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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic
+Leighton, by Mrs. Russell Barrington
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton
+       Volume II
+
+Author: Mrs. Russell Barrington
+
+Release Date: May 20, 2011 [EBook #35935]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE, LETTERS OF FREDERICK LEIGHTON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeannie Howse, Jonathan Ingram and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+    +-----------------------------------------------------------+
+    | Transcriber's Note:                                       |
+    |                                                           |
+    | Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original     |
+    | document has been preserved.                              |
+    |                                                           |
+    | The Errata at the end of the book have been incorporated  |
+    | into this e-book.                                         |
+    |                                                           |
+    | Index entries referring to footnotes have been renamed    |
+    | to match footnote numbers in this document.               |
+    |                                                           |
+    | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For     |
+    | a complete list, please see the end of this document.     |
+    |                                                           |
+    +-----------------------------------------------------------+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+  The Life, Letters and Work of
+  Frederic Baron Leighton
+  Of Stretton
+
+  VOL. II
+
+
+
+
+      "_I am a workman first, and an official after._"
+                               --FRED. LEIGHTON, 1888.
+
+      "_Es bildet ein Talent sich in der Stille,
+      Doch ein Character in dem Strom der Welt._"
+                               --GOETHE.
+
+
+
+
+  The Life, Letters and
+  Work of
+
+  Frederic Leighton
+
+  BY
+  MRS. RUSSELL BARRINGTON
+  AUTHOR OF "REMINISCENCES OF G.F. WATTS," ETC. ETC.
+
+
+  IN TWO VOLUMES
+
+  VOL. II
+
+
+  LONDON
+  GEORGE ALLEN, RUSKIN HOUSE
+  1906
+
+  [All rights reserved]
+
+
+
+
+  Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
+  At the Ballantyne Press
+
+    [Illustration: LORD LEIGHTON
+    From the portrait by G.F. Watts]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                                  PAGE
+  INTRODUCTION                                                       1
+
+  CHAPTER I
+  FIRST STUDIO IN LONDON, 1859-1863                                 36
+
+  CHAPTER II
+  ILLUSTRATIONS FOR _CORNHILL MAGAZINE_--FRESCO FOR LYNDHURST
+  CHURCH--ASSOCIATE OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY--MRS. LEIGHTON'S
+  DEATH, 1863-1865                                                  91
+
+  CHAPTER III
+  JOURNEYS TO THE EAST--CONSTANTINOPLE--SMYRNA--ATHENS--DIARY
+  "UP THE NILE TO PHYLAE," 1866-1869                                128
+
+  CHAPTER IV
+  ROYAL ACADEMICIAN--MUSIC--ARAB HALL, 1869-1878                   188
+
+  CHAPTER V
+  LEIGHTON AS PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY, 1878-1896            223
+
+  CHAPTER VI
+  LIFE WANING--DEATH, 1887-1896                                    312
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+VOLUME II
+
+   1. PORTRAIT OF LORD LEIGHTON (_Photogravure_)    To face Dedication
+      By G.F. WATTS.
+
+   2. HEAD OF YOUNG GIRL (_Colour_)                     To face page 1
+      A wedding gift to H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES, who
+      graciously gave permission for the painting to be
+      reproduced in this book.
+
+   3. "EUCHARIS," 1863 (_Colour_)                                    9
+      By kind permission of Mrs. STEPHENSON CLARKE.
+
+   4. "A NOBLE LADY OF VENICE," 1866 (_Photogravure_)               10
+      By kind permission of Lord ARMSTRONG.
+
+   5. "GREEK GIRLS PICKING UP SHELLS BY THE SEASHORE," 1871         18
+      (_Photogravure_)
+      By kind permission of the Rt. Hon. JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN.
+
+   6. PORTRAIT OF MRS. SUTHERLAND ORR, 1861                         57
+
+   7. PENCIL SKETCH FOR "MICHAEL ANGELO NURSING HIS DYING
+      SERVANT," 1862                                                93
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+   8. ORIGINAL SKETCH FOR "SAMSON WRESTLING WITH THE LION"          94
+      Designed as an illustration for Dalziel's Bible. Leighton
+      House Collection.
+
+   9. ORIGINAL DRAWING FOR THE GREAT GOD PAN, ILLUSTRATING MRS.
+      BROWNING'S POEM, "MUSICAL INSTRUMENT"                        102
+      In "_Cornhill Magazine_," July 1861.
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  10. "AN EVENING IN A FRENCH COUNTRY HOUSE," ILLUSTRATING MRS.
+      ADELAIDE SARTORIS' STORY, "A WEEK IN A FRENCH COUNTRY
+      HOUSE," PUBLISHED IN THE _Cornhill Magazine_, 1867           103
+      By kind permission of Messrs. SMITH, ELDER, & CO.
+
+  11. "DRIFTING." SECOND ILLUSTRATION FOR SAME                     104
+
+  12. LORD LEIGHTON                                                107
+      Photograph taken at Lyndhurst, 1863.
+
+  13. FRESCO FOR LYNDHURST CHURCH--"THE WISE AND FOOLISH
+      VIRGINS," 1864                                               111
+
+  14. "GREEK GIRL DANCING," 1867                                   125
+      By kind permission of Mr. PHILLIPSON.
+
+  15. SKETCH FOR A "PASTORAL," 1866                                125
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  16. SKETCH IN OILS--"EGYPT" (_Colour_)                           131
+
+  17. "S. JEROME." DIPLOMA WORK, 1869                              188
+      Gallery in Burlington House.
+
+  18. "ELECTRA AT THE TOMB OF AGAMEMNON"                           189
+
+  19. "HERACLES WRESTLING WITH DEATH FOR THE BODY OF ALCESTIS,"
+      1871                                                         190
+      By kind permission of the FINE ART SOCIETY.
+
+  20. "SUMMER MOON," 1872                                          193
+      By kind permission of Messrs. P. & D. COLNAGHI.
+
+  21. "A CONDOTTIERE," 1872                                        193
+      The Walker Fine Art Gallery, Birmingham.
+
+  22. STUDY FOR FIGURE IN FRIEZE, "MUSIC," 1886                    193
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  23. STUDY OF MAN'S FIGURE FOR THE "ARTS OF WAR," 1872            193
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  24. STUDY OF MAN'S FIGURE FOR THE "ARTS OF WAR"                  193
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  25. STUDY OF MAN'S FIGURE FOR THE "ARTS OF WAR," 1872            193
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  26. "ANTIQUE JUGGLING GIRL," 1874 (_Photogravure_)               194
+      By kind permission of Mr. HODGES.
+
+  27. "CLYTEMNESTRA FROM THE BATTLEMENT OF ARGOS WATCHES FOR
+      THE BEACON FIRES WHICH ARE TO ANNOUNCE THE RETURN OF
+      AGAMEMNON," 1874 (_Photogravure_)                            194
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  28. STUDY FOR "CLYTEMNESTRA"                                     194
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  29. STUDY FOR "SUMMER MOON" (_Colour_)                           194
+      Executed by moonlight in Rome. Given by the late A.
+      WATERHOUSE, R.A., to the Leighton House Collection.
+
+  30. "THE DAPHNEPHORIA," 1876                                     197
+      By kind permission of the FINE ART SOCIETY.
+
+  31. "AT A READING-DESK," 1877                                    197
+      By kind permission of Messrs. L.H. LEFEVRE & SON.
+
+  32. ORIGINAL STUDY FOR "AN ATHLETE STRUGGLING WITH A PYTHON,"
+      1876                                                         199
+      Given by the late G.F. WATTS to the Leighton House
+      Collection.
+
+  33. "NAUSICAA," 1878                                             201
+
+  34. STUDY FOR GROUP IN THE "ARTS OF PEACE," 1873                 202
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  35. STUDY FOR THE FIGURE OF CIMABUE, CARRIED OUT IN MOSAIC IN
+      THE SOUTH COURT OF THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, 1868      203
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  36. STUDY FOR THE FIGURE OF NICCOLA PISANO, CARRIED OUT IN
+      MOSAIC IN THE SOUTH COURT OF THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT
+      MUSEUM, 1868                                                 203
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  37. SKETCH OF THE PRINCE AND PRINCESS OF WALES, ATTENDED BY
+      LORD LEIGHTON, WHEN PRESENT AT A MONDAY POPULAR CONCERT
+      IN ST. JAMES'S HALL                                          216
+      Drawn at the time by Mr. Theodore Blake Wirgman.
+
+  38. PORTRAIT OF SIR RICHARD FRANCIS BURTON, K.C.M.G., 1876       218
+
+  39. VIEW OF ARAB HALL, 1906                                      221
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  40. PORTRAIT OF PROFESSOR GIOVANNI COSTA                         222
+      Executed at Lerici in 1878.
+
+  41. "ELIJAH IN THE WILDERNESS," 1879                             255
+
+  42. STUDY FOR THE FIGURE OF "ELIJAH"                             255
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  43. "NERUCCIA," 1879 (_Photogravure_)                            255
+      By kind permission of Mrs. C.E. LEES.
+
+  44. "THE BATH OF PSYCHE," 1890 (_Photogravure_)                  255
+      The Tate Gallery.
+
+  45. "THE LIGHT OF THE HAREM," 1880                               256
+      By kind permission of the LEICESTER GALLERY.
+
+  46. DRAWING OF COMPLETE DESIGN FOR "AND THE SEA GAVE UP THE
+      DEAD THAT WERE IN IT," 1892                                  256
+
+  47. STUDY FOR "MUSIC." A FRIEZE, 1886                            256
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  48. STUDY FOR "ANDROMEDA," 1890                                  256
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  49. STUDY FROM CLAY MODEL FOR "PERSEUS," 1891                    256
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  50. STUDY FOR "PHOENICIANS BARTERING WITH BRITONS"               256
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  51. "CYMON AND IPHIGENIA," 1884 (_Photogravure_)                 256
+      The Corporation of Leeds.
+
+  52. SKETCH IN OILS FOR "CYMON AND IPHIGENIA" (_Colour_)          256
+      By kind permission of Mrs. STEWART HODGSON.
+
+  53. STUDY FOR SLEEPING GROUP IN "CYMON AND IPHIGENIA"            256
+      Presented to the Leighton House Collection by G.F. WATTS.
+
+  54. FROM BRONZE FROM SMALL MODEL IN CLAY BY LORD LEIGHTON OF
+      "A SLUGGARD," 1886                                           258
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  55. "NEEDLESS ALARMS," FROM BRONZE STATUETTE, 1886               258
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  56. "THE LAST WATCH OF HERO," 1887                               259
+      Corporation of Manchester.
+
+  57. SKETCH IN OILS FOR "TRAGIC POETESS," 1890 (_Colour_)         259
+      By kind permission of Mrs. STEWART HODGSON.
+
+  58. "ATALANTA," 1893                                             261
+      By kind permission of the BERLIN PHOTOGRAPHIC CO.
+
+  59. "FLAMING JUNE," 1895                                         261
+      By kind permission of Mrs. WATNEY.
+
+  60. STUDY FOR "FLAMING JUNE"                                     261
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  61. "FATIDICA," 1894                                             261
+      By kind permission of Messrs. T. AGNEW & SONS.
+
+  62. STUDIES FOR "FATIDICA"                                       261
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  63. "MEMORIES," 1883                                             266
+      By kind permission of Messrs. P. & D. COLNAGHI.
+
+  64. "THE JEALOUSY OF SIMOETHA THE SORCERESS," 1887               266
+
+  65. "LETTY," 1884 (_Colour_)                                     266
+      By kind permission of Mrs. HENRY JOACHIM.
+
+  66. STUDIES FROM DOROTHY DENE FOR "CLYTIE," 1895                 268
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  67. SKETCH IN OILS FOR "GREEK GIRLS PLAYING AT BALL," 1889
+      (_In Colour_)                                                274
+      By kind permission of Mrs. STEWART HODGSON.
+
+  68. "BACCHANTE," 1892 (_Photogravure_)                           287
+      By kind permission of Messrs. HENRY GRAVES & CO.
+
+  69. SKETCH IN OILS FOR "BACCHANTE" (_Colour_)                    287
+      By kind permission of Mrs. STEWART HODGSON.
+
+  70. "_Der Winter_"                                               304
+      Drawing by EDUARD VON STEINLE.
+
+  71. SKETCH IN OILS FOR "SOLITUDE" (_Colour_)                     310
+      By kind permission of Mrs. STEWART HODGSON.
+
+  72. "SUMMER SLUMBER," 1894 (_Photogravure_)                      316
+      By kind permission of Mr. PHILLIPSON.
+
+  73. SKETCH FOR "SUMMER SLUMBER"                                  316
+      Presented to the Leighton House Collection by
+      H.M. THE KING.
+
+  74. "THE FAIR PERSIAN," 1896                                     324
+      By kind permission of Sir ELLIOTT LEES.
+
+  75. "THE SPIRIT OF THE SUMMIT," 1894                             334
+
+  76. STUDY FOR "LACHRYMAE," 1895                                   335
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  77. "CLYTIE," 1896                                               336
+      By kind permission of the FINE ART SOCIETY.
+
+  78. MEMORIAL MONUMENT IN ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL TO FREDERIC BARON
+      LEIGHTON OF STRETTON                                         340
+
+  79. VIEW OF HALL AND STAIRCASE OF LEIGHTON HOUSE, GIVEN BY LORD
+      LEIGHTON'S SISTERS TO THE PUBLIC AS A MEMORIAL TO THEIR
+      BROTHER                                                      340
+      By kind permission of Mr. J. HARRIS STONE.
+
+
+    [Illustration: HEAD OF YOUNG GIRL
+    Wedding present from Lord Leighton to H.R.H. the Prince of
+    Wales, who has graciously allowed the painting to be reproduced
+    in this book]
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE OF LORD LEIGHTON
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+SIR WILLIAM RICHMOND, R.A., and Mr. Walter Crane have kindly
+contributed the following notes:--
+
+    It was in 1860 that I first knew Leighton. We met over affairs
+    connected with the Artist Rifle Corps at Burlington House, and
+    afterwards at the studios of various artists, where discussions
+    took place regarding the formation and means of conduct of the
+    Corps. On several occasions I walked home with Leighton to his
+    house in Orme Square.
+
+    I don't think I have ever known a man who grew more steadily
+    than Leighton did. The effort of his artistic life was to remove
+    the effects of a certain mannerism and over-education in his
+    early artistic life. His knowledge was wonderful, his powers of
+    design without immediate consultation with Nature were
+    phenomenal; he feared the facility in himself and went always to
+    Nature, that out of her manifold gifts he should be inspired
+    directly by them. And this constant study had its drawbacks as
+    well as its merits, because in one sense it stood in the way of
+    the development of an abstract power of invention. If ever an
+    artist made the most of his conscious abilities, Leighton did.
+    His character was so curiously simple on the one hand, and so
+    complicated on the other, that a balance between a very
+    emotional and extremely accurate temperament had to be found,
+    and it was found. How far a certain charm of spontaneity was
+    obscured a little, perhaps by erudition and a sort of
+    Aristotelian preciseness, it is not for me to say. There is in
+    all things a balance which, when once obtained, reduces the
+    weight in both scales. But we must take a life as it has been
+    made by circumstances, by early training and after influences;
+    and probably most men who are in earnest,--and Leighton was
+    pre-eminently in earnest,--find their proper issue finally. That
+    the best of Leighton's work will live, I am convinced; that it
+    will hold its own when a great deal of other work praised,
+    admired, even worshipped during the life of his contemporaries
+    shall be dead, I feel quite assured; and one may very justly be
+    asked--Why? The simple answer is that it was thorough, definite,
+    sincere, accomplished. Leighton never put out his hand towards
+    the limbo of vulgarity or fashion. Like Virgil, like
+    Mendelssohn, Leighton was a stylist, and his life's work showed
+    a perfection of attainment upon the lines which he drew out for
+    his progress almost to my thinking unrivalled in the work of any
+    of his contemporaries. Here and there he struck a deep note of
+    poetry, here and there he was like a Greek for his simplicity,
+    here and there his work shows the luxury of the Venetians, the
+    restraint of the Florentines, but never perhaps the majesty of
+    M. Angelo or the strong charm of Raphael. His art was eclectic;
+    still it was Leighton, and could have been done only as the
+    result of great natural gifts, assiduous study, force of
+    character, and, withal, independence of vision. His love of
+    beauty was his own personal love, not learnt, hardly perhaps
+    inherited, but spontaneous and lasting. This devotion to beauty
+    may have sometimes led his emotions away from character, which
+    sometimes is very nearly ugly as well as very nearly allied to
+    the highest beauty, which Bacon says has always something of
+    strangeness in it. The pursuit of beauty, _per se_, may be
+    purchased at the expense of character.
+
+    But Leighton was always pulling himself up; and when he found
+    himself too facile, too ornate, he resolutely set his mind to
+    correct any tendency in that direction by fidelity to Nature,
+    sometimes even to her ugly movements. Excess was not in his
+    nature, which was curiously logical; his mind was swift,
+    far-seeing; in debate he was admirable, always seeing the weak
+    point of an argument at once, and "partie pris" was his
+    abomination. A man so gifted in the essence and laws of form, so
+    learned in the construction of the human frame, so deeply
+    sensitive to line and movement as well as to structure, surely
+    would have given to the world great works of sculpture. Indeed
+    he did, but not enough! One regrets that--still one must accept
+    the fact that form is but little cared for in this country, and
+    Leighton sinned by reason of his love of form; by many he was
+    called not a painter because he did not smear, did not trust to
+    accidents, did not leave works half done--because he was sincere
+    to his conviction that a work of art must be, to last, complete
+    "ad unguem." The present craze for incompleteness, for sketches
+    instead of pictures, for unripe instead of ripe fruit, must die
+    as all false notions die; the best, the rightest will live; and
+    when the present ephemeral fashion has worked itself out, the
+    nobility of Leighton's works, his best, are certain to take
+    their place in the estimation of those that know as surely as
+    that they are good.
+
+    How many out of the multitude really, if we could test them,
+    care one jot for the Elgin Marbles, for the Demeter of Knidos,
+    for the vault of the Sistine Chapel?--very few. Really great
+    things never can be accepted by the commonplace. How should they
+    be? for to understand the highest in music, in architecture,
+    sculpture, or painting, the observer or listener must have a
+    spark in his constitution which is a portion of the flame that
+    burned white heat in the soul of the conceiver. How can such an
+    attitude of intimate sympathy belong to the many? It never has,
+    and probably never will. Great men are rare, and those who are
+    mentally or organically made to comprehend them are rare also.
+    The great can afford to wait because they are immortal. In all
+    one's dealings with Leighton what did one find? a noble nature,
+    restrained, charitable, in earnest; and if in many discussions
+    as to the desirability of certain events, certain compromises,
+    certain acts of conformity, one did not agree with Leighton, one
+    knew "au fond" that the attitude was quite logical, not hastily
+    arrived at, and the position taken up was to be strenuously
+    held: and it was that power of consistency which made Leighton
+    so trustworthy. He was fearless when his principles were
+    touched, he was loyal to his associates in the Academy even if
+    he did not see eye to eye with them, and he was loyal to his art
+    and to his friends. If Leighton had chosen politics for his
+    career he would probably have been Prime Minister, just as
+    Burne-Jones might have been Archbishop of Canterbury had he
+    continued his early and very remarkable theological studies. All
+    really great men have endless possibilities. It is more or less
+    chance which decides the direction of ability, which, once
+    discovered, forcibly, dominantly present, must find
+    opportunities for its highest development and achievement in the
+    tenure of the goal. It was ability and natural gifts that made
+    Leighton great, industry that nourished his greatness, and
+    stability to principle which made it lasting in his lifetime,
+    and must for all time stamp his work. The thing that really
+    engages one's interest about a great man is not so much his
+    "technique" as his general disposition and character, which
+    forms for itself a suitable "technique" by which his
+    achievements have been manifested. Should any one by-and-by
+    describe the "technique" of Joachim, the supreme violinist, he
+    would probably interest a few, but in reality he would say
+    nothing really valuable, excepting inasmuch as he touched upon
+    first principles. The "modus operandi" of an artist's life is
+    moulded by his personal aims, the means are those by which he
+    found his own way of stating them; and one doubts very much if,
+    after all, the points which differentiate one man's work from
+    another's are not those which have obliterated the conscious
+    efforts, preserving just the touches which genius gives beyond
+    and above all laws that may be learnt. Verse no doubt is much
+    dependent for its beauty on the system of the arrangement of
+    syllables, and the music they make when harmoniously handled
+    upon the final perfection which they reach, and so become
+    rule-making instead of being the result of rule-following. Hence
+    lies that unaccountable beauty which is the inexplicable result
+    of the ego--that taste, that selection, that special word which
+    creates an impression immediately, and which seems inimitable
+    even, and obviously the only one which could have been used;
+    that is style--the very essence of the ego which cannot be
+    copied, or indeed again brought into relation with the idea. And
+    isn't that the reason why the copy of a picture can never be
+    really like an original? even if the "technique" is identical,
+    it lacks that last touch, that last word which transcends
+    tradition, almost transcends thought, for it is just the thought
+    which has been summed up in a moment of inspiration,
+    uncalculated, spontaneous. Leighton was far too wise a man to
+    believe in the constant recurrence of inspirations: he knew that
+    the moment when the whole spirit is ready to act is involuntary;
+    he knew that to reach the supremacy of that moment, labour was
+    necessary; that in labour is the foundation of the building for
+    that moment of inspiration. One may question if the first vision
+    in Leighton was very strong--strong as Blake's, strong as many
+    artists whose powers of attainment were much less than
+    Leighton's, but whose vision was clearer at the outset. Rougher
+    minds than Leighton's have produced more epic effects, and a
+    ruder, less accomplished "technique" has borne with it more
+    original, more trenchant ideas. Leighton was not a mystic; he
+    dealt with thoughts which he embodied in forms that he saw, but
+    which he also made his own in their application; that was his
+    genius of originality. The rugged verse of AEschylus had no place
+    in his temperament, much as he admired it; the polished diction
+    of Virgil bore more similitude to Leighton's inspiration.
+    Sometimes one missed in his work just the touch of the rugged
+    which would have given more grace by comparison, by contrast.
+    His grace of diction, his oratory, his writing, was sometimes
+    over-refined, and missed its mark by over-elaboration. The very
+    speciality of Leighton was completeness. One has seen pictures
+    in his study only half finished, which had a charm of freshness
+    that vanished as each portion became worked into equal value.
+    But that fastidiousness was his characteristic, it was part of
+    him; and therefore we must not deplore it. His originality was
+    exemplified by his power of taking pains, his power of will to
+    do his very best according to his guiding spirit of
+    thoroughness. Temperaments are so different. Whistler could not
+    be Leighton. Because we admire the one, it is not necessary to
+    decry the other; that is weak criticism, or rather none at all.
+    The spirit which inspires the impressionist is not the spirit of
+    design, but a limited observation in a very restricted area. We
+    can have the Academic as well as the Impressionist: both are
+    useful as foils to each other, and it is just as narrow of the
+    Impressionists to want all men to see nature and art as they see
+    them, as it has been for the Academics to see "nothing" in the
+    newer if more limited system. I believe that Leighton's real
+    love was early Italian art; all that came to him after was the
+    result of growth. His enthusiasm for Mino da Fiesole, for the
+    earlier Raphaels, for Duccio of Siena, for Lorenzetti, was
+    evident and absorbing; other enthusiasms were more branches from
+    the stem than its roots. He loved line; he found it there: he
+    loved restraint of action, pure sensuous beauty; he found it in
+    early Italian Art. The reserve of emotions touched him in Greek
+    Art--its suavity, its almost geometrical precision, the
+    tunefulness and melody of its rhythmical concords. His love of
+    music was on the same lines: Wagner never appealed to him as
+    Mozart did; it was too strenuous, too busy in changes of key,
+    too incomplete in the finish and development of phrases. It was
+    not that he liked dulness--not a bit; he was emotional, often
+    gay, often depressed--excitable even; but to him Art was an
+    intellectual more than a purely emotional system, and he liked
+    it to be finished, consistent, perfect--and those qualities he
+    strove for, without a doubt he obtained in a high measure. It
+    will be long before we see again the like of Frederic Leighton,
+    a man complete in himself.
+
+                                                   W.B. RICHMOND.
+    _June 1906._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    I first met Leighton about 1869 or '70, I think. I went to one
+    of his receptions at the Studio in Holland Park Road, at the
+    time he was showing his pictures for the Academy. I think his
+    principal work of that year was "Alcestis," or "Heracles
+    Wrestling with Death." About the same time Browning's poem of
+    "Balaustion's Adventure" appeared, in which he alludes to
+    Leighton and this very picture in the lines beginning:
+
+        "I know a great Kaunian painter"
+
+    (if I remember rightly).
+
+    I availed myself of a friend's introduction, and presented
+    myself. One recalls the courteous and princely way in which he
+    received his guests on these occasions, and the crushes he had
+    at his studio--Holland Park Road blocked with carriages, and all
+    the great ones of the London world flocking to see the artist's
+    work.
+
+    About this time, or shortly before, he had done me the honour to
+    purchase two landscape studies I had made in Wales from among a
+    number in a book, which was shown him by my early friend George
+    Howard (now Earl of Carlisle), and I remember his kind words in
+    sending me what he deemed "the very modest price" I had asked
+    for them.
+
+    His kindness to students and young artists was well known. He
+    would take trouble to go and see their work, and he was always
+    an admirable and helpful critic.
+
+    I remember, on my first visit to Rome in the autumn of 1871 (on
+    our marriage tour), going into Piali's Library one evening to
+    look at the English papers. No one was there, but presently
+    Leighton came in. He did not remember me at first, but I
+    recalled myself to him. He was very kind, in his princely way,
+    and gave me introductions to W.W. Storey, the sculptor, and his
+    great friend, Giov. Costa, and he called at our rooms to see my
+    work, in which he showed much interest. In a letter I had, dated
+    March 1st, 1872, written from the Athenaeum Club, he speaks of
+    some drawings I had sent to the Dudley Gallery, one he had seen
+    on my easel in Rome, and he says: "I have seen your drawings,
+    all three--one was an old friend; of the other two, the 'Grotto
+    of Egeria,' with its 'sacrum numes,' most attracted me through
+    its refined and sober harmony. _The quality of your light_ is
+    always particularly agreeable to me, and not less than usual in
+    these drawings"; he goes on to say he is glad to hear I have
+    "made friends with my excellent Costa, who as an artist is one
+    in hundreds, and as a man one in thousands"; he adds, "Have you
+    sketched in the 'Valley of Poussin'? It strikes me that old
+    castle would take you by storm."
+
+    I saw Leighton again in Rome in 1873, meeting him on the
+    Palatine, among the ruins of the Palace of the Caesars. He was
+    with a lady who, I believe, was the author of the story
+    published in _The Cornhill_, "A Week in a French Country House,"
+    for which Leighton made an illustration. (His black and white
+    work was always very fine, and I recall seeing some of his
+    drawings on the wood for Dalziel's Bible and "Romola.")
+
+    Later, he came to see us when we settled in London, in Wood
+    Lane.
+
+    I had further relations with him about the time he was building
+    the Arab Hall, when (through George Aitcheson, his architect) I
+    designed the mosaic frieze. On some sketches I made for this he
+    writes: "Cleave to the Sphinx and Eagle, they are
+    _delightful_--I don't like the duck-women." With regard to these
+    Arab Hall mosaics, he said that he hoped to have more, and
+    eventually "to let us loose (Burne-Jones and myself) on the
+    dome."
+
+    After this, I saw something of Leighton on the committee of the
+    South London Fine Art Gallery, Peckham, in its earlier days,
+    when he was chairman, and helped to pilot the institution from
+    the somewhat exacting proprietorship of its founder towards its
+    ultimate position as a public institution.
+
+    From the aristocratic point of view, he certainly had a keen
+    sense of public duty, and probably laid the motto "Noblesse
+    oblige" to heart.
+
+    I met him again at the Art Conference at Liverpool, when a
+    trainful of artists of all ranks went down together, and some
+    notable attacks were made on the Royal Academy. Leighton was
+    tremendously loyal to that institution, which I notice is always
+    stoutly defended by its members, whatever opinions they may have
+    expressed while outsiders.
+
+    I suppose we differed profoundly on most questions, but he was
+    always most courteous, and, whatever our public opinions, we
+    always maintained friendly personal relations; and I may say I
+    always entertained the highest admiration for Leighton's
+    qualities, both as an artist and as a man.
+
+    At the time when the election for the presidency of the Academy
+    was in view (after the death of Sir Francis Grant), it was said
+    that Leighton was the _only_ man, and that if they did not elect
+    him the institution would go to pieces; but probably as
+    president he had less power of initiative than before.
+
+    I remember, after one of our committees at his studio, he drove
+    me home to Holland Street in his victoria; and as he set me down
+    at my door, he pointed to a little copper lantern I had put up
+    over the steps, and said, "Is that Arts and Crafts?"
+
+    His fondness for Italy was well known, and I think he went every
+    autumn. I recall meeting him at Florence in 1890, while staying
+    at the delightful villa of Mrs. Ross (Poggio Gherardo), when he
+    came to luncheon.
+
+    In death he was as princely as in life; and on the day of his
+    burial at St. Paul's I was moved to write the following as a
+    tribute to his memory, which will always be vivid in the hearts
+    of those who had the privilege of his friendship:--
+
+    Beneath great London's dome to his last rest
+      The princely painter have ye borne away,
+      Who still in death upholds his sumptuous sway;
+    Who strove in life with learned skill to wrest
+    Art's priceless secret hid in Beauty's breast
+      With alchemy of colour and of clay,
+      To recreate a fairer human day,
+    Touched by no shadow of our time distrest.
+
+    What rank or privilege needs art supreme--
+      Immortal child of buried states and powers--
+        Who can for us the golden age renew?
+    Let worth and work bear witness when life's hours
+      Are numbered: honour due, when, as we deem,
+        To his ideal was the artist true.
+
+                                 WALTER CRANE.
+
+    [Illustration: "EUCHARIS." 1863
+    By permission of Mrs. Stephenson Clarke]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Having settled in England in 1860, Leighton found that there, contrary
+to his expectations, his sense of colour became developed; and with
+this his individuality as a _painter_ asserted itself. Between the
+years 1863 and 1866 he painted pictures which proved that, as a
+distinct artificer in painting, he had found himself, and was no
+longer under the controlling influences of German or Italian Art,
+though, unfortunately, hints of German methods in the actual
+manipulation of his brush clung more or less to his painting to the
+end. From boyhood Leighton's power of designing, his sense of beauty
+in line and form and of dramatic feeling, his extraordinary facility
+in drawing with the point, proved his genius as an artist; but it was
+not till the early sixties that his pictures proved him to be
+possessed of individual distinction as a painter, probably because the
+method of handling the brush associated with the teaching which, in
+other respects, commanded his reverence and admiration, were alien to
+his finest artistic sense. No later works are to be found more notable
+in luminous quality of painting than "Eucharis," 1863, and "Golden
+Hours," 1864; none in strength and solidity of texture, or in beauty
+of distinguished handling, than "A Noble Lady of Venice," about 1865;
+none in richness of arrangement combined with the fair aerial
+atmosphere appropriate to a Grecian scene, for which Leighton had so
+native a sympathy, than "A Syracusan Bride Leading Wild Beasts in
+Procession to the Altar of Diana," 1866.[1] Later works may claim a
+greater public prominence among his achievements, but for actual
+individuality and feeling for the beauty which appealed most strongly
+to Leighton in colour as in form, none he painted after evinced any
+fresh departure.
+
+    [Illustration: "A NOBLE LADY OF VENICE." 1866
+    By permission of Lord Armstrong]
+
+As early as 1852, at the age of twenty-one, Leighton wrote to Steinle
+from Venice: "I must candidly confess that great as my admiration for
+Titian (& Co.) was, yet the well-known art treasures here have seized
+me and entranced me anew. You, dear master, are so familiar with all
+these things that there is nothing I can write you about them; but on
+one point I am fairly clear, namely, that the admirers and imitators
+of Titian (particularly the latest) seek his charms quite in the wrong
+place, and I am convinced that the impressiveness of his painting lies
+far less in the ardour of his colouring than in the stupendous
+accuracy and execution of the modelling." In another letter to Steinle
+he refers to the necessity of mastering the capacities of the brush in
+order to render form in a complete manner independently of the
+function of the brush to render colour.
+
+    "Those who place the brush behind the pencil, under the pretence
+    that _form_ is before all things, make a very great mistake.
+    Form _is certainly all important_; one cannot study it enough;
+    _but_ the greater part of _form_ falls within the province of
+    the tabooed _brush_. The everlasting hobby of _contour_ (which
+    belongs to the drawing material) is first the _place_ where the
+    _form_ comes in; what, however, reveals true knowledge of form,
+    is a powerful, organic, refined finish of modelling, full of
+    feeling and knowledge--and that is the affair of the brush
+    (_Pinsel_)."
+
+In January 1860 Leighton wrote to Steinle: "You will perhaps be
+surprised, but, in spite of my fanatic preference for colour I
+promised myself to be a draughtsman before I became a colourist," and
+in fact Leighton was fighting, throughout his whole career, against
+allowing the sensuous qualities in his art to override those which the
+teaching of Steinle had proved to his nature to be the most truly
+elevating and ennobling. Up to the age of thirty he had been
+overshadowed by the influence of others in the matter of actual
+technique in painting. From the time he settled in London he freed
+himself from the tutelage of all masters. As we have read in his
+letters, his intention was to do so in 1856 when he painted "The
+Triumph of Music;" but at that time he failed in finding his real self
+in his painting of that picture, and fully realised that he must
+_reculer pour mieux sauter_, returning in the autumn of that year to
+Rome to be fed by the greatest art of the past, and to study again,
+"face to face with Nature--to follow it, to watch it, and to copy,
+closely, faithfully, ingenuously--as Ruskin suggests, choosing nothing
+and rejecting nothing." The studies of a Pumpkin Flower (Meran),
+Branch of Vine (Bellosquardo), Cyclamen (Tivoli), reproduced in
+Chapter III., and others, were made during this autumn of 1856.
+
+In a letter written to Mr. M. Spielmann, a few years before his death,
+Leighton describes the procedure he pursued in accomplishing a serious
+work.
+
+    "In my pictures,--which are above all decorations in the real
+    sense of the word,--the design is a pattern in which every line
+    has its place and its proper relation to other lines, so that
+    the disturbing of one of them, outside certain limits, would
+    throw the whole out of gear. Having thus determined my picture
+    in my mind's eye, in the majority of cases I make a sketch in
+    black and white chalk upon brown paper to fix it. In the first
+    sketch the care with which the folds have been broadly arranged
+    will be evident, and if it be compared with the finished
+    picture, the very slight degree in which the general scheme has
+    been departed from will convince the spectator of the almost
+    scientific precision of my line of action. But there is a good
+    reason for this determining of the draperies before the model is
+    called in; and it is this. The nude model, no matter how
+    practised he or she may be never moves or stands or sits, in
+    these degenerate days, with exactly the same freedom as when
+    draped; action or pose is always different--not so much from a
+    sense of mental constraint as from the unusual liberty
+    experienced by the limbs to which the muscular action invariably
+    responds when the body is released from the discipline and
+    confinement of clothing.
+
+    "The picture having been thus determined, the model is called
+    in, and is posed as nearly as possible in the attitude desired.
+    As nearly as possible, I say; for, as no two faces are exactly
+    alike, so no two models ever entirely resemble one another in
+    body or muscular action, and cannot, therefore, pose in such a
+    manner as exactly to correspond with either another model or
+    another figure--no matter how correctly the latter may be drawn.
+    From the model make the careful outline on brown paper, a true
+    transcript from life, which may entail some slight corrections
+    of the original design in the direction of modifying the
+    attitude and general appearance of the figure. This would be
+    rendered necessary probably by the bulk and material of the
+    drapery. So far, of course, my attention is engaged exclusively
+    by 'form,' colour being always treated more or less ideally. The
+    figure is now placed in its surroundings, and established in
+    exact relation to the canvas. The result is the first true
+    sketch of the entire design, figure, and background, and is
+    built up of the two previous ones. It must be absolutely
+    accurate in the distribution of spaces, for it has subsequently
+    to be 'squared off' on to the canvas, which is ordered to the
+    exact scale of the sketch. At this moment, the design being
+    finally determined, the sketch in oil colours is made. It has
+    been deferred till now, because the placing of the colours is,
+    of course, of as much importance as the harmony. This done, the
+    canvas is for the first time produced, and thereon I enlarge the
+    design, re-draw the outline--and never departing a
+    hair's-breadth from the outlines and forms already obtained--and
+    then highly finishing the whole figure in warm monochrome from
+    the life. Every muscle, every joint, every crease is there,
+    although all this careful painting is shortly to be hidden with
+    the draperies; such, however, is the only method of insuring
+    absolute correctness of drawing. The fourth stage completed, I
+    return once more to my brown paper, re-copy the outline
+    accurately from the picture, on a larger scale than before, and
+    resume my studies of draperies in greater detail and with still
+    greater precision, dealing with them in sections, as parts of a
+    homogeneous whole. The draperies are now laid with infinite care
+    on to the living model, and are made to approximate as closely
+    as possible to the arrangement given in the first sketch, which,
+    as it was not haphazard, but most carefully worked out, must of
+    necessity be adhered to. They have often to be drawn piecemeal,
+    as a model cannot by any means always retain the attitude
+    sufficiently long for the design to be wholly carried out at one
+    cast.[2] This arrangement, is effected with special reference to
+    painting--that is to say, giving not only form and light and
+    shade, but also the relation and 'values' of tones. The
+    draperies are drawn over, and made to conform exactly to the
+    forms copied from the nudes of the underpainted picture. This is
+    a cardinal point, because in carrying out the picture the folds
+    are found fitting mathematically on to the nude, or nudes, first
+    established on the canvas. The next step then is to transfer the
+    draperies to the canvas on which the design has been squared
+    off, and this is done with flowing colour in the same monochrome
+    as before over the nudes, to which they are intelligently
+    applied, and which nudes must never--mentally at least--be lost
+    sight of. The canvas has been prepared with a grey tone, lighter
+    or darker, according to the subject in hand, and the effect to
+    be produced. The background and accessories being now added, the
+    whole picture presents a more or less completed
+    aspect--resembling that, say, of a print of any warm tone. In
+    the case of draperies of very vigorous tone, a rich flat local
+    colour is probably rubbed over them, the modelling underneath
+    being, though thin, so sharp and definite as to assert itself
+    through this wash. Certain portions of the picture might
+    probably be prepared with a wash of flat tinting of a colour
+    the opposite of that which it is eventually to receive. A blue
+    sky, for instance, would possibly have a soft, ruddy tone spread
+    over the canvas--the sky, which is a very definite and important
+    part of my compositions, being as completely drawn in monochrome
+    as any other of the design; or, for rich blue mountains a strong
+    orange wash or tint might be used as a bed. The structure of the
+    picture being thus absolutely complete, and the effect
+    distinctly determined by a sketch which it is my aim to equal in
+    the big work, I have nothing to think of but colour, and with
+    that I now proceed deliberately, but rapidly."
+
+So far Leighton explained the conscious processes he went through in
+creating his pictures; but does this explanation record truly the real
+agencies which brought about the result we see in his finest
+achievements? I should say no,--most emphatically no. Where we can
+trace the sign of these processes, there the picture fails in the
+power of convincing. No such process produced "Eucharis" nor the
+"Syracusan Bride." The process may have been gone through in painting
+the procession, but it is obliterated by touches instinct with a true
+painter's inspiration. All _teachable_ qualities Leighton could
+_teach_ on the lines of soundest principles. His extreme modesty left
+others to find out that where his preaching left off the real work
+began in his own pictures. No one knew better than Leighton that no
+theoretic knowledge ever made an artist; no teachable processes ever
+made a beautiful picture; no one knew better that head without heart
+never produced any work that was truly cared for.
+
+"God forgive me if I am intolerant," he wrote to Steinle, "but
+according to my view an artist must produce his art out of his own
+heart; or he is none."
+
+    "The chord that wakes in kindred hearts a tone,
+    Must first be tuned and vibrate in your own"
+
+were the words with which he ended his first address to the students
+of the Royal Academy.
+
+In the world's estimate of things and people, classification plays at
+times a pernicious part. Classification in art matters may be tolerated
+as useful only in the education of the non-artistic. Invariably the
+most convincing touches escape the possibility of being reduced to so
+dull a process of reckoning. Art marked by individual spontaneity,
+emanating from the ego of the artificer, refuses to be levelled down
+into a class. Critics seem at times to be strongly tempted to fit an
+artist's achievements into certain classes, because they have
+previously made up their minds as to the class the work belongs to.
+Hence the perversion often of even an intelligent critic's estimate:
+certain squarenesses exist which will not fit into round holes, so, for
+the sake of classification, the corners must be shaved off. Surely no
+artist ever existed who evaded being comfortably fitted into either a
+square or a round hole more completely than did Leighton. Every serious
+work he undertook was an entirely separate performance from any
+previous invention--a new venture throughout--and, once decided on,
+carried through with absolute conformity to the original conception.
+Therefore any classification, beyond his mere method of working, is
+more sterile in producing a just estimate of Leighton's art than of
+those workers who are in the habit of painting pictures in which the
+same motive recurs. Essentially original in his conceptions as in his
+aims, and vibrating with receptiveness, he sounded nevertheless every
+impression he received by unchanging principles adhered to as implicit
+guides. He had within him at once the steadiest rock as a foundation,
+and the most fertile of serial growths on the surface. Abiding rock and
+surface flora alike had had their earliest nurture, it must be
+remembered, in foreign parts, under other skies than that of our veiled
+English light--under other influences of nature and of art than that of
+our English climate and schooling--and it is partly owing to this fact
+that it is not realised by those who have never seen nature under the
+aspects which most delighted him, that Leighton's conceptions were
+directly and invariably inspired by nature. Those who are conversant
+with Italy and other Southern countries will possess the key to much
+that is misjudged by others in Leighton's work. Scenes which entranced
+his sensibilities as a boy, and, lingering ever in his fancy, gave
+subjects for his paintings when his art was mature, may appear to one
+without special knowledge of the South as mere echoes of classic art.
+When he was thirty-one Leighton exhibited the picture "Lieder ohne
+Worte."[3] It is no record, probably, of any particular place, nor of
+any particular fountain; but when strolling on a road in or near a
+southern town or village in Italy, a view which might originally have
+inspired the motive may be seen at any moment. Encased in a wall near
+Albano is a fountain which certainly recalled to me the picture as, in
+the bright light of a May morning, the song of nightingales in the
+grand foliage of overhanging magnolia trees echoed the sound of the
+water springing from the glistening lip, and flowing over the clean
+curve of the marble basin into the trough below. There was the same
+lion's head which served as spout, the same arrangement of ornament
+encircling it; also a finely shaped pitcher placed below to catch the
+water, and--more recalling than any detail--was the echo of the real
+motive of the picture--the dream-like poetry of the sunlit scene, with
+the musical accompaniment of trickling water. Had Leighton painted a
+Discobolus, it would probably never have occurred to most English
+critics that nature and living action had inspired the work. Above the
+lake of Albano is a road--"the Upper Gallery"--where every day are to
+be met men playing the game. Any one watching it may see repeated over
+and over again the action in the well-known statue. Nature inspired the
+creations of the great ancients, and it was also invariably first-hand
+impressions from nature that inspired Leighton's creations, whatever
+superstructure of learning he added in the course of their development.
+Living in Italy when his feelings were most sensitive to impressions,
+the origin of the suggestions he imbibed is to be found in her
+atmosphere, colouring, and the scenes which surrounded him when his
+imagination was most free and fertile. Later, when he lived in England,
+his travels in Italy and Greece supplied him with the subjects for the
+most beautiful sketches he made direct from nature. No one, I believe,
+has ever painted the luminous quality of white, as it is seen under
+heated sunlight in the South, with the same charm as Leighton. The
+sketches he made of buildings in Capri[4] are quite marvellously true
+in their rendering of such effects. He made equally beautiful studies
+of mountains and sea, under the rarefied atmosphere of Greece. He
+seemed always happiest, I think, when the key of his pictures and
+sketches was light and sunlit; in such pictures, for instance, as
+"Winding the Skein," "Greek Girls Picking up Shells by the Seashore,"
+"Bath of Psyche," "Invocation," and others remarkable for their
+fairness and their light, pure tone.
+
+Leighton's sympathies were adverse to the more sensuous qualities in
+painting. Often, in discussing the works by Watts, he would strongly
+discourage those who were, he considered, unduly influenced by the
+charm of the great painter's quality and texture, from endeavouring to
+aim at it in their own work. Such a treatment, Leighton maintained,
+might be legitimate as the natural expression of the intuitive genius
+of one gifted individual, but was not the treatment to copy by the
+student on account of any intrinsic merit. He had almost an aversion
+to any process which obtained effects through roughness and inequality
+of surface. His genuine youthful predilection, which he retained
+consistently throughout his life, was for the early Italian art and
+Italian method of painting _al fresco_. "To see the old Florentine
+school again is a thing which always enchants me anew, for one can
+never be sated with seeing the noble sweetness, the child-like
+simplicity, allied with high manly feeling, which breathes in it. But
+I speak to you of plain things which you know far better than
+I."--(Letter to Steinle from Florence, 1857.)
+
+    [Illustration: GREEK GIRLS PICKING UP SHELLS BY THE SEASHORE. 1871
+    By permission of The Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain]
+
+After Leighton became President of the Royal Academy he made Perugia
+his halting-place for some weeks during his autumn travels, while he
+wrote his biennial discourses for the students. He invariably stayed
+at the well-known Brufani Hotel,--Mrs. Brufani, with whom he made
+great friends, always reserving the same two rooms for him, from the
+windows of which he could watch the sun set behind the glorious piles
+of Umbrian mountains to the west of Perugia. From these windows he
+also made sketches in silver point of the distant ranges, each form
+modelled with exquisite delicacy and perfection, though in faintest
+tones. Other inmates of the Brufani supposed he lived in his two
+rooms, as he was seldom seen elsewhere in the hotel; but Leighton had
+found a restaurant which, like his old quarters in Rome--the _Cafe
+Greco_--was the resort of the artists living in Perugia. There he
+would lunch, and then repair to the Sala del Cambio. Sitting on the
+raised seat near the window, he would, day after day, spend an hour or
+more revelling in the beauty of the frescoes by Perugino. Then he
+would mount to the Pinacoteca and take a deep draught of enjoyment
+from the tempera paintings of Perugino's master, Benedetto Bonfiglio,
+Leighton's favourite of favourites ("They are all my _Bonfigli_!" he
+would exclaim), whose angels' aureoles rest on wreaths of roses, and
+whose lovely work Perugia seems to have monopolised. The old paintings
+of Martino, Gentile da Fabiano, Pietro da Foligno, and their
+followers Leighton also loved, likewise the later work of Bernardino
+Pinturicchio and Lo Spagna, pupils with Raphael of Perugino. Among his
+greatest favourites were the painted banners--the _Gonfalone_--which
+are peculiar to the Umbrian cities. He loved the freshness of their
+quality--the result of a first painting never retouched--the masterly
+ease of the workmanship, full of tender, gracious beauty. These days
+were Leighton's real holidays, where, in rapturous admiration of the
+art he loved so profoundly, he put behind him for the time the weight
+of official responsibility, and the no less exhausting social duties
+of his life.
+
+Had Leighton been able to devote himself to the method of painting in
+fresco, and to work in a warm, dry climate, which admits of painting
+into the wet surface of plaster without danger of the wall retaining
+the moisture, he would, undoubtedly, have felt a freer impulse to work
+rapidly and more spontaneously than when his touch was controlled by
+the complicated procedures in oil painting. In the process of painting
+_al fresco_, colour, in a sense, models itself--its absorption into the
+wet plaster softening the edges of one touch into another; hence, over
+a first painting no half obliteration is necessary, and any elaborate
+finish is avoided. Being obliged to complete before the plaster was
+dry, Leighton could not have yielded to the temptation to over-refine
+his surface; and his splendid power as a draughtsman, allied to his
+sense of beauty, would have found a perfectly spontaneous, happy
+utterance. As a boy he had imbibed one great principle, and from this
+principle he never deviated. He wrote, "The thoroughness of all the
+great masters is so pervading a quality that I look upon them all as
+forming one aristocracy." In his sketches alone did Leighton relax from
+the strain which absolute thoroughness involves; and then, in all the
+fervour of aesthetic inspiration, colour would fly on canvas, chalk or
+paper, with a charm of quality and exquisite grace of line and form
+which, as Mr. Briton Riviere remarks, is the very best that can be
+obtained from a great artist thoroughly trained, but which condition
+Leighton would never admit into what he considered his serious work. He
+writes to his father from Rome, January 1853: "I was deeply impressed
+with the glorious works of art I saw in Venice and Florence, and was
+particularly struck with the exquisitely _elaborate_ finish of most of
+the leading works by _whatever_ master; the highest possible finish
+combined with the greatest possible breadth and grandeur of disposition
+in the principal masses. Art with the old masters was full of love,
+refined,--sterling." Leighton formed his standard from these old
+masters, and never for a moment allowed his standard to be replaced by
+another. In certain types of Englishmen chivalric loyalty develops at
+times into obstinacy. Leighton, with all his passion for Italy, his
+artistic sensitiveness, his excitability, his finely wrought nervous
+temperament, and his intense power of sympathy, had also in his blood
+something of the old English Tory, which made him adhere and remain
+loyal to the strongest impressions of his youth. Catholic and generous
+as he always proved himself to be when it was a question of considering
+the work of others, when he was considering his own he ever maintained
+absolute consistency with the tenets of his early illuminations.
+Speaking of his extraordinary sense of duty and the consequent tension
+involved, Mr. Briton Riviere writes:--
+
+    "No doubt the constant wear and tear occasioned by the perpetual
+    strain of mental and physical watchfulness did much to shorten
+    his life; I think it sometimes injured his own work as an
+    artist, because, though a great artist can never be evolved
+    except by years of patient work and strenuous effort to do his
+    very best always, yet, on the other hand, it is often the happy,
+    easy work and absolutely spontaneous effort of the moment by
+    such a hand which is his very best. Such happy, easy work
+    probably Leighton would seldom allow himself to do, and never
+    would leave at the right moment, but would still strive to make
+    better and more complete. He must still elaborate it and try to
+    make it more perfect; and this it was that made his enthusiastic
+    admirer Watts sometimes say, 'How much finer Leighton's work
+    would be if he would admit the accidental into it.'"
+
+A fact, little suspected by the public, certainly affected the element
+of strength in some of Leighton's works. Besides often suffering from
+a positive want of health, his normal physical condition was far from
+robust; and, as appears in his letters, he suffered much through
+weakness and irritation in the eyes from the time he was a boy. He did
+not wear his physical (or any other) distress on his sleeve, and
+experienced many hindrances in his work never dreamt of, even by his
+intimate acquaintances. These might not have been so serious had he
+been willing to sacrifice all other duties in life to his own special
+vocation; but though he realised that Art, the language of beauty, was
+his main passion, his conscience would not allow him to make this
+passion an excuse for avoiding help to his generation on other lines,
+if he distinctly felt he could do so. In the happiest of surroundings,
+with his life unburdened by public responsibilities, he painted
+"Cimabue's Madonna"; and, for pure vigour in the manipulation, this
+painting has a robust quality which is scarcely to be found in any
+other of the larger works which followed, though these may possess
+many other virtues, and evince a more definite individuality, than
+does the early work.
+
+Leighton's art appeals to the artists (comparatively few in England)
+possessed of cosmopolitan culture--also to many who love beauty, a
+sense of refined distinction in feeling and in form and in the
+arrangement of line. Beyond these it appeals also to the great public
+outside the radius of specialists, a public which is impressed by a
+sense of beauty and achievement without possessing the knowledge of
+experts. It is not much cared for by the disciples of either of the
+latest schools in England, and in France, which have governed fashion
+in the matter of taste for the last twenty years. In the first place,
+it appeals but little to those to whom the highest province of art
+appears to consist in conveying didactic sentiments and poetic ideas
+through a language of form and colour--to suggest thought to the brain
+rather than beauty to the eye. Respecting this theory of the province
+of art, Leighton expresses himself clearly in his second address to
+the Royal Academy students in December 1881:--
+
+    "Now the language of Art is not the appointed vehicle of ethic
+    truths; of these, as of all knowledge as distinct from emotion,
+    though not necessarily separated from it, the obvious and only
+    fitted vehicle is speech, written or spoken--words, the symbols
+    of ideas. The simplest spoken homily, if sincere in spirit and
+    lofty in tone, will have more direct didactic efficacy than all
+    the works of all the most pious painters and sculptors from
+    Giotto to Michael Angelo; more than the Passion music of Bach,
+    more than a Requiem by Cherubini, more than an Oratorio of
+    Handel.
+
+    "It is not, then, it cannot be the foremost duty of Art to seek
+    to embody that which it cannot adequately present, and to enter
+    into a competition in which it is doomed to inevitable defeat."
+
+That so great a painter as Watts should have taken a contrary view,
+and preached this contrary view as that which inspired his own
+_conscious_ aims, was quite sufficient to secure to it many adherents.
+He preached his doctrine, moreover, with a most convincing argument,
+but one which cannot logically be used in favour of it, namely, his
+own great genius as a _painter_. Watts was essentially a
+_painter_--one who at his best ranks with the best painters of all
+times.
+
+Mr. Arthur Symons, writing on "The Psychology of Watts,"[5] quotes a
+popular preacher who affirmed that "Critics who approach his (Watts')
+work from the side of technical excellence do not interest him at all.
+His endeavour has been to make his pictures as good as works of art as
+was possible to him, for fear that they should fail altogether in
+their appeal; but, beyond that, their excellence as mere pictures is
+nothing to him." "Now," writes Mr. Symons, "it is quite possible that
+Watts may have really said or written something of the kind; he may
+even, when he set himself down to think, have thought it. The
+conscious mental processes of an artist have often little enough
+relation with his work as art; by no means is every artist a critic as
+well as an artist. But to take a great painter at his word, if he
+assures you that the excellence of his pictures 'as mere pictures' is
+nothing to him; to suppose seriously that at the root of his painting
+was not the desire to paint; to believe for a moment that great
+pictorial work has ever been done except by those who were painters
+first, and everything else afterwards, is to confuse the elementary
+notions of things, hopelessly and finally. And so, when we are told
+that the technical excellence of Watts' pictures is of little
+consequence, we can but answer that to the 'painter of earnest
+truths,' as to all painters, nothing can be of more consequence; for
+it is only through this technical excellence that 'Hope,' or 'The
+Happy Warrior,' or 'Love and Life,' is to be preferred to the picture
+leaflet which the district missionary distributes on his way through
+the streets."
+
+All who knew Watts intimately and watched him working day by day can
+testify that he spared no labour, time, or patience, in working over
+and over on a picture in order to attain the finest quality in the
+actual surface which his material--paint--could possibly produce.
+
+Neither the disciples of the original brotherhood of the
+pre-Raphaelites nor those of Burne-Jones care, as a rule, for
+Leighton's art. Though starting as one with the pre-Raphaelites,
+Burne-Jones, possessing a remarkably fine intellect, a subtle fancy, a
+rich inventiveness in the detail of design, an exquisite sense of
+grace, and great genius as a colourist, developed so distinct an
+individuality that his followers cannot be precisely identified with
+those of the pre-Raphaelites. Leighton fully appreciated the genius of
+Burne-Jones, and did all in his power to secure his adherence to the
+Academy; but he had no sympathy for that feeling in art evinced by
+Burne-Jones' followers, which is so essentially rooted in purely
+personal moods that even distortion of the human frame is condoned, so
+long as prominence is given to the suggestion of such moods.
+
+Imbued with a rare, peculiar refinement all its own, a kind of
+aesthetic creed sprang up in the later days of the nineteenth century
+apart from the arid soil of commonplace respectability and tasteless
+materialism. Burne-Jones painted it, Kate Vaughan danced it,
+Maeterlinck wrote it, the "Souls" (rather unsuccessfully) attempted to
+live it, the humourists caricatured it, the Philistines denounced it
+as morbid and unwholesome. Leighton was tolerant and amused, but could
+not be very solemn over it. And, assuredly, already this creed has
+been whisked away into the past by fashions diametrically opposed to
+it in character. Its text may be found in Melisande's reiterated
+refrain, "I am not happy"--though the unhappiness does not seem ever
+to have been of the nature of the iron which entered into the soul,
+but rather the shadow of sadness, adopted with the idea that such a
+condition betokens a more rare and tender grace than the radiance of
+joy can give. Every mood of the subjective has been lately in fashion
+in aesthetic circles, and is still rampant in much of the up-to-date
+(or down-to-date, as it may be) conditions of the present taste. This
+is probably consequent on the leadership of those artists who
+possessed not only genius and sense of beauty, but a peculiar charm of
+texture in their work which seems a native adjunct to certain
+temperaments. It is a purely personal manner, and crops up without
+reference apparently to any special school of art. In Sodoma we find
+it allied to a development of the splendid completeness of Italian
+Art; again in the Celt, Watts, to a lofty imagination and to a
+Pheidian sensibility for noble form; it appears in the work of the
+Jew, Simeon Solomon; and is an element in Burne-Jones' lovely quality
+of painting especially noticeable in his water-colour drawings--and,
+on a smaller scale of workmanship, in the pictures by Pinwell. It is
+more a matter of quality than of colour, and yet it is only colourists
+who have possessed it--most obviously, however, where the key of
+colour is restrained almost to monochrome. A hint of it can be found
+in Tintoretto's paintings, where few positive tints are prominent, as
+in some of the ceiling paintings in the Ducal Palace at Venice. There
+is a something which this special handling suggests which possesses a
+very subtle charm, the charm of dreamland,--less tangible, less real
+than direct appeals from nature. A slight mystery seems to veil the
+vision like a reflection swayed by the surface of the water. It is
+less explicit than any real object, and only suggests completion
+without quite achieving it; there is something left out from the
+aspect of nature, something added from the ego of the artist. There
+are those to whom such a treatment suggests a deeper truth than can
+any wholly explicit expression, because they feel forcibly that
+mystery is the soul of all earthly conditions--"we see through a glass
+darkly." There are others--and Leighton was among these--who are so
+strongly imbued with a sense of the wonderful and marvellous in actual
+creation that they need no art, no veiled suggestion of the hidden,
+in order to realise that our lives are wrapped in mystery from the
+cradle to the grave. This quality in painting alluded to, fits in with
+that taste in literature which prefers hints to assertions--that
+insistency on the value of what is, after all, but a _fugitive_ phase
+in special temperaments--that setting most value on the principle of
+suggestion rather than of definition, of which we hear so much. The
+devotees of Maeterlinck delight in the shadow of a thought rather than
+the thought _arrete_; they feel that a further stage of refined
+culture is reached in worshipping a style you have to get somehow
+behind, rather than one in which thoughts are fully and frankly
+expressed. Doubtless it requires a more subtile weapon to catch the
+fleeting aroma, the hint of a thought trembling in the brain and
+giving it permanent existence in Art, than to carve the expression of
+a complete idea explicitly with cameo-like precision, be it in the
+form of words or a visual impression--the wise sayings of a Solomon or
+a Bacon, the sculpture of a Pheidias or the painting of a Leonardo da
+Vinci. The actual visible facts in the aspects of nature, which were
+of such entrancing interest to Leighton, become of less and less
+interest to the wide public as the human intelligence is trained more
+and more through books, less and less through the eye; our modern
+conditions making the world we live in, more and more ugly and
+uninspiring to the echoing tune of nature within us. Even if we recede
+into the depths of the country, we find the signs all round us of the
+sense of beauty being deadened, the revulsion against ugliness having
+ceased--corrugated iron supplanting thatched roofing, and the
+loveliest, most rural spots in England year after year newly deprived
+of some special charm they have possessed for centuries. Those who
+seek for beauty have been led to find it in the unreal--the things
+which might be, but are not. We cannot help it, but we certainly
+become more artificial as our civilisation becomes more complicated,
+and everything we see around us grows uglier. It is because the
+general public has so little genuine interest in Art or love of
+beauty, however great may be its professions, that the tendency has
+developed to care for the art which appeals rather to the mind and the
+aesthetic sensibilities generally, than to the actual vision.
+
+This reign of the subjective has brought in its train the undue
+monopolising of the world's most ardent interest in one passion.
+French novels of great literary power secured to it the monopoly in
+France, and magnates in aesthetic culture have grafted it on to our
+English taste. This strongest and most beautiful feeling in human
+nature has been so monotonously forced upon us in literature _a tort
+et a travers_--the assumption that this is the only feeling worth
+serious consideration has been dwelt on with such a tiresome
+pertinacity--it has been so often caricatured, so often debased in
+books and pictures, that even the real thing itself runs a danger of
+palling. This human passion may be the greatest, but it is not the
+only great feeling with which the lives of men and women are enriched;
+and surely the absorbing prominence which has been given to it
+latterly in literature is out of proportion with its real position in
+healthy lives. Little sympathy seems left for other deep and stirring
+emotions. In Leighton's art we find no monopoly of this kind either
+recorded or suggested. He painted the passion of lovers in the "Paolo
+and Francesca," but with no more sincere interest than he did other
+feelings; than, for instance, his fervent and reverent worship of art
+in "Cimabue's Madonna," or in the ecstasy of joy in the child flying
+into the embrace of her mother in "The Return of Persephone," or in
+the exquisite tender feeling of Elisha breathing renewed life into the
+Shunammite's son, or in that sense of rest and peace after struggle in
+the lovely figure of "Ariadne" when Death releases her from her pain;
+or in the yearning for that peace in the "King David": "Oh that I had
+wings like a dove! for then would I fly away and be at rest."
+
+As the climax of nature's loveliest creations Leighton treated the
+human form with a courageous purity. In his undraped figures there is
+the same total absence of the mark of the degenerate as there is in
+everything he did and was; no remote hint of any _double-entendre_
+veiled by aesthetic refinement, any more than there is in the Bible,
+the _Iliad_, or in the sculpture of Pheidias.
+
+To quote lines that were written about Leighton very shortly before
+his death:--
+
+    "There is truly to be traced in the feeling of his art that
+    'seal on a man's work of what is most inward and peculiar in his
+    moods'; the sign of individual intimate preferences and of the
+    moving power which certain aspects of beauty have had upon the
+    artist's innermost susceptibilities, though these may be
+    somewhat veiled and distanced by being translated through the
+    reserved form of a classic garb. Perhaps it is this reserve
+    which invests Sir Frederic Leighton's art with the special aroma
+    of poetry which Robert Browning found in it to a greater extent
+    than in any other work of his time.[6] Whether in his larger
+    compositions, in the complicated grouping of many figures, such
+    as the Cimabue picture being led in procession through the
+    streets of Florence, the 'Daphnephoria,' 'Heracles struggling
+    with Death,' the 'Andromache,' the 'Cymon and Iphigenia,' and
+    others; or those simpler compositions, such as the 'Summer
+    Moon,' 'Wedded,' 'The Mountain Summit,' 'The Music Lesson,'
+    'Sister's Kiss,' in all can be traced the sentiment of a poet
+    inspiring the touch; not overriding by any assertiveness of
+    sentiment the complete scheme of the picture, but lingering here
+    and there with a wistful loveliness which has to be sought for
+    within the barriers of the formal classic design. And it is this
+    reticence in the expression of individual sentiment, this
+    subduing it to the larger conditions of a more abstract style
+    of art which, though it will never make Sir Frederic Leighton's
+    work directly popular, gives to it a quality of distinction. In
+    such reticence is an element of greatness which probably will
+    only be duly appreciated when the more transient moods of
+    thought in the present generation have passed. His work lacks
+    altogether the sentimental, brooding-over-self quality, which,
+    when allied to genius, is contagious, and gives an interest of a
+    subtle, but perhaps not altogether wholesome kind to some of the
+    best work of this era."
+
+And again after his death:--
+
+    "Beauty of every kind played on a very sensitive instrument,
+    when it made an appeal to his nature, giving him very positive
+    joy: no complication of subtle interest beyond the actual
+    influence being required before a responding echo was sounded,
+    because so pure and innocent was this joy he had in the charm of
+    beauty;--so also attendant on his personal influence, there was
+    no power of mesmerism, nor of the black arts. In every direction
+    it was healthy and bracing. Even a Nordau could have discovered
+    no remotest taint of the degenerate!"
+
+It is the emotions which art suggests outside itself which have been
+viewed by one school as more interesting than art itself, and it is
+the sensuous qualities in painting--colour and texture--which are the
+visible agents, and convey more readily these suggestions of emotions
+in our northern temperaments than do beautiful lines and forms. Our
+northern temperaments also love symbolism and mysticism, therefore are
+apt to favour the art that meets a veiled condition of things; and the
+perfection of complete finish in nature's form is no longer held up as
+a standard for the student to aim at. Leighton had no sympathy with
+the artificial, neither had he any with the shadow put in the place of
+the substance. The actual was ever sufficient for him, for in nature
+herself he never failed to find sufficient inspiration. The mind of
+the Creator in matter is what the ingenuous artist temperament
+searches for and is inspired to record; whereas it is, on the one
+hand, phases of human moods, selections from human passions, good,
+bad, and indifferent, which are made to saturate the feeling in much
+of our modern art, or, on the other hand, aspects of nature's moods
+given without the framework of her structure, and without the detail
+of her perfection.
+
+It may be argued, however, that there are among the most beautiful
+effects in nature those which are not fully distinct to the sight--the
+shimmering iridescence on a shell, where one colour is seen sparkling
+against another through a film, or the waving branches of a willow,
+the liquid shifting of a flowing stream, or the endless effects of
+cloud and mist in a northern sky. To express this in paint requires an
+appropriate treatment in the manipulation of the pigment itself.
+Watts' theory was that you have to unfinish the record of certain
+facts in order to render the truth of the whole fact (see also
+Steinle's criticism on Leighton's head of "Vincenzo," 1854). He would,
+therefore, film his painting over with a scumble of white, and only
+partially repaint the surface, in order to get at that whole truth
+which includes the bloom of atmosphere and the veil of northern mists.
+Leighton is thought at times to have erred on the side of
+explicitness, and the texture of his surface is apt undoubtedly to
+lack the vibrating quality which carries with it a beauty of its own.
+This is partly accounted for by the fact that he had imbibed the
+rudiments of his teaching in a school whose followers were not
+sensitive to the finest qualities in oil painting, but also probably
+from his extreme desire to give expression to his sense of the intense
+finish in nature.
+
+Doctrinaires of the very latest fashion in art insist that nothing
+comes legitimately within the province of the pictorial, except the
+impression of nature transmitted to the physical organ detached from
+memory, experience, and mind. By this faction the eye is treated
+solely as a machine. Sound as may be the doctrine that art has
+nothing to do with what the eye cannot see, or with those facts which
+experience alone teaches us are there, it is also no less true that
+the human eye sees, according to its intuitive power of transmitting
+to the brain, the different component parts of the actual object of
+its vision. It was no knowledge of anatomy which enabled Pheidias to
+see every subtilty of form in the human figure with consummate
+insight--any more than it was a knowledge of the laws of the flow and
+ebb of the tides, which enabled Whistler to give an actual sense of
+the swaying surface of the waves in "Valparaiso Bay"; again, it was no
+knowledge of botany which enabled Leighton and Millais to reproduce
+the structure of plants so perfectly, that they evoked unmitigated
+admiration as botanical studies from so high an authority on botany as
+Sir W.C. Thistleton Dyer. We may be told that what we really see is
+only the relation of tone, of light and shadow; but the fact that the
+architecture of the whole visible world, the meaning-full construction
+of all things that nature builds, is being constantly realised by our
+sight, makes the truth of this theory at least doubtful. That our eye
+cannot discern these natural objects without light goes without
+saying; further, that light and shadow shape the forms to be rendered
+by the brush is also true: but the assertion that what we see is only
+light and shade playing upon form, is shutting the door on another
+equally obvious truth. The eye, gifted with a natural sense of form,
+records ingenuously to the brain the sense of projecting and receding
+planes, the foreshortening of masses, the straightness, slant, or
+curve in a surface or in a line. A complete and exhaustive result may
+be achieved in a painting through this sense of form, as in the work
+of Van Eycke and of Leonardo da Vinci; or a shorthand record may be
+made, as in that of Phil May's sketches. But we feel that in both the
+sense of the whole form has been felt. However, volumes would not
+exhaust the arguments for and against the so-called impressionist's
+view of art; so-called--but surely a term unfortunate and misleading,
+and in nowise explanatory. Every touch a true artist ever puts upon
+canvas is a record of an impression--whether that impression comprises
+the structure, light and shade, true colour and tone, all
+combined,--or only certain surface qualities extracted from its
+entirety and enforced so that the most obvious appearances start into
+relief, giving doubtless a sense of vitality to a work, but remaining
+nevertheless only a partial record of the object. Needless to say,
+Leighton sought to record his impressions of nature in their entirety,
+and this necessitated a balancing of their component attributes. The
+startling element is never found in his art.
+
+He viewed the influence of art as one which should perfect the life of
+every class; should purify in all directions the debasing elements of
+materialism and self-interest; should put zest and gratitude into the
+hearts of all men and women who can see and feel, by awakening a sense
+of the perfection and beauty of nature, art forming an explanatory and
+illuminating link between her and mankind--a translation of her
+perfection transmitted with all reverence by the artificer;--a
+perfecting beautiful pinnacle in the erection and development of a
+noble human being.
+
+No words could better describe Leighton's high endeavour in training
+his own mind and those whom he tried to influence, than the following,
+written by Lord Acton and quoted by his friend, Sir M. Grant Duff.[7]
+"If I had the power," writes Sir M. Grant Duff, "I would place upon
+his monument the words which he wrote as a preface to a list of
+ninety-eight books he drew up, and about which he still hoped to read
+a paper at Cambridge when he wrote to me on the subject last autumn.
+'This list is submitted with a view to assisting an English youth,
+whose education is finished, who knows common things, and is not
+training for a profession, to perfect his mind and open windows in
+every direction; to raise him to the level of his age, so that he may
+know the forces that have made the world what it is, and still reign
+over it; to guard against surprises and against the constant sources
+of errors within; to supply him both with the strongest stimulants and
+the surest guides; to give force and fulness, and clearness and
+sincerity, independence and elevation, generosity and serenity to his
+mind, that he may know the method and lay of the process by which
+error is conquered and truth is won, discerning knowledge from
+probability and prejudice from belief; that he may learn to master
+what he rejects as fully as what he adopts; that he may understand the
+origin as well as the strength and vitality of systems, and the better
+motives of men who are wrong; to steel him against the charm of
+literary beauty and talent, so that each book, thoroughly taken in,
+shall be the beginning of a new life, and shall make a new man of
+him.'" In a like spirit Leighton sought to arrive at viewing art; and
+what Lord Acton sought to effect by the general culture of men's minds
+and natures through reading, Leighton sought to effect in his special
+vocation by inducing other artists to study all that was greatest in
+Art from a wide and unprejudiced point of view--making it their own,
+so to speak, by thoroughly realising and appreciating the qualities in
+it which make it great. Each true masterpiece in Art, he urged, should
+be thoroughly taken in, and should be the beginning of a new effort.
+On the other hand, he sought to make the student "learn to master what
+he rejects as fully as what he adopts, that he may understand the
+origin as well as the strength and vitality of systems, and the better
+motives of men who are wrong." His desire was to guide art into the
+current of the world's best interests--the current in which good
+literature is so forcible an agent--on the highest, broadest, most
+catholic lines. He endeavoured to do so by his example as a working
+artist, by his Discourses, by his labours for the public in every
+direction where the Art of his country was concerned, and more
+directly by his influence on those with whom he personally came in
+contact.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] This picture has, I believe, unfortunately left the country. It was
+suggested by a passage in the second Idyll of Theocritus: "And for her,
+then many other wild beasts were going in procession round about, and
+among them a lioness." Sketches for portions of the picture and the
+squared tracing for the complete design can be seen in the Leighton
+House Collection. The full-length portrait of Mrs. James Guthrie was
+exhibited the same year as this second processional picture, which
+appeared on the walls of the Academy eleven years after the "Cimabue's
+Madonna." The head of the central figure, the Bride, Leighton painted
+from Mrs. Guthrie. The following charming letter from Mrs. Norton, the
+most notable of Sheridan's three beautiful daughters, refers to this
+picture:--
+
+                                           3 CHESTERFIELD STREET,
+                                                  _April 9_.
+
+    DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--I was so amused by the little grandson's
+    observation on the picture that I cannot help writing about him.
+    I asked him "what he thought of it"? He said, "Oh! it was
+    _beautiful_! but you told me it would be beautiful--_Mr.
+    Leighton_ was like a _man in a story_! you did not look so much
+    at him as Carlotta and I did, but I suppose you have seen him
+    before, and you did not seem to _pity the little panther_! There
+    was, in the picture, a little young _puppy_ panther, and one of
+    the young brides was coaxing it so tenderly, and looking down at
+    its head; and she was one of the prettiest and kindest looking
+    of all the brides (it was the side of the picture furthest from
+    the screen); and I could not help thinking, 'Ah, my poor little
+    panther! you little know when the brides get into that temple,
+    and she gets married, how she'll forget all about you, and get
+    coaxing other things, her husband and her children'; and I felt
+    quite sorry for the panther." So spoke my grandson (just as I
+    felt sorry for the cripple beggar).
+
+    Now, as I am quite sure no one else will take this view of what
+    is the principal interest in your glorious procession of youth
+    and hope, I thought it as well to let you know, that you might
+    give that little panther his due importance (a little leopard, I
+    think he is), and not suppose him a subordinate accessory! That
+    whole procession was tinged with mournfulness in Richard
+    Norton's eyes for that little leopard's sake. I shall see that
+    "Dream of Fair Women" again in the Exhibition, and admire it, as
+    I did to-day, in a crowd of other admirers, I know. I do not
+    mind the crowd. I see over them and under them, and through
+    them, when there is anything so worth being eager
+    about.--Believe me meanwhile, yours very truly,
+
+                                                 CAROLINE NORTON.
+
+[2] In a letter from Leighton to his mother, the following sentence
+occurs:--"Will you please explain to him" (his father) "that I am not
+going to model the _drapery_ of my figures, but the _figures
+themselves_ to lay the drapery on, as my models could not fly
+sufficiently long for me to draw them in the act; it is of course a
+very great delay, but the result will amply make up for the extra
+trouble, I hope."
+
+[3] The picture has left the country, but sketches of the complete
+design are among those in the Leighton House Collection.
+
+[4] Lent by Lady Wantage to the Exhibition, in Leighton House, of the
+smaller works and sketches in 1903.
+
+[5] _Outlook_, July 15th, 1905.
+
+[6] When standing with me before Leighton's picture "Wedded" in the
+studio Robert Browning exclaimed, "I find a poetry in that man's work I
+can find in no other."
+
+[7] "The Late Lord Acton." _The Spectator_, July 5, 1902.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+FIRST STUDIO IN LONDON
+
+1859-1863
+
+
+In 1858 Leighton was represented on the Royal Academy walls by two
+pictures, "The Fisherman and the Syren"--a subject from Goethe's
+ballad,
+
+    "Half drew she him,
+    Half sunk he in,
+    And never more was seen"--
+
+and by a scene from "Romeo and Juliet," both small canvases painted in
+Rome and in Paris.[8]
+
+Leighton at this time received an encouraging letter from Robert
+Fleury, from whom he had learned much:--
+
+    Que parlez vous de reconnaissance, mon cher Monsieur Leighton?
+    de l'amitie je le veux bien, et je recois, a ce titre seulement,
+    le dessin que vous m'avez envoye. Ne me suis je pas fait plaisir
+    en vous reconnaissant du talent et en vous rendant la justice
+    qui vous est due? si vous m'avez donne l'occasion de vous faire
+    part de ma vieille esperance n'est ce pas une preuve de l'estime
+    que vous faites de mes conseils? Puisque vous m'offrez
+    genereusement votre amitie, je l'accepte de bien bon coeur, et
+    votre petit dessin me restera comme un gracieux souvenir de
+    vous.
+
+                                                   ROBERT FLEURY.
+    PARIS, _le 18 Mars 1858_.
+
+In the autumn of 1858 Leighton was back in Rome, and it was at that
+time the King, then Prince of Wales, first visited his studio. "I
+myself had the advantage of knowing him (Leighton) for a great number
+of years--ever since I was a boy--and I need hardly say how deeply I
+deplore the fact that he can be no more in our midst," were the words
+spoken by the King--thirty-nine years after this first meeting--at the
+Royal Academy banquet, which took place after Leighton's death, 1st
+May 1897.
+
+He worked in Rome till his pictures were finished for exhibition in
+the spring, 1859.
+
+He wrote to his mother:--
+
+    It is my particular object and study to go to no parties, in the
+    which I have succeeded admirably. I go often to Cartwright's in
+    the evening, that don't count; now and then to Browning, now and
+    then to the play, see a good deal of Lady Hoare; and that
+    reminds me that Hoare sent you some game the other day, which,
+    however, was returned, as you were not forthcoming. By-the-bye,
+    when I say I have made no acquaintances of interest, that is not
+    true; Odo Russell, son and brother of my friends, Lady William
+    and Arthur Russell, and our diplomatic agent here, is a great
+    friend of mine, and particularly sympathetic. I see him often at
+    Cartwright's, who is his _alter ego_; also I know and like Miss
+    Ogle, who wrote that (I hear) exceedingly remarkable novel, "A
+    Lost Love." She is a country clergyman's daughter in a remote
+    corner of Yorkshire, and wrote this book when she had, I
+    believe, never lived out of a circle of "kettles." She is not
+    young, but agreeable and quaint.
+
+    I am just finishing the largish studies of a very handsome model
+    here, and am about to send them off for exhibition. They seem
+    very popular with all who see them, and are, I think, my best
+    things.
+
+
+                                                            1859.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMY,--I find to my annoyance that I have mislaid your
+    kind letter, so that I must answer as best I can from memory.
+
+    That the French and Austrians have been formally requested by
+    the Pope to withdraw their troops from the States of the Church
+    is, I have ascertained from good authority, true, though how on
+    earth you can have known in Florence so long ago a thing which
+    has only just happened, and which is still in great measure a
+    secret here, is what I can't make out; but, dear Mamma, I trust
+    this won't prevent your coming to Rome in April, as there is no
+    chance of the evacuation being carried into effect by that time.
+    There will be particularly (indeed exclusively) on the side of
+    Austria a great demur and _pourparler_, inasmuch as the
+    consequences of this step will probably be most serious to her;
+    so that for the next few months we need fear nothing. I trust
+    you will come; however, of course I dread the responsibility of
+    insisting too much. You will see how matters look in a few
+    weeks. I am just about to despatch to the Royal Academy some
+    studies from a very handsome model, "La Nanna." I have shown
+    them to a good many people, artists and "Philistines," and they
+    seem to be universally admired. Let us hope they will be well
+    hung in the Exhibition. Talking of exhibitions, you will be
+    rather amused to hear that my "Samson" has been _refused_ at the
+    British Institution, which this year is particularly weak and
+    insignificant. It is gone in to the Suffolk Street now, unless
+    too late. Neither I nor anybody else has the least idea what is
+    the cause of this strongish measure. I have sent my "Negroes" to
+    Paris, and if it is not too late the "Juliet" and "Paris" will
+    go there also. I think they will be well hung, as they are
+    godfathered by Mr. Montfort, my kind and valuable friend. This
+    afternoon the Prince of Wales came to my studio, with Colonel
+    and Mrs. Bruce, Gibson, &c. &c. Gibson spoke in the very highest
+    terms of my pictures, so of course all the others were
+    delighted!
+
+
+                                               _Tuesday Morning._
+
+    I have not been able to answer your letter till now, and indeed
+    even now I am interrupting my work to do it; I will answer all
+    your questions categorically. First, about the brigands--I have
+    made inquiries, and have heard of nothing new since these two
+    cases about five weeks back, and am told that now the roads may
+    be considered safe; indeed, no time is generally so good for
+    travelling as just after an accident of that kind, as the
+    authorities are on the look out: if you go by _vetturino_, there
+    will in all probability be other _vetturini_ on the road, and
+    you will start together and arrive together from and to the
+    different stations on the road. You quite misunderstood the
+    sense of my letter, dear Mamma, if you imagined that I knew
+    nothing of rumours of war, &c. &c.--so far from not knowing what
+    is going on, I live in a hot-bed of politics, what with
+    Cartwright and what with Odo Russell. I expressed my surprise
+    that you should speak with confidence of the withdrawal of the
+    French troops when the official news of the Pope's _formal
+    request_ to that effect could not yet have reached Florence, for
+    the reason that it had not taken place; with the Florentine
+    politicians the wish must have been father to the thought. What
+    really will happen is impossible to say; they won't withdraw
+    till the Austrians do--that is pretty certain; the French, I
+    think, like to mislead people about it. A French general told a
+    friend of mine that in _six weeks_ they would all be gone, but
+    _Antonelli_, who ought to be the best authority, told Odo
+    Russell they would not go for six _months_, though the
+    occupation has already ceased (as the _Moniteur_ expresses it)
+    "en principe." You see, dear Mamma, that it is entirely
+    impossible for me to give you any _definite_ information at a
+    moment when nobody seems to know what is coming next. I should
+    be very much disappointed if you could not come; if you settle
+    to come, let me know in time to look for rooms at an Hotel, and
+    tell me what you expect to give. My work would not allow me to
+    go to Florence. My pictures for the R.A. this year are three
+    portraits in different sizes and attitudes from the same model,
+    all _dressed_--one a small half-length, the other a kit-cat, the
+    third a small head the size of my hand--this I have sold to Lady
+    Hoare for forty guineas. It has been much coveted--Lady
+    Stratford de Redcliffe wanted a repetition (I never do
+    repetitions), and Mrs. Phipps seemed quite distressed it was
+    sold. The Prince and his party told O. Russell they liked my
+    studio better than any they had seen in Rome. My "Pan" and
+    "Venus" are stowed away in London.
+
+Besides the three portraits of a model mentioned in his letter,
+exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1859, Leighton sent "Samson and
+Delilah" to Suffolk Street. For studies of this picture, see Leighton
+House Collection.
+
+Later, from Naples, he wrote:--
+
+                                       _Wednesday Morning, 1859._
+
+    I scribble two lines in haste before starting to Capri to
+    announce my safe arrival here in the middle of the day on
+    Monday. I found here several letters from England; but, as I
+    had presumed, that report about the sale of all my pictures was
+    a _canard_. Lord Lansdowne wishes very much for a repetition of
+    my small profile of Nanna, but as I refused to make one for Lady
+    Stratford, I of course can't for him. George de Monbrison has
+    very kindly consented to give up his Nanna to the Prince,[9] but
+    is evidently sadly disappointed--so much so, that I have written
+    to offer to do what I could not under any other circumstances,
+    _i.e._ copy it for him.
+
+    This place is in great beauty. I have been received with the
+    greatest hospitality by the Hollands, with whom I have dined and
+    supped both days.
+
+    Yesterday I breakfasted with Augustus Craven,[10] who
+    photographed me. He is a great adept at this art, and devotes
+    much time to it. He has a most lovely house here, looking out on
+    to the sea.
+
+    I have nothing to add for the present, and I will write again
+    from Capri.
+
+This visit to Capri produced the famous drawing of the Lemon Tree.[11]
+Mr. Ruskin wrote: "Two perfect early drawings are of 'A Lemon Tree'
+and of a 'Byzantine Well'" (see List of Illustrations), "which
+determine for you without appeal the question respecting necessity of
+delineation as the first skill of a painter. Of all our present
+masters, Sir Frederic Leighton delights most in softly-blended
+colours, and his ideal of beauty is more nearly that of Correggio than
+any since Correggio's time. But you see by what precision of terminal
+outline he at first restrained and exalted his gift of beautiful
+_vaghezza_." In letters to Leighton, Ruskin refers to these
+drawings:--
+
+                                                            1860.
+
+    DEAR LEIGHTON,--Unless I write again I shall hope to breakfast
+    with you on Friday, and see and know evermore how a lemon
+    differs from an orange leaf. In cases of doubtful temper, might
+    the former more gracefully and appropriately be used for bridal
+    chaplet?--Most truly yours,
+
+                                                       J. RUSKIN.
+
+
+                                            _15th December 1882._
+
+    DEAR LEIGHTON,--Of course I want the lemon-tree! but surely you
+    didn't offer it me before? May I come on Tuesday afternoon for
+    both? and I hope to bring "Golden Water," but I hear there's
+    some confusion between the Academy and the Burlington Club.
+    "Golden Water" is perhaps too small a drawing for the
+    Academy--but you'll see.
+
+    I wish the lecture on sculpture you gave that jury the other day
+    had been to a larger audience, and I one of them.--Ever
+    affectionately yours,
+
+                                                       J. RUSKIN.
+
+
+                                                 _17th November._
+
+    DEAR LEIGHTON,--I brought up the "Byzantine Well,"[12] but was
+    forced to trust my friend, John Simon, to bring it across the
+    Park to you, and then forbid him till I wrote you this note,
+    asking you to spare a moment to show him the "Damascus Glass and
+    Arab Fountain." He is, as you know, a man of great eminence,
+    with a weakness for _painting_, which greatly hinders him in his
+    science.--Ever your loving,
+
+                                                             J.R.
+
+    I can't get lectures printed yet.
+
+With reference to differences of opinion which had arisen between them
+on certain art questions, Ruskin wrote in 1879: "I expected so much
+help from you after those orange (lemon) trees of yours!" Later (1883)
+he wrote: "The Pre-Raphaelite schism, and most of all, Turner's death,
+broke my relations with the Royal Academy. I hope they may in future
+be kinder; its President (Leighton) has just sent me two lovely
+drawings (the 'Lemon Tree' and the 'Byzantine Well') for the Oxford
+Schools, and, I think, feels with me as to all the main principles of
+Art education."
+
+After his visit to Capri Leighton returned to London. He stayed with
+Mr. Henry Greville, and while there wrote to his mother the following
+letters:--
+
+                                                 19 QUEEN STREET,
+                                       _Wednesday Morning, 1859_.
+
+    I have so far altered my plans that I stay on until Saturday
+    morning instead of going to-morrow with Mrs. Sartoris as I had
+    intended. I have still a call or two to make, and, besides, am
+    going to dine to-morrow with Mario and spend the evening of
+    Friday at Lord Lansdowne's, whose invitation I got though I had
+    not called on him. I suppose that a card was sent me because my
+    name was on the old list. I have since met him (at Henry's
+    party), and he made himself very amiable, renewing the
+    invitation by word of mouth. I have just been spending two or
+    three days at Old Windsor with Miss Thackeray, who has been
+    kindness itself as usual; the weather was divine, and we took
+    exquisite drives. Chorley[13] also has been a kind friend to me;
+    he took me twice to the Handel Festival, seating me, conveying
+    me, breakfasting me, and, but that I was engaged, would have
+    dined me. The Festival was, as you have no doubt read in the
+    papers, most successful, the choruses, considering the enormous
+    difficulty of training such masses of people (2000!) were
+    excellent; the quantity of sound produced was, of course,
+    enormous, still there was no _din_, nothing stunning, only an
+    exceedingly dense and close-textured quality of sound. The solo
+    singers varied in excellence. Clara Novello shone by the quality
+    of her voice, which carries any distance, and by the correctness
+    of her singing, but to me she is entirely without charm, and
+    left me as cold after the great song of the Nativity in the
+    "Messiah" as if she had not sung at all. Miss Dolby sang well
+    throughout; she was remarkable for the excessive decorum and
+    simplicity of her singing. She finishes a phrase with great
+    breadth; her voice, to some people disagreeable, is to me very
+    _simpatica_, and she gave me altogether the greatest pleasure.
+    Sims Reeves, whom but a few days back I heard sing so badly at
+    Liverpool, astounded me here by the remarkable care and study he
+    brought to bear on his solos. He sang in the "Messiah,"
+    beginning with "Behold and see if there be any sorrow," &c. He
+    sang exquisitely; and in the "Israel" he sang "The enemy said"
+    (a very ungrateful song) as well as possible. He was
+    vociferously encored, and well deserved it. ---- was simply
+    abominable, without a redeeming point. ----, though less
+    aggressively bad, was too insignificant to say much about at
+    all. Of course, altogether, the solos, especially the more
+    vigorous ones, were too weak for the choruses; that could not be
+    otherwise short of having four pair of Lablache lungs. Costa led
+    to perfection; it was a sight to see him.
+
+
+                                                 _Friday_, PARIS.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--I write you a few lines just to announce my safe
+    return to Paris. You have no doubt by this time got the box back
+    again. Henry was, as always, very kind to me, and I spent three
+    days very simply at his house. I had intended, when I left this,
+    to stay only two days in London, but those days being Saturday
+    and Sunday, I remembered that all the Galleries were shut, and
+    therefore, being most anxious to see the new Veronese, I stayed
+    over Monday. I was delighted with the pictures in the National
+    Gallery and also at Marlborough House, but the annual exhibition
+    at the British Institution is _deplorable_. I have decided, on
+    the advice of Buckner, Colnaghi, and others, to send my
+    "Niggers" ("A Negro Dance"--water-colour--from sketch made in
+    Algiers) to the Suffolk Street Exhibition (where I shall be well
+    hung through Buckner's intervention) _if_ I get done in time: it
+    will be a hard race, as the Exhibition opens a month sooner than
+    the R.A.
+
+    I reached home Tuesday evening at 10-1/2 o'clock, after a good
+    passage; I was, however, suffering from a shocking indigestion,
+    and, to crown all, was kept awake till four in the morning by a
+    ball immediately under my bed. Next morning I had to paint away
+    at Gallatti (my model) willy nilly (particularly nilly),
+    feeling seedy and frightfully cross. However, my "Gehazi" is now
+    as near as possible finished, and to-morrow I go in for the
+    "Niggers." I hope, dear Mamma, you will let me hear at once what
+    Lina or Suth. write; I am most anxious to hear more.
+
+    Good-bye, dear Mamma. Best love to all from your most
+    affectionate
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+
+                                                  _Friday, 26th._
+
+    I am happy to say I have just done my "Niggers," and though too
+    late for the ordinary mode of conveyance on account of an
+    accident in the papers, I am saved by the exceeding kindness of
+    a secretary of the Sardinian Embassy, a great friend of mine; it
+    will be taken over on Monday night by a messenger under the
+    seals of the Embassy, and will just arrive in time. On Sunday I
+    hope to show it to Monfort, Fleury, and Scheffer. I will let you
+    know their verdict.
+
+    From America I have good and bad news. The bad is that my "Pan"
+    and "Venus" are _not being exhibited at all_ on account of their
+    nudity, and are stowed away in a cupboard where F. Kemble with
+    the most friendly and untiring perseverance contrived to
+    discover them. This is a great nuisance. I have sent for them
+    back at once; they know best whether or no it is advisable to
+    exhibit such pictures in America, but they certainly should have
+    let me know. I have written to Rossetti about it to-day,
+    expressing my regret and desires, and have added "my pictures
+    have been exposed to the wear and tear of several long journeys
+    _not only_ entirely for no purpose, but, being shut out from the
+    light, they are even suffering an injury; meanwhile I am
+    neglecting the opportunity of showing and disposing of them in
+    England, a possibility which I might willingly forego for the
+    sake of supporting an enterprise in which I am interested, but
+    not to adorn a hidden closet in the United States." Fanny Kemble
+    was charmed with the pictures, went often and pluckily to the
+    forbidden cupboard, and said she only wished she could afford to
+    buy them.
+
+
+                                                        _Friday._
+
+    Since I last wrote I have had a note from Rossetti, the
+    Secretary of the American Exhibition, giving me a piece of
+    information about my "Romeo" which can't fail to gratify you. He
+    said that, had my picture not been bought by Mr. Harrison, a
+    public subscription would have been opened to procure it for the
+    Academy of Arts at Philadelphia. Rossetti answers me (as indeed
+    I did not doubt) that he had not the remotest notion of the fate
+    of "Pan" and "Venus." He has written on my request to beg they
+    may be sent back at once to Europe. By Henry Greville's urgent
+    advice I have given notice that I shall send the "Orpheus," as
+    they have applied for more pictures; things were selling so
+    satisfactorily that there was scarcely anything left to exhibit
+    in Boston. I am glad to be able to reassure you about the
+    "Niggers." Sartoris _did_ like them exceedingly even before they
+    were anything like as good as they are now. Cartwright, who is
+    not _gene_ to dislike, is enchanted with them, and says if they
+    are not sold at once people are fools, for he has not for some
+    time seen anything he likes so much. Puliza Ricardo and other
+    "publics" like it extremely. Robert Fleury considered it highly
+    original, and said that if he only saw one little head in it he
+    would say, "c'est d'un coloriste." R. Fleury, you know, blames
+    very roundly what he does not like. Montfort, my most candid
+    adviser, was delighted, and said of a particular bit "je vous
+    assure c'est tout a fait comme Decamps." This is unconditional
+    praise. Again I consulted him about its chances of success in
+    the gallery of water-colours. He said, "_Comme aquarelle_ je
+    vous promets qu'il n'y en a pas beaucoup qui font comme
+    cela;"--about water colour being _infra. dig._, showing myself
+    competent in _two_ materials can only raise me. Poor Scheffer
+    was unwell and could not come. You see, dear Mammy, you need not
+    be so uneasy. I fully appreciate your and Papa's anxiety about
+    my pictures; but it has too great a hold on you when it makes
+    you think that I am entirely reckless and foolish, and that
+    rather than give in I should tell a lie and say it was too late
+    to withdraw a picture when it might still be done. Many thanks
+    for the extract about Sutherland which, however, I had already
+    seen, Henry Grev. having sent it me a week ago. My "Niggers"
+    arrived in time by great luck. Buckner godfathers them.
+
+    In haste with very best love, your affectionate boy,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+
+                                           19 QUEEN STREET, 1859.
+
+    I have got, through the kindness of Elmore (R.A.), a sort of
+    studio at the other end of the world; I believe I told you this
+    in my last note; I suppose my things will come over in a week or
+    less. I am in great doubt about being able to paint in that
+    studio, and about its having been any use to come over to London
+    without the possibility of a really good _locale_: however, here
+    I am. I shall brush up my acquaintances and see a good deal of
+    my friends. Don't reckon on my _selling_ anything--_I_ don't at
+    all. My picture is hung so that it is virtually _impossible_ to
+    see it. I went to look at my "Niggers" in Suffolk Street, and am
+    confirmed in the idea (that also of my friends) that it is my
+    best work. I have as yet nothing worth writing about, so
+    good-bye, dearest Mamma, best love to all.
+
+
+                                   2 ORME SQUARE, _Sunday, 1859_.
+
+    Having got on Monday last into my studio and been very busy ever
+    since, this is absolutely the first moment I have found to sit
+    down and write to you.
+
+    You will wish to know some particulars about my studio. Of
+    course after Paris and Rome it is a sad falling off--narrow and
+    dark, though I believe, for London, very fair; when I _live_
+    here I must have a much larger light or I shall go
+    blind--however, I must not look a gift horse in the mouth. I
+    have had to furnish--this costs me about nine or ten shillings a
+    week; I keep a servant (a stupid, pompous, verbose, dirty,
+    willing, honest scrub) to run my errands and clean my brushes,
+    &c. &c., at half-a-crown a day; models are five shillings a
+    sitting here--ruination!--men with good heads there are
+    none--women, tol-lol!--a lay figure, twenty-five shillings a
+    month; in short, historical painting here is not for nothing; I
+    am working at my "Samson" picture; God knows how I shall finish
+    it in so short a time! Dearest Mammy, I shall have but a very
+    short peep at you this year, I am very sorry to say--I lost a
+    full month waiting for this wretched studio. I don't see my way
+    through my work before the middle or even end of the second week
+    in August, and I cannot well give up going to Scotland though
+    only for a very few days, as I have accepted so long ago. I am
+    to go there on the 20th; after that I must rush back post-haste
+    to Stourhead to finish Lady Hoare; all this will make me very
+    late for Italy, as I am anxious to revisit the north of that
+    country and study the Correggios a little at Parma before going
+    south. I shall be obliged to scamper across the country. I
+    _must_ be in Rome or the neighbourhood in October; I am going to
+    finish my Cervara landscape on the spot.
+
+    I am in very fair health, London decidedly agrees with me, and I
+    don't suffer as much as I expected from the obligato spleen of
+    blue devildom. I need not say this is a source of immense
+    congratulation to me.
+
+When the picture "Nanna" returned from the Royal Academy, where it was
+exhibited in 1859, Leighton sent it to Bath, writing to his mother to
+announce its arrival.
+
+                                                    LONDON, 1859.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMY,--I scribble a word in haste to announce to you
+    that I have sent "Nanna" off to Bath for you to see, she wants
+    varnish very badly as you see, but is not dry enough for that
+    yet. You must mind and put her in the right light, the window
+    must be on the left of the spectator--the more to the _left_ of
+    the picture you stand yourself the less you will see the want of
+    varnish. If you stand to the _right_ of the painting you won't
+    see it at all. Please send "Nanna" back when you have shown to
+    whom you wish, as she is overdue at Paris.
+
+
+                                        _Saturday Morning, 1859._
+
+    I returned yesterday from the Highlands, and have at last time
+    to write you a little word. My stay in the North has been most
+    satisfactory, I have enjoyed myself thoroughly, and have felt
+    particularly well in the keen bracing air of the mountains. My
+    time has been spent exclusively in walks, rides, and drives, for
+    the weather was great part of the time too uncertain to allow of
+    sitting out to paint (even had there been time), whereas no
+    amount of showers prevented our going out, and indeed to those
+    showers I owe seeing some of the most superb effects of colour,
+    light and shade, that I ever beheld. We used sometimes to have
+    three or four duckings in one ride, drying again in the sun, or
+    not as the case might be, and never catching even the phantom of
+    a cold, so healthy and invigorating is the breath of those
+    healthy hills. I said I painted nothing and bring home an empty
+    portfolio (all but a flower I drew one _very_ wet morning), but
+    I have studied a great deal with my eyes and memory, and come
+    back a better landscape painter than I went. On my road home, at
+    Dunkeld, where I lingered a day (exquisite spot), I jotted down
+    in oils two reminiscences of effects observed at Kinrara with
+    which I am rather well pleased--one is a stormy Scandinavian bit
+    of cloud and hill, the other a hot sunny expanse of golden corn
+    and purple heather, which looks for all the world like a bit of
+    Italy. Mind, they are the merest little sketches, but accurate
+    in the _impression of the effect_.
+
+    I go on Monday morning to Stourhead, where I stay till Saturday,
+    and start Monday week for the Continent. Please send me a line
+    to Stourhead. How are you, darling? and Lina and Gus? and Papa?
+    Have you had any more drives?--Your loving boy,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+On returning to England Leighton took up his abode in his first studio
+in England. Hitherto he had paid visits to London,--Rome, and
+subsequently Paris, being his real home, for an artist's true home is
+in his studio. In the autumn of 1859 he settled in 2 Orme Square, and
+from that time to his death London became his headquarters.
+
+After having settled into his studio in Orme Square in the winter of
+1859, he wrote to Steinle and to Robert Browning the following
+letters:--
+
+    _Translation._]
+                                2 ORME SQUARE, BAYSWATER, LONDON,
+                                              _December 5, 1859_.
+
+    MY DEAR FRIEND AND MASTER,--What a long time it is since I heard
+    from you! my last letter, despatched from Rome, has had no
+    answer.
+
+    I enclose a photograph of a memorial tablet which I executed in
+    Rome last winter for my poor widowed sister. The monument is of
+    white marble with black mosaic decoration; the four dark circles
+    are bronze nails, which secure the marble tablet to the wall.
+
+    When I had finished work in Rome, I went south and spent five
+    weeks in Capri. You would hardly believe, dear Friend, how this
+    wonderful island delighted me. I made vigorous use of my visit
+    and executed a fairly large number of conscientious studies. I
+    also took the opportunity to visit Paestum for the first time. I
+    may say that the _Temple of Neptune_ gave me the most exalted
+    architectonic impression that I have ever received; I shall
+    never forget that morning. The two neighbouring temples,
+    however, are not worth looking at, except from a painter's point
+    of view.
+
+    Meanwhile, the season being advanced, I was obliged, with real
+    regret, to give up my plan of going to Frankfurt, and to hurry
+    back to England. Here I am now permanently established. I
+    confess that I did not pitch my tent here without some anxiety;
+    I had not spent _a single winter_ in England since my earliest
+    childhood, and I had good reason to fear that to me, with my
+    love of sunshine, it would prove a little harsh. I also feared
+    the climate for my bodily health. However, "native air" appears
+    to be not altogether an empty phrase, but I find myself,
+    notwithstanding the fog, well and in good spirits. Man must
+    indeed carry the sun in his heart--if he is to have it. Of work
+    in particular, I have nothing much to say. Later, in the course
+    of the winter, I will report more at length.
+
+    Meanwhile, dear Master, write to me very soon. Tell me whether
+    you still think of your pupil, and especially tell me about your
+    certainly numerous works.--Your grateful pupil,
+
+                                                        LEIGHTON.
+
+
+    _Translation._]
+                                        2 ORME SQUARE, BAYSWATER,
+                                      LONDON, _January 12, 1860_.
+
+    I spoke little in my last letter of my present work, partly
+    perhaps because of the feeling I have already described, but
+    partly also because I intend to send you a photograph directly
+    the picture is finished, which will not be till spring. It is a
+    commission, and the subject is religious. There is only a single
+    figure, and I would describe it to you now, but that I fear you
+    would imagine the picture much more beautiful than I can paint
+    it, and you would consequently suffer a disappointment later on
+    in my work which would be painful to me. For the rest, I am
+    striving as hard as I can to make it fine and simple. You will
+    perhaps be surprised, but, in spite of my fanatic preference for
+    colour, I promised myself to be a draughtsman before I became a
+    colourist.
+
+    And now adieu, my dear Friend. Directly I can show you anything
+    in "black and white" you shall hear from me again, and I shall
+    expect from you, as my old master, the most unsparing criticism;
+    that is the greatest proof of love you can give me.
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+
+                                        2 ORME SQUARE, BAYSWATER,
+                                               _January 29, '60_.
+
+    DEAR BROWNING,--It is not till the other day that I at last
+    received from Cartwright your Rome address, or I should have
+    written to you some time ago; before it was too late to wish you
+    a merry Xmas and health, happiness, and all prosperity for
+    yourself and Mrs. Browning in the present year. I don't know
+    that I have anything worth telling you to write about, for all
+    the little incidents which have their importance for the space
+    of a day, all appear too trivial to write about after a lapse of
+    a week or two. Still I write to assure you I keep up my most
+    affectionate remembrance of you, and to beg that you won't
+    entirely forget me. I received your kind letter at the beginning
+    of the winter, and was truly concerned to hear that Mrs.
+    Browning had been so alarmingly unwell; I trust that the air of
+    Rome, which once before was so beneficial to her, will have
+    strengthened and recruited her again this time. Dear old Rome!
+    how I wish I could fly over and spend a week or so with you all
+    in my old haunts. I suppose I shall never be entirely weaned of
+    that yearning affection I entertain for Italy, and particularly
+    for Rome and the "Comarea." You must have it all to yourselves
+    this year. What a delight it must be to see neither Brown,
+    Jones, nor Robinson.
+
+    I suppose Cartwright, Pantaleone, and Odo Russell are the staple
+    of your convivial circle; and, by-the-bye, how much more freely
+    Mrs. Browning must breathe this winter without certain daily
+    visitations which I remember last year. I wonder whether you
+    will write to me and tell me what you are doing, socially and
+    artistically; everything about you will interest me.
+
+    As for myself, you would not believe it, in spite of my old
+    habits of continental life and sunshine, I take very kindly to
+    England; _it agrees_ with me capitally, really better than Rome.
+    I am fattening _vue d'oeil_. The light is certainly not
+    irreproachable, still I can work, and don't find that my ideas
+    get particularly rusty. On the contrary, for colour, certainly
+    my sense seems to be sharpened in this atmosphere.
+
+    I am soldiering too. I drill three times a week, and make as bad
+    a soldier as anybody else. The Sartoris, you know, are no longer
+    in London--a great loss to all their friends--but I go pretty
+    often to see them in the country, and have spent many a happy
+    day there in the course of the winter. By-the-bye, do you hear
+    or know anything of those two drawings I did of you and Mrs.
+    Browning? If so, will you give the one of you to Hookes that he
+    may send with some other things he has? And now, dear Browning,
+    "_vi levero l'incomodo_," and will bring this very tedious
+    epistle to a close. Remember me most kindly to Mrs. Browning, to
+    Cartwright and his wife, to Odo Russell, B----, Pantaleone with
+    better half, Storeys, and last, but not least, dear little
+    Hatty! Love to Cerinni; tell me about him. Good-bye.--Believe
+    me, very affectionately yours,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    I am hand-and-glove with all my enemies the pre-Raphaelites.
+    Woolner sends his affectionate remembrances.
+
+Leighton writes to his sister in Italy:--
+
+                                        2 ORME SQUARE, BAYSWATER,
+                                                      _March 12_.
+
+    MY DEAR GUSSYKINS,--You may have heard from Mamma that I went to
+    Paris to hear Madame Viardot in "Orphee." What wonderful
+    singing! what style! what breadth! what pathos! You would have
+    been enchanted, I am sure. Do you know the music? It is
+    wonderfully fine and pathetic, the first chorus particularly is
+    quite harrowing for the accent of grief about it. Madame
+    Viardot's _acting_, too, is superb--so perfectly simple and
+    grand, it is really antique. And when you consider all she has
+    to overcome--a bad, harsh voice, an ugly face, an ungainly
+    person; and yet she contrives to look almost handsome. She
+    enters heart and soul into her work; she said it was the only
+    thing she ever did that (after fifty performances) had not given
+    her a moment's _ennui_. I am afraid there is no chance of her
+    singing it in England this year, if at all; I don't believe the
+    Covent Garden audience would sit through it.[14]
+
+    I also saw Gounod's new opera, "Philemon et Baucis," and was
+    disappointed. Nothing but the care and distinction of the
+    workmanship redeems it from being a bore; the subject is ill
+    adapted for the stage, and is dragged through three acts with
+    portentous efforts. Striking melodies there are few, charming
+    accompaniments many; all the pretty music (or nearly) is in the
+    orchestra--_c'est la sauce qui fait avaler le poisson_. The
+    introductions to the first and second acts, but particularly the
+    latter (a little _motif_ on the oboe), are charming; there is
+    also a capital chorus. All this, however, is an impression after
+    one hearing; I might alter my mind on hearing it oftener, but I
+    think not.
+
+In the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1860 Leighton sent one picture
+only, "Sunrise--Capri."
+
+    _Translation._]
+                             2 ORME SQUARE, _September 15, 1860_.
+
+    MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--I was almost afraid that you would think
+    that I had entirely forgotten you, but this would be a very
+    undeserved interpretation of my long silence. No, my dear
+    Master, you still live in my constant memory, in my most
+    grateful recollection.
+
+    When I last wrote, I promised to send you a photograph of my
+    large picture. This work has taken up my time far beyond my
+    expectations, and I always put off writing in order not to send
+    you an empty letter. At last it is thus far, and I enclose both
+    the large photograph and some little ones, in the hope that you,
+    dear Master, will be interested also in the unimportant works of
+    your old pupil.
+
+    Have I already told you the subject of my religious picture? I
+    think not. At the turning-point of a very critical illness, the
+    lady who commissioned my picture dreamt that she, as a
+    disembodied spirit, soared up heavenwards in the night.[15]
+    Suddenly she was aware of a point of light in the far vault of
+    heaven. This light grew, developed, and soon she saw coming
+    forth from the night the shining form of the Saviour. Full of
+    confidence she approached the holy apparition. Jesus, however,
+    raised His hands and, gently repulsing her, enjoined her to
+    return to earth, and during her life to make herself worthier to
+    enter the company of the blessed. She awoke, recovered, and
+    ordered the picture.
+
+    You will be able to imagine, my dear Friend, how little
+    contented I am with my work; however, I am accustomed to show
+    you my weaknesses, and I therefore send you also this
+    unsatisfactory work. As regards the photograph, it is in certain
+    respects successful, although it makes the whole picture _four
+    times too dark_.
+
+    I send also a portrait of my sister; a head of an English
+    soldier, who lost an arm at Balaclava, and recently died of
+    consumption; and finally a photograph after a drawing on wood,
+    which I drew for a book, but which has been _incredibly_
+    disfigured by the engraver. Fortunately I had the drawing
+    (although bad) photographed before I sent it to be engraved.
+
+    But enough of me and my affairs.
+
+    And you, dear Master, what are you working at? Are your
+    cartoons all finished? Shall you soon begin your frescoes? What
+    other beautiful things have you composed?
+
+    Do not punish my long silence, but send me a couple of lines to
+    tell me what interests me so deeply. So soon as I have finished
+    anything new (and I have many pictures in prospect) I will send
+    you another specimen of my handiwork.
+
+    Meantime I beg you will remember me most cordially to your wife
+    and daughters, and to my other friends in Frankfurt. And
+    yourself do not altogether forget, your loving pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+It was in 1860 Leighton joined the Artist Rifle Corps. It was also
+then he first made the acquaintance of Sir William B. Richmond (now
+Chairman of the Leighton House Committee).
+
+                                             _December 12, 1860._
+
+    DEAREST MAMMY,--I have deferred until now answering your kind
+    letter that I might be able to announce to you a little
+    circumstance which took place yesterday, and which, though not
+    of any real importance, may give you and Papa pleasure. I was
+    yesterday raised to the rank of Captain; I command the 3rd
+    Company--Lewis was at the same time made Captain of the 2nd--his
+    election of course came before mine; he has done three times
+    more for the Corps than I have or could have done--he lives very
+    near and goes _every day_--as a man of business, and a very
+    clever one, he has entirely organised the bookkeeping
+    department, and in fact has been altogether the vital principle
+    of the Corps. I was chosen next for having shown some zeal in
+    this service and some little capability for teaching. The vacant
+    lieutenancies go to Nicholson (the musician) and Talfourd. One
+    of the ensigncies has been given to Perugini, contingent on its
+    being lawful for him to hold such commission; another to old
+    Palmer. So much for our volunteering. I wish we had a commander.
+    The next question in your letter I thought I had answered in my
+    last--however, though Ruskin stayed about three hours and was
+    altogether very pleasant, he did not say anything that I could
+    quote about my paintings. He was _immensely_ struck by my
+    drawing of a lemon-tree, and was generally complimentary, or
+    rather, _respectful_, that is more his _genre_. I don't think,
+    however, that he cared for Sandbach's picture--which leads me to
+    the third point in your letter. Neither of the S.'s have seen
+    their picture; last time they were in London, having made no
+    definite appointment, I missed them. He wrote to say that when
+    he came up to town again, he would fix a day to call on me.
+    Gibson, the old traitor, never turned up at all. By-the-bye, I
+    see you ask whether I shoot much--no, not often; I am an
+    ordinary, average shot--my unsteady hand prevents my shooting
+    well. My general health is pretty fair. Many thanks, dearest
+    Mammy, for your kind wishes and congratulations on that
+    melancholy occasion, my birthday--it is a day I always
+    hate--fancy my being _thirty_!!! About marrying, dear Mamma, you
+    must not forget it requires two to play at that game. I would
+    not insult a girl I did not love by asking her to tie her
+    existence to mine, and I have not yet found one that I felt the
+    slightest wish to marry; it is no doubt ludicrous to place this
+    ideal so high, but it is not my fault--theoretically I should
+    like to be married very well.
+
+In another letter to his mother Leighton writes on the subject of
+marriage: "If I don't marry, the reason has been that I have never
+seen a girl to whom I felt the least desire to be united for life. I
+should certainly never marry for the sake of doing so." The same
+subject is again alluded to in a letter written in 1863, from
+Leighton's mother to her younger daughter who was in Italy. The letter
+begins by referring to a servant who was dismissed by Leighton.
+
+    "He has such an effect on him by his profound stupidity and
+    intense conceit he can't keep him, for if he did, the irritation
+    would render him wicked if he indulged it, and ill if he
+    repressed the same--at least that's Fred's feeling just now. He
+    means to take an Italian servant if he can find one.
+
+    "Fred has received an invitation to Sandringham (the Prince of
+    Wales). If he has not found a suitable servant we are to lend
+    him ours--Ellen's husband, a very superior person. I must not
+    forget to tell you that we saw ----'s new baby, a very dear
+    little thing. Freddy was enchanted with it. He noticed him more
+    than ----, who is a delightful little chap, and after caressing
+    it several times with exceeding tenderness, he suddenly grew red
+    in the face, and said, 'I must nurse him,' which he did for a
+    long time, to the wonder and admiration of Miss ---- and the
+    nurse. For my part, it gave me actual pain to see that proof of
+    his strong love for children, believing that he will never have
+    any of his own. He declares he has never seen a girl he could
+    marry. Of course this shows he is unreasonably fastidious;
+    more's the pity!"
+
+    [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF MRS. SUTHERLAND ORR. 1861]
+
+
+                                 2 ORME SQUARE, _April 10, 1861_.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMY,--I have deferred writing until now that I might
+    be able to tell you the result of my little "private view," now
+    over. I am happy to say I have a great success. The "Vision"
+    pleased many people much, but was altogether, as I expected, the
+    least popular; the subject, though very interesting, was less
+    attractive to the many, and besides I have progressed in
+    painting since the date of that picture. My little girl at the
+    fountain, christened for me by one of my visitors, "Lieder ohne
+    Worte," has perhaps had the greatest number of votes.[16] The
+    "Francesca,"[17] on the other hand, has had, I think, the
+    advantage in the _quality_ of its admirers. Watts, for instance,
+    and Mrs. Sartoris think it by far my best daub.
+
+    By-the-bye, you will be particularly pleased to hear that Lina's
+    portrait has had an immense success, and indeed, on second
+    thoughts, perhaps it was more admired than anything else. The
+    "Capri" and the "Aslett" were also much liked. Mind, dear Mamma,
+    this letter is "strictly confidential," because although, of
+    course, you want to know what people say of my pictures, anybody
+    else seeing this letter would (or might) suppose I was devoured
+    with vanity.
+
+    I have just made an unexpected acquaintance in the Gladstones,
+    who sent me, I don't know why, a card for two parties. It was
+    very polite of them, and of course I went. This is a very
+    egotistical letter, dear Mamma, but I know that is what you
+    want.
+
+    I am very sufficiently well, not strong, but never ill. I
+    marched to Wimbledon with the Volunteers last Monday, and got
+    wet several times but did not catch cold.[18]
+
+
+                                                    LONDON. 1861.
+
+    DEAR PAPA,--If the _Public_ receives my pictures as favourably
+    as the _Private_ has done, I shall have no cause to complain; as
+    far, at least, as the maintenance and increase of my reputation
+    is concerned. I should, however, have liked the "market" to be a
+    little more "brisk."
+
+    Tom Taylor and Rossetti (Wm.), the only critics that came (as
+    far as I know) besides Stephens, were, as far as I can judge,
+    both of them much pleased with what they saw. I know at least
+    that both spoke well of my pictures behind my back.
+
+    As for Ruskin, he was in one of his queer moods when he came to
+    breakfast with me--he spent his time looking at my portfolio and
+    praised my drawings most lavishly--_he did not even look at the
+    pictures_. However, nothing could be more cordial than he is to
+    me.
+
+    I bolted out into the passage after you when you left the other
+    day to tell you that one of the gentlemen you saw come in was
+    Sir Edwin Landseer, but you had disappeared.
+
+
+                                                 PARIS. _Monday_.
+
+    DEAREST MOTHER,--I must wind up with bad news, which I hope you
+    will bear well: my pictures are badly hung, ill lighted, and
+    almost entirely ignored by the press.[19] Of course this is _au
+    fond_, a bitter disappointment to a man of my temperament,
+    especially after all the praise my work got before the
+    Exhibition. However, I shall wear a brave face, and who knows
+    but that some good may arise to me out of this? My little
+    energies will be sharpened up and my tenacity roused. I trust in
+    some future day, as long as hope lives. God bless you, Mammy;
+    best love to dear Gussy. From your affectionate son,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+
+                                                   _May 1, 1861._
+
+    DEAREST MAMMY,--Life being a pump handle, first up then down,
+    you won't be too much surprised to hear that after the real
+    success my pictures had on "private view" they are with one
+    exception (the landscape) badly hung, "The Vision" over a door,
+    the others above the line, which will make it impossible to see
+    the finish or delicacy of execution which is an important
+    feature in them. I have not seen them myself, but am told this
+    by those who have. Don't take on, dear Mammy, nor let Papa worry
+    himself about it. Things come right in the end, and I know that
+    many people will be much annoyed at this treatment of me.
+    _Millais_, like a good fellow that he is, spoke up for me like a
+    man, though he himself feels so differently on art from what I
+    do. My good friend Aide is furious. After all perhaps, though
+    badly hung, the pictures may still be seen well enough to be
+    judged, that is all I really want, then perhaps some of the
+    papers will speak up for me. I am glad I let so many people see
+    them at the studio, those at least know what the pictures are
+    like. Of one thing be sure: if my works have real value, public
+    opinion will in the _long run_ force the Academy to hang me--but
+    enough of this subject.
+
+    The Prince of Wales saw a photo-portrait of me in Valletort's
+    book the other day and begged him to ask me for one. I have had
+    some new ones done, and mean at the same time to send H.R.H. a
+    photograph of each of my larger pictures, "The Vision," the
+    "Francesca," and "The Listener," which, by-the-bye, I have
+    christened on the suggestion of a lady friend of mine (a sister
+    of Cockerell's) "Lieder ohne Worte."
+
+    Landseer said nothing that was worth repeating, though he gave
+    me one or two useful practical hints. He is eminently a
+    practical man, and I suspect in his heart sneers at style. He
+    was, however, I believe, pleased with my things.
+
+
+                                       9 PARK PLACE, ST. JAMES'S,
+                                           _Sunday, May 5, 1861_.
+
+    DEAR MRS. LEIGHTON,--I know that the news of the bad hanging of
+    your son's pictures has reached you (unpleasant tidings
+    generally travel fast) and I hasten to tell you, what I hope may
+    a little mitigate the annoyance you must have felt about it,
+    that they are spoken of in terms of great eulogium by both the
+    _Times_ and _Athenaeum_. I was afraid that their unfortunate
+    placing might have prevented the possibility of any justice
+    being done them by the public critics, but after all the _Times_
+    and _Athenaeum_ are the most influential and leading of all our
+    public journals. Mrs. Orr's portrait is consistently praised by
+    all the papers, even by those which review the others less
+    favourably. Fortunately, the pictures were well seen in the
+    studio by numbers of people of all classes before they went to
+    the Academy, and excited very general admiration in those who
+    felt no particular interest either in art or in your son; while
+    his friends, and those who _know_, were delighted not only with
+    the works themselves, but at the visible indications in them of
+    increased power in all ways. They have been thought by all whose
+    opinion is of value a great advance upon what he has hitherto
+    done. All this will, I hope, be pleasant to you; what will be so
+    most of all will be to know that he took the exceeding trial and
+    vexation of the abominable hanging of his pictures with the most
+    perfect temper, and an admirable desire to be just about those
+    who were doing him this ill turn. You will care for this, as I
+    do, more than for any worldly success his talent could have
+    brought him. I think he is looking well, although he complains a
+    little of feeling tired. I daresay it is nothing but the
+    weariness that must make itself a little felt after a great and
+    all-engrossing exertion. His volunteering occupation is quite
+    invaluable to him, giving him the exercise he never would
+    otherwise get. I think he seems to like his life in London,
+    where he has many friends, so many that if you were here you
+    would no longer feel as jealous about me as you once owned to
+    feeling--do you remember? I do not apologise for writing all
+    this to you, for although excess of zeal may be a sin in the
+    eyes of others, and even indeed of those whom one would die to
+    serve, a mother will hardly count it as such when her child is
+    in question. With best remembrances to Mr. Leighton and your
+    daughters, I am, ever faithfully yours,
+
+                                               ADELAIDE SARTORIS.
+
+To his father Leighton wrote:--
+
+                                                            1861.
+
+    As to the article in _Macmillan_, I don't in the least deny its
+    value as far as it goes and _quo ad_ the public; it is in that
+    sense very gratifying to be spoken of in such flattering terms
+    in a periodical of some standing, but I can't individually feel
+    much elated at the praise of a critic who in other parts of his
+    article shows he is not _au fond_ a judge; as for what he says
+    in _interpretation_ (I am not now alluding to the _praise_), it
+    is so verbatim what I said myself to those who visited my
+    studio, that I suspect he must have been of that number. I
+    remember, it is true, telling you _before_ I began to paint
+    "Lieder ohne Worte" that I intended to make it _realistic_, but
+    from the first moment I began I felt the mistake, and made it
+    professedly and pointedly the reverse. I don't think, however,
+    that we understand the word realistic alike; the Fisherman and
+    Syren which you quote was as little naturalistic as anything
+    could be, and, while you urge me to take up some subject
+    possessing that quality, I would point out that the Michael
+    Angelo and the Peacock Girl both fulfil that condition--to _my_
+    mind _to a fault_. I have sent in (or am about to) a formula
+    which I received to fill up, stating what I would contribute to
+    the Great Exhibition of 1862 (International). I have offered the
+    Cimabue, four "Nannas," the "Lieder ohne Worte," "Francesca,"
+    and the "Syren." I have obtained permission for all.
+
+
+    _Translation._]
+                                        2 ORME SQUARE, BAYSWATER,
+                                               _30th April 1861_.
+
+    MY DEAR FRIEND AND MASTER,--When I last wrote you I promised in
+    the spring to send you photographs of my pictures for the
+    exhibition. I have just received some prints and hasten to
+    enclose them.
+
+    One of them (the girl by the fountain) gives, as is so often the
+    case, an entirely false impression of the picture, in that the
+    drapery of the principal figure should be much darker, and that
+    of the retreating figure much lighter. I have called this
+    picture "Lieder ohne Worte." It represents a girl, who is
+    resting by a fountain, and listening to the ripple of the water
+    and the song of a bird. This subject is, of course, quite
+    incomplete without colour, as I have endeavoured, both by colour
+    and by flowing delicate forms, to translate to the eye of the
+    spectator something of the pleasure which the child receives
+    through her ears. This idea lies at the base of the whole thing,
+    and is conveyed to the best of my ability in every detail, so
+    that in the dead photograph one loses exactly half, also the
+    dulling of the eyes, which are dark blue in the picture, gives a
+    look of weakness in the photograph that is not quite pleasant.
+
+    The second subject is, as you will know well, the old, ever-new
+    motive of Paolo and Francesca. I endeavoured to put in as much
+    glow and passion as possible without causing the least offence;
+    this picture also would, perhaps, have pleased you in colour.
+    How I should like to show it to you, my dear master! However,
+    you will no doubt send me your candid opinion of the photographs
+    in a few lines, and not spare criticism.
+
+    I am exceedingly curious to know how _your_ work is getting on.
+    What are you working at just now? When is the fresco to be
+    begun? What easel pictures have you undertaken? I want to know
+    all that. I also hope with all my heart, my dear master, that
+    your health keeps good, that your wife and children are all
+    well. Please remember me most kindly to your family and all in
+    Frankfurt who remember me. And yourself, my dear friend, keep in
+    remembrance.--Your grateful pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+
+    _Translation._]
+                                2 ORME SQUARE, BAYSWATER, LONDON,
+                                                 _June 30, 1861_.
+
+    MY DEAR FRIEND,--Forgive my not having thanked you sooner for
+    your kind note. The same thing has happened to me as to you:
+    work has left me but little leisure for writing. Now, however,
+    my hearty thanks for the open sincerity with which you have
+    spoken of my latest work, I am only sorry that you have not gone
+    into it even more closely. I shall endeavour in my present works
+    to diminish the excessive mannerism of the lines, which will be
+    all the easier for me as I am now painting principally from
+    nature; in my last picture the subject permitted that but
+    little. In any case I hope, dear master, that you will always
+    speak to me with the same candour; it is the best proof to me
+    that I still possess your friendship.
+
+    I am extremely eager to see how far your works have got on.
+    Amongst them, however, my dear friend, keep in remembrance your
+    grateful pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    _P.S._--I notice with regret that already I do not write a
+    German letter with my former fluency.
+
+In a letter to his sister, Mrs. Matthews, January 24, 1860, Leighton
+wrote: "I am horrified to hear the account you give of Mrs. Browning.
+I knew she was a confirmed invalid, but had no idea that one of her
+lungs was already gone! What will poor Browning do if she dies? He
+adores her, you know."
+
+                                             LONDON, _July 1861_.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMY,--Thanks for your kind letter, which I have been
+    unable to answer till now. I had heard of poor Browning's
+    bereavement; we were all very much shocked at it, knowing, as we
+    do, how entirely irreparable his loss is. I wrote a few lines to
+    him that he might know how sincerely I grieved with him; I don't
+    at all know what were the circumstances of her death, we have no
+    particulars.
+
+Leighton undertook to design the monument over Mrs. Browning's grave
+in the English Cemetery at Florence. The work appealed to him in
+every sense, and remains as a permanent memorial of those friendships
+which made the years spent in Italy so full, so rich, so entrancing.
+With reference to the monument Browning writes:--
+
+                                             CHEZ M. LARAISON,
+                       STE. MARIE, PRES PORNIC, LOIRE INFERIEURE,
+                                               _August 30, 1863_.
+
+    MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--Don't fret; you will do everything like
+    yourself in the end, I know; wait till the end of October, as
+    you propose. I cannot return before the beginning of it, though
+    I would do so were it necessary, but it is not, for I have only
+    this morning received the notification of which I told you, that
+    "the marble is in the sculptor's studio." We shall therefore be
+    in full time.
+
+    The portrait you saw was the autotype which I lent to Mr.
+    Richmond, and concerning which I wrote to him before leaving
+    London, directing that it should be sent to you. He engaged to
+    let you have it whenever you desired. I therefore enclose (oh,
+    fresh attack on your envelopes and postage stamps!) a note which
+    I presume he will attend to, and which you will of course burn
+    should he have sent the portraits meanwhile. I have also two
+    others nearly like that portrait, taken the same day with it,
+    which I was unable to find, but which shall be found on my
+    return.
+
+    Dear Leighton, I can only repeat, with entire truth, that you
+    will satisfy me wholly. I don't think, however, you can make me
+    more than I am now--Yours gratefully and lovingly,
+
+                                                 ROBERT BROWNING.
+
+Continuation of letter to his mother:--
+
+    I am glad to hear Papa reported favourably of my work, and that
+    you like the photographs of my pictures now in the Exhibition. I
+    am very glad also that Gussy liked the _receding figure_ in the
+    "Lieder ohne Worte," as it was a favourite also with me, the
+    _tallness_ of said figure was inseparable from the sentiment of
+    it in my mind. I have a photograph of that picture still
+    remaining; I will give it to Gus when she comes through, I can
+    get myself another some future day. I am getting on tol-lol with
+    my pictures, but am rather anxious just now about the extreme
+    difficulty of getting a peacock. I want to _buy_ one to have the
+    skin prepared, and if I don't get one soon they will all lose
+    their tails; and there I shall be--in a fix! A friend of mine
+    has written to Norfolk, and hopes to get me one. The season,
+    even in the extremely moderate form in which I take it, is a
+    fatiguing affair. I get up late and never feel fresh and
+    vigorous. I have serious thoughts of entirely giving it up next
+    year. I will go now and then to stay at people's houses, but not
+    to their parties--_le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle_. _A propos_
+    of country houses, I am going to spend a few days with Lady
+    Cowper at Wrest Park towards the end of this month; there are to
+    be theatricals and great hilarity. And now about Bath, I hope,
+    dearest Mammy, you won't be hurt if I propose to come at the end
+    of the _first_ week in September instead of the _last_ week in
+    August. The fact is I have a great "giro" I want to make, and if
+    I could take Bath in the regular progress it would be both a
+    great convenience and a saving of expense. I mean to stay three
+    weeks in Bath and have thoughts of painting a _pot-boiler_ of
+    little Walker if he is still handsome. I wish Papa would look
+    after him, and let me know what he is doing and how he is
+    looking. These are my plans: I want, whilst the summer is still
+    hot and green, to visit South Hampshire, New Forest, Isle of
+    Wight, South Devon, North Devon, and so work my way round to
+    Bath, whence to Stourhead for a few days; then to Mason in
+    Staffordshire, and then back to London. My pictures will be done
+    long before the Exhibition next opening, so I can manage all
+    this. I shall visit the following people: Sartoris, Aides,
+    perhaps Morants, I hope _Tennyson_, Lady E. Bulteel, and look in
+    at Mount Edgcombe--the rest of the journey will be purely
+    artistic.
+
+
+                                              CLOVELLY, _Sunday_.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMY,--I could not find time to answer your note (for
+    which best thanks) before I left Ventnor. I am now in one of the
+    most picturesque spots on the north coast of Devon--the
+    _rendezvous_ of painters and tourists, the _pays de cocagne_ of
+    Hook and one of the chief lions of my trip.
+
+    The places I have visited so far are Salisbury, Exeter, and
+    Bideford; with the latter I was much disappointed, and think it
+    far below its reputation; not so Salisbury, which is a most
+    interesting town, full of quaintness and character beyond my
+    expectations; it has, however, a look of decay and depopulation
+    about it which makes me feel awfully low-spirited. The
+    Cathedral, perhaps, _altogether_ rather disappointed me--though
+    of course much about it is very beautiful; then, too, its
+    general (internal) aspect is entirely marred by a brutal coat of
+    whitewash laid on in the last century, covering up the marble
+    columns and killing out all life and colour. Unfortunately, it
+    would cost very many thousands to restore the church and its
+    ancient glories.
+
+    To-morrow I start for Ilfracombe--the next day for Lynton.
+
+Again, later:--
+
+    Many thanks for your letter just received and for all the kind
+    wishes therein contained, which I most warmly return for you
+    all--a double portion to dear Taily in honour of her birthday.
+
+    I will come on the 8th if I possibly can, and bring some little
+    sketches to show you.
+
+    I shall exhibit this year IF I get done in time, but I can't
+    hurry--it is entirely immaterial whether I exhibit or not--I
+    would rather, of course.
+
+    We have begun drilling, but it will be many weeks before we get
+    to rifle-shooting--this is the sort of thing we are doing now.
+    Our uniform is plainness itself, all grey, and the cheapest in
+    London.
+
+    I weather the cold so-so--I have a gas-stove beside my
+    fireplace, but am still tolerably cold when it comes very sharp.
+
+    My dinner with Millais was put off till Monday next--I think
+    Millais _charming_ and _so_ handsome.
+
+    I am exceedingly sorry, dear Mamma, you have reckoned on me for
+    cotillon figures--with the exception of the one I led at Bath
+    once, _I have not seen one for years_, and have not the faintest
+    notion what is done--I will, however, _back_ anybody else with
+    great zeal.
+
+    I was indeed truly sorry to hear of Lord Holland's death--I had
+    expected it for some time; nothing could exceed their kindness
+    to me, and the House is an irreparable loss to me.
+
+    I hope to have a very merry Christmas Day. I am running down to
+    Westbury (the Sartoris); there is to be a tree; I come up again
+    of course Monday morning.
+
+    I am never _ill_. I take my human frailty out in never being
+    very well--never equal to much fatigue.
+
+
+                                                    LONDON, 1861.
+
+    My dinner at Millais' yesterday was very pleasant. I like him
+    extremely, and his wife appears an agreeable person. I met there
+    John Leech, the man who does all those admirable caricatures in
+    _Punch_--he is a very pleasant and gentleman-like person.
+
+    I don't feel sure whether I told you that I am about shortly to
+    send my "Paris and Juliet" with the "Samson" to America on spec.
+    Mrs. Kemble will do all she can to godmother them; I got a very
+    kind letter from her from Boston the other day--she has asked me
+    to send her a little sketch of Westbury with the pictures--of
+    course I shall.
+
+The following letters from Mrs. Fanny Kemble reveal the interest which
+this friend took in Leighton and his pictures, also the genius of the
+writer in penning delightful epistles:--
+
+                                            REVERE HOUSE, BOSTON,
+                                      _Friday, December 9, 1861_.
+
+    DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--It was very kind and amiable of you to write
+    to me of Westbury and my sister; you cannot imagine the
+    forlornness one feels when, to the loss of the sight of those
+    one loves, is added that bitter silence which leaves one almost
+    ignorant, as death does, of all the conditions in which our
+    friends remain. God knows, written words are a poor substitute
+    for the sound of a voice and the look of living eyes; still,
+    when they are all that can reach us of those towards whom our
+    hearts yearn, it is miserable not to be able to obtain them. The
+    friends with whom I constantly correspond see and know little or
+    nothing of her, and so no one of them can in any degree supply
+    me with the news that I most desire from across the sea--how it
+    is faring with my sister; so I am very grateful to you for your
+    intelligence, which was just what I would give anything for
+    (though not in itself, perhaps, very satisfactory) out here,
+    where I think you have none of you an idea how _banished_ I
+    feel. Now, my dear Mr. Leighton, to your business, about which
+    I began my inquiries almost immediately after my return to this
+    country, but only received the last of these communications last
+    night, and you perceive the other was incomplete without it. You
+    must command me entirely in any and every thing that I can do to
+    forward your aims, and I will promise to be _severe_ in my
+    obedience to any instructions you may like to give me. New York
+    is undoubtedly a better market for pictures, and therefore a
+    better place to exhibit them than this, but I do not know
+    anybody whom I trust there. Mr. Ordway, however, seems inclined
+    to take charge of your pictures if they are exhibited there.
+
+    Good-bye. Do not fail to employ me in this matter to the fullest
+    extent that I can be of the least use to you; it will be a great
+    pleasure to me to help you in any way that I possibly
+    can.--Yours very truly,
+
+                                                    FANNY KEMBLE.
+
+    I wish you would send me out some sketch of Westbury with your
+    pictures, if they come. I wish for one very much. I wish you
+    could see the world here just now--a sky as pure and brilliant
+    as it is possible to conceive, and every bough, branch, blade of
+    grass and withered leaf coated with clear crystal and _blazing_
+    with prismatic colours. There are, every now and then,
+    _sentiments_ in this sky that I have seen in none other. There
+    are certain points of view in which Boston, rising beyond broad
+    sheets of water that repeat them still more tenderly, seems to
+    me worthy of a great painter. But do not come out and try unless
+    you are quite sure of going back, or you will break your heart.
+
+
+                                            REVERE HOUSE, BOSTON,
+                                            _Friday, February 7_.
+
+    I feel terrified, when you speak of my determining what is to be
+    done with your pictures when they arrive in Boston, for
+    assuredly I am utterly incompetent to any such decision, and can
+    only refer myself to the judgment of my friend Mr. Cabot, who
+    will certainly advise for the best in the matter, but who,
+    nevertheless, is not infallible. I should think it rather late
+    in the season for exhibiting them here, but again would not take
+    upon myself to say. I do not know what the percentage on sale
+    here is, but presume it is not higher than in London. But here
+    people exhibit their pictures at a shilling a head, _i.e._ put
+    them in a room hung round with black calico, light up a flare of
+    gas above them, and take a quarter of a dollar from every sinner
+    who sees them. Two of Churche's pictures (he is a great American
+    artist, though you may never have heard of him) have been, or
+    rather are, at this moment so exhibiting--his "Falls of
+    Niagara," and a very beautiful landscape called the "Heart of
+    the Andes." Both these pictures were exhibited in London, I know
+    not with what success; they have both considerable merit, but
+    the latter I admire extremely. Page had a "Venus" here the other
+    day, exhibited by gas-light in a black room; but indeed, dear
+    Mr. Leighton, it sometimes seems to me as if you never could
+    imagine or would consent to the gross charlatanry which is
+    practised--how necessarily I do not know--here about all such
+    matters. Certainly your gold medal should be trumpeted--and your
+    profession of art and your confession of faith, and anything
+    most private and particular that you would not wish known, had
+    better be published in several versions in all the newspapers of
+    the United States. Your pictures must be placarded over all the
+    walls in all the sizes of type conceivable, and all the colours
+    of the rainbow. If you will write me your personal history, and
+    rampant puffs of your own performances, I will copy them and
+    send them to those sources of public instruction, the
+    enlightened public press. Moreover, I will go and sit before
+    them daily and utter exclamations of admiration on every note in
+    my voice, and if anything else remains to be done I will do it;
+    but you must not make me in any way responsible for the result,
+    because it is not in the least likely that you will write
+    yourself up to the mark of puffing as practised here. Basta--I
+    will take the very best advice and do the very best I can about
+    the pictures, and rejoice in my heart to see them myself, that I
+    can assuredly promise you. By-the-bye, I gave your address only
+    a few days ago, to be sent to a person now in Europe negotiating
+    with French and English artists for pictures to exhibit. I
+    wonder if he will find you and enlighten your mind about art in
+    America. Thank you for the account of Westbury and its Christmas
+    festivities, and thank you, thank you for the sketch of the home
+    you are so very kind as to promise me; it will be a blessed
+    treasure to see, for you cannot conceive the dreary
+    heart-sickness that utterly overcomes me here sometimes. To-day
+    I was singing the quartette in "Faust" that we used to sing, and
+    was obliged to stop for crying. I wished extremely to have a
+    photograph of the house, and, if I could only have afforded it,
+    should have asked you to sell me every sketch you took about the
+    place. The skies here are beautiful, wonderful in their
+    transparent purity. They seem to me of a different _texture_
+    from any other I ever saw, more diaphanous, and there is a
+    colour in them when they are quite free from clouds that
+    surpasses in delicacy all other skies I have seen. It is like
+    the complexion of the young girls here, a miracle of evanescent
+    brilliant softness. My winter is wearing along pretty tolerably.
+    My Christmas was passed entirely alone, but I am quite used to
+    that. I am beginning to be much occupied about the plans and
+    drawings for a house, which I am thinking of building on some
+    land I own in Massachusetts. It is a great undertaking, and
+    really at fifty years old seems hardly worth while, and yet,
+    till I am ready for my coffin, I must have some place in which
+    to rest my head. Perhaps some fine day--who knows?--you will
+    come to see me there. That would be a very pretty plot, and I
+    think I need not say how welcome you would be, dear Mr.
+    Leighton, to yours very truly,
+
+                                                    FANNY KEMBLE.
+
+
+                                                LENOX, _Tuesday_.
+
+    A thousand thanks, my dear Mr. Leighton, for the minute account
+    of Westbury--as I cannot know anything about my sister, it is
+    something to know how her house is settled and decorated, and
+    how the place where she lives looks. The red velvet drawing-room
+    sounds gorgeous, and it must be very becoming to the pictures.
+    Of your pictures that have "wandered west" you may be sure I
+    should have written you, if I had had the good news to give you
+    that either of them was sold, but I am sorry to say this is not
+    the case. The New York Exhibition is now closed, and the
+    pictures have been sent back to Boston, where they are at
+    present hanging in the Athenaeum under the care of Mr. Ordway,
+    who wishes, but does not much hope, to be able to sell them. It
+    seems that one or two people asked the price of the pictures in
+    New York, but considered it, when they received the
+    information, "rather a tall price." I am a little consoled at
+    the ill success of this venture of yours, by Henry Greville's
+    writing me that your hands are full of orders, for which you are
+    to be well paid. Your small acquaintance, Fanny, who left me
+    this morning after a visit of a month, propounded to me the
+    expediency of desiring the purchaser of the reconciliation of
+    old Capulet and Montague to buy as its pendant the "Paris and
+    Juliet"; and though she has no personal acquaintance with the
+    lover of art in question, she said, when she got to Philadelphia
+    she should set about intriguing to that effect; and she had my
+    full permission to try and to succeed. I wish I could tell you
+    anything pleasant in return for your description of the rooms at
+    Westbury, but I have nothing very cheerful to impart. I have
+    been quite unwell, and am still very far from flourishing; my
+    spirits are much depressed, and the life I lead, of incessant
+    worry and discomfort with servants and all one's domestic
+    arrangements, is something quite too tedious to relate--and that
+    indeed it would be impossible to _realise_, as the Yankees say,
+    unless you witnessed it. I saw Hetty Hosmer three days after her
+    arrival in Boston. Her father is a hopeless invalid, and she
+    will certainly not leave him while he lives; but I suspect that
+    he is likely to die before this year ends, and then she will
+    return to live in Italy. The State of Missouri has voted two
+    thousand pounds for a statue of Colonel Benton, one of its
+    "great men," to be erected by her, which, of course, is a whole
+    plume of feathers in her cap.
+
+    Good-bye, dear Mr. Leighton; believe me always yours most truly,
+
+                                                    FANNY KEMBLE.
+
+    You must not fail to write to me any directions that you wish
+    observed about your pictures, while they remain here. I am only
+    too glad to try to serve you.
+
+
+                                 LENOX, BERKSHIRE, MASSACHUSETTS,
+                                              _Monday, March 12_.
+
+    Pictures of very high pretensions are exhibited, like the scenes
+    in a theatre, by gas-light, and advertised in coloured _posters_
+    all over the streets like theatrical exhibitions. However, it is
+    no use vexing your soul with what neither of us can help. I
+    cannot and will not accept the responsibility of disposing of
+    your pictures; but I will get the best advice I can about them
+    and follow it, and spare no personal pains to have them
+    advantageously dealt with; only, I hope it will not be very long
+    before they arrive, because my own stay in Boston is now drawing
+    to a close, and after the end of the present month I shall be at
+    Lenox, a remote village in a lonely hill district one hundred
+    miles from Boston, or rather I should say seven hours distant
+    from the nearest railroad station, which is six miles away again
+    from Lenox. When once I come here--for I write at this moment
+    from this snowy wilderness--it will be to remain for the next
+    nine or ten months, so you see I must make all arrangements
+    about your pictures before taking my leave of civilised
+    communities. I came up to this place from Boston yesterday to
+    look at a house that I think of hiring for a year, and shall
+    return to the city next week. I have left your pictures (should
+    they arrive during my absence) to the charge of a friend of mine
+    who is one of the directors of the Athenaeum, and will see that
+    they are properly received. Thank you a thousand times for the
+    promised likeness of Westbury, which will be a treasure to me.
+    What a contrast is my recollection of that charming place, to
+    the abomination of desolation of the dreary savage winter
+    landscape of low black hills, bristling with wintry woods and
+    wide, bare, snow-covered valleys, that stretch before me here at
+    this moment. I am well, but much worn out with my last course of
+    public readings, which I had just ended in Boston. My daughters
+    are well, and write to me tolerably frequently; the eldest seems
+    happy and contented in her marriage; your small acquaintance,
+    Fanny, writes to me from Savannah of sitting with the doors and
+    windows wide open, and wiping the perspiration from her face in
+    the meantime; and here everything is buried in snow. I shall
+    wait till I return to Boston to finish this, as I shall hope to
+    send you then news of the arrival of your pictures.
+
+
+                                           _Wednesday, March 14._
+
+    Your pictures are arrived, my dear Mr. Leighton; they reached
+    Boston last week while I was absent at Lenox. I only returned
+    yesterday evening, and found a letter from Mr. Cabot announcing
+    that they were at the Athenaeum; thither I went this morning, and
+    spent a most delightful half-hour in looking at them. I like
+    the "Samson" very much indeed; I think it is beautiful, and am
+    charmed with the treatment of the subject, though you have
+    chosen a different moment for illustration from the one I had
+    imagined. This evening I have been having a long conversation
+    with Mr. Ordway about the future destinations of the pictures. I
+    am little sanguine, I regret to say, about their being bought
+    here, for the only rich picture purchaser that I know here has a
+    predilection for French works of art, small _tableaux de genre_,
+    and Troyon's landscapes. However, it must be tried. Mr. Ordway
+    says he will exhibit your pictures in the Athenaeum, which
+    (should they be sold while there) will save you your commission,
+    because, being an artist himself, he will not charge you any. If
+    after due experiment they do not seem likely to sell here, we
+    will send them to New York, and then to Philadelphia; in short,
+    the best that can be done for them shall, as far as my agency is
+    concerned, you may be sure.
+
+
+                                    BOSTON, _Thursday, March 15_.
+
+    I have this moment received your letter of the 25th February,
+    for which I thank you very much. It does not require any further
+    answer with regard to your pictures, of the safe arrival of
+    which I wrote you word last night. I did not tell you,
+    by-the-bye, that they are both slightly _streaked_ across from
+    side to side with what Mr. Ordway thinks must have been small
+    infiltrations of sea-water; he says the pictures are not injured
+    by them, nor do they indeed appear to be so in the least, and
+    that he can wipe off the stains with no damage whatever to them.
+    Thank you for all you tell me of my sister; it is not much,
+    indeed, nor very cheerful, but it is more than reaches me
+    through any other channel, and far better than the miserable
+    conjectures of absolute ignorance. Dear Mr. Leighton, thank you
+    a thousand times for the _portrait_ of Westbury--it is exactly
+    what I wished for--but, oh, why could there not be the lovely
+    upland beyond, and the sheep slowly rolling up and down the
+    slopes, and the tinkle of the bell, and you and she and they and
+    all of us. Oh dear, if you could conceive what it is to me to be
+    _here_, you would know a thousand times better than I can tell
+    you how precious such a memento of _there_ is to me. Thank you,
+    too, for the good inspiration of telling me about the change of
+    place of the pictures at Westbury; it is wonderful how much one
+    small particular has power to bring the whole of what surrounds
+    it, back to the mind, and what vividness it gives to the picture
+    that, in spite of the distinctness with which it was stamped
+    upon the memory, becomes so soon, and yet so unconsciously,
+    obliterated in the minor parts that give it charm and vitality.
+    I spent a long hour to-day again looking at your pictures and
+    wishing most heartily that I could afford to buy them both.
+    Good-bye, dear Mr. Leighton; I shall leave this open till
+    to-morrow, in case I should hear anything more about them before
+    I go. I enclose the receipts for what I have paid. I suppose it
+    is all right, but it seems a most monstrous price for mere
+    conveyance, and indeed reminds us that our humorous forefathers
+    called _stealing_ _conveying_.
+
+
+                                 LENOX, BERKSHIRE, MASSACHUSETTS,
+                                              _Friday, April 27_.
+
+    Your pictures are at present in the New York Exhibition. Mr.
+    Ordway tells me that it is extremely rare for pictures to sell
+    without the intervention of dealers. In this country they cry
+    down and undervalue all pictures that are not expressly
+    committed to them, and the ignorance of the rich shopkeepers who
+    purchase works of Art, is so excessive that they do not feel
+    safe in making any acquisition without the advice and permission
+    of some charlatan of a dealer, to whom these wiseacres come
+    saying (verbatim, so Mr. Ordway informed me), "I want some
+    pictures; can't you recommend any to me?" and then, of course,
+    the picture-dealer recommends what brings him the highest
+    percentage; and the man who buys pictures exactly like
+    looking-glasses, window-curtains, or any other _furniture_ for a
+    new house, departs satisfied that he possesses a work of Art.
+    The things that are bought and sold here in the shape of
+    pictures, and the things that are said about them, _vous
+    feraient pouffer de rire_, if you did not live in this country.
+    If you did, they would be like many other proofs of the
+    semi-civilisation of the people, that would be rather doleful
+    than otherwise to you. Thank you for all you tell about my
+    sister and her children. I feel very much both for my sister and
+    Anne in their separation. I have just parted with my maid Marie,
+    who has lived with me fifteen years, and who leaves me now
+    because her health is so much broken down that her physician
+    tells her, she must go to some other climate or she will die.
+    So she is gone, and here I remain absolutely alone, looking, not
+    for the "wrath to come," but what may be supposed no bad
+    instalment of it--the advent of four new servants with whom I am
+    to begin housekeeping in my small cottage next week. Just before
+    leaving Boston I saw Hetty Hosmer. She has come home to her poor
+    old paralytic father, who, I suppose, is not likely to live very
+    long. Whenever the event of his death happens, Hetty will gather
+    up her substance, and depart hence for the rest of her natural
+    or artistic life. She is very little changed in appearance, and
+    only a little in manner. She seemed very glad to see me, and so
+    was I to see her, for she represented to my memory a whole world
+    of things and places and people that I am fond of. I have not
+    seen Lord Lyon, and do not expect to do so, as I understand he
+    does not mean to stir from Washington all the summer, and
+    thither I shall assuredly not go, though I would go a good way
+    to see him. I'm told he lives in dread of being married by some
+    fair American, and it is not always a thing that a man can
+    escape; but he is too good for that, and I trust will not
+    succumb to these intrepid little flirts. Good-bye, dear Mr.
+    Leighton; I have a settled nostalgia, which is the saddest thing
+    in the world. Your sketch of Westbury is always before me, and
+    your letters are the most kindly return you could possibly make,
+    for any service that you could require of me. I wish with all my
+    heart I might have the great pleasure of writing you, now that
+    one of your pictures was sold.
+
+    Addio.
+
+
+                                         LENOX, _Friday, June 7_.
+
+    Thank you, dear Frederic Leighton, for your letter and the
+    photographs, by means of which, and your description, I have a
+    sort of vision (not quite what the Yankees call a "realising
+    sense") of your pictures. The girl at the fountain is
+    charming,[20] the other beautiful and terrible, as it should
+    be.[21] I can well imagine the beautiful effect the sentiment of
+    the picture must receive from that regretful return, as it were,
+    of the daylight that has set upon the poor people for ever. In
+    the English newspapers that are sent to me I looked eagerly
+    among the notices of the Exhibition for your name, and read the
+    meagre little bit allotted to each picture. I was especially
+    delighted with the critic who thinks your "Paolo and Francesca"
+    too _earthly_ in the intensity of their passions. The gentleman
+    apparently forgets that it was not in Heaven that Dante met
+    these poor things. With regard to your other pictures, dear Mr.
+    Leighton, I think you are right to withdraw them from America. I
+    wish with all my heart that I could have presented myself with
+    one of those pictures; however, that is one of the vainest of
+    all human desires. My income is already docked of two hundred
+    pounds this year by the disastrous state of public affairs; but,
+    of course, if one is in the midst of a falling house, one can
+    hardly hope to avoid bruises and broken bones. The attitude of
+    England is highly unsatisfactory to the North, who now choose to
+    consider the whole action of the Government a crusade against
+    slavery--which it is not, and was not, and will not be except in
+    the New England state where the Abolitionist party has always
+    been strongest, and where the character of the people is more of
+    the nature to make fighters for abstract principles. The
+    Southerners hate the Yankees, and _vice versa_, for this very
+    reason; and if the crisis comes really to anything like
+    fighting, the New England, especially the Massachusetts men,
+    will probably fight very maliciously as against slaveholders,
+    and the slaveholders against them as Abolitionists, which _they_
+    now are, pretty much to a man. A huge volunteer force is levying
+    and being prepared for action; but in spite of the very
+    unanimous feeling of the North and North-West, and the warlike
+    attitude of the South, I shall not believe in anything deserving
+    the name of war till I see it. The South is without resources
+    that can avail for a six months' struggle. The North has a huge,
+    unarmed, undisciplined force of men at its command; but the
+    Southerners do not want to fight, and neither do the
+    Northerners; _but_ if any combination of circumstances (and of
+    course matters cannot stand still, especially with the border
+    states all _au pied en l'air_) should occasion any collision
+    accompanied with considerable effusions of blood, I believe the
+    North would pour itself upon the Southern States and annihilate
+    the secessionist party. It is extremely difficult to foresee the
+    probable course of events, but I believe eventually the Southern
+    States will be obliged to return to their allegiance, and
+    _then_ I believe the North will, once for all, legislate for the
+    future limiting of the curse of slavery to those states where it
+    _now_ exists, and where, of course, under such circumstances, it
+    would very soon cease to exist, as if it cannot extend itself it
+    must die. In one sense slavery is undoubtedly the cause of the
+    present disastrous crisis--and in the profoundest sense, for the
+    character of the Southerners is the immediate result of these
+    infernal "institutions"; and but for Southern slavery Southern
+    "Chivalry," that arrogant, insolent, ignorant, ferocious and
+    lawless race of men, would never have existed.
+
+    Oh, how thankful I shall be to be at home once more! Farewell,
+    dear Mr. Leighton; pray, if there is anything special to be done
+    about your pictures, write to me and let me have the pleasure of
+    doing something for you. Oh, I am so enraged that I could not
+    get them sold; and yet though you may not think it, I should
+    have thought it a pity for them to have to live the rest of
+    their lives here. Thank you again for the photographs; I look at
+    them constantly. All _such things_ are like being lifted into
+    another atmosphere from that which surrounds and stifles one
+    here. Believe me always your obliged and sincere friend,
+
+                                                    FANNY KEMBLE.
+
+    Emil Devrient's was the best Hamlet I ever saw. It would not
+    have been if my father's had not been too smooth and harmonious.
+    I hope I shall see Fechter's.
+
+
+                                   LENOX, _Thursday, October 11_.
+
+    How good an inspiration it was that made you send that beautiful
+    photograph to me! It came to me really like a special
+    providence, on the day when I had parted from my children for an
+    indefinite time, and with more than usual sadness and anxiety;
+    for my eldest child's health has failed completely since her
+    confinement, and she came to me for a visit of ten days only,
+    looking like the doomed, wan image of some woman whose enemies
+    were wasting her by witchcraft. My small comfortless home was
+    intolerably lonely to me, and towards sunset I went out to find
+    some fortitude under the open sky. I wandered into a copse of
+    beech trees that clothe the steep sides of a miniature ravine
+    with a brook at the bottom, and here gathered a handful of the
+    beautiful blue fringed gentian (do you know that exquisite
+    flower that grows wild in the woods here?). The little glen with
+    its clusters of mysterious blue blossoms was all but dark, but,
+    emerging from it, I stood where I saw a wide valley flooded with
+    the evening light, and hills beyond rising in waves of amber and
+    smoke colour and dark purple; it was so beautiful that it cannot
+    be imagined. The autumn has turned all the trees into gold and
+    jewels, like the enchanted growth of fairy-land, and the whole
+    world, as I saw it from the entrance of that shadowy dell,
+    looked as if it was made of precious metals and precious stones.
+    I was very sad, and stood thinking of our Saviour and the widow
+    of Nain, and how pitiful He was to sorrowful human creatures,
+    and with some sparks of comfort in my heart I returned home,
+    where I found your letter waiting for me. I have told you all
+    this of my previous state of mind and feeling, because--without
+    knowing that--you could not conceive how like an express message
+    of consolation your work appeared to me. May it be blessed to
+    many hearts for admonition and for consolation as it was to
+    mine, dear Mr. Leighton. It is no wonder that it seemed to me
+    beautiful, and I do not think I shall ever sufficiently
+    disconnect it with this first impression, to be able to judge of
+    its merit as a work of art; it was, as I said before, a special
+    Providence to me. I long to have it framed and hung where I can
+    see it constantly. I have within the last few days moved into a
+    house which I have hired for the next two years. It is all but
+    in the village of Lenox, and yet so situated that it commands
+    from the windows of every room a most beautiful prospect. The
+    whole landscape is a harmonious confusion of small valleys and
+    hills, rolling and falling within and around and beyond each
+    other, like folds of rich and majestic drapery. Oh, what lights
+    and shadows roam and rest over these hill-sides and in the
+    hollows between them! The country is very thickly wooded, and
+    the woods are literally of every colour in the rainbow, all
+    mixed together under a sky, the peculiar characteristic of which
+    is not so much softness or brightness, as a transparent purity
+    that seems as if there was _no_ atmosphere betwixt oneself and
+    the various objects one sees. I expect this would make it
+    difficult to paint these beautiful aspects of nature here; but,
+    oh, how I _do_ wish you could see it, for, in the matter of
+    American autumnal colouring, seeing alone is believing. The
+    house itself is very tolerably comfortable, but hideous to
+    behold both within and without; and I have begun my residence in
+    it under rather depressing circumstances, _i.e._ without _being
+    able_ to obtain the necessary servants for the decent comfort of
+    my daily existence. Ever since the beginning of May I have been
+    endeavouring, in vain, to procure and keep together a decent
+    household. Not for one _single week_ have I had my proper
+    complement of people in the house, and I have done every species
+    of house-work myself, from cleaning the cellar and kitchen to
+    washing the tea-cups; it is a state of things as incredible as
+    the colour of the autumn woods, and as peculiar, thank God, to
+    America. I am now making my last experiment by trying coloured
+    servants. Their manners and deportment are generally much better
+    than those of either the Irish or American, and they seem
+    capable of personal attachment to their employers, which neither
+    of the other races are. The incessant worry, discomfort, and
+    positive fatigue that I have undergone during the whole summer
+    has completely shaken my nerves, so that I have been in a sort
+    of hysterical condition of constant weeping for some time past.
+    I trust, however, it will not be so wretched now, for I am at
+    any rate close to the village inn, and if I am left without
+    servants, can go there and get some food; it is a state of
+    existence _qu'on ne s'imagine pas_. You will not wonder, after
+    all this, to hear that I declined a ticket to the Prince's ball
+    at New York, to which the whole population of the United States
+    are struggling to get admittance; but at the best of times "I am
+    not gamesome," and feel as if I had swept my own rooms quite too
+    recently to be fit company for my Queen's son. Thank you, dear
+    Mr. Leighton, for all you tell me about my sister and the
+    children; she never writes, you know, and so I am thirsty all
+    the time for some tidings of her. It is very sad to be so far
+    away and hear so seldom from those one loves. Good-bye, God
+    bless you; and thank you once more for the "Vision." I am sorry
+    I cannot tell you of the sale of either of your pictures; they
+    are in the Boston Athenaeum, very safe, and highly ornamental to
+    it, but not, I regret to say, sold. If you wish me to do
+    anything more about them, you must write me your directions,
+    which I will fulfil with every attention and accuracy of which I
+    am capable.
+
+
+                                    LENOX, _Sunday, November 11_.
+
+    I trust before long you will receive your children safe and
+    sound. I wish the two hundred pounds I have lost this year had
+    been invested in one of those pictures instead of in St. Louis.
+    Thank you for your account of Adelaide and her children; it is
+    not much, but it is all that much better than nothing. The state
+    of the country is very sad, and any probable termination of the
+    war quite out of calculable distance. England, no doubt, will
+    maintain her absolute neutrality in spite of secession, cotton,
+    and anti-slavery sympathies; it is her only part. Good-bye, dear
+    Mr. Leighton.
+
+    I beg you will not scruple to write me now if there is anything
+    more that I can do, either in the matter of the pictures or any
+    other by which I can be of use to you here.
+
+
+                                                        NEW YORK,
+                                              _Sunday, March 10_.
+
+    I am sure you have not forgotten the charming farmhouse at West
+    Mion, to which you and your sketch-book were the means of
+    introducing us, ---- farm: well, his brother is one of the
+    richest shopkeepers in New York--and, upon the strength of my
+    visit to the paternal acres in Hampshire, his wife, a funny
+    little specimen of vivacious vulgarity, called upon me, and I,
+    of course, upon her. I was shown into a drawing-room at least
+    thirty feet long, with two massive white marble chimney-pieces,
+    green silk brocade curtains and furniture to match, magnificent
+    carpets, mirrors, gildings, hideous _works_ in marble on
+    scagliola pillars--in short, the most marvellous palace of
+    shopkeepers' _beaux ideaux_ that you can conceive; through this
+    to a beautifully fitted-up library; through this to a picture
+    gallery, noble _seigneur_, _pensez y bien_! Oh, my dear Frederic
+    Leighton, it was enough to make one fall down and foam at the
+    mouth, to see such a hideous collection of daubs and to think of
+    the money hanging on those walls; and then I thought of your
+    pictures, and why the wretched man couldn't have procured them
+    for some of his foolish money; and then I begged your pardon
+    internally for the desecration of imagining your pictures in
+    such company; and then I gazed amusedly about me, and at length
+    gave tongue: "Mr. ----," said I, "this is a vastly different
+    residence from the old homestead in Hampshire." The worthy man
+    could not see in my heart which way the balance of preference
+    inclined, and answered with benignant self-satisfaction: "Ah,
+    well, you see, ma'am, they've been going on there for the last I
+    don't know how many hundred years, just about in the same social
+    position; they haven't a notion of the rapidity of our progress
+    here." I hate to advise you to have your pictures back, for
+    there really does seem to me to be a _greedy desire for
+    pictures_ (I cannot qualify in any other way the taste which
+    covets and buys such things) here; but I suppose pictures, at
+    any rate, must be what these people want, and will not buy dear
+    and good ones, when cheap and nasty do as well. I think, while I
+    am here in New York, I shall take the liberty of making some
+    further inquiry as to whether the great print and picture seller
+    here does not think they could be seen to selling advantage in
+    his shop; in short, it throws me into a melancholy rage to think
+    what pictures are bought while yours are not. The state of this
+    country is curious--strange and deplorable beyond precedent in
+    history, it seems to me; and it is absolutely _impossible_ to
+    foresee to what issue things are tending. The opinions one hears
+    are all coloured by the particular bias of the speaker, and the
+    confusion is so great in the general excitement of sectional
+    partisanship that even one of the members--and a very
+    influential one--of the peace convention sent to Washington for
+    the purpose of proposing terms of conciliation--which should
+    not, however, compromise the Northern principles--said that
+    nothing had been done, that all was "sound and fury, and
+    signifying nothing"--or if anything at present, the confirmed
+    secession of the Southern, the disruption from the North of the
+    Northern slave States, and, not impossibly, civil war. Of
+    course, the more time elapses in palavering before the first
+    fatal blow is struck, the less probability there is of its being
+    struck at all; but, on the other hand, the longer the present
+    state of things continues, the more accustomed people become to
+    the idea of the dismemberment of the Union, and therefore,
+    though the clangour of an appeal to arms diminishes, so I think
+    does the prospect of anything like "making up" the family
+    quarrel--indeed, if it were patched, and soldered to the very
+    best, I do not believe that it will ever "hold water again"; but
+    it is impossible to foresee from day to day what may be the turn
+    of events.
+
+    If I live till a year from this summer I will be in England in
+    July, and if I live till the November after that I will be in
+    Rome, and you and Edward and Adelaide have my full permission to
+    come too.
+
+    Good-bye, dear Mr. Leighton. Your letters are a great comfort as
+    well as pleasure to me; I am extremely obliged to you for them.
+
+    I showed my daughter the photograph of your "Vision," and she
+    was enchanted with it. She has not a cultivated or educated
+    taste in matters of art--this country affords no means for such
+    a thing--but she is a person of very fine natural perceptions
+    and great imagination and sensibility, and she was so charmed
+    with it that I hope you will not think it foolish or impertinent
+    in me to tell you of it.
+
+    The last political news I have is that the border or Northern
+    slave States will probably not join the cotton states, in which
+    case the latter will, of hard necessity, very soon be compelled
+    to abandon their absurd and infinitely perilous position; but
+    one does not see the end of it all, for if they _do_ come back
+    into the Union, it will be under a burning sense of humiliation
+    which will hardly facilitate their future intercourse with the
+    North, for humiliation and humility are difficult things, and
+    the cotton Lucifer under coercion will not be a pleasant devil
+    to deal with.
+
+
+                                  LENOX, _Saturday, September 7_.
+
+    You owe me nothing, and you will owe me nothing, dear Mr.
+    Leighton, for expediting your pictures to England. When I wrote
+    to Mr. Ordway about them desiring him to send them back to you,
+    and to let me know the amount of any expenses he incurred in
+    doing so, his reply was that the mere cost of packing and
+    putting them on board ship would not be worth charging you with,
+    and that the possession of your pictures in his gallery was well
+    worth the small outlay of merely despatching them to you. I
+    hope they will reach you safely. I am sorry, _sorry_ they have
+    not remained here; but latterly, as you will easily believe,
+    people's minds have been little inclined to the peaceful arts or
+    any influences of beauty and grace; moreover, the pockets of the
+    wealthiest amateurs are affected, as those of their poorer
+    neighbours are, by the public disasters. My own loss this year
+    is two hundred pounds of my income. What it may be next year, or
+    how far my capital itself is safe, is more than anybody can
+    tell. We are to be taxed moreover beyond all precedent in this
+    country hitherto, and as it is already nearly the dearest place
+    in the world to live in, what with onerous imports and the
+    failure of interest from one's investments it will be simply
+    ruinous. Thank you for all you tell me of my sister and her
+    children. I am beginning to _see them again_, as the time when I
+    may really hope to do so draws nearer. I am sorry for what you
+    and all my friends tell me about Harry's strong dramatic
+    propensities. Of course, if he is fit for nothing else, or
+    fitter for that than anything else, he had better become an
+    actor, and his being so in England need not prevent his being a
+    worthy fellow and respectable and respected member of society. I
+    am, however, much reconciled to what at first disappointed me
+    extremely--my not being able to bring him out to this country;
+    for if he should eventually take to the stage, here that is
+    simply in most instances equivalent to taking to the gutter. My
+    daughters are both with me just now, and Fanny desires me to
+    remember her very kindly to you. The incidents of the war which
+    reach the other side of the water no doubt strike you as amazing
+    enough; but anything more grotesque than the daily details in
+    the midst of which we live, you cannot conceive. A young
+    gentleman, a friend of ours who has just returned from his share
+    in the campaign in a three months' volunteer regiment (he has
+    entered the regular army, as a very large proportion of the
+    volunteers did as soon as their three months' amateur service
+    expired), described to us a volunteer corps which happened to be
+    encamped in the neighbourhood of his company. He said they were
+    one of the finest bodies of men he ever saw. Lumberers, that is,
+    wood-fellers from the forests of Maine and New Hampshire,
+    perfectly brave and reckless and daring--perfectly undisciplined
+    too, to the tune of replying to their officers when ordered to
+    turn out on guard, "No, I'll be damned if I do," with the most
+    cheerful good humour. Thereupon the discomfited "superior"
+    simply turns to some one else and says, "Oh, well--you're so and
+    so--go." Good-bye; I shall rejoice to see you again, and be once
+    more at home among people who know how to behave
+    themselves.--Believe me, always yours most sincerely,
+
+                                                    FANNY KEMBLE.
+
+After the Prince Consort's death in 1861 Leighton wrote the following
+letter to his younger sister, who was in Italy:
+
+    I have just returned from a fortnight in Bath, where I have at
+    last finished the Johnnies,[22] I believe, and hope you will
+    like them; they are at all events much improved. I am glad for
+    the poor lad that the _corvee_ of settling is over; he was dying
+    to get back to his work. If zeal and enthusiasm can make an
+    artist, he ought to become one.
+
+    I don't attempt to give you home news, as you are amply supplied
+    with that article by Mamma. Everybody here is in great sorrow
+    for the poor Queen. She bears up under her overwhelming grief
+    with admirable fortitude, and expresses her anxious desire to do
+    _her duty as he_ would have wished it, but she speaks of all
+    earthly happiness as at an end. The tender sympathy manifested
+    by the whole nation is touching, but deserved.
+
+    Whether there will be war or not, the beginning of the year will
+    show; it is, I think, more than probable; there is no
+    probability of the Americans giving up Mason and Slidell. If we
+    do fight, it will be agreeable to feel that we are supported by
+    the sympathy and approval of _all Europe_; that we are entirely
+    in the right is _universally_ recognised, even by those who have
+    no love for us. Sooner or later, a war with America was, I fear,
+    unavoidable. There is a limit to what even we can overlook. All
+    this need not prevent your coming to England that I can see; it
+    won't stop the Exhibition, nor make any perceptible difference
+    in anybody's doings, except perhaps the picture buyers.--Your
+    very affect. brother,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+
+                                                  _Sunday, 1862._
+
+    Arrived here safe and sound on Thursday night, and began my work
+    on Friday. I am making studies[23] for the "Eastern King" which
+    I shall begin to paint shortly after New Year. I found the frame
+    for the large "Johnny" on my return. It improves the picture
+    very much, and looks very handsome. I also found a letter from
+    Henry Greville waiting for me. He says the Queen bears up
+    admirably, because, she says, _he_ would have wished it, but
+    that she always talks of her earthly career as at an end. The
+    equerries, &c., will remain attached to the court.
+
+In 1862 Leighton sent eight pictures to the Royal Academy, and six
+were accepted. Before the sending in he writes to his father:--
+
+                                                            1862.
+
+    DEAR PAPA,--I am afraid I don't take exercise _very_ regularly,
+    still, I walk a _little_ nearly every day.
+
+    With regard to the volunteering, the zeal for the matter is
+    necessarily not what it was when every third man really expected
+    to be called to defend the country. Nevertheless, the movement
+    is not dead, but has found a level on which I fancy it will
+    remain; the _shooting_ will keep it together a good deal. We
+    (the artists) shall join the great business at Brighton on
+    Easter Monday.
+
+    Had I thought you would have taken my remark about the M. Angelo
+    and the Johnnies so much to heart, I should have thought twice
+    before I made it. Against what I said you must set the paragraph
+    in the _Athenaeum_ two or three weeks back--my doubt is not
+    whether they will be admired--I think they will be _that_--my
+    only question is whether they will be _cared_ for. Mrs. Austin
+    admires and likes the M.A. beyond anything, and if she could
+    afford it would, I believe, buy it at once.
+
+    You will perhaps be surprised to hear that the pictures from
+    which I expect most are the three which you have not seen--the
+    "Eastern King" and the two others I mentioned in my last. One of
+    them is Pocock's smaller order, a girl with a _swan_ (not with
+    _peacocks_ as the _Athen._ says)--the other is a kitcat of a
+    girl listening to a shell. Both these are very luminous, and are
+    in that respect the best things I have done.
+
+And later:--
+
+                                                    LONDON, 1862.
+
+    DEAR PAPA,--I think I may confirm the report made to you of the
+    success of my pictures, particularly the "Odalisque" and
+    "Echoes" (by-the-bye, I have just received a letter from
+    somebody who wants to know if they are sold). What the papers
+    say, you have seen. You will be glad to hear that I have
+    received congratulations on all sides, which gives me the idea
+    of being tolerably secure; at all events, I got no such last
+    year, nor indeed at all since the "Cimabue." That two of my
+    pictures should not have been accepted does not indeed surprise
+    me, and least of all would it do so if they were rejected on the
+    score of _number_, but I have reason to suspect that they were
+    _not_ liked; in fact I _know_ it. I have put my name down as a
+    candidate for associateship.
+
+    I don't think I have anything of interest to communicate; nobody
+    has as yet asked the price of the "Eastern King" or the "Michael
+    Angelo." There is no mistake now about what people in this
+    country like to buying point; whether I shall conform to their
+    taste is another question.
+
+    Pocock liked the "Michael Ang." much, but did not seem to wish
+    to have it. The same remark applies to the Johnnies.
+
+    Millais has been, and liked the yellow woman[24] extremely. I
+    think he liked them all _of their kind_, but the yellow woman
+    was his favourite by far. Stephens has also seen my pictures. He
+    seemed altogether much pleased, but most especially with the
+    design for the "Eastern King," which is also Fred Cockerell's
+    favourite.
+
+To his mother he wrote:--
+
+                                                            1862.
+
+    I have deferred answering your letter till now, that I might be
+    able to inform you definitely of my fate as regards the Royal
+    Academy. I have just been there; I must tell you at once the
+    least pleasant part of my news--they have rejected the large
+    "Johnny" and "Lord Cowper." On the other hand, the other
+    pictures are well hung; two (the "Odalisque" and the yellow
+    woman), _very_ well, being on _the line_ in the _East Room_. The
+    "Michael Angelo," the "E. King," and the shell girl are just
+    above the line and well seen--the small "Johnny" just below the
+    line. I think the pictures all look well, though not so luminous
+    as in the studio. I am confirmed in my opinion that the Academy
+    Exhibition is a false test of colour; what looks sufficiently
+    _silvery there_ is _chalky_ out of it. The "Odalisque" looks
+    best from general aspects. Lady Cowper wrote me a very nice note
+    about the rejection of her son's portrait, and said she was
+    delighted to get it so soon. I am sorry about the large
+    "Johnny," because my chance of selling it is much diminished.
+
+That Leighton received great encouragement from personal friends there
+can be no doubt. The following is one of very many letters he received
+which expressed warm appreciation.
+
+                                                 64 RUTLAND GATE.
+
+    MY DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--I do not know how to express my thanks to
+    you. I have this moment come home and found your beautiful
+    drawing, and can hardly hold my pen, I am in such a state of
+    delight at possessing such a reminiscence of my favourite
+    picture. You really _do_ not know what pleasure you have given
+    me, and I think it _too kind_ of you to have parted with this to
+    give to me. One thing you may be quite sure of, that the
+    "Eastern King" will receive the greatest homage to the end of
+    days from his devoted admirer and your sincere friend,
+
+                                                MARY SARTORIS.[25]
+    _Past Midnight, Tuesday._
+
+Among Leighton's friends was Charles Dickens. The following notes,
+written in 1863, have turned up in a packet of miscellaneous
+correspondence:--
+
+                              OFFICE OF "ALL THE YEAR ROUND,"
+                  NO. 26 WELLINGTON STREET, STRAND, LONDON, W.C.,
+                                       _Thursday, April 9, 1863_.
+
+    MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--I owe you many thanks for your kind reminder.
+    It would have given me real pleasure to have profited by it had
+    such profit been possible, but a hasty summons to attend upon a
+    sick friend at a distance so threw me out on Friday and Saturday
+    in obliging me to prepare for a rush across the Channel, that I
+    saw no pictures and had no holiday. I was blown back here only
+    last night, and believe that I shall deliver your message to
+    Mrs. Collins to-day; that is to say, I am going home this
+    afternoon and expect to find her there.
+
+    When the summer weather comes on, I shall try to persuade you to
+    come and see us on the top of Falstaff's Hill. A hop country is
+    not to be despised by an artist's eyes.--Faithfully yours
+    always,
+
+                                                 CHARLES DICKENS.
+
+
+                                            GAD'S HILL PLACE,
+                                       HIGHAM BY ROCHESTER, KENT,
+                                       _Saturday, July 18, 1863_.
+
+    MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--Shall I confess it? I never went out to
+    breakfast in my life, except once to Rogers'. But what I might
+    have done under this temptation is a question forestalled by my
+    having engaged to go down to Bulwer Lytton's in Hertfordshire on
+    Monday, to stay a few days.--Cordially yours,
+
+                                                 CHARLES DICKENS.
+
+It was in 1863 that Leighton paid the notable visit to his friend of
+the Roman days, George Mason, to whom the world's Art owes so much.
+Assuredly, without Leighton's encouragement and help, those lovely
+idylls which stand with the most precious treasures of the English
+school of painting would never have been created. Mason had returned
+to England in 1856; he married and settled in his own manor-house,
+Wetley Abbey. Children were born and expenses increased, and little or
+nothing was there with which to meet them. After Rome England seemed a
+hopeless place to work in, and Mason's surroundings were quite dumb to
+his artistic sense. Leighton, when he heard of his depression and
+poverty, sought him out in his rural retreat, beamed mental sunshine
+on his spirits, made him walk with him, pointing out the pictorial
+beauties of Mason's own native country, and ended by taking him a tour
+through the Black Country. Mason's poetic sense was again awakened; an
+artistic purpose was again inspired; and, feeling the despair of
+hopeless poverty removed (Leighton was ever ready with substantial
+aid), he painted the pictures for which the world has so much reason
+to be grateful. When in 1872--nine years after this visit--George
+Mason died, Leighton arranged for a sale of his pictures and property,
+from the proceeds of which his wife and children obtained an income of
+L600 a year. Leighton wrote to Mrs. Matthews at the time of Mason's
+death: "Poor Mason's death has been a great shock to me, though indeed
+I should have been prepared for it at any time. His loss is quite
+irreparable for English Art, for he stood entirely alone in his
+especial charm, and he was one of the most lovable of men besides."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[8] The critics, judging from the following extracts, were amiably
+inclined towards him that year:--"Among the pictures familiar to London
+loungers of 1858, is Mr. F. Leighton's scene from 'Romeo and Juliet,' a
+work lost and, it may be submitted, undervalued, owing to the
+disadvantageous place given it in Trafalgar Square. The depth and
+richness of its colour, the picturesque manner in which the story is
+told, the contrast in some of the heads, that, for instance, of Friar
+Lawrence, hopeful in the consciousness of knowledge of Juliet's secret,
+with that of the entrancing maiden of Verona, or again with that of the
+weeping nurse, whose grief is a trifle too _accentue_. The truthful
+conception and careful labour of this picture have now a chance of
+being appreciated, and but that Pre-Raphaelitism is resolute not to
+give in, might fairly have entitled it to the prize bestowed
+elsewhere."--_Athenaeum_, 1858.
+
+"We will take the second-named gentleman first, and come at once to his
+'Fisherman and Syren.' The picture is not of any commanding size, nor
+does it relate any very exciting legend. The story is of the mystic
+Undine tinge, and with a shadowy semblance in it to that strange
+legend, current among the peasants of Southern Russia, of the 'White
+Lady' with the long hair, who, with loving and languishing gestures,
+decoys the unwary into her fantastic skiff, then, pressing her baleful
+lips to theirs, folds them to her fell embrace, and drags them
+shrieking beneath the engulfing waves. The 'Fisherman and Syren' of Mr.
+Leighton has something of this unreal, legendary fatality pervading it
+throughout. There is irresistible seductiveness on the one side,
+pusillanimous fondness on the other. That it is all over with the
+fisherman, and that the syren will have her wicked will of him to his
+destruction, is palpable. But it is not alone for the admirable manner
+in which the story is told that we commend this picture; the drawing is
+eruditely correct, most graceful, and most symmetrical. The syren is a
+model of form in its most charming undulations. The fisherman is a type
+of manly elegance. That Mr. Leighton understands, to its remotest
+substructure, the vital principle of the line of beauty, is pleasurably
+manifest. But there is evidence here even more pleasing that the
+painter, in the gift of a glowing imagination, and a refined ideality,
+in his mastery of the nobler parts of pictorial manipulation, is worthy
+to be reckoned among the glorious brotherhood of disciples of the
+Italian masters--of the grand old men whose pictures, faded and
+time-worn as they are, in the National Gallery hard by, laugh to scorn
+the futile fripperies that depend for half their sheen on gilt frames
+and copal varnish. This young artist is one of Langis' and Nasasi's
+men. He has plainly drunk long and eagerly at the painter's Castaly.
+The fount of beauty and of grace that assuaged the thirst of those who
+painted the 'Monna Lisa' and the 'Belle Jardiniere'; who modelled the
+'Horned Moses' and the 'Slave'; who designed Peter's great Basilica,
+and the Ghiberti Gates at Florence."--_Daily Telegraph_, 3rd May 1858.
+
+[9] The Prince of Wales, who lent the picture to the exhibition of
+Leighton's works at Burlington House, 1897.
+
+[10] Mr. Augustus Craven's wife, _nee_ Pauline la Ferronnay, was the
+authoress of the famous book, _Le Recit d'une soeur_, in which several
+of the most charming scenes took place at Naples.
+
+[11] Mr. George Aitchison wrote: "In 1859, while at Capri, he drew the
+celebrated Lemon Tree, working from daylight to dusk for a week or two,
+and giving large details in the margin of the snails on the tree."
+
+[12] The drawing had been lent to Ruskin at the time he was lecturing
+at Oxford.
+
+[13] Leighton knew Mr. Chorley through Mrs. Sartoris. He accompanied
+the great _cantatrice_ when she made a tour abroad. "Mrs. Kemble's
+children and their nurse are with them, and Mary Anne Thackeray, a
+life-long friend, and Mr. Chorley, and the great Liszt, who
+subsequently joined them in Germany."--Preface by Mrs. R. Ritchie to "A
+Week in a French Country House," by Mrs. Adelaide Sartoris.
+
+[14] Leighton was perfectly right. "Orphee" was produced at Covent
+Garden, and the great artist, Madame Viardot, sang in it superbly. The
+opera was given after one or two acts of a well-known work, and I can
+vouch for the fact, having been one of the audience, that the house was
+very nearly empty at the close of "Orphee," Lord Dudley and a very few
+true lovers of music only remaining in the stalls to the end.
+
+[15] The lady was Mrs. Sandbach, a _Hollandaise_, who was Maid of
+Honour to the Queen of Holland. In after years, on an occasion when she
+and I paid a visit together to Leighton's studio in Holland Park Road,
+she recounted the incident above related by Leighton, which happened in
+the palace at the Hague when she was in waiting. She also added that
+from her description Leighton painted what she had seen in her dream to
+perfection; but that he subsequently added two _amorini_, which in her
+opinion did much to mar the otherwise true feeling of the picture.
+
+[16] See sketches in the Leighton House Collection. The picture itself
+is, I believe, in America.
+
+[17] _Ibid._
+
+[18] A visitor to Leighton's "private view" wrote him the following
+suggestions:--
+
+                       13 CHESTER TERRACE, N.W., _Easter Monday_.
+
+    DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--Pardon intrusion. I thought much of your
+    beautiful pictures after my yesterday's visit, and I anticipated
+    a struggle with the difficulty you mentioned of worthily naming
+    them.
+
+    Don't think me impertinent for volunteering the result. It
+    seemed impossible without verbal description to explain the
+    sacred subject to the profane imagination, while a prose
+    translation of its sentiment must be heavy and subversive of
+    romance.
+
+    I think, were I fortunate enough to own the picture, I would
+    call it "Not Yet," and I would put some little lines in the
+    catalogue, which, for aught any one knows, might have come from
+    some volume of rhyme, and which should explain that it is a
+    story of a dream, and that the rejection is not final: something
+    in this spirit, only better:--
+
+                                 "Not yet--not yet--
+            Still there is trial for thee, still the lot
+            To bear (the Father wills it) strife and care,
+            With this sweet consciousness in balance set
+            Against the world, to soothe thy suffering there.
+                   Thy Lord rejects thee not."
+            Such tender words awoke me, hopeful, shriven,
+            To life on earth again from dream of heaven.
+
+    For the beauty at the fountain I once thought the best title
+    might be some couplet like the following:--
+
+            "So tranced and still half-dreamed she, and half-heard
+            The splash of fountain and the song of bird."
+
+    But my wife, from my description of the picture, suggested a
+    name better suited to the "suggestiveness" of the work:--
+
+    "Lieder ohne Worte": don't you think it rather pretty?
+
+    In the multitude of counsellors some one says there's wisdom,
+    and this liberty we take with you may beget some thought that
+    had not struck you.
+
+    I have Mr. Cockerell's commands to express to you the
+    gratification his visit afforded him and his sense of your
+    kindness and attentions.--I am, faithfully yours,
+
+                                                 RALPH A. BENSON.
+
+Another friend wrote of "Lieder ohne Worte," adding a poem suggested by
+the "Francesca":--
+
+                           TRINITY HOUSE, E.C., _8th April 1861_.
+
+    MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--If you did not paint better than I write you
+    would not be the man of abounding promise that you are.
+
+    What I meant to say was that Law and Restraint are healthy life
+    and the infraction of them ghostly death and dissolution, and
+    that meaning is in your picture, whether you know it or not.
+    Your "daemon" may have put it there, but then you can trust
+    _your_ daemon.
+
+    Still, best love to the little girl at the fountain, who knows
+    that though Speech may be silver, Silence is Golden.--Ever
+    yours, with many thanks,
+
+                                                     ROBIN ALLEN.
+    FRED. LEIGHTON, Esq.
+
+              LEIGHTON'S "FRANCESCA DI RIMINI."
+
+            "That day they read no more." Virtue grows faint,
+            One hand lies powerless, the wife's sweet face
+            Is half-convulsed by loss of self-restraint.
+            Outstretched to resist, remaining to embrace,
+            The extended arm will clasp her guilty lover,
+            And all the bright, pure world beyond for her be over.
+
+            Their very forms grow blurred and change their colour
+            Into dim snaky wreaths of purple pallor,
+            Fading away with Honour's fading Law
+            Into the pale sad ghosts that Dante saw;
+            Which we too see, crowned with departing glory,
+            When Leighton's genius deepens Dante's Story.
+
+                                                  R.A.
+        _6th April 1861._
+
+[19] D.G. Rossetti, in a letter to William Allingham, May 10, 1861,
+writes: "Leighton might, as you say, have made a burst had not his
+pictures been ill-placed mostly--indeed one of them (the only very good
+one, _Lieder ohne Worte_) is the only instance of very striking
+unfairness in the place."
+
+[20] "_Lieder ohne Worte._"
+
+[21] "Paolo and Francesca."
+
+[22] These two pictures were painted from John Hanson Walker. Leighton
+sent both to the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1862 with the titles
+"Duet" and "Rustic Music." The first only was accepted.
+
+[23] See water-colour and chalk drawings: Leighton House Collection.
+
+[24] "Sea Echoes."
+
+[25] The Hon. Mrs. Alfred Sartoris, sister-in-law of Leighton's friend,
+Mr. Edward Sartoris.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS FOR _CORNHILL MAGAZINE_--FRESCO FOR LYNDHURST
+CHURCH--ASSOCIATE OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY--MRS. LEIGHTON'S DEATH
+
+1863-1865
+
+
+In 1860 Leighton drew his first illustration for the _Cornhill
+Magazine_:--
+
+    _Translation._]
+                                    _Friday, 30th November 1860._
+
+    MY DEAR FRIEND AND MASTER,--Best thanks for your dear letter of
+    the 7th, thanks also especially, because in your kind praise you
+    do not spare criticism also; you could give me no better proof
+    that you still esteem and love your old pupil. I feel the
+    justice of your remarks about the drapery of the Saviour very
+    much, and can only say in my excuse that I have treated this
+    kind of subject very little, for I am only really a profane
+    fellow; but should I at some future time again treat such a
+    theme, I should endeavour to avoid similar faults. I send you
+    this time, for fun, a proof impression of a woodcut after a
+    drawing I made for one of our good monthly periodicals (_The
+    Cornhill Magazine_). It seems to me to be not bad for wood. It
+    illustrates a poem, and represents Ariadne kneeling on an
+    eminence, looking out for Theseus. This as a preliminary; I hope
+    to send you something in April.
+
+
+    DEAREST MAMMY,--My wretched picture is causing more delays! I am
+    very sorry to say I shan't be able to get to Bath before
+    Wednesday evening. I am due at Stourhead the 27th; this I cannot
+    defer any more, as I must be on duty with the Rifle Corps at the
+    beginning of September, and can't do all I have to do in less
+    than a week--this will, however, still leave me three weeks, all
+    but two days, at Bath.
+
+    I enjoyed myself at Panshanger very much--did I write to tell
+    you who our party was? In case I did not, it was as follows:
+    Henry Greville, Lord and Lady Katherine Valletort, Lord and Lady
+    Spencer, Mrs. Leslie, Lord Listowel, Mr. Clare Vyner, and Mr. E.
+    Lascelles--all young people; so that it was very pleasant.
+
+    There are, as you know, most beautiful pictures at Panshanger--a
+    magnificent Vandyke, a splendid Rembrandt, Correggio, Andrea del
+    Sarto, and two beautiful Raphaels.
+
+    G. Smith sent me a kind note and a cheque to fill up for drawing
+    in the _Cornhill_ ("Ariadne"). I put ten guineas, telling him
+    that I could not, as a general rule, interrupt my work for that
+    sum, but that I would not take more because the cut had turned
+    out so extremely bad.
+
+    I am going to expend the money, adding a few pounds, on a cup,
+    to be shot for in the spring by our Rifle Corps. Arthur Lewis
+    has already given one, and another of our men has promised a
+    second prize to go with my cup. My picture will be _finished_ by
+    the time I go to Bath. My eye is too accustomed to it to know
+    whether it is successful; I shall know better when I return from
+    the country.
+
+    I have no news, so good-bye, dear Mammy. Best love to all.--From
+    your very affectionate boy,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+    I go to Windsor (to Miss Thackeray) for two days next week; that
+    also is an old invitation; I have no time for it, but must go. I
+    keep my parties going tolerably, but shall give that up with a
+    few exceptions when I settle here; it makes work impossible from
+    unavoidably late hours, and produces a general deterioration of
+    mind and body, mostly the former; the Hollands I shall always
+    keep up--they are most kind; I dine there frequently and meet
+    interesting and remarkable people.
+
+Very remarkable drawings in pencil on other lines followed the
+celebrated "Lemon Tree"--surpassing in dramatic truth of expression
+any Leighton had executed since the early design he drew of the
+"Plague in Florence in 1850."[26]
+
+    [Illustration: SKETCH FOR "MICHAEL ANGELO NURSING HIS DYING
+    SERVANT." 1862
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+The group of drawings for "Michael Angelo Nursing his Dying Servant"
+are among those preserved in the Leighton House collection, but were
+not seen by the public before Leighton's death. Though slight, they
+are among the most admirable he ever achieved in subtle tenderness of
+feeling and expressive truth of drawing. The feeble twitching clutch
+of the hands of the old man--announcing the speedy approach of
+Death--is a convincing proof of imaginative realism of a high order.
+This group of sketches, however, exemplify the curious artistic
+discrepancy which at times existed, especially before and about the
+time when the Michael Angelo was painted, between Leighton's pictures
+and the studies he made for them--a discrepancy which had no reference
+to his feeling for colour, but simply arose from an absence of
+sensitiveness for texture. In turning from the drawings to the
+painting, we find the noble feeling and conception, the lines and
+forms of the design much the same in all; but the heavy and yet
+insufficient texture of the actual surface mars the full conveying,
+even in the completed painting, of the feeling of the motive--so
+imperative is a simultaneous union of the idea with a happy echo of it
+in the touch of the human hand, if a work of art is fully to convey
+its message. Leighton's genius for using the point is referred to in a
+letter from Mrs. Browning, on the subject of a drawing he had made of
+her husband:--
+
+    _Copy._]
+
+    DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--The portrait is beautiful, and would satisfy
+    me entirely except for a want of strength about the brow, which
+    I must write of, because I can't trust Robert himself with the
+    message. I think the brow is feeble, less massive than his,
+    with less fulness about the temples. In fact, your temple is
+    _hollow_, instead of full. Will you look at it by the original?
+    The eyes and mouth are exquisite. _Your pencil has the
+    expressiveness of another's brush._
+
+    How much I thank you for having put so much of my husband on
+    paper is proved by the very insolence of my criticisms.--Most
+    truly yours,
+
+                                      ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.
+    _April 1._
+
+In the same category as the Michael Angelo studies may be placed the
+first sketch of "Samson Wrestling with the Lion," designed as an
+illustration for Dalziel's Bible. This drawing is also in the Leighton
+House Collection, also the original drawings for "The Spies' Escape"
+and "Samson at the Mill." The following was written with regard to it:
+"An animal model never 'sits.' The artist must catch the action he
+wants from fleeting suggestions. His imagination alone can guide his
+pencil when he depicts such action with realistic power. It is in a
+pencil drawing of a lion that we find the work that evinces, more
+distinctly perhaps than does any other of Leighton's utterances in
+art, the highest kind of imagination in the drawing of form in action,
+namely in the sketch of 'Samson Wrestling with the Lion' for the
+illustrations in Dalziel's Bible. Where, indeed, for vigour of
+invention, can we find a drawing to surpass these few pencil lines?
+The sinews in the legs and claws of the animal are drawn up, clenching
+the vacant air with a quivering grip; the tail straightened stiffly
+through the strain of the wrestling; the whole animal convulsed with
+the force of the struggle. This is treatment of form no model could
+suggest, no knowledge evolve, no labour or industry produce. A true
+imagination alone can inspire such vivid realism." The other subjects
+Leighton illustrated were "Death of Abel," "Moses Viewing the Promised
+Land," "Samson Carrying the Gates," "Abraham and the Angel,"
+"Eliezer and Rebecca at the Well," "The Slaying of the First-born."
+
+    [Illustration: ORIGINAL DRAWING FOR "SAMSON AND THE LION" IN
+    DALZIEL'S BIBLE
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In 1862 Leighton illustrated George Eliot's great novel "Romola." He
+writes to his father:--
+
+                                                       _Tuesday._
+
+    DEAR PAPA,--Though I am not able, I am sorry to say, to report
+    the sale of any more of my pictures, you will be glad to hear of
+    a commission just given me by G. Smith of the _Cornhill_ which
+    is very acceptable to me. I am to illustrate (by-the-bye this is
+    "_strictly confidential_") a novel about to appear in the
+    _Cornhill_ from the hand of _Adam Bede_. It is an Italian story,
+    the scene and period are Florence and the fifteenth century,
+    nothing could "_ganter_" me better. It is to continue through
+    _twelve_ numbers, in each of which are to be _two_
+    illustrations.
+
+    I am to have for each _number_ L40; for the whole novel,
+    therefore, L480. I have conferred with the authoress to-day, and
+    am to get the first-proof sheets this week. The first number
+    will be published in July. Miss Evans (or Mrs. Lewes) has a very
+    striking countenance. Her face is large, her eyes deep set, her
+    nose aquiline, her mouth large, the under jaw projecting, rather
+    like Charles Quint; her voice and manner are grave, simple, and
+    gentle. There is a curious mixture in her look; she either is or
+    seems very short-sighted. Lewes is clever. Both were extremely
+    polite to me; her I shall like much.
+
+    I have no other news; no one asks about my pictures, though
+    their success is decidedly great; hard times! Are you writing to
+    Gussy? if so will you tell her that I mean to give her some
+    lessons with Halle when she comes to London? she shall have
+    _three_ a week for a month. Tell Lina with my love not to be
+    jealous, it will be her turn next. How is she? and how is Mamma?
+    Give them my best love, and believe me, your affectionate boy,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+That George Eliot should write a Florentine story at a time when
+Leighton was available to illustrate it, was certainly a most
+fortunate coincidence. Each scene which he represents is impregnated
+with a feeling which records the strong hold Italy had on his artistic
+resources. With a few exceptions, these illustrations for "Romola" are
+the last examples of his art, when a dramatic or a humorous treatment
+was a prominent feature of the designs. The last picture exhibited at
+the Royal Academy in 1897--the passionate, despairing figure of
+"Clytie"--was notably one of these exceptions. Unfortunately
+Leighton's letters to George Eliot respecting the "Romola" drawings
+cannot be found, and were probably destroyed before the author's
+death. The following were preserved by Leighton:--
+
+                                       16 BLANDFORD SQUARE, N.W.,
+                                                        _Friday_.
+
+    DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--Thanks for the sight of the Vignettes. They
+    are satisfactory.
+
+    Your delicious drawing was with me all day yesterday and made
+    the opera more delightful to me in the evening. I never saw
+    anything comparable to the scene in Nello's shop as an
+    illustration. There could not be a better beginning.
+
+    I should very much like to have a little conversation with you,
+    and will arrange to see you at any hour that will best suit you,
+    in the evening if you like, any time after the morning working
+    hours, which last till two o'clock. I know your time is very
+    precious to you just now, but I think we shall both benefit by a
+    little talk together after you have read the second
+    proof.--Yours very truly,
+
+                                                      M.E. LEWES.
+    F. LEIGHTON, Esq.
+
+
+                                       16 BLANDFORD SQUARE, N.W.,
+                                                     _Wednesday_.
+
+    DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--I feel for you as well as myself in this
+    inevitable difficulty--nay, impossibility of producing perfect
+    correspondence between my intention and the illustrations.
+
+    I think your sketch is charming, considered in itself, and I
+    feel now with regret that if we had seen each other and talked a
+    little together after you had read the proof, the only important
+    discrepancy might have been prevented. It is too late for
+    alterations now. If it had not been, I should have wished
+    Bardo's head to be raised with the chin thrust forward a
+    little--the usual attitude of the blind head, I think--and
+    turned a little towards Romola, "as if he were looking at her."
+
+    Romola's attitude is perfect, and the composition is altogether
+    such as gives me a very cheering prospect for the future, when
+    we have more time for preparation. Her face and hair, though
+    deliciously beautiful, are not just the thing--how could they
+    be? Do not make yourself uneasy if alteration is impossible, but
+    I meant the hair to fall forward from behind the ears over the
+    neck, and the dress to be without ornament.
+
+    I shall inevitably be detestable to you, but believe that I am
+
+                                 (Unfinished)
+
+
+                                       16 BLANDFORD SQUARE, N.W.,
+                                                      _Thursday_.
+
+    DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--Unmitigated delight! Nello is better than my
+    Nello. I see the love and care with which the drawings are done.
+
+    After I had sent away my yesterday's note, written in such haste
+    that I was afterwards uncomfortable lest I had misrepresented my
+    feelings, the very considerations you suggest had occurred to me
+    and I had talked them over with Mr. Lewes--namely, that the
+    exigencies of your art must forbid perfect correspondence
+    between the text and the illustration; and I came to the
+    conclusion that it was these exigencies which had determined you
+    as to the position of Bardo's head and the fall of Romola's
+    hair. You have given her attitude transcendently well, and the
+    attitude is more important than the mere head-dress. I am glad
+    you chose Nello's shop; it makes so good a variety with Bardo
+    and Romola. In a day or two you will have the second part, and I
+    think you will find there a scene for Tessa "under the Plane
+    Tree." But perhaps we shall see each other before you begin the
+    next drawings.--Ever yours truly,
+
+                                                      M.E. LEWES.
+
+
+                                       16 BLANDFORD SQUARE, N.W.,
+                                                        _Monday_.
+
+    DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--Your letter comforts me particularly. I am
+    so glad to think you find subjects to your mind. I have no
+    especial desire for the view from S. Miniato, and indeed a plan
+    we started in conversation with Mr. Smith this morning, namely,
+    to have moderately sized initial letters--the opening one being
+    an old Florentine in his _Lucco_ and generally the subjects
+    being bits of landscape or Florentine building--seems to do away
+    with any reason for having the landscape to begin with. The idea
+    of having Tessa and the mules, or Nello's sanctum, smiles upon
+    me, so pray feel free to choose the impression that urges itself
+    most strongly. Your observation about the "che, che" is just the
+    aid I besought from you. With that exception, I have confined
+    myself, I believe, to such interjections as I find in the
+    writers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and in them,
+    curiously enough, this exclamation now said to be so constant
+    and "to mean everything" (according to our authority) does not
+    seem to occur.
+
+    Thank you. Pray let me have as many criticisms of that kind as
+    you can. I am more gratified, I think, by your liking these
+    opening chapters than I have yet been by anything in these
+    nervous anxious weeks of decision about publication.--Very truly
+    yours,
+
+                                                      M.E. LEWES.
+    F. LEIGHTON, Esq.
+
+
+                                       16 BLANDFORD SQUARE, N.W.,
+                                               _Tuesday Evening_.
+
+    DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--I am enchanted! purely delighted! which
+    shall I begin with, to tell you that I delight in Baby's toes or
+    that exquisite poetry in the scene where Romola is standing? Is
+    it not a pleasant change to have that opening made through the
+    walls of the city, so as to see the sky and the mountains? In
+    the scene with Baldassarre and Tessa, also, the distant view is
+    charming. Tessa and her Babkin are perfect--Baldassarre's is, as
+    you say, an impossible face to draw, but you have seized the
+    framework of the face well, both in this illustration and the
+    previous one.
+
+    I want to tell you that a man of some eminence in art was
+    speaking of your drawings to a third person the other day as
+    "remarkable" in a tone of genuine admiration. I don't know
+    whether you care about that, but it is good to know that there
+    is any genuine admiration in one's neighbours.
+
+    I am glad to have the drawings left. I shall go now and have a
+    long look at them. The February number will soon be out of my
+    hands, but you will have it when it pleases the pigs--or
+    printers.--Ever yours truly,
+
+                                                      M.E. LEWES.
+
+
+                                      PARK HOTEL, LITTLE HAMPTON,
+                                     SUSSEX, _September 10, '62_.
+
+    DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--Thanks for your letter, which I have
+    received this morning.
+
+    My copy of Vasari has a profile of Piero di Cosimo, but it is of
+    no value, a man with a short beard and eyes nearly closed. The
+    old felt hat on his head has more character in it than the
+    features, but the hat you can't use.
+
+    Of Niccolo Caparra it is not likely that any portrait exists, so
+    that you may feel easy in letting your imagination interpret my
+    suggestions in the First and the Fifth Parts of Romola. There is
+    probably a portrait of Piero di Cosimo in the portrait room of
+    Uffizi, but in the absence of any decent catalogue of that
+    collection it was a bewildering and headachy business to assure
+    oneself of the presence or absence of any particular personage.
+
+    If you feel any doubt about the _new_ Romola, I think it will be
+    better for you to keep to the original representation, the type
+    given in the first illustration, which some accomplished people
+    told me they thought very charming. It will be much better to
+    continue what is intrinsically pretty than to fail in an effort
+    after something indistinctly seen. If you prefer the action of
+    _taking out_ the crucifix, instead of the merely contemplative
+    attitude, you can choose that with safety. In the scene with
+    Piero di Cosimo, I thought you might make the figures
+    subordinate to those other details which you render so
+    charmingly, and I chose it for that reason.
+
+    But I am quite convinced that illustrations can only form a sort
+    of overture to the text. The artist who uses the pencil must
+    otherwise be tormented to misery by the deficiencies or
+    requirements of the one who uses the pen, and the writer, on the
+    other hand, must die of impossible expectations. _Apropos_ of
+    all that, I want to assure you again of what I had said in that
+    letter, which your naughty servant sent down the wind, that I
+    appreciate very highly the advantage of having your hand and
+    mind to work with me rather than those of any other artist of
+    whom I know. Please do not take that as an impertinent
+    expression of opinion, but rather as an honest expression of
+    feeling by which you must interpret any apparent criticism.
+
+    The initial letter of the December part will be W. I forgot to
+    tell you how pleased I was with the initial letter of Part V.
+
+    I am very much obliged to you for your critical doubts. I will
+    put out the questionable "Ecco!" in deference to your knowledge.
+    I have a tremulous sense of my liability to error in such
+    things.
+
+    I don't wonder at your difficulty about the modification of
+    _com_ into _ciom_. The writers of the fifteenth century,
+    speaking of the insurrection of the _Ciompi_ which occurred in
+    the previous century, say that the word was a corruption of the
+    French _compere_, the same word of course as _compare_,
+    constantly on the lips of the numerous French who were present
+    in Florence during the dictatorship of the Duke of Athens. The
+    likelihood of the derivation lies in the analysis of transition
+    in the meaning of words _compere_ and _compare_, like the
+    English "gossip," beginning with the meaning of godfather and
+    ending with, or rather proceeding to that of companion. Our
+    "gossip" has at least parted with its secondary meaning as well
+    as its primary one.
+
+    The unlikelihood of the derivation lies in the modification of
+    the sounds, and I felt that unlikelihood as you have done. But
+    in the absence of a Max Mueller to assure me of a law to the
+    contrary, I thought the statement of Tuscan writers a better
+    authority than inferences. I ought to have written "is stated by
+    the old historians."
+
+    I am really comforted by the thought that you will mention
+    doubts to me when they occur to you. My misery is the certainty
+    that I must be often in error.
+
+    Mr. Lewes shares my admiration of the two last
+    illustrations.--Ever yours truly,
+
+                                                 MARIAN E. LEWES.
+    F. LEIGHTON, Esq.
+
+
+                                       16 BLANDFORD SQUARE, N.W.,
+                                                       _Tuesday_.
+
+    DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--Since I saw you I have confirmed by renewed
+    reference my conclusion that _gamurra_ was the equivalent of
+    our _gown_, _i.e._ the constant outer garb of femininity,
+    varying in length and cut according to rank and age. The poets
+    and novelists give it alike to the peasant and the "city woman,"
+    and speak of the _girdle_ around it. Perhaps it would have been
+    better to call Tessa's gown a _gamurrina_, the word sometimes
+    used and indicating, I imagine, just that abbreviation of
+    petticoat that active work demands.
+
+    If you are going to see Ghirlandajo's frescoes--the engravings
+    of them I mean--in the choir of Santa Maria Novella, I wish you
+    would especially notice if the women in his groups have not that
+    plain piece of opaque drapery over the head which haunts my
+    memory. We were only allowed to see those frescoes once, because
+    of repairs going on; but I am strongly impressed with a
+    belief--which, _au reste_, may be quite false--in the presence
+    of my "white hood" there. As to the garb of the luxurious
+    classes at that time, a point which may turn up in our progress,
+    I think the painters can hardly be believed to have represented
+    it fully, since we know, on strong evidence, that it ran into
+    extravagances, which are even in contrast with the general
+    impression conveyed not only by the large fresco compositions
+    but by the portraits. You must have had sufficient experience of
+    the _eclecticism_ in costume which the artist's feeling forces
+    upon him in the presence of hideous or extreme fashion. We have
+    in Varchi a sufficiently fit and clear description of the
+    ordinary male costume of dignified Florentines in my time; but
+    for the corresponding feminine costume the best authority I have
+    seen is the very incomplete one of a certain Ginevra's
+    _trousseau_ in the Ricordi of the Rinuccini family of rather an
+    earlier period, but marking even there the rage for embroidery
+    and pearls which grew instead of diminishing.
+
+    I imagine that the woman's _berretta_, frequently of velvet
+    embroidered with pearls, and apparently almost as prevalent as
+    our bonnet, must have been that close-fitting cap, square at the
+    ears, of which we spoke yesterday. I trouble you with this
+    note--which pray do not think it necessary to answer--in order
+    to indicate to you the very slight satisfaction my anxiety on
+    this subject can meet with, and the obligation I shall be under
+    to you if you will ever give me a positive or negative hint or
+    correction.
+
+    Approximative truth is the only truth attainable, but at least
+    one must strive for that, and not wade off into arbitrary
+    falsehood.--Ever, dear Mr. Leighton, yours very truly,
+
+                                                 MARIAN E. LEWES.
+
+Leighton preserved the records of a friendship with Mr. Robin
+Allen,[27] established and for most part continued through a
+correspondence which lasted for many years from the early 'sixties.
+The letter sent with the following poem refers to Leighton's
+illustration to Mrs. Browning's poem, "Musical Instrument," of which
+the original drawing is reproduced. (See List of Illustrations.)
+
+                                              TRINITY HOUSE, E.C.
+
+    MY DEAR SIR,--If I send this to the author of a lovely
+    illustration to a lovely poem, it is not for its worth, but to
+    give me an excuse for saying that I go out of town for a month
+    next Wednesday, and hope that I may call on you on my return,
+    perhaps get leave to show you over Loughton Woods in the
+    autumn.--Believe me, my dear sir, yours truly,
+
+                                                     ROBIN ALLEN.
+    F. LEIGHTON, Esq.
+
+    SEQUITUR TO MRS. BROWNING'S "MUSICAL INSTRUMENT" IN THE
+    "CORNHILL MAGAZINE" OF JULY 1860.
+
+    A greater God than the great god Pan
+      Planted the reed in the river,
+    And he is the only God who can
+    Break through its heart without killing the reed,
+    And make of its very life indeed
+      An organ, to utter His psalm as the Giver.
+
+    This greater God than the beast-god Pan,
+      As He watches the reeds in Time's river,
+    Counts for best poet that perfect Man
+    Who holds lightly his song, at its loftiest strain,
+    So he live a man's life!--and at all cost and pain
+      _Is_ a reed among reeds in the river.
+
+                                                  R.A.
+
+    [Illustration: "THE GREAT GOD PAN"
+    Original Sketch for Illustration to Mrs. Browning's Poem in the
+    _Cornhill Magazine_, 1861]
+
+    [Illustration: "AN EVENING IN A FRENCH COUNTRY HOUSE"
+    Illustration for Mrs. Adelaide Sartoris's story, "A Week in a
+    French Country House," published in the _Cornhill Magazine_, 1867
+    By permission of Messrs. Smith, Elder, & Co.]
+
+In a letter to his mother Leighton expresses a warm admiration for
+these lines by Mr. Robin Allen.
+
+In the autumn of 1863 the following letter to his mother mentions a
+notable visit to Compiegne. The charming story Mrs. Edward Sartoris
+wrote, which appeared some years later in the _Cornhill Magazine_, "A
+Week in a French Country House," owes its local colour to this home at
+Compiegne to which Leighton refers. It belonged to Mr. Edward
+Sartoris' brother-in-law, the Marquis de l'Aigle. For this story
+Leighton made two admirable illustrations--"An Evening in a French
+Country House" and "Drifting." Leighton is supposed to have suggested
+the character of Monsieur Kiowski, the Polish artist in the story; and
+the figure in the boat holding the rudder in "Drifting" he certainly
+meant to represent himself, while the figure singing is Adelaide
+Sartoris--drawn, as shown by the head-dress, from the sketch Leighton
+made in 1856. (See List of Illustrations.)
+
+    _Commencement of letter missing._]
+                                                            1862.
+
+    I have a fit of the blues instead.
+
+    I hope for the sake of my pictures that I shall soon get over
+    them (the blues, not the pictures). I believe if I could find
+    models I should recover at once; but I foresee that I shall have
+    no such luck.
+
+    I had a delightful time at Compiegne--the place is charming, the
+    house comfortable in the extreme, and the life the perfection of
+    unconstraint (if that is English); I have told you already how
+    hospitable and kind my host and hostess were. I have, of course,
+    no news to give you yet, except, by-the-bye, that the bailiffs
+    were in the house the other day because Mr. and Mrs. Gedy had
+    not paid L3, 5s. 6d. taxes; they stayed two days in the house,
+    and if the money had not come, would have walked off with some
+    of _my_ furniture. I wish I had a house; they are beginning a
+    house on Campden Hill, and would build it for an artist after
+    his own designs.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Sartoris, the admirer of "Eastern King," were also
+among the visitors during this week in a French country house, and
+write the following anecdote:--
+
+    "Those who knew Lord Leighton require no record of his kindness
+    and unselfishness. For those who had not that privilege the
+    following little anecdote may be interesting. In the late autumn
+    of 1863 we were all staying with my sister-in-law, the Marquise
+    de l'Aigle, at Francport, near Compiegne. Mrs. Sartoris was also
+    there and Mr. Leighton. There was to be a service on the Sunday
+    in a little neighbouring village church for some children who
+    had made their first communion, and it occurred to Mme. de
+    l'Aigle to have some special music on the occasion, and profit
+    by the glorious voice of Mrs. Sartoris, who kindly offered to
+    sing. Mr. Leighton also volunteered to take the tenor part in
+    various sacred pieces. We were all to help in the concerted
+    music, and the old cure was in the seventh heaven of delight at
+    the prospect of such a grand service. Our dismay can be imagined
+    when three days before the service Mr. Leighton announced that
+    he must leave us as business required his presence in London.
+    'Oh!' we all exclaimed, 'what shall we do? the tenor pieces must
+    be given up; the cure will die of grief,' &c. ... 'No, no,' said
+    Mr. L., in his cheery way, 'don't change anything; I shall be
+    back all right on Sunday morning in time to sing;' and so, sure
+    enough, he did return, having travelled two nights to London and
+    back. He never would tell us why he had gone; and it was not
+    till long afterwards that it transpired that he had made the
+    hurried double journey to help a struggling artist, whose work
+    he wished to bring forward and introduce to some influential
+    person. He attained his object, and thought nothing of the time
+    and trouble involved, only glad to have been a help to one who
+    needed assistance, and also to keep his promise by singing in
+    the little village church."
+
+    [Illustration: "DRIFTING"
+    Illustration for Mrs. Adelaide Sartoris's story, "A Week in a
+    French Country House," published in the _Cornhill Magazine_, 1867
+    By permission of Messrs. Smith, Elder, & Co.]
+
+In 1863 Leighton began painting the fresco of "The Wise and Foolish
+Virgins," which he presented to the Church at Lyndhurst. It was
+painted on the plaster wall above the altar at the east end. While
+at work on it, he stayed with his old friend Mr. Hamilton Aide, who
+formed one of the happy company of _intimes_ of the Roman and Lucca
+days. Several visits to this charming home in the New Forest were made
+before the work was finished.
+
+In the following letter to Steinle he mentions his first experiment in
+Mr. Gambier Parry's medium for painting in fresco.
+
+    _Translation._]
+                                        2 ORME SQUARE, BAYSWATER.
+
+    MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--When I last wrote I asked you when the
+    German exhibition of which you spoke was to take place, and
+    whether it was to be held in Cologne itself; but as I received
+    no answer I supposed that this exhibition either had not come to
+    anything (as I have seen nothing about it in the newspapers), or
+    that it did not seem sufficiently important to you for me to go
+    specially to Germany for it. Nevertheless, I would have gone to
+    Cologne, if it had been in any way feasible, exclusively on
+    account of you and your works, which I am very anxious to see;
+    unfortunately, however, I could not arrange it, and must content
+    myself with learning from a letter (if you will write me one)
+    how your work succeeds, and how far you have got with it. Two
+    walls are already finished, are they not?
+
+    As for myself, I am fairly industrious. Amongst other things, I
+    am painting at present the composition which you have already
+    seen, of Michael Angelo and his old servant Urbino. I have
+    endeavoured to keep the action of the figures simpler and
+    smoother than in the first sketch; and, in fact, I think the
+    picture will please you better than the drawing. For the rest, I
+    am sick of painting small pictures, and would like to undertake
+    something large; but it is not very agreeable to paint pictures
+    which will probably remain always hanging round one's neck.
+
+    I think I shall very soon test the public again in this
+    respect--but _what_ I shall paint I do not know. A friend of
+    mine (Mr. Gambier Parry), a great art devotee and first-rate
+    amateur, has discovered a medium to replace fresco painting in
+    our damp climate. I have seen his experiments, and have myself
+    painted a head under his rules,[28] and to my complete
+    satisfaction. The result is scarcely to be distinguished from
+    fresco, and is quite as easy, indeed even easier to achieve. At
+    the same time this method has advantages which _buon_ fresco
+    does not possess; it dries exactly as one lays it on (and is
+    then flat), it has no deposit (_Ansaetze_), and one can go over
+    it as often as one likes. The wall (a granular lime wall) is
+    saturated with the same preparation as you paint with. This
+    preparation, which is _stone hard_ against water, can always
+    dissolve _itself_ with moisture, so that one can retouch it
+    perpetually, at the same time the _whole_ of one's palette is
+    available. My friend is going to publish his system; I will
+    then, if you like, tell you exactly about it.
+
+    And now, farewell, dear Master. Remember me most kindly to your
+    wife and children, and keep in remembrance your friend and
+    pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+He wrote to Steinle in 1862 that he was making studies for the
+Lyndhurst fresco, and expected to finish it that summer; but it was
+apparently only begun in August 1863.
+
+    _Translation._]
+                                        2 ORME SQUARE, BAYSWATER,
+                                                _April 22, 1862_.
+
+    MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--When I last wrote to you, I promised and
+    hoped that this time I should be able to send you some
+    photographs of my latest works, but unfortunately at the last
+    moment time ran short. My pictures are only just ready for
+    exhibition, and I must send them off unphotographed. In order
+    that you may not think I have been idle, I write these lines;
+    also because I am unwilling, my dear Master, to fade entirely
+    from your memory. I am exhibiting _eight_ pictures this year, an
+    unusually large number. But the case is not so bad as it looks
+    at the first glance. Two only of these pictures are important in
+    size and subject. One of them you already know from a former
+    composition. It represents Michael Angelo with his dying servant
+    Urbino. In the principal idea I have not deviated much from the
+    first sketch, but have endeavoured to treat the whole with more
+    unity and the details with more simplicity than in the
+    drawing which you saw, and the faults of which you pointed out
+    to me. This picture is life-size, and extends down to the knees.
+
+    The other is of a somewhat fanciful description. I have imagined
+    one of the three holy kings, when he sees the Star in the East
+    from the battlements of his palace. The picture is curious and
+    open to much fault-finding, but I think it will please you by a
+    certain poetry in the conception. The shape is long and narrow.
+    The king, half life-size, almost turns his back upon the
+    spectator, and is, in the midst of the dark night, only lit by
+    the mystic rays of the Star. In contrast to this pure light one
+    sees, quite at the bottom, through an arch, into the hot
+    lamp-light, which illuminates a gay orgy. I have allowed myself
+    a certain amount of pictorial licence, which may well surprise
+    the general spectator at first glance, but which to me heightens
+    the poetical impression of the whole.
+
+    Five other pictures are smaller, and three of the subjects are
+    idyllic or fanciful (_e.g._ a shepherd playing on a flute, an
+    Oriental girl with a swan, &c. &c.), all carried out with great
+    love, and certainly my best works.
+
+    At present I am busy making studies for a large wall painting
+    (the "Wise and Foolish Virgins"), which I am giving to a church.
+    I shall execute it this summer, and tell you more about it.
+
+    Now, my dear Friend, I have given you a long and full report of
+    myself; I hope you also will tell me what you are doing. I am
+    very anxious to know how the Cologne frescoes get on. How I
+    should like to see them! PERHAPS I may manage it this autumn. In
+    the meantime, however, write to me, and believe me to be, your
+    devoted pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    [Illustration: PORTRAIT FROM A PHOTOGRAPH OF LORD LEIGHTON TAKEN
+    IN 1863]
+
+
+                                          _April 1863, Saturday._
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--You have seen in the papers that the Review at
+    Brighton went off capitally. I enjoyed my day very much, and
+    though I was a _little_ tired and _very_ sleepy for two days
+    after, was altogether the better for it. It was a stiff day's
+    work too--nine or ten hours without sitting down, and with the
+    additional responsibility of having the command of the Artists'
+    Company. I was sure you would be pleased at the reception of my
+    "Fruit Girl"[29] by my brother artists--you must understand,
+    though, that this applies chiefly to the younger men (and not to
+    _all_ of _them_), for there are several of the older painters
+    who strongly object to my style of painting and are bent on
+    suppressing it.
+
+    Will you thank Papa for his hint about the _Athenaeum_--I am
+    pretty sure he is mistaken about it, but I shall take measures
+    about it--indeed I _have_.
+
+    I spoke to _Charles_ Greville (Henry's brother) and told him I
+    thought I should be coming on before very long; he very kindly
+    overhauled the lists and said he thought I might be up by the
+    end of the summer, and, what was still more kind, seeing me
+    unseconded, he put his name down as seconder.
+
+
+                                          FOREST BANK, LYNDHURST,
+                                      _Thursday, August 6, 1863_.
+
+    If I was not more explicit about being with Aide, it was because
+    I made sure you knew it. You will be pleased to hear that when
+    after many _peripeties_ I did begin my fresco I got on
+    capitally; I have now finished the task for this year, having
+    painted _three_ life-size figures, with a good bit of
+    background, in _four_ days. I worked hard for it, and am rather
+    tired--head and eyes; otherwise flourishing.
+
+    I am delighted with my new fresco material (Parry's)--the effect
+    is excellent--nearly as fine as real fresco. Everybody seems
+    much pleased with what I have done, particularly the parson. I
+    like it myself; I enjoy working at it immensely; it is my real
+    element. I find it (for mere _manipulation bien entendu_)
+    absurdly easy.
+
+The following letter from Mr. Gambier Parry explains the "fresco
+material" Leighton used.
+
+                                             HIGHNAM, GLOUCESTER,
+                                                _August 3, 1863_.
+
+    MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--In reply to your last note about the use of
+    the wall itself rather than of canvas, there can be no doubt on
+    the subject, if only the plaster is _good_ and _well put on_.
+    You speak of two or three months to get it dry. I assure you
+    that that is _not near enough_. When the surface feels dry to
+    your hand you must not suppose that it is all dry inside, and if
+    the _wall_ is new, I doubt a year being enough to dry it. The
+    water must evaporate somewhere--it is drawn _to the_ surface of
+    _interiors_ because they are the warmest.
+
+    You ask whether the rough cast on the wall must be scraped off
+    before you wash the wall for painting. If by the _rough cast_
+    you mean rough plaster, which is a totally different thing to
+    rough cast, certainly use it as it is. The coarser the plaster
+    the better, because it is all the more porous, so long only that
+    it is of the best materials (viz. perfectly _washed_ sand, and
+    good lime), and well put on a good wall. _Nothing in the world
+    could equal it for painting upon_, except a surface of _coarse
+    clean_ Bath stone, with _all its pores open_. If you have such
+    plaster as I have just described, and both it and the wall
+    thoroughly dry, nothing could be better. The smooth surface,
+    with what granulated texture you please, can be got according to
+    the directions in my paper--viz. after two or three washes of
+    pure diluted medium, give another or two more of the same, with
+    dry whiting and a little white-lead, then go ahead _while it is
+    all fresh_, viz. _two or three days_ after the process of
+    preparation has been completed.
+
+    Take care in painting not to rub it up too much, for fear of
+    _drawing up the glossy resins to the surface_ away from the wax.
+    Paint right _into_ your prepared surface _solidly_ and with
+    _decision_ in the way of fresco painting, not as oil. Keep the
+    brush clean, and the volatile oil in the dipper clean, and then,
+    oh! how shall I envy you your power to use them all![30]
+
+    At the _Ely ceiling_, which is of hard wood _not_ porous, but
+    prepared with three coats of oil white-lead, I am painting with
+
+                             Liquid Measure.
+      Pale drying oil             2
+      Japan gold size             2
+      Turpentine                  2
+      Artist copal                1
+
+    well shaken up every time it is used. The colours are all ground
+    up in it, and then painting is done as in water-colour, using
+    _pure spirits of turpentine_ as a vehicle. Colours dry extremely
+    rapidly and with a dead surface. The stuff looks horribly black,
+    but the colours are not materially affected by it. Of course it
+    is not to be compared with my former medium, because there is
+    that bane of the palette oil in it, but I used it because of its
+    great facility (used transparent like _water-colour on a white
+    ground_), and because the surface was hard, so that wax might
+    (in great heat) shrink or play tricks on it, as it has done in
+    Murillo's pictures and many others.--Ever most sincerely yours,
+
+                                                T. GAMBIER PARRY.
+
+    If I can do anything for you, command me; we go to Scotland on
+    the 14th.
+
+
+                                        LONDON, _April 26, 1863_.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--You were no doubt surprised to see a sock arrive
+    in Bath in solitary grandeur, unaccompanied by any sort of note.
+    The fact is, for some days past I have been working at a rate
+    which made me altogether unfit for correspondence. I have just
+    returned from Lyndhurst, where I have been doing a bit more
+    fresco--and very stiff work it was--up and at work at seven, and
+    at it best part of the day, perched generally on an
+    uncomfortably narrow ladder, and with my head almost blown off
+    by the agreeable but overpowering smell of the vehicle with
+    which I painted. The result is as far as it goes tolerably
+    satisfactory--everybody there is delighted, and though that, of
+    course, does not prove much, it is at all events agreeable to me
+    that they derive so much pleasure from my work. The
+    stained-glass window, too, which has been executed at my desire
+    from Jones' designs, gives great satisfaction--is a lovely piece
+    of colour, and (which was, to me, of paramount importance) does
+    not hurt my fresco, though, of course, in the nature of things,
+    it outshines tenfold in point of brilliancy; hence the folly, to
+    my mind, of ever putting glass and wall painting in immediate
+    juxtaposition. I shall go and paint another slice in June, after
+    which Aide leaves, so I may not be able to finish my work till
+    he returns in autumn. On my road to Lyndhurst, I paid a visit
+    to Lady Dorothy Neville (Lady Pollington's sister) at
+    Dangstein--a very beautiful place near Petersfield.
+
+    On Monday week the Royal Academy opens--I shall be curious to
+    see what pictures they have taken; my work at present will be a
+    woodcut for Dalziel--then that for the _Cornhill_--then a
+    drawing for Cundall's Bible--Mrs. Magniac's portrait--the
+    cartoon for the remainder of the Lyndhurst fresco--then perhaps
+    a new picture. I wish some one would buy the old ones!
+
+    Have you read "Sylvia's Lovers"? Don't read "Salammbo"--it is
+    hideous.
+
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--My chair has arrived safe and sound; once more,
+    my very best thanks for it.
+
+    Aide _is_ one of the most _excellent_ men that ever lived--I
+    like him extremely.
+
+    By-the-bye, I am made one of the ensigns in our Rifle Corps, so
+    that when you come to town you have a chance of seeing me
+    strutting about with a sword.
+
+    I write in haste. Good-bye, best love to all.--From your very
+    affectionate boy,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+    [Illustration: THE FRESCO PRESENTED BY LORD LEIGHTON TO
+    LYNDHURST CHURCH--"THE WISE AND FOOLISH VIRGINS." Completed 1864]
+
+In a letter to his father dated 1864 Leighton announced the completion
+of the fresco, "The Wise and Foolish Virgins." The design of the whole
+and the lines of the draperies in each figure are all admirable, and
+the work is one which proves Leighton's powers of achieving rapidly,
+and under great difficulties, a complete work and one in which his
+great sense of beauty is very salient. There is also sufficient
+dramatic feeling in the gestures and expressions of the faces. Perhaps
+the most interesting (because the most spontaneous) attitude in the
+figures of the wise virgins is that which is kneeling, profile-wise,
+under the figure of the angel, who is indicating to her the presence
+of her Saviour. She seems dazed with awe and rapture. Her arm is
+caught up with a sudden unstudied angularity of movement which, though
+not so beautiful intrinsically as are most of those in Leighton's
+work, is very expressive, and produces a happy effect amid the more
+obviously arranged lines in the rest of the design. Among the many
+drawings preserved in the Leighton House Collection made for this
+fresco there is a slight but very sensitive sketch for this figure,
+also a finished pencil drawing for the head of Christ. The model who
+sat for this head was the Italian whom Leighton painted in "Golden
+Hours," and whom Watts used for the picture he (many years after its
+execution) entitled "A Prodigal." The type of this model may be felt
+by some to have been an unfortunate one to choose for the central
+imposing figure in the design of the fresco. It is, perhaps, weak--too
+good-looking in a commonplace style for such a subject.
+
+Ruskin, on seeing the photograph of this work, wrote to Leighton (a
+postscript to a letter): "I was much struck--seriously--by the
+photograph from your fresco; it is wonderfully fine in action."
+
+Leighton wrote to Steinle on receipt of his criticisms on the
+Lyndhurst fresco:--
+
+    _Translation._]
+                                                  _3rd December._
+
+    MY DEAR FRIEND,--Just now returned from a long journey (to
+    Constantinople and Athens), I find two very welcome letters from
+    you, by which I see with great pleasure that your old pupil may
+    still reckon upon your invaluable friendship and sympathy, and I
+    see it all the more certainly because you enclose a kind but
+    pertinent criticism of the photographs I sent you.[31] I agree
+    entirely, and can only pretend in my defence that it was
+    difficult, with the long space (all having to be filled) and the
+    altar standing in the middle of it, not to fall into rather a
+    panic. That, after all, is but a lame excuse, and I hope that
+    you will always rap me over the knuckles with the same friendly
+    sincerity.
+
+    My dear Friend, the idea of appearing as a collaborator beside
+    you, my master, would be in the very highest degree delightful
+    and flattering to me. It is therefore only after mature
+    deliberation, and in the firm confidence that you will at least
+    appreciate the sincerity of your Leighton, that I have to
+    decline with real regret Herr Bruckmann's flattering invitation.
+    _You_, more than any one else, will agree with me that an artist
+    can execute no first-rate work, indeed dare undertake no work,
+    that is not a genuine expression alike of his feelings and his
+    convictions. I must candidly confess I cannot agree about a
+    complete illustration of the Shakespearian plays, those
+    masterpieces already in existence as _exhaustively finished_
+    works of art; it seems to me that in literature only those
+    subjects lend themselves to pictorial representation which stand
+    in the written word more as _suggestion_. Subjects perhaps which
+    are provided in the Bible or in mythology and tradition in great
+    variety, or are not already generally in possession of the minds
+    of the spectators of living plays (_e.g._ the Greek Tragedies).
+    It is for the most part a struggle with the incomparable,
+    already existing _complete_--which is quite intimidating to my
+    capabilities. Do not take this ill, my dear Friend, and do not
+    consider it too great a presumption that I, your pupil, declare
+    so plainly against you where you think so differently. To go
+    back over one detail, I must also confess that _to me_ a
+    _coloured cartoon_ is not a natural mode of expression; a
+    _drawn_, or a _grey in grey_ (grau in grau) painted
+    cartoon--well enough. A size five feet high is to me, for a
+    _suggestion_ of colour, at least five times too large; just as
+    little could I give a suggestion of form in this size. Colour is
+    not necessary; but if one should use it in half life-size, it is
+    too noble and poetic, I think, for one to venture, so to speak,
+    to clarify it. Will you forgive me for all this, dear master?
+    However, I shall see with deep interest the progress of the
+    beautiful work which you will certainly execute.
+
+    I have heard with some sorrow of the burning of the venerable
+    Dome, and am just writing to Otto Cornhill in respect to a
+    lottery which is to be arranged for the re-erection of the
+    tower.
+
+    I have read what you tell me of your dear family with great
+    pleasure; please remember me most kindly to your wife and
+    children; also to my old comrades V. Mueller, Wecker, and the
+    rest. I am very glad to hear that G. Wecker, the apostate, has
+    returned to art. He was, undoubtedly still is, a very gifted
+    man, but had to guard somewhat, had he not? against the
+    _ornamental_.
+
+    But my letter is becoming too long.
+
+    Farewell, my dear Master; take nothing amiss from your grateful,
+    devoted pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+
+                                               _Friday 10, 1864._
+
+    DEAR PAPA,--You will be disappointed, after waiting so long, to
+    receive no paper after all, and a skimpy note instead. I am
+    amused at the studied ill-nature of the _Spectator_; I wonder
+    who _V._ is. The author of an article on sensation pictures in
+    the _Realm_, in which I am flatteringly quoted, is by Mrs.
+    Norton. _En somme_ I think my "_Golden Hours_" is the most
+    successful of my pictures (perhaps more than anything since
+    "Cimabue") and the "Orpheus" (deservedly) the least. I am about
+    to begin two new pictures. Mrs. Guthrie's portrait--a full
+    length--is postponed for her health till the winter.
+
+
+                                                            1864.
+
+    I should not leave the place I am in except to build; a mended
+    house would be most unsatisfactory and _temporary_. I feel sure
+    I shall nowhere get standing room for a house for less than L28,
+    still less room for a house and _large garden_. If I find the
+    terms exactly as I expect and my lawyer (Nettleship) satisfied
+    with the title I shall, I think, close the bargain, the more so
+    that another painter (I don't know who) is after it.[32] I am
+    staying for a day or two at Dangstein (Lady Dorothy Neville's).
+    I met here last night Mr. Henry Woolfe, who very kindly offered
+    me introductions to one or two charming Venetian families
+    (Mocenigo) which will be very pleasant for me, as I want to see
+    a Venetian interior. Gambart has paid the L1050 for "Dante." The
+    "Honeymoon" was bought by a Cornhill dealer yclept Moreby.
+
+    I will let you know how all goes off on Saturday at the Council,
+    meanwhile best love to Mamma.--From your affectionate son,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+
+                                               _August 23, 1864._
+
+    I found your letter on returning from Lyndhurst this morning. I
+    may as well tell you at once that I have finished my fresco,
+    retouching a great deal of what was already painted, and I think
+    I may add, greatly improving it--so much for that.
+
+    With regard to the draft, my assent was only general and
+    preliminary (besides being subject to the approval in the
+    details of my solicitor) and bound me to nothing. My surveyor
+    and solicitor have conferred together and with Lady H.'s agent,
+    and though the agreement is not yet signed, the matter is
+    virtually settled. I have several minor clauses altered which
+    had been inserted originally in the general draft to meet cases
+    different from my own. With regard to the title, I was surprised
+    and vexed to hear that it was stipulated that _no title should_
+    be called for. My lawyer told me that this was frequently the
+    case--that he would go to Doctors' Commons to see the Will to
+    ascertain the truth of the statement that the property was Lady
+    H.'s in fee simple (as it is). Even this he said did not
+    _legally_ exhaust the matter, as there might be encumbrances not
+    alluded to in the Will. He said, however, that many other leases
+    had been granted on that property on precisely the same terms,
+    that the matter turned on the character of the landlord, and
+    that, _en somme_, I ran but little risk. _Since then_ I have
+    seen him, and he tells me that he has fortunately been able to
+    ascertain through a very respectable firm of solicitors, who
+    _have_ seen the titles, that _it is all right_; he has therefore
+    not thought it desirable to put me to the expense of
+    investigating the Will--so far so good. As to the possible
+    expense of the house, my dear Papa, you have taken, I assure
+    you, false alarm. I shall indeed devote more to the
+    architectural part of the building than _you_ would care to do;
+    but in the first place architecture and much _ornament_ are not
+    inseparable, and besides, whatever I do I shall undertake
+    _nothing without an estimate_.
+
+    You need never fear that I shall take otherwise than it is
+    meant the advice that your experience and interest in me suggest
+    to you. You will also, I am sure, allow for the difference of
+    feeling between yourself and an artist who lives by his eyes.
+
+    A line will find me at Venice, _poste restante_, all September.
+    I am just off.
+
+    Best love to Mammy.--From your affectionate son,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+    I knew neither _Poole_ nor _Jones_. Grant said he thought it
+    probable I should be an R.A. before long.
+
+
+                                     VENICE, _September 20, '64_.
+
+    MY DEAR PAPA,--Many thanks for your letter, which reached me
+    safely a few days ago. I do indeed contemplate building my house
+    so as to be enlarged at a future day. I find, however, that I
+    shall probably be obliged to build at once rather more than I
+    absolutely require for practical building reasons, but I need
+    not therefore furnish more than I require. About the well I am
+    now entirely in the dark. It would never have occurred to me to
+    ask myself the question, Are there not _pipes_ or something?
+    With regard to the Will, if the perusal of it only cost a
+    guinea, it might have been worth while to look at it, though
+    Palmer and Nettleship thought it superfluous; but then P. and N.
+    tell me it would cost L20! to have it gone over, and as my
+    expenses with Browne (Lady H.'s agent) are already very
+    great--he makes a preposterous charge, _which I can't dispute_,
+    for the agreement--I don't think I shall care to add to them.
+
+    My architect is Aitchison, an old friend.
+
+    I wrote to the Academicians (Poole, Grant, and Jones) almost
+    immediately on hearing from them, and expressed a hope, vague
+    but polite, that we might meet on my return. _Poole_ I should
+    like to know; he is a man of poetic mind. I need scarcely tell
+    you that the idea of my being elected President (!!!) for many
+    years to come is simply _ludicrous_, even if there is a chance
+    of my ever having the offer of that dignity.
+
+    I am quite aware that people do talk of it _laughingly_, but I
+    don't think it goes beyond "chaff" yet. No doubt many other
+    young artists are chaffed in the same way with imaginary
+    dignities. I am delighted that Mamma is better; I should have
+    said this before but that I have answered your letter
+    systematically. I trust the improvement will be lasting.
+
+    I congratulate you on Colenso's visit, and shall be very anxious
+    to hear from you how it went off.
+
+    As for myself, I am very snugly ensconced in a little mezzanino
+    on the Grand Canal, with a sort of passage which I use as a
+    studio and a bath-room, inasmuch as it opens straight on the
+    water, and enables me to take a very jolly swim every day. I am
+    not attempting a picture, but am making a sketch for one which I
+    shall probably paint on the spot next autumn, staying here a
+    couple of months or so. Meanwhile I have got several heads in
+    hand--_studies_, _not_ for _sale_, for use--and a few sketches in
+    Saint Mark's, which I think promise well. _Et voila._
+
+    I stay here a fortnight longer, so that a letter written on
+    receipt of this would still catch me; after that _Rome_ is the
+    safest address. I shall be there from the 20th to the 28th of
+    October.
+
+    Best love to Mamma, and believe me, your affectionate son,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+In the preceding letters mention is made of the final arrangements for
+the building of Leighton's house in Holland Park Road. Mr. George
+Aitchison, R.A., his old friend, undertook to be the architect. It was
+begun in 1865, and first occupied by Leighton in 1866.
+
+Referring to opinions expressed regarding Florentine Art, past and
+present, Leighton wrote to his younger sister: "----'s remark about
+----, if I remember it, was utter bosh and pedantry. The Florentines
+of the end of the fifteenth century were _emphatically_ realists,
+though their realism was animated by a higher genius and a deeper
+humanity than the modern Italians exhibit, though _they_, by-the-bye,
+are mostly not _realists_ but mannerists. The chief characteristic of
+English Art is (I speak of course of the better men) originality and
+humanity on the one hand, and on the other, absence of acquired
+knowledge and guiding taste. Some day I will write you a lot more
+about it."
+
+Fully launched into the English art world, deeply interested in every
+phase of sincere work produced by contemporary brother artists,
+Leighton nevertheless adhered in his own practice to the views and
+principles which he held from the time he became Steinle's devoted
+pupil. To a question which referred to his art development, asked by
+Mrs. Mark Pattison when she was about to write an account of his life
+in 1879, Leighton answered, "I can only speak of what is not a
+_change_ but virtually a growth, the passage from Gothicism to
+Classicism (for want of better words) _i.e._ a growth from
+multiplicity to simplicity. Artists' manners are not changed by
+books!" "As regards English artists," he writes in the same letter, "I
+can only of course speak with great reserve. Elmore treated me with
+marked kindness, lending me a studio. Millais, Rossetti, Hunt were
+most cordial and friendly, though I openly told them I was wholly
+opposed to their views; but, indeed, few men have more cause to speak
+well of their brethren."
+
+The artistic events of the years 1862, 1863, and 1864 culminated in
+Leighton being elected an Associate of the Royal Academy. His old
+friend, Mr. George Aitchison, wrote at the time of Leighton's death:
+"In 1860 he took a studio at Orme Square, Bayswater. It was during
+this time that his conversation was so brilliant and so free from
+restraint. I remember a summer afternoon I spent with him, Mason, and
+Murch on the terrace at the Crystal Palace, when he gave vent to the
+freest criticism on books, artists, philosophy, science, and the
+methods of teaching, and deplored the waste of time to students of
+making large chalk studies, when everything that was wanted could be
+shown on a sheet of smooth paper, seven inches high, with a hard
+pencil. He was a great admirer of Boxall and his delicate painting, of
+Mr. Watts' and Sir E. Burne-Jones' work, and persuaded the last two to
+join the Royal Academy. In 1864 he was made an A.R.A., and after this
+he became very cautious of expressing any but the most general
+opinions on contemporary English art, as his remarks generally got
+into the papers."
+
+"Eucharis," 1863; "Dante at Verona," and "Golden Hours," 1864, are
+three works which might be placed in the first rank of Leighton's
+achievements. In the following letters references are made to the
+pictures:--
+
+                                                _April 29, 1863._
+
+    DEAR MAMMY,--I have just been to the R.A., having been invited
+    to the "Varnishing Day." _Four_ pictures are hung--"Elijah,"
+    _high_, of course, but in a centre place; it looks well, but
+    _much_ darker than in the studio. "Peacock Girl,"[33] very well
+    hung, exactly where "The Vision" was a few years ago; it looks
+    well. "The Crossbowman" and "The Girl with the Fruit"[34] are
+    fairly hung, but look, to me, less well than in the studio. The
+    "Salome"[35] is the one not taken. Altogether I am well treated.
+
+In the following letters from Ruskin his interest is expressed in the
+pictures exhibited in the Academy of 1863, and for the "Romola"
+illustrations:--
+
+    MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--I've only just had time to look in,
+    yesterday, at R. Ac., and your pictures are the only ones that
+    interest me in it; and the two pretty ones, peacocks and basket,
+    interest me much. Ahab I don't much like. You know you, like all
+    people good for anything in this age and country (as far as
+    Palmerston), are still a boy--and a boy can't paint Elijah. But
+    the pretty girls are very nice--very _nearly_ beautiful. I can't
+    say more, can I? If once they _were_ beautiful, they would be
+    immortal too. But if I don't pitch into you when I get hold of
+    you again for not drawing your Canephora's basket as well as her
+    head and hair! You got out of the scrape about the circle of it
+    by saying you wanted it hung out of sight (which _I_ don't). But
+    the meshes are all wrong--_inelegantly_ wrong--which is
+    unpardonable. I believe a Japanese would have done it better.
+    Thanks for nice book on Japan with my name Japanned. _It_ is
+    very nice too. I wish the woodcuts were bigger. I should like it
+    so much better in a little octavo with big woodcuts on every
+    other page. But I never do anything but grumble.--Faithfully
+    yours,
+
+                                                       J. RUSKIN.
+
+
+    MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--The public voice respecting the lecture you
+    are calumniously charged with, is as wise as usual. The lecture
+    is an excellent and most interesting one, and I am very sorry it
+    is not yours.
+
+    I am also very sorry the basket _is_ yours, in spite of the very
+    pretty theory of accessories. It is proper that an accessory be
+    slightly--sometimes even, in a measure, badly--painted, but not
+    that it should be out of perspective; and in the greatest men,
+    their enjoyment and power animated the very dust under the feet
+    of their figures--much more the baskets on their heads: above
+    all things, what comes near a head should be studied in every
+    line.
+
+    There is nothing more notable to my mind in the minor tricks of
+    the great Venetians than the exquisite perspective of bandeaux,
+    braids, garlands, jewels, flowers, or anything else which aids
+    the _roundings_ of their heads.
+
+    It is my turn to claim Browning for you, though I know what your
+    morning time is to you. I must have you over here one of these
+    summer mornings, if it be but to look at some dashes in sepia by
+    Reynolds, and a couple of mackerel by Turner--which, being
+    principals instead of accessories, I hope you will permit to be
+    well done, though they're not as pretty as peacocks.
+
+    I have been watching the "Romola" plates with interest. The one
+    of the mad old man with dagger seemed to me a marvellous study
+    (of its kind), and I feel the advancing power in all.
+
+    Will you tell me any day you could come--any hour--and I'll try
+    for Browning.--Ever faithfully yours,
+
+                                                       J. RUSKIN.
+
+    I'm always wickeder in the morning than at night, because I'm
+    fresh; so I'll try, this morning, to relieve your mind about the
+    peacocks. To my sorrow, I know more of peacocks than girls, as
+    you know more of girls than peacocks--and I assure you solemnly
+    the fowls are quite as unsatisfactory to me as the girl can
+    possibly be to you; so unsatisfactory, that if I could have
+    painted them as well as you could, and _had_ painted them as
+    ill, I should have painted them out.[36]
+
+
+                                                        _Monday._
+
+    DEAR LEIGHTON,--I saw Browning last night; and he said he
+    couldn't come till Thursday week: but do you think it would put
+    you quite off your work if you came out here early on Friday and
+    I drove you into Kensington as soon as you liked? We have enough
+    to say and look at, surely, for two mornings--one by ourselves?
+
+    I want, seriously, for one thing to quit you of one impression
+    respecting me. You are quite right--"ten times right"--in saying
+    I never focus criticism. Was there ever criticism worth
+    adjustment? The light is so ugly, it deserves no lens, and I
+    never use one. But you never, on the other hand, have observed
+    sufficiently that in such rough focussing as I give it, I
+    measure faults not by their greatness, but their avoidableness.
+    A man's great faults are natural to him--inevitable; if _very_
+    great--undemonstrable, deep in the innermost of things. I never
+    or rarely speak of them. They must be forgiven, or the picture
+    left. But a common fault in perspective is not to be so passed
+    by. You may not tell your friend, but with deepest reserve, your
+    thoughts of the conduct of his life, but you tell him, if he has
+    an ugly coat, to change his tailor, without fear of his
+    answering that you don't focus your criticism. Now it so happens
+    that I am in deep puzzlement and thought about some conditions
+    of your work and its way, which, owing to my ignorance of many
+    things in figure painting, are not likely to come to any good or
+    speakable conclusion. But it would be partly presumptuous and
+    partly vain to talk of these; hence that silence you spoke of
+    when I saw you last. I wish I had kept it all my life, and
+    learned, in place, to do the little I could have done, and enjoy
+    the much I might have enjoyed.--Ever faithfully yours,
+
+                                                       J. RUSKIN.
+
+    Send me a line saying if you will give me the Friday morning,
+    and fix your own hour for breakfast to be ready; and never mind
+    if you are late, for I can't give you pretty things that spoil
+    for waiting, anyhow.
+
+Leighton writes to his mother:--
+
+    I had a kind note this morning from Ruskin, in which, after
+    criticising two or three things, he speaks very warmly of other
+    points in my work and of the development of what he calls
+    "enormous power and sense of beauty." I quote this for what it
+    is worth, because I know it will give you pleasure, but I have
+    NOT and _never shall have_ "enormous power," though I have some
+    "sense of beauty." The "Orpheus" and "Golden Hours" are not in
+    the _great_ room but in the next to it. I have not seen Gambart
+    lately, and do not, therefore, know whether he has got rid of
+    any more of my pictures (by-the-bye, I have sent the
+    "duet"--"Johnny"--to America to an Exhibition for the Sanitary
+    Commission, on the request of Mrs. Kemble's daughter). He will,
+    _I think_, engrave the "Honeymoon," but probably only photograph
+    the others; by-the-bye (again), Mammy, tell Gussy with my love
+    that I shall present her with a copy of each and shall not
+    "_think her greedy_," having no thoughts for her but
+    affectionate ones. With regard to the money paid me by Gambart,
+    I invested as soon as I got it L1000 in Eastern Counties Railway
+    _debentures_, at par, 4-1/2 per cent., this on the advance of
+    Coutts' stock clerk. Lord Ashburton's portrait was scarcely
+    begun.[37] I have offered to try to finish _tant bien que mal_
+    from photographs, and to _give_ it to Lady A. She is very
+    grateful. The child's picture also goes to the wall, as she
+    won't be able to sit for some time, and would then be _changed_.
+    Lady A. wanted to pay the price of the sketch as it stood; this
+    I of course refused. She has commissioned me to paint her a
+    fancy picture for L300.
+
+Leighton was for five years an Associate before being elected a full
+member of the Royal Academy in 1869. During these years the number of
+important pictures he exhibited each season notably increased. In at
+least twelve of these works the many-sided Leighton is worthily
+represented--"Dante at Verona,"[38] "Golden Hours," "David,"
+"Syracusan Bride" (exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1866 and in the
+Paris International Exhibition in 1868), "Helen of Troy,"[39]
+"Greek Girl Dancing," "Venus Disrobing from the Bath," "Ariadne
+Abandoned by Theseus, Ariadne Watches for his Return, Artemis Releases
+Her by Death," "Actaea, the Nymph of the Shore," "Daedalus and Icarus,"
+"Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon," "Helios and Rhodos." The extreme
+variety from every point of view which exists in this group of twelve
+pictures, chosen from the twenty-six paintings and the numerous
+sketches executed in these five years, would be a proof in itself, if
+one were needed, of Leighton's extraordinary versatility as regards
+the _motives_ of his pictures.
+
+    [Illustration: "GREEK GIRL DANCING." 1867
+    By permission of Mr. Phillipson]
+
+    [Illustration: DRAWING FOR THE PAINTING "A PASTORAL." 1866
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+In the spring of 1865, after years of delicate health, Mrs. Leighton
+at the last died suddenly, at her home in Bath. At the time Leighton
+was staying at Sandringham where he received a telegram announcing her
+death, and on the same day he joined his family at Bath. It has been
+said that, as long as a man is blessed by possessing a mother, he
+still retains the blessing of being--in the eyes of one person at
+least--a child. To Leighton's tender-hearted nature this blessing was
+a very real one, as is testified by his correspondence with his
+mother.[40] The first chapter of Leighton's life seems, in a sense,
+only to end with this great sorrow.
+
+    _Translation._]
+                                               FRANKFURT AM MAIN,
+                                                _April 30, 1865_.
+
+    DEAREST FRIEND,--As your last friendly lines of 14th March did
+    not bring your address, I grasp the opportunity offered me by
+    Mr. Tobie Andre to express to you my heartfelt sympathy on the
+    loss of your dear mother. I remember that you often spoke to me
+    of this mother with true filial affection, and I have secretly
+    blessed you for it; I know now also that you will treasure her
+    memory!--Always, your truly devoted,
+
+                                                         STEINLE.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[26] See Appendix, "Lord Leighton's Sketches."
+
+[27] See page 59, vol. ii., poem, Leighton's "Francesca di Rimini," by
+R.A.
+
+[28] Head painted on the wall of the Vestry of Highnam Church--since
+destroyed.
+
+[29] "Eucharis."
+
+[30] Sir Hubert Parry writes: "I remember Leighton made a practical
+test of my father's medium by painting a fine dashing sketch of a head
+on the wall of the Vestry at Highnam Church. I used to admire it
+greatly. Unfortunately that Vestry was pulled down; and though efforts
+were made to preserve the sketch by cutting a great piece of plaster
+out of the wall, I understand that during the many years when I was
+hardly ever at Highnam, the plaster crumbled and collapsed." See letter
+to Steinle.
+
+[31] Photographs of the Lyndhurst fresco.
+
+[32] The ground on which Leighton built his house, 2 Holland Park Road,
+now preserved for the public.
+
+[33] "Girl feeding Peacocks" (see sketches in Leighton House
+Collection). Leighton painted a small and exquisite water-colour on
+ivory of the picture, which was sold at Christie's after his death.
+
+[34] "Eucharis."
+
+[35] See List of Illustrations: reproduction from sketch in Leighton
+House.
+
+Mr. Frith, R.A., wrote the following respecting the rejection of
+"Salome":--
+
+                              10 PEMBRIDGE VILLAS, BAYSWATER, W.,
+                                                _April 29, 1863_.
+
+    MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--We have been unable to hang one of your best
+    pictures--not because it was an excellent work, as the profane
+    world would say--but because we had already placed so many of
+    your pictures that the space due to Leighton was more than
+    exhausted. M.C. Mortlake called us over the coals dreadfully on
+    your behalf, but I, for one, resisted his arguments, and I
+    believe you have to blame me for your picture being returned to
+    you. I should have said nothing about the matter, but for the
+    fear that I might be thought so stupid as not to see the merit
+    of your work. Pray believe that my motive was a good one, and
+    that I have tried to do what is right to you and to the
+    rest.--Ever, dear Leighton, faithfully yours,
+
+                                                      W.P. FRITH.
+
+[36] Ruskin would not, I believe, have spoken thus of the peacocks in
+the exquisite water-colour on ivory--presumably a sketch in colour for
+the picture.
+
+[37] Refers to Lord Ashburton's death.
+
+[38] This picture illustrates the verses in the _Paradiso_:--
+
+                  "Thou shalt prove
+    How salt the savour is of others' bread;
+    How hard the passage, to descend and climb
+    By others' stairs. But that shall gall thee most
+    Will be the worthless and vile company
+    With whom thou must be thrown into the straits,
+    For all ungrateful, impious all and mad
+    Shall turn against thee."
+
+"Dante, in fulfilment of this prophecy, is seen descending the palace
+stairs of the Can Grande, at Verona, during his exile. He is dressed in
+sober grey and drab clothes, and contrasts strongly in his ascetic and
+suffering aspect with the gay revellers about him. The people are
+preparing for a festival, and splendidly and fantastically robed, some
+bringing wreaths of flowers. Bowing with mock reverence, a jester gibes
+at Dante. An indolent sentinel is seated at the porch, and looks on
+unconcernedly, his spear lying across his breast. A young man, probably
+acquainted with the writings of Dante, sympathises with him. In the
+centre and just before the feet of Dante, is a beautiful child,
+brilliantly dressed and crowned with flowers, and dragging along the
+floor a garland of bay leaves and flowers, while looking earnestly and
+innocently in the poet's face. Next come a pair of lovers, the lady
+looking at Dante with attention, the man heedless. The last wears a
+vest embroidered with eyes like those in a peacock's tail. A priest and
+a noble descend the stairs behind, jeering at Dante."--_Athenaeum_,
+April 1864.
+
+The following expresses the admiration of a brother artist, Richard
+Doyle, for the exiled "Dante":--
+
+                                  54 CLIFTON GARDENS, MAIDA HILL,
+                                                 _April 5, 1864_.
+
+    MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--I feel so awkward whenever I attempt to
+    praise a man's works to his face, and I felt that you,
+    yesterday, were so likely to be bored with the repetition of
+    similar speeches from your large influx of visitors, that at the
+    moment of my going I could not bring myself to say what I wished
+    to say--how much I liked your pictures. To-day, however, when
+    "Dante" and "Orpheus," and the music and drawing parties are
+    before my mind as vividly as they were yesterday before my eyes
+    in your studio, I cannot resist sending you a few lines to say
+    what pleasure my visit gave me, although I was "without words."
+
+    The "Dante" seemed to me a very impressive picture, and I think
+    one of the most important as well as most successful of your
+    works, historical in a higher sense than the mere representation
+    of an event--an illustration of the man and the time. I could
+    mention many of the figures that especially pleased me, but, for
+    beauty, can only single out that most delightful little child in
+    the foreground, toddling at the feet of Dante, laden with
+    flowers, the childhood and innocence of whose whole figure and
+    face, although we do not see the face, contrasts so beautifully
+    with the worn, ascetic, melancholy Poet. I think these two are a
+    poem in themselves.
+
+    The lady in the "drawing lesson" struck me as a charming figure,
+    so graceful, and the painting of her dress as a perfect piece of
+    work. The lady leaning over the instrument in the "music"
+    ("Golden Hours") subject is also a great favourite of mine.
+
+    The "Orpheus," although there is a great deal to admire in it, I
+    don't think I liked so well as the others. Perhaps it is that
+    the classic subject does not come home to me, but I say this
+    doubtingly, feeling that it is a picture that would very likely
+    grow upon me.
+
+    Anyhow, I end by offering you my most hearty
+    congratulations.--Most sincerely yours,
+
+                                                   RICHARD DOYLE.
+
+[39] Referring to Leighton's painting of "Helen of Troy," exhibited in
+1865, Mr. Martin Tupper wrote:--
+
+                                      ALBURY HOUSE, NR. GUILFORD,
+                                                  _May 23, 1865_.
+
+    DEAR SIR,--It is just possible that the following few words of
+    comment upon your wonderfully spiritualised "Helen of Troy" may
+    be acceptable to you from the undersigned.
+
+    The "Helen" of Euripides is very little read amongst us, and yet
+    it is as strangely sensational as "The Woman in White": there
+    being two Helens in the play, the real substantial wife
+    remaining faithful to Menelaus in the island of Pharos, while
+    Juno gives to Paris--out of jealous rage at him for his
+    "judgment" in favour of Venus--"an image composed of ether" in
+    the likeness of Helen.
+
+    This Ethereal Presence you have so exquisitely portrayed that it
+    is probable you know the play! only that I think you would then
+    have quoted from it in the R.A. catalogue, in explanation of
+    what confuses some of your ignorant reviewers as to this
+    embodied spirit.
+
+    The counterfeit Helen was of "unsubstantial air," a figure
+    marvellously rendered in your picture, and which I can fully
+    appreciate: and you quote a very apposite passage from Lord
+    Derby's "Homer," as that which you illustrate; but if there are
+    reprints of the catalogue, I would suggest the addition of a
+    line from Euripides, as thus:--
+
+        "Juno to Paris gave me--yet not me,
+         But in my semblance formed a living image
+         Composed of ether."
+                                   WODHALL'S _Eur. Hel._
+
+    If haply you do not know the book, inquire at Longman's for the
+    fifth volume of the Greek Tragic Theatre (in English); or,
+    should you prefer it, of course it is extant in the Greek. If
+    not easily attainable in London, I shall be happy to lend you
+    the volume by post. Congratulating you on your difficult and
+    exquisite achievement--I am, dear sir, truly yours,
+
+                                                MARTIN F. TUPPER.
+    F. LEIGHTON, Esq.
+
+[40]
+
+                                                WARNFORD COTTAGE,
+                                                BISHOP'S WALTHAM.
+
+    MY DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--I was very sorry indeed when I returned
+    to Park Place on Sunday evening and found that you had been so
+    kind as to call upon me.
+
+    I have not ventured to intrude upon you in your late affliction
+    with the expression of a sympathy which cannot have much value
+    for you, but had I seen you when you called I should hardly have
+    refrained from telling you how sincerely I feel for your
+    sorrow.--Pray believe me, yours always most truly,
+
+                                                    FANNY KEMBLE.
+    WARNFORD, _Thursday, 2nd_.
+
+
+                                                     FOREST BANK,
+                                                       LYNDHURST.
+
+    MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--I cannot let the post go out without offering
+    you my sincere sympathy on your loss. I know how deeply attached
+    you were to your mother, and am very sure the bereavement is a
+    heavy grief to you. You are right in saying that to me your
+    sorrow comes especially home. My mother sends you her
+    affectionate love, and we both beg you to remember that,
+    whenever you have a few spare days and want quiet, you must
+    consider this home as a temporary home.--Believe me always, in
+    all affection, yours,
+
+                                                   HAMILTON AIDE.
+
+
+    MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--I must write to you to express the grief both
+    myself and my wife felt on hearing of the loss which has
+    befallen you. I am well aware that no words can afford
+    consolation against such afflictions, but I should be sorry if
+    you had construed silence into want of sympathy. If you have
+    time I should be glad to hear from you, and to know how may be
+    your father, from whom I have received on every occasion so much
+    kindness. You have much distress to go through, for death has
+    recently touched you in many ways by striking your own family,
+    your friends, and imperilling others to a degree that must have
+    inspired every pain it can produce.
+
+    Good-bye, my dear Leighton; remember me to your father, and
+    express to him my deep sympathy with him in his
+    misfortune.--Yours ever affectionately,
+
+                                                 W.C. CARTWRIGHT.
+    PALAZZI GIORGI, ROME,
+      _January 31_.
+
+
+                                           13 EATON PLACE (WEST),
+                                     _Tuesday, January 17, 1865_.
+
+    MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--I heard at the Marqs', on Sunday, of your
+    late bereavement; and, as perhaps the one of all your many
+    friends whose mind the most habitually dwells among thoughts of
+    loss and deprivation, I can assure you of thought of it with
+    sincere concern and sympathy, and just write a line to say so.
+    There is nothing to be said, I well know, which is of any
+    immediate good or alleviation, and time only strengthens
+    affectionate recollection: but after a time, among gentler
+    thoughts which will come, I hope you will, as you may justly,
+    find comfort in thinking that your mother's life was spared so
+    as to permit her to be cheered by the certainty of your success.
+    This is much--especially to a woman's heart.--Faithfully and
+    sincerely yours,
+
+                                                HENRY J. CHORLEY.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+JOURNEYS TO THE EAST--CONSTANTINOPLE--SMYRNA--ATHENS--DIARY "UP THE
+NILE TO PHYLAE"
+
+1866-1869
+
+
+Leighton visited Spain in 1866. There exists apparently no letters or
+written record of this journey, but he made many sketches remarkable
+for strong and characteristic colouring.
+
+The letter written to Mrs. Mark Pattison in 1879, already quoted,
+contains an amusing endeavour on Leighton's part to date the various
+journeys he had made in answer to questions she had asked.
+
+    "I am sorely perplexed to answer this; I can only approach an
+    answer by a sort of _memoria technica_. I made studies in
+    Algiers for 'Samson Agonistes'; that will give you roughly the
+    period. This visit made a deep impression on me; I have loved
+    'the East,' as it is called, ever since. By-the-bye, I drew here
+    my (almost) only large water-colour drawing, 'A Negro Festival'
+    [the picture Leighton alluded to as 'The Niggers'], which was
+    thought very well of by my friends. To Spain (into which I had
+    made a raid of a few days on a previous occasion when visiting
+    the South of France for architecture, to which I am much
+    devoted) I went the year of the cholera. I remember this because
+    I was going to Constantinople, but was dissuaded by a friend
+    there because of the ravages of that epidemic. The following
+    year I _did_ go: Vienna, Danube, Varna, Constantinople, Broussa,
+    Smyrna, Rhodes, Athens (the greatest architectural emotion of my
+    life, by far), &c. This was the year _before_ those poor young
+    Englishmen were murdered on Pentelicus, up which I had been
+    with _the same_ guide. My visit to Egypt, and up the Nile on a
+    steamer, given me by the Khedive, was a year before the opening
+    of the Suez Canal; I rode over the Salt Lakes with Mons. de
+    Lesseps and a party of his friends. Damascus a year before I
+    exhibited the 'Jew's House,' I _think_. Spain, revisited, and
+    Morocco, the year before last. This is a roundabout way of
+    getting about dates, but, contrary to my expectation, I think I
+    have contrived to fix all the chief journeys approximately."
+
+In 1867 Leighton wrote to his father:--
+
+                                        LLOYD STEAMER "ADRIATIC,"
+                                             _November 28, 1867_.
+
+    MY DEAR PAPA,--As I am likely to be busy during my very short
+    stay in Venice, where I hope to find a letter from you, I take
+    advantage of the leisure which I find in excess on board this
+    steamer to begin an epistle which, however, I shall not close
+    till I have seen yours, in case anything in the latter should
+    require an answer. Of course my getting to the end of even this
+    first page depends upon the state of my feelings--physical, not
+    moral, for I am a poor sailor at best. I told you, I believe, in
+    my last how much I had enjoyed and, as I hope, profited by my
+    stay in Rhodes and Lindos. I am uncertain whether I added that I
+    had received great kindness and attention from our consul and
+    his brothers, and also from one or two other gentlemen with whom
+    I became acquainted. Through the assistance of Mr. Biliotti (our
+    consul) I had an opportunity, which could never present itself
+    again, of buying a number of beautiful specimens of old Persian
+    _faience_ (Lindos ware), chiefly plates, which will make a
+    delightful addition to my collection of Eastern china and
+    pottery. I know that you, personally, care little for such
+    things, and have small sympathy with purchases of that nature;
+    you will, therefore, be glad to hear that though I spent a
+    considerable sum, knowing that such a chance would never again
+    be given me, I could, _any day_, part with the whole lot for at
+    least double--probably treble--what I gave.
+
+    The weather, which was very beautiful at the beginning--indeed
+    during the greater part of my stay in the Island--was not
+    faithful to me to the end; it broke up a few days before my
+    departure, and, to my very great regret, prevented my painting
+    certain studies which I was very anxious to take home: on the
+    other hand, I had opportunities of studying effects of a
+    different nature, so that I can hardly call myself much the
+    loser as far as my work in Rhodes was concerned. In Athens,
+    however, the effect of the absolute instability of the weather
+    (an instability of which I have never seen the like anywhere)
+    was that I left that place almost empty-handed, although I
+    stayed there a week longer than I had originally intended. If,
+    however, I got through little or no work, I had infinite
+    enjoyment in the frequent and unvaried study and contemplation
+    of the ruins on the Acropolis. Familiar as I was, from casts and
+    photographs, with the sculptures and some part of the
+    architecture which I found there, my expectations were very
+    highly wrought, but it is impossible to anticipate, nor shall I
+    attempt to describe, the impression which these magnificent
+    works produce when seen together and under their own sky.
+    Indeed, it is quite strange how one seems to read with new eyes
+    things which one conceived oneself to have understood thoroughly
+    before. The scenery about Athens, depending a good deal on
+    effects of light, only rarely displayed its full beauty during
+    my stay; sufficiently often, however, for me to see that it is
+    of exquisite beauty, and that that part of it described by Byron
+    in certain favourite lines of yours does not receive full
+    justice at his hands. I had letters, as you probably knew, to
+    Mr. Erskine, our Minister, and to Mr. Finlay, the historian;
+    both of them received me with the greatest cordiality and
+    kindness, as did also two or three other persons with whom I
+    became acquainted, so that my stay was socially agreeable as
+    well as artistically delightful; but herewith ends my journey,
+    for heavy weather, rain, sleet, fog and the rest prevented my
+    seeing any of the scenery of the Gulf of Lepanto, which I might
+    as well not have visited, and although I passed Zante,
+    Cephalonia, and Corfu under rather more favourable skies, I did
+    not see them to advantage--_ce sera pour une autrefois_. Your
+    letter, which I have found on my arrival, and for which thanks,
+    does not call for any particular reply beyond that I have
+    painted _no_ figures, though I might have been tempted by
+    several fine heads I saw, but time only sufficed for my
+    landscape studies, which in this journey were my chief care. The
+    extract from the _Saturday Review_, which is highly flattering,
+    was shown me by Mr. Finlay in Athens.
+
+    Of Venice I have nothing to say, except that my first impression
+    of the Gallery, coming as I did straight from the Parthenon, was
+    that everything but the very _finest_ pictures was wanting in
+    dignity and beauty, and was _artificial_. I was much surprised
+    myself, as the Venetian school always exercises a great
+    fascination over me. You may infer from that what an impression
+    of beauty Athenian Art has left on me. I was incessantly
+    reminded, in looking both at the sculpture and architecture of
+    the Acropolis, of the admirable words which Thucydides puts into
+    the mouth of Pericles: those are the beginning and the end of
+    the Greek artistic nature.
+
+    I shall be in London by the 10th, and right glad to get home
+    again--meanwhile, with best love to Taily.--I remain, your
+    affectionate son,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+    VENICE, HOTEL DE L'EUROPE.
+
+    [Illustration: SKETCH WITH DONKEY. EGYPT. 1868]
+
+Respecting the knowledge Leighton possessed of the Greek language, he
+wrote in a letter to a friend, "In Greek I never got beyond Homer and
+Anacreon. I have just retained this, that, having read a passage in a
+translation (I generally read Homer in _German_ or _Latin_), I am able
+to feel, on referring to the original, its superiority to the foreign
+rendering."
+
+In 1868 the great desire which Leighton for many years had felt to see
+Egypt was gratified. In October of that year he wrote to his father
+from Cairo:--
+
+    _Beginning of letter missing._]
+
+    I find that the Prince (the Prince of Wales) asked him in the
+    said letter to introduce me as a personal friend of his to the
+    Viceroy, adding that he would be obliged by anything he (Col.
+    Stanton) could do for me. This was more than I had expected
+    from what Col. Tait also had written me. Well, to make a long
+    story short, I communicated to Col. S. the ambitious desires
+    that Smart had stirred up in me, assuring him, however, that I
+    should never have dreamt of entertaining them of my own accord.
+    He took my case in hand at once, by asking for an audience,
+    which the Viceroy granted as soon as he should have returned to
+    Cairo; he was too busy to see me at Alexandria. Meanwhile Col.
+    Stanton hinted to the secretary of H.H. what my wish was, but
+    nothing was said to the Viceroy himself. Wednesday being fixed
+    for my reception, I went to his palace of Abbassia with Col. S.,
+    and was there received in a pavilion in the open air, which
+    overlooked a tract of country covered with tents in which some
+    5000 men were quartered. Round His Highness' pavilion were the
+    tents of his chief ministers in attendance. It was rather a
+    picturesque sight. The Viceroy was alone, and, having received
+    us very courteously, and asked after the health of the P. and
+    Pcess. of Wales, made us sit down. He then clapped his hands,
+    and on a word from him long _tchibouques_ were brought, of which
+    the amber mouthpieces were enriched with enormous diamonds and
+    emeralds. A little conversation on general matters then followed
+    between him and Col. S., after which he questioned me about my
+    projects; and after asking whether he could assist me, and Col.
+    S. throwing out a little hint about a steam tug to get me on
+    quicker, he said, "Would you not rather have a steamer to go in?
+    it is the same to me, and you will be more comfortable." Here
+    Col. Stanton, very judiciously and promptly, said he was sure
+    the P. of Wales would be much gratified by this mark of favour
+    to me; so that I have only to name the day, and the vessel will
+    be at my orders, and I shall do all I wish in _half the time_,
+    or less, it would otherwise have taken me. I bowed myself out
+    with my best thanks, and went home much pleased at my good
+    fortune and at everybody's kindness. I should not forget to say
+    also that Mr. Ross (Lady Duff Gordon's son-in-law, you know) was
+    full of _empressement_ and kindness to me, and Lady D.G. lent me
+    a gun for the Nile. I start in ten days or thereabouts, and hope
+    before that to hear from you, for no letters will follow me and
+    I shall lose sight of everybody for nearly two months. I will
+    write again before I start; meanwhile, when you write which it
+    will be no use your doing till _November_, address, please New
+    Hotel, Cairo, Egypt.
+
+    And believe me, meanwhile, with best love to Taily, your affte.
+    son,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+Happily, while Leighton lost sight "of everybody for nearly two
+months," he kept the following diary:--
+
+    _Wednesday, October 14, 1868._--Went on board, dined and slept.
+
+    _Thursday, 15th._--Started at about 7 A.M. There had been a
+    storm in the night, and the east was still heavy with clouds;
+    but the western sky was pure and soft.
+
+    At about ten caught up the Sterlings, becalmed in their
+    dahabyeh; their crew was making a futile attempt to tow them
+    against the current. I let out a rope and tugged them as far as
+    Benisoef, which, owing to the additional weight, I did not reach
+    till Friday morning (16th).
+
+    The first day's journey up the Nile is enchanting, and I enjoyed
+    it thoroughly. The sky was bright, but tempered by a glimmering
+    haze which produced the loveliest effects; those of the early
+    morning were the most striking. The course of the river being
+    nearly due north, the western bank was glowing in varied sunny
+    lights; the other seemed made up of shadowy veils of gauze
+    fainting gradually towards the horizon. The boats that passed on
+    the left, dark in the blaze of light, looked, with their
+    outspread wings, like large moths of dusky brown; those on the
+    right shone against the violet sky like gilded ivory. The
+    keynote of this landscape is a soft, variant, fawn-coloured
+    brown, than which nothing could take more gratefully the warm
+    glow of sunlight or the cool purple mystery of shadow; the
+    latter perhaps especially, deep and powerful near the eye (the
+    local brown slightly overruling the violet), but fading as it
+    receded into tints exquisitely vague, and so faint that they
+    seem rather to belong to the sky than to the earth. At this time
+    of year the broad coffee-coloured sweep of the river is bordered
+    on either side by a fillet of green of the most extraordinary
+    vivacity, but redeemed from any hint of crudity by the golden
+    light which inundates it. The brightest green is that of the
+    Indian corn--the softest and most luminous that of an exquisite
+    grass, tall as pampas (perhaps it _is_ a kind of pampas, I have
+    not seen it close yet), and like it crowned with a beautiful
+    plume-like blossom of the most delicate hue; seen against a dark
+    shady bank, and with the sun shining through it, it shimmers
+    with the sheen of gossamer.
+
+    Frequent villages animate the river's edge; they are built of
+    unbaked bricks coated with mud, and have a most striking effect.
+    The simplicity and variety of the shapes of the houses, with
+    their slightly sloping sides and flat roofs, give them a certain
+    dignity in their picturesqueness which delights me; the colour,
+    too, is particularly agreeable, and is the most beautiful foil
+    to the bronze-brown of the naked, or nearly naked, fellaheen and
+    the indigo of the robes of their wives; to the sparkling white
+    of the doves that swarm in the gardens, and to the cinder-colour
+    of the buffaloes that wink and snooze along the bank. Every
+    village nestles in a dense grove of date-palms, and one cannot
+    conceive a lovelier harmony than that which is made by the
+    combination of the browns below with the sea-green of the
+    sweeping branches and the flame-like orange of the fruit. The
+    acacia (here a large, massive tree, with a vigorous dark green
+    foliage) is frequent in the villages.
+
+    The shape of the hills and mountains is very peculiar and
+    striking. It gives the idea of a choppy sea of sand thrown up
+    into abrupt peaks and then uniformly truncated by a sweep of a
+    vast scythe, sweeping everything from horizon to horizon. Here
+    and there a little peak, too low to be embraced in the general
+    decapitation, raises its head amongst innumerable table-lands
+    and gives great value and relief to the general outline.
+
+    Meanwhile an occasional train and not infrequent lines of
+    telegraph poles don't add to the poetry of the scene.
+
+    Nor the flies to one's comfort! What a curse they are! they
+    _infest_ one's face. I wonder what the epiderm of Egyptian
+    children is made of; you see babies with a dozen flies settled,
+    no, stuck, embedded in and round each of their eyes, and as many
+    in and about their noses and mouths; and they make no attempt to
+    remove them--seem absolutely unconscious of them.
+
+    Scenery this afternoon less interesting--river wider--banks more
+    monotonous.
+
+    Opposite a place called Magaga, some fine mountains on the east
+    bank, scored with innumerable horizontal lines marking the
+    monotonous parallel strata of which they are composed; a
+    characteristic peculiarity in all the Egyptian hills I have seen
+    as yet. (The finest in outline are the Quarries opposite
+    Sakkara, on the right bank, and like those behind the Citadel at
+    Cairo.)
+
+    Spent the night at a village called Kolosana, not having made
+    Minyeh owing to delay at Benisoef, where we coaled, and took
+    leave of the Sterlings, with whom I breakfasted. The sunset
+    before reaching Kolosana was magnificent, like a sunset at sea;
+    almost as grand in its simplicity. Between the broad flaming sky
+    and the broad flaming river there was only a long narrow strip
+    of dark bronze-green bank, that seemed to burst into flame where
+    the almost white hot sun sank scowling behind it. The after-glow
+    was also very fine, though less grand than I should have
+    expected. The sky was of a deep violet, and the distant rolling
+    sand-tracks wore the most mysterious tints, faint, glimmering,
+    uncanny, vague fawn colours, pale dun browns, and ghostly pinks.
+
+    _Saturday, 17th._--Started at dawn, and arrived at Minyeh about
+    eight o'clock.
+
+    Stayed two hours and coaled.
+
+    Obeying the custom of the country, I have presented the crew
+    with a sheep--great satisfaction.
+
+    Took a stroll in the Bazaars, which are rather picturesque.
+    Minyeh is a largish place (chef lieu), and, like every second
+    village on the Nile, disfigured by the tall chimneys of sugar
+    factories.
+
+    There is a striking line of hills opposite Minyeh, quaintly
+    jagged in outline and curiously regular in the marking of its
+    strata.
+
+    Passed Beni Hassan, where I shall stop on my return.
+
+    It is curious to see the incessant toiling of the natives at
+    irrigation. The poor people literally _make_ their country every
+    year, and it is marvellous to see how a narrow fillet of water
+    will, as by enchantment, conjure up in a few weeks an oasis out
+    of an arid desert. The land of Egypt is born afresh out of the
+    Nile every returning year.
+
+    I observe, with pleasure, in this part of the country those
+    little white-domed tombs of Sheykhs which make such a pretty
+    feature in the landscape of Algeria.
+
+    At Minyeh there is one, close to the riverside, in which rests
+    the "Sheykh of the Crocodiles" whose holy dust prevents those
+    man-eating ornaments of the Upper Nile from going any further
+    towards Cairo--below this tomb they never venture.
+
+    Not having reached Manfalut by sunset, we have drawn up for the
+    night by the bank of the river, nowhere in particular. This
+    entire freedom in our movements (I should say _mine_, for the
+    steamer stops exactly where, when, and as often as I choose) is
+    very agreeable. Less pleasant is the storm of flies and insects
+    of every kind, that rush in literally by myriads as soon as
+    candles are lighted within reach of shore; my tablecloth is
+    darkened with thousands of little flies no larger, wings and
+    all, than a moderate flea; the nuisance is intolerable.
+
+    A wonderful sunset again this evening. The western bank like
+    yesterday was low and brown and green, but, unlike yesterday, it
+    was alive with the sweet clamour of many birds. On the eastern
+    side the long wall of rock which seems to enclose the whole
+    length of the valley of the Nile came flush, or almost flush, to
+    the water's edge; and with what an intense glory it glowed! The
+    great hills seemed clad in burnished armour of gold fringed and
+    girt below with green and dark purple; but the smooth face of
+    the water was like copper, burnished and inlaid with sapphire.
+
+    I sat in the long gloaming enjoying the soft, warm, supple air,
+    and watching the tints gradually change and die round the sweep
+    of the horizon, and across the immense mirror of the Nile as
+    broad as a lake. It was enchanting to watch the subtle
+    gradations by which the tawny orange trees that glowed like
+    embers in the west, passed through strange golden browns to
+    uncertain gloomy violet, and finally to the hot indigo of the
+    eastern sky where some lingering after-glow still flushed the
+    dusky hills; and still more enchanting to watch the same tones
+    on the unruffled expanse of the water, slightly tempered by its
+    colour and subdued to greater mystery. A solemn peace was over
+    everything. Occasionally a boat drifted slowly past with
+    outspread wings, in colour like an opal or lapis lazuli, and
+    then vanished. It was a thing to remember.
+
+    I hear an altercation between Ottilio (my Italian waiter) and a
+    stoker who has put down his grease can on one of the Pasha's
+    smartest plates. "O--(adjective)--Madonna! se si puo vedere una
+    carogua simile! e se me la rompi pas? costa piu di te--sa!"
+
+    My young dragoman having fastened a hook to a bit of string, and
+    the bit of string to the stern of the steamer, has been waiting
+    some hours for a fish. After the first hour he reasoned with
+    himself, and said: "Brabs (perhaps?) he know!"--then, dolefully,
+    "He come touch the 'ook, and then he go run away!"--_cela c'est
+    vu._ To-morrow to Asyoot. 10-1/2 P.M. Just been on deck again.
+    Dragoman still fishing! He says, "I tink he _won't_." I incline
+    to agree with him.
+
+    _Sunday, 18th._--Started about six. Reached Syoot, or rather El
+    Hamza for Syoot, which is a mile inland, at eleven. Between
+    Manfalut and Syoot the Nile takes an immense sweep west, and
+    assumes altogether a tortuous course; the plain opens out, the
+    eastern mountains recede, and for the first time an important
+    chain closes in on the west. Game is already beginning to be
+    abundant. I saw a sandbank full of pelicans and geese just below
+    this place. I wish I could get at the names of the small birds I
+    see here, which are mostly new to me; an Arab invariably answers
+    your questions on this subject by the word "asfoor," _i.e._ a
+    bird--thankee! The peasants here all wear a loose dark brown
+    robe like that of a Franciscan monk; and as they squat fishing
+    on the brown bank of the river with their skull-caps and black
+    beards, I fancy I see the monks of the Thebaid coming, as in old
+    days, to get their daily meat out of the Nile.
+
+    Irrigation seems to go on more actively even than lower down; I
+    saw to-day no less than twenty-four shadoofs all in a row, and
+    in full play. The men that worked them, mostly naked, were of
+    every colour between a new halfpenny and an old shoe, and the
+    effect of them all toiling away and surrounded by groups of
+    squatting onlookers was very striking.
+
+    Hosseyn, my servant, the angler, is having his head shaved on
+    deck; when he has done I shall visit the town.
+
+    Meanwhile I have had a visit from the government doctor, a
+    rather intelligent man who made his studies in Pisa.
+
+    Pipes and coffee as usual.
+
+    Here comes Hosseyn clean-shaven. He is a nice boy, eager and
+    willing--but wants varnish; he can never address me without
+    scratching his spine at its lowest extremity; Audrey herself
+    could not have done it in a manner more naively unconventional.
+    Though only twenty, he has had two wives; not liking the first,
+    who snubbed his relations, he gave her three months' wages and
+    dismissed her. To avoid further unpleasantness he then married
+    his cousin: "She good woman--very quiet--good tongue."
+
+    The village at which we have landed is very picturesque. The mud
+    and brick architecture is here carried out with some care and is
+    entirely delightful. The walls are mostly crowned with an
+    openwork finish made by a simple arrangement of the bricks which
+    is most effective. Sometimes, as, for instance, in the cemetery,
+    they are surmounted by crenulations like those we see in the old
+    Assyrian monuments; the heads of the doorways are decorated with
+    a charming sort of diapered ornament, capable of great variety
+    and produced entirely by the arrangement in patterns of the
+    bricks; the patterns being painted black and the ground filled
+    in with white. The woodwork in the windows is also very pretty,
+    and altogether the general aspect of the houses most novel and
+    striking.
+
+    Beyond the village I wandered into a delightful garden; a half
+    cultivated wilderness of palm and gum trees in which one came on
+    unexpected pergolas, and lovely garden trees all pouring out
+    their most intoxicating scents under the fiercest sun I ever
+    walked beneath. I saw oleanders, the flowers of which were as
+    thick as roses and smelt like a quintessence of nectarines;
+    there were also some beautiful olive trees with weeping
+    branches--a thing I had never seen before--and with berries as
+    large as plums. Overhead, amongst the yellow dates, sat doves
+    the colour of pale violets.
+
+    Syoot itself is beautifully situated amongst groves and gardens;
+    except in that it is brown and not white, it reminded me much of
+    an Algerine town; it is very unlike Cairo. The rock-cut tombs in
+    the mountain above the town are so mutilated and disfigured that
+    little can be made of them; but they have that stamp of
+    vastness which is so characteristic of all the ancient monuments
+    of this country.
+
+    The view from the height is very fine. The river has barely
+    begun to fall yet, so that everything is reflected in the great
+    sheets of water that cover the land. At evening I saw the sunset
+    through the tall palm trees, with the domes of Syoot dark
+    against its flaming light.
+
+    For a fine showy assertion that looks very original and
+    striking, but is not calculated for pedantic verification,
+    commend me to a Frenchman. The other day, at Boulay, Mariette
+    Bey, the creator and the curator of the Museum of that ilk, and
+    a man of high standing as an Egyptologist, told me that the Nile
+    was turned into its actual course by a great chain of hills at
+    Syoot which, serving as a rampart, alone prevented it from
+    following its obvious tendency to flow into the Red Sea. "Il
+    allait _evidemment_ se jeter dans la Mer Rouge;" in fact, but
+    for this hill, there would have been no Lower Egypt, that
+    country being literally the child of the Nile which alone
+    prevents the sands of the central deserts from ruling over the
+    whole breadth of the land. Here was a dramatic revelation of
+    coincidences! Here was a startling suggestion of contingencies!
+
+    It fairly took your breath away! without that hill no Nile north
+    of Syoot! half Egypt would not have been! No Memphis! Memphis
+    with its wisdom! No Alexandria with its schools! No Cairo with
+    its four thousand mosques! No Pharaohs! No Moses! (The poor
+    devil of a sculptor who drowned himself in his own fountain
+    because he found he had made _his_ Moses too short might have
+    died in his bed.) No Cleopatra! (turn in your grave, noble dust
+    of Antony!)--"forty centuries" would have had no Pyramids from
+    which to look down on the conquering arms of Buonaparte. Mr.
+    Albert Smith's popular entertainment would have been shorn of
+    half its glories! Let me breathe! To what fantastic proportions
+    did that hill grow as one thought of it!
+
+    Alas! then, for prosaic fact; and oh! for unimaginative maps! On
+    consulting the latter I observed that, by the time it reached
+    Syoot, the Nile had been flowing for nearly two hundred miles in
+    a _north-westerly_ direction, away from the Red Sea rather than
+    towards it; and on visiting the spot I saw, oh confusion! that
+    the hills which bore the responsibility (according to Mariette)
+    of making the history of the world what it is, were on the
+    _western_ bank of the river!--there, at least, or nowhere, for a
+    vast plain closes in on the east.
+
+    This evening more visitors on board--lemonade and cigars--_pour
+    changer_; Consuls, &c. &c.--tedious.
+
+    _Monday, 19th._--Left Syoot at six, and arrived at Sohag before
+    three. Suffered a good deal in the morning from spasms of some
+    sort, and was not in a frame of mind to appreciate the scenery.
+    Was, moreover, driven near the verge of exasperation by the
+    steersman (Reis Ali), who droned select passages from the Koran,
+    _sotto voce_, within two yards of my ears from 8 A.M. till 2 P.
+    ditto; the same four bars over and over, for ever and for ever
+    in one unceasing guttural strain. I trust the pious exercise did
+    more for his soul than for my temper. Hosseyn informs me that he
+    is about to buy a lamb, and "make him big sheep." It appears
+    that, during a serious illness three years ago, he vowed a
+    votive sheep to Sitteh Zehneb--the granddaughter of the
+    Prophet--on condition that he should recover. Since then he has
+    put her off (oh, humanity!) with candles and occasional prayer;
+    now, at last, he is going to fulfil his vow. Admire thrift
+    combined with piety, and observe the economy on the _lamb_.
+
+    Habit is a strange thing! Hosseyn, whose manners have been
+    corrupted by evil communication with Europeans, occasionally
+    attempts to use a _fork_ in the bosom of his
+    family--particularly when salad is put before him. On these
+    occasions his elder brother invariably asks him with grim
+    sarcasm whether he has no fingers. Hosseyn desists at
+    once--"Brabs he beat me!--he big!"
+
+    This evening I went out shooting amongst the palms and gum
+    trees. It was very delightful, though ferociously hot. The
+    village is charmingly situated; the ground prettily tumbled
+    about, and trees and houses group themselves in the most
+    picturesque manner. (I noticed some new mouldings over the
+    doorways that had a very artistic effect.) I can't shoot at all;
+    but the birds are so plentiful that something is sure to cross
+    your gun if you only fire. I got a hawk, some doves, a dozen
+    little birds nameless for me, and two little green birds of a
+    kind that I have not seen before; they are quite lovely; must
+    ascertain what they are called. The sun had set when I reached
+    the boat, and all the dark plumes of the palm trees stood clear
+    over the black outlines of the village; above, the new moon, a
+    keen, golden sickle.
+
+    Hosseyn has given up fishing. "Oh, oh! nasty fish! he to laugh
+    me!"
+
+    Was much amused this morning by the device and trade-mark on a
+    tin of jam. (Jam, if you please, of Messrs. Barnes & Co. of
+    Little Bush Lane _and_ Tooley Street.) The device was "Non sine
+    labore"--and the trade-mark?--a beehive?--no!--the Pyramid of
+    Cheops! _Excusez._
+
+    Some twenty miles above Syoot, or, say, fifteen, the eastern
+    chain of mountains makes a bend towards the river, and for some
+    distance ranges near it; the stream, in its usual tortuous
+    course, sometimes flowing for a few hundred yards towards them
+    and then for a few hundred yards in the opposite direction. I
+    wonder whether one of these bends served as a foundation, or
+    rather as a blind, for Mariette's astounding assertion that the
+    Nile "allait evidemment se jeter dans la Mer Rouge." Did he "to
+    laugh me," as the fish did by Hosseyn? Or did he merely mean to
+    say that, if the Valley of the Nile had not turned north-west
+    between Keneh and Manfaloot, it might have turned north-east? If
+    so, joke for joke, I prefer the great Pyramid on the jam-pot of
+    Mr. Barnes of Little Bush Lane and Tooley Street.
+
+    _Tuesday, 20th._--Started at about half-past five, and reached
+    Disneh in the evening. There was a dead calm in the morning, and
+    I congratulated myself, not for the first time, on my steamer;
+    in a dahabieh I might have taken a week, and more, over the
+    stretch of river I have just covered in a day; and the scenery
+    just here, though fine, is monotonous. I am sorry for the
+    Sterlings, who will, I fear, be unusually long getting up. This
+    afternoon I saw Sheykh Selim, a sort of St. Simeon Stylites
+    without the column. This holy man's peculiar form of piety
+    consists in sitting stark naked on the bank of the river and
+    exacting presents in money and kind from all passers-by.
+
+    Hosseyn had spoken to me at great length of his wisdom and
+    piety, and assured me that when the crocodiles, which are
+    numerous about here, presented themselves before the eyes of
+    the Sheykh, he merely waved his hand and said "Biz, biz!"
+    whereat they fled, rebuked. He informed me also that no boat
+    refusing him tribute could expect to get on--it would infallibly
+    be becalmed until his holiness was propitiated. To my surprise I
+    found that my captain, a sensible old gentleman in other
+    respects, believed this just as firmly, though he expressed his
+    faith more vaguely. When I asked him whether the Sheykh's power
+    extended also to steamers, which did not wait on the wind, he
+    said: "Well, Allah was great, and though, certainly, a _steamer_
+    might, no doubt--so well appointed a steamer particularly--might,
+    no doubt, get past--yet who should say? Allah was great!" In
+    fact he believed with the best; so, of course, I said, by all
+    means let the Sheykh be propitiated. Accordingly when we hove in
+    sight of the little mound where he sits, and has sat for God
+    knows how many years, we turned the steamer (a vessel of
+    seventy-five horse-power) and ran straight in for the bank at
+    considerable risk, it struck me, of not getting off again. The
+    whole crew then went ashore in great excitement, headed by the
+    captain, and surrounded the Saint, kissing his hand and
+    salaaming. As I did not wish to hurt the old gentleman's
+    feelings by not kissing his hand, I stayed on board and looked
+    on. Sheykh Selim is a very vigorous-looking old fellow of the
+    colour of a very dusky mahogany table; his hair and beard are
+    woolly and of a dirty white; his countenance, as far as I could
+    judge from a little distance, good-humoured and sagacious. He
+    squats on the ground with his knees up and his arms folded
+    across them. He inspects his presents, and asks for more. After
+    the levee was over, and when our crew were about to come on
+    board, he called after them and asked for roast meat, and then
+    again a second time for oil wherewith to anoint himself.
+    "There," said Hosseyn triumphantly, "he know everything! he know
+    we have roast meat--how he know that?"
+
+    I was amused at the intellectual superiority of Ottilio, the
+    Italian waiter. "Quanto sono stupidi questi Arabi!" For my part
+    I don't see much more difficulty in swallowing Sheykh Selim than
+    a stigmatised nun or a winking picture--I told him so.
+
+    We should have reached Keneh to-day, but the coals were bad, and
+    we had to stop at Dishulh, three hours this side of that place.
+    Where was thy favouring grace, O Sheykh? It appears that, like
+    the gods of ancient Greece, the Sheykhs of Egypt have their
+    little misunderstandings; I am told that on one occasion Selim,
+    having a few words with another holy man thirty-five miles up
+    the river, by name Sheykh Fadl, and waxing wroth, threw a stone
+    at him (what are thirty or forty miles to a saint?) and blinded
+    him of one eye; whereon Sheykh Fadl returned the amenity by
+    throwing "some fire" at Sheykh Selim, thereby sorely burning
+    him. "I have seen the scar," my coxswain informs me.
+
+    Killed another fatted sheep for the crew.
+
+    _Wednesday, 21st._--Arrived at Lougsor (El Uker) about three. It
+    was too hot for sightseeing, so I waited till evening and went
+    out shooting in a boat; at least I went out with the idea of
+    shooting--if possible a pelican or a crane--but the birds were
+    too shy--I could not get within fair shooting distance; wounded
+    a pelican, but could not get after him in the deep mud. Got
+    belated on the river, and the crew had to pull hard for an hour
+    and a half to reach the steamer; fortunately there was a moon.
+    Anything more good-humoured or more ineffective than the way in
+    which the sailors pulled and shoved, I never saw; they hopped in
+    and out of the boat in the shallows, up to their hips in the
+    water--pushed, tugged, rowed and sang _die era im piacus_; they
+    can do nothing without the accompaniment of some rhythmic,
+    droning refrain, which they can keep up for an indefinite time.
+    Anything will do; my fellows pulled on this occasion to the
+    following words--
+
+            "Min Min_yeh_
+            fi Beniso_ef_,"
+
+    which is as who should say--
+
+            "From Hen_lee_
+            to Cookham _Reach_,"
+
+    giving the stroke and the emphasis on the last syllable.
+
+    In the evening was visited by Mustafa Aga, H.B.M. Consular
+    Agent, one of his sons, the Turkish Governor (Hassan Effendi),
+    and the local doctor. Mustafa is a very courteous old gentleman,
+    with half a nose, and much respected by all who know him; I
+    observed that Said, his son, would not smoke in his father's
+    presence, in accordance with an Arab custom, which did not much
+    remind me of the manner in which "the gov'nor" is treated in
+    England.
+
+    On Thursday morning, 22nd, I started to see the tombs of the
+    kings, leaving the eastern bank and Karnak for my return. It was
+    a lovely morning, and I crossed the Nile before the air had had
+    time to get thoroughly heated. On the other side I found horses,
+    kindly lent me by Mustafa (whose son accompanied me), and
+    donkeys for the rest of the party. There were a good many of us,
+    and we made a very absurd-looking procession--_en tete_, a
+    couple of fine brawny Arabs, one of whom has been the guide to
+    these ruins since Champollion; then Said and I on our
+    horses--mine a good-looking chestnut, caparisoned with scarlet
+    finery; behind us, on their respective donkeys, the captain in
+    full uniform holding a large umbrella over his head, Hosseyn in
+    his Arab dress, the French cook in his official white jacket and
+    cap, the Italian waiter with a large handkerchief over his head,
+    and the engineer; further behind, lesser menials and the hamper.
+    I forgot the Turkish Cawass in uniform and armed to the teeth.
+    Hovering round, brandishing water-bottles, was a swarm of Arab
+    boys and girls, in sizes, and of various qualities of chocolate;
+    they were dressed in the most fantastically tattered remnants of
+    dark brown shirts that I ever saw; there was one little monkey
+    of a dull ebony colour turned up with pale blue, whose form was
+    revealed rather than covered by a few incoherent brown shreds of
+    garment, and who was inexpressibly droll from the way in which
+    he cocked his little head demurely on one side with a
+    half-consciousness of insufficient drapery.
+
+    The ride to the tombs, which takes about an hour, and the latter
+    half of which lies through an arid valley, is very striking from
+    the form and colour of the mountains. Nothing announces that one
+    is approaching the city of the dead, and it is not till you
+    stand before them that you become aware of the plain square
+    openings which lead down to these magnificent last
+    resting-places of the kings. It was a right royal idea this, of
+    the old rulers of Egypt, to plunge these shafts into the bowels
+    of the rock, and give themselves a mountain for a tombstone over
+    the palace which was their grave. The design of these houses of
+    the dead is simple and apparently always much the same: a long
+    corridor, sometimes with lateral galleries, sometimes with
+    recesses or small chambers on each side, leads downwards by a
+    not very rapid incline to a great hall, in the centre of which
+    is the sarcophagus which contained the mummy of the king in its
+    magnificent case; these cases have of course been all removed.
+    All these lateral chambers were also originally filled with
+    mummies--those, I believe, of the relations of the sovereign.
+    The walls of these subterranean palaces and the ceilings are
+    adorned throughout with coloured hieroglyphs and flat sculptured
+    "graven images" representing mostly sacred and mystical scenes,
+    but often, also, illustrating the different trades and crafts
+    practised by the Egyptians. These paintings are of high interest
+    from an ethnographic point of view--Poynter would have a fit
+    over them. In the innermost places scores of bats dart about in
+    intense alarm. The effect of the scanty light from the candles
+    on these painted walls and on the dark bony forms of the Arabs
+    is extremely fine--what your literary tourist would call "worthy
+    of the pencil of Rembrandt."
+
+    After lunching in a shady spot we took an anything but shady
+    ride to the temple-palace of Koorneh, and from thence to the
+    Memnonium. Both are very interesting, but the latter by far the
+    finest; there is about it a breadth and a vastness, together
+    with much elegance and variety, that are very impressive.
+    Nothing that I have seen is comparable to the monuments of
+    Egypt, for the expression of gigantic thoughts and limitless
+    command of material and labour; withal there is about them
+    something stolid and oppressive that is unsatisfactory; and as I
+    looked at these vast ruins, vivid memories of Athens and its
+    Acropolis invaded me, and the Parthenon in all its serene
+    splendour rose before my mind; mighty, too, in its measured
+    sobriety, stately in the noble rhythm of its forms; infinitely
+    precious in the added glory of its sculptures; lovable as a
+    living thing; and then more, perhaps, than ever before, I felt
+    what a divine breath informed that marvellous Attic people, and
+    what an ineffaceable debt of gratitude is due to them from us,
+    blind fumblers in their footsteps.
+
+    I was less struck than I had expected to be by the two colossal
+    statues, of one of which it was poetically fabled by the
+    ancients that a mysterious clang rose from it as the first rays
+    of the rising sun smote its forehead. The myth is more striking
+    than the statues, though their size and isolation give them
+    something impressive. I had expected them, too, I don't know
+    why, to be in a desert, and they are in a field. How infinitely
+    grander is the great Sphinx, with its strange, far-gazing,
+    haunting eyes, fixed, for ever, on the East, as if expecting the
+    dawn of a day that never comes; immovable, unchanging, without
+    shadow of sorrow, or light of gladness, whilst the gladness of
+    men has turned to sorrow and their thoughts to ashes before
+    them, through three times a thousand years! Century by century
+    the desert has been gathering and growing round it--the feet are
+    buried, the body, the breast are hidden. How soon will the
+    sealing sands give rest at last to those steadfast, expectant
+    eyes?
+
+    In the evening Hosseyn had a great "fantasia" and fulfilled his
+    vow--and spent all his money. He killed his sheep and roasted
+    it, bought some rice and boiled it, some flour and had it made
+    into bread; then mixing the whole, he distributed it in six very
+    large trays; three were put before the crew, one he had placed
+    on the wayside for all comers (and they all came); the other two
+    were sent to the nearest mosque for the same purpose, and with
+    similar results; then, being unable to read himself, he paid
+    five men to recite from the Koran at night, in the mosque, and
+    invited thereto the captain, Mustafa Aga, and his son and
+    several others; he, the while, sitting outside and offering
+    coffee to whoever passed by. When it was all over he came to me
+    radiant: "El Hamdul illah," he said, throwing up his hands,
+    "this is good! I am happy, everybody to be satisfied! this is
+    rich day! El Hamdul illah! my money is all gone! why shall I
+    mind? I spend it for God! brabs something good happen for me, el
+    Hamdul illah!" His delight at the performance of his vow and his
+    absolute faith were the prettiest thing one could see. Talking
+    of faith, I am much struck by the dignified simplicity with
+    which Mahometans practise the observances of their religion;
+    praying at the appointed times without concealment, wherever
+    they happen to be, and as a matter of course.
+
+    _Friday, 23rd._--Started early and coaled, first at Erment and
+    then again at Esne, after which, being stopped by the night and
+    shallow water, we anchored off a bank nowhere in particular.
+    Heavens, what a hot day! this is indeed "the fire that quickens
+    Nilus' slime," but has a vastly different effect on me.
+    Sketching will be quite out of the question unless it gets
+    rapidly cooler.
+
+    At Esne I was visited by the chief magistrate, and by the
+    governor of the province; the former a jolly old _bonhomme_ who
+    offered me snuff, the other a very refined old gentleman with
+    most charming manners. Both were Turks; and as they spoke no
+    Christian tongue our conversation was carried on entirely
+    through a dragoman; I was, however, pleased to find that I
+    recognised several words that I learnt last year at
+    Constantinople; I was glad, too, to hear again that fine
+    vigorous language, the sound of which is extremely agreeable to
+    me. Eastern manners are certainly very pleasing, and the
+    frequent salutations, which consist in laying the hand first on
+    the breast and then on the forehead, making at the same time a
+    slight inclination, are graceful without servility. When an
+    Egyptian wishes to express great respect he first lowers his
+    hands to the level of his knees, exactly as in the days of
+    Herodotus.
+
+    Talking of Herodotus, here is a first-rate subject for Gerome
+    suggested by that author; it is ethnographical and ghastly. The
+    scene is laid in the establishment of an ancient Egyptian
+    embalmer and undertaker, fitted up with all the implements and
+    appliances of the trade; in the background, but not so far as to
+    exclude detail, groups of assistants should be shown busied over
+    a number of corpses and illustrating all the different stages of
+    preparation, embalsamation, swathing, &c. &c. In the centre a
+    bereaved family have brought their lamented relative, and are
+    selecting, from specimens submitted to them by the master
+    undertaker, a style of treatment suited to their taste and
+    means, and expressive of their particular shade of grief. A
+    large assortment of mummy-cases would form appropriate
+    accessories and give great scope for the display of knowledge
+    and the use of a fine brush. It seems to me that so pleasing a
+    mixture of corpses and archaeology, impartially treated by that
+    polite and accomplished hand, could not fail to create
+    considerable sensation.
+
+    Took a stroll through Esne whilst the ship was coaling. The
+    darker tints of skin are beginning to preponderate more and
+    more; mummy colour is in the ascendant here, together with a
+    fine Brunswick black. The _men_, I observe, spin in this
+    country. The children are quite fascinating; they have nothing
+    on but a little tuft of hair on the top of their shaven heads;
+    those dazzling little teeth of theirs are wonderful to see, and
+    funny--like a handful of rice in a coal-scuttle. Fine sunset
+    again; the hills, ranged in an amphitheatre from east to west,
+    showed a most wonderful gradation from extreme dark on one side
+    to glowing light on the other. I make the profound reflection
+    that no two sunsets are alike; this remark, however, does not
+    extend to _descriptions_ of sunsets--_verb. sap._
+
+    When I saw Holman Hunt's "Isabel," his pot of basil puzzled me
+    sorely; I had seen a great deal of basil, and have an especial
+    love for it; but I had never seen it except with a very small
+    leaf. I was sure, however, knowing his great accuracy, that Hunt
+    had sufficient foundation for the large leaf he gave the plant
+    in his picture; the very fellow of it is now before me in a
+    nosegay of flowers, very kindly sent me by the old governor of
+    Esne. As I smell it I am assailed by pleasant memories of
+    Lindos--"Lindos the beautiful"--and Rhodes, and that marvellous
+    blue coast across the seas, that looks as if it could enclose
+    nothing behind its crested rocks but the Gardens of the
+    Hesperides; and I remember those gentle, courteous Greeks of the
+    island (so unlike their swaggering kinsfolk--if they are their
+    kinsfolk--of the mainland), and the little nosegay, a red
+    carnation and a fragrant sprig of basil, with which they always
+    dismiss a guest.
+
+    As we lay anchored by the shore in the evening, the dahabiehs
+    came sweeping past in the moonlight; and the faint glimmering of
+    the shell-like sails, and the flutter of the water against the
+    swift, cutting keels, and the silence of the huddled groups, and
+    the dark watchful figure of the helmsman at the helm, were
+    strangely fantastic and beautiful.
+
+    _Saturday, 24th._--Started at half-past five--passed Edfou
+    (which I leave for my return) at half-past seven. Shall we reach
+    Assouan to-day? Hosseyn's pious orgies have, I fear, turned his
+    head, for I observed yesterday that he has taken to fishing
+    again. "Brabs!--Insha Allah!" His interpretation of dreams is
+    worthy of the ancient oracle-mongers; on the night before his
+    sacrifice he dreamt that he had bought a slave, and then
+    released it: "Wull! the slave is my sheep--is it not my slave?
+    Wull, have I not buy it? Wull, I give it to the beebles--go!--I
+    release it!" Whether the sheep, personally, considered itself
+    released is problematic.
+
+    _Saturday Evening._--Reached Assouan this afternoon at four,
+    and, after the usual visit from the governor, took a stroll. I
+    don't yet know whether I am disappointed in the place or not. At
+    all events it is quite unlike my expectations of it. I had
+    imagined, I suppose from descriptions, a narrower gorge and
+    higher rocks; in point of fact there is no gorge at all, but the
+    river is narrowed, or, rather, split by several islands and some
+    fine granite boulders cropping up here and there to fret the
+    river, and announcing the rapids; otherwise the country is open
+    enough, and original and striking in aspect; I shall know better
+    to-morrow what I think of it all. I saw during my evening
+    stroll, and for the first time in my life, a group of slaves,
+    mostly girls. If I had seen them subjected to any ill-treatment
+    I should have felt very indignant; but I am bound to own that,
+    seeing them squatting round a fire like any other children,
+    showing no mark of slavery, and occupied in cooking their food,
+    scratching themselves (as well, no doubt, they might!) and
+    looking otherwise very like monkeys, I found it difficult to
+    realise to myself the hardship of their position, however much
+    it may revolt one in the abstract. They were black, and uglier
+    than young negroes generally are; their hair was arranged in an
+    infinity of minute, highly-greased plaits all round their heads;
+    the elder ones were draped; the youngest wore a fringe _pour
+    tout potage_. This is a noisy night; there is a "moolid" going
+    on on the high bank to which we have made fast, and which
+    borders the public square. A double row of howling dervishes are
+    squatting and rocking and howling after their kind, almost over
+    my head. In the brief lulls during which they take breath for
+    further efforts, I hear from the other side of the river the
+    mournful, weary, incessant creak of the water-wheel (with its
+    blindfold cow or camel plodding round and round and round,
+    apparently for ever), which in this region almost entirely
+    supersedes the hand-worked bucket. The contrast is very curious.
+
+    I have just returned the governor's visit. I found him sitting
+    on a sofa in the piazza opposite the Government House, with
+    half-a-dozen hand lanterns brought by the guests in front of
+    him, and on each side a long row of benches (forming an avenue
+    up to his seat) on which squatted and smoked numbers of
+    picturesque folk, who looked to great advantage by the
+    flickering glimmer of the lamps and under the soft warm light of
+    an African moon. I sat in the place of honour, smoked my
+    conventional _tchibouque_, drank my inevitable cup of coffee,
+    conveyed through my dragoman the usual traveller's remarks and
+    questions (cardboard questions, so to speak, of which I knew the
+    answers) to my host, who, like all the Turkish officials that I
+    have seen, has the manners of a perfect gentleman and much
+    natural dignity.
+
+    _Sunday, 25th._--Started for Phylae at half-past seven; arrived
+    there at nine o'clock. The road leads through a broad tract of
+    yellow sand (where, I believe, an arm of the Nile is supposed to
+    have flowed in remote antiquity) along which on either side crop
+    up, in wild, irregular fashion, bumps and hillocks and hills of
+    dark red granite, covered over with innumerable fragments of the
+    same stone, scattered in the most incredible confusion, and
+    having rather a ludicrous appearance of having been _left about_
+    and forgotten. You could get an excellent notion of the thing in
+    miniature, by hastily spilling a coal-scuttle on a gravel walk
+    and running away.
+
+    Above Assouan we are fairly in Nubia, and of course none but the
+    darkest complexions are to be seen; but so large a number of
+    negroes make their way here from the Soudan (the Nubians are not
+    _black_, but of a beautiful dark cairngorm brown), that the
+    whole place has an air of negro-land which is disagreeable to
+    me. The young men, indeed, both black and brown, are sometimes
+    extremely fine fellows (bar the legs, which are never good), but
+    the girls, as far as one can see them, are tolerably
+    ill-favoured, and the old women, of an ugliness which passes all
+    belief. They are _far_ worse than apes. The ladies in this part
+    of the country gladden the hearts of their admirers by anointing
+    their bodies with castor oil, so that the atmosphere of their
+    villages, however full of sweet suggestion to a native, is much
+    the reverse to a traveller with a nose not attuned to these
+    perfumes; the smell that greets you through an open door is a
+    mixture of the bouquet just named, and a penetrating flavour of
+    accumulated stuffed beasts, and naturally interferes much with
+    my enjoyment.
+
+    At Mahatter we left our donkeys and took a boat to Phylae, a
+    quarter of a mile, which takes half an hour owing to the
+    rapidity of the current just above the cataract. The scenery
+    about Phylae has been spoken of as Paradise; I never saw anything
+    less like my notion of Paradise, and so far, therefore, I am
+    disappointed. Original and strange it is, in a high degree. It
+    is in fact exactly like the valley of which I spoke a little
+    further back, only that the hills are four times as high, and
+    water takes the place of the sand; the same breaking up of the
+    rocks into a myriad of fragments, putting all grandeur and
+    massiveness of form out of the question--and, with the exception
+    of a few palm trees and a sycamore or two, the same barrenness.
+    Looking up in the direction of Wady Halfa, the mountains appear
+    to grow finer in outline, and a tract of very yellow sand
+    amongst their highest crests is striking and original--gold dust
+    in a cup of lapis lazuli. With the island itself and its
+    beautiful group of temples it is impossible not to be delighted.
+    Nothing could be more fantastic or more stately than the manner
+    in which it rises out of the bosom of the river like a vast
+    ship, surrounded as it is on all sides by a high wall sheer from
+    the water to the level on which the temples stand. One hall in
+    the main temple, and one only, shows still a sufficient amount
+    of colour to give a very good idea of what the effect must have
+    been originally; the green and blue capitals must have been very
+    lovely. It is needless to say that here, as elsewhere,
+    travellers have left by hundreds lasting memorials of their
+    brutality, in the shape of names and dates drawn, painted,
+    scratched, and cut on every wall and column, so that the eye
+    finds no rest from them. This strange and ineffably vulgar mania
+    is as old as the world, and the tombs of the kings at Thebes are
+    scrawled over with inscriptions left there by ancient Greek and
+    Roman visitors. I shall return to Phylae shortly to make a sketch
+    or two--_Insha Allah._
+
+    Here, at last, I have found that absolutely clear crystalline
+    atmosphere of which I had so often heard; I own it is not
+    pleasing to me; a sky of burnished steel over a land of burning
+    granite would no doubt be grand if the outlines of the granite
+    were fine--but they are not. Meanwhile, perspective is
+    abolished--everything is equally and obtrusively near, and I
+    sadly miss the soft mysterious veils and pleasant doubts of
+    distance that enchant one in other lands. I think it very likely
+    that in winter one has great compensation from the exhilarating
+    purity of the air; but just now the heat, which is simply
+    infernal, is too trying for me to do justice to these
+    advantages; no doubt the air is light and dry, but I feel
+    unfortunately so very heavy and wet, that I am not in a position
+    fully to appreciate it. Returning to Assouan in the evening, saw
+    a dahabieh that had just got through the jaws of the cataracts,
+    always rather a nervous matter; at least so they say; "to be
+    very dyinger" (dangerous?), according to Hosseyn; the men were
+    chanting a monotonous strain that had little of triumph in it,
+    but rather conveyed a feeling of an always impending calamity
+    escaped _this_ time; it was melancholy and very striking, I
+    thought, in the silence of the gloaming; very likely pure fancy
+    on my part, for I doubt whether more than a couple of boats are
+    lost in a season, and the sailors of the Nile must be well
+    accustomed to the dangers of these rapids; but the impression on
+    me at the time was very strong.
+
+    _Monday, 26th._--The dragoman of the ship having a swelling of
+    some sort on his arm, an Arab doctor was sent for, and forthwith
+    informed him that his arm was possessed of the devil!! Went to
+    see the island of Elephantina opposite Assouan, but saw nothing
+    to suggest its ancient magnificence. Gave a silver farthing to a
+    funny little child, which (the farthing) being perforated, his
+    mother immediately tied into one of his little oily locks--an
+    ingenious substitute for a pocket. I observed several little
+    boys simply attired in a piece of string tied round their
+    loins--there, Diogenes!
+
+    _Tuesday, 27th._--Began sketching, but am out of form from the
+    heat. I am working chiefly because I am weary of idleness. I
+    don't much care for the two sketches I have begun; they will
+    therefore probably turn out badly. Going to try another
+    presently.
+
+    Tuesday Evening._--Have begun a sketch which interests me more
+    than the others; it is taken amongst the tombs and shrines on
+    the hills south of the town towards Phylae. As my evening's work
+    was drawing to a close, I heard a shuffling of feet a little
+    behind me, and, turning round, saw, in the full fire of sunset,
+    what appeared to me at first to be a procession of golden apes
+    with dark blue robes, light blue lips, and nose-rings; on closer
+    inspection they turned out to be Nubian women going home to
+    their village. Hosseyn, _qui a le mot pour rire_, apparently,
+    engaged in conversation with them, and convulsed them with
+    laughter; the flashes of teeth were very funny to see. At last
+    he gave them a few halfpence, and desired them to sing; whereon
+    they set up a series of the most uncouth howls I ever heard; one
+    baboon in particular got up and, using a flat date basket as a
+    tambourine, accompanied her vocal performance with hops and
+    jumps that would have done honour to any inmate of the
+    monkey-house in the Zoological Gardens.
+
+    The twilight, walking home, was lovely. The earth was in colour
+    like a lion's skin; the sky of a tremulous violet, fading in the
+    zenith to a mysterious sapphire tint. "Dolce color d'oriental
+    zaffiro."
+
+    Slew another sheep--"Allah hou akbar!" (without which formula in
+    the killing a good Muslim must not touch the meat): this sheep
+    is no empty formality, for the unfortunate sailors would never
+    see meat without it; they live on bread and occasional beans.
+    This is the fourth night of the moolid, which is to last the
+    whole week! At this very moment the tambourines of the dervishes
+    are driving me nearly wild with their diabolic din.
+
+    _Wednesday, 28th._--Got on indifferently with my sketches; only
+    one of them interests me much. The morning was almost cool and
+    really delightful, but the heat was as great as ever in the
+    daytime. I have always been unable to see the extraordinary
+    difference which is said to exist between the length of the
+    twilight in the north, and in southern countries; I could have
+    read large print to-night three-quarters of an hour after
+    sunset. Habit is everything, no doubt, as we are reminded by
+    Herodotus, _a propos_ of a certain people who ate their dead
+    relatives instead of burning them; but I wonder whether I should
+    ever get accustomed to the aching, straining, creaking complaint
+    of the water-wheel far and near, morning, noon and night,
+    morning, noon and night; I can _just_ fancy its becoming
+    attaching as the clacking of a mill.
+
+    I have often wondered why, contrary to all analogy, the
+    Spaniards call oil _azedo_, which at first sight appears to be
+    the same word as the Italian _aceto_. I find that the word is
+    Arabic: _zeyd_. Mem.: Look up the etymology of the English word
+    _cough_, to which no European word that I remember has any
+    affinity, and which rather appears to be onomatopoeic. The Arabs
+    say _kokh_ (guttural ending); is this a mere coincidence, and
+    does the word date beyond the Crusades? I find a good many words
+    that have a curious likeness to English. My endeavours to pick
+    up a little Arabic are almost entirely frustrated by Hosseyn's
+    utter inability to pull a sentence to pieces for me. In an
+    Arabic sentence of two words (_e.g._ _azekan tareed_--if you
+    please) he could not tell me which word was the verb! literally;
+    I had to find out as best I could. I never saw anything to
+    approach his obtuseness in the matter, except perhaps that of
+    Georgi, my dragoman in Turkey. As I was sketching this evening a
+    Nubian passed me, very grandly draped and erect, and followed by
+    two green monkeys that were fastened by leading-strings to his
+    belt. They toddled very snugly after their stately master and
+    made a queer group.
+
+    _Sunday, November 1._--I am in a state of appreciative enjoyment
+    of the comforts and civilised cleanliness of my steamer, having
+    just returned from three or four days' roughing in the ruins of
+    Phylae. "Roughing" is a relative term, and my trials were of a
+    very mild description, for though I slept _a la belle etoile_
+    (or rather tried to sleep), at all events I had a bed to rest
+    in, and the air at night was delightful; moreover, the
+    commissariat was very satisfactorily managed, so that food and
+    drink were abundant; nevertheless, I must maintain that living
+    in an open ruin is not comfortable. I made two or three
+    sketches, and should probably have enjoyed myself, but that on
+    the second day I was entirely thrown off the rails by the heat
+    whilst sketching; I thought I should get a _coup de soleil_; I
+    was very indisposed in the evening, and utterly unable to work
+    the next morning, so that I took the place _en grippe_, and
+    could see nothing but the ugliness of the rocks and the wearing
+    monotony of the hieroglyphs. Picked up in the evening, and
+    liked the place better; made some original and striking
+    reflections about the desirability of health.
+
+    Having heard much of the beauty of the full moon at Phylae, timed
+    my visit to see it, and was entirely delighted. The light was so
+    brilliant that one could read with ease, but at the same time so
+    soft, so rich, and so mellow that one seemed not to see the
+    night, but to be dreaming of the day. The Arabs say of a fine
+    night, "it is a night like milk," but there is more of amber
+    than of milk in the nights of Phylae. The rising of the moon last
+    night was the first thing of the sort I ever saw; the disc was
+    perfectly golden, not as in a mist, but set sharp and clear in
+    the sky, and exactly like the sun, except that you could look at
+    it without pain to the eyes. The effect of this effulgent light
+    on the shoulder of the hill was magical. The last hour of the
+    afternoon I spent in strolling about the villages, which are
+    picturesque. The cottages are four brown, roofless walls, built
+    of the usual unburnt brick, and coated with mud; but the
+    doorways are always highly decorated with painted geometrical
+    devices which, in the mass of plain, sober brown, have a very
+    cheerful and artistic effect. The people, too, amuse me; a
+    pleasant, gentle, grinning folk these Nubians seem; I like their
+    jargon--after the guttural Arabic it sounds so soft and round,
+    and the women have funny, cooing inflections of voice (pretty
+    voices, often) that are pleasing. Some of the girls are
+    good-looking; chiefly through the brightness of their eyes and
+    the milky whiteness of their teeth. The coiffure of the children
+    is too funny; it consists in tufts of hair of various shapes and
+    patterns left on an otherwise shaven head; often a crest all
+    down the middle and a tuft on each side, exactly like the
+    clown's wig in a pantomime; it is irresistibly droll.
+
+    A grand sight is to see the villagers keeping the birds from
+    their crops; they all serve in their turn, men, women, and
+    children; they stand each on a rude sort of scaffold which rises
+    about two feet clear of the corn; they are armed with slings
+    from which they hurl lumps of clay at the birds, uttering loud
+    cries at the same time. Their movements are full of grandeur and
+    character. I wonder Gerome has never treated a subject so well
+    suited to him. Why, too, has he never painted mine enemy the
+    sakkea, which is even more emphatically in his way, for, besides
+    the scope for fine and quaint forms both in the men and the
+    animals that work it, the accessories are abundant and
+    interesting, and there are ropes in great abundance.
+
+    _Is_ the sakkea my friend or my enemy? Its chant is so incessant
+    that I should have to make up my mind if I stayed longer in the
+    country; it would either fascinate me or drive me mad. As I
+    listen in the silence of the evening, the rise and fall, the
+    shifting and swaying of the wind bring its complaint from across
+    the gurgling river in such a fitful way that it has the
+    strangest and most unexpected effects: sometimes I fancy I hear
+    deep, drowsy tones of a distant organ, sometimes the shrill
+    quavering of a bagpipe; sometimes it is like a snatch of a song,
+    sometimes like a whole chorus of voices singing a solemn strain
+    in the sad, empty night; sometimes, alas! too often, like a
+    snarling, creaking door-post.
+
+    Phylae being above the cataracts, my steamer stopped at Assouan,
+    and I went there by donkey as before; returning, I chartered a
+    dahabieh to see the said cataracts, of which for some days I had
+    heard so much; amongst other things, that a ship was wrecked
+    there three weeks ago (I saw it stuck on its rock to-day). The
+    cowardice of the people here, at least in this particular
+    matter, is very funny; too naif to inspire disgust: my captain,
+    an old sailor, and the nicest old gentleman possible, told
+    Hosseyn that nothing would induce him to go down them; I thought
+    I observed a shade of respectful interest in his reception of me
+    on my return from an exploit which most English _women_ would
+    consider good fun. I make no doubt that when the water is much
+    lower, and your dahabieh shoots a good six or eight feet drop,
+    and goes half into the water besides, considerable excitement
+    may be got out of it; but now that the drop is not or does not
+    look more than about a yard, and that the whole affair consists
+    in a few plunges and shipping a little water, the emotion is
+    very mild, and I own to considerable disappointment, though as
+    far as it went it was pleasant. Nevertheless I did not for a
+    moment regret coming if only on account of the amusement I got
+    out of the sailors and pilots; the latter were men of years; the
+    former, fine, jolly-looking lads as one could wish to see; but
+    their demeanour throughout was infinitely droll; they rested
+    their feet (according to custom here) on inclined planks, up
+    which they ran three steps with their arms well forward to fetch
+    the stroke, getting back into the sitting position as they
+    pulled through the water (and wonderfully fine the action looks
+    in a large crew all pulling well together); but the contortions
+    in which they indulged, the gnashing and grinding of teeth, the
+    throwing back of agonised heads, the frowns, the setting of
+    jaws, the straining of veins, the rolling of eyes, the groans,
+    and, absurdest of all, the coming down on one another's laps and
+    the cutting of crabs, were ineffably grotesque, and would have
+    convulsed me with laughter if I had not controlled myself
+    manfully. Meanwhile the pilots were howling at one another and
+    them with all the vehemence of a violent altercation, and for no
+    discernible reason. When they were not shrieking at one another,
+    the crew took up the usual Arab boatmen's chant (I know no
+    better word); one man gives out a short sentence, or name, or
+    form of prayer (not exceeding four syllables) in a quavering
+    treble, and the rest then repeat it in chorus in a graver
+    key--the effect is very original. As we got within sight of the
+    big cataract and the stranded ship, Hosseyn loudly exhorted the
+    crew to pray to the Prophet, and all the saints who have their
+    shrines on the heights of Assouan, to see them safely through
+    the danger; the invitation was loudly responded to, and
+    everybody who had not an oar to pull held up his hands and
+    prayed with great fervour--which was very pretty, and done with
+    the dignified simplicity which always accompanies an Arab's
+    devotions; but it was certainly disproportionate to the
+    emergency. When we had danced up and down (or rather down and
+    up) three or four times, I had the curiosity to look about for
+    the _sailor_ and waiter I had brought with me from the steamer;
+    they were respectively green and yellow in their unfeigned
+    terror. Then there was a nominal _small_ cataract (the first one
+    is called the _great_ cataract), and indeed I believe there was
+    a _third_ little commotion; then Hosseyn, throwing up his arms,
+    exclaimed, "El Hamdul illah!! finish!!" and it was, as he said,
+    "finish." I am utterly ignorant of the mysteries of navigation,
+    but one figure we executed between the cataracts and Assouan
+    struck me as novel: it consisted in turning entirely round in a
+    wide circle to take (as it were) a fresh start; this manoeuvre
+    we performed with much gravity and success two successive times.
+    An elaborate salute from the guns of the dragoman and engineer,
+    responded to with appropriate solemnity by Hosseyn, announced my
+    return to my steamer--and, oh joy! my tub.
+
+    In the evening governor of course.
+
+    _Monday, 2nd._--Resumed work; painted for a couple of
+    hours--badly--in a high wind at an ugly study of a view I don't
+    like. I consider it a sort of discipline. The wind to-day is
+    tremendously high; the dahabiehs will come flying up now. I saw
+    my friend the captain just now sitting on the bank in the midst
+    of an interested circle having his fortune told. There is a
+    blessing for them that wait. Hosseyn has caught a fish! two
+    fishes, to-day! his glee is unlimited, he is radiant; when that
+    boy is at the near end of his fishing rope, he is so absorbed I
+    can't get him to attend to me or to answer a question. His
+    brilliant piscatorial success is an opportune set-off against a
+    chagrin the poor boy had this morning; he was taking a dip
+    somewhere under the paddle-box, and lost, in putting away his
+    clothes (_he_ thinks by a black but improbable theft), a Koran
+    with which he travels and to which he attributes much luck; he
+    was greatly cut up, and after telling me how much he valued the
+    book, proceeded to inform me that it contained a little piece of
+    wood from Abyssinia with something written on it, "some, what
+    you call, scription," which, when worn round the neck,
+    infallibly cured the bite of the scorpion; seeing that this
+    announcement did not impress me as much as he had expected, he
+    asked me with some warmth how I supposed, pray, that the
+    snake-charmers prevented the snakes from biting them if it was
+    not by saying something out of the Bible.
+
+    Another sheep to-day; there was some hitch about the manner of
+    the killing which caused a little excitement; his throat was not
+    turned to the sun (or the East?) whilst he was being
+    slaughtered; an important matter. I observe that Turkish
+    officials are not expected to be able to write; my captain can,
+    but I remarked that when his secretary, a poor, wizened little
+    thing, whose nose and trousers are far too short, but whose
+    mouth and ears offer ample compensation through their length,
+    brought him to-day the ship's accounts, he stamped his signature
+    at the foot of the page instead of writing it, although he
+    happened to have a pen in his hand; I was giving him his English
+    lesson. Talking of accounts, the Arabs have a curious way of
+    singing or rather intoning their sums, rocking all the while
+    backwards and forwards like so many Dervishes. I have seen a
+    large house of business (at Sohag) where _all_ the clerks were
+    doing it at once; it was like a madhouse. Oh, Lombard Street,
+    and oh, Mark Lane! what would you have felt at the sight?
+
+    _Tuesday, 3rd._--My last day at Assouan. Finished my sketches,
+    took leave of the governor, and had a final stroll about the
+    streets of the town, which seemed to me unusually picturesque. I
+    remark that I invariably like a place best the day I leave it;
+    if I am sorry to go, my regret casts a halo over it; if I am
+    glad, my gladness makes everything brighter. How picturesque the
+    people are! their flowing, flying draperies are wonderfully
+    grand. I hope I may carry away with me some general impressions,
+    but the immense multitude and rapid succession of striking
+    things drive individual memories fatally out of the field.
+    Sketching figures is out of the question--the effects are all
+    too fugitive. This was also the last day of the moolid, and high
+    time too; I met in the morning, in a narrow street, a procession
+    of sailors carrying a boat, which they were about to deposit in
+    the tomb of the sheykh in whose honour the moolid is held, and
+    whose name they were loudly invoking. In front, drums and flags,
+    and cawasses firing guns; behind, in front, everywhere, a host
+    of most paintable ragamuffins enjoying the fun; above, over the
+    brown house-tops, dark blue figures of women huddled peering at
+    the procession; over them a blue sky with a minaret standing
+    against it, a palm tree; some doves--there was the picture, it
+    was charming. The children as usual called out, "Baksheesh
+    howaga;" the so-called begging of the people has been
+    ludicrously exaggerated; in the first place, only the children
+    ask for baksheesh (I mean, of course, without the pretext of a
+    service rendered), and in the next, they treat the whole thing
+    as an excellent joke, and evidently have seldom the slightest
+    expectation that they are to get anything. When you approach a
+    village, every child, from as far as it sees you, whether from a
+    window, or a doorway, or half-way up a palm tree, or the middle
+    of the road, holloas out lustily, "Baksheesh, baksheesh,"
+    generally with much laughter, and frequently with a universal
+    scamper in every direction except towards you. What I call
+    begging is that importunate whining that clings to you, and
+    harasses you wherever you turn in the south of Italy or Spain,
+    and with which this clamorous performance has nothing in common.
+    I have remarked, with regard to grown-up Arabs, that though they
+    wrangle vehemently with the dragoman on the subject of payment,
+    they invariably show the master a pleasant and satisfied face. I
+    speak, of course, only of my own experience. As strange a thing
+    as a satisfied man is a _barking_ fish; the fish that Hosseyn
+    has caught of late--for Fortune is his handmaid now--all utter a
+    sound which I can only describe as a faint bark; perhaps
+    everybody knows that some fishes do this, but I did not, and my
+    surprise was extreme. They are nasty-looking objects, all fins
+    and teeth (a thick row of little bristle-like teeth). They are
+    fat and shiny and most insipid eating.
+
+    _Wednesday, 4th._--Started at six down stream; my face is turned
+    towards bonny old England again, and I feel as if I had wings.
+    At Kom Ombo (the first halt to-day) there are some ruins on a
+    rock which crops up abruptly by the riverside in the midst of a
+    flat country. The morning was divine, and the view from the
+    temple, looking north, surpassingly lovely in colour. The form
+    was nothing much; a vast sandy plain (tigered here and there
+    with stripes of green), and in the distance a long low nest of
+    mountain peaks; but the colour!--the gradation from the
+    fawn-coloured glimmering sands in the foreground to the faint
+    horizon with its hem of amethyst and sapphire was as enchanting
+    a thing, in the sweet morning light, as I have ever seen. The
+    temple is fine though heavy, and less delicate in detail than
+    Phylae. On the under surface of the architrave, between the
+    columns, are some most curious and interesting unfinished
+    decorations, on squares marked out in red, and showing (slight
+    sketch) such as for instance a figure tried two ways on the same
+    spot. The outlines are drawn out, in red also, with
+    extraordinary firmness and freedom. Speaking of the squares,
+    Gardiner Wilkinson--in his, I am told, most erudite, and, I am
+    certain, most dry and heavy, guide-book--says that they were
+    used (in the manner in which "squaring off" is practised in the
+    present day) for the purpose of transferring a design. In this,
+    however, he is obviously mistaken, because the squares are
+    adapted not to the pictures but to the space to be decorated;
+    the hieroglyphs and the figures being adapted to the squares,
+    not the squares to them: that these squares, once made the
+    _basis_ of the decoration and fixing its proportions and
+    distribution, may then have been used also for enlarging a small
+    design, or even, instead of tracing, for transferring one of the
+    same size, is probable enough; but that was not their original
+    function. In corroboration of this view, compare the frets and
+    ornaments painted on the _back_ of the architrave of the
+    Parthenon, which I have examined closely; they are painted in
+    squares marked out with a sharp instrument, and determining the
+    space to be decorated exactly as at Kom Ombo. The case is so
+    entirely parallel as to suggest the idea that the Greeks learnt
+    the practice in Egypt. The great temple of Edfou, where we
+    stopped next, far surpasses anything I have yet seen in Egypt;
+    not so much, perhaps, for any especial beauty of
+    detail--although the sculptures are extremely fine--as for its
+    general aspect, which is superb, and its wonderful state of
+    preservation; many parts of it look as if they had been finished
+    yesterday. The gigantic Propylaea, and the no less gigantic wall
+    which encloses the whole of this fortress-temple, are almost
+    entirely intact, and make it unlike any other ruin I know. The
+    great court, a giant cloister into which one first enters,
+    discloses the temple itself, blocked out in vast masses of light
+    and gulfs of shade, and tunnelled through by a corridor which
+    reaches to its extremest end; the absence of some portions of
+    the roof, by letting the light play fantastically into the inner
+    spaces, only adds to the mysterious grandeur of the effect. A
+    broad, open peribolus runs round the temple, dividing it from
+    the towering _mur d'enceinte_ which encloses the whole building.
+    The western part of the temple is as full of staircases, secret
+    passages, and dark chambers as any Gothic castle. Every square
+    inch of the whole immense fabric is covered with sculptures and
+    hieroglyphs.
+
+    I forgot to say that I stopped between Kom Ombo and Edfou at the
+    ancient quarries of Gebel Silsily, from which the material of
+    the sandstone temples was mostly quarried. They are extremely
+    striking, and have a grandeur of their own. It was curious to
+    compare them mentally with the marble quarries of Pentelicus
+    from which Ictinus carved the Parthenon and Pheidias the Fates.
+
+    In a tomb at El Kab are some most amusing and interesting
+    sculptures (with the colour almost intact on them) representing
+    the various occupations of Egyptian life, agricultural, &c. The
+    reaping of the corn and durrah is pretty--a vintage and
+    wine-treading pleased me vastly. Had they wine in this district?
+
+    Coming upon a magnificent view, stopped the steamer for the
+    night; want to see it by sunrise. The absurd spurious importance
+    my steamer confers on me in the eyes of the natives is too
+    funny. At Edfou I found the whole place _en emoi_; horses
+    handsomely caparisoned, a most polite governor, sheykhs, and a
+    general profusion of salaams. It appears that the viceroy had
+    the authorities in the different places telegraphed to be civil
+    to me; and God knows they are. I was struck with the
+    magnificence of the population here, the men at least; they are
+    most stately fellows. I should like immensely to paint some of
+    them, but for that there is no time; I can only hope that
+    something will stick to me from this dazzling multitude of fine
+    things. We are now again in the region of doves, whose presence
+    in large numbers affects the architecture of the villages in a
+    most curious manner. Every house has, or rather, _is_, a
+    dovecot, the chief _corps de batiment_ being a tower, or several
+    towers, of which the whole upper part is exclusively affected to
+    the doves. Their sides are inclined like the sides of the
+    propylaea of the temples, with which they harmonise amazingly
+    well; they are divided horizontally by bands of colour which
+    have an excellent effect, recalling strongly the marked parallel
+    strata of the mountains. (There is no more curious study than
+    the concord which constantly manifests itself between national
+    (and notably domestic) architecture, and the nature in the midst
+    of which it grows up.) The construction of these towers is both
+    peculiar and ingenious; they are built up entirely with earthen
+    jars, sometimes placed topsy-turvy, but most often on their
+    sides, and tier above tier like bottles in a cellar. The
+    exterior is then filled in with mud, and the interior presents
+    the appearance of a honeycomb, the cells being formed by the
+    hollow jars; in these jars the doves have their abode. It is
+    easy to see that by turning a few of the jars _outwards_ a very
+    simple but pretty decoration may be obtained; a crest is added
+    at the top by placing jars upside down at certain intervals; the
+    bands of colour are generally divided by a string-course of
+    bricks something after this fashion, but with much variety; and
+    each of these string-courses is garnished with a perfect hedge
+    of branches and twigs projecting horizontally a yard or more,
+    and forming resting places for thousands of doves. Many houses
+    have two towers, and the wealthier people have towers of great
+    size subdivided again into small turrets; but in all cases the
+    height of these edifices is the same, or nearly so, so that the
+    villages received from them a very monumental look. The large
+    towers are divided after the manner shown in the sketch. The
+    natives also make to themselves curious pillar cupboards of mud
+    (about man high), which from a distance have the oddest
+    appearance; they look like raised pies on pedestals.
+
+    _Thursday, 5th._--Made a little sketch from the paddle-box
+    before starting. Then to Esne to return the visit of my amiable
+    friend, the governor; him of the flowers. There is a temple
+    here; a heavy-looking portico of the Roman period, coarsely
+    executed, but with a grand, cavernous look, buried as it is in
+    the ground which rises all round it to half the height of the
+    columns, so that you have to descend a considerable flight of
+    steps to get at it. At Arnout, or at least within three miles of
+    it, are a few fragments of the Caesarium. The portraits of
+    Cleopatra and Caesarion (he is always seated on her lap), which
+    occur here several times, would be of the greatest interest if
+    they were not utterly conventional, and exactly like everybody
+    else in every temple of the date. Got to Lougsor at sunset, and
+    found no letters, no Sterlings, no Lady Duff Gordon. I trust the
+    letters may still turn up before I go, for, if not, I shall
+    probably lose them entirely, through my desire to get them a
+    little earlier. In the evening dined with Mustafa Aga, and met
+    there the American Consul-General, Mr. Hale, who had run up from
+    Alexandria to show the Nile to a friend of his; both are
+    agreeable men (Mr. Hale earned my warmest blessings by lending
+    me a pile of English newspapers); there was also the Consul from
+    Syoot with a friend of his. After dinner the dancing girls were
+    asked in, and, presently, a buffoon who stripped to his waist
+    and performed various antics; he was clever and a good mimic,
+    but became terribly tedious after a short time. His performance
+    was of the most Aristophanic coarseness. With the girls, of
+    whom I had heard so much, I was decidedly disappointed; in the
+    first place they were mostly ugly, one or two only were
+    tolerably good-looking--_et encore!_ Then they were clumsily
+    built, and their dress was quite ludicrous: it consisted in a
+    body fitting tight to the figure and four inches too long in the
+    waist, tight sleeves, a petticoat, in shape exactly like a
+    pen-wiper, and very full, loose trowsers (bags) down to the
+    feet; the whole of printed calico. In front of their waists hung
+    a sort of _breloque_, or chain, looped up at intervals in
+    festoons, the object of which was to jingle as they moved, and
+    to add to the effect of certain little brass _castagnette_
+    cymbals which they held on the middle finger and thumb of either
+    hand. A profusion of ornaments hung round their necks. Their
+    dancing is very inferior to that of the Andalusian dancers of
+    the same class, whose performance is full of a quaint grace and
+    even dignity--inferior, too, to the Algerine dancing, to which
+    that of the south of Spain more nearly approaches in character;
+    it is monotonous in the extreme--very ugly for the most part,
+    and remarkable only as a gymnastic feat; sleight of loins, so to
+    speak. These are, however, no doubt, unfavourable specimens; I
+    shall see the best of the kind in Keneh at the house of the
+    Consul, who has come all the way here from that place to invite
+    me thereto.
+
+    _Friday, 6th._--Went to the palace and temples of Medinet Haboo,
+    with which I was delighted beyond my expectation. What pleased
+    me most, and was an entire surprise to me, was a bit of purely
+    secular architecture--the remains of a royal residence, with its
+    towers flanking the great entrance, its windows of various
+    shapes, balconies, semicircular crenelations, outer wall; in
+    fact, identically such a building as one sees occasionally in
+    Egyptian sculptures, and, curiously enough, as if it were a
+    portrait of it, on the walls of the very temple to which this
+    palace leads. The temple, too (the large one), interested me
+    extremely from the wonderful preservation of the coloured
+    decoration in parts of it; one really gathers an excellent idea
+    of the original effect, and a most brilliant and magnificent
+    (though barbarous) effect it must have been. The columns in the
+    great hall here are of what, for want of a better word, I shall
+    call the "ninepin" pattern; and I think on the whole I prefer it
+    to the bell-capped pattern; because, besides its character and
+    massive strength, there is no suggestion in it (as in the other)
+    of the Doric order, with which comparison is obviously
+    dangerous. As far as I can observe, there is no trace of colour
+    on any of the propylaea, but the pylon is always richly decorated
+    and highly coloured. This decorative importance given to the
+    door must have had a very striking effect, and reminds me of the
+    same peculiarity in the dwellings of Upper Egypt.
+
+    Visited a private tomb near Medinet Haboo, which is full of the
+    most curious paintings, many of them in excellent preservation,
+    and representing every sort of domestic and professional
+    occupation. They are very superior in execution and character to
+    those of El Kab. In the evening had a dinner on board: Mr. Hale
+    and friend, Mustafa Aga and the Syoot Consuls (one of whom does
+    not speak a word of anything but Arabic). I had also invited
+    Mustafa's younger son, but find that he may not sit down with
+    his father. (He accompanied me this morning, and insisted on
+    lunching with the servants; on the other hand, my servant is
+    addressed as Hosseyn _Effendi_, if you please! and conversed
+    with as a gentleman. Service appears to be looked upon in an
+    entirely patriarchal light.) The entertainment went off
+    successfully, and Ottilio, the Italian waiter, covered himself
+    with glory by his excellent waiting. After dinner Mr. Hale
+    received a telegram to the effect that General Grant had been
+    elected President of the United States, with Mr. Colfax as Vice.
+    He was in great excitement and delight; we had a recrudescence
+    of champagne, and gave the new President three cheers in British
+    fashion. The news had come in _three days_ from Washington to
+    Thebes! it is marvellous.
+
+    _Saturday, 7th._--Went to Karnak. Wilkinson advises the
+    traveller to see this group of temples last; and wisely, for it
+    is indeed the crowning glory of all, and must satisfy, if it
+    does not surpass, the most sanguine expectations. The vast
+    unfinished propylaea of the large temple prepare one by their
+    colossal dimensions for the gigantic grandeur of the great
+    central hall, in which one is at a loss what most to admire--the
+    originality of the general design, combining, as it does in a
+    surprising degree, freedom and variety with the gravest
+    simplicity--the massive and reposeful breadth of the forms or
+    the exquisite subtlety of the colour. The latter has of course
+    gained very much from the blending hand of time, and is now of a
+    most delightful mellowness, but, judging from the better
+    preserved portions, it must have been at all times of singular
+    beauty. It seems strange at first that a decoration consisting
+    entirely of small blots of vivid colour on a white ground, like
+    butterflies on a wall, can have a _large_ architectural effect;
+    but, in fact, the _repetition_ over large surfaces of wall and
+    column restores, through its monotony, the balance of breadth.
+    The design of this hall is very curious: the great central nave,
+    flanked on each side by two aisles of the same height as itself,
+    but of less breadth (diminishing, roughly, in a proportion of
+    10, 7, 5), runs, as in a Gothic cathedral, perpendicular to the
+    main entrance; beyond the second aisle, however, on either side,
+    the lintels or architraves which connect the columns run at
+    _right angles_ to the nave; the effect of this arrangement must
+    have been peculiar and striking. (Too little remains now, except
+    the columns, to enable one to form a distinct idea.) The central
+    nave, with the aisles immediately adjoining, rises in a
+    clerestory thirty or forty feet above the rest of the building,
+    and was lighted by massive square windows filled with slabs of
+    stone (sketch), perforated vertically, and of a severe and very
+    fine (sketch) effect. These windows fill the space between the
+    entablature of the lateral columns and of the roof of the
+    clerestory, and must be some twenty to twenty-five feet high. I
+    find it difficult to reconcile my eye to the far-fetched
+    "asymetria" in the arrangement of the columns, the lesser ones
+    standing in no definite relationship, on the plan, to the two
+    central rows, neither immediately behind them nor half-way
+    between them. How differently the Greeks managed these things!
+    The inner row of columns at the east and west ends of the
+    Parthenon differs also in size, height, and level from the outer
+    row, and also stands back; but it is only _one row_ at each end;
+    so that variety and play of form are obtained without a repeated
+    jar on the eye; and an otherwise uniform rectangular plan is not
+    gratuitously distorted. In a very ancient temple beyond and
+    behind that of the great hall are some curious polygonal columns
+    that have a very Doric look about them, though they are very
+    rude and undeveloped.
+
+    The walls of Karnak are of course defaced and disfigured by the
+    usual amount of inscriptions; one commemorative tablet,
+    however, like a similar one at Phylae, inspires a different
+    feeling. Both are memorials of the French Campaign in Egypt; the
+    one at Phylae, dated "an VIII. de la Republique Francaise,"
+    alludes with simple dignity to the victorious march of the
+    French army to the first cataract, giving the names of the
+    generals who were fighting "sous les ordres de Bonaparte"; the
+    other, under the same date, is a simple scientific memorandum
+    giving the latitude and longitude of the chief towns on the
+    Nile. It is impossible to read the first of these inscriptions
+    without emotion: how remote from us, already, seems that stern,
+    invincible French Republic, tracing its proud name with an
+    undoubting finger here in the grave-dust of an empire that stood
+    more centuries than this young giant completed years! How
+    thickly, already, does the dust lie now on the grave of this
+    thing of yesterday!
+
+    In writing about Phylae, I forgot to notice the henna tree, which
+    grows in great quantities round the skirts of the temple, and
+    has a delicious scent. In this wilderness of granite and most
+    unsavoury haunt of bats, its perfume wafted unexpectedly on the
+    air is infinitely delightful.
+
+    _Sunday, 8th._--Sketched.
+
+    _Monday, 9th._--Ditto. In the evening went out to shoot, but
+    could not get near the pelicans and crows--they see you half a
+    mile off. Returning, against stream, Hosseyn, anxious to be
+    useful, took a _punting pole_ and _rowed_ away with an air of
+    conviction which was worthy of the fly on the coach-wheel in the
+    fable.
+
+    The heat, though still considerable (greater than with us at
+    midsummer), has diminished within the last few days, and does
+    not inconvenience me as much as it did in sketching. Towards
+    evening, soft autumnal veils of mist rise from the smooth, swift
+    river, and shroud everything in their mysterious folds; to-night
+    the effect was especially striking; a pale golden sun hung in a
+    pale golden mist, tempered so that one could look at it
+    undazzled, and so shorn of its fires that the eastern bank,
+    instead of burning orange, showed only a faint violet flush over
+    its dark-brown ridges. On a dahabieh alongside me an Arab is
+    singing endless strophes of some poem of love and war,
+    accompanied by the thud and jingle of a tambourine; the melody,
+    a wandering, nasal strain, full of turns and runs and triplets,
+    appears to be entirely improvised, and is full of character and
+    melancholy. At the end of each strophe I hear a prolonged, deep
+    groan of approval uttered in a chorus by the audience, rising in
+    pitch after a particularly happy effort of the rhapsodist, whose
+    song begins again and again in mournful gusts like the song of
+    the wind. It is dark; I only hear--don't see--the singer and his
+    listeners.
+
+    _Tuesday, 10th._--Sketched. A frequent companion in my work is
+    my friend, little Fatma, a sweet, small child of about five,
+    with a bright face and two rows of the whitest teeth ever seen.
+    She squats down snugly by my side, sometimes looking at the
+    picture, sometimes at the painter, most often at the paint-box,
+    at which she twiddles silently; sometimes she pensively draws a
+    pattern with a little brown finger on my dusty boots. I remember
+    at Rhodes, last year, a knot of little girls used to watch me
+    sketching in the Street of the Knights; but the little Turks
+    were not so nice as Fatma, the little Arab; some used to giggle,
+    and some used to frown at the Djiaour; but one very chatty young
+    lady of about six with the manners and graces of sixteen would
+    exclaim in a little fluty voice, "Mash Allah! Mash Allah!
+    beautiful indeed! nobody here can write like you!" (Turk., if my
+    memory helps me: _Guzel! guzel! Bir khimse burda senci zhibi
+    yazamas!_) I had a visit on board the other day from Mustafa
+    Aga's youngest son, bonny and rosy as an apple. He wore a
+    flowing robe of linen, _a ramages_, buttoned summarily and once
+    for all at the neck, but entirely open from the neck downwards;
+    over this an enormous embroidered jacket with anticipatory
+    sleeves turned up at the wrists, and on, or rather about, his
+    feet, a pair of his papa's shoes; he was irresistibly funny and
+    pretty; an _amorino_, dressed up as the Dog Toby. He was very
+    chatty; not so his playfellow, "Genani," the son of Abdallah,
+    the servant of Mustafa, a putto by Raphael modelled in
+    chocolate; a wild, black-eyed, trembling, romping, dusty,
+    stark-naked little imp (I used to call him Afreet), and the
+    finest child I ever saw. The nearest approach to social
+    intercourse I could get out of him was a sudden plunge at a
+    proffered cake; after which he would dart off with affected
+    dismay, and frown at me through an ill-suppressed grin from
+    behind the nearest place of safety.
+
+    _Wednesday, 11th._--Got on with my sketches. Have begun two or
+    three rough small studies of heads. Hate sketching heads
+    rapidly; it is unavoidably and odiously free and easy, and
+    nearly all that is worth escapes. But I have no time for more,
+    and, I suppose, the sketches will be useful. One man, with a
+    face like a camel, whom I drew in profile, was annoyed (though
+    in a general way complimentary) at seeing only one eye in the
+    picture. This struck me as quaint; for he was _blind_ of the
+    other; he had not been defrauded of much. My delight, in the
+    evening, is to watch the processions of women and girls coming
+    down to the Nile to fetch water. The brown figures, clad in
+    brown, coming, in long rows, along the brown bank in all the
+    glow and glory of sunset, look very grand; very grand, too,
+    returning up the steep bank, along the violet sky, with their
+    long, flowing folds and the full pitchers now erect on their
+    heads (when empty they carry them horizontally). They are
+    neither handsome individually nor particularly well made, but
+    their movements are good, and the repetition of the same
+    "motive" many times in succession makes the whole scene
+    impressive and stately. There is no more fruitful source of
+    effect in Nature or Art than iteration.
+
+    The suppleness of the limbs of the children here is
+    extraordinary. I have seen little girls squatting like
+    grasshoppers in the Nile drinking, _a meme_, the water in which
+    they were standing little more than ankle deep.
+
+    An hour after nightfall the dahabieh, my neighbour, slipped her
+    cables and began to drift down the river; but not till the
+    rhapsodist had chanted his ditty to the approving murmurs of his
+    little circle as on the preceding night. His singing has a great
+    charm for me; I shall miss it. It reminds me much of Andalusian
+    singing and moonlight nights in the Bay of Cadiz--there is about
+    it a strangeness and a wayward melancholy that attach and charm
+    me. It was a love song (I am told, for I could not hear the
+    words, and should have understood very few if I had).
+
+    "Ya leyl! ya leyl! ya leyl!"--the eternal refrain of Arab songs.
+    "Oh night! oh night! oh night! you have left a fire in my heart,
+    oh my beloved! Oh my beloved, do not forget me!" &c. &c. &c.
+
+    A day or two ago I heard a youth calling the faithful to noonday
+    prayer, from the gallery of a minaret, with one of the finest
+    voices I have ever heard; he was tearing his notes from the
+    inmost depths of his chest with that eagerness of yet
+    unconscious passion that I have often noticed in southern
+    children, and which to me is singularly pathetic; he retained
+    his last notes as long as his breath allowed it, and they
+    vibrated in distinct waves like a sonorous metal set in motion:
+    from a little distance the effect was _saisissant_. I could not
+    see him, and the air seemed to throb with sound as well as with
+    heat in the sultry noon.
+
+    The departure of the dahabieh was celebrated with the usual Arab
+    waste of powder, and all the echoes of the valley of the tombs
+    across the river were aroused by the popping of many guns. All
+    the consuls fired officially, everybody else fired unofficially.
+    Hosseyn fired officiously--chuckling and nearly tumbling over;
+    and the dahabieh itself, having opened the ball, fired again at
+    intervals from a long distance as if it had forgotten
+    somebody--they are too funny.
+
+    _Thursday, 12th._--More sketching. The weather, which is a
+    little too canicular at noon, is deliciously fresh and cool for
+    an hour after sunrise; the Arabs, however, look much aggrieved
+    at the severity of the cold; they sit huddled in muffled groups
+    with a pinched look that would become a British December day.
+
+    I observe that half the men in middle life have no forefinger to
+    their right hand. They all of them mutilated themselves to avoid
+    conscription under Said Pasha, who, however, having found them
+    out, enlisted them all the same. A curious equality prevails
+    here: whilst sketching two of Mustafa Aga's servants this
+    morning, I learnt from his son that they were both his
+    relations. One of them appears to be a particularly nice fellow,
+    and is a perfect gentleman in his manners.
+
+    _Friday, 13th._--My last day in Thebes. When I arrived here and
+    found neither friends nor letters, I thought, caring little for
+    the place apart from the ruins, that I should stay four or five
+    days; to-morrow when I leave I shall have been here _nine_, and
+    shall go with regret. Work has exercised its usual attaching
+    influence.
+
+    I have drawn in pencil a few heads that will be of use and
+    interest to me. The subject of one of my studies (Mustafa's
+    gardener) on receiving from Hosseyn two shillings for one hour's
+    sitting, accused him, to his infinite disgust and anger, of
+    having suppressed the _remaining_ eighteen shillings out of a
+    putative pound which he conceived to be destined for him.
+    _Excusez!_
+
+    _Saturday, 14th._--Got up early to finish a couple of sketches,
+    and started at half-past eleven amidst salutes and salaams. To
+    my great relief, the letters which I very rashly sent for from
+    Cairo three weeks ago have just turned up at the last
+    moment--fewer than I had expected, but a great delight: the
+    first and only news I have received since leaving home--such are
+    Egyptian posts!
+
+    Weather divine: the Nile like an opal mirror, reflecting without
+    a break the faint, sleeping, sultry hills on the horizon: a
+    lovely, drowsy scene. Arrived shortly after three at the village
+    at which one lands for Keneh; a very cheery town about a mile
+    inland. It is generally separated from the landing place on the
+    river during the floods by a vast sheet of water; this year,
+    however, owing to the calamitous lowness of the Nile, a narrow,
+    shallow strip of water, only, intercepts the road, and a large
+    tract of country remains untilled and unfruitful from the want
+    of the quickening flood. Keneh is a very pretty sample of an
+    Egyptian town; it is animated and full of colour, has some
+    pretty minarets, some charming gardens, and more than the usual
+    allowance of ornamental doorways: the effect of the mosaic of
+    black and white bricks is most satisfactory, and has the charm
+    which always accompanies a considerable result produced by very
+    sober and simple means. Great relief is frequently obtained by a
+    band or frieze of carved wood, running across the decorated
+    surface at the springing of the arch; this band is generally
+    carved in circles enclosing patterns and picked out with green
+    and red. In the jambs of the door of one of the mosques, a very
+    beautiful effect was produced by alternate bands of brickwork
+    and minutely carved wood, _not_ coloured (three courses of brick
+    to one band of wood).
+
+    Visited a pottery, and for the first time in my life saw a
+    pattern-wheel and the artist at work--a most fascinating sight:
+    the bottles and jugs flow into the most graceful forms as if by
+    magic, and look incomparably prettier than when they are baked.
+    I could hardly get away. A little boy scratches a pattern on
+    them as they leave the wheel.
+
+    The Consul's white donkey, on which I ride about here, is as
+    fleet as the wind and as oily in his movements as a two-oared
+    gondola.
+
+    _A propos_ of consuls, Mustafa at Thebes showed me his
+    travellers' book--in it I saw an entry of the names of Speke and
+    Grant, with the numbers of their regiments, and the dates of
+    their departure from Zanzibar and their arrival at Khartoum and
+    Thebes. A simple conventional travellers' entry, as if they had
+    returned from an ordinary journey--nothing to hint at the great
+    achievement which brought them such honour and lasting fame.
+
+    _Sunday, 15th._--Made a sketch, a little after sunrise, of the
+    chain of hills on the west bank of the Nile, then crossed the
+    river to see the ruins of Denderah. Horses were waiting on the
+    other side, and would have been most enjoyable if the weather
+    had been cool; but, under a fierce sun, absolutely incessant
+    prancing and waltzing ("he make 'fantasia,'" quoth Hosseyn) was
+    fatiguing after a bit. Was so much struck with the beauties of
+    the mountains, as seen from the left bank, that I resolved to
+    stay a couple of days to paint them. The temple is extremely
+    fine, and in parts unusually well preserved--_the sculpture_,
+    that is, for the colour is almost entirely lost. These
+    sculptures, being of a late period (Roman), are clumsy enough;
+    on the other hand the general scheme of decoration is more
+    artistic, more varied in distribution and rhythm than in most of
+    the temples. On the external wall I remarked here, as at Edfou
+    and at Medinet Haboo, massive and very handsome gargoyles--half
+    a lion, couchant, on a large bracket, the water flowing from a
+    spout between the paws--a more important feature in the
+    architectural aspect of the wall than in northern countries, and
+    calculated for five months' rain rather than for five minutes',
+    which is the average annual fall here, I believe. This temple
+    boasts a portrait of Cleopatra on a large scale, but, like those
+    of Armout and Karnak, it is absolutely conventional, and any
+    pretence of detecting an individuality is mere humbug. One
+    fancies at first one has discovered some peculiarity in the
+    features, but on a candid examination one must own that the same
+    peculiarities occur in other faces on the same wall, or that
+    they are owing to the mutilation to which two-thirds of the
+    figures in all Egyptian temples has been assiduously subjected.
+    In a lateral chamber of the temple, on the ceiling, is a most
+    striking mystical design, representing the firmament and the sun
+    fecundating the land of Egypt. It is fantastic and poetic in the
+    extreme; it would delight Rossetti. In the evening made another
+    sketch, and then rode to Keneh to dine with the Consul--a most
+    interesting glimpse into a real old-fashioned Muslim interior.
+    Si Syed Achmet (forty-five years British Agent in this town and
+    at Khossayr) is a very wealthy old gentleman with large property
+    in this part of the world. He is of the blood of the Prophet, a
+    good and pious Muslim, tolerant and full of kindliness. A son,
+    three nephews and a daughter form his immediate family circle,
+    living with him in the house to which I was bidden--a bald,
+    uninteresting place enough. It is entered from a narrow,
+    irregular triangular court, ornamented on one side with some
+    good brick and wood work, but ugly and plain on the others, and
+    disfigured by something between a ladder and a staircase which
+    leads to the clean but singularly naked room in which we were to
+    spend the evening. This room was whitewashed, but so roughly
+    bedaubed that the plain deal cupboards, the doors of which
+    formed the only embellishment (?) of the walls, were all
+    besmeared with ragged edges of white. Three windows, innocent of
+    glass, and protected by a close, plain trellis-work of ordinary
+    white wood, lighted the room, which boasted in the way of
+    furniture the usual ugly divans, three red muslin curtains, a
+    small deal table, two lanterns and two candles in candlesticks.
+    Shortly after my arrival and most kindly reception by the old
+    gentleman, who had come up from the country expressly _ad hoc_,
+    dinner was served. The son, as the eldest, sat at table; the
+    nephews waited on us; we squatted, I on a cushion, they on the
+    floor, round a very low table on which was a large, round, brass
+    tray, containing four plates, some wooden spoons, and a great
+    many small loaves of bread arranged round it in a circle; a soup
+    tureen, into which, after washing of hands, everybody plunged
+    his spoon, was the central feature. After the soup, came in
+    rapid succession several dishes containing savoury messes which
+    were really very good, though perhaps too rich, but which I was
+    entirely unable to enjoy in the sight of a number of hands,
+    shining with gravy, mopping in succession at the dishes with
+    crusts of bread, or fetching out a coveted morsel with fingers
+    too recently licked. It is a delicate and hospitable attention
+    to put a bit with your own hand on to your guest's plate--an
+    attention of which I was the frequent but unworthy recipient.
+    After the made dishes had been done justice to, half a
+    sheep--head and all--was put on the table and _clawed_ asunder
+    by Hosseyn. The roast being disposed of, the sweets appeared,
+    and were eaten out of the common dish with spoons, like the
+    soup: I was not sorry when it was over, for I had gone through
+    all the sensations of a sea voyage. I observe that Arabs make a
+    point of eating with as much noise and smacking of lips as
+    possible; it is as if they were endeavouring to convey a sort of
+    oblique expression of thanks to Providence by manifesting their
+    relish of the blessings vouchsafed. When dinner was over, and a
+    by no means superfluous washing of hands had been gone through,
+    we had pipes and coffee. Hosseyn having gone to dine, I was now
+    thrown on my own extremely limited stock of Arabic for
+    conversation; and as I had about exhausted that during my ride
+    to Keneh with one of the nephews, I was hard put to it. However,
+    I just managed to get through a few broken sentences, to the
+    great satisfaction of Achmet, who informed me that he had been
+    for forty years the servant of the English, of whom he thought
+    very highly, chiefly because, as he expressed it, they have "one
+    word"--a satisfactory character to leave behind. In the evening
+    the governor (Mudir) came to see me with a tail of employes and,
+    if you please, a pocket-handkerchief, of which he was not a
+    little conscious, holding it in his hand rolled into a neat
+    tube, which he occasionally drew with dignity across the basis
+    of the official nose. The Consul for France and Prussia also
+    came and made his salaam. My borrowed and temporary plumes have
+    been of real use to somebody here, for the Mudir, hearing that
+    an Englishman (whom he erroneously supposed to be somebody) was
+    on board a viceroy's steamer, immediately gave the crew two
+    months' pay--an alacrity not sufficiently often displayed in
+    this country, if I am not much misinformed. The dancing-girls
+    who came to entertain us in the evening were no doubt better
+    than those of Lougsor, though, with one exception, at least as
+    ugly; but some of them were gorgeously attired (from the
+    dancing-dog point of view), and all were a mass of gold
+    necklaces and coins and glittering headgear, which produced at a
+    certain distance and in the doubtful light a prodigiously fine
+    effect of colour. The dancing was a little more varied than that
+    of the Lougsor women, chiefly, no doubt, because they got more
+    to drink; but, _en somme_, I am confirmed in my first impression
+    that it is an eminently ugly performance, though a very
+    remarkable gymnastic feat. Of course a graceful and good-looking
+    girl may do a good deal to redeem it by personal charm, and this
+    was in some degree the case with Zehneb, who is a noted dancer
+    and the _fine fleur_ of the profession. She is pretty though
+    coarse in feature, and not without grace; but has a
+    semi-European smack about her dress and ways that spoils her in
+    my eyes--hers, by-the-bye, are splendid. Just as the "fantasia"
+    was at its height, a ragged, dust-soiled, old beggar came,
+    chattering and grinning, into the room, and at once installed
+    himself, uninvited but unhindered, on the divan, from which
+    comfortable post he proceeded to witness the performance and
+    apparently thoroughly to enjoy his evening. The contrast between
+    his beggar's garb and the scrupulously cleanly attire of his
+    neighbours was very curious. He is a fakeer, as I am told;
+    everybody feeds him, no doors are closed to him; he is not, I
+    believe, exactly an idiot, but is certainly in his second
+    childhood--"rimbambito," as the Italians say. On one side of him
+    squatted a sweet little brown girl, Achmet's daughter, of about
+    five or six, in a pink cotton shift and with anklets hanging
+    about her little naked feet. On the other side, a little further
+    off, was an umber-coloured dancing-girl, with bright bold eyes
+    painted round with black, covered with a mass of gold coins on
+    her head, in her hair, on her ears, and round her neck, and
+    wearing a blue silk dress all bespangled with gold. He looked
+    like a dust-heap between them. It was a queer picture, taken out
+    of the "Thousand and One Nights"; from which work also, I
+    presume, the numerous one-eyed people that I see everywhere in
+    Egypt, are copied. (I prefer this view to that of unimaginative
+    pedants who, attaching undue importance to facts, inform me that
+    this blindness is self-inflicted, to avoid conscription.) My
+    ride home was a fitting close to such an evening; a fantastic
+    procession we made, headed by a handful of torch and lantern
+    bearers, brandishing enormous staves; after which "Meine
+    Wenigkeit" on a sumptuously caparisoned steed, the consul's
+    nephew, the captain, Hosseyn, a cawass, all of them on horses,
+    others on donkeys, and odd men bustling about amongst us and
+    dispersing the few stragglers that were to be found at that late
+    hour in the streets. The fitful flare of the torches, dressing
+    in fugitive, fantastic lights the gateways and dim walls of the
+    slumbering town, had a very fine effect. More curious still was
+    our ride _through_ a quarter of a mile of _dourah_ that stood at
+    least ten or twelve feet high all round us; the train of light
+    and shower of sparks in the tall graceful corn was of a
+    surprising aspect. Except that nothing took fire, it was as if
+    Samson's foxes had been let loose in front of us.
+
+    _Monday, 16th._--Sketched. In the evening, yielding, I own, with
+    some reluctance, to a pressing invitation, returned to Keneh to
+    dine with Si Achmet. Had, except the roast, exactly the same
+    dinner as on the previous day, which leads me to conjecture that
+    the _repertoire_ of Arab cookery is limited. After dinner we
+    rode out to see the moolid, which is just beginning here. It is
+    _the_ great moolid of Central Egypt, and to it, but only towards
+    the end, flock people from all parts of the country till the
+    concourse is enormous. It must be an interesting sight when in
+    full swing, but as yet there is little or nothing worth seeing
+    except the tomb of the sheykh in whose honour the moolid is held
+    (Sheykh Abd-er-Rahim, the "Genani") to which I was taken by my
+    host. The building was like most others of the same class in
+    Egypt: a square chamber with a dome, and windows through which
+    the coffin, placed conspicuously in the centre, can be seen by
+    the pious crowds outside. On entering, I was conducted, after
+    taking off my boots, to a post of honour, on the ground of
+    course, in the midst of a grave circle of worthies who were
+    squatting in the _ruelle_ between one side of the coffin and the
+    wall. On my right was one of the civic functionaries, on my left
+    the priest attached to the tomb. The spectacle before me was
+    wonderful both in colour and form, though composed in great part
+    of the simplest elements. It was like the finest Delacroix in
+    aspect and tone, but with a gravity and stateliness of form very
+    foreign to that brilliant but epileptic genius. To the left of
+    me, covered with a showy embroidered cloth, stood behind a
+    railing the sarcophagus of the saint, illuminated from above by
+    various lanterns hung from the ceiling (the central one, and the
+    handsomest, the gift of Lady Duff Gordon) and from the corners
+    by gigantic candles, standing in candlesticks of proportionate
+    dimensions; at the same corners stood great banners of sober but
+    rich tone, which added much to the general colour. On each side
+    of the carpet at the head of which I squatted, squatted, in far
+    more picturesque attire, some of the notables of Keneh, half
+    hidden in the shadow, their large turbans cast on the rich
+    carpet they sat on. At the further end stood and stared, with
+    the solemnity of a chorus in an opera, a motley, dazzling group
+    of lesser folk; magnificent, too, in the flow of their
+    draperies, the grace of the half untwisted turbans wreathed
+    round their necks or hanging from their shoulders, the
+    stateliness of their forms, and the fiery glow of colour in
+    which they burnt under the clustered lanterns. Unfortunately, I
+    could not gaze with attention as undivided as I could have
+    wished, because the gentleman on my right insisted on making
+    conversation, the very meagrest form of which exercise absorbed
+    for the time my powers of attention. Hosseyn, who is very pious,
+    bled me of an enormous baksheesh for the shrine of the saint.
+
+    _Tuesday, 17th._--Completed my sketches in the morning. In the
+    evening, Si Achmet, his son, and three nephews, one of whom I
+    neither knew nor had invited (this is entirely Arabic--I might,
+    also, have taken any one with me to dine with them) came to dine
+    on board. It was a very droll ceremony--the Arabs had, with one
+    exception, probably never sat at a table on a chair before, but
+    they were so entirely simple as not to be (also, by-the-bye,
+    with one exception) at all ridiculous. Ottilio had, perhaps with
+    a little malice, arranged the napkins in a most artistic and
+    intricate fashion; these edifices so impressed my friends that
+    they did not sit down opposite to their plates but on one side
+    of them. I set them at once comparatively at their ease by
+    requesting them, through Hosseyn, to consider themselves at home
+    and eat with their fingers, forgiving me if I followed the
+    custom of my country; the proposal was received with great
+    satisfaction by the old gentleman and his son, who fell to in
+    their own way, the father muttering his appreciation of the
+    dishes in low, sonorous ejaculations: "Allah!"--"Mash
+    Allah!"--"Ou Allah!"--"Ameer! Ameer!" &c. &c. &c. The son, a man
+    of about forty, with a broken nose and a very strong squint, and
+    whose movements carried a general impression of contemplative
+    dreaminess, always verging on surprise, ate with his usual
+    deliberation and spent his odd moments in contemplating a
+    shining bunch of fingers, which he periodically and slowly
+    licked with the utmost impartiality; he did not mix in the
+    conversation. Of the three cousins on my left, two made a very
+    fair attempt at using the knife and fork, though it must have
+    been a virgin effort; the third, who had been a great deal with
+    English people when he was consul at Khossayr, ate his dinner
+    and put down his wine like the best European; I suspect, in
+    fact, that he was brought as a show man. Achmet, in a climax of
+    gratification, exclaimed towards the end of dinner, "By Allah!
+    if the Ameer comes to my house another year, he shall be served
+    after the Frankish custom." Arabs appear to be much devoted to
+    _limonade gazeuse_--without being the forbidden fruit of wine
+    itself, it dwells in bottles, and has a sort of air of crime
+    about it which no doubt pleases them; my left-hand neighbour
+    took off at least two bottles during dinner.
+
+    Hosseyn, whose father was a great friend of Si Achmet, proved
+    invaluable; he hopped about like a delighted child, filling the
+    glasses, cutting the meat of the two digitarians, and generally
+    making conversation--a great relief to me. In the evening one of
+    the nephews asked for some tea to take home, which I gave him;
+    another pocketed all the tobacco that was brought them to make
+    cigarettes. Arabs are hospitable and generous, and I like them
+    much, but they are indiscreet in the extreme. "Arabs," says
+    Hosseyn, "have no face; they never take shame." I have seen
+    instances of this which I won't put down; one only, for it is
+    very droll: my squinting friend with the pensive look asked Lady
+    Ely last year if she would just procure for him from the Queen a
+    title, or an order, as a mark of her regard. I am the bearer of
+    a letter to her from him now, which I have no doubt is a
+    reminder. Slew a sheep again.
+
+    _Wednesday, 18th._--Left Keneh early, and with regret; the
+    place, the people and the scenery have left many pleasing
+    pictures in my memory. I little expected at starting the
+    annoyance that awaited me! As we approached the spot where
+    Sheykh Selim receives his devout visitors, I sent word to the
+    captain that I did not wish to lose any time in landing, but
+    that the bag of money which had been collected for the saint was
+    to be delivered, and we were to go on. I had scarcely uttered
+    this almost sacrilegious order, when the steamer, which had been
+    judiciously steered within ten yards of a flat, shelving bank,
+    ran hard and fast into the mud, with the apparent intention of
+    sticking there permanently, the engine being utterly powerless
+    to get her out. Nobody on board doubted for an instant but that
+    Sheykh Selim had stopped us in his resentment; the captain
+    instantly dispatched sailors with money to propitiate him, and
+    after a few futile attempts on the part of five or six of the
+    crew (to loud cries of "Help us, O Prophet! help us, O Sheykh
+    Selim!") to heave out a vessel that was four or five feet in the
+    mud, jumped himself into a boat, and hurried, of course
+    accompanied by Hosseyn, and leaving his vessel to take care of
+    herself, to beseech the sheykh to get us off. Their conversation
+    was afterwards reported to me by one who was present. "What is
+    this, O Sheykh, that thou hast done to us? in what have we been
+    wanting towards thee? did I not give thee a shirt when we last
+    came by? and the tobacco, was it not good? was the roast meat
+    not sufficient? why are we thus punished?"--to whom the sheykh:
+    "Don't be a fool! why do you come to me about your boat? am I a
+    sailor? how do you expect me to get her off--or on? Allah got
+    her on the sand, not I, who am a man like yourselves." The
+    captain: "Allah is indeed great, but if he ran us aground it was
+    on thy instigation--thou knowest it, O Sheykh!" &c. &c. In this
+    strain the conversation lasted at least twenty minutes, during
+    which time and for the rest of the day I was literally sick with
+    disgust and anger at the lot of them. Everything that ought not
+    to be done under the circumstances, including losing the anchor
+    (which is still at the bottom of the river), was done before
+    evening; everything that should have been done was left undone.
+
+    Next morning (Thursday, 19th) we obtained (by force, after the
+    fashion of this country) through the governor of the
+    neighbouring town a gang of two hundred Arabs, magnificent
+    fellows some of them, who, at last, by heaving and tugging,
+    contrived to get her off--not without the most unearthly
+    _charivari_ I ever heard. In the morning I made a sketch;
+    reached Bellianeh in the evening, appeased, at last, and rather
+    amused at the abject condition of the captain, to whom I had
+    conveyed my mind (he had never seen me angry before), and who
+    swore that in future one hundred sheykhs should not take him out
+    of his course. My misadventure will benefit my successors in the
+    good ship _Sheberkheyt_--_a quelque chose malheur est bon._
+
+    _Friday, 20th._--Started at seven on horseback to see Abydos,
+    and had a delightful morning. The weather was fresh and clear,
+    and the canter of six or seven miles across a fine open plain to
+    the foot of the mountains where the ruins lie was most
+    enjoyable. The temples, very strikingly situated on a slope
+    which sweeps down from a grand amphitheatre of bastion-like
+    rocks, have a great advantage over all those that I have yet
+    seen, viz. that their sculptures have almost entirely escaped
+    mutilation, and are in admirable preservation. This is the more
+    fortunate, that they are of a very fine period, and most
+    delicate in workmanship; the type of the faces has considerable
+    beauty and refinement. The colours, notably in the more recently
+    excavated temple of Osiris, are often extremely well preserved,
+    and I am confirmed in my conjecture, that they must have been
+    much less beautiful in their freshness than now that time has
+    toned and tuned them. In the larger temple are some very
+    beautiful wagon-head vaults _cut in the thickness of two layers
+    of stone_, the upper ones laid on end to get more thickness of
+    material. They are charmingly decorated with cartouches and
+    stars on a blue ground, and divided by a band of hieroglyphs
+    running like a ridge-rib along the head of the vault. The stars
+    on Egyptian ceilings are always pentagonal, and placed very near
+    together. At the temple I was joined by the obligato governor, a
+    puffy Turk with a tight, shiny face that had a look of having
+    been stung all over by a wasp; he was heavy and stupid, and I
+    left him in the hands of Hosseyn, galloping ahead myself with
+    the mounted cawass, a very picturesque Arnout on a very good
+    horse. _N.B._--Never come to the East again without an English
+    saddle; the back-board of a Turkish saddle is in the long run an
+    intolerable nuisance, as are also, though in a less degree, the
+    shovel-stirrups in which one's feet are imprisoned. In the
+    afternoon reached Sohag, a sail, or rather a steam, of three or
+    four hours, in time for a most pleasant evening's walk.
+
+    _Saturday, 21st._--Got to Syoot in the afternoon, and was very
+    glad to catch Lady Duff Gordon on her way up the river. Was
+    received with great hospitality by the American and Spanish
+    consuls, wealthy Copts of this town who kindly put their
+    carriages at my disposal and, better still, their
+    donkeys--splendid Arabian donkeys, looking, in their trappings,
+    like cardinals' mules. Nothing is more pleasant than the swift
+    amble of a good donkey from the Hejaz. Dined in the evening with
+    Mr. Wonista, the consul for Spain, quite "a la Franca" with
+    knives and forks and the whole thing. A curious house, and the
+    rooms small but of enormous height, so that they looked as if
+    they had been set _on end_ by mistake. The walls were bare
+    whitewash, but the furniture was of the most gorgeous brocade,
+    as were also the curtains; there was a European carpet all over
+    the floor and as many candles on the walls (in glass bells) as
+    in a _cafe chantant_. I met there a Scotch clergyman belonging
+    to the American Mission (Episcopalian) which is very active in
+    Egypt. After dinner the singer from Lady Duff Gordon's boat was
+    sent for, and in a short time arrived with some of the crew who
+    acted as chorus; it is this chorus, I find, that gives the
+    approving murmur after each strophe. He sang well, but his
+    performance of course lost three-fourths of its charm by not
+    being heard in its proper place and surroundings. I remember
+    once in the Sabine hills hearing unexpectedly at a distance, in
+    the silent dimness of night, the droning song of a _piffera_;
+    nothing could be more strangely pathetic than this voice rising
+    in the utter silence from out of the heart of the valley
+    below--yet those same sounds heard close in the broad daylight
+    would have seemed uncouth and strident. Arab singing has a
+    similar quality, and is equally dependent on time and place for
+    its full effect. Whilst the performance was at its height, and
+    the minstrel was tuning his note to the most ambitious
+    _fioriture_, I heard in the room overhead some European
+    part-singing of a melancholy order, and was informed that the
+    Scotch minister had been invited by a few proselytes to retire
+    upstairs "to worship and explain an obscure passage in the
+    Gospel." On the invitation of the master of the house, I went up
+    and joined the congregation, who thought it right to favour me
+    with another psalm. The clergyman then read in Arabic, and
+    expounded in the same language a chapter from the Bible, and I
+    must say did it (I speak of his manner only, for Koran and Bible
+    Arabic is so different from the current idiom, here at all
+    events, that I did not understand four words in the whole
+    sermon) in a very simple and impressive way. He had, too, an
+    admirable accent. He tells me that in spite of vehement
+    opposition from the Coptic prelates he finds a good deal of
+    sympathy amongst the people.
+
+    _Sunday, 22nd._--Lovely day. Strolled about with a gun. This
+    place is full of "sparrows of paradise," a little bird of an
+    exquisite golden green. Since I was here last, the aspect of the
+    country has changed very much and for the better. Where I saw, a
+    few weeks back, nothing but pools and mud, is now a vast expanse
+    of clover and grass of an intense green, sunny and brilliant to
+    a wonderful degree. The plain looks like one immense jewel, and
+    contrasts deliciously with the tawny sand-rock which walls it in
+    on the west, behind the gleaming white domes of the cemetery.
+    Dined with the other consul in the evening. Same sort of house,
+    but much larger. No Scotch clergyman this time, but an
+    Anglo-Arab who teaches in the Coptic school, and, embracing
+    Coptic views, inveighs bitterly against the converts to
+    Protestantism. At sunset, to my agreeable surprise, the
+    Sterlings turned up, _musique en tete_, the singer in the bows
+    quavering a jubilant strain, and the vessel magnificent with
+    fresh paint.
+
+    _Monday, 23rd._--Killed a sheep. Sketched. Had the consuls and
+    the Scotch missionary to dine with me. The latter brought me
+    some newspapers, which I read greedily.
+
+    _Tuesday, 24th._--Sketched. At last an evening to myself!--these
+    festive gatherings are an ineffable bore, if the truth were
+    told.
+
+    _Wednesday, 25th._--Completed my sketches with one exception--a
+    study of my beautiful grey (_hechtgrau_) donkey. Unless I make a
+    study at Sakkara, which is just possible, this will be the end
+    of my work on the Nile. In twenty-two skies which I have painted
+    there is not a vestige of a cloud, such has been the divinely
+    serene weather I have had all along. This evening, indeed,
+    faint, shining flakes of vapour were drawn across the sky,
+    breaking and tempering the last rays of the sun; but by a
+    curious piece of luck they did not appear till I was just giving
+    the last touches to my day's work. Saw a beautiful and original
+    effect at sunset. Just as the sun was about to sink behind the
+    hills, a dahabieh drifted past with its sails spread, and
+    reaching up into the region where the light was still golden,
+    whilst the face of the water was darkened, and the long, low
+    banks were already shadowy and grey, the burning sail was
+    reflected in the night of the river, and looked astonishingly
+    beautiful. It was like the mellow splendour of the rising moon.
+
+    I delight in seeing the sailors climbing the tall, oblique yards
+    of the Nile boats. Sometimes five or six of them perch on one
+    yard at the same time, looking at a distance like great birds.
+
+    _Thursday, 26th._--Finished my donkey and started; as I get
+    further north, the weather is much cooler--the mornings and
+    evenings are quite fresh, though not so cold but that I can
+    sketch in the shade an hour after sunrise in summer clothes. The
+    natives, however, seem to take a severe view of the temperature,
+    and leave nothing unmuffled but their mouths, with which they
+    occasionally blow their fingers in the most approved winter
+    fashion. Was more struck than before with Gebel Aboofada--the
+    infinite and strongly marked strata of which it is made up
+    writhe and heave in a very grand and fantastic manner. Some of
+    the Egyptian mountains are ruled like a copy book from head to
+    foot, and are very monotonous.
+
+    At the foot of Aboofada, I saw, for an instant, my first and
+    last crocodile; a small one. They are very seldom seen from a
+    steamer below the cataracts, as the noise frightens away the few
+    there are. I had looked forward to getting a shot at one, and
+    was a good deal disappointed at finding none up the river. It is
+    curious how rapidly time lends its perspective to the past.
+    Every now and then a boat from the cataracts laden with dates
+    comes floating down the river, and the melancholy chant of the
+    Nubian sailors, as they strain at the oars, already falls on my
+    ear as a sudden memory of an almost distant past--not a month
+    old.
+
+    Arrived at Roda this evening. I have been reading, amongst other
+    things, a book everybody else read thirty years ago, "Les
+    Natchez," and am greatly disappointed with it. I am especially
+    struck with the extraordinary contrast between the masterful
+    sobriety and simplicity of the style, and the far-fetched
+    affectation of the ideas which are, more often than not,
+    distorted, tawdry and inflated, sometimes disgusting and not
+    seldom maudlin in the extreme. This singular discrepancy between
+    form and matter is especially French, and may frequently be
+    traced in the works of their painters and sculptors. No living
+    people has so sensitive a perception of form or so artistic an
+    epiderm, but an ineradicable self-consciousness develops in them
+    a theatrical attitude of mind which too often betrays itself in
+    their artistic and literary conceptions. It is the absolute
+    consent between conception and execution which constitutes one
+    of the chief sources of delight in the art of the Greeks, to
+    whom they are fond, too rashly, of comparing themselves.[41]
+
+    I notice in the Natchez a peculiar use of comparisons. That mode
+    of adding light and colour to an idea which consists in
+    suggesting analogies, has always been the delight of poets; but
+    Chateaubriand (whose analogies, by the way, are often singularly
+    far fetched and unfortunate) occasionally, in a morbid endeavour
+    to be original, seeks his effects in a suggestion of
+    dissimilarities; I remember an instance: he has been describing
+    with minute and gratuitously sickening detail a mangled heap of
+    dead and dying warriors after a ferocious encounter. "How
+    different," he exclaims, but in more flowery terms, "is a
+    haycock in a field with girls rolling down it!" Few will be
+    disposed to contradict him. His exorbitant personal vanity which
+    continues to peep through everywhere, and makes even his
+    unbounded praise of his country seem an oblique tribute to
+    himself, is droll and nauseating at the same time.
+
+    Took a stroll in the evening, and met an English baby! pink and
+    delicate like a flower; with cape and cockade complete--a pretty
+    sight.
+
+    Thick folds of rose and violet-coloured cloud hung along the
+    horizon at sunset, and looked autumnal. I have left eternal
+    summer behind me.
+
+    _Friday, 27th._--Such a morning as the evening of yesterday
+    foreboded; rather chilly and misty, and as near an approach to
+    winter as Upper Egypt may be expected to afford. The sky was
+    veiled on all sides with soft grey clouds, wrinkled and fretted
+    like the grey sands when the sea has left them. It was a fitting
+    background to the desolate tombs of Beni Hassan, which I visited
+    an hour or two after sunrise. The range of hills on the face of
+    which these tombs are excavated is not unlike Gebel Aboofada in
+    its configuration, except that the strata with which it is
+    scored are more level and regular. This monotony is, however,
+    relieved by the sky-line, which is extremely fine. Along the
+    foot of these hills runs a level strip of barren land, broken
+    abruptly in its whole length by a steep bank which rises like a
+    ruined wall from the plain below, and which is, when the Nile is
+    exceptionally high, the bank of the river itself. Standing, as
+    it now does, nearly a mile inland, and crested with two deserted
+    villages, it has a grand but uncanny aspect. I had long been
+    eager to see the tombs, which show what is considered by many to
+    be the first rudiment of the Doric order. The similarity, more
+    striking even than I expected, is so great that, taken with our
+    knowledge of the early and frequent intercourse of the Greeks
+    with Egypt and of the assimilating power of their genius, it
+    certainly offers a strong _prima facie_ presumption in favour of
+    this view. It may be objected that the echinus, the conical form
+    of the shaft and its entasis, all three inseparable features and
+    especial beauties of the Greek order, are wanting here, though
+    they are present in the earliest specimen of the style preserved
+    in Greece, the temple of Corinth. This argument would deserve
+    more consideration if it could be conceived that the order as
+    seen at Corinth was a spontaneous conception, and not a
+    development of some more elementary form which, whether native
+    or imported at a remote period, has not been handed down to us.
+    In point of fact, the chamfering of a simple stone pier into an
+    octagon and then further to a polygon of sixteen, or more,
+    sides (specimens of the two forms are seen side by side in two
+    of the tombs of Beni Hassan) is so elementary an effort of
+    architecture and one so obvious, that its independent and
+    spontaneous adoption by two different nations would be matter
+    for no surprise. On the other hand, it is to be remarked that
+    these tombs and the early temple at Karnak already mentioned are
+    the only instances of this style known in Africa--that not only
+    are they isolated in themselves, but they form a step to no
+    further developments--a link in no chain; that in character and
+    conception they have nothing in common with any of the great
+    monuments of Egypt, to which indeed they are antagonistic in
+    feeling; that they stand side by side with other monuments of
+    the _same_ date (about 2000 B.C.?) of a developed and absolutely
+    different type--a type certainly indigenous and based on the
+    imitation of natural forms which is especially characteristic of
+    Egyptian architecture; and lastly, that the tombs of Beni Hassan
+    show certain dissonances, such as one might expect to find in
+    the case of an unintelligent and unperceptive manipulation of a
+    foreign style. In the face of these considerations, I find it
+    difficult to resist a suspicion that the view generally received
+    exactly reverses the truth of the case, and that these tombs are
+    not indeed the prototypes of the Doric temple, but rather the
+    results, themselves, of contact at some remote period between
+    the Egyptians and that branch of the great Aryan family which,
+    at long intervals, and in successive waves, covered the shores
+    of the Egean Sea, and one of the latest offshoots of which
+    poured down into Greece from the heights of Thessaly under the
+    name of Dorians. I believe the earliest Egyptian _record_ of the
+    pressure of Greeks in this country goes no further back than
+    1500 B.C.; but a peaceful intercourse between the two races may
+    have existed over a long period, without necessarily finding a
+    place in public records.
+
+    The (quasi) Doric tombs are divided into a nave and aisles by
+    two rows of piers, carrying an architrave and disposed at right
+    angles to the portico, agreeably carrying out the likeness of a
+    Greek temple. The circles which intersect the extremity of the
+    other group of tombs are _parallel_ to the portico, and have a
+    deplorable effect, much heightened by the shape of the ceiling,
+    which is that of a very flat pediment. The architrave follows
+    the line of the roof, but at a still more open angle. It would
+    be difficult to conceive anything more hideous. Nearly all the
+    tombs are decorated with frescoes of a rude kind, but displaying
+    frequently an amount of freedom unusual in Egyptian art.
+
+    Our guide was a splendid fellow, looking, in his flowing robes,
+    like a figure from the "School of Athens" on the "Disputa." The
+    longer I live, the more I am struck by the identity of Raphael's
+    frescoes with the noblest aspects of Nature.
+
+    To Benisoef in the evening. Passed some travellers; nothing
+    looks so gay and pretty as a dahabieh with its colours flying
+    and its sails spread.
+
+    _Saturday, 28th._--Lovely morning once again. Reached Sakkara
+    early, but found that the road to the Pyramids was obstructed by
+    water, so moved on at once to Ghizeh, opposite to Old Cairo,
+    where I shall remain till to-morrow morning; meanwhile I have
+    sent on Hosseyn to secure a room at the inn, and to fetch the
+    means of leaving a pleasant memory of me on board the
+    _Sheberkheyt_.
+
+    I have stripped the walls of my cabin of the paintings I had
+    hung round them, and they look desolate and like the coffin of
+    my now past journey. A most enjoyable journey it has been, full
+    of pleasant things to remember; full, too, I hope, of artistic
+    profit and teaching. I have been indeed fortunate, for, as I now
+    see more clearly than ever, in a dahabieh I could not have
+    achieved a third of the journey, and in a passenger steamer I
+    could not have done a stroke of work. Every study I take home I
+    owe entirely to the viceroy's munificent kindness.
+
+    _Sunday, 29th._--Left for Boulay, my destination--gave a parting
+    sheep to the crew, distributed _largesse_, shook hands all
+    round, and drove off to the hotel.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[41] See Chap. IV. p. 239.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+ROYAL ACADEMICIAN--MUSIC--ARAB HALL
+
+1869-1878
+
+
+In 1869, the year after his journeyings in Egypt, Leighton was elected
+a Royal Academician. The picture which he chose as his Diploma work to
+be deposited in the Academy on his election was the "S. Jerome," one
+of those few works which reflected the side of his nature about which
+he was profoundly reserved. Another work of which the same might be
+said is "Elijah in the Wilderness," painted in 1879. Leighton told a
+friend he had put more of himself into that picture than into any
+other he had ever invented. Three paintings which are among Leighton's
+very best appeared on the walls of the Academy in 1869--"Daedalus and
+Icarus," "Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon," and "Helios and Rhodos."
+In no work did Leighton indulge his passion for colour so successfully
+as in the last-named picture. He wrote to his master, Steinle, in
+1860: "You will perhaps be surprised, but, in spite of my fanatic
+preference for colour, I promised myself to be a draughtsman before I
+became a colourist." Again, in a letter to a friend in 1879 he wrote:
+"Colour was supposed to be my _forte_ (_par parenthese_, though I am
+not a colourist, albeit passionately fond of colour, I have always
+been, and am, a great _cuisinier_; I have tried quite innumerable
+methods and vehicles)." Some of Leighton's appreciators cannot help
+feeling jealous of this obstinate determination to struggle with those
+gifts for which nature had not given him the preference, many
+considering his artistic error to have been that of putting the screw
+too tightly on his preconceived determinations. Had he _sometimes_, at
+all events, allowed his "fanatic preference" to have free play, more
+of his works might have glowed with the revelry in rich colour we find
+on the canvas of "Helios and Rhodos."
+
+    [Illustration: ST. JEROME. 1869. DIPLOMA WORK
+    Deposited in the Academy on Lord Leighton's election as an
+    Academician]
+
+    [Illustration: "ELECTRA AT THE TOMB OF AGAMEMNON"]
+
+No complete work evinces more conclusively the force of Leighton's
+dramatic gift than "Electra"; and--further--masterly and beautiful as
+are all Leighton's arrangements of drapery, those in this design
+strike me as specially expressive. They are truly superb. The balance
+of the masses, and the sweeping lines from the feet up to the shoulder
+and over the chest, are grandly conceived--the arrangement of the
+folds notably adding to the suggestion of tragic feeling in the
+attitude of the figure.
+
+"Icarus," in the picture of the inventive father and the aspiring son,
+is a beautiful figure of a youth. The conception, design, and
+colouring of the picture are worthy of Leighton at his best.
+
+Though Egypt had made a deep impression on Leighton's aesthetic
+emotions, as is obvious from his Diary, his visit there apparently did
+not actually suggest any pictures except "A Nile Woman"--the only work
+exhibited at the Academy in 1870--and "Egyptian Slinger Scaring Birds
+in Harvest-time: Moonrise," exhibited in 1875. A subject suggested by
+an event, which had occurred some years previously, appears to have
+been engrossing his mind, before he found expression for it, in the
+painting "Heracles Wrestling with Death for the Body of Alcestis,"
+exhibited 1871. Many persons admired this work more than any that had
+previously appeared.[42] It evoked the lines from Browning:--
+
+    "I know, too, a great Kaunian painter, strong
+    As Hercules, though rosy with a robe
+    Of Grace that softens down the sinewy strength:
+    And he has made a picture of it all.
+    There lies Alcestis dead, beneath the sun
+    She longed to look her last upon, beside
+    The sea, which somehow tempts the life in us
+    To come trip over its white waste of waves,
+    And try escape from earth, and fleet as free.
+    Behind the body I suppose there bends
+    Old Pheres in his hoary impotence;
+    And women-wailers, in a corner crouch
+    --Four, beautiful as you four,--yes, indeed!
+    Close, each to other, agonising all,
+    As fastened, in fear's rhythmic sympathy,
+    To two contending opposite. There strains
+    The might o' the hero 'gainst his more than match,
+    --Death, dreadful not in thew and bone, but like
+    The envenomed substance that exudes some dew,
+    Whereby the merely honest flesh and blood
+    Will fester up and run to ruin straight,
+    Ere they can close with, clasp and overcome,
+    The poisonous impalpability
+    That simulates a form beneath the flow
+    Of those grey garments; I pronounce that piece
+    Worthy to set up in our Poikile!"
+
+Leighton had taken the lines from Euripides as his text:--
+
+    "There slept a silent palace in the sun,
+    With plains adjacent and Thessalian peace."
+
+    "....Yea, I will go and lie in wait for Death, the king of souls
+    departed, with the dusky robes, and methinks I shall find him
+    hard by the grave drinking the sacrificial wine. And if I can
+    seize him by this ambush, springing from my lair, and throw my
+    arms in circle round him, none shall snatch his panting body
+    from my grasp till he give back the woman to me."
+
+    [Illustration: "HERACLES STRUGGLING WITH DEATH FOR THE BODY OF
+    ALCESTIS." 1871
+    By permission of the Fine Art Society, the owners of the
+    Copyright]
+
+This work made a landmark in Leighton's career. "Dante at Verona" had
+combined a complicated design of many figures with a dramatic feeling;
+"Cimabue's Madonna" and the "Syracusan Bride" had proved Leighton's
+"great power of rich arrangement," to quote D.G. Rossetti's words
+respecting "Cimabue's Madonna"; but in the "Heracles Wrestling with
+Death" there was felt to be a more profound tragedy; indeed, the
+objective treatment had in this instance ceded to one more subjective,
+in so far that the subject had appealed to him through a personal
+experience, though the feeling was, as in nearly all Leighton's
+greatest works, veiled in a classic garb. In a letter to his mother,
+dated November 13, 1864, he wrote:--
+
+                                             _November 13, 1864._
+
+    I returned so suddenly on account of a grave and terrible
+    anxiety, _now quite removed_, about my dear friend Mrs.
+    Sartoris.
+
+    I must tell you that for some time past she has been looking
+    dreadfully ill, getting daily worse, haggard and thin. I, in
+    common with all her friends, had been growing very anxious, and
+    conjectured that some day or other a crisis must come in which
+    only the surgeon could avail her. I little thought how near at
+    hand the moment was! She on her part had borne up with an amount
+    of moral and physical courage which everybody says was quite
+    incredible. Her nearest relations have not known from her that
+    she was in so dangerous a state. A week ago I arrived at
+    Francport, the chateau of the Marquis de l'Aigle, where I
+    expected to find Mr. and Mrs. Sartoris and their children. I
+    found instead Mme. de l'Aigle in the deepest anxiety and
+    commotion, having received a letter saying that on that very day
+    poor Mrs. S. was undergoing an operation of which the event was
+    very doubtful! I need hardly say that I instantly hurried off to
+    England in the greatest alarm, and in fear and trembling lest
+    she should have succumbed. You may judge of my relief, next
+    morning, on hearing from the servant in Park Place that she was
+    doing well. I hurried off to the doctor, a friend of mine, and
+    heard that for six hours her life had been in jeopardy, but
+    that, thank God, she was doing amazingly well, that for a week
+    there could be no _certainty_ of her recovery, but that the
+    possible chances doubled every day. Since then, thank God, she
+    has progressed so _astoundingly_ owing to her immense roots of
+    vitality and health, that one may be almost _certain_
+    (_unberufen_) of her complete recovery, in which event she will
+    enjoy life more than she has done for several years. Her family
+    and friends have escaped an entirely irreparable loss.
+
+The very beautiful picture, "Greek Girls Picking up Pebbles by the
+Shore of the Sea," was also exhibited in the Academy in 1871, likewise
+a smaller work, "Cleoboulos Instructing his Daughter Cleobouline."
+This is one of several which proves Leighton's gift for catching the
+grace and singular refinement of childhood. "Lord Leighton's drawings
+and paintings of children show the protecting, caressing tenderness he
+felt towards them. He loved little things, little children,
+kittens--'caressing littleness, that littleness in which there is much
+of the whole woeful heart of things'--everything lovely that had in it
+the unconscious grace of helplessness seemed especially to touch him."
+
+In 1872 "Summer Moon" was exhibited--the picture Watts told me he
+thought he preferred to all of Leighton's paintings. I believe the
+cause of this preference arose from the fact that the quality and
+texture in "Summer Moon" is looser and more vibrating, and gives a
+greater sense of atmosphere than is suggested by Leighton's works as a
+rule. Moonlight mystifies the tints of purple and blue, and creeps
+over and into every fold of the beautiful drapery--glistening on the
+white garment of the recumbent figure. In every line and touch in the
+exquisite design of the figures and drapery lurks the poetry of
+moonlight; the song of a nightingale perched on the branch of a
+pomegranate tree enhancing the sense of deep restfulness in the
+scene.[43]
+
+    [Illustration: "SUMMER MOON." 1872
+    By permission of Messrs. P. & D. Colnaghi, the owners of the
+    Copyright]
+
+    [Illustration: "A CONDOTTIERE." 1872]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY FOR FIGURE IN FRIEZE. "MUSIC." 1886
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY FOR FIGURE IN "THE ARTS OF WAR,"
+    Victoria and Albert Museum. 1872
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY FOR FIGURE IN "THE ARTS OF WAR,"
+    Victoria and Albert Museum. 1872
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY FOR FIGURE IN "THE ARTS OF WAR,"
+    Victoria and Albert Museum. 1872
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+It is thought by some that the design would have carried out the
+feeling of absolute repose better had the lower curves of the round
+aperture behind the figures been absent--these lines rather suggesting
+horns springing up on either side of the group. The end of the foot of
+the sitting figure being cut off by the bottom line of the picture has
+also a somewhat uncomfortable effect. The same thing occurs in the
+picture "Greek Girl Dancing," producing the feeling that the canvas
+has run short. These criticisms, however, only refer to minor matters.
+"Summer Moon" is an exquisitely beautiful picture, one which will ever
+sustain the great reputation of its creator. "A Condottiere" and the
+monochrome version of "The Industrial Arts of War" (76 x 177 in.),
+exhibited at the South Kensington International Exhibition the same
+year, strikingly contrast in character with "Summer Moon." If the one
+is notable for gentle, womanly grace and a sense of relaxation induced
+by slumber, "A Condottiere" is full of verve and virile power,[44] and
+in the design for "The Industrial Arts of War" all is action and
+movement. Leighton made many studies for all his principal pictures,
+but the finest group of sketches are certainly those made for mural
+decorations. Being executed under more difficult conditions than the
+easel pictures, doubtless he felt more preparation for frescoes was
+required. The studies in Leighton House for the "Arts of War," "Arts
+of Peace," two friezes, "Music," "The Dance," "And the Sea gave up the
+Dead that were in it," the painted decoration for the ceiling of a
+music room, "Phoenicians Bartering with Britons," are the most
+completely worked out and powerful studies in the collection. In the
+following year, 1873, the companion lunette in monochrome, "The
+Industrial Arts of Peace," was exhibited at the Royal Academy. This
+design is more comfortably fitted into its space than that of the
+"Arts of War," as the whole is lifted up from the bottom line of the
+lunette, and no part of the figures is cut off (as in the case of the
+men's feet and the drapery of the otherwise most beautiful group of
+women on the left hand in the "Arts of War"). "Weaving the Wreath," a
+small picture of lovely colour and subtle technique, appeared in 1873,
+and in 1874 three of the most remarkable of Leighton's pictures of
+single figures. "In a Moorish Garden: a Dream of Granada" the charming
+child "Cleobouline" reappears in an Eastern turban and drapery,
+holding a copper vessel and followed by two peacocks, walking across a
+square canvas filled in by a background of the delightful garden at
+Generalife at Granada. "The Antique Juggling Girl" is one of the best
+examples in Leighton's work of his "ardent passion for colour," and
+his perfect mastery in painting the beauty of an undraped figure. The
+form of the torso recalls the exquisite fragment from the Naples
+Museum.[45] The actual painting, however, exemplifies the truth of
+Leighton's very notable words written to Steinle, "What reveals true
+knowledge of form is a powerful, organic, refined finish of modelling
+full of feeling and knowledge--and that is the affair of the brush."
+The principal scheme of colour is effectively carried throughout the
+picture--in the golden flesh tint against the ivory-white of the
+parchment banner hung as a screen background, the crown of dark ivy
+leaves and the golden balls telling out as notes of a deeper tone; the
+crinkled folds of white drapery resting on the darker mass, the full
+tawny browns and yellows of the leopard skins on which the figure
+stands making a dark, luminous basis, the metal jar and the
+dense foliage of deep verdant green enriched by the orange of the
+fruit springing up and continuing the dark framework of the central
+design. This picture is a very original work, and should, I think, be
+placed very high in the rank of Leighton's achievements. "Clytemnestra
+from the battlements of Argos watches for the beacon fires which are
+to announce the return of Agamemnon" is, in every sense, a contrast to
+the "Antique Juggling Girl." The figure is powerful and heavily
+draped, the drapery being superb, and the limbs those which might
+truly overpower even Agamemnon.[46]
+
+    [Illustration: "ANTIQUE JUGGLING GIRL." 1874
+    By permission of Mr. George Hodges]
+
+    [Illustration: "CLYTEMNESTRA WATCHES FROM THE BATTLEMENTS OF
+    ARGOS FOR THE BEACON FIRES WHICH ARE TO ANNOUNCE THE RETURN OF
+    AGAMEMNON." 1874
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY FOR "CLYTEMNESTRA." 1874
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY FOR "SUMMER MOON"
+    From Oil Sketch painted by Moonlight in Rome
+    Given by the late A. Waterhouse, R.A., to the Leighton House
+    Collection]
+
+The bar of red, which strikes a warm note among the cool lights and
+shadows of moonlight, adding immensely to the value of these tones,
+was suggested by the coral necklace, worn by the model from whom
+Leighton painted the study by moonlight for "Summer Moon" in Rome.
+"Egyptian Slinger" was Leighton's principal work exhibited in 1875,
+"The Daphnephoria" already engrossing most of his time and thought.
+This picture (89 x 204 inches), "a triumphal procession held every
+ninth year at Thebes in honour of Apollo and to commemorate a victory
+of the Thebans over the Aeolians of Arne" (see Proclus, "Chrestomath,"
+p. 11), and the very fine portrait of Sir Richard Burton were
+exhibited in 1876. From some points of view "The Daphnephoria" is
+Leighton's greatest achievement. The difficulties he surmounted
+successfully in the work were of a character with which few English
+artists could cope at all. The size of the canvas alone would
+certainly have insisted on ten years' devotion to it from most modern
+artist-workmen. The extreme breadth of the arrangement of the masses,
+united with great beauty of line and form in the detail; the sense of
+the moving of a procession swinging along to the rhythmic phrases of
+chanted music; the brilliant light of Greece, striking on the fine
+surface of the marble platform along which the procession is moving
+and on the town below, which it has left behind, contrasting with the
+deep shadowed cypress grove rising as background to the figures;--all
+this is more than masterly: it is convincing. It is probably quite
+unlike what took place at Thebes every ninth year;--but Art is not
+Archaeology. The written account of what took place fired Leighton's
+imagination to create a scene in which he treated the Greek function
+as the text; the wonderful light and the fineness of Greek atmosphere
+as the tone; the processional majesty and grace of movement as the
+action. The element of beauty which the record suggested to him was
+the truth of the scene to Leighton, and he has recorded the essence of
+it in an extraordinarily original work.
+
+It was after Leighton's death that the picture first "struck home" to
+me. The last day of the exhibition of a wonderful man's life-work had
+come to an end one Saturday afternoon in the spring of 1897. It had
+been a record day at Burlington House; crowds had filled the galleries
+from morning till the light had begun to wane. Only a very few
+stragglers remained, but the keeper, Mr. Calderon, R.A., was there.
+One of the porters in his red gown came up to him, and petitioned for
+a half-hour more before the final closing of the doors on the
+message which Leighton had left to the world. Both men, the keeper and
+the porter, looked grave and sad. The great President had been beloved
+by all. The porter's request was granted, and it was during that short
+half-hour that I seemed for the first time fully to realise the great
+qualities of "The Daphnephoria"; the room being empty, it could be
+seen from the right distance, and the conception of the work and its
+completion spoke out very plainly and convincingly.
+
+    [Illustration: "THE DAPHNEPHORIA"--A TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION HELD
+    AT THEBES IN HONOUR OF APOLLO. 1876
+    By permission of the Fine Art Society, the owners of the
+    Copyright]
+
+    [Illustration: "AT A READING-DESK." 1877
+    By permission of Messrs. L.H. Lefevre & Son, the owners of the
+    Copyright]
+
+Different as a picture could be was the exquisite "Music Lesson" of
+1877. Again we have the lovely little Cleobouline, her delicate
+fingers learning to make music on a mandoline. The grouping and grace
+in the attitude of the teacher and the pupil, the ease and pleasant
+arrangement of the draperies, the texture and fine distinction in the
+feeling and technique of the work, can only be suggested by a
+reproduction; whereas to appreciate in any way the delicate brightness
+and charm of the colour is impossible without seeing the original.
+This is the one of all Leighton's paintings which--perhaps more than
+any other--conclusively contradicts the statement made, that "the
+inspiration stage was practically passed when he took the crayon in
+his hand." Another Cleobouline also appeared in the same Academy
+Exhibition--as fascinating as the little lady learning music; "Study"
+it was called--a child in a delightfully painted glistening pink silk
+dressing-gown, sitting cross-kneed on an Eastern carpet before an
+inlaid prayer-desk. Very characteristic of Leighton's bewitching
+painting of children's feet are the little toes of the child peeping
+out between the folds of pink drapery. The finest woman's portrait
+Leighton ever painted appeared the same year as a "Music Lesson." This
+was Miss Mabel Mills.[47] The breadth and delicacy in the modelling of
+the cheek and throat rivals the work of Greek sculpture. The most
+serious work exhibited in 1877 was the bronze version of Leighton's
+"Athlete Strangling a Python,"[48] the small sketch of which was made
+in 1874. This statue showed to the world his power as a sculptor.
+Every work he modelled evinced in an equal degree his consummate
+ability as such, though the more flexible treatment--in the modelled
+sketches for the "Python," the sleeping group in "Cymon and
+Iphigenia,"[49] and the "Perseus and Andromeda"--may carry with it a
+greater charm than is found in the completed statues. The following
+letters from the French sculptor Dalou, the painter George Boughton,
+and Sir Edgar Boehm are testimonies to the effect which the "Python"
+in bronze, and the sketch, produced on artists at the time they were
+executed:--
+
+                                 217A GLEBE PLACE, CHELSEA, S.W.,
+                                                    _2 Mai 1877_.
+
+    MON CHER LEIGHTON,--Si mes humbles felicitations peuvent vous
+    toucher j'en serais tres heureux.
+
+    J'esperais vous voir lundi dernier a l'Academy et vous
+    complimenter comme vous le meritez pour votre belle statue. A
+    quoi sert de gratter toute sa vie un morceau de terre, quand
+    pres de soi on voit tout a coup surgir un chef d'oeuvre d'une
+    main a qui la sculpture etait jusque la restee etrangere?
+
+    Si j'etais envieux ce serait une belle occasion pour moi, mais
+    loin de la j'ai ete tres heureux d'admirer votre oeuvre, et tres
+    flatte de l'honneur qu'on a fait a ma pauvre terre cuite, en la
+    placant en pendant avec votre bronze; c'est encore un bon
+    souvenir de plus qui me viens de l'Academy et de vous, mon
+    cher Leighton, car je sais toute la part que vous avez prise au
+    deplacement dont ma figure a ete l'objet.
+
+    Aussi croyez que je suis heureux de pouvoir me dire votre
+    sincere admirateur et tres reconnaissant ami,
+
+                                                        J. DALOU.
+
+    [Illustration: "AN ATHLETE STRANGLING A PYTHON"
+    From small sketch, 1876]
+
+
+                                                GROVE LODGE,
+                          PALACE GARDENS TERRACE, KENSINGTON, W.,
+                                             _December 11, 1874_.
+
+    DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--I fear that the note which I sent with the
+    bronze did not explain itself sufficiently. I _meant_ to ask you
+    to _accept_ it--"to have and to hold for yourself your heirs and
+    assigns for ever," to speak legally.
+
+    I can in no way express the pleasure I felt when I saw your
+    small study for the man battling with the serpent. I hope the
+    report in the _Academy_ that it is to be done life-size in
+    bronze is true. It will be worthy to go with the best of the
+    antiques. The other study for the singing maidens was
+    delightful[50] as the other was grand. To put it in the
+    picturesque parlance of the Far West, "I was knocked over and
+    sat on." It will be a slight relief to give my words a little
+    form and weight; as I am unfortunately not a Roman Emperor and
+    have not a golden crown of laurel about me, pray do me the
+    favour to accept the only thing I have worth sending.--Believe
+    me, yours very sincerely,
+
+                                                GEO. H. BOUGHTON.
+
+
+                                                GROVE LODGE,
+                              PALACE GARDENS TERRACE, KENSINGTON,
+                                             _December 14, 1874_.
+
+    DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--I don't know which to admire most--the
+    "sketch," as _you_ call it (it seems "heroic" in size even now),
+    or your great kindness in sending it to me. Now that I may enjoy
+    it at my leisure--and I take my leisure very often--it seems
+    finer even than I thought it was. Not merely the _spirit_ of the
+    antique, but the antique _itself_, and the "antique" I mean is
+    the everlasting, the best mortal may ever hope to make.
+
+    This is, as far as my capacity for judging is worth, _sincere_.
+    I know how perilous it is to say warmly what one feels, how it
+    is put down as "gush" and "bad form"; but when in this very
+    London fog of Art one sees a spark of pure light, there is some
+    excuse for shouting with joy.
+
+    I should reproach myself with taking up overmuch of your time in
+    this matter, but I know that you are very good-natured; besides
+    you might have taken my poor little bronze tribute in as few
+    words as I sent it, and there it might have ended--though for
+    myself I am glad you did not, and shall be ever selfishly
+    thankful that you acted as kindly as you did.
+
+    Pray don't bother to reply to this, I am too much your debtor
+    already.--Yours very sincerely,
+
+                                                GEO. H. BOUGHTON.
+
+
+                                        78 CORNWALL GARDENS,
+                                    QUEEN'S GATE, _May 11, 1877_.
+
+    DEAR LEIGHTON,--I follow my instinct and sincere desire in
+    congratulating you on your magnificent statue in the Academy,
+    which I have just seen. It is superb. I think it the best statue
+    of modern days. I was riveted with admiration and astonishment;
+    and whatever you may think of my judgment, pray take this as my
+    humble and heartfelt tribute to a work of genius, which to my
+    mind ranks nearer "zur Antiken" than anything I have seen,
+    during my career, produced in any school or country.
+
+    Believe me, with sincere admiration, yours,
+
+                                                      J.E. BOEHM.
+
+In 1890 Leighton made a replica of the statue in marble for the
+Glyptothek in Copenhagen. It was exhibited in the Royal Academy
+Exhibition in 1891.
+
+Many were the voices heard exclaiming that Leighton ought to give
+himself entirely to sculpture. His masterly power in understanding
+form, and giving expression to it in Art, was readily understood and
+appreciated when he worked in the round, whereas it had been but
+scantily appreciated in his painting; the fact being, that the public
+is unaccustomed to find that power developed in modern pictures,
+whereas in sculpture it is the principal and obvious aim in any
+statue. However, whatever the public thought or expressed, Leighton
+went on painting. In 1878 "Nausicaa" and "Winding the Skein" were
+exhibited, both among Leighton's happiest works. A reticent grace in
+the attitude of the figure, and a tender yearning sadness in the face,
+makes this rendering of "Nausicaa" very attractive. "Winding the
+Skein" is the best example of those fair pictures which Leighton
+painted, and evidently delighted in painting, as records of
+Southern--and more particularly--Greek light and atmosphere. For the
+special charm in the tone and colouring to be understood, the picture
+itself must be seen; but the design and delightful feeling in the
+movement of the figures can be rendered in the reproduction. Again in
+this work the fascinating little figure of Cleobouline appears and
+also the teacher in the "Music Lesson." In all, Leighton painted
+thirty-six important pictures, twenty-six slighter works,[51] and
+executed his first statue, "Athlete Strangling a Python," in the ten
+years between 1869 and 1879.
+
+    [Illustration: "NAUSICAA." 1878]
+
+During these years the Royal Academy Exhibition took place in
+Burlington House, it having previously been held in a suite of rooms
+at the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square.
+
+Leighton sent photographs of the cartoons for the "Industrial Arts of
+War" and of "Peace"[52] to Steinle, who wrote his criticisms on the
+designs. The following is Leighton's answer:--
+
+    _Translation._]
+                                              _February 3, 1874._
+
+    MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--Your very welcome lines arrived
+    auspiciously a few days ago. I need not say how delighted I am
+    that you are not displeased with the two compositions of your
+    old pupil, and that you recognise in them a not unworthy effort.
+    I am especially grateful to you that while giving your
+    approbation you have enclosed a criticism, and only regret that
+    you have blamed but one thing, where there are unfortunately so
+    many faults. I shall endeavour, if these cartoons ever come to
+    be carried out, as far as possible to repress the faults which
+    you remark in "Peace"; for, as I am by all means passionate for
+    the true _Hellenic_ art, and am touched beyond everything by its
+    noble simplicity and its unaffected directness, so the _Roman_
+    or Napoleonic at its highest is antipathetic to me--I had almost
+    said disgusting. The two compositions are intended for a large
+    court (where there are objects from all parts of the world and
+    of all epochs); they will not, however, stand _near_, but
+    opposite to one another. The figures will be life-size, the
+    foremost ones almost colossal. The "Arts of Peace" I transported
+    to Greece, partly out of sympathy, and partly on account of the
+    special beauty of the Greek ceramic and jewel work; the conduct
+    of arms seemed to me to find its highest expression in mediaeval
+    Italy, and I gladly seized this opportunity to tread the old
+    path again in which my feet now so seldom wander.
+
+    If you really believe that my old friends in Frankfurt will be
+    interested in these works, I shall be extremely pleased if you
+    will put them in the Gallery; I wish only one thing, namely,
+    that it may be made quite clear to the spectator that they are
+    merely _cartoons_; their entire lack of effect would otherwise
+    be surprising.
+
+    But the Pinta, of which you write, haunts my mind! If I had only
+    time to run over myself!--but it is impossible.
+
+    Once more heartiest greetings, from your devoted pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+The Prince Consort, I believe, first conceived the idea of decorating
+spaces on the walls of the Victoria and Albert Museum with frescoes,
+as a memorial of the nation's gratitude on the close of the Crimean
+War, and mentioned the subject to Leighton. It was not, however, till
+1868 that Sir Henry Cole approached him officially on the subject in
+the following letter:--
+
+                                                 _July 14, 1868._
+
+    SIR,--The Lords of the Committee of Council on Education having
+    had under their consideration the subject of the permanent
+    decoration of the lunettes at the ends of the South Court of the
+    South Kensington Museum, have directed me to inquire if it would
+    be agreeable to you to undertake to execute a picture for one of
+    these lunettes, for which lunette their Lordships would be
+    prepared to authorise a payment of L1000, it being understood
+    that all rights of copying the work belong to the Department.
+
+    When the court is completed, there will be four lunettes of a
+    similar size. At the present time, however, there are only two
+    spaces actually ready; and should you be willing to accept the
+    commission now offered to you, your picture would be placed in
+    one of these two finished lunettes. Mr. Watts, R.A., has been
+    asked to execute a similar commission for the second lunette;
+    and, in order that the works may have a certain symmetry in
+    respect of the scale of the figures, &c., it would be desirable
+    that you should place yourself into communication with him.--I
+    am, Sir, your obedient servant,
+
+                                                      HENRY COLE.
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY FOR GROUP IN "THE ARTS OF PEACE,"
+    Victoria and Albert Museum. 1873
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+    [Illustration: FIRST SKETCH FOR FIGURE OF CIMABUE
+    Carried out in Mosaic in the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1868]
+
+    [Illustration: ORIGINAL SKETCH FOR THE FIGURE OF NICCOLA PISANO
+    Carried out in Mosaic in the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1868]
+
+Watts was not prepared to accept the commission to execute one of the
+frescoes, being already immersed in work which absorbed his whole time
+and attention. He did, however, accept the commission to make a
+cartoon for the figure of Titian to be worked in mosaic in one of the
+spaces which form a kind of frieze along the side of the Southern
+Court. Leighton, besides agreeing finally to paint frescoes on the
+lunettes at each end of the court, made cartoons in 1868 for two of
+these side spaces, one of the figure of Cimabue, the other of Niccolo
+Pisano. Sketches for these are in the Leighton House Collection. (See
+List of Illustrations.)
+
+A controversy took place between Leighton and Sir Henry Cole
+respecting the question whether these figures were to be treated
+pictorially or decoratively, whether the background was to be of plain
+gold mosaic or whether there were to be objects depicted in
+perspective behind the figures. The following part of a letter from
+Leighton concluded the agreement.
+
+    I submit that I have given reasons _why_ the figures under
+    discussion should not be pictures, and that you, on the other
+    hand, have not put forward a single reason why, a single
+    principle on which they _should_ be pictures. You have contented
+    yourself with adducing some precedents; as the question,
+    however, is entirely one of principles, precedent alone means
+    nothing, one way or another; if it were not so, I should have
+    opposed to you cases in which the, to my mind, sounder principle
+    is observed.
+
+    Raphael's ceiling in the Vatican, for instance--an example you
+    will scarcely cavil at. There is not in the whole range of art a
+    single aberration that cannot be endorsed with some good name.
+    To glance once more at the principle: whether the gold behind
+    the figures be in effect the background of flat, or whether it
+    be, as you hold, "essentially something round"; whether or not
+    it be this, as I certainly assert, the wall throughout the
+    decoration, it is unanswerably a conventional _abstraction_, it
+    represents no concrete object, and as an _abstraction_ is
+    incompatible with any perspective representations of solid
+    objects, which presuppose space and distance--everything that is
+    on the _same_ plane as the figure is submitted to the same
+    conditions, hence any accessory on the pedestal is admissible;
+    everything _beyond_ the pedestal is part of the background,
+    which may be abstract or concrete, as you please, but _cannot_
+    logically be _both_.
+
+    I am the first to admit and admire the intimate connection which
+    existed formerly between architecture and painting: to say
+    "architecture and pictures," is to beg the whole question. In
+    condemning the loose practice of modern times, you cannot
+    propose upholding for admiration the mere fact that in old times
+    picture and wall were sometimes one, but no doubt allude with
+    just admiration to the harmony existing between them, in the
+    best examples, and to the wise adaptation of the one to the
+    other. You, I submit, are attacking and attempting to subvert
+    the very principles on which this harmony rests; my sole desire
+    is to assert and defend them, and I earnestly desire that,
+    actuated, as I am entirely convinced you are, more by the desire
+    to forward the truth than to triumph in argument, the views I
+    have put before you may eventually commend themselves to you,
+    and deter you from further encouraging a practice which may be
+    supported by precedent, but cannot be made tenable in theory.
+
+In the autumn of 1873 Leighton visited Damascus, where he made studies
+for the picture exhibited in the 1874 Academy, "Old Damascus--Jews'
+Quarter,"[53] and a fine sketch of the interior of the Grand Mosque
+which he enlarged into a picture 62 x 49 inches, and exhibited in
+1875. He also made a remarkable moonlight study preserved in the
+Leighton House Collection.
+
+    "One afternoon, late in the autumn of 1872," wrote Dr. William
+    Wright, "I was on the roof of my house trying to cool after a
+    long ride in the sun, when there came a loud knock at my door;
+    the latch was lifted, and presently a resplendent kavass mounted
+    to my platform. He explained to me that a noble Englishman was
+    coming up to see me, and with that Frederic Leighton skipped
+    gaily up the steps. After a courteous greeting and apology, he
+    sat down and became silent, absolutely wrapped up in the
+    pageantry of the sky. When I excused myself for the lapse of the
+    time, he looked at me, and said quietly, 'No artist ever wasted
+    time in accurately observing natural phenomena,' and added,
+    'That sunset will mix with my paint, and will tint your ink as
+    long as either of us lives. It will never be over, it has dyed
+    our spirits in colours which can never be washed out.'"
+
+To his father he wrote:--
+
+                                    DAMASCUS, _October 18, 1873_.
+
+    DEAR PAPA,--I find that I am not as completely cut off from the
+    western world here as I have been led to believe I was, and that
+    boats leave Damascus for Alexandria weekly, and not fortnightly,
+    as I told you in my hasty line of the other day; although,
+    therefore, you are no longer uneasy about my health, I will not
+    defer till the later boat thanking you for your welcome letter
+    which reached me two or three days ago. I am much shocked and
+    concerned to hear of the death of my poor friend Benson, for
+    which I was in no way prepared, the last accounts I had received
+    before leaving England being of a decidedly hopeful nature. A
+    kinder heart never beat than his, and I felt really attached to
+    him; he is a great loss to me. And now to tell you about myself.
+    Three tedious days on board a Russian boat which tossed and
+    rolled like a cork over a sea on which a P. and O. would have
+    been motionless, brought me to Beyrout, a cheery, picturesque,
+    sunny port at the foot of Lebanon; gay and glad I was to land,
+    and Andrea's cool, clean inn overlooking the sea was a
+    delightful haven of rest, and my first meal at a steady table
+    (or a real chair) was ambrosial. Being in a hurry to get to the
+    end of my journey, I did not stay more than half a day, but
+    started by diligence for Damascus, a journey of some thirteen
+    hours, first over Lebanon itself (which is fine, but by no means
+    grand as I had hoped), then across the Valley of Coelesyria, and
+    lastly over Antilebanon, at the foot of which the town lies. At
+    the last relay I found waiting for me a horse and dragoman, for
+    which and whom I had telegraphed in order that I might get the
+    famous view of Damascus about which travellers have told wonders
+    from time immemorial, and which is only to be seen from a bridle
+    path over the hill above the suburb of Sala'aijeh; unfortunately
+    the days are getting short, and I did not reach the proper spot
+    till just after sunset; not too late, however, to enjoy the
+    marvellous prospect before me, and to feel that it is worthy of
+    all that has been said in its praise. It is impossible to
+    conceive anything more startling than the suddenness with which,
+    emerging from a narrow and absolutely barren cleft in the rock,
+    you see spread before your eyes and at your feet a dense mass of
+    exuberant trees spreading for miles on to the plain which looks
+    towards Palmyra, and, rising white in the midst of it, the
+    Damascus of the thousand and one nights. It is a great and a
+    rare thing for an old traveller not to be disappointed, and I am
+    grateful that it has been so with me this time. About the town
+    _itself_--as seen, I mean, _from within_--I have a mixed
+    feeling. In some respects it equals all my hopes, or at least in
+    one respect; in others it falls short of them. I have remarked
+    that to be prepared for disappointment never in the slightest
+    degree deadens the blow, and, accordingly, although I have both
+    read and been told to my heart's content that I should find the
+    streets unpicturesque and without character, relatively of
+    course (relatively say, to Cairo, not to Baker Street), I was,
+    nevertheless, depressed and in a way surprised to find them so.
+    Of course, there are, as in every Eastern town, numberless
+    delightful bits, and those ennobled as regularly as the day
+    comes by a right royal sun and canopy of blue, yet in the main,
+    Cairo and, in a very different way, Algiers, are far more
+    brilliant, and by-the-bye although you see here an extraordinary
+    variety of costumes from the remotest corners of the East (I
+    have met Indians in the streets), a group of Algerine Bedouins
+    in their stately white robes is worth a whole bazaar full of the
+    peasants and pilgrims that throng Damascus. Then in
+    architecture, Damascus falls far behind Cairo, both for
+    abundance and beauty of its specimens. Its background, too,
+    Antilebanon, is unsatisfactory, humpy and without power of
+    character or beauty of line, such as makes the Red Mountains on
+    the skirt of the Cairene desert so delightful. Here then are the
+    shortcomings; but I have my compensation in the houses, the old
+    houses of which some few are standing, though grey and
+    perishing, and which are still lovely to enchantment. I can't
+    hope to convey to you in writing any idea of this loveliness,
+    and it is not within the scope of sketching (though I am doing
+    one or two little corners), but I am having three or four
+    photographs made (for there are none!) from which you will be
+    able to gather something of their charm. They cannot, however,
+    give you the splendour of the light, and the fanciful delicacy
+    of the colour in the open courts, or the intense and fantastic
+    gorgeousness of the interior. Indeed I shall probably not
+    attempt the latter, and though you will see lemon and myrtle
+    trees rising tall and slim out of the marble floors and bending
+    over tanks of running water, you will miss the vivid sparkling
+    of the leaves, and you will not hear the unceasing song of the
+    bubbling fountains. I wish I could report that I am doing much
+    work. I am doing some, and think I see my way to one or two
+    pot-boilers (the fatal, inevitable pot-boilers!); but distances
+    here are great, and so is the heat, and there is not much that
+    is within the compass of _sketching_, though there is endless
+    paintable material. I am doing a bit in the great mosque, which
+    is very delightful to me, in colour, and, if I can render it,
+    may strike others in the same way. I am having the spot
+    photographed in case I try to make a picture of it. The second
+    p.-b. would probably be some unambitious corner of a court with
+    a figure or two, _et voila_. It is late and I am sleepy, so
+    good-night and good-bye. I wish you gave me a brighter account
+    of Lina; give her too my best love. It was hardly worth while,
+    by-the-bye, to have my letters forwarded. I shall only get them,
+    if at all, just before leaving Damascus next week! I fear I
+    can't get back to England till end of third week in
+    November.--Your affectionate son,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+In the autumn of 1877 Leighton revisited Spain. A letter dated
+September 21, 1877, Madrid, in which Leighton answers certain
+questions asked by Mrs. Mark Pattison concerning art galleries and
+dealers, ends with the following sentence:--
+
+    Thank you for what you tell me about Puvis de Chavannes' work. I
+    admire the designs for Ste. Genevieve hugely, and am altogether
+    an _aficionado_ of that odd, incomplete, but refined and poetic
+    painter; but for emptiness of modelling he seeks his peer in
+    vain. I am seeing Velasquez again for the third time; this is
+    the place in which to see him in all his splendour, and in all
+    his nakedness--but that would be a chapter, and not a hasty
+    note.--Very truly yours,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+From Spain Leighton crossed to Tangiers, whence he wrote:--
+
+                                     TANGIERS, _October 4, 1877_.
+
+    MY DEAR PAPA,--You are probably not a little surprised at the
+    superscription of this letter; so am I. It was a sudden and a
+    happy thought that brought me here. I reflected that, whilst I
+    had long wished to see Tangiers, I should not very probably come
+    to Spain again, and should therefore not have another chance of
+    visiting Morocco without a journey made on purpose. The run from
+    Gibraltar is only four hours, and I wonder the trip did not form
+    part of my original scheme. It will have one drawback for me,
+    that I shall get to Granada a few days later, and be by so much
+    the longer in getting news from England; but my journey will not
+    be prolonged on the whole, as I shall endeavour to cut off at
+    the end what I put on now. I the more owe myself what enjoyment
+    I can get here, that as I told you--did I not?--in my last, my
+    journey has been hitherto rather a dismal failure. I told you
+    how vile the weather was in Madrid, so that all technical study
+    of the pictures was out of the question. Well this is, since
+    then, the first perfectly fine afternoon we have had. Observe, I
+    only say afternoon, for it poured in the morning, and the
+    phenomenon of a wholly bright day has still to come. I am also
+    still further in arrears of enjoyment from the fact that I got
+    rather out of order, God knows why, the day I went to Toledo, to
+    the utter spoiling of what should have been one of my most
+    delightful trips, and am only now pulling round again, having
+    called in AEsculapius (at 2 dollars a consultation), whilst at
+    Gibraltar. An attack of this nature is simply fatal to any real
+    pleasure on one's journey, and, coming on the top of dark
+    weather and the contretemps just as the closing of the Alcazar
+    in Seville (one of the things I especially wanted to see) made
+    rather an absurd failure of the whole thing. At Seville I was
+    fool enough to go again to a bull-fight, and was so disgusted
+    that I got up and went away when the performance was only half
+    over. Meanwhile the aspect of the arena itself, with the
+    Cathedral and its marvellous tower rising just above into the
+    sky, is a very striking sight, and one I should regret to have
+    missed. The processional entry, too, of the whole of the
+    performers--picadors, capeodors, espadas, &c. &c.--is very
+    picturesque and stately. It is when the goring and torturing
+    begins that the sight is revolting; and the enormous popularity
+    of this form of sport with a nation, not, that I am aware of,
+    exceptionally cruel, only shows how easily our worst instincts
+    stifle our better nature, such as it is.
+
+    This is a prodigiously picturesque place, and I enjoy more than
+    I can say watching the Arabs swarming up the streets and
+    markets, stately and grand in their picturesqueness beyond any
+    population that I know, and particularly instructive and
+    valuable to an artist from the sculpturesque _definiteness_ of
+    their forms. The Jewish women here are said (by Ford) to be
+    prodigiously handsome. I have seen no Rebeccas amongst them yet.
+    I have not yet opened my box, and shall at best do little or
+    nothing; I have no time. Next week I shall be in Granada, from
+    where I hope to have to acknowledge a letter dated in Kensington
+    Park Gardens. Meanwhile I am, with best love to Lina and
+    yourself,--Yours affectionately,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+
+                                     GRANADA, _October 19, 1877_.
+
+    MY DEAR PAPA,--To-morrow is my last day in Granada. On Sunday I
+    turn my face Londonward, and my holiday will be pretty nearly at
+    an end, as I have, from want of time, given up my original
+    intention of seeing Valencia, Alicante, Tarragona, &c. &c.
+    Travelling in Spain is so infinitely slower than I had
+    remembered it, and so ideally inconvenient in regard to hours of
+    starting and arriving, that my programme has altogether
+    undergone considerable modifications. I reached this place a
+    good week later than I expected, and I did not get your letter
+    till some days later yet, owing, I suppose, to the difficulty
+    experienced by the postal authorities in the art of reading.
+    This will account to you for the time that will have elapsed
+    between your receipt of my two epistles. I am truly sorry to
+    hear that poor Lina is below par; tell her so, with my love. As
+    you do not speak of yourself, I presume that you are in good
+    form, and am glad to hear it. There is one passage in your
+    letter which suggests to me a strong protest. I think it
+    preposterous that the ambulant spinsters, or otherwise, with
+    whom you foregather on your journeys, should expect _you_ to
+    furnish them with photos of your "celebrated son." I like
+    enthusiasm; but _genuine_ enthusiasm does not halt at a
+    shilling, which is the sum for which my effigy is obtainable in
+    the public market; _verb. sap._ I will not describe to you
+    Toledo, Cordova, Seville, Granada, &c. (under which heads see
+    Murray's guide-book). I have done so before (probably), and they
+    have altered less than I, with the exception, perhaps, of
+    Granada, or rather the Alhambra, which, alas! is changed indeed,
+    thanks to the restoring mania, and is now all but brand new. I
+    ought, perhaps, to remark that the changes in _me_ are not
+    precisely in that direction. Taking a bird's-eye view of my
+    holiday, I don't think I should call it altogether a success,
+    though I have had many very delightful moments, and have seen
+    many very beautiful things; but, in the first place, I have
+    failed to fulfil one of the special objects of my trip, that,
+    namely, of making a few sketches of sky effects, particularly
+    seaside skies, which I sorely want for my picture of the girls
+    and the skein of worsted. I have not done so, because I have not
+    _once_ seen anything even resembling the skies I mean, and which
+    are generally forthcoming at this season. The weather has indeed
+    of late been fine, often if not always, and here even, at
+    times, superb; but it is the before the rains, and not, as it
+    should be, the clear, keen, autumn weather, after the air has
+    been well swept and purged by the equinoctial broom and pail,
+    which I had a right to demand of a Mediterranean October. This
+    is a great disappointment. I did not want to _work_, and God
+    knows I have not (five little sketches in all!); but just this
+    document I did peremptorily require. In the second place, I have
+    been rather seedy (am all right now), not very, but enough to
+    poison my pleasure; and just so much that, after two or three
+    little amateur attempts (local apothecary, fellow-travellers,
+    &c. &c.), I thought it right (at Gibraltar) to see a doctor, not
+    _because_ I was ill, but _lest_ I should get worse and develop
+    more serious symptoms, as internal disturbance occasionally does
+    in hot countries. In a few days (and two large bottles of
+    physic) I was much better, and am now, I repeat, quite "myself"
+    again.
+
+    But I perceive that this uninteresting twaddle has filled my
+    paper, and barely left me space to tell that I have been to
+    Africa, and shall be home on the 28th (evening). Yes, to Africa;
+    Tangiers in four hours' steam from Gibraltar, and a most
+    picturesque spot, of which more when we meet. On my way home I
+    shall spend part of a day in Madrid, in the hopes of seeing the
+    pictures this time. On my road through France I shall make a
+    short break at Poitiers. _A bientot._--Affectionate son,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+During the nine years that Leighton was a Royal Academician he worked
+most energetically in many directions towards establishing the
+principles which he considered sound and essential to the growth of
+the best Art instincts in England. He was one of the Professional
+Examiners in Art from 1866 to 1875 at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
+In 1884 he became one of the Art Referees for the Museum, and was
+consulted by Sir Henry Cole to a considerable extent. He aided, as far
+as lay in his power, all Art Societies to expand and to grow on the
+lines of Catholicity. He was a member of the Committee of the Society
+of Dilettanti, for the purpose of obtaining information as to the
+probable success of renewed search for monuments of Greek Art. The
+following extract from a report proves what an active part he took in
+the business of the society:--
+
+    "In the autumn of the same year two hundred cases of
+    inscriptions and sculptures from Priene were transported from
+    Priene to Smyrna, and thence conveyed to England in H.M.S.
+    _Antelope_. In March 1870 the society presented these marbles to
+    the trustees of the British Museum. In May 1870 the committee,
+    then consisting of Earl Somers, Lord Houghton, Mr. Watkiss
+    Lloyd, Mr. Penrose, Mr. Cartwright, Mr. Leighton, and Mr.
+    Newton, held several meetings. The committee at their meetings
+    went carefully over all the drawings and details obtained by the
+    society of the Temple of Bacchus at Teos, Apollo Smintheus, and
+    Minerva Polias at Priene; they were of opinion that they would
+    form an interesting and valuable publication, and should be
+    proceeded with as soon as possible, and executed in a style
+    worthy of the former productions of the society. Mr. Leighton
+    offered to redraw the sculpture on some of the friezes, and Lord
+    Somers to prepare the landscape illustrations."
+
+In 1871 the President of the Artist Benevolent Fund, Mr. J.K. Kempton
+Hope, wrote to Leighton: "I am peculiarly proud that the first act
+which I have to perform in my new character is to say how honoured and
+grateful we all should be if you would kindly consent to accept the
+position of Vice-President."
+
+The following letter to his father announces that Leighton had been
+elected President of the International Jury of Painting, Paris
+Exhibition, 1878:--
+
+                                         HOTEL WESTMINSTER, 1878,
+                                                        _Friday_.
+
+    DEAR PAPA,--I have been waiting to write till I should have
+    something to say beyond the fact that the weather is odious, and
+    shows no signs of relenting. On Saturday afternoon we had our
+    meeting of the Royal Commissioners, which had for its object the
+    hearing of an address from the Prince of Wales. On Monday
+    morning the _whole_ International Jury (some six hundred or
+    seven hundred members) met at the Ministere de Commerce, and was
+    little more than formal. _To-day_ the group of sections which
+    are concerned with Art held its first meeting under the
+    presidency of Signor Tullio Massarani, an Italian, with
+    Meissonier as Vice-President, the chief object of the meeting
+    being to inform the various sections of the groups whom the
+    Minister had appointed as their respective presidents. My
+    section, composed of forty members, is _Paintings and Drawings_;
+    there are twenty Frenchmen--nearly all the first artists of the
+    country, in fact--and you will be surprised and very much
+    gratified to learn that I was named president of this section--a
+    very high honour, of course, and one of which I am extremely
+    sensible, but which we must not misinterpret; it is, of course,
+    only by an act of international courtesy that the French placed
+    a foreigner at the head of their section, and amongst the other
+    foreign artists there were few names of much weight or standing;
+    still, it is a courtesy which will, I am sure, give you
+    pleasure. Our section being thus constituted, we then appointed
+    our own _vice_-president, reporter, and secretary; they were
+    unanimously elected; the first was my old friend, Robert Fleury;
+    the second was Emile de Savelege, the Belgian writer whom you
+    know of; and the third an old and kind friend of mine, Maurice
+    Cottier, a man much mixed up in the official artistic world and
+    possessing a magnificent picture gallery. To-morrow we begin our
+    labours at the Exhibition, and in the afternoon I shall go to
+    the _seance_ of the _Institut_, which always takes place on
+    Saturdays. This is my budget.
+
+Perhaps the most important work inside the Academy which Leighton
+effected during this time was that of establishing the winter
+exhibitions of Old Masters at Burlington House. No one exemplified
+practically better than did Leighton the value of the motto, "What is
+worth having is worth sharing." He had been fed from early youth from
+the fountain-heads of Art, and one of his first objects after being
+elected a member of the Royal Academy was to endeavour to secure the
+same inspiring stimulus for students which he had himself imbibed from
+the work of the greatest men. He told me also that his chief object in
+making conscientious studies in colour when he travelled, was to
+endeavour to convey to students who were not able to go abroad some
+idea of the varieties in the aspects of nature found in different
+countries. Leighton was much appreciated in London society, but the
+_intimes_ of the old Roman days remained still the nucleus of his
+friendships; also every year he tried to find himself in his beloved
+Italy, and he generally succeeded. From his old friend Lady William
+Russell, mother of Odo Russell (afterwards Lord Ampthill and
+Leighton's ally in Rome), and Arthur Russell--the notable lady whose
+charm attracted to her _salon_ all that was most interesting among the
+magnates of Europe--two notes record her affection for Leighton and
+the death of Henry Greville in 1872, the severest blow which Leighton
+had sustained since the death of his mother.
+
+    I was in hopes of seeing you, to thank you _viva voce_ for the
+    _ambrosia_ you sent me from Italy. I did _not_ write during your
+    pictorial tour, not exactly knowing _where_ you might be. It
+    was, _and is_, for I have some still, _excellent_; Paolo
+    Veronese did not eat any better, nor Titian, nor any of your
+    _Brethren in Apollo_.
+
+    _Guido_ you _are_--the English Guido--but _not_ "da Polenta"; I
+    will _not_ accept that "terre a terre" denomination. I now thank
+    you most gratefully--it was one of the seven works of mercy, for
+    I really could not eat and was _starving_. The Indian cornflour
+    was a _renovation_. If ever you can make up your mind to pay a
+    visit to una povera vealisa--zoppa--sorda--brutta and seccante,
+    and forget "_Aurora_," I shall be charmed. But I know that your
+    time is better employed; so a million of thanks, and as many
+    regrets not to be able to see your _marvels_ of which I
+    hear.--Believe me, most sincerely your obliged Serva and Amica,
+
+                                                           E.A.R.
+    2 AUDLEY SQUARE MAYFAIR, W.
+      _Sunday, 26th November 1871_.
+
+
+    DEAR GUIDO (but _not_ of Polenta),--I have been quite
+    _mortified_ at your neglect of me, and invoked the muses in
+    vain! and call'd on the ghosts of Titian and Raffael, but they
+    did not heed my sighs! I am always glad to see you, and wish I
+    could _see your works_! All my cotemporaries and comrades are
+    dying off, and I _cannot_ last long--so come to my "Evenings at
+    Home" when you dine in my "Quartier" and are going to your club.
+
+    Alas! for dear Henry Greville! I knew him from his most early
+    youth. _Both_ his parents were my _early_ friends from _my_
+    youth, and his elder brother my cotemporary.
+
+    Come! Benvenuto Cellini--venite!
+
+    _Monday, February 1873._
+
+Leighton's passion for music led him to encourage all that was best in
+instrumental as well as in vocal performance. The Monday Popular
+Concerts were started by Messrs. Chappell in 1859, the first being
+given on the 3rd January. From their commencement Leighton was a
+subscriber, and very rarely missed being present.
+
+It was in the 'seventies that Leighton instituted those yearly feasts
+of music, which were among the real treats of the year.[54] His dear
+friend Joachim was to the end the _piece de resistance_ of these
+gatherings. Never did the Great Master seem so inspired as when he
+played in that studio. Leighton wrote to his sister, Mrs. Matthews,
+April 1871:--
+
+    DEAREST GUSSY,--You heard, no doubt, that I gave a party the
+    other day, and that it went off well. To me perhaps the most
+    striking thing of the evening was Joachim's playing of Bach's
+    "Chacone" up in my gallery. I was at the other end of the room,
+    and the effect from the distance of the dark figure in the
+    uncertain light up there, and barely relieved from the gold
+    background and dark recess, struck me as one of the most poetic
+    and fascinating things that I remember. At the opposite end of
+    the room in the apse was a blazing crimson rhododendron tree,
+    which looked glorious where it reached up into the golden
+    semi-dome. Madame Viardot sang the "Divinites du Styx," from the
+    "Alcestis," quite magnificently, and then, later in the evening,
+    a composition of her own in which I delight--a Spanish-Arab
+    ditty, with a sort of intermittent mandoline scraping
+    accompaniment. It is the complaint of some forsaken woman, and
+    wanders and quavers in a doleful sort of way that calls up to me
+    in a startling manner visions and memories of Cadiz and Cordova,
+    and sunny distant lands that smell of jasmine. A little Miss
+    Brandes, a pupil of Madame Schumann, played too. She is full of
+    talent and promise, and has had an immense success. Mme. Joachim
+    sang "Mignon" (Beethoven) excellently.
+
+    [Illustration: Sketch executed on the spot by Mr. Theodore Blake
+    Wirgman of their Majesties the King and Queen attending a
+    Popular Concert in St. James's Hall, Lord Leighton being one of
+    the Royal party. About 1893.]
+
+Mrs. Watts Hughes writes the following notes relating to those years
+of the 'seventies:--
+
+    I remember the incident you refer to at Eton College. The
+    _Orfeo_ performance was given by the Eton boys, who had formed a
+    society among themselves with the view of making acquaintance
+    with the music of the great masters. I took the part of _Orfeo_,
+    and a niece of Darwin's, Miss Wedgwood, who is now Lady Farrer,
+    sang Euridice's part. I believe Lord Leighton sang in some of
+    the quartettes and choruses. I often met Lord Leighton at Mrs.
+    Sartoris' musical gatherings at her house in Park Place, St.
+    James', when he would sing very heartily the tenor parts of the
+    old madrigals, in which also Mrs. Douglas Freshfield, Miss
+    Ritchie, and others took part with Mrs. Sartoris, who on some
+    occasions would sing one of her great operatic _Arias_ which
+    brought her so much fame in her former years.
+
+In 1877 Leighton began to build the famous Arab Hall.[55]
+
+The following letters from Sir Richard Burton refer to the collecting
+and sending of one instalment of the precious tiles:--
+
+                                      DAMASCUS, _March 22, 1871_.
+
+    DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--I have just returned from a pilgrimage to
+    Jerusalem, or yours of April 14th, 1871, would not have remained
+    so long unanswered. And now to business. I am quite as willing
+    to have a house pulled down for you now as when at Vichy,[56]
+    but the difficulty is to find a house with tiles. The
+    _bric-a-brac_ sellers have quite learned their value, and demand
+    extravagant sums for poor articles. Of course you want good old
+    specimens, and these are waxing very rare. My friends, Drake and
+    Palmer, were lucky enough, when at Jerusalem, to nobble a score
+    or so from the so-called Mosque of Omar. Large stores are
+    there found, but unhappily under charge of the Wakf, and I fancy
+    that long payments would be required. However, I shall send your
+    letter to my colleague, Moore, who will do what he can for you.
+    The fact is, it is a work of patience. My wife and I will keep a
+    sharp look-out for you, and buy up as many as we can find which
+    seem to answer your description. If native inscriptions--white
+    or blue, for instance--are to be had, I shall secure them, but
+    not if imperfect. Some clearing away of rubbish is expected at
+    Damascus; the Englishman who superintends is a friend of mine,
+    and I shall not neglect to get from him as much as possible.
+
+    We met Holman Hunt at Jerusalem; he was looking a little worn,
+    like a veritable denizen of the Holy City. I hope that you have
+    quite recovered health. Swinburne, the papers say, has been
+    sick; his "Songs before Sunrise" show even more genius than
+    "Poems and Ballads." What has become of Mrs. Sartoris? I saw her
+    son's appointment in the papers. Poor Vichy must be quite
+    ruined--veritably it was a Cockney hole. Syria is a poor Chili;
+    the Libanus is a mole-hill compared with the Andes--do you
+    remember? I am planning a realistic book which has no Holy Land
+    on the brain, and the public will curse her like our army in
+    Flanders. Pilgrims see everything through a peculiar medium, and
+    tourists shake hands (like madmen) when they sight the Plain of
+    Esdraelon or Sharon, as the case may be.
+
+    _N.B._--Both plains are like the poorer parts of our midland
+    counties. My wife joins in kind remembrances.--Ever yours
+    sincerely,
+
+                                               RICHARD F. BURTON.
+
+    [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF SIR RICHARD BURTON, K.C.M.G. 1876]
+
+
+                                        TRIESTE, _July 13, 1876_.
+
+    MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--One word to say that the tiles are packed,
+    and will be sent by the first London steamer--opportunities are
+    rare here. Some are perfect, many are broken; but they will make
+    a bit of mosaic after a little trimming, and illustrate the
+    difference between Syriac and Sindi. They are taken from the
+    tomb (Moslem) of Sakhar, on the Indus. I can give you analysis
+    of glaze if you want it; but I fancy you don't care for
+    analyses. The yellow colour is by far the rarest and least
+    durable apparently. The blues are the favourites and the best.
+
+    Here we are living in a typhoon of lies. I am losing patience,
+    and shall probably bolt to Belgrade in search of truth. Austria
+    is behaving in her usual currish manner, allowing her policy to
+    be managed by a minority of light-headed, Paddy-whack Magyars
+    and pudding-headed, beer-brained Austro-Germans. How all Europe
+    funks the Slavs, and how well the latter are beginning to know
+    it.
+
+    Very grand of _la grande Bretagne_ to propose occupying Egypt
+    without any army to speak of. Sorry that you don't understand
+    the force of the expression, the "world generally," but will try
+    some time or other to make it clear. United best regards and
+    wishes. Why don't you take a holiday to Turkey?--Ever yours,
+
+                                                     R.F. BURTON.
+
+    _P.S._--I hear that W. Wright has subsided into an Irish
+    conventicle, and that Green doesn't like prospect of returning
+    to Dan!
+
+The construction of this thing of beauty, the Arab Hall, is a visible
+and permanent proof of the side in Leighton's artistic endowments
+which are so rarely found in northern, or indeed any modern nations,
+and the want of which are gradually leading our world into being very
+ugly--namely, the sense of the appropriate, of balance, of proportion,
+and of harmony in the construction and decoration of buildings. As an
+adherent of the pre-Raphaelites, William Morris had been battling with
+this tasteless condition of things for some years--strenuously working
+to counteract the unmeaning adaptations of foreign designs of all
+times and of all countries into English work, and the general
+muddledom into which the decoration in the surroundings of domestic
+life had fallen, by starting afresh on the lines of simple good
+designs of English pre-Puritan days. Leighton's taste had been
+inspired, in the first instance, by the crafts as well as by the art
+of Italy. Subsequently, the East had fascinated him. He admired
+greatly the frank, courageous beauty in the colouring of the
+decorations of her buildings; but, having an acute sense of the
+appropriate, he felt that they would not harmonise successfully with
+the necessary surroundings of English domestic life. He was
+therefore inspired to erect a special shrine for his collection of
+enamels. It has been truly said that the Arab Hall is as notable a
+creation in Art as any of Leighton's pictures or statues. The beauty
+of its effect is greatly enhanced by the arrangement of light and
+shade which leads on to the wonderfully beautiful casket of treasures.
+Monsieur Choisy, the distinguished French architect, wrote as follows
+in the _Times_ of April 27, 1896, when advocating the preservation of
+this house for the public: "Nowhere have I found in an architectural
+monument a happier gradation of effects, nor a more complete knowledge
+of the play of light. The entrance to the house is by a plain hall
+that leads to a '_patio_' lit from the sky, where enamels shine
+brilliantly in the full light; from this 'patio' one passes into a
+twilight corridor, where enamel and gold detach themselves from an
+architectural ground of richness somewhat severe; it is a transition
+which prepares the eye for a jewel of Oriental Art, where the most
+brilliant productions of the Persian potter are set in architectural
+frame inspired by Arab Art, but treated freely; the harmony is so
+perfect that one asks oneself if the architecture has been conceived
+for the enamels, or the enamels for the hall. This gradation, perhaps
+unique in contemporary architecture, was Leighton's idea; and the
+illustrious painter found in his old friend Mr. G. Aitchison, who
+built his house, a worthy interpreter of his fine conception. This
+hall, where colour is triumphant, was dear to Leighton, and even forms
+the background to some of his pictures. Towards the end of his life he
+still meant to embellish it by substituting marble for that small part
+that was only painted. The generous employment of his fortune alone
+prevented him from realising his intention.
+
+"England has at all times given the example of honouring great men;
+she will, I am sure, find the means of preserving for Art a monument
+of which she has such reason to be proud."[57]
+
+    [Illustration: VIEW OF ARAB HALL. 1906]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[42] In the Leighton House Collection is a splendid study for the
+wrestling figure of Heracles, also for the recumbent Alcestis, and the
+drapery for the phantom figure of Death. The figure of Heracles, fine
+as it is in the picture, lacks somewhat of the ardent quality in the
+action of the sketch. Owing to the public-spirited generosity of its
+owner, the late Right Hon. Sir Bernhard Samuelson, this picture has
+travelled all over the world for exhibition. It was also lent to
+Leighton House for more than a year in 1901.
+
+[43] In the Leighton House Collection is a head in oils (presented by
+the late Alfred Waterhouse, R.A.) which Leighton painted actually by
+moonlight in Rome, as a study for one of the figures in "Summer Moon."
+See List of Illustrations.
+
+[44] See study for picture in Leighton House Collection.
+
+[45] Leighton had a cast made of this, and his copy is still in the
+collection in his house. Another copy he gave to Watts, who admired it
+beyond measure. Watts recounted to me that so preciously did he value
+it, that, not daring to expose it to the danger of housemaids' dusting,
+he carefully wrapped it up in handkerchiefs and put it in a drawer. One
+day, alas! forgetting it was there, in a hurry, he pulled the bundle of
+handkerchiefs out; it fell to the floor and was smashed.
+
+[46] _The Athenaeum_ described the work when it appeared. "There is the
+grandeur of Greek tragedy in Mr. Leighton's 'Clytemnestra watching for
+the signal of her husband's return from Troy.' The time is deep in the
+fateful night, while the city sleeps; moonlight floods the walls, the
+roofs, the gates, and the towers with a ghastly glare, which seems
+presageful, and casts shadows as dark as they are mysterious and
+terrible. The dense blue of the sky is dim, sad, and ominous. But the
+most ominous and impressive element of the picture is a grim
+figure--the tall woman on the palace roof before us, who looks Titanic
+in her stateliness, and huge beyond humanity in the voluminous white
+drapery that wraps her limbs and bosom. Her hands are clenched and her
+arms thrust down straight and rigidly, each finger locked as in a
+struggle to strangle its fellow; the muscles swell on the bulky limbs.
+Drawn erect and with set features, which are so pale that the moonlight
+could not make them paler, the queen stares fixedly and yet eagerly
+into the distance, as if she had the will to look over the very edge of
+the world for the light to come."
+
+[47] The Hon. Mrs. Grenfell.
+
+[48] Purchased by the trustees of the Chantrey Bequest and placed in
+the Tate Gallery.
+
+[49] Leighton gave this group to Watts, who expressed to me an
+unbounded admiration for it. "Nothing more beautiful has ever been
+done! Pheidias never did anything better. I believe it was better even
+than Pheidias!" were the words Watts used when deploring the fact that
+he had lent it to a sculptor to be cast--something had gone wrong in
+the process of casting, and it had been destroyed. When giving me the
+modelled sketch for the "Python," Watts said, "I am giving you the most
+beautiful thing I have in my place."
+
+[50] The group of singing girls modelled as a study for "The
+Daphnephoria."
+
+[51] See complete list in Appendix.
+
+[52] The "Arts of War" lunette was commenced in 1870 and finished in
+1880. The "Arts of Peace," begun in 1881, was completed in 1886. An
+account of these two frescoes appeared in the _Magazine of Art_ written
+by Mr. J. Ward, the master of the Macclesfield School of Art, who
+assisted Leighton in the work.
+
+[53] In a letter from Mr. J.G. Hodgson, A.R.A., praises are bestowed on
+this picture and the "Moorish Garden" at the expense of "Clytemnestra"
+and the "Antique Juggling Girl." The letter is a good example of the
+criticisms which Leighton's serious work often received--that work in
+which, nevertheless, he was most true to himself. The ordinary English
+eye neither longed for nor appreciated Leighton's native Hellenic
+strain.
+
+                                                     5 HILL ROAD,
+                                         _Friday, April 4, 1874_.
+
+    MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--I was immensely delighted with your two
+    pictures of the Jew's house and the Alhambra ("Moorish Garden: A
+    Dream of Granada"). I was at the opera last night, but thought
+    much less of Crispin and his Comara than of them; they are quite
+    charming, and excite me with the desire of emulation, at that
+    safe distance which is inherent in the nature of things. For
+    your "Clytemnestra" and the other ("Antique Juggling Girl"), I,
+    being a Philister, care nothing at all. From those to turn to
+    these, seems like leaving a garden fragrant with roses and
+    citron blossoms, where I hear the murmur of cooling streams,
+    Abanah and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, to enter a museum filled
+    with dusty plaster casts.
+
+    After all, the woes of the house of Atreus are now of very
+    little importance to mankind, or interest either. The most of
+    the latter they possess, is that they serve as themes for some
+    good Greek play, which had better have been burnt, as they have
+    hampered the genius of modern Europe and taught us nothing. Had
+    only Homer and the lyrics survived, we should have done better.
+    At all events, if a man must illustrate, why does he not
+    illustrate Shakespeare, a bigger man head and shoulders than any
+    of the Greek tragedists? But it appears to me you are made for a
+    much better and more intellectual purpose than illustrating
+    anybody. You have the eye to see and power to represent what you
+    see. You have special gifts and faculties highly trained. The
+    aspect of nature, as it appears to such a mind, would be of the
+    highest intellectual value to us, and would lead to progress. I
+    don't think modern art differs from that of any other day. It
+    has always been the effort to represent what is seen every day,
+    bringing to bear upon the representation the greatest possible
+    amount of culture, _i.e._ of reflection and selection. The women
+    and that dear little girl in the courtyard of your Jew's house
+    will outlive all the "Clytemnestras," &c.; they live with blood
+    in their veins, the others are but galvanised corpses. There I
+    have had it out; you must not complain, because you have had to
+    apologise for slashing into me, and now it is my turn. In the
+    prologue to Goethe's "Faust," if you remember, the poet, a
+    stubborn fellow, has his notions of the high aim of his art. He
+    will do nothing but what is extremely sublime, &c. The clown
+    quite agrees that such things may possibly do for the future,
+    but who, says he, is to amuse the present? I am that sort of
+    clown, I suppose. Don't be riled, and believe me,--Very much
+    your admiring friend,
+
+                                                    J.G. HODGSON.
+
+[54] Mr. William Spottiswoode wrote of one of these:--
+
+    "DEAR LEIGHTON,--Best of thanks from Mrs. Spottiswoode and
+    myself for another of the happiest day-dreams of the year, viz.
+    your afternoons at home."
+
+[55] Mr. Aitchison, R.A., wrote: "During his visits to Rhodes, to
+Cairo, and Damascus, he made a large collection of lovely Saracenic
+tiles, and had besides bought two inscriptions, one of the most
+delicate colour and beautiful design, and the other sixteen feet long
+and strikingly magnificent, besides getting some panels, stained glass,
+and lattice-work from Damascus afterwards; these were fitted into an
+Arab Hall, something like La Zira at Palermo, in 1877."
+
+The Arab Hall was begun November 1877, virtually completed by the end
+of 1879, but some small matters not till 1881. Materials--Bastard
+statuary, _i.e._ the marble columns in the angle recesses. These caps
+are of alabaster, designed by George Aitchison, R.A., and modelled by
+Sir E. Boehm. The large columns are of Caserta marble, caps of stone,
+birds modelled by Caldecott; column niches lined with Devonshire spar;
+dado, Irish black; string, Irish green, and bases of small columns.
+Those of the large columns are of Genoa green and Belgian blue; the
+marble lining behind big columns is of Pyrennean green, and the panel
+overhead; the lintel of Irish red. The marble work was done by White &
+Son, Vauxhall Bridge Road. Mosaic floor, designed by George Aitchison,
+R.A.; executed by Messrs. Burke & Co., who replaced fountain of white
+marble with the single slab of Belgian black. Chandelier, designed by
+G.A. Aitchison, R.A., executed by Forrest & Son, now extinct. The
+lattices to the lower part of the gallery designed by George Aitchison,
+R.A.
+
+Sir Caspar P. Clarke wrote: "I was commissioned in 1876, by the
+authorities at South Kensington, to proceed to the East to buy artistic
+objects for the Museum. Before I started Leighton asked me, if I went
+to Damascus, to go to certain houses and try to effect the purchase of
+certain tiles. I had no difficulty in finding my market, for Leighton,
+with his customary precision, had accurately indicated every point
+about the dwellings concerned, and their treasures. I returned with a
+precious load, and in it some large family tiles, the two finest of
+which are built into the sides of the alcove of the Arab Hall. Leighton
+made no difficulty about the price, and insisted upon paying double
+what I had given. He never spoke of picking things up cheap, and
+scouted the idea of 'bargains in Art objects.'"
+
+[56] Leighton, Sir Richard Burton, Algernon Swinburne, and Adelaide
+Sartoris passed some weeks together at Vichy in September 1869.
+Swinburne wrote in 1875: "We all owe so much to Leighton for the
+selection and intention of his subjects--always noble, always
+beautiful--and these are always worthy of a great and grave
+art."--"Essays and Studies," A.C. Swinburne.
+
+[57] Letters from Lord and Lady Strangford to Leighton exist on matters
+concerning the East, on which both were great authorities.
+
+"Will you accept," Lady Strangford wrote, "as a token of my admiration
+of your house, a piece of ancient Persian needlework? It is really old,
+and it is said that they no longer do anything of the kind in Persia,
+and that these pieces are valuable. I do not know if this is true or
+not, but _if_ you _like_ the thing, please use it among the many
+treasures you have already accumulated. It is to my eyes a nice bit of
+harmonious colouring. Let it say to you how much, how very much, I
+enjoyed your sketches.--Yours very truly,
+
+                                                 E.A. STRANGFORD.
+
+"_P.S._--I bought the work from a Persian at Antioch."
+
+To Professor Church Mr. Aitchison wrote after Leighton's death: "I
+cannot urge the preservation of his home and surroundings, as I built
+the house, for there are always too many to attribute low motives to
+everybody, and it would be called personal advertisement; though when
+one's work is done it becomes almost impersonal, and if it did not, the
+fact remains the same, that here he (Leighton) lived and drew part of
+his culture and inspiration from his surroundings. As a mere matter of
+reverence, how many would come from all parts of the civilised world to
+see his abode!"
+
+    [Illustration: PROFESSOR GIOVANNI COSTA
+    Painted at Lerici, October 1878]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+LEIGHTON AS PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY
+
+1878-1896
+
+
+Leighton was at Lerici in the autumn of 1878, visiting his dear old
+friend Giovanni Costa ("an artist in a hundred--a man in ten
+thousand," were Leighton's words describing him), when he received a
+telegram stating that Sir Francis Grant was dead. "The President is
+dead! Long live the President!" exclaimed Costa. Leighton remained in
+Italy, sketching landscapes and painting heads--one, the portrait of
+Costa--till his holiday was over, the end of October. On the 18th of
+November he was elected President of the Royal Academy. Thirty-five
+Academicians voted for Leighton, five for Mr. Horsley.
+
+Leighton wrote to his younger sister:--
+
+                                                            1878.
+
+    DEAREST GUSSY,--You perhaps have heard from Lina that I had an
+    overwhelming majority, and that the outer world beyond artistic
+    has warmly received my election, which is of course infinitely
+    gratifying, but fills me with a dread of disappointing
+    everybody. Monday I go to Windsor to be knighted. Yes, I got a
+    first-class gold medal for my statue[58]--at least, it was
+    awarded, and I shall get it some time. I also don't mind telling
+    you in _strict confidence_--because it is not yet a _fait
+    accompli_--that I am, I believe, to have the "ruban" of an
+    Officier de la Legion d'Honneur. I am so glad, dear, your wrists
+    are better--may they keep so. Love to old Joseph (Joseph
+    Joachim) when you see him.
+
+Most treasured of all congratulations were doubtless these lines from
+his beloved master, Steinle:--
+
+    _Translation._]
+                                               FRANKFURT AM MAIN,
+                                            _December 1, 1878_.
+
+    DEAR AND HONOURED FRIEND,--To-day I have read in the paper that
+    the choice of President of the Royal Academy has fallen upon
+    you, and since I am convinced that this distinguished position
+    is both appropriate to your services to art, and also certainly
+    well merited, you must permit an old friend, who remains bound
+    to you in love only, to offer you his dearest and warmest good
+    wishes upon this honour. I pray God, that your position may
+    provide you with great power in your country for good so as to
+    enable you to encourage the noblest things in art. I am
+    convinced that you, dear friend, will make a right and fruitful
+    use of it. I often set my pupils to make enlarged drawings of
+    single groups from your medieval Equipment for the Defence of
+    the Town,[59] and rejoice in the admirable studies which you
+    made for that cartoon. I, dear friend, am in my old age still
+    active and industrious, and would gladly go on learning. Should
+    God grant life, I shall next year complete my work on the
+    Strassburg master, which will demand all my love and strength.
+    Here we have now built a new gallery, on the other side of the
+    river Main, and a new studio. The collections are good, and more
+    suitably accommodated than heretofore, and there is no want of
+    space for future additions. Perhaps one of your journeys will
+    bring you again to the old Main town, and so to the arms of your
+    old friend. My dear President, I repeat my good wishes, and
+    remain with all my heart, your truly devoted,
+
+                                                    EDW. STEINLE.
+
+From his birthplace Leighton received the following announcement:--
+
+    BOROUGH OF SCARBOROUGH.
+
+    At a meeting of the Council of the Borough of Scarborough, in
+    the County of York, held in the Town Hall in the said Borough,
+    on Monday the ninth day of December, 1878,--
+
+                         Present,--
+               THE MAYOR (W.C. LAND, Esq.) in the chair,--
+
+    It was moved by the Mayor, seconded by Alderman Woodall, and
+    resolved unanimously: "That this Council learns with peculiar
+    satisfaction and pleasure of the election of a native of
+    Scarborough, in the person of SIR FREDERIC LEIGHTON, to the
+    Presidency of the Royal Academy, and respectfully offers to Sir
+    Frederic its warm congratulations, and records its conviction
+    that his great talents as an artist, his attainments as a
+    scholar, and his many striking qualifications, eminently fit him
+    to adorn the high position to which he has been called."
+
+                                                W.C. LAND, Mayor.
+
+Robert Browning wrote:--
+
+                                         19 WARWICK CRESCENT, W.,
+                                             _November 14, 1878_.
+
+    DEAR LEIGHTON,--I wish you joy with all my heart, and
+    congratulate us all on your election. There ought to have been
+    no sort of doubt as to the result, but the best of us are
+    misconceived sometimes, though in your case never was a right
+    more incontestable. All I hope is that your new duties will in
+    no way interfere with the practice of your Art. I only venture
+    to write, now, as one who, so many a year ago, saw your
+    beginning with "Cimabue," and from that time to this remained
+    confident what your career would be. But you know all this, and
+    it requires no answer, being rather a spurt of satisfaction at
+    my own original discernment than any assurance which I can fancy
+    you need from,--Yours very truly,
+
+                                                 ROBERT BROWNING.
+
+    Pen's letter to me, two days since, contained his earnest wishes
+    for what has just happened, and he will be delighted
+    accordingly.
+
+From Matthew Arnold:--
+
+                                  ATHENAEUM CLUB, PALL MALL, S.W.,
+                                                   _November 15_.
+
+    MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--One line (which you need not answer) to say
+    how delighted I am to see what an excellent choice the Royal
+    Academy has made.
+
+    I only hope poor O'Conor may not take advantage of the occasion
+    to plant an ode and a letter.--Ever sincerely yours,
+
+                                                  MATTHEW ARNOLD.
+
+From Hubert Herkomer:--
+
+                                             _November 27, 1878._
+
+    MY DEAR SIR FREDERIC LEIGHTON,--I am just recovering from an
+    attack of brain fever, and although I am not allowed yet to
+    write, I can no longer wait without dictating a letter to
+    express my own individual pleasure at your being the new
+    President.
+
+    Three years ago you wrote me a letter after seeing my "Chelsea
+    Pensioners." Perhaps you little dreamt of the tears of joy that
+    that letter caused in a young painter, who will always feel that
+    he owes you a debt of gratitude; and now he glories in your
+    being the chief of that body which attracts to it all the
+    principal art of the country. All England feels that you, from
+    your new position, will give new life to it. Perhaps you will
+    allow me, when I am sufficiently recovered, to come and see you.
+
+    In the meantime believe me to be, with most heartfelt
+    congratulations,--Sincerely yours,
+
+                                     A.H., _pro_ HUBERT HERKOMER.
+    SIR FREDERIC LEIGHTON, P.R.A.
+
+A friend writes:--
+
+                                                   _November 15._
+
+    DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--I have tried to keep silence, telling myself
+    that it cannot matter what I think or feel on the subject (and
+    that it may seem to you a very unnecessary proceeding!); but I
+    _cannot_ resist the temptation to tell you how warmly I rejoice,
+    and how earnestly I congratulate _myself_ and all other
+    hungerers after wholesome beauty of colour and form, and high
+    ideals of greatness and purity, on your acceptance of a position
+    that one may hope will, nay must, influence the Art of this time
+    for good in every sense. One takes a great breath of relief as
+    one thinks of it!
+
+    Were I to describe to you the effect your works produce on me,
+    and the feeling of real reverence I have for them, I should
+    appear to exaggerate, and should certainly bore you, so I will
+    say no more! and I am not given to that sort of thing.
+
+    My beloved Lady Waterford was much disappointed that you could
+    not come and meet her; I need not say, so were we: it was a
+    great enjoyment to have her, she is like no one else; and I yet
+    hope you may come and meet here some day. Pray do not answer
+    this; of course you are overwhelmed with business, and it would
+    hurt me to have it considered and acknowledged as a
+    complimentary civility! whereas it is nothing but an involuntary
+    overflowing to relieve my mind.
+
+From Lord Coleridge:--
+
+                                             1 SUSSEX SQUARE, W.,
+                                             _November 24, 1878_.
+
+    MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--Let me add one voice more, small but true, to
+    the great chorus of applause with which your election has been
+    greeted. It might seem left-handed praise to say that your
+    election was the only possible one; but it is very true praise
+    to say it was the only possible one if the highest interests of
+    English Art, and of the Academy itself, were the sole object of
+    the electors.
+
+    It would have pleased and touched you to hear old Boxall speak
+    of it. I dined with him alone on Friday, and he was just and
+    generous, as he always is, in his appreciation of you, and
+    looked forward to your reign as likely to be one of high aims
+    and noble motives. It is a small thing to say, but I venture to
+    agree with him.--Ever sincerely yours,
+
+                                                       COLERIDGE.
+
+These are a few among many hundred congratulatory letters Leighton
+received on his election. One from Mrs. Fanny Kemble he answered in
+the following March, when already he was beset by requests to use his
+influence to get friends' friends' work hung on the walls of the
+Academy:--
+
+                                                _March 20, 1879._
+
+    DEAR MRS. KEMBLE,--Many thanks for your very amiable words of
+    congratulations on the honour done me by the Royal Academy. The
+    kind sympathy shown towards me by my friends had added very
+    greatly indeed to the pleasure my election gave me. The belief
+    entertained by Miss ---- that the admission of works to an
+    exhibition is a simple matter of personal favour, is shared by
+    all foreigners--and I fear by many English people--and places me
+    at this time of year in much and often painful embarrassment. So
+    robust is this belief, that those who, having applied to me,
+    fail to find their works on our walls ascribe their absence to
+    personal unfriendliness or discourtesy on my part, or, to say
+    the least, to lukewarmness. As a matter of fact each work of art
+    is admitted or rejected by a separate vote of the Council, and
+    that in complete ignorance (except where authorship _saute aux
+    yeux_) of the artist's name. This applies equally to English
+    painters and foreign artists who reside here. In regard,
+    however, to foreigners sending _from abroad_, whilst the vote is
+    taken in the same way, admission is much more difficult. We have
+    so many Anglo-foreign painters who live amongst us that, our
+    Exhibition not being international, we can only admit a very
+    limited number of really prize works. These works are therefore
+    brought before us separately, and a small number of them
+    selected, according to the space we have to deal with; I myself
+    as a rule dissuade my foreign friends from sending except in
+    cases where their merit is really very great; this may be Miss
+    ---- case; you will best know. I am quite sure, my dear Mrs.
+    Kemble, that you do not doubt the pleasure it would give me to
+    serve you in the person of your friend, and will not
+    misinterpret these lengthy explanations.
+
+    And now I have a favour to ask of you. On Wednesday the 26th, at
+    3 o'clock in the afternoon, Joe will, I hope, play at my studio,
+    and with him Miss Janotha and Piatti; Henschel will, I hope,
+    sing. Will you give me the great pleasure of seeing you amongst
+    my friends on that occasion?--Believe me always, yours very
+    truly,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+On December 10, 1879, Leighton delivered his first address to the
+students of the Royal Academy--one of the finest of the many fine
+achievements of Leighton's life. "Purely practical and technical
+matters" he put aside to look into a wider and deeper question, that
+of the position of Art in its relation to the world at large in the
+present and in the past time, in order to gather something of its
+prospects in the future. If the question why Leighton held
+indisputably the great position he did were asked me by one who for a
+first time had heard his name, I should be inclined to answer,
+"Because he contained within him the combined powers to execute
+completely the art which he created, and to think out and feel such
+profound, sympathetic, and wise truths as those to be found in this
+address."[60]
+
+Among the large number of appreciative letters Leighton received were
+the following.
+
+Millais wrote:--
+
+                                       2 PALACE GATE, KENSINGTON,
+                                             _December 11, 1879_.
+
+    DEAR LEIGHTON,--I was suffering all yesterday with tooth-ache,
+    otherwise I would have attended the distribution last night. The
+    ceremony is always most interesting to me, awakening as it does
+    many anxious and happy recollections. My object in writing to
+    you is to say I have read your address, which I think so
+    beautiful, true, and _useful_ that I cannot but obey an impulse
+    of congratulating you upon it. For some time past I have been
+    putting down notes on Art which some day may be put into form,
+    and I find we are thinking precisely in the same way. I have
+    used identical words in what I have written to those you
+    delivered yesterday.
+
+    The exponents of Art surround it in such a cloud of mystery
+    that it is a real gain when a practical authority is able to say
+    something definite and clear the way.--Yours sincerely,
+
+                                                    J.E. MILLAIS.
+
+His poet-friend wrote:--
+
+                                     WOODBERRIE, LOUGHTON, ESSEX,
+                                             _December 11, 1883_.
+
+    MY DEAR SIR FREDERIC,--Have any of the multitude of men who love
+    you ever called you Chrysostom? It seems so natural after
+    reading yesterday's address. Will it be published by itself and
+    obtainable in some handier form than the broadsheet of the
+    _Times_? I want it as part of the education of my daughter, who
+    now, at sixteen, is beginning to take a new interest in
+    whatsoever things are lovely and of good report, and I want it
+    for myself, for in its lovely suggestiveness and exquisite
+    English I could often find refreshment when I wanted (and
+    needed) to "travel in the realms of gold," and forget my own
+    invalided personality under the magic of such guidance.
+
+    My wife desires me to say a word of gracious remembrance to you,
+    and I am ever, faithfully yours,
+
+                                                     ROBIN ALLEN.
+
+Mr. Briton Riviere:
+
+                                 FLAXLEY, 82 FINCHLEY ROAD, N.W.,
+                                             _December 11, 1879_.
+
+    DEAR SIR FREDERIC,--After hearing your admirable address last
+    night, I came home in despair, for what little basis of thought
+    is contained in my lectures (more especially in the second one)
+    is built chiefly upon two or three of the lines of argument that
+    you have already expressed so beautifully: Sincerity in the
+    student--The effect of his own time upon him--That time in its
+    relation to the time of the Old Masters, and the temper of mind
+    in which the Old Masters should be studied; on these points my
+    lectures are but a feeble echo of what I heard last night.
+
+    My first thought was to change my whole line of battle, and
+    re-write them, but the extreme limitation of my powers of work
+    would make this too great a sacrifice. To throw them up
+    altogether, which I should much like, is impossible, for I am
+    pledged to the Academy to do my best.
+
+    Clearly, I must go on, but I shall do so more easily now that I
+    have explained my position, so that if any one who hears me
+    should tell you that my lectures were only a parody of what you
+    had already said so well, you will believe that it has been the
+    misfortune and not the fault of yours very truly,
+
+                                                  BRITON RIVIERE.
+
+    Don't trouble to answer this.
+
+Matthew Arnold:--
+
+                                        ATHENAEUM CLUB, PALL MALL,
+                                                _April 19, 1880_.
+
+    MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--You have been _better_ than your word, for I
+    see you have made me the actual possessor of your "address."
+    From the glance I have already taken at it, I see that I shall
+    both like it and you with it; but of this I might have been sure
+    beforehand. A thousand thanks, and believe me, always sincerely
+    yours,
+
+                                                  MATTHEW ARNOLD.
+
+The scheme Leighton formed, when first considering the duty among all
+others he undertook,[61] of addressing the students at the biennial
+meetings, was begun and continued in the nine addresses he gave, but
+unfortunately it could not be completed, a fact he sorely regretted
+when discussing the question with me three months before his death. On
+December 10, 1879, "The position of Art in the World" was the subject.
+In 1881, "Relation of Art to Time, Place, and Racial Conditions;
+Underlying Mystery of its Growth and Decay." In 1885, "Summary of
+Foregoing Lecture." In 1887, "Art in Mediaeval and Modern Italy." In
+1889, "Relation of Artistic Production to Surrounding Conditions
+considered in reference to Spain." In 1891, "The Art of France: its
+uninterrupted development; its wide field; eminent achievement in
+Architecture; the Gothic style." In 1893, "The Art of Germany: its
+high qualities; deficient AEsthetic Inspiration." The tenth was to have
+consisted, Leighton told me, in a summing up of the nine former
+addresses, in order to prove how they had affected the past and
+present condition of Art in England. To any thoughtful artist these
+utterances, delivered by so great and accomplished an authority,
+cannot fail to prove profoundly interesting and invaluable as
+references, on account of the sound knowledge and the absolutely
+reliable quality of the facts given; but it may be doubted whether the
+more informative matter, contained in the six later lectures, suited
+Leighton's style of oratory so happily as did the more abstract
+quality of the three first. There appeared to be too many names
+crowded into the comparatively short time which Leighton allotted to
+himself for the delivery of these discourses, for the normal taking-in
+power of an audience; the very finished rhetoric, moreover, in which
+the enormous amount of information contained in each was disclosed,
+did not seem quite appropriate to their condensed form. In
+conversation I have heard Leighton far more convincing, on the same
+subjects as those he treated in the last six discourses. The same
+intense sense of the duty he felt to do the thing as completely as it
+was possible, which he evinced in painting, cropped up again in his
+oratory, no less than the intense modesty--which would not recognise
+how great he could be if he relaxed all effort, and was simply
+himself.
+
+Mr. Briton Riviere, in the notes he furnishes for this book, writes:--
+
+    "Those perhaps sometimes too perfectly built-up sentences, of
+    which his admirable addresses and speeches were formed, were the
+    outcome of this same quality of mind. One of his most intimate
+    friends, when we were talking about the mental strain occasioned
+    by these, once said to me: 'Leighton would never get over a
+    slight lapse of grammar,' and I can believe it. The accidental
+    was hateful to him when considered in reference to his own work
+    of any kind, though probably no one knew better than he did its
+    value in a work of art; but, as Watts deplored, he never would
+    use it or admit it into his own pictures. This quality and its
+    strain upon him was illustrated by an accident which occurred at
+    his last R.A. Banquet speech, the last he ever made, and which
+    gained immensely from the fact that in one place he forgot for a
+    moment the next sentence, and came to a pause (as he told me
+    afterwards), in fear that he had broken down altogether; but his
+    suspense, painful as it must have been to him, looked perfectly
+    natural and spontaneous, and gave to his speech that touch of
+    something which his better remembered periods did not express so
+    well. This system of speaking entirely from memory added much to
+    the constant strain of his Academy work. He had what he called a
+    'topical memory,' viz. he remembered the place of each word in
+    his written speech and used to read it off in the air with
+    never-failing accuracy, but did so always with the belief that a
+    forgotten sentence would shipwreck the whole. If he would have
+    been content now and then to lapse from this high pitch of the
+    accuracy he aimed at in all his work, few could have reached a
+    safer or higher standard spontaneously, as he proved in the
+    Royal Academy, General Assembly, and Council meetings, when he
+    never failed to speak admirably on the spur of the moment; and
+    his summing up of a debate there on any subject was invariably
+    marked by the same elegance and cleverness as his prepared
+    speeches, but with more vitality and flexibility, which,
+    however, never led him into anything that was not almost
+    fastidiously exact and precise. I have always felt that no one
+    who had heard only his elaborately prepared speeches knew his
+    real power as a speaker."
+
+There rang out perhaps, at times, just a note reminding one of the
+German pedant in these discourses--a note singularly discordant when
+sounding together with an ornate diction; but this was only heard when
+Leighton was not deeply moved by his subject; when, on the other hand,
+the not over-tutored, bigger instinctive self had full sway, as, in
+the subjects he chose for the first three discourses, the glowing
+style harmonised most rightly as the appropriate language for the
+earnest and lofty feeling in the thought. If, as suggested above, it
+is only facts and information of an historical character which words
+have to convey, much eloquence and an ornate style seems
+inappropriate. Each mood is obviously best expressed when the style is
+adjusted to it by an intuitive instinct. Leighton, though possessing
+abnormally flexible and subtle aesthetic instincts when he allowed
+himself to be his natural self, seemed at times to force himself into
+a theoretic rigidity when he was at his lessons. And all his official
+duties he viewed as lessons, which, after he left his easel, it was
+his first duty in life to learn to perform as correctly as he could.
+But whatever criticisms may be made on the style of the later
+discourses, students desiring to possess something more than a merely
+provincial knowledge of the special power of the magnates in whose
+work culminates the great Art of the world, should surely not neglect
+to possess themselves of the wisdom to be acquired from these
+discourses.
+
+Throughout their pages are to be found most suggestive passages,
+inspiring new thoughts and, to any but experts, new facts on vitally
+interesting art matters. For instance, take the description of
+Velasquez:--
+
+    "For a long period Italian painting did not cease to enjoy the
+    favour of the Court; it ceased, however, towards the beginning
+    of the seventeenth century to exercise that paralysing influence
+    which had marked its first advent, and the ground was cleared
+    for a new impulse from within. At this conjuncture a man of
+    commanding genius and fearless initiative was given to Spain in
+    the person of Diego Velasquez. It may perhaps have surprised you
+    that with such a name before my mind I should have spoken of
+    Zurbaran, a man so vastly his inferior in the painter's gift, as
+    perhaps the most representative of Spanish artists. I have done
+    so because beyond any other artist he sums up in himself, as I
+    have pointed out to you, all the complex elements of the Spanish
+    genius. In Velasquez, Spanish as he is to the finger-tips, this
+    comprehensiveness is not found. Of Velasquez all was Spanish,
+    but Zurbaran was all Spain.
+
+    "Viewed simply as a painter, the great Sevillian was, as I have
+    just said, vastly the superior of the Estremeno. He was in more
+    intimate touch with Nature, and none, perhaps, have equalled the
+    swift magic of his brush. On the other hand, depth of feeling,
+    poetry, imagination were refused to him. The painter of the
+    'Lanzas,' the 'Hilanderas,' the 'Meninas'--works in their kind
+    unapproached in Art by any other man--painted also, be it
+    remembered, the 'Coronation of the Virgin' and the 'Mars' of the
+    Madrid Gallery--types of prosaic treatment. In one work, indeed,
+    Religion seems for a moment to have winged his pencil; but
+    striking and pathetic as is his famous 'Crucifixion,' it does
+    not equal in poignancy and imaginative grasp the presentment of
+    the same subject by Zurbaran in Seville. But if we miss in
+    Velasquez the higher gifts of the imagination, we find him also
+    free from all those blemishes of extravagance which we have so
+    often noted in this land of powerful impulses unrestrained by
+    tact. Whatever gifts may have been refused to Velasquez, in his
+    grave simplicity he is unsurpassed. If fancy seldom lifts him
+    above the level of intimate daily things, neither does she
+    obstruct for him with purple wings the white light of sober
+    truth. In days in which the young Herrera could find favour; in
+    a country in which Churriguera was possible, and euphuism was
+    applauded, he never overstepped the modesty of Nature, nor
+    forgot in Art the value of reticent control. I have not here to
+    follow his career, nor the evolution of his unique and dazzling
+    genius. Still less need I, before young artists of the present
+    day, dwell on the wizardry and the luscious fascination of the
+    brush of this most modern of the old masters. I will only, in
+    conclusion, touch briefly on one or two points that are of
+    interest, and one that is, perhaps, of warning.
+
+    "First, I would notice the purity and decorum of his art; a
+    decorum not, I think, due to the characteristically Spanish laws
+    under which the Inquisition visited with heavy penalties every
+    semblance even of impurity in a work of art, but to a spirit
+    dwelling in the people itself, of which those laws were but the
+    somewhat exaggerated expression. It may be worth while also to
+    note that yet another virtue of the Spaniards is, in one of his
+    works, reflected in an unexpected manner, namely, their
+    sobriety. It is a curious thing that in a certain class of
+    Spanish literature a peculiar relish is shown for the portraying
+    of moral squalor and the grovelling criminality of social
+    outcasts. In Spanish Art, on the other hand, the picturesqueness
+    alone of low life seems to have sought expression. You know what
+    gentle Murillo made of his melon-eating beggar boys. Again, you
+    saw not long ago upon these walls, in the 'Water-Carrier of
+    Seville,' how at the outset of his career Velasquez turned his
+    thoughts to subjects drawn from humble life, and you know how to
+    the end he dwelt with peculiar gusto on the fantastic
+    physiognomy of the privileged buffoons, dwarfs, and _hombres de
+    placer_ who haunted the Palace in his day. You know further that
+    one of the most powerful works painted by him before reality of
+    atmospheric effect had become his chief preoccupation, and when
+    he sought exclusively after truth of character, a picture known
+    as 'Los Borrachos,' represents a group of drunkards doing homage
+    to Bacchus. It is a work of the most naked realism. Bacchus
+    (Dionysos!), showing his repulsive vulgarity (what a blank to
+    Velasquez was the poetic side of classic myths), is surrounded
+    by a circle of kneeling rascals, rude and ragged enough, and
+    supposed, no doubt, to be carousing; but here is the strange
+    peculiarity of this work--in spite of all the accessories of a
+    revel, and the flash of grinning teeth, we are unable to
+    persuade ourselves that any one of the disreputable crew could
+    ever be _drunk_. Imagine the subject treated by a Fleming.
+
+    "And now, though I am loth to touch one leaf of the laurels of
+    so dazzling and so great an artist, I cannot pass in silence a
+    circumstance which must be weighed in estimating Velasquez as a
+    man, and which is not without bearing on his art. The virtues of
+    his race, as we have seen, purified his work and gave it
+    dignity; a Spanish foible, though it could not dim his genius,
+    cramped, no doubt, and curtailed its production--namely, a
+    tendency to subordinate everything to the pursuit of royal
+    favour. I said a Spanish foible; for a superstitious rendering
+    up of will and conscience to the sovereign, such as is, I
+    believe, without example, had long been a growing characteristic
+    of the Spaniard. On a memorable occasion Gonzalo de Cordoba
+    himself, one of the noblest figures recorded in Spanish
+    history--a man of a mind so fearless that he was bold to rebuke
+    Pope Borgia himself face to face in the Vatican for the scandals
+    of his life--did not scruple to break, in deference to what he
+    considered this higher duty of obedience to his king, his solemn
+    pledge and oath to the unfortunate young Duke of Calabria. So
+    all but divine did majesty appear to the Spaniards, that
+    divinity and majesty became almost as one in their eyes, and
+    they spoke, in all solemnity, as 'Su Majestad,' not only of the
+    Divine persons of the Trinity, but also of the sacrificial
+    wafer. The prevalence of this feeling must plead to some extent
+    in mitigation of the tenacity with which Velasquez
+    canvassed--with success, alas!--to obtain at Court a post of an
+    onerous and wholly prosaic character--the office of 'Aposentador
+    Mayor,' a sort of purveyor and quartermaster, who, when his
+    Majesty moved from one place to another, had to convey, to
+    house, to feed, not the sovereign only, but all his suite. A
+    post demanding all his attention, says Polomino, who goes on to
+    deplore that this exalted office (which he has just told us any
+    one could fill) should have deprived the world of so many
+    samples of the painter's genius. We shall agree with our
+    sententious friend, not, perhaps, in the satisfaction he derived
+    from the honour conferred, as he imagines, on his calling, but
+    in his sorrow over the loss we have sustained! And in the sight
+    of canvases in which the execution of a sketch is carried out on
+    the full scale of life we shall at once bow before the product
+    of a splendid genius, and regret the signs of haste, the
+    evidence of too scanty leisure, by which its expression has been
+    marred. Truly it has been said, 'Art requires the whole
+    man.'"[62]
+
+Again, the seventh discourse is replete with inspiring suggestions
+about French architecture,[63] and in the last discourse the
+description of Albert Duerer is one which, in a few lines, gives a
+complete and vividly interesting setting to the great name.
+
+    "Albert Duerer may be regarded as _par excellence_ the typical
+    German artist--far more so than his great contemporary Holbein.
+    He was a man of a strong and upright nature, bent on pure and
+    high ideals; a man ever seeking, if I may use his own
+    characteristic expression, to make known through his work the
+    mysterious treasure that was laid up in his heart; he was a
+    thinker, a theorist, and, as you know, a writer; like many of
+    the great artists of the Renaissance, he was steeped also in the
+    love of science. His work was in his own image; it was, like
+    nearly all German art, primarily ethic in its complexion; like
+    all German art it bore traces of foreign influence--drawn, in
+    his case, first from Flanders and later from Italy. In his work,
+    as in all German art, the national character asserted itself
+    above every trammel of external influence. Superbly
+    inexhaustible as a designer, as a draughtsman he was powerful,
+    thorough, and minute to a marvel, but never without a certain
+    almost caligraphic mannerism of hand, wanting in spontaneous
+    simplicity--never broadly serene. In his colour he was rich and
+    vivid, not always unerring as to his harmonies, not alluring in
+    his execution--withal a giant."
+
+When the last addresses were given Leighton was getting very tired.
+The wheels were running down--vitality was waning. The great mental
+machine had begun to work more mechanically. We trace this in the
+manner in which he tackled his last discourse. While writing it at
+Perugia he wrote to his elder sister:--
+
+                           PERUGIA, _Thursday, October 12, 1893_.
+
+    You have misconstrued my knee; I have no _pain_ in it, at most
+    occasionally a dull ache in the muscles and a slight soreness in
+    the joint; but it is an incapacitating and depressing nuisance,
+    and it won't move on. (I am writing near a window opening on to
+    a clear, star-bright sky; far below, in the _paese_, I hear the
+    tinkle of a wandering, nocturnal mandoline--how I like it!) You
+    do me the honour to appreciate my having, during my recent
+    precipitate odyssey, visited thirty towns in thirty days, noting
+    things of which I had already accurate knowledge _d'avance_; but
+    I can "go one better" than that: _ten_ of the towns were
+    _absolutely new_ to me, and of the whole subject on which I am
+    preaching, I knew as good as nothing when you last saw me. I
+    suspect that, in spite of a lack of memory which _baffles
+    belief_, I have a certain "uptaking" knack. My preachment will
+    bore you, but you will (if you read it) detect an _ensemble_;
+    but, for goodness' sake, _zitti!_ They'll think, when they hear
+    the P.R.A., that, Lor' bless him! he'd known it all his life.
+    Nevertheless, enough for the day, &c. Best love to
+    Gussy.--Affect. bro.,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+I remember--when my husband and I were sitting with him one afternoon
+after his return home that autumn--his saying, "I feel distinctly I
+have dropped one step down off of the ladder," and it was truly about
+that time that his doctor, Doctor Roberts, discerned the beginning of
+the disease which proved fatal. Already in 1888 he wrote:--
+
+    "The reasons which have now for a good many years impelled me to
+    decline any 'public utterances' outside Burlington House have
+    increased in weight and force as life and strength wanes, and as
+    demands on me grow in every direction. I am sometimes asked to
+    speak in public, not only in London, but all over the country,
+    and in all cases the demand is grounded on strong claims in so
+    far as I am an 'official' artist. Assent once is assent
+    always--assent in half the cases would mean the _gravest_ injury
+    to my _work_, and I am a workman first and an official
+    afterwards. Things have their humorous side, for those who press
+    me most are sometimes those who on other occasions most
+    earnestly assure me that I '_do too much_.' How tired I am of
+    hearing it."
+
+The speeches at the yearly banquets of the Royal Academy were
+extraordinary _tours de force_. Wherever Leighton took the lead--and
+he was seldom anywhere when he did not take the lead,[64]--he raised
+the tone of the proceedings, and convinced the outside world, no less
+than those taking a part in them, that the matter in hand was
+important and essentially worth doing. Personally I have always felt
+that the finished form of Leighton's diction tended rather to hide
+than to explain the real nature of the power which had this
+vitalising, elevating influence. This influence emanated, I believe,
+from the greatness of his "magnificent intellect" (to use Watts'
+words) being united with extraordinary will-force invariably employed
+in the service of the principles in which he had a profound faith. It
+was his persistent loyalty to these principles--backed by this
+abnormal will-force, giving it extra weight--which lifted Leighton's
+work in all directions on to so distinguished a level--and not--in the
+case of his speeches--his rounded periods, or his power over words, or
+his gift of facility in grasping a subject, though the Banquet
+speeches are also remarkable on account of the versatility he
+displayed in grasping many subjects from the point of view of the
+expert. Whether it was the Army, the Navy, Politics, Music--whatever,
+in fact, was the affair of the moment, he proposed the toast from what
+might be called the inside of the question, not merely treating his
+text as a matter of form.[65]
+
+On asking Gladstone to the Banquet of 1880, Leighton received the
+following characteristic answer:--
+
+    MY DEAR PRESIDENT,--I have received your letter with mixed
+    feelings. You do me great honour, and I must obey you. But I
+    long for the return of the good old times, lying within the long
+    range of my memory, when the dinners of the Academy did not
+    suffer the contamination of political toasts, and kept us all
+    for three precious hours in purer air. Can you tell me when the
+    practice was changed? I am not, I think, under the dominion of a
+    pleasant delusion.--Yours most faithfully,
+
+                                                  W.E. GLADSTONE.
+
+In 1883 Leighton found it impossible to continue his duties as
+Lieutenant-Colonel of the 20th Middlesex (Artists) Volunteers, which
+post he had held since 1876, and he therefore resigned. He was then
+made Hon. Colonel and holder of the Volunteer Decoration.[66]
+
+A few years later he made the following speech at a dinner given by
+his Corps, in response to a toast proposed to himself:--
+
+    We live in times so hustling and breathless, times in which so
+    much happens in so short a space, that a few years seem to
+    divide men and habits like a deep gulf, and I feel that in the
+    eyes of many of you the toast that your C.O. has invited you in
+    such friendly terms to drink is one possessing an almost
+    antiquarian flavour interest; the more grateful therefore am I
+    for the cordial response with which, not, I hope, solely in a
+    spirit of discipline, but from a more human point of view, you
+    have given to the call of Colonel Edis.
+
+    The sight of the old uniform recalls to me, in a vivid manner, a
+    period when not only my years, but my circumferencial inches,
+    were fewer, during which it was my pride, first in one grade,
+    then successively in others, from the ranks to the command, to
+    take my share in the doings of and the life of what I hope I may
+    call, without egotism, one of the finest corps in the Volunteer
+    service. I have now for some years laid by the coat, to be
+    furbished up only for these annual gatherings, not without
+    misgivings as to my power of getting into it; but I have not
+    laid by, nor shall I lay by while I have life, my deep interest
+    and my high respect for that great defensive force of which it
+    is the sign, and which, having sprung into existence in a
+    moment of emergency and national excitement, has shown through
+    over more than a quarter of a century that it requires no
+    excitement to sustain it, and is fed by no transitory fires.
+
+    But whilst I watch this great sign of national vitality with
+    unchanging interest, there is of course an inmost corner of my
+    heart in which that national movement appears to me clad in grey
+    and silver, and the old corps still sits in the warmest place;
+    praise of its performance is always to me the most grateful
+    praise; strictures on its shortcomings, if like other human
+    things it has any, will always find me sensitive, and the
+    account which your excellent Colonel furnishes on these
+    occasions of your year's growth, comes home to me more than
+    other like utterances. Gentlemen, I have named your energetic
+    and efficient commanding officer; there is this year a special
+    reason why his name should be on my lips; he is about shortly to
+    acquire by length of service the full colonelcy of which his
+    long devotion to the cause makes him so worthy a recipient; and
+    I should wish before sitting down to offer him an old comrade's
+    hearty congratulation, and the expression of my confident hope
+    that his advanced rank will only confirm him in his loyal and
+    faithful efforts to promote the honour of the corps to which he,
+    more fortunate than I, is still privileged to belong as an
+    active member.
+
+In 1894, on the occasion of feting his friend Joseph Joachim and
+presenting the gift to the great master of a Stradivarius violin and
+bow from his friends, in recognition of the fiftieth anniversary of
+his first performance in London, Leighton made the following speech:--
+
+                                                            1894.
+
+    LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,--It was necessary that the motives and
+    feelings which have drawn us together to-night should find brief
+    expression on somebody's lips; and, in obedience to a command
+    which has been laid on me by this Committee, I have to ask you
+    to accept me, for a few moments, as your mouthpiece. Of the
+    varied duties which life lays on us, there are some which we
+    perform in simple discharge of conscience and with little joy;
+    some, if few, into the discharge of which we can pour all our
+    hearts; and such a duty is this which I have risen to perform.
+
+    I have said that I shall only ask your attention for a few
+    moments, and you will feel with me the fitness of brevity; for
+    besides that, in every case, taste imposes restraint in praise
+    of those who are present before us, long drawn and redundant
+    eulogy would clash strangely with that rare simplicity which is
+    one of the qualities by which Joachim, the Man, compels the
+    esteem of all whose fortune it is to know him. But there would
+    be in it, I think, also a further deeper-lying incongruity, for
+    we know that Joachim, the Artist, has risen to the heights he
+    occupies, perhaps alone, by fixing his constant gaze on high
+    ideals, and lifting and sustaining his mind in a region above
+    the shifting fickle atmosphere of praise or blame. Well, it is
+    now fifty years since he took his first step along the upward
+    path, which he has trodden in wholeness of heart and singleness
+    of purpose from earliest boyhood to mellow middle age. During
+    these fifty years he has not only ripened to the full his
+    splendid gifts as an interpreter, ever interpreting the noblest
+    works in the noblest manner, leading his hearers to their better
+    comprehension; not only marked his place in the front ranks of
+    living composers by works instinct with fire and imagination;
+    but shown us also, as a man, how much high gifts are enhanced by
+    modesty, and how good a thing to see is the life of an Artist
+    who has never paltered with the dignity of his Art.
+
+    Deep appreciation of these titles to respect and admiration has,
+    as you know, led in Germany, the country of his adoption and his
+    home, to an enthusiastic celebration of this, the fiftieth year
+    of his artistic career; and we, his English friends, living in a
+    country which we hope, nay, believe, is, after his own, not the
+    least dear to him, have felt strongly impelled to express to him
+    also in some form our gratitude, our sympathy, and our esteem.
+    It has seemed to your Committee that these sentiments could not
+    take a more fitting outward shape than that of the instrument
+    over which he is lord: such an instrument, signed with the
+    famous name of Stradivarius, and, as I am told, not unworthy of
+    his fame, flanked with a bow the work of Tourte, and once the
+    property of Kiesenwetter--such a fiddle and such a bow I now
+    offer to him in your name. Its sensitive and well-seasoned
+    shell will acknowledge and respond to the hand of the master,
+    and the souls of many great musicians will, we hope, often speak
+    through it to spellbound hearers. But we nourish another
+    hope--the hope that, through the great waves of melody that
+    shall roll forth from it under his compelling bow, a still small
+    voice may now and again be interfused which, reaching his heart
+    through his ears, shall speak to it of the many friends who, in
+    spirit or in the body, are gathered round him affectionately
+    to-night.
+
+In 1888 Leighton delivered the superb Address at the Art Congress held
+at Liverpool on December 3 (see Appendix). No Life of this great man
+would be complete were his utterances on this occasion not given in
+full, for therein is found his creed on Art, and the records of those
+principles on which it was founded, expounded with clear force, fine
+analysis, and, above all, with supreme courage. The subject, moreover,
+as touching England's condition respecting Art, is one directly
+affecting English readers.
+
+A matter of interest to the general Art world came under discussion at
+the Council meetings of the Academy in the winter of 1879 and 1880,
+namely, whether women were to be admitted as members of their body. A
+correspondence took place between Leighton and the late Mr. Henry
+Wells, R.A., on the subject. Leighton's personal inclination was
+certainly for admitting women into the body of the elect, as I know
+from conversations he had with me on the subject. He invariably sought
+to extend all art privileges to those who were, as artists, worthy to
+receive them. He told me, however, that the majority of votes against
+the inroad of women would be given as having regard to a question of
+convenience rather than to one of principle, namely, the difficulty
+the Academicians foresaw in admitting only one or two lady artist
+Academicians to the yearly Banquets, and the greater difficulty of
+extending invitations to lady guests.[67]
+
+The following letters from Leighton to Mr. Wells give an insight into
+the kind of work which his office of President entailed, and of the
+characteristically thorough manner in which Leighton fulfilled them.
+
+                                _Thursday Evening, 1879 or 1880._
+
+    DEAR WELLS,--I have noticed during my last two sittings at your
+    studio, that, whenever the deeply interesting subject of our
+    Academy appeared on the tapis, it stood in the way of your work,
+    and I have therefore purposely abstained, as you no doubt
+    remarked, from going beyond the merest surface in the
+    discussion of any of the points on which we have touched. I felt
+    that the sittings I gave you being so few and so scantily
+    measured out, the least I could do was not, wittingly, to make
+    you lose your time. That is to say, I did not _tell_ you to-day
+    orally what I now _write_, namely, my impression on your
+    proposed question concerning the Chantrey purchases. The
+    characteristic straightforwardness and loyalty with which you
+    wished me to be informed on the point beforehand will not permit
+    me to be silent in regard to your view. I have looked with the
+    greatest care into the extract from the will which we all have,
+    and have given the matter that thought which is due to your
+    earnest conscientiousness, and I have satisfied myself that the
+    General Assembly is wholly without a _locus standi_ in claiming
+    to control the expenditure of the Chantrey trust moneys in any
+    way whatever; those moneys never pass into its hands or come
+    under its cognisance; they are paid into the hands of the
+    president and treasurer, against their receipt, and are dealt
+    with solely by the president and council for the time being. An
+    attempt, therefore, on the part of the General Assembly to
+    assume control in this matter is in my view _out of order_, and
+    it would therefore be out of order to ask or answer a question
+    based, as yours is, on that assumption. I think you will find
+    this view in harmony with the opinion of the body; if it is
+    largely challenged, I shall postpone the answer till I have
+    taken a legal opinion, as the point is very important. Here are
+    my cards on the table.--In haste, yours sincerely,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+
+    _Private._]
+                                                        _Monday._
+
+    DEAR WELLS,--The usual stress of business has prevented me till
+    now from thanking you for your note and valuable information; I
+    shall, with great interest, turn to the passages you allude to
+    as soon as I get a good opportunity, and what I read will have
+    the greatest weight with me when I vote again on a purchase. It
+    would not, however, touch my point in regard to the _General
+    Assembly_, which can only interfere with a past purchase if it
+    can be shown to be illegal; this can, of course, only be
+    established by legal authority, and I am, myself, sorry that
+    your first resolution does not run thus: That the President be
+    requested to consult high legal authority as to whether such and
+    such purchases are barred by the will of Sir F. Ch. If your
+    misgivings on that head are shared by a majority the thing would
+    pass immediately and undiscussed, almost.
+
+    As concerns your motion on the pension resolution, I own to much
+    misgiving; _I should not dream of alluding to this had you not
+    yourself taken me aside about it the other day._ I am so far at
+    one with you in principle that I feel, I can't say how deeply,
+    that it is our paramount duty to interpret in the largest and
+    most elevated sense our duty to the art of the country that we
+    may be worthy in the eyes of the enlightened portion of the
+    community of our high place, and that it is equally incumbent on
+    us to keep our personal interests vigilantly in sub-ordination.
+    I think that one of the present resolutions militates against
+    this last view, and I need not conceal from you that it has not
+    my sympathy. I am, however, very strongly of opinion that the
+    form of your opposition to it will not be supported, and that in
+    your desire for a logical comprehensiveness, you will fail of
+    your end, which by simple direct opposition to the particular
+    measure on the principle you have already enunciated and
+    explained, you might _very probably_, I believe, achieve. I need
+    not, I think, assure you, my dear Wells, that nothing is further
+    from my thoughts than any _interference_ with a member's
+    freedom; indeed, on that head my views are known to you; but I
+    can't refrain from saying thus much to give you an opportunity
+    of quietly thinking matters over (_don't answer this_) before
+    Wednesday. After all, you want primarily to get rid of paragraph
+    6, not to ensure a dialectical triumph. If the alternative is
+    between your Committee and the resolution as it stands, I feel
+    absolutely convinced that you will be left in a very cold
+    minority; but if you point out that paragraph 6 takes our
+    bounties off the ground of necessity, our only tenable ground,
+    in fact commutes a _bounty_ into an unconditional _claim_ (of a
+    formidable pecuniary nature, too), you will march in, I can't
+    help thinking, with flying colours.
+
+    Don't, I repeat, be at the trouble to answer this expression of
+    the opinion of,--Yours sincerely,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+
+                                  _Monday, February 1, (?) 1881._
+
+    DEAR WELLS,--Since receiving your letter I have been so
+    absolutely engrossed with business and work that I have not had
+    time till now to answer it. I am sincerely glad you have asked
+    for a little modification in the terms of the Lucy petition;
+    meanwhile I have written to Gladstone, and my letter has been
+    acknowledged with a promise to note its contents.
+
+    In regard to your Chantrey resolution, I feel that, after the
+    manner of very busy men, I have written in haste and not made
+    myself quite clear. I should like, first, to remove one
+    apprehension which you seem to have entertained; however
+    strongly I may be convinced of the correctness of my own view on
+    the matter under discussion, I cannot too emphatically say that
+    as long as the points at issue were still _sub judice_ I should
+    not countenance a purchase which should assume my view to be the
+    right one; but no such postponement as would lead to this
+    dilemma is to be feared; what I propose is this: as soon as ever
+    we have closed the discussion on the schools, and whilst they
+    are being printed in their amended form for final consideration,
+    therefore, on Friday next, if we get through on Wednesday, or
+    failing that on the 22nd or 23rd of February, the resolutions of
+    Council will be put on the table in their rotation; as, however,
+    the next step in the Chantrey affair is to merely _hear_ my
+    answer to your memorandum, and as I understand that discussion
+    on it will not be expected till members shall have had it to
+    consider at their leisure, I will read it and lay it on the
+    table _before_ I take up the resolutions of Council which stand
+    on the paper before it, so that when it comes up for final
+    discussion, presumably in the first days of March, it can be
+    discussed and voted on with full mastery of the subject. It is
+    on the agenda paper of THAT _meeting_ that your affirmative
+    motion will stand; it does not come into force till then, since
+    it is contingent on the effect produced on your mind by my
+    answer of Friday (or of the next meeting after).
+
+    With respect to Redgrave's motion, it may lead to a technical
+    "censure" of the Council; but there are censures and censures,
+    and nobody will suppose, certainly I never dreamt, that you
+    meant to imply moral obliquity to us in regard to what we have
+    done. I have not a word to object to what you advance about the
+    right of complaint, but it does not exactly cover the case: if
+    you caught us, say, taking our friends to the Exhibition (or
+    ourselves) on Sunday, a matter on which no two opinions are
+    admissible, then "a complaint" would be in its place; but in the
+    matter of payment to Treasurer, two opinions may and do exist,
+    and they can only be measured against one another by a vote, and
+    a vote can only be taken on a motion.
+
+    Lastly, as to the new codification committee, I think with you,
+    _in strictest confidence_, that ---- was not a good choice; but
+    he was chosen in the usual manner by a majority of votes: that
+    your labours were not remunerated in the usual manner is an
+    oversight, which, of course, must and shall be set right. There
+    seems altogether, and your letter corroborates that impression,
+    to have been much vagueness about the doings of the Committee
+    _as a Committee_, though, as usual, much zealous work on your
+    part. I do not gather that attendances were entered in a book,
+    which is the machinery by which payment is generally regulated,
+    and the Committee having lapsed without reporting to the Council
+    on its labours (being a _sub-committee_ of the Council of 1878,
+    it lapsed by a natural death with that Council), the whole thing
+    had fallen out of notice. I hope that the old sub-committee will
+    put in their claims, which will very certainly be satisfied. The
+    codification has frequently been in my mind, for I consider it
+    of very great importance, but as it is my impression that I am
+    considered to drive the work of the Academy full hard as
+    it is, I have hesitated to impose more labours on my colleagues,
+    even though I am always ready to share them.--Sincerely yours,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    [Illustration: "ELIJAH IN THE WILDERNESS." 1879]
+
+    [Illustration: SKETCH FOR "ELIJAH IN THE WILDERNESS." 1879
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+    [Illustration: "NERUCCIA." 1879
+    By permission of Mrs. Lees]
+
+    [Illustration: "THE BATH OF PSYCHE." 1890
+    National Gallery of British Art (Tate Gallery)]
+
+
+                                               _Tuesday Morning_,
+                             2 HOLLAND PARK ROAD, KENSINGTON, W.,
+                                                _March 18, 1884_.
+
+    DEAR WELLS,--Thank you for your letter received yesterday, which
+    only lack of time prevented me from answering at once. I am
+    happy to say that Richmond cheerfully acceded to my wish in
+    regard to clauses 6 and 7. I do not think with Calderon, who has
+    written to me, that the words of a man so high-minded as
+    Richmond will indispose members in this matter, and, though I
+    feel the importance of raising no prejudice against the proposal
+    as keenly as ever, still wish him to initiate it. It is, I agree
+    with you, a pity that the question of the retiring pensions must
+    come off first; but that is, I fear, quite unavoidable, and it
+    connects itself with the very first resolution. I assure you, my
+    dear Wells, that I _see_ the bearing of all you say on this head
+    as plainly as possible, and have done so all along; but it does
+    not prevail with me, because it does not cover the whole ground,
+    and because I do not anticipate the dangers for which you think
+    it might be used as a precedent.
+
+    In view of my own personal painful position in this matter, I
+    shall _ask_ the Assembly _not_ to ratify the clause which
+    affects _me_.--In great haste, yours sincerely,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+Leighton's official life, as understood and carried out by him,
+entailed infinitely more strain and occupation than can be described
+in these pages, but, notwithstanding, unless the call away from his
+easel was imperative, he kept certain hours in the day sacred to his
+art. These were from 9 A.M. till noon, and from 1 P.M. till 4. It was
+only in the off hours that he got through his other labours, which he
+performed, nevertheless, with most assiduous conscientiousness.
+
+Among his duties outside the Academy were those at the British Museum.
+Mr. H.A. Grueber, Keeper of the Coins and Medals, writes: "Sir
+Frederic Leighton was elected a Trustee of the British Museum on May
+14, 1881. He was an active member of the Standing Committee, who
+practically manage the affairs of the Museum, and he took great
+interest in the place. He was also a member of the Sub-committees on
+Buildings, on Antiquities, Prints and Drawings, also of those on Coins
+and Medals."
+
+In the first R.A. Exhibition after his election, three pictures of the
+eight Leighton sent have, I think, a special interest--"Elijah in the
+Wilderness" (the picture into which he said he put more of himself
+than into any other he had painted up to that time); the portrait of
+his very dear friend Professor Costa, painted in the previous autumn
+at Lerici, and the head "Neruccia." Leighton with Costa studied the
+methods used in painting by the Venetians and Correggio, and Costa
+wrote the following with reference to them:--
+
+    The result of these studies and of the experience of years was
+    that Leighton and I definitely adopted the following method.
+    Take a canvas or panel with the whitest possible preparation and
+    non-absorbent--the drawing of the subject to be done with
+    precision and indelible. On this seek to model in monochrome so
+    strongly that it will bear the local colours painted with
+    exaggeration, and then the grey, which is to be the ground of
+    all the future half-tones; on this paint the lights, for which
+    use only white, red, and black, avoiding yellow, and, stabbing
+    (botteggiando) with the brush while the colour is wet, make the
+    half-tints tell out from the grey beneath, which should be
+    thoroughly dry. When all is dry, finish the picture with
+    scumbles (spegazzi), adding yellow to complete the colour.
+
+    Leighton formed his method of painting from these general
+    maxims, and he painted my portrait at Lerici on these principles
+    as an experiment, and then in 1878 we adopted the system
+    definitely. For this portrait he had four sittings--one for the
+    drawing and the monochrome chiaroscuro, one for the local
+    colours; then, having covered all with grey, he painted the
+    lights with red, white, and black, making use of the thoroughly
+    dried grey beneath for his half-tints. With scumbles
+    he completed the colour and the modelling.
+
+    [Illustration: "THE LIGHT OF THE HAREM." 1880
+    By kind permission of the Directors of the Leicester Gallery]
+
+    [Illustration: "AND THE SEA GAVE UP THE DEAD WHICH WERE IN IT"
+    Sketch for Complete Design, 1892]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY FOR FIGURE IN FRIEZE, "MUSIC." 1886
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY FOR "ANDROMEDA." 1890
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+    [Illustration: FROM SKETCH IN CLAY FOR PERSEUS, IN THE PICTURE
+    "PERSEUS AND ANDROMEDA." 1891]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY FOR FIGURE IN PANEL IN ROYAL
+    EXCHANGE--"PHOENICIANS BARTERING WITH BRITONS"
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+    [Illustration: "CYMON AND IPHIGENIA." 1884
+    The Corporation of Leeds]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY IN COLOUR FOR "CYMON AND IPHIGENIA." 1884
+    By permission of Mrs. Stewart Hodgson]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY FOR SLEEPING GROUP FOR "CYMON AND
+    IPHIGENIA"
+    Given by Lord Leighton to G.F. Watts, O.M., and given by the
+    latter to the Collection in Leighton House, 1883]
+
+As the exquisite fragments in pencil of cyclamen, bramble and vine
+branch,[68] explain most intimately Leighton's genius as a
+draughtsman, so this head of Neruccia appears to me, together with one
+other work, to explain most explicitly his genius as a painter--a
+modeller with the brush. In 1890 Leighton painted "The Bath of
+Psyche."[69] The modelling in the torso of this figure, and in the
+head of Neruccia, reach the zenith as exemplifying Leighton's
+individuality as a painter. They might truly earn for him the
+title--Praxiteles of the brush.
+
+It would be tedious for writer and reader alike to describe too
+minutely the special characteristics of even the most notable pictures
+painted during the seventeen years when Leighton occupied the position
+of President of the Royal Academy. Words are but poor interpreters of
+painting such as his. Eighty canvases, two statues, and two
+designs--the reverse of the Jubilee Medallion, "And the sea gave up
+its dead which were in it"--were exhibited at the Royal Academy;
+eighteen slighter works at the Suffolk Street, and twenty-three at the
+Grosvenor Galleries. On referring to the list in the Appendix it will
+be realised how great was the amount of labour involved in the
+achievement of many of these works, considering their size, the
+complication of their designs, and also the completeness of their
+finish. It must also be remembered that Leighton made many hundreds of
+studies for his pictures. More especially numerous were these for the
+designs "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it," "The Dance,
+Decorative Frieze"; "Cymon and Iphigenia"; "Music, a Frieze"; "Design
+for the reverse of the Jubilee Medallion," "Captive Andromache,"
+"Perseus and Andromeda," "Return of Persephone," "The Garden of the
+Hesperides," "Rizpah," "Summer Slumbers," "The Spirit of the Summit,"
+"Flaming June," "Phoenicians Bartering with Britons," and "Clytie."
+When all these achievements are taken into account it will be realised
+that Leighton, to the end, however important his duties outside his
+studios, was true to his vocation, and proved himself the "workman
+first and the official after."
+
+As a work combining poetic feeling, power of design, and great beauty
+in the arrangement of line, while at the same time expressing most
+explicitly Leighton's creed of creeds--namely, the ennobling and
+elevating influence of beauty in the lives of men and women--"Cymon
+and Iphigenia" is perhaps the picture he himself would have chosen as
+the most representative among these later works. He chose it as the
+one he wished sent to the Berlin Exhibition in 1885. When beginning it
+he described to me the moment of the day he wished to catch for the
+scene--"the most mysteriously beautiful in the whole twenty-four
+hours, when the _merest lip_ of the moon has risen from behind the sea
+horizon, and the air is haunted still with the flush of the after-glow
+from the sun already hidden in the west."[70]
+
+The study for the group of sleeping figures reproduced here is almost
+identical in design with the sketch in plaster from the clay, so
+lamentably destroyed when Watts lent it to be cast in bronze
+after Leighton's death. Leighton also gave the drawing of this group
+to his fellow artist, so enthusiastically did Watts admire it. He, in
+his turn, gave it to the Leighton House Collection in the year 1897,
+together with the fine painting which Leighton exchanged for his own
+portrait, painted about 1863, and which greeted friends as they
+mounted the staircase in Leighton House during all the years he lived
+in Holland Park Road (see frontispiece to Vol. I.). The study for
+"Cymon and Iphigenia" is particularly valuable now as an example of
+Leighton's rapid sketches where every touch reflects a mine of
+knowledge, because it was put under glass before any of the crispness
+of the touch was blurred by rubbing.[71]
+
+    [Illustration: "THE SLUGGARD"
+    From the Bronze Statuette--a direct reproduction from Lord
+    Leighton's small sketch, 1886. Leighton House Collection]
+
+    [Illustration: "NEEDLESS ALARMS"
+    From Bronze Statuette, 1886. Leighton House Collection]
+
+    [Illustration: "THE LAST WATCH OF HERO." 1887]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY IN COLOUR FOR "TRAGIC POETESS." 1890
+    By permission of Mrs. Stewart Hodgson]
+
+In a letter dated 1886 Watts wrote: "Leighton will carry off all the
+honours this year with his ceiling[72] and his two statues."
+
+"An Athlete Awakening from Sleep" (given to the Tate Gallery by Sir
+Henry Tate) is generally known as "The Sluggard," a name bestowed on
+it by Leighton himself. The victor's garland lies at the feet of the
+athlete, a garland which does not preserve the owner from a sad
+weariness. Mr. Brock, R.A., in whose studio "An Athlete" was
+modelled, executed the fine bust of Leighton which was deposited in
+the Academy as Mr. Brock's diploma work.[73]
+
+Sir John Millais admired greatly the other work alluded to in Watts'
+letter, "Needless Alarms." Leighton gave him this statuette, and
+Millais, desiring to show his gratitude in a tangible form, painted
+the picture "Shelling Peas" for Leighton.
+
+In at least fourteen of the eighty pictures shown at the Academy
+during the last seventeen years of Leighton's life, there can be
+traced an earnest sentiment beyond the "sincerity of emotion" for
+beauty which all evince. This feeling is, however, always guarded by a
+marked reticence from sentimentalism. "Elijah in the Wilderness,"
+"Elisha Raising the Son of the Shunammite," "The Jealousy of Simoetha,
+the Sorceress," "The Last Watch of Hero," "Captive Andromache,"
+"Return of Persephone," "Rizpah," "Tragic Poetess," "Sibyl,"
+"Farewell," "The Spirit of the Summit," "Fatidica," "Lachrymae," and
+the last passionate figure of "Clytie." The most popular pictures
+Leighton painted during these years appear to be "Sister's Kiss," "The
+Light of the Harem" (developed into a picture from the design of a
+group in the fresco, "The Industrial Arts of Peace"), "Idyll,"
+"Whispers," "Wedded" (now in Australia), "Memories," "Letty,"
+"Invocation," "Solitude," "The Bath of Psyche," "Bacchante," "Corinna
+of Tanagra," "The Bracelet," "Summer Slumber," "Atalanta," "Flaming
+June," and "The Fair Persian" (unfinished). Two sketches in the
+Leighton House Collection record effects which greatly fascinated
+Leighton in Scotland--"A Pool, Findhorn River," deep tortoiseshell
+brown; and "Rocks in the Findhorn," pink and grey enriched by lichen,
+and it was in Scotland that the Lynn of Dee inspired the
+subject of "Solitude." Leighton described to me the deep impression
+this Lynn of Dee had made on him. "It is the veriest note of solitude!
+a wonderful spot, full of poetic inspiration." In order to transmit a
+vivid record of this sentiment to his canvas, he took a second journey
+to the place.[74]
+
+    [Illustration: "ATALANTA." 1893
+    By permission of the Berlin Photographic Co., the owners of the
+    Copyright]
+
+    [Illustration: "FLAMING JUNE." 1895
+    By permission of Mrs. Watney]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY FOR "FLAMING JUNE." 1895]
+
+    [Illustration: "FATIDICA." 1894
+    By permission of Messrs. T. Agnew & Son, the owners of the
+    Copyright]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDIES FOR "FATIDICA." 1894
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+Leighton wrote the following letter to his father when first visiting
+Forres, in which he described the "craze" he had for these "dark brown
+Scotch rivers":--
+
+                                             ROYAL STATION HOTEL,
+                                                     FORRES, N.B.
+
+    I drove over to Dunkeld (twelve and a half miles) to lunch at
+    the Millais'; I think the drive one of the most enchanting
+    things I know, and I was favoured, moreover, by a few of those
+    divine glimpses of blue and silver sky of which Scotland has the
+    monopoly (a monopoly which she uses, perhaps, just a trifle too
+    modestly). This is Forres, as the paper shows you; if Macbeth's
+    witches really did live in this neighbourhood, it is just as
+    well they had their hands pretty full, for they would have found
+    the place uncommonly dull otherwise, especially on the
+    "Sawbath." On the other hand, the drive to and the walk along
+    the banks of the Findhorn--the excursion for which one comes
+    here--is quite delightful, and indeed surpassed my expectations.
+    I must tell you that I have nothing short of a craze for your
+    dark brown Scotch (and Irish) rivers, as dark as treacle, and as
+    clear as a cairngorm. This particular stream contrives to rush
+    part of the way through fantastic rocks of pink granite--you may
+    imagine the effect. Here again from the heights over the river I
+    _ought_ to have seen the sea and the coast of Sutherlandshire;
+    but the weather was sulky and I had to draw on my imagination
+    for the view.
+
+    In the forenoon I went over by train to Elgin, to see the ruined
+    cathedral, which is fine, but, like all Scotch architecture that
+    I have seen, crude and barbaric. As I stood on the platform
+    before starting, I heard a gruff, good-humoured voice hailing me
+    from a train on the other side; it was the voice which goes so
+    well with the rubicund face of the Duke of Cambridge. I was
+    going by the same train, so he made me get into his compartment;
+    he was going to Balmoral or Aberfeldie. He was very comic about
+    B---- and his article in the _Nineteenth Century_--"A fellow who
+    fouls his own nest is always a d----d bad lot--a d----d bad
+    lot," with which sentiment I close a d----d long letter.--From
+    your affectionate son,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+"Atalanta" may be noted, perhaps, as the strongest work achieved by
+Leighton. Here _is_ "enormous power," though shown on a comparatively
+small canvas. For noble beauty of the Pheidian type in the grand and
+simple pose and modelling of the throat and shoulder, it would be
+difficult to find its peer in Modern Art, and yet it was only the
+worthy record of the beauty of an English girl. "Flaming June" (a
+design first made to decorate as a bas-relief the marble bath on which
+the figure in "Summer Slumber" reposes), is equally perfect in the
+fine fulness of the modelling, but it lacks the direct simplicity
+which gives such a distinguished strength to the "Atalanta." In the
+sketch for "Flaming June" reproduced in these pages the pose is better
+explained than in the completed picture, the foreshortened line of the
+back and shoulder being confused somewhat by the drapery in the
+painting.
+
+At the age of twenty-five, in the wing-like petals of a cyclamen,
+Leighton had succeeded in securing with the pencil the quality towards
+which he aimed from the beginning to the end of his studies--and these
+only ended with his life--namely, absolute completeness as far as
+human eye and hand can reach completeness in rendering the perfection
+of nature's forms. Notably in "Neruccia" and in "Psyche" he reached
+that aim with the brush, but in "Atalanta," and in such studies as
+those for "Flaming June," "Fatidica," and--imbued with a yet further
+interest of dramatic feeling--for "Clytie," his aim was reached with
+more freedom and power of touch. The quality of beauty in these works
+was no invention of his--only, as has been noted before, a discernment
+and echo in the artist's apprehension of nobler truths in nature than
+are discovered by the many. They are nobler, because possessing the
+germ of life and movement. In all nature's forms, beauty and style
+result from the spring and moving on--the development of growth,
+whether it requires aeons to develop the form as in mountains, years as
+in trees, or only days as in flowers. In the human limbs there is the
+further power of varied movement, and in the countenance of varied
+expressions. The greatest art stamps a suggestion of this power of
+growth and movement into the form and line expressing the facts it
+records; and, making it harmonise graciously with perfect structure in
+nature, the great artist evolves a thing of beauty. In our northern
+climes, and in our modern civilisation, beauty of form and line excite
+little genuine emotion. That is reserved for colour, tone, texture,
+and, in these very latter days, for the cleverness of the executant.
+The greatest opposer Leighton's teaching has had is laziness.
+Students will not take the trouble to go through irksome labour to
+secure knowledge, therefore they only aim at those qualities which are
+made comparatively easy by an emotional preference; and such emotional
+preference is rarely excited by form. There are exceptions, such as
+Watts, whose greatest artistic emotion was excited when he seized the
+beauty and style in Pheidias. He felt also the same enthusiastic
+excitement over Leighton's studies, stamped with a like Pheidian
+quality of style. Because the modern eye is so often blind to these
+qualities, therefore Leighton's work has been disposed of by many as
+merely academical and the result solely of taking inordinate pains!
+Surely those desirous of any true culture might learn one lesson at
+all events of Leighton: the value of Catholicity through learning "to
+master what they reject as fully as what they adopt ... the better
+motives of men" with whom they are not in sympathy. Catholicity is the
+outcome of the best natures, the best understandings, the best
+educations. It overrides those subtle egoisms and commercial interests
+which so often guide while distorting a true judgment in art matters,
+keeping the preferences of the public wriggling about without any
+definite instinct or principal on a never truly-convincing dead level.
+The mainspring of catholicity in art is a fervent reverence for
+nature. All works in which such fervent reverence is found, in
+whatever direction it is displayed, are worthy to be admitted into the
+fold, whether it be form, colour, or tone in nature's aspect--whether
+it be the stirring whirls of northern tempests, the rural peace of
+English glades, or the fineness of rarefied atmosphere in the south,
+as in Greek isles and sea. Whichever mood of nature appeals to a true
+artist and inspires in him the sacred fire, and consequently the
+expression in his touch, should find a place in the heart of the true
+lover of art. Because the aesthetic pores of a music-lover are open to
+the rapturous tumult of the wildly whirling Schumann symphony in A
+minor, is he, therefore, incapable of being entranced by the rare
+refinement of Palestrina's cameo-like phrases? Because he feels a
+rapturous excitement as the curtain falls at the end of the first act
+of "Lohengrin," can he not also feel a soul-satisfaction in the
+elevated serenity of Bach's "Christmas Oratorio"? Does it not rather
+denote a want of elasticity in the aesthetic perceptions, a want of
+flexibility in the sensibilities flavouring somewhat of the
+Philistine, to be touched by a limited range of emotions? Because
+Leighton is not Whistler, or Watts is not Sargent, why must the one be
+admired at the expense of the other? With Leighton's rare intellectual
+acumen he knew well that these limitations in viewing various outlooks
+on art arose chiefly from a want of wide culture and experience. In
+the great galleries of Europe, among the treasures in the churches of
+Italy, his own vision had been enlarged, and he had felt how
+nourishing to his own best instincts such enlargement had proved.
+Hence his earnest endeavours when first entering the Academy to
+establish the Winter Exhibitions of Old Masters, and later, when
+President, to give as many facilities as possible for students to
+travel abroad. Probably, it never will be fully realised how greatly
+Leighton's initiations in starting new ventures for young students and
+artists have helped the real progress of English art. His great
+modesty and rare tact prevented this initiation from being fully
+appreciated even at the time. When such an one as Leighton is working
+on great lines, the last thing he thinks of is, Who is really
+achieving the work? The aim has to be accomplished; it matters little
+who is used as the tool to achieve the work. The real satisfaction to
+such a nature is the fact that the work _has_ been achieved.
+
+Perhaps of all the ways in which Leighton helped to forward the
+condition of art in England, the most valuable was his industry in
+searching out unknown work, discovering what merit existed in it,
+hunting up the artist, and, by becoming personally acquainted with
+him, encouraging in every manner his onward progress. What he effected
+in Mason's case with such a rich harvest to the world as the result,
+he did in many other cases when the artist was a perfect stranger to
+him. Mr. Alfred East, the President of the Royal Society of British
+Artists, writes: "Lord Leighton was a man of broad sympathies in his
+appreciation of Art, an earnest worker with a lofty purpose and a high
+ideal. He liked to see these qualities in others, and spoke of the
+dignity and privilege of being an artist, and lived up to it in his
+own house. To those who knew him well he was singularly modest about
+his work, soliciting criticism with a frankness which was as
+unaffected as it was sincere. He never posed, but was a fellow-worker
+and a comrade. Such were the characteristics of the artist at home. I
+owe more to his encouragement than to any other influence of my life.
+Our acquaintanceship grew into friendship; he helped me to speak to
+him as I could speak to no other, of my own aims and ideals. This is
+the great artist as I knew him."
+
+Singularly chary of accepting favours or putting himself under any
+obligation where he did not feel certain he could requite it by any
+feeling or action of his own, the response Leighton's nature made when
+any person, thing, or place gave him delight was that of a
+spontaneous, unstinting gratitude. Never did any one enjoy more fully
+the best of blessings--a grateful heart. Moreover, once the tender
+spot of pity touched, a self-ignoring energy of helpfulness and desire
+to benefit arose, which was at once the most beautiful and the least
+fully understood trait in his character. It is difficult for many to
+understand a _passion_ for unselfishness. "We bear with
+resignation the sorrows of others," is one of the good sayings of
+Walter Bagehot. No rule without an exception--Leighton did not bear
+with resignation the sorrows of his friends, nor of those he pitied as
+overweighted and in any need of help which he could give. No better
+proof exists of the fineness, the distinction of a nature, or the
+reverse, than the effect which misfortune or suffering produces on it.
+Pity with Leighton was ever allied with profound respect. He gave help
+as one indulging himself in a privilege rather than as one conferring
+a benefit. A beautiful story, for which I happen to be the best
+authority, is interwoven with the last years of his life.
+
+    [Illustration: "MEMORIES." 1883
+    By permission of Messrs. P. & D. Colnaghi, the owners of the
+    Copyright]
+
+    [Illustration: "THE JEALOUSY OF SIMOETHA, THE SORCERESS." 1887]
+
+    [Illustration: "LETTY." 1884
+    By permission of Mrs. Henry Joachim]
+
+One day, somewhere in the winter of 1879, on opening a gate which
+leads from our garden to the Holland Park Studios, I saw standing at
+one of the studio doors a figure which I described to Leighton as a
+"vision of beauty"--a young girl with a lovely white face, dressed in
+deepest black, evidently a model. Needless to say, Leighton, ever
+eager to procure good models, obtained her name from the artist to
+whom she was sitting when I first saw her, and engaged her as a model
+for the head. Shortly after she began to sit to Leighton, he wrote to
+me saying the young girl was in sad circumstances, and he would be
+very glad if I could help her by making some studies from her. I
+agreed, and he arranged with her to give me sittings. She told me that
+she had recently lost her mother, her father had deserted his family
+of five girls and two boys, and she with her elder brother were left
+to support them. She was endeavouring to act the part of mother to her
+younger sisters and brother. As Leighton and I grew to know her better
+we found her very intelligent and conscientious in acting this part,
+and she enlisted our sympathies entirely. She confided to me, while
+sitting one day, that she longed greatly to find something to do more
+interesting and remunerative than spending her days as a model. She
+thought she could act. I consulted Leighton. His first exclamation
+was, "_Impossible!_ with _that_ voice! How _could_ she go on the
+stage?" I thought the voice, which had a singularly unpleasant Cockney
+twang in it, might be trained, as I had observed how very eager she
+was to learn to speak in a more educated manner, quite realising her
+own shortcomings. Leighton came round to my opinion; and, once having
+made up his mind that she was bent on educating herself for the stage,
+showed himself as ever the most unselfish and untiring befriender.
+Meanwhile four of these beautiful children became useful to him as
+models. From the second daughter, who afterwards married an artist,
+Leighton painted "Memories," reproduced here; from the third, Hetty,
+he painted "Simoetha the Sorceress" and "Farewell"; but it was the
+youngest, Lina, quite a small child, who delighted him most, and who
+had a rare, refined charm which must have captivated any child-lover.
+She took the place of little Connie Gilchrist of the "Cleobouline,"
+the "Music Lesson," and other of the earlier paintings, in the later
+pictures. She sat for "Sister's Kiss," "The Light of the Harem,"
+"Letty," the sleeping group in "Cymon and Iphigenia," "Kittens," in
+the friezes "The Dance" and "Music," and "A little girl with golden
+hair and pale blue eyes"--
+
+    "Yellow and pale as ripened corn
+    Which Autumn's kiss frees--grain from sheath
+    Such was her hair, while her eyes beneath,
+    Showed Spring's faint violets freshly born."
+
+                             ROBERT BROWNING.
+
+--also the child in "Captive Andromache." Of the sister-mother of this
+little family, beautiful as she was, Leighton declared he never could
+paint a successful likeness, notwithstanding his attempts in
+"Viola,"[75] "Bianca," "Serenely wandering in a trance of sober
+thought," and "Miss Dene." Her very beautiful throat, however, was
+reproduced worthily in many of his subject-pictures, and the true
+dramatic instinct she undoubtedly possessed enabled her to be of help
+in such pictures as "Antigone," "Return of Persephone," and the last
+picture, the passionate "Clytie." But however useful she proved as a
+model, Leighton never for a moment thought of his own interests before
+the serious welfare of the young girl's life. He realised that if she
+was to make a successful actress, it involved serious and concentrated
+study. One morning I received the following note:--
+
+    DEAR MRS. BARRINGTON,--Miss Pullen will be very happy to sit to
+    you on Monday, and will talk over the rest when you meet. You
+    are very kind about it all, as is, indeed, your wont.
+
+    _P.S._--You see my harassed old head does sometimes remember
+    what I promise.
+
+    [Illustration: STUDIES FROM DOROTHY DENE FOR "CLYTIE." 1895
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+And later:--
+
+                                             2 HOLLAND PARK ROAD,
+                                                   KENSINGTON, W.
+
+    DEAR MRS. BARRINGTON,--I want you to help me in a little
+    conspiracy against (?) our young tragic friend. Mrs. Glyn
+    frequently urges that she ought, at all events for a time, to
+    give her _whole_ mind and being to the study of her art. I need
+    not say I share that opinion, and I have at last, after infinite
+    trouble and persistence (my _nose_, you know)[76] induced her to
+    leave off sitting for a _month_, in the hope, if you will all
+    help, of making it a _quarter_. This would, I am confident, be
+    of the greatest value to her, giving her time also to read a
+    little and concentrate her thoughts. I am quite prepared to give
+    up painting from her for three months; but she is in mortal
+    dread lest her other friends should think her unkind and
+    ungrateful for their sympathy. I have told her I believe no such
+    thing, and that I feel sure that Schmaltz and you (who work most
+    from her) will, as willingly as I, postpone your studies in
+    order to aid her in so important a matter. She is going to call
+    on you to-day; if you agree with me, _be very firm_--have a
+    _nose_! _Refuse_ to paint from her for three months.
+
+We succeeded in making the little girl work exclusively at her acting,
+and Leighton, Watts, and I frequently visited the school where she was
+being trained under Mrs. Glyn, to hear her and her fellow-students
+perform the pieces they had studied. Eventually she appeared in London
+and in the provinces, and quickly communicated all her successes and
+failures to Leighton and to me. Constant notes passed between us as we
+each received news from our young _protegee_, or when we thought some
+fresh step might be taken for her advantage. For instance, one of
+these notes runs as follows:--
+
+    DEAR MRS. BARRINGTON,--It has occurred to me that I perhaps
+    seemed this morning what I certainly did not mean to seem,
+    churlish in regard to that letter from Irving.[77] _If Miss
+    Pullen is now ripe for him to hear her_--this is the most
+    important point (for to go to him _too soon_ would be the most
+    unwise thing possible in view of her getting a good
+    engagement)--and if, having declined a letter on a previous
+    occasion, she has any unnecessary scruple about now asking for
+    one, it will be quite enough for you to tell me from her that
+    she wishes for one, and I will at once write it. _Kemp will
+    always be able to tell you where to get at me._ I can write as
+    easily from Vienna or Constantinople as from here.
+
+From Exeter Dorothy Dene wrote to Leighton after recounting an
+unwonted success:--
+
+    "Don't be frightened that I shall let all this praise turn my
+    head. I know how much better it could be done, and after every
+    scene a great weight falls on my heart that I have done no
+    better. But I like you to warn me; it is good for me, so don't
+    leave off, please. I am sorry that your friend, Lord
+    Mount-Edgcumbe, will not see me, and that you had the bother of
+    writing for nothing. Please do not fash yourself about finding
+    out any one else. I must leave off now, as it is time to go to
+    the theatre, and you will not get this any sooner if it were
+    posted to-night than to-morrow.
+
+                                                  _Sunday, 24th._
+
+    "To continue, our lodgings are very comfortable, and nearly
+    opposite the theatre; the food is good, and very fairly cooked,
+    but I am very pleased with the tuck parcel; we had one of the
+    birds when we arrived, the other things we have hardly touched.
+    I thought it better to save them for places where the food may
+    be bad. Please send me Mr. B. Tree's letter. I thought as you
+    think about its advice. Thank you so much for _your_ kind advice
+    and gentle reminders, I shall try so hard to remember all you
+    have said to me at different times; and if I do become anything
+    in the future, I shall owe all the best part of it to you."
+
+An engagement for two matinees was made for her debut in London.
+
+"Dear Mrs. Barrington, 'Dorothy' acts at the _Globe_ on Monday and
+Tuesday afternoons," wrote Leighton; "I mean to go on Monday." I took
+a party of eight to see her, including the late Lord Lytton, who took
+much interest in the stage. After the performance Leighton wrote to
+me, "Poor Dorothy was paralysed with terror yesterday--but I hope
+intelligent people will have seen _through_ that." Again, later, "she
+is adding, as she deserves, to the number of her friends, several of
+whom treat her with really maternal kindness." I can indeed very truly
+endorse Leighton's good opinion. Dorothy and three of her sisters were
+worthy of all the interest shown in them. They were entirely
+self-respecting, conscientious children, most affectionately devoted
+to one another, and striving their utmost to improve in every sense,
+and make themselves worthy of the help they received. Naturally they
+adored their chief benefactor, Leighton. Unfortunately, Dorothy,
+notwithstanding dramatic gifts, great perseverance and intelligence,
+lacked charm on the stage. Her very beautiful face and throat were not
+seen to advantage, as they were hardly in proportion with her figure,
+which was short and too stiffly set to move gracefully on the stage.
+Leighton in fun always called her "the little tee-to-tum," or when she
+wore a large hat, "the mushroom." As he felt vitality waning and
+mental effort a greater strain, the little family of Pullens had to
+Leighton somewhat the same resting charm that Italy had in early days,
+when he turned from the German austerity in study to the relaxation of
+the _dolce far niente_ of Italian national life. "I go to see them,"
+he used to say, "when I want to let my back hair down and get off the
+stilts." When Leighton was dying, his sister, Mrs. Sutherland Orr,
+took Dorothy into his room. He was too ill to speak, but only smiled
+to her in answer to her saying, "If I have or ever will do anything
+worth doing, I owe it all to you--everything I owe to you." It is
+almost unnecessary, as it is distasteful, to mention that this
+beautiful paternal attitude Leighton displayed towards these orphans
+was made the subject of ugly gossip--for are there not always the
+_miserables_ of the world who seek the ugly rather than the beautiful?
+misinterpreting the beautiful so that it should come within the range
+of their scandalous arrows, more especially when the darts attack a
+man in the high position Leighton held. Some of these offshoots of
+envy and jealousy came within earshot of Leighton's sisters, who
+thought it well to warn him in a letter that such malice was in the
+air. He wrote a lengthy answer, ending with the following sentence:
+"But let me turn away from the whole thing, it has pained me more than
+enough. I implore you not to reopen it. On the only thing that
+matters, you are _absolutely assured, if you believe in my honour_. If
+you hear these rumours again, meet them with a flat, ungarnished
+denial. Let that suffice--it does for me." To a lady friend he wrote
+still more explicitly, in order, as he said, that there should exist
+in his own handwriting an implicit and unmitigated denial of the
+malicious falsehood. Leighton never knew under whose auspices this
+scandal was conducted. As is the case invariably, it was impossible to
+put the finger exactly on the culprit--for these fulsome things have
+to be propagated under the rose, in order that they should get a firm
+root before an authoritative denial can be given. However, after
+Leighton's death, the lie was stated more boldly--even directly to his
+two sisters. It is necessary, therefore, to include in the account of
+his life the full and truthful version of the kind and fatherly
+protection Leighton gave to this family.
+
+The interests of the Kyrle Society were another cause which I had in
+common with Leighton. He spoke at the first public meeting that was
+held in the Kensington Town Hall on January 27, 1881, and I possess an
+interesting correspondence with him on the subject, which space will
+not allow me to quote. The important matter contained in it appears in
+the following correspondence between Mr. T.C. Horsfall, the chief
+mover in establishing the Art Museum and Galleries in Manchester, and
+Leighton, together with a discussion on other vital points connected
+with Art:--
+
+                                           _April 7, about 1880._
+
+    DEAR SIR,--I am probably too late to be of any use, but have
+    nevertheless much pleasure in assuring you once again of the
+    sympathy with which I view your endeavours to bring the refining
+    influences of Art in all its forms, and, so to speak, in
+    co-operation on the masses in the vast industrial centre from
+    which you write. I believe that in seeking to elicit and to
+    cultivate their sense of what is beautiful you are opening up to
+    them a deep source of enjoyment, and by opposing good to bad
+    influences, rendering them great and lasting service.--Yours
+    very faithfully,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                             _February 17, 1881._
+
+    I have carefully read over the programme of your enterprise, and
+    there is much in it with which I can warmly sympathise. I desire
+    nothing more deeply than to see the love and knowledge of Art
+    penetrate into the masses of the people in this country--there
+    is no end which I would more willingly serve; but there is in
+    your programme a paragraph which I cannot too emphatically
+    repudiate--that, namely, which excludes from Art, as far as the
+    public is concerned, that which is the root of the finest Art as
+    Art, the human form, the noblest of visible things. That you
+    should sternly and stringently exclude all work which reveals
+    an offensive aim or prurient mind is what I should be the
+    first to claim, but that you should lay down as a corner-stone
+    of your scheme an enactment which would exclude by implication
+    more than half the loftiest work we owe to Art--_nearly all
+    Michael Angelo_, much of Raphael's best, Sebastiano del Piomba's
+    "Raising of Lazarus," Titian's "Bacchus and Ariadne,"
+    Botticelli's "Birth of Venus"--this is indeed a measure from
+    which I must most distinctly dissociate myself, and which makes
+    it impossible for me to connect my name with an enterprise which
+    would else command my sympathy.
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY IN COLOUR FOR "GREEK GIRLS PLAYING AT
+    BALL." 1889
+    By permission of Mrs. Stewart Hodgson]
+
+    _From the "Manchester Courier," August 30, 1890._
+
+    SIR FREDERIC LEIGHTON ON THE MANAGEMENT OF ART GALLERIES.
+
+    To the Editor of the _Manchester Courier_.
+
+    SIR,--On the 4th and 6th inst. I published two long letters on
+    the management of art galleries, of some part of which this is a
+    summary:--No one can intelligently and fully enjoy any picture
+    or statue unless he has some measure of three kinds of
+    knowledge. (1) He must know something about the subject
+    represented, or he cannot enjoy the expression by the work of
+    the artist's feeling and thought; (2) he must know something of
+    the processes of the art in which the artist has worked, or he
+    cannot know what effects the artist sought or might have sought;
+    (3) he must know something of the history of the art, or he
+    cannot understand what elements in the work are due to the
+    artist himself and what to his time and place; or enjoy at all
+    some of the finest works ever produced. For the giving of the
+    second and third of these three kinds of knowledge there ought
+    to be subsidiary collections in our Manchester galleries, kept
+    distinct from the principal collection, and for the giving of
+    the first kind there ought to be several distinct subsidiary
+    collections, of which some should be for the purpose of giving
+    knowledge of flowers, birds, trees, and the other beautiful
+    objects which are "elements of landscape." As a very large
+    proportion of the people of all large towns are ignorant of all
+    that is interesting in nature, and of all that is noblest and
+    most interesting in history and in contemporary life, and as
+    pictures can very effectively give some knowledge both of nature
+    and of the deeds of men while fulfilling their special function,
+    which is to give certain kinds of aesthetic pleasure, the
+    principal collections in our galleries ought to be used for the
+    purpose of giving knowledge of nature and of noble human nature.
+    A gallery of good pictures of the kind would, by reason of the
+    interest of the subjects represented, attract so much attention
+    that the public would to a far larger extent than now feel the
+    influence of the artistic qualities of pictures. In order to
+    obtain pictures of suitable subjects, the directors of art
+    galleries, instead of only buying pictures in exhibitions and
+    studios as they now do, should, as a rule, revert to the custom
+    which prevailed in the ages when art influenced life deeply, and
+    should ask artists to paint pictures of prescribed subjects. I
+    believe that they would get thus better pictures and at lower
+    prices. Many artists certainly would be at their best when they
+    knew they were working to enlighten a great community, and would
+    gladly accept a moderate price for a picture ordered for a
+    public gallery.
+
+    I sent a copy of my letters to Sir Frederic Leighton, and asked
+    him if he would let me have his opinion respecting the principal
+    suggestions contained in them. With the great kindness which
+    distinguishes him, Sir Frederic Leighton has written me the
+    following letter, which contains advice so valuable that I am
+    sure every person in Manchester who cares for art will be glad
+    to have an opportunity of reading it:--
+
+      "DEAR MR. HORSFALL,--I must apologise for my very long
+      delay in answering your letter--a delay due in great part
+      to lack of time, but in part also to the fact that your
+      questions could not be answered hastily, or without due
+      consideration. I may say at the outset that I very warmly
+      appreciate the depth of your interest in the subject of
+      art, and the constancy of your efforts to spread its
+      influence in Manchester; and I am glad to be able to add
+      that on not a few points, I find myself in harmony with
+      your views.
+
+      "It is evidently not possible for me to touch, within the
+      compass of a letter, upon more than one or two of the
+      matters with which you deal in your two long communications
+      to the Manchester press; and, indeed, the question on which
+      you mainly dilate, and in regard to which I am not wholly at
+      one with you, would require to be dealt with at far greater
+      length than is possible to me here. I must content myself
+      with saying what little seems to me sufficient to indicate
+      the grounds of my dissent from you. But first I should like
+      to say a word in passing on the vexed subject of _copies_.
+
+      "There can be no doubt that it would be an immense advantage
+      to those who cannot travel--that is to say, to the enormous
+      majority of men--to bring before their eyes, through
+      reproductions--if these reproductions were absolutely
+      faithful--the masterpieces to which distance deprives them
+      of access. This is, in the case of sculpture and
+      architectural detail, in a large measure achieved by the
+      means of plaster casts, though it is needless to point out
+      that the capacity of the material robs the reproduction of
+      much of the life and light of the original. With pictures
+      the case is different. The subtle and infinite charm which
+      resides in the _handiwork_ of a master, and in the absence
+      of which half the personality of his work is lost, can
+      hardly ever be rendered by a copyist. For this reason the
+      overwhelming majority of even reasonable copies is to my
+      mind worse than useless. Such copies can kindle no
+      enthusiasm, and they virtually misinform the student. It has
+      always seemed to me that the best way to acquaint young
+      people with pictures which they are not able to see is to
+      put before them photographs of the originals, which, besides
+      giving design, form, and light and shade, with absolute
+      fidelity, render, in a wonderful way, the executive
+      physiognomy of the work; and by the side of these
+      photographs free, but faithful, coloured sketches of the
+      pictures should hang, giving the scheme, harmony, and tone
+      of the colour, but not, like finished copies, professing an
+      identity with the original, which is never achieved.
+
+      "Turning now to what you say on the subject of the
+      acquisition of works for a public gallery, I should at once
+      dissuade you from any idea of giving definite commissions--I
+      mean commission to paint specially selected subjects. I have
+      always felt very strongly that artistic work, to be of real
+      value, must be the outcome of entirely spontaneous impulse
+      in an artist. I believe that in the immense majority of
+      cases work done under any other conditions lacks vitality
+      and sincerity, and will not show the worker at his best. A
+      subject which does not impose itself unbidden on the artist
+      will never elicit his full powers. I have myself on that
+      ground for many years past invariably declined to paint
+      under any kind of restriction.
+
+      "Neither does your idea of--practically--refusing
+      encouragement to any work which does not commemorate a noble
+      deed, and, if possible, the noble deed of a well-known
+      personage, commend itself to me. It seems to me, on the
+      contrary, to be a harmful one, inasmuch as it misdirects the
+      mind of a people, already little open to pure artistic
+      emotion, as to the special function of Art. This can, of
+      course, only be the doing of something which it _alone_ can
+      achieve. Now, direct ethical teaching is specially the
+      province of the written and the spoken word. A page or two
+      from the pen of a great and nobly-inspired moralist--a
+      Newman, say, or a Liddon, or a Martineau--can fire us more
+      potently and definitely for good than a whole gallery of
+      paintings. This does not, of course, mean that a moral
+      lesson may not indirectly be conveyed by a work of art, and
+      thereby enhance its purely moral value. _But it cannot be
+      the highest function of any form of expression to convey
+      that which can be more forcibly, more clearly, and more
+      certainly brought home through another channel._ You may no
+      more make this direct _explicit_ ethical teaching a test of
+      worth in a painted work than you may do so in the case of
+      instrumental music; indeed by doing so you will turn the
+      attention of those before whom you place it from the true
+      character of its excellence--you will, so to speak,
+      mis-focus their emotional sensibility. It is only by
+      concentrating his attention on essentially artistic
+      attributes that you can hope to intensify in the spectator
+      that perception of what is beautiful in the highest, widest,
+      and fullest sense of the word, through which he may enrich
+      his life by the multiplication of precious moments akin to
+      those which the noblest and most entrancing music may bestow
+      on him through different forms of aesthetic emotion. It is in
+      the power to lift us out of ourselves into regions of such
+      pure and penetrating enjoyment that the privilege and
+      greatness of art reside. If, in a fine painting, a further
+      wholly human source of emotion is present, and if that
+      emotion is more vividly kindled in the spectator by the fact
+      that he is attuned to receive it by the excitement of
+      aesthetic perception through the beauty of the work of art as
+      such, that work will gain no doubt in interest and in width
+      of appeal. But it will not therefore be of a loftier order
+      than a great work in architecture or music--than the
+      Parthenon, for instance, or a symphony of Beethoven, neither
+      of which preaches a direct moral lesson.
+
+      "But I am being led away into undue length without the
+      possibility, after all, of doing more than roughly indicate
+      the grounds of my dissent from a rather vital article of
+      your creed--a dissent which will, I am afraid, jar on you in
+      proportion to the great sincerity with which you hold your
+      faith. I may say, by the way, that I dwelt at rather greater
+      length on this very subject in my first presidential address
+      to the Royal Academy, delivered on 16th December 1879.--And,
+      herewith, I remain, dear Mr. Horsfall, yours very truly,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+        "2 HOLLAND PARK ROAD, KENSINGTON,
+            "_August 18, 1890_."
+
+    Examples of the kind of copies which Sir F. Leighton recommends
+    can be seen in the Art Museum in No. 1 Room. We have there a
+    photograph of the "Adoration of the Magi" of Paul Veronese, with
+    a series of studies by Mr. F. Shields of the composition, the
+    light and shade, and the arrangement of colour in the picture.
+    These copies suffice to prove that such a collection as Sir F.
+    Leighton recommends would be of the greatest value and interest.
+    May I say with regard to two points in the letter, that my
+    proposal to use some parts of the collections in our galleries
+    for the purpose of revealing the beauty of nature and the
+    greatness of human nature, does not involve any belief that the
+    giving of ethical teaching ought to be one of the functions of
+    pictures, and that the proposal is made partly for the purpose
+    of increasing the width of appeal of works of art. While trying
+    to make that appeal reach a large part of the community, we may
+    usefully teach, by means of other parts of the collections, that
+    the excellence of paintings has no relation to ethical
+    teaching.
+
+    With regard to the influence on the artist of the choice by
+    others of his subjects, I think that Sir F. Leighton is misled
+    by his own great gifts. A man of remarkably wide culture, and of
+    great poetical power, he has been enabled, by the great range
+    and strength of his imagination, to choose subjects giving ample
+    scope for the exercise of the qualities peculiar to the painter,
+    and yet appealing strongly to the powers of thought and feeling
+    of all fairly educated people. To such a man, and to such a man
+    only, spontaneous impulse can now be a sufficient guide in the
+    choice of his subject; and to such a man, and only to such a
+    man, the choice of his subject by other persons of intelligence
+    would be a harmful restriction. In every picture gallery it is
+    but too obvious that the majority of even able painters, though
+    unrestricted by the will of any committee, are impeded by more
+    hampering restrictions than any intelligent committee would
+    impose, and are unable to find subjects interesting both to
+    themselves and to others. For many able painters the intelligent
+    choice by others of subjects for their work would remove, and
+    not impose, restrictions. It must be remembered that the
+    subjects of the works of Pheidias, of Cimabue, of Giotto, and
+    indeed those of most of the works which have been much cared
+    for, were chosen for, and not by, the artists.--Yours, &c.,
+
+                                                   T.C. HORSFALL.
+
+The following letter is Mr. Horsfall's answer to the one published in
+the _Manchester Courier_, August 30, 1890:--
+
+                                 SWANSCOE PARK, NEAR MACCLESFIELD,
+                                               _August 20, 1890_.
+
+    DEAR SIR FREDERIC LEIGHTON,--It is most kind of you to answer my
+    letter so fully. I shall show my gratitude by doing my best to
+    make your counsel as useful as possible to Manchester.
+
+    The system which you suggest for giving some idea of
+    masterpieces which are too distant to be visited seems to me to
+    be admirable, and I cannot but believe that it will be adopted
+    in one of our Manchester Galleries.
+
+    With regard to the advisableness of choosing for public
+    galleries chiefly pictures of noble subjects respecting which
+    most people have, when they see the pictures, or can be expected
+    to gain, some knowledge, though I feel the great weight of your
+    argument, I am still of the same opinion. I may say this without
+    presumption, because the great question which we are discussing:
+    "How can Art be made most useful to England?" involves the two
+    other questions: "What are the best conditions under which
+    artists can work?" and "How can the best work of artists be made
+    to influence the rest of the community?" In considering the
+    second of these questions an artist is, I think, impeded by his
+    special gifts, while I, not an artist, aided by the _qualites de
+    mes defauts_, and by the results of several years of experiment
+    in the use of pictures, believe myself to have gained much
+    trustworthy knowledge! Speaking from the standpoint which I have
+    thus reached, I should say that whilst the artist is most
+    conscious of the analogy which exists between painting and
+    instrumental music, there is really a much closer analogy
+    between painting and poetry, or between painting and song, and
+    that it is this closer analogy which should guide the action of
+    the directors of public galleries. Painting deals, while
+    instrumental music does not, with subjects respecting which we
+    think and feel, and it must accept the results for good and evil
+    of this; its products cannot be, as instrumental music is,
+    without definite relation to our feeling and thought, and a
+    simply neutral relation being impossible, the relation must be
+    ennobling or debasing in some degree. I think that my analysis
+    of the conditions which must be fulfilled if the relations is to
+    be an ennobling one was sound.
+
+    In asking that painters shall choose subjects pure and lovely
+    "and of good report," I am not asking that painting shall leave
+    its special function--shall cease to do that which it can do
+    better than any other art; but only that it shall recognise that
+    its function differs from that of instrumental music, and is the
+    creation in us of a symphony of feeling or emotional thought and
+    enjoyment of form and colour, and human skill, and love of
+    beauty.--With very many thanks, I am, dear Sir Frederic
+    Leighton, yours sincerely,
+
+                                                   T.C. HORSFALL.
+
+
+                             2 HOLLAND PARK ROAD, KENSINGTON, W.,
+                                               _August 22, 1890_.
+
+    DEAR MR. HORSFALL,--I have to thank you for your kind and
+    interesting letter of the 20th.
+
+    Knowing of old the views you entertain, and the radical
+    divergence which exists between them and my own, I had fully
+    anticipated the spirit of your answer; in fact, it almost seemed
+    to me when I wrote at some length the other day that I ought to
+    explain that it was out of deference to your wish and in high
+    appreciation of the long and earnest thought which you have
+    given to a grave subject that I did so, rather than in the hope
+    that my views would carry conviction or commend themselves to
+    you.
+
+    The divergence between us is, as I said, at the root of things,
+    and is one on which I do not think experience either qualifies
+    or disqualifies us to judge. The question is not what effect
+    pictures may have had on certain people, but what the _proper_
+    function of Art is. The question is theoretic rather than
+    practical. _If_ the primary function of Art is definitely
+    didactic, _if_ its first duty is to inculcate a specific moral
+    truth, then, indeed, there is, as you very rightly say, no
+    neutral ground. Either the teaching is wholesome or it is
+    mischievous.
+
+    Meanwhile, our brief correspondence only throws into stronger
+    light the impossibility to which I believe I alluded in my first
+    letter, of dealing with such a subject within the compass of a
+    letter, and in broad and sweeping outlines. So, for instance,
+    when I used instrumental music as a parallel, I did not for a
+    moment mean to describe its province as being identical with
+    that of painting. Neither, on the other hand, would you, I
+    presume, in instancing song on your side wish to be taken too
+    literally; for you would have, according to your theory, to
+    excommunicate, let us say, for instance, Schubert, the king of
+    song-writers, who has played on more varied chords of feeling
+    and imagination than any other musician of his kind, and of whom
+    I am not aware that he ever inculcated (I feel pretty certain
+    that he never meant to inculcate) a definite moral lesson.
+
+    But I am beginning again. Let me at once draw rein, and
+    abandoning a barren, however interesting controversy, remain,
+    dear Mr. Horsfall, yours sincerely,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+
+                             2 HOLLAND PARK ROAD, KENSINGTON, W.,
+                                               _August 28, 1890_.
+
+    DEAR MR. HORSFALL,--Before starting for my holiday, of which I
+    stand in much need, I write one line to acknowledge and thank
+    you for your amiable and interesting letter, which shows me, I
+    am very glad to see, that we are much less divided in opinion
+    than I should have gathered from what you had previously
+    written, and indeed printed.
+
+    Judgments given as absolute in your letters to the Manchester
+    press are shown by the commentary which your last letter
+    furnishes to be in a manner conditional, and without that
+    commentary your words were rather misleading. I was not
+    unnaturally a little startled--I, who do not think a "subject"
+    in the ordinary sense of the word imperative at all--to find you
+    condemn the purchase of Yeames's "Arthur and Hubert" (which, for
+    the element of human emotion, certainly satisfies the
+    Aristotelian demand in reference to tragedy), because the
+    emotion does not turn on an heroic act; and I may say, in
+    passing, that I am unable to see how a scene in which deep pity
+    for the helpless is aroused, can be justly described as a
+    "horror which it is foolish to try to realise."
+
+    Meanwhile, I fully feel the practical difficulty which your last
+    letter describes. It is a difficulty of the most perplexing
+    kind. For it must be evident that whilst with a people of strong
+    moral fibre and an almost entire absence of aesthetic
+    sensibility--at all events, on the side of form--you may
+    indirectly insinuate some perception of the beautiful--of that
+    essence which lifts us out of ourselves--under the cover and
+    pretext of a _moral_ emotion--we cannot ignore the danger of
+    producing the exactly opposite effect of confirming the
+    dully-strung spectator in the belief that the stirring of that
+    moral emotion is in fact the _raison d'etre_ of the work. One
+    is, of course, glad, as the world goes, that the doors of
+    righteousness should be opened, even by the wrong key; but one
+    would still more desire that the door which yields only to that
+    key should not itself remain closed.
+
+    Pray do not take the trouble to acknowledge these parting words:
+    but believe me, very truly yours,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+With regard to Leighton's acute artistic sense of fitness when it was
+a matter of chosing a site for buildings or monuments, so that such
+placing should give them their full value of effect, I remember, after
+a site had been decided on for Cleopatra's Needle in London, Leighton
+vehemently denouncing the idea of placing it where it now stands. The
+conversation we had respecting it was recalled by finding the
+following letter:--
+
+    DEAR SIR,--It is a source of regret to me that I am unable to be
+    present as a listener at the discussion to-morrow. Meanwhile the
+    question of the base, though a very important one, is in my mind
+    very secondary to that of the site, and the (in my poor opinion)
+    radical wrongness of the present selection much mars my interest
+    in the whole affair. A monument which, intended to be
+    conspicuous, is not the _focus_ of the avenues that lead to it,
+    I think against the most primary perceptions of effect. Two
+    magnificent avenues give access to Cleopatra's Needle, the
+    finest river and the finest embankment in Europe; _both of these
+    run past it_ as if they had forgotten it. I may add that what
+    would only have been feeble is rendered worse than feeble by the
+    (of course accidental) semblance of matching with the short
+    tower over the way.
+
+    Pray excuse the great haste in which I write and the consequent
+    abruptness of my expressions, and believe me, yours very truly,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+Mr. J. Goodall, in his Reminiscences, says: "Many years before it was
+removed from Egypt I used to see it lying on the seashore near
+Alexandria. I agree with Lord Leighton's opinion that it was not
+erected on a suitable site. It is a pity it was not put up in front of
+the British Museum."
+
+Leighton, needless to say, took infinite interest in Sir Henry Tate's
+splendid scheme for memorialising the success of a commercial life, by
+presenting to his nation a gallery in which the best British works of
+art might find a home, and, moreover, by the gift to the public of
+the nucleus of such a collection. It was truly amazing to see the
+amount of time and trouble which Leighton devoted to this scheme,
+considering how full to overflowing his life already appeared to be.
+But, whether it was a question of a splendid enterprise, or a
+struggling artist of whom the world had never heard, or even an
+earnest amateur, once his sense aroused that he could be of help,
+Leighton manufactured time somehow to give that help.[78] But the
+high-minded, public-spirited view Sir Henry Tate took of the
+responsibilities of wealth specially enlisted Leighton's sympathies,
+and he evinced an intense interest in helping to work out the great
+idea.
+
+Another matter which concerned him very seriously was the fact that a
+work by the greatest sculptor England can claim--Alfred
+Stevens--purporting to memorialise our great warrior, the Duke of
+Wellington, was allowed to remain unfinished and shunted away in a
+side chapel of St. Paul's Cathedral, instead of being completed and
+placed in the position for which it was designed. The following
+letters to Mr. Henry Wells show that in 1888 Leighton had induced
+others to view the matter in the same light:--
+
+                                             2 HOLLAND PARK ROAD,
+                                               _August 12, 1888_.
+
+    DEAR WELLS,--The list for the Memorial Committee is practically
+    complete, and though it is not in every particular the list
+    which you or I might have drawn up, it is a good one, and as I
+    told you I think in a previous note, I have not liked to
+    interfere too much, as Agnew has so zealously taken the work on
+    himself. I meant to send you the list, but have cleverly come
+    away from home (I am writing at the Senior United Service Club)
+    without it. I have of course asked Agnew to add his own name;
+    for the Academy I have proposed to him the four Trustees--not as
+    Trustees, but because they offer a ready-made group in a body
+    where none is afore or after--Sir J. Gilbert, Linton, and Coutts
+    Lindsay will complete the artistic section for the present. The
+    next step, as I have suggested to Agnew, is to get at the Dean
+    of St. Paul's--this I have offered to do. A chairman will have
+    to be appointed; I should suggest, or rather have suggested, the
+    D. of Cleveland--if he joins; I believe his answer has not yet
+    come in. And there must be a banker: then a letter from the
+    Committee should appear in the _Times_ inviting adhesions and
+    subscriptions, to be published from time to time: is all this in
+    harmony with your own view? Are you not afraid that the moment
+    when "everybody" (for _our_ purposes it _is_ everybody) is
+    leaving town or has left it--I go myself in a few days--is a
+    very bad one? Many people lose sight of their _Times_, or would
+    not write from the country or foreign parts. How would it strike
+    you to wait a month or two, having now laid the foundation? It
+    is a nice point. There are pros, but there are also cons. With
+    all good wishes, yours sincerely,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    You have seen no doubt in your _Times_ that we mean to exhibit
+    our lamented friend's work in a worthy manner.
+
+    _P.P.S._--By-the-bye, _S. Kensington_ ought to be represented. I
+    will ask Agnew to write to T. Armstrong.
+
+    [Illustration: "BACCHANTE." 1892
+    By permission of Messrs. Henry Graves & Co., the owners of the
+    Copyright]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY IN OILS FOR "BACCHANTE." 1892
+    By permission of Mrs. Stewart Hodgson]
+
+
+                             2 HOLLAND PARK ROAD, KENSINGTON, W.,
+                                              _November 2, 1892_.
+
+    DEAR WELLS,--Best thanks for your cheque and kind note. You will
+    be glad to hear that the removal is going on capitally. I did
+    not wait for the full money-promise; I had _determined_ to do
+    the thing, and I set it going on my personal guarantee when we
+    were L300 short of the full sum. _Now_ we have the money, young
+    Lehmann munificently sending a cheque _for that amount_.
+
+The great monument having been moved to its right position, the next
+question was to raise funds for the completion of the work. This was
+perplexing Leighton during the last weeks of his life. Having written
+a letter to the _Times_ in 1895, and the donations having come in but
+scantily, he was puzzled to know what further steps to take.
+
+Leighton himself, so distinguished a sculptor, took a special interest
+in all efforts to promote the knowledge and love of plastic art. When,
+therefore, his old friend Mr. Walter Copland Perry called a meeting at
+Grosvenor House--at which the late Duke of Westminster presided--to
+lay before it his scheme for the formation of a gallery of casts from
+all the best Greek and Roman statues, Leighton was one of the most
+zealous and active promoters of the scheme.[79]
+
+Leighton was commissioned by the Government to execute the medallion
+for Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1887. M. Edouard Lanteri, now
+Professor of Modelling at the South Kensington schools, assisted him
+in carrying out the design, and became an ardent admirer of the
+President. M. Lanteri described to me how certain difficulties
+occurred in the casting. Leighton said they must work on till these
+were set right--and they _did_ work eighteen hours on end.
+
+All to whom the work of Watts, Burne-Jones, and Rossetti has appealed,
+owe Leighton a debt of gratitude. Before the Grosvenor Gallery
+Exhibition of his work took place in 1882, Watts, in talking to me of
+the unpopularity of the pictures he felt most inspired to paint, would
+often give as a proof of this that, with one exception, no one had
+ever cared to engrave his pictures; and truly, without Mr. Fred
+Hollyer's photographs the general public would have known little of
+the special value of this work, nor of the art of Rossetti and
+Burne-Jones. Mr. Hollyer's photographs are not merely copies--they
+have as art an atmosphere of charm in themselves; they render what may
+be called the _soul_ of a picture. He writes:--
+
+    "About 1875 I received a letter from Baroness ----, requesting
+    me to call upon her in order to arrange to photograph the
+    collection of works of art in her country house. She had
+    employed other photographers, but the results had not been
+    satisfactory. I carried the matter through, and not only
+    received a considerable amount in remuneration, but was given
+    great encouragement to persevere with my work at a time when I
+    had nearly decided on going to America. The Baroness never
+    mentioned who it was that had recommended me, and though I had
+    been constantly working for him during many years, it was not
+    till six months after his death that I discovered it was Lord
+    Leighton who had been my good friend. I should be glad to bear
+    testimony to his great heart and loving kindness, and do regret
+    not having been able to thank him myself."
+
+Leighton was made a Baronet in 1886. The following letter from
+Gladstone, written in 1885, refers to Leighton having submitted to him
+the names of Millais and Watts as artists worthy to receive the
+honour, at the same time begging him earnestly not to include his
+own:--
+
+    _Private._]
+                                    10 DOWNING STREET, WHITEHALL,
+                                                 _June 17, 1885_.
+
+    MY DEAR SIR F. LEIGHTON,--Your letter has given me much
+    pleasure. I can assure you that I in return highly appreciate
+    the generous spirit you have shown, and I value the advice you
+    kindly tendered in this matter of Art Honours. I am reporting
+    rather fully to Her Majesty on our conversation of Monday, and
+    on the personal abnegation on your own part, which commands my
+    cordial respect.--I remain always, very faithfully yours,
+
+                                                  W.E. GLADSTONE.
+
+On Watts declining the honour, Leighton was at first much vexed; but
+Watts, having explained to him the reason which made it inadvisable
+for him to accept a baronetcy, Leighton fully, as he told my husband
+and myself, saw the necessity of his declining.
+
+Since the first years when Leighton settled in London he had been
+favoured by the personal friendship of many members of the Royal
+family, who very greatly esteemed him. He not only attended the State
+banquets and entertainments to which he was summoned, but was
+frequently the guest at receptions of a private and a more intimate
+character at Marlborough House and elsewhere.
+
+In these pages there is only space to note a few, among the very many
+directions in which he served the Art interests of his country. In
+foreign lands, and in the Colonies no less than in England, he
+extended the knowledge and appreciation of the best English Art by his
+unwearying exertions; and yet it must always be remembered he ever
+remained "a workman first, an official after."
+
+Professor Church, appointed in 1879 to the Professorship of Chemistry
+in the Royal Academy of Arts in London, has preserved letters and
+notes from Leighton on the subject of pigments.[80] It is almost
+incredible that his mind could have penetrated with such accuracy into
+all the details of his craft as fresh questions arose as to the value
+of new vehicles and colours, considering his endless labours connected
+with the wider interests of Art, and the absorbing nature of his own
+work. But there exist over sixty letters, and more than twenty cards,
+dating from 1880 to November 1895, two months before his death, in
+which he proves his insistency to master thoroughly every detail of
+his craft. He wrote: "It is, I feel, rather a duty in me to ascertain
+about these various new vehicles."
+
+The following extracts may prove of interest and value to
+painters.[81]
+
+                                                           _8th._
+
+    DEAR PROF. CHURCH,--I write to acknowledge your letter of the
+    6th, the information in which (Jaune de Naples) is to me of
+    very great importance indeed. I believe Hills to be really
+    anxious to help us in the matter of medium. I should be
+    peculiarly glad if we could send forth a thoroughly trustworthy,
+    hard-drying, supple, and not yellowing vehicle. Let us consider
+    it. I find myself using a mixture, roughly, of equal parts of
+    amber varnish (Roberson's) and oil of spike; and, say, a sixth
+    of the whole of poppy oil (Roberson's): that is, 3/7 amber, 3/7
+    spike, 1/7 poppy; but I vary according to the work; and again I
+    don't know what Roberson's amber varnish is, it does not seem
+    _very_ drying. Of course one would want a good middle drying
+    power, to which, _mixing the ingredients_, one might add any one
+    at will. I think that "Siccatif de Haarlem" has about that
+    middle quality, if I remember it rightly. It is, I think, copal,
+    poppy oil, and turps.; but it seemed to me to yellow a little,
+    why, I don't know; poppy should not darken. Chromophile is
+    delightful up to a certain point, and then the work sinks
+    extraordinarily blind and tallowy; and as you want something in
+    the way of varnish at the end, it seems desirable to carry that
+    or _some_ varnish in a moderate degree right through. Chromoph.
+    becomes a little _milky_ in a bottle with spir. of turp., and
+    turns bright green when left in a dipper.
+
+    Your proposal to _report_ to us annually is very valuable, and
+    could be worked to the _general_ advantage.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    I am delighted to find that you are in co-operation with my
+    friend Mr. Hills, who has a warm and genuine desire to serve Art
+    and his friends the artists. I find his poppy oil _clarified
+    with charcoal_ very delightful stuff. Am I wrong in thinking the
+    action of the charcoal on it has been to render it more
+    _drying_? I think that a vehicle made with that oil, amber
+    varnish, and oil of spike will be a very satisfactory vehicle
+    indeed; particularly if you can, between you, _bleach_ the oil
+    yet more. Chromophile is quite colourless. The mastic varnish
+    _that won't bloom_ will be a great triumph. _Pace_ our
+    detractors, it shall, I hope, be seen in time that the R.A. is
+    not unmindful of the needs of artists even in the matter of
+    material appliances.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    I observe that you speak in your valuable manual of Aureolin as
+    a _very slow-drying_ colour when ground with oil; finding, in
+    use, that _Roberson's_ Aureolin dries, on the contrary,
+    extremely quick--it is always absolutely dry the next day, and I
+    use no vehicle but Bell's Medium, _i.e._ linseed and oil of
+    spike and turps.--I wrote to ask him what he grinds the colour
+    in. He answers "_pure linseed oil without the addition of any
+    drier._" This puzzles me. Where is the solution? Are there
+    different kinds of Aureolin? When you have a leisure moment send
+    me a post-card.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Among the madders in your handbook _scarlet_ madder does not
+    appear; I hope it is not a treacherous colour; I use it freely,
+    but only mixture with other _dark_ colours, to give them
+    richness. I also use cadmium _red_; is that wrong? A line on a
+    post-card will greatly oblige.
+
+    _P.S._--Of course I only use cadmium red when I want a _very_
+    deep orange in drapery or sky--nothing could replace it.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                                  _Feb. 2, 1885._
+
+    Here is a little problem: I thought all _burnt_ colours were
+    _ipso facto_ sound. Roberson tells me that burnt white
+    (Chremnitz do.), a lovely colour _like ivory_, plays most
+    amazing tricks, darkens and lightens again in rapid succession.
+    WHY? When you are in Long Acre make him show you his samples.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Thanks for your letter. I don't use any particular colours other
+    than those you mentioned in your lectures, although I thought of
+    trying deep yellow madder again; I used to like it very much. I
+    suppose you have the list--it is a very long one--of Edouard's
+    colours. Smith is his agent here (14 Charles Street, Middlesex
+    Hospital). I use one or two colours (Tadema I think _all_) from
+    Mommen's in Brussels; his burnt sienna is _superb_. Asphaltum
+    would reward study; it was _universally_ used by the Venetians,
+    and seems never to have cracked with them. I am very glad that
+    you are steadily pursuing your collection of specimens and
+    experiments, which I hope will by degrees become an exhaustive
+    one, and of infinite value to the profession. _Grounds_, too,
+    will deserve much attention.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Kindly tell me whether there is any harm in putting a _thin_
+    coat of mastic, softened perhaps with a drop or two of oil, over
+    works _finished quite recently_ but _begun_ a year or more ago?
+    If I understand rightly, cracking is caused by atmospheric
+    action through the _back_ of the canvas, by _distension_ of
+    underlying partially soft paint and, consequent disruption of
+    the upper, harder layer of varnish. If the first painting is a
+    year old, is it not tough enough to resist the atmosphere, and
+    is it not _anyhow_ pretty safe when the canvas is _backed_?
+
+    I suppose "Mutrie yellow" is quite safe alone and mixed with
+    other pigments?
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Thanks for your note. Yes, I do like the white oil, but I add
+    copal to it if I want it to be very drying, or mix copal on the
+    palette with a slow-drying colour, say a lake. This, I suppose,
+    is all right; if so, don't trouble to acknowledge this. The oil
+    of orange is delightful on account of its smell, but dries less
+    quickly than turpentine (rectfd. spirit). Is it not _always_
+    better to have _some_ resin in a picture _throughout_ since it
+    has to be varnished at the end?
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                                _April 21, 1888._
+
+    I am so much enamoured with the method, so far as vehicle is
+    concerned, which I have used during the last year, that I should
+    like to feel quite certain that it is _absolutely safe_. I use a
+    "single-primed" canvas, and underpaint with "Bell's medium" and
+    rect. spir. turps., which, under your advice, I have in _small_
+    bottles, so that using it freely a bottle lasts a very short
+    time, and the stuff is therefore always fresh. The mixture I
+    _use up to the end_ (except when I now and then use the pigment
+    _alone_), and letting the turps. rather _preponderate_ as I
+    advance. I have found to my amazement that this mixture dries
+    even in winter weather excellently, and that I can use with it
+    even scarlet madder and aureolin, which, at least the former,
+    hitherto I never attempted to use except stiffened with amber
+    or copal; and I further find that this mixture, though of course
+    it "sinks" to some extent (and especially with the blues), in
+    the main bears up very fairly, incomparably better than I should
+    have expected, and in fact quite enough. Before beginning to
+    paint I rub over the part each time with Bell's medium and
+    saliva nearly equal parts, or say five oil to four saliva beaten
+    up with the knife on the palette to a white mucilage. This, if
+    left alone, makes a good varnish, and is delightful to paint
+    into. So far, so good; at least I suppose so. (Do you see any
+    elements of danger? cracking? darkening?) But at the end
+    something must go over it all, if only to lock it up (I
+    suppose), certainly to get uniform gloss and strength. I propose
+    in the Academy to put Roberson's medium over the whole of my
+    large one and to retouch with the same. A portrait on to which I
+    _don't_ intend to work I should cover with mastic and _a little
+    poppy oil_; there is no harm in this, I suppose, and the small
+    quantity of mastic is not likely to yellow, is it? I know this
+    mixture _won't come off_, but why should it?
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                                  _May 30, 1889._
+
+    Messrs. Reeves send me a colour in which I delight, but which I
+    have hitherto always avoided as being unsafe, to wit, indigo. I
+    suppose one ought not to use it, ought one? although my old
+    friend, and in some ways my master, Robert Fleury, employed it
+    extensively in _underpainting_ blue draperies.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                             _December 23, 1889._
+
+    I have got a recipe--a very simple one--from a friend of mine in
+    Italy, who paints a good deal in distemper, and who in technical
+    matters is quite the most leery person I ever came across. In
+    this recipe he mentions what he calls "Gum Damar," which he, in
+    his characteristic ignorance of spelling (for Italians are not
+    very strong in orthography), writes with an apostrophe, D'Amar.
+    Now I presume he means "Gum Dammar" (I believe there is such a
+    thing, is there not?), but I should like to feel sure. Perhaps
+    you will kindly enlighten me on a post-card.
+
+    The distemper itself is the simplest thing in the world. It is
+    only a proportion of water and yolk of egg (he deprecates the
+    use of vinegar), to which he adds a certain number of drops (I
+    have not the recipe by me) of this gum. Of course it would be
+    important not to use the wrong gum. Hence the trouble I am
+    giving you.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                              _January 27, 1890._
+
+    I have just received from Perugia the enclosed sample of Gum
+    Dammar, which you were kind enough to say that you would report
+    upon to me. A few drops of this (by-the-bye, I do not know how
+    it is to be dissolved) and the yolk of an egg stirred in water,
+    form the distemper used by my friend Mariani.
+
+    I don't know whether I told you that he is rather an interesting
+    fellow. He is one of those extremely dexterous Italian
+    workmen-artists who know and can work in every material, and
+    whose forgeries of sixteenth century bric-a-brac, cassoni,
+    reliefs in pastiglia, &c. &c., have, I am afraid, not
+    infrequently been purchased as original by very crafty persons.
+
+    Several friends of mine who use distemper, and he amongst the
+    number, tell me that by putting a preparatory coating of
+    distemper over thoroughly dry oil, you can with perfect safety
+    interpose a layer of _painting_ in distemper between two
+    paintings in oil--an extremely valuable thing for us _for
+    recovering quality_.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                              _January 31, 1890._
+
+    Many thanks for your valuable letter. I have had the information
+    entered in a little book, where I keep the outpourings of your
+    wisdom on matters chemical.
+
+    Thanks also for the card, in which you give me a somewhat long
+    name for my Gomme Dammar. I suppose in an appeal to a chemist
+    the _first_ portion would suffice.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                             _February 14, 1890._
+
+    Many thanks for your valuable note. I may say in passing that
+    the specimen of "Ruby Madder" sent by Mr. Laurie appears to me
+    to be inferior in brilliancy to both the Rose Madder and the
+    Madder Carmine furnished by Messrs. Roberson; and I have no
+    reason to doubt that the latter colours are perfectly
+    trustworthy.
+
+    It will give me great pleasure to receive the dedication of your
+    book, which I look forward to seeing with pleasure, and using
+    with profit.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                                  _May 19, 1890._
+
+    Many thanks for your note, which seems to open up an interesting
+    point. I gather from what you say that the mode of _manufacture_
+    of a colour may affect its drying properties over a range
+    extending from drying very slowly to drying very rapidly; and I
+    shall be much interested in hearing what your experiments lead
+    to under this head.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                             _January 30, 1891._
+
+    Many thanks for your letter. I see that I had better wait for a
+    final opinion until the few months have expired which you still
+    require as tests of permanence. Meanwhile, I am a little unhappy
+    to see in the case of colour after colour the expression
+    "semi-permanent." I do not quite know what that means. Let me
+    know _at your leisure_ whether it means permanent under certain
+    conditions, and, if so, what; or merely in a general way that
+    the pigment stands, but only pretty well. The Rosso Saturno I
+    quite understand is to be set aside.
+
+    Another perplexity is in regard to the Burnt Madder. If the
+    madders are in themselves sound colours, as I have always
+    understood them to be, how do they lose their permanence by
+    burning? I should like to use the Gialetto, and I rather gather
+    from what you say that I may do so. I hear with interest what
+    you tell me of your new varnish. As for myself, I have got to
+    dislike the use of any resins in my work to such an extent that
+    I have completely set them aside. Of course when a picture is
+    finished it requires some gum, not only to protect it, but to
+    bring up the colour to its full value. Will you let me know--but
+    this will do at your leisure, for the time has not come
+    yet--whether a picture being painted as I paint mine,
+    exclusively with Bell's medium and turpentine from first to
+    last, and, I may add, worked on up to the last moment of sending
+    in, _i.e._ a fortnight later, may on the walls of the Academy be
+    safely varnished with this new material of yours, either alone
+    or diluted with a little poppy oil? I look forward with interest
+    to Heyl's Madder Green.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                              _December 5, 1891._
+
+    I shall certainly try the Heyl's Madder Green, which I hear of
+    through you for the first time. Laurie's daffodil cadmium is
+    very pretty. I have got some; but my new delight now is yellow
+    cobalt, which you have found to be absolutely safe, and which is
+    absolutely delightful as a colour.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    My tempera is come from Italy, and I am told that it is made of
+    the tails (feelers?) of the cuttle-fish (sepia). Would you like
+    to look at it again from curiosity? I understand that with the
+    reservation that it darkens, I may use it with impunity in,
+    under, and with the oil--that is enough for _my_ purpose.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                              _October 16, 1894._
+
+    Will you kindly advise me on the tempera, of which I send a
+    tube? It is used by my friend, Prof. Costa, who gave it me; he
+    likes it vastly. It coalesces _with oil_; he uses it also by
+    itself _between_ two paintings in oil. I have often longed for
+    something to keep down the _greasiness_ and _slipperiness_ of
+    oil paint when correcting or going over a surface often, oil and
+    water _do_ coalesce sufficiently. The most luminous thing I ever
+    painted (and it has stood like a rock) was painted (or certainly
+    _thickly under_painted) with a vehicle made of _starch and oil_.
+    What _this_ medium is, I don't know. Please advise.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                                 _March 7, 1894._
+
+    Forgive secretary again.
+
+    I am much obliged by your note, and read with great satisfaction
+    what you say about Newman's golden ochre. I shall now, until I
+    hear from you further, adopt the motto "Ex uno disce omnes," and
+    assume that the _yellow_ ochre is equally sound and serviceable;
+    although the colour is so much finer than any yellow ochre of my
+    acquaintance that I cannot quite close my mind to a lurking
+    suspicion that it is stimulated or refreshed by some foreign
+    ingredient.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                                _March 13, 1894._
+
+    Many thanks. You send me good tidings. The yellow ochre is by
+    far the finest I have ever seen.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    I enclose, because we think (Watts and I) that it will interest
+    you, a specimen of purple _lake_ (_not madder_), such as Watts
+    has used _all his life_, which has been baking in the sun for
+    _two_ years; it is slightly browner, but more beautiful than
+    ever, and has, you see, retained its full _body_; this is
+    remarkable.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                                 _June 22, 1894._
+
+    Very many thanks for your interesting and exhaustive
+    investigations on the French lakes. I observe that in several
+    cases you mention lakes having _cracked_. I presume, however,
+    there is no reason to suppose they would do this when embodied
+    with other colours, and that _if_ otherwise safe they might
+    therefore be used. The purple lake used by our friend Watts is
+    furnished to him, I have always understood, by Messrs. Newton of
+    Rathbone Place. I am glad to hear so good an account of the pale
+    boiled linseed oil from May & Baker, Ltd., of Battersea. I do
+    not, however, gather from what you say that there can be any
+    reason for substituting it for Bell's medium, to which I am much
+    attached, and which, as you know, is, with the admixture of
+    one-third rectified essence of turpentine, the only vehicle I
+    use. This note, of course, requires no acknowledgment--anything
+    you may have to say on these various points will abundantly keep
+    until I get a further account of your investigations on the
+    purple lake.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Many thanks for your valuable caution. Amongst the lakes you
+    tried, did you include the garance _nuance brun_ and do. _brun
+    fonce_? Both are superb colours, and it would be nice to think
+    one might use them. It is very comfortable to feel that one has
+    a _conscience_ one can tune at Shelsley.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                                _April 19, 1894._
+
+    I am about now to take up a large decorative painting for the
+    Exchange, a work which cannot be done on the spot on account,
+    _inter alia_, of the darkness of the place, and will, therefore,
+    be carried out here at the studio on _canvas_, and then
+    "maroufle" on the wall. Macbeth (A.R.A.), who is also doing one,
+    is using _Parris's_ "Marble medium," in which, a thousand years
+    ago, I painted two figures for mosaic at South Kensington; great
+    brilliancy is obtainable, but I rather fear a certain tendency
+    to look waxy and almost shiny. I myself incline to use Gambier
+    _Parry's_ material, which I have used on the _wall_ at South
+    Kensington and greatly like. But now the question arises, ought
+    the canvas to be _prepared_? and on this I shall be grateful for
+    your opinion, as the matter is very important. G. Parry told me
+    that canvas either _could_ or _should_ be prepared for his
+    medium, I don't remember which. Roberson's man tells me that
+    Madox Brown and Fredk. Shields (I think) both had canvases
+    prepared for a similar purpose. I shall postpone ordering mine
+    till I have your instructions; till when, and always, I am, in
+    much haste.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                                _April 23, 1894._
+
+    Many thanks for your letter. I shall, of course, obey your
+    instructions punctually, and substitute paraffin wax for the
+    ordinary Brecknell and Turner beeswax, as prescribed by Parry
+    himself. I will see Roberson immediately, for I should not think
+    it right, as he ground the colours and prepared the medium
+    throughout for my two large frescoes at South Kensington, to
+    abandon him in favour of Laurie, or anybody else.
+
+    You suggest that I should make a little experiment on a small
+    canvas. Do you think that would be necessary? I presume that the
+    material will work exactly as it did before, and that the
+    surface will be--bar the granulation--very much the same as on a
+    wall. I ask this question, because I ought to get to work
+    immediately, and I gather from a reference to your work that it
+    will take several weeks before the process of preparation is
+    complete.
+
+    I wish I could throw light for you on the verb "maroufler," and
+    should like to know what subterranean connection there is, or
+    can be, between it and the word "maroufle" which is, as you say,
+    being interpreted, a "rascal."
+
+    At all events, when the moment comes for the operation, I must
+    endeavour to obtain information from France, where the process
+    is in very frequent use.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                             _February 27, 1895._
+
+    A contretemps has occurred of which I think I ought to inform
+    you, as it relates to the very interesting subject of grounds
+    and pigments.
+
+    Robersons, when they came to roll up my fresco to transport it
+    to the Exchange, found that either the ground or the
+    pigment--probably both, as they are of the same substance--was
+    extremely brittle and cracked right across, cracking at a rather
+    abrupt tangent from the circumference of the circle; so that
+    they immediately struck work, and declined to go any further.
+
+    As far as the painting itself is concerned, I do not believe
+    that any serious damage is done, because on re-straining it
+    flat, the cracks are barely perceptible, and probably would not
+    be at all perceptible in _situ_.
+
+    Meanwhile, if any question arises as to the ground, it has
+    occurred to me, and it is on this point I wish to consult you,
+    that the cause may be the substitution of paraffin wax for the
+    ordinary wax hitherto used in Gambier Parry's material, which,
+    though perhaps not absolutely so durable as paraffin, is
+    sufficiently so, and very malleable. One does not see what else
+    could have cracked in that abrupt and sharp manner--certainly
+    not the copal, which has oil in it and is further made supple by
+    the oil of spike. If it turned out that the paraffin was the
+    peccant element, I should be, _entre nous_, rather glad, because
+    it diminished the facility of the work.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+With reference to the cracking of this work Professor Church writes:--
+
+    This unrolling was begun in very cold weather; if the
+    temperature had been a little higher, nothing of this kind would
+    have taken place. The picture now shows no sign of defect or
+    injury, and is in perfect condition. By substituting _ceresin_,
+    a paraffin obtained from ozokerite or earthwax, for crystalline
+    paraffin, the chance of cracking is obviated. The ceresin, which
+    should have a melting-point of 150 deg. or 160 deg. Fahrenheit,
+    constitutes a safe substitute for the beeswax commonly employed
+    in Gambier Parry's Spirit Fresco Medium.
+
+
+                                      FOGGIA, _October 15, 1895_.
+
+    You will be surprised to get a letter from me with an Italian
+    superscription; I am writing thus early before my return to save
+    time. When I was in Venice the other day, Van Haanen spoke to
+    me, _with approval_, of a certain vehicle, of which I had
+    already heard before vaguely, the invention of the French
+    painter, Vibert. You probably know of it, as the subject of
+    media has occupied you. There are, it appears, three forms of
+    this medium: the vehicle for painting, the medium for painting
+    _into_ in retouching, and the final _varnish_. As far as I
+    understood Van Haanen in a hurried conversation--he was a little
+    vague--the painting medium contains no gum, only, he seemed to
+    think, petroleum and oil; I assume that in the final "vernis"
+    there _is_ gum of some kind.
+
+    I am perfectly satisfied with Bell's medium and fresh turpentine
+    for the very little use I make of vehicle in painting; but there
+    is always the difficulty of the _final_ varnish in the Academy.
+    I don't like risking mastic or copal _so soon_ on work which
+    contains _nothing_ but oil (and if I ever do use a little, I put
+    poppy oil with it), and the result is that I generally varnish
+    with Roberson's medium, which is safe, but I fear a little
+    inclined to _yellow_ in time.
+
+    Now what I want you kindly to tell me, my dear Church, is the
+    exact composition of the _three_ Vibert media, and your opinion
+    about the safety of using _all three_ in the prescribed order;
+    and this I should like to know on my return at the _beginning_
+    of November (hence my haste in writing), and also whether I can
+    safely use these vehicles on work _begun in my usual medium_.
+
+    It is just possible you may not have heard of the Vibert
+    vehicles; if so, I would ask you to be so kind as to obtain (of
+    course at _my_ expense) a bottle of each of the mixtures and to
+    test them carefully.
+
+    A line to say this has reached you would find me at the Hotel
+    Royal Mazzeri, Via 20 Settembre, _Rome_.
+
+    With kind regards and anticipated thanks.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                       HOTEL ROYAL MAZZERI, ROME,
+                                              _October 22, 1895_.
+
+    Many thanks for your prompt and amiable answer. I shall be
+    interested to hear on my return the upshot of your analysis; but
+    I _hate vernis_ in painting, as Bocchini tells us the Venetians
+    did, _comme la peste_.
+
+    I am very glad you are getting on so satisfactorily with your
+    work on the frescoes.
+
+    In haste (for I have many letters before me).
+
+    _P.S._--No; I am sorry to say I am no better of my special
+    ailment though my _general_ condition is good.
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+                             2 HOLLAND PARK ROAD, KENSINGTON, W.,
+                                              _November 8, 1895_.
+
+    Excuse the hand of my secretary.
+
+    Many thanks for your note about Vibert's varnishes, which I
+    shall accordingly dismiss from my mind--the varnishes, I mean,
+    not your note.
+
+One chapter in which is revealed Leighton's serious inner life closed
+during the years he was President. The last letter which has been
+preserved from his beloved master, Steinle, is dated 22nd November
+1883, Frankfurt:--
+
+    DEAR FRIEND,--Yesterday evening I received your letter from
+    Florence, and answer at once, partly to tell you how delighted I
+    am at the result of the consultation with Quarfe, as also at
+    your comfort and well-being, and partly because this part of
+    your letter has greatly roused my curiosity for a second, which
+    shall also tell me something about Vienna, Verona, and Florence.
+    At the same time, however, I want to make use of a pause in my
+    work to tell you that the first three coloured contours are
+    completed. To the painting I dedicated all my small skill, and
+    would have died in order to secure that the drawing and
+    composition should produce a life-like effect; I believe also
+    that these pictures will look like frescoes in their
+    surroundings.
+
+Some time after this Leighton wrote to Mrs. Pattison the following
+letter, which proves that to the end he retained his great affection
+for Eduard von Steinle. This friend and master died in 1886, but
+whether Leighton made this inquiry before or after that date I do not
+know, as his letter is not dated:--
+
+    DEAR MRS. PATTISON,--I saw a paragraph not long ago in the
+    _Academy_ which concerned me deeply; it did not _say_, but it
+    implied that my dear old friend and master, Ed. Steinle
+    (professor at Frankfurt a/M) is dead. Did you by chance write
+    the note? and do you know when or how he died, if he be indeed
+    dead? His wife has not written to me. I am anxious to have some
+    certainty in the matter.
+
+(Influenced) "--for good far beyond all others by Steinle, a
+noble-minded, single-hearted artist, _s'il en fut_ ... Steinle's is
+the indelible seal." In making any estimate of Leighton's character
+these words should ever be remembered. They prove how deeply rooted
+were those feelings on which his principles were grafted. These words
+were no mere outlet for youthful enthusiasm and affection, but were
+noted with reference to an account of his life about to be written for
+publication; therefore we may consider them to be a deliberate
+statement made for a purpose, when he had reached the zenith of his
+fame and was already President of the Academy. The design by Steinle
+here produced, called _Der Winter_, in which the artist has drawn his
+own portrait when old, throws a light on the mind and nature of
+Leighton's master, whose influence on him for good was greater "far
+beyond all others."
+
+Written on the drawing are these lines, penned by Steinle:--
+
+    Giunto e gia 'l corso della vita mia,
+    Che tempestoso mar per fragil barca
+    Al comun porto ov 'a render si varca
+    Giunto ragion d'ogni opera trista e pia.
+    Indi l'affettuosa fantasia
+    Che l'arte si fece idola e monarca
+    Conosco ben quant 'era d'error carca
+    Ch' errore e cio che l'uom quaggiu desia.
+
+         .     .     .     .     .     .
+
+    I pensier miei gia de' miei danni lieti
+    Che fian se s'a due morti m'avvicino
+    L'una m' e certa, l'altra mi minaccia?
+
+         .     .     .     .     .     .
+
+    Ne pinger ne scolpir fin piu che queti
+    L'anima volta a quell' amor divino
+    Ch'aperse a prender noi in croce le braccia.
+
+    [Illustration: "DER WINTER"
+    Drawing by Eduard von Steinle]
+
+No other member of Leighton's family was ever known to have been an
+artist, and neither his parents nor his sisters pretended to any
+knowledge of painting; but respecting literature he had an interest in
+common with both his sisters, also a very strong sympathy existed
+between Mrs. Matthews and Leighton in their love for music. In answer
+to a letter from Mrs. Orr relating to Mr. Augustine Birrell's
+well-known book, Leighton wrote, "I have read 'Obiter Dicta,' and am
+much charmed with its delicate humour and ease of its style. I thought
+'Truth Seekers' charmingly written." With reference, however, to the
+Browning chapter he continues:--
+
+    Browning's obscurity hides a shorthand of which he keeps the key
+    in _his_ pocket. A matter of form, _not_ of matter, as "O.D."
+    hath it. Browning is not abstruse; he is a _deep_ thinker, who
+    _therefore_ (_vide_ "O.D.") requires obscure language; he is a
+    most ingenious dialectician and a subtle analyst; but he is not
+    a great poet on _that_ account--he is a great poet because of
+    his magnificent central heat, and the surface of interests over
+    which he sheds it. All this is rather late in the day to remark,
+    and one would not be exasperated by his friends if one had not a
+    sort of feeling that they _have_ done something to mar him. You
+    say he would not be obscure if he _knew_ it?--_distinguons_. His
+    obscurity is not intentional--of course--it is inherent in a
+    style which is strongly personal, and therefore sincere--but is
+    it in no degree _wilful_?--does he _not_ accept, virtually, some
+    such (absolutely false) view of his obscurity as "O.D.'s"? A
+    pity it certainly is; Browning is the last man who in his heart
+    _wishes_ to touch only the few--nobody knows better than he does
+    that that is not the characteristic of the greatest poets, and
+    that not for that is a poet's soul kindled to a white heat.
+    Meanwhile, here _is_ the fact that men of average culture and
+    average brains (I claim both, for an example), and _desirous_ of
+    _understanding_, as well as full of admiration for his powers,
+    often get at his meaning only by considerable effort, and
+    sometimes not at all, and that not because the thought is
+    obscure, but because it is wilfully written in cypher.
+
+The following letter to a friend of his sister's contains a criticism
+of Leighton's on Goethe's _Sprueche_ under the head of "Kunst":--
+
+    _Private._]
+                             2 HOLLAND PARK ROAD, KENSINGTON, W.,
+                                                    17/8/91.
+
+    DEAR MR. BAILEY SAUNDERS,--Complying with your wish, expressed
+    through my sister, Mrs. Orr, I have gone carefully through the
+    _Sprueche_ under the head "Kunst," and have marked certain
+    passages. I have, however, deferred writing till the last moment
+    (I am starting presently for the Continent), partly because I
+    have been overwhelmingly busy, and partly because I am a good
+    deal "exercised" on the whole matter. To speak with entire
+    frankness, I cannot feel sympathy with the idea of the
+    publication, and feel that the connection of my name with it
+    would imply an adhesion which does not exist. On re-reading more
+    than once the maxims and sayings in question, which I had not
+    seen for many years, I find myself confirmed in my earlier
+    impression of them, that their value is in no way commensurate
+    to the authority of Goethe's great name. Some of them are, in my
+    opinion, wholly misleading and some obscure; some commonplace,
+    some irrelevant to the subject. Again, my markings do not by any
+    means always mean assent; and, on the other hand, the
+    discrimination between the value of a marked paragraph is often
+    a nice one, and is not represented by the difference between
+    selection and omission, which, _on the face of it_, seems assent
+    and dissent. In sum, I ask myself what the outcome is--what _is_
+    the selection? it does not give to the world an important or
+    instructive intellectual possession; it _seems_ to express the
+    selection of the best by a particular individual (who does not
+    spontaneously desire to make such selections), and in _reality_
+    does _not_ represent anything that he assents to throughout.
+
+    But why a selection at all? I cannot refrain from asking myself.
+    The interest of these particular _Sprueche_ lies in the fact that
+    _they are utterances of Goethe's_ (and he gave them with a
+    context)--but then what is the meaning of a selection?
+
+    You see I speak very bluntly in the matter, but also sincerely;
+    and I have at all events shown my good will.--In much haste,
+    yours faithfully,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    I am, as I said, just off, but if you wished especially to
+    communicate with me, a line sent _here_ would reach me after
+    some delay.
+
+Though Leighton persisted in affirming that he hardly ever read, the
+number of letters, and answers to letters from scholars, referring to
+poems and general literature, which exist in the correspondence he
+preserved, prove that if he did not read he nevertheless somehow got a
+knowledge of the inside of books. To a question having reference to
+the Nine Muses (he was then painting his frieze "Music") which he
+asked Swinburne, he received the answer:--
+
+                                    THE PINES, PUTNEY HILL, S.W.,
+                                               _August 21, 1885_.
+
+    DEAR LEIGHTON,--I doubt very much whether Shelley himself could
+    have answered your question to your satisfaction. His
+    scholarship was that of a clever but idle boy in the upper forms
+    of a public school. His translation from Plato, as Mr. Jowett
+    tells me, and his translation from Euripides, as I know by
+    personal experiment, having carefully collated it with the
+    original text, absolutely swarm with blunders, sometimes,
+    certainly, resulting in sheer nonsense. I fancy he may have been
+    thinking of Aphrodite Urania, and perhaps confounding (as indeed
+    it seems to me that a Greek poet might possibly and pardonably
+    have done) the goddess of divine love with the Muse who was
+    _not_ the Muse of astronomy when she first made her appearance
+    in the Theogony of Hesiod, but simply the "heavenly one" in a
+    general way, as I gather from a reference to the lexicon. I
+    should have thought Calliope or Euterpe a fitter head mourner
+    for Keats: but probably Shelley wished to introduce the most
+    distinguished in the rank of the Muses in that capacity, on such
+    an occasion. And if Urania was in a certain sense the chief of
+    the Nine, she would naturally be most musical of mourners.--Ever
+    yours sincerely,
+
+                                                 A.C. SWINBURNE.
+
+As years went on, Leighton became more and more enamoured of the
+beauty to be found in our own islands, and longed, as can be traced in
+his letters, that his sisters should share with him his intense love
+of nature.
+
+To his elder sister, who was in Yorkshire, he wrote in 1887:--
+
+    "A broad shoulder of moor, lifted against a great field of sky,
+    is one of the grandest and most pathetic things in nature (see
+    Leopardi). The beauty of moorland is that it has a particular
+    poetry and impressiveness for _every_ condition of atmosphere
+    and weather."
+
+Again:--
+
+    "I am very glad you like Ilkley so much--moors have an immense
+    fascination for me, but all English scenery of whatever kind has
+    charm for me. It has two immense virtues: first, being entirely
+    of its own _kind_, it never suggests a, to itself, disparaging
+    comparison with the scenery of any other country, and secondly,
+    it is steeped, every fold and nook of it, in English poetry, and
+    is haunted with the murmur of the prettiest of peace-suggesting
+    words: _home_. I wonder whether you both feel as I do the
+    endearing quality in our old green-brown country."
+
+It became his habit, in these later years, to visit Scotland in
+September before flying off to his second home. More and more did he
+realise the marvellous beauty of the scenery there. He told me,
+shortly before he died, that the most beautiful vision he had ever
+beheld on earth was the one he saw when approaching Skye by sea from
+the south, when the sun was setting and illuminating the range of the
+Cuillin Hills with magic light and colour. He wrote to his father
+from:--
+
+                    THE HIGHLAND RAILWAY COMPANY'S STATION HOTEL,
+                                                  INVERNESS.
+
+    Accurately the _charmingness_ of Scotland, it is the
+    starting-point for everything. But I observe that at the rate of
+    writing I should fill a volume before I had given you the
+    hastiest account of my journey, so I will e'en cut it short and
+    simply say that, taking it altogether, my too brief stay in the
+    Highlands has been a source of very great enjoyment to me, if
+    not of any particular benefit to my health, for which indeed it
+    has been too short. I have had more than the usual proportion of
+    fine weather, and am corroborated in my old opinion that for
+    beauty of colouring nothing north of the Alps will compare with
+    this most lovely country, and that the wealth and variety of
+    effects of light and shade is altogether unrivalled.
+    Unfortunately, working here is very difficult, all the effects
+    are so bafflingly fugitive; nevertheless, I have made three
+    little sketches which, though hasty, will be of value if only
+    to revive my recollections of the effects they very feebly
+    render; they were all done in one day; and no one day since I
+    did them has been such as to make sketching possible--except
+    this the last and one of the most enchanting, which I have spent
+    delightfully but fruitlessly on the top of a coach.
+
+From Gressoney, St. Jean, September 1, 1891, he wrote to Mrs.
+Matthews:--
+
+    Many thanks for your letter received last night; as it crossed
+    one from me to the Dad, which I hope he could read (it was writ
+    large), I should not write again at once (having, of course,
+    nothing to say--except that it is, _pour changer_, a splendid
+    afternoon, and I ought to be out of doors) but that I want you
+    at once to tell the poor old Dad how concerned and sorry I am to
+    hear that he has been so ailing, and ailing so long, and how I
+    wonder at his superb power of recuperation. I don't ask in
+    _this_ letter how the Dad is, because I am sure he will send me
+    a line in answer to my note to him. But I have another reason
+    for writing at once; I want you, please, to thank Lina with best
+    love, for her nice long letter (_she does not want a letter
+    written from here_), and tell her, before it is too late, that I
+    hope she won't give up her Ballater without _a very full trial_,
+    because I know that it takes many people a considerable time to
+    get acclimatised to that bracing air. Tell her also that I was
+    myself going to suggest an _Ausflug_ to Braemar; if she goes to
+    the Invercauld Arms let her use my name, and she will be well
+    treated. I should _peculiarly_ like her to see the Lynn of
+    Dee--she will only have to scramble five or six yards off the
+    main road to look down into the stream from under some of the
+    grandest old Scotch firs in Scotland; and I verily believe that
+    the watching for a silent bit of those dark, dark, seemingly
+    bottomless, noiselessly swirling pools, _tiny_ as they are under
+    the hollow grey craig, will, somehow, whisper a big peace and a
+    strange wondering fascination into her being; the whole thing is
+    not bigger than an expensive toy, but it lays a never-failing
+    grip on _me_.[82]--Affectionate brother,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+To Mrs. Orr when in Scotland:--
+
+                                               _August 22, 1891._
+
+    If you can manage it go to a favourite haunt of mine, the Lynn
+    of Dee, quite a tiny tumble of green waters in fantastically
+    scooped grey rocks, no higher than a cottage, under astounding
+    old Scotch firs (by-the-bye the grandest tree in the world to my
+    thinking), where I have sat interminably long looking down into
+    the dark deep pools, from which now and then a salmon leaps. To
+    me no spot about there is so fascinating.
+
+
+                                   GRAND HOTEL, BRUFANI, PERUGIA,
+                                               _October 3, 1891_.
+
+    DEAR LINA,--Well, I am glad you got to the Lynn of Dee, though
+    sorry that you could not be there in solitude and see it without
+    sitting in a pool of water. I am glad, too, that you saw the
+    salmon leap; I did not mention that most exciting spectacle
+    because it is not by any means _always_ on view--you were in
+    luck; but what you must make for another time is the bit three
+    or four yards _below_ the fall where the vehemence of the winter
+    torrent has scooped and worn pools so deep that as your eye is
+    drawn down past half-hidden submerged rocky shapes you come at
+    last to absolute dark brown night, and whilst you are conscious
+    of a rapid, swirling current, no _sound_, no faintest gurgle
+    even, reaches your ear; the silent mystery of it all absolutely
+    invades and possesses you; that is what I faintly tried to put
+    into my "Solitude," of which a photogravure embellishes your
+    staircase. I am vexed that you had so much rain; however, you
+    had a few fine glimpses, and if a rainy day in Scotland is like
+    the Scotch Sawbath, a fine one throws you the gates of Heaven.
+    It is curious how much clearer the air is (_when clear_) than we
+    get it south of the Tweed.
+
+    I am glad that the Dad has rallied so satisfactorily; tell him,
+    with my love, that I have heard from the gentleman in Copenhagen
+    for whom I carved the marble "Athlete." He is benighted enough
+    to say that in his opinion it is one of the most important
+    statues of modern times; and he wants my bust, if there is one,
+    for his collection of portraits.
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY IN COLOUR FOR "SOLITUDE." 1890
+    By permission of Mrs. Stewart Hodgson]
+
+Leighton also particularly desired that his sister should see
+Malinmore, County Donegal, when visiting Ireland. He wrote from
+Kensington, "I am bent on your seeing Malinmore."
+
+And again, from Scotland:--
+
+                                       INVERNESS, _September 13_.
+
+    DEAR LINA,--I can't help feeling a good deal of responsibility
+    about the melancholy, treeless wilds to which I have sent you,
+    because I happen to like them vastly; and I particularly feel
+    that _everything_ will turn on your seeing, not indeed all or
+    nearly all _I_ saw--that is impossible--but as much as your
+    strength will allow; take your courage, therefore, in one hand,
+    your goloshes in another, and your umbrella in a third, and
+    _from_ the car--_abseits_--see the _whole coast-line close_ to
+    the rocks overlooking the sea; there is not an inch that won't
+    reward you. There is a bit not more than half a mile from
+    Malinmore (_to'ards_ Malinhead), that is, though _small_, quite
+    Dantesque in its grim blackness (a few wet feet _im Nothfall_
+    won't hurt you). Of course, to do this well you must be in cars
+    _every_ day to take you in all directions to the point _from_
+    which to make your _Abstecher_--sometimes towards Glencolumskill
+    and the Hog's Back beyond (magnificent), sometimes towards
+    Malinhead, where you must see every little bay, including the
+    Silver Strand.
+
+    At first sight the breaking up of the weather is a bore, _mit
+    Seitenblick auf Ihnen_--but is not as bad as it seems; bad
+    (dirty) weather suits these parts, and the day will not dawn in
+    which I shall have forgotten certain dramatic sunsets and the
+    swooping of certain storm-clouds like the flight of huge fiery
+    birds of prey, more than once witnessed and deposed to on canvas
+    by me, over this treeless tract of moor.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[58] "Athlete Strangling a Python," exhibited in the International
+Exhibition, Paris, 1878.
+
+[59] "The Arts of War."
+
+[60] "Addresses delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy by the
+late Lord Leighton." Publishers: Kegan Paul, Trench, Truebner & Co.
+1897.
+
+[61] "Not everybody," wrote the late Mr. Underhill, who for some time,
+as private secretary to Sir Frederic Leighton, had special
+opportunities of knowing, "is aware of the tax upon a man's time and
+energy that is involved in the acceptance of the office in question.
+The post is a peculiar one, and requires a combination of talents not
+frequently to be found, inasmuch as it demands an established standing
+as a painter, together with great urbanity and considerable social
+position. The inroads which the occupancy of the office makes upon an
+artist's time are very considerable. There is, on the average, at least
+one Council meeting for every three weeks throughout the whole year.
+There are, from time to time, general assemblies for the election of
+new members and for other purposes, over which the President is bound,
+of course, to preside. For ten days or a fortnight in every April he
+has to be in attendance with the Council daily at Burlington House, for
+the purpose of selecting the pictures which are to be hung in the
+Spring Exhibition. He has to preside over the banquet which yearly
+precedes the opening of the Academy, and he has to act as host at the
+annual conversazione. Finally, it is his duty every other year to
+deliver a long, elaborate, and carefully prepared 'Discourse' upon
+matters connected with art, to the students who are for that purpose
+assembled. It is a post of much honour and small profit." "To
+administer the affairs of the Academy, to fulfil a round of social
+semi-public and public engagements, and to paint pictures which
+invariably reach a high level of excellence, would, of course, be
+impossible--even to Sir Frederic Leighton--were it not for the fact
+that he makes the very most of the time at his disposal. 'That's the
+secret,' remarked a distinguished member of the Academy to the present
+writer some little time before the President's death; 'Sir Frederic
+knows exactly how long it will take to do a certain thing, and he
+apportions his time accordingly.'"--"Frederic, Lord Leighton, P.R.A.:
+His Life and Works." By Ernest Rhys.
+
+[62] While writing this discourse Leighton wrote to his father:--
+
+                                      PERUGIA, _October 5, 1889_.
+
+    DEAR DAD,--You will be surprised to hear that your letter (for
+    which best thanks) only came to my hands _yesterday_ on my
+    arrival here; it had apparently, after enjoying a junket through
+    Spain, returned to England before its final despatch here. The
+    envelope, which I enclose, will amuse you; Ulysses himself did
+    not visit more cities of men! I am glad my Spanish tour is at an
+    end; the insufferable heat, the long journeys, the frequent
+    _night_ travelling, have conspired to make it rather trying to
+    me physically. I have never been thoroughly well the whole time.
+    Here it is absolutely cold, and I shall probably soon begin
+    firing; it rains also, and I fear the weather is altogether
+    unpromising; but the air is magnificent, and I am very fond of
+    the place, and I shall enjoy my stay as much as the necessity of
+    writing my (adjective) Address will allow.
+
+    My journey through Spain, though fatiguing, was extremely
+    interesting and very profitable to me for the matter in hand. My
+    stay in Madrid was made more enjoyable by the extreme amiability
+    of my very old friend our ambassador, who brought me into
+    contact with two or three interesting people, from whom I
+    gathered valuable information in regard to things Spanish; to
+    say nothing of getting compartments reserved for me in trains,
+    &c. &c. It is rather fortunate that our diplomatic
+    representatives abroad are mostly personal friends of mine. Post
+    is just going, so good-bye for the present.--Your affectionate
+    son,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+Leighton mastered the Spanish language completely in the course of the
+few weeks he spent in Spain in 1866. A friend who was present gives an
+amusing account of an incident which occurred when Leighton dined with
+Mrs. Adelaide Sartoris after his return. He was sitting next Senor
+Garcia (only now just dead at the age of 102); the conversation was
+being carried on in Spanish. Mrs. Sartoris, in astonishment and
+admiration at the fluent manner in which Leighton was talking the
+language of which he did not know a word a few weeks before, exclaimed,
+"But, Senor Garcia, _do_ say he makes some little mistakes!" "But he
+_doesn't_," replied Garcia; "he hasn't made one!"
+
+[63] Mr. Norman Shaw wrote the following letter the day after he heard
+this address in 1891:--
+
+                               6 ELLERDALE ROAD, HAMPSTEAD, N.W.,
+                                             _December 11, 1891_.
+
+    DEAR SIR FREDERIC,--I was so sorry I missed you last night.
+    After the election I went into the galleries to find my people,
+    and when I came out you had gone--and quite right too, for you
+    must have been very tired.
+
+    I thank you very sincerely for your most admirable address. I
+    had heard that it was to be on the subject of French Art, but I
+    had not realised that it was to be entirely about Architecture!
+    and as an architect I naturally feel very deeply its great and
+    permanent value. It is altogether a new sensation to have a
+    Presidential address devoted to the Mother of the Arts! and I am
+    sure its influence will be wide, deep, and lasting.
+
+    Amongst the many regrettable phases of modern art, there is none
+    that I feel more than the isolation that the three great
+    branches of art exist under in this country (for in France I am
+    sure it is quite different), and I cannot help feeling that your
+    address is a tremendous step in the right direction; but, alas!
+    I don't believe one in twenty of our colleagues understood what
+    you were so clearly explaining, and I fear not one in fifty
+    cared! But it is absurd to suppose that with the advancement of
+    knowledge this state of things can last, so it is intensely
+    satisfactory to have it on record that not merely have we had a
+    President that knew all that is to be known about the art, but
+    who also cared and loved it!
+
+    I thought your remarks on the French apse quite delightful. I
+    have always felt this strongly, and though as an Englishman
+    (Scotchman!) I like our square east ends, still I am bound to
+    admit that there is a logical completeness about a chevet that
+    the square end cannot claim. But I shall only weary you if I go
+    on in this prosy way! so thanking you again most heartily for
+    your grand contribution, believe me to remain,--Yours very
+    sincerely,
+
+                                                  R. NORMAN SHAW.
+    SIR FREDERIC LEIGHTON, BART.
+
+[64] From a boy, without any effort or thought on his part, he
+exercised an unquestioned domination over others. Speaking of the days
+when he, as a boy of seventeen, first made friends with Leighton in
+Rome, Sir E. Poynter said, "He knew he was clever, but he hadn't a
+particle of conceit. I never saw him cast down, he was always jolly and
+noble; none ever thought of refusing him obedience." Again, Sir E.
+Poynter refers to these early days in his Dedication to Leighton of
+"Ten Lectures on Art": "I came to-day from the 'Varnishing Day' at the
+Royal Academy Exhibition with a pleasant conviction that there is, on
+all sides, a more decided tendency towards a higher standard in Art,
+both as regards treatment of subject and execution, than I have before
+noticed; and I have no hesitation in attributing this sudden
+improvement, in the main, to the stimulus given us all by the election
+of our new President, and to the influence of the energy, thoroughness,
+and nobility of aim which he displays in everything he undertakes. I
+was probably the first, when we were both young, and in Rome together,
+to whom he had the opportunity of showing the disinterested kindness
+which he has invariably extended to beginners; and to him, as the
+friend and master who first directed my ambition, and whose precepts I
+never fail to recall when at work (as many another will recall them), I
+venture to dedicate this book with affection and respect." Signor
+Giovanni Costa wrote: "I remember once in Siena there was an unemployed
+half-hour in our programme. Leighton happening to go to the window of
+the hotel, exclaimed, 'The Cupola of the Duomo is on fire!' and as he
+said it he rushed downstairs to go there. I, being lame, could not keep
+pace with him, but followed, and on arriving in the Piazza attempted to
+enter the Duomo past a line of soldiers who were keeping the ground;
+but they would not allow me to. Seeing them carrying wooden hoardings
+into the cathedral, I shouted. 'You are taking fuel to the fire! Let me
+in--I am an artist and a custodian of artistic treasures.' The word
+'custodian' moved them, and they let me pass. When I got inside the
+Duomo I found Leighton commanding in the midst. He was saying, 'You are
+bringing fuel to the fire.' There was a major of infantry with his
+company, who cried out, 'Open the windows!' Leighton exclaimed, 'My
+dear sir, you are fanning the flames; you must shut the windows.' He
+had placed himself at the head of everybody, and the windows were shut.
+From the cupola into the church fell melting flakes of fire ('cadean di
+fuoco dilatate falde'--_Dante_) from the burning and liquefied lead,
+which would certainly have ignited the boards with which they had
+intended to cover the _graffitte_ by Beccafumi on the marble pavement.
+Our half-hour was over. Leighton looked at his watch and said, 'In any
+case the cupola is burnt; let us be off to the Opera del Duomo; Duccio
+Buoninsegna is waiting for us!'"
+
+[65] Sir George Grove wrote after the banquet in 1882: "Dear
+Leighton,--Let me say a word of most hearty congratulations on the
+brilliant way in which you got through your _Herculean_ task on
+Saturday. You are really a prodigy! Your last speech reads just as
+fresh and gay and unembarrassed as the first, and every one of the nine
+is as neat, as pointed, as perfectly _a propos_ as if there were
+nothing else to be said! Thank you especially for the reference to the
+music business."
+
+[66] The following is one of many letters of regret expressed when
+Leighton resigned:--
+
+                                    19 QUEEN STREET, MAYFAIR, W.,
+                                                       _June 24_.
+
+    DEAR SIR FREDERIC,--I trust you will allow me to express to you
+    the sincere regret I feel at your being compelled to give up
+    your command of the "Artists." To myself volunteering has always
+    been so inseparably connected with your command, that I cannot
+    at present realise the extent of the blank which your
+    resignation will create. I shall ever remember with pride that
+    it was under your auspices that I rose through the ranks and
+    obtained my commission.--Believe me, dear Sir Frederic, very
+    truly yours,
+
+                                                      W. PASTEUR.
+    SIR FREDERIC LEIGHTON, P.R.A.
+
+[67] The following correspondence took place between Leighton and Mr.
+Henry Wells, R.A.
+
+    To Sir FREDERIC LEIGHTON, P.R.A.
+                                           _January 27, (?) 1880._
+
+    I will avail myself of this opportunity to remark upon the
+    statement you made in your summing up, viz. that if women were
+    made members under the existing law they would not have the
+    right to sit on Council.
+
+    If you can establish this, if you can show us that any one
+    elected a "member" under our law can be debarred on the score of
+    sex from taking a seat on the Council, then I will instantly
+    allow that our laws do provide for the election of women, and
+    that the very ground of our argument is proved to be a
+    quicksand. When you endorsed the statement that came so
+    naturally from Millais, Calderon, and Leslie, I felt the matter
+    was serious, for I saw at once that you could not do justice to
+    our argument in the summing up because its very foundation was
+    misapprehended by you. Although the question is now disposed of,
+    I beg of you to look closely into the matter and assure yourself
+    of it. I only wish I had known beforehand where your doubts were
+    centered, for I would have done my best to remove them. I know
+    you will find, beyond all doubt and controversy, that any one
+    made a "member" by election can make good a claim to a seat on
+    the Council, just as Mr. Tresham made good his claim; and it is
+    because our laws provide for only one kind of members--a
+    Council-sitting kind--that we felt the necessity of providing
+    for the election of a non-Council-sitting kind.
+
+    In making this distinction we follow the example of George the
+    Third and the founders of the Academy (who presumably knew
+    something of the understanding upon which the two ladies became
+    connected with the Society), for their decision, when they
+    _administered_ the law in the Tresham case, excluded women from
+    a privilege which could not be denied to a "member" elected
+    under the law. Of course their and our interpretation is open to
+    dispute; but this much is beyond dispute, that if the law is
+    interpreted as providing for women being "members," then it also
+    places them (against the intention, as we see, of the founders)
+    upon the Council; and as the great majority of the present
+    Academicians have made up their minds that women shall not sit
+    on Council, legislation would be necessary on either reading of
+    the law.
+
+    The schedule of privileges to be given on the one hypothesis,
+    would on the other give place to a subtraction of privileges,
+    and either schedule would be determined according to the varying
+    shades of opinions of the members.
+
+    There would remain only this difference in the result; one
+    schedule would be based upon a law that is open to varying
+    interpretations, whereas according to our method the schedule
+    was based upon a positive resolution providing for the election
+    of women, thus removing the question from all future discussion
+    and doubt.
+
+                                                           H.T.W.
+
+
+    From Sir FREDERIC LEIGHTON, P.R.A.
+                                              _January 30, 1880._
+
+    "In regard to the women question, I perfectly _saw_ your
+    contention and the logical cohesion of your view, and I was
+    familiar with the Tresham episode, only I dissent from your
+    view; I maintain that there were from the first
+    non-Council-sitting members--for 'members' the women certainly
+    were. 'It is the King's pleasure that the following forty
+    persons be the original _members_ of the Society,' and they did
+    not serve on Council, as the roster shows, _though all members_
+    were supposed to have sat; of course the laws were for the
+    original as well as the elected members, and if the privilege
+    could be refused to an original member whose name stands on the
+    paper that says that all members shall serve in Council, it can
+    and must on the same grounds be refused to elected female
+    members after the custom is consecrated by Royal sanction."
+
+
+                                              _January 31, 1880._
+
+    "DEAR WELLS,--I should much like to hear what you wish to say
+    about the office of Treasurer--there are several points
+    connected directly or indirectly with the office which it will
+    be well to consider before I ask the Queen to appoint, and I
+    have called a Council for _Thursday_ (the funeral is not till
+    Tuesday), at which these matters may be considered. It would
+    seem advisable and convenient that the Treasurer's work be done
+    at the Academy, and not away from it. I think also that the
+    wording of the clause appointing a Surveyor might be made
+    clearer; it ought not to be _possible_ for any one to
+    misunderstand or misinterpret its bearing. Unfortunately I have
+    an appointment to-morrow afternoon at 4.30, and my work in the
+    day is so urgent, having to be handed over on a fixed day, that
+    I cannot leave it--would _Tuesday_ at _five_ do? say at the
+    Athenaeum, or here a little later? we should still be forty-eight
+    hours in advance of the Council. In regard to the women
+    question, I perfectly _saw_ your contention and the logical
+    cohesion of your view, and I was familiar with the Tresham
+    episode, only I dissent from your view; I maintain that there
+    were from the first 'non-Council-sitting' members--for 'members'
+    the women certainly were: 'It is Her Majesty's pleasure that the
+    following forty persons be the original _members_ of the
+    Society,' and they did not serve on Council as the roster shows,
+    though _all members_ were supposed to have sat. Of course the
+    laws were for the 'original' as well as for the 'elected'
+    members, and if the privilege could be refused to an original
+    member whose name stands on the paper, that says that all
+    members shall serve on Council, it can and must on the same
+    grounds be refused to 'elected' female members after the custom
+    is consecrated by Royal sanction.--In haste, yours very truly,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    "I have said nothing in this letter about poor Barry, but you
+    may imagine whether the tragic event has moved and haunts me."
+
+
+    To Sir FREDERIC LEIGHTON, P.R.A.
+                                              _February 1, 1880._
+
+    I am very glad indeed to have the statement of your views which
+    you have given me on the women question. Everything is now
+    clear, side matters are disposed of, and only a single point
+    remains on which we have to join issue. On my part I hold that
+    our laws are in a definite and unequivocal form. That their
+    foundation is in the "Instrument" and that every addition to, or
+    modification, or annulment of the provisions in that document
+    has been made in the manner prescribed, viz. by "resolutions"
+    passed by the General Assembly and afterwards sanctioned by the
+    Sovereign. These acts of legislation are all drawn up in a
+    special way (as to size and pattern), to receive the sign manual
+    of the Sovereign; and the tablets arranged in the order of their
+    dates constitute our Statute-Book. I hold that no law can be
+    changed or privilege taken away except by a subsequent act of
+    legislation done in the prescribed manner.
+
+    On your part you hold that laws can be changed and privileges
+    taken away by a "custom consecrated by Royal sanction." Thus the
+    issue raised is very clear and distinct indeed.
+
+    I will point out that the question as to women sitting on
+    Council was only on one occasion, and then only incidentally,
+    before the Academy. Until the Tresham case arose the ballot had
+    been used in forming the Council, and consequently no question
+    of rights could appear while that process remained unchallenged.
+    But whether we are discussing a single act of adjudication, or
+    such a succession of acts as may be called a "custom," is really
+    immaterial, because the sole question before us is this--can any
+    act or acts other than those of legislation override and
+    supplant the enactments of our law?
+
+    If it could be established that our laws must give way to the
+    class of acts you point to, it would then be the first duty of
+    the Academy to have our records minutely searched to ascertain
+    what other laws have been supplanted by administrative actions
+    sanctioned by the Sovereign; and the historical method so much
+    discountenanced at our last Assembly would in truth rise into
+    paramount importance. Many cases would most probably be found.
+    We have one in suspense before us at this moment--the case of
+    the engravers.
+
+    The laws of the Academy distinctly provide (but not more
+    distinctly than that without discrimination "members" shall sit
+    on Council) that a vacancy in the case of R.A. engravers shall
+    not be filled up until the assent of the General Assembly has
+    been taken by vote. Since the making of that law only two
+    vacancies have occurred. They were both filled up without a
+    preliminary permission, and the Sovereign sanctioned the
+    election. On your contention, therefore, the custom consecrated
+    by these sanctions must override the law itself, and nothing at
+    this time stands between Barlow and the Queen's signature to his
+    Diploma.
+
+    The Constitutional question you have raised is certainly one of
+    the highest importance, and I shall watch its development with
+    great interest. It is a matter of little moment what the view of
+    an ordinary member like myself may be, but not so with the
+    President, and I offer no apology for endeavouring to throw
+    light upon the subject.
+
+                                                           H.T.W.
+
+[68] See Chapter III.
+
+[69] Now in the Tate Gallery, purchased under the terms of the Chantrey
+Bequest.
+
+[70] The owners of Leighton's pictures must feel satisfaction, not only
+in the fact that in all cases the beauty of the forms and arrangements
+of line grow on the eye more and more the longer they are studied, but
+also that the work itself improves by keeping. I noticed this to be the
+case very decidedly in "Cymon and Iphigenia." I had seen it when
+completed, the day before it left the studio in 1884; and when it
+returned there in 1901 (the owner, Sir Cuthbert Quilter, having kindly
+lent it for exhibition), and was placed in precisely the same light, I
+was surprised to see how much it had improved in tone during those
+seventeen years; it had gained so very greatly in those qualities which
+suggest the feeling Leighton wished it to inspire.
+
+[71] Leighton kept these precious studies he made for his pictures in a
+drawer where I was often invited, rather apologetically, to turn them
+over as if they were absolutely of no importance. I protested against
+the cursory treatment they received at the hand of their creator; and
+on seeing one superlatively beautiful study of drapery pinned on his
+easel one day, I implored him to have it glazed and framed before it
+ran any danger of being rubbed. He did so, and always alluded to it
+after as "that sketch you lost for me," because, being framed, he lent
+it to some one--he did not remember to whom--and it never came back.
+Periodically I asked if it had returned; "No--some one, I suppose, has
+taken a fancy to it," Leighton would reply. The pace at which he had to
+live in order to fulfil the work he had set himself, enforced great
+carelessness about his own interests in such matters. Unfortunately,
+after Leighton's death, the sketches were exposed to much defacement, a
+natural consequence of their being moved before being secured under
+glass.
+
+[72] Ceiling for a music room, painted for Mr. Marquand, New York.
+
+[73] Mr. Brock gave a replica of this bust to the Leighton House
+Collection in 1897. It is from some points of view the most
+characteristic portrait of Leighton in existence.
+
+[74] Miss Emily Hickey, the poetess, was inspired by Leighton's picture
+to write the following lines:--
+
+        SOLITUDE
+
+    O'er the grey rocks, like monarchs robed and crowned,
+      High tower the firs in swart magnificence,
+      Where, winter after winter, vehemence
+    Of the wild torrent's rush, unstayed, unbound,
+    Hath scooped and worn the rocks till so profound
+      The deep pool's depth that all the gazer's sense
+      Fills with the absolute, dark-brown night intense.
+    The rapid current swirls, but never a sound.
+
+    By the high grandeur of the silence wooed
+      Into its bond of comradeship, the maid
+      Sits with the quiet on her bosom laid;
+    Not on the great unknowable to brood;
+      Only to wait a while till, unafraid,
+    She see the spirit of the solitude.
+
+            E.H. HICKEY.
+                    _Oct. 26, '91._
+
+[75] As portraits, the two heads Watts painted from "Dorothy Dene" were
+superior to those Leighton painted.
+
+[76] This referred to a joke we had had with reference to a photograph
+Mrs. Cameron had taken of my brother-in-law, Mr. W.R. Greg. Mrs.
+Cameron had insisted that all character, will-force, and superiority in
+general, evinced themselves through the size of the nose and the height
+of the bridge. The result was, in trying to accentuate this feature in
+my brother-in-law's photograph, she had made it almost _all_ nose!
+
+[77] Among Leighton's correspondence is the following interesting
+letter from Irving, who was an ardent admirer of Leighton's, and was
+among the first to join the committee formed to preserve his house for
+the public.
+
+                             15A GRAFTON STREET, BOND STREET, W.,
+                                          _January 1, 1889_.
+
+    DEAR SIR FREDERIC,--I am glad that you are coming to "Macbeth,"
+    and I wish you had been with us on Saturday.
+
+    The seats you wish for I enclose, though I should ever look upon
+    it as a great privilege to welcome you myself.
+
+    Ellen Terry's performance is remarkable, and perfectly
+    delightful after the soulless and insipid imitations of Sarah
+    Siddons to which we have been accustomed.
+
+    You will find the cobwebs of half a century brushed away.
+
+    There is an amusing article in to-day's _Standard_, which
+    overshoots the mark, and clearly shows how offensive it is to
+    some minds to be earnest and conscientious in one's work. But I
+    need not point this out to you.--Remaining, my dear Sir
+    Frederic, yours sincerely,
+
+                                                       H. IRVING.
+
+[78] Needless to say that time was invariably forthcoming to welcome
+and entertain the friends he loved. The following letter from Costa
+gives a picture of his delight in so doing:--
+
+                                        "LONDON, _Dec. 10, 1888_,
+                                            "2 HOLLAND PARK ROAD.
+
+    "DEAREST TONINA,--A thousand thanks for the twelve letters which
+    I have found awaiting me here.
+
+    "I have just arrived from the station, where I found the
+    President, who was shedding light all round him, all radiant
+    with his white beard. Note that the train arrived at a quarter
+    past five, and there was an hour's drive from the station to his
+    house, and then he had to dine, and at half-past seven he was
+    due at the Academy for a distribution of prizes to the students,
+    where I, too, was to have accompanied him. However, in London
+    there was one of those fogs which put a stop to all traffic, and
+    it took us an hour and three-quarters to reach home.
+
+    "The cabman had to get down and lead the horse; with one hand he
+    guided the animal, which was slipping on the ice, and with the
+    other he held a lantern. What darkness,--the gloom of hell
+    itself! Boys holding torches and shouting, showed us the way;
+    foot passengers called out, 'Hi there! look where you're going
+    to!' but, in spite of everything, the cabman with his lantern
+    banged into a railing.
+
+    "At last we arrived at our destination, having discussed all the
+    way along the speech which Leighton made at Liverpool. The
+    dinner was ready, and eaten hurriedly, with the obligatory
+    champagne. I had eaten nothing since the morning. Whilst dining,
+    I got off accompanying him to the Academy, pleading my rheumatic
+    pains, and I ate like a famished and attentive dog. But the
+    President, spite of the hurry he was in, never once ceased from
+    tracing the iron line along which I am to run as long as I am
+    with him, and so he has set me down for a trip on Saturday.
+
+    "Good-night; I am going to bed, as I am deadly sleepy. Did you
+    receive a letter of mine from Castle Howard?
+
+    "Thank for me the kind writers of the twelve little letters; in
+    the midst of these fogs they have been twelve stars to me. A
+    kiss to dear Tonachino. Frederic was much amused by Georgia's
+    letter, and embraces you all.
+
+    "Love to all, from Ninaccio, who has the greatest possible
+    desire to repass the Channel."--(See "Giovanni Costa: His Life,
+    Work, and Times," by Olivia Rossetti Agresti.)
+
+[79] It may interest his friends to know that the valuable collection
+of casts which Mr. Copland Perry spent four years in forming, after
+visits to all the collections of ancient sculptures in Europe, has been
+ceded to the British Museum, and will be transferred from the South
+Kensington Museum, where it has long been hidden away in a dark
+corridor, to suitable courts in the new buildings of the British
+Museum.
+
+[80] Professor Church's Lectures were given to the outer world beyond
+the Academy in the form of a book, published in 1891, and dedicated by
+permission to Leighton.
+
+[81] The questions raised in these letters have been very fully
+answered in the third edition of Professor Church's "Chemistry of
+Paints and Painting" (see Index), published in 1901.
+
+[82] This spot inspired the picture "Solitude."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+LIFE WANING--DEATH
+
+1887-1896
+
+
+Already in 1887 his friends noticed that Leighton showed at times that
+he was overtaxing his strength. On retiring from the Academy as an
+active member, Mr. George Richmond wrote:--
+
+                              20 YORK STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE, W.,
+                                              _January 13, 1887_.
+
+    MY DEAR SIR FREDERIC,--I have just received your most kind and
+    generous note, and thank you and the Council for so promptly
+    complying with my request to retire from the R. Academy as an
+    active member.
+
+    To do it was much worse than making a will; but, having done it,
+    I am greatly relieved.
+
+    Had it been earlier it would have been wiser; but as delay has
+    not forfeited the esteem of my dear President and others, I am
+    thankful and content.
+
+    But one word of parting advice I crave to offer, which my
+    admiration of your rule and guidance in your high office
+    constrains me to make.
+
+    Many of us have remarked that you draw upon your strength too
+    severely; my parting words then are, and please accept, follow,
+    and forgive them:--
+
+    Spare yourself when you can, that you may long be spared to give
+    yourself, when you ought.
+
+    And now farewell, from your loyal and affectionate old friend,
+
+                                                   GEO. RICHMOND.
+
+From San Martino, 20th September 1889, Leighton wrote to his
+father:--
+
+                              SAN MARTINO, _September 20 (1889)_.
+
+    DEAR DAD,--I received your letter two or three days ago, but
+    have deferred answering till I could say something one way or
+    another about my health, for of course I have nothing else to
+    tell of in these high latitudes. Well, I am in fairly good trim,
+    and as well as I am likely to be till I leave, for San Martino
+    will be shorn of my presence on Friday next as ever is (my
+    address for the first fortnight in October will be Hotel
+    Brufani, _Perugia_). On the other hand, if you were to ask me
+    whether I am "as fit as a fiddle" or a "flea," or "as a strong
+    man requiring to run a race," or "a giant refreshed," or "a
+    bridegroom coming forth from his chamber," or whatever simile
+    you like, I am obliged to own that I am not. I am aware that the
+    air is superb, and when I get on to an exposed slope and open my
+    mouth like a carp I am further aware at (and for) the time--so
+    to speak, "for this once only"--of very gratifying symptoms;
+    then they are fugitive, and my _average_ condition is perhaps a
+    little less satisfactory than on Hampstead Heath. On the other
+    hand, of course, such air _must_ in some occult way be
+    benefiting my tissues, and I shall no doubt, as the stock phrase
+    is, "feel _so_ much better _afterwards_." Meanwhile, I undergo
+    much humiliation; whilst _ladies_ make with comfort and ease
+    delightful ascents to neighbouring peaks, I humbly pant up an
+    anthill or two, resting at every third yard--puffy, helpless,
+    effete. And lest I should console myself with inexpensive
+    commonplace about my years, &c. &c., I have before me two
+    acquaintances, _not_ climbers by trade, one 65 and the other
+    (most charming of men, Sir James Paget) 73, who put in their
+    twelve, sixteen, or even at a pinch eighteen or twenty miles to
+    my one, and back again without turning a hair or having a
+    vestige of fatigue! Ugh!!
+
+    I am most truly sorry that your strength did not enable you to
+    see Manchester; but it is _wonderful_ that you do what you do on
+    the doorstep of 89!--Your affectionate son,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+From Tours, October 30, he wrote to Mrs. Matthews:--
+
+                                       TOURS, _October 30, 1890_.
+
+    I hope, when I get back next week, that I shall find the old dad
+    fairly well. More can't be expected; and especially I hope to
+    find Lina drawing within sight of the end of her anxious
+    toil.[83] I am delighted to hear that she means to leave town
+    again for a bit--a _good_ bit, I hope. Tell her with my love
+    that she is to make herself _very_ comfortable, and _not to look
+    at the money_, but _send for a cheque whenever convenient_. She
+    _must_, in justice to herself, do her work under the most
+    favourable circumstances she can command.
+
+    I have, of course, no particular news; I have been visiting
+    _till now_. (I am going to-morrow to Blois and Chambord.)
+    Nothing but old familiar scenes with the old familiar enjoyment,
+    in the more serious sense of the word, but not of course with
+    the old buoyancy of spirit--_that_ must necessarily fade with
+    every year now, and I must be content with an occasional little
+    flicker of the waning candle. I have, however, been better in
+    health during the second than during the first half of my
+    holiday. In Rome I was the whole time with old Nino,[84] whom I
+    further took on a _Giro_ to Siena and Florence. I also gave him
+    a commission: very few things could give him so much pleasure
+    (_inside_--he is not demonstrative!), and _nothing_ is now so
+    needful to him. His lameness is not as bad as I had feared; but
+    he had a bad attack of his enemy, rheumatism, at Florence, and
+    had to bolt back to his people. Of course, too, his anxiety
+    about Georgina, my god-daughter, who has only just pulled
+    through a terrible illness, has put a heavy strain on him in
+    every way.
+
+    Weather has broken up; of late _bitter_ cold, to-day cold _plus_
+    rain, worthy of London.
+
+On January 24, 1892, Doctor Leighton died at the age of ninety-two, at
+11 Kensington Park Gardens, where for many years, every Sunday when in
+London, Leighton invariably went to see his father and his two sisters
+at five o'clock, remaining to the last minute before dinner. This
+regular habit he continued after Doctor Leighton's death; Mrs.
+Sutherland Orr living on in the same house and Mrs. Matthews in the
+close vicinity. In the autumn of 1893 Leighton was advised to go to
+the Hotel Riffel Alp, Zermatt. "What a stupendous view this is from my
+window," he wrote. "Weather in the main superb; it is finest for this
+scenery when it is not fine. Knee still rather troublesome--nuisance!
+Am seeing a doctor." In the October of the same year he wrote to Mrs.
+Matthews:--
+
+                                           VERONA (Italy again!),
+                                               _October 2, 1893_.
+
+    DEAR GUSSY,--I hope you are not very savage with me for not
+    writing sooner. I've had a tremendous "Hetztour" through
+    Germany--_thirty_ towns in thirty days; a Yankee might be proud
+    of it; and over an area contained between _Luebeck_ (N.), if you
+    please, and Berne (S.), Vienna (E.), and Colmar (W.), and I have
+    made notes everywhere, _and_ I have a game knee, with the result
+    (not so much of the game knee as of the hurried travelling) that
+    I have had little time for writing anything beyond notes of
+    immediate necessity. But you _will_ be savage at hearing that I
+    never received your Munich letter (alluded to in Lina's last),
+    either at the hotel or "Postlagernd"--can you remember at what
+    _date_ you wrote it? I would _try_ to recover it--I hate losing
+    letters, don't you? Thank Lina for her letter, and say that I am
+    concerned at the very poor and shabby account given of her. She
+    was going to send for the doctor; I hope he was able to help her
+    (though I don't know on what plea one expects that of a doctor).
+    By this time you may have recovered from your cure. What a
+    rickety lot we are! At Perugia, where I shall be on Wednesday, I
+    am going under physic for my knee, which, though hardly more
+    than an inconvenience, is a very depressing prospect. I have
+    written to Roberts, who has sent me prescriptions which I shall
+    have made up (to-morrow) by his namesake in Florence. My journey
+    has been, I am bound to say, in a high degree interesting and
+    sometimes delightful. (I wonder whether you were ever at
+    Hildesheim--its amazing picturesqueness, Renaissance houses,
+    carved and painted, are enough to make your hair curl for the
+    rest of your natural life.) But I have not bought a single
+    German novel, after all the trouble you took twice over, except
+    _Soll und Haben_, which I have just begun; how amazingly
+    _altmodisch_ and stodgy it is, but evidently very clever. I have
+    grown very indolent about reading in trains. Wednesday I reach
+    Perugia--Thursday I shall take a holiday--Friday I shall--but
+    enough! In Berlin I saw dear old Joe (Dr. Joachim)--(the only
+    person I did see, except Malet, the Ambassador, a very old
+    friend of mine--very snug and _good_ little bachelor dinner
+    there--"just as you are"). He (Joe) seemed very fit after "les
+    eaux" somewhere, and sent you kind messages. He was pleased at
+    my calling, and came next day to see me off at the station.
+
+In August 1894 he took his sister, Mrs. Matthews, to Bayreuth. On his
+rapidly returning to London he completed the panel he presented to the
+Royal Exchange. He worked hard at this for three weeks. He then went
+to Scotland, and finished his holiday, as usual, in Italy. On his
+return, after attending the first Monday Popular concert at St. James'
+Hall, when walking to the Athenaeum he was seized by his first attack
+of angina pectoris. Dr. Roberts, to whom Leighton was attached, and in
+whose judgment and skill he had had great confidence for years,
+writes, "I attended Lord Leighton for over twenty years. I was
+constantly seeing and watching him. He never was a robust man; but all
+his organs kept in health till two years before his death, when I
+discovered the commencement of the trouble that ultimately proved
+fatal. I never told him of this condition, as I felt its progress
+would be slow.... He once told me he considered my fees to him were
+too small, and asked me to increase them." Some years previous to this
+first attack Leighton would say, "I always see Dr. Roberts every
+Sunday for him to tell me I am not ill." In November 1894 Sir Lauder
+Brunton was called in for consultation, and he and Dr. Roberts
+prescribed a course of Swedish massage; and to this Leighton devoted
+the later hours of his afternoons for several months that winter. Work
+continued as vigorously as ever. The pictures--"Lachrymae," "'Twixt
+Hope and Fear," "Flaming June," "Listener," "Clytie," "Candida," "The
+Vestal," "A Bacchante," "The Fair Persian," were the fruit of the last
+year's labours, besides the sketches which he painted on his last
+journeys to Algiers, Ireland, and Italy.
+
+    [Illustration: "SUMMER SLUMBER." 1894
+    By permission of Mr. Phillipson]
+
+    [Illustration: SKETCH FOR "SUMMER SLUMBER." 1894
+    Presented by H.M. the King to the Leighton House Collection]
+
+Very characteristic was the manner in which Leighton faced his
+condition. Absolutely natural as he invariably was, without
+nervousness, and considerate to the last degree in not making his
+state a burden on others, he never, even at this juncture,
+concentrated his thoughts on himself. Once when a friend implored him
+to draw in and not expend his strength unnecessarily, he answered,
+with almost impatience, "But that would not be life to me! I must go
+on, thinking about it as little as possible." There was something of
+the boy about Leighton up to the very end, and in those last months
+much of the pathos of the boy who is known to be doomed, but who plays
+his game with just as much eager verve up to the end.
+
+Mr. Briton Riviere, the comrade whose nature was so worthily tuned to
+Leighton, writes:--
+
+    One of the last times that I met him actively employed was at a
+    committee meeting of the Athenaeum. He had some pain and
+    difficulty in climbing the stairs to the committee-room, and
+    evident pain in speaking; but because he felt that the candidate
+    he proposed ought to be elected, and that no one else would
+    propose him with more earnest conviction than he could (and he
+    was the best proposer of a candidate I have ever heard), he came
+    there at all risks to himself and _would_ have done so against
+    all opposition and all disadvantages, simply because he thought
+    it his particular duty to do so. This is only a type of the
+    manner in which he treated all his official work during those
+    last years of physical suffering which he fought so bravely.
+    Watching him, it was then I recognised that he was on the same
+    plane as the seaman who never strikes his flag, and at the last
+    goes down practically unvanquished.
+
+Every day that grey pallor increased, and that sunken, indescribable
+look of waning life in the face. Nevertheless Leighton lived much as
+before, never making illness an excuse for avoiding any duty. As
+matters grew more serious his doctors enforced a rest--a voyage--an
+absence from the May Academy Banquet. At this juncture Leighton
+tendered his resignation as President of the Academy. It was not
+accepted.
+
+To Mr. Briton Riviere he wrote:--
+
+    DEAR RIVIERE,--Many thanks for your most kind words. I have been
+    deeply touched by the generous, and, I must almost say,
+    affectionate attitude of my brother members in this painful
+    conjuncture. How much I value _your_ friendship, you, I am sure,
+    know.--Sincerely yours always,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+He decided on leaving England for two months, and fixed on Algiers as
+a dry climate likely to suit his health. It had lived in his memory
+also ever since the first visit in 1857, as a country singularly
+fascinating to him. Before leaving he fulfilled his duties as
+President in choosing the pictures for that year's Exhibition. These
+duties he had often described as the most wearing of the whole year.
+His intense sense of duty, and desire to judge in every case the
+interests of the individual artist together with those of art, fairly
+and adequately, inflicted a strain and entailed an indescribable
+fatigue, he said, even when he was well. During those days in 1895 he
+suffered acutely.
+
+From Hotel Continental, Tangiers, 18th April 1895, Leighton wrote:--
+
+    DEAR WELLS,--Although letters do not leave these wilds daily and
+    take an unconscionable time, as I now find, on the way, I trust
+    this will reach you in time for the first varnishing day, on
+    which I believe you hold the general meeting; it carries with
+    it warm and grateful--and _envious_ greetings to you all. These
+    you will, I know, deliver to my brother members at lunch, for
+    then only is the _whole_ body gathered together. They, knowing
+    me, will understand my humiliation at not being under arms and
+    at my post at this season. I wish I could ask you to tell them
+    that I see much sign of betterment in my condition: the slowness
+    of my cure--if cure it be--is, of course, depressing; but I
+    shall comfort myself on Thursday with the thought that perhaps,
+    at some time between one and two, you are wishing well to one
+    who claims to be a faithful friend to you all. I look forward
+    keenly to what will, I feel sure, be the admirable performance
+    of our dear old Millais. Unfortunately, I have not the remotest
+    notion of where I shall be when the news might reach me--in
+    Africa or in Europe--but reach me it will in time. You perhaps
+    think of me as basking in the sun between blue skies and blue
+    seas. How different are the facts! Blustering winds,
+    occasionally rain, chilly atmosphere, everything murky and
+    without colour! A change _should_ not be far off, for this sort
+    of thing has prevailed for a month and more. I did not bargain
+    for it.
+
+    I hope, my dear Wells--and indeed I do not doubt--that you are
+    getting on well and comfortably with your vice-regency, and am
+    always yours sincerely,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+
+                                      TANGIERS, _April 25, 1895_.
+
+    DEAR LINA,--The day before yesterday I received your nice long
+    letter--you had not yet got mine from Gib.--and yesterday one
+    came from poor Gussy, and I am going, as you will both believe
+    when this reaches you, to kill two birds with one epistolary
+    stone. First, let me say that I am grieved--I dare hardly say,
+    _surprised_, for it is, alas! a wicked way you both have--to
+    hear that neither of you has derived any benefit, to speak of,
+    by your outing, and you indeed, poor dear, appear to be a little
+    worse. The fact is that at our ages, _con rispetto_, when one
+    happens to have pretty homes, one _does_ miss them under the
+    discomforts and shortcomings of lodgings or inns. As for me,
+    though I am fairly comfortable here, I have whiffs of a certain
+    "House Beautiful" in Kensington which are very tantalising. How
+    am I? Well, I think I may at last claim a _little_ improvement,
+    of course I give myself every chance, and am superlatively,
+    disgracefully lazy, _and put myself to no tests_; but I notice
+    this, that though I have my regulation three attacks (when not
+    more) a day, they are milder, I think, and I _know_ that I can
+    get rid of them almost immediately by certain respiratory
+    exercises my Swede taught me. This I assume is again _no more
+    capsules_, we shall see.
+
+    Yes, I do perfectly remember the old home in St. Katherine's at
+    Bath, and should hugely like to see it. I hope when the old
+    inhabitant goes off, it will fall into reverent hands.
+
+    No, I have not yet tackled Nordau. I am looking forward to him
+    much, but have so far, except some Pater (Greek studies), mostly
+    fribbled; two or three Spanish novels; a few short tales by
+    Hardy, clever, but his figures are talking dolls, taught out of
+    a book; _L'Innocente_, dull, but not so _coarse_ as I had
+    understood. "Tales of Mean Streets"--now there, if you like, is
+    powerful stuff. For pithy terseness and absolute sobriety of
+    means, for subtle and humorous observation and scathing
+    directness, they are unrivalled; but oh! what a picture! what a
+    state of things, and who shall ever let the light into the
+    tenebrous and foul depths? But how funny too, and grim; the old
+    woman who pockets the ten shillings given for port, in order
+    that she may have mutes at the funeral! Have also read
+    "Keynotes." Clever, one or two even powerful, but other than I
+    expected. Who is the woman? half Norse? half Irish? The writing
+    is bad; intentionally, apparently; a cross between an
+    interviewer and Ibsen for scrappy abruptness. _Her_ keynote is
+    belief in the _immeasurable_ (but not explained) superiority of
+    women, whom no man can _understand_; well, certainly, _I_ don't
+    know _wo sie hinaus will_.
+
+    I have had more kind notes, this is a kind world _tout de meme_.
+    When stodgy, elderly Englishmen talk to me of the number of
+    people who _love_ me, I feel quite a lump in my throat. Of
+    another kind, but pretty, is the enclosed from W. Watson, the
+    poet, whom I admire, you know; nice also the telegram. I wrote a
+    _menschlich_ letter when her husband died (_I_ have known them
+    nearly forty years), and again a pretty letter t'other day about
+    the wedding.
+
+    But I _must_ finish this scribble. I shall be gone when you get
+    this, write _Algiers_ (poste restante), I shall get it _some_
+    time or other, but am still vague.
+
+    Love to poor Gussy.--Afft. bro.,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+Leighton enclosed the following from William Watson, and the telegram
+from the Comtesse de Paris:--
+
+                                    66 CHERITON ROAD, FOLKESTONE,
+                                           _April 18, 1895_.
+
+    DEAR SIR FREDERIC LEIGHTON,--May I venture to say, somewhat
+    superfluously, what a delight it was to be made free of your
+    Palace of Art on a recent Sunday, and how highly I valued the
+    privilege. Mr. Wilfrid Meynell had already made me happy by
+    reporting the generous things you had said about my verses. I
+    wish the great pleasure thus given me were not alloyed by the
+    news of your temporarily impaired health. But in common with the
+    rest of the world I hope those sunnier regions to which you
+    perhaps feel more spiritually akin than to our own may quickly
+    renew your full energies.
+
+    Pray forgive anything which may be intrusive or otherwise
+    unwarrantable in this letter, and believe me, dear Sir
+    Frederick, with very grateful sense of your kindness, and pride
+    in your good opinion, yours sincerely,
+
+                                                  WILLIAM WATSON.
+    SIR FREDERIC LEIGHTON, Bart., P.R.A.
+
+
+    _Telegram._]
+                                                _April 16, 1895._
+    TO SIR FREDERIC LEIGHTON,
+        2 HOLLAND PARK ROAD,
+            KENSINGTON, LONDON.
+
+    Profondement touchee de votre si bonne lettre et aimables voeux
+    pour ma fille, je vous en remercie de tout mon coeur, y voyant
+    une nouvelle preuve de votre amitie. Je regrette vivement pas
+    avoir le plaisir de vous revoir avant longtemps, mais suis sure
+    penserez a moi.
+
+                                                  COMTESSE PARIS.
+    BUCKINGHAM.
+
+On arriving at Alger, Leighton wrote:--
+
+                                           HOTEL D'EUROPE, ALGER,
+                                                   _May 9, 1895_.
+
+    DEAR WELLS,--I got your first kind letter three days ago at
+    Tlencen, and this morning, on passing through this place, your
+    very interesting account of the Banquet. I know you will not
+    resent a _very_ brief acknowledgment; I have _one_ day here
+    only, and a large pile of letters, with a good many of which I
+    must deal, however laconically, at once. I need not assure you
+    that your most kind words, like so many manifestations of
+    friendship that I have received, touch me to the quick and will
+    not be forgotten. That my dear old friend Millais could carry
+    away his audience by his earnest and intense personality, I was
+    quite certain. I rejoice in my heart at his success, apart from
+    what I feel about his affectionate and warm expressions. It is
+    worth while to break down, to be treated with such infinite
+    kindness as I have met with everywhere amongst my colleagues and
+    friends. I know you will like to hear that I am at last very
+    decidedly better; in another month--for I don't mean to come
+    home sooner--I really expect to be externally quite patched
+    up--of course, the warning and the constant threat will remain
+    by me, but I shall try to be careful, and hope yet for long to
+    be the devoted servant of my brother members in the Academy.
+    Meanwhile, believe me, always sincerely yours,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    _P.S._--I trust you have not suffered in your throat, which is a
+    frequent anxiety to you from the necessity of much speaking. _I_
+    know how trying that is.
+
+
+                                           HOTEL D'EUROPE, ALGER,
+                                                  _May 21, 1895_.
+
+    DEAR LINA,--In an hour or two I leave for Europe, and in three
+    weeks I shall be home again in comfortable Kensington.
+
+    I am grieved that you should have been worried--as well you
+    might--by that idiotic report that I should not return to
+    society or my profession (I wonder who invented it!), but you
+    were fortunately soon relieved; I think I told you about the
+    trouble Reuter and Hardy took in the matter. By-the-bye, you
+    were right in supposing that the "long walk" was also a figment
+    of the correspondents.
+
+    I am very glad to hear that you and Gussy are both at all events
+    a little better at last. My bulletin is chequered, but certain
+    things are satisfactory; in the first place, I see that fine
+    weather and sun and pure air and the rest of it have nothing
+    whatever to do with my condition; this, as I can't choose my
+    climate, is distinctly reassuring; also, the fact of my having
+    been much better shows that I may hope distinctly for much
+    improvement: in the other, a certain relapse which is now upon
+    me shows how needful caution is, only it is disappointing to
+    have had to go back to capsules. I have had in the main a most
+    enjoyable time; have been very fortunate in the weather,
+    inasmuch as the heat has not yet been intolerable, and I have
+    done some work which will be useful perhaps and certainly
+    delightful as a reminiscence and suggestion. A variety of
+    untoward things, one on the top of the other, no doubt quite
+    account for my, I hope not durable, relapse, and I have no doubt
+    when I write again I shall be able to report fresh improvement.
+    The odd thing is, the bad effects _last_ so curiously. I
+    understand hot railway journeys, bad food, &c. &c., telling on
+    me, but I have been now two whole days and a bit in Algiers in
+    _utter_ idleness, and a great deal on my back, and yet this
+    morning I got an attack _lying in bed_! but don't let this
+    disturb you--for several weeks I was much better and required
+    _no_ capsules at all. This short little note will reach you, I
+    suppose, on Friday morning; a line on that day or on Saturday or
+    Sunday, just to say that it has reached you would catch me at
+    the Hotel Continental, Rue Castiglione, _Paris_. Please tell me,
+    on the altogether improbable chance of my "looking in" on the
+    Channel Islands, what the _best_ hotels are--I _must_ be
+    comfortable. Best love to Gussy.--From your affectionate old
+    brother,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+    _P.S._--I wrote to the P. of W.'s secretary, asking him to say
+    how much H.R.H.'s kind words had gratified me--I enclose the
+    answer, which is nice, I think.
+
+On Leighton's return to London he resumed his duties as President. He
+tried to believe what Sir Lauder Brunton hoped, but found it somewhat
+difficult to do so in the face of _facts_, he used to say. He,
+however, assumed that he was mending. On 19th July 1895 he wrote:--
+
+    DEAR BRITON RIVIERE,--Very many thanks for your kind and
+    thoughtful note. Do not think of postponing your motion; I have
+    already been the innocent cause of the postponement of two very
+    contentious motions in Council; I could not think of standing
+    further in the way--pray, therefore, proceed with it. I had a
+    nasty attack at that meeting but have felt no after effects, and
+    am no doubt slowly mending. In haste, yours ever sincerely,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    [Illustration: "THE FAIR PERSIAN"
+    (Unfinished at the time of Lord Leighton's death.) 1896
+    By permission of Sir Elliott Lees]
+
+From his account to his friends after his return, his health had
+varied while abroad in an unaccountable manner, except in one instance
+where, as my husband and I knew from personal experience, the
+conditions were normally unhealthy. This evidently was the cause for
+his having had specially violent attacks at Morlaix in Brittany, which
+he visited on his journey home--and where, some years previously, our
+whole party had become more or less ill, owing, it was thought, to the
+unhealthiness of the place. His condition was much the same as when he
+left England. He worked steadily in his studio, and received the
+guests at the Annual Soiree of the Royal Academy. At the conclusion of
+the function a friend asked him how it had really fared with him--for
+apparently his vitality had appeared, as usual, inexhaustible. "I
+think the attacks must be greatly a matter of nerves," he answered. "I
+have stood here three hours and a quarter and have not had one,--while
+I was dressing and fearing how I should get through it, I had
+_three_."
+
+Leighton did not go to Scotland that autumn but to the wild west coast
+of Ireland, again to that Malinmore that had so greatly fascinated
+him, and whose wild beauty he had longed for his sister to enjoy,
+"taking her courage in one hand, her goloshes in a second, and
+umbrella in the third."[85] On his way there he wrote to Mrs. Orr:--
+
+                                              IMPERIAL HOTEL,
+                                         PEMBROKE STREET, CORK,
+                                   _Thursday, September 5, 1895_.
+
+    DEAR LINA,--I was glad to glean from your letter of last
+    Thursday that, taking it all round, you are having a fairly good
+    time, and Gussy ditto. (I can't stand _wind_ either, it
+    aggravates my system.) I've never seen Mull--should like to--but
+    _not_ being a sociable bird (like you) should wish to have no
+    acquaintances. Is it Napier of _Magdala_? if so, I knew the old
+    lord of that ilk; indeed, to be accurate, I knew him even if it
+    was not so; or Lord Napier of _Ettrick_? if so ditto, ditto. It
+    is always the previous lot _I_ knew. By this time you will have
+    been to Lindisfarne[86] (lovely name!)--if you did not enjoy the
+    sands and the Abbey you need not call on me again. I suppose you
+    are at home now. In a week or two I shall no doubt know how I
+    am. Just off to Killarney, then Galway, then _Malinmore_, County
+    Donegal, where I shall be from (say) the 10th to (say) the 17th,
+    your affectionate old brother.
+
+In another letter he wrote to Mrs. Orr: "I am too glad that you have
+made acquaintances--been a gregarious person. If I make an
+acquaintance anywhere, I have simply lost the game." From Malinmore on
+September 19th he wrote to me: "I'm sorry that you saw Scotland in a
+mist; its beauty is _succulent colour_--you want rain first and then a
+burst of sun--I am enjoying unsociable solitude keenly, like the bear
+I am; health so so; I'm sowing patience, but so far reaping nothing in
+particular. In a fortnight, off to Italy." On this visit to his
+"second home" Leighton began with Venice, from whence he wrote to me
+Oct. 9th: "The wind is howling and the rain pouring down in
+torrents--not a correct attitude in Venice--I'm no better." Leighton
+next went to Naples, where he wrote the following letter to Mrs.
+Orr:--
+
+                                           HOTEL BRISTOL, NAPLES,
+                                              _October 18, 1895_.
+
+    DEAR LINA,--I am sorry that you and Gussy don't see your way to
+    going to Bayreuth, since it is your health that seems to stand
+    in the way; other reasons are all my eye. I KNOW from Gussy's
+    own mouth that she would particularly like to hear the Siegfried
+    Tetralogy at Bayreuth (and this _may_ be the last time of giving
+    it _there_), I _know_ also that, given, of course, the Fuersten
+    Loge with its facilities, you would like to go, because you have
+    said so. Well it will remain open in case you change what you,
+    fondly and perhaps sincerely, regard as your minds.
+
+    I am very glad you take such a very sensible view of my ailment,
+    because it makes it more easy to speak of it; I also live in the
+    hope and, almost, expectation, that it will fizzle out some day
+    of its own accord, and this enables me to bear up against the
+    entire absence _at present_ of any improvement. I have at last
+    finished my "Nordau," which I have read through from cover to
+    cover; it is a very vigorous and remarkable book and of riveting
+    interest to any one who likes polemics (from _outside_) as I do.
+    The author is at his best when he is dissecting a particular
+    victim--say Nietzsche--on the other hand one is not a little
+    repelled by his astoundingly unparliamentary insolence, his not
+    infrequent disingenuousness and _spitzfindelei_ and his curious
+    narrownesses and lacunae. The _Boecke die er schneidet_ when he
+    gets on the subject of graphic art are quite comic. The fact is
+    he is in some respects absolutely devoid of perception, like an
+    otherwise most intelligent and cultured man who should have no
+    ear for music. What, for instance, can we say of a man who
+    asserts, as a truism, that aesthetic and _sexual_(!) feelings
+    (not sensual but "_geschlechtlich_") are not merely akin but
+    actually cover one another to a very large extent! I doubt
+    whether there is anything chaster than the sense of beauty in
+    abstract form; he has no inkling of this. When all is said and
+    done he is himself in some measure a _crypto_degenerate, if I
+    may so call him; degeneracy is a _Zwangsvorstellung_ with him,
+    he sees it everywhere; a curious instance is his seeing it in
+    the fondness of English writers for alliteration; of course he
+    knows, with his wide culture, better than I do that this
+    assonance of the beginning of words dates from the dawn of our
+    literature; _he might_, no doubt, say, "Yes! it is a
+    _Rueckschlag_," but he would therein give another proof of his
+    ineptitude in aesthetic matters. In _every_ Art, _iteration_, of
+    which alliteration is a form, has ever been a powerful source of
+    expression and charm. Meanwhile his last, remarkable, chapter
+    "Therapie" takes a good deal of the sting out of the book; he
+    owns that certain peculiarities--excess of sensibility and the
+    like--are present in _nearly all art_, that it is, in fact, only
+    a question of a degree and, he adds, in a passage which Gussy
+    has marked, "Who shall say _where_, exactly, madness begins?"
+    Amen! And that little (or large) spice of something which
+    _might_ be madness if there was much more of it, has given to us
+    poor mortals some of our keenest delights--"more grease to its
+    elbow," say I, in my vulgar way. But, I say! Nietzsche!!
+    eh?--I've also read J. Kowaleski, with great interest--but,
+    crikey! _what_ a creature to live with!!
+
+    Tell Gussy, with my love, that I have got the usual two seats
+    (Queen's Hall) for the November _Wagner_. Tell her to keep the
+    day open.--Afftly. yrs.
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+From Naples he travelled to Rome to find his dear friend Giovanni
+Costa, with whom he spent the last weeks of his holiday. Of this visit
+Costa wrote the following in his "Notes":--
+
+    "His last study from nature was painted in Rome in October 1895,
+    for the unfinished picture of 'Clytie,' exhibited in the Royal
+    Academy, 1896. It was a study of fruit, and he enjoyed working
+    on it for several hours, though he was then ill; and I believe
+    that the hours he passed in the courtyard of the Palazzo
+    Odeschalchi painting these fruits, which he had arranged on a
+    marble sarcophagus, afforded him, perhaps, the last artistic
+    pleasures he ever enjoyed. It is true that after this he went to
+    the Vatican, to Siena, and to Florence, where he saw for the
+    last time the masterpieces with which these towns abound. But,
+    standing before the great works of the masters of the past, he
+    could only sigh.
+
+    "He worshipped children, and his pictures of children with fruit
+    and flowers are among the most delicious and spontaneous work
+    ever done by him in painting. And I can see him again, during
+    the last visit he paid to Rome in 1895, on his knees before my
+    little girl, to accede to her request that she should have a
+    lock of his hair as a remembrance."
+
+Nothing could give a better record of two sides of Leighton's nature,
+often believed to be incompatible, than the contents of the letter
+from Naples to his sister, with its remarks on Nordau, Nietzsche, and
+the like, and this beautiful picture recalled by his old friend
+Costa--Leighton on his knees before a little child. The intellect
+which could crack the hardest of intellectual nuts was surmounted by
+lowly reverence for all beauty, most ardently adored when that beauty
+came to him in its most innocent childlike garb.
+
+Writing to me on his return on November the 6th Leighton says: "I
+shall try to look in to-morrow at five. I want very much to hear
+Fuller-Maitland's preachment" (Lectures on Purcell were being given at
+our house previous to the Purcell Festival). "I am sorry to say I am
+no better, rather worse." On being asked the next day, as he came into
+our house, "How is it?" the answer Leighton gave was, "Oh, worse!
+Sometimes fifteen attacks a day." On his birthday, the 3rd of
+December, he wrote to his sister:--
+
+                             2 HOLLAND PARK ROAD, KENSINGTON, W.,
+                                              _December 3, 1895_.
+
+    DEAR LINA,--The grand leaves in a mossy pot, and the sweet
+    flowers, and the poems, and your letter, came all together. I
+    know you will let me answer you both on one piece of paper. I
+    know, dears, how true is your love, and though I am not a
+    demonstrative person, it is very precious to me. I know you will
+    both like to hear that after an _hour's_ innings between L.
+    Brunton, Dr. Tunnicliffe his partner, Roberts, and three most
+    ingenious scientific instruments, and after tapping and
+    auscultating of my wretched ear cap fore and aft, it was
+    pronounced that (in some mysterious way) I am _not_ worse, but
+    _better_; well, I am glad to hear it; meanwhile my medicine is
+    being strengthened, and will be again in the (pretty certain)
+    event of its requiring more strength. L.B. quite _hopes_ to rig
+    me out for the May banquet. Much love to both from affectionate
+    old brother.
+
+On the 14th he wrote to his friend Mr. Henry Wells:--
+
+                             2 HOLLAND PARK ROAD, KENSINGTON, W.,
+                                             _December 14, 1895_.
+
+    DEAR WELLS,--Many thanks for your kind letter, relying on which
+    I hasten to "nail" you for the _27th_; I shall be very much
+    disappointed if you say me "nay." I never give a _long_ notice,
+    in part so as to bring about a little shuffling of cards, and
+    relieving my guests of a certain monotony of routine which might
+    in the end irk them. I need not assure you that I am most warmly
+    sensible to the vigilant and truly friendly interest which you
+    manifest concerning my health; believe me, if I differ from you
+    in not believing in the efficacy or feasibility of a suspension
+    of activity for a year or two, it is in no unreasoning or
+    perverse spirit (and let me, by-the-bye, say in passing that I
+    have, for a few days past, certainly been a little better).
+    Putting aside for a moment the fact that I have for the next
+    year, and more, definite professional _obligations_ in the way
+    of commissioned work (which is, unfortunately, not incompatible
+    with having a certain number of unsold works!), to withdraw from
+    Academic duties would mean _leaving England_ for the period in
+    question; it would be morally impossible to remain here,
+    apparently in robust health, congratulated constantly, as I am,
+    on my healthy appearance, going about unrebuked by a _very_
+    cautious doctor (Lauder Brunton), taking the pleasures of life
+    _apparently_ without any stint (as a matter of _fact_ I am very
+    quiet and regular, and under _continuous_ medical treatment),
+    and then shirking all its _duties_; but experience has shown
+    that I gain nothing by absence--by change of climate and the
+    rest; and, on the other hand, my temperament being what you
+    know, the withdrawal from my active life would infallibly prey
+    on me and have a marked effect on my health through my spirits;
+    this is also the opinion of Lauder Brunton. My care must be to
+    live quietly but not idly, and thus try to mend gradually, as I
+    doubtless shall, in the hands of my doctor _and my masseur_.
+    _If_, which God forbid, I am pronounced still unfit in May, I
+    will bow, with whatever bitterness, to the judgment, but till
+    then I must not forego hope. Meanwhile, you have all done me
+    infinite service in prohibiting the "Discourse" for this year--I
+    can't say how grateful I was for that! I shall also avoid, as
+    far as may be, all _controversy_ at our table; that is the worst
+    thing of all by far, for yours sincerely always,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.[87]
+
+With the New Year honours and among those bestowed was a Peerage on
+Leighton, who was created Lord Leighton, Baron of Stretton (see chap.
+i. vol. i., Antecedents). Needless to say, congratulations poured in
+from all sorts and conditions. One of these in writing was preserved
+because enclosed in a note to his sister.
+
+                                              _January 13, 1896._
+
+    MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--I have just come back from Italy, and hope
+    that it is not too late to tell you with how much satisfaction I
+    read of the mark of honour that has been accepted by you. I am
+    not a passionate admirer of the legislative feats of the House
+    of Lords, but so long as it stands, it is well that such a man
+    as you should sit there. I hope that the thing has given you
+    pleasure, and for my poor part I rejoice both as a friend and as
+    a humble admirer of art and genius that this honourable
+    recognition has fallen to you.--Yours sincerely,
+
+                                                     JOHN MORLEY.
+
+    Not a word of reply, I pray.
+
+From his native place Leighton received the following:--
+
+    When it was announced on Wednesday that the Queen had been
+    pleased to confer the dignity of a Peerage of the United Kingdom
+    upon Sir Frederic Leighton, Bart., President of the Royal
+    Academy, who is a native of Scarborough, having been born here
+    sixty-five years ago, the Mayor (Alderman Cross, J.P.) sent the
+    following telegram:--"Sir Frederic Leighton, 2 Holland Park
+    Road, London, the Mayor, Corporation, and inhabitants of
+    Scarborough present their hearty congratulations on the honour
+    conferred upon you.--The Mayor, Scarborough." The next morning
+    the following reply was received:--"The Mayor of
+    Scarborough,--Sincere thanks for congratulations from my
+    birthplace.
+
+                                                       LEIGHTON."
+
+Leighton had been loath to acquaint his sisters with the real nature
+of his complaint, as he was aware how much their anxiety for him would
+be increased if they knew. However, he at last felt it was necessary
+to tell them. Very characteristically, he chose the moment when they
+were at the theatre, thinking it might produce a less painful shock
+when mentioned casually, and when their attention might be distracted
+more easily. It was difficult, however, under any circumstances to
+temper the blow. Leighton wrote the next Sunday--"I do hope I shall
+find you better this afternoon.... I ought not to have spoken to you
+about my ailment." I received the following in Somerset, dated January
+20, dictated, ... "As I am (not to put too fine a point on it) in bed
+with a very bad cough at this moment, you will, I know, forgive my
+using the hand of a secretary in writing to you. I see that you want a
+contribution for Mrs. Watts Hughes' Home for Boys; I therefore enclose
+a cheque." ... On the day following, Tuesday, his doctors decreed that
+he should remain in his room, but on Wednesday, the day after,
+Leighton insisted on getting into his studio, where he worked all the
+morning from models. In the afternoon he drove in his open
+carriage--certainly without the permission of his doctors!--to
+Westminster, getting out and standing in the raw damp of a cold
+January afternoon to watch the pulling down of some old houses which
+had interested him. In the evening he wrote to me a letter, which
+happened to be the last he penned. A Lecture was to be given for the
+benefit of Mrs. Watts Hughes' Home for Boys; and in return for
+Leighton's contribution I had sent him four five shilling tickets to
+give away, offering to change them for half guinea tickets, but
+suggesting it would be most rash of him to go himself. However, he
+intended to go, and wrote that Wednesday evening:--
+
+    DEAR MRS. BARRINGTON,--... Since you are good enough to offer to
+    change the tickets for tenners, I will ask you to do so, and
+    thank you in advance. Yes, Mackail's book, which oddly enough I
+    _have_ read--for, alas! I never read now--is an exquisite bit of
+    work.
+
+When the Lecture was given on the evening of January 29, Leighton had
+left us already four days!
+
+At five o'clock on Thursday morning, January 23, he woke, feeling
+terrible pain and great distress in breathing, but would not ring for
+his servant because he believed him to be delicate, and thought it
+might hurt him to be disturbed so early. At seven he rang, and Dr.
+Roberts, who was telegraphed for, at once saw that the situation was
+of the gravest. Sir Lauder Brunton also was summoned. Leighton's
+servant had promised his sisters that they should be sent for at once
+if the symptoms at any time became more acute; but on his mentioning
+this, Leighton said he must not send for Mrs. Orr and Mrs. Matthews,
+as they were both more ill than he was. However, as the morning went
+on and there were no signs of any change for the better, the sisters
+were told of his condition, and at once came--not leaving him till the
+end.
+
+On Thursday afternoon, when he was supposed to be sinking, and they
+were with him alone, he expressed his wishes as to his property--the
+sums of money he wished given to various friends--adding that he
+should like ten thousand pounds to be given to the Royal Academy.
+These were wishes expressed--not legacies, as he left his whole
+property unconditionally to his sisters, and believed that they, as
+next-of-kin, would, as a matter of course, be his heirs.
+
+Contrary to the doctor's expectations, Leighton rallied on the Friday,
+and hopes were expressed that he might recover from the acute attack
+from which he was suffering. On his hearing this, he exclaimed to his
+sisters, "Would it not have been a pity if I had had to die just when
+I was going to paint better!"
+
+On the Saturday morning the gravest symptoms returned, and every hope
+vanished. It was then suggested to Leighton that it would be better
+for him to make a will, and his lawyer was sent for; but it was some
+time before he could arrive. Though the agony was great, Leighton
+refused all alleviations till his will was written out. It was as
+follows:--
+
+      This is the last will and testament of Frederic Leighton.
+      I will and bequeath to my sisters, Alexandra Orr and
+      Augusta Newnburg Matthews, the whole estate
+      unconditionally.
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+Mrs. Orr wrote: "When the official will had been drawn up and signed,
+he said, 'Does this give my sisters absolute control over all I have?'
+On the lawyer answering in the affirmative, Leighton asked, 'Then no
+one can interfere with them?' 'No one,' answered the lawyer; 'they are
+paramount.' He was afraid that the brief paragraph was not
+sufficiently strong."
+
+After signing it, he said, "My love to the Academy"; but his last
+words were spoken in German, and meant for his sisters' ears alone.
+Then came the end.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"We went together," writes Lady Loch, "to see Fred Leighton the Sunday
+before he died, and he said, 'Mind you come to "my concert." I have
+just settled it all with Villiers Stanford, and it will be
+beautiful.'" In about ten days after, with aching hearts at the loss
+of so true, so warm, so great a friend, we attended his burial
+service at St. Paul's Cathedral, seeing such proofs of real mourning
+all along the Embankment and streets, for indeed every man, woman, and
+child had lost a real, true friend.
+
+    [Illustration: "THE SPIRIT OF THE SUMMIT." 1894]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY FOR "LACHRYMAE." 1895]
+
+All who were present must ever remember the last "Music" in the March
+before, when (contrasting so strongly in colour and sentiment)
+"Lachrymae" and "Flaming June" stood on the easels, and for the first
+time the silk room was open, hung with the work of Leighton's friends;
+how, through all the beautiful strains from Joachim and the rest, a
+tragic note rang out to tell, as it seemed, of the waning life of the
+centre of it all. No one said it, but all felt that the last chapter
+was ending of those many, many perfect pages in life known as
+"Leighton's music."
+
+A voice sang with emotion Charles Kingsley's soul-stirring verse--
+
+    "When all the world is old, lad,
+      And all the trees are brown;
+    And all the sport is stale, lad,
+      And all the wheels run down,
+    Creep home, and take your place there,
+      The spent and maim'd among;
+    God grant you find one face there
+      You loved when all was young."
+
+Cruelly pathetic did it seem that one who had ever had the vitality of
+a boy, who had ever been the inspirer and support of those weary
+overwrought ones whose wheels had run down before their time, should
+himself be stricken, creeping home "the spent and maimed among."
+
+The studios emptied, and he came down the stairs with the last of us.
+Dainty figures of girls were dancing round the fountain in the empty
+Arab Hall; and as he went to the outer door they flew to him, throwing
+their arms round his neck. "They are all my god-children," he said,
+as each, fleet-footed, fled out of the gate. A clasp, a wring of a
+friend's hand; then, ashen pale, tired and haggard, he turned back
+lonely into the House Beautiful--and that book was closed.
+
+Instead of strains of perfect song and music hailing their completion,
+the six pictures of the next year looked down on the coffin, and over
+a rich carpeting of beautiful flowers. In the centre, above the head,
+the sun-loving "Clytie" stretched out her arms, bidding a passionate
+farewell to her god.
+
+The coffin was borne away to the Academy on Saturday, February 1,
+previous to the funeral on the Monday.
+
+    [Illustration: "CLYTIE." 1896
+    By permission of the Fine Art Society, the owners of the
+    Copyright]
+
+The following is a correct account of the public funeral, written on
+the day it took place, and forwarded to Leighton's birthplace.
+
+    At half-past ten this morning, by which time a dense crowd had
+    collected in the neighbourhood of the Royal Academy, the workmen
+    commenced to remove the numerous wreaths from the Central Hall,
+    where the body of Lord Leighton has rested since Saturday night,
+    and to load the huge floral car. Prominent among these wreaths
+    was one from the Princess Christian; but that from the Prince
+    and Princess of Wales was conveyed in a separate carriage by
+    representatives of the Prince and Princess, General Ellis and
+    Lord Colville of Culross. The wreath consisted of choice white
+    flowers rising from a bank of delicate green foliage, and
+    attached was a card written by the Princess of Wales, and
+    inscribed as follows:--
+
+    "Life's race well run,
+    Life's work well done,
+    Life's Crown well won,
+          Now comes rest."
+
+    Then follow the words, "A mark of sincere and affectionate
+    regard, esteem, and admiration for a great artist and much
+    beloved friend, from Alexandra and Albert Edward." At the head
+    of the card were the words, "To Sir Frederic Leighton." There
+    was also a wreath from the Empress Frederick, bearing the words:
+    "From Victoria, Empress Frederick," in the Empress's own
+    writing.
+
+    The Queen's wreath for the funeral of Lord Leighton was sent
+    from Buckingham Palace this morning to Colonel the Honourable W.
+    Carington, by whom it was conveyed to St. Paul's Cathedral. The
+    wreath is composed of laurel, entwined with which are
+    immortelles, and it is tied with broad satin ribbon. Attached to
+    the wreath is an autograph card from Her Majesty, with the
+    following inscription: "A mark of respect from Victoria, R.I."
+
+    About five minutes to eleven the coffin was removed from the
+    Central Hall, and carried through the vestibule into the
+    quadrangle. A detachment of the Artists' Volunteers was drawn up
+    here, and saluted the coffin as soon as it emerged into the open
+    by presenting arms. The remains were placed in a glass hearse,
+    and the volunteers took up their position at the front and
+    sides. The pall-bearers, relatives, and others meanwhile formed
+    in procession, and punctually at eleven the cortege left the
+    Academy, the crowd reverentially uncovering as the hearse passed
+    into the street. The whole length of the route, from Piccadilly
+    to St. Paul's, was lined with people; but the crowds were quiet
+    and orderly, and maintained a clear space for the funeral
+    cortege without the assistance of the police. The volunteers
+    marched with arms reversed, and the remains of the deceased
+    artist were carried to their last resting-place with every
+    manifestation of mournful regret. Flags were at half-mast on
+    many public buildings, and as the solemn procession passed
+    slowly along, the remains were reverently saluted by the crowd.
+    Passing into Pall Mall by Charing Cross, the procession wended
+    its way through Northumberland Street, proceeding thence along
+    the Thames Embankment, New Bridge Street, and Ludgate Hill, St.
+    Paul's being reached shortly before noon.
+
+    The service in the Cathedral, which occupied an hour, was at
+    once picturesque as a spectacle and impressive in its solemnity
+    as a religious function.
+
+    More than an hour before the time appointed for the arrival of
+    the funeral cortege, the space available to the public in St.
+    Paul's was occupied, and a few minutes after eleven o'clock,
+    visitors of distinction, who had been provided with special
+    invitations, began to fill up the reserved seats in the
+    transept.
+
+    Among those present were representatives of the Royal Family,
+    the German Emperor, and the King of Belgium, members of both
+    Houses of Parliament, including the Speaker; delegates from
+    learned bodies and artistic associations, as well as from the
+    art committees of various provincial municipalities.
+
+    The first lesson was read by the Dean, and the succeeding
+    passages were given by the Bishop of Stepney; but the greater
+    part of the service was undertaken by the Archbishop of York,
+    chaplain of the Royal Academy. The musical portions of the
+    service were exceptionally fine, and included, as a somewhat
+    unusual feature, a trombone quartette.
+
+    Lord Salisbury had promised to be one of the pall-bearers, but
+    found himself unable to attend. The pall-bearers were
+    Major-General Ellis, representing the Prince and Princess of
+    Wales; the Duke of Abercorn, Sir Joseph Lister, Sir J. Millais,
+    Sir E. Thompson, Sir A. Mackenzie, and Professor Lecky.
+
+    After the coffin was lowered into the crypt by a central opening
+    directly beneath the dome, the two sisters of the late Lord
+    Leighton came to the front, and took a last look at it. When the
+    coffin was lowered many beautiful flowers were placed upon it,
+    and again, after the opening was covered up, the space was more
+    than covered by further wreaths sent by various Academicians,
+    the Royal Academy, students, and personal friends, many of whom
+    lingered some time after the conclusion of the solemn ceremony.
+
+                    _Scarborough Evening News, February 3, 1896._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Leighton's death touched, as did his life, all sorts and conditions of
+men; for he had been the true friend alike of the greatest and of the
+least. The soil in which true distinction is rooted is of a quality
+too rich, too fertile to be affected by class prejudice. Leighton's
+own life was made beautiful by the gratitude he felt for the joy
+nature's loveliness inspired in his soul, and by the passion to make
+known through his work the mysterious treasure, the never-failing
+fountain of delight, ever springing up in his heart. Lovingly human,
+he ardently desired not only to pass on his own joy in beauty to every
+fellow-creature who crossed his path, but, where he saw in any
+possible way help could be given, to give it.
+
+Of the eager, great-hearted Leighton, not a few can echo Romola's
+tribute to Savonarola--the last words of the great book whose pages he
+vivified with his art: "Perhaps I should never have learned to love
+him if he had not helped me when I was in great need."
+
+    A light has passed that never shall pass away,
+      A sun has set whose rays are unequalled of might;
+    The loyal grace, the courtesy bright as day,
+      The strong, sweet, radiant spirit of life and light,
+      That shone and smiled and lightened in all men's sight,
+    The kindly life whose tune was the tune of May,
+      For us now dark, for love and for fame is bright.
+
+                        ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE.[88]
+
+    [Illustration: MONUMENT IN ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, ERECTED AS A
+    MEMORIAL TO LORD LEIGHTON BY HIS FRIENDS AND ADMIRERS
+    Sculptured by Thomas Brock, R.A.]
+
+    [Illustration: View of Inner Hall and Staircase of Leighton
+    House, with reproduction of Mr. Thomas Brock's R.A. Diploma
+    work, Bust of Lord Leighton, presented by Mr. Brock to the
+    Leighton House Collection in 1898.
+    By permission of Mr. J. Harris Stone.]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[83] "Life and Letters of Robert Browning."
+
+[84] Professor Giovanni Costa.
+
+[85] It was during this last visit to Malinmore Leighton made those
+sketches of the sea thistle (see chapter iii. vol. i.), and also some
+last sketches in oil.
+
+[86] Leighton had visited Mr. Pepys Cockerell and his family at
+Lindisfarne (Holy Island) more than once when going or returning from
+Scotland.
+
+[87] Mr. Percy Fitzgerald wrote the following:--
+
+"Being in the same club with Lord Leighton, I could note many instances
+of his good humour and sweetness of temper. I am happy to think, for it
+was a high compliment from him, that he made my acquaintance, not I
+his. He had always a pleasant word; as when, entering the writing-room
+with his hasty tramp, he looked over at me, seated at the window pencil
+in hand, and rushed over in his impetuous way: "Ah, one of _our_ trade,
+I see!" He was particularly interested in a museum or institute at
+Camberwell, and one day thanked me most warmly for having gone down to
+lecture there, and that it was appreciated by the people, &c. This was
+good-natured.
+
+"The day he received his title, an old gentleman of the club, who did
+not know him, congratulated him as he passed by in high-sounding
+Italian. He was delighted, and poured out a reply in the same tongue,
+adding some pleasant remark. This little incident quite illustrates his
+_bonhomie_. It is just what Dickens would do. I gave him a copy of Sir
+Joshua's Discourses, a presentation one to Burke. It was fitting that
+the modern President should have it.
+
+"How tragic were his last appearances at the Academy _soiree_! How
+jaded, shrunk and haggard looked the once handsome painter! He must
+have suffered cruelly, and at the end seemed worn out. There was
+something of a likeness to the lamented Irving, the same sweetness of
+manner, the same grace and romantic view of things. His dress was
+characteristic, somewhat showy, yet not scrupulously neat like a dandy.
+His clothes, like Irving's, seemed old friends, and lay about him in
+roomy fashion. His somewhat unkempt beard left some traces on the
+lapels of his favourite snuff-coloured coat with the flowing tails. The
+blue or red silk, its ends flying free, was a note of colour. Three men
+of mark, and on some points resembling each other, had each this fancy
+for a somewhat theatrical attire.
+
+"I noticed that a nervous guest innocently presented to the porter a
+ticket for some artistic _soiree_, which was declined, to the
+embarrassment of the visitor. But Leighton promptly stepped forward,
+and kindly came to his rescue. It was curious that those three eminent
+artistic beings, Dickens, Leighton, and Irving, should have perished
+from outwearing their nervous systems, Leighton and Irving from
+heart-failure, Dickens from an overtaxed brain."
+
+[88] "A Reminiscence," Leighton, 1896.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+
+
+
+PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
+
+_Delivered by_ SIR F. LEIGHTON, Bart., P.R.A., _at the Art Congress,
+held at Liverpool, December 3rd, 1888_.
+
+
+I cannot but feel that to some of my hearers, and to not a few of
+those who do not hear me, but whom the words spoken in this place may
+chance to reach through the Press, some brief explanation is, at the
+outset, due as to my occupancy of this chair. To them it is known that
+weighty reasons have for many years compelled me to decline all
+requests--and those requests have been frequent, urgent, and most
+gratifying to me in form and spirit--that I should publicly address
+audiences, beyond the walls of Burlington House, on the subject which
+is to occupy this Congress, the subject of Art. It is not without some
+compunction that I have followed this course, but the exigencies, on
+the one hand, of the duties of my office, and, on the other, a firm
+purpose, which you will not, I hope, rebuke, to remain always and
+before all things a working artist, have left to my too limited
+strength and powers no alternative but that which I have adopted.
+Nevertheless, I have felt justified in obeying the summons of the
+founders of this Congress--and for this reason that, while the
+far-reaching character of the effort here initiated, and my earnest
+desire to contribute, in however small a measure, to whatever of good
+may flow from it have seemed to make it incumbent on me to accept the
+duty of saying a few words on this occasion, its comprehensive and
+national character lifts it into a category wholly apart from and
+outside the sphere of purely local interests such as those which I had
+hitherto been invited to support.
+
+I trust I shall be pardoned this short obtrusion of private
+considerations, and that you will see in it not a movement of egotism
+but the discharge of a simple debt of courtesy; which said, let me
+address myself to the task imposed upon me--the task of showing cause
+and need for the existence of the association which inaugurates to-day
+its public work, and of arousing, if it is in my power, your efficient
+sympathy in that work, that it may not remain barren and without
+fruit. But here I am at once conscious of a perplexity lurking in your
+minds. "Why," I hear you ask, "should an organisation have been called
+into life for the sole purpose of considering in public matters
+relating to the development and spread of art in this country? What
+hitherto unfulfilled ends do you seek to achieve? Do you aim at the
+wider extension of artistic education in this country? But vast sums
+from the public purse are annually devoted to its promotion; schools
+of art multiply, one might almost say swarm, over the face of the
+land. Or do you tax the great municipal bodies of England with
+remissness on this score? But day by day efforts in this direction
+among the great provincial centres of trade and industry become more
+marked and effectual. No announcement more frequently meets our eyes
+than that of the opening, with due ceremony and circumstance, and
+seemingly with full recognition that the event is an important one, of
+spacious public galleries for the annual exhibition, or for the
+permanent housing, of works of contemporary art. Or does art find
+private individuals lacking in that noble spirit which so often
+prompts Englishmen to devote to the enjoyment and profit of their
+fellow-citizens a large share of the wealth gained by them in the
+pursuit of their avocations? But a great gallery of art which rises
+hard by across the road would shame and silence any such assertion.
+Or, again, can it be denied that what encouragement to artists is
+afforded by the purchase of innumerable pictures, at all events, was
+never more liberally meted out to them than within our generation, and
+does not the crowding of exhibitions, of which the name is legion,
+evince abundantly the responsive attitude of the country, as far at
+least as one of the arts is concerned? Are not statues multiplying in
+our streets? Is not architecture, as an art, finding at this time
+increasing, if tardy, acceptance at the hands of private individuals?
+Is not a wholesome sense dawning among us that even a private dwelling
+should not offend, nay, should conciliate, the eye of the passer-by in
+our public thoroughfares? and lastly, has not a more than marked
+improvement taken place within our day in the character of all those
+intimate domestic surroundings which are the daily diet of our eyes,
+and should be daily their delight? Are these not facts patent to all,
+and do they not seem to cut from under your feet the ground on which
+you seek to stand?" Yes, all this and more may be said; and I should
+be blind as an observer--I should be ungrateful as one speaking in the
+name of artists--did I not recognise the force of these words which I
+have put into the mouth of an imaginary querist. I acknowledge with
+joy that there is in all these facts, and still more in their
+significance, much on which we may justly congratulate ourselves, much
+that points to a quickening consciousness, a stirring of slumbering
+aesthetic impulse, a receptive readiness, a growing malleability in the
+general temper, which promise well; and it is precisely such a
+condition of things which justifies our hope of good results from this
+Congress, and in it we find our best encouragement.
+
+Well, what then is our charge in respect to the present relation of
+the country to art? What are the shortcomings for which we are here to
+seek a remedy? Our charge is that with the great majority of
+Englishmen the appreciation of art, as art, is blunt, is superficial,
+is desultory, is spasmodic; that our countrymen have no adequate
+perception of the place of art as an element of national greatness;
+that they do not count its achievements among the sources of their
+national pride; that they do not appreciate its vital importance in
+the present day to certain branches of national prosperity; that while
+what is excellent receives from them honour and recognition, what is
+ignoble and hideous is not detested by them, is, indeed, accepted and
+borne with a dull, indifferent acquiescence; that the aesthetic
+consciousness is not with them a living force, impelling them towards
+the beautiful, and rebelling against the unsightly. We charge that
+while a desire to possess works of art, but especially pictures, is
+very widespread, it is in a large number, perhaps in a majority of
+cases, not the essential quality of art that has attracted the
+purchaser to his acquisition; not the emanation of beauty in any one
+of its innumerable forms, but something outside and wholly independent
+of art. In a word, there is, we charge, among the many in our country,
+little consciousness that every product of men's hands claiming to
+rank as a work of art, be it lofty in its uses and monumental, or
+lowly and dedicated to humble ends, be it a temple or a palace, the
+sacred home of prayer or a Sovereign's boasted seat, be it a statue or
+a picture, or any implement or utensil bearing the traces of an
+artist's thought and the imprint of an artist's finger--there is, I
+say, little adequate consciousness that each of these works is a work
+of art only on condition that, is a work of art exactly in proportion
+as, it contains within itself the precious spark from the Promethean
+rod, the divine fire-germ of living beauty; and that the presence of
+this divine germ ennobles and lifts into one and the same family every
+creation which reveals it; for even as the life-sustaining fire which
+streams out in splendour from the sun's molten heart is one with the
+fire which lurks for our uses in the grey and homely flint, so the
+vital flame of beauty is one and the same, though kindled now to
+higher and now to humbler purpose, whether it be manifest in the
+creations of a Phidias or of a Michael Angelo, of an Ictinus or of
+some nameless builder of a sublime cathedral; in a jewel designed by
+Holbein or a lamp from Pompeii, a sword-hilt from Toledo, a caprice in
+ivory from Japan or the enamelled frontlet of an Egyptian queen. We
+say, further, that the absence of this perception is fraught with
+infinite mischief, direct and indirect, to the development of art
+among us, tending, as it does, to divorce from it whole classes of
+industrial production, and incalculably narrowing the field of the
+influence of beauty in our lives. And with the absence of this true
+aesthetic instinct, we find not unnaturally the absence of any national
+consciousness that the sense of what is beautiful, and the
+manifestation of that sense through the language of art, adorn and
+exalt a people in the face of the world and before the tribunal of
+history; a national consciousness which should become a national
+conscience--a sense, that is, of public duty and of a collective
+responsibility in regard to this loveliest flower of civilisation.
+
+Well, it is in the belief that the consciousness of which I have
+spoken is rather dormant with us than absent, waiting to be aroused
+rather than wholly wanting, that the founders of this Association have
+initiated the movement which has brought you together, and laid upon
+me the ungracious task to which I am now addressing myself--a task I
+have accepted in the hope that, at least, some good to others may come
+out of the wreck and ruin of any character for courtesy which may
+hitherto have been conceded to me.
+
+But let us now look closer into my indictment; and let us, first, for
+a moment, and by way of getting at a standard, turn our thoughts to
+one or two of those races among which art has reached its highest
+level and round whose memory art has shed an inextinguishable
+splendour. Let us first consider the Greek race in the day of its
+greatest achievements and the most perfect balance of its transcendent
+gifts. What is it that impresses us most in the contemplation of the
+artistic activity of this race? It is, first, that the stirring
+aesthetic instinct, the impulse towards and absolute need of beauty,
+was universal with it, and lay, a living force, at the root of its
+emotional being; and, secondly, that the Greeks were conscious of this
+impulse as of a just source of pride and a sign of their supremacy
+among the nations. So saturated were they with it that whatever left
+their hands bore its stamp. Whatever of Greek work has been preserved
+to us, temple or statue, vessel or implement, is marked with the same
+attributes of stately and rhythmic beauty; in all their creations,
+from the highest to the lowest, one spirit lives, and whatever be the
+rank of each of these creations in the hierarchy of works of art, in
+one thing they are even-born and kin--in the spirit of loveliness. And
+of the dignity of this artistic instinct, which they regarded as their
+birthright, they were, as I have said, proudly conscious. Would you
+have an instance of this high consciousness? Here is one. At the end
+of the first year of the Peloponnesian war the Athenians having,
+according to ancestral custom, decreed a public funeral to those who
+had fallen in battle, Pericles, the son of Xanthippus, was chosen by
+them to speak the praises of the dead. It is a famous speech, that in
+which he obeyed their injunction, and it opens with a lofty eulogy of
+the Republic for which the heroes whom they mourned had fallen. In
+this magnificent song of praise he enumerates the virtues of the
+Athenians; he shows them heroic, wise, just, tolerant, _lovers of
+beauty_, philosophers--in all things foremost amongst men. Mark this!
+At a celebration of the most moving solemnity--in a breathing space
+between two acts of a gigantic international struggle for
+hegemony--you have here a great statesman enumerating the titles of
+his fellow-citizens to headship among the nations, and placing not at
+the end of his panegyric and as an oratorical embellishment, but in
+its very heart and centre, these words: "We love the beautiful."
+
+But we may gain, perhaps, a yet more vivid sense of the extent to
+which the artistic impulse possessed and filled this people in the
+fascinating epitome of Grecian handicraft which is presented to us in
+Pompeii, or rather in the Museo Nazionale at Naples. Here you have the
+work, not of Athenian Greeks, of the Periclean or of the Alexandrian
+age, but the work of provincial Greeks inhabiting a watering-place of
+no very great importance, in the first century of our era; a period as
+far removed from the days of the Parthenon sculptures as we are from
+the days of the Canterbury Tales. And what a display it is! How full
+of interest! Here we are admitted into the most intimate privacy of a
+multitude of Pompeian houses--the kitchens, the pantries, the cellars
+of the contemporaries of the Plinies have here no secret for us;
+indeed, for aught we know, more than one of those dinners of which
+that delicate _bon vivant_, the nephew of the naturalist, was so
+appreciative a judge may have been cooked in one of these very ranges,
+one of these ladles may have skimmed his soup, his quails may have
+been roasted on yonder spit. Nothing is wanting that goes to make the
+complete armament of a kitchen--stoves, cauldrons, vessels of every
+kind, lamps of every shape, forks, spoons, ladles of every dimension.
+And in all this mass of manifold material perhaps the most marked
+characteristic is not the high level of executive merit it reveals,
+high as that level is, but the amazing wealth of _idea_, the
+marvellous intellectual activity brought to bear on what we now call
+objects of industrial art--whatever that may mean--in this outpost of
+Greek civilisation. These accumulated appliances of the kitchen and
+the pantry form a museum of art--a museum of art of inexhaustible
+fascination; and not only does this vast collection of necessary
+things contain nothing ugly, but it displays, as I have just said, an
+amazing wealth of ideas; each bowl, each lamp, each spoon almost, is
+an individual work of art, a separate and distinct conception, a
+special birth of the joy of creation in a genuine artist. But, above
+all, let us bear this fact in mind--_the absence there of any ugly
+thing_; for the instinct of what is beautiful not only delights and
+seeks to express itself in lovely work, but forbids and banishes
+whatever is graceless and unsightly.
+
+As next to the Greeks, and as almost their equals in this craving for
+the beautiful, the Italians will occur to you. And here it may be well
+to note, in a parenthesis, that a vivid sense of abstract beauty in
+line and form does not necessarily carry with it a keen perception of
+shapliness in the human frame. This curious fact we see strikingly
+illustrated in a race which possesses the artistic instinct in certain
+of its developments in a greater degree than any other in our time--I
+mean the Japanese. With them the sense of decorative distribution and
+of subtle loveliness of form and colour is absolutely universal, and
+expresses itself in every most ordinary appliance of daily life,
+overflowing, indeed, into every toy or trifle that may amuse an idle
+moment; and yet majesty and beauty in the human form are as absent
+from their works as from their persons. Be this said without prejudice
+to the fact that in the movement imparted by them to the figures in
+their designs there is often much of daintiness and dignity, the
+outcome of that keen perception of beauty of line in the abstract
+which we have seen to be dominant in them. I need not follow further
+this, I think, interesting train of thought, but the digression seemed
+to me useful, not as illustrating the fact that beauty is not to be
+regarded only in connection with the human form, which is a mere
+truism, but as showing that the abstract sense of it, in certain
+aspects, may possess and penetrate a race in which the perception of
+comeliness in the human body is almost entirely absent; and I meet by
+it also, in anticipation, certain objections that may suggest
+themselves to you in connection with the Italians, as far, at least,
+as the Tuscans are concerned; for in them, too, we find occasionally,
+side by side with an unsurpassed sense of the expressiveness of line
+and form, a defective perception of beauty in the human
+frame--witness the ungainly angularities, for instance, of a
+Verrocchio, a Gozzoli, a Signorelli.
+
+The thirst for the artistically delightful was the mark in Italy of no
+particular class; it was common to all, high and low, to the Pontiff
+on his throne, to the trader behind his counter, to the people in the
+market-place. And here, again, observe that this desire was not alone
+for the adornment of walls and public places with painting and
+statuary--though every wall in every church or public building was, in
+fact, enriched by the hand of painters and of sculptors--but it
+embraced every humbler form of artistic expression, and was, indeed,
+especially directed to one which has in our time touched, here and
+there, a melancholy depth--the craft of the goldsmith. I said "humbler
+form" of art for lack of a better word; for a craft cannot fitly be
+called humble which has occupied and delighted men of the very highest
+gifts. Did not the mind that conceived the "Perseus" of the Loggia dei
+Lanzi pour out some of its richest fancies in a jewelled salt-cellar
+for the table of a Pope? Did not the sublimest genius that ever shone
+upon the world of art receive its first guidance in the workshop of a
+jeweller--a jeweller who was himself a painter also of high renown?
+For was it not that painter-goldsmith whose hands adorned with noble
+frescoes the famous choir of Sta. Maria Novella?
+
+Now, to a cultured audience such as that which I am here addressing,
+these facts are familiar and trite, so trite and so familiar that it
+may, perhaps, be doubted whether their true significance has ever
+stood quite clearly before your minds, and whether you have fully
+grasped the solidarity of the arts--if I may use an outlandish
+expression--which at one time prevailed. Let us in imagination
+transfer the last quoted fact into contemporary life. Let us suppose
+that the municipality of a great English city, proud of its annals and
+of its culture, determined to decorate with paintings in some
+comprehensive manner the walls of a great public building; and
+suppose, further, that an artist, admittedly of the first rank, were
+to answer to its call from the workshop--and I say advisedly from the
+workshop, for it is there, and not on an armchair in the office, that
+the head of the house would have been found in the old day--suppose, I
+say, that such an artist came forth from some great firm of
+jewellers, in Bond Street for instance, we should have, on the
+artistic side, the exact parallel of the case of the Dominicans of
+Sta. Maria Nuova and Domenico, the son of Thomas the garland-maker of
+Florence. Meanwhile, striking as is this instance of the unity of art
+in long past days, it is but just to add, and I rejoice to be able
+here to do so, that signs are not wanting on the side of our own
+artists of a strong tendency towards a return to closer bonds between
+its various branches, in which direction, indeed, a movement has been
+for some years increasingly marked and practical; and it is with a
+glad outlook into the future, and with a sense of breathing a wider
+air, that I place by the side of the cases which I have just
+mentioned--cases which were, in their time, of natural and frequent
+occurrence--one which is of yesterday. The chief magistrate of an
+important provincial centre of English industry, the Mayor of Preston,
+wears at this time a chain of office which is a beautiful work of art,
+and this chain was not only designed but wrought throughout by the
+sculptor who modelled the stately commemorative statue of the Queen
+that adorns the County Square of Winchester, the artist who presides
+over the section of sculpture in this Congress, my young friend and
+colleague, Mr. Alfred Gilbert.
+
+I have pointed to the Italians and the Greeks as culminating instances
+of people filled with a love of beauty and achieving the highest
+excellence in its embodiment, and I have named the Japanese as
+manifesting the aesthetic temper in a high degree of sensitiveness, but
+within certain limitations. It is not necessary to remind you that I
+might extend this list, if with some qualification, and that the same
+lesson--the lesson that the nations which love beauty seek it in the
+humblest as well as the highest things--is taught us by others than
+those I have mentioned. Whosoever, for instance, has wondered at the
+work of Persian looms, or felt the fascination of the manuscripts
+illuminated by the artists of Iran, or noted the unfailing grace of
+subtle line revealed in their metal-work, will feel that for this race
+also the merit of a work of art did not reside in its category, but in
+the degree to which it manifested the spirit which alone could ennoble
+it, the spirit of beauty. And if, further, this dominant instinct of
+the beautiful is not in our own time found in any Western race in its
+fullest force, and among one Eastern people, with, as we saw,
+important limitations, there is yet one modern nation in our own
+hemisphere in which the thirst for artistic excellence is widespread
+to a degree unknown elsewhere in Europe; a people with whom the sense
+of the dignity of artistic achievement, as an element of national
+greatness, an element which it is the duty of its Government to foster
+and to further, and to proclaim before the world, is keen and
+constant; I mean, of course, your brilliant neighbours, the people of
+France. Here, then, are standards to which we may appeal to see how
+far, all allowance being made for many signs of improvement in things
+concerning art, we yet fall short, as a nation, of the ideal which we
+should have before us.
+
+Let me now revert to my indictment. I said that the sense of abstract
+beauty with the mass of our countrymen--and once again I must be
+understood not to ignore, but only to leave out of view for the
+moment, the considerable and growing number of those in whom this
+sense is astir and active--with the mass, I repeat, of our countrymen,
+the perception of beauty is blunt, and the desire for it sluggish and
+superficial; with them the beautiful is, indeed, sometimes a source of
+vague, half-conscious satisfaction, especially when it appeals to them
+conjointly with other incitements to emotion, but their perception of
+it is passive, and does not pass into active desire; it accepts, it
+does not demand; it is uncertain of itself, for it lacks definiteness
+of intuition, and having no definite intuition, it is necessarily
+uncritical. This weakness, among the many, of the critical faculty in
+aesthetic matters, and the curious bluntness of their perceptions, is
+seen not in connection with the plastic arts only, but over the whole
+artistic field, in the domains of music and the drama, as in that of
+painting and sculpture. Who, for instance, where a body of English men
+and women has been gathered together in a concert room, has not, at
+one moment, heard a storm of applause go up to meet some matchless
+executant of noble music, and then, five minutes later, watched in
+wonder and dismay the same crepitation of eager hands proclaiming an
+equal satisfaction with the efforts of some feeblest servant of
+Apollo? Or have you not often, in your theatres, blushed to see the
+lowest buffoonery received with exuberant delight by an audience--and
+a cultivated audience--which had just before not seemed insensible to
+some fine piece of histrionic art? And what could proclaim the lack of
+true, spontaneous instinct in more startling fashion than the
+notorious fact that the most thrilling touch of pathos in the
+performance of an actor reputed to be comic will be infallibly
+received with a titter by a British audience, which has paid to laugh
+and come to the play focussed for the funny?
+
+Now this little glimpse into the attitude of the public in regard to
+other arts than ours has its bearing upon our present subject. This
+same feebleness of the critical sense which arises out of the
+indefiniteness--to say the best of it--of the inner standard of
+artistic excellence, is not unnaturally accompanied by and fosters an
+apathy in regard to that excellence, and an attitude of callous
+acquiescence in the unsightly, which are inexpressibly mischievous;
+for you cannot too strongly print this on your minds, that what you
+demand that will you get, and according to what you accept will be
+that which is provided for you. Let an atmosphere be generated among
+you in which the appetite for what is beautiful and noble is whetted
+and becomes imperative, in which whatever is ugly and vulgar shall be
+repugnant and hateful to the beholder, and assuredly what is beautiful
+and noble will, in due time, be furnished to you, and in steadily
+increasing excellence, satisfying your taste, and at the same time
+further purifying it and heightening its sensitiveness.
+
+The enemy, then, is this indifference in the presence of the ugly; it
+is only by the victory over this apathy that you can rise to better
+things, it is only by the rooting out and extermination of what is
+ugly that you can bring about conditions in which beauty shall be a
+power among you. Now, this callous tolerance of the unsightly,
+although it is, I am grateful to think, yielding by degrees to a
+healthier feeling, is still strangely prevalent and widespread among
+us, and its deadening influence is seen in the too frequent absence of
+any articulate protest of public opinion against the disfigurement of
+our towns.
+
+Let me give you an instance of this indifference. Our country is happy
+in possessing a collection of paintings by the old masters of
+exceptional interest and splendour, a collection which, thanks to the
+taste and highly trained discernment of its present accomplished
+head, Sir Frederick Burton, is, with what speed the short-sighted
+policy of successive Governments permits, rising steadily to a
+foremost place among the famous galleries in the world. Some years
+ago, the building destined to receive it being found no longer
+adequate, it became necessary to provide, by some means, ampler space
+for the display of the national treasure. It was resolved that another
+edifice should take the place of that designed by Wilkins, an edifice
+which, be it said in passing, has been made the butt of curiously
+unmerited ridicule in the world of connoisseurship, and which, apart
+from certain very obvious blemishes, it has always seemed to me to be
+much easier to deride than to better. A competition was opened, and
+designs were demanded for a spacious building, equal to present and
+future needs, and worthy of the magnificence of the collection it was
+to house. It is hardly necessary to say that we have here no concern
+whatever with the controversy which arose over these designs. My
+concern is with its final outcome, which is this: the original
+building has remained unaltered as to its exterior; but on the rear of
+one of its flanks loom now into view, first, an appendage in an
+entirely different style of architecture, and further on, an
+excrescence of no style of architecture at all; the one an Italian
+tower, the other a flat cone of glass, surmounted by a ventilator--a
+structure of the warehouse type--the whole resulting in a jarring
+jumble and an aspect of chaotic incongruity which would be ludicrous
+if it were not distressing; and we enjoy, further, this instructive
+phenomenon that a public opinion which sensitively shrank from the
+blemishes of the original edifice has accepted its retention, with all
+those blemishes unmodified, _plus_ an appendage which adds to the
+whole the worst almost of all sins architectural--a lack of unity of
+conception. Now, I have never to my knowledge heard one single word of
+articulate public reprobation levelled at this now irremediable blot
+on what we complacently call the finest site in the world; and yet I
+cannot find it in me to believe that many have not, like myself,
+groaned in spirit before a spectacle so deplorable--a spectacle which,
+indeed, is only conceivable within these islands. I think that a good
+deal is summed up in this episode, and I need not, for my present
+purpose, seek another in the domain of architecture.
+
+In regard to sculpture, the public apathy and blindness are yet more
+depressing and complete, and illustrate the deadness of the many to
+the perception of the essential qualities of art. To the overwhelming
+majority of Englishmen sculpture means simply the perpetuation of the
+form of Mr. So-and-So in marble, bronze, or terra-cotta--this, and no
+more. That marble, bronze, or terra-cotta may, under cunning hands,
+become vehicles, for those who have eyes to see, of emotions, aesthetic
+and poetic, not less lofty than those which are stirred in us by the
+verse of a Dante or a Milton, or by strains of noblest music, of this
+the consciousness is for practical purposes non-existent. For
+sculpture, for an art through which alone the name of Greece would
+have been famous for all time, there is, outside portraiture, even
+now, under conditions admittedly improved, little or no field in this
+country. Portrait-statues galore bristle, indeed, within our streets;
+but the notion of setting up in public places pieces of monumental
+sculpture solely for adornment and dignity, or of monuments that shall
+remind us of deeds in which our country or our town has earned fame
+and deserved gratitude, and incite the young to emulation of those
+deeds, or that shall be the allegorised expression of any great
+idea--and yet our race has had great ideas, and clothed them in deeds
+as great--hardly ever, it would seem, enters the heads of a people
+whose aspirations are surely not less noble or less high than those of
+other nations. Nay, even a monument commemorative of the great public
+services of some individual man which shall be a monument _to_ him
+rather than exclusively an image _of_ him, a monument of which his
+effigy shall form a part, but of which the main feature shall be the
+embodiment or illustration, in forms of art, of the virtues that have
+earned for him the homage of his countrymen--even this is suggested in
+vain.
+
+And if we are tolerant of treason against fitness in architecture,
+what shall we say of our tolerance in regard to its sculptural
+adornments? What shall we say of the complacent acceptance, above and
+about windows and doorways in clubs, offices, barracks, and the like
+buildings, of carven wonders such as no other civilised community
+would accept in silence? Though I fear I must here, with all
+deference, add that my brethren, the architects, who suffer their
+work to be so defaced, are themselves not wholly blameless; and
+indeed, it is a truth in the assertion of which the most enlightened
+workmen in every branch of art will stand by me, that among ourselves
+also the sense of the kinship of the arts is too often a mere theory,
+received, no doubt, with respect as an abstract proposition, but not
+perceptibly colouring our practical activity.
+
+In sculpture the inertness of demand and tolerance of inferior supply
+is due mainly to the want, to which I have alluded, of a sense of and
+a joy in the purely aesthetic quality in artistic production, an
+insensibility to the power inherent in form, by its own virtue, of
+producing the emotion and exciting the imagination, a power on which
+the dignity of this pure and severe art does or should mainly rest.
+
+In the appreciation of painting, which on various grounds appeals as
+an art to a far wider public than either architecture or sculpture,
+the same shortcomings are evident, though in a less degree, and with
+less mischievous results; for the witchery of colour, at least, is
+felt and appreciated, more or less consciously, by a very large number
+of people. The inadequacy of the general standard of artistic insight
+is here seen in the fact that to a great multitude of persons the
+attractiveness of a painted canvas is in proportion to the amount of
+literary element which it carries, not in proportion to the degree of
+aesthetic emotion stirred by it, or of appeal to the imagination
+contained in it--persons, those, who regard a picture as a compound of
+anecdote and mechanism, and with whom looking at it would seem to mean
+only another form of reading. Time after time, in listening to the
+description--the enthusiastic description--of a picture, we become
+aware that the points emphasised by the speaker are such as did not
+specially call for treatment in art at all, were often not fitted for
+expression through form or colour, their natural vehicle being not
+paint but ink, which is the proper and appointed conveyor of abstract
+thoughts and concrete narrative. I have heard pictures extolled as
+works of genius simply because they expressed, not because they nobly
+clothed in forms of art, ideas not beyond the reach of the average
+penny-a-liner.
+
+Now I know that in what I am here saying I skirt the burning ground
+of controversy long and hotly waged--skirt it only, for that
+controversy touches but the borders of my subject, and I shall of
+course not pursue it here. I will, nevertheless, to avoid
+misrepresentation in either sense, state, as briefly as I can, one or
+two definite principles on which it appears to me safe to stand. It is
+given to form and to colour to elicit in men powerful and exquisite
+emotions, emotions covering a very wide range of sensibility, and to
+which they alone have the key. The chords within us which vibrate to
+these emotions are the instrument on which art plays, and a work of
+art deserves that name, as I have said, in proportion as, and in the
+extent to which, it sets those chords in motion. The power and
+solemnity of a simple appeal of form as such is seen in a noble
+building of imposing mass and stately outlines. When, however, form in
+arts is connected with the human frame, and when combinations of human
+forms are among the materials with which a beautiful design is built
+up, then another element is added to the sum of our sensations--an
+element due to the absorbing interest of man in all that belongs to
+his kind; and the emotion primarily produced by the force of a purely
+aesthetic appeal is enhanced and heightened by elements of a more
+intimate and universal order, one more nearly touching our affections,
+but not, therefore, necessarily of a higher order. Thus the episode,
+for instance, of Paolo and Francesca, clothed in the rare, grave
+melody of Dante's verse, entrances us with its pathos; but our
+emotion, intensely human as it is, is not therefore of a higher kind
+than that which holds us as we listen to sounds sublimely woven by
+some great musician; nor are the impressions received in watching from
+the floor of some great Christian church the gathering of the gloom
+within a dome's receding curves of less noble order than those aroused
+by a supreme work of sculpture or a painting--by, say, the "Notte" of
+Michael Angelo or the "Monna Lisa" of Lionardo; and yet in both of
+these last the chord of human sympathy is strongly swept, though in
+different ways--in the "Notte" by the poetic and pathetic
+suggestiveness of certain forms and movements of the human body; in
+the "Monna Lisa" by a more definitely personal charm and feminine
+sorcery which haunts about her shadowy eyes, and the subtle curling of
+her mysterious lips.
+
+I say, then, that in a work of art the elements of emotion based on
+human sympathies are not of a loftier order than those arising out of
+abstract sublimity or loveliness of form, but that the presence of
+these elements in such a work, while not raising it as an artistic
+creation, does impart to it an added power of appeal, and that,
+therefore, a work in which these elements are combined will be with
+the great majority of mankind a more potent engine of delight than one
+which should rest exclusively on abstract qualities. And it follows,
+therefore, that while a work of art earns its title to that name on
+condition only, once again I say, of the purely aesthetic element being
+present in it, and will rank as such in exact proportion to the degree
+in which this element prevails in it; and while, further, this
+element, carrying with it, as it does, imaginative suggestiveness of
+the highest order and of the widest scope, is all-sufficient in those
+branches of art in which the human form plays no part, the element
+which is inseparable in a work of art from the introduction of human
+beings is one which it is not possible for us to ignore in our
+appreciation of that work as a source and vehicle of emotion.
+
+Every attempt at succinct exposition of a complex question risks being
+unsatisfactory and obscure, and I am painfully alive to the inadequacy
+of what I have just said. I trust, however, that I have conveyed my
+meaning, if roughly, yet sufficiently to shield me from misconception
+in regard to the special emphasis I am laying on the importance of a
+proper estimation of the essentially aesthetic quality in a work of
+art, an importance which I urge upon you, not so much here on account
+of the effect its absence may have exercised on the development of
+painting, as on account of the significant fact that its want--the
+lack of a perception that certain qualities are the very essence of
+art, and link into one great family every work of the hands of men in
+which they are found--has led with us to a disastrous divorce between
+what is considered as art proper and the arts which are called
+industrial. I say advisedly "disastrous," for the lowering among us in
+the present day of the status of forms of art, in the service of which
+such men as Albert Duerer, for example, and Holbein (men, by-the-by, of
+kindred blood with ourselves), Cellini and Lionardo, were glad to
+labour and create--and that not as a concession, but in the joyful
+exercise of their fullest powers--is one of its results, and carrying
+with it, as is natural, a lowering of standard in these arts, has
+generated the marvellous notion, not expressed in words, but too
+largely acted on, that art in any serious sense is not to be looked
+for at all in certain places--where, in truth, alas! neither is it
+often found--and led to the holding aloof to a great extent, until
+comparatively recent years, of much of the best talent from very
+delightful forms of artistic creation; and this notion has led further
+to the virtual banishment from certain provinces of designing of the
+human figure, or where it is not banished, to its defacement, too
+often, in the hands of the untrained or the inept.
+
+We are to a wonderful degree creatures of habit, our thoughts are
+prone to run--or shall I say rather to stagnate?--within grooves; and
+if we are a people of many and great endowments, a swift and free play
+of thought is, as we have been forcibly told by a voice that we shall
+hear no more, and can ill miss, not a distinguishing feature among us.
+Is it not an amazing thing, for example, that human shapes, which in
+clay or plaster would be ignominiously excluded from a second-rate
+exhibition, are not only accepted, but displayed with a chuckle of
+elated pride, when cast in the precious metals, flanked, say by a
+palm-tree, borne aloft on a rock, and presented in the guise of a
+piece of ornamental plate? But is this even rare? Is it not of
+constant occurrence? Do you demur? Well, let me ask you a plain
+question: Of all the nymphs and goddesses, the satyrs, and the
+tritons, that disport themselves on the ceremonial goldsmithery of the
+United Kingdom, how many if cast in vulgar plaster, and not in
+glittering gold, would pass muster before the jury of an average
+exhibition? And if few, I ask why is this so? In the name of
+Cellini--nay, in the name of common sense, why? And is it on account
+of the low ebb of figure modelling for decorative purposes that on our
+carved furniture--what we mysteriously describe as "art
+furniture"--the human form is hardly ever seen? Then why is the best
+talent not enlisted in this work? Certain it is that the absence of
+living forms imparts to much of the furniture now made in England,
+unsurpassed as it is in regard to delicacy and finish of handiwork,
+and frequently elegant in design, a certain look of slightness and
+flimsy, faddy dilettantism which prevent it from taking that rank in
+the province of applied art in which it might and should aspire.
+
+But I have, I fear, already unduly drawn upon your patience, and I
+must bring to a close these too disjointed prefatory words, leaving it
+to the accomplished gentlemen who head the various sections of this
+Congress to amplify and enrich as they will out of the wide fund of
+their knowledge and experience the bald outline I have sketched before
+you. They, in their turn, taking up, no doubt, our common parable,
+will emphasise and press on you the fact that by cultivating its
+aesthetic sense in a more comprehensive and harmoniously consistent
+spirit than hitherto, and with a clearer vision of the nature of all
+art and a more catholic receptiveness as to its charms, and by
+stimulating in a right direction the abundant productive energy which
+lies to its hand, this nation will not only be adding infinitely to
+the adornment and dignity of its public and private life, not only
+providing for itself an increasing and manifold source of delight and
+renovating repose, mental and spiritual, in a day in which such
+resting and regenerating elements are more and more called for by our
+jaded nervous systems, and more and more needed for our intellectual
+equilibrium, but will be dealing with a subject which is every day
+becoming more and more important in relation to certain sides of the
+waning material prosperity of the country. For, as they will no doubt
+remind you, the industrial competition between this and other
+countries--a competition, keen and eager, which means to certain
+industries almost a race for life--runs, in many cases, no longer
+exclusively or mainly on the lines of excellence of material and
+solidity of workmanship, but greatly nowadays on the lines of artistic
+charm and beauty of design. This, to you, vital fact is one which they
+will, I am convinced, not suffer to fall into the background.
+
+One last word in anticipation of certain objections not unlikely to be
+raised against an assumption which may seem to be implied in the
+existence of our Association--the assumption that the evils and
+shortcomings of which I have spoken with such unsparing frankness can
+be removed or remedied by the gathering together of a number of
+persons to listen to a series of addresses. The causes of these evils,
+we may be told, and their antidote, are not on the surface of things,
+but rest on conditions of a complex character, and are fundamental.
+"Who," I hear some one say, "is this dreamer of dreams, who hopes to
+cure by talking such deep-seated evils? Who is this shallow and
+unphilosophical thinker who does not see that the same primary
+conditions are operative in making the purchaser indifferent what he
+gets and the supplier indifferent to what he produces, and who
+attributes the circumstance that good work is not generally produced
+in certain forms of industry to the lack of demand, rather than to the
+deeper-lying fact that suppliers and demanders are of the same stock,
+having the same congenital failings; and satisfied with the same
+standards?" My answer to this imaginary, or I ought, perhaps, to say
+this foreseen objector would be, first, this--that I am not the
+visionary for whom he takes me, and that I do not believe in the
+efficacy of words either directly to remedy the state of things I have
+been deploring, or to create a love of art and a delicate
+sensitiveness to its charms in those to whom the responsive chords
+have been refused; neither is the eloquence, trumpet-toned and
+triumphant, conceivable by me before which the walls of the Jericho of
+the Philistine shall crumble in abrupt ruin to the ground; least of
+all do I believe in sudden developments of the human intellect. But it
+has nevertheless seemed to me, as it has seemed to the framers of this
+Association, that words, if they be judicious and sincere, may rally
+and strengthen and prompt to action instincts and impulses which only
+await a signal to assert themselves--instincts, sometimes, perhaps,
+not fully conscious of themselves--and that a favouring temperature
+may be thus created within which, by the operation of natural laws, in
+due time, but by no stroke of the wand, a new and better order may
+arise. Neither, indeed, do I ignore the force of my critic's
+contention that the causes of mischief lie deep, and are not to be
+touched by surface-tinkering, if they are to be removed at all;
+although I demur to his pessimistic estimate of them as a final bar to
+our hopes. It is true that certain specific attributes are, or seem to
+be, feeble in our race; it is true, too true--I have it on the
+repeated assurance of apologetic vendors--that with us the ugliest
+objects--often, oh! how ugly--have the largest market; nevertheless,
+the amount of good artistic production in connection with industry--I
+purposely speak of this first--has grown within the last score or so
+of years, and through the initiative, mind, of a mere handful of
+enthusiastic and highly gifted men in an extraordinary degree; and in
+a proportionate degree has the number increased, also, of those who
+accept and desire it; and this growth has been steady and organic, and
+is of the best augury. Now, the increase in the number of those who
+desire good work, and the concurrent development of their critical
+sensitiveness in matters of taste, stimulate, in their turn, the
+energies, and sustain the upward efforts, of the producers, and thus,
+through action and reaction, a condition of things should be slowly
+but surely evolved which shall more nearly approach that general level
+of artistic culture and artistic production so anxiously looked for by
+us all. It is in the hastening of this desired result that we invoke,
+not your sympathy alone, but your patient, strenuous aid. And if I am
+further asked how, in my view, this association can best contribute to
+the furtherance of our common end, I would say, not merely by seeking
+to fan and kindle a more general interest in the things of art, but
+mainly by seeking to awaken a clearer perception of the true _essence_
+of a work of art, by insisting on the fundamental identity of all
+manifestations of the artistic creative impulse through whatever
+channels it may express itself, and by setting forth and establishing
+this pregnant truth--that whatever degrees of dignity and rank may
+exist in the scale of artistic productions, according to the order of
+emotion to which they minister in us, they are in one kind; for the
+various and many channels through which beauty is made manifest to us
+in art are but the numerous several stops of one and the same divine
+instrument.
+
+And if in what I have said I have laid especial stress on that branch
+of art which is called industrial, it is not solely to develop this
+cardinal doctrine, neither only because of the pressing, practical,
+paramount national importance of this part of our subject, but also
+because I, in truth, believe that it is in a great measure through
+these very forms of art that the improvement, to which I look with a
+steadfast faith, will be mainly operated. The almost unlimited area
+which they cover in itself constitutes them an engine of immense
+power, and I believe that through them, if at all, the sense of beauty
+and the love for it will be stimulated in, and communicated to,
+constantly increasing numbers. I believe that the day may come when
+public opinion, thus slowly but definitely moulded, will make itself
+loudly heard; when men will insist that what they do for the gracing
+and adornment of their homes shall be done also for the public
+buildings and thoroughfares of their cities; when they will remind
+their municipal representatives and the controllers of their guilds of
+what similar bodies of men did for the cities of Italy in the days of
+their proud prosperity in trade, and will ask why the walls of our
+public edifices are blank and silent, instead of being adorned and
+made delightful with things beautiful to see, or eloquent of whatever
+great deeds or good work enrich and honour the annals of the places of
+our birth. And lastly, I believe that an art desired by the whole
+people and fostered by the whole people's desire would reflect--for
+such art must be sincere--some of the best qualities of our race; its
+love of Nature, its imaginative force, its healthfulness, its strong
+simplicity.
+
+And now, ladies and gentlemen, my task is ended. My duties to-night
+were purely prefatory; my words are but the prologue of the
+proceedings which begin to-morrow--a prologue which I undertook to
+speak less from any faith in its possible efficacy than in the belief
+that the first word spoken at such a time should be heard from the
+lips of one to whom, from the nature of the office he is privileged to
+fill, as well as from the whole bent of his mind, everything that
+concerns art, from end to end of its enchanting field, must be, and
+is, a source of deep, of constant, and engrossing interest. The
+curtain is now raised, the stage is spread before you, and I step
+aside to make room for others, leaving with you the expression of my
+fervent wish that the hopes which have brought us together in this
+place may not have been entertained in vain.
+
+
+
+
+LORD LEIGHTON'S HOUSE
+
+AND WHAT IT CONTAINS[89]
+
+
+PREFACE TO CATALOGUE
+
+Two miles and a quarter from Hyde Park Corner, removed but a few steps
+from the main thoroughfare between London and Hammersmith, and running
+parallel to it, is Holland Park Road, facing which stands Lord
+Leighton's House. "I live in a mews," he used to say. This meant more
+than a figure of speech merely, though the "mews" in question is very
+different from a London street mews. Low, odd-shaped, irregular
+buildings, formerly stables (a few are still used as such), were in
+Lord Leighton's life converted into studios by artists who wished to
+cluster around the President of the Royal Academy. These stand in old
+gardens and are studded at intervals along the road, bordered by trees
+branching across it, and taking away all idea of its being a London
+street. Screened by a hedge of closely-cut lime-trees, the Leighton
+House stands back but a few yards from the pavement. Through a porch
+and a small outer hall the House is entered. Monsieur Choisy, the
+distinguished French architect, in his letter to the _Times_ of April
+the 27th, 1896, written with the view of trying to induce the English
+nation to rise to the value of preserving this House as a national
+treasure, writes as follows:--
+
+"Allow me also to point out the original beauty of the house where so
+many masterpieces are grouped. The French public have been enabled to
+admire this house through the excellent article of my friend and
+fellow-member of the R.I.B.A., Mr. Charles Lucas.
+
+"Nowhere have I found in an architectural monument a happier gradation
+of effects nor a more complete knowledge of the play of light.
+
+"The entrance to the house is by a plain hall that leads to a 'patio,'
+lit from the sky, where enamels shine brilliantly in the full light;
+from this 'patio' one passes into a twilight corridor, where enamel
+and gold detach themselves from an architectural ground of a richness
+somewhat severe; it is a transition which prepares the eye for a jewel
+of Oriental art, where the most brilliant productions of the Persian
+potter are set in an architectural frame inspired by Arab art, but
+treated freely; the harmony is so perfect that one asks oneself if the
+architecture has been conceived for the enamels or the enamels for the
+hall. This gradation, perhaps unique in contemporary architecture, was
+Leighton's idea; and the illustrious painter found in his old friend
+Mr. G. Aitchison, who built his house, a worthy interpreter of his
+fine conception. This hall where colour is triumphant, was dear to
+Leighton, and even forms the background to some of his pictures.
+Towards the end of his life he still meant to embellish it by
+substituting marble for that small part that was only painted. The
+generous employment of his fortune alone prevented him from realising
+his intention.
+
+"England has at all times given the example of honouring great men;
+she will, I am sure, find the means of preserving for art a monument
+of which she had such reason to be proud."
+
+As is now well known, Lord Leighton's executrixes, his two sisters,
+have assigned the lease of the property, which has sixty-six years yet
+to run, to three gentlemen who are members of the committee formed to
+preserve it for the use and education of the public, in memory of Lord
+Leighton, and the committee are now tenants at will of the
+proprietors. Works by Lord Leighton have been collected and placed in
+the studios and other rooms of the House. A large collection of his
+drawings and sketches and a few finished paintings have been secured
+through the generosity of his sisters, Mrs. Sutherland Orr, Mrs.
+Matthews, and his personal friends, the list of these being headed by
+the Prince of Wales. This collection of original works numbers 1114,
+594 being now framed and hung on the walls. The collection also
+contains 28 proof engravings from Lord Leighton's principal pictures,
+presented by those who own the copyrights, _i.e._ Mrs. James Watney
+(who has also given an original drawing), the Fine Arts Society, the
+Berlin Photographic Company, Messrs. Agnew, Graves, Colnaghi, and
+Tooth. There are also 112 photographic reproductions by Mr. F. Hollyer
+and Messrs. Dixon, these, with a few exceptions, having been taken for
+Lord Leighton in his studio. The greater number of these photographs
+were given to the House by Mr. Wilfred Meynell, Mr. F. Hollyer, and
+Messrs. Dixon; the remainder by Lord Davey, Sir Henry Acland, Mr. A.
+Henderson, Mr. Philipson, Mr. A.G. Temple, and Mr. George Smith. The
+reproductions of completed pictures have been hung on the walls
+together with the sketches executed for them, in order that the
+student may realise how Leighton developed the designs he made into
+finished pictures. When funds permit, the 520 remaining drawings and
+sketches will be framed, and it is the desire of the committee that,
+though the Leighton House should always remain the chief centre of the
+collections, groups of sketches should be lent to exhibitors in the
+provinces and in the poorer parts of London. In the middle of the
+centre hall is now placed a reproduction presented by Mr. Brock, R.A.,
+of the bust of Lord Leighton, executed by his sculptor friend--that
+perfect likeness in bronze of the President placed among the Diploma
+works in Burlington House. Surrounding this reproduction and lining
+the walls and staircase are plaques of Oriental designs, pictures in
+enamel, framed in by a background of Mr. William De Morgan's beautiful
+blue tiles.[90] The same treatment is continued through the "twilight
+corridor" leading to the great casket of treasures known as the Arab
+Hall. In the summer of 1899 the Society of the Library Association was
+received at the Leighton House, and at the meeting which preceded the
+conversazione, Lord Crawford, President of the Association, ended the
+speech he made on the merits and rare gifts of his friend, Lord
+Leighton, by a reference to the unique value of this casket of
+treasures. "We often," he said, "see Persian tiles in England. They
+are chiefly made in England, but they are bought in Persia! A genuine
+Persian tile is a very rare thing. When you meet it, cherish it!" In
+this Arab Hall hundreds of these "rare" things are collected, each
+individually of a quality of uncommon beauty and almost priceless,
+owing to the fact that large spaces on the walls are filled with these
+gorgeous tiles, fitted together as originally designed and intended by
+the Persian artists who invented them. Travellers who went to the East
+when there was still a chance of buying genuine Persian tiles know how
+it came about that these could sometimes be procured. The owners of
+the houses on the walls of which they were placed would become
+impoverished and were easily induced to sell a single tile to a
+traveller as a specimen. When the money paid for it was spent and more
+was wanted, if a second traveller came by another single tile was
+sold. The first purchaser might have been an Englishman, the second a
+Frenchman, the third a German, and so on. In this way the several
+tiles making one design got hopelessly dispersed. Lord Leighton, aided
+by his friend, Sir C. Purdon Clarke, the Director of the Art Museum,
+South Kensington, was extraordinarily lucky in obtaining large plaques
+of tiles intact. "During his visits to Rhodes, to Cairo, and to
+Damascus," writes Mr. George Aitchison, R.A., "he made a lovely
+collection of Saracenic tiles, and had, besides, bought two
+inscriptions, one of the most delicate colour and beautiful design,
+and the other about sixteen feet long and strikingly magnificent;
+besides getting some panels, stained glass, and lattice-work from
+Damascus afterwards; these were fitted into an Arab Hall in 1877." The
+enamelled tiles made the keynote of this beautiful creation, the Arab
+Hall, which, to repeat Mr. Choisy's words, forms a harmony "so perfect
+that one asks oneself if the architecture has been conceived for the
+enamels or the enamels for the Hall." Round three sides (the fourth
+being filled by the large inscription) runs a frieze in mosaics, the
+designs of which are among the most beautiful of those invented by our
+great English decorator, Walter Crane. Sir C. Purdon Clarke has
+designated this creation of Lord Leighton's, in which he was so ably
+assisted by his friend, Mr. George Aitchison, R.A., President of the
+Royal Society of British Architects, and in which is to be traced that
+generous delight which Leighton took in all that was good in the art
+of his contemporaries, as "the most beautiful structure which has been
+raised since the sixteenth century." It would, alone, make the
+preservation of the House as an effective medium for education in the
+beautiful a necessity to any truly art-loving people.
+
+To turn to the collection of Leighton's own paintings, the most
+complete work secured is the "Clytemnestra from the battlements of
+Argos watches for the beacon fires that are to announce the return of
+Agamemnon" (No. 212).
+
+Mr. G.F. Watts, R.A., writes: "I am more pleased than I can say that
+the picture is possible. It is very fine, a grand pictorial
+realisation of Greek sculpture and Greek poetry, very noble in form
+and expression, and singularly fine in the arrangement of drapery.
+Certainly a better example of Leighton at his happiest could not, I
+think, be found. It is also _especially_ Leighton."
+
+Mr. Watts has himself presented a finished painting by Leighton--a
+half-length figure of a man, which is an exquisite piece of work and
+given to Mr. Watts many years ago by the artist. When presenting it to
+the House Mr. Watts wrote that it was one of his possessions which he
+prized the most. Though the collection in Lord Leighton's House is
+mainly formed of his drawings, the few finished paintings and the
+several oil sketches of landscape belonging to it are sufficient to
+show how exquisite was his native sense of colour. The colour in
+"Clytemnestra" (No. 212) is both true to nature as a presentiment of
+the moonlight effect and to the dramatic feeling of the subject. The
+study (No. 110), for one of the heads in "Summer Moon" (No. 272),
+presented by Mr. Alfred Waterhouse, R.A., and executed actually by the
+light of the moon in Rome, is notably fine in texture and gives us the
+origin of that curiously happy note of colour in "Clytemnestra"--the
+bar of dull red cooled by moonlight. The model wore a scarlet ribbon,
+or might be, a row of coral beads round her neck while sitting to
+Leighton for the study, and this evidently gave him what he wanted,
+and suggested, when he was painting the "Clytemnestra" two years
+later, the contrast to the greys and blues in the red bar in this
+picture. Mr. A.G. Temple in his valuable work, "The Art of Painting in
+the Queen's Reign," alludes to this effect: "A picture _low in key_,
+but curiously strengthened by the massive bar of dark red that runs
+from the bottom to the top of the picture." Very fine colour and
+texture is seen in the sketch for a design of "St. George and the
+Dragon" made for some arched space (No. 115), and also in the small
+oil sketch for "Golden Hours" (No. 5-A), the study for the background
+of the picture "David" (No. 111), "A pool, Findhorn River" (No. 120),
+"Rocks in the Findhorn" (No. 123a), "Kynance Cove" (No. 125), "A View
+in Spain" (No. 122), "Simaetha, the Sorceress" (No. 124), "Bay of
+Naples by Moonlight" (No. 112), are rapid though eminently careful
+sketches which prove, perhaps even more convincingly than
+highly-finished works, that in the very grain of his native art
+instinct was Leighton's delight in beauty of colour. In the sketch
+(No. 109), "The Entrance of a House," is one of many examples among
+his paintings which show what a master he was in the art of painting
+white; really true white, such as we see in marble and whitewashed
+walls in Greece, Sicily, and Italy. Surely no artist has ever painted
+more truly or poetically the quality of Southern light as it falls on
+white walls and columns. "Lieder ohne Worte" is one of several
+examples of a successful treatment of white marble as a background
+painted as Leighton could paint it.
+
+It is indeed to be hoped that Leighton's friends who possess any of
+those oil paintings of landscape, sea, and architecture which lined
+the walls of the great studio during his life may help in aiding to
+make his gifts as a colourist more adequately represented in this
+permanent collection. The above-named works are, one and all, good
+specimens for the purpose. Whatever key of colour was struck, each of
+these studies from nature is a faithful and beautiful record of a
+scene in some lovely part of the world; whether the scene was fair and
+bathed in southern sunlight, or glowing in rich depths of shadow as in
+the paintings of the golden-lined interior of St. Mark's, Venice,
+further enriched by the scintillating texture of mosaic surface.
+
+Leighton's early education, however, especially when he was in
+Germany, tended more to the development of his gifts as a draughtsman
+than to his gifts as a colourist; still it is evident that as soon as
+he began working independently of any master, his love of colour at
+once asserted itself. At the age of twenty-five his first picture,
+"The Cimabue Procession" (No. 42), was exhibited at the Royal Academy
+and purchased by the Queen. Mr. Ruskin criticised it at the time as
+the work of a _colourist_. "This is a very important and very
+beautiful picture," he writes. "It has both sincerity and grace, and
+is painted on the purest principles of Venetian art.... The great
+secret of the Venetians was their simplicity. They were great
+colourists." (See Catalogue for full quotation.) A lengthy description
+of Leighton's complete pictures would not find an appropriate place in
+this preface. Those who had the good fortune to see the wonderful
+collection of his works in 1897 will hardly need to be reminded of the
+rich and glowing feast of colour enjoyed before such pictures as
+"Helios and Rhodos," painted 1869 (studies in Collections No. 218),
+nor the depth and beauty in "Weaving the Wreath"(No. 144), "Antique
+Juggling Girl" (No. 359), "Moorish Garden: a Dream of Granada" (No.
+280), not to mention the splendour and harmony in many of the larger
+and more intricate compositions. No less beautiful, it will be
+remembered, was the colouring of pictures in which the scheme was
+light and fair rather than rich and glowing. In "Winding the Skein"
+(No. 198), for instance, there is a feeling of morning freshness in
+its lovely sea and mountain background and white-marble terrace
+foreground. Though cool and pale the picture is full of colour. Again,
+in the slightly-turning figure of Psyche, now in the Tate Gallery (No.
+59), the exquisite, pearly fairness of flesh tint must ever make this
+picture a standard of colour as well as of modelling. In its own line
+it is an achievement in painting that has surely never been surpassed.
+Almost equally beautiful is the passage in "Venus Disrobing for the
+Bath" (No. 151), where the line of the figure comes against the sea
+background. Leighton's native genius might perhaps be most truly
+described as one allied closely to, and echoing, that of the Greeks in
+Art, though trained, during a few important years of study, in
+Germany. The work of his great contemporaries, Rossetti, Millais, and
+Burne-Jones, might be described as revealing Italian, English, and
+Celtic sentiment, influenced by the fervour of pre-Raphaelite feeling.
+Leighton's genius as a colourist will probably be ever more and more
+appreciated as a partial allegiance to those three great colourists
+subsides as a fashion merely.
+
+It is quite clear, from the evidence of the earliest studies, that the
+extraordinary facility evinced in Lord Leighton's drawings was the
+outcome of natural gifts. No one can study his art without realising
+very conclusively that he spared neither time nor trouble in order to
+make it as perfect as it was in his power to make it; but equally
+evident is it to those who examine his work with artistic and
+intelligent insight that the great power that he possessed for taking
+pains was inspired by a joyous, sensitive delight in beauty. The
+untiring industry which alone could have produced the unparalleled
+amount of work which he has left was clearly never weighted by any
+feeling that the toil of study was irksome. On the contrary there is,
+in every stroke, evidence that a fine delicate sense of beauty, a
+fervent, spontaneous "sincerity of emotion" (to use Leighton's own
+expression) was ever present, instigating and propelling the
+conscientious persistency of his efforts. Whether it be a flower, a
+face, a figure, a landscape, or but a piece of drapery--there is in
+every sketch in this collection that convincing stamp on the work
+which proves that the doing of it interested and delighted the artist;
+the test, in other words, that the work has in it the true fibre of
+the most genuine art. It is well to draw attention to this fact,
+because his abnormal industry has apparently been considered by some
+to be a sign of his having been deficient in rare and native art
+instincts. Some there are who hold that the most notable
+characteristic in Leighton's nature was an extraordinary power of
+will. That he exercised such a power is undoubtedly true. In no other
+manner could he have achieved the main purposes of his life, but
+surely those who knew him best, and who were in the position best to
+appreciate his art, would say rather that such an exercise of will was
+used in the service of a still more powerful ingredient, in the truly
+leading passion of his life, the moving motive of all his labours,
+_i.e._ a reverent worship of beauty. Much has been said and
+written,--even, strange to say, with respect to the great exhibition
+of his works exhibited at Burlington House in the winter of
+1897,--which implies that the scholarly element outweighed the
+qualities resulting from natural gifts. Happily, the unprejudiced mind
+of the widest public was not deluded into sparing its praise by
+unappreciative or unintelligent criticism. Those who had not the
+opportunity at the Burlington House Exhibition of judging for
+themselves of the very great qualities Lord Leighton's art possesses,
+have but to study the collection of drawings in his house in order to
+realise that his gifts as an artist were as rare and native as was the
+intellect and splendour of nature which made his personality one of
+the most striking of his era.
+
+A strong dramatic power is shown in many of Leighton's early designs,
+and the best examples of these have been secured for this national
+collection. Of the "Plague in Florence" (project for a picture), a
+notable example, there is a photograph by Mr. Fred Hollyer (No. 175),
+taken for Lord Leighton, the original sketch being in South Kensington
+Museum. The evidence of this power recurs at intervals in the later
+work in such pictures as "Heracles struggling with Death for the Body
+of Alcestis" (No. 54), "Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon" (No. 7), (in
+this picture the colour carries out the imaginative and truly-felt
+dramatic instinct with singular power and beauty), "Orpheus and
+Eurydice" (No. 236), "St. Jerome," "The Last Watch of Hero" (No. 28),
+"Rizpah" (No. 193), and in the last work exhibited in the Royal
+Academy after Lord Leighton's death, "Clytie" (No. 27), the sun-loving
+soul bidding farewell to this world. But in many of the later works,
+as the artist grew older, as the drama of real life became more
+absorbing and intricate, as the struggle to sustain the interests of
+the art of his country fell more and more directly on him
+individually, he seemed to turn with a sense of relief to the more
+serene, passive sentiment of such pictures as "Idyll," "Winding the
+Skein" (No. 198), "Summer Slumber" (No. 94), "The Bath of Psyche," as
+a contrast to the pressure and restless fever of his active life. The
+tenderness of feeling, such as is invariably united with the highest
+manly qualities, finds expression throughout every stage of Leighton's
+art development, most notably in the drawing and painting of children.
+(Children had the greatest fascination for him.) In "Elisha and the
+Shunammite's Son" (No. 207), the tenderness is as touching as it is
+unobtrusive. "Sister's Kiss" (No. 275), and "Return of Persephone"
+(No. 53), are both examples in which wholesome, loving, human feeling
+is depicted with exquisite tenderness. In "Captive Andromache" (No.
+21), such feeling in the group of the caressing parents and child is
+used as a contrast to enforce the loneliness of the captive widow. In
+"Ariadne abandoned by Theseus: Artemis releases her by Death" (many
+studies for which are in the collection still unframed), the whole
+picture breathes a feeling of tenderness which is in a high sense
+pathetic. In the sketches for "Michael Angelo nursing his Dying
+Servant" (No. 192), even more than in the completed picture, is seen
+evidence of the manly tender-heartedness which was a notable
+characteristic in Leighton's nature.
+
+The hundreds of sketches and drawings now hung on the walls of the
+Leighton House form a diary of the artist's working life.
+
+Here are records of the earliest student days in Florence in 1842.
+When twelve years old he studied at the Academy there under Bezzuoli
+and Servolini. Professor Costa writes of these two masters: "They were
+celebrated Florentines, excellent good men, but they could give but
+little light to this star, which was to become one of the first
+magnitude. Leighton, from his innate kindness, loved and esteemed his
+old masters much, though not agreeing in the judgment of his
+fellow-students, that they should be considered on the same level as
+the ancient Florentines. 'And who have you,' said Leighton one day to
+a certain Bettino (who is still living), 'who resembles your ancient
+masters?' And Bettino answered, 'We have still to-day our great
+Michael Angelos, and Raffaels, in Bezzuoli, in Servolini, in Ciseri.'
+But this boy of twelve years old could not believe this, and one fine
+day got into the diligence and left the Academy of Florence to return
+to England. Although the diligence went at a great pace, his
+fellow-students followed it on foot, running behind it, crying, 'Come
+back, Inglesino! come back, Inglesino! come back!' so much was he
+loved and respected. He did come back, in fact, many times to Italy,
+which he considered as his second fatherland."
+
+There are also many records of the studies in Germany when Leighton
+was working under Steinle, of all his masters the one for whom he felt
+the greatest enthusiasm. The drawing in the collection which shows
+most clearly the influence of Steinle's teaching, was made on the
+journey from Frankfort to Rome in 1852. The subject is a monk leading
+a man away from his enemy and teaching him a lesson in forgiveness. It
+is signed, "_Ulm, F.L., /52_" (No. 251).
+
+There is the sketch for the picture which Leighton and one of his
+fellow-students, Signor Gamba, on that same journey, took it into
+their heads to paint on the walls of an old ruined castle near
+Darmstadt. "The schloss," writes Mrs. Andrew Lang, "where this piece
+was painted is still in ruins, but the Grand Duke has lately erected a
+wooden roof over the painting to preserve it from destruction." While
+still at Frankfort, Leighton had begun the design for the "Cimabue's
+Procession" (No. 42). In the collection we find the drawing of the
+first design. For extraordinary precision of outline and graceful
+arrangement of moving figures, this is one of the most remarkable on
+the walls. We have also the study of the head in pencil for the figure
+of Dante in the right-hand corner of the picture (No. 42-B), (given by
+Canon Rawnsley), and a large study in water-colour and pencil of the
+woman seated at the window (given by Mr. J.A. Fuller Maitland) (No.
+42-C). Hanging near these is a very finely pencilled head of that boy
+whom Leighton called "The prettiest and the wickedest boy in Rome." On
+it is written "_Vincenzo--Roma, 1854, F.L._" Another, on which is
+written "_Venezia, 1856, F.L._," is, for strength of character and
+beauty combined, one of the most powerful in the collection (purchased
+by a donation given by Lord Rosebery). These are a few out of fifty
+drawings of heads in the House, executed for the main part, between
+the years 1852 and 1856. There are many records in landscape and
+street scenes of Leighton's journeying to Capri, Athens, Rhodes,
+Damascus, and Algeria. Of the drawings made during his stay in Algeria
+(presented to the House by Mr. Walter Derham) (Nos. 284 and 285), Mr.
+Pepys Cockerell wrote in his interesting article which appeared in the
+_Nineteenth Century_, "The finest of all, except the famous 'Lemon
+Tree,' which is in silver point, and was done in 1859, are the
+products of a visit to Algeria in 1857. I do not believe that more
+perfect drawings, better defined or more entirely realised, than these
+studies of Moors, of camels, &c., were ever executed by the hand of
+man.... They are not particularly summary, nor do they look as if they
+had been done in a moment, or without trouble. The drawings in
+question are as complete as if they came from the hand of Lionardo or
+Holbein."
+
+Among the most perfect drawings Lord Leighton has left, are also the
+studies from flowers and foliage. Professor Aitchison writes: "One day
+I found him (Leighton) drawing the flower of the pumpkin, and he said
+flowers were quite as hard to draw as human heads, if you drew them
+conscientiously, but doing that rested with yourself, for there could
+be no critics. He said of drawing that the great thing was to
+thoroughly understand the structure, and that then, by patience and
+labour, you could express the outline and the modelling. In 1859,
+while at Capri, he drew the celebrated 'Lemon Tree,' working from
+daylight to dusk for a week or two, and giving large details in the
+margin of the snails on the tree." Mr. Ruskin writes: "Two perfect
+early drawings are of 'A Lemon Tree,' and another of the same date, of
+'A Byzantine Well,' which determine for you without appeal the
+question respecting necessity of delineation as the first skill of a
+painter. Of all our present masters, Sir Frederic Leighton delights
+most in softly-blended colours, and his ideal of beauty is more nearly
+that of Correggio than any since Correggio's time. But you see by what
+precision of terminal outline he at first restrained and exalted his
+gift of beautiful _vaghezza_."
+
+Of this drawing of "A Lemon Tree," now in the Oxford Museum, lent by
+Mr. Ruskin, Sir Henry Acland has given a singularly fine photograph,
+very nearly the size of the original. Lord Leighton gave Mr. Ruskin
+for his life this wonderful drawing of "A Lemon Tree" to hang in his
+Oxford Museum, that it might serve to impede, if possible, the
+increasing wrong-headedness in study--the careless conceit, the
+irreverent dash, the incompetent confidence of many modern students.
+
+How Leighton's theories as to the manner in which flowers should be
+drawn were carried out, is exemplified by two wonderful studies of the
+said pumpkin flower (Nos. 97 and 104), and fifty other studies from
+flowers and plants in this collection. This artist in his early
+twenties, brilliant in society, full of intellectual and every other
+kind of vitality, could nevertheless sit for hours perfecting the
+study of a flower or a plant. One who knew him well in 1854 and 1855,
+wrote in the _Times_ of 28th January 1896, three days after Leighton's
+death: "I remember hearing a relative of his, a clergyman, deplore in
+1854, the persistency with which Leighton was throwing away his
+chances in life to become a mere artist." Five years previously,
+Leighton had embodied in a design, now in his house, the longing, the
+home sickness, the _Sehnsucht_ he felt for his own true much-loved
+vocation. It is in the drawing of Giotto as a boy lying among his
+sheep upon a bank (No. 227). Below the sketch, in Leighton's
+handwriting, are the words "_Giotto, Sehnsucht_." The same writer
+continues: "I enjoyed constant intercourse with him during the whole
+of 1854 and to the middle of 1855. The summer of the former year we
+passed at the Baths of Lucca, dining together every day for three
+months. Finding the solitary splendour of the hotel at 'Villa'
+irksome, he suggested that we should mess together in my lodgings,
+which happened to be close to a little restaurant. In after years,
+meeting in London houses, we always referred with pleasure to the
+modest, but always wholesome and cleanly feasts that Lucrezia,
+landlady, chef, and waitress, supplied us with at an almost nominal
+cost. To me, at least, that period was one of great value and
+interest, for it gave me the opportunity of studying the character of
+one whose personality was attractive in no small degree. He was the
+most brilliant man I ever met.... He longed for and desired success:
+but only in so far as he deserved it. When he was sharply checked in
+his upward career, he accepted the rebuke with humility, for he was a
+modest man.[91] I had not met him for years when, coming into contact
+with him, I told him how keen the interest had been with which I had
+watched his progress. 'I am not satisfied,' he answered; 'I alone know
+how far I have fallen short of my ideal.'" In his House are two
+records of this visit to the Bagni di Lucca. One has been presented by
+Mr. J. MacWhirter, R.A. (No. 249). It is a highly finished drawing of
+a wreath of leaves exquisitely executed. On the same sheet is a
+drawing of a vine in fruit, and in Leighton's own writing
+"_Pomegranate Lucca Bagni Villa_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No work in the collection evinces the precision and exact truthfulness
+of Leighton's drawing better than the outline copies from pictures and
+frescoes by V. Carpaccio, Giorgione, Simone Memmi and Signorelli made
+in 1852-53. In the copy from the fresco in the Capella Spagnuola,
+Sta. Maria Novella, Florence (No. 292), we have the portraits of
+Cimabue, Giotto, Taddeo Gaddi and Simone Memmi whose work it is.[92]
+The accuracy of the copy and the difficulty of making a copy at all,
+can hardly fully be realised, save by one who has attempted also to
+repeat the fading outlines of these dim frescoes in the only
+half-lighted chapel. Slight and ineffective as Leighton's drawing may
+appear at a first glance, it is, on further acquaintance, found to be
+an exquisite piece of work. The absolute truth and precision with
+which in pencil lines, on a small scale, he has unravelled the
+outlines of the dim forms, and has depicted the quaint seriousness of
+these old-world Italian countenances, makes this copy an extraordinary
+feat of eye and hand. From this drawing he designed the dress of
+Cimabue for the figure in his large picture, and also for the Cimabue
+in the South Kensington Mosaic. Written by Leighton above the pencil
+drawing are the words: "_Simone Memmi Capella Spagnoli (St. Maria
+Novella, Florence), Taddeo Gaddi white and gold cap, Giotto gold and
+sea green, Cimabue gold flowers on white ground, Sim. Memmi with grey
+beard, head dress, yellow hood with black lining, Florence, 1853,
+F.L._"
+
+A study in brown (water-colour) (No. 91) signed "_Florence, 1854,
+F.L._," was used by Leighton forty years after it was made in his
+background for "Lachrymae" (No. 147), an engraving of which was given
+to the collection by Messrs. A. Tooth. The same study was also used
+for a charming design, highly finished in pencil and Chinese white,
+apparently executed for a book illustration, which is now in the
+House. One of the most beautiful of the foliage studies tells of a
+happy day "_Near Bellosguardo, Sept./56._" (No. 171). It is a perfect
+and highly-finished study of a vine. What joy Leighton must have had
+while looking at this exquisite thing in the September sunshine on
+that delicious Bellosguardo height! A butterfly and a bee were
+minutely pencilled on the paper as they flew round the vine-leaves as
+he drew them. "_Cyclamen Tivoli, Oct./56._" is written on another of
+these tiny treasures. "_Aloes Pampl. Doria,_" "_Pyrte Roma_," "_Thistle
+Rhodes_," "_Lindos/67 Asphodel_," "_Thistle Banks of Tiber, stalk
+light warm brown, leaf dark cld. brown, flow. dsk. warm brown,
+Roma/56_," are notes on some of these pages of studies, which can only
+be said to compare with the work of a Leonardo or an Albert Duerer.
+There is absolutely no mannerism traceable; there is Nature's own
+quality of style. There is nothing slovenly in Nature, there is as
+surely nothing slovenly in Lord Leighton's art. The gift which in
+these modern days is perhaps most rare is a sense of style. Leighton's
+feeling for style was as much a part of his individual and native
+taste as was his delight in any other quality of beauty in Nature.
+Indeed what we call style in art is but the reflection of the same
+quality in Nature herself, the love which adds to the more oblivious
+facts of Nature a further quality of truth, a completer insight into
+her. Leighton possessed a sculptor's feeling for form. It was his
+subtle grasp of truth in structure which gives a special value to his
+outline drawings. The keen sensitiveness to the right character of the
+form, to which his pencil outline was the limit, influenced the
+quality of his touch as he portrayed that limit. He felt things "in
+the round" as solid projections in various planes, advancing or
+receding from the eye. As in the best sculpture, to every aspect of
+the solid form you get a fine, subtle, absolutely clear outline; so in
+Leighton's drawing of a contour, never is there any vague or undecided
+passage. This insures to his work the quality of distinction. These
+studies have, one and all, that quality. They are _distinguished_, as
+are fragments of the best Greek sculpture. Every born artist falls in
+love specially with one class of sentiment in Nature. Whether his
+special gifts guide his passion, or his passion his gifts, who can
+say? Probably each urges the other. The special note of beauty in
+Nature which excited Leighton's deepest enthusiasm was the quality
+which is most like that in a shell. In the pumpkin flowers in the
+study given by Mr. Hamo Thornycroft of "_Kalmia Califolia_," and in
+many others, is recalled notably the fine, pure, carved distinctness
+of the forms in a shell--the shell that contains the form and colour
+that at once delights the sense both of the painter and the sculptor.
+In the oil sketches by Leighton, those poems of Southern sunlight and
+colour, records of voyages in the AEgean seas, and off the coasts and
+islands of Greece and Asia Minor, we again recall the special beauty
+in the quality and colour of a shell, the rainbow tints in
+mother-of-pearl, the faint translucence trembling in a sheen of light.
+
+In gauging the exceptional quality of the gifts which all these studies
+evince it will be well to remember that Leighton, at the time they were
+made, was under no influence but that of his own high standard, and led
+by no lights save those of his own exquisitely delicate perceptions.
+For the last twenty or thirty years detail in Nature--vegetation and
+Nature which is called "still life"--has been truthfully popularised by
+photography, so that now all students have it in their power to study
+from such detail treated on a flat surface. Beauty of natural structure
+and grace of line rendered with right perspective on a sheet of paper
+can be enjoyed and made use of by every artist. Many do avail
+themselves of photographs to carry out and complete the details of
+their pictures. But when Leighton made these wonderful drawings no such
+standards of elaborate finish of detail had been diffused. Nor had he
+joined, nor in any way come under the influence of the Pre-Raphaelite
+Brotherhood, nor received any inspiration from the teaching of Mr.
+Ruskin. Though we may truly liken these studies from "still life" to
+those by Leonardo as regards the truthful perfection of copies from
+Nature, there is no evidence in Leighton's drawings that the work, even
+of the great, much-revered-by-him Italian masters had influenced him
+when drawing from Nature. On the contrary, there is the strong stamp of
+his own peculiar genius on all of them, the stamp that proves rather
+that he saw and loved Nature as a Greek would have seen and loved her.
+Essentially Greek-like was the attitude in which Leighton approached
+Nature, _i.e._ with an emotion ever ardent in its intensity; but as
+ever restrained by the rare gift--the sense of _style_ and of the right
+balance and proportion necessary in treating worthily the beauties of
+Nature in the language of art. Indeed, it may truly be affirmed that
+Leighton was made more like a Greek than like an Englishman as regarded
+his artistic powers, English though he was to the backbone in feeling
+and sentiment. The effect produced by that collected exhibition of his
+works in 1897 was, beyond all other effects, that of _achievement_; and
+achievement which was the result of a perfect mastery and grasp of aims
+meant to be achieved from the first to the last touch on the canvas.
+Leighton was far too great an artist ever to be satisfied with the
+results of his labour. Those who knew him best can testify to his
+terrible depressions and disappointments. Still, there was no
+"_muddling through_," to use Lord Rosebery's expression, such as so
+many English artists confess to in reaching the final result.
+Greek-like, Leighton saw everything in a definite, clearly outlined
+view, and, from the beginning to the end, his work was one direct
+forwarding of his purpose.
+
+In 1860, Leighton migrated to his studio in Orme Square, Bayswater.
+The collection possesses several drawings made about that time,
+notably the studies for "Lieder ohne Worte" (No. 36). His young
+friend, now the well-known portrait-painter, Mr. Hanson Walker, sat
+for the head in the picture: "A Crowded Scene in Florence" (No. 198),
+a design full of interest and movement, was the gift to the House of
+this friend of Leighton's, who, at his instigation, took up art as a
+profession. In 1866 Leighton moved from Orme Square to the House he
+had built in Holland Park Road, and there we can now follow his yearly
+labours by studying the sketches and drawings made for all the
+well-known famous pictures of the last thirty years, till we come to
+the last--to that passionate appealing figure of Clytie (No. 27),
+drawn after the fatal warning had been given. The motive is the same
+as that of the first design--the early design of the "Giotto" (No.
+227), (made very nearly fifty years before), _i.e._ "Sehnsucht"--not
+the dreamy half-conscious Sehnsucht of the awakening artist-nature as
+is seen in the boy Giotto--but the passionate longing to remain in the
+rich existence that rare gifts and noble affections had secured for
+that artist-nature. After the studies for "Clytie" there but remain
+those made for pictures never to be painted, till we reach at last the
+drawings made on the 22nd of January 1896 (No. 268), the last day on
+which Leighton worked. Three days after, on the following Saturday, he
+died.
+
+The object of the Committee is to make this House and its treasures a
+centre for Art in the Parish of Kensington, where Lord Leighton lived
+for thirty years. During seventeen of these years he was the President
+of the Royal Academy, and, by common consent, the greatest President
+that institution has ever had. The South Kensington Museum is not in
+the parish, and, though this is one of the richest in London,
+Kensington proper has no centre of Art, and is sufficiently far
+removed from the centre of the metropolis to make it important that it
+should possess such a centre. Since October 1898, the Committee has
+arranged for Concerts, Lectures, and Readings to take place in the
+Studios, and the public is now enlightened as to the exceptional
+acoustic qualities the Studios possess, a fact for long recognised by
+Leighton's personal friends at the yearly concerts he gave to them
+when his pictures were ready for the Royal Academy. It is proposed to
+add to the contents of the House an Art Library, and for this many
+valuable volumes are waiting to be presented for the book-shelves to
+contain them. The present proprietors are prepared to hand over the
+house and all it contains to any public body who will engage to
+maintain it and to meet the views of the Committee as to the use of
+the House. As a memorial to Lord Leighton, the most suitable use will
+be, they feel, to devote it to the furtherance of the interests of Art
+of the best in all lines and among all classes; in fact to continue in
+his own home the culture of that "sweetness and light" which emanated
+so notably from his own nature. To conclude with words written by his
+old and very intimate friend, Professor Costa, with whom he spent his
+last holiday in the autumn before he died: "Leighton solved certain
+problems which appeared insoluble. For instance, he combined a life at
+high pressure with the most exquisite politeness--truth with poetry,
+an iron will with the tenderness of a mother's heart, high aims with a
+practical life and with the worship of beauty, the ardour of which was
+only equalled by its purity."
+
+                                                           E.I.B.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[89] The greater portion of this preface appeared as an article in the
+_Magazine of Art_, October 1899. It is with the kind permission of the
+proprietors that it is reprinted.
+
+[90] Mr. De Morgan is at present engaged in making two jars in pottery,
+which he intends to present to the House, to fill the niches in the
+Arab Hall.
+
+[91] "Leighton has been cut up unmercifully by the critics, but bears
+on, Robert says, not without courage. That you should say his picture
+looked well, was comfort in the general gloom."--_Letter from Mrs.
+Browning to Mrs. Jameson, May 6th, 1856, Paris._
+
+[92] Nineteen years later, I happened to copy the same group in
+water-colour; but it was only after Leighton's death that I saw this
+extraordinarily beautiful drawing.
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF DIGNITIES AND HONOURS CONFERRED ON FREDERIC LEIGHTON
+
+
+Knighted, 1878; created a Baronet, 1886; created Baron Leighton of
+Stretton, 1896; elected Associate of the Royal Academy, 1864; Royal
+Academician, 1869; President of the Royal Academy, 1878; Hon. Member,
+Royal Scottish Academy, and Royal Hibernian Academy, Associate of the
+Institute of France, President of the International Jury of Painting,
+Paris Exhibition, 1878; Hon. Member, Berlin Academy, 1886; also Member
+of the Royal Academy of Vienna, 1888; Belgium, 1886; of the Academy of
+St. Luke, Rome, and the Academies of Florence (1882), Turin, Genoa,
+Perugia, and Antwerp (1885); Hon. D.C.L., Oxford, 1879; Hon. LL.D.,
+Cambridge, 1879; Hon. LL.D., Edinburgh, 1884; Hon. D. Lit., Dublin,
+1892; Hon. D.C.L., Durham, 1894; Hon. Fellow of Trinity College,
+London, 1876; Lieut.-Colonel of the 20th Middlesex (Artist's) Rifle
+Volunteers, 1876 to 1883 (resigned); then Hon. Colonel and Holder of
+the Volunteer Decoration; Commander of the Legion of Honour, 1889;
+Commander of the Order of Leopold; Knight of the Prussian Order "pour
+le Merite," and of the Coburg Order Dem Verdienste.
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF PRINCIPAL WORKS
+
+_With Date and Place of Exhibition.[93] Corrected and amplified from
+"Frederic, Lord Leighton, His Life and Work," by Ernest Rhys._
+
+
+  1850 (_circa_). *Cimabue finding Giotto in the fields of
+        Florence. (49-1/2 x 37 inches.) Steinle Institute
+        (Frankfort).
+
+  1850. The Duel between Romeo and Tybalt. (37 x 50 inches.)
+
+  1851 (_circa_). The Death of Brunelleschi. Steinle Institute.
+
+  1851. [Early Portrait of Leighton by Himself.]
+
+  1852. *A Persian Pedlar.
+
+  1852. [Buffalmacco, the Painter. A humorous subject, from Vasari,
+        was undertaken about this date.] See Sketch in water-colour,
+        Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1853. Portrait of Miss Laing (Lady Nias).
+
+  1855. Cimabue's celebrated Madonna is carried in procession
+        through the streets of Florence. In front of the Madonna,
+        and crowned with laurels, walks Cimabue himself, with his
+        pupil Giotto; behind it, Arnolfo di Lappo, Taddeo Gaddi,
+        Andrea Tafi, Niccola Pisano, Buffalmacco, and Simone Memmi;
+        in the corner, Dante. (87-1/2 x 205 inches.) R.A.[94]
+        Purchased by H.M. Queen Victoria, Buckingham Palace. See
+        Sketches, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1855. The Reconciliation of the Montagues and Capulets over the
+        dead bodies of Romeo and Juliet. Paris International
+        Exhibition.[95]
+
+  1856. The Triumph of Music. (80 x 110 inches.) R.A. Painted in
+        Paris.
+
+        "Orpheus, by the power of his art, redeems his wife from
+        Hades."
+
+  1856. Pan. [A subject from Keats' _Hymn to Pan_, in the first book
+        of "Endymion."] Painted in Paris. A figure of Pan under a
+        fig-tree, with this inscription:--
+
+                          "O thou, to whom
+            Broad-leaved fig-trees even now foredoom
+                Their ripen'd fruitage."
+
+  1856. Venus. [A pendant to the Pan.] The figure of a nude nymph
+        about to bathe, with a little Cupid loosening her sandal.
+        Exhibited at the Manchester Exhibition and sent to America
+        after. Painted in Paris.
+
+  1857. *Salome, the daughter of Herodias. (44-1/2 x 25 inches.) See
+        Sketch, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1858. *The Mermaid (the fisherman and the syren). (From a ballad
+        by Goethe.) (26-1/2 x 18-1/2 inches.) R.A.
+
+            "Half drew she him,
+              Half sunk he in,
+            And never more was seen."
+
+  1858. "Count Paris, accompanied by Friar Lawrence and a band of
+        musicians, comes to the house of the Capulets to claim his
+        bride: he finds Juliet stretched apparently lifeless on the
+        bed."--_Romeo and Juliet_, Act iv. sc. 5. (26-1/2 x 18-1/2
+        inches.) R.A.
+
+  1858. Reminiscence of Algiers: A Negro Dance. (Water-colour.)
+        Suffolk Street Gallery.
+
+  1859. Sunny Hours. R.A.
+
+  1859. *Roman Lady (La Nanna). R.A.
+
+  1859. *Nanna (Pavonia). R.A.
+
+  1859. Samson and Delilah. S.S. See Sketches, Leighton House
+        Collection.
+
+  1860. Capri--Sunrise. R.A.
+
+  1861. *Portrait of Mrs. Sutherland Orr [Mrs. S.O., a Portrait].
+        (28 x 18 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1861. *Portrait of John Hanson Walker, Esq. (23 x 17 inches.)
+        Owner, H.M. The King. R.A.
+
+  1861. Paolo e Francesca. See Sketch, Leighton House Collection.
+
+            "Ma solo un punto fu quel che ci vinse
+            Quando legemmo il disiato riso
+            Esser baciato da cotanto amante,
+            Questi, che mai da me non fia diviso,
+            La bocca mi bacio tutto tremante:
+            Galeotto fu 'l libro e chi lo scrisse:
+            Quel giorno piu non vi legemmo avante."
+
+  1861. A Dream.
+
+                            "...Not yet--not yet--
+            Still there is trial for thee, still the lot
+            To bear (the Father wills it) strife and care;
+            With this sweet consciousness in balance set
+            Against the world, to soothe thy suffering there
+                The Lord rejects thee not.
+            Such tender words awoke me hopeful, shriven
+            To life on earth again from dream of heaven."
+
+  1861. Lieder ohne Worte. R.A. See Sketches, Leighton House
+        Collection.
+
+  1861. J.A. A Study. R.A.
+
+  1861. Capri--Paganos. R.A.
+
+  1862. Odalisque. R.A.
+
+  1862. *The Star of Bethlehem. (60 x 23-1/2 inches.) One of the
+        Magi, from the terrace of his house, stands looking at the
+        star in the East; the lower part of the picture indicates a
+        road, which he may be supposed just to have left. R.A. See
+        Sketches, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1862. Sisters. R.A.
+
+  1862. *Michael Angelo Nursing his Dying Servant. (43 x 36 inches.)
+        R.A. See Sketches, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1862. Duett. R.A.
+
+  1862. Sea Echoes. R.A.
+
+  1862. Rustic Music. R.A.
+
+  1863. Jezebel and Ahab, having caused Naboth to be put to death,
+        go down to take possession of his vineyard; they are met at
+        the entrance by Elijah the Tishbite. R.A. See Sketches,
+        Leighton House Collection.
+
+            "Hast thou killed, and also taken possession?"
+
+  1863. *Eucharis. (A Girl with a Basket of Fruit.) (32-1/2 x 22
+        inches.) R.A.
+
+  1863. A Girl Feeding Peacocks. R.A. See Sketch, Leighton House
+        Collection.
+
+  1863. An Italian Crossbowman. (51 x 24-1/2 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1864. Dante at Verona. R.A. See Sketches, Leighton House
+        Collection.
+
+  1864. *Orpheus and Eurydice. (49 x 42 inches.) R.A. See Sketches,
+        Leighton House Collection.
+
+            "But give them--the mouth, the eyes,--the brow--
+            Let them once more absorb me! One look now
+            Will lap me round for ever, not to pass
+            Out of its light, though darkness lie beyond!
+            Hold me but safe again within the bond
+            Of one immortal look! All woe that was,
+            Forgotten, and all terror that may be,
+            Defied--no past is mine, no future! look at me!"
+
+                     --ROBERT BROWNING: _A Fragment._
+
+  1864. *Golden Hours. (36 x 48 inches.) R.A. See Sketches in oil
+        and chalk, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1864. *Portrait of the late Miss Lavinia I'Anson. (Circular,
+        12-1/2 inches.)
+
+  1865. *David. (37 x 47 inches.) R.A. See Sketches, Leighton House
+        Collection.
+
+            "Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly
+            away, and be at rest."--_Psalm_ lv.
+
+  1865. Mother and Child. R.A.
+
+  1865. Widow's Prayer. R.A.
+
+  1865. Helen of Troy. R.A.
+
+            "Thus as she spoke, in Helen's breast arose
+            Fond recollections of her former lord,
+            Her home, and parents; o'er her head she threw
+            A snowy veil; and shedding tender tears
+            She issued forth not unaccompanied;
+            For with her went fair AEthra, Pittheus' child,
+            And stag-eyed Clymene, her maidens twain.
+            They quickly at the Scaean gate arrived."
+
+  1865. In St. Mark's. R.A.
+
+  1866. Painter's Honeymoon. R.A. See Sketch, Leighton House
+        Collection.
+
+  1866. Portrait of Mrs. James Guthrie. R.A.
+
+  1866. Syracusan Bride leading wild beasts in procession to the
+        Temple of Diana. (Suggested by a passage in the second Idyll
+        of Theocritus.) R.A. See Sketches, Leighton House
+        Collection.
+
+            "And for her, then, many other wild beasts were going
+            in procession round about, and among them a lioness."
+
+  1866. A Noble Lady of Venice. (Not exhibited till 1897.)
+
+  1866. The Wise and Foolish Virgins. (Fresco in Lyndhurst Church,
+        finished 1864.) See Sketches, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1867. *Pastoral. (51-1/2 x 26 inches.) R.A. See Sketch, Leighton
+        House Collection.
+
+  1867. *Greek Girl Dancing. (Spanish Dancing Girl; Cadiz in the old
+        times.) (34 x 45 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1867. Knuckle-Bone Player. R.A.
+
+  1867. *Roman Mother. (24 x 19 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1867. *Venus disrobing for the Bath. (79 x 35-1/2 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1867. *Portrait of Mrs. John Hanson Walker. (18 x 16 inches.)
+
+  1868. Jonathan's Token to David. R.A.
+
+            "And it came to pass in the morning, that Jonathan went
+            out into the field at the time appointed by David, and
+            a little lad with him."
+
+  1868. *Portrait of Mrs. Frederick P. Cockerell. (23-1/2 x 19-1/2
+        inches.) R.A.
+
+  1868. *Portrait of John Martineau, Esq. (23-1/2 x 19-1/2 inches.)
+        R.A.
+
+  1868. *Ariadne abandoned by Theseus; Ariadne watches for his
+        return; Artemis releases her by death. (45 x 62 inches.)
+        R.A. See Sketches, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1868. *Acme and Septimius. (Circular, 37-1/2 inches.) R.A.
+
+            "Then bending gently back her head
+            With that sweet mouth, so rosy red,
+            Upon his eyes she dropped a kiss,
+            Intoxicating him with bliss."
+
+                     --CATULLUS (Theodore Martin's translation).
+
+  1868. *Actaea, the Nymph of the Shore. (22 x 40 inches.) R.A. See
+        Sketches, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1869. *S. Jerome. (Diploma work, deposited in the Academy on his
+        election as an Academician.) (72 x 55 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1869. *Daedalus and Icarus. (53-1/2 x 40-1/2 inches.) R.A. See
+        Sketches, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1869. *Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon. (59-1/2 x 29 inches.)
+        R.A.
+
+  1869. *Helios and Rhodos. (65-1/2 x 42 inches) R.A. See Sketches,
+        Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1870. A Nile Woman. (21-1/2 x 11-1/2 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1870. Study. S.S.
+
+  1871. *Hercules Wrestling with Death for the Body of Alcestis. (54
+        x 104-1/2 inches.) R.A. See Sketches, Leighton House
+        Collection.
+
+  1871. Greek Girls picking up Pebbles by the shore of the Sea. R.A.
+        See Sketch, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1871. *Cleoboulos instructing his daughter Cleobouline. (24 x
+        37-1/2 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1871. View of Assiout (?). (A sketch.) S.S.
+
+  1871. Sunrise at Lougsor. (A sketch.) S.S.
+
+  1871. View of the Red Mountains near Cairo. (A sketch) S.S.
+
+  1872. *After Vespers. (43 x 27-1/2 inches.) R.A. See Sketch,
+        Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1872. *Summer Moon. (Guildhall, 1890.) (39-1/2 x 50-1/2 inches.)
+        R.A. See Sketches, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1872. Portrait of the Right Hon. Edward Ryan, Secretary of the
+        Dilettante Society, for which the picture was painted.
+        (S.P.P., 1893.) R.A.
+
+  1872. A Condottiere. R.A. See Sketch, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1872. *The Industrial Arts of War, at the International Exhibition
+        at South Kensington. (Monochrome, 76 x 177 inches.) Carried
+        out in fresco on the wall of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
+        R.A. See Sketches, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1872. The Captive. S.S.
+
+  1872. An Arab Cafe, Algiers. S.S.
+
+  1873. *Weaving the Wreath. (Guildhall, 1895.) R.A.
+
+  1873. Moretta. (Guildhall, 1894.) (20-1/2 x 14-1/2 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1873. The Industrial Arts of Peace. (Monochrome, 76 x 177 inches.)
+        Carried out in fresco on the wall of the Victoria and Albert
+        Museum. R.A. See Sketches, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1873. A Roman. S.S.
+
+  1873. Vittoria. S.S.
+
+  1874. *Moorish Garden: A Dream of Granada. (Guildhall 1895.) (41 x
+        40 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1874. Old Damascus: Jews' Quarter. R.A.
+
+  1874. *Antique Juggling Girl. (Guildhall, 1892.) (41-1/2 x 24
+        inches.) R.A. See Sketch, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1874. Clytemnestra from the battlements of Argos watches for the
+        Beacon Fires which are to announce the return of Agamemnon.
+        R.A. Leighton House Collection. See also Sketches, Leighton
+        House Collection.
+
+  1874. Annarella, Ana Capri. D.G.
+
+  1874. Rubinella, Capri. D.G.
+
+  1874. Lemon Tree, Capri. D.G.
+
+  1874. West Court of Palazzo, Venice. D.G.
+
+  1875. *Portion of the Interior of the Grand Mosque of Damascus.
+        (62 x 47 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1875. *Portrait of Mrs. H.E. Gordon. (35-1/2 x 37 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1875. *Little Fatima. (15-1/2 x 9-1/4 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1875. Venetian Girl. R.A.
+
+  1875. *Egyptian Slinger. (Eastern slinger scaring birds in harvest
+        time: Moonrise.) (Guildhall, 1890.) R.A. See Sketches,
+        Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1875. Florentine Youth. S.S.
+
+  1875. Ruined Mosque in Damascus. S.S.
+
+  1876. *Portrait of Sir Richard Francis Burton, K.C.M.G. (Portrait
+        of Captain Richard Burton, H.M. Consul at Trieste.) (23-1/2
+        x 19-1/2 inches.) (Paris, 1878; Melbourne, 1888; S.P.P.,
+        1892.) R.A. National Portrait Gallery.
+
+  1876. *The Daphnephoria. (89 x 204 inches.) A triumphal procession
+        held every ninth year at Thebes, in honour of Apollo and to
+        commemorate a victory of the Thebans over the Aeolians of
+        Arne. (See Proclus, "Chrestomath," p. 11.) R.A. See
+        Sketches, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1876. Teresina. R.A.
+
+  1876. Paolo. R.A.
+
+  1877. *Music Lesson. (36-1/2 x 37-1/8 inches.) (Paris, 1878.) R.A.
+
+  1877. *Portrait of Miss Mabel Mills (The Hon. Mrs. Grenfell). (23
+        x 19 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1877. *An Athlete Strangling a Python.[96] Bronze. (Paris, 1878.)
+        R.A. See Sketch in plaster, Leighton House Collection,
+        presented by G.F. Watts, O.M.
+
+  1877. *Portrait of H.E. Gordon. (23-1/2 x 19 inches.) G.G.
+
+  1877. An Italian Girl. G.G.
+
+  1877. *Study. (A little girl with fair hair, in a pink robe.) (24
+        x 28 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1877. A Study. G.G.
+
+  1878. *Nausicaa. (57-1/2 x 26-1/2 inches.) (Guildhall, 1896.) R.A.
+        See Sketches, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1878. Serafina. R.A.
+
+  1878. *Winding the Skein. (39-1/2 x 63-1/2 inches.) R.A. See
+        Sketch, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1878. A Study. R.A.
+
+  1878. *Portrait of Miss Ruth Stewart Hodgson. (50-1/2 x 35-1/2
+        inches.) G.G.
+
+  1878. Study of a Girl's Head. G.G.
+
+  1878. Sierra: Elviza in the distance, Granada. S.S.
+
+  1878. The Sierra Alhama, Granada. S.S.
+
+  1879. Biondina. R.A.
+
+  1879. Catarina. R.A.
+
+  1879. *Elijah in the Wilderness. (91 x 81-1/2 inches.) R.A.
+        (Paris, 1878.) Corporation of Liverpool. See Sketches,
+        Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1879. Portrait of Signor G. Costa. R.A.
+
+  1879. Amarilla. R.A.
+
+  1879. A Study. R.A.
+
+  1879. Portrait of the Countess Brownlow. R.A.
+
+  1879. *Neruccia. (19 x 16 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1879. A Study. S.S.
+
+  1879. The Carrara Hills. S.S.
+
+  1879. A Street in Lerici. S.S.
+
+  1879. Via Bianca, Capri. G.G.
+
+  1879. Archway in Algiers. G.G.
+
+  1879. Ruins of a Mosque, Damascus. G.G.
+
+  1879. Study of a Donkey. G.G.
+
+  1879. On the Terrace, Capri. G.G.
+
+  1879. Sketch near Damascus. G.G.
+
+  1879. View in Granada. G.G.
+
+  1879. Study of a Donkey, Egypt. G.G.
+
+  1879. Study of a Head. G.G.
+
+  1879. Nicandra. G.G.
+
+  1880. *Sister's Kiss. (48 x 21-1/2 inches.) R.A. See Sketch,
+        Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1880. *Iostephane. (37 x 19 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1880. The Light of the Harem. (60 x 33 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1880. Psamathe. (36 x 24 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1880. *The Nymph of the Dargle (Crenaia). (29-1/2 x 10 inches.)
+        R.A.
+
+  1880. Rubinella. G.G.
+
+  1880. The Pozzo Corner, Venice. Winter Exhibition. G.G.
+
+  1880. Jack and his Cider Can. Winter Exhibition. G.G.
+
+  1880. The Painter's Honeymoon. Winter Exhibition. G.G.
+
+  1880. Winding of the Skein (with sketch). Winter Exhibition. G.G.
+
+  1880. Head of Urbino. Winter Exhibition. G.G.
+
+  1880. Steps of the Bargello, Florence. Winter Exhibition. G.G.
+
+  1880. A Contrast. Winter Exhibition. G.G.
+
+  1880. Garden at Capri. Winter Exhibition. G.G.
+
+  1880. Twenty-nine Studies of Heads, Flowers, and Draperies. Winter
+        Exhibition. G.G.
+
+  1881. Elisha raising the son of the Shunammite. (32 x 54 inches.)
+        (Guildhall, 1895.) R.A. See Sketches, Leighton House
+        Collection.
+
+  1881. Portrait of the Painter.[97] R.A.
+
+  1881. *Idyll. (41-1/2 x 84 inches.) R.A. See Sketches in oil and
+        chalk, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1881. *Portrait of Mrs. Stephen Ralli. (48 x 33 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1881. *Whispers. (48 x 30 inches.) R.A. See Sketch, Leighton House
+        Collection.
+
+  1881. Viola. R.A.
+
+  1881. *Bianca. (18 x 12-1/2 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1881. Portrait of Mrs. Algernon Sartoris. G.G.
+
+  1882. *Day-Dreams. (47-1/2 x 35-1/2 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1882. Wedded. R.A. See Sketches, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1882. Phryne at Eleusis. (86 x 48 inches.) (Melbourne, 1888.) R.A.
+        See Sketches, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1882. Antigone. R.A.
+
+  1882. "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it"--Rev. xx.
+        13. (Design for a portion of a decoration in St. Paul's.)
+        R.A. The Tate Gallery. See Sketches, Leighton House
+        Collection.
+
+  1882. Melittion. R.A.
+
+  1882. *Portrait of Mrs. Mocatta. (23-1/2 x 19-1/2 inches.)
+
+  1882. Zeyra. G.G.
+
+  1883. The Dance: decorative frieze for a drawing-room in a private
+        house. R.A. See Sketches, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1883. *Vestal. (24-1/2 x 17 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1883. *Kittens. (48 x 31-1/2 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1883. Memories. R.A.
+
+  1883. Portrait of Miss Nina Joachim. (16 x 13 inches.)
+
+  1884. *Letty. (18 x 15-1/2 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1884. *Cymon and Iphigenia. (64 x 129 inches.) (Berlin, 1885.)
+        R.A. See Sketches, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1884. A Nap. R.A.
+
+  1884. Sun Gleams. R.A.
+
+  1885. ..."Serenely wandering in a trance of sober thought." ...
+        (46 x 27 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1885. Portrait of the Lady Sybil Primrose. R.A.
+
+  1885. *Portrait of Mrs. A. Hichens. (26-1/2 x 20-1/2 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1885. Music: a frieze. R.A. See Sketches, Leighton House
+        Collection.
+
+  1885. Phoebe. (Manchester, 1887.) R.A.
+
+  1885. A Study. G.G.
+
+  1885. Tombs of Muslim Saints. S.S.
+
+  1885. Mountains near Ronda Puerta de los Vientos. S.S.
+
+  1886. Painted decoration for the ceiling of a music-room.[98] (7 x
+        20 feet.) R.A. See Sketches, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1886. Gulnihal. R.A.
+
+  1886. *The Sluggard. Statue, bronze. R.A. Presented to the Tate
+        Gallery by Sir Henry Tate. See Statuette, Leighton House
+        Collection.
+
+  1886. *Needless Alarms. Statuette. R.A. See Bronze, Leighton House
+        Collection.
+
+  1887. *The Jealousy of Simoetha, the Sorceress. (35 x 55-1/2
+        inches.) R.A. See Sketch, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1887. *The Last Watch of Hero. (62-1/2 x 35-1/2 inches, with
+        predella 12-1/2 x 29-1/2 inches.) R.A. Corporation of
+        Manchester. See Sketch, Leighton House Collection.
+
+            "With aching heart she scanned the sea-face dim.
+            .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .
+            Lo! at the turret's foot his body lay,
+            Rolled on the stones, and washed with breaking spray."
+
+            --_Hero and Leander: Musaeus_ (translated by Edwin Arnold).
+
+  1887. [Picture of a little girl with golden hair, and pale blue
+        eyes.]
+
+            "Yellow and pale as ripened corn
+            Which Autumn's kiss frees--grain from sheath--
+            Such was her hair, while her eyes beneath,
+            Showed Spring's faint violets freshly born."
+
+                       --ROBERT BROWNING.
+
+  1887. *Design for the reverse of the Jubilee Medallion. (Executed
+        for Her Majesty Queen Victoria's Government.) R.A. See
+        Sketches, Leighton House Collection.
+
+        Empire, enthroned in the centre, rests her right hand on the
+        sword of Justice, and holds in her left the symbol of
+        victorious rule. At her feet, on one side, Commerce proffers
+        wealth; on the other, a winged figure holds emblems of
+        Electricity and Steam-power. Flanking the throne to the right
+        of the spectator are Agriculture and Industry; on the opposite
+        side, Science, Literature, and the Arts. Above, interlocking
+        wreaths, held by winged genii representing respectively the
+        years 1837 and 1887, inclose the initials V.R.I.
+
+  1888. *Captive Andromache. (77 x 160 inches.) R.A. Corporation of
+        Manchester. See Sketches, Leighton House Collection.
+
+                            ..."Some standing by,
+            Marking thy tears fall, shall say, 'This is she,
+            The wife of that same Hector that fought best
+            Of all the Trojans, when all fought for Troy.'"
+
+                   --_Iliad_, vi. (E.B. Browning's translation).
+
+  1888. *Portrait of Amy, Lady Coleridge. (42 x 39-1/2 inches.)
+        (S.P.P., 1891.) R.A.
+
+  1888. *Portraits of the Misses Stewart Hodgson. (47 x 39-1/2
+        inches.)
+
+  1888. Four Studies. R.W.S.
+
+  1888. Five Studies. S.S.
+
+  1889. *Sibyl. (59 x 34 inches.) R.A. See Sketches, Leighton House
+        Collection.
+
+  1889. *Invocation. (54 x 33-1/2 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1889. Elegy. R.A.
+
+  1889. Greek Girls playing at Ball. (45 x 78 inches.) R.A. See
+        Sketches, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1889. *Portrait of Mrs. Francis A. Lucas. (23-1/2 x 19-1/2
+        inches.) R.A.
+
+  1890. Solitude. R.A.
+
+  1890. *The Bath of Psyche.[99] (75 x 24-1/2 inches.) R.A. See
+        Sketches, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1890. *Tragic Poetess. (63 x 34 inches.) R.A. See Sketches,
+        Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1890. *The Arab Hall. (33 x 16 inches.) (Guildhall, 1890.) R.A.
+
+  1891. *Perseus and Andromeda. (91-1/2 x 50 inches.) R.A. See
+        Sketches, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1891. *Portrait of A.B. Freeman-Mitford, Esq., C.B. (46-1/4 x
+        38-1/2 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1891. *Return of Persephone. (79 x 59-1/2 inches.) R.A.
+        Corporation of Leeds. See Sketches, Leighton House
+        Collection.
+
+  1891. Athlete Struggling with a Python. Group, marble. R.A.
+
+  1892. *"And the sea gave up the dead which were in it." (Circular,
+        93 inches.) R.A. See Sketches, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1892. At the Fountain. (49 x 37 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1891. *The Garden of the Hesperides. (Circular, 66 inches.)
+        (Chicago, 1893; Guildhall, 1895.) R.A. See Sketches,
+        Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1892. Bacchante. R.A. See Sketches, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1892. *Clytie. (32-1/2 x 53-1/2 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1892. Phryne at the Bath. (24 x 12 inches.) S.S. See Sketches,
+        Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1892. Malin Head, Donegal. S.S.
+
+  1892. St. Mark's, Venice. S.S.
+
+  1892. Interior of St. Mark's, Venice. S.S.
+
+  1892. The Doorway, North Aisle, Venice. S.S.
+
+  1892. Rizpah (the small study in oils). (7 x 7 inches.) S.S.
+
+  1893. *Farewell! (63 x 26-1/2 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1893. *Hit! (29 x 22 inches.) R.A. See Sketches, Leighton House
+        Collection.
+
+  1893. Atalanta. (26-1/2 x 19 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1893. Rizpah. (36 x 52 inches.) R.A. See Sketches, Leighton House
+        Collection.
+
+  1893. Corinna of Tanagra. (47-1/2 x 21 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1894. *The Spirit of the Summit. (77-1/2 x 39-1/2 inches.) R.A.
+        See Sketches, Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1894. *The Bracelet. (59-1/2 x 23 inches.) R.A. See Sketches,
+        Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1894. *Fatidica. (59-1/2 x 43 inches.) R.A. See Sketches, Leighton
+        House Collection.
+
+  1894. *Summer Slumber. (45-1/2 x 62 inches.) R.A. See Sketches,
+        Leighton House Collection, one presented by H.M. The King.
+
+  1894. At the Window. R.A.
+
+  1894. Wide, Wondering Eyes. (20 x 15-1/2 inches.) Manchester.
+
+  1894. The Roman Campagna, Monte Soracte in the distance. S.S.
+
+  1894. The Acropolis of Lindos. S.S.
+
+  1894. Fiume Morto, Gombo, Pisa. S.S.
+
+  1894. Gibraltar from San Rocque. S.S.
+
+  1895. Lachrymae. (60 x 24 inches.) R.A. See Sketches, Leighton
+        House Collection.
+
+  1895. The Maid with the Yellow Hair. R.A.
+
+  1895. *'Twixt Hope and Fear. (43-1/2 x 38-1/2 inches.) R.A.
+
+  1895. *Flaming June. (46 x 46 inches.) R.A. See Sketches, Leighton
+        House Collection.
+
+  1895. Listener. R.A.
+
+  1895. A Study. R.A.
+
+  1895. Phoenicians bartering with Britons. Presented to the Royal
+        Exchange by Lord Leighton. See Sketches, Leighton House
+        Collection.
+
+  1895. Boy with Pomegranate. Grafton Gallery.
+
+  1895. Miss Dene.
+
+  1895. Aqua Certosa, Rome. S.S.
+
+  1895. Chain of Hills seen from Ronda. S.S.
+
+  1895. Rocks, Malin Head, Donegal. S.S.
+
+  1895. Tlemcen, Algeria. S.S.
+
+  1896. *Clytie. (61-1/2 x 53-1/2 inches.) R.A. See Sketches,
+        Leighton House Collection.
+
+  1896. Candida. (21 x 41-1/2 inches.) Antwerp, 1896.
+
+  1896. *The Vestal. (27 x 20-1/2 inches.) Unfinished.
+
+  1896. *A Bacchante. (26-1/2 x 21 inches.)
+
+  1896. *The Fair Persian. (25-1/2 x 19-1/2 inches.) Unfinished.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[93] The asterisk denotes works exhibited at the Winter Exhibition of
+the Royal Academy of Arts, 1897.
+
+[94] R.A., Royal Academy; G.G., Grosvenor Gallery; R.W.S., Royal
+Society of Painters in Water-Colours; S.S., Royal Society of British
+Artists, Suffolk Street; D.G., Dudley Gallery; S.P.P., Society of
+Portrait Painters.
+
+[95] Exhibited in the Roman section by some blunder of the Committee,
+the picture having been painted in Rome.
+
+[96] Purchased for L2000 by the President and Council of the Royal
+Academy, under the terms of the Chantrey Bequest.
+
+[97] Painted by invitation for the collection of Portraits of Artists
+painted by themselves, in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
+
+[98] Painted for the house of Mr. Marquand, New York.
+
+[99] Purchased for 1000 guineas by the President and Council of the
+Royal Academy, under the terms of the Chantrey Bequest.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  Abercorn, Lady, i. 256; ii. 338
+
+  Aberdeen, Lord, i. 256
+
+  Abydos, ii. 180
+
+  Academy, _see_ Royal Academy
+
+  Acland, Sir Henry, ii. 364, 373
+
+  Acton, Lord, quoted, ii. 33-34
+
+  AEsthetics, i. 103-104
+
+  Afreet, ii. 168
+
+  Agnew, ii. 286
+
+  Aide, Hamilton, i. 195; ii. 60, 105, 110, 111;
+    letter from, ii. 126 _note_ [40];
+    quoted, i. 154 _note_ [28]
+
+  Aitchison, George, i. 164; ii. 7, 116, 117, 221, 363;
+    letter from, to Prof. Church, ii. 222 _note_ [57];
+    quoted, ii. 118-119, 217 _note_ [55], 365, 372
+
+  Albert, Prince Consort, i. 1, 261, 262; ii. 202;
+    death of, ii. 85
+
+  Alexandra, Queen (Princess of Wales), lines by, on Leighton, i. 33;
+      ii. 336
+
+  Algiers (1857), i. 18, 293-294, 297-304;
+    (1895), ii. 318;
+    Drawings of Moorish subjects, ii. 372
+
+  Allen, Robin, letters from, ii. 59 _note_ [18], 102, 230;
+    poem by, 102
+
+  America--
+    Hospitality in, i. 277
+    Slave crisis (1862), ii. 77-78, 82-85
+
+  Ampere, Mr., i. 146
+
+  Arab Hall, ii. 7-8, 217-222 _and notes_ [55-57], 365
+
+  Arabic, ii. 154
+
+  Architecture--
+    Athenian, ii. 128, 130-131, 145, 166
+    Ecclesiastical, i. 74
+    Egyptian, ii. 164-165, 185-186
+    Leighton's presidential address on, ii. 239 _and note_ [63]
+    Scottish, ii. 262
+    Westminster, in, i. 87
+
+  Armstrong, T., ii. 287
+
+  Arnold, Matthew, letters from, ii. 226, 231
+
+  Art--
+    Academic, i. 209; ii. 5
+    "Barbarians'" view as to, i. 41
+    Breadth-of-treatment school, i. 70-71
+    Catholicity in, ii. 264-265
+    Classification in, ii. 16
+    Detail, scrupulous care in, i. 202
+    Florentine, ii. 117-118
+    Form, importance of, i. 293; ii. 11, 263
+    Foundation-laying in, i. 155-156
+    Function of, i. 25-26; ii. 23, 278, 282, 283
+    Greek, i. 228
+    Impressionist, ii. 33
+    Industry, need for, i. 206-208
+    Influence of, Leighton's views as to, ii. 33-35
+    Inspiration, moments of, ii. 4
+    Inward source of, i. 92, 188, 212 _note_ [45]; ii. 15
+    Italian, Leighton's love for, ii. 5
+    Nature-study in, i. 174-175, 191, 199, 213; ii. 17-18
+    Practical nature of, i. 238
+    Protestant inconsistency as to, i. 74
+    Roman Catholic influence on, i. 66, 73
+    Roman influence on, i. 147, 188, 191
+    Spontaneity of, in the young, i. 217-218
+    Suggestion _v._ definition, ii. 26-28
+    White, painting of, ii. 367
+
+  _Art of Painting in the Queen's Reign, The_, cited, ii. 366
+
+  Artist Benevolent Fund, ii. 213
+
+  Artist Volunteer Corps, Leighton's membership of, i. 11-14;
+      ii. 107, 111;
+    resignation of commission (1883), ii. 243-245;
+    at Leighton's funeral, ii. 337
+
+  Ashburton, Lord, portrait of, ii. 123 _and note_ [37]
+
+  Assouan, ii. 148-150, 152
+
+  Athens, ii. 128, 130-131, 229 _note_ [60]
+
+  Austin, Mrs., ii. 86
+
+  Avignon, i. 298
+
+
+  Ballater, ii. 309
+
+  Barrington, Mrs. Russell, letters to, ii. 328, 332, 333
+
+  Bayreuth, ii. 316, 326
+
+  Beards, i. 170
+
+  Beauty--
+    Leighton's passion for, i. 59; ii. 2, 30, 328, 369
+    Puritanical attitude towards, i. 60
+
+  Becker, i. 56, 89
+
+  Beechey, Sir William, i. 269
+
+  Benedetto Bonfiglio, ii. 19
+
+  Beni Hassan, ii. 185-187
+
+  Benson, Ralph A., ii. 206-207;
+    letter from, 58 _note_ [18]
+
+  Bentinck, Count, i. 49, 52
+
+  Bentinck, Gen., i. 63
+
+  Bentinck, Penelope, i. 255, 262
+
+  Bergheim, i. 49-53
+
+  Berlin, i. 158-160
+
+  Bettino, i. 39
+
+  Bezzuoli, i. 38, 39
+
+  Bideford, ii. 66-67
+
+  Bileith, Mr., ii. 129
+
+  Birrell, Augustine, ii. 304-305
+
+  Boehm, Sir Edgar, letter from, ii. 200
+
+  Boughton, George H., letters from, ii. 199
+
+  Boxall, ii. 119, 227
+
+  Brackley, Lord, i. 264, 284
+
+  Brandes, Miss, ii. 217
+
+  British Institution, ii. 39, 44
+
+  British Museum, Leighton a trustee of, ii. 256
+
+  Brock, Mr., ii. 241, 259-260 _and note_ [73]
+
+  Brown, Madox, ii. 299
+
+  Browning, Mrs., ii. 51-52, 64, 374 _note_ [91];
+    letter from, 93
+
+  Browning, Robert, estimate of Leighton by, ii. 29 _note_ [6];
+    conversational powers of, i. 146 _and note_ [27], 149;
+    lines by, on the Heracles picture, ii. 190;
+    Leighton's estimate of, ii. 304-305;
+    letter to, ii. 51;
+    letters from, ii. 65, 225;
+    quoted, i. 164;
+    otherwise mentioned, i. 28, 149, 243, 280, 285; ii. 121
+
+  Bruce, Col. and Mrs., ii. 39
+
+  Bruckmann, Herr, ii. 113
+
+  Brunton, Sir Lauder, ii. 316, 323, 329-330
+
+  Buckner, i. 171
+
+  Bull-fights, ii. 210
+
+  Bulteel, Lady E., ii. 66
+
+  Burne-Jones, Sir E., ii. 3, 8, 199, 288, 368;
+    inaccuracies of, i. 219 _note_-220 [47];
+    estimate of, ii. 25
+
+  Burton, Sir Richard, portrait of, ii. 195-196;
+    letters from, 218-219
+
+
+  Calderon, ii. 196-197, 255
+
+  Cambridge, H.R.H. Duke of, ii. 262
+
+  Cameron, Mrs., cited, ii. 269 _note_ [76]
+
+  Campagna, Roman, i. 22 _and notes_ [8 and 9], 162, 164
+
+  Capri, ii. 18, 41
+
+  Carlisle, Earl of, ii. 6
+
+  Cartwright, W.C., politics of, i. 307-308;
+    letters from, ii. 126 _note_ [40], 152, 286;
+    otherwise mentioned, i. 124, 243, 255-257, 278; ii. 38, 46, 52
+
+  Casts, gallery of, ii. 287-288 _and note_ [79]
+
+  Chamberlayne, Kate, i. 126
+
+  Change of scene, importance of, i. 92-95
+
+  Chantrey Bequest, terms of, ii. 249-253
+
+  _Chemistry of Paints and Painting_ (Church), cited, ii. 290 _notes_ [80]
+
+  Choisy, M., quoted, ii. 221, 362-363
+
+  Chorley, Henry J., ii. 43 _and note_ [13];
+    letter from, 127 _note_ [40]
+
+  Church, Prof., cited, ii. 290 _notes_ [80 and 81];
+    letters to, 290-302
+
+  Churche, ii. 70
+
+  Cimabue, i. 227
+
+  Clarke, Sir C.P., ii. 365;
+    quoted, 218 _note_ [55]
+
+  Cleopatra, ii. 163, 172
+
+  Cleopatra's Needle, ii. 284
+
+  Cleveland, Duke of, ii. 286
+
+  Cliquiness, i. 192
+
+  Cockerell, F. Pepys, i. 285; ii. 58 _note_ [18], 87, 325 _note_ [86];
+    quoted, i. 294; ii. 372
+
+  Cole, Sir Henry, ii. 212;
+    letter from, 202;
+    letter to, 204
+
+  Coleridge, Lord, letter from, ii. 227
+
+  Colfax, Mr., ii. 165
+
+  Colnaghi, i. 252, 254; ii. 364;
+    cited 246
+
+  Colonna, i. 229 _note_ [50]
+
+  Colour, Leighton's feeling for, ii. 188, 189, 366, 367
+
+  Colours, &c., letters to Prof. Church regarding, ii. 290-302
+
+  Commissioned subjects, Leighton's views on, ii. 277-278
+
+  Conture, i. 154, 296
+
+  Copies, Leighton's views on, ii. 277
+
+  Cornelius, i. 56, 66, 141, 149, 151, 173;
+    Leighton's estimate of, 180, 190-191, 291, 295;
+    Steinle's estimate of, i. 280
+
+  _Cornhill Magazine_, Leighton's illustrations for, ii. 91, 92,
+      95, 103
+
+  Corot, i. 241
+
+  Correggio, ii. 41, 256
+
+  Costa, Prof. Giovanni, Leighton's first meeting with, i. 162-164;
+    portrait of, ii. 256;
+    estimate of Leighton by, ii. 379;
+    letter from, on Leighton, ii. 285 _note_ [78];
+    quoted--
+      on Leighton in Florence, i. 39; ii. 371;
+      on Leighton in Siena, ii. 242 _note_ [64];
+      on Leighton's methods, ii. 256;
+      on Leighton's last visit, ii. 327-328;
+    otherwise mentioned, ii. 7, 223, 297, 314
+
+  Cowley, Lady, i. 240, 309; ii. 88;
+    letter from, i. 48
+
+  Cowley, Lord, letters from, i. 53-54;
+    portrait of, ii. 88
+
+  Cowper, Lady, ii. 66
+
+  Cowper, Lord, portrait of, ii. 88
+
+  Crane, Walter, ii. 365;
+    estimate of Leighton by, 6-9
+
+  Craven, Augustus, ii. 41
+
+  Crawford, Lord, quoted, ii. 364
+
+  Criticism--
+    Leighton's appraisement of, i. 179
+    Ruskin on, ii. 122
+
+  Currie, Sir Donald, i. 4
+
+
+  Dalou, i. 241;
+    letter from, ii. 198
+
+  Dalziel's Bible, Leighton's illustrations for, ii. 94-95
+
+  Damascus, ii. 206-209
+
+  Davey, Lord, ii. 364
+
+  De l'Aigle, Madame, ii. 191
+
+  De l'Aigle, Marquis, ii. 103
+
+  De Morgan, Wm., ii. 364 _and note_ [90]
+
+  De Savelege, Emile, ii. 214
+
+  Delaroche, Paul, i. 249, 290
+
+  Denderah, ii. 172
+
+  Dene, Dorothy (Miss Pullen), ii. 267-274
+
+  Detail, perfection of, i. 202
+
+  Dickens, Charles, letters from, ii. 89;
+    Leighton compared with, 330-331 _note_ [87]
+
+  Dilettanti, Society of, ii. 212-213
+
+  Disneh, ii. 141
+
+  Dixon, Messrs., ii. 364
+
+  Dolby, Miss, ii. 43-44
+
+  Domestic decoration, ii. 220
+
+  Doyle, Richard, letter from, ii. 124 _note_ [38]
+
+  Drawings by Leighton--
+    "Cervara," i. 163 _note_ [32]
+    Comparison of, with finished paintings, ii. 93
+    "Drifting," ii. 103
+    Estimate of, i. 197, 205; ii. 368, 376
+    "Evening in a French Country House, An," ii. 103
+    Florentine fresco, copy of, ii. 374-375
+    "Lemon Tree," i. 201 _and note_ [42]-202; ii. 41 _and note_ [11]
+    "Monk Dividing Enemies, A," i. 65 _note_ [18]; ii. 371
+    Moorish subjects, of, ii. 372
+    "Plague in Florence in 1850," ii. 93
+    "Samson Wrestling with the Lion," ii. 94
+    "Vincenzo's Head," i. 151-152, 154-155
+    "Well-Head, The," i. 110 _note_ [24]
+
+  Du Maurier, i. 20 _note_ [7]
+
+  Duccio, i. 227
+
+  Dudley, Lord, ii. 53 _note_ [14]
+
+  Duff, Sir M. Grant, quoted, ii. 33
+
+  Duerer, Albert, i. 220; ii. 239-240
+
+  Dyer, Sir W. Thistelton, estimate of Leighton by, i. 219-221 _note_ [47]
+
+
+  East, Alfred, estimate of Leighton by, ii. 266
+
+  Eastlake, Sir Ch., i. 48, 94, 265
+
+  Edfou, ii. 162
+
+  Edis, Col., ii. 244-245
+
+  Edward VII., King (Prince of Wales), "Cimabue's Madonna" lent by,
+      for exhibition, i. 185;
+    Leighton's studio visited by, ii. 37, 39, 40;
+    tribute to Leighton by, i. 7; ii. 37;
+    otherwise mentioned, i. 265; ii. 41 _and note_ [9], 56, 60,
+      131, 213, 323, 363
+
+  Egypt, Leighton's visit to, ii. 131-187
+
+  Egyptian tombs, ii. 144-145
+
+  Elephantina, ii. 150
+
+  Elgin Cathedral, ii. 262
+
+  Eliot, George, _see_ Lewes
+
+  Ellesmere, Earl of, i. 252, 257, 265
+
+  Ellesmere, Lady, i. 268
+
+  Ellis, Maj.-Gen., ii. 338
+
+  Elmore, ii. 118
+
+  Ely, Lady, ii. 178
+
+  Erskine, Mr., ii. 130
+
+  Esne, ii. 147-148
+
+  Etty, i. 216
+
+
+  Farquhar, Miss, i. 152
+
+  Farrer, Lady (Miss Wedgwood), ii. 217
+
+  Fatma, ii. 167
+
+  Fenzi, M., i. 100, 285
+
+  Ferronay, Pauline la (Mrs. A. Craven), ii. 41 _note_ [10]
+
+  Ffrench, i. 260, 262
+
+  Findhorn River, ii. 261-262
+
+  Finlay, Mr., ii. 130, 131
+
+  FitzGerald, Percy, quoted, ii. 330 _note_ [87]
+
+  Flatz, i. 133
+
+  Fleury, Robert, i. 27, 154, 245, 248, 249, 290; ii. 214, 294;
+    letter from, ii. 37;
+    cited, ii. 46
+
+  Florence--
+    Leighton's early studies in, i. 38-40;
+    his stay at (1853), 136;
+      (1856), 284
+    List by Steinle of works to be studied in, i. 225-226
+
+  Florentine art, ii. 117-118
+
+  Flowers, Leighton's feeling for, i. 69, 75, 198;
+    studies, i. 200, 218-219; ii. 263, 325 _note_ [85], 372-373, 375-376
+
+  Form and matter, divergence between, ii. 184
+
+  Forres, ii. 261-262
+
+  Frankfort, Leighton at school at, i. 42
+
+  Frederick, Empress, ii. 337
+
+  French, i. 243
+
+  Fresco, Gambier Parry's medium for, ii. 105-106, 108-110, 301
+
+  Fresco _v._ oils, i. 296-297, 305; ii. 20
+
+  Freshfield, Mrs. Douglas, ii. 217
+
+  Frith, W.P., letter from, ii. 119 _note_ [35]
+
+  Fuehrich, i. 174
+
+  Fuller-Maitland, J.A., ii. 328, 372
+
+
+  Gamba, Count, i. 75, 85, 87, 90, 96, 98, 116-118, 120, 122, 123,
+    125, 132, 149, 151, 152, 164, 174, 188, 189, 191, 237; ii. 371
+
+  Gambart, ii. 114, 123
+
+  Garcia, Senor, ii. 239 _note_ [62]
+
+  Gebel Silsily, ii. 161
+
+  Genius, i. 206
+
+  German aesthetics, i. 103-104
+
+  Germany, Leighton's journey through (1852), i. 63-68
+
+  Gerome, ii. 147, 155
+
+  Gibson, i. 181, 261; ii. 39, 56;
+    Leighton's estimate of, i. 114
+
+  Gilbert, Alfred, quoted, i. 7
+
+  Gilbert, Sir J., ii. 286
+
+  Gilchrist, Connie, ii. 268
+
+  Giotto, i. 128, 226 _note_ [49], 228; ii. 374
+
+  Gladstone, W.E., ii. 57;
+    letters from, 243, 289
+
+  Glyn, Mrs., ii. 269, 270
+
+  Goethe's _Sprueche_, Leighton's criticism of, ii. 305-306
+
+  Gondolas, i. 78
+
+  Goodall, J., i. 48;
+    quoted, ii. 284
+
+  Gooderson, T., i. 171
+
+  Gordon, Lady Duff, ii. 132, 177, 181
+
+  Gortschakoff, Prince, i. 56
+
+  Gozze, Count, i. 169
+
+  Graefe, i. 157
+
+  Granada, ii. 210
+
+  Grant, Gen., ii. 165
+
+  Greek language, ii. 130-131
+
+  Greene, i. 258, 259
+
+  Greg, W.R., ii. 269 _note_ [76]
+
+  Grenfell, Hon. Mrs. (Miss Mabel Mills), portrait of, ii. 197
+
+  Greville, Charles, ii. 108
+
+  Greville, Henry, Leighton's friendship with, i. 28, 164, 251 _and
+      note_ [56], 282;
+    extracts from diaries of, i. 242-244, 246, 278;
+    death of, i. 268-269;
+    letters from, i. 252-268;
+    otherwise mentioned, i. 241, 247; ii. 43, 44, 46, 86, 92, 216
+
+  Grey, Countess, i. 270
+
+  Grove, Sir George, letter from, ii. 243 _note_ [65]
+
+  Grueber, H.A., quoted, ii. 255-256
+
+  Guaita, Mr., i. 281
+
+  Guthrie, Mrs. James, portrait of, ii. 10 _note_ [1], 114
+
+
+  Habit, deadening effect of, i. 93, 95
+
+  Hague, The, i. 54-55
+
+  Hale, Mr., ii. 163, 165
+
+  Halle, i. 234
+
+  Handel Festival (1859), ii. 43-44
+
+  Hardy, Thomas, ii. 320
+
+  Harrison, Mr., i. 260, 267, 282; ii. 46
+
+  Hassan Effendi, ii. 143
+
+  Haydon, i. 143-144
+
+  Hebert, i. 236, 237
+
+  Heidelberg, i. 63-64
+
+  Heilbronn, i. 64
+
+  Henderson, A., ii. 364
+
+  Hendschel, i. 150
+
+  Herkomer, Hubert, letter from, ii. 226
+
+  Hickey, Miss Emily, sonnet by, ii. 261 _note_ [74]
+
+  Hildesheim, ii. 315
+
+  Hills, Mr., ii. 291
+
+  Hoare, Lady, ii. 38, 40, 48
+
+  Hodgson, J.G., i. 275;
+    letter from, ii. 205 _note_ [74]
+
+  Holland, Leighton's visit to (1852), i. 54-55
+
+  Holland, Lord and Lady, i. 309; ii. 41, 67, 92
+
+  Hollyer, Fred, ii. 364, 370;
+    quoted, 288-289
+
+  Hommel, i. 150
+
+  Hooker, Sir Joseph, cited, i. 220
+
+  Hope, J.K. Kempton, letter from, ii. 213
+
+  Horsfall, T.C., correspondence with, ii. 274, 276-283
+
+  Horsley, Mr., ii. 223
+
+  Hosmer, Miss Harriet, i. 146, 181, 195; ii. 72, 76
+
+  Hosseyn, ii. 137-138, 140-142, 144, 146, 148, 153, 157, 158, 160,
+    165, 167, 170, 172, 174, 176-180, 187
+
+  Hughes, Mrs. Watts, ii. 332;
+    letter from, 217
+
+  Human form, Leighton's treatment of, ii. 29
+
+  Hunt, Holman, i. 187 _note_ [34], 220, 278; ii. 118, 148, 219
+
+  Hunter, Colin, i. 4
+
+
+  I'Anson, Mr. (great-uncle), i. 45-46
+
+  Impressionists, ii. 33
+
+  Ingres, i. 245
+
+  Innsbruck statues, i. 69-70, 88-89
+
+  Irish scenery, ii. 311
+
+  Irving, Sir H., ii. 270 _note_ [77];
+    Leighton compared with, 330-331 _note_ [87]
+
+  Italian art, ii. 5, 19, 117
+
+  Italy (_for districts, towns, &c., see their names_)--
+    Leighton's affection for, i. 19-24, 56, 62, 67-68, 72, 135, 137,
+      158, 302-303; ii. 51
+    Music of, i. 167
+    Street cries in, i. 72-73
+
+
+  Jameson, Mrs., i. 280
+
+  Janauschek, i. 55
+
+  Janotha, Miss, ii. 228
+
+  Joachim, Dr. Joseph, ii. 216, 223, 228, 316;
+    Leighton's speech at jubilee presentation to, ii. 245-247
+
+
+  Kalergi, Madame, i. 242
+
+  Karnak, ii. 165-167
+
+  Kaye, Miss, i. 264
+
+  Kemble, Adelaide, _see_ Sartoris
+
+  Kemble, Mrs. (Fanny), on "Pan" and "Venus," ii. 45;
+    reading of, i. 184;
+    estimate of Leighton by, i. 264;
+    letter to, i. 165;
+    letters from, i. 165 _note_ [33]; ii. 68-83, 126 _note_ [40];
+    otherwise mentioned, i. 146, 147, 149, 178, 181, 245, 255, 300
+
+  Kew gardens, i. 219-221 _note_ [47]
+
+  Kimberley, S.A., art exhibition at, i. 4
+
+  Kom Ombo, ii. 160, 161
+
+  Koorveh, ii. 145
+
+  Kuppelwieser, i. 174
+
+  Kyrle Society, ii. 274-275
+
+
+  Laing, Isabel (Lady Nias), i. 108, 122 _note_ [25], 125;
+    portrait of, 122-123, 177
+
+  Land, W.C., ii. 225
+
+  Landseer, Sir Edwin, ii. 59, 61
+
+  Lang, Mrs. Andrew, quoted, ii. 372
+
+  Lansdowne, Lord, ii. 41, 43
+
+  Lanteri, Edouard, ii. 288
+
+  Lascelles, E., ii. 92
+
+  Lawrence, Sir Thos., i. 269
+
+  Lecky, Prof., ii. 338
+
+  Leech, John, ii. 68
+
+  Lehmann, ii. 287
+
+  Leighton, Dr. (father), career of, i. 36-37;
+    attitude towards art as a profession, 16-17;
+    severity towards his son, 37;
+    anatomy studies, 38;
+    move to Bath, 56;
+    illness, ii. 309-310;
+    death, 314;
+    letters to, i. 44, 110, 171, 177, 180, 212, 236, 237, 244, 248,
+      269, 283, 307; ii. 58, 62, 86, 95, 114-116, 129, 131, 206, 209,
+      211, 213, 238 _note_ [62], 261, 313;
+    letter from, i. 101;
+    letter regarding, i. 135-136;
+    otherwise mentioned, i. 76, 84
+
+  Leighton, Lady (grandmother), i. 47, 56, 86
+
+  Leighton, Mrs. (mother), delicate health of, i. 36-38;
+    tenderness of, 37;
+    death of, ii. 126;
+    letters to, i. 18, 42, 46, 49, 51, 59, 84, 92, 104, 122, 137,
+      139, 142, 147, 166, 167, 176, 178, 212, 224, 234, 236, 240,
+      245, 247, 281, 287, 289, 290, 297, 308; ii. 14 _note_ [2], 38,
+      43-48, 55, 57, 60, 64-68, 88, 91, 107, 108, 110, 111, 119, 122,
+      191;
+    letters from, i. 57, 98, 133, 139, 144, 177, 226 _note_ [49], 232;
+    letter from, to younger daughter, ii. 56
+
+  Leighton, Alexandra (sister), _see_ Orr
+
+  Leighton, Augusta (sister), _see_ Matthews
+
+  Leighton, Sir Baldwyn, letter from, i. 34
+
+  Leighton, Frederic, Lord--
+    Ancestry of, i. 34-36
+    Career, chronological sequence of--
+      birth, i. 36;
+      early travels, 37, 38;
+      education, 37-39, 41-42;
+      under Steinle's influence, 40-42;
+      first picture, 44;
+      studies in Brussels, Paris and Frankfort, 44;
+      visit to London, 45-48;
+      portrait painting, 46, 48, 51-53;
+      back to Frankfort, 48;
+      at Bergheim, 49;
+      in Holland, 54-55;
+      Italy, 72-83;
+      Rome, 95-96, 106 _et seq._, 161;
+      at Bad Gleisweiler, 134;
+      at Frankfort and Florence, 136;
+      return to Rome, 139;
+      at Lucca, 154 _note_ [28];
+      Frankfort, Venice, Florence and Rome, 154;
+      consultation with Graefe, 157;
+      success of "Cimabue's Madonna," 193;
+      in London, 222, 233;
+      in Paris, 235-237, 239 _et seq._;
+      to Frankfort and Italy, 281-285;
+      back to Rome, 289;
+      in Algiers, 18, 293-294, 297-304;
+      in Rome (1858), ii. 37;
+      in London, 43;
+      at 2 Orme Square, 47, 49;
+      volunteering activities, i. 11-14; ii. 55, 107, 111;
+      in Devonshire, 66;
+      visit to Mason, 89-90;
+      at Compiegne, 103-104;
+      the Lyndhurst fresco, 104-108, 110-112;
+      building of Leighton House, 114-117;
+      A.R.A., 118;
+      visit to Spain (1866), 128;
+      examiner at Victoria and Albert Museum (1866-1875), 212;
+      at Vichy (1869), 218 _note_ [56];
+      up the Nile, 131-187;
+      R.A. (1869), 123, 188;
+      visit to Damascus (1873), 205-209;
+      to Spain (1877), 209;
+      P.R.A. (1878), 223;
+      trustee of British Museum (1881), 256;
+      resigns volunteer commission (1883), 243-245;
+      made a baronet (1886), 289;
+      waning health, 241, 313, 318, 323, 324, 328;
+      visit to Spain (1889), ii. 238 _note_ [62];
+      foreign travel, 313-316;
+      Algiers, 318;
+      made a peer, 331;
+      fatal illness, 333-334;
+      death, 334
+    Characteristics of--
+      Actuality, sense of, i. 280; ii. 5, 26-27, 30
+      Art, passionate attachment to, i. 2, 16, 17; ii. 338-339
+      Beauty, love of, i. 59; ii. 2, 30, 328, 369
+      _Bonhomie_, ii. 330
+      Boyishness, ii. 317
+      Children, love of, ii. 192, 328, 370
+      Consistency, ii. 3, 21
+      Courage, ii. 317
+      Critical faculty, i. 217
+      Criticism, attitude towards, i. 179
+      Depression, liability to, i. 10
+      Duty, sense of, i. 250; ii. 21
+      Enthusiasm, i. 18, 41
+      Fastidiousness, ii. 5
+      Gratitude, ii. 266
+      Greek-like combination of qualities, i. 24-25, 59;
+        ii. 368, 377-378
+      Impartiality, i. 5
+      Industry and strenuousness, ii. 4, 207-208, 223, 369
+      Insight, rapidity of, i. 24
+      Intellectual brilliancy, i. 4, 23, 24, 210; ii. 2, 242
+      Kindness, i. 269; ii. 7, 90, 104, 242 _note_ [64]
+      Loyalty, i. 19; ii. 3, 8
+      Mastery of others, ii. 242-243 _and note_ [64]
+      Modesty, i. 8, 206, 280; ii. 16, 233, 265, 266
+      Music, love of, i. 108, 126
+      Oratorical powers, i. 5, 6, 29; ii. 233-234
+      Originality, ii. 5, 16
+      Selective faculty, predominant, i. 219 _note_ [47]; ii. 2
+      Sensitiveness, i. 31
+      Simplicity, i. 9
+      Sincerity, i. 8, 60, 92, 216
+      Smell and hearing, keen senses of, i. 72
+      Social charm, i. 8, 30
+      Society, general, distaste for, i. 166, 168, 222-223
+      Spontaneity, lack of, i. 246; ii. 1, 20, 233-234
+      Sympathy, i. 4-6, 9 _and note_ [4], 216
+      Thoroughness, ii. 20, 31, 208, 233
+      Unselfishness, ii. 266
+      Vitality, exuberance of, i. 59, 224
+      Will power, ii. 369
+    Diary ("Pebbles"), extracts from, i. 61-87, 198
+    Diary of Egyptian visit, ii. 133-187
+    Dignities and honours conferred on, ii. 380
+    Drawings by, _see that title_
+    Estimates of, by--
+      Anonymous, i. 60; ii. 29-30, 374
+      Browning, Robert, ii. 29 _note_ [6]
+      Costa, Prof. G., ii. 379
+      Crane, W., ii. 6-9
+      Dyer, Sir W.T., i. 219-221 _note_ [47]
+      East, A., ii. 266
+      Greville, H., i. 243
+      Kemble, Mrs., i. 264
+      Powers, Hiram, i. 39
+      Poynter, Sir E., ii. 242 _note_ [64]
+      Richmond, Sir W., i. 209; ii. 1-6
+      Riviere, Briton, i. 5, 129, 207, 250; ii. 21-22
+      Ruskin, J., i. 212
+      Thornycroft, H., i. 5-6, 13-14
+      Watts, G.F., i. 4, 7, 210; ii. 22
+    Frescoes by, ii. 104-108, 110-112, 203-204
+    Funeral of, i. 31-33; ii. 335-338
+    Health difficulties, i. 42, 59, 130, 169, 240, 241; ii. 22, 68;
+      eyesight trouble, i. 101, 111, 113, 123-124, 130, 131, 142, 157,
+        247, 309; ii. 22;
+      waning health, 313, 318, 323, 324, 328;
+      fatal disease, ii. 241, 302, 316, 333-334
+    Limitations in his art, i. 211-215
+    Methods of, ii. 12-15, 256, 293
+    Pictures by, _see that title_
+    Portrait of, ii. 259;
+      bust by Brock, 260 _and note_ [73], 364
+    Portraits by, _see that title_
+    Presidential addresses by, ii. 229-233, 235-241
+    Sketches by, ii. 257-259 _and note_ [71], 366-367, 371-372
+    Speeches by, ii. 241-247
+    Statuary by, ii. 198-200, 259-260
+
+  Leighton, Sir James (grandfather), i. 36
+
+  Leighton, Rev. Wm., i. 35
+
+  Leighton House--
+    Aims of committee of, ii. 378-379
+    Arab Hall, ii. 217-222, 365
+    Contents of, ii. 363-378
+    Preface to Catalogue of, ii. 362-379
+    Preliminaries to building of, ii. 115-116
+    Site of, ii. 114 _and note_ [32]
+    Style of, ii. 362-363
+
+  Leitch, i. 181
+
+  "Les Natchez," ii. 184
+
+  Leslie, Lady Constance, ii. 92;
+    quoted, i. 193
+
+  Leslie, Sir John, i. 164, 261, 262
+
+  Lewes, Mr., ii. 95, 100
+
+  Lewes, Marian E. (George Eliot), ii. 95;
+    letters from, 96-100
+
+  Lewis, Arthur, ii. 55, 92
+
+  Lindos, ii. 129, 148
+
+  Lindsay, Sir Coutts, ii. 286
+
+  Linton, ii. 286
+
+  Lister, Sir Joseph, ii. 338
+
+  Lister, Villers, i. 285
+
+  Listowel, Lord, ii. 92
+
+  Liszt, ii. 43 _note_ [13]
+
+  Liverpool, Leighton's speech at Art Congress at (1888), ii. 247,
+    341-361
+
+  Loch, Lady, quoted, i. 3-4; ii. 334
+
+  Lockhart, i. 176
+
+  Lougsor, ii. 143, 174, 175
+
+  Lucas, Charles, cited, ii. 362
+
+  Lugano, Lake of, i. 283
+
+  Lynn of Dee, ii. 261 _and note_ [74], 309
+
+  Lyon, Lord, ii. 76
+
+  Lyons, Bickerton, i. 146, 243
+
+
+  Mackail, ii. 333
+
+  Mackenzie, Sir A., ii. 338
+
+  MacWhirter, J., ii. 374
+
+  Maeterlinck, ii. 25, 27
+
+  _Magazine of Art_, reprint from, ii. 362 _and note_ [89], 379
+
+  Mahometans, ii. 146, 169-170
+
+  Malet, Sir E., ii. 316
+
+  Malinmore (Co. Donegal), ii. 311, 324-325 _and note_ [85]
+
+  Man, Isle of, art exhibition in, i. 3
+
+  Manchester Art Museum and Galleries, ii. 274-281
+
+  _Manchester Courier_, extract from, ii. 275-280
+
+  Maquay, Mrs., i. 134, 285
+
+  Mariani, ii. 294-295
+
+  Mario, i. 309; ii. 43
+
+  Marochetti, i. 176, 261
+
+  Marquand, Mr., i. 277; ii. 259 _note_ [72]
+
+  Marriage, Leighton's views on, ii. 56
+
+  Massarani, Sig. Tullio, ii. 214
+
+  Mason, George, i. 32, 164, 286; ii. 66, 118;
+    Leighton's relations with, i. 193; ii. 89-90, 266
+
+  Matthews, Mrs. (Augusta N. Leighton), birth of, i. 36;
+    Leighton's advice to, on musical studies, 91-92, 97-98;
+    extracts from diary of, 233, 241;
+    in Leighton's last illness, ii. 333-334;
+    at the funeral, ii. 338;
+    letters to, i. 97, 182;
+      ii. 52, 64, 85, 90, 117, 216, 223, 309, 313, 315;
+    letter from Mrs. Leighton to, ii. 56;
+    otherwise mentioned, i. 76, 87, 99, 105, 145, 169, 181;
+      ii. 65, 95, 304, 316, 326, 363
+
+  May, Phil, ii. 32
+
+  Medinet Haboo, ii. 164
+
+  Meissonier, ii. 214
+
+  Melbourne, art exhibition in, i. 3-4
+
+  Meli, Signor, i. 37
+
+  Mendelssohn, Frau, i. 56
+
+  Meran, i. 71, 89, 282
+
+  Meynell, Wilfrid, ii. 321, 364
+
+  Middleburgh, i. 63
+
+  Millais, Sir J., Leighton's estimate of, ii. 67, 68;
+    flower painting by, i. 220;
+    "Needless Alarms" given to, ii. 260;
+    letter from, 230;
+    otherwise mentioned, i. 187 _note_ [34], 221, 234, 254;
+      ii. 60, 87, 118, 319, 322, 338, 368
+
+  Millet, Jean Francois, i. 241
+
+  Mills, Sir Charles, i. 4
+
+  Mills, Miss Mabel (Hon. Mrs. Grenfell), portrait of, ii. 197
+
+  Minyeh, ii. 135-136
+
+  Monbrison, George de, ii. 41
+
+  Monson, Lady, i. 244
+
+  Montfort, i. 243, 249; ii. 39;
+    cited, 46
+
+  Moor scenery, ii. 308-309, 311
+
+  Moorish interior, i. 301;
+    music, 303
+
+  Morants, ii. 66
+
+  Morlaix, ii. 324
+
+  Morley, Rt. Hon. John, letter from, ii. 331
+
+  Morny, i. 243
+
+  Morris, William, ii. 220
+
+  Mortlake, M.C., ii. 120 _note_ [35]
+
+  Music--
+    Italian, i. 167
+    Leighton's feeling for, i. 100, 182; ii. 6;
+      his singing, i. 140-141, 169-170;
+      his yearly gatherings, ii. 216-217;
+      his speech at the Joachim celebration, ii. 245-247
+    Monday popular concerts, ii. 216
+    Moorish, i. 303
+
+  Mustafa Aga, ii. 143-144, 165, 172
+
+
+  Napier, Lord, ii. 325
+
+  Naples, Leighton's visit to (1859), ii. 41
+
+  Nash, Mr. and Mrs., i. 224
+
+  Neville, Lady Dorothy, ii. 111, 114
+
+  Nettleship, ii. 114
+
+  Nias, Lady, _see_ Laing, Isabel
+
+  Nicholson, ii. 55
+
+  Nordau, Leighton's estimate of, ii. 326-327
+
+  North, Miss, i. 220
+
+  Norton, Hon. Mrs., letter from, ii. 10 _note_ [1]
+
+  Novello, Clara, ii. 43
+
+  Nubians, ii. 150
+
+
+  Oakes, i. 96, 108
+
+  _Obiter Dicta_ (Birrell), ii. 304-305
+
+  O'Conor, ii. 226
+
+  Ogle, Miss, ii. 38
+
+  Old Masters--
+    Leighton's attitude towards, i. 230
+    Winter Exhibitions of, ii. 214
+
+  Oppenheim, i. 56
+
+  Orcagna, i. 225
+
+  Ordway, Mr., ii. 69, 71, 74, 75, 83
+
+  Orr, Col. Sutherland, i. 3 _note_ [2], 300, 309
+
+  Orr, Mrs. Sutherland (Alexandra Leighton), birth of, i. 36;
+    marriage of, 3 _note_ [2];
+    in India, 300 _and note_ [70], 306, 309;
+    widowed, ii. 50;
+    portrait of, 54, 57, 61;
+    in Leighton's last illness, 333-334;
+    at the funeral, 338;
+    work on Browning by, 314 _and note_ [83];
+    letters to, i. 18, 19, 22 _note_ [8], 302;
+      ii. 240, 304, 307, 310, 311, 319, 322, 325, 326;
+    otherwise mentioned, i. 42, 44, 46, 99, 126, 183;
+      ii. 45, 211, 273, 315, 363
+
+  "Orphee," ii. 52-53 _and note_ [14]
+
+  Ouless, W.W., i. 4
+
+  Overbeck, i. 96, 116, 132-133, 189, 190, 192;
+    Leighton's estimate of, 113-114;
+    Steinle's, 121
+
+
+  Paestum, ii. 50
+
+  Paget, Sir James, ii. 313
+
+  Palmer, ii. 55
+
+  Panshanger, ii. 92
+
+  Pantaleone, Dr., i. 169; ii. 52
+
+  Paris, Comtesse de, telegram from, ii. 321
+
+  Parry, Gambier, ii. 105, 299-301;
+    letter from, 108
+
+  Pasta, i. 267-268
+
+  Pasteur, W., letter from, ii. 244 _note_ [66]
+
+  Pattison, Mrs. Mark, letters to, i. 16, 27, 302; ii. 118, 128, 209,
+    303
+
+  "Pebbles," _see under_ Leighton--Diary
+
+  Perry, Walter Copland, ii. 287-288 _and note_ [79]
+
+  Persian tiles, ii. 364-365
+
+  Perugia, ii. 19
+
+  Perugini, Carlo, i. 236, 237, 241; ii. 55
+
+  Petre, i. 290
+
+  Pheidias, i. 224
+
+  Philipson, Mr., ii. 364
+
+  Phipps, Hon. Col., i. 265, 267, 282, 290
+
+  Phipps, Hon. Mrs., ii. 40
+
+  Photography, i. 202-206;
+    of masterpieces, ii. 277
+
+  Phylae, ii. 150-151, 154-155, 167
+
+  Piatti, ii. 228
+
+  Pictures by Leighton--
+    "And the Sea gave up ...," ii. 193
+    "Antique Juggling Girl, The," ii. 194-195, 205 _note_ [53]
+    "Ariadne abandoned by Theseus," ii. 370
+    "Atalanta," ii. 262-263
+    "Bath of Psyche, The," ii. 257
+    "Byzantine Well," ii. 42 _and note_ [12]
+    "Captive Andromache," ii. 370
+    "Cimabue finding Giotto in the Fields of Florence," i. 56
+    "Cimabue's Madonna"--
+      Description of, i. 173
+      Estimate of, i. 185-186;
+        by Richmond, 186;
+        by Ruskin, 186 _note_ [34]; ii. 367;
+        by Rossetti, i. 187 _note_ [34]
+      Exhibition of, in Rome, i. 177, 180;
+        at Leighton House (1900), i. 185
+      Holes in, i. 260 _and note_ [59], 282-283, 290
+      Success of, i. 32, 193; ii. 367
+      Work on, i. 128-130, 135-136, 141, 145, 148-151, 155, 175, 179,
+        184-186
+    "Cleoboulos Instructing his Daughter Cleobouline," ii. 192
+    "Clytemnestra Watching from the Battlements of Argos," ii. 195
+      _and note_ 46, 205 _note_ [53], 366
+    "Clytie," ii. 96, 263, 327
+    "Condottiere, A," ii. 193
+    "Crossbowman, The," ii. 119
+    "Cymon and Iphegenia," i. 25; ii. 258 _and note_ [70], 259
+    "Daedalus and Icarus," ii. 188, 189
+    "Dante at Verona," ii. 114, 123 _and note_ [38]
+    "Daphnephoria, The," ii. 195-197
+    "Death of Brunelleschi, The," i. 55-56
+    "Duel between Romeo and Tybalt, The," i. 56
+    "Duet" (small "Johnnie"), ii. 85 _note_, 88, 123
+    "Eastern King, The," ii. 86-88, 107
+    "Egyptian Slinger," ii. 370
+    "Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon," ii. 188, 189, 370
+    "Elijah in the Wilderness," ii. 188, 256
+    "Eucharis," ii. 9, 108, 119 _and note_ [34]
+    "Fisherman and the Syren, The," ii. 36 _and note_ [8], 62
+    "Flaming June," ii. 262-263
+    "Francesca," ii. 57, 59 _note_ [18]
+    "Girl feeding Peacocks," ii. 119 _and note_ [33]
+    "Golden Hours," ii. 9, 114
+    "Greek Girl Dancing," ii. 193
+    "Greek Girls Picking up Pebbles," ii. 192
+    "Helen of Troy," ii. 125 _and note_ [39]
+    "Helios and Rhodos," ii. 188
+    "Heracles Wrestling with Death for the Body of Alcestis,"
+      ii. 189-191, 370
+    "Honeymoon, The," ii. 114, 123
+    Improvement in, by keeping, ii. 258 _note_ [70]
+    "In a Moorish Garden," ii. 194, 205 _note_ [53]
+    "Industrial Arts of Peace, The," ii. 193-194, 202
+    "Industrial Arts of War, The," ii. 193-194, 224
+    Landscapes in Oil, i. 208
+    "Lieder ohne Worte," ii. 17 _and note_ [3], 57, 58 _note_ [16], 60
+      _note_ [19], 61-63, 65, 367
+    List of, ii. 381-392
+    "Michael Angelo Nursing his Dying Servant," ii. 86-88, 93,
+       105-107, 370
+    "Music Lesson," ii. 197
+    "Nanna, La," ii. 39-41, 48
+    "Nausicaa," ii. 200-201
+    "Negro Festival, A," i. 302; ii. 44-47
+    "Neruccia," ii. 256, 257
+    "Nile Woman, A," ii. 189
+    "Noble Lady of Venice, A," ii. 10
+    "Plague in Florence," ii. 370
+    "Psyche," ii. 368
+    Number of, during Presidency, ii. 257
+    "Odalisque," ii. 87, 88
+    "Old Damascus," ii. 205 _and note_ [53]
+    "Orpheus," _see subheading_ "Triumph of Music"
+    "Othello and Desdemona," i. 44
+    "Pan," i. 249, 258, 278;
+      in America, i. 300; ii. 45-46
+    "Paolo and Francesca," ii. 63, 76-77
+    "Persephone," i. 220
+    "Perseus and Andromeda," ii. 198
+    Perugini, Carlo, head of, i. 237
+    Poetry in, i. 211; ii. 29 _and note_ [6]
+    "Reconciliation of the Montagues and Capulets"--
+      America, in, i. 300; ii. 46
+      Criticism of, i. 287 _note_ [68]
+      France, in, i. 235
+      Sale of, i. 289
+      mentioned, i. 141, 176
+    "Romeo," _see subheading_ "Reconciliation"
+    "Romeo and Juliet," ii. 36 _and note_ [8]
+    "Rustic Music" (large "Johnnie"), ii. 85 _note_ [22], 86, 88
+    "S. Jerome," ii. 188
+    "Salome, the Daughter of Herodias," i. 308; ii. 119 _and note_ [35]
+    "Samson and Delilah," ii. 39, 47, 74
+    "Sea Echoes," ii. 87 _and note_ [24], 88
+    "Solitude," ii. 260-261 _and note_ [74]
+    "Spirit of the Summit, The," i. 10
+    "Study," ii. 197
+    "Summer Moon," ii. 192-193, 366
+    "Sunrise--Capri," ii. 53
+    "Syracusan Bride ..., A," ii. 10 _and note_ [1], 124
+    Texture of, ii. 93
+    "Triumph of Music, The"--
+      Failure of, i. 246-249
+      "Sketches of Orpheus," i. 278
+      Subject of, i. 244-245
+      mentioned, i. 236, 238, 257; ii. 46, 114
+    "Venus," i. 249, 258-259, 278, 287 _note_ [68];
+      in America, i. 300; ii. 45-46
+    "Venus disrobing for the Bath," ii. 368
+    Vision of Mrs. Sandbach, ii. 54 _and note_ [15], 56, 57, 58 _note_
+    "Weaving the Wreath," ii. 194
+    "Wedded," ii. 29 _note_ [6]
+    "Winding the Skein," ii. 201, 368
+
+  Pisano, Nicolo, i. 227
+
+  Pocock, ii. 87
+
+  Pollington, Lady, i. 115;
+    portrait of, 54
+
+  Portraits by Leighton--
+    Ashburton, Lord, ii. 123 _and note_ [37]
+    Bentinck, Count, family of, i. 49, 52
+    Burton, Sir R., ii. 195, 196
+    Costa, Giovanni, ii. 256
+    Cowley, Lady, and family, i. 48-49, 53
+    Cowper, Lord, ii. 88
+    Guthrie, Mrs. James, ii. 10 _note_ [1], 114
+    I'Anson, Mr., i. 46
+    Mills, Miss Mabel, ii. 197
+    Pollington, Lady, i. 54
+    Walker, Mrs. Hanson, i. 251 _note_ [57]
+
+  Powers, Hiram, i. 114;
+    estimate of Leighton by, i. 39
+
+  Poynter, Sir E., i. 164;
+    estimate of Leighton by, ii. 242 _note_ [64]
+
+  Prange, Mr., i. 4
+
+  Pre-Raphaelites--
+    Burne-Jones distinguished from, ii. 25;
+    Leighton's estimate of, i. 289;
+    his relations with, ii. 52
+
+  Pullen, Miss (Dorothy Dene), ii. 267-274
+
+  Pullen, Lina, ii. 268
+
+
+  Quilter, Sir Cuthbert, ii. 258 _note_ [70]
+
+
+  Rafaello, i. 162 _and note_ [31], 163
+
+  Ravaschieri, Duchessa, i. 167
+
+  Rawnsley, Canon, ii. 372
+
+  Redesdale, Lord, i. 121
+
+  Reeves, Sims, ii. 44
+
+  Reston, i. 268
+
+  Rhapsodist performance, i. 303-304
+
+  Rhoden, i. 133
+
+  Rhodes Island, ii. 129-130, 148
+
+  Rhys, Ernest, cited, ii. 232 _note_ [61]
+
+  Ricardo, Puliza, ii. 46
+
+  Richmond, George, ii. 255;
+    letter from, 312
+
+  Richmond, Sir Wm. B., i. 186, 220; ii. 55;
+    estimate of Leighton by, i. 209; ii. 1-6
+
+  Ristori, i. 242-243
+
+  Ritchie, Miss, ii. 217
+
+  Ritchie, Mrs. Richard, quoted, i. 194 _note_ [36]; ii. 43 _note_ [13]
+
+  Riviere, Briton, estimate of Leighton by, i. 5, 129, 207, 250;
+      ii. 21-22;
+    quoted, i. 216; ii. 233-234, 317;
+    letter from, ii. 230;
+    letters to, ii. 318, 324
+
+  Roberts, Dr., ii. 241, 315, 316, 329
+
+  Roman Catholic faith, i. 66
+
+  Rome--
+    Art, influence on, i. 147, 188, 191
+    Cafe Greco, i. 162 _note_ [31]
+    Leighton's early studies in, i. 37
+    Steinle's estimate of, i. 280-281
+
+  _Romola_, Leighton's illustrations for, ii. 95-102, 121
+
+  Rosebery, Lord, ii. 372
+
+  Ross, Mr., ii. 132
+
+  Ross, Mrs., ii. 8
+
+  Rossetti, D.G., i. 278; ii. 118, 288;
+    quoted, i. 187 _note_ [34]; ii. 60 _note_ [19], 191, 368
+
+  Rossetti, Wm., ii. 45-46, 58
+
+  Rossini, i. 166-167
+
+  Royal Academy--
+    Attacks on, ii. 8
+    Chantry Bequest, terms of, ii. 251-253
+    Codification Committee, ii. 254-255
+    Constitution of, ii. 248-251 _note_ [67]
+    Exhibitions of--
+      Burlington House, at, ii. 201
+      Colour, as test of, ii. 88
+      Winter, of Old Masters, ii. 214
+    Leighton an Associate of, ii. 118;
+      member, 123, 188;
+      President, ii. 223;
+      his speeches at banquets of, ii. 241-243 _and notes_ [64 and 65];
+      his bequest to, ii. 333
+    Pension question, ii. 252-253, 255
+    Presidency of, ii. 231 _note_ [61]
+    Treasurership of, ii. 249 _note_ [67]
+    Tresham case, ii. 248-250 _note_ [67]
+    Women, question of admission of, to membership, ii. 247-248
+      _and note_ [67]
+
+  Ruskin, John, estimate by, of "Cimabue's Madonna," i. 186 _note_ [34];
+      ii. 367;
+    of Leighton, i. 212; ii. 373;
+    on "A Lemon Tree," ii. 41;
+    on the Lyndhurst fresco, ii. 112;
+    letters from, ii. 42, 120-121;
+    otherwise mentioned, i. 201 _note_ [42], 220, 234, 245, 247, 257;
+      ii. 59, 377
+
+  Russell, Odo (Lord Ampthill), ii. 38, 40, 52
+
+  Russell, Lady William, letters from, ii. 215, 216
+
+
+  S. Francis of Assisi, quoted, i. 22 _note_ [10]
+
+  Salisbury, ii. 67
+
+  Salisbury, Lord, ii. 338
+
+  Samuelson, Right Hon. Sir Bernard, ii. 190 _note_ [42]
+
+  Sandbach, Mrs., ii. 54 _and note_ [15], 56
+
+  Sartoris, Hon. Mrs. Alfred, letter from, ii. 88 _and note_ [25];
+    quoted, 104
+
+  Sartoris, Edward, Leighton's friendship with, i. 124, 126;
+    illness of, i. 263, 266, 267;
+    otherwise mentioned, i. 28, 147, 240, 241, 245, 257, 310;
+      ii. 46, 52, 66, 68
+
+  Sartoris, Mrs. (Adelaide Kemble), Leighton's friendship with,
+      i. 27-28, 124, 126-128, 149, 166, 168, 176, 181, 183, 194, 250,
+      289;
+    estimates of, i. 126-128;
+    portrait of, i. 172, 184, 232;
+    intimates of, i. 183;
+    personal appearance of, i. 183;
+    Mrs. Ritchie's account of, i. 194 _note_ [36];
+    extract from early diary of, 195-196 _note_ [36];
+    Leighton's family's appreciation of, i. 232-233;
+    "A Week in a French Country House" by, ii. 103;
+    illness of, ii. 191-192;
+    letter from, to Greville, i. 266;
+      to Mrs. Leighton, ii. 61;
+    otherwise mentioned, i. 146, 147, 182, 234, 240-245, 247, 251
+      _note_ [56], 258, 260-265, 278; ii. 43 _and note_ [13], 52, 57,
+      66, 68, 81, 217, 218, 239 _note_ [62]
+
+  Saunders, Mr. Bailey, letter to, ii. 305
+
+  Scarborough Borough Council, messages from, ii. 225, 331
+
+  Schaeffer, i. 116
+
+  Scheffer, Ary, i. 245 _and note_ [55], 249; ii. 46
+
+  Schlemmer, Dr., i. 56
+
+  Schlosser, Frau Rath, i. 64, 190
+
+  Schwind, i. 293
+
+  Scottish rivers and scenery, ii. 261-262, 308-309
+
+  Sculpture, Leighton's view on, i. 6, 69, 88-89;
+    his work in, ii. 198-200, 259-260
+
+  Selim, Sheykh, ii. 141-143, 179
+
+  Sermoneta, Duke, i. 169
+
+  Servolini, i. 38, 39
+
+  Seville, ii. 210
+
+  Shakespear, illustration of, ii. 113
+
+  Shaw, Norman, letter from, ii. 239
+
+  Sheik Boran Bukh, letter to, i. 306;
+    letter from, 307
+
+  Shelley, ii. 307
+
+  Shields, Frederick, ii. 299
+
+  Si Achmet, Syed, ii. 173, 174, 176, 177
+
+  Siddons, Mrs., i. 268
+
+  Siena, Leighton at the Duomo fire in, ii. 242 _note_ [64]
+
+  Simon, John, ii. 42
+
+  Smith, George, ii. 364
+
+  Society, i. 166, 222-223
+
+  Sohag, ii. 140, 159
+
+  Somers, Lord, ii. 213
+
+  "Souls," the, ii. 25
+
+  South London Fine Art Gallery, ii. 8
+
+  Spain, Leighton's visit to (1866), ii. 128;
+    (1887), ii. 209;
+    (1889), 238 _note_ [62]
+
+  Spanish language, Leighton's mastery of, ii. 238 _note_ [62]
+
+  Speke, ii. 172
+
+  Spencer, Lord and Lady, ii. 92
+
+  Sphinx, ii. 146
+
+  Spielmann, M., letter to, ii. 12
+
+  Spottiswoode, Wm., letter from, ii. 216 _note_ [54]
+
+  Stanton, Col., ii. 131-132
+
+  Statuary, _see_ Sculpture
+
+  Steinle, Eduard von, influence of, on Leighton, i. 27, 92, 215, 250;
+      ii. 303;
+    Leighton's tribute to, i. 61;
+    list of Florentine paintings recommended by, for study,
+      i. 225-226;
+    with Leighton (1856), i. 281-282;
+    water-colour by, i. 291 _note_ [69];
+    portrait of (_Der Winter_), ii. 303-304;
+    estimate of, i. 40-42;
+    death of, ii. 303;
+    letters to, i. 22 _note_ [9], 87, 118, 119, 130, 134, 150,
+      154, 157, 172, 187, 190, 193, 215, 233, 237, 238, 279, 284,
+      291-296, 304, 305; ii. 11, 49, 50, 53, 63, 64, 91, 105, 106,
+      112, 188, 201;
+    letters from, i. 116, 120, 151, 189, 280; ii. 127, 224, 302;
+    otherwise mentioned, i. 24, 56, 64-65, 86, 113, 129, 136
+
+  Stephens, ii. 59, 87
+
+  Sterlings, ii. 133, 135, 182
+
+  Stevens, Alfred, Wellington monument by, ii. 286-287
+
+  Storey, W.W., ii. 7
+
+  Strafford, Alice, Countess of, i. 251 _note_ [56]
+
+  Strangford, Lady, ii. 222 _note_ [57]
+
+  Stratford de Redcliffe, Lady, ii. 40
+
+  Strauch, i. 238
+
+  Stretton, i. 34
+
+  Style, ii. 4, 376
+
+  Sunrise, i. 79
+
+  Sunset, i. 170
+
+  Swinburne, A.C., letter from, ii. 307;
+    tribute of, ii. 339;
+    quoted, ii. 218 _note_ [56]
+
+  Symons, Arthur, quoted, ii. 23-24
+
+  Syoot, ii. 137-140
+
+
+  Tadema, Alma, i. 220
+
+  Talfourd, ii. 55
+
+  Tangiers, ii. 209-210
+
+  Tate, Sir Henry, ii. 259
+
+  Tate Gallery, founding of, ii. 284-286
+
+  Taylor, Tom, i. 300; ii. 58
+
+  Temple, A.G., ii. 364;
+    quoted, 366
+
+  Tennyson, ii. 66
+
+  Terry, Ellen, ii. 271 _note_ [77]
+
+  Thackeray, Miss, ii. 43, 92
+
+  Thackeray, W.M., i. 176
+
+  Thompson, Sir E., ii. 338
+
+  Thorley, Mrs. Anne, quoted, i. 36
+
+  Thornycroft, Hamo, ii. 376;
+    estimate of Leighton by, i. 5-6, 13-14
+
+  Titian, i. 225; ii. 11
+
+  Tintoretto, ii. 26
+
+  Tree, Beerbohm, ii. 271
+
+  Troyon, i. 245
+
+  Turkish children, ii. 168
+
+  Tunnicliffe, Dr., ii. 319
+
+  Tupper, Martin F., letters from, ii. 125 _note_ [39]
+
+  Turner, ii. 121
+
+  Tyrolese scenery and peasantry, i. 66-69, 71, 198
+
+
+  Ulm, i. 65
+
+  Underhill, Mr., quoted, ii. 231 _note_ [61]
+
+
+  Valletort, Lady Katharine, ii. 92
+
+  Valletort, Lord, ii. 92
+
+  Van Eycke, ii. 32
+
+  Van Haanen, cited, ii. 301
+
+  Vandyke, i. 54
+
+  Vaughan, Kate, ii. 25
+
+  Velasquez, ii. 235-238
+
+  Venetians, i. 82-83
+
+  Venice (1852), i. 77-82, 88;
+    (1856), 283, 285;
+    after Athens, ii. 131
+
+  Verdi, i. 268
+
+  Verona, i. 72, 73, 75
+
+  Viardot, Madame, ii. 52-53 _and note_ [14], 217
+
+  Vibert, ii. 301, 302
+
+  Vichy, ii. 218 _note_ [56]
+
+  Victoria, Queen, "Cimabue's Madonna" bought by, i. 187 _note_ [34],
+      193, 195, 222;
+    on Prince Consort's death, ii. 85, 86;
+    medallion for Jubilee of, ii. 288;
+    otherwise mentioned, i. 261, 263, 265, 276
+
+  Victoria and Albert Museum--
+    Decoration of, ii. 202-204;
+    Leighton examiner at, ii. 212
+
+  Volunteering, Leighton's activities in, i. 11-14; ii. 86, 107, 111;
+    his retirement (1883), ii. 243-245
+
+  Vyner, Mr. Clare, ii. 92
+
+
+  Walker, John Hanson ("Johnny"), Leighton's friendship with, i. 251
+      _and note_ [57];
+    paintings from, ii. 85 _and note_ [22];
+    letters to, i. 269-277
+
+  Walker, Mrs. J.H., portrait of, i. 251 _note_ [57], 273 _and note_ [66]
+
+  Wall-painting, i. 296-297, 305
+
+  Walpole, Mr. and Mrs. Henry, i. 115
+
+  Walton, Frank, i. 4
+
+  Wantage, Lady, ii. 18 _note_ [4]
+
+  Ward, J., cited, ii. 201 _note_ [52]
+
+  Waterhouse, A., ii. 366
+
+  Watney, Mrs. James, ii. 364
+
+  Watson, Wm., letters from, ii. 321
+
+  Watts, G.F., estimate of Leighton by, i. 4, 7, 210; ii. 22;
+    Leighton's estimate of, ii. 18;
+    views on the province of art, 23-24;
+    theory on rendering of truth, 31;
+    Leighton's friendship with, i. 224 _and note_ [48];
+    compared with Leighton, 230-231;
+    portraits of "Dorothy Dene," ii. 269 _note_ [75];
+    Hollyer's photographs from, 288;
+    baronetcy declined by, 289;
+    picture presented by, to Leighton House, 366;
+    letter from, i. 231;
+    quoted, 208; ii. 198 _note_ [49], 259, 366;
+    cited, ii. 192, 194 _note_ [45];
+    otherwise mentioned, i. 144, 258, 260-262;
+      ii. 57, 119, 258-259, 264, 298
+
+  Wellington, Duke of, i. 168-169;
+    Stevens' monument of, ii. 286-287
+
+  Wells, Henry, letters from, ii. 248 _note_ [67], 250 _note_ [67];
+    letters to, 249-255 _and note_ [67], 286, 287, 318, 322, 329
+
+  Westbury, ii. 74
+
+  Westminster, architecture in, i. 87
+
+  Whistler, i. 241; ii. 32
+
+  Wilkinson, Gardiner, cited, ii. 160
+
+  Willig, i. 291
+
+  Wilson, Herbert, i. 237, 240
+
+  Wonista, Mrs., ii. 181
+
+  Woolfe, Henry, ii. 114
+
+  Woeredle, i. 295
+
+  Wright, Dr. William, quoted, ii. 206
+
+
+  Yeames' "Arthur and Hubert," ii. 283
+
+
+  Zanetti, i. 39
+
+  Zermatt, ii. 315
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+    Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
+          Edinburgh & London
+
+
+
+
+ERRATA
+
+
+  Page 41, note 2, _for_ "soeuer," _read_ "soeur."
+  Page 148, line 21, _for_ "Lindas," _read_ "Lindos."
+  Page 260, line 16, _for_ "Rispah," _read_ "Rizpah."
+  Page 316, line 1, _for_ "altmodish," _read_ "altmodisch."
+  Page 320, line 34, _for_ "men-schlich," _read_ "mensch-lich."
+  Page 301, line 10, _for_ "Gambia Parry," _read_ "Gambier Parry."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    +------------------------------------------------------------+
+    | Typographical errors corrected in text:                    |
+    |                                                            |
+    | Page  14: "This arrangement, if effected" replaced with    |
+    |           "This arrangement, is effected"                  |
+    | Page  46: "a quarelle" replaced with "aquarelle"           |
+    | Page  69: RIVERE HOUSE replaced with REVERE HOUSE          |
+    | Page  69: Mr. Caleot  replaced with Mr. Cabot              |
+    | Page 129: Mr. Bileith replaced with Mr. Biliotti           |
+    | Page 131: 1878 replaced with 1868. (Grant and Colfax,      |
+    |           mentioned later in the diary, were elected in    |
+    |           1868, not 1878.)                                 |
+    | Page 133: 1878 replaced with 1868. (see above)             |
+    | Page 145: Koorveh replaced with Koorneh                    |
+    | Page 183: fastastic replaced with fantastic                |
+    | Page 192: "Cleaboulos Instructing his Daughter Cleabouline"|
+    |           replaced with                                    |
+    |           "Cleoboulos Instructing his Daughter Cleobouline"|
+    | Page 194: Cleabouline replaced with Cleobouline            |
+    | Page 197: Cleabouline replaced with Cleobouline            |
+    | Page 201: Cleabouline replaced with Cleobouline            |
+    | Page 207: delighful replaced with delightful               |
+    | Page 209: aficimado replaced with aficionado               |
+    | Page 233: spontanteous replaced with spontaneous           |
+    | Page 236: sociel replaced with social                      |
+    | Page 241: Gussey replaced with Gussy                       |
+    | Page 294: 'Are there differents kinds' replaced with       |
+    |           'Are there different kinds'                      |
+    | Page 320: mensch-lich replaced with menschlich (the errata |
+    |           includes the hyphen because it spans two lines)  |
+    | Page 345: heirarchy replaced with hierarchy                |
+    | Page 347: "a vivid scene of abstract beauty" replaced with |
+    |           "a vivid sense of abstract beauty"               |
+    | Page 382: Keat's replaced with Keats'                      |
+    | Page 384: OEthra replaced with AEthra                       |
+    | Page 385: Longsor replaced with Lougsor                    |
+    | Page 386: 1886. *The Daphnephoria. replaced with           |
+    |           1876. *The Daphnephoria.                         |
+    | Page 386: Oeolians replaced with Aeolians                  |
+    | Page 387: 1889. Catarina. replaced with 1879. Catarina.    |
+    | Page 389: Hichins replaced with Hichens                    |
+    | Page 391: Mont replaced with Moute                         |
+    | Page 396: 'Garcia, Senor' replaced with 'Garcia, Senor'    |
+    | Page 402: Phylae replaced with Phylae                       |
+    |                                                            |
+    | Note that the date "Friday, 28th" on page 147 is out of    |
+    | order. By checking the dates it clearly should be the 23rd,|
+    | which is confirmed with the date Wednesday, 28th on page   |
+    | 153. This has been corrected to "Friday, 23rd" in the text.|
+    | "Friday Evening" on page 152 has been corrected to         |
+    | "Tuesday Evening" by the same logic.                       |
+    |                                                            |
+    | Words that are not errors:                                 |
+    |                                                            |
+    | Page   9: distrest.                                        |
+    | Page  27: subtile.                                         |
+    | Page  31: scumble.                                         |
+    | Page  32: subtilty.                                        |
+    | Page  47: the phrase 'tol-lol!' is 19th century slang for  |
+    |           pretty good.                                     |
+    | Page 198: tres.                                            |
+    | Page 236: euphuism.                                        |
+    | Page 320: fribbled.                                        |
+    | Page 347: shapliness.                                      |
+    |                                                            |
+    +------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic
+Leighton, by Mrs. Russell Barrington
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