Part 8 (1/2)

CHAPTER XI

TO FLORENCE AND BACK

We started on our htful journey to Florence early in Septeelo fetes as the guests of dear Mrs Janet Ross and the Marchese della Stufa, ith Mr Ross, inhabited in the suna, six ive page after page in the Diary to our journey across Italy under the Alps and the Apennines To the h we did travel by rail! Above all the lovely thingson our way by the Turin-Bologna line, I think Par in sunshi+ne and palpitating jewel-like shade, holds pride of place for noontide beauty After Modena cana,Then the sunset and then the tender ht we crossed the Apennines, and to the sound of the droning su sound, which I declared makes itself heard above the railway noises, we descended into the Garden of Italy, slowly, under powerful brakes At ten we reached Florence, and in the crowd on the platfor man bowed to me ”Miss Thompson?” ”Yes” It was the Marchese, and lo!

behind him, who should there be but ave us Of course, our luggage had stuck at the _douane_ at Modane, and was telegraphed for No help for it; we e which aiting us, and the Marchese into his little pony trap, and off ent flying for a ht, we in front and our host behind, jingle-jingling merrily with the pleasant monotony of his lion-maned little pony's canter We could not believe the drive was a real one It was too ood to be true

But how tired ere!

At last we drove up to the great towered villa, an old-fashi+oned Florentine ancestral place, which has been the horeat doorway, stood Mrs Ross, welcoh frescoed rooenuine old Tuscan patterns, and were delighted with our bedrooms--enor ourselves, and went down to a fruit-decked supper, though hardly able to sit up for sleep How kind they were to us! We felt quite at home at once

”_September 12th_--After Mass at the picturesque little chapel which, with the _vicario's_ dwelling, abuts on the _fattoria_ wing of the villa, we drove into Florence with Mrs Ross and the Marchese, e find the typical Italian patrician of the high school We were rigged out in Mrs Ross's frocks, which didn't fit us at all But as to be done? Provoking girls! It was a dear, hot, dusty, dazzling old Florentine drive, bless it! and ere very pleased Florence was _en fete_ and all _i with the usual coloured draperies, and all joyous with church bells and elo (the fetes began to-day) was held in the Palazzo Vecchio, and very excellentout in applause before some of the best pieces were quite finished in that refreshi+ngly spontaneous way Italians have After the concert we loitered about the piazza looking at the ever- crowd in the deep, transparent shade and dazzling sunshi+ne

It was a glorious sight, with the white statues of the fountain rising into the sunlight against houses hung mostly with very beautiful yellow draperies I stood at the top of the steps of the Loggia de' Lanzi, and, resting h sketch of the scene, keeping the _Graphic_ engageelo procession passing the Ponte alle Grazie on its way froelo,' which they have ht of San Miniato It was a pretty procession on account of the rich banners A day full of chars of the last day of the fetes were the illu They were artistically done, and we had a feast of the

Michael Angelo was remembered at every turn, and the places he fortified were especiallyNot a vile gas jet to be seen anywhere The city was not illu, with few exceptions, save the lines of the great man's fortifications The old white banner of Florence, with the _Giglio_, floated above the tricolour on the heights which Michael Angelo defended in person The effect, especially on the church of San Miniato, of golden lalow, as if the walls were transparent, and of the green-blueas lovely as can be seen on this earth It was a thoroughly Italian festival We were char in the crohich enjoyed themselves very ners

We stayed at Castagnolo nearly all through the vintage, pressed froh Inolo was intense, and we had certainly a happy experience I sketched hard every day in the garden, the vineyards, and the old courtyard where the e incidents occurred, with the white oxen, the wine pressing, and the bare-legged, merry _contadini_, all in an at in the _Cortile_ was dyed with the wine in the reat vats and inhale that wholeso to the low sea-like murmur of the ferrapes on the hillside (and ”helping ourselves” at the same time) we had _collazione_ there, a little picnic, with the indispensable guitar and post-prandial cigarette Every one made the most of this blessed tiiven us, I think Young Italians often dined at the villa, and the evenings were spent in singing _stornelli_ and _rispetti_ untilfellows having a nice voice They were merry, pleasant creatures

[Illustration: ONE OF THE BALAKLAVA SIX-HUNDRED]

Nothing but the stern necessity of returning to work could have kept retfully on October 4th, taking Genoa and our dear step-sister on the way Even as it was our lingering in Italy s turned out, for the Acadean my 'Balaclava' cartoon to-day

Marked all the positions of the lorious and happy and healthy life I have led there, and the utter change of scene and occupation, have doneat this picture _con amore_ I was in hopes this happy result would be obtained” ”Balaclava” was painted for Mr Whitehead, of Manchester I had owed hi” It was to be the same size, and for the same price as that work, and I was in honour bound to fulfil ht forward the ”Dawn of Sedan,” although ed that 80 had become quite out of proportion, even for a si parleys, and on account of Mr

Whitehead's repudiation of the Sedan subject, it was agreed that ”Balaclava” should be his, at the new scale altogether The Fine Art Society (late dickenson & Co) gave Mr Whitehead 3,000 for the copyright, and engaged the great Stacpoole, as before, to execute the engraving

I was very sorry that the picture was not ready for Sending-in Day at the Acade begun a ood deal disturbed towards the end, and had to exhibit ”Balaclava” at the private gallery of the purchasers of the copyright in Bond Street

This gave me more time to finish I had my own Private View on April 20th, 1876: ”The picture is disappointing to es of art have said about this being the best thing I have yet painted Can one _never_ be happy when the work is done? This day was only for our friends and was no test Still, there hat inia Gabriel, the composer, was led out of the rooh the charge told a friend he would never have co it was Curiously enough, another said that after the stress of Inkerainst it exactly as I have theto the left of my picture

”_April 22nd_--An enormous number of people at the Society's Private View and so out in thea little reassured” A day later: ”Went to lunch at Mrs Mitchell's, who invited reat friend Two distinguished officers were there to meet me, and we had a pleasant chat” And this is all I say! One of the tas Major W F Butler, author of ”The Great Lone Land”

The London season went by full of society doings Our ood ton Ruskin came to see us there He and ouronhis hands at many points she made

He was displeased withme which of the Italian masters I had especially studied, I named Andrea del Sarto ”Come into the corner and letwords Why? Of course, I was crestfallen, but, all the same, I wondered what could be the matter with Andrea's ”Cenacolo” at San Salvi, or his frescoes at the SS Annunziata, or his ”Madonna with St Francis and St John,” in the Tribune of the Uffizi The figure of the St John is, to entle,of the hand, and the harmonious colours of the drapery--what _could_ be the matter with such work? I remember, at one of the artistic London ”At Ho face to say, if I did not send to the Academy, I should lose my chance of election But I think the difficulties of electing a woreat, and st the RA's However, as it turned out, in 1879 I lost my election by _two_ votes only! Since then I think the door has been closed, and wisely I returned to the studio on May 18th, for I could not lay down the brush for any as Besides, I soon had to make preparations for ”Inkermann”

”_Saturday, June 10th_--Saw Genl Darby-Griffith, to get information about Inkerhtful Lord Mayor's Banquet to the Representatives of Art at the Mansion House, a place of delightful recollections for me Neither this year's nor last year's banquet quite came up to the one of 'The Roll Call' year in point of nuhtful and interesting to be in that great gathering of artists and hear oneself gracefully alluded to in The Lord Mayor's speech and others Marcus Stone sat on ood conversation all through dinner such as I have seldom embarked on, and I found, when I tried it, that I could talk pretty well He is a fine fellow, and sienuine My _vis-a-vis_ was Al wife, like a lady out of one of his own pictures; and ed all around gested to the Lord Mayor that we should get up a quadrille, which was instantly done, and the friskier spirits ast us had a nice dance Du Maurier was my partner; and on my left I had John Tenniel, so that I inning and end of dinner, this being Du Maurier's sience peculiar to civic banquets After a waltz we laggards at last took our departure in the best spirits”

I reh Mass, to wit, the first to be celebrated in the Old Saxon Church of St Etheldreda since the days of the Reformation This church was the second place of Christian worshi+p erected in London, if not in England, in the old Saxon tiorian Mass sounded once rey-stoned crypt The upper church was not to be ready for years

Those old grey stones woke up thatbeen smothered in the London clay

Here follow too many descriptions in the Diary of dances, dinners and other functions They are superfluous There were, however, so house--Mrs Bishop's, a very intellectual woeneral, and Catholic society in particular--which may be recorded in this very personal narrative, for I had a funny hand in a single-figure tableau which showed the dazed 11th Hussar who figures in the foreground of my ”Balaclava” The man who stood for him in the tableau had been my model for the picture, but to this day I feel the irritation caused me by that man In the picture I have him with his busby pushed back, as it certainly would and should have been, off his heated brow But, while I was posing him for the tableau, every tile I got quite cross, and insisted on the necessary push back The wretch pretended to obey, but, just before the curtain rose, ra of that figure! We didn't want a representation of Mr So-and-so in the beco fell very flat But tableaux, to my mind, are a mistake, inLord and Lady Denbigh, for they were people after h was one of those women one always looks at with a smile; she was so _simpatica_ and true and unworldly