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diff --git a/old/54696-0.txt b/old/54696-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index c492685..0000000 --- a/old/54696-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5035 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Happy England, by Marcus B. Huish - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Happy England - -Author: Marcus B. Huish - -Illustrator: Helen Allingham - -Release Date: May 10, 2017 [EBook #54696] -[Most recently updated: December 31, 2020] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: MaMFR, Adrian Mastronardi, Wayne Hammond and the Online Distributed Proofreading Teamrtin - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HAPPY ENGLAND *** - - - - -HAPPY ENGLAND - - - AGENTS IN AMERICA - THE MACMILLAN COMPANY - 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK - -[Illustration: 1. PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST - - _Fradelle & Young._ - - H. Allingham (signature)] - - - - - Beautiful Britain - - HAPPY ENGLAND - - BY HELEN ALLINGHAM, - R.W.S. TEXT - BY MARCUS B. HUISH - - ROYAL CANADIAN EDITION - - LIMITED TO 1000 SETS - - [Illustration] - - CAMBRIDGE CORPORATION, LIMITED - MONTREAL - - A. & C. BLACK, LONDON - - - - -Contents - - - CHAPTER I - - Page - - Our Title 1 - - CHAPTER II - - Paintresses, Past and Present 13 - - CHAPTER III - - The Artist's Early Work 27 - - CHAPTER IV - - The Artist's Surrey Home 67 - - CHAPTER V - - The Influence of Witley 81 - - CHAPTER VI - - The Woods, the Lanes, and the Fields 98 - - CHAPTER VII - - Cottages and Homesteads 118 - - CHAPTER VIII - - Gardens and Orchards 151 - - CHAPTER IX - - Tennyson's Homes 168 - - CHAPTER X - - Mrs. Allingham and her Contemporaries 181 - - - - -List of Illustrations - - - 1. Portrait of the Artist _Frontispiece_ - - - CHAPTER I - - Owner of Original. Facing page - - 2. In the Farmhouse Garden _Mrs. Allingham_ 8 - - 3. The Market Cross, Hagbourne _Mrs. E. Lamb_ 10 - - 4. The Robin _Mr. S. H. S. Lofthouse_ 12 - - - CHAPTER II - - 5. Milton's House, Chalfont _Mrs. J. A. Combe_ 22 - St. Giles - - 6. The Waller Oak, Coleshill _Mrs. Allingham_ 24 - - 7. Apple and Pear Blossom _Mr. Theodore Uzielli_ 26 - - - CHAPTER III - - 8. The Young Customers _Miss Bell_ 50 - - 9. The Sand-Martins' Haunt _Miss Marian James_ 54 - - 10. The Old Men's Gardens, _Mr. C. Churchill_ 56 - Chelsea Hospital - - 11. The Clothes-Line _Miss Marian James_ 58 - - 12. The Convalescent _Mr. R. S. Budgett_ 60 - - 13. The Goat Carriage _Sir F. Wigan, Bt._ 62 - - 14. The Clothes-Basket _Mr. C. P. Johnson_ 62 - - 15. In the Hayloft _Miss Bell_ 64 - - 16. The Rabbit Hutch _Mr. C. P. Johnson_ 64 - - 17. The Donkey Ride _Sir J. Kitson, Bt., M.P._ 66 - - CHAPTER IV - - 18. A Witley Lane _Mr. H. W. Birks_ 74 - - 19. Hindhead from Witley Common _The Lord Chief Justice of 76 - England_ - - 20. In Witley Village _Mr. Charles Churchill_ 76 - - 21. Blackdown from Witley Common _Lord Davey_ 78 - - 22. The Fish-Shop, Haslemere _Mr. A. E. Cumberbatch_ 80 - - - CHAPTER V - - 23. The Children's Tea _Mr. W. Hollins_ 86 - - 24. The Stile _Mr. Alfred Shuttleworth_ 88 - - 25. "Pat-a-Cake" _Sir F. Wigan, Bt._ 90 - - 26. Lessons _Mr. C. P. Johnson_ 90 - - 27. Bubbles _Mr. H. B. Beaumont_ 92 - - 28. On the Sands--Sandown, _Mrs. Francis Black_ 92 - Isle of Wight - - 29. Drying Clothes _Mr. C. P. Johnson_ 94 - - 30. Her Majesty's Post Office _Mr. H. B. Beaumont_ 94 - - 31. The Children's Maypole _Mrs. Dobson_ 96 - - - CHAPTER VI - - 32. Spring on the Kentish Downs _Mrs. Beddington_ 102 - - 33. Tig Bridge _Mr. E. S. Curwen_ 104 - - 34. Spring in the Oakwood _Mrs. Allingham_ 106 - - 35. The Cuckoo _Mr. A. Hugh Thompson_ 106 - - 36. The Old Yew Tree _Mrs. Allingham_ 108 - - 37. The Hawthorn Valley, Brocket _Lord Mount-Stephen_ 108 - - 38. Ox-eye Daisies, near _Mrs. Allingham_ 110 - Westerham, Kent - - 39. Foxgloves _Mrs. C. A. Barton_ 112 - - 40. Heather on Crockham Hill, Kent _Mrs. Allingham_ 114 - - 41. On the Pilgrims' Way " " 114 - - 42. Night-jar Lane, Witley _Mr. E. S. Curwen_ 116 - - - CHAPTER VII - - 43. Cherry-tree Cottage, _The Lord Chief Justice of 130 - Chiddingfold England_ - - 44. Cottage at Chiddingfold _Mr. H. L. Florence_ 130 - - 45. A Cottage at Hambledon _Mr. F. Pennington_ 132 - - 46. In Wormley Wood _Mrs. Le Poer Trench_ 134 - - 47. The Elder Bush, Brook Lane, _Mr. Marcus B. Huish_ 136 - Witley - - 48. The Basket Woman _Mrs. E. F. Backhouse_ 138 - - 49. Cottage at Shottermill, _Mr. W. D. Houghton_ 140 - near Haslemere - - 50. Valewood Farm _Mrs. Allingham_ 142 - - 51. An Old House at West Tarring " " 142 - - 52. An Old Buckinghamshire House _Mr. H. W. Birks_ 142 - - 53. The Duke's Cottage _Mr. Maurice Hill_ 144 - - 54. The Condemned Cottage _Mrs. Allingham_ 144 - - 55. On Ide Hill _Mr. E. W. Fordham_ 146 - - 56. A Cheshire Cottage, _Mr. A. S. Littlejohns_ 146 - Alderley Edge - - 57. The Six Bells _Mr. George Wills_ 148 - - 58. A Kentish Farmyard _Mr. Arthur R. Moro_ 150 - - - CHAPTER VIII - - 59. Study of a Rose Bush _Mrs. Allingham_ 156 - - 60. Wallflowers _Mr. F. G. Debenham_ 156 - - 61. Minna _The Lord Chief Justice of 158 - England_ - - 62. A Kentish Garden _Mrs. Allingham_ 158 - - 63. Cutting Cabbages _Mr. E. W. Fordham_ 160 - - 64. In a Summer Garden _Mr. W. Newall_ 160 - - 65. By the Terrace, Brocket Hall _Lord Mount-Stephen_ 162 - - 66. The South Border _Mrs. Allingham_ 164 - - 67. The South Border _W. Edwards, Jun._ 164 - - 68. Study of Leeks _Mrs. Allingham_ 166 - - 69. The Apple Orchard _Mrs. Dobson_ 166 - - - CHAPTER IX - - 70. The House, Farringford _Mr. J. Mackinnon_ 176 - - 71. The Kitchen-Garden, Farringford _Mrs. Combe_ 176 - - 72. The Dairy, Farringford _Mr. Douglas Freshfield_ 176 - - 73. One of Lord Tennyson's _Mr. E. Marsh Simpson_ 176 - Cottages, Farringford - - 74. A Garden in October, Aldworth _Mr. F. Pennington_ 176 - - 75. Hook Hill Farm, Freshwater _Sir J. Kitson, Bt., M.P._ 176 - - 76. At Pound Green, Freshwater _Mr. Douglas Freshfield_ 178 - - 77. A Cottage at Freshwater Gate _Sir Henry Irving_ 178 - - - CHAPTER X - - 78. A Cabin at Ballyshannon _Mrs. Allingham_ 196 - - 79. The Fairy Bridges " " 198 - - 80. The Church of Sta. Maria _Mr. C. P. Johnson_ 200 - della Salute, Venice - - 81. A Fruit Stall, Venice " " 202 - - -_The illustrations in this volume have been engraved and printed by the -Hentschel Colourtype Company._ - - - - -Happy England - - - - -CHAPTER I - -OUR TITLE - - -To choose a title that will felicitously fit the lifework of an artist -is no easy matter, especially when the product is a very varied one, -and the producer is disposed to take a modest estimate of its value. - -In the present case the titles that have suggested themselves to one -or other of those concerned in the selection have not been few, and a -friendly contest has ensued over the desire of the artist on the one -hand to belittle, and of author and publishers on the other to fairly -appraise, both the ground which her work covers and the qualities which -it contains. - -The first point to be considered in giving the volume a name was -that it forms one of a series in which an endeavour--and, to judge -by public appreciation, a successful endeavour--has been made to -illustrate in colour an artist's impressions of a particular country: -as, for instance, Mr. John Fulleylove's of the Holy Land, Mr. Talbot -Kelly's of Egypt, and Mr. Mortimer Menpes's of Japan. Now Mrs. -Allingham throughout her work has been steadfast in her adherence to -the portrayal of one country only. She has never travelled or painted -outside Europe, and within its limits only at one place outside the -British Isles, namely, Venice. Even in her native country her work has -been strictly localised. Neither Scotland nor Wales has attracted her -attention since the days when she first worked seriously as an artist, -and Ireland has only received a scanty meed, and that due to family -ties. England, therefore, was the one and only name under which her -work could be included within the series, and that has very properly -been assigned to it. - -But it will be seen that to this has been added the prefix "Happy," -thereby drawing down the disapprobation of certain of the artist's -friends, who, recognising her as a resident in Hampstead, have -associated the title with that alliterative one which the northern -suburbs have received at the hands of the Bank Holiday visitant; and -they facetiously surmise that the work may be called "'Appy England! By -a Denizen of 'Appy 'Ampstead!" - -But a glance at the illustrations by any one unacquainted with Mrs. -Allingham's residential qualifications, and by the still greater number -ignorant even of her name (for these, in spite of her well-earned -reputation, will be the majority, taking the countries over which this -volume will circulate), must convince such an one that the "England" -requires and deserves not only a qualifying but a commendatory prefix, -and that the best that will fit it is that to which the artist has now -submitted. - -We say a "qualifying" title, because within its covers we find only -a one-sided and partial view of both life and landscape. None of the -sterner realities of either are presented. In strong opposition to the -tendency of the art of the later years of the nineteenth century, the -baser side of life has been studiously avoided, and nature has only -been put down on paper in its happiest moods and its pleasantest array. -Storm and stress in both life and landscape are altogether absent. -We say, further, a "commendatory" title, because as regards both life -and landscape it is, throughout, a mirror of halcyon days. If sickness -intrudes on a single occasion, it is in its convalescent stage; if old -age, it is in a "Haven of Rest"; the wandering pedlar finds a ready -market for her wares, the tramp assistance by the wayside. In both life -and landscape it is a portrayal of youth rejoicing in its youth. For -the most part it represents childhood, and, if we are to believe Mr. -Ruskin, for the first time in modern Art; for in his lecture on Mrs. -Allingham at Oxford, he declared that "though long by academic art -denied or resisted, at last bursting out like one of the sweet Surrey -fountains, all dazzling and pure, you have the radiance and innocence -of reinstated infant divinity showered again among the flowers of -English meadows of Mrs. Allingham." - -This healthiness, happiness, and joy of life, coupled with an idyllic -beauty, reveals itself in every figure in Mrs. Allingham's story, so -that even the drudgery of rural life is made to appear as a task to be -envied. - -And the same joyous and happy note is to be found in her landscapes. -Every scene is - - Full in the smile of the blue firmament. - -One feels that - - Every flower - Enjoys the air it breathes. - -Rain, wind, or lowering skies find no place in any of them, but each -calls forth the expression - - What a day - To sun one and do nothing! - -No attempt is made to select the sterner effects of landscape which -earlier English painters so persistently affected. With the rough -steeps of Hindhead at her door, the artist's feet have almost -invariably turned towards the lowlands and the reposeful forms of the -distant South Downs. Cottages, farmsteads, and flower gardens have been -her choice in preference to dales, crags, and fells. - -And in so selecting, and so delineating, she has certainly catered for -the happiness of the greater number. - -What does the worker, long in city pent, desire when he cries - - 'Tis very sweet to look into the fair - And open face of heaven? - -And what does the banished Englishman oftenest turn his thoughts to, -even although he may be dwelling under aspects of nature which many -would think far more beautiful than those of his native land? Browning -in his "Home Thoughts from Abroad" gives consummate expression to the -homesickness of many an exile:-- - - Oh! to be in England - Now that April's there! - - * * * * * - - All will be gay when noontide wakes anew - The Buttercups, the little children's dower, - Far brighter than this gaudy melon flower! - -And Keats also-- - - Happy is England! I could be content - To see no other verdure than its own, - To feel no other breezes than are blown - Through its tall woods, with high romances blent. - -These, the poets' longings, suggested the prefix for which so lengthy -an apology has been made, and which, in spite of the artist's demur, -we have pressed upon her acceptance, confident that the public verdict -will be an acquittal against any charge either of exaggeration, or that -he who excuses himself accuses himself. - -If an apology is due it is in respect of the letterpress. The necessity -of maintaining the size to which the public has been accustomed in the -series of which this forms a part, and of interleaving the numerous -illustrations which it contains, means the provision of a certain -number of words. Now an artist's life that has been passed amid such -pleasant surroundings as has that of Mrs. Allingham, cannot contain a -sufficiency of material for the purpose. Indulgence must, therefore, be -granted when it is found that much of the contents consists merely of -the writer's descriptions of the illustrations, a discovery which might -suggest that they were primarily the _raison d'être_ of the volume. - -As regards the illustrations, a word must be said. - -The remarkable achievements in colour reproduction, through what is -known as the "three-colour process," have enabled the public to be -placed in possession of memorials of an artist's work in a way that -was not possible even so recently as a year or two ago. Hitherto -self-respecting painters have very rightly demurred to any colour -reproductions of their work being made except by processes whose cost -and lengthy procedure prohibited quantity as well as quality. Mrs. -Allingham herself, in view of previous attempts, was of the same -opinion until a trial of the process now adopted convinced her to the -contrary. Now she is happy that a leap forward in science has enabled -renderings in little of her water-colours to be offered to thousands -who did not know them previously. - -The water-colours selected for reproduction have been brought together -from many sources, and at much inconvenience to their owners. Both -artist and publishers ask me to take this opportunity of thanking -those whose names will be found in the List of Illustrations, for the -generosity with which they have placed the originals at their disposal. - -It was Mrs. Allingham's wish that the illustrations should be placed -in order of date, and this has been done as far as possible; but this -and the following chapter being in a way introductory, it has been -deemed advisable to interleave them with three or four which do not -fall in with the rest as regards subject or locality. For reasons of -convenience the description of each drawing is not inserted in the -body, but at the end of the chapter in which it appears. - -[Illustration: -2. IN THE FARMHOUSE GARDEN -_From the Water-colour in the possession of the Artist._ -Painted 1903.] - -A portrait of Vi, the daughter of the farmer at whose house in Kent -Mrs. Allingham stays. - -Mrs. Allingham was tempted to take up again her disused practice of -portrait-painting, by the attraction of the combination of the yellow -of the child's hair and hat, the red of the roses, and the blue of the -distant hillside. - -[Illustration: -3. THE MARKET CROSS, HAGBOURNE -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mrs. E. Lamb._ -Painted 1898.] - -Berkshire, in spite of its notable places and situation, does not -boast of much in the way of county chronicles, and little can be -learnt by one whose sole resource is a Murray's _Guide_ concerning the -interesting village where the scene of this drawing is laid, for it is -there dismissed in a couple of lines. - -Hagbourne, or Hagborne, is one of the many "bornes" which (in the -counties bordering on the Thames, as elsewhere) takes its Saxon affix -from one of the burns or brooks which find their way from thence into -the neighbouring river. It lies off the Great Western main line, and -its fine church may be seen a mile away to the southward just before -arriving at Didcot. This proximity to a considerable railway junction -has not disturbed much of its old-world character. - -The buildings and the Cross, which make a delightful harmony in greys, -probably looked much the same when Cavalier and Puritan harried this -district in the Civil War, for with Newbury on one side and Oxford on -the other, they must oftentimes have been up and down this, the main -street of the village. The Cross has long since lost its meaning. The -folk from the countryside no longer bring their butter, eggs, and -farm produce for local sale. The villagers have to be content with -margarine, French eggs, and other foreign commodities from the local -"stores," and the Cross steps are now only of use for infant energies -to practise their powers of jumping from. So, too, the sun-dial on the -top, which does not appear to have ever been surmounted by a cross, -is now useless, for everybody either has a watch or is sufficiently -notified as to meal times by a "buzzer" at the railway works hard -by. - -Mrs. Allingham says that most of her drawings are marked in her memory -by some local comment concerning them. In this case a bystander -sympathetically remarked that it seemed "a mighty tedious job," in -that of "Milton's House" that "it was a foolish little thing when -you began"--the most favourable criticism she ever encountered only -amounting to "Why, it's almost worth framing!" - -[Illustration: -4. THE ROBIN -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. S. H. S. Lofthouse._ -Painted 1898.] - -One of the simplest, and yet one of the most satisfying of Mrs. -Allingham's compositions. - -It is clearly not a morning to stay indoors with needlework which -neither in size nor importance calls for table or chair. Besides, -at the cottage gate there is a likelier chance of interruption and -conversation with occasional passers-by. But, at no time numerous on -this Surrey hillside, these are altogether lacking at the moment, -and the pink-frocked maiden has to be content with the very mild -distraction afforded by the overtures of the family robin, who is -always ready to open up converse and to waste his time also in -manœuvres and pretended explorations over ground in her vicinity, which -he well knows to be altogether barren of provender. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -PAINTRESSES, PAST AND PRESENT - - Man took advantage of his strength to be - First in the field: some ages have been lost; - But woman ripens earlier, and her life is longer-- - Let her not fear. - - -The fair sex is so much in evidence in Art to-day (the first census of -this century recording the names of nearly four thousand who profess -that calling) that we are apt to forget that the lady artist, worthy of -a place amongst the foremost of the other sex, is a creation of modern -growth. - -Paintresses--to call them by a quaint and agreeable name--there have -been in profusion, and an author, writing a quarter of a century ago, -managed to fill two bulky volumes[1] with their biographies; but the -majority of these have owed both their practice and their place in Art -to the fact of their fathers or husbands having been engaged in that -profession. - -History has recorded but little concerning the women artists who worked -in the early days of English Art. The scanty records which, however, -have come down to us prove that if they lived uneventful lives they -did so in comfort. For instance, it is noted of the first that passes -across the pages of English history, namely Susannah Hornebolt (all -the early names were foreign), that she lived for many years in great -favour and esteem at the King's Court, and died rich and honoured: of -the next, Lavinia Teerlinck, that she also died rich and respected, -having received in her prime a higher salary than Holbein, and from -Queen Elizabeth, later on in life, a quarterly wage of £41. Farther on -we find Charles I. giving to Anne Carlisle and Vandyck, at one time, -as much ultramarine as cost him £500, and Anna Maria Carew obtaining -from Charles II. in 1662 a pension of £200 a year. About the same time -Mary Beale, who is described as passing a tranquil, modest existence, -full of sweetness, dignity, and matronly purity, earned the same amount -from her brush, charging £5 for a head, and £10 for a half-length. She -died in 1697, and was buried under the communion table in St. James's, -Piccadilly, a church which holds the remains of other paintresses. - -Another, Mary Delaney, described as "lovely in girlhood and old age," -and who must have been a delightful personage from the testimonies -which have come down to us concerning her, lived almost through the -eighteenth century, being born in 1700, and dying in 1788, and being, -also, buried in St. James's. She has left on record that "I have been -very busy at my usual presumption of copying beautiful nature"; but the -many copies of that kind that she must have made during this long life -are all unknown to those who have studied Art a hundred years later. - -Midway in the eighteenth century we come across the great and unique -event in the annals of Female Art, namely the election of two ladies -to the Academic body, in the persons of Angelica Kauffman--who was one -of the original signatories of the memorial to George III., asking him -to found an Academy, and who passed in as such on the granting of that -privilege--and Mary Moser, who probably owed her election to the fact -that her father was Keeper of the newly-founded body. - -The only other lady artists who flit across the stage during the latter -half of that century--in the case of whom any attempt at distinction -or recognition is possible--were Frances Reynolds, the sister of the -President, and the "dearest dear" of Dr. Johnson, and Maria Cosway, the -wife of the miniaturist. These kept up the tradition of ladies always -being connected with Art by parentage or marriage. - -The Academy catalogues of the first half of the nineteenth century may -be searched in vain for any name whose fame has endured even to these -times, although the number of lady exhibitors was considerable. In the -exhibitions of fifty years ago, of 900 names, 67, or 7 per cent, were -those of the fair sex, the majority being termed in the alphabetical -list "Mrs. ----, as above"; that is to say, they bore the surname and -lived at the same addresses as the exhibitor who preceded them.[2] - -The admission of women to the Royal Academy Schools in 1860 must not -only have had much to do with increasing the numbers of paintresses, -but in raising the standard of their work. In recent years, at the -annual prize distributions of that institution, when they present -themselves in such interesting and serried ranks, they have firmly -established their right to work alongside of the men, by carrying off -many of the most important awards.[3] - -The Royal Female School of Art, the Slade School, and Schools of Art -everywhere throughout the country each and all are now engaged in -swelling the ranks of the profession with a far greater number of -aspirants to a living than there is any room for. - -This invasion of womankind into Art, which has also shown itself in a -remarkable way in poetry and fiction, is in no way to be decried. On -the contrary, it has come upon the present generation as a delightful -surprise, as a breath of fresh and sweet-scented air after the heavy -atmosphere which hung over Art in the later days of the nineteenth -century. To mention a few only: Miss Elizabeth Thompson (Lady Butler), -Lady Alma Tadema, Mrs. Jopling, Miss Dicksee, Mrs. Henrietta Rae, Miss -Kemp Welch, and Miss Brickdale in oil painting; Mrs. Angell, Miss -Clara Montalba, Miss Gow, Miss Kate Greenaway, and Mrs. Allingham in -water-colours have each looked at Art in a distinguished manner, and -one quite distinct from that of their fellow-workers of the sterner -sex. - -The ladies named all entered upon their profession with a due sense of -its importance. Many of them may perhaps be counted fortunate in having -commenced their careers before the newer ideas came into vogue, by -virtue of which anybody and everybody may pose as an artist, now that -it entails none of that lengthy apprenticeship which from all time has -been deemed to be a necessary preliminary to practice. Even so lately -as the date when Mrs. Allingham came upon the scene, draftsmanship -and composition were still regarded as a matter of some importance if -success was to be achieved. Nature, as represented in Art, was still -subjected to a process of selection, a selection, too, of its higher -in preference to its lower forms. The same pattern was not allowed to -serve for every tree in the landscape whatever be its growth, foliage, -or the local influences which have affected its form. A sufficient -study of the human and of animal forms to admit of their introduction, -if needful, into that landscape was not deemed superfluous. Most -important of all, beauty still held the field, and the cult of -unvarnished ugliness had not captured the rising generation. - -The endeavours of women in what is termed very erroneously the higher -branch of the profession, have not as yet received the reward that -is their due. Placed at the Royal Academy under practically the same -conditions as the male sex whilst under tuition, both as regards -fortune and success, their pictures, when they mount from the Schools -in the basement to the Exhibition Galleries on the first floor of -Burlington House, carry with them no further possibility of reward, -even although, as they have done, they hold the pride of place there. -It is true that as each election to the Academic body comes round -rumours arise as to the chances of one or other of the fair sex -forcing an entrance through the doors that, with the two exceptions -we have named, have been barred to them since the foundation of the -Institution. The day, however, when their talent in oil painting, or -any other art medium, will be recognised by Academic honours has yet to -come. - -To their honour be it said, the undoubted capacities of ladies have not -passed unrecognised by water-colour painters. Both the Royal Society -and the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours have enrolled -amongst their ranks the names of women who have been worthy exponents -of the Art. - -The practice of water-colour art would appear to appeal especially to -womankind, as not only are the constituents which go to its making of -a more agreeable character than those of oil, but the whole machinery -necessary for its successful production is more compact and capable -of adaptation to the ordinary house. The very methods employed have a -certain daintiness about them which coincides with a lady's delicacy. -The work does not necessitate hours of standing, with evil-smelling -paints, in a large top-lit studio, but can be effected seated, in any -living room which contains a window of sufficient size. There is no -need to leave all the materials about while the canvasses dry, and no -preliminary setting of palettes and subsequent cleaning off. - -Yet in spite of this the water-colour art during the first century of -its existence was practised almost solely by the male sex, and it was -not until the middle of the Victorian reign that a few women came on -to the scene, and at once showed themselves the equals of the male -sex, not only so far as proficiency but originality was concerned. In -the case of no one of these was there any imitation or following of a -master; but each struck out for herself what was, if not a new line, -certainly a presentation of an old one in a novel form. Mrs. Angell, -better known perhaps as Helen Coleman, took up the portrayal of flowers -and still life, which had been carried to such a pitch of minute finish -by William Hunt, and treated it with a breadth, freedom, and freshness -that delighted everybody. It secured for her at once a place amid a -section of water-colourists who found it very difficult to obtain these -qualities in their work. Miss Clara Montalba went to Venice and painted -it under aspects which were entirely different from those of her -predecessors, such as James Holland; and she again has practically held -the field ever since as regards that particular phase of atmospheric -effect which has attracted attention to her achievement. The kind of -work and the subjects taken up by Mrs. Allingham will be dealt with at -greater length hereafter, but I may premise by saying that she, too, -ultimately settled into methods that are entirely her own, and such as -no one can accuse her of having derived from anybody else. - - * * * * * - -The following illustrations find a place in this chapter:-- - -[Illustration: -5. MILTON'S HOUSE, CHALFONT ST. GILES -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mrs. J. A. Combe._ -Painted 1898.] - -The popularity of a poet can hardly be gauged by the number of -visitors to the haunts wherein he passed his day. Rather are they -numbered by the proximity of a railroad thereto. Consequently it -is not surprising that the pilgrims to the little out-of-the-way -Buckinghamshire village where Milton completed his _Paradise Lost_ are -an inconsiderable percentage of those who journey to Stratford-on-Avon. -For though Chalfont St. Giles lies only a short distance away from the -twenty-third milestone on the high-road from London to Aylesbury, it is -some three miles from the nearest station--a station, too, where few -conveyances are obtainable. Motor cars which will take the would-be -pilgrim in an hour from a Northumberland Avenue hotel may increase its -popularity, but at present the village of the "pretty box," as Milton -called the house, is as slumberous and as little changed as it was in -the year 1665, when Milton fled thither from his house in Artillery -Ground, Bunhill Row, before the terror of the plague.[4] Milton -was then fifty-seven, and is described as a pale, but not cadaverous -man, dressed neatly in black, with his hands and fingers gouty, and -with chalk-stones. He loved a garden, and would never take a house, not -even in London, without one, his habit being to sit in the sun in his -garden, or in the colder weather to pace it for three or four hours at -a stretch. Many of his verses he composed or pruned as he thus walked, -coming in to dictate them to his amanuensis, and it was from the vernal -to the autumnal equinox that his intermittent inspiration bore its -fruit. His only other recreation besides conversation was music, and he -sang, and played either the organ or the bass viol. It was at Chalfont -that Milton put into the hands of Ellwood his completed _Paradise -Lost_, with a request that he would return it to him with his judgment -thereupon. It was here also that on receiving Ellwood's famous opinion, -"Thou hast said much here of Paradise Lost, but what hast thou to say -of Paradise Found?" he commenced his _Paradise Regained_. He returned -to London after the plague abated, in time to see it again devastated -by the fresh calamity of the great fire. - -An engraving of this house appears in Dunster's edition of _Paradise -Regained_, and an account in Todd's _Life of Milton_, p. 272; also in -Jesse's _Favourite Haunts_, p. 62. - -[Illustration: -6. THE WALLER OAK, COLESHILL -_From the Water-colour in the possession of the Artist._ -Painted 1902.] - -That several of Mrs. Allingham's drawings should illustrate scenes -connected with Great Britain's poets is not remarkable, seeing that her -life has been so intimately bound up with one of them, but it is at -first somewhat startling to find that the two selected for illustration -here should treat of Milton and Waller, for was it not the latter who -said of _Paradise Lost_ that it was distinguished only by its length. -The accident that has brought them together here is perhaps that the -two scenes are near neighbours, and, may be, the artist was tempted to -paint the old oak through kindly sentiments towards the author of the -sweet-smelling lines, "Go, Lovely Rose," by which his name endures. - -Coleshill, where the oak stands, is a "woody hamlet" near Amersham, and -a mile or two away from Chalfont St. Giles. The tree which bears his -name, and under which he is said to have composed much of his verse, -dates from long anterior to the late days of the Monarchy, when he -was more engaged in hatching plots than in writing verse. If, as is -probable, he viewed and sought its comforting shade, he can hardly have -believed that it would survive the fame of him who received such praise -from his contemporaries as to be acclaimed "inter poetas sui temporis -facile princeps." - -[Illustration: -7. APPLE AND PEAR BLOSSOM -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. Theodore Uzielli._ -Painted 1901.] - -A charming little picture made out of the simplest details is this -spring scene in an Isle of Wight lane. But if the details are of the -simplest character, as much cannot be said for the methods employed -by the artist in their treatment. These are so intricate that the -drawing was perhaps the most difficult of any to reproduce, owing to -the impossibility of accurately translating the subtle gradations which -distinguish the tender greenery of trees, hedgerow, and bank. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -THE ARTIST'S EARLY WORK - - -Mrs. Allingham, whose maiden name was Helen Paterson, was born on -September 26, 1848, near Burton-on-Trent, Derbyshire, where her father, -Alexander Henry Paterson, M.D., had a medical practice. As her name -implies, she is of Scottish descent on the paternal side. A year after -her birth her family removed to Altrincham in Cheshire, where her -father died suddenly, in 1862, of diphtheria, caught in attending a -patient. - -This unforeseen blow broke up the Cheshire household, and the widow -shortly afterwards wended her way with her young family to Birmingham, -where the next few years, the most impressionable of our young artist's -life, were to be spent amid surroundings which at that date were in no -wise conducive to influencing her in the direction of Art of any kind. - -Scribbling out of her head on any material she could lay hold of (not -even sparing the polished surfaces of the Victorian furniture) had -been her chief pleasure as a child; and as she grew older she drew -from Nature with interest and ease, especially during family visits -to Kenilworth and other country and seaside places. Some friends in -Birmingham started a drawing club which met each month at houses of -the different members, and the young student was kindly invited to -join it. Subjects were fixed upon and the drawings were shown and -discussed at each meeting. More good resulted from this than might -have been expected, for some of the members were not only persons of -taste but were collectors of fine examples in Art, which were also -seen and considered at the meetings. Helen Paterson, finding that -her pen-and-ink productions were more satisfactory than her colour -attempts, came to hope that she might gradually qualify herself for -book illustration, instead of earning a living by teaching, as she at -first anticipated her future would be. - -Two influences greatly helped the girl in her artistic desires at this -time. - -Helen Paterson's mother's sister, Laura Herford, had taken up Art as -a profession. Although her name does not often appear in Exhibition -records, the sisterhood of artists owe her a very enduring debt. For to -her was due that opening of the Royal Academy Schools to women to which -I have already referred, and which she obtained through another's slip -of the tongue, aided by a successful subterfuge. - -Lord Lyndhurst, at a Royal Academy banquet, in singing the praises of -that institution, claimed that its schools offered free tuition to -_all_ Her Majesty's subjects. Within a few days he received from Miss -Herford a communication pointing out the inaccuracy of his statement, -inasmuch as tuition was only given to the male and not to the female -sex, which comprised the majority of Her Majesty's subjects. She -therefore appealed to him to use his influence with the Government to -obtain the removal of the restriction. He did so, and the Government, -on addressing Sir Charles Eastlake, the President of the Royal Academy, -found in him one altogether in sympathy with such a reform. He replied -to the Government that there was no _written_ law against the admission -of women, and after an interview with the lady he connived at a drawing -of hers being sent in as a test of her capability for admission as -a probationer, under the initials merely of her Christian names. A -few days subsequently a notification that he had passed the test and -obtained admission arrived at her home addressed to A. L. Herford, Esq. -There was of course a demonstration when the lady presented herself -in answer to the summons to execute a drawing in the presence of the -Keeper; and her claim to stay and do this was vehemently combated by -the Council, to whom it was of course referred. But the President -demonstrated the absurdity of the situation, and so strongly advocated -the untenability of the position that the door was opened once and for -all to female students. This lady, who had a strong character in many -other directions, constituted herself Art-adviser-in-chief to her young -niece from the time of her father's death. - -The other influence under which Helen Paterson came at this critical -period was that of a capable and sympathetic master at Birmingham. -In Mr. Raimbach, the head of the Birmingham School of Design, she -encountered a man who was a teacher, born not made, and who, not -being hidebound with the old dry-as-dust traditions, saw and fostered -whatever gifts were to be found in his pupils. He it was who, -interesting himself in her desire to learn to draw the human figure, -and to study more of its anatomy than could be gained from the casts -of the School of Design and from the lifeless programme which existed -there, encouraged her to go to London for wider study, in the hope -of gaining entrance into the Academy Schools, and taking up Art as a -profession under her aunt's auspices. - -She followed his advice, gave up a single pupil she had acquired, and -passed into the Academy Schools in April 1867 after a short preliminary -course at the Female School of Art, Queen's Square. - -British Art may congratulate itself that in Helen Paterson's case, as -in that of so many others, "there's a divinity that shapes our ends, -rough-hew them how we will." It is very certain that had the fates -ordained that she should remain in Birmingham her talent would never -have flowed into the channel which has made possible a memoir of her -Art under the title of "Happy England." The environments of that great -city are such that it would have been practically impossible for her -artistic training to have been as her divinity decreed it should be, -or to place means of exercising it within her grasp should she have -desired them. - -During the first year or two at the Royal Academy Helen Paterson worked -in the antique school, where the study of drawing, proportion of the -figure, with some anatomy, precluded the thought of painting. When -raised to the painting school she, like many another capable student -then as now, was at first driven hither and thither by the variety -of and apparently contradictory advice that she received from her -masters. For one month she was under a visitor with strongly defined -ideas in one direction, and the next under some one else who was -equally assertive in another, and it was some time before she could -strike a balance for her own understanding. But, for reasons which -those who know her well will recognise, she received help and kindness -from all, and, as she gratefully remembers, from none more than from -Millais, Frederick Leighton, Frederick Goodall, Fred Walker, Stacy -Marks, and John Pettie. Millais especially could in a minute or two -impart something which was never afterwards forgotten, whilst the -encouragement of all was most stimulating to a beginner. Another artist -who has been a life-long adviser and the kindest of friends, was Briton -Riviere, with whom and whose family an intimacy began even in her -student days. An invitation to stay with them at St. Andrews on the -coast of Fife in the summer of 1872 inaugurated Miss Paterson's first -serious work from Nature. The result was deemed to be satisfactory by -Mr. Riviere, who helped to dissipate a certain despondency and fear -which had sprung up in the young artist's mind as regards her colour -powers. It was not, however, in the grey houses and uninteresting -streets of this old northern university town, to which she first -turned, that the true relations between tone and colour discovered -themselves to her longing eye, but amongst the sandbanks, seaweed, and -blue water which fringe its noted golf-links. For the first time the -artist felt herself happy in attempting to work in any other medium -than black and white. Just prior to this fortunate visit she had in -the spring of the year been taken by an old friend of the family to -Rome, where she had worked assiduously at Nature, but with little -satisfaction so far as she herself was concerned. - -She had by this time fully made up her mind to embark on a career in -which she was determined, and was in fact obliged, to earn a living; -and as her colour work at present had no market, there was nothing for -it but to procure a livelihood by black and white. Wood engraving, -although nearing the end of its existence, was still the only medium -of cheap illustration. Photography later on came to its aid to a -certain extent, but the majority of the original drawings continued to -be drawn directly on to the wood block. There were still close upon a -hundred wood engravers employed in London, working for the most part -under master engravers, into whose hands the publishers of magazines, -illustrated periodicals, and books entrusted, not only the cutting of -the block, but the selection of the artist to make the drawing upon it. - -It was to these that Helen Paterson had to look for work, and it -was upon a round of their offices that in the autumn of 1869 she -diffidently started with a portfolio full of drawings. Employment did -not come at once, and the list of seventy names with which she started -had been considerably reduced before, to her great satisfaction, a -drawing out of her sheaf was taken by Mr. Joseph Swain, to whom she -had an introduction, for submission to the proprietors of _Once a -Week_. It was accepted, and she copied it on to the wood. Gradually she -obtained work for other magazines, including _Little Folks_, published -by Cassell, and _Aunt Judy_, by George Bell, the drawings for _Aunt -Judy_ illustrating Mrs. Ewing's _A Flat Iron for a Farthing_, _Jan of -the Windmill_, and _Six to Sixteen_. - -The first alteration of any magnitude of the custom to which reference -has been made, namely, of the artist having to look to the engraver -for work, occurred when the _Graphic_ newspaper was started in the -year 1870. Mr. W. L. Thomas, to whom the credit of this improvement -in the status of the worker in black and white was due, was himself -an artist and a member of the Institute of Painters in Water Colours. -As such he was not only in touch with, but capable of appreciating -the unusual amount of budding talent of abundant promise which was -just then presenting itself. This he enlisted in the service of the -_Graphic_ upon what may be termed co-operative terms, for those who -liked could have half their payment in cash and half in shares in the -venture. Many, the majority we believe, unfortunately could not afford -the latter proposition. Unfortunately indeed, for the paper embarked -on a career which has yielded dividends, at times of over a hundred -per cent, and has kept the shares at a premium, which few companies in -existence can boast of. This phenomenal success was in a large measure -the result of the personal interest that was brought to bear upon -every department, and that every employé took in his share in it. The -illustrations, upon which success mainly depended, were not the product -of a formulated system, working in a groove, where blocks were served -out to artists as to a machine, without any regard to their fitness for -the particular piece of work. Artists of capacity, whose names are now -to be found amongst the most noted in the academic roll, were selected -for the particular illustration that suited them, and were well paid -for it. The public was not only astonished at, but grateful for, the -result, and showed their appreciation by at once placing the _Graphic_ -in the high position which it deserved and has since enjoyed. - -Helen Paterson was so fortunate as to be brought into touch with -Mr. Thomas shortly after the first appearance of the paper. She had -obtained some work from one Harrall, an engraver, with whom Mr. Thomas -had had business connections in the past, and it was at Harrall's -suggestion that she went to Mr. Thomas, who at once offered her a -place on the staff of the _Graphic_, a place which she retained until -her marriage in 1874. It was indeed a godsend to her, for it meant -not only regular work but handsome pay. Twelve guineas for a full, -and eight for a half page, and at least one of these a week, meant -not merely maintenance, but a reserve against that rainy day which, -fortunately, the subject of our memoir has never had to contend with. - -The subjects which Miss Paterson was called upon to produce were of the -most diversified character, but all of them had figures as their main -feature. To properly limn these she had to employ regular models, but -she also enlisted the aid of her fellow-students, for she was still at -the Royal Academy, and her sketch-books of that time, of which she has -many, are full of studies of artists, no few of whom have since become -celebrated in the world of Art. - -Looking through the pages of the _Graphic_ with the artist, it is -interesting to note the variety of episodes upon which Mr. Thomas -employed her. Her drawings were not always from her own sketches, being -at times from originals that had been sent to the paper in an embryo -condition necessitating entire revision, or from rapid notes by artists -sent to represent the paper at important functions. But on occasions -she was also deputed to attend at these, and in consequence underwent -some novel experiences for a young girl. A meeting at Mr. Gladstone's, -Fashions in the Park, Flower Shows at the Botanical Gardens, Archery -at the Toxophilite Society's,--these formed the lighter side of her -work, the more serious being the illustration of novels by novelists of -note. This was at the time a new feature in journalism. Amongst those -entrusted to her were _Innocent_, by Mrs. Oliphant, and _Ninety-Three_, -by Victor Hugo. For the murder trial in the former she had to visit -the Central Criminal Court, and through so doing was more accurate -than the authoress, who admittedly had not been there, and whose work -consequently showed several glaring mistakes, such as the prisoner -addressing the judge by name. She was also employed upon a novel of -Charles Reade's in conjunction with Mr. Luke Fildes and Mr. Henry -Woods. This she undertook with extreme diffidence, for Reade had sent -round a circular saying that he greatly disliked having his stories -illustrated at all; but as it had to be in this case, he begged to -notify that _he_ gave _situations_, whilst George Eliot and Anthony -Trollope only gave conversations, and he requested that good use should -be made of these situations. Meeting him some years afterwards, the -author paid her the compliment of saying he liked her illustration of -the heroine in his story the best of any. - -Nor was Miss Paterson entirely dependent upon the _Graphic_, whose -illustrations, oftentimes given out in a hurry, had to be finished -within a period limited by hours. She was fortunate to be numbered -amongst the select few who worked for the _Cornhill_, for which she -was, through Mr. Swain's kind offices, asked to illustrate Hardy's _Far -from the Madding Crowd_, which was at first attributed to George Eliot. -The author was fairly complimentary as to the result, although he said -it was difficult for two minds to imagine scenes in the same light. -Later on she had the pleasant task of illustrating Miss Thackeray's -_Miss Angel_ in the same magazine. The drawing of Sir Joshua Reynolds -asking Angelica to marry him, perhaps the best of the series, was one -of the first to be signed with the name of Allingham, by which she has -since been known. - -A very interesting acquaintance with Sir Henry Irving, which has lasted -ever since, was commenced in the early seventies through her having to -visit the Lyceum for the _Graphic_ to delineate him and Miss Isabel -Bateman in _Richelieu_. Mr. Bateman, who was then the manager, placed -a box at her disposal, which she occupied for several nights whilst -making the drawing. One of the cottage drawings reproduced here (Plate -77) belongs to Sir Henry. - -Although working regularly and almost continuously at black and white -during these years she managed to intersperse it with some work in -colour, and at the exhibitions of the old Dudley Gallery Art Society, -which had been recently founded, and which had proved a great boon to -rising and amateur art, she exhibited water-colours under the title of -"May," "Dangerous Ground," and "Soldiers' Orphans watching a bloodless -battle at Aldershot," painted in the studio from a _Graphic_ drawing. - -In the autumn of the year 1874 Miss Paterson was married to Mr. William -Allingham, the well-known poet, editor of _Fraser's Magazine_, and -friend of so many of the celebrities in literature, science, and art of -the middle of the last century, amongst whom may be mentioned Carlyle, -Ruskin, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Browning, and Tennyson. It was to be -near the first named that the newly married couple went to reside in -Trafalgar Square, Chelsea, where they passed the next seven years of -their married life, namely until 1881. - -To Carlyle Mrs. Allingham had the privilege of frequent and familiar -access during his last years; and when he found that he was not -expected to pose to her, and that she had, as he emphatically declared, -a real talent for portraiture (the only form of pictorial art in which -he took any interest), he became very kind and complaisant, and she -was able to make nearly a dozen portraits of him in water-colours. -An early one, which he declared made him "look like an old fool," -was painted in the little back garden of No. 5 Cheyne Row, which was -not without shade and greenery in the summer time. There, in company -with his pet cat "Tib," and a Paisley churchwarden ("no pipe good -for anything," according to him, "being get-at-able in England"), -he indulged in smoking, the only creature comfort that afforded him -any satisfaction. In these portraits he is depicted sitting in his -comfortable dressing-gown faded to a dim slaty grey, refusing to wear -a gorgeous oriental garment that his admirers had presented to him. -An etching of one of these drawings appeared in the _Art Journal_ for -1882. Other portraits were painted in the winter of 1878-79, in his -long drawing-room with its three windows looking out into the street. - -Rossetti she never saw, although he had been an intimate friend of -her husband's for twenty years[5] and was then living in Chelsea, for -he was just entering on that unfortunate epoch preceding his death, -when he was induced to cut himself adrift from all his old circle -of acquaintances. The fact is regrettable, for it would have been -interesting to note his opinion of a lady's work with which he must -have been in full sympathy. - -Mr. Allingham had known Ruskin for many years. His wife's acquaintance -began in interesting fashion at the Old Water-Colour Society's. She -happened to be there during the Exhibition of 1877 at a time when the -room was almost empty. Mr. Ruskin had been looking at her drawing of -Carlyle, and introducing himself, asked her why she had painted Carlyle -like a lamb, when he ought to be painted like a lion, as he was, and -whether she would paint the sage as such for him? To this she had to -reply that she could only paint him as she saw him, which was certainly -not in leonine garb. One afternoon soon afterwards, Mr. Allingham -chanced to meet Ruskin at Carlyle's, and brought him round to see her -work. She was at the time engaged on the drawing of "The Clothes-Line" -(Plate 11), and he objected to the scarlet of the handkerchief, and -also to the woman, who he said ought to have been a rough workwoman, -an opinion which Mrs. Allingham did not share with him at the time, -but which she has since felt to be a correct one. He also saw another -drawing with a grey sky, and asked her why she did not make her skies -blue. To her reply that she thought there was often great beauty in -grey skies, he growled, "The devil sends grey skies." - -Browning, an old friend of her husband's, Mrs. Allingham sometimes had -the privilege of seeing during her residence in London. One occasion -was typical of the man. He had been asked to come and see her work, -which was at the time arranged at one end of a room at Trafalgar -Square, Chelsea, before sending in to the Exhibition. The drawings were -naturally small ones, and Browning appeared to be altogether oblivious -to their existence. Turning round, with his back to them, he at once -commenced a story of some one who came to see an artist's work, and the -artist was very huffed because his visitor never took the slightest -notice of his pictures, but talked to him of other subjects all the -time. This, Browning considered, was no sufficient ground for his -huffiness. His obliviousness to Mrs. Allingham's drawings may have been -due to his having been accustomed to the pictures of his son, which -were of large size, and in comparison with which Mrs. Allingham's would -be quite invisible. Against this theory, however, I may mention that on -one occasion I happened to have the good fortune to be present in his -son's studio when Tennyson was announced. Browning at once advanced to -the door to meet him, bent low, and addressed him as "Magister Meus," -and although the Laureate had come to see the paintings, and stayed -some time, neither of the two poets, so long as I was present, noticed -them in any way. - -Whilst Mrs. Allingham was painting Carlyle, Browning came to see him, -and they held a most interesting and delightful conversation on the -subject of the great French writers. The alteration in Browning's -demeanour from his usual bluff and breezy manner to a quiet, -deferential tone during the conversation was very notable. - -Of her intimacy with Tennyson I may speak later when we come to the -drawings which illustrate his two houses in Sussex and the Isle of -Wight. - -The year of her marriage was also a landmark in Mrs. Allingham's -career, through the Royal Academy accepting and hanging two -water-colours, one entitled "The Milkmaid," the other, "Wait for Me," -the subject of the latter being a young lady entering a cottage whilst -a dog watched her outside the gate. It would have been interesting to -have been able to insert a reproduction of either of these in this -volume, for they would probably have shown that her fear as to her -inability to master colour was entirely without basis, but I have not -been able to trace them. The drawings were not only well hung, but were -sold during the Exhibition. - -It was, however, by another drawing that Mrs. Allingham won her name. - -In the year 1875 she was commissioned by Mr. George Bell to make a -water-colour from one of the black-and-white drawings which she had -done some years before for Mrs. Ewing's _A Flat Iron for a Farthing_. -We shall have occasion to describe at length, later on, this delightful -little picture that is reproduced in Plate 8. It is only necessary for -our purpose here to state that it was seen early in 1875 by that prince -of landscape water-colourists, Mr. Alfred Hunt. - -He was an old friend of Mr. Allingham's, and being told that his wife -was thinking of trying for election at the Royal Society of Painters in -Water Colours, kindly offered to go through her portfolios. The From -these he made a selection, and promised to propose her at an election -which was about to take place. The result fully proved the soundness -of his choice, for the candidate not only secured the rare distinction -of being elected on the first time of asking, but the still rarer one -of securing her place in that body, so notable for its diversity of -opinion when candidates are in question, with hardly a dissentient vote. - -Ladies were not admitted to the rank of full members of the Society -until the year 1890, when she was, to her great pleasure and -astonishment, elected a full member. She deserved it; for much of the -charm of these exhibitions had been due to the presence of the work -which she has contributed to every Exhibition held since her election -save two, one of these rare absences being due to her having mistaken -the date for sending in. - -This election, and the fact that after her marriage she could afford to -do without the monetary aid derived from black-and-white work, decided -her to embark upon water-colours; although in these she still confined -her work to figure subjects, more than one of which continued to be -founded on her previous work in monochrome. - -The last book in which her name as an illustrator appeared was, -appropriately enough, _Rhymes for the Young Folk_, by her husband, -published in _Cassell's_ in 1885, to which she contributed most of -the illustrations. She relinquished black-and-white work without any -regret, for although she was much indebted to it, it never held her -sympathies, and she always longed to express herself in colour, the -medium in which she instinctively felt she had ultimately the best -chance of success. - -Although we are only separated from the Chelsea of Mrs. Allingham's -days by little more than a quarter of a century, its artistic -associations were then of a very different order to those that are -in evidence nowadays. The era of vast studios in which duchesses and -millionaires find adequate surroundings for their portraits was not -yet. Whistler was close to old Chelsea Church, a few doors only from -where he recently died. Tite Street, with which his name will always be -connected, was not yet built. He was still engaged on those remarkable, -but at that time insufficiently appreciated, canvases of scenes which -have now passed away, such as "Fireworks at Cremorne," and "Nocturnes" -dimly disclosing old Battersea Bridge. Seymour Haden was etching the -picturesque façade of the Walk, with his brother-in-law's house as a -principal object in it, and without the respectable embankment which -now makes it more reputable from a hygienic, but less admirable from -an artistic point of view. Rossetti was practically the only other -artist of note in the quarter. But with one exception Mrs. Allingham's -work was not reminiscent of the place. That exception, however, -disclosed to her a field in which she foresaw much delight and abundant -possibilities. In the old Pensioners' Garden at Chelsea Hospital were -to be found tenderly-cared-for borders of humble flowers. The garden -itself was a haven of repose for the old warriors, and a show-place for -their visitors. Mrs. Allingham, like another artist, Hubert Herkomer, -about the same time, was touched by the pathos of the surroundings, -and, chiefly on the urgency of her husband, she ventured on a drawing -of more importance than any hitherto attempted. The subject, which we -shall speak of again later, was finished in 1877, and was the first -large drawing exhibited by her at the Society of Painters in Water -Colours. - -Painters--good, bad, and indifferent--of the garden are nowadays such -a numerous body that one is apt to forget that the time is quite -recent when to paint one with its flowers was a new departure. It is -nevertheless the fact, and in taking it up, especially those that -are associated with the humbler type of cottages, Mrs. Allingham -was practically the originator of a new subject. To the pensioners' -patches at Chelsea we are indebted for the sweet portraits of humble -flower-steads which are now cherished by so many a fortunate possessor, -and charm every beholder. Thus Chelsea aroused a desire to attack -gardens possessing greater possibilities than a town-stunted patch, a -desire that was not, however, gratified until two years later when, -during a visit in the spring of 1879 to Shere, the first of many -cottages and flowers was painted from nature. - -In 1881, after the death of Carlyle, Chelsea had attractions for -neither husband nor wife, and with a young family growing up and -calling for larger and healthier quarters, the house in Trafalgar -Square was given up for one at Witley in Surrey, a hamlet close to -Haslemere, which she had visited the year before, and in the midst -of a country which Birket Foster had already done much to popularise, -having resided at a beautiful house there for many years. - - * * * * * - -The water-colours of this first period, namely from 1875 to 1880, that -are reproduced here, are the following:-- - -[Illustration: -8. THE YOUNG CUSTOMERS -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Miss Bell._ -Painted 1875.] - -The drawing by which, as we have said, Mrs. Allingham made her name, -obtained election at the Society of Painters in Water Colours, was -represented at her first appearance there in 1875, and also at -the Paris Exposition in 1878, and through which she obtained the -recognition of Ruskin, who thus wrote concerning it in the _Notes_ -which he was at that time in the habit of compiling each year on the -Summer Exhibitions. - - It happens curiously that the only drawing of which the memory remains - with me as a possession out of the Old Water-Colour Exhibition of this - year--Mrs. Allingham's "Young Customers"--should not only be by an - accomplished designer of woodcuts, but itself the illustration of a - popular story. The drawing, with whatever temporary purpose executed, - is for ever lovely--a thing which I believe Gainsborough would have - given one of his own paintings for, old fashioned as red-tipped - daisies are, and more precious than rubies. - -Later on, in 1883, in his lectures at Oxford on Mrs. Allingham he again -referred to it as "The drawing which some years ago riveted, and ever -since has retained the public admiration--the two deliberate housewives -in their village toyshop, bent on domestic utilities and economies, -and proud in the acquisition of two flat irons for a farthing--has -become, and rightly, a classic picture, which will have its place -among the memorable things in the Art of our time, when many of its -loudly-trumpeted magnificences are remembered no more." - -The black-and-white drawing on which it was founded, a somewhat thin -and immature performance, was one of twelve illustrations made by Mrs. -Allingham for Mrs. Ewing's _A Flat Iron for a Farthing_,[6] where it -appears as illustrating the following episode. It will be seen that -Mrs. Allingham's version of the story differs in many points from that -of the authoress, which is thus told by Reginald, the only son:-- - - As I looked, there came down the hill a fine, large, sleek donkey, - led by an old man-servant, and having on its back what is called a - Spanish saddle, in which two little girls sat side by side, the whole - party jogging quietly along at a foot's pace in the sunshine. I was - so overwhelmed and impressed by the loveliness of these two children, - and by their quaint, queenly little ways, that time has not dimmed one - line in the picture that they then made upon my mind. I can see them - now as clearly as I saw them then, as I stood at the tinsmith's door - in the High Street of Oakford--let me see, how many years ago? - - The child who looked the older, but was, as I afterwards discovered, - the younger of the two, was also the less pretty. And yet she had - a sweet little face, hair like spun gold, and blue-grey eyes with - dark lashes. She wore a grey frock of some warm material, below - which peeped her indoors dress of blue. The outer coat had a quaint - cape like a coachman's, which was relieved by a broad white crimped - frill round her throat. Her legs were cased in knitted gaiters of - white wool, and her hands in the most comical miniatures of gloves. - On her fairy head she wore a large bonnet of grey beaver, with a - frill inside. But it was her sister who shone on my young eyes like - a fairy vision. She looked too delicate, too brilliant, too utterly - lovely, for anywhere but fairyland. She ought to have been kept in - tissue-paper, like the loveliest of wax dolls. Her hair was the true - flaxen, the very fairest of the fair. The purity and vividness of the - tints of red and white in her face I have never seen equalled. Her - eyes were of speedwell blue, and looked as if they were meant to be - always more or less brimming with tears. To say the truth, her face - had not half the character which gave force to that of the other - little damsel, but a certain helplessness about it gave it a peculiar - charm. She was dressed exactly like the other, with one exception--her - bonnet was of white beaver, and she became it like a queen. - - At the tinsmith's shop they stopped, and the old man-servant, after - unbuckling a strap which seemed to support them in their saddle, - lifted each little miss in turn to the ground. Once on the pavement - the little lady of the grey beaver shook herself out, and proceeded - to straighten the disarranged overcoat of her companion, and then, - taking her by the hand, the two clambered up the step into the shop. - The tinsmith's shop boasted of two seats, and on to one of these she - of the grey beaver with some difficulty climbed. The eyes of the other - were fast filling with tears, when from her lofty perch the sister - caught sight of the man-servant, who stood in the doorway, and she - beckoned him with a wave of her tiny finger. - - "Lift her up, if you please," she said on his approach. And the other - child was placed on the other chair. - - The shopman appeared to know them, and though he smiled, he said very - respectfully, "What articles can I show you this morning, ladies?" - - The fairy-like creature in the white beaver, who had been fumbling - in her miniature glove, now timidly laid a farthing on the counter, - and then turning her back for very shyness on the shopman, raised one - small shoulder, and inclining her head towards it, gave an appealing - glance at her sister out of the pale-blue eyes. That little lady, thus - appealed to, firmly placed another farthing on the board, and said in - the tiniest but most decided of voices, - - "TWO FLAT IRONS, IF YOU PLEASE." - - Hereupon the shopman produced a drawer from below the counter, and - set it before them. What it contained I was not tall enough to see, - but out of it he took several flat irons of triangular shape, and - apparently made of pewter, or some alloy of tin. These the grey beaver - examined and tried upon a corner of her cape, with inimitable gravity - and importance. At last she selected two, and keeping one for herself, - gave the other to her sister. - - "Is it a nice one?" the little white-beavered lady inquired. - - "Very nice." - - "Kite as nice as yours?" she persisted. - - "Just the same," said the other firmly. And having glanced at the - counter to see that the farthings were both duly deposited, she rolled - abruptly over on her seat, and scrambled off backwards, a manœuvre - which the other child accomplished with more difficulty. The coats and - capes were then put tidy as before, and the two went out of the shop - together, hand in hand. - - Then the old man-servant lifted them into the Spanish saddle, - and buckled the strap, and away they went up the steep street, and - over the brow of the hill, where trees and palings began to show, the - beaver bonnets nodding together in consultation over the flat irons. - -The commission to paint this water-colour being unfettered in every -way, the artist felt herself at liberty to create a colour scheme -of her own--hence the changes in the dresses, etc.; also to put an -old woman (after a Devonshire cottager) in place of the shopman, and -to make the shop a toyshop instead of a tinsmith's. The little girl -ironing was painted from a study of a Mr. Hennessy's eldest little -daughter; the fair little maiden from Mr. Briton Riviere's eldest -daughter. - -[Illustration: -9. THE SAND-MARTINS' HAUNT -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Miss James._ -Painted 1876.] - - I passed an inland cliff precipitate; - From tiny caves peeped many a soot-black poll. - In each a mother-martin sat elate, - And of the news delivered her small soul: - "Gossip, how wags the world?" "Well, gossip, well." - -Interesting not only as the earliest example here of Mrs. Allingham's -landscape work, having been painted at Limpsfield, Surrey, in May -1876, and as such full of promise of better things to come, but as an -instance of a preference for a complex and very difficult effect, which -the artist, on obtaining greater experience, very wisely abandoned. -There is little doubt that she was tempted by the glorious wealth of -colouring which a low sun threw upon the warm quarry side, the pine -wood, and the huge cumuli which banked them up--a magnificent but a -fleeting effect, which could only be placed on record from very rapid -notes. The result could be successful only in the hands of a practised -adept, and it is not surprising, therefore, that in those of an artist -just embarking on her career it was not entirely so. The difficulties -of the task may have afforded her a useful lesson, for we have seen no -further attempts on her part at their repetition. - -If the landscape foretells little concerning the future of the artist, -the figures standing on the brink of the quarry, the elder with her -arm placed lovingly and protectingly round the neck of the younger, -whilst they watch the martins rejoicing in the warm summer evening, are -eminently suggestive of the success which Mrs. Allingham was to achieve -in the addition of figures to landscape composition. - -[Illustration: -10. THE OLD MEN'S GARDENS, CHELSEA HOSPITAL -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. Charles Churchill._ -Painted 1876.] - -Contemporary criticism is not, as a rule, palatable to an artist, for -amongst the varied views which the art critics bring to their task -there are always to be found some that are not seen from the same -standpoint as his. Besides, for some occult reason, the balance always -trends in the direction of fault-finding rather than praise, probably -because it is so much the easier, for work always has and will have -imperfections that are not difficult to distinguish. But in the case -of the water-colour before us the critics' chorus must have been very -exhilarating to the young artist, especially as, at the time of its -exhibition at the Royal Water-Colour Society, in the spring of 1877, -she was by no means in good health. The _Spectator_, for instance, -wrote that artists would have to look to their laurels when ladies -began to paint in a manner little inferior to Walker. The _Athenæum_ -gave it the exceptional length of a column, considering it "one of the -few pictures by which the exhibition in question would be remembered." -Tom Taylor in the _Times_ wrote as follows:-- - - Of all the newly associated figure painters there is none whose - work has more of the rare quality that inspires interest than Mrs. - Allingham. She has only two drawings here, a pretty little child's - head and a large and exquisitely finished composition, "The Old Men's - Gardens, Chelsea Hospital," where some hundred and forty little garden - plots are parcelled out among as many of the old pensioners, each of - whom is free to follow his own fancies in his gardening. - - In the hush of a calm summer evening, two graceful girls in white - dresses accept a nosegay from one of the veterans, a Guardsman of - the _vieille cour_, by his look and bearing. All around are plots - of sweet, bright flowers all aglow with variegated petals. Here and - there under the shade of the old trees sit restful groups of the old - veterans, with children about them; one little fellow reverentially - lifts and examines one of the medals on a war-worn breast. Behind, the - thickly-clothed fronds of a drooping ash spread to the declining sun, - and the level roofs of the old Hospital rise ruddy against the warm - and cloudless sky. No praise can be too high for the exquisiteness - with which the flowers are drawn, coloured, and combined, or for the - skill with which they are blended into an artistic whole with the - suggestive and graceful group in the foreground. The drawing deserves - to take its place as a pendant of Walker's "Haven of Rest." - -It is curious that all the critics seem to have misinterpreted -the main meaning of the artist's motive, namely, that whilst the -Pensioners naturally, in the first place, wish to sell their posies, -they are always ready to give them to those who cannot afford to buy. -The well-to-do ladies are purchasing the flowers, the little group of -mother, boy, and baby, on the right, who can ill afford to buy, are -having a posy graciously offered to them. The drawing represented Mrs. -Allingham at the Jubilee Exhibition in Manchester, 1887, and the Loan -Water-Colour Exhibition at the Guildhall, London, in 1896. It is of the -large size, for this artist's work, of 25 inches by 15 inches. - -[Illustration: -11. THE CLOTHES-LINE -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Miss James._ -Painted 1879.] - -How considerable and rapid an advance now took place in Mrs. -Allingham's powers may be seen from the two drawings which are dated -two years later, namely, in 1879. In figure draftsmanship there is no -comparison between the timid and haltingly painted children of "The -Sand-Martins' Haunt" and the seated baby in "The Clothes-Line." In -the first the capacity to draw was no doubt present, but the power to -express it through the medium of water-colour was as yet unacquired. -But after two years' study, knowledge is present in its fulness, -and from now onwards the only changes in Mrs. Allingham's work are -a greater precision, breadth, facility of handling, and harmony of -colour. The figure of the woman still smacks somewhat too much of -the studio, and she is a lady-like model,[7] certainly not the type -one would expect to see hanging out the washing of such a clearly -limited and humble wardrobe as in this case. The figure again detaches -itself too much from the rest of the picture, and Mrs. Allingham, -we are sure, would now never introduce such a jarring note as the -scarlet and primrose handkerchief, to which Mr. Ruskin objected at -the time it was painted. The blanket, clothes-line, clothes-basket, -and other accessories are painted with a minuteness which was an -admirable prelude to the breadth that was to follow; but are -singularly constrained in comparison with the yellow gorse bushes, most -difficult of any shrubs to limn, but which here are noteworthy for -unusual easiness of touch. Even with these qualifications the picture -is a delightful one, replete with grace and beauty, and complete in -its portrayal of the little incident of the baby, a less robust little -body than Mrs. Allingham would now paint, capturing as many of the -clothes-pegs that her mother needs as her small fingers and arms can -embrace. - -[Illustration: -12. THE CONVALESCENT -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. R. S. Budgett._ -Painted 1879.] - -This, like "The Young Customers," was founded on previous work, namely, -a black-and-white drawing made for the _Graphic_, as an illustration to -Mrs. Oliphant's _Innocent_. But in the story the patient dies from an -over-dose administered in mistake by Innocent, who is nursing her. Some -years afterwards the poisoning comes to light, and Innocent is tried -and acquitted. Mrs. Allingham would never have voluntarily repeated -such a subject as this, and her temperament is shown in her having -utilised the material for one in which refreshing sleep promises a -speedy recovery. - -[Illustration: -13. THE GOAT CARRIAGE -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Sir F. Wigan._ -Painted 1880.] - -Painted at Broadstairs, and containing portraits of Mrs. Allingham's -children. Noticeable as being one of a few drawings where the artist -has introduced animals of any size into her compositions, but showing -that, had she minded, she might have animated her landscapes with them -with as conspicuous success as she has with her human figures. Perhaps -an incident which happened whilst this picture was being painted -deterred her. Billy being tied up so as to keep him in somewhat the -same position, managed to gnaw through his rope, and, irate at his -detention, he made for the lady to whom he thought his captivity was -due, and nearly upset her, paintbox, and picture. The exhibition of -this and kindred portraits of her children under such titles as "The -Young Artist" and "The Donkey Ride," led to strangers wishing for -portraits of their offspring under similar winsome conditions. -But Mrs. Allingham never cared for the restraint imposed by portrait -painting, and the few that she did in this manner were undertaken more -from friendship than from pleasure. - -[Illustration: -14. THE CLOTHES-BASKET -_From the Water-colour the property of Mr. C. P. Johnson._ -Painted 1880.] - -It is very seldom that Mrs. Allingham has treated her public to -drawings with low horizons or sunsets, perhaps for the reason that -little of her life has been spent away in the flatter counties, where -the latter are so noticeable and full of charm and beauty. This -water-colour, the first large landscape that the artist exhibited, was -painted from studies made in the Isle of Thanet, whilst staying at -Broadstairs. - -[Illustration: -15. IN THE HAYLOFT -_From the Water-colour the property of Miss Bell._ -Painted 1880.] - -This is practically the last of the water-colours which were the -outcome of earlier pictures executed in black and white for the -illustration of books. - -The story is from _Deborah's Drawer_, by Eleanor Grace O'Reilly, for -which, as Helen Paterson, our artist had made nine drawings in 1870, -at a time when she was so inexperienced in drawing on the wood that in -more than one instance her monogram appears turned the wrong way. Mr. -Bell, the publisher of the book, subsequently commissioned her to make -a companion water-colour to "The Young Customers," and suggested one of -the illustrations called "Ralph's Girls" as the basis for a subject. - -The little black-robed girls were twins, whose mother had recently -died, and who had been placed under the care of a grandmother, who -forgot their youth and spirits. They were imaginative children, and -indulged in delightfully original games. One (that of personating a -sportsman named Jenkins and a dog called Tubbs, who together went -partridge-shooting through a big field of cabbages laden with dew) -they had just been taking part in. Tired out with it, they decided -to be themselves again, and to mount to the hayloft and play another -favourite game, that of "remembering." This meant taking them back -over their short lives, which ended up with their most recent -remembrance, their mother's death. Whilst talking over this they are -summoned from their retreat, and have to appear with their black -dresses soaked with the dew from the cabbages, and with hay adhering -everywhere to their deep crape trimmings. Hence much penance! - -[Illustration: -16. THE RABBIT HUTCH -_From the Drawing the property of Mr. C. P. Johnson._ -Painted 1880.] - -Painted in London, but from sketches made near Broadstairs, the house -seen over the wall being one of those that are to be found along the -east coast, which bear a decided evidence of Dutch influence in their -architecture. Here again we have evidence that Mrs. Allingham might, -had she been so minded, have succeeded with animals as well as she has -with human figures and landscape. A little play is being enacted; the -dog, evidently a rival of the inhabitants of the hutch, has to be kept -at a distance while their feeding is going on, lest his jealousy might -find an outlet in an onslaught upon them. - -[Illustration: -17. THE DONKEY RIDE -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Sir James Kitson, Bart., -M.P._ -Painted 1880.] - -This drawing was executed just at the turning of the ways, when London -was to be exchanged for country life, and studio for out-of-door -painting. What an increased power came about through the change will -be seen by a comparison between this "Donkey Ride" and the "Children's -Tea" (Plate 23). Only two years separate them in date; but whilst -in the one we have timidity and hesitancy, in the other the end -is practically assured. In "The Donkey Ride" we have evidences of -experiments, especially in the direction of finicking stippling (all -over the sea and sky) and of the use of body-colour (in the baby's -bonnet and the flowers), which were abandoned later on, to the artist's -exceeding great benefit. What we expect to find, and do find, is the -pure sentiment, and the dainty freshness, which is never absent from -the earliest efforts onwards. - -The scene is the cliffs near Broadstairs, Mrs. Allingham's two eldest -children occupying the panniers. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -THE ARTIST'S SURREY HOME - - -There are few fairer counties in England than Surrey, and of Surrey -the fairest portion is admittedly the extreme south-western edge which -skirts Sussex to the south and Hampshire to the west. Travellers -from London to Portsmouth by the London and South-Western Railway on -leaving Guildford pass through the middle of the right angle which this -corner makes, and cut the corner two miles beyond Haslemere almost -exactly at the point where the three counties meet. As the steep rise -of nearly 300 feet which has to be surmounted in the six miles which -divide Witley from Haslemere is being negotiated by the train, the most -unobservant passenger must be struck by the singularly beautiful wooded -character of the country on either side, and by the far-extended view -which is unfolded as the eye looks southward over the Weald of Sussex. - -It was to Sandhills, near Witley, that Mrs. Allingham came to live -in 1881 with her growing family, and it was in this corner of Surrey -that she found ample material for almost all her work during the next -few years; and it is there that she has returned at intervals for the -majority of those cottage subjects which the public has called for, -ever since her first portrayal of them shortly after her commencement -of landscape painting in these parts. - -Witley consists of groups of irregularly-dotted-about houses, which -hardly constitute a village, and would perhaps be better designated -by the proper name--Witley Street. A few years ago every one of the -houses counted their ages by centuries, and were fitting companions -of the ancient oaks and elms that shaded them. Some few are left, but -the majority are gone, many so long before the term of their natural -existence had run that it was a troublesome piece of work to destroy -them. There is also an old "Domesday Book" Church. Drawings of almost -all of the cottages, from the hand of Mrs. Allingham, are in existence -somewhere or other, but she never seems to have painted this or other -churches, having apparently little liking for them, as had Birket -Foster. In the present case the omission to do so arose from the fact -that in painting it she would have formed one of the occupants of -half-a-dozen outspread white umbrellas, all taking a stiffly-composed -subject from the same point of view. - -Sandhills, where our artist lived, is on the Haslemere side of Witley, -on a sloping common of heather and gorse, topped with fir trees. From -thence the view, looking southwards, extends far and wide over the -Weald of Surrey and Sussex, Hindhead, a mountain-like hill rising -behind, and Blackdown, a spur stretching out on to the Sussex Valley -to the right. In the distance are to be seen the rising grounds near -Midhurst and Petworth, Chanctonbury Ring with its tuft of trees, called -locally "The Squire's Hunting Cap," and on a clear day the downs as far -as Brighton and Lewes. - -It is indeed a healthy and bracing spot, and one calculated to induce -a painter to energetic work, and a delight in doing it. Subjects lay -close at hand, the Sandhills garden furnishing many a one. "Master -Hardy's," a charming cottage tenanted by a charming old man, was -within a stone's throw, and received attention inside and out. Of the -Hindhead Road, which passes south-west, a single Exhibition, that of -1886, contained six subjects, all of them wayside cottages, but no -one of which, when the Exhibition opened, was as depicted, having in -that short time been "done up" by local builders at the bidding of -Philistine owners. - -The neighbourhood round is, or perhaps we should say was, also prolific -in subjects--Haslemere, four miles south-west, with its pleasant wide -old streets, and with fields tilted up at the end of it, furnished its -Fish-Shop, and other thoroughly English village scenes. - -Some two miles south of Haslemere was Aldworth, Lord Tennyson's -house, a mile over the Sussex border, although always spoken of as -his "Surrey" residence. To Mrs. Allingham's work there we shall have -occasion to refer later on. - -The varied summits of Hindhead (painted a century earlier by Turner and -Rowlandson, and at that time adorned with a gibbet for the benefit of -the highwaymen who infested the Portsmouth Road, which passes over it), -in one place bare moor, in another crested with fir trees, lay some -distance northward of Haslemere; but our artist did not often depict -them, although they presented themselves under many a charming aspect, -and never more glorious than at sunset in their robes of violet and -gold. A thoroughly characteristic view of them is however given in the -Lord Chief Justice's drawing (Plate 19). - -To the southward of Sandhills stretches, as we have said, the Weald. -To this district Mrs. Allingham made frequent excursions, not only for -cottages, which she found at Hambledon, Chiddingfold, and Wisborough, -but for spring and autumn subjects in the oak woods and copses which to -this day probably bear much the same aspect as did the ancient Forest -of Anderida (whose site they occupy) in the time of the Heptarchy. - -Oak is the tree of the wealden clay on the lower levels, but elms grow -to a grand size on the higher ground, where ashes are also numerous. -Spanish chestnuts "encamp in state" on certain slopes, and many of the -hills are "fringed and pillared" with pines. The interminable hazel -copses are interspersed with long labyrinthine paths, the intricacies -of which are only known to the countryside folk. Not so long ago the -cutting down at intervals of the young wood for the purposes of hop -poles, hurdles, and kindling, brought in a handsome revenue to the -owners; but of late years wire has taken the place of wood for the two -first of these objects, and the labourers prefer dear coal to wood, -even as a gift, for it does not entail cutting up. As railway rates to -bring it to the metropolis are prohibitive, it is hard to say what the -consequences will be in a few years, but the probabilities actually -point to a return to the primitive conditions which existed in the -Saxon times to which we have referred. - -In the spring the country round is decked with primroses, bluebells, -and cowslips in the woods, hedgerows, and fields, being fortunately -outside the range of the marauders from London; and it is indeed -pleasurable to ramble from copse to field, and back again. But in -autumn and winter the deep clay soil makes it heavy travelling in the -deep-cut roads and lanes, cumbered with the redolent decay of the -leafage from the trees. - -The cottars were, when the majority of these drawings were made, rural -and old-fashioned, and many had lived hereabouts through numerous -generations. A quiet, taciturn folk, contented with moderate comforts, -on good terms with their wealthier neighbours, not often feeling the -pinch of poverty. - -Maybe all are not so good-looking as Mrs. Allingham has depicted -them, but they vary much, some being flaxen Saxons, others as dark -complexioned as gipsies. - -As will be seen, they have a taste and enjoyment for colour, if not -for change, in the gardens with which their cottages are fairly -well supplied. These are bright at one or other season of the year -with snowdrop, crocus, and daffodil, lilac, sweetwilliam, and pink, -sunflower, Michaelmas daisy, and chrysanthemum. - - * * * * * - -The following drawings have been selected as illustrating the -neighbourhood of Mrs. Allingham's home at Sandhills:-- - -[Illustration: -18. A WITLEY LANE -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. H. W. Birks._ -Painted 1887.] - -It is very seldom that we encounter a drawing of Mrs. Allingham that -deals with Nature in winter's garb. In this respect she differs from -Birket Foster, who rightly considered that trees were oftentimes as -beautiful in their nude as in their clothed array. Especially did he -delight in the towering framework of the elm, which he regarded as the -most typical of English trees. - -Nor is it often that we see Mrs. Allingham afield so early in the -spring as in this lane scene, where the elms are clothed only in their -"ruddy hearted blossom flakes."[8] Perhaps this absence is due to -prudential reasons, to avoid the rheumatism which appears to be the -only ailment which the landscapist runs against in his healthy outdoor -profession. - -Those who have seen the woods of Surrey and Sussex at this time of -year know what a lovely colour they assume in the budding stage, a -colour that makes the view over the Weald from such a vantage-ground -as Blackdown a sea of ravishing violet hues, almost equalling that of -the oak forests as seen in February from the Terrace at Pau, which -stretch away to the snow-clad range of the Pyrenees--perhaps the most -delicately perfect view in Europe. But the day selected for this sketch -was evidently a warm one for the time of year, or we should not -see that unusual occurrence, an open bedroom window in a labourer's -cottage. - -The flowering whin is no index to the season, for we know the old -adage-- - - When the whin's in bloom, my love's in tune. - -But the catkins on the hazel, and the primroses on the banks, must -place it round that elastic date, Eastertide. - -These wayside primroses remind one of a strongly expressed opinion of -Mrs. Allingham's, that wayside flowers should never be gathered, but -left for the enjoyment of the passers-by--a liberal one, which was -first instilled into her by her husband, who wrote verses upon it, from -which I cull the following lines:-- - - Pluck not the wayside flower, - It is the traveller's dower; - A thousand passers-by - Its beauties may espy. - - * * * * * - - The primrose on the slope - A spot of sunshine dwells, - And cheerful message tells. - - * * * * * - - Then spare the wayside flower! - It is the traveller's dower. - -[Illustration: -19. HINDHEAD FROM WITLEY COMMON -_From the Water-colour in the possession of the Lord Chief Justice of -England._ -Painted 1888.] - -When this drawing appeared in the Exhibition of 1889 there were some -who called in question the truthfulness of the colour of distant -Hindhead, affirming that it was too blue. But when the air comes up -in August from the southward, laden with a salty moisture, and the -shadows are cast by hurrying clouds over the distance, it is altogether -and exactly of the hue set down here. Had the effect been incorrect -it would hardly have been acquired by so critical a collector as Lord -Alverstone, nor would it have been hung in his Surrey home, where it -invites daily comparison with Nature under similar aspects. The drawing -was painted on the spot, from just behind the artist's house, and is -one of the few instances where she has added to the charm of her work -by a sky of some intricacy. In her cottage and other drawings, where -buildings or other landscape objects are of primary importance, she has -felt that the simpler the treatment of the sky the better, and with -good reason. Here, where a large expanse calls for interesting -forms to cover it, she has shown her complete ability to introduce them. - -Mrs. Allingham's house at Sandhills was below the foreground slope, to -the right of the cottages whose roofs rise from the ling. The highest -point of Hindhead seen here is Hurt Hill, some nine hundred feet above -sea-level, a name which Mr. Allingham always held to be a corruption of -Whort Hill, from the whortleberries with which its slopes are covered, -and which in these, as in other parts are called "wurts." - -[Illustration: -20. IN WITLEY VILLAGE -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. Charles Churchill._ -Painted 1884.] - -This drawing was in The Fine Art Society's Exhibition in 1886, the -catalogue stating that the cottage had disappeared in the spring of -1885. It was pulled down by its owner to be replaced by buildings whose -monotonous symmetry, to his eye no doubt, appeared in better taste. -The cottage was still far from the natural term of its existence, -as evidenced by the troublesome piece of work it was to dislocate -the sound, firm old oaken beams of which its framework was built -up. Mr. Birket Foster, who equally with Mrs. Allingham mourned its -disappearance, regretted that he could not rebuild it in his own -grounds. - -The blackening elms, and the ripe bracken carried home by the cottar, -show that the time when this picturesque dwelling was painted was late -summer, probably that of 1884. Mrs. Allingham was clearly then not of -Ruskin's opinion concerning the wrongness of painting trees in full -leaf, for she found the blue-black of the trees a harmonious background -to her red and russet roof. - -The work throughout shows a loving fidelity to Nature, as if the artist -had felt that she was looking upon the likeness of an old friend for -the last time, and wished to perpetuate every lineament and feature. - -[Illustration: -21. BLACKDOWN FROM WITLEY COMMON -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Lord Davey._ -Painted 1886.] - -This view is taken from the same bridle-path as is seen in Lord -Alverstone's "Hindhead," but at a lower elevation, and looking -some points more to the south; also at a later time of year, probably -in early October, to judge by the browning hazels. The bracken-covered -elevation in the distance is Grays Wood Common, which lies to the south -of the railway, and the spur of blue hill seen in the distance is -Blackdown. Aldworth, Lord Tennyson's seat, lies just this side of where -the hill falls away. The drawing is one of three only in the whole -collection where Mrs. Allingham has introduced a draught animal. - -[Illustration: -22. THE FISH-SHOP, HASLEMERE -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. A. E. Cumberbatch._ -Painted 1887.] - -One can well understand the local builder in his daily round past -this picturesque little tenement casting longing eyes upon its uneven -roof, its diamond-paned lattices, its projecting shop front, and its -spoutless eaves, which allowed the damp to rise up from the foundations -and the green lichen to grow upon its walls, and that he rested not -until he had set hands upon it, and taken one more old-world feature -from the main thoroughfare at Haslemere. Such was actually the case -here, for the shop has long ago disappeared, but it was not until, much -to its owner's regret, interference was necessary. Were it not that it -indeed was the fish-shop of Haslemere, it might well have served for -the toyshop in which the scene of "The Young Customers" was laid. In -the days when this was painted the accommodation provided was probably -sufficient for the intermittent supply of an inland village, for -Haslemere was not, until the last few years, a country resort for those -who seek fine air and beautiful scenery, and can afford to pay a high -price for it. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -THE INFLUENCE OF WITLEY - - -It will be readily understood that such a beneficial change in her life -surroundings as that from Trafalgar Square, Chelsea, to Sandhills, -Witley, was not without its effect upon Mrs. Allingham's Art. Hitherto -her work had, by the exigencies of fortune, lain almost wholly and -entirely in the direction of the figure. It was studio work, done for -the most part under pressure of time, the selection of subject being -none of hers, and therefore oftentimes altogether unsympathetic. -Finding herself now in the presence of Nature of a kind that appealed -to her, and which she could appreciate untrammelled by any conditions, -it is not surprising that--unwittingly, no doubt, at first--the -preference was given to that side of Art which presented itself under -so much more favourable conditions. - -The delight of painting _en plein air_ had first been tasted at Shere -in the spring and summer of 1878, where she was passionately happy in -watching the changes and developments of the seasons, being in the -fields, lanes, and copses all day and every day.[9] Almost as full a -feast had followed at Haslemere in 1880. When these were succeeded by -a permanent residence in front of Nature, studio work became more and -more trying and unsatisfactory. - -To most people of an artistic temperament the abandonment of the -figure for landscape would never have been the subject of a moment's -consideration, for it would have appeared to them the desertion of -a higher for a lower grade of Art. But from the time of her arrival -in the country there seems to have never been any doubt in Mrs. -Allingham's mind as to the direction which her Art should take. The -pleasure to which we have referred of sitting down in the open air -before Nature, whose aspects and moods she could select at her own -will, and at her own time, was infinitely preferable to the toil and -trouble of either illustrating the ideas of others, or building up -scenes, oftentimes improbable ones, of her own creation. From this -time onwards, then, we find her drifting away from the figure, but not -altogether, or at once, for as her family grew up, scenes in her house -life passed across her view which she enjoyed to place on record, and -for which the world thanks her: scenes of infant life in the nursery, -such as "Pat-a-cake" and "The Children's Tea"; in the schoolroom, such -as "Lessons"; and out of school hours, such as "Bubbles" and "The -Children's Maypole." In one and all of these it is her own family who -are the chief actors. - -The portrayal of her children in heads of a larger size than her usual -work was at this time seen by friends and others, who pressed upon -her commissions for effigies of their own little ones, a branch of -work which promptly drew down upon her the disapproval of Ruskin, who -wrote: "I am indeed sorrowfully compelled to express my regret that she -should have spent unavailing pains in finishing single heads, which are -at the best uninteresting miniatures, instead of fulfilling her true -gift, and doing what the Lord made her for in representing the gesture, -character, and humour of charming children in country landscapes." - -But this change naturally did not pass over her work all at once, -or even in a single year. Mrs. Allingham's presentations of the -countryside commenced in earnest shortly after her settling down at -Witley in 1881; but as will be seen by the dates of the pictures which -illustrate this chapter, the figure as the dominant feature continues -for another six years; in fact, during the whole of her seven and a -half years at Witley we find it now and again, and do not part with -it as such until 1890. Since then hardly a single example has come -from her brush. Mrs. Allingham gives as her reason for the change that -she came to the conclusion that she could put as much interest into a -figure two or three inches high as in one three times as large, and -that she could paint it better; for in painting large figures out of -doors it was always a difficulty in making them look anything else than -they were, namely, "posing models." - -But if the figure ceases to occupy the foremost position, it is still -there, and is always present to add a charming vitality to all that -she does. To people a landscape with figures, of captivating mien, -each taking its proper position, and each adding to the interest of -the whole, is a gift which is the property of but few landscapists. It -is indeed a gift, for we have before us the example of the greatest -landscapist of all, who the more he strove the more he failed. But -it is a gift which we believe many more might obtain by strenuous -endeavour. It is always a matter of surprise to the ignorant public -how it comes to pass that an artist who can draw nature admirably -should never attempt to learn the draftsmanship of the human figure, -by the omission of which from his work he deprives it of half its -interest and value. He often goes a step further, and shows not his -inability but his indolence by producing picture after picture, upon -the face of which no single instance occurs of the introduction of -man, beast, or bird, save and except a single unpretentious creature -of the lowest grade of the feathered creation; this, however, he -will draw sufficiently well to prove that he could, an he would, -double the interest in his landscapes. To the outsider this appears -incomprehensible in the person of those who apparently are thorough -artists, ardent in their profession. One meets such an one at table, -and even between the courses he cannot refrain from taking out his -pencil and covering the menu with his scribblings; but the same man -appears before Nature without a note-book, in which he might be storing -so many jottings, which would be of untold value to his work. - -Mrs. Allingham's case has been the entire contrary to this; she has, I -will not say toiled, for the garnering must be a pleasure, but stored, -many a time and oft, for future use, a mass of valuable material, so -that she is never at a loss for the right adjunct to fit the right -place. Her so doing was, in the first instance, due entirely to her -husband. He said, truly, that the introduction of animals and birds, -in fact, any form of life, gave scale and interest to a picture, and -he urged her to begin making studies from the first. There is not the -slightest doubt that she owed very much to him that habit of thinking -out fitting figures, as she has always tried, and with exceptional -success, as accessories to every landscape. - -Her sketch-books, consequently, are full not only of men, women, and -children, and their immediate belongings, but of most of the animal -life which follows in their train. I say "most," because for some -reason, which I have not elicited from her, she has preferences. -Horses, cattle, and sheep she will have but little of, only -occasionally introducing them in distant hay or harvest fields. The -only instances of anything akin to either in this book are the animals -in "The Goat Carriage," and "The Donkey Ride." Nor will she have much -to say to dogs, but for cats she has a great fondness, and they -animate a large number of her scenes. Fowls, pigeons, and the like she -paints to the life, and she apparently is thoroughly acquainted with -their habits; but other winged creatures, save an occasional robin, she -avoids. Rabbits, wild and tame, she often introduces. - -Her pictures being always typical of repose, she avoids much motion -in her figures. Her children even, seldom indulge in violent action, -unlike those of Birket Foster, who run races down hill, use the -skipping-rope, fly kites, and urge the horses in the lane out of their -accustomed foots-pace. - - * * * * * - -As typical examples of the drawings made in the early days at Witley, -and whilst the figure was the main object, we have selected the -following:-- - -[Illustration: -23. THE CHILDREN'S TEA -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. W. Hollins._ -Painted 1882.] - -This is the most important, and, to my mind, the most delightful of any -of Mrs. Allingham's creations; quite individual, and quite unlike the -work of any one else. Not only is the subject a charming one, but the -actors in it all hold one's attention. It is certainly destined in the -future to hold a high place among the examples of English water-colour -art. - -The scene is laid in Mrs. Allingham's dining-room at Sandhills, Witley, -and contains portraits of her children. The incidents are slight but -original. The mother is handing a cup of tea, but no one notices it, -for the eldest girl's attention is taken up with the old cat lapping -its milk, her younger sister, with her back to the window, is occupied -in feeding her doll, propped up against a cup, from a large bowl of -bread and milk, and the two other children are attracted to a sulphur -butterfly which has just alighted on a glass of lilies of the valley. -The _etceteras_ are painted as beautifully as the bigger objects; -note, for instance, the bowl of daffodils on the old oak cupboard, the -china on the table, and even the buns and the preserves. The whole -is suffused with the warmth of a spring afternoon, the season being -ascertainable by the budding trees outside, and the spring flowers -inside. Exception may be taken to the faces not being more in shadow -from a light which, although reflected from the tablecloth, is -apparently behind them, and to the tablecloth being whiter than the -sky, which it would not be. The fact, as regards the former, is that -the faces were also lit from a window behind the spectator, whilst the -latter is a permissible licence. - -[Illustration: -24. THE STILE -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. Alfred Shuttleworth._ -Painted 1883.] - -The effort of negotiating a country stile, such as the one here -depicted, which has no aids in the way of subsidiary steps, always -induces a desire to rest by the way. Especially is this the case when a -well-worn top affords a substantial seat. Time is evidently of little -importance to the two sisters, for they have lingered in the hazel -copse gathering hyacinths and primroses. Besides, the little one has -asserted her right to a meal, and that would of itself be a sufficient -excuse for lingering on the journey. The dog seems of the same way of -thinking, and is evidently eagerly weighing the chances as to how much -of the slice of bread and butter will fall to its share. - -The drawing is a rich piece of colouring, but the hedgerow bank, -with its profusion and variety of flowers, shows just that lack of a -restraining hand which is so evident in Mrs. Allingham's fully-matured -work. It was painted entirely in the open air, close to Sandhills, and -the model who sat for the little child is now the artist's housemaid. - -[Illustration: -25. "PAT-A-CAKE" -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Sir F. Wigan, Bt._ -Painted 1884.] - -This drawing, although painted later than "The Children's Tea," would -seem to be the prelude to a set in which practically the same figures -take a part. - -The motive here, as in all Mrs. Allingham's subjects, is of the -simplest kind. The young girl reads from nursery rhymes that -time-honoured one of "Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake, Baker's Man." It is -apparently her younger brother's first introduction to the bye-play of -patting, which should accompany its recitation, for the child regards -the performance with some doubt, and has to be trained by the nurse as -to how its hands should be manœuvred. - -The drawing is full of details, such as the workbox, scissors, thimble, -primroses, and anemones in the bowl, the china in the cupboard, and -the coloured engraving on the wall, which, as we have seen in the case -of other painters who have practised it, opens up in fuller maturity a -power of painting which is never possible to those who have neglected -such an education. - -[Illustration: -26. LESSONS -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. C. P. Johnson._ -Painted 1885.] - -The relations between the teacher and the taught appear to be somewhat -strained this summer morning, for the little girl in pink is evidently -at fault with her lessons, and the boy, while presumably figuring up a -sum on his slate, has his eyes and ears open for a break in the silence -which fills the room for the moment. However, in a short time it will -be halcyon weather for all the actors, for the sun is streaming in at -the window, the roses show that it is high summer, and a day on which -the sternest teacher could not condemn the most intractable child to -lengthy indoor imprisonment. - -This drawing is of the same importance as regards size as "The -Children's Tea," and is full of charm in every part. - -[Illustration: -27. BUBBLES -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. H. B. Beaumont._ -Painted 1886.] - -Lessons are over, a stool has been brought from the schoolroom, the -kitchen has been invaded, and the dish of soapsuds having been placed -upon it the fun has begun. Who, that has enjoyed it, will forget the -acrid taste of the long new churchwarden (where do the children of the -present day find such pipes if they ever condescend to the fascinating -game of bubble-blowing?) that one naturally sucked away at long before -the watery compound was ready, the still more pungent taste of the -household soap, the delight of seeing the first iridescent globe -detach itself from the pipe and float upwards on the still air, or of -raising a hundred globules by blowing directly into the basin, as the -smocked youngster is doing here. Such joys countervailed the smarts -which befell one's eyes when the burst bubble scattered its fragments -into them, or when the suds came to an end, not through their -dissipation into air, but over one's clothes. - -[Illustration: -28. ON THE SANDS--SANDOWN, ISLE OF WIGHT -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mrs. Francis Black._ -Painted about 1886.] - -The family of young children that was now growing up round our artist -naturally necessitated the summer holiday assuming a visit to the -seaside, and much of Mrs. Allingham's time was, no doubt, spent on the -shore in their company. It is little matter for surprise that this -pleasure was combined with that of welding them into pictures; and, if -an excuse must be made for Mrs. Allingham oftentimes robing her little -girls in pink, it is to be found in the fact that the models were -almost invariably her own children, who were so attired. It certainly -will not be one of the least agreeable incidents for those who saunter -over the illustrations of this volume to distinguish them and trace -their growth from the cradle onwards, until they pass out of the stage -of child models. - -This drawing was painted on the shore at Sandown, Isle of Wight, where -the detritus of the Culver chalk cliffs afforded, in combination with -the sand, splendid material for the early achievements in architecture -and estate planning which used to yield so healthy an occupation to -youngsters. - -It was a hazardous task to attempt success with such a variety of tones -of white as here presented themselves, but the result is entirely -satisfactory. In fact the drawing shows how readily and with what -success the painter took up another phase of outdoor work, not easy -of accomplishment. In those collections which include these seashore -subjects they single themselves out from all their neighbours by the -aptitude with which figures and a limpid sea are painted in sunshine. -This, again, is no doubt due to their having been entirely out-of-doors -work. - -[Illustration: -29. DRYING CLOTHES -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. C. P. Johnson._ -Painted 1886.] - -This important drawing, in which the figure is on a large scale, -makes one regret that Mrs. Allingham abandoned her portraiture, for a -more captivating life study it is hard to imagine. Flattery -apart, one may say that Frederick Walker never drew a more ideal -figure or conceived a more charming colour scheme. The only feature -which would perhaps have been omitted from a later work is that of -the foxgloves in the corner, which appears to be rather an artificial -introduction. The note of the little child behind the gate is charming. -It is evidently not allowed to wander in the field, although the -well-worn path shows that here is the main road to the cottage, and it -feels that a joy is denied it not to be allowed to participate in the -ceremony of gathering in of the family washing, as it was in younger -days when the clothes were hung out. - -[Illustration: -30. HER MAJESTY'S POST OFFICE -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. H. B. Beaumont._ -Painted 1887.] - -This, at the time it was painted, was the only Post Office of which -Bowler's Green, near Haslemere, boasted, and from its appearance it -might well have served during the reigns of several of Her Majesty's -predecessors. It speaks much for the absence of ill-disposed persons -in the neighbourhood that letters were for so long entrusted to its -care, as it seems far removed from the days of the scarlet funnel which -probably now replaces it. I opine that the young gentleman whom we saw -a short while ago engaged in bubble-blowing has been entrusted here -with the posting of a letter. - -[Illustration: -31. THE CHILDREN'S MAYPOLE -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mrs. Dobson._ -Painted 1886.] - -May Day still lingers in some parts of the country, for only last year -in an out-of-the-way lane in Northamptonshire the writer encountered a -band of children decked in flowers, and their best frocks and ribbons, -singing an old May ditty. But lovers have long ago ceased to plant -trees before their mistresses' doors, and to dance with them afterwards -round the maypole on the village green, which we too are old enough to -remember in Leicestershire. The ceremony that Mrs. Allingham's children -are taking a part in was doubtless the recognition by a poet of his -illustrious predecessor Spenser's exhortation:-- - - Youths folke now flocken in everywhere - To gather May baskets, and smelling briere; - And home they hasten, the postes to dight - With hawthorne buds, and sweet eglantine, - And girlonds of roses, and soppes in wine. - -The scene is laid in the woods at Witley. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE WOODS, THE LANES, AND THE FIELDS - - I've been dreaming all night, and thinking all day, of the hedgerows - of England; - They are in blossom now, and the country is all like a garden; - Thinking of lanes and of fields, and the song of the lark and the - linnet. - - -When Mrs. Allingham finally, I will not say determined to cut herself -away from figure painting, but by the influence of her surroundings -drifted away from it, she did not, as so many do, become the -delineator of a single phase of landscape art. Her journeyings in -search of subjects for some years were neither many nor extensive, -for a paintress with a family growing up around her has not the same -opportunities as a painter. He can leave his incumbrances in charge of -his wife, and his work will probably benefit by an occasional flitting -from home surroundings. But a mother's work would not thrive away from -her children even if absence was possible, which it probably was not in -Mrs. Allingham's case. Hence we find that the ground she has covered -has been almost entirely confined to what are termed the Home Counties, -with an occasional diversion to the Isle of Wight, Dorsetshire, -Gloucestershire, and Cheshire. In the Home Counties, Surrey and Kent -have furnished most of her material, the former naturally being -oftenest drawn upon during her life at Witley, and the latter since she -lived in London, whither she returned in the year 1888. This inability -to roam about whither she chose was doubtless helpful in compelling -her to vary her subjects, for she would of necessity have to paint -whatever came within her reach. But her energy also had its share, for -it enabled her to search the whole countryside wherever she was, and -gather in a dozen suitable scenes where another might only discover one. - -As evidence of this we may instance the case of the corner of Kent -whither she has gone again and again of late, and where in the present -year she has still been able to find ample material to her liking. -A visit to this somewhat out-of-the-way spot, which lies in Kent in -an almost identically similar position to that which Witley does in -Surrey, namely, in the extreme south-west corner, shows how she has -found material everywhere. In the mile that separates the station from -the farmhouse where she encamps, she shows a cottage that she has -painted from every side, a brick kiln that she has her eye on, an old -yew, and a clump of elms that has been most serviceable. Arriving at -the farm-gate she points to the modest floral display in front that -has sufficed for "In the Farmhouse Garden" (Plate 2), whilst over the -way are the buildings of "A Kentish Farmyard" (Plate 58). Entering the -house the visitor may not be much impressed with the view from her -sitting-room window, but under the artist's hands it has become the -silvern sheet of daisies reproduced in Plate 38. "On the Pilgrims' Way" -(Plate 41) is a field or so away, whilst a short walk up the downs -behind the house finds us in the presence of the originals of Plates 32 -and 36. A drive across the vale and we have Crockham Hill, whence comes -Plate 40, and Ide Hill, Plate 55. - -A ramble round these scenes, whilst a most enjoyable matter to any -one born to an appreciation of the country, was in truth not the -inspiration that would be imagined to the writer of the text, for he -had seen, for instance, the daintily conceived water-colour of "Ox-eye -Daisies" (Plate 38), painted a year ago, and he arrived at the field -to find this year's crop a failure, and on a day in which the distant -woods were hardly visible; the scene of the "Foxgloves" had all the -underwood grown up, and only a stray spike suggestive of the glory -of past years; gipsy tramps on the road to "berrying" (strawberry -gathering) conjured up no visions of the tenant of Mrs. Allingham's -"Spring on the Kentish Downs," but only a horrible thought of the -strawberries defiled by being picked by their hands. - -This description of the variety of the artist's work within a single -small area will show that it is somewhat difficult to classify it for -consideration. However, one or two arrangements and rearrangements of -the drawings which illustrate these phases of the artist's output seem -to bring them best into the following divisions: woods, lanes, and -fields; cottages; and gardens. These we shall therefore consider in -this and the following chapters, dealing here with the first of them. - -Midway in her life at Witley, The Fine Art Society induced Mrs. -Allingham to undertake, as the subject for an Exhibition, the portrayal -of the countryside under its four seasonal aspects of spring, summer, -autumn, and winter. She completed her task, and the result was shown -in 1886 in an Exhibition, but a glance at the catalogue shows in which -direction her preference lay; for whilst spring and summer between -them accounted for more than fifty pictures, only seven answered for -autumn, and six, of which one half were interiors, illustrated winter. -These proportions may not perhaps have represented the ratio of her -affections, but of her physical ability to portray each of the seasons. -Autumn leaves and tints no doubt appealed to her artistic eye as much -as spring or summer hues, but for some reason, perhaps that of health, -illustrations were few and far between of the time of year - - When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang - Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, - Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. - -In so selecting she differed from Mr. Ruskin, who has laid it down that -"a tree is never meant to be drawn with all its leaves on, any more -than a day when its sun is at noon. One draws the day in its morning -or eventide, the tree in its spring or autumn dress." This naturally -exaggerated dictum is the contrary of Mrs. Allingham's practice. She -almost invariably waits for the trees until they have completely -donned their spring garb, and leaves them ere they doff their summer -dress. - -The drawings of the woods, lanes, and fields which Mrs. Allingham has -selected for illustration here comprise six of spring, three of summer, -and two of autumn, winter being unrepresented. They are culled as to -seven from Kent, three from Surrey, and a single one from Hertfordshire. - -Taking them in their seasonal order we may discuss them as follows:-- - -[Illustration: -32. SPRING ON THE KENTISH DOWNS -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mrs. Beddington._ -Painted 1900.] - - Out of the city, far away - With spring to-day! - Where copses tufted with primrose - Give one repose. - WILLIAM ALLINGHAM. - -That the joy of spring is a never-failing subject for poets, any one -may see who turns over the pages of the numerous compilations which -now treat of Nature. I doubt, however, whether they receive a higher -pleasure from it than does the townsman who can only walk afield at -rare intervals, and whose first visit to the country each year is taken -at Eastertide. He probably has no eye save for the contrasts which he -experiences to his daily life, of scene, air, and vitality, but these -will certainly infect him with a healthier love of life than is enjoyed -by those who live amongst them and see them come and go. - -Fortunate is the man who can visit these Kentish downs at a time when -the breath of spring is touching everything, when the eastern air makes -one appreciate the shelter that the hazel copses fringing their sides -afford, an appreciation which is shared by the firs which hug their -southern slopes. - -It is very early spring in this drawing. The highest trees show no sign -of it save at their outermost edges. Hazels alone, and they only in the -shelter, have shed their flowery tassels, and assumed a leafage which -is still immature in colour. The sprawling trails of the traveller's -joy, which rioted over everything last autumn, are still without any -trace of returning vitality. - -[Illustration: -33. TIG BRIDGE -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. E. S. Curwen._ -Painted 1887.] - - Here the white ray'd anemone is born, - Wood-sorrel, and the varnish'd buttercup; - And primrose in its purfled green swathed up, - Pallid and sweet round every budding thorn. - WILLIAM ALLINGHAM. - -This little sequestered bridge would hardly seem to be of sufficient -importance to deserve a name, nor for the matter of that the streamlet, -the Tigbourne, which runs beneath it, but on the Hindhead slope -streams of any size are scarce, and therefore call for notice. Bridges -resemble stiles in being enforced loitering places, for whilst there -is no effort which compels a halt in crossing bridges, as there is -with stiles, there is the sense of mystery which underlies them, and -expectancy as to what the water may contain. Especially is this so for -youth; and so here we have boy and girl who pause on their way from -bluebell gathering, whilst the former makes belief of fishing with the -thread of twine which youngsters of his age always find to hand in one -or other of their pockets. - -[Illustration: -34. SPRING IN THE OAKWOOD -_From the Water-colour in the possession of the Artist._ -Painted 1903.] - -We have elsewhere remarked on the rare occasions on which Mrs. -Allingham utilises sunlight and shadow. Here, however, is one of them, -and one which shows that it is from no incapacity to do so, for it is -now introduced with a difficult effect, namely, blue flowers under -a low raking light. The artist's eye was doubtless attracted by the -unusual visitation of a bright warm sun on a spring day, and determined -to perpetuate it. - -The wood in which the scene is laid is on the Kentish Downs, where, as -the distorted boughs show, the winds are always in evidence. - -The juxtaposition of the two primaries, blue and yellow, is always a -happy one in nature, but specially is it so when we have such a mass of -sapphire blue. - - Blue, gentle cousin of the forest green, - Married to green in all the sweetest flowers-- - Forget-me-not, the bluebell, and that queen - Of secrecy the violet. - -[Illustration: -35. THE CUCKOO -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. A. Hugh Thompson._ -Painted about 1887.] - -In a recent "One Man Exhibition" by that refined artist Mr. Eyre -Walker, there was a very unusual drawing entitled "Beauty for Ashes." -The entire foreground was occupied with a luxuriant growth of purple -willow loosestrife, intermixed with the silvery white balls of down -from seeding nipplewort. Standing gaunt from this intermingling, -luxuriant crop, were the charred stems of burnt fir trees, whilst -the living mass of their fellows formed an agreeable background. The -subject must have attracted many travellers on the South-Western -Railway as they passed Byfleet; it did so in Mr. Walker's case to the -extent that he stayed his journey and painted it. - -In that case this beautiful display had, as the title to the picture -hints, arisen from the ashes of a forest. A spark from a train had set -fire to the wood, and had apparently destroyed every living thing in -its course. But such is Nature that out of death sprang life. So it has -been with the coppice here, and in the oakwood scene which preceded -it. The cutting down and clearing of the wood has brought sun, air, and -rain to the soil, and as a consequence have followed the - - Sheets of hyacinth - That seem the heavens upbreaking thro' the earth. - -The drawing takes its name from the cuckoo whose note has arrested the -children's attention. - -[Illustration: -36. THE OLD YEW TREE -_From the Water-colour in the possession of the Artist._ -Painted 1903.] - - The sad yew is seen - Still with the black cloak round his ancient wrongs. - WILLIAM ALLINGHAM. - -One of many that are dotted about the southern slopes of the Westerham -Downs, and that, not only here but all along the line of the Pilgrims' -Way, are regarded as having their origin in these devotees. The drawing -was made in the early part of the present year, when the primroses and -violets were out, but before there was anything else, save the blossom -of the willow, to show that - - The spring comes slowly up this way, - Slowly, slowly! - To give the world high holiday. - -[Illustration: -37. THE HAWTHORN VALLEY, BROCKET -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Lord Mount-Stephen._ -Painted 1898.] - -It is somewhat remarkable that the most impressive flower-show that -Nature presents to our notice, namely, when, as May passes into June, -the whole countryside is decked with a bridal array of pure white, -should have taken hold of but few of our poets. - -Shakespeare, of course, recognised it in lines which make one smile at -the idea that they could ever have been composed by a town-bred poet:-- - - O what a life were this! How sweet, how lovely! - Gives not the hawthorn-bush a sweeter shade - To shepherds, looking on their silly sheep, - Than doth a rich embroidered canopy - To kings that fear their subjects' treachery. - -Another, in the person of Mrs. Allingham's husband, penned a sonnet -upon it containing the following happy description:-- - - Cluster'd pearls upon a robe of green, - And broideries of white bloom. - -The scene of this drawing is laid in the park at Brocket Hall, to which -reference is made in connection with a subsequent illustration (Plate -65). The park is full of ancient timber, one great oak on the border of -the two counties (Herts and Beds) being mentioned in Doomsday Book, and -another going by the name of Queen Elizabeth's oak, from the tradition -that the Princess was sitting under it when the news reached her that -she was Queen of England.[10] The Hawthorn Valley runs for nearly a -mile from one of the park entrances towards the more woodland part of -the estate, and was formerly used as a private race-course. - -The artist has treated a very difficult subject with success, as any -one, especially an amateur, who has tried to portray masses of hawthorn -blossom will readily admit. Any attempt to draw the flowers and fill in -the foliage is hopeless, and it can only be done, as in this case, by -erasure. Hardly less difficult to accomplish are the delicate fronds of -the young bracken, unfolding upwards by inches a day, which can only -be treated suggestively. In the original, which is on a somewhat large -scale, the middle distance is enlivened with browsing rabbits, but the -very considerable reduction of the drawing has reduced these to a size -which renders them hardly distinguishable. - -[Illustration: -38. OX-EYE DAISIES, NEAR WESTERHAM, KENT -_From the Water-colour in the possession of the Artist._ -Painted 1902.] - -Whilst no Exhibition passes nowadays which has not one or more -representations of the "blithe populace" of daisies, the fashion has -only come in of late years. Even the Flemings, who were so partial to -the flowers of the field, seem to have considered it beneath their -notice--a strange occurrence, because one can hardly turn over the -pages of any missal of a corresponding epoch without coming upon many a -faithful representation of the rose-encircled orb. - -Chaucer extolled it - - Above all the flow'res in the mead - Then love I most these flow'res white and red, - Such that men callen daisies in our town. - -And much content it gave him - - To see this flow'r against the sunne spread. - When it upriseth early by the morrow - That blissful sight softeneth all my sorrow. - -He recognised its name of "day's eye," because it opens and closes its -flower with the daylight, in the lines-- - - The daisie or els the eye of the daie, - The emprise and the floure of floures alle. - -In fact it was a favourite with English poets long before it came under -the notice of English painters. Witness Milton's well-known line-- - - Meadows trim with daisies pied. - -It was not until the epoch of the pre-Raphaelite brethren that the -daisies which pie the meadows seemed worthy of perpetuation, and it was -reserved to Frederick Walker, in his "Harbour of Refuge," to limn them -on a lawn falling beneath the scythe. - -The flower that Mrs. Allingham has painted with so much skill--for -it is a very difficult undertaking to suggest a mass of daisies -without too much individualising--is not, of course, the field daisy -(_bellis perennis_) but the ox-eye, or moon daisy, which is really -a chrysanthemum (_chrysanthemum leucanthemum_), a plant which seems -to have increased very much of late years, especially on railway -embankments, maybe because it has come into vogue, and actually -been advanced to a flower worthy of gathering and using as a table -decoration, an honour that would never have been bestowed on it a -quarter of a century ago. - -The drawing was made from the window of the farmhouse in Kent, to -which, as we have said, Mrs. Allingham runs down at all seasons. It -was evidently made on a glorious summer day, when every flower had -expanded to its utmost under the delicious heat of a ripening sun. The -bulbous cloudlet which floats in front of the whiter strata, and the -blueness of the distant woods may augur rain in the near future, but -for the moment everything appears to be in a serenely happy condition, -except perhaps the farmer, who would fain see a crop in which there was -less flower and more grass. - -[Illustration: -39. FOXGLOVES -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mrs. C. A. Barton._ -Painted 1898.] - -Foxgloves have appealed to Mrs. Allingham for portrayal in more than -one locality in England, but never in greater luxuriance than on -this Kentish woodside, where their spikes overtop the sweet little -sixteen-year-old faggot-carrier. It happens to be another instance of a -magnificent crop springing up the first year after a growth of saplings -have been cleared away, and not to be repeated even in this year of -grace (1903) when the newspapers have been full of descriptions of the -unwonted displays of foxgloves everywhere, and have been taunting the -gardeners upon their poor results in comparison with Nature's. - -[Illustration: -40. HEATHER ON CROCKHAM HILL, KENT -_From the Water-colour in the possession of the Artist._ -Painted 1902.] - -It is perhaps a fallacy, or at least heresy, to assert that English -heather bears away the palm for beauty over that of the country with -which it is more popularly associated. But many, I am sure, will agree -with me that nowhere in Scotland is any stretch of heather to be found -which can eclipse in its magnificence of colour that which extends -for mile after mile over Surrey and Kentish commonland in mid August. -In the summer in which this drawing was painted it was especially -noticeable as being in more perfect bloom than it had been known to be -for many seasons. - -[Illustration: -41. ON THE PILGRIMS' WAY -_From the Water-colour in the possession of the Artist._ -Painted 1902.] - -I was taken to task by Mrs. Allingham a while ago for saying that her -affections were not so set upon the delineation of harvesting -as were those of most landscapists, and she stated that she had painted -the sheafed fields again and again. But I held to my assertion, and -proof comes in this drawing just handed to me. Not one artist in ten -would, I am certain, have sat down to his subject on this side of the -hedge, but would have been over the stile, and made his foreground -of the shorn field and stacked sheaves, breaking their monotony of -form and colour by the waggon and its attendant labourers. But Mrs. -Allingham could not pass the harvest of the hedge, and was satisfied -with just a peep of the corn through the gap formed by the stile. It -is not surprising, for who that is fond of flowers could pass such a -gladsome sight as the display which Nature has so lavishly offered -month after month the summer through to those who cared to notice it. -In May the hedge was white with hawthorn, in June gay with dog-roses -and white briar, in July with convolvuli and woodbine, and now again in -August comes the clematis and the blackberry flower. - -[Illustration: -42. NIGHT-JAR LANE, WITLEY -_From the Drawing in the possession of Mr. E. S. Curwen._ -Painted 1887.] - -One of those steep self-made roads which the passage of the seasons -rather than of man has furrowed and deepened in "the flow of the deep -still wood," a lodgment for the leaves from whose depths that charming -lament of the dying may well have arisen,-- - - Said Fading Leaf to Fallen Leaf, - "I toss alone on a forsaken tree, - It rocks and cracks with every gust that rocks - Its straining bulk: say! how is it with thee?" - - Said Fallen Leaf to Fading Leaf, - "A heavy foot went by, an hour ago; - Crush'd into clay, I stain the way; - The loud wind calls me, and I cannot go." - -The name "Night-Jar," by which this lane is known, is unusual, and -probably points to its having been a favourite hunting-ground for a -seldom-seen visitant, for which it seems well-fitted. The name may -well date back to White of Selborne's time, who lived not far away, -and termed the bird "a wonderful and curious creature," which it must -be if, as he records, it commences its jar, or note, every evening -so exactly at the close of day that it coincided to a second with the -report--which he could distinguish in summer--of the Portsmouth evening -gun. - -Night-jars are most deceptive in their flight, one or two giving an -illusion of many by their extremely rapid movements and turns; and they -may well have been very noticeable to persons in the confined space -of this gully, especially as the observer in his evening stroll would -probably stir up the moths, which are the bird's favourite food, and -which would attract it into his immediate vicinity. How much interest -would be added to a countryside were the lanes all fitted with titles -such as this. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -COTTAGES AND HOMESTEADS - -The ancient haunts of men have numberless tongues for those who know -how to hear them speak. - - -It was not until some fifteen years of Mrs. Allingham's career as -a painter in water-colour had been accomplished that she found the -subject with which her name has since been so inseparably linked. -Looking through the ranks of her associates in the Art it is in -rare instances that we encounter so complete a departure out of a -long-practised groove, or one which has been so amply justified. But -in selecting English Cottages and Homesteads, and peopling them with a -comely tenantry, she happened upon a theme that was certain not only -to obtain the suffrages of the ordinary exhibition visitors, but of -those who add to seeing, admiration and acquisition. Thus it has come -to pass that in the other fifteen years which have elapsed since she -first began to paint them, "Mrs. Allingham's Cottages" have become a -household word amongst connoisseurs of English water-colours, and no -representative collection has been deemed to be complete without an -example of them. - -This appreciation is very assuredly a sound one, as the value of -these pictures does not consist solely in their beauty as works of -Art, but in their recording in line and colour a most interesting but -unfortunately vanishing phase of English domestic architecture. For the -cottages are almost without exception veritable portraits, the artist -(whilst naturally selecting those best suited to her purpose) having -felt it a duty to present them with an accuracy of structural feature -which is not always the case in creations of this kind, where the -painter has had other views, and considered that he could improve his -picture by an addition here and an omission there. - -So many of Mrs. Allingham's drawings of cottages have been taken from -the counties of Surrey and Sussex, that it may interest not only -the owners of those here reproduced, but others who possess similar -subjects, to read a short description of the features that distinguish -the buildings in these districts. - -One is perhaps too apt to pass these lowlier habitations of our -fellow-men, whether we see them in reality or in their counterfeits, -without a thought as to their structure, or an idea that it is an -evolution which has grown on very marked lines from primitive types, -and which in almost every instance has been influenced by local -surroundings. - -In the early days of housebuilding the use of local materials was -naturally a distinctive feature of dwellings of every kind, but more -especially in those where expenditure had to be kept within narrow -limits. But even in such a case the style of architecture affected in -the better built houses influenced and may be traced in the more humble -ones. Change amongst our forefathers was even less hastily assumed than -in these days, and a style which experience had proved to be convenient -was persevered in for generation after generation, individuality seldom -having any play, although a necessary adaptation to the site gave to -most buildings a distinction of their own. One of the earliest forms, -and one still to be found even in buildings which have now descended -to the use of yeomen's dwellings, was that of a large central room -having on one side of it the smaller living and sleeping rooms, and on -the other the kitchens and servants' apartments, the wings projecting -sometimes both to back and front, sometimes only to the latter. -In later times, as such a house fell into less well-to-do hands, -necessity usually compelled the splitting-up of the house into various -tenements, in which event the central room was generally divided into -compartments, often into a complete dwelling. Types of this kind may be -found in most villages in the south-eastern counties, and examples will -be seen in "The Six Bells" (Plate 57) and the house at West Tarring, -near Worthing (Plate 51), where the central portion falls back from the -gabled ends. This arrangement of a central hall used for a living room, -after going out of favour for some centuries, is curiously enough once -more coming into fashion. - -Local materials having, as we have said, much to do with the structure, -the type of dwelling that we may expect to find in counties where -wood was plentiful, and the cost of preparing and putting it on the -ground less than that of quarrying, shaping, and carrying stone, is the -picturesque, timber-formed cottage. Those interested in the plan of -construction, which was always simple, of these will find full details -in Mr. Guy Dawber's Introduction to _Old Cottages and Farm Houses in -Kent and Sussex_, as well as many illustrations of examples that occur -in these counties. - -The materials other than wood used for the framework, and which were -necessary to fill up the interstices, were, in the better class of -dwellings, bricks; in others, a consistency formed of chopped straw and -clay, an outward symmetry of appearance being gained by a covering of -plaster where it was not deemed advisable to protect the woodwork, and -of boarding or tiles where the whole surface called for protection. -Several of the cottages illustrated in this volume have been protected -by these tilings on some part or another, perhaps only on a gable end, -most often on the upper story, sometimes over the whole building, but -of course, principally, where it was most exposed to the weather (see -Cherry-Tree Cottage, Plate 43; Chiddingfold, Plate 44; Shottermill, -Plate 49; and Valewood Farm, Plate 50). This purpose of the tile in -the old houses, and its use only for protection, distinguishes them -from the modern erections, where it is oftentimes affixed in the most -haphazard style, and clearly without any idea of fitting it where it -will be most serviceable. - -The space in the interior was very irregularly apportioned, whilst the -cubic space allotted to living rooms, both on the ground and first -floors, was singularly insufficient for modern hygienic views. A -reason for the small size of the rooms may have been that it enabled -them to be more readily warmed, either by the heat given off by the -closely-packed indwellers, or by the small wood fires which alone could -be indulged in. Little use was made of the large space in the roof, but -this omission adds much to the picturesqueness of the exterior, for the -roofs gain in simplicity by their unbroken surface and treatment. It -is somewhat astonishing that the old builders did not recognise this -costly disregard of space. - -The roofs, like the framework, testify to the geological formation and -agricultural conditions of the district. - -The roof-tree was always of hand-hewn oak, and this it was, according -to Birket Foster, which gave to many of the old roofs their pleasant -curves away from the central chimney. The ordinary unseasoned sawn deal -of the modern roof may swag in any direction. - -The roof-covering where the land was chiefly arable, or the distance -from market considerable, was usually wheaten thatch, which was -certainly the most comfortable, being warm in winter and cool in -summer, just the reverse of the tiles or slates that have practically -supplanted it.[11] In other districts the cottages are covered with -what are known as stone slates, thick and heavy. Roofs to carry the -weight of these had always to be flattened, with the result that they -require mortaring to keep out the wet. The West Tarring cottage (Plate -51) is an instance of a stone roofing. - -The red tiles, which were used for the most part, are certainly the -most agreeable to the artistic eye, for their seemingly haphazard -setting, due in part to the builder and in part to nature, affords that -pleasure which always arises from an unstudied irregularity of line. -Roof tiles were made thicker and less carefully in the old days, and -our artist's truth in delineation may be detected in almost any drawing -by examining where the weight has swagged away the tiles between the -main roof beams. - -Unlike chimneys erected by our cottage builders of to-day, which appear -to issue out of a single mould, those of the untutored architects of -the past present every variety of treatment and appearance. - -The old solidly built chimney seen in many of Mrs. Allingham's cottages -(Chiddingfold, Plate 44) is worthy of note as a type of many sturdy -fellows which have resisted the ravages of time, and have stood for -centuries almost without need of repair. In old days the chimney was -regarded not only as a special feature but as an ornament, and not as -a necessary but ugly excrescence. Although probably it only served -for one room in the house, that service was an important one, and so -materials were liberally used in its construction. - -In Kent and Sussex many of the chimneys are of brick, although the -house and the base of the chimney-stack are of stone. This arose from -the stone not lending itself to thin slabs, and consequently being -altogether too cumbrous and bulky. - -The windows in the old cottages were naturally small when glass was a -luxury, and became fewer in number when a tax upon light was one of -the means for carrying on the country's wars. They were usually filled -with the smallest panes, fitted into lead lattice, so that breakages -might be reduced to the smallest area. Not much of this remains, but a -specimen of it is to be seen in the Old Buckinghamshire House (Plate -52). One of the few alterations that Mrs. Allingham allows herself is -the substitution of these diamond lattices throughout a house where she -finds a single example in any of the lights, or if, as she has on more -than one occasion found, that they have been replaced by others, and -are themselves stacked up as rubbish. She has in her studio some that -have been served in this way, and which have now become useful models. - -It would be imagined that the sense of pride in these, the last traces -of their village ancestors, would have prompted their descendants, -whether of the same kin or not, to deal reverently with them, and -endeavour to hand on as long as possible these silent witnesses to -the honest workmanship of their forbears. Such, unfortunately, is -but seldom the case. If any one will visit Witley with this book in -his hand, and compare the present state of the few examples given -there, not twenty years after they were painted, he will see what is -taking place not only in this little village but through the length -and breadth of England. It is not always wilful on the part of the -landlord, but arises from either his lack of sympathy, time, or -interest. - -He probably has a sense of his duty to "keep up" things, and so sends -his agent to go round with an architect and settle a general plan -for doing up the old places (usually described as "tumbling down" or -"falling to pieces"). Thereupon a village builder makes an estimate -and sends in a scratch pack of masons and joiners, and between them -they often supplant fine old work, most of it as firm as a rock, -with poor materials and careless labour, and rub out a piece of old -England, irrecoverable henceforth by all the genius in the world and -all the money in the bank. The drainage and water supply, points where -improvement is often desirable, may be left unattended to. But whatever -else is decided on, no uneven tiled roofs, with moss and houseleek, -must remain; no thatch on any pretence, nor ivy on the wall, nor vine -along the eaves. The cherry or apple tree, that pushed its blossoms -almost into a lattice, will probably be cut down, and the wild rose and -honeysuckle hedge be replaced by a row of pales or wires. The leaden -lattice itself and all its fellows, however perfect, must inevitably -give place to a set of mean little square windows of unseasoned wood, -though perhaps on the very next property an architect is building -imitation old cottages with lattices! With the needful small repairs, -most of the real old cottages would have lasted for many generations -to come, to the satisfaction of their inhabitants and the delight of -all who can feel the charm of beauty combined with ancientness--a -charm once lost, lost for ever. And unquestionably the well-repaired -old cottages would generally be more comfortable than the new or the -done-up ones, to say nothing of the "sentiment" of the cottager. -An old man, who was in a temporary lodging during the doing-up of -his cottage, being asked, "When shall you get back to your house?" -answered, "In about a month, they tells me; but it won't be like going -home." At the same time it is fair to add that many of the "doings-up" -in Mrs. Allingham's country are of good intention and less ruthless -execution than may be seen elsewhere, and that certain owners show a -real feeling of wise conservatism. It would perhaps be a low estimate, -however, to say that a thousand ancient cottages are now disappearing -in England every twelvemonth, without trace or record left--many that -Shakespeare might have seen, some Chaucer; while the number "done up" -is beyond computation. - -The baronial halls have had abundant recognition and laudation at the -hands of the historian and the painter; the numerous manor-houses, less -pretentious, often more lovely, very little; the old cottages next -to none, even the local chronicler running his spectacles over them -without a pause. - -It really looks as if we were, one and all, constituted as a poet has -seen us:-- - - For, don't you mark, we're made so that we love - First when we see them painted, things we have passed - Perhaps a hundred times nor cared to see; - And so they are better, painted--better to us, - Which is the same thing. Art was given for that-- - God uses us to help each other so, - Lending our minds out. - -Had Mrs. Allingham done nothing else for her country, she has justified -her career as a recorder of this altogether overlooked phase of -English architecture--a phase which will soon be a thing of the past. - -I remember once being accosted by a bystander in Angers, as I was -wrestling with the perspective of a beautiful old house, with the -remark, "Ah, you had better hurry more than you are doing and finish -the roof of that house, for it will be off to-morrow and the whole -down in three days." That has often been the case with Mrs. Allingham. -More than once a cottage limned one summer has disappeared before the -drawing was exhibited the following spring. Year in and year out the -process has been at work during the quarter of a century during which -the artist has been garnering, and it has almost come to be a joke that -were she to paint as long again as she has, she might have to cease -from actual lack of material. - - * * * * * - -Our illustrations of cottages divide themselves into, first the -examples in the immediate neighbourhood of Sandhills; and secondly, -those farther afield in Kent, Buckingham, Dorset, the Isle of Wight, -and Cheshire. - -Those near Sandhills form points in the circumference of a -circle of which it is the centre, the most southern being Chiddingfold, -where we start on our survey. - -[Illustration: -43. CHERRY-TREE COTTAGE, CHIDDINGFOLD -_From the Water-colour in the possession of the Lord Chief Justice of -England._ -Painted 1885.] - -The old hamlet of Chiddingfold lies about as far to the south as Witley -does to the north of the station on the London and South-Western -Railway which bears their joint names. It boasts of a very ancient -inn, "The Crown,"--formed, it is said, in part out of a monastic -building,--and a large village green. Cherry-Tree Cottage is, as will -be seen, the milk shop of the place, and, if we may judge from the -coming and going in Mrs. Allingham's picture, carries on an animated, -prosperous trade at certain times of the day. - -[Illustration: -44. COTTAGE AT CHIDDINGFOLD -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. H. L. Florence._ -Painted 1889.] - -We have here a March day, or rather one of the type associated with -that month, but which usually visits us with increasing severity as -April and May and the summer progress. Wind in the east, with the sky -a cold, steely blue in the zenith, greying even the young elm shoots a -stone's-throw distant. The cottage almanack, Old Moore's, will foretell -that night frosts will prevail, and the cottager will be fearsome of -its effect upon his apple crop, always so promising in its blossom, -so scanty in its fulfilment. Splendid weather for the full-blooded -lassies, who can tarry to gossip without fear of chills, and also for -drying clothes on the hedgerow, but nipping for the old beldame who -tends them, and who has to wrap up against it with shawl and cap. - - Laburnum, rich - In streaming gold, - -competes in colour with the spikes of the broom, which the artist must -have been thankful to the hedgecutter for sparing as he passed his -shears along its surface when last he trimmed it. For some reason the -broom bears an ill repute hereabouts as bringing bad luck, although -in early times it was put to a desirable use, as Gerard tells us that -"that worthy Prince of famous memory, Henry VIII. of England, was wont -to drink the distilled water of Broome floures." Wordsworth also -gives it[12] a special word in his lines-- - - Am I not - In truth a favour'd plant? - On me such bounty summer showers, - That I am cover'd o'er with flowers; - And when the frost is in the sky, - My branches are so fresh and gay, - That you might look on me and say-- - "This plant can never die." - -The cottage contains a typical example of the massive central chimney, -and also an end one, which it is unusual to find in company with the -other in so small a dwelling. Note also the weather tiling round the -gable end and the upper story. - -[Illustration: -45. A COTTAGE AT HAMBLEDON -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. F. Pennington._ -Painted 1888.] - -For those who read between the lines there are plenty of pretty -allegories connected with these drawings. This, for instance, might -well be termed "Youth and Age." The venerable cottage in its declining -years, so appropriately set in a framework of autumn tints and -flowers, supported on its colder side by the tendrils of ivy, almost of -its own age, but on its warmer side maturing a fruitful vine, emblem -of the mother and child which gather at the gate, and of the brood of -fowls which busily search the wayside. - -[Illustration: -46. IN WORMLEY WOOD -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mrs. Le Poer Trench._ -Painted 1886.] - -Half a century ago most of the old dwellings on the Surrey border were -thatched with good wheaten straw from the Weald of Sussex, but thatch -will soon be a thing of the past, partly for the reason that there -are no thatchers (or "thackers" as they are called in local midland -dialect) left, principally because the straw, of which they consumed -a good deal, and which used to be a cheap commodity and not very -realisable, in villages whose access to market was difficult, now finds -a ready sale. Locomotion has also enabled slates to be conveyed from -hundreds of miles away, and placed on the ground at a less rate than -straw. - -Thus the old order changeth, and without any regard to the comfort of -the tenant, whose roof, as I have already said, instead of consisting -of a covering which was warm in winter and cool in summer, is now one -which is practically the reverse. Strawen roofs are easy of repair or -renewal, and look very trim and cosy when kept in condition. - -At the time when this drawing was painted this cottage, lying snugly in -the recesses of Wormley Wood (whose pines always attract the attention -as the train passes them just before Witley station is reached), was -the last specimen of thatch in the neighbourhood, and it only continued -so to be through the intervention of a well-known artist who lived not -far off. That artist is dead, and probably in the score of years which -have since elapsed the thatch has gone the way of the rest, and the -harmony of yellowish greys which existed between it and its background -have given way to a gaudy contrast of unweathered red tiles or cold -unsympathetic blue slates. - -The cottage itself may well date back to Tudor times, and the -sweetwilliams, pansies, and lavender which border the path leading -to it may be the descendants of far-away progenitors, culled by a -long-forgotten labourer in his master's "nosegay garden," which at -that time was a luxury of the well-to-do only. - -Many of the flowers found in this plot of ground were in early days -conserved in the gardens of the simple folk rather for their medicinal -use than their decorative qualities. Such was certainly the case with -lavender. "The floures of lavender do cure the beating of the harte," -says one contemporary herbal; and another written in Commonwealth times -says, "They are very pleasing and delightful to the brain, which is -much refreshed with their sweetness." It was always found in the garden -of women who pretended to good housewifery, not only because the heads -of the flowers were used for "nosegays and posies," but for putting -into "linen and apparel." - -[Illustration: -47. THE ELDER BUSH, BROOK LANE, WITLEY -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. Marcus Huish._ -Painted 1887.] - -Those who are ingenious enough to see the inspiration of another hand -in every work that an artist produces would probably raise an outcry -against anybody infringing the copyright which they consider that -Collins secured more than half a century ago for the children swinging -on a gate in his "Happy as a King." But who that examines with any -interest or care the figures in this water-colour could for a moment -believe that Mrs. Allingham had ever had Collins even unconsciously -in her mind when she put in these happy little mortals as adjuncts to -her landscape. Having enjoyed at ages such as theirs a swing on many a -gate, one can testify that these children must have been seen, studied, -and put in from the life and on the spot. See how the elder girl leans -over the gate, with perfect self-assurance, directing the boy as to -how far back the gate may go; how the younger one has to climb a rung -higher than her sister in order to obtain the necessary purchase with -her arms, and even then she can only do so with a strain and with a -certain nervousness as to the result of the jar when the gate reaches -the post on its return. Again, some one has to do the swinging, and -Mrs. Allingham has given the proper touch of gallantry by making the -second in age of the party, a boy, the first to undertake this part of -the business. The excitement of the moment has communicated itself to -the youngest of the family, who raises his stick to cheer as the gate -swings to. Although painted within thirty miles of London, the age of -cheap rickety perambulators had not reached the countryside when this -drawing was made nearly twenty years ago, and so we see the youngest in -a sturdy, hand-made go-cart. - -The country folk who passed the artist when she was making this -drawing wondered doubtless at her selection of a point of sight where -practically nothing but roof and wall of the building were visible, -when a few steps farther on its front door and windows might have made -a picture; but the charm of the drawing exists in this simplicity -of subject, the greatest pleasure being procurable from the least -important features, such, for instance, as the lichen-covered and -leek-topped wall, and the untended, buttercup-flecked bank on which it -stands. The locality of the drawing is Brook Lane, near Witley, and -the drawing was an almost exact portrait of the cottage as it stood in -1886, but since then it has been modernised like the majority of its -fellows, and though the oak-timbered walls, tiled roof, and massive -chimney still stand, the old curves of the roof-tree have gone, and -American windows have replaced the old lattices. The other side of -the house, as it then appeared, has been preserved to us in the next -picture. - -[Illustration: -48. THE BASKET WOMAN -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mrs. Backhouse._ -Painted 1887.] - -The art critic of _The Times_, in speaking of the Exhibition where this -drawing was exhibited, singled it out as "taking rank amongst the very -best of Mrs. Allingham's work, and the very model of what an English -water-colour should be, with its woodside cottage, its tangled hedges, -its background of sombre fir trees, and figures of the girl with -basket, and of the cottagers to whom she is offering her wares, showing -as it does intense love for our beautiful south country landscape, with -the power of seizing its most picturesque aspects with truth of eye and -delicacy of hand." - -To my mind the most remarkable feature of the drawing is the way in -which the long stretch of hedge has been managed. In most hands it -would either be a monotonous and uninteresting feature or an absolute -failure, for the difficulty of lending variety of surface and texture -to so large a mass is only known to those who have attempted it; it -could only be effected by painting it entirely from nature and on the -spot, as was the case here. Many would have been tempted to break it -up by varieties of garden blooms, but Mrs. Allingham has only relieved -it by a stray spray or two of wild honeysuckle, which never flowers in -masses, and a few white convolvuli. - -That we are not far removed from the small hop district which is to -be found west and northward of this part is evidenced by the hops -which the old woman was in course of plucking from the pole when her -attention was arrested by the wandering pedlar. This and the apples -ripening on the straggling apple tree show the season to be early -autumn, whereas the elder bush in the companion drawing puts its season -as June. - -[Illustration: -49. COTTAGE AT SHOTTERMILL, NEAR HASLEMERE -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. W. D. Houghton._ -Painted 1891.] - -Each of three counties may practically claim this cottage for one of -its types, for it lies absolutely at the junction of Surrey, Sussex, -and Hampshire. - -For a single tenement it is particularly roomy, and a comfortable -one to boot, for its screen of tiles is carried so low down. - -It was a curious mood of the artist's to sit down square in front of it -and paint its paling paralleling across the picture, a somewhat daring -stroke of composition to carry on the line of white tiling with one of -white clothes. The sky displays an unusual departure from the artist's -custom, as the whole length of it is banked up with banks of cumuli. - -The figures and the empty basket point to a little domestic episode. -Boy and girl have been sent on an errand, but have not got beyond the -farther side of the gate before they betake themselves to a loll on -the grass, which has lengthened out to such an extent that the old -grand-dame comes to the cottage door to look for their return, little -witting that they are quietly crouched within a few feet of her, hidden -behind the paling, over which lavender, sweet-pea, roses, peonies, and -hollyhocks nod at them. They are even less conscious of wrong-doing and -of impending scoldings than the cat, which sneaks homewards after a -lengthened absence on a poaching expedition. - -[Illustration: -50. VALEWOOD FARM -_From the Water-colour in the possession of the Artist._ -Painted 1903.] - -Valewood is over the ridge which protects Haslemere on the south, and -is a very pretty vale of sloping meadows fringed with wood, all under -the shadow of Blackdown, to which it belongs. This is distinguished -from most houses hereabouts in boasting a stream, the headwater of -a string of ponds, whence starts the river Wey northwards on its -tortuous journey round the western slopes of Hindhead. When Mrs. -Allingham painted the house, which was inhabited by well-to-do yeomen -from Devonshire, the dairying and the milking were still conducted by -desirable hands, namely, those of milkmaids. - -[Illustration: -51. AN OLD HOUSE AT WEST TARRING -_From the Water-colour in the possession of the Artist._ -Painted 1900.] - -Worthing has been termed "a dull and dreary place, the only relief -to which is its suburb of West Tarring." This happening to have been -one of the "peculiars" of the Archbishops of Canterbury, -has buildings and objects of considerable antiquarian interest. The -cottages which Mrs. Allingham selected for her drawing may be classed -amongst them, for they are a type, as good as any in this volume, of -the well-built, substantial dwelling-house of our progenitors of many -centuries ago--one in which all the features that we have pointed -out are to be found. The house has in course of time clearly become -too big for its situation, and has consequently been parcelled out -into cottages; this has necessitated some alteration of the front of -the lower story, but otherwise it is an exceptionally well-preserved -specimen. Long may it remain so. - -[Illustration: -52. AN OLD BUCKINGHAMSHIRE HOUSE -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. H. W. Birks._ -Painted 1899.] - -This is a somewhat rare instance of the artist selecting for -portraiture a house of larger dimensions than a cottage. It is a -singular trait, perhaps a womanly trait, that we never find her choice -falling upon the country gentleman's seat, although their formal -gardening and parterres of flowers must oftentimes have tempted her. -Her selection, in fact, never rises beyond the wayside tenement, which -in that before us no doubt once housed a well-to-do yeoman, but was, -when Mrs. Allingham limned it, only tenanted in part by a small farmer -and in part by a butcher. But it is planned and fashioned on the old -English lines to which we have referred, and which in the days when it -was built governed those of the dwelling of every well-to-do person. - -[Illustration: -53. THE DUKE'S COTTAGE -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. Maurice Hill._ -Painted 1896.] - -The trend of the trees indicates that this scene is laid where the -winds are not only strong, but blow most frequently from one particular -quarter. It is, in fact, on the coast of Dorset, at Burton, a little -seaside resort of the inhabitants of Bridport, when they want a change -from their own water-side town. The English Channel comes up to one -side of the buttercup-clad field, and was behind the artist as she sat -to paint the carrier's cottage, a man of some local celebrity, who took -the artist to task for not painting his home from a particular -point of view, saying, "I've had it painted many a time, and theyse -always took it from there." He was a man accustomed to boss the village -in a kindly but firm way, never allowing any controversy concerning -his charges, which were, however, always reasonable. Hence he had -come to be nicknamed "The Duke," and as such did not understand Mrs. -Allingham's declining at once to recommence her sketch at the spot he -indicated. - -The Dorsetshire cottages, for the most part, differ altogether from -their fellows in Surrey and Sussex, for their walls are made of what -would seem to be the flimsiest and clumsiest materials,--dried mud, -intermixed with straw to give it consistency, entering mainly into -their composition. Many are not far removed from the Irish cabins, of -which we see an example in Plate 78. - -[Illustration: -54. THE CONDEMNED COTTAGE -_From the Water-colour in the possession of the Artist._ -Painted 1902.] - -In speaking of Duke's Cottage, I dwelt upon the poor materials of -which it and its Dorsetshire fellows were made, and this, coupled -with Mrs. Allingham presenting a picture of one that is too decayed -to live in, may raise a suggestion as to their instability. But such -is not the case. The lack of substance in the material is made up by -increased thickness, and the cottage before us has stood the wear and -tear of several hundred years, and now only lacks a tenant through its -insanitary condition. A robin greeted the artist from the topmost of -the grass-grown steps, glad no doubt to see some one about the place -once more. - -[Illustration: -55. ON IDE HILL -_From the Drawing in the possession of Mr. E. W. Fordham._ -Painted 1900.] - -Ide Hill is to be found in Kent, on the south side of the Westerham -Valley, and the old cottage is the last survival of a type, every one -of which has given place to the newly built and commonplace.[13] The -view from hereabouts is very fine--so fine, indeed, that Miss Octavia -Hill has, for some time, been endeavouring, and at last with success, -to preserve a point for the use of the public whence the best -can be seen. - -[Illustration: -56. A CHESHIRE COTTAGE, ALDERLEY EDGE -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. A. S. Littlejohns._ -Painted 1898.] - -The almost invariable rule of the south, that cottages are formed out -of the local material that is nearest to hand, is clearly not practised -farther north, to judge by this example of a typical Cheshire cottage. - -Stone is apparently so ready to hand that not only is the roadway paved -with it, but even the approach to the cottage, whilst the large blocks -seen elsewhere in the picture show that it is not limited in size. Yet -the only portion of the building that is constructed of stone, so far -as we can see, is the lean-to shed. - -The cottage itself differs in many respects from those we have been -used to in Surrey and Sussex. The roof is utilised, in fact the level -of the first floor is on a line almost with its eaves, and a large bay -window in the centre, and one at the end, show that it is well lighted. -Heavy barge-boards are affixed to the gables, which is by no means -always the case down south, and the wooden framework has at one time -been blackened in consonance with a custom prevalent in Cheshire and -Lancashire, but which is probably only of comparatively recent date; -for gas-tar, which is used, was not invented a hundred years ago, and -there seems no sense in a preservative for oak beams which usually are -almost too hard to drive a nail into. The fashion is probably due to -the substitution of unseasoned timber for oak. - -[Illustration: -57. THE SIX BELLS -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. G. Wills._ -Painted 1892.] - -This beautiful old specimen of a timbered house was discovered by -Mrs. Allingham by accident when staying with some artistic friends at -Bearsted, in Kent, who were unaware of its existence. Although the -weather was very cold and the season late, she lost no time in painting -it, as its inmates said that it would be pulled down directly its -owner, an old lady of ninety-two, who was very ill, died. Having spent -a long day absorbed in putting down on paper its intricate details, she -went into the house for a little warmth and a cup of tea, only -to find a single fire, by which sat a labourer with his pot of warmed -ale on the hob. Asking whether she could not go to some other fire, she -was assured that nowhere else in the house could one be lit, as water -lay below all the floors, and a fire caused this to evaporate and fill -the rooms with steam. - -As we have said, Mrs. Allingham alters her compositions as little as -possible when painting from Nature, but in this case she has omitted -a church tower that stood just to the right of the inn, and added the -tall trees behind it. The omission was due to a feeling that the house -itself was the point, and a quite sufficient point of interest, that -would only be lessened by a competing one. The addition of the trees -was made in order to give value to the grey of the house-side, which -would have been considerably diminished by a broad expanse of sky. - -[Illustration: -58. A KENTISH FARMYARD -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. Arthur R. Moro._ -Painted 1900.] - -Farmyards are out of fashion nowadays, and a Royal Water-Colour -Society's Exhibition, which in the days of Prout and William Hunt -probably contained a dozen of them, will now find place for a single -example only from the hand of Mr. Wilmot Pilsbury, who alone faithfully -records for us the range of straw-thatched buildings sheltering an -array of picturesque waggons and obsolete farming implements. But this -"stead" is just opposite to the farm in which Mrs. Allingham stays, and -it has often attracted her on damp days by its looking like "a blaze -of raw sienna." We can understand the tiled expanse of steep-pitched, -moss-covered roof affording her some of that material on which her -heart delights, and which she has felt it a duty to hand down to -posterity before it gives place to some corrugated iron structure which -must, ere long, supplant this old timber-built barn. - -What was originally a study has been transformed by her, through the -human incidents, into a picture: the milkmaid carrying the laden -pail from the byre; the cock on the dunghill, seemingly amazed that -his wives are too busily engaged on its contents to admire him; the -lily-white ducks waddling to the pool to indulge in a drink, the gusto -of which seems to increase in proportion to the questionableness of its -quality. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -GARDENS AND ORCHARDS - -One is nearer God's heart in a garden Than anywhere else on earth. - - -The practice of painting gardens is almost as modern as that of -painting by ladies. The Flemings of the fifteenth century, it is true, -introduced in a delightful fashion conventional borders of flowers -into some of their pictures, probably because they felt that ornament -must be presented from end to end of them, and that in no way could -they do this better than by adding the gaiety of flowers to their -foregrounds. But all through the later dreary days no one touched the -garden, for the conglomeration of flowers in the pieces of the Dutchmen -of the seventeenth century cannot be treated as such. Flowers certainly -flourished in the gardens of the well-to-do in England in the century -between 1750 and 1850, but none of the limners of the drawings of -noblemen or of gentlemen's seats which were produced in such quantities -during that period ever condescended to introduce them. Even so -late as fifty years ago, if we may judge from the titles, the Royal -Academy Exhibition of that date did not contain a single specimen of -a flower-garden. The only probable one is a picture entitled "Cottage -Roses," and any remotely connected with the garden appear under such -headings as "Early Tulips," "Geraniums," "Japonicas and Orchids," "Will -you have this pretty rose, Mamma?" or "The Last Currants of Summer"! -Taste only half a century ago was different from ours, and asked for -other provender. Thus, the original owner of the catalogue from which -these statistics were taken was an energetic amateur critic, who has -commended, or otherwise, almost every picture, commendations being -signified by crosses and disapproval by noughts. The only work with -five crosses is one illustrating the line, "Now stood Eliza on the -wood-crown'd height." On the other hand, Millais' "Peace Concluded" -stands at the head of the bad marks with five, his "Blind Girl" with -two, which number is shared with Leighton's "Triumph of Music." Holman -Hunt's "Scapegoat," in addition to four bad marks, is described as -"detestable and profane." These pre-Raphaelites, Millais, Holman -Hunt, and their followers, then so little esteemed, may in truth be -said to have been the originators of the "garden-drawing cult," chief -amongst their followers being Frederick Walker. To the example of the -last-named more especially are due the productions of the numerous -artists--good, bad, and indifferent--who have seized upon a delightful -subject and almost nauseated the public with their productions. The -omission of gardens from the painter's _rôle_ in later times may in -a measure have been due to the gardens themselves, or, to speak more -correctly, to those under whose charge they were maintained. The ideal -of a garden to the true artist must always have differed from these as -to its ordering, even in these very recent days when the edict has gone -forth that Nature is to be allowed a hand in the planning. - -The gardener, no matter whether the surroundings favour a formal -garden or not, insists upon his harmonies or contrasts of brilliant -colourings. If he takes these from a manual on gardening he will adopt -what is termed a procession of colouring somewhat as follows: strong -blues, pale yellow, pink, crimson, strong scarlet, orange, and bright -yellow. He is told that his colours are to be placed with careful -deliberation and forethought, as a painter employs them in his picture, -and not dropped down as he has them on his palette! Alfred Parsons and -George Elgood have on occasions grappled with creations such as these, -when placed in settings of yew-trimmed hedges, or as surroundings of a -central statue, or sundial; but who will say that the results have been -as successful as those where formality has been merely a suggestion, -and Nature has had her say and her way. Surroundings must, of course, -play a prominent part in any garden scheme. However much we may -dislike a stiff formality, it is sometimes a necessity. For instance, -herbaceous plants, with annuals of mixed colours, would have looked out -of place on the lawn in front of Brocket Hall (Plate 65), which calls -for a mass of plants of uniform colours. The lie of the ground, too, -must, as in such a case, be taken into account: there it is a sloping -descent facing towards the sun, and so is not easy to keep in a moist -condition. Geraniums and calceolarias, which stand such conditions, are -therefore almost a necessity. - -When this book was proposed to Mrs. Allingham her chief objection -was her certainty that no process could reproduce her drawings -satisfactorily. Her method of work was, she believed, entirely opposed -to mechanical reproduction, for she employed not only every formula -used by her fellow water-colourists, but many that others would not -venture upon. Amongst those she tabulated was her system of obtaining -effects by rubbing, scrubbing, and scratching. But the process was not -to be denied, and she was fain to admit that even in these it has been -a wonderfully faithful reproducer. Now nowhere are these methods of -Mrs. Allingham's more utilised, and with greater effect, than in her -drawings of flower-gardens. The system of painting flowers in masses -has undergone great changes of late. The plan adopted a generation or -so ago was first to draw and paint the flowers and then the foliage. -This method left the flowers isolated objects and the foliage without -substantiality. Mrs. Allingham's method is the reverse of this. Take, -for instance, the white clove pinks in the foreground of Mrs. Combe's -drawing of the kitchen-garden at Farringford (Plate 71). These are -so admirably done that their perfume almost scents the room. They -have been simply carved out of a background of walk and grey-green -spikes, and left as white paper, all their drawing and modelling -being achieved by a dexterous use of the knife and a wetted and rubbed -surface. The poppies, roses, columbines, and stocks have all been -created in the same way. The advantage is seen at once. There are no -badly pencilled outlines, and the blooms blend amongst themselves and -grow naturally out of their foliage. - -[Illustration: -59. STUDY OF A ROSE BUSH -_From the Water-colour in the possession of the Artist._ -Painted about 1887.] - -A very interesting series of studies of various kinds might have been -included in this volume, which would have shown the thoroughness -with which our artist works, and it was with much reluctance that we -discarded all but two, in the interests of the larger number of our -readers, who might have thought them better fitted for a manual of -instruction. The Gloire de Dijon rose, however, is such a prime old -favourite, begotten before the days of scentless specimens to which -are appended the ill-sounding names of fashionable patrons of the -rose-grower, that we could not keep our hands off it when we came -across it in the artist's portfolio. - -This rose tree, or one of its fellows, will be seen in the background -of two of the drawings of Mrs. Allingham's garden at Sandhills, namely, -Plates 61 and 64. - -[Illustration: -60. WALLFLOWERS -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. F. G. Debenham._ -Painted about 1893.] - -Of the denizens of the garden there is perhaps none which appeals to -a countryman who has drifted into the city so much as the wallflower. -His senses both of sight and smell have probably grown up under its -influence, and it carries him back to the home of his childhood, for it -is of never-to-be-forgotten sweetness both in colour and in scent, and -it conjures up old days when the rare warmth of an April sun extracted -its perfume until all the air in its neighbourhood was redolent of it. - -If my reader be a west countryman, like the author, he may best know it -as the gilliflower, but he will do so erroneously, for the name rightly -applies to the carnation, and was so used even in Chaucer's time-- - - Many a clove gilofre - To put in ale; - -and again in Culpepper-- - - The great clove carnation Gillo-Floure. - -But as a "rose by any other name would smell as sweet," every true -flower-lover cherishes his wallflower, which returns to him so -bountifully the slightest attention, which accepts the humblest -position, which thrives on the scantiest fare, which is amongst the -first to welcome us in the spring, and, with its scantier second bloom, -amongst the last to bid adieu in the autumn, sometimes even striving to -gladden us with its blossom year in and year out if winter's cold be -not too stark. - -Old names give place to new, and in nurserymen's catalogues we search -in vain for its pleasant-sounding title, and fail to distinguish either -its reproduction in black and white, or its designation under that of -cheiranthus. - -[Illustration: -61. MINNA -_From the Water-colour in the possession of the Lord Chief Justice of -England._ -Painted about 1886.] - -This, and the drawing of a "Summer Garden" (Plate 64), are taken almost -from the same spot in Mrs. Allingham's garden at Sandhills. -Both are simple studies of flowers without any more elaborate effort -at arrangement or composition than that which gives to each a purposed -scheme of colour--a scheme, however, that is, with set purpose, hidden -away, so that the flowers may look as if they grew, as they appear -to do, by chance. The flowers, too, are old-fashioned inhabitants: -pansies, sea-pinks, marigolds, sweetwilliams, snap-dragons, -eschscholtzias, and flags, with a background of rose bushes; all of -them (with the exception, perhaps, of the flag) flowers such as Spenser -might have had in his eye when he penned the lines-- - - No daintie flowre or herbe that growes on grownd, - No arborett with painted blossomes drest - And smelling sweete, but there it might be fownd - To bud out faire, and throwe her sweete smels al arownd. - -[Illustration: -62. A KENTISH GARDEN -_From the Drawing in the possession of the Artist._ -Painted 1903.] - -This scene may well be compared with that of Tennyson's garden at -Aldworth, reproduced in Plate 74, as it illustrates even more -appositely than does that, the lines in "Roses on the Terrace" -concerning the contrast between the pink of the flower and the blue -of the distance. But here the interval between the colours is not the -exaggerated fifty miles of the poem, but one insufficient to dim the -shapes of the trees on the opposite side of the valley. Of all the -gardens here illustrated none offers a greater wealth of colour than -this Kentish garden, situated as it is with an aspect which makes it a -veritable sun-trap. - -[Illustration: -63. CUTTING CABBAGES -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. E. W. Fordham._ -Painted about 1884.] - -The cabbage is probably to most people the most uninteresting tenant of -the kitchen-garden, and yet its presence there was probably the motive -which set Mrs. Allingham to work to make this drawing, for it is clear -that in the first instance it was conceived as a study of the varied -and delicate mother-of-pearl hues which each presented to an artistic -eye. As a piece of painting it is extremely meritorious through its -being absolutely straight-forward drawing and brush work, -the high lights being left, and not obtained by the usual method of -cutting, scraping, or body colour. The buxom mother of a growing family -selecting the best plant for their dinner is just the personal note -which distinguishes each and every one of our illustrations. - -[Illustration: -64. IN A SUMMER GARDEN -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. William Newall._ -Painted about 1887.] - -I cannot refrain from drawing attention to this reproduction as one -of the wonders of the "three colour process." If my readers could see -the three colours which produce the result when superimposed, first -the yellow, then the red, and lastly the blue--aniline hues of the -most forbidding character--they would indeed deem it incredible that -any resemblance to the original could be possible. It certainly passes -the comprehension of the uninitiated how the differing delicacies of -the violet hues of the flowers to the left could be obtained from -a partnership which produced the blue black of the flowers in the -foreground, the light pinks of the Shirley poppies, and the rich -reds of the sweetwilliams. Again, what a marvel must the photographic -process be which refuses to recognise the snow-white campanula, and -leaves it to be defined by the untouched paper, and yet records -the faint pink flush which has been breathed upon the edges of the -sweetwilliam. It is indeed a tribute to the inventive genius of the -present day, genius which will probably enable the "press the button -and we do the rest photographer" before many days are past to reel off -in colour what he now can only accomplish in monochrome. - -[Illustration: -65. BY THE TERRACE, BROCKET HALL -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Lord Mount-Stephen._ -Painted 1900.] - -Portraiture of time-worn cottages where Nature has its way, and -cottars' gardens where flowers come and go at their own sweet will, is -a very different thing from portraiture of a well-kept house, where the -bricklayer and the mason are requisitioned when the slightest decay -shows itself, and of gardens where formal ribbon borders are laid out -by so-called landscape gardeners, whose taste always leans to -bright colours not always massed in the happiest way. In portraits of -houses license is hardly permissible even for artistic effects, for not -only may associations be connected with every slope and turn of a path, -but the artist always has before him the possibility that the drawing -will be hung in close proximity to the scene, for comparison by persons -who may not always be charitably disposed to artistic alterations. It -speaks well, therefore, for Mrs. Allingham in the drawing of the garden -at Brocket that she has produced a drawing which, without offending -the conventions, is still a picture harmonious in colour, and probably -very satisfying to the owner. There are few who would have cared to -essay the very difficult drawing of cedars, and have accomplished it -so well, or have laboured with so much care over the plain-faced house -and windows. As to these latter she has been happy in assisting the -sunlight in the picture by the drawn-down blinds at the angles which -the sun reaches. The scene has clearly been pictured in the full blaze -of summer. - -Brocket Hall is a mansion some three miles north of Hatfield, -Hertfordshire, and a short distance off the Great North Road. It is one -of a string of seats hereabouts which belong to Earl Cowper, but has -been tenanted by Lord Mount-Stephen for some years. The house, which, -as will be seen, has not much architectural pretensions, was built in -the eighteenth century, but it is, to cite an old chronicle, "situate -on a dry hill in a fair park well wooded and greatly timbered" through -which the river Lea winds picturesquely. It is notable as having -been the residence of two Prime Ministers, Lord Melbourne and Lord -Palmerston. The drawing of "The Hawthorn Valley" (Plate 37) is taken -from a part of the park. - -[Illustration: -66. THE SOUTH BORDER -_From the Water-colour in the possession of the Artist._ -Painted 1902.] - -This is one of the borders designed on the graduated doctrine as -practised by Miss Jekyll in her garden at Munstead near Godalming. Here -we have the colours starting at the far end in grey leaves, whites, -blues, pinks, and pale yellows, towards a gorgeous centre of reds, -oranges, and scarlets, the whites being formed of yuccas, the -pinks of hollyhocks, the reds and yellows of gladioli, nasturtiums, -African marigolds, herbaceous sunflowers, dahlias, and geraniums. -Another part of the scheme is seen in the drawing which follows. - -[Illustration: -67. THE SOUTH BORDER -_From the Water-colour in the possession of W. Edwards, Jun._ -Painted 1900.] - -A further illustration of the same border in Miss Jekyll's garden, -but painted a year or two earlier, and representing it at its farther -end, where cool colours are coming into the scheme. The orange-red -flowers hanging over the wall are those of the _Bignonia grandiflora_; -the bushes on either side of the archway with white flowers are -choisyas, and the adjoining ones are red and yellow dahlias, flanked by -tritonias (red-hot pokers); the oranges in front are African marigolds -(hardly reproduced sufficiently brightly), with white marguerites; the -grey-leaved plant to the left is the _Cineraria maritima_. Miss Jekyll -does not entirely keep to her arrangement of masses of colour; whilst, -as an artist, she affects rich masses of colour, she is not above -experimenting by breaking in varieties. - -[Illustration: -68. STUDY OF LEEKS -_From the Water-colour in the possession of the Artist._ -Painted 1902.] - - I like the leeke above all herbes and flowers, - When first we wore the same the field was ours. - The Leeke is White and Greene, whereby is ment - That Britaines are both stout and eminent; - Next to the Lion and the Unicorn, - The Leeke's the fairest emblym that is worne. - -When Mrs. Allingham in wandering round a garden came upon this bed of -flowering leeks, and, "singularly moved to love the lovely that are -not beloved," at once sat down to paint it in preference to a more -ambitious display in the front garden that was at her service, her -friends probably considered her artistic perception to be peculiar, -and some there may be who will deem the honour given to it by -introduction into these pages to be more than its worth. But it has -more than one claim to recognition here, for it is unusual in subject, -delicate in its violet tints, not unbecoming in form, and is here -disassociated from the disagreeable odour which usually accompanies the -reality. - -[Illustration: -69. THE APPLE ORCHARD -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mrs. Dobson._ -Painted about 1877.] - -Originally, no doubt, a study of one of those subjects which artists -like to attack, a misshapen tree presenting every imaginable contortion -of foreshortened curvature to harass and worry the draughtsman,--a -tree, specimens of which are too often to be found in old orchards -of this size, whose bearing time has long departed, and who now only -cumber the ground, and with their many fellows have had much to do with -the gradual decay of the English apple industry. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -TENNYSON'S HOMES - - -Few poets have been so fortunate in their residences as was the great -Poet Laureate of the Victorian era in the two which he for many years -called his own. Selected in the first instance for their beauty and -their seclusion, they had other advantages which fitted them admirably -to a poet's temperament. - -Farringford, at the western end of the Isle of Wight, was the first to -be acquired, being purchased in 1853; it was Tennyson's home for forty -years, and the house wherein most of his best-known works were written. -At the time when it came into his hands communication with the mainland -was of the most primitive description, and the poet and his wife had -to cross the Solent in a rowing-boat. So far removed was he from -intrusion there that he could indulge in what to him were favourite -pastimes--sweeping up the leaves, mowing the grass, gravelling the -walks, and digging the beds--without interruption. Many of the visitors -which railway and steamship facilities brought to the neighbourhood in -later years felt that he set the boundary within which no foot other -than his own and that of his friends should tread at an extreme limit. -Golfers over the Needles Links--persons who, perhaps, are prone to -consider that whatever is capable of being made into a course should be -so utilised--were wont to look with covetous eyes over a portion of the -downs that would have formed a much-needed addition to their course, -but over which no ball was allowed to be played. But the pertinacity of -the crowd, in endeavouring to get a sight of the Laureate, necessitated -an inexorable rule if the retreat was to be what it was intended, -namely, a place for work and for rest. - -Mrs. Tennyson thus described "her wild house amongst the pine trees":-- - - The golden green of the trees, the burning splendour of Blackgang - Chine, and the red bank of the primeval river contrasted with the - turkis blue of the sea (that is our view from the drawing-room) make - altogether a miracle of beauty at sunset. We are glad that Farringford - is ours. - -Although at times the weather can be cold and bleak enough in this -sheltered corner of the Isle of Wight, and - - The scream of a madden'd beach - Dragged down by the wave - -must oftentimes have "shocked the ear" in the Farringford house, the -climate is too relaxing an one for continued residence, and Tennyson's -second house, Aldworth, was well chosen as a contrast. Aubrey Vere thus -describes it:-- - - It lifted England's great poet to a height from which he could gaze on - a large portion of that English land which he loved so well, see it - basking in its most affluent beauty, and only bound by the inviolate - sea. - -The house stands at an elevation of some six hundred feet above the -sea, on the spur of Blackdown, which is the highest ground in Sussex, -on a steep side towards the Weald, just where the greensand hills break -off. It is some two miles from Haslemere, and just within the Sussex -border. - -Two of the drawings connected with these houses, which are reproduced -here, were painted before Tennyson's death, namely, in 1890. - -The house at Farringford was drawn in the spring, when the lawn was -pied with daisies, and the Laureate required his heavy cloak to guard -him from the keenness of the April winds. - -The kitchen-garden at Farringford, which somewhat belies its name, for -flowers encroach everywhere upon the vegetables, and the apple trees -rise amidst a parterre of blossom, was painted in its summer aspect, -when it was gay with pinks, stocks, rockets, larkspurs, delphiniums, -aubrietias, eschscholtzias, and big Oriental poppies. Tennyson visited -it almost daily to take the record of the rain-gauge and thermometer, -which can be descried in the drawing about half-way down the path. - -The kitchen-garden at Aldworth opens up a very different prospect to -the banked-up background of trees at Farringford. Standing at a very -considerable elevation, it commands a magnificent view over the Weald -of Sussex. The spot is referred to in the poem "Roses on the Terrace" -in the volume entitled _Demeter_, thus-- - - This red flower, which on our terrace here, - Glows in the blue of fifty miles away; - -as also in the lines-- - - Green Sussex fading into blue, - With one grey glimpse of sea. - -It was this view that the dying poet longed to see once again on his -last morning when he cried, "I want the blinds up! I want to see the -sky and the light!" - -The time of year when Mrs. Allingham painted it was October, and a wet -October too, for two umbrellas even could not keep her from getting wet -through. - -It is rare for Mrs. Allingham to set her flowers so near the horizon as -in this case,--in fact I only remember having seen another instance of -it,--but no doubt the same feeling that appealed to the poet's eye, and -impelled him to pen the lines we have quoted, fascinated the artist's, -namely, the beautiful appearance of the varied hues of flowers against -a background of delicate blue. - -October is the saddest time of year for the garden, but a basket full -of gleanings at that time is more cherished than one in the full -heyday of its magnificence. Here the apple tree has already shed most -of its leaves, the hollyhock stems are baring, and autumnal flowers, -in which yellow so much predominates, as, for instance, the great -marigold, the herbaceous sunflower, and the calliopsis, are much in -evidence. Nasturtiums and every free-growing creeper have long ere this -trailed their stems over the box edging, and made an untidiness which -forebodes their early destruction at the hands of the gardener. Of -sweet-scented flowers only a few peas and mignonette remain. - -Mr. Allingham knew the Poet Laureate for many years, having at one time -lived at Lymington, which is the port of departure for the western end -of the Isle of Wight, and whence he often crossed to Farringford. The -artist's first meeting with Tennyson was soon after her marriage. He -and his son Hallam had come up to town, and had walked over from Mr. -James Knowles's house at Clapham, where they were staying, to Chelsea. -He invited Mrs. Allingham to Aldworth, an invitation which was accepted -shortly afterwards. The poet was very proud of the country which framed -his house, and during this visit he took her his special walks to -Blackdown, to Fir Tree Corner (whence there is a wide view over the -Weald towards the sea), and to a great favourite of his, the Foxes' -Hole, a lovely valley beyond his own grounds. Whilst on this last-named -ramble he suddenly turned round and chided the artist for "chattering -instead of looking at the view." During this visit he read to her a -part of his _Harold_, and the wonder of his voice and whole manner of -reading or chanting she will never forget. - -When the Allinghams came to live at Witley they were able to get to and -from Aldworth in an afternoon, and so were frequent visitors there. One -day in the autumn of 1881 Mrs. Allingham went over alone, owing to her -husband's absence, and after lunch the poet walked with her to Foxes' -Hole, where they sat on bundles of peasticks, she painting an old -cottage since pulled down, and he watching her. After a time he said -slowly, "I should like to do that. It does not look very difficult." -Years later he showed her some water-colour drawings he had made, -from imagination, of Mount Ida clad in dark fir groves, which were -undoubtedly very clever in their suggestiveness. - -Lord Tennyson's Isle of Wight home Mrs. Allingham did not see until -after she returned to live in London, when Mr. Hallam Tennyson, in -conversing with her about her drawings, told her that if she would -come to the Isle of Wight he could show her some fine old cottages. -She accordingly went at the Easter of 1890 to Freshwater, when he was -as good as his word, and she at once began drawings of "The Dairy" -and the cottage "At Pound Green." Miss Kate Greenaway, who had come -to stay with her, also painted them. The next spring, and many springs -afterwards, Mrs. Allingham went to Freshwater, generally after the -Easter holidays. - -During one of these stays she accompanied Birket Foster to Farringford, -and the poet asked the two artists to come for a walk with him. There -happened to be a boy of the party in a sailor costume with a bright -blue collar and a scarlet cap, and Birket Foster, who was at the moment -walking behind with Mrs. Allingham, said, "Why is that red and blue so -disagreeable?" Tennyson's quick ear caught something, and he turned -on them, setting his stick firmly in the ground, and asked Mr. Foster -to explain himself. "Well," Mr. Foster said, "I only know that the -effect of the contrast is to make cold water run down my spine." Mrs. -Allingham cordially agreed with Mr. Birket Foster, but Tennyson could -not feel the "cold water," although he saw their point, and said it -was doubtless with painters as with himself in poetry, namely, that -some combinations of sound gave intense pleasure, whilst others grated, -and he quoted certain lines as being so to him. On another occasion, -whilst walking with him at Freshwater, he said something which led -Mrs. Allingham to mention that she generally kept her drawings by her -for a long time, often for years, working on them now and again and -considering about figures and incidents for them,[14] upon which he -remarked that it was the same in the case of poems, and that he used -generally to keep his by him, often in print, for a considerable time -before publishing. - - * * * * * - -The following drawings have been sufficiently described in the text:-- - -[Illustration: -70. THE HOUSE, FARRINGFORD -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. John Mackinnon._ -Painted 1890.] - -[Illustration: -71. THE KITCHEN-GARDEN, FARRINGFORD -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mrs. Combe._ -Painted 1894.] - -[Illustration: -72. THE DAIRY, FARRINGFORD -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. Douglas Freshfield._ -Painted 1890.] - -[Illustration: -73. ONE OF LORD TENNYSON'S COTTAGES, FARRINGFORD -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. E. Marsh Simpson._ -Painted 1900.] - -[Illustration: -74. A GARDEN IN OCTOBER, ALDWORTH -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. F. Pennington._ -Painted 1891.] - -The next three water-colours find a place here, as having been painted -during visits to the Island. - -[Illustration: 75. -75. HOOK HILL FARM, FRESHWATER -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Sir James Kitson, Bt., M.P._ -Painted 1891.] - -An old farmhouse on the other side of the Yar Valley to Farringford, -but one which Tennyson often made an object for a walk. It possessed -a fine yard and old thatch-covered barn, which, however, has passed -out of existence, but not before Mrs. Allingham had perpetuated it in -water-colour. This group of buildings has been painted by the artist -from every side, and at other seasons than that represented here, when -pear, apple, and lilac trees, primroses, and daisies vie with one -another in heralding the coming spring. - -[Illustration: -76. AT POUND GREEN, FRESHWATER, ISLE OF WIGHT -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. Douglas Freshfield._ -Painted about 1891.] - -To the cottage-born child of to-day the name of the "Pound" has little -significance, but even in the writer's recollection it not only had a -fascination but a feeling almost akin to terror, being deemed, in very -truth, to be a prison for the dumb animals who generally, through no -fault of their own, were impounded there. Both it and its tenants too -were always suggestive of starvation. When (following, at some interval -of time, the village stocks) it passed out of use, the countryside, in -losing both, forgot a very cruel phase of life. - -A child of to-day has, with all its education, not acquired many -amusements to replace that of teasing the tenants of the Pound on -the Green, so he never tires of pulling anything with the faintest -similitude to the cart which he will probably spend much of his later -life in driving. Here the youngster has evidently been making -stabling for his toy under a seat whose back is formed out of some -carved relic of an old sailing-ship that was probably wrecked at the -Needles, and whose remains the tide carried in to Freshwater Bay. - -[Illustration: -77. A COTTAGE AT FRESHWATER GATE -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Sir Henry Irving._ -Painted 1891.] - -Tramps are usually few and far between in the Isle of Wight, for the -reason that the island does not rear many, and those from the mainland -do not care to cross the Solent lest, should they be tempted to -wrong-doing, there may be a difficulty in avoiding the arm of the law -or the confines of the island. It is somewhat surprising, therefore, to -find the only flaw in our title of _Happy England_ in such a locality. -But here it is, on this spring day, when apple, and pear, and primrose -blossoms make one - - Bless His name - That He hath mantled the green earth with flowers. - -We have the rift, making the discordant note, of want, in the person of -a woman, dragged down with the burden of four children, sending the -eldest to beg a crust at a house which cannot contain a superfluity of -the good things of this world. - -A singular interest attaches to Mrs. Allingham's drawing of this -cottage. She had nearly completed it on a Saturday afternoon, and was -asked by a friend whether she would finish it next day. To this she -replied that she never sketched in public on Sunday. On Monday the -cottage was a heap of ruins, having been burnt down the previous night. - - - - -CHAPTER X - -MRS. ALLINGHAM AND HER CONTEMPORARIES - - -That a true artist is always individual, and that his work is always -affected by some one or other of his predecessors or contemporaries, -would appear to be a paradox: nevertheless it is a proposition that -few will dispute. Art has been practised for too long a period, and by -too many talented professors, for entirely novel views or treatments -of Nature to be possible, and whilst an artist may be entirely unaware -that he has imbibed anything from others, it is certain that if he has -had eyes to see he must have done so. - -I have already stated that Mrs. Allingham's work, whether in subject or -execution, is, so far as she is aware, entirely her own, and it would, -perhaps, be quite sufficient were I to leave the matter after having -placed that assertion on record. To go farther may perhaps lay oneself -open to the charge, _qui s'excuse s'accuse_. I trust not, and that I -may be deemed to be only doing my duty if I deal at some length with -comparisons that have been made between her work and that of certain -other artists. - -The two names with whose productions those of Mrs. Allingham are most -frequently linked are Frederick Walker and Birket Foster: the first in -connection with her figures, the latter with her cottage subjects. - -As regards these two artists it must be remembered that both their and -her early employment lay in the same direction, namely, that of book -illustration, and therefore each started with somewhat similar methods -of execution and subject, varied only by leanings towards the style of -any work they came in contact with, or by their own individuality. - -That both had much in common is well known; in fact, Mrs. Allingham -used to tell Mr. Foster that she considered him, as did others, the -father of Walker and Pinwell. - -In the case of Frederick Walker, his career was at its most interesting -phase whilst Mrs. Allingham was a student. Her first visit to the Royal -Academy was probably in 1868, when his "Vagrants" was exhibited, to -be followed in 1869 by "The Old Gate," in 1870 by "The Plough," and in -1872 by "The Harbour of Refuge." - -It must not be forgotten that the name of Frederick Walker was at this -time in every one's mouth, that is, every one who could be deemed to be -included in the small Art world of those days. The painter visitors to -the Academy schools sang his praises to the students, and he himself -fascinated and charmed them with his boyish and graceful presence. As -Mrs. Allingham says, everybody in the schools "adored" him and his -work, and on the opening of the Academy doors on the first Monday in -May the students rushed to his picture first of all. - -To contradict a dictum of Walker's in those days was the rankest heresy -in a student. Mrs. Allingham remembers an occasion when a painter was -holding forth on the right methods of water-colour work, asserting -that the paper should be put flat down on a table, as was the custom -with the old men, and the colour should be laid on in washes and left -to dry with edges, and if Walker taught any other method he was wrong. -Mrs. Allingham and her fellow-students were furious at their hero being -possibly in fault, and asked for the opinion of an Academician. His -reply was: "And _who_ is Mr. ----, and how does _he_ paint that _he_ -should lay down the law? If Walker _is_ all wrong with his methods, he -paints like an angel." - -Mrs. Allingham's confession of faith is this: "I _was_ influenced, -doubtless, by his work. I adored it, but I never consciously copied -it. It revealed to me certain beauties and aspects of Nature, as du -Maurier's had done, and as North's and others have since done, and -then I saw like things for myself in Nature, and painted them, I truly -think, in my own way--not the best way, I dare say, but in the only way -_I_ could." - -Those, therefore, who discover not the reflection but the inspiration -of Walker in the idyllic grace of Mrs. Allingham's figures, and in her -treatment of flowers, place her in a company which she readily accepts, -and is proud of. - -But it is with Birket Foster that our artist's name has been more -intimately linked by the critics, some even going to the length of -asserting that without him there would have been no Mrs. Allingham. - -Having had the pleasure of an intimacy with Birket Foster, which -extended to writing his biography (_Birket Foster: His Life and -Work_, Virtue and Co., 1890), I can emphatically assert that he never -held that opinion, but stated that she had struck out a line which -was entirely her own, and, as he generously added, "with much more -modernity in it than mine." - -There are, however, so many similarities between their artistic careers -that I may be excused for dwelling on some of them, for they no doubt -unconsciously influenced not only the method of their work but the -subject of it. - -Drawing in black and white on wood in each case formed the groundwork -of their education, and was only followed by colour at a subsequent -stage. - -Both, having determined to support themselves, were fain to seek -out the engravers and obtain from them a livelihood. Birket Foster -at sixteen was fortunate enough to meet in Landells one who at once -recognised his capabilities, whilst Mrs. Allingham found a similar -friend in Joseph Swain. Again, book illustration was as much in vogue -in 1870 as it was in 1842; and by another coincidence both years -witnessed the birth of an illustrated weekly, for Birket Foster, in -1842, was employed upon the infant _Illustrated London News_, while -Mrs. Allingham was the only lady to whom Mr. Thomas allotted some of -the early work on the _Graphic_. Differences there were in their -opportunities, and these were not always in the lady's favour. Birket -Foster found in Landells a man who looked after his youngster's -education, and, convinced that Nature was his best mistress, sent -him to her with these instructions: "Now that work is slack in these -summer months, spend them in the fields; take your colours and copy -every detail of the scene as carefully as possible, especially trees -and foreground plants, and come up to me once a month and show me what -you have done." A splendid memory aided Foster in his studies all too -well, for he learnt to draw with such absolute fidelity every detail -that he required, that he never again required to go to Nature. That he -did so we know from his repeated visits to every part of Europe--visits -resulting in delightful work; but what the world saw was entirely -studio work, and this tended to a repetition which oftentimes marred -the entire satisfaction that one otherwise derived from his drawings. -Mrs. Allingham herself, although living close to and engaged on the -same subjects, never came across him painting out of doors, and only -once saw him note-book in hand. - -Chance influenced the two careers also in another way, which might -have made any similarity between them altogether out of question. The -first commission to illustrate a book which Miss Paterson obtained -was a prose work, in which figures and household scenes entirely -predominated,--in fact, all her black-and-white work was of this homely -nature,--and for some years she had no call for the delineation of -landscape. With Foster it was not very different. It is true that his -first commission was _The Boys Spring and Summer Book_, in which he had -to draw the seasons, and to draw them afield. But this might not have -attracted him to landscape work, for his patron's next commission was -quite in another direction. I may be excused for referring to it at -length, for the little-known incident is of some interest now that the -actors in it have each achieved such world-wide reputations. Certain -of the young pre-Raphaelites, including Rossetti, Burne-Jones, and -Millais, had been entrusted with the illustration of _Evangeline_. -The result was a perfect staggerer to the publisher Bogue, who was -altogether unable to appreciate their revolutionary methods. "What -shall I do with them?" he was asked by the engraver to whom he showed -the blocks on which most elaborate designs had been most lovingly -drawn. "This," said Bogue, and wetting one of them he erased the -drawing with the sleeve of his coat, serving each in turn in the same -way. - -After this drastic treatment the _Evangeline_ commission was handed -over to Birket Foster. It can be easily imagined with what trepidation -he, knowing these facts, approached and carried out his task, and his -delight when even the _Athenæum_ could say, "A more lovely book than -this has rarely been given to the public." The success of the work -was enormous. His career was apparently henceforth marked out as an -illustrator of verse in black and white, for his popularity continued -until it was not a question of giving him commissions, but of what book -there was for him to illustrate; and he used laughingly to say that -finally there was nothing left for him but Young's _Night Thoughts_ and -Pollok's _Course of Time_.[15] - -Thus we see that Birket Foster's art work was for long confined to -subjects as to which he had no voice, but which certainly influenced -his art, and it says much for his temperament that throughout it -warranted the term "poetical." In like manner it is much to Mrs. -Allingham's credit that her prosaic start did not prevent the same -quality welling up and being always in evidence in her productions. - -If I have not wearied the reader I would like to point out some further -coincidences in their careers which are of interest. - -Birket Foster became a water-colourist through the chance that he -could not sell his oil-paintings, which consequently cumbered his -small working-room to such an extent that one night he cut them all -from their stretchers, rolled them up, and sneaking out, dropped them -over Blackfriars Bridge into the Thames; water-colours cost less to -produce and took up less space, so he adopted them. Mrs. Allingham -abandoned oils after a year or two's work in them at the Royal Academy -Schools, because she gradually became convinced that she could express -herself better in water-colours. But she considered that it was a great -advantage to have worked, even for the short time, in the stronger -medium. It was this practice in oils that made her for some time -(until, indeed, Walker's lessons to her at the Royal Academy) use a -good deal of body-colour. - -Both artists aspired to obtain the highest rank which then, as now, -is open to the water-colourist, namely, membership of The Royal -Water-Colour Society, but whilst Birket Foster only attained it in -1860, in his thirty-fifth year, and at his second attempt, Mrs. -Allingham followed him in 1875, when only twenty-six, and at her first -essay. Both promptly at once gave up a remunerative income in black and -white, and having done so, never had cause to regret their decision. - -The coincidences do not end even here, for both within a year or two of -their election found themselves, the one on the invitation of Mr. Hook, -R.A., the other, twenty years later, for reasons we have mentioned, -settled near the same village, Witley, in the heart of the country -which they have since identified with their names. Here the selection -of subjects from the same neighbourhood naturally brought their work -still closer together. - -Both of them have been attracted to Venice; Mr. Foster again and again, -Mrs. Allingham only within the last year or two. - -Lastly, few artists have been indulged with so many smiles and so few -frowns from the public for which they have catered. Birket Foster -considered that he had been almost pampered by the critics, and -Mrs. Allingham has never had the slightest cause to complain of her -treatment at their hands. - -Having dwelt at such length upon the interesting concurrences in -their careers, I now pass on to a comparison of their methods of -work; and here there are many resemblances, but these are no doubt -due to the times in which they lived. Birket Foster found himself, -when he commenced, the pupil of a school which had some merits and -more demerits. Composition and drawing were still thought of, and -before a landscape artist presumed to pose as such, he had to study -the laws which governed the former, and to thoroughly imbue himself -with a knowledge of the anatomy of what he was about to depict. -Mrs. Allingham, as I have pointed out, was also fortunate enough to -commence her tuition before the fashion of undergoing this needful -apprenticeship died out. But Birket Foster came at the end of a time -when landscape was painted in the studio rather than in the field. He -went to Nature for suggestions, which he pencilled into note-books in -the most facile and learned manner, but content with this he made -his pictures under comfortable conditions at home. The fulness of -his career, too, came at a time when Art was booming, and the demand -for his work was such that he could not keep pace with it. It is not -surprising, therefore, that in the zenith of his fame his pictures -were, in the main, studio pictures, worked out with a marvellous -facility of invention, but nevertheless just lacking that vitality -which always pervades work done in the open air and before Nature. - -Mrs. Allingham's work at the outset was very similar to this. For her -subject drawings she made elaborate preliminary studies from Nature -in colour, but the drawing itself was thought and carried out in the -house. Fortunately this method soon became unpalatable to her, and she -gradually came to work more and more directly from Nature, and when, at -Witley, she found her subjects at her doors, she discontinued once and -for ever her former method. Since then she has painted every drawing -on the spot during the months that it is feasible, leaving actual -completion for some time, to enable her to view her work with a fresh -eye, and to study at leisure the final details, such, for instance, as -where the figures shall be grouped, usually posing, for this purpose, -her models in the open air in her Hampstead garden. Her figures are, -however, sometimes culled from careful studies made in note-books, -of which she has an endless supply. Fastidious to a degree as to the -completeness of a drawing, she lingers long over the finishing touches, -for it is these which she considers make or mar the whole. Every sort -of contrivance she considers to be legitimate to bring about an effect, -save that of body-colour, which she holds in abhorrence; but the -knife, a hard brush, a pointed stick, a paint rag, and a sponge are in -constant request. - -Mrs. Allingham is above all things a fair-weather painter. She has no -pleasure in the storm, whether of rain or wind. Maybe this avoidance -of the discomforts inseparable from a truthful portrayal of such -conditions indicates the femininity of her nature. Doubtless it -does. But is she to blame? Her work is framed upon the pleasure that -it affords her, and it is certain that the result is none the less -satisfactory because it only numbers the sunny hours and the halcyon -days. - -I ought perhaps to have qualified the expression "sunny hours," for as -a rule she does not affect a sunshine which casts strong shadows, but -rather its condition when, through a thin veil of cloud, it suffuses -all Nature with an equable light, and allows local colour to be seen -at its best. In drawings which comprise any large amount of floral -detail, the leaves, in full sunshine, give off an amount of reflected -light that materially lessens the colour value of the flowers, and -prevents their being properly distinguished. Mr. Elgood, the painter -of flower-gardens _par excellence_, always observes this rule, not -only because the effect is so much more satisfactory on paper, but -because it is so much easier to paint under this aspect. As regards -sky treatment, both he and Mrs. Allingham, it will be noted, confine -themselves to the simplest sky effects, feeling that the main interest -lies on the ground, where the detail is amply sufficient to warrant -the accessories being kept as subservient as possible. For this reason -it is that the glories of sunrise and sunset have no place in Mrs. -Allingham's work, the hours round mid-day sufficing for her needs. - -To the curiously minded concerning her palette, it may be said that -it is of the simplest character. Her paint-box is the smallest that -will hold her colours in moist cake form, of which none are used -save those which she considers to be permanent. It contains cobalt, -permanent yellow, aureolin, raw sienna, yellow ochre, cadmium, rose -madder, light red, and sepia. She now uses nothing save O.W. (old -water-colour) paper. Mrs. Allingham's method of laying on the colour -differs from that of Birket Foster, who painted wet and in small -touches. Her painting is on the dry side, letting her colours mingle on -the paper. As a small bystander once remarked concerning it, "You do -mess about a deal." - -Mrs. Allingham has been a constant worker for upwards of a quarter of -a century, during which time, in addition to contributing to the Royal -Society, she has held seven Exhibitions at The Fine Art Society's, each -of them averaging some seventy numbers. She has, therefore, upon her -own calculation, put forth to the world nearly a thousand drawings. In -spite of this, they seldom appear in the sale-room, and when they do -they share with Birket Foster's work the unusual distinction of always -realising more than the artist received for them. - - * * * * * - -The illustrations which adorn this closing chapter have no connection -with its subject, but are not on that account altogether out of place; -for they are the only ones which are outside the title of the work, -two being from Ireland, and two from Venice, and they are associated -with two of the main incidents of the artist's life, namely, her -marriage, and her only art work abroad. - -[Illustration: -78. A CABIN AT BALLYSHANNON -_From a Water-colour in the possession of the Artist._ -Painted 1891.] - -Ballyshannon is the birthplace of Mr. William Allingham, who married -Mrs. Allingham in 1874. It is situated in County Donegal, and was -described by him as "an odd, out-of-the way little town on the extreme -western verge of Europe; our next neighbours, sunset way, being -citizens of the great Republic, which indeed to our imagination seemed -little, if at all, farther off than England in the opposite direction. -Before it spreads a great ocean, behind stretches many an islanded -lake. On the south runs a wavy line of blue mountains, and on the -north, over green, rocky hills, rise peaks of a more distant range. The -trees hide in glens or cluster near the river; grey rocks and boulders -lie scattered about the windy pastures." Here Mr. Allingham was born -of the good old stock of one of Cromwell's settlers, and here he -lived until he was two-and-twenty. The drawing now reproduced was made -when Mrs. Allingham visited the place with his children after his death -in 1889. Many ruined cabins lie around; money is scarce in Donegal, -and each year the tenants become fewer, some emigrating, others who -have done so sending to their relations to join them. Better times are -indeed necessary if the country is not to become a desert. - -[Illustration: -79. THE FAIRY BRIDGES -_From the Water-colour in the possession of the Artist._ -Painted 1891.] - -The Fairy Bridges--a series of natural arches, carved or shaken out of -the cliffs, in times long past, by the rollers of the Atlantic--are -within a walk of Ballyshannon, and were often visited by Mrs. Allingham -during her stay there. Three of them (there are five in all) are seen -in the drawing, and a quaint and mythological faith connects them with -Elfindom--a faith which every Irishman in the last generation imbibed -with his mother's milk, and which is not yet extinct in the lovely -crags and glens of Donegal. - -The scene is introduced into two of Mr. Allingham's best-known songs; -in one, "The Fairies," thus-- - - Up the airy mountain, - Down the rushy glen, - We daren't go a-hunting - For fear of little men. - Down along the rocky shore - Some make their home, - They live in crispy pancakes - Of yellow tide foam. - -The only land which separates the wind-swept Fairy Bridges from America -is the Slieve-League headland, whose wavy outline is seen in the -distance. It, too, finds a place in one of Mr. Allingham's songs, "The -Winding Banks of Erne: the Emigrant's Adieu to his Birthplace" (which -in ballad form is sung by Erin's children all the world over)-- - - Farewell to you, Kildenny lads, and them that pull an oar, - A lug-sail set, or haul a net, from the Point to Mullaghmore; - From Killikegs to bold Slieve-League, that ocean mountain steep, - Six hundred yards in air aloft, six hundred in the deep, - From Dorran to the Fairy Bridge, and round by Tullen Strand, - Level and long and white with waves, where gull and curlew stand, - Head out to sea, when on your lee the breakers you discern! - Adieu to all the billowy coast, and winding banks of Erne! - -By a curious coincidence Mr. Allingham when here in "the eighties" sent -an "Invitation to a Painter"[16]-- - - O come hither! weeks together let us watch the big Atlantic, - Blue or purple, green or gurly, dark or shining, smooth or frantic; - -but the first to come was his own wife. - -[Illustration: -80. THE CHURCH OF STA. MARIA DELLA SALUTE, VENICE -_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. C. P. Johnson._ -Painted 1901.] - -Mrs. Allingham, after an absence of thirty-three years, visited Italy -again in 1901, in company with a fellow-artist, and the following -year the Exhibition of the Old Water-Colour Society was rendered -additionally interesting by a comparison of her rendering of Venice -with that of a fellow lady-member, Miss Clara Montalba, to whose -individuality in dealing with it we have before referred. - -The drawing of Mrs. Allingham's here reproduced shows Venice in quite -an English aspect as regards weather. It is almost a grey day; it -certainly is a fresh one, and has nothing in common with one which -induces the spending of much time about in a gondola. - -In selecting the Salute for one of her principal illustrations of -Venice, Mrs. Allingham has respectfully followed in the footsteps of -England's greatest landscapist, for Turner made it the main object in -his great effort of the Grand Canal, and there are few of the craft who -have failed to limn it again and again in their story of Venice. - -But whilst most people are disposed to regard it as one of the most -beautiful features of the city, the church has fallen under the ban of -those exponents of architecture that have studied it carefully. - -Mr. Ruskin classified it under the heading of "Grotesque Renaissance," -although he admitted that its position, size, and general proportions -rendered it impressive. Its proportions were good, but its graceful -effect was due to the inequality in the size of its cupolas and the -pretty grouping of the campaniles behind them. But he qualified his -praise by an opinion that the proportions of buildings have nothing -whatever to do with the style or general merits of their architecture, -for an artist trained in the worst schools, and utterly devoid of all -meaning and purpose in his work, may yet have such a natural gift -of massing or grouping as will render all his structures effective -when seen from a distance. Such a gift was very general with the late -Italian builders, so that many of the most contemptible edifices in the -country have a good stage effect so long as we do not approach them. -The Church of the Salute is much assisted by the beautiful flight of -steps in front of it down to the Canal, and its façade is rich and -beautiful of its kind. What raised the anger of Ruskin was the disguise -of the buttresses under the form of colossal scrolls, the buttresses -themselves being originally a hypocrisy, for the cupola is of timber, -and therefore needs none. - -[Illustration: -81. A FRUIT STALL, VENICE -_From the Drawing, the property of Mr. C. P. Johnson._ -Painted 1902.] - -A lover of gardens and their produce, such as Mrs. Allingham is, could -not visit Venice without being captivated by the wealth of colour which -Nature has lavished upon the contents of the Venetian fruit stalls. -Even the most indifferent, when they get into meridional parts, cannot -be insensible to the luscious hues which the fruit baskets display. -To look out of the window of one's hotel on an Italian lake-side at -dawn and see the boats coming from all quarters of the lake laden with -the luscious tomatoes, plums, and other fruits, is not among the least -of the delights of a sojourn there. Mrs. Allingham's drawing bears -upon its face evidences that it is a literal translation of the scene. -We have none of the introduction of stage accessories in the way of -secchios and other studio belongings which find a place in most of -the Venetian output of this character. She has evidently delighted in -the mysteries of the tones of the wicker baskets, for we recognise in -them traces of the skill she achieves in England in the delineation -of similar surfaces on her tiled roofs. Her figure, too, has nothing -of the studio model in it. This black-haired girl is a new type for -her, but it is a faithful transcript of the original, and not one of -the robust beauties which one is accustomed to in the pictures of -Van Haanen and his followers. The stall itself was located somewhere -between the Campo San Stefano and the Rialto. - - * * * * * - -With these illustrations of Mrs. Allingham's painting elsewhere than -in England our tale is told. We trust that this digression, which -appeared to be necessary if a complete survey of the artist's lifework -up to the present time was to be portrayed, will not be deemed to have -appreciably affected the appropriateness of the title to the volume, -nor invalidated the claim that we have made as to her work having -most felicitously represented the fairest aspects of English life and -landscape--English life, whether of peer, commoner, or peasant, passed -under its healthiest and happiest conditions, and English landscape -under spring and summer skies and dressed in its most beauteous array -of flower and foliage--an England of which we may to-day be as proud -as were those who lived when the immortal lines concerning it were -penned:-- - - This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, - This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, - This other Eden, demi-paradise; - This fortress built by Nature for herself - Against infection and the hand of war; - This happy breed of men, this little world; - This precious stone set in the silver sea, - Which serves it in the office of a wall, - Or as a moat defensive to a house, - Against the envy of less happier lands; - This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, - This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings, - This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land, - Dear for reputation through the world;-- - England, bound in with the triumphant sea, - Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege - Of watery Neptune. - - -THE END - - -_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_. - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] Clayton's _English Female Artists_, 1876. - -[2] In the Exhibition of 1903, 330 out of 1180, or 28 per cent, were -ladies. - -[3] The first female gold medallist was Miss Louisa Starr (now Madame -Canziani), and she was followed by Miss Jessie Macgregor, a niece of -Alfred Hunt. - -[4] The Parish Register shows that the plague reached Chalfont later on. - -[5] See _Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti to William Allingham_. -(London: Fisher Unwin, 1897.) - -[6] _A Flat Iron for a Farthing, or some Passages in the Life of an -Only Son_, by Juliana Horatia Ewing. (George Bell and Sons.) - -[7] The model was a Mrs. Stewart, who, with her husband, sat to Mrs. -Allingham for years. They were well known in art circles, and had -charge of the Hogarth Club, Fitzroy Square, when Mrs. Allingham, before -her marriage, lived in Southampton Row close by. She introduced the -models to Mr. du Maurier, who immediately engaged them, and continued -to use them for many years. "Ponsonby de Tompkins" was Stewart, run -to seed, and "Mrs. Ponsonby de Tompkins" a very good portrait of Mrs. -Stewart. - -[8] Lord Tennyson quoted this line to Mrs. Allingham one day when, -walking with him, they passed ground covered with the fallen flowers of -the lime trees. - -[9] I have been reminded by the artist that my first introduction -to her was at Trafalgar Square, Chelsea, whither I went to see the -products of this Shere visit, and that I came away with some of them in -my possession. - -[10] Another tree at Hatfield also claims this distinction. - -[11] See "In Wormley Wood" (Plate 46), in the description of which I -have referred to the reasons for the disappearance of thatch as a roof -material. An additional one to those there mentioned is without doubt -the risk of fire. Since the introduction of coal, chimneys clog much -more readily with soot, and a fire from one of these with its showers -of sparks may quickly set ablaze not only the cottage where this -happens, but the whole village. That the insurance companies, by their -higher premiums for thatch-covered houses, recognise a greater risk, -may or may not be proof of greater liability to conflagration, but we -certainly nowadays hear of much fewer of those disasters, which even -persons now living can remember, whereby whole villages were swept out -of existence. - -[12] Do not these lines rather refer to gorse? - -[13] Rightly perhaps, for the local doctor pleasantly inquired while -she was painting it, why she had selected a house that had had more -fever in it than any other in the parish. - -[14] Mrs. Allingham's friends sometimes say to her, "You paint so -quickly." Her reply is, "Perhaps I make a quick beginning, but I take a -long time to finish." Which is the fact. - -[15] When will the day come that editions of the books illustrated by -Birket Foster will attain to their proper value? The poets illustrated -by miserable process blocks find a sale, whilst these volumes, issued -in the middle of the last century, and containing the finest specimens -of the wood-cutting art, attract, if we may judge by the second-hand -book-sellers' catalogues, no purchasers even at a sum which is a -fraction of their original price. - -[16] _Irish Songs and Poems_ (1887), p. 47. - - -[Transcriber's Note: - -Plate images have been moved to the beginning of the text headers. - -Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.] - - - - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HAPPY ENGLAND *** - -***** This file should be named 54696-0.txt or 54696-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - https://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/6/9/54696/ - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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