JOURNALS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF
LADY EASTLAKE
Vol. II

PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
LONDON

p p
P c
fa t
f- f-

JOURNALS AND CORRESPONDENCE

OF

LADY EASTLAKE

EDITED BY HER NEPHEW
CHARLES EASTLAKE SMITH

WITH FACSIMILES OF HER DRAWINGS
AND A PORTRAIT

IN TWO VOLUMES— VOL. II

LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1895

CONTENTS OF
THE SECOND VOLUME

CHAPTER XIX
1854
Ft
Foreign tour — Paris : the Louvre, H6tel de Ville, Barracks of
Imperial Guard, Pere la Chaise, Champs-Elysees,
Chapelle Expiatoire — Strasburg railway station — Alpine
scenery — St. Gothard Pass — The Brera, Milan —
Brescia — Padua — Venice — -Mrs. Norton — Mantua and
Giulio Romano — Milan Cathedral — Bergamo — fount .
Lochis of Crocetta — Varenna — The Spliigen Pass — A
herculean conducteur 

CHAPTER XX
1854-55
Sir C. Eastlake appointed Director of National Gallery :
interview with Lord Aberdeen — Lockhart's death — The
Queen and the Crimean heroes — Rosa Bonheur and
Landseer — Florence Nightingale — A rough Channel-
crossing — Paris : the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Horace
Vernet, Garde de Paris, Prefect's Ball — Paris illuminated
— The Queen in Paris — ¦' Descendez,je vous dis ' . . 32

[6] MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE
CHAPTER XXI
1855 PAGE
Strasburg Cathedral — Carlsruhe — Gais — The Via Mala — An
Austrian Custom-house — ' C i un sasso ' — Certosa of
Pavia — The Castellearcas — Parmesan Government-
Fumigation at Pontremoli — ' // mahdetto colera ' — An olive
grove — Tuscany and the Tuscans — Leaning Tower, Pisa —
Florence — The ' Ghirlandajo' : Honesty not the best policy
- — Lord Normanby — Ferrara  53
CHAPTER XXII
1856-58
Mr. Ruskin's reasoning — Queen at Royal Academy — Sir Noel
Paton's picture — Ball-room at Buckingham Palace : ' the
designs are only Raphael's' — Baron Brunnow — Princess
Royal's engagement — Advice and assistance in Art —
Rotterdam : Ary Scheffer — The Schlbsser — German con
viviality — Brunswick — Cassel — Mont Cenis Pass — ' Out,
oui,firai doucement' — Piedmontese politeness — Turin —
Molteni and his friends in Milan — The Casa Poldi — A
' Fra Angelico' — Bologna — Florence— Mrs. Somerville —
Settignano — Rome .  82
CHAPTER XXIII
1859
Duchess of Malakoff— Duchess of Cambridge — Her sister's
death— An Arabia Petraa— Verona : traces of the war 
Melegnano— Magenta— Marseilles to Madrid— Barcelona
—The Palm Grove— Grisi at Madrid— Mr. Christopher
Sykes — Toledo — The Basque Provinces— Count Stolberg's
picture sale at Hanover  llY
CHAPTER XXIV
i860
Mrs. Jameson's death— Gibson's absent-mindedness— Sir
James Outram— Lord Monteagle— Nuremberg— Munich

CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME [7]
/- PAGE
Gallery — Ampezzo— Cremona — Modena — Bologna —
Ravenna — Cavour and Garibaldi — Lord Hertford's
treasures in Paris— Brussels— A lost gem . . . .136

CHAPTER XXV
1861-63
The Paris Salon — French provincial musdes — A Mansion-
House dinner — Fechter's 'Othello' — Prince Albert's
death — Bellaggio — Lord Elcho and the Royal Academy
— Admiral Codrington — Naples — Relics of Pompeii —
Florence— Milan— Sir Charles and the Fine Arts Com
mission — Cardinal Wiseman — Outram's funeral — Albert
Memorial — Prince of Wales at the Academy dinner —
Bishop Colenso — ' The History of our Lord ' . . .158

CHAPTER XXVI
1864
Professor Jowett — Garibaldi at the Crystal Palace — Dijon :
le fiuits de Moise — Prince Arthur at Ouchy — Signor
Morelli — Venice — Verona — Trial of 104 brigands at
Bologna — The Riviera : Mentone, Nice — An odious cuisine
— Aliscamps — Nismes — Lyons  179

CHAPTER XXVII
1865-70
Sir C. Eastlake's death— The Queen's sympathy— Dean
Ramsay's letter—' Fellowship '—Sir Henry Layard—
Landseer's plaintive appeal— Memoirs of Sir C. East-
lake and John Gibson— Mr. Ruskin at the Royal
Institution — Mr. and Mrs. Grote— Professor Tyndall —
Claude's ' Liber Veritatis ' at Chatsworth— Franco-
Prussian war — Madame Mohl— Pere Hyacinthe . . 203

[8] MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE
CHAPTER XXVIII
1871-75

PAGE

The Albert Hall— Holbein Exhibition at Dresden— Crown
Prince and Princess at Cassel— Mentmore— Paris after the
war— Dean Stanley—' Rabagas '— M. and Madame Mohl
—Venus of Milo— Mrs. Rigby's death— Visit to Scotland
—Albert Memorial— Tyndall, Huxley, Lubbock— The
' Greville Journals '— ' Drink : the Vice and the Disease ' . 221
CHAPTER XXIX
1876-78
The two Amperes— Old Masters at Burlington House-
John Forster's death— M. Angelo's life and times— The
Accademia, Venice : Titian's ' Assunta '— Mr. Ruskin—
Millais, Watts, Leighton— Titian's ' Bacchus and Ariadne '
— Titian's companions — Russo-Turkish war — Female
education — Un soldat anglais — Visit to Russia — Schouva-
loffs governorship— The Hermitage, St. Petersburg : Sir
J. Reynolds' pictures— Architecture in St. Petersburg . 241
CHAPTER XXX
1879-85
Mrs. Grote's death — Prince Imperial's death — French Revolu
tion — Mrs. Grote and de Tocqueville — The Chinese
countenance — Madame de Stael — Ireland and Gladstone
— The Czar's murder — Jenny Lind — France and Ireland : a
parallel — Phcenix Park murders — Rossetti — Aix-les-Bains
— ' Five great Painters ' — General Gordon's death — Lord
Shaftesbury — Ireland and the Irish — Female suffrage . 264
CHAPTER XXXI
1886-91
The Blenheim pictures — Professor Brandl's ' Life of
Coleridge ' — Ireland — Crown Prince's illness — Fair trade —

CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME [9]
PAGE
Sir Henry Layard's ' Early Adventures ' — Decline and fall
of Venice — The London County Council — Russia and the
Poles — Browning's death — Carmagnola — ' Le Journal de
Marie BaskkirtshefP— Voltaire's 'Peter the Great' —
Renaissance cookery — Morelli, the connoisseur . . 285
CHAPTER XXXII
1892-93
Her illness and death— Hon. Mrs. Richard Boyle's 'Re
miniscence'  3°5

Index  323

ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOL. II

CANTERBURY . . . .
COCHEM, ON THE MOSELLE .
TURIN 
DEAL BEACH ....
IN WINDSOR FOREST.
THE RIALTO, VENICE .
SANDOWN CASTLE, NEAR DEAL
DEAL 

Frontispiece
. to face p. 88

162
2162462663°4

MEMOIRS OF
LADY EASTLAKE
*o« ¦ ¦ —
CHAPTER XIX
1854
Early in September 1854 the Eastlakes started
for their trip on the Continent. They visited,
among other places, Paris, Strasburg, Milan,
Padua, Venice, Verona, and Coire, entering Italy
by the St. Gothard Pass, and returning by the
Splugen. The extracts here given are long — the
letters themselves are ten times longer — but the
freshness of Lady Eastlake's description of places
and scenery (particularly that of the Passes) must
be our excuse for quoting them.
Paris, Sept. 15. — We arrived here yesterday,
and paid a visit to the Louvre to-day. It was
difficult to find our way, as Louis Napoleon is
building so much to complete the enormous plan
VOL. II. B

2 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xix
of the Tuileries. It is a barbarous sight, this
quantity of royal palace — all built out of a nation
— so different from the modesty of old St. James's,
and new Buckingham Palace ; but this is the way
the Emperor employs his people's hands and
bribes their vanity. The first sight of the Louvre
is an epoch in one's life ; but, glorious as are the
treasures there, it has only made me the more
satisfied with what we do at home. The cele
brated ' Tribune ' — I believe of Louis-Philippe's
time — is an enormous gloomy room, in which the
most heterogeneous pictures are placed, and those
so high that there is no possibility of enjoying
them. The greatest masterpieces are dwarfed
and lost in the distance. Titian's grandest things
can only be seen through an opera-glass, and only
such a picture as Paul Veronese's ' Marriage at
Cana,' about 30 feet by 25, gives one real pleasure.
Then come the miles of gallery, hung with trea
sures, but so atrociously lighted that you prefer
those that are in the dark to those that are in the
glare : the pictures so dirty that they grieve your
heart as much as they fatigue your legs. And
not a seat ! If this is the boasted management of
the Louvre — open only on a Sunday to the public
— our public may think themselves happy who

1854 BARRACKS OF THE IMPERIAL GUARD 3
see the National Gallery four days in the week,
and have more seats than they can occupy.
Paris, Sept. 16. — To-day we drove to the
H6tel de Ville, one of the most exquisite buildings
I have seen, in form, decoration, and colour ; a
monument of real art — every window and door
way a picture, and the very knockers of Medusa
heads worthy of Leonardo da Vinci. Louis-
Philippe completed the place in exquisite style.
Then we passed by the new barracks of the Im
perial Guard, built by Louis Napoleon ' de pierre
et de fer' — no other materials. Here the tele
graph wires, which fly high in the air from the
Tuileries and every other imperial building, are
sufficiently significant of perpetual vigilance ; but
under the ground other works were going on,
more significant still. Louis Napoleon is having
subterranean passages made from the principal
barracks to the Tuileries, so that the soldiers may
pass instantly to him, and also, as our coach
man said, ' pour que la famille imperiale puisse
se sauver quand on attaque le chateau des
Tuileries.' It is thus that the beloved and chosen
of the people is providing for his safety against
them — and small blame to him.
Afterwards we drove to Pere la Chaise — such
B 2

4 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. Xix
a French horror ! It is all theatrical, and, like a
theatre, all dirt and disorder ; not a decent tree —
poor, scorched, stunted, would-be cypresses ; the
walks loose stones and dust ; not a plot of grass ;
and the monuments huddled together as if in a
mason's yard, painted and gilded, and behung
with wretched garlands, packed close together
like figs on a string. There was not a Christian
sentiment that we could see on one of them, and
many a heathen one. In short, it is the last place
in which one would wish to repose, or to see a
beloved one reposing. The whole in the worst
French style, without one beauty, moral, or land
scape, except the fine view of Paris. . . .
Paris itself I can understand the enchantment
of ; nothing can compare with its picturesqueness,
except, perhaps, Venice. The brightness of every
thing, and the grand colouring of the masses of
houses make every point a study for a painter.
The houses are eminently beautiful, and now
Louis Napoleon is finishing the Rue Rivoli all in
white stone, in the grandest manner, showing
that the French architects are far away beyond
ours. The great ugliness is the number of fag-
ends of houses — places destroyed by one party to
be built up by another — the best royal or imperial

1854 THE CHAMPS-ELYSEES 5
architect having alone the chance of popular
favour. As to real civilisation, I can find little in
smart furniture and bad smells.
Paris, Sept. 17. — I am more and more im
pressed with the wealth of interesting objects
here ; the public buildings beat us hollow. Chris
tianity and Paganism have both done their best to
cater for the national love of display ; only the usual
position of affairs is reversed — Christianity is the
old faith, Paganism the new. Yesterday we drove
to the Madeleine, which is a magnificent modern
temple — one can't call it a church — and then on
to the Champs-Elysees. Wherever the French
come into comparison with us as regards country
scenes and objects, they lose immeasurably. The
Champs-Elysees are stunted, wretched trees above,
and white chalk -dust below, varied with stones ;
not a blade of grass is to be seen. It is all very
well for those who can drive through in easy
carriages, but for walkers I can't conceive a single
sensation of pleasure.
This morning we went to the Chapelle Expia-
toire, which almost exceeded my expectations in
pathetic impression on the mind. There is some
thing touching in the reality of the whole thing,
which stands there telling the truth in the midst

6 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xix
of a perverse and corrupt generation. The outside
of the building is in bad taste, but that matters
not — one does not think of anything but the
purpose to which it is dedicated. The walls are
immensely thick, and contain the bones ' des vic-
times ' such as could not be identified ; and, round
a kind of court beneath an arcade, are the bones
of the poor Swiss Guard.
Basle, Sept. 19. — On our way here we
stopped at Strasburg, which is a dull German
place ; when one has seen the glorious cathedral
there, one has seen all. The station is a disgrace
to any civilised place, small and filthy. . . . Then
the first-class carriages were dirty and small, and
you sank into a pudding of a seat such as a
German loveth. For a short distance an intelli
gent Frenchman travelled with us, and his way of
speaking of Louis Napoleon may be the standard
of a large number. He was very temperate — said
that it was best to put up with the Emperor for a
time, but that a man who had broken the laws to
get to his place would never inspire the French
with a respect for the laws ; and till that feeling
grew in the nation, France would never have a
settled government. He said the feeling for the
Orleans family was greatly increasing, and that he

1854 ALPINE SCENERY 7
had little doubt of seeing the Comte de Paris
upon the throne.
Milan, Sept. 24. — We left Lucerne on the
22 nd in the steamer, which took us the whole
length of the lake to Fllielen : there we secured
a comfortable carriage, and proceeded to Amsteg,
whence the real pass begins. The ascent was
easy at first, and the Reuss, which was our
companion the whole way, was comparatively
moderate in its leaps. The rain was a blessing to
the parched land ; and the endless little meadows,
mowed and kept like the finest lawns, which the
industrious people have formed between every rock
and on every not actually precipitous slope, were
looking fresh and brilliant. The magnificent
walnut and other fruit-trees were a perfect delight,
everywhere forming a Venetian landscape with
the grandest background of rocks. Higher and
higher we climbed, and it was curious to see how
the vegetation gradually changed, how walnut and
all deciduous trees disappeared, and only the fir
and mountain ash climbed the fearful precipices
and rifts of rock, down which many a stream fell
in perpendicular fury. The Reuss began to roar
more and more, and to fall in overwhelming
cascades, all foaming and angry, between the

8 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xix
precipices through which it has forced its way.
But the dwellings of the hardy peasantry did not
quit the scene : there they were, perched on what
looked inaccessible ground, always higher than
ourselves, high as we might mount, and always
with some scrap of cultivation about them,
redeemed by energy and toil from the waste of
rock. The road we were on is a marvel — one of
those works in which man asserts his supremacy
over the elements around him : always just wide
enough for two carriages to pass easily — excel
lently kept the whole way, and with stone posts
every few yards, but only very rarely a low
parapet wall to conceal the growing terrors of the
precipices. We looked on to dread abysses, to
which we saw no bottom, and which had a kind
of fascination, forcing one to look at them. We
soon reached the snow-line, but still ' man ' did
not leave us, and at about 3,000 ft. high we passed
through villages, at one of which we stopped for
a short time. From this point the ascent
steepened, and we came to a pitch where no tree
of any kind could grow, and where the wind blew
fearfully. At one spot it occurs so regularly that
a covered gallery of twenty yards or so is cut in
the rock, behind which it was refreshing to rest

i854 ALPINE SCENERY 9
for a moment. A few more awfully grand turns
brought us to the Devil's Bridge, a grand piece of
masonry over perpendicular shafts of rock, with
an old and horribly narrow bridge much beneath
it. There was no danger in our excellently
engineered road, every acute turn of which, as it
zigzagged up, was kept as flat as was possible ;
but the whole scene was Nature's sternest, and
the tempest of snow and rain was in savage ac
cordance with it. The snow was now thick on
the road, and we hailed with joy a tunnel which
was to marshal us to less awful scenes. It was
about 100 ft. long, and we emerged upon compara
tively flat ground, with the Reuss winding peace
fully, but all one sheet of snow. Mountains were
around — great cones of snow — their tops lost in
a snow-mist. Here lay a village — Andermatt —
with a large church ; and half an hour's drive, on
level ground, took us to Hospenthal. Thence we
toiled slowly up through such scenes of savage
dreariness — black rocks and drifting snow — as
were sufficient, under any circumstances, to
depress the stoutest nerves. No vegetation of
any kind was there ; every power of Nature
seemed locked in frost. Yet the road was
tolerably clear of snow, which was blown off and

10 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xix
only settled in the frozen inequalities. The road
itself became more and more a marvel : in point
of assimilation with the scene around, it might as
well have passed through the firmament itself.
After a time the steepness lessened, but the
features became more pitilessly inhospitable. One
felt that to pause or to be benighted in these
dreary white wastes, with treacherous morasses
beneath and iron rocks above, would be certain
death ; and that the road was the slight thread on
which all safety and existence depended. The
cold was intense, and the slightest moisture froze
instantly. The snow flakes which fell into the
carriage (for we could not close every glass)
had melted on a little bit of cord I had in my
hand : I opened the door to look out, kept my
hand for two seconds in the air, and the moist
cord was one hard wire of ice. Our dreary
journey seemed interminable, but at last we saw
two lakes from which the Reuss and the Ticino
take their sources, and then the great stone build
ing of the hospice. The wind, snow, and cold
were so cutting that the mere putting one's
foot out of the carriage was like the smart I have
felt in the deepest cold in Russia. The pass
is just 7,000 ft. high. We looked forward to

1854 ST. GOTHARD PASS

ii

our descent into warmer regions as something
too good to be realised, for time seemed to
stretch out as interminably as those fearful gulfs
and wastes around us : but the actual descent was
fearful. It is much steeper on the Italian side —
we were on perpendicular heights, and the road
zigzagged down straight beneath us. No one
could drive slowly down such declivities, and at
every turn the horses trotted briskly to the edge
of a precipice from which the imagination recoils.
There was no danger so long as the horses, driver,
and carriage kept their places, but the possibility
of their not doing so was too close. The post
and diligence pass over that fearful mountain
every day, and, I fear, night too, and one does
not hear of any tragedy. How Napoleon's army
and field-pieces were got over is indeed a mystery,
and the thought quite haunted me of the lives
that must have been lost. The snow ceased to
fall as soon as we were over the pass, but still it
was long before even vegetable life began, and I
looked at some scanty grass and weeds by the
roadside with perfect gratitude. We changed
horses at Airolo, thence on through grand scenery,
crossing and recrossing the Ticino till we reached
Faido, where we stayed the night. We were off

12 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xix
by four next morning, the descent still very steep,
reaching Bellinzona in five hours : the scenery was
lovely, the grandest sweet chestnuts covered with
fruit, fig and mulberry trees, and every blessing of
soil and climate in a land where ' only man is vile.'
Thence we jogged on through ever-increasing
beauties to Magadino, where the blue Lago
Maggiore is first reached, and where we went on
board the steamer and gave ourselves up to the
enjoyment of the scene. The mountains were
clothed with regular stages of vines, mulberries,
and figs ; and then above, the most glorious sweet
chestnuts, forests of which reached the summit.
The vines are not gooseberry bushes as in
Germany, but grow on treillages high above the
head for miles. The colour of the whole mass is
that rich brown-green (which none but Venetians
knew how to paint, and which I have never seen
imitated by any moderns), dotted here and there,
up and down, with gleaming villages, all with
their churches, and campaniles, and indescribable
picturesqueness of buildings. We touched at
different towns — Locarno, Intra, Luino, &c. — on
each side of the lake, every time thinking the last
the most fascinatingly beautiful. The water itself
is a perfect Turner ; neither gold, nor emerald, nor

1854 SESTO CALENDE 13
any object in Nature is bright and soft enough to
compare with it. More and more beautiful became
the scene, till one felt that it was indeed Italy.
The commonest objects had a kind of soft halo
about them, given by the ethereal atmosphere,
all transparent, rich, and yet so delicate. The
beauty came to a climax with the Borromean Is
lands — Isola Madre, Bella, and Superiore — lying
like gems on the water, with their cypresses, and
aloes, and the ever-recurring oleander. These
islands lie in a bay of the lake, with the town
of Pallanza behind them. People call them stiff
and artificial, but, in an atmosphere where all is
so soft, stiffness is agreeable here and there, and
never can be heavy. At seven o'clock we
reached Sesto Calende, at the end of the lake,
some six hours' distance from Milan. We had
determined to sleep there, but the sight of the inn
made us decide to get on to Milan coute que coute.
Lies flew in all directions — they lie in Italy before
they think. We were assured we could get no
kind of conveyance : however, we succeeded in
getting a comfortable carriage and post horses
after a scene of extortion and wrangling, doubling
and winding, which surpassed my wildest imagina
tions — so ludicrous was it in its exaggerated

14 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xix
cunning and evasion. We reached Milan at two
this morning. This afternoon we have seen a
little of this interesting place. The Cathedral was
our first destination : description is vain. It is
carved like ivory, and has at least 4,000 statues
outside, but its beauty is the soft, mournful,
spectral look as of perpetual moonlight, which the
white marble gives — no matter whether seen
against this sapphire sky, or in the evening
against a colourless ether in which its highest
pinnacles are lost. Then we went to the Brera,
the famous gallery ; and here we vowed that the
Milanese deserved to be slaves, for they have
actually put up their own modern exhibition of
horrors before the pictures, so that grand heads
of Madonna and saints, or tops of landscape such
as only Giorgione could paint, are seen above the
most hideous sign-post daubs. All the English
sono disperati, as an old gentleman here assured
us ; but the Milanese are quite enchanted with
what is exhibited, and indifferent to what is hid.
After this, we saw some treasures in churches and
private collections, and that ' Last Supper ' by
Leo. da Vinci, all wretched and ruined as it is. I
was prepared for a wreck, but nothing can destroy
the undying beauty of the Saviour's head ; no

1854 L. DA VINCI'S 'LAST SUPPER' 15
engraving or copy has ever given the true expres
sion, the grandeur — the pity, the sorrow, the
love ; 1 and then the hands — the one turned down
so pathetically towards Judas, the other with the
open palms free to the whole world. The very
ruin of the fresco is in accordance with the expres
sion of Him who was despised and rejected of
men. It belongs to the most beautiful brick
church (which I hope to sketch when we return)
of the same moulded brick as so many exquisite
buildings in Venice. Milan is an enchanting
place, containing pictures and buildings of the
highest order. Sir Charles has fallen in with a
collector, who has taken him to everything that
can be seen, and has treasures to sell which make
our mouths water. . . . To-day Lord and Lady
Somers have been calling on us — very interesting
young people : they told me Layard is now at
Sebastopol ! As they said truly, ' he must be in
danger or he is not happy.'
Padua, Sept. 30. — We left Milan yesterday
morning. The weather was splendid, and the
fertile plains of Lombardy were one succession of

1 Since this was written, Sir original — which was engraved,
William Boxall made a wonder- and is considered the only
ful copy— the same size as the worthy copy existing.

16 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xix
ripe and plentiful fruits of the earth — the Indian
corn gathered and spread in the richest heaps on
the ground. But no sandy desert could be more
wretched as regards the inhabitants of this para
dise : the filth and misery exceed all description.
Odious mothers, blear-eyed and more like animals
than human creatures, bring up their children in
the same dirt and beastliness that has given them
the goitre and every conceivable evil. One looks
with pity on the innocent children who are born
to such people, and wonders where all the boasted
maternal love is. . . . From Coccaglio we con
tinued by rail to Brescia, which looks grandly,
surrounded with hills, and with numerous domes
and towers, and a fine citadel. We went to in
numerable churches, any one of which could have
held all the inhabitants of the wretched place :
there are two cathedrals, both enormous. We
also visited three palaces — grand structures, with
courtyards and gardens, which might be beautiful
with the slightest care — and found fine collections ;
an exquisite little Raphael in one, and in all more
or less fine Morettos — proving him (he was
a Brescian) to be the very prince of portrait
painters. In the Averoldi palace we were shown
about by the owner, a Signore all over, and look-

1854 CEMETERY AT BRESCIA 17
ing a regular Moretto portrait himself; but he
had no sense of the beautiful, and pointed out for
our admiration from his windows — not the beautiful
garden with cypresses, and fig-trees, and oleanders,
but the odious new railway station. There are
plenty of old palaces in Brescia, and apparently
owners of some kind in them, who have let off
all the rooms they can spare. The Italian nobles
are ruined by the same system as the Germans :
all the children bear the. title, and all share the
property, and so neither is worth anything. Even
pictures have to be sold at a father's death. The
Austrian Government has nothing to do with this :
it so far tries to keep the pictures in the country
by prohibiting any church parting with a picture
without leave. Our only sight besides pictures
was the cemetery, of which the people boasted
greatly, and to which we drove. Anything more
dreadful can't be imagined. Conceive an enor
mous piece of ground, walled in, with about 4,000
gravestones, none above eighteen inches high —
all painted black and exactly alike — placed at
mathematical distances, so that whichever way
you look, you catch a straight row. It left a
most horrid impression on our minds of insult to
the dead in thus reducing them to regimental
VOL. 11. c

18 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xix
discipline. ... I am not struck with the beauty
of the people. Here and there you see a face fit
for a picture, and one young woman, who came
into the boat on the Lago Maggiore, was beautiful
enough for twenty ; but the mass of the lower
classes are hideous, and the upper ones are little
better. The girls have that common, uneducated
look — mincing and servant-maidish — like the Ger
mans ; and the middle-aged women are over-stout,
have sore eyes, and moustaches, wear their hair
entirely turned back under their bonnets, and are
the most impudent-looking creatures you can con
ceive. In Brescia no beauty of any kind was to
be seen, and the poor people looked wretchedly
suffering and undersized — dwarfs and cretins
abundant. The rail to Padua ran through the
loveliest scenery imaginable. It coasts above and
along the Lago di Garda, the mountains of which,
with their pink and violet hues, seemed like
spirits. No one who has not seen an Italian sky
can conceive the purity and softness it gives to
everything : the foreground has a richness and
force unrivalled elsewhere, and the distance is a
dream of the softest, most melting beauty
Turner is the only painter who has ever given
an Italian distance : those opal tints, in which he

1854 PADUA 19
clothed even English scenes, are all matter-of-fact
Italian. Venice, Oct. 3. — Here we are in my beloved
Venice, more enchanted than ever. One feels
like a drunken person here, ready to dance and
laugh ; and it is difficult to go back in thought
to old Padua and terra firma. However, we
enjoyed ourselves much there, and felt the glories
of Andrea Mantegna and of Giotto, each of
whom appears in his best colours — the latter
great for his time, the former great for any time.
As at Brescia, every other building is a church ;
but the church of ' II Santo par excellence —
St. Anthony of Padua — alone rewards a visit to
Padua. Its whole aspect is oriental, with the
enormous domes, and minarets ; and one may
consider St. Mark's here to have been its mother,
and St. Sophia at Constantinople its grand
mother. Nothing can be shabbier than the old
city itself, which consists of narrow, filthy streets
— the houses almost entirely on arcades. . . .
This morning we have been with the Doge, as
I call Rawdon Brown,2 who hunted up all the
2 The late Mr. Rawdon place so fascinating, and the
Brown, visiting Venice in his materials so fertile, that he re-
youth, with the intention of re- mained above fifty years, and
maining a few weeks, found the ended his days there. c 2

20 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XIX
' rubbish shops,' as he terms them, for us to dis
cover pictures for sale ; and many glorious things
we came upon.
Milan, Oct. 13. — We got back again here
last night after a fatiguing journey, but both well.
My dear husband has certainly enjoyed himself
this time more than the last : as to Venice, he
talks as if he could not exist without visiting it
once a year. One great secret of enjoyment has
been finding pictures of the highest interest on
sale. One alone — a Mantegna — is a unique
specimen for combining all the grand powers of
this early master, with extraordinary beauty and
in as extraordinary a state of preservation. Then
there are two Bellinis, each fine ; a Palma
Vecchio, rich and rare ; two single figures by
Cima da Conegliano ; and a Madonna and Child,
with Saints, by Bissuolo. Our wonder is that
the dealers do not come and carry off these
treasures, which might command any prices in
England, where old masters are now so much
sought for. Dealers could make a fortune out
of the pictures which we saw, but they are too
ignorant, and also can't speak the language. . . .
Several evenings we went to the Piazza, to listen
¦to the band, and gaze at the moonlight on St.

1854 THE HONOURABLE MRS. NORTON 21
Mark's, which looks as if made of silver and
gold. Mrs. Norton generally joined us there,
and I studied her. She is a beautiful and gifted
woman : her talents are of the highest order,
and she has carefully cultivated them — has read
deeply, has a fine memory, and wit only to be
found in a Sheridan. No one can compare with
her in telling a story — so pointed, so happy, and
so easy ; but she is rather a professed story-teller,
and brings them in both in and out of season,
and generally egotistically. Still she has only
talents — genius she has nothing of, or of the
genius-nature — nothing of the simplicity, the
pathos, the rapid changes from mirth to emotion.
No, she is a perpetual actress, consummately
studying and playing her part, and that always
the attempt to fascinate — she cares not whom.
Occasionally I got her to talk thinkingly, and
then she said things which showed great thought
and observation — quite oracular, and not to
be forgotten. I felt at first that she could
captivate me, but the glamour soon went off.
If intellect, and perfect self-possession, and
great affected deference for me could have sub
jugated me, I should have been her devoted
admirer.

22 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xix
After leaving Venice, we stayed a few hours
at Vicenza, which is beautifully situated, as are
all these old towns, with the Alps for their back
ground. But it is much over-praised in its Pal-
ladian buildings (Palladio was a native of it), which
are uninteresting after the real Lombard house
and palace architecture. We reached Verona
that afternoon. Venice is a thing by itself, but
Verona is the most Italian city I have seen yet :
the buildings are so exquisitely graceful, and it is
also more magnificent in position than any, and
is a civilised place, with decent streets and an
active population. The grand amphitheatre is a
conspicuous object, and there is enough in Verona
of natural and architectural beauty to make one
wish to remain a month. The next day we were
at Mantua, which is a large old city fixed in a
swamp, and one of the most unhealthy in Italy,
the inhabitants being devoured by fever and
mosquitoes. A great prestige attends the works
of Giulio Romano there : this vanished as soon
as we saw his celebrated frescoes in the Palazzo
del Te and in other places. Sir Charles and
Kugler had prepared me not to expect much,
but, after the feast of the real thing we have
had, the sprawling, unmeaning vulgarities of

1854 MILAN CATHEDRAL

23

Giulio Romano were lower than it was possible
to anticipate, and one sought in vain for any trace
of the scholar of Raphael.
Milan, Oct. 14. — We have been nearly all
day in the Brera, revelling in its beauties, and
much enchanted with the Milanese school, espe
cially with Luini. Afterwards I proposed mount
ing the cathedral to see Monte Rosa. So we
went up 150 steps at one pull, amused at the
numerous notices, painted at every turn of the
stairs, some desiring, others beseeching, and
others inviting the people not to be dirty ; all of
which seem rather to have stimulated what they
sought to put down, for nothing is sacred to an
Italian. At top, however, we forgot everything
in the forest of marble pinnacles about us, all so
pure and veined, the roof itself being covered
with great slabs one would put up in drawing-
rooms. Then we mounted by a flight of narrow
steps in one unbroken line outside, which seemed
to lose itself in the clouds like Jacob's ladder.
Here we were on the roof of the great nave and
choir, with an immense horizon stretched round
us — the Alps on the one side, the Apennines
on the other — intersected by the marble pinnacle,
round which clustered little figures finished with

24 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xix
the utmost minuteness, their names even being
inscribed on each small pedestal, and terminating
in the one large figure which tops every point of
this wonderful edifice. Monte Rosa was discern
ible by its snow, but the afternoon was not clear
enough to see it well : nevertheless the landscape
was splendid and the sky grand.
Coire, Oct. 20. — On Monday we took the
rail to Treviglio — thence the diligence to Ber
gamo, where we devoted ourselves to seeing the
city. After driving up to the high town, which
stands magnificently upon long lines of old forti
fications, we explored churches and what not,
seeing pictures and exquisite architecture. Our
object is always to break into private houses,
which are sure to retain pictures by native paint
ers ; and thus we effected an entrance into a
Count Moroni's — some descendant of the great
Bergamasque painter, Moroni — and saw some
fine family portraits.
Certainly the appetite for seeing pictures vient
en voyant, and the knowledge too. The different
schools of painters, which clustered in the North
of Italy — Milanese, Bergamese, Brescian, Pa-
duan, and Venetian — are now getting disentangled
in my mind, and I begin to know their differences

1854 A TEMPLE OF ART 25
and affinities. My husband is a fountainhead of
knowledge, and seldom quits a collection of any
kind without having cleared up some doubtful
masters for the owners. I find his worth is
unfailingly recognised : those who are pompously
eager to teach him when we enter, are humbly
asking his opinion before we leave. The way in
which he smashes a false name is sometimes very
amusing. The next morning we were off early to Cro-
cetta, the country house of a Count Lochis, of
wliose collection we had been informed. We
were so early that the ' Signore ' was not ' in
toiletta,' but a manservant showed us into two
little rooms, where there were chiefly Flemish
pictures — seldom genuine in Italy. We were
beginning to think it a failure, when he opened
' la rotonda,' a large circular room, where one
glance showed us that we were in one of the
richest temples of cinquecento art. The light
was bad, but nothing could obscure the beauties,
and we proceeded to feast. In half an hour the
Count came in, all smiles and bows, and took us
into other rooms surpassing the rotunda in value
of contents. That afternoon we made our way to Varenna,

•26 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xix
a place whose beauty nothing could conceal.
There I had my first view of olive trees, which
grow in the greatest richness on the south shores.
The olive is a beautiful tree — so sharp when seen
in its chiselled leaves against the sky, and so soft
in its blue-green mass in the distance. The fruit
hung as thick as the leaves, and will be ripe for
pressing in November. We stayed some little
time at Colico — the head of the lake — to which
the steamers run, and which therefore should be
a little civilised ; but it was the most wretched
hole that could be conceived. Not even milk
could be had, and the wine would have cut us in
two ; but we were hungry, and there was bread
and cold aggoni — the particular smelt-like fish
from the lake — strewed with garlic, and a piece
of meat (what, I don't know) which I divided
between a cat and her kitten. We then drove to
Chiavenna through wretched, marshy ground,
where the traveller is cautioned never to sleep,
and by the Lago di Riva — half mud, half water.
When we reached Chiavenna, we found symp
toms of approaching Switzerland in the appear
ance of women in the house, and of general
cleanliness. This is the key of the Splligen Pass.
We started next morning at six o'clock in the

1854 THE SPLUGEN PASS 27
diligence. The conducteur (the courier with the
mail more properly, who takes care of everything
and everybody) was a man of Herculean frame,
with splendid teeth, which he was always show
ing in the most buoyant animal spirits : little did
we anticipate how much we should have to thank
him for. We had taken precautions against the
cold, because, though the conducteur made light
of the pass, he acknowledged three or four feet
of snow, and had been stopped the evening
before by three avalanches which had filled up
the road.
It was soon daylight, and the ascent began
at once through the grandest mixture of rock,
mountain, and stream. Six horses took us up,
though the diligence was small and light, there
being only three passengers (gentlemen) besides
ourselves. By about 9 o'clock we reached the
snow, which had been cut away for the passage
of the carriage, and soon we reached the ava
lanches — not serious because of fresh fallen
snow, and easily cut through, but filling up the
road in a sloping mass. Several of these we
toiled through, and then entered wonderful gal
leries, hung upon the rock, where avalanches are
most dangerous. We were too much wrapped in

28 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xix
clouds to see either above or below us, and the
road gave a much greater sense of security than
the St. Gothard, being stoutly railed with double
lines the whole way. Soon the snow lay too
thick, and the conducteur, who was always at our
and everybody's side, told us we were approach
ing the sledge level. Accordingly we reached,
after a few more painfully heavy zigzags, a great
station house, and drove into it under cover.
Here the conducteur swallowed an egg and some
brandy to fortify himself, rubbed his hands,
clapped me on the shoulder with a ' Wie geMs,
Madame ? ' and announced that his sledges were
ready. It was rather startling to find that they
had no covering of any sort but a rough apron,
being just common wooden seats for two people,
with one horse dragging by the poles and not by
any traces, so as to be as free as possible : the
driver stood behind, the reins passing between
the two passengers. So we were drafted off —
the conducteur on the first sledge, then the lug
gage, then three sledges each with two passen
gers, we being on the last. We were well
wrapped up in blankets and rugs, and off we set
into a wilderness of snow, the road shown by the
railing, of which only the tips were visible. It

1854 A MAUVAIS PAS 29
rained and sleeted, and we soon came to awful
accumulations of snow — the average was three
feet, and these masses were above our shoulders.
But the pinch came when the horses could find
no footing : they leapt like cats with their hind
feet, each driver assisting to lift the sledge behind.
Then we got to worse places, where the baggage
horse, after vain leaps, fell and could not be
lifted : the conducteur raised the animal by sheer
strength, but the hind legs were inextricable.
He beat and jumped on the snow before the
animal, so that it might have a firm footing to
rise upon ; but no efforts availed except to be
set entirely at liberty from the sledge. At this
' mauvais pas ' — and they recurred frequently —
every horse got through by a succession of leaps
and falls, lying quietly till they had breath to
try again ; noble animals — pawing the snow with
impatience to be off if we halted. Our horse
sat like a dog on his haunches — the hind legs
quite buried — looking round to see when the men
would come to lift the sledge, so that he might
make a fresh struggle then. The struggles were
frightful, but the animals were as gentle as they
were spirited. The conducteur was in all places
at once, lifting superhuman weights, dragging the

30 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xix
baggage himself, up to his hips in snow, and
never flagging : he was as brave as a lion, with
a strength which nothing exhausted. He would
sit down on the snowbank to tell me that I was a
' sharmante Frau ' for not being afraid ; then be
off to the rescue of some stuck-fast horse, or to
help, by sheer strength, some unfortunate oxen
in or out of the snow. For we met oxen being
driven down, too glad to make use of the narrow
track our cantonniers cut, and endeavouring in
vain to pass us without plunging into the wall of
snow on either hand, in which they were some
times buried head first. More than one, trying
to bolt somewhere, got their heads under the
shafts of our sledge — too frightened to be savage.
It was painful to see them knocked out and
plunging in the snow, but still it was ludicrous —
the great heifers especially, whom the conducteur
took up by neck and tail, and dropped into the
snow, where they only showed their existence by
the clouds of snow they kicked up. We came to
many a dilemma, where we thought we must turn
back, and, but for the unflagging energy of that
man, I believe our drivers — brave men too —
would have given up. But he never showed the
slightest hesitation, had always a joke for them

1854 THE CONDUCTEUR 31
and for us, and sustained the courage of all : he
was the same from the beginning to the end. . . .
At length we passed the line of demarcation at
top, and were thankful — for men, horses, and
ourselves — when the first down-hill commenced.
Great as our mere physical inconveniences
had been, this passage had not inspired me with
such horror as the St. Gothard had, owing, I
suppose, to the feeling of security which that
stout railing gave. Still, we could but confess
that it is wrong to tempt these passes, and expose
men and horses to such exertion, suffering, and
danger for mere frivolous reasons. We vowed
to regulate our route in future according to the
season.

32 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xx

CHAPTER XX
1854-1855
On her return to London in October 1854, Lady
Eastlake writes to tell her mother that Sir Charles
had accepted the office of Director of the National
Gallery. Two months before, Lord Aberdeen
had made him an informal offer of this appoint
ment, but Sir Charles wished to have time to
consider it, and begged Lord Aberdeen not to
hesitate to give it to another, should he find a
proper man in the interval. Lady Eastlake
reports her husband's interview with Lord
Aberdeen : —
Opt. 31, 1854. — Yesterday my husband went
to Downing Street, and both the wary gentlemen
beat about the bush for some little time. Then
Lord Aberdeen struck in that, though much en
gaged in other things, he had not forgotten the
question of the National Gallery, which pressed
anxiously upon him. My husband asked if he
had not found a suitable person, and trusted his
Lordship had not considered himself as in any

1854 LOCKHART'S DEATH

33

way pledged to him (Sir Charles). Lord
Aberdeen said that, pledged or not, he knew of
no one else to give the appointment to. Then
my husband observed that, if Lord Aberdeen
made such a point of it, great as the sacrifice
would be, he would accept the office ; but would
the Prince approve? Lord Aberdeen laughed,
and said that he had the strictest injunctions from
the Prince to urge the office upon him — ' and if
you had not attended to the Prince, the Queen
was prepared to exert her influence with you.'
And so the two dear old souls complimented one
another. Lord Aberdeen was ready to grant
anything — begged Sir Charles to name his own
staff, and gave him carte blanche to follow out his
own plans and schemes.
Mr. Lockhart's death, in November 1854, was
a heavy blow to Lady Eastlake, who writes on
November 26 : —
You will, doubtless, have seen the announce
ment of our dear Mr. Lockhart's death. Ill as
he was, the possibility of his death yet seemed
inadmissible to one's heart. You may believe
that I am grieving for one of the most interesting
men I have ever known. You will all feel how
generous and unfailing were his kindness and
VOL. II. D

34 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XX
encouragement to me, and how many touching
proofs I have had of his true friendship : indeed,
I can never know such a friend again.
She writes at greater length on this sad topic
to her old friend, Miss Catherine Campbell Swin-
ton of Kimmerghame : —
Nov. 29, 1854. — My heart is much oppressed
with the death of dear Mr. Lockhart, which I feel
even more than I feared. But he deserves all my
sorrow, for his kindness to me, and the real friend
ship he always showed me, leave a blank which
will always be the same. My whole poor literary
life is connected with him, and indeed was formed
by him ; and his ever kind commendation has been
the most acceptable feature in a reputation, for
which I have cared little but for the friends it at
first helped to draw to me. The peculiarity with
Mr. Lockhart has been, that the merely literary
causes, which first gave me his acquaintance,
never formed any part of our subsequent true and
solid friendship. No one was more loved by his
friends. He had that spell about him, which
touched the hidden romance in man or woman ;
while his gifts, his upright judgment, and lastly
his sufferings won every other element of admira
tion, respect, and sympathy. How many kind

1854 A TRIBUTE TO LOCKHART 35
and good things I remember from his lips — how
unfailing his tribute to worth and duty, though
under the homeliest garb ! I never met any one
who spoke out so courageously for the right,
whenever it was questioned or cavilled at ; and
his words were sure to be so trenchant and accu
rate, that there was no appeal from them. He
had neither the simplicity nor the follies of a
genius, but his instincts were so sound and true,
that no sophistry or morbid feeling could stand
before him.
Lady Eastlake's letters during this winter are,
as usual, a chronicle of her daily life, showing
how busy she was, and how her engagements —
particularly in the matter of dinner parties — were
increasing. But, though she never fails, to give
the names of her hosts and fellow-guests, she
enters less frequently into particulars about them.
Here and there, we find an interesting detail,
such as : —
Dec. 9, 1854. — Our dinner party at Mr.
Twopeny's last night was very agreeable— Lord
Lansdowne, Lady Davy, and the Milmans.
Lord Lansdowne told us that the Government
was considering the propriety of accepting the
services of the Poles, among the Russian
prisoners, who beg to be allowed to serve in our
army. He anticipated that the law of nations D 2

36 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xx
would not interdict our allowing them to please
themselves. He says that a Russian of rank
among them, degraded to the ranks, is equally
desirous of turning against Russia, but I should
be sorry to trust such a man.
Dec. 12. — Yesterday we dined with the
Milmans, where we found Layard, who placed
himself next me at dinner, and talked Crimea
without ceasing ; you may guess I could not have
too much. His stories were alternately most
touching and ludicrous. He weathered the storm
with our soldiers, as he did not start till the 17th,
and was in that tent of Colonel Dickson's which
held out longer than any.
Lady Eastlake was present, in May 18^5, at a
memorable scene — the decoration by the Queen
of the Crimean heroes : —
May 18, 1855. — We had tickets for excellent
places on the North platform at the Horse Guards :
at some little distance beneath us was a crimson
platform, raised about three feet from the ground,
with a flagstaff in the centre, chair of state, &c,
round which Generals were already gathered.
Before it, at some distance, were red, closely
serried ranks of soldiers, which extended round
three sides of an enormous square in the Park —

1855 THE CRIMEAN HEROES 37
right and left, and before us : behind the military
were raised immense stagings, • faced with red
cloth, looking dim in the distance, filled with piles
of spectators ; while every house that commanded
a view in any way of the park was crammed, and
the roofs covered. A large number of people
were admitted within the sentries on foot, and
were gathered together behind the lines of soldiers.
Altogether, the scene itself was one to stir the
heart, even without this most moving occasion.
The two platforms, on one of which we were,
were the places of distinction. It was evident
that the Queen would turn her back to us and
the Horse Guards, and her face to the military
before her, and so it proved. She arrived in a
quarter of an hour — punctual to a moment — drove
into the Park through the Horse Guards, and
drew up before the crimson platform, which lay
like a charmed spot in the centre of a clear space.
Bands struck up ' God save the Queen,' cannons
boomed, the royal flag was run up the staff, and
Her Majesty alighted with the Prince and the
Duke of Cambridge, amidst great cheering. She
immediately proceeded to her duty : disdained all
chair, and took up her place standing, fronting the
army before hen Then orders were given, and

38 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xx
the living three sides of the solid square drew
closer to her, but still allowing space for officers
on horseback, though near enough for every man
who composed these lines to see the great sight.
Then we saw the single line of those tried
heroes, who had won themselves the honours of
this day. One man behind the other ; officers
first, sergeants and privates next — all in an
unbroken line — twenty perhaps of one regiment,
thirty of another — ready to pass one by one
before the Queen, and to take with their un
gloved right hand the little magical decoration
from hers. The line began to pass — fine fellows
whose tall plumes or topknots bent before her,
while Her Majesty extended her hand and bent
her head to each : every man issuing from
behind that little knot of royal and renowned
figures, with his blue ribbon in his hand, quiet
and steady, walking off with firm slow steps —
some looking at their medals. And then came,
scattered among their uninjured companions, the
visible sufferers from the hard-earned glory,
young figures halting along on a firm stick : and
then the crutch with its sad tale, the sleeveless
arm, the sling ; and then, what few eyes could
see undimmed, the wheel-chair, drawn by some

1855 SIR T. TROWBRIDGE

39

hero of a private soldier, with the brave and foot
less Sir Thomas Trowbridge. Here the reserve
of the spectators gave way, and a murmur ran
through the lines as he was slowly dragged before
them. Soon after, another wheel-chair followed,
containing evidently a great sufferer, almost lying
at length ; who he was the papers will tell us ; I
fancy it was a private, but some regiments have
no epaulettes at all, even for the officers. Thus
above five hundred men received their guerdon
from that good and fair hand. The bands struck
up Scotch tunes as the Highlanders appeared
in the favoured single line ; and then ' Rule,
Britannia,' announced the Navy and officers, ter
minating in the youngest middies, and then blue-
shirted and white-trousered common tars came in
for their share, some literally sailor boys of thir
teen and fourteen. The Queen spoke to several
of those who received the medal, and especially
to the wounded. The Prince and Duke of
Cambridge bowed to each, simple and gentle.
When that intensely interesting time was
over, which occupied about an hour and a half, the
Duke of Cambridge got on horseback, and the
Guards and other troops defiled before the Queen,
she bowing to each rank. Then the cavalry

40 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XX
came on, irresistible apparently in its strength,
passed her at a trot, and then broke into a gallop
(the band playing the whole time), and dashed
down the Park, Lord Cardigan bringing them up
on the same chestnut charger he had ridden at
that fatal charge — cheered, as was the Duke of
Cambridge, most vehemently. By that time the
royal carriages had driven up again : the Queen
moved from the place she had occupied so long :
the Duke of Cambridge, on horseback before her,
took off his casque and waved it, and one of those
cheers burst out which are so heart-swelling.
Altogether, I could but look at the scene, and
feel that few pageants have been so intensely
real, and have owed so little to the feelings, or
loyalty, or imagination of the spectators. There
were the men, who had endured every hardship
and danger — the heroes of our time — dignifiedly
receiving the acknowledgment from their Sove
reign's hand, and that Sovereign a woman —
owing nothing even to the enthusiasm of her
subjects, still less, if possible, to their flattery : a
Queen, to whom it is difficult even to be just ;
for whom no allowance, either in her royal or her
female capacity, has to be made ; and who has
therefore brought into every ceremony of which

1855 ROSA BONHEUR 4x
she is the centre, a beauty of truth, worth, and
reality, which the world of a century ago, or less,
never would or could have believed compatible
with royalty. How far this scene was her own
suggesting I don't know ; but I heard from young
Hardinge, next whom I sat yesterday, that her
inspections of the wounded men in her own
Palace are entirely without precedent, and the
suggestion of her own heart. God bless her !
After this I can't enter into our dinner yester
day at Sir W. James's,1 though it was very
amusing. I had Lord Londonderry on one side
— a droll Irishman, full of fun and originality.
We had Lady Morley, too, at the table, so there
was plenty of mirth.
To-morrow we dine at Dickens's, and go
afterwards to Lansdowne House.
In July, Rosa Bonheur paid a visit to London,
and was cordially welcomed by the artist-world.
Lady Eastlake describes, as far as description
can go, what an interesting impression the artist
and woman made upon her, and records the
enthusiasm with which Mile. Bonheur regarded
Landseer and his works : —
London, July 19. — You will be interested to
hear about our Monday's dinner and evening.
1 Afterwards Lord Northbourne.

42 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XX
All our party were ready before Mile. Bonheur
and her companion arrived. It was the dream of
her life to see Landseer, and I sent them down
to dinner together. In the evening came some
of the Academy, but only Sir William Ross and
Munro could muster a little French. Landseer
was full of impudence, counted up eight bachelors
present, and wanted Munro to head a deputation
of marriage to her. He told me to tell her that
he would be too happy to become "Sir Edwin
Bonheur." On Tuesday evening we went to a
party held in the French Exhibition, where the
little woman's great picture of the Horse Fair —
fourteen feet long — was hung : a perfect wonder.
She was put on an ottoman in the centre of the
room, being introduced to one person after an
other. I had made up my mind the evening
before that she was a real, and truly interesting,
simple woman — quite above all compliments and
flattery ; and I found her very tired of it, though
taking all in the most modest way. It was with
an artless pathos of her own that she told me, that
she was unaccustomed to company, that she loved
liberty, and lived in France either in the close
study of her art, or out in the fields and woods,
till she had become un peu ourse. Indeed, such

1855 LANDSEER'S STUDIO

43

work as she has done can have left no time for
pleasure or folly ; and there is an earnestness in
the little, exceedingly intelligent face, which some
compared to the Elgin marbles, and which in
spires as much respect as interest. I expected a
remarkable woman, but she far exceeds my
expectation : indeed, she is one of those earnest,
true creatures, whom one can meet but very
seldom in this world, and whom one never
forgets. Yesterday I took her to see Munro's
gallery, and then by appointment to Landseer.
This was the comble of her happiness ; her whole
sympathy and admiration as an artist, and her
whole enthusiasm as a woman have been long
given to Landseer. Engravings of his works
were the first things she bought with the money
she earned ; and in his house, surrounded by the
most exquisite specimens of his labour and his
skill — studies without end of deer, horses, High
landers, tops of Scotch mountains, &c. : and with
him pulling out one glorious thing after another,
calling her first into one room and then into
another — his dogs about him, and a horse, as
tame as a dog, handed into the painting room —
she was in a state of quiet ecstasy. Then he
presented her with the two engravings of his

44 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XX
splendid ' Night ' and ' Morning,' writing her
name with his upon them, and then pretended to
call her attention to the excellence of his brother's
work. This was too much for the little great
hearted woman, who is only a man in her un
flagging work, and renunciation of all a woman's
usual sources of happiness, for one great end ;
and her face crimsoned and eyes filled. As we
drove away, the little head was turned from me,
her face streaming with tears. But there was no
false sentiment or personal romance in them, only
the emotion of the true artist overpowered at
being thus received by one who has been a kind
of god in her imagination. All about Rosa
Bonheur is good and interesting: indeed it is
long since any new person has left such an
impression on me as this wonderful little woman,
who is neither French nor English, but just one
by herself — one especially who forcibly shows the
line of demarcation between the idle and the
diligent of this earth ; for, great as her genius is,
her steady, single-hearted industry is what strikes
me most.
I met the Nightingales at the French Exhibi
tion : they had just received their first letter from
their Florence — touchingly interesting. She had

1855 FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE 45
been taken to the Hospital at Therapia, carried
by the soldiers, who made ' relays ' without num
ber in the short distance, so that the greatest
possible number of them might have the pleasure
of helping her : and her baggage was divided
among twelve soldiers, though two could have
easily carried the whole.
Towards the end of August 1855 the East-
lakes went abroad : they spent a week in Paris,
and extracts are given from the letters Lady
Eastlake wrote while there. The Queen and
Prince Albert were then at St. Cloud.
Aug. 23, 1855. — Here we are after a very
rough Channel-crossing. The steamer was packed
with nearly 300 passengers, and the deck looked,
in a few minutes, like a battlefield of sick and
groaning. Many children were prostrate with
their parents, except a little urchin, whose eyes
twinkled with impudence and triumph, and who
kept telling his wretched governess that she was
'no sailor.' He looked most amicably at me,
as at a kindred spirit, for we two were the only
bright spots in the universal gloom. Even my
dear husband appeared no exception, for he kept
a basin most scrupulously beside him, and most
scrupulously empty. . . .
Paris is one great show, the Boulevards

46 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xx
waving with thousands of flags — French, English,
Sardinian, and Turkish — and triumphal arches
with huge chandeliers, suspended over the street,
which have a magical effect by night. The fine
weather, the delicious air, and the holiday garb
altogether are irresistible : one could dance and
sing with the general hilarity.
Aug. 24. — We spent some hours in the
Palais des Beaux-Arts yesterday, very much
delighted with the French school, and recognising
their truly great men, among whom Horace
Vernet is foremost. The battle scenes from
Versailles, which I have only heard mentioned as
' acres of canvas,' are masterpieces of truth and
reality, and I could hardly turn away from them :
the incidents have no mock sentimentality, but
that kind of untheatrical interest which seems to
bring all the terrible life in the Crimea vividly
before you.
Last night the Prefect gave a grand ball to
Her Majesty and 15,000 other people at the
Hotel de Ville : invitations for us had been sent
to London, but had they reached us here we
should not have dreamt of going. However, we
started in a carriage to see the illuminations. It
was past 8 o'clock, and the stream of carriages

1855 THE PARIS POLICE 47
had already set in for the Rue Rivoli, which leads,
in an unbroken line of architectural splendour,
past the Tuileries, Louvre, &c, to the Hotel de
Ville. Of course the carriages were to keep in
one line, and the people on the trottoirs ; but they
had not English police to deal with. Plenty of
gendarmes and Gardes de Paris were there, the
one on foot, the other on horseback ; but their
insignificance in the eyes of the people was
amusing. Instead of one line (in which we were
gradually moving), carriages came galloping in
the forbidden centre, and, when three or four
were past, the police ran after the fifth perhaps,
with ' Ou allez-vous ? ' the carriage not slackening
pace a bit for them ; and while the police were
trying to catch one, four or five more coolly gal
loped past the astonished dignitaries. Then
horse- and foot-police scolded and bullied each
other, and ' Pourquoi diable ? ' and ' Sacre ! ' were
bandied about; and while the police were thus en
gaged, as many more carriages as liked got by, and
helped to make the confusion worse. We ex
changed some pharisaical sentiments about doing
such things better than our neighbours. Mean
while the case began to look serious, for, instead
of one line, there were four ; the people, who

48 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XX
were always running across in defiance of all
police, running still ; women and children diving
between the carriages, which completely filled the
breadth of the street. The illuminations thick
ened and brightened as we approached the H6tel
de Ville ; but, what with the crowd and the heat,
the effect of so much burning matter, however
clever and beautiful, was almost demoniacal — as
if none but fiends could try to make heat hotter
still. The open air was almost suffocating. Half
the carriages, with the ladies in diamonds and full
dress, were open, which had a most elegant effect,
for it was now light as day, the array of gas
and twinkling red, blue, and white eyes, which
covered every object below, being topped up by
an electric light on the summit of the tower of
the old Church of St. Jacques, to which another
solemn globe of white intensity on the Hotel de
Ville corresponded. Above all was an almost full
moon in the purest deep sky. As we drew
nearer, the crush became tremendous, and the
populace assumed a riotous and brutal aspect —
forcing each other forward, till men and women
clung shrieking to the carriage door to keep
themselves off the wheels. Escape there was
none : it would have been impossible to turn into

i85S OBELISKS OF FIRE

49

a side street, for every street end was a mass
of people by no means peaceable in look or
conduct. Thus on we crept, and at length came
in view of the great blazing front of that
most beautiful building, the splendour of which
was comparatively extinguished by obelisks, two
and two — in front and opposite it — of fire :
these were composed of lamps, as a clipped
yew is of leaves — forming a solid cone every
way — at least twenty feet high, and the carriages
which passed by them seemed going to be
roasted. However, this we avoided, for, instead
of turning in the sweep to the temporary porch,
which blazed with pillars, capitals, and pedi
ments in lines of fire, we drove straight on ;
and soon, finding the crowd less dense, dived
to the left into a street, which brought
us home by back ways. The whole was
done in two hours, and we did not grudge the
fatigue. Aug. 28. — Yesterday we determined to make
an attempt to see our Queen pass, so we drove to
the Boulevards close to the Triumphal Arch —
fast filling with soldiers. We were there by half-
past nine, and were recommended to take chairs
and sit till the Queen came. But from some
VOL. 11. E

50 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XX
tyrannical stupidity, of which one sees much here,
the people were forbidden to have any chairs on
the shady side, and were allowed to sit only in
the broad sun. However, Her Majesty was to
come by ten o'clock, and the morning was
beautifully fresh, so I thought I could weather it.
Here we sat waiting ; and it grew hotter and
hotter, and the soldiers were at first our only
amusement. A crowd by degrees gathered,
chiefly of the lower classes — women principally —
quite respectable, though they wrangled and
quarrelled incessantly. From time to time there
was a report of the Queen's coming, and people
stood on their chairs, and saw well over the
soldiers : but then came an odious gendarme, who
insisted on everybody's standing down ; and
though the crowd cheated him as often as his back
was turned, yet he was perpetually hectoring
and blustering, and pulling them down. After
screaming ' Descendez ! descendez ! ' to all around
us, he turned like a tiger to me, and said ' Et vous
aussi, Madame : mais descendez, je vous dis.'
This enchanted the crowd, for all the time I stood
only on the ground, not having mounted anything,
and the laughter never ceased : — ' II veut couper
les jambes a Madame.' ' Madame n'a pas besoin

1855 THE QUEEN IN PARIS 51
d'une chaise.' 'Je voudrais etre grande comme
Madame.' At last the guns of the Tuileries announced
the departure of the cortege, and soon came the
glittering throng — military in abundance — then
carriages, with some gold and two horses first :
then carriages, with more gold and four horses,
in one of which sat Colonel Phipps and Miss
Hillyard, the governess : then more gold and
splendour and six horses, with the Prince of
Wales, Prince Napoleon, and Lords Breadalbane
and Clarendon : and then a kind of climax of
splendour, gold lace and trappings, outriders,
servants, prancing horses (each led by a footman
by a strap of gold), and a shining vehicle, in
which sat the pretty, youthful-looking, best of
queens — with her little girl beside her, and Prince
Albert opposite, the Emperor facing the Princess
Royal. It was a striking moment — the mere fact
of our Queen going in state through the Boule
vards of Paris — the mere fact of that glorious
' God save the Queen ' brayed and clashed aloud
by a thousand instruments. . . .
We shall be thankful to leave Paris, the heat
is so intense, and the stir and noise so unceasing.
There is something in the build of Paris which
E 2

52 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xx
increases noise ; the streets are so narrow and
deep, and the courtyards too, that the commonest
noise resounds, and the slapping back of the
Venetians in the evening is quite horrible to tired
nerves.

e855 STRASBURG CATHEDRAL 53

CHAPTER XXI
18SS
Leaving Paris on August 30, 1855, for Carls
ruhe, the Eastlakes stopped a few hours at Stras
burg en route, in order to pay another visit to
that matchless Cathedral, which (Lady Eastlake
writes) ' somehow impressed me more this time
than before. The old painted glass, which
abounds in it, can only be called sublime, and
proves — what Waagen has advanced and Ruskin
denied — the power of mere colour to touch the
emotions. Yet side by side, and especially in
the noble window over the great entrance, are
the most hideous specimens of modern painted
glass, equally without a merit as without an
excuse.' From Carlsruhe she writes : —
The country coming here is pretty — culti
vated plains and beautiful mountains — but the
toiling peasantry are always a mournful picture,
and one looks in vain for any signs of those
classes who should live among them and care for
them. One squalid village of the poor succeeds
another, and ruins of feudal castles have not

54 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxi
been replaced by their only and proper successors
— the country gentlemen's seats.
The picture gallery is a collection of wretched,
ostentatious rubbish, with a few good pictures, of
which the authorities seem quite unaware, for
they are stuck in bad places, and are dirty and
neglected. No connoisseurship has reached
Carlsruhe — or anything else, for I never saw
such a slow-coach of a place, with not even the
recommendation of good coffee ! But it teems
with pianos, which I hear being played in all
directions. Further extracts from the letters are given,
describing the remainder of the tour, which was
continued through Italy, a week being spent at
Gais, in Switzerland : —
Gais, Sept. 2. — On the way here we stayed
one night at Friederichshafen, and went to a
large dirty hotel, where we were given damp
sheets and fleas — the one supposed to counteract
the other. However, we have taken no harm, and
the next day it was some comfort to look out on
the broad Lake of Constance, on which we em
barked at ten o'clock, going to Rorschach, where
we took carriage for this place. As our road lay
uphill, the blue lake rose higher and broader

1855 GAIS

55

behind us, and it was an hour before we lost its
beautiful company. But there was enough to
keep us interested in the character of the
scenery : not grand, but fine enough for cockneys
— so deliciously varied and cultivated as to be
a feast both to eye and mind. Here the con
trast between the Swiss and the German peasant
was obvious. Here there was unflagging indus
try, but independence too — his toil bringing him
not only enough, but to spare ; for the villages
showed both comforts and luxuries, the cleanli
ness and prettiness of the houses being quite
refreshing after the German villages. The people
also were well dressed and cheerful-looking, with
their bright greetings both to our driver and
to us. We arrived here at 5 o'clock — almost 3,000
feet above the sea. Gais is noted for its goats'
whey, which professes to cure weak lungs, deli
cate throats, &c. ; and the air itself is famed for
salubrity. Surrounded as we are with meadows
like green velvet, over which rise Alps of con
siderable grandeur, I can believe in any good
results. We do nothing but congratulate our
selves on our good fortune in coming to this
place.

56 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxi
Bergamo, Sept. 13. — Here we are in Italy,
with all that God has created to be lovely, and
man has made disgusting : the land of sapphire
skies and opal lakes ; of the vine, the fig-tree,
the olive, the myrtle ; of lies, cheating, and
deceit ; of filthy houses and hideous old women.
The contrast is the greater on coming from a
place like Gais, where we were served with a
truth, honesty, and cleanliness, which I quite
foresaw would spoil us the more for all a
traveller must encounter in this perverted
paradise. We slept at Coire on the night of the 10th,
and were off in the diligence at five next morning.
The scenery was all new to us, as we had passed
through it last year in deep night with snow-
falling. The ascent did not begin at once, but
only an occasional hill, till we came to the Via
Mala, of which we had heard so much. It was
like entering a crack in a high mountain — the
gorge so narrow as to contain nothing but the
road and the pent-up Rhine, the former blasted
out of the walls of granite, and frequently passing
through tunnels. We were at once in a new
world, in the very bowels of the everlasting hills.
Splendid spruce firs towered up below us, and

1855 THE VIA MALA 57
hung above us, starting from the sheer walls of
rock, which defied hand or foot of man to reach.
Higher we crept, and narrower grew the way,
and more tremendous the heights and the
depths. We had all turned out to walk, and
came presently to a bridge across the chasm,
which showed us the boiling stream below, so
pent up, that the trees — great timber monsters —
which had fallen ages ago, and are always falling
from age or accident, lay there in the chasm of
rock, lengthways, their mere thickness of stem
making them too large to pass. There they lay
mouldering — the stream a thousand feet or more
beneath them — in a space apparently not above
two feet wide. A stone thrown down made one
sick to watch : it travelled down and down, like
Satan in ' Paradise Lost,' in unfathomable space,
as we hung over the gulf on the slight but safe
bridge of man's making. From this bridge to
another, the scenery was all of this awful nature,
and I was not sorry to be out of it. It was nine
o'clock before we reached the Splugen Inn,
where began the sharp ascent with zigzags — the
scenery barren and bleak — leaving all vegetation
behind, except magnificent thistles and splendid
larkspurs. We could but admire the grand

58 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxi
engineering of the road ; we did not appear to be
on such very steep roads, yet we were astonished
at the depths we left below us, and at the inac
cessible points which we gradually attained. In
due time we came to the level of the snow, and
recognised the spots over which we had passed
under such horrible and trying circumstances. As
we proceeded, we saw large heaps of white
marble — lying glistening like loaf sugar — broken
up to mend the road, which itself, by its adaman
tine hardness, showed that it was made truly of
powdered marble.
At length we came to the Austrian frontier
post, where the horses shook their bells, and
began to trot, and a new stream started in the
downhill race before us. We then reached the
wretched Austrian Custom-house, where idle,
dirty, smoking, officials stood lazying against the
door-posts, keeping poor Italian peasants — half-
naked and quite brutalised — waiting to have their
carts of barrels of wine examined. The Italian
side is much the steeper, the precipices far more
awful, the zigzags horrible, the turns tremendously
sudden — our five horses in the fastest trot, the
great lumbering vehicle swinging and creaking
round the corners. The descent seemed never

1855 C E UN SASSO

59

to cease, and I must confess that I covered my
eyes at many a place I saw coming. Even when
we quitted the fir-trees, and reached the old
gnarled chestnuts — magnificent in their weather-
beaten strength — it was all pitching down head
foremost. By six o'clock we got to Campo Dolcino — a
miserable Italian village, where we changed horses,
and were kept waiting unusually long. However,
in time we started again, but had not driven
a mile when a boy hailed the diligence, and said
coolly ' C es un sasso.' We fancied that there might
be a stone in one of the horses' feet, or the wheel
cogged with one ; but a stone was a very wrong
word to apply to the huge rock, which had fallen
from the precipice above and lay on the road, as
big as the diligence itself, impossible to pass. It
was fresh down, and I could but feel that the
delay at Campo Dolcino had providentially saved
us from a worse fate than that of being delayed.
But still, what was to be done ? Our postilion
and our conducteur got out and looked at it, and
men came up and did the same : then there came
beggars, and children, and dogs, and all looked
at it. Men poked at it with umbrellas — they
might as well have poked at the Spliigen itself.

60 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxi
After a time poles were brought, and there were
long pulls and strong pulls and pulls all together ;
and though it grew dark and much time elapsed,
yet at length the great monster was driven inch
by inch to the side, and we had just room to
grind past. Chiavenna, which we reached after
this delay, is, as its name imports, the chiave or
key to the pass, and stands exactly at the foot.
Here we heard the news of the fall of Sebastopol,
which made us long to be either in London or
Paris. We woke to a lovely sky next morning — the
old blue which I have seen nowhere else — and
started early for Colico, passing through scenery
which rain had utterly concealed last year, with
a sky which was scenery enough in itself. At
Colico (renowned for malaria, beggars, and misery),
which we reached next morning, we took the
Lake Como steamer. The scenery justified its
reputation — even the small part of it which we
saw : it was ideal in beauty — great mountains
clothed to the top with all the luxuriance of vine,
fig-tree, and chestnut — with the indescribably
beautiful lines and colours of the cypress turning
all into a picture ; dotted with campaniles, villages,
and gorgeous palaces ; and seamed with streaming

1855 A THUNDERSTORM ON LAKE COMO 61
waterfalls. And the sun shed such glories over
parts, lighting up promontories and dells with
gold, while the water was more than emerald in
colour. But our passage was short, as we had
to land at Varenna. The balcony of our hotel
there overlooked the whole lake with its splendid
mountains and promontories ; a storm was brew
ing, and such colours came out^violet, and blue,
and bronze (never black) — as the lightning broke
forth on each side of us, and the thunder thumped
about among the hills.
When one is indoors, Italy is a purgatory —
when out of doors, a paradise : one forgets all
annoyances in the glories around — the soft in
tensity of the sky, and the brilliancy of every
object. Milan, Sept. 19. — My dear husband is (be
tween ourselves) in full treaty for some prizes,
and has more prospect of getting what is really
grand and fine than we could have expected. But
this requires much patience, and prudence, and
caution. Last year he made acquaintances which
now serve his purpose, and we are taken to one
palace after another — such enormous structures,
splendid and comfortless. Most of the owners
are needy and in debt ; and now these late Paris

62 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxi
fetes are likely to play into our hands for Dukes,
&c, &c, are returning with more than empty
pockets, and glad to have good prices for things,
which, in their opinion, any modern daub will
replace. Yesterday we made an expedition to the
Certosa of Pavia. We were off early, through
what Murray truly calls ' Flemish scenery ' ; for
straight roads, through straight rows of trees
(Lombardy poplars), and by the side of straight
canals, were certainly Flemish : but the canals are
all swift-running streams, which in great measure
account for the verdure and cultivation. But then
there was the sapphire sky above, vines and fig-
trees mingling with the wayside trees, and an
occasional campanile tower which, like a cypress,
always gives the picturesque. We reached the
place in rather less than three hours, and passed
through an archway brilliant with frescoes —
cherubs, &c. — by Luini, which I instantly re
cognised for one of those in Griiner's book.1
Nor was this the only reminiscence ; for the nave
of the church of the Certosa was full of portions
which I recognised. Nothing can be more truth
ful than Griiner's versions are, and also his direc-
1 See footnote, vol. i. p. 1 50.

I855 THE CERTOSA OF PAVIA 63
tions for colour. The Certosa itself is an immense
monastery, the church of which, dedicated to the
Virgin, is a miracle of art and pomp. The facade
is of different-coloured marble, on a groundwork
of white marble, with hardly an unwrought niche.
The only drawback in my eyes was the sight of
two wasps' nests ensconced in some filigree relief,
round which my favourite enemies were very busy.
I could not go — no woman being permitted —
further than the nave, or into the chapels which
cluster down each side, or into the choir, which
looked as tempting as most forbidden ground, or
more so. But through the grilles much can be
seen, and there is a regular lady's corner, which
the sacristan points out, whence the pictures on
each chapel altar can be seen : the beautifully
painted ceilings are seen without difficulty.
We got back by five o'clock, and then went to
dine with the Castellearcas. We were shown up
wide, rough stone stairs, and went through com-
monish rooms — all 'en suite' — till we came to a
large gallery, where the old Count met us. He
is a kind-looking old gentleman, but, like most
Italians, affected great negligence of toilette, and'
perfectly succeeded — having on most unmitigated
.old clothes, and not a particularly clean shirt.

64 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxi
He has an immense number of pictures, very few
of which are genuine except in his own estima
tion, and in that of another old gentleman, as
kind-looking as, and rather shabbier than, himself,
whom we took at first for his brother, but who
turned out to be his head servant. From the
gallery, full of soi-disant Raphaels, Leonardos,
and Michael Angelos, we went through room
after room — all full of pictures, and all increasing
in beauty and richness of furniture and objects of
vertu. The rooms appeared numberless, and,
instead of ending, they debouched into another
gallery — far larger and more magnificent than the
first, with everything truly en prince. Then we
went downstairs, and again through a suite of
beautiful rooms to a large salon, where the Coun
tess, a little old lady — eagle-eyed, and -nosed too
— received us with true courtesy. Then through
further rooms to dinner, which was in excellent
style. Everything was exquisitely cooked, and
we were obliged to eat more than we wanted, as
some things had to be eaten because they were
Italian, and others because our host hoped they
were English.
Pisa, Sept. 26. — We left Parma at five o'clock
last Monday morning (only the day before yester-

1855 PARMESAN MISGOVERNMENT 65
day, but it seems a week ago) in lovely weather,
the moon setting and the dawn brightening — and
found ourselves in a decently comfortable carriage
with three horses, which rattled away at a capital
pace. The first place we stopped at was
Formoso, a miserable roadside inn : thence the
ascent of the Apennines began, and our front
horse was detached, and two stout oxen yoked on
before the pair. There was no beauty on that
side of the great chain of mountains, except that
airy colouring which an Italian atmosphere gives
to the bleakest or foulest things. This was
indeed bleak, no part covered with vegetation,
and many parts utterly bare of it. The great
arid rocks, burnt red in places, and the stony beds
of dry torrents reminded me of Eastern scenes ;
but the airy plains we had left behind looked like
a sea of light, of which it was impossible to see
the boundary line for the glow which wrapped
heaven and earth. The ascent was not very
steep, and the zigzags not sharp, but the road was
bad, and everything bespoke Parmesan bad
government and neglect, so that it does not
appear that the Duchess Regent has made up
for the misrule of her blockhead husband. The
very railing to the road was so rotten that it was
vol. 11. f

66 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxi
toppling over the precipices, and the telegraph
poles were without wires. I never saw a region
more uninviting and desolate, and, when a human
dwelling was seen, it wrung one's heart to think
that any fellow-creature should live and die in
such a place. About noon we stopped for two
hours at a village called Cassio — worse than any
thing I had seen, except always an Estonian inn,
which by comparison outdoes even the worst
Italian accommodation. The pass thence was
very long, though not high — 3,400 feet — not
quite half the Spltigen ; and we wound along upon
a ridge between two amphitheatres of mountain
scenery, which by degrees assumed a more
clothed aspect when we entered a forest of cork
trees. The cork-tree is an oak, with a more
indented leaf and lighter in colour, and with the
bark far coarser and larger in its roughness. The
bark and branches seemed equally in request, for
many were mere pollards, and others great stems
stripped of all boughs. Then we reached the Col
Cisa — the height of the pass — the gloom of which
was increased by occasional charcoal-burners'
sheds. Here the Parmesan Government required,
for the safety of its wretched subjects, that we
should be fumigated ; so we entered the one

1855 FUMIGATION AT PONTREMOLI 67
miserable house, and stood in a room where some
diabolical compound sent up its fumes, and then
we were released.
From this point we began to rattle down
through groves of magnificent sweet chestnuts,
laden with fruit enough to supply the world ;
while the grand mountains opposite to us, with
red and purple clouds tumbling among them,
were evidently clothed from top to bottom with
the same trees ; every tree was a picture, and
there were millions of them.
About seven o'clock we caught sight of the
domes and towers of Pontremoli — stately and
imposing, as the commonest Italian town looks at
a distance, though desolate too, as it stood upon
the wide, flat, dry bed of a river, the Magra itself
being dried to the smallest span. Here we were
evidently great wonders, for the whole ragged
population came out and followed the carriage as we
entered the filthy narrow defile of the street. H ere
we were stopped again, and requested to purify
ourselves before entering the immaculate precincts
of Pontremoli : so the fumigation was gone through
again, and we were allowed to depart in peace to
our inn. This was an odd-looking place, with
open yard and court, like all. There was not a
F 2

68 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxi
creature to meet us, and it was now quite dark.
We called and shouted ' Cameriere ! ' (waiter)
and our vetturino added his stentorian voice, and
a few oaths and ' Madonnas.' After a time an
old woman appeared with a light, and seemed
unfeignedly surprised at our advent : we followed
her upstairs, past a man who sat fast asleep, into
very decent rooms. Here a sort of waiter
appeared with a melancholy face, who asked an
unheard-of price for the rooms, and then excused
himself by saying that they had not had a soul at
their inn for thirty-five days, owing to ' il male-
delto colera,' which they pronounce thus, and
render masculine. We got a sort of supper —
nothing but bread and a few potatoes being eat
able. Then we took to our beds, which, to our
surprise, were clean. We started next morning
at four o'clock in the dark, for the hills hid the
moon, and an intense fog came on. By seven
o'clock the sun began to sweep the fog away, and
to reveal hills clad with every luxuriance of
southern vegetation. Then we entered little
Modena, which of course required a fresh purifi
cation ; and then, by eight o'clock, Piedmont.
Here an instant change was perceptible ; the
Custom House officials were clean, and not

1 85 5 SARZANA 69
smoking, and when offered the usual fee refused
it. The road instantly mended, the people were
better dressed, the cultivation of the land wore
quite a different aspect. Here we saw all the
glories of Italy together — the fig, the vine, the
olive, the chestnut, and the stone-pine — and with
all these, the blackberry and the furze bush. By
nine o'clock we reached Sarzana, which appeared
Paradise, being a really clean hotel, where the
best of coffee and milk, with fresh fish from
the Mediterranean, soon disappeared before our
ravenous appetites. We perceived the vicinity to
white marble quarries, for all thresholds and door-
stalls were of that material. Leaving Sarzana,
we passed through one beauty after another — ¦¦
mountains of chestnuts and olives, crowned with
stately towns — just as one sees in the backgrounds
of Poussin, of whom and of Claude we were
reminded at every step. We went close to a
great fortress in ruins, of brick, with bands of
sculptured marble. Every little house was half-
built of white marble — steps, archways, window-
frames, &c, even the posts which bordered the
road, while high above towered the great marble
mountains, hard and white against the woods out
of which they rose, and still whiter and harder

70 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxi
against the lapis lazuli sky. By this time it was
very hot, but still we were not prepared for the
great cactuses, or for the glorious orange trees —
fruit and leaves dark green alike — which grew in
the principal Place of the little town of Carrara.
From this we crossed a small mountainous pass,
thick with the chestnut trees overhead, and with
arbutus, laurel, myrtle in full flower, cyclamen,
and many other gorgeous plants unknown to me
below. Then, as we came downhill, there lay
before us a blue line, with the Gulf of Spezia in
a soft curve — the first view of the Mediterranean,
never to be forgotten. Indeed, the day was one
succession of excitements, to be judged of only
by those to whom this fairest of lands is known.
The mere shadow of an olive grove has a charm
which I can't describe ; there is something so
pure and peaceful and feminine in its gentle soft
grey masses (which look as if one could stroke
them like feathers), covering the hills with a cool
veil, and beautiful alike against the strong, fresh,
green chestnuts, or against rock or sky. We
drove for hours through groves to which we could
see no boundary. The entrance into Tuscany
only continued the same scenery. The Tuscans
are an industrious race, and the farmhouses were

1855 THE LEANING TOWER, PISA 71
comfortable things to look at ; they are quite a
different people from the wretched Lombards and
Parmesans. We changed horses at Pietra Santa,
a beautiful spot with a capital hotel, and were
speeding on again — thunderstorms all around us —
finding the roads soaked with rain, which for
tunately we were following, so that we had all the
refreshment and none of the inconvenience.
Again we crossed a low mountain, and saw the
globe of the sun set in the Mediterranean. We
arrived about seven o'clock at Lucca, where we
spent the night. The next day we were driving
about seeing Fra Bartolommeo and the painters
of his school in grand churches, many of them
built of heathen amphitheatres and temples. In
the afternoon we were off to Pisa, where there
was just time to profit by one of the finest even
ings that can be imagined, so we climbed the
leaning tower. It is far more out of perpen
dicular than I had supposed, and far more
beautiful : entirely of white marble, save where
inlaid with black, and elegant and light to
perfection. The effect in mounting the stairs
was odd — one way easy enough, but the other
labouring against the double difficulty of the
ascent and the downward slope. Altogether

72 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XXI
there was a great sense of insecurity ; and, once
upon the top, everything looked wrung from it.
But not the Mediterranean, which lay so grandly
before us, with the islands of La Gorgone,
Caprera, Elba, and Corsica resting upon it, and
Leghorn seen on one side. Indeed, the view was
matchless. Florence, Oct. 4. — It would be in vain to tell
you all the sights of Florence : the only drawback
has been two successive holidays, which have
shut up all the public buildings — however, we
filled up even those days with business. A
month would not be long enough to show me
all in this inexhaustible treasury of all that is
curious and beautiful. I almost think that I
must let Florence take a place before Venice, at
least I fancy so till I see my beloved Venice
again. Florence, Oct. 11. — Here we are still, from
reasons of business of a rather vexatious nature.
The laws here, as in Russia, are meant to be
evaded ; but Englishmen, and especially one like
my husband, naturally begin by acting according
to them, and are punished for their upright deal
ing by every kind of annoyance. Our business
concerns a very important picture, and my hus-

1855 A 'GHIRLANDAJO' 73
band wished that every formality should be com
plied with. They are so shamefully indifferent
here about the preservation of their works of art,
that the most glorious things are allowed to perish
from sheer contempt and ill-treatment. It would
wring the commonest artistic heart to see the
most precious specimens of their best time dying
a lingering death in their filthy churches — all
defiled and bespattered, stuck through with hun
dreds of nails and even of pins, with the dust and
drought of centuries upon them. Such a long-
suffering picture- by Ghirlandajo, one of the giants
of the olden time, Sir Charles has been in treaty
for more than a twelvemonth — before we came
out last year — and on arriving here the purchase
was duly completed. It is a picture in a church
belonging to the priests and congregation. The
offer made by my husband was most liberal, and
the treaty was carried on between him and the
Venerable ' Signor Canonico Penitenziere ' — a
magnificent old man — in the most courteous way.
The offer was accepted, and the Canonico ob
tained the consent of the ' Congregazione,' and
of the Archbishop, the more readily because the
money was to be devoted to found a charitable
institution. The consent of the Pope to sell

74 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxi
the picture for that purpose had been obtained
beforehand. Then the consent of the Academy
was got, and then that of the Government ; but
by that time the Academy had found out that it
was destined for the English National Gallery,
and vowed that such a treasure — a picture of the
highest importance — could not be allowed to leave
the country. In short, all permission was with
drawn, and the Canonico and the Congregazione
thrown into despair. It so happened, that we
were just going to dine with Lord and Lady
Normanby (he the English Minister) when this
news reached us ; and as my husband has a letter
from Lord Clarendon to all ministers and consuls
to assist him in any difficulty, he took it at once,
and has set his Lordship to work to overrule, if
possible, the intrigues of the Academy. But all
this takes time, and though we have waited three
days, we seem no nearer the end. However^
priests and congregation, and Archbishop, and
Pope all make common cause with us, and with
Lord Normanby besides — so there is little doubt
of the final result. The priests promise to sell it
to no one else, and least of all to the Government,
which only offers half the amount. At first I
went to good old Count Buonarotti, who is one of

1855 HONESTY THE WORST POLICY

75

the ministers ; but it is not his department, and
though he kindly said he would do his best, he
warned me to 'expect nothing from Italians,'
and to rely on Lord Normanby entirely. The
Countess has been most honest between her
English and Italian sympathies, but she knows
the nature of the laws, and only laments that Sir
Charles ever paid them the compliment of com
plying with them. Certainly my husband will
never try that plan again, but will do as all
private purchasers do, and smuggle what they are
not allowed to pass honestly. The picture is in
such a wretched state, that it will require much
time and expense to put it in order. The zeal
for its retention, which they now show out of
jealousy, had not prevented them from letting the
picture perish by inches — all the predella pictures
stolen and vanished, frame gone, and itself sure
to disappear in time. It is worse than the dog in
a manger, for the object in question is never to
be replaced, and they won't even take care of it.
Plenty of glorious things are ruined too far to be
ever repaired.
Florence, Oct. 13. — To-day we have been
driving about to churches, and to the gallery, and
have formed a tolerable idea of the native painters.

76 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxi
The old Bolognese — Francia and his school — are
always charming ; but the Carracci and all their
tribe are not calculated to interest the English of
the present day, when affectation and mere me
chanical facility are out of fashion. I am fairly
bitten with all the true pre-Raphaelites — nowhere
to be found in such grandeur as at Florence — and
I shall be truly proud if we succeed both in rescu
ing some examples, and in introducing them into
England, where already there are a chosen few who
adore them. My husband has heard from Lord
Normanby that his first appeal to the chief minister
had met with a negative, on the score of the
Government attaching too much importance to
this poor, defaced Ghirlandajo to be able to give
it up to oblige him. He had, therefore, made a
second and far stronger appeal, which he hardly
thought they could resist. Also he begged my
husband to send the old ' Canonico ' straight to
him, so that he might know every particular. We
hope, therefore, for the best. This transaction
has given us but a poor opinion of the honesty of
the Tuscan Government. The reason for the
whole lies in the spite and ignorance of the
Director of the Academy, a man, we hear, without
the slightest knowledge of art, under whose

1855 A TRUMPERY MARQUIS 77
regime everything is neglected. He is jealous
of anyone who knows more than himself. Sir
Charles's choice of the picture has proved to him
that it is one of value ; and though, had the
choice not been made, he would have let it perish
with perfect indifference, yet he now affects a zeal
for the preservation of it for the Florence gallery,
and, as he is a trumpery marquis, all the ministers
think themselves bound to support him. He has
gone the length of making them all believe, as
they are as ignorant as he is himself, that this is
the only specimen of the master left in Tuscany.
In answer to this, Sir Charles has supplied Lord
Normanby with a list of other examples, scattered
through Florence, Lucca, &c, neglected by and
unknown to the Government, though Murray's
' Handbook' and many other English sources pro
claim them to us. Also the ' Canonico ' expects
to prove that the picture is the church's entire
property, independent of the Government, in
which case they need not even give their un
gracious consent.
These few weeks have greatly improved my
Italian, and I begin to ask, scold, &c, for myself,
which is very agreeable. It is so simple a lan
guage, and the little I heard of it in my youth so

78 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxi
far accustomed my ear to it, that I understand
/ j almost all I hear, and the far easier part of
/learning to speak is all that remains, i We see
a good deal of a certain class of men, namely,
picture dealers — not educated, but sharp and
'cute. Poor devils ! they are the only class
who know anything of art, and they have a
native drollery which sends us into fits. Some
are fine-hearted creatures, honest, and would
be generous if they could ; but the majority
are sly and intriguing, and require such a
cautious character as my husband to be their
match. I don't yet know which is the most interesting
class : I should think not the higher one, and
certainly not the young people. The young
ladies are prudes till they are married, and any
thing you please after ; the young men lead a
mere empty cigar life. Most of the upper classes
are immensely Russian, thinking Russia the most
enlightened and injured country.
This land is so lovely and fertile, and so little
improved. There is not a fruit or vegetable that
we should not be ashamed of — mere wild, taste
less sorts, and those always plucked before they
are ripe. It is impossible to cure the people of this

1855 IMPROVED POTATOES 79
habit. The very potatoes are so bad that they
are not wholesome : at Lord Normanby's table I
saw some very fine ones — in fact, the finest I ever
saw or tasted, so I asked their origin, and he told
me they were English, greatly improved by the
magnificent Italian soil in his own garden. And
there are such lovely gardens, belonging to
almost every good house we entered, grown wild
with every luxuriant plant and creeper. I can
imagine nothing more delightful than an Italian
house, kept and cleaned in an English way,
in the heart of one of these interesting cities,
and with a high-walled garden — the very walls
with bits of Luca della Robbia and majolica, or,
at all events, beautifully moulded brickwork in
them. Venice, Oct. 18. — We reached Ferrara about
noon on the 14th, and our eyes were soon
opened to the real present character of this
renowned spot. It is a deserted place, with
everything going fast to ruin, including buildings
of the highest interest. The grass grows thick
in the streets, and on the church and house walls,
on window sills, and thresholds, and upon the
people too, for they seemed as stagnant as their
town. The buildings are splendid — the Cathedral

80 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxi
an unfinished mass of stone tracery — no end of
palaces with the most sumptuous architectural
decorations, either in stone or the far more
beautiful terra-cotta — all crumbling and crumbled
away. And in the centre, in a totally different
style and character, the stern, strong castle, with
turrets and towers, and a moat still full of water
round it, looking like the most despotic tyrant,
and quite ruining the little faith I was ever
disposed to place in the elegance and civilisation
of its Alfonsos and Leonoras. No wonder Tasso
went mad in Ferrara, even in its best days. The
deserted wretchedness of the city, standing in a
flat marsh which the Po, with any of its scherzi,
can convert into a lake, so struck us that we had
but one wish — to get away from it. The school
of painters is original, but far less interesting than
we had expected. In fact, the pictures that
remained had, like the rest of Ferrara, been
allowed to drop to pieces ; and, though they have
been furbished up to deck a public gallery, which
is twenty times too big for them — such an old
granary of a palace — yet they had been too far
ruined ever to recover. House-rent in Ferrara
I should think is nothing. The only tempting
things in the place were the gardens attached to

1855 FERRARA 81
every old ruin, which, as an old picture-dealer
told us, are as big as a country seat. Next day
we turned our backs most gladly on the city of
Ariosto and Tasso, coming by Padua to our
beloved Venice.

VOL. II.

82 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxi

CHAPTER XXII
1856-1858
Settled in London again for the winter, Lady
Eastlake wrote a paper on ' Modern Painters ' for
the 'Quarterly Review' (March 1856), taking for
her text the first three volumes of Mr. Ruskin's
book. In this she ' endeavours to show and to
refute his elementary errors regarding the princi
ples and purposes of Art.'
One great proof (she writes), were there no
other, of the falseness of Mr. Ruskin's reasoning
is its quantity  As regards quantity,
however, it is easy to foresee that Mr. Ruskin
will always have the advantage. Nature has
given him the mechanism of thinking in a most
peculiar degree. The exercise of this faculty,
which is always more or less an exertion and
strain to other minds, is none to his, and no
wonder ; for sophistry travels on roads where,
however much dust, there are neither stones nor
tolls. Though, therefore, the broad false prin
ciples he has laid down may be easily refuted, yet

1856 MR. RUSKIN CRITICISED 83
it may be doubted whether any mind will have
the patience to follow all the windings of one, who
thinks equally without conscience and weariness.
A man may attack iron bars, oak doors, or stone
walls, and hope with energy and perseverance to
break his way through ; but to follow a thin
thread, which leads him through twisting and
slippery paths, and is always snapping at an
honest touch, requires a strength of nerve
and tenacity of purpose, which Mr. Ruskin's
writings will hardly inspire, or their refutation
reward. The letters during this period contain but
little of public interest ; only a few extracts,
therefore, are given from those written from
London in May and June 1856.
May 2. — My husband was summoned yester
day to attend the Queen at the Royal Academy.
She brought seven children, down to Prince
Arthur, who was allowed to come because it was
his birthday, and who had been promised a
catalogue to himself : his brothers and sisters all
teased him when he claimed this, but he paid
them out by trying to jump on to their backs,
which the Queen soon stopped. All was natural
and simple — the little ones holding on to her
G 2

84 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxn
skirt, and she saying, ' Children, you are always
in the way.'
May 3. — Yesterday's Private View was very
interesting. The Duke and Duchess of North
umberland were there, always polite and kind ;
dear old Lady Morley rattling away, and Lady
Somers more beautiful than anything or anybody
else. The account of the pictures in the ' Times '
is nonsense : in most cases the exact reverse of
what they say may be taken as the truth.
01 Paton's picture of a soldier, one-armed, footsore,
and ragged, returned home, and the mixed
emotions of wife and mother, is the picture : few
came away from it with dry eyes. It is a superb
thing. Millais also stands very high.
May 9. — Our dinnerparty here last night was
a lively one — Lord Glenelg, Count Streletzki,
Baron and Lady and Miss Alderson, Mr. and
Mrs. Archer Clive, Mr. and Mrs. Holland, Mr.
and Mrs. Henry Reeve, Dean of St. Paul's and
Mrs. Milman. Lord Glenelg is a charming old
man, and Baron Alderson and Streletzki were
ridiculously funny one against the other. Baron
Alderson tells me I may murder Sir Charles when
I like, for capital punishment for ladies is now
abolished, as we could never hope to excel that

1856 BUCKINGHAM PALACE 85
dreadful Celestina Sumner in the art, and she is
only transported for life. . . .
We were off to the Queen's Ball soon after
eleven o'clock. I was full of anticipations about
the new ball-room and other rooms, but they far
exceeded my expectations. The decorations of
the ball-room are exquisite, the lighting most
original and beautiful, and the raised crimson
seats (three deep) round three sides of the vast
apartment, all that can be desired both to look at,
when filled with gorgeously dressed figures, and
to look from. They command the whole view of
the great centre for dancing, and of the Queen's
circle at the end of the room. Her throne is
placed under an arch splendidly decorated. We
were enchanted with the taste of the room, but
heard the most ignorant stuff about it. One
gentleman of high standing, who shall be name
less, lamented to my husband that better artists
had not been employed to design the twenty-four
Hours — female figures on a dark-blue ground,
which go round the walls about two-thirds the
height up. Sir Charles heard him out, and then
said : ' Very true, it is a great pity ; the designs
are only Raphael's.' Another abused the intro
duction of the ornamental frieze of griffins above

86 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxn
the Hours, as being taken from Nineveh, when
there is hardly a decorated hall in Italy in which
the griffin does not occur : and so on, simply
finding fault a la Ruskin. I said to Lord Over-
stone : ' Now surely you are not going to criticise
this room ? ' He said : ' I may criticise what is
another's, but I shouldn't if it were my own.'
We soon had an opportunity of paying our
homage to Her Majesty, by whose side stood the
Princess Royal, looking very like her mother in
expression and natural manner.
But the thing which attracted most attention,
even in the midst of never-ending objects of
interest, was the seats of the ambassadors, where
Ali Pasha, the Grand Vizier (a magnificent man),
and Baron Brunnow sat in the same row. The
motley scene, both moral and picturesque, was
increased by the negro envoy from Hayti, who,
though, as Lord Somers told me, ' awfully snubbed
by all the ministers,' held his own very steadily.
He is especially a bitter drop in the Americans'
cup, and they foresee some embarrassment on
public occasions ' when the Yankee will have
to walk after the Nigger,' as Hayti came first in
time. Later in the evening we came upon
Brunnow, who had been, he said, shaken by the

1856 BARON BRUNNOW 87
hand by at least seven hundred friends. His
generous welcome by the late enemies of Russia
evidently impressed him deeply. He is a plain-
shaven, ugly man, but his face is very intellectual.
He expressed great gratitude to my husband for
the Academy's invitation, which had been the first
to reach him on his return. Sir Charles intro
duced me, and we had some talk about Russian
friends. June 11. — Last night I went to the Monckton
Milnes' to meet the Duke and Duchess d'Aumale :
it was a most agreeable party. The Duke
showed a truly royal memory by instantly re
cognising me : he afterwards presented me to the
Duchess, with whom I had some conversation.
Waagen was with me : he knows all these people,
and is always at home with them. He was
summoned to the Prince of Prussia the other day,
and the young man kept him an hour and a half
talking of his happiness, and extolling the virtues
and talents of our Princess Royal — begging
Waagen to contradict anyone who might call it a
' mariage de convenance,' as it was one of the
tenderest affection. It is rather amusing and
very interesting that we should have heard the
same confession, through Mrs. Gandy, from the

88 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxn
Princess. Our Queen, indeed, deserves that her
children should marry as happily as herself.
Owing to her serious illness in August of this
year, Lady Eastlake was unable to accompany
her husband on his autumn tour, but went
instead to Scotland to visit her numerous friends
there. Apparently, the only literary work she did
during the winter was an article on ' Photo
graphy,' published in the ' Quarterly Review ' for
March 1857.
Her letters for the next eighteen months have
not been preserved, with the exception of a few
which she wrote while staying with a married
sister at Senhals, on the Moselle, in August 1857.
In October she joined her husband at Heidelberg
for a trip through Germany and Holland. Her
principal occupation after her return to London
was preparing an article on Michael Angelo for
the 'Quarterly Review' (April 1858).
Having been asked by a dear friend, the
Honourable H. Jane Gifford, who was spending
a few months at Florence, what should and could
be seen there, Lady Eastlake writes (July 1858)
a long letter, from which some passages are
quoted here, as showing how ready and able she
was to give advice and assistance on the, to her,
all-important subject of art : —
I know that, when the heart has suffered
great affliction, the arts present a soothing neutral
ground, from their mingled interest and inno
cence, which is very welcome. I rejoice to hear

¦i :•<¦';< ;¦••.,«»," K !\i~..x.<<-< '¦¦-¦

¦fcv

1858 ART IN FLORENCE 89
that you are in the midst of them, and can almost
y you the leisure you can devote to them.
have I so far forgotten my early days of art-
yorship as not to know how puzzled one becomes
with the very embarrassment of riches.
You are not likely, with Murray's ' Handbook'
and 'Kugler,' to omit anything of importance. I
can do little more than encourage you, while you
are enjoying the very meridian of art in the vari
ous specimens of Raphael (his exquisite portraits
in the Uffizi and Pitti, as well as his matchless
4 Madonna della Seggiola ' ), to try and fill your
heart especially with the grandeur and earnest
ness of the great four — Sandro Botticelli, Dom.
Ghirlandajo, Fra Filippo Lippi, and his son,
Filippino Lippi, who constitute the core of Floren
tine art. Their easel pictures — always in tempera
— are rare, but comparatively frequent in favoured
Florence, and never quite so grand as their
frescoes. Those of Ghirlandajo in S. Maria
Novella are the right things to study and like
more and more. Benozzo Gozzoli, too, is another
grand master of that time ; there is a small room,
frescoed by him, in the Riccardi Palace, well
worth seeing, but he is seen — a splendid wreck —
at the Campo Santo, Pisa, with grand realistic

90 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxil
heads and figures, gorgeous architectural back
grounds, and fine animals. At S. Gemignano,
too, a short distance from Florence, I understand
he is in his glory. . . .
You don't mention the lately discovered ' Last
Supper ' in the refectory of S. Onofrio, Florence,
now restored by the Tuscan Government, and
seen, I believe, without trouble. It is a beautiful
thing, though not by Raphael as reported ; but,
according to all connoisseurs, Sir Charles in
cluded, by Pinturicchio, his fellow-scholar, whom
also you see to advantage at Siena. Then there
are small restored rooms by the Ghirlandaji, and
by others in the Palazzo Vecchio, if you have any
interest to get in there. The old apartments,
too, are worth going through. Then Fra
Angelico you should adore for his angelic heads
(Benozzo Gozzoli was his scholar). Ladies can
not see everything by him at S. Marco, his con
vent ; but they can see his great ' Crucifixion,'
which made a deep impression on me.
As to the ' Madonna del Gran Duca,' it is
only Raphael's that goes by that name. Modern
Florentines are so degenerate that they think far
more of a Carlo Dolci, or a Sassoferrato, than
they do of their really great masters. Probably

I858 MRS. JAMESON 91
the Grand Duke does so too. We never heard
of the Carlo Dolci : the Raphael of that name,
which I know only by engravings, is always re
ported to be in the private apartments of the
Grand Duke.
It is only a few days since I heard from Mrs.
Jameson ; she said she was going to Rome as
soon as the weather became milder. She is a
woman of very determined mind, who has worked
beyond her strength ; this is the side I admire in
her. Her great acquirements and most consci
entious works I need not allude to, though no
one admires them more. She is full of art, and
has just been taking great interest in the acqui
sition of the Lombardi pictures at Florence for
the National Gallery.
In August 1858 the Eastlakes went to
Rotterdam, Hanover, Turin, Bologna, Florence,
Rome, and Genoa. Some of these places Lady
Eastlake had already seen, but even about these
she finds something fresh to say : Rome, how
ever, was new ground to her.
Rotterdam, Aug. 4, 1858. — We arrived here
safely this morning, and after breakfast drove
about the town, which is full of bright Dutch
beauty. First we visited the Museum, which
contains finer pictures than we expected : thence,

92 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. XXII
with the nose my husband has for tracking any
thing of interest, we found our way to the house
of an uncle of the late Ary Scheffer, where some
beautiful portraits by him exist. Afterwards we
went to a collector, who has six most remarkable
pictures by this truly great master. This is the
place to see him. In both instances the houses
were models of comfort and propriety — very
large, with narrow fronts, and great depth, and
broad shallow stairs.
The heat, though great, is not close, but clear,
and the air brilliant beyond description.
Hanover, Aug. 7. — Here we are in that vast
and lovely territory, which the Electors of Hano
ver condescended to exchange for our little
England! This morning we drove out to a
Schloss, built by George I. for his mistress, where
there were plenty of Stuart portraits, and one of
Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, the link between
this great country and our little island. Then on
to Herrenhausen, another Schloss, where the King
resides — passing a third now being built. At
Herrenhausen our Queen is to be received when.
she passes through. Each of these Schldsser
has guards of honour, which reminded me of the
army in ' Bombastes Furioso.'

1858 GERMAN REVELRY 93
Hanover is a frightful place, a kind of lesser
Munich, of the worst modern architecture : all
gothic pinnacles and painted glass — many houses
with three or four styles mixed. Our hotel is a
mixture of an Italian villa, a feudal castle, and a
rustic arbour.
Mannheim, Aug. 12. — From Hanover we
went to Hildesheim, which is an old town, very
picturesque, and but recently thrown open by rail.
In the next room to ours at the inn a few
Germans were spending the evening in social,
innocent converse, and the yelling and roaring
increased as the night wore on. The singing
grew more and more drunkenly out of tune, and
glasses were smashed, and noises made, which I
can hardly imagine in England, even in the lowest
public house, without the police interfering. The
only difference was that the piano was beautifully
played, and as that did not get drunk, its tones
remained true all night through. We got to sleep
about 4 a.m. — not because the noise ceased, but
in spite of it — and heard afterwards that 'die
Herren ' had never been to bed at all, and probably
would not for a week.
We then went on to Brunswick, where we
saw some very fine pictures at the gallery. The

94 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxn
Director showed us about — so handsome a young
man that I took greatly to him ; but he was no
Solomon, and knew nothing of art, and when he
took off his hat, I found his head went too and
all his beauty was gone. My husband was much
amused at me.
We returned to Hanover, and were off next
day to Cassel, which is an exceedingly pretty
town, situated high, with a fine, airy, verdant view
all round. We soon got into the picture gallery,
round which we were conducted by the Director:,
a little old gentleman, who said that no one in those
parts cared for the pictures. This gallery and
that at Brunswick were formed principally more
than a century ago, and thus contain pictures
which it would be difficult nowadays to purchase
for any money. Imagine twenty-one of the finest
Rembrandts, and everything else in proportion —
Italian as well as Dutch — and in excellent pre
servation. Turin, Aug. 19. — We left Paris (whence I
last wrote you) on the 16th by the Geneva line,
and arrived at Macon that afternoon. The next
morning we were off at 5.30 by very slow
train, till we came to the frontier of Savoy, a little
place called Culoz. Here the scenery began to

1858 MT. CENIS PASS 95
be picturesque, and here we went on board a
steamer, long and narrow, which performs a
wonderful passage through a tiny branch of the
Rhone — so narrow and winding that we touched
the banks in some of our turns. This required
the nicest steering on the part of several magnifi
cent young fellows, tanned as brown as Moors.
This stream pours into the Lac du Bourget,
across which we proceeded, landing at a place
called St. Innocent, where rail awaited us. This
curious river and lake passage, which lasted nearly
three hours, ends with this month, when the rail
way will be completed from Culoz to St. Innocent,
thus rendering the journey shorter. We passed
through Chambery, Aix-les- Bains, and finally
reached St. Jean de Maurienne, in the midst of
Alpine scenery, where for the present the railway
ends. From this place we started early next day
in a carriage and four, amid the grandest, and, in
parts, the most desolate scenes — rocks tumbled
about in chaotic style, and a population of dwarfs
and cretins, which showed the result of generations
of brutal ignorance and dirt. Our first four stages
took us to Lanslebourg, ascending the whole way
on an excellent road. Care can be taken to im
prove roads and introduce the newest wonders of

96 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XXII
science, but the wretched blear-eyed mass of dirt
by the roadside is left in a state, compared with
which an animal in the possession of health is
noble. People say the Mt. Cenis pass has no scenery,
but I found it magnificent. The mountains are
of the finest forms, loaded with snow above,
clothed with woods below, and bright with the
gayest of flowers to the top, which we reached
about four o'clock : even there hay was being cut.
When we began to descend the postilions rattled
down in their usual reckless way. The posthouse
was a little down the Italian side, and on chan
ging horses we desired the new postilion to drive
slowly. He answered, ' Oui, oui, j'irai douce-
ment,' and immediately set off with greater fury
than the last, the consequence being that we felt
a tremendous jolt, and found the tire of the wheel
broken, and catching with every turn on the drag.
We turned back to the posthouse, where the
postmaster, a fat old porpoise who could hardly
breathe, but was determined to cheat as long as
he could, said he had no carriage to give us. We
asked to look at his printed instructions, for we
knew that these postmasters are bound to provide
carriages for posting travellers ; but he had no

1858 POLITE PIEDMONT

97

rules, had never heard of such things. Ultimately
he let us have what he said was his own carriage
for three napoleons, giving us a receipt signed
with his name in a flourish and lots of sand. We
could only hope to get our money returned
through the director at Susa.
The country soon began to take its inde
scribable Italian character ; chestnut- and fig-trees
appeared in masses, lizards shot up the banks,
goats stood and butted at one another on the top
of a wall a few inches wide, the campanile shone
gleaming white below us, and every creature we
met that was young was beautiful.
On arriving at Susa we at once drove to the
Messageries, where we saw the Director, and told
our tale. He instantly exclaimed, ' II faut rendre
a. ce monsieur son argent ce moment ' ; called it a
'cochonnerie et une friponnerie sans pareil,' and
the three napoleons were in our possession forth
with, with the politest expression of regret. We
mentioned that it was the porpoise's own carriage,
but the Director said that made no difference — he
was bound to supply one, and had no right to
charge us ' un obole.' He said we were quite
right to pay, as that proved the ' fait detestabl e,
and that the postmaster would now be dismissed
VOL. II. H

98 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxn
at once. He begged our pardon for the annoy
ance, and told us that it was his bounden duty to
see that ' les voyageurs soient servis promptement,
honorablement, et poliment.' We complimented
Piedmont, and thanked him cordially.
Turin is a lovely city, strangely formal — the
streets raying out from the principal piazza, as at
Carlsruhe — but brilliant in colour, and with grand
masses of fantastic architecture, and hills dotted
with villas seen at the street ends. Sir James
Hudson is away, but has left pictures in his house
for us to see, among which was a most remark
able Moretto or Moroni — a splendid thing, be
longing to a young English merchant, with whom
the bargain was settled in five minutes. It is a
great acquisition for our National Gallery, which
has nothing by either of those great painters.
Milan, Aug. 22. — This afternoon (we ar
rived here last night) we have been to see the
Cav. Molteni, a secretary to the Academy here,
who is famous for his restorations of old pictures.
He is a most interesting man of about fifty, high
bred to look at, though the son of a peasant,
acutely sensitive to art, honest, honourable, and
the wittiest creature. He is adored by numerous
friends, who drop in at all times to his studio, and

THE CAS A POLDI

99

'ive without Molteni. His restorations are
vhat one may expect from a man of exquisite
feeling and a thoroughly good artist. He has
carriages perpetually at our service, and declares
that his friends allow him so much a year to keep
their horses exercised. One of these friends is a
Conte Taverni ; another a young Marchese Poldi,
famed for his enormous wealth, who would never
know how to kill time without Molteni's jokes.
I told the Marchese that it was my greatest am
bition to see the Casa Poldi, and he instantly took
us there. Truly, imagination never conceived
anything more sumptuous. The rooms are inlaid
with carvings, in different-coloured woods, equal
to our Gibbons, and contain charming pictures,
beautiful things in metal, gilding, silk, &c, all the
work of Milanese workmen, who may compete
with the world.
An odd thing has happened. Before we left
London, an Italian had brought to Fitzroy Square
a small and much injured, but exquisite Fra
Angelico — the rarest master almost in the world.
The National Gallery would not have it, and the
price asked was absurd. My husband was mise
rable about it, he admired it so much, and yet it
was so ruined, that it was a toss-up how it would H 2

ico MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxil
turn out under a restorer. He often said, ' If I
could but show it first to Molteni ! ' He offered
half the price asked — the Italian refused, and my
husband tormented himself because he had lost it,
for the Italian left London. At Culoz a bearded
fellow came bowing up to us ; we both stared and
at length recollected the man with the Fra
Angelico. The picture was in his trunk — had
Sir Charles received his letter ? he had written to
accept the offer. As he was going to Milan, my
husband made an appointment with him here, and
thus unexpectedly picture, Molteni, and we are all
brought together. Molteni, after inspecting it,
said it was ' cosa molta seria,' but also one of the
most beautiful, and that we might not meet with
another pure Fra Angelico for three hundred
years. The upshot is, that it is now in Molteni's
custody, who promises to do his best, but says,
' Fra Angelico was an angel, I am but a man.'
Bologna, Aug. 31. — We came here yester
day, taking Padua and Ferrara on our way.
Soon after leaving Padua we reached the bleak,
wild-looking Po, now giving more and more
trouble to confine within its banks, which are
kept up as anxiously as the dams against the
ocean in Holland. The river, in fact, is a matter

1858 A PASTORAL SCENE 101
of great disquietude. Without banks it inundates
the country far and wide : thus it has had artificial
banks for centuries. The consequence is, that its
current is increased, and the soil it deposits in its
bed the same. In spite of dredging machines,
which are always at work, the bed has risen so
much that the Po now flows between artificial
banks on the top of a plain, its surface on a level
with the roofs of the houses in Ferrara, and rising
so rapidly that the banks have to be raised a foot
every year. We crossed it by a cumbersome
ferry. The whole road from Ferrara was a scene
of pastoral activity — large farmhouses, teams of
white oxen with carts full of hemp, incessant
traffic of peaceful-looking people — and the whole
country the most fertile possible. It is certainly
worth coming to Italy in the summer to see the
bounty of her soil. Nowhere have I seen such a
glory of grapes ; both roadsides, as far inland as
we could see, were a succession of festoons from
tree to tree, each festoon a perfect picture of fruit
and leaf, and the truly purple grape so splendid
in colour. The hemp is beautiful, as large as a
young tree: Indian corn also everywhere with
its yellow golden pods ; and gorgeous plants, six

102 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxn
feet high, which produce oil from their bunches
of brown pods. We passed, too, fields of rice,
looking like green low wheat. Everywhere the
people were busy about their hemp, beating it
in open threshing-floors — in some instances the
white oxen turning a machine. Evidently the
peasantry was not poor, though I doubt whether
there were any peasants, but rather a class of
farmers. Better houses also were along the road,
showing that a middle class live among the
people. Bologna is a grand old city, built for
strength. Its slender lofty towers, shooting up
into the blue ether, are meant only as look-outs —
one of them is as much out of the perpendicular
as that at Pisa.
Florence, Sept. 7. — I am so in love with
some of the early pictures in the Uffizi, that I
could draw there all day long. Still, I have not
done much, as these early masters are so correct
and elaborate in drawing, that one must try to be
the same when imitating them. Nor is the light
enough — that is, in copying a figure from a large
picture, which hangs fully high, and can't be
unhung : a small picture they take down and
put on an easel for me. In a church close to
this hotel, there is a very interesting fresco of a

1858 FLORENCE 103
single figure, ' St. Jerome,' by Ghirlandajo,
exquisitely preserved. I want to book that very
much, but oh ! churches are such filthy places
here, and so hot and dark, that it is difficult to
stand them.
The other day I went to see a ' Last Supper '
by Giotto in a carpet manufactory — an ancient
refectory let for that purpose. It is a glorious
specimen, the first by Giotto I have really
admired, probably because it is, perhaps, the only
true one by him I have seen ; for every horror is
called Giotto.
Florence, Oct. 1. — My month here has been
one stream of enjoyment, and I would much
sooner have had the opportunity of knowing one
city, and such a city as this, well, than have
gone about to many more. I shall ever look
back on my time here with the purest pleasure,
for no cares were pressing, and my occupations
were of the most improving and lasting kind, as
well as entirely to my taste. The weather has
been heavenly, and the air a delight to breathe.
My husband has met with a picture, and bought
it for the National Gallery : even to his fastidious
taste it is ' perfectly exquisite.' It is a Bellini,
and the same picture he missed seeing at Faenza,

104 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxn
so he took that place again, though much out of
his way. He is quite happy about this, which is
a dead secret for the present.
Mrs. Somerville has done me the honour to
call ; I was not at home, but she was, when I re
turned the visit, and received me with a cordiality
which was quite gratifying. She is a most gentle,
intelligent old lady, who seated herself close to
me because she is a little deaf, and regretted
much that she had not sooner known of my being
here. She talked of common subjects, and then
alluded to the comet, having had an interview
with Donati that morning. She told me that,
though not the largest, it was the brightest
comet that had been known. That comet has
played no small part in the recollections Florence
leaves in me. To see it, night after night, burning
more and more intensely in that deep Italian sky ;
to go to the balcony every ten minutes and watch
it until it stood almost upright, and then lose its
star below the horizon — was quite an epoch in
one's life.
Rome, Oct. ii. — We left Florence on the 8th,
staying one night at Siena, and reaching the
Eternal City, at the gates of which we knocked,

1858 SETTIGNANO 105
under the light of the more eternal stars, at two
o'clock this morning..
Before leaving, we drove to Settignano, the
old Michael Angelo villa situated on one of the
heights above Florence : it is a small, simple, and
rude house, but has a glorious view from the
loggia above of town, river, cupola, and convent
beneath. Upon the staircase wall there is an old
drawing in chalk of a satyr by M. Angelo. I
don't care for his Etruscan extravagance of
muscle and action, and never feel the humanity
of his works, still less their divinity ; but, even to
such a heretic as I am, it was very interesting
to see the old sketch there in his paternal home.
Cavalcaselle was with us.
The rail from Florence to Siena runs through
a land of peculiar Italian beauty, the stone-pine
abounding like the Scotch fir with us, and every
height crowned with fine lines of wall and cam
panile. The road from Siena is noted for its
utter bleakness — a kind of stony Arabia, in which
it must be misery to dwell.
Rome, Oct. 13. — Rome begins to work her
mighty spell upon me, but it is ancient Rome
which engrosses my thoughts. At present I have

106 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxn
seen just nothing of old Christian Rome, and as
for Papal Rome, with its odious architecture and
miserable people, I feel it is only a very uncon
genial interloper.
Yesterday morning we drove to the Coliseum,
turning off through more remote parts of the city,
wretched and filthy as the worst parts of the old
town of Edinburgh. Soon" traces of a race of
giants began to appear — masses of masonry
stamped with grandeur, fragments of columns —
things I had always known though never realised
before. Then came the Capitol, the columns of
the Temple of Concord, the triumphal arches —
some whose feet lay deep buried in the earth,
others which stood cleared in pits below the road.
Then grand forms and colours, and the Temple
of Peace, making one breathless with excitement.
At last we saw, through other objects of ineffable
grandeur, the great circle of the Coliseum. We
drove under the Arch of Titus (this seemed pro
fanation) past the remains of a fountain, where,
the coachman said, the Romans washed their
hands from the blood of the martyrs. It might
be true, it might be false — but the few words
filled to overflowing the mingled feelings which
oppressed me, and, as we slowly approached the

1858 THE COLISEUM, ROME 107
tremendous pile, my tears were falling. I got
down and entered its vast precincts with awe —
the martyrs much in my thoughts, but also that
noble race, so great, selfish, wise, and cruel,
which did all man can do without revelation. It
was in utter solitude, an old world of itself,
dedicated to the worst passions of humanity, and
yet the triumph and exponent of almost Godlike
power. The blue sky shone through the bare
spaces of the windows, bluer than you can con
ceive, thus enframed within the glowing colours
of these sunny piles, as blue to me as it had been
for ages to them ; and as I looked around at all
the grand adaptation of means to end, and at the
overpowering majesty and beauty which were the
result, I felt proud that my nation was more truly
the descendant of that matchless race than of any
other in the world. Indeed I felt that I belonged
to both the Christian martyr and the Roman
decemvir, and perhaps I pitied and admired the
last as much as I did the first. I hope now to
see something of early Christian Rome ; otherwise,
with all that is tawdry and wretched in modern
Rome, and all that is impressive and grand in
ancient Rome, one would have no choice but to
become a Pagan.

k>8 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxii
To-day I have been to St. Peter's, the Sistine
Chapel, &c. The dome of St. Peter's all must
admire, and no doubt all that Michael Angelo did
shows the perfection of engineering skill ; but as
for the principal facade, you have only to imagine
a magnified Roslin, and you will form some idea
of the hotch-potch and dereliction of all architec
tural science, resulting in a building which has the
double demerit of being enormously large and
looking very commonly small. Indeed it does not
look like a church at all, but like a club-house, with
balconies and entresols, and every kind of mixed
ornament, which the worst upholstery and taste
could invent. It is well that I studied and
appreciated M. Angelo's fine personal character
before seeing St. Peter's, otherwise I could not
have had so much patience. Art is at its lowest
vulgarity, when the artist can only invent things
bigger and odder than those before him. Nor
was the Sistine Chapel sufficient to put us in good
humour with him. The ceiling has that grandeur
which will ever distinguish it, though coarse and
ungraceful ; but the ' Last Judgment ' is a daub.
We found, however, intense interest in the lower
frescoes by Perugino, Ghirlandajo, and especially
by Sandro Botticelli, one of which we pronounced

1858 COUNT BUONAROTTI'S WILL 109
to contain every element of art, grace, action,
grandeur, splendid colour, and fine landscape, that
constitutes the maturity of art. We have also
to-day been engrossed by a hitherto almost
unknown old master, whom my husband has long
sought — Melozzo da Forli — and almost all our
enthusiasms bow before him : for grandeur and
beauty he seems the greatest master in the
world. I have never mentioned our lamented Rosina
[the Countess Buonarotti], but you may guess
how I have thought of her. I have seen the
vault in S. Maria Novella, where she and her
husband and Michael Angelo all lie. Peace be
to them ! But the old Count's will is disputed by
a nephew, and there seems no doubt that the
verdict will be in the latter's favour. It appears
that Buonarotti never made his will till his last
few hours : his room was small, his breathing
difficult, and the witnesses, instead of being in the
room, were only at the door. This upsets the
will (he had left the casa and all the contents
to the Tuscan Government), and is considered,
besides, a very grave delinquency.
Genoa, Oct. 19. — We arrived here last night.
 I cannot say that Rome — except

no MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxn
ancient Rome — left much impression on my mind,
perhaps owing to the shortness of my stay. Also,
I had preconceived ideas which had to be got rid
of, and there was only time for that without
getting fresh ones. Nothing but wretchedness
and the worst possible taste is connected in my
mind with modern Rome. The roads are a
disgrace to any government : from the gates of
the city they are more like what you might expect
in a remote Highland district, and a bridge within
a mile of Rome is worse than anything I ever
saw in the Highlands. Altogether, Rome re
minded me strangely of the worst view of
Scotland : there were the same squalid dirt, and
the same odious freewill in architecture. But,
doubtless, had I had time enough to enter more
deeply into its earlier remains, it would have
grown on me as it does on everybody.
The whole road to Civita Vecchia is dreary
and bad, and was a long seven hours' posting.
Civita Vecchia is garrisoned with French, but
that does not seem to have mended its manners.

1859 DUCHESS OF MALAKOFF in

CHAPTER XXIII
1859
The claims of society occupied ' far too much
time' in the early part of 1859; Lady Eastlake
constantly mentions ' no end of dinner parties and
at-homes,' and complains that ' the days are too
short, with their heads and tails cut off by late
breakfasts and later dinners.' In the letters
written to her mother during these months there
are many remarks on the people she meets ; for
instance, writing on February 14, she says : —
Last night I went to Lady Salisbury's, where
I met the Duchess of Malakoff — another French
or Spanish 'beauty.' She is absolutely not at all
better looking than her husband — has a great bull
head, very plebeian features, and not the least the
air of a lady. He looks like a corporal, she looks
like his cook ; people were remarking how entirely
they matched.
In a long account of the Private View at
the Royal Academy, she refers to the Duchess
of Cambridge : —

112 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxm
April 30. — My husband soon had to escort
about the Duchess of Cambridge and Princess
Mary. The former spoke rather too openly
about politics ; but it shows what the Court think
of Louis Napoleon. She said ' We have been
bamboozled.' Lady Eastlake's sister, who lived in Russia,
had been ill for some months, and in May this
illness was pronounced to be incurable. Reluc
tant as Lady Eastlake was to quit London, the
anxiety to be with her sister seemed at last to
outweigh the thought of leaving. She started on
June 1, stayed two months in Russia, and was
back in London on July 31, on which day she
writes : —
My old life has already come back in full force,
and I am hard at work with notes, &c, for the
coming Academy Soiree, which has awaited my
return for final arrangements.
Before leaving for their trip abroad, the East-
lakes attended the Duchess d'Aumale's 'At
Home ' : —
Aug. 2. — We drove over to Twickenham
yesterday afternoon, and were received most
courteously by the Duke in the garden, and after
wards by the Duchess. The Comte de Paris
arrived just with us, in a fly ; he has grown very

i«59 HANOVER 113
good-looking. A lottery was going on in the
garden, for which the tickets cost nothing, and
from which everybody drew something. The
young Due de Chartres, a charming-looking boy,
called out the numbers in French and English till
he was hoarse.
The first halting-place on their journey was
Deutz, whence Lady Eastlake writes on August
19:— At Liege I was addressed by a giant, who
proved to be Mr. Higgins (' Jacob Omnium ')
with his wife. They joined us afterwards in a
carriage, and his intelligent talk beguiled the rest
of the journey.
From Berlin she writes on August 23 : —
Maclise joined us here, and is very amusing
and interesting with his true simplicity.
While at Hanover, we made our way to the
Kestner house, where the beautiful collections of
Sir Charles' old friend, the Hanoverian Minister
to Rome, are preserved by his aged brother and
his nephew. The old man is wonderful ; eighty-
five years of age, out on horseback every morning
at six o'clock, standing almost all day, writing and
reading the finest handwriting, and not hard of
hearing. The want of teeth is his only infirmity.
vol. 11. 1

ii4 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxin
The house is a very temple of art, which Kestner
had collected during thirty years at Rome, every
thing showing taste as learned and refined as my
husband's. On reaching Vienna, she receives the news of
her sister's death in Russia, to which she alludes
in these touching words : —
Vienna, Sept. 3. — I have just risen from
reading the dreaded, yet longed-for letters, which
awaited me here. I am thankful to know all that
concerned the last moments of our lamented, but
now happy sister. Whatever novel scenes pass
before my eyes, my thoughts are ever with her ;
and however convinced of the noble, self-denying,
and righteous tenor of her much-tried life, it
already rises before me with a stronger claim to
our entire reverence. She did fight the good
fight — she, the young, inexperienced, timid, and
beautiful creature, was transplanted into a bar
barous land, where neither form nor practice of
religion prevailed, with no friend or relative to
help or strengthen her. But she walked straight,
talking little of her faith, always humble, uncon
scious of the noble example she was giving. Her
life should ever be a strong incentive to good to
all who looked upon her as I have, with mingled

1859 STYRIA 115
love, admiration, and pity. I feel that her children
inherit the blessing of a saintlike mother, and
time will only strengthen that idea of her inef
fable goodness and sweetness, which now fills
their young hearts. For us, too, that idea will be
holy and beneficial. She has gone before us all,
and in the prime of her surpassing usefulness.
We may be ordained to outlive her for many,
many years ; but I think that idea will never
weaken, but rather strengthen in power over us,
as we draw nearer that deep flood which she has
passed. Something sacred and hitherto unknown
to us is added now — the knowledge that one of us
has now been laid in the grave, and has triumphed
over it. I think of her rest with such consolation
to my afflicted heart, that it seems hard to come
back to the weary troubles of this world. . . .
The letters, portions of which are quoted
below, describe in full detail the journey from
Vienna to Venice and Milan, thence by Mar
seilles to Madrid : —
Venice, Sept. 10. — The rail to Gratz was
through all the beauty of Styria, a country blessed
with all that nature can give, though, from its
poverty and wretchedness, evidently under the
vilest government of man. The sense of this

n6 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxm
was heightened by the troops of poor soldiers re
turning from the war ; the railway baggage vans
filled with them, as if they had been so much
cattle ; the streets, and stations, and waysides
swarming with them ; hundreds seated on the
ground, with looks of great suffering — arms,
heads, and legs tied up — many on crutches, young
pale faces which made one's heart bleed.
At Cilli the scenery became magnificent, being
backed by grand snow alps, all melting and blue
in the purest ether. We soon came into that
peculiar scenery which distinguishes that land of
caves and mines — the ground covered with lumps
of white marble strewn about in the wildest
shapes, scarcely a foot of earth between ; never
theless, the silver fir fastens its roots between the
fissures of the marble, and grows in dense forests.
Through this Arabia Petrsea the railway passed,
sometimes between deep marble cuttings, some
times overlooking boundless tracts of this sterile
ground, for above a hundred miles. It was most
strange and weird : not a habitation visible, ex
cept the small guard-houses of the rail, which
occur about every mile, each with a well cut
through this adamant soil.
Milan, Sept. 16. — Our journey from Venice

1859 FRENCH SOLDIERY 117
was very fatiguing, as we started at 4 a.m. on the
1 2 th. As we neared the great fortress of Verona,
we saw the preparations that had been made to
give the enemy no cover, in the hacking down
of thousands of old mulberry trees, which still
lie prostrate. This scene continued all the way
to Peschiera, where houses also lay prostrate,
and stockades of boughs stood at various weak
points of the defence. The present frontier is at
Peschiera : here we had to quit rail, and take pos
session of any carriage we could get at an enor
mous price for a drive of nine miles to Desenzano,
where we took train, and were landed in Milan at
10 p.m. The whole way, groups of red trousers
were seen, and Milan swarms with them. There
must be many thousands of French here, en
camped close to the principal gate. Driving that
way, one sees something of the happy and care
less, but smart and orderly, look of the French
soldier. We have not had much opportunity of hearing
particulars, but everyone is agreed that the
greatest possible humanity was shown by both
parties, except in the conduct of the war, in which
the French were only a little less abominably
generalled than the Austrians : to this were owing

ii8 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxm
the immense loss of life on the French side, and
the absence of all important prisoners. General
d' Urban, an Austrian, and his brigade were quite
isolated after the battle of Solferino, far away
beyond Milan ; yet he was allowed to get away
and join his own party, when he and all with him
would, under common skill, have been made
prisoners of war. Milan is resplendent with the
two tricolors, the red white and green being the
Piedmontese, and that floats alone from the top
most pinnacle of the lovely Cathedral. Pictures
and prints of Victor Emanuel are in every
window — a regular ' Bombastes Furioso ' he
looks. To-day we have been to Meiegnano, the scene
of a very bloody battle after Magenta. We had
time to observe the riddled walls, and to visit the
cemetery, where 370 Zouaves rest in one pit,
1,000 bodies of miscellaneous dead in another,
and so on. The consternation at the number of
wounded sent into Milan was great. The Aus
trians went out of one gate as the French entered
by another, so that the Milanese had not been
allowed half an hour to prepare their hospitals.
More than ten thousand beds were wanted
that night. Every monastery, seminary, some

1859 MAGENTA 119
churches, and many private houses were full : in
the last they were worst off, owing to the impos
sibility of medical men getting there.
Count Taverni has just called, and told us of
a wounded German officer carried into his house,
whose first request was not to have a German
doctor brought near him, saying they were as
ignorant as they were cruel.
Genoa, Sept. 20. — The rail from Milan to
Turin passes through Magenta, where long pits,
with crosses upon them, on one side of the track,
and a house riddled with shot on the other, were
all we saw of the late bloody field. Nature
showed no sign of change, the vines and mul
berries were undisturbed. Our train carried a
disbanded Sardinian reserve force, who were
most noisy, and as noisily welcomed at every
station. At Turin we met Baron Marochetti, who
boasts himself to be a good Catholic, but still
wishes the Pope relieved of his temporal power.
I am sure every good Catholic must wish the
same, were it only to disunite the two ideas of
Catholicism and bad government, which now are
always identical.
To-day, as we were driving to see the pictures

120 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxm
in the principal palaces, we met Thackeray and
his two daughters : so, after we had finished our
business, we fetched them for a drive above the
seashore round part of the Gulf: it was as beau
tiful as the finest-coloured sea and sky could
make it.
Marseilles, Sept. 23. — This place is anything
but attractive ; the aspect from the sea is arid
and stony, and the reality on land far worse. It
has no beauty of the South, and has all the heat ;
rain has not fallen here since May. The rocks
look volcanic, and indeed contain both lead and
copper. The town is a wretched, barren, squalid
pile of rough and uncouth buildings, on very hilly
ground, scorched with perpetual sun, and filled
with black dust.
Madrid, Oct. 1. — This has been the novel
part of our travels, and though accompanied by
very much of the lowest prose, it has given us
impressions of Nature's works which will be
recalled with pleasure. The weather was as fine
as could be wished for a sea voyage, but beyond
this there was no comfort, the dirt and disorder of
the vessel (a very fine one) being inconceivable.
... A party of nuns were on board — fourteen
Sceurs de Charite of St. Vincent de Paul, and

1859 A PARTY OF NUNS 121
three of the Sacre Cceur de Marie, including a very
handsome Superior. They were so quiet and
well-bred, that it was quite a pleasure to watch
them as they stood clustered together looking out
on to the sea, their white caps against the blue
sky. I thought of a passage in ' Marmion,' when
the Abbess and her nuns go to Holy Isle. But
they were soon ill, with the smoothest sea and
ship in the world. ' Presque toutes les sceurs ont
vomi ' was the information the Superior gave me
when I went up on deck for a little air. (The
horrors of the night in the cabin are inde
scribable.) I found her sitting alone, and we fore
gathered, for she was chatty and frank, and quite
a woman of the world, and, judging from her
features, of good family. She told me, to my
surprise, that the nun's dress is forbidden in
Spain, and that nuns have always to put a mantilla
over their caps, or the populace would insult
them. On reaching Barcelona we went, after break
fast, to Museum and churches. The former had
only the most wretched pictures, the latter had,
at all events, novelty to attract us. The light
admitted into Spanish churches is so very sparing,
that at first it looks like absolute darkness. As to

122 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxm
art, no picture could be seen, if there, and the eye
fell only on barbarous-looking metal structures in
such gloom, that one could not tell whether they
were silvered or gilt : these were above the altars
which line the churches. Also above the altars, in
lieu of pictures, were coloured life-size figures, in
full dress : these were striking and mysterious in
the darkness, but would not stand daylight. Our
guide took us to the public gardens, over the
gates of which hung the light and graceful leaves
and fruit of the pepper tree. Every shrub was
beautiful — either things for which I had no name,
or old English friends grown out of all know
ledge. Thus, dahlias were twenty feet high, the
hollyhock a tree, the houseleek a foot high ;
while oleanders, camellias, tea-roses, &c, would
have gained prizes at our shows. After that the
market was the next attraction : such vegetables,
fruits and grain — such nuts and walnuts ! Barce
lona is called the ' Manchester of Spain,' having
spinning wheels, and tall chimneys, and a money-
making population quite distinct from the rest of
the Peninsula.
We left Barcelona in the evening, and by
7 a.m. began to see Spanish coast again — very
rugged and grand, of the boldest, most precipitous

1859 ALICANTE PALM GROVE 123
forms of sunburnt rock. We sat watching each
headland we turned, the villages few, and so
entirely of the colour of the rock (the houses
without windows or chimneys), that they were
difficult to discern : no life anywhere, no boats,
no smoke, no vegetation — all tawny dust or rock.
At two o'clock we sighted Alicante, a grand rock
with ruined fortress, and at last turned into the
bay. We went to the best fonda, and before
dinner started for the Palm Grove, in a springless
cart, over a road of alternate deep dust and high
stones, so that the jolting can be imagined — indeed,
any springs would have been broken. We turned
towards the seashore — nothing but dust down to
the very waves — the road any part the sagacious
mules liked to pick. Soon we saw a patch of
green forest a mile or so ahead, which was the
Grove we were bound for. In time we reached
this, entered a gate, and there was an African-
looking vista of lofty palm-trees, closing like a
groined cathedral roof over our heads. There
was no limit to our enthusiasm ; I exhausted every
epithet. Every alternate tree was behung with
stones' weight of the most glorious dates, getting
yellow in the sun. One expected to see only
negroes about them, and the Dead Sea in the

124 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XXIII
distance, so Eastern was the picture. On each
side they grew in lofty rows — here and there one
tied up in a long point, so as to bleach the leaves
for the use of Catholic ceremonies.
Next morning we drove to the rail. What an
anomaly that is amidst the dirt, laziness, and total
absence of all that led to railways with us ! The
first part of our journey was interesting — the
country one calcined circle of arid red rock in
the boldest shapes — the plain scattered over with
Eastern vegetation, prickly pear, palms, aloes,
&c. ; also black grapes, which grow low, so that
the white soil reflects its heat on the fruit. But
soon all this ceased, and mere barren dusty plains
succeeded, with occasionally a batch of Don
Quixote's windmills tossing their arms, though
there was no sign of what they were grinding on
the parched earth.
Madrid, Oct. 8. — We are doing well here,
and are much interested in the Gallery, which is
indeed the only attraction, though the dreadful
state of the streets makes it quite an expedition
backwards and forwards. Rubens is in his glory
here, Titian not seen to advantage.
Tucker has been to a bull-fight (there is one
every Monday), where he saw four bulls killed

1859 GRISI AT MADRID 125
and ten horses, under circumstances of the most
ferocious barbarity. About 11,000 people there
— the highest ladies in the land ! They are a
ferocious and frivolous people, and show their
decline, as the Ancient Romans did directly they
began to be such cowards as to delight in seeing
the danger and sufferings of others without sharing
them. All the English here speak of Spain with
horror and contempt for her vanity, frivolity, and
cruelty. . . .
Grisi is now here, awfully received — hissed
from beginning to end, two nights in succession.
Haughty Grisi had no idea of putting up with such
treatment, but was informed that the fortress would
be her lodging unless she went through her part.
We understand that she is to be compelled to
come before this brutal people according to the
letter of her engagement. The row at the
Opera last night was awful, but I met Grisi at the
Gallery this morning, looking magnificent, and
consoling herself with the Arts.
Our party is now generally Mr. Lumley, a
Secretary to the Embassy, and Mr. Christopher
Sykes — the latter a delicate young man, about six
and a half feet high, who is at our hotel, and who
is recovering from a severe illness on entering

126 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxm
Spain, which he will never attempt again. He
is Sir Tatton Sykes's second son. . . .
Velasquez is the Spanish master, who swal
lows up all the rest ; his power and intensity of
character render him unique. My husband de
lights all who inquire by owning his admiration
of the Gallery, which it is the fashion with igno
ramuses to undervalue ; for one celebrated picture
of Velasquez only, he says he would have under
taken this journey. With this country we are
not in love, and our daily wonder is, what can
induce people, who don't dote on pictures, to
come to Spain. Other cities may account for the
charm which some travellers attribute to the
country, but certainly not Madrid. Let no one
have any romance about Spain ; it is a stern,
barren, hungry country, torn with storms — with a
half-starved population, man and beast.
Madrid, Oct. 14. — On Wednesday we dined
with the Buchanans, who were extremely kind.
There were several gentlemen there, among them
Lord Portarlington, just arrived, a rattling Irish
man. Yesterday I went by rail, with Mr. Sykes and
Miss Gayangos (whom I call 'the little Infanta'),
to Toledo, which looked very grand as we

1859 TOLEDO 127
approached. The old deserted city stands well
on a mass of rock over the river Tagus, the
buildings and ruins, in straight lines, stretching
down to the water-side. Moorish, Christian, and
even Roman architecture are mixed together, the
first always with a certain massive character,
which suits the situation of the city. An omnibus
and six mules took us over the bridge, and then
in zigzags up to the town, landing us in a piazza
or plaza, beyond which the streets were too
narrow for any wheeled vehicle to enter. Miss
Gayangos did not let us go to the fonda, but had
written to humble tradesmen friends the day
before to expect us. We followed her, therefore,
through an open oriental-looking shop, and then
upstairs into a room, which was Dutch in its
scrupulous cleanliness. The wife, a pretty crea
ture, made us welcome with a natural ease and
gentility of manner ; and soon she and her maid
had filled the tumblers with water and the glasses
with wine, which is the regular custom, and we
were seated before a most savoury dish. No
garlic beyond what was pleasant. Mr. Sykes did
not carve to her liking, so the good woman helped
us herself. Mr. Sykes was delighted to hear that
she sometimes took in travellers, and he and Lord

128 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XXIII
Portarlington will soon be comfortably located
with her. Why the Spanish inns should, some
of them, be so atrociously filthy, and yet this
humble private house so exquisitely clean, is
beyond any accounting for.
We started presently for the Cathedral, taking
a guide. It is a magnificent building, inside and
out, ornate to an extreme, but not to a fault.
The high altar is surrounded with a screen of
open stonework, of such finish and minute
delicacy as exceeds anything in Henry VI I. 's
Chapel ; all partially painted and gilt, time having
subdued both to the most fascinating harmony of
colour ; the choir separate, again richer in stone-
and wood-carving of stalls than anything I have
seen ; all crowded with figures, till the building
teems with an immovable population. Then,
behind the high altar — itself a gilt structure, with
the coloured wooden figures, large as life, which
are peculiar to Spain, and which have a start
ling reality — are a cluster of wondrous chapels,
crowded with gorgeous monuments, and decorated
with an inconceivable richness. Sacristy, chap
ter-house, &c, were all of the same character,
intermixed also with the Moorish element, the
walls in some portions being encrusted with

1859 SAN JUAN DE LOS REYES 129
Alhambra-like lacework, which in no way inter
fered with or disturbed the florid Gothic of the
building. This Cathedral is indeed a treasury of
decoration, vain to describe.
Thence we proceeded to a convent, now de
voted to a military school. Here the forms were
all of the most elegant Renaissance (Italian), and
again the Moorish workmen were shown in the
veils of delicate diapered patterns which they had
thrown over many a flat wall. Thence, through
tumbledown little alleys, past many an old gate
way of Moorish and Christian character mixed,
to another church, San Juan de los Reyes ; this,
like most things done by kings, is a monument
more to their vanity than to pure taste. It is
over-ornate — a sort of Roslin chapel of nauseous
overladen work, with the armorial bearings of
Ferdinand and Isabella, eagles, &c, on each side
of the altar ; in short, the worst art. I remarked
in the architecture there, as in the painters of
Spain, that Christian art in both forms came to
them late. There are no early painters — no
earnest, stiff, and intensely devotional painters as
in Italy and the Low Countries. Also in their
architecture, judging from Toledo, no stern,
round, or extremely pointed arches. In both
VOL. II. K

130 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxm
cases they seem to have begun when Art in other
countries was already ripe, and to have started at
once with over-freedom of touch and richness of
ornament. We then visited two deserted syna
gogues, left when the Jews were banished by
Ferdinand and Isabella from Spain, and almost
more interesting than any other object. Llere
the Moorish element reigned almost alone, com
bined only with the forms of a basilican building ;
for one of the synagogues was strictly that, though
with the horse-shoe arch dividing the aisles from
nave. Nothing can describe the delicate beauty
of the patterned walls — such designs as only
photography can render. . . .
Mr. Lumley has just been dining with us — a
very charming young man, enthusiastically fond
of Art. Mr. Sykes, too, whom I shall be sorry
to leave, and anxious about in this hard country.
Quite giants of English are about us, the Spaniards
all so little — I mean of the higher classes ; the
lower classes are very picturesque, especially the
men with their cloaks, plaids, &c, which are
always of good materials and colours. The
women's mantillas are quite disappointing —
horrid, greasy old things ; anything is worn,
pinned to the back of the head. I have not

1859 A SPANISH DESERT 131
seen a pretty mantilla, though many a pretty
face. Bordeaux, Oct. 21. — We left Madrid on the
1 6th, our vehicle being drawn by ten mules,
sometimes two and two, sometimes : • • : — such
a ragged troop, but well driven, though to the
most unearthly sounds that drivers ever contrived.
Often the whole team were galloping full stretch,
like greyhounds, a postilion always seated on one
of the front mules. The road was not so execrable
as immediately round Madrid, and, by avoiding
great holes and deep ruts, we were not much
jolted. But it would be impossible to describe
the desert through which we passed ; tracts of
low rocks, all cracked and seamed, and of the
most rugged forms, but without even a weed
growing. Nor was there a human being visible,
nor a human dwelling, except where we changed
one set of ten mules for another. The Spaniard
hates a tree, and Spain (or at least that part of
it) shows how the shade and gradual manure of
trees are indispensable to other vegetation, es
pecially under such heat as a Spanish summer
gives. As we advanced' nearer Burgos, the
country assumed a little life — a stunted tree here
and there, and short, coarse weeds. It was late
K 2

132 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxm
before we saw the spires of Burgos. We crossed
a bridge, rattled under an archway, and stopped
at the ' Parador.' Our conducteur had allayed
some of my misgivings by assuring me we should
find good and clean accommodation there, but I
was little prepared for the charming rooms into
which we were shown, and to which, after an
excellent meal, we retired as surprised as we were
grateful. All this is evidently new, and just as
the Duke de Saragoza said it would be, if we
waited till this year. The next morning, after
rambling through the streets, we drove to a
deserted Carthusian convent, the chapel of which
contains tombs to the father, mother, and brother
of Isabella of Castille : these surpass, in richness
of decoration, all that can be conceived. But
here, as at Toledo, the hand of the brutal French
spoiler was everywhere evident ; and the marble
foliage, which embosomed the effigies, as well as
the effigies themselves, was smashed in the most
barbarous manner. The roads to the convent
were truly Spanish, such holes as threatened to
break the carriage. Then we examined the
Cathedral, which is far inferior to that at Toledo,
the ornament being pushed beyond all legitimate
art, and very ill executed.

1859 THE BASQUE PROVINCES 133
We left, that evening, in the diligence,
and by seven next morning reached Vittoria.
The scenery, though always wild and rugged,
had some character beyond that of utter death.
We soon entered the Basque Provinces, which
are a garden compared with what had gone before ;
the people, also, are very handsome — beautiful
eyes, oval faces, and straight noses. Tortosa
was the most important place we passed through
by daylight ; then evening fell, and we "could do
no justice to the beauty of St. Sebastian-on-the-
Sea. There we stopped at eight o'clock, and
heard, to our dismay, that we must not expect to
reach Bayonne before two in the morning. At
length we reached I run, the last Spanish town ;
were bothered about passports, but ten times
more so a few yards further on, where we crossed
the river Bidassoa, which constitutes the frontier.
Here the nature of the present French Govern
ment showed itself in every impertinent and
quibbling interference. We were, and are, carry
ing despatches from Madrid to Paris, which
Mr. Buchanan 1 hoped would facilitate our course ;
but it seemed to do just the reverse 
France looks a Paradise after Spain, and we are
1 Afterwards Sir Andrew Buchanan.

134 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XXIII
thankful to be back in the civilised world. The
road from Madrid to the frontier is by no means
as formidable as it has been, and in another two
or three years there will be a railroad, yet we
hardly wish to visit Madrid again.
Hanover, Oct. 31. — We have been here since
the 29th, having left Bordeaux on the 22nd. The
approach to Tours was extremely pretty, through
a garden-like country with old buildings and fertile
low hills. I entered Tours with particular interest,
knowing how my father had admired it ; and its
present air and appearance justified all he saw so
many years ago.
We have to-day been at the picture sale,
which proceeds slowly. The old Count Stolberg
and we have made acquaintance : he knows
nothing of Art, and therefore thinks his pictures
are being given away, when in reality they fetch
great prices. Those my husband wants cannot
come on before to-morrow, if then, and we have a
rival here, against whom there is little chance of
contending — a well-known son of Lord Hertford.
There are only two or three which Lord Hertford
or the National Gallery would wish for.
Hanover, Nov. 3.— We have had the satis
faction of securing the two pictures — fine Ruys-

1859 COUNT STOLBERG'S PICTURES 135
daels — which were the real object of our visit, for
the National Gallery ; and at a not exorbitant
price. The auction has been an amusing one,
and great satisfaction is felt at these pictures being
bought for England : Count Stolberg assured me,
with tears, that this was a great consolation to
him. He is a kind old man, but has blundered
greatly as to the estimate of his pictures, and
actually entered the auction room and prevented
a picture being sold, which, thanks to the igno
rance of the bidders, was going for ten times
the money it will ever fetch. Lord Hertford's
son, ' Monsieur Richard,' did not contest the
Ruysdaels : our opponent was an agent for the
King. We have converted ' Monsieur Richard '
into a friend, and I have got that wonderful favour,
a pass to see the pictures in Manchester House
at any time.

136 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxiv

CHAPTER XXIV
i860
Almost immediately after Mrs. Jameson's death,
in March i860, Lady Eastlake, who had been an
intimate friend of hers, was asked by Mr. Long
man and the Misses Murphy (Mrs. Jameson's
sisters) to undertake the completion of ' The
History of Our Lord.' Mrs. Jameson had pub
lished two works on Christian Art — 'Sacred and
Legendary Art' in 1848, and 'Legends of the
Madonna' in 1852 — and this third work, upon
which she had been engaged some years, but
which her death interrupted, was designed as the
conclusion of the series. The unfinished manu
script, with a plan — confirmed by many memo
randa — of the book up to the intended end, was
entrusted to Lady Eastlake, who accepted, with
some hesitation, a task which required a different
phase of art-knowledge from what she had pursued,
though not a difficult one to adopt ; but she felt
that her acceptance of it was, to some extent,
justified by her close intimacy with, and great
regard for, Mrs. Jameson. She knew, too, that
she might rely on Sir Charles' valuable help and
advice. ' Mrs. Jameson's order,' she writes to Mrs.

i860 MRS. JAMESON'S DEATH 137
Rigby, ' is beyond all praise, and much facilitates
the work. The sisters and Mr. Longman are rather
frightened at the difficulty of selecting illustrations,
but that's the pleasantest and easiest part in my
view, especially as Mrs. Jameson has left notes
and specimens from which she was to have made
a selection.' Frequent allusions are made in her letters,
more particularly in those written while on her
travels abroad, to the progress and absorbing
nature of this work, to which she devoted all her
energies. Writing on March 21 to the Honourable H.
Jane Gifford, Lady Eastlake thus refers to Mrs.
Jameson : —
I am sure that our thoughts are meeting on
one painful subject. You had not known the
dear lady so long as I, but still I know that you
are now deeply lamenting her. I fear you, like
most of her friends, were totally unprepared for
this sad event.
I shall miss her sorely. She was ever kind to
me — excellent in judgment and advice, a very
strong woman, though never approaching the
man — profound and conscientious in all she did,
and devoted to such good works as the world
knew nothing of. We shall not see her like
again. Sir Charles laments her deeply.
In July there was a change of ministry in

138 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxiv
the ' Quarterly Review,' Mr. Elwin (Lockhart's
successor) resigning the editorship, and Mr.
William Macpherson (late a judge in Calcutta)
being appointed. ' None,' writes Lady Eastlake,
' will ever be like that dear editor whom we all
admired and loved.'
Gibson, the sculptor, was staying in Fitzroy
Square about this time, and we find this amusing
reference to his absent-mindedness : —
July 30. — Gibson had forgotten that I was to
go to Windsor ; and, not seeing me at dinner on
Saturday, thought I had gone to bed early ; and,
not seeing me at breakfast on Sunday, that I
had stayed in bed late !
Arriving in Paris on August 25, i860, for her
annual tour with her husband, Lady Eastlake
meets Sir James Outram, just returned from
India : she had known him and his people well in
her Edinburgh days.
Paris, Aug. 26. — As we were drinking coffee
in the hotel after dinner last night, a very dark,
unshaven man, in a grey suit, came in and sat
down opposite me. I paid no attention, when, by
accident, our eyes met, and up I was, and so was
he, directly. Still I hardly dared put out my
hand, so disguised was his face with fatigue and
a two days' beard : but he knew me, and soon we
were shaking hands with no common feeling. It

i860 SIR JAMES OUTRAM 139
was Outram, just arrived from Marseilles, travelling
night and day. In spite of the disfiguring effects
of his journey, he was looking in better health than
when I saw him before the expedition to Persia.
How much he has gone through since then ! He
spoke of his son Frank, and I told him how
pleased we had all been with him. I told him he
was sure to be dreadfully lionised in England, and
he said, if I thought so, he would never cross the
Channel. His is the mind to lead men and
to fascinate women. I can't give you any idea
of the simplicity, manly truth, and grandeur that
his whole person, manner, and words express : no
show, but rather the reverse, for he is plain, and
has no facility of words ; but still the great soul
shines through, and I felt that he was the man to
fulfil every phase from the most daring to the most
tender — to face a tiger or to defend an infant.
Brussels, Cologne, Dresden, Munich, Milan,
and many other places in Italy were visited on
this tour, and from each Lady Eastlake wrote long
letters, some extracts from which are here
given : —
Cologne, Aug. 30. — We left Brussels yesterday,
and fell in with agreeable people, a Scotch gentle
man and his wife, who were very good company,
and amused me by rather apologising for the

140 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XXIV
singularity of their opinions about the Germans.
You may guess how we fraternised on this point.
On reaching this place we found Lord and
Lady Monteagle had been in the same train, and
were coming to the same hotel. After dinner
we went up to their room, and found our other
friends there, who were introduced to us as ' the
Chief Clanronald and Lady Clanronald.' Lord
and Lady Monteagle were lively and untired — he
especially — having travelled through the night
from England, and having walked about here as
soon as they arrived. There's nothing like the
activity of an old English statesman. Lord
Monteagle must be considerably past seventy.
To complete their exertions, they started at seven
this morning for Berlin.
Munich, Sept. 1 3. — We arrived here two days
ago, breaking our journey at Nuremberg, which
is known as being one of the only towns which
have escaped the fury of image-breakers and
reformers. The town is exceedingly picturesque,
every house with oriel windows, and bas-reliefs,
and little towers ; the roofs almost perpendicular :
bridges over streams so numerous as to recall
Venice, and the streets steep and hilly. We
drove up to the old Castle, which has been

i860 MUNICH ' GALLERY 141
arranged for a royal palace, and I quite grudge so
picturesque a nest to people so utterly devoid of
all sense of it as the Bavarian line of lubbers.
The next morning we resumed our journey.
The cold was great, and I can hardly believe that
we shall find it warmer in Italy, though an
English lady, just come from Milan, assured me
she had found it ' quite 'ot.'
I have been working very hard in the Gallery
here (Munich) : I am so constantly taking notes
now for my particular object,1 that I see no
chance of getting any sketches, unless I could have
time to draw for my own purposes. This gallery,
with its early German works, is rich in legendary
subjects ; but the dust and dirt are such, that,
after a visit to it, my boots and dress look as if I
had been walking ankle-deep in a dusty road.
We see papers when we can, and rejoice over
Garibaldi. Venice, Sept. 19. — We arrived here last
night, having left Munich on the 14th at 4 p.m.
We entered the Austrian territory at about nine
o'clock, and had to endure one of those squeezes
of heat and dirt, against which the authorities
take no precautions. Several hundred people, of
1 Mrs. Jameson's History of our Lord.

142 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxiv
all classes, are emptied from the rail into a place
no better than a shed, in which examination of
luggage and passports, eating, drinking, smoking,
&c, take place amid the most unfavourable and
uncomfortable circumstances.
We reached Innspruck at midnight, and found
a miserable hotel preying upon the influx of
travellers which the new railway brings. Next
morning, our carriage and post-horses took us up
the Brenner Pass, mounting always by a foaming,
roaring torrent, which shrank into an infant
rivulet as we reached the top. We slept at
Briven — a lovely spot with everything beautiful
growing about it, even oranges, for the soil is
favourable. Nothing could be sweeter than the
commencement of our tour. The very walls on
each side of the road were constant subjects
of interest ; beautiful rock-flowers grew in the
crevices, and quantities of little cactuses : the
lichens were of the most brilliant colours. We
mounted to a great elevation before entering the
Pusterthal, which was a scene of beauty and
fertility. Our route lay by the post-stations of
Unterlindl, Brunecken, Niederndorf — all truly
Tyrolese, the people prompt, civil, business-like.
Towards evening we entered the Ampezzo Pass,

i860 AMPEZZO 143
one of the most terrific mountain gorges you can
imagine. Great clouds gathered, and thunder
growled : the road was utterly solitary, and the
contiguity of such gigantic snow-capped moun
tains, between whose feet we were creeping, was
almost overwhelming.
We stayed the night at a station, almost at the
top of the pass, called Landro or Hollenstein — a
lonely little place, about 4,000 feet above the sea
— and were off next morning by six o'clock. It
was a lovely morning — the sun just gilding the
tops of the rocks with a red light. There was
no end of sublime features, and we thoroughly
enjoyed the scenery, which kept our eyes and
necks on the stretch for hours ; for Ampezzo is
Titian's country, and the grand dolomite masses
perpetually recalled his landscape background.
About 8.30 we reached Cortina di Ampezzo,
which all students in landscape painting should
visit. As we proceeded further, the scenery
became more and more Italian ; lizards were
basking on the hot walls, and our warm clothes
became burdensome. At a place called Venas,
true Italian character began — lying and open
cheating : a race not brutal, but clever and
ingenious ; ready for any education, and getting

144 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxiv
only the worst at present. Let us hope better
times are coming. At Piave di Cadore, Titian's
birthplace, we saw a few relics of him. Thence
on, through beauty and misery, to Longarone,
where we slept.
Italy makes one's heart ache. Here they talk
openly enough — that is gondoliers and such —
longing for the great man, and anticipating that
this misery, starvation, and oppression must soon
have an end.
Milan, Sept. 24. — We arrived here on the
22 nd, stopping at Padua and Verona on the way.
We have had a terrific night of rain, high wind,
and thunderstorms, and the weather is not much
better to-day. This takes the shine out of an
Italian landscape, which depends entirely on its
great stage-light — the sun.
Cremona, Sept. 28. — We left Milan yesterday
morning with the comfortable feeling of needing
no passports : the neighbouring country is flat
and fat as Brabant — irrigated fields and meadows
teeming with produce, and outlined with mulberry
trees. At about ten miles' distance we passed
through Melegnano, which still shows terrible signs
of last year's ¦ battle. Every house was covered
with irregular holes, cannon-shot and musketry,

i860 CREMONA 145
forming a strange contrast to the peaceful occupa
tions going on, the dressing of Indian corn, &c.
From Melegnano we entered the country of the
Parmesan cheese, where the meadows are irrigated
and manured so as to produce nine crops of the
tenderest grass annually, on which the happy
80,000 cows are pastured. It was like the fairest
lawn on either side.
We reached Cremona at two o'clock, crossing
the Adda at Pizzighettone, which will be a very
strong place, as the Piedmontese are fortifying it.
All the rivers are swollen, and we hear that
the giant Po is very high, but hope he may have
sunk enough by to-morrow to let us pass to
Piacenza. We have been driving about from church to
church, seeing the Cremonese painters. The
Cathedral is a magnificent pile, with the loftiest
and one of the most beautiful campaniles in Italy,
only over-painted by modern hands inside, and so
dirty that our noses were always disputing with
our eyes. Our companion (Signor Orlandi) is an
intelligent old man, with those simple manners
which make Italians so sympathetic to the
English. I hear and talk Italian all day, so that
I am compelled to learn. The latest news is
VOL. 11. l

146 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxiv
the flight of the Pope — the wisest thing for his
enemies. Personal safety seems to have been the
sole law with all these potentates : if one of them
had stayed at the risk or loss of his life, how the
party of princes would have risen in the scale!
The embarrassment between Cavour and Gari
baldi was in everybody's mouth in Milan, where
some pronounced it a feint on Cavour's part to
disarm French suspicion. Now there seems no
doubt of the Piedmontese occupying Rome.
Ferrara, Oct. 3. — From Piacenza, which was
swarming with soldiers, we reached Modena,
passing through a dead level plain in fine culti
vation, though ravaged by rivers, which are not
kept in their beds, and which cover miles wide
with stones and ddbris — a waste of land which one
longs to see reclaimed ; this can only be done by
combination, which the late benighted govern
ments never permitted, and would not undertake
themselves. We saw the Cathedral, which is ancient and
curious, picture gallery, &c. It is astonishing
what has been done already in all these cities,
even in the art department. New catalogues are
being made, and things have been rescued which
were perishing in garrets, or, worse, in churches :

i860 BOLOGNA

147

indeed, the minds of men were ready and bursting
to begin, and the change seems nature after an
artificial state. There is a great feeling against
the priests for the ruin of the works of art, and
truly their blindness on this point is extraordi
nary : for instance, there is a grand ' Luini ' near
Milan, for which we are treating, but the priests
won't hear of less than a million francs (40,000/.).
Meanwhile, the rain and snow are pouring down
the very centre of the picture. Thus, it is either
folly and ignorance, or, in some cases I am sure,
an ill will against the fine work.
This newly opened rail is indeed a comfort,
and must have the most important effects for
Italy. The States of the King of Italy will all be
comprised in two days' journey. Bologna is in a
state of great activity — a city of about 350,000
inhabitants — always chafing and fretting beneath
the Papal Government, a strong, vindictive people.
Now all stiletto patients have ceased for some
months in the hospitals, and the people are occu
pied with projects of industry and commerce. It
is curious to see the numbers reading the little
Italian papers in the streets and at the blacksmith's
forge, one over the shoulder of the other. I feel
especially the benefit of such papers now, as they
L2

148 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxiv
take the place of wretched exaggerated reports
from mouth to mouth, which demoralised the
people, and kept them wondering, gaping, and
idle. The men are so proud in race and so intel
ligent in expression, that one looks at them with
involuntary respect. I am grieved that I shall
have no drawings to show you, but my time is
completely occupied in taking notes and making
observations, and thinking upon my subject, for
which I find most interesting illustrations in
various ways, things which otherwise have little
interest. To-day I have been in the Cathedral,
poring over choral books containing miniatures.
Faenza, Oct. 7. — We reached Bologna on
the 4th. There we met two friends of ours
who, though Catholics, are still enthusiastic ad
herents of the new order of things, trusting for
gradual reform in all respects. Their account of
present doings in Venetia was bad. . . . There
has been a dreadful legal murder in Verona of a
young man, which you will perhaps have read of
in the English papers. Also, a lady going from
Venice to Milan had her child of four years old
taken from her by the gendarmes, because it was
not entered in the passport ! English travellers
must now show themselves individually — couriers,

i860 A CLASSIC SIGHT 149
maids, and all — to the police before they can
obtain permission to leave ; and it is with the
greatest difficulty that a vetturino can leave the
territory with his horses. These regulations have
been made much more strict since we were there.
Thus, while Piedmont releases even her prisoners,
Austria imprisons free men. Cavour's speech
and the King's proclamation were on everybody's
lips. Next morning, we were off for Ravenna. It
was market day, and the road was one procession
of noble oxen — four and six in a team — dragging
carts containing long barrels of new-made wine ;
grand-looking fellows sitting astride upon the carts,
which were painted with figures of saints. The
oxen are magnificent creatures — white, with black
tips to horns and tail — the largest of their kind,
with long, spreading horns, and as gentle appa
rently as lambs. It was quite a classic sight, and
looked like some feast of Bacchus. We drove
about Ravenna to see pictures, passing the tomb
of Dante, a very modern-looking affair, and no
buildings except of the commonest modern kind.
In truth, Ravenna has been entirely modernised,
and externally has not one-tenth of the interest
of the commonest Italian cities we have seen.

150 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxiv
The galleries contain wretched trash, fit only
to burn. Yesterday evening we drove to the
confines of the great pine forest, which surrounds
two sides of Ravenna, at about three miles'
distance. We went along the side of a canal,
which leads to the sea, and which makes Ravenna
in some measure a port, till we reached the out
skirts of the great forest. Nothing could be
more solemn — every tree a stone-pine with rich
underwood — ancient, storm - beaten creatures,
which stretched in an undulating line, denser
and denser, as far as the eye could reach, and lost
themselves on the horizon. This forest dates
from time immemorial, is mentioned in Dante,
and extends along the coast more than twenty
miles in depth and breadth. This was worth
seeing, as the sun set ruddily through and into it.
Ravenna stands in a marsh devoted to rice
grounds — the most unwholesome of crops,
swarms with mosquitoes, and looks as if sinking
into the ground. Hardly a tower is seen, no
church presents itself to break the outline, and no
one would think that there was anything worth
seeing in the place. But this morning we went
into some churches, and what we saw inside
made me forget for a while the wretched exterior.,

i860 RAVENNA 151
Noble mosaics — fresh as yesterday, of the most
grandly treated Christian subjects of the sixth
century. Many of them I knew from engravings,
but they are far finer in reality ; and many more
which have not been engraved — wonderful things,
which have survived all the neglect, ignorance,
and malice of man. Most of the wall mosaics
have been knocked down, but the vaulted ceilings,
being beyond common reach, have remained. A-
' Baptism ' in a small baptistery is the finest repre->
sentation of that subject I have seen. Also tombs
of Byzantine empresses, marvels in their way,
with the earliest Christian symbols and types
sculptured upon them. Our round included a
magnificent basilica about three and a half miles
off, standing in a marsh, the marble floor half
flooded. All these grand places have sunky^/
into the ground, the bases of the columns in most
instances gone under water. Strange to say,
most of these buildings give no sign of their
interest or antiquity externally, and look wretched,
low, whitewashed, modern things, having indeed
been despoiled of all their character. The change
from exterior to interior was startling ; one went
from the most wretched forms of the nineteenth
century to the finest remains of the sixth and

152 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxiv
preceding centuries. We find this little inn
bursting full with twenty German officers, pri
soners from Ancona. Serve them right, and a
lesson to the Germans not to fight for tyrants, or
rather for money. An immense dinner is being
prepared here for the military, to celebrate the
fall of Ancona, and fifty plates are laid in this
most dirty salle a manger. I have just been to
see the preparations, and was amused at the
waiters, who were puzzled how to place a bust of
Vittorio Emanuele without turning his back to
anybody. Garibaldi's bust the same. The enthu
siasm is immense ; every house has ' Evviva
Vittorio Emanuele, il nostro legittimo Re ! '
written, or printed upon it ; wherever there is
room for the sentence, it appears.
Bologna, Oct. 8. — We were off early this morn
ing and reached this at ii, taking some coffee
at a place called Castel San Pietro : we sat out in
the street, as the cleanest place, to drink it. The
whole road was studded with soldiers, horse and
foot ; most of the latter, prisoners — many with the
French red trouser. There are already above
i ,000 prisoners at Faenza : they are being treated
with the utmost kindness that circumstances per
mit, so as to convert them to the good cause.

i860 CAVOUR AND GARIBALDI 153
Milan, Oct. 1 2. — To-day we have had a long
visit from an old acquaintance, Conte Lorenzo
Taverni : he is a thorough gentleman, like so many
of these Italians, and gave us much interesting
information about the state of things. He
brought us intelligence of the vote of confidence
being carried by 290 deputies against 6. A vote
of confidence was also given for Cavour and
Garibaldi together, so as to show that all miscon
ception was over. Taverni said the whole arose
from Garibaldi's believing others to be as honest
as himself, and allowing scamps to hold office.
Bertain has been acting like all snob revolu
tionists — setting up equipages and giving dinners ;
and now above 100,000 scudi of the money paid
into his hands is missing. The sooner safe men
are put in the better. Taverni speaks in the
highest terms of rising men, and says that among
Neapolitans especially are some of their most
promising statesmen.
Turin, Oct. 17. — To-day we repaired to the
Chamber of Deputies, where, from a kind of
balcony, we looked down into the house — the
heat dreadful. The chief object of attraction was
Cavour, who has the broadest head and the
broadest back I ever saw : a very grand and

154 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxiv
powerful head, with great humour and good
humour. He answered some attack, and smashed
his opponent very easily — his little short fat arms
being much brandished about.
Bezzi,2 now a deputy, was there, and we sent
in for him when we came down. He, thinking it
was Lord Llanover, approached us looking very
solemn, and almost jumped over our heads with
pleasure. He is as happy as possible — full of
Naples, which is their hardest task. The Sicilians,
he says, are simply honest rogues and brigands ;
but the degraded populace of Naples have been
educated in the worst of schools, though there are
some splendid men among them. He only begs
time for Italy : speaks of Garibaldi as all do —
magnanimity and political ignorance together — a
man to whom they want to vote a million francs,
but who, they know, will refuse them.
Paris, Oct. 21. — We have found several
friends here, among them Beaucousin : Lord
Hertford's son too, who has kindly shown us his
father's treasury here. He began by the garde-
meuble, which is a story set apart to contain the
spare furniture Lord Hertford has accumulated.
A sort of stage had been erected in the centre of
2 Formerly Sir C. Eastlake's secretary (Fine Arts Commission).

i860 LORD HERTFORD 155.
a large room to accommodate the clocks alone, all.
of which are of the greatest beauty. The furniture
is priceless : such things as would adorn, and have
adorned, royal chambers in the most luxurious
times. Then he took us into an entresol of the
tiniest dimensions, looking out on to the noisiest
part of the Boulevards.
There Lord Hertford lived for thirty-six years,
thinking it a bore to move into his present gor
geous apartments. He made us sit down, with
an easel before us, and handed us up a succession
of small pictures, of great value, which were piled
on the floor. I am sure we saw what would
fetch 50,000/. at Christie's. The young man
was most kind, and worked as hard as a dray
man, lifting heavy frames for our gratification.
Thence we went into Lord Hertford's present
apartments, which are laden with everything that
inordinate wealth can buy, besides the finest
pictures of the Dutch and Flemish Schools. His
Lordship is at ' Bagatelle,' a country house in the
Bois de Boulogne, which is also a depot of
treasures. You must not expect a single drawing this
time, as I have been too busy in other ways : in
deed, where have we stayed long enough for me to

156 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxiv
draw ? I have been several times to the shop of
the celebrated archaeologist, M. Didron, looking at
ivories and photographs ; also to the Louvre, and
to the Public Library to see miniatures.
Brussels, Oct. 30. — I spend most of my time
here in the old library of the Dukes of Burgundy,
one of the richest in the world in illuminated
manuscripts. We dine very unwillingly at table d'h6te : the
table is good enough, but the guests are vulgar
English and the most hideous Russians — women
who ought to cover their faces or cut off their
beards. I have never seen such a set of ugly
creatures, and they don't attempt to improve their
appearance by any grace of manner. One of
them puts out her tongue as far as her ear every
time she gulps up a colossal mouthful. But
the hotel (de Belle Vue) is most respectably con
ducted. Behind, is the view into the beautiful
park, with the palace around ; the trees now
thinned and coloured by autumn, but quite
charming. Brussels strikes me as far prettier
than Paris — so much cleaner and better finished,
and with gentlemen's houses, of which no sign
appears in Paris. Paris is like a great adver
tising shop, all glitter and puff; but behind the

i860 A SUNKEN TREASURE 157
scenes, all dirt and dilapidation. It is the occasional
brightness of the sky, especially at the season
of visitors, which gilds the imperfections of Paris.
London, Nov. 14. — We have had a cause of
great regret ; but when I tell you that it is only
for a thing, you will not be apprehensive of any
real calamity. Our beautiful ' Fra Angelico '
(' The Last Judgment '), an exquisite gem by the
rarest master in the world, has gone where so
many treasures lie — to the bottom of the sea ! It
was coming in a steamer, the ' Black Prince,'
from Genoa to England. The vessel collided
with another — how or why we don't know, and a
telegram has brought the tidings from Gibraltar,
adding, mercifully, that no lives were lost, but all
cargo. It was accompanied by a picture by
Borgognone for the National Gallery. I am
afraid to speak of it to my husband, who feels the
loss acutely. It was insured for 500/., exactly
what it cost, though not above a third of its value :
but money can't compensate. We try to be
thankful that no one went down with it. The
picture would have been the pride of our collection.

158 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XXV

CHAPTER XXV
1861-1863
In May 1861 Lady Eastlake accompanies her
husband on a short visit to Paris and Bruges.
From the former place she writes, giving her
opinion of the pictures at the Salon : —
Paris, May 10, 1861. — Returning the day
before yesterday alone to our hotel, I found the
street impeded by the passage of military — one
battalion after the other ; so, seeing I might wait
half an hour, I plunged between the ranks, held
up my hand, and positively stopped them — they
all fell back before such a grenadier ! My height
is almost as great a wonder here as it was in
Spain ! . . .
Yesterday was Ascension Day, and very much
interfered with all our business. Far from public
places being all open on holidays, as people in
England say, it is just the reverse. Thus the
Louvre Galleries, the Libraries, and Museums
were closed, and only the great Modern Exhibi-

1861 THE SALON 159
tion, which corresponds to the Royal Academy,
open, so this was our sole resource. Everybody
here is talking about its merits, and we are glad
at any rate to have seen it. You know my hus
band is always ready to see merit, no matter
where, but French art is now of a class in which
neither the most enlightened nor the most indul
gent eye can take pleasure. One great principle
it proved to us, namely, the effect of unlimited
space. Dozens of magnificent rooms and miles
of wall are hung with abominations which disgust
and fatigue the eye : hardly a picture there would
have been admitted into our Exhibition. The
necessity for selection has never given head to
such a torrent of horrors in England. One such
exhibition as this in Paris goes far to ruin art for
half a generation ; and truly the subjects are so
odious — mere frippery, vicious boudoir scenes, or
things of refined cruelty or undisguised indecency
— that they tell a terrible tale for the people who
can delight in them. On the score of subject
only, some of the best executed pictures would
have been excluded from the Royal Academy.
Coming so straight from our walls, I could the
better compare the two. In this awful embarras
des horreurs I could not see a picture which pre-

160 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxv
tended to any sacred and natural pathos. The
few, who speak the truth and know what is what
in art, agree with us in seeing the utter fall of
modern French art. There were above 4,000
pictures, many of them 50 feet long, and only in
two instances did I remark any subject taken from
the history of France, and those were pictures of
the murder of Marat by Charlotte Corday.
The provincial picture-galleries are criticised
in a letter from Bruges, dated May 13, 1861 : —
We came here via Douai and Lille. At all
French provincial towns there are muse'es (picture-
galleries), which are much cried up. Douai was
a specimen of an accumulation of trash, which no
English gallery would accept. At every place we
see the difference between French words and
our interpretation of them. I have long heard
the provincial French museums puffed in England,
and the gifts of private individuals and of the
Emperor, and the liberality with which these
places are opened to the public, also the civilisa
tion they are supposed to disseminate ; but it is
only by seeing the real thing that we get at the
truth. The public of such a place as Douai are
only admitted to their muse'e for two hours in the

1861 A MANSION-HOUSE DINNER 161
week (on a Sunday) ; anyone wanting to visit the
pictures at any other time must pay. Then the
gifts of the Emperor are impertinences — rubbish
which must be astonished to be exalted into a
national gallery ; and the gifts of private indivi
duals are worse still, having evidently no other
motive than vanity, and no other excuse than
ignorance. I shall mistrust all I hear of the
superior sense and liberality of France and other
foreign governments in these matters. Here, in
Bruges, fine old pictures by Memling and other
native masters are perishing, because the govern
ment is not even liberal enough to warm the
rooms they are kept in during their always incle
ment winters.
Lady Eastlake now devotes all her spare time
in London to her work upon Mrs. Jameson's
' History of Our Lord,' which she calls her maxi
mum opus, complaining occasionally of the inter
ruptions caused by callers and dinner parties.
One of the latter is thus mentioned : — ¦
May 27, 1861. — Yesterday we were at the
Mansion House, at a dinner given to the Royal
Society and Royal Academy. As there was no
lady to represent the former, all the honours were
heaped upon me ! I sat next to the Duke of
VOL. II. M

162 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxv
Cambridge, whom I found very good-natured
and agreeable : we had some interesting talk.
The Duke made an excellent speech. He drank
the loving-cup with me, as I was his left-hand
neighbour ; he is an immense man, so that, as we
stood together, face to face, 1 could not have
chosen a better supporter.
After their usual travels in the autumn (the
letters written during this trip have not been pre
served) the Eastlakes returned to Fitzroy Square
in November, and Lady Eastlake ' attacked her
work with renewed energy,' though at times in
despair at the extent and magnitude of a task,
which, indeed, required a life's devotion. That
she allowed herself some relaxation is shown by
allusions to visits she paid to the theatre, for
instance : —
Nov. 23, 1 86 1. — Last night I dined with
Mr. Christopher Sykes and his sister, and went
to see Fechter in ' Othello.' I must say at once
that his interpretation of Othello is an utter
failure : nothing more discordant with the real
character can well be imagined. His English
was worse than ever, his speaking almost unin
telligible, and his manner detestable. I could not
have believed that he could so completely miss
the real thing. But, on the other hand, the rest

1861 PRINCE ALBERT'S DEATH 163
of the actors were capital — lago horribly fine :
the scenery and dresses were beautiful, and
Shakespeare came out in all his inexhaustible
wealth and power of thought. It is a tremendous
tragedy as one sees it working up, but the last
scene would be better omitted. It was the old
version — Desdemona being killed on the stage —
and my instincts of art so rebelled that I would
not look at it, so made Mr. Sykes take my place
in front of the box. I would not see a dog killed
— how, then, a woman ? Yet all the audience
seemed of a different opinion.
It was while she was staying in Liverpool
that she received the intelligence of the Prince
Consort's death : —
Dec. 15, 1 86 1. — I am overwhelmed by this
incalculable affliction which has fallen on us all.
I had buoyed myself up with hope, and this
morning's letter from my dear husband gave me
further hope ; but at church the omission of that
honoured name — no longer needing earthly inter
cession — awoke the congregation to the truth,
and the sensation was painful in the extreme.
Alas ! that Royal Widow indeed needs all her
people's prayers. Little did I think to survive
that noble creature. m 2

164 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxv
London, Dec. 17. — I got home yesterday,
finding my husband in very low spirits : the news
had quite unhinged him. Your account of the
house of sorrow at Windsor is most touching.
Truly our suffering Queen seems to be exerting
herself in that strength which the prayers of her
subjects help to gain for her. If she be enabled
to keep up this fortitude, she will win a higher
place than ever in our affections. I hear that the
Prince of Wales seemed most affected, becoming
several times very faint during the last sad hours.
Mr. Theed has been here to-day ; he was sum
moned to Windsor to take a cast. He says the
face was peaceful, all but lines of suffering about
the mouth. The Prince lies in a large room,
where the children usually have their Christmas-
tree, on a small bed, with no curtains, now covered
with flowers which Prince Leopold, little guessing
their destination, had sent from Nice.
Lady Eastlake at once undertook to write an
article for the ' Quarterly Review ' on the Prince
Consort, a task for which she was peculiarly
fitted. This was published in January 1862, just
a month after the Prince's death, and is referred to
by her in a letter to her mother of January 24 : 
John Murray has sent me a letter from Sir

1862 BELLAGGIO 165
Charles Phipps to him, acknowledging the ' Quar
terly Review.' ' He has read with deep emotion
the article upon the Prince Consort, written by
some one who has studied deeply and well under
stood that great man's uncommon mind.' Mrs.
Stanley told me that Arthur 1 was delighted with
it, and that all at Osborne had been telling him
that it was the best thing on the Prince. I think
Mrs. Stanley suspected me, but I carried it off.
Late in August 1862 Lady Eastlake went
with her husband to Italy — Bellaggio, Milan,
Naples, and Florence being the principal places
visited. Some extracts from her letters written
during this tour are given : —
Bellaggio, Aug. 31. — Here we are in one of
the loveliest spots in Italy, on a promontory of
Lake Como, and have a panorama of glorious
forms around us, each part contending for the
palm of highest beauty as the sun falls, succes
sively, most favourably upon it. We came over
the Spliigen, and then by steamer, finding a much
more convenient and reasonable order of posting
under the new Italian regulations. ... I long to be
a botanist on these occasions ; for the mountain
flowers are strange and beautiful, and the rough
1 Afterwards Dean of Westminster.

166 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XXV
stone-walls, which support the impending rocks,
are full of little wonders, with which I feel more
sympathy than with the desert of fearful masses
of rock defying all life, animal or vegetable, to
approach them, and seeming to be of no use in
this world except to provide a difficulty for man
to overcome. All my knowledge of Italy has not shown me
so lovely and truly Italian a spot as this. It is
bordered with villas, most of them uninhabited
but well kept up, standing in the most beautiful
gardens. You can have no idea of the pomp of
aloes, oleanders, magnolias, camellias, the latter
covered with a sort of fruit : for the fruit and seed-
vessels of these flowering shrubs and trees are as
wonderful as their flowers. The magnolias are
covered with things like pine-apples, the tulip-
tree with bunches like walnuts*
The people who keep the hotel are extra
ordinary for Italians, who proverbially do not
understand hotel-keeping. But here, as in most
cases where daily cleverness and care are needed,
a woman is at the bottom of it : the landlady is a
superior person, and has succeeded in introducing
every comfort.
Milan, Sept. 4. — I find I have told you

1862 THE ROYAL ACADEMY THREATENED 167
nothing about a letter from General Grey. Lord
Elcho has been interfering about the Royal
Academy, and wanting to put it on a foreign
footing, and has got the House of Commons to
consent to a commission of inquiry. The Queeri
feels the absurdity of this as much as we do, and
desired General Grey to write to Sir Charles that
she will not appoint the members of the Com
mission; until she knows whom he approves.
She sends him the names proposed, and marks
those she objects to, requesting him to do the
same, and also to name anyone he would like-
All publicity can but redound to the credit of the
Royal Academy, which is just now higher than
ever in form of organisation, by the recent
passing of a measure which my husband has long
desired. But, should Lord Elcho succeed in
altering the Constitution of the Academy, the
principal members, with Sir Charles at their head,
would instantly leave it.
Naples, Sept. 15. — We are here in heat of
which an English midsummer can give no idea,
the sun blazing upon a melting scene, and every
object dazzling the eye. We arrived this morn
ing in hot rain, to the great loss of the effect on
entering ; but since then the curtain has been

168 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxv
drawn up, and the stage-lights are more brilliant
than can be believed. . . .
After leaving Milan we spent a short time at
Pistoja, seeing Cathedral, &c. The buildings are
beautiful, but oh ! so filthy. I think the Italians
pave their churches with white marble on purpose
to see the dirt better upon it. Luca della Robbia
is there seen in perfection : an old hospital has
bas-reliefs round it in figures as large as life, and
as fresh in colour as yesterday. Neither rain nor
sun can hurt this style of art, and it stands beyond
the reach of man to defile. . . .
We found Admiral and Mrs. Codrington on
board the steamer at Leghorn, and their company
was most fortunate for us : the best accommoda
tion in the vessel had been placed at Mrs.
Codrington's service, and she most kindly placed
it at mine. Admiral Codrington is a true British
sailor and gentleman, and she a true sailor's wife.
He told us anecdotes of the deposed Grand Duke
of Tuscany, who, having fled to the furthest
coast point in his dominions, was waited upon by
the admiral then cruising on the coast. By his
advice the Grand Duke issued a proclamation for
his subjects to rally to him at a certain point,
and then made the most paltry excuses for not

1 862 NAPLES 169
joining them. Many men, Admiral Codrington
said, are cowards, but few own the fact. The
Grand Duke, however, fairly admitted that he
had no wish or taste for anything, which could
possibly involve danger to himself.
We were up on deck early (five o'clock), but
Vesuvius was not smoking, which was quite a
disappointment ; and it was soon obscured by
heavy rain, in which we passed the magical
scenes and poetical names of this southern region.
Not that even this rain could dull the view as it
would have done elsewhere, for the forms looked
transparent through it, and the villages scattered
along the coast white with a kind of inner light.
Naples, Sept. 17. — At this season this
place is not bearable for Northern constitu
tions, as the heat surpasses all I have felt any
where, and, I suspect, gives with its accompa
niments some idea of an Indian life. The
mosquitoes are the worst part, they swarm by
day so as to prevent any occupation, and at night
they are accompanied by a smaller sort, which
get through the nets.
We have managed a drive through Portici and
Torre del Greco : .the latter place, which was
partially overthrown by an earthquake in i860,

170 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XXV
stands upon Herculaneum, and we saw the cave
through which one descends to it ; but, in this
hot weather, it is dangerous to visit the under
ground city, which is like a cellar. But for the
few peeps of Vesuvius and the sea and islands,
no London suburb could be uglier than this part.
The Italians love the highest, frightfullest stone
walls on each side of a road, broken either by
the most hideous houses, apparently roofless (for
only the chimneys appear above an ugly box), or
by a squalid and filthissima street. Nature ever
does her part in exquisite beauty and luxury, and
occasionally such flowers and fruit, shrubs and
trees, peeped above the dull walls as showed the
paradise within.
Yesterday we went to the Museum, situated
on one of the heights of this climbing city, and
managed to get round the usual sights of the
gallery. The one where I most forgot the over
powering heat was that of ancient bronzes and
other objects from Pompeii : either for beauty or
for interest, and generally for both, every object
had a fascination. I could have lingered over
the household relics of a buried race, nearly 1800
years old (Pompeii was overwhelmed a.d. 79),
for months. There we see their furniture, their

1862 RELICS OF POMPEII 171
kitchen utensils, their stoves and contrivances for
hot water, all practical and always of exquisite
taste. The very top of an urn was a gem in
itself, and the vessel of perfect shape and costly
material. Their bread is there — all charred, but
keeping its form ; their eggs, some not broken ;
their walnuts, wheat, olives, &c. ; and, what was
most curious, pieces of fine linen just wrung into
tight lumps before being spread out to dry. Nets
for the hair, very like those now worn, are there
too. Objects of the highest art, much earlier
than the destruction of Pompeii, are being con
tinually found, such as bronze figures of antique
perfection. The best bronzes have been exca
vated since the Bourbon left. . . .
Florence, Sept. 30. — We have been passing
our time comfortably here. I get some drawing
of a morning, first in one place then in another
either perched up behind an altar, or shut up in
a convent, or surrounded by chattering men in
a sacristy, and generally find great civility and
kindness. My object is to get what will help my
work, and other people don't copy a picture so
much to my liking as I do myself, though I say
it, that shouldn't.
On Monday I was at the convent of S*

172 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxv
Marco in order to copy a miniature in one of the
choral books. I had a letter from the head of the
Academy to the ' Padre Priore,' a fine Dominican
monk, by no means advanced in years, who was
rather short at first, saying that there was no
where for a lady to draw, as the convent admits
no women, and that he was afraid of my not
turning over the leaves carefully enough. I
assured him that, if everyone had the same
respect for works of art as I, the choral books of
Florence would be in better condition. In short,
I talked him over till he grinned from ear to ear ;
and I got my big book, and a comfortable place
in a kind of refectory.
Milan, Oct. 17. — We have just been to the
celebrated Casa Borromeo, built in the fourteenth
century, and, till lately, for seven years the abode
of an Austrian regiment, who have left it a wreck,
having burnt above eighty pair of Venetians,
twisted all the handles off the doors, and filthied
and spoiled it in every way. Now the family
have returned, and are by degrees getting the
enormous old palace, which contains nine courts,
to rights. For this purpose they may be induced
to sell pictures ; so the present Count met us
there, and my husband made him an offer which

1862 A FAMOUS MORETTO 173
I fancy he will accept. The Count said he would
take an offer from a gentleman, but from no dealer ;
and we are always glad to avoid go-betweens, as
then the sum goes intact to the proprietor. My
husband has just done the same with an Italian
gentleman, whose pictures we went to Bellaggio
to see, and who came last night and accepted the
terms offered for a glorious portrait of a tailor by
Moretto. It is a celebrated picture, called the
' Taglia Panni.' The tailor, a bright-looking man
with a ruff, has his shears in his beautifully painted
hands, and is looking at the spectator. This will
be a popular picture.
Portions of the most interesting letters, written
from London during the next half-year, are here
quoted. They tell their own tale : —
Nov. 24, 1862. — The Queen has been show
ing her fidelity to my husband. We were rather
annoyed last week by a letter from William
Cowper (Minister of Public Works), regretting
that the Fine Arts Commission was to come to
an end, and that Sir Charles' services would not
be needed. Sir Charles pleaded his long service
of twenty-one years, and the interruption it had
been to his profession ; but Cowper assured him
that no pension, or diminished salary for the work

174 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxv
still to be completed, could be had. The Queen
had, before that, told my husband that she did
not intend to bring the Commission to a close ; so
he let Her Majesty know, through General Grey,
what William Cowper had written. As soon as
an answer could come, it did, enclosing a copy of
what the Queen had written to Cowper, directing
that the Commission should continue, that Sir
Charles should still direct it, and that some ar
rangement should be made for him to receive a
pension or allowance for his long services. So
we are chuckling over Cowper and Gladstone.
The allowance will probably be small, though
adequate to the work now to be done. I was
much touched by the Queen's promptitude and
staunch fidelity to her old servant.
Jan. 12, 1863. — My husband is back from
Osborne. He saw the Queen twice, and reports
her as outwardly cheerful. As to her sense, order,
and uprightness, he has no bounds to his admira
tion. Jan. 31. — We had a pleasant dinner-party at
the Bence Jones', breaking off early for the lecture,
and reaching the Royal Institution by 8.30, which
we found crowded in every part. We were the
chief party in point of science, as Dr. Bence Jones

1863 CARDINAL WISEMAN 175
is Secretary and Sir Henry Holland, who dined
with us, acted as President ; but we could hardly
get places. In due time Cardinal Wiseman ap
peared, preceded by sundry very demure-looking
ecclesiastics, among whom, the palest and thinnest
creature imaginable, was our late Archdeacon
Manning. No man can look more miserable than
he. The Cardinal is portly, with a feeble, sweet
voice, and most beautiful hands, which were
always in movement. He did not give, a very
able lecture ; it was confused and illogical, though
in parts very clever and eloquent. He took me
captive at first, for he began by expatiating on the
admirable proposal of the Committee for the
Prince's Memorial, of a hall to unite the purposes
of science and art ; then he read a few lines from
the Report. He told, also, some good stories,
showing his aptitude for humour, which his slight
Irish tone makes one expect. His lecture, like
his sermons, I suppose, was meant for an illogical
audience, and brevity was as little studied as close
reasoning, for instead of one hour he was just two.
Feb. 4. — My husband has been to Windsor
again : he is more and more impressed with the
duty of working for our bereaved Queen — and
she does give him plenty to do !

176 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxv
March 25. — I have just returned from Ou
tranks funeral. A public funeral is not the place
for a real mourner, and I was much oppressed
with the number of idle, chattering people about
me. I, therefore, went with kind Mrs. Trench
into the choir, where the service was read and
chanted, and where all those following the coffin
came. There I could see poor Frank, who would,
I am sure, have preferred some quiet parish
church as regards feeling. After the crowd had
a little dispersed, I went to the deep grave, and
looked down on all that remained of the beloved
and mighty dead. The body of mourners was
large, and included a great many men I knew.
April 29. — There is some intrigue going on
about the Prince's Memorial, of which I think Her
Majesty must be ignorant. You have doubtless
seen the absurd ' Times' ' statement, that it is to
be 300 feet high, while we, who have the design,
know that it is to be only 1 50 feet. But Delane,2
in answer to my husband's attempt to set him
right, writes knowingly, and says we shall find it
300 feet. Now we have received intimation, that
Mr. Cole is working at General Grey to get a
plan of his adopted. We must wait quietly, so
2 The editor of the Times.

1863 PRINCE OF WALES 177
say nothing about it. I foresee that fiery Lord
Derby won't stand any interference, and ought
not. The only point one cares about is, that the
Queen should remain firm, and about this there is
no doubt. May 4. — All went perfectly well at the Royal
Academy dinner. My husband was quite en
chanted with the Prince of Wales, and with his
natural manners and simplicity. The Prince
hesitated in the middle of his speech, so that every
body thought it was all up with him ; hut he
persisted in thinking till he recovered the thread,
and then went on well. The very manner in
which he did this was natural and graceful. He
was so moved when mentioning his father, that
it was feared he would break down. After the
speech, the Prince turned to my husband, and
told him he was quite provoked with himself.
' I knew it quite by heart in the morning ' ; but
he evidently had no vanity, for he laughed at his
own ' stupidity,' and immediately recovered his
spirits. ' Hesse ' was next the Prince, who chaffed
him from time to time, and told him he would
have to sing a song. Lord Palmerston's speech
kept them all in roars of laughter.
May 23. — Yesterday afternoon I was intro-
VOL. 11. N

178 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxv
duced to Colenso. He is a very unhappy-looking
man, and soon spoke of the ' controversy.' Though
moved to pity by his evident unhappiness, I fought
the good fight against him — no difficult thing to
do, for his arguments were of the Tom Paine and
German school ; and I can't understand his stop
ping even where he is now. He seemed to con
sider himself an apostle of liberty, but I told him
I knew a little about that liberty, and how it
worked in private families as well as in nations.
He is a young man — at most forty — tall, hand
some, and elegant, but grey.
After spending the months of August and
September in Scotland, Lady Eastlake joined her
husband for a tour in France and Germany ; and,
on her return to London, put the last touches to
the work on which she had been engaged since
Mrs. Jameson's death in i860. The book was
published by Messrs. Longmans in March 1864,
under the title : ' The History of Our Lord, as
exemplified in Works of Art, with that of His
Types, &c. Commenced by the late Mrs. Jame
son : continued and completed by Lady Eastlake ; '
and was reviewed by Lady Eastlake in the July
number of the 'Quarterly Review' ('Christian
Art').

1864 PROFESSOR JOWETT

179

CHAPTER XXVI

In a letter dated January 15, 1864, there is this
interesting reference to Professor Jowett, whom
Lady Eastlake met at dinner at a cousin's1
house : —
'He is delightful : a happy, gentle-looking,
grey-haired, young man, very agreeable indeed,
and very amiable.'
On April 17 she witnesses Garibaldi's ovation
at the Crystal Palace, and a few days afterwards
meets him at Mrs. Gladstone's house.
April 18. — Our expedition to the Crystal
Palace was a success. We got there with com
fort in spite of the crush, and had seats in the
best place ; indeed, without reserved seats, we
' could have seen nothing, as all tenable standing-
room was occupied by a dense crowd.
The place for Garibaldi was on a kind of
balcony, projecting from one of the corner piers
1 Sir Francis Palgrave.

N 2

180 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxvi
of the transept. He came punctually, and the
gradual hum, which swelled to a roar, was electri
fying. They put him forward alone to face the
welcome that thundered forth from the thousands.
He took it simply enough, and soon sat down.
Then his eldest son was brought forward — a fine,
military, young man — and I saw that he flushed
to the eyes as the roar saluted him too : the same,
somewhat modified, for the younger — quite a lad.
They sat on each side of their father, and in a
few minutes the young Duke of Sutherland took
a seat too, and had his small cheer. The photo
graphs of Garibaldi are so precisely like him, that
it seems superfluous to see him. He has a noble
head, serene and quiet, with no foreign gesture —
a fair, tanned man. He put on his glasses to read
the words of the music, and seemed quite uncon
scious of the public gaze. Then the music struck
up, and it was worthy of the occasion. One of
the singers was Santley, but the chorus must have
been all Italian, from the precision, expression,
and enthusiasm of their pronunciation. All the
pieces had allusion, direct or indirect, to Garibaldi ;
but at last came a chorus to him — his name
brought in in every stanza — which was sung like
the tramp of an army ; and when his name came

1864 GARIBALDI AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE 181
the singers seemed to lose all self-possession,
waving their music and their handkerchiefs. The
audience rose every time — half of them singing,
too, half of them Italians. The rapture was
electrifying. Of course Garibaldi rose also, and
all with him. This was encored : it was most
overpowering, and in itself very beautiful music.
Then ' God save the Queen ' was sung, with
scarcely less enthusiasm. Afterwards Garibaldi
and his son received swords on the great balcony
facing the gardens.
April 2 1 . — Last night I was at the Gladstones'
evening party in Carlton Gardens. The great
man [Garibaldi] has evidently no clothes beyond
his daily attire ; for he had dined in his heavy
grey cloth cloak, lined with red, which entirely en
velops him, and was sitting in it in the sweltering
hot rooms, being too tired to stand. He reminded
me of an invalid in a dressing-gown, with fine ladies
ministering to his wants. The sight was not
pleasant, for I felt that Mrs.  and her tribe
would have equally run after General Tom
Thumb, or a great criminal. He looked like the
working-man, and his hand, though finely formed,
showed hard work. Lord Palmerston talked
animatedly to him for some time. He went away

i82 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE Ch. xxvi
in an hour, with Mrs. Gladstone sentimentally
hanging on his arm.
Lady Eastlake's letters, portions of which are
given, now describe the last tour she made with
her husband. When they were at Bologna, the
memorable trial of the hundred and four brigands
was being held.
Geneva, Aug. 16, 1864. — We have seen a
good deal of a new beat since we left Paris. Our
journey to Dijon was truly through ' la belle
France,' for the scenery was rich and cultivated,
with plenty of hill and dale. At Dijon (the
capital of the old Dukedom of Burgundy) we
spent two days, seeing the Cathedral, and the very
interesting churches and remains of the splen
dour of Dijon. I thought of Cotman's fine
etchings all the time, for there is much that re
calls the architecture I used to copy with such
gusto. It has suffered from the violence of the
Revolution, but still almost every street has some
grand old building to show, and the Museum is
full of beautiful remains of monuments and
sculpture. Also there is a particular object just
outside the gates, which is alone worth coming to
Dijon to see. This is a kind of column, standing
in a deep well, of hexagonal form, and bearing the

1864 PRINCE ARTHUR 183
life-sized figures of six prophets — called hence
' le puits de Mo'ise ' ; and is almost the finest
work of art that can be seen north of the Alps — far
finer than anything Italian of the same epoch. It
is obvious that all the finer qualities of the Van
Eycks must have sprung from it, as both Hubert
and John were in the service of the Dukes of
Burgundy, and this object is anterior to the Van
Eyck school, having been erected in 1397. We
had heard and read of it, but had no idea (very
few have) of its perfection.
Ouchy, Aug. 20. — Here we are (Beau Ri-
vage Hotel) in the midst of all that is beautiful
without and comfortable within : nothing can ex
ceed the charm of this place. If I were not here.
I should like to be at Lausanne, which is most
picturesque. . . . Little Prince Arthur arrived
here the day before yesterday, and is at a detached
part of this hotel called ' The Chalet.' Yester
day I met Colonel Seymour on the stairs, who
said he had seen me, the day before, going up to
Lausanne : then I remembered passing two dusty
pedestrians with a young boy. He told me that
the little fellow is an indefatigable pedestrian, and
had been up to the ' Grands Mulets ' of Mont
Blanc — a walk of thirteen hours. Well, yesterday

184 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XXVI
evening, as we were coming down to dinner, we
found two gentlemen and a boy at the foot of the
stairs in the hall. Colonel Seymour presented
me to the little Prince, who instantly shook
hands, and we had some conversation about the
rain and drought. He is very like his mother,
with beautiful teeth and a winning . smile. While
I watched him, I felt tickled that a boy should
address me so boldly, looking up with such a
self-possessed kind of condescension, as if revers
ing the usual order of things. Then he said all
that was kind and proper to my husband, remem
bered that I had told Colonel Seymour that Sir
Charles was unwell, and said ' You don't look so
well as I could wish.' Major Elphinstone,2 a most
interesting man, is the other gentleman, and I
hear that the Prince walks them off their feet.
Schaffhausen, Aug. 25. — This hotel (' Rhein-
fall ') is directly opposite and above the falls of the
Rhine, which are magnificent — their roar never
ceasing : our windows vibrate with the concussion.
Before leaving Ouchy we met Arthur and Lady
Augusta Stanley, after service in the beautiful
little English church erected midway on the hill
between Lausanne and that place. They came
2 Sir Howard Elphinstone, K.C.B.

1864 A GERMAN PARADISE 185
down to Ouchy with us. To Lady Augusta
everything was new and most delightful, and the
view from our windows enchanted her.
The rail from Ouchy passes through glorious
Scenery. Owing to ill-managed trains, we had to
stop three hours at Berne, the filthiest city in the
world ; for here we had entered German Switz
erland, and the change was immediate. The
arrangements at the station were disgraceful, and
fleas and Germans were in a paradise of their
own. We drove away in a carriage floored with
oigar-ends, and went to the fine Cathedral, where
fleas seem to be one of their articles. The build
ing stands on a terrace commanding grand views.
Rorschach, Aug. 28. — We left Constance
yesterday in bitter cold and rain, so that a cabin
in the little steamer was really welcome. The
day before, we drove into the country to see pic
tures at a place, which is to be sold. The place
— Schloss Salenstein — is pretty enough, being a
very old building, part of the twelfth century,
perched on a rock, with gardens and vineyards
sloping from it, and well kept up ; but the pictures
were absurdities, and when they are sold, or
attempted to be sold, the family will find out the
trash they have bought, and the ignorant non-

186 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxvi
sense they have talked. It is always melancholy
to see such vulgar delusions reckoned upon as
fortunes for children.
Bellaggio, Sept. 4. — We have had a most
successful passage ; the views of the stupendous
Alps increase in grandeur every time one sees
them. We had an open carriage, which added to
the power of enjoyment, but almost overwhelmed
us with heat and dust. We stayed two hours
at Spltigen, and found that the hotel, like all
others, has improved with the increased demand
for accommodation. . . . Some little way down
the Italian side we came to parts I well knew, a
tract of fallen rocks, like Scott's description of the
Trossachs, ' the fragments of a ruined world ' —
fallen from precipices above, and long ago ; grand
old chestnut trees, all gnarled and wrung with
centuries of wind and sun, have forced their way
among them. And between the masses is the most
beautiful greensward, kept fine and close by the
browsing of the hardy mountain cattle and goats.
This is a region for a painter to study, such colours,
such forms, and, between the rocks, the green and
chequered shade for noonday rumination. . . .
I took a walk early this morning, following the
narrow paved ways between walls, which led to

1 864 MORELLI 187
the top of the hill, on the south-east side of which
Bellaggio stands, whence you can see the lake on
each hand. The lizards ran along the walls, and'
kept pace with me, and a great snake (a harmless
creature) glided frightened away. The grapes
and figs hung above my head, the former unripe,
the latter out of my reach.
We have seen a good deal of Signor Morelli
here, the Deputato for Bergamo, one of those
extraordinarily clever men whom even the slavery
of Italy did not extinguish. His conversation is
most charming, both on Art and Italy, and many
other things. He is a great statesman and poli
tician by nature, by education a physician, by taste
a connoisseur ; but with power and memory for
everything, and a grand-looking man besides.
His account of various signs of progress in Italy
is full of interest — the rise of wages ; the education
of the most elementary kind ; the difficulties which
they find in getting teachers for schools ; the
Neapolitan soldiers, who, when they have their fur
lough, return before it expires, not able to endure
the filth, misery, and disorder of their old homes.
As he expresses it, ' no end of dirty linen to wash.'
Venice, Sept. 11. — I feel the mistake of being
here at such a season, the heat is so trying ; and

188 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxvi
then come all the beasts, as the Scotch call them,
which like me as much as I hate them. This
place is insufferable in that respect, the people
poverty-stricken and apathetic, the hotel (' de la
Ville ') poor to an incredible degree : everything in
rags, all furniture in pieces. I shall not be sorry to
leave in spite of all the charms of gondola, and
sweet, soft, warm moons, and exquisite gliding
under the studded sky. The sight of so much
indigence is depressing. Not a light is to be seen
in palaces and houses. . . .
I am reading a new Italian work which is
making a noise here, ' The Mysteries of a Neapo
litan Convent.' It shows more what Neapolitans
are than convents ; but there are things which
can only be compared with the worst horrors of
Brahmanism and with the Car of Juggernaut. It
is interesting to hear the other Italians speak of
the Neapolitans ; though commenting on their
utter degradation and corruption, yet all thinking
men acknowledge that, in point of natural gifts,
they surpass the other races of Italy.
Milan, Sept. 18. — On our way here we stayed
at Verona, which is so charming, and has so much
to interest the traveller, that only the bad accom
modation keeps people away. We saw some fine

1 864 VERONA 189
things there in the queerest places ; sometimes a
true palazzo, with a high-bred sickly marchesa —
sometimes little better than a garret, with a beau
tiful Italian woman more worth looking at than
her pictures. I think my husband will acquire
some important pictures there, but the prices
asked are exorbitant. We went about also
to churches, &c, and to the matchless amphi
theatre, where 40,000 people are easily accommo
dated, and still look on at horse-riders, jugglers, &c.
But, like the Coliseum at Rome, it depressed me,
as all remains of Pagan strength and brutality do.
Florence, Sept. 21. — We stayed only one day
at Bologna, but, yesterday morning, I saw some
thing there which I shall never forget. I had set
my heart on seeing this troop of brigands who
are now on their trial in Bologna, after having
been the terror of the city and of the surrounding
country for two years. An Italian friend, Signor
Gualandi, got me a ticket for a reserved seat, and
took me in by ten o'clock. The hall was open to
the public, who thronged it below ; for people
with tickets, there were two galleries, whence we
saw everything. The hall was low and arched,
and in it stood a great iron cage containing 103
men, and one woman, who sat in the centre, in

190 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxvi
no way distinguished from her male accomplices.
They sat on benches, as in an orchestra, quite
comfortably, and were talking and laughing toge
ther in a bravado manner. In a few minutes the
counsel, jury, &c, came in, and all the prisoners
stood up and sat down again. Then their names
were called over, and each man stood up in his
place, so I managed to count them. I studied
them carefully through my opera-glass, so that I
saw features and expression. There were no boys
or old men : men from twenty-four up to fifty-
five perhaps, including creatures of a grand type
of face and figure. No poor men were among
them, no one ill-dressed ; the lowest were in
blouses, well shod and clean ; the highest dressed
as well as any gentleman. None very debased
in look, and all more or less with the nobility of
the Italian race upon them. The woman was in
no way remarkable, though she looked perhaps
more wicked than the men. All have been
criminals of a terrible kind, and several murders,
as well as innumerable robberies, burglaries, out
rages, swell the list of indictments, which amount
to nearly fifty. Some are shopkeepers, innkeepers,
&c, with ample means : one is an engraver, a
young man of such skill that he easily earned two

1864 WHOLESALE BRIGANDAGE 191
napoleons a day. It appears that it was an enor
mous combinazione — a band who were leagued
together in a kind of club, conducted on the most
practical principles for the most abominable pur
poses. They robbed and murdered in bands of
six ; if one of their number was taken, all the
others contributed money to defend or to rescue
him ; if one fell ill, they allowed him so much a
week ; if one died, they allowed his widow a pen
sion. No wonder so many joined the band — it
was the most profitable thing going. This trial
has been in progress four months, and will probably
terminate next month. The greatest patience and
fairness are exerted, the prisoners are well de
fended, and each is as separately tried as if he had
robbed and murdered solely on his own account.
All will doubtless be found guilty ; hard labour,
either for life or for a period of years, will be the
lot of most ; some will probably be condemned to
death ; some are already under sentence of im
prisonment for offences, for which they have been
tried at Genoa — among these is the woman, who
is undergoing ten years of travaux force's, and
who, it is hoped, will get ten years more. The
trial will do much good, as a standing proof both
of the strength and fairness of the present admi-

192 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxvi
nistration. A daily report, word for word, appears
in a kind of newspaper, 8,000 copies of which are
sold daily.
I hardly took my eyes off the cage, the inmates
of which became very serious, and even depressed,
as the Prosecutor General addressed the jury, and
pulled the defence to pieces. Then they became
very restless, like pent-up animals. Water was
handed to them, and the lawyers occasionally
went in front of the cage, and spoke with some of
them. The young engraver seemed to be espe
cially on his trial, as he was taken out of the cage,
and stood before the tribunal some time. Stories
are told of his great talent : that, since he has
been in prison, he has modelled a crucifix in bread,
also made a flute out of macaroni. I remained
there two hours.
Mentone, Oct. 9. — We arrived here yesterday.
The first part of our journey from Genoa was
bitterly cold, but we soon came to signs of the
temperature of the Mediterranean shores in the
hedges of aloes, butting their grand, horned forms
at us with a vigour and strength, which showed
how nourishing was the white sunburnt soil. It
was strange to see them side by side with cabbages,
like Dignity and Impudence: indeed any common

1864 THE RIVIERA

193

well-known plant looked vulgar, and the black
berry was quite out of place. However, these
home sights soon disappeared, and the ilex, the
olive, and the fig-tree filled the glorious landscape,
and the caper plant hung in masses from every
hole in every wall. After leaving Savona (where
we stayed the night), bay after bay we skirted
round, and headland after headland we turned, each
turn opening fresh glories of the shore. Gene
rally we were high above, and directly over, the
sea, which lay a vast moving pavement of colours
— greys, and pinks, and various hues, but oftenest
of the intense blue of the peacock's neck, and most
intense when seen next the shore, which glowed
with dazzling white and orange. Indeed, every
object seemed to emit light — the road, the walls,
the rocks, the commonest village, dazzled the eye.
The sea itself looked like the firmament reversed,
and as for the sky — there are no words for that.
Still the beauty of the vegetation continued to
increase. An occasional palm-tree added its
tropical form, and oleanders, cactuses, orange
and citron trees laden with fruit ; and over and
through all, the endless olive groves, through
which we passed as through private woods. Nor
must I forget the tall reeds, creatures twenty feet
vol. 11. o

194 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XXVI
high, jungle-like, which waved on each side in the
wind. The afternoon was more lovely than ever,
the villages more picturesque, the olive more pre
vailing with its soft ever-grey tints, until the
colour of sea and every other object only gleamed
more jew el -like in contrast. With all this close,
as it were, to the eye, the hills rose above into
the grandest Alpine forms, wildernesses of pre
cipitous rock, so that no feature of beauty was
omitted. That night we slept at Oneglia — a
beautiful little spot with excellent accommodation
— and were off early next morning. All along,
we were keeping company with the railway works
going on in patches, and outlined the whole way.
Sometimes the work was being carried on by
convict labour — poor, ill-looking, but strong, fine
men, with a chain wound round the ankle : on
cessation of labour, this chain would be attached
to the wrist. But there was plenty of free labour,
too, and the people were among the beauties of
the scene — a magnificent race : every young
woman would be a belle in an English ball-room.
Great activity was obvious in every form ; all
along the coast boat- and ship-building was going
on, while the culture of the earth was incessant.
The result of all this was the utter absence of

1864 THE RIVIERA 195
beggars, a most welcome fact ; though, strange to
say, beggars commenced within half an hour of
the French frontier. That day, the beauty of the
shore rose to its culminating point. The land
scape waved with a sea of olives interspersed with
the vivid green of the lemon-tree and still vivider
green of the orange. The ripe lemons and
oranges (the latter not so frequently ripe as the
former) shone like stars out of the intense green.
Nor could there be any sign of autumn, as all this
green was evergreen. At San Remo we stopped
for two hours ; thence we came to groves of palms
mixed with the olive groves, and towering with
them up the mountains. This was chiefly at a
place called Bordighiera, which stands on a pro
montory — most other towns nestle in the bays.
At about 4.30 we crossed the French frontier,
though I believe our Government does not yet
acknowledge it to be so, the Prince of Monaco
having sold the district of Mentone to the French.
There began the fiddle-faddles of a nation of
bureaucracy. We were twice detained while the
lazy French officials measured each horse, took
down its colour, and the length of its tail ! This
was done twice within half an hour, our Roman
vetturino looking on in high disdain. I suggested o 2

196 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxvi
that they had better measure me. But the de
scent to Mentone banished all fidgets. That is
the very cradle of orange and lemon groves ; the
fruit hung over the walls, and dropped like apples
upon the road. The place has a neatness and
cleanliness inspired by English visitors, which
made it more sympathetic than any other, without
diminishing the picturesqueness. One would
wish to send every pulmonary sufferer there for
the winter : there are plenty of nice houses, just
fit for English. Then the glorious sea, bordered
with young palm-trees, and the roads hedged with
oleander, and scarlet geraniums growing wild in
patches, while hedges of roses were too common
to be mentioned.
Yesterday morning, we started at nine o'clock
in an open carriage, and perhaps our first two
hours from Mentone were the quintessence of all
we had seen. We passed high above the town
of Monaco, which occupies two lovely bays, and,
with its palace and hells (for ' only man is vile '),
looked like the choicest spot this earth can
hold. Nice lies in a plain of orange groves, with
high mountains and grand sea ; but it was like
coming back to the vulgar world, and seems to
be an odious place, with French cafes and new

1864 ODIOUS CUISINE 197
wretched buildings springing up to entice visitors.
How any one can hesitate between Nice and
Mentone I can't conceive.
Marseilles, Oct. 13. — We arrived here last
night from Cannes. . . . The enjoyment of foreign
travel all depends on being strong ; when one is
at all unwell, there, is no saying how odious the
cuisine is — all bread sour, or too new to eat;
never a fresh potato — always twice cooked and
messed up ; meat salt or bad, — if fresh, then hard
with baking, or so underdone that even the most
carnivorous English protest against it ; milk,
except in a very few cases, half water ; tea, a
nasty mouldy compound. This is no overdrawn
picture, as any one who is delicate abroad well
knows. The only things I have enjoyed have
been grapes, of which we had abundance along
the Riviera, but which have vanished from our
sight here, though we are surrounded with vine
yards. I told you that Nice was an odious place. We
left it with our worst wishes, hoping that it might
have but few visitors this year to fleece and tor
ment. We had a horrid night there, worried by
mosquitoes, which there was no possibility of
getting at : our nets hung from the ceiling, and

198 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxvi
that a lofty one ; so there the mosquitoes have a
complete monopoly, being comfortably lodged
over the unfortunates, on whom they descend
at their ease, and then fly up out of reach and
cannot be dislodged. We hated the place, and
spoke our sentiments before leaving ; but they
naively defended their arrangement by saying, that
with very long ladders they could mount up to
the top of the nets and get the mosquitoes out !
Cannes was as bad in another respect as regards
this serious nuisance, and there we spent a night of
misery* It is a scandal that, in countries infested
by these mosquitoes, the simple precautions
adopted at Florence, and the easiest and the
cheapest, should be neglected. But all innkeepers
ignore the mosquito, as they do the  , and say
you must have brought them with you. Other
wise, Cannes interested me much. So many
English villas, with their gates and lodges, have
been built, that the road looked quite English.
Montpellier, Oct. 19. — We left Marseilles on
the 1 7th, and reached Aries that afternoon, when
we at once took a carriage and drove about. The
first batch of sights was about four miles off,
being a group of extraordinary ruins, formerly
abbey, convent, and hermitage, with two very

1864 ALISCAMPS 199
early churches. The place, called Montmajeur, is
built on a rocky eminence, which crops up above
the hot plain. These ruins, the work of the
Revolution, are well worth visiting. One of the
churches (itself of the highest architectural inte
rest, doubtless formerly a tomb, and having no
window in it — the light coming from two small
doors) is surrounded by the open empty resting-
places of early devotees, cut in the rock.
Then we went to a place nearer Aries, called
Aliscamps (Elisii Campi), being the ancient
cemetery of the Roman colonists* For half a
mile we drove through tombs — some open, some
still with their lids on — most of them Pagan, a few
early Christian. Then the road opened into a
wider part, in which stands a most remarkable
church of very early date, also in ghastly ruins
from the Revolution. This was altogether a
most pathetic and funereal place, the beau ideal
of an ancient necropolis — weeds overgrowing
everything, and obscuring inscriptions and de
corative forms of the highest interest.
Next morning we took the sights close at
hand. The Cathedral of St. Trophimus is an
extraordinary edifice, full of Roman, and there
fore of Greek, reminiscences : of course utterly

200 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxvi
debased, but showing how strong the Roman
feeling lingered. Then on to the Museum, in
which all the richest sculptured sarcophagi have
been placed — Pagan and Christian — with other
antique relics. (The celebrated Venus of Aries
was found there.) This was most interesting to
me, who am trying to clear up the history and
dates of the Catacombs ; for all these sarcophagi
agree exactly with those found there, and most of
them are repetitions. Thence to the ruins of the
Roman theatre, a great open sunny place, with
the circular seats still standing, and a few grand
columns and the outline of the building quite
distinct. Then to the Amphitheatre — one of the
most perfect remaining, and used still for horse
races, and for a modified kind of bull-fight. . . .
Pure French cooking, as one finds in such
a place as Montpellier, is an abomination ; and
there is such beautiful produce of the earth in all
forms, that it needs someone who shall be name
less to rend the cooks, who thus ruin everything.
I wish the people who rave about French cooking
were banished here for a little while.
Dijon, Oct. 23. — We are passing Sunday
here in the enjoyment of real rest, for this little
hotel (' de la Cloche ') is one of those homely clean

1 864 LYONS - 201
houses, which are the more delightful after such
unspeakable places as the great modern hotels of
Marseilles and Lyons. We have had a busy
week, sleeping last Sunday at Marseilles, Mon
day at Aries, Tuesday at Montpellier, Wednes
day at Nismes, Thursday at Avignon, Friday at
Lyons, Saturday at Dijon : to-morrow we go to
Paris. At Nismes there is a peculiar beauty in the
arid landscape, with the grand winding Rhone,
the town and castle of Villeneuve, in lines of
indescribable grandeur, and the foreground of
the battered walls and towers of Avignon. It is
even a little like Rome itself, in landscape and
features, as if chosen by the Anti-Popes for that
reason. There is also an interesting Cathedral,
and that palace of the Popes where the worst
butcheries of the Revolution were perpetrated.
At Lyons we expected at all events decent
comfort, as that city is luxurious and wealthy.
Of course we went to the best hotel ; but in no
remote Italian town, in no neglected railway
station, have we ever found such abominations.
The place flared with gas, and mirrors, and
gilding : fountains played in the halls — they had
better have played elsewhere ! We were over-

202 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxvi
run with cockroaches in the bedroom, and
pestered by mosquitoes. The whole house was
so pestiferous and so hot, from utter want of all
circulation of air, that it will, I think, take
spontaneous combustion some day.

i865 SIR C. EASTLAKE'S DEATH 203

CHAPTER XXVII
1865-1870
All the letters which Lady Eastlake wrote to her
mother from January 1865 to September 1872
(the date of Mrs. Rigby's death) have been de
stroyed, with the exception of those, most touch
ing in their pathos, written from Italy during Sir
Charles Eastlake's last illness and shortly after his
death. In the short memoir of her husband she
thus alludes to the blow which almost crushed
her : — ¦
He left England on August 3, 1865, exceed
ingly unwell. This condition had too often
occurred for us not to press forward to that
desired land, the soft air of which had so often
restored him. On my part, however, there were,
on this last occasion, more than usual misgivings.
On crossing the Simplon, and reaching Domo
d' Ossola, he immediately felt relieved, but the
next day, which took us through the beautiful
scenery which leads to Baveno, on the Lago
Maggiore, was the last day of health to him. At

204 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxvh
Milan, which was soon reached, twelve sad weeks
— though broken by intervals of partially return
ing strength — were passed. They were succeeded
by five weeks, sadder still, at Pisa. He died
there on December 24.
The grief, which overshadowed the rest of
her life, is too sacred to be dwelt upon here,
though from the many letters of condolence and
sympathy received by her at that time, we venture
to quote one from Sir Charles Phipps, conveying
the Queen's gracious message to her ; —
Osborne : Dec. 27, 1865.
Dear Lady Eastlake, — The Queen has only
just heard of your sad affliction, and of the loss
not only to yourself, but to England and to the
cause of Art throughout the world,
You will believe how sincerely and truly Her
Majesty can sympathise with you, how deeply she
feels for you ; but Her Majesty directs me also
to add that she herself laments with unfeigned
sorrow over the loss of one for whom she had a
sincere respect and regard, and to whom she had
looked upon many occasions, and never in vain,
for assistance and advice in questions connected
with the fine arts.
The Queen prays that God may give you

1865 THE QUEEN'S SYMPATHY 205
strength to bear this trial, the weight of which
nobody knows better than herself: it is to Him
alone that any one can look for consolation, though
Her Majesty knows the soothing effect of kind
and sympathetic words.
I will not add a word from myself, though I
had the strongest feelings of attachment for Sir
Charles. Sincerely yours,
C. B. Phipps.
Florence : Jan. 3, 1866.
Dear Sir Charles Phipps, — The letter, in which
you convey to me Her Majesty's most gracious
words of condolence, reached me here yesterday.
May I beg you to express to the Queen my
humble and most grateful thanks, and to say to
Hef Majesty that nothing in this world could be
so soothing to my heart as to know that she re
cognises the devotion of my beloved husband to
herself and the ever-lamented Prince Consort,
that she regrets his loss, and deigns to sympathise
with me in my unspeakable affliction ?
Will you also assure Her Majesty that I turn
beseechingly to God for help, and to that future
when all tears will be wiped away and husband
and wife re-united ?

206 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxvn
I pray God to bless Her Majesty and to give
her more and more of that comfort to which she
condescends to direct me.
I beg you also to accept my thanks for the
kind words you have added.
Believe me yours truly,
Elizabeth Eastlake.
A kind letter from her old friend, Dean Ram
say, is also transcribed : —
23 Ainslie Place, Edinburgh :
Jan. 13, 1866.
Dearest Lady Eastlake, — I was sure you
knew I have been feeling for you and deeply
feeling : I have not therefore teased you with
letters. I have always thought that, on the first
blow of a great calamity, the spirit had better feel
its way alone. ' I would die alone,' said an eminent
Christian, and I can fancy it said, 'one would
suffer alone' I may be wrong. At any rate I
know the powers and the deep feelings of your
mind so well, as to know that your real consola
tion must come from yourself. You have had
your blessing — you have enjoyed it ; and now you
must cherish the memory, and think upon the
virtues and noble qualities, of Charles Eastlake,
till you are taken away yourself. Your language

1 866 'FELLOWSHIP' 207
must be in the glorious strain of the noblest Book
in the world, ' The Lord gave, and the Lord hath
taken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord.'
I write these few lines, myself an invalid : I
write merely to have the pleasure and honour of
addressing you as an old and affectionate friend.
Our friendship is not a tale of yesterday. We
can look back on pleasant and interesting hours
of Auld Lang Syne.
May God Almighty bless and keep you, my
dear, ever prays your loving and admiring (now
really) old friend, E. B. Ramsay.
Sympathising and kind friends had sent Lady
Eastlake books and pamphlets intended to give
comfort and consolation in affliction ; but finding
such writings for the most part inadequate and
inappropriate, she sought to relieve her sorrow by
sharing it with others, and by giving her own
views on sympathy. The result was a charming
little book, published anonymously by Messrs.
Macmillan & Co. in March 1868, under the title
of ' Fellowship : Letters addressed to my Sister
Mourners.' This book is written with great
tenderness of feeling and beauty of expression,
and contains a mixture of piety and good sense
which makes it at once useful and palatable. It
appeals to all mourners, and has comforted many
stricken hearts, giving them the assurance of true

208 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. XXVH
and intelligent sympathy, and showing, by its
simple and natural delineation of the workings of
sorrow in the heart, unmistakable traces of the
conflict the writer had gone through. Every
great sufferer suffers the more from feeling or
thinking himself alone in his trial. We not only
crave for sympathy, but want fellowship in it : the
former is not so certainly given, but the latter is
sure to be found. Many will remember that their
desire to know and thank the author of ' Fellow
ship ' was the beginning of their friendship with
Lady Eastlake, who often said that the little
volume had, in this respect, procured her more
pleasure than anything she ever wrote.
The Queen graciously accepted a copy of the
book, through Sir Arthur Helps, to whom Mr.
Macmillan had sent it, and Her Majesty's opinion
is thus recorded by Sir Arthur : —
' The Queen sat down and read it through
without stopping, as soon as she received it. It
is one of the most wise, kind, and sensible little
works she has met with on that sad subject ; and
she knows too well everything it so truly describes.
Could not the Queen be trusted with the secret
which she would not divulge ? '
In reply to this Lady Eastlake writes to Mr.
Macmillan : —
While venturing to claim the promise of
secrecy, I cannot hesitate to permit you to make

1868 'FELLOWSHIP'

209

known to the Queen the name of the writer of
the little book, which has received Her gracious
approval. It will not lessen Her Majesty's inte
rest in it that she knew and honoured him, the
grief for whose loss has taught me what I have
attempted to express.
Of the criticisms, which appeared after its
publication, perhaps that in the ' Contemporary
Review ' was the most appreciative : — ' This is a
very touching, and at the same time a very sen
sible little book. It is written by a mourner, and
in the earnest desire to grapple with the realities,
not the mere conventionalities, of the sorrow
of a life-bereavement. It breathes throughout
the truest Christian spirit, while it deprecates and
repudiates nine-tenths of what is commonly prof
fered as Christian comfort. Solitude in a crowd
is not so dreary as the greater part of the heart
less commonplaces, which are uttered and written
by religious friends to one stricken with the loss
of a beloved object. But those who are thus
stricken will find none of these in the work before
us.' As indicating her wealth of sympathy, apart
from the expression of it in ' Fellowship,' it would
appear convenient to quote here a few sentences
from some letters, which Lady Eastlake wrote
about this time to a dear young friend, Miss Elliott
(now Mrs. Handley Moule), who had recently lost
a sister : —
Many lessons have I learned since we parted,
vol. n. P

210 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxvn
deep are the floods I have struggled through — for
it is not in the first days of a great life-bereave
ment that we can estimate the weight of that
Cross. Much have I studied the ways and pur
pose of suffering — one purpose obvious from the
first, namely, that of knowing better how to sym
pathise with others. God's Holy Will be done,
even though He has taken your sweet Isabel.
Our beloved ones are living, and, I believe, not
far from us : we have but to bide our time with
patience and faith. Even earthly flowers, I hope
and believe, will blossom yet for you. One heart
and home is always open to you here. . . . We
are destined to meet under sorrow, but I have
learned to regard sorrow as a sign of our Father's
favour, and I feel at home with the bereaved. . . .
Pilgrims and sojourners are we : let us try to
be thankful that one pilgrim has reached the
heavenly shrine. All must be well that our Father
appoints ; but the living faith grows very slowly :
all we can do in our anguish is to set our faces
straight towards it. God will do the rest in His
own time and way. . . .
No subject could touch a deeper chord in my
heart than that which refers to the beloved ones
gone before. I dwell much with them — the cer-

1868 SIR HENRY LAYARD 211
tainty of reunion is a reality more actual than any
worldly prospect. ' They are still our contem
poraries, though on a higher level of life.' That
line will never be forgotten by me.
Of all Lady Eastlake's friends, Mr. Austen
Henry Layard perhaps stands foremost : she had
become acquainted with him shortly after her
marriage, and, this acquaintance having developed
into a firm friendship, she turned to him, after her
husband's death, for advice and counsel in all
matters connected with art and literature, valuing
his opinion as highly as had Sir Charles Eastlake.
Her correspondence with Mr. (afterwards Sir
Henry) Layard is a striking proof of this friend
ship, and the extracts, given from her letters to
him, carry on, almost without a break, the story
of her life's work to its end.
While occupied in writing ' Fellowship,' and
in preparing an article advocating certain changes
and reforms in the British Museum,1 she had been
gradually reading and copying her husband's
MSS. and journals. She was in no hurry to
edit anything, for she felt that there were so few
who could advise her on such matters, and she
was anxious to let time and deliberation supply
the lack of other help. She writes in February
1868 to Mr. Layard: — 'I shall certainly not de
cide what to do with these MSS. without giving
myself the chance of obtaining your judgment and
advice, for which I shall be only too grateful.'
Mr. Layard encourages her to proceed with the
1 Quarterly Review, January 1868. ' British Museum.' p 2

212 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxvil
Memoir, and also to undertake the Life of John
Gibson, the sculptor. These two subjects are
frequently mentioned in her letters.
In April 1868 she paid a visit to the Bellen-
den Kers at Cannes, by which her health, which
had been failing, was much benefited, though she
writes : — ' It is of no use your hoping to find me
in good spirits — I shall never be that again.'
A short digression is here made in order to
quote a characteristic letter from Sir Edwin
Landseer, who, when dining at Lady Eastlake's
house, had promised to allow a lady — a well-known
French artist — to paint his portrait.
St. John's Wood Road, N.W. :
May 25, 1868.
Dear Lady Eastlake, — It is always embarrass
ing to refuse a lady anything. I had not pluck
enough the other evening to say ' no ' at the right
time : it is a nasty, discourteous syllable. Dare I
trust to your good nature, and ask you to get me
out of the dilemma, which my want of courage
has got me into with your foreign friend, Madame
 , who did me the honour to ask me to sit to
her ? At the risk of your laughter, I tell you I
am shy, and dislike passing printshops where my
sins are exhibited : if, in addition to these mis
fortunes, I saw a photograph or portrait of myself
exposed to view, I should leave the country. In
one word, I cannot part with the copyright of my

1868 LANDSEER'S APPEAL 213
own phiz. I have had the same flattering pro
posal from no end of kind English friends. Say
to your foreign friend that I am unworthy the
highly flattering compliment she proposes — say
that I am crazy — only pray release me from the
scrape the appearance of ' yes ' has got me into.
Believe me sincerely yours,
E. Landseer.
The Memoir of Sir Charles Eastlake was com
pleted in October 1869, and published early in
the following year.2 This tribute to her husband's
memory is remarkable for the delicacy with which
Lady Eastlake abstained from placing herself in
the prominent position she really occupied in Sir
Charles' life. Those who knew them both could
not forget or undervalue the importance of her
sympathy, advice, and assistance, which he was
always so ready to acknowledge. The book did
honour to him and to his devoted wife.
Almost simultaneously was published her life
of her old friend John Gibson.3 This work,
which is admirably put together (proving Lady
Eastlake to have been far more than the mere
editor she so modestly describes herself), is the
record of a born sculptor, who took refuge, and
lived, in his art, a child-like, simple man, happy
2 Contributions to the Lite- 3 Life of John Gibson, R. A.,
rature of the Fine Arts by Sir Sculptor. Edited by Lady
C. L. Eastlake : with a Memoir Eastlake. London : Longmans,
compiled by Lady Eastlake. 1870.
London : John Murray, 1870.

214 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxvn
in an ideal world of statues, a true genius, and
with many of a genius's eccentricities. The
book attracted much notice at the time, and she
expresses her gratification at its success in these
words : —
' I can conceive nothing more grateful to the
good old man's shade than this popularity of his
biography.' She then began to re-edit Kugler's ' Handbook
of Italian Art,' importing into it all Cavalcaselle's
latest information. She had undertaken to do
this more than a year before, but had delayed it
in order to complete her other more special work.
In February 1870 she attended a lecture by
Mr. Ruskin at the Royal Institution, and writes
to Mr. Layard on February 13, 1870 : —
The other evening I heard Professor Ruskin's
lecture at the Royal Institution. He was so
much in request that above 300 persons were
turned away from the door. I have little doubt
that these consisted mainly of young ladies, who
were his great supporters within. Before the
lecture began, he went about benignly among
their ranks, and parts of the lecture were
graciously suited to their comprehension ; some
parts were beyond mine, but upon the whole it
was a brilliant, ridiculous, and interesting per
formance. I believe afterwards the horses
were taken off his carriage, and he was dragged

1870 MR. AND MRS. GROTE 215
home to Denmark Hill in triumph by his fair
hearers. In April 1870 Lady Eastlake writes : —
I have had the honour to meet Her Majesty
one afternoon lately at the Deanery, West
minster. She had been reading the Memoir, and
was most gracious and kind to me about it. I
fell very much in love with our thorough-bred
lady, who was all attention to others and uncon
sciousness of self. A few notable men, Froude,
Tyndall, Lecky and others, were there, and
nobody, after the Queen was gone, seemed to
wish for a King again !
From this time forward Lady Eastlake
became more and more intimate with Mr. and
Mrs. Grote, staying much with them at their
house at Shere, whence she writes to Mr. Layard,
April 8, 1870:—
I am enjoying the society of our kind friends
here. Mrs. Grote is exuberant with wit and
thought, and asserts her usual prerogative of
walking me off my feet. Professor Tyndall came
yesterday, and is the happiest and lightest-
hearted of men, albeit wifeless.
She joins the Grotes at Chatsworth Inn in
August 1870 : —

216 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxvn
We have been inspecting the treasures at
Chatsworth House at leisure. Especially did
Mrs. Grote and I enjoy the study of the ' Liber
Veritatis,' which is a wonderful volume, just as it
came out of Claude's hands, with his handwriting
on the old-fashioned mountings telling, in ill-spelt
French, for whom the picture which the drawing
represents was painted. The drawings are the
result of years of the knowledge of Nature, till
only her permanent, and therefore grander and
more familiar, qualities seem to have been pre
cipitated, like a precious residue, on his mind's
sight. They illustrate much of the pure phi
losophy of art, and are pre-eminent for taste.
Great breadth is the prevailing characteristic,
and the most graceful lines. You know the
fac-similes, but the difference between them and
the originals is incredible. Mr. Grote was as
happy in poring over some old editions of rare
books as we were over the Claudes. I am always
astonished at the richness and variety of Mrs.
Grote's gifts, which I admire the more from her
soundness of mind. Her society is a perpetual
feast to me. I am very fond of the fine old man,
and that without any danger of giving the lady
uneasiness !

i&

iM

' A, m I /

1870 FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR 217
Lady Eastlake was, like everyone else at this
time, keenly interested in the progress of the
Franco-Prussian war : —
Oct. 2, 1870. — Your thoughts must be en
grossed with the tremendous history of the last
two months. I don't think that the late ruler of
the French was a hero of yours, and I do not
doubt that you now share the prevalent feeling
about him here. He has even lost the credit of
being clever, and the attribute of that folly, which
the gods bestow on those they wish to destroy, is
all that is left him. That he could have held
absolute sway for so long only shows what
materials the French are made of. The cession
of territory by France is necessary for the welfare
of Europe, were it only as a precedent to show,
that she may be dismantled without the world
coming to an end. The very vanity with which
the French stickle for a prerogative, of which
they have robbed so many other nations, makes
it necessary to break that spell. The successes
of the Germans do not alter my opinion of them :
we run the risk of exalting them to the skies
now because they are successful, just as the ex-
Emperor was exalted while believed to be the
same. There is great talk here of the superiority

218 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxvn
of the Teutonic over the Latin races. At all
events, I doubt whether Prussian successes over
decrepit Austria and rotten France suffice to
prove the fact ; and I hope that your knowledge
of the Italians, and even now of the Spaniards,
may lead you not to give up the Latin races.
The following letter deals with the same
subject, giving also a glimpse of Madame Mohl,
a well-known figure in Parisian society, and of
Pere Hyacinthe : —
Christmas Day, 1870. — Mme. Mohl is here,
having come for her annual visit to London in
June, never dreaming that a fallen empire would
obstruct her return. She is a most delightful
companion, imperishably young, but with a fund
of experience and knowledge of the world, which
have not in the least impaired her heart. We
talked much about the Latin races ; and, having
an insuperable objection to taking any credit to
ourselves in which Germans would share, we
endeavour to persuade ourselves, that it is the
Roman Church and not the Latin race which is
in fault. If we could see the one tried without
the other, I think the race would do itself better
justice. Such men as Pere Hyacinthe encourage
that hope. That good man is now at the

1870 PERE HYACINTHE 219
Deanery : kind Arthur and Lady Augusta looked
him up — a stranger to them — at an hotel, and
carried him off to their comfortable house. I
met him the other day, and had some conversa
tion with him. I had read some of his ' Confe
rences de Notre-Dame ' — noble things, and struck
upon the string of ' La Famine,' which the good
Father expatiated on most glowingly in theory,
however little he may know it practically. He
told me how terribly domestic life has declined in
Paris under the Empire, and that Haussmann's
houses were a positive hindrance to it. Then I
heard him lecture the other day, to an immense
audience of French-understanding people, on
France and Germany, and the present struggle,
from a moral point of view. I have had no
opportunities of knowing what eloquence is (since
I never attend the House of Commons ! 4), but I
suspect that the good Father came very near the
best sort.
Of course people talk and read of little else
but the war, and it is terrible to feel that the very
sameness of the horrors is becoming wearisome.
I retain my definition of feelings towards the
combatants : I condemn France, but I dislike
4 Mr. Layard was then M.P. for Southwark.

220 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxvn
Germany. I have no fears of the Germans
meddling with us, or even with others for long ;
but a great military despotism in the heart of
Europe, represented by a people who have never
fought for their own rational freedom, is a dread
ful thing. I attribute their success in arms to
two things, the incapacity of the French (as of
the Austrians), and the enslaved condition of the
German soldier. The slave makes an excellent
fighter, to wit the poor Russian, and the Germans
think much more of serving their pharisaical King
than of serving their country. It will be deeply
interesting to watch the working results of their
unity : I have no confidence in it as regards the
real dignity and independence of man.
I see something of Dr. de Mussy, who attends
Mme. Mohl. He is miserable, and only attends
misery now in his numerous patients among the
refugees. He sees the Orleans Princes frequently,
who are suffering intensely in their enforced in
activity. He tells me that they receive hundreds
of letters entreating them to come forward : but
the volcano will have many more eruptions before
it cools down for them.

1 87 1 THE ALBERT HALL

CHAPTER XXVIII
1871-1875
In April 1871 Lady Eastlake was present at the
opening of the Albert Hall. After describing the
ceremony to Mr. Layard, she says : —
The Hall looks ill at a distance, being low
and formless in outline ; but, seen near, it has much
to recommend it, and is both sumptuous and
elegant. Much depends on its keeping its agree
able colour, which I believe is warranted by
Mr. Cole, whose latest offer is to pull down all
London and build it again in his particular terra
cotta. In September she took a trip abroad, making
picture-galleries her stages — first Cologne, then
Brunswick, Leipsic, Dresden, Berlin, Cassel, &c,
her ostensible object being the Holbein Exhibi
tion at Dresden. On her return to London, she
writes Mr. Layard a chapter of picture- criticism,
some portions of which are here quoted : —
The chief interest of the Holbein Exhibition
at Dresden is the comparison of the two

222 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. XXVIH
Madonnas. No one, without closer and longer
and minuter inspection than was possible to a
traveller, could thoroughly interpret the relation
in which the two rivals stand to each other. But
I did examine them with considerable care, and
came to a very different solution from that which
you report to be Morelli's. There is no question
that the Darmstadt picture is the earlier, and in
that sense, and in a genuine sense, the original ;
but there are circumstances evident in the Dresden
one, which entirely remove it from the category
of a copy. In all accessories it is an excellent
copy, but there are many deviations from, and
improvements upon, the Darmstadt one, and those
evidently by the hand of Holbein in his later and
matured time. The Madonna herself and the
Child are so far finer in drawing and expression,
and so different (certain things exquisitely painted,
which do not exist in the Darmstadt picture), that
I can hardly conceive any close observer coming to
Morelli's decision. It is my conviction that two
hands worked on the Dresden picture, the one truly
a mere copyist, the other so superior, that, taking
the important improvements of proportion and
drawing into account, it is difficult to suggest
any other hand than that of the master himself.

-1871 THE CROWN PRINCE AND PRINCESS 223
Where so many of the master's second thoughts
are obvious, I cannot believe that his hand could
be absent. Many minuter reasons, which I noted,
could be given why it is impossible, that any but
the master could have presided over and partially
painted the Dresden picture ; but I need not
enter into those. As an impartial observer,
Morelli's opinion is entitled to all respect : other
wise, the question is now made one of party —
Prussia versus Saxony, and the most ignorant and
outrageous abuse, in German epithets, which I
should be shocked to translate, heaped on the
Saxon picture.
I met Motley and Mrs. Ives at the hotel at
Dresden ; it was amusing to see his indignation
at being Milorded by the waiters and porter.
I much enjoyed the pretty gallery at Cassel
and the charming country round. Also I paid
several visits to Wilhelmshohe, where I had the
honour of dining with the Crown Prince and
Princess. They were both most gracious and
kind, and I was delighted with his humane and
frank talk on subjects connected with the war.
He is a splendid-looking fellow, too, and you
know how far that goes with me.
Shortly after her return to London she wrote

224 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxvm
an article on ' Italian Art ' for the ' Edinburgh
Review.' This appeared in January 1 872, and was
described by an eminent critic as ' the product of
a mind saturated with the knowledge and feeling
of Art.' She stayed a few days, in January 1872, at
Mentmore, Leighton Buzzard, and in a letter to
her sister describes her visit and her host and
hostess, the Baron and Baroness Meyer de
Rothschild : —
Jan. 27, 1872. — I arrived here yesterday, and
it was like fairyland when I entered the great
palace, and got at once into a grand hall — 40 ft.
by 50, and about 100 ft. high — hung with tapes
try, floored with parquet and Persian carpets : an
open arcade above runs round and looks down
through arches into the hall, which is filled with
gorgeous masses of flowers and every sumptuous
object that wealth can command. From this
great centre hall, branch off lobbies floored with
white marble ; then three splendid drawing-rooms,
two libraries, billiard room — every place almost
crammed with precious articles in enamel, bronze,
gold, silver, amber, jewels, &c. The house is a
museum of everything, and not least of furniture,
which is all in marquetry, or pietra dura, or ver-
meille. I don't believe the Medici were so lodged
in the height of their glory. The Baron and

1872 THE MEYER DE ROTHSCHILDS 225
Baroness received me most kindly : he is an
unaffected, kind-mannered man, much interested
in his farming — she a handsome woman, pale
and very delicate. Their daughter, Hannah, is
a fine young creature, with a kind of Semiramis
profile ; she has a most splendid voice, powerful
and sweet. The Baroness is a clever woman, per
fectly open about church and synagogue, knowing
much about our Church and the School Board,
and evidently the soul of liberality. She and
' Meyer ' seem very devoted to each other and to
the girl. The mansion stands on a hill : the view
on all sides is immense, and they own all they
survey. I should think their residence here is a
great benefit to the neighbourhood, though she
says, laughingly, that she was at first accused of
'trying to unchristianise the district'
In April 1872 we find Lady Eastlake in Paris,
from which place she writes to her sister describ
ing the traces, still left, of the Franco-Prussian
war. She also gives an account of M. and
Madame Mohl (with whom she stayed a fortnight)
and of the people she met at their house : —
Paris, April 18. — I went to the Louvre yes
terday morning. As I turned into the Rue Rivoli
the ruin of the Tuileries lay spread before me,
VOL. 11 Q

226 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XXVIII
the massive mighty walls with their huge windows,
all sign of entresols vanished, roof utterly gone,
not a beam left, only indestructible iron and richly
carved stone, and stacks of high chimneys break
ing the sky-line. The whole garden front is a
ghastly ruin, the light streaming through it. The
long front to the Rue Rivoli is unbroken, but one-
third of it is roofless, with huge gaping portals.
I walked into the Place de Carrousel, which, all
smiling as it was with lilacs in full bloom, showed
endless signs of havoc in the different pavilions
around, evident smashes from shells, carrying
away the sculptured architraves of doors and win
dows — glass entirely out in many, broken panes
in others. Scaffoldings were up and repairs going
on. Afterwards I drove through the Champs-
Elysees and the Bois de Boulogne to St. Cloud.
Everywhere the same traces, houses being re
paired, young trees planted, a bareness which told
the tale. The Arc de Triomphe was being
repaired on both sides, and the coachman pointed
out what the Commune had done, and what the
Prussians : evidently the latter had committed the
most havoc. The Bois de Boulogne, always a
poor stunted Northern-looking wood, is now
entirely gone on the left side — a bare scrubby

1872 A GHASTLY SCENE 227
moor, dotted with hideous ruins. Houses have
not only been riddled with great holes, and with no
shape of door, window, or roof left, but some are
absolutely without the outer walls, and present a
tangled mass of inner stair and rafters, quite
horrible. Many houses have been rebuilt, but
plenty remain to give the air of ruin to the scene.
St. Cloud is a beautiful spot, the most beautiful
in these environs, with the river and rising woods,
but they rise behind masses of skeleton ruins.
An enormous barrack occupies the foreground
with blackened walls and staring open spaces,
and above are seen the ruins of the Palace. A
more ghastly picture would be difficult to con
ceive, and it is set off by the sweet freshness of
spring. April 19. — Yesterday I drove to Notre-Dame,
and there, directly in front of the choir, are signs
of violence and fire. I soon found the sacristan,
who told me the tale. The Commune broke in,
piled up all the chairs, poured petroleum on them,
and fired them in two places. The one in front
of the choir consumed a grand carved wooden
screen, and partially the stalls on each side : the
other fire has only left traces in the blackened
piers and arches. He showed us the marks of
Q2

228 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxviii
the petroleum on some of the stonework, stains
which nothing can obliterate. I asked him if he
witnessed the scene. ' Non, j'etais en prison ; je
me suis enfui.' Two black marble tablets record
the names of the ' 6tages,' one ' les ecclesiastiques,'
the other ' les laiques,' the archbishop heading the
one, M. de Bon Jean the other. Close by stands
the ruin of St. Jacques de la Boucherie, and
here are the later trophies of the same demons.
The glorious Hotel de Ville, a worse ruin even
than the Tuileries ; and the Palais de Justice
with the roof of one tower gone. The entrance
to the Palais Royal is a mass of ruins ; also the
different Ministeres, in the Rue Rivoli, now being
carted away. In short, Paris is filled with ruined
materials and new stones, and many of the streets
are impassable owing to the repairs.
As for the French, their attitude can only be
accounted for thus — every man looks ashamed of
his neighbour, not of himself. The lower orders
and the women look industrious as usual, but the
fellows who loll in carriages, with kid gloves on
their hands and cigars in their mouths, are in
numerable, all thinking, apparently, that it is no
affair of theirs. Everywhere is painted in big
letters ' Liberte, Egalite et Fraternite,' or ' Pro-

1 872 'RABAGAS' 229
priete Nationale,' or ' Republique une et in
divisible.' I wonder what they understand by all
this trash. Where are the sensible people who
permit such declarations in their name ? How
ever, these inscriptions are meant to be washed
out : they are not carved on undying brass or
stone. I went to Madame Mohl's yesterday afternoon,
and Dean Stanley came in while I was there.
He had been everywhere ; to Belle Ville, to La
Rocquet, &c. He had also seen ' Rabagas,' and
so fired me with his description, that we went
last night to the Vaudeville Theatre. I can't
describe ' Rabagas ' except as one of the cleverest
and wittiest of compositions, and splendidly acted.
The scene is laid in Monaco, where Rabagas,
a low clever demagogue and lawyer, gets up
a revolution, goes through various adventures,
changes his colours several times, and is- at last
kicked out by all parties, exclaiming as he goes :
' Je m'en vais dans le pays ou les esprits de ma
trempe sont apprecies.' ' Ou ga ? ' says the
Prince. ' En France ' is his answer, at which all
the audience were in furies of joy. The whole
way through the piece there were laughter and
applause at everything that hit the late occur-

230 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XXVIII
rences — upon the same principle — every man
thinking his neighbour hit, not himself.
April 22. — I am now staying with the Mohls,
and have much to occupy my thoughts pleasantly.
The dear woman is very feeble, but her spirits
are the brightest in the world, and when we get
into talk, books lie in vain on my lap. M. Mohl
is a very noble and interesting man, Professor of
Persian Literature at the ' College Frangais,'
' Membre de l'Institut,' &c- — a man of universal
knowledge, which is all given out most readily
and pleasantly. Madame Mohl's evening of
' reception ' is Friday, and many people came in
last Friday ; some English and Americans, but
chiefly French. M. and Madame Leon Say|,
and a M. de Lomeine were here : the latter, who
had been in Paris during siege and Commune,
stood in the middle of the room, described scenes,
and harangued with immense gesture and humour.
He had no mercy on France, giving her up as
incurable. Last night we were at a Marquise de
Forbin's : she told me that she heard, that the
ex-Emperor was a great favourite in England. I
assured her that it was ' tout au contraire.' All
the company gathered round me to hear that, and
expressed the greatest delight. I asked them

1872 THE VENUS OF MILO 231
why they did not read the English papers, and
they owned that no one read a word. Yet it is
not for want of power, for a Comtesse de Mon-
tessieu and Comte de Richemont both conversed
with me in English perfectly. They are not in
the least shy of talking about their miseries, of
course laying them on the Empire, but they never
think that they could have done more to help
themselves. ... I wish I could bequeath to
someone my knowledge of French, German, and
Italian, with a smattering of Russian.
The other day, I was joined at the Louvre by an
old acquaintance, M. Ravaisson, now Conservateur
des Antiques, who showed me interesting ideas he
has about the Venus of Milo, and quite converted
me to them. Of the two casts, the rectified cast
is infinitely nobler ; the head is freer, the figure
taller and more commanding. He believes that
she formed a group with Mars, and that her
hands, one lifted, the other level, were employed
in taking off his baldrick and sword. The statue
of Mars (called Achille Borghese) is in the same
gallery, quite passive. M. Ravaisson is about to
have a cast made of each (Mars and Venus), and
to place them as he believes they were originally
placed. The Venus of Milo is in two pieces.

232 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxvm
When brought to Paris in 1801, those who put
her up introduced wedges of wood, which have
raised one side and depressed the other : also her
right foot is placed flat instead of slightly rising.
M. Ravaisson told me much that is not known
as to the entrance of the Prussians into the
Louvre : at all events, from his position in the
Louvre, where he then resided, he gave one
particular page of that dreadful volume. The
Government behaved much worse than the
Prussians, and deceived him and the public in the
grossest way.
In September 1872 occurred the death of
Mrs. Rigby, in her ninety-sixth year, after a short
illness. Full of years as her mother was, Lady
Eastlake felt her death most keenly. For
obvious reasons, no extracts of a private nature
have been quoted from the numerous letters, but
every letter shows how deep was the love which
mother and daughter bore each other, and proves
that to think of and for her mother was the habit
of Lady Eastlake's life. When going through
Mrs. Rigby's papers at this time she remarks : —
' These are occasions when the past comes so
near, as I feel it will come when our mortal coil is
thrown off'
The first five months of 1873 were spent at
Shere, where Lady Eastlake had been thinking
of buying a few acres and building a house, as she
had long wished for a small place in the country ;

1873 A VISIT TO SCOTLAND 233
but this plan afterwards fell through for various
reasons, into which it is unnecessary to enter.
The following letter to Mr. Layard relates how
she had passed the autumn of this year : —
Dec. 21, 1873. — You must not measure my
gratitude for your kind letter of November 1 2 by
my slowness in acknowledging it. In my lonely
life the few old friends, who are true to me, are
very precious ; and the sight of your handwriting
(however illegible !) is always a pleasure. It is
true I have no need to be lonely, but I lack the
spirit for company, and find work a more congenial
filler up of my days than any amusement. Soon
after our parting in Savile Row, I made my way
to Scotland, having business in Edinburgh ; and
then on into hills and lochs I had not seen for
many a year. My chief stay was on Loch
gilphead at Sir John Orde's, whose wife is an old
friend of mine. I fancied I was coming to the
world's end, but no sooner did the steamer touch
the little remote pier, than the Duke of Argyll
stretched out his hand, then Mr. Motley, Mrs.
Ives, Sir Bartle Frere, and lastly the Archbishop
of York. Soon after, Mr. Pender made his
appearance, which completed the constellation.

234 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XXVIII
The Freres are cousins of the Ordes — the others
were all guests of the Duke and Mr. Pender. As
I am no walker, and fond of staying indoors, I
was rather amused by the incessant rain. Of
course it rains every day in those Western High
lands, and often all day long : the consequence is,
that the once barren hills and sheepwalks are being
turned into a luxuriance of rhododendrons, fuchsias
like trees, and heaths like shrubs. No fruit ripens,
but the most astonishing flora flourishes. I enjoyed
my stay with the Ordes, where there was a suc
cession of visitors. Among them a young Major
Euan Smith, who reminded me of a certain
Layard of twenty-five years ago, and interested
me much. He is not unknown to fame, having
been appointed to settle some boundary questions
in Persia, having had important charges in the
Abyssinian War, and lastly having accompanied
Sir Bartle to Zanzibar. Also, he is the youngest
recipient of the Victoria Cross. From the Ordes'
place I went on — twelve miles further up — to
Pender's. He has a beautiful place, and is an
interesting man : I have long known him. He
was full of a plan for utilising the endless accu
mulations of coal dust, by a form of compression ;
and blocks were burning in his grates which I

1873 THE ALBERT MEMORIAL 235
should be very glad to get for 1/. a ton — the price
he hopes to put them in the market for. . . .
Mill's Autobiography is still the talk. It is a
most curious book — treating a poor child like a
cucumber, and putting it into a case where it could
grow only in one direction. It gives me great
respect as well as pity for him. You will be sure
to quarrel with me about it when we meet.
At the request of Mr. (afterwards Sir Charles)
Newton, she began a paper on the Hyde Park
Memorial to the Prince Consort : this paper was
never finished, but the following fragment, found
in her notebook, shows how she intended to treat
the subject : —
The Albert Memorial. The larger groups of
sculpture are too much crammed : Foley's, for
instance, has a tea chest — a mere lump of marble,
stuck between the elephant's hoof and the China
man. Is the elephant rising ? If so, the whole
group is in danger — the Chinaman would be up
set in a moment. The contrast between the calm
repose of the two side figures, who lean against
him as against a rock, and the animal's impos
sibility to keep the same position, is very false.
Also it is a law in sculpture, that whatever needs
colour to explain itself is not fitted for white

236 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxvnl
marble. Foley has put something on the head of
the elephant, flat on the head, and yet interfering
with the grand outline of skull : that something
in painting would have been red, and therefore
distinct — in sculpture it is not. The drapery, too,
is slovenly. Real marble things should have been avoided.
A marble Sphinx and a broken marble column,
in Theed's 'Africa,' are not representations, but
realities ; and, as realities, they turn the living
things to marble. ' Europe ' is altogether tame,
a very tame bull, and five ladies, all crowned, all
pretty, all young, but finely executed. Bell's bison
and the male figures are the best. His women
are stagey, like Miranda in Boydell's Shakespeare,
with one foot forward, the other back, and impos
sible drapery.
The smaller groups are not so much to be
criticised as to be regretted : no groups were
wanted there, and are much out of place. They
form the wrong angle, lying from and not to the
monument. With regard to the iron structure, which is so
covered with decoration as to look like stone, one
thing should never look like another. Iron should
look light, stone heavy ; but as iron here looks

1874 PICTURES AT BURLINGTON HOUSE 237
heavy, the eye wants the appearance of the weight
to balance what looks like the lateral thrust.
Sculptors in England model and execute in
their studios : they never have a sense of the
effect the work will present in its future place.
They put together a number of parts, which
naturally refuse to form a whole. Detail is most
conscientiously done, but the larger instinct of the
artist is wanting. How would Raphael have
treated Agriculture, Manufactures, &c. ? Who
else have treated such subjects ? Mosaics and
frescoes should teach the necessity of the allowance
to be made for distance.
She sends Mr. Layard in May 1874 a long
account of the pictures at Burlington House.
After mentioning ' a very remarkable picture of
"The Roll Call,'" by a Miss_ Thompson, she
says : —
Watts stands finely : a head of James Marti-
neau, the Dissenting preacher, is a type of a
grand, ugly, spiritual head. Contrasted with that,
is a head of J. S. Mill, quite fit to be a frontispiece
to his memoir — compressed and even extinguished
in feeling, and unnaturally expanded in intellect ;
the mouth tight shut, the eyes not looking at you,
the cranium immense. Millais is in great force

238 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxviii
with a picture he calls ' The North-west Passage '
— an old navigator (painted from ' Greek ' Tre-
lawney) sitting with a fair girl at his feet reading
to him : the allusion to the north-west passage
very remote. It is Millais' finest work, with a
harmony of tone and line quite refreshing after
the host of trash on the walls.
In August 1874 she took a house at Albury,
Surrey, for a few months. Here she completed
Kugler's new ' Handbook of Italian Painting,'
and was so struck with the many-sidedness of
Leonardo da Vinci, that she began to set out her
views about him in a paper, which appeared in
the ' Edinburgh Review' of January 1875 ; this
was followed by an article in the same review on
' Thorvaldsen ' in July 1875. Thus she tried to
beguile the time.
A letter, dated March 30, 1875, to Mr. Layard,
treats of lectures she had attended at the Royal
Institution, and of the ' Greville Journals' : —
Your kind and long letter of the 13th was a
very welcome pleasure and reproach to me, for I
am quite aware that the debt was on my side.
But though I sent you many thoughts, and felt
myself very guilty, yet, like most guilty people, I
had a host of excuses ready, all of which I now
forget, except that I have been really very busy.
I can assure you that I am quite well ; I do not

1874 TYNDALL, HUXLEY, AND LUBBOCK 239
grow stronger, but much the reverse, and begin
to comprehend what is meant by the infirmities of
age. During the winter I have attended some lec
tures at the Royal Institution, and have heard
Tyndall, Huxley, and Lubbock — all three deeply
interesting. The first was very complimentary
to ' fair hearers,' and very impatient and irritable
with his unfortunate assistants, while he showed
the — to me— conjurer's trick of a gas flame jerking
up and down as a particular note was sounded,
and even to a particular chirp from his own lips.
Huxley was very grave and sententious, detailing
the wonders of the red sand at both poles, and
the green mud in the central parts of the globe,
or vice versd, which had been fished up by the
' Challenger,' and found to consist entirely of
minute shells of defunct invisibilities, at a depth
of two miles or so, which drop incessantly as they
die. Then Lubbock was quite charming on in
sects and flowers, and himself so good-looking.
You are the first person who agrees with me
as to the dulness of the ' Greville Journals.' I
could hardly wade through the petty squabbles of
ministries, detailed by a man who thought himself
wiser than them all, and who never tells a story

240 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxviii
without taking the shine out of it. I hear that
Disraeli has said : ' Greville was the vainest man
I ever met with, and I have read Cicero and
known Lord Lytton.' Doubtless, the abuse of the
powers that be, and of people's fathers and mothers,
is not a thing to be defended ; but the chief thing
apparent in these memoirs is the harm which his
arrogance and vulgarity do to his own patrician
class. Even such a red republican as you say
you are supposed to be could not pull them down
more effectually.
The 'Quarterly Review' of October 1875
contained an article by her on ' Drink : the Vice
and the Disease,' which is so powerful that we
are tempted to quote freely from it ; one extract,
however, will serve to show her grasp of the
subject : —
The vice of drunkenness has spread over the
length and breadth of our land, pervading country
as well as town, agricultural as well as commercial
districts, army as well as navy ; sparing the young
as little as the old, the woman scarcely less than
the man ; the destroyer of all health and virtue,
the breeder of all sickness and sin ; filling every
haunt of vice, every prison for crime, every hospi
tal for sickness and accident, every asylum for
madness.

1876 TJES DEUX AMPERE

241

CHAPTER XXIX
1876-1878
After completing this article on ' Drink,' Lady
Eastlake began another for the ' Edinburgh
Review,' on the correspondence and journals of
the two Amperes, father and son : the latter was
the youngest lover of Madame Recamier, but the
twenty- three years between them only served to
increase his ardour, while they never affected his
fidelity, for he remained her devoted friend till
her death. He was also an intimate friend of
De Tocqueville. The strength of friendship
among the French struck Lady Eastlake as 'very
enviable.' She writes to Mr. Layard : ' What a
rich and interesting group of French " hommes
d'esprit " were collected in Louis Philippe's time !
— Ampere, jun., Tocqueville, and Mohl were
close friends : so few are left in Paris now.' It is
astonishing how Lady Eastlake caught the spirit
of that delightful society, which she never saw :
nothing could be more vivid or more true than
her picture of it all. This article, ' Les deux
Ampere,' was published in the ' Edinburgh
Review' in January 1876, and was received most
favourably in Paris. People, especially the
French, like nothing so much as to read about
VOL. 11. R

242 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxix
themselves. It was translated for the ' Revue
Britannique ' by a lady, who says, ' C'est une
perle fine, enchassee par un veritable Benvenuto
Cellini.' At this time Lady Eastlake's health was
causing her friends much anxiety : an hereditary
enemy, in the shape of rheumatism, had been
gradually creeping upon her, chiefly showing itself
in diminution of strength ; the winter also had
told much upon her in that respect.
Early in January 1876 she sends Mr. Layard
her report on the Old Masters at Burlington
House : —
An exhibition which, in many respects, or,
rather, in respect of English masters of the last
century, is one of the best we have had. Rey
nolds and Gainsborough appear in all their glory :
a Gainsborough of Queen Charlotte in her youth
is one of the most exquisite examples of his
art. Boxall, who knew it of old, said that he
could go down on his knees to it. I am sorry
to say Boxall is very feeble, and complains much
of loneliness. Nor can I conscientiously recom
mend the experiment of a Lady Boxall so late in
the day !
The extracts here given from a long letter to
Mr. Layard tell their own tale. Mr. John Forster
(mentioned in this letter) was an old friend of
Sir Charles and Lady Eastlake, and was, it will

1876 JOHN FORSTER'S DEATH 243
be remembered, the author of several standard
works, such as ' Life of W. S. Landor,' ' History
of the Grand Remonstrance,' ' Life of Oliver
Goldsmith,' ' Life of Charles Dickens,' ' Dean
Swift,' &c.
March 9, 1876. — An exhibition of Walker's
works, lately open, was very attractive. He was
a fine colourist, and gave a charm even to Thames
scenery : his village children and old women,
dogs, sheep, and geese, are delightful. He has
been succeeded in the same room by an exhibi
tion of Pinweli' s works, to some of which I had
long lost my heart. Pinwell works in a kind of
distemper, highly favourable to his small heads,
which are quite exquisite.
I think dear John Forster * was not dead
when I last wrote to you : his death came like a
shot to me, for I had ever had kindness from him,
and he loved Sir Charles. The South Kensing
ton Museum accepts his fine library of books.
His collections of all kinds are numerous, espe
cially of autographs.
I have got Michael Angelo's letters : they are
more curious than interesting, and go far to upset
all ideas of the romance of that period. It was
1 In his Memoirs of an Percy Fitzgerald gives an ad-
Author (Bentley, 1895), Mr. mirable sketch of John Forster.
R 2

244 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxix
indeed a most wretched period for everything but
Art — even for artists, who, like M. Angelo, were
cheated by Popes and Princes. The more I look
into the letters, the more I detect the lies of Vasari,
and now I do not trust a word he or Condivi says.
All the story of the twenty months only spent
on the Sistine ceiling is upset by these letters,
though they are edited so badly that the editor
tries to twist the dates to suit the old story. I
have also got Charles H. Wilson's just published
' Life of M. Angelo ' — a very respectable per
formance. Indeed I have accumulated quite a
collection of recent works on the master, in
cluding Aurelio Gotti and Grimm — the latter great
twaddle. Lady Augusta Stanley's great sufferings,
death, and burial have been the principal topic
here. Few are treated as they deserve to be, but
that gentle and kind woman deserved all the
sympathy and honour : she was good to high
and low.
The result of her researches (referred to in
the above letter) into Michael Angelo's life and
times was an article in the ' Edinburgh Review,'
' Michael Angelo,' July 1876 : this was succeeded
by a paper in the ' Quarterly Review,' December
1876, on 'London Alms and Pauperism.' 'In

1877 THE VENICE ACADEMY 245
no case,' she writes, 'must the heart be more
carefully ridden by the head than in a career of
philanthropy. When we try to imitate the Divine
attribute of love, we are soon reminded of the
need of that of Divine wisdom as well.'
The first four months of 1877 were spent by
Lady Eastlake at Venice in Mr. Layard's house,
which he had kindly placed at her service. She
takes an early opportunity of sending him her
views on his collection of pictures — indeed, the
first three or four letters are full of little else. In
a letter dated February 4, 1877, she alludes to
her constant visits to the Accademia, ' which,'
she writes,
I have been studying, always with increasing
interest — learning to appreciate the great Assunta
better. I hate the subject of the Virgin ascend
ing, with a dozen great men, in frantic action,
turning their backs on the spectator : therefore,
one must search for the resources the painter
showed in overcoming such conditions, and in this
sense I think the picture deserves any reputation.
Ed. Cheney, in a privately published work on
Venetian painters, thinks Titian's treatment of the
Padre Eterno unfortunate in this picture ; on the
contrary, I feel that the foreshortening of the
figure was an intentional and clever device to
reduce so unrepresentable a figure to the minimum
of size. . . .

246 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxix
I am infinitely better in health, as was proved
yesterday by my mounting up all the stairs of
the Ducal Palace, going through all those splen
did apartments, and not dying of it, as I should
have done a few months ago. I could but think
of what had been there by Bellini, Carpaccio,
Titian, and others before the fire of 1577. Still,
there are glories by Paul Veronese and Tintoretto
left — not the ' Paradiso,' in which I hardly see a
redeeming quality, but the four pictures in the
same room as P. Veronese's ' Europa,' which are
first-rate — especially that of Bacchus and two
female figures. Then I have been in S. Zac-
caria, and have no words to express my admi
ration of the Bellini altar-piece on the left. Also,
the Palma Vecchio ' S. Barbara ' in S. Maria
Formosa looks better than ever. In that campo
we visited the artesian well, and saw the water
flare up in flame at the touch of a lighted match.
I am interested in the wells of Venice, and these
artesians show what suppressed combustibilities
lie under the islands. . . .
Now I have not time to enter into the Eastern
Question, and won't give you any more handle
for perverse interpretations — not that you need
any ! But I think I love the Turkish people better

1877 'STONES OF VENICE' 247
than you do, for I heartily wish them better rulers
and the Sultan more toothache. Under all his
wickedness, in which, I grant, past European his
tory shows him not to stand alone, there is nothing
developed — no progress, no learning, no arts —
nothing but what depends on the misery of those
he oppresses or swindles, and which must tumble
to pieces in spite of treaties. The reports in the
' Times ' of the discussion in their Grand Coun
cil are like the palaver of a North American
tribe. She returned to town in May, and began to
prepare a paper on Venice,2 for which she had
collected materials on the spot. She took
Yriarte's late and present work, ' La Venise,'
for a handle, and also some volumes published
by the Society of the ' Dotti,' which contain
much curious information. Ruskin's ' Stones of
Venice,' which she read again for the purpose,
were also utilised :
' but,' she confides to Mr. Layard, ' they excite, for
the most part, I am sorry to say, the same feelings
in me which time has not modified — or rather, I
acknowledge my extreme ignorance, for I have no
conception of what is meant by the " moral " forms
of dolphins and of arches. You, who admire him
2 Edinburgh Review, July 1877. 'Venice Defended.'

248 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxix
have doubtless the key! Dear old Boxall tells me
of some discovery Ruskin has made of the greatest
perfection in Venetian art in the Carpaccios in
S. Giorgio degli Schiavoni, with a description of
which he (Ruskin) intends to exalt the minds
and purify the lives of the Sheffield workmen.
I have no doubt that Carpaccio will always
charm me, though I may not be capable of
moral reform as is the Sheffield workman ; still,
I hope I may find something to quarrel with
Ruskin about even in him ! '
The R.A. Exhibition at Burlington House
forms the principal subject of a long letter to
Mr. Layard in May 1877. A few extracts are
given, to show that Lady Eastlake's art-knowledge
was not confined to pictures by old masters : —
I managed the Private View, and have been
again since, so am better able to tell you about
the pictures. As to Millais — an old Halberdier,
in red coat and black cap, is one of his strong,
effective pictures : also a large picture of a young
man and a young woman standing opposite each
other, called ' Yes ' — so you may guess the tender
moment. Fortunately for him, his face is averted,
so his inexpressible spooneyism is concealed ; his
chief expression is an immense Ulster coat and

1877 MILLAIS, WATTS, LEIGHTON 249
half a portmanteau, brought in for two purposes
— to fill the picture and to indicate that he is on
the point of departure. She is a lady of the
accepted, decided type, who looks as if she could
say ' No ' too, when occasion requires. Watts is
not seen to advantage in two portraits — ' Lord
Cowper ' and a ' Lady.' Then he has an extra
ordinary picture, called ' The Dove returned not
any more ' : simply a forked tree, and the dove
nestling in the cleft. The tree is apparently in
the Isle of Wight, with nice English ivy twining
about it, and a view of the Needles. Poynter has
a well-drawn portrait of a very beautiful woman,
Mrs. Archibald Milman, who has by nature the
quantity of golden-coloured hair and the com
plexion, which some ladies endeavour to create :
but he has not quite done her justice. Leighton
has an exquisitely finished picture — child and
mother — called ' The Music Lesson,' with all his
beauties, and a few of his faults, but a charming
thing. His bronze statue of a man and a snake
has great merit. The snake is coiled round the
man, who holds it at arm's length by its throat,
and, it is supposed, will strangle the animal before
the animal overthrows him. But Professor Owen
enlightens the world by stating that you cannot

250 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxix
strangle a snake, and that therefore the man will
have the worst of it, which I don't think Leighton
intends. At all events, it is a most meritorious
work. Painters supposed to be rising do not
shine. . . .
I forbear any remarks upon your Turks : so
good and wise a Government must carry every
thing before them.
The idea of writing an article on Titian for
the ' Edinburgh Review ' was at this time engag
ing her attention : she writes to Mr. Layard on
August 19, 1877 : —
I stood before Titian's ' Bacchus and
Ariadne ' a few days ago in perfect amazement
of admiration. He seems more entirely at home
in such a world of fiction than in any other class
of subject. His Saints and Madonnas are ex
quisitely acted, his portraits are what his sitters
wished to be thought — quite true to old Gibson's
definition, ' Men thoughtful and women calm ' ;
but the Bacchus and his rabble rout are realities.
It is a very curious study how far the intensity of
fancy in one mind can commend itself as truth
to another — like La Motte Fouque's ' Undine.'
Perhaps Milton saw this picture and wrote his
! Comus ' the easier for it. I am, indeed, rather

1877 TITIAN 251
immersed in thoughts of Titian, who appears to
me the most complete of the old painters, running
his course unchecked, and working out his own
art from beginning to end. I am puzzling myself
also with ideas about ' colour,' which could not
but occur to me in my deeply interesting time
under your generous roof in Venice. That ex
panse of fine neutral tones, always seen around the
city, and rushing through it, must have intensi
fied the sense of colour to her artists, and, I
fancy, may be credited with their pre-eminence as
colourists. I doubt Titian's being of a high type
of taste in life : his compar Aretino was not much
to his credit, unless Aretino can be whitewashed,
or (which is probable) was an irresistibly good
fellow. I am hunting for his letters to see,
without touching any pitch, whether I can make
him out. Mrs. Grote and I talked much the other
day of Voltaire, who is being whitewashed by
modern analysis, and whom I often heard vindi
cated by Mr. Grote.
Blackwood (Edinburgh) is employing known
writers to form a series of Lives of Celebrities :
it is being edited by Mrs. Oliphant, who has her
self undertaken Dante ; Reeve is doing Petrarch,
and Hayward Goethe. For no writer have I so

252 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxix
little sympathy as for Goethe. (Should we fight
upon this ?) I read his Wahlverwandtschaften
not long ago patiently, and came to the convic
tion that I never read such unmitigated trash.
Hayward, who has made him the study of his life,
and is taking great pains with his subject, did not
disagree with me in this verdict.
In September, while staying with Mrs. Grote
at Shere, she writes : —
Professor Jowett arrived here the other day,
and I renewed my acquaintance with him. He
and Arthur Stanley seemed to be of the same
class of reputed ' Atheists,' and most real and
lovable philanthropists. I fear I must confess
to a very scandalous liking for ' Atheists ' of this
sort. In a long letter, dated from Brighton, on
October 12, 1877, she again refers to Titian, on
whom she was then writing a paper : —
It is doubtless my own fault, but I do not find
the subject so full and so varied as that of his
great compeers, Leonardo da Vinci and M. Angela
Your mention of his realisation in art of what a
Greek painter would have been confirms me in
some timid ideas I had in that respect, and I find
the suggestion as fertile as all true ideas are

1877 TITIAN AND HIS TIMES

253

sure to be : so you may expect to see that I have
expanded on this topic.
I am amused at yourremarks on Titian's choice
of companions. I suspect that his art was the
best part of him. The more I look into those
'glorious' (?) times, the more I am disgusted
with the greed, the baseness, the treachery, and
adulation : every letter of Titian's, and certainly
of Aretino's, is directly or indirectly to beg for
money or place. The poets and sonnetteers, who
surrounded Princes, only thought of the cento ducati
they expected to receive, and were ready to sell
themselves to the next bidder for the same. I
am aware that we went through something of the
same phase ourselves, but that does not mend
the matter, nor have we been so much extolled.
I love and admire the native Italians the more —
of course I mean the best of them — when I see the
vile times and influences they have come through.
Alluding in the same letter to the Russo-
Turkish war, and to a fund started by Mr. Lay
ard at Constantinople for the Turks, she says : —
I fear you have not patience to hear anything
about Russia, but I cannot help feeling that,
apart from all issue of the war, this trial of her
powers will go far to show those corruptions,

254 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxix
which must be exposed before they can be
reformed. The Crusades of the Middle Ages
were neither wise nor just, but they did no end
of indirect good to those who undertook them.
You know I am not a Turk (you always were ! ),
and I have my ideas that (unhappily) one can no
more interfere between an iniquitous Government
and its wretched subjects, than between bad
parents and their unhappy children. But my
practice is not so wise as my principles, and there
fore I have sent a contribution to your Fund —
indeed, I should have contributed to the Old
Gentleman himself if you were to ask me. But
I have not sent it under my own name.
This article on Titian appeared in the
'Edinburgh Review' for January 1878, and was
one of her best contributions on Art. It was
followed by 'The Englishwoman at School,'
dealing with female education, in the ' Quarterly
Review' (July 1878). As usual, she takes Mr.
Layard into her confidence : —
Jan. 27, 1878. — I am now thinking of taking
up a subject, which you may consider more
suitable to my powers, namely, Female Educa
tion ! There is quite a literature on the subject
now — the worms have turned, and insist on
knowing more and better. Considering that we

1878 FEMALE EDUCATION 255
have no ' mariages de convenance ' or polygamy,
and that therefore a good many ladies, in default
of either resource, are left to starve or to
maintain themselves, I think they have a right
to break through that ideal of feminine helpless
ness which gentlemen deem so attractive, and
prepare for the possibility of helping themselves.
If every single gentleman would maintain a single
lady, or every widower a widow, the need for
better female education would not exist ; but
there might be some difficulty in the rating. I
fear the poor ladies themselves can't be acquitted
of blame : I am always ashamed of their low
grade in art, and unhappily our Government
Schools of Art are not calculated to raise it.
South Kensington continues to practise on the
ignorance of the young — to fill its classes, and
ruin the taste and hands of its pupils.
And again on March 17, 1878 : —
The subject of Female Education here in
England still engages me, and will for some time,
for it has bearings which make it intricate. The
higher the education, of course the better. The
wonder is that England should be, in this respect,
so much behind other countries, where Universi
ties, as in Italy, are thrown open to women, and

256 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxix
classes instituted for all grades and mixtures of
grades. But the question is not education for
itself, but for the bread and cheese purposes to
which it can be turned. The number of single,
destitute, and helpless so-called ladies is so great
as to become a very sad and pressing matter ;
and the great object is to give this class the
power of maintaining themselves, at least in the
rising generation. While, however, it is so
difficult to secure profitable employment for our
boys, it seems in vain to expect it for our girls.
I must do your sex the justice to say, that they
do not deserve all the abuse levelled at them by
some lady-writers. In the movement for im
proved female education the gentlemen have
been most liberal — both individually and as
University authorities. From all I read I am
sorry to shock you by saying, that I find Russia
very forward in promoting the education of her
ladies ; so much so, that, on the marriage of the
Duchess of Edinburgh, several Russian towns
presented her, by way of acceptable present,
with endowments for girls' schools. Talking of
Russia, I shall horrify you further by acknow
ledging, that I am thinking of paying a visit to
the Baltic Provinces this early summer.

1878 UN SOLD AT ANGLAIS 257
This letter concludes with the following
amusing anecdote : —
I met your brother, Colonel Layard, the
other day at dinner. He sat next me, and I was
glad to hear ' the voice of Jacob,' for his voice is
the same as yours. He told me an anecdote of a
little French prig of a boy, who said he would
like best to be ' un soldat anglais ' ; and on
being asked why (your brother expecting a
flattering reply), lisped out : ' Parce qu'ils ne se
battent pas.' Your brother expressed quite a
Layard-like wish to throttle him.
She carried out her project of visiting the
Baltic Provinces, and, while staying with her
nieces at Reval, writes Sir Henry Layard an
account of her experiences : —
July 3, 1878. — You see I have fulfilled your
hope that the fact of no war might enable me
to make good my journey hither. Many a kind
friend expressed anxiety at the prospect of my
venturing, at which I laughed in my sleeve, but
promised to be very circumspect. I wish they
could have seen the welcome with which I was
received, how all Russian Custom-house regula
tions were suspended in my honour, how there is
no chance of my being killed except with kind-
vol. 11. s

258 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxix
ness. I had a rough passage to Hamburg, but
made good Emerson's dogma that ' Great minds
are never sea-sick ! ' Thence by rail to Liibeck,
and so three days and nights' passage to Reval
upon a perfectly smooth Baltic. There you
would be quite happy, for Turkish officers are
seen at every street corner, walking about in
perfect freedom, and evidently enjoying them
selves. At present they have not murdered any
body, and the peaceable inhabitants begin to look
upon them with less apprehension. I only hope
Russian prisoners in Turkey may have fared no
worse, that is, if allowed to live at all.
Of the effects of the war I see nothing. The
land is one flowing, if not with milk and honeyr,
yet with milk and cream, and every other good
thing. Everybody eats three times as much as
we do in England, and is none the worse for it.
This year the crops promise to be magnificent,
and if the taxes promise to be high in proportion,
at all events they will be met without difficulty.
Of course, I hear, what I knew before, much
good of the Russian people, much bad of the
Government : there are no complaints of cruelty
¦ — indeed, they complain that the laws are mor
bidly humane, and that rogues and villains do

l878 SCHOUVALOFF

259

not get their deserts. It is the caprice and un
certainty of the Government, that is the real
tyranny— the interference with freedom of com
merce, which is the short-sighted folly. For a
wonder, they have a low postage, and derive a pro
portionally increasing revenue from that source ;
but they apply the same principle no further.
I am delighting in reading the forbidden
books — of course upon Russian matters, and have
thus a better chance of getting at some truth.
What did I not hear of Schouvaloff before
leaving London! There was not a name that
my good  did not call him, proving him to
be quite as much fool as rogue. Here, he is the
object of the highest respect. His governorship
of the Three Baltic Provinces proved the wisest
and justest they had ever experienced, and he is
looked upon as one of the few Russian officials
who can be trusted for truth and honesty. These
Provinces are allowed great independence : they
have their own administration of police, roads,
church, schools, post, &c, and their Barons may
be really compared to our average country
gentlemen, fulfilling the magisterial posts gratis,
and being at any rate not exposed to bribery.
I am without public news for the last week, s 2

260 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxix
for my ' Times ' has failed. I only hope that no
disturbances in Constantinople have complicated
matters and given you fresh trouble. Your
account of your conversation with the Sultan in
his Summer Palace sounds like a page from the
' Arabian Nights.' I heartily wish your next pro
motion might be to be Sultan in his place, though
with the strictest guarantees for only one Sultana.
The subject of Russia is continued in the next
letter, written after her return to London, special
reference being made to the pictures in the
Hermitage, St. Petersburg : —
Nov. 10, 1878. — The last time I addressed
you was from a country house in Estonia. As
you are not very popular among the Russians, it
is possible that the letter never reached you. It
is not often that ladies of my age can expect to
be worshipped as I was there, so I made the
most of the last opportunity. I returned by land,
and I am sorry to assure you that the Russian
railways and carriages are excellent. I spent
twenty-four hours between St. Petersburg and the
frontier more comfortably than on any other line.
I had visited Petersburg twice before in early
days, but Sir Charles had never been there :
thus I went through the pictures at the Hermitage

1878 THE HERMITAGE, ST. PETERSBURG 261
with no pangs of association, only wishing for
Boxall or for you /to share in the pleasure — or,
as Mrs. Grote expresses it, ' for some one to
pinch.' It is a glorious gallery, tolerably well
furnished in the schools we like. Some of the
later acquisitions from Italy are well known to
me, such as the so-called ' Leonardo ' from the
Litta house in Milan, and also the Costabili
' Raphael.' I was enchanted with it, and with
the 'Alba Madonna,' which I had seen, almost
before you were born, in Mr. Coesvelt's house in
Carlton Terrace. The last is the ne plus ultra
of Raphael's perfection in this class. But the
strength of the Gallery lies in the Rembrandts,
chiefly from the Houghton collection, about
forty in number, including every phase and
subject of his brush : they are quite sublime, and
one acknowledges all, but two, as indubitable. A
small picture of ' The Lord of the Vineyard ' is
one of the gems of the world. The Gallery ter
minates in the pictures executed by Reynolds for
Catherine II., and it is well they are placed last.
I think I should have pronounced them horrors
even in England, or standing alone ; but, after
the feast of Rembrandts, they were intolerable —
bad colour, bad composition, egregious affectation.

262 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxix
' Cupid loosening the girdle of Venus ' would
make you ill, and of the ' Infant Hercules,' which
is a pile of theatrical men and hysterical women,
it is truly said that it matters not which way
upwards it stands.
Petersburg left no pleasing impression on me,
though the weather was fine, and the streets full
— at least the principal one : but when you have
streets as wide as the Neva there can be no
effect, let the houses be never so large. As for
architecture, it is the most wretched mixture of
all styles and no styles — all plaster, and that
painted. Here and there a truly Russian church
— the Isaacs Church especially — and the Ad
miralty show you where you are. I can't pretend
to have gained much fresh information about
Russia : the natives themselves know nothing —
in truth, they have not come to the reasoning
period. They hear nothing, and read nothing
(except novels), and have nothing to reason from.
The emancipation of the serfs — a fine thing, but
most dishonestly executed — has affected the con
dition of the peasantry throughout the Empire.
Thus the peasantry of the Baltic Provinces,
though long enfranchised, had not hitherto been
able to purchase land ; but now this liberty to buy

1878 A DOUBTFUL COMPLIMENT 263
land has begun to work a kind of revolution.
The upper classes, who are all a German noblesse
— giving, as in Germany, their titles to every
man and woman of the family, and dividing their
property equally — have, by the logic of such a
system, come down to utter poverty. Estates
come into the market which no one can buy, and
the peasants, who have been thrifty, come forward
as purchasers. Formerly, none but a noble could
purchase an estate, and I witnessed much fruitless
indignation at the cessation of their privileges.
I am astonished that you should pay the
Russians such a compliment as to give them credit
for having taught the Turks immorality. What
a clever people they must be ! I often wonder
where the Philo-Turks are to be found here,
except in rabid newspapers and in the two
Quarterly Reviews. Wherever I go, I hear but
one voice as to Turkish misdeeds, ill- faith, and
incapacity — but this, you will say, is only a proof
of the bad company I keep. It is well we have
the delightful field of Art to adjourn to, in which
I believe we never did quarrel ! . . .
The successor to Sir Francis Grant will be
appointed perhaps this evening : I wish it may
be Leighton.

264 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxx

CHAPTER XXX
1879-1885
The death, on Dec. 28, 1878, of Mrs. Grote
was a real sorrow to Lady Eastlake, who had
much valued the friendship of that large-minded,
generous, gifted woman.
An extract from a letter which she wrote on
January 12, 1879, to her friend Miss Gifford,
bears on this sorrowful event : —
I greedily accept all sympathy on my great
loss in Mrs. Grote's death. It is true she was
86, but the mind only gained in clearness and
sweetness, and seemed still in its prime. To me
she had been a true friend in time of need, just
when the worldly leave one, and I have blessed
her in my heart for many a year. No one
realised the certainty and approach of death more
than she ; we buoyed ourselves up with tem
porary rallies, but she never doubted, and had
made preparations long before her final illness.
She endeared all to her — from the lowest servant
— by her generous, loving, forgiving life. She

1879 MRS. GROTE'S DEATH 265
is mourned by all who knew her — by nieces and
nephews as a mother, by friends as a strength
and stay, by her servants and the poor as a bene
factress. She was a most noble creature, as good
as she was great, without a petty thought or feel
ing. I can have no higher ambition than to live
as wisely and as well as she did, however differ
ently in minor respects.
In deference to the wishes of Mrs. Grote's
relatives, Lady Eastlake undertook, early in 1879,
to write a short memoir of her friend : this was
published in the autumn of 1880.1 While pre
paring this, she wrote an article — ' Bastiat : an
Apostle of Free Trade ' — for the ' Edinburgh
Review' of April 1879; and another — 'Albert
Diirer ' — for the ' Quarterly Review ' of October
1879: for the purposes of the latter article she
paid several visits to the Print Room at the
British Museum, ' which,' she says, ' have opened
my eyes to Albert Diirer's marvellous merits ;
indeed he has every one in art, except beauty.' «
An extract from an interesting letter to the
Hon. Mrs. Swinton is here given (the Swintons
of Kimmerghame had been intimate friends of
Lady Eastlake since her Edinburgh days) : —
July 11, 1879. — All the world talks of and
goes to the French Play, and whoever has been
1 Mrs. Grote. A Sketch by Lady Eastlake. ( John Murray.
1880.)

266 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxx
once insists on going twice, for the company
seems exceptionally excellent. I have rummaged
up a copy of Moliere, and oh ! how charming he
is ! Humorist, satirist, and therefore moralist.
I place him next to Shakespeare : and the men's
lives were something akin — both actors as well
as playwriters, and of both too little known. But
I never heard of sonnets by Moliere, and those
are Shakespeare's most exquisite legacies. Shake
speare foresaw his fame — he said as much in
more than one sonnet : I wonder whether Moliere,
who ranked as a vagabond, ever did !
I quite forgive you for admiring Bazzi:2 I have
seen him but little — chiefly at Siena ; and I never
was at Monte Oliveto. He is a ripe painter,
wielding all the resources of his art, and especially
good in colour of flesh. Still, I must acknowledge
that the Quattro-Centisti — Botticelli, Ghirlan
dajo, the Lippi, &c. — are my passion. They are
the buds, and have something which the glorious
full-blown never retain. But, happily, my heart
is large, and Catholicism in art is everything.
The sensation in England caused by that
tragedy in Zululand has been intense and uni
versal. It almost wipes out the remembrance of
2 Giov. Antonio Bazzi, surnamed II Sodoma.

( I
I I
I I
[ (
I I

1S79 PRINCE IMPERIAL'S DEATH 267
the Buonaparte crimes. People have wept, and
lost their appetite and sleep, and the Empress has
received a sympathy and respect, which hardly
anything short of this would have given her.
The poor young prince is perhaps not to be
pitied : I mean not for his early death — no enemy
to his family has inflicted it. Lieut. Carey should
have saved him, or died with him. I feel, too,
that what man, humanly speaking, could so easily
have prevented, we are especially bound to
ascribe to the Higher Will. It was to be. I find
in to-day's ' Times ' that he is reported often to
have said : — ' My Father dragged the cannon-ball
of the Coup d'Etat all his life with him ; I would
not for the world have such a weight tied to my
feet.' During the autumn of 1879 she stayed with
friends in Devonshire and Hampshire, and, in
spite of her increasing feebleness, much enjoyed
her visits there. Later, she contemplates editing
her father's ' Letters from France ' ( see vol. i.
p. 2), and writes to Sir Henry Layard : —
Nov. 9, 1879. — I have been diving a little into
the French Revolution, for I am thinking of
editing some interesting letters from my father
from France : he entered Paris at the outbreak
of the tumults in July 1789. This sent me to

268 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxx
Taine, Tocqueville, Lanfrey, and Arthur Young,
till I could not sleep at night with the sense of
the iniquities, not of the Paris rabble, but of the
Ancien Rdgime. I am not inclined to make light
of the Terror, but the horrors of a century and a
half of oppression, and the starvation of millions
seem to me a blacker page. I am afraid you will
pull me up for being Rouge. No works of late
times are more remarkable than those on the
causes of the Revolution. After reading some of
them, I opened J. W. Croker's ' Essays on the
Revolution,' and they made me ill.
She is now busily engaged with Mrs. Grote's
Journals and Letters, and writes to Sir Henry on
December 22, 1879 : —
There are most powerful and interesting things
in both journals and letters, especially in a few
letters of hers to Tocqueville — returned after his
death. Altogether, her correspondence with, and
friendship for, him forms a remarkable instance
of friendship between minds of different nations
but similar calibre. Tocqueville, it appears to me,
was one of the few foreigners, who stood on a
level with the distinguished Englishmen of the
higher middle class — independent both in thought
and purse, a landholder living in an old family

1879 DE TOCQUEVILLE 269
place, a member of Parliament, a scholar, with
general culture and enlightened views. His
' Ancien Regime ' is a master work : Mrs. Grote
conversed much with him at St. Cyr, near Tours,
while he was engaged on that work ; and in
Senior's ' Conversations ' with Tocqueville, which
I have just been reading, are introduced some of
her recollections, which are intensely interesting.
Certainly her marvellous powers of conversation
did not come by chance ; the pains she took to
record passing events, and to generalise what she
read, were such as few would undertake. At
the same time, her powers were of the highest
order, and she had a magnificently educated com
panion. A letter of April 15, 1880, deals with the
sudden reversal of political prospects : —
I am too old to be much moved by such
changes. The utmost extremes of party under a
constitutional government cannot, happily, do the
harm — or even the good — which the change 01
one despot for another would create. The laws
are above all parties, and their common ground
and interests are great. The next few months
will be very interesting for us at home to watch,

270 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxx
but the team of the nation cannot suddenly be
driven in an opposite direction.
Writing on May 29, 1880, she hits off, in a
few words, the peculiarities of the Chinese coun
tenance : —
I met the ladies of the Chinese Embassy yes
terday afternoon — two ladies whose faces con
sisted of a series of greatly developed curves, with
a decidedly concave curve for their noses. A
little boy Chinaman was with them, whose face had
evidently been sat upon.
While staying at Albury for the autumn she
wrote a paper — ' Germany Past and Present ' —
for the ' Edinburgh Review,' October 1880, going
a good deal into Goethe's works, which she
describes as ' strange extremes of power and
puerility.' Her next effort was an article on Madame de
Stael 3 for the ' Quarterly Review,' to which she
refers in a letter of January 2, 1881 : —
I am prosecuting my reading and thinking
about Madame de Stael, whose ' Considerations
sur la Revolution Francaise' strike me as equal to
any of the later works upon it, and as anticipating
them. I am fascinated with her writing, which
seems to me a compound of the solidity of
3 Quarterly Review, July 1881. ' Madame de Stael. A Survey
of her Life and Times.'

1881 IRELAND AND THE GOVERNMENT 271
Johnson and the brilliancy of Macaulay — and a
compound which is better than either. I am
deeply interested in Necker's character too — a
man who never took a salary for all his work.
But his daughter had strong nerves and decision,
which he failed in.
In the same letter there is an allusion to the
difficulties in Ireland : —
All the world, as you may guess, are talk
ing of Ireland, and Gladstone is much abused :
even I give a man up who could not forgive
atrocities in Bulgaria, and yet encourages them
in Ireland. So far as I hear and see, I never
remember society so unanimous in condemnation
of the present Government, the lawyers especially
so : the omissions and commissions are equally-
disapproved. It is believed that the Cabinet
intend making Lord Cowper their scapegoat.
I wish Bismarck had the governing of Ireland.
Alluding to the assassination of the Czar in
March 1881, she writes to her nephew : —
You can believe that the Czar's murder has
shocked me terribly : well do I know the panic in
Reval — they will be afraid to sleep in their beds.
These old despotisms cannot stand the light of
the present day, and one wonders that any man

272 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxx
in his senses should undertake them. No man
can really feel himself able to rule singly over
eighty millions of people, or over one million.
A Czar who would start with only one-tenth
of the present useless army, one-tenth of the
wretched ' chinvoniks ' (common officials), and no
secret police, might have a chance of dying in
his bed. In September 1881 she met Jenny Lind,
whom she had known for many years, at a coun
try house near Tonbridge. She writes to Sir
Henry : —
I quite enjoyed Jenny Lind's company ; her
knowledge of the world is not slight — her own
caprices seem to have given her the key to other
people's, and she had some curious tales to tell.
I told her she ought to write her life. More
than once she sat down to the piano voluntarily,
preluded a little very finely on the keys, and then
burst forth into song. Her voice is as good as
ever for a room, and she has the same perfect
justness of time. . . .
You remember my dining with you in Savile
Row before you went to Norway. Why on
earth did you attack me about my false judgments
on my sex generally ? It has dwelt in my

1881 FRANCE AND IRELAND— A PARALLEL 273
mind ever since, and so now I will give you my
simple answer. I judge of my sister women in a
very matter-of-fact way — as to whether, namely,
they are good daughters, wives, or mothers, and
there are few of them who do not fill one of these
characters. I have no other test of character.
If you fancied me censorious about fast ladies,
I beg to say that they are not in my line, and I
still less in theirs ; so we do not come across one
another. During the winter, Lady Eastlake again takes
up the subject of the French Revolution, with a
view to an article in the ' Quarterly Review.' 4
She is inclined to draw a parallel between the
Jacobins and the Irish Land Leaguers, and writes
to her nephew, November 10, 1881 : —
If the Land League were allowed to rule
unrestrained, finding no resistance from Govern
ment, killing all landlords, and intimidating every
one, Ireland would be just what France was
under the Jacobins. It is quite curious how
parallel the cases are : only, Ireland never suffered
from our Government as France did from her
own. Nor do Mr. Parnell and his sister quote
Brutus and Marcus Aurelius as the patriots did
then. It is the strangest picture, and did I not
4 Quarterly Review, January 1882. ' The Jacobin Conquest:1
VOL. II. T

274 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxx
know how it ended, I could never have believed
it. All came originally from a despotism, and a
wretched dependent noblesse, who sucked the poor
people dry.
She also mentions her occupation to Sir Henry
Layard : —
Dec. 14, 1 88 1. — I have been preparing an
article for the ' Q. R.' on the late works by Taine
and others, on the interminable subject of the
French Revolution. The task has been rather
above my powers, and I have felt anxious about
it. I am not so strong as I was, and cannot
expect to be ; but I hope my head, such as it is,
does not show signs of decay. A definite object
of occupation, and a definite subject to read about
and think over, are a great resource of comfort to
me, now that my powers of locomotion are so
small, and that a lonely life inclines me to too
great pensiveness ! . . .
It is true that there is a society for doing Mr.
Browning posthumous honour in his lifetime. I
was invited to join it, but I pleaded too great
stupidity, and was excused. Dryden, Milton,
and Pope are, I understand, quite commonplace
in comparison ; that I am inclined to believe.
But I like Browning himself.

1881 THE PHOENIX PARK MURDERS 275
On the murder of Lord Frederick Cavendish
and Mr. Burke she dashes off a letter to Sir
Henry in her 'heat and horror' : —
May 7, 1882. — My mind is so full of horror at
this awful Dublin atrocity, that I must brim over
to an old friend like you, who can go along with
me in indignation, and beyond me in power and
knowledge. There is not a right-thinking man in
England, who ought not to make it his duty to
protest against the Government, which has brought
our country to such a pass. An immediate change
of measures may arrest the evil, but nothing can
redeem our character. England is disgraced and
humiliated, and has allowed herself to be so.
She has looked on with apathy when the innocent
mother of young children was murdered : we can
only hope that these more distinguished, but not
less innocent, victims may elicit more manly feel
ing. What can be done ? Cannot any leading
man call a meeting, and petition the Queen to
dismiss her counsellors ? I do not venture to say
that you should do so, though you were meant to
be the leader of men ; but you will hear the feel
ing of the country gentry around you, and most
thankful should I be to know that they kindled
into some patriotic action against the real authors T 2

276 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxx
of this foul crime. What is the good of our free
dom, when our perverted use of it only turns the
laugh of despots against us ? You see I am chafing
under the trammels of my sex, and should like
for once to possess your prerogative of redressing
injuries. For the autumn of 1882 she took a house at
Yarmouth, where she began to work up a paper
on Raphael, taking Lermolieff's (Morelli) book,
' Die Werke italienischer Meister,' as a peg to
hang it upon. On the completion of this she
writes to Sir Henry : —
I have been very busy with Morelli's book,
and with the subject of Raphael generally ; the
result appears in next January's ' Edinburgh
Review.' It was difficult to say anything new
about Raphael, except what Morelli supplies.
Certainly, in looking up photographs and prints,
my admiration for the artist has waxed higher
and higher. The man was doubtless very nice,
but he does not come up to a high standard, and
I hate the courtier-like characters of the time. As
to the ' recently discovered records ' about Raphael
which Crowe and Cavalcaselle advertise, there is
not a sign of them in this first volume, but a
series of conjectures which lead to nothing. . . .
I am interested in your new application of Murano

1882 D. G. ROSSETTI 277
glass, and shall be glad to hear, when we meet,
how it is disposed of, and whence the demand.
Old Palace windows in Venice don't often get
broken. I am glad you have succeeded in stirring
up some of the old families : the commercial
faculty should be latent in them, but they have
vegetated so long that you must be a kind of
phenomenon amongst them. I am sure there is
much still to be written about Old Venice, if any
one could get at records and take the trouble.
Lady Eastlake's opinion (given in a letter to
her nephew) of Rossetti as a painter will perhaps
be regarded as heretical : —
Feb. 17, 1883. — On Thursday I managed to
get to the Rossetti exhibition in Savile Row. If
you care for my opinion, it is that the pictures are
horrors, without a single merit. Layard calls
them ' women with cadaverous bodies and sensual
mouths.' I say, that part look as if they were
going to be hanged, wringing their hands and
poking out their chins — and others look as if they
had been hanged, and were partially decomposed.
It is disgraceful to hear so much nonsense talked
by people who know nothing of art, but it is
exactly those who are the most presumptuous.
People don't talk law to lawyers, or medicine

278 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XXX
to doctors, but their conceit about art is incre
dible. Her rheumatism was now increasing so much,
and her powers of locomotion becoming so
restricted, that she yielded to her friends' urgent
entreaties, and went to Aix-les-Bains for treat
ment. She writes from that place to Sir Henry : —
June 6, 1883. — I seem to be so near you, that
it is doubly unnatural not to try and communicate
with you ; but the life here is idleness without
leisure, and fussiness without work — quite a new
experience to me. It is exactly a month now
that I have been living thus, and, while there has
been much enjoyment in it, I can't report any
improvement. I have had my share of ' douches '
and ' vapeurs,' and all the usual course of treat
ment — and not without effect of some kind, for
I feel considerably lamer and feebler than when
I came. This, however, I am assured is the
usual result — you must be worse before you are
better — and this part of the programme I have
faithfully performed. But it has been a great
interest to me to witness for the first time the
burst of spring in a southern climate, and most
wonderful it has been. This hotel (' Venet at
Bristol ') lies in a beautiful garden, with plenty of

1883 AIX-LES-BAINS 279
seats for the dowagers, and lawn tennis for the
young — surrounded with no end of flowering
shrubs and trees.
The hot springs here are marvellous : the
chief one sends forth more than a million gallons
of sulphurous water daily, of which my unfortunate
person receives a full share ; for a douche means
the application, through different fire-engines, of
a thousand concentrated showers of rain, till you
can neither see nor hear — your attendants on the
occasion being a cross between water-nymphs and
opera-dancers. I can't say that it is unpleasant,
but it is very exhausting. A long siesta is the
next act ; then there comes much eating, and
drinking, and driving, and lounging ; so my usual
letter-writing has been much curtailed.
The visit to Aix-les-Bains was unfortunate,
as, almost immediately after Lady Eastlake's
return to England, occurred the death of Mrs.
Anderson — her old and faithful housekeeper, who
had been in Sir Charles's service since 1845, and
who had accompanied her mistress to Aix. Lady
Eastlake herself also had a serious illness, from
which she recovered but slowly, and which left
her feebler and lamer. She writes : —
' I am going through a trying time of it, and
with no chance of dying, which is doubly hard.'
She acknowledges that the time is fast coming

280 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XXX
when 'I shall not be able to move at all : I hope
to devote the short remainder of my life to the
enjoyment of reading interesting books, as my
habits have become necessarily rather recumbent.
I only grudge two things in my imprisonment —
the Exhibitions [of pictures] and nice dinner
parties. I think everybody should die or be killed
off at seventy : by that time we have had enough
of this life, and people are getting tired of us. . . .
It is said that England is famous for consump
tion in the young, rheumatism in the middle-aged,
and bronchitis in the old. If so, I have a right
to the last, which would be shorter and decidedly
merrier than rheumatism.'
Several kind friends had urgently recommended
her to try various quacks, but she answered them
each with three objections : —
' They take up your time, they spoil your things,
they steal your money : I decidedly prefer my
rheumatism to them.'
Her articles (slightly revised) on Leonardo da
Vinci, Michael Angelo, Titian, Albert Diirer, and
Raphael were published by Messrs. Longmans in
October 1883,5 with the following Preface : —
' In venturing to reprint in a separate form
5 Five Great Painters. By Lady Eastlake. 2 vols. (Longmans,
Green, & Co. 1883.)

1883 GENERAL GORDON 281
(permission having been kindly granted) the
following essays, originally contributed to the
"Edinburgh" and "Quarterly Reviews," the
writer founds her claim to the indulgence of the
reader on no study or thought of her own, but
solely on the advantages enjoyed by her for long
years at the side of the late Sir Charles L.
Eastlake' Commenting on politics in 1 884, she writes to
her nephew July 15, 1884 : —
' I suspect that Mr. Gladstone and his crew
will soon come to blows with their opponents : at
all events they have exhausted all mendacious
and abusive epithets.' And later, November
1884 : — ' How ungrateful, as well as silly and
wicked, are the Radicals to want to upset such a
Constitution as ours ! I wish they had a taste of
the oppression of German and Russian Govern
ments, or of the ever-troubled sea of French
politics. No men deserve better of their country
than our Peers, whatever black sheep there may
be among them.'
She feels keenly the death of General Gordon
in January 1885 : —
The thought that, after all his patience and

282 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxx
faith, our great Gordon should have thus perished
without seeing the fruit of all his long endurance
and sacrifice accomplished — I mean the rescue of
the helpless creatures over whom he had watched
— that thought has much disturbed me. I never
thought that public calamity and shame could
weigh so heavily on me. My axiom is, that all
afflictions are blessings of a high order. I am
sure Gordon thought so. But one must turn a
sharp and difficult and long corner before realising
that truth.
She pays a tribute to the memory of Lord
Shaftesbury, who died in October 1885, and
whom she had long known : —
I feel the death of good Lord Shaftesbury
most deeply, though he was old enough to
deserve to go. Good as he was, he was not one
of the ' unco guid,' and was delightful as a man
of society. There is no one to replace him, but
he has taught people how to work. England
may decline publicly, .but she never stood higher
privately. Still I am prepared for great public
anxieties and catastrophes : the failing revenue is
a serious sign.
The condition of affairs in Ireland, in October
1885, rouses her indignation : her remarks on

1885 FEMALE SUFFRAGE 283
this and other subjects are quoted from a letter,
dated October 10, to her nephew : —
What a state we are getting into in Ireland !
I am almost inclined to echo the cabman's wish
that ' we could borrow Cromwell of the Devil for
a year, to put Ireland to rights.' But it will be
too disgraceful if we cannot oppose and neutralise
the brutal organisation formed against the liberties
of orderly subjects. We shall have to come in
the end to martial law, and under far worse
conditions than if it had been enforced three
years, or more, ago. The Irish are the thorn
or pike in our side.
I read all Lord Salisbury's speech with
attention and great interest, and quite approve
his proposal to convert the Church glebes into
fair prices for the Clergy, and thus deal with the
land in the really best way for the people. But
with this one-sided Free Trade, all at our
expense, there is no fair way of dealing with
land. I have no doubt that women will have votes
before long : I care little about it myself — it is
simply a matter of sense and consistency. Low
as the qualification is now, it is still a property-,
not a sex-qualification ; and if women can hold

284 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxx
property, then that should give the vote. I have
been surprised at the decided way in which
gentlemen have talked to me lately of the fitness
of women to vote — putting them sometimes
before the merely ordinary man. In the lower
classes, a respectable woman is often wiser than
a man of the same class. The Board Schools
would never be what they are now if women's
common sense were more represented. But I
don't approve of Board Schools or compulsory
education at all for the poor, more than for the
rich. Would you, as a father, bear to be com
pelled to send your children to any stated school ?
I utterly disapprove of gratuitous education for
the poor, except that, since it is compulsory, it
ought to be gratuitous as the proper compensa
tion.

1886 THE BLENHEIM COLLECTION 285

CHAPTER XXXI
1886-1891
The dispersal of the Blenheim collection of pic
tures in the summer of 1886 (the celebrated
' Raphael ' having been previously purchased by
the National Gallery) is the subject of some
remarks by Lady Eastlake in a letter to Sir
Henry Layard.
Of course [she writes] I was not able to go to
Christie's to see the Blenheim Collection. I have
been at Blenheim, and do not readily forget pic
tures. It is humiliating not to have been able to
buy any but one little uncelebrated picture — not
even the Teniers, a most interesting lot, which
only fetched something over 2,000/. He might
copy whom he would, he always remained
Teniers. I quite agree with you that, for the
next seven years, a Director is superfluous. I
am disposed also to agree with Lord Thurlow,
that the purpose of the National Gallery is to
attract pictures hitherto unknown, to draw them

286 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxxi
out of odd places in Italy or elsewhere (anybody
can buy well-known pictures from English col
lections), and to leave it to the generosity, ambi
tion, or vanity of private individuals to present
and bequeath at home. I am so glad that you
agree with me on all these points !
The sale, following that of the Hamilton pic
tures and library, is hardly creditable to two
English Dukes, who date from palaces. For all
that, I am not one to despair of our glorious
country, never higher in many respects than
now. While staying at Albury, near Guildford, she
busies herself with the translation of Professor
Brandl's ' Life of S. T. Coleridge' : in a letter of
August 6, 1886, to Sir Henry, she deals with this
and also touches on the political situation : —
Some little time ago I rather incautiously
undertook to translate a German Life of S. T.
Coleridge. But then the Professor, for of course
he is one, is a good-looking young man, and you
always said my proclivities that way would get
me into a scrape. He keeps ahead of me, and I
get his proof sheets in succession. Upon the
whole, his work is thus far very ably done — all
that great reading and passion for the subject can

1886 A GERMAN LIFE OF COLERIDGE 287
do, with a little playfulness not quite of such a
cart-horse kind as Germans generally indulge in.
My fear is, that it will prove too clever for our
English public : there is too much technicality as
to poetical terms in parts. All this will be de
lightful to a German reader, but I think I can
judge what will suit an English one, and threaten
to omit what bores me, which puts the Professor
into a fright. The interesting part is the connec
tion between Coleridge's early modes of thought
and the revolutionary tendencies of the time — he
was born 1772 : also the analysis of his extra
ordinary mind.
I have known chief of the living Coleridges,
who have all a vein of cleverness, which must
come from the same source as his did. Not
that I call young Bernard C. clever, who, being
direct heir to a peerage, votes for the abolition
of the House of Lords. In short, he is a Glad-
stonian. I fancy no retreat would be secluded
enough to isolate me from that subject.
Now we have a temporary calm, with the
Old Man out of power. The worst a man can
do is over, but what some will call worse is doubt
less still to come. However, I hardly think those
Irish rebels would fight, more than the crofters of

288 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XXXI
Tiree have, if they saw that we were in earnest.
The future is full of incident and anxiety.
The same subjects are referred to in her next
letter : —
Oct. 31, 1886. — I am still working at my trans
lation. John Murray wants me to boil down 429
pages of German into 329 of English text : I
quite approve of this, and am cutting out a good
deal about Kant and Schelling, greatly to the
improvement of the work. At all events it has
taught me something, and Coleridge is a cha
racter to ruminate upon. It sets me thinking
how to define genius, which I find very difficult,
unless it be as a disease. I have Coleridge,
Goethe, Burns, Gibson, and your friend Glad
stone before me, and what five men can be more
various ? Goethe and Gladstone are the black
sheep of the party, for selfishness and vanity.
It is useless to speak on politics. One has
only to hope that our present men will do their
duty, which is principally to stand firm at any cost.
I feel that we ought as strenuously to oppose
Russia now as we did Buonaparte at the begin
ning of the century, no matter what income-tax
or any other tax. The late history of Bulgaria

1886 IRELAND AND THE IRISH 289;
and its much sinned-against young Prince would
hardly be believed in a novel or drama. . . .
High time to release you now, but I must
give you one anecdote of an Irishman: 'And
sure the times are bad : here am I going on my
honeymoon, and can't afford to take my wife
with me'
The translation of ' Coleridge's Life ' was
published in March 1887,1 and was followed by
an able article by her hand in the ' Quarterly
Review ' on the book.
Referring to the disturbed state of Ireland in
the autumn of this year, she writes on October 1 6,
1887:— Surely the English people are the most
patient in the world, and the English Govern
ment the most pottering, to go on dawdling with
such a mass of crime and rebellion. These are
the abuses of liberty, and the follies of humanity.
People talk of there being a traitor in the Cabi
net : of that I don't believe a word ; but there
seem strange mistakes in their management.
However, we have seen worse times than this,
though none precisely like them.
1 Samuel Taylor Coleridge English Edition by Lady East-
and the English Romantic lake. (John Murray. 1887.)
School. By Professor Brandl.
VOL. II. U

290 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxxi
Both in this and in her subsequent letters,
Lady Eastlake shows the deep interest she took
in the illness of the Crown Prince of Prussia : —
Alas ! from two sources I hear depressing
accounts of the Crown Prince. The one from
Morelli, who writes that the Prince's altered
appearance has made a most sorrowful impression
on him : the other from Dr. Frank — the well-
known Cannes doctor — who shakes his head at
Dr. M. Mackenzie's hopes. One shrinks from
carrying out these fears to their ultimate conclu
sion. What royal couple ever seemed more des
tined by Providence to bless a land, which so
much needs humane and liberal institutions ?
The blighting of such a prospect is a loss to the
world. I shall be very anxious to hear what you
think of him.
Nov. 30, 1887. — Foremost in interest is that
engrossing subject, in which I am sure our
thoughts often meet — the state of the noble
Crown Prince. He is truly cared about in his
wife's country, and the papers are eagerly
searched for the accounts of him. One must be
thankful for this delay in his symptoms, during
which he and our Princess may be said to be
almost enjoying a period of rest in each other's

1887 FAIR TRADE 291
company. If ever one could long for a miracle,
it is now : instead of which, the world has to face
a complication of ills, in which the future for
Germany appears darker than ever.
The question of Fair Trade was much oc
cupying her mind at this time : —
I am feeling interest in the conferences upon
Fair Trade and the Sugar Bounties, and have
been much struck by an axiom of Sir E. Sullivan
in a long letter to the ' Morning Post,' that cheap
living and low prices are no sign of prosperity,
but rather of the reverse — witness Ireland, and
other degraded parts of the globe. I am not a
great consumer of jam, so am all for retaliatory
duties on beet sugar. Indeed, if I were a poor
man, I would far rather pay more for bread, and
earn more wages and have constant work. I
know, too, that Adam Smith does not advocate
free trade for the foreigner and protection for
ourselves. Dr. William Smith has lately seen a
rich Frankfort merchant, who could not conceal
his astonishment and derision at our persistence
in benefiting the foreigner at our own grave
expense, though very glad we do persist in so
doing. Lady Eastlake takes an early opportunity of

•292 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxxi
giving Sir Henry her opinion on his ' Early
Adventures in Persia,' recently published by Mr.
Murray : —
Christmas Day, 1887. — I only wish your
' Early Adventures ' had been doubly as long,
for, after living with them at every spare moment
or half-hour for a week, I felt quite lonely when I
came to the end. By this time, you know from
the reviews how enthusiastically the work is
received. The only wonder is that you lived to
tell such tales : I was obliged to stop and remind
myself that you really had not perished by
treachery, hunger, fatigue, or nakedness, but had
to my certain knowledge been in a flourishing
condition for years, before I could turn over the
next page and see what it brought. Would that
I could have the same consolation regarding
many of those with whom you were thrown !
Those sinning and sinned-against fellow-crea
tures, with their strong contrasts of good and
bad, ruled by such demons as Metameh. The
poetry of your work is the character and fate of
the noble Bachtijari Chief and the poor Khanurn.
Nor did your subsequent information about them
relieve my mind. One can hardly enjoy one's
own liberty and laws while knowing what fair

1887 LAYARD'S 'EARLY ADVENTURES' 293
portions of this earth, and what noble souls,
languish under such tyranny. I am by no means
an enemy to Mahommedanism ; but Mahomet's
followers no more obey his teaching than too
many Christians do that of Christ. Your gener
ous Jew at Tiberias refreshed my heart : I am
glad his generosity has through life given you
a kindly feeling for the race. There are plenty
of pictures, in your description, which would do
for the R. Academy ; but your Lazarus condition
at the gate of Bagdad is the one I should
suggest. Your adventures fit on perfectly with
those of Hooker and Ball in Morocco, which
I had lately been reading : all the same tale of
wicked oppression and misrule. My cousin was
astonished that you had not retailed them in
London society for the general entertainment,
and was evidently taken by surprise at your
modesty ! . . .
Now let me congratulate you on the ap
proaching visit of Mr. Gladstone to Venice.
How he will talk about Art when he returns !
Two articles by Lady Eastlake appeared in
the 'Quarterly Review' for 1888 ; one, ' Kaspar
Hauser,' in April, and the other, ' Reminiscences
of Samuel Rogers,' in October. While completing
the latter, she had been asked by the editor to

294 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XXXI
write a paper on Venice, and warns Sir Henry
Layard that he must prepare himself to be asked
many a question en route. One of the pegs for
the article was Mrs. Oliphant's ' Makers of Venice,'
which Lady Eastlake describes as an ' agreeably
written book, the worst part of which is, perhaps,
the title, for neither soldiers nor sailors were the
makers of Venice, but liberty, and commerce, and
position.' Again, on December 6, 1888, when she
had finished her task : —
The occupation of the article about Venice,
and the continual reference to your books, have
kept my thoughts much with you, though pre
venting my writing to you so soon as I wished.
I felt all the romance of Venice ooze away, the
deeper I went into her history. It is more
romantic now as an historical shell, than it ever
was when the creature within it was alive. No
State was ever like it in varied interests, but its
past history does not touch my imagination as its
present decay does. It is a wonderful mosaic in
character, partly Italian, partly Eastern — but, as
a whole, like nothing but itself ; plenty that was
wise and judicious and eminently practical, but
no salient, noble, and generous actions. And the
wisdom belongs to the earlier part of her history ;
after the sixteenth century there is not even that :
indeed, the last two * centuries of her existence

1888 VENICE: HER INSTITUTIONS, ETC. 295
seem to me despicable. In her earlier time, she
was better than her reputation — in her latter,
worse. I hope I have vindicated her from some
of the accusations against her, but there is no
defending her at last. I ascribe her decline to
a mistaken caste of noblesse — the greatest mis
fortune that can befall a nation : I have seen
society in Germany and Russia too closely not to
be convinced of that. Pride, poverty, and pre
tension always crescendo. I sometimes wonder
what will pull England down, and whether it
will ever decline as other countries have. Our
antecedents differ from those of all other Euro
pean States, present and past. Our higher orders
have not oppressed the lower ones — indeed,
have protected them ; there is no chasm between
classes : we have an enlightened national church.
Other causes seem to me trifling in comparison.
With all her mistakes, follies, and stupidities,
England never stood higher. There is one
universal mania to do good, in some form or
other. I shall not be quite easy till I know, that you
do not positively condemn my partially heterodox
opinions of the government of Venice, and that
Mr. Horatio Brown does not set me down for a

296 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxxi
presumptuous ignoramus — there is of course no
such thing as an ignorama.
This article was in the ' Quarterly Review '
for January 1889 — 'Venice: her Institutions and
Private Life'
The new London County Council is thus
referred to in a letter of January 18, 1889 : —
The chief excitement of late has been the
elections for the County Council. I was sore
pressed to go and put my X at a house, up
high steps and down a dirty narrow lane, in order
to help to bring in two gentlemen, who were
opposed by a billiard-ball maker and a green
grocer ; and I am happy to say the two gentlemen
were returned by a large majority. I hope they
may help to solve the pauperising problem in
London, which puzzles me more and more, and
which, apparently, one cannot justly judge with
out a certain hardening of the heart. My hard
hearted opinion is, that the evil will not be met
until the Poor of London bring up and treat their
children better. . . .
A lady was telling me yesterday that she had
met Herbert Bismarck at the Duke of West
minster's, and never came across a more conceited
prig. I should like to toss Herbert Bismarck

1889 PRINCE ADAM CZARTORISKI 297
and Herbert Gladstone in one blanket and the
two Papas in another. I must not venture to say
more, or I shall shock even you.
During the autumn (1889) Lady Eastlake
wrote a paper for the ' Quarterly Review ' —
' Alexander I. of Russia and the Poles ' — based
on the Memoir of Prince Adam Czartoriski and
his Correspondence with Alexander I. ; and in a
letter of Dec. 1, 1889, to Sir Henry Layard sums
up her views : —
I have brought my ' Czartoriski ' article to a
conclusion. My reading for it has given me the
lowest possible opinion of the Polish race : vain,
frivolous, boastful, and cruel, they had not a single
quality, unless perhaps a reckless bravery, which
fitted them to rule. They richly deserve their
subjection, and, in the nature of things, were
predestined to the position they now occupy, and
will for ever occupy. Czartoriski was a poor
thing, with no political capacity : to my view, he
was no real patriot, but only one of a short-sighted
caste, who wanted time to roll back and restore
to them their powers of tyranny. How ungrate
ful, too, to that real patriot, philanthropist, and
hero, Alexander I., of whom his posterity has
made far too little ! He was a man after my
own heart — a compound of Prince Albert, the

298 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxxi
Emperor Frederick, and himself: and good-look
ing too.
I have read the life of the ' Grande Dame
Polonaise ' : indeed, I have inserted it among my
headings. That alone, I think, would tell what
Poland has been. The Poles — at least the caste
who fancied they represented the country — may
have been heroic, if rashness and foolhardiness
mean heroism, but they certainly were not
patriotic. . . .
Of all the books I have read lately, ' Motley's
Letters ' are the most delightful. He was a
perfect letter-writer. His account of the great
struggle of the Northern States has impressed
me intensely.
With reference to the death of Robert
Browning, she writes, Dec. 13, 1889, to Sir
Henry : —
Your letter prepared me for the death of
Browning, which appears in to-day's ' Times.' I
knew him tolerably well, and liked him better
than his works. He had a peculiar set of readers,
who adored him — Lord Coleridge and his family
were among those. There are always peculiar
admirers for peculiar writers, painters, clergy
men, &c. I knew Mrs. Browning — he certainly

1889 PATRIOTISM 299
showed his taste there : she was so interesting a
woman, that half an hour of her company gave
one much to remember. Browning was happy
not to have lived to extreme old age — there is
extra death in that.
She writes on February 9, 1890, to congratu
late Sir Henry on his article — 'Sir John Hawk-
wood and the Italian Condottieri ' — in the current
' Quarterly Review ' : —
You have summarised a subject which is one
of the most significant of Italian history — when
Italian States had become rich and selfish, and
shortsighted enough to prefer to fight by proxy,
and thus to introduce elements of violence and
danger highly detrimental to themselves. I have
been long interested in the question of Carma
gnola, and now I think you have solved it. There
was, apparently, no real patriotism in the Italian
character, and this basis of all public good has
only grown up through much tribulation, and
during a comparatively late time. Only a longing
for Freedom can excite it, and only Freedom
itself develop it. A history of Patriotism would
be curious. Her letters about this time contain many
a criticism of books she was reading ; for in
stance : —

300 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxxi
Feb. 17, 1890. — There is a book I am reading,
which is much talked of and recommended —
namely, ' Le Journal de Marie Baskkirtsheff ' — a
young Russian girl, who sighs for fame as an
artist, and dies at twenty-four : a vain, frivolous,
forward young lady, fancying herself in love with
the Duke of Hamilton when she was twelve years
old — with tirades which she should never have
been allowed to put into print. I have now waded
through 300 pages, and am ready to pronounce it
the most detestable and unhealthy rubbish I ever
read — very like what I have known of Russian
girls in the schoolroom. Some fashionable ladies
have gone wild over it as an interesting ' psycho
logical emanation ' — psychological fiddlestick !
And in September 1890: —
I have lately been reading Voltaire's ' Peter
the Great ' : he has whitewashed him all he could,
but has not succeeded in concealing the brute.
A more extraordinary character for energy and
perseverance never existed, and this, combined
with absolute power, made Peter a tremendous
man. He must have driven his attendants crazy.
It is much doubted whether he did not do Russia
more harm than good ; but this is more easily

1890 RENAISSANCE COOKERY 301
said than proved. A veneer of civilisation is
better than no civilisation at all.
The perusal of this and other books bearing
on Russia, such as M. Leroy-Beaulieu's
' L' Empire des Tsars et les Russies,' induced
her to put together a paper on the inexhaustible
subject — ' Russia: its People and Government' —
for the 'Quarterly Review' of January 1891.
' In preparing to write,' she says, ' one has to
collect far more materials than one uses ; and in
reading a number of works, I have supped (and
breakfasted, and lunched, and dined) upon horrors.'
Commenting on a paper by Sir Henry in the
number of ' Murray's Magazine ' for February
1 89 1 on ' Renaissance Cookery,' she writes : —
If the principal object in writing of the Past
is to exhibit its manners and habits, you could
have found no more thorough a way. The part
that eating and drinking have played in this
world, from Heliogabalus till now, is a most
unerring tell-tale. The economy of time would
seem to be the latest as well as the highest im
provement in civilisation, and that exists chiefly
among the English. The Germans have not yet
arrived at the art of conversing and eating at
the same time : they can talk with their mouths
full, and make a great noise, but they never
converse. . . .
I agree with you about Tolstoi. There is a

302 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxxi
difference between dirty and clean dirt — his is
indefensibly dirty : but I soon had enough. His
' Kreutzer Sonata ' is, I hear, his chej-d ceuvre in
that line.
The death of Giovanni Morelli (Lermolieff),2
which occurred at this time, further thinned the
ranks of her old and interesting friends. She
writes : —
Few men have inspired me with such admira
tion as dear Morelli — so manly, so large-hearted
and -headed, so full of knowledge, with such a
charming way of imparting it, so true a patriot,
and, as I have often had occasion to say of late,
the best connoisseur of art. He was a rare com
bination. My sorrow has a sharp twinge of self-
reproach, for I had not acknowledged his lately
received book, on the Munich and Dresden
Galleries, which will now have a pathetic interest
for me. Urged by Sir Henry Layard, who promises
to give her all the information in his power, she
undertakes to write an account of Morelli for the
'Quarterly Review' (July 1891) : touching on
the general state of the Arts in Italy, and the
influence of the national character upon them, she
reviewed his political life, and described his high
standing as a connoisseur.
2 An anagram, with a Russian termination, of Morelli.

1891 CONNOISSEURSHIP 303
What is technically called ' connoisseurship '
[she writes] requires a wide range of intellectual
qualifications ; something of the astuteness of the
lawyer, the accurate power of diagnosis of the
physician, and the research of the antiquary and
historian ; all summed up in an art which most
of us are practising every day, more or less con
sciously — the art of comparison. Connoisseur-
ship is a modern profession, because a modern
necessity. It has been developed too late to save
many a priceless work, but not too late to identify
those which yet remain. In the times of what
are called the Old Masters little was written
about them individually. Their works were left
to speak and shift for themselves, and that, with
small exception, they have continued to do till a
comparatively late period. The consequences
might have been anticipated : landmarks have
been effaced ; schools confused ; names mistaken
and displaced ; the authorship of nine-tenths of
the works which have descended to us has been
lost, or has passed through an ignorant and vain
glorious period, which distributed to them the
names supposed either to do them most honour
or to attract most gain to their owners.
With the exception of the following papers —

304 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxxi
'Temper' in ' Murray's Magazine,' Sept. 1891 ;
' Reminiscences of St. Petersburg Society ' in
' Longman's Magazine,' June 1892 ; and ' Re
miniscences of Edinburgh Society Fifty Years
Ago' in ' Longman's Magazine,' January 1893 —
this review of Morelli and his works was the last
Lady Eastlake wrote. It may be added that,
since 1842, thirty-five articles from her pen had
been published in the ' Quarterly Review,' and
since 1868, ten articles in the ' Edinburgh
Review.'

::r„_^i^™J|j

1892 'NEARING THE GOAL' 305

CHAPTER XXXII
1892-1893
' Time is relentless, and I feel myself nearing the
goal, without fear, I may gratefully say.'
Lady Eastlake makes this remark a propos of
the death of many old friends in January 1892,
during the influenza epidemic — a neighbour on
either side of her dying on the same day.
Though she still took a keen interest in all
literary, social, and political questions, though
she was ever ready with her hearty welcome to
the numerous friends who came to her daily, she
began to fail, physically, by slow but perceptible
degrees. Her grand mental powers never de
serted her, her memory was as bright as ever, her
conversation as full of charm ; but she became
more and more disinclined for any movement,
more content to sit in her chair, more ' addicted
to recumbency ' — as she expressed it. ' My
time,' she wrote in April 1893, 'passes quietly;
but it is no misfortune to be thrown on books,
and I can even read dull ones if they are interest
ing, which sounds rather Irish — but that's all in
the present line'
The great heat during the summer of 1893
was too much for her enfeebled frame : she
VOL. 11. x

306 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XXXII
became seriously ill in August 1893, attacks of
breathlessness, caused by weakness of the heart,
being the first alarming symptoms. After five
weeks of much discomfort (mercifully unattended
by actual suffering), during which she was
tenderly nursed by a devoted niece, she passed
away in her sleep, peacefully and painlessly, on
October 2, 1893, within a few weeks of attaining
the age of eighty-four. She was conscious to the
last, ready, nay, anxious to go ; her last words,
addressed to the clergyman, an old and valued
friend, who administered the Sacrament to her,
being ' Pray for my release' The last letter she,
who had written so much, and so well, wrote, was
to her nephew, on September 9, expressing her
pleasure that ' Dean Stanley's Life ' was soon to
be published, and warmly praising the Duke of
Argyll's ' Unseen Foundations of Society,' which
she had been reading.
She was buried at Kensal Green, on Octo
ber 6, 1893, by her husband's side.
Lady Eastlake's religious character has hardly
been touched upon ; but grave injustice would be
done to her memory, were her views withheld on
a subject which may truly be said to have always
occupied her mind, and on which she thought
and wrote with deep earnestness. For this
reason, it is felt that a few passages (selected
principally from the letters she wrote during her
later years), bearing on this subject, may not be
out of place here.
I have a knack of being thankful for what I
have had, and of leaving the future in the onlv

1892 THE OBJECT OF PRAYER 307
Hands which dispose of it. So I never look far
ahead. Good Friday. — Either the Crucifixion was
the greatest event that ever happened for this
world, or it was not. Even with so-called belief
the full meaning of His sacrifice comes but slowly.
We can only judge of it by the effects on persons'
lives, and by their peace and content under great
trials. All spiritual improvement is slow, and all
true religion — so I have found — difficult ; for if
not a panacea against all the ills of life, it is not
true religion. Prayer is not meant to remove
our outward conditions, but to improve our
inward state : to make us love God and man, and
our enemies more ; and when we attain that state,
we may indeed rejoice. I am happy as to the
meeting again. Heaven would not be our true
home if we did not find those who constitute our
true home here : household affections are sacred
here, and must be there too.
We do not come into this world to be inter
ruptedly happy : alas ! how many there are,
better than I, who are uninterruptedly the reverse.
All is right to those who trust Him through thick
and thin — but that faith is only attained through
much suffering.

308 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxxn
For a time birthdays are welcome, and youth
seems inexhaustible ; but there comes the time
when they only record a fast-expiring lease, and
point to the life that will never end. Happy
those who can set their affections on that ! I am
so far on this journey of life, that I am always
looking to that other shore, where our beloved
ones will greet us. That to me is a greater
reality now than anything else.
My time is short now in this world. I must
,not say I care not how short, for I have many-
blessings to thank God for, but it is, perhaps,
God's greatest blessing that I am not attached to
life. The future life has such bright and sweet
colours for me.
I know that God is sufficient for us under any
suffering that He sends ; but it is one thing to
know that and another to feel it. When people
talk of help in trial, they overlook the length of
time and patience before we are conscious of it.
It is natural that true religion should be difficult,
for it only comes by practice, like any other
acquirement. The Bible never attempts to de
ceive : it is ' patience in tribulation.' We learn
the much good that comes out of evil  the

1893 HER BELIEF 309
greater sympathy for others, the more constant
thought of God.
As life ebbs away (and I feel the shortness of
my tenure), I want all the faith I can get ; and
faith means implicit belief in Scripture — not
stupid, literal belief.
The weeks come round at a tremendous
speed : I suppose it is my advanced age. The
mind meditates, but has few novel impressions to
mark the time and prolong it, as in young days.
I am content, and rather like to note the gradual
changes in myself, as God's loving plan for us all.
I have had my life, and have had more blessings
and what is called success than most people ; I
have also drunk to the bottom of a very bitter
cup, for which, perhaps, I ought to be thankful.
At all events, it is a mercy to be weaned from
life when one is about to leave it. It took me
many years to be practically convinced that God
chastens those He loves, and vice versa, but now
there is nothing I more deeply believe.
We shall soon be in 1893, which to me, fifty
years ago, seemed impossible. It is a peculiar
feeling to grow old and to meet it rightly : I study
it, I hope, in the right way. It is strange that
human beings should come into the world only all

310 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxxn
to die. Perhaps all worlds are not so, and without
the account of the Fall of Man and the Sacrifice of
Christ— without, I mean, believing these— I don't
know how mankind could bear the certainty of
death. That certainty can only be met by the
equal certainty of everlasting life.
The following 'Reminiscence' by E. V. B.
(the Hon. Mrs. Richard Boyle), whose long, close
friendship with Lady Eastlake dates from 1852,
would seem to form a fitting conclusion to these
volumes. Dearest and best among the lost friends of
more than half a lifetime, for me, as for many
another she has left, shines forth the name of
Elizabeth Eastlake. I knew her first in those
bright days when the wheels of life went lightly
round, and the burden of the years was but
youth and joyousness. She suited me then in
every mood ; as time went on more heavily and
slow, she suited me still the same. Ever ' tender
and true ' she was ; and I do not remember the
slightest shadow overclouding for a moment the
perfect joy of our long friendship. There was
never change or disappointment ; it was Death the
Divider that brought the end. That expression
— ' she suited me ' — is, however, not well chosen.

1893 A REMINISCENCE 311
It fails to convey the loving veneration which
she inspired from first to last : the sense is not
conveyed of how her mind, so full, so richly
stored, would yet bend itself, in tender sympathy,
to the level of a lesser, narrower understanding.
And — like everything she did — this was done so
well, that in conversation with her the inequality
was never felt. Her gentle art would seem to
draw forth, and help us to give words to, the least
suspected, maybe the hitherto almost formless,
thoughts of our heart. Her intellect, her learn
ing, never crushed — they did but stimulate.
That intellect, which was like a man's for breadth
and capacity, seemed to adapt itself in some
wonderful way to all who came within its
influence. Lady Eastlake entered into the whole spirit
of everything around her. She would give her
whole attention, and would interest herself in
whatever might be the subject of discussion ; she
was almost sure to know something about it, and
you were sure to learn something new, or what
you did not know before. There was one
quality, I think, almost peculiar to her : in part
she may have owed it to the great calm soul that
so constantly possessed her, more especially in

312 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XXXII
her later years. The rare quality I mean was
this : she was never bored. In London, crowds
of visitors called upon her almost every after
noon ; and amongst their number would of course
be some, whose minds entered not within the
range of her thoughts or tastes. Yet to these
last she would be as kindly in her manner, as
courteously attentive to all they said, as though
they were in the highest degree sympathetic
with herself. And thus she, who had ever held
her own or more, in conversation with men of
genius or of the most brilliant talents, not only
appeared to do so, but would in perfect truth and
reality take a living interest in those of her
numerous acquaintance, who to an outsider
seemed the furthest removed from her mental
sphere. Often have I envied this talent of not
being bored ! But to attain it one must be great-
minded like herself. Is it not said to be a de
finition of genius that it is ' the power to take an
interest ' ?
And then her charity was so large : she would
' spot ' at once the best points in a character,
bringing them to the front as it were, and making
the most of them, just as she would scarcely
ever condemn wholly and entirely any painting

1893 HER CHARITY 313
submitted to her criticism, however bad or in
ferior the work might appear to others. First-
rate critic as the world acknowledged her to be,
she would perceive whatever of good there might
by chance be found in the poorest specimen of Art
submitted to her. When others would incline to
pass by any such work with scorn, she would
approvingly point to some small square inch of
colour more hopeful than the rest, or to a bit of
drawing in it which she judged to be rather true
to Nature. Her generous praise was always
ready : it used to remind me of the story of
Christ and the dead dog cast out in the street.'
When the crowd scoffed, as they passed by, at
the wretched animal, He stopped and said, ' See
how white, like pearls, are his teeth ! ' Yet had
this well-nigh boundless charity its limits, firmly
set and sharply defined ; and her sword-thrusts
against the bitternesses, the cowardice, the in
justice, the cruelties of the age were always, I
thought, so marvellously refreshing. There was
no indecision, no lukewarmness there. On sub
jects such as these she showed, indeed, no
charity, found no redeeming point, no saving
clause ; she was grandly outspoken, and spared
neither great nor small.

3H . MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxxn
Like a string of rubies, glow in my memory
the evenings spent in that dear room of hers, the
drawing-room of No. 7 Fitzroy Square. It was
but a fond and foolish fancy, bred of reverence
and affection — the fancy of some toil undergone
for her sake, that made me, on every Sunday
evening of many a winter spent in London, find
my way on foot to Fitzroy Square, regardless of
the weather. It was a sort of little pilgrimage,
and the shrine was Love ! And then what a
welcome she gave when the pilgrim arrived !
And how pleasant it was, when, after a time,
books and flowers and papers being pushed aside,
lamps and the tea-tray were brought in and set
on the table, while her pet, the little grey cat
upon her lap, insisted on being first served with
its saucer of milk. One little detail was, that up
to the last she would always lift the heavy silver
teapot, and pour out the tea herself.
The room itself was a gallery of Art. Almost
every picture stands out clear in the mind's eye
as I write. There were the two long Holbein
Processions in grisaille, along the side wall. The
end wall, opposite the fire (which always burnt
bright enough to illuminate the gilt picture-

1893 ART TREASURES ji5
frames, and indeed the whole room), was
entirely covered with Art treasures. There was
a large Giovanni Bellini of the Virgin and Child
with Saints ; another Virgin and Child, with ex
quisitely painted flowers of columbine ; some
views of the Roman Campagna by Sir Charles
Eastlake, where the cypress spires and far blue
distance carried one back to Italy itself. Low
down on an easel, where it best caught the light,
was a Luca della Robbia — one of his most
beautiful — full of sweet and tender feeling. A
fine portrait by Opie of Dr. Rigby (Lady East-
lake's father) rested on a chair. The pianoforte,
on which in the old days she played so well,
stood near the windows ; and between the win
dows there was a bust of the Queen (by Gibson)
given by H.M. to Sir Charles; and on the left
a very large easel supporting a life-sized oil-
painting by him, full of refined and lovely colour.
On the high, old-fashioned chimney-piece was
the Louis XVI. clock, which always went so much
too fast on those gracious evenings, bringing
them to an end long before we had half done all
our say.
What long happy talks ! What words of

316 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxxil
wisdom and deep thought she spoke, what
memories of old strange experiences belonging to
the years that she had known, what merry flashes
of amusement and of wit ! . . .
Going out into the dark streets afterwards,
there was a sense of the whole mind warmed and
brightened up, and the effect was wont to abide
for long. But then would come an uncomfort
able self-reproaching, because I had been so led
on to talk too much myself, and thus to waste the
precious moments which might have been better
spent in listening. But there it was ! She so
drew one out that one could not choose but
speak, and lay bare to her one's very inmost
thought. And then her sympathy ! How eagerly
she heard and enjoyed the story of one's success
or happiness ; how she took to herself, and made
her own, one's every grief or disappointment !
She did so understand grief, and she touched it
so lovingly. Often, after ranging through every
sort of interest of Art or Politics or Nature, the
conversation turned on the mysterious unseen
world surrounding us : not the so-called spiritual
ism or mysticism of the present day — from this
she seemed instinctively to recoil. Very often has
she spoken of the great inevitable change, which

1893 A LAST FAREWELL 317
she felt approaching ever nearer and nearer : her
thoughts were turning constantly that way. It
was without any fear, however, that she would
speak of it ; but always with a solemn wonder,
and almost with impatience to know at last that
which none living can know — the Secret of Life
otherwhere. ' The thought does not sadden me
in the least,' she would sometimes say ; ' but I so
continually think of it, that the other side of
Death has come to be almost more real to me
than this present life' It was never her way
to talk religiously, but I know that none the
less steadfast was her hope and her trust in
Christ. The last time I saw this beloved friend (how
proud I was to call her friend !) was two short
months before she died. There was a journey
and a longish absence from England before me ;
and this our last farewell — little as I knew it was
the last — seemed saddened with more lingering
regret even than usual. Very vivid dwells still
with me the picture of her, as I looked back
before the door was closed. The afternoon sun
shone round her as she sat in her accustomed
place at the round table, the writing-desk before
her covered with letters and manuscript as it always

318 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE ch. xxxil
was — the pictures she loved surrounding her.
There was no apparent infirmity : the heart beat
warmly as ever : the intellect was unclouded. A
journey lay indeed before both of us ; but hers
was the longest — and for that journey none could
be more ready or more willing.
Lady Eastlake's was one of those characters
whose rare grace one feels it is a gift of God to
have known. Should any who may glance at
these few pages ask, ' Where were the flaws ? '
I can but answer, in all sincerity, that I did not
know them.
The day after she fell asleep, one who stood
by her wrote : ' That wonderful sight of her
could never be forgotten as she lay there in what
seemed a rapture of repose. The peace of her
countenance was so grand, so comforting : no
dread in it, not a sign of life's fitful uncertainty.
Not effacing the image of her as in life, but realis
ing, as it were, the grandeur of her state — of the
Presence into which she had entered. It flashed
upon me how often she had expressed her belief,
that the face and expression after death conveyed
the expression of the reality.'
I am not conscious of having ever destroyed
the least scrap of Lady Eastlake's beautiful hand-

1893 SURREY SCENERY 319
writing, not even the mere address of an envelope.
Each envelope was a picture in itself, and almost
every letter that I possess of hers might be
printed as it stands without a single alteration.
From the well-garnered harvest of our correspon
dence of many long years I may be permitted to
give here just this one characteristic note : —
Albury Heath, Guildford. 26 Sept. 1886.
I have been thirsting too, longing to know
about you, yet as little doubting your dear affec
tion as you mine. And if ever a letter could
assuage thirst for a time, yours was that — a real
idyll culled from Nature in her too seldom ob
served forms. Oh ! how bounteous and various
she is — beauty in everything ! I am as much
surrounded with her gifts as you. This country
is comparatively little known. The kind Grotes
introduced me to it, and sweet solace it gave me
then, and has given me from time to time since.
Heaths and woods, and hill and valley, and such
lanes ! The last must have been for centuries.
Never made or dug, but originally tracks, and
deepened and hollowed out by time ; banks, to
their level with the fields behind, but twenty feet
high on the lane side, which has got deeper
and deeper with traffic and seasons, ever sinking

320 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. xxxn
lower and lower till the poor roots of trees don't
know what to do with themselves, and lie like
great snakes, all exposed and plunging back into
the bank, shy of light and air — I am always long
ing to draw these wondrous roots, which are fit
for an Albert Diirer minutia. And then the sides
of the roads. Wide and wild margins of luxuriant
weeds, very jungles on a small scale, of tangled
growths. Bracken, and heath, and foxglove, and
briar, and briony, and honeysuckle — each trying
to grow over its neighbour — and honeysuckle and
briony most successful ! Even the nettles are
beautiful ; on such a grand and lofty scale. Then
the favourite growths of the country are yews and
juniper, the yews the most venerable and fantastic
you ever beheld. This has been the wildest and
least known part of Surrey, before railways broke
into it. Near enough to the coast to be the
favourite hiding-place for smugglers, and before
them, the pilgrims' track to Canterbury. A good
many heathen still remain among isolated villages
in the wildest glens. Now it is becoming almost
too fashionable ; everybody who has once seen it
wanting to build here. And that is not easy to
do, for the long-descended squire (the. 'squires'
were formerly Lords de Braye) won't part with

1893 SUMMER VISITORS 321
his acres, while an Irvingite colony, founded by
Henry Drummond, are equally tenacious. Among
the summer visitors I have had Sir Henry
Maine, who writes on Democracy and ' Popular
Government,' and Sir Richard Webster, the new
Attorney-General ; and a good and ardent painter
is here too all the year — Sir Arthur Clay — a nice
man who talks no cant about Art. The heath
has been crimson and the park is perfection, and
I go long drives to glorious views. Just now,
one of the wildest of the valleys has been broken
into by a millionaire, Doulton the potter, who
has cleared some acres from the forest of bracken,
and erected on an eminence a splendid mansion.
That mansion, with all its attendant stables and hot
houses, and all the company that will throng it,
will change the history of that village. And so
times change, and our places know us no more !
But better things are in store — perhaps including
what we have loved here, as the greater includes
the lesser, for all things that God has made must
belong to those who love Him. I am not sorry
to return to London on the 30th. It has become
cold here, though the days are still full of beauty.
But I am thankful to have once again known this
part of the world — always feeling that English
VOL 11. Y

322 MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE CH. XXXII
country life is her most characteristic part ; always
trusting that our institutions are too deeply rooted
to be upset by any Gladstonian rebels !
God bless you — you are never forgotten by
your loving
Eliz. Eastlake.

INDEX

ABERDEEN
Aberdeen, Lord, i. 269 ; ii. 32
Abo, i. 144
Addison, Rev. Mr., i. 109
Adolphus, Leycester, i. 228, 239
Albert, Prince, i. 253, 260, 274,
306, 314 ; ii. 163
Albert Hall, ii. 221
Albert Memorial, ii. 176, 235
Alboni, Madame, i. 219
Alderson, Baron, i. 268 ; ii. 84
Alexander III., Czar, ii. 271
Alford, Lady Marian, i. 227
Ali Pasha, ii. 86
Alicante, ii. 123
Aliscamps, near Aries, ii. 199
Alison, Sir A., i. 206
Allan, Sir William, i. 59, 160,
180
Ampezzo j ii. 143
Andersen, Hans, i. 212
Anderson, Mrs. (Lady East-
lake's housekeeper), ii. 279
Antwerp, i. 281
Appony, Count, i. 217
Argyll, Duke of, i. 244, 245 ; ii.
233
Art Unions, i. 50, 52
Austin, Mrs., i. 165

Babbage, i. 233, 239, 270
Back, Sir George, i. 193, 276
Bacon, Lord, i. 39
Bailey, E. H., i. 265

BOYLE
Barcelona, ii. 122
Barrow, Sir John, i. 193
Barry, Sir Charles, i. 265
Baskkirtsheff, Marie, ii. 300
Beaconsfield, Lord, i. 310; ii.
240
Belhaven, Lady, i. 227
Belhaven, Lord, i. 215
Bellaggio, ii. 165
Benkendorf, Countess, i. 217
Bentinck, Lady Frederick, i.
228
Bergamo, ii. 24, 56
Berlin, i. 282
Berriedale, Lord, i. 168
Berry, Miss, i. 263, 264, 270
Bertain, ii. 153
Bezzi, A, ii. 154
Bickersteth's ' Signs of the
Times,' i. 170
Bigge, Rev. John, i. 311
Bishop, Sir Henry, i. 48
Bismarck, Count Herbert, ii.
296
Blakiston, Mrs., i. 8
Bologna, ii. 147 ; trial of 104
brigands at, ii. 189
Bolsover Castle, i. 196
Bonheur, Rosa, ii. 41
Borrow, George, i. 124
Boxall, Sir William, i. 258 ; ii.
242, 248
Boyle, Hon. Mrs. Richard, ii;
310
y 2

324

MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE

BRANDL
Brandl, Professor, ii. 286
Breadalbane, Lord, i. 321 ; ii.
51
Brescia, ii. 16
Brockedon, W., i. 267
Bronte, Charlotte, i. 221
Brougham, Lord, i. 194
Brown, Horatio, ii. 295
Brown, Rawdon, ii. 19
Browne, Miss Laura, i. 31, 41,
43, 47, 62, 171, 206, 216
Browne, Dr. S., i. 160
Browning, Robert, ii. 274, 298
Bruges, i. 280
Briinn, i. 290
Brunnow, Baron, ii. 86
Buchanan, Sir Andrew, ii. 126,
133
Buckland, Dean, i. 226
Bulwer, Sir E. L., i. 189
Buonarotti, Count, ii. 109
Burgos, ii. 132
Burns, Robert, i. 68
Bury, Lady Charlotte, i. 256

Cadell, Robert, i. 95
Cambridge, Duchess of, i. 229,
309 ; ii. 112
Cambridge, Duke of, i. 277,
306 ; ii. 37, 162
Campbell, Lord, i. 268
Canning, Lady, i. 314
(>Cardigan, Lord, ii. 40
Cardwell, Lord, i. 269
Carlisle, Lord, i. 269, 321
Carlyle, Thomas, i. 57, 108, 114-
119
Cassel, ii. 94
Castellearca, Count, ii. 63
Cavour, Count, ii. 146, 153
Certosa of Pavia, ii. 62
Chalon, A. E., i. 265
Chandos, Lord and Lady, i. 308
Chantrey, Lady, i. 226, 239, 264
Chartres, Due de, ii. 113
Child, Smith, i. 234
Clanronald, Lord, ii. 140

DOUGLAS
Clarendon, Lord, ii. 51
Clay, Sir Arthur, ii. 321
Clerk, Sir George, i. 234
Clerk, Lady, i. 268, 270
Clive, Archer, ii. 84
Cobden, Richard, i. 249
Cockburn, Lord, i. 97, 169, 181
Cockerell, C. R., i. 235, 260, 324
Codrington, Admiral, ii. 168
Colborne, Lord, i. 226
Colenso, Bishop, ii. 178
Coleridge, Derwent, i. 240
Coleridge, Lord, i. 226
Coleridge, S. T., i 55 ,- ii. 286
Cologne, i. 166, 282
Combe, George, i. 31, 42
Compton, Earl, i. 248
Connaught, Duke of, ii. 83, 183
Cooper, Abraham, i. 265
Cope, C. W., i. 266
Cornelius, Herr, i. 285
Coutts, Baroness Burdett, i. 270,
275
Cowper, Lord, ii. 173, 271
Cremona, ii. 145
Croker, J. W., i. 165, 193
Crowe, Mrs., i. 32, 181, 249
Crystal Palace, i. 317, 324

Dalmeny, Lord, i. 242
D'Alton, Count, i. 256
Daniell, Rev. E. T., i. 6
Darnley, Lady, i. 277
D'Aubigne", i. 35
D'Aumale, Duke, ii. 87, 112
Davenport, Bromley, i. 322
Davy, Lady, i. 226, 228, 232,
238, 243, 264
Delane, J. T., ii. 176
Derby, Lord, i. 309 ; ii. 177
Devonshire, Duke of, i. 246
Dijon, ii. 182
Dolby, Miss, i. 123
Donati, ii. 104
Douglas, Lady Howard, i. 232,
239
Douglas, Lord, i. 148

INDEX

325

DOUGLAS
Douglas, Sir Howard, i. 232
Douro, Lady, i. 274
Douro, Lord, i. 306
Dresden, i. 285 ; ' Sistine Ma
donna' at, i. 286
Drummond, Henry, i. 171
Drummond, Rev. Mr., i. 33
Drysdale,SirWilliam,i. 31, 41, 75
Dudley, Lord, i. 233
Dufferin, Lord, i. 277
Dundas, Mrs. Hamilton, i. 151
Dunolly Castle, i. 203
Dunoon, i. 74
Dusseldorf, i. 166
Dyce, W., i. 243, 266

Eastlake, Sir C. L., i. 187, 223,
259, 311 ; ii. 32, 73, 203, 213
Eck, Loch, i. 91
Eckhardt, Herr, i. 251
Edgeworth, Miss, i. 65, 123
'Edinburgh Review,' Lady East-
lake's articles in, — ' Italian
Art,' Jan. 1872, ii. 224 ; ' Leo
nardo da Vinci,' Jan. 1875, »•
238 ; ' Thorvaldsen,' July 1875,
ii. 238 ; ' Les deux Ampere,'
Jan. 1876, ii. 241 ; ' Michael
Angelo,' July 1876, ii. 244 ;
' Venice Defended,' July 1877,
ii. 247 ; 'Titian,' Jan. 1878, ii.
254 ; ' Bastiat : an Apostle of
Free Trade,' April 1879, ii.
265 ; ' Germany Past and
Present,' Oct. 1880, ii. 270;
' Raphael,' Jan. 1883, ii. 276
Elphinstone, Sir Howard, ii. 184
Emiliani, i. 170
Empson, Lord, i. 164
Erie, Judge, i. 229
Esmeade, Moore, i. 229
Essex, Lady, i. 227, 251
Etty, W., i. 183, 185

FECHTER, ii. 162
Fellowes Sir Chas., i. 229, 235

GRUNER

Feroze Shah, Prince, i. 314
Ferrara, ii. 79
Ferrier, Mrs., i. 61, 151
Ferrier, Professor, i. 108
Field, Baron, i. 122
Finland, i. 142
Fitzclarence, Lord F., i. 69
Florence, ii. 72, 103
Forbes, Professor, i. 159, 234
Forbin, Marquise de, ii. 230
Ford, Richard, i. 233, 250
Foreign ' Quarterly Review,' i. 8
Forster, John, i. 317 ; ii. 243
Frank, Dr., ii. 290
Frankfort, i. 216
Frederick, Emperor, ii. 87, 223,
290
Frere, Sir Bartle, ii. 233
Froude, J. A., ii. 215

Gais, ii. 55
Garibaldi, ii. 146, 153, 179
Gartshore, Mrs. Murray, i. 160,
187, 238, 270
Gayangos, Miss, ii. 126
Gibson, John, ii. 138, 212
Gifford, Hon. H. Jane, ii. 88,
137, 264
Gladstone, Herbert, ii. 297
Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E., i.
37 ; »• 174, 181, 271, 281,
293
Glenelg, Lord, ii. 84
Glenlyon, Lord, i. 201
Gloucester, Duchess of, i. 229
Goderich, Lord, i. 322
Goldie, Miss, i. 55
Gordon, General, ii. 281
Gordon, Sir John Watson, i.
157
Greig, Woronzow, 1. 233
Grey, General, ii. 167
Grisi, Madame, i. 256 ; ii. 125
Grote, George, ii. 215
Grote, Mrs., i. 323; ii. 215,
264
Griiner, Lewis, i. 1 50 ; ii. 62

326

MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE

GUALANDI
Gualandi, Signor, ii. 189
Guillerez, M., i. 161
Guthrie, Rev. Mr., i. 53

Hallam, Henry, i. 226, 228, 232
Hamilton, Count Axel, i. 43
Hamilton, Duke of, i. 321
Hamilton, Mrs. (the phrenolo
gist), i. 65
Hanover, ii. 92
Harcourt, Sir W. Vernon, i. 324
Hardwick, P., i. 259, 266
Hardwicke, Lord and Lady, i.
308
Harrowby, Lord, i. 232
Hart, S. A., i. 265
Hartland, Lady, i. 237
Hawes, Miss, i. 48
Hawtrey, Dr., i. 308
Haydon, B. R, i. 124, 179
Hayward, ii. 251
Heidelberg, i. 6
Helps, Sir Arthur, ii. 208
Herbert, J. R., i. 266
Heriot's Hospital, i. 38
Hertford, Lord, ii. 134, 154
Higgins (' Jacob Omnium '), ii.
"3
Hill, D. O, i. 151, 181
Holbein Exhibition at Dresden,
ii. 221
Holland, Dr., i. 278
Holland, Sir Henry, i. 323 ; ii. 175
Hooker, Sir Wm., i. 268
Hope, A. J. Beresford, i. 268
Hope, Lady Frances, i. 239
Hope, James, i. 228
Hope, Lady Mildred, i. 268
Houghton, Lord (see Milnes,
R. Monckton)
Howe, Lady, i. 277
Hradschin, The (Prague), i. 288
Hudson, Sir James, ii. 98
Hudson, Thomas, i. 6, 8
Huskisson, Mrs., i. 255, 257
Huxley, Professor T. H, ii. 239
Hyacinthe, Pere, ii. 218

LOCKHART
Ibrahim Pasha, i. 196
Imperial, Prince, ii. 267
Inglis, Sir Robert, i. 121, 229,
232
Irvin, Mr., i. 122
Ives, Mrs., ii. 223, 233

James, Lady, i. 316
Jameson, Mrs., i. 239, 248 ; ii.
91, 136
Jeffrey, Lord, i. 44, 48, 52, 158,
169, 179
Jones, Bence, ii. 174
Jowett, Professor, ii. 179, 252

Kemble, John, i. 154
Ker, Bellenden, i. 238 ; ii.
212
Kestner, Herr, ii. 113
Kingsley, Rev. C, i. 322
Knight, J. F., i. 262, 265

Lablache, i. 256, 275, 318
Landseer, Charles, i. 265
Landseer, Sir Edwin, i. 159, 185,
187, 239, 243, 248, 265, 267 ;
ii. 42, 212
Lansdowne, Lady, i. 230
Lansdowne, Lord, i. 192, 230,
316 ; ii. 35
Lasswade, i. 97
Lauder, Lady Dick, i. 64
Layard, Colonel, ii. 257
Layard, Sir A. Henry, i. 292 ;
ii. 36, 211 ; Lady Eastlake's
letters to, ii. 211-302
Lecky, ii. 215
Lee, Dr., i. 159
Leighton, Sir Frederic, ii. 249,
263
Leslie, C. R., i. 260, 266
Libberton, i. 101
Lind, Jenny, ii. 272
Lochis, Count, ii. 25
Lockhart, J. G., i. 9, 29, 51,72,

INDEX

327

LOCKHART
113, II9, 147, 165, 194, 221,
234 5 "¦ 33
Lockhart, Sir Norman, i. 47
Loder, Miss Kate, i. 237
Lomeine, M. de, ii. 230
Lomond, Loch, i. 209
Londonderry, Lord, ii. 41
Long, Loch, i. 76
' Longman's Magazine,' i. 34
Lovelace, Lady, i. 226, 233, 237
Lubbock, Sir John, ii. 239
Lumley, Sir J. Savile, ii. 125
Lyell, Lady, i. 247, 267
Lyons, ii. 201
Lyons, Sir Edmund, i. 252

Macaulay, Lord, i. 242
McDowell, P., i. 266
Mackenzie, Sir Morell, ii. 290
Maclise, D., i. 265 ; ii. 113
McNeill, Sir John and Lady, i.
44, 46, 48, 58, 61, 63, 161
Macready, i. 179, 235
McVicar, Mr., i. 209
Madrid, ii. 124
Magenta, ii. 119
Maine, Sir Henry, ii. 321
Maintenon, Mme. de, i. 164
Malakoff, Duchess of, ii. 1 1 1
Manners, Lord George, i. 234
Manning, Cardinal, ii. 175
Mario, i. 256
Marlborough, Duke of, i. 310
Marochetti, Baron, ii. 119
Martineau, Miss, i. 37, 152
Mathews, Charles, i. 171
Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Duke of,
i. 310
Medwyn, Lord, i. 156
Melegnano, ii. 118
Melville, J. G. Whyte, i. 201
Memling, i. 280
Mentone, ii. 196
Milan, ii. 14, 23, 118
Millais, Sir John E., ii. 84, 237,
248
Milman, Dean, ii. 36, 84

NORTON
Milnes, R. Monckton, i. 228,
322 ; ii. 87
Mohl, M., ii. 230
Mohl, Mme., ii. 218, 229
Moir, Professor, i. 48
Molteni, Cav., ii. 98
Monteagle, Lord, i. 276 ; ii. 40
Moore, John Carrick, i. 250
Moore, Thomas, i. 193
Morelli, Signor, ii. 187, 276, 302
Moretto, ii. 16, 173
Morley, Lady, i. 192, 226, 239,
323 ; ii. 41, 84
' Morning Chronicle,' i. 2
Moroni, Count, ii. 24
Moscheles, i. 119
Motley, J. L., ii. 223, 233, 298
Moule, Mrs. Handley, ii. 209
Mt. Cenis Pass, ii. 95
Mulready, W., i. 265
Munro, H. A. J., i. 186, 234,
239 ;. ii- 42
Murchison, Sir R., i. 226,234,276
Murphy, The Misses, ii. 136
Murray, Charles, i. 249
Murray, Henry, i. 148
Murray, Lady, i. 48, 152, 226
Murray, Lord, i. 48, 226
Murray II., John, i. 9 ; Miss
Rigby's letters to, i. 12 etseq. ;
death, i. 75
Murray III., John, i. 115, 130,
226, 253
Mussy, Dr. de, ii. 220

NAPIER, Professor, i. 48
Naples, ii. 169
Napoleon, Louis, ii. 1
Nice, ii. 196
Nightingale, Florence, ii. 44
Non-Intrusionists, The, i. 81
Normanby, Lord, ii. 74
Northampton, Lord, i. 276
Northbourne, Lord, ii. 41
Northumberland, Duke and
Duchess of, i. 235 ; ii. 84
Norton, Hon. Mrs., i. 267 ; ii. 21

328

MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE

NOTEBOOKS
Notebooks, Miss Rigby's, i. 18-
29
Novello, Clara, i. 48, 319
Nuremberg, ii. 140
Orde, Sir John P., ii. 233
Orlandi, Signor, ii. 145
Outram, Sir James, ii. 138, 176
Overstone, Lord, i. 323, 324 ; ii.
86
Owen, Professor, ii. 249
Oxford Commemoration, i. 309

Palgrave, Sir Francis, i. 188,
193, 232
Palgrave, William, i. 2
Paris, ii. 1-6, 46-52 ; after the
war, ii. 225 et seq.
Paris, Comte de, ii. 112
Parodi, i. 253
Passavant, i. 217, 246
Pasta, i. 253
Paton, Sir Noel, i. 181 ; ii. 84
Peel, Lady, i. 227, 243, 269
Peel, Sir Robert, i. 41, 227, 243,
254, 269
Pender, Sir John, ii. 233
Petworth House, i. 258
Phillimore, Sir R, i. 266
Phipps, Sir Charles, i. 260 ; ii.
51, 165, 204
Pichek, i. 185
Pisa, ii. 71
Poldi, Marchese, ii. 99
Pompeii, ii. 170
Pontremoli, ii. 67
Portarlington, Lord, ii. 126, 128
Prague, i. 288
Prandi, i. 152
Procter, B. W., i. 240

' Quarterly Review,' Lady
Eastlake's articles in, — 'Jesse,
Kohl, and Sterling on Russia,'
March 1842, i. 11 ; ' Chil-

QUARTERLY REVIEW
dren's Books,' Sept. 1842, i.
29 ; ' Evangelical Novels,'
Feb. 1843, i. 51, 59 ; 'Books
for Children,' June 1844, 1. 72,
119 ; ' Biographies of German
Ladies,' Dec. 1843, i. 107;
' Lady Travellers,' June 1845,
i. 156, 165 ; ' Modern German
Painting,' March 1846;
' Cologne Cathedral,' Oct.
1846, i. 166, 170 ; ' Dress,'
March 1847, i. 204 ; ' Music,'
Sept. 1848, i. 221; 'Vanity
Fair, Jane Eyre, and Gover
nesses,' Dec. 1848, i. 221 ;
' Physiognomy,' Dec. 1851, i.
27 1 ; ' Waagen's Treasures of
Art in Great Britain,' March
1854, i. 313 ; ' Crystal Palace,'
March 1855, i. 322 ; 'Ruskin
on Art,' March 1856, ii. 82 ;
' Photography,' March 1857,
ii. 88 ; ' Michael Angelo,'
April 1858, ii. 88 ; ' The Late
Prince Consort,' Jan. 1862, ii.
164; 'Christian Art,' July
1864, ii. 178 ; ' British
Museum,' Jan. 1868, ii. 211;
' Drink : the Vice and the
Disease,' Oct. 1875, ii. 240 ;
' London Alms and Pauper
ism,' Dec. 1876, ii. 244 ; 'The
Englishwoman at School,'
July 1878, ii. 254; 'Albert
Diirer,' Oct. 1879, ii. 265 ;
' Madame de Stael,' July 1881,
ii. 270 ; ' The Jacobin Con
quest,' Jan. 1882, ii. 273 ;
' Coleridge and the Romantic
School,' July 1887, ii. 289;
| Kaspar Hauser,' April 1888,
ii. 293 ; ' Reminiscences of
Samuel Rogers,' Oct. 1888, ii.
293 J ' Venice : her Institu
tions and Private Life,' Jan.
1889, ii. 296; 'Alexander I.
of Russia and the Poles,' Jan.
1890, ii. 297 ; ' Russia : its

INDEX

329

QUINCEY
People and Government,' Jan.
1891, ii. 301 ; ' Giovanni
Morelli,' July 1891, ii. 302
Quincey, Thomas De, i. 157, 164

Radowitz, General, i. 264
Ramsay, Dean, i. 41, 109, 154,
204, 271 ; ii. 206
Raphael, Cartoons, i. 191 ; Sis
tine Madonna, i. 286
Ravaisson, M., ii. 231
Ravenna, ii. 149
Reeve, Henry, i. 9, 187 ; ii. 84
Reeves, Sims, i. 233
Reval, i. 135
Richemont, Comte de, ii. 231
Rigby, Dr. Edward, i. 1
Rigby, Mrs. Edward, i. 3, 240 ;
ii. 231
Rigby, John, i. 1
Riviera, The, ii. 193
Roberts, David, i. 265
Robertson, Lord, i. 43, 46, 153,
180
Rogers, Samuel, i. 228, 234,
238, 242, 250, 252, 257, 267
Romano, Giulio, ii. 22
Rome, ii. 105
Roslin Chapel, i. 102
Ross, Sir William, i. 265 ; ii.
42
Rossetti, D. G., ii. 277
Rossi, Countess, i. 237, 243, 250,
326
Rothschild, Baron Meyer de,
ii. 224
Rubens, ' Descent from the
Cross,' i. 281 ; his power, i.
291
Rushout, Miss, i. 317
Ruskin, John, i. 252 ; ii. 82, 214,
247
Russell, Lord John, i. 243, 263,
276
Rutherford, Mr., i. 48
Ruthven, Lady, i. 227, 237,
239 VOL. II.

STANLEY
St. Gothard Pass, ii. 7 et
seq.
St. Petersburg, i. 133 ; ii. 262
Salamon, Mr., i. 237
Salisbury, Lord, i. 306 ; ii.
283
Sandbach, Mrs., i. 258
Santley, ii. 180
Saragoza, Duke de, ii. 132
Sartoris, Mrs., i. 237, 240
Saye, M. Leon, ii. 230
Schimmelpenninck, Count, i.
268
Schouvaloff, ii. 259
Scott, Sir Walter, i. 35, 95, 100,
155
Scottiana, i. 100, 155
Seymour, Colonel, ii. 183
Seymour, Danby, i. 323
Seymour, Lady, i. 237, 238
Shaftesbury, Lord, i. 124 ; ii.
282
Shelley, Lady, i. 230
Sherwood, Mrs., i. 40
Siddons, Mrs., i. 192
Simpson, J. Palgrave, i. 43,
.l87.
Sinclair, Lady, i. 69
Skene (of Rubislaw), James, i.
95, 100
Skene, Mrs., i. 100
Skerret, Mrs., i. 266
Smith, Sir C. Euan, ii. 234
Smith, Rev. Sydney, i. 122
Smith, Sir William, ii. 291
Somers, Lady, ii. 84
Somers, Lord, ii. 86
Somerville, Mrs., i. 51 ; ii.
104
Spencer, Bishop (of Madras), i.
249
Spliigen Pass, ii. 26-31
Stael, Madame de, ii. 270
Stanfield, C, i. 266
Stanley, Dean, i. 11 ; ii. 165,
184, 219, 229, 252
Stanley, Dr. (Bishop of Nor
wich), i. 1 1 Z

33°

MEMOIRS OF LADY EASTLAKE

STANLEY
Stanley, Lady Augusta, ii. 184,
219, 244
Stanley, Lord, i. 310
Steele, John, i. 200
Stewart, Mr. (the Pretender), i.
54
Stockholm, 1. 145
Stolberg, Count, ii. 134
Storey, Miss, i. 196
Strasburg, ii. 53
Stratford de Redcliffe, Lady, i.
3H
Streletzki, Count, i. 234 ; ii. 84
Strickland, Miss, i. 121, 122
Sutherland, Duchess of, i. 231,
244, 274, 314, 316
Sutherland, Duke of, ii. 180
Swinton, Hon. Mrs., ii. 265
Swinton, Campbell, i. 43
Swinton, Miss C. Campbell, ii.
34
Swinton, James, i. 65, 168,
188
Sykes, Christopher, ii. 125, 162

Taverni, Count Lorenzo, ii. 99,
119, 153
Taylor, Dr. John, i. 1
Taylor," Tom, i. 256
Teck, Duchess of, i. 230, 309
Tennent, Sir Emerson, i. 275
Thackeray, W. M., i. 226, 227,
228, 233, 244; ii. 119
Theed, W., ii. 164
Thomson, Archbishop, ii. 233
Thymault, Thomas, i. 176'
Tocqueville, De, ii. 268
Toledo, ii. 127
Tolstoi, ii. 302
Tompson, Anstruther, i. 322
Tremenheere, Mr., i. 266
Trench, Archbishop, i. 308
Trevelyan, Sir Charles, i. 270
Trowbridge, Sir Thomas, ii. 39
Truro, Lord, i. 274
Turner, J. M. W., i. 119, 158,
185, 188, 272

Tweeddale, Lord, i. 306
Tyndall, Professor John, ii. 215,
239
Tytler, Miss, i. 65

UwiNS, Thomas, i. 265

Van Eyck, i. 281 ; 'Annuncia
tion,' i. 283
Van Lepuel, i. 52
Vaughan, Mrs. C. J., i. 1 1
Velasquez, ii. 126
Venice, i. 292-300 ; ii. 19
Vernet, Horace, ii. 46
Verona, ii. 22, 189
Vestris, Madame, i. 171
Viardot, i. 256
Victoria, Queen, i. 253, 260, 274,
277, 314, 319; "• 36, 51. 83,
174, 204, 208, 215
Vienna, i. 291
Vivian, George, i. 237
Waagen, Dr., i. 248, 284 ; ii.
87
Waldstein, Count, i. 290
Wales, Prince of, ii. 51, 177
Wallace, Sir R., ii. 135, 154
Warren, Samuel, i. 34
Waterford, Lady, i. 314
Watts, G. F., ii. 237, 249
Webster, Sir Richard, ii. 32 1
Wellington, Duke of, i. 194, 196,
243> 253, 274, 301-307
Wemyss, Earl of, ii. 167
Westmacott, Sir R., i. 247, 261,
265
Westmacott, junior, R., i. 266
Westminster, Duke of, i. 192
Westminster, Lady, i. 244,
252
Westminster Abbey, i. 194
Wilberforce, Dr. (Bishop of
Oxford), i. 270, 308
Wilkie, Sir D., i. 59, 65, 183

INDEX

33i

WILLIAMS
Williams, Archdeacon, i. 109
Williams, Penry, i. 258
Wilson, C. H., ii. 244
Wilson, Jinny, i. 92
Wilson, Professor, i. 45, 51, 54,
61, 70, 107, 181

WYON
Wiseman, Cardinal, ii. 175
Witherington, W. F., i. 265
Wordsworth, Dr., i. 191
Wright, Dr. William, i. 223
Wyon, Mr. (Medallist to the
Mint), i. 266

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