Part 7 (2/2)
After this I went to Great Marlow for fresh air with my mother, and worked up an oil picture of a scout of the 3rd Dragoon Guards who the landscape at Marlow It has since been engraved
By the middle of June I was at work in the studio once ht their diversions Under Mrs Owen Lewis's chaperonage I went to Lady Petre's At Houests were assembled ”to meet HE the Cardinal”[5] I record that ”I enjoyed it verybut talk at the top of their voices as they wriggled about in the dense crohich they helped to swell
They say it is a characteristic of these Catholic parties that the talk is so loud, as everybody knows everybody intimately! I met many people I knew, and ish talk with HE, who scoldedcome to see him I are of an extra interest in me in those orthodox roo, repeatedly, whether I was there These fleeting experiences instruct one as they fly Now I knohat it feels like to be 'the fashi+on'” Other festivities have their record: ”I went to a very nice garden party at the house of the great engineer, Mr Fowler, where the usual sort of thing concerning e nus aboutamount of this, and am by no means _blasee_ yet Mr Fowler has a very choice collection of ain: ”The dinner at the Millais' was nice, but its great attraction was Heilbuth's being there, one of ards his particular line--characteristic scenes of Roman ecclesiastical life such as I so much enjoyed in Roraph in my album for years 'Do you hear that, Heilbuth?' he shouted To o in to dinner, but I had de Nittis, a very clever Neapolitan artist, and, ith him and Heilbuth and Halle and Tissot, we talkedMillais was so genial and cordial, and in seeing e he hinted very broadly that I was soon to have what I 'hly deserved'--that is, my election as ARA He pronounced the '_th_' like that, and with great emphasis Was that the Jersey touch?”
In July I saw de Neuville's remarkable ”Street Combat,” which made a deep impression on reat success, with splendid weather After the ”battle,” Captain Cardew took us over several cas which interested ave me many ideas The entry for July 17th says:
”Arranging the co, and at 130 came my dear hussar,[6] who has sat on his fiery chestnut for me already, on a fine bay, forsuch a life a accounts of the Crimean men I have had in my studio to consult Soh charcoal sketch on the wall, he said _no_ dress caps orn in that charge, and coolly rubbed thee caps on all the heads (on the wrong side, too!), and contentedly eant, and I tell him what has been done to my cartoon 'Well, miss,' says he, 'all I can tell you is that e and ain and up went my spirits, so dashed by Col C
To ht this lancer veteran has kept his very uniforinal, and he will lend it to et the splendid headdress of the 17th, the 'Death or Glory Boys,' of that period at a military tailor's”
The Lord Mayor's splendid banquet to the Royal Acadeuished ”outsiders” was in many respects a repetition of the last but with the difference that the assembly was almost entirely composed of artists ”I ith Papa, and I h the lane of people to where the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress were standing to receive their guests, I felt athere to see as arriving, and every eye was upon me I wasat uests Miss Thoht in 'The Roll Call' and 'Quatre Bras' amidst clamour, while Sir Henry Cole's allusion to my possible election as an ARA was equally well received I felt very glad as I sat there and heard my present work cheered; for in that hall, last year, I had still the great ordeal to go through of painting, and painting successfully, my next picture, and that was now a _fait accompli_”
A rainy July sadly hinderedas much as I had hoped to see of the Aldershot manuvres On one lovely day, however, Papa and I went down in the special train with the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cae, and all the ”cocked hats” In our cocompanion, and what he said about ”Quatre Bras” was nice
He was only in England on a short furlough from Canada, and did not see my ”Roll Call”
”At the station at Farnborough the picturesqueness began with the gay groups of the escort, and other soldiers and general officers, all in war triround slowly passed, heavily laden, the Army on the march to the scene of action
Papa and I and Major Bethune took a carriage and slowly followed theup to see all I could
”We were soon overtaken by the brilliant staff, and saluted as it flashed past byBaron de Grancey in his sky blue _Chasseurs d'Afrique_ uniform Poor Lord Dufferin in civilian dress--frock coat and tall hat--had to ride a rough-trotting troop horse, as his own horse never turned up at the station A trooper was ordered to disant Lord Dufferin took his place in the black sheepskin saddle He did all with perfect grace, and I see hie, lift his hat with a s the smoothest of Arabs
The country was lovely All the heather out and the fir woods aromatic
In one village regi into woods and all sorts of artillery, a with a dull roll very suggestive of real war At this village the two Aruished fro broad white bands round their headdresses This gave the wearers a rather savage look which I ri road andnothing of the actual battle, but distant puffs of smoke However, I saw all the march back to Aldershot, and really, ith the full a exhausted (_sic_) by the roadside, or lirimed troops, it was not so unlike war At the North Camp Sir Henry de Bathe was introduced, and Papa and I stood by hi Valley where the iven us, solorious sunshi+ne and effective cloud shadows in one of the land
”It was very instructive to me,” I write, ”to see the difference in the appearance of the men to-day from that which they presented on Thursday
Their very faces see, whereas on Thursday I wondered that British soldiers could look as they did The infantry in particular, on that day, seee, so distorted were their faces with powder and dirt and deep lines caused by the glare of the sun I ithin the limits when I painted my 28th in square I suppose it would not have done to be realistic to the fullest extent The lunch at the Welsh Fusiliers' ht very nice Papa caood of hi sorather abnormal”
Here follows another fresh air holiday at randfather), finishi+ng up with a visit which I shall always reratitude--not only for its own sake, but for all the enjoyment it obtained for me in Italy
That August I was a guest of the Higford-Burrs at Alder Berkshi+re park ”I arrived just as the co dinner I elcomed with open arms Mrs
Higford-Burr eh I have only seen her twice before, and I wasdress, positively declining to recall dishes, hating a fuss as I do The dessert was pleasant because every one hter of the Lady Duff Gordon whose writings hadto see the Nile in my childhood There are five lakes in the Park, and one part is a heather-covered Coht oil sketches onhard and enjoying the society of uests at dinner besides the house party, and the average nuhteen Besides Mrs Ross were Mr and Mrs
Layard, he the Nineveh explorer, and now Ambassador at Madrid, the Poynters, RA, the Misses Duff Gordon, and others, in the house Mrs
Burr with her great tact allowedmy sandwiches and paints with me to the moor”
Days at Worthing follohere my mother and I painted all day on the Downs, I with my ”Balaclava” in viehich required a valley and low hills My reat value, as I had not had much time to practise landscape up to then Then came my visit, with Alice, to Newcastle, where ”Quatre Bras” was being exhibited, to be followed by our visit at Mrs Ross's Villa near Florence, whither she had invited us when at Alderelo
”We left for Newcastle by the 'Flying Scotch shot at Peterborough and York Cathedrals, and a fine flying view of Durham Newcastle ie across the Tyne and looked down on the s forth black and brown smoke and jets of white steam in all directions It rises in fine masses up frorandeur quite novel to us I could not help adh, as it were, under protest, for it seeht of Heaven when it is not necessary The laws for consuarded here Mrs Mawson, representing the fir exhibited, aiting our arrival, and was to be our hostess We were honoured and feted in the way of the war could have been more successful than our visit in its way These Northerners are hted with them They have quite a _cachet_ of their own, so cultured and well read on the top of their intense commercialism--far more responsive in conversation than many society people I know 'down South' We had a day at Durha that finest of all English Cathedrals (to my mind), and the Bishop's palace, etc We rested at the Dean's, where, of course, I was asked for raph I already find how interested the people are about here, more even than in other parts where I have been Durharand mass of Norman architecture rises abruptly from the woods that slope sheer down to the cal Of course, the smoky at the deep shadows of carvings, etc--a great pity On our return we took another lion _en passant_--hted I was to find it so well lighted I may say I have never seen it properly before, because it never looked so well in my studio, and as to the Black Hole----! What people they are up here for shaking hands! When soht up to me the introducer puts it in this way: 'Mr So-and-So wishes veryhands with you, Miss Tho in their speech which I like”
We were up oneat 430 to be off to Scotland for the day At Berwick the rainy weather lifted and ere delighted by the look of the old Border town on its pro Tweed
Passing over the long bridge, which has such a fine effect spanning the river, ere pleased to find ourselves in a country new to us
Edinburgh struck us very ht it was ”all the brag of the Scotch,” but ere converted
It is so like a fine old Continental city--nothing reland, and yet there is a _Scotchiness_ about it which gives it a sentiment of its own Our towns are, as a rule, so poorly situated, but Edinburgh has the advantage of being built on steep hills and of being back-grounded by great crags which give it a rey colour of the city is fine, and the houses, nearly all gabled and very tall, are exceedingly picturesque, and none have those vile, black, wriggling chiure what sky lines our towns hted to see so many women hite caps and tartan shawls and the children barefoot; picturesque horse harness; plenty of kilted soldiers
We did all the lions, including the garrison fortress where the Cahlanders were, and where Colonel Miller, of Parkhurst memory, came out, very pleased to speak to ave hier, done at Parkhurst in the old Ventnor days Our return to Newcastle was reedily devoured the peculiarly sweet and re re, Then, I will say, the sas light The sixpenny croas there, thetheir caps as I passed In the street they fore ”What nice people!” I exclaim in the Diary
All theforat productions of local artists and calling on the Bishop and the Protestant Vicar One man had carved a chair which was to be dedicated to me I was quaintly enthroned on it All this was done on our way to the station, where we lunched under dozens of eyes, and on the platfornitaries were introduced and 'shook hands,' as also the 'Gentlemen of the local Press' As I said a feords to each the cro et quite hot and I was rather glad when the train drew up and we could get into our carriage The farewell handshakings at the doorhandkerchiefs and hats I don't know that I respond sufficiently to all this Frankly,made so much of pleases me most satisfactorily, but the _personal_ part of the tributein this way”
Ruskin wrote a pamphlet on that year's Academy in which he told the world that he had approached ”Quatre Bras” with ”iniquitous prejudice”
as being the work of a woman He had always held that no wo what he found it as being that of an Amazon I was very pleased to see myself in the character of an Amazon