No.' 
 
 * And what Ruskin calls the finest line ever written 
 by an Englishman about the sea — 
 
 the swell 
 
 Of Ocean's Alpine azure rose and fell.' 
 
 T. — ' The open vowels are good. I don't know 
 what is meant by " Alpine azure." And certainly that 
 about the rivulet falling from the cliff being like a 
 goat's eye is very bad.' 
 
 W. A. — ' What did you think of Ruskin's article 
 altogether } ' 
 
 T. — 'I thought his remarks on the passage in 
 Shakespeare very good — on the fitness of the placing 
 of words.' 
 
 Tennyson drives into Haslemere ; he sits in our
 
 i88o HASLEMERE 301 
 
 garden ^ and looks at newspaper — admires the up-hill 
 garden and fir trees : 'it is like one at Florence, The 
 south of England is like Italy. When I came back 
 this summer and looked from the terrace at Black- 
 down, I thought it was exactly like Italy.' 
 
 [In the evening at Aldworth.] T. read us the 
 ' Bugle Song.' I said ' That's Killarney.' 
 
 T. — ' Yes, it was Killarney suggested it. The bugle 
 echoes were wonderful — nine times — at last like a chant 
 of angels in the sky. But when I was there afterwards 
 I could only hear two echoes, — from the state of the 
 air. I complained of this and said, "when I was here 
 before I heard nine." " Oh ! " says the bugler, *' then 
 you're the gintleman that's brought so much money 
 to the place!"' (The 'Bugle Song' increased the 
 number of tourists to Killarney.) 
 
 He said an Irish lady asked him how he liked the 
 scenery — ' Too much bog,' he thought, ' black and 
 dismal.' ' O then, where,' she retorted in tones of 
 indignation — ' where would you have the poor people 
 cut their turf ^ ' 
 
 Afterwards Tennyson read to us from his new un- 
 published volume, 'The Cobbler with his gin bottle,' 
 * The Entail ; or. The Village Wife ' — ' one of those 
 gossiping beasts ! ' he said. 
 
 Wednesday^ October 13. — Tennyson and I drive in 
 his carriage up Hindhead as far as the Huts, to look for 
 gypsies, but find none. 
 
 T. — ' Old Hallam used to say the longer one lived 
 the higher one rated Dryden as a poet.' 
 
 W. A. — ' I should say that to rate Dryden very high 
 is proof of a non-poetic mind.' 
 
 Helen, at his wish, made a sketch of the landscape as 
 seen through one of the arches of the porch. T., 
 looking over her, said : ' I suppose I owe vou _^20 for 
 this ^ ' H. said the payment would be to give her a 
 sitting or two, and he gave in rather grumblingly ; 
 
 1 The Allinghams were now in a house under Court's Hill, Haslemere.
 
 302 ALDWORTH 1880 
 
 hitherto he had refused, and said one day, ' I'll go out 
 of the room if you look at me ! ' 
 
 H. had two or three short sittings in his study, with 
 fading light, and made a couple of beginnings. He 
 promised to sit again when we next met, I talked to 
 him while he sat, and tried to keep him from looking 
 unhappy. He gave Helen a copy of the collected 
 edition of his brother Charles's Sonnets, about to be 
 published, and one day read several of them to her with 
 great feeling and warm praise. He read the Sonnet I 
 said had impressed me a year ago. T. said : ' I know 
 the place, the road, everything.' 
 
 He spoke of the objection that the Sonnets were not 
 in perfect sonnet form, and said, ' I never care to read 
 a perfect sonnet. I look down the rhymes and that's 
 enough. I thought the other day of writing a sonnet 
 beginning — 
 
 I hate the perfect Sonnet ! 
 
 After going on for four lines I should say 
 
 And now there's " down" and "crown " and "frown" and "brown" : 
 I'll take the latter. Then there's "cheer" and "fear" — 
 And several others, — 
 
 and so forth, would it be worth doing ? ' 
 
 T. often speaks of the absolute need of delicacy of 
 elocution to give the true beauty of poetry. 
 
 T. — ' Rogers used to quote with approval the praise 
 of good verse by some Frenchman who declared it to 
 be beau comme prose, that is, as easy and natural.' 
 
 T. — ' I'm sQ.vQnty -nine (this was a joke), but I don't 
 feel the weight of age on my shoulders. I can run 
 up-hill ; I can waltz — but when I said this to Fanny 
 Kemble she replied in a ghastly voice, " I hope I shall 
 never see you do it ! " ' 
 
 He read us very powerfully the poem of the mother 
 and the gibbet. I objected to the title of ' Rizpah ' 
 (in private life he called it 'Bones'), and also to an 
 explanatory note (now omitted) prefixed to the piece.
 
 i88o HASLEMERE 303 
 
 The lady who gave him the story called it ' The Modern 
 Rizpah.' She gave it as true, the scene near Bright- 
 helmstown, but dates and other particulars vague. 
 
 Tennyson said : ' I used to write long letters — 
 beautiful letters. I used to write to Sir Vere de Vere, 
 who's now dead. I once wrote to him (I forget the 
 sentence, which was imaginative in its turn), and in his 
 reply he said, " My dear fellow, what rubbish you do 
 write to me ! " ' 
 
 October 11. — Haslemere. Our last visit (this time) 
 to Aldworth. Snow on the ground. We all drive up. 
 
 The Wordsworth Society. — T. entirely objects to it. 
 * They'll give one a disgust for Wordsworth. Why 
 can't people be quiet } Ugh ! 
 
 ' Reading magazines breaks one's mind all to bits. 
 One ought to leave off newspapers. 
 
 ' A servant woman that left us told somebody in her 
 next place: "She is an angel., but he — why he's only a 
 public writer." ' (T. often says English people have 
 no respect for poets.) 
 
 Looking at the chimney-piece, T. said : ' When I 
 began to read Italian, I wrote down every word that 
 puzzled me on the sides and front of the chimney- 
 piece where I lodged — painted white — and made a kind 
 of dictionary for myself. 1 went away for two or three 
 days and when I came back it was all washed off. 
 " Thought it was dirt," the woman said. 
 
 ' Worse than that — when I was twenty-two I wrote 
 a beautiful poem on Poland, hundreds of lines long, 
 and the housemaid lit the fire with it. I never could 
 recover it.' 
 
 Tennyson repeated some lines of his own from an old 
 idyll never published, they were something like this — 
 
 The rich wed richer, and the poor the poor, 
 The mount of gold accumulating still, 
 The gulf of want enlarging, deepening, till 
 The one into the other sink at last 
 With all confusion.
 
 304 ALDWORTH 1880 
 
 ' That's not quite the thing — " all confusion." Oh, 
 I've written thousands of lines that went up the 
 chimney.' 
 
 After dinner Tennyson called on Hallam to sing 
 ' John Brown,' which he accordingly began in a strong 
 bass voice, T. joining in (the first time I ever heard 
 him try any musical performance), and sometimes 
 thumping with his fists on the table — 
 
 John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave. 
 But his soul is marching on ! 
 
 He urged Hallam to go on, saying, ' I like it, I like it,' 
 but Hallam thought the noise too great, and drew oiF. 
 The soul marching on delighted Tennyson. 
 
 In the evening he read us in the drawing-room 
 ' The Voyage of Maildun ' (from Joyce's Old Celtic 
 Romances). 
 
 T. — ' At first I made half the men kill the other 
 half in every fray, and Maildun himself return 
 alone' 
 
 I said the Irish were fond of extravagant stories, 
 somewhat in the manner of Rabelais, and told him of 
 another, where the hero travelled by land. We talked 
 of subjects for poems, and T. said ' I want something 
 quite mad.' 
 
 After eleven we went home in T.'s carriage, happy 
 with the good company and friendly kindness. 
 
 [While at Haslemere the Allinghams had heard with 
 great sorrow of the death of ' the kindest of friends,' 
 Mr. Tom Taylor. They had always been made welcome 
 at his delightful house, meeting there noted and interest- 
 ing people, Sir Henry Irving, Miss Ellen Terry, and 
 many others. It is not, however, so much as host and 
 hostess — gifted and hospitable though they were — that 
 Mr. and Mrs. Tom Taylor will be remembered — but 
 as the truest and most sympathetic of friends, with the 
 overflowing kindness that springs from warm hearts 
 united in family affection.]
 
 i88o LONDON 305 
 
 October 24. — Chelsea. Yesterday, returned to town. 
 Carlyle's about five o'clock — feebler in look and voice. 
 I told him of Haslemere — Tennyson. 
 
 Wednesday^ October 27. — Took Mary home from 
 our house about 11 p.m., and found Carlyle in his 
 drawing-room reading a new edition of Burns. He 
 often reads in it (Mary said), notes and all, without his 
 spectacles. He again said he found Burns ' the greatest 
 since Shakespeare.' We talked of Campbell. 
 
 C. praised Campbell's ' Lochiel,' ' The Mariners of 
 England,' etc., and presently began to repeat ' The 
 Battle of the Baltic,' giving four or five verses. 
 
 ' I was greatly taken with these as a lad, and repeated 
 some of them to my Father, who usually cared nothing 
 at all for such things.' 
 
 ' Was he impressed } ' I asked. 
 
 C. — ' O yes ' (repeating) — 
 
 . . . when each gun 
 From its adamantine lips 
 
 (he thought he had never heard so grand an expression 
 as that) 
 
 Spread a death-shade round the ships, 
 Like a hurricane eclipse 
 Of the sun ! 
 
 Then we spoke of Nelson. 
 
 C. — ' Never was any one so sagacious in divining his 
 enemy's plans and whereabouts. I well remember hear- 
 ing of Nelson's death.' (C. was in his tenth year.) 
 
 * A neighbour woman was in one evening talking 
 with my mother about the War and the Fleet, and what 
 great things were supposed to be at hand ; the next 
 day she came in and said all their speculations had been 
 vain, a tremendous battle had already been fought, the 
 French and Spanish Fleets were smashed to pieces, and 
 — Nelson was killed. I could not understand all, but 
 I recollect I had much more grief for his death than 
 joy for the victory.' 
 
 X
 
 3o6 LONDON 1880 
 
 October 29. — H. and I to Hammersmith, Stephens's. 
 Holly's birthday. W, Rossetti and wife, Jenny and 
 May Morris. Talk with W. M. R. — Shelley, Browning, 
 etc. Home : stars (I think of Ballyshannon and the 
 sound of the Atlantic). 
 
 Saturday^ December 4. — Helen and I call on Carlyle. 
 His eighty-fifth birthday. 
 
 C. seems better and easier ; more himself. He asks 
 what I am doing. 
 
 December 19. — H. and I to visit Sir Theodore and 
 Lady Martin. (Burton just going out — ' Fergusons 
 well.') Talk — theatricals — Warner — the Batemans — 
 ' no poetic actress now.' I suggest Modjeska, who 
 throws sweetness into everything — friendly. 
 
 December 23. — Death of George Eliot. Alas ! that 
 little visit at Witley was the last. Her affectionate 
 demeanour then we shall remember.^ 
 
 Friday, December 24. — To Carlyle's at 2. He was 
 lying on the sofa in the drawing-room. When I spoke 
 to him he held out his hand and shook hands with me, 
 but said nothing. I was not sure that he knew me. 
 A stout Scotch servant girl and I lifted him to his 
 feet to go to the carriage. In the hall his heavy seal- 
 skin coat was put on with difficulty, and he was got 
 into the carriage, Alick and I with him. We drove 
 twice round Hyde Park. The old man dozed much. 
 
 [From this time forth Carlyle grev/ steadily weaker. 
 Mrs. Alexander Carlyle, whose wise and tender care 
 of him had been unceasing for the past thirteen years, 
 was now joined by her Husband in her devoted attend- 
 ance on her Uncle. 
 
 This may perhaps be a fitting place to say some- 
 thing about Allingham's own literary work during the 
 period — now drawing to a close — of his life in London. 
 
 Besides the routine of editing, he contributed, from 
 
 1 The Allinghams had called on George Eliot, then Mrs. Cross, at the 
 Heights, shortly before they returned from Haslemere.
 
 III' in n in, 
 
 am,^ '^JaJJt^ ^/t.cTc 
 
 'T.I I ma/iani 
 >/oiir p<n~trai t
 
 i88o LONDON 307 
 
 time to time, an article to the magazine — ' Seven 
 Hundred Years Ago ' (chapters on early Irish history, 
 much and often commended by Carlyle), ' Modern 
 Prophets,' ' Painter and Critic,' etc. — and, frequently, 
 a column of critical and other notes and remarks, under 
 the general title of ' Ivy Leaves.' 
 
 In 1877 he brought out (with Messrs. George Bell 
 and Sons) a collection of his poems — Songs, Ballads, 
 and Stories. 
 
 He had other work in preparation — An Evil May 
 Day, a poem embodying his views on religion, in relation 
 to dogma and science — and Ashby Manor, an historical 
 play, to which Allingham gives a note at the end of his 
 volume. Thought and Word. He sent a copy of this 
 play to several London managers, one of whom entered 
 into a correspondence with him and ' highly praised the 
 play.' Some months after this manager produced a 
 ' kind of clumsy parody of Ashhy Manor — with sense- 
 less melodramatic additions and an entirely irrelevant 
 fifth act.' On this being pointed out to him he asserted 
 that he ' scarcely recollected anything about Ashhy Manor. ^ 
 Later, an almost similar fate befell another little play of 
 Allingham's, Hopgood and Co} 
 
 During these years pleasant intercourse was kept 
 up — though the meetings were not always mentioned 
 in detail in the diary — with Allingham's old friends of 
 the earlier time — with the Burne-Joneses and Morrises — 
 the Holman Hunts, Arthur Hugheses, F. G. Stephenses, 
 Moncure Conways, and especially with Madame Bodi- 
 chon. Sir Percy and Lady Shelley had built a house 
 on the Chelsea Embankment, and friendly meetings 
 are noted with them and with the De Morgans, G. P. 
 Boyces, W. Bell Scotts, Mr. and Mrs. Christison, and 
 many other near neighbours.] 
 
 1 Allingham had always taken a great interest in the drama : although 
 not a constant theatre-goer, he rarely missed seeing a notable actor or 
 performance.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 1881-1883 
 
 January 17. — Helen visited Mary C. to-day. Carlyle 
 keeps his bed yesterday and to-day. He lies now on a 
 water-bed, which is placed in the drawing-room (first- 
 floor front looking on Cheyne Row). The Scotch maid 
 stays in the room all night. Mary said she looked at his 
 clothes, and thought he might never put them on again. 
 
 After taking finally to his bed the venerable man 
 spoke hardly at all ; there was no physical obstruction 
 of the organs of speech, but almost total absence of 
 will or wish to say anything. Sometimes when Mary 
 was doing something for him he would say, in a low 
 tone, ' Ah, poor little woman.' He was heard to say 
 * Poor little Tommy' — thinking of his grand-nephew of 
 a few months old. Once, he supposed the female hands 
 that tended him, lifting his head perhaps, to be those 
 of his good old Mother — ' Ah, Mother, is it you } ' he 
 murmured, or some such words, I think it was on the 
 day before the last day that Mary heard him saying to 
 himself, ' S9 this is Death : well — ' 
 
 The ' well ! ' pronounced as if meaning, ' So be it ! 
 we shall see what it is like.' 
 
 After this nothing was heard from him, except his 
 nephew's name, ' Alick,' once or twice. 
 
 During these melancholy days of the end of January 
 and beginning of February 188 1, Helen and I were in 
 the habit of going down in the evenings to inquire at 
 
 308
 
 LONDON 
 
 309 
 
 Cheyne Row, usually seeing Mary, who was becoming 
 terribly tired, yet could scarcely be persuaded to have 
 help in her and her husband's long and sad night 
 watchings. ' To-morrow night, we shall see,' — was the 
 usual answer ; ' to-night, we can manage.' 
 
 One of the nights our nurse Elizabeth Haddon stayed 
 at Cheyne Row, going in sometimes to the sick-room. 
 
 The newspaper reporters or penny-a-liners used to 
 ring at the street-door nearly all through the night, but 
 at last bulletins pinned up abated the nuisance. 
 
 On the evening of Friday, February 4, Helen and 
 I went to Cheyne Row about half-past ten — Mary and 
 Alick. Helen much wished to stay all night and help 
 in the watching, but I could not agree to this, as she 
 was not well herself. 
 
 Next morning (Saturday, February 5), a note from 
 Mary — all was over. 
 
 He had lain motionless and, to all appearance, 
 unconscious for hours, and quietly ceased to breathe 
 about half-past eight this morning, Mary with him. 
 
 I went down about half-past eleven. Went into the 
 room for a short time. Sad ! sad ! — not wretched ; the 
 sadness of Humanity. 
 
 I looked upon the honoured face, thin, with hoary 
 hair and beard ; the face of a weary Pilgrim, at the 
 end of a long journey, arrived and at rest. The large 
 beautiful eyelids were closed for ever on a pair of eyes 
 that, whether for carrying messages inwards or outwards, 
 had scarce met their equals on earth or left such behind. 
 
 Helen made two pencil sketches. As we sat in the 
 parlour the street-door bell rang, and a ' Messenger 
 from the Queen ' was said to be in the passage ; I 
 went out at Mary's request, and found a Scotchman 
 of middle age, who said he was ' sent by the Queen to 
 inquire after Mr. Carlyle ' ; I told him of the death, 
 asked him no questions. He may have been John Brown. 
 
 A walk as in a dream. How strange all the moving 
 crowds, all the busy trivialities going on ! No change
 
 310 LONDON 1881 
 
 felt on earth or in air. I thought, looking at this 
 stranger and that, * If I said to you " Carlyle is dead," 
 would you care ? ' 
 
 February 6. — H. and I at Cheyne Row with Mary 
 and Alick. The Funeral to be entirely private. 
 
 March 20. — H. and I to Mrs. Procter's. Lift — 
 Mrs. and Miss P., Browning, Mr. Theodore Watts. 
 B. said, ' I never minded what Carlyle said of things 
 outside his own little circle (drawing a circle in the air 
 with his forefinger) — what was it to me what he thought 
 of Poetry or Music } One day I was talking of Keats, 
 and Carlyle's opinion of him, to Mrs. Carlyle ; she 
 asked me to lend her something of Keats's, and I brought 
 her Isabella and The Eve of St. Agnes (I was too knowing 
 to try her with Endymion). She wrote me a letter — 
 " Almost any young gentleman with a sweet tooth might 
 be expected to write such things. Isabella might have 
 been written by a seamstress who had eaten something 
 too rich for supper and slept upon her back." Do you 
 think (B. said) I cared about this more than for the 
 barking of a little dog ^ 
 
 ' I went with Odo Russell to see Carlyle. C. said, 
 *'You are British Minister at Rome.^ You ought to 
 say to the Pope, ' you Infallible Chimera ! We cannot 
 for a moment listen to you, etc. etc' " Odo heard with 
 diplomatic calmness. When we went out he said to me, 
 " What nonsense he did talk." ' (But C. knew well 
 enough what diplomatic formality requires.) 
 
 Watts. — ' I never saw Mr. Carlyle.' 
 
 Browning. — ' Then you could not know him. His 
 personality was most attaching. I shall never get 
 over it. 
 
 ' He first made my acquaintance, not I his. I first 
 saw him at Leigh Hunt's, and very properly sat silent 
 for my part all the time. When he lectured, I sub- 
 scribed and went, and coming out one day he spoke to 
 me, " How do you do, Mr. Browning } " I said I had
 
 i88i WITLEY 311 
 
 hardly thought he could recollect me. " O yes, I recol- 
 lect you very well — will you come and see me ? I live 
 down in Chelsea." 
 
 ' I did call, and he told me afterwards that he had on 
 that occasion conceived an unfavourable opinion of me, 
 because I wore (what was usual then) a green riding- 
 coat of cut-away shape. If he had seen me no more 
 I might have figured in his diary as a kind of sporting- 
 man in aspect. He was always thoroughly kind to me.' 
 
 Browning came down in the lift with us, and we 
 walked together as far as the corner of Buckingham 
 Palace. He dined at Tennyson's last night. ' T. in 
 great force. He said, '' this pair of dress boots is forty 
 years old." We all looked at them, and I said it was 
 good evidence of the immortality of the sole.' 
 
 Browning also said Carlyle had written him the 
 most beautiful letter possible — 'among other things 
 counselling me to give up verse-writing. I have my 
 own character written by Carlyle, — my wife copied it, 
 and it's in her handwriting.' "" "^ 
 
 March 21. — To Cheyne Row — upstairs, into all 
 the rooms. Everything in place, quiet, unchanged — 
 with one exception ! — grave, pathetic, venerable. 
 
 [In June of this year, 1881, the Allinghams moved 
 to Sandhills, Witley, in Surrey. 
 
 AUingham writes of Sandhills — ' the slope of heather 
 and gorse, topped with fir-trees, looks far and wide 
 over the Weald of Surrey and Sussex, Hind-Head, a 
 mountain-like hill, closing the view on the right hand, 
 Blackdown in front ; then, as the eye travels eastward, 
 come the rising grounds near Midhurst and Petworth, 
 Chanctonbury Ring, with its tuft of trees, called locally 
 *' The Squire's Hunting-Cap," and on a clear day the 
 downs near Brighton and Lewes.' 
 
 Here the life was quiet and tranquil, and AUingham 
 had leisure for his own writing and reading. 
 
 During July the notes in the diary are of ' days hot 
 and bright ' — of ' lilies and roses ' — ' buying garden
 
 312 WITLEY 1881 
 
 tools ' — ' of walks up the common, in shady lanes.' ' To 
 Chiddingfold, Village Green, old cottages, hay-field, 
 evening sun, little church spire — long shadows on the 
 grass — peaceful, pathetic.'] 
 
 July 14. — Meet Mary Carlyle and Tommy — Tommy 
 happy. 
 
 July 23. — Dine at Birket Foster's — Keene's sketches, 
 etc. 
 
 August 21. — Sandhills. H. and I to Blackdown 
 — Foxholes. H. draws. Tennyson and I sit with 
 her. 
 
 Beauty and picturesqueness — T. says, ' take a trim, 
 snug, unbeautiful house, half ruin it, and you make it 
 picturesque ; same as to ragged clothes, etc' I argue 
 that neglect alone will not make a thing picturesque, 
 there must be beauty in it. For a thing to be absolutely 
 ' beautiful ' it must have regularity. The beauty in a 
 picturesque neglected object comes from nature regain- 
 ing her sway over it. T. would not be drawn out of 
 the commonplaces of the subject. 
 
 T. — ' I said to Tyndall, " You can but scratch the 
 surface of things. You are like a swallow that dips on 
 the water." He seemed to agree to this.' 
 
 T. sitting on the faggot complained of the ' bees ' 
 (flies) being ' as fell as ought.' I said I would break him 
 a bit of oak, not esh^ and I did so. He said, ' There 
 was a real farmer in our parts — in Lincolnshire — that 
 used to say he heard his horse's hooves saying "Propetty ! 
 Propetty ! Propetty ! " His name was Thimbleby. 
 His wife, when she came into a room, would slap her 
 pockets and say, " The day I married Thimbleby I 
 brought him _^5000 on each shoulder ! " ' 
 
 August 30. — To York [The British Association]. 
 
 September 3. — Fryston. Breakfast 8.30. Lord 
 Houghton reads out part of letter from Carlyle to his 
 wife, written here at Fryston (for which he paid 
 _^io : I OS.). It begins, 'My dear Bairn,' describes the 
 Milnes family and life at Fryston. R. M. M.'s sister
 
 i88i WITLEY 313 
 
 ' about Richard's height, a fair height for a gown.' 
 Roebuck dined here, ' flew at me over and over again 
 like a cockatrice, and was duly flung off, more to the 
 satisfaction of the company than of me,' 
 
 Odd to think of this letter coming back here. 
 
 Ld, Houghton said, 'when I brought Carlyle here, 
 we came into this room (the hall). My father, who 
 was a most courteous man, expressed his great pleasure 
 at seeing him, and how much he was obliged to me for 
 bringing him : then, showing his cigar, said, " I hope, Mr. 
 Carlyle, you don't object to this occupation." C. replied 
 with emphasis, " I think sir it is a very natural occupa- 
 tion, and I should like to join in it as soon as possible ! " ' 
 
 Sunday J October 16. — Sandhills. Very fine — cold 
 — Carlyle memoranda. I and the children walk to 
 fir-wood. Buss's Corner, children and nurse return up 
 path. I sit on log and call out good-byes. In passing 
 I call and ask Charles Lewes if he will walk ? He has 
 a cold. He lends me my own Songs, Ballads, etc., the 
 copy I gave to George Eliot in May 1877. 
 
 As I sit on the tree trunk at Buss's Corner I take 
 out the book and turn its leaves. Up this very path, 
 on the edge of which I am sitting, George Eliot, G. H. 
 Lewes and myself walked one fine autumnal afternoon, 
 September 25, 1878. I had come over from Shere, 
 where we had a cottage for the season ; called, stayed 
 for luncheon ; and they both, when I started to walk 
 home, came with me down their garden, into the little 
 lane, across the railway line, to this corner where I 
 sit, over Hambledon Hill, and up the hollow road ; 
 at the end of which we parted, talking at the last 
 moment of Carlyle. Sitting on the log and looking 
 up the path eastwards, I recollect distinctly that just 
 here we talked of death, and George Eliot said, ' I used 
 to try to imagine myself dying — how I should feel 
 when dying, but of course I could not.' 
 
 I said that when a child I firmly believed I should 
 in some way escape dying.
 
 314 WITLEY 1881 
 
 George Eliot. — ' You cannot think, of yourself as 
 dead.' 
 
 G. H. Lewes was deeply silent at all this. I sus- 
 pected him at the time of thinking the topic frivolous and 
 uninteresting, but now I think he perhaps avoided it as 
 painful. Charles Lewes has told Helen that his father 
 could not bear to think of George Eliot's dying first. 
 That September walk was my last sight of Lewes. 
 Both are gone. And here I sit turning over my own 
 book and looking at her pencil markings. 
 
 She wrote me a letter, which I have, on receiving 
 this book. I put it in my pocket and walk on. 
 
 Neglected my diary till end of year. Weather 
 mostly very mild — Periwinkle flowers in garden — 
 found two primroses in fields. Tennyson and Hallam 
 called. Sonny showed T. his garden. 
 
 At Blackdown. Talk — Browning. 
 
 I praised the Russian Scenery of' Ivan Ivanovitch' in 
 the new volume, remarking that the story was in 
 substance an old one (a version of it appeared, I think, 
 in a miscellany called The Mirror). 
 
 T. said, * I think the woman was right. The 
 wolves would have eaten them all. She might have 
 saved part by what she did.' 
 
 T. told me that he had planned out his Arthuriad, 
 and could have written it all off without any trouble. 
 But in 1842 he published, with other poems, the ' Morte 
 d'Arthur,' which was one book of his Epic (though not 
 really the eleventh), and the review in the Quarterly 
 disheartened him, so that he put the scheme aside. 
 He afterwards took it up again, but not as with the 
 first inspiration. This unlucky article in the Quarterly 
 was written by John Sterling, who was then thirty-six 
 years old, just three years older than Tennyson. It 
 may be interesting now to read what it said of the 
 ' Morte d'Arthur ' : ' The first poem in the second 
 volume seems to us less costly jewel-work, with fewer 
 of the broad flashes of passionate imagery, than some
 
 1882 WITLEY 315 
 
 others, and not compensating for this inferiority by 
 any stronger human interest. The miraculous legend 
 of Excalibur does not come very near to us, and as 
 reproduced by any modern writer must be a mere 
 ingenious exercise of fancy. The poem, however, is 
 full of distinct and striking description, perfectly 
 expressed, and a tone of mild dignified sweetness 
 attracts, though it hardly avails to enchant us.' 
 
 This, it will be observed, chimes in with the doubts 
 expressed by the Poet himself in the lines written by 
 way of prologue. Blame or doubt in regard to his 
 own writings always weighed more with Tennyson than 
 praise. He often said that he forgot praise and 
 remembered all censure. 
 
 Sterling's review, meant to be friendly, was a thin 
 pretentious piece and of no value whatever : a pity it 
 should have chanced to prove so mis-effectual ! 
 
 1882 
 
 January i . — Sandhills. Last night at a few minutes 
 before 12 o'clock we, that is Helen and I, with Elizabeth, 
 Annie, and Sophie, went into the garden ; the sky clear 
 and starry, with moonlight, weather mild, and heard 
 the bells of Chiddingfold, some two miles off, ringing 
 out the Old Year — five bells they sounded like, sweet 
 and soft. The chime stopped and we shook hands 
 and wished each other a * Happy New Year ' — then it 
 began again, and also a distant band. The dear 
 children are fast asleep — a toy waiting beside each bed. 
 
 January 13. — H. and I to Blackdown. 
 
 A. T. in study. H. tries to sketch him, but he 
 wont. * You're staring at me — I can't bear it ! He's 
 keeping me in talk, it's a plot ! I hate it ! My 
 back bone is weak ! You mustn't, Mrs. A.' 
 
 Autograph hunters — some one applied repeatedly — 
 he sent ' Ask me no more. — A. Tennyson.' 
 
 Tuesday^ February 28. — Lord Houghton struck 
 with paralysis at Athens — gone, I fear.
 
 3i6 WITLEY 1882 
 
 March 4. — Visit Hook, R.A. — friendly and jocular. 
 
 [Miss De Morgan came down one day to look for 
 lodgings — to Tobitt's Farm.] 
 
 ' Mrs. Tobitt has let her rooms.' 
 
 ' To an artist 1 ' asks Mary. 
 
 ' O no, M'", quite a genileman.'' 
 
 [In the local directory Mr. Birket Foster was 
 entered as ' Tradesman.'] 
 
 Thursday, April 20. — Splendid day. Sat in Study 
 with open window and wrote for P.M.G. ' Foot-paths.' 
 
 To-night hear nightingale for first time. 
 
 Newspapers — Death of Darwin. 
 
 May Day. — Overcast. A few cottage children 
 came in carrying sticks with flowers tied to them — 
 neither sung nor spoke, but stood shyly holding their 
 flower sticks ; got 6d. and went away. A curiously 
 silent folk, the English peasants. Sonny and Evey 
 get flower sticks next day. 
 
 Abundance of wild flowers, nightingales and cuckoos 
 heard all night. 
 
 May 8. — Murder of Lord F. Cavendish and Mr. 
 Burke in the Phoenix Park. O wretched country ! 
 
 Tuesday, May 9.^ — Storm of wind, trees blown 
 down. Hear of serious illness, then of the death of 
 Emerson — eighty next month — a calm happy truly 
 philosophic life. No grief, scarcely sadness, in such 
 a departure ; but it leaves the world lonelier, and us 
 the readier to go when our day comes. 
 
 June 13. — Walking with William Morris from the 
 Society of Arts to Bloomsbury last Friday, we talked, 
 among other things, of believing or not believing in 
 a God, and he said ' It's so unimportant, it seems to 
 me,' and he went on to say that all we can get to, do 
 what we will, is a form of words. 
 
 I think we agree in part, not entirely ; but in the 
 street and in a hurry explanation was impossible. 
 
 ^ On May i ith Allingham's youngest child, Henry William Allingham, 
 was born.
 
 1882 WITLEY 317 
 
 ' Le Sujet de Dieu ' might be called unimportant in 
 a sense, because, as the French editor said, ' il manque 
 I'actualite,' 
 
 One knows that it is impossible to arrive at any- 
 thing definite, and those who do not trouble their heads 
 about the matter can get on as well as other people, 
 so far as one sees. 
 
 It must be remembered, however, that our whole 
 society is based upon traditionary belief in a God, and, 
 believe what we will, we continue to get the benefit of 
 this in many ways. But there are, and always will be, 
 many people who cannot help asking often and anxiously, 
 ' Is there a God ? — Is there no God ? ' and the sort of 
 answer that comes home may be highly important to 
 them and others in its practical results, especially in 
 certain crises, common to human life, but new and 
 intensely interesting to each human being. In crises, too, 
 of national life the subject may have a terrible actuality. 
 • But this does not justify dogmatism upon it. Here 
 also I think sincerity best, with oneself and others. I 
 will have nothing to do with the Church of Rome, or 
 indeed with any form of Christianity, in spite of all the 
 beauty and power, all the comforting and controlling 
 influences, because I know the structure is built on false 
 dogmas. No verbal Revelation of any date, in any 
 tongue, has the least authority with me. Nor do I 
 want a puppet God constructed or kept up because it 
 may scare some from robbery and revolution, murder 
 and suicide ; and it seems to me that whoever goes 
 about to describe or define the Deity, sets up an idol or 
 puppet, a man's work, whether it be mean as African 
 fetish or majestic as the Jupiter of Pheidias. We 
 cannot in the least describe, or comprehend, or even 
 think Deity. And yet we can believe in Deity, and 
 that belief is not fantastic, but natural, sound, and 
 reasonable. There is to me no conception of the 
 Universe possible save as the dominion of Power and 
 Wisdom, unfathomably great, yet in sympathy with my
 
 31 8 BROADLANDS 1882 
 
 own intelligent nature ; a Greatness presenting itself to 
 me (when I dare at all to shape it) as a true Personality, 
 comprising all that man at his best in measured degree 
 feels, thinks, and is ; and much more. 
 
 Almighty God^ — to whom turns my soul, sharing, 
 I know not how, the mystic divine nature ; whose 
 reality is indubitable, whose quality is incomprehen- 
 sible, whose plans are inscrutable. This conception 
 is in harmony and consistency with my whole moral, 
 reasonable, and imaginative being. It bears little 
 talking about, and that only in the choicest moments. 
 Logic has no hold here. Rhetoric is out of place. I 
 do not know that I am bound to turn my mind towards 
 the problem of the universe, or that any one is bound 
 to send his thoughts outside of his daily life and business. 
 But my mind does naturally and voluntarily so turn, 
 and when it does so turn it finds before it the idea 
 of God^ and therefrom receives a sense of strength and 
 serenity. Nor is this experience contradicted in the 
 least by anything that I know, feel, or imagine. 
 
 August 23. — To Southampton [British Association]. 
 
 Tuesday^ August 3 1 . — Broadlands ; Romsey. Lord 
 and Lady Mount-Temple, Mr. Geo. Russell, M.P. 
 The Gladstones starting for Stonehenge to join excursion. 
 
 I in Lord Palmerston's library for several hours. 
 
 Talk about Dizzy — Lord M. said he was in the 
 House the night Disraeli made his first speech. He 
 spoke in a florid, hustings style, and the House laughed, 
 more and more as he went on. He began a sentence — 
 ' I think I see Britannia, with the Cap of Liberty in one 
 
 hand, and in the other ' but shouts of laughter 
 
 drowned his voice. At last, after a pause, he said, ' It 
 is useless for me to continue — but the time will come 
 when you shall hear me,' and he sat down. Every one 
 heard the concluding words. Mr. Campbell (afterwards 
 Lord C), who was sitting near him, said in a stage whisper 
 ' Mr. Disraeli, I'm very anxious to know what it was 
 Britannia had in her other hand,' but received no reply.
 
 ALDWORTH 
 
 319 
 
 D. was very dressy, with curled hair, and rings worn 
 over his gkrves. Mr. Russell said that after this Dizzy 
 began to cultivate the country-gentleman style of speak- 
 ing, very practical and unadorned, taking for his subjects 
 the Corn Laws, Hop duties, and so forth. 
 
 D.'s family was originally Spanish, of the ancient 
 house of Lara ; an ancestor changed his name and 
 abode, and settled at Venice as D'Israeli. 
 
 1883 
 
 Towards the end of the year. 
 
 I have neglected my diary a long while. At the 
 time it seldom seems worth doing Let me try back. 
 
 Mr. George Philip of Liverpool, publisher, came 
 and lunched with us. He agreed to publish Blackberries 
 and Day and Night Songs — bought Helen's * Cottage 
 Garden, Spring.' 
 
 I went to Haslemere one day to get names to a 
 letter to Lord Derby, asking him not to enclose certain 
 roadsides hereabouts on the property he has lately 
 bought towards Hindhead. Caught Dr. Tyndall at 
 station, who signed, saying that Lord Derby told him 
 himself he intended to do all he could to keep the 
 beauty of these places unspoilt. Walked up to 
 Aldworth, saw Hallam, then Tennyson, who signed. 
 
 T. — ' I don't know whether you can help me ' — 
 taking a book off the table — ' I'm not satisfied with 
 this ' — then he read — 
 
 Low-flowing breezes are roaming the broad valley dimm'd in the 
 gloaming. 
 
 W. A. — ' That's a very old favourite of mine — hope 
 you won't alter it.' 
 
 T. — ' Some of the things don't seem to agree with the 
 time spoken of.' 
 
 W. A. — ' The total effect is harmonious. It's like a 
 landscape in an old Italian picture.' 
 
 T. — ' I know : but I fear the water-gnats are not 
 right : they would not be out so late.'
 
 320 ALDWORTH 1883 
 
 I suggested transposing the line — 
 
 Over the pools in the burn water-gnats murmur and mourn — 
 
 SO as to bring it in earlier in the piece, which need not 
 be supposed to show one moment merely, but a deepen- 
 ing twilight. He tried this in several ways then put it 
 by for further consideration, and came out upon Black- 
 down and saw the close of one of these strange rich 
 volcanic sunsets, now in our skies — floating ghost, 
 perhaps, of a mountain blown to atoms. He spoke of 
 Edward FitzGerald — had not seen him for years before 
 his death ; FitzGerald could not be got to visit. 
 
 ' But no sort of quarrel ? ' 
 
 ' O no ! fancy my quarrelling with dear old Fitz ! ' 
 
 We talked a little about the steam voyage with 
 Gladstone. 
 
 ' Why did you read " The Grandmother " to the 
 great folk ? ' 
 
 T. — ' The Princess of Wales asked for it ; she had 
 heard Mrs. Greville read it. I read it in a cabin on 
 deck ; the Princess sat close to me on one side and a 
 young lady whom I didn't know on the other. The 
 wind came through an open window and the Princess 
 whispered "Put on your hat" — but I said I ought if 
 possible to make myself balder than ever before so 
 many Royalties ! She said again, " Oh put it on ! " 
 so I did, and I heard afterwards that the King of 
 Denmark's Court-Fool who was in the background 
 (they really keep a Court-Fool) remarked, " He may 
 be Laureate, but he has not learnt Court manners." 
 
 ' When I was done the ladies praised me, and I patted 
 the unknown one on the back by way of reply, and 
 presently I found out she was the Empress of Russia.' 
 
 ' Had you any talk with the Czar ? ' 
 
 ' Hardly any — he said he couldn't speak English. 
 Perhaps he was disgusted at my patting his wife on the 
 back. His head was up in the cabin ceiling as he 
 walked about below.'
 
 1883 WITLEY 321 
 
 Tennyson said the finest thing he saw on the voyage 
 was one night as he stood at the bow of the great 
 steamer and saw, as it were, the whole sea rushing 
 past like an immeasurable river to some unknown gulf. 
 
 We came to Sussex Gate, as I call it, " on the 
 boundary of the two counties. ' Come into Surrey,' I 
 said ; ' No, I can't,' says he, ' but I'll strike the gate- 
 post with my stick ; I generally do — like Johnson 
 with the posts in Fleet Street.' So we parted. I went 
 on to Mr. Hodgson's, who signed the letter, 
 
 August. — William De Morgan came. Argument 
 about Genius — he thought it meant inspiration, as by 
 a familiar spirit or demon, 
 
 September 1 2. — We dined at Pinewood, Sir Henry and 
 Lady Holland, etc. — Irish Members, South Africa. 
 
 [There was also an interesting evening at Mr. (now 
 Sir Robert) Hunter's, where the AUinghams met Mr. 
 and Mrs. Henry Fawcett.] 
 
 The Poynters at Bowler's Green : our intercourse 
 was pleasant and friendly. 
 
 Caldecott looks in from hunting, his mare having 
 cast a shoe. 
 
 Charles Keene calls — we walk. He speaks of 
 Edward FitzGerald — odd — dressed roughly — disliked 
 London. ' You fellows in clubs and so on praise each 
 other's things, poor as they may be ! ' F. went with K. 
 to a studio, and after coming away asked, ' Why did you 
 say " very nice " ^ You know you didn't like them.' 
 
 K. once sent him a little sketch out of his pocket- 
 book of some cottages near Woodbridge. F. returned 
 it with the remark, ' I could do as well myself.' He 
 kept a Commonplace Book of extracts, Haljf-hours with 
 the Worst Authors. K. hopes it will be published. ' F. 
 had his favourite murders, and I had mine,' 
 
 I read to Sonny and Evey The Tempest, Midsr. Night's 
 D., As Tou Like It (the plot of the last much strained), 
 
 John, Mayor of Waterford (for 1884) : goes to 
 Parnell Banquet. 
 
 Y
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 1884 
 
 [Early in this year the Allinghams spent some weeks 
 at Hampstead, near to Mrs. Paterson (Mrs. Ailing- 
 ham's Mother) and her son and daughter. There are 
 notes of visits to many old friends in Town, — and of 
 a night at the Corner House, Shortlands, with Mr. and 
 Mrs. George Craik.] 
 
 March 23. — Sandhills. The 'Forward Oak' is be- 
 ginning to show a green top about this time. 
 
 March 26. — H. and I to the Evans's — Miss Kate 
 Greenaway. 
 
 Sunday^ March 30. — Mild. With Sonny and Sissy 
 down Haselmere Lane and into * Primrose Land ' — 
 copse abounding in primroses, wood -anemones, some 
 violets — wood-spurge sprouting. Home with basket of 
 flowers. 
 
 Wednesday^ April 2. — Fine. Visitors — Mrs. and 
 Miss Mangles, Mrs. Hunter, Mr. Burdon. 
 
 The wallflowers now are rich, germander speedwells 
 fine blue. 
 
 April 3. — Pruning currant-bushes. Walk with 
 Sonny and Evey, Brook Road, little common. Skirt 
 Banacle Copse, violets, stitchwort. Ants. 
 
 June. — I low in spirits : the going over and in part 
 burning old letters and papers very doleful and trying. 
 
 Have I been half kind enough, or grateful enough, 
 or' humble enough } How much kindness and friend- 
 ship I have received ! 
 
 322
 
 .^.^lain^h^ 
 
 ^ii ill t<i in . lllutaluun 
 
 .'-9iviii ,1 /rah-rcc/oiii .ikrh/i
 
 1884 WITLEY 323 
 
 Nine years of subediting and editing Fraser^ and 
 what a list of people I have offended for life, by 
 declining their contributions or in other ways ! My 
 name was known in connection with the Magazine, 
 and people applied to me personally and took personal 
 offence, even when J. A. F. was the really responsible 
 person. Enough of it ! 
 
 June 25. — Helen and I by invitation to the wedding 
 of Hallam and Miss Audrey Boyle. The T. party 
 were in our train in another carriage. We met at 
 Waterloo Station. We in hansom to Dean's Yard — 
 take our places in Henry VII. 's Chapel. Enter old 
 Mrs. Procter and daughter, who sat next us ; Lord 
 Houghton, Mr. Lewis Morris, Mr. Matthew Arnold, 
 Lecky, etc. Browning up in a Stall ; he caught my eye 
 and gave a friendly wink. Tennyson came in, cool 
 and self-possessed, with Mrs. F. Locker on his arm. 
 Lady Tennyson, supported by Lionel. 
 
 Ceremony. Then we all moved out slowly to the 
 Deanery. Caldecott joined us in the aisle. Lecky, 
 Mrs. Lecky, etc., etc. We had little more than a 
 glimpse of the Bride — Happiness to them ! worthy 
 young people, they deserve it. 
 
 A shakehands with Dean Bradley, who asks me 
 to find him a cottage in our neighbourhood to run 
 down to. 
 
 In the Chapel we had just in front of us, and spoke 
 to, T.'s sisters, Matilda — always most simple, friendly, 
 and a pleasure to talk to — and Mrs. Lushington, whom 
 we know but from one evening together at Dover. 
 Mr. Lushington, after all these years, recollected me 
 well and some talk we had together (which I have 
 forgotten) — he looks little older, and bears his age like 
 a cheerful wise man. 
 
 JVitley, July 26. — After much urging from H. (I 
 have always a rooted belief that people don't really 
 want to see me) I went to Haslemere to-day : cool 
 with showers : and walked up to Aldworth, arriving
 
 324 ALD WORTH 1884 
 
 about 3 P.M. Found an arch in Avenue, 'Welcome 
 Home' — so the Bride and Bridegroom are back. 
 ' Lady Tennyson ' — ' Yes sir,' — on her sofa, sweet, pale 
 and friendly. 
 
 Enter Hallam, looking stouter and face broadened. 
 He tries his Father's door. ' Come in,' and there was 
 T., just wakened from his usual nap — glad to see me, 
 and says, ' I've done an Irish poem and I want you to 
 help me with the brogue. But you're from the North.' 
 
 I told him I knew various Irish brogues — had he 
 chosen any one in particular .? 
 
 'No.' 
 
 He took up Carleton's Traits and Stories, which he 
 was reading for the first time (to get up the brogue), 
 and was delighted with, all the more for its caricature. 
 Then he produced the MS. of ' Molly Maghee ' (I asked 
 him to strike out the ' h '), and we spent about an hour 
 over it. First Tennyson read the piece to me, I com- 
 menting on it ; then I read it to him, he looking over 
 my arm the while. Aubrey de Vere gave him the 
 subject, as a fact — the body of a man drowned in a 
 bog-hole found undecayed after forty years or so. His 
 old sweetheart recognises him and drops down ' dead 
 on the dead.' The same incident is told of a Cornish 
 miner, and I published a prose story upon it in Leigh 
 Hunt's Journal. Hamilton Aide has a poem on the 
 same subject. I suggested many corrections in the 
 brogue, and some in other points. I told T. the Irish 
 would not like it, but he didn't see why not. 
 
 I am pressed to stay for dinner, and then to stay the 
 night — consent, and send telegram to Helen. Then 
 T. and I, in rain, make a little run in the copses to a 
 new summer-house with a writing-table and pens, and 
 a vista cut in front to see the vast view of the weald, 
 etc. Dinner at 6.30. Stay a Httle with Lady T. and 
 Hallam : then drawing-room, where T. at table close to 
 window with Mrs. Hallam — wine and strawberries. 
 
 He thinks England is entering on gloomy times —
 
 1884 ALD WORTH 325 
 
 perhaps coming to the end of her grandeur and glory. 
 * Goschen feels the same — is much depressed about it, 
 the Lord Chancellor too. I voted for the Franchise to 
 avoid worse things.' 
 
 I said I wished he had voted against Pigeon Torture. 
 
 Hallam. — 'So do I.' 
 
 T. said nothing, but I stuck to the subject. 
 
 ' Hope you'll vote for the Bill next time.' 
 
 ' Don't think I'll ever go into the House again,' 
 
 ' Well, you can pair.' 
 
 ' Lecky says the Irish want a despot,' and T. agrees. 
 
 ' The English are not poetical or musical or clever 
 — they're very stupid and heavy — but they are for 
 reasonable and constitutional liberty, that a man should 
 have his own opinion without being knocked on the 
 head for it. In Ireland, if I don't agree with a man, 
 he shoots me or knocks my brains out ! I never knew 
 a rational Irishman in my life ! except you ' (this 
 sounded very parenthetical), ' and you don't care a pin 
 for the grand Empire of England. You ought to be 
 proud surely to be part of it. There you are, with an 
 English name, English in every way, but you happened 
 to be born in Ireland, therefore you are for it.' 
 
 I pleaded that I was more impartial than most 
 people ; ' if I were Nationalist I might be popular in 
 Ireland and perhaps get into Parliament if I liked. 
 My brother was offered a seat for Waterford free of 
 cost.' 
 
 T. — ' I hate to think of Ireland. Here they are, 
 after 700 years raging and roaring.' 
 
 W. A. — ' A most unlucky country ! ' (to which 
 Hallam agreed). ' Suppose England tried leaving them 
 to themselves.' 
 
 T.— ' Civil War ! ' 
 
 W. A. — ' Then let them settle it. England would 
 be able to take care of herself.' 
 
 T. — ' Ireland might join with France against 
 England.'
 
 326 ALDWORTH 1884 
 
 W. A. — ' Another plan : take away all franchise and 
 representation from Ireland for seven years, letting her 
 manage her local affairs as she pleases.' 
 
 T. — ' They would roar incessantly. I hate speaking 
 of it ! ' (da capo). 
 
 T. was shocked to hear of William Morris's 
 Democratic Socialism, and asked to see a copy of Justice. 
 (Morris's Justice^ I partly agree with and partly detest. 
 It is incendiary and atheistic, and would upset every- 
 thing. How about America, which started a hundred 
 years ago as a democracy with almost ideal advantages ? 
 I want reforms and thorough-going ones, but not by 
 the hands of atheists and anarchists.) 
 
 By the evening post came a packet from ' O. Weber,' 
 Copenhagen, asking Lord Tennyson to present the 
 enclosed MS. translation into Danish of his splendid 
 dramas The Cup and The Falcon to H.R.H. the Prin- 
 cess of Wales. 
 
 Sunday^ July 27. — Aldworth. About eleven T. and 
 I came out to walk, first to the stables, where he 
 unchained a Deerhound, a black Setter and two smaller 
 dogs, then with these on Blackdown — along road, 
 returning by Chase Farm uphill through planta- 
 tions. 
 
 Poetry — Browning : ' one is constantly aware of the 
 greatness of the man, yet somehow baulked of satis- 
 faction. 
 
 ' He offered me the subject of The Ring and the 
 Book. " My Last Duchess " is very fine.' 
 
 As he stood looking at the pond by Chase Farm, 
 I spoke of Ruskin's essay on versification, and his 
 selection of Coleridge as the exemplar of a bad Versifier, 
 and of these lines from 'Christabel ' as an example of bad 
 verse — 
 
 But vainly thou warrest, 
 
 For this is alone in 
 Thy power to declare, 
 
 That in the dim forest 
 Thou heard'st a low moaning,
 
 1884 ALDWORTH 327 
 
 And found'st a bright lady, surpassingly fair ; 
 
 And did'st bring her home with thee in love and in charity, 
 
 To shield her and shelter her from the damp air. 
 
 * Nobody,' I said, ' but a true and heaven-born Metrist 
 
 could have written that — 'twas like a legato passage on 
 
 the violin, flowing through from beginning to end with 
 
 one bow.' T. did not entirely agree. He objected to — 
 
 Did'st bring her home with thee in love and in charity. 
 
 I said the whole passage had an air of spontaneous- 
 ness, of naivety, and this to me was the last perfection 
 of poetry. 
 
 T. — * The last perfection is the wild and wonder- 
 ful— 
 
 Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam, 
 Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.' 
 
 W. A. — ' Coleridge was a great poet. — Well, he 
 was an endless talker, but not a bothering one ; 'twas 
 like a fountain running, you went away from it when 
 you pleased. He did not care about convincing or 
 converting or convicting you.' 
 
 T. — * Ruskin's dictum is not to be relied on.' 
 
 W. A. — ' Especially on poetry. He printed a volume 
 of poems of his own ; but that (he wrote to me once) is 
 " the disgrace of whatever faculty I possess." — Recently 
 he has republished his Oxford Prize Poem on the 
 *' Caves of Elephanta " — entirely worthless.' 
 
 When on the upper road, looking over the gate 
 where you see the Valewood ponds below, we still spoke 
 of poetry. 
 
 ' One believes in a poet,' I said, ' whose lines are 
 perpetually coming into one's mind. Yours do with 
 me.' 
 
 T. — ' Repeat a line.' 
 
 W. A. — ' Dozens, if you like.' 
 
 T. — ' I was praising one of Rogers's poems to him 
 once and he said, " Repeat a passage — ha, you can't," 
 and I couldn't at the moment.'
 
 32 8 ALDWORTH 1884 
 
 W. A. — ' Well, that's barley, not wheat, but here's a 
 line it brings to my mind — 
 
 And waves of shadow went over the wheat. 
 
 ' After the thunder-storm the other day, as many a 
 time before, I repeated to myself — 
 
 Sweet after showers, ambrosial air, 
 
 That rollest from the gorgeous gloom 
 Of evening ' 
 
 T. interrupted me and, as he spoke, stood still and 
 faced me (a custom of his) — 
 
 ' You can't say it so sweetly as I can "! ' and repeated 
 the whole stanza, and on, to ' the round of space.' 
 
 I always rejoice to hear him recite. 
 
 * It all goes together,' said he. 
 
 ' Yes,' said I, ' especially when you sit down to the 
 organ. You won't listen to me and so I hurry.' 
 
 As we turned down Pack Horse Lane, T. spoke of 
 Eternal Punishment as an obsolete belief. 
 
 I said, ' At Witley Station hangs on the wall a large 
 book of Bible Texts, one page for each day of the 
 month. To-day I read — " All the dead shall arise, the 
 righteous to eternal life, the wicked to everlasting 
 damnation." ' 
 
 T. — ' It's not a right translation.' 
 
 W. A. — ' But it's the authoritative teaching of the 
 Church.' 
 
 T. — ' Have you read Farrar's book } ' 
 
 W. A. — ' I never read such books.' 
 
 T. — ' Oh, but here he proves from original sources 
 that no such doctrine existed in the early days of 
 Christianity.' 
 
 I told T. that Bishop Wilberforce was very proud of 
 having saved the Athanasian Creed when the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury was for giving it up, which 
 interested him. 
 
 ' Did he ? My father (I think it was his father) 
 would never read the Athanasian Creed.'
 
 1884 ALD WORTH 329 
 
 As we entered the back wicket and went along the 
 shady little walk to the house T. said, ' You're not 
 orthodox, and I can't call myself orthodox. Two 
 things however I have always been firmly convinced 
 of,- — God, — and that death will not end my existence.' 
 
 W. A.—' So I believe.' 
 
 T. (stopping and turning round) — ' Do you hold 
 these ? ' 
 
 W. A.—' I do.' 
 
 He was going up for his usual sleep, and asked me 
 not to go till he came down again about half-past three. 
 So I sat and read in the middle parlour. Then went 
 up and found him just after wakening. He came out, 
 unloosed the dogs again, and walked with me along the 
 road till we met Mrs. Hodgson coming to call. T. 
 asked me to turn back, but I took leave and walked 
 off to Witley, glad to have seen so much of the dear 
 man, and sad not to see more. 
 
 August 2. — Warm — with breeze. H., I and Sonny 
 and Evey to Godalming, by invitation, to the Wallaces,^ 
 Frith Hill, beside the Water Tower. Hot climb. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Wallace in garden. Willy, Violet — children 
 race about. 
 
 W. shows us round his garden — rare plants and 
 flowers — little ' Californian tulip,' light yellow, three 
 petals — green hairs inside — Canadian lily — Flowers of 
 one day. Eucalyptus, three kinds, very tender. 
 
 Sit with Wallace under tree and talk a long while 
 on Spiritualism, apparitions, mediums, etc.—' the Cock 
 Lane Ghost was real (as Johnson believed), but they 
 teased the girl into imposture at last.' He said about 
 one person in ten, probably, is a medium. 
 
 He spoke with unqualified praise of every book and 
 writer on the spiritualistic side — William Howitt, 
 Professor De Morgan, Professor Barrett, F. W. H. 
 Myers, etc. — showed us, in a magazine, drawings done 
 by thought-readers. He gave an account, essentially 
 
 1 Mr. Alfred Russell Wallace.
 
 330 ALDWORTH 1884 
 
 Swedenborgian, of the state of spirits in the next world 
 — but he does not take Swedenborg for a prophet. 
 
 I told him of my mentally seeing The Times with a 
 black border one morning before I went into the room 
 where it lay. It was for Prince Leopold's death. He 
 asked do I usually ' visualise ' the things I think of ? 
 ' Yes, always.' ' I do not at all (he said) — my mind has 
 only thoughts.' Then spoke of Galton's division of all 
 minds into the visualising and the non-visualising class. 
 
 August 4. — To Lythe Hill, Mrs. Stewart Hodgson's 
 — Roomful — Corney Grain performing. Lord 
 Tennyson, Hallam, Mrs. Hallam, Mr. Buckton, Mr. 
 Macmillan, Wife and Daughter, Mrs. Pratt, etc. Mrs. 
 Hunter drives us to station, and asks us to dine on 
 Saturday. 
 
 Thursday^ August 7. — A hot day. Helen and I all 
 the afternoon at Aldworth. Various visitors and 
 callers, so I had little talk with T. 
 
 Some numbers of Justice — Democrat Socialist paper 
 which I lent him — made him ' vomit mentally,' he said. 
 He would agree to the heavy taxing of large incomes 
 if it could be done. I told him about Alfred Wallace, 
 whom we visited last Saturday, and Spiritualism. 
 Wallace a thorough-going believer — but has had no 
 experiences himself. Also, he never visualises his 
 thoughts. I suggested that to such a man the mere 
 visualising power of some other minds might appear 
 supernatural, he having nothing like it in his experience. 
 
 T. — ' I said long ago, " A poet never sees a Ghost." ' 
 
 Still, he is most anxious to believe in ghosts. 
 
 ' As to visualising,' he said, * I often see the most 
 magnificent landscapes.' 
 
 ' In dreams ? ' 
 
 'Yes, and on closing my eyes. To-day when I 
 lay down I saw a line of huge wonderful cliffs rising 
 out of a great sweep of forest — finer than anything in 
 nature.' 
 
 Other gifts he has, but T. is especially and pre-
 
 ALDWORTH 
 
 33^ 
 
 eminently a landscape-painter in words, a colourist, rich, 
 full and subtle. 
 
 He has, latently, a very practical side to his 
 character, and in using this his profound quietude of 
 temperament and manner helps im.mensely. 
 
 We talked of Carlyle. T. said, ' He used to tell 
 me, " You must do this — You mustn't do that " — 
 but I never minded him in the least. I repeated some 
 of Marvell's lines about Holland to Carlyle — 
 
 They with mad labour fished the land to shore — 
 
 but he saw no humour in them, and said it was wrong 
 to ridicule a serious diligent Nation.' 
 
 Mem. — Tennyson read Baudelaire's Fleurs du Mal^ 
 and thought him ' a kind of moralist,' though his 
 subjects, he allowed, are shocking. I could not agree 
 (and had, I think, studied Baudelaire more closely) ; 
 he seems to me to take pleasure in seeing evil com- 
 mitted, and also in seeing evil-doers punished — a devil 
 rather than a moralist. 
 
 September 8. — H. and I to Aid worth. In the draw- 
 ing-room we find Lady Tennyson — then T. comes in. 
 His two little grandsons run in. Tennyson went to 
 his bedroom and returned with a soap-dish and piece 
 of soap, which he rubbed into a lather, and proceeded 
 to blow bubbles, himself much delighted with the 
 little crystal worlds and their prismatic tints — ' Never 
 was anything seen so beautiful ! You artists (to H.) 
 can't get such colours as these.' 
 
 The children jumped and laughed, and we fanned 
 the bubbles to the ceiling and watched them burst in 
 various parts of the room. Then T., inverting his 
 pipe, blew up a magic cluster of diamond domes on the 
 saucer, which rolled over and wetted his knees, till we 
 put a newspaper to save him. Next he took his trusty 
 tobacco pipe, lighted it and blew opaque bubbles which 
 burst with a tiny puff of smoke, like shells over a 
 besieged fortress.
 
 332 ALDWORTH 1884 
 
 I said, ' Do you remember Vivier, the French horn- 
 player, doing that in Tom Taylor's garden ? ' 
 
 T. — ' I was just thinking of that.' 
 
 We were asked more than once to stay, but hurried 
 off to the train. 
 
 September. — After the hot summer, rain — then fine 
 autumnal weather. 
 
 The Oulesses at Grayswood : walks and calls. 
 
 Thursday^ November 6. — Tennyson wished me to 
 bring Mr. Alfred R. Wallace to visit him. It was 
 arranged that W. and I should go over to-day. Mr. 
 Wallace came by the 12.35 train from Godalming, 
 and Helen and I (she specially invited by Hallam) 
 joined at Witley. At Haslemere we found Hallam 
 with a pony-carriage. 
 
 T. ' not well ' — looking languid and rather sad. 
 
 At luncheon, talk about the tropic woods : Wallace 
 said you would find one kind of tree in flower for 
 about a week, and at another time another kind of 
 tree in flower for a short time, but you might come 
 again and again and find no flowers at all ; there were 
 never in the Tropics such masses of floral colour as in 
 an English Spring. 
 
 T. was disappointed at this, and asked about the 
 trailing plants. W. called them ' glorious,' but more 
 for the rich drapery than the colours. The palm-tops 
 are mostly a grayish green. 
 
 We digressed to novels. Mr. W. (rather to my 
 surprise) reads ' a good many in the course of the 
 year,' but does not hurry over them. He and Hallam 
 exchanged names of novels to be ordered from the 
 Circulating Library, Lord Tennyson being an incessant 
 novel-reader. While we were speaking of woods 
 etc. T. said, ' Bayard Taylor, who has been everywhere, 
 said the most beautiful sight he ever saw was a wood in 
 Lapland covered with frozen rain and the sun shining 
 on it.' 
 
 Also, ' Sir Robert Kane said the most awful thing
 
 i884 ALD WORTH 333 
 
 he ever experienced was the absolute silence of an 
 Arctic winter.' 
 
 Mr. Wallace, Hallam and I went round the grounds, 
 looking at various conifers. 
 
 To the Study. W. gave details of table-rapping, 
 table-prancing, and so forth, his own experiences and 
 other people's. He never doubts any statement what- 
 ever in favour of ' Spiritualism,' and has an answer to 
 every objection. ' Maskelyne and Cooke do wonderful 
 things.' — * Yes, partly by the help of mediumship.' 
 
 ' The " Spirits " often give foolish and misleading 
 answers.' — ' Yes, as might be expected ; that only 
 proves them to be human beings.' 
 
 ' Why noises and motions of tables ? Why these 
 particular "Mediums"?' — 'Such are the conditions; 
 why, we do not know.' 
 
 W. said it was absurd to suppose that Matter could 
 move itself. I ventured to remark that Matter, so far 
 as we can penetrate, does move itself, indeed is per- 
 petually in motion. 
 
 He rejoined that in table-rapping etc. the phe- 
 nomena were manifestly governed by an intelligence like 
 our own. The means of communication between the 
 Unseen World and ours were few and difficult. 
 
 Here Tennyson said, 'A great ocean pressing round us 
 on every side, and only leaking in by a few chinks ' ? — 
 of which Wallace took no notice, but went on to describe 
 instances of spirit-writing on slates, by Slade and others. 
 
 (I fear my tone all through was hardly respectful to 
 the spirits.) 
 
 Somehow or other a sudden digression was made to 
 politics, and W. came out with a strong opinion of the 
 worthlessness of the House of Lords and the absurdity 
 of the hereditary principle. 
 
 T. said, ' I think I respect it more than the other 
 House.' 
 
 W. — ' The other House wants reforming very badly, 
 no doubt.' 
 
 ^
 
 334 ALD WORTH 1884 
 
 The Duke of Marlborough was mentioned. Wallace 
 denounced the purchase of his Raphael with the public 
 money as ' scandalous ' — would not buy any pictures 
 or works of art with the taxpayers' money — ' let wealthy 
 men buy and present them to the nation if they think 
 fit/ 
 
 Egypt somehow came in, and Wallace thought we 
 ought to leave the Mahdi alone. He is perhaps a great 
 man, and at all events we know no harm of him. 
 
 T. — * I know no good of him.' 
 
 W. A. — ' Would you not like to see the Nile ? ' 
 
 T. — ' I'd much rather see tropical nature, but now I 
 never shall.' 
 
 And then he questioned W. again about tropical 
 scenery, producing a poem in MS., from which he read 
 two or three lines about palms and purple seas. He 
 wanted to know if the palm-trees could be seen rising 
 distinct above the rest of the forest. 
 
 W. — ' Yes, on a hill-side.' 
 
 * What colour are they } ' 
 
 ' Rather light — gray-green.' 
 
 ' Is an expanse of tropical forest dark, seen from 
 above ? ' 
 
 ' Not particularly ; less so than an English wood- 
 land.' 
 
 T. — ' Then I must change the word " dark." ' 
 
 He writes his poetry now in trim small quarto 
 books, in limp covers, the writing as neat as ever, tho' 
 sometimes a little shaky. He keeps these books handy 
 and takes them up very often, both at set times and 
 odd moments, considering and correcting, and frequently 
 reading new poems aloud from them, first to his family 
 and afterwards to visitors. After the compositions are 
 put into type he usually keeps them by him in proof 
 for a long time, months or even years, reconsidering 
 and perfecting every part. 
 
 T. referred with praise to Wallace's book. Tropical 
 Nature, and remarked, ' You have said something very
 
 1884 ALDWORTH 335 
 
 bold about Matter ? I think Matter more mysterious 
 than Spirit. I can conceive, in a way, what Spirit is, 
 but not Matter.' 
 
 W. — ' I conceive Matter not as a substance at all, 
 but as points of energy^ and that if these were withdrawn 
 Matter would disappear.' 
 
 T. said this was something like his own notion. 
 
 W. — ' So far from a material atom being indestruc- 
 tible, I believe that all the Matter in existence might be 
 immediately destroyed by the withdrawal of the sustain- 
 ing Force.' 
 
 Tuesday^ November 25. — On a sudden impulse I 
 walked up from Sandhills about 3 o'clock, to call at 
 Aldworth, the roads greasy with a thaw, ice on pools. 
 On Blackdown met Hallam, and then Tennyson. 
 They hospitably determined that I was to stay the night, 
 and would telegraph to Witley accordingly. They had 
 come along the road to meet Miss Ritchie coming from 
 London, who soon appeared, and we walked to the 
 house together. In the ante-room, Miss Matilda and 
 tea, and we all looked at a large coloured caricature, 
 ' The Tower of Babel,' with portraits of peers, M.P.'s, 
 etc. etc. 
 
 Miss R. said, ' What a pity Mr. Gladstone sees so 
 many sides of a subject.' 
 
 T. — ' No, that he doesn't do — he cannot see all 
 round a thing. Bacon could. Bacon says, "It were 
 good if men in their innovations would follow the 
 example of Time itself, which indeed innovateth 
 greatly, but quietly, and by degrees scarce to be 
 perceived." ' 
 
 I said, ' Yes, but we ought not to wait to be forced 
 on.' 
 
 T. rejoined, ' Bacon says that too,' and went on to 
 complain of the crude and dangerous haste of modern 
 Reformers. 
 
 (Bacon's Essays^ by the way, are mostly bundles of 
 antitheses, and offer weapons to opposite combatants.)
 
 336 ALDWORTH 1884 
 
 In the evening Tennyson questioned me again about 
 Irish brogue, ' How do they pronounce " door " ? ' 
 
 I answer, like ' boor ' : ' floor ' sometimes thus, and 
 sometimes with a sharper u — hke ' flute.' 
 
 T. has rhymed ' door ' to ' asthore ' in his Irish poem, 
 and is uneasy in his mind about it, notwithstanding 
 Aubrey de Vere's thinking it all right. 
 
 In * Mary Donnelly ' I have — 
 
 When she stood up for dancing her steps were so complete 
 The music nearly killed itself to listen to her feet — 
 
 but I avoid writing brogue, and leave it to the speaker 
 or singer. An Irishman could read these lines without 
 a jar in the rhymes and at the same time without saying 
 ' complate ' in a broadly vulgar manner. But T. insists 
 on the brogue all through his piece ; it's a brogue 
 poem, and the rhymes ought to help emphatically. 
 
 Hallam showed me his father's lines in the St. James's 
 Gazette about the cataract. T. coming to us, said it 
 was a cataract like those on the Nile (not precipitous), 
 the river is supposed to divide round an island. The 
 first word, printed ' Statesman,' he has altered into 
 ' Steersman.' 
 
 We spoke of Gladstone's oratory : I said I thought 
 Brougham's (whom I heard two or three times) the 
 most like it in practised verbosity and the long sentences 
 out of which the speaker wound himself at last without 
 a break — few memorable passages in either case. 
 
 Tennyson is very fond of Gladstone as a private 
 friend. 
 
 Then spoke of Carlyle : Froude's quotation of the 
 bitterness against Gladstone. I told Carlyle's saying 
 about Dizzy : ' I wonder how long John Bull will 
 allow this Jew to dance on his belly ! ' which amused 
 Tennyson. 
 
 T. or Hallam said that Gladstone (his own account) 
 gave Carlyle offence at Rogers's table by refusing to 
 agree in Carlyle's estimate of Goethe, and C. never
 
 1884 ALDWORTH 337 
 
 forgave him. Gladstone laughed at the description of 
 himself as ' the contemptiblest man.' 
 
 T. thinks Byron's morals ought not to be considered 
 in judging his poetry. ' Unless they come into his 
 poetry ' (I maintain), and they certainly do. But it is 
 less as voluptuary than as sneerer that I can't bear Lord 
 Byron. T. thinks he was perhaps the cleverest man of 
 his time. The more shame for him to be what he was. 
 
 Byron was just before T.'s time, so there are no 
 personal feelings one way or other such as are almost 
 inevitably mixed with contemporary estimates. 
 
 W. A. — ' Did you ever meet Coleridge ? ' 
 
 T. — ' No, I was asked to visit him, but I wouldn't.' 
 
 W. A. — ' Coleridge was a " noticeable man, with 
 large gray eyes." ' 
 
 T.— ' Oh yes.' 
 
 We talked a good deal about metres — nothing new. 
 T. brought on again the question of the rhymes in his 
 Irish piece. 
 
 I said, ' Have Maria (an Irish housemaid here) and 
 try her with them.' 
 
 T. on this told us a little story — ' A Suffolk vicar 
 going into a parishioner's cottage found a Catholic 
 engraving on the wall, the Virgin with St. Joseph on 
 one side and St. Somebody else on the other. The 
 woman of the house had got it by some chance.' 
 
 ' Did she know what it meant .'' ' 
 
 ' Well, yes, she'd made it out : *' There's the young 
 woman, and two men making up to her, and the one 
 man he says to t'other at last, ' 'Ave Maria i ' That's 
 what's wrote up, you see, sir." ' 
 
 Miss Ritchie played us some Beethoven finely. At 
 Hallam's request she tried Edward FitzGerald's music 
 (MS.) to ' Locksley Hall,' but found it amateurish in 
 structure. 
 
 Next day, wonderfully fine, T. started at his usual 
 time (11.30) for a walk. Miss Ritchie, Hallam and I 
 with him, and two dogs. We went by Chase Farm, 
 
 z
 
 338 ALDWORTH 1884 
 
 fine yellow russets still on the woods. T. stopped us 
 to see the white doves on the outhouse. Then on the 
 western ridge of Blackdown, looking over Valewood, 
 Lynchmere, etc., mistily rich, hills folded on hills. In 
 the foreground some bushes of gorse in good bloom. 
 T. went up to one taller than himself, covered with 
 new golden blossoms, and stood looking at it : I have 
 the picture in my mind. 
 
 Speaking of the new Franchise Bill, Miss R. said, 
 * I suppose there's no country where the people care 
 so much for politics as in England ^ ' 
 
 T. — ' I hate politics ! I'm for the Empire, but I 
 hate politics. The Queen said to me, " / hate politics," 
 and no wonder she does. As to this Bill, I don't 
 believe the people care anything about it.' 
 
 In the evening Miss Tennyson reminded Alfred of 
 the stories he used to tell his brothers and sisters. 
 One called ' The Old Horse ' lasted for months. 
 
 December 5. — A fine day. H. and I to Blackdown. 
 We found her last year's point of view, and she sat 
 courageously for two hours sketching in the cold, for 
 'twas an eager air tho' the sun shone. An immense 
 level of thin cloud stretched moveless from north 
 to south over the great Sussex landscape — green fields, 
 houses, villages, stood forth in the sunlight ; clear, 
 remote, all silent ; near at hand a bold sweeping slope 
 of rusty fern, gorse clumps coming into Christmas 
 blossom, mixed with a few hollies and stunted firs. 
 
 On the next ridge, a mile off or so as the crow 
 flies, push up through sheathing woods the gray stone 
 chimneys and blue roofs of the Poet's mansion, looking 
 this way with an upper window or two. Then far and 
 wide the map-like prospect from Haslemere and Leith 
 Hill to the South Downs. I walked to the south end of 
 Blackdown, glorious views ; came back with a chimney- 
 sweeper who was taking a short-cut to Haslemere and 
 complained that the farmers do not know the value of 
 soot for land.
 
 1884 ALDWORTH 339 
 
 Found H. very cold, but working still ; and away 
 we walked to Aldworth to find her a cup of tea. 
 On the road we met T. himself, most friendly, who 
 turned back with us and left H. in charge of his Sister ; 
 then he came out again and finished his walk in my 
 company. 
 
 T. — ' I'm an old fellow and must exercise. One 
 may do without it in youth, but not in age.' 
 
 W. A. — ' Carlyle used to praise London for afford- 
 ing night walks in winter.' 
 
 T.— ' I can't walk in London by night. The lights 
 dazzle me.' 
 
 We spoke of William Morris (from whom I had 
 just had a long letter). 
 
 T. said, ' He has gone crazy.' I said I agreed with 
 many of Morris's notions. Labour does not get its 
 fair share. 
 
 T. — ' There's brain labour as well as hand labour.' 
 
 W. A. — ' And there are many who get money with- 
 out any labour. The question, how to hinder money 
 from accumulating into lumps, is a puzzhng one.' 
 
 T. — ' You must let a man leave money to his children. 
 I was once in a coffee-shop in the Westminster Road 
 at 4 o'clock in the morning. A man was raging 
 " Why has So-and-So a hundred pounds, and I haven't a 
 shilling ? " I said to him, " If your father had left you 
 ^100 you wouldn't give it away to somebody else." 
 He hadn't a word to answer. I knew he hadn't.' 
 
 T. said, ' It's a very strange thing that, according to 
 Wallace, none of the Spirits that communicate with 
 men ever mention God, or Christ.' 
 
 I said I always felt that the Deity was infinitely above 
 us. Another step will bring us no nearer. 
 
 T. — ' Wallace says the system he believes in is a 
 far finer one than Christianity : it is Eternal Progress — 
 I have always felt that there must be somewhere Some 
 one iz)ho knows — that is, God. But I am in hopes that I 
 shall find something human in Him too.
 
 340 ALDWORTH 1884 
 
 ' Gladstone and Tyndall were sitting at my table, 
 Gladstone on my right hand, Tyndall on my left. 
 Tyndall began talking in his loose way about " This 
 Poem — or Poetic Idea — God." Gladstone looked at 
 him and said with severity, " Professor Tyndall, leave 
 God to the Poets and Philosophers, and attend to your 
 own business." Tyndall fell quite silent for several 
 minutes.' 
 
 Dinner — T. in good spirits and humour ; compares 
 the cheese to Alpine scenery. I quote Marcus Aurelius 
 about the inequalities of a loaf. 
 
 T. — ' C. C. would say I plagiarised from Marcus 
 Aurelius. Some one has said that " As the husband 
 is the wife is " is evidently from Scott. " The wife 
 takes her husband's rank." ' 
 
 Lady Tennyson came down to dinner, very pale — 
 spoke and was spoken to little, went upstairs again, almost 
 carried by Hallam. A dear, almost angelic woman. 
 
 We were quoting odd and rough verses when the 
 pony-carriage came — and William drove us rapidly to 
 the station, feeling happy with our friendly visit. 
 
 [There is a note of an evening at Aldworth when] 
 Tennyson was amusing in his vehement denunciation 
 of the old Tory aristocracy of his boyhood — the 
 ' county families ' — their pride, prejudice, narrowness, 
 and bitter partisanship. ' At a public ball at Lincoln 
 the Whig families would sit by themselves on one side 
 of the room, Tory on the other, noticing each other as 
 little as possible. But the youth of each sometimes 
 danced together in the middle. Two ladies of opposite 
 politics found themselves on the same sofa and avoided 
 each other mutually as much as they might without 
 turning their backs. But the curiosity of one lady 
 induced her to take up a piece of the gorgeous flowing 
 dress of her neighbour to look at it more closely, when 
 she thought the owner's head was turned away. Round 
 comes the rival lady's face with a sneering smile upon 
 it : " Madam, if you'll allow me, I'll send you my
 
 1884 WITLEY 341 
 
 mantua- maker's bill to look at. . . ." We are 
 certainly better-off in manners nowadays ! ' 
 
 Charles Keene at Birket Foster's for Christmas — 
 calls one day. We walk by Park Lane, Bowler's Green, 
 and Screw Corner. ' Loud smells not unwholesome.' 
 C. K. himself has, he tells me, very little sense of smell 
 — and no topographical faculty. His visit to a knacker's 
 yard. Edward FitzGerald — Ed, F. used to call the 
 critics ' a case of monkeys ' — had a boy to read aloud 
 to him every day (in a strong Suffolk brogue) while 
 he lay on a chair and smoked. 
 
 December. — Carlyle's Life. Melancholy book. F. 
 has manipulated his materials cunningly. 
 
 [A few words may be said here of the relations — 
 always cordial — between Allingham and his family and 
 old friends in Ireland. There was a regular, if not 
 very frequent correspondence, and little gifts were ex- 
 changed at the end of the year. His sister Catherine's 
 letters from Ballyshannon were always interesting to 
 Allingham — though sad, too, for they came to be 
 mainly records of the deaths of those he had known 
 there. Visitors from ' the old country ' always had a 
 warm welcome. 
 
 At this time — 1884 — were living John, Catherine, 
 Jane : and, of the second family, Edward, Hugh, and 
 Lizzie. 
 
 Now — 1907 — of these are left only John and Hugh. 
 
 John at Waterford, with Wife, Son, and Daughter. 
 
 Hugh and his Daughters, at Ballyshannon, where he 
 is in his Father's place as Manager of the Provincial 
 Bank of Ireland. 
 
 Hugh Allingham is the author of an unpretentious 
 little book, Ballyshannon, its History and Antiquities ; he 
 is now busy on a more extended local history, in the 
 researches for which he had valuable help from his 
 late Wife. 
 
 Sons and Daughters of Mrs. Johnston (Sister Jane) 
 are living and prospering in various places.]
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 1885-1886 
 
 [The life at Sandhills went on much as usual during the 
 spring and summer of 1 885. The Tennysons had spent 
 the winter at Aldworth, and Allingham went over several 
 times : but there a^-e no notes of the talks to copy. 
 
 Pleasant visits were exchanged with Mr. and Mrs. 
 Harry Furniss, who stayed in Haslemere in June — and 
 with many other friends. 
 
 In September the Allinghams went to Sandown for 
 a month.] 
 
 October 13. — To Aldworth. Novels. Vanity Fair-. 
 I said I was now reading some of Trollope's, and felt my 
 estimate of his powers to be higher than it used to be. 
 
 Tennyson. — ' But they're so dull — so prosaic : never 
 a touch of poetry.' 
 
 Lyme Regis — I reminded him that I was at Lyme 
 in his company, and how we visited Mr. Barnes at his 
 vicarage near Dorchester, — ' How is old Barnes } ' asked 
 T. in a kindly tone — ' Do you ever hear from him } ' 
 ' Yes, I had a letter lately.' 
 
 We spoke of Lord Houghton, his kindly nature. I 
 repeated a verse of ' I wandered by the brookside,' and 
 told what the author told me ; that he wrote it on an Irish 
 jaunting-car driving to Edgeworthstown to visit Miss 
 Edgeworth. A line or two came into his head, somehow ; 
 he made the whole piece, almost without thinking of it, 
 and it seemed to him (then) to have not the least value. 
 
 342
 
 SANDHILLS, ' 
 
 WITLEY, 
 
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 i88s ALDWORTH 343 
 
 I repeated three lines — 
 
 Adieu, dear Yorkshire Milnes ! we think not now 
 
 Of coronet or laurel on thy brow ; 
 
 The kindest, faithfuUest of friends vvert thou. 
 
 T. asked, ' Whose is that r ' 
 
 ' Mine,' I told him. 
 
 ' That's very good,' he said. 
 
 (A rare treat to have praise from him.) 
 
 Friday, November 6. — Fine, walked from Sandhills 
 to Aldworth, through Haslemere, muddy roads, yellow 
 russet woods. The Bucktons there, T. and Mr. B. 
 on Natural History. T. asks ' How can Evolution 
 account for the ant : ' Mr. B. says the theory presents 
 many difficulties. He is studying the English cicadae. 
 We go to hall door to see the B.'s off, then Tennyson 
 and I take a short walk. He asks me to stay the night, 
 and I accept. 
 
 After dinner, ' To-morrow ' (late ' Molly Magee ') 
 is again produced, this time in print. The whole of the 
 new volume is in print, but, as usual, stays thus for a 
 time, sometimes a long time, for final corrections. 
 Carleton's Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry — 
 with which he is delighted. I said I knew Carleton a 
 little. ' Then you knew a man of genius,' said T. He 
 thinks C. is not appreciated. I told him that in Ire- 
 land he is, highly. Also that C, Catholic born, turned 
 Protestant in youth, wrote the Traits, then returned to 
 his old Church and wrote many stories, in which priests 
 and other matters were handled in a different way. 
 
 ' Those are not so good, I should think,' T. said. 
 
 I told him that Irish brogue has many nuances^ 
 especially in sound ; it differs in different parts of the 
 island ; and there are vulgar and unvulgar brogues ; 
 and the possessor of a vulgar brogue is a subject of 
 frequent imitation and ridicule among his own country- 
 men. But a mild brogue in the mouth of an educated 
 person, and especially of a pretty woman, is sweet and
 
 344 ALDWORTH 1885 
 
 soothing, pleasant and coaxing. Her way of spe-aking 
 is very different from the way an ignorant Connaught 
 or Munster peasant would shpayke. I could not bring 
 myself to use the vulgar brogue in verse, unless it were 
 for a broadly comic purpose. 
 
 T. said the Irish way of speaking was wonderfully 
 like the Lincolnshire. 
 
 He once more spoke a good deal about the want of 
 some fixed standard of English pronunciation, or even 
 some fixed way of indicating a poet's intention as to 
 the pronunciation of his verses. ' It doesn't matter so 
 much (he said) in poetry written for the intellect — 
 as much of Browning's is, perhaps ; but in mine it's 
 necessary to know how to sound it properly.' 
 
 I suggested that he might put on record a code for 
 pronouncing his own poetry, with symbolised examples, 
 and he seemed to think this might be done. 
 
 After tea he turned over the leaves of the new 
 volume, I looking over his arm. Put last now (it was 
 first) is a Sonnet against raking together and publishing 
 the fragments of a deceased Poet. This is to ' swamp 
 the Poets with themselves ' (a favourite turn of phrase 
 with T.) Then he turned to a longish poem called 
 ' The Flight ' and said, ' This was written fifty years ago.' 
 I asked him to read it : he said ' Oh, it isn't worth 
 reading ' — but he read it. It is not very notable among 
 his varied riches, but simpler and more straightforward 
 in style than some of his later pieces. I said I liked 
 it, and he said he was glad of that. (I had read 
 ' Vastness ' in Macmillan s Magazine without any sense 
 of gain.) 
 
 Saturday^ November 7. — Aldworth, 8.15 — misty. 
 Walked with T. down the lane to Lythe Hill and back. 
 I asked him what he had seen of Gordon. Saw him 
 once only : he came to luncheon one day to T.'s, in 
 London. He was shy and rather silent, but he had a 
 pleasant look. 
 
 W. A. — ' Have you read Gordon's Journals ? '
 
 1885 ALDWORTH 345 
 
 T. — 'No. The Queen told me I ought to read 
 them.' 
 
 W. A. — ' You ought hideed.' Then I rapidly but 
 at some length gave him a sketch of the contents of 
 that curious book, and of Gordon's character — man of 
 great powers, immense wilfulness, whence followed a 
 great catastrophe. T. listened much more patiently 
 than I expected, and laughed at G.'s entry — ' I am 
 insubordinate, incorrigible ; if I were my own superior 
 I would certainly never employ myself ! ' 
 
 He told a droll thing about Lord F. at a Farmers' 
 Dinner at Exeter the other day. Speaking to some 
 toast, his Lordship had occasion to name one of the 
 most important farmers present, and alluded with 
 sympathy to ' a recent family affliction ' which had 
 befallen him — the man's wife having died a short time 
 before. The farmer, having to speak by and by, 
 thanked his Lordship very kindly for the way he had 
 spoken of him, but ' as for my old woman (he went 
 on) she were a teasy twoad, and the Lord's welcome to 
 her!' 
 
 We talked of Rabelais. T. made Hght of his 
 stercoraceous qualities, and said he used to read him 
 aloud at Cambridge to some of his friends and they 
 all nearly tumbled off their chairs with laughing. The 
 foulness was but a mask to hide his free-thinking. But, 
 I said, he evidently enjoyed it, revelled in it. 
 
 Friday, November 13. — Hallam met Helen yesterday 
 at Haslemere and invited us to come to luncheon to-day. 
 We found T. just untying the dogs for his morning 
 walk. He proposed to take Helen and me to an old 
 ruinous cottage, Dickhurst, he had often told us of, 
 and thought H. might like to paint. So we three went 
 down the new road, a few apples still in the orchard, 
 out by the lower gate, and a mile or so along the roads 
 of the Sussex Weald ; a fine day, though with some 
 mist, and the half-bare copses and hedges still rich with 
 their tarnished-gold russet.
 
 346 ALDWORTH 1885 
 
 T. said he never was in an oak country in Spring till 
 last year and was astonished at the colours. A highish 
 field gate was locked, and T. climbed over — then trudg- 
 ing through a swampy field we came to the deserted 
 half- ruinous cottage, with long slope of tiled roof, 
 broken windows and empty barns. H. made a pencil 
 sketch, and T. and I went on farther, but could not 
 get through the copse. Hallam appeared with a pony- 
 carriage and drove off Helen and his cousin Mrs. 
 Pope. T, and I walked back. He spoke of the 
 Lincolnshire farmers of his early days, and what ' beasts ' 
 they were. 
 
 I said : * You ought to be more tolerant to poor 
 Paddy — he has better manners at least.' 
 
 T. — ' I count Paddy a child. But his mutilation 
 of animals is shocking ; — worse than shooting men.' 
 
 W. A. — ' I have heard it said that in Catholic countries 
 there is less humanity towards animals than in Protestant: 
 Catholicism teaches that animals are created solely for 
 man's use.' We spoke of the cruelties of the Inquisition. 
 T. said, ' A Catholic priest said to me, all those were 
 political, not ecclesiastical.' 
 
 W. A. — ' That takes away the sole possible excuse 
 for them, namely that they were done in defence of the 
 one true Faith and to save souls from perdition.' We 
 then went back to Irish and Keltic peoples in general. I 
 said, ' Perhaps England owes most of its finer qualities, its 
 poetry, music, and art, to the Ancient British elements.' 
 
 T. said, but not very confidently, ' I doubt that.' 
 
 [About this time, Allingham notes : — ] 
 
 Savoy. Mikado — pretty dresses — music skilful, har- 
 monious, and agreeable — not an atom of melodic 
 invention. S.'s only way of getting at the semblance 
 of a tune is to set words with a very marked rhythm, 
 and by dint of time-beat and harmonisation to give a 
 sort of impression of an air — but 'tis a mere bubble. 
 In ' Yum- Yum ' (and elsewhere) the phrase is old and 
 familiar.
 
 1886 WITLEY 
 
 1886 
 
 347 
 
 Have entirely neglected diary from December 1885 till 
 to-day, February 1 6th ! A variable cold winter — all kinds 
 of weather in a week. But is anything disagreeable as 
 we look back save one's own faults and mistakes ? 
 
 We sometimes call in at the Evans's on a Sunday. 
 
 Sonny and I often walk to Godalming. 
 
 Helen dihgent at her Cottages. 
 
 I finish the twelve Flower Sonnets in Athenaum. 
 
 Rhyme book.^ Harry Furniss's two drawings. 
 Iu-Kiao-Li{- etc. 
 
 March 10. — Gladstone cooking his Irish Stew. 
 
 March 19. — To London. Japanese Exhibition, etc. 
 
 March 2 1 . — The Grange. Georgie truly friendly : 
 Margaret in flowery flowing robe : Phil (with keen chin 
 and bright eyes) : Ned comes in. 
 
 April 25. — G. and E. to church v/ith Elizabeth. 
 G. said ' I read all the " I beli'^ves " and I didn't believe 
 any of them.' Thev said 'church was nice.' 'Would 
 they like to go every Sunday ? ' ' O no.' 
 
 July 9. — Diary not touched for more than two 
 months. Mrs. Paterson at Sandhills. Visits of Carrie, 
 of Arthur, of Basil and Clara Martineau. 
 
 July 31. — To Busbridge. Hungarian Band. Mr. 
 Ramsden, Mr. Stone, Mr. Molyneux, etc. To Miss 
 Jekyll's — round her garden (I always like to be with 
 Miss Jekyll). Her studio, and forge. 
 
 Tuesday, August 3. — Miss having frequently 
 
 failed to come on the appointed days to teach . the 
 children, we bring the arrangement to an end, and I 
 intend to take up the teaching for the present. 
 
 ^ Rhymes for the Young Folk (Cassells) : illustrations by Kate Greenaway, 
 Harry Furniss, C. Paterson (now Mrs. Sutton Sharpe), and H. Allingham, 
 engraved and printed by Edmund Evans. (Now out of print.) 
 
 2 A Chinese novel, much praised by Carlyle. The only English translation 
 oi lu-Kiao-Li is ' from the French version of M. Abel Remusat,' and was pub- 
 lished in 1827 : it is now out of print. Allingham urged several publishers 
 to bring out a new edition of the book (for which he wrote a preface), but 
 without success. A copy of this rare book is in Mrs. Allingham's possession.
 
 348 WITLEY 1886 
 
 August 7. — Mrs. Tom Taylor and Wycliffe come — 
 Saturday to Monday. Gerald and I at station — fine day. 
 Gathering gooseberries, Wycliffe, Henny, and I ; Mrs. 
 T. and H. on seat at top of field. Luncheon, Mary Carlyle 
 suddenly appears, very welcome : ' busy over proofs of 
 new edition of Reminiscences — tired, and thought she'd 
 run down on chance.' We all drive off for Hindhead. 
 Evanses and K. G. — echo — Devil's Punch Bowl. 
 
 Mrs. Colvin going to help nurse Mrs. Moorey [of 
 Redland's Farm, Sandhills.] Death of Mrs. Moorey. 
 They kept the body a week — put on a shroud made by 
 herself before she was married. 
 
 H. and I met Mrs. M. a couple of evenings before 
 her fit, when she spoke of the beauty of Sandhills. 
 
 Tuesday, August i o. — Times obituary this morning — 
 ' We have to record the death of Sir Samuel Ferguson, 
 Q.C., LL.D., Deputy Keeper of the Public Records in 
 Ireland ' — at Bray, yesterday. They go on : ' had been 
 for some years a Vice-President of the Royal Irish 
 Academy ' (a Vice-President !) Not one word or hint of 
 his poetry or other writings. Truly, the union between 
 England and Ireland is not made of flesh and blood, 
 but of the harsh material of politics and economics ; and 
 only when this bond drags and irritates does the larger 
 island think of the lesser. No thrills of national sym- 
 pathy run through the connecting tie. Even as a 
 subject of intellectual interest or curiosity Ireland has a 
 very small share of England's attention. The songs, 
 stories, and plays on Irish subjects, written to amuse 
 England, have had their success, but no more of the 
 kind are wanted, and no other kind is marketable. 
 
 Ireland herself is too poor and unsettled, and in too 
 backward a stage of civilisation to afford a public for 
 literature, unconnected with party controversies. On 
 the whole — whatever may be unthinkingly said to the 
 contrary, Ireland presents an ungrateful soil for the 
 cultivation of the higher belles lettres. No London paper 
 speaks of Ferguson as a Man of Letters.
 
 1886 WITLEY 349 
 
 August 22. — Our Wedding Day — twelve years ago. 
 Bless my dear wife and children. 
 
 August 25. — Lucy Toulmin Smith, meet her at train. 
 Garden — grammar, British Museum, Petrie's music, 
 etc. 
 
 August 27. — Tc Aldworth. Tennyson on lawn with 
 Dr. Grailey Hewitt, who has taken a house down here. 
 
 Ghosts — T. said, ' My grandfather, one night sit- 
 ing up late reading, at College, looked up and saw, 
 close to him, the ugliest old woman he ever saw in his 
 life ; and he also saw his cap and gown, which were 
 hanging on the wall, going round and round the room. 
 He shut up his book and said, *' I'd better not read 
 any more for the present." ' 
 
 Tennyson looked very fine to-day, grandly simple, 
 gently dignified : the marks round his mouth soft in 
 expression as dimples. 
 
 Friday, September 3. — Gathering plums and green- 
 gages — warm again. To Godalming with H. and 
 three children, to Wild Beast Show. Camels on grass. 
 Lions, African elephant fanning herself with her ears. 
 
 Monkeys, etc. : Irish giant, and ' Missing Link,' 2d. 
 extra. 
 
 Nothing entered till October 12. In September I 
 went to London for the day. Called at Quaritch's to see 
 the Blake facsimiles : some talk with Q. He said ' I 
 never look at pictures, except on vellum. I have as large 
 a collection of these as any bookseller, perhaps. I know 
 nothing about picture exhibitions : my business is with 
 books and I keep my mind fixed upon that.' By and 
 by I referred to a passage in some book and said ' you 
 remember that, of course ' ; to which he replied with 
 brevity and emphasis ' I never read books.' 
 
 The Old Book Trade is his subject, and he is said to 
 be master of it. I ordered ' Songs of Experience.' He 
 was interested in talking about Evans, a printseller in 
 Great Queen Street, who had a large collection of Blake 
 drawings, which Rossetti and I looked over. ' That
 
 350 ALDWORTH 1886 
 
 must have been twenty-nine years ago, at the least,' 
 says Quaritch — and so it was. 
 
 October 29. — To Aid worth. Hallam. Show him 
 letter from Miss Barnes about her father's death. 
 
 T. tells the story of a Dog, lost in St. Petersburg, 
 finding its way to its master in the country. Also of a 
 Bastile Prisoner and his lark. It had lived with him in 
 prison ; when he was set free he took the cage out to 
 the fields, and opened the door — the lark hopped out, 
 flew up into the air singing — suddenly stopt, and fell 
 dead at the man's feet. 
 
 [Another day] Tennyson said, ' No man can really 
 feel the poetry of any language but his own.' 
 
 W. A. — Clough told me he could not dissociate 
 Greek Poetry from grammar and ' grinding.' 
 
 T. — ' I never appreciated Horace till I was forty.' 
 
 November 24. — To Aldworth. Tennyson spoke 
 gloomily (as usual) about the future of England — war, 
 etc, I said, ' We could escape from nearly all chance 
 of War by a bold and honest step.' 
 
 ' How .^ ' asked T. 
 
 ' Step out of India.' 
 
 T. — ' That would be ruin.' 
 
 W. A. — ' Not at all. Bind Australia and Canada 
 to you — your own people : India you never can.' 
 
 T. — ' We are doing everything possible for them in 
 India, and they roar and rage against us.' 
 
 W. A. — ' Just so, and will be your destruction at 
 last' 
 
 I tell him I have written a ballad on the ' Banshee.' 
 
 T. — ' I intend to write one. I have always been 
 much struck with the " Banshee." ' 
 
 W. A. — ' I must take care to get out before you ! ' 
 
 Christmas Day, sunshine, 89° in the sun. 
 
 Monday^ December 27. — Thick snow, dazzling. 
 Trees broken, laurels bowed to the ground. Our 
 children shovelling in the garden. Snow man. 
 
 Friday^ 31st. — Snow — frost. Bells of Chiddingfold.
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 1887 
 
 January i. — Frost and snow. New Year's gifts. 
 
 January 4. — Pure white world, dun mist and soft 
 snow. People look like blackamoors. Read Faust to 
 H. Letter from Henry Irving with Box for Faust. 
 Pension received.^ 
 
 January 5. — Thaw — slush. Read Gulliver in the 
 nursery. 
 
 January 17. — H., G., E. and I to pond. I put 
 skates on after at least seventeen years — clumsy. 
 
 February i. — Snowdrops, polyanthuses. 
 
 Saturday^ February 5. — Out after dinner — bright 
 stars — half-moon — frost in the morning. Aconite in 
 flower, hazels hung with green catkins. 
 
 Monday^ February 21. — Evey's birthday — H. and 
 I with the three children into copse below Moorey's, 
 and find a few small primroses. Tea, cake, games, 
 etc. 
 
 H. busy over the Bond Street Exhibition drawings. 
 
 Saturday^ March 5. — Revising Poems all through. 
 
 April 3. — Very fine and vernal. In garden, pruning. 
 
 Monday, April 11. — Easter Monday — Fine, G., E. 
 and I walk ; Toll House, field -lane, some prim- 
 roses. Bank studded with wood-anemones, primroses, 
 violets. 
 
 Dream : I went down the street holding in my left 
 
 1 Allingham's Pension had been raised to ;Cioo a year. 
 351
 
 352 LONDON 1887 
 
 hand, by a red silken rope, five gold bells beautifully 
 chased and carved, and, stroking them with my right 
 hand, brought out delicious music ; and felt heavenly 
 happiness. Then I woke — with a face-ache ! — as I had 
 gone to sleep with it. 
 
 Was it in a cessation of pain that the lovely dream 
 appeared .'' A pause of pain sometimes makes posi- 
 tive pleasure. 
 
 Friday^ April 22. — After midnight went into garden 
 — feeling rather depressed. Sprinkle of rain. 
 
 Hear first nightingale down in copse — feel cheered. 
 
 Monday, April 25. — Helen and I to London with 
 cargo of drawings for her Exhibition. Drove to Bond 
 Street, settling frames, etc. 
 
 In the evening to Old Swan House, and were kindly 
 received by Mr. and Mrs. Wickham Flower. Beautiful 
 house. Reading and looking at books till 12. About 
 6 A.M. I peeped out, saw the morning sun on the river 
 just under our windows, and a little tug drawing two 
 barges along ; on opposite shore the lawns and low trees 
 of Battersea Park. 
 
 April 27. — Old Swan House. I visit Carlyle statue. 
 Mrs. De Morgan (sweet-looking old lady) and Mary. 
 ' Spiritualism — The Haslemere people whose fire is 
 lighted by ghosts.' Wallace — the Carlyles — friendly 
 talk. 
 
 April 29. — R. A. Private View. H. and K. Green- 
 away, Brett (' didn't know K. G. was a real person '), 
 Fildes, Mrs. Stephens, etc. Albert Moore (dines with 
 me at Liberal Club). 
 
 April 30. — Old Swan House. Pack up. Private 
 View, Grosvenor — Hennessy, Holman Hunt, Browning: 
 he tells story of Fontenelle — ' miserly noble dropt alms 
 into the bag ; being asked again, said " I gave." " I 
 believe it," said the applicant, " though I didn't see 
 it." " And I," whispered Fontenelle, " saw it, but 
 don't believe it." ' 
 
 May I. — 3 Eldon Road, Hampstead. The Russell
 
 1887 LONDON 353 
 
 Scotts call. To Gayton Road, Mrs. Paterson, Arthur, 
 Carrie. With Clara and H. to Kate Greenaway's new 
 house, Frognal ; pleasant large studio. Her original 
 drawings much prettier than the reproductions. 
 
 May 2. — H. and I call on Huxleys — tea, pleasant 
 talk — at Marks's. Alma Tadema's new house, Grove 
 End Road — Mrs. Tadema friendly. The studio like a 
 Byzantine church. Mrs. T.'s studio built and furnished 
 like an old Netherlandish room. 
 
 May 5. — Dine at Mr. Walter Besant's. Mr. B. 
 thinks the Cloister and the Hearth the best historical 
 novel in the world. He thinks a novelist can't be a 
 dramatist. (But in France 'tis otherwise : e.g. V. Hugo, 
 Dumas fils, and others.) 
 
 Friday., May 6. — Eldon Road, Dr. Martineau comes 
 to luncheon (82) — tall, thin, courteous, deliberate. 
 Curiously modelled, deep-lined face ; close-shaven ; hair 
 still bushy in effect, though thinned. He speaks with 
 invariable readiness and gentle precision. ' Metaphysical 
 Society, so called — -was there any result from it } ' 
 
 ' Only in this way — it drew men together and made 
 them judge each other and each other's opinions more 
 fairly. I believe it modified Huxley's views, and 
 perhaps Tyndall's.' 
 
 Comte : Dr. Martineau admires his classification of 
 the Sciences. Fisk — Frederic Harrison. 
 
 All this time he was sitting to Clara, who is at work 
 on a third life-size portrait of him, head and shoulders. 
 After an hour he took out his watch, and soon departed, 
 in a shower of rain. Said he should be ' most happy 
 to have the honour ' of proposing me at the Athenaeum 
 Club, if I thought of becoming a candidate, unless, I 
 ' should select some fitter person.' 
 
 Dr. Martineau spoke much of Gladstone — met him 
 at dinner at Tennyson's, in London (about two years 
 ago?) The lady beside Dr. Martineau asking his opinion 
 on Irish affairs. Dr. M. said he thought Ireland of late 
 had rather been petted than oppressed. Gladstone 
 
 2 A
 
 354 WITLEY 1887 
 
 overheard this, and asked the Doctor to explain. 
 Martineau thought that wherever any legislative 
 difference was made between England and Ireland, it 
 was in favour of Ireland. 
 
 On this Gladstone took up the cudgels : ' but (said 
 M.) I soon drew out of the discussion, and left my 
 side of it in the hands of some politicians who were 
 present. A day or two after I was with Tennyson ; 
 he said, " Gladstone didn't like what you said about 
 Ireland." " No — but it's true." " That's why he 
 didn't like it," said Tennyson. The present Bishop 
 of St. Andrews, Wordsworth, was tutor to Gladstone : 
 he told me he was one day congratulating old Mr. 
 Gladstone on his son's success at college : the old 
 man replied, with a serious look, " I have no doubt of 
 William's ability : I wish I were equally sure of his 
 stability." ' 
 
 May 1 1 . — Sandhills. Henny's Birthday. Sweet 
 happy little boy — five years old. 
 
 Sunday^ June 5. — Fine, cool wind. H. and I drive, 
 by invitation, to Manor House, Haslemere, which we 
 reach about 4.15. Miss Wolseley receives us, then 
 Lady Wolseley comes, lively, pretty, and pleasant. 
 Soon after the General, in gray jacket, corduroy 
 breeches (with flap), black riding-boots and spurs ; a 
 light figure, about five feet seven in stature ; bright, 
 almost boyish face of roundish shape, with small ashen- 
 coloured moustache, the forehead full and smooth, the 
 hair close-cut, of a steel gray. With easy friendly 
 smile he shook hands and began to talk, without accent 
 of any sort, but certain turns of phrase as well as his 
 whole manner unmistakably Irish. After a little H. 
 went off with Lady and Miss W., and I had the honour 
 of half or three-quarters of an hour's conversation 
 with the famous man, winding on without the least 
 trouble from one turn to another. He was interested to 
 hear of Banacle ^ as a semaphore station in bygone days. 
 
 * Banacle Hill, near Witley.
 
 ,887 WITLEY 355 
 
 ' The semaphore remained in the Admiralty till not 
 long ago.' 
 
 I said some one had lately told me that there was 
 still some use of it. 
 
 ' O no,' said Lord W., ' you might as well think 
 of using bows and arrows in war.' 
 
 Somebody, I remarked, did recommend going back 
 to bows and arrows. 
 
 ' O yes, there are people who think the world is 
 going to the bad every day — a friend of mine thinks 
 England has been ruined by railways ; he can't even 
 get anything fit to eat nowadays, — -" do you call this 
 stuflF mutton ! " — and so on.' 
 
 Painting — Lord Wolseley said he was very fond of 
 it : ' If I had my time to myself it would be a toss-up 
 whether I should turn to water-colours or to writing.' 
 
 The Life of Marlborough : ' Yes — I'm not at work 
 upon it, but I have done something now and again these 
 many years. I don't want to write about his campaigns 
 — that has been done sufficiently, and by competent 
 hands — but about the man himself.' 
 
 ' You can perhaps brush away some of the dirt that 
 has been thrown upon his name } ' 
 
 ' Certainly : judging him by the standard of the 
 time, I find no foundation for the charges made against 
 him by bitter enemies.' 
 
 * Thackeray's hard sayings in Esmond and elsewhere, 
 " His Grace would rob a private soldier of his pay," — 
 any truth in this .? ' 
 
 ' Not a bit. Marlborough did exactly what was 
 usual ; the system was a bad one, but the outcry against 
 Marlborough was made solely for party purposes, and 
 when Ormonde succeeded him, Ormonde did just the 
 same. Macaulay's style enchanted me in my youth, it 
 was like music ; but his statements are not to be trusted 
 in the least. Marlborough, at the age of fifty-four, was 
 a poor man, and in the next ten years he grew very 
 rich, there's no doubt about that. The truth is, it is
 
 356 WITLEY 1887 
 
 very hard to get any idea of what Marlborough was 
 personally : we know he was handsome, and that's about 
 all. I have read great quantities of his letters and 
 despatches.' 
 
 * Have they much individuality ? ' 
 ' Little or none.' 
 
 We came back to drawing. Lord Wolseley spoke 
 of the sketches he made in various parts of the world, 
 how they brought back all the minute circumstances in 
 which each was done ; most of them were burnt in 
 the fire at the Pantechnicon — also his books. After 
 the fire things were put in a chapel close by, and 
 people allowed to pick out what belonged to them. 
 Lord W. picked up a bronze of his, has it now, bruised 
 and marked with fire. ' I'm sorry I didn't take some 
 of my books — they were lying in a pulpy state, injured 
 chiefly by water — but I left them there. I had to pay 
 the Pantechnicon too for taking care of my things ! 
 We protested against this, but the law so decided. 
 Whenever I come near books I am attracted to them, 
 and am ready to lose myself in them. I am very fond 
 of my own books : I hate lending them — I tell people 
 so plainly.' 
 
 Lady W. and her daughter returned with Helen, 
 and we all had tea. Lord W. complained jocularly of 
 the scanty supply of bread-and-butter, rang the bell, and 
 said to the footman in prompt military manner ' More 
 bread-and-butter. ' 
 
 Lady W. — ' We are not usually so ill-supplied. 
 That tremendous young person {i.e. Miss W., a large, 
 pleasant young lady of fifteen, as tall as her father) is 
 not fed upon air.' Then they talked of the amusing 
 parsimony in small things at a certain country house 
 in Surrey (an Earl's) — only a shovelful of coals, for 
 
 instance, in the bed-room coal-scuttles. Col. 
 
 staying there, in cold weather, went into several empty 
 bed-rooms near his and carried off all their coals in his 
 own scuttle. Sometimes this comes from old habits.
 
 ,887 WITLEY 357 
 
 Lord W. spoke of a man he knew, very rich and not 
 at all miserly, but who had been very poor in early life 
 and accustomed to practise strict economy : ' I know 
 how absurd it is,' he often said, ' but I can't bear to 
 throw away even an old tooth-brush ! ' 
 
 After tea we were shown some beautifully bound 
 books (Lord W. let one drop — ' O Garnet ! ') — several 
 done by Mr. Cobden Sanderson. 
 
 While talking of Marlborough, I asked whether any 
 of the present people (they were Spencers till lately, 
 but descend from Marlborough's daughter) had the least 
 physical likeness to the great Duke ? Lord W. said no. 
 I remarked that race did not necessarily carry likeness 
 with it. 
 
 Lord W. — ' But likeness crops up amazingly. Some 
 years ago I was in Brussels, at the King's, and an 
 Austrian grand-duke was there also, who was exactly 
 like a portrait three hundred years old which hung 
 in the palace, representing his ancestor.' 
 
 We all four went into the old-fashioned garden, 
 Lord W. with large, soft but high-crowned gray hat, 
 thrown loosely on to one side, handkerchief hanging 
 half out of his breast-pocket, corduroy breeches, bright 
 eyes and merry face, seeming as if he wanted only a 
 shillelagh to enable him to present, if so inclined, a 
 genteel version of the typical Paddy. Not that there 
 is the least touch of burlesque or absurdity about 
 him. 
 
 We spoke of Tennyson, and our thinking of visiting 
 Aldworth this week. 
 
 Lord W. — ' Queer old chap ! ' — admires his poetry, 
 but thinks it ' effeminate.' (If I have the chance I must 
 try to sift Lord W.'s notions on poetry.) 
 
 I must not forget that at tea Lord W. said in his 
 usual easy cheerful way that it was a great modern 
 absurdity to value human life too highly — people had 
 made idols of first one thing and then another, and now 
 their idol was human life.
 
 358 WITLEY 1887 
 
 I said, ' surely the notion of the mystic sacredness of 
 human life is very old, there's Cain and Abel.' 
 
 Lord W. allowed this instance, but with a twinkle 
 of the eye went on : ' but look at the Lord God, how 
 he slew thousands upon thousands, smote them hip and 
 thigh.' Helen put in, ' That was a long time ago,' 
 and we all smiled. 
 
 I said a man I knew, Dr. Bodichon of Algiers, had a 
 serious theory for improving the world in the shortest 
 possible time, by the painless extinction of all useless 
 human beings. He would have juries, including a large 
 proportion of men of science, to decide on the fitness 
 of this person or that to live. 
 
 Lord W. — * I entirely agree with your Algerian 
 friend. I would have supplies of chloroform for gaols 
 and hospitals, for cripples and so forth, and the world 
 would be debarrasse of much trouble and expense.' 
 
 I argued that this would lead to many abuses, and that 
 the general level of morality would be lowered. But 
 Lord W. maintained that we have nowadays an absurd 
 and superstitious respect for human life, and seemed 
 to mean it. To lighten off the discussion I repeated 
 to Lady W. what Madame Bodichon said to me in the 
 midst of one of her husband's discourses on scientific 
 homicide, — ' he wouldn't himself drown a kitten ! ' 
 
 While H. went in with the ladies for her parasol 
 before starting. Lord W. and I stood at the old porch 
 looking at a nest of bees among the ivy ; then he pointed 
 at Lady W.'s pug. ' There's an absurd creature ! it has 
 a tail and it's alive, that's all you can say. I'm fond of 
 dogs, but such a thing as that is good for no purpose.' 
 
 ' Pugs would come under the chloroform act .'' ' I 
 suggested. 
 
 ' Every one of 'em ! ' said he ; and then out came 
 the ladies, and H. and I took leave, and walked home 
 four miles through the beautiful green country, glad of 
 an interesting visit. Clear, prompt, direct, cheerful, — 
 gifted with physical and mental vivacity, in manners
 
 i8S7 LONDON 359 
 
 simplicity itself, in conversation easy and quick, — such 
 appeared to us the famous General to-day. 
 
 He can walk in the country. Lady W. told us, much 
 better than in London, where the hard pavements jar 
 his wounded leg. 
 
 Monday^ June 13. — Invitation from Lady Wolseley 
 to see the Jubilee Procession from Lord W.'s window 
 at the War Office. 
 
 Tuesday^ June 21. — At Mary Carlyle's, Chalcot 
 Gardens, Haverstock Hill. — Up at seven, breakfast at 
 quarter to eight. H. and I walk away quietly over 
 Primrose Hill and down Regent's Park, green, almost 
 empty, in the fine summer's morning. As we emerge 
 on the road a troop of the Life Guards passes. Port- 
 land Place, Chinese Embassy, two Yellow Dragon flags 
 and the Union Jack between them, lifted a little higher. 
 Cavendish Sqr., Hanover Sqr., Piccadilly, — crowd, 
 policemen make way for us across. Then St. James's 
 Sqr. and Pall Mall, cross and to St. James's Park, where 
 we find the back-way into the War Office, shaded with 
 elder and other greenery. 
 
 Lord Wolseley's room. — Mr. and Mrs. Frank HoU. 
 Miss Violet Paget introduces herself to me, and we 
 have much talk. She says I was the first person who 
 presented her to the pubHc as authoress : ' I carried 
 about your postcard in my pocket for many days ; I 
 was younger then, I'm sorry to say, than I am now.' 
 She thinks Painters generally talk better than Authors 
 — I don't agree, nor does Mrs. Frank Holl. 
 
 Clubs drest up. Junior Carlton opposite. Army and 
 Navy (' my club,' says handsome man to his wife), copied 
 from Library at Venice, marble tint ' caused by silica 
 varnish.' 
 
 Claret cup and sweet cake. Band, also Ethiopian 
 Serenaders. Sparse red lines of soldiery — police — 
 officials cantering to and fro. Procession at last. 
 Princesses in white, bowing like automatons. Prince of 
 Wales, all gold and feathers ; German Crown Prince,
 
 36o WITLEY 1887 
 
 tall, in white uniform. The cream horses, and the 
 Queen (white-haired ?) Princess of Wales opposite — 
 glittering river of liveries and trappings. Continuous 
 hurrahs — Queen's carriage stops opposite War Office. 
 
 Foreign Kings in covered carriages — long wait ; 
 soldiers march off — all over ^ — No, here come the Indian 
 Princes — some in livery-stables turn-out ; two han- 
 soms — mismanagement somewhere. 
 
 Lord Wolseley's room, part of an eighteenth-century 
 dwelling-house, old mantelpiece. Pieces of armour on 
 the walls, weapons, savage spears and shields, Egyptian 
 flag, maps, books. 
 
 Downstairs, rough people. H. and I by St. James's 
 Park, past Westminster Abbey, disfigured with stands, 
 and so to Waterloo station. Home about 5.30 — all 
 well, glad to be back. Bonfires lighted about ten, on 
 Hindhead, Blackdown, and at many points in the 
 Weald. I go up hill with G. and E., and as far as 
 Winkford gate — many fires, rockets, etc. Fire at 
 Aldershot. Hindhead catches fire, and burns all night. 
 
 Wednesday^ June 29. — Visitors. Miss Wolseley told 
 us that Lady Wolseley and she, on 2 1 st, breakfasted at 
 six o'clock in the morning and sat in the Abbey till 4 p.m., 
 without any food but some bits of chocolate. Lady 
 W. could not see the Queen on the dais, only in passing 
 up the aisle. Both (Lady and Miss W.) were knocked 
 up. Lord W. also knocked up — against a wall by his 
 horse, at Gloster House, when going to call for the 
 Duke of C, hurt his bad leg, believed it to be broken^ 
 but rode to Buckingham Palace and in the Procession 
 as per programme ; anxious about alighting at the 
 Abbey — did alight, found his leg not broken and able to 
 carry him to his seat. 
 
 July 20. — Dine at Busbridge. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Ramsden — Lady Galway, tall, in black. Catches my 
 hand in both hers, thanking me for lines on her Brother. 
 (' Farewell, dear Yorkshire Milnes,' etc.) 
 
 July 22. — Miss M. Betham Edwards. G. and I
 
 ,S87 WITLEY 361 
 
 meet her at train. She republican and Home ruler. I 
 drive her round by Brook, Lea, and Witley Village. 
 
 Saturday, July 23. — Very fine and breezy. Miss 
 B. Edwards on garden seat with children. Gerald and 
 I to Portsmouth by 12.5 special — empty at first, then 
 fills. Station — crowded street, tramcars, flags. We 
 walk to Southsea Common — burnt up. Shingle, people, 
 sparkling tide, boats, etc. Line of Fleet not distinct, but 
 numbers of big ships at Spithead and along the Solent — 
 masts and flags. Long wait, watching the people, girls 
 and children, soldiers and sailors, bands, fruit-sellers, 
 etc. etc. Salute, like taps on a huge drum, followed by 
 rolling white smoke, which gradually drifts towards us. 
 As time went on we saw Fleet better, but nothing of 
 Royal Yachts. 
 
 Return by back streets, dull. Station — crowd ; sit 
 on board and eat ; no train for us till 8.8. Out again 
 — Witley about 10 o'clock. 
 
 Monday, July 25. — H. to train for her mother, 
 with Henny; Evey and 1 wait at gate, pick laurel leaves. 
 
 Friday, August 12. — Cooler, but not a drop of 
 moisture (no dew even). H. drove to Manor House 
 with Henny, picking up Mrs. Thompson and daughter; 
 Gerald and I walked over, and found H. painting 
 a corner of the lawn. To us came out Lord 
 Wolseley, in riding -boots and breeches, bright and 
 genial as usual, with his boyish smile and touch of 
 Dublin way of speaking, careless and easy. He hugged 
 Gerald, while asking him, ' How old are you, sir } ' and 
 other questions. He looked at H.'s drawing, discussed 
 pigments, etc. Said he should much like to ride over 
 and call at Sandhills some day. Ran upstairs to fetch 
 me The Reign of Queen Victoria, edited by Humphry 
 Ward, but has only second volume, which I carry off. 
 Lord W. walked with us as far as Grayswood 
 Common. We talked of Carlyle and Mrs. Carlyle. 
 He said, ' I only saw Carlyle once, and I was much 
 interested.' H., G. and I walk home.
 
 362 WITLEY 1887 
 
 Saturday^ August 13. — Fine, cooler. H. and I, with 
 Evey, drive to Mrs. Simmons's garden party, Shotter 
 Mill. George Craik and Dinah, Mr. and Mrs. Pratt, 
 the Bucktons, two Miss Griffiths, etc. etc. Lawn-tennis, 
 
 Deodar, under which George Eliot used to write. 
 H. and I cross the road to small house, formerly Mrs. 
 Gilchrist's, and where George Eliot stayed a while. 
 Mrs. Clarke and two daughters the present tenants. 
 
 Thursday y August 18. — H. to Manor House to paint. 
 I with Gerald to fetch her home in pony-carriage. 
 They all come to the gate and into the road bare-headed 
 to see us off. I say, ' Looks as if we might be bound 
 for Australia.' Lord W. says the low wheels are heavy 
 to pull. — I lend him Garnett's Life of Carlyle. 
 
 Friday^ August 19. — H. and I drive Toby to 
 Thursley, with Mary Stewart, to call on Lowes 
 Dickinson, find him with daughter at cross-roads going 
 out to paint. Wheeler's Farm — (Toby in coach-house), 
 view to back, sloping fields, church, etc. Talk, P. R. B. ; 
 education doesn't alter character. Sons at Charterhouse, 
 have done well at Cambridge. 
 
 (L. D. a little like Hook, but with a sad and languid 
 air in comparison, and dark eyes instead of gray-blue) 
 — a friendly meeting ; drive home by Lea Park and 
 Witley Village. 
 
 August 20. — Arthur, H.'s brother from London — 
 drives her, with Mary Stewart, to Chiddingfold. 
 ' Story written with Besant ' — Arthur's own novel. 
 
 Sunday, August 21. — Arthur rides Toby to Hind- 
 head Cross — goes with Mr. Colvin to Boro' Farm. 
 Lowes Dickinson and two daughters come ; tea in 
 garden ; friendly talk. 
 
 Tuesday^ August 23. — Drive H. and Gerald to Boro' 
 Farm, under Bodboro' Hill, past rifle-ground, moor, 
 lane. Alfresco-ists under big ash, the Glovers, the 
 Colvins, children. Miss Glover, in her brother's hat, 
 sings The Wear'in the Green, also Spanish and Italian 
 canzonettes, airily, easily, merrily — to Neapolitan Guitar
 
 ,887 POYNTON 363 
 
 decorated with a great bunch of various coloured ribbons ; 
 asks me for a green one — we talk brogue. Swing on 
 big ash-tree. Tea for children and Miss G. on grass. 
 We in house (Humphry Ward's summer retreat). 
 Choice engravings on wall. 
 
 Proofs of Irish Songs dribbling in. 
 
 August 30. — [To Mrs. Turner's, Barlow Fold, 
 Poynton — British Association at Manchester.] Mr. 
 Rollo Russell, fellow-guest, has come from Haslemere 
 in same train. 
 
 September i. — Reception Room at Owens College. 
 Free Trade Hall, Sir H. Roscoe's address. Exhibition, 
 Picture Galleries — Rossetti, Burne - Jones, Watts, 
 Tadema, Walker, Mason, etc. etc. : H.'s ' Carlyle ' 
 badly placed. 
 
 September 6. — Poynton. H. and I in pony-cart to 
 Prestbury, then she to white cottage on Macclesfield 
 Road, where she puts up and paints. I into Prestbury, 
 church and old chapel. In the street, one hen visible. 
 Strange and beautiful little old house — knock. Young 
 woman shows me into house — poor inside ; bed-room 
 (her father's and her own) windows shut, bed-clothes 
 only turned down a little on rising, and so left. Other 
 half of house — ' Can I get in ? — will you ask ^ ' 
 
 ' Well, she's rather strange, you'd better ask her 
 yourself.' 
 
 I knock — 'Who's that.? — well, you can come in.' 
 
 I found a woman, not very old, but worn and wild 
 looking : toothless, unkempt, no gown on, sitting by 
 wretched fireplace, of which she began to complain — - 
 ' smoke, soot, rain through roof. Agent won't do 
 anything —rent £^, taxes los. (other half the same). 
 
 Her husband left her years ago — not a good man ; 
 doesn't know is he living or dead — went to Westmore- 
 land. Son a sailor — sent her £1 ^ month last year. 
 Daughter married in London, — ' that's like her ' 
 (coloured engraving on wall). 
 
 ' Don't people want to see the old house .' '
 
 364 WITLEY 1887 
 
 ' Ay, they looks in — but you're the first this summer 
 that's given me anything.' 
 
 There she lives alone, not friends even with her next 
 neighbours — capable of sharp words, doubtless. Poor 
 woman — many a one sketches the outside of this 
 beautiful ancient House when she is crouching by 
 the dull fire within, thinking of — what ,? I went up 
 the broken and almost dangerous stairs to the roof — the 
 rooms were empty ; some dusty papers lay in a corner, 
 one showing its title in bold print — Glad Tidings ; 
 on the wall hung an old coat and waistcoat — her 
 husband's ^ Outside, the sun shone on the pretty 
 village street and its trees. I found a path to where 
 Helen was painting ; settled plans, she to drive back. 
 Then by path to station, and train to Manchester. Cab 
 to Exchange, get in and see Madox Brown's Frescoes, 
 which look well. Owens College about 5.30. 
 
 Wednesday^ September 7. — Fine; garden — brook 
 (wild angelica about 12 feet high), shady dark paths, 
 bridge. H. painting apple-tree from field ; Mrs. 
 Turner drives us to Bramhall, to call on Mr. and 
 Mrs. Nevill — fine old timber mansion, on rising ground. 
 We are shown round — plans, restorations, old wall 
 paintings, Japanese work. 
 
 Friday^ September 9. — Drive to Stockport station 
 with Mrs. Turner — good-bye. 
 
 Sunday, September i\. — Sandhills. Fine. Drive H. 
 to Aldworth. Tennyson better — walk with him on 
 lawn ; asks, ' were you edified ^ ' (at British Association). 
 Lord Wolseley and daughter appear, having walked up 
 from Manor House. 
 
 T. — ' Is there a chair for the great Soldier ^ ' 
 
 Lord W. speaks of the Nile — 'pretty flowers' — 
 has brought home specimens of them ; doesn't know 
 their names. 
 
 ' Saw the mummy unrolled of the Pharaoh, the 
 friend of Moses — face unchanged.' 
 
 T. asks, * Which Pharaoh was that .'' '
 
 ^".-i^^dyt-sAayn- ^«^ 
 
 . Trcnx a iimter colour ptn~trait
 
 ,887 ALDWORTH 365 
 
 W. doesn't know, ' There were so many Rameses. 
 Overflow of the Nile, threatening even the Museum 
 at Boulac. I rather wished for a scarabaeus or two ; 
 the Khedive said to me, " Go down to the Museum and 
 take as many as you like ! " ' 
 
 Hallam asks us to come to meet his Uncle Arthur. 
 
 T, (to H.) — ' Didn't you begin a portrait of me 
 once. Well you might perhaps try again sometime.' ^ 
 
 Thursday^ September 15. — Start with H. for Aid- 
 worth at noon in Toby-carriage, arrive about 1.15. 
 Carriage passes us with Mr. Arthur Tennyson and wife. 
 Luncheon. Arthur T. opposite me — hair bushy and still 
 dark ? curiously like Alfred, but younger and slighter. 
 
 Upstairs with Hallam and Arthur : they smoke. 
 A.'s way of speaking thoroughly Tennysonian both in 
 matter and manner — great love of natural beauty, 
 naive and original opinions. Out with him and Mrs. 
 Arthur, flower garden, walk, back-gate — to spring. 
 Arthur praises warmly the beauty of Surrey, and of this 
 place, but thinks a beautiful lonely place not best suited 
 for some people to live in — is apt to make them dreamy 
 and indolent. 
 
 ' Don't you find this effect from living in beautiful 
 lonely scenery .'' ' 
 
 'I have children to interest me.' 
 
 ' Ah, yes, that makes a difference. I have not been 
 granted any children,' 
 
 At the spring (where Lord Egmont has had several 
 conspicuous trees cut down, leaving a woful blank) we 
 saw the three grandchildren, Alfred, Charley, and 
 Michael ; Alfred leaping his pony over bars. 
 
 A, and I turn back. We agree in disliking flesh- 
 food and in wishing we had been brought up vege- 
 tarians. ' We found the flesh-board provided (he said), 
 and got used to it without thinking.' 
 
 1 The opportunity did not come till a year or two later, when Mrs. 
 Aliingham painted the portrait in the Study at Farringford, a copy of 
 which is given on the opposite page.
 
 366 WITLEY 1887 
 
 We meet Alfred and Mrs. Arthur, and turn. 
 
 We go up the close-wooded valley till turned back 
 by rain. 
 
 Arthur is a couple of inches shorter than Alfred, 
 and much narrower in the shoulders. He walks much, 
 he tells me. 
 
 September 23. — To Dunrozel [Hindhead.] Countess 
 Russell and daughter. Colonel and Mrs. Moncreiff. 
 Talk with Colonel M. ' Indians — their way of moving 
 — kind of leaping on their toes, five miles an hour ; 
 good people and intelligent.' 
 
 [On the 24th of this month the Allinghams went 
 to Sandown for a holiday with their children, staying 
 there until October 25.] 
 
 Wednesday^ October 26. — Fine — Henny and I up 
 common. Crowd of visitors — Lady Midleton and 
 daughters and guests (seven in all), Mrs. Stewart 
 Hodgson and Mrs. Freeman {nee Merivale), Miss 
 Longman and married sister, Mr. and Mrs. Colvin, 
 Mrs. Evans and Mrs. Cooper, Mrs. Hammond Jones. 
 Drawings looked at. 
 
 November. — Winter has come on us by a forced 
 march. Trees red and yellow — now mostly bare. 
 Wet, foggy, frosty weather, with a io.^ fine days 
 patched in. London riotous and getting worse. H. 
 at work on her drawings, I at proofs of Laurence 
 Bloomjield, and trying to get Irish Songs^ etc. out. 
 Binding not right, mistake in printing discovered, 
 already tired of the book. 
 
 Oar good nurse Elizabeth Haddon married on 
 Tuesday, November 15, to Harry Cave (both of 
 Naseby), brother to Alice Wisdom, the nurse.^ Day 
 fine, children at Witley church, and Gerald signed the 
 book by his own particular desire. After the lunch H. 
 and I went in, and I said a few words. We saw them off. 
 
 1 A little dispensary had been established at Sandhills by Lady Knuts- 
 ford : and Mrs. Alice Wisdom, to whom she had given the necessary training, 
 had been appointed by her as nurse : a great boon to the neighbourhood.
 
 ,-887 WITLEY 367 
 
 On frosty days the orange sunsets fine, Hindhead 
 looking mountainous against them ; walks to Godal- 
 ming, Park Lane, etc, — but often tedious. 
 
 H. and I called on Leonard Huxley, assistant- 
 master at Charterhouse. 
 
 * Must boys have been confirmed ? ' 
 
 L. H. — * I think so — they all must go " through the 
 mill."' [The Allinghams had some idea of sending 
 their son as a day-boy to Charterhouse.] 
 
 To Mr. Buckton's. Mr. B. shows whistle of several 
 degrees (nine) of shrillness : I can't hear the two 
 shrillest, but I hear the third, which B. cannot hear. 
 Helen hears No. i. 
 
 November 23. — Indigestion continually, tedious 
 nights. If I only knew for certain what to eat and 
 drink ! 
 
 Thursday^ November 24. — H., G., and I to Hasle- 
 mere by 4.7 train and walk to Valewood by Mason's 
 fields, farm, locked gate, old walnut. Three Counties' 
 Bridge, Valewood ponds and hills impressive in the 
 dusk. House — drawing-room, Mrs. Mangles, Dafi'arn, 
 Mrs. DafFarn, Daphne. Chat, tea. 
 
 Friday^ November 25. — Fine — some sunshine. H. 
 and I by 12.45 ^° Haslemere and walk up Blackdown. 
 Shooting heard. Beaters in lane, eating bread and 
 cheese. H. lunches among the heather. Then stables, 
 no one ; man cutting furze. Hallam hails us from 
 upper window. His room — he smokes — chat. He 
 and Audrey have just been at Cambridge to see 
 CEdipus acted, and took Mary Anderson with them ; 
 she drilled the young fellows — was surprised at the 
 poorness of their legs ; thought that but for the great 
 power of Sophocles the play would be intolerable ; 
 was disgusted with the bloody eyes ; all thought them 
 horrible. 
 
 Then about four to Tennyson's room ; find him 
 sitting at window in a red woollen cape, of fisherman's 
 shape, reading. Contrary to reports — looking well
 
 368 ALDWORTH i88r 
 
 and cheerful. He gives Helen The Brook^ illustrated ; 
 asks if she will illustrate Locksley Hall for Macmillan, 
 but she excuses herself — is out of practice, and does not 
 know Lincolnshire. 
 
 Tennyson praises the picturesqueness of the great 
 fens, and the sun rising over the eastern sea. I say I can 
 tell them the right man for kn scenery — Macbeth. 
 
 T. says the drawings in the little book don't show 
 the Brook he thought of — it was partly an abstract, but 
 mainly from one in the country where he was born. 
 
 ' Have you seen Darwin s Life ? ' 
 
 T. — 'No, I hate biographies.' 
 
 Darwin — his dicta on religion — once cared for 
 poetry, etc. 
 
 T. was reading Elaine, a Play in five Acts, founded 
 on his Idyll. He said, ' I am told this has been played 
 for many nights in America. The language is partly 
 mine, partly not. It came this morning from New 
 York.' 
 
 ' Have you got any money out of it .? ' 
 
 * Money — no ! ' 
 
 He went out on the lawn for his half-hour's after- 
 noon walk, I with him. We talked of Darwin — of 
 human nature — of the difficulties of the period of 
 puberty and following years. He spoke with praise 
 of Paul Janet. I hardly recollected about him. T. 
 said, ' Why, I remember reading Paul Janet to you in 
 the New Forest.' 
 
 ' The only tolerable view of this life,' he said, ' is as 
 the vestibule to a better.' 
 
 In parting Tennyson held my wife's hand and said, 
 ' I am very glad to have seen you again. Perhaps 
 you'll never see me again till I'm dead.' Then tome — 
 ' Do you know what old Mrs. Procter said to me the 
 other day ^ I said to her, " I'm seventy-eight and you're 
 eighty-seven, and perhaps we shall never meet again till 
 we're dead," and she answered, " You young fellows 
 mustn't be insolent to your seniors ! " '
 
 1887 WITLEY 369 
 
 We walked away, agreeing that he appeared well 
 and cheerful, and so down the lane in a misty moon- 
 light and to Haslemere station. 
 
 [About this time the Allinghams spent a pleasant 
 evening at Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson's on Hindhead, 
 when Mr. Hutchinson spoke of his deep debt of grati- 
 tude to Carlyle for the influence of his teaching on his 
 own early life. At the end of this year the following 
 notes are written, undated, in the diary : — ] 
 
 Have neglected my diary again for many weeks. 
 See no particular good in keeping it up, yet feel uneasy 
 when I don't. 
 
 A lady called to look at this house, hearing we were 
 thinking of leaving it. The house and surroundings 
 seem pleasanter than ever now that parting draws on — 
 but how help it ? We think of various places. It is 
 horrid to feel one's roots tampered with. 
 
 H. away for about a week (I loth, as usual, to let 
 her go) to Birmingham, where she saw old Mrs. 
 Phipson and various others, all over eighty and all still 
 enjoying life, which speaks well for the air ; then she 
 visited Hampstead, staying at Clara Martineau's ; and 
 St. Albans, finding her dear old Grannie, though feeble, 
 glad to see her and able to talk a little. Could not see 
 her Aunt Louie — who has since died, after a shadowed 
 life. H. describes Birmingham as wonderfully im- 
 proved — fine Public Library and Picture Gallery, 
 cheerful look in general ; the inhabitants are ambitious 
 to make it a provincial capital. 
 
 The winter, with some frosts, ran on quickly to 
 Christmas and New Year — the children sending and 
 receiving cards, putting up holly and ivy, etc. They 
 had tea, separately, at Nursey's cottage, as they still 
 call her. Went to a children's party at Mrs. Evans's. 
 
 In 1887 (October) departed Mrs. George Craik, 
 whom I first knew many years ago as Dinah Muloch. 
 Helen has a grateful recollection of her and her 
 husband's kindness in H.'s early London days. 
 
 2 B
 
 370 WITLEY 1887 
 
 The R. Catholic Archbishop of Armagh (Daniel 
 M'Gettigan) departed in December. From Curate he 
 was made ' Bishop of Raphoe ' and came to live at 
 Ballyshannon, where I used to meet him often on 
 friendly terms — a tall, handsome, portly man, with an 
 engaging simplicity of manner and voice. He had a 
 sweet brogue, and spoke the Irish language fluently. 
 He lived a frugal, blameless life, diligent in his office, 
 tranquil, simple, dignified, more like by far to one's 
 notion of a ' primitive Bishop ' than any other prelate I 
 have seen. I was perhaps the only Protestant in the 
 place who, in intercourse with him, used the terms due 
 in courtesy to his rank ; but he met nobody (as he 
 knew very well) less likely to become a ' convert.' 
 
 Other departures. 
 
 Jenny Lind (November), good soul, with music in 
 it as well as in her voice, whom I much longed to meet 
 in private life, but never did. I saw her in Norma, 
 Sonnambula, Lucia, Figlia del Reggimento. In a juvenile 
 Universal Reformer mood I wrote and sent her a letter, 
 urging her to leave the stage, as a profession unworthy 
 her naively noble character. This was at Dublin. 
 
 Old Miss Gillies (July) the water-colour painter ; 
 in her earlier days a friend of various literary people, 
 among others of the Howitts, when they lived at 
 Highgate. 
 
 Dr. Quain (September), doctor and diner-out, ready 
 to doctor literary people and artists for nothing, 
 pleasant and talkative. Last time I saw him was at 
 Emerson's lodging in Down Street, Piccadilly. 
 
 Richard Jefferies (August) — I never saw him, but 
 had much correspondence with him (then quite un- 
 known) when I edited Fraser. I put in various pieces 
 of his, as good as anything he afterwards wrote, but no 
 one took any notice ; save indeed that Barbara L. S. B. 
 was struck with the truth of his picture or photograph 
 of women in the farming classes.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 1888-1889 
 
 January 1888. — Witley — More than half the first 
 month of the New Year has already slipped away. 
 
 Alternate frosts and thaws. Great fogs in London, 
 etc., and greatish even here. Ice on Sweetwater Pond. 
 Helen sitting out to paint whenever she possibly can. 
 
 Hear good reports from Catherine, Jane, John also. 
 
 One Wednesday Lady Wolseley called on us, also 
 Mrs. Mangles and others. 
 
 Mary Carlyle sends me Academy with notice of 
 Irish Songs — well-meant, but ' cheeky ' and blundering. 
 The writer (a law student T) wrote to me, begging a 
 copy of the D.G.R. woodcut. 
 
 Helen and I discuss Hampstead [with a view to 
 going there to live]. Feel low and unsettled. 
 
 February 8. — Mild and vernal — abundant snowdrops 
 and violets — aconites too, and crocuses in bud. 
 
 February 11. — H. and I to London, to Mr. Stewart 
 Hodgson's, I South Audley Street ; dinner, drive to 
 Lyceum — Winter s Tale ; Mary Anderson's grace 
 and beauty, with a talcing naivete. (Must not Lady 
 Hamilton have been something like her .^) Her voice 
 sweet, enunciation deliberate ; no thrills, but all well 
 studied and well done. 
 
 Sunday^ April i. — A spring day. Walk with Helen 
 and the children down lane — to Moorev's Gate, and 
 into copse — bare trees, dark blue distances, fresh cool 
 
 371
 
 372 WITLEY 1888 
 
 air, some sun, a few primrose tufts. Children out in 
 garden after tea with great delight, at battle-dore, etc. 
 
 May 10. — Dry but clouded, and distances dim. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Forbes,^ with Edith and Waldo, by 12.50 
 train. Garden, luncheon. Walk, Haslemere Lane, 
 copse crowded with primroses, wood anemones, violets, 
 Mrs. Forbes delighted. Nightingale sings. Home, 
 tea — we talked of Emerson, Cabot's Life, etc. 
 
 May 17. — On common. At home. Find Webb,"^ 
 come over from Cranleigh. Together to Guildford. 
 See Almshouses — which he likes. 
 
 June 4. — To London. National Liberal Club. 
 Terrace, and saw Prince of Wales unveil statue of Sir 
 B. Frere (looked most appropriate when standing before 
 the public in its white sheet). Princess and daughters, 
 Old Duke of Cambridge, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 Lord Knutsford, Sir Richard Temple, etc. 
 
 June 8. — Irish Exhibition. To Queen Anne's Lodge. 
 James Knowles's house full of fine things. J. K., wife 
 and daughter, Lucy Taylor, Lady Pollock, Helen. Tea. 
 Portrait of Gladstone : Claude — Turner, etc. Urn (ashes 
 and bits of bones). 
 
 June 9. — To Whitley Stokes's ; W. S. cordial. 
 
 To 40 Kensington Square. Sir John and Lady Simon. 
 Dinner. Marcus Aurelius — Lady S. prefers ' that old- 
 fashioned and despised book, the Bible.' Sir John agrees 
 with me that it is desirable to inculcate morals without 
 dogma. Ruskin : Simon attended him some years ago. 
 
 Sunday^ June 10. — To 29 De Vere Gardens — Up- 
 stairs, tapestry, bust of E. B. B., one of R. B. (young). 
 
 Enter R. B., friendly and vigorous. He asked me, 
 Did I often come up to town ? 
 
 ' Very seldom.' 
 
 On which he remarked ( I think premeditatedly), that in 
 his early life he had much secluded himself, and had often 
 since regretted it. He sees that he lost much by it.^ 
 
 1 Emerson's daughter. ^ Mr. Philip Webb the architect. 
 
 3 This remark of Browning's chimed in with what was often in Ailing- 
 ham's mind. Although fond of the country, he had keenly missed there
 
 LONDON 
 
 373 
 
 Then he took up a book from the table, Oannes, an 
 Ancient Myth^ as told by Berosiis^ by J. Garth Wilkinson. 
 
 ' Here's a thing has been sent to me ' — and read half 
 a page or so (without spectacles, I noticed), to the 
 purport that in remote times a creature, half man and 
 half fish, came to a certain island, and taught the 
 islanders various arts — his name was Oannes.' 
 
 W. A. — 'It might be taken as a foreshadowing 
 of Darwinism — the origin of man in an amphibious 
 lepidosyren.' 
 
 B, — ' Yes, altogether different from Wilkinson's 
 notions.' 
 
 W. A. — ' A gentleman whom the Vicar of Wake- 
 field met was fond of quoting Berosus.' 
 
 B. (smiling). — ' Ay, sir, the world is in its dotage.' 
 
 Then we talked a little about Darwin, B. saying 
 that, whatever his merits as investigator, his philosophy 
 was of little or no importance. 
 
 I told him of our neighbour Alfred Wallace, and 
 how he had arrived, as it were, at the opposite goal from 
 Darwin in what are called ' Supernatural questions ' ; D. 
 at last believing almost nothing, W. almost anything ! 
 
 Miss Rehan in Shrew — I praise her. B. going to 
 meet her at lunch at Boughton's next Sunday. We 
 talk of plays and actors. 
 
 B. says — ' The acting of my four plays by pro- 
 fessionals, unpaid^ for the Browning Society, is surely 
 one of the greatest and most wonderful honours ever 
 paid to a dramatic writer. People burning to have 
 their plays produced — paying to have them produced ; 
 if something even of Tennyson's is to be done you 
 hear of the curtain's costing ^2000 ! and here in my 
 case the actors play for love, and give every word of the 
 longest parts, and the audience listen to the very end ! ' 
 
 the intellectual life and interests of London. He had made the move to 
 Witley chiefly on account of his wife and children — and never regretted it. 
 But now that the education difficulty made another change desirable (for 
 he wished to avoid boarding-schools if possible), his thoughts turned again 
 towards London.
 
 374 LONDON 1888 
 
 Miss Alma Murray, he maintains, is the most 
 poetical actress now on the stage ; her Beatrice, in The 
 Cenci^ thrilling ; at the end she appears, and is, 
 exhausted and barely able to speak. Vezin as the 
 wicked count, most admirable. 
 
 B. reckons up the four Plays — In a Balcony^ The 
 Blot in the 'Scutcheon^ Colombe^s Birthday, and they're 
 going to do The Return of the Druses. 
 
 ' Charles Kean accepted Colombe's Birthday, but said 
 he couldn't bring it out for two years, and I declined 
 to hold it over so long. He wanted the name of the 
 play altered to The Advocate ofCleves. " You've got the 
 best part, Ellen," he said to his wife, " but the play 
 must be called The Advocate of devest ' 
 
 In quitting the subject B. said, ' the Theatre is a 
 great force ; but its conditions need to be entirely 
 altered.' 
 
 W. A. — ' Would a subsidised Theatre be any good 
 in England? ' 
 
 B. — ' Not the least ! ' 
 
 B. ate as usual a hearty dinner-luncheon, talking all 
 the time — what a man ! 
 
 B, — ' C. said many things that I mentally dissented 
 from, and he said something about a certain lady 
 (E. B. B. I knew this was) which was reported to me 
 and made me, for a time, hold aloof from him altogether. 
 But I feel towards him as John Forster did to Landor : 
 Landor used sometimes to write most unreasonable 
 and exasperating letters to Forster, and one day that I 
 was with Forster and he had been talking of Landor 
 almost with indignation, he suddenly exclaimed " If he 
 were standing here before me — I'd hug the old man ! " 
 — and so would I Carlyle.' 
 
 In saying this B. hugged me closely with his broad 
 chest and strong arms, and laughed merrily. The 
 notion of his being seventy-six ! 
 
 B. — ' He called one day at Warwick Crescent when 
 I was out, and said from his carriage window to my
 
 LONDON 
 
 375 
 
 sister, " I should like to see him once more." ' (I 
 believe I was with C. in the carriage that day.) 
 
 B. — ' The last time I went to Cheyne Row his niece 
 said he was not speaking to any one, but I might go 
 up and see him. He was lying on the sofa, wrapt 
 in a shawl. I stooped over him and said a word 
 or two, and he put his arm round my neck. That was 
 all.' 
 
 In going away both B. and his sister asked me 
 repeatedly and warmly to come soon again — any day 
 I chose. 
 
 Up through Kensington Gardens to Hyde Park, 
 very fresh and green, and on to Zoological Gardens, 
 where I saw a monkey with artificial flowers snatched 
 from a hat, fourteen crocodiles, young kangaroo getting 
 into mother's pouch, etc. 
 
 As I sat in shady nook by the water-fowl, reading a 
 newspaper, Mr. Stewart Hodgson accosted me, and 
 we had some pleasant chat — he had heard we were going 
 to leave Sandhills. 
 
 Walk to Hampstead Road — train ; people with 
 branches of hawthorn ; 1 8 Gay ton Road. 
 
 Mrs. Paterson, and Carrie and H. — We take a look 
 at Lested Lodge, garden tangled. — Walk to Adelaide 
 —Club. 
 
 Wrote to-day at Club a note to Miss Rehan, signed 
 An old Playgoer, entreating her not to greet the audience 
 after sweeping in round the stage in a passion on her 
 first appearance in The Shrew. 
 
 Monday^ June ii. — To 'Gaiety' and get four 
 tickets. Show Helen the Club — with her to National 
 Gallery, then to Stores and lunch. Mrs. Woolner 
 a:costs me. To Lady Dorothy Nevill's — her curiosities, 
 Walpole miniatures, Sussex fire-irons, etc., own portrait 
 by Watts. Lady Warwick and daughter — pleasant — 
 Dine at Gatti's, ' Gaiety' — Clara and Carrie waiting ; 
 Upper boxes — Taming of the Shre-vu. Enjoved and 
 admired Miss Rehan much.
 
 376 WITLEY 1888 
 
 N.B. — She swept in round the stage and took no 
 notice of the audience : Brava ! 
 
 Tuesday, June 12. — Train — Witley 5.20 ; all well, 
 much the better for my trip to London. 
 
 June 17. — Sandhills. Walk by Park Lane and 
 steep wood to Hindhead, touch Cross at 4 o'c/ock 
 precisely ; two boys and a girl selling ginger-beer. Cold 
 wind. 
 
 Hennessy and F. Pollock appear. To Tyndall's, 
 meet Mrs. Clifford at door — in. 
 
 Tyndall, Mrs. Tyndall, and her mother, mild and 
 handsome. Friend (who came on bicycle from Albury) 
 with pleasant out-of-door face. 
 
 Apparent size of the moon — Tyndall said, 'Spedding 
 said the full moon looked to him the size of a three- 
 penny bit ; I told him it looked to me the size of 
 a ; dinner plate, but he couldn't believe it. I was 
 travelling from Vienna on a fine moonlight night with 
 Hooker and Mrs. Hooker, and we said how large each 
 of us thought the moon appeared to be, Mrs. Hooker 
 said the size of sixpence. Hooker the size of half-a- 
 crown, I the size of a dinner plate.' 
 
 Tyndall took us to top of house, snuggery and large 
 outside balcony or platform. I said as we stept oi;t, 
 ' This expands the soul.' 
 
 He. — ' That's just what I feel — both here and in the 
 Alps.' 
 
 He leaned back over the balcony rail while talking, 
 in a rather dangerous looking way. Downstairs ar.d 
 away. When at gate, saw close by, walking along the 
 heath, two brown bears, with them five men, seemingly 
 foreigners. Walk home, by Southern lane and copses 
 — beautiful walk. 
 
 June 23. — Waggonette to Hindhead — Helen and 
 I with Mrs. Flight. I walk up steep wood — the 
 Cross, schoolgirls running about. Distance misty. 
 Drive to Mrs. Clifford's — friendly and pleasant. 
 
 To Tyndall's — I introduce Mrs. Flight as widow
 
 i888 WITLEY 377 
 
 of Dr. Flight ^ and cousin of Du Bois Reymond. 
 ' Walter Flight r Oh, I knew him intimately.' Speaks 
 with interest to Mrs. F. — ' dear Du Bois ' — takes her and 
 Helen to top of house. Away, T. comes to gate with 
 us ; ' Dr. Martineau — we have exchanged some shrewd 
 blows, but I don't think he hates me ! ' 
 
 I walk home from Hindhead by Witley Park 
 copses, lovely — but oaks stript by caterpillars. 
 
 Weather turns cold and rainy. Ill and rather 
 miserable for about a week. 
 
 Going on with proofs of Flower Pieces, etc. 
 July 5. — Hire pony from Luff, of King's Arms. 
 Wet — wet — wet, with a gleam now and again : almost 
 literally 
 
 June, 
 Without a sun or moon ! 
 
 July, August, 
 Many a raw gust. 
 
 July 12. — Ride round by Sweetwater Pond — pick 
 chantarelles. Have not had a ride for sixteen years ! 
 
 Friday, July 13. — Ride Jenny to Aldworth. Party 
 in flower garden, T,, Hallam, Miss Ritchie and friend. 
 Tea, talk of Clifford— his mathematical paradoxes. 
 Tennyson goes in with Miss Ritchie ' to read a new 
 poem.' I ride home ; not stiff or tired — did me good. 
 
 July — . — I saw the Duke of Argyll at railway station, 
 and Hallam T., who asked us to come up to-day. We 
 drove to Aldworth. I showed some chantarelles gathered 
 in the lane, Duke knew them, handed them on to T., 
 who sent them to cook with directions. ' Silos ' : farmers 
 slow to take to them. 
 
 T. tells of old Lincolnshire farmer near his father's. 
 
 T. said to him one day civilly : ' Mr. why don't 
 
 you mend your fences .^ ' The old fellow stooped down 
 and tied his shoe carefully, then straightened himself and 
 said, ' I've never mended a fence, and I never will ! ' 
 
 1 Walter Flight, D.Sc.(Lond.), F.R.S., analytical chemist in British 
 Museum. He had studied under Tyndall at Queenwood College.
 
 378 WITLEY 1888 
 
 [Tennyson had a story of a Lincolnshire farmer who 
 said, when he came out of church — ' burned for ever 
 and for ever ! I can't beUeve that : no constitution 
 could stand it ! '] 
 
 Wednesday^ August 8. — Mrs Humphry Ward visits 
 us, looks at drawings — asks us for Sunday week. 
 
 Sunday^ August 19. — H. and I drive to Borough 
 Farm, heather bloom. Tea-party at door, outside, Mrs. 
 Humphry Ward, Mr. Ward, Miss Sellars (tall and 
 beautiful), and Mr. Henry James. The Anglo-American 
 Novelist had just arrived from London, and was going 
 back by a late train. 
 
 He described himself as an ' unmitigated Cockney,' 
 was surprised at the colour of the heather, and hearing 
 ling spoken of, asked to look at it. 
 
 While we were at tea, a flock of sheep, herded by 
 a long-limbed half-wild looking girl of fourteen, 
 streamed down the green-sward track just in front of 
 us, between an old weed-grown wall and some grassy 
 knolls, with a great ash tree and two or three other 
 trees : a picture. The pony, still in the shafts, grazed 
 peaceably. 'Tis a beautiful wild place — much vext by 
 the rifle-range close by. 
 
 Saturday^ August 25. — Ride to Blackdown, in lane 
 meet Tennyson carriage. He with Miss Boyle and 
 Hallam, who says, ' we were going to you.^ I ride after 
 them. Find Miss B. seated in our garden, T. wander- 
 ing in the field. ' I wonder you can leave this place.' 
 
 Take him in and show him some drawings, which 
 he likes. 
 
 ' That's Carlyle — looking very grumpy.' 
 
 Tea in garden. He admires the tall mullein. I bring 
 up Emerson's comparison of Salisbury spire to the great 
 mullein. T. grunted, and said * This doesn't taper.' 
 
 I gave him a white rose, and said ' Perhaps the ladies 
 would rather have jasmin.' 
 
 T. — ' You called me Jasmin, once.' 
 
 I said ' I don't think you were quite satisfied with it.'
 
 1888 ALD WORTH 379 
 
 T. murmured something which I took to mean, ' No, 
 — not satisfied with it.' 
 
 I said jasmin grew on a cottage I lived in when a 
 child, and it had most delightful associations in my 
 mind. 
 
 While looking at a drawing with daffodils, T. said 
 ' Millais put daffodils along with wild -roses in his 
 Ophelia picture. I pointed this out to him. He said 
 he had painted the rose-bush from nature ; and some 
 time after when he was finishing he wanted a bit of 
 yellow and sent to Covent Garden and got the daffodils. 
 I told him it was quite wrong.' 
 
 I took T. part way up the path on our common to 
 see the view and showed him his own hill ; ' this is a 
 beautiful country,' he said. 
 
 In shaking hands with me he said ' I don't think I 
 shall do the " Banshee." You have done one } ' 
 
 ' Yes, and published it lately in a volume.' 
 
 ' I've not seen it. I'm so much obliged to you for 
 not sending it to me — get heaps every day.' 
 
 I said ' Oh, I promised long ago never to send you 
 anything.' 
 
 Miss Boyle and I laughed. 
 
 September i. — To Aldworth, find Tennyson in 
 garden, reading Times — 'going to station to meet 
 Mary Anderson.' 
 
 He tells of old Monsieur C, one hundred and two 
 yesterday, how he eats and sleeps. 
 
 In carriage with T., Hallam and Miss Boyle. 
 
 I show him chantarelles gathered in the lane, he 
 wishes to taste them. ' I have a fine taste in matters 
 of cooking,' he remarked. His cook would not cook 
 the ones I gave him before — ignored them. T. asks 
 me to go and reason with the cook, which I decline, 
 not having a personal acquaintance with her. Station — 
 T. walks off towards the village, I with him. He tells 
 me Miss A. is going to give The Cup in Birmingham 
 and Dublin. Carriage overtakes us with the lovely
 
 38o WITLEY isss 
 
 Mary in dark-blue cotton dress, her healthy brown 
 complexion un-actress like — presented, and have a hand- 
 shake and a smile, (They will discuss and try over The 
 Cup.) Home. 
 
 Monday^ September 3. — H. and I drive to Grays- 
 wood — Mr, Pratten's house, Miss Swanwick comes out 
 to hall door to welcome us ; room with fine prospect, 
 east, over trees. Enter Mrs. Stewart Hodgson and 
 Mrs. Forsyth, talk on literature, etc. 
 
 Browning told Miss Swanwick he knew nothing 
 about the Sonnets from the Portuguese till two or three 
 years after his marriage, when his wife showed them to 
 him. He said to her, ' If I consulted my personal 
 wishes I should keep these all to myself, but as the 
 guardian of your literary fame I must counsel you to 
 publish them.' 
 
 Monday, September 10. — I to Hampstead, to the 
 Carlyles, 23 Rudall Crescent. 
 
 Tuesday, September 1 1 . — Mrs. Paterson calls. Eldon 
 House. Like it. 
 
 Thursday, September 13. — Hampstead — telegram 
 from H., ' Coming up by first train.' To Eldon House, 
 which she takes to by degrees. Home. 
 
 Friday, September 14. — Sandhills — fine ; ride pony. 
 Lea Park, moor near Hammer Pond ; meet boys, one of 
 whom lifts hand with switch in it to Jenny's nose. 
 She starts violently, flings me oi¥" and kicks left arm — 
 gallops off. Back and arm hurt.^ 
 
 Tuesday, September 18. — Fine, common, H. painting. 
 Splendid views of Hindhead and Weald ; harvesting. 
 Country lovely. Miss Tynan sends me criticism from 
 Providence Journal — 'The Poet of Ballyshannon.' 
 (non-national, how sad !) 
 
 Thursday, September 20. — Write to take my name o^ 
 list of subscribers to Haslemere Commons Committee. 
 
 Friday, October 26. — Gap of over a month in diary. 
 
 1 Allingham was inclined to connect this accident with the illness which 
 attacked him later.
 
 1888 WITLEY 381 
 
 In London with H. (at B. Martineau's) for several 
 days. Hampstead looks pleasant. 
 
 Spell of fine October weather — expeditions with 
 Gerald to Hog's Back, Merrow, East Clandon, to 
 Selborne, Woolmer Forest, etc. 
 
 Tennyson has had very severe attack of gout — a 
 nurse — confined to his room. We were invited to tea, 
 and a note from Hallam put us off. 
 
 Heard he v/as better, then — a relapse. 
 
 Saturday^ October 27. — Mrs. Graham Robertson and 
 her son appear. They look round ; H. comes in from 
 fir-wood. They drive round by Brook, return, and take 
 the place [Sandhills], 
 
 Thursday^ November i. — Rain or drizzle all day. 
 H. drives with Gerald to visit Mrs. Ramsden, Miss 
 Jekyll, Mrs. Longman ; home after dark. I writing, 
 sharpening penknives ; dance with children. 
 
 Friday^ November 2. — Reading Troilus and Cressida 
 to H. Shakespeare's hand in it, but not his play : 
 poor in some parts, loaded in others : a re-cooking of 
 familiar matter, with Shakespeare sauce. 
 
 Saturday^ November 3. — To Haslemere by train, 
 walked up to Aldworth among the yellowing trees ; 
 met Mrs. Tennyson driving F. Palgrave to the station. 
 
 Up to study, and found T. leaning back on a chair, 
 his legs on another, thin and pale ; he gave me his 
 brown hand and said ' I'm glad to see you.' 
 
 He had a book in his hand, and the light of two 
 candles close by fell on the right side of his face, which 
 showed striking and noble. He wore a black skull-cap, 
 his long Don Quixote nose was sharply outlined, his 
 moustache looked dark and full. By general impression 
 one might have guessed him seventy rather than eightv. 
 He said, ' I have been in the doctor's hands — been very 
 ill — never had such a time of it in my life ! — gout and 
 rheumatic fever.' 
 
 Zola — his question ' How can a book corrupt } ' 
 
 Martial — ' Leigh Hunt said a boy found out in vice
 
 382 HAMPSTEAD 1889 
 
 might ask " Why did you put such books into my 
 hands?" Are these books necessary for the learning 
 of Latin ? ' 
 
 Tennyson. — ' There might be purified editions.' 
 
 November 19. — H. and I to London. I to consult 
 Mr. G. Buckston Browne. He finds an enlarged gland, 
 and indigestion. Am I henceforth an invalid } ah me ! 
 
 November 30 to December 8. — H. paying many calls, 
 people all kind and friendly. 
 
 A beautiful dream : a garden with a pear-tree and 
 an apple-tree, both in blossom : slope of sward and 
 inexpressible happiness — (reminiscence of early child- 
 hood). Glad that I can be thus happy even in a 
 dream. 
 
 First year of Old Age, I fear ! Has the unwelcome 
 guest really come at last, and to stay ^ We never 
 realise beforehand what old means, or how the old itol. 
 
 [It was not old age, for Allingham was not yet sixty- 
 five : the feeling he speaks of was caused by the malady 
 from which he was afterwards found to be suffering.] 
 
 Sunday^ December 9. — Walk, Evey and I ; Park 
 Lane, Banacle, golden sunset light ; Hindhead a blue 
 jewel ; Venus, evening star ; long band of orange light 
 along south. Feel rather better. 
 
 Tuesday, December 11. — Good-bye to Sandhills, after 
 seven and a half peaceful, on the whole happy, years. 
 H. and children at 3 Eldon Road — I to 23 Rudall 
 Crescent, Alick and Mary Carlyle, Tommy and 
 Oliver. All very kind. Much talk about Carlyle — 
 ' a treat (Mary says) to have somebody to talk about 
 him to.' 
 
 Wednesday, December 19. — To Eldon House. Sleep 
 there for the first time. 
 
 1889 
 
 January 3. — In the house since December 31 
 (bronchitis seized me all at once).
 
 1889 EASTBOURNE 383 
 
 January 12. — Take Gerald to University College 
 School. 
 
 January 20. — I call several times at Miss Eade's, 
 Well Walk, for Henny and Evey about 12.30, we walk 
 on Heath. 
 
 February i. — To U. C. School Concert, 4. Gerald 
 and I sit in front. 
 
 March 14. — This book has not been opened since 
 February 3. I have no wish to keep the diary of an 
 invalid. I am sometimes better, often worse ; on the 
 whole going down-hill in strength, and with fresh 
 troubles coming on top of the others. Every day is a 
 weary trial, and every night a worse one. 
 
 I had a very curious dream whose floating imagery 
 evades every cast of the net of language. I thought I 
 found myself somehow, by merely looking aside, aware 
 of some of the main secrets of Nature's material work- 
 shop. There was no tinge of atheistic feeling. Merely, 
 I saw a little below the superficial appearance of things, 
 and found the methods by which forms are innumerably 
 varied and sent on their courses to be so simple and 
 obvious that I smiled at myself with a sort of impatience 
 at not having seen all this before. A pleasurable 
 satisfaction remained after I had awaked and said to 
 myself ' This is the haschisch.' 
 
 [Of another night he writes : — ] 
 
 The curtain of darkness fell on my brain tor perhaps 
 a couple of hours — too, too short ! I have not had a 
 sound night's rest for ever so long. 
 
 Prayer 
 
 O Great One ! may my dear Wife and Children and 
 myself not forget Thee — ever draw nigher to Thee ! 
 May we keep our hearts pure ! 
 
 [The illness increased. In April Allingham was 
 told by Mr. Browne that there was serious internal
 
 384 HAMPSTEAD 1889 
 
 trouble ; and it became so acute, early in June, that 
 immediate operation was necessary. 
 
 This saved his life for the moment, and brought 
 some temporary relief: he gradually became able to 
 take short walks around his house in Hampstead. 
 
 He had been specially interested in tracing the 
 different localities connected with Keats : and in his 
 note-book is the following little poem.] 
 
 POET AND BIRD 
 
 Per contra 
 
 (In a Hampstead Garden) 
 
 ' Thou wert not born for death, immortal Bird ! 
 No hungry generations tread thee down ; ' 
 
 Keats : Ode to a Nightingale. 
 
 A Nightingale, upon a time, 
 
 Here tried his tone : 
 Here, too, a Poet made a rhyme : 
 
 Bird — Poet — gone ! 
 
 Trivial at best the Bird's gay song, 
 
 {A shapeless trill : 
 The Poet's rhyme will last as long 
 As Hampstead Hill. 
 
 "July 12, 1889. — The house and garden are still to be seen 
 in John Street, Hampstead, on the left-hand as you go up from 
 Hampstead Heath railway station. 
 
 [In August AUingham went with his family to 
 Eastbourne, and here he seemed at first to be a 
 little better. During these weeks he would get up at 
 four, sometimes even at three o'clock, to watch the 
 sunrise, and the following, written at this time, is the 
 last of his poems.]
 
 1889 HAMPSTEAD 385 
 
 SUNRISE AT EASTBOURNE 
 
 A Photograph 
 
 Dim sea, dim sky, — a level streak or two, — 
 
 A gradual flush in the chilly atmosphere, — 
 
 What flames upon that eastern head ? The Sun ! 
 
 A blazing point — a hemisphere — full orb — 
 
 Laying a road of gold across the wave. 
 
 Gilding wet glossy sands, green-swarded cliffs, 
 
 Fresh-flowing tide-streams, far-off" sails, tower-clouds. 
 
 Till wide-spread heaven, as lifts the Globe of Fire, 
 
 Is fill'd with yellow light, and Day rules all. 
 
 Two Shrimpers, black amid the radiancy. 
 
 Pushing their nets along the ripple's verge. 
 
 These are the only life ; our silent Town, 
 
 With smokeless chimneys, glittering window-panes. 
 
 Still sunk in torpor and fantastic dreams. 
 
 Town after Town along this English coast. 
 
 And down the shore of France, awakes in turn : 
 
 Thousands of ships, unpausing day or night. 
 
 Of every country bathed by the salt flood. 
 
 Slide smooth between them, each upon its course, 
 
 As rolling Earth on hers, and I on mine. 
 
 And each on his of all my fellowmen. 
 
 Wish Tower Hill, August lo, 1889, 
 4.30-5 A.M. 
 
 [The improvement in health was, alas, but for the 
 time. After his return home on September 5, he slowly 
 grew worse. Sometimes the trouble seemed almost too 
 great to be borne : but, now and again, there were 
 moments when he could detach himself from the present, 
 as it were, and feel an interest, even write a little, about 
 outside matters. 
 
 For some time past he had been revising his poems 
 for a final edition, of six volumes — most of which had, 
 by now, appeared — also preparing his prose writings 
 for press.] 
 
 October 23. — I resume writing here after a long 
 interval. 
 
 2 C
 
 386 HAMPSTEAD 1889 
 
 Du Maurier has visited me often in the evening, 
 and given me a pleasant hour's talk. He is better 
 read, I imagine, in French than in English literature. 
 
 One night he read to me from Les Femmes Savantes. 
 He thinks the scene of the two Poets, Trissotin and 
 Vadius, the funniest thing in Moliere. 
 
 He has nearly finished a story, one volume size. 
 The hero acquires a power of regulating and continu- 
 ing his dreams. In Dreamland he often meets a lady 
 whom he has fallen in love with. He discovers that she 
 has similar dreams, and meets him in her Dreamland. 
 At length they find themselves able to communicate 
 with each other in Dreamland. She dies : he dies in 
 a lunatic asylum, leaving behind this narrative, ' Edited 
 by G. du M.' I strongly advise him to intersperse 
 plenty of sketches up and down the pages, and to offer 
 it first, tentatively, to Harper. 
 
 I have had visits also from Harvey Orrinsmith : 
 William Herford and his niece, Evelyn Herford : F. G. 
 Stephens and his wife : Mr. Clayton — very agreeable 
 and sympathetic man, lover of poetry and art. He 
 began by recalling the time, nearly forty years ago, 
 when he used to meet me at the P.R.B. evenings. Says 
 he readily recollects my features and voice. Stephens 
 and Mrs. S. came the same Sunday evening, and we had 
 an harmonious tea-table in the dining-room. I read to 
 them ' The Spinster's Sweet'arts,' and when done found 
 that du M. had slipt silently into the room during the 
 reading. 
 
 October 25. — Du M. came in about half-past six. 
 We talked of his story. I cannot find that he himself 
 has the least belief in the possibility, even the imagin- 
 ative possibility, of the ground -motive of it. He 
 regretted he could not now read Shakespeare, the time 
 was past. Much-talked-of poets he looks into, as 
 part of the social life of the day, and greatly admires 
 Tennyson. 
 
 He lives in an atmosphere of conventional London
 
 x889 HAMPSTEAD 387 
 
 society and comic literature, mingled. Yet there is a 
 deeper stratum in his mind than that which is amused 
 and affected by these ; and he is an honourable fine- 
 natured man, with various accomplishments — not speak- 
 ing of his art genius — and great charm of manner. His 
 descriptions of character, when it comes within his range, 
 are keen and very neatly put. 
 
 [This is the last entry in the diary. 
 
 During the year, and especially in these last months, 
 the intimate friendship of Mr. and Mrs. Alexander 
 Carlyle was a constant help and comfort. 
 
 Mr. Briton Riviere would often come in for a little 
 quiet talk ; also many other old friends. 
 
 The kindness and attention of his doctor, Mr. 
 Buckston Browne, was untiring. 
 
 Here a note, taken from among Allingham's memo- 
 randa, seems to find a fitting place. 
 
 ' I care for my old diaries for the sake of the Past, 
 the sad, sacred, happy Past, whose pains, fears, sorrows, 
 have put on the calm of eternity, — mysterious Past, for 
 ever gone, for ever real, whose footsteps I see on every 
 page, invisible to other eyes ! ' 
 
 In November fresh complications arose in his illness, 
 and, with these, an ever-increasing weakness, although 
 he kept his bed only for about a week. 
 
 On Sunday the 17th it was evident that the end was 
 very near. 
 
 When asked if he had any requests to make, he 
 said ' No, my mind is at rest ' : then to his wife 
 
 '"And so, to where I wait, come gently on." 
 
 ' I thank you (to Mr. Buckston Browne) — I thank 
 every one.' 
 
 After this he lay in a kind of trance, and died peace- 
 fully about two o'clock in the afternoon of the next 
 day, November the i8th.
 
 n 
 
 388 
 
 HAMPSTEAD 
 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 Once that morning he said, ' I am seeing things that 
 you know nothing of.' 
 
 The cremation, which was by his special wish, took 
 place at Woking. 
 
 A few friends and relations only were present. 
 
 There was no service : Mr. F. G. Stephens, the 
 oldest of the friends there gathered together, read aloud 
 Allingham's own Poet's Epitaph : — 
 
 ' Body to purifying flame, 
 Soul to the Great Deep whence it came. 
 Leaving a song on earth below, 
 An urn of ashes white as snow.' 
 
 The urn was buried in the churchyard at Bally- 
 shannon. 
 
 ' No funeral gloom, my dears, when I am gone, 
 Corpse-gazings, tears, black raiment, grave-yard grimness ; 
 Think of me as withdrawn into the dimness, 
 Yours still, you mine, remember all the best 
 Of our past moments, and forget the rest ; 
 
 And so, to where I wait, come gently on.']
 
 LIST OF WORKS 
 
 Published in 
 
 1850. Poems. Dedicated 'To Leigh Hunt, Esq.' (Chapman and Hall.) 
 
 / 1854 and 1855. T/ie Music Master^ alcove Story, and two series of Day 
 '^ and Night Songs. With nine woodcuts, seven designed by 
 
 Arthur Hughes, one by D. G. Rossetti, and one by John E. 
 Millais, A.R.A. (Routledge and Co.) 
 
 i860. Day and Night Songs ; anAThe Music Master. A Love Poem. With 
 nine woodcuts (as above). 'This little volume comprises, along 
 with the Day and Nig/it Songs of the writer, published in 1854, a 
 second series of short poems, and a narrative composition. Some 
 of these appeared in a volume published in 1850, and since with- 
 drawn, some in periodicals ; others are now added, and all have 
 been carefully revised. T/ie Music Master, in particular, is perhaps 
 nearly entitled to be considered as a new poem' (from Preface). 
 (Bell and Daldy.) 
 
 ^ i860. Nightingale Valley. A collection, including a great number of the 
 choicest lyrics and short poems in the English language Edited 
 by Giraldus. (Bell and Daldy.) 
 
 1862. Reissue oi Nightingale Valley. A collection of choice lyrics and short 
 poems. From the time of Shakespeare to the present day. Edited 
 by William Allingham. (Bell and Daldy.) 
 
 1864. Laurence Bloomfield in Ireland. A modern poem. This poem first 
 appeared in Frasers Magazine, and is now presented much revised 
 and partly rearranged (from Preface). (Macmillan and Co.) 
 
 Fifty Modern Poems. 'ToA. F.' (Bell and Daldy.) 
 
 A new issue of Laurence Bloomfield in Ireland ; or The New Land- 
 lord. (Macmillan and Co.) 
 
 The Ballad Book. A selection of the choicest British ballads. Edited 
 by William Allingham. (Macmillan and Co.) 
 
 Rambles by Patricius Walker. Dedicated 'To Mr. and Mrs. 
 W. H. Forbes.' (Longmans, Green and Co.) 
 
 Songs, Ballads, and Stories, including many now first collected, the 
 rest revised and rearranged. (George Bell and Sons.) 
 
 Ashby Manor. Dedicated 'To my Wife.* And E'vil May Day. 
 Dedicated 'To my Children.' (Longmans, Green and Co.) 
 
 
 1865. 
 
 
 1869. 
 
 •/ 
 
 1872. 
 
 
 1873. 
 
 
 1877. 
 
 / 
 
 1882.
 
 LIST OF WORKS 391 
 
 Published in 
 
 1884. Day and Night Songs. Dedicated ' To my Friends ' (a new edition). 
 And Blackberries, picked oft' many bushes by D. PoUex and others : 
 put in a basket by W. Allingham. (G. Philip and Son.) 
 
 1886. Rhymes for the Young Folk. Dedicated 'To Gerald, Eva and Little 
 
 Henry, and others like them.' With pictures by Helen Allingham, 
 Kate Greenavvay, Caroline Paterson, and Harry Furniss. (Cassell 
 and Co., Ltd.) 
 
 1887. Irish Songs and Poems, with nine airs harmonised for voice and 
 
 pianoforte. (Reeves and Turner.) 
 
 1888. Floiver Pieces and Other Poems. Dedicated 'To Dante Gabriel 
 
 Rossetti, whose early friendship brightened many days of my life, 
 and whom I never can forget.* With two designs by Dante 
 Gabriel Rossetti. Laurence Bloomjield. Dedicated to Samuel 
 Ferguson. (Reeves and Turner.) 
 
 1892. New edition of The Ballad Book, Golden Treasury Series. Edited 
 
 by William Allingham. (Macmillan and Co.) I 
 
 1^.--t893. Varieties in Prose, including 'Rambles by Patricius Walker,* and 11 
 
 i«^ Essays, now first collected. A portrait of the Author is in Vol. L | I 
 
 (Longmans, Green and Co.) 
 
 The collected edition of Allingham's Poems in six volumes 
 (sold separately or in the set) : — 
 
 Irish Songs and Poems, with nine airs (as above), and photograph of the 
 
 Waterfall of Asaroe. 
 Laurence Bloomjield, or Rich and Poor in Ireland, with portrait of the Author. 
 
 Floijoer Pieces-. Day and Night Songs: Ballads. With two designs by D. G. 
 Rossetti. (Some copies on large paper.) 
 
 Life and Phantasy, with frontispiece by Sir John E. Millais, R.A., and design 
 by Arthur Hughes. (Some copies on large paper.) 
 
 Thought and Word, and Ashby Manor, a Play in two Acts. With portrait 
 of the Author (1865), and four theatrical scenes drawn by Mrs. Alling- 
 ham. (Some copies on large paper.) 
 
 Blackberries. (Longmans, Green and Co.)
 
 INDEX 
 
 Abyssinia, King Theodore's son Alamayu, 
 
 183, 184, 185, 187, 189 
 Agricultural labourers in 1872, 209 
 Aide, Hamilton, and Mrs. Aide, 103, 
 
 109, 131, 170, 180, 200, 265 
 Aldworth, Lord Tennyson's house on 
 
 Blackdown, Surrey, 201, 287, 297, 
 
 33Si 338 
 
 Allingham, Miss Catherine, 69 j letters 
 to, 70, 72, 34.1, 371 ; Sister Jane, 46, 
 341, 371 ; Brother John, 14, 31, 321, 
 341, 371 ; Uncle John and Cousins, 
 46, 1 14 5 present members of the 
 family in Ireland, 341 ; origin of family 
 suggested to be Ellingham, Hants, 145 
 
 Allingham, Mrs. (Helen), married to, 
 2335 portraits and drawings by, 240, 
 266, 267, 271, 275, 287, 301, 302, 
 
 3.09' 3i9» 338, 346, 361, 365 
 Allingham, William, his autobiography, 
 1-34 ; childhood, home, and youth in 
 Ballyshannon, 1-6, 10, 13, 22-28 ; 
 Father, 5, 7, 9, 21, 30, 31, 33, 39 ; 
 letters to, 69, 7 i, 79, 92, 116; anxiety 
 about Father's health, 133 ; his death, 
 144. Mother, her early death, 8, 9. 
 Paternal Grandmother, Aunts, and 
 their home, 10-12, 26, 27; his old 
 nurses, Kitty Murray, 25, Madge 
 M'Nulty, 116; school-days, 28, 29 j 
 bank-clerk, and early reading, 29 ; 
 first visit to London, 29, 30 j Officer 
 of Customs at Belfast, 31, 32; 
 Donegal, 32, 33 
 
 Diary begins, 34 ; holiday in 
 London, 34-39; Donegal, 39-42; 
 Ballyshannon, 33, 39, 43, 46 ; Dublin, 
 43, and Uncles, 46-49 ; Controller of 
 Customs at Ramsey, Isle of Man, 
 46, 49-51, 55-57; London, 51-55; 
 Ballyshannon, 57, 58 ; London, 59- 
 65 ; Sub -Controller of Customs at 
 Ballyshannon, 55, 66-69 > ^'^ studies 
 and character, 66-69 5 Coleraine, 69 ; 
 
 removes to London, 69, 71; meets 
 Nat. Hawthorne at Liverpool, 70 ; 
 renounces journalism, 72, 73 ; Customs 
 again at New Ross, 73 ; Ballyshannon, 
 74 ; friends in London, 75 ; at Paris, 
 76-78, and Weimar, Goethe's House, 
 78, 79 ; Customs in London, 79 ; 
 finally at Lymington, 81, 82. Diary 
 resumed, 82 ; attraction of and love 
 for Tennyson, 82, 83, 84, 329 ; visits 
 Tennyson at Farringford, 87-89, 97, 
 112; discontent with officialism, 95, 
 96; at Romsey, 98; London, 100- 
 106 ; musical party at Halle's, 103 ; 
 ethical reflections, 100, 114, 124, 144, 
 149 ; Vambery and his travels, 103, 
 104 ; makes tour in Wilts and Hants, 
 112; holiday in Ireland, 112-116; 
 lecture and visit in Dublin, 11 3-1 15 ; 
 introspective remarks, 114, 124, 166, 
 167, 200, 322 ; visit to Ballyshannon 
 and old friends, 116; Lymington, 
 1 17-124; visits to Tennyson and 
 friends, 117-120; to Portsmouth and 
 Spithead, 120-122 ; steam trip. Swan- 
 age, 122 ; charity and sympathy, 122, 
 123, 190, 191 ; London, studios and 
 Palmerston's funeral, 125, 126; at 
 Farringford with Rev. Wm. Barnes, 
 126-128; spring rambles near Lyming- 
 ton and Farringford, 131 ; at Lynd- 
 hurst with the Tennysons, 133-137 ; 
 to London, studios (Burne-Jones and 
 Rossetti), 137, 139; Carlyle, 138; 
 Burne-Joneses at Lymington, excur- 
 sions, 140-143; Winchester, 141, 
 142; London and old friends, 151- 
 153; summer and books in the 
 country, 152 ; excursion with Tenny- 
 son party to Spithead, 1 54 ; with 
 Tennyson to Dorchester and Lyme 
 Regis, 156-159; entertains D. G. 
 Rossetti, 160-162; visits him at 
 Chelsea, 164-166 ; desire for home 
 
 393
 
 394 
 
 INDEX 
 
 life, 167, 175 ; lodgings at Freshwater, 
 167-169; London, 171-174; criticises 
 Browning's enigmatic genius, 174; 
 goes to the Derby, 181 ; visit to 
 Freshwater, 184, 185 ; on the long- 
 ing for Nature, 1S8; at Farringford, 
 189 ; feeling for Tennyson, 183, 190 j 
 Devonshire rambles, 201 ; visits 
 Tennyson at Blackdown, 201. Re- 
 moves to London, 202 ; Fraser's 
 Maga%i:ie, sub-editorship, 202 ; editor- 
 ship, 233 ; suggested resumption of 
 this by Froude, 254 ; later reflections 
 on editorship, 323 ; contrasts Carlyle 
 with Emerson, 220 ; with Emerson 
 and Browning at Kensington Museum, 
 220-221 ; describes Carlyle 's literary 
 genius and position, 230, 239 ; his 
 marriage and home, 233-234 ; his 
 three children, 241, 250, 255, 316; 
 ' Sonny,' 250, 277, 284. His love for 
 Shelley, 242 ; keeps lock of Carlyle's 
 hair, 263 ; evening party at Tenny- 
 son's house in London 1878, 265 ; 
 summer at Shere, 265. Tourney 
 to Scotland, 277 ; Dumfries, 278 ; 
 Moffat, 279, 282, 283 J Lockerbie 
 and Ecclefechan, 280, 281. Summer 
 at Haslemere, 286, 301 ; Blackdown 
 and Tennyson's house, Aldworth, 
 287, 298 ; explains the Irish diffi- 
 culties to Tennyson, 297, 298. Old 
 friends in London, 307 ; feelings on 
 the death of Carlyle, 309. Family 
 removes to Sandhills, Witley, 311; 
 the country round, 311-313, 315, 
 316; recollections of Mr. and Mrs. 
 G. H. Lewes, 313, 314. Thoughts 
 upon belief in God, 316-318, 329; 
 stay in Hampstead, 322 ; country 
 pleasures in Surrey, 322; goes to 
 weddingof Hallam Tennyson, 323 ; re- 
 marks on William Morris's Socialism, 
 326, 339 ; admiration for passage in 
 Coleridge's ' Christabel,' 326; Mr, 
 A. R. Wallace and spiritualism, 329, 
 330, 333 ; afternoon with Tennyson 
 children and soap-bubbles, 331; on 
 the Irish and cruelty to animals, 346 ; 
 a broken diary, February to August 
 1886, 347; life at Witley, 348-350, 
 351, 354-358, 360-362; against war, 
 350; his pension, 351 ; in London, 
 friends there, Royal Academy, etc., 
 352 ; Queen Victoria's Jubilee Pro- 
 cession, 359, 360; visit to Fleet at 
 Portsmouth, 361 ; garden party and 
 friends at Mrs.Simmons's, Shotter Mill, 
 362 ; stay at Poynton near Manchester, 
 
 attending British Association, 363 ; 
 excursion to Prestbury, Cheshire, 363, 
 364 ; notices of several deceased friends, 
 
 370 ; visits to London and friends, 
 
 371 ; to Robert Browning, 372- 
 375 j 3 garden party at Tennyson's, 
 Aldworth, 377. Beginning of his 
 last malady, discomfort, 382, 383 ; 
 farewell to Witley, removal to Hamp- 
 stead, 382 ; interest in Keats, and 
 poem, 384 ; visit to Eastbourne, 384 ; 
 last poem, 385. Diary interrupted 
 in March 1889, 383; resumed for 
 last time in October, 385 ; last entry, 
 visits of friends, and a note why he 
 cared for his diaries, 387. Peaceful 
 farewell, 387, 388 
 
 References to his poems and publica- 
 tions, 54, 55 ; first volume of ' Poems,' 
 60, 61, 67; at work on 'Day and 
 Night Songs,' 73; 'Music Master,' 
 74 ; ' Robin Redbreast,' 74 ; ' The 
 Ballad Book,' 85, 92, 97, 195 ; Fifty 
 Modern Poems, iii, 128; Hallow 
 Eve Chant, 40 ; By the Shore, 
 41; Fairy Song, 'Wee Folk,' 44; 
 Music Master, 46, 58 ; The Pilot's 
 Daughter, 54 ; The Touchstone, 
 58, 199, 222 ; Lady Alice, 58 ; 
 Flowers and Poets, 58 ; Day and 
 Night Songs, 73, 319 ; The Maids 
 of Elfin Mere, 74 ; Laurence Bloom- 
 field, 85, 86, 90, 95, 99, 181, 209; 
 characters in, 115, 116; Goodman 
 Dodd, 92 ; The Abbot of Inisfalen ; 
 Emily, 97 ; Homeward Bound, 117 ; 
 Nightingale Valley, 79, 127 ; Rambles 
 of Patricius Walker, 155, 193, 201, 
 220 ; Squire Curtis, 167, 175 ; Prince 
 Brightkin, 199, 200, 201 ; Black- 
 berries, 200, 319 ; In Fairyland, 201 ; 
 Seven Hundred Years Ago {Eraser), 
 254 ; Modern Prophets (Fraser), 257 ; 
 Statuette, 296 ; Songs, Ballads, and 
 Stories, 296, 30- ; Painter and Critic, 
 Ivy Leaves (Eraser), 307 ; An Evil 
 May Day, 307 ; ^sAby Manor, Hop- 
 good and Co., plays, 307 ; Mary 
 Donnelly, 336 ; Twelve Flower 
 Sonnets, 347 ; lines on Monckton 
 Milnes, 343, 360 ; The Banshee, 350, 
 379; 'Irish Songs,' 371; Poet and 
 Bird, 384; Sunrise at Eastbourne, 
 385 ; Poet's Epitaph, 388 
 
 Proposed History of Ireland, 138, 
 
 145, 152, 173, 209, 307; revised 
 
 issue of his Poems, 351, 366, 377, 385 
 
 AUingham, William, bust of, by Munro, 
 
 73
 
 INDEX 
 
 395 
 
 Alma-Tadema, Sir Lawrence and Lady, 
 
 353 
 Andersen, Hans C, 37 ; described, 38 
 Anderson, Miss Mary, actress, 367, 371, 
 
 379, 380 
 Angell, Mrs. (Helen Coleman), 265 
 Annan, Carlyle at school at, 247 j river 
 
 and Annandale, 279 
 Antwerp, Carlyle's explanation of the 
 
 word, 264 
 Argyll, Duke of, 265, 288, 377 
 Armagh, Archbishop of, Daniel 
 
 M'Gettigan, friendly recollections of 
 
 him, 370 
 Armstrong, T., 195 
 Arnold, Matthew, 217, 288, 323 
 Art in writing, Carlyle on, 206 ; Tenny- 
 son on, 215 
 Ashburton, Louisa (Lady), 208, 228, 240 
 Athanasian Creed, 328 
 
 Bacon, Francis, Lord Verulam, Spedding's 
 Life of, 234; on innovations, 335 
 
 Baddesley, cottage struck by lightning, 
 '55> 161 
 
 Bain, Alexander, Professor of Logic in 
 Aberdeen, 233 
 
 Ballyshannon, description of the town 
 and country round it, i, 14-17 ; the 
 church on Mullinashee, 14, 15, 22- 
 24 ; the Moy, 15 ; Camlin Park, 18, 
 22 ; the Purt, 20 J its peaceable 
 character, 20, yet a military post, 18 j 
 outbreak of the ' Whiteboys,' 19, 20 j 
 Poorhouse, 41 5 incidents, 46 ; Fair, 
 58, 67 ; AUingham's last visit to, 
 144 
 
 Ballyshannon, History of, by Mr. 
 Hugh AUingham, 341 
 
 Banacle, near Witley, Surrey, 322, 354 
 
 Barnard, Mrs., 178 
 
 Barnes, Rev. William, poet, at Came 
 Vicarage, near Dorchester, 99, 156^' 
 157; lectures at Lymington, 10^ 
 126; a true poet, 109; visits 
 Tennyson, 126-128 ; his death, 350 
 
 Barretts of Bruckless, Ireland, 39, 40 
 
 Barton, Captain, I2i 
 
 Baudelaire characterised, 331 
 
 Beales, Miss, 103 
 
 Beaulieu, 100, 133 
 
 Beauty and picturesqueness, 312 
 
 Beethoven, Carlyle on, 218 ; Tennyson 
 listens to, 292, 337 
 
 Belfast, 31, 75 
 
 Berkeley, Mr. Grantley, 108 
 
 Besant, Sir Walter, novelist, 353 
 
 Birmingham and friends there, 369 
 
 Bismarck, 138 ; letter to Carlyle on 
 
 'Frederick the Great,' 246} lights 
 on his character, 270 
 Black, William, novelist, 238 
 Blackdown, Surrey, view from, 338 
 Blake, William, his poems, 53, 349 
 Bodichon, Dr. and Madame (Barbara), 
 102 ; his plan for scientific homi- 
 cide, 358 ; Madame Bodichon, 307 ; 
 R. Jefferies appreciated by her, 370 
 Boldre, Hants, 82, 89 ; Gilpin's tomb 
 
 in the church, 162 {see Gilpin) 
 Boyce, G. P., R.W.S., 75 
 Boyle, Miss Audrey (Lady Tennyson), 
 
 323 
 
 Boyle, Miss Mary, 378, 379 
 
 Bradley, the Rev. George G., of Marl- 
 borough, afterwards Dean of West- 
 minster, 94, 323 
 
 Brains and heads, their sizes, 233 
 
 Bramhall, Cheshire, 364 
 
 Bray, William, of Shere, 267 
 
 Brett, John, R.A., 352 
 
 Bridport to Lyme Regis, a walk, 157 
 
 Broadlandi, near Romsey, Hants, 318 
 
 Broadstairs, 284 
 
 Brockenhurst, church and vicar, ' Paddy ' 
 Falls, 140 ; Squire Morant, 144 
 
 Bronte, Charlotte, and 'Jane Eyre," 254 
 
 Brookfield, Mrs. W. H., 177, 178, 180 
 
 Brougham, Lord, Carlyle on his portrait 
 80 J 336 
 
 Brown, Ford Madox, 104, 112, 164, 
 18 1 ; his frescoes in Manchester, 364 
 
 Browne, G. Buckston, R.C.S., 382, 
 
 383, 387 
 
 Browning, Mrs. (Elizabeth Barrett), 40 ; 
 her ' Sonnets from the Portuguese,' 
 102, 380 
 
 Browning, Pen, painter, son of the poet, 
 100, loi, 264 
 
 Browning, Robert, 36, 37, 41, 57, 65, 
 100-102, 104, 128, 178, 179, 202. 
 205, 220, 223, 240, 265 ; death of 
 his Father, 137; his 'Christmas 
 Eve and Easter Day,' 57; 'Dram- 
 atis Personse,' 100; 'Sludge the 
 Medium,' i.e.. Home, 10 1 j amenities 
 at Warwick Crescent, 151, 173, 
 194; 'A Blot in the 'Scutcheon,' 
 174; visit to Russia, 179; 'Ring 
 and the Book,' 180, 181, J91, 195, 
 207 ; ' Red Cotton Night Cap 
 Country,' 224 ; visits Carlyle, 240, 
 268; 'Aristophanes' Apology,' 240, 
 the ' Inn Album,' 224 ; opinion of 
 Byron, and of Disraeli, 246, 250 ; 
 his dreams, 248 ; memory and music, 
 249; 'Agamemnon,' 257, 258, 260; 
 Tennyson on 'Clive,' 288-9; ^'*
 
 396 
 
 INDEX 
 
 X 
 
 warm friendship for Carlyle, 310, 311, 
 374» 375 J 'Ivan Ivanovitch,' 314; 
 at Hallam Tennyson's wedding, 323 ; 
 his story of Fontenelle, 352 ; opinion 
 of Darwin, 373 ; his four plays acted 
 for the Browning Society, 373, 374 
 Browning, Miss Sarianna, 151, 173, 179, 
 
 375 
 Bruce, Austin, M.P., 182 
 Buckton, G. B., F.R.S., 330, 343, 362, 
 
 367 
 
 Burdon, Mr. C, 322 
 
 Burne- Jones, Sir Edward ('Ned'), 75, 
 79, 80, loi, 103, 104, III ; at 
 Kensington Square, 125, 139, 153, 
 195 ; conies with family to Lyming- 
 ton, 140-143 J his style a ' New 
 Renaissance,' 141 ; his studio, 125, 
 137, 153, 165; at Fulham, 174, 202, 
 307 ; his family there, 347 
 
 Burnett, Mr., Customs Officer, 171, 174 
 
 Burns, Robert, and brother Gilbert, 
 206, 284 ; his home and haunts in 
 Dumfries, 278 j poetry recited by 
 Carlyle, 279 ; Carlyle's talk of him, 
 of his death, and of his grave, 282, 
 
 283 
 Burrard, Sir Charles and Miss, no 
 Burton, Sir Frederick, loi, 201, 306 
 Butler, Mr. and Mrs., of Harrow, 94 
 Byron, some opinions of him, 132, 165, 
 
 187, 206, 246, 253, 295, 300, 337 
 
 Caldecott, Randolph, 321, 323 
 Cameron, Mrs., at Freshwater, 87, 93, 
 
 106, 117, 123, 127, 152, 153, 161, 
 
 163, 170, 182, 183, 185, 198; her 
 
 exhibition, 171 
 Campbell, Thomas, 64, 226, 236, 237, 
 
 305 
 Canada, Emerson upon, 217 
 Carleton, William, Irish writer, 324, 
 
 343 
 Carlyle, Alexander (' Alick '), 278, 279, 
 
 282, 285, 308, 382 
 Carlyle, Mrs. Alexander (Mary Carlyle 
 
 Aitken), 196, 202, 214, 219, 232, 
 
 235» 239. 255, 266, 267, 348, 359, 
 
 382, 387 ; at Moffat, married, 278 ; 
 
 devotion to the Uncle's last days, 306, 
 
 308-310; son Tommy, 308, 312 
 Carlyle, James, Father of Carlyle, 289, 
 
 305 
 Carlyle, James, Brother of Carlyle, and 
 
 Craigenputtock, 280, 281 
 Carlyle, Mrs. (Jane Welsh), 80, 137, 
 
 229, 232, 242 
 Carlyle, Dr. John, Brother of Carlyle, 
 
 209, 236, 263 J his illness, 278 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas, 36, 59, 73, 75, 82, 
 119, 165, 166; remarks on Keats, 
 41, 205, 310; letter from, at Eccle- 
 fechan, 59 j his garden, 79 ; on Lord 
 Brougham and Benj. Disraeli, 80, 81 ; 
 various talks, 138, 172, 209 ; on 
 education and criminals, 172 ; on 
 Parliament, 182; on Browning's 
 'Ring and Book,' 194, 207; valua- 
 tion of his own writings, 196 ; of 
 Sartor, 230; on Taine's book, 213; 
 on Plato, 213, 243 ; on Socrates and 
 Voltaire, 213; on the stars, religion, 
 and nature, 215, 216, 239, 264; 
 Allingham his Boswell, 202 ; re- 
 ligious views, 196, 203, 206, 238, 
 239, 256, 273 ; firm belief in God, 
 262, 264, 268, 274 ; his Scotch re- 
 collections, 205, 207, 208, 219, 226, 
 253; college days, 232; recalls his 
 first journey to Edinburgh, 279. 
 Literary and philosophical talk, 205 ; 
 early reading, 205 ; on Shakespeare, 
 206, 210, 214, 247, 252, 275, 286 ; 
 on Thackeray, 208 ; on Browning, 
 205, 207, 209, 240, 244 J on Ireland, 
 209, 277 ; his ignorance of the 
 structure of verse, 210, 211 j on Don 
 {|)uixote, 212 ; on marriage, 2x2 ; dis- 
 like to formal religion, 2 17, 274 ; effect 
 of Scotch dogmatic Christianity upon 
 him, 232, 238, 253, 254; Mother's 
 distress at his unbelief, 253, 268 ; 
 abhors Darwinism, 224, 245, 248, 
 264, 274. Remarks on the Hare 
 family, 218 ; on Milton's poetry, 223 ; 
 his friendship with Emerson, 220, 
 224 ; his pipe and smoking, 222, 
 224, 237 ; in Germany, 225 ; his 
 German Diploma and Order, 227, 
 231. On death, 228, 267, 305, 308 ; 
 his labour on 'Frederick the Great,' 
 229, 235 ; Bismarck's letter on this, 
 246; result of 'Shooting Niagara,' 
 233 ; remarks on Chelsea Hospital 
 and St. Paul's, 233 ; characterises 
 Disraeli, 234, 256, 266, 285 ; on 
 Spedding's 'Bacon,' 234; Disraeli 
 offers an honour and a pension, 
 236. On Sydney Smith and Thomas 
 Campbell, 236, 237 ; debate with 
 Gladstone, 236 ; on Charles Darwin, 
 239, 274; on translation, 239, 258 ; 
 on historians, 241 ; his opinion of the 
 Slavs, 241 ; horror of materialism, 
 245, 270 ; on Marlowe and Ben 
 Jonson, 252 ; etymology of word 
 'ten,' 255; Mr. Fred. Martin's bio- 
 graphy of him, 256 ; early memories,
 
 INDEX 
 
 397 
 
 253, 256, 257 5 remarks on Brown- 
 ing's 'Agamemnon,' 257, 258,260; 
 ill-health, 259, 262, 275, 285 ; pro- 
 phesies general democracy, 261 j on 
 Catholic Emancipation, 261 ; on 
 Ruslcin, 263 ; visits Browning, 263, 
 264 j his thoughts upon another life, 
 269 ; weary of life, 271, 305 ; visits 
 to St. Paul's, 272, 273 ; remarks on 
 Kant and Swedenborg, 273 ; visit 
 to the Temple Church, 276. At 
 Moffat with Mr. and Mrs. Alexander 
 Carly 16,278-284; his talk about Burns, 
 282, 283 ; Ecclefechan, 280, 281. His 
 eighty-fourth birthday, 284 ; reads 
 Burns and Campbell, 305 ; recollec- 
 tions of death of Nelson, 305 ; eighty- 
 fifth birthday, 306 ; last illness and 
 death, 308, 309. Browning's reminis- 
 cences of Carlyle, 310, 311 ; Tenny- 
 son's recollections, 331 
 
 Carlyle, mention of portraits of, by 
 Maclise, 203 ; Whistler, 226 ; Millais, 
 255 ; Linnell, 267 ; Mrs. Allingham, 
 in water-colour, 240, 267, 271 
 
 Carlyle, ' Tom,' Uncle to Thomas, 267 
 
 Cary, Rev. H. F. (died 1844), translator 
 of Dante, 227 
 
 Cassell, Walter, 193 
 
 Catholic Emancipation, 261 
 
 Cavendish, Lord Frederick, murder of, 
 in the Phcenix Park, 316 
 
 Chantarelles gathered near Witley, 377, 
 
 379 
 Charmouth, 157 
 Chiddingfold bells at New Year, 315, 
 
 350 
 Christchurch, 92, 192 ; Shelley's monu- 
 ment, 92, 107 
 Clark, Rev. W. G., of Cambridge, 169 
 Clayton, John R., 386 
 Clifford, W. Kingdon, Professor, and 
 
 Mrs., 212, 256, 376, 377 
 Clough, Arthur, 57, 68, 72, 350 
 Clough, Mrs. Arthur, 86, 87, 89, 98, 
 
 102, 107, 166 
 Clough's letters and lectures, 107, 109, 
 
 129 ; Allingham on his poetry, 143 
 Clover, Joseph T., F.R.C.S., attended 
 
 Emperor Louis Napoleon, 259, 260 
 Cobbett, William, 41 ; his birthplace, 
 
 152 
 'Cock' Inn, 52, 147, 299 
 Cole, Sir Henry, 244 
 Coleraine, 69 
 Coleridge, S. T., his grave, 52, 295 ; 
 
 versification of ' Christabel,' 226, 227 ; 
 
 337 
 Coltman, Mrs., 86, 87 
 
 Colvin, Mr. and Mrs. Russell, and 
 children, at Witley, 348, 362 
 
 ConoUy, old family at Ballyshannon, 
 22 
 
 Conway, Moncure D., 159, 171, 307 
 
 Craik, George Lillie, and Mrs. (Dinah 
 Muloch), 322, 362 ; death of Mrs. 
 Craik, 369 
 
 Crawford, Robert, engineer, his reminis- 
 cences of AUingham's school-days, 28 
 
 Cromwell, compared with Shakespeare, 
 247 ; 272, 277_ 
 
 Crookes, Sir William, F.R.S., paper, 292 
 
 Cruelty, thoughtless, 251 
 
 Cruikshank, George, subscription for, 
 
 137 . 
 Cummins, Father John, of Ballyshannon, 
 
 21 
 Curry, Mrs., of Freshwater, 167, 175, 
 
 177 
 
 Daffarn, Mr. and Mrs., 367 
 
 Darwin, Charles, 184, 185, 191, 239, 
 
 274 ; death of, 316 
 Darwin, Erasmus, brother to Charles, 
 
 184, 256, 263 
 De Morgan, Professor Augustus, 329 ; 
 
 Mrs. De Morgan, 352 
 De Morgan, Miss Mary, 316, 352 
 De Morgan, William, 321 
 Denmark, strolling players in old times, 
 
 275 
 Derby, Lord, on Education, 227 ; letter 
 to, about waysides near Hindhead, 
 
 319 
 De Vere, Aubrey, 140, 293-296 
 Dickens, Charles, 36, 58, 68, 71, 78 
 Dickinson, Lowes, 362 
 Dickson, Miss (" Dolores "), song writer, 
 
 124, 191, 200 
 Disraeli, Benjamin (Lord Beaconsfield), 
 80, 81, 182, 293, 319 ; remarks upon 
 him by Browning, 246, 250, 268, 
 Carlyle, 234, 256, 266, 336, and 
 Tennyson, 265 ; his first speech, 318 
 Dogmatism, evils of, 196, 197, 215 
 " Don," Tennyson's dog, 287, 290 
 Donegal, AUingham's life at, 32, 33, 
 
 39-42 
 
 Donegal Bay in AUingham's poem, 61 
 
 Dorchester, 156, 157 
 
 Dreams, impressions of, Allingham, 14, 
 137. 351-352. 382, 383; Carlyle's, 
 172; Browning's, 248; Tennyson's, 
 
 330 
 
 Drummond, Henry, at Albury, 266 
 
 Dryden, 150, 226, 301 
 
 Dublin, church and theatre, 43 ; scien- 
 tific bachelor's dinner-party, 47, 48 ;
 
 398 
 
 INDEX 
 
 reception at Castle, 75 ; visit and friends 
 in, 1 14, 115 
 Du Maurier, George, 152, 195, 386, 387 
 
 Eastbourne, 239, 384 ; ' Sunrise at East- 
 bourne,' AUingham's last poem, 385 
 
 Edgeworth, Maria, anecdote of, 64 ; 342 
 
 Edinburgh, footpads and hanged men 
 seen by Carlyle, 219 
 
 Edwards, Miss M. Betham, 360, 361 
 
 'Eliot, George' {see Lewes), 222, 265, 
 284, 286, 306, 313, 314, 362 
 
 Ella, Professor John, founder of the/* 
 Musical Union, musical party at his 
 house, 194 
 
 Ellinghani parish, Hants, 145 ^ 
 
 Elwin, Rev. W., his edition of Pope, 
 205 
 
 Emerson, R. W., 40, 41, 54, 98, 194, 
 206, 216, 217 J his writings, 220-224 j 
 with his daughter. Miss Emerson, 
 through London, 221,2225 on poetry; 
 242 ; in old age, 244 ; his death, 3165 
 his son Edward, 2 14, 2 1 6 ; his daughter 
 Mrs. Forbes, 372 
 
 Emigration to ' Ameriky,' 7, 16 
 
 Empire and the Colonies, Tennyson and 
 Carlyle on, 217 
 
 English peasants, silence of, 316 
 
 Enniskillen, 115, 1 16 
 
 Evans, Edmund, engraver and colour- 
 printer, and Mrs., 322, 347, 369 
 
 Farringford, Isle of Wight, 84, 87 ; 
 classic laurel bush growing there, 132 
 
 Fawcett, Henry, Mr. and Mrs., 321 
 
 Ferguson, Sir Samuel, LL.D., 34, 113, 
 114; his poems, 288; English in- 
 difference at his death, 348 
 
 Fielding, 213 
 
 Fields, Mr. and Mrs. James T., of 
 Boston (publisher), 198, 199 
 
 Fish diet, brain-feeding, 221 
 
 FitzGerald, Edward, 63, 64, 320, 321, 
 
 337' 341 
 Flemish, old painting on panel, 165 
 Flight, Dr. Walter, and his widow, 377 
 Flower, Mr. and Mrs. Wickham, 352 
 Forbes, Mr. and Mrs. (Emerson's 
 
 daughter), and children, 372 
 Forster, John, 2145 his ' Dickens,' 23 i ; 
 
 374 
 Foster, Birket, 312, 316, 341 
 Eraser'' s Magazine, 201, 306, 323 
 Freemasonry, 168 
 French Fleet at Spithead, August 1865, 
 
 121, and July 1867, 154 
 French Government and the Church of 
 
 Rome, 299 
 
 Freshwater, Isle of Wight, 84, 86 
 Friedmann, Paul, 266, 270, 273 
 Froude, J. Anthony, 165, 171, 179, 197, 
 202, 209, 235, 243, 245 j his Colonial 
 tour, 254 note ; editor of Eraser's 
 Magazine, 202 {see AUingham, W.) ; 
 his Life of Carlyle, 341 
 Furniss, Harry, Mr. and Mrs., 342, 347 
 
 Galway, Lady, 360 
 
 Garibaldi, at Mr. Seeley's house, 99, 168 
 
 Germ, The, periodical, 91 
 
 Gibbon's 'Decline and Fall,' etc., 232, 
 256 
 
 Gilfillan, George, 34 
 
 Gillies, Miss Margaret, water - colour 
 painter, 370 
 
 Gilpin, William, Vicar of Boldre, Hants 
 writer, 162 
 
 Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E., 265, 318, 
 335, 336; quotes 'Laurence Bloom- 
 held,' 99 5 on Disraeli, 246 j Tenny- 
 son's anecdote of steam voyage with 
 him, 320 ; rebukes levity regarding 
 God, 340; on Ireland, 347, 354 
 
 God, belief in, William Morris and 
 AUingham upon, 316-318 ; Tennyson 
 upon, 329, 339 ; AUingham's Prayer, 
 
 318,383 
 
 Goethe, his house at Weimar, 78, 125 ; 
 119 ; on death, 228 j size of his head, 
 2325 his ' Spriiche,' 239, 243; on 
 the future life (poem), 269 ; his in- 
 fluence on Carlyle, 253, 283 
 
 Goldsmith, Oliver, his grave near the 
 Temple Church, London, 276, 277 
 
 Gordon, Charles G., General, 344, 345 
 
 Gore, 'Gussy,' his old house, 131 
 
 Graham, Paul, 131 
 
 Greek play at Cambridge, CEdipus, 367 
 
 Greenaway, Miss Kate, 322, 352, 353 
 
 Haddon, Elizabeth (Mrs. Cave), the 
 children's nurse, 309, 315, 347 ; her 
 marriage, 366 ; 369 
 
 Haenel, Julius, sculptor, 103 
 
 Halle, Sir Charles, 103, 180 
 
 Hampshire dialect, 129 
 
 Hampstead Heath, evening effect, 54 
 
 Handwriting, 216 
 
 Hannay, James, 75 
 
 Harrison, Frederic, on Immortality, 
 
 2i5i 353 
 Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 70, 71 
 Heligoland desires to join Germany, 266 
 Hennessy, W. J., painter, 352, 376 
 Herford, William H., and niece Evelyn 
 
 Herford, 386 
 Highgate and its sights, 52
 
 INDEX 
 
 399 
 
 Hindhead, 367, 376, 380 ; Lord Derby's 
 
 property near, 319 
 Hinton, James, 'Life in Nature,' 183, 
 
 186, 187 
 Hodgson, Mr. and Mrs. Stewart, 321, 
 
 330, 371, 375. 380 
 HoU, Frank, R.A., and Mrs., 359 
 Holland, Sir Henry (Lord Knutsford), 
 
 and Lady, 321, 366, 372 
 Holies, Denzil, old house of, 297 
 Holmes, O. Wendell, 217 
 Home the spiritualist, and Browning, 
 
 101, 102 
 Hooker, Sir Joseph D., 184, 376 
 Houghton, Lord {see Milnes, Monckton), 
 
 103, 125, 205, 312, 313, 315, 323, 
 
 342, 360 
 Howell, Charles Augustus, 137, 153, 
 
 164 
 Howitt, Mr. and Mrs. William, at High- 
 gate, 59, 68, 104 J at Esher, 186 ; on 
 
 spiritualism, 329 
 Hughes, Arthur, 74, 75, 171, 307 
 Hunt, Holman, 59, 75, 143, 352 
 Hunt, Leigh, 34-38 ; description of him, 
 
 38? 55 j portrait by Sam. Laurence, 
 
 106 ; 172, 204, 226, 310, 381 
 . Hunt, Thornton, death of, 226 
 /^ Hunter, Sir Robert (Solicitor to the 
 
 Post-Office) and Lady, 321, 322, 330 
 Hutchinson, Jonathan, M.D., LL.D., 
 
 at Hindhead, his debt to Carlyle, 
 
 369 
 Huth, Mr. Henry, 178 
 Huxley, Leonard (son of T. H. Huxley), 
 
 367 
 Huxley, Prof. Thomas H., 221, 224, 
 270, 3535 Mrs. Huxley, 265 
 
 Ingelow, Miss Jean, 178 
 
 Ireland, Petrie's ' Round Towers,' 209 ; 
 Tennyson's remarks on Ireland and 
 Irishmen, 167, 199, 293, 297, 325, 
 346 ; Irish brogue, 343, 344 ; Irish 
 brogue in Tennyson's poems, 324, 
 336 ; neglect of Irish writers in 
 England, 348 ; Irish play, Arrah-na- 
 Pogue, in London, 1 1 3 
 
 Irving, Edward, 255, 266, 272 
 
 Irving, Sir Henry, 304, 349, 351 
 
 James, Henry, novelist, 378 
 
 Janet, Paul, reaii by Tennyson, 136, 
 
 368 
 Jefferies, Richard, wrote in Eraser, 370 
 Jekyll, Miss Gertrude, 347, 381 
 Jewsbury, Miss Geraldine, novelist, 137, 
 
 Job, book of, English translation, 258 
 
 Johnson, Dr., Carlyle praises the Diction- 
 ary, 261 ; 300 
 
 Jonson, Ben, his father an Annandale 
 man, 252 
 
 Jowett, Professor, at Freshwater, 97, 98 j 
 his ' Plato,' 243 
 
 Kant, 203, 204 J in Germany, 273 
 Keats, John, Carlyle on him, 205, 310 j 
 
 greatly admired by Tennyson, 295, 
 
 296 ; AUingham's poem on him, 384 
 Keene, Charles, 321, 341 
 Kemble, Fanny, 302 
 Killarney and Tennyson's 'Bugle 
 
 Song,' 301 
 Killybegs, 39 
 
 King, Lady Annabella, 103 
 King (publisher), Mr. and Mrs., at 
 
 Farringford, 1 1 7 
 Kingsley, Charles, 74, 86 
 Kirk wood, a crippled pensioner, 191 
 Knowles, Sir James, 215, 372 
 Knutsford, Lord and Lady {see Holland), 
 
 321, 366, 372 
 
 Laing, David, Librarian to the Signet, 
 
 Laplace on English politics, 292 
 Latin, pronunciation of, discussed, 95 
 Laurence, Samuel, painter, 106, 178, 
 
 235 
 Lear, Edward (author of ' The Book of 
 
 Nonsense'), 132, 291 
 Lecky, Rt. Hon. W. E. H., AUingham's 
 
 impression of him, 177, 178, 19--8 ; 
 
 with Carlyle, 241, 246, 261, 262, 
 
 277, 285, 286 ; Mrs. Lecky, 263, 
 
 264, 269, 284, 323 
 Leech, John, his daughter, 177 
 Leighton, Sir Baldwyn, 180, 214, 217, 
 
 220, 244 
 Leighton, Frederick (Lord), P.R.A., 
 
 fresco in Lyndhurst church, 161, 180 
 Letters of alphabet, guess at their origin, 
 
 255 
 Lewes, Mr. and Mrs. G. H. (' George 
 
 Eliot'), 222, 265 ; Mrs. Lewes, 284, 
 
 286, 313, 3145 her death, 306; 362 
 Lightning and storm, effects of, on 
 
 cottage, 155 
 Lind, Jenny, 34, 35, 37, 43 ; her death, 
 
 370 
 Linnell, John, at eighty-six, 265 ; 267 
 Locker, Frederick (Locker-Lampson), 
 
 265 ; Mrs. F. Locker, 323 
 Longfellow, H. W., 1S3 
 Longmans, Messrs., 199, 202, 220, 245 ; 
 
 Miss Longman, 366 ; Mrs. Thos. 
 
 Longman, 381
 
 400 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Lords, House of, worthless, 333 
 Lowell, Jas. Russell, 194} Miss Mabel 
 
 Lowell, 198, 199 
 Lushington, Mr. and Mrs. Edmund, 323 
 Lyme Regis, its associations and beauties, 
 
 157. 158; 342 
 Lymington and its neighbourhood, 82- 
 
 85, 112, 174; Fair, 83, 90; beauty 
 
 of its chimneys, 124 
 Lyndhurst and New Forest, 133; 
 
 Allingham visits the Tennysons there, 
 
 133-137; Lord Leighton's fresco in 
 
 the church, 161 
 
 Macaulay, Lord, 177, 241, 286, 289 
 McCracken, Mr., of Belfast, 75 
 MacGauley, Professor, in Dublin, 47 
 M'Gettigan, Daniel, R.C. Archbishop of 
 
 Armagh, 115, 370 
 Maclise, drawing of Carlyle by, 203 
 Macmillan, Mr. and Mrs. Alexander, at 
 
 Balham, 103, 105 ; 106, 330 
 MacMunn family of Cranny, Donegal, 
 
 41, 42 
 Macpherson's Ossian, 205 
 Magee, Bishop, of Peterborough, 187 
 Mahony, F. S., "Father Prout," 77, 78 
 Man, Isle of, Douglas and Ramsey, 49- 
 
 51, 56 ; the Tynwald, 49, 50 
 Mangles, Mrs. and Miss, 322, 367, 371 
 Manning, 215 
 Marlborough, Duke of. Lord Wolseley's 
 
 opinion of him, 355 
 Marshall, James, of Weimar, 79, 125 
 Martin, Sir Theodore and Lady (Helen 
 
 Faucit), 306 
 Martineau, Basil, Mr. and Mrs. (Clara) 
 
 at Eldon Road, Hampstead, 347, 352, 
 
 353. 369. 381 
 
 Martineau, Dr. James, goes to see Car-^ 
 lyle, 244, 245 ; his appearance anif 
 conversation at eighty -two, 353 ; 
 Tyndall's word about him, 377 
 
 Matter and its properties, 333, 335 
 
 Mazzini, death of, Carlyle's remarks, 
 208 
 
 Melbourne, Lord, and Catholic Emanci- 
 pation, 261 
 
 Mendelssohn's death, 41 
 
 Meredith, George, 61 
 
 Metaphysical Society, 215, 353; Hux- 
 ley's paper ' Has a Frog a Soul? ' 292 
 
 Meteyard, Miss, 59 
 
 Midleton, Lady, 366 
 
 Mildmay, Captain, 86, no 
 
 Millais* picture ' The North Pole,' 
 232 ; 255 ; his 'Ophelia,' 379 
 
 Milnes, Monckton, Lord Houghton, 
 103, 125, 205 i recalls Carlyle and 
 
 his letter to his wife about Fryston, 
 3i2i3i3>.3i5. 323. 342; AUingham's 
 lines on him, 360 
 
 Milton's tomb and Emerson, 221 ; 223, 
 294 
 
 Mitford, A. B., author of ' Tales of Old 
 Japan,' 259 
 
 Moffat, N.B., Allingham and Carlyle at, 
 279-284 
 
 Moon, apparent size of, to different eyes, 
 376 
 
 Moore, Albert, 352 
 
 Moore, Tom, 203, 206, 210 
 
 Moorey, Mrs., of Sandhills, Witley, 348 
 
 Morganatic marriages, 271 
 
 Morris, Sir Lewis, 323 
 
 Morris, William, 75, 80 ; at Plum- 
 stead, 106; at Burne-Jones's, 137, 
 139, 202; at Lymington, 140-143; 
 at Queen Square, 153, 154, 165, 181 ; 
 talk with, on religion, 316 ; his demo- 
 cratic Socialism, 326, 339 
 
 Mount Temple, Lord, 318 
 
 Miiller, Max, 128, 222 
 
 Murphy, from Ballyshannon, 115 
 
 Myers, F. W. H., 329 
 
 Napoleon I., Carlyle's remarks on him, 
 
 227, 228 
 Napoleon, Louis, Mr. Clover's remarks 
 
 and Richard Owen's dictum upon 
 
 him, 259, 260 ; Carlyle's description, 
 
 261 
 Nature and religion, 215 
 Nelson's death, 305 
 Nevill, Lady Dorothy, 375 
 Nevill, Mr. and Mrs., of Bramhall, 364 
 New Forest, 85, 90, 91, 188 
 Newman, John Henry, 1 1 1 
 ' Nice,' use of the word, 297 
 N'tebelungen Lied, 231 
 Nightingale, Mr. and Mrs., at Embley 
 
 Park, 98, 99 
 Norton, Charles Eliot, of Harvard, 224 
 
 O'Connell, Daniel, 231 
 Orrinsmith, Mr. Harvey, 386 
 Osborne House, Isle of Wight, 193 
 " Ouida " [see Raniee), 193, 194 
 Ouless, Walter, R.A., and family, 332 
 Owen, Sir Richard, his ghost-story, 188 ; 
 260 
 
 Paget, Miss Violet, 359 
 
 Palgrave, F. T., 93, 94, 158, 159, 178, 
 
 381 
 Palmerston, Lord, 100, 113 ; death of, 
 124, 126; Allingham in his library, 
 318
 
 INDEX 
 
 401 
 
 Parkes, Miss Bessie (Madame Belloc), 
 
 102 
 Parr, Miss (" Holme Lee "), novelist, 
 
 178 
 Parry, Clinton, and family, at Freshwater, 
 
 167 
 Paterson, Mrs. Alexander, at St. Albans 
 
 (' Grannie '), and her daughter Miss 
 
 Louisa Paterson, 369 
 Paterson, Mrs. Henry (Mother to Mrs. 
 
 AUingham), her son Arthur and 
 
 daughter Carrie, 322, 347, 362, 375 
 Patmore, Coventry, in Camden Town, 
 / 53"55' ^°' 62, 70, 75 ; becomes 
 
 Roman Catholic, 103 ; marriage, 103, 
 
 128 
 Patmore, Gurney, in Derby, 70 
 Peel, Sir Robert, 261 
 Petrie, George, LL.D., musician and 
 
 antiquary, 114, 130, 138 
 Philip, Mr. George, publisher, 319 
 Phipson, Mrs., 369 
 Planche, Jas. Robinson, 193 
 Poetry and artistic form, 54 ; discussion 
 
 on writing, 55 ; the poet and human 
 
 limitations, 149 ; talks on, with Car- 
 
 lyle, 210, 211 j with Tennyson, 294- 
 
 296, 300, 326, 327 
 Pollock, Sir Frederick, 87, 376 
 Pope, Elwin's edition, 205 ; 289 
 Poynter, Sir Edward J., P.R.A., 195, 
 
 321 ,>• 
 
 Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (see W«r6l- 
 
 ner), 91, 100, 362 ; work of Burne- 
 
 Jones and W. Morris a ' new 
 
 Renaissance,' 141 
 Prestbury, Cheshire, old house there, 
 
 363 
 Princess of Wales [Alexandra] and 
 
 Empress of Russia, 320 
 Prinsep, Val, R.A., 101, 103, 170 
 Procter (Barry Cornwall), wife and 
 
 daughter, 178 
 Procter, Mrs. and Miss Edith, 265, 310, 
 
 323, 368 
 ' Propetty, Propetty, Propetty,' original 
 
 of Tennyson's poem, 312 
 
 Quain, Dr. Richard, 370 
 
 Quaritch, Bernard, senior, bookseller, 349 
 
 Quarles and Browning, 249 
 
 Queen Victoria and Tennyson, 118, 150 j 
 visits French Fleet at Spithead, 154; 
 309, 338, 345 ; her Jubilee Procession, 
 3^9, 360 J Fleet at Portsmouth, 361 
 
 Rabelais, 304, 345 
 
 Ramee, Louise de la (' Ouida '), 193, 
 194 
 
 Ramsden, Mr. and Mrs., at Busbridgc, 
 347, 360, 381 
 
 Rehan, Miss, acts in Taming of the 
 Shrt-w, 373, 375, 376 
 
 Reid, Buchanan, 58 
 
 Religious service, 43 
 
 Religious speculation, 128, 149, 317, 
 318 
 
 Rice, Mr., death of an old man,. 123 
 
 Ritchie family, 189, 193, 265 ; Miss 
 Ritchie at Tennyson's, 335, 337, 377 
 
 Robertson, Mrs. Graham, 381 
 
 Rogers, Samuel, 39, 302, 336 
 
 Romsey, Hants, 98 
 
 Rossetti family, 72 ; William M. 
 Rossetti, 139; their mother, 165 
 
 Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 59, 72, 74, 75, 
 86, 137, 202; designs cover for 
 Allingham's ' Day and Night Songs,' 
 74 ; two of his pictures, 75 ; 'Venus 
 Verticordia,' 100 ; his housekeeper 
 Fanny, 100 j other society, loi ; 
 detests music, 104 \ drawings by his 
 wife, 144 J visits Lymington, 159- 
 163 ; his singularities, 160, 161 ; 
 Allingham's view of his character 
 and opinions, 162-163 ; his visitors 
 and garden at Chelsea, 164; Blake's 
 drawings, 349 
 
 Ruskin, John, his lectures on Art and 
 
 ^ Life, 153 ; meets Mrs. Aliingham, 
 245, 275 ; laments his upbringing, 
 245 ; Carlyle's admiration for him, 
 263 ; visits Carlvle, 275 ; on Byron's 
 poetry, 300 ; on versification, 326 ; 
 his poems, 327 
 
 Russell, Countess, and daughter, 366 
 
 Russell, George, M.P., 318 
 
 Russell, Odo, Minister at Rome, 310 
 
 Russell, Hon. Rollo, 363 
 
 Russia, feeling as to, by Tennyson, 
 Spedding, and Carlyle, 265 ; anecdote 
 of brutal Russian noble, 297 ; 
 Empress and Czar of, 320 
 
 St. Barbe, 'Sam,' 86 
 
 Sainton-Dolby, Madame, 178 
 
 Sandwich Islands, Queen Emma of, 118, 
 124 
 
 Sartoris, Miss May, 177, 180 
 
 Sayers, Tom, pugilist, 85, 86 
 
 Schiller, self-called relation of the poet, 
 at Ramsey, 51 ; discussion about him 
 and Goethe at Tennyson's, 64 ; Car- 
 lyle's translation of biographical article 
 on, 211, 216 
 
 Scott, W. B., 100 
 
 Sellwood, Mr. Henry, Father to Emily, 
 Lady Tennyson, 96, no, 117 
 
 2 D
 
 402 
 
 INDEX 
 
 / 
 
 Seymour, Mr., of Bertolini's, 179, 180, 
 198, 299 
 
 Shakespeare, Tennyson first reads him, 
 89 J Carlyle's first acquaintance with 
 him, and afterwards through Kean and 
 Macready, 247; 206, 210, 214, 252, 
 275, 286, 300, 381 
 
 Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 29, 65 ; his sisters 
 and the family at Boscombe, 107, 109 j 
 191 ; his daughter lanthe, igi, 192 j 
 several opinions of his poetry, 242, 
 295, 296 
 
 Shelley, Sir Percy (Shelley's son), 107, 
 170, 191, 192, 307 
 
 Shere, Mr. Bray's cottage at, 265 
 
 Siamese twins, 197 
 
 Siberia, wild flowers in, 200 
 
 Simeon, Sir John, 88, 182; Lady Simeon, 
 198 
 
 Simon, Sir John, P.R.C.S., 153, 165, 
 
 Skinner, Alan, Q.C., and family, 160, 
 
 162, 179 
 Smith, Sydney, 236 
 Smollett, Carlyle on, 212 
 Sothern the actor, 10 1 
 Sound interpreted by colour (Carlyle), 
 
 286 
 Southampton, 96 ; Exhibition there, 
 
 143, 188 
 Sowley copse destroyed by Lord Henry 
 
 Scott, 170, 176 
 Spedding, James, his ' Bacon,' 234 ; 245, 
 
 265, 376 
 Speedy, Captain, 184, 185 
 Spencer, Herbert, 224, 284 
 Spiritualism, 329, 330, 333, 352 
 Spurgeon at Lymington, 84, 88 
 Stanhope, Lord, 80, 277 
 Stanley, A. P., Dean, his funeral sermon 
 
 on Lord Palmerston, 1265 274 
 Stebbing, Mr. and Mrs., 259 
 Stephen, Sir James Fitzjames, 175, 215 
 Stephen, Leslie, 171, 177, 194, 2285 
 
 death of his wife, 241 
 Stephen, Mrs. Leslie, 177, 193 
 Stephens, Mr. and Mrs. F. G., 75, 306, 
 
 386, 388 
 Sterling, John, influence of his review on 
 
 Tennyson, 150, 314 
 Stokes, Whitley, D.C.L., C.S.L, 75, 
 
 372 
 Story, W. W., American sculptor, 104, 
 
 228 
 Strauss's Life of Jesus, 211 
 Sullivan, Sir Arthur, 102 ; origin of 
 
 name, 105, 106 ; 146 ; the Mikado 
 
 criticised, 346 
 Sutton, Henry, 44, 53 
 
 Swanage, 122 
 
 Swanwick, Miss Anna, and Browning, 
 380 
 
 Swedenborg, 183 ; talk about with Car- 
 lyle, 205, 273, 274; with A. R. 
 Wallace, 330 
 
 Swift, 234 
 
 Swinburne, A. C, 139, 143, 145, 151, 
 254 
 
 Taglia-Carne, La Marchesa, 190 
 Tait, Robert, Scotch artist, 226 
 Taylor, Bayard, 332 
 
 Taylor, G. Warrington, manager for 
 Burne -Jones and W. Morris, 164, 
 165 
 Taylor, Sir Henry, 87, 93, 127, 163 ; 
 Allingham's opinion of his poetry, 
 183 
 Taylor, Peter, 171 
 
 Taylor, Tom, and Mrs., 75 ; at Lavender 
 Sweep, 103, 104, 146, 151, 153, 193, 
 202 5 his comedy Lo-ve or Money, 171 j 
 Mr. Taylor's death, 304 j Mrs. Taylor 
 and son, 348 
 Telfer, Mrs., her youth in Siberia, 200 
 Tennant, Mr. Charles, and family, 201 
 Tennent, Emerson, story of, 234 
 Tennyson, Alfred (Lord), Allingham 
 reads his poems at Belfast, 3 1 ; 
 manuscript of 'In Memoriam,' 55; 
 at Twickenham, 60-65 ; described at 
 age of forty-one, 60 ; at Farringford, 
 87-89, 93-95 ; boys and Shakespeare, 
 89; classic metres, 93-9S; reads 
 aloud or repeats own poems, 95, 117- 
 119, 146, 158, 301, 302, 304, 328 J 
 excursion to Beaulieu, too j his visit 
 to the Queen, 118, 150; varieties, 
 and a drunken man's promise, 119; 
 visit to Weimar, 125 5 regard for 
 Browning, 128 ; his fondness for 
 brooks, 130, 131; on Byron, 132; 
 at Lyndhurst, 133-137; his songs, 
 ' The Loves of the Wrens,' 146 ; Jane 
 Austen's novels, 156, 158; feelings 
 on immortality and the destiny of 
 man, 148, 149, 151, 185, 329; 
 Arthurian epic and ' Morte d' Arthur,' 
 
 150, 314, 315 J delightful converse, 
 
 151, 159 ; on marriage, 158 j jottings 
 on religion, 163, 215 ; the Queen's 
 autograph gift to him, 166 ; on Irish 
 landscape, 167 ; on Greek and Latin 
 poetry, 168 ; at Cambridge, 175 ; his 
 Lincolnshire stories, 176 ; on Long- 
 fellow, Swedenborg, and Hinton, 183 ; 
 'The San Grail,' 187; Carlyle on, 
 205 ; remarks on Ireland, 199, 293,
 
 INDEX 
 
 403 
 
 297 ; on politics, 288, 333, 346 j dis- 
 trust of Russia, 265 ; his play Becket 
 aad Henry Irving, 287; remarks on 
 satire, 289 ; discussion on Brown- 
 ing's poetry, 290, 291, 326 ; music 
 and its meaning, 292 ; Wordsworth, 
 Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats dis- 
 cussed, 293-2965 on the Sonnet, 
 302 ; ' Propetty, propetty,' Farmer 
 Thimbleby, 'Northern Farmer,' 312. 
 He will not be sketched, 315; criticises 
 poems of his own, 319, 320, 334, 344; 
 steam voyage with Mr. Gladstone and 
 Royalties, 320 ; ' Molly Magee ' and 
 Irish brogue, 324, 343 j votes for the 
 Franchise, 325 j discussion on poetry, 
 327, 350 J eternal punishment an 
 obsolete belief, 3 28 ; his belief in 
 God, 329, 339 J his gift of word- 
 painting, 331 ; soap-bubbles, 331 ; 
 method of composition, 334; his 
 friendship for Gladstone, 336 ; story 
 of a Catholic picture, 337 ; his pride 
 in the Empire, 325, 338 ; recollections 
 of youth, old Tories and Whigs, 340 ; 
 Lincolnshire farmers, 346, 377, 378 5 
 ghost-story of his grandfather, 349 ; 
 stories of dog and lark, 350 ; his 
 anecdotes of Gladstone and Ireland, 
 354 J illness, gout (age 80), 381; 
 the effect of corrupt Latin books on 
 boys, 381, 382 
 
 Tennyson, Emily (Lady), 61, 65, 87, 93, 
 95. 133. 135. 340; her Alma Song, 
 107 5 297, 331 
 
 Tennyson, Arthur (Brother to Lord T.), 
 and wife, 365, 366 
 
 Tennyson, Charles (Tennyson Turner), 
 Brother to Lord T. {see Turner), 121, 
 1 54-, 182 ; Sonnets by, 302 
 
 Tennyson, Frederick (eldest Brother to 
 Lord T.), 63, 65, 156, 290 
 
 Tennyson, Hallam (Lord Tennyson), 
 93' 133-135. I54> 169, 298, 304, 332, 
 345. 350. 365 ; ^i.'s wedding, 323 
 
 Tennyson, Hon. Lionel, 93, 133-135, 
 154, 185, 186, 289, 323 ; his wedding, 
 263 ; his children, 290 
 
 Tennyson, Miss Matilda (sister to Lord 
 T.), 323. 335, 338, 339 
 
 Tennyson family, 63, 93, 154 
 
 Terry, Miss Ellen, 120, 287, 304 
 
 Terry, Miss Kate (Mrs. A. Lewis), 103, 
 
 147 
 Thackeray, W. M., in Paris, 76-78 5 
 
 his opinion of Browning, 76 ; letter 
 
 to Tennyson, 136, 208 
 Thackeray, Miss (Mrs. Richmond 
 
 Ritchie), 112, 171, 175, 177, 178, 
 
 186, 189, 193, 265 ; two Miss 
 Thackerays, n 2 
 
 Tomlinsons' (near Lymington) garden 
 party, 200 
 
 Tories and Whigs of old days, 340 
 
 Tourgueneff, 203, 204 
 
 Townsend, Mr. and Mrs. Meredith (co- 
 editor of the Spectator), 259 
 
 Tredennicks of Camlin, 22 
 
 Trevelyan, Sir George, 246 
 
 Trollope, Anthony, 106, 180, 342 
 
 Tropical nature, 334 
 
 Turkey, war with, averted by a letter 
 from Thomas Carlyle, 256, 263 
 
 Turner, Charles Tennyson, 121, 154. 
 1825 Sonnets by, 302 
 
 Turner, Mrs., of Poynton, near Man- 
 chester, 363 
 
 Tweed, source of, 279 
 
 Tynan, Katharine (Mrs. Hinkson), 380 
 
 Tyndall, Prof. John. 221, 224, 245. 268, 
 285, 319, 340. 376, 377 
 
 Vambery, A., Hungarian traveller, 103 
 Venturi, Madame, 255, 260 
 Vere, Aubrey de, poet, 140, 186 
 Visualising power, 330 
 
 Walker, Frederick, R.A.. 188, 189 
 Wallace, Alfred Russel, his Surrey 
 garden and his conversation, 329, 330, 
 
 332-335. 339. 352, 373 
 War in India, how to escape, 5 50 
 Ward, E. M., R.A., 104 
 Ward, Humphry, 361 
 Ward, Mrs. Humphry, 378 ; her 
 
 'summer-retreat' described, 363 
 Waterford, Mayor of, in 1884, 321 
 Waterloo, Tom Patten's account of the 
 
 battle, 214 
 Watts, G. F., R.A., 112, 153 
 Watts, Theodore, 310 
 Waugh, Edwin, 149 
 Webb, Philip, architect, 10+, 141, 164, 
 
 372 
 Weld, Mr. and Mrs. (sister ot Lady 
 
 Tennyson), at Aubrey House, Hants, 
 
 96, 106, 110, 112, II-, 12! 
 Wellington, Duke of, 272, 277 ; and 
 
 farmer at Walmer, 211 
 Whisky, Irish name, 'calamity water,' 
 
 84 
 Whistler, J. M., loi j portrait ot Car- 
 lyle, 226 
 Wight, Isle of, Solent dialect, 1 29 
 Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, 103- 
 
 105, 140. 328 
 Wilde, Sir William. 1 1 5 
 Wilkinson, J. Garth, work by, 373
 
 404 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Wiseman, Cardinal, lectures at Lyming- 
 
 ton, 88 
 Witley, Surrey, 311-315, 322, 347, 350, 
 
 354-358, 360-362, 364, 366-370; 
 
 old semaphore station at Banacle 
 
 Hill, near, 354 
 Wollstonecraft, Mary, 191 
 Wolseley, Viscount, description and 
 
 conversation, 354-359, 361 ; in the 
 
 Queen's Jubilee procession, 360 ; at 
 
 Tennyson's, 364 ; Lady Wolseley, 
 
 371 
 Woolner, Thomas, R.A., his ' Puck,' 
 53 j 5^' 68, 79 ; poem ' My Beautiful 
 Lady,' 91 ; visitors at his house. 
 
 102 ; walks with Allingham to 
 Brockenhurst, 112; visits Tennyson, 
 128, 129, 132, 169 ; words on 
 Browning, 132; Mrs. Woolner, 375 
 
 Wordsworth, William, his death, 58 ; 61, 
 162 ; Tennyson and De Vere on his 
 poetry, 293-295 
 
 Wordsworth Society, 303 
 
 Yachts and yachting, no nursery for the 
 
 Navy, 120 
 Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, maids there, 
 
 176 
 Yew trees, a famous wood near Lynd- 
 
 hurst cut down, 136 
 
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