Part 9 (1/2)
Like a drearatefully kept in nolo on October 1st ”Went for iata_ up to the hill of lavender and dwarf oak and other mountain shrubs, where I made a study of an oak bush on the only wet day we have had, for round Mrs Ross, a fearless rider, went on with the breaking in of the Arab colt 'Pascia' to-day Old Maso, one of the _habitues_ of the villa, whooped and screamed every time the colt bucked or reared, and he waddled away as fast as he could, groaning in terror, only to creep back again to venture another look And he had been an officer in the are for the 'Institute' and knocked off another panel or two, and sketched Mrs Ross in her Turkish dress, so I have not been idle” Janet Ross seeypt and Italy into her buoyant nature, and to see the vigour hich she conducted the vintage at Castagnolo acted as a tonic on us all; so did the deep contralto voice and the guitar, and the racy talk
We left on October 14th, on a golden day, with the therrees in the shade, to return to the icy sroped, as the Diary says, in sealskins and ulsters Castagnolo has our thanks How could we have had the fulness of Italian delights which our kind hosts afforded us in some pension or hotel in Florence?
And what hospitality theirs was! We tried to sing some of the ”_Stornelli_” in the hansom that took us home from Victoria Station One of our favourites, ”_M'affaccio alla finestra e vedo Stelle_,” had to be lass of the cab, into ”_Ma non vedo Stelle_,” sung in the ht was there What but the stern necessity of beginning ”Inkerht me back? My dear sister cannot have rejoiced, and may have wished to tarry, but when did she ever ”put a spoke in my wheel”?
CHAPTER XIII
A SOLDIER'S WIFE
Though the London winter was gloomy, on the whole, and I was handicapped in the middle of my work by a cold which retarded the picture so ain toof ed to be married to the author of ”The Great Lone Land” It ive a little sketch of our rather ro
When the newly-proinning to recover from the Ashanti fever that had nearly killed hin, his sister Frances used to read to hiether how, at the Royal Acade, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cae had spoken as they did of Miss Elizabeth Thompson As paper after paper spoke of me and of my work, he said one day to his sister, in utter fun under his slowly reviving spirits, ”I wonder if Miss Thompson would marry me?” Two years after that he o by before the Fates said ”Now!”
When ”Inkermann” was carted off to Bond Street on April 19th, what a relief and delight it was to tell the model ”Time is up” ”Maone, revelling in our freedom to make as much dust as we liked, when hitherto one had had to be so careful about dust” We always did this on such occasions
The Fine Art Society, at whose galleries in Bond Street the picture was exhibited, bought it and the copyright together No doubt for some the subject of this work is too sad, but ave expression to in thosethe field of battle at Waterloo: ”There is nothing sadder than a victory, except a defeat” It shows the reirey of a Nove from the ”Soldiers' Battle,” most of the men very weary The ADC on horseback I painted froave ton, sentpresent a medal taken froold bracelet, which is one of raved on it
”_April 20th_--The first Private View of 'Inkermann' I was there a short time, and was quite happy at the look of allery, and very popular the whole exhibition see,' by itself upstairs, and remarkably well it looks, too The croas dense and I left the good people wriggling in a cloud of dust”
June 11th of that year, 1877, wasuests were chiefly that gallant group of soldiers ith my husband, had won the Ashanti War, Sir Garnet Wolseley, Redvers Buller and their coton days gaveour path down the church, as we came out, with flowers I had not known they were there
And now a new country opened out forbefore the dreadful cloud had fallen on it under which I a before It looks like another world to e share of the earth's beauties to enjoy, yet here opened out an utterly new and unique experience--Ireland Our wedding tour was chiefly devoted to the Wild West, with a pause at Glencar, in Kerry I have tried in happier political times to convey to my readers in another place[7] my impression of that Western country--its freshness, its wild beauty, its entrancing poetry, and that sadness which, like thequality in poetry That note is utterly absent from the poetry of Italy; there all is in the major, like its national ht, a new sensation, surprising, heart-stirring, appealing My husband had giventour between Ireland and the Crimea How could I hesitate?
My first married picture was the one I ers” I had splendideant, followed by the ”decoy” private and two druis of that time The men were cousins, Foley by na, white homespun sleeves and the picturesque black hat which I fear is little worn now, and is largely replaced by that quite cosmopolitan peaked cap I loathe The deep richness of those typical Irish days of cloud and sunshi+ne had so enchanted me that I was determined to try and represent the effect in this picture, which was a departure fro an equal share with the figures, and the civilian peasant dress for the centre of interest Its black, white and brown colouring, the four red coats and the bright brass of the druave me an enjoyable combination with the blue and red-purple of the ht on the -land Here was that variety as to local colour denied me in the other works It was a joy to realise this subject The picture was for Mr Whitehead, the owner of ”Balaclava”
The opening day of my introduction to the Wild West was on a Sunday in that June: ”From Limerick Junction to Glencar I had my first experience of an Irish Mass, andevery day that Ireland is as land as is France or Italy The congregation was all new to h in a way an exact equivalent to the Tuscan--the rough-looking men in homespun coats in a crowd inside and outside of the church, the woendar with the people and yet not of them
This Limerick Junction was the nucleus of the Fenian nebula In this terrible Tipperary the stalwart constabulary, whonificance I have never seen finer men than those, and they are of a type new to irls, looking so nice in their Bruges-like hoods, are very fresh and cooal of our expedition, and I think I may say that I never had a more memorable little journey The distanttook clearer fors with their rich black and purple peat-earth, and bright, reedy grass, and teehted eyes as the train whirled us southwards At Killarney we took a carriage and set off onupon tracts of that wild nature I was , and in its solemn tones I saw for the first tireilder and e as we neared the mysterious inning to taste the salt of the Wilds What human habitations there are are so like the stone heaps that lie over the face of the land that they are scarcely distinguishable froht of the dwellers in this poor land which yields theures came to the black doors to watch us pass, with, in sohty 'Carran Thual,' one of the roup which rises out of Glencar and do heather, its peaks sending up a glorious column of smoke which spread out at the top for ed its delicate smoke tints every minute as the sun sank lower As we reached the rocky pass that took us by the reone down behind an opposite hter as the twilight deepened, and circles of fire played weirdly on the randest illue birds rose froly away over lake and mountain torrent, and the little black Kerry cattle all watched us go by with ears pricked and heads inquiringly raised The last stage of the journey had a brilliant _finale_ A herd of young horses was in our way in the narrow road, and the creatures careered before us, unable or too stupid to turn aside into the ditches by the roadside to let us through We could not head thes caper and julow froh them Soinable reason, unless they enjoyed the fright of being pursued, and the ungainly progress of those recruits was a sight to behold--tails in the air and horns in the dust With this escort we entered Glencar”
Nothing that I have seen in olden time has in the least dimmedjar against a thing so unique I have fully recorded in my former book hoe made different excursions, always on ponies, every day, not returning till the evening What i these rides was the depth and richness of the Irish landscape colouring The lossy depth Even without the help of actual sunshi+ne, so essential to the landscape beauty of Italy, the local colour is powerful In describing toin Scotland Millais used the sirey, dry pebble on the seashore and dip it in the water It will show len, delightfully rough, and inated with that scent of turf smoke which has ever since been torehness there was in the primitive little inn a very pleasant provision of such sustenance as old caners and fishermen kno to establish in the haunts they visit
The coast of Clare came next in our journey, where the Atlantic hurls itself full tilt at the iron cliffs, and the ind, which I learnt to love, co land since it left the coast of Labrador, to fill one with a sense of salt and freshness and health as it rushes into one's lungs fro co deep” that washes the rocks of Porto Fino as I looked down on the thundering waves below the cliffs of Moher Here was the si to black; light green, cold and pure; foae, reen of the waves, and that was all; whereas the sea around Porto Fino baffles both painter and word-painter with its infinite variety of blues, purples, and greens These are contrasts that I delight in How the ind rushed at us, full of spray! How the ocean roared! It was a revel of here we stood at the very edge of those sheer cliffs Across their black faces sea birds incessantly circled and wheeled, crying with a shrill cla of the waves many fathoms below, as they leap into the immense caverns, were the only sounds that pierced the wind The black rocks had ledges of greyer rock, and along these ledges, tier above tier, satlike illus The Isles of Arran and the mountains of Connemara spread out before us on the ocean, which sparkled in one place with the gold beaood-bye to Erin for the present on July 15th and the establishment of ourselves in London till our return to the Land that held a net for us on Septeht of Kerry, at Valentia Island What a delightful home! The size of the fuchsia trees told of the mild climate; the scenery was of the re to the senses, and the ever-welco house where the sods glowed in the great fireplaces My surprise, when strolling on one of the innocent little strands by the sea, was great at seeing the Atlantic cable e, quite sih it was nothing in particular Following it, we reached a very up-to-date building, so out of keeping with the prioodness knohat cosmopolitan corruption from the New World to the Old, and _vice versa_
[Illustration: In Western Ireland
A ”Jarvey” and ”Biddy”]
I would not have aunter specimen has not hisof Monte Cassino, whose salient hips are so unexpected There is so with visible hips[8] All the animals in the west seemed to me free-and-easy creatures that live with the peasants asa much better time than the humans They frisk irresponsibly in and out of the cabins--no ”by your leave” or ”with your leave”--and, altogether, enjoy life to the top of their own highest level The poorer the people, the greater appears the contrast caused by this inverted state of things
The next tio in the opposite direction--to the Pyrenees Rapid travel is fast levelling down the different countries, and a carriage journey through the Pyrenean country is a bygone pleasure We have to go to Thibet or the Great Wall of China for our trips if ant to write anything original about our travels A flight by air to the North Pole would, at first, prove very readable and novel, if well described This, however, does not take fro over the inner circle in memory In the year 1878 we could still find h the south of France! Soo, with return tickets, by rail, and all they could say was that the journey was so dusty that they had to draw the blinds of their coe all the way Poor dears, how arid!
This little tour of ours ell advised The loss of our firstborn, Mary Patricia, brought our first sorroith it, and ent to Lourdes and h the Pyrenees to Switzerland