ENGLISH LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 OF 
 
 FAMOUS WRITERS 
 
WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 OF 
 
 FAMOUS WRITERS 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 MABEL E. WOTTON 
 
 What manner of man is he ? ' 
 
 Twelfth Night 
 
 LONDON 
 
 RICHARD BENTLEY & SON 
 rfctnarg to f^et ilEajwtg tje 
 1887 
 
ENGL, LIB, FD, 
 
 Printed by R. & R. CLARK, Edinburgh. 
 
\ 
 
 \ 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 " THE world has always been fond of 
 personal details respecting men who have 
 been celebrated." These were the words of 
 Lord Beaconsfield, and with them he prefixed 
 his description of the personal appearance of 
 Isaac D' Israeli ; but we hardly need the 
 dictum of our greatest statesman to convince 
 ourselves that at all events every honest 
 literature-lover takes a very real interest in 
 the individuality of those men whose names 
 are perpetually on his lips. It is not enough 
 for such a one merely to make himself 
 familiar with their writings. It does not 
 suffice for him that the Essays of Elia, for 
 
 instance, can be got by heart, but he feels that 
 
 6 
 
viii INTRODUCTION 
 
 he must also be able to linger in the play- 
 ground at Christ's with the " lame-footed 
 boy," and in after years pace the Temple 
 gardens with the gentle-faced scholar, before 
 he can properly be said to have made Lamb's 
 thoughts his own. At the best it is but a 
 very incomplete notion that most of us 
 possess as to the actual personality of even 
 the most prominent of our British writers. 
 The almost womanly beauty of Sidney, and 
 the keen eyes and razor face of Pope, would, 
 perhaps, be recognised as easily as the well- 
 known form of Dr. Johnson ; but taking them 
 en masse even a widely-read man might be 
 forgiven if, from amongst the scraps of hear- 
 say and curtly-recorded impressions on which 
 at rare intervals he may alight, he cannot 
 very readily conjure up the ghosts of the 
 very men whose books he has studied, and to 
 whose haunts he has been an eager pilgrim. 
 Such a power the following pages have 
 
* 
 INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 attempted to supply. They contain an 
 account of the face, figure, dress, voice, and 
 manner of our best-known writers ranging 
 from Geoffrey Chaucer to Mrs. Henry Wood, 
 drawn in all cases when it is possible by 
 their contemporaries, and when through lack 
 of material this endeavour has failed, the task 
 of portrait-painting has devolved either on 
 other writers who owed their inspiration to 
 the offices of a mutual friend, or on those 
 whose literary ability and untiring research 
 have qualified them for the task. Infinite 
 toil has not always been rewarded, and it 
 would be easy to supply at least half a dozen 
 names whose absence is to be regretted. 
 Beaumont and Fletcher are as much read as 
 Thomas Otway, and William Wotton has 
 perhaps as much right of entrance as his 
 famous opponent Richard Bentley, but as a 
 small child pointed out when the book was first 
 proposed : " You cant find what isrit there!' 
 
I 
 INTRO D UCTION 
 
 And the worth of the book naturally consists 
 in keeping to the lines already indicated. 
 
 An asterisk placed under the given 
 reference means that the writer of that 
 particular portrait (who is not necessarily the 
 writer of that particular book) did not 
 actually see his subject, but that he is de- 
 scribing a picture, or else that he is building 
 up one from substantiated evidence. Some- 
 times, as in the case of Suckling, this dis- 
 tinction leads to the same book supplying two 
 portraits, only one of which is at first hand. 
 
 When a date is placed at the foot of a 
 description, it refers to the appearance pre- 
 sented at that time, and not to the period 
 
 when the words were penned. 
 
 . 
 
 British writers only are named, and 
 amongst them there is of course no living 
 author. 
 
 Chaucer's birth-date has been given as 
 About 1340, for the traditional year of 1328 
 
INTR OD UCTION xi 
 
 is based on little more than the inscription on 
 his tomb, which was not placed there until the 
 middle of the sixteenth century, while ac- 
 cording to his own deposition as witness, his 
 birth could not have taken place until about 
 twelve years later. 
 
 In only one other instance has there been 
 a departure from recognised precedent, and 
 that is in the case of Thomas de Quincey. 
 In defiance of almost every compiler and 
 present-day writer, I have entered the 
 name in the Q's and spelt it as here written. 
 The reason for this is threefold : First, he 
 himself invariably spelt his name with a 
 small d. Second, Hood, Wordsworth, and 
 Lamb, and, I believe, all his other con- 
 temporaries did the same. Third, de Quincey 
 himself was so determined about the matter 
 that he actually dropped the prefix altogether 
 for some little time, and was known as Mr. 
 Quincey. " His name I write with a small d 
 
xii INTRODUCTION 
 
 in the de, as he wrote it himself. He would 
 not have wished it indexed among the D's, 
 but the Q's," wrote the Rev. Francis Jacox. 
 who was one of his Lasswade friends, and in 
 spite of his recent and skilful biographers, it 
 must be conceded that after all the little man 
 had the greatest right to his own name. 
 
 I am glad to take this opportunity of 
 thanking those who have helped me, and who 
 will not let me speak my thanks direct. It 
 is a pleasant thought that while working 
 amongst the literary men of the past, I have 
 received nothing but kindness from those of 
 to-day. First and foremost to Mr. George 
 Augustus Sala, to whom I am infinitely in- 
 debted ; also to Mrs. Huntingford, Mrs. and 
 Mr. Frederick Chapman, Mr. Henry M. 
 Trollope, Dr. W. F. Fitz-Patrick, and Mr. 
 S. C. Hall : to all these, as well as to my 
 own personal friends, I offer my hearty and 
 sincere thanks. M. E. W. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 JOSEPH ADDISON ... . i 
 
 HARRISON AINSWORTH .... 4 
 
 JANE AUSTEN ...... 7 
 
 FRANCIS, LORD BACON . . . .10 
 
 JOANNA BAILLIE . . . . .12 
 
 BENJAMIN, LORD BEACONSFIELD . . . 15 
 JEREMY BENTHAM . . . . .17 
 
 RICHARD BENTLEY ..... 20 
 
 JAMES BOSWELL . . . . .21 
 
 CHARLOTTE BRONTE ..... 24 
 
 HENRY, LORD BROUGHAM . . . .27 
 
 ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING ... 34 
 JOHN BUNYAN ...... 36 
 
 EDMUND BURKE . . . . -39 
 
 ROBERT BURNS ..... 42 
 
 SAMUEL BUTLER ..... 47 
 
 GEORGE, LORD BYRON . . . .47 
 
 THOMAS CAMPBELL . . . . .51 
 
xiv CONTENTS 
 
 THOMAS CARLYLE . . . . -55 
 
 THOMAS CHATTERTON . . . .58 
 
 GEOFFREY CHAUCER . . . . .61 
 
 PHILIP, LORD CHESTERFIELD ... 63 
 
 WILLIAM COBBETT . . . . .66 
 
 HARTLEY COLERIDGE . . . .70 
 
 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE . . . 74 
 
 WILLIAM COLLINS . . . . -77 
 
 WILLIAM COWPER . . . . -79 
 
 GEORGE CRABBE . . . . .81 
 
 DANIEL DE FOE ..... 83 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS . . * 86 
 
 ISAAC D'ISRAELI . . . . . 91 
 
 JOHN DRYDEN ...... 94 
 
 MARY ANNE EVANS (GEORGE ELIOT) . . 98 
 
 HENRY FIELDING . . . . .102 
 
 JOHN GAY . . . . . .105 
 
 EDWARD GIBBON . . . . .107 
 
 WILLIAM GODWIN . . . . .no 
 
 OLIVER GOLDSMITH . . . . .112 
 
 DAVID GRAY . . . . . .114 
 
 THOMAS GRAY . . . . .116 
 
 HENRY HALLAM . . . .118 
 
 WILLIAM HAZLITT . . . .120 
 
 FELICIA REMANS . . - . . 125 
 
CONTENTS xv 
 
 PAGE 
 
 JAMES HOGG . .128 
 
 THOMAS HOOD . . . . .130 
 
 THEODORE HOOK . . . . .134 
 
 DAVID HUME . . . . . .136 
 
 LEIGH HUNT . . . . . .139 
 
 ELIZABETH INCHBALD . . . .143 
 
 FRANCIS, LORD JEFFREY . . . .144 
 
 DOUGLAS JERROLD . . . . .147 
 
 SAMUEL JOHNSON . . . . .150 
 
 BEN JONSON . . . . . .152 
 
 JOHN KEATS . . . . . .155 
 
 JOHN KEBLE . . ... ... 158 
 
 CHARLES KINGSLEY . . . . .164 
 
 CHARLES LAMB . . . . .168 
 
 LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON . . . 172 
 
 WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR . . . .174 
 
 CHARLES LEVER . . . . .177 
 
 MATTHEW GREGORY LEWIS . . . .179 
 
 JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART . . . .180 
 
 SIR RICHARD LOVELACE . . . .181 
 
 EDWARD, LORD LYTTON . . . .183 
 
 THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY . . . 187 
 
 WILLIAM MAGINN . . . . .190 
 
 FRANCIS MAHONY (FATHER PROUT) . .195 
 
 FREDERICK MARRYAT . . . .199 
 
xvi CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 HARRIET MARTINEAU . . . .202 
 
 FREDERICK DENISON MAURICE . . .205 
 JOHN MILTON ...... 207 
 
 MARY RUSSELL MITFORD . . . .211 
 
 LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU . . . 215 
 
 THOMAS MOORE . . . . .217 
 
 HANNAH MORE . . . . .220 
 
 SIR THOMAS MORE . . . . .224 
 
 CAROLINE NORTON . . . . .227 
 
 THOMAS OTWAY . 231 
 
 SAMUEL PEPYS . 232 
 
 ALEXANDER POPE * . .234 
 
 BRYAN WALLER PROCTER . . . .236 
 
 THOMAS DE QUINCEY .... 238 
 
 ANN RADCLIFFE A 243 
 SIR WALTER RALEIGH .... 244 
 
 CHARLES READE . .248 
 
 SAMUEL RICHARDSON. . . . .251 
 
 SAMUEL ROGERS . .254 
 
 DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI . . .256 
 
 RICHARD SAVAGE . .262 
 
 SIR WALTER SCOTT ... .264 
 
 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE . . . 267 
 
 MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY. . . 275 
 
 PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY . . . 277 
 
CONTENTS xvii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN . . .282 
 SIR PHILIP SIDNEY ..... 284 
 
 HORACE SMITH . . . . .286 
 
 SYDNEY SMITH . . . . . .287 
 
 TOBIAS SMOLLETT . ... . . 289 
 
 ROBERT SOUTHEY ..... 290 
 
 EDMUND SPENSER ... .293 
 
 ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY . . . 296 
 
 SIR RICHARD STEELE . . . 299 
 
 LAURENCE STERNE ..... 302 
 
 SIR JOHN SUCKLING ... . 304 
 
 JONATHAN SWIFT ..... 305 
 
 WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY . . 308 
 
 JAMES THOMSON . . . . .311 
 
 ANTHONY TROLLOPE . . . . -313 
 
 EDMUND WALLER . . . . .317 
 
 HORACE WALPOLE . . . -319 
 
 IZAAC WALTON . . . . -323 
 
 JOHN WILSON ...... 324 
 
 ELLEN WOOD (MRS. HENRY WOOD) . -330 
 WILLIAM WORDSWORTH . . . -332 
 SIR HENRY WOTTON ..... 335 
 
JOSEPH ADDISON 
 1672-1719 
 
 " OF his personal appearance we have at least 
 two portraits by good hands. Before us are 
 three carefully -engraved portraits Temple Bar, 
 of him, but there is a great dis- 
 similarity between the three except in the 
 wig. Sir Godfrey Kneller painted one of 
 these portraits, which is entirely unlike the 
 two others ; let us, however, give Sir Godfrey 
 the credit of the best picture, and judge 
 Addison's appearance from that. The wig 
 almost prevents our judging the shape of the 
 head, yet it seems very high behind. The 
 forehead is very lofty, the sort of forehead 
 which is called ' commanding ' by those 
 people who do not know that some of the 
 
 i 
 
WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 least decided men in the world have had 
 high foreheads. The eyebrows are delicately 
 'pencilled,' yet show a vast deal of vigour 
 and expression ; they are what his old Latin 
 friends, who knew so well the power of ex- 
 pression in the eyebrow, would have called 
 ' supercilious,' and yet the nasal end of the 
 supercilium is only slightly raised, and it 
 droops pleasantly at the temporal end, so 
 that there is nothing Satanic or ill-natured 
 about it. The eyebrow of Addison, according 
 to Kneller, seems to say, ' You are a greater 
 fool than you think yourself to be, but I 
 would die sooner than tell you so.' The eye, 
 which is generally supposed to convey so 
 much expression, but which very often does 
 not, is very much like the eyes of other 
 amiable and talented people. The nose is 
 long, as becomes an orthodox Whig ; quite 
 as long, we should say, as the nose of any 
 member of Peel's famous long-nosed ministry, 
 and quite as delicately chiselled. The mouth 
 is very tender and beautiful, firm, yet with a 
 
JOSEPH ADDISON 
 
 delicate curve upwards at each end of the 
 upper lip, suggestive of a good joke, and of a 
 calm waiting to hear if any man is going to 
 beat it. Below the mouth there follows of 
 course the nearly inevitable double chin of 
 the eighteenth century, with a deep incision 
 in the centre of the jaw-bone, which shows 
 through the flesh like a dimple. On the 
 whole a singularly handsome and pleasant 
 face, wanting the wonderful form which one 
 sees in the faces of Shakespeare, Prior, Con- 
 greve, Castlereagh, Byron, or Napoleon, but 
 still extremely fine of its own." 
 
 1 ' Of his habits, or external manners, nothing 
 is so often mentioned as that timorous or 
 sullen taciturnity, which his friends 
 
 Johnson's 
 
 called modesty by too mild a name. Lives of the 
 
 . Poets. 
 
 Steele mentions, with great tender- 
 ness, ' that remarkable bashfulness, which is a 
 cloak that hides and muffles merit ;' and tells 
 us 'that his abilities were covered only by 
 modesty, which doubles the beauties which 
 are seen, and gives credit and esteem to all 
 
WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 that are concealed.' Chesterfield affirms that 
 ' Addison was the most timorous and awk- 
 ward man that he ever saw.' And Addison, 
 speaking of his own deficiency in conversa- 
 tion, used to say of himself that, with respect 
 to intellectual wealth, * he could draw bills for 
 a thousand pounds though he had not a 
 guinea in his pocket.' . . . 'Addison's con- 
 versation,' says Pope, ' had something in it 
 more charming than I have found in any 
 other man. But this was only when familiar ; 
 before strangers, or, perhaps, a single stranger, 
 he preserved his dignity by a stiff silence.' ' 
 
 HARRISON AINSWORTH 
 
 1805-1882 
 
 " I SAW little of him in later days, but when I 
 saw him in 1826, not long after he married 
 the daughter of Ebers of New Bond Street, 
 and ' condescended ' for a brief time to be a 
 
HARRISON AINS WORTH 
 
 publisher, he was a remarkably handsome 
 young man tall, graceful in deportment, 
 and in all ways a pleasant person 
 
 S. C. Hall's 
 
 to look upon and talk to. He Retrospect of a 
 
 Long Life. 
 
 was, perhaps, as thorough a gen- 
 tleman as his native city of Manchester ever 
 sent forth." 
 
 " Harrison Ains worth was certainly a 
 handsome man, but it was very much of the 
 barber's -block type of beauty, with A personal 
 wavy scented hair, smiling lips, and 
 pink and white complexion. As a young 
 man he was gorgeous in the outrd dress of 
 the dandy of '36, and, in common with those 
 other famous dandies, d'Orsay, young Ben- 
 jamin Disraeli, and Tom Duncombe, wore 
 multitudinous waistcoats, over which dangled 
 a long gold chain, numberless rings, and a 
 black satin stock. In old age he was very 
 patriarchal -looking. His gray hair was 
 swept up and back from a peculiarly high 
 broad forehead ; his moustache, beard, and 
 whiskers were short, straight, and silky, and 
 
WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 the mouth was entirely hidden. His eyes 
 were large and oval, and rather flat in form, 
 
 less expressive altogether than one would 
 have expected in the head of so graphic a 
 writer. The eyebrows were somewhat over- 
 hanging, and the nose was straight and 
 flexible. Up to the day of his death he was 
 always a well-dressed man, but in a far more 
 sober fashion than in his youth." 
 
 "What have we to add to what we have 
 here ventured to record, which the engraving 
 Ainsworth's which accompanies this memoir will 
 
 Rookwood. not more happily embody? (This 
 
 refers to a portrait by Maclise which appeared 
 in The Mirror.) Should that fail to do justice 
 to his face to its regularity and delicacy of 
 feature, its manly glow of health, and the 
 cordial nature which lightens it up we 
 must refer the dissatisfied beholder to Mr. 
 Pickersgill's masterly full-length portrait ex- 
 hibited last year, in which the author of The 
 Miser s Daughter may be seen, not as some 
 pale, worn, pining scholar, some fagging, 
 
JANE AUSTEN 
 
 half-exhausted, periodical romancer, but, as 
 an English gentleman of goodly stature and 
 well-set limb, with a fine head on his shoulders, 
 and a heart to match. If to this we add a 
 word, it must be to observe, that, though the 
 temper of our popular author may be marked 
 by impatience on some occasions, it has never 
 been upon any occasion marked by a want of 
 generosity, whether in conferring benefits or 
 atoning for errors. His friends regard him 
 as a man with as few failings, blended with 
 fine qualities, as most people, and his enemies 
 know nothing at all about him." 
 
 JANE AUSTEN 
 
 1775-1817 
 
 " IN person Jane Austen seems to have borne 
 considerable resemblance to her two favourite 
 heroines, Elizabeth Bennet and Emma 
 Woodhouse. Jane, too, was tall and slen- 
 
WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 der, a brunette, with a rich colour, alto- 
 gether ' the picture of health ' which Emma 
 Tytier's/a* Woodhouse was said to be. In 
 Austen and mmor points, Jane Austen had a 
 
 her Works. 
 
 well-formed though somewhat small 
 nose and mouth, round as well as rosy 
 cheeks, bright hazel eyes, and brown hair 
 falling in natural curls about her face." 
 
 " As my memoir has now reached the 
 period when I saw a great deal of my aunt, 
 Leigh's Memoir and was old enough to under- 
 
 ofjane Austen. 
 
 * stand something 01 her value, 1 
 
 will here attempt a description of her person, 
 mind, and habits. In person she was very 
 attractive ; her figure was rather tall and 
 slender, her step light and firm, and her 
 whole appearance expressive of health and 
 animation. In complexion she was a clear 
 brunette, with a rich colour ; she had full 
 round cheeks, with mouth and nose small 
 and well -formed, bright hazel eyes, and 
 brown hair forming natural curls close round 
 her face. If not so regularly handsome as 
 
JANE AUSTEN 
 
 her sister, yet her countenance had a peculiar 
 charm of its own to the eyes of most be- 
 holders. At the time of which I am now 
 writing, she never was seen, either morning 
 or evening, without a cap ; I believe that 
 she and her sister were generally thought to 
 have taken to the garb of middle age earlier 
 than their years or their looks required ; and 
 that, though remarkably neat in their dress, 
 as in all their ways, they were scarcely 
 sufficiently regardful of the fashionable, or 
 the becoming." 1809. 
 
 " Of personal attractions she possessed a 
 considerable share ; her stature rather ex- 
 ceeded the middle height; her Austen's ,&>* 
 carriage and deportment were and s sibilit y 
 quiet, but graceful ; her features were separ- 
 ately good ; their assemblage produced an 
 unrivalled expression of that cheerfulness, 
 sensibility, and benevolence which were her 
 real characteristics ; her complexion was of 
 the finest texture it might with truth be 
 said that her eloquent blood spoke through 
 
io WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 her modest cheek ; her voice was sweet ; she 
 delivered herself with fluency and precision ; 
 indeed, she was formed for elegant and 
 rational society, excelling in conversation as 
 much as in composition. . . . The affectation 
 of candour is not uncommon, but she had no 
 affectation. . . . She never uttered either a 
 hasty, a silly, or a severe expression. In 
 short, her temper was as polished as her wit ; 
 and no one could be often in her company 
 without feeling a strong desire of obtaining 
 her friendship, and cherishing a desire of 
 having obtained it." 
 
 FRANCIS, LORD BACON 
 
 1560-1-1626 
 
 "HE was of a middle stature, and well pro- 
 portioned ; his features were handsome and 
 expressive, and his countenance, until it was 
 injured by politics and worldly warfare, singu- 
 
FRANCIS, LORD BA CON 1 1 
 
 larly placid. There is a portrait of him 
 when he was only eighteen now extant, on 
 which the artist has recorded his Montague's 
 
 . r , . . . , . , Life of Bacon. 
 
 despair of doing justice to his sub- 
 ject, by the inscription, ' Si tabula daretur 
 digna, animum mallem.' His portraits differ 
 beyond what may be considered a fair allow- 
 ance for the varying skill of the artist, or the 
 natural changes which time wrought upon his 
 person ; but none of them contradict Evelyn 
 the description given by one who onMedals - 
 knew him well, ' That he had a spacious fore- 
 head and piercing eye, looking upward as a 
 soul in sublime contemplation, a countenance 
 worthy of one who was to set free captive 
 philosophy.' ' 
 
 " He had a delicate, lively hazel Aubrey's 
 
 Lives of 
 
 eie ; Dr. Harvey told me it was like Eminent 
 
 P . ,, Persons. 
 
 the eie of a viper. * 
 
 " All accounts represent him as a delight- 
 ful companion, adapting himself to company 
 of every degree, calling, and humour, not 
 engrossing the conversation, trying to get 
 
12 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 all to talk in turn on the subject they best 
 understood, and not disdaining to light his own 
 Campbell's candle at the lamp of any other. . . . 
 
 Lives of the 
 
 Lord Little remains except to give some 
 
 Chancellors. r . r 
 
 account of his person. He was of 
 a middling stature ; his limbs well -formed 
 though not robust ; his forehead high, 
 spacious and open ; his eye lively and pene- 
 trating ; there were deep lines of thinking in 
 his face, his smile was both intellectual and 
 benevolent; the marks of age were pre- 
 maturely impressed upon him; in advanced 
 life his whole appearance was venerably 
 pleasing, so that a stranger was insensibly 
 drawn to love before knowing how much 
 reason there was to admire him." 
 
 JOANNA BAILLIE 
 
 1762-1851 
 
 " WE met Miss Joanna Baillie, and accom- 
 panied her home. She is small in figure, and 
 
JOANNA BAILLIE 13 
 
 her gait is mean and shuffling, but her 
 manners are those of a well-bred woman. 
 She has none of the unpleasant airs Crabb 
 
 Robinson's 
 
 too common to literary ladies. Her Diary. 
 conversation is sensible. She possesses appar- 
 ently considerable information, is prompt 
 without being forward, and has a fixed 
 judgment of her own, without any disposition 
 to force it on others. Wordsworth said of 
 her with warmth, ' If I had to present any one 
 to a foreigner as a model of an English 
 gentlewoman, it would be Joanna Baillie.' " 
 1812. 
 
 " Of the party I can recall but one ; that 
 one, however, is a memory, JOANNA BAILLIE. 
 I remember her as singularly im- 
 
 S. C. Hall's 
 
 pressive in look and manner, with Memories of 
 
 , . . Great Men. 
 
 the ' queenly air we associate with 
 ideas of high birth and lofty rank. Her face 
 was long, narrow, dark, and solemn, and her 
 speech deliberate and considerate, the very 
 antipodes of 'chatter.' Tall in person, 
 and habited according to the * mode ' of an 
 
i 4 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 olden time, her picture, as it is now present 
 to me, is that of a very venerable dame, 
 dressed in coif and kirtle, stepping out, as 
 it were, from a frame in which she had 
 been placed by the painter Vandyke. "- 
 1825-26. 
 
 " I saw Mrs. Joanna Baillie before dinner. 
 
 She wore a delicate lavender satin bonnet ; 
 
 and Mrs. J. says she is fond 
 
 Sara 
 
 Coleridge's of dress, and knows what every 
 
 Letters. - T T . . . 
 
 one has on. Her taste is certainly 
 exquisite in dress though (strange to say) not, 
 in my opinion, in poetry. I more than 
 ever admired the harmony of expression 
 and tint, the silver hair and silvery -gray 
 eye, the pale skin, and the look which 
 speaks of a mind that has had much 
 communing with high imagination, though 
 such intercourse is only perceptible now 
 by the absence of everything which that 
 lofty spirit would not set his seal upon." 
 
BENJAMIN, LORD BEACONSFIELD 15 
 
 BENJAMIN.. LORD BEACONSFIELD 
 
 1804-1881 
 
 " His ringlets of silken black hair, his 
 flashing eyes, his effeminate and lisping voice, 
 his dress-coat of black velvet lined 
 
 Jeaffreson's 
 
 with white satin, his white kid Navels and 
 
 . , , . . , , Novelists. 
 
 gloves with his wrist surrounded 
 by a long hanging fringe of black silk, and 
 his ivory cane, of which the handle, inlaid 
 with gold, was relieved by more black silk in 
 the shape of a tassel. . . . Such was the per- 
 fumed boy-exquisite who forced his way into 
 the salons of peeresses." 1829. 
 
 "In the front seat on the Conservative side 
 of the House, may be observed a man who, 
 if his hat be off, which it generally Mill>s 
 is, is sure to arrest one's attention, Beacons fe ld - 
 and we need scarcely to be told after having 
 once seen him that he is the leader of that 
 
1 6 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 great party. He is not old, just turned fifty we 
 may suppose, but he bears his age well, what- 
 ever it may be. His face, which was once 
 handsome, is now ' sicklied o'er with the pale 
 cast of thought.' The head is long, and the 
 forehead massive and finished. The eye is 
 restless, but full of fire ; the hair black and 
 curly. Nature has evidently taken some 
 pains to finish the exterior." about 1855. 
 
 " Certes, le premier aspect de Mr. Glad- 
 stone . . . reponds a 1'idee qu'on peut se faire 
 j. H. du vivier, d'un chef doue d'un elan irresist- 
 parhllfhommes ible > mieuxque 1'attitudemaladive 
 
 d'etat. fa lord Beaconsfield, ses traits 
 mous, son regard fletri et comme perdu dans 
 1'abstraction ou dans une reverie hantee par 
 la disillusion et la lassitude. . . . Chez 
 le plus faible ... on devine bientot que si le 
 fourreau est use par la lame, c'est a raison de 
 la devorante activite de celle-ci. ... La tete 
 s'incline avec melancholic, la bouche a pris 
 1'habitude des contractions douleureuses ; mais 
 que de patience invincible dans cette attitude ! 
 
JEREMY BE NTH AM 1 7 
 
 quelle incondite, quelle soudainete d'inspira- 
 tions marquees stir ces levres que plisse le 
 rictus de 1'ironie ! " 
 
 JEREMY BENTHAM 
 
 1748-1832 
 
 " IN the very centre of the group of persons 
 who originated the Westminster Review stands 
 the grand figure of Jeremy sir John 
 Bentham. Though closely re- A *^ ical 
 sembling Franklin, his face ex- Collections. 
 presses a profounder wisdom and a more 
 marked benevolence than the bust of the 
 American printer. Mingled with a serene 
 contemplative cast, there is something of 
 playful humour in the countenance. The 
 high forehead is wrinkled, but is without 
 sternness, and is contemplative but com- 
 placent. The neatly -combed long white 
 hair hangs over the neck, but moves at 
 
 2 
 
1 8 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 every breath. Simplex munditiis best de- 
 scribes his garments. When he walks there 
 is a restless activity in his gait, as if his 
 thoughts were, * Let me walk fast, for there 
 is work to do, and the walking is but to fit 
 me the better for the work.' ' 
 
 " The striking resemblance between the 
 
 persons of Franklin and Bentham has been 
 
 often noticed. Of the two, per- 
 
 Sir John Bow- 
 ring's Life of haps, the expression of Ben- 
 
 Bentham. y 
 
 tham s countenance was the 
 more benign. Each remarkable for profound 
 sagacity, Bentham was scarcely less so for 
 a perpetual playfulness of manner and of 
 expression. Few men were so sportive, 
 so amusing, as Bentham, none ever tem- 
 pered more delightfully his wisdom with 
 his wit . . . Bentham's dress was peculiar 
 out of doors. He ordinarily wore a narrow- 
 rimmed straw hat, from under which his 
 long white hair fell on his shoulders, or was 
 blown about by the winds. He had a plain 
 brown coat, cut in the Quaker style ; light- 
 
JEREMY BENTHAM 1 9 
 
 brown cassimere breeches, over whose knees 
 outside he usually exhibited a pair of white 
 worsted stockings ; list shoes he almost 
 invariably used ; and his hands were generally 
 covered with merino -lined leather gloves. 
 His neck was bare ; he never went out 
 without his stick 'dapple,' for a companion. 
 He walked, or rather trotted, as if he were 
 impatient for exercise ; but often stopped 
 suddenly for purposes of conversation." 
 
 " December jist. At half-past one went 
 by appointment to see Jeremy Bentham, at 
 his house in Westminster Square, 
 
 Crabb 
 
 and walked with him for about half Robinson's 
 
 Diary, 
 
 an hour in his garden, when he 
 dismissed me to take his breakfast and have 
 the paper read to him. I have but little 
 to report concerning him. He is a small 
 man. He stoops very much (he is eighty- 
 four), and shuffles in his gait. His hearing 
 is not good, yet excellent considering his 
 age. His eye is restless, and there is a 
 fidgety activity about him, increased prob- 
 
20 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 ably by the habit of having all round fly at 
 his command." 1831. 
 
 RICHARD BENTLEY 
 
 1662-1742 
 
 " THE pose of the head is haughty, almost 
 defiant ; the eyes, which are large, prominent, 
 
 and full of bold vivacity, have a R. c. 
 
 i- i i /- T-> Bentley. 
 
 light in them as if Bentley were 
 looking straight at an impostor whom he had 
 detected, but who still amused him ; the nose, 
 strong and slightly tip -tilted, is moulded as 
 if Nature had wished to show what a nose 
 can do for the combined expression of scorn 
 and sagacity ; and the general effect of the 
 countenance, at a first glance, is one which 
 suggests power frank, self-assured, sarcastic, 
 and, I fear we must add, insolent : yet, stand- 
 ing a little longer before the picture, we be- 
 come aware of an essential kindness in those 
 
JAMES BOS WELL 2 1 
 
 eyes of which the gaze is so direct and in- 
 trepid ; we read in the whole face a certain 
 keen veracity ; and the sense grows this was 
 a man who could hit hard, but who would 
 not strike a foul blow, and whose ruling in- 
 stinct, whether always a sure guide or not, 
 was to pierce through falsities to truth." 
 
 JAMES BOSWELL 
 
 1740-1795 
 
 "THE sketch by Sir Thomas Lawrence of 
 Bos well, prefixed to Mr. Murray's edition 
 of Johnson's Life, illustrates with 
 
 J J Littell s 
 
 striking accuracy the saying of Living Age, 
 
 1870. 
 Hazlitt, that * A man's life may be 
 
 a lie to himself and others ; and yet a picture 
 painted of him by a great artist would probably 
 stamp his character.' The busy vanity, the 
 garrulous complacency of the man when out 
 of sight of Dr. Johnson, as he may be 
 
22 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 supposed to have been when the portrait 
 was etched, are brought out with all the 
 humour and point of a caricature, without its 
 exaggeration. The thin nose, that seems to 
 sniff the air for information, has the sharp 
 shrewdness of a Scotch accent. The small 
 eyes, too much relieved by the high-arched 
 eyebrows, twinkle with the exultation of 
 victories not won an expression contracted 
 from a vigilant watching of Dr. Johnson, 
 who, when he spoke, spoke always for 
 victory ; the bleak lips, making by their 
 protrusion an angle almost the size of the 
 nose, proclaim Boswell's love of ' drawing 
 people out/ a thirst for information at once 
 droll and impertinent ; but which finally 
 embodied itself in a form that has been 
 pronounced by Lord Macaulay the most 
 interesting biography in the world ; the 
 ample chins, fold upon fold, tell of a strong 
 affection, gross, and almost sottish, for port 
 wine and tainted meats ; whilst the folded 
 arms, the slightly - inclined posture, the 
 
JAMES BOS WELL 23 
 
 strong and arrogant setting of the head, 
 exhibit the self-importance, the shrewd 
 understanding, not to be obscurated by 
 vanity, the imperturbable but artless egotism, 
 the clever inquisitiveness which have made 
 him the best-despised and best-read writer 
 in English literature. The portraits handed 
 down to us of Boswell by his contempo- 
 raries are most graphic ; some of them are 
 malignant, some bitter, some temperate ; 
 and those that are temperate are probably 
 just. . . . Miss Burney thus caricatures the 
 appearance of Boswell in Johnson's presence, 
 when intent upon his note-taking : ' The 
 moment that voice burst forth, the attention 
 which it excited on Mr. Boswell amounted 
 almost to pain. His eyes goggled with 
 eagerness ; he leant his ear almost on the 
 shoulder of the doctor, and his mouth 
 dropped down to catch every syllable that 
 was uttered ; nay, he seemed not only 
 to dread losing a word, but to be anxious 
 not to miss a breathing, as if hoping 
 
24 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 from it latently or mystically some infor- 
 mation.'" 
 
 CHARLOTTE BRONTE 
 
 1816-1855 
 
 " IN 1831, she was a quiet, thoughtful girl, 
 
 of nearly fifteen years of age, very small in 
 
 Mrs. Gaskeii's figure 'stunted' was the word 
 
 Lift tf C.Bronte. ^ & app j ied tQ herself . but as 
 
 her limbs and head were in just proportion 
 to the slight, fragile body, no word in ever 
 so slight a degree suggestive of deformity 
 could properly be applied to her ; with soft, 
 thick, brown hair, and peculiar eyes, of which 
 I find it difficult to give a description as they 
 appeared to me in her later life. They were 
 large and well-shaped, their colour a reddish 
 brown, but if the iris were closely examined, 
 it appeared to be composed of a great variety 
 of tints. The usual expression was of quiet, 
 listening intelligence ; but now and then, on 
 
CHARLOTTE BRONTE 25 
 
 some just occasion for vivid interest or 
 wholesome indignation, a light would shine 
 out, as if some spiritual lamp had been 
 kindled, which glowed behind those ex- 
 pressive orbs. I never saw the like in any 
 other human creature. As for the rest of 
 her features, they were plain, large, and ill- 
 set ; but, unless you began to catalogue 
 them, you were hardly aware of the fact, for 
 the eyes and power of the countenance over- 
 balanced every physical defect ; the crooked 
 mouth and the large nose were forgotten, 
 and the whole face arrested the attention, 
 and presently attracted all those whom she 
 herself would have cared to attract. Her 
 hands and feet were the smallest I ever saw ; 
 when one of the former was placed in mine, 
 it was like the soft touch of a bird in the 
 middle of my palm. The delicate long 
 fingers had a peculiar fineness of sensation, 
 which was one reason why all her handiwork, 
 of whatever kind writing, sewing, knitting, 
 was so clear in its minuteness. She was 
 
26 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 remarkably neat in her whole personal attire ; 
 but she was dainty as to the fit of her shoes 
 and gloves." 1831. 
 
 " There was something inexpressibly affect- 
 ing in the aspect of the frail little creature 
 Harriet wno na< ^ done such wonderful 
 Martineau's tn i n g s an j wno was able to bear 
 
 Biographical 
 
 Sketches. U p } w j[th so bright an eye and so 
 composed a countenance, under not only such 
 a weight of sorrow, but such a prospect of 
 solitude. In her deep mourning dress (neat 
 as a Quaker's), with her beautiful hair, 
 smooth and brown, her fine eyes, and her 
 sensible face indicating a habit of self-control, 
 she seemed a perfect household image- 
 irresistibly recalling Wordsworth's description 
 of that domestic treasure. And she was 
 this." 1850. 
 
 " I can only say of this lady, vide tantum. 
 
 Bayne's ^ SaW ner ^ rst J USt aS ^ r Se OUt 
 Two great Q f an illness from wh j ch J neyer 
 English- 
 women, thought to recover. I remember the 
 
 trembling little frame, the little hand, the great 
 
HENRY, LORD BROUGHAM 27 
 
 honest eyes. An impetuous honesty seemed 
 to me to characterise the woman. . . . She 
 gave me the impression of being a very pure, 
 and lofty, and high-minded person. A great 
 and holy reverence of right and truth seemed 
 to be with her always. Such, in our brief 
 interview, she appeared to me." 1851. 
 
 HENRY, LORD BROUGHAM 
 
 1778-1868 
 
 " BROUGHAM, whom I knew in society, and 
 from seeing him both at his chambers and 
 at my own lodgings, is now about Ticknor's Life 
 thirty-eight, tall, thin, and rather '* a - 
 awkward, with a plain and not very ex- 
 pressive countenance, and simple or even 
 slovenly manners. He is evidently nervous, 
 and a slight convulsive movement about the 
 muscles of his lips gives him an unpleasant 
 expression now and then. In short, all that 
 
28 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 is exterior in him, and all that goes to make 
 up the first impression, is unfavourable. 
 The first thing that removes this impression 
 is the heartiness and good-will he shows you, 
 whose motive cannot be mistaken, for such 
 kindness comes only from the heart. This 
 is the first thing, but a stranger presently 
 begins to remark his conversation. On 
 common topics nobody is more common- 
 place. He does not feel them, but if the 
 subject excites him, there is an air of 
 originality in his remarks which, if it con- 
 vinces you of nothing else, convinces you 
 that you are talking with an extraordinary 
 man. He does not like to join in a general 
 conversation, but prefers to talk apart with 
 only two or three persons, and, though with 
 great interest and zeal, in an undertone. If, 
 however, he does launch into it, all the little, 
 trim, gay pleasure-boats must keep well out 
 of the way of his great black collier, as 
 Gibbon said of Fox. He listens carefully 
 and fairly and with a kindness which would 
 
HENRY, LORD BROUGHAM 29 
 
 be provoking if it were not genuine to all 
 his adversary has to say ; but when his time 
 comes to answer, it is with that bare, bold, 
 bullion talent which either crushes itself or 
 its opponent. . . . Yet I suspect the im- 
 pression Brougham generally leaves is that 
 of a good-natured friend. At least that is 
 the impression I have most frequently found, 
 both in England and on the Continent."- 
 1819. 
 
 ''Standing in the narrow Gothic railed-off 
 place reserved for the public the throne at 
 the opposite extremity of the House 
 
 Newspaper 
 
 you may see on one of the benches cutting 
 to the right, almost every forenoon, 
 Saturday and Sunday excepted, during the 
 session, a very old man with a white head, 
 and attired in a simple frock and trousers of 
 shepherd's plaid. It is a leonine head, and 
 the white locks are bushy and profuse. So, 
 too, the eyebrows, penthouses to eyes some- 
 what weak now, but that can flash fire yet 
 upon occasion. The face is ploughed with 
 
3 o WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 wrinkles, as well it may be, for the old man 
 will never see fourscore years again, and of 
 these, threescore, at the very least, have been 
 spent in study and the hardest labour, mental 
 and physical. The nose is a marvel pro- 
 tuberant, rugose, aggressive, inquiring and 
 defiant : unlovely, but intellectual. There 
 is a trumpet mouth, a belligerent mouth, 
 projecting and self-asserting ; largish ears, 
 and on chin or cheeks no vestige of hair. 
 Not a beautiful man this, on any theory of 
 beauty, Hogarthesque, Ruskinesque, Win- 
 clemenesque, or otherwise. Rather a shaggy, 
 gnarled, battered, weather - beaten, ugly, 
 faithful, Scotch -collie type. Not a soft, 
 imploring, yielding face. Rather a tearing, 
 mocking, pugnacious cast of countenance. 
 The mouth is fashioned to the saying of 
 harsh, hard, impertinent things : not cruel, 
 but downright ; but never to whisper compli- 
 ments, or simper out platitudes. A nose, 
 too, that can snuff the battle afar off, and 
 with dilated nostrils breathe forth a glory 
 
HENRY, LORD BROUGHAM 31 
 
 that is sometimes terrible ; but not a nose 
 for a pouncet-box, or a Covent Garden 
 bouquet, or a flacon of Frangipani. Would 
 not care much for truffles either, I think, or 
 the delicate aroma of sparkling Moselle. 
 Would prefer onions or strongly-infused malt 
 and hops ; something honest and unsophisti- 
 cated. Watch this old man narrowly, young 
 visitor to the Lords. Scan his furrowed 
 visage. Mark his odd angular ways and 
 gestures passing uncouth. Now he crouches, 
 very dog-like, in his crimson bench : clasps 
 one shepherd's plaid leg in both his hands. 
 Botherem, q.c., is talking nonsense, I think. 
 Now the legs are crossed, and the hands 
 thrown behind the head ; now he digs his 
 elbows into the little Gothic writing-table 
 before him, and buries his hands in that 
 puissant white hair of his. The quiddities 
 of Floorem, q.c., are beyond human 
 patience. Then with a wrench, a wriggle, 
 a shake, a half-turn and half-start up still 
 very dog-like, but of the Newfoundland 
 
32 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 rather, now he asks a lawyer or a witness a 
 question. Question very sharp and to the 
 point, not often complimentary by times, and 
 couched in that which is neither broad Scotch 
 nor Northumbrian burr, but a rebellious 
 mixture of the two. Mark him well, eye 
 him closely : you have not much time to lose. 
 Alas ! the giant is very old, though with 
 frame yet unenfeebled, with intellect yet 
 gloriously unclouded. But the sands are 
 running, ever running. Watch him, mark 
 him, eye him, score him on your mind tablets : 
 then home, and in after years it may be your 
 lot to tell your children that once at least 
 you have seen with your own eyes the famous 
 Lord of Vaux ; once listened to the voice 
 which has shaken thrones and made tyrants 
 tremble ; that has been a herald of deliver- 
 ance to millions pining in slavery and 
 captivity ; a voice that has given utterance, 
 in man's most eloquent words, to the noblest, 
 wisest thoughts lent to this man of men by 
 heaven ; a voice that has been trumpet- 
 
HENRY, LORD BROUGHAM 33 
 
 sounding these sixty years past in defence of 
 Truth, and Right, and Justice ; in advocacy 
 of the claims of learning and industry, and of 
 the liberties of the great English people, from 
 whose ranks he rose ; a voice that should be 
 entitled to a hearing in a Walhalla of wise 
 heroes, after Francis of Verulam and Isaac of 
 Grantham ; the voice of one who is worthily 
 a lord, but who will be yet better remembered, 
 and to all time, remembered enthusiastically 
 and affectionately, as the champion of all 
 good and wise and beautiful human things 
 Harry Brougham." 
 
 "The personal man, the bodily man, the 
 private man, did not vary. From 1830 to 
 1866 the period between his TempkBar ^ 
 brightest glow of fame and his l868 - 
 mental eclipse, he was always the same 
 gaunt, angular, raw-boned figure, with the 
 high cheek-bones, the great flexible nose, the 
 mobile mouth, the shock head of hair, the 
 uncouthly-cut coat with the velvet collar, the 
 high black stock, the bulging shirt front, the 
 
 3 
 
34 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 dangling bunch of seals at his fob, and the 
 immortal pantaloons of checked tweed. It 
 is said that one of his admirers in the 
 Bradford Cloth Hall gave him a bale of 
 plaid trousering 'a' oo' '* in 1825, and that 
 he continued until the day of his death to 
 have his nether garments cut from the inex- 
 haustible store. I have seen Lord Brougham 
 in evening dress and in the customary black 
 continuations ; but I never met him by day- 
 light without the inevitable checks." 
 
 ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING 
 
 18091861 
 
 " MY first acquaintance with Elizabeth Barrett 
 commenced about fifteen years 
 
 M. R. Mitford's 
 
 Recollections of a ago. She was certainly one of 
 
 Literary Life. 
 
 the most interesting persons that 
 I had ever seen. Everybody who then 
 
 1 All wool. 
 
ELIZABETH BARRETT BRO WNING 35 
 
 saw her said the same ; so that it is not 
 merely the impression of my partiality, or my 
 enthusiasm. Of a slight delicate figure, with 
 a shower of dark curls falling on either side 
 of a most expressive face, large tender eyes, 
 richly fringed with dark eyelashes, a smile 
 like a sunbeam, and such a look of youthful- 
 ness, that I had some difficulty in persuading 
 a friend, in whose carriage we went together 
 to Chiswick, that the translatress of the 
 Prometheus of ^Eschylus, the authoress of 
 the Essay on Mind, was old enough to be 
 introduced into company, in technical 
 language, was outT 1835. 
 
 " She is little, hard featured, with long 
 dark ringlets, a pale face, and plaintive voice, 
 something very impressive in her Sara Coleridge's 
 dark eyes and her brow. Her Letters. 
 general aspect puts me in mind of Mignon, 
 what Mignon might be in maturity and 
 maternity." 1 85 1. 
 
 " Dined at home, and at eight dressed to 
 go to Kenyon. With him I found an 
 
36 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 interesting person I had never seen before, 
 Mrs. Browning, late Miss Barrett not the 
 Crabb Robin- invalid I expected; she has a 
 
 son's Diary. handsome oyal f ace> a fine eye> 
 
 and altogether a pleasing person. She had 
 no opportunity for display, and apparently 
 no desire. Her husband has a very amiable 
 expression. There is a singular sweetness 
 about him." 1852. 
 
 JOHN BUNYAN 
 
 1628-1688 
 
 "HE appeared in countenance to be of a 
 stern and rough temper. He had a sharp, 
 Charles Doe's Life quick eye, accomplished, with an 
 of John Bunyan. excellen t discerning of persons. 
 As for his person, he was tall of stature, 
 strong-boned, though not corpulent ; some- 
 what of a ruddy face, with sparkling eyes, 
 wearing his hair on the upper lip after 
 
JOHN BUNYAN 37 
 
 the old British fashion ; his hair reddish, 
 but in his later days time had sprinkled 
 it with gray ; his nose well set, but not 
 declining or bending, and his mouth moderate 
 large, his forehead something high, and his 
 habit always plain and modest." 
 
 "It is impossible to look at his portrait, 
 and not recognise the lines of power by 
 
 which it is everywhere marked. Tuiioch's 
 
 .... lish Puritanism. 
 
 It has more of a sturdy soldier * 
 
 than anything else the aspect of a man who 
 would face dangers any day rather than shun 
 them ; and this corresponds exactly to his 
 description by his oldest biographer and 
 friend, Charles Doe. ... A more manly and 
 robust appearance cannot well be conceived, 
 his eyes only showing in their sparkling 
 depth the fountains of sensibility concealed 
 within the roughened exterior. Here, as 
 before, we are reminded of his likeness to 
 Luther." 
 
 "Give us leave to say his natural parts 
 and abilities were not mean, his fancy and 
 
38 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 invention were very pregnant and fertile ; the 
 
 use he made of them was good, converting 
 
 Bunyan's them to spiritual objects. His wit 
 
 Works, 1692. wag s h ar p anc i q u i c k . hi s memory 
 
 tenacious ; it being customary with him to 
 commit his sermons to writing, after he had 
 preached them. His understanding was 
 large and comprehensive ; his judgments 
 sound and deep in the fundamentals of the 
 Gospel, as his writings evidence. And yet, 
 this great saint was always, in his own eyes, 
 the chiefest of sinners and the least of saints ; 
 esteeming any, where he did believe the truth 
 of (their) grace, better than himself. There 
 was, indeed, in him all the parts of an accom- 
 plished man. His carriage was condescend- 
 ing, affable, and meek to all ; yet bold and 
 courageous for Christ's and the Gospel's sake. 
 His countenance was grave and sedate, and did 
 so, to the life, discover the inward frame of his 
 heart, that it did strike something of awe into 
 them that had nothing of the fear of God. . . . 
 His conversation was as becomes the Gospel." 
 
EDMUND BURKE 39 
 
 EDMUND BURKE 
 
 1730-1797 
 
 " No expectation that I had formed of Mr. 
 Burke, either from his works, his speeches, 
 his character, or his fame, had B urney' 
 anticipated to me such a man as 
 I now met. He appeared, perhaps, at the 
 moment, to the highest possible advantage 
 in health, vivacity, and spirits. Removed 
 from the impetuous aggravations of party 
 contentions, that at times, by inflaming his 
 passions, seemed (momentarily, at least), to 
 disorder his character, he was lulled into 
 gentleness by the grateful sense of prosperity ; 
 exhilarated, but not intoxicated, by sudden 
 success ; and just rising, after toiling years of 
 failures, disappointments, fire and fury, to 
 place, affluence, and honours, which were 
 brightly smiling on the zenith of his powers. 
 
40 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 He looked, indeed, as if he had no wish but 
 to diffuse philanthropic pleasure and genial 
 gaiety all around. 
 
 " His figure is noble, his air commanding, 
 his address graceful ; his voice clear, penetrat- 
 ing, sonorous, and powerful ; his language 
 copious, eloquent, and changefully impressive ; 
 his manners are attractive ; his conversation 
 is past all praise. 
 
 " You may call me mad, I know ; but if I 
 wait till I see another Mr. Burke for such 
 another fit of ecstacy, I may be long enough 
 in my sober good senses." 1782. 
 
 " The personal description of Edmund 
 Burke has been handed down. He was 
 Peter Burke's about five feet ten inches high, 
 
 Life of Burke. 
 
 * well made and muscular ; of that 
 firm and compact frame that denotes more 
 strength than bulk. His countenance had 
 been in his youth handsome. The expres- 
 sion of his face was less striking than might 
 have been anticipated ; at least it was so 
 until lit up by the animation of his conversa- 
 
EDMUND BURKE 41 
 
 tion, or the fire of his eloquence. In dress 
 he usually wore a brown suit ; and he was 
 in his later days easily recognisable in the 
 House of Commons from his bob- wig and 
 spectacles." 
 
 " He deserved . . . worship better than 
 most idols. Gentle, affectionate, unassuming 
 towards the members of his own Macknight's 
 
 c .. , . .. .- , Life of Burke. 
 
 family, he was also dignified, 
 polished, and courteous in his manner to all 
 the rest of mankind. Nature had stamped 
 the noblest impress of genius on his wrinkled 
 brow, and time had slowly conferred a grace 
 on his address which made him appear 
 singularly pleasing and lovable. In the 
 House of Commons only the fiercer pecu- 
 liarities of his character were now seen ; 
 while at home he seemed the mildest and 
 kindest, as well as one of the best and 
 greatest of human beings. He poured forth 
 the rich treasures of his mind with the most 
 prodigal bounty. At breakfast and dinner 
 his gaiety, wit, and pleasantry enlivened the 
 
42 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 board, and diffused cheerfulness and happi- 
 ness all round." 
 
 ROBERT BURNS 
 
 1759-1796 
 
 " BURNS . . . was nearly five feet ten inches in 
 
 height, and of a form that indicated agility as 
 
 Cume's we ^ as strength. His well-raised 
 
 Life of Burns. foreheadj shaded with black CUfl- 
 
 ing hair, indicated extensive capacity. 
 His eyes were large, dark, full of ardour 
 and intelligence. His face was well-formed, 
 and his countenance uncommonly interesting 
 and expressive. His mode of dressing, 
 which was often slovenly, and a certain 
 fulness and bend in his shoulders, character- 
 istic of his original profession, disguised in 
 some degree the natural symmetry and 
 elegance of his form. The external appear- 
 ance of Burns was most strikingly indicative 
 of the character of his mind. On a first 
 
ROBERT B URNS 43 
 
 view, his physiognomy had a certain air of 
 coarseness, mingled, however, with an ex- 
 pression of deep penetration, and of calm 
 thoughtfulness, approaching to melancholy. 
 ... His dark and haughty countenance easily 
 relaxed into a look of good-will, of pity, or 
 of tenderness, and, as the various emotions 
 succeeded each other in his mind, assumed 
 with equal ease the expression of the 
 broadest humour, of the most extravagant 
 mirth, of the deepest melancholy, or of the 
 most sublime emotion. The tones of his 
 voice happily corresponded with the expres- 
 sion of his features, and with the feelings of 
 his mind. When to these endowments are 
 added a rapid and distinct apprehension, a 
 most powerful understanding, and a happy 
 command of language of strength as well 
 as brilliancy of expression we shall be able 
 to account for the extraordinary attractions 
 of his conversation for the sorcery which 
 in his social parties he seemed to exert on 
 all around him." 
 
44 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 " His person was strong and robust ; his 
 
 manners rustic, not clownish ; a sort of 
 
 Lockhart's dignified plainness and simplicity, 
 
 Life of Scott. which received part of its effectj 
 
 perhaps, from one's knowledge of his extra- 
 ordinary talents. His features are represented 
 in Mr. Nasmyth's picture, but to me it con- 
 veys the idea that they are diminished, as if 
 seen in perspective. I think his countenance 
 was more massive than it looks in any of the 
 portraits. I would have taken the poet, had 
 I not known what he was, for a very sagacious 
 country farmer of the old Scotch school ; i.e. 
 none of your modern agriculturists, who keep 
 labourers for their drudgery, but the douce 
 gudeman who held his own plough. There 
 was a strong expression of sense and shrewd- 
 ness in all his lineaments ; the eye alone, 
 I think, indicated the poetical character and 
 temperament. It was large, and of a dark 
 cast, and glowed (I say literally glowed] when 
 he spoke with feeling or interest. I never 
 saw such another eye in a human head, 
 
ROBERT BURNS 45 
 
 though I have seen the most distinguished 
 men in my time. His conversation expressed 
 perfect self-confidence, without the slightest 
 presumption. Among the men who were 
 the most learned of their time and country, 
 he expressed himself with perfect firmness, 
 but without the least intrusive forwardness ; 
 and when he differed in opinion, he did not 
 hesitate to express it firmly, yet, at the same 
 time, with modesty. I do not remember any 
 part of his conversation distinctly enough to 
 be quoted, nor did I ever see him again, 
 except in the street, where he did not 
 recognise me, as I could not expect he 
 should." 1787. 
 
 " His personal endowments were perfectly 
 correspondent to the qualifications of his 
 mind, his form was manly, his action Dumfries 
 energy itself, devoid in a great Journal ' I796 ' 
 measure perhaps of those graces, of that polish, 
 acquired only in the refinement of societies 
 where in early life he could have no oppor- 
 tunities of mixing ; but where, such was the 
 
46 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 irresistible power of attraction that encircled 
 him, though his appearance and manners 
 were always peculiar, he never failed to 
 delight and to excel. His figure seemed to 
 bear testimony to his earlier destination and 
 employments. It seemed rather moulded by 
 nature for the rough exercises of agriculture, 
 than the gentler cultivation of the Belles 
 Lettres. His features were stamped with the 
 hardy character of independence, and the 
 firmness of conscious, though not arrogant, 
 pre-eminence ; the animated expressions of 
 countenance were almost peculiar to himself; 
 the rapid lightenings of his eye were always 
 the harbingers of some flash of genius, 
 whether they darted the fiery glances of 
 insulted and indignant superiority, or beamed 
 with the impassioned sentiments of fervent 
 and impetuous affections. His voice alone 
 could improve upon the magic of his eye ; 
 sonorous, replete with the finest modulations, 
 it alternately captivated the ear with the 
 melody of poetic numbers, the perspicuity of 
 
SAMUEL BUTLER 47 
 
 nervous reasoning, or the ardent sallies of 
 enthusiastic patriotism." 
 
 SAMUEL BUTLER 
 1612-1680 
 
 " HE is of a middle stature, strong sett, high- 
 colored, a head of sorrell haire, a Aubrey > s Lives 
 severe and sound judgement: a of Eminent Men. 
 good fellowe." 
 
 ''He was of a leonine-colored haire, san- 
 guine, cholerique, middle-sized, Aubrey > sZ ^ 
 strong; a boon and witty com- of Eminent Men. 
 panion, especially among the companie he 
 knew well." 
 
 GEORGE, LORD BYRON 
 
 1788-1824 
 
 " AMONG the impressions which this meeting 
 left upon me, what I chiefly remember to 
 
48 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 have remarked was the nobleness of his air, 
 his beauty, the gentleness of his voice and 
 Moore's manners, and what was naturally 
 Life of Byron. not ^ \^^ attraction his marked 
 kindness to myself. Being in mourning for 
 his mother, the colour, as well of his dress 
 as of his glossy, curling, and picturesque 
 hair, gave more effect to the pure, spiritual 
 paleness of his features, in the expression of 
 which, when he spoke, there was a perpetual 
 play of lively thought, though melancholy 
 was their habitual character when in repose." 
 -1811. 
 
 " I called on Lord Byron to-day, with an 
 introduction from Mr. Gifford. Here, again, 
 Geo. Ticknor's m Y anticipations were mistaken. 
 Li f e - Instead of being deformed, as I had 
 heard, he is remarkably well-built, with the 
 exception of his feet. Instead of having a 
 thin and rather sharp and anxious face, as he 
 has in his pictures, it is round, open, and 
 smiling ; his eyes are light, and not black ; 
 his air easy and careless, not forward and 
 
UNIVERSITY 
 
 49 
 
 striking ; and I found his manners affable 
 and gentle, the tones of his voice low and 
 conciliating, his conversation gay, pleasant, 
 and interesting in an uncommon degree." 
 1815. 
 
 "It would be to little purpose to dwell 
 upon the mere beauty of a countenance in 
 which the expression of an extra- Moore's 
 ordinary mind was so conspicuous. Li f e f B y ron - 
 What serenity was seated on the fore- 
 head, adorned with the finest chestnut hair, 
 light, curling, and disposed with such art, that 
 the art was hidden in the imitation of most 
 pleasing nature! What varied expression 
 in his eyes ! They were of the azure colour 
 of the heavens, from which they seemed to 
 derive their origin. His teeth, in form, in 
 colour, in transparency, resembled pearls ; 
 but his cheeks were too delicately tinged 
 with the hue of the pale rose. His neck, 
 which he was in the habit of keeping un- 
 covered as much as the usages of society 
 permitted, seemed to have been formed in a 
 
 4 
 
50 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 mould, and was very white. His hands were 
 as beautiful as if they had been the works of 
 art. His figure left nothing to be desired, 
 particularly by those who found rather a 
 grace than a defect in a certain light and 
 gentle undulation of the person when he 
 entered a room, and of which you hardly felt 
 tempted to inquire the cause. Indeed it was 
 hardly perceptible, the clothes he wore were 
 so long. ... His face appeared tranquil 
 like the ocean on a fine spring morning, but, 
 like it, in an instant became changed into 
 the tempestuous and terrible, if a passion 
 (a passion did I say ?), a thought, a word 
 occurred to disturb his mind. His eyes then 
 lost all their sweetness, and sparkled so that 
 it became difficult to look on them." 1819. 
 
THOMAS CAMPBELL 51 
 
 THOMAS CAMPBELL 
 
 1777-1844 
 
 " THEY who knew Mr. Campbell only as 
 the author of Gertrude of Wyoming, and the 
 Pleasures of Hope, would not have Le i g h Hunt's 
 suspected him to be a merry com- ******"**r 
 panion, overflowing with humour and anec- 
 dote, and anything but fastidious. . . . 
 When I first saw this eminent person, he 
 gave me the idea of a French Virgil. Not 
 that he was like a Frenchman, much less the 
 French translator of Virgil. I found him 
 as handsome as the Abbe Delille is said to 
 have been ugly. But he seemed to me to 
 embody a Frenchman's ideal notion of the 
 Latin poet ; something a little more cut and 
 dry than I had looked for ; compact and 
 elegant, critical and acute, with a conscious- 
 ness of authorship upon him ; a taste over- 
 
52 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 anxious not to commit itself, and refining 
 and diminishing nature as in a drawing-room 
 mirror. This fancy was strengthened, in the 
 course of conversation, by his expatiating on 
 the greatness of Racine. I think he had a 
 volume of the French poet in his hand. His 
 skull was sharply cut and fine ; with plenty, 
 according to the phrenologists, both of the 
 reflective and amative organs ; and his poetry 
 will bear them out. For a lettered solitude, 
 and a bridal properly got up, both according 
 to law and luxury, commend us to the lovely 
 Gertrude of Wyoming. His face and person 
 were rather on a small scale ; his features 
 regular ; his eye lively and penetrating ; and 
 when he spoke, dimples played about his 
 mouth, which, nevertheless, had something 
 restrained and close in it. Some gentle 
 puritan seemed to have crossed the breed, 
 and to have left a stamp on his face, such as 
 we often see in the female Scotch face rather 
 than in the male. But he appeared not at 
 all grateful for this ; and when his critiques 
 
THOMAS CAMPBELL 53 
 
 and his Virgilianism were over, very unlike a 
 puritan he talked! He seemed to spite his 
 restrictions, and, out of the natural largeness 
 of his sympathy with things high and low, to 
 break at once out of Delille's Virgil into 
 Cotton's, like a boy let loose from school. 
 When I had the pleasure of hearing him 
 afterwards, I forgot his Virgilianisms, and 
 thought only of the delightful companion, the 
 unaffected philanthropist, and the creator of 
 a beauty worth all the heroines in Racine." 
 About 1809. 
 
 " The person of this exquisite writer and 
 delightful man is small, delicately formed, 
 and neatly put together, without Patmore > s <^ A 
 being little or insignificant. His f rom Real Li f e - 
 face has all the harmonious arrangement of 
 features which marks his gentle and refined 
 mind ; it is oval, perfectly regular in its details, 
 and lighted up not merely by ' eyes of youth,' 
 but by a bland smile of intellectual serenity 
 that seems to pervade and penetrate all the 
 features, and impart to them all a correspond- 
 
54 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 ing expression, such as the moonlight lends 
 to a summer landscape ; the moonlight, not 
 the sunshine ; for there is a mild and tender 
 pathos blended with that expression, which 
 bespeaks a soul that has been steeped in the 
 depths of human woe, but has turned their 
 waters (as only poets can) into fountains of 
 beauty and of bliss." 
 
 "He was generally careful as to dress, 
 
 and had none of Dr. Johnson's indifference 
 
 to fine linen. His wigs were 
 
 Beattie's Life 
 
 and Letters of always nicely adjusted, and 
 
 Thomas Campbell. . 
 
 scarcely distinguishable from 
 natural hair. His appearance was interesting 
 and handsome. Though rather below the 
 middle size, he did not seem little ; and his 
 large dark eye and countenance bespoke great 
 sensibility and acuteness. His thin quiver- 
 ing lip and delicate nostril were highly ex- 
 pressive. When he spoke, as Leigh Hunt 
 has remarked, dimples played about his 
 mouth, which, nevertheless, had something 
 restrained and close in it. ... In personal 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE 55 
 
 neatness and fastidiousness no less than 
 in genius and taste Campbell in his best days 
 resembled Gray. Each was distinguished by 
 the same careful finish in composition the 
 same classical predilections and lyrical fire, 
 rarely but strikingly displayed. In ordinary 
 life they were both somewhat finical yet 
 with greater freedom and idiomatic plainness 
 in their unreserved communications Gray's 
 being evinced in his letters, and Campbell's 
 in conversation." 
 
 THOMAS CARLYLE 
 
 1795-1881 
 
 " CARLYLE soon appeared, and looked as if 
 he felt a well-dressed London crowd scarcely 
 the arena for him to figure in as 
 
 Caroline Fox's 
 
 a popular lecturer. He is a tall, journals and 
 
 .... , . Letters. 
 
 robust-looking man ; rugged sim- 
 plicity and indomitable strength are in his 
 
56 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 face, and such a glow of genius in it, not 
 always smouldering there, but flashing from 
 his beautiful gray eyes, from the remoteness 
 of their deep setting under that massive 
 brow. His manner is very quiet, but he 
 speaks like one tremendously convinced of 
 what he utters. ... He began in a rather 
 low nervous voice, with a broad Scotch 
 accent, but it soon grew firm, and shrank not 
 abashed from its great task." 1840. 
 
 "He was then fifty -four years old ; tall 
 (about five feet eleven), thin, but at the same 
 
 Froude's t ^ me u P r ig nt > w ^ tn no signs of the later 
 Cariyie. s t O op. His body was angular, his face 
 beardless, such as it is represented in Wool- 
 ner's medallion, which is by far the best 
 likeness of him in the days of his strength. 
 His head was extremely long, with the chin 
 thrust forward ; the neck was thin ; the mouth 
 firmly closed, the under lip slightly projecting ; 
 the hair grizzled and thick and bushy. His 
 eyes, which grew lighter with age, were then 
 of a deep violet, with fire burning at the 
 
THOMAS CARLYLE 57 
 
 bottom of them, which flashed out at the 
 least excitement. The face was altogether 
 most striking, most impressive in every way. 
 And I did not admire him the less because 
 he treated me I cannot say unkindly, but 
 shortly and sternly. I saw then what I saw 
 ever after that no one need look for con- 
 ventional politeness from Carlyle he would 
 hear the exact truth from him and nothing 
 else." 1849. 
 
 " The maid went forward and said some- 
 thing to Carlyle and left the room. He was 
 sitting before a fire in an arm-chair, \y y ii e > s 
 propped up with pillows, with his feet Carl y u - 
 on a stool, and looked much older than I 
 had expected. The lower part of his face 
 was covered with a rather shaggy beard, 
 almost quite white. His eyes were bright 
 blue, but looked filmy from age. He had on 
 a sort of coloured night -cap, a long gown 
 reaching to his ankles, and slippers on his 
 feet. A rest attached to the arm of his chair 
 supported a book before him. I could not 
 
58 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 quite see the name, but I think it was 
 Channing's works. Leaning against the 
 fireplace was a long clay pipe, and there was 
 a slight smell of tobacco in the room. . . . 
 His hands were very thin and wasted, he 
 showed us how they shook and trembled 
 unless he rested them on something, and said 
 they were failing him from weakness. . . . 
 He seemed such a venerable old man, and 
 so worn and old looking, that I was very much 
 affected. Our visit was on Tuesday, i8th 
 May 1880, at about 2 P.M." 
 
 THOMAS CHATTERTON 
 
 1752-1770 
 
 " IT is to be feared that no authentic portrait 
 of Chatterton exists ; and even the accounts 
 Wilson's furnished as to his appearance, only 
 
 Chatterton. . ,, . , . ... . , 
 
 partially aid us in realising an idea 
 of the manly, handsome boy, with his flash- 
 
THOMAS CHATTERTON 59 
 
 ing, hawklike eye, through which even the 
 Bristol pewterer thought he could see his 
 soul. His forehead one fancies must have 
 been high ; though hidden, perhaps, as in 
 the supposed Gainsborough portrait, with 
 long flowing hair. His mouth, like that of 
 his father, was large. But the brilliancy of 
 his eyes seems to have diverted attention 
 from every other feature ; and they have 
 been repeatedly noted for the way in which 
 they appeared to kindle in sympathy with his 
 earnest utterances. Mr. Edward Gardner, 
 who only knew him during his last three 
 months in Bristol, specially recalled 'the 
 philosophic gravity of his countenance, and 
 the keen lightening of his eye.' Mr. Capel, 
 on the contrary, resided as an apprentice in 
 the same house where Lambert's office was, 
 and saw Chatterton daily. His advances had 
 been repelled at times with the flashing 
 glances of the poet ; and the terms in which 
 he speaks of his pride and visible contempt 
 for others show there was little friendship 
 
60 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 between them. But he also remarks : ' Upon 
 his being irritated or otherwise greatly 
 affected, there was a light in his eyes which 
 seemed very remarkable.' He had frequently 
 heard this referred to by others ; and Mr. 
 George Catcott speaks of it as one who had 
 often quailed before such glances, or been 
 spell-bound, like Coleridge's wedding guest 
 by the ' glittering eye ' of the Ancient Mariner. 
 He said he could never look at it long enough 
 to see what sort of an eye it was ; but it 
 seemed to be a kind of hawk's eye. You 
 could see his soul through it." 
 
 " The person of Chatterton, like his genius, 
 was premature ; he had a manliness and 
 Gregory's Life dignity beyond his years, and 
 
 of Chatterton. . . 
 
 there was a something about him 
 uncommonly prepossessing. His more re- 
 markable feature was his eyes which, though 
 gray, were uncommonly piercing ; when he 
 was warmed in argument or otherwise, they 
 sparked with fire, and one eye, it is said, was 
 still more remarkable than the other." 
 
GEOFFREY CHAUCER 61 
 
 GEOFFREY CHAUCER 
 
 ABOUT 13401400 
 
 " THE affection of Occleve " (his contemporary 
 and dear friend} ''has made Chaucer's person 
 better known than that of any Nicholas's 
 
 . j. .j , ri . T-I Life of Chaucer. 
 
 individual of his age. 1 he portrait * 
 of which an engraving illustrates this memoir, 
 is taken from Occleve's painting already 
 mentioned in the Harleian MS. 4866, which 
 he says was painted from memory after 
 Chaucer's decease, and which is apparently 
 the only genuine portrait in existence. The 
 figure, which is half-length, has a background 
 of green tapestry. He is represented with 
 gray hair and beard, which is bi-forked ; he 
 wears a dark -coloured dress and hood, his 
 right hand is extended, and in his left he 
 holds a string of beads. From his vest a 
 black case is suspended, which appears to 
 
62 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 contain a knife, or possibly a ' penner ' l or 
 pencase. The expression of the countenance 
 is intelligent, but the fire of the eye seems 
 quenched, and evident marks of advanced 
 age appear on the countenance. This is 
 incomparably the best portrait of Chaucer 
 yet discovered." 
 
 " There is a third portrait in a copy of the 
 
 Canterbury Tales made about the reign of 
 
 Nicholas's King Henry the Fifth, being 
 
 Life of Chaucer. . . . r . 
 
 * within twenty years of the poet s 
 
 death, in the Lansdowne MS. 851. The 
 figure, which is a small full-length, is placed in 
 the initial letter of the volume. He is dressed 
 in a long gray gown, with red stockings, and 
 black shoes fastened with black sandals round 
 the ankles. His head is bare, and the hair 
 closely cut. In his right hand he holds an 
 open book ; and a knife or pencase, as in the 
 other portraits, is attached to his vest." 
 
 i Prively a penner gan he borwe, 
 
 And in a lettre wrote he all his sorwe ! " 
 
 Mar chant's Tale, 1. 9753. 
 
PHILIP, LORD CHESTERFIELD 63 
 
 Tradition asserts that Chaucer merged his 
 own personality in that of the Poet in his 
 Canterbury Tales. 
 
 "... Our Hoste to japen he began, 
 And than at erst he loked upon me, 
 And saide thus; 'What man art thou ?> p ro i ogue to 
 
 quod he ; The Rime of 
 
 ' Thou lokest, as thou woldest finde an Sire Thopas. 
 
 hare, 
 For ever upon the ground I see thee stare. 
 
 * Approche nere, and loke up merily. 
 Now ware you, sires, and let this man have place. 
 He in the waste is shapen as wel as I : 
 This were a popet, 1 in an arme to enbrace 
 For any woman, smal and faire of face. 
 He semeth elvish 2 by his contenance, 
 For unto no wight doth he daliance.' " 
 
 PHILIP, LORD CHESTERFIELD 
 
 1694-1773 
 
 " PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE, Earl of Chester- 
 field, was a slight-made man, of the middle 
 
 1 A puppet. 2 Shy, reserved. 
 
64 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 size ; rather genteel than handsome either 
 in face or person : but there was a certain 
 Lif e and Letters suavity in his countenance, 
 of Lord chesterfield. w hich, accompanied with a 
 polite address and pleasing elocution, obtained 
 him in a wonderful degree the admiration of 
 both sexes, and made his suit irresistible 
 with either. He was naturally possessed 
 of a fine sensibility; but by a habit of 
 mastering his passions and disguising his 
 feelings, he at length arrived at the appear- 
 ance of the most perfect Stoicism : nothing 
 surprised, alarmed, or discomposed him." 
 
 "The name of Chesterfield has become a 
 
 synonym for good breeding and politeness. 
 
 Hayward's It is associated in our minds 
 
 Lord Chesterfield. n r 1 
 
 * ' with all that is graceful in man- 
 ner and cold in heart, attractive in appear- 
 ance and unamiable in reality. The image 
 it calls up is that of a man rather below the 
 middle height, in a court suit and blue 
 riband, with regular features wearing an 
 habitual expression of gentleman-like ease. 
 
PHILIP, LORD CHESTERFIELD 65 
 
 His address is insinuating, his bow perfect, 
 his compliments rival those of Le Grand 
 Monarque in delicacy ; laughter is too demon- 
 strative for him, but the smile of courtesy 
 is ever on his lips ; and by the time he has 
 gone through the circle, the great object of 
 his daily ambition is accomplished all the 
 women are already half in love with him, and 
 every man is desirous to be his friend." 
 
 "... Lord Hervey pauses in his story 
 of Queen Caroline and her Court to describe 
 with cutting and bitter force the B iackwood>s 
 character and appearance of his Ma s axine l868 - 
 rival courtier. . . . 'His person was as dis- 
 agreeable as it was possible for a human 
 figure to be without being deformed/ he says. 
 ' He was very short, disproportioned, thick 
 and clumsily made, with black teeth, and a 
 head big enough for a Polyphemus. One 
 Ben Ashurst, who said few good things 
 though admired for many, told Lord Chester- 
 field once that he was like a stunted giant, 
 which was a humorous idea, and really 
 
 5 
 
66 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 apposite.' . . . The defects of his personal 
 appearance are evidently exaggerated in 
 this truculent sketch ; but his portrait by 
 Gainsborough, which is said to be the best, 
 affords some foundation for the picture. The 
 face is heavy, rugged, and unlovely, though 
 full of force and intelligence ; and his un- 
 heroic form and stature are points which 
 Chesterfield himself does not attempt to 
 conceal." 
 
 WILLIAM COBBETT 
 
 1762-1835 
 
 " HAD I met him anywhere else save in the 
 
 room and on that occasion, I should have 
 
 taken him for a gentleman 
 
 Bamford's 
 
 Passages in the farming his own broad estate. He 
 
 Life of a Radical. 
 
 seemed to have that kind of self- 
 possession and ease about him, together 
 with a certain bantering jollity, which are 
 
WILLIAM COBBETT 67 
 
 so natural to fast-handed and well-housed 
 lords of the soil. He was, I should suppose, 
 not less than six feet in height, portly, with a 
 fresh, clear, and round cheek, and a small 
 gray eye, twinkling with good - humoured 
 archness. He was dressed in a blue coat, 
 yellow swan's-down waistcoat, drab kersey- 
 mere small-clothes, and top-boots. His hair 
 was gray, and his cravat and linen fine, and 
 very white." 1818. 
 
 " Mr. Cobbett speaks almost as well as he 
 writes. The only time I ever saw him he 
 seemed to me a very pleasant man, Haziitt's 
 easy of access, affable, clear-headed, Tabk Talk ' 
 simple and mild in his manner, deliberate 
 and unruffled in his speech, though some of 
 his expressions were not very qualified. His 
 figure is tall and portly. He has a good, 
 sensible face, rather full, with little gray eyes, 
 a hard square forehead, a ruddy complexion, 
 with hair gray or powdered ; and had on a 
 scarlet broadcloth waistcoat with the flaps of 
 the pockets hanging down, as was the custom 
 
68 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 for gentleman farmers in the last century, or 
 as we see it in pictures of members of parlia- 
 ment in the reign of George I. I certainly 
 did not think less favourably of him for seeing 
 him." 
 
 " In stature the late Mr. Cobbett was tall 
 
 and athletic. I should think he could not 
 
 have been less than six feet two, 
 
 Watson's 
 
 Biographies of while his breadth was propor- 
 
 Wilkes and Cobbett. . 
 
 tionately great. He was in- 
 deed one of the stoutest men in the House. . . . 
 His hair was of a milk-white colour, and 
 his complexion ruddy. His features were 
 not strongly marked. What struck you 
 most about his face was his small, sparkling, 
 laughing eyes. When disposed to be 
 humorous yourself, you had only to look at 
 his eyes, and you were sure to sympathise 
 with his merriment. When not speaking, 
 the expression of his eye and his counten- 
 ance was very different. He was one of the 
 most striking refutations of the principles of 
 Lavater I ever witnessed. Never were the 
 
WILLIAM COBBETT 69 
 
 looks of any man more completely at 
 variance with his character. There was 
 something so heavy and dull about his whole 
 appearance, that any one who did not know 
 him would at once set him down for some 
 country clodpole, to use a favourite expression 
 of his own, who not only had never read a 
 book, or had a single idea in his head, but 
 who was a mere mass of mortality, without 
 a particle of sensibility of any kind in his 
 composition. He usually sat with one leg 
 over the other, his head slightly drooping, as 
 if sleeping, on his breast, and his hat down 
 almost to his eyes. His usual dress was a 
 light-gray coat of a full make, a white waist- 
 coat, and kerseymere breeches of a sandy 
 colour. When he walked about the House, 
 he generally had his hands inserted in his 
 breeches' pocket. Considering his advanced 
 age, seventy-three, he looked remarkably hale 
 and healthy, and walked with a firm but slow 
 step." 1835. 
 
70 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 HARTLEY COLERIDGE 
 
 1796-1849 
 
 " I FIRST saw Hartley in the beginning, I 
 think, of 1837, when I was at Sedbergh, and 
 he heard us our lesson in Mr. Derwent 
 Green's parlour. My impres- * 
 sion of him was what I con- Hartle y Colerid ge. 
 ceived Shakespeare's idea of a gentleman to 
 be, something which we like to have in a pic- 
 ture. He was dressed in black, his hair, 
 just touched with gray, fell in thick waves 
 down his back, and he had a frilled shirt on ; 
 and there was a sort of autumnal ripeness 
 and brightness about him. His shrill voice, 
 and his quick, authoritative ' Right ! right ! ' 
 and the chuckle with which he translated 
 ' rerum repetundarum ' as ( peculation, a very 
 common vice in governors of all ages,' 
 
HARTLEY COLERIDGE 
 
 after which he took a turn round the sofa 
 all struck me amazingly." 1837. 
 
 " His manners and appearance were 
 peculiar. Though not dwarfish either in form 
 or expression, his stature was Derwent 
 remarkably low, scarcely ex- 
 ceeding five feet, and he early Hartle y 
 acquired the gait and general appearance 
 of advanced age. His once dark, lustrous 
 hair, was prematurely silvered, and became 
 latterly quite white. His eyes, dark, soft, 
 and brilliant, were remarkably responsive to 
 the movements of his mind, flashing with a 
 light from within. His complexion, origin- 
 ally clear and sanguine, looked weather- 
 beaten, and the contour of his face was 
 rendered less pleasing by the breadth of his 
 nose. His head was very small, the ear 
 delicately formed, and the forehead, which 
 receded slightly, very wide and expansive. 
 His hands and feet were also small and 
 delicate. His countenance when in repose, 
 or rather in stillness, was stern and thought- 
 
72 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 ful in the extreme, indicating deep and 
 passionate meditation, so much so as to be at 
 times almost startling. His low bow on 
 entering a room, in which there were ladies 
 or strangers, gave a formality to his address, 
 which wore at first the appearance of con- 
 straint ; but when he began to talk these 
 impressions were presently changed, he 
 threw off the seeming weight of years, his 
 countenance became genial, and his manner 
 free and gracious." 1843. 
 
 " His head was large and expressive, with 
 
 dark eyes and white waving locks, and resting 
 
 upon broad shoulders, with the 
 
 Littell's 
 
 Living Age, smallest possible apology for a neck. 
 To a sturdy and ample frame were 
 appended legs and arms of a most dispro- 
 portioned shortness, and, ' in his whole aspect 
 there was something indescribably elfish and 
 grotesque, such as limners do not love to 
 paint, nor ladies to look upon.' He re- 
 minded you of a spy-glass shut up, and you 
 wanted to take hold of him and pull him out 
 
HARTLEY COLERIDGE 73 
 
 into a man of goodly proportions and average 
 stature. It was difficult to repress a smile 
 at his appearance as he approached, for the 
 elements were so quaintly combined in him 
 that he seemed like one of Cowley's conceits 
 translated into flesh and blood. ... His 
 manners were like those of men accustomed 
 to live much alone, simple, frank, and direct, 
 but not in all respects governed by the rules 
 of conventional politeness. It was difficult 
 for him to sit still. He was constantly 
 leaving his chair, walking about the room, 
 and then sitting down again, as if he were 
 haunted by an incurable restlessness. His 
 conversation was very interesting, and marked 
 by a vein of quiet humour not found in his 
 writings. He spoke with much deliberation, 
 and in regularly -constructed periods, which 
 might have been printed without any altera- 
 tion. There w r as a peculiarity in his voice 
 not easily described. He would begin 
 a sentence in a sort of subdued tone, 
 hardly above a whisper, and end it in 
 
74 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 something between a bark and a growl." 
 1848. 
 
 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 
 
 1772-1834 
 
 " I HAD received directions for finding out 
 
 the house where Coleridge was visiting ; and 
 
 in riding down a main street of 
 
 de Quincey's 
 
 Life and Bridgewater, I noticed a gateway 
 
 Writings. ' . . 
 
 corresponding to the description 
 given me. Under this was standing and gaz- 
 ing about him, a man whom I shall describe ! 
 In height he might seem to be about five feet 
 eight (he was in reality about an inch and a 
 half taller, but his figure was of an order which 
 drowns the height ) ; his person was broad 
 and full, and tended even to corpulence ; his 
 complexion was fair, though not what painters 
 technically style fair, because it was asso- 
 ciated with black hair ; his eyes were large 
 
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 75 
 
 and soft in their expression, and it was from 
 the peculiar haze or dreaminess which mixed 
 with their light that I recognised my object. 
 This was Coleridge." 1807. 
 
 " Coleridge had a weighty head, dreaming 
 gray eyes, full, sensual lips, and a look and 
 
 manner which were entirely want- 
 Bryan Procter's 
 
 ing in firmness and decision. His Recollections of 
 
 Men of Letters. 
 
 motions also appeared weak and 
 undecided, and his voice had nothing of the 
 sharpness or ring of a resolute man. 
 When he spoke his words were thick 
 and slow, and when he read poetry his utter- 
 ance was altogether a chant." About 1820. 
 
 11 1 have seen many curiosities; not the 
 least of them I reckon Coleridge, the Kantian 
 metaphysician and quondam Lake Froude'sZ*/* 
 Poet. I will tell you all about our f Carl y k - 
 interview when we meet. Figure a fat, 
 flabby, incurvated personage, at once short, 
 rotund, and relaxed, with a watery mouth, 
 a snuffy nose, a pair of strange brown, timid, 
 yet earnest-looking eyes, a high tapering 
 
76 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 brow, and a great bush of gray hair, and you 
 have some faint idea of Coleridge. He is a 
 kind, good soul, full of religion and affection 
 and poetry and animal magnetism. His 
 cardinal sin is that he wants will. He has 
 no resolution. He shrinks from pain or 
 labour in any of its shapes. His very atti- 
 tude bespeaks this. He never straightens 
 his knee-joints. He stoops with his fat, 
 ill-shapen 'shoulders, and in walking he does 
 not tread, but shovel and slide. My father 
 would call it * skluiffing.' He is also always 
 busied to keep, by strong and frequent in- 
 halations, the water of his mouth from over- 
 flowing, and his eyes have a look of anxious 
 impotence. He would do with all his heart, 
 but he knows he dares not. The conversa- 
 tion of the man is much as I anticipated 
 a forest of thoughts, some true, many false, 
 more part dubious, all of them ingenious in 
 some degree, often in a high degree. But 
 there is no method in his talk ; he wanders 
 like a man sailing among many currents, 
 
WILLIAM COLLINS 77 
 
 whithersoever his lazy mind directs him ; and, 
 what is more unpleasant, he preaches, or 
 rather soliloquises. He cannot speak, he can 
 only tal-k (so he names it). Hence I found him 
 unprofitable, even tedious ; but we parted very 
 good friends, I promising to go back and see 
 him some evening a promise which . I fully 
 intend to keep. I sent him a copy of 
 Meister, about which we had some friendly 
 talk. I reckon him a man of great and 
 useless genius : a strange, not at all a great 
 man." 1824. 
 
 WILLIAM COLLINS 
 
 1720-1756 
 
 " COLLINS I was intimately acquainted with 
 from the time that he came to reside at Oxford. 
 In London I met him often. . . . Gentleman , s 
 He was of moderate stature, of Ma azine > l ^ 1 - 
 a light and clear complexion, with gray 
 
78 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 eyes so very weak at times as hardly to 
 bear a candle in the room, and often raising 
 within him apprehensions of blindness. He 
 was passionately fond of music, good-natured 
 and affable, warm in his friendships and 
 visionary in his pursuits, and, as long as I knew 
 him, temperate in his eating and drinking." 
 
 " About this time I fell into his company. 
 
 His appearance was decent and manly ; his 
 
 knowledge considerable, his views 
 
 Johnson's 
 
 Life of extensive, his conversation elegant, 
 and his disposition cheerful." 
 1744. 
 
 " Mr. Collins was, in stature, somewhat 
 above the middle size ; of a brown com- 
 plexion, keen expressive eyes, and 
 
 J. Langhorne's J 
 
 Memoirs of a fixed sedate aspect, which, from 
 
 William Collins. , 
 
 intense thinking, had contracted 
 an habitual frown. His proficiency in letters 
 was greater than could have been ex- 
 pected from his years. He was skilled in 
 the learned languages, and acquainted with 
 the Italian, French, and Spanish." 
 
WILLIAM COWPER 79 
 
 WILLIAM COWPER 
 
 17311800 
 
 " As for me, I am a very smart youth of my 
 years. I am not indeed grown gray so much 
 as I am grown bald. No matter. C ow P er' s 
 There was more hair in the world Letters. 
 than ever had the honour to belong to me. 
 Accordingly, having found just enough to 
 curl a little at my ears, and to intermingle 
 with a little of my own that still hangs be- 
 hind, I appear, if you see me in an afternoon, 
 to have a very decent head-dress, not easily 
 distinguished from my natural growth ; which 
 being worn with a small bag, and a black 
 ribbon about my neck, continues to me the 
 charms of my youth, even on the verge of 
 age. Away with the fear of writing too 
 
 often. 
 
 "Yours, my dearest cousin, 
 
 "W. C. 
 
8o WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 " P.S. That the view I give you of my- 
 self may be complete, I add the two following 
 items, that I am in debt to nobody, and 
 that I grow fat." 1785. 
 
 " Cowper was of a middle height, with 
 H. F. Gary's limbs strongly framed, hair of 
 
 Notice of Cowper. j ight brQWIlj eyes Q f a bluish 
 
 gray, and ruddy complexion." 
 
 "The eager, sudden -looking, large -eyed, 
 shaven face of Cowper is familiar to us in his 
 Rossetti's Memoir portraits 3. face sharp-cut and 
 
 of Cowper. 111 i 
 
 * sumciently well -moulded, with- 
 
 out being handsome, nor particularly sym- 
 pathetic. It is a high-strung, excitable face, 
 as of a man too susceptible and touchy to 
 put himself forward willingly among his 
 fellows, but who, feeling a * vocation ' upon 
 him, would be more than merely earnest, 
 self -asserting, aggressive, and unyielding. 
 This is in fact very much the character of his 
 writings." 
 
GEORGE CRAB BE 81 
 
 GEORGE CRABBE 
 
 1754-1832 
 
 "IN the eye of memory I can still see him as 
 he was at that period of his life, his fatherly 
 countenance unmixed with any Life of Crabbe, 
 of the less lovable expressions b y hisson - 
 that in too many faces obscure that character ; 
 but pre-eminently fatherly, conveying the 
 ideas of kindness, intellect, and purity ; his 
 manner grave, manly, and cheerful, in unison 
 with his high and open forehead ; his very 
 attitudes, whether as he sat absorbed in the 
 arrangement of his minerals, shells, and 
 insects ; or as he laboured in his garden until 
 his naturally pale complexion acquired a tinge 
 of fresh healthy red ; or as, coming lightly 
 towards us with some unexpected present, his 
 smile of indescribable benevolence spoke exult- 
 ation in the foretaste of our raptures." 1789. 
 
 6 
 
82 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 11 . . . Mr. Lockhart . . . recently 
 favoured me with the following letter. . . . 
 Life of Crabbe, ' His noble forehead, his bright 
 by his son. beaming eye, without anything of 
 old age about it though he was then, I 
 presume, above seventy ; his sweet, and, I 
 would say, innocent smile, and the calm 
 mellow tones of his voice, are all reproduced 
 the moment I open any page of his poetry.' ' 
 1822. 
 
 " In the appearance of Crabbe there was 
 
 little of the poet, but even less of the stern 
 
 critic of mankind, who looked at 
 
 S. C. Hall's 
 
 Memories of nature askance, and ever contem- 
 
 Great Men. . . 
 
 plated beauty animate or inani- 
 mate, 
 
 " ' The simple loves and simple joys, 3 
 
 * through a glass darkly.' On the contrary, 
 he seemed to my eyes the representative of 
 the class of rarely troubled, and seldom think- 
 ing, English farmers. A clear gray eye, a 
 ruddy complexion, as if he loved exercise 
 
DANIEL DE FOE 83 
 
 and wooed mountain breezes, were the leading 
 characteristics of his countenance. It is a 
 picture of age, 'frosty but kindly,' that of 
 a tall and stalwart man gradually grown old, 
 to whom age was rather an ornament than 
 a blemish. He was one of those instances 
 of men, plain perhaps in youth, and homely 
 of countenance in manhood, who become 
 absolutely handsome when white hairs have 
 become a crown of glory, and indulgence in 
 excesses or perilous passions has left no lines 
 that speak of remorse, or even of errors 
 unatoned." 1825-26. 
 
 DANIEL DE FOE 
 
 16611731 
 
 "WHEREAS, Daniel De Foe, alias De Fooe, 
 is charged with writing a scandalous and 
 seditious pamphlet entitled The Shortest 
 Way with the Dissenters. He is a middle- 
 
84 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 sized spare man, about forty years old, of 
 a brown complexion, and dark 
 
 Secretary 
 
 of state's brown -colored hair, but wears a 
 
 Proclamation. 
 
 wig ; a hooked nose, a sharp chin, 
 gray eyes, and a large mole near his mouth." 
 1703. 
 
 " A likeness of the author, engraved by 
 M. Vandergucht, from a painting by Taverner, 
 Wilson's is prefixed." (To a volume of treatises 
 ** ( published in 1703.) "It is the first 
 portrait of De Foe, and probably the most 
 like him. The following description of it by 
 a recent biographer is strikingly characteristic : 
 1 No portrait can have more verisimilitude, to 
 say the least of it. It exhibits a set of features 
 rather regular than otherwise, very determined 
 in its outlines, more particularly the mouth, 
 which expresses great firmness and resolution 
 of character. The eyes are full, black, and 
 grave - looking, but the impression of the 
 whole countenance is rather a striking than a 
 pleasing one. Daniel is here set forth in a 
 most lordly and full-bottomed wig, which 
 
DANIEL DE FOE 85 
 
 flows down lower than his elbow, and rises 
 above his forehead with great amplitude of 
 curl. A richly-laced cravat, and fine loose- 
 flowing cloak completes his attire, and pre- 
 serve, we may suppose, the likeness of that 
 civic " gallantry " which Oldmixon ascribes 
 to Daniel on the occasion of his escorting 
 King William to the Lord Mayor's feast. It 
 is altogether more like a picture of a sub- 
 stantial citizen of the " surly breed " De Foe 
 has himself so often satirised, than that of a 
 poor pamphleteer languishing in jail after the 
 terrors of the pillory/ " 
 
 " It is, to us, very pleasing to contemplate 
 the meeting of such a sovereign and such a 
 subject, as William and De Foe. John Forster , s 
 There was something: not dissimilar Bi s ra P hical 
 
 Essays. 
 
 in their physical aspect, as in their 
 moral temperament resemblances undoubtedly 
 existed. The King was the elder by ten 
 years, but the middle size, the spare figure, 
 the hooked nose, the sharp chin, the keen 
 gray eye, the large forehead, and grave ap- 
 
86 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 pearance, were common to both. William's 
 manner was cold, except in battle, and little 
 warmth was ascribed to De Foe's, unless he 
 spoke of civil liberty." 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS 
 
 18121870 
 
 "VERY different was his face in those days 
 
 from that which photography has made 
 
 Forster ' s Life familiar to the present generation. 
 
 of Dickens. A look of yout hf u lness first 
 
 attracted you, and then a candour and open- 
 ness of expression which made you sure of the 
 qualities within. The features were very 
 good. He had a capital forehead, a firm 
 nose with full wide nostrils, eyes wonderfully 
 beaming with intellect and running over with 
 humour and cheerfulness, and a rather 
 prominent mouth strongly marked with 
 sensibility. The head was altogether well 
 
CHARLES DICKENS 87 
 
 formed and symmetrical, and the air and 
 carriage of it was extremely spirited. The 
 hair so scant and grizzled in later days was 
 then of a rich brown and most luxuriant 
 abundance, and the bearded face of his last 
 two decades had hardly a vestige of hair or 
 whisker ; but there was that in the face as I 
 first recollect it which no time could change, 
 and which remained implanted on it un- 
 alterably to the last. This was the quickness, 
 keenness, and practical power, the eager, 
 restless, energetic outlook on each several 
 eature, that seemed to tell so little of a 
 student or writer of books, and so much of 
 a man of action and business in the world. 
 Light and motion flashed from every part of 
 it. // was as if made of steel, was said of it, 
 four or five years after the time to which I 
 am referring, by a most original and delicate 
 observer, the late Mrs. Carlyle. 'What a 
 face is his to meet in a drawing - room ! ' 
 wrote Leigh Hunt to me, the morning after 
 I had made them known to each other. ' It 
 
88 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 has the life and soul in it of fifty human 
 beings.' In such sayings are expressed not 
 alone the restless and resistless vivacity and 
 force of which I have spoken, but that also 
 which lay beneath them of steadiness and 
 hard endurance." 1838. 
 
 " How well I recall the bleak winter 
 evening in 1842 when I first saw the hand- 
 some, glowing face of the young 
 Yesterdays with man who was even then famous 
 over half the globe ! He came 
 bounding into the Tremont House, fresh from 
 the steamer that had brought him to our 
 shores, and his cheery voice rang through 
 the hall, as he gave a quick glance at the 
 new scenes opening upon him in a strange 
 land on first arriving at a Transatlantic hotel. 
 ' Here we are !' he shouted, as the lights 
 burst upon the merry party just entering the 
 house, and several gentlemen came forward 
 to meet him. Ah, how happy and buoyant 
 he was then ! Young, handsome, almost 
 worshipped for his genius, belted round by 
 
CHARLES DICKENS 89 
 
 such troops of friends as rarely ever man had, 
 coming to a new country to make new con- 
 quests of fame and honor, surely it was a 
 sight long to be remembered and never wholly 
 to be forgotten. The splendour of his endow- 
 ments and the personal interest he had won to 
 himself called forth all the enthusiasm of old 
 and young America, and I am glad to have 
 been among the first to welcome his arrival. 
 You ask me what was his appearance as he 
 ran, or rather flew, up the steps of the hotel, 
 and sprang into the hall ? He seemed all on 
 fire with curiosity, and alive as I never saw 
 mortal before. From top to toe every fibre of 
 his body was unrestrained and alert. What 
 vigor, what keenness, what freshness of 
 spirit, possessed him ! He laughed all over, 
 and did not care who heard him ! He seemed 
 like the Emperor of Cheerfulness on a cruise 
 of pleasure, determined to conquer a realm 
 or two of fun every hour of his overflowing 
 existence. That night impressed itself on 
 my memory for all time, so far as I am 
 
90 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 concerned with things sublunary. It was 
 Dickens, the true * Boz,' in flesh and blood, 
 who stood before us at last, and with my com- 
 panions, three or four lads of my own age, I 
 determined to sit up late that night." 1842. 
 1 'Charles Dickens had that acute percep- 
 tion of the comic side of things which causes 
 TheCowden irrepressible brimming of the 
 eyes; and what eyes his were! 
 Large, dark blue, exquisitely 
 shaped, fringed with magnificently long and 
 thick lashes they now swam in liquid, limpid 
 suffusion, when tears started into them from a 
 sense of humour or a sense of pathos, and 
 now darted quick flashes of fire when some 
 generous indignation at injustice, or some 
 high-wrought feeling of admiration at mag- 
 nanimity, or some sudden emotion of interest 
 and excitement touched him. Swift-glancing, 
 appreciative, rapidly observant, truly superb 
 orbits they were, worthy of the other features 
 in his manly, handsome face. The mouth 
 was singularly mobile, full-lipped, well-shaped, 
 
ISA A C & ISRAELI 91 
 
 and expressive ; sensitive, nay restless, in its 
 susceptibility to impression that swayed him, 
 or sentiment that moved him. He, who saw 
 into apparently slightest trifles that were 
 fraught to his perception with deeper signifi- 
 cance ; he, who beheld human nature with 
 insight almost superhuman, and who revered 
 good and abhorred evil with intensity, showed 
 instantaneously by his expressive countenance 
 the kind of idea that possessed him. This 
 made his conversation enthralling, his acting 
 first-rate, and his reading superlative." 
 
 ISAAC D'ISRAELI 
 
 1766-1848 
 
 " I FOUND him a most kindly and courteous 
 gentleman, obviously of a tender, 
 
 3 S. C. Hall's 
 
 loving nature, and certainly more Retrospect of 
 
 . M1 . . a long Life. 
 
 than willing to give me what I 
 
 asked for. I do not recall him as like his 
 
92 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 illustrious son ; if my memory serves me 
 rightly, he was rather fair than dark ; not 
 above the middle height, with features calm in 
 expression ; his eyes (which, however, were 
 always covered with spectacles) sparkling, 
 and searching, but indicating less the fire of 
 genius than the patient inquiry that formed 
 the staple of his books." 1823. 
 
 " As the world has always been fond of 
 
 personal details respecting men who have 
 
 been celebrated, I will mention 
 
 Beaconsfield's 
 
 Memoirs of that he was fair, with a Bourbon 
 
 Isaac D' Israeli. 
 
 nose, and brown eyes of extra- 
 ordinary beauty and lustre. He wore a small 
 black velvet cap, but his white hair latterly 
 touched his shoulders in curls almost as 
 flowing as in his boyhood. His extremities 
 were delicate and well formed, and his leg, at 
 his last hour, as shapely as in his youth, which 
 showed the vigour of his frame. Latterly he 
 had become corpulent. He did not excel in 
 conversation, though in his domestic circle he 
 was garrulous. Everything interested him, 
 
IS A A C D 'ISRAELI 93 
 
 and blind and eighty -two, he was still as 
 susceptible as a child. ... He more re- 
 sembled Goldsmith than any man that I can 
 compare him to : in his conversation, his appar- 
 ent confusion of ideas ending with some feli- 
 citous phrase of genius, his naivete, his sim- 
 plicity not untouched with a dash of sarcasm 
 affecting innocence one was often reminded 
 of the gifted and interesting friend of Burke and 
 Johnson. There was, however, one trait in 
 which my father did not resemble Goldsmith ; 
 he had no vanity. Indeed, one of his few in- 
 firmities was rather a deficiency of self-esteem." 
 "Mr. D' Israeli was announced. . . . An 
 old gentleman, strictly in his appearance ; a 
 countenance which at first glance 
 
 Chorley's 
 
 (owing, perhaps, to the mouth, Personal 
 
 Reminiscences. 
 
 which hangs), I fancied slightly 
 chargeable with solidity of expression, but 
 which developed strong sense as it talked ; a 
 rather soignt style of dress for so old a man, 
 and a manner good-humoured, complimentary 
 (to Gebir), discursive and prosy, bespeaking 
 
94 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 that engrossment and interest in his own 
 pursuits which might be expected to be found 
 in a person so patient in research and collec- 
 tion. But there is a tone of pkilosophe (or I 
 fancied it), which I did not quite like." 1838. 
 
 JOHN DRYDEN 
 16311700 
 
 " OF the person, private life, and domestic 
 
 manners of Dryden, very few particulars are 
 
 known. His picture by Kneller 
 
 Anderson's 
 
 Poets of would lead us to suppose that he 
 
 Great Britain. 
 
 was graceful in his person ; but 
 Kneller was a great mender of nature. From 
 the State Poems we learn that he was a 
 short, thick man. The nickname given him 
 by his enemies was Poet Squab. ' I re- 
 member plain John Dryden' (says a writer 
 in the Gentleman's Magazine for February 
 1745, who was then eighty-seven years of 
 
JOHN DR YDEN 95 
 
 age) 'before he paid his court to the great, 
 in one uniform clothing of Norwich drugget. 
 I have eat tarts with him and Madam Reeve 
 (the actress) at the Mulberry Garden, when 
 our author advanced to a sword and Chedreux 
 wig (probably the wig that Swift has ridiculed 
 in The Battle of the Books). Posterity is 
 absolutely mistaken as to that great man. 
 Though forced to be a satirist, he was the 
 mildest creature breathing, and the readiest 
 to help the young and deserving. Though 
 his comedies are horribly full of double 
 entendre, yet 'twas owing to a false com- 
 pliance for a dissolute age ; he was in 
 company the modestest man that ever con- 
 versed.' . . . From those notices which he 
 has very liberally given us of himself, it 
 appears, that ' his conversation was slow and 
 dull, his humour saturnine and reserved, and 
 that he was none of those who endeavour to 
 break jests in company, and make repartees.' " 
 4 'As to his habits and manners little is 
 known, and that little is worn threadbare by 
 
96 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 his many biographers. In appearance he 
 became in his maturer years fat and florid, 
 and obtained the name of ' Poet Gimiian's 
 
 . Life of Dry den. 
 
 Squab. His portraits show a * 
 
 shrewd but rather sluggish face, with long 
 gray hair floating down his cheeks, not 
 unlike Coleridge, but without his dreamy eye 
 like a nebulous star. His conversation was 
 less sprightly than solid. Sometimes men 
 suspected that he had ( sold all his thoughts 
 to his booksellers.' His manners are by his 
 friends pronounced ' modest,' and the word 
 modest has since been amiably confounded 
 by his biographers with ' pure.' Bashful he 
 seems to have been to awkwardness ; but he 
 was by no means a model of the virtues. He 
 loved to sit at Will's coffee-house and be the 
 arbiter of criticism. His favourite stimulus 
 was snuff, and his favourite amusement 
 angling. He had a bad address, a down 
 look, and little of the air of a gentleman." 
 
 " Some notion of Dryden's personal 
 appearance may be gathered from contem- 
 
JOHN DR YD EN 9 7 
 
 porary notices. He was of short stature, stout, 
 and ruddy in the face. Rochester christened 
 him ' Poet Squab,' and Tom Brown Christie - s 
 always calls him 'Little Bayes.' Memoir of 
 
 Dryden. 
 
 Shadwell, in his Medal of John 
 Bayes, sneers at him as a cherry -cheeked 
 dunce ; another lampooner calls him ' learned 
 and florid.' Pope remembered him as plump 
 and of fresh colour, with a down look. Lady 
 de Longueville, who died in 1 763 at the age 
 of a hundred, told Oldys that she remembered 
 Dryden dining with her husband, and that 
 the most remarkable part of his appearance 
 was an uncommon distance between his eyes. 
 He had a large mole on his right cheek. 
 The friendly writer of some lines on his 
 portrait by Closterman says : 
 
 'A sleepy eye he shows, and no sweet feature.' 
 
 He appears to have become gray comparatively 
 early, and he let his gray hair grow long. We 
 see him with his long gray locks in the portrait 
 by which, through engravings, his face is best 
 known to us, painted by Kneller in 1698. 
 
 7 
 
98 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 The face, as we know it by that picture and 
 the engravings, is handsome, it indicates 
 intellect, and sensual characteristics are not 
 wanting." 
 
 MARY ANNE EVANS 
 (GEORGE ELIOT) 
 
 1819-1880 
 
 " IN more than one striking passage in his 
 
 novels Mr. Hardy has recognised the fact 
 
 that the beauty of the future, as the 
 
 Harper's 
 
 Magazine, race is more developed in intellect, 
 cannot be the mere physical beauty 
 of the past ; and in one of the most remark- 
 able he says that ' ideal physical beauty 
 is incompatible with mental development, 
 and a full recognition of the evil of things. 
 Mental luminousness must be fed with the 
 oil of life, even though there is already a 
 physical need for it.' And this was the case 
 with George Eliot. The face was one of a 
 
MAR Y ANNE E VANS 99 
 
 group of four, not all equally like each other, 
 but all of the same spiritual family, and with 
 a curious interdependance of likeness. These 
 four are Dante, Savonarola, Cardinal Newman, 
 and herself. ... In the group of which 
 George Eliot was one there is the same 
 straight wall of brow ; the droop of the 
 powerful nose ; mobile lips, touched with 
 strong passion, kept resolutely under control ; 
 a square jaw, which would make the face 
 stern, were it not counteracted by the sweet 
 smile of lip and eye. . . . The two or three 
 portraits that exist, though valuable, give but 
 a very imperfect presentiment. The mere 
 shape of the head would be the despair of any 
 painter. It was so grand and massive that 
 it would scarcely be possible to represent it 
 without giving the idea of disproportion to 
 the frame of which no one ever thought for a 
 moment when they saw her, although it was a 
 surprise, when she stood up, to see that after 
 all, she was but a little fragile woman who 
 bore this weight of brow and brain." 
 
ioo WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 " Everything in her aspect and presence 
 was in keeping with the bent of her soul. 
 The deeply - lined face, the too The Cen tury, 
 marked and massive features, were 
 united with an air of delicate refinement, 
 which in one way was the more impressive 
 because it seemed to proceed so entirely from 
 within. Nay, the inward beauty would some- 
 times quite transform the external harshness ; 
 there would be moments when the thin hands 
 that entwined themselves in their eagerness, 
 the earnest figure that bowed forward to 
 speak and hear, the deep gaze moving from 
 one face to another with a grave appeal, 
 all these seemed the transparent symbols that 
 showed the presence of a wise benignant soul. 
 But it was the voice which best revealed her, 
 a voice whose subdued intensity and tremu- 
 lous richness seemed to environ her uttered 
 words with the mystery of a work of feeling 
 that must remain untold. . . . And then 
 again, when in moments of more intimate 
 converse some current of emotion would set 
 
MAR Y ANNE E VANS 101 
 
 strongly through her soul, when she would 
 raise her head in unconscious absorption and 
 look out into the unseen, her expression was 
 not one to be soon forgotten. It had not, 
 indeed, the serene felicity of souls to whose 
 child-like confidence all heaven and earth are 
 fair. Rather it was the look (if I may use 
 a platonic phrase) of a strenuous Demiurge, 
 of a soul on which high tasks are laid, and 
 which finds in their accomplishment its only 
 imagination of joy." 
 
 " I was disappointed when I found the 
 illustrated papers gave no portraits of George 
 Eliot, and I afterwards learned that, william 
 celebrated as she is in other ways, Morgan's 
 
 J George Eliot. 
 
 she enjoys the rare, and perhaps 
 unique, distinction that she was never photo- 
 graphed. Two portraits of her are, however, 
 in existence. One, by Mr. Lawrence, hangs 
 in Mr. Black wood's drawing-room in Edin- 
 burgh ; the other, by Mr. Buxton, was in her 
 own house at Chelsea. She is described as a 
 woman of large, massive, and homely features, 
 
102 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 which were softened and irradiated by a 
 gracious and winning smile. The size, shape, 
 and poise of her head were very noticeable, 
 and some of her friends have been struck by 
 her resemblance to the portrait of Savonarola 
 by Fra Bartolommea. Her voice was rich 
 and melodious, and those who best knew her 
 speak of her as a strangely fascinating and 
 sympathetic woman, who left on every one 
 who approached her an impression of 
 goodness and greatness. Her conversation 
 had no traces of the rich humour which runs 
 through some of her writings, but she joined 
 very heartily in the jocularity of others." 
 
 HENRY FIELDING 
 
 1707-1754 
 
 " WITH regard to his personal appearance, 
 Fielding was strongly built, robust, and in 
 height rather exceeding six feet ; he was 
 
HENR Y FIELDING 1 03 
 
 also remarkably active, till repeated attacks 
 of gout had broken down the vigour of 
 a fine constitution. Naturally of a Roscoe > s 
 dignified presence, he was equally '*$.? 
 
 J?Tldl1l2 
 
 impressive in his tone and manner, 
 which added to his peculiarly-marked features ; 
 his conversational powers and rare wit must 
 have given him a decided influence in general 
 society, and not a little ascendency over the 
 minds of common men." 
 
 " That our nation was well and favourably 
 represented by him, amongst the lads at the 
 university, there can be no doubt ; j eaffreson > s 
 for he was a magnificent fellow, N elsand 
 
 Novelists. 
 
 frank in bearing, agile as a trained 
 wrestler, rather exceeding six feet in height, 
 with a face, both by aristocratic features and 
 gallant expression, remarkably engaging, with 
 a fresh, slightly ruddy complexion, and a 
 winning smile of the most mirthful in- 
 telligence, with an air commanding, but 
 free from the slightest taint of haughtiness, 
 and lastly, with a disposition as well endowed 
 
io 4 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 as his mind, generous and truly noble as 
 became one sprung from the seed of kings." 
 
 1725- 
 
 " The personal appearance of the great 
 
 novelist has been thus described by his 
 
 Lawrence's friend, Mr. Arthur Murphy : ' Henry 
 
 Life of Fielding was in stature rather rising; 
 
 Fielding. 
 
 above six feet ; his frame of body 
 large and remarkably robust, till the gout 
 had broken the vigour of his constitution.' 
 His features were marked and striking, so 
 much so, that a portrait of him was painted 
 by his friend Hogarth from memory, with 
 the assistance of a profile which had been 
 cut in paper with a pair of scissors by a lady. 
 Though he was singularly handsome in his 
 youth, in his later years it appears, from his 
 own account, that his gouty and dropsical 
 figure was anything but agreeable to behold. 
 But his cheerfulness and good temper 
 rendered him to the last a delightful com- 
 panion, and endeared him to his family and 
 friends." 
 
JOHN GAY 105 
 
 JOHN GAY 
 
 1688-1732 
 
 " His physiognomy does not appear to have 
 been remarkable for strong lines or expressive 
 features, it rather denoted benignity 
 
 Coxe's 
 
 and meekness. ... In his person Life of 
 
 ^ * 1 J ohn Ga y- 
 
 Uay was inclined to corpulency ; a 
 
 circumstance which he humorously alludes 
 to in his Epistle to Lord Burlington : 
 
 * You knew fat bards might tire, 
 And mounted sent me forth your trusty squire.' 
 
 His natural corpulency was increased by 
 extreme indolence, for which his friends 
 often rallied him. Swift, in a letter to the 
 Duchess of Queensberry, thus expresses 
 himself on this subject : ' You need not be 
 in pain about Mr. Gay's stock of health ; I 
 promise you he will spend it all upon laziness, 
 and run deep in debt by a winter's repose in 
 town ; therefore I entreat your Grace will 
 
106 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 order him to move his chaps less, and his 
 legs more, the six cold months, else he will 
 spend all his money in physic and coach- 
 hire.' 8th October 1731. ... In the early 
 part of his life Gay was extremely fond of 
 dress. . . . Pope also touches upon this weak- 
 ness in a letter to Swift. i8th December 
 
 . . . " ' One Mr. Gay, an unhappy youth, 
 who writes pastorals during the time of 
 divine service ; whose case is the more 
 deplorable, as he hath miserably lavished 
 away all that silver he should have reserved 
 for his soul's health in buttons and loops for 
 his coat.'" 
 
 " In the portraits of the literary worthies 
 of the early part of the last century, Gay's 
 face is the pleasantest perhaps of all. Thackeray's 
 It appears adorned with neither En s lish 
 
 Humourists. 
 
 periwig nor nightcap (the full dress 
 and ndgligte of learning without which the 
 painters of those days scarcely ever pourtrayed 
 wits), and he laughs at you over his shoulder 
 
EDWARD GIBBON 107 
 
 with an honest boyish glee an artless sweet 
 humour. He was so kind, so gentle, so 
 jocular, so delightfully brisk at times, so 
 dismally woe-begone at others, such a natural 
 good creature, that the Giants loved him." 
 
 EDWARD GIBBON 
 
 1737-1794 
 
 " THE learned Gibbon was a curious counter- 
 balance to the learned (may I not say 
 the less learned) Johnson. Their 
 
 Colman's 
 
 manners and tastes, both in writing Random 
 
 Recollections. 
 
 and conversation, were as different 
 as their habiliments. On the day I first sat 
 down with Johnson in his rusty brown suit 
 and his black worsted stockings, Gibbon was 
 placed opposite to me in a suit of flowered 
 velvet, with a bag and sword. Each had his 
 measured phraseology, and Johnsons famous 
 parallel between Dryden and Pope might be 
 
io8 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 loosely parodied in reference to himself and 
 Gibbon. Johnson's style was grand, and 
 Gibbon's elegant : the stateliness of the 
 former was sometimes pedantic, and the 
 latter was occasionally finical. Johnson 
 marched to kettledrums and trumpets, Gibbon 
 moved to flutes and hautboys. Johnson 
 hewed passages through the Alps, while 
 Gibbon levelled walks through parks and 
 gardens. Mauled as I had been by Johnson, 
 Gibbon poured balm upon my bruises by 
 condescending once or twice in the course of 
 the evening to talk with me. The great 
 historian was light and playful, suiting his 
 matter to the capacity of a boy ; but it was 
 done more suo still his mannerism prevailed, 
 still he tapped his snuff-box, still he smirked 
 and smiled, and rounded his periods with 
 the same air of good-breeding, as if he were 
 conversing with men. His mouth, mellifluous 
 as Plato's, was a round hole nearly in the 
 centre of his visage." 
 
 " M. Pavilliard has described to me the 
 
EDWARD GIBBON 109 
 
 astonishment with which he gazed on Mr. 
 Gibbon standing before him ; a thin little 
 figure, with a large head, disputing 
 and urging, with the greatest ability, Sheffield's 
 
 Gibbon. 
 
 all the best arguments that had ever 
 been used in favour of popery. Mr. Gibbon 
 many years ago became very fat and corpu- 
 lent, but he had uncommonly small bones, 
 and was very slightly made." 
 
 "As to his manners in society, without 
 doubt the agreeableness of Gibbon was 
 neither that yielding and retiring com- Q uarterl 
 plaisance, nor that modesty which is Review > 
 forgetful of self; but his vanity never 
 showed itself in an offensive manner: anxious 
 to succeed and to please, he wished to 
 command attention, and obtained it without 
 difficulty bya conversation animated, sprightly, 
 and full of matter : all that was dictatorial in 
 his tone betrayed not so much that desire of 
 domineering over others, which is always 
 offensive, as confidence in himself. Not- 
 withstanding this, his conversation never 
 
no WORD PORTRAITS . 
 
 carried one away ; its fault was a kind of 
 arrangement which never permitted him to 
 say anything unless well." 
 
 WILLIAM GODWIN 
 
 1756-1836 
 
 " IN person he was remarkably sedate and 
 
 solemn, resembling in dress and manner a 
 
 Dissenting minister rather than the 
 
 S. C. Hall's 
 
 Memories of advocate of * free - thought ' in all 
 
 Great Men. . 
 
 things religious, moral, social, 
 and intellectual ; he was short and stout, 
 his clothes loosely and carelessly put on, 
 and usually old and worn ; his hands were 
 generally in his pockets ; he had a remark- 
 ably large, bald head, and a weak voice ; 
 seeming generally half asleep when he 
 walked, and even when he talked. Few 
 who saw this man of calm exterior, quiet 
 manners, and inexpressive features, could 
 
WILLIAM GOD WIN 1 1 1 
 
 have believed him to have originated three 
 romances Falkland, Caleb Williams, and St. 
 Leon, not yet forgotten because of their 
 terrible excitements ; and the work, Political 
 Justice, which for a time created a sensation 
 that was a fear in every state of Europe. . . . 
 Lamb called him * a good-natured heathen ' ; 
 Southey said of him, in 1797, ' He has large 
 noble eyes, and a nose oh ! most abomin- 
 able nose.' " 
 
 " Godwin is as far removed from every- 
 thing feverish and exciting as if his head had 
 never been filled with anything George T i c knor' s 
 but geometry. He is now about 
 sixty-five, stout, well-built, and unbroken by 
 age, with a cool, dogged manner, exactly 
 opposite to everything I had imagined 01 the 
 author of St. Leon and Caleb Williams." 
 -1819. 
 
 " The mention of Coleridge reminds me, I 
 hardly know why, of Godwin, H . Martineau's 
 who was an occasional morning Autobi sraph y . 
 visitor of mine. I looked upon him as a 
 
ii2 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 curious monument of a bygone state of 
 society ; and there was still a good deal that 
 was interesting in him. His fine head was 
 striking, and his countenance remarkable. It 
 must not be judged of by the pretended 
 likeness put forth in Frasers Magazine about 
 that time, and attributed, with the whole 
 
 set, to Maclise The high Tory 
 
 favourites of the Magazine were exhibited 
 to the best advantage ; while Liberals were 
 represented as Godwin was. Because the 
 finest thing about him was his noble head, 
 they put on a hat ; and they represented him 
 in profile because he had lost his teeth, and 
 his lips fell in. No notion of Godwin's face 
 could have been formed from that caricature." 
 1833- 
 
 OLIVER GOLDSMITH 
 
 1728-1774 
 
 " You scarcely can conceive how much eight 
 years of disappointment, anguish, and study, 
 
OLIVER GOLDSMITH 113 
 
 have worn me down. . . . Imagine to your- 
 self a pale melancholy visage, with two great 
 wrinkles between the eyebrows, 
 with an eye disgustingly severe, and 
 a big wig, and you may have a Goldsmith. 
 perfect picture of my present appearance. 
 . . . I can neither laugh nor drink, have 
 contracted a hesitating disagreeable manner 
 of speaking, and a visage that looks ill-nature 
 itself; in short, I have thought myself into 
 a settled melancholy, and an utter disgust of 
 all that life brings with it." 1759. 
 
 " He was very much what the French call 
 un ttourdi, and from vanity and an eager 
 desire of being conspicuous wher- Bosweii's Life 
 ever he was, he frequently talked f Dr -J h n ' 
 carelessly without knowledge of the subject, 
 or even without thought. His person was 
 short, his countenance coarse and vulgar, his 
 deportment that of a scholar awkwardly 
 affecting the easy gentleman." 1763. 
 
 " Nothing could be more amiable than the 
 general features of his mind ; those of his 
 
 8 
 
ii4 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 person were not perhaps so engaging. His 
 
 stature was under the middle size, his body 
 
 R. Walsh's strongly built, and his limbs more 
 
 British Poets. . 
 
 * sturdy than elegant. His com- 
 plexion was pale, his forehead low, his face 
 almost round and pitted with the small-pox, 
 but marked with strong lines of thinking. 
 His first appearance was not captivating ; 
 but when he grew easy and cheerful in 
 company, he relaxed into such a display of 
 good -humour as soon removed every un- 
 favourable impression." 
 
 DAVID GRAY 
 
 1838-1861 
 
 " AT twenty-one years of age . . . David was 
 
 a tall young man, slightly but firmly built, and 
 
 with a stoop at the shoulders. His 
 
 Buchanan's 
 
 Life of David head was small, fringed with black 
 
 Gray, 
 
 curly hair. Want of candour was 
 not his fault, though he seldom looked one 
 
DAVID GRAY 115 
 
 in the face ; his eyes, however, were large 
 and dark, full of intelligence and humour, 
 harmonising well with the long thin nose and 
 nervous lips. The great black eyes and 
 woman's mouth betrayed the creature of 
 impulse ; one whose reasoning faculties were 
 small, but whose temperament was like red- 
 hot coal. He sympathised with much that 
 was lofty, noble, and true in poetry, and with 
 much that was absurd and suicidal in the 
 poet. He carried sympathy to the highest 
 pitch of enthusiasm ; he shed tears over 
 the memories of Keats and Burns, and he 
 was corybantic in his execution of a Scotch 
 'reel.'" 1859. 
 
 " I was told a young man wished to see 
 me, and when he came into the room I at 
 once saw it was no other than the 
 
 R. M. Milnes's 
 young Scotch poet. It Was a Notice on David 
 
 light, well-built, but somewhat 
 stooping figure, with a countenance that at 
 once brought strongly to my recollection a 
 cast of a face of Shelley in his youth, which 
 
1 1 6 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 I had seen at Mr. Leigh Hunt's. There was 
 the same full brow, out -looking eyes, and 
 sensitive melancholy mouth." 
 
 "In person, the deceased poet was tall, 
 
 with a slight stoop. His head was not large, 
 
 but his temperament was of the 
 
 Hedderwick s 
 
 Memoir of keenest and brightest edge. With 
 black curling hair, eyes dark, large, 
 and lustrous, and a complexion of almost 
 feminine delicacy, his appearance never 
 failed to make a favourable impression on 
 strangers." 
 
 THOMAS GRAY 
 
 1716-1771 
 
 " IN one of Philip Gray's fits of extravagance 
 he seems to have had a full-length of his son 
 Gosse's painted about this time, by the fashion- 
 
 Gray. . . . - , T 
 
 * able portrait-painter of the day, Jona- 
 than Richardson the elder. This picture is 
 now in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge. 
 
THOMAS GRAY 117 
 
 The head is good in colour and modelling ; 
 a broad pale brow, sharp nose and chin, large 
 eyes, and a pert expression, give a lively idea 
 of the precocious and not very healthy young 
 gentleman of thirteen. He is dressed in a 
 blue satin coat, lined with pale shot silk, and 
 crosses his stockinged legs so as to display 
 dapper slippers of russet leather." 1729. 
 
 " Gray, judging from his portrait by 
 Echardt, lately at Strawberry Hill, was 
 eminently the poet and the Warburton's 
 
 Horace Walpole 
 
 scholar in his appearance. A and his 
 
 it. f i contemporaries. 
 
 delicate frame, a pale complexion, * 
 
 an expansive forehead, clear eyes, a small 
 mouth, and regular features, bearing the 
 general impression of thoughtfulness and 
 melancholy, surrounded by his own hair, worn 
 long, prepossessed the spectator in his 
 favour, and charmed those who were already 
 his admirers." 
 
 " Mr. Gray's singular niceness in the 
 choice of his acquaintance makes him appear 
 fastidious in a great degree to all who are not 
 
n8 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 acquainted with his manner. He is of a fas- 
 tidious and recluse distance of carriage, rather 
 Gosse's averse to a ^ sociability, but of the 
 Gray. g raver turn, nice and elegant in his 
 person, dress, and behaviour, even to a degree 
 of finicality and effeminacy." 1770. 
 
 HENRY HALLAM 
 
 1777-1859 
 
 " HALLAM was a tall and remarkably hand- 
 some man, very stately in look and manner. 
 His countenance was thoughtful and 
 
 S. C. Hall's 
 
 Memories of intelligent, yet by no means stern. 
 
 Great Men. 
 
 On the contrary, he was kindly and 
 condescending. I had once occasion to 
 apply to him for information. He gave it 
 graciously and gracefully, and appeared as 
 if he had received instead of conferred a 
 compliment." 
 
 " Mr. Hallam is, I suppose, about sixty 
 
HENR Y HALL AM 1 1 9 
 
 years old, gray-headed, hesitates a little in 
 his speech, is lame, and has a shy manner 
 which makes him blush frequently, George T j ck . 
 when he expresses as decided an nor ' sZ */'- 
 opinion as his temperament constantly leads 
 him to entertain. Except his lameness, he 
 has a fine dignified person, and talked 
 pleasantly, with that air of kindness which is 
 always so welcome to a stranger. . . . He is 
 a wise man, a little nervous in his manner 
 and a little fidgety, yet of a sound and quiet 
 judgment." 1838. 
 
 " A statue of him by Mr. Theed was 
 sculptured for St. Paul's Cathedral, and a 
 good copy was exhibited at the last 
 
 Jerdan's 
 
 National Exhibition, though I was Men i have 
 not altogether satisfied with the 
 likeness, nor thought the accessories well 
 chosen and happy ; for a standing figure, 
 nevertheless, it has the great merit of sim- 
 plicity. 
 
 " Though habitually rather grave, the 
 pleasant smile best became his features, and 
 
120 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 I do not think he was often guilty of audible 
 laughter." 
 
 WILLIAM HAZLITT 
 
 1778-1830 
 
 "THE truth is, that for depth, force, and 
 
 variety of intellectual expression, a finer head 
 
 and face than Hazlitt's were never 
 
 Patmore's 
 
 Personal seen. I speak of them when his 
 
 Recollections. 
 
 countenance was not dimmed and 
 obscured by illness, or clouded and deformed 
 by those fearful indications of internal passion 
 which he never even attempted to conceal. 
 The expression of Hazlitt's face, when any- 
 thing was said in his presence that seriously 
 offended him, or when any peculiarly painful 
 recollection passed across his mind, was truly 
 awful, more so than can be conceived as 
 within the capacity of the human counten- 
 ance ; except, perhaps, by those who have 
 witnessed Edmund Kean's last scene of * Sir 
 
WILLIAM HAZLITT 1 2 1 
 
 Giles Overreach ' from the front of the pit. 
 But when he was in good health, and in a 
 tolerable humour with himself and the world, 
 his face was more truly and entirely answer- 
 able to the intellect that spoke through it, 
 than any other I ever saw, either in life or on 
 canvas ; and its crowning portion the brow 
 and forehead was, to my thinking, quite 
 unequalled for mingled capacity and beauty. 
 
 " For those who desire a more particular 
 description, I will add that Hazlitt's features, 
 though not cast in any received classical 
 mould, were regular in their formation, 
 perfectly consonant with each other, and so 
 finely * chiseled ' (as the phrase is), that they 
 produced a much more prominent and striking 
 effect than their scale of size might have led 
 one to expect. The forehead, as I have 
 hinted, was magnificent ; the nose precisely 
 that (combining strength with lightness and 
 elegance) which physiognomists have assigned 
 as evidence of a 'fine and highly cultivated 
 taste, though there was a peculiar character 
 
122 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 about the nostrils like that observable in 
 those of a fiery and unruly horse. The mouth, 
 from its ever-changing form and character, 
 could scarcely be described, except as to its 
 astonishingly varied power of expression, 
 which was equal to, and greatly resembled, that 
 of Edmund Kean. His eyes, I should say, 
 were not good. They were never brilliant, 
 and there was a furtive and at times a sinister 
 look about them, as they glanced suspiciously 
 from under their overhanging brows, that 
 conveyed a very unpleasant impression to 
 those who did not know him. And they 
 were seldom directed frankly and fairly 
 towards you, as if he were afraid that you 
 might read in them what was passing in his 
 mind concerning you. His head was nobly 
 formed and placed, with (until the last few 
 years of his life) a profusion of coal-black 
 hair, richly curled ; and his person was of 
 middle height, rather slight, but well formed 
 and put together." 
 
 " My first meeting with Mr. Hazlitt took 
 
WILLIAM HAZLITT 123 
 
 place at the house of Leigh Hunt, where I 
 met him at supper. I expected to see a 
 severe, defiant-looking being. I 
 
 Bryan Procter's 
 
 met a grave man, diffident, almost Recollections of 
 
 Men of Letters. 
 
 awkward in manner, whose 
 appearance did not impress me with much 
 respect. He had a quick, restless eye, how- 
 ever, which opened eagerly when any good or 
 bright observation was made ; and I found at 
 the conclusion of the evening, that when any 
 question arose, the most sensible reply always 
 came from him. . . . Hazlitt was of the middle 
 size, with eager, expressive eyes, near which his 
 black hair, sprinkled sparely with gray, curled 
 round in a wiry, resolute manner. His gray 
 eyes, not remarkable in colour, expanded into 
 great expression when occasion demanded it. 
 Being very shy, however, they often evaded 
 your steadfast look. They never (as has 
 been asserted by some one) had a sinister 
 expression, but they sometimes flamed with 
 indignant glances when their owner was 
 moved to anger, like the eyes of other angry 
 
i2 4 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 men. At home, his style of dress (or undress) 
 was perhaps slovenly, because there was no 
 one to please ; but he always presented a very 
 neat and clean appearance when he went 
 abroad. His mode of walking was loose, 
 weak, and unsteady, although his arms 
 displayed strength, which he used to put 
 forth when he played at racquets with Martin 
 Burney and others." 
 
 " The painting . . . was standing on an 
 old-fashioned couch in one corner of the room 
 The Cowden leaning against the wall, and we 
 Recollections remame d opposite to it for some 
 of Writers. ^ im ^ while Hazlitt stood by holding 
 the candle high up so as to throw the light well 
 on to the picture, descanting enthusiastically 
 on the merits of the original. The beam from 
 the candle falling on his own finely intel- 
 lectual head, with its iron-gray hair, its square 
 potential forehead, its massive mouth and chin, 
 and eyes full of earnest fire, formed a glorious 
 picture in itself, and remains a luminous vision 
 for ever upon our memories." About 1829. 
 
FELICIA HEMANS 125 
 
 FELICIA HEMANS 
 
 1794-1835 
 
 " THE young poetess was then only fifteen ; 
 in the full glow of that radiant beauty which 
 was destined to fade so early. 
 
 Hughes's 
 
 The mantling bloom of her cheeks Memoir of 
 
 . Mrs. Hemans. 
 
 was shaded by a profusion of 
 natural ringlets, of a rich golden brown, and 
 the ever-varying expression of her brilliant 
 eyes gave a changeful play to her counten- 
 ance, which would have made it impossible 
 for any painter to do justice to it. The 
 recollection of what she was at that time, 
 irresistibly suggests a quotation from Words- 
 worth's graceful poetic picture : 
 
 ' She was a Phantom of delight, 
 When first she gleamed upon my sight ; 
 A lovely Apparition, sent 
 
 To be a moment's ornament. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 A dancing Shape, an Image gay, 
 To haunt, to startle, and waylay. 3 " 
 
 1809. 
 
126 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 "Mrs. Hemans was about the middle 
 
 height, and rather slenderly made than 
 
 otherwise. To a countenance of 
 
 Moir's 
 
 Memoirs of great intelligence and expression, 
 
 Mrs. Hemans. 
 
 she united manners alike unas- 
 suming and playful, and with a trust arising 
 out of the purity of her own character 
 which was beyond the meanness of suspicion 
 in others she remained untainted by the 
 breath of worldly guile." 
 
 " An engraved portrait of her by the 
 
 American artist William E. West one of 
 
 Rossetti's three which he painted in 1827, 
 
 Notice of s h ows us t h at Mrs. Hemans, at 
 
 Mrs. nemans. 
 
 the age of thirty-four, was emin- 
 ently pleasing and good-looking, with an air 
 of amiability and sprightly gentleness, and of 
 confiding candour which, while none the less 
 perfectly womanly, might almost be termed 
 childlike in its limpid depth. The features 
 are correct and harmonious ; the eyes full ; and 
 the contour amply and elegantly rounded. In 
 height she was neither tall nor short. A 
 
FELICIA HEMANS 127 
 
 sufficient wealth of naturally clustering hair, 
 golden in early youth, but by this time of 
 a rich auburn, shades the capacious but not 
 over -developed forehead, and the lightly 
 pencilled eyebrows. The bust and form 
 have the fulness of a mature period of life ; 
 and it would appear that Mrs. Hemans was 
 somewhat short-necked and high-shouldered, 
 partly detracting from delicacy of proportion, 
 and of general aspect of impression on the 
 eye. We would rather judge of her by this 
 portrait (which her sister pronounces a good 
 likeness) than by another engraved in Mr. 
 Chorley's Memorials. This latter was exe- 
 cuted in Dublin in 1831, by a young artist 
 named Edward Robinson. It makes Mrs. 
 Hemans look younger than in the earlier 
 portrait by West, and may on that ground 
 alone be surmised unfaithful, and, though 
 younger, it also makes her heavier and less 
 refined." 
 
i 2 8 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 JAMES HOGG 
 
 1770-1835 
 
 " ALTHOUGH for some time past he has 
 
 spent a considerable portion of every year in 
 
 Lockhart's excellent, even in refined society, 
 
 Petes* Letters. the externa i appearance of the 
 
 man can have undergone but very little 
 change since he was 'a herd on Yarrow.' 
 His face and hands are still as brown as if 
 he had lived entirely sub dio. His very 
 hair has a coarse stringiness about it, which 
 proves beyond dispute its utter ignorance of 
 all the arts of the friseur, and hangs in 
 playful whips and cords about his ears, in a 
 style of the most perfect innocence imagin- 
 able. His mouth which, when he smiles, 
 nearly cuts the totality of his face in twain, 
 is an object that would make the Chevalier 
 Ruspini die with indignation ; for his teeth 
 have. been allowed to grow where they listed, 
 
JAMES HOGG 129 
 
 and as they listed, presenting more resem- 
 blance, in arrangement (and colour too), to a 
 body of crouching sharp-shooters, than to any 
 more regular species of array. The effect 
 of a forehead, towering with a true poetic 
 grandeur above such features as these, and 
 of an eye that illuminates their surface with 
 genuine lightenings of genius . . . these are 
 things which I cannot so easily transfer to 
 my paper." 1819. 
 
 " The Rev. Mr. Thomson, his biographer, 
 thus pictures him : ' In height he was five 
 feet ten inches and a half; his broad 
 
 S. C. Hall's 
 
 chest and square shoulders indicated Memories of 
 
 1111 1-1 11 Great Men. 
 
 health and strength ; while a well- 
 rounded leg, and small ankle and foot, 
 showed the active shepherd who could out- 
 strip the runaway sheep.' His hair in his 
 younger days was auburn, slightly inclining 
 to yellow, which afterwards became dark 
 brown, mixed with gray; his eyes, which 
 were dark blue, were bright and intelligent. 
 His features were irregular, while his eye 
 
 9 
 
130 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 and ample forehead redeemed the counten- 
 ance from every charge of common-place 
 homeliness." 
 
 " Hogg is a little red -skinned stiff sack 
 of a body, with quite the common air of an 
 Ettrick shepherd, except that he F roude's 
 
 has a highish though Sloping Life of Carlyle. 
 
 brow (among his yellow grizzled hair), and 
 two clear little beads of blue or gray eyes 
 that sparkle, if not with thought, yet with 
 animation. Behaves himself quite easily and 
 well ; speaks Scotch, and mostly narrative 
 absurdity (or even obscenity) therewith. . . . 
 His vanity seems to be immense, but also 
 his good-nature." 1832. 
 
 THOMAS HOOD 
 
 1798-1845 
 
 " As he entered the room my first im- 
 pression was that of slight disappointment. 
 
THOMAS HOOD 131 
 
 I had not then seen any portrait of him, 
 and my imagination had depicted a man of 
 the under size, with a humorous The Gentkman > 5 
 and mobile mouth, and with sharp, Ma z z > l8 ? 2 - 
 twinkling, and investigating eyes. When, 
 therefore, a rather tall and attenuated figure 
 presented itself before me, with grave aspect 
 and dressed in black, and when, after scrutinis- 
 ing his features, I noticed those dark, sad 
 eyes set in that pale and pain -worn yet 
 tranquil face, and saw the expression of that 
 suffering mouth, telling how sickness with its 
 stern plough had driven its silent share 
 through that slender frame, all the long train 
 of quaint and curious fancies, ludicrous im- 
 ageries, oddly-combined contrasts, humorous 
 distortions, strange and uncouth associations, 
 myriad word-twistings, ridiculous miseries, 
 grave trifles, and trifling gravities all these 
 came before me like the rushing event of a 
 dream, and I asked myself, ' Can this be the 
 man that has so often made me roll with 
 laughter at his humour, chuckle at his wit, 
 
132 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 and wonder while I threaded the maze of his 
 inexhaustible puns ? ' When he began to 
 converse in bland and placid tones about 
 Germany, where he had for some time lived, 
 I became more reconciled to him." 
 
 "In person Hood was of middle height, 
 slender and sickly -looking, of sallow com- 
 plexion and pale features, quiet in 
 
 S. C. Hall's r 
 
 Memories of expression, and very rarely excited 
 
 Great Men. , , , 
 
 so as to give indication of either 
 the pathos or the humour that must ever 
 have been working in his soul. His was, 
 indeed, a countenance rather of melancholy 
 than mirth ; there was something calm, even 
 to solemnity, in the upper portion of the face, 
 seldom relieved, in society, by the eloquent 
 play of the mouth, or the sparkle of an 
 observant eye. In conversation he was by 
 no means brilliant. When inclined to pun, 
 which was not often, it seemed as if his wit 
 was the issue of thought, and not an in- 
 stinctive produce, such as I have noticed in 
 other men who have thus become famous, 
 
THOMAS HOOD 133 
 
 who are admirable in crowds, whose anima- 
 tion is like that of the sounding-board, which 
 makes a great noise at a small touch, when 
 listeners are many and applause is sure." 
 
 " The face of Hood is best known by two 
 busts and an oil -portrait, which have both 
 been engraved from. It is the Rossetti's 
 
 r r ... . Memoir of Hood. 
 
 sort of face to which apparently * 
 
 a bust does more than justice, yet less than 
 right, the features, being mostly by no 
 means bad ones, look better when thus re- 
 duced to the more simple and abstract con- 
 tour than they probably showed in reality, 
 for no one supposed Hood to be a fine- 
 looking man ; on the other hand, the value 
 of the face must have been in its shifting ex- 
 pression keen, playful, or subtle and this 
 can be but barely suggested by the sculptor. 
 The poet's visage was pallid, his figure slight, 
 his voice feeble ; he always dressed in black, 
 and is generally spoken of as presenting a 
 generally clerical appearance." 
 
i 3 4 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 THEODORE HOOK 
 
 1788-1841 
 
 " I REMEMBER, one day at Sydenham, Mr. 
 
 Theodore Hook coming in unexpectedly to 
 
 Leigh Hunt's dinner, and amusing us very 
 
 Autobiography. much w j th hig ^j^ ^ ex _ 
 
 tempore verse. He was then a youth, tall, 
 dark, and of a good person, with small eyes, 
 and features more round than weak ; a face 
 that had character and humour, but no 
 refinement." 1 809. 
 
 " When I first saw him, he was above the 
 
 middle height, robust of frame, and broad 
 
 of chest: well-proportioned, with 
 
 S. C. Hall's 
 
 Memories of evidence of great physical capacity ; 
 
 Great Men. . 1 
 
 his complexion dark, as were his 
 eyes. There was nothing fine or elevated 
 in his expression ; indeed, his features when 
 in repose were heavy ; it was otherwise when 
 animated ; yet his manners were those of 
 
THEODORE HOOK 135 
 
 a gentleman, less, perhaps, from inherent 
 faculty than the polish which refined society 
 ever gives." 1828. 
 
 " In person Theodore Hook was above 
 the middle height, his frame was robust and 
 well-proportioned, possessing a B arham's 
 breadth and depth of chest which, Li f so f Hook - 
 joined to a constitution naturally of the 
 strongest order, would have seemed, under 
 ordinary care, to hold out promise of a long 
 and healthy life. His countenance was fine 
 and commanding, his features when in repose 
 settling into a somewhat stern and heavy ex- 
 pression, but all alive and alight with genius 
 the instant his lips were opened. His eyes 
 were dark, large, and full to the epithet 
 /Sow?? he, not less justly than the venerable 
 goddess, was entitled. His voice was rich, 
 deep, and melodious." 
 
136 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 DAVID HUME 
 
 I 1711-1776 
 
 " LORD CHARLEMONT, who at this period met 
 
 with Mr. Hume at Turin, has given the 
 
 following account of his habits and 
 
 Chambers's 
 
 Eminent appearance, penned apparently with 
 
 r Scotsmen. 
 
 j a greater aim at effect than at truth, 
 yet somewhat characteristic of the philosopher: 
 1 Nature, I believe, never formed any man 
 more unlike his real character than David 
 Hume. The powers of physiognomy were 
 baffled by his countenance ; neither could the 
 most skilful in the science pretend to discover 
 the smallest trace of the faculties of his mind 
 in the unmeaning features of his visage. 
 His face was broad and fat, his mouth wide, 
 and without any other expression than that 
 of imbecility. His eyes vacant and spiritless ; 
 and the corpulence of his whole person was 
 far better fitted to communicate the idea of 
 
DAVID HUME 137 
 
 a turtle - eating alderman than of a refined 
 philosopher. His speech in English was 
 rendered ridiculous by the broadest Scotch 
 accent, and his French was, if possible, still 
 more laughable, so that wisdom most certainly 
 never disguised herself before in so uncouth 
 a garb.'" 
 
 "The prints of David Hume are, most of 
 them, I believe, taken from the very portrait 
 I have seen; but of course the Lockhart's 
 style and effect of the features are *** ****<" 
 much more thoroughly to be understood 
 when one has an opportunity of observing 
 them expanded in their natural proportions. 
 The face is far from being in any respect a 
 classical one. The forehead is chiefly re- 
 markable for its prominence from the ear, 
 and not so much for its height. This gives 
 him a lowering sort of look forwards, ex- 
 pressive of great inquisitiveness into matters 
 of fact and the consequences to be deduced 
 from them. His eyes are singularly pro- 
 minent, which, according to the Gallic system, 
 
138 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 would indicate an extraordinary development 
 of the organ of language behind them. His 
 nose is too low between the eyes, and not 
 well or boldly formed in any other respect. 
 The lips, although not handsome, have in 
 their fleshy and massy outlines abundant 
 marks of habitual reflection and intellectual 
 occupation. The whole had a fine expression 
 of intellectual dignity, candour, and serenity. 
 The want of elevation, however, which I 
 have already noticed, injures very much the 
 effect even of the structure of the lower part 
 of the head. . . . It is to be regretted that 
 he wore powder, for this prevents us from 
 having the advantage of seeing what was 
 the natural style of his hair or, indeed, of 
 ascertaining the form of any part of his head 
 beyond the forehead." 
 
 " To conclude historically with my own 
 character. I am, or rather was (for that is 
 the style which I must now use in David H ume's 
 speaking of myself, which em- 
 boldens me the more to speak my sentiment) ; 
 
LEIGH HUNT 139 
 
 I was, I say, a man of mild dispositions, of com- 
 mand of temper, of an open, social, and cheer- 
 ful humour, capable of attachment, but little 
 susceptible of enmity, and of great modera- 
 tion in all my passions. Even my love of 
 literary fame my ruling passion, never soured 
 my temper, notwithstanding my frequent dis- 
 appointments. My company was not un- 
 acceptable to the young and careless, as well 
 as to the studious and literary ; and as I took 
 a particular pleasure in the company of 
 modest women, I had no reason to be dis- 
 pleased with the reception I met with from 
 them." 
 
 LEIGH HUNT 
 
 1784-1859 
 
 " IT was at this period of his life " (as a young 
 man) " that his appearance was most charac- 
 teristic, and none of the portraits of him 
 adequately conveyed the idea of it. One of 
 
140 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 the best, a half-length chalk drawing, by an 
 artist named Wildman, perished. The minia- 
 ture by Severn was only a sketch 
 
 Son's preface to 
 
 Autobiography on a small scale, but it suggested 
 
 of Leigh Hunt. , . . 
 
 the kindness and animation of his 
 countenance. In other cases, the artists 
 knew too little of their sitter to catch the 
 most familiar traits of his aspect. He was 
 rather tall, as straight as an arrow, and looked 
 slenderer than he really was. His hair was 
 black and shining, and slightly inclined to 
 wave ; his head was high, his forehead straight 
 and white, his eyes black and sparkling, his 
 general complexion dark. . . . Few men 
 were so attractive ' in society,' whether in 
 a large company or over the fireside. His 
 manners were peculiarly animated ; his con- 
 versation varied, ranging over a great field 
 of subjects, was moved and called forth by 
 the response of his companion, be that com- 
 panion philosopher or student, sage or boy, 
 man or woman ; and he was equally ready 
 for the most lively topics or for the gravest 
 
LEIGH HUNT 141 
 
 reflections his expression easily adapting 
 itself to the tone of his companion's mind. 
 With much freedom of manners, he combined 
 a spontaneous courtesy that never failed, and 
 a considerateness derived from a ceaseless 
 kindness of heart that invariably fascinated 
 even strangers." 
 
 " Hunt was a little above the middle size, 
 thin and lithe. His countenance was very 
 genial and pleasant. His hair 
 
 Bryan Procter's 
 
 was black ; his eyes were very Recollections of 
 
 -11 Men of Letters. 
 
 dark, but he was short-sighted, 
 and therefore, perhaps, it was that they had 
 nothing of that fierce glance which black eyes 
 so frequently possess. His mouth was ex- 
 pressive, but protruding, as is sometimes 
 seen in half-caste Americans." 1817. 
 
 " I afterwards met Hunt, and reminded 
 him of Wilkie's intention, and Hunt, with a 
 frankness I liked much, became Haydon's 
 quite at home, and as I was just Autobi s^ph y . 
 as easily acquainted in five minutes as him- 
 self, we began to talk, and he to hold forth, 
 
142 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 and I thought him, with his black bushy hair, 
 black eyes, pale face, and 'nose of taste,' as 
 fine a specimen of a London editor as could 
 be imagined ; assuming yet moderate, sar- 
 castic yet genial, with a smattering of every- 
 thing and a mastery of nothing, affecting the 
 dictator, the poet, the politician, the critic, and 
 the sceptic, whichever would, at the moment, 
 give him the air, to inferior minds, of being 
 a very superior man. I listened with some- 
 thing of curiosity to his republican independ- 
 ence, though hating his effeminacy and 
 cockney peculiarities. The fearless honesty 
 of his opinions, the unscrupulous sacrifice of 
 his own interests, the unselfish perseverance 
 of his attacks on all abuses, whether royal or 
 religious, noble or democratic, ancient or 
 modern, so gratified my mind, that I suffered 
 this singular young man to gain such an 
 ascendancy in my heart, as justified the per- 
 petual caution of Wilkie against my great 
 tendency to become acquainted too soon with 
 strangers, and like Canning's German, to 
 
ELIZABETH INCHBALD 143 
 
 swear eternal friendship with any spirited 
 talented fellow after a couple of hours of 
 witty talk or able repartee." 
 
 ELIZABETH INCHBALD 
 
 1753-1821 
 
 " Miss SIMPSON . . . was . . . tall and 
 slender, with hair of a golden Kavanagh , s 
 auburn, and lovely hazel eyes, E *s lish Women 
 
 y * of Letters. 
 
 perfect features, and an enchant- 
 ing countenance." 1771. 
 
 " DESCRIPTION OF ME. 
 
 Age. Between 30 and 40, which, in the 
 register of a lady's birth, means a little 
 turned of 30. 
 
 Height. Above the middle size, and rather 
 
 ta ll- Mrs. Inchbald's 
 
 Figure. Handsome, and striking Memoirs. 
 in its general air, but a little too stiff 
 and erect. 
 
144 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 Shape. Rather too fond of sharp angles. 
 Skin. By nature fair, though a little freckled, 
 
 and with a tinge of sand, which is the 
 
 colour of her eyelashes, but made coarse 
 
 by ill-treatment upon her cheeks and arms. 
 Bosom. None ; or so diminutive, that it's 
 
 like a needle in a bottle of hay. 
 Hair. Of a sandy auburn, and rather too 
 
 straight as well as thin. 
 Face. Beautiful in effect, and beautiful in 
 
 every feature. 
 Countenance. Full of spirit and sweetness ; 
 
 excessively interesting, and, without in- 
 
 delicacy, voluptuous. 
 Dress. Always becoming ; and very seldom 
 
 worth so much as eightpence." About 
 
 1788. 
 
 FRANCIS, LORD JEFFREY 
 
 "You are to imagine then, before you, a 
 short, stout little gentleman, about five and 
 
FRANCIS, LORD JEFFRE Y 145 
 
 a half feet high, with a very red face, black 
 hair and black eyes. You are to suppose 
 him to possess a very gay and ani- 
 
 Geo. 
 
 mated countenance, and you are to Ticknors 
 
 Life. 
 
 see in him all the restlessness of a 
 will -o'- wisp, and all that fitful irregularity 
 in his movements which you have hereto- 
 fore appropriated to the pasteboard Merry 
 Andrews whose limbs are jerked about with 
 a wire. These you are to interpret as the 
 natural indications of the impetuous and 
 impatient character which a farther acquaint- 
 ance developes. He enters the room with 
 a countenance so satisfied and a step so light 
 and almost fantastic, that all your previous 
 impressions of the dignity and severity of 
 the Edinburgh Review are immediately put 
 to flight, and, passing at once to the opposite 
 extreme, you might, perhaps, imagine him 
 to be frivolous, vain, and supercilious. He 
 accosts you too, with a freedom and 
 familiarity which may, perhaps, put you at 
 your ease and render conversation un- 
 
 10 
 
146 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 ceremonious ; but which, as I observed in 
 several instances, were not very tolerable to 
 those who had always been accustomed to 
 the delicacy and decorum of refined society." 
 -1814. 
 
 " I had not been long in the room, how- 
 ever, when I heard Mr. J announced, 
 
 Lockhart's an( ^ aS * na< ^ n<Dt SGen ^ m ^ OI * some 
 
 Peter's Letters. ^^ j reso lved to stay, and if 
 possible, enjoy a little of his conversation 
 in some corner. ... I have seldom seen 
 a man more nice in his exterior than 
 
 Mr. J now seemed to be. His little 
 
 person looked very neat in the way he had 
 now adorned it. He had a very well -cut 
 blue coat, evidently not after the design of 
 any Edinburgh artist, light kerseymere 
 breeches and ribbed silk stockings, a pair 
 of elegant buckles, white kid gloves, and a 
 tricolour watch-ribbon. He held his hat 
 under his arm in a very dtgagde manner 
 and altogether he was certainly one of the 
 last men in the assembly, whom a stranger 
 
DOUGLAS JERROLD 147 
 
 would have guessed to be either a great 
 lawyer or a great reviewer. In short, he 
 was more of a dandy than any great author 
 I ever saw always excepting Tom Moore 
 and David Williams." 
 
 "He is of low stature, but his figure is 
 elegant and well proportioned. The face is 
 rather elongated, the chin deficient, New Monthly 
 
 , r , . , Magazine, 
 
 the mouth well formed, with a 1831. 
 mingled expression of determination, senti- 
 ment, and arch mockery ; the nose is slightly 
 curved ; the eye is the most peculiar feature 
 of the countenance ; it is large and sparkling. 
 He has two tones in his voice the one 
 harsh and grating, the other rich and clear." 
 1831. 
 
 DOUGLAS JERROLD 
 
 18031857 
 
 " To my great delight, ... I had not been 
 in the room many minutes before I was 
 
148 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 introduced to Douglas Jerrold, who was flitting 
 
 about with that peculiar restlessness of eye, 
 
 speech, and demeanour, which was 
 
 Hodder's 
 
 Personal amongst his most marked charae- 
 
 Reminiscences. 
 
 tenstics. I confess I was not sur- 
 prised to find him a man of small stature, 
 as I had heard before that his proportions 
 were rather those of Tydeus than of Alcides ; 
 but I was a little astonished when I saw in 
 the author of Black-eyed Susan, The Rent 
 Day, and The Wedding Gown, (all of 
 which pieces and many others he had then 
 produced), an amount of boyish gaiety and a 
 rapidity of movement which one could hardly 
 expect from a writer who had risen to high 
 rank as a moralist and censor." 
 
 " He had none of the airs of success or 
 
 reputation, none of the affectations, either 
 
 personal or social, which are rife 
 
 W.BJerrold's * 
 
 Lifeof Douglas everywhere. He was manly and 
 
 natural ; free and off-handed to 
 the verge of eccentricity. Independence and 
 marked character seemed to breathe from 
 
DO UGLAS JERROLD 149 
 
 the little, rather bowed figure, crowned with 
 a lion-like head and falling light hair to 
 glow in the keen, eager, blue eyes glancing 
 on either side as he walked along. Nothing 
 could be less commonplace, nothing less 
 conventional, than his appearance in a room 
 or in the streets." 
 
 " He was a very short man, but with 
 breadth enough, and a back excessively bent 
 bowed almost to deformity ; very 
 
 3 ' J S. C. Hall's 
 
 gray hair, and a face and expression Memories of 
 of remarkable briskness and in- 
 telligence. His profile came out pretty 
 boldly, and his eyes had the prominence that 
 indicates, I believe, volubility of speech ; 
 nor did he fail to talk from the instant of his 
 appearance ; and in the tone of his voice, and 
 in his glance, and in the whole man, there 
 was something racy a flavour of the 
 humourist. His step was that of an aged 
 man, and he put his stick down very 
 decidedly at every foot-fall ; though, as 
 he afterwards told me, he was only fifty- 
 
150 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 two, he need not yet have been infirm." 
 1856. 
 
 SAMUEL JOHNSON 
 
 1709-1784 
 
 " Miss PORTER told me, that when he was 
 
 first introduced to her mother, his appearance 
 
 was very forbidding ; he was then 
 
 Boswell's 7 
 
 Life of lean and lank, so that his immense 
 
 Dr. Johnson. 
 
 structure of bones was hideously 
 striking to the eye, and the scars of the 
 scrofula were deeply visible. He also wore 
 his hair, which was straight and stiff, and 
 separated behind ; and he often had, seem- 
 ingly, convulsive starts and odd gesticulations, 
 which tended to excite at once surprise and 
 ridicule. Mrs. Porter was so much engaged 
 by his conversation that she overlooked all 
 these external disadvantages, and said to 
 her daughter, ' This is the most sensible man 
 that I ever saw in my life.'" 1731. 
 
SAMUEL JOHNSON 1 5 1 
 
 " His chambers were on the first floor of 
 No. i Inner Temple Lane. . . . He received 
 me very courteously; but it must 
 
 J Boswell's 
 
 be confessed that his apartment and Life of 
 
 . . Dr. Johnson. 
 
 furniture and morning dress was 
 sufficiently uncouth. His brown suit of 
 clothes looked very rusty ; he had on a little 
 old shrivelled unpowdered wig, which was 
 too small for his head ; his shirt neck and 
 knees of his breeches were loose, his black 
 worsted stockings ill drawn up, and he had 
 a pair of unbuckled shoes by way of slippers. 
 But all these slovenly peculiarities were 
 forgotten the moment he began to talk." 
 1763. 
 
 " The day after I wrote my last letter to 
 you I was introduced to Mr. Johnson by a 
 friend. We passed through three 
 very dirty rooms to a little one that 
 looked like an old counting-house, where this 
 great man was sat at breakfast. ... I was 
 very much struck with Mr. Johnson's appear- 
 ance, and could hardly help thinking him a 
 
152 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 madman for some time, as he sat waving 
 over his breakfast like a lunatic. He is a 
 very large man, and was dressed in a dirty 
 brown coat and waistcoat, with breeches that 
 were brown also (although they had been 
 crimson), and an old black wig ; his shirt 
 collar and sleeves were unbuttoned ; his 
 stockings were down about his feet, which 
 had on them, by way of slippers, an old pair 
 of shoes. . . . We had been with him some 
 time before he began to talk, but at length 
 he began, and, faith, to some purpose ; 
 everything he says is as correct as a second 
 edition ; 'tis almost impossible to argue with 
 him, he is so sententious and so knowing." 
 1764. 
 
 BEN JONSON 
 
 1574-1637 
 
 " HE was (or rather had been) of a clear and 
 faire skin, his habit was very plaine. I have 
 
BEN JONSON 153 
 
 heard Mr. Lacy, the player, say that he was 
 wont to weare a coate like a coach-man's coate 
 with slitts under the arme-pitts. Aubrey' 
 He would many times exceed in c 
 drinke. Canarie was his beloved 
 liquer. . . . Ben Jonson had one eie lower 
 than t'other and bigger, like Clun, the 
 player." 
 
 "The character of Jonson, like that of 
 most celebrated wits, has been drawn with 
 great diversity of lights and Anderson , s 
 shades, according: as affection or Poets of 
 
 Great Britain. 
 
 envy guided the pencil. His 
 person, as he has himself told us, was 
 corpulent and large. His disposition seems 
 to have been reserved and saturnine, and 
 sometimes not a little oppressed with the 
 gloom of a splenetic imagination. . . . Stern 
 and rigid as his virtue was, he was easy and 
 social in the convivial meetings of his friends ; 
 and the laws of his Symposia, inscribed over 
 the chimney of the Apollo, a room in the 
 Devil Tavern, near Temple Bar, where he 
 
154 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 kept his club, show that he was neither averse 
 to the pleasures of conversation, nor ignorant 
 of what would render it agreeable and im- 
 proving." 
 
 "II est clair pour nous que Ben Jonson 
 avait une nature violente dans un corps 
 Lafond, Notice robuste et athletique ; son portrait 
 
 sur Ben Jonson. 
 
 * nous le montre avec une enorme 
 
 face, une vigoureuse machoire, des yeux 
 profonds et durs, un cou de taureau. Sa 
 peau avait ete, de bonne heure, couturee par 
 le scorbut ; et lui-meme dit quelque part qu'il 
 eut, dans le milieu de sa vie, une montagne 
 pour ventre et un dandinement disgracieux 
 pour demarche. Tous ses traits fortement 
 accentues, anguleux ou carres, dnoncent 
 1'energie, 1'orgueil et F amour des luttes de 
 toute nature. II aimait la bonne chere et le 
 vin ; sa predilection pour le vin des Canaries 
 avait, disait il, pour excuse la ndcessite de 
 sa constitution scorbutique. II avait 1'esprit 
 semblable au corps ; malgr6 ses etudes 
 classiques, il etait loin d'etre un Athenien, 
 
JOHN KEATS 155 
 
 c'etait un Anglo-Saxon ente sur un Remain 
 de la decadence. Genereux, liberal, prodigue, 
 il tint toujours table ouverte, meme lorsque la 
 misere etait devenue 1'hote de son foyer." 
 
 JOHN KEATS 
 
 1795-1821 
 
 " I WAS first introduced to him (Keats), by 
 Leigh Hunt, and found him very pleasant, 
 and free from all affectation in 
 
 Bryan Procter's 
 
 manner and opinion. Indeed it Recollections of 
 
 Men of Letters. 
 
 would be difficult to discover a 
 man with a more bright and open counten- 
 ance. ... I can only say that I never 
 encountered a more manly and simple young 
 man. In person he was short, and had eyes 
 large and wonderfully luminous, and a resolute 
 bearing, not defiant but well sustained." 
 
 " His eyes were large and blue, his hair 
 auburn, he wore it divided down the centre, 
 
156 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 and it fell in rich masses on each side his face, 
 
 his mouth was full, and less intellectual than 
 
 his other features. His counten- 
 
 Monckton 
 
 Miines's Life of ance lives in my mind as one of 
 singular beauty and brightness, 
 it had an expression as if he had been look- 
 ing on some glorious sight. The shape of his 
 face had not the squareness of a man's, but 
 more like some women's faces I have seen 
 it was so wide over the forehead, and so 
 small at the chin. He seemed in perfect 
 health, and with life offering all things that 
 were precious to him." 1818. 
 
 In reviewing this portrait, Mrs. Cowden 
 
 Clarke, while admitting that much of it is 
 
 The Cowden " excellent " and " true," goes on to 
 
 facoifatiom add these words : " But when our 
 
 of Writers. ar tist pronounces that 'his eyes 
 
 were large and blue' and that ' his hair was 
 
 auburn', I am naturally reminded of the 
 
 1 Chameleon ' fable ' they were brown, ma'am 
 
 brown, I assure you ' ! . . . Reader, alter, 
 
 in your copy of the Life of Keats, vol. i. page 
 
JOHN KEATS 157 
 
 103, 'eyes' light hazel, 'hair' lightish brown 
 and wavy'' 
 
 " Keats, when he died, had just completed 
 his four and twentieth year. He was under 
 the middle height, and his lower Leigh Hu nt's 
 limbs were small in comparison *"M>gratky. 
 with the upper, but neat and well-turned. 
 His shoulders were very broad for his size ; 
 he had a face in which energy and sensibility 
 were remarkably mixed up ; an eager power, 
 checked and made patient by ill -health. 
 Every feature was at once strongly cut, 
 and delicately alive. If there was any faulty 
 expression, it was in the mouth, which was 
 not without something of a character of 
 pugnacity. His face was rather long than 
 otherwise ; the upper lip projected a little 
 over the under ; the chin was bold, the cheeks 
 sunken ; the eyes are mellow and glowing, 
 large, dark, and sensitive. At the recital of 
 a noble action, or a beautiful thought, they 
 would suffuse with tears, and his mouth 
 trembled. In this there was ill-health as 
 
158 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 well as imagination, for he did not like these 
 betrayals of emotion ; and he had great 
 personal as well as moral courage. He once 
 chastised a butcher, who had been insolent, 
 by a regular stand-up fight. His hair, of a 
 brown colour, was fine, and hung in natural 
 ringlets. The head was a puzzle for the 
 phrenologists, being remarkably small in the 
 skull a singularity which he had in common 
 with Byron and Shelley, whose hats I could 
 not get on. Keats was sensible of the dis- 
 proportion above noticed between his upper 
 and lower extremities, and he would look at 
 his hand, which was faded, and swollen in the 
 veins, and say it was the hand of a man of 
 fifty." 1826. 
 
 JOHN KEBLE 
 
 1792-1866 
 
 " To me both the portraits are full of deep 
 interest " (these portraits of Keble, the one in 
 
JOHN KEBLE 159 
 
 the prime of manhood and the other in old 
 age, were drawn by Richmond), "the earlier 
 and the later both each brings 
 
 J. Coleridge's 
 
 him back to me as he was ; in Memoir of the 
 
 Rev. John Kebk. 
 
 the earlier, he has some of the 
 merry defiance he could assume in argument ; 
 in the latter, I see the sad tenderness of his 
 advanced years. Keble had not regular 
 features ; he could not be called a handsome 
 man, but he was one to be noticed anywhere, 
 and remembered long ; his forehead and 
 hair beautiful in all ages ; his eyes, full of 
 play, intelligence, and emotion, followed you 
 while you spoke ; and they lighted up, 
 especially with pleasure, or indignation, as it 
 might be, when he answered you. The most 
 pleasing photograph is one in which he is 
 standing by Mrs. Keble's side ; she is sitting 
 with a book in her hand. The later photo- 
 graphs are to me very unpleasant. I will 
 attempt no more particular description, for I 
 feel how little definite I can convey in 
 writing." 
 
160 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 " Mr. Keble greeted us, emerging from 
 
 his little study, the door of which, as I after- 
 
 The Christian wards noticed, oftener than not, 
 
 observer, 1871. stood open> . . . His features, 
 
 indeed, were familiar to us, as to most 
 people, from the engraving of Richmond's 
 first portrait of him, taken in middle life for 
 Sir John Coleridge. Now the original stood 
 before me, and I saw at a glance that face 
 and figure had been faithfully portrayed. 
 The forehead was pale and serene, the hair 
 silvery ; doubtless this token of advancing 
 years must have helped to give softness and 
 refinement to the features ; eyebrows, 
 sprinkled with white, shaded eyes of singular 
 brilliancy and depth of expression, as ready (I 
 afterwards well knew) to light up with mirth 
 and mischief while playful talk was going on, 
 as they were to melt into mournful earnestness 
 when graver topics were broached. He 
 habitually wore glasses, but used often to 
 take them off and hold them in his hand 
 when conversing with animation. A dear 
 
JOHN KEBLE 161 
 
 and old friend of his has told me that he 
 'looked almost boyish till about fifty, and 
 after that rapidly aged in personal appear- 
 ance.' At this time he was in his sixty-first 
 year, healthy and strong and active. ... In 
 appearance he was quite one's ideal of an 
 old-fashioned country clergyman, but of one 
 whose Oxford days were still fresh in his 
 mind ; there was a touch of vieille cour in his 
 manner, which added, I think, to its charm. 
 His voice in speaking was rather low, and 
 especially so when the subject of conversa- 
 tion was very near his heart. It often struck 
 me, when listening to him, that without the 
 slightest effort or aim at effect, he always hit 
 upon the most suitable and telling words, 
 (and the shortest), in which to clothe his 
 ideas. This unconscious beauty of language, 
 coupled with the originality and wisdom of 
 the ideas themselves, riveted them in one's 
 memory ; the look, too, with which they were 
 uttered, could not be forgotten, and rises as 
 vividly before my mind's eye 'through the 
 
 ii 
 
162 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 golden mist of years ' as though it belonged to 
 
 the present, instead of the 'long ago.'" 1852. 
 
 " People who went to look at Mr. Keble 
 
 as a ' lion ' were, I think, disappointed to see 
 
 a very simple old-fashioned cleri- 
 
 L. A. Hunting- 
 ford : private cal gentleman, with very little 
 
 letter. 
 
 manner, and so completely un- 
 conscious of self that as he talked of common 
 things, they were inclined to think as little 
 of him as he thought of himself. He used 
 to come down early and stand writing at a 
 side-table till it was quite time for prayers 
 and breakfast, and then sit down anywhere 
 and, with a little peculiar jerk of the head 
 and shoulders, read a short ' Instruction,' 
 almost as if he were reading it to himself. 
 Certain people even called his reading bad, 
 for his voice was weak, and he had a slight 
 cough which never wholly left him ; but he 
 brought out the meaning of Holy Scripture 
 in a manner which I never heard surpassed. 
 Mr. Keble was of middle height, very thin, 
 with a splendid forehead, bright eyes which 
 
JOHN KEBLE 163 
 
 were rather hidden by his spectacles, and a 
 sweet merry smile. Those who knew him 
 well must remember the way in which he 
 used to pull himself together, as if he were 
 a boy obeying a well-known rule to 'hold 
 up his head.' His manner was nervous, so 
 much so that people who were not intimately 
 acquainted with him were rarely quite at 
 their ease when in his presence. The two 
 pictures of Mr. Keble by Richmond are both 
 good likenesses ; but the lithograph of the 
 head which was taken from the then-un- 
 finished picture which, in its completed form, 
 now hangs in Keble College, Oxford, has 
 caught the peculiar intelligence of the eyes 
 when lighted up with the eager brightness 
 his friends knew so well. He had the un- 
 usual power of being able to write upon one 
 subject and listen to the discussion of another 
 at the same time ; and he would often glance 
 up from the paper in which he was appar- 
 ently immersed, and pushing up his spectacles 
 join eagerly in the conversation." 
 
164 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 CHARLES KINGSLEY 
 
 1812-1875 
 
 1 ' TORQUAY, January 30^. Charles Kingsley 
 called, but we missed him. 
 
 "February $d. We paid him and his wife 
 a very happy call ; he fraternising 
 
 Caroline Fox's 
 
 journals and at once, and stuttering pleasant 
 
 Letters. ...... , . 
 
 and discriminating things con- 
 cerning F. D. Maurice, Coleridge and others. 
 He looks sunburnt with dredging all the 
 morning, has a piercing eye under an over- 
 hanging brow, and his voice is most 
 melodious and his pronunciation exquisite. 
 He is strangely attractive." 1854. 
 
 " I was present at a meeting not long since 
 where Mr. Kingsley was one of the principal 
 \The Galaxy, speakers. The meeting was held 
 
 l872 * in London, the audience was a 
 peculiarly Cockney audience, and Charles 
 Kingsley is personally little known to the 
 
CHARLES KINGSLE Y 1 65 
 
 public of the metropolis. Therefore when he 
 began to speak there was quite a little thrill 
 of wonder and something like incredulity 
 through the listening benches. Could that, 
 people near me asked, really be Charles 
 Kingsley, the novelist, the poet, the scholar, 
 the aristocrat, the gentleman, the pulpit- 
 orator, the ' soldier - priest/ the apostle of 
 muscular Christianity ? Yes, that was indeed 
 he. Rather tall, very angular, surprisingly 
 awkward, with thin staggering legs, a hatchet 
 face adorned with scraggy gray whiskers, a 
 faculty for falling into the most ungainly 
 attitudes, and making the most hideous 
 contortions of visage and frame ; with a 
 rough provincial accent and an uncouth way 
 of speaking which would be set down for 
 absurd caricature on the boards of a comic 
 theatre. Such was the appearance which the 
 author of Glaucus and Hypatia presented 
 to his startled audience. Since Brougham's 
 time nothing so ungainly, odd, and ludicrous 
 had been displayed upon an English platform. 
 
i66 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 Needless to say, Charles Kingsley has not 
 the eloquence of Brougham. But he has a 
 robust and energetic plain-speaking which 
 soon struck home to the heart of the meeting. 
 He conquered his audience. Those who 
 at first could hardly keep from laughing, 
 those who, not knowing the speaker, 
 wondered whether he was not mad or in 
 liquor, those who heartily disliked his 
 general principles and his public attitude, 
 were alike won over, long before he had 
 finished, by his bluff and blunt earnestness 
 and his transparent sincerity." 
 
 " For nine years the portrait of Kingsley, 
 
 close to that of John Parker, has looked down 
 
 Frasers from the wall of the room in 
 
 Magazine, i8 7 7- w hich I write. It IS a large 
 
 photograph, taken, while he was on a visit to 
 the house, by an amateur of extraordinary 
 ability, the late Dr. Adamson of St. Andrews. 
 It is the best and most lifelike portrait of 
 Kingsley known to me. It has the stern 
 expression, which came partly of the effort, 
 
CHARLES KINGSLE Y 1 67 
 
 never quite ceasing, to express himself 
 through that characteristic stammer which 
 quite left him in public speaking, and which 
 in private added to the effect of his wonder- 
 ful talk. Photography caught him easily. 
 Those who look at the portrait prefixed to 
 Volume I. of the Life see the man as he 
 lived. Mr. Woolner's bust, shown at the 
 beginning of Volume II., shows him aged 
 and shrunken, not more than he was but more 
 than he ought to have been ; and the re- 
 moval of all hair from the face is a marked 
 difference from the fact in life ; yet the like- 
 ness is perfect too. That somewhat severe 
 face belied one of the kindest hearts that 
 ever beat : yet the handsome and chivalrous 
 features unworthily expressed one of the 
 truest, bravest, and noblest of souls. Kingsley 
 could not have done a mean or false thing : 
 by his make it was as impossible as that 
 water should run uphill." 
 
1 68 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 CHARLES LAMB 
 
 1775-1834 
 
 " LAMB, at this period of his life, then passed 
 
 regularly, after taking wine, under a brief 
 
 eclipse of sleep. It descended 
 
 de Quincey's 
 
 Life and upon him as soft as a shadow. In 
 
 Writings. . , 
 
 a gross person laden with super- 
 fluous flesh, and sleeping heavily, this would 
 have been disagreeable ; but in Lamb, thin 
 even to meagreness, spare and wiry as an 
 Arab of the desert, or as Thomas Aquinas, 
 wasted by scholastic vigils, the affection of 
 sleep seemed rather a net-work of aerial 
 gossamer than of earthly cobweb, more like 
 a golden haze falling upon him gently from 
 the heavens than a cloud exhaling upwards 
 from the flesh. Motionless in his chair as a 
 bust, breathing so gently as scarcely to seem 
 entirely alive, he presented the image of 
 repose midway between life and death like 
 
or THE 
 
 X 
 
 Y 
 
 169 
 
 the repose of sculpture, and to one who knew 
 his history, a repose contrasting with the 
 calamities and internal storms of his life. I 
 have heard more persons than I can now 
 distinctly recall, observe of Lamb when 
 sleeping, that his countenance in that state 
 assumed an expression almost seraphic, from 
 its intellectual beauty of outline, its childlike 
 simplicity, and its benignity. It could not 
 be called a transfiguration that sleep worked 
 in his face ; for the features wore essentially 
 the same expression when waking ; but sleep 
 spiritualised that expression, exalted it, and 
 also harmonised it. Much of the change lay 
 in that last process. The eyes it was that 
 disturbed the unity of effect in Lamb's waking 
 face. They gave a restlessness to the 
 character of his intellect, shifting, like northern 
 lights, through every mode of combination 
 with fantastic playfulness ; and sometimes by 
 fiery gleams obliterating for the moment that 
 pure light of benignity which was the predomi- 
 nant reading on his features." 1822. 
 
170 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 "He was the leanest of mankind; tiny black 
 
 breeches buttoned to the knee-cap and no 
 
 Froude's further, surmounting spindle-legs 
 
 Life of Carlyle. alsQ j n b j ackj face and head fi^h, 
 
 black, bony, lean, and of a Jew type rather ; 
 in the eyes a kind of smoky brightness, or 
 confused sharpness ; spoke with a stutter ; in 
 walking tottered and shuffled, emblem of 
 imbecility, bodily and spiritual (something of 
 real insanity, I have understood), and yet some- 
 thing, too, of human, ingenuous, pathetic, sport- 
 fully much enduring. Poor Lamb ! he was 
 infinitely astonished at my wife, and her quiet 
 encounter of his too ghastly London wit by a 
 cheerful native ditto. Adieu ! poor Lamb ! " 
 " Methinks I see him before me now, as 
 he appeared then, and as he continued with 
 scarcely any perceptible alteration 
 
 Talfourd's ' J \ r 
 
 Reminiscence of to me, during the twenty years 
 
 Charles Lamb. r . i . i /- n 
 
 of intimacy which followed, and 
 were closed by his death. A light frame, so 
 fragile that it seemed as if a breath would 
 overthrow it, clad in clerklike black, was 
 
CHARLES LAMB 1 7 1 
 
 surmounted by a head of form and expression 
 the most noble and sweet. His black hair 
 curled crisply about an expanded forehead ; 
 his eyes, softly brown, twinkled with varying 
 expression, though the prevalent feeling was 
 sad ; and the nose slightly curved, and deli- 
 cately carved at the nostril, with the lower 
 outline of the face regularly oval, completed a 
 head which was finely placed on the shoulders, 
 and gave importance and even dignity to a 
 diminutive and shadowy stem. Who shall 
 describe his countenance, catch its quivering 
 sweetness, and fix it for ever in words ? There 
 are none, alas, to answer the vain desire of 
 friendship. Deep thought striving with humour, 
 thelinesof suffering wreathed intocordial mirth, 
 and a smile of painful sweetness, present an 
 image to the mind it can as little describe as 
 lose. His personal appearance and manner 
 are not unfitly characterised by what he 
 himself says in one of his letters to Manning, 
 of Braham, 'a compound of the Jew, the 
 gentleman, and the angel.'" Written shortly 
 after Lamb's death. 
 
172 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON 
 
 1802-1838 
 
 " . . . Miss LANDON, a young poetess 
 crabb Robinson's a starling the L. E. L. of 
 Diary ' the Gazette, with a gay good- 
 humoured face, which gave me a favourable 
 impression." 1826. 
 
 "Her hair was 'darkly brown,' very soft 
 
 and beautiful, and always tastefully arranged ; 
 
 Bianchard's her %ure, as before remarked, 
 
 LifeofL.E.L. ^^ ^ we H_f orme d an d 
 
 graceful ; her feet small, but her hands 
 especially so, and faultlessly white and finely 
 shaped ; her fingers were fairy fingers ; her 
 ears also were observably little. Her face, 
 though not regular in ' every feature/ became 
 beautiful by expression, every flash of 
 thought, every change and colour of feeling 
 lightened over it as she spoke, when she 
 spoke earnestly. The forehead was not 
 
LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON 173 
 
 high, but broad and full ; the eyes had no 
 overpowering brilliancy, but their clear in- 
 tellectual light penetrated by its exquisite 
 softness ; her mouth was not less marked by 
 character, and, besides the glorious faculty of 
 uttering the pearls and diamonds of fancy 
 and wit, knew how to express scorn, or 
 anger, or pride, as well as it knew how to 
 smile winningly, or to pour forth those short, 
 quick, ringing laughs which, not excepting 
 even her bon-mots and aphorisms, were the 
 most delightful things that issued from it." 
 1832. 
 
 " Small of person, but well formed. Her 
 dark silken hair braided back over a small, 
 but what phrenologists would call 
 
 o \*> Jitlil S 
 
 a well -developed head; her fore- Retrospect of a 
 head full and open, but the hair 
 grew low upon it ; the eyebrows perfect in 
 arch and form ; the eyes round soft or 
 flashing as might be gray, well formed, and 
 beautifully set ; the lashes long and black, 
 the under lashes turning down with delicate 
 
174 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 curve, and forming a soft relief upon the 
 tint of her cheek, which, when she enjoyed 
 good health, was bright and blushing ; her 
 complexion was delicately fair ; her skin soft 
 and transparent ; her nose small (retrousse*), 
 slightly curved, but capable of scornful ex- 
 pression, which she did not appear to have 
 the power of repressing, even though she 
 gave her thoughts no words, when any 
 despicable action was alluded to." About 
 
 1835- 
 
 WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR 
 
 1775-1864 
 
 "HE was a man of florid complexion, with 
 large full eyes, and altogether a leonine man, 
 
 Crabb Robinson's and witn a fierceness of tone 
 
 well suited to his name ; his 
 decisions being confident, and on all subjects, 
 whether of taste or life, unqualified, each 
 standing for itself, not caring whether it was 
 
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR 175 
 
 in harmony with what had gone before or 
 would follow from the same oracular lips. 
 But why should I trouble myself to describe 
 him ? He is painted by a master hand in 
 Dickens's novel Bleak House, now in course 
 of publication, where he figures as Mr. 
 Boythorn. The combination of superficial 
 ferocity and inherent tenderness, so admir- 
 ably portrayed in Bleak House, still at first 
 strikes every stranger, for twenty-two years 
 have not materially changed him, no less 
 than his perfect frankness and reckless in- 
 difference to what he says." 1830. 
 
 "... He was at that time sixty years of 
 age, although he did not look so old ; his 
 form and features were essentially 
 
 S. C. Hall's 
 
 masculine; he was not tall, but Retrospect of a 
 
 , r i 
 
 stalwart ; of a robust constitution, 
 and was proud even to arrogance of his 
 physical and intellectual strength. He was 
 a man to whom passers-by would have looked 
 back and asked, " Who is that ? " His fore- 
 head was high, but retreated, showing re- 
 
176 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 markable absence of the organs of bene- 
 volence and veneration. It was a large head, 
 fullest at the back, where the animal pro- 
 pensities predominate ; it was a powerful, 
 but not a good head, the expression the 
 opposite of genial. In short, physiognomists 
 and phrenologists would have selected it, 
 each to illustrate his theory." 1836. 
 
 " His tall, broad, muscular, active frame 
 was characteristic, and so was his head, with 
 
 Harriet the strange elevation of the eye- 
 ^Tog^cai brows w}lich expresses self-will as 
 
 sketches, strongly in some cases as astonish- 
 ment in others. Those eyebrows, mounting 
 up until they comprehend a good portion of 
 the forehead, have been observed in many 
 more paradoxical persons than one. Then 
 there was the retreating but broad forehead, 
 showing the deficiency of reasoning and 
 speculative power, with the preponderance 
 of imagination and a huge passion for de- 
 struction. The massive self-love and self- 
 will carried up his head to something 
 
CHARLES LE VER 1 7 7 
 
 more than a dignified bearing even to one 
 of arrogance. His vivid and quick eye, and 
 the thoughtful mouth, were fine, and his 
 whole air was that of a man distinguished in 
 his own eyes certainly, but also in those of 
 others. Tradition reports he was handsome 
 in his youth. In age he was more." 
 
 CHARLES LEVER 
 
 1806-1872 
 
 " I FOUND him seated at an open window, a 
 bottle of claret at his right hand, and the 
 proof-sheets of Lord Kilgobbin Fitz- Patrick's 
 before him. ... At the date of *&/*" 
 our visit he looked a hale, hearty, laughter- 
 loving man of sixty. There was mirth in 
 his gray eye, joviality in the wink that 
 twittered on his eyelid, saucy humour in his 
 smile, and bon-mot, wit, repartee, and re- 
 joinder in every movement of his lips. His 
 
 12 
 
178 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 hair very thin, but of a silky brown, fell 
 across his forehead, and when it curtained 
 his eyes he would jerk back his head this, 
 too, at some telling crisis in a narrative, 
 when the particular action was just the exact 
 finish required to make the story perfect. 
 Mr. Lever's teeth were all his own and very 
 brilliant, and whether from accident or habit, 
 he flashed them on us in conjunction with 
 his wonderful eyes, a battery at once power- 
 ful and irresistible. ... Mr. Lever made 
 great use of his hands, which were small 
 and white and delicate as those of a woman. 
 He made play with them, threw them up in 
 ecstasy, or wrung them in mournfulness, just 
 as the action of the moment demanded. He 
 did not require eyes or teeth with such a 
 voice and such hands ; they could tell and 
 illustrate the workings of his brain. He 
 was somewhat careless in his dress, but clung 
 to the, traditional high shirt -collar, merely 
 compromising the unswerving stock of the 
 Brummell period." 
 
MA TTHE W GREGOR Y LE WIS 1 79 
 
 MATTHEW GREGORY LEWIS 
 
 1775-1818 
 
 " IN person, Mat Lewis (as his intimate 
 friends at first termed him) was quite 
 ordinary; his stature was rather The Southern 
 diminutive ; his face was almost MesL^er 
 an ellipse, looking upon it from l8 49- 
 the side, and his features though pleasant 
 were not to be regarded as handsome. His 
 forehead, however, was high and his eyes 
 very lustrous." 
 
 " Lewis's personal appearance was not pre- 
 possessing. He describes himself as 
 
 Of passions strong, of hasty nature, Jeaffreson's 
 
 Novels and 
 Of graceless form and dwarfish stature. 3 Novelists. 
 
 He had, moreover, large gray eyes, thick 
 features, and an inexpressive countenance. 
 When he talked he had an insufferable habit 
 of drawing the fore-finger of his right hand 
 across his eyelid, and in conversation he was 
 
i8o WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 guilty of the absurd affectation of a drawling 
 tone such as was popular with dandies." 
 
 " Matthew Gregory Lewis. Of this 
 
 gentleman I knew but little, not having 
 
 New Monthly encountered him half a dozen 
 
 Magazine, 1848. times after my i ntro d UC tion tO 
 
 him at the house of Nat Middleton, the 
 banker. With a short thick-set figure, unin- 
 tellectual features, and a disagreeable habit 
 of peering, being very short-sighted, his 
 aspect was by no means prepossessing ; but 
 as he had 'that within which passeth show,' 
 he recovered the ground lost at starting as 
 rapidly as Wilkes could have done." 
 
 JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART 
 
 1794-1854 
 
 " ENDOWED with the very highest order of 
 manly beauty, both of features and expression, 
 he retained the brilliancy of youth and a stately 
 
RICHARD LOVELACE 181 
 
 strength of person comparatively unimpaired 
 in ripened life ; and then, though sorrow and 
 sickness suddenly brought on a The TimeSt 
 premature old age which none 9th Dec ' l854 " 
 could witness unmoved, yet the beauty of the 
 head and of the bearing so far gained in 
 melancholy loftiness of expression what they 
 lost in animation, that the last phase, whether 
 to the eye of painter or of anxious friend, 
 seemed always the finest." 
 
 SIR RICHARD LOVELACE 
 
 1618-1658 
 
 " RICHARD LOVELACE . . . became a gent- 
 commoner of Glo'cester Hall in the beginning 
 of the year 1634, and in that of 
 
 Anthony Wood s 
 
 his age 16, being then accounted Athena 
 
 Oxonienses. 
 
 the most amiable and beautiful 
 
 person that ever eye beheld, a person also of 
 
 innate modesty, virtue, and courtly deportment, 
 
182 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 which made him then, but especially after, 
 when he retired to the great city, much 
 admired and adored by the female sex. . . . 
 Accounted by all those that well knew him, 
 to have been a person well vers'd in the 
 Greek and Latin poets, in music, whether 
 practical or theoretical, instrumental or vocal, 
 and in other things befitting a gentleman. 
 Some of the said persons have also added in 
 my hearing, that his common discourse was 
 not only significant and witty, but incom- 
 parably graceful, which drew respect from all 
 men and women." 1634 and 1658. 
 
 " The personal attractions of Richard 
 Lovelace have been much extolled by his 
 The Gentleman's contemporaries ; nor is this 
 
 Magazine, 1884. 
 
 matter for wonder. A picture 
 of the poet by an unknown painter, preserved 
 in the old college at Dulwich, to which it was 
 bequeathed by Cartwright the actor, in 1687, 
 represents him as a very handsome man. 
 The face is oval, the hair, worn Cavalier 
 fashion, long, is of a dark brown colour and 
 
ED WARD, L ORD L YTTON 1 83 
 
 falls down in abundant masses, while the 
 mustachios are small and thin. The small, 
 well - formed mouth is perhaps a trifle 
 voluptuous, but is nevertheless suggestive of 
 firmness of character. The eyes are large 
 and dark, and the well-arched and delicately 
 pencilled eyebrows are unusually far apart ; 
 the general expression of the face is singularly- 
 sweet and winning. The hand is small, well 
 formed and aristocratic. Lovelace is attired 
 in armour, with a white collar, and across the 
 breast is thrown a red scarf. The picture is 
 inscribed 'Col. Lovelace.' 
 
 EDWARD, LORD LYTTON 
 
 1803-1873 
 
 " A YOUNG man whose features, though of a 
 somewhat effeminate cast, were 
 
 S. C. Hall's 
 
 remarkably handsome. His bear- Retrospect of a 
 
 . . long Life. 
 
 mg had that aristocratic some- 
 thing bordering on hauteur, which clung to 
 
1 84 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 him during his life. I never saw the famous 
 writer without being reminded of the passage, 
 1 Stand back ; I am holier than thou.' 1826. 
 
 " The last time I saw him was in his then 
 residence, No. 12 Grosvenor Square. It was 
 growing towards fifty years since first we had 
 met, and there were more changes in him than 
 those that time usually brings. His once 
 handsome face had assumed the desolation 
 without the dignity of age. His locks, once 
 brown, inclining to auburn, were shaggy and 
 grizzled ; his mouth, seldom smiling even in 
 youth, was close shut ; his whole aspect had 
 something in it at once painful and un- 
 pleasant." About 1872. 
 
 " Bulwer is described as having been, at 
 this period of his first brilliant triumph, rather 
 Apputoris taller than the middle height, 
 journal, i* n . w ; t h a graceful, slender figure, 
 well-proportioned limbs, and a countenance 
 stamped with distinctly aristocratic features 
 and expression. His dark-brown, curly hair, 
 his large and bright blue eye, his decided, 
 
EDWARD, LORD LYTTON 
 
 though delicately-formed aquiline nose, his 
 rather full and handsome mouth, his patrician, 
 almost haughty pose and manner, as seen 
 at that time, are dwelt on, with true feminine 
 enthusiasm, by a lady who frequented the 
 circles of which he was regarded as one of 
 the most shining ornaments." 1828. 
 
 "It was my fortune to see Bulwer in the 
 House of Commons in 1863 and 1865, and 
 in the House of Lords, to which Applets 
 he had recently risen, in 1868. Journal > l873 ' 
 He then had the appearance of being a man 
 of some fifty years, tallish, straight, stiff, and 
 proudly sedate. His long, sombre face was 
 no longer * fair,' but was yellow and wrinkled, 
 while the almost cadaverous aspect of his 
 features added to the really far from pro- 
 portionate prominence of his long, aquiline 
 nose. He now wore a moustache with his 
 ' heavy red whiskers,' which had themselves 
 become a dull brown, plentifully sprinkled 
 with gray ; and upon his chin he grew an 
 imperial. His hair was still thick, but no 
 
1 86 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 trace of its rich auburn hue of youth re- 
 mained ; it was a heavy gray in colour. 
 Spectacles partially concealed the large but 
 now dulled and glassy blue eyes ; and the 
 whole appearance was far from prepossessing. 
 On the former occasion referred to, I heard 
 him address the House in an eloquent and 
 evidently carefully-prepared speech of half an 
 hour. His manner was quiet and subdued, 
 his voice no longer ' lover-like and sweet/ but 
 rather harsh and grating, and his declamation 
 humdrum ; occasionally a spark of the old 
 animation appeared, when he drew himself up 
 to the full height, and, for the moment seemed 
 a very orator in motion as in speech ; but the 
 spark soon vanished, and he was again 
 Pelham grown old, the exhausted and 
 melancholy beau and wit of the past, 
 struggling through an imposed task. . . . 
 His dress was conspicuously plain, almost 
 stiff and ministerial ; though there was some- 
 thing about the attire of the neck which 
 seemed a suspicion of a relic of dandyism." 
 
THOMAS BAB1NGTON MA CA ULA Y 187 
 
 THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY 
 
 18001859 
 
 " MACAULAY'S outward man was never better 
 described than in two sentences of Praed's In- 
 troduction to Knight's Quarterly 
 
 * Trevelyan's Life 
 
 Magazine. ' There came up a and Letters of 
 
 Lord Macaulay. 
 
 short manly figure, marvellously 
 upright, with a bad neckcloth, and one hand 
 in his waistcoat pocket. Of regular beauty 
 he had little to boast ; but in faces where 
 there is an expression of great power, or of 
 great good-humour, or both, you do not regret 
 its absence.' This picture, in which every 
 touch is correct, tells all that there is to be told. 
 He had a massive head, and features of a 
 powerful and rugged cast, but so constantly 
 lit up by every joyful and ennobling emotion 
 that it mattered little if, when absolutely 
 quiescent, his face was rather homely than 
 handsome. While conversing at table no one 
 
1 88 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 thought him otherwise than good-looking ; 
 but, when he rose, he was seen to be short 
 and stout in figure. 'At Holland House, the 
 other day,' writes his sister Margaret in Sep- 
 tember 1831, 'Tom met Lady Lyndhurst 
 for the first time. She said to him : " Mr. 
 Macaulay, you are so different to what 
 I had expected. I thought you were dark 
 and thin, but you are fair, and really, Mr. 
 Macaulay, you are fat !'" He at all times sat 
 and stood straight, full, and square ; and in 
 this respect Woolner, in the fine statue at 
 Cambridge, has missed what was undoubtedly 
 the most marked fact in his personal appear- 
 ance. He dressed badly, but not cheaply. 
 His clothes, though ill put on, were good, and 
 his wardrobe was always enormously over- 
 stocked." 1822 and 1831. 
 
 " I went to James Stephen, and drove with 
 
 Crabb Robin- mm to m ' s nouse a t Hendon. A 
 son's Diary, dinner-party. I had a most in- 
 teresting companion in young Macaulay, one 
 of the most promising of the rising generation 
 
THOMAS BABINGTON MA CA ULA Y 1 89 
 
 I have seen for a long time. He has a good 
 face, not the delicate features of a man of 
 genius and sensibility, but the strong lines and 
 well-knit limbs of a man sturdy in body and 
 mind. Very eloquent and cheerful. Over- 
 flowing with words, and not poor in thought. 
 Liberal in opinion, but no radical. He seems 
 a correct as well as a full man. He showed 
 a minute knowledge of subjects not introduced 
 by himself." 1826. 
 
 " I never heard Macaulay speak in the 
 House, where, although by no means an 
 orator, he always made a strong 
 
 S. C. Hall's 
 
 impression. He spoke as he Retrospect of a 
 
 1 i i 1 l n S Life, 
 
 wrote, eloquently in the choicest 
 diction, smooth, easy, graceful, and ever to 
 the purpose, striving to convince rather than 
 persuade, and grudging no toil of preparation 
 to sustain an argument or enforce a truth. 
 His person was in his favour; in form as 
 in mind he was robust, with a remarkably 
 intelligent expression, aided by deep blue 
 eyes that seemed to sparkle, and a mouth 
 
1 9 o WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 remarkably flexible. His countenance was 
 certainly well calculated to impress on his 
 audience the classical language ever at his 
 command so faithfully did it mirror the high 
 intelligence of the speaker. ... I found him 
 as the world has found him a man of rare 
 intelligence, deep research, and untiring 
 energy in pursuit of facts : also a kind, 
 courteous, and unaffected gentleman. His 
 memory is to me one of the pleasantest I can 
 recall." 
 
 WILLIAM MAGINN 
 
 1793-1842 
 
 " ALL were standing, all were listening to 
 
 some one who sat in the middle of a group. 
 
 A low-seated man, short in stature, 
 
 William 
 
 Maginn'sJ/w- was uttering pleasantries and 
 
 cellanies. . ... . . 
 
 scattering witticisms about him 
 with the careless glee of his country. His 
 articulation was impeded by a stutter, yet the 
 
WILLIAM MA GINN 1 9 1 
 
 sentences he stammered forth were brilliant 
 repartees uttered without sharpness, and 
 edged rather with humour than with satire. 
 His countenance was rather agreeable than 
 striking ; its expression sweet rather than 
 bright ; the gray hair, coming straight over 
 his forehead, gave a singular appearance to a 
 face still bearing the attributes of youth. He 
 was thirty or thereabouts, but his thoughtful 
 brow, his hair, and the paleness of his com- 
 plexion, gave him many of the attributes 
 of age. His conversation was careless and 
 off-hand, and, but for the impediment of 
 speech, would have had the charm of a rich 
 comedy. His choice of words was such as 
 I have rarely met with in any of my con- 
 temporaries." 1824. 
 
 " I dined to-day at the Salopian with Dr. 
 Maginn. He is a most remarkable fellow. 
 His flow of ideas is incredibly Bentley > s Mis _ 
 quick, and his articulation so rapid, cfl/an * l842 * 
 that it is difficult to follow him. He is 
 altogether a person of vast acuteness, celerity 
 
192 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 of apprehension, and indefatigable activity 
 both of body and mind. His is about my own 
 height ; but I could allow him an inch round 
 the chest. His forehead is very finely de- 
 veloped, his organ of language and ideality 
 large, and his reasoning faculties excellent. 
 His hair is quite gray, although he does not 
 look more than forty. I imagined he was 
 much older looking, and that he wore a 
 wig. While conversing his eye is never a 
 moment at rest : in fact his whole body is 
 in motion, and he keeps scrawling grotesque 
 figures upon the paper before him, and 
 rubbing them out again as fast as he draws 
 them. He and Gifford are, as you know, 
 joint editors of the Standard" 
 
 11 Well does the writer of this notice 
 
 recollect the feelings with which he first 
 
 wended to the residence of his 
 
 The Dttblin 
 
 University late friend. He was then but a 
 
 Magazine, 1844. 
 
 mere boy, fresh from the uni- 
 versity. . . . He went, and was shown up- 
 stairs ; the doctor was not at home, but was 
 
WILLIAM MA GINN 1 93 
 
 momentarily expected. . . . Suddenly, when 
 his heart almost sank within him, a light step 
 was heard ascending the stairs it could not 
 be a man's foot no, it was too delicate for 
 that ; it must, certainly, be the nursery-maid. 
 The step was arrested at the door, a brief 
 interval, and Maginn entered. The spell 
 vanished like lightning, and the visitor took 
 heart in a moment. No formal-looking per- 
 sonage, in customary suit of solemn black, 
 stood before him, but a slight, boyish, care- 
 less figure, with a blue eye, the mildest ever 
 seen hair, not exactly white, but of a sunned 
 snow colour an easy, familiar smile and a 
 countenance that you would be more inclined 
 to laugh with than feel terror from. He 
 bounded across the room with a most un- 
 scholar-like eagerness, and warmly welcomed 
 the visitor, asking him a thousand questions, 
 and putting him at ease with himself in a 
 moment. Then, taking his arm, both sallied 
 forth into the street, where, for a long time, 
 the visitor was in doubt whether it was 
 
 13 
 
i 9 4 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 Maginn to whom he was really talking as 
 familiarly as if he were his brother, or whether 
 the whole was a dream. And such, indeed, 
 was the impression generally made on the 
 minds of all strangers but, as in the present 
 case, it was dispelled instantly the living 
 original appeared. Then was to be seen the 
 kindness and gentleness of heart which tinged 
 every word and gesture with sweetness ; the 
 suavity and mildness, so strongly the reverse 
 of what was to be expected from the most 
 galling satirest of the day ; the openness of 
 soul and countenance, that disarmed even the 
 bitterest of his opponents ; the utter absence 
 of anything like prejudice and bigotry from 
 him the ablest and most devoted champion of 
 the Church and State. No pedantry in his 
 language, no stateliness of style, no forced 
 metaphors, no inappropriate anecdote, no 
 overweening confidence all easy, simple, 
 agreeable, and unzoned." 
 
FRANCIS MAHONY 195 
 
 FRANCIS MAHONY 
 
 (FATHER PROUT) 
 1805-1866 
 
 " STOOPING his short arid spare but thick-set 
 figure as he walked, wearing his ill-brushed 
 hat upon the extreme back of his The works of 
 head, clothed in the slovenliest Father Prout ' 
 way in a semi-clerical dress of the shabbiest 
 character, he sauntered by with his right arm 
 habitually clasped behind him in his left 
 hand, altogether presenting to view so 
 distinctly the appearance of a member of one 
 of the mendicant orders, that upon one occa- 
 sion, in the Rue de Rivoli, an intimate friend 
 of his found it impossible to resist the impulse 
 of slipping a sou into the open palm of his 
 right hand, with the apologetic remark, * You 
 do look so like a beggar.' Apart, however, 
 from his threadbare garb and shambling gait, 
 there were personal traits of character about 
 him which caught the attention almost at 
 
196 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 a glance, and piqued the curiosity of even 
 the least observant wayfarer. The ' roguish 
 Hibernian mouth,' noted in his regard by 
 Mr. Gruneisen, and the gray piercing eyes, 
 that looked up at you so keenly over his 
 spectacles, won your interest in him even 
 upon a first introduction. From the mocking 
 lips soon afterwards, if you fell into conver- 
 sation with him, came the * loud snappish 
 laugh,' with which, as Mr. Blanchard Jerrold 
 remarks, the Father so frequently evinced 
 his appreciation of a casual witticism up- 
 roarious fits of merriment signalising at other 
 moments one of his own ironical successes, 
 outbursts of fun followed during his later 
 years by the racking cough with which he 
 was too often then tormented." 
 
 u The Rev. Francis Mahony, or Father 
 
 Prout, trudging along the Boulevards with 
 
 Blanchard his arms clasped behind him, his 
 
 Father Prout. French caricaturists insist all 
 Englishmen wear hat or cap ; his quick, clear, 
 
FRANCIS MAHONY 197 
 
 deep-seeking eye wandering sharply to the 
 right or left, and sarcasm not of the sourest 
 kind playing like Jack-o'-lantern in the 
 corners of his mouth, Father Prout was as 
 much a character of the French capital as the 
 learned Armenian of the Imperial Library 
 only a few years ago. ... It was difficult 
 to meet Father Prout. He was an odd, 
 uncomfortable, uncertain man. His moods 
 changed like April skies. Light little 
 thoughts were busy in his brain, lively and 
 frisking as ' troutlets in a pool.' He was 
 impatient of interruption, and shambled 
 forward talking in an undertone to himself, 
 with now and then a bubble or two of 
 laughter, or one short sharp laugh almost 
 like a bark, like that of the marksman when 
 the arrow quivers in the bull's-eye. He 
 would pass you with a nod that meant ' Hold 
 off not to-day ! ' . . . He was very im- 
 patient if any injudicious friend or passing 
 acquaintance (who took him to be usually as 
 accessible as any flaneur on the macadam), 
 
198 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 thrust himself forward and would have his 
 hand and agree with him that it was a fine 
 day, but would possibly rain shortly. A 
 sharp answer, and an unceremonious plunge 
 forward without bow or good-day, would put 
 an end to the interruption. Of course the 
 Father was called a bear by shallow-pates 
 who could not see that there was something 
 extra in the little man talking to himself and 
 shuffling, with his hands behind him, through 
 the fines fleurs and grandes dames of the 
 Italian Boulevard." 
 
 " In recalling the Rev. Francis Mahony, 
 I am forcibly reminded of a few lines at the 
 A personal beginning of old Burton's An- 
 atomy of Melancholy : ' Demo- 
 critus, as he is described by Hippocrates, 
 and Laertius, was a little wearish old man, 
 very melancholy by nature, averse from 
 company in his latter dayes, and much given 
 to solitariness, a famous philosopher in his 
 age, . . . wholly addicted to his studies at 
 the last, and to a private life ; writ many ex- 
 
FREDERICK MARR YAT 199 
 
 cellent workes.' Substituting Father Prout's 
 name for that of Democritus, the words are 
 equally descriptive of the quaint little Irish- 
 man. He was a small spare man, with a 
 pale deeply-lined face ; badly dressed ; with 
 gray unkempt whiskers, and a certain waspish 
 expression on his thin face which was utterly 
 at variance, not only with the good Father's 
 writings, which for 'real larky fun,' as 
 James Hannay expressed it, are unsurpassed, 
 but also with the really kind nature of the 
 man. His eyes were by far the best feature 
 of his face. Keen, bright, and piercing, they 
 were eyes that held you. Their glance was 
 very rapid and eager, and instantly pre- 
 possessed you in his favour." 
 
 FREDERICK MARRYAT 
 
 17921848 
 
 " ALTHOUGH not handsome, Captain Marryat's 
 personal appearance was very prepossessing. 
 
200 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 In figure he was upright, and broad- 
 shouldered for his height, which measured 
 F. Marryat's fi ye ^ eet ten inches. His hands, 
 
 Life and Letters without be ; ng un der-sized, Were 
 
 of Captain o 
 
 Marryat. remarkably perfect in form, and 
 modelled by a sculptor at Rome on account 
 of their symmetry. The character of his 
 mind was borne out by his features, the most 
 salient expression of which was the frankness 
 of an open heart. The firm decisive mouth 
 and massive thoughtful forehead were re- 
 deemed from heaviness by the humorous 
 light that twinkled in his deep-set gray eyes, 
 which, bright as diamonds, positively flashed 
 out their fun, or their reciprocation of the 
 fun of others. As a young man, dark crisp 
 curls covered his head ; but, later in life, 
 when, having exchanged the sword for the 
 pen and the ploughshare, he affected a soberer 
 and more patriarchal style of dress and 
 manner, he wore his gray hair long, and 
 almost down to his shoulders. His eyebrows 
 were not alike, one being higher up and more 
 
FREDERICK MARR YAT 201 
 
 arched than the other, which peculiarity, 
 gave his face a look of inquiry, even in 
 repose. In the upper lip was a deep cleft, 
 and in his chin as deep a dimple a pitfall 
 for the razor, which, from the ready growth 
 of his dark beard, he was often compelled to 
 use twice a day." 
 
 "He was not a tall man five feet ten 
 but I think intended by nature to be six feet, 
 only having gone to sea when still 7^ comhiii, 
 almost a child, at a time when the 
 between -decks were very low-pitched, he 
 had, he himself declared, had his growth 
 unnaturally stopped. His immensely power- 
 ful build and massive chest, which measured 
 considerably over forty inches round, would 
 incline one to this belief. He had never 
 been handsome, as far as features went, but 
 the irregularity of his features might easily 
 be forgotten by those who looked at the 
 intellect shown in his magnificent forehead. 
 His forehead and his hands were his two 
 strong points. The latter were models of 
 
202 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 symmetry. Indeed, while resident at Rome, 
 at an earlier period of his life, he had been 
 requested by a sculptor to allow his hand to 
 be modelled. At the time I now speak of 
 him he was fifty-two years of age, but looked 
 considerably younger. His face was clean- 
 shaved, and his hair so long that it reached 
 almost to his shoulders, curly in light loose 
 locks like those of a woman. It was slightly 
 gray. He was dressed in anything but even- 
 ing costume on the present occasion, having 
 on a short velveteen shooting-jacket and 
 coloured trousers. I could not help smiling 
 as I glanced at his dress recalling to my 
 mind what a dandy he had been as a young 
 man." 1844. 
 
 HARRIET MARTINEAU 
 
 1802-1876 
 
 "SHE was graver and laughed more rarely 
 than any young person I ever knew. Her 
 
HARRIET MARTINEA U 203 
 
 face was plain, and (you will scarcely be- 
 lieve it) she had no light in the countenance, 
 no expression to redeem the H Martinea u's 
 features. The low brow and Autobiography. 
 rather large under lip increased the effect of 
 her natural seriousness of look, and did her 
 much injustice. I used to be asked occa- 
 sionally, ' What has offended Harriet that 
 she looks so glum ? ' I, who understood 
 her, used to answer, ' Nothing ; she is not 
 offended, it is only her look/" 1818. 
 
 " In the porch stood Miss Martineau her- 
 self. A lady of middle height, * inclined ' as 
 the novelists say 'to embonpoint ',' 
 
 James Payn s 
 
 with a smile on her kindly face Literary 
 
 Recollections, 
 
 and her trumpet at her ear. She 
 was at that time, I suppose, about fifty years 
 of age ; her brown hair had a little grey in it, 
 and was arranged with peculiar flatness over 
 a low but broad forehead. I don't think she 
 could ever have been pretty, but her features 
 were not uncomely, and their expression was 
 gentle and motherly." 1852. 
 
204 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 ". . . I saw Miss Martineau a few weeks 
 since. She is a large, robust, elderly woman, 
 
 H. Martineau's and plainly dressed ; but withal 
 Autobiography. she has so fa nAt cheerful, and 
 
 intelligent a face, that she is pleasanter to 
 look at than most beauties. Her hair is of a 
 decided gray, and she does not shrink from 
 calling herself old. She is the most con- 
 tinual talker I ever heard ; it is really like 
 the babbling of a brook ; and very lively and 
 sensible too ; and all the while she talks she 
 moves the bowl of her ear-trumpet from one 
 auditor to another, so that it becomes quite an 
 organ of intelligence and sympathy between 
 her and yourself. ... All her talk was about 
 herself and her affairs ; but it did not seem 
 like egotism, because it was so cheerful and 
 free from morbidness." About 1856. 
 
FREDERICK DENISON MA URICE 205 
 
 FREDERICK DENISON MAURICE 
 
 1805-1872 
 
 "HE was distinctly below the middle height, 
 not above five feet seven inches, but he had 
 a certain dignity of carriage, 
 
 F. Maurice's 
 
 despite the entire absence of any Life of 
 
 , F. D. Maurice, 
 
 self-assertion of manner, which m 
 the pulpit, where only his head and shoulders 
 were observable, removed the impression of 
 small stature. ... His hair was now of a 
 silvery white, very ample in quantity, fine 
 and soft as silk. The rush of his start for a 
 walk had gone. His movements had, like 
 his life, become quiet and measured. At no 
 time had there been so much beauty about 
 his face and figure. There was now partly 
 from manner, partly from face, partly from a 
 character that seemed expressed in all, 
 beauty which seemed to shine round him, 
 and was very commonly observed by those 
 
206 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 amongst whom he was. It made under- 
 graduates, not specially impressionable, stop 
 and watch him. . , . Servants and poor 
 people whom he visited often spoke of him 
 as ' beautiful.'" 1866. 
 
 " Yet though Mr. Maurice's voice seemed 
 to be the essential part of him as a religious 
 The spectator, teacher, his face, if you ever 
 l8 ? 2 - looked at it, was quite in keeping 
 with his voice. His eye was full of sweet- 
 ness, but fixed, and, as it were, fascinated on 
 some ideal point. His countenance expressed 
 nervous, high-strung tension, as though all 
 the various play of feelings in ordinary human 
 nature converged, in him, towards a single 
 focus, the declaration of the divine purpose. 
 Yet this tension, this peremptoriness, this 
 convergence of his whole nature on a single 
 point, never gave the effect of a dicta- 
 torial air for a moment. There was a quiver 
 in his voice, a tremulousness in the strong 
 deep lines of his face, a tenderness in his 
 eye, which assured you at once that nothing 
 
JOHN MILTON 207 
 
 of the hard crystallising character of a dog- 
 matic belief in the Absolute had conquered 
 his heart, and most men recognised this, for 
 the hardest and most business-like voices 
 took a tender and almost caressing tone in 
 addressing him." 
 
 JOHN MILTON 
 
 16081674 
 
 " SALMASIUS sometimes reproaches Milton as 
 being but a puny piece of man, an homunculus, 
 a dwarf deprived of the human 
 
 Disraeli's 
 
 figure, a bloodless being composed Curiosities of 
 
 Literature. 
 
 of nothing but skin and bone, a 
 contemptible pedagogue, fit only to flog his 
 boys ; and rising into a poetic frenzy applies 
 to him the words of Virgil : ' Monstrum hor- 
 rendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum' 
 Our great poet thought this senseless de- 
 clamation merited a serious refutation ; 
 
208 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 perhaps he did not wish to appear despicable 
 in the eyes of the ladies ; and he would not 
 be silent on the subject, he says, lest any one 
 should consider him as the credulous 
 Spaniards are made to believe by their 
 priests, that a heretic is a kind of rhinoceros 
 or a dog-headed monster. Milton says that 
 he does not think any one ever considered 
 him as unbeautiful ; that his size rather 
 approaches mediocrity than the diminutive ; 
 that he still felt the same courage and the same 
 strength which he possessed when young, 
 when, with his sword, he felt no difficulty to 
 combat with men more robust than himself ; 
 that his face, far from being pale, emaciated, 
 and wrinkled, was sufficiently creditable to 
 him : for though he had passed his fortieth 
 year, he was in all other respects ten years 
 younger. And very pathetically he adds, 
 * That even his eyes, blind as they are, are 
 unblemished in their appearance; in this 
 instance alone, and much against my inclina- 
 tion, I am a deceiver!" 
 
JOHN MIL TON 209 
 
 " He was scarce as tall as I am. 1 He 
 had light browne hay re. His complexion 
 exceeding fayre. Ovall face, his eie Aubrey's 
 a darke gray. His widowe has his pic- j^^f lf 
 ture drawne very well and like, when Persons - 
 a Cambridge scollar. She has his picture 
 when a Cambridge scollar, which ought to 
 be engraven ; for the pictures before his 
 books are not at all like him. ... He was a 
 spare man. . . . Extreme pleasant in his 
 conversation, and at dinner, supper, etc., but 
 satyricall. He pronounced the letter r very 
 hard. He had a delicate tuneable voice, and 
 had good skill. His harmonicall and in- 
 geniose soul did lodge in a beautiful and well- 
 proportioned body : 'In toto nusquam cor- 
 pore menda fuit.' Ovid." 
 
 " In his person Milton was rather under 
 the middle size, well built and muscular. 
 ' His deportment,' says Wood, * was Keightiey's 
 
 rr ^ 1 i i i Life of Milton. 
 
 affable, and his gait erect and * 
 
 manly, bespeaking courage and undaunted- 
 
 1 Q- Quot feet I am highl Resp. of middle stature. 
 
210 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 ness/ He was skilled in the use of the 
 small sword, and, though he certainly would 
 not have engaged in a duel, he had strength, 
 skill, and courage to repel the attack of any 
 adversary. His hair, which never fell off, was 
 of a light-brown hue, and he wore it parted 
 on his forehead as it is represented in his 
 portraits. His eyes were gray, and, as the 
 cause of his blindness was internal, they 
 suffered no change of appearance from it. 
 His face was oval, and his complexion was 
 so fine in his youth that at Cambridge he was, 
 as we are told by Aubrey, called the Lady 
 of his College ; even in his later days his 
 cheeks retained a ruddy tinge. He had a 
 fine ear for music, and was well skilled in that 
 delightful science ; he used to perform on the 
 organ and bass-viol. His voice was sweet 
 and musical, and we may presume that his 
 singing showed both taste and science." 
 
MAR Y R US SELL MITFORD 2 1 1 
 
 MARY RUSSELL MITFORD 
 
 1786-1855 
 
 " I CERTAINLY was disappointed when a stout 
 little lady, tightened up in a shawl, rolled into 
 the parlour of Newman Street, and 
 
 o. C^ 1 in.ll s 
 
 Mrs. Holland announced her as Memories of 
 
 . Great Men. 
 
 Miss Mitford ; her short petticoats 
 showing wonderfully stout leather boots, her 
 shawl bundled on, and a little black coal- 
 scuttle bonnet when bonnets were expanding 
 added to the effect of her natural shortness 
 and rotundity ; but her manner was that of a 
 cordial country gentlewoman ; the pressure of 
 her ' fat ' little hands (for she extended both) 
 was warm ; her eyes, both soft and bright, 
 looked kindly and frankly into mine ; and her 
 pretty rosy mouth dimpled with smiles that 
 were always sweet and friendly. . . . She was 
 always pleasant to look at, and had her face 
 not been cast in so broad so ' out-spread ' 
 
2i2 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 a mould, she would have been handsome ; 
 even with that disadvantage, if her figure had 
 been tall enough to carry her head with 
 dignity, she would have been so ; but she 
 was most vexatiously ' dumpy.' Miss Landon 
 ' hit off' her appearance when she whispered, 
 the first time she saw her (and it was at our 
 house), 'Sancho Panza in petticoats!' but 
 when Miss Mitford spoke, the awkward effect 
 vanished, her pleasant voice, her beaming 
 eyes and smiles, made you forget the wide 
 expanse of face ; and the roley-poley figure, 
 when seated, did not appear really short. "- 
 1828. 
 
 " I can never forget the little figure rolled 
 
 up in two chairs in the little Swallowfield 
 
 room, packed round with books up 
 
 James Payn's 
 
 Literary to the ceiling, on to the floor the 
 
 Recollections. 
 
 little figure with clothes on of 
 course, but of no recognised or recognisable 
 pattern ; and somewhere out of the upper 
 end of the heap, gleaming under a great deep, 
 globular brow, two such eyes as I never, 
 
MAR Y R USSELL MITFORD 2 1 3 
 
 perhaps, saw in any other Englishwoman 
 though I believe she must have had French 
 blood in her veins, to breed such eyes, and 
 such a tongue, for the beautiful speech which 
 came out of that ugly (it was that) face, and 
 the glitter and depth too of the eyes, like live 
 coals perfectly honest the while, both lips 
 and eyes these seemed to me to be attributes 
 of the highest French, or rather Gallic, not 
 of the highest English, woman. In any case, 
 she was a triumph of mind over matter, of 
 spirit over flesh, which gave the lie to all 
 materialism, and puts Professor Bain out of 
 court at least out of court with those who 
 use fair induction about the men and women 
 whom they meet and know." About 1851. 
 
 " I seem to see the dear little old lady now, 
 looking like a venerable fairy, with bright 
 sparkling eyes, a clear, incisive 
 
 J James Payn's 
 
 voice, and a laugh that carried you Literary 
 
 Recollections. 
 
 away with it. I never saw a 
 
 woman with such an enjoyment of I was 
 
 about to say a joke, but the word is too 
 
214 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 coarse for her of a pleasantry. She was 
 the warmest of friends, and with all her love 
 of fun never alluded to their weaknesses. . . . 
 I well remember our first interview. I 
 expected to find the authoress of Our Village 
 in a most picturesque residence, overgrown 
 with honeysuckle and roses, and set in an 
 old-fashioned garden. Her little cottage at 
 Swallowfield, near Reading, did not answer 
 this picture at all. It was a cottage, but not 
 a pretty one, placed where three roads met, 
 with only a piece of green before it. But if 
 the dwelling disappointed me, the owner did 
 not. I was ushered upstairs (for at that 
 time, crippled by rheumatism, she was unable 
 to leave her room) into a small apartment, 
 lined with books from floor to ceiling, and 
 fragrant with flowers ; its tenant rose from 
 her arm-chair with difficulty, but with a sunny 
 smile and a charming manner bade me wel- 
 come. My father had been an old friend of 
 hers, and she spoke of my home and belong- 
 ings as only a woman can speak of such 
 
LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU 215 
 
 things. Then we plunged, in medias res, into 
 men and books." 1852. 
 
 LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU 
 
 16901762 
 
 " I WENT last night to visit her. I give 
 you my word of honour, and you who know 
 her will believe me without it, the 
 
 Horace 
 
 following is a faithful description : Waipoie's 
 I found her in a little miserable 
 bedchamber of a ready furnished house, with 
 two tallow candles and a bureau covered with 
 pots and pans. On her head, in full of all 
 accounts, she had an old black -laced hood 
 wrapped entirely round so as to conceal all 
 hair, or want of hair ; no handkerchief, but 
 instead of it a kind of horseman's riding-coat, 
 calling itself a pet - en- T air, made of a dark 
 green brocade, with coloured and silver 
 flowers, and lined with furs ; bodice laced ; 
 
2 1 6 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 a full dimity petticoat, sprigged; velvet 
 muffetees on her arms ; gray stockings and 
 slippers. Her face less changed in twenty 
 years than I would have imagined. I told 
 her so, and she was not so tolerable twenty 
 years ago that she should have taken it for 
 flattery, but she did, and literally gave me a 
 box on the ears. She is very lively, all her 
 senses perfect, her language as imperfect as 
 ever, her avarice greater." 
 
 " Did I tell you that Lady Mary Wortley 
 
 is here ? She laughs at my Lady Walpole, 
 
 scolds my Lady Pomfret, and is 
 
 Horace 
 
 Waipoie's laughed at by the whole town. 
 Her dress, her avarice, and her 
 impudence must amaze any one that never 
 heard her name. She wears a foul mob, that 
 does not cover her greasy black locks, that 
 hang loose, never combed or curled ; an old 
 mazarine blue wrapper, that gapes open and 
 discovers a canvas petticoat. Her face 
 swelled violently on one side with the 
 remains of a , partly covered with a 
 
THOMAS MOORE 2 T 7 
 
 plaister, and partly with white paint, which 
 for cheapness she has bought so coarse 
 that you would not use it to wash a chimney. 
 In three words I will give you her picture 
 as we drew it in the ' Sortes Virgilianae ' 
 
 ' Insanam vatem aspicies.' 
 
 I give you my honour we did not choose it ; 
 but Gray, Mr. Coke, Sir Francis Dash wood, 
 and I, and several others, drew it fairly 
 amongst a thousand for different people, most 
 of which did not hit as you may imagine." 
 1740. 
 
 THOMAS MOORE 
 
 1779-1852 
 
 " MOORE'S forehead was bony and full of 
 character, with 'bumps' of wit, large and 
 radiant enough to transport a Leigh Hunt > s 
 phrenologist. Sterne had such Autobio ^ a P h y' 
 another. His eyes were as dark and fine as 
 you would wish to see under a set of vine- 
 
2 iS WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 leaves ; his mouth generous and good- 
 humoured, with dimples ; and his manner 
 was as bright as his talk, full of the wish 
 to please and be pleased. He sang, and 
 played with great taste on the pianoforte, as 
 might be supposed from his musical com- 
 positions. His voice, which was a little 
 hoarse in speaking (at least I used to think 
 so), softened into a breath, like that of a 
 flute, when singing. In speaking he was 
 emphatic in rolling the letter r y perhaps out 
 of a despair of being able to get rid of the 
 national peculiarity." 
 
 " His eyes sparkle like a champagne 
 
 bubble ; there is a kind of wintry red, of the 
 
 tinge of an October leaf, that seems 
 
 S. C. Hall's 
 
 Memories of enamelled on his cheek ; his lips 
 
 Great Men. 
 
 are delicately cut, slight, and change- 
 able as an aspen ; the slightly-turned nose con- 
 firms the fun of the expression ; and altogether 
 it is a face that sparkles, beams, and radiates 
 
 4 The light that surrounds him is all from within.' " 
 
 1835- 
 
THOMAS MOORE 219 
 
 " I recall him at this moment his small 
 form and intellectual face rich in expression, 
 and that expression the sweetest, 
 
 S. C. Hall s 
 
 the most gentle, and the kindliest. Retrospect of 
 He had still in age the same bright 
 and clear eye, the same gracious smile, the 
 same suave and winning manner I had noticed 
 as the attributes of what might in comparison 
 be styled his youth (I have stated I knew him 
 as long ago as 1821); a forehead not remark- 
 ably broad or high, but singularly impressive, 
 firm, and full, with the organs of music and 
 gaiety large, and those of benevolence and 
 veneration greatly preponderating ; the nose, 
 as observed in all his portraits, was some- 
 what upturned. Standing or sitting, his 
 head was invariably upraised, owing, perhaps, 
 mainly to his shortness of stature. He had 
 so much bodily activity as to give him the 
 attribute of restlessness, and no doubt that 
 usual accompaniment of genius was eminently 
 a characteristic of his. His hair was, at the 
 time I "speak of, thin and very gray, and he 
 
220 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 wore his hat with the jaunty air that has 
 been often remarked as a peculiarity of the 
 Irish. In dress, although far from slovenly, 
 he was by no means precise. He had but 
 little voice, yet he sang with a depth of 
 sweetness that charmed all hearers ; it was 
 true melody, and told upon the heart as well 
 as the ear. No doubt much of this charm 
 was derived from association, for it was only 
 his own melodies he sang." 1845. 
 
 HANNAH MORE 
 
 1745-1833 
 
 " I WAS much struck by the air of affectionate 
 
 kindness with which the old lady welcomed 
 
 me to Barley Wood there was 
 
 Memoir of 
 
 Mrs. Hannah something of courtliness about it, 
 
 More. . 
 
 at the same time the courtliness 
 of the vieille cour> which one reads of, but so 
 seldom sees. Her dress was of light green 
 
HANNAH MORE 2 2 1 
 
 Venetian silk ; a yellow, richly embroidered 
 crape shawl enveloped her shoulders ; and 
 a pretty net cap, tied under her chin with 
 white satin riband, completed the costume. 
 Her figure is singularly petite ; but to have 
 any idea of the expression of her countenance, 
 you must imagine the small withered face of 
 a woman in her seventy-seventh year ; and, 
 imagine also (shaded, but not obscured, by 
 long and perfectly white eyelashes) eyes 
 dark, brilliant, flashing, and penetrating, 
 sparkling from object to object, with all the 
 fire and energy of youth, and smiling welcome 
 on all around." 1820. 
 
 " Her form was small and slight : her 
 features wrinkled with age ; but the burden 
 of eighty years had not impaired 
 
 S. C. Hall's 
 
 her gracious smile, nor lessened the Memories oj 
 
 Great Men. 
 
 fire of her eyes, the clearest, the 
 brightest, and the most searching I have 
 ever seen they were singularly dark posi- 
 tively black they seemed as they looked 
 forth among carefully-trained tresses of her 
 
222 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 own white hair ; and absolutely sparkled 
 while she spoke of those of whom she was 
 the venerated link between the present and 
 the long past. Her manner on entering the 
 room, while conversing, and at our departure, 
 was positively sprightly ; she tripped about 
 from console to console, from window to 
 window, to show us some gift that bore a 
 name immortal, some cherished reminder of 
 other days almost of another world, certainly 
 of another age ; for they were memories of 
 those whose deaths were registered before 
 the present century had birth. . . . She was 
 clad, I well remember, in a dress of rich pea- 
 green silk. It was an odd whim, and con- 
 trasted somewhat oddly with her patriarchal 
 age and venerable countenance, yet was in 
 harmony with the youth of her step, and 
 her unceasing vivacity as she laughed and 
 chatted, chatted and laughed, her voice 
 strong and clear as that of a girl, and her 
 animation as full of life and vigour as it 
 might have been in her spring-time." 1825. 
 
HANNAH MORE 223 
 
 " Her brow was full and well sustained, 
 rather than what would be called fine : from 
 the manner in which her hair was 
 
 , , . r j- A. M. Hall's 
 
 dressed, its formation was dis- pn grima?es 
 tinctly visible; and though her to ^f^ h 
 eyes were half-closed, her counten- 
 ance was more tranquil, more sweet, more 
 holy for it had a holy expression than 
 when those deep intense eyes were looking 
 you through and through. Small, and 
 shrunk, and aged as she was, she conveyed 
 to us no idea of feebleness. She looked, 
 even then, a woman whose character, com- 
 bining sufficient thought and wisdom, as well 
 as dignity and spirit, could analyse and ex- 
 hibit, in language suited to the intellect of 
 the people of England, the evils and dangers 
 of revolutionary principles. Her voice had 
 a pleasant tone, and her manner was quite 
 devoid of affectation or dictation ; she spoke 
 as one expecting a reply, and by no means 
 like an oracle. And those bright immortal 
 eyes of hers not wearied by looking at the 
 
224 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 world for more than eighty years, but clear 
 and far-seeing then laughing, too, when she 
 spoke cheerfully, not as authors are believed 
 to speak 
 
 ' In measured pompous tones,' 
 
 but like a dear matronly dame, who had 
 especial care and tenderness towards young 
 women. It is impossible to remember how 
 it occurred, but in reference to some observa- 
 tion I had made she turned briskly round 
 and exclaimed, ' Controversy hardens the 
 heart, and sours the temper : never dispute 
 with your husband, young lady ; tell him 
 what you think, and leave it to time to 
 fructify.' " 
 
 SIR THOMAS MORE 
 
 1480-1535 
 
 was of a meane stature, well pro- 
 portioned, his complexion tending to the 
 phlegmaticke, his colour white and pale, his 
 
SIR THOMAS MORE 225 
 
 hayre neither black nor yellow, but be- 
 tweene both ; his eies gray, his countenance 
 amiable and chearefull, his voyce 
 
 More's 
 
 neither bigg nor shrill, but speaking Life of sir 
 
 Thomas More. 
 
 plainely and distinctly ; it was not 
 very tunable, though he delighted much in 
 musike, his bodie reasonably healthfull, only 
 that towards his latter ende by using much 
 writing, he complained much of the ache of his 
 breaste. In his youth he drunke much water, 
 wine he only tasted of, when he pledged 
 others ; he loved salte meates, especially 
 powdered beefe, milke, cheese, eggs and fruite, 
 and usually he eate of corse browne bread, 
 which it may be he rather used to punish 
 his taste, than from anie love he had thereto. 
 For he was singularly wise to deceave the 
 world with mortifications, only contenting 
 himselfe with the knowledge which God had 
 of his actions : et pater ejus, qui erat in 
 abscondito reddidit ei." 
 
 " Holbein's portrait of More has made his 
 features familiar to all Englishmen. Ac- 
 
 15 
 
226 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 cording to his great-grandson, he was of 
 
 1 a middle stature, well proportioned, of a 
 
 Campbell's P a l e complexion ; his hair of a 
 
 ^ of the chestnut colour, his eyes gray, 
 
 Lord Chancellors. * o J ' 
 
 his countenance mild and cheer- 
 ful ; his voice not very musical, but clear 
 and distinct ; his constitution, which was good 
 originally, was never impaired by his way of 
 living, otherwise than by too much study. 
 His diet was simple and abstemious, never 
 drinking any wine but when he pledged 
 those who drank to him, and rather morti- 
 fying than indulging his appetite in what he 
 ate." 
 
 " He is rather below than above the middle 
 
 size ; his countenance of an agreeable and 
 
 Life of sir friendly cheerfulness, with some- 
 
 ma l ' what of an habitual inclination 
 
 to smile ; and appears more adapted to 
 
 pleasantry than to gravity or dignity, though 
 
 perfectly remote from vulgarity or silliness." 
 
CAROLINE NORTON 227 
 
 CAROLINE NORTON 
 
 1808-1877 
 
 "WHEN I first knew Caroline Sheridan she 
 had not long been married to the Hon. 
 George Norton. She was splendidly 
 
 Kemble's 
 
 handsome, of an un-English char- Records of 
 
 a Girlhood. 
 
 acter of beauty, her rather large and 
 heavy head and features recalling the 
 grandest Grecian and Italian models, to the 
 latter of whom her rich colouring and blue- 
 black braids of hair gave her an additional 
 resemblance. Though neither as perfectly 
 lovely as the Duchess of Somerset, nor as 
 perfectly charming as Lady DufTerin, she 
 produced a far more striking impression than 
 either of them, by the combination of the 
 poetical genius with which she alone, of the 
 three, was gifted, with the brilliant power 
 of repartee which they (especially Lady 
 Dufferin) possessed in common with her, 
 
228 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 united to the exceptional beauty with which 
 they were all three endowed. Mrs. Norton 
 was exceedingly epigrammatic in her talk, 
 and comically dramatic in her manner of 
 relating things. . . . She was no musician, 
 but had a deep, sweet contralto voice, 
 precisely the same in which she always 
 spoke, and which, combined with her always 
 lowered eyelids ( ' downy eyelids ' with sweep- 
 ing silken fringes), gave such incomparably 
 comic effect to her sharp retorts and ludicrous 
 stories. ... I admired her extremely. 1827. 
 " The next time . . . was at an evening party 
 at my sister's house, where her appearance 
 struck me more than it had ever done. Her 
 dress had something to do with this effect, 
 no doubt. She had a rich gold-coloured 
 silk on, shaded and softened all over with 
 black lace draperies, and her splendid head, 
 neck, and arms, were adorned with magnifi- 
 cently simple Etruscan ornaments, which she 
 had brought from Rome, whence she had just 
 returned, and where the fashion of that 
 
CAROLINE NORTON 229 
 
 famous antique jewellery had lately been 
 revived. She was still ' une beaute triomph- 
 ante a faire voir aux ambassadeurs.' ' 
 
 " The most beautiful of ' the beautiful 
 Sheridans,' Caroline Norton will also live in 
 the memory of her friends as one A personal 
 of the most fascinating of women. fnend< 
 Her voice was exceedingly sweet and 
 musical, her movements wonderfully graceful, 
 and, with the solitary exception of Theodore 
 Hook, whose rough, coarse wit spared no 
 one, her queenly bearing won her general 
 adulation and deference. Her face was a 
 pure oval, her head was crowned by heavy 
 braids of the darkest hair, while the warmth 
 and light which suffused her expressive 
 countenance gave her a somewhat un- 
 English appearance. Her eyes were dark ; 
 black curly lashes swept over the warmly- 
 tinted cheek ; the lips were of geranium 
 red ; the teeth, dazzlingly white. Altogether 
 she was a vivid piece of colouring, and as 
 she was always very beautifully dressed, it 
 
230 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 did not require her literary reputation to 
 
 make her at all times sought after and admired." 
 
 "It seems but yesterday it is not so very 
 
 long ago certainly that I saw for the last 
 
 time the Hon. Mrs. Norton. Her 
 
 S. C. Hall's 
 
 Retrospect of radiant beauty was then faded, but 
 her stately form had been little 
 impaired by years, and she had retained 
 much of the grace that made her early 
 womanhood so surpassingly attractive. She 
 combined, in a singular degree, feminine 
 delicacy with masculine vigour; though es- 
 sentially womanly, she seemed to have the 
 force of character of man. Remarkably 
 handsome she perhaps excited admiration 
 rather than affection. I can easily imagine 
 greater love to be given to a far plainer 
 woman. She had, in more than full measure, 
 the traditional beauty of her family, and no 
 doubt inherited with it some of the wayward- 
 ness that is associated with the name of 
 Sheridan." 
 
THOMAS OTWA Y 231 
 
 THOMAS OTWAY 
 
 1651-1685 
 
 " YOU'LL be glad to know any trifling circum- 
 stance concerning Otway. His person was 
 of the middle size, about five feet Gentleman's 
 seven inches in height, inclinable Ma z azine > '745-. 
 to fatness. He had a thoughtful speaking 
 eye, and that was all. He gave himself up 
 early to drinking, and, like the unhappy wits 
 of that age, passed his days between rioting 
 and fasting, ranting jollity and abject peni- 
 tence, carousing one week with Lord PI th, 
 
 and then starving a month in low company 
 at an ale-house on Tower Hill." 
 
 " Otway, heavy, squalid, unhappy ; yet 
 tender countenance, but not so squalid as 
 one we formerly saw ; full-speak- Sir Walter 
 ing, black eyes ; it seems as if f^*?"^ 
 
 * of Mrs. Radchffe. 
 
 dissolute habits had overcome 
 
 all his finer feelings, and left him little of 
 
232 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 mind, except a sense of sorrow." On a 
 picture. 
 
 SAMUEL PEPYS 
 
 1632-1703 
 
 " PEPYS spent part of a certain winter Sunday, 
 
 when he had taken physic, composing 'a 
 
 The Comhiii song in praise of a liberal genius 
 
 Magazine, 1874. , 
 
 * (such as I take my own to be) 
 
 to all studies and pleasures/ The song was 
 successful, but the diary is, in a sense, the 
 very song that he was seeking ; and his 
 portrait by Hales, so admirably reproduced 
 in Mynors Bright's edition, is a confirmation 
 of the diary. Hales, it would appear, had 
 known his business, and though he put his 
 sitter to a deal of trouble, almost breaking 
 his neck ' to have the portrait full of shadows,' 
 and draping him in an Indian gown hired 
 expressly for the purpose, he was preoccupied 
 about no merely picturesque effects, but to 
 
SAMUEL PEPYS 233 
 
 portray the essence of the man. Whether 
 we read the picture by the diary, or the diary 
 by the picture, we shall at least agree, that 
 Hales was among the numbers of those who 
 can ' surprise the manners in a face.' Here 
 we have a mouth pouting, moist with desires ; 
 eyes greedy, protuberant, and yet apt for 
 weeping too ; a nose great alike in character 
 and dimensions, and altogether a most fleshly, 
 melting countenance. The face is attractive 
 by its promise of reciprocity. I have used 
 the word greedy, but the reader must not 
 suppose that he can change it for that closely 
 kindred one of hungry, for there is here no 
 aspiration, no waiting for better things, but 
 an animal joy in all that comes. It could 
 never be the face of an artist ; it is the face 
 of a viveur kindly, pleased, and pleasing, 
 protected from excess and upheld in content- 
 ment by the shifting versatility of his desires. 
 For a single desire is more rightly to be 
 called a lust ; but there is health in a variety, 
 where one may balance and control another." 
 
234 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 ALEXANDER POPE 
 
 16881744 
 
 " DICK DISTICH ... we have elected pre- 
 sident, not only as he is the shortest of 
 
 The Guardian, us all > but because he has enter- 
 I7I3< tained so just a sense of his 
 stature as to go generally in black, that he 
 may appear yet less. Nay, to that perfection 
 is he arrived, that he stoops as he walks. 
 The figure of the man is odd enough ; he is 
 a lively little creature, with long arms and 
 legs : a spider is no ill emblem of him. He 
 has been taken at a distance for a small wind- 
 mill." 1713. 
 
 " The person of Pope is well known not 
 to have been formed on the nicest model. 
 
 Johnson's Life He nas > ' m m ' s account of the 
 of Pope. L j ttle Q ub> compare( i himself to 
 
 a spider, and, by another, is described as pro- 
 tuberant behind and before. He is said to 
 
ALEXANDER POPE 235 
 
 have been beautiful in his infancy ; but he 
 was of a constitution originally feeble and 
 weak ; and, as bodies of a tender frame are 
 easily distorted, his deformity was, probably, 
 in part the effect of his application. His 
 stature was so low, that to bring him on a 
 level with common tables it was necessary to 
 raise his seat. But his face was not displeas- 
 ing, and his eyes were animated and vivid. 
 . . . His dress of ceremony was black, with 
 a tie-wig and a little sword. ... He some- 
 times condescended to be jocular with servants 
 or inferiors ; but by no merriment, either of 
 others or of his own, was he ever seen excited 
 to laughter." 
 
 " Pope, as Lord Clarendon says of (the 
 ever memorable) Hales of Eaton, was one of 
 the least men in the kingdom ; who adds of 
 Chillingworth, that he was of a 
 
 f ^ Tyer's Historical 
 
 stature little superior to him, and rhapsody on Mr. 
 
 1-1 i Pope. 
 
 that it was an age in which there 
 
 were many great and wonderful men of that 
 
 size. ... He inherited his deformity from his 
 
236 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 father, who turns out at last, from the in- 
 formation of Mrs. Racket his relation, to 
 have been a linen-draper in the Strand. 
 
 ' My friend, this shape which you and I will admire, 
 Came not from Ammon's son, but from my sire,' 
 
 as he expresses himself in his first epistle to 
 Arbuthnot. He was protuberant behind and 
 before, in the words of his last biographer. 
 But he carried a mind in his face, as a 
 reverend person once expressed himself of a 
 singular countenance. He had a brilliant 
 eye, which pervaded everything at a glance." 
 
 BRYAN WALLER PROCTER 
 
 1787-1874 
 
 " I HAVE also seen and scraped acquaintance 
 with Procter Barry Cornwall. He is a 
 Froude's slender, rough-faced, palish, gentle, 
 Life of cariyk. languid-looking man, of three or 
 four and thirty. There is a dreamy mildness 
 
BRYAN WALLER PROCTER 237 
 
 in his eye ; he is kind and good in his manners 
 and, I understand, in his conduct. He is a poet 
 by the ear and the fancy, but his heart and 
 intellect are not strong." 1824. 
 
 "A decidedly rather pretty little fellow, 
 Procter, bodily and spiritually : manners pre- 
 possessing, slightly London-elegant, 
 not unpleasant; clear judgment in Retrospect of 
 him, though of narrow field ; a sound, 
 honourable morality, and airy friendly ways ; 
 of slight, neat figure, vigorous for his size ; 
 fine genially rugged little face, fine head ; 
 something curiously dreamy in the eyes of 
 him, lids drooping at the outer ends into a 
 cordially meditative and drooping expression ; 
 would break out suddenly now and then into 
 opera attitude and a La ci darem la mano for 
 a moment ; had something of real fun, though 
 in London style." 
 
 " The poet's figure was short and full, and 
 his voice had a low, veiled tone Fields>s 
 
 Yesterdays 
 
 habitually in it, which made it some- with Authors. 
 times difficult to hear distinctly what he was 
 
238 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 saying. When he spoke in conversation, he 
 liked to be very near his listener, and thus 
 stand, as it were, on confidential grounds with 
 him. His turn of thought was apt to be 
 cheerful among his friends, and he entered 
 readily into a vein of wit and nimble expres- 
 sion. Verbal facility seemed natural to him, 
 and his epithets, evidently unprepared, were 
 always perfect. He disliked cant and hard 
 ways of judging character. He praised 
 easily. He impressed every one who came 
 near him as a born gentleman, chivalrous and 
 generous in a high degree." 
 
 THOMAS DE QUINCEY 
 
 1786-1859 
 
 " IN addition to the general impression of 
 
 his diminutiveness and fragility, one was 
 
 Masson's struck with the peculiar beauty 
 
 deQuincey. 
 
 rising disproportionately high over his small, 
 
THOMAS DE QUINCEY 239 
 
 wrinkly visage and gentle, deep-set eyes. 
 His talk was in the form of really harmonious 
 and considerate colloquy, and not at all in 
 that of monologue. . . . That evening passed, 
 and though I saw him once or twice again, it 
 is the last sight I remember best. It must 
 have been, I think, in 1846, on a summer 
 afternoon. A friend, a stranger in Edinburgh, 
 was walking with me in one of the pleasant, 
 quiet, country lanes near Edinburgh. Meeting 
 us, and the sole living thing in the lane 
 beside ourselves, came a small figure, not 
 untidily dressed, but with his hat pushed far 
 up in front of his forehead, and hanging on 
 his hindhead, so that the back rim must have 
 been resting on his coat-collar. At a little 
 distance I recognised it to be De Quincey ; 
 but, not considering myself entitled to 
 interrupt his meditations, I only whispered 
 the information to my friend, that he might 
 not miss what the look at such a celebrity 
 was worth. So we passed him, giving him 
 the wall. Not unnaturally, however, after 
 
2 4 o WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 we passed, we turned round for the pleasure 
 of a back view of the wee, intellectual wizard. 
 Whether my whisper and our glance had 
 alarmed him, as a ticket-of-leave man might 
 be rendered uneasy in his solitary walk by the 
 scrutiny of two passing strangers, or whether 
 he had some recollection of me (which was 
 likely enough, as he seemed to forget nothing), 
 I do not know, but we found that he, too, had 
 stopped, and was looking round at us. 
 Apparently scared at being caught doing so, 
 he immediately wheeled round again, and 
 hurried his face towards a side-turning in the 
 lane, into which he disappeared, his hat still 
 hanging on the back of his head. That was 
 my last sight of De Quincey." 1846. 
 
 " Pale he was, with a head of wonderful 
 
 size, which served to make more apparent the 
 
 Page > s inferior dimensions of his body, and 
 
 de Quincey. a face which jj ved the scu l ptured 
 
 past in every lineament from brow to chin. 
 One seeing him would surely be tempted to 
 ask who he was that took off his hat with 
 
THOMAS DE QUINCEY 241 
 
 such grave politeness, remaining uncovered 
 if a lady were passing almost until she was 
 out of sight, and would get for an answer 
 likely enough, ' Oh, that is little De Quincey, 
 who hears strange sounds and eats opium. 
 Did you ever see such a little man ?' Little 
 he was, indeed, like Dickens and Jeffrey, the 
 latter of whom had so little flesh that it was 
 said that his intellect was indecently exposed." 
 " In the ensuing summer, after the publi- 
 cation of another volume of poems, I visited 
 Edinburgh, and called upon De 
 
 James Payn's 
 
 Quincey, to whom I had a letter of Literary 
 
 r -n/r- i%/rr i TT Recollections. 
 
 introduction from Miss Mitford. He 
 was at that time residing at Lasswade, a few 
 miles from the town, and I went thither by 
 coach. He lived a secluded life, and even at 
 that date had become to the world a name 
 rather than a real personage ; but it was a 
 great name. Considerable alarm agitated my 
 youthful heart as I drew near the house : I 
 felt like Burns on the occasion when he was 
 first about ' to dinner wi' a Lord.' . . . My 
 
 16 
 
242 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 apprehensions, however, proved to be utterly 
 groundless, for a more gracious and genial 
 personage I never met. Picture to yourself 
 a very diminutive man, carelessly very care- 
 lessly dressed ; a face lined, careworn, and 
 so expressionless that it reminded one of 
 ' that chill changeless brow, where cold 
 Obstruction's apathy appals the gazing 
 mourner's heart' a face like death in life. 
 The instant he began to speak, however, it 
 lit up as though by electric light ; this came 
 from his marvellous eyes, brighter and more 
 intelligent (though by fits) than I have ever 
 seen in any other mortal. They seemed to 
 me to glow with eloquence. He spoke of my 
 introducer, of Cambridge, of the Lake Country, 
 and of English poets. Each theme was in- 
 teresting to me, but made infinitely more so 
 by some apt personal reminiscence. As for 
 the last-named subject, it was like talking of 
 the Olympian gods to one not only cradled 
 in their creed, but who had mingled with 
 them, himself half an immortal." 
 
ANN RADCLIFFE 243 
 
 ANN RADCLIFFE 
 
 17641823 
 
 " ANN WARD'S education was plain and 
 somewhat formal. She was shy ; she showed 
 no extraordinary genius, and the K avana g h' s 
 times were not propitious to the Engl ^ Women 
 
 of Letters. 
 
 development of female intellect. 
 The young girl's person was probably more 
 admired than her mind. She was short, but 
 exquisitely proportioned ; she had a lovely 
 complexion, fine eyes arid eyebrows, and a 
 beautiful mouth. She had a sweet voice too, 
 and sang with feeling and taste." 
 
 " This admirable writer, whom I remember 
 from about the time of her twentieth year, 
 was, in her youth, of a figure ^^ Memoir 
 exquisitely proportioned, while tfAnnRadciiffe. 
 she resembled her father and his brother 
 and sister in being low of stature. Her 
 complexion was beautiful, as was her whole 
 
244 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 countenance, especially her eye, eyebrows, 
 and mouth." 
 
 " Mrs. Radcliffe, though a giant in in- 
 tellect, was low in stature, and of a slender 
 Memoir of Mrs. form > but exquisitely proportioned : 
 Ann Radcliffe. j^r countenance was beautiful and 
 expressive. 
 
 SIR WALTER RALEIGH 
 
 15521618 
 
 " IN appearance what manner of man was 
 Raleigh when in Ireland ? There was much 
 The Nineteenth change, of course, from the dashing 
 
 Century, 1881. 
 
 captain of eight and twenty, when 
 he was putting the unarmed men to the sword 
 and hanging the women in Dingle Bay, to 
 the admiral of sixty-five who, between the 
 Tower and the scaffold, visited his old haunts 
 in the county of Cork for the last time in the 
 three summer months of 1617. 
 
 " But all accounts agree in giving him a 
 
WALTER RALEIGH 245 
 
 commanding presence, a handsome and well- 
 compacted figure, a forehead rather too high ; 
 the lower part of his face, though partly hidden 
 by the moustache and peaked beard, showing 
 rare resolution. His portrait, a life-sized 
 head, painted when he was Major of Youghal, 
 was recently presented to the owner of his 
 house, where it had been years ago, by the 
 senior member for the county of Waterford ; 
 and another original picture of him when in 
 Ireland is in the possession of the Rev. Pierce 
 W. Drew of Youghal. Both these Irish 
 pictures show the same lofty brow and firm 
 lips. There is an old and much -prized 
 engraving by Vander Werff of Amsterdam 
 that seems to combine all his characteristic 
 features the extraordinarily high forehead, 
 the moustache and peaked beard, ill-conceal- 
 ing a too determined mouth. The likeness is 
 most striking." 
 
 ''He was a tall, handsome, and bold man ; 
 but his nceve was, that he was damnably 
 proud. . . . In the great parlour at Downton, 
 
246 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 at Mr. Ralegh's, is a good piece (an original!) 
 of Sir W. in a white sattin doublet, all em- 
 Aubrey's Lives of broidered with rich pearles, and a 
 
 Eminent Persons. . . - . . _ . 
 
 * mighty rich chaine of great pearles 
 
 about his neck. The old servants have told 
 me that the pearles were neer as big as the 
 painted ones. He had a most remarkable 
 aspect, an exceedingly high forehead, long- 
 faced, and sourlie-bidded, a kind of pigge- 
 eie. ... He spake broad Devonshire to his 
 dye-ing day. His voice was small, as like- 
 wise were my schoolfellowes, his gr. nephews." 
 " In all the pictures we have of him, there 
 is almost nothing to suggest the typical 
 Publications of Englishman. Burly and robust. 
 
 the Prince Society. . . 
 
 About six feet in height, he is 
 rather thin than corpulent, and in the vivacity 
 of expression and the nervous cast of his 
 features he resembles rather the modern 
 New-Englander than the old-time English- 
 man. He was nineteen years younger than 
 Elizabeth, and had, as Naunton describes him, 
 ' a good presence in a handsome and well- 
 
WALTER RALEIGH 247 
 
 compacted person.' Fuller has already told 
 us that at the time of his entrance at the court 
 his clothes made a 'considerable part of 
 his estate.' He seems to have had an innate 
 love for the luxury and splendour of dress. 
 He lived at a period when gentlemen as 
 well as ladies indulged in all the glory of gay 
 colours. Edwards, describing some of the 
 more noted pictures of him, says : ' In another 
 full-length, which long remained in the posses- 
 sion of his descendants, he is apparelled in a 
 white satin pinked vest, close sleeved to the 
 wrists with a brown doublet finely flowered 
 and embroidered with pearls, and a sword, 
 also brown and similarly decorated. Over the 
 right hip is seen the jewelled pommel of his 
 dagger. He wears his hat, in which is a 
 black feather with a ruby and pearl drop. 
 His trunk hose and fringed garters appear to 
 be of white satin. His buff-coloured shoes 
 are tied with white ribbons.'" 
 
24 8 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 CHARLES READE 
 
 1814-1884 
 
 " ON arriving at Bolton Row I was shown into 
 
 a large room littered over with books, MSS. 
 
 agenda, newspapers of every de- 
 
 Coleman's 
 
 Personal Remini- scription from the Times and the 
 New York Herald down to the 
 Police News. Before me stood a stately and 
 imposing man of fifty or fifty-one, over six 
 feet high, a massive chest, herculean limbs, a 
 bearded and leonine face, giving traces of a 
 manly beauty which ripened into majesty as 
 he grew older. Large brown eyes which 
 could at times become exceedingly fierce, a 
 fine head, quite bald on the top but covered 
 at the sides with soft brown hair, a head 
 strangely disproportioned to the bulk of the 
 body ; in fact I could never understand how 
 so large a brain could be confined in so small a 
 skull. On the desk before him lay a huge 
 
CHARLES READE 249 
 
 sheet of drab paper on which he had been 
 writing it was about the size of two sheets 
 of ordinary foolscap ; in his hand one of 
 Gillott's double-barrelled'pens. (Before I left 
 the room he told me he sent Gillott his books, 
 and Gillott sent him his pens.) 
 
 "His voice, though very pleasant, was very 
 penetrating. He was rather deaf, but I don't 
 think quite so deaf as he pretended to be. 
 This deafness gave him an advantage in 
 conversation ; it afforded him time to take 
 stock of the situation, and either to seek refuge 
 in silence or to request his interlocutor to 
 propound his proposal afresh. At first he 
 was very cold, but at last, carried away by the 
 ardour of my admiration for his works, he 
 thawed, and in half an hour he was eager, 
 excited, delighted and delightful." 1856. 
 
 " The man in truth justified Lavater, for 
 his physiognomy was noble, and 
 
 ' The Content- 
 
 his body the perfection of sym- porary Review, 
 
 , .. 1884. 
 
 metry and grace. Nature gave 
 
 him a forehead as high as Shakespeare's, but 
 
250 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 broader ; the mild, pensive ox-eye so dear to 
 the old Greek aesthetes ; a marble skin, a 
 mouth that was sarcasm itself. His personal 
 attractiveness was phenomenal I n any room- 
 ful of people, however illustrious, he became 
 involuntarily for he was as little self-asserting 
 off his paper as he was dogmatic on it the 
 centre. Living immersed in Bohemianism, 
 and in the society of a large-hearted, yet not 
 very cultured woman, he never parted com- 
 pany with his Ipsden breeding, and his natural 
 bearing was that of one born to command." 
 
 "In personal appearance Mr. Reade is 
 tall, erect, of a commanding presence, with 
 a full, expressive brown eye and Eclectic 
 a noble brow. His manner is Ma ^^ l88 - 
 singularly dignified without being arrogant, 
 and in society he sustains an enviable reputa- 
 tion as a conversationalist." 
 
SAMUEL RICHARDSON 251 
 
 SAMUEL RICHARDSON 
 16891761 
 
 " RICHARDSON was, in person, below the 
 middle stature, and inclined to corpulency ; 
 of a round, rather than oval face, Barbara's 
 with a fair, ruddy complexion. L ^ eo / 
 
 . J Richardson. 
 
 His features, says one who speaks 
 from recollection, bore the stamp of good 
 nature, and were characteristic of his placid 
 and amiable disposition. He was slow in 
 speech, and, to strangers at least, spoke with 
 reserve and deliberation ; but in his manners 
 was affable, courteous, and engaging, and 
 when surrounded with the social circle he loved 
 to draw around him, his eye sparkled with 
 pleasure, and often expressed that particular 
 spirit of archness which we see in some of 
 his characters, and which gave, at times, a 
 vivacity to his conversation not expected from 
 his general taciturnity and quiet manners." 
 
252 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 " Short, rather plump, about five feet five 
 
 inches, fair wig, one hand generally in his 
 
 bosom, the other a cane in it, 
 
 Richardson's 
 
 Correspond- which he leans upon under the 
 
 ence. . 
 
 skirts of his coat, that it may 
 imperceptibly serve him as a support when 
 attacked by sudden tremors or dizziness ; of 
 a light brown complexion ; teeth not yet 
 failing him. Looking directly foreright as 
 passengers would imagine, but observing all 
 that stirs on either hand of him, without 
 moving his short neck ; a regular even pace, 
 stealing away ground rather than seeming to 
 rid it ; a gray eye, too often overclouded by 
 mistiness from the head, by chance lively, 
 very lively, if he sees any he loves ; if he 
 approaches a lady, his eye is never fixed first 
 on her face, but on her feet, and rears it up 
 by degrees, seeming to set her down as so 
 and so." 1749. 
 
 " He looks like a plump white mouse in a 
 wig, with an air at once vivacious and timid, 
 a quick excitable nature, taking refuge in the 
 
SAMUEL RICHARDSON 253 
 
 outside of a smug, portly tradesman. Two 
 coloured engravings in Mrs. Barbauld's 
 volumes give us Richardson Stephen's 
 
 Richardson. 
 
 amidst his surroundings. ... 
 One introduces us to Richardson at home. 
 Haifa dozen ladies and gentlemen are sitting 
 by the open window in his bare parlour look- 
 ing out into the garden. There is only one 
 spindle-legged table, and a set of uncom- 
 promising wooden chairs, just enough to 
 accommodate the party. ... Miss Highmore, 
 whose hoop can scarcely be squeezed into her 
 straight-backed chair, is quietly sketching the 
 memorable scene. We are truly grateful to 
 her, for there sits the little idol of the party 
 in his usual morning dress, a nondescript 
 brown dressing-gown with a cap on his head 
 of the same materials. His plump little frame 
 fills the chair, and he is apparently raising one 
 foot for an emphatic stamp, as he reads a 
 passage of Sir Charles Grandison. We can 
 see that as he concludes he will be applauded 
 with deferential gasps of heartfelt admiration." 
 
254 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 SAMUEL ROGERS 
 
 1763-1855 
 
 " His countenance was the theme of continual 
 
 jokes. It was ' ugly,' if not repulsive. The 
 
 expression was in no way. nor 
 
 S. C. Hall's 
 
 Memories of under any circumstances, good ; 
 he had a drooping eye and a thick 
 underlip ; his forehead was broad, his head 
 large out of proportion indeed to his form ; 
 but it was without the organs of benevolence 
 and veneration, although preponderating in that 
 of ideality. His features were 'cadaverous.' 
 Lord Dudley once asked him why, now that 
 he could afford it, he did not set up his 
 hearse ; and it is said that Sydney Smith 
 gave him mortal offence by recommending 
 him, ' when he sat for his portrait, to be drawn 
 saying his prayers, with his face hidden by 
 his hands.' ' 
 
 " His personal appearance was extra- 
 
SAMUEL ROGERS 255 
 
 ordinary, or rather his countenance was 
 unique. His skull and facial expression bore 
 so striking a likeness to the Jerdar , s ^ w/ 
 skeleton pictures which we some- have known ' 
 times see of Death, that the facetious Sydney 
 Smith (at one of the dressed evening 
 parties. . . .) entitled him the ' Death 
 dandy.' And it was told (probably with 
 truth), that the same satirical wag inscribed 
 upon the capital portrait in his breakfast- 
 room, * Painted in his lifetime.' ' 
 
 " My first look at the poet, then in his 
 seventy - eighth year, was an agreeable 
 surprise, and a protest in my mind 
 
 * f Mackay's 
 
 against the malignant injustice Forty Years' 
 
 Recollections. 
 
 which had been done him. As a 
 young man he might have been uncomely, if 
 not as ugly as his revilers had painted him, 
 but as an old man there was an intellectual 
 charm in his countenance, and a fascination 
 in his manner which more than atoned for 
 any deficiency of personal beauty." 1840. 
 
256 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI 
 
 1828-1882 
 
 " ACCORDING to a sketch by Mr. Eyre Crowe, 
 
 dated about this time, Rossetti must have 
 
 had anything but a robust appear- 
 
 William Sharp's 
 
 Dante Gabriel ance, being very thin and even 
 
 Rossetti. 
 
 somewhat haggard in expression. 
 He went about in a long swallow -tailed 
 coat of what was even in 1848 an antique 
 pattern. That his appearance in his twentieth 
 and some subsequent years was that of an 
 ascetic I have been told by several, including 
 himself, and in addition to such pen-and-ink 
 sketches as the above, and of himself sitting 
 to Miss Siddall (his future wife) for his 
 portrait, there are the perhaps more reliable 
 portraitures in Mr. Millais's Isabella (painted 
 in 1849), and Mr. Deverell's Viola. On the 
 other hand, a beautifully-executed pencil head 
 of himself in boyhood shows him much re- 
 
DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI 257 
 
 moved from the ascetic type of later years, 
 not unlike and strongly suggestive of a young 
 Keats or Chatterton ; while in maturer age 
 he carefully drew his portrait from his 
 mirrored image, the result being a highly- 
 finished pen - and - ink likeness. While 
 speaking of portraits, I may state that 
 Rossetti was twice photographed, once in 
 Newcastle (which is the one publicly known, 
 and upon which all other illustrations have 
 been based), and once standing arm-in-arm 
 with Mr. Ruskin, the latter being the best 
 likeness of the poet-artist as he was a quarter 
 of a century ago. There is also an etching 
 by Mr. Menpes, which, however, is only 
 founded on the well - known photograph ; 
 and, finally, there is a portrait taken shortly 
 after death by Mr. Frederick Shields." 
 
 " Very soon Rossetti came to me through 
 the doorway in front, which 
 
 Hall Caine's 
 
 proved to be the entrance to his Recollections of 
 studio. Holding forth both hands 
 and crying, ' Hulloa ! ' he gave me that 
 
 17 
 
258 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 cheery hearty greeting which I came to 
 recognise as his alone, perhaps, in warmth 
 and unfailing geniality among all the men of 
 our circle. It was Italian in its spontaneity, 
 and yet it was English in its manly reserve, 
 and I remember with much tenderness of 
 feeling that never to the last (not even when 
 sickness saddened him, or after an absence 
 of a few days or even hours), did it fail him 
 when meeting with those friends to whom to 
 the last he was really attached. Leading the 
 way to the studio, he introduced me to his 
 brother, who was there upon one of the 
 evening visits, which at intervals of a week 
 he was at that time making with unfailing 
 regularity. I should have described Rossetti, 
 at this time, as a man who looked quite ten 
 years older than his actual age, which was 
 fifty-two, of full middle height and inclining 
 to corpulence, with a round face that ought, 
 one thought, to be ruddy but was pale, large 
 gray eyes with a steady introspecting look, 
 surmounted by broad protrusive brows and a 
 
DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI 259 
 
 clearly-pencilled ridge over the nose, which 
 was well cut and had large breathing nostrils. 
 The mouth and chin were hidden beneath 
 a heavy moustache and abundant beard, 
 which grew up to the ears, and had been of 
 a mixed black-brown and auburn, and were 
 now streaked with gray. The forehead was 
 large, round, without protuberances, and very 
 gently receding to where thin black curls, 
 that had once been redundant, began to 
 tumble down to the ears. The entire con- 
 figuration of the head and face seemed to me 
 singularly noble, and from the eyes upwards 
 full of beauty. He wore a pair of spectacles, 
 and, in reading, a second pair over the first : 
 but these took little from the sense of power 
 conveyed by those steady eyes, and that 
 ' bar of Michael Angelo.' His dress was not 
 conspicuous, being however rather negligent 
 than otherwise, and noticeable, if at all, only 
 for a straight sack - coat buttoned at the 
 throat, descending at least to the knees, and 
 having large pockets cut into it perpen- 
 
260 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 dicularly at the sides. This garment was, I 
 afterwards found, one of the articles of 
 various kinds made to the author's own 
 design. When he spoke, even in exchang- 
 ing the preliminary courtesies of an opening 
 conversation, I thought his voice the richest 
 I had ever known any one to possess. It 
 was a full deep baritone, capable of easy 
 modulation, and with undertones of infinite 
 softness and sweetness, yet, as I afterwards 
 found, with almost illimitable compass, and 
 with every gradation of tone at command, 
 for the recitation or reading of poetry." 1 880. 
 " As to the personality of Dante Gabriel 
 Rossetti much has been written since his 
 death, and it is now widely known 
 
 William Sharp's 
 
 Dante Gabriel that he was a man who exercised 
 
 Rossetti. . . 
 
 an almost irresistible charm over 
 most with whom he was brought in con- 
 tact. His manner could be peculiarly 
 winning, especially with those much younger 
 than himself, and his voice was alike notable 
 for its sonorous beauty and for a magnetic 
 
DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI 261 
 
 quality that made the ear alert, whether the 
 speaker was engaged in conversation, recita- 
 tion, or reading. I have heard him read, 
 some of them over and over again, all the 
 poems in the Ballads and Sonnets; and 
 especially in such productions* as The Cloud 
 Confines was his voice as stirring as a 
 trumpet tone ; but where he excelled was in 
 some of the pathetic portions of the Vita 
 Nuova, or the terrible and sonorous passages 
 of L Inferno, when the music of the Italian 
 language found full expression indeed. 
 His conversational powers I am unable 
 adequately to describe, for during the four 
 or five years of my intimacy with him he 
 suffered too much from ill -health to be a 
 consistently brilliant talker, but again and 
 again I have seen instances of those mar- 
 vellous gifts that made him at one time a 
 Sydney Smith in wit, and a Coleridge in 
 eloquence. I n appearance he was, if anything, 
 rather over middle height, and, especially 
 latterly, somewhat stout ; his forehead was 
 
262 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 of splendid proportions, recalling instantane- 
 ously to most strangers the Stratford bust of 
 Shakespeare ; and his gray blue eyes were 
 clear and piercing, and characterised by that 
 rapid penetrative gaze so noticeable in 
 Emerson. He seemed always to me an 
 unmistakable Englishman, yet the Italian 
 element was frequently recognisable. As far 
 as his own opinion is concerned, he was 
 wholly English." 1878. 
 
 RICHARD SAVAGE 
 
 1697-1743 
 
 "His companion, Who is he ? He looks a 
 little older, and is a great deal slenderer, and 
 very much better dressed ; that Dublin Uni . 
 is, his clothes are well made, but ve ^ %f ~ 
 alas ! they are also well worn. 
 He has an air of faded fashion about him. 
 There is decision in every line of the lank, 
 
RICHARD SAVAGE 263 
 
 and long, and melancholy visage ; it is a 
 veritable Quixotic face. Meagre and proud, 
 and high and pale. An exceeding ' woeful 
 countenance,' which sadness and scorn alter- 
 nately cloud and corrugate. It is mixed up 
 with extreme diversities. The brow and 
 eye are intellectual and bright, while the 
 lower features are sensual and coarse : 
 humour and passion both lurk in the mouth, 
 yet few smiles expand those lips from which 
 laughter seems altogether banished, while 
 the voice is sweet, soft, and lute-like ; the 
 pace is slow, and the gait has a certain pre- 
 tension to importance, which ill harmonises 
 with the rest of his appearance. This person 
 is Richard Savage, a man whose rare talents 
 might have brought him poetic immortality, 
 and a lofty pedestal in the muse's temple, had 
 not his coarser vices, together with his pride 
 and his ingratitude, dragged him down to the 
 lowest moral depth, and buried the many 
 bright things he had in brain and bosom, 
 head and heart, in the same mud-heap.'* 
 
264 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 "He was of a middle stature, of a thin habit 
 
 of body, a long visage, coarse features, and 
 
 Johnson's Life melancholy aspect; of a grave 
 
 of Savage. anc j man i v deportment, a solemn 
 
 dignity of mien, but which, upon a nearer 
 acquaintance, softened into an engaging 
 easiness of manners. His walk was slow, 
 and his voice tremulous and mournful. He 
 was easily excited to smiles, but very seldom 
 provoked to laughter." 
 
 SIR WALTER SCOTT 
 
 17711832 
 
 " His personal appearance at this time was 
 not unengaging. A lady of high rank, who 
 Lockhart's Life we ^ remembers him in the Old 
 of Scott. Assembly Rooms, says, < Young 
 Walter Scott was a comely creature/ He 
 had outgrown the sallowness of early ill- 
 health, and had a fresh, brilliant complexion. 
 
WALTER SCOTT 265 
 
 His eyes were clear, open, and well set, with 
 a changeful radiance, to which teeth of the 
 most perfect regularity and whiteness lent 
 their assistance, while the noble expanse and 
 elevation of the brow gave to the whole 
 aspect a dignity far above the charm of mere 
 features. His smile was always delightful ; 
 and I can easily fancy the peculiar intermix- 
 ture of tenderness and gravity, with playful 
 innocent hilarity and humour in the expres- 
 sion, as being well calculated to fix a fair 
 lady's eye. His figure, excepting the blemish 
 in one limb, must in those days have been 
 eminently handsome ; tall, much above the 
 usual standard, it was cast in the very mould 
 of a young Hercules ; the head set on with 
 singular grace, the throat and chest after the 
 truest model of the antique, the hands deli- 
 cately finished ; the whole outline that of ex- 
 traordinary vigour, without as yet a touch of 
 clumsiness. When he had acquired a little 
 facility of manner, his conversation must have 
 been such as could have dispensed with any 
 
266 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 exterior advantages, and certainly brought 
 swift forgiveness for the one unkindness of 
 nature. I have heard him, in talking of this 
 part of his life, say, with an arch simplicity of 
 look and tone which those who were familiar 
 with him can fill in for themselves ' It was 
 a proud night with me when I first found that 
 a pretty young woman could think it worth 
 her while to sit and talk with me, hour after 
 hour, in a corner of the ball-room, while all 
 the world were capering in our view.'" 1 790. 
 " I never spoke with Scott. . . . Have a 
 hundred times seen him, from of old, writing 
 m ^e Courts, or hobbling with 
 ^ Qx ^ speed along the streets of 
 Edinburgh ; a large man, pale, shaggy face, 
 fine, deep-browed gray eyes, an expression 
 of strong homely intelligence, of humour 
 and good -humour, and, perhaps (in later 
 years amongst the wrinkles), of sadness or 
 weariness. ... He has played his part, 
 and left none like or second to him. 
 Plaudite!" 
 
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 267 
 
 " More eloquent men I have known, I think, 
 but I never knew any one so attractive. The 
 variety of his conversation is sir John BOW- 
 stupendous, while it overflows j^"^ 
 with the most agreeable anec- lections. 
 dotes, and almost every person who has 
 figured in modern times has in some way or 
 other been connected with him. His manner 
 of talking is without the smallest pretence, 
 and is gentle and humorous. His eye has 
 a constant play upon it, and around it. His 
 dress is that of a substantial farmer, a short 
 green coat with steel buttons, striped waist- 
 coat and pantaloons, and he put on light 
 gaiters when we sallied forth." 
 
 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 
 15641616 
 
 " THE portrait of Martin Droeshout " (pub- 
 lished with the first folio edition of Shake- 
 
268 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 spear es works in 1623) "has a greater 
 
 claim to attention, as it was engraved by 
 
 E. T. Craig's a well-known artist at the time 
 
 Portraits of when published by Shakespeare's 
 
 Shakespeare. J 
 
 contemporaries, Heminge and 
 Condell, and has the additional testimony 
 of the poet's friend, Ben Jonson, in its 
 favour, in the following lines inscribed 
 opposite to the engraving of the portrait : 
 
 ' This figure, that thou here seest put, 
 It was for gentle Shakespeare cut ; 
 Wherein the graver had a strife 
 With Nature, to out-doo the life. 
 O, could he but have drawne his wit 
 As well in brasse as he hath hit 
 His face, the print would then surpasse 
 All that was ever writ in brasse ; 
 But since he cannot, reader, looke 
 Not on his picture, but his booke.' 
 
 These lines would indicate that the portrait 
 of the face was represented with some degree 
 of truth. It may be observed here that until 
 within the last few years artists were less 
 exact and minute in the delineation of the 
 
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 269 
 
 head than the face; and the head appears 
 unusually high for its breadth, and impresses 
 you with the semblance of a form more like 
 Scott than Byron, of Canova than Chantrey. 
 ' 'The features of Droeshout's engraving 
 bear a closer resemblance to the plaster cast 
 than to the Stratford bust. The nose has the 
 same flowing outline, well defined, prominent, 
 yet finely chiselled, and the nostrils rather 
 large. There is the same long upper lip, and 
 a general correspondence with the mouth of 
 the cast. The eye is large and round, and 
 in life would be mild and lustrous. The hair 
 is thin and not curled, and the head is high 
 but comparatively narrow. There would be 
 moderate secretiveness, less destructiveness, 
 small constructiveness, and little acquisitive- 
 ness. There is an ample endowment of the 
 higher sentiments. The imaginative and 
 imitative faculties are represented as very 
 large. Ideality, wonder, wit, imitation, 
 benevolence, and veneration, comparison 
 and causality, are all very large. The 
 
2 7 o WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 perceptive region is scarcely sufficiently 
 indicated for the powers of mind possessed 
 by Shakespeare, in his vast and ready 
 command of view over the range of natural 
 objects so evident in his works. This may 
 be the fault of the engraver. It is the 
 opposite in this respect to the cast from the 
 face. There is one feature in the portrait 
 which harmonises with Milton's praise and 
 Jonson's worship and Spenser's admiration, 
 his large benevolence, veneration and 
 ideality, and his small destructiveness and 
 acquisitiveness, leading to the control over 
 his feelings and generous sympathy with 
 others, manifested by his quiet manner and 
 gentle nature. Men of strong passions like 
 Jonson and Byron have very different heads 
 to this portrait, which presents a great con- 
 trast both to the bust and the Chandos 
 portrait" (said to be painted by Burbage, a 
 player contemporary with Shakespeare). ' ' The 
 physical proportions of the Droeshout figure 
 harmonise better with a fine temperament 
 
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 2 7 1 
 
 and an intellectual head than the Stratford 
 bust with Shakespeare's mental activity." 
 
 " The exact time at which the monument 
 was erected in the church " (Stratford-on- 
 Avon) " is unknown, but it is Haiiiweii- 
 
 Phillipps's Out- 
 
 alluded to by Leonard Digges as lines of the Life 
 being there in the year 1623. a ^ s P ea 
 The bust must, therefore, have been submitted 
 to the approval of the Halls, who could hardly 
 have been satisfied with a mere fanciful image. 
 There is, however, no doubt that it was an 
 authentic representation of the great dramatist, 
 but it has unfortunately been so tampered 
 with in modern times that much of the 
 absorbing interest with which it would other- 
 wise have been surrounded has evaporated. 
 It was originally painted in imitation of life, 
 the face and hands of the usual flesh colour, 
 the eyes a light hazel, and the hair and beard 
 auburn. The realisation of the costume was 
 similarly attempted by the use of scarlet for 
 the doublet, black for the loose gown, and 
 white for the collar and wristbands." 
 
272 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 "It only remains to examine the cast from 
 
 the face of Shakespeare. The documentary 
 
 statements published by Mr. Fris- 
 
 E. T. Craig s * 
 
 Portraits of we n tenc i to establish a claim to 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 * attention. It was left in the 
 
 possession of Professor Owen by Dr. Becher, 
 the enterprising botanist, who fell a victim to 
 his zeal in the unfortunate Australian expe- 
 dition under Burke. The cast, it appears, 
 originally belonged to a German nobleman at 
 the Court of James I., whose descendants 
 kept it as an heirloom till the last of the race 
 died, when his effects were sold. Mr. Friswell 
 observes that 'the cast bears some resem- 
 blance to the more refined portraits of the 
 poet. It is not unlike the ideal head of 
 Roubillac, and bears a very great resemblance 
 to a fine portrait of the poet in the possession 
 of Mr. Challis.' It has some of the character- 
 istics of Jansen's portrait. The mask has a 
 mournful aspect, and sensitive persons are 
 affected when they look at it. ... There are 
 indications visible . . of wrinkles and ' crow's 
 
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 273 
 
 feet' at the corners of the eyes. It is utterly 
 destitute of the jovial physiognomy of the 
 Stratford bust and portrait. It is certainly 
 the impress from one who was gifted with 
 great sensibility, great range of perceptive 
 power, a ready memory, great facility of 
 expression, varied power of enjoyment, and 
 great depth of feeling. The year 1616, when 
 Shakespeare died, is recorded on the back of 
 the cast. Hairs of the moustache, eyelashes, 
 and beard still adhere to the plaster, of a 
 reddish brown or auburn colour, correspond- 
 ing with several portraits and the Stratford 
 bust. . . . The cast presents to view finely 
 formed features, strongly marked, yet regular. 
 The forehead is well developed in the region 
 of the perceptive powers ; but scarcely so 
 high as the Droeshout, and the coronal 
 region is much lower than in that of the 
 Felton head. The sides of the head are well 
 developed, and there is a large mass of brain 
 in the front. The moustache is divided, and 
 falls over the corners of the mouth, and the 
 
 18 
 
274 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 beard, or imperial, is a full tuft on the chin, 
 which, as well as the moustache, appears to 
 be marked with a tool since taken. The face 
 is a sharp oval, that of the bust is a blunt or 
 round one. The chin is rather narrow and 
 pointed, yet firm ; that of the bust well 
 rounded. The cheeks are thin and fallen ; 
 in those of the bust full, fat, and coarse, as if 
 'good digestion waited on appetite/ without 
 thought, fancy, or feeling, troubling either. 
 The mask has a moderate -sized upper lip, 
 the bust a very large one, although Sir 
 Walter Scott lost his wager in asserting that 
 it was longer than his own. The lips of the 
 cast are thin and well marked ; those of the 
 bust present a rude opening for the mouth. 
 The nostrils are drawn up, and this feature is 
 exaggerated in the bust. The nose of the 
 cast is large, finely marked, aquiline, and 
 delicately formed. That of the bust is short, 
 mean, straight, and small. In their physiog- 
 nomy and phrenology they are utterly 
 different. The cast indicates the man of 
 
MAR Y WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLE Y 275 
 
 thought, emotion, and suffering ; the bust, of 
 ease, enjoyment, and self-satisfaction. If the 
 bust is to represent the living image of the 
 dead poet, the answer is, death does not 
 immediately alter the language once written 
 on the ivory gate at the temple of thought. 
 It has been said by John Bell that the Strat- 
 ford bust was cut from a mask, but by a 
 clumsy sculptor, who modified his work. A 
 monument, erected as a memorial of Shake- 
 speare, should therefore avoid the evident 
 discrepancies that already exist, and perpe- 
 trate no repetition of forms inconsistent with 
 nature, truth, and beauty." 
 
 MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY 
 1798-1851 
 
 " . . . AT the time I am speaking of, Mrs. 
 Shelley was twenty-four. Such a rare pedigree 
 of genius was enough to interest me in her, 
 
2 76 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 irrespective of her own merits as an authoress. 
 
 The most striking feature in her face was 
 
 her calm gray eyes ; she was 
 
 Anecdote Bio- 
 graphy of P. rather under the English standard 
 
 B. Shelley, , . , r . 
 
 of woman s height, very fair and 
 light -haired, witty, social, and animated in 
 the society of friends, though mournful in 
 solitude." 1821. 
 
 " Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley, 
 
 with her well-shaped, golden -haired head, 
 
 almost always a little bent and 
 
 The Cowden J 
 
 ciarkes 5 Recoil*- drooping ; her marble - white 
 
 tions of Writers. 
 
 shoulders and arms statuesquely 
 visible in the perfectly plain black velvet 
 dress, which the customs of that time allowed 
 to be cut low, and which her own taste 
 adopted ; . . . her thoughtful, earnest eyes ; 
 her short upper lip and intellectually curved 
 mouth, with a certain close compressed and 
 decisive expression while she listened, and a 
 relaxation into fuller redness and mobility 
 when speaking ; her exquisitely formed, 
 white, dimpled, small hands, with rosy 
 
PERCY B YSSHE SHELLE Y 277 
 
 palms, and plumply commencing fingers, 
 that tapered into tips as slender and delicate 
 as those in a Vandyck portrait, all remain 
 palpably present to memory." About 1824. 
 " Shelley's second love, who was five 
 years his junior, is described as ' rather 
 short, remarkably fair, and light- The CornhiUt 
 haired, with brownish gray eyes, l8;5< 
 a great forehead, striking features, and a 
 noticeable air of sedateness.' One writer has 
 compared her with the classic bust of Clyde." 
 
 PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY 
 1792-1822 
 
 "As I felt in truth but a slight interest in 
 the subject of his conversation, I stoddard's 
 had leisure to examine, and, I ^'^ 
 may add, admire the appearance of y* she SheU w- 
 my very extraordinary guest. It was a sum 
 
278 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 of many contradictions. His figure was slight 
 and fragile, and yet his bones and joints were 
 large and strong. He was tall, but he 
 stooped so much that he seemed of a low 
 stature. His clothes were expensive, and 
 made according to the most approved mode 
 of the day ; but they were 'tumbled, rumpled, 
 unbrushed. His gestures were abrupt and 
 sometimes violent, occasionally even awk- 
 ward. His complexion was delicate and 
 almost feminine, of the purest red and white ; 
 yet he was tanned and freckled by exposure 
 to the sun, having passed the autumn, as he 
 said, in shooting. His features, his whole 
 face, and particularly his head, were, in fact, 
 unusually small ; yet the last appeared of a 
 remarkable bulk, for his hair was long and 
 bushy, and in fits of absence, and in the 
 agonies (if I may use the word) of anxious 
 thought, he often rubbed it fiercely with 
 his hands, or passed his fingers quickly 
 through his locks unconsciously, so that it 
 was singularly wild and rough. In times 
 
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY 279 
 
 when it was the mode to imitate stage-coach- 
 men as closely as possible in costume, and 
 when the hair was invariably cropped, like 
 that of our soldiers, this eccentricity was 
 very striking. His features were not sym- 
 metrical (the mouth, perhaps, excepted), yet 
 was the effect of the whole extremely power- 
 ful. They breathed an animation, a fire, an 
 enthusiasm, a vivid and preternatural intel- 
 ligence, that I never met with in any other 
 countenance. " 1 8 1 o. 
 
 "Shelley's figure was a little above the 
 middle height, slender, and of delicate con- 
 struction, which appeared the 
 
 The Cowden 
 
 rather from a lounging or wav- ciarkes' Recollec- 
 tions of Writers. 
 
 mg manner in his gait, as though 
 his frame was compounded barely of muscle 
 and tendon ; and that the power of walking was 
 an achievement with him and not a natural 
 habit. Yet I should suppose that he was not 
 a valetudinarian, although that has been said 
 of him on account of his spare and vegetable 
 diet ; for I have the remembrance of his 
 
2 8o WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 scampering and bounding over the gorse- 
 bushes on Hampstead Heath late one night 
 now close upon us, and now shouting from 
 the height like a wild school-boy. He was 
 both an active and an enduring walker, 
 feats which do not accompany an ailing and 
 feeble constitution. His face was round, flat, 
 pale, with small features ; mouth beautifully 
 shaped ; hair bright brown and wavy ; and 
 such a pair of eyes as are rarely in the human 
 or any other head, intensely blue, with a 
 gentle and lambent expression, yet wonder- 
 fully alert and engrossing ; nothing appeared 
 to escape his knowledge." 
 
 " Shelley, when he died, was in his 
 thirtieth year. His figure was tall and 
 slight, and his constitution con- Leigh Hunt , s 
 sumptive. He was subject to Autobio ^ph y . 
 violent spasmodic pains, which would some- 
 times force him to lie on the ground until 
 they were over ; but he had always a kind 
 word to give to those about him when his 
 pangs allowed him to speak. In this organ- 
 

 PERCY B YSSHJTSffELL'E Y 281 
 
 isation, as well as in some other respects, 
 he resembled the German poet Schiller. 
 Though well-turned, his shoulders were 
 bent a little, owing to premature thought 
 and trouble. The same causes had touched 
 his hair with gray ; and though his habits of 
 temperance and exercise gave him a remark- 
 able degree of strength, it is not supposed 
 that he could have lived many years. He 
 used to say that he had lived three times as 
 long as the calendar gave out ; which he 
 would prove, between jest and earnest, by 
 some remarks on Time, 
 
 'That would have puzzled that stout Stagyrite. 3 
 
 Like the Stagyrites, his voice was high and 
 weak. His eyes were large and animated, 
 with a dash of wildness in them ; his face 
 small, but well shaped, particularly the mouth 
 and chin, the turn of which was very sensitive 
 and graceful. His complexion was naturally 
 fair and delicate, with a colour in the cheeks. 
 He had brown hair, which, though tinged 
 
282 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 with gray, surmounted his face well, being 
 in considerable quantity, and tending to a 
 curl. His side face, upon the whole, was 
 deficient in strength, and his features would 
 not have told well in a bust ; but when 
 fronting and looking at you attentively, his 
 aspect had a certain seraphical character that 
 would have suited a portrait of John the 
 Baptist, or the angel whom Milton describes 
 as holding a reed 'tipt with fire.'" 1822. 
 
 RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN 
 17511816 
 
 " IT has been seen, by a letter of his sister 
 already given, that, when young, he was 
 Moore's Life generally accounted handsome . 
 
 of Sheridan. j^ j n j ater y ears h j g eyes were 
 
 the only testimonials of beauty which re- 
 mained to him. It was, indeed, in the upper 
 part of his face that the spirit of the man 
 
RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN 283 
 
 chiefly reigned ; the dominion of the world 
 and the senses being rather strongly marked 
 out in the lower. In his person, he was 
 above the middle size, and his general make 
 was, as I have already said, robust and well- 
 proportioned. It is remarkable that his 
 arms, though of powerful strength, were thin, 
 and appeared by no means muscular. His 
 hands were small and delicate ; and the 
 following couplet, written on the cast of one 
 of them, very livelily enumerates both its 
 physical and moral qualities : 
 
 ' Good at a fight, better at a Play, 
 God-like in giving, but the Devil to pay!" 5 
 
 " I have seen his large beautiful eyes 
 speak sadly, even while his brilliant tongue was 
 rehearsing the gayest sentiments and 
 the finest wit. . . . What a portrait Men i have 
 
 r - 11 -i i known. 
 
 to pronounce of intellect is that by 
 Sir Joshua ! The head so fine, the expres- 
 sion so brilliant, and the lower part of the 
 countenance, in the prime of life, without the 
 sensuous encroachment of luxurious indul- 
 
284 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 gence upon later years. And how light- 
 hearted the look." 
 
 " Sheridan was above the middle size, and 
 
 of a make robust and well-proportioned. In 
 
 his youth, his family said, he had 
 
 Gantter's 
 
 standard Poets of been handsome ; but in his latter 
 
 Great Britain. 111 i i r i 
 
 years he had nothing left to show 
 for it but his eyes. * It was, indeed, in the 
 upper part of his face/ says Mr. Moore, 
 ' that the spirit of the man chiefly reigned ; 
 the dominion of the world and the senses 
 being rather strongly marked out in the lower.'" 
 
 SIR PHILIP SIDNEY 
 
 1554-1587-8 
 
 was not only an excellent witt, but 
 Aubrey's Lives extremely beautiful ; he much re- 
 O f Eminent sem bl e d his sister, but his haire 
 
 Persons. 
 
 was not red, but a little inclin- 
 ing ; viz., a darke amber colour. If I were 
 
SIX PHILIP SIDNEY 285 
 
 to find a fault in it, methinkes 'tis not mascu- 
 line enough ; yett he is a person of great 
 courage. . . . My great - uncle Mr. T. 
 Browne, remembered him, and sayd that he 
 was wont to take his table-booke out of his 
 pocket and write downe his notions as they 
 came into his head, when he was writing his 
 Arcadia (which was never finished by him) 
 as he was hunting on our pleasant plaines." 
 
 " A man made out of goodliest mould 
 
 The Worthie Sir 
 As shape in ware were wrought, Phillip Sidney, 
 
 Or Picture stoode in stampe of gold Knight, his 
 
 To please each gazer's thought. . . . E P ita P h - 
 . . . His silent lookes sayd wisdome great 
 
 Did lodge in loftie brow : 
 His patient heart (in chollers heate) 
 
 Supprest all passion's throw. 
 ... A portly presence passing fine 
 
 With beautie furnisht well. 
 Where vertues buds and grace divine 
 
 And daintie gifts did dwell." 
 
 " He was tall, shapely, and muscular, with 
 large blue-gray eyes, a long aqui- The Edinburgh 
 
 , . r i i Review. 1876. 
 
 line nose, hair of a dark au- * 
 
 burn tint, and full sensitive lips, the slightly 
 
286 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 pensive expression of which was relieved by 
 the decision of the jaw and chin." 
 
 HORACE SMITH 
 
 1779-1849 
 
 "HORACE was delicious. ... A finer nature 
 
 than Horace Smith's, except in the single 
 
 Ld h Hunt's mstance of Shelley, I never met 
 
 Autobiography, ^fa m man . nQr eyen j fl fa^ 
 
 instance, all circumstances considered, have 
 I a right to say that those who knew him as 
 intimately as I did the other, would not have 
 had the same reasons to love him. . . . The 
 personal appearance of Horace Smith, like 
 that of most of the individuals I have met 
 with, was highly indicative of his character. 
 His figure was good and manly, inclining to 
 the robust ; and his countenance extremely 
 frank and cordial ; sweet without weakness. 
 I have been told he was irascible. If so, it 
 
SYDNE Y SMITH 287 
 
 must have been no common offence that 
 could have irritated him. He had not a jot 
 of it in his appearance." 1809. 
 
 SYDNEY SMITH 
 
 1771-1845 
 
 " IN person, Sydney Smith, as he has been 
 described to us by those who knew him, was 
 of the medium height ; plethoric Duyckn i ck > s 
 
 in habit though of great activity, c 
 
 J Sydney Smith. 
 
 of a dense brown complexion, a 
 dark expressive eye, an open countenance, 
 indicative of shrewdness, humour, and bene- 
 volence. There is a look too, in the English 
 engraved portraits, of a thoughtful serious- 
 ness. His ' sense, wit, and clumsiness,' said 
 a college companion, gave 'the idea of an 
 Athenian carter.' ' 
 
 " Strangers entering St. Paul's . . . would 
 have witnessed a burly but active -looking 
 
288 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 man of sixty-three, of medium height, with 
 
 a dark complexion and iron-gray hair, ascend 
 
 . the pulpit. When he stood up 
 
 Reid s Life and 
 
 Times of Sydney to preach, the shapely and 
 
 Smith. ^ 7 
 
 * well-carried head, the fine eyes, 
 with their quick and penetrating glance, the 
 expression of thorough benevolence which lit 
 up the sensitive yet boldly chiselled features 
 of the strong and intellectual face, would 
 all contribute to heighten favourably the first 
 general impression concerning a man whose 
 every movement suggested intelligence, de- 
 termination, and kindliness." 1834. 
 
 " Very distinctly do I recall the portly 
 
 figure of Sydney Smith seated in his large 
 
 yellow chariot then a fashionable 
 
 Reid's Life and J 
 
 Times of Sydney style of carriage the full-sized 
 
 Smith. ' . 
 
 head, the face indicative, as it 
 now presents itself to my mind's eye, of 
 mental power, of kindliness, and of the spirit 
 of humour which possessed him. . . . This 
 brilliant man was not brilliant only ; there 
 was in his character, as I conceive, an un- 
 
TOBIAS SMOLLETT 289 
 
 usually substantial basis of sound common 
 sense." 
 
 TOBIAS SMOLLETT 
 
 1721-1771 
 
 " THE person of Smollett was stout and well- 
 proportioned, his countenance engaging, his 
 manner reserved, with a certain Chalmers - s Life 
 air of dignity that seemed to o/Smoiktt. 
 indicate that he was not unconscious of his 
 own powers." 
 
 " In his person he was graceful and hand- 
 some, and in his air and manner there was a 
 certain dignity which commanded Anderson's Poets 
 
 TT 1 i r of Great Britain. 
 
 respect. He possessed a loftiness * 
 and elevation of sentiment and character, 
 without pride or haughtiness, for to his equals 
 and inferiors he was ever polite, friendly and 
 generous." 
 
 " Smollett, who thus died prematurely in 
 the fifty-first year of his age, and the bloom 
 
 19 
 
2 9 o WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 of his mental faculties, was tall and handsome, 
 
 chambers's w ^^ a most prepossessing carriage 
 
 Eminent anc j address, and the marks and 
 
 Scotsmen. 
 
 * manners of a gentleman." 
 
 ROBERT SOUTHEY 
 
 1774-1843 
 
 " A MAN towards well up in the fifties ; hair 
 gray, not yet hoary, well setting off his fine 
 clear brown complexion, head Froude's Cariyie. 
 and face both smallish, as indeed the figure 
 was while seated ; features finely cut ; eyes, 
 brow, mouth, good in their kind expressive 
 all, and even vehemently so, but betokening 
 rather keenness than depth either of intellect 
 or character ; a serious, human, honest, but 
 sharp, almost fierce-looking thin man, with 
 very much of the militant in his aspect, in 
 the eyes especially was visible a mixture of 
 sorrow and of anger, or of angry contempt, 
 
ROBERT SOUTHE Y 291 
 
 as if his indignant fight with the world had not 
 yet ended in victory, but also never should in 
 defeat." 1835. 
 
 " The personal appearance and demeanour 
 of Southey at this time (he was then aged sixty- 
 two) was striking and peculiar. Southey > s Life and 
 The only thing in art which Correspondence. 
 
 brings him exactly before me is the monu- 
 ment by Lough, the sculptor. Like many 
 other young men of the time who had read 
 Byron with great admiration, I had imbibed 
 rather a prejudice against the Laureate. 
 This was weakened by his appearance, and 
 wholly removed by his frank conversation. 
 He was calm, mild, and gentlemanly ; full of 
 quiet, subdued humour ; the reverse of ascetic 
 in his manner, speech, or actions. His 
 bearing was rather that of a scholar than 
 that of a man much accustomed to mingle in 
 general society. ... In any place Southey 
 would have been pointed at as ' a noticeable 
 man.' He was tall, slight, and well made. 
 His features were striking, and Byron truly 
 
292 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 described him as ' with a hook nose and a 
 hawk's eye.' Certainly his eyes were 
 peculiar, at once keen and mild. The 
 brow was rather high than square, and the 
 lines well defined. His hair was tinged with 
 gray, but his head was as well covered with 
 it wavy and flowing as it could have 
 been in youth. He by no means looked his 
 age ; simple habits, pure thoughts, the 
 quietude of a happy hearth, the friendship of 
 the wise and good, the self-consciousness of 
 acting for the best purposes, a separation from 
 the personal irritations which men of letters 
 are so often subjected to in the world ; and 
 health, which to that time had been so 
 generally unbroken, had kept Southey from 
 many of the cares of life, and their usually 
 harrowing effect on mind and body. It is 
 one of my most pleasant recollections that I 
 enjoyed his friendship and regard." 1836. 
 
 " His height was five feet eleven inches. 
 ' His forehead was very broad ; his com- 
 plexion rather dark ; the eyebrows large and 
 
EDMUND SPENSER 293 
 
 arched; the eye well shaped, and dark brown; 
 the mouth somewhat prominent, muscular, 
 and very variously expressive ; 
 
 S. C. Hall's 
 
 the chin small in proportion to Memories of 
 
 r r i r Great Men. 
 
 the upper features of the face. 
 So writes his son, who adds that * many 
 thought him a handsomer man in age than in 
 youth,' when his hair had become white, 
 continuing abundant, and flowing in thick 
 curls over his brow. Byron, who saw him 
 but twice, once at Holland House, and once 
 at one of Rogers' breakfasts, said, ' To have 
 that man's head and shoulders, I would 
 almost have written his sapphics.' That was 
 in 1813, when Southey was in his prime." 
 
 EDMUND SPENSER 
 
 1553-1599 
 
 " BUT of Edmund Spenser we have inestim- 
 able portraits. In the first rank must be 
 
294 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 placed the miniature now in the inherited 
 possession of Lord Fitzhardinge. It was 
 Grosart's z*y* a gift to the Lady Elizabeth 
 Carey (Althorp Spenser), heiress 
 of the Hunsdons, to whom it was left by 
 Queen Elizabeth. It thus came with an in- 
 disputable lineage through the marriage of 
 a Berkeley to Lady Elizabeth Carey. It is 
 an exquisitely beautiful face. The brow is 
 ample, the lips thin but mobile, the eyes a 
 grayish-blue, the hair and beard a golden red 
 (as of ' red monie ' of the ballads) or goldenly 
 chestnut, the nose with semi-transparent 
 nostril and keen, the chin firm-poised, the 
 expression refined and delicate. Altogether 
 just such ' presentment,' of the Poet of Beauty 
 par excellence as one would hav.e imagined. 
 To be placed next is the older face of the 
 Dowager Countess of Chesterfield. It is 
 identically the same face. But there is more 
 roundness of chin, more fulness or ripening 
 of the lips (especially the under), more rest- 
 fulness. There is not the ' fragile ' look of the 
 
EDMUND SPENSER 295 
 
 Fitzhardinge miniature. Hair and eyes agree 
 with the miniature. The only other with 
 a pedigree or sufficiently authenticated, not 
 mere 'copies/ such as those at Pembroke 
 College, is the very remarkable one that 
 came down as a Devonshire heirloom to the 
 Rev. S. Baring Gould, M.A., with a com- 
 panion of Sir Walter Raleigh. 
 
 " Both have been in the family beyond 
 record. This shows the poet in the full 
 strength of manhood. It is a kind of three- 
 quarter profile, and as one studies it, it seems 
 to vindicate itself as 'our sage and serious 
 Spenser.' Again, hair and eyes agree with 
 the others. The Spaniard's haughty face, 
 for long engraved and re-engraved, ought 
 never to have been engraved as Spenser. 
 There is not a jot or tittle of evidence in its 
 favour. It is an absolutely un-English, and 
 palpably Spanish face, and an impossible 
 portrait of our Poet." 
 
 " Several portraits of Spenser are in ex- 
 istence ; but it is difficult to settle the degree 
 
296 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 of authenticity belonging to them. The late 
 Mr. Rodd, of Newport Street, had a miniature 
 Payne Collier's of the poet in his possession in 
 1845, and perhaps afterwards, 
 which corresponded pretty exactly with the 
 ordinary representations, but what became of 
 it is not known to us. The features were 
 sharp and delicately formed, the nose long, 
 and the mouth refined ; but the lower part of 
 the face projected, and the high forehead 
 receded, while the eyes and eyebrows did not 
 very harmoniously range." 
 
 " Mr. Beeston saves he was a little man, 
 Aubrey's Lives of wore short haire, little band, and 
 
 Eminent Men. i i // 
 
 little cuffs. 
 
 ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY 
 
 1815-1881 
 
 " HE was at that time (and indeed always 
 remained) very slight of his age, of rather 
 
ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY 297 
 
 florid complexion, and with a singularly 
 bright, quick, and yet often dreamy expres- 
 sion. He wore his hat rather on 
 
 Harpers 
 
 the back of his head, and walked Magazine, 
 with queer little short shuffling paces, 
 rather on his heels, so that you could tell him 
 by his gait at any distance a singular contrast 
 to the Doctor's long shambling stride as they 
 walked along at the side of Mrs. Arnold's 
 gray pony on half-holiday afternoons." 1834. 
 
 "II n'improvisait jamais ; il lisait avec 
 gravite, avec une force reelle qui etonnait, 
 sortant d'un corps si fragile, mais Macmina ^ 
 avec une sorte de monotonie. 
 L'action oratoire manquait de variete et 
 d'abandon ; c'etait toujours la meme note. 
 Du reste, personne n'avait 1'oreille moins 
 musicale que le doyen. . . . D'une complex- 
 ion delicate, de petite taille, son corps 
 semblait n'etre qu'un pretexte pour etre, et 
 pour retenir son esprit dans le monde visible." 
 
 " Dean Stanley, like so many great men, 
 possessed some strongly - marked personal 
 
298 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 characteristics. If he was superintendent in 
 some qualities there were some of which he 
 Temple Bar, was a l most altogether destitute. 
 He was utterly careless of personal 
 appearance, and of external circumstances. 
 Short and spare in figure, there was a beauty 
 and a dignity about him that made his presence 
 a perpetual pleasure. Those clear-cut features, 
 the beautiful forehead, and the silvery head of 
 hair, will remain photographed on the minds 
 of this generation. When in the performance 
 of any sacred or secular function, the more 
 crowded his auditory, the more he was at 
 ease. There must be many who can re- 
 member him as he used to stand at the 
 lectern in the Abbey waiting to read the 
 lesson in one of those crowded services in the 
 nave, with the people clustered even round 
 his feet, and yet unconsciously, as if in his 
 own library, with the old familiar action, 
 passing his hand across his face and ruffling 
 up his head." 
 
SIR RICHARD STEELE 299 
 
 SIR RICHARD STEELE 
 16711729 
 
 " DENNIS, who ran a-muck at the literary 
 society of his day, falls foul of poor Steele, 
 and thus depicts him : * Sir John 
 
 Thackeray's 
 
 Edgar, of the County of in English 
 
 T , , . r i n i Humourists. 
 
 Ireland, is of a middle stature, broad 
 shoulders, thick legs, a shape like the picture 
 of somebody over a farmer's chimney ; a 
 short chin, a short nose, a short forehead, a 
 broad, flat face, and a dusky countenance. 
 Yet with such a face and such a shape, he 
 discovered at sixty that he took himself for 
 a beauty, and appeared to be more mortified 
 at being told that he was ugly, than he was 
 by any reflection made upon his honour or 
 understanding.' ' 
 
 " The interior of a coffee-house at Hyde 
 Park Corner. Here in a room small and 
 meanly furnished, sit two men who have 
 
300 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 just arrived in a handsome carriage, which 
 is at this moment driving from the door. 
 Dublin University One of these is Richard Sav- 
 
 Magazine, 1858. . ., , r 11 
 
 * age ; the other, who is fully 
 
 twenty years his senior, is a beau and a 
 militairC) being a Captain in Lord Lucas's 
 regiment of Fusileer Guards. With a some- 
 what diminutive stature and a long dress 
 sword ; he has laced ruffles in abundance on 
 his shirt sleeves and at his bosom, but not a 
 shadow on his smiling face ; with an air at 
 that time styled ' genteel,' in these days called 
 distingut. Around this gentleman's agreeable 
 face and person there is a brilliant atmosphere 
 of life and animation, for the three Celtic 
 characteristics are his vivacity, volatility, 
 and versatility, by turns the curse and 
 advantage, the obstacle and ornament of his 
 nation, for he is an Irishman, and his name 
 is Sir Richard Steele." 
 
 "He has naturally a downcast foreboding 
 aspect, which they of the country hereabouts 
 call a hanging look, and an unseemly manner 
 
SSX RICHARD STEELE 301 
 
 of staring, with his mouth wide open, and 
 under-lip propending, especially when any 
 ways disturbed. ... He takes a Swift > s 
 great deal of pains to persuade his Works - 
 neighbours that he has a very short face, and 
 a little flat nose like a diminutive wart in the 
 middle of his visage. ... His eyes are large 
 and prominent, too big of all conscience for 
 the conceited narrowness of his phiz. . . . 
 His back, though not very broad, is well 
 turned, and will bear a great deal ; I have 
 seen him myself, more than once, carry a 
 vast load of timber. His legs also are toler- 
 ably substantial, and can stride very wide 
 upon occasion ; but the best thing about him 
 is a handsome pair of heels, which he takes 
 especial pride to show, not only to his friends, 
 but even to the very worst of his enemies." 
 
302 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 LAURENCE STERNE 
 
 1713-1768 
 
 " WE are well acquainted with Sterne's feat- 
 ures and personal appearance, to which he him- 
 Sir waiter Scotfs self frequently alludes. He was 
 
 Memoir of ta ]j and th ; w j th a hectic and 
 Sterne. 
 
 * consumptive appearance. His 
 
 features, though capable of expressing with 
 peculiar effect the sentimental emotions by 
 which he was often affected, had also a 
 shrewd, humorous, and sarcastic expression, 
 proper to the wit and the satirist. His con- 
 versation was as animated as witty, but John- 
 son complained that it was marked by licence, 
 better suiting the company of the Lord of 
 Crazy Castle than of the great moralist." 
 
 " In the same year (1761) that Reynolds 
 exhibited the large equestrian portrait of 
 Lord Ligonier, now in the National Gallery, 
 he also exhibited the half-length of Sterne, 
 
LAURENCE STERNE 303 
 
 seated, and leaning on his hand. This por- 
 trait was painted for the Earl of Ossary, and 
 afterwards came into the possession 
 
 of Lord Holland, on whose death necdot f 
 
 Biography. 
 
 in 1840, it was purchased for 
 500 guineas by the Marquis of Lansdowne. 
 'This,' says Mrs. Jameson, 'is the most 
 astonishing head for truth of character I 
 ever beheld ; I do not except Titian ; the 
 character, to be sure, is different: the 'subtle 
 evanescent expression of satire round the 
 lips, the shrewd significance in the eye, the 
 earnest contemplative attitude, all convey 
 the strongest impression of the man, of his 
 peculiar genius, and peculiar humour.' ' 
 
 " Speaking of Sterne's physiognomy, 
 Lavater says, ' In this face you discover 
 the arch, satirical Sterne, the shrewd Memoir 
 
 . . . , i of Sterne. 
 
 and exquisite observer, more limited * 
 in his object, but on that very account more 
 profound, you discover him, I say, in the 
 eyes, in the space which separates them, in 
 the nose and the mouth of this figure." 1 
 
3 o 4 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 SIR JOHN SUCKLING 
 
 16081641 
 
 " His picture, which is like him, before his 
 
 poems, says that he was but twenty-eight 
 
 years old when he dyed. He 
 
 Aubrey's Lives 
 
 of Eminent was of middle stature and slight 
 
 Persons. . . 
 
 strength, bnsque round eie, red- 
 dish fac't, and red-nosed (ill liver), his head 
 not very big, his hayre a kind of sand colour, 
 his beard turn'd up naturally, so that he had 
 a brisk and graceful looke. He died a 
 batchelour." 
 
 " He was a man of grave deportment 
 
 and ver y comel y p erson : of a 
 
 w . c . 
 
 Life of sir fair complexion, with good feat- 
 
 John Suckling. 
 
 ures and flaxen haire." 
 " In person he was of a middle size, 
 w. c. Haziitt's though but slightly made, with 
 a winnin g and graceful carnage, 
 and noble features." 
 
JON A THAN S WIFT 305 
 
 JONATHAN SWIFT 
 
 1667-1745 
 
 " SWIFT was in person tall, strong, and well 
 made, of a dark complexion, but with blue 
 eyes, black and bushy eyebrows, Scott's Life 
 
 M . , - of Swift. 
 
 nose somewhat aquiline, and feat- 
 ures which remarkably expressed the stern, 
 haughty, and dauntless turn of his mind. He 
 was never known to laugh, and his smiles 
 are happily characterised by the well-known 
 lines of Shakespeare. Indeed the whole 
 description of Cassius might be applied to 
 Swift : 
 
 1 He reads much ; 
 
 He is a great observer and he looks 
 Quite through the deeds of men ; . . . 
 Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort, 
 As if he mock'd himself and scorn'd his spirit 
 That could be moved to smile at any thing.' 
 
 ... In youth he was reckoned handsome ; 
 Pope observed that though his face had an 
 
 20 
 
3 o6 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 expression of dulness, his eyes were very 
 particular. They were as azure, he said, as 
 the heavens, and had an unusual expression of 
 acuteness. In old age the Dean's counten- 
 ance conveyed an expression which, though 
 severe, was noble and impressive." 
 
 " The person of Swift had not many 
 
 recommendations. He had a kind of muddy 
 
 Johnson's complexion which, though he 
 
 Life of Swift. t i ir i i 
 
 washed himself with oriental scru- 
 
 pulosity, did not look clear. He had a coun- 
 
 tenance sour and severe, which he seldom 
 
 softened by an appearance of gaiety. He 
 
 stubbornly resisted any tendency to laughter." 
 
 " Swift was of middle stature, inclining to 
 
 tall, robust, and manly, with strongly-marked 
 
 and regular features. He had a 
 
 Thomas Ros- 
 
 high forehead, a handsome nose, 
 
 Dean Swift. 
 
 and large piercing blue eyes, which 
 retained their lustre to the last. He had an 
 extremely agreeable and expressive counten- 
 ance, which, in the words of the unfortunate 
 Vanessa, sometimes shone with a divine com- 
 
JON A THAN S WIFT 307 
 
 passion, at others, the most engaging viva- 
 city, indignation, fearful passion, and striking 
 awe. His mouth was pleasing, he had a fine 
 regular set of teeth, a round double chin 
 with a small dimple ; his complexion a light 
 olive or pale brown. His voice was sharp, 
 strong, high-toned ; but he was a bad reader, 
 especially of verses, and disliked music. 
 His mien was erect, his head firm, and his 
 whole deportment commanding. There was 
 a sternness and severity in his aspect which 
 wit and gaiety did not entirely remove. 
 When pleased he would smile, but never 
 laughed aloud. ... In his person he was 
 neat and clean even to superstition, and 
 appeared regularly dressed in his gown 
 every morning, to receive the visits of his 
 most familiar friends." 
 
3 o8 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY 
 1811-1863 
 
 "As for the man himself who has lectured 
 
 us, he is a stout, healthful, broad-shouldered 
 
 specimen of a man, with cropped 
 
 Theodore r 
 
 Taylor's grayish hair, and keenish gray eyes, 
 
 Thackeray. . 
 
 peering very sharply through a pair 
 of spectacles that have a very satiric focus. 
 He seems to stand strongly on his own feet, 
 as if he would not be easily blown about or 
 upset, either by praise or pugilists ; a man of 
 good digestion, who takes the world easy, 
 and scents all shams and humours (straighten- 
 ing them between his thumb and forefinger) 
 as he would a pinch of snuff." 1852. 
 
 " Good portraits of Thackeray are so 
 common, and so many of your readers saw 
 him in the lecture -room, that I need not 
 describe his person. The misshaped nose, so 
 broad at the bridge and so stubby at the 
 
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY 309 
 
 end, was the effect of an early accident. 
 His near-sightedness, unless hereditary, must 
 have had, I think, a similar origin, stoddard's 
 for no man had less the appearance B f ^ e yof 
 of a student who had weakened Thackeray. 
 his sight by application to books. In his 
 gestures especially in the act of bowing 
 to a lady there was a certain awkwardness, 
 made more conspicuous by his tall, well-pro- 
 portioned, and really commanding figure. H is 
 hair, at forty, was already gray, but abundant 
 and massy ; the cheeks had a ruddy tinge, and 
 there was no sallowness in the complexion ; 
 the eyes, keen and kindly even when they 
 bore a sarcastic expression, twinkled through 
 and sometimes over the spectacles. What I 
 should call the predominant expression of 
 the countenance was courage a readiness 
 to face the world on its own terms, without 
 either bawling or whining, asking no favour, 
 yielding, if at all, from magnanimity. I have 
 seen but two faces on which this expression, 
 coupled with that of high and intellectual 
 
3 io WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 power, was equally striking those of Daniel 
 Webster and Thomas Carlyle. But the 
 former had a saturnine gloom even in its 
 animation, and the latter a variety and in- 
 tensity of expression which was absent from 
 Thackeray's." 
 
 " In stature he was tall and commanding, 
 
 and he walked erect. With gray eyes not 
 
 over luminous and a noble brow, 
 
 Watts's 
 
 Great his appearance was confident, but 
 
 Novelists. . . 
 
 never conceited or aggressive. He 
 wore long hair, and, but for a small whisker, 
 shaved clean. His features, if anything, 
 were immobile ; the nose, which had been 
 fractured in youth at the Charterhouse, was, 
 like Milton's, 'a thoughtful one,' and the 
 nostrils were full and wide, as are those of 
 all men of genius, according to Balzac." 
 
JAMES THOMSON 311 
 
 JAMES THOMSON 
 
 17001748 
 
 " THOMSON was of stature above the middle 
 size, and ' more fat than bard beseems,' of a 
 dull countenance, and a gross, un- Johnson ' s Life 
 animated, uninviting appearance; f Thomson ' 
 silent in mingled company, but cheerful 
 among select friends, and by his friends 
 very tenderly and warmly beloved." 
 
 " Our author himself hints, somewhere in 
 his works, that his exterior was not the most 
 promising his make being rather Murdoch's 
 robust than graceful, though it is Thomson - 
 known that in his youth he had been thought 
 handsome. His worst appearance was when 
 you saw him walking alone in a thoughtful 
 mood, but let a friend accost him and enter 
 into conversation, he would instantly brighten 
 into a most amiable aspect, his features no 
 longer the same, and his eye darting a 
 
312 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 peculiar animating fire. The case was much 
 alike in company, where, if it was mixed or 
 very numerous, he made but an indifferent 
 figure, but with a few select friends he was 
 open, sprightly, and entertaining. His wit 
 flowed freely but pertinently, and at due 
 intervals leaving room for every one to con- 
 tribute his share. Such was his extreme 
 sensibility, so perfect the harmony of his 
 organs with the sentiments of his mind, that 
 his looks always announced and half ex- 
 pressed what he was about to say, and 
 his voice corresponded exactly to the 
 manner and degree in which he was 
 affected." 
 
 " Thomson was above the middle size, of 
 
 a fat and bulky form, with a face that might 
 
 almost be called dull, and an uninvit- 
 
 Rossetti's 
 
 Memoir of j n g heavy look, although in his early 
 
 Thomson. J } 
 
 youth he had even been counted 
 handsome, and his eyes were expressive. 
 He was mostly taciturn, save in the company 
 of his familiar friends ; with them he was 
 
ANTHONY TROLLOPE 313 
 
 cheerful and pleasant, and he secured their 
 attachment in an eminent degree." 
 
 ANTHONY TROLLOPE 
 
 1815-1882 
 
 " I REMEMBER a man hitting off a very good 
 description of Trollope's manner, by remark- 
 ing that ' he came in at the door like A personal 
 a frantic windmill/ The bell would friend * 
 peal, the knocker begin thundering, the door 
 be burst open, and the next minute the 
 house be filled by the big resonant voice 
 inquiring who was at home. I should say 
 he had naturally a sweet voice, which through 
 eagerness he had spoilt by holloing. He 
 was a big man, and the most noticeable 
 thing about his dress was a black handker- 
 chief which he wore tied twice round his 
 neck. A trick of his was to put the end of a 
 silk pocket-handkerchief in his mouth and to 
 
314 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 keep gnawing at it often biting it into holes 
 in the excess of his energy ; and a favourite 
 attitude was to stand with his thumbs tucked 
 into the armholes of his waistcoat. He was 
 a full -coloured man, and joking and playful 
 when at his ease. Unless with his intimates, 
 he rarely laughed, but he had a funny way 
 of putting things, and was usually voted good 
 company." 
 
 " Trollope said his height was five feet ten, 
 but most people would have thought him 
 
 A personal tallen He WaS a St Ut man > lar g G 
 
 friend - of limb, and always held himself 
 upright without effort. His manner was 
 bluff, hearty, and genial, and he possessed to 
 the full the great charm of giving his un- 
 divided attention to the matter in hand. He 
 was always enthusiastic and energetic in what- 
 ever he did. He was of an eager disposition, 
 and doing nothing was a pain to him. In 
 early manhood he became bald ; in his latter 
 life his full and bushy beard naturally grew 
 to be gray. He had thick eyebrows, and 
 
ANTHONY TROLLOPE 315 
 
 his open nostrils gave a look of deter- 
 mination to his strong capable face. His 
 eyes were grayish-blue, but he was rarely 
 seen without spectacles, though of late years 
 he used to take them off whenever he was 
 reading. From a boy he had always been 
 short-sighted." 
 
 " Standing with his back to the fire, with 
 his hands clasped behind him and his feet 
 planted somewhat apart, the appear- A per sonai 
 ance of Anthony Trollope, as I recall friend ' 
 him now, was that of a thorough Englishman 
 in a thoroughly English attitude. He was 
 then, perhaps, nearing sixty, and had far 
 more the look of a country gentleman than 
 of a man of letters. Tall, broad-shouldered, 
 and dressed in a careless though not slovenly 
 fashion, it seemed more fitting that he should 
 break into a vivid description of the latest 
 run with the hounds than launch into book- 
 talk. Either subject, however, and for the 
 matter of that I might add any subject, was 
 attacked by him with equal energy. In 
 
316 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 writing of the man, this, indeed, is the chief 
 impression I recall his energy, his thorough- 
 ness. While he talked to me, I and my 
 interests might have been the only things 
 for which he cared ; and any passing topic of 
 conversation was, for the moment, the one 
 and absorbing topic in the world. Being 
 short-sighted, he had a habit of peering 
 through his glasses which contracted his 
 brows and gave him the appearance of a 
 perpetual frown, and, indeed, his expression 
 when in repose was decidedly severe. This, 
 however, vanished when he spoke. He 
 talked well, and had generally a great deal 
 to say ; but his talk was disjointed, and he 
 but rarely laughed. In manner he was 
 brusque, and one of his most striking 
 peculiarities was his voice, which was of an 
 extraordinarily large compass." 1873. 
 
EDMUND WALLER 317 
 
 EDMUND WALLER 
 
 16051687 
 
 "His intellectuals are very good yet ; but he 
 growes feeble. He is somewhat above a 
 middle stature, thin body, not at 
 
 Aubrey's Lives 
 
 all robust : fine thin skin, his face of Eminent 
 somewhat of an olivaster; his 
 hayre frized, of a brownish colour, full eie, 
 popping out and working ; ovall faced, his 
 forehead high and full of wrinkles. His head 
 but small, braine very hott, and apt to be 
 cholerique. Quarto doctior, eo iracundior. 
 Cic. He is somewhat magisteriall, and hath 
 received a great mastership of the English 
 language. He is of admirable elocution, and 
 gracefull, and exceeding ready." 1680. 
 
 " Waller's person was handsome and 
 graceful. That delicacy of soul Life of Edmund 
 
 Waller. 
 
 which produces instinctive pro- * 
 
 priety, gave him an easy manner, which was 
 
3 i8 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 improved and finished by a polite education, 
 and by a familiar intercourse with the Great. 
 The symmetry of his features was dignified 
 with a manly aspect, and his eye was ani- 
 mated with sentiment and poetry. His elocu- 
 tion, like his verse, was musical and flow- 
 ing. In the senate, indeed, it often assumed 
 a vigorous and majestick tone, which, it 
 must be owned, is not a leading character- 
 istick of his numbers. ... His conversation 
 was chatised by politeness, enriched by learn- 
 ing, and brightened by wit." 
 
 "'Twas the politeness of his manners, as 
 
 well as the excellence of his genius, which 
 
 , .,, endeared him to these foreign 
 
 An account of the 
 
 life of Mr. w i ts> All the world knows Mr. 
 
 Edmund Waller. 
 
 St. Evremond was polite almost 
 to a fault, for ev'ry virtue has its opposite 
 vice, and this has affectation ; and yet writing 
 to my Lord St. Albans he says, ' Mr. Waller 
 vous garde une conversation dlicieuse, je ne 
 suis pas si vain de vous parleur de mienne.' 
 . . . We shall close what we intend to say of 
 
HORACE W ALP OLE 319 
 
 his manners and personal endowments with 
 the Earl of Clarendon's short character of 
 him : ' There was of the House of Commons 
 one Mr. Waller, and a gentleman of very good 
 fortune and estate, and of admirable parts and 
 faculty of wit, and of an intimate conversation 
 with those who had that reputation.' This, 
 and what has been taken out of his lordship's 
 history which has respect to Mr. Waller's 
 qualities, confirm the judgment we endeavour 
 to form of him that he was one of the most 
 polite, the most gallant, and the most witty 
 men of his time, and he supported that char- 
 acter above half a century." 
 
 HORACE WALPOLE 
 
 1717-1797 
 
 "THE person of Horace Walpole was short 
 and slender, but compact and neatly Waipoiiana. 
 formed. When viewed from behind he had 
 
320 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 somewhat of a boyish appearance, owing to 
 the form of his person, and the simplicity of 
 his dress. His features may be seen in many 
 portraits ; but none can express the placid 
 goodness of his eyes, which would often 
 sparkle with sudden rays of wit, or dart forth 
 flashes of the most keen and intuitive in- 
 telligence. H is laugh was forced and uncouth, 
 and even his smile not the most pleasing. 
 His walk was enfeebled by the gout ; which, 
 if the editor's memory do not deceive, he 
 mentioned he had been tormented with since 
 the age of twenty -five. . . . This painful 
 complaint not only affected his feet, but 
 attacked his hands to such a degree that his 
 fingers were always swelled and deformed. 
 . . . His engaging manners and gentle en- 
 dearing affability to his friends exceed all 
 praise." 
 
 " The person of Horace Walpole l was 
 short and slender, but compact, and neatly 
 
 1 Drawn from Pinkerton, Miss Hawkins, Coles MSS. and his 
 letters. 
 
HORACE WALPOLE 321 
 
 formed. When viewed from behind he had, 
 from the simplicity of his dress, somewhat of 
 a boyish appearance : fifty years Cunningham's 
 ago, he says, 'Mr. Winnington 
 told me I ran along like a pewet.' 
 His forehead was high and pale. His eyes 
 remarkably bright and penetrating. His 
 laugh was forced and uncouth, and his smile 
 not the most pleasing. His walk, for more 
 than half his life, was enfeebled by the gout, 
 which not only affected his feet, but attacked 
 his hands. Latterly his fingers were swelled 
 and deformed, having, as he would say, more 
 chalk-stones than joints in them, and adding 
 with a smile, that he must set up an inn, for 
 he could chalk a score with more ease and 
 rapidity than any man in England. ... His 
 entrance into a room was in that style of 
 affected delicacy which fashion had made 
 almost natural chapeau bras between his 
 hands as if he wished to compress it, or under 
 his arm, knees bent, and feet on tiptoe, as if 
 afraid of a wet floor. His summer dress of 
 
 21 
 
322 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 ceremony was usually a lavender suit, the 
 waistcoat embroidered with a little silver, or 
 of white silk worked in the tambour, partridge 
 silk stockings, gold buckles, ruffles, and lace 
 frills. In winter he wore powder. He dis- 
 liked hats, and in his grounds at Strawberry 
 would even in winter walk without one. The 
 same antipathy, Cole tells us, extended to a 
 greatcoat." 
 
 " His figure was not merely tall, but more 
 properly long and slender to excess ; his corn- 
 Hawkins's plexion, and particularly his hands, of 
 Memoirs. a mos t unhealthy paleness. His eyes 
 were remarkably bright and penetrating, very 
 dark and lively : his voice was not strong, but 
 his tones were exceedingly pleasant, and if I 
 may say so, highly gentlemanly. I do not 
 remember his common gait ; he always entered 
 a room in that style of affected delicacy which 
 fashion had then made almost natural 
 chapeau bras between his hands, as if he 
 wished to compress it, or under his arm, 
 knees bent, and feet on tiptoe, as if afraid of 
 
IZAAC WALTON 323 
 
 a wet floor. His dress in visiting was most 
 usually, in summer, when I most saw him, a 
 lavender suit, the waistcoat embroidered with 
 a little silver, or of white silk worked in the 
 tambour, partridge silk stockings, and gold 
 buckles, ruffles and frill generally lace. I 
 remember, when a child, thinking him very 
 much under- dressed, if at any time, except 
 in mourning, he wore hemmed cambric. In 
 summer, no powder, but his wig combed 
 straight, and showing his very smooth, pale 
 forehead, and queued behind ; in winter, 
 powder." 
 
 IZAAC WALTON 
 
 1593-1683 
 
 " THE features of the countenance often enable 
 us to form a judgment, not very fallible, of 
 the disposition of the mind. In 2*>\uk'& Memoir 
 
 r . , . ,. of ' Izaac Walton. 
 
 few portraits can this discovery * 
 
 be more successfully pursued than in that of 
 
3 2 4 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 Izaac Walton. Lavater, the acute master 
 of physiognomy, would, I think, instantly 
 acknowledge in it the decisive traits of the 
 original, mild complacency, forbearance, 
 mature consideration, calm activity, peace, 
 sound understanding, power of thought, dis- 
 cerning attention, and secretly active friend- 
 ship. Happy in his unblemished integrity, 
 happy in the approbation and esteem of 
 others, he inwraps himself in his own virtue. 
 The exaltation of a good conscience eminently 
 shines forth in this venerable person 
 
 ' Candida semper 
 Gaudia, et in vultu curarum ignara voluptas.' " 
 
 JOHN WILSON 
 
 1785-1854 
 
 " WILLIAM WORDSWORTH it was who . . . 
 did me the favour of making me known to 
 John Wilson. ... A man in a sailor's dress, 
 
JOHN WILSON 325 
 
 manifestly in robust \izatih, fervidus juvent a, 
 and wearing upon his countenance a power- 
 ful expression of ardour and 
 
 de Qumcey s 
 
 animated intelligence, mixed with Life and 
 
 writings. 
 
 much good nature. ' Mr. Wilson 
 of Elleray ' delivered as the formula of in- 
 troduction, in the deep tones of Mr. Words- 
 worth at once banished the momentary 
 surprise I felt on finding a stranger where I 
 had expected nobody, and substituted a sur- 
 prise of another kind ; and there was no 
 wonder in his being at Allan Bank, Elleray 
 standing within nine miles ; but (as usually 
 happens in such cases) I felt a shock of 
 surprise on seeing a person so little corre- 
 sponding to the one I had at first half-con- 
 sciously prefigured. Figure to yourself a 
 tall man about six feet high, within half an 
 inch or so, built with tolerable appearance of 
 strength ; but at the date of my description 
 (that is, in the very spring-tide and bloom of 
 youth) wearing, for the predominant character 
 of his person, lightness and agility or (in our 
 
326 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 Westmoreland phrase) lishness, he seemed 
 framed with an express view to gymnastic 
 exercises of every sort. Ask in one of your 
 public libraries for that little quarto edition 
 of the ' Rhetorical Works of Cicero . . . 
 and you will there see ... a reduced 
 whole-length of Cicero from the antique, 
 which in the mouth and chin, and indeed 
 generally, if I do not greatly forget, will give 
 you a lively representation of the contour 
 and expression of Professor Wilson's face. 
 Of all this array of personal features, how- 
 ever, I then saw nothing at all, my attention 
 being altogether occupied with Mr. Wilson's 
 conversation and demeanour, which were in 
 the highest degree agreeable ; the points 
 which chiefly struck me, being the humility 
 and gravity with which he spoke of himself, 
 his large expansion of heart, and a certain 
 air of noble frankness which overspread 
 everything he said; he seemed to have an 
 intense enjoyment of life ; indeed, being 
 young, rich, healthy, and full of intellectual 
 
JOHN WILSON 327 
 
 activity, it could not be very wonderful that 
 he should feel happy and pleased with him- 
 self and others ; but it was something unusual 
 to find that so rare an assemblage of endow- 
 ments had communicated no tinge of arro- 
 gance to his manner, or at all disturbed the 
 general temperance of his mind." 1808. 
 
 "If the marvel of his eloquence is not 
 
 lessened, it is at least accounted for to those 
 
 who have seen him, or even his 
 
 Harriet Martin- 
 
 eaxt* Biographi- portrait. Such a presence is 
 
 cat Sketches. 
 
 rarely seen ; and more than one 
 person has said that he reminded them of the 
 first man, Adam, so full was that large frame 
 of vitality, force, and sentience. His tread 
 seemed almost to shake the streets, his eye 
 almost saw through stone walls, and as for 
 his voice, there was no heart which could 
 stand before it. He swept away all hearts, 
 whithersoever he would. No less striking 
 was it to see him in a mood of repose, as 
 when he steered the old packet-boat that 
 used to pass between Bowness and Amble- 
 
328 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 side, before the steamers were put upon the 
 Lake. Sitting motionless with his hand 
 upon the rudder, in the presence of journey- 
 men and market-women, with his eyes 
 apparently looking beyond everything into 
 nothing, and his mouth closed under his 
 beard, as if he meant never to speak again, 
 he was quite as impressive and immortal an 
 image as he could have been to the students 
 of his class or the comrades of his jovial 
 hours." 
 
 "Walking up and down the hall of the 
 courts of law (which was full of advocates, 
 Foster's Life wr i ters to tne signet, clerks, and 
 idlers), was a tall, burly, hand- 
 some man of eight and fifty, with a gait like 
 O'Connell's, the bluest eye you can imagine, 
 and long hair longer than mine falling 
 down in a wild way under the broad brim of 
 his hat. He had on a surtout coat, a blue 
 checked shirt ; the collar standing up, and 
 kept in its place with a wisp of black necker- 
 chief ; no waistcoat ; and a large pocket- 
 
JOHN WILSON 329 
 
 handkerchief thrust into his breast, which 
 was all broad and open. At his heels followed 
 a wiry, sharp-eyed, shaggy devil of a terrier, 
 dogging his steps as he went slashing up and 
 down, now with one man beside him, now 
 with another, and now quite alone, but always 
 at a fast, rolling pace, with his head in the 
 air, and his eyes as wide open as he could 
 get them. I guessed it was Wilson ; and it 
 was. A bright, clear-complexioned, mountain- 
 looking fellow, he looks as though he had 
 just come down from the Highlands and had 
 never in his life taken pen in hand. But he 
 has had an attack of paralysis in his right 
 arm within this month. He winced when I 
 shook hands with him, and once or twice 
 when we were walking up and down slipped 
 as if he had stumbled on a piece of orange- 
 peel. He is a great fellow to look at, and to 
 talk to ; and, if you could divest your mind 
 of the actual Scott, is just the figure you 
 would put in his place." 1841. 
 
330 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 ELLEN WOOD 
 (MRS. HENRY WOOD) 
 
 1814-1887 
 
 " THE face was a pure oval of the most 
 
 refined description ; that perfection of form 
 
 that is so rarely seen. A small, 
 
 The Argosy, 
 
 l88 7- straight, very delicate and refined 
 nose ; teeth of dazzling whiteness, entire 
 to the day of her death ; a perfect mouth, 
 revealing at once the sensitiveness and tender 
 sympathy of her nature, and the steadfastness 
 of her disposition. Her eyes were unusually 
 large, dark, and flashing, with a penetrating 
 gaze that seemed to read your inmost thoughts. 
 One felt that everything before her had to be 
 outspoken ; for if you uttered only half your 
 thoughts, she would certainly divine the rest. 
 . . . The head was well set upon the 
 shoulders ; a head perfect in form, small ex- 
 cept where the intellectual faculties were 
 
ELLEN WOOD 331 
 
 developed. Her complexion was dazzling, 
 the most lovely bloom at all times contrasting 
 with the brilliant whiteness of her skin. In 
 hours of animation I have watched the deli- 
 cate flush come and go a hundred times in as 
 many minutes across her wonderful coun- 
 tenance ; and, to record the simile once used 
 by a friend in speaking to me of this peculiar 
 beauty, 'chasing each other like the rosy 
 clouds of sunrise sweeping across a summer 
 sky.' She had a very keen sense of wit and 
 humour. This strange beauty remained with 
 her to the end. Even in hours of illness and 
 suffering it never forsook her. Her face 
 never lost its look of youth. It was ab- 
 solutely without line or wrinkle or any mark 
 or sign of age. She kept to the last the 
 complexion and freshness of a young girl ; 
 that strange radiancy which seemed the 
 reflection of some unseen glory. This was 
 so great that to the last we were unable to 
 realise that death could come to her." 
 
332 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 WILLIAM WORDSWORTH 
 
 1770-1850 
 
 " MR. WORDSWORTH . . . had a dignified 
 manner, with a deep and roughish but not 
 Leigh Hunt's unpleasing voice, and an exalted 
 
 Autobiography. ^^^ Qf speaking> Re had a 
 
 habit of keeping his left hand in the bosom 
 of his waistcoat ; and in this attitude, except 
 when he turned round to take one of the 
 subjects of his criticism from the shelves 
 (for his contemporaries were there also), he 
 sat dealing forth his eloquent but hardly 
 catholic judgments. . . . Walter Scott said 
 that the eyes of Burns were the finest he 
 ever saw. I cannot say the same of Mr. 
 Wordsworth ; that is, not in the sense of the 
 beautiful, or even of the profound. But cer- 
 tainly I never beheld eyes which looked so in- 
 spired and supernatural. They were like fires 
 half burning, half smouldering with a sort 
 
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH 333 
 
 of acrid fixture of regard, and seated at the 
 further end of two caverns. One might ima- 
 gine Ezekiel or Isaiah to have had such eyes. 
 The finest eyes, in every sense of the word, 
 which I have ever seen in a man's head 
 (and I have seen many fine ones), are those 
 of Thomas Carlyle." 1815. 
 
 "His features were large, and not suddenly 
 expressive ; they conveyed little idea of the 
 1 poetic fire ' usually associated with 
 
 S. C. Hall's 
 
 brilliant imagination. His eyes Memories of 
 
 it- i Great Men. 
 
 were mild and up - looking, his 
 mouth coarse rather than refined, his fore- 
 head high rather than broad ; but every 
 action seemed considerate, and every look 
 self-possessed, while his voice, low in tone, 
 had that persuasive eloquence which invari- 
 ably 'moves men.'" 1832. 
 
 " . . . He (Wordsworth) talked well in 
 his way ; with veracity, easy brevity, and 
 force, as a wise tradesman would 
 of his tools and workshop, and 
 as no unwise one could. His voice was 
 
334 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 good, frank, and sonorous, though practically 
 clear, distinct, and forcible, rather than 
 melodious ; the tone of him business-like, 
 sedately confident ; no discourtesy, yet no 
 anxiety about being courteous. A fine 
 wholesome rusticity, fresh as his mountain 
 breezes, sat well on the stalwart veteran, and 
 on all he said and did. You would have 
 said he was a usually taciturn man ; glad to 
 unlock himself to audience sympathetic and 
 intelligent when such offered itself. His face 
 bore marks of much, not always peaceful, 
 meditation ; the look of it not bland or 
 benevolent so much as close, impregnable, 
 and hard: a man multa tacere loquive 
 paratus, in a world where he had experi- 
 enced no lack of contradictions as he strode 
 along ! The eyes were not very brilliant, 
 but they had a quiet clearness ; there was 
 enough of brow, and well-shaped ; rather too 
 much of cheek (' horse face ' I have heard 
 satirists say) ; face of squarish shape, and 
 decidedly longish, as I think the head itself 
 
SIR HENRY WOTTON 335 
 
 was (its * length ' going horizontal) ; he was 
 large-boned, lean, but still firm-knit, tall, and 
 strong-looking when he stood, a right good 
 old steel-gray figure, with rustic simplicity and 
 dignity about him, and a vivacious strength 
 looking through him which might have suited 
 one of those old steel - gray markgrafs 
 whom Henry the Fowler set up to ward the 
 ' marches ' and do battle with the heathen 
 in a stalwart and judicious manner." 
 
 SIR HENRY WOTTON 
 
 1568-1639 
 
 " HE returned out of Italy in England about 
 the thirtieth year of his age, being then 
 noted by many, both for his 
 person and comportment; for 
 indeed he was of a choice shape, tall of 
 stature, and of a most persuasive behaviour ; 
 which was so mixed with sweet Discourse 
 and Civilities, as gained him much love from 
 all Persons with whom he entered into an 
 
336 WORD PORTRAITS 
 
 acquaintance. And whereas he was noted 
 in his Youth to have a sharp Wit, and apt to 
 jest; that, by Time, Travel, and Conversation, 
 was so polished, and made so useful, that his 
 company seemed to be one of the delights of 
 mankind" 1598. 
 
 " An eminently lovable face, albeit there 
 is something in the gravely-set mouth which 
 MEW recalls the old Elizabethan expres- 
 sion 'My Dearest Dread' The love 
 of those about him for this tender-worded 
 amourous poet, this gentle student, this 
 courtly gentleman, must have struggled hard 
 for the mastery with that reverence which 
 they must have felt for the learned author, 
 the friend of kings, the diplomatist. Some- 
 thing of all this, I fancy, shows in the face 
 and figure of the man as Jansen has por- 
 trayed him in the picture now hanging in the 
 Bodleian Library at Oxford. The high 
 square brow from which the hair has been 
 brushed up and back in short silky waves, the 
 strongly-marked eyebrows, the long straight 
 
HENRY WOTTON 337 
 
 nose, they all speak of good brains and an 
 iron will ; while there is a suspicion of dainti- 
 ness in the close-cropped whiskers, trimly- 
 pointed beard, and flowing moustache. The 
 eyes are his finest feature, large and oval, 
 with the eyelid drooping somewhat at the 
 outer edge, which gives him a look of sad- 
 ness. So far from bending forward under 
 the orthodox student's-stoop, Sir Henry is 
 tall, straight, and broad-shouldered, for he 
 comes of a fighting race, and there is more 
 of the soldier than of the scholar in his 
 appearance. The hands are strong, nervous, 
 and well shaped ; the dress that of a sober- 
 minded gentleman. That word indeed sums 
 up his personal appearance as fully as it does 
 his character : the portrait of Sir Henry 
 Wotton is emphatically that of a gentleman." 
 
Printed by R. & R. CLARK, Edinburgh. s &= H. 
 
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