Part 40 (1/2)
Mr Arbuthnot considered that in fulfiliven to him He would, of course, have published it as a volu the usual precautions to prevent it fro into unsuitable hands
Chapter XL July 1891-Deceraphy:
84 Life of Sir Richard Burton, 2 vols 1893 85 Translation of Catullus 1894 86 The Library Edition of The Arabian Nights, 12 vols
1894
180 A Letter to Miss Stisted
In July 1891 there appeared in Temple Bar an article by Miss Stisted, entitled ”Re it, Lady Burton, who headed her letter ”5 or 67 Baker Street, Porty, [677] I read last night your clever and ritten article on , and send you a little notice out of The Daily News I congratulate you on it and on being able to write again I was very sorry you and Maria [Lady Stisted] would not coive you a photo of the monument and a list of the people ere invited There were 850 asked, 400 influenza refusals and over 500 were present, counted by the police at the gates When you co aunt Zoo”
But the comic always treads on the heels of the pathetic for it is not probable that Miss Stisted valued very ht fit to call ”an eccentric tomb” in a ”shabby sectarian cemetery” [679] The removal into 67, Baker Street, took place in Septee at Wople End, near Mortlake, where she spent her su the last decade of her husband's life she had become, to use her oords, coarse and rather unwieldy, but her sorrow had the effect of restoring to her soraces of person that had ination may easily be seen by anyone who coroup taken by Miller in 1888 with the photograph by Gunn and Stuart, [680] where she is in her 's cap with its long white strearaph and others taken at the time she looks handsome and stately She is once more ”Empress of Damascus” The house in baker Street has thus been described: ”No sooner have you crossed Lady Burton's threshold than you are at once transported, as if by reeted by a handsome wo contrast to the glow of rich but subdued colour which surrounds her Opposite the fireplace is a full length and very characteristic portrait of Burton in fencing costu the curiosities are the necklace [682] of huiven to Burton by Gelele, soes near Trieste, and a three-sided mirror and two crystals hich Burton used toa quaint Moorish lamp with many branches, and its softened rays often fall on a Dailt coffee service studded with turquoises” At the top of the house and approached by a narrow staircase and a ladder was a large loft, built by herself, for storing her husband's littered a ”small but tastefully decorated altar,”
while scattered around were the many relics which have since drifted to Caust 1892-March 1893
In this loft Lady Burton spenther husband's papers, and in the autumn of 1902 she commenced in earnest to write his life--a work that occupied her about eight months That she was absolutely unfitted for the task e of Burton Indeed, she was quite incapable of doing literary work of any kind properly The spirit in which she wrote ed both froood taste, and the following citation from a letter to a friend: ”I do not know,” she said, ”if I can harden ue and point my pen and play pussy cat about their eyes and ears” By ”curs” sheher husband's manuscripts, but in justice to her, let it be borne in mind that she had received some letters that were quite unworthy of the writers
The great questions was, Would she live to coive only a limited portion of her tiress was e bears evidences of hurry We have already told the story of the three appearances of Sir Richard just before the burning of The Scented Garden MS Lady Burton persistently declared that after the third appearance her husband caain and never left her until she had finished her work ”He was constantly withexactly as in life, and he advised and comforted me He helped raphy, and gave raphy caave me absolutely the position of the book in the shelf and the page and reference itself which I required”
A letter [683] of one of Burton's friends contains the following co the Life were two-fold First to prove Sir Richard a Roman Catholic, and thus fit him to be buried with her, and secondly to ash his escapades and insubordination As to the first, I know he despised [684]
the Roious feeling existed at all, it was of the Mohaion was not very apparent, though he was fundamentally an honest and conscientious man, and I think he had but one enenificent --and that was his hot temper”
Lady Burton's book was finished at Mortlake on 24th March 1893, and appeared in the autumn of that year She then commenced the issue of the Mee to Al Medinah and Meccah (2 vols), The Mission to Gelele (2 vols), and Vikram and the Vampire appeared in 1893, First Footsteps in East Africa in 1894
The venture, however, proved a failure, so no more volumes were issued
She published her husband's Penta 11th July 1893 to Mrs E J Burton just before a visit to that lady, Lady Burton says--and it must be borne in mind that her complaint often made her feel very ill--”Send me a line to tell me what is the nearest Roman Catholic Church to you, as I eet an early confession, communion and mass (after which I am at liberty for the rest of the day) because, as you know, I have to fast froht till I come back, and I feel bad for want of a cup of tea The Life is out to-day”
The reception accorded to her work by the Press, who, out of regard to Sir Richard's ave Lady Burton reat pleasure to me,” she says, ”to kno kind people are aboutRichard” [685]