-BH 
 
 ■H 
 
 ■MHffiPi 
 
 HHfiii 
 
 Hi HHplH 
 
 IHHH^HlnBnL 
 
 (■■HI m 
 
 nnM| 
 
 ■■■■I flm H 
 
 liiilii 
 
 
 IS 
 
 nil 
 

 7- /- 
 
 j**?** w '' 
 
 CL 
 
 
 
 «U 
 
 'flt&. 
 
LETTERS OF EDWARD LEAR 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hil 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/lettersofedwardllear 
 
( )s/w'~a.f t cL c 
 
 
 Cr~ L. AiicJie^ler- v. /w-A'J i 
 
 <&/-fej ccce . 
 
 ■ / -tf>1?7, O- 
 
 GL 
 
 CtJ/f 
 
 uA < uvtet'L cils ^sled, ^J~Cou*xe f *jr6*tte-e- , Quyr /. /- ? j / . 
 
LETTERS 
 
 OF 
 
 EDWARD LEAR 
 
 Author of "THE BOOK OF NONSENSE" 
 
 TO 
 
 CHICHESTER FORTESCUE 
 LORD CARLINGFORD 
 
 AND 
 
 FRANCES COUNTESS WALDEGRAVE 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 LADY STRACHEY 
 
 OF 
 
 SUTTON COURT 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 NEW YORK t 
 
 DUFFIELD & COMPANY 
 
 36-38 WEST 37th STREET 
 
{All rights reserved.) 
 
TO E. L., ON HIS TRAVELS IN GREECE. 
 
 Illyrian woodlands, echoing falls 
 Of water, sheets of summer glass, 
 The long divine Penei'an pass, 
 The vast Akrokeraunian walls, 
 
 Tomohrit, Athos, all things fair, 
 With such a pencil, such a pen, 
 You shadow forth to distant men, 
 I read and felt that I was there : 
 
 And trust me while I turn'd the page, 
 And track'd you still on classic ground, 
 I grew in gladness till I found 
 My spirits in the golden age. 
 
 For me the torrent ever pour'd 
 And glisten'd — here and there alone 
 The broad-limb'd gods at random thrown 
 By fountain -urns ; — and Naiads oar'd 
 
 A glimmering shoulder under gloom 
 Of cavern pillars ; on the swell 
 The silver lily heaved and fell ; 
 And many a slope was rich in bloom 
 
 From him that on the mountain lea 
 By dancing rivulets fed his flocks, 
 To him who sat upon the rocks, 
 And fluted to the morning sea. 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION ....... xiii 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 ROME, GREECE, AND ENGLAND . . . . .1 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 CORFU AND ENGLAND ..... 32 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 CORFU . . . . . . . .61 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 PALESTINE, CORFU, AND ENGLAND ... .94 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 ROME REVISITED . , . . . .121 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 ROME AND A WINTER IN ENGLAND . . . 1 57 
 
 vii 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ITALY AND SWITZERLAND ..... 185 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 CORFU ....... 206 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 MALTA AND ENGLAND ...... 243 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 CORFU ....... 256 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 ENGLAND ....... 281 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 LAST VISIT TO CORFU . . . .297 
 
 APPENDIX- 
 PICTURES PAINTED, 1840-1877 . . . -311 
 INCOMPLETE LIST OF THE WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY LEAR 319 
 
 Vlll 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 LIST OF PLATES 
 
 Edward Lear and Chichester Fortescue (Photogravure) 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 From, a Daguerreotype taken at Red House, Ardee, September, 1857. 
 
 Pentedatilo ...... Facing page i 
 
 From Lear's "Journal of a Landscape Painter in Calabria" 
 (R. Benttey, 1852). 
 
 The Mountains of Thermopylae (Coloured Re- 
 production) . . . . . . „ 12 
 
 From a painting by Edward Lear in the possession of Lady 
 Slrachey. 
 
 Suli (Coloured Reproduction) ... „ 20 
 
 From Lear's "Journal of a Landscape Painter in Albania" 
 (R. Bentley, 1851). 
 
 GlOIOSA ...... ,,28 
 
 From Lear's "Journal of a Landscape Painter in Calabria" 
 (R. Bentley, 1852). 
 
 Frances Countess Waldegrave, jet. 29 . „ 36 
 
 From a coloured lithograph of a crayon drawing by J. K. Swinton. 
 
 Tempe (Coloured Reproduction) ... ,,40 
 
 From Lear's " Journal of a Landscape Painter in Albania " 
 (R. Bentley, 1851'). 
 
 San Vittorino ..... „ 50 
 
 E. Lear del. et lith. 
 
 Mrs. Ruxton ...... » 54 
 
 From a photograph of a picture. 
 
 ix 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Edward Lear ..... Facing page 72 
 
 From a photograph taken about 1853 or 1854. 
 
 Taggia . . . . . . ,,114 
 
 " Ice far up on a mountain head." 
 
 Front "Poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson, illustrated by Edward 
 Lear" (Boussod, Valedon & Co., 1889). By kind permission of 
 Lord Tennyson. 
 
 NlNFA .... . „ 122 
 
 Woodcut from "Illustrated Excursions in Italy," by Edward 
 Lear (Tlwmas McLean, 1846). 
 
 Lady Waldegrave ... . ,,132 
 
 From a photograph taken in 1859. One among a number taken 
 in contemplation of a statuette executed later by Noble. This one 
 a special pose from one of the plays acted at Nuneham. 
 
 Castel Fusano . . . . . ,,162 
 
 From "Illustrated Excursions in Italy," by Edward Lear 
 (Thomas McLean, 1846) 
 
 The Cat and the Hen .... ,,182 
 
 A sketch by Lear. 
 
 The Rose-Coloured Shirt ... „ 199 
 
 Mar Sabbas, Syria ..... „ 230 
 
 " Girt round with blackness." — The Palace of Art. 
 
 From " Poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson, illustrated by Edward 
 Lear" (Boussod, Valedon 6- Co., 1889). By kind permission of 
 Lord Tennyson. 
 
 Gozo, Malta (?)..... „ 243 
 
 From an unnamed photograph of a picture by Edward Lear. 
 
 Chichester Fortescue .... „ 290 
 
 From a photograph taken June, 1863. 
 
 Frances Countess Waldegrave ... „ 290 
 
 From a photograph taken June, 1863. 
 
 Philiates, Albania ..... „ 300 
 
 From a pen and ink sketch in a letter. 
 
 X 
 
List of Illustrations 
 
 LIST OF THE MORE IMPORTANT SKETCHES 
 REPRODUCED IN THE TEXT 
 
 Letter with Sketches of the Academy Schools 
 
 PAGE 
 
 '-3-25 
 
 A Lesson in Pistol-shooting 
 
 Palestine Sketches 
 
 Assygrams 
 
 The Bowl of Peace 
 
 The Result of Want of Exercise 
 
 Lear Painting at Nuneham 
 
 " There was a Young Person of Chertsey " 
 
 "There was a Young Lady of Clare" 
 
 Lear's New Gallery 
 
 Lear's Hair Violently Growing 
 
 Death in the Desert 
 
 "There was a Young Girl of Majorca" 
 
 A Corfu Dinner-party 
 
 Lear's Picture Gallery at Corfit 
 
 "A Moth has Crossed my Paper" 
 
 Lear and the Mice 
 
 Lear Leaves a Card 
 
 " There was an Old Man who said, ' How ' " 
 
 xi 
 
 . 92 
 
 98-101, 107, 108 
 
 . 141 
 
 • i43 
 . 170 
 
 • i73 
 
 • i79 
 . 220 
 
 . 229 
 . 246 
 
 • 254 
 . 264 
 . 269 
 
 • 274 
 . 283 
 . 288 
 
 • 294 
 
 • 295 
 
To Lord Tennyson my special thanks are due for his kind 
 permission in allowing to be included in this book photographs 
 of two of the pictures from "Poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson 
 illustrated by Edward Lear." This work was brought out in 
 1889, after Lear's death, by Boussod, Valedon &* Co. The edition 
 was limited to a hundred copies, and each copy was signed by 
 the poet. For the sake of his old friend and to partly fulfil one 
 of the most cherished objects of Lear's later life, which, alas / he 
 never was able hhnself to carry out, this book was published, 
 containing twenty-two out of the many pictures drawn and 
 specially put aside for this purpose by Lear. I am also 
 fortunate in being able to include such a poem as " To E. L., 
 on his Travels in Greece? written by the poet after Lear's 
 earlier visit to that country. Most readers know the poem, but 
 many do not know to whom it was addressed. To these will 
 come the surprise and to all the pleasure, of finding these verses 
 used as it were in a dedicatory sense, both to the words of the 
 man they praise and to the account he gives of a journey over 
 the same ground they commemorate. 
 
 C. S. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 "True humour is sensibility in the most catholic and 
 deepest sense ; but it is the sport of sensibility ; wholesome 
 and perfect therefore ; as it were, the playful, teasing fond- 
 ness of a mother to her child." — Carlyle. 
 
 IT is said that humour is allied to sadness, 
 and that it is this quality which defines 
 it from its kindred talent, wit. The writer 
 of the following letters was a master of the 
 former art, as well as a painter of beautiful 
 and original pictures. 
 
 The English and American public of the 
 present day, only know Edward Lear through 
 his ''Books of Nonsense." To only a cultivated 
 few and the survivors of a past generation 
 who possess many of his works, are his 
 pictures existent. But practically to none is 
 known the depth of character and person- 
 ality of the man who wrote these rhymes 
 and painted these pictures. How few have 
 realised the vein of sadness and other 
 
 xiii 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 qualities, which went to make Lear's humour 
 of the highest order and his pictures of 
 special interest. Therefore it has seemed 
 to me that these letters to one of his 
 most intimate and life-long friends, would be 
 acceptable to the many whose childhood was 
 associated and made glad by his inimitable 
 fun and frolic, and that these should be 
 given some idea of his real life-work — his 
 paintings, to which he dedicated every energy 
 of his being. Besides, the total want of 
 knowledge by them of the man himself, has 
 led I believe to a growing and rising 
 interest in his doings and sayings, his aims 
 and ambitions, as distinct from the mere 
 writer of the immortal nonsense verses. 
 Those who in their childhood loved him 
 for the joyousness he gave them, now in 
 their more mature days would be interested 
 to know what kind of man was the writer 
 of "The Yonghy-Bonghy-B6," "The Owl 
 and the Pussy Cat," and the verses and 
 rhymes he brought to such perfection. 
 These letters to my uncle and aunt, Lord 
 Carlingford and his wife Frances Countess 
 Waldegrave, show the man in every possible 
 vein of humour, both grave and gay, and 
 also show forth a most lovable personality. 
 
 xiv 
 
Introduction 
 
 I, who knew him from my earliest years, 
 remember how he attracted me at all periods 
 of my life. From the time when he drew for 
 me an alphabet when I scarce can remember 
 his so doing, when he sang with little voice 
 but with intense feeling and individuality, songs 
 by Tennyson his friend, which he had himself 
 put to charming music ; to the time when he 
 sent me an exquisite framed water-colour 
 drawing — a delicious harmony in blue of 
 the " Vale of Tempe " — as a wedding gift. 
 And later still when we spent a few weeks 
 near him in his San Remo villa home in 
 1880, though much aged and broken by 
 worries and health, still the same sad whim- 
 sical personality and undefinable charm of the 
 man attracted as ever, and one day to us was 
 literally shown forth, in his singing of an 
 air to which he had set the " Owl and the 
 Pussy Cat." But of this rendering, alas ! 
 there is no record, as not knowing music 
 though a musician by ear, he had been 
 unable to transcribe it to paper, and grudged 
 the ^5 he said it would cost to employ 
 another to do so. And again the last time 
 I saw him, as we passed the San Remo rail- 
 way station on our way north from Genoa 
 to England. It was a Sunday, and he 
 
 XV 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 happened to be walking dreamily away from 
 the station as our train slowed into it, but 
 out of earshot of our calls. The sad, bent, 
 loosely-clad figure with hands clasped behind 
 him, we did not know was walking away 
 from us then and for ever, for we never saw 
 him again. 
 
 The following letters date only from 1847, 
 therefore a few pages of what is known of 
 Lear's history and kindred before this period, 
 will not come amiss in this introduction. 
 There is a singular dearth of information 
 on these points, considering the size of the 
 family to which Lear belonged. Of its 
 representatives now I have only heard of one 
 member in England, and that one was, I 
 believe, a colonial born, and a sister's 
 great-grandson. 
 
 Edward Lear, the youngest of twenty-one 
 children, belonged to a Danish family natural- 
 ized a generation or so back in England, and 
 was born at Highgate on May 12, 181 2. 
 
 His family had some connection, I believe, 
 with Liverpool, and this fact seems to be 
 borne out by Mr. Holman Hunt having, in 
 consequence, presented a portrait drawing of 
 Lear by himself to that city some few years 
 ago. Lear's mother must have died very 
 
 xvi 
 
Introduction 
 
 early in his life, for he always spoke and 
 in his letters writes, of his eldest sister Ann 
 as having brought him up and of being as a 
 mother to him. She must have been a woman 
 of a good deal of force of character ; for 
 when domestic adversity and money difficulties 
 came upon the family, it was through her 
 small income and by her care, that Lear was 
 educated and brought up. 
 
 He, at the age of fifteen, began to earn a 
 living by painting. As a dreamy child, as he 
 must have been, he pored over books of natural 
 history and dabbled with paints. Thus he was 
 led to "drawing small coloured pictures of 
 birds, and of colouring prints and screens and 
 fans for general use." As time went on he 
 advanced in his art, and his remuneration and 
 improvement increased in due proportion. 
 This again led to his being employed at 
 nineteen, through the good offices of a Mrs. 
 Wentworth, at the Zoological Gardens as a 
 draughtsman. The following year, 1832, he 
 published his " Family of the Psittacidae," 
 a most interesting work, "one of the earliest 
 collections of coloured ornithological drawings 
 on a large scale made in England," "as far 
 as I know," as he himself adds, with his 
 usual devotion to accuracy and truth. 
 
 xvii A * 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 These carefully and exquisitely drawn 
 pictures of parrots with their brilliant colour- 
 ings, naturally arrested the attention of such 
 men as Professors Bell and Swainston, Sir 
 William Jardine, Mr. Gould and Mr. Gray 
 of the British Museum, who recognised the 
 merit of his work and his fidelity to detail. 
 He further illustrated G. A. Gould's book 
 on " Indian Pheasants ' about this time, and 
 did other work for the same author and 
 others of those just mentioned. At this 
 period came the great opportunity of his life, 
 and to a small circumstance was he indebted 
 for the lifelong friendship and help, of the 
 first and greatest of the many important 
 patrons for whom he worked during his life. 
 At this time Lord Derby, who had brought 
 together an interesting collection of rare 
 animals and birds at Knowsley, was con- 
 templating the illustrating and printing of a 
 magnificent work, which he eventually privately 
 printed in 1856, and which has now become 
 the rare and valuable volume known as the 
 11 Knowsley Menagerie." He, one day, I 
 believe, went to the Zoological Gardens, 
 where he was so much struck by the work 
 of a young man whom he observed drawing 
 there, that he immediately made inquiries 
 
 xviii 
 
Introduction 
 
 about him, and engaged him on the spot to 
 execute the bird portion of the illustrations 
 for his book. This was Lear. From this 
 happy moment, for four years Lear con- 
 tinued not only to do work for his patron, 
 but, as he observes in a small memorandum 
 to Fortescue, in a letter many years later 
 than those published in the present volume, 
 during those years and many after, he met 
 and mixed with half the fine people of 
 the day. 
 
 Here I transcribe the fragment intact : — 
 
 C.s. writing of Lord Carlisle's journal reminds me 
 of a curious discovery I have made lately in looking 
 over old things of my dear sister Ann's. I remember 
 telling C. F. that for 12 or 13 years when at 
 Knowsley, I kept a journal about everything and 
 everybody, but one day in 1840, I burnt the whole. 
 It has all turned up again, for I copied out all, or 
 nearly all, in letters to my sister, and she preserved all 
 those, and here they are ! 
 
 During those years I saw half the fine people of 
 the day, and my notes about some are queer enough. 
 One for instance about Lord W. "The Earl of W. 1 
 has been here for some days : he is Lord W.'s 2 d 
 son, and married Lady Mary S. He is extremely 
 
 1 The second Earl of Wilton, second son of the first Marquess 
 of Westminster. 
 
 xix 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 picturesque if not handsome, and dresses in crimson 
 and a black velvet waistcoat when he looks like a 
 
 portrait of Vandyke. Miss says and so does Mrs. 
 
 that he is a very bad man, tho he looks so nicely. 
 
 But what I like about him, is that he always asks me 
 to drink a glass of champagne with him at dinner. 
 I wonder why he does. But I don't much care as I 
 like the champagne." And some days later I wrote, 
 " I have asked why on Earth she thinks the Earl of 
 W. always asks me to drink champagne, and she 
 began to laugh, and said, because he knows you are a 
 clever artist and he sees you always look at him and 
 admire him : and he is a very vain man and this 
 pleases him, and so he asks you to take wine as a 
 reward." Ha! Ha! Ha! 
 
 Note 
 
 in 
 
 1871. 
 
 Still 
 
 in our ashes 
 
 
 etc. 
 
 etc. 
 
 In 1846 Lear gave drawing lessons to the 
 late Queen Victoria. Two stories he himself 
 told of that time will be of interest. Lear 
 had a habit of standing on the hearthrug. 
 When at Windsor he was in the room with 
 the Queen, and as was his wont, he had 
 somehow managed to migrate to his favourite 
 place. He observed that whenever he took up 
 this position, the Lord-in- W T aiting or Private 
 Secretary who was in attendance kept luring 
 him away, either under pretext of looking at a 
 
 XX 
 
Introduction 
 
 picture or some object of interest. After each 
 interlude he made again for the hearthrug, 
 and the same thing was repeated. It was 
 only afterwards that he discovered that to 
 stand where he had done was not etiquette. 
 
 On another occasion the Queen, with great 
 kindness, was showing him some of the price- 
 less treasures in cabinets either at Windsor 
 Castle or Buckingham Palace I do not know 
 which, and explaining their history to him. 
 Mr. Lear, entirely carried away by the wonder- 
 ful beauty and interest of what he saw, became 
 totally oblivious of all other facts, and in the 
 excitement and forgetfulness of the moment 
 exclaimed, " Oh ! how did you get all these 
 beautiful things?" Her Majesty's answer, 
 as Mr. Lear said, was an excellent one, so 
 kind, yet so terse and full of the dignity 
 of a Queen : " I inherited them, Mr. Lear." 
 
 In a delightful article by Mr. Wilfrid 
 Ward several years ago in the New Review 
 called "Talks with Tennyson," I have ven- 
 tured to recall a story given apropos of 
 Edward Lear : — 
 
 "On one occasion Tennyson's friend, Edward 
 Lear, was staying in a Sicillian town, painting. He 
 left the town for some weeks and locked up his 
 
 xxi 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 pictures and other things in a room, leaving the key 
 with the hotel keeper. A revolution had just broken 
 out when he returned, and he found the waiters full of 
 Chianti and of patriotic fervour. He ventured to ask 
 one of them for the chiave of his camera that he 
 might find his roba. The waiter refused entirely 
 to be led down from his dreams of a golden age and 
 of the reign of freedom to such details of daily life. 
 "O che chiave / " he exclaimed. " O che roba! O che 
 camera ! Non ce piih chiave ! Non ce piti roba ! 
 Non ce pin camera / Non ce piii niente. Tutto e 
 amore e liberta. O che bella rivoluzione ! " l Constant 
 little local revolutions took place at this time in Italy, 
 and the inhabitants drank an extremely large quantity 
 of Chianti and talked enthusiastically of liberta and la 
 batria for a couple of days ; and then things settled 
 down into their former groove." 
 
 The acquaintanceship of Lear and Fortescue 
 began in 1845, when Lear was thirty-three and 
 Fortescue twenty-two. After leaving Oxford, 
 the latter took an extended tour in Europe 
 and Greece, before starting on a parliamentary 
 career. Fortescue, with his friend Simeon, left 
 England on February 1, 1845, for Italy, where 
 they remained over six months. In the middle 
 
 1 " Oh ! what key ? Oh ! what property ? Oh ! what room ? 
 There is no more a key ! There is no more property ! There 
 is no more a room ! There is no more anything ! All is love 
 and liberty. Oh what a beautiful revolution ! " 
 
 xxii 
 
Introduction 
 
 of March they reached Rome, where they 
 stayed for over eleven weeks. In Fortescue's 
 diary, very fully kept during this journey, we 
 find the entries of his first meeting Lear, and 
 of how rapidly the friendship which lasted 
 till Lear's death, ripened between the two. 
 A few extracts from my uncle's diary may 
 be interesting to those reading the following 
 letters : 
 
 Thurs., April 15, 1845. — Went with Conybeare 
 to Lear's, where we stayed some time looking over 
 drawings. I like what I have seen of him very 
 much. 
 
 Sat. 26th. — Saw Lear. 
 
 Sun. 2jtk. — After church took a walk with Lear 
 until nearly dinner-time. 
 
 Tkurs., May 1st. — Simeon went with Scotts and 
 General Ramsay to Tivoli. ... I declined. Walked 
 with Lear to the Ponte Salaro sketching. ... I like 
 very much what I have seen of Lear ; he is a good, 
 clever, agreeable man — very friendly and getonable 
 with. . . . Spent the evening in Lear's rooms looking 
 over drawings, &c. 
 
 Friday, May 2nd. — Simeon and I started for Veii 
 in a fiacre and overtook Lear. We drove on to near 
 I sola Farnese, and then got out and sketched. . . . 
 Then walked down the valley to the S. of Isola to the 
 Arco di Pino. . . . The day which had been lovely 
 had gradually clouded over, and we had not left the 
 
 xxiii • 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Arco di Pino many minutes, before we were caught 
 in a thunderstorm which lasted an hour or more. 
 Lear and I ran to the Osteria at I sola. Simeon 
 stayed behind under a rock. After eating our dinner 
 and waiting some time we grew uneasy about 
 Simeon, and set out in the rain to look for him. We 
 found the little " Fosso " which we had stepped across 
 an hour before so swollen, that we did not like to 
 cross it, and Simeon, who had been delayed by the 
 same cause, had to wade. . . . 
 
 Sun. — Went to Lear's in the evening. . . . 
 
 Thursday. — Started at 5 o'clock with Lear, Simeon, 
 and a Mr. Chester to Tivoli per carriage. After 
 breakfast started thence for Palestrina on foot, 
 Simeon riding. 
 
 Explaining the places and views they passed, 
 including " a villa built by some ' lotus eating ' 
 Cardinal who loved retirement, and dying 
 under a hill on whose top stood a temple of 
 the BSna Dea," they halted for Lear to see 
 some fine aqueducts, which he admired. 
 
 Lear wanted to sketch them, and very grand they 
 are — most striking in themselves and in the solitude 
 of the glens which they cross. . . . 
 
 Still drawing and walking, they came to 
 and were " entertained at his house, by a 
 
 xxiv 
 
Introduction 
 
 friend of Lear's at Gallicano," and returned 
 to Rome after a two days' expedition, too late 
 to see the " Vatican by torchlight with 'Two- 
 penny's' party." 
 Fortescue adds : 
 
 These were two very enjoyable days. Lear a 
 delightful companion, full of nonsense, puns, riddles, 
 everything in the shape of fun, and brimming with 
 intense appreciation of nature as well as history. I 
 don't know when I have met any one to whom I took 
 so great a liking. 
 
 Sat. — Lear, Simeon, and myself drove to Veii. 
 Sketched — walked . . . then Lear and I walked 
 home some twelve miles. This was a delightful 
 day. 
 
 Sunday. — Called with Lear to ask Bentinck to join 
 our party to Soracte to-morrow. Lear found he could 
 not go to-morrow, so that project was knocked on the 
 head. I was disappointed and strolled alone ... in 
 rather a disgusted and gloomy state of mind. . . . 
 Went to Lear's in the evening. 
 
 Thurs. — Lear dined with us and gave us a drawing 
 lesson. 
 
 Friday. — Felt done, relaxed — in abeyance, as Lear 
 says. . . . Dined with Lear. ... I shall be very 
 sorry to part with Lear. 
 
 Sunday. — Lear breakfasted with us. . . . Lear 
 came to say goodbye just before our dinner — he 
 has gone by diligence to Civita Vecchia. I have 
 
 XXV 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 enjoyed his society immensely, and am very sorry 
 he is gone. We seemed to suit each other capitally, 
 and became friends in no time. Among other 
 qualifications, he is one of those men of real feeling 
 it is so delightful to meet in this cold-hearted world. 
 Simeon and myself both miss him much." 
 
 In 1844-45 ne seems to have been much 
 in England, and that probably is the reason 
 why, no letters appear to exist during those 
 years from him to Fortescue. With a friend- 
 ship such as theirs had become they probably 
 saw one another often, but still if Fortescue 
 went to Greece in 1846-47, there must have 
 been some communication between them, 
 which has, unfortunately, doubtless been lost. 
 
 By the courtesy of Messrs. Warne & Co. 
 permission has been given, for the inclusion 
 in this introduction of a most interesting and 
 condensed letter by Lear, of facts of his own 
 life up to 1862, printed "by way of preface' 
 to one of their admirable series of his 
 " Nonsense Books." Through the numerous 
 editions which have been published by them, 
 many of the present generation have had the 
 felicity of enjoying as their parents did before 
 them these books, by the man of whom Ruskin 
 said in his list of the best hundred authors, " I 
 
 xxvi 
 
Introduction 
 
 really don't know of any author to whom I am 
 half so grateful for my idle self as Edward 
 Lear. I shall put him first of my hundred 
 authors." 
 
 To all those who are not acquainted with 
 this series, and to the mothers of the young 
 children of to-day, I recommend these books 
 for the cultivation in their children of blameless 
 humour. Thus ever, a larger number of people 
 may come to know the lovable man and fine 
 artist, whose character is revealed in these 
 letters. 
 
 My Dear F. — I want to send you, before leaving 
 England, a note or two as to the various publications 
 I have uttered, — bad and good, and of all sorts, — also 
 their dates, that so you might be able to screw them 
 into a beautiful memoir of me in case I leave my 
 bones at Palmyra or elsewhere. Leastwise, if a man 
 does anything all through life with a deal of bother, 
 and likewise of some benefit to others, the details of 
 such bother and benefit may as well be known 
 accurately as the contrary. 
 
 Born in 1812 (12th May), I began to draw, for 
 bread and cheese, about 1827, but only did uncommon 
 queer shop-sketches — selling them for prices varying 
 from ninepence to four shillings : colouring prints, 
 screens, fans ; awhile making morbid disease drawings, 
 for hospitals and certain doctors of physic. In 
 
 xxvii 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 1 83 1, through Mrs. Wentworth, I became employed 
 at the Zoological Society, and, in 1832, published 
 " The Family of the Psittacidae," the first complete 
 volume of coloured drawings of birds on so large a 
 scale published in England, as far as I know — unless 
 Audubon's were previously engraved. J. Gould's 
 " Indian Pheasants " were commenced at the same 
 time, and after a little while he employed me to draw 
 many of his birds of Europe, while I assisted Mrs. 
 Gould in all her drawings of foregrounds, as may be 
 seen in a moment by any one who will glance at my 
 drawings in G.'s European birds and the Toucans. 
 From 1832 to 1836, when my health failed a good 
 deal, I drew much at the Earl of Derby's ; and a 
 series of my drawings was published by Dr. Gray 
 of the British Museum — a book now rare. I also 
 lithographed many various detached subjects, and 
 a large series of Testudinata for Mr. (now Professor) 
 Bell ; and I made drawings for Bell's " British 
 Mammalia," and for two or more volumes of the 
 " Naturalist's Library " for the editor, Sir W. Jardine, 
 those volumes being the Parrots, and, I think, the 
 Monkeys, and some Cats. In 1835 or '36, being in 
 Ireland and the Lakes, I leaned more and more to 
 landscape, and when in 1837 it was found that my 
 health was more affected by the climate month by 
 month, I went abroad, wintering in Rome till 1841, 
 when I came to England and published a volume of 
 lithographs called " Rome and its Environs." Re- 
 turning to Rome, I visited Sicily and much of the 
 
 xxviii 
 
Introduction 
 
 South of Italy, and continued to make chalk drawings, 
 though in 1840 I had painted my two first oil-paintings. 
 I also gave lessons in drawing at Rome and was able 
 to make a very comfortable living. In 1845 I came 
 again to England, and in 1846 gave Queen Victoria 
 some lessons, through Her Majesty's having seen a 
 work I published in that year on the Abruzzi, and 
 another on the Roman States. In 1847 I went 
 through all Southern Calabria, and again went round 
 Sicily, and in 1848 left Rome entirely. I travelled 
 then to Malta, Greece, Constantinople, and the 
 Ionian Islands ; and to Mount Sinai and Greece 
 a second time in 1849, returning to England in that 
 year. All 1850 I gave up to improving myself in 
 figure drawing, and I continued to paint oil-paintings 
 till 1853, having published in the meantime, in 1849 
 and 1852, two volumes entitled "Journals of a Land- 
 scape Painter," in Albania and Calabria. The first 
 edition of the "Book of Nonsense" was published 
 in 1846, lithographed by tracing-paper. In 1854 
 I went to Egypt and Switzerland, and in 1855 to 
 Corfu, where I remained the winters of 1856-57-58, 
 visiting Athos, and, later, Jerusalem and Syria. In 
 the autumn of 1858 I returned to England, and '59 
 and '60 winters were passed in Rome. 1861, I 
 remained all the winter in England, and painted the 
 Cedars of Lebanon and Masada, going, after my 
 sister's death in March, 1861, to Italy. The two 
 following winters — '62 and '63 — were passed at Corfu, 
 and in the end of the latter year I published "Views in 
 
 xxix 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 the Ionian Islands." In 1862 a second edition of the 
 11 Book of Nonsense," much enlarged, was published, 
 and is now in its sixteenth thousand. 
 
 O bother ! 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 EDWARD LEAR. 
 
 The following letters from 1847 t0 J ^4 tell 
 their own story during those years, and 
 therefore nothing further with regard to them 
 is required in this introduction. But Lear's 
 life continued and his letters to my uncle 
 also, till his death at San Remo in 1888, at 
 the age of seventy-six. Consequently a slight 
 sketch is required here to make his life 
 intelligible from the time the letters in 1864 
 cease, though it is hoped that at some future 
 date should this series be found of interest 
 to the public, a further instalment up to his 
 death of equal value may be forthcoming. 
 
 From 1864 to 1870 Lear spent his winters 
 in Nice, Malta, Egypt, and latterly at Cannes. 
 His summers were busy in having exhibitions 
 at 15, Stratford Place, and from thence visiting 
 old friends in different parts of England. His 
 output of a year's work ending April, 1865, 
 was enormous, and is a sample of his stupen- 
 dous industry and his marvellous capabilities of 
 work, in the face of bad health and difficulties. 
 
 XXX 
 
Introduction 
 
 During the time mentioned he visited Crete, 
 the Corniche and the Riviera Coast. To 
 quote from a letter of his to Fortescue of the 
 18th of the above month, he writes: "You 
 ought some day to see the whole of my outdoor 
 work of twelve months — 200 sketches in Crete, 
 145 in the Corniche, and 125 at Nice, Antibes, 
 and Cannes." But at last in April, 1870, 
 finding the lease of his Cannes rooms expiring 
 and unable to be renewed and many things 
 unsatisfactory and uncertain, he evolved the 
 idea of buying a piece of land and building 
 for himself a villa and studio. Land being 
 very expensive at Cannes and a suitable plot 
 besides not being available, he decided on 
 settling down and establishing himself at San 
 Remo instead. 
 
 He therefore finally removed from Cannes 
 in the following June, and July finds him in 
 lodgings at San Remo for a few months, till 
 his new villa which he was building " shall be 
 ready for my occupation." The studio was in 
 such an advanced state if not quite finished, 
 that he was able to use it and paint in it. 
 
 At this time, too, he had been unfortunate 
 in selling his pictures, and he complains that 
 he "only got £30 from the rich Cannes public 
 this last winter." His pessimism, which grew 
 
 xxxi 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 upon him more and more as time passed on, 
 is more noticeable at this period when he 
 writes, " that after he settles down in San 
 Remo, his visits to England and his friends 
 will be less and less," and wonders if he "will 
 get any sales for his pictures." 
 
 Besides, another very serious cause, which 
 the following extract from a letter of July 31, 
 1870, will explain, suddenly came upon him at 
 this time as a shock and added to this state 
 of mind : 
 
 I must tell you that I have been, at one time, 
 extremely ill this summer. It is as well that you 
 should know that I am told I have the same com- 
 plaint of the heart as my father died of quite suddenly. 
 I have had advice about it, and they say I may live 
 any time if I don't run suddenly or go quickly upstairs; 
 but that if I do I am pretty sure to drop morto. I ran 
 up a little rocky bit near the Tenda, and thought I 
 shouldn't run any more, and the palpitations were so 
 bad that I had to tell Georgio all about it, as I did 
 not think I should have lived that day through. 
 
 But when he gets into the "Villa Emily" 
 (so named, as he says in a letter, after his New 
 Zealand sister's granddaughter), his spirits 
 seem to rise again. But through all, his 
 letters retain their humour — sometimes gay, 
 sometimes sad — and their whimsicality and 
 
 XXXll 
 
Introduction 
 
 attractiveness never fail. Besides, there is added, 
 a certain charm of the older experienced man 
 with a riper knowledge of persons and things. 
 
 At his new house he remained more or less 
 permanently, till he went to India in 1874, by- 
 invitation of Lord Northbrook then Governor- 
 General, there making many sketches for future 
 use ; and from his return early in 1875 to 
 1 88 1 with occasional holidays, the Villa Emily 
 was his home. For some years it had been a 
 very happy home, where he painted his beautiful 
 pictures and entertained passing friends. 
 
 Although most anxious to sell his pictures, 
 he may sometimes, by his strange ways, have 
 turned from his door intending purchasers. 
 He was by way of showing his studio on one 
 afternoon in the week. On this day he some- 
 times sent his servant out and opened the 
 door himself. This procedure was resorted 
 to in order that he might keep out Germans, 
 whose presence, for some unknown reason 
 filled him with dread. If he did not like 
 the appearance of a visitor, with a long face 
 and woe in his voice he would explain that 
 he never showed his pictures now, being much 
 too ill. He would then shut the door, and 
 his cheerfulness would return. 
 
 But gradually a grievance grew up, which 
 
 XXXlll 
 
 ** 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 by degrees assumed proportions which so 
 preyed upon his mind that he decided to 
 abandon his beloved Villa Emily, and build 
 another perfectly similar house on a site, 
 where, he sadly and fancifully observed to his 
 friends, he was safe, " unless the fishes build." 
 This " nightmare " was the building of a huge 
 hotel close to his villa, the reflection from the 
 roof of which he declared, ruined the light of 
 his studio, maddening him and rendering his 
 life hideous. 
 
 It was a great trial to him this abandoning 
 of his cherished home, the garden of which 
 time had made a paradise. His new abode — 
 the Villa Tennyson as he called it, after one 
 of his best friends — though similar in every 
 respect, had none of the mellowed charm 
 which age had given the older house ; and the 
 garden, though he transplanted many shrubs 
 and moved various arbours and pergolas from 
 the Villa Emily, was balder and newer and had 
 not the capabilities of the older one. 
 
 His faithful Suliot servant Georgio who 
 had remained with him ever since his Corfu 
 days, now having a young son to help him 
 and train in his duties, was the mainstay 
 of Lear's life. The artist took a short 
 holiday to Bologna and the North of Italy 
 
 xxxiv 
 
Introduction 
 
 while the change of houses was being accom- 
 plished, the faithful servant cheerfully coped 
 with all the difficulties of the more practical 
 side which moving to a new house entailed. 
 And from this time till Lear's death on Jan. 
 29, i888f his home was the Villa Tennyson, 
 with occasional holidays during the early 
 summer months to the North of Italy and 
 later yearly to Monte Generoso, but after the 
 year 1880 he never again came to England. 
 He lies buried at San Remo, beside the 
 eldest son of his faithful Suliot servant 
 Georgio Kokali, and the stone raised above 
 his grave records the following touching 
 
 memorial : — 
 
 In memory of 
 
 Edward Lear, Landscape Painter 
 
 in many lands 
 
 Born at Highgate May 12. 181 2 
 Died at San Remo Jan 29. 1888 
 Dear for his many gifts to many souls. 
 
 — "all things fair" 
 "With such a pencil such a pen" 
 "You shadow'd forth to distant men" 
 " I read & felt that I was there." 
 
 CONSTANCE STRACHEY. 
 
 Sutton Court, Somerset, 
 Oct. 4, 1907. 
 
 XXXV 
 
APPRECIATION OF LEAR AS A PAINTER 
 
 THE following note by my brother-in-law, 
 Mr. Henry Strachey, is an artist's 
 endeavour to estimate Lear's position as a 
 painter. C. S. 
 
 The landscape painting of Edward Lear has 
 never been popular either with artists or the 
 larger public. The reason of this being so 
 with the latter probably depended both on 
 fashion and the fact that Lear chose to paint 
 foreign countries rather than England. That 
 fellow-painters should have been slow to 
 appreciate Lear's work depended on other 
 reasons. What these were it may be of 
 interest to try to discover. I remember when 
 I was a student at the Slade School, under 
 Legros, I paid a visit to Lear at San Remo, 
 and in talking of art he quoted to me, with 
 complete approval, these words of some friend 
 of his, " Copy the works of the Almighty 
 first and those of Turner next." Now the 
 
 XXXVI 
 
Appreciation as a Painter 
 
 great and fundamental quality that lies at 
 the root of the art of Turner is appreciation 
 of atmospheric effect. His preoccupation was 
 not so much what the objects painted were 
 like in themselves, but how they looked when 
 modified by the ever-changing atmosphere. 
 It was the light that fell upon the mountain 
 rather than the shapes of its rocks and slopes 
 that Turner represented. He painted the 
 scene for the sake of the light that fell on 
 it, and not the light as an incident in the 
 landscape. The lines on which landscape 
 painters progressed during the latter half of 
 the last century were on those of light and 
 atmosphere both here and in the great schools 
 of France. But Lear never seems to have had 
 complete sympathy with any aspect of nature 
 except one which showed him the greatest 
 number of topographical details. If he painted 
 the Roman Campagna every sinew in the 
 plain was lovingly recorded, as was every 
 arch of the aqueducts, and even the lumps 
 of the fallen masonry in the foreground. 
 One is sometimes tempted to think that when 
 Lear painted an olive-tree near at hand against 
 the sky he counted the leaves. A traveller 
 could almost plan his route over a pass from 
 one of this artist's faithful realisations of 
 
 XXXVll 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 mountains. To help him portray nature 
 minutely the " topographical artist " — and I 
 remember hearing Lear call himself by this 
 title — wishes for quiet, equal light and weather. 
 For his purpose the shadows of storm clouds 
 are things which blurr and obscure, though 
 for the emotional painter they may turn a 
 commonplace scene into a picture. Lear's 
 interest in landscape was dual : he was both 
 a painter and a traveller. This appears in 
 the letters forming this volume ; indeed, it 
 often seems as if the historic and geographical 
 interest predominated. In saying this it must 
 be remembered that it is much easier to 
 express in words these constituents of a 
 scene than it is a purely aesthetic impression. 
 If it must be admitted that a large part of 
 Lear's outlook on nature was not purely 
 pictorial, to him must be conceded a very 
 real and true sense of beauty. It is because 
 he could feel the beauty of nature and record 
 it with individuality that his work is valuable, 
 and not because it represents exactly some 
 given piece of country. The labyrinthine 
 valleys of the blue mountains above Ther- 
 mopylae, as seen in the picture reproduced 
 in this book, weave patterns of beauty which 
 are independent of historic association. In- 
 
 xxxviii 
 
Appreciation as a Painter 
 
 stances might be multiplied where the artist 
 has got the upper hand of the topographer, 
 and the result has been a picture. Lear 
 painted both in water colour and in oil. It 
 was, however, in the former medium that he 
 was most successful. The delicate drawing 
 and the tendency to use fine lines made the 
 more fluid water colour answer to his hand 
 better than the oil paint. Indeed, he seems 
 never quite happy when working with the 
 latter, and he is always trying to make it 
 behave like the more limpid medium. 
 
 Only on the rarest occasions did Lear use 
 the sky except as background. I cannot recall 
 a picture of his in which the motive was essen- 
 tially a cloud effect. This was partly due, no 
 doubt, to the southern climates in which he 
 painted, with their predominance of blue sky. 
 Also I think the painter's love of the realisa- 
 tion of minute detail made him feel that 
 things which stayed still to be drawn were 
 those which best suited his style. 
 
 The love of detailed representation naturally 
 made Lear range himself with the Preraphaelite 
 painters. He, indeed, considered himself one 
 of the brotherhood in the second generation. 
 This is the meaning of his allusion in the 
 letters to Mr. Holman Hunt as his father. I 
 
 XXXIX 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 remember his telling me that he looked upon 
 Millais as his artistic uncle. 
 
 As a colourist Lear was simple rather than 
 subtle. Straightforward harmonies of blue 
 suited him best. Many exquisitely beautiful 
 water-colour drawings of the blue Apennines 
 overlooking the aqueduct-lined Campagna 
 came from his hand. No one has given 
 better than he has the strange charm of this 
 melancholy landscape. His success in this 
 direction is, I think, due to that delicate sense 
 of style which he possessed and which is 
 needed to interpret such a classic scene. If 
 Lear's pictures cannot rank beside those of the 
 great masters of landscape, the best of his 
 works will always have a real value for those 
 who see beyond the fashion of the moment. 
 This will be so because the artist's work was 
 always dignified and sincere, and he had a true 
 if somewhat formal sense of beauty. More- 
 over, his style was perfectly individual and 
 distinctive. 
 
 H. STRACHEY 
 
 xl 
 
NOTE 
 
 AMONG the various small details and 
 elucidations which have reached me 
 since the first edition of this book was pub- 
 lished, many have been too late to be incor- 
 porated in the text of this second impression. 
 I propose, therefore, to condense these into 
 a short postscript to my preface. 
 
 Through correspondents both known and 
 unknown many small matters have been 
 cleared up, and I am therefore able thus to 
 make use of their kind help in these pages. 
 Beginning with page xxxii, Lord Tennyson 
 tells me it was always said in the family " that 
 the Villa Emily was called after his mother, 
 Lady Tennyson." This is very probably the 
 case, and possibly in some way indirectly the 
 grand-daughter, if a godchild of Lear's, may 
 have been given the name of one of those he 
 loved best. 
 
 At page 6 the Mrs. Sartoris mentioned 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 in Roman society when Lear was painting 
 there in 1848, was not Miss Barrington but 
 her sister-in-law Mrs. Edward Sartoris, the 
 well-known Adelaide Kemble. 
 
 Again at page 66, her husband EdAvard 
 Sartoris, is supposed by a correspondent, to 
 be identified in the drawing companion 
 " Edward," whom Lear misses so terribly at 
 Corfu in 1857. 
 
 At page 222, mention is made of "one 
 Luard," who attracts Lear both as a person 
 and by the "thirty lettered" definition of his 
 tastes. Now Major-General C. E. Luard, R.E. 
 
 Since interrogatively and humbly naming 
 the plate at page 243 for want of better, as 
 Gozo, Malta, owing to a similarity of " shere 
 rocks " between it and a photogravure given 
 in "The Poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson," 
 illustrated by Lear, I have been informed by 
 an old friend and pupil of Mr. Lear who 
 possesses a sketch of the subject though also 
 unnamed, that to the best of his remembrance 
 he is certain that the scene represents " Kom 
 Ombos, Egypt," painted to illustrate Tenny- 
 son's line " the crag that fronts the even, all 
 along the shadowy shore." A correspondent a 
 charming old lady of 81, refers in an inter- 
 esting letter to the , expression "Abercrom- 
 
 ii 
 
Preface 
 
 bically" on page 129. In her young days, 
 she says, Dr. John Abercrombie a great Scotch 
 physician, was the well-known author of " The 
 Intellectual Powers," "The Moral Feelings," 
 and " The Culture and Discipline of the 
 Mind." These works had a great vogue at 
 that time, and young ladies were given them 
 to read. She quotes, " How to live and act 
 1 Abercrombically ' is best shown on pp. 143 
 and 144 of the latter work. Dr. Abercrombie 
 chose a high standard, and bade his disciples 
 adhere to it uncompromisingly." Hence when 
 Lear says Woodward preaches " Abercrom- 
 bically," and Fortescue writes and acts so, 
 they are carrying out the gospel laid down 
 in these books. Consequently on these occa- 
 sions their actions are full of correctness and 
 decorum of a high order. 
 
 With reference to the Greek and its transla- 
 tion on which I had a great deal of correspon- 
 dence, confusion has been caused by so much 
 of Lear's Greek having been modern Greek. 
 I have had kindly help from many Greek 
 scholars, who have sent me corrections which, 
 in a later edition if such ever sees the light, 
 will quite perfect what now stands as faulty. 
 
 Of the more conspicuous mistakes in trans- 
 lation, the following corrections may be 
 
 in 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 incorporated in this preface. Page 60, "O 
 mighty Krites, Richard son of Cyrus, wishes 
 me to send you greeting," should read, " The 
 mighty judge, Sir Richard Bethell, wishes me 
 to send you his greetings." Again at page 74, 
 note 3 should stand as "The Morier, fat and 
 beautiful," and at page 116, note 4 should 
 read thus, " The day after to-morrow I will 
 come to you before eleven o'clock to greet 
 you — and see with admiration your pictures 
 of Palestine. Fearful must be the ups-and- 
 downs of the Ionian Sea, such brayings I 
 never heard of." 
 
 At page 253, note 1 should read, " Let 
 us talk to-morrow at breakfast." 
 
 On page 148, Lear writes e^ koAoWi instead 
 of the correct «ri koXwv^, perhaps as a pun 
 on " Colonies." 
 
 Lord Sanderson, who was a friend both of 
 the late Lord Derby and Lear, gives me the 
 following interesting version of Lear's intro- 
 duction to his great patron. The information, 
 which was given to Lord Sanderson by the 
 late Mr. Latter who had been librarian at 
 Knowsley since 1871, and previously employed 
 there he believes from his boyhood was as 
 follows : " Lord Derby said to one of his 
 friends who had been staying at Knowsley 
 
 iv 
 
Preface 
 
 and was going up to London, that he wished 
 to find some young artist who would come 
 down to Knowsley and make paintings of the 
 birds. The friend (I am not sure if I was 
 told the name, but if I was I have forgotten 
 it) promised to make inquiries, and some time 
 afterwards he saw in a print-shop a small 
 water-colour drawing of two birds and a 
 nest, priced at a low sum, which struck him 
 as having considerable merit. He bought 
 the drawing and asked who the artist was. 
 The shopman said it was a young man of the 
 name of Lear, who was extremely poor and 
 made these sketches for his living. The friend 
 sought out Lear, made some further inquiries, 
 and wrote to Lord Derby that he thought he 
 had found a young man who would suit. The 
 result was an invitation to Knowsley and the 
 commencement of Lear's work there — which, 
 however, was intermittent. 
 
 Mr. Latter also told me that on the " first 
 occasion of giving a lesson to The Queen, Lear, 
 who was rather roughly dressed and was 
 always awkward in appearance, went to the 
 door at Osborne and simply said he wished 
 to see The Queen. The servants were a good 
 deal perplexed, but showed him into a room 
 where an equerry came to see him. On 
 
 V 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 his repeating that he had come to see The 
 Queen, the equerry blandly inquired what 
 was the business on which he came, being 
 convinced that he was a lunatic. To which 
 he replied, ' Oh, I'm Lear,' and some further 
 inquiries revealed the fact that he had an 
 appointment to give a lesson." 
 
 Mrs. Henry Grenfell also gives me some 
 valuable information as to Lear's introduction 
 at Knowsley. She writes, " I have often heard 
 my husband tell how Lear first got introduced 
 to 'Society' at Knowsley. He (Henry R. 
 Grenfell) lived much at his uncle's, Lord Sefton, 
 at Croxteth close by, and was told the story by 
 the young Stanleys. Old Lord Derby liked to 
 have his grandsons' company after dinner, and 
 one day complained that they constantly left 
 him as soon as dinner was over. Their reply 
 was, 'It is so much more amusing downstairs!' 
 'Why?' 'Oh, because that young fellow in 
 the steward's room who is drawing the birds 
 for you is such good company, and we like to 
 go and hear him talk.' 
 
 " Like a wise man, instead of scolding them, 
 and after full inquiry, he invited Lear to dine 
 upstairs instead of in the steward's room, and 
 not only Lord Derby, but all his friends were 
 equally delighted with him, and it ended in his 
 
 vi 
 
Preface 
 
 being a welcomed guest there and well known 
 to the many visitors at Knowsley who became 
 his friends." 
 
 f/ _ * 4p£U**^£r 
 
 A short time ago I came across a little plan 
 of visits to be made by Lear before starting 
 
 Vll 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 and reaching Rome, by Christmas Day. It is 
 exact and minute, as he always was in all he 
 did, and also proves his " genius ' for friend- 
 ship — typified on page 16 in the following 
 sentence: "I trust to get through 14 or 15 
 visits out of my 68." It has seemed to me 
 that a reproduction of this " Progress of Lear," 
 in his own handwriting, would be of interest. 
 
 I rather think from investigation that the 
 date must refer to the latter end of 1859, and 
 that dilatory-wise Lear getting belated, only 
 arrived as will be seen at page 157, as far as 
 Marseilles by the 26th of December, on his 
 journey Rome-ward. 
 
 I would take this opportunity of thanking 
 the public and the reviewers, for the kind way 
 the first edition of this book has been received. 
 My reward is in knowing that the memory of 
 one who was such a delightful and lovable 
 combination of complexities, has had appre- 
 ciation not only as the author of the Books 
 of Nonsense, but as a man. 
 
 " Exceeding wise, fair-spoken, and persuading : 
 Lofty and sour to them who loved him not ; 
 But to those men that sought him sweet as 
 
 summer." 
 
 vm 
 
Preface 
 ERRATA 
 
 Page 56. Note 1, read The residence of the Earl 
 Roden. 
 ,, 59. Dean, read Canon of Wells. 
 ,, 127. Note 5, Antonetti read Antonelli. 
 ,, 319. For Albania, 1841, read 1851. 
 For Calabria, 1842, read 1852. 
 ,, 328. Vere, Aubrey de, read 128, 209. 
 ,, 328. Vere, Major F. H. de, read 228, 257. 
 ,, 328. Vere, Mrs. Aubrey de, read Mrs. F. H. 
 de, 257. 
 
 IX 
 
From Lear'i 
 
 PENTEDATILO. 
 
 ' Journal of a Landscape Painter in Calabria " ( R. Bentiey, 1852). 
 
 To face page /. 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 1847, to August, 1853 
 
 ROME, GREECE, AND ENGLAND 
 
 THE earliest letter in this collection which 
 I have found is dated October 16, 
 1847, written to my uncle, Chichester 
 Fortescue, by Edward Lear immediately on 
 his return to Rome (his headquarters at that 
 time) from his tour in Calabria. The diary 
 he kept on that journey was published in 
 1852, illustrated by many striking litho- 
 graphs made from sketches taken during 
 the tour, two of which are here reproduced. 
 The whole of Italy at this time was in a 
 state of political upheaval and unrest ; the 
 people felt that the time for more liberal 
 forms of government had come. 
 
 Chichester Fortescue, then in his twenty- 
 
 I B 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 fourth year, had, after a brilliant Oxford 
 career, following the usual course of young 
 men of the aristocratic class of that period, 
 just completed the grand tour, including 
 Greece, with his friend Sir Francis Scott, 
 of Great Barr. He returned to find a seat 
 in Parliament in his native county of Louth 
 awaiting him, and at once was launched 
 into political as well as social life in London. 
 The sudden necessity of returning to England 
 prevented his joining Lear in Rome as he 
 had intended to do, and was the cause of 
 the appearance of Sir Francis Scott alone, 
 at which Lear took umbrage — afterwards 
 regretting his conduct. 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 107, 2D0, Via Felici, Roma. 
 
 16 Od., 1847. 
 
 Dear Fortescue, — Do not expect an unhampered 
 & simple epistle as of yore, but allow something 
 for the effect of your M.P'ism on my pen and 
 thoughts : Or rather I will forget for a space that you 
 are a British senator, & write to that Chichester 
 Fortescue whose shirt I cribbed at Palestrina. 
 
 Your letter, (one of 27, awaiting my coming, 
 which coming took place extremely late last night,) 
 
 2 
 
Rome, Greece, and England 
 
 diverts me highly : — Proby * my constant com- 
 panion (& few there be better,) agrees with me 
 about your view of the road to Aviano — which we 
 have only just, oddly enough gone over. Avellino 
 is certainly exquisite, & so is Mte. Vergine when 
 not in » fog, — But of Apulia we saw little, only 
 from hills apart, because why ? the atmosphere was 
 pisonous in Septbr. Nevertheless Proby went to 
 Cannae, and I believe found one of Annibals shoes 
 or spurs, — also a pinchbeck snuffbox with a Bramah 
 lock belonging to a Roman genl. — I rather chose 
 to go see Castel del Monte, a strange record of 
 old F. Barbarossa & which well repaid no end of 
 disgust in getting at it. We saw the tree Horace 
 slept under at Mte. Volture, & were altogether 
 much edified by the classicalities of Basilicata. 
 
 I will begin from the beginning. First then I 
 went (May 3) to Palermo, & on the nth set 
 out with Proby for Segestae. Excepting a run 
 round by Trapani & Massala, & a diversion to 
 Modica, Noto, and Spaccaforno, one Sicilian giro 
 was like that of all the multitude. The Massala trip 
 does not pay — & the only break to the utter 
 monotony of life & scenery occurred by a little dog 
 biting the calf of my leg very unpleasantly as I 
 walked unsuspectingly in a vineyard. At the caves 
 of Ipeica we became acquaint with a family of 
 
 1 John, Lord Proby, eldest son of the Earl of Carysfort, of 
 whom Lear speaks as such " an excellent companion," was a 
 friend of long standing. He died in 1858. 
 
 3 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 original Froglodytes : they are very good creatures, 
 mostly sitting on their hams, & feeding on lettuces & 
 honey. I proposed bringing away an infant Frog, 
 but Proby objected. Siracuse only wanted your 
 presence to make our stay more pleasant : I waited 
 for and expected you every day. We abode in a 
 quarry per lo piu, & left the place sorryly. From 
 Catania we saw Etna & went up it : a task, but 
 now it is done I am glad I did it : such extremes of 
 heat and cold at once I never thought it possible 
 to feel. Taormina the Magnificent we staid at 4 or 5 
 days, & then from Messina returned by that abomin- 
 able North Coast to Palermo, just in time for the 
 fete of Sta Rosalia a noisy scene which made me 
 crosser than ever, and drove away the small remains 
 of peaceful good temper the ugliness of the North 
 Coast had left me. 
 
 So, 19th July — we returned to Naples — & there, 
 as at Palermo was Scott — & to my disgust — no 
 Fortescue. I fear when Scott sent up your card, & 
 then entered too soon himself- — I fear my visage fell 
 very rudely. But I wish much now I had seen more of 
 Sir F. Scott : as he improves immensely on knowing 
 him. On the 26th we left Messina for ReofSfio. 
 (N.B. I have crossed the sea from Naples to Sicily so 
 often this year, that I know nearly all the porpoises 
 by their faces, & many of the Merluzzi.) Would 
 I had gone on to the 2nd & 3rd provinces : but 
 the revolution which bust out in Reggio prevented 
 me. What is the use of all these revolutions which 
 
 4 
 
Rome, Greece, and England 
 
 lead to nothing ? as the displeased turnspit said 
 to an angry cookmaid. — Returning to Naples for 
 the 199th time, we disposed of a month as I have 
 said over leaf, in the provinces of Basilicata, 
 Melfi, Venosa, etc. etc., and were not sorry to have 
 done so. 
 
 Rome is full of fuss and froth : but I believe now 
 that Pio IX. is a real good man, & a wonder. Rail- 
 roads, gaslight, pavements, for all to be done in 
 i960? The last part of my stay here was a blank 
 from the death of my oldest Roman friend, good kind 
 Lady Susan Percy. 1 
 
 Remember me to my friends, & believe me, 
 
 Dear Fortescue, 
 
 sincerely yours, 
 
 Edward Lear. 
 
 107 2D0 Via Felici, Roma, 
 
 Feby. 12, 1848. 
 
 Your letter of Oct. 25th 1847, ought to have been 
 
 answered before now, & I have been going to do so 
 
 ever since I had it, but I have said to myself " what's 
 
 the use of writing to-day when you haven't 20 minutes 
 
 — or to-day when you've got the toothache, or to-day 
 
 when you are so cross ? Fortescue won't thank you 
 
 for a stupid letter, particularly as his was so very 
 
 amusing, so you'd better wait you had. And so I 
 
 have till I'm ashamed of the delay and therefore I'll 
 
 send off note 18th be the letter of what degree of 
 
 badness it may. First glancing over your bi-sheeted 
 
 1 She was a sister of the fifth Duke of Northumberland. 
 
 5 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 epistle— thank you for your introduction to Baring : l 
 he is an extremely luminous & amiable brick, and I 
 like him very much, & I suppose he likes me or he 
 wouldn't take the trouble of knocking me up as he 
 does, considering the lot of people he might take to 
 instead. We have been out once or twice in the 
 Campagna, and go to Mrs. Sartoris, 2 or other 
 evening popular approximations together. He 
 would draw ; very well, and indeed does, but has 
 little practice. Altogether he is one of the best 
 specimens of young English here this winter, tho' 
 there is a tolerably good sprinkling of elect & 
 rational beings too. In fact it is a propitious season, 
 the rumours of distraction prevented a many nasty 
 vulgar people from coming, and there is really room 
 to move. Among families, Greys, Herberts, Clives 3 
 stand promiscuous ; of young ladies, Miss W. 
 Horton, & Miss Lindsay are first to my taste, & 
 of married ones, Mrs. G. Herbert & Mrs. Clive, — 
 then Lady W. is admired though by me not : 
 she is so like a wren, I'm sure she must turn into 
 a wren when she dies. The variety of foreign 
 society is delightful, particularly with long names : 
 e.g., Madame Pul-itz-neck-off — and Count Bigenouff; 
 
 1 Afterwards first Earl of Northbrook, Governor-General of 
 India, 1872-6. 
 
 2 Daughter of Lord Barrington. 
 
 3 George Clive, a close personal friend of Lear's, was a 
 barrister and politician, and at this time Judge of County Court 
 Circuits. He became Under-Secretary of State for the home 
 department 1859-1862. 
 
 6 
 
Rome, Greece, and England 
 
 — Baron Polysuky, & Mons. Pig : — I never heard 
 such a list. I am afraid to stand near a door, lest 
 the announced names should make me grin. — Then 
 there is 3 Lady Mary Ross, 1 and a most gigantic 
 daughter — whom Italians wittily call " the great 
 Ross-child," and her mama, " Rosso-antico." ... I 
 miss the Gordon's 2 and my old kind friend Lady 
 S. Percy sadly, & somehow the 6 & 30-ness of my 
 sentiments and constitution make me rather graver 
 than of old : — also, the uncertainty of matters here 
 and everywhere, and my own unfixedness of plans, 
 conspire to make me more unstable & ass-like than 
 usual. . . . 
 
 And now regarding yourself I heard all about your 
 Greek tour with interest, and that you were returned 
 to England and for Louth, as you will have found by 
 a disgusting little letter I sent you at the end of 
 last October. The most important part of your 
 letter seems to me that which gives me news of your 
 being so rich a man 3 : — I can only say I am sincerely 
 glad of it, and I don't flatter you when I say I believe 
 you will make as good a use of your money as 
 anybody. I long to know how you like your new 
 parliamentary life : — (Do you know a friend of mine, 
 Bonham Carter M.P. for Winchester? 4 This 
 
 1 One of the daughters and co-heiresses of the 2nd Marquess 
 Cornwallis. 2 Sir A. and Lady Duff Gordon. 
 
 3 Fortescue inherited Red House, Ardee, Co. Louth, from 
 Mr. Ruxton his uncle, whose wife was a sister of Fortescue's 
 father, Col. Fortescue of Dromiskin. 
 
 * Brother-in-law of Baring. 
 
 7 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 reminds me of " Have you been in India ? " " Yes." 
 " O then do you know my friend Mr. Jones ? ") 
 So pray let me hear from you. . . . 
 
 Now I am at the end of replying to your letter, 
 and a very jolly one it is. So I must e'en turn 
 over another stone as the sandpiper said when he 
 was alooking for vermicules. You ask what I am 
 about, making of little paintings, one for Ld. 
 Canning etc. etc., and one of a bigger growth for 
 Ld. Ward, but I am in a disturbidous state along 
 of my being undecided as to how I shall go on with 
 art, knowing that figure drawing is that which I know 
 least of & yet is the "crown and roof of things." I 
 have a plan of going to Bowen x at Corfu and thence 
 Archipelago or Greeceward, (Greece however is in a 
 very untravellable state just now) should the state of 
 Italy prevent my remaining in it for the summer. 
 But whether I stop here to draw figure, or whether I 
 go to Apulia & Calabria, or whether I Archipela go 
 (V. A. Archipelago, P. Archipelawent, P. P. Archi- 
 pelagone) or whatever I do, I strongly long to go to 
 Egypt for the next winter as ever is, if so be as I can 
 find a sufficiency of tin to allow of my passing 4 or 
 
 5 months there. I am quite crazy about Memphis 
 
 6 On & Isis & crocodiles and ophthalmia & 
 nubians, and simooms & sorcerers, & sphingidce. 
 
 1 Afterwards Sir George Fergusson Bowen, and successively 
 Governor of Queensland, New Zealand, and other colonies. 
 At this time he was President of the University of Corfu, and in 
 1854 he was appointed Chief Secretary to Sir J. Young, Lord 
 High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. 
 
 8 
 
Rome, Greece, and England 
 
 Seriously the contemplation of Egypt must fill the 
 mind, the artistic mind I mean, with great food for 
 the rumination of long years. I have a strong wish 
 also to see Syria, & Asia Minor and all sorts of 
 grisogorious places, but, but, who can tell ? You see 
 therefore in how noxious a state of knownothingatall- 
 aboutwhatoneisgoinatodo-ness I am in. Yet this is ', 
 clear : — the days of possible Lotus-eating are diminish- 
 ing, & by the time I am 40 I would fain be in 
 England once more. . . . 
 
 But a truce to growling and reflections. I should 
 have told you that Bowen has written to me in the 
 kindest possible manner, asking me to go and stay 
 with him at Corfu and I shall regret if I can't do so. 
 I wish to goodness I was a polype and could cut ! 
 myself in six bits. I wish you were downstairs in 
 that little room. 
 
 The introduction to Baring, afterwards first 
 Earl of Northbrook, of which Lear here 
 speaks with such genuine pleasure, was 
 to be the beginning of a friendship which 
 lasted until his death. Baring, throughout 
 his long and varied public career, was not 
 only a true friend to him, but also a patron 
 of the kindest and most generous description. 
 
 In the summer of the same year, Lear 
 undertook a long-desired visit to Greece, in 
 the company of Professor Church, another 
 
 9 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 old friend and patron. To this visit we are 
 indebted for one of the most beautiful pictures 
 he ever painted, a large oil-painting of Ther- 
 mopylae Several replicas of this work exist, 
 but I believe that the one possessed by 
 Fortescue and reproduced in this book, is 
 the original. 
 
 Hotel d'Orient, Athens, 
 
 July 19, 1848. 
 
 Here I am having - made somewhat of a dash into 
 Greece, but most unluckily, obliged to haul up and 
 lay by for the present. You may perhaps see my 
 handwriting is queerish, the fact is I am recovering 
 rapidly thank God, from a severe touch of fever, 
 caught at Platcea & perfected in ten days at Thebes. 
 I did not think I should ever have got over it, nor 
 should I, but for the skill of two doctors, & the kind- 
 ness of my companion Church. I was brought here 
 by 4 horses on an Indiarubber bed, am wonderfully 
 better, & in that state of hunger which is frightful 
 to bystanders. I could eat an ox. Many matters 
 contributed to this disaster, first a bad fall from my 
 horse, and a sprained shoulder, which for three weeks 
 irritated one's blood, besides that I could not ride. 
 2nd. A bite from a Centipede or some horror, 
 which swelled up all my leg & produced a swelling 
 like Philoctetes' toe, and lastly, I was such a fool 
 as go to Platcea forgetting my umbrella, where 
 the sun finished me. However, I don't mean to 
 
 10 
 
Rome, Greece, and England 
 
 give up and am very thankful to be as well as 
 I am. 
 
 I came you know here on June ist with Sir 
 S. Qmning, 1 and staid a fortnight working like mad. 
 On the 13th Church and I set out. Chalcis is most 
 interesting & picturesque, what figures ! would, ah ! 
 would I could draw the figures ! We then resolved 
 to do Eubcea, so, 19th, Eretria, very fine. Aliveri, 
 & Kumi. 2 1 st. Pass of mountains, grangrongrously 
 magnificent ! Alas ! for the little time to draw ! 28th 
 Lamia. 29th a run up to Patragik a queer mountain 
 place. All these things we were constantly warned 
 off, as full of rebels, brigands &c, but we found all 
 things as quiet as Pimlico. 30th Thermopylae! how 
 superb! & Bodonitza. July ist. Costantino & 
 Argizza. 2nd Proschino & Martini. 3rd, over 
 Kokino & the mountains to the Thebes. Only this 
 last, of the last 3 days was good. Thebes is sub- 
 lime, but as I said, the day following it became a 
 grisogorious place to me. 
 
 I must stop for I am not much writable yet. Give 
 my love to Sir F. Scott if you see him & to Baring : 
 I am glad he is secretary or anything good, as he 
 is such an extreme brick. 
 
 Therapia, 2$th August, 1848. 
 Your kind letter, just exactly though what I 
 expected, came to-day, much sooner than I anticipated. 
 
 1 Sir Stratford Canning, afterwards Lord Stratford de Red- 
 cliffe, at this time Ambassador at Constantinople. 
 
 11 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 ] Alas ! of myself I can give you but a most flaccid 
 account, greatly to be summed up in the word " bed," 
 but not wholly so. However I have known perfect 
 health for 1 1 years thank God, and if the tables 
 are turned I must not be ungrateful, indeed I have 
 been able to suck a large lesson of patience out of 
 my 2 months compulsory idleness, and I hope I may 
 be like any Lamb if ever we meet again. 
 
 I continued to recover after I wrote to you, 
 (20th July) & left Athens in good spirits & pretty 
 strong, (i.e. I was able to walk as far as the Acropolis 
 slowly, & with a stick,) on the 27th to Alexandria. 
 Then I speedly fell ill again, but differently : — yet 
 when I got to Const ple I was obliged to be taken 
 up to the Hotel in a sedan chair. Well, after two 
 days I went up to the Embassy & was instantly 
 put to bed with erysipelas & fever, and did not 
 emerge on the banks of the Bosphorus till about 
 August 13 ; and then very feebly. Since then I 
 went a-head but had bad fever fits from not minding 
 diet : to-day as 2 days have gone and the enemy 
 comes not again, I have hope an am an hungered. 
 Hunger! did you ever have a fever? No con- 
 
 1 sideration of morality or sentiment or fear of punish- 
 ment would prevent my devouring any small child 
 who entered this room now. I have eaten every- 
 thing in it but a wax-candle and a bad lemon. 
 This house is detached from the big Embassy Palace 
 & is inhabited by attaches, and though Lady Canning l 
 
 1 Wife of the Ambassador. 
 12 
 
< 
 
 a. 
 o 
 
 P. 
 
 W 
 IH 
 H 
 
 O 
 
 '73 -H 
 
 z =s 
 
 Z s 
 
 D # 
 
 O 0. 
 
 W 
 
 a 
 
 H 
 
Rome, Greece, and England 
 
 is as kind as 70 mothers to me, yet I see little of 
 them. Could I look out on any scene of beauty, 
 my lot would be luminous ; bless you ! the Bosphorus 
 hereabouts at least, is the ghastliest humbug going! 
 Compare the Straits of Menai or Southampton 
 Waters or the Thames to it! It has neither form 
 of hill nor character of any possible kind in its 
 detail. A vile towing path is the only walk here 
 
 or a great pull up a bare down, — of course, — sun 
 and climate make any place lovely, & thus all the 
 praises of this far-famed place I believe savour of 
 picnics, &c, &c. However I have seen but little 
 of it so I will not go on, but lest you think ennui 
 or illness disgust me let me say, that Thebes & 
 Athens shed a memory of divinest beauty over much 
 worse and more tedious sufferings than those I have 
 endured here, which indeed are nought but weariness 
 now. 
 
 What to do, my Dear Fortescue when I return 
 to England ! ! ? ? <; — <; j ! (expressive of indelible doubt, 
 wonder, & ignorance.) London must be the place, i 
 & then comes the choice of two lines ; society, & 
 half days work, pretty pictures, petitmaitre praise 
 boundless, frequented studio &c, &c. wound up 
 with vexation of spirit as age comes on that talents 
 have been thrown away : — or hard study beginning 
 at the root of the matter, the human figure, which 
 
 13 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 to master alone would enable me to carry out the 
 views & feelings of landscape I know to exist within 
 me. Alas ! if real art is a student, I know no more 
 than a child, an infant, a foetus. How could I. I 
 have had myself to thank for all education, & a 
 vortex of society hath eaten my time. So you see I 
 must choose one or other — & with my many friends 
 it will go hard at 36 to retire — please God I live for 
 8 or 10 years — but — if I did — wouldn't the " Lears " 
 sell in your grandchildrens time ! — But enough of this, 
 and self. Grandchildren make me think of Baring's 
 marriage, 1 which I am so really glad to hear of & 
 shall write to him by this post. That good-natured 
 fellow wrote to me from England, which I wonder 
 anyone does so busy as you all must be there. I 
 sincerely wish him a long career of happiness. But 
 I trust you will soon follow his example & I keep 
 on expecting of it. 
 
 A year later finds Lear in England, paying 
 visits to various friends, and meeting again 
 Lord Derby, who had been his patron from 
 the first. "The admirable quality of Lear's 
 work for the Zoological Society had won him 
 the close friendship and the generous 
 patronage of the thirteenth Earl of Derby, 
 for whom he drew the beautiful illustrations 
 of that now rare volume ' The Knowsley 
 
 1 Baring's marriage to Miss Sturt took place in September. 
 
 14 
 
Rome, Greece, and England 
 
 Menagerie.' ' Thus says his friend and 
 executor, Franklin Lushington, in his preface 
 to-the "Poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson," 
 illustrated by Edward Lear, and brought out 
 after his death, by Lord Tennyson, as a tribute 
 to his memory. 
 
 Tabley House, Knutsford, 
 
 i August, 1849. 
 
 On leaving town I came to the James Hornby's l 
 at Winwick, & then migrated with them to 
 Knowsley. After a week at each place and a day 
 or two about Manchester, I came for 4 days to 
 Tatton's of Wythenshawe and now am here for 
 as many more. . . . 
 
 Now all this time I have been living in a constant 
 state of happiness. My dear old friends Mr. Hornby 
 & Lord Derby I found just as ever, though 72 & 75 
 and every day has caused fresh shaking of hands 
 with old friends. Certainly English people do go 
 on with friendship just where they left off, as you 
 go on with a book at the page you last read. So 
 you see, barring the queer climate I have been 
 intensely happy, & if one were morbidly inclined, 
 one would think that like Dives one was enjoying 
 all one's good things here below. This place is 
 one of the very nice dwellings in this land, the old 
 house & the church & the lake are a perfect picture. 
 So was old Elizabethan Wythenshawe, & at Winwick 
 
 1 J. Hornby of Winwick, brother-in-law of Lord Derby. 
 
 15 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 and dear old Knowsley there was a lot of sunshine 
 quite vavacious to feel. Immense fun we have 
 had, one has done little but laugh, eat, drink, 
 & sleep. . . . 
 
 I trust to get through 14 or 15 visits out of my 68. 
 Willingly would I an your house were one : — but I 
 must be back in town by 20th Sept. at latest, (then 
 comes furnishing & fidgetting & fussing,) after that 
 hard real work. Did I tell you I had finally settled 
 on taking 1 7, Stratford Place ? l signed sealed and 
 delivered, O! yes. How I hope you will come very 
 often to look yourself into other lands. 
 
 What do you think of my having nearly, all but 
 become possessor of 40 or 50,000^ ? Fact, I assure 
 you, it makes me laugh to think what I could possibly 
 have done with such a statistic heap of ore ! How- 
 ever, I have never it seems been attentive enough to 
 the old Lady 2 who always said she would enrich me, 
 so she has died and left all to 30 poor widows for 
 ever & ever, and much better too that she has left it 
 thus, for I should not have made as good use of it. 
 I thought directly I heard of this matter that I would 
 instantly marry one of the 30 viddies, only then it 
 occurred to me that she would not be a viddy any 
 more if I married her. 
 
 1 "Stratford Place," now Lear's headquarters when in England 
 for some years. He had several " shows " of pictures both at 17 
 and later at No. 15. 
 
 2 I cannot trace this old lady, but she was not a relation, I 
 fancy, for I believe he had no relations outside his own brothers 
 and sisters, few of whom were still living at this time. 
 
 16 
 
Rome, Greece, and England 
 
 Lydford, near Bridestow, Devon, 
 
 July 19, 1851. 
 
 Enter Mary. 
 
 " Mary, has the boy come back from the Post with 
 
 the letters yet ? " 
 
 " Noa zur, hiss be drewndid ! " 
 
 "He's what Mary?" 
 
 " Hiss be drewndid zur in the pewerfil rain." 
 
 " Well, it certainly does rain Mary but I hope he 
 
 aint drowned, for all that." 
 
 Exit Mary. 
 
 Re-enter Mary. 
 
 "Here be tew litters zur: — the boy is all queet 
 drewndid zur as ever you see ! " 
 
 Upon which I took up one, and you having been in 
 my thoughts during this very morning, says I, how 
 odd, it's Fortescue's writing! 
 
 Upon which I opened it. 
 
 Upon which I found it was from Mr. Gladstone. 
 
 Upon which I said, Pish ! 
 
 Upon which I took up letter No. 2. 
 
 Upon which I found that was really yours. 
 
 Upon which I took this paper and began, 
 
 Dear Fortescue, — I was very glad to find you were 
 pleased with the painting, for I have taken long and 
 great trouble about it, all my artist friends say I have 
 made an enormous stride, so I hope to go on, but only 
 by the same road, i.e., constant study and perseverance. 
 You suppose rightly that I felt Lord Derby's death ; I 
 
 17 c 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 have not felt anything so much for many many years : — 
 22 years ago I first went to Knowsley, & have received 
 nothing but kindness from him & his family ever since, 
 so it is no great wonder his death should cause me 
 sorrow. The painting 1 belongs to the present Earl, 
 who will kindly allow me to have it for some time yet. 
 Overworked and unwell & unable to bear the dis- 
 quiet of London, I came at once to this very out of 
 the way place, as, to get away at all, I was obliged to 
 select a deadly cheap place, since while here I have to 
 pay for 17, Stratford Place, also. I shall remain here 
 and hereabouts, a tour in Cornwall with Lushington 2 
 etc. till nearly November. 
 
 Genus homo! I aint. I'm a landscape painter, & I 
 desire you to like me as sich, or not at all : — if I grow 
 worse in my professional power, be sure I shall worsen 
 in all ways : — Lord how it does rain ! It always does 
 here, but that's nothing, for I have a house full of 
 books, & I've got a little bedroom and a small parlor, 
 & a big loft made into a study (which would be pleasant 
 if the cats didn't bumble into it every 5 minutes). 
 And all that costs 5s. a week : — & I have 3 meals of 
 food daily for is. 6d., and I'm finishing some water- 
 coloured drawings by degrees, and arranging in my 
 mind some paintings for the winter. There's only a 
 curate as lives opposite, & keeps bees : — all the rest 
 
 1 Lord Derby died on June 13, 1851. 
 
 2 Franklin Lushington, another intimate friend and patron of 
 Lear and his executor after his death. He was one of the two 
 Justices in Corfu when Lear first went to reside there. 
 
 18 
 
Rome, Greece, and England 
 
 of the village is miners, which reside underground. 
 On Sunday I go to church, when there is a congrega- 
 tion of 7 or i o and a tipsy clerk. O ! beloved clerk ! 
 who reads the psalms enough to make you go into fits. 
 He said last Sunday, " As white as an old salmon," 
 (instead of white as snow in Salmon), " A lion to my 
 mothers children " (for alien) & they are not guinea 
 pigs, instead of — guiltless ! Fact : — but I grieve to say 
 he's turned out for the same, & will never more please 
 my foolish ears. 
 
 I suppose you never come into Devonshire ? 
 
 Lord ! how it rains ! 
 
 I have forsworn by this provincial step of mine all 
 the luxuries & niceties of the year, to wit, cherries & 
 all fruit, wine, & a number of other necessaries of life. 
 We primitive Christians of Lydford have thrown off 
 such fopperies. 
 
 Please recommend all the Grand Jury to buy my 
 'Journal of a Landscape painter.' 1 What are you 
 doing with a Grand Jury? 
 
 Where are you going this summer ? O Lord ! how 
 it keeps raining ! 
 
 Every post brings heaps of dinner & evening invita- 
 tions. I think myself well off to be able to decline 
 them at id. a piece. Now I must go back to my 
 drawing of Syracuse, which thank goodness, is nearly 
 done. 
 
 1 This was the " Journal of a Landscape Painter in Albania," 
 published in 1851 ; the companion volume in Calabria was 
 published in 1852. 
 
 19 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Lydford, near Bridestow, Devon, 
 
 26 August, 1 85 1. 
 
 I have only just returned here, from a ramble in 
 Cornwall, (not Simeon but the county, 1 ) and among a 
 heap of letters, one from you, shall be answered first 
 of all, barring sister Ann 2 & R. Hornby. 
 
 You do perfectly well to project all your uncom- 
 fortablenesses into my ear & buzzim at all times, for 
 I can sympathize with you most perfectly, though I 
 can do nothing else. Lord, how I wish I was a 
 sucking Socrates like some men I know, wouldn't 
 you have 5 sheets of advice ! But as I aint I may as 
 well say that there is nothing of which I have so 
 distinct a recollection as the fearful gnawing sensation 
 which chills & destroys one, on leaving scenes & 
 persons, for which & whom there are no substitutes till 
 their memory is a bit worn down. I say, there is 
 nothing I so distinctly remember, because those feeling 
 are with me already taking the form of past matters, 
 never again to recur, like cutting ones teeth, measles 
 &c. Not that one has actually outlived the possibility 
 of their repetition, but rather, I prevent them by keep- 
 ing them at arm's length : — I wont like anybody else, 
 if I can help it, I mean, any new person, or scenes, or 
 place, all the rest of my short foolish life. But the 
 vacuum which you describe I used to suffer from 
 intensely, & can quite feel for you. Yet you, it 
 appears to me, might put an end to all chance of such 
 
 1 Cornwall Simeon, his friend, son of Sir R. G. Simeon. 
 
 2 His eldest sister, who had been a mother to him, she being 
 the eldest and he the youngest of a family of twenty-one children. 
 
 20 
 
SULI. 
 
 (From Lear's "Journal of a Landscape Painter in Albania 
 and Lllyria," zfyl.) 
 

Rome, Greece, and England 
 
 blacknesses, by asking any young (or old if you prefer) 
 Lady to marry you, which if you asked her she 
 instantly would, whereas if / asked any, she instantly 
 wouldn't. Well, I suppose you will one day : but I 
 shall be in a horrid way till I see her, because as you 
 are of the sensitive order, you will either be very 
 happy or you won't. 
 
 I shall not allow you to be deceived into the idea, 
 that I am perfectly tranquil & happy here : — quite the 
 contrary. There is only one fine day out of 15, & 
 all the rest are beyond expression demoralizing & 
 filthy. My "straitened circumstances" forbid moving 
 now I am here, and besides, I hate giving up a thing 
 when I try it, & having declared I would paint the 
 Glen scene, I will, I'll stay till I do. I would not so 
 much care for the wet, as for being obliged when it is 
 wet, to look at a dead wall and a rubbish heap opposite, 
 and to see nothing all day but 27 pigs, & 18 cows. 
 Experience teaches, and a village summer in Italy is 
 another thing to this. ... I have faithfully promised 
 to pass some days with C. Church near Ilchester 
 before I return : — these things, with the vain and 
 frustrated attempts to get some studies of weeds and 
 rox fill up my beastly Autumn, and send me back 
 again to Stratford Place. 
 
 I don't improve as I wish, which added to the rain, 
 and the view, prevents "happiness and tranquillity." It 
 is true I don't expect to improve, because I am aware 
 of my peculiar incapacities for art, mental & physical : 
 — but that don't mend the matter, anymore than the 
 
 21 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 knowledge that he is to be always blind delights a man 
 whose eye is poked out. The great secret of my 
 constant hard work is, to prevent my going back, or 
 at best standing quite still. I certainly did improve 
 last year a little, but I aint sure if Lydford and the 
 rain and the cows won't have made me go back this 
 year. However I did it all for the best, as the old 
 sow said when she sat on her little pigs. . . . 
 
 Bowen I must write to again, he wrote since I 
 last did so to you, & I answered him. He is very 
 good-natured, though as you say his rhinoceros-like 
 insensibility to the small annoyances he deals out, 
 would aggravate me. He is going to review my 
 Albania he says, — Bye the bye, I should think that 
 little book has had as much good said of it as any ever 
 have. I dare say you saw the Athenczmn &c, & 
 Tail's Magazine for this month. I wish I may get 
 something for all this. When I return to town I shall 
 join a nightly Academy for drawing from the life : — 
 thus you see showing you that I believe hard work is 
 the best substitute for the Ideal. I shall try also to set 
 about sundry big landscapes. But I will paint this glen, 
 for all the rain and cows, if I stay here All my life. 
 
 Lord ! Lord ! it is such a beastly place !!!!!! 
 
 1 can go on no more. It makes me almost cry to 
 think of what I suffer. So I'll read King Arthur. 
 
 Write please. I wish I could see you, but I think 
 you'd like me better where I am just now. I'm so 
 savage. 
 
 Alfred Tennyson has gone to Italy. 
 
 22 
 
Rome, Greece, and England 
 
 -On his return to London, Lear joined the 
 Academy schools, as the following letter and 
 pictures will show : — 
 
 J. *J?&- 
 
 
 23 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 24 
 
Rome, Greece, and England 
 
 c^>o> 
 
 25 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Hastings (vulgarly 'astins), Sussex, 
 
 Jany. 23, 1853. 
 
 You know all about how my front room ceiling fell 
 down last July. Well — after a very regular appli- 
 cation here I completed 3 paintings — Venosa, Reggio, 
 and Thermopylae — all 3 far the best I ever didded 
 (or dod). On the 6th. Jany. — having written before- 
 hand to put my rooms right, I went up to town : 
 anyhow, my time would be up at Stratford place at 
 the half-quarter, so I was prepared to go on with a 
 search for lodgings, you have heard me speak enough 
 against the darkness of those I lived in. But lo ! 
 when I arrived the horrid fact was announced to me 
 that that very morning all the back room ceiling had 
 fallen ! 
 
 " Is there confusion in the little room ? " (said I to 
 myself when I saw it). " Let what is broken so 
 remain ! " 
 
 It was indeed high time to quit the stage of 
 Stratford Place, so I instantly packed up — no slight 
 operation with my immence lot of drawings and boox 
 — and as instantly rushed all over North West 
 London for lodgings. At length I fixed on a house 
 which Hansen has taken for himself, and where I 
 have taken 2 floors for 1 year — at 65, Oxford Terrace, 
 Hyde Park. 
 
 I could not, of course, stay in the Stratford Place 
 aboad after the fall of Paris No. 2., nor can I 
 get into the Oxf d Terrace till Feby. 10 — so I had 
 nothing to do but come down here again — where at 
 
 26 
 
Rome, Greece, and England 
 
 least there are fresh air, and muffins. I must tell you 
 what you will be very glad to hear : wizz : that my 
 large Parnussus is bought by the new Slissiter 
 General — my old and kind friend, Mr. Bethell (Sir 
 Richard to be shortly). 1 It will be capitally placed 
 and well seen — a futuer wh : compensates for my not 
 having got so much for it as I axd. Wots the hods 
 so long as ones appy ? 
 
 I am now doing a huge picture of Syracuse 
 Quarries ; £ starved Athenians judiciously introduced 
 here and there. Since August I have been, as I told 
 you, painting on an oly different principle, and so 
 far with gt. success : I hope the Thermopylae will be 
 hung in the Brit : Institution. 
 
 If you come up to town before the iot let me 
 know — might you not rush down to dine here with 
 me by a 5 p.m. train on Saturday and stay all 
 Sunday? I now could give you a bed — as the 
 cucumber bed is too cold, and I have got a spare 
 room. Do you know I have cut 2 new teeth? It 
 was supposed I was ill of the mumps — whereas it 
 was dentifery. I impute all my health, and sperrits, 
 and improved art and sense herefrom to the arrival of 
 these 2 teeth. 
 
 My sale of Parnussus, just enables me to pay part 
 of the annual bills off, and to begin decently at Oxf d 
 Terrace. Like a nass I gave away all I could, so as 
 usual have none over to spare. One of my sisters is 
 
 1 Afterwards first Baron Westbury. Became Lord Chancellor 
 1861. 
 
 27 
 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 horridly poor, and another is going with all her child 11 
 and grandchild 11 to N. Zealand, and another wants 
 some port wine being ill, and so on. But the fact is, I 
 only wish for money to give it away, and there's lots 
 to be done with it here if people wouldn't be above 
 looking at what they should do, and wouldn't keep 
 fussing about those fooly blacks. 
 
 I've been reading Brooke's " Borneo " lately. What 
 do you think of a society for clothing and educating 
 by degrees the Orang outangs? 
 
 The more I read travels, the more I want to move. 
 Such heaps of N. Zealand as I have read of late ! I 
 know every corner of the place — ditto V. D. land — 
 ditto N. Holland. Will you go there? Will you go 
 to the Lake Tchad ? Someday though, if I can't 
 scrape up money to go up the Nile, I think I shall 
 ask you to take me there. I should like to go up 
 there for 3 or 4 months well enough. 
 
 Have you ever read "Calabria" yet? If you 
 haven't do get it and recommend it astuciously to 
 heaps of Dukes and Dsses. : it will do them good, 
 and me too. 
 
 In town I saw hardly anyone — as you may suppose 
 from my cadent ceiling and its sequences. The 
 Bethells — my sisters &c, and A., and o ! Mrs A. 
 How frigid that icie ladye was no Polar or N. Zemb- 
 lan tongue can tell ! Not to me though — for she is 
 always very good natured to me — but to all things in 
 heaven and earth generally. By jingo ! it's too dread- 
 ful to me that awful indifference ! Yet they seem 
 
 28 
 
 

 < a 
 
 2 $ 
 
 o w 
 
 o t 
 
 ts 
 
Rome, Greece, and England 
 
 happy together. No, my dear Fortescue, / don't 
 mean to marry — never. You should, but there's time 
 enough yet for you — 6 or 8 years perhaps. In my 
 case I should paint less and less well, and the thought 
 of annual infants would drive me wild. If I attain to 
 65, and have an " establishm 1 " with lots of spoons 
 &c. to offer — I may chain myself: — but surely not 
 before. And alas ! and seriously — when I look 
 around my acquaintance — and few men have more, 
 or know more intimately, do I see a majority of 
 happy pairs ? No, I don't. Single — I may have few 
 pleasures — but married — many risks and miseries are 
 semi-certainly in waiting — nor till the plot is played 
 out can it be said that evils are not at hand. You 
 say you are 30, but I believe you are ever so much 
 more. As for me I am 40 — and some months : by 
 the time I am 42 I shall regard the matter with 42 de 
 I hope. 
 
 In one sense, I am growing very indifferent to the 
 running" out of the sands of life. Years are making 
 me see matters with totally different eyes than I 
 formerly saw with : — but at the same time I am far 
 more cheerful. I only wish I could dub and scrub 
 myself into what I wish to be, and what I might be I 
 fear if I took proper pains. But chi sa ? How much 
 will be allowed for nature, and early impressions, and 
 iron early tuition ? Looking back, I sometimes 
 wonder I am even what I am. I often wonder and 
 wonder how I have made so many certainly real 
 friends as I have. Sometimes 6 or 8 of the kindest 
 
 29 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 letters in the world come together, and the effect is 
 rather humiliating tho' not to my peculiar idiosyn- 
 cracy. 
 
 I hope to go to Reigate to see Ld. Somers. 1 He 
 is a great favourite of mine, from my knowledge of 
 many excellent points of his character, from our 
 having many sympathies in common, and from our 
 looking at many present-day matters with similar 
 views. She is a most sweet creature. I think her 
 expression of countenance is one of the most unmiti- 
 gated goodness I ever contemplated. I call that a model 
 of a woman. Bother : I wish they wern't Earls and 
 Countesses — though I don't much care — for I've been 
 so rummy independent all my life that nobody thinks 
 I ever like rank for ranks' sake I should think. 
 
 I don't understand the Gladstone question — only as 
 I detest the bigotry of Denison and Bennett, — so I 
 suppose G. has a shade less of it. 2 Ma non troppo 
 me ne fido anche a lui. 
 
 But I grant your present Govt, are the best lot of 
 workers we have had for a long time yet, and I do 
 not see why Conservatives should be growled at if 
 they advocate moderate reforms, — ivithout which a 
 
 1 Formerly Lord Eastnor ; succeeded to the earldom in 
 1852, husband of the beautiful Virginia Pattle (one of the 
 loveliest women of her time), himself a man of great culture 
 and artistic perception. 
 
 2 After the defeat of Lord Derby's Ministry, Mr. Gladstone 
 became very unpopular with the Conservative party, and was 
 violently attacked by Archdeacon Denison and others, who said 
 that the University of Oxford which Mr. Gladstone had been 
 elected to represent, could place no more confidence in him. 
 
 30 
 
Rome, Greece, and England 
 
 blind man may see that nothing will be conserved at 
 all very shortly. O mi little i's and pegtops ! how ! 
 it do rain and bio ! 
 
 Will you give my compliments and remembrances 
 to L d and L dy Clermont. 1 
 
 1 Lord Clermont was the elder brother of Fortescue, and had 
 married a daughter of the Marquis of Ormond. 
 
 31 
 
CHAPTER II 
 1856 and 1857 
 
 CORFIJ AND ENGLAND 
 
 THREE years later we find Lear settled 
 at Corfu, then under British protec- 
 tion, and he remained there at intervals until 
 the cession of the Ionian Isles to Greece in 
 1864. The light thrown by his letters on a 
 little^known chapter of our foreign policy 
 gives them an additional interest. In 1854 
 Lear had gone to Egypt and Switzerland, and 
 in 1855 again to Corfu, but I unfortunately 
 have failed to find any letters of those years. 
 The long gap between the following letters 
 and the last one quoted may be partly accounted 
 for, by the fact that several written by him in 
 the interim never reached Fortescue at all. 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 Corfu, 19 Febry., 1856. 
 It seems we were a writing to each other pretty 
 nearly at the same time, for yours which I was truly 
 
 32 
 
Corfu and England 
 
 thankful for, is dated Jan. 6th and I sent mine off to 
 you on the 6th. But the letters were different, mine 
 I fear me was so glumy that you might have been 
 uncomfortable about me ever since, notwithstanding 
 my growlygrumbleraroc (most), known nature, and 
 therefore and wherefore, I shall send you this, though 
 it will not be a long letter, rather than not write at all, 
 for the days are so full of occupation that I vainly try 
 for leisure. Up at 6, Greek master from 6| to 7f. 
 Breakfast &c, to 9, then work till 4, or sketching out 
 of doors, and either dining out or at home with 
 writing and drawing fill up my hours. First, I wish 
 you a happy new Year, & continually, if I didn't do 
 so before. At all events I wish you a lot of happy 
 new Leap-years. 
 
 I still think of making Corfu my head-quarters, & 
 of painting a large picture here of the Ascension festa 
 in June, for 1857 Exhibition, & of going over to 
 Yannina and all sorts of Albanian abstractions. 
 
 I hope to send your drawing soon, together with 
 Sir John Simeon's & Mr. Clive's pictures. The reason 
 I did not send the fellow to your " Morn broadens " I 
 was because I could not satisfy myself at all as to the 
 quality of the one I began. Yours is so finished a 
 picture that I should not like a less good one by its 
 side. 
 
 Do you know there has been literally no winter 
 here ; they say it is 27 years since there was so little 
 
 1 " Morn broadens on the borders of the dark," a beautiful 
 oil belonging to Fortescue. 
 
 33 D 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 cold, & still some think we shall have a touch of 
 rigour in March : — in fact, I have scarcely any Asthma, 
 & no symptom of Bronchitis at all. When I get a 
 house, you must come out and have a run, & I'll put 
 you up : I'll feed you with Olives & wild pig, and 
 we'll start off to Mount Athos. Bo wen his marriage l 
 takes place at the end of April. The Balls are all 
 over now & gaiety generally, dinners excepted, though 
 I am going to soon back out of all, by dining early. 
 The not being able to get any properly lighted 
 painting room annoys me horribly, and I confess still 
 to being at times very lowspirited and depressed, but 
 not so much as before. 
 
 You cannot tell me news of the Millais : the blind 
 girl picture 2 was begun when we were together in 
 Sussex. W. Holman Hunt has just come back, & 
 Mr. Tennyson 3 writes is going there. I wish he was 
 here — The sort of lonely feeling of having no one who 
 can sympathyze professionally with one's goings on, is 
 very odious at times. Lushington would more or less, 
 but his work is tremendously heavy, & when he gets 
 any leisure, he rides or yachts, or shoots, all out of the 
 way sports for me, except the former ; I did ride all 
 last Saturday for a wonder, & wish I had tin to keep a 
 
 1 He married a Greek, daughter of Roma, who was appointed 
 Vice-Governor of Ithaca in 1858. Her brother married a sister 
 of the Queen of Montenegro. 
 
 2 Now in the Birmingham Art Gallery. 
 
 3 Tennyson became a great friend of Lear's, who often stayed 
 with him when in England. One of his poems is dedicated 
 " To E. L., on his travels in Greece." 
 
 34 
 
Corfu and England 
 
 horse. Have you any message to Lady Emily 
 Ko&ripiQ?i The Lord High C. 2 & Lady Young are 
 very good-natured, but I don't take to Court life, and 
 not playing cards am doubtless a bore, or rather useless. 
 But I suppose they are good people. There are really 
 some very nice people here among the Militia Officers 
 — Ormsbys, Barringtons, Powers, &c. &c, and their 
 going would aggravate them as stays behind. I am 
 painting " And I shall see before I die the palms and 
 temples of the south," for Sir John Simeon, being 
 Philae by sunset, 3 — but my eyes give me a good deal 
 of trouble, and I don't know how they will bear the 
 summer. 
 
 The following letter from Fortescue, con- 
 taining an early reference to the celebrated Lady 
 Waldegrave, may be of interest. Frances, 
 widow of George, seventh Earl Walde- 
 grave, was at this time the wife of George 
 Harcourt, of Nuneham. She was the daughter 
 of the greatest of English tenors, John Braham, 
 who in his time carried the musical world 
 by storm. He was of Jewish descent, a man 
 of intense personality and independence of 
 mind, and his daughter inherited these charac- 
 
 1 Daughter of the second Earl of Clancarty and a cousin of 
 Fortescue's. She married Signor Giovanni Kozziris in 1843. 
 
 2 Sir John Young was appointed Lord High Commissioner 
 in 1855. 
 
 3 A replica of this was painted for Fortescue this year. 
 
 35 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 teristics together with many others, which 
 united to make her one of the most remarkable 
 and interesting women of her day. She 
 eventually married Fortescue : he had been 
 devoted to her for years, and it was one of the 
 happiest of unions. 
 
 Fortescue to Lear. 
 
 Red House, Ardee, 
 
 17 Sept. 1856. 
 
 . . . During the latter part of the season I passed 
 almost every Sunday at Strawberry Hill, 1 which Lady 
 Waldegrave has restored, and made the oddest and 
 prettiest thing you ever saw. She often asks after 
 you and says she hopes often to see you there. I am 
 sure you would like it, and she gets a charming society 
 around her there. She did not go out last season 
 at all on account of her father's death. Charles 
 Braham 2 sang two or three times at the Haymarket 
 opera with Wagner and Piccolomini. He was dread- 
 fully nervous, but I am in great hopes will do well. 
 ... I was at a great Nuneham party. We had the 
 D'Aumale's3 there, and very likeable Bourbons they 
 
 cllC • • • 
 
 1 Strawberry Hill, Walpole's historic villa at Twickenham — 
 during the sixties and seventies the resort of all fashionable 
 London. 
 
 2 Brother of Lady Waldegrave. 
 
 3 The Due d'Aumale was the fourth son of Louis Philippe, 
 and was then living at Orleans House, Twickenham, to which 
 he had retired after the revolution of 1848. 
 
 36 
 
FRANCES COUNTESS WALDEGRAVE, --ETAT 29. 
 I-'ioni a coloured lithograph of a crayon drawing by J. A". Swinton. 
 
 To /'are page 36. 
 
Corfu and England 
 
 I am for holding hard by the Ideals — and, if one 
 set go, getting another ordered as soon as possible — 
 as we do our coats and boots when they wear out. 
 This life is meant to be a life of ideals. We ought to 
 feel like children — and live on ideas of the future, as 
 children do of the time when they will be "grown up." 
 This is a cheerful view — you will say — and easier 
 preached than practised. True — I often " reck not 
 my own rede " — and I could give you a reason for 
 this view of things at this moment presenting itself to 
 my mind. Nevertheless it is true. And, if we cannot 
 keep hold of our ideals, Schiller tells us of two com- 
 panions which never forsook him, and which I suppose 
 would console and soothe — though I think there are 
 some ideals even they would never replace — Friend- 
 ship and Employment. As to myself, I got through 
 the Session and season pretty well. ... I made one 
 Parliamentary effort of some importance in defence of 
 the Irish system of National Education, which I 
 believe to be a just one and doing great good. I had 
 a very nice letter from your amiable Lord High 
 Commissioner, congratulating me on my speech on 
 that occasion. Touching you, he speaks thus : — " I 
 ought to have written to you before in answer to your 
 note about Lear. We have found him a most agree- 
 able person — and a great addition to our society, and 
 we all like him very much — especially Lady Young, 
 who has taken to sketching - with great ardour." I 
 have always liked Sir J. Y. : I never knew much 
 of her Ladyship. 
 
 37 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 fWATE a*u K0M<PID£MT/AL 
 
 Quarantine Island, Corfu, 
 
 9. October, 1856. 
 
 I have just returned from a 2 month's tour, whereby 
 I have seen and drawn all Mount Athos, 1 & have 
 seen Troy, slightly and whereby, which is far better, 
 I have gained a great amount of health bodily & 
 mentle, to my great satisfaction & I hope thankful- 
 ness, & also I trust to the benefit obliquely of many of 
 my felly creatures who will hereafter peeroase my 
 jurnles, and admyer my pigchers. Among a heap of 28 
 letters one from you delights my soal : date — R.D. 2 
 17. Sept. I am glad you are so merry & that you are 
 enjoying the summer so much. You have not written 
 to me, (you nasty brute !) for six months. I wish I 
 could see Strawberry Hill. Have you seen Alfred 
 Seymour 3 since he came back ? I was very glad of your 
 parliamentary movement.4 I'm not for holding by 
 the "Ideals": they've bothered me all my life, and I 
 now mean to try how far I can make some realities. 
 
 1 Athos was his magnum opus. 
 
 2 Lear's way of writing Ardee. 
 
 3 Alfred Seymour, a barrister, younger son of Henry Seymour 
 of Knoyle House. Entered Parliament 1863. 
 
 4 On the 17th of June Mr. Walpole moved a resolution on 
 the subject of Education in Ireland, which was carried against 
 the Ministry, but Mr. Fortescue subsequently moved a counter- 
 resolution, which, after a considerable discussion, was carried. 
 
 38 
 
Corfu and England 
 
 Nevertheless a letter from Mrs. A. Tennyson tells me 
 that Alfred is writing away. (I saw GEnone on the 
 plains of Troy : she had a pink gown on : one arm 
 and one breast wholly uncovered, a large mole upon 
 the latter & a slight moustache on her upper lip : 
 altogether a different person from what one expected.) 
 
 Sir J. Young's notice of me was flattering, tho' 
 I vow I was never agreeable at all. Lady Y. is a 
 good-natured lively woman, albeit she takes no 
 especial part such as her position might warrant, as 
 to schools &c. &c. I believe seemingly Sir John is 
 an amiable well-meaning man, but wholly easy & 
 quite in the hands of Bowen : as indeed how for a 
 time can it be otherwise, since in so short a time, not 
 even Solomon could understand these Islands. 
 
 Please give my best remembrances & compliments 
 to Lady Waldegrave. Her conduct to her father 
 and family has evidently always been heart-action, 
 and everyone respects her for it, as being like unto 
 what very few dare to practise. 
 
 I trust to paint a magnificent large view of Corfu, 
 straits, and Albanian hills. This I trust to sell for 
 500^ as it will be my best, and is 9 feet long. If 
 I can't sell it I shall instantly begin a picture 10 feet 
 long: and if that don't sell, one 12 feet long. Nothing 
 like persisting in virtue. O dear! I wish I was up 
 there, in the village I mean, now, on this beautiful 
 bright day ! However I got unwell, & bluedevilled, 
 & I made up my mind that I could work no more till 
 something called out my boddly & mentle N.R.G.s. 
 
 39 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 So I said, I'll go to Mt. Athos : (I should have gone 
 
 to M. Negro with A. Seymour had I not missed the 
 
 steamer). And off I set on Aug. 7th taking my 
 
 servant, canteen, bed & lots of paper & Quinine Pills. 
 
 F. Lushington saw me as far as (j>i\aOeg, but then I fell 
 
 down a high flight of (19) stone stairs & damaged my 
 
 back sadly. I thought I was lame for life, but after 4 
 
 days on a mattress, I got on pillows & a horse, & 
 
 went over to Yannina & to Pindus, & (in great pain) 
 
 to Larissa, & finally to Saloniki. There getting 
 
 better I went slick into To " Ay iog "epog or the Holy 
 
 Mountain, altogether the most surprising thing I have 
 
 seen in my travels, perhaps, barring Egypt. It is a 
 
 peninsular mountain about 2000ft. high & 50 miles 
 
 long ending in a vast crag, near 7000 feet high, this 
 
 being Athos. All but this bare crag is one mass of 
 
 vast forest, beech, chestnut, oak, & ilex, and all round 
 
 the cliffs and crags by the sea are 20 great and ancient 
 
 monistirries, not to speak of 6 or 700 little 'uns above 
 
 and below and around. These convents are inhabited 
 
 by, altogether perhaps, 6 or 7000 monx, & as you 
 
 may have heard, no female creature exists in all the 
 
 peninsula : — there are nothing but mules, tomcats, & 
 
 cocks allowed. This is literally true. 
 
 Well, I had a great deal of suffering in this Athos, 
 for my good man Giorgio caught the fever, & nearly 
 died, & when he grew better I caught it, but not so 
 badly. However I persisted & persisted & finally 
 I got drawings of every one of the 20 big monasteries, 
 so that such a valuable collection is hardly to be 
 
 40 
 
TEMPE. 
 
 {From Lear's "Journal of a Landscape Painter in Albania 
 
 and Illyria" iSji.) 
 
Corfu and England 
 
 found. Add to this, constant walking — 8 or 10 hours 
 a day — made me very strong, & the necessity I was 
 under of acting decidedly in some cases, called out a 
 lot of energy I had forgotten ever to have possessed. 
 The worst was the food & the filth, which were uneasy 
 to bear. But however wondrous and picturesque the 
 exterior & interior of the monasteries, & however 
 abundantly & exquisitely glorious & stupendous the 
 scenery of the mountain, I would not go again to the 
 "Ayiog "Opog for any money, so gloomy, so shockingly 
 unnatural, so lonely, so lying, so unatonably odious 
 seems to me all the atmosphere of such monkery. 
 That half of our species which it is natural to every 
 man to cherish & love best, ignored, prohibited and 
 abhorred — all life spent in everlasting repetition of 
 monotonous prayers, no sympathy with ones fellow- 
 beans of any nation, class or age. The name of 
 Christ on every garment and at every tongue's end, 
 but his maxims trodden under foot. God's world and 
 will turned upside down, maimed, & caricatured : — if 
 this I say be Xtianity let Xtianity be rooted out as 
 soon as possible. More pleasing in the sight of the 
 Almighty I really believe, & more like what Jesus 
 Christ intended man to become, is an honest Turk 
 with 6 wives, or a Jew working hard to feed his little 
 old clo' babbies, than these muttering, miserable, 
 mutton-hating, man-avoiding, misogynic, morose, & 
 merriment-marring, monotoning, many-mule-making, 
 mocking, mournful, minced-fish & marmalade masti- 
 cating Monx. Poor old pigs ! Yet one or two were 
 
 4i 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 kind enough in their way, dirty as they were : but it 
 I is not them, it is their system I rail at. 
 
 So having seen all, and a queer page in my world- 
 nollidge is Athos ! — I came back to Saloniki, and 
 set sail for the Dardanelles, where being obliged to 
 stay 4 days for a steamer, I spent 3 in seeing Troy. 
 But dear Mother Ida I could not reach, & I do trust 
 to go there in the spring of 1857, for there is a some- 
 thing about the Troad scenery quite unique, — if it be 
 not equalled by the R. Compagna as to grand and 
 simple outlines. 
 
 Thence I came by sea to Corfu, getting here on the 
 7th & being thrust into this place till Saturday the 
 nth & be d d to the owls for their folly. 
 
 Fortescue to Lear. 
 
 Red House, Ardee, 
 
 yth December 1856. 
 
 ... I am delighted to hear that, while you abuse 
 
 the " Ideal," you are growing rapidly into the 
 
 ideal Edward Lear — the " model man." Don't you 
 
 know that there is somewhere or other an ideal 
 
 Edward Lear — and an ideal Chichester Fortescue? 
 
 There we are arranged in some Divine Museum — 
 
 probably ticketed to avoid mistakes : the question is, 
 
 how like the actual E. L. and C. F. are to their $| a . 
 
 Do you think we should know ourselves ? Let us try 
 
 — in God's name — to grow as like our ideals as we 
 
 can. What a splendid saying that is " till we all 
 
 42 
 
Corfu and England 
 
 come to the Perfect Man — to the measure of the 
 stature of the fulness of Christ." . . . 
 
 I am looking forward to Tennyson's book. My 
 temper was sorely tried the other day by old Lady 
 Ormonde saying that " she wondered how an old 
 man could write such nonsense as Maud." 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 Corfu, ii. January 1857. 
 Let me see, the best way to answer your letter 
 is to look over the document hisself, & go on 
 a answering it symoniously. ... 1st Come remarks 
 about my Athos tour : — I am getting up (by my 
 usual dilatory but sure process of penning out and 
 colour) all my drawings of the Monasteries, and 
 have them ready all but 10 or 12, thanks to after 
 dinner applecation and stayathomeaciousness. They 
 are a reemarkible lot of work, as I hope one day you 
 will see : mind, if you do come while I am here, 
 I have now a better spare bed-room than you'll get 
 anywhere in the town, & you should do just as you 
 liked, barring leaving the windys open all night, 
 because then my landlord's 29 cats would perforate 
 the domestic tranquillity of my establishment. I must 
 tell you with a feeling of pride & conflatulation that 1 
 I have made such progress in Greek as to be able 
 to read the Testament (in old as well as modern,) 
 quite comfortably : — and since I can read the life of 
 Christ in the Original, my desire of seeing the actual 
 places he lived in are not to be stoppled any more. 
 
 43 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 I gain more fixed and real ideas from the actual 
 history than from our translation. 
 
 2ndly I understand you now quite about the 
 : "Ideal": — My dear boy, I alas! am a long long 
 way off my ideal ! & I don't see how it can 
 ever be got at, though I am notwithstanding 
 happy to say that I sometimes DO think I am 
 a little bit nearer the mark than I was. But, 
 hang it, there must be an ideal Mrs Lear to make 
 up the perfect ideal, & how that is to come about 
 I can't yet tell. Some of your expressions on this 
 head are exactly like my friend Lushington's here, 
 only that yours come out spongetaneous, whereas his 
 have to be got at by wrenching and imploring, he 
 being, though a diamond as to value, yet hidden in 
 a tortoise's shell, & doing nothing so little as con- 
 tributing an iota of personal experience for the benefit 
 of others. 
 
 3rd About the blessed Bowen. On the day your 
 letter came, burst out the news that he was, to use his 
 own account, "offered the Gov. Secretaryship of 
 Mauritius, such change being intimated as a mere 
 step to further advancement : — and that he should 
 return here as Lord Hpgh] C[om]. l 
 
 4th All you said of " Maude " is true & interesting. 
 O my i! Lady Ormonde!. In this queer place very 
 few ever heard of Maude or Tennison, & if you hear 
 of such a song spoken of as from " Maude" so certain 
 are you to hear " oh ! indeed ! Colonel Maude of the 
 1 Bowen did not go after all. 
 44 
 
Corfu and England 
 
 Buffs ! very distinguished officer, but I had not the 
 least idea he was a poet ! " 
 
 5th I trust your Aunt l will recover quite and be 
 spared to you many years. You are a great comfort 
 to her, & I certainly should like to see her. Some- 
 how that does not seem to me so much off the cards 
 as a year ago. For though I shall hardly come to 
 England this year, yet if I do so next, I really believe 
 you'll see me in Patland. Prepare notwithstanding 
 the ideal, to see me a good deal changed like Dan 
 Tucker, all de wool comes off my 'ed, & I am older 
 than Babylon in many ways. I wish sometimes I 
 grew hard and old at heart, it would I fancy save 
 a deal of bother : — but perhaps its all for the best. 
 
 There, that is all of the answering. And I must 
 needs wind up with a short & serious account of 
 myself. On coming out of Quarantine, the brutal 
 earthquake having spifflicated my old rooms, I had to 
 remove, & I thought it better to get an expensive 
 place at once, on condition I could find a room for 
 work. Whereby I took the ground floor of Scarpa's 
 house on the Condi Terrace, or more properly speak- 
 ing, Bastione, St. Atanasio, — for which I pay 6£ a 
 month. This is the plan of the baste. 1. is my 
 stewjew 30 feet long : 3 windys all a looking to 
 the North East, whereby the light is always perfect. 
 
 1 Mrs. Ruxton, widow of Mr. Ruxton of Red House. She was 
 devoted to her nephew Fortescue, and this affection was fully 
 reciprocated by him. He spent much of his time with her at 
 Ardee. 
 
 45 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 This room I use only as a study, — Greek & painting. 
 My great 9 feet canvas makes a good show of work 
 in it just now. 2. is the sitting & dining room : very 
 
 nice & comfortable, — library, — good table, — matting, & 
 very old prints of Oxford Terrace around : Tennyson, 
 Lord Derby, & Mr. Hornby portraits : various Athos 
 oddities here & there. 3. is a small & sinopotho- 
 mostic chamber adorned with my framed sketches & 
 pick pictures as are finished, for people to come 
 & see. Vich the coming of a live Markis & Mar- 
 chioness (Drogheda) and several other membiers of 
 the Peeriage vos the proudest moment of my life. 
 4. is my bedroom plain & comfortable. 5 a lumber 
 & spare room — to be done up proper for you when 
 you come. 6. my man Giorgio Kokali's 1 room. It 
 is Mr. Kokali's opinion & compliment that the painting 
 I am now doing of Corfu will prevent all other 
 Englishmen coming here, for says he $i6ti uvat oȣe rr)v 
 
 tyvaiv, roaov a.Kpi£u>Q on Kaviva S(\si va TrXripiixjei va tX^rr) ecu) 
 
 — where's the good of people paying for coming so far 
 if they can see the very same thing at home ? Giorgio 
 is a valuable servant, capital cook, & endlessly obliging 
 
 1 Giorgio Kokali, Lear's faithful servant, lived with him till 
 he died at San Remo, when his son took his place. 
 
 46 
 
Corfu and England 
 
 and handy, not quite as clean as I should like always, 
 but improving by kindness. I teach the critter to 
 read & write, & he makes long strides ! 
 
 Over-head live Major & Mrs. Shakespeare, really 
 clever & nice quiet people. The houses here are so 
 thin that one hears everything, so good neighbours 
 are real blessings. Condi Terrace is the " West-end " 
 of Corfu and we are all more or less swells as lives 
 in it. Next door lives my friend the Justice F. 
 Lushington. Further on the Cortazzi, a family of 
 whom more another time. Then the Parson, which 
 is a brick. At the other end Colonel Gage, & the 
 other Justice Sir James Reid. 1 If you come I'll ask 
 them to come and dine : being a distinct Lord of the 
 Treasury 2 it behoves a friend to match you with 
 almighty swells. 
 
 Well I set to work fearfully, riz at 5 J always — at 6 \ 
 & to 8£ 6 BiBatTKaXog ipxerat.3 And then I paint till 3 or 
 4 having breakfasted at 9 and I walk a bit till 6. Dine 
 at 6£, and pen out my Athos drawings till 10. My 
 'elth is on the 'ole pretty good & I can work longer 
 than before this year. My big Corfu will be a 
 stunner, & I mean to try for 500 guineas for him, he 
 be 9 feet 4 inches long, & 6 feet 'i. I hope to get 
 him to Manchester in time. 
 
 I meant to finish out & out a regular long letter 
 
 1 Member of the Supreme Council in Ionian Islands, holding 
 office of Supreme Justice in rotation, 1837-58. 
 
 2 Fortescue was appointed a Lord of the Treasury in March, 
 1854. 
 
 3 " The master comes." 
 
 47 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 but cannot do so, for 6 letters having come by post, 
 and among them one very sad one from Holman 
 Hunt, who writes in great affliction on account of the 
 death of his father, and of Seddon our friend who was 
 with us in Egypt. 1 So I have to reply to that as well 
 as 3 others. One is from Alfred Seymour, a very 
 nice letter. I am so sorry I have not received one he 
 wrote from Vienna. If you see him, thank him & 
 say I will write very omejutly. Moreover, the wind 
 has turned South & so virulent that my chimbly 
 smokes, so that I can't go on no how, & it is so damp 
 & cold I must go to bed I fear. This is the only 
 drawback to the house. 
 
 The Palace folk continue to be very kind to me, 
 & I like them better. Sir John Y. is evidently a kind 
 good man, & I fancy more able than he was thought 
 to be. The truth being that it is no easy matter to 
 act suddenly, where as here, language & people are 
 unbeknown & all power is in the hands of the secre- 
 tary. Lady Y. lives too much for amusement, but she 
 certainly improves & I believe I should end by liking 
 her very much if I saw more of her. Now my dear 
 boy I must close this as the Cyclopses used to say of 
 their one eye. I wish I had written more or betterer, 
 but can't. My 'ed is all gone woolgathering. Do 
 you write again as soon as ever you can, if ever so 
 shortly, & believe me always, Dear Fortescue, 
 
 Yours affectionately 
 
 Edward Lear. 
 
 1 Thomas Seddon, the landscape painter. 
 
 48 
 
Corfu and England 
 
 May this and many others be very happy New 
 Years to you. 
 
 Here my boy ! give me your eternal thanks for 
 what I am going to suggest to you as a parliamentary 
 motion, to be brought out & spoken on by yourself, 
 to the ultimate benefit of society & to your own post- 
 perpetual glorification. As soon as Parliament meets, 
 move that all Sidney Herbert's distressed needle- 
 women be sent out at once to Mount Athos ! By this 
 dodge all the 5000 monks young and old will be 
 vanquished : — distressed needle-babies will ultimately 
 awake the echoes of ancient Acte, & the whole fabric 
 of monkery, not to say of the Greek church will 
 fall down crash & for ever. N.B. Let the needle- 
 women be all landed at once, 4000 at least, on the 
 South-east side of the peninsula & make a rush for the 
 nearest monastery, that subdued, all the rest will 
 speedily follow. 
 
 Corfu, May 1, 1857. 
 
 My dear 40scue, May 4. Which the above was 
 writtle flee days ago, but this very mominlet comes a 
 letter from you, date Apl. 23 ? as usual always one 
 of my regular pleasures. Now, this letter will neither 
 be a nice one nor a long one, but, just the hopposit 
 for it is to say I am coming to England fast as I 
 can, having taken a redboom at Hansens 16. Upper 
 Seymour Street, Squortman Pare, and also a rork- 
 woom or Stew-jew at 15 Stratford Place. 
 
 My big picture is in a mess, & without Holman 
 Hunt's help I can't get on with it, though it is done 
 
 49 e 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 as to what must necessarily be done here, and requires 
 but 2 months of cropping and thought. Pray heaven 
 I may sell it. I bring to England my drawings of 
 Athos, I hope, for publication. Also sketches of Corfu 
 for separate lithogrofigging, & sale here. Also one 
 or two paintings to finish. Why are you coming say 
 you ? because I can't stay here any longer — without 
 seeing friends & having some communion of heart & 
 spirit — with one who should have been this to me, 
 I have none. And I can't bear it. And I want to 
 see my sister. And also another sister who is going 
 to N. Zealand, before she goes. And some Canadian 
 cousins. And you. And my dear Daddy Holman 
 Hunt, & other people. So I'm off. 
 
 What a talk we will have! B[owen] goes about 
 saying that Mauritius is very angry that L[abouchere] I 
 sent them out a Doctor, 2 and beg for him. ... I am 
 glad T. Baring is M.P.3 he is a good-hearted boy. 
 I shall do you the little Jerusalem con amore. Don't 
 pollygize about your not writing : I gnoo how bizzy u 
 were. I didn't go off East, because Clive did not 
 come, he stood for Derbyshire and failed. I hope 
 I may see Strawberry Hill with you. Give my 
 remembrances to Lady Waldegrave. 
 
 1 Henry Labouchere, at this time Colonial Secretary, became 
 Lord Taunton in 1859. 
 
 2 Humphrey Sandwith, C.B., was appointed secretary at 
 Mauritius. He had had a varied and interesting career, as 
 correspondent to the Times at Constantinople in 1853, and 
 as staff-surgeon, &c, during the Crimean War. 
 
 3 For Falmouth. 
 
 50 
 

Corfu and England 
 
 How I long to have a talk with you. You seem 
 to me to be much more be firm-ified & be-moral- 
 strengthefied and goaheady since we parted. I don't 
 know what to say about the Secretaryship for the 
 Colonies. 1 Personally I should like you there 
 naturally : — but the place ought to be filled by one 
 who knows and studies the subject thoroughly. 
 (Stanley 2 for instance.) But I don't say you wouldn't 
 or couldn't. Do not decide hastily on non-application 
 for it. But who is going out of it ? Just a beastly 
 letter as this never was ! O life ! life ! life ! What is 
 the next to be ? 
 
 Lear to Lady Waldegrave. 
 
 Red House, Ardee, 14. Sept., 1857. 
 Dear Lady Waldegrave, — I think you may be 
 amused by my writing you some account of my visit 
 to Ireland, if you have courage to look at such an 
 alarming sheet of paper as this is : but if it appears 
 too frightful you can easily tear it up, or at least not 
 read it. You will have heard from Charles Braham 
 that we were very comfortable at Ravensdale : — really 
 I never saw a more delightful place, nor a better house 
 than Lord Clermont's, & the days I passed there were 
 most pleasant. I had known Lord & Lady Clermont 
 
 1 Fortescue's friends wished him to apply for the post. He 
 became Under Secretary for the Colonies from 1857 to 1858, 
 and again from 1859-1865. Afterwards he was appointed Chief 
 Secretary for Ireland, &c, &c. 
 
 2 Edward John, second Baron Stanley of Alderley, at this 
 time President of the Board of Trade. 
 
 51 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 years ago in Rome, (even before I knew the Fortescue,) 
 & as they are extremely nice persons, Ravensdale, 
 including possessors, grounds, gardens, house, hills, 
 heather, views, peacocks, & rabbits, rivers, dinners, 
 with all the objects and things in general, seemed to 
 my thinking a first rate place. Nevertheless I was 
 curious to see RD, & the Red House, & above all 
 the Aunt, so that I was not sorry to come here, the 
 rather that I am always more or less disagreeable if I 
 am not at work. 
 
 The Irish are funny people, & the moment one 
 lands here it is evident that England & Ireland are 
 very different countries in many respects. Among 
 other odd ways of speech, the common people never 
 by any chance say Yes, or No, : — e.g. Is it time to go ? 
 "It is not Sir" or "It is Sir" Have you cleaned 
 my boots. " I have Sir " or " I have not Sir." When 
 we asked at Dublin if the Scientific Association meet- 
 ing was over, they said " Indeed & it isn't, but the 
 strength of it is pretty well broken," as if it were a 
 revolution. But one of the best absurdities is told of 
 an old woman here, who though pretty well off grumbled 
 horribly, & when they said to her that for good clothes, 
 prosperous children, a kind husband & comfortable 
 house she ought to thank God — " And sure don't he 
 take it out of me in Corns ! " said she. I go into fits 
 of laughing here, when they call after Fortescue, 
 "Mimber!" and it is also very queer to hear them 
 congratulate him on being at home again. 
 
 But the wonder and crowning part of Redhouse is 
 
 52 
 
Corfu and England 
 
 the Aunt, Mrs. Ruxton : — 1 never saw such a delightful 
 or so extraordinary an old lady : — at 85, she has all the 
 activity of mind and body of persons at 60 in usual 
 life, & far more of the bright intelligence, absolute 
 fun, constant cheerfulness, unselfishness, good sense 
 and judgment, kindness of thought & deed than 
 usually can be found united in any individual of any 
 age. Only she is a little deaf, but that at times, not 
 always. It is quite singular to observe how she enters 
 into the interest of all kinds of matters, & never seems 
 to tire, tho' she is out in the garden by 7, & goes to 
 bed not before 1 1 at night ! What with her garden, 
 the grounds, the house, writing letters, visiting her 
 poor people, attending her schools, (she drives herself 
 about in a pony-chaise,) reading and talking, she never 
 seems to have an unoccupied moment, & tho' at first 
 I thought this might be an unusual state of things, 
 I find she is exactly the same day by day. The old 
 lady has still the remains of great beauty & her 
 expression is one of the most perfectly benevolent & 
 animated you can imagine. She is immensely fond 
 of Fortescue, & no wonder, for he is just like a son to 
 her. Chichester Fortescue has in fact appeared to me 
 quite in a new light since I saw him here : I always 
 knew many of his qualities well, his good and general 
 taste in matters of literature, art, &c, his great truth- 
 fulness & his warm and generous disposition : but I 
 was not prepared to find him so active in all county & 
 parochial business, nor had I ever seen him in the 
 position of a most affectionate child as he is to Mrs. 
 
 53 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Ruxton. It is always a great thing to find that longer 
 and closer knowledge of character makes it more 
 esteemed & liked, and my stay here has already caused 
 me to think higher of Chichester Fortescue & to like 
 him better than I ever did before, & that is saying 
 no little. 
 
 Another point of Mrs. Ruxton's character is her 
 quiet & regular piety, though that you might assume 
 from my description of her goodness : she is in a word 
 a tip top Christian multiplied by 20 & I never believed 
 I could see so much to admire in any old lady. 
 
 Our party is small here only Chichester Hamilton, 
 Fortescue's nephew, a good quiet lad. (They are all 
 anxious enough about his brother John, 1 who is near 
 Benares). And a fourth person is a lady, formerly 
 governess to Miss F[ortescue]. 2 A very good person 
 also, but given to enunciate sentences & ask questions 
 as if she were reading from a book in a manner that 
 tries our gravity now & then. " Have you ever, Mr. 
 Fortescue, been induced to tempt the tempestuous 
 waves of the remote Atlantic in order to visit the 
 wondrous New World?" "Tea is an innoxious & 
 wholesome beverage & is acceptable at all times," are 
 specimens of what I mean : — but Miss B. is very full 
 of information & very amiable & attentive to Mrs. 
 Ruxton. After prayers & breakfast, I collapse into a 
 
 1 John Hamilton was at this time holding a post as Engineer, 
 and was in the thick of the Indian Mutiny. He died on 
 October 19, 1858. 
 
 2 Younger sister of Fortescue, and wife of David Urquhart, 
 later M.P. for Stafford. 
 
 54 
 
MRS. RUXTON. 
 From a photograph of a pictnj; 
 
 To Pice f 'age 57. 
 
Corfu and England 
 
 small studio which they have given me, where I paint 
 away till luncheon time, & again afterwards till 6, 
 when I walk with C. F. till 7 : but I am not sure that 
 the experiment of working in a friends house is a good 
 one, seeing that I am always wrapped up in what I 
 am about, and as I rarely succeed as I wish, am in 
 proportion cross and disgusting. Meanwhile every- 
 body is very kind and good natured and lets me do as 
 I please, so that I have nothing particular to growl 
 at, not even having corns, like the old lady above 
 mentioned. 
 
 Dublin Royal Hospital, 
 
 3. October, 1857. 
 
 I have at last left the Red House and its happy 
 family, for so they really are. I cannot remember 
 to have been so happy for a long while past. As 
 for Mrs. Ruxton, she is certainly a more extra- 
 ordinary and delightful old lady than any description 
 can convey an idea of : she is so constantly the same 
 and yet with such varied interest and liveliness that 
 one cannot help liking her more and more each day. I 
 am so glad to have a photograph of her with Fortescue, 
 which is very good I think. 1 On the 26th F. & I 
 went to Newcastle, which is not in Northumberland 
 as the school books tell us, but in the county of Down, 
 & is a village by the side of the omnivorous ocean. 
 Lord & Lady Clermont had a house there, & the 
 scenery all about the place is very charming. One 
 
 1 The frontispiece is a companion one, taken of Lear and 
 Fortescue at the same time at Red House. 
 
 55 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 day we passed at Tullamore Park, 1 a really fine place, 
 full of beautiful ruins & bridges & trees & roads & 
 mills & hills, & lawns & laurels & a high mounting 
 above all, up to the top of which, Lady C. F., Miss 
 Hamilton, 2 & I walked, which was not an easy task 
 because we 3 had to go at such a pace to keep up with 
 Fortescue,3 who, having the luncheon in his pocket, 
 insidiously endeavoured to distance us, to eat it, so our 
 fears told us, clandestinely, before we reached him. 
 Nevertheless we all reached the top together, & 
 behaved very well & amiably, all of us. In coming 
 down thro' the woods we were seized with frightful 
 pangs of hunger, & devoted some time to the im- 
 moderate consumption of blackberries. After that we 
 found a place where there had been a picnic, & we 
 amused ourselves very intellectually for a long period 
 in shying stones at a bottle, which nobody hit, tho' 
 after Lady Clermont & I turned & left the spot, 40scue 
 & his niece basely made a tinkling sound on the glass, 
 & declared they had thrown at it successfully. After 
 that we found a million of bits of blue paper, torn up 
 by the picnic-makers in triumphant certainty that 
 oblivion would rest upon their names thus destroyed : 
 but we employed a considerable space in sedulously 
 joining all the little bits, & finally made out two cards 
 & addresses, viz, " Miss Maconochie " & " Dr. Forde " 
 
 1 The residence of Captain Edward Finch. 
 
 2 Fortescue's niece. 
 
 3 Fortescue always outdistanced all walkers, and brought 
 them in a state of breathlessness to the end of their walks 
 or climbs. 
 
 56 
 
Corfu and England 
 
 which we left openly in the middle of the road, to the 
 dismay & disgust of all deceitful & presumptious lovers 
 hereafter. 
 
 On Tuesday the 29th we all broke up, & C. F. & I 
 returned to Red House. A letter came yesterday 
 from John Hamilton at Dinapore, but to his father, 1 so 
 its contents were unknown : but the fact of its being 
 sent seems to be good news, at least of his safety. 
 
 O dear ! such a many people have rushed upon me, 
 that I must leave off : — This good kind Lord & Lady 
 Seaton are exactly the same as they used to be 10 
 years ago. Excuse my detached & absurd note, 
 because I am so distractable. 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 Royal Hospital Oct. 3. 1857, 
 
 Mimmbr! ) ■- 1 - 
 
 I shall write you a line, though there aint much to 
 say. I got to Dublin safely, only discompozed a little 
 because the only person in the 
 Railway compartment I got into 
 was a very fat woman, just exactly 
 like a picture of Jonah's whale I 
 used to see when a child in a . 
 
 picture bible. I was horribly afraid ^v — - . 
 she would eat me up & sat expect- ^^K' \ 
 ing an attack constantly, till the 
 arrival of the train relieved me of apprehension. At 
 the Bilton I found a note from that kind good Lady 
 1 Husband of Fortescue's eldest sister. 
 57 
 
 >a 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Seaton, saying as an old acquaintance of mine, Mr. 
 Drummond & others had left suddingly, — & there vos 
 beds to spear. So I went on, and passed a very 
 pleasant evening. Some of the party were excursing 
 in Wicklow, & among them the fair De Salis 1 who 
 only came in late, & I don't think I delight in her 
 appearance or manners any more than I used to do. 
 
 StyrtUiMJU. 
 
 The Pictures gave great pleasure, & I had a good deal 
 of talk with fine old Lord Seaton 2 about the Indian 
 Revolt. He believes that Havelock will succeed at 
 Lucknow.3 I have pretty well made up my mucila- 
 ginous mind to cross to Liverpool to-night. The day 
 
 1 Daughter of Count Jerome de Salis, and afterwards wife of 
 Col. Challoner, of Portnall Park. 
 
 2 One of the most distinguished soldiers of his time, and a 
 Peninsular and Waterloo hero. He died in 1862. 
 
 3 The city was relieved on the 25th of September. 
 
 58 
 
Corfu and England 
 
 is highly beastly & squondangerlous, & there is no fun 
 in going about in the pouring rain in a car to make 
 calls, so I shall write to Arch d - Strong, & send a book 
 to Dudgeon's children, whereby you see, albeit I quiet 
 my conscience, yet I am not so virtuous as You thought. 
 However, it is all on your shoulders. 
 
 So, I shall very probbabbly be in the great Exbt Ion ' 
 on Tuesday, after all. Stand at the 2nd arch-place 
 marked X — and looking through the door D. you will 
 see Syracuse. 
 
 I wish I was at Redhouse, a dispensing of Butter. 
 Goodbye, my dear Mimmbr. 
 
 A fortnight or so later, after a series of 
 visits to Henry Bruce afterwards Lord Aber- 
 dare, another patron of his Gambier Parry, 
 and many others in the South and West of 
 England, he finds himself at Wells, with his 
 old friend Church, now Dean of Wells, and 
 shortly afterwards he writes in Greek from 
 Hackwood : 
 
 Hackwood Park, Hants, 
 
 Novbr. 2, 1857. 
 Qi tpopracncov, ' Ay cnrriTtfiov <pi\e 
 
 Upeiru otl crag £AA(i) ravTtjv ti)v liriZfoXriv, Sioti 
 
 SiAio lwi%pi\pu tig Aovclvov avpiov ', rjmj eypaxpa Trpbg tW 
 
 <p(\ov pov, kcli tov £<j>avipo<ja on rjS'tAov irriyatvsi va. yevpari^a) 
 
 flier avrov, — mv avrbg pi TJSrtAa ypaipei otl rivtu hg to <rtor)Tri6v 
 
 (tov, — aXXa, OTav Sev pi t^TeWei TiiroTeg, — Svvarbv icai icaXbv 
 
 irpaypa t}3"eXev elvai va yevp.aTi%10p.ev bpov. — 'O 6 utyaXog 
 
 59 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 KpirriQ, 6 Kvpiog PtKKapSwc Mtte^eAX SfAa on <re Trifnrii) 
 toq a<nra<T[ioi>Q GOV. 1 
 
 Which is to say, if the Beadons aint at home, what 
 time shall you be where & when & which ? If I get 
 no note from them I will call on you at any hour you 
 will name in a note sent to 16 Upper Seymour St. 
 or be at the Blue Posts &c. 
 
 1 Merely saying to his " beloved friend Fortescue " that he 
 has already written to another friend to propose himself to dine 
 with him, but if he does not do so he will dine with F. He 
 ends up with.' a O mighty Krites, Richard son of Cyrus wishes 
 me to send you greeting." Lear's Greek is " atrocious," so 
 scholars I have consulted have told me. But with so exact a 
 man, so minute in detail and with such a perfect ear, as Ruskin 
 said, for versification, I cannot help thinking that perhaps a 
 part of what seems to the outsider hopelessly incorrect may 
 have been intentional, and that there was "a method" of his 
 own in his madness. In English he joked and, as it were, 
 executed acrobatic somersaults of imagination to the wildest 
 degree in that language, and it is possible he may have 
 attempted the same thing in Greek, a sample of which may 
 be seen in his translation of " Oly mountain," the wrong 
 turn of the apostrophe, being, I feel sure, made intentionally. 
 
 It has been thought best to give the Greek sentences in 
 words as near the original as possible, but this is difficult, as 
 Lear always turned his Greek l's upside down besides giving 
 a double-lined comet-like tail to them, and ornamented with 
 wonderful flourishes and additions many other letters. Besides, 
 he was, it must be remembered, learning ancient and modern 
 Greek at the same time, and who knows what combinations 
 he may have effected consistent to his own mind if to no 
 other ? Therefore I ask leniency on the part of readers 
 understanding Greek, both as to orthography and translation. 
 I would also add in this note that Lear loved to " frisk and to 
 gambol " in spelling as in all else, and the results in the following 
 letters have been most carefully preserved by both editor and 
 publisher, and in no case are misinterpretations or misprints. 
 
 60 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 November, 1857, to March, 1858 
 corfCj 
 
 SETTING out for Corfu again on the 20th 
 of November, he writes : 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 Pairlim Hotel, Folkestone, 
 
 20 Nov, 1857. 
 
 I got your last letter at Hastings, together with an 
 extremely nice one from Chi : — Many thanks, & also 
 for the extracts from dear old Mrs. Ruxton's letter. 
 Do not forget to thank her from me, & also the Chi. 
 for his letter. 
 
 All the ill luck and bad omens possible seemed to 
 conspire to prevent my starting, 1st the ticket master 
 at Lewes gave me a wrong ticket, (on my way to 
 Bournemouth,) so I was hauled up at Brighton, & 
 nearly missed the Portsmouth train : but I didn't. 
 2nd. We ran into a semishunted goods train at Botley, 
 & squashed our carriages. Happily we were not 
 
 61 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 going fast. Meanwhile my back was very badly 
 jarred, & I was unable to walk without great pain. 
 Laying up next day at good Mrs. Empson's bettered 
 me & tho' still very lame, I am now getting over the 
 wrench. At first I thought I could not have started 
 
 at clil* • • • 
 
 To-day at noon I am going to start by the 
 stereopyptic sophisticle steamer & so on to Paris — 
 the weather being miscelaynious & calm, thanks be 
 to Moses. 
 
 I am glad to know you are working hard : — the 
 more you conquer the details & grammar of the 
 " whole duty " of the Colonies, the better for you. 
 Know every detail of every kind in all the colonies 
 if you can, & the character &c. of everybody em- 
 ployed. For, whenever (if ever) the time should 
 come that you may put into practise theories of a 
 wider & grander kind than fill the noddles of many 
 men, then you will feel the advantage of being up to 
 the full use of the instruments & circumstances you 
 have to work with & by — to shift, control, or forbid, 
 as fate may turn up. I quite understand your dinner 
 at the Chiefs : — he is a good easy man used to public 
 life : — voila tout. 1 
 
 Of you, I heard a grumpy man say a few days 
 back, to my great pleasure, " That F. used to be the 
 veriest idler, & would have turned out good for 
 nothing in spite of his head if he hadn't begun to 
 work — but now he does, I can see, besides being told 
 
 1 Labouchere. 
 62 
 
Corfti 
 
 so." I hope to be in Corfu by the first week in 
 
 December. 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 Corfu, December 6. 1857. 
 
 I cannot persuade myself to do anything for more 
 than 1 o minutes. Painting, drawing, looking at sketches, 
 reading all kinds of books, German or Greek exercises, 
 sitting still, or walking about, not a possibility of 
 application can I make or discover. But for all that I 
 shall try to get a letter done for you, because I shan't 
 be able to get on at all unless you write, & I know I 
 can't hear till I write first. So here goes, for a 
 fortnight's journal. The knock-shock-sprain which I 
 got in that Southampton train bothered me a good 
 deal as I left England, & it is by no means clear 
 away yet, but I got off hook or by crook on the 20th, 
 & had a neasy passage over to Boulogne, none the 
 less so that there was Lady Somers to talk to & 
 look at : — she is certainly the handsomest living woman. 
 It seems that she, S, & Coutts Lindsay really landed 
 at Athos, & lived there 2 months ! in tents, various 
 mucilaginous monx coming now & then to see them. 
 A few more such visits would bust, or go far to bust, 
 the Greek monasticism, I think. 
 
 Well, I didn't stay in Paris, except that night, & 
 
 got on to Strasbourg on the 21st, sleeping there, and 
 
 going on to Heidelberg on Sunday morning. The 
 
 rest of the day I passed with the Bunsens, 1 who live 
 
 1 Baron and Baroness de Bunsen. He had been German 
 Ambassador in London 1841-54. She was the eldest daughter 
 of Benjamin Waddington, of Hanover. 
 
 63 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 in a house opposite the castle : I thought that evening 
 very pleasant and quiet, talk & music & domesticity, 
 which you know are in my way. Next afternoon, 
 23rd, I got to Frankfort & cut away all night long, 
 sustaining myself by a big bag of books, which I 
 read by lamplight till day break. Have you read C. 
 Bronte ? It is very curious & interesting. The morn- 
 ing & middle of Tuesday 24th, I passed at Dresden, 
 certainly the prettiest city I ever saw, but how cold it 
 was ! Allowing time to dine, I got on to Prague by 
 night, & without stopping, to Vienna early on the 
 25th. Undoubtedly the railroads in Germany are 
 most delightful, when compared with ours ; neverthe- 
 less long continuance of railway travel plays the deuce 
 with my irritable mind & body. I found out the 
 hearty good Morier soon, & saw a good deal of him 
 that day & the next. We got on very simultaneously, 
 (none the less so because he speaks of you in a way 
 that pleases me,) & had long talks on various 
 subjects. Robert Morier x seems to me a man who 
 thinks about his business or profession, & I imagine 
 he would be one to get on, if want of talent and want 
 of principle were not a sure pass to prosperity. We 
 talked too of Tennyson, Pattledom, Strawberry Hill, 
 & all kinds of things ; nor was a very good dinner 
 and wine an item of my visit to be left unnotified. 
 
 1 At this time unpaid attache at Vienna. He fulfilled Lear's 
 prophecy, and had a long and useful diplomatic career. In 
 1884 he became ambassador at St. Petersburg till his death in 
 1893. 
 
 64 
 
Corfti 
 
 Early on Friday 27th I was off to the Rail again, & 
 certes no scenery can be more striking, beautiful, won- 
 derful than that of the R.way between Vienna and 
 Trieste. But I wasn't sorry to be at my journey's end, 
 nor the next day, to embark in the "Jupiter" for Corfu. 
 The first part of the voyage was Hell : — that is a 
 mild expression for the torture I suffered, but I can't 
 find any stronger at present : — the second part was 
 better, and anyhow the whole was short, for we were 
 at Corfu by 8 on Monday 30th. And as my man 
 Giorgio came down to meet me, and as my boxes 
 went straight to my rooms, which I found all arranged 
 just as I left them, & as I had only to unpack my 
 things, — you can't tell how absolutely ridiculous the 
 effect of the whole common placidness of matters was 
 & is to me. Moreover, Lushington came & asked 
 me to dine that day, & Sir James Reid the next, & 
 the 46th mess for the next, & the Youngs for the 
 next, & as in all these cases, plates, food, conversation, 
 & persons were precisely the same as they all were 
 6 months ago, — the ludicrous sentiment of standstill & 
 stagnation was truly wonderful. Wonderful at first, 
 but gnawing & shocking to me now. My dear 
 Chichester, I do not know how I shall bear it, being 
 an ass : — & if you don't write, & if others don't 
 write, I really can't tell what I shall do. 
 
 Just figure to yourself the conditions of a place 
 where you never have any breadth or extent of 
 intellectual society, & yet cannot have any peace or 
 quiet : Suppose yourself living in Piccadilly, we will 
 
 65 F 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 say, taking a place with a long surface, from Coventry 
 St. to Knightsbridge say. And suppose that line 
 your constant & only egress & ingress to & from the 
 country, and that by little & little you come to know 
 all & every of the persons in all the houses, & meet 
 them always and everywhere, & were thought a brute 
 & queer if you didn't know everybody more or less ! 
 Wouldn't you wish everyone of them, except a few, 
 at the bottom of the sea ? Then you live in a house, 
 one of the best here it is true, where you hear every- 
 thing from top to bottom : — a piano on each side, above 
 and below, maddens you : — and you can neither study 
 nor think, nor even swear properly by reason of the 
 proximity of the neighbours. I assure you a more 
 rotten, dead, stupid place than this existeth not. 
 
 All this you would understand as coming from me, 
 but others would speak differently of the place. Lady 
 Young for instance calls it Paradise. No drawbacks 
 annoy her at home, and between horses, & carriages, & 
 yachts, she is away from it as she pleases. The Reids 
 do not dislike Corfu as they would, had they not a 
 nice family, and themselves to care about. The 
 Cortazzi are gone, almost all the military offices are 
 full of new people. My drawing companion Edward J 
 is gone, & I miss him terribly. I vow I never felt 
 more shockingly alone than the two or three evenings 
 I have staid in. 
 
 Yet all this must be conquered if fighting can do it. 
 Yet at times, I have thought of, I hardly know what. 
 
 1 I cannot trace this companion of the former visit. 
 
 66 
 
 
Corfti 
 
 The constant walking and noise overhead prevents my 
 application to any sort of work, & it is only from 6 to 
 8 in the morning that I can attend really to anything : 
 
 Then 6 yepog StSaaicaXoQ fiov apteral, Kat lpyaZ,6p£ta bfiov 
 elg ti)v iraXaiav 'EXXevttki^v yXuxroav. 1 I am beginning 
 
 bits of Plutarch and of Lucian dialogues. And 
 then, if I can't sleep, my whole system seems 
 to turn into pins, cayenne-pepper, & vinegar & 
 I suffer hideously. You see I have no means of 
 carrying off my irritation : others have horses, or 
 boats, in short : — I have only walking, and that 
 is beginning to be impossible alone. I could 
 not go to church to-day. I felt I should make 
 faces at everybody, so I read some Greek of St. 
 John, wishing for you to read it with — some of 
 Robinson's Palestine, some Jane Eyre, some Burton's 
 Mecca, some Friends in Council, some Shakespeare, 
 some Vingt ans apres, some Leakes Topography, some 
 Rabelais, some Tennyson, some Gardiner Wilkinson, 
 some Grote, some Ruskin — & all in half an hour 
 O ! doesn't " he take it out of me " in a raging worry ? 
 Just this moment I think I must have a piano : that 
 may do me good. But then I remember Miss Hendon 
 over my head has one, & plays jocular jigs continually. 
 Then what the devil can I do ? Buy a baboon & a 
 parrot & let them rush about the room ? Aev i&vpio 
 rtVoTec. 2 I still hold to going to Palestine if possible. 
 
 1 My old master comes and we work together upon the 
 ancient Greek language. 
 
 2 Perhaps I shall discover something. 
 
 6? 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 If I could but get myself comfortable and untwisted by 
 the noise & general discomfort of these houses, I 
 think I could bring myself right yet, but I cannot tell. 
 Sometimes I think I must begin another big picture, 
 as I want something to gnash & grind my teeth on. 
 If Helena Cortazzi had been here, it would have been 
 useless to think of avoiding asking her to marry me, 
 even had I never so little trust in the wisdom of such 
 a step. 
 
 That's enough of me, I think for this once. If you 
 don't write a lot about yourself you are a spider & 
 no Christian. Meanwhile things here are not as, by 
 all I was led to suppose, they were represented to you 
 as being. . . . 
 
 There is one thing here which cannot be grumbled 
 at : — at present at least. The weather, it has been 
 simply cloudless glory, for 7 long days & nights. 
 Anything like the splendour of olive-grove & orange- 
 garden, the blue of sky & ivory of church & chapel, the 
 violet of mountain, rising from peacockwing-hued sea, 
 & tipped with lines of silver snow, can hardly be 
 imagined. I wish to goodness gracious grasshoppers 
 you were here. I believe the cussed people above 
 stairs have goats or ox feet, they make such a deed 
 row. Among the chilly mocky absurdities, opposite 
 me on Friday, as I dined at the Palace, sat Lord 
 Clermont's first cousin, L. J. E. Kozziris : l — neither 
 
 1 His mother was a daughter of the second Earl of Clancarty, 
 a cousin of the Fortescues, who in 1843 married Signor 
 Giovanni Kozziris. 
 
 68 
 
Corfh 
 
 Greek, Irish, nor English. As for Lady Y. she looks 
 handsomer and younger than ever. Lord & Lady 
 Headfort l are expected daily. How comes it Lord 
 Strangford 2 is dead? 
 
 Dec. 27th, 1857. 
 
 I am glad to hear of your riding: I wish to 
 heaven I could, or purchase a Gizzard. Tell me 
 something of the general aspect of things at Red 
 House, including the curly brown dog & the two 
 milkophagous calves who abode in the square field. 
 I had met Norman Macdonald 3 at Lord Cannings 
 sometimes. Lady Buller4 his sister, the generals 
 wife here, has collapsed into nonreception along of 
 his demise. 
 
 The uppermostest subject in my feeble mind just 
 now is my Palestine visit. I read immensely on the 
 matter, and am beginning to believe myself a Jew, so 
 exactly do I know the place from Robinson, De 
 Sanley, Lynch, Beaumont, Bartlett, & the old writers 
 from the Bourdeaux Pilgrim to Maundsell, not to 
 
 1 The second Marquis. 
 
 2 The seventh Viscount. He had been Under Secretary of 
 State for Foreign Affairs in 1846. He had some reputation as a 
 political journalist, but was better known in his early career for 
 his connection with the " Young England " party. 
 
 3 He was Controller of the Lord Chamberlain's Department. 
 He was seized with apoplexy while talking with Lady Ely at 
 Lady Elizabeth Hope Vere's, and died quite suddenly at St. 
 James's Palace on the 1st of December. 
 
 4 Wife of Sir George Buller, G.C.B., who after serving in the 
 Crimean War and the first and second Kaffir Wars, was now 
 commanding a division in the Ionian Isles. 
 
 69 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 speak of Stanley, & Josephus, whose works I can now, 
 thank goodness, read in their natural garb. Now my 
 particular idea at the present hour is to paint Lady 
 Waldegraves 2nd picture from Masada l whither I 
 intend to go on purpose to make correct drawings, 
 though, whether I shall get up without breaking my 
 neck is a doubt. In that case Lady W. cannot have 
 my painting. My reason for this choice is, that not 
 only I know the fortress of Masada to be a wonder of 
 picturesqueness, but that I consider it as embodying 
 one of the extremest developments of the Hebrew 
 character, i.e. constancy of purpose, & immense 
 patriotism. This subject I believe will as it were 
 " match " Jerusalem well. 
 
 At present I think my view for Lady W. will either 
 be from Scopus, or from the glen coming up from 
 S. Saba. I shall like to show her all the drawings 
 of this place — which I wish I could see her now 
 walking past, or into this room, with the browny- 
 lilac velvet many banded dress, and a nosegay in her 
 hand. You are certainly right in thinking most 
 women are like Copses after her : only Lady Y. here 
 is not copse-like being highly vivacious : but she 
 lacketh other of my Lady's qualities which one would 
 fain see, hear, & be sensible of. Why the deuce I 
 compare them I don't know, only Lady Y. is the only 
 lively creature here. They have been very good- 
 natured since I came, but I never go to the evening 
 
 1 Now in the possession of the Hon. Mrs. Stanley, of Quantock 
 Lodge. 
 
 70 
 
Corfti 
 
 parties, rising as I do, at a little after 5, I cannot bring 
 myself to dress & go out to parties wholly without 
 interest, at 10. 
 
 They asked me on the 1 5th to meet Lord S. de 
 Redcliffe I at a luncheon. He is a remarkable old 
 gentleman, & I was surprised to see him so unbroken 
 & with his eagle eye still so clear. I sat next to Lady 
 Y. at table, and Lord S. shook hands with me across, 
 and was otherwise exceedingly amiable — nothing can 
 be more regal and sostenuto than his manners, and 
 one can only believe in his temper by observation of 
 his brow and eye. Old Lady Valsamachi (Mrs. 
 Heber 2 ) rushed in where angels fear to tread & 
 came unasked to the Palace, with the ancient bore, 
 her Greek husband ; but Lord S. was I remarked 
 particularly kind and affable. Just as he went off in 
 the steamer there was an Earthquake, big enough to 
 send people out of their houses & the bells ringing, 
 but whether the coincidental concussion was caused 
 by, or for, Lord S. de Redcliffe, I leave you as a more 
 educated man than myself, to determine. 
 
 Since that day I have not been to the Palace, not 
 even to see the live Marquis & Marchioness of Head- 
 fort^ who with Miss Erskine, Lady H's reputed 
 
 1 See note, p. 11. 2 Widow of the Bishop of Calcutta. 
 
 3 Lady Headfort was Lady McNaughten, widow of Sir 
 William Hay McNaughten, Bart., of the Bengal Civil Service. 
 Assassinated at Cabul, Dec. 25, 1841. 
 
 4 Afterwards knighted. Had been private secretary to the 
 Earl of Derby in 1852. He was at this time British Resident at 
 Cephalonia. 
 
 71 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 heiress, & Col. Talbot 4 on his way to his Island 
 Kephalonia, arrived a week ago. Lord H. is described 
 to me as a well got up blase old boy ; milady not 
 to be perceived clearly, along of Indian shawls and 
 diamonds, of which jewels and of her concealment 
 of them, during a flight from some Afghan place 
 when she was Lady Mc. N., wonderful tales are about. 
 The weather has been utterly wonderful, this the 
 28th day since I came, being the first with a single 
 cloud in it ! Nor has there been the least wind, or 
 temporal annoyance of any kind, but always a lovely 
 blue & golden sphere about all earth sky & sea. 
 How different from the 2 preceding years this ! And 
 the Olives are one bending mass of fruit. I have 
 however walked but little. I grow weary of the 3 
 dull miles out & 3 back in order to reach any 
 scenery. And although J. has walked with me at 
 times, yet it is a weary silent work, & now that he 
 has got a dog, one cannot help feeling how far more 
 agreeable it is to him to walk with that domestic 
 object, to whom he has not the bore of being obliged 
 to speak. We are on perfect good terms, but all or 
 anything might happen to either, & neither would 
 dream of telling the other, a state of things I do not 
 call friendship. But on this and such a matter I 
 dwell as little as possible. I have to live alone & 
 do so though ungracefully : — (Whereas you who are 
 pretty well alone as to the possibility of others sym- 
 pathyzing with you in your principal interests, manage 
 to do so remarkably well). So I stay at home, and 
 
 72 
 
EDWARD LEAK. 
 From a photograph taken about 1853 or 1834. 
 
 Tofacepagt J2. 
 
Corfti 
 
 oppose the morbids. I can tell you that I miss Helena 
 Cortazzi though — a few — now & then. The Reids 
 are good and friendly people, but of them even I see 
 little. Campbell of the 46th (Simeon's cousin) is a 
 really nice fellow, but all these people are mad 
 after snipes & woodcox now, & abjure all intellect 
 & repose. Edward my last years companion I miss 
 abominably. Bunsen r as I said is a good little chap, 
 clever, but talks like 50 thousand millions of tongues. 
 
 Corfu. Jan. 3. 1858. 
 o mi i ! how cold it is ! The weather hasn't changed 
 after all, & I believe don't mean to. It's as bright 
 and cold & icicular as possible, and elicits the ordibble 
 murmurs of the cantankerous Corcyreans. As for the 
 English they like the cold generally, I don't : — Not- 
 withstanding which, I must own to being in absolously 
 better health than for I don't know how long past. 
 Yesterday I went up a mounting & made a sketch, 
 iKafie fiiav Zuypafiav. 2 A majestic abundance of tym- 
 panum-torturing turkeys are now met with on all the 
 roads, coming into Corfu to be eaten. These birds 
 are of a highly irascible disposition, and I never 
 knew before 2 days ago, that they objected to being 
 whistled to. But Col. Campbell informed me of the 
 fact, and proved it to me, since when it is one of my 
 peculiar happinesses to whistle to all the Turkeys I 
 meet or see, they get into such a damnable rage I can 
 
 1 Theodore Bunsen, son of Baron and Baroness de Bunsen. 
 
 2 He wrought a painting. 
 
 73 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 hardly stand for laughing. After all, suppose a swell 
 party in London, say at Cambridge House, if any one 
 person began to whistle furiously at all the rest, 
 wouldn't they get into a rage I should like to know ? 
 
 On the first of the year I was wishing you and 
 others a happy (new) one and many such, when lo ! your 
 letter from Holyhead of the 22nd came, to my great 
 pleasure. I am so glad you will have been able to 
 pass your Christmas at Redhouse. Stay, let me look 
 over the epistle, & reply dg to. 6w6ia : want comments. 
 It is (pronounced strongly izz) a satisfaction to talk 
 with you, & both doing so & receiving your letters 
 does me a great deal of good. 
 
 In re Bunsen — the telegraphic small Bunsen here, 
 talks as I never nevernever heard anyone talk : — 
 he makes you long to scream. 
 
 I wish I had studded with you at Dresden. 2 I quite 
 feel how that life and your present one seem like 
 that of two persons, from having seen you in Ireland 
 I now can understand all your life pretty well : the 
 more analysis one brings to what one is interested 
 in, the more one not only understands but gains by 
 the process, — secondo ame. 
 
 Reflections on daily life, etc. : what you say to me 
 is exactly true, but infernally difficult to follow out, 
 i.e. "That the freedom of the inner man consists in 
 
 1 Upon whatever matter. 
 
 2 Fortescue lived in Dresden for four months of the winter 
 of 1846 to learn German. 
 
 3 O Morier, big and beautiful. 
 
 74 
 
Corfti 
 
 obedience." Doubtless whenever the time comes 
 that a man so willingly practises obedience as to 
 find no annoyance from the process, he does so with 
 a good will, & therefore a choice, & that is freedom. 
 For my own part at present I find stuffing every 
 
 a? 
 moment with work the sole panace 
 
 um? 
 
 against more 
 
 thought than is good for one. I only wish there 
 were 28 hours in every day. 
 
 I do not, sir, read the Testament now — much — 
 leastways in Greek : — though I could do so with 
 pleasure. But would you believe it, I have read the 
 death of Socrates & Plato. I was so struck by 
 <&ai§ov that I rose at night and worked till I made 
 out the last part of it entirely. How is it that the 
 thoughts of this wonderful man are kept darkly away 
 from the youths of the age? (except they go to the 
 universities, & then only as matters of language or 
 scarcely more) because Socrates was a "Pagan"? 
 I shall have more to say, & think about, concerning 
 Socrates, whose opinion on death I now read for 
 the first time, & there is no harm in wishing that 
 we two may some day read Plato together ; we both 
 have much similar tendency to an analytical state of 
 mind I think. Intanto, my old hdaaKaXog 1 persists in 
 keeping me in uXovrapxog, & also in Lucian's dialogues, 
 & won't hear of Plato. The former, Plutarch, I hate 
 — Lucian delights me as so very absurd and new. 
 
 1 Master. 
 75 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Dining at the Palace 3 days ago, I sat next to 
 Sir J. after dinner & he talked to me a good deal. 
 (His way of talking of you moreover is agreable to 
 me.) His appreciation of Greek character is all the 
 more near the right one, inasmuch as he is longer 
 here : but as you say in your last, the firm hand is 
 wanted here, & I add is wanting. 
 
 I stop my letter to add what I cannot yet quite 
 realize, but what grieves me most extremely. 
 Lushington writes in a note that Mrs. Cortazzi has 
 just died at Paris. We heard she was ill but not 
 dangerously. 
 
 Poor Helena, & Madeline ! what will become of 
 those poor girls ? 
 
 4th. I can't add much more to this, my dear 
 boy. In so small a place as this one is more 
 dependent than I had fancied on the few one sees 
 and at all cares for. The absence of the Cortazzi was 
 a blank in itself, but now to know, that poor Mrs. C. 
 died before she saw her English friends ! (She was a 
 Lancashire Hornby, and first cousin of William 
 Hornby who married Sir Philip's daughter,) and 
 without seeing her only son, is sad enough. Besides 
 that, I became interested enough about Helena to 
 feel for her extremely. As yet we know no par- 
 ticulars. 
 
 Here are 10 woodcox, what can I do with them 
 all? 
 
 I must leave off, I feel like 5 nutmeg-graters full of 
 baked eggshells — so dry & cold & miserable. 
 
 76 
 
Corfti 
 
 Corfu, 10th. January, 1858. 
 
 I shall begin a letter & let it burn up gradivally 
 like the gun-powder which they throw on the fire. I 
 have been working tooth & nail at Lord Clermont's 
 Athos, & am succeeding in making it the best I have 
 done of that 'oly mounting. In the foregroung there 
 is a Nilex tree, which I take no end of pains about, 
 and the little woody dell will I think be a pet bit of 
 the picture with Lord C. It is doubtless, though still 
 to have much added, a better picture than the one I 
 did at Redhouse, but I can't help that. The other 2, 
 Mrs. Empson's Athos and Corfu, are also less good, 
 which I am sorry for, but I can't help either, for 
 naturally every successive piece of work should be 
 better than its foregoer. 
 
 And I am doing the bilious memories of EtvofytDv 
 concerning Socrates, by which I am immensely 
 interested. Life goes on here very dummily, : — I 
 feel however, the want of forcing myself to under- 
 take some work of a tougher, or more difficult 
 gnashmyteethupon nature. At the Palace I have 
 been once or twice to dinner ; for to the Evening 
 Balls I can't & won't go. Lady Y. is always cer- 
 tainly very kind in inviting one, a brute. Lady 
 Headfort comes out each time in new & astound- 
 ing jewels. We get on very well, having endless 
 topics of mutuality-talk, from Rosstrevor & Lady 
 Drogheda, to "Virginia Pattle," or Afghanistan. 
 They "the court" (I suppose Sir John also) are 
 all off to Athens in a fortnight or so. Lady Y. 
 
 77 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 characteristically observing " I have always wanted 
 to see the Ball room at the Palace, and there are 
 to be some fine fetes." My ! won't Queen Amelia 
 be down on them ! for Sir John's profundities are 
 pretty well known there. 
 
 I am reminded that I told you quite wrongly some- 
 thing of the state of feeling here as developed in 
 representation, nearly all the members of this Island 
 are anti-English, the contrary is the case with Cepha- 
 lonia. Yet in the main perhaps I was right, as to 
 the greater general dislike to us in the latter place. 
 Neither was I correct about the Italian or Roman 
 Catholic element : — The Greek screw has been 
 allowed to be put on so much more strongly, with 
 each successive Govt, that every other consideration 
 is giving way to a settled desire to join Greece, & 
 get rid of English. 
 
 After these ozbervations, which are more temperate 
 and less triumphiliginous, than those I last wrote, I 
 shall proceed to state that Shakespear is come, by 
 which assertion I do not mean the author of "As 
 you like it," " Hamlet," or other popular drammers, 
 but the Major of that name of the Royal Artillery, 
 who used to live over me, & whose wife is one of 
 the very nicest, even if not the nicest woman here. 
 They are gone to live in the Citadel, next door to 
 the General. The General objects to the odour of 
 cooking generally & of onions particularly. Lady 
 Buller has not expressed any opinion on the subject 
 so far as is publicly known : — the matter rests in 
 
 78 
 
Corfti 
 
 a state of oblique & tenacious obscurity for the 
 present. 
 
 Last night I, the Shakespear's, & Wyndham, dined 
 with the honourable Edward & Arabella Gage, 1 very 
 good people. We of this Terrace & this part of the 
 town chaff the Shakespears, who now live so far off, 
 and we ask them to "set us down " on their way to 
 11 Wimbledon." It is but right you should know the 
 important life concerns of the Island, and therefore I 
 shall not hesitate to insert the following facts before 
 I conclude this morning's scribble. Madam Vitalis, 
 the Greek consul's wife has purchased a large red 
 maccaw. Mrs. Macfarlane's female domestic has 
 fallen down stairs, by which precipitate act Mrs. M's 
 baby has been killed. Sir Gorgeous Figginson 
 Blowing has had an attack of fever. Colonel 
 Campbell (first cousin of Sir J. Simeon,) dined 
 with Mr. Lear the Artist on Thursday. On Friday 
 that accomplished person entertained Mr. Bunsen & 
 Mr. Justice Lushington. Capt. R. has purchased a 
 Cornopeon, & practises on it, (Mrs. G. invariably 
 calls it a cornicopean.) but it is not heard generally, 
 on account of the superior row made by Mrs. Vitalis' 
 maccaw, Capt. P's howling dogs, & about 400 turkeys 
 who live at ease about the terrace and adopt a remark- 
 able gobble at certain periods. Lady Hfeadfort] has 
 astonished the multitude by a pink satin dress stuffed 
 with pearls. Bye the bye I heard rather a good thing 
 
 1 Brother of Viscount Gage and a Colonel in the Royal Horse 
 Artillery. Married to a cousin, Miss Arabella Gage. 
 
 79 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 yesterday, Lady H. (with an aide de camp,) has been 
 "doing" the sights of Corfu, & among others the 
 churches. At the Greek Cathedral a beggar came 
 and importuned the glittering Marchioness, who at 
 the moment was indulging in the natural & pleasant 
 act of sucking an orange. Lady H. after a time 
 paused & said or implied "silver & gold have I 
 none," but such as she had, (being the half sucked 
 orange,) she politely gave the beggar-woman, who 
 (oranges being any number for a half-penny,) threw 
 the fruit in her Ladyship's face, and rushed frantically 
 out of the desecrated edifice. 
 
 Jany. i%tk. 1858. — Hooray! Here's a letter from 
 you dated Jany. 6th. What a good boy it is ! I 
 shall post this to-morrow therefore. The day is so 
 cold that I can hardly hold my pen, & feel that all 
 or more than all the population of Corfu will expire, 
 or become icicles. No such cold was ever known 
 here, a keen east wind, the first I have ever felt in 
 the Island. Snow on Salvador : — and a great deal 
 of sad illness among the natives. Of course the 
 Anglo-saxons rather like the freezing than no, I 
 don't, & yet am well because the air is so pure I 
 suppose. Mr. George Cockles, my Suliote, refuses 
 
 to Write his COpy. Ilolog VfiwopeC va ypfyy, Ktpit, elg 
 
 tovto to Kpvov. 1 But until yesterday we have had 
 wonderfully lovely weather & never yet any rain 
 to speak of, sun nearly ever. To-day, however, all 
 is gray and ugly. With your letter came a letter 
 
 1 How did you travel or paint in this cold weather ? 
 
 80 
 
Corfii 
 
 from sister Ann, who was 6y yesterday, I am sorry 
 to say. 
 
 While I think of it here are two anecdotes, this 
 time from the Citadel. Colonel Campbell has a 
 celebrated horse, a stallion, called " Billy." I hate 
 the sight of him myself, in as much as he bites and 
 kicks whoever he can. The other day being loose, 
 and seeing a helpless horse in a cart, he pounced on 
 him and began to oppress him horribly, the two 
 making any amount of row. This happened oppo- 
 site Lady Buller's window, whereon the lady being 
 of a tender-heart and a decided manner, opened the 
 window & called out, Sentinel ! (Sentinel shouldered 
 & presented arms) " Shoot the horse directly," 
 (Sentinel looks horribly bewildered but does nothing) 
 " Why don't you shoot it " ! (S) " Lord Madam ! its 
 Billy!" Lady B. "What's Billy? what do I care 
 for Billy? shoot it I say." (Billy all the time 
 tearing & biting the prostrate victim horse.) Sen- 
 tinel " Can't nohow madam my lady, cause its the 
 Colonel's Billy." Here the General Sir J. came up 
 & tranquillized the agitated nerves, of lady, sentinel, 
 & both horses. 
 
 Another anecdote is that Sir Henry Holland r 
 being here, & dining at the General's : — Lady B. 
 said promiscuously, "Sir Henry in all your travels 
 were you ever in Albania ? " Can't you fancy Sir 
 
 1 Physician to William IV., Queen Victoria, and Prince 
 Albert. Author of " Travels in the Ionian Islands, Albania, 
 Thessaly, Macedonia," 1815. 
 
 8l G 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Henry's smile & quiet: — "Why, Lady Buller, I 
 wrote a book on Albania, because I happened to be 
 there as Physician to Ali Pasha in 1812 & 181 3." 
 
 I think there are no more anecdotes, but, (as 
 Ollendorf may say) there is much ice & innumerable 
 woodcox. They say old Nassau Senior * is coming 
 to Athens, also General Fox 2 is reported to be at 
 hand. All last week my AiSaivaXog has not been to 
 me his only child being about, I fear, to die : he has 
 lost 4 before, poor man. So I shall poke on alone 
 in Plato & %£vo<t>ujv 3 & wish you were here to help 
 me. — To-day all the Palace folk were to come, but 
 Lady Y. is unwell, & could not. I dine there 
 to-night, if I don't die of the cold first. Patrick 
 Talbot is here, whom I like. As yet I do not 
 hear anything certain about Jaffa & the rotten 
 Arribs : — but I shall do so before long. We, 
 intanto, abound in turkeys this year, the whole 
 country is black with them, and a sound of gobbling 
 pervades the Corcyrean air. 
 
 My friend Miss Dennett must have had a sad shock 
 by Lord Spencer's sudden death. 4 Everyone should 
 
 1 Author of " Journals Kept in France and Italy from 1848 to 
 1852," " Conversations with M. Thiers, Guizot, and other Distin- 
 guished Persons during the Second Empire," &c, &c. 
 
 2 A natural son of the third Lord Holland. Had the finest 
 private collection of Greek coins in the world, purchased by the 
 Royal Museum at Berlin, 1873. 3 Xenophon. 
 
 4 The fourth Earl. Fought at Navarino, 1827 ; afterwards 
 Vice-Admiral on the reserve list. Steward of Her Majesty's 
 Household, 1854-57, & c -» & c - 
 
 82 
 
Corfu 
 
 know that so high was his esteem for Miss D. (who 
 brought up his two daughters, and was much with 
 Lady S. at last) that he settled an income of ^200 
 per annum on her for life. Let me look over your 
 letter & see if anything wants replying to. I was 
 enormously delighted with it, because being morbid, 
 I fancied I might have written too violently in my 
 last but one. (I remember calling Mr. Labouchere 
 a muff a dummy &c.,) but one gets angry sometimes. 
 The fortifications go on, and the blasted bartizan 
 before my windows will improve the landscape by 
 being blown up. You are very kind to have 
 thought & written to Lady W. as you did about 
 me. I assure you, your active and living sympathy 
 is of value to me here not to be expressed. Dear 
 good Mr. Clark came here two days ago, seeing I 
 have not been at church, but he never said a word 
 about it. He is really a good man spite of the 
 Dogmas & Catechisms. Yesterday I went like a 
 good boy and he preached a sermon from "be not 
 slothful in business " etc. hardly to be surpassed. 
 He might be split into fifteen Bishops. 
 
 I can't write any more now, but will try when I 
 come home from the Palace, to finish this. Mean- 
 while, I must go & try & birculate my clood, by a 
 rard hun on the righ hoad. 
 
 ^upee hem : — I've just come from the Palace, where 
 the dinner was agreeable enough. I sat next Lady 
 Young, & Miss Eisenbach, the Austrian Consul's 
 daughter, and opposite poor Lady Emily Kozziris : 
 
 8 3 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 certainly her husband is a stunner of a misery-bore. 
 Then there were Col. and the pretty Mrs. Herbert, 
 Miss Erskine, Miss Murray, the live Markis and 
 March ss , old Eisenbach, Capts. Furville, & Churchill 
 A.D.C's. Nautical Capt. Bromley, 1 Dr. Evans, & 
 the landscape painter. Certes ! Lady Y. is a singular 
 woman, no end of talents of a sort, but rayther "pro- 
 noncee." Her singing is sometimes wonderfully 
 good. Old Lord Headfort persisted in supposing 
 Miss Eisenbach my daughter — why, I can't conceive : 
 I wish she were : but I'm glad she ain't my wife. 
 
 So I came moam & rote this. Alack my dear Sir 
 John : — you lack some things. They are going to 
 England this year I find. 
 
 I meant to have written a lot about the priests & 
 signori, and the good peasantry, & the orange-trees, 
 and sea-gulls, and geraniums, & the Ionian Ball, & 
 Jerusalem Artichokes, & Colonel Paterson, & old 
 Dandolo's palm-tree, & my spectacles and the East- 
 wind, & Zambelli's nasty little dogs, 2 & fishermen, & 
 Scarpe's cats, & whatnot, but I am too sleepy. 
 
 Corfu. Feb. i. 1858. 
 
 I shall send a little letter to-day, as the time draws 
 nearer for going eastward, so that if possible I may 
 get still one line from you before I start. 
 
 I cannot tell you much of anything at present, & 
 
 1 Afterwards Sir Richard Madox- Bromley, at this time 
 Accountant-General of the Navy. 
 
 2 Mr. Lear detested and feared dogs and they seemed to 
 dislike him. 
 
 84 
 
Corfti 
 
 besides that I am full of little fussy letters & bother- 
 ings, I am so cold, as to be half-dead. No such 
 winter has ever been known here, & last night 
 Lushington who dined here was glad, as was I, to 
 wrap ourselves in Railway rugs as we sat on each 
 side of the fire. 
 
 While I write the post comes, & one letter contains 
 a bit I will transcribe, as I know it will please you as 
 
 it does me. " When Lady Waldegrave came to , 
 
 I met her in a spirit of prejudice & ignorance, — but I 
 recovered from that while she staid & made herself 
 known. She certainly is one of the most remark- 
 able characters of the day, which few give her credit 
 for being, at least none who know her superficially." 
 
 Well I wish I were at Redhouse and you reading 
 me the diary in the small Jam studio : — or walking up 
 & down the long walk with or without Chi, the per- 
 spective struggling milkly enthusiastic calves afar off — 
 the Million 1 remotely seen in the far background. I 
 shall write to you from Jerusalem. Goodbye my dear 
 4.oscue. Remember if I die you are to choose a book 
 from my books : — B. Husey-Hunt, & W. Holman 
 Hunt are my executors." 2 
 
 1 Mrs. Ruxton's companion, so called because she was " one 
 in a million." 
 
 2 The well-known artist and another intimate friend of Lear's. 
 Amusing remembrances of his first meeting with Lear are told in 
 Mr. Holman Hunt's Memoires. 
 
 85 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Fortes cue to Lear. 
 
 Red House, 
 
 Thursday night, 4 Feby. '58 
 
 ... I shall get Beaumont's book and " insense " 
 
 my Lady about Masada. She has been surrounded 
 
 by French Royalties and English Dookes etc. etc. 
 
 What a contrast to my life here ! The brilliant 
 
 crowd of her friends — many of them very intimate — 
 
 is terrifying. I feel sometimes as if I should not 
 
 be able to reach her through the throng — or to see 
 
 her quietly. But I must hope it will not prove 
 
 so. ... " So runs the round of life!" 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 13 Feb. 1858 
 
 Slowly goes on the Indian horror, (beg pardon 
 the " mutiny ") what is John Hamilton about ? It 
 does not quite seem to me that "all will be quite 
 settled in a month or two," as the Times said a 
 long while back. I hope I shall hear from you before 
 I go, but I hardly think I can get any letter if you 
 have not yet written. 
 
 Regarding mylady, courage and quiet : if you do 
 not light on bright times it seems strange : some 
 day or other. Let me know always how you go on. 
 
 Now mind, write if you can, I will write once 
 more before I go. Confound the Cats ! 
 
 Febry. 27, 1858. 
 Your letter of the 19th. has just come, & is one 
 of the nicest of the many you have written since I 
 
 86 
 
Corfti 
 
 left England. I shall sit down and answer it at 
 once, & this time I won't be hirritated if I can help 
 it. I vex myself often after I send off hastily 
 written letters. However, you are so very just as 
 well as kind in weighing my ways and doings, that 
 1 am not afraid of having vexed you much. In this 
 infernal hole of a place, so little novelty occurs that 
 some small worry constantly friddles ones temper. 
 You aint " red tape " and you can't help the state 
 of things : whereby I recant my osbervations. 
 
 I am sorry you were so beastly unwell, not but 
 that a good routing may do good, and still more 
 sorry about Mrs. Urquhart's child. 1 
 
 I shall write to you from Jerusalem, & to Lady 
 W. as soon as I have returned from Masada : — It 
 was Miss Dennett who wrote that : 2 I knew you 
 would like it — you do not say you have seen her, 
 Lady W. since your return. Tell her I shall take 
 great pains about her views, if she asks about my 
 going. I think her Sunset must be from Scopus. 
 (Bye the bye, I have been reading a good deal, 
 my old teacher being quite knocked up, so that I 
 have had but 2 months of Greek lessons out of the 
 last 12. — Finlay's 5 volumes of Greece are admirable. 
 Try to get Gambinis pamphlet on the Jews. I have 
 
 1 In this letter of the 19th, Fortescue says : " While in bed 
 received a summons from my sister to go down to her instantly, 
 she having lost her little boy." 
 
 2 The passage with reference to Lady Waldegrave in the 
 previous letter. 
 
 87 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 just read Paul Ferrol a very nasty odious book. 
 Lady Buller lent it to me. She is a very nice 
 woman, I dined there two days ago for the first 
 time, and was really pleased. Everyone seems to 
 like her. As for Lady Y. she has been a flouncing 
 off to Egina with the K[ing] of G [reece] & the 
 whole Palace party are not yet returned. 
 
 I shall long to hear from you in the Holy Land. 
 Clowes l has written but does not come : — & so I go 
 alone, & perhaps it is better. There are but few I 
 could travel with & yet keep my own thread of 
 thoughts unwispy & unentangled. The journey to 
 Palestine will give one really a great deal to think 
 of in many ways. Sir J. Reid says I must do a 
 large Jerusalem and get Sir Moses M. or Rothschild 
 to buy it. Now I finish 3 Alphabets for children — 
 and so get pretty wearied at end of the week. O ! 
 for a quiet passage ! And again ditto from Alexda. 
 to Jaffa! I shall leave off now, & wind up. 
 
 The following letter refers to the overthrow 
 of Lord Palmerston's Ministry in February, 
 1858. The Bill to amend the Law of Con- 
 spiracy, brought in by the Prime Minister 
 in consequence of Orsini's attempt to 
 assassinate the Emperor of the French, was 
 the cause of the Government's defeat. Lord 
 
 1 F. Clowes was a godson of Lear's, I think. He was some 
 relation of the Lancashire Hornbys and in the 8th Hussars. 
 
 88 
 
Corfti 
 
 Stanley became Colonial Secretary, but a 
 little later was appointed Secretary of State 
 for India, when Sir E. Bulwer Lytton took 
 his place. 
 
 Fortescue to Lear. 
 
 St. James' Place, 
 
 Sunday, February 28 1858 
 
 What events have happened since I wrote last ! 
 Here I am out of office — no more " red tape " for 
 the present. I wound up at the CO. on Friday — 
 bid goodbye to Merivale and Co. and had a great 
 many flattering and pleasant things said to me. 
 Merivale was just going to telegraph the news to 
 Malta and Corfu — so that you no doubt know that 
 Lord Stanley is Secretary of State for the Colonies, 
 after having held out for some days against taking 
 office in a Government with which he can feel very 
 little agreement. He is in a false position privately 
 and publickly. 
 
 I do not take these political events to heart, but 
 I am sorry for what has happened. . . . These people 
 will very probably not last long, but they may survive 
 upon the dissensions of their opponents — If those were 
 to be made up — particularly the matter of Palmerston 
 and Russell, they would go at once — or at all events 
 would dissolve and then go. . . . Palmerston has 
 greatly mismanaged the French affair. I believe he 
 was spoilt by success, and had become overbearing 
 and rash. At the same time, substantially I think 
 
 89 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 he's right, in endeavouring to strengthen the law of 
 Conspiracy to Murder, in order to give some pro- 
 tection to our ally the Emperor — or at least to show 
 that we would not have the " right of asylum " so 
 abused, if we could help it, while maintaining the 
 right for all peaceful refugees. Lord Derby, D' Israeli 
 etc. had espoused the same opinion in the strongest 
 way, and I think their joining with Milner Gibson to 
 defeat the Government was a most inconsistent and 
 dishonest party move, but they were unable to "resist 
 the temptation." . . . 
 
 I dined at Lansdowne House last night — a great 
 dinner ... I got next Lady W. who dined there — 
 in wonderful beauty and force. Then went to a small 
 party at poor G. Palmerston's — he looking low. 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 On Pistol shooting, Liars, and other subjects, 
 
 Corfu, March 9. 1858. 
 It is particularly kind of you to have written this 
 last — (date Sunday 28th — ) which I got yesterday. 
 All your letters are so like yourself — so even & 
 clear & regular. I have been thinking a great deal 
 about you since this break up, which I believe would 
 have come somehow or other, French matter or not. 
 That was the tree or steeple which drew down the 
 lightening storm, but the storm was all ready to burst 
 somewhere, for sometime past. I had heard enough 
 
 90 
 
Corfti 
 
 of Lord P [almerston] latterly, to expect it : — and his 
 own altered public & private manner, the gross error 
 of Lord Clanricarde's readmission and other things, 
 were but forerunners of a crash ; but I wholly agree 
 with you in every word you write. The combination 
 is odious, & with all respect to my friend & patron, he 
 is not the man to be a leader of England for any long 
 period. I cannot conceive how he can like to be in 
 power on such terms. For Lord Stanley I am vexed, 
 for as you say he cannot really unite with those from 
 whom he differs so much. Pakington J I suppose 
 accepted. What sort of a man is Lord Carnarvon ? 
 I believe Lord John will be in tho' perhaps not 
 Premier, before 6 months are out. 
 
 In the mean time don't you drop habits of study & 
 business, but keep them up all the more. Make your- 
 self master of anything Colonial. The compliments 
 and pleasant things said are but what was your due, not 
 only for your strict attention to routine of business, 
 but for your earnest wish to do what was right, 
 tho' you had not much power in your hands. Give 
 my love to the late Mr. Labouchere, & say he's 
 a miserable muff. Also to Mr. Merivale & say he is 
 either dishonest or stupid. Thank God you so far 
 as you have gone in public life are as white as a 
 Jerusalem artichoke, and I believe you will always 
 keep so. — Tell both of them they are no better than 
 they should be ! 
 
 The Palace party are come back, they had horrid 
 1 He became First Lord of the Admiralty. 
 
 91 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 weather & an Earthquake. Corinth is totally ruined, 
 not one single house habitable. People all fled. 
 Vialimachi down flat on the ground. These earth- 
 quakes are dreadful. Boyle, who has just come 
 back from Naples, fills us with horrors ! Amalfi, 
 Sorrento and such lists of old lovely places, all gone ! 
 down on the earth, and every inhabitant killed or 
 maimed. 
 
 O ! here is a bit of queerness in my life. Brought 
 up by women — & badly besides — & ill always, I never 
 had any chance of manly improvement & exercise, 
 etc. — and never touched firearms in all my days — But 
 
 you can't do work at the Dead Sea without them. So 
 Lushington, who is always vy kind and good — makes 
 me take a 5-barelled revolver, & I have been prac- 
 tising shooting at a mark (I can hardly write for 
 laughing), & have learned all the occult nature of 
 
 92 
 
Corfti 
 
 pistols. Don't grin. My progress is slow — but always 
 (I trust) somewhat. At 103 I may marry possibly. 
 Goodbye dear 40scue. 
 
 Yrs. affectionately, 
 
 Edward Lear. 
 
 I've left you all Leeke's Greece, in case of my being 
 devoured by Arabs or fever. 
 
 93 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 April to November, 1858 
 
 PALESTINE, CORFU", AND ENGLAND 
 
 ON the 13th of March, 1858, Lear set out 
 for his long-projected visit to Jerusalem, 
 accompanied by his servant, George Kokali. 
 Arriving there on the 27th, he writes : 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 Jerusalem, April 1st. 1858. 
 
 Dear 40scue, — During my stay here this the 
 5th., day, every moment has been occupied, or rather 
 fussed away : — writing a long letter to my sister, & 
 a short line to Lushington, walking all about the 
 neighbouring hills, to understand its most pictural 
 points, — endless interviews with interminable Drago- 
 men, besides the hourly distraction of a public Hotel 
 chok full of people, & the overcrowded state of the 
 streets, all this will give you some idea of the land- 
 scape painters state of body & mind. 
 
 Leaving Corfu on the 13th. or rather 14th. of 
 
 94 
 
Palestine, Corfu, and England 
 
 March, a decent voyage brought me to Alexandria 
 on the 17th, too late for the French Jaffa steamer 
 by one day. So I passed 5 days in a trip to Cairo, 
 which I greatly wish you could see some day, & 
 renewing delightful impressions of the Pyramids, 
 Caliph's tombs, Heliopolis, &c., &c. Returning to 
 Alexandria on the 23rd, I sailed on the 25th. in the 
 Austrian Jaffa steamer, in which the crowds of clean & 
 dirty, high & low pilgrims was a wonder, and you may 
 suppose its combinations to some extent, when I tell 
 you that 20 different languages were spoken on 
 board. Most happily the voyage was fine, or I can't 
 tell you what we must have suffered. 
 
 At Jaffa we arrived on the 26th. at noon, but 
 owing to the immense crowd of Eastern pilgrims, the 
 landing & getting under way were most difficult 
 matters, & had it not been for Arthur Stanley's 
 Dragoman, I do not know how I could have got on. 
 By 3, p.m. we were off, loaded & mounted for 
 Ramleh, where we slept, or rather stopped that night. 
 The way thither is through one almighty green lovely 
 corn-field, perfectly delicious at every time of day, and 
 not at all unlike many parts of the Roman Campagna ; 
 though more resembling the southern plains of Sicily, 
 particularly in the long unbroken line of blue-lilac 
 hills, poetically the " frowning mountains of Judah," 
 though I could not see any justice in the term so 
 applied to them. From Ramleh the same cheery 
 plain of corn extends to the foot of these hills, & you 
 then ascend through shrubby & stony & olive planted 
 
 95 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 passes, up & down, (though always upper not downer) 
 till about the 8th hour after leaving the aforesaid 
 Ramleh, you find yourself toiling up a steep & bare 
 rocky hill-side, at the top of which an undulating 
 level of rather wearisome duration brings you in sight 
 of the western walls of the Holy City. 
 
 The Holy City itself is just now in a most odious 
 state of suffocation & crowding, this one week uniting 
 all sorts of creeds & people in a disagreeable hodge- 
 podge of curiosity & piety. Lucky it was for me to 
 get even the last single room & one for my servant, 
 and that day I was content to give up struggling 
 through the fearfully thronged hustle-streets, & after 
 a tabledhote dinner was glad to be thankful & sleep 
 at Jerusalem, which I had so long wished to see. On 
 Sunday 28th, service in our church was a real pleasure 
 — well arranged, simple & good in all respects, and the 
 more to find the preacher an old friend, son of Ralph 
 Barnes the Bp. of Exeter's Secy. Afterwards my 
 delight in going, (on Palm Sunday too,) to the Mount 
 of Olives you can imagine. But the immense beauty 
 of the environs of Jerusalem you cannot nor could I 
 before I saw it. Independently of the grandeur of the 
 position of this wonderful place, & the claim every 
 part of its walls & buildings, has on the Xtian as well 
 as the observer of general history & antiquity, most of 
 the vallies of Johosaphat & Himmon abound in 
 beautiful quiet scenes, wholly unexpected by me as 
 part & parcel of Judean Landscape : — Then the 
 ancient tombs cut in the rock, the innumerable flat 
 
 96 
 
Palestine, Corfu, and England 
 
 ones, the scattered olives, (not fine as at Corfu but 
 pollardy,) the constantly varying beauty of the Mount 
 of Olives, the realities of Siloam, Zion &c. and the 
 very ancient traditional sites of Gethsemane &c &c 
 &c, keep you constantly alive to the fresh interest 
 that awaits you at every step. I had not the slightest 
 idea of the amount of wonder & admiration the walks 
 hereabout must call up, in all thinking visitors. 
 
 Meanwhile, I am off now to Bethlehem & Hebron 
 in a few hours : too glad to get to some quiet from 
 this noisy place. Thence I go by the Dead Sea to 
 Sebbeh, (Masada) Engedi, Mar Saba, & Jericho, & 
 possibly beyond the Jordan, returning here for a 
 fortnight or 3 weeks. 1 
 
 Lear to Lady Waldegrave. 
 
 Damascus, 2jth May. 1858. 
 I had thought of writing to you long ago, to tell 
 you what I had done by way of trying to fulfil the 
 commissions you kindly gave me ; but the difficulties 
 of sending anything like a letter " while I am on the 
 road " in these countries, are not to be told. At least 
 they are great to me, who am always unable to write 
 by candle-light ; and the early morning is snatched 
 for moving forward, while mid-day heat & weariness 
 put a veto on all labour, but that of catching & flap- 
 ping away flies. And when in Hotels, (in the very 
 
 1 A scarcity of letters at this period, will be explained by the 
 following paragraph : " I have told Ann [his sister] to send you 
 my letters, & you will post them to the address you will obtain." 
 
 97 H 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 few spots where such houses exist) there are so many 
 things to look after and look at, & so much re- 
 arrangement for the next journey, that the time for a 
 real sitting down for letter writing never seems to 
 
 t 
 
 -•2to... 
 
 
 Tl 
 
 'JJ1ZZ- 
 
 r— ^53i_ 
 
 
 come. To-day the Syrian Haj takes its departure 
 for Mecca, and as there is no chance of drawing 
 anywhere out of doors, along of the excitement of the 
 pious Moslem mind, which finds a safety valve in 
 throwing stones at Nazrani, I shall remain here and 
 fill a sheet, if not two, which may reach you to amuse 
 an hour or two of your leisure some fortnight 
 
 hence. 
 
 My stay in Jerusalem or 
 rather opposite the City, — for 
 I pitched my tents on the 
 Mount of Olives when I had 
 ascertained the point I thought you would like best for 
 your picture, was the most complete portion of my 
 tour : i.e. I was able to attend thoroughly, and to the 
 best of my ability to what I was doing, in peace & 
 
 93 
 
Palestine, Corfu, and England 
 
 quiet : whereas much of the rest of my Palestine 
 journey has been toiled through under far other 
 circumstances. 
 
 After describing at great length the reasons 
 which led him to select a north-east view of 
 
 the city for Lady Waldegrave's picture, illus- 
 trated by various little sketches reproduced 
 here, he continues : — 
 
 And now what shall I say on the subject of the 
 companion painting ? One of the most remarkable as 
 well as of the most picturesque studies, I have 
 
 obtained, is of Sebbeh, or Masada, the history of 
 which you will find in ? Translation of Josephus. 
 This was one of the places I so much wished to visit 
 & one which I am so pleased at having drawings of. 
 It is like this somewhat, only I cannot give here what 
 only detail & colour can produce, The great depth 
 
 99 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 of the ravine below. A. is the Dead Sea : — B. is the 
 line of Moab mountains. This scene, as that of the 
 last Jewish struggle for freedom against Rome, would 
 I think be a very excellent subject in its way, but 
 
 MASADA. 
 
 in case you should not like this there is Hebron, 
 which is very particularly a Hewbrew antiquity, & is 
 besides sufficiently picturesque to form a good picture : 
 though why Abraham choose to live there I cannot 
 think : I found it abominably cold & wet, & besides, 
 they threw stones at me whenever I drew, so that 
 I wished the whole population in Abraham's bosom or 
 elsewhere 20 times a day. 
 
 
 l "« '.*?—-- 
 
 "^EX^v^rr- 
 
 Another subject which is astonishingly grand is Petra. 
 (Not that I can ever see the sketch without feeling 
 my ears tingle at the memory of the filthy Arab 
 savages.) Petra was the capital of the Nabathcean 
 
 100 
 
Palestine, Corfu, and England 
 
 (or Idumoean) Kings, who reigned in Jerusalem as 
 Herods, & it was one of them who built Masada. 
 The magnificence of Petra is not to be told, I mean 
 the magnificence of combined ruin, splendour of 
 
 sepulchral architecture and excavated temples, united 
 to the most romantic mountain or rock scenery & the 
 most beautiful vegetation. 
 
 At present the heat is getting too great to allow 
 of my drawing much, & also the country is in such a 
 state that many places can only be visited at the 
 risk of robbery &c, even if the traveller goes over 
 
 UZtCA^ 
 
 \ 
 
 the ground as rapidly as possibly. So travelling, — 
 he may escape outrage, but with me, that mode of 
 progress is useless : — I must stop often and for 
 a considerable time, so that it is not easy to escape 
 
 101 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 those odious Arabs. The whole plain of Eisdrcelon 
 for instance swarms with them, & they attack all 
 passengers. Of known names Lord Dunglas, 1 Col. 
 Cust, Sir J. Fergusson 2 & of unknown names, 
 numbers have been stopped : — and lately many 
 Americans have been robbed & some murdered, 
 which in one sense is a very good thing, since I do 
 not understand that the American Govt., think 
 proper to uphold the fiction of Turkish renovation, 
 & instead of being compelled to pooh-pooh the 
 entirely dislocated state of all order in Palestine & 
 Syria, they will it is to be hoped get riled and act 
 accordingly. If it were not shocking, the fate of 
 one large American party near Nazareth is beyond 
 belief absurd : — the Arabs actually went off with 
 all but one large blanket, of which Mr. & Mrs. 
 T. made two garments & therein rode to the town. 
 Some revenge was probably mixed up in the case, 
 on the part of some Arab it is said they had 
 threatened ; for they took every book & drawing, 
 & paper, & even Mrs. T.'s wig & spectacles. Of 
 Dr. Beattie's3 party 10 days ago, the ill-fortune was 
 as great or even greater : — they were setting out 
 for America, but these animals took all their treasures, 
 not only clothes, but books, collections of plants &c, 
 
 1 Eldest son of the Earl of Home. 
 
 2 At this time Governor of Malta. 
 
 3 Foreign Secretary to the British Archaeological Society. 
 He had been Physician and Private Secretary to the Duke of 
 Clarence. 
 
 102 
 
Palestine, Corfu, and England 
 
 things of no use to them, but I behave taken as 
 diversions for their nasty little beastly black 
 children. 
 
 Of my own mishaps at Petra you perhaps have 
 heard ; how about 200 of them came down on me, 
 and every-thing which could be divided they took. 
 My watch they returned to me, but all money, 
 handkerchiefs, knives, &c, &c, were confiscated. 
 Since then my 2 muleteers, whom I sent by land 
 from Jaffa to Beirut were robbed of their little all 
 by the way, & one might add others. But, cui bono ! 
 English people must submit to these things, because 
 we have no influence in Syria or Palestine, nor in the 
 East generally. I should like to hear of a French 
 party being stopped or murdered ! ! The Arabs 
 (& Turks) know too well that neither French nor 
 Austrians can be touched with impunity. 
 
 The time is evidently near at hand when all the 
 country will be a field of dispute for Latin & Greek 
 factions once more, and the most miserable Jerusalem 
 once again the bone of contention. If on the one 
 hand the Latin Patriarch is building a great Palace 
 & Convent near Bethlehem, and the Austrians are 
 raising a splendid "Hospital" (a sort of Knight 
 Templars affair,) in Jerusalem itself, to be opened 
 by Pius IX it is said, — on the other hand the Russian 
 clergy have constantly increasing influence among 
 the natives, & even just now a particular delegate 
 has come to the " Holy City" with important powers 
 from Alexander. In the meantime, the " Protestants " 
 
 103 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 stand alone as a mark for Hebrew, & Heathen, 
 Musulman, Latin, Greek, & Armenian, to be pointed 
 out by all & each as the living Pharisees of the day, 
 professing a better & simpler form of Christ's religion 
 than their fellow Xtians, yet scandalizing the whole 
 community by their monstrous quarrels ; their Consuls 
 & Bishops regarding each other with hatred, & each 
 acting to each with open contempt & malignity, while 
 every portion of their resident fellow religionists take 
 one or the other side of the faction. And this forsooth 
 at a place for example for Turks & Jews ; this at the 
 very place where He whom they believe the founder 
 of their faith, died ! By Heaven ! if I wished to 
 prevent a Turk, Hebrew, or Heathen, from turning 
 Christian I would send him straight to Jerusalem! I 
 vow I could have turned Jew myself, as one American 
 has actually lately done. At least the Jews do not 
 lie ; they act according to their belief : and among 
 themselves they are less full of hatred & malice 
 (perhaps, — for bye the bye, they excommunicated 
 Sir M. Montefiore in 3 synagogues because they 
 said he tried to introduce Xtian modes of life,) than 
 the Xtian community. But these latter, arrogating 
 to themselves as they do all superiority in this & the 
 next life, trample the most sacred doctrines of Christ 
 below their feet daily : "I say unto you love one 
 another" are words which Exeter Hall, or Dr. 
 Phillpotts, 1 — Calvinist, or Puseyite, Monophysite 
 
 1 The famous Bishop of Exeter, who spent about ,£25,000 in 
 litigation. In 1847 he refused to institute the Rev. G. C. Gorham 
 
 104 
 
Palestine, Corfu, and England 
 
 Armenian & Copt, or Trinitarian Greek, & Latin 
 receive with shouts of ridicule & blasphemous derision. 
 — " Almost thou persuadest me not to be a Xtian " is 
 the inner feeling of the man who goes to the " Holy- 
 City " unbiassed towards any " religious " faction : — 
 & it is at least my own deliberate opinion that while 
 " the Christ that is to be," is so far, far removed 
 from the Xtian priesthood and Xtians in a body as 
 it is in South Palestine, while, in a word Jerusalem is 
 what it is by & through Xtians dogmas & theology, 
 — so long must the religion of Christ be, and most 
 justly, the object of deep hatred & disgust to the 
 Moslem, of detestation & derision to the Jew. From 
 all this mass of squabblepoison let me except the 
 Americans : — these alone, particularly in Northern 
 Syria seem to think that Christ's doctrines are worth 
 keeping thought of : as far as I can perceive, they are 
 as much respected for their useful practical lives, as for 
 their uniform peaceful & united disposition of 
 brotherly love one towards another. 
 
 One word about the Jews : the idea of converting 
 them to Xtianity at Jerusalem is to the sober observer 
 fully as absurd as that you should institute a society to 
 convert all the cabbages & strawberries in Covent 
 garden into pigeon-pies & Turkey carpets. I mean 
 that the whole thing is a frantic delusion. Are the 
 
 to the living of Brampford Speke. Gorham appealed to the 
 Privy Council and was instituted in 1850. A fierce controversy 
 arose, in the course of which Dr. Phillpotts excommunicated 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 105 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Jews fools that they should take up with a religion 
 professing to be one of love & yet bringing forth 
 bitter hatred & persecution ? Have the Jews shown 
 any particular sign of forgetting their country & their 
 ancestral usages, that you should fancy it easier for 
 them to give up their usages in the very centre of that 
 country they have been so long attached to, & for 
 the memory of which they have borne such and so 
 much misery? Once again the theory of Jew-con- 
 version is utter boshblobberbosh — nothing more nor 
 less. 
 
 With all this, and in spite of all this, there is enough 
 in Jerusalem to set a man thinking for life, & I am 
 deeply glad I have been there. O my nose ! O my 
 eyes ! O my feet! How you all suffered in that 
 vile place ! for let me tell you, physically Jerusalem 
 is the foulest and odiousest place on earth. A bitter 
 doleful soul-ague comes over you in its streets. 
 And your memories of its interior are but horrid 
 dreams of squalor & filth, clamour & uneasiness, 
 hatred & malice & all uncharitableness. But the 
 outside is full of melancholy glory, exquisite beauty 
 & a world of past history of all ages : — every point 
 forcing you to think on a vastly dim receding past, 
 or a time of Roman war & splendour, (for JEYia. 
 Capitolium was a fine city) or a smash of Moslem 
 & Crusader years, with long long dull winter of 
 deep decay through centuries of misrule. The Arab 
 & his sheep are alone the wanderers on the pleasant 
 vallies and breezy hills round Zion : — the file of slow 
 
 106 
 
Palestine, Corfu, and England 
 
 camels all that brings to mind the commerce of Tyre 
 & other bygone merchandize. 
 
 Every path leads you to fresh thought : — this takes 
 you to Bethany, lovely now as it ever must have 
 been : quiet, still little nook of valley scenery. There 
 is Rephaim & you see the Philistines crowding over 
 the green plain — Down that ravine you go to Jericho : 
 from that point you see the Jordan and Gilead. 
 There is Anatoth, & beyond all, the track of Senna- 
 cherrib — Mishmash, Giba, Ephraim. There is the 
 long drawn hill line of Moab. There is Herodion, 
 
 where the King-Tetrarch was buried : below it you 
 see the edge of Bethlehem which he so feared. That 
 high point is Neby Samuel and beyond it is Ramah. 
 Close by, that single peak is Gibeah of Saul, where 
 Rizpah watched so long. (Bye the bye that is a 5th 
 subject to choose from, for I went there on purpose 
 to get the view : & wonderful it is. A. the Moab 
 hills. B. Dead Sea. C. Jordan.) And thus, even 
 from one spot of ground, you are full of thought on 
 endless histories & poetries — 1 cannot conceive 
 any place on Earth like Jerusalem for astonishing 
 and yet unfailing mines of interest. 
 
 107 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 But to leave an endless subject : My stay at 
 Bethlehem delighted me greatly, And I then hoped 
 to have got similar drawings of all the Holy Land. 
 All the country near it is lovely, and you see Ruth 
 in the fields all day below those dark olives. (This 
 is the 6th subject. A. the Moab hills.) Next 
 to those I came to the Dead Sea, which is a 
 wonder in its way, but the finest part, Ain Gidi, 
 I could not draw well, by reason of more Arab 
 botheration. Beyond there I saw little else of 
 Southern Palestine, the plain of Jericho, but not 
 
 the Jordan, for there again my beloved Arabs dis- 
 troyed my peace. Mar (Deir) Saba, a wonderful 
 monastery " all as one cut of a Cheshire cheese " as 
 my man said : — the plain of Sharon, & Jaffa : — this 
 was all. 
 
 The last part of my journey, (for I came from 
 Jaffa by sea to Beirut,) has been of a different kind. 
 All the Lebanon country is safe & pleasant, & the 
 Maronite Xtians are kindly & respectable critters. 
 But on the other hand, there wants that indescribable 
 charm, far above and beyond all local beauty & 
 novelty, which the scenery of sublimer Palestine 
 
 1 08 
 
Palestine, Corfu, and England 
 
 brings to the mind. The higher portions of Lebanon, 
 i.e. the outer side — recall Etna : — & the stonier & 
 more confined scenes, many a well known Cumberland 
 & Westmoreland dell : — The whole plain of Ccelo- 
 Syria, green & lovely as it is, is but Sicilian land- 
 scape, or Thessaly on a larger scale. The interior 
 of Lebanon is however wonderfully fine : — a kind 
 of Orientalized Swiss scenery : — innumerable villages 
 dot the plateaus & edge the rocks which are spread on 
 each side of & rise above dark ravines, winding 
 winding downward to the plains of Tripoli and 
 the blue sea. All these I could well have wished 
 to explore and draw, & I might have gone thither, 
 had I not become so very unwell from the extreme 
 cold of the upper part of the mountain as to be 
 obliged to return into Ccelo-Syria as soon as I could, 
 having my drawing of the Cedars as a sign of my 
 Lebanon visit. 
 
 Next I saw Baalbec but I can by no means endorse 
 the enthusiasm of travellers regarding these very 
 grand ruins. Their immense size, their proportions, 
 the inimitable labour & exquisite workmanship of 
 their sculptured details, none can fail to be struck 
 with, nor to delight in contemplating. But, all the 
 florid ornaments of architecture, (Roman withall,) 
 cannot fill up the place of simplicity, nor to me is 
 it possible to see hideous forms of Saracenic walls 
 around & mixed with such remains as those of 
 Baalbec, without a feeling of confused dislike of the 
 whole scene, so incomplete & so unimpressive. To 
 
 109 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 my mind, the grand and positive-simple Temple of 
 Paestum — the lonely Segesta the Parthenon & 
 Theseium, & above all, the astonishing singleness 
 of the Egyptian temples are worth heaps of Baalbeks. 
 Possibly also, the presence of 6 tents full of English 
 travellers, of a rope-dancer from Cairo, with conse- 
 quent attendant crowds, & of a village full of tiresome 
 begging impical Heliopolitans had somewhat to do 
 with my small love of Baalbek & its neighbourhood. 
 The day's journey thence half way over Anti 
 Lebanon, & the following journey down hither would 
 be of great interest could more time be spent on 
 the way : — but though I have added little to my 
 collection of drawings, the view of this city and its 
 plain is almost a recompence for any trouble. Imagine 
 1 6 worlds full of gardens rolled out flat, with a river 
 and a glittering city in the middle, & you have 
 a sort of idea of what the Damascus pianura is like. 
 I really hope to get a good view of this, but I am 
 sadly put out at losing two days by the vagaries of 
 these horrid Musclemen, not to speak of my being 
 lame from a stone thrown at me yesterday, pig ! I 
 shall set off from here on Saturday the 29th & get to 
 Beirut I hope on June 1st. 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 Corfu. 18. June. 1858. 
 I have brought all my Judean and Ccelo- Syrian 
 drawings back safe, and have gained in energy 
 physical and moral, by this tour into the most 
 
 no 
 
Palestine, Corfu, and England 
 
 interesting land I have ever travelled over, besides 
 rilling my mind with scenes enough to last a longer 
 life than mine is likely to be. 
 
 My own plans are not for an immediate going 
 away from here unless European war should break 
 out, when I shall come to England at once. 
 Frank L[ushington] goes in a few weeks : — I need 
 not say how I shall miss him : — whenever I have 
 thought him less friendly than I have supposed he 
 should have been, I have invariably found he was 
 acting rightly and uprightly & that I myself had 
 misinterpreted him now and then. He is one of the 
 best unions of mind & principle I have known. I 
 wish you knew him : Do try & do so when he gets 
 to England : — there are few better worth knowing on 
 every account. 
 
 Shall all of you come in again ? For I don't 
 believe the Derbyites will stand. I regret Lord 
 S[tanley] ever having joined them. 
 
 ^July $th. Corfu. 1858. 
 Those Jerusalem letters I never had, but I have 
 written to have them sent here. Concerning that, 
 as you justly call it, " ridiculous Bishopric," l I hardly 
 know to whom you can apply. Holman Hunt knows 
 a good deal. Have you seen a pamphlet by Dr. 
 Graham ? ask for & get it. Holman Hunt can tell you 
 
 1 The Jerusalem Bishopric was founded about 1841. Lear 
 is referring to the difficulties that had arisen between the 
 Consul and Bishop Gobat, head of the Mission. 
 
 in 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 where. I don't believe you can really understand the 
 whole mess except by going there & finding out what 
 each party says. You are right to enquire & work. 
 (Did you see a passing observation on yourself in the 
 Saty. mag. (or Leader?) week before last?) Work, 
 work : so that the next turn of the wheel you may be 
 only one step below Merivale, not two as you were last 
 ministry.(!) 
 
 You will be sorry to hear I have had a bad eye, a 
 sty, only more like an abscess : My brain is con- 
 fused between cause & effect, & I don't know if my 
 being a pig has produced the sty, or whether the sty 
 makes me a pig. But I know I am a pig. 
 
 I will send you such a funny book, " The Tempest," 
 'H TPIKYMIA. It is extremely well translated, Caliban 
 & Ariel are delightful. Isn't this pretty. 
 
 6 "A/OteX rpayavcau. 
 
 ecu) 'g rovg afifxovg (frOaatTe 
 k eou) xspcnriacrdriTt. 
 GUXTTB <j)i\ia teal Xaj3eT£ 
 (to Kv/j,a cnroKEi/nuTaei) 
 k tow irioe^to ottjo-ete 
 'g rriv cifXfiootu), X°P°' 
 k avTL(j>(i)vri(TTe irvi.vp.an 
 yXvtca, a' on XaXio. 
 ytid, yetd, roitg aypoinio. 
 
 'AvTl(ft. 
 
 Miraov, fiyaov. 
 yavyovv ra tyvXaKoancvXa. 
 112 
 
Palestine, Corfu, and England 
 
 Avr«p. 
 
 Mttclov, (iyaov. 
 tov ttIteiv aypoucaio 
 
 fit nopoioptvo <j)ip<n 
 
 \a\tl KOVKOVpOVKOV. 
 
 to. pvariipia Tr)g K^aXovlag. 1 
 
 This place is wonderfully lovely. I wish you could 
 see it ; if you came I could put you up beautifully, & 
 feed you on Ginger-beer & claret & prawns & figs. 
 
 A. Tennyson has written two more poems, one I 
 hear is a dialogue between a gent. & lady. 
 
 If I go to Jerusalem, I shall have to ask you a 
 good deal about the matter, as I am inclined to be 
 V impetuous " overmuch, & might start a periodical 
 " The cursed City " as a title. 
 
 P.S. — The K. of Greece landed here 3 days ago: 
 & went up to see Sir J. & Lady Y. He was received 
 immensely by the Corfiotes, as you may suppose. 
 
 About the middle of 'August Lear left for 
 England with Lushington, who was hurrying 
 back in consequence of the death of his brother 
 and niece. After the usual succession of 
 visits to the Husey Hunts, the J. Crosses, 
 the Hornbys, and others, he settled down in 
 his London lodgings to execute the numerous 
 orders received. 
 
 1 Translation of " Come unto these yellow sands, "&c. — Act I. 
 sc. ii, 
 
 113 I 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 16. Upper Seymour Street, 
 
 Portman Square, 
 
 13. Sept. 1858. 
 
 I forget what I told you of my doings : after 
 Knowsley I went to Liverpool, & then to Man- 
 chester where the kind Sir John Potter 1 took me 
 in. Coming back by Derby, I saw the "Corfu" in 
 its place, & I passed my Sunday at W. Nevill's — 
 the 7th house I have seen beadornamented by my 
 own paws. 
 
 My dear boy, — I cannot go to Dudbrook. 2 My 
 straight plan now, as soon as I get the pictures 
 unpacked, is to WORK. I cannot work with my 
 mind frittered by agreable society. A painter must 
 be a painter. If you are writing to Lady W. say I 
 shall write : And both you & she may be sure that 
 my not going is because I want to do her Pictures 
 WELL, also Lord Clermonts. 
 
 You will be glad — not to say skipping to hear that 
 Holman Hunt has seen the sketches both of Masada 
 & her view of Jerusalem & is thoroughly pleased with 
 both. It is the funniest thing to talk over all those 
 places with him. — When you are coming to town 
 let me know. I long to see you again. I keep in 
 lodgings here, but shall paint elsewhere. — At present 
 I am all upside down — nohow — bebothered — & can 
 
 only write this much. Did I tell you A\ had 
 
 written in all 5 new poems? 
 
 1 The member for Manchester, and first Mayor of the City. 
 
 2 In Essex. One of Lady Waldegrave's houses. 
 
 114 
 
< s 
 
 H ° 
 
 •te 
 
 -J 
 
 v. 
 
 ■a. 
 
Palestine, Corfu, and England 
 
 i Tor Villa. 
 
 Campden Hill 
 
 Kensington. 
 Monday evening 
 
 [Before Nov. i, 1858.] 
 
 I am exceedingly annoyed that I cannot come : — I 
 have appointed Dr. Rimbault 1 to come & set down 
 some of my songs 2 this evening — & he comes all the 
 way from Camden Town, & it is the first night : more- 
 over I have just been into town — to send off poor 
 sister Ann, — but that would not matter if I could 
 possibly otherwise manage it. 
 
 16. Hupper Seemore Street, 
 
 Portman □• 18th Nov. /$8. 
 
 Coming home at 11.30, 
 
 from Mr. Stanley's, I find 
 
 your Wusstussher noat. — 
 
 :: - Thank God I ain't to be 
 
 rubbed by a beastly fiend 
 
 with a wet sheet : — 3 But I believe you will be al 
 
 the better for it. Is Ward Braham rubbed rubbing 
 
 rubbable or rubbabibbabubbapbimbubabebabblllleee 
 
 1 An indefatigable composer and writer on musical subjects. 
 He rescued from oblivion and published, some of the best work 
 of the early English composers. 
 
 2 Lear set many of Tennyson's poems to music and sang them, 
 though he had no knowledge of music, and had only what the 
 French call a "filet de voix" ; yet he rendered them with so 
 much expression as to make tears start to the eyes of his hearers. 
 
 3 Refers to a visit of Fortescue to Dr. Gully's establishment and 
 cold water cure. 
 
 115 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 also ? — x I rote to you this morning : — but, how the 
 debble could your letter reach me to-night ? 
 
 At Mrs. Stanley's there was Arthur, 2 (who is grown 
 much more expansive & talkative & World-like than 
 of old — though as good & kind as always :) Mr. 
 Penrhyn 3 & Emmy ditto, always good. Mary Stanley 
 of Scutari memories & twisted faith, — Walrond who is 
 stilty & scholastic : — & one Adolphus, whose name 
 savours of Dolphins. The conversation was not 
 bad : mostly of Spain & Biarritz, with sparks of fun. 
 Show'd all my sketches to Arthur S. & Walrus, — & 
 was pleased by their praise of their fiddlediddlety of 
 representation. But we don't agree about the beauty 
 of Palestine : — I say that " there is beauty in every- 
 thing" is a better principle than "look for conven- 
 tional beauty, & failing that don't see any." 
 
 Returning here, I find varicose gnoats. One from 
 Mr. Morier, containing ever so much good Greek. 
 
 " fj.e$ avptov Sa ipyofiai wpbg <re irplv rdig kvceica (opaig, va <rk 
 ^aperioa) ic) vd 'low, %avp.a%u)v, rag Trig n.apai<rrr}vrig ^wypa^iag 
 gov. Qofiepa S"a yevwvrai to. avaicaraa>/*ara rr)g \u)viKr)g 
 $ta\aoor\g, TtTota yai$apo\iKia ttotz civ TjKOucra."4 He writes 
 
 really good Romaic. 
 
 1 Lady Waldegrave's youngest brother, who accompanied 
 Fortescue. 
 
 2 Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, a close personal friend of Lear's, 
 who is mentioned frequently in the letters, was the second son 
 of the Bishop of Norwich. He was appointed Chaplain to the 
 Prince Consort in 1854, and afterwards became Dean of West- 
 minster. Mary Stanley, his sister, was in charge of fifty nurses in 
 the Crimea during the war. 3 Brother-in-law of Lord Derby. 
 
 4 To-morrow I am coming to you before eleven o'clock. Yea 
 
 t 
 
 
 ■ .,.., , i 1/ i > ' > - ' v 
 
Palestine, Corfu, and England 
 
 mi ! how giddy I is ! — Perhaps it is along of the 
 cliff of Ain Giddi : perhaps of the glass of sherry & 
 water close by — only I ain't drank it yet. 
 
 1 wen tup two the Zoological Gardings, & drew 
 a lot of Vulchers : also I saw the eagles & seagles & 
 beagles & squeegles : leastwise the big bears & all 
 the other vegetables. 
 
 also the little dragging, who is the Beast of the 
 Revialations. 
 
 Miss Mc. Kenzie x is married this afternoon to Lord 
 Ashburton, 34 — 60. 
 
 The cold is so great that my nose is frizz so hard 
 that I use it as a paper cutter. 
 
 I have axed Lord Stanley for the Cadetship, 2 & 
 have written to Lady Derby to know if she wants 
 her usbing's hancester's picter. 
 
 To-morrow I go to Holman Hunts, to city, pay 
 
 bills, & dine at Beadons. — Saturday Clowes comes 
 
 I shall greet you and shall see with admiration your pictures of 
 Palestine. Fearful indeed did the up-and-down motions of the 
 Ionian Sea become, what universal longings for terra firma have 
 ever come to me. 
 
 1 The well-known friend of Carlyle and a woman of great 
 cultivation. z Probably for a nephew or young friend. 
 
 117 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 up : & I go to Cramers to arrange finally about the 
 5 songs. Poor dear Lady Bethell writes me a sad 
 note : I fear now that she is really ill. 
 
 It is zis ted-bime. — Goodnight. My love to the 
 water fiend. 
 
 Pavilion Hotel, Folxton. 
 
 Novbr. 25/58. 
 
 Still one more line. Your's retched me here 
 (spelling adaptable to circumstances,) this morning, 
 on my coming over from my last visit to my old 
 sister. I don't see any phun in the 2 coal'd pales of 
 water on one's bak : — & I think your remarx on 
 Water-worx generally are far from untrue. Seriously, 
 I should conceive that the necessity of constant con- 
 templation of one's health can't be good for the body or 
 mind, & I don't see but that you are right to cease 
 the trial. 
 
 This, I suppose will find you at L d Clarendon's : — 
 of whose visit to the Montalembert-scruncher, I I hope 
 you will think well, — 
 
 And hereabouts, my bilious and skrogfrodious 
 temperament screws itself up to give you a rowing for 
 what your enemies call a " desultory & " dilettante " 
 tone of life. The moral of this abrupt & angular 
 
 1 The fiery debate which took place in Parliament in March 
 on the subject of Lord Canning's Indian proclamation, was the 
 occasion for the issue of the Comte de Montalembert's 
 celebrated pamphlet " Un Debat sur l'Inde au Parlement 
 Anglais," in which he contrasted the political freedom in 
 England with the conditions prevailing in France. For this 
 he was prosecuted by the French Government. 
 
 118 
 
Palestine, Corfu, and England 
 
 preachment is that neither you nor nobody else will do 
 no good if you do things by halves and squittles. 
 
 My feeling is, Lord Stanley in political life, or 
 Holman Hunt in painting are the best 2 coves to be 
 imitated in 1858 : alike in this, that what either do, 
 they do thoroughly & well. As a set off to this beastly 
 jerk of my temper, I do allow that you thought of me 
 in sending Kingsley's book by post as you did, where- 
 by I am cutting it & some toast at the present 
 momenx. — also that in matters of friendship you are 
 not a "dilettante" but a realist & prseraphaelite. 
 
 Since I left town I have suffered less from Asthma 
 daily — but yet a good deal. At Husey Hunts — (Lewes) 
 I felt, as I alway do, their extreme kindness, greatly. 
 Thence I went to Ann at Margate : — Sister No. 2 is 
 coming home from New Zealand, (about April,) and I 
 hope Ann will then live with her, as at 68, & in failing 
 health I do not like her being so alone. — It is always a 
 hard task to leave the poor dear old lady, & I have to 
 act hard-hearted to keep her at all quiet. 
 
 Arrived here, I find a most* good and kind letter 
 from Lady Isabella Proby — on poor dear John Proby's 
 death. 1 She says, " I send you these details of my 
 brother John's death, because I know you loved 
 him." And this was true : I did love him very 
 much, and that fellow Bowen's coarse ridicule of 
 him was one among many of my causes of dislike 
 towards him. 
 
 1 Lord Proby, heir to the Earldom of Carysfort, died at the 
 age of 35. Lady Isabella was his sister. 
 
 119 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 But I myself was never kind to John Proby as I 
 should have been, for which I suffer now, and some 
 day shall perhaps suffer more. 
 
 Regarding money — Gibbs writes here that he has 
 paid in 60 odd ^s to Drummings, — & also Cramer & 
 Beale have putchissed my 5 new songs, & the copy- 
 rights of the old 4. So, if so be as you wants to get, 
 (1) " Come not when I am dead "(2) " When thro' the 
 land," — (3) "The time draws near" (4) " Home they 
 brought " l — (5) " O let the solid ground " — nows your 
 time at Cramers 201, Regent Street. I could tell you 
 a kind doing of Lord Stanley, but have no thyme now. 
 
 Goodbye once more : my dear Chichester Fortescue. 
 
 Lord Lyons' 2 death has just come to me also. You 
 know I think that he saved my life when at Thebes 
 1848 3 by sending promptly out two doctors in a coach 
 & four : — had they not arrived I should not be 
 writing to you now. 
 
 Aprettygo this of the Montalembert decision in Paris. 
 
 1 Twelve of Lear's songs from Tennyson were included in 
 this series, and afterwards were published by Hutchins and 
 Romer. The following extract from a letter of Lear's in 1882 
 on the death of Archbishop Tait will give some idea of Lear's 
 singing : " The latter was always very kind to me, and once 
 said in a big party when I had been singing ' Home they brought 
 her warrior,' and people were crying : ' Sir, you ought to have 
 half the Laureateship.' That was in '51, when he was Dean of 
 Carlisle." 
 
 2 At Arundel Castle when he held the post of Minister at 
 Athens. He was practical commander of the Fleet throughout 
 the Crimean War. 
 
 3 See letter of July 19, 1848, from Athens, p. 10. 
 
 120 
 
CHAPTER V 
 December, 1858, to November, 1859 
 
 ROME REVISITED 
 
 THE Ionian islands, which had been 
 formed into a republic under the 
 Protectorate of Great Britain after the Treaty 
 of Vienna, had long been seething with dis- 
 content, as they very naturally disliked the 
 foreign yoke, and desired union with Greece. 
 Sir Edward Lytton, who had succeeded Lord 
 Stanley as Secretary for the Colonies, decided 
 to send an envoy to investigate the causes 
 of dissatisfaction, and for this purpose he 
 appointed Mr. Gladstone Lord High Com- 
 missioner Extraordinary to the islands in 
 November, 1858. Mr. Gladstone's mission 
 was not a success, as the people persisted in 
 regarding him as the herald of freedom, and 
 public opinion was so hostile in England that, 
 
 after his return, a new Lord High Commis- 
 
 121 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 sioner was sent out to enforce the British rule 
 with greater stringency. But the idea grew 
 and gained ground that the cession of the 
 islands to Greece was only a matter of time. 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 Rome, 13. December. 1858. 
 I have just got your letter — 2nd & 4th. If you 
 knew how often I have worried myself about the letter 
 I wrote to you, you would not have added coals to my 
 head by writing so kindly. The very fact of my 
 opinions having weight sufficient to draw forth an 
 answer should make me more careful of the ways & 
 manner in which I put them into words or on paper. 
 There are times when I turn into bile and blackness, 
 body & soul, — & in those phases of life I hate myself & 
 through myself hate everybody, even those I like best. 
 The general accusation of forgetfulness may have had 
 some foundation as regards you, but I am sure I 
 ought not to have written disgustingly — as I know 
 I did, and, as I set out by saying, I have been 
 thoroughly vexed by having done so ever since. Pray 
 forget this ugly little parenthesis in our friend-life : — 
 and believe that the irritation of an artist's life 
 produces much which works its possessor bitterness, 
 when that individual's brain has been so little guided 
 in youth as mine was. — 
 
 I was at Margate with my old sister on the 25th. 
 Novr. & Clowes joined me on the 26th. at Folke- 
 
 122 
 
It! 
 
 < ■■ 
 
Rome Revisited 
 
 stone — whence we crossed to Paris & remained there 
 the 27th. & 28th. — What a splendid city that has 
 become ! I never saw anything like the Rue de 
 Rivoli : — On Monday the 29th. we reached Marseilles, 
 & that evening left for Italy, reaching Rome at mid- 
 night on Wednesday the 1st, and glad to get to bed in 
 the Europa. — 
 
 The 12 days since then have been to me the most 
 weary and sadly depressing I have passed for long 
 years. — And so dismal has been the return here, that 
 only the friendlyness of ancient acquaintances, & the 
 even temper and kindness of Clowes could have kept 
 me above water : — 2 or 3 times I have nearly resolved 
 on going off straight to America. Day after day I 
 have gone up & down stairs, but could find nothing to 
 live in under any circumstances : — Every place of any 
 sort I could paint in, furnished, & at Grosvenor- 
 Square prices, fancy, for 3 stuffy pokey rooms, foul, & 
 vile, & up 4 floors, — 15^ a month ! At last, having 
 resolved that I must finish the pictures here — (which 
 as yet are not heard of even as far as Leghorn) I 
 determined on taking (& I could only get it for 2 
 years) a set of apartments in the New Palazzo 
 Albertazzi ; I have got the 4th floor (half of it) & am 
 furnishing it as fast as I can — : it is to cost 2cv£ per 
 quarter, a sum I ought not to pay, & yet cannot avoid 
 nailing myself to : — As yet I have only got carpets 
 cut, besides a portable bed-stead, six chairs, a pair of 
 bellows, & a pepper-box. Clowes has got a lodging 
 at 3 1 P. di Spagna & we see much of each other. 
 
 123 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 But how can I tell you of the curious feelings which 
 an absence of 1 1 years has occasioned on revisiting 
 this place ? It is impossible to do so. Moreover, I 
 wish to send this off to-morrow, Robt. Hay, 1 the 
 Knights, 2 the Bertie Mathews, Williams, & Gibson,3 
 are here of old friends. 
 
 Dec. 14th. Here is a go! Poor Clowes riding with 
 C. Knight yesterday — had a fall — (his horse stepped 
 in a hole) & he has broken his collar bone. So there 
 is enough for me to think of just now. Meanwhile, 
 I can't get into my rooms yet at all, and am really 
 nearly mad. 
 
 5. January. 1859. 
 
 9. Via Condotti. Rome. 
 
 It is all well that you did not come into the room, 
 instead of the apparition of your letter : — if you had I 
 should have had a fit & died. For I was so miserable 
 that I had to put away my drawing & pace up & down 
 the room, so that when your dear good kind letter 
 came, I could not help the tears a busting out of my 
 eyes incontinent, all the more as I read it : — a weak- 
 ness I had to conceal from Giorgio, who has a theory 
 that " chi piange per altro che la morte di sua madre, 
 
 1 Robert Hay was the leading member of an archaeological 
 expedition to Egypt, 1826-32, and forty-nine volumes of his 
 drawings were afterwards purchased by the British Museum. 
 
 2 The family of John Knight of Wolverley. The eldest 
 daughter married the Duke of Sermoneta ; the second daughter, 
 Isabella, was a hopeless invalid. 
 
 3 John Gibson, the sculptor, who died in Rome 1866. He 
 revived the use of colour in statuary. 
 
 124 
 
Rome Revisited 
 
 e sciocco," 1 or as he words it usually — "6 biroloq k\clu 
 
 \(i)pig Sta tov Savarov rf)c fxi\rp6q rov, tlvai ydicapog {i.e., 
 
 an ass). 2 
 
 I shall now dismiss my worries & reproaches about 
 you, leastwise considering myself a mitigated beast, & 
 I shall send this as soon as I can, hoping also you 
 may soon write again, for the relief your letters & 
 those of F. Lushington & others give me is not to be 
 expressed. (Bye the bye — do try & know F. 
 Lushington — at the Cosmopolite or elsewhere.) — I 
 shall now look over your letter, & answer in comments 
 — dividable by linear appearances. 
 
 Gladstone & Corfu are queer absurdities : — why 
 didn't Dizzy let Lord Stratford — (who was on the 
 spot) — settle things ? — But still, though Gladstone was 
 not a fit man to send, — the Govt, have shown that 
 they mean to set a new system to work, — Gorgeous' 
 going to wit as proof — for he had no alternative, tho' 
 he vows he is going by choice. — I expect poor Sir J. 
 will resign, 3 as he ought to have done earlier — & that 
 he & all the Ionian suite will come here bye and 
 bye. 
 
 I am very glad you have been enjoying yourself. 
 It is not wonderful that anyone should like Stanley : — 
 I envy those who see much of him, as I have a kind 
 
 1 "Who weeps for aught but the death of his mother is 
 foolish." 
 
 2 Practically the same as the Italian translation, with Lear's 
 addition. 
 
 3 Sir J. Young did resign, and Sir Henry Storks was appointed 
 in his place. 
 
 125 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 of mixed affection and interest and admiration for him 
 I never felt united for anybody. 
 
 I need not say I was glad to know you saw more of 
 Lady W. — (What a fuss I am in to-day about her 
 
 pictures : — they are come but the d d dogana will 
 
 not let them pass — d brutes.) 
 
 My kindest respects to Mrs. Ruxton : I am glad 
 the i,ooo,ooo's sauce-pan is more to the purpose. 
 
 By jingo ! if you were to come at Easter ! Only, I 
 might go crazy. 
 
 I have hung my show-room with white, & hope to 
 get some drawings into it before long : — but I am 
 dreadfully bothered by invitations, which I abhor. 
 Dinners are natural and proper : but late mixed tea- 
 parties foul & abhorrent to the intelligent mind. 
 
 Do you know I like Egerton H[arcourt] * better than 
 I expected, — indeed very well and also Lady Frances. 2 
 I laughed at your note about "Jessie "3 she is too 
 powerful by half, yet somewhat jolly. I am asked 
 there to-morrow night, but I'm hanged if I'll go. 
 That's the end of my notes on yours — & now I shall 
 shuffle on promisquis. 
 
 First for goodness sake say who is Richard Bright? 4 
 who rather is Mrs. B. ? I have taken a liking to 
 
 1 Youngest son of the Archbishop of York. George Harcourt, 
 Lady Waldegrave's husband, was the eldest son. 
 
 2 Daughter of the fifth Earl of Oxford and widow of an 
 elder brother of Egerton Harcourt. 
 
 3 Second wife of Mr. Granville Vernon, another brother of Mr. 
 George Harcourt. She was a daughter of the twenty-second 
 Lord Dacre. 
 
 4 He in Parliament. She a daughter of Admiral Wolley. 
 
 126 
 
Rome Revisited 
 
 R. B. because he knows & likes you : — also he knows 
 others of my friends. So I dined there, last week, 
 with S. W. Clowes — (who having broken his collar- 
 bone is now out again,) & showed him a bit of the 
 Campagna on Sunday. He seems a sensible fellow, 
 & don't talk watering-place rot. At his house I met 
 Gibbs J (former tutor to P[rince] of W[ales]) whom I 
 liked — & W. Palmer of religious fervid search 2 & 
 George Waldegrave 3 who seemed a nice fellow also. 
 But, as all here, these people go squittering after 
 sights, & are no more themselves seen. 
 
 The Stratford's 4 live a long way off — beyond the 
 4 Fontane. I have been asked to T., & have not 
 gone but called : I doubt my seeing much of them. 
 
 Can you get, or write, & send me out — a letter of 
 introduction to Odo Russell ? 5 or to him to me — if 
 that is the better way ? — He is spoken of as well worth 
 knowing, & I should like to know him if I could. 
 
 1 Frederick W. Gibbs, Q.C., C.B , tutor to H.R.H. the Prince 
 of Wales, 1852-8. 
 
 2 Palmer of Magdalen, author of many theological works. 
 When Augustus Hare's mother and sister were left destitute in 
 Rome in September, 1859, through the treachery of an abscond- 
 ing lawyer, the son relates how their old friend, Mr. William 
 Palmer, came forward, and '.' out of his very small income 
 pressed upon them a cheque for ^150." 
 
 3 Third son of the eighth Earl and cousin of Lady Walde- 
 grave's husband, the seventh Earl. 
 
 ^ Lord and Lady Stratford de Redcliffe. 
 
 5 The brilliant diplomatist, afterwards Ambassador at Berlin ; 
 while nominally holding paid Attacheship at this time at Flor- 
 ence, was employed at Rome on special service. Having no cre- 
 dentials for the Vatican, his relations with Cardinal Antonetti and 
 the resident diplomatic body, were thus of an informal nature. 
 
 127 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 The Knights live here much as ever, Isabella pass- 
 ing her 1 8th year in bed (I mean she has been in bed 
 1 8 years — ) but bright & patient always. Margaret 
 Dss. of Sermoneta fading slowly : but kinder & softer 
 than most Knights are. All are just as friendly as 
 ever to me. So indeed are all — Mr. Hay now nearly 
 blind : & the Bertie Matthews, but these two last live 
 in society & cliquerie. 
 
 The James Marshalls * — (she was a Spring Rice) 
 with Aubrey de Vere 2 are gone to Naples. The 
 Barrett Brownings also are here, but I know them 
 not. Various Americans — Cushman (Miss 3) Perkins,4 
 & Storeys are pleasant & good but as yet I eschew 
 general society, being wholly cross & bigongulous. 
 My hopes are set on the Grand Duchess Maria 
 Nicolowiena 5 of Russia, whom I hope to see here 
 when I get my Athos paintings out — if they ever do 
 come out. Your friend Lord Granville 6 is here on 
 crutches. 
 
 The Holy Church outside the P. del Popolo, 
 thrives : it is belarged and beorganed, & be-beautified : 
 
 1 Third son of John Marshall of flax-spinning fame. 
 
 2 Third son of the poet-baronet, and himself a poet. 
 
 3 Charlotte Cushman, the great American tragic actress. 
 
 4 Augustus Hare mentions meeting at Venice in 1892 a Mrs. 
 Mary Ridge Perkins, a quaint old American lady, who had 
 adopted thirty homeless children. 
 
 s Sister of the Czar Alexander II., widow of Maximilian, Duke 
 of Leuchtenberg. 
 
 6 The second Earl, President of the Council in Lord Palmer- 
 ston's Ministry, 1852-8, when he resigned, but resumed the office 
 in 1859. 
 
 128 
 
Rome Revisited 
 
 & the chaplain Woodward is a good earnest man & 
 preaches most Abercrombycally, 1 tho' he is a High 
 Churchman. Everybody likes him, but the misery of 
 the Sunday sittings on feeble chairs ! Vast women 
 in black velvet hoops utterly carry off & prostrate 
 many delicate men as they struggle to their seats. 
 Many men kneel on hoops & dresses, & a 
 section of the congregation is all over-balanced in 
 consequence. 
 
 The philosophical silent Suliot is of the greatest 
 comfort to me. His remarks in Greek — by play — 
 kill me. " 'AiriSafitvoi ovtoi bi avSpwiroi" 2 he says of the 
 Romans, who are so slow & odiously indifferent. 
 And of their incessant begging, "Avtoi uvai "Ajoa€ot, 
 
 fiovov e'^ouv TrepiaaoTtpa kv^oftaTa" 3 It IS hardly possible 
 
 to be thankful enough for so good a servant. He 
 says of Lushington that when he left, Giovanni (G.'s 
 younger brother who was L.'s under-servant — ) would 
 not stay with the new Judge, but returned to his 
 former trade of tailor, but, says G. he does nothing 
 but talk of his old master instead of working. L. 
 seems to have made himself beloved at Corfu as 
 everywhere else. 
 
 Correct your toe & tete in what it ails. — It is a mis- 
 take to have toes at all : hoofs would have been 
 simpler & less expensive, as precluding boots. 
 
 1 A reference used often in Lear's letters, but I cannot discover 
 the man or the origin of the expression. 
 
 2 " These men are dead." 
 
 3 " These men are Arabs, but have more clothes on." 
 
 129 K 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 9. Via Condotti. Roma. 
 
 Jamy. 24. 1859. 
 
 To-day has brought me yours of the 1 5th, which 
 oily rejoiced me. I won't go to church to-day, like a 
 good boy, & will write to you instead. I heard of you 
 two days back when Lady Bethell wrote to me, & 
 said she had been talking with "an extremely nice 
 friend " of mine at Lord Palmerstons. 
 
 I seem to have a great deal to say, but am scattery, 
 & shan't write connectedly. I am not rejoiceful in 
 Rome & cannot "set myself in any good way." I 
 have no one with whom to sympathize at all closely. 
 S. W. Clowes is the kindest hearted & best fellow 
 possible, but he has no application to or taste for 
 much I would always lean to, nor could I talk with 
 him as I do with you on many subjects. I wish 
 indeed you were here for a time, but I trust to see 
 you in Ireland or England before next winter. — The 
 mass of people here pass their lives in mere pleasure, 
 a regular Bath & Brighton life — & I don't care to 
 know them. Others are naturally using every 
 moment in seeing sights & learning Rome. Others 
 have jealousies & smallnesses & professional quirks 
 from wh. I wholly stand aloof. O Lord ! I wishes 
 I was a beadle ! * 
 
 All my smaller painting's here have been bought — 
 
 1 The beadles who stand outside the palaces of the great 
 Roman nobles are still objects of admiration. The magnificence 
 of their traditional costume no doubt attracted both the artist 
 and humourist in Lear. 
 
 130 
 
Rome Revisited 
 
 3 by a dear delightful chap — one Aubrey de Vere 
 Beauclerk, 1 who lives somewhere near Belfast. 
 
 Lord Stratford was here for nearly two hours the 
 other day & really delightful : he spoke of you in very 
 nice terms. The Youngs & all the Palace party are 
 coming here directly. Do you think Dizzy selected 
 Sir H. Stork 2 on purpose that being called King 
 Stork, his predecessor might for ever be dubbed King 
 Log ? 
 
 We have the Prince of Wales here, who seems a 
 very nice looking & prepossessing lad. — 
 
 i$tk. Febry. — I think I shall send this off to-day. 
 I hear a Colonel Dunn 3 is appointed in the room of 
 G. F. B. Gladstone appears to be making a great 
 mess. Do you know Spring rice-ious people? I 
 dined with some to-day. I wish one could know if 
 there is likely to be war or not : it would be a bore to 
 be boxed up here in the middel of hennemies. Do 
 you know Odo Russell our new envoy here ? All the 
 English fribble-world is irate about a Miss Cavendish, 
 whom Mrs. Hare a pervert, (sister of Sir John Dean 
 Paul,) has cajoled & bebaptismalized, unbeknown to 
 
 1 Of Ardglass Castle, Co. Down. 
 
 2 Sir Henry Storks was appointed Lord High Commissioner 
 of the Ionian Islands in February, 1859, and remained there till 
 the protectorate was resigned. He was afterwards Governor of 
 Malta and Jamaica. 
 
 3 Possibly Colonel F. P. Dunne, who was secretary and aide- 
 de-camp at this time to Lord Eglinton, Lord Lieutenant of Ire- 
 land. Mr. (afterwards Sir) Henry Drummond Wolfe, was, 
 however, appointed secretary in the place of Sir George Bowen. 
 
 131 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 her parents. 1 Manning 2 is preaching most atrocious 
 sermons here, to which nevertheless, all heaps of 
 fools go. A vile beastly rottenheaded foolbegotten 
 brazenthroated pernicious piggish screaming, tearing, 
 roaring, perplexing, splitmecrackle crashmecriggle 
 insane ass of a woman is practising howling below- 
 stairs with a brute of a singingmaster so horribly, 
 that my head is nearly off. 
 
 P.S. — Has Cramer published my songs yet ? 
 
 Lear to Lady Waldegrave. 
 
 9. Via Condotti, Roma. 
 
 26. March. 1859. 
 
 At last your two pictures are done, & will be out 
 of my hands in two days from this, & before the first 
 of May I trust they will be in Carlton Gardens. So 
 far as admiration of them can please an artist I have 
 certainly had a full share from the 7 or 800 people 
 who have seen them in my study : but I shall never- 
 theless be very desirous to know how you are pleased 
 with them. The Masada is the most striking : its 
 sunset-colour, & excessive lonely character must 
 always make it so. The Jerusalem is perhaps the 
 most interesting ; & I hope both will give you plea- 
 
 1 A daughter of Admiral Cavendish. The " Mrs. Hare " here 
 mentioned was the mother of Augustus J. C. Hare, " Italima " 
 in the " Story of my Life," and in vol. ii. p. 97 he tells a story 
 of his mother's earlier acquaintance with Miss Cavendish in 
 August, 1858. 
 
 2 The following year Cardinal Manning became domestic 
 prelate to the Pope 
 
 132 
 
LADY WALDEGRAVE. 
 
 From a photograph taken in 185Q- 
 
 One among a number taken in contemplation of a statuette 
 
 executed later by Aoble. 
 
 This one a special pose fi om one .of the plays acted at Nii)ieJia)n. 
 
 Ta face page 132. 
 
Rome Revisited 
 
 sure for many years to come. At any time I should 
 have finished these two pictures carefully for my own 
 sake, & on account of the interest of the subjects, but 
 I must tell you that I have been more than ordinarily 
 attentive to your two commissions, in as much as they 
 were given me in faith, and because the payment of 
 one of them was an assistance to me in going to the 
 Holy Land. 
 
 For the same reason I have taken as much pains 
 as I could with Lord Clermont's picture too, which 
 I believe I shall send off also next week. Neither 
 picture of Jerusalem will I ever repeat, for the minute 
 architecture has tried my sight a good deal, & more- 
 over I hold that an Artist loses much of his originality 
 by repetition of his works. 
 
 The war between France and Austria now 
 broke out, but was over very quickly. The 
 difficulties in Italy, however, were rather 
 augmented than diminished, as the Italians 
 found that Louis Napoleon had no intention 
 of literally fulfilling his promise to free them 
 from the yoke of Austria. The national move- 
 ment against foreign supremacy and the 
 temporal claims of the Pope, soon began to 
 assume threatening proportions under the 
 leadership of Garibaldi. 
 
 133 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 9. Via Condotti, Roma. 
 
 May 1, 1859. 
 
 Here's a pretty kettle of fishes! ain't it? Every- 
 body here is trying to get away, but they can't, for the 
 roads thro' Tuscany are more or less uncertain, & no 
 one chooses to risk horses being taken for troops. 
 While, the same panic fills all the boats at Naples, 
 & not a place is to be got at C. Vecchia, where several 
 hundred English are staying, — on dit, — like to poor 
 folk about the pool of Bethesda. The last 3 or 4 
 days are indeed very full of thunder clouds, — & no 
 one knows what is to follow. (The P[rince] of 
 W[ales] goes to-morrow). — As for myself, I do not 
 know which way to turn. Should the war continue, 
 or spread in new directions, it is clear that no 
 strangers will come here, & the place will be utterly 
 odious ; yet I have taken expensive rooms for 2 years 
 & a half, and have spent every farthing I have in 
 fitting them up as a winter home. Possibly, if things 
 grow much worse, I may come [to England], & pub- 
 lish some of my tours by subscription, living ob- 
 skewerly & cheaply. In less than 10 days I hope 
 to send off Baring's & the other pictures. Next 
 to make the studies for Gibbs, Heywood, 1 & Stam- 
 field's pictures in the Campagna. This will bring me 
 to June, by which time I must decide some way or 
 other. 
 
 If I ever come to England I must see you at Red 
 
 1 Arthur Heywood, of Stanley Hall, Yorks. 
 
 134 
 
Rome Revisited 
 
 House, but I should mainly have to poke about 
 London, & therefore I had half as rather not come 
 this year, all the more that the N.Z. sister comes over 
 for 2 years — & at first family matters won't be 
 happy, as there has been much bother of late, & 
 I always keep out of these messes, though I have 
 come down with .£20 in the winter for the amiable 
 relatives here and there, as is right & fit. My 
 money affairs are, au plus bas : but I don't like giving 
 up, — so I shall hold on. 
 
 I hope you have not been over-bothered by the 
 Election 1 — but, do you know I rather like you to 
 have to do the work, because it stirs you up, & your 
 nature requires that, I take it now and then. Lord 
 D[erby]'s speech about the Indian heroes was 
 good : — but I don't think his Govt, or Lord Stan- 
 ley] in particular have acted well to Lord Canning, 
 whose career has been one of the utmost difficulty, 
 and needed no ungenerosity to embitter it further : 
 the Earldom & the praise do not tally with the Ellen- 
 borough Stanley dispatches. 2 
 
 Yes indeed, I do feel " sick of time " here. I am 
 convinced of this more and more : — if you have a 
 
 1 The defeat of Lord Derby's Government over Mr. Disraeli's 
 Reform Bill led to a Dissolution of Parliament in May. 
 
 2 On March 3, 1858, Lord Canning, then Governor-General 
 of India, issued his famous Proclamation practically confiscating 
 the whole of Oude. This was condemned by Lord Derby's 
 Government, and Lord Ellenborough, then President of the 
 Board of Control, sent a despatch disapproving of it in the 
 most violent terms. Lord Canning received an earldom on 
 May 21, 1859. 
 
 135 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 wife, or are in love with a woman, (both phases 
 of the same state of self division, the only real and 
 proper state of life in this world) if I say such be your 
 condition, ^ avSpuirz ! I then you may stay in any place 
 & in any circumstances : you are raised out of the 
 necessity of contemplating the cussed nuisances of 
 poverty or bores by sympathy : — but if you are abso- 
 lutely alone in the world, & likely to be so, then move 
 about continually & never stand still. I therefore 
 think I shall be compulsed & more especially by the 
 appearance of things on the horizon, — to go to Japan 
 & New York, or Paraguay, or anywhere before long. 
 
 LlTTLEGREEN, PETERSFIELD, HANTS. 
 
 June 2/59. 
 
 You may suppose I was regularly delighted at 
 hearing from Lady Waldegrave how much she liked 
 the pictures. Out of the 6 paintings, my years work, 
 3 have given, & I trust will give, their proper share 
 of knowledge & pleasure. 
 
 I should gladly see Millais's worx, but do not 
 greatly expect to like them. I am quite aware of the 
 qualities of his mind, which I do not apprehend are 
 of the progressive nature, as are Holman Hunt's : 
 but his power and technical go, I have no doubt are 
 wonderful. 
 
 Here, there is as much cheerfulness as so much 
 sadness, the death of Lady Wilton 2 and Mrs. Hornby, 
 
 1 " O man ! " 
 
 2 A daughter of the twelfth Earl of Derby and cousin of the 
 Hornbys. She died December, 1858. 
 
 136 
 
Rome Revisited 
 
 & 2 children of Lady Denison, 1 & the sudden total 
 blindness of the dear old Admiral, can allow. I go 
 on writing quietly, 3 tours, Athos & Judaea & Alba- 
 nian Zagorian, & am generally placid in mental & 
 obese in physical conditions. Movov pit Svaaplaicu 6n 
 
 oev ifnropu) va Kafioj irtpiocroTtpav TrpooBov Trig 'FXXevticrig 
 ar\ptpivr\g yXuxrcrrig , tfrog -kcivtotz jx\ (f>aivsTai wg ev irpaypa 
 irov fil Yjoaa&reu icaS' r)p:epav6v. 2 
 
 From here I go to, Alfred Tennyson's Esqre., 
 Faringford, Freshwater, Isle of Wight, whence let 
 me hear from you : — I shall be there about Tuesday 
 next, the 7th. 
 
 I am on thorns for news about Italy : — what a time 
 of events is it not ? 
 
 East Wellow Vicarage, Romsey. 
 
 12. June, 59. 
 
 Your's of yesterday week (posted later tho') I got 
 at Tennyson's, which place I left yesterday morning, 
 & after being in 12 vehicles reached this unutterably 
 quiet remoteness, whither I had come to see dear old 
 Mrs. Empson, & poor Wil. Henry E. the vicar. 
 
 I have not been here for 13 years, since which two 
 boys, 9 and 7 years old are di piu, & the kind mistress 
 of the house is gone, & lies under a white grave, on 
 which the Villagers put a fresh chaplet of roses every 
 
 1 Littlegreen was the residence of Admiral Sir Phipps 
 Hornby, K.C.B. Lady Denison was his second daughter and 
 the wife of the Governor of Van Diemen's Land. 
 
 * " I am only annoyed that I cannot make more progress 
 in modern Greek, which always seems the thing I need every 
 day." 
 
 137 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Sunday — a circumstance I never saw in England 
 before. 
 
 Happily for me the Athanasian blasphemy was not 
 read to-day & I fancy never is here : the living being 
 in Nightingale of Emley's gift, who is not as you may 
 know reputed over orthodox, perhaps because he is 
 a truly good Xtian. They have 3 pictures of mine 
 here, Licenza, Athos, & Corfu, & it is very odd how 
 they bring me back past years. The fact is, time is 
 all nonsense : — it is shorter & shorter & suppurates 
 into nil. 
 
 My visit at Fairford was very delightful in many 
 ways. I should think computing moderately, that 
 1 5 angels, several hundreds of ordinary women, many 
 philosophers, a heap of truly wise and kind mothers, 
 3 or 4 minor prophets, and a lot of doctors and 
 school-mistresses, might all be boiled down, and yet 
 their combined essence fall short of what Emily 
 Tennyson l really is. And the 2 boys are complete 
 little darlings. Alfred T. went up to town Friday, 
 & I hope the " Four Idylls of the King " will come 
 out very soon. You will be more delighted with 
 Elaine, & Guinevere than you can imagine. 
 
 A twitching regret bothers me at having left the place. 
 
 What does Urquhart 2 say to things in general as to 
 Russia? 3 I cannot see any daylight of certainty, or 
 
 1 Wife of the poet, and daughter of Henry Selwood. 
 
 2 Husband of Fortescue's younger sister. 
 
 3 " Mr. Urquhart was a very clever, self-opiniated, and often 
 curiously wrong-headed man. He had seen much of the East, 
 
 138 
 
Rome Revisited 
 
 any kind of comfort anywhere : — much as I disagree 
 with Lord D[erby]'s party as guides of public pro- 
 gress, I cannot forget Lord P[almerston]'s Sicilian 
 & Italian or French obliquities. In fact my dear 
 40scue I begin to think that public men are mainly 
 alike : & the debates on the address read to me very 
 like a personal set of quarrels carried thro' on polite 
 technical principles. I still hope to be in town about 
 the 25th or 27th., when I must set to work experi- 
 mentalizing about photographs, or lithographs or gros- 
 pigraphs for new publications. At present I am doing 
 little, but dimly walking on along the dusty twilight 
 lanes of incomprehensible life. I wish you were 
 married. I wish I were an egg and was going to be 
 hatched. Intanto, I shall go to sleep, for hang me 
 if I'll go to church again to-day. 
 
 Friday Knight. 
 Come, continually come : — continually continue to 
 come. The morer the betterest or bestestmost. But 
 I must tell you that R. Cholmondeley l comes to 
 brekfiss on Sunday morning — tho' that need not 
 prevent your doing so — but it is phit I should 
 tell you. 
 
 and had a knowledge of Eastern ways and Eastern history which 
 few Englishmen could equal. But he was under the absolute 
 dominion of a mania with regard to Russia, which distorted 
 all his faculties" (McCarthy's " History of Our Own Times," 
 vol. iii. p. 276). 
 
 1 Probably Reginald Cholmondeley, of Condover Hall, 
 Shropshire. 
 
 139 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Mrs. Urquhart answered my letter, and David U. 
 comes to-morrow. But, O Lord! They have sent 
 beforehand a huge paper on Turkish Baths, and 
 another on General poltiks, the which I can't and 
 don't intend to read. My hope is that several other 
 people will call at the same time — so that no discussion 
 will enshoo. . . . 
 
 Did you ever meet a Baroness Blaise de Bury? 
 Not that that that that that has anything to do with 
 the subject except that I am going to sleep rapidgely, 
 and have no more sense. . . . 
 
 13 Upper Seymour Street, 
 Portman Square, 
 
 July, 1859. 
 I had the message from the Attorney General I : — ■ 
 but I intended to have told you so, in a note I left on 
 
 your table yesterday — /yO"** doubled up so. 
 
 I read your speech this morning, & it seemed to me 
 to read sensible & downright, & yet perlite & not 
 cross. — I am very glad you have this additional scope 
 for your talents & study, & hope you will be a con- 
 tinually a speaking. Please give me a " place " in 
 New Zealand : then I shall be always in such a mess 
 you will always be obliged to be a excusing of me. 
 
 I wish I'd a " place " to paint in, meanwhile. 
 
 I have worse accounts of my poor sister Harriett, 
 this morning, but do not apprehend any immediate 
 
 1 Sir Richard Bethell. 
 140 
 
Rome Revisited 
 
 danger. I fear I shan't go to Ireland this year. — 
 How I wish I had some settled aboad, at least until 
 
 the last narrow box. 
 
 But if I settled myself I should go to Tobago the 
 next day. 
 
 What Italian doings ! 
 
 Yrs affly 
 
 J2 
 
 that's my new assygram. 
 
 The following poem shows Lear had evi- 
 dently been reading Clough's " Amour de 
 Voyage." The metre is the same and the 
 imitation of the style is clever. In Lear's 
 letters, too, one meets the same Roman society 
 that is described by Clough : — 
 
 15, Stratford Place, 
 
 9 July. 
 Dear F. — 
 
 Washing my rosecoloured flesh and brushing my 
 beard with a hairbrush, — 
 
 — Breakfast of tea, bread, and butter, at nine o'clock 
 in the morning, 
 
 Sending my carpet-bag onward I reached the Twicken- 
 ham station, 
 
 141 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 (Thanks to the civil domestics of good Lady Wald'- 
 
 grave's establishment,) 
 Just as the big buzzing brown booming bottlegreen 
 
 bumblebizz boiler 
 Stood on the point of departing for Richmond and 
 
 England's metropolis. 
 
 I say — (and if ever I said anything to the contrary I 
 hereby retract it) — 
 
 I say — I took away altogether unconsciously your 
 borrowed white fillagree handkerchief; 
 
 After the lapse of a week I will surely return it, 
 
 And then you may either devour it, or keep it, or 
 burn it, — 
 
 Just as you please. But remember, I have not for- 
 gotten, 
 
 After the 26th day of the month of the present July, 
 
 That is the time I am booked for a visit to Nuneham. 
 
 Certain ideas have arisen and flourished within me, 
 As to a possible visit to Ireland, — but nobody 
 Comes to a positive certainty all in a hurry : 
 If you are free and in London, next week shall we 
 dine at the Blue Posts ? 
 
 Both Mrs. Clive and her husband have written most 
 
 kindly 
 Saying the picture delights them (the Dead Sea) 
 
 extremely 
 
 142 
 
Rome Revisited 
 
 Bother all painting! I wish I'd 200 per annum ! 
 Wouldn't I sell all my colours and brushes and 
 
 damnable messes ! 
 Over the world I should rove, North, South, East and 
 
 West, I would 
 Marrying a black girl at last, and slowly preparing to 
 
 walk into Paradise ! 
 
 d^_ /^ru^_ -f ^^OU^^ J t 
 
 A week or a month hence, I will find time to make a 
 
 queer Alphabet, 
 All with the letters beversed and be-aided with 
 
 pictures, 
 Which I shall give — (but don't tell him just yet) to 
 
 Charles Braham's little one. 
 
 143 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Just only look in the " Times " of to-day for accounts 
 
 of the " Lebanon ! " 
 Now I must stop this jaw, and write myself quite 
 
 simultaneous, 
 
 Yours with a lot of affection — the Globular foolish 
 
 Topographer. 
 
 E. L. 
 
 Monday Afternoon 18 July. 
 
 1859 j 
 
 I think I told you that my sister Harriett was ill, & 
 
 not likely ultimately to recover. The last accounts 
 
 however, were rather improved : until on Saturday 
 
 Evening a telegraphic message came to my sister in 
 
 Surrey, to say she was worse : — & on the following 
 
 day a second message told that she had died in the 
 
 course of the night. 
 
 In any case I should not have been able to go to 
 Lady W.'s but as it is I am going off to-morrow 
 morning, to get to her funeral on the following day : — 
 a long journey, near Aberdeen. 
 
 There are only now 7 of us left living out of all the 
 21. — My eldest sister is staying in Sussex, & we are 
 anxious about the effect this sudden news will have 
 on her. 
 
 Is there any conceivable history known resembling 
 this frightful Italian juggle ? 
 
 And from St. Leonards-on-Sea, where he 
 
 had taken some rooms in order to finish his 
 
 work in quiet, he writes on the 28th ; — 
 
 144 
 
Rome Revisited 
 
 My sister's death was so sudden at the last, that her 
 nearer Scotch friends did not get to see her alive, poor 
 thing. She however wrote a note to another of my 
 sisters, only a few hours before her death, — merely in 
 these words. — " Do not be grieved that I am alone : 
 Christ is always with me : " & there is no doubt that 
 she died in complete calm & happiness. What a 
 dreary life hers has been ! & yet that of thousands 
 & thousands. " There's something in the world 
 amiss." 
 
 Bye the bye, you have not told me of Guinevere 
 yet, or perhaps have not had time to read it. Of 
 course prudes are shocked. I should like to tell you 
 some day or other of my argument with the Attorney 
 General, who contends A. T. is a small poet. 
 
 I am inclined to think that it is not difference of 
 opinion which makes me intolerant, so much as a 
 certain injustice, or " force majeure " applied in lieu of 
 bona fide argument. 
 
 31st. July. This week past, & the end of that pre- 
 ceding it, have gone in what I call absolute work ; 
 & although the queer solitude in which I live & the 
 displeasing mill-round of toil is not particularly joyful, 
 yet apart from the thorough necessity of the daily life, 
 (in order that I may be out of debt if possible before 
 November,) I quite believe it is a better extreme for 
 me than the lounging existence to which I can look 
 back with no comfort, passed, since May 1. in doing 
 nothing, & by expenses getting further into debt. I 
 believe, well as I know how much good I derive from 
 
 145 l 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 friends & also, how often I give them pleasure, I shall 
 not go into the houses of the rich for some long time 
 to come, so painful to me is the retrospect (so far as 
 regards myself,) of the time I pass with them. I 
 except Red House, (& you know how regularly I 
 worked there,) & my dear friends the Winwick 
 Hornbys where I was always at work all day long. 
 
 This is what I do here : — rise at 5^, & after 6 or so 
 am at work till 8, breakfast then work till 5 — occa- 
 sionally obliged to leave off on account of sight, or 
 from utter weariness, when I do a line or two of 
 Sophocles, or compose some new song music, & at 5 
 dinner — to 5I at most. Then to 7^ paint again, and 
 by the time the brushes are washed it is nearly dark, 
 & I potter out to the post with some notes I may 
 have written, or puddle along the shingly beach till 
 9J — Then, half an hour Sophocles, & bed. This is 
 unvaried, barring the Sundays, when I go to Hastings 
 to dine with somebody or other — No " followers " or 
 visits allowed in the week, nohow. 
 
 I believe if you go on working that you may & will 
 be of great service to your country : but I could point 
 out a more rapid course of usefulness, if you did not 
 object to the summary sacrifice of yourself upon the 
 halter of patriotism ; & that is instantly to squash 
 Messrs. Cobden & Bright, by pistol, pison, or knife, 
 as you think phit. You would assuredly & properly 
 be hung for the offence, but then think how the state 
 would gain ! 
 
 Meanwhile, to me things look bitterly serious, as 
 
 146 
 
 
 
Rome Revisited 
 
 regards our own land, & Europe too. More especially 
 of Italy, 1 whose Tuscany is at present a beautiful, but 
 lonely beacon of hope — alas ! who knows if fated to 
 burn or die out ? 
 
 You may imagine how interested I am in all that 
 comes from Central Italy, Whether Garibaldi turns 
 up in the Legations, is a wonderful problem for a 
 week or two to solve. 
 
 Don't you delight in Bowyer & Macguire ? 2 
 Reading some of the speeches, by them & others, 
 I should feel if I had to hear them, " woe is me 
 as I am constrained to dwell in these tents of 
 Kedar ! " 
 
 At present you all, Gladstone & Herbert & all, 
 seem working famously together, & Lord John's 
 speech is far beyond what I had expected. 
 
 Would it be possible that a subscription should be 
 set on foot, for national defences? such as "steam- 
 rams" &c, the existence of which cannot be construed 
 as offensive ? 3 
 
 1 The news of the Treaty of Villafranca had just been 
 received, which dashed the hopes of Italian patriots to the 
 ground, as it practically reduced the results of the war to 
 the expulsion of the Austrians from Lombardy for a time. 
 The Tuscans issued a proclamation that they would never 
 again submit to the yoke of Austria. 
 
 2 They delivered speeches on our policy with regard to Italian 
 affairs, the subject having been introduced in a lengthy explana- 
 tion by Lord John Russell. 
 
 3 The success of the French arms in Italy revived the in- 
 vasion panic in England, and various schemes for defence were 
 proposed. 
 
 147 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 119, Marina, 
 
 St. Leonard's on Sea 
 
 Sept. 2nd 1859. 
 
 . . . All the little time I have away from painting 
 
 goes in Greek. Would you believe it, <o ttoXv/ulox^, 1 
 
 Undersecretary for the Colonies, I am nearly half 
 
 through 01%'nrovg €7ri KoXovol 2 — yes, and understand it 
 
 well too. I am almost thanking God that I was 
 
 never educated, for it seems to me that 999 of those 
 
 who are so, expensively and laboriously, have lost all 
 
 before they arrive at my age — and remain like Swift's 
 
 Stulbruggs — cut and dry for life, making no use of 
 
 their earlier-gained treasures : whereas, I seem to be 
 
 on the threshold of knowledge, and at least have a 
 
 long way to the chilling certainty which most men 
 
 methinks should have, that all labour for light is vain 
 
 and time thrown away. 
 
 119, Marina. St. Leonards on Sea. 
 
 Septbr. 2. 1859. 
 
 I feel a kind of placid sort of progress here, where 
 no one hardly interrupts me, — a kind of feeling like a 
 snails belly-crawling existence. F. Lushington came 
 over one day & night, & that was a vast pleasure. 
 
 George Middleton,3 Col. Leakes4 nephew, came from 
 Dover : — & my old friend Anthony Chester's daughter 
 called to-day. The sisters of Sir John Potter live 
 at Hastings, & I dine with them or at the Martineaux,5 
 
 1 " Much labouring." 2 " Oedipus on Colonies." 
 
 3 Son of Admiral R. G. Middleton. 
 
 4 Colonel W. Martin- Leake. 
 
 5 R. B. Martineau, the painter, a pupil of W. Holman Hunt's. 
 
 148 
 
Rome Revisited 
 
 on Sundays, at which latter house Holman Hunt is 
 staying. And I suppose Fowler I may come to- 
 morrow, & the Fortescue I hope in a week or two. 
 My life is this : — wake at 5! & rise & work till 8 : 
 at which time Helen, a distant relation of Mrs. 
 Menelaus, gets breakfast ready. I like Helen very 
 much as a handy little housemaid. Then I work, 
 writing a little Greek first, till 1 1 (Eire) newspaper : & 
 pretty interesting it is now-a-day's ! after which work 
 till two. Eat, (and if possible, digest,) a triangular 
 bit of cake, & then work again till 6J. Then walk 
 till 7^ when I return & dine, generally on a tabular 
 & durable but not soft piece of beef, with a jug of 
 table beer. (For a long time I fed on an immense leg 
 of mutton, far, far larger than any leg of mutton I 
 ever saw before or since. But one day I remembered 
 that I had gone to the window to see a Circus Com- 
 pany go by, & attached to that there was an Elephant : 
 — and then the horrid recollection that the Circus had 
 long since returned, (I saw it pass by) but the elephant 
 never had. From that moment I felt what that large 
 leg of preposterous mutton really was, " e non mangiar 
 avante " 2 & on the whole I do not recommend dead 
 elephant as daily food.) After dinner I do Greek till 
 ten & then go to bed. At meal times I read. And 
 just now am reading a curious book which interests 
 me a good deal, & in some things would you also, all 
 the more that the first part of the life of the 
 
 1 D. Fowler, a Canadian friend and artist. 
 
 2 " And I did not eat any more." 
 
 149 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Authoress, 1 (a Galton & Gurney), passed at Great 
 Barr Hall : F. Scotts. The Lady Scott is I suppose, 
 Sir Francis' grandmother. This book " Life of Mary 
 Anne Schimmelpenninck," has many curious anecdotes 
 of the people of the end of the last century, & to me 
 is peculiarly amusing, as bringing back much of my 
 early life. The amount of confused enthusiasm & 
 splombonglified religion is twaddly at times, yet throws 
 a light on some parts of the lives of a great mass of 
 ones countrymen & women : — a sort of wide narrow- 
 ness, so to speak : at least, Mrs. M. A. Skimmywiggle 
 was as wide a Xtian as can be found in that lot of 
 sectarians. — Besides this I read various other books : 
 Volney to wit, which I have read before, & which I 
 shall not send to my sister Ann certainly. 
 
 Of pictures the two for Mr. Potter (Athos & Corfu) 
 are all but done : — & will be when you come. The 2 
 for Mr. Edwards — Corfu & Petra theatre, are far 
 advanced, & look well : yet such is my nature, that at 
 times I perceive them to be quite bad & useless & 
 never to be completed, whenever ruin & debt arise in 
 perspective & the bars of a prison instead of a familiar 
 gridiron of cheapcooking. The other two, Campagna 
 acqueducts (for Mr. Hey wood) & a large Eastern Cliff 
 of Petra for T. Fairbairn, are less advanced. The 
 Judaea journal goes on, but as yet I see no way to its 
 publication with illustrations. 
 
 1 Hankin's u Life of Mrs. Schimmelpenninck " was published 
 in 1858. She was a daughter of Samuel Galton of Birmingham, 
 and after her marriage with a Dutchman, became a Moravian. 
 
 150 
 
Rome Revisited 
 
 I hope you will work, have worked, & are working 
 & shall be about to have been working, colonially : 
 I hope to see you Col. Sec. one of these days, if you 
 work that is — not because you are on the steps of the 
 ladder & should therefore gradually get to the top. But 
 I shall hope to see you here — for you would also like 
 this place. But let me have a day's notice that I may 
 get you some Elephantine food and adamantine beef. 
 
 119. Marina, St. Leonards on Sea. 
 
 7. Sept. 1859. 
 
 You are a blessing to your friends, & would be to 
 your enemies if you had any, which I suppose you 
 haven't. However, you will be still more laudable if 
 you come down. I shall work horribly in the hope of 
 seeing you on Saturday. You shall have some soles, 
 a leg of mutton, & some varicose pudding of some 
 sort. Will sing immensely. Mr. & Mrs. Fuller are 
 gone, & you shall sleep in her bed, which is a much 
 better one than can be got at a nin. I shan't ask 
 Lord C. Hamilton x or the " Abercorns," or Lord 
 Jocelyn, 2 who are here : because perhaps they would 
 not come. 
 
 My dear boy : — I don't want any money & fresh 
 borrowing would only distress me more. I am thought 
 wrong by some for want of independence in ever 
 borrowing at all, but, I am sure that is not a right 
 
 1 Lord Claud Hamilton, M.P., brother of the Marquess of 
 Abercorn, and brother-in-law of Lord Proby. 
 
 2 The third Earl of Roden, Auditor-General of the Exchequer 
 in Ireland, and Custos rotulorum of the County Louth. 
 
 I5i 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 view of things, for my whole life from 14 years has 
 been independentissimo, & on the other hand, the 
 man who will not put himself under obligation of any 
 kind to even the friends who entirely sympathize with 
 his progress — nourishes in my opinion, a selfish & 
 icicle sort of pride. It is as much a pleasure to me 
 to own that I have been helped by you, J. Cross, J. B. 
 Harford, 1 S. Clowes, W. Neville, & B. H. Hunt, as 
 it is to look back on the fact of my having repaid (in 
 most cases, & to be so in all,) what was lent me in 
 money ; I have no wish whatever to shake off the 
 moral acknowledgement of given assistance. 
 
 I see, in spite of Fibbenson Gorgias's offer, a certain 
 Herbert 2 has been named Secretary. I see Storx 
 has prorogued the Ionian parliament. 
 
 I had a nice letter from good merry Morier yester- 
 day : — a cheerful & nice fellow : but I don't wonder 
 he don't like Berlin waav Vienna. 
 
 What do you think of Rome ? Macbean has gone 
 or is going back, & takes Mrs. M. — saying that proves 
 he considers quiet ahead. But if this Pesaro battle 3 
 fall out for the Italians, the Holy Fathers will certainly 
 be uncomfortable. 
 
 1 John Battersby Harford, afterwards of Blaise Castle, 
 Gloucestershire, who married the third daughter of Baron de 
 Bunsen. 
 
 2 R. G. W. Herbert was appointed Colonial Secretary to 
 Queensland. 
 
 3 The pontifical army of mercenaries had made Pesaro their 
 headquarters, and were said to be preparing for an attack upon 
 Romagna. 
 
 152 
 
Rome Revisited 
 
 Is Newton J gone to Rome yet ? I shall ask you for 
 a letter to him if as how you knows him. 
 
 119. Marina. St. Leonards-on-Sea. 
 
 21. Octbr. 1859. 
 
 Returning from seeing my beloved parent, (Holman 
 Hunt,) safe to the Railway, I find your letter, together 
 with one from J. Harford, a highly friendly concatena- 
 tion of correspondenx. 
 
 And being so cold just now I can't go to bed, & 
 yet am only half awake, I shall endeavour to scrawl a 
 line to thank you for your last, & to epopsimate the 
 fangropunxious feelings of my buzzim. 
 
 To-day came a letter from my sister Ann, telling me 
 of some from New Zealand. Sarah is on her way 
 home : — & her leaving the Warepa seems to me a 
 sort of signal of break-up in her family, added to by 
 my nephew's wife's illness, one of increasing incura- 
 bility it appears to me, and which I suppose has 
 very much altered their views & plans. It seems 
 that they have let their so increasingly prosperous 
 farm, & that my nephew has got a situation of ^200 
 a year at Dunedin, "under Government," is all they 
 (or rather my sister Ann,) mention : — while the other 
 sister and her husband leave N. Zealand altogether. 
 This does not seem to me a grand conclusion to the 
 7 years stay there of the Street family, but I suppose 
 
 1 Mr. (afterwards Sir) Charles Newton the archaeologist, of 
 British Museum fame. He had just been appointed Consul at 
 Rome. 
 
 153 
 
 I 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 the departure of my energetic sister, & the illness of 
 my nephew's wife, have brought it about. 
 
 As for poor Mary & her unpleasant husband, they 
 have gone to Melbourne, & I hope will get a letter 
 sent by a brother of his, well to do, in St. Louis, ask- 
 ing them to go to America : — where I think poor 
 Mary would be at rest, for her brother-in-law married 
 one of her earlier friends. Mary writes of Sarah, 1 "It 
 was very strange to see how Sarah did all the work of 
 the house & farm after Sophy was taken ill : — for 4 
 months she did really every actual thing except the 
 washing : — bread daily made for all 7 in number, 
 butter-making, cooking, & all the cleaning up, besides 
 always hearing the little girl's lessons : and yet she 
 was always dressed at 4 o'clock, & had the evening for 
 writing reading or music." To which sister Ann adds, 
 "my dear, Sarah is a wonderful woman!" And she 
 ain't far wrong, as to energies at 66. 
 
 I have sent you a long scrawl of family talk, but I 
 know it won't bore you. You are a very queer 
 Secretary of State, who don't get altered by your 
 conditions & positions, as far as I can see, nohow. 
 
 My kind respects to Mrs. Ruxton : also remem- 
 brances at Ravensdale. Quite distinct from all these 
 give my love to Dr. Cullen, 2 if you see him, and to 
 Dr. Cumming 3 also — : I take it, two nasty yet 
 
 1 Sarah was Mrs. Street, and Sophy the daughter-in-law. 
 
 2 The Archbishop of Dublin, a Roman Catholic of the extreme 
 party. 
 
 3 A minister of the National Scottish Church, noted as a 
 prominent controversialist. 
 
 154 
 
Rome Revisited 
 
 approximate extremes. O dear me ! there is a good 
 deal to say about my picture of Bassse l & many more 
 mompophlious matters : but the dim lamp wanes : the 
 dark sea moans & roars, and it is time that I should 
 go to bed. Good-night. 
 
 These are the most bestest lodgings I've been in 
 for a long time. 
 
 15, Stratford Place, Oxford Street, 
 
 \th "November 
 
 O! Mimber for the County Louth 
 
 Residing at Ardee ! 
 Whom I, before I wander South 
 
 Partik'lar wish to see : — 
 
 I send you this. — That you may know 
 
 I've left the Sussex shore, 
 And coming here two days ago 
 
 Do cough for evermore. 
 
 Or gasping hard for breath do sit 
 
 Upon a brutal chair, 
 For to lie down in Asthma fit 
 
 Is what I cannot bear. 
 
 Or sometimes sneeze : and always blow 
 
 My well-develloped nose. 
 And altogether never know 
 
 No comfort nor repose. 
 
 All through next week I shall be here, 
 
 To work as best I may, 
 On my last picture, which is near- 
 
 -er finished every day. 
 
 1 A great picture of this subject by Lear is in the Fitzwilliam 
 Museum at Cambridge, subscribed for and presented by his 
 friends. 
 
 155 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 But after the thirteenth — (that's Sunday) 
 
 I must — if able — start 
 (Or on the Tuesday if not Monday,) 
 
 For England's Northern part. 
 
 And thence I only come again 
 
 Just to pack up and run 
 Somewhere where life may less be pain, 
 
 And somewhere where there's sun. 
 
 So then I hope to hear your ways 
 
 Are bent on English moves 
 For that I trust once more to gaze 
 
 Upon the friend I loves. 
 
 (Alas ! Blue Posts I shall not dare 
 
 To visit ere I go — 
 Being compulsed to take such care 
 
 Of all the winds as blow.) 
 
 But if you are not coming now 
 
 Just write a line to say so — 
 And I shall still consider how 
 
 Ajoskyboskybayso. 
 
 No more my pen : no more my ink : 
 
 No more my rhyme is clear. 
 So I shall leave off here I think — 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 Edward Lear. 
 
 156 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 December, 1859, to March, 1861 
 
 ROME AND A WINTER IN ENGLAND 
 
 THE Treaty of Villafranca was signed at 
 Zurich on the nth of November, 1859, 
 and it was proposed to hold a Congress of 
 European Powers to settle the affairs of Central 
 Italy. This, however, was rendered impossible 
 by the publication of the famous pamphlet, 
 " Le Pape et le Congres," which was inspired 
 directly by the Emperor himself, advocating 
 the abandonment by the Pope of all his 
 temporal possessions except Rome. Austria 
 was so offended that she refused to attend the 
 Congress unless the French Government dis- 
 claimed the views put forward in the brochure ; 
 but this they refused to do. 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 Hotel Bristol, Marseille. 
 
 26. Decbr. 1859. 
 
 I shall write a scribblebibble from here, so that 
 
 you may feel it borne in upon you that you are 
 
 157 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 a letter in my debt, & so that I may the sooner 
 hear from you in the Holy City, where, selon the 
 Times, we are all to " pray, & dig in the ruins, 
 and contemplate, & study art, and pray over again." 
 Which reminds one that the " Brochure " (of course 
 you have read it by this time,) is making a sensation 
 in all France not to be conceived. The whole railway 
 libraries are full of copies, & every tenth person 
 seems to buy one. And the eagerness with which 
 the Reviews of it are read is wonderful. It seems to 
 be quite understood as the Emperor's policy or will 
 made public, & I have heard from some who have 
 known a good deal from being with his train all 
 through the Lombard battles, that it is believed that 
 he has fully decided on throwing over the Clerical 
 party, & leaning on the Military only. The tightest 
 screw is put on the press organs of the former, so 
 this does not seem improbable. Surely the Cardinal 
 A. 1 will hardly have a pleasant voyage, ''knowing 
 all his own mischance, with a seasick countenance," & 
 perhaps reading the " Brochure " between vomitings. 
 
 My own doings hereto have been most fortunate : 
 Thackeray was on board the Folkestone steamer, 
 and the weather was propishous. The great man 
 was very amiable & gave me No. i. of his new 
 magazine, "The Cornhill." Also I heard, the night 
 I got to Folkestone, & saw in the papers that 
 Mrs. S. G. had eloped with her fuliginous footman 
 & was to be on board next day, a report which 
 
 1 Antonelli, the Cardinal Secretary of the Papal Government. 
 
 158 
 
Rome and a Winter in England 
 
 shocked me, as I know the S. Gs. I was therefore 
 pleased on the 23rd. to find that the lady was 
 Mrs. J. G. — which I did not care about & which 
 her footman was white & she carried a small spaniel 
 in her faithless arms. At Paris I went to the Hotel 
 du Grand Louvre, & never was so comfortable in 
 Paris before, which the service & the beds & the 
 cooking were all good. At 8 on the 24th. P.M., I 
 set off hither, & arrived here before 4 yesterday, this 
 being- also a most good little Hotel & new to me. 
 Lo ! on the dinner table there was roast beef, turkey 
 & a plumpudding. There are some vulgarry people 
 here going to Rome, & a capital military doctor from 
 India, who I wish was going but aint. 
 
 In the rail yesterday was an intelligent man going 
 to Cannes, I do not know who. He told me some- 
 things that interested me, viz. — that the successor of 
 Saunders, 1 a firstrate consul for so many years in 
 Albania, is one Cathcart ; 2 whom he describes as a 
 man of family & interest, but speaking no language 
 but his own, & looking on Prevesa as an exile and 
 thereby still lingering in London. I could not but 
 agree with him that the neglect of our consulships is 
 a far more dangerous evil to the English name & 
 commonwealth than is cared to be considered, & that 
 the opposite system with our neighbours here is one 
 
 1 Sidney Smith Saunders (knighted in 1873) was appointed 
 Consul-General in the Ionian Islands on their cession to Greece 
 in 1864. 
 
 2 Major Andrew Cathcart. 
 
 159 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 of their greatest implements in that success no one 
 can deny them as daily increasing all over the world. 
 I know it would be said that a public school for lan- 
 guage competition & consular qualities would not be 
 tolerated in England, as being ostentatiously conducive 
 to the spread of foreign convictions as to our wish for 
 " overrunning the world " &c. &c. But surely some- 
 thing like a better system might gradually be attained 
 to if it were fixed that 2 or more secretaries should be 
 attached to each consul generalship, with a view to 
 education in the lingo & manners of the countries, so 
 as that the head being removed, one of the secretaries 
 should succeed ! 
 
 Thus, Wood, 1 undeniably the complete Consul- 
 general in all points, being sent to Tunis from 
 Damascus, after years of perfection in Arabic, in 
 knowledge of the country & its people, & in general 
 influence, — why should the place of such a man be 
 filled by an excellent old man from Erzeroum, 70 
 years of age, & not knowing a syllable of Arabic ? 
 Or that Saunders, the beau ideal of activity & zeal, & 
 knowing Greek & Turkish for years, should not be 
 followed by at least one who has some portion of his 
 mantle ! I grant that Wood is good for Tunis, & 
 that Saunders is good for Alexandria, but why fill up 
 their posts by haphazard, & thus undo all that has 
 been done for years. Both in Damascus and Albania 
 now, a good French Consul could prevent our position 
 
 1 Sir Richard Wood was Consul-General at Tunis from 1855 
 to 1879. 
 
 160 
 
Rome and a Winter in England 
 
 in trade & influence from ever becoming what it has 
 been. (Moreover, if you want illustrations of the blind 
 fool-system, I do happen to know that the Gov. 
 offered Saunders the Consulship of a place in S. 
 America ! so fit to bring out the talents used for 30 
 years in the Levant !) 
 
 I do not think anyone Gov. is chargeable with 
 these defects, but the whole system should be changed 
 & revised. Could you not set about such a plan, by 
 a pamphlet or private influence, calling public or 
 Government interest to the subject, which I think 
 you would agree with me, is one of very great 
 importance. I suppose however, you have but little 
 time yourself, but you might tread on Lord John's 
 toes or bully Lord P[almerston]. 
 
 Let me hear from you as often as you can. I am 
 in horrible misery just now, remembering a brutal 
 letter I wrote you just a year ago. My sins are 
 always like chronic fever, which return at stated 
 intervals, or rather like pains in amputated feet, 
 which are felt after the limb is long removed. 
 
 9. Via Condotti. Roma. 
 
 6. Janry. i860. 
 
 (10th. Janry.) 
 
 In vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird, 
 which means obscurely that this sheet was begun to 
 be written on directly I got yours of the 28th. Dec, 
 but although that blank paper has laid on the table 
 ever since, the bird has never settled on it. All 
 
 161 M 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 things go on as before the fathers fell asleep. But 
 
 Lord ! wouldn't the fathers or anyone else fall 
 asleep here now ! You never saw such a desert ! 
 there are only 200 or 250 English here par example, 
 instead of 1800 or 2000: — & the streets are literally 
 empty. 
 
 The whole atmosphere of social & moral life is 
 indeed a painful mess of bad, and doubt. Yet I can 
 give you no light as to future — nor could anyone. 
 Things are so much more equally balanced here than 
 in any other part of Italy that it is more than doubtful 
 what might happen here even if the French troops 
 were withdrawn. For you can imagine, fools & 
 empty as they are, all the Roman nobles are so 
 linked by blood and interest with the present 
 Government that they certainly would not join any 
 attempt at a new system of things, — and again, the 
 middle classes are also, thro' centuries, partly tied up 
 in the same boat : and the whole mass is such a 
 stagnation of pride & ignorance & superstition that 
 
 1 believe, if God Almighty were to come down 
 Himself, they wouldn't have a single benefit from 
 Him if He were not a " Roman." On the other 
 hand, I hear from some who know how things are, 
 that a great portion of educated men — advocates 
 etc : — would raise a new standard, and would depend 
 on external aid. This may be : I cannot tell ; & I 
 never enquire or politicalize a bit, for that wouldn't 
 do here at all. 
 
 One thing is sure, the violence of the clerical or 
 
 162 
 
y. 8 
 
 H a 
 
 < - 
 
 
Rome and a Winter in England 
 
 extreme Tory party is intense, which looks as if they 
 feared a good deal. And the way in which the high 
 Church idiots here curse the revolutionary folk & 
 weep for the P[ope] is a thing to laugh at or be 
 disgusted with. Intanto a complete constraint & 
 gloom pervades all the city — &, inasmuch as I hated 
 it last year, I do so now a thousandfold more for its 
 odious false anti-human reason atmosphere. Giorgio 
 says, — " almeno in Gerusalemme si poteva vedere un 
 camelo morte e qualchi Arabi : — ma qui non c'e 
 nulla." — Fortunately for me, Dr. Kennedy l of 
 Shrewsbury school, Tyrwhitt 2 of C. Church, Oxford, 
 & one or more are here, & Newton the new Consul 
 also, who seems a nice fellow. If he has force 
 enough to set up this consulate on a new basis he 
 will do no little good to his countrymen : — but, for 
 many causes he has no easy task. 
 
 (O dear me ! what a odd hurried boshy life it is ! all 
 fuss & so little rest ! " still from one trouble to another 
 thrown.") 
 
 The Ross's of Bladensburg 3 are here : — I hear 
 they are very Papal — but on a queer scent, viz : 
 Urquhartism — & considering that L[ouis] N[apoleon] 
 is acting always under the Emperor of Russia! 
 
 1 Headmaster of Shrewsbury and the greatest classical teacher 
 of his day. 
 
 2 Richard St. John Tyrwhitt, known chiefly by his writings 
 on art. 
 
 3 David Ross of Bladensburg, of Rosstrevor, Co. Down, and 
 his wife, a sister of Viscount Massereene and Ferrard. 
 
 163 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 They deny the Perugia affair, 1 I am told, wholly. 
 L d Rendlesham 2 is the only peer & Lord Pollington,3 
 a peer's son ; no markisses, nor dukes, nor baronets, 
 nor nothing. Most of the Hotels are more or less 
 shut up, & the lodging houses also. The beggars are 
 ravenous & demonstrative to a fearful degree. Says 
 I to myself, glad I shall be, when I am free, O Rome 
 from thee, & over the sea, high diddledydee. I must 
 go to bed & finish this blessed epissel tomorrow. 
 Goodnight. E. L. . . . 
 
 Jan. ii. The class or caste of Artistes here have 
 always been in a queer position, with the exception of 
 one or two, I for one don't choose to go to swell 
 houses & stand against a doorpost & be stared at if 
 I speak, as used to be the case in some places : — 
 which modes of life I have long given over. Your 
 Lady W[aldegrave], is after all the finest specimen of 
 a real woman in a swell place one knows of, & I 
 wish to goodness she was here, though you don't. 
 There would be talk enough for us two here for 
 weeks, & I wish horribly you could run over, but the 
 parliament won't let you, besides the Colonies. 
 
 Card. Wiseman is here, & such a nest of Bishops 
 
 1 In July, 1859, the people of Perugia expelled the Papal 
 legate, whereupon the Pope despatched a body of Swiss mer- 
 cenaries, who sacked and pillaged the place. There was a 
 great outcry, and a commission was held to inquire into the 
 matter. 
 
 2 The fifth Baron, at this time a young man of nineteen. 
 
 3 Eldest son of the third Earl of Mexborough. Succeeded 
 to the title the following year. 
 
 164 
 
Rome and a Winter in England 
 
 & Irish R.C.'s! (Dundalk Bowyer, 1 among the rest, 
 whom I might meet if I liked, but I hate the lot, 
 & go near none of them). Yesterdays talk is all 
 about the intemperate anger of the "Ayiog Harm, 2 who 
 absolutely blew up & bullied the Jews, on their annual 
 visit of congratulation, he being very sore just now 
 about the Mortara boy. 3 He is known to have laughed 
 & said " What ! you are still hoping to get back the 
 boy ? " &c. &c. Cheer up, as the limpet said to the 
 weeping willow : — & forgive me for not writing before. 
 Give my kindest regards, or however you may 
 word them, to Lady Waldegrave. In the depths 
 of my misery on board the Marseilles boat, when 
 I lost my head from excess of illness, I for a time, 
 continually saw the Punch & Judy at Strawberry 
 Hill, with the little children laughing, & Lady W. 
 in that browny grey ===== striped dress & little hat. 
 Moral : — people as does kindnesses to others does 
 
 1 Sir George Bowyer, M.P. for Dundalk, joined the Church of 
 Rome in 1850, and became chamberlain to Pope Pius IX. He 
 built the church of St. John of Jerusalem, Great Ormonde Street, 
 Bloomsbury. 
 
 2 Holy Father. 
 
 3 In June, 1858, a Jewish boy, Edgar Mortara, was forcibly 
 seized from his parents by order of Cardinal Viale Preta, Arch- 
 bishop of Bologna and Legate of Pope Pius IX., because it was 
 alleged that he had been baptized when an infant by a Roman 
 Catholic maidservant. Intense feeling was aroused throughout 
 Europe by the refusal of the Court of Rome to restore the boy, 
 in spite of representations from the French Government and 
 a monster petition of Jews and of British Christians, headed 
 by the signatures of the Archbishops of Canterbury, Dublin, 
 and York. 
 
 165 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 more than they think for to them as they knows 
 nothing about doing them for particular. 
 
 I wrote to ask A. Tennyson to come here, but 
 hardly think he will turn up : — it would be the very 
 quietest year he could ever come in, & there will be 
 no row while the French are here. I had hopes of 
 coming to see somewhat of Newton the new Consul, 
 (of whom be it said he is a clever & sensible fellow, 
 & is putting the B.M's consulate already into a 
 respectable position, which it never has been before 
 in my time,) but he is collapsed into business, or daily 
 society, so that I have lost sight of him. The New 
 Zealand sister is expected in England every week. 
 Ann is for the present staying at my widow-sister's, & 
 I much wish that that arrangement may prosper 
 & abide, as I find that my brother-in-law left his 
 property all to his wife & uncontrolled. Are my four 
 Idylls songs published at Cramers yet ? Dear me ! 
 I think life is a great bore : particularly when the 
 chimney smokes, & one has a cold in the head. 
 
 Your Government seems pretty serene altogether, 
 & I greatly hope will stand fast. I thought Lord 
 P[almerston]s speech J very good. The priest party 
 here take the Q's speech mention of Italy as all on 
 their side : which is amusing : " I will not interfere 
 to prevent the Italians shaking off the tyranny of 
 
 1 A speech in answer to Mr. Disraeli, stating that the Com- 
 mercial treaty with France had been signed, and justifying its 
 provisions. Also vindicating England's policy of non-inter- 
 ference with regard to Italy 
 
 166 
 
Rome and a Winter in England 
 
 rebels " they say it means. I saw a letter in the 
 "Times" of the 27th (strictly suppressed here in 
 public of course) which was certainly strong, but true 
 enough. It was written by Gallenga, who was sent 
 off by the police with a 3 days notice. 
 
 The most interesting person here is a Major 
 Reynolds, which was occupied in Bundelcund a 
 catching Thugs. His description of Thuggee is vast. 
 Also his sister is quite apart from the crew of fools : 
 seeing she reads Sophocles & Plato. Do you see 
 my dear old friend Colonel Leake is dead ? This 
 distressed me a good deal. 
 
 9. V. Condotti. Roma. 
 
 22. March, i860. 
 
 I am rather beshamed that I have not written to 
 you for so long : — & you are a cheerful cherub to 
 send me the nice letter — date 13th., which has just 
 been brought in by George, who says also " Ei-t^awS-i} 
 i\ £7ravaara7re," l alluding to what happened the night 
 before last, of which anon. — You in truth go on 
 with wonderful " Abercombiness " & regularity, & 
 the day will come when you will be as 43 giants. 
 
 The "Echo" story is good. 2 
 
 1 " The revolution has been worked." 
 
 2 " Have you ever heard the story of the Echo of Villafranca ? 
 Here it is. After their peace the two Emperors, riding 
 together, came to a place among the hills where there is a 
 famous echo. France said ' Que chacun de nous appelle sa 
 femme' — to try the echo. So they did. L. Nap. called 
 • Eugenie ! ' The echo answered ' Genie ! ' Austria called 
 1 Elisabeth ! ' The echo answered ' Bete ! ' " (Letter from 
 Fortescue to Lear, March 13, i860.) 
 
 167 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 To pass to a public appointment which (for once, 
 you'll say,) is really creditable, the new Consul 
 here, C. Newton is a good and active man of 
 business — a fine scholar, — a gentleman, & of a kind 
 disposition ; he has already gone far to put the 
 British name, into a train of respectable repute. I 
 never can believe that dirty knives can be used to 
 cut clean good bread, — & the bread not be thereby 
 injured. For years the R. C.'s have said, the 
 English consular agent is a fit & apt representation 
 of a base & bad nation : — Now they are obliged 
 to alter their voice on the subject, & acknowledge 
 that the Q. is represented by a worthy & clever 
 man. 
 
 Mrs. Ross is still here, befussing herself about 
 politics. 
 
 We are all here in very disagreeable excitement, 
 — & on Monday night that occurred which is not yet 
 wound up. It was G[aribald]i's birthday, & a festa 
 besides — so that a considerable crowd walked in the 
 Corso — 4 & 4 smoking, — for this kind of demonstra- 
 tion is the thing now a days. The police (armed) 
 late in the day arrested two men who displayed nose- 
 gays of 3 colours, but, (this was in the Piazza Colonna,) 
 some F[rench] officers interfered, & the two men 
 were let loose. On which the Papal police retired 
 " green with rage." The Corso was full of people, 
 just at Avemaria, when they sallied out furiously, in all 
 about 6o, & ran a muck the whole length of the 
 street to the P.del Popolo, cutting down & beating 
 
 1 68 
 
Rome and a Winter in England 
 
 with buttend of pistols right & left. You will hear 
 all this denied by Lords Derby & Normanby, but as I 
 know those who know the names of 35 seriously 
 wounded now in Doctors hands, & as the poor 
 fruiterer opposite my friends died of his sword wound 
 yesterday, & as it is well known that altogether 70 
 or 80 were more or less hurt, you will excuse my 
 believing the aristocratic defenders of Italy as it is, 
 rather than my own senses. Among the wounded 
 were also a sergeant, & 2 French soldiers, & one 
 officer, son-in-law to one of the Generals. It is 
 impossible to give you an idea of the state the people 
 are in. But as many as 10 patrols in a body are 
 placed at every other street end all down the Corso, so 
 no movement is possible. Meanwhile Gen. Goyon x 
 has publicly praised the police " for obeying orders " 
 but a great mass of F[rench] Officers (it is said) have 
 declared that they "gave no orders." What is to 
 happen next chi sa? 
 
 Embrace Lord John. He is a duck. 2 What I 
 wish now is that Vpctor] E[mmanuel] may, with all 
 Italy, split from the old P[ope]. A few months must 
 decide now. 
 
 I met Odo Russell at Miss Cushman's at dinner 
 lately, a very extremely nice fellow. Browning was 
 there also, & told me a story of Carlyle which I shall 
 send you. C. on going abroad for the first time saw a 
 
 1 The General commanding the French troops in Rome. 
 
 2 On the 12th of March Lord John Russell entered into a full 
 explanation of the Savoy question. 
 
 169 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 crucifix, & said calmly " Ah ! poor fellow I thought 
 
 we had had enough of him ! " 
 
 As for me I am at work on a heap of pictures 20 in 
 100 100 200 200 
 
 all : 2 of the Campagna, a Beyrout, Damascus, & 
 
 100 
 Interlaken, will be striking topograffic scenes, & I 
 
 hope to sell them on my return 
 
 to wise & wealthy wirtuous 
 
 wights — for 'joo£ if possible. 
 
 If things get more ojous here, I 
 
 must leave earlier. The New 
 
 Zealand sister has arrived, after 
 
 just 7 years absence. I am very 
 
 glad for the sake of poor dear 
 
 Ann. Is H. Hunt's picture yet 
 
 wizzabel ? A jew, a jew, my 
 
 friend. I have become so fat 
 
 for want of exercise that you 
 
 would not know me, so I attach 
 
 a portrait. 
 
 Do you wear knickerbockers ? Don't you like 
 
 Tithonus ? Have you seen F. Lushington ? Do you 
 
 go to the Blue posts ? I must leave off like a 
 
 deleterious donkey as I am. — 
 
 Yours affly, 
 
 Edward Lear. 
 
 The American Consul narrowly escaped a sword 
 cut, & one Mr. Arkworth or Akworth also. Ugh ! 
 The converts deny the whole thing with the most 
 impudent lying. Manning is preaching here, furious 
 
 170 
 
Rome and a Winter in England 
 
 as a bear. He predicts the utter fall & decay of 
 England & the rise & triumph of Ireland, which he 
 says is the holiest country of modern days — a fact, you 
 though a cussed heretic will be pleased to hear. 
 
 Concerning the waste of money involved in going 
 away, there were once two people who had each a leg 
 of mutton for dinner, but both were invited out. One 
 gave away his leg of mutton, but the other said " that 
 is waste," & ate it all up, whereby he was sick for a 
 week. Now you see I don't mean to eat up my leg 
 of mutton upon this principle. 
 
 It has been anything but an Abercromby winter to 
 me though : — so much time thrown away by asthma, 
 & lethargy, for I cannot, HORRIBLE to RE LA TE y 
 rise before "]\ here. But I'll make up for lost time, 
 as the Tadpole said when he lost his tail & found 
 he could jump about. 
 
 We know less than nothing here : for they sup- 
 press the papers now. What will happen it is wholly 
 impossible to guess : though it is thought that General 
 L's mission J is rather in the interest of France than 
 Sardinia, that of the P[ope] being the ostensible cause. 
 
 Vpctor] Emm. of Turin will have a difficult task yet 
 to keep straight : & I can't but wonder at some of 
 Cavour's doings. I wish I had a chance of seeing 
 you in Ardee, but I shall trust to doing so often 
 
 1 At the beginning of April General Lamoriciere, who had 
 been a celebrated leader of the Zouaves, but who had been 
 expelled from France after the troubles of 1848, arrived in 
 Rome to take over the command of the Papal army. 
 
 171 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 in Town. I wish the D. of Newcastle] had had 
 
 the sense to put F. Lushing- 
 
 ton into Merivale's place. 1 I 
 
 am surprised at M's going 
 
 away. 
 
 I am grown horribly fat from 
 want of exercise — like this — 
 
 At the beginning of May Lear left Rome for 
 good, and set out for England, having been 
 disappointed in his original idea of revisiting 
 Palestine and getting fresh subjects for his 
 pictures. Want of ready money, from which 
 he always suffered and to which he constantly 
 alludes in his letters, was probably the cause 
 of this alteration in his plans. In con- 
 nection with this I may mention, that he was 
 for ever making elaborate plans for travel, 
 which were constantly doomed to failure for 
 the aforesaid reason. 
 
 One of his first visits was to Nuneham, Mr. 
 Harcourt's place in Oxfordshire, to execute a 
 commission for two landscapes. 
 
 Lear to Lady Waldegrave. 
 
 Thursday, July, i860 ? 
 Dear Lady Waldegrave, — I have just sent off two 
 boxes and a Neasel which are to go by the next goods 
 
 1 Merivale, permanent Under Secretary of the Colonies, had 
 just accepted the Under Secretaryship of the India Office. 
 
 172 
 
Rome and a Winter in England 
 
 train and to be left at Culham Station as addressed. 
 The foolish topographer will follow tomorrow by the 
 4.50 express. . . . 
 
 I am going to ask you if I may divest myself of the 
 duty of breakfast in the morning (save Sunday), 
 because, as I begin early, and the effect of light and 
 shade ceases at n£, the interruption of cleaning and 
 feeding at 10, will just cut up the best part of my 
 morning. Also, when in a state of application, or 
 incubation as it were, I am more or less necessarily 
 disagreeable and absent, and should certainly answer 
 " Elm trees and bridges," if they asked me whether I 
 would " take tea or coffee ! " 
 
 Directly after I finish my morning work, I should 
 willingly devour a sandwich, and go across to the 
 Church view, which I shall be able now to see very 
 well, as I can place my canvas on a lofty easel, I 
 myself standing on the green seat, thus : — 
 
 173 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 15. Stratford Place, W., 
 
 5. Sept. i860. 
 
 I find, (since I saw the Fortescue yesterday,) that 
 my Sussex & Hampshire visits will keep me out of 
 London till the 21st — On the 22nd. therefore may I 
 come down to Dudbrooke & stay with you over the 
 Sunday ? — 
 
 As for me I am working at all kinds of places, 
 Damascus & Beyrout, Masada & the Cedars of 
 Lebanon principally — besides Bethlehem, Interlaken, 
 Philse, & the Roman Campagna. — Identifying oneself 
 with all this various topography naturally makes one 
 less sane than usual, but at present my feelings are 
 tried more than commonly because I am at work in a 
 large room lent me by my landlord who is a portrait 
 painter, & his room is full of faces. The Rev. Jabesh 
 Bunting & Lady Mulgrave sit upon the walls of 
 Masada, Sir Fenwick Williams & Mr. Spurgeon peer 
 among the branches of my Cedars — Mr. & Mrs. Cunard 
 of New York abound in the ruins of Philse, & the 
 Bishop of Gloucester is dominant in Interlaken. So 
 that I have a horrid fear that I shall hash all these 
 people up together in all my foregrounds. 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 Oatlands Park Hotel. 
 
 Walton on Thames. 
 Surrey. 
 
 Sept. 30. i860. 
 
 I really hope you will be able to come for Sunday 
 
 the 14th., for you would enjoy this place, if weather 
 
 i74 
 
Rome and a Winter in England 
 
 gets better, & by that time my Cedars will have 
 advanced a bit, I trust. 
 
 Yesterday only the big case arrived, but thanks to 
 the assiduous friendliness of one Mr. Lyle who has 
 built a huge house in the centre of Cedardom, — I am 
 able to get the canvas set up allright, & actually 
 worked at it a good bit : — The next neighbour to Mr. 
 Lyle also, a Mr. Hewitson who possesses the finest 
 collection of Butterflies existing, 1 pervades the place 
 with assistance & brings water-jugs &c. &c. freely. — 
 I have hired a small boy, his name is " Norval " (on 
 the Grampian Hills his father feeds &c.) for sixpence 
 a day, wages to be raised to ninepence if good, 
 — who carries folios, brushes &c, from the Hotel, for 
 this Hotel is only 5 minutes from where I go to paint, 
 so I hope all next week to get a-head. — 
 
 But I will describe my life generally. The Hotel 
 then is a large & sumptiously commodious place, in 
 a part of the old Oatlands Park — with nice broad 
 terrace walks, & a wonderfully lovely view over the 
 river Temms & the surroundiant landskip. — Them as 
 likes private rooms, can have them. But, I & some 
 20 more live in public. I have a large light bedroom, 
 delightful to behold, & wanting for nought. — Here I 
 rise, (to begin the day,) at 6, & by 6.30 or 6.45 am 
 at work on one of the seven drawings. At 8 I go 
 down-stairs, & from that to 9. breakfast audibly 
 in the public coughy-room, which is first-rate in 
 every particular. The Times, (oh how my stomach 
 
 1 This collection is now in the Natural History Museum. 
 
 175 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 aches for Garibaldi ! — ) & letters arrive also at that 
 hour. 
 
 Immejately after these facts, I go out to work, — 
 (Friday it poured with rain, so I worked indoors,) & 
 by 6. I am back again. Dinner happens at 6.45. & is 
 well arranged & good : & what pleases me I can get 
 plain food. One pint of sherry, & one ditto of beer is 
 my liquor, — & these are extras, — all other board, 
 lodging, & service costing 4.4 a week. The company 
 is not bad, & rather amusing : — some is permanent, 
 some changeful. — Among the latter I trust are the 
 parents of a beastly little child, whom seeing playing 
 about, I spoke to simply as being attracted to all nice- 
 looking little children. Whereon the imp thus 
 accosted me : — 
 
 " O my ! what an ugly chap you are ! " And what 
 ugly shoes you wear! "You must be a nasty ugly 
 old Scotchman ! " — It is unnecessary to relate that I 
 turned away with ill disguised disgust from this offen- 
 sive infant, who cannot fail to bring his father's gray 
 airs to an untimely hend. 
 
 The only other person who has gone is a large old 
 lady, who the first night (Thursday,) I was here, came 
 slowly across the large reading-room, steadily looking 
 at me. When she had advanced within 3 feet of my 
 chair, I could bear it no longer, for I knew she would 
 do one of two things, either embrace me, or charge me 
 with a religious tract, — so I rose up in terror. On 
 which she said in a loud voice, " Sit down Sir ! I only 
 came across the room to see if you was anyone I 
 
 176 
 
Rome and a Winter in England 
 
 knew." — To return to the Dining table, there is a 
 young Hussar who has been in French service, — & 
 later all through the Indian Mutiny : rather a nice 
 fellow, Irish, & knows the " Bellews " : A very well 
 informed & clever man, I conclude a physician : his 
 wife wears spectacles & seems literary. — A grand dark 
 man, who says Hay? — if ever I speak to him, (so I 
 have left off doing so) : — & various other characters. 
 The head waiter is a praiseworthy individual, & his 
 efforts to make a goose go round 18 diners were 
 remarkable yesterday, as well as his placid firmness 
 when there was only one bit left, — & 4 persons yet 
 unserved. " Who's this for ? " said an agitated 
 buttony boy, — foreseeing the invidiousness of the task 
 set him. " HENNYBODDY ! " said the waiter in a 
 decided tone, — & then coming to the three gooseless 
 persons, of whom I was one, 
 
 (Three were in such fortune cast — 
 Of whom myself was left the last,) 
 he said in a conscientious & pained under-voice — 
 " Gentlemen — I am really sorry this has happened ! — 
 but I declare to you that there shall be another goose 
 to-morrow ! " 
 
 At 9. I go to my room, much to the disgust of the 
 community who having found out that I am musical, 
 consider my " seclusion " unpleasant. And so they 
 sent up a deputation z nights ago to ask me to come 
 down to them — but I remained where I was. For one 
 hour, I translate f H UoXirda, of my daily old Plato : & 
 for one more hour I pen out some remaining Athos 
 
 177 N 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 drawings. And at n. I go to bed. There's a pretty 
 good history of life at the Oatlands Park Hotel. 
 
 Story. 
 
 Scene, Railway Station, North of Scotland. 
 Persons : Old Scotchwoman and Railway Clerk. 
 Old Woman. " A Tucket." 
 Railway Clerk. " Whar till ? " 
 O.W. (with more emphasis). " A Tucket ! " 
 R.C. (louder). "Whar till?" 
 O.W. (fiercely). " A Tucket, I say ! " 
 R.C. (angrily). " Whar till then ? " 
 O.W. " You are a nasty speering body ! What 
 is't to you whar I am ganging to ? " 
 
 (Train draws up — party of Old Woman's friends 
 call out " Jeanie ! Jeanie ! You'll be too late : 
 have you na got your tucket ? ") 
 O.W. " Na ! and I winna tell the old fellow whar I 
 am going ! What is it to him ! " (Train goes on.) 
 
 Lear to Lady Waldegrave. 
 
 Stratton, 
 
 MlCHELDEVER. 
 
 October 23/60. 
 Since I was at Dudbrooke that exceedingly nice 
 youth the Count de Paris with his brother & the 
 Prince de Joinville T came to my studio & looked over 
 
 1 The Comte de Paris was the eldest grandson of Louis 
 Philippe. At the Revolution of 1848 his mother brought him to 
 England, and he grew up at York House, Twickenham, with his 
 brother, the Due de Chartres. The following year he went to 
 
 178 
 

 179 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 lots of Nilatic drawings. They were pleased with the 
 drawings, & I with them — for the two young men 
 particularly are really intelligent & unaffected. 
 
 I hope to send your two Nunehams x to Strawberry 
 very early next week — I hope extremely that you will 
 like them. 
 
 I have been & am still painting Cedars at Oatlands 
 Hotel — & I return there on November ist, for the soil 
 is so dry that at present I have neither Asthma nor 
 roomatizsim when I am there — On the contrary I 
 have been making some new nonsenses in my old age 
 — "still in our ashes " &c, (see overleaf). 
 
 Please remember me to Mr. Harcourt. 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 The Oatlands Park Hotel. 
 
 Near Walton-on-Thames. 
 Surrey. 
 
 7 day of Dec. i860. 
 
 My DEAR 4°SCUE, — Aat>6vTog rrjv rrjg avyrjg Tr)v im<JTo\r]V 
 aov, (pvaag rl Trig avyrjg tov 7rpu>Tov piipovg rr)g r)/xlpag,) kcu 
 Tt)g S'rjKrjc gov KaXiog tvpiatcopievri, iyaipzoa ttoXv. 'AAAa oe 
 juaAAov Savp.a<TO'uv riva p.r) tig oltciav svptcricovTog tov Kw/^tjv 
 Tr)g Haptaaiag, KaicicrTog 6 naipog, kcu, (obrwg Ittuv,) Trpoaeiirtjjv 
 ai)TOV ore yviopi^uv toaXa tov Nau^rjyov ~Er)p:wp, TrtZ>r) irportpov 
 piaKpcjg avp.ir£pnraTOvvTU)v tm rrjv Tr)g Pivpirig l^o\r)v, eicdvov 
 Tore (rrrov iroXXa errj) ZioypcHpdwv fiovvtov teal KaraicAwjUaiv 
 
 America to serve in the Civil War, with his brother and the 
 Prince de Joinville, his uncle. 
 
 1 Two pictures painted in the grounds of Nuneham, Mr. 
 Harcourt's house in Oxfordshire. The pictures are now in the 
 possession of Lord Waldegrave. 
 
 180 
 
Rome and a Winter in England 
 
 £j0ya£e(r3"ai, iroXig ovar)g y\ Vwfia rotavra fit Karaaracreig Ivrog 
 fxwpov TTspacoicXov, aXXa ce rov Mt\e\ov "Efif/wp ovrog slg rov 
 * Ayye^ov r) ^Ap^ayyeXov ttottotz avyyevtwg ovte €e€euwv, oute 
 wg \pev$ag Xiywv Siva/nat : Trig av^oyov rov, aWa eldria-ig uvai 
 otl rov larpov SijO. r Qi. Nairovou, (pang 6 (3a<n\£vg 6 rtwpiog 
 6 rioaaprog rr)g 'AyyXiag e^epaTrev^t] piepiKiov vo<rwv Xeyei r\ 
 (prifirj) ovotjc Svyarpog. 1 
 
 I had your letter this morning, (now the morning is 
 the first or earliest part of the day.) That you did not 
 find the Count de Paris at home was more surprising 
 that the weather was so wet, &, so to speak, I may add 
 that I myself also once knew Admiral Seymour 2 very 
 well, having made at one time long excursions on the 
 Campagna of Rome with him, — he there occupying 
 himself with drawing views of mountains & vallies : — 
 for Rome is a city abounding with objects of that sort 
 within a small circle, but that this Michael Seymour 
 was anyway related to the angel or Archangel I can 
 neither certainly state nor yet positively deny : although 
 it is well known that his wife was a daughter of the 
 Physician Sir W. Knighton by whom report says 
 George the 4th, King of England, was successfully 
 treated. 
 
 1 " When I received your sunrise letter (sunrise is what the 
 Greeks call the morning) and found your enclosure all right, I 
 was very glad." Lear has translated the whole letter in the 
 paragraph following, so with the exception of the first sentence 
 no further translation is required. 
 
 2 Sir Michael Seymour won special distinction in the troubles 
 with China in 1857, when he destroyed the Chinese junk fleet 
 and captured Canton. In 1858 he forced his way up to Tient- 
 sing, and a treaty was signed. 
 
 181 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Bother Thucydides. 
 
 A letter from Rome this morning brings me a 
 "quittance" from the " Fratelli Spillman" my late 
 landlord, putting an end to my lodging treaty, — The 
 compliments they pay to my "high & renowned 
 qualities " & to my " superior nature " have made my 
 stomach ache : — tho' I am very glad the Roman affair 
 is done with. 
 
 I wish I could hear from poor Giorgio. 
 
 Write soon. And don't get in the way of those 
 odious Donaghue maniacs l : — I said little about them, 
 for I hate the whole lot so much I can't keep my 
 temper on the subject. 
 
 Don't forget my messages to Mrs. Ruxton, & Chi, & 
 all who know me — " a blessed privilege " as Mrs. H. 
 says. 
 
 I do not think the picture (Bassse) is to be pre- 
 sented by the subscribers, as they say that won't do 
 for a precedent, but by a certain lot of Trinity Coll. 
 fellows. 
 
 15. Stratford Place. 
 Oxford Street. 
 
 Thursday 7. March. 1861. 
 
 You will be sorry to hear that my dear sister Ann is 
 extremely ill. — Although she was here last week, — as 
 I told you on Sunday, — she has had a relapse of her 
 internal complaint & some alarming symptoms are 
 showing themselves. Besides this the poor dear has a 
 
 1 The O' Donaghue, the member for Tipperary, was one of the 
 leaders of the extreme section of the Roman Catholic party in 
 Ireland, and an ardent supporter of the Papal claims. 
 
 182 
 
if A 
 
 ( »ncc upon a 'ime a bird v as ill, and a c^t, bending 1 down to it, said, ' How are you and what do you 
 want? I will give you everything 1 , only get we 1 !.' And the bird replied, * If you go away I shan't die.' '' 
 
 'To face pa je 1S2 
 
Rome and a Winter in England 
 
 dreadful swelling in the back of the neck, which con- 
 tinually increases, & which the Doctor fears may turn 
 to Carbuncle. The two illnesses together will I dread, 
 be more than at her age she can rally from, nor do I 
 quite think she would undergo any operation, which 
 the Doctors hint may be expedient. Her medical man 
 sent for me last night, & I have seen her. Poor dear 
 creature, her sufferings are very sad, yet she is absolutely 
 cheerful & tranquil, & speaks of dying as a change 
 about to bring such great delight that she only checks 
 herself for thinking of it too much. She has always 
 been indeed as near Heaven as it was possible to be. 
 
 I have written for both my sisters : — the widow 
 comes to-day. 
 
 You may suppose I am greatly distressed at this, 
 tho' at present I do not fully realize the whole. 
 
 I heard from Lord Clermont to-day. I had thought 
 it right as I had before written about the Civitella, — 
 to tell him it was sold, — Sir Francis Goldsmid * pur- 
 chased it on Monday : — for 1 50 guineas, which you 
 also will be glad to hear. 
 
 Penrhyn 2 died yesterday morning. Leycester P. 
 wrote to me yesterday — but, altho' I wish to go to the 
 funeral, my sister's state of health may prevent me. 
 
 1 The first Jew called to the English Bar, and the first Jewish 
 Q.C. and Bencher. President of the Senate of University 
 College, London. 
 
 2 Edward Leycester took the name of Penrhyn in accordance 
 with the will of his cousin, Lady Penrhyn, whose property he 
 inherited. He married in 1823 Lady Charlotte Stanley, eldest 
 daughter of the thirteenth Earl of Derby. 
 
 183 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 The death of his sister on nth March, 1861, 
 was a great blow to him. 
 
 Angel Hotel, Lymington. 
 
 18. March. 1861. 
 
 My dear Chichester, — I write this, more to thank 
 you for your's than for ought else. 
 
 I went to Oatlands after the funeral ; — but have 
 come to-day to this place, hoping to get to A. Tenny- 
 son, but there was no steamer. 
 
 I am all at sea & do not know my way an hour ahead. 
 
 I shall be so terribly alone. 
 
 Wandering about a little may do some good perhaps. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 Edward Lear. 
 
 184 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 1861 
 
 ITALY AND SWITZERLAND 
 
 THE death of his eldest sister, who had 
 been like a mother to him for so many 
 years, and to whom he had always been deeply 
 devoted, affected Lear's health and spirits to so 
 great an extent, that he welcomed the oppor- 
 tunity given him by Lady Waldegrave of 
 going to Italy, in order to execute her com- 
 mission to paint a picture of the view from the 
 celebrated Villa Petraja of Florence. Stopping 
 at Turin on his way there, he mentions that he 
 
 waited thro' Sunday for the fete, — well worth 
 the delay — and I saw Vpctor] E[mmanuel] quite 
 closely, as well as all the milingtary specktickle. 
 We all of us, however, little thought then that the 
 merry days would be so soon clouded by Cavour's 
 death. 1 
 
 1 The news of Cavour's death on the 6th of June plunged 
 all Italy into mourning. 
 
 185 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 On June 8, 1861, he reached Florence, 
 whence he writes : — 
 
 There has been a row of a small kind here, — the 
 people being angry that some reactionists appeared on 
 C[avour]'s death being known — with Austrian orders, 
 etc. The mob tore the orders off, and Corsini had 
 to run for it into the Duomo till the N. Guard came. 
 Moreover, in the Corpus Domini, the Priests turn 
 away the Host from the soldiers, who kneel. The 
 priest party seem as blind as such fools usually are ! 
 
 And on the 24th — 
 
 Things are very unsatisfactory in many ways. 
 Certain people are positive that the I[sland] of 
 Sfardinia] will be given up shortly — to follow Npce] 
 and Sfavoy]. 1 
 
 It does not seem clear to me that there may be 
 a reaction strong enough to bring back the K[ing] 
 of N[aples] 2 — and perhaps the G[rand] D[uke], but 
 if anything is clearer it is this, — that their return 
 would end, as in the case of the Stuart restoration, 
 in more distinct revolution, and more absolute exile. 
 
 Meanwhile he set to work in earnest on the 
 Petraja picture, though still far from well either 
 
 1 In March, i860, Savoy and Nice were ceded to France in 
 return for her services in helping to free Italy. 
 
 2 In September of the previous year Francis II. of Naples, a 
 ruler as bad as his father, had been driven out of his kingdom 
 by Garibaldi. 
 
 186 
 
Italy and Switzerland 
 
 bodily or mentally, for he was suffering from a 
 severe internal sprain, and had just received 
 the news of his sister Mary's death at sea, on 
 the voyage back from New Zealand 
 
 Early in July he started on a tour northward 
 through Italy to Switzerland, visiting Lucca, 
 Pisa, Via Reggio (where he made a drawing 
 of Shelley's burial-place), Pietrasanta, Massa, 
 Carrara, and Sargano, reaching Spezzia on the 
 14th. Thence he went to Genoa on his way 
 back to Turin, where he says : — 
 
 I have been trying to draw the Alps, but they, 
 like Sarah in Abraham's tent, have hidden themselves. 
 So I took a fit of Protestant enthusiasm and rushed 
 off to the Vaudois vallies, which are very interesting. 
 
 And with regard to the political situation — 
 
 The Turinese have been a-saluting the Swedish 
 Ambassador with a serenade, and cheering him 
 immensely. I fancy the other side are by no means 
 giving up hopes of upsetting matters yet — but with 
 Cialdini at Naples l they will find themselves sold. 
 " One struggle more and we are free," as the song 
 says. But that the Priesthood can ever be where 
 
 1 On the 13th of February General Cialdini, head of the 
 Piedmontese army, took the fortress of Gaeta, the last strong- 
 hold of King Francis II., and then went to Naples as Lieut- 
 Governor for the civil administration of the country. 
 
 187 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 and what it was only very shortsighted folk can 
 suppose. I wish I had heard Ricasoli's l speech on 
 Sunday, at the Inauguration of C. Alberti's statue. 
 
 From Turin he went to Courmayeur and 
 then to Aosta. Crossing the St. Bernard to 
 Martiny, he proceeded to Vevey 
 
 which is Paradise, and I don't see how the people 
 there and at Lausanne can have the impudence to 
 suppose that they can go to Heaven after death. 
 
 After visiting Ferney, Geneva, Chamounix, 
 and many other places, and filling his portfolio 
 with drawings, he returned to England at the 
 end of August. 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 Aosta. 28. July. 1861. 
 Dear 40SCUE, — Je vois, (dans le Temps) que vous 
 vous portez en Irelande, e cessez d'etre Sectre. pour les 
 Colonies. 2 Faites moi savoir de vos nouvelles — a 
 
 1 Prime Minister of the Government of the new Italian 
 kingdom. 
 
 2 A leader in the Times of July 22nd stated that Mr. Chichester 
 Fortescue was to suceeed to the office of Chief Secretary for 
 Ireland, vacated by Mr. Cardwell, who was to be promoted to 
 the Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster ; but this 
 information was incorrect, as Sir Robert Peel was appointed 
 Chief Secretary on the 25th, and Mr. Fortescue continued at 
 the Colonial Office. 
 
 188 
 
Italy and Switzerland 
 
 Geneve — Je vous prie — ou je dois me trouver le 
 
 Sieme. Aout au plus tard. Est ce que vous serez 
 
 deja parti avant que je suis de retour, c'est a dire le 
 
 25, de ce mois ci? 
 
 Votre affly, 
 
 Edward Lear. 
 
 119 Marina, St. Leonard's-on-Sea. 
 Sussex. 
 
 29th. August 1 86 1. 
 
 At present I am at work ferociously on the Petraja, 
 & I must say it promises well. I worked on the large 
 lemon trees in pots all yesterday, & to-day must fidget 
 over the houses all the long hours. No life is more 
 shocking to me than the sitting motionless like a 
 petrified gorilla as to my body & limbs hour after 
 hour — my hand meanwhile, reck peck pecking at 
 billions of little dots & lines, while my mind is fretting 
 & fuming through every moment of the weary days 
 work. 
 
 Do you see the charge against Thirlwall r in the 
 Westminster ? T. having been attacked about his part 
 of persecution in the Essays & Reviews, 2 & being 
 asked how he could be so bitter when he himself 
 had written Schleirmachers Luke — says in reply 
 " No ! not I, but a lawyer Thirwall wrote that — 
 not the priest." (This it seems is true but it was not 
 
 1 Bishop of St. David's. 
 
 2 A Liberal work published in i860, by various authors. It 
 caused some commotion in the English Church because of the 
 alleged heresy of the views expressed. Professor Jowett was 
 one of the contributors. 
 
 189 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 published till 4 years after T. was ordained : — which 
 little bit of Jesuitry they now display to the orthodox 
 Bishop.) 
 
 Your remarx on Ardee interested me much : — It is 
 indeed a different life for you. The prayers — just 
 as they are — you are quite right to read daily : dear 
 old Mrs. Ruxton means nothing but good, — even 
 when she says the Athanasian Creed : It is not the 
 individual peculiarity of worship that grates on us, 
 so much as the public recognition of a hateful exclusion 
 principle. 
 
 Bye the bye this reminds me of Emily Miss 
 Beaufort's 2 volumes l — which I think your Aunt 
 would like : the Miss Bs must be plucky singular 
 women, — but there is too much enthusiasm & religious 
 zeal in Miss Emily for my taste, so far as I have got 
 in her book. Yet if she could help me at the Mount 
 of Olives in my large view of Jerusalem ! Think of 
 laying your head, my head I mean, after long long 
 hours of weary outline drawing — not on the hard 
 bolster of the tent bed, but on an intelligent female's 
 buzzim ! I declare to you that the invitation to meet 
 them so near here at the Goldsmid's for 2 days sorely 
 puzzles me, tho' I believe I shall stick to my work 
 here & go nowhere even for the small chance of 
 future female buzzims & intelligent aid in outline. 
 
 'b' 
 
 1 " Egyptian Sepulchres and Syrian Shrines, including some 
 stay in the Lebanon, at Palmyra, and in Western Turkey," 1861, 
 by Emily Beaufort, the daughter of the distinguished geo- 
 grapher. 
 
 190 
 
Italy and Switzerland 
 
 Let me hear what news you have of Lady W. I 
 believe she & Mr. H. have gone on a political 
 errand to Vienna, as his cousin to Perth. Ought 
 not Roebuck to be hooted, intanto, anent his Sar- 
 dinian Declaration ? I 
 
 Meanwhile, I have very few letters here as yet 
 & mainly from my sister Ellinor, who has other 
 letters from America, all wretched enough. I am 
 trying to send money to Frederick's family, but 
 Drummond says it is not to be done, all the more 
 that President] Lincoln has now prohibited all inter- 
 course between the two sides. Fredk's only son has 
 joined the Southern army : Henry's 4 sons have 
 joined the North side, but it seems to me that Henry 
 from New York, looks as gloomily on the Northern 
 prospects as F. does from Springfield. I suppose 
 all my 5 nephews were in the last battle, a curious 
 state of unpleasant domestic romance. 2 
 
 From the Hornby's & Cross I have not heard, 
 & imagine they are at Dover, where not improbably 
 Lady Denison would go, as her sister-in-law Mrs. 
 Phillimore 3 would be there, & the whole Palmerstonian 
 
 1 At a banquet at Sheffield on August 21st Mr. Roebuck 
 announced that he knew for a fact that a compact had been 
 entered into between the King of Italy and the Emperor of the 
 French, that the latter should have the Island of Sardinia so 
 soon as he withdrew his troops from Rome. This was after- 
 wards contradicted most emphatically by the French Press, as 
 well as by Baron Ricasoli. 
 
 2 The American Civil War broke out early in the year. 
 
 3 Sister of Sir William Denison and Evelyn Denison, Speaker 
 of the House of Commons. She married Mr. R. J. Phillimore 
 
 191 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 spectacle r worth seeing & being part of. Nor does 
 Clowes write, — perhaps in Norway : nor James 
 Edwards — perhaps in the sulx. 
 
 My own life is — I rise at six or 6.30. — & work a 
 short hour before breakfast at 8. Bkft as slight as 
 possible — 2 cups of tea, 2 bits of dry toast, 2 ditto 
 bacon, work till 11 — : newspaper. Work again till 
 2. small bit of cake. — work till 4. Dine, simple sole & 
 beneficial beer : work again till 7. wash brushes & 
 swear till 7.30. Prowl in the dark along the melan- 
 choly sea till 8.45. Bed at 9.30. For I am too 
 sad & tired by that time to work again. Bed 
 extremely uncomfortable — like a plum pie turned into 
 stone. Lie awake & have the cramp & the side-ache 
 till morning. Then the "break, break, break," of the 
 sea gets me to sleep. I have a piano, but seldom 
 play. Housemaid vexatious &, a goose, — wears 
 crinolines. Your Palgrave book 2 is very delightful : 
 every piece seems well chosen. 
 
 I must stop now. I am grieved at not coming 
 myself, but besides all the fuss aforesaid, I am not 
 well enough for a stay anywhere : — the other day 
 you saw me in a lively fit from meeting you so 
 apropos — but generally I am restless & glumy. I 
 think I shall take to drinking as a change. 
 
 (created a baronet in 1881), at this time Judge of the Cinque 
 Ports. 
 
 1 Lord Palmerston was instituted Lord Warden of the Cinque 
 Ports at Dover on the 28th of August. 
 
 2 F. T. Palgrave had just published his " Golden Treasury of 
 Songs and Lyrics." 
 
 192 
 
Italy and Switzerland 
 
 Little Browning — (7 or 8 years old) said to Lady 
 Normanby one day " I write poetry as Papa & 
 Mama do"— "Oh!" said Lady N. "I thought you 
 seemed a very odd little boy — but now I see — there 
 are 3 incomprehensibles, not one incomprehensible." 
 
 5. Sept. 1861. 
 
 I fully intended to have written to you on Sunday — 
 being in a fretful state of mind at having disappointed 
 you by not coming, & myself by not going to Ire- 
 land : — but when I had written 24 letters, I became 
 like unto a spawned salmon, & was exhausted, & 
 could work no more. 
 
 Concerning the buzzim of intelligence, I am dis- 
 pleased, (since I wrote,) with some of Miss Emily 
 Beaufort's l writing. She wonders forsooth, that there 
 is a traditional terror of the Cross or " anything 
 shaped like a cross " among the poor " ignorant 
 Jews " at Jerusalem ! — Has Emily then never heard 
 of the Crusades, of the Spanish persecutions & 
 Inquisition, of St. Bartholomew, of all the Popes, 
 not to speak of Lord Chelmsford 2 & Mr. Spooner ? 3 
 If she has not, the Jews have, she may take her 
 davy. 
 
 1 Regarding this lady, Fortescue writes on the 3rd September : 
 " I wonder whether you want after all to meet the Beauforts. 
 My impression is that intelligent females who write books 
 are often disappointing. You can tell me whether my con- 
 clusion is correct." 
 
 2 Lord Chancellor in Lord Derby's Ministry. 
 
 3 Leader of the Anti-Maynooth party in the House of 
 Commons. 
 
 193 O 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Yes — : I certainly do hate the act of painting : 
 & although day after day I go steadily on, it is like 
 grinding my nose off. The elder Morier has written 
 me a beautiful letter : he is so pleased with R.'s J 
 engagement : — " der dikke " 2 — albeit, is laid up with 
 gout : the 26th. is, it seems, the wedding day. The 
 elder Edwards wrote, asking for a succinct as to size, 
 age, place &c, account of the Cedars, which I sent : 
 some days later comes a Liverpool paper, giving a 
 notice of the private view of the Exhibition, " The 
 Cedars," being the great Lion & praised to the 
 skies — the concluding paragraph being — " Mr. Lear 
 has in this great picture not only achieved a pro- 
 fessional success, but he has also conferred an obliga- 
 tion of the highest order on the whole Christian 
 world " (!!!!! ! — After that take care how you speak 
 or write to me.) 
 
 I have letters also from America : — terrible alto- 
 gether. All chances are now shut up of farther 
 communication from Missouri, & even the $£ I 
 have sent in a letter will probably never reach its 
 destination. 
 
 Bye the bye, some who know, or profess to know 
 Italy, declare that representative Govt, never will 
 succeed there, because they say it will become a 
 representation of advocates, & military only — the 
 ingredient of Landed interest not being encouraged 
 
 1 Robert Morier, at this time attache at Berlin, married Alice, 
 the daughter of Lieut.-Gen. the Rt. Hon. J. and Lady Alice 
 Peel. Fortescue was his best man. 2 " The Stout." 
 
 194 
 
Italy and Switzerland 
 
 or possible. Lever told me this, & said it was 
 Bulwer Lytton's opinion : (which perhaps made it 
 his, for Mrs. Lever is a relative.) 
 
 I wish I could see you all at Rostrevor. You 
 are right to go & see the Flower-show, delilahs 
 high-derangers & what not. Do not be relaxed by 
 the climate if possible, leastways take some tonic : 
 dear me ! what good beef & beer there used to be 
 at Red House — (not to speak of sherry). 
 
 21. Sept. 1861. 
 
 You are a kind good fellow to think of coming 
 down here on Thursday after Morier's wedding, 
 & I should be an "oomboog" if I said it wouldn't 
 please me. Only I wish you could have made the 
 journey on your way out of England, so as not to 
 have so long a giro to make on purpose to see the 
 dirty Landscape-painter. 
 
 The New Zealand news is interesting : (I can't 
 make out if Sir J. Grey is arrived there yet.) 
 Christianity will extirpate the other race eventually, 
 (but then their souls may have been saved you know,) 
 as in the battle of races has ever occurred, when there 
 is greater power on one side than on the other ; and 
 I don't see much use in blinking the fact. I had a 
 long letter from Rome yesterday : among other 
 matters it appears curious to me that Pentini is 
 about to be made a Cardinal, — (he is an upright & 
 liberal Catholic,) & it seems to me an indication 
 that the Holy See, perceiving that they must go 
 
 195 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 with the stream, are about to make it easy (very 
 gradually) by allowing more of the liberal ingredient 
 to enter into the Conclave. — But I do not think 
 anything very sudden will occur, as L[ouis] N[apoleon] 
 would abhor any general shudder in his own empire. 
 Grammont's recall is however considered as pointing 
 to a change. My informant, a very reserved person, 
 yet one who knows intimately all that goes on, — 
 says " Of all the brigandage and reaction you hear 
 of, nothing occurs that does not directly emanate 
 from here." — She speaks also of the Ex Q. of N. 
 as "the fastest of all young women, not to say 
 Queens." 
 
 V. Emmanuel at Florence is very interesting to me, 
 as I have now made the view from Villa Petraja all 
 but a reality, it seems as I sit hour after hour at work, 
 as if I could hear the vivas from the distance. 
 
 Holman Hunt writes very amusingly from Oxford, 
 near which he is painting in a field, but has been 
 discovered : — & people send him out luncheons — five 
 or six parties, & troops of ladies trudge across fields 
 with Albums for his Autograph. 
 
 The weather has often been lovely here, but is now 
 cold, & only fit for beetles & hogs. 
 
 15. Stratford Place. 
 Oxford Street. 
 London. 
 
 11 Oct. 186 1. 
 
 I had your letter this morning, which was pleasant, 
 
 coming as it did with two other pleasant letters ; — 
 
 196 
 
Italy and Switzerland 
 
 one from Emily Tennyson, on their return from the 
 Pyrenees; — the other from Franklin Lushington, which 
 his Aunt Lady Murray l being dead, tin has descended 
 to him. But if you expect me to write well or much 
 you will find yourself disappointed : for at this par- 
 ticular juncture when every hour is full of worry, 
 daylight shortening, fogs unceasing, & pictures un- 
 finished — at this inconvenient time I say — two Danish 
 friends, & 5 Canadian cousins have simultaneously & 
 inopportunely turned up, to destroy my peace of mind 
 & call forth the innate amiable qualities of my nature. 
 For if I say " I am particularly engaged just now " 
 that would only seem a general excuse for showing 
 a cold shoulder to foreigners & interruptors : — so 
 that I have made up my mind to go to Windsor 
 with the Danes, & Leatherhead 2 with the cousins — 
 2 sublime sacrificial acts which in themselves are 
 somewhat, but beyond themselves involve seeking 
 tickets & arrangement by notes to no end of 
 botheration. I am glad you are enjoying yourself. 
 I ain't. And as for content, that is a loathsome 
 slimy humbug — fit only for potatoes, very fat hogs, — 
 & fools generally. Let us pray fervently that we 
 may never become such asses as to be contented. 
 Nevertheless I was sorry my last letter followed 
 you, as I dare-say it was disagreeable : which most 
 things are : & myself especially. But did you ever 
 have a beastly bore of a brother-in-law who perse- 
 
 1 Wife of the distinguished Judge. 
 
 2 Where " Sister Newsom " lived. 
 
 197 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 cuted you for tin? If not you cannot enter into 
 my feelings just now. 
 
 Meanwhile I left St. Leonard's on the 30th. Sept. 
 & went to Sir F. Goldsmid's for 3 days. Such a 
 nice house & pleasant people ! Such a distracting 
 Miss G. with such a face, like Mary Squeen of 
 Cotts ! — So then I came back here, & am involved 
 in fog & very cursed filth. Yet to me London is 
 not hempty. Holman Hunt, Beadons, Bruce, Digby 
 Wyatt, 1 Bergmanns, Alfred Seymour, Terrick Hamil- 
 ton, 2 Fairbairn,3 Col., Hornby, & my 2 Godson's 
 families 4 — are among those I see. And, very possibly, 
 the small dinners of highly intelligent or scientific 
 middle class friends are about the really best society 
 going, though you might not think so, as Diamonds 
 & Marchionesses hardly ever enter into these more 
 vulgar Kingdoms of Heaven, nor are Duchesses or 
 Princes frequent. 
 
 Bye the bye, there is a new spadmodic poet, by 
 name Swinburne who seems to amaze small circles. 
 
 The religious world bubbles & frizzes, & it is now 
 said that the Athanasian Creed is to be repeated 
 always before dinner in all Godly houses — & some- 
 times afterwards also. One of the Hyaenas at the 
 Zoological Gardens is dead, & one of the Giraffes 
 
 1 The architect, knighted in 1869. He was secretary to the 
 Executive Committee of the Great Exhibition, 1851. 
 
 2 Of Charters, Berks. Became M.P. for Salisbury, 1865. 
 
 3 Thomas Fairbairn, whom Lear often mentions in his letters, 
 was the eldest son of Sir "William Fairbairn, the great engineer. 
 
 * Combes' and Crosses'. 
 
 198 
 
</Vu*^ "Kiu 
 
Italy and Switzerland 
 
 has brought forth a puppy, I mean a calf, that is 
 a giraffino. And the Hippopotamice, have, (I regret 
 to say) attempted to reproduce ineffectually more 
 than once. A large & not pleasantly-odorous dead 
 black cat has adorned our door steps for 5 days, but 
 that is not wonderful, only sad. Thomas Woolner 
 the Sculptor l has taken a house in Welbeck St. & 
 Palgrave the poet has gone to live with him. The 
 wick of the lamp wanes, & I stop. 
 
 12th October. 
 
 I can't add much now : — The Petraja is finished, & 
 will be sealed up in its new frame on Monday. 
 
 This morning brings me one more dreadful letter 
 from Missouri, shocking to read, & preventing my 
 thinking of anything besides its ugly subject. 
 
 If you are really here by the 1st. Nov., I most 
 probbbably shall see you. 
 
 28th Oct. 1861. 
 
 All the nonsense book, with 42 additional illustra- 
 tions are completed as woodcuts, & negrotiations 
 commence with a Buplisher next week. Maclean 
 also is to do a small work on the Ionian Isles — so 
 pease an darmony prevale. 
 
 My elth is better : & I am, (at this moment,) 
 not quite so sleepy or savage as I was when I 
 wrote last. 
 
 (Arthur Stanley who visited Athos with W. G. 
 
 1 One of the seven original members of the Prag-Raphaelite 
 brotherhood. 
 
 199 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Clark, writes on a card " Athos beautiful & curious : 
 not classical enough for W. G. C, not ecclesiastical 
 enough for A. P. S.") 
 
 The buzzimless have been here for 4 hours : — 
 I don't "cotton" to them. Patent, shiny, lacquer, 
 pimmy-puny, tic tic tic tic. They are however 
 ladylike, & plucky as travelleresses. I shall be 
 immensely delighted if Lady W. likes the " Petraja " 
 even half as well as some do. The garrulous 
 gardener however did not observe that I "sat " on 
 a "spot" to colour my plain & distance, but that I 
 "stood" on another "spot" to draw the whole. 
 Can the Hithihopian go for to change his spots? — 
 Yea, but I am not an Ethiopian. O Lord ! cousins ! 
 Canadian cousins ! Danish friends ! 
 
 You will see Sir J. Graham J is dead : & Lord 
 Lansdowne 2 very ill. I think I shall stop now : it's 
 rather an amiable letter for me. 
 
 Trieste. 
 
 Hotel de la Ville 
 Sat. 16. Nov. 1861. 10. a.m. 
 
 I shall employ my last hours on earth, — i.e. before 
 
 I embark on the oshun, in writing to you — this 
 
 spot, a dry attic in the Hotel de Ville, being 
 
 perhaps better adapted for writing than Adriatic 
 
 waves would be. 
 
 1 The eminent statesman, who sat in eleven Parliaments, and 
 filled many great offices of state. From his debut in 1818 till 
 his death in 1861, he was one of the most important figures in 
 English political life. 
 
 2 The fourth Marquess. 
 
 200 
 
Italy and Switzerland 
 
 Not but the day is as perfect & brilliant as any 
 poet might presume to be the perfection of perennial 
 Paradise. 
 
 All the traffic of Trieste is like gold & silver 
 set in lapis lazuli & emerald, & the air is as lovely 
 as the wision & spectacles .1 shall however, some 
 of the details concerning my sometimes but seldom 
 disagreeable, generally extremely pleasant, &. always 
 filled with eventually tumbling down upon my legs 
 circumstances, journey from Folkestone to this place 
 to relate proceed. 1 
 
 First my voyage over to Boulogne was remarkable 
 as the only one out of some score made, which was 
 quite calm, & on which & of which I was not sick. 
 Moreover it was a pleasure to see that wonderful 
 old man Lord Brougham 2 who was also passing 
 over ; not but that he is greatly aged in appear- 
 ance, yet he is a wonder of a man. There was the 
 Hearl of Arrowby3 also. But what was more to 
 the point, was a young couple, Plumers, going out 
 to Injy with two delightful children ; said Plumers 
 having a letter from the Hornbys to the Denisons, 
 & being old friends of the Crakes & Penrhyns. At 
 Boulogne, where Lord B. examined all the Restaurant 
 & toddled about continual, — the Plumers, speaking 
 no French, were bothered — & I gladly helped them 
 
 1 Written on the principle of a German sentence intentionally. 
 
 2 He died at Cannes, seven years afterwards, where he had a 
 villa. At this time he was eighty-three years of age. 
 
 s An eminent Conservative statesman. 
 
 201 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 to a carriage, where jointly we all talked & nursed 
 the childer to Paris. There, not a bit ot luggage 
 was opened, & at i p.m. I got to the Louvre. Next 
 day 9th. I met with T. Wyatt, 1 my friend the 
 Architect, & appointed to do & see various things. 
 I went also to see one Chichester 40scue supposing 
 he might be ill, but was glad to find he was better. 
 Wyatt & I dined sumptuously together, & by 8.30 
 next day, 10th I was on my way to Strasbourg, 
 where I slept, as that train stops. 
 
 On the nth, Monday, at Kehl by 8 — luggage 
 being all registered to Vienna. In the carriage was 
 a very lady-like elderly woman, who very amiably 
 assisted me in German : — we however, talked French, 
 & for all the long journey I shall always thank the 
 good old lady — who was one of the best informed, most 
 clever, — largeminded, & charming individuals I have 
 met with of late. Eventually I came to know that 
 her son is Ambassador or Minister either at Vienna 
 or Paris, (his name being Wimppfen) : — I suppose 
 from some Court such as Wirtembg. or Munich. 
 Please tell me if you know. 
 
 At Brucksal Madme. W. & I fraternized & dined 
 together. Beyond that our converse was disturbed 
 by a Servian Countess with an unruly boy — whom 
 I took to task : the Countess had a suite of 5 
 persons — whom it seemed to me she snubbed. At 
 Stuttgart, some ladies of the Queen were sent to 
 see Mdme. W. who had to speak of the K. & O. 
 
 1 Brother of Digby Wyatt. 
 202 
 
Italy and Switzerland 
 
 &c — whereon the Countess who understood all 
 tongues, thought fit to take her legs off the seat 
 & bully her boy into decent quiet, & to favour 
 Mdme. & me by several items of notice. Later 
 when Madame W. & I were talking of Corfu, she 
 suddenly calmly asked me if I knew a " famiglia 
 princepesca, chiamata Roma? — la figlia maritata al 
 Governatore di India, uno Sir George Bowen — tutti 
 parenti della principessa de Monte N. ? " ' 
 
 By i o we arrived at Munich, & the day having been 
 fine, it was great fun to see the country as well as 
 to be so well off for company. Tuesday — 12 th. I 
 was on my legs all day. I had no idea of the 
 curiousity and interest of Munich — much as I had 
 heard of it. That a single man, (Louis, 2 ) should 
 have made such a capital is very extraordinary. At 
 the table d'hote — 6. P.M. there were two Italians, 
 who, by my talking to some others, took me for a 
 Florentine — but when the other lot went away, — 
 hearing me speak English, asked me what country 
 I was of, & on my saying English, became very 
 communicative. I found that the man knew every 
 part of the South of Italy — & he must have been 
 puzzled by my knowledge of all the families of the 
 Abruzzi & Calabria. I found he went to get 
 my name afterwards — though that could not have 
 
 1 A princely family called Roma? the daughter married to 
 the Governor of India, one Sir George Bowen — all relations of 
 the Princess of Montenegro ? 
 
 a King Louis I. of Bavaria, who was compelled to abdicate 
 in 1848. 
 
 203 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 enlightened him much : — but I did the same towards 
 him, & discovered he was F[rancis] 2d's minister 
 to Bavaria, — only just arrived ! 
 
 At 10. P.M. off by rail : the dear old Wimpfennious 
 lady, a Phanariote Gk, & myself getting a Coupd — : 
 the Servian Countess & suite another carriage. Con- 
 versation in the coup6 was carried on in English, 
 French, German, Italian, & Greek, & was very 
 amusing all night, especially a dissertation on 
 religion of which we 3 represented 3 forms — I, in 
 the middle, acting as "buffer" to the 2 extremes 
 Orthodox & Schismatic. 
 
 At Salzbourg — (3. A.M. 13th.) Austrian frontier: 
 luggage all gone on, no bother. Servian boy fell ill — 
 & all the party had to stop. Perhaps I was hard 
 on the Countess, but she struck me as vulgar & a 
 spy. — At Vienna by noon : an ugly noisy place 
 which I hate. I got all my luggage safely, and was 
 not bothered a bit : the one drawing of Jerusalem 
 acting on the feelings of the whole Douane. 
 
 On Thursday 14th — off at 8.30 — by alas — a slow 
 train, for the quick trains now only go twice weekly 
 — meantime there was more leisure to see the 
 wonderful Lemmeriz Alp well. Was horribly starved 
 for 23 hours — as the brutal train only stops once, 
 & then for 15 minutes in the most awful crowd — 
 impossible for a blind man to penetrate. — So at 
 7.30. yesterday Friday 15th, I came to this excellent 
 Hotel : & I have since walked all about Trieste, 
 written letters to Dickinson & my sister Ellen — 
 
 204 
 
Italy and Switzerland 
 
 & a long one to my Godson's brother — full of 
 advice worthy of Lord Chesterfield, Elijah, or 
 Kingsley : besides this to you. Which I pray you 
 reply to — addressing to me at Corfu. I will write 
 also as soon as I get there. 
 
 But ah ! (the Landscape painter said,) 
 
 A brutal fly walks on my head 
 
 And my bald skin doth tickle ; 
 
 And so I stop distracted quite, 
 
 (With itching skin for who can write ?) 
 
 In most disgusting pickle — 
 
 & merely sign myself 
 
 Yours affectionately. 
 Tell me when you have seen the new Book of 
 Nonsense. Routledge & Warne, 2 Farringdon St., 
 will publish it, but it will make it more known to 
 advise it to be purchased at other booksellers. 
 Please recommend it all you can. I will write to 
 Lady W. soon. 
 
 205 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 1861-1862 
 
 CORFU 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 Corfu. Dec. 1st 1861. 
 
 MY DEAR 40SCUE, I have wished to write 
 before, but could not get settled enough to do 
 so. After I left Trieste, I had an abominable passage 
 hither : once we were on the point of putting back, 
 but finally we got here 20 hours after our time — 
 on the 19th. 
 
 Everybody was overwhelmingly hospitable, from 
 the Palace downwards : — but as the balls, & small 
 monotonous whist or tea-parties are wholly out of 
 my line in this very very very small tittletattle 
 place, & as moreover night walks from this side 
 of the City to the other don't suit me, not to speak 
 of late hours & a multitude of new & uninteresting 
 acquaintance, I decline all visiting on the plea of 
 health & antiquity or what not. The Woolfe's r 
 
 1 Mr. (afterwards Sir) Henry Drummond Wolfe was appointed 
 Secretary to Sir Henry Storks, the Lord High Commissioner, in 
 May, i860, after the departure of Sir George Bowen. 
 
 206 
 
Corfu 
 
 have very amiably asked me several times : — they 
 seem very & justly popular : — but the only point 
 at which Greeks, Germans, French, Italians, & 
 English in such a place as this, can amalgamate 
 being balls & the smallest of gossip — this tone of 
 social life bores me even more than total loneliness — 
 tho' that is very bad for me I know : — only the 
 alternative is wusser. The Sargents l seem nice 
 people, but they live remote. The Colquhouns 2 
 are remote & less nice — by report. The Palace 
 is dull : no lady — : the dinner there of 1 2 was as 
 all dinners are. The General is going, & what I am 
 sorry for, Lady B[uller], she being one of the nicest 
 women here. 
 
 What I find queer here is the extreme Toryism 
 of all parties, except Sir C. Sargent. (You will 
 remember that the swells here are so by a Tory 
 ministry.) Yet it sounds queer to hear the revolu- 
 tion in Italy spoken of sometimes with horror, some- 
 times as merely an absurd phase of politics soon 
 to pass by ; though on consideration, you can easily 
 suppose that any such a word as "nationality" must 
 be odious to the ears of all Govt, parties — and 
 you can easily conceive that the R. C.s — native & 
 English have a tower of strength in the P[ope]s 
 consul — & that they believe in the speedy extinction 
 
 1 Sir Chas. Sargent, member of the Supreme Council of Justice 
 of the Ionian Isles, i860, in the place of Sir J. Reid. 
 
 2 Sir Patrick M'Chombaich Colquhoun, Chief Justice of the 
 Ionian Isles, 1861, in the place of F. Lushington. 
 
 207 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 of V[ictor] E[mmanuel,] & the restoration of the 
 Roman States to Pio IX. There is a movement 
 among the Jews also — for "representation" (!!!!!) 
 at which both Greeks & R. C.'s foam & scoff. — 
 
 Meanwhile the society is far less amalgamated than 
 in former years, when such old resident & reputed 
 families as the Reids — Gisbornes — Cortazzis & others, 
 made a nucleus of social life, or when so intellectual 
 a man as F. Lushington had a table & house. And so, 
 the aspect spiritual of this little piggywiggy island is 
 much as a very little village in Ireland would be — 
 peopled by Orangemen & papists — & having all the 
 extra fuss & ill-will produced by a Court & small 
 officials — more or less with or against a resident 
 crowded Garrison. 
 
 The aspect material meanwhile — (with which I 
 have most to do — tho' unhappily no man can be 
 quite independent of the others,) is — so far as climate 
 & country goes, lovelier than ever. Yet seeing it 
 has never rained since April last, & that it is 
 now daily perfectly clear & fine — the wise anticipate 
 3 months rain at once & continual. For myself I 
 must get through this winter as well as I can, the loss 
 of my dear Ann, & also of Lushington as a resident 
 here, being a great weight to bear. 
 
 Many things here amuse me to hear, but there is 
 no time to write now : nor could all the Gladstone- 
 Young details be written down if I had. One of 
 Henry Bowen's brothers commands one of the 
 Regiments — but he & the Govt, are not on " terms " 
 
 208 
 
Corfu 
 
 — Morier's brother-in-law Major Peel, 1 is an A.D.C. 
 Old Lady (Heber) Valsamachi, still lives lihgeringly. 
 The whole affair of " Ionianism " appears to me 
 absurd & ill-conditioned : — an impossible end tried 
 for by impracticable means. Clark, the good chap- 
 lain is still here : — but I shan't go regularly to 
 church, — & if he sees the " Essays & Reviews " on 
 my table — me voila fini. Aubrey de Vere has just 
 arrived — which if I had to see him, would be a 
 bore : but isn't. O ! if I could but come back to 
 London, bringing with me the gold & blue & lilac 
 & pink of the air, sun, hills & snow with me ! How 
 is Mrs. Ruxton? The prison has been revolting 
 lately & Lady Emily K[ozziris] 2 greatly disturbed. 
 K. seems to be agreed on by all hands as more 
 incompetent than ever. 
 
 Corfu. 17 Dec. 1861. 
 I was highly pleased to get your two letters yester- 
 day, — the Lord High C. having sent them to me 
 promptitiously. Before now you will have received 
 mine of the 3rd. I trust, though I don't think it was a 
 very lively one. The present ephusion of my pen will 
 be written in better sperrits, because I have got to 
 work, & am working hard : — moreover I got letters 
 from Frank Lushington yesterday — & also from the 
 
 1 John Peel, fourth son of Lieut.-Gen. the Right Hon. J. 
 Peel. He had served throughout the Crimean War, and was 
 appointed Assistant Military Secretary at Malta in 1864. 
 
 2 Her husband, Giovanni Kozziris, was Keeper of the 
 Prison. 
 
 209 P 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 printer of the " Book of Nonsense " — who tells me 
 that Routledge & Warne have brought it out & that 
 over 500 copies have been already sold. Please do 
 what you can to encrease the sail by axing and talking 
 about it. 
 
 The room I have to paint in is A No. 1 — looking 
 out on Salvador & Seagulls : — 25 feet long & 
 made by me my total living room. This is a plan 
 
 of the house, a rummy one 
 enough as to shape, (oxx. 
 means windies. ■■. means 
 greats or firy places. = 
 means doors.) .... The 
 only great annoyance to the 
 house is, that like as in all 
 Corfu houses you hear all the noises of every other 
 inmate besides yourself: & the people over me, 
 — (Col. Maude,) tho' very amiable folk, are awfully 
 noisy. . . . One of the best comforts of this place to 
 me is the greater amount of daylight both in quality, 
 and in number of ours. Fancy drawing out of doors 
 till 5.5. P.M. as I did yesterday! as for the weather it 
 is Paradise multiplied by 10 : — tho' of course a flood 
 of rain must needs come bye & bye. 
 
 I like the Lord High — who has asked me to dine 
 twice, & once walked back from the One Gun with the 
 landscape painter — What I like in him is that he has a 
 will besides brains, — & has a soldierly & straight- 
 forward manner quite trustworthy, & withal a proper 
 setting forth of dignity. The Court is called dull — but 
 
 210 
 
Corfu 
 
 at least it is not like that of the Young Dynasty — 
 which was wholly a Dilettante affair — & one always 
 felt that the whole set were there for Lady Y.'s 
 11 amusement," & G.'s benefit. Sir John's vacillating 
 manner & softness — mustard & mulberries in a hash, 
 are well replaced by the present Governor's qualities 
 as far as a " worm " can judge, & I think he is well 
 looked on by all — certainly as a man of business there 
 is but one opinion of him. . . . 
 
 Meanwhile I am really delighted at the Petraja 
 pleasing her [Lady Waldegrave] so much : & she 
 could not have made me understand her liking of it 
 more than by the comparison of it to my singing. 
 You do not say if Mr. Harcourt's fall x was a fit or a 
 mere slip of the foot. 
 
 I had not heard of Lady Canning's 2 death, & I am 
 on account of those who survive her, most sorry for it. 
 It seems to me most especially sad, that after such a 
 terrible trial as her Indian residence has been, neither 
 Lord C. nor poor Lady Waterford,3 nor Lady S. de 
 Rothesay should be permitted to benefit by her return 
 home — an event till now so nearly in view. To me, 
 either in Rome many many years ago, or at Osborne 
 
 1 On his return with Lady Waldegrave from their continental 
 trip, Mr. Harcourt had a serious fall at Folkestone, which 
 shortly afterwards resulted in his death. 
 
 2 Wife of the first Viceroy of India. She was the eldest 
 daughter of Lord Stuart de Rothesay. 
 
 3 A sister of Lady Canning's. Her husband, the third 
 Marquess, was killed in a hunting accident in 1859. Her gifts 
 as an artist were of a very high order. 
 
 211 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 House, — or afterwards again at Rome, or after that in 
 London, Lady Canning was always exactly the same 
 kindly consistent, & pleasant woman : — unspoiled, tho' 
 having enough admiration for 20 fine ladies, & full of 
 taste and intelligence & unostentatious goodness. 
 With the worldliness & humbug of the L.s & the 
 vulgarity of the G.s she was to my feeling most 
 vividly contrasted : & I should think few persons 
 would be more truly mourned. If you hear any 
 particulars of her death let me know them. 
 
 One thing is needful that Henry Grenfell sends me 
 the dye-mentions of his picture of Philae r : — I wish 
 particularly to have time to paint it here, where the 
 sunsets are capital : — so please ask him to write the 
 feat a niches in the next letter you send, which please 
 the pigs may be soon. 
 
 What my letters are to you I can't say, for I never 
 read them over, but I believe they would be quite as 
 fit to read 100 years hence as anybody elses naughty 
 biography, specially when written off hand as mine are. 
 
 I wish I had more time for Greek : if I had my way 
 & wor an axiom maker & Lawgiver, I would cause it 
 to be understood that Greek is (or a knowledge of it) 
 the first of virtues : cleanliness the 2nd., and Godliness 
 — as held up by parsons generally — the 3rd., O mi hi ! 
 — here is a noo table — sicks feet too — by 3 feet hate ! 
 
 I shall dine at one end of it — write at the other, & 
 
 II pen out " in the middle. For gracious goodness 
 
 1 Fortescue's of the same subject was painted earlier, but 
 Grenfell's was, I believe, when finished, considered the better. 
 
 212 
 
Corfu 
 
 sake write ! & don't forget Grenfell's measure : — nor 
 to thank Lady W. for her message : nor not to cease 
 adjuring people, especially Lord Shaftesbury & the 
 Bp of Oxford — to buy the Book of Nonsense : — & 
 O Lord ! I forgot this horrid American war — but I 
 think more than enough of it. 
 
 P.S. — A. Tennyson has written an im : & also a 
 small pome. 
 
 The next letter from Fortescue announced 
 the death of Mr. Harcourt. 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 Corfu. 2^th December 1861 
 Your letter of the 20th., came yesterday — you may 
 suppose with what interest I read it. So many deaths 
 had occurred that no fresh one surprises me. So Nune- 
 ham is at an end : & Carlton Gardens for the present. 
 What a conflict of thoughts must you have just now ! 
 The very best thing for poor Lady W. will be quiet 
 & rest from the whirl of world at present. & do you — 
 in as far as you can — promote that I wished to say so 
 often during last season of theatres &c, but I did not, 
 knowing that you felt all I could say without my saying 
 it, & also that circumstances almost force certain 
 conditions of life & cannot easily be changed. 
 
 Now however, I do hope she will be quieter, for 
 enough friends of the first order both of rank & mind 
 as well as of heart, she is certain to have : — and a long 
 list of acquaintance leaves no after pleasure when they 
 
 213 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 flit away. I shall be very anxious to hear of her, 
 knowing well her vivid feeling of all that affects her 
 singular life. Pray give her my kindest remembrance 
 if you think it right to do so. I had begun a letter 
 to her full of nonsense, but nonsense is not the order 
 of the day, so it is torn up. 
 
 Prince Albert's death is shocking. 1 Poor Queen! 
 If stability of thrones is for the benefit of peoples, & if 
 the good life of Sovereigns conduces to the stability of 
 thrones, then Prince Albert's death is to be mourned 
 most deeply. 
 
 Recalling past sayings reminds me that after I 
 was at Osborne 2 I wrote down all the details of 
 my stay there, & one was, that Prince Albert 
 showed me all the model of the House, (then 
 being built only,) & particularly a Terrace, saying — 
 "This is what I like to think of — because when we are 
 old, we shall hope to walk up & down this Terrace 
 with our children grown up into men & women." 
 
 Dr. William's trial by Dr. Lushington 3 interests me 
 — I do not think I shall write more now — but go to 
 
 1 He died quite suddenly on the 14th December, before the 
 nation had time to realise that he was ill. 
 
 2 This must have been when Lear was giving drawing lessons 
 to the Queen. 
 
 3 Dr. Rowland Williams, the Vicar of Broad Chalke with 
 Bower Chalke and Alvedistone, near Salisbury, was one of the 
 contributors to " Essays and Reviews." He was prosecuted by 
 the Bishop of Salisbury for heterodoxy and tried before the 
 Arches Court of Canterbury, December 19, 1861, to January 16, 
 1862. By judgment delivered in June, sentence of suspension for 
 one year was passed ; but this judgment was reversed in 1864. 
 
 214 
 
Corfu 
 
 Church & assist at the worship of false gods, (beside 
 yours & mine.) 
 
 Lear to Lady Waldegrave. 
 
 Corfu. $th., January 1862. 
 My Dear Lady Waldegrave, — I had begun a 
 letter to you, which I am now most glad I never 
 finished & sent before I received one from C. 
 Fortescue, dated the 20th. & 21st., — for in that he 
 told me of what had then just happened, — the death 
 of Mr. Harcourt, — the day after I had written to F. 
 making enquiries as to his health since his fall at 
 Folkestone. I now take another sheet to write to you, 
 since it seems to me that any sympathy may be 
 welcome to you just now, for I feel certain that not 
 only the loss of Mr. Harcourt must have greatly 
 agitated you, but that you will feel it deeply for a long 
 time. Even to me, the news came as a surprise, for I 
 thought he might have lived many more years, & I at 
 once remembered how, at Nuneham, on his last 
 birthday but one when I had wished him " many 
 happy returns of the day " — he had said, — " When you 
 make those congratulations to one of my age, you 
 should leave out the word many'' And it appears to 
 me that this sudden breaking of a close tie must have 
 affected you particularly : — for in spite of the difference 
 of age & of your natural dispositions, death, after a 
 union of many years, must assuredly keenly affect the 
 survivor of two, when, as I know to be the case with 
 your's, the nature of the one left is full of warmth & 
 
 215 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 truth. — So, — I shall be very glad to hear that your 
 health is good, & that by a time of quiet, you are 
 gradually feeling this sudden shock less, — I cannot but 
 think too that it is a great thing for you to be able 
 to look back on the last years of Mr. Harcourt's 
 life as happier than those earlier — (at least they 
 seemed so to me even since I knew him,) and in the 
 last journey of this Autumn, C. F. told me Mr. H. 
 had repeatedly said he had never enjoyed himself 
 so much. Moreover, the feelings which many of 
 his family have for you, must alone be a source of 
 comfort. 
 
 For Mr. Harcourt was always personally more than 
 usually kind to me, & at present I can call up 
 numerous recollections of him at all 4 houses, & none 
 but pleasant ones. How pleased I am now that you 
 have the two Nuneham pictures ! As well as that of 
 Petraja where you so lately were together. (And bye 
 the bye I ought to thank you about the payment for 
 that, & to tell you how extremely pleased I was to 
 know you liked it so much.) It seems to me that in 
 converting memories into tangible facts, recollections 
 & past time as it were into pictures, lies the chief use 
 & charm of a painter's life. (I'm sure if it isn't, I don't 
 know where it is, for technical study & manipulation 
 will always be a bore to me.) . . . 
 
 I know you will not be displeased at my writing this 
 letter the like of which you must have many of just 
 now : & you need not read it, if you have — (as I dare 
 say you have,) much to do & think of: — so long as 
 
 216 
 
Corfu 
 
 you consider it to be written from a friendly motive & 
 forgive its want of etiquette — that is all I care about. 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 Corfu. Janry., 8, 1862. 
 
 I could not help sending a line, knowing well how 
 she [Lady Waldegrave] feels the death, — & I hope & 
 believe — she will take it for what it is intended to be 
 — As you say, (& as I think I have nearly said,) 
 despite difference of age & nature, they lived so long 
 & closely united that it must be a very different heart 
 from Lady Waldegraves that would not feel the sudden 
 breaking of the tie most keenly. I imagined she 
 would go to Dudbrook * — & almost wished she had 
 not, only because the clay soil & damp is so chilling & 
 trying in winter. I shall gladly hear how she is, as soon 
 as you can tell me. All you have said of her in this 
 last, is extremely interesting. She did all possible to 
 make his (Mr. Harcourt's) life a happy one, & it 
 certainly was happier as he grew older. She cannot 
 have any retrospections of neglect or want of affection 
 for him, but on the contrary many consolations arising 
 from having singularly done a wife's duties, — always 
 looking at their different tempers & other circum- 
 stances of life. Mrs. Malcolm is a duck. 
 
 As for you, my distinct opinion is that you have 
 much contributed to the happiness of both Mr. H. & 
 Lady W. in many ways ; as to producing more regula- 
 tion of her mind by prompting cultivation, & as to that 
 
 1 Her house in Essex. 
 217 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 reflecting again on his life. I can well enter into all 
 your feelings — & how your mind is full of memory- 
 images of all these years. Try your utmost now to 
 prevent her ever embarking again full sail in a 
 London fashion-life — million-cardy surface existence : 
 as I said before, she will always have enough first rate 
 intimates to create more than sufficient society, & may 
 be an A. No. i. leader without the need of a multitude 
 of followers. I shall long to hear more. 
 
 I don't see why Lord C[arlisle] should regret you 
 not being Chief Secry. Does he Lord C, wear his 
 trousers buttoned over his waistcoat as H. B. 
 used to draw him ? However, he is a very 
 good man really. (I did not expect you to 
 have seen the " Nonsense," which poor book 
 has come into a world of sadness : but you 
 may buy & give a copy to Arbp. Cullen, 1 one to 
 Sir Thingummy the M.P. for Dundalk 2 — & one to 
 the O'Donaghue.) 3 
 
 Fortescue to Lear. 
 
 Red House, 
 
 nth January, 1862. 
 
 ... I have been hearing constantly from Dudbrook 
 
 from Ward Braham, and two or three times from my 
 
 Lady herself. She has been and is very wretched — 
 
 her spirits completely broken, and missing him who 
 
 1 The Archbishop of Dublin. In July he founded the Catholic 
 University of Ireland at Drumcondra. 
 
 2 Sir Geo. Bowyer. See footnote, p. 165. 
 
 3 M.P. for Tipperary. (All three zealous Roman Catholics.) 
 
 218 
 
Corfu 
 
 has been her companion for the last fourteen years ex- 
 tremely — far more so than other people would believe. 
 . . . Before I end this, I must ask you a serious 
 question, which no other living human being can 
 answer except yourself, and I much doubt that you 
 can. I do it at the request of a first cousin of mine, a 
 certain Mrs. Tisdall, whose children have been feast- 
 ing upon the " Book of Nonsense," viz. : — "Did the 
 lady in the last picture fall — or will she fall — on her 
 face, or her back ? " The latter way of falling is 
 supposed to be the most ladylike — but my fair cousin 
 doesn't say so. 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 Corfu, 21. January, 1862. 
 
 In reply to your question about the Lady of Clare — 
 I will ask Dr. Phillimore or some one of deep thought 
 for I do not myself know what that curly burly 
 woman ended in : — but I was disgusted at the 
 Saturday Review Dec. 21. talking of the Non- 
 sense verses being " anonymous, & a reprint of old 
 nursery rhymes," tho' they gave " Mr. Lear credit 
 for a persistent absurdity." I wish I could have all 
 the credit due to me, small as that may be. 
 
 I wrote to you on the 9th., & to Lady W. also. 
 All you tell me of her is very interesting, & will 
 become of course more so. It is a period of your 
 life immensely pivotty & absorbing. — Yesterday Capt. 
 Vernon called, an apparently nice fellow rather, tho' 
 with somewhat of the semi-ungainliness & hardness of 
 that branch of the family. He spoke of Lady Selina 
 
 219 
 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 ;* 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 *o 
 
 
 
 «3 
 
 
 
 >> 
 
 #\ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 T3 
 
 
 
 O 
 
 • i— 1 
 
 
 
 
 co 
 
 i* 
 
 
 u 
 
 Q 
 
 j 
 
 2 
 P-. 
 
 "Jfc* 
 
 • 
 
 >p 
 
 Pi 
 
 05 
 
 "2 
 
 PS 
 
 o3 
 
 CO 
 
 •9 
 
 5 
 
 
 o3 
 
 ^ 
 
 CO 
 
 o3 
 
 <D 
 
 o 
 
 * 
 
 CO 
 
 ^ 
 
 O 
 
 0) 
 
 c3 
 
 *H 
 
 
 
 • rH 
 
 0) 
 
 -r 
 
 +-3 
 
 +i> 
 
 2 
 
 o3 
 
 05 
 
 o3 
 
 o3 
 
 5 
 
 £ 
 
 S3 
 
 -t-3. 
 
 «+H 
 
 <D 
 
 ,8 
 
 O 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 S3 
 
 03 
 
 b0 
 
 <+3 
 
 H 
 
 q 
 
 03 
 
 
 3 
 o 
 
 go 
 
 
 JH 
 
 03 
 
 
 o3 
 
 ~G 
 
 
 CO 
 
 o3 
 
 fc 
 
 
 £ 
 
 
 
 0) 
 
 
 
 J-i 
 
 
 
 CD 
 
 
 
 ^C 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 
 220 
 
Corfu 
 
 [Vernon], 1 & of Lady W. — of the latter in a way 
 which pleased me very much — & was an antidote 
 partly to a letter I had had 2 days before, in which 
 Lady W. was spoken of so as to put me in a rage — 
 only I knew exactly from whom the illnatured non- 
 sense was derived. It is enough that Mrs. Malcolm 2 
 & Lady Selina, of those who saw Lady W. most 
 intimately, are the best friends in speaking of her — : 
 the others may all go & be bothered. 
 
 Franklin Lushington is married to-day. 3 Of my 10 
 
 1. W. Nevill. ° rigina ' f » ends -( No - 3 
 _^ . TT TT being dead) — only num- 
 
 2. Bernard Husey Hunt. . _ ' 
 
 '. TT . bers 8 & 10 remain 
 
 3. Robert Hornby. . . ._ . , . 
 
 _, , tt r 1 single. IN os. 1 & 6 being 
 
 4. Battersby Harford. .... _ . . , , T , 
 _ . _ viddies. Didn t 1 read 
 
 5. John Cross. _. , , . T 
 " * TT _ _ f r ltzstephen s speech: — I 
 
 6. b. W. Clowes. . r _ 
 ^. , ,.. ^., , am on thorns lor Dr. 
 
 7. Charles M. Church. _ , r . . , -. . . 
 
 8. C. Fortescue. L s [ usl " n g ton s ] { u d B e 
 _ . . . ment, & I see they are 
 
 9. r. Lushington. , . . 
 
 ttt tt 1 tt bringing another suit 
 
 10. W. Holman Hunt. . , 
 
 against another author.4 
 
 Quern Deus — these priests will be swept away. 
 
 Next week Miss Goldsmid5 comes — what the fine 
 
 & pious world will say to a live Jewess remains to 
 
 1 Widow of his eldest brother and daughter of the third Earl 
 of Clanwilliam. 
 
 2 Sister of Mr. Harcourt, Lady Waldegrave's husband. 
 
 3 To Miss K. M. Morgan. 
 
 < Referring to the prosecution of contributors to the u Essays 
 and Reviews." 
 s Daughter of Sir Francis Goldsmid. See footnote, p. 183. 
 
 221 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 be seen ; what does it matter that she is good, 
 sensible, accomplished, & handsome ? If she don't 
 believe in the supernatural attributes — birth, &c.,&c., — 
 of course she must go to 'L. — 
 
 Col. Maudes people, over me, are amiable, the 
 Decies — (she a Miss Prescott *) — are very nice. — 
 The Sargents & Woolffs I go to at times. One 
 Luard — which I made drawings when I was 16 
 for his grandfather who was very kind to me — I 
 am delighted to find here, as he is a superior youth, 
 & polyarchaiotopochromsgraphical in his tastes : so I 
 axes him to dine — & "pen out" all the evening. 
 
 (The woes of painters : just now I looked out of 
 window at the time the 2nd were marching by — I 
 having a full palate & brushes in my hand : whereat 
 Col. Bruce saw me & saluted ; & not liking to make a 
 formillier nod in presence of the hole harmy, I put up 
 my hand to salute, — & thereby transfered all my 
 colours into my hair & whiskers — which I must 
 now wash in Turpentine or shave off.) 
 
 Why don't Grenfell write ? If you are asked ever 
 about that Book of Nonsense, remember I made all 
 the verses : except two lines of two of them — Abruzzi 
 & Nile. I wish someone would review it properly & 
 funnily. 
 
 I have no fresh Americain news : from Otago, where 
 my nephew, C. H. Street is Sub-treasurer at 350^ 
 per annum, my sister writes gold is making immense 
 
 1 Daughter of W. G. Prescott, the banker of Threadneedle 
 Street, I believe. 
 
 222 
 
Corfu 
 
 changes. C. S. will I suppose make his fortune. 
 I was much distressed by next door people who had 
 twin babies & played the violin : : but one of the twins 
 died, & the other has eaten the fiddle — so all is peace. 
 General Buller goes in a week. Sir John Inglis 
 comes. I will stop for a time & finish this if a tall — 
 tomorrow. — E. L. 
 
 23rd., I heard yesterday from my sister Ellinor, who 
 has heard from St. Louis. My brother Fred K. is " on 
 General Prices staff" whatever that may mean — : his 
 only son Frank a Lieut, in the same army — which 
 is " surrounded by the Federal Army " — the writer — 
 Frederick's wife's sister, writes in dreadful terror & 
 sadness. They have however received two batches 
 of money I have sent in letters — in notes : — Were 
 the correspondence good, much might be learned of 
 Missouri &c, but they write " religiously " & franti- 
 cally. — I beg you will endeavour to abolish sham 
 religion when you are a Minister. 
 
 2nd Feb., 1862. 
 I want to hear more of Lady W. I hope she did 
 not dislike the letter I wrote. I heard abroad that 
 she wished to marry the C[omte] de P[aris] to the 
 daughter of the Parma people l — & that she was a 
 great friend to all the B[ourbons] : & the A[umales] 
 will gladly enlist her interest & house as a help to 
 them. That they should be friends is natural & right 
 but that she should in anyway assist that effete & bad 
 
 1 Princess Marguerite, daughter of Charles III. of Bourbon, 
 Duke of Parma, who died 1854. 
 
 223 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 lot — as a sovereign family — to future power would 
 be vexatious to all who know & like her. A year 
 & a half ago I told her she had been wrongly 
 informed as to the state of Naples (Kingdom) : she 
 however was sure that the B.'s were well looked 
 on in the province. Yet Garibaldi's march from 
 Reggio to the Capital must have settled that 
 question. 
 
 The P[rince] of W[ales] is to be here in two or 
 three weeks — I suppose only passing : — Arthur P. 
 Stanley I see by the papers is to be with him — 
 who, though no courtier, is exactly the man for such 
 a place: & his nomination to it greatly pleases me. 1 
 Alas ! for my visit to Jerusalem ! shall I ever get 
 there? (I should not like to go with the Royal 
 party tho' — nine league boots — & all restraint.) 
 
 Sir H. S. Storks is particularly kind to me. He is 
 a well-bred man & fitted in all respects for his place it 
 seems to me. I discover by degrees why the military 
 don't like him : — he is only a Colonel in the Army — 
 ergo Generals & Colonels don't like to be under 
 him : — But, so far as I can learn, their small pro- 
 vocations have been only necessarily interfered with 
 by him. I never saw society so disjointed and dis- 
 hevelled as this is nowadays. 
 
 Miss Julia Goldsmid has come — with a friend — 
 
 1 The Prince of Wales went on a tour to Egypt and the East 
 from February to June, 1862, and Arthur Stanley, at this time 
 examining chaplain to the Bishop of London, accompanied 
 him. 
 
 224 
 
Corfu 
 
 Mrs. Naylor. (I got them rooms in a new Hotel, — 
 the other part of which is taken by Kozziri & Lady 
 Emily.) Miss G. had determined I find, not to go to 
 the Synagogue here, — & had she not done so, I 
 should have deterred her if possible from going 
 there. For as the Jews here are all of the lowest 
 orders, the advent of a Lady might have brought 
 "Confusion on the little Isle." O Lord! I must 
 take Mrs. Naylor to church this afternoon : — 
 
 I dine at Woolffs today which may or may not be 
 "a bore." Mrs. W. is a clever little woman — very: — 
 (I remember you used often to bully me for being 
 "easily bored" by people: but when one reflects — 
 you yourself are most singularly hedged in & 
 unapproachable by all but a very limited set & 
 class : — (no fault of yours — I only wish I could be 
 so too:) "Moral" — you, avoiding various disagree- 
 ables in men & things cannot justly blow me up 
 for disgust at not being able to avoid said disagree- 
 ables.) (As a point of illustration, Lord E. B. 
 is here — deaf, & to me a frightful bore. But to the 
 unsensitive, he, being a Lord, & " affable & talks so 
 much ! " is "a delightful man " !) 
 
 I am on thorns for Dr. Lushington's decision about 
 Williams. Should Williams be condemned, I think 
 you will not be surprised by my openly becoming a 
 Unitarian some day — : for if Popes & Parsons are 
 to sit on our brains, it behoves them as has any to 
 stir, & show they have not succumbed to the chains 
 of Priesthood altogether. Do you read the National 
 
 225 Q 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Review ? — Do you not think that there will be war 
 with Yankeedom even yet ? Mrs. Tennyson's letters 
 are a great pleasure to me. My old friend W. Neville 
 (of Gresham St.) has taken Sir T. Laurences house 
 in Russell Square — : I always used to wish for that 
 myself. At present my only wish is that these 
 accursed Rats were away, & that Col. Maude 
 wouldn't bump his chair over my head so. The 
 old General * is going to leave Corfu, & the new, Sir 
 J. Inglis, 2 is just a-coming. Count G. Henchel von 
 Donnersmarck — his name is not quite long enough — 
 has come back : he is the delight of most — as he talks 
 unceasingly & in a completely monotonous voice : to 
 me he is the deadliest of bores, tho' not bad as a man 
 I daresay. Is not perpetual talk — idealess prattle — 
 the utmost of bore ? 
 
 I am feeling to begin to wish not to come to 
 England this year : but two months will decide. 
 Keeping up rooms in London & two long journeys 
 are certain expenses, pitted against what are very 
 uncertain gains. There is a man in a boat here 
 under the window — who catches fish all & every 
 day with a long 5 pronged fork : a waistcoat & 
 drawers being his dress. Why should I not do 
 the same? 
 
 1 Sir George Buller, K.C.B., served in the Kaffir War 1846-7, 
 and commanded a brigade at the battles of the Alma and Inker- 
 mann, and continued to serve at the siege of Sevastopol, 1855. 
 
 2 Major-General Sir John E. R. Inglis, K.C.B., Colonel of the 
 32nd Foot. He earned lasting renown by his gallant defence 
 of Lucknow in the Indian Mutiny, 1857. 
 
 226 
 
Corfu 
 
 Corfu, 16 Feby. 1862. 
 
 I am much pleased that Lady W. liked my letter : 
 to have given her a mite of pleasure is something. 1 
 As you say, such phases of life are " not meant to be 
 banished as dreams, but to influence life & character 
 tor good." And again, I agree with you that no con- 
 ceivable position of life ought to be blotted from 
 memory — if it could be. 
 
 I delight in the knowledge of Lord & Lady Cler- 
 mont constantly enjoying my pictures : — they are a 
 placid duck-like couple, & I like to hear of their life. 
 
 Bye the bye looking into last years journal (I 
 generally compare years,) I find on Sunday, 
 Feb. 10th., 1861 *'40scue breakfasted with me, & 
 staid 2\ hours. His society is always, I think in- 
 variably a great comfort to me, & even my bore- 
 ability & fastidious worry can hardly ever find any 
 vexation therefrom, which I think I cannot say of 
 that of any other living man." — There Sir! I fear 
 that's what you can't say of me tho' ! My journal 
 will be funny enough 100 years hence — tho' I only 
 write down what is shortest & most personal. 
 
 Twice I have walked out with Miss Goldsmid & 
 her friend Mrs. Naylor : — Miss G. has all the talent 
 of her race, & is very amiable. But Lord ! Lord ! 
 how slow they walk — whereby I freeze & sneeze. 
 Once I have dined there — yea — twice ; & the even- 
 
 1 Of this letter Lady Waldegrave said : " He writes just the 
 right things to me, but a man who sings like that must under- 
 stand other people's feelings." 
 
 227 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 ings were pleasant — apart from Garrison gossip, & 
 full of intelligence & agreableness. On Saturday 
 the 8th., salutes announced the New General's 
 arrival, Sir J. & Lady Inglis 1 & family — not to 
 speak of endless furniture, & on the same day more 
 salutes recorded the departure of Sir G. & Lady 
 Buller — "so the old order giveth place to new" — 
 I am sorry not to see Lady B. again, as I liked her. 
 On the ioth. came the Capt. Geoffry Hornby 2 — 
 suddingly — his ship the Neptune having come from 
 Malta. An odd rush of other day memories came 
 to me on seeing & hearing him : — but unless he 
 dines at Major de Veres 3 today I am not likely to 
 see or hear him much. 
 
 Letters have been aboundigle : — Mrs. Tennyson 
 sends me those truly beautiful & grand lines of 
 Alfred, as the dedication of the Idylls to P. Albert's 
 memory : I hardly ever read anything lovelier. That 
 duck also sent me an immense account of Frank L.'s 
 wedding. Meanwhile the Osborne has gone past 
 here for the P. of Wales whom they expect on 
 Thursday the 20th., (I am sorry to hear A. P. 
 Stanley does not come with him.) no one seems to 
 know how long he stays. I do not think I shall 
 put myself forward at all — for you know Artists, 
 unless R.As., never go to Royal Levees in England. 
 
 1 A daughter of the first Lord Chelmsford. 
 
 2 Second son of Lear's old friend, Admiral Sir Phipps Hornby, 
 of Littlegreen. 
 
 3 Major F. H. De Vere, fifth son of Sir Aubrey De Vere. 
 
 228 
 
Corfu 
 
 So E. B. is to marry Lord S. : — I wish he would 
 present her with my Masada, as she went up to the 
 castle. 
 
 There are a Mr. Lair, a Mr. Luard, a Mr. Layer, 
 & a Mrs. Lien, here : — may they meet with the reward 
 due to having names so beastly like mine ! 
 
 The Elections are over, of which you will probably 
 know more than I. 
 
 My new Gallery contains — (tho' none are complete 
 & tho No 9 is not there at all yet,) No i a large 
 Corfu — begun in 1856 — No 5 a smaller. 7 ditto — 
 8 ditto : (respectively 200, 100, 50 & 30 guineas) 
 
 @|(Jj^3^3^ 
 
 The last is I think sold to a Major Reynolds : the 
 first a wealthy Mrs. Fort seems to desire. 2 Mt. 
 Athos for Sir F. Goldsmid. 3. Florence for F. 
 Fairbairn. 4. Turin & the Halps. 6 Lake of 
 Butmito — (also is in possible way of sale for 50 
 guineas.) 
 
 I have been looking carefully over all A. Tenny- 
 son's poems, & noting out all the Landscape-subjects 
 once more — which in all amount to 250. Sometimes 
 I think I shall make the last effort of my life to illus- 
 trate the whole of these by degrees — & finally, having 
 constructed a gallery near London, receive shillings for 
 the sight of my pictures, & expire myself gradually — 
 
 229 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 in the middle of my own works, wheeling or being 
 wheeled in a Narmchair. Intanto do you see the Book 
 of Nonsense on all Railway Bookstalls ? I shut up. 
 
 The reference to Miss B is explained 
 
 in a letter of Fortescue's dated the 21st of 
 February, in which he says : 
 
 Are you aware that one Miss B is gone — 
 
 turned into Lady S ? Of course you are. 
 
 Do you know how it happened? The B book 
 
 was severely handled in the Athenaeum. Miss B. 
 wrote to the Editor, requesting to know the author of 
 the critique, that she might convince him of his 
 injustice, etc. Soon after, Lord S., whom she had 
 never seen before, walked into her room, announced 
 himself as her assailant, came again, etc., etc. Let us 
 charitably hope that he has since done her justice 
 in every way. 
 
 Lear must have been misinformed about 
 Arthur Stanley's movements, for Fortescue 
 also says : 
 
 ... I saw Arthur Stanley in this room . . . the 
 day before he started to join the Prince at Alexandria. 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 Corfu, 6 April, 1862. 
 I am not able to write well — being far behind with 
 many letters, and having been seriously incon- 
 
 230 
 
■^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 I 
 
 a! 
 
 Is. 
 
 *, 
 
 ■* 
 
 "5, 
 
 -SI- 
 
Corfu 
 
 venienced in many ways — by the act of moving 
 upstairs into the third floor of this house (at length 
 I have got some quiet !) and by having been obliged 
 to inhabit a small room for a week, out of good nature 
 — because the paint in another house was not dry, and 
 the parson, living where I now do, did not like to 
 budge. . . . 
 
 I have had an extremely nice letter from Ly. W. 
 Please thank her. Some rhinocerous beetle had told 
 her I thought Dudbrook unhealthy. Of course I hear 
 enough -of her marriage — and by some am pumped 
 sufficiently : at present I hear either Marquis of Bath 
 or Duke of Devonshire are the favoured chances ! ! I 
 believe myself that things will all go rightly — but shall 
 nevertheless hear gladly if anything occurs, as at 
 times I fuss. . . . 
 
 Possibly the Cedars may sell — whereby joy will 
 arise in the Landscapepainter's buzzim. . . . 
 
 A letter from H. Hunt is sad — telling me of poor 
 Egg's J house being burned. 
 
 14 April, 1862. 
 W[olff] knows as little of me as may be, beyond 
 that he and Mrs. W. have been very good in asking 
 me there, and that I have not gone. You can well 
 guess that sudden intimacies with a crowd is not al 
 mio gusto. He is a good enough little fellow, but too 
 repandu and superficial to please me greatly, though 
 not more so than is just the thing for his place here, 
 
 1 Augustus Leopold Egg, the painter. 
 231 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 and they are very properly highly popular. He can- 
 not do without society — and it is not easy to find out 
 at first how much men like you who ask odious and 
 vulgar people just as they do oneself — more by way of 
 having someone to break the life of monotony here 
 than from really esteeming one. After a while how- 
 ever, they asked me in a different way, and were 
 really very friendly, but he is right in saying that I 
 have not been in good spirits. The occupation of my 
 life — a daily journal to my sister Ann, is gone : and 
 constant losses of friends do not enliven (bye the bye, 
 Mrs. Stanley is gone, 1 and now, poor dear Mr. F. 
 Beadon 2 : — well if George Clive recovers. 3 . . . 
 — So far written, Peel comes to say goodbye Mrs. 
 R. Morier's brother. — And so I sit down again, but 
 my thread of thought is broken as the spider said 
 to the housemaid. Sir H. K. S. has been particularly 
 amiable to me — always, and all through. I wish you 
 had come to Malta and up here ! ! — only I am in a 
 constant fever to hear more of Ly. W. I am glad 
 she is going to C. Harcourt's, and am sure she will 
 see much of some of that family always — Mrs. M., 
 &c, &c. No one shred of work having been pur- 
 chased here, I have come to the end of my 
 money. . . . Fairbairn's, Sir H. Goldsmid's, and 
 Grenfell's pictures must therefore be finished — being 
 
 1 Arthur Stanley's mother. 
 
 2 The Rev. Frederick Beadon, Rector of North Stoneham, 
 Hants. 
 
 3 G. Clive had had a seizure of a paralytic nature. 
 
 232 
 
Corfu 
 
 sent on to England — and I must work there to 
 finish Turin and other pictures, hoping to sell them. 
 The worry of being so without ready money bores 
 me continually. I go to Paleocastrizza tomorrow 
 for a week — but the weather is quite peculiar — dull 
 heavy scirocco always — and I am all aweary of my 
 life. Whether I shall ever brighten up I can't tell — 
 probably not, as I am 50 next May. 
 
 Here's a bit of news to wind up with. After I had 
 written the letter which encloses this, I heard a great 
 noise, and saw 4 carts full of furniture, all being 
 brought into this house — proceeding which disturbed 
 me with fears of being less quiet — seeing that a 6th 
 added to the 5 families in this house, would not add 
 to my peace. So I asked a servant going upstairs — 
 (G. being out) what the row was. " It comes from 
 Kozziris," says the man. " Mrs. K. is going to leave 
 him and come and live here." I said nothing, but did 
 not believe it : the Lord 4-bid such a thing should 
 happen. But when George came, says he — " these 
 things are to be sold by auction, for Sig. Kozziris is 
 going to leave his " Posto " as keeper of the prison, 
 and they are going to England, where they say 
 Signora Kozziris is of a familia grande e ricca assai — 
 and will keep him. 1 
 
 1 It will be remembered that Lady Emily Kozziris was a 
 daughter of the second Earl of Clancarty. 
 
 233 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Palaeokastrizza, 
 Easter Sunday. April 20, 1862. 
 
 I wish you were here for a day, at least today : — 
 only that you are at " Red House," which is properer 
 and Abercrombier. I have been wondering if on the 
 whole the being influenced to an extreme by everything 
 in natural or physical life, i.e., atmosphere, light, 
 shadow, and all the varieties of day and night, — is a 
 blessing or the contrary — and the end of my specula- 
 tions has been that " things must be as they may," 
 and the best is to make the best of what happens. 
 
 I should however have added " quiet and repose ' 
 to my list of influences, for at this beautiful place there 
 is just now perfect quiet, excepting only a dim hum of 
 myriad ripples 500 feet below me, all round the giant 
 rocks which rise perpendicularly from the sea : — which 
 sea, perfectly calm and blue stretches right out west- 
 ward unbrokenly to the sky, cloudless that, save a 
 streak of lilac cloud on the horizon. On my left is 
 the convent of Paleokastrizza, and happily, as the 
 monkery had functions at 2 a.m. they are all fast 
 asleep now and to my left is one of the many peacock- 
 tail-hued bays here, reflecting the vast red cliffs and 
 their crowning roofs of Lentish Prinari, myrtle and 
 sage — far above them — higher and higher, the 
 immense rock of St. Angelo rising into the air, on 
 whose summit the old castle still is seen a ruin, just 
 1,400 feet above the water. It half seems to me that 
 such life as this must be wholly another from the 
 drumbeating bothery frivolity of the town of Corfu, 
 
 234 
 
Corfu 
 
 and I seem to grow a year younger every hour. Not 
 that it will last. Accursed picnic parties with miser- 
 able scores of asses male and female are coming to- 
 morrow, and peace flies — as I shall too. . . . 
 
 Enough of myself for the present, only as one wants 
 one's friends to write about ^zrselves, one goes and 
 does likewise. I shall be anxious now every letter to 
 hear something of your destinies — though perhaps 
 they must rather be talked of than written. 
 
 A great drawback to these Islands is the once a 
 week post : there is a tension and a vacuum for six 
 days — and a horrid smash of disappointment if the 7 th 
 brings nothing. 
 
 I hope this summer we may get a quiet two or three 
 days together, for I take it after a short time you, the 
 last of the Mohicans, will cease also to be single, at 
 least I hope so, though the fact of your doubling your- 
 self would cut you off more from my intercourse. . . . 
 In your old age I suppose you will be a minister, and 
 won't go near Ireland, — or I might settle to die at 
 Flurrybridge or Dundalk (! !), and get good studies at 
 Newcastle and Ravensdale. But I shall — or should 
 — have a chapel of my own. Belfast Protestantism, 
 Athanasian creeds, and all kinds of moony miracles 
 should have no entrance there : but a plain worship of 
 God, and a perpetual endeavour at progress. (Which 
 reminds me of Tennyson's little poem of "Will," 
 which I have been trying to translate, and part of 
 which I send you. 
 
 One thing, under all circumstances I have quite 
 
 235 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 decided on — cnro<i>a<n(ja aicp&toQ J — when I go to heaven 
 "if indeed I go" — and am surrounded by thousands 
 of polite angels, — I shall say courteously "please 
 leave me alone ! — you are doubtless all delightful, but 
 I do not wish to become acquainted with you : — let 
 me have a park and a beautiful view of sea and hill, 
 mountain and river, valley and plain, with no end of 
 tropical foliage : — a few well-behaved small cherubs to 
 cook and keep the place clean — and — after I am quite 
 established — say for a million or two of years — an 
 angel of a wife. Above all, let there be no hens ! 
 No, not one ! I give up eggs and roast chicken for 
 ever ! " — which rhapsody arises from a cursed infernal 
 hen having just laid an egg under my window, and 
 she screeches ! O Lord ! how she screeches and will 
 screech for an hour ! Wherefore, Goodbye. No more, 
 dear friend, for at a screech I stop. 
 
 Q, evTV^rig clvtoq tov ottoiov 17 StXemg etvai cWara ! 
 'YTTCHpepa, aWa civ S"a v7ro<pipei iro\v, 
 
 iwcxptpsi, aAAa cev ipiropu va viroytpH aoticwc, 
 Aioti, to ? TrepiTraiyp.a tov £apv(j)U)vov koot/ulov oev tov kivei, 
 Mr/re oXa to. p.iyiara Kv/uara tt\q Svarv^iag tov Taparrovv : 
 "Owoiog <f>atv£Tai iticpojTripiov irirpag, 
 Hod, irepiyvpicrpiivov p.e Sopv&wceg ctKOucjua, 
 Meg' tig tov iriXayov St^Erat Trjv K.vp.a.TiZ,ov<jav avyicpovcnv, 
 TpiKvp.iag-KTVTrr)p.ivov, aKp6iroXig-<TTt<pavii)p.ivov. 
 
 AvaTvxfig &aXX avTOv, ttov, Stv KaXrjTepeixvv p.txp6vov, 
 <P$£ipE. ttjv Svvap.vv ovpavov-KaTa&aivovTogStXiaetjog, 
 
 1 I unconditionally refuse. 
 236 
 
Corfu 
 
 Kai iravTore ytvti aaSttviartpog $ia 7rpa.TTiop.tvov iynX-qpa, 
 H, afyakpa ttov (fraivtrat ^apitv koX avyyvuxrTov, 
 ILTravepxojfiEvov koi o7ro€aAXov ati, — 
 Avrog (jtaivtrat wg tva rov ottoiov ra ar\ptia artKovrai 
 Hovovra tig afitrpov apifiov, 
 Kai irapa. rtva KOinaap.ivr\v Kavawdriv y»jv, 
 Ho\op.a.Kpav, Kara (fkoyiopivov SroXov, — loov ! — 
 H iroyig cnrivStpiZti axrav airog aXarog 
 'SiTreipaapitvri tig p,iav pvriv tov virtp&oXticov €oi»vow. 
 
 It is needles to observe that I have not attempted 
 to render the original (it is at the end of the volume 
 of " Maud ") in verse, which if I had done, it would 
 have been worse. Also, the first verse has been 
 corrected by Sir C. Sargent : the second is still in its 
 virgin absurdity. ... I vote you do not destroy my 
 longer letters, leastwise till you get another of them, 
 because if I died they would amuse you. Considering 
 that little more than 6 years ago I didn't know a letter 
 of the Greek alphabet, I think I might translate 
 A. T.'s poems in some 10 or 20 or 50 years more. 
 
 April 27. 
 
 I returned here on the 22 nd — much the better for 
 my stay tig rtv t^oxnv. 1 
 
 ... I wish I was married to a clever good nice fat 
 little Greek girl — and had 25 olive trees, some goats 
 and a house. But the above girl, happily for herself, 
 likes somebody else. 
 
 1 My stay in the country. 
 
 237 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Casa IlapanvSioTTi, Line Wall, Corfu, 
 
 May 7, 1862. 
 
 At first I was rather alarmed about the " medium " l 
 affair, for the mere going to those impostors and the 
 attraction of continued conversation about them does 
 a deal of harm, when those who go to see and return 
 to talk are people of position whose example is 
 sheepily followed by thousands of fools — from Bel- 
 gravian fools downward. But if you, Kinglake, 2 
 Woolff and others speak as plainly as you write to me, 
 then I believe good may come of these people being 
 visited. That they are gross impostors, " trading " 
 (as a good letter in the " Times " said some 
 weeks ago) " on the affections and credulity of man- 
 kind "- — I have no doubt : yet many do not think so ; 
 and it should be the part of those who are wise, 
 and who can suffer fools gladly — (which I never 
 can) to enlighten the Assy = masses who can't help 
 themselves — God not having willed them much 
 brains, and priests having muddled the little they 
 have. . . . 
 
 A more gritty vexation is that I have done so little 
 in Greek or in Greek topography this winter. Never- 
 theless I shall bring away the most part of this Island 
 I fancy. . . . Tomorrow I go out again to Lefchimo, 
 and by the time I return thence I trust to hear how 
 
 1 All London at this time was flocking to the seances of the 
 medium Forster, so much so that the Times devoted a leading 
 article to the matter. 
 
 2 Author of the celebrated history of the Crimean War, 
 
 238 
 
Corfu 
 
 my pictures look at the Gt. International Ex n x — seeing 
 that 2 R. Academicians had the hanging of them, I 
 should tremble for their fate, were not one of the 
 Commissioners — Fairbairn — my friend. 
 
 May 17. . . . On the 13th, (being half a century 
 old the night previous) I came away — and staid a day 
 at KXofiio, 2 whence perhaps is the finest Channel and 
 mountain view of all in Corfu. But I could not stay 
 for certain reasons, and came in again on the 14 to 
 Corfu. Alas ! there I learned a dismal fact, and one 
 much interfering with my plans. The two last (bother 
 them) Liverpool steamers have gone by here without 
 touching ! ! ! — so that my boxes are still here, and I do 
 not know now if they can be sent off before July. 
 What to do I know not, as I wholly depended on their 
 being completed by that time in London, and on my 
 having the money for them. I am for the present 
 bewildered : and can only send £5 to the subscription 
 for the Lancashire poor spinners, on the principle that 
 he that hath nothing is to give up what he hath. I 
 am absolutely uncertain when I leave — or what to do 
 — or why : or which : or whizzlepopps. . . . 
 
 Both Holman Hunt and yourself have kindly written 
 about my pictures — both saying the same as to their 
 being hung so high. Two R.A.'s having had to 
 decide their destiny it is a great thing they were hung 
 at all. ... I am in such an infernal rage about these 
 pictures that I can't write any more. I fancy I shall 
 give up Stratford Place this year. Do the Japanese 
 
 1 Opened at South Kensington on May 1st. 2 Klomo. 
 
 239 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Ambassadors 1 want a Topographic Artist? I'll go 
 back with them, and perform the " Happy Dispatch " 
 if I draw badly. . . . We perceive the ancient Wolff 2 
 is dead. Mrs. W. goes to England soon. She is a 
 very clever little woman. With her is a nice Greek 
 girl. When we meet ag %a buiXfoovtv iro\v.3 
 
 19th May 
 
 I find the "Marathon" goes to-morrow, so I certainly 
 can't go thereby. After all, 20 days at sea is a horrid 
 loss of time. She takes to England (besides my 
 pictures) old Lady Valsamachi — Heber's widow — to 
 die there, I should think. 
 
 Yesterday I went to church. Lord ! Lord ! what 
 an idiotic sermon did good Craven preach about the 
 next world, as how " many excellent men believed that 
 we should not recognise anyone in the future state, 
 because, if we were to do so, we should also perceive 
 our friends — alas ! great numbers of them ! tortured 
 in the gulf of fire below — as it is plain from Dives 
 twigging" (he did not say "twig") "Lazarus in 
 heaven above." Why are men allowed to talk such 
 nonsense unsnubbed in a wooden desk, who would be 
 scouted in an ordinary room ? 
 
 1 The first Embassy ever sent by Japan to Europe came over 
 this year to visit the Great International Exhibition. 
 
 2 The Rev. Joseph Wolff, father of H. Drummond Wolff, of 
 Hebrew origin, was the first modern missionary to preach to the 
 Jews at Jerusalem. He styled himself "Apostle of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ for Palestine, Persia, Bokhara and Balkh." 
 
 3 I hope we shall meet often. 
 
 240 
 
Corfu 
 
 The afternoon and evening I passed pleasantly with 
 Col. and Mrs. Wynne ; he is a cousin of the Wynne 
 who married Lady Clermont's sister, and she is a 
 granddaughter of old Lady Clancarty — whereby Lady 
 E. Kozziris is her fust cuzzing. She told me a good 
 story of that old lady — tho' I fear you must know it. 
 At the Clancarty hospitable dwelling vast numbers 
 were gathered : and one rude fast youth who did not 
 know the Lady of the house personally, dragged a 
 portmanteau roughly upstairs and threw sticks &c. &c. 
 about in the hall, saying — " Why, this house is just 
 like a hotel !— just like Betty Cuffe's ! " " But Sir," 
 said the dignified and outraged Lady C. — advancing 
 to him " you do not seem aware that Betty Cuffe has 
 a great advantage over the mistress of this mansion : 
 she is not compelled to associate with those who come 
 under her roof!" (Cubby collapsed). 
 
 I beg to say, the weather is one continual, I say 
 again, comtimmuel and never ending scirocco — not a 
 mountain visible for days past — nor like to be till rain 
 comes. I think therefore I shall start by the Ancona 
 boat on the 5th, and risk the Italian fetes. The 
 Thursday's debates ought to come today. 
 
 20th. They did come, and I was delighted with 
 Lord P[almerston]'s speech. A more wretchedly 
 factious-crooked maunder than Dizzy's display would 
 be found with difficulty. It does not even read as if 
 it had been well spoken, whereas P.'s is all straight- 
 forward bluff truth, and, I should fancy, must have 
 been greatly worth hearing. 
 
 241 R 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Wonderful to relate, I have packed up, and decided 
 to go by the Liverpool steamer Marathon, which is 
 expected to-day or to-morrow — by Zante and Malta — 
 and to England about the ioth or 12th I suppose. . . . 
 So here's for the Island valley of Avilion : and therefore 
 don't write again. 
 
 242 
 

 P\ '$ 
 
 
 
 <. - 
 
 
 
 
H 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 May to November, 1862 
 
 MALTA AND ENGLAND 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 Imperial Hotel, Valetta. 
 
 29 May 1862. 
 
 ERE I am — still on my way Englandwards. 
 
 But how it comes that I turned out of the 
 
 Liverpool steamer " Marathon " and have been here 
 
 since Sunday — I will now defulge. 
 
 I went on board the " Marathon " on Tuesday the 
 
 20th, believing she would start directly — and go 
 
 directly to Liverpool. But she didn't start till 
 
 Wednesday, and then, arriving at Zante she staid 
 
 two whole days there : and so, by degrees I heard 
 
 it said that she would do ditto here, — and at 
 
 Messina, and at Palermo, — and might reach England 
 
 on the 10th or 12th of June. Witch fax I only 
 
 came at granulously as it were — grain by grain, 
 
 as the pigeon said when he picked up the bushel 
 
 of corn slowly. Whereon — said I to myself — if 
 
 so be as I can get my fare back again, I will 
 
 even go ashore at Malta — and see that much be- 
 
 243 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 loved place — and wait for a Marseilles boat — thereby 
 hoping to reach England before the 8th — (and at a 
 more convenient end, to wit, Newhaven or Dover), 
 and meanwhile resting my weary lims on beds of 
 hashphodil, and moreover escaping the chance of bad 
 weather in the Bay of Biscuits and the Irish Channel. 
 
 And to the honour and glory and pleasure of the 
 Marathon be it said, they guv me back my fare 
 cheerfully — and have since gone on their way with the 
 great lieutenant whom thou hast made to take his 
 pastime therein. The ship was a good ship : amazingly 
 comfortable and thoroughly well-conducted : active 
 and intelligent stewards pervaded the scene : enormous 
 and globular stewardesses permeated behind the 
 scenes : the food was good and plentiful : the ossifers 
 friendly and pleasant. But, if the ship encountered a 
 sea — o ! wouldn't she roll ! ! being in form like a cater- 
 pillar, or right line — length without breadth. The 
 company was select and rather quaint. Besides the 
 Landscapepainter, was the Lady of Sir Demetrius 
 Valsamachi — once the wife of Bp. Regd. Heber — poor 
 old lady ! she was really very amiable and pleasant 
 when awake or well enough to talk — but I am not 
 up to talking much aboard ship. 
 
 . . . [Here] I only find Legh of the old faces — but 
 Col. Curzon l of the Rifles has amiably found me out, 
 
 1 Leicester Curzon, seventh son of Earl Howe, was A.D.C. to 
 Lord Raglan in the Crimea. He was promoted to the rank of 
 Lieut. -Colonel on bringing home the despatch announcing the 
 capture of Sevastopol. 
 
 244 
 
Malta and England 
 
 and Major Burke (Burke of Australian death-memory's 1 
 brother) is also pleasant to know — leastwise his sister 
 is. And there is an Armenian traveller in the hotel ; 
 and I draw constantly on the Barracca point — meaning 
 to paint a picture thereof one day ; and I wander up 
 and down the beautiful streets of Valetta and Senglea ; 
 and rejoice in the delightful heat and the blue sky ; 
 and watch the thousand little boats skimming across 
 the harbour at sunset, and admire the activity and 
 industry of the Maltese ; and am amazed that their 
 priests should consider that a constant ringing of bells 
 should be any sort of pleasure to the Deity ; — and I 
 drink very admirable small beer plenteously from 
 pewter pipkinious pots : and I have gone to church 
 once, and have heard — or rather couldn't hear — a 40 
 minute sermon from a detestable shrugging and howl- 
 ing impostor ; and on the whole I may say with truth 
 I am far happier than I might be or probably should 
 be if still at sea. Remains the future ; 3 days and 3 
 nights to Marseilles, and the long 20 hours of rail to 
 Paris, — and thence to Dieppe and Newhaven — and 
 the ojous unpacking of boxes — whether to be well or 
 ill accomplished is in the buzzim of the fewcher. . . . 
 What a fuss I see in the papers about Woolner and 
 Palgrave and J. Omnium ! 2 . . . Says I to myself I 
 
 1 R. O. Burke, who set out from Melbourne in i860 at the head 
 of an expedition. He succeeded in crossing the continent of 
 Australia, but on the return journey was starved to death in 
 June, 1861. 
 
 2 A violent correspondence in the Times about the Art Hand- 
 book of the International Exhibition, by F. T. Palgrave, in which 
 
 245 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 don't want no public praise nor blame nor nuffin : life 
 is too short for such a lot of ugly anger. 
 
 General appearance of a distinguished Landscape 
 painter at Malta — his hair having taken to a violent 
 excess of growth of late. 
 
 Lewes. 5 June 1862. 
 Dear 40SCUE. I got here last night, having left 
 Malta on Saturday May 31 — I shall come to Stratford 
 Place on Saturday the 7th. ... A monetary crisis has 
 ensewed : inasmuch as I lost £j on board the steamer, 
 and when I got to Newhaven had only one shilling 
 left, whereby a cousin of Cornwall Simeon's — one 
 Major Webber Smith — lent me too pouns. . . . But 
 
 he expressed his individual opinions very freely. His excessive 
 praise of Thomas Woolner, the sculptor, was attacked on the 
 grounds that they were close personal friends. His criticisms 
 made the exhibitors so angry that he finally withdrew his hand- 
 book, to the great relief of the Committee of the Exhibition. 
 
 246 
 
Malta and England 
 
 your Irish " Agrarian murders " J are what worry me 
 more than anything just now, tho' I do not know that 
 you and your brother are in anywise endangered. 
 
 In September, 1862, Fortescue's engagement 
 to Lady Waldegrave took place, but it was 
 received with some opposition on the part of 
 certain members of his family. The announce- 
 ment was not made for some little time, but 
 he wrote to Lear the very next day as 
 follows : — 
 
 Fortescue to Lear. 
 
 Dudbrook, 
 
 19. Sept. 1862. 
 
 You have the advantage of hearing today from 
 
 the happiest man in Her Majesty's Dominions, 
 
 including Heligoland and all the Colonies. Be it 
 
 known unto you, oh friend, that I have acted upon 
 
 G. Vernon's advice, except that I found it easier 
 
 to ask the question on which my fate depended by 
 
 writing than by speaking — so wrote before I left 
 
 Red House, and asked leave to come for the 
 
 answer. Yesterday I arrived — very soon discovered 
 
 that I was the luckiest dog in the world, and have 
 
 been half seas over with happiness ever since. 
 
 1 The year 1862 was a time of severe distress in Ireland owing 
 to the failure of the fuel and potato crops, and agitation against 
 the landlords was rife in many parts of the country. The 
 number of horrible murders and outrages that were committed 
 in April and May, necessitated the holding of a Special Commis- 
 sion to try the cases. 
 
 247 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 Burton Park. Petworth. 
 
 21 September 1862. 
 
 I am not surprised, but am at least easy on your 
 account. I felt indeed quite as sure of what the 
 issue would be as one could be of anything mortal. . . 
 
 I will take care to be silent about the subject. It is, 
 however, very much talked of by those who know 
 the "parties" — and I, as a friend of one, am probed 
 and pumped. My reply has been all along — "my 
 own impression is that she is more likely to marry 
 C. F. than the D. of N[ewcastle] " — but no more. 
 
 What an odd thing it is that you are officially acting 
 under him. 1 . . . Well, you know better than I can 
 tell you how pleased I am, and how much happiness 
 I wish you. If you think proper you may give my 
 love to the Lady ; but anyhow my very kindest 
 regards. . . . 
 
 In the lanes and hedges here Bishops are frequent — 
 Oxford, Cape Town — and the deuce knows what. 
 
 Sussex Hotel, Eastbourne, 
 
 October 3rd, 1862. 
 
 I am here — working out Henry Riversdale Grenfell 2 
 
 M. P. 's picture. The "Beachy Head " is a vastly fine 
 
 subject, though it is painful to walk 5 miles over 
 
 1 The Duke of Newcastle was Secretary of State for the 
 Colonies. 
 
 2 Another of Lear's friends and patrons, Member for Stoke- 
 upon-Trent. Afterwards a governor of the Bank of England. 
 One of Fortescue's greatest friends. 
 
 248 
 
Malta and England 
 
 loose stones to get at it. There are however two 
 alternatives. i. to walk through the water ankle 
 deep, amid limpets & periwinkles — which scheme 
 I tried once, but did not wholly like — 2ly. to climb 
 for one hour to the top of the Beachy Head & return by 
 the Downs — a scheme I also once carried through, 
 and my trouble was so far rewarded that I made a 
 sketch at the top, a fatty man in black standing on the 
 horizon's edge serving as a "figure" in my drawing. 
 Bye & bye the fatty man drew near, & admired 
 my work — suggesting that I had possibly been 
 abroad, & asking me if I had read Mr. Lear's 
 Albanian travels ; and on my saying yes, declared 
 himself to be Sir Walter James's Butler, & that he 
 had seen me in Whitehall Gardens, & concluded by 
 offering me some porter & bread & cheese ; whereon 
 I adjourned to the place he & his wife had selected, 
 & enjoyed this improvised picnic very considerably. 
 As you observe (not injudiciously) I am always finding 
 acquaintances and friends a-doing me good. 
 
 Write soon. Now that the big event of your life 
 is decided, I can fancy you say — what is there to write 
 about ? Write upon prawns, rheumatism, Armstrong 
 guns, Birds of Paradise or raspberry jam, — so you 
 write. 
 
 Hastings. 
 
 <\th October, 1862. 
 
 What to do with the Cedars I do not know : 
 probably make a great coat of them. To a philo- 
 sopher, the fate of a picture so well thought of and 
 
 249 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 containing such high qualities, is funny enough : — for 
 the act of two Royal Academicians in hanging it 
 high, 1 condemn it first, — and 2ndly the coldblooded 
 criticism of Tom Taylor in the " Times," quasi- 
 approving of its position, stamps the poor canvass 
 into oblivion still more, without remedy. . . . 
 
 15, Stratford Place, Oxford St. 
 
 17, Oct. 1862. 
 
 Your party at Dudbrook seems a pleasant one — 
 bar the Royalties, which are always a bore to me 
 more or less. ... I daresay it seems odd to you, 
 but it is a part of my nature to grow tired of the 
 " flaner " life very soon. Three days of it weary me : 
 on the fourth, the senseless chick-chack of billiard 
 balls makes me sick. The beaver, the Ant, the Bee, 
 and suchlike brutes are my model communities. . . . 
 
 Apropos of Grenfell, he has not as yet distinctly 
 pledged himself to bring in the "Total Extinction 
 of Irishmen " Bill, but we have been in communica- 
 tion about it. You would do well, (if you have time) 
 to read a letter signed " an English R. Catholic " 2 
 in today's " Times," as also the account of the Riots 
 at Birkenhead.3 Punch should bring out a portrait of 
 
 1 At the Great International Exhibition. 
 
 2 Condemning Sir George Bowyer's letter to the Times of 
 the 16th, in which he practically upheld the conduct of the Irish 
 Roman Catholics in the Popish riots in Hyde Park. 
 
 3 Some violent quasi-religious riots took place during this 
 month, not only at Birkenhead but also in Hyde Park, between 
 English Protestants and Irish Roman Catholics, the pretext 
 being the meetings of the former to express their sympathy 
 
 250 
 
Malta and England 
 
 old Wiseman exhorting the dear children " in the 
 name of him who said ' they who use the sword 
 shall perish by the sword ' " — and in the background 
 the Vicar of Christ paying Lamorciere and the cut- 
 throats of Naples and Spoleto. 
 
 The new book by the Bishop of Natal * will make an 
 awful fuss among the Pharisees, and the resignation of 
 Mr. Neville 2 is a step in the right direction. . . . 
 
 Apropos of Corfu — don't expect you have heard the 
 last about the Judgeships : 3 the Wolffs said little new, 
 but I hear from other quarters that the manner of 
 removal has been looked on as the most insulting 
 and brutal, — tho' I do not know if all said about 
 the way it was carried out can be true — indeed it 
 hardly seems possible. Some tell me that the "great 
 majority " are pleased, for, say they " any injustice and 
 any stupidity on the part of our government is 
 
 with Garibaldi, whom the Catholics looked upon as the emblem 
 of hostility to the Pope. 
 
 1 Parti, of "The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua critically 
 examined/' by Bishop Colenso, which gave rise to such fierce 
 criticism that he was publicly excommunicated in Maritzburg 
 Cathedral in 1866. 
 
 2 The Rev. C. Nevile resigned his incumbencies in the diocese 
 of Lincoln, stating in a letter to the Bishop, that he found it 
 quite impossible to subscribe to everything in the Book of 
 Common Prayer and the Thirty-Nine Articles, such as the 
 Athanasian Creed, &c. 
 
 3 Corfu was seething with indignation at this time over the 
 removal of Marcoran andXidian, the two Ionian members of the 
 Supreme Council of Justice by Sir Henry Storks, a step of 
 which Lear afterwards acknowledged the wisdom. 
 
 251 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 naturally a Godsend and a political capital to their 
 party." 
 
 I am glad you have good accounts from Ireland, 
 and are happy yourself. If you can — and gradually — 
 initiate a life of regular solid occupation and progress 
 — for your future conditions of life. It will make you 
 far happier in the present and far more so also when 
 you look back on that present after it has become 
 Past, — than any amount of whizzy pleasure can 
 ever do. Don't turn up your nose. 1 I am 50 years 
 old, and see a many men and lives, and ends and 
 chains of lives — which you don't and didn't and 
 can't. If it pleased God to send you twins I should 
 be easy. 
 
 Tuesday, 21 Oct. 1862. 
 
 ... I still maintain that Blasphemy and lying 
 are the Prerogatives of Priestcraft ; or they would not 
 say that the Almighty damns the greater part of his 
 creatures. So far I agree with you — that which they 
 should preach (them there practical truths you elude 
 to) is worthy of all love and veneration, — but since 
 as a body they have ever given the lie to such 
 preaching by their dogmas and lives — cui bono the 
 preaching? Whereby — though I sincerely like and 
 respect many individually, I object to the whole 
 biling. 
 
 The Chancellor 2 — (I was there Saturday and 
 Sunday) was delightful : such an abundance of 
 
 1 " Note. — I was hard at work at the Colonial Office. — C. F." 
 
 2 Lord Westbury (Sir Richard Bethell). 
 
 252 
 
Malta and England 
 
 excellent conversation — with a circle or with me 
 only — one seldom has the luck of getting. 
 
 He — Speaking of "undique sequaces " — "sequax, 
 — and saying "let us remember the line and go and 
 look for the translation," quoth the Landscape painter 
 in a fit of absurdity, 
 
 11 My Lord I can remember it easily by thinking 
 of wild ducks." 
 
 " How of wild ducks Lear?" said the Lord C. — 
 " Because they are sea-quacks " said I. 
 
 "Lear," said his Lordship, " I abominate the forcible 
 introduction of ridiculous images calculated to distract 
 the mind from what it is contemplating." 
 
 The painter chuckled inwardly — having from before- 
 hand calculated on the exact result of his speech. 
 
 About Dudbrook — aQ 6fxi\r)(T(i)fxev avptov, w<poyavmaTi- 
 
 24th October, 1862. 
 
 ... I have written to Lady W. to say I cannot 
 come to Dudbrook : it is no use trying on a plan 
 which may — by rain wind or cold — turn out abortive 
 — by making me disagreeable to myself and my 
 fellow creatures. 
 
 I have also written to Lady W. to say, that all things 
 considered, I give up the Chantilly : — in November, in 
 Paris, the chances are quite against my being able to 
 draw out of doors at all. ... I write also to give up 
 the Prescott's at Roehampton 2 from simmiler cawziz. 
 
 1 Until we meet to-morrow to eat raw flesh. 
 
 2 W. G. Prescott, a wealthy banker, of Clarence Villa, Roe- 
 hampton, committed suicide 1865. 
 
 253 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 I wish you would send me one line, just to say if I 
 may send the Thermopylae to 45, St. James' Place. 
 I do not see why you should not have the benefit of it 
 for the 2 or 3 months you are there. Only don't 
 leave it on chairs or sofas or broomstix : that 
 proceeding always warps and strains canvas. . . . For 
 
 tfljjg ft. 
 
 PAmvKA 
 
 on going away, I want to leave everything here in a 
 pumptiliously exactual condition in case of death over- 
 taking me abroad : — and so I clear my rooms as far as 
 I can. 
 
 Lady Waldegrave to Lear. 
 
 Dudbrook, 
 
 Oct. 26th. 
 
 ... I will postpone the Chantilly commission to 
 another year, but I will go to you on Monday the 3rd 
 of November before one o'clock, to see if I can find 
 any small picture which would suit the Duke 
 
 254 
 
Malta and England 
 
 d'Aumale. 1 I will tell you de vive voix, that I am 
 quite as happy as another of your warm friends. 
 
 Lear to Lady Waldegrave. 
 
 qth November, 1862, 
 
 15, Stratford Place. 
 
 . . . Admiral Robinson 2 who came when I was out, 
 — (he is a really good draughtsman himself,) says he 
 thinks 40scue's Thermopylae the best picture he has 
 seen of Greece or any other place. . . . 
 
 Many thanks for your kind wishes. It is not pro- 
 bable however that my Ashmer will decrease, but 
 rather the contrary until I go out with a puff. 
 
 I went into the city today, to put the ^125 I got 
 for the "Book of Nonsense" into the funds. It is 
 doubtless a very unusual thing for an artist to put by 
 money, for the whole way from Temple Bar to the 
 Bank was crowded with carriages and people, — so 
 immense a sensation did this occurrence make. And 
 all the way back it was the same, which was very 
 gratifying. 
 
 1 The fourth son of Louis Philippe, resident at Orleans House, 
 Twickenham. He retired to England after the Revolution of 
 1848. 
 
 2 Admiral Spencer Robinson, at this time Controller of the 
 Navy. Afterward Sir Spencer Robinson. 
 
 255 
 
CHAPTER X 
 November, 1862, to March, 1863 
 
 CORFU 
 
 Lear to Fortescue 
 
 Kacra Ylapa/jLuSiOTTi : to. TeT^e. Kc/okjociv. 1 
 
 30 Nov., 1862. 
 
 ION LY got your ancient and fishlike letter dated 
 10th inst. 3 days ago, I myself having only 
 arrived here on the 23rd. ... I didrit "go pretty 
 straight to Corfu " — au contraire, the road being 
 broken up by torrents near Nice, I was obliged to 
 go in a steamer to Genoa. (There was such a fat 
 Cardinal on board, and didn't I get likenesses of him 
 under the table !) Then I went to Ancona, but the 
 Italian boats were postponed for a month, and so I 
 had to wait for the small Trieste boat, which, coming, 
 could not start for bad weather. . . . 
 
 The interregnum of five days at nasty Ancona, was 
 however, it behoves me to confess, made agreeable by 
 the company of a really delightful party of officers, of 
 which Gen 1 . Casanova who took the city with Cialdini 
 
 1 Casa Paramuthiati, The Fort, Corfu. 
 
 256 
 
Corfu 
 
 and Fanti * was head. The progress which all Italy 
 is making astonishes even me, and I am often more 
 and more confirmed in my opinion that L[ouis] 
 N[apoleon] is right in keeping his troops at Rome. If 
 you have a bad sore, needs must be that the body is 
 more regularly ordered to keep it in health ; and the 
 general organization of the peninsula goes on so 
 a head, that the swallowing up of the papal power is, 
 so it seems to me, only a question of more or fewer 
 years. At Ancona, too, the De Vere's arrived — on 
 their way to Corfu. (He is a nephew of Ld. Mont- 
 eagle's 2 — she a sister of Burke the Australian 
 explorer) and this was a blessing — as they are the 
 people I know here now most intimately. I never 
 saw a face of more mental health and beauty — as well 
 as brightness though not perfectly regular features than 
 hers — and little Mary De Vere was a real Godsend to 
 us all on board — with her merriment and prattle. . . . 
 I have also been going on with my long projected 
 illustrations of Tennyson. . . . 
 
 I can't write consecutively for phits of coffin. . . . 
 
 A new General — Sir R. Garrett 3 — replaces Sir J. 
 Inglis : he looks above 4,000 years old, tho' perhaps 
 is not. Woodcox are expensive at present. In 
 Cephalonia I hear that the sun of Xidian — one of the 
 removed Judges — is elected by a great majority over 
 
 1 Ancona was taken in i860. 
 
 2 Lord Monteagle's only sister Mary married Sir Aubrey de 
 Vere. 
 
 3 He commanded the 4th Division before Sevastopol. 
 
 257 S 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 the Government candidate. The whole thing is 
 simply considered a clever intrigue on the part of 
 Braila and Damaschino — forced upon Storx in a 
 Gladstonian sense (G. corresponds with the Brailas). 1 
 And thus no one cares for it much, except that all 
 parties seem to consider the manner of the act wholly 
 unjustifiable. Poor old Sir George Marcoran bears it 
 very well and with dignity : nevertheless to some 
 friends he said, with tears in his eyes — " I do not say 
 — replace me. I only ask for one valid reason for so 
 gross a torto being used to an old public servant in 
 whom no fault is named." But as I said — every mind 
 just now is full of the Greek affair. . . . Sometimes 
 I think the titles here are really very absurd : — take 
 a list — 
 
 Sir Henry Storks 
 
 Sir Robert Garrett 
 
 Sir Henry and Lady Woolf 
 
 Sir Patrick and Lady Colquhoun 
 
 Sir Charles and Lady Sargent 
 
 Sir Gregory and Lady Caruso 
 
 Sir Philotheos and Lady Damaschino 
 
 Sir Themistocles and Lady Zambelli 
 
 Sir Aristides and Lady Braila 
 
 Sir Demetrius and Lady Valsimachi 
 
 Sir Demetrius and Lady Curcumell 
 
 Sir Plato and Lady Platides 
 
 1 Braila was the secretary to the Senate at the time of Mr. 
 Gladstone's visit, and a supporter of British interests. 
 
 258 
 
Corfu 
 
 Sir Karalambos and Lady Flamburiani, 
 Sir Christopheros and Lady Kalikopolos Biletti 
 Bizi. 
 
 after which last nothing but Sir Agrios and Lady 
 Polugorill6foros is to be expected. But this same list 
 sets forth a love of title in these people — which indeed 
 they are vain. . . . 
 
 . . . Bye and bye I am going to ask you a quaps- 
 fillious question : I mean to have the Cedars put into 
 the ground floor room of 15 Stratford Place, and if so, 
 do you think Lord Lansdowne might be asked to go 
 and see it — i.e. if you or someone could go with him 
 — and so that he could not speak of it to any R. 
 Academician first, — or they would — not content with 
 having placed it so ill — prevent his buying it. The 
 only drawback might be that the foolish landscape- 
 painters Creswick and Redgrave might bust of rage 
 which I should be sorry for — brutes. 
 
 All Greece seems voting for AX^>l$oc l — and could 
 that happen — the very best salve and guarantee for 
 future peace and former ills would happen : but I 
 fear it can't. Only I suggest — let Prince Alfred rush 
 here and be suddenly crowned — (Your Government 
 
 1 In October the whole of Greece rose in rebellion and 
 deposed their incompetent German King Otho. Prince Alfred of 
 England was chosen as their new sovereign by an overwhelming 
 majority, but international reasons prevented his acceptance of 
 the dignity. The choice then fell upon a Prince of Denmark, 
 brother of our present Queen. It was at this time that pro- 
 posals were first definitely made for the cession of the Ionian 
 Isles to Greece. 
 
 259 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 disowning it like the Nice and Savoy affair) and who 
 can alter it ? Thereafter too, guarantees might then 
 be guv to Turkey for behaviour, etc : I half suspect it 
 will end so. 
 
 Of society — more another thyme. Of balls — of 
 moons — of fish and other vegetables — and of all future 
 and past events as things may be. I have got a 
 piano. Also a carpet. Also a tame redbreast : also 
 a hearthrug and two doormats. 
 
 Dec. i. . . . Here is a letter from Mrs. Clive : 
 G. C. 1 has resigned — and H. A. Bruce 2 is in his 
 place. I hope B.'s health will serve him. Here we 
 hear, that should P. Alfred finally be elected, and then 
 be refused by England — Gladstone is likely to be the 
 next favourite ! ! ! ! Fancy Mrs. G. Queen of Greece ! 
 
 I shall write to Mr. G. and ask him to make me 
 PptJTog Z<Dypa<f>og,3 and Grand Peripatetic Ass and 
 Boshproducing Luminary — forthwith. 
 
 Lear to Lady Waldegrave. 
 
 Corfu. January i, 1863. 
 Do you know anything of a young man called 
 Chichester Fortescue ? I wrote to him a month ago, 
 but have heard nothing of him at all at all, and my 
 belief is that he is either full of business, or over head 
 and ears in love, — possibly both. If you should 
 happen to meet him, please tell him to send me a line 
 
 1 George Clive, Under-Secretary of State for the Home 
 Department, resigned in November, on account of his health. 
 
 2 Henry Austin Bruce, created Baron Aberdare, 1873. 
 
 3 Painter Laureate. 
 
 260 
 
Corfu 
 
 some day — and you can also wish him a happy new 
 year from me. I write this more particularly to wish 
 you the same — and that this may be the forerunner of 
 many such. And for my own part I think you have 
 a great and goodly prospect of happiness, please God 
 that C. F. and yourself have good health : for I have 
 never known anyone with more qualities to ensure 
 happiness in his companions than Fortescue. I am, 
 however, getting anxious to know when events are to 
 come to pass, which news I suppose patience will tell 
 me if I wait long enough. 
 
 I should like to hear how the Duke D'Aumale liked 
 the little picture of Philse. For the present I have 
 done with oil-painting and have collapsed into degra- 
 dation and small ioand 12 guinea drawings calculated 
 to attract the attention of small capitalists. ... I have 
 very little to grumble at, saving that I grow so fat, 
 which is horrible to think of and makes me miserable. 
 
 nth January. The pighearted has written. And 
 I have just been writing a long letter to him. He 
 writes a capital letter, full of substance. His strong 
 feeling for poetry, his natural good taste, his classical 
 knowledge and wide reading are all portions of his 
 character vastly interesting. But I am disposed to 
 think that by constant attention he may also eventually 
 attain a very high position as a Minister. As a 
 speaker — (tho' I never heard him) I do not imagine 
 he would ever be in the first ranks — but as a thinker, 
 I believe he will. All that is going on now about 
 Greece is immensely interesting to me ; and if there 
 
 261 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 were a fixed and good government at Athens, I 
 should probably ultimately live there entirely : — winter 
 in England never more I shall, and the double journey 
 is getting too onerous for so old a cove as I am 
 becoming. I wish that you and F. would come out 
 here for a few weeks : it would greatly delight you, 
 and in April would be charming. In midwinter the 
 weather is too uncertain to allow the chance of a fort- 
 night's visit — nay, or a month's — being satisfactory, 
 for it rains poodles and pineapples at times. 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 Corfu, nth January, 1863. 
 
 O my eyes and little convolvuluses ! If here isn't 
 a letter sent by the Lord High a come from you, 
 (a ninvitation to dinner following). 
 
 My dear Fortescue, — I didn't write before, know- 
 ing how busy you must be, but I began to be in a 
 fidget about the Irish side of the question, nor until 
 Mrs. R[uxton] has seen Lady W[aldegrave] shall I 
 be quite easy — unless indeed the Aunt perceives by 
 your altered health and manner that such improve- 
 ment can only be caused by happiness. . . . Your 
 6 pages are all very nice — and I will just glance 
 them over, and then, as Craven said in his sermon 
 just now "proceed to continue to state to improve" — 
 (Should not — in a parenthesis — impudence and igno- 
 rance be represented in white ties ? Why should 
 Craven — preaching from a text about Moses, "your 
 sins will find you out " — declare that not taking the 
 
 262 
 
Corfu 
 
 Holy Sacrament would certainly make a man miser- 
 able here, and probably hereafter ? Yet poor Craven, 
 though a sad goose is a good and laborious man : — 
 which his wife resembles the mother of the Milky 
 herd and produces an ecclesiastical baby regularly 
 every ten months. I shall ask him to dine with me 
 on Thursday next.) 
 
 To return to your letter. I can quite fancy the 
 library at Strawberry Hill under the circumstances : 
 I wonder if that glass globe stays out all the winter J : 
 if ever I grow childish or insane I shall ask Lady W. 
 to let me have that globe to play with, for never any 
 fool was more taken with an object. Bye the bye — 
 talking of fools — there is an old man here partly so 
 by nature — partly by drink — a seafaring man who has 
 formerly been in the Balearic Isles. He has taken 
 a kind of monomaniac fancy to my Nonsense Book, 
 and declares that he knew personally the Aunt of the 
 Girl of Majorca ! ! I hear it is more than humanity 
 can bear to hear him point out how exactly like she is 
 — and how she used to jump the walls in Majorca 
 with flying leaps !!!!!! Bother this letter it won't go 
 on straight. 
 
 There was a young girl of Majorca, 
 Whose aunt was a very fast walker, 
 
 She walked seventy miles, 
 
 And leaped fifteen stiles, 
 Which astonished that girl of Majorca. 
 
 1 A silvered glass globe on a pedestal in the garden, which 
 specially attracted the admiration of Mr. Lear. 
 
 263 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 <u 
 
 
 
 
 ^4 
 
 
 
 
 T— 1 
 
 
 
 
 «J 
 
 
 
 
 ► 
 
 
 
 
 -^ 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 ifl 
 
 CO" 
 
 
 
 >% 
 
 <D 
 
 
 
 y_ 
 
 • l-H 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 * 
 
 
 c3 
 
 PI 
 
 as 
 
 
 CD 
 
 o 
 
 
 CO 
 
 CD 
 & 
 
 53 
 
 S-l 
 
 O 
 
 *«? 
 
 
 ■4-J 
 
 T3 
 
 1-5 
 
 H 
 
 c 
 
 CD 
 
 **-( 
 
 00 
 
 3 
 
 &• 
 
 o 
 
 M 
 
 sg 
 
 c3 
 
 
 S£ 
 
 
 CD 
 
 »-H 
 
 <w 
 
 CD 
 
 r-H 
 
 • t— ( 
 
 s 
 
 CO 
 
 o 
 
 n3 
 
 o 
 
 
 ^3 
 
 o8- 
 
 4-> 
 
 a3 
 
 
 *\ 
 
 CO 
 
 
 V 
 
 Cy 
 
 CD 
 
 
 -«4 
 
 £-1 
 
 • 1— 1 
 
 n3 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 s 
 
 >-> 
 
 S3 
 
 CD 
 
 ^3 
 
 CO 
 
 a 
 
 o 
 
 
 V»-i 
 
 CD 
 
 -M 
 
 s 
 
 O 
 
 • i— i 
 
 > 
 CD 
 CO 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 T3 
 
 tw 
 
 o 
 
 
 S3 
 
 Cy 
 
 »— < 
 
 c8 
 
 .c 
 
 ► 
 
 
 3 
 O 
 
 £ 
 
 
 
 >H 
 
 CD 
 ^3 
 
 
 
 c3 
 
 Ul 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 c$ 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
 
 CD 
 
 
 
 
 S-H 
 
 
 
 
 CD 
 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 gH 
 
 
 
 
 264 
 
Corfu 
 
 You vast owly Mortle ! Why haven't you said on 
 what day the marriage of yourself and Lady W. is 
 to be. Confound it, — nor where it is to take place. 
 I guess — Twickenham or Brompton. By what you 
 write it seems to me you have announced it yourself 
 to dear old Mrs. Ruxton — or she has seen it in print. 
 Do tell me, when you have been to Red House, how 
 she takes it. . . . 
 
 Your remark " prayed at " reminds me of an angry 
 governess, to whom, being a R.C. a violent Pro- 
 testant lady said — " The God of Mercy turn your 
 heart ! I pray for you morning noon and night ! " — 
 " Croyez vous done, Madame," said the governess — 
 " que ce grand bon Dieu n'a pas quoi s'occuper, qu'il 
 doit 6couter vos betises meme trois fois par jour ? 
 Allez done ! je vous prie de ne lui pas fatiguer plus 
 pour moi ! " 
 
 I can fancy the Russ's 1 sensations. I think he 
 will have photographs of you all over the house, 
 busts on the bannisters, and a statue on the door- 
 steps. . . . The reason of servants being unsatisfac- 
 tory 9 times out of 10 is that their hirers consider 
 them as chairs or tables — and take no interest in 
 them as human beings. Your lady knows that well 
 enough, for she is kind to them individually. For 
 myself, the only three I ever had, Hansen, Giorgio 
 and T. Cooper, would all do anything to oblige me — 
 and I don't believe that is chance — but the effect of 
 
 1 Fortescue's landlord in St. James's Place, where F. had lived 
 for many years. 
 
 265 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 caring for them in some way to improve them or their 
 families. . . . 
 
 . . . Concerning the concession of the Isles — I do 
 not see that it could be done till there be a certainty 
 of a solid and strong government in Greece — which 
 amounts to saying it can't be done now. Yet it seems 
 to me, that could the English Government get the 
 other powers to agree that such definite arrangement 
 should be made whenever the proper time arrives, — 
 a positive statement of this sort may do much to 
 make governing here more easy, — the principal cause 
 of their botheration being thus removed. Surely they 
 might govern them without a parliament here at all, 
 on the grounds that the fate of the Islands would be 
 settled — and only a question of time as to when 
 carried to an ultimatum or riXog. Wolff is not yet 
 come. Me <paivf-Tm y i a secretary who is away 9 months 
 out of 12 is a not very requisite functionary. In fact 
 Storx is more a ruler than any I have known here, — 
 and the manner of the judges dismissal is, as far as 
 I can see, the only error of his sway of 3 or 4 years. 
 I hope to goodness your ministry won't be turned 
 out : but I have "reason to think " that a big man in 
 the Upper House has been getting at any kind of 
 information about that Judge affair. Possibly your 
 reverence may remember that Talbot 2 was governor 
 of Cephalonia for a time, verbum sap. 
 
 1 It appears to me. 
 
 2 Colonel Talbot was private secretary to the Earl of Derby 
 when he was Prime Minister in 1852. 
 
 266 
 
Corfu 
 
 ... I rejoice to state that these views I am 
 doing — 10 and 12 guinea ones — seem much liked, 
 and that the young Duke of St. Albans 1 bought 
 5 a few days ago. Nevertheless, reddy tin is scarce, 
 and bills abound. . . . Nonsense issues from me at 
 times — to make a new book next year. The weather 
 is at present lovely and the views over the harbour 
 are of the most clipfombious and ompsiquillious 
 nature. . . . Here's somebod a nokking at the dolor- 
 ous door. I must stop. 
 
 February 1st, 1863. 
 On the 30th ult. (which don't mean ultramarine but 
 ultimo) came yours of the 19th. ... I have since 
 read that the marriage did take place, 2 and Sir 
 H. Storks, whom I me tout walking yesterday, said, 
 " if he is as happy as his friends wish him, he will be 
 extremely so." Being a Lord High Commissioner, 
 I did not slap him on the shoulder and say "Well 
 done ! old cove ! " tho' I wished to do so. I suppose 
 you to be walking about on your head, or at least 
 turning over and over starfish fashion. Some ill- 
 natured ass put that account of the marriage into my 
 paper — the " Daily Telegraph " — in order that it 
 might be followed by " Blue Mantle's " letter next 
 day on keeping or changing names. 3 When did 
 
 1 The tenth Duke. 
 
 2 On the 20th of January, 1863, at Old Brompton Church, 
 only relations and connections being invited to the wedding. 
 
 3 Referring to a letter in the paper objecting to Lady 
 Waldegrave still calling herself " Countess Waldegrave," signed 
 
 267 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Lady W. ever call herself Countess W. and not 
 Frances Countess W. ? Or, if she had, do not 
 the Duchesses of St. Albans and Roxburgh keep 
 their titles ? Not to speak of Lady Farquhar and 
 Lady Pigott, etc : etc : It is delightful to know that 
 Mrs. Ruxton is happy. Has Russ bust his heart? 
 
 . . . Meanwhile my dear boy I wish you and 
 " Mrs. Fortescue " as the " Telegraph " will have 
 her to be, every happiness and as long a lease of it 
 as may be. And live as quietly as you can — rank and 
 position permitting ; for, as you know I think, — in 
 inward quietness lies greatest happiness. 
 
 As for me, I may say thankfully that no month of 
 January in all my life has gone by so happily as this. 
 . . . The winter seems all gone for the present — 
 though the Equal-noxious gales will doubtless come 
 in disgustable force. . . . As far as my wits go, it 
 seems to me that the present move is to enforce 
 public recognition of a distinct principle, viz. : that 
 when Greece is established, the end of our control 
 here is at hand. But that it should cease yet — or 
 until a firm government can be put in our place, 
 seems to me very improbable. ... I still lead the 
 same quiet life, dining at the De Vere's or Palace on 
 Sundays, and on Tuesdays somewhere or other : one 
 or another of the garrison officers dining with me on 
 
 M Blue Mantle," and to which the real " Blue Mantle " replied, 
 showing that the precedent was a perfectly correct one. Lady 
 Waldegrave never called herself anything but " Frances 
 Countess Waldegrave." 
 
 268 
 
Corfu 
 
 Thursdays. . . . Here is the paradigmatical illustra- 
 tion of last Sunday's dinner. 1 
 
 child ! write ! I can't any more. (Bye the bye I 
 am glad to see 2 letters in today's papers in answer 
 to that ass " Bluemantle "). Nevertheless give my 
 love to •* Mrs. Fortescue." I am collapsing with 
 laughter and must go and bounce chords on the 
 Piano. 
 
 8 February, 1863. 
 
 Your letter of the 30th delighted me extremely — 
 you seem so thund'ring happy. . . . Bother the 
 " Daily Telegraph "—I see the real " Blue Mantle " 
 has been writing in answer to the malicious ijot who 
 goes on with his "Mrs. C. S. F." 2 What delights 
 me as much as anything is to hear that you and my 
 Lady are going to Red House at Easter. . . . 
 
 I'm glad she makes you get up early and take 
 oss exersize. The plan of the 12 o'clock breakfast 
 
 1 On Mr. Lear's right will be noticed the name Evelyn Baring. 
 This is the present Earl Cromer. 2 Another initial of Fortescue's. 
 
 269 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 seems good — only take some coffee early or some- 
 thing — a nemptystummuk is a bad thing. (Old 
 Chevalier Kestner 1 once said — calling out in the 
 street — " Come and breakfast with me tomorrow : 
 not a teapot but a forked collation.") I was however 
 much amused when I read that bit of your letter, 
 because the evening before a man, after growling at 
 all " Greeks " with the contemptuous annoyance of an 
 Anglo-Saxon — spoke as bitterly as he could of a nice 
 young Englishman — an officer — married to a really 
 nice Greek girl — " he was ceasing to be English 
 entirely — and becoming Greek altogether." " But 
 how " said I. And after obliging my man to confess 
 
 that Captain was as good tempered, as attentive 
 
 to his duties — as fond of exercises — as regular at 
 church, etc : etc : etc : as before he married — he began 
 to get cross, and at last grumbled out — "Well then! 
 I '11 tell you what he does ! he breakfasts a la fourchette 
 at 1 1 or 1 2 — and if you can say a man is an English- 
 man who does that — the devil's in it." 
 
 Thank you for sending the £66 to Drummond's : 
 I have only got sixpence and 2 farthings left here . . . 
 
 We are all becoming convinced that we are 
 a-going to go — but when — we wot not. On Friday, 
 perhaps the last ball guv by the last Lord High came 
 off — and I ought to have gone but didn't. (Lord ! 
 how I hate the bustle and lights and fuss of 
 "society" — social in reality as is my nature — not 
 
 1 A well-known figure in Roman society of the forties and 
 fifties. 
 
 270 
 
Corfu 
 
 gregarious. Geese, swine, gnats, etc., are gregarious). 
 Have you heard anything of Bowen of late ? It is 
 reported here that he and Lady B. have parted . . . 
 it is said the Queensland papers were full of it — yet 
 here one never knows what to believe. 
 
 I see you are going to have a Royal Academy 
 Commission : it will do nothing at all I fear. I wish 
 the whole thing were abolished — for as it is now it is 
 disgraceful. 30 men self-declared as the 30 greatest 
 painters of England — yet having in their body — 
 Witheringtons — Frosts — Coopers — C. Landseers — 
 and other unheard of nonentities, while Watts — 
 Linnel — Hunt — Maddox Brown — Anthony — and 
 many more are condemned to official extinction. My 
 sister Ellinor writes : " One of my eldest brother's 
 sons has been badly wounded in the last battle." 
 
 My watercolour drawings are all done but two— a 
 really remarkable spot of energy : tho', by 
 reason of sitting still and poking to see 
 them — my neck has grown longer and 
 my body fatter, and I am like to this — 
 
 . . . My plans are still unsettled ... I think I 
 shall pantechnichize for a good long time — and go 
 about wandering as it were like a tailless baboon. 
 Athens does not appear to me to be a bad place to 
 stick in ... I can't tell yet — but I think this year 
 will see a change in my life, if so be I live — for I 
 don't look to do that very long ... I wish you both 
 as much happiness as you can gobble, and am greatly 
 rejoiced at your condition. 
 
 271 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Yours absquoxiously and full of blomphious and 
 umpsidixious congratulations. 
 
 Edward Lear. 
 
 February gtk. Today's mail has brought me no 
 letters — and only a single paper. But that tells me 
 of Lord Lansdowne's 1 death — a great loss to many, 
 and a lesson in life, for he was a truly noble good fine 
 man. Yet at 82 — and with so good and long a life — 
 his death seems to come all-expected. Not so what 
 the same newspaper also tells me — of the death of 
 poor William Harcourt's 2 wife! — what a dreadful 
 blank and blow for him ! It seems but the other day 
 I met her in Pall Mall, so gay — just going to church ! 
 
 Yesterday — after I wrote the first part of this letter, 
 Wolff and Sargent called, and the amount of question- 
 ing and pumping was fearful — but I withstood all. 
 Howbeit I have my own ideas of good-breeding. A 
 German Count who was here last year said " I take 
 one walk with Sir C. Sargent and Mr. Wolff — and 
 when I come back I feel no more one man, but one 
 catechism book that all may ask questions out from." 
 In the evening I dined at the Wolff's. Lady W. has 
 some of the delicate, intangible, not to be expressed, 
 refined qualities of woman — in as great a degree as 
 I ever knew in any female. She is, in somma, a 
 talented Italian — with a great dash of English firm 
 
 1 The third Marquis, who was offered the Premiership in 1852. 
 
 2 Afterwards Sir William Harcourt. He married in 1859 
 Miss Lister, a daughter of the well-known Lady Theresa Lewis 
 by her first marriage, with Mr. Lister. 
 
 272 
 
Corfu 
 
 good sense. This evening I had hoped for quiet, but 
 there came " Masks " and bored me to death, and 
 later a heap of people. Bother, said I, and came 
 away. 
 
 22nd February 1863 
 ... I should certainly like to have a peep at you 
 and Lady Waldegrave in Carlton Gardens — where 
 Wolff tells me he sees in the papers you are gone. 
 ... I am again writing at 10.30 p.m. after a very 
 pleasant dinner — at all events a good one — at the 
 Lord High's — who — as I left the room, said "if you 
 write to Fortescue, give him my kind remembrances." 
 But of the day — and of the weeks bygone, and of 
 many other things — this deponent saith nil, whereby 
 and forwhy he is going to bed. 
 
 March 1. 
 
 About the 20th I finished the last of 60 drawings — 
 all of 10 or 12 guineas each in price — and last week 
 the frames came, and then, after two days' insertion 
 of the drawings, measuring and nail knocking, I have 
 made a really remarkable gallery of water colour 
 works. This next week I have to ask some 70 or 80 
 sets of people to see this same gallery — but I doubt 
 my success in selling the drawings. Cheap photo- 
 graphs are the order of the day now. . . . Among 
 those who most enjoy seeing what I have done, Sir 
 H. Storks is eminent. His delight in looking over 
 the drawings was very marked — and at once he 
 bought one of Jerusalem and one of Corfu. Lady 
 
 273 T 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Wolff also examines everything minutely and with 
 an eye evidently used to look at nature heartily. 
 Others will irritate me — Sir C. Sargent to wit — who 
 saw all 60 drawings in 19 minutes, calling over the 
 names of each and saying " ^700 ! why you must 
 give a ball!" Fool! As yet I have sold ^120 
 
 =F 
 
 
 tS<r*<Z#£rvr'£*. ■ 
 
 ,*p2C ■=<•-—- 
 
 
 ia^^ggi 
 
 worth — but have not received one farthing — for great 
 people generally suppose that artists gnaw their 
 colours and brushes for food. . . . Overleaf I will 
 give you a sort of picture of my gallery. There's a 
 proof that an old cove of 50 has some energy still ! 
 
 Sir H. S. has been most particularly amiable — 
 asking me perpetually to Sunday dinners. He is 
 
 274 
 
Corfu 
 
 doubtless one of the most agreeable men socially — 
 and in his public character I perceive that he is 
 always consistent — never for a moment forgetting 
 that he is the Q.'s Lord H. Commissioner. 
 
 Of the swells — next to those Palatial — the ancient 
 general seems a jovial amiable man. But there is no 
 one here I can walk with comfortably, and I miss 
 Lushington horridly at times. Last Sunday I 
 insisted — (as Sir C. Sargent and Wolff wanted me 
 to walk) on not pottering to the one-gun-battery — 
 which is like walking up and down Rotten Row — so 
 we walked round Potamo ; it was one of the most 
 lovely of afternoons, and the colour and scenery were 
 enough to delight a dead man. These two live ones 
 however never once looked at or spoke of it : their 
 talk was of money and politics only, and made me 
 sick for the three hours. Lady Wolff is a singularly 
 clever woman. A Professor Ansted 1 is here — a very 
 intellectual and pleasant man. Sir H. Storks sent 
 him to me from my knowing the island well, and I 
 took him to Peleca and got him to dine with me. 
 There is also a very curious young man — Lord 
 Seymour 2 — here : his ways are ways of wonder, but 
 it seems to me I should or shall like him. 
 
 Lear to Lady Waldegrave. 
 
 15 March 1863 
 Your letter of the 23rd February gave me a great 
 deal of pleasure ; it is delightful to know from your- 
 
 1 The well-known geologist. 2 Son of the Duke of Somerset. 
 
 275 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 self that you and Chichester are so happy, though I 
 knew very well that you would be so. The Pig- 
 hearted has an abundance of good qualities, which 
 are not observable even upon long knowledge of his 
 character. 
 
 I am glad I was not doomed to hear Mr. J.'s 
 sermon. I begin to be vastly weary of hearing 
 people talk nonsense — unanswered, — not because 
 they are unanswerable, but because they talk in 
 pulpits. That same morning I heard a "discourse" 
 on Lot's wife and other unpleasant legends, being — 
 as I find in my journal, the 23rd I have heard on the 
 same subject. Are not the priests of the age blind 
 indeed not to discern that, though from the unassail- 
 able vantage ground of custom they may oppress the 
 human intellect for a long long while, yet that some 
 day the hour will come for them to go the way of all 
 other priesthoods ? 
 
 The battle about Colenso interests me immensely : 
 I perceive that Hampden 1 and Thirlwall are the only 
 two of all the silly Bishops who have not signed the 
 Memorial to " Natal." In the nature of things it was 
 not to be supposed that the Bps were to forward 
 Colenso's views, but they might have done another 
 thing — to wit, let him alone. A broader creed, — a 
 better form of worship — the cessation of nonsense and 
 curses — and the recognition of a new state of matters 
 brought about by centuries, science, destiny or what 
 
 1 Bishop of Hereford, whose election in 1847 was opposed by 
 thirteen bishops and the Dean of Hereford. 
 
 276 
 
Corfu 
 
 not — will assuredly be demanded and come to pass 
 whether Bishops and priests welcome the changes or 
 resist them. Not those who believe that God the 
 Creator is greater than a Book, and that millions 
 unborn are to look up to higher thoughts than those 
 stereotyped by ancient legends, gross ignorance, and 
 hideous bigotry — not those are the Infidels, — but 
 these same screamy ganders of the church, who put 
 darkness forward and insist that it is light. 
 
 Meanwhile I hear that a measure is to be brought 
 forward in the Legislature, to simplify the creed of 
 religious England, and thus by the shortest catechism 
 to abolish all infidel doctrines. The Bishops of all 
 dioceses are to prevent the clergy from allowing any 
 person to attend church who does not answer 2 simple 
 questions in the affirmative. 
 
 1 st. Do you believe in Balaam's ass, Jonah's 
 whale, Elisha's bears, and Lot's wife ? 
 
 2nd. Do you believe that all mankind who do not 
 believe in these creatures will be burned in everlast- 
 ing fire, wholly without respect to their wisdom, 
 charity or any other good quality? 
 
 . . . My life here has gone on very sklombion- 
 biously on the whole — though I go out very little, 
 not being, as you know, of a gregarious nature. . . . 
 Sir Henry Storks very often asks me to dine on 
 Sunday, and I find the evening there very agreeable : 
 — he is so full of anecdote and information that you 
 would suppose he had had nothing to do but flaner 
 all his life — instead of being soldier, governor, and 
 
 V7 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 what not. To me he seems most excellently fitted 
 for his post here, being always the same consistent 
 man in public life and private. 
 
 Heaps of Gonfiati 1 continue to rush about here 
 at intervals : a surprising duchess came to my rooms 
 
 2 days ago — (M ) — though I don't think she 
 
 looked at anything very much. But the people 
 whose acquaintance has most delighted me are the 
 Shelley's 2 — who are here in a yott. Think of my 
 music to ' ' O world, O life, O time ! " — Shelley's words 
 — being put down in notes by Shelley's own son ! 
 Then there is Lord Seymour, who seems to me as if 
 he had dreamed a dream and was continually a-dream- 
 ing of having dreamed it : qua a Duke's eldest sun, 
 certainly an odd mortal, though there is somewhat of 
 interest about him. Also there was Smith O'Brien, 3 
 who has sail'd off to Athens, I really believe, upon 
 some hubbly bubbly errand of stuff. The Duke of 
 St. Alban's was here too, which his Duchess mother 
 I like more nor the Duchess just gone. . . . 
 
 At the present moment I have pulled down my 
 Eggzibission — and shall send some to England pos- 
 sibly, — one is for C. F.'s wedding present bye the bye 
 
 I 
 
 1 Swells. 
 
 2 Sir Percy Florence Shelley, only son of the poet, succeeded 
 his grandfather as third baronet in 1844. He married the 
 widow of the Hon. C. R. St. John. 
 
 3 The famous Irish revolutionary, who was tried for High 
 Treason in 1848 and sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and 
 quartered. He was, however, only transported to Tasmania, 
 receiving a pardon in 1854. 
 
 278 
 
Corfu 
 
 — but my principal effort just now is towards the 
 production of 24 views to illustrate the Ionian Islands. 
 . . . My love to XoipotcapSiag Choirokardias (which is 
 the Pighearted). 
 
 Please let C. F. have the disclosed note. 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 23 March 1863 
 The sklimjimfiousness of the situation increases : 
 Sir H. Drummond Wolff has been and gone and 
 bought 2 of my drawings — and Captain Stocker is 
 to buy another, so that I shall have enough tin to pay 
 rent and shut up house for 8 weeks or thereabouts. 
 Whereupon, I shall first make some studies of what 
 Lady Young used to call " Awnge trees " and then I 
 shall go to Paxo. 
 
 There was an old person of Paxo 
 
 Which complained when the fleas bit his back so, 
 
 But they gave him a chair 
 
 And impelled him to swear, 
 Which relieved that old person of Paxo. 
 
 Just as I had written this bosh, came a nokkat the 
 daw — and lo ! a letter of yours sent by the L.H.C. 
 . . . I heard Wolff say yesterday that the "Judge 
 Affair " was postponed by Ld. D[erby]'s govt. I 
 hope your govt, won't suffer. I suppose something 
 must be unbeknown as yet to the public about the 
 judicials removed : anyhow Sir H. S.'s general public 
 conduct has been — as far as I am able to see — so 
 
 279 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 sensible, that I cannot but give him credit for having 
 more and stronger motives for the change of the 
 official dignitaries than his adversaries allow. 
 
 I go hence — as I said — on the 4th April — and 
 return towards the end of May, but I will write to 
 you from Sta Maura. . . . My gallery is nearly 
 dismantled, and must be put up — what remains of 
 it — in Stratford Place, where by June 15 I hope to 
 see you 
 
 "but never more, O ! never we — 
 Shall meet to eggs and toast and T ! " 
 
 Never mind. I don't grumble at the less I see of 
 friends — so they gain by it. . . . Ford writes — the 
 " Cedars " are just now put up again in Stratford 
 Place : please, if you have time, see them and tell me 
 how they look — poor brutes. 
 
 The account of the wedding 1 was delightful : poor 
 dear Queen. We are going to abluminate tonight — 
 the day being fine. Giorgio has bought 96 little 
 earthen pots for lights. ... I wonder if you had a 
 new coat when you married. 
 
 Another Nok at the Dore — Sir Percy and Lady 
 Shelley and little Florence — and to say "goodbye" — 
 which I hate. Lady S. is out and out and out a 
 stunner of a delightful woman. . . . 
 
 1 Of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales to Princess Alexandra of 
 Denmark. 
 
 280 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 June to December, 1863 
 
 ENGLAND 
 
 Lear to Forte scue. 
 
 Ancona. 7 a.m. 8 June, 1863. 
 
 YOU see I am on my way so far, and I suppose I 
 may be in England on Friday and in town on 
 Saturday. So that I shall hope to see you and Lady 
 Waldegrave on Sunday. 
 
 I have wearied awfully of the sea voyage — and do 
 so more and more. Perhaps the whole stagnation of 
 a week or more — besides the actual physical nuisance, 
 makes me determined to put an end to this double 
 "journey of life." But where I must live, so as to live 
 only in one place I can't yet decide. 
 
 . . . The farther I go from Corfu — the more I look 
 back to the delight its beautiful quiet has so long 
 given me, and I am by no means approaching the 
 filth and horror and noise of London life with a 
 becoming spirit. 
 
 Sitting next to the Captain of an Austrian Frigate 
 
 281 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 at Sir H. Stork's on Thursday evening — the German 
 officer said to a subaltern — (the conversation was 
 about the good looks of women) — " I do think the 
 Englishwoman conserve her aperient Galship longer 
 than all the women : even as far as her Antics." 
 
 The subaltern withered with confusion till I ven- 
 tured to explain, 
 
 " The Englishwoman preserves her appearance of 
 youth longer than all women — even if she be old." 
 
 Turin. Wednesday 17 June, 1863. 
 
 You will be sorry to know from this that I have 
 been lying here very ill — this is the 9th day. I think 
 I wrote to you from Ancona on the 8th when I landed 
 from Corfu — intending to come on at once to Paris - 
 and London. But as yet V. Emmanuel's govt, has not 
 been able to put a stop to all the old remains of Papal 
 torture, one of which was — to examine the goods of 
 travellers in the middle of the road on leaving Ancona 
 — (Ancona being a free town). So I had to undergo 
 this at noon, and having no servant and heavy boxes 
 to unstrap, half an hour in the great heat knocked me 
 up with a sunstroke. 
 
 I came on here, but grew worse and worse : and I 
 did not think I should live. I believe now however 
 that I may get over the attack tho' I cannot tell when 
 I shall be able to travel. 
 
 You may suppose my plans for London season are 
 all gone to the winds. I often thank God that 
 although he has given me a nature easily worried by 
 
 282 
 
England 
 
 small matters, yet in cases such as this I go on day 
 after day quite calmly, only thankful that I do not 
 suffer more. 
 
 It is an odd full stop to my triumphant 8 weeks' 
 success in the Island tour. . . . 
 
 Aug. 5, 1863. 
 
 I met Ld. Kirkwall yesterday afternoon in Pall 
 Mall. He was going to harangue about Sir H. S. 
 when I said, " I saw much more of Sir Henry than in 
 the year you were in Corfu — and I not only like him 
 very much, but think him an A. No. 1 Governor" 
 whereat he dropped my hand and collapsed. 
 
 A moth has crossed my paper, so I must go and 
 kill him. 
 
 4 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 Hastings, 
 
 Aug. 9, 1863. 
 I had thought of writing out my 6 island journal 
 here, but I am so ill at ease that I shall do neither 
 that nor anything else I believe. . . . 
 
 283 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 My plan was to bring out a work consisting of 20 
 Ionian views. . . . 
 
 This collection would, you see, have given the 
 beastly public all that was most characteristic of the 
 Islands : and, being well done, if at all, would keep up 
 my prestige as a draftsman of Mediterranean scenery 
 — and would, moreover, hold up or pave a way to my 
 more general smallersized Topography of Greece, to 
 be one day printed with my Journals. But, as above 
 related, everything is in Noobibus as yet, — and I, as 
 you may guess, grow more and more vexed perpetual. 
 
 This place, or rather this part of it, is also growing 
 more and more odious. Since a huge hotel has been 
 built, I assure you to walk in the evening is precisely 
 like going into Regent St. or Piccadilly — nay, rather 
 Cheapside. Nothing like " the country " do I enjoy in 
 England nowadays. London is introduced and ground 
 into every life far or near. It seems to me therefore 
 . . . that I shall . . . betake myself back to London 
 until I go southward : — first however, taking some 6 
 or 8 views of this once lovely place as of one I shall 
 not easily come to again. . . . 
 
 Society here is rabid with bigotry & bother ; & 
 
 moreover is altogether oppressed with W & 
 
 passonic tendencies. Everybody thinks as old Lady 
 Waldegrave x chooses — except those exactly antagon- 
 
 1 Sarah, widow of Edward Milward, of Hastings, and daughter 
 of the Rev. W. Whitear, Prebendary of Chichester, married 
 as his second wife the eighth Earl Waldegrave, uncle and 
 successor of Frances Countess Waldegrave's husband, the 
 seventh Earl. 
 
 284 
 
England 
 
 istic, such as High Church & R. Catholics, concerning 
 which latter there is the devil of a fuss. For the 
 Dow ger Duchess of Leeds has come to live here in 
 the Convent, (where Cardinal W. also comes at 
 times) and is buying land "all over the place" to 
 the rage & horror of the Hastings folk. I can't help 
 laughing at the last thing she has done — viz : — to 
 purchase a large house just opposite old Lady W.'s. 
 & next door to the raging Low Church Lady 
 W.'s particular preserve — for a Jesuit Seminary ! ! ! ! ! 
 Between Colenso & the Duchess of L. all Hastings 
 is all but gone frantic. . . . The people of the 
 lodgings have nevertheless conceived a favourable 
 idea of my piety by seeing " La vie de Jesus " on 
 my table (by the bye — I beg you will read it 
 carefully), little conceiving the opposition of that 
 volume to their views & their topics of faith. Ernest 
 Renan is assuredly "a Clayver man. . . ." 
 
 Squiggs. Beetles. Bother. Bullfrogs. Butter- 
 cups. Let us change the subject. 
 
 14, August, 1863. 
 
 I was erjoiced to get your letter today. ... I 
 tookarookarook this paper to write a decent letter — 
 but can't go on — candles kill me, and I have no lamp. 
 
 Only — thanks for the Ionian Judges their papers. 1 
 Winkins ! Xidian 2 is a one-er he is ! — & spite of 
 
 1 Correspondence and papers relative to the summary 
 removal of the Ionian Judges by Sir Henry Storks. 
 
 2 One of the removed Judges. 
 
 285 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Count Metaxa's l friendship, he ought to have been 
 suspended long ago if a twentieth part of what 
 Kapovao 2 says is true. A small bird however had 
 told me that enormities were to be expected, so it 
 wasn't surprised I was. To my thinking Sir H. S. 
 has simply done a very evident public duty cour- 
 ageously. Sargent and Colquhoun I imagine won't 
 delight in their descriptions. Kapovao has always 
 been described to me as a man of great character 
 and firmness — and so meseems he is — by token of 
 these papers. 
 
 1 6 August. 
 
 I am all at sea, bother. These rooms are let to a 
 family with 497 children, and I have to turn out on 
 Tuesday. . . . English country house visiting is 
 well for the idle and rich. I'll no more of it. 
 
 As soon as I get back to town, I either resolve on 
 and set to work on this Lithograph volume — or I 
 don't, and go abroad. If the former, I dorit stir out 
 of London till it's DONE—DONE— DONE— so 
 don't ask me. 
 
 Concentrate your ideas if you want to do anything 
 well, and don't run about, as the Tortoise said to the 
 Armadillo. 
 
 EiSiav 3 and case is certainly amazing. ' ' Save me 
 from my friends ! " well may he say to Lord Derby 
 and the " Saturday Review." 
 
 1 Count Jean-Baptiste Metaxa, a member of one of the most 
 powerful families in the Ionian Isles, became a naturalised 
 Englishman in 1846. 2 Caruso. 3 Xidian. 
 
 286 
 
England 
 
 Edward Wilson l has been staying here, and I saw 
 a good deal of him : a singular man. He showed me 
 the Petition 2 which came down here for him to sign, 
 and you have doubtless seen another " Times " letter 
 of his. I saw the replies you mention. Not under- 
 standing these things fully — it appears to me that it 
 would be better for the Imperial Govt, to disgust one 
 Colony by not giving it convicts, than to disgust all 
 the other Colonies in Australia by the opposite line. 
 If the transportation of convicts " must cease " before 
 many years — why not try to legislate for that fact now. 
 However, E. Wilson and I don't agree on many 
 points, as you may suppose when he says / am a Tory. 
 His energy is instructive. We went to see mills and 
 farms and bulls and hydraulic botherations — drains 
 and other statistic beastlinesses, here ; and now he is 
 off for cattle to Alderney : to inspect oyster beds at 
 St. Malo : some mines at Vichy : some agricultural in- 
 ventions near Montpelier : a garden of acclimatization 
 at Stuttgard — and something else at Rotterdam before 
 he returns to sail from Liverpool early in October. 
 
 ... By yesterday's Gazette I see Miss Lascelles 3 
 
 1 He emigrated to Melbourne in 1842, and took a prominent 
 part in public life in Australia. He strongly opposed the influx 
 of convicts from Tasmania, which led to the Convict Prevention 
 Act. 
 
 2 Protesting against all our worst criminals being sent to 
 Western Australia, as had just been advocated in the Report of 
 the Commissioners on Penal Discipline. 
 
 3 Miss Emma Lascelles, who married in 1865 Lord Edward 
 Cavendish, the third son of the Duke of Devonshire. 
 
 287 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 is Maid of Honour " vice " Honble Adelaide Caven- 
 dish resigned. Now, you don't see how that interests 
 me — you don't, you don't, you don't ! But it does — 
 werry — and one day you'll see why — you will, you 
 will, you will. 
 
 I expect to hear Xidian and Marcoran and Caruso 
 will all murder each other promiscuous. How are the 
 elections going on there, I wonder. 1 . . . 
 
 What would Neptune say if they deprived him of 
 the sea ? 
 
 " I haven't a n/otion ! " 
 
 ^Jt 
 
 1 Sir Henry Storks dissolved the Ionian Parliament on the 
 6th of August, and summoned a new one, in order to ascertain 
 in a formal manner the wishes of the people regarding the 
 cession to Greece, the Great Powers having already signified 
 their assent to this proposition at a Conference held in London 
 in June. 
 
 288 
 
England 
 
 I asked the girl here (having a friend to dine, 
 and wishing to have the wine cool) for some ice. 
 But she thought I said, "I want some mice!'" and 
 was seized with great fear forthwith. 
 
 15, Stratford Place, Oxford St. 
 
 6 September 1863. 
 
 I want you to write to Lord Palmerston to ask him 
 to ask the Queen to ask the King of Greece l to give 
 me a " place." As I never asked anything of you 
 before, I think I may rely on your doing this for me. 
 I wish the place to be created a-purpos for me, and 
 the title to be 6 'Apxavon^ia^XvapiairoLog, 2 with per- 
 mission to wear a fool's cap (or mitre) — 3 pounds of 
 butter yearly and a little pig, — and a small donkey to 
 ride on. Please don't forget all this, as I have set 
 my heart on it. 
 
 I see by the " Observer " of today that the King of 
 Greece is to come to Windsor or Balmoral about the 
 15th, — and that the vote of the I[onian] Parliament 
 cannot be taken before the 2nd or 3rd week in 
 October — after which he is to go to Athens. If I 
 hear before that, that we (the English in the 7 islands) 
 are likely to clear out before Christmas, it will make a 
 great difference to me — for I then should not take out 
 drawings or copies of my new work. So let me know, 
 as far as you may with properriety. 
 
 I finished my third view yesterday, 1 7 now remain- 
 
 1 Prince George of Denmark was proclaimed King of Greece 
 at Athens on the 30th of March. 
 
 2 Lord High bosh and nonsense producer. 
 
 289 U 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 ing : and I should have begun the 4th if a brute of an 
 Irishman (the member for Louth it was) hadn't inter- 
 rupted me. I was however consoled for this by his 
 bringing me photographs of two of my friends, both 
 of which (i.e. the photographs) I like better the more 
 I see of them. Yours however is not altogether right, 
 but my lady's is very exact. Only I could feel inclined 
 to cut the head of it into a vignette. The large 
 dresses of the day never look well photographed, for 
 in themselves they are so monstrous that only the 
 movement of a live woman can make them approxi- 
 mate to a human figure at all, and that movement of 
 course can't be given in photography or art, so that 
 the portrait of a sitting lady in a crinoline always 
 looks as if she were a dwarf walking. I shall there- 
 fore make a vignette : the face is the very best I have 
 seen photographed for a long time — but the white 
 feather catches the eye and should be toned down a 
 bit selon moi. 
 
 I go on reading C. Lever stujously : he's a wonder- 
 ful fellow. No novels have interested me so much 
 since my early days of devouring W. Scott's. To 
 enter into a great part of the delights of his descrip- 
 tions however, one must have lived a good deal 
 abroad — and also it behoves one to appreciate Irish 
 character completely, which, perhaps thanks to my 
 Gt.Gt.Gt.Gt.Gt.Gt.grandfather Usher — I can do. 
 
 The " Knight of Wynne" is delightful, and now I am 
 reading "The Daltons." Mrs. Ricketts is a picture 
 from life — so well drawn as to keep me in a scream of 
 
 290 
 
u 
 x. 
 
 H 
 
 a 
 o 
 
 u 5 
 
 o 
 u 
 
 7. 
 
England 
 
 laughter. I think you knew her or saw her — Mrs. 
 
 S of L . Purvis is one of her set. She was 
 
 a horrid animal and deserved even worse showing up. 
 
 How do you think I am going to pass my Sunday? 
 In a long walk up to Highgate, where I shall go and 
 look at my dear sister's grave, which I always mean 
 to do. The greatest blessing that ever happened to 
 me was being here when she died. . . . 
 
 No more thyme. 
 
 P.S. — I perceive that Septembers are variously 
 passed in this life. Sept. 1861 I painted all day — 
 lived upon soles and whitings, and read Greek morn- 
 ing and evening. 
 
 Sept. 1862. I dawdled all day at people's houses, 
 lived upon luxuries, and made a book of nonsense, 
 morning and evening. 
 
 Sept. 1863. I lithograph all day : live upon cold 
 mutton and read Lever. 
 
 15, Stratford Place, Oxford Street, 
 
 14 Sept., 1863. 
 
 I fear the New Zealand bothers * are recommencing 
 and no mistake. The Southern islanders are happy 
 to be out of all that confusion. I have had 2 letters 
 "North" and "South" sent me by my sisters this 
 last week, both shocking enough. 
 
 Bye the bye, one of the oddest feelings I can 
 remember to have encountered came to me by a 
 
 1 This year saw the commencement of a little war with the 
 Maoris, arising out of the question of the English appropriation 
 of waste lands. 
 
 291 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 circumstance last Monday. On the Sunday, I had 
 gone to Highgate Cemetery to see about my dear 
 sister Ann's grave, and returning, perceived afar, 
 that the old House I was born in, (its gardens and 
 paddocks were long ago destroyed by new roads and 
 buildings,) was advertised for sale as building materials, 
 4 houses to be raised on its site. So the follow- 
 ing day I went up there, and all over it : and I can 
 assure you, the annihilation of time which seeing such 
 early-known localities produced was curious, and made 
 me afterwards thoughtful enough. As I stood in 
 various parts of the large empty rooms, I could 
 absolutely hear and see voices and persons, and could 
 — (had I had a pen and ink paper and time,) have 
 written out months and years of life nearly 50 years 
 ago, exactly and positively. (The old woman who 
 shewed the house seemed horribly puzzled at my 
 knowing all the odd closets and doors etc : and 
 received 2/6 with a mixture of pleasure and fear.). . . . 
 I must go and finish the 7th lithograph — wo is me. 
 . . . This work is so filthy too. I shall never be 
 clean again. When it is done, I 
 shall sit 10 days in a warm water 
 pot, covered with a covering — // 
 and receive my friends — thus 
 
 Bye the bye — when I left Corfu, Sir H. S. asked 
 me if I would take some dispatches — " Would you 
 like to take some dispatches, Mr. Lear?" I re- 
 member saying — "No Sir" — in a tone like "God 
 forbid Sir ! " — but what should I have said ? 
 
 292 
 
England 
 
 Fortescue to Lear. 
 
 Sep. 15/A, 1863. 
 Lithographic Lear, — How do you get on ? I hope 
 you have found " sermons in stones and good in 
 everything." . . . Come to us then, Lithographic 
 Lear, upon the Mosaic Sabbath, and pass here the 
 Sabbath of Shaftesbury. 
 
 Sept. 16, 1863. 
 
 Dear 40SCUE, — Gracious grease pots! I've just 
 done the 8th lithograph, and have put the tracing on 
 for the 9th, so, while that is drying, I've run up here 
 to write a line. 
 
 Do you see you are a rattlesnakist ? Leastwise 
 your chief is. In the " Times " of today E. Wilson 
 compares the Convicts to a rattlesnake, and the Duke 1 
 to them as throws them into a babby's bed. The 
 reptile is to be chopped up — but the thrower is to be 
 worse dealt with. I wish though seriously, you could 
 find some new place for the convicts. What a bore 
 they are. What a bore everything is — particularly 
 lithography. 
 
 I disclose a proof of my first prospectus. 2 . . . I've 
 got 4 subscribers to begin with meanwhile, which is 
 something on the way to 600. Never mind. Percy- 
 weer. 
 
 Goodbye, von Louth ... in a nurry. 
 
 1 The Duke of Newcastle, Secretary of State for the Colonies. 
 
 2 "Views of the Seven Ionian Islands," published 1863. 
 
 293 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Sept., 1863. 
 I came to " leave a card " on you, as you ax'd me 
 to the dinner yesterday — so here it is — 
 
 I was disgusted at being aperiently so rude to Lady 
 Waldegrave — but I was not well from the East winds, 
 and so completely uncertain whether I had any voice 
 or not, that I thought it better not to sing, than to go 
 to the piano and be obliged to quit it. I felt like a 
 cow who has swallowed a glass bottle — or a boiled 
 weasel — and should probably have made a noise like 
 a dyspeptic mouse in a fit. 
 
 But I passed a very pleasant evening, and was 
 delighted with Lady Waldegrave's perfectly natural 
 and kind manner. I should have liked to sit next to 
 you, but I couldn't resist moving up to my next neigh- 
 bour. I came out purposing to leave cards at Carlton 
 Gardens — so I shall do so, though I know the Lady is 
 out, for I nearly ran under the veels of her Chariot 
 just now, whereby she made me a bough. 
 
 I must add that I think your room looks extremely 
 
 294 
 
England 
 
 pretty — and the Pigchr is stunning as it hangs now. 
 How nicely you have had the " Morn broadens" done 
 as to frame. 
 
 There was an old man who said, " How, 
 Shall I flee from this terrible cow ? 
 
 I will sit on this stile 
 
 And continue to smile — 
 Which may soften the heart of that cow." 
 
 What's the difference between the Czar and the 
 " Times " paper ? One is the type of Despotism : the 
 other the despotism of Type. 
 
 What is the difference between a hen and a kitchen- 
 maid? One is a domestic fowl, the other a foul 
 domestic. 
 
 Why need you not starve in the Desert ? Because 
 
 295 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 you might eat all the Sand which is there. Why are 
 the Sandwiches there ? Because there the family of 
 Ham was bread and mustard. 
 
 Fortescue to Lear. 
 
 Dudbrook, 
 
 Brentwood, 
 
 22 November, 1863. 
 
 I saw the Duke of N. (who is in very bad health) in 
 London, and asked him about Corfu. He says all 
 will go well, in spite of the usual ill-conditioned child- 
 ishness of the Assembly — but that the settlement of 
 the Treaty with Greece will take time — that between 
 the Great Powers is signed already. Lord Russell 
 says that the troops will not be away before April. 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 J any. 1, 1864. 
 
 The woes of life. — I am off unexpectedly ... an 
 acquaintance (Wade- Brown of the Guards,) goes to- 
 morrow all the way to Corfu, so I decided on flitting. 
 Hard work packing, etc : etc : in a day ! but it was 
 harder and sadder to write, write, write, to the remain- 
 ing 50 of my subscribers, who naturally think 3 guineas 
 can be nothing, forgetting that 1 50 guineas are much. 
 
 You will be happy to hear that I have put by ^300, 
 and therefore am entitled annually to £g all my life. 
 I would not go through what I have again for ^9000 
 a year. But having seen fit to begin a work, I went 
 through with it. . . . 
 
 2 96 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 January to April, 1864 
 
 LAST VISIT TO CORFU 
 
 Lear to Fortescue. 
 
 Corfu. \oth January 1864. 
 
 I CAME here yesterday at noon . . . the passage 
 to Calais was dreadful, nor could we pass the 
 bar until too late to catch the afternoon train to Paris. 
 Hence 13 hours of an at-every-station-stopping train, 
 and consequent obligation to sleep at Paris all the 
 following day till noon. Paris was cold too, — but 
 that fact gave me an opportunity of seeing the 
 Prince Imperial, 1 who, in a carriage and four, stopped 
 to gaze at the swans in the Tuileries gardens, ice- 
 begirt and crumb-desiring. Lots of little gamins 
 stopped also and inspected the imperial child as he 
 did the swans. . . . 
 
 George Cocali was all ready for me, and today 
 everything is so regular and matter of-course that 
 I don't seem to have been absent an hour. The 
 
 1 Napoleon Eugene Louis, only son of Napoleon III., born 
 1856, killed in Zululand June 1, 1879. 
 
 297 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 odd pounds extra, purchase comfort in home and 
 service very cheaply. . . . The domestic intelligence 
 I have heard is that Colquhoun still holds off the 
 Palace — but the Sargents have had a formal recon- 
 ciliation with the Lord High — Lady S. not being, 
 I should imagine, either able or inclined to forfeit 
 any amount of social position. . . . 
 
 Monday, nth. I dined at the Palace yester- 
 day. . . . Sir Henry was as ever absolutely amiable 
 and gentlemanlike, or as some one here says, he 
 " never forgets that he is the representative of the 
 Queen for one moment." 
 
 Alas ! as for Corfu I can say little yet : all the less 
 that 10 shillings worth of letters have just come full 
 of Post Office Orders and cheques from " silly swells " 
 who couldrit pay their subscriptions 3 weeks ago — 
 however I entreated them to do so. 
 
 But there is not only great excitement here, — great 
 sorrow and perplexity also, and discomfort. And, it 
 seems to me, unless you governing folk shew a little 
 less hard redtapism to these islands — verily, their 
 cession will be a millstone about the neck of the 
 liberal party for long days to come. It is however 
 so very difficult to gather or sift untruth from truth, 
 and we are all so in the dark as to what is to take 
 place, that it is simply folly to talk or write. Yet it 
 is the first time I have ever seen a community so 
 singularly and uncomfortably placed. . . . (Sir H. S. 
 takes 10 copies of my book, which is highly brick- 
 like). . . . 
 
 298 
 
Last Visit to Corfu 
 
 15 January 1864. 
 
 Feby. 7. The good intents of the above date never 
 bore fruit — an unprolific datetree. . . . On Friday 
 evening the Lord High sent me your letters of the 
 17th and 26th, so I shall write today instead of going 
 to church, relaxing my labour from time to time by 
 snatches of the " Daily Telegraph," Renan's Jesus, 
 Miss Rowan's Meditations on Death, Newman's 
 Phases of Faith, Froude's Elizabeth, and Colenso's 
 4th part. And the better my beloved brethren to 
 set forth the varied subjects which I shall bring under 
 your consideration, I shall first proceed to look through 
 your letter, and reply more or less to the heads thereof. 
 
 My flight it seems was by no means too soon . . . 
 yet after 7 months of darkness and filth you will all as 
 usual talk about the " climate of England " as the 
 "best in the world." So God tempereth the wind to 
 the shorn lamb : so the Esquimaux believes that train 
 oil is before all food the most excellent. 
 
 Your account of the gaieties at Strawberry Hill are 
 a pleasant contrast to the misery and bitter cold one 
 reads of all over the kingdom. . . . The dance must 
 have looked well. . . . (Talking of dances, the last 
 — 6 l<T\aroQ x°P°s — ) was given by Sir H. S. on Friday 
 night. I was not well enough to go, or I could have 
 well liked to see the latest sparks of Anglo-Corfiote 
 gaiety ere all goes out in darkness. . . . 
 
 The poor Duke of Newcastle ! I extracted the 
 lines you wrote about him, and sent what I had 
 copied to Sir Henry, who wrote back a few words : 
 
 299 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 he is much distressed about the Duke's health. I had 
 supposed Lord Wodehouse l would succeed him. 
 Who would be — if any — the House of Commons 
 possible Colonial Secretary ? 2 I hope whoever he 
 may be in the Peers, that you will keep your place : 
 the labor which that involves during a part of the 
 year is in my humble opinion compensated for by 
 other good. I should have been glad to see you a 
 Cabinet minister, because I have always believed 
 you would do good as such. What does my lady 
 say ? I wish she had a more decided turn for colonial 
 politics, for in spite of H.I.M. Nap. 3's assertion that 
 it is the mission of woman to think of God and not of 
 the world, I believe that women of talent do and can 
 do — and have done, a vast amount of good in the 
 political atmosphere. (They also do a devilish deal 
 of harm, as I should think the said Emperor knows 
 well.) However, let me know what you do. Most 
 probably you will be saved any decision before long, 
 by a Derby govt, coming in for a time : tho' after 
 that, Gladstone is the coming man (Sia to kcit !jue).3 
 
 You ask about the state of public feeling here, a 
 question not easy to answer. The decree about the 
 non-destruction of the forts of course was soothing, 
 but — (I judge only by Lady W.'s talk, as she seems 
 to me ever to hold a brief of hatred for the Greeks), 
 they say " no thanks to the English for that : you 
 
 1 Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1859-61. 
 
 2 The Duke of Newcastle resigned in March for reasons of 
 health, and Mr. Cardwell succeeded him. 3 According to me. 
 
 300 
 
< z 
 
 . ■*< 
 
 '< 3 
 
 a: 
 
 
Last Visit to Corfu 
 
 wished to leave the place in ruin, but the K. of Greece 
 threatened to go if you did, and you were forced 
 to give way," — which I suppose is bosh. Lady W. 
 denies we have ever done any good here — but when 
 
 I stop this nonsense by saying, " Well, well, at all 
 events then if we have been as bad as you say, the 
 ground will soon be cleared of us " — she instantly 
 turns round and says " but nobody wants you to go 
 — your going will occasion great misery etc : etc : " — 
 
 II Then why did the Ionian Parliament continually 
 vote for annexation ? " " Parliament indeed ! " she 
 answers — " do you call 42 or 50 democrats public 
 opinion ? " " Then why," say I, " if that is so trifling, 
 — why did not the Ionians prevent its eternal repetition 
 by electing other deputati ? " On which she says " but 
 do take some coffee," and twists the converse all awry. 
 
 Meanwhile the cannon are all taken down from the 
 Fort Neuf etc : etc : and as soon as the 6th go (under 
 orders for Jamaica), Vido will be emptied and blown 
 up — or down. There are however many who have 
 no belief 'at all in our ultimate departure. The Turk 
 Albanian Beys opposite go into strong convulsions of 
 laughter at the idea, (so officers tell me who come from 
 Parga, Delvino etc :) and a mass of the lower orders 
 here also do not credit it, but believe some dodges will 
 turn up and keep us in the islands, — or at all events in 
 this island. On the other hand, dismay and distress 
 pervade whole classes. Domestic servants, yachtsmen, 
 innkeepers, small shops etc : etc : see before them 
 simply blank new beginnings of 'ife — how or where 
 
 301 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 they know not. My man's whole family think of 
 migrating to Patras, or the Piraeus. The warlike 
 Danish-German news of the last few days r compli- 
 cates matters still more. It will be funny if war with 
 Austria arises, and a fleet come down from Cattaro 
 and chaw us up suddenly, when the guns are 
 gone. 
 
 As for poor Sir Henry Storks, you say well, he will 
 be glad to go indeed. I know of no position much 
 sadder than his — for nearly five years working hard 
 always, with a self-negation and conscientiousness not 
 to be surpassed. Yet it may be truly said that he lives 
 a life of most painful loneliness, all the more dreary 
 that his efforts to do right as a public man have been 
 met with such small appreciation by the British fool, 
 — not to say by abuse from those who should have 
 known better than to make grave matters of right 
 and wrong, handles for mere party violence. The 
 2 A.D.C.s (Baring 2 and Strahan 3) are valuable to 
 Sir H. S., but, tho' very clever, they are young. 
 I think that any letter you write to him now he will 
 be pleased with : the Duke's illness affects him, and 
 he seems to me to feel any kindness coming from 
 
 1 The dispute about the Schleswig-Holstein succession, 
 plunged Denmark into war with Germany and Austria in the 
 spring of this year, and for a time there was a fear that England 
 might also be involved. 
 
 2 Now Lord Cromer, whose later history has been the history 
 of Egypt. 
 
 3 Afterwards Governor of Tasmania, the Windwards Isles, 
 &c, &c. 
 
 302 
 
Last Visit to Corfu 
 
 England ; and I think too that much which has been 
 said and written of him by people — or with the know- 
 ledge of people who were once his friends, has hurt 
 him at times a good deal. So, q.e.d. — as you say — 
 Storks will be glad to get away. . . . 
 
 My life here (barring blowing my nose and lying in 
 bed ill,) has been of the most regular order, — and it is 
 a grim fact that never more when I go hence can 
 I look for similar — "there is no joy but calm." . . . 
 Having " put by " ,£300 — £g a year for life is the 
 result of my labor — but qua ready money, and the 
 necessity of getting it by work, things are as they 
 were before the fathers fell asleep. . . . 
 
 The new Italian Consul's wife or sister plays in the 
 most beanlike and beneficial manner. By April or 
 May at furthest, I shall hope to be fixed as to fixing 
 or unfixing : perhaps I may go about in an unfixed mode 
 continually and evermore. What's the odds ? . . . 
 The two or three months of hard writing before 
 I left England have sickened me of pen and ink, 
 and I shall henceforth write much less than formerly. 
 Please to accept this as a nintimation or warning. 
 Have you read Abbe Michaud's " Maudit "? Burton's 
 Abeokuta ? Speke's Nile ? Froude's Elizabeth ? 
 Kingsley's Water babies ? I aive. . . . Catch then o 
 catch the transient owr, improve each momient as 
 it flies, man's a short summer life's a flower, he dize 
 alas ! how soon e dize. Goodbye. 
 
 P.S. — I will go to church this afternoon to pray 
 that your toes may not be frozen off, and that it 
 
 303 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 may please God to shew you the sun once or twice in 
 the next 4 months. 
 
 March 31. 1864 (6 a.m.) 
 Your letter of the 24th came yesterday, and I 
 communicated its sad contents to Sir Henry. Poor 
 Duke of Newcastle ! A life of no great joy has his 
 been : — I am all the more interested about him just 
 now that I have been reading Kinglake's Crimea. 1 
 But who would be Under-Secretary if Cardwell 2 is 
 C. O. Secy ? I had fancied at times that in that case 
 you might be "called to the Upper House," and keep 
 your place. However, as at no very great distance 
 there must be still greater changes, you would turn up 
 I suppose in some fresh formation of a Ministry. I 
 somehow don't like your sitting down at 41 into 
 private life — the more that your last speech — as I read 
 it in the " Times " on Gregory's motion, was about 
 the best I think you ever made. 
 
 I don't ever wonder at your not writing. I only 
 wonder anybody ever writes at all. For myself I have 
 had such a dreadful dose of it last year about that 
 book, and am still hopelessly endeavouring to get 
 in subscriptions, that I abhor the sight of a pen, and if 
 I were an angel I would immediately moult all my 
 quills for fear of their being used in calligraphy. . . . 
 
 1 The Duke of Newcastle undertook the charge of the War 
 Department when the Crimean War broke out. 
 
 2 W. E. Forster and Sir F. L. Rogers were the Under-Secre- 
 taries when Mr. Cardwell was at the head of the Colonial 
 Office. 
 
 304 
 
Last Visit to Corfu 
 
 My beautiful rooms are already taken by others, — 
 so there is an end of Corfu life, and this is the last 
 letter you will most probably ever receive from the 
 Island. 
 
 I am not yet certain if I shall go straight to Athens 
 and then . . . return to Syra and so to Crete. . . . 
 After some 6 or 7 weeks in Crete, I should in any 
 case return to Athens, and there look about for 
 a possible winter home. . . . To make a future winter 
 settlement nearer England is difficult. Nice is 
 crowded and Anglo-vulgar : Rome and its priests, 
 as well as its forced art-quackery atmosphere I 
 detest. . . . You see therefore that as the little fish 
 said in the Pacific, — I am at sea : — nor will much 
 more be assured till I have been to visit the owls of 
 Minerva. 
 
 And indeed glad shall I be to go. The place is 
 all altered and sad — and there is no pleasure to me in 
 seeing the daily explosions and ruins of fine masonry 
 and picturesque lines. Moreover the angry and 
 violent feeling against everything English is disagree- 
 able, tho' it is not so general as it seems. You know 
 I dare say that the Bishop (always the prime agitator 
 for the Union,) is now the head of a very ferocious 
 Club, — who are publishing a paper of the utmost 
 virulence against us, — calculated to stir up all the 
 idle and intriguing in our disfavour. Such "facts " as 
 the open insulting of " Greek " women on the 
 Esplanade by " parties of brutal English sailors " 
 might excite your astonishment, as they do mine : — 
 
 305 x 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 but in the present state of things the assertion of good 
 old Basilia Kokali (my servant's mother,) that in 
 50 years of English rule she has never known one 
 female insulted by soldiers or sailors, goes for 
 nothing. 
 
 The truth seems to me this : A great party, 
 naturally regretting the English going — and more- 
 over, another party who desired it but yet justly 
 appreciated our actions, — would all have united to 
 make public demonstrations of respect and friend- 
 liness etc : on our leaving the island. This I know 
 to be the case from various people who declare they 
 are grieved that they cannot now make any manifes- 
 tation in our favour. The handle given by the 
 Fortress dismantling to the democratic party, is 
 therefore one I believe they are delighted to get. 
 It is of course of great importance to the annexation 
 party that no demonstration in an opposite sense, or 
 such as could by any possibility be construed — should 
 be made : — and now I do not expect any one will dare 
 openly wish us " Godspeed." 
 
 For myself I avoid as much as I can speaking 
 on the subject at all, but I cannot avoid making 
 allowances for those who are constantly having the 
 irritating sight of the forts being blown up — now 
 for many weeks the almost daily object — nor can 
 I wonder at their vexation when they hear of parties 
 going over "to see the beautiful blow up," etc: etc: 
 When I am forced into talking, I do all I can — (as 
 Mr. Gregory didn't) to show them how far better 
 
 306 
 
Last Visit to Corfu 
 
 it would be to weigh this fortress Wrong — if wrong it 
 be — against the benefits England has given them, — a 
 useless task however, in their present mood. " Do 
 you think" said one to me, "that if you give me a 
 thousand pounds, and then box my ears, that the 
 last act would not outweigh the first — although 
 in itself the last is trifling." But the very addition 
 to this which a second speaker instantly gave, con- 
 vinced me that I am right in believing- the " Fortress 
 Question " is a godsend to the violent party. The 
 speaker was an amiable man and desirous of softening 
 down his friend's observations. "In somma," said 
 he, " la politica esige che si alza la voce contro 
 l'lnghilterra." ! It is I think, much to be regretted 
 that this " alzando la voce " was so supplied them 
 by ourselves. 
 
 Meanwhile the mass of the people behave quite 
 well, and individually nothing uncourteous is said 
 or done to anyone. Sir Henry walks about every- 
 where, and is treated with the same respect as ever. 
 He is a splendid fellow, and has a most difficult 
 part to play — for C. and others nameless, who 
 should work with him — are against him. I suppose 
 you will make him a " Barnet " as Lady Young used 
 to say, or a Peer if he goes to any higher post. 
 If ever he goes to Ceylon I will certainly then go out 
 to India. . . . The reports here of all possible sorts 
 are endless ; Woodhouse, Taylor, Sanders, are named 
 
 1 " In short politics exact, that our voices should be raised 
 against England." 
 
 307 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 as to be the consul. " The church is to be turned into 
 a theatre as a mark of disprezzo " etc : So you see, 
 the place is all breaking up and blowing up and 
 bebothered and boshed. 
 
 . . . Poor Christo Kokali, my man's brother, ill of 
 consumption for four years, has now it seems really 
 taken to die. And George has therefore a double 
 journey to his mother's daily, and to sit up all night — 
 besides the lots of rough extra work all this " exodus " 
 begets. Thunderstorms and violent squalls make life 
 disgusting : add also that a gas company has turned 
 up all the streets for pipes, and as I fall into the 
 beastly trenches, I can say truly "you have piped unto 
 me, but I have not danced." . . . Goodbye, my last 
 furniture is going. I shall sit upon an eggcup and 
 eat my breakfast with a pen. . . . 
 
 Hotel de la Couronne. Athens. 
 
 April 8 1864. 
 
 I hope you got a letter from me just before I left 
 
 Corfu, — of which place I am now cut adrift, though 
 
 I cannot write the name without a sort of pang. 
 
 Nothing could be sadder or more painful and vexing 
 
 than the latter days I passed there. Everyone either 
 
 miserable for going away — or miserable at being 
 
 left : while angry passions and suppressed violence 
 
 were abundant, The brutal old Dandolo 1 put forth 
 
 — three days before I came off — the foulest pamphlet 
 
 1 One of the leaders of the extreme Radicals and Anglophobes 
 in the Ionian Parliament. 
 
 308 
 
Last Visit to Corfu 
 
 against England a man could read, (dated of course 
 prior to the explanatory discussion in the House, 
 though he knew very well doubtless that he was 
 writing lies) You may judge of the tone of this letter 
 (to Lord Russell), when I tell you — besides that it 
 touched on all the crimes, real and imputed, which 
 have been considered English for centuries of history 
 — that its last words are — " we Ionians thank you 
 that you have left us our hands and tongues ; with the 
 one to write your infamy — with the other to utter 
 threefold curses on your head." Poor Lord John ! 
 I hope he will survive that. 
 
 April 24, 1864. Khalifa, near Khania, Crete. 
 I was not able to finish this letter before I left 
 Athens . . . Before I left Corfu I was quite sure that 
 a great — the greatest part — of the ill-feeling against 
 us was brought out by the insidious ways of certain 
 people. No governor of a province has ever had 
 a harder task than Sir H. Storks, whose conduct has 
 been in all respects A. No. 1 as Lord High Com- 
 missioner, — and I shall always remember his kindness 
 to me gratefully. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 309 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 The following is an incomplete list, for several pictures painted for my uncle and aunt, 
 Lord Clermont, and Sir Spencer Robinson are not included, and probably many 
 others of which I do not know, are also missing. This list, I believe, was drawn up 
 by Mr. Lear at San Remo for circulation among his friends and others, partly by 
 way of advertisement, and partly to give an idea of the work he had executed and 
 the patronage he had received. At this present time very few, if any, of those 
 named survive, but I have wished to reproduce this list exactly from the original, 
 made in 1877, by Mr. Lear. 
 
 PICTURES PAINTED, 1840-1877. 
 
 (1840) 
 
 1. Rome, from the Lateran 
 
 2. Valmontone ... 
 
 3. Rome. Borghese Gardens 
 
 4. Rome. Arco Oscuro 
 
 5. Civitella di Subiaco ... 
 
 6. Olevano 
 
 Painted for, or Purchased by 
 The late R. A. Hornby, Esq. 
 The late Lord Charles Bertie Percy. 
 Mrs. Pitney Martin. 
 Mrs. Pitney Martin. 
 Edward, Thirteenth Earl of Derby. 
 Edward, Thirteenth Earl of Derby. 
 
 (1841) 
 
 7- 
 
 8. 
 
 9- 
 10. 
 11. 
 12. 
 
 13- 
 14. 
 
 15- 
 16. 
 
 17. 
 
 Rome, from the Lateran 
 
 Rome. Gardens of St. Buonaventura 
 
 Rome. Tomb on the Campagna ... 
 
 Rome. Tomb near Porta Pia 
 
 Rome. View from Monte Mario . . . 
 
 Olevano 
 
 St. Peter's, from D. Pamfili Gardens 
 
 Licenza 
 
 Lord Crewe. 
 Lord Crewe. 
 Lord Crewe. 
 Lord Crewe. 
 Lord Crewe. 
 Lord Crewe. 
 Thomas Tatton, Esq. 
 Thomas Tatton, Esq. 
 T. Bonham Carter, Esq. 
 The late Lord Wenlock. 
 Rev. W. H. Empson. 
 
 311 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 (1842) 
 
 18. Rome. 
 
 19. Rome. 
 
 20. Rome. 
 
 21. Rome. 
 
 22. Rome. 
 
 23. Naples 
 
 24. Amalfi 
 
 25. Amalfi 
 
 26. Cefalu. 
 
 27. Rome. 
 
 28. Rome. 
 
 29. Rome. 
 
 Via Appia 
 
 Claudian Acqueduct 
 Cecilia Metella 
 Tor di Schiavi 
 Tor di Schiavi 
 
 Sicily 
 
 Campagna ... 
 Tomb near Porta Pia 
 View from Monte Mario 
 
 Painted for, or Purchased by 
 Mrs. Hudson. 
 Ralph Barnes, Esq. 
 The late Lady Hornby. 
 The late Lady Hornby. 
 The late T. G. Fonnereau, Esq. 
 The late George Cartwright, Esq. 
 The late George Cartwright, Esq. 
 The late George Cartwright, Esq. 
 The late Colonel C. Hornby. 
 W. Hives, Esq. 
 Rev. E. Goddard. 
 Rev. E. Goddard. 
 
 (1843) 
 
 30. Civitella di Subiaco ... 
 
 31. Civita Castellana 
 
 32. Lake of Albano 
 
 33. Lake of Albano 
 
 34. Lake of Fiicino, Abruzzi 
 
 35. Rome. Claudian Acqueduct 
 
 36. Isola di Monte Corno, Abruzzi 
 
 37. Nemi 
 
 38. San Pelino. Abruzzi 
 
 The late Rev. James J. Hornby. 
 The late Rev. James J. Hornby. 
 The late George Cartwright, Esq. 
 The late George Cartwright, Esq. 
 The late M. J. Higgins, Esq. 
 The late M. J. Higgins, Esq. 
 Miss Westcomb. 
 Miss Westcomb. 
 Lord Wenlock. 
 
 (1844) 
 
 39. Celano. Abruzzi 
 
 40. Monreale. Sicily ... 
 
 41. Partenigo. Sicily ... 
 
 42. Quarries of Syracuse 
 
 43. Valmontone ... 
 
 44. San Vito 
 
 45. Frascati 
 
 46. Pergolata, or Vine Terrace 
 
 (1845) 
 
 Lord Wenlock. 
 
 The late Mrs. Huskisson. 
 
 The late Mrs. Huskisson. 
 
 The late Mrs. Huskisson. 
 
 The late C. Scrace Dickens, Esq. 
 
 The late C. Scrace Dickens, Esq. 
 
 Miss Sarah Markham. 
 
 Mrs. Palmes. 
 
 47. 
 
 Valmontone ... 
 
 ... Hon. Mrs. Greville- Howard. 
 
 48. 
 
 Rome. La Madonna del Sorbo ... 
 
 ... Hon. Mrs. Greville-Howard. 
 
 49- 
 
 Rome. Claudian Acqueducts 
 
 ... Samuel Gurney, Esq. 
 
 5o. 
 
 Rome. Tiber and Via Salara 
 
 ... The late John Battersby Harford, Esq 
 
 Si- 
 
 Rome. Veii 
 
 ... The late Earl Canning. 
 
 52. 
 
 Naples 
 
 ... Earl of Dudley. 
 
 53. Tivoli 
 
 54. Caprarola 
 
 55. Rome. Tor Sant 'Eusebio. 
 
 (1846) 
 
 312 
 
 E. Carleton Holmes, Esq. 
 
 Thomas Bell, Esq. 
 
 The late General Rawdon. 
 
Appendix 
 
 56. Girgenti. Sicily 
 
 57. Antrodoco. Abruzzi 
 
 58. Pescina. Abruzzi .. 
 
 59. Palermo. Sicily 
 
 60. LakeofNemi ... 
 
 61. Cerbara di Subiaco ... 
 
 62. Rome. Madonna di Divin' Amore 
 
 63. Rome. Via Tiburtina 
 
 64. Rome. Claudian Acqueducts 
 
 65. Arundel 
 
 66. Tivoli. Villa d'Este 
 
 67. Civitella di Subiaco 
 
 68. Rome. Via Cassia ... 
 
 69. Tivoli 
 
 70. Rome. Veii 
 
 71. Rome. Via Cassia 
 
 (1847) 
 
 Painted for, or Purchased by 
 The late John S. Harford, Esq. 
 The late Dowager Marchioness of 
 
 Ormonde. 
 T. Gambier Parry, Esq. 
 
 The late Peter F. Andre, Esq. 
 
 The late Mrs. Huskisson. 
 
 The late Mrs. Huskisson. 
 
 The late Baroness Windsor. 
 
 Charles Henry, Esq. 
 
 Charles Henry, Esq. 
 
 Henry Willett, Esq. 
 
 Mrs. R. Markham. 
 
 Sir Francis H. Goldsmid, Bart., M.P. 
 
 The late William Earle, Esq. 
 
 Mrs. Hornby. 
 
 J. Ridgway, Esq. 
 
 J. Ridgway, Esq. 
 
 (1849) 
 
 72. Mount Sinai 
 
 73- Rome. Claudian Acqueducts 
 
 74. Rome. Claudian Acqueducts 
 
 75. Akhrida. Albania 
 
 76. Karytena. Greece ... 
 
 Rev. John E. Cross. 
 John G. Blencowe, Esq. 
 The late Miss Duckworth. 
 The late Miss Duckworth. 
 Thomas Bell, Esq. 
 
 77. Athens. 
 
 78. Corfu .. 
 
 (1850) 
 
 The Acropolis 
 
 Edward, Thirteenth Earl of Derby. 
 Lord Wenlock. 
 
 (1851) 
 
 79. Athens 
 
 80. Sparta 
 
 81. Girgenti. Sicily 
 
 82. Monastery of Meteora 
 
 83. Pentedatelo. Calabria 
 
 84. Parnassus 
 
 85. Rome. Via Appia ... 
 
 86. Mount Tomohr. Albania 
 
 Lord Wenlock. 
 
 Lord Wenlock. 
 
 Thomas H. Wyatt, Esq. 
 
 Henry Willett, Esq. 
 
 Sybilla, Lady Lyttelton. 
 
 The late Richard, First Lord Westbury. 
 
 William Langton, Esq. 
 
 Louisa, Lady Ashburton. 
 
 (1852) 
 
 87. Rome, near Ponte Mammolo 
 
 88. Rome. Crescenza, or Poussin's Castle ... 
 
 89. Taormina. Sicily ... 
 
 90. Venosa. Apulia 
 
 313 
 
 Lady Caroline Legge. 
 
 Mrs. E. Blackmore. 
 
 The Hon. Mrs. Greville-Howard. 
 
 The late Mrs. Empson. 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 91. Reggio. Calabria ... 
 
 92. Thermopyke. Greece 
 
 93. Athens 
 
 94. Argostoli. Kephalonia ... 
 
 95. Marathon. Greece 
 
 96. Quarries of Syracuse, Sicily 
 
 97. Quarries of Syracuse, Sicily. 
 
 Prize) 
 
 (Art Union 
 
 Painted for, or Purchased by 
 Mrs. William Rawson. 
 The late William F. Beadon, Esq. 
 The late G. R. Smith, Esq. 
 Rev. H. P. Wright. 
 Mrs. George Clive. 
 
 Alfred Tennyson, Esq., Poet Laureate, 
 &c. 
 
 Earl of Beauchamp. 
 
 (1853) 
 
 98. Mount Sinai 
 
 99. Civitella di Subiaco, looking South 
 
 100. Windsor Castle 
 
 101. Nile, Philoe, looking South 
 
 102. Nile, Kom Ombos ... 
 
 T. Gambier Parry, Esq. 
 
 Lord Carlingford. 
 
 Edward, Fourteenth Earl of Derby. 
 
 Alfred Seymour, Esq. 
 
 Earl of Northbrook. 
 
 (1854) 
 
 103. On the Nile 
 
 104. On the Nile 
 
 105. The Jungfrau, Interlaken .. 
 
 106. El Koorneh — Thebes 
 
 107. Pyramids of Ghizeh 
 
 108. Pyramids of Ghizeh 
 
 109. Monastir. Macedonia 
 
 no. Licenza ... 
 
 ill. Rome. Via Nomentana .. 
 112. Temple of Bassae. Greece 
 
 S. W. Clowes, Esq., M.P. 
 
 S. W. Clowes, Esq., M.P. 
 
 S. W. Clowes, Esq., M.P. 
 
 Mrs. George Scrivens. 
 
 The late Frederick North, Esq., M.P. 
 
 The late Frederick North, Esq., M.P. 
 
 S. W. Clowes, Esq., M.P. 
 
 Lord Aberdare. 
 
 S. W. Clowes, Esq., M.P. 
 
 Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. 
 
 (1855) 
 
 113. The Matterhorn 
 
 114. Nile. Philoe, Morning, looking South ... 
 
 115. Nile. Philce, Morning, looking South ... 
 
 116. Nile. Philce, looking North 
 
 117. Civitella di Subiaco, Sunrise 
 
 (1856) 
 
 118. Nile. Philce, looking West 
 
 119. Nile. Philce, Morning, looking South ... 
 
 120. Parnassus 
 
 121. Nile. Philce, Sunset, looking South 
 
 122. Nile. Philce, Sunset, looking South 
 
 123. Nile. Philoe, Sunset, looking South 
 
 124. Nile. Kasr es Saad 
 
 125. Corfu, from Kastrades 
 
 314 
 
 Bernard Husey-Hunt, Esq. 
 The late Sir John Potter, M.P. 
 Mrs. George Scrivens. 
 The late William Nevill, Esq. 
 The late William Nevill, Esq. 
 
 Henry F. Walter, Esq. 
 
 George Clive, Esq., M.P. 
 
 Franklin Lushington, Esq. 
 
 Franklin Lushington, Esq. 
 
 The late Lord Lisgar. 
 
 Lord Carlingford. 
 
 The late Sir John Simeon, Bart., M.P. 
 
 Robert D. Drewitt, Esq. 
 
126. Corfu, from Ascension. 
 
 127. Corfu, from Gastouri 
 
 128. Corfu, from Gastouri 
 
 Appendix 
 
 Morning 
 
 Pninted for, or Purchased by 
 Lady Reid. 
 
 The late General Mackintosh. 
 The late General Mackintosh. 
 
 129. Corfu, 
 
 130. Corfu, 
 
 131. Mount 
 
 132. Corfu, 
 
 133. Mount 
 
 134. Corfu, 
 
 135. Corfu, 
 
 136. Mount 
 
 137. Philoe, 
 
 (i8 S 7) 
 
 from Ascension, Evening 
 from below Ascension 
 
 Athos 
 
 from Gastouri 
 
 Athos 
 
 from Ascension 
 from Ascension 
 Athos. Stavronikites 
 Sunset, looking South 
 
 T. William Evans, Esq., M.P. 
 
 Alfred Seymour, Esq. 
 
 The late Frederick North, Esq., M.P. 
 
 Henry F. Walter, Esq. 
 
 The late John Battersby Harford, Esq. 
 
 The late John Batterbsy Harford, Esq. 
 
 The late Mrs. Empson. 
 
 The late Mrs. Empson. 
 
 Edgar A. Drummond, Esq. 
 
 (1858) 
 
 138. Zagori, Albania 
 
 139. Philiates, Albania 
 
 140. Constantinople 
 
 141. Mount Athos. St. Paul 
 
 142. Mount Athos, Iviron 
 
 143. Nile. Philce, Sunset, looking South 
 
 144. Corfu, from Garuna 
 
 145. Corfu, from Kastrades 
 
 146. Corfu, from below Ascension 
 
 147. Joannina. Albania 
 
 148. Jerusalem, Sunrise ... 
 
 149. Jerusalem, Sunset 
 
 150. Masada, on the Dead Sea, Sunset 
 
 151. Nile. Philce, looking South, Sunset 
 
 152. Jerusalem, Sunset ... 
 
 153. Bethlehem 
 
 154. Jerusalem 
 
 Julian Goldsmid, Esq., M.P. 
 
 Thomas H. Wyatt, Esq. 
 
 A. De Vere Beauclerk, Esq. 
 
 A. De Vere Beauclerk, Esq. 
 
 A. De Vere Beauclerk, Esq. 
 
 Augustus Chetwode, Esq. 
 
 Edward Baring, Esq. 
 
 Franklin Lushington, Esq. 
 
 Franklin Lushington, Esq. 
 
 The late Sir John Simeon, Bart., M.P. 
 
 The late Sir James Reid. 
 
 Frances, Countess Waldegrave. 
 
 Frances, Countess Waldegrave. 
 
 The late Captain Huish. 
 
 Bernard Husey-Hunt, Esq. 
 
 Bernard Husey-Hunt, Esq. 
 
 Lord Clermont. 
 
 (1859) 
 
 155. Mount Athos 
 
 156. Corfu, from Ascension 
 
 157. Mount Athos. Pantokratora 
 
 158. Corfu, from Ascension 
 
 159. Petra. The Theatre 
 
 160. Rome. Claudian Acqueducts 
 
 161. Petra. The Great Cliff ... 
 
 162. Parnassus 
 
 163. Ioannina. Albania 
 
 164. Rome. Via Appia 
 
 165. Palermo 
 
 Lord Clermont. 
 
 T. Bailey Potter, Esq., M.P. 
 
 T. Bailey Potter, Esq., M.P. 
 
 The late S. Price Edwards, Esq. 
 
 The late S. Price Edwards, Esq. 
 
 Arthur Hey wood, Esq. 
 
 Sir Thomas Fairbairn, Bart. 
 
 Earl of North brook. 
 
 Miss Yates 
 
 Captain R. O'B. Jameson. 
 
 Lord Carlingford. 
 
 315 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 (i860) 
 
 166. Palermo 
 
 167. Palermo 
 
 168. Mar Sabbas 
 
 169. Rome. Quarries of Cerbara 
 
 170. The Dead Sea 
 
 171. Parnassus 
 
 172. Parnassus 
 
 173. Parnassus 
 
 174. Rome. Alexandrian Acqueducts 
 
 175. Rome. The Tiber at Ponte Molle 
 
 176. Rome. Quarries of Cerbara 
 
 177. Rome. The Tiber at Ponte Molle 
 
 178. Nuneham Park, Oxford 
 
 179. Nuneham Park, Oxford ... 
 
 Painted for, or Purchased by 
 William R. Sandbach, Esq. 
 T. Bailey Potter, Esq., M.P. 
 The late Captain Huish. 
 F. Waymouth Gibbs, Esq. 
 George Clive, Esq., M.P. 
 Harvie Farquhar, Esq. 
 Lord Clermont. 
 Lord Aberdare. 
 Henry R. Stansfeld, Esq. 
 Henry R. Stansfeld, Esq. 
 Richard Bright, Esq., M.P. 
 S. F. Widdington, Esq. 
 Frances, Countess Waldegrave. 
 Frances, Countess Waldegrave. 
 
 (1861) 
 
 180. Bethlehem 
 
 181. Interlaken ... 
 
 182. Beirut 
 
 183. Damascus ... 
 
 184. Masada, on the Dead Sea, Sunrise 
 
 185. Cedars of Lebanon... 
 
 186. Villa Petraja, Florence 
 
 187. Schloss Elz. Moselle 
 
 . Mount Athos 
 
 . The Plain of Thebes 
 
 The Plain of Thebes 
 The Dead Sea 
 The Matterhorn 
 Ioannina. Albania 
 
 188 
 189 
 190 
 191 
 192 
 
 193 
 
 S. Price Edwards, Esq. 
 
 T. William Evans, Esq., M.P. 
 
 Edgar A. Drummond, Esq. 
 
 The late Humphrey Mildmay.Esq., M.P. 
 
 Sybilla, Lady Lyttelton. 
 
 Louisa, Lady Ashburton. 
 
 Frances, Countess Waldegrave. 
 
 Mrs. Scrivens. 
 
 Mrs. Scrivens. 
 
 The late W. Whitmore, Esq. 
 
 George Clive, Esq., M.P. 
 
 Lord Clermont. 
 
 Franklin Lushington, Esq. 
 
 Capt. R. O'B. Jameson. 
 
 (1S62) 
 
 194. Florence 
 
 195. Mount Athos. S. Dionisio 
 
 196. Nile. Philce, Sunset, looking South 
 
 197. Turin 
 
 198. Corfu, from Ascension 
 
 199. Lake of Butrinto. Albania 
 
 200. Corfu, from Ascension 
 
 201. Corfu, from Ascension 
 
 202. Corfu, from Ascension 
 
 203. Ioannina. Albania 
 
 204. Nile. Philce, Sunset, looking West 
 
 205. Mount Olympus. Thessaly 
 
 206. Corfu, from Gastouri 
 
 207. Corfu, from Ascension 
 
 Sir Thomas Fairbairn, Bart. 
 
 Sir Francis H. Goldsmid, Bart. 
 
 Henry R. Grenfell, Esq. 
 
 The late S. Price Edwards, Esq. 
 
 Admiral Sir R. Spencer Robinson. 
 
 Dowager Viscountess Downe. 
 
 A. H. Novelli, Esq. 
 
 The late Miss Julia Goldsmid. 
 
 Major P. A. Reynolds. 
 
 Sir Thomas Fairbairn, Bart. 
 
 H.R.H. Due d'Aumale. 
 
 Edgar A. Drummond, Esq. 
 
 Mrs. W. Prescott. 
 
 Mrs. W. Prescott. 
 
 316 
 
Appendix 
 
 208. Corfu, from below Ascension 
 
 209. Corfu, from Psorarus 
 
 210. Corfu, from Santa Dekka ... 
 
 211. Mont Blanc. Pont Pellissar 
 
 212. The Dead Sea 
 
 213. Porto Tre Scoglie. Albania 
 
 214. Beachy Head 
 
 215. Argostoli. Kephalonia 
 
 216. Campagna di Roma, Via Prenestina 
 
 217. Campagna di Roma, Tor de 'Schiavi 
 
 218. Jerusalem, from Mount Scopus ... 
 
 219. Venice 
 
 220. Venice, Sunset 
 
 221. Beirut 
 
 222. Beirut 
 
 223. Cliffs of Cenc, Gozo 
 
 224. Campagna di Roma 
 
 225. Campagna di Roma 
 
 226. Cedars of Lebanon 
 
 Painted for, or Purchased by 
 Rev. John E. Cross. 
 Admiral Sir Spencer Robinson. 
 Rev. John E. Cross. 
 Charles S. Roundell, Esq. 
 Charles S. Roundell, Esq. 
 Franklin Lushington, Esq. 
 Henry R. Grenfell, Esq. 
 Lord Aberdare. 
 Sir Walter James, Bart. 
 Frances, Countess Waldegrave. 
 The late S. Price Edwards, Esq. 
 Frances, Countess Waldegrave. 
 Henry Willett, Esq. 
 Rev. J. Lomax Gibbs. 
 Rev. John E. Cross. 
 Charles S. Roundell, Esq. 
 Sybilla, Lady Lyttelton. 
 Sybilla, Lady Lyttelton. 
 Charles S. Roundell, Esq. 
 
 (1869) 
 
 227. Piana Rocks, Corsica 
 
 228. Bavella, Corsica 
 
 229. Valdoniello, Corsica 
 
 230. Bonifazio, Corsica ... 
 
 231. Nile. Sheikh Abadeh 
 
 232. Nile. Kasr es Saad 
 
 Sir Francis H. Goldsmid, Bart., M.P. 
 Sir Francis H. Goldsmid, Bart., M.P. 
 George S. Venables, Esq., M.P. 
 Edward, Fifteenth Earl of Derby. 
 Lady Robinson. 
 George Brightwen, Esq. 
 
 233. Nile. Negadeh 
 
 234. Nile. Bab el Kalabshe 
 
 235. Nile. El Luxor ... 
 
 236. Citadel of Corfu 
 
 (1871) 
 
 Miss Ewart. 
 
 Miss C. Macdonald Lockhart. 
 
 Rev. Walter Clay. 
 
 Walter Evans, Esq. 
 
 (1872) 
 
 237. Nile Boat, before Sunrise 
 
 238. Nile Boat, Mid-day 
 
 239. Corfu, from Ascension 
 
 240. Campagna di Roma. Quarries of Cerbara 
 
 241. Campagna di Roma. Quarries of Cerbara 
 
 242. Marathon. Greece 
 
 243. Thermopyloe. Greece 
 
 244. Corfu Citadel 
 
 245. Florence 
 
 246. Mount Sinai 
 
 247. Damascus 
 
 248. Beirut 
 
 317 
 
 Mr. Hooper. 
 
 George Drummond, Esq. 
 
 Edward, Fifteenth Earl of Derby. 
 
 Walter Congreve, Esq. 
 
 Walter Congreve, Esq. 
 
 Right Honourable W. E. Forster, M.P. 
 
 Augustus Harcourt, Esq. 
 
 Henry Kneeshaw, Esq. 
 
 Mrs. Ramsay. 
 
 C. Allanson Knight, Esq. 
 
 Duke of Argyll. 
 
 Mrs. William Rawson. 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 249. Ravenna Forest 
 
 250. Vintimiglia 
 
 251. Nile. Kasr es Saad 
 
 252. Nile. Ibreem 
 
 253. Nile. Sunset. First Cataract 
 
 254. Palermo 
 
 255. Nile. Shadoofs 
 
 256. Nile. Sakkias 
 
 257. Nile. Kasr es Saad 
 
 258. Coast of Albania 
 
 259. Cortu 
 
 260. Corfu 
 
 261. Megaspelion. Greece 
 
 262. Bethlehem ... 
 
 263. Nile. Approach to Philoe 
 
 264. Nile. Sunset, near Philce 
 
 265. Valdoniello 
 
 266. Bethlehem 
 
 267. Bavella 
 
 268. Nile. Approach to Philce 
 
 269. Nile. Sunset, near Philce 
 
 270. Blue Grotto. Capri 
 
 271. Rome. Via Appia... 
 
 272. Pyramids of Ghizeh 
 
 273. Pyramids of Ghizeh 
 
 274. Plains of Bengal 
 
 275. Kinchingunga 
 
 276. Kinchingunga 
 
 277. Nile. Pharaoh's Bed 
 
 278. Nile. Approach to Philce 
 
 279. Mont Blanc. Col de Balme 
 
 280. Mont Blanc. Cormayeur ... 
 
 281. Mont Blanc. Mer de Glace 
 
 282. Dead Sea, from Masada ... 
 
 283. Cedars of Lebanon 
 
 284. Rome. Buon Ricovero ... 
 
 285. Rome. Via Nomentana ... 
 
 286. Nile. Moonlight 
 
 287. Pisa 
 
 288. Lerici 
 
 289. Mount Hermon 
 
 290. Mount Athos 
 
 291. Bavella. Corsica ... 
 
 292. Parga 
 
 Painted for, or Purchased by 
 Charles S. Roundell, Esq. 
 George Nicholl, Esq. 
 Captain Alfred M. Drummond. 
 T. William Evans, Esq., M.P. 
 Ernest Noel, Esq., M.P. 
 Edgar A. Drummond, Esq. 
 Thomas Seeley, Esq., M.P. 
 Thomas Seeley, Esq., M.P. 
 Louisa, Lady Ashburton. 
 
 Franklin Lushington, Esq. 
 Franklin Lushington, Esq. 
 Thomas Hanbury, Esq. 
 C. Allanson Knight, Esq. 
 Miss C. Macdonald Lockhart. 
 Captain Alfred M. Drummond. 
 
 Louisa, Lady Ashburton. 
 Franklin Lushington, Esq. 
 W. Arnold Congreve, Esq. 
 Hubert Congreve, Esq. 
 Earl of Northbrook. 
 Earl of Northbrook. 
 Earl of Northbrook. 
 Lord Aberdare. 
 Louisa, Lady Ashburton 
 
 318 
 
Appendix 
 
 THIS IS AN INCOMPLETE LIST OF THE WORKS 
 LEAR ILLUSTRATED 
 
 1832 
 
 from 1833 to 1836 
 
 Illustrations of the Family of the Psittacidse ... ... ... ... ... 1832 
 
 J. Gould's Indian Pheasants 
 
 Gould's European Birds and Toucans... 
 
 Testudinata, for Professor Bell 
 
 Bell's British Mammalia 
 
 The volumes of Parrots, Monkeys, Cats, of the 
 
 "Naturalist's Library," editor S. W. Jardine 
 Views of Rome and its Environs. Two vols. ... ... ... ... 1841 
 
 Journal of a Landscape Painter in Albania * ... ... ... ... ... 1841. 
 
 Journal of a Landscape Painter in Calabria * 1842 
 
 J. E. Gray's Gleanings from the Menagerie at Knowsley Hall (the bird 
 
 portion) 1846 
 
 First Book of Nonsense * ... ... 1846 
 
 Second Book of Nonsense * 1846 
 
 Views of the Ionian Islands * 1863 
 
 Journal of a Landscape Painter in Corsica * ... ... ... ... ... 1870 
 
 More Nonsense Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, &c. * ... ... 1872 
 
 Laughable Lyrics : a fourth Book of Nonsense, &c. * ... 1877 
 
 After Lear's death. 
 
 Brought out by Lord Tennyson. 
 
 Poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson. Illustrated by Edward Lear 1889 
 
 The above list of publications were all illustrated by Lear, but those marked 
 with an asterisk were also written by him. In the capacity of an author, what 
 is said of him in the preface to ' ' Poems by Alfred Lord Tennyson " is true : 
 "Had Lear not been a painter, he might have been a popular and voluminous 
 author of books of a high and sterling literary value. They vary personal 
 adventure, gracefully told, with genuine research on topics of historical and 
 antiquarian interest." These Journals, which are amusing and excellent reading, 
 were very successful in their day. 
 
 Of his series of " Nonsense," many editions have appeared since their first 
 publication by Messrs. Warne & Co. in 1861, and I may mention that a further 
 one is now being printed by them. 
 
 319 
 
INDEX 
 
 Aberdare, Lord, see Bruce, 
 
 Henry 
 Academy, Royal, Lear joins 
 
 the schools, 22, 23 
 Albania, Lear's book on, xxix, 
 
 19,22 
 Albert, Prince, 214 
 Alfred, Prince, 259, 260 
 Ansted, Professor, 275 
 Antonelli, Cardinal, 158 
 Apulia, 3 
 Ardee, 52 ff. 
 Ashburton, Lady (Miss Mc- 
 
 Kenzie), 117 
 Athanasian Creed, the 138, 190, 
 
 198 
 Athos, Mount, 38, 40 ff ., 43, 49, 
 
 77 
 D'Aumale, Due, 36, 255, 261 
 
 Avellino, 3 
 
 Baalbec, 109, no 
 Baring, see Cromer, Earl of 
 Baring, T., see Northbrook, 
 
 first Earl of 
 Basilicata, 3 
 
 Bassas, Lear's picture of, 155 
 Beachy Head, 248, 249 
 Beadon, Rev. F., 232 
 Beattie, Dr., 102 
 Beauclerk, Aubrey de Vere, 
 
 131 
 
 Beaufort, Emily, 190, 193, 200 
 
 Bell, Professor, xviii, xxviii 
 Bennett, Rev. W. J. E., 30 
 Bethell, Lady, 118, 130 
 
 Bethell, Sir Richard (Lord 
 Westbury), 27, 28, 140, 145, 
 
 25 2 , 2 53 
 Bethlehem, 108 
 
 Bizi, Sir Christopheros and 
 Lady Kalikopolos Biletti, 259 
 
 " Book of Nonsense, The," 
 xiii, xxvi, xxvii, xxix, xxx, 
 180, 199, 205, 210, 212, 219, 
 222, 263 
 
 Bowen, Sir George Ferguson, 
 
 8 , 9, 34, 39, 44, 5°> 79, *3i, 
 271 
 
 Bowyer, Sir George, 147, 165, 
 
 218, 250 
 Braham, Charles, 36, 51 
 Braham, John, 35 
 Braham, Ward, 115, 218 
 Braila, Sir Aristides and Lady, 
 
 258 
 Bright, John, 146 
 Bright, Richard, and Mrs., 126 
 Brooke's " Borneo," 28 
 Brougham, Lord, 201 
 Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 
 
 128 
 Browning, Robert, 128, 169 
 Browning (son of Robert and 
 
 E. B. Browning), 193 
 Bruce, Colonel, 222, 269 
 Bruce, Henry (Lord Aberdare), 
 
 59, 260 
 Buller, Sir George and Lady, 
 
 69, 78, 81, 88, 207, 223, 226, 
 
 228 
 Bunsen, Baronand Baroness, 63 
 
 321 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Bunsen, Theodore, 73, 74, 79 
 Burke, Major, Miss, and R. O., 
 
 2 45 
 
 Calabria, Lear's tour in, 1 ; his 
 
 volume on, xxix, 19 
 Campbell, Colonel, 73, 79, 81 
 Canning, Lady, wife of Lord 
 
 Canning, 211, 212 
 Canning, Lady, wife of Sir 
 
 Stratford Canning, 12 
 Canning, Lord, 8, 118, 135 
 Canning, Sir Stratford, see 
 
 Stratford de Redcliffe, Lord 
 Cardwell, Edward, 300, 304 
 Carlingford, Lord, see For- 
 
 tescue, Chichester 
 Carlisle, seventh Earl of, 218 
 Carlyle, Thomas, 169, 170 
 Carnarvon, Lord, 91 
 Carter, Bonham, 7 
 Caruso, Sir Gregory and Lady, 
 
 258, 286, 288 
 Casanova, General, 256 
 Castel del Monte, 3 
 Cathcart, Major Andrew, 159 
 Cavendish, Hon. Adelaide, 288 
 Cavendish, Miss, 131 
 Cavour, Count, 171, 185 
 Chalcis, 11 
 Challoner, Mrs., 58 
 Chartres, Due de, 178 
 Chelmsford, Lord Chancellor, 
 
 193 
 
 Chester, Miss, 148 
 
 Cholmondeley, R., 139 
 Church, Professor C. M., 9, 10, 
 
 11,21,59,221 
 Churchill, Captain, 84 
 Cialdini, General, 187 
 Clancarty, Lady, 241 
 Clanricarde, Lord, 91 
 Clarendon, Lord, 118 
 Clark, W. G., 199, 200 
 Clark, Rev. — , 83, 209 
 Clermont, Lord, 31, 51, 52, 55, 
 
 183, 227 
 Clive, George, 6, 33, 50, 232,260 
 
 Clive, Mrs., 6, 142, 260 
 
 Clough, A. H., Lear's imitation 
 of, 141 ff. 
 
 Clowes, F., 88 
 
 Clowes, S. W., 123, 124, 127, 
 130, 152, 221 
 
 Cobden, Richard, 146 
 
 Colenso, Bishop, 251, 276, 
 299 
 
 Colquhoun, Sir P. M'C, 207, 
 258, 286, 298 
 
 Consular reform, Lear's views 
 on, 159 ff. 
 
 Cooper, T., 265 
 
 Corfu, Lear invited to, 9 ; letters 
 from, 32-51, 61-93, 110-13, 
 206-42, 256-80, 297-308 ; 
 Lear's monotonous life in, 
 65 ff . ; Gladstone sent as Com- 
 missioner to, 121, 125 ; 
 description of Paleokastrizza, 
 234 ; annexation by Greece, 
 298 ff . 
 
 Cortazzi family, the, 47, 66, 68, 
 
 73.76 
 Cramer, Lear's publisher, 120, 
 
 132, 166 
 Craven, Rev. — , 240, 262, 
 
 263 
 Creswick, Thomas, 259 
 Cromer, Earl of, 302 
 Cross, J., 113, 152, 221 
 Cullen, Archbishop, 154, 218 
 Cumming, Rev. Dr., 154 
 Curcumell, Sir Demetrius and 
 
 Lady, 258 
 Curzon, Colonel Leicester, 244 
 Cushman, Charlotte, 128 
 Cust, Colonel, 102 
 
 Damaschino, Sir Philotheos 
 
 and Lady, 258 
 Dandolo, 308 
 Dead Sea, the, 108 
 Decie, Colonel and Mrs., 222 
 Denison, Archdeacon, 30 
 Denison, Lady, 137, 191 
 Dennett, Miss, 82, 83, 87 
 
 322 
 
Index 
 
 Derby, thirteenth Earl of, xviii, 
 xxviii, 14, 15, 17, 18 
 
 Derby, fourteenth Earl of, 90, 
 135, 286 
 
 Disraeli, Benjamin, 90, 125, 131, 
 241 
 
 Drogheda, Marquis and Mar- 
 chioness of, 46 
 
 Dunglas, Lord, 102 
 
 Dunne, Colonel F. P., 131 
 
 Eastnor, Lord, see Somers, 
 
 Lord 
 Edwards, S. Price, 150, 194 
 Egg, Augustus Leopold, 231 
 Egypt, Lear's longing to see, 
 
 8 ;< his visits to, in 1854, 32, 
 
 in 1858, 95 
 Eisenbach, Miss, 83, 84 
 Ellenborough, Lord, 135 
 Empson, Mrs., 62, 77, 137 
 Empson, Rev. W. H., 137 
 Erskine, Miss, 71, 84 
 Essays and Reviews, 189, 209, 
 
 214, 221 
 Etna, 4 
 Evans, Dr., 84 
 
 Fairbairn, T., 150, 198, 229, 
 
 239 
 Fergusson, Sir J., 102 
 
 Flamburiani, Sir Karalambos 
 and Lady, 259 
 
 Forster, the medium, 238 
 
 Forster, W. E., 304 
 
 Fort, Mrs., 229 
 
 Fortescue, Chichester (Lord 
 Carlingford), beginning of his 
 friendship with Lear, xxii ff . ; 
 his life as a young man, 1,2; 
 Lear's advice to him about 
 the Colonial Secretaryship, 
 51 ; description of his life at 
 Ardee, 53 ; letters from, 42, 
 89, 247, 296 ; his reported 
 appointment to Irish Chief 
 Secretaryship, 188 ; his en- 
 gagement to Lady Walde- 
 
 grave, 247 ; his marriage, 
 
 265, 267 
 Fortescue, Colonel, of Dromis- 
 
 kin, 7 
 Fowler, D., 149 
 Fox, General, 82 
 Francis II. of Naples, 186 
 Furville, Captain, 84 
 
 Gage, Colonel, 47, 79 
 Gallenga, Antonio, 167 
 Garibaldi, G., 133, 147, 176, 224 
 Garrett, General Sir R, 257,258 
 George I., King of Greece, 289 
 Gibbs, F. W., 127, 134 
 Gibson, John, sculptor, 124 
 Gibson, Milner, 90 
 Gladstone, W. E., 17, 30, 121, 
 
 125, 131, 147, 258, 260, 300 
 Goldsmid, Sir Francis, 183, 
 
 198, 229 
 Goldsmid, Miss Julia, 221, 224, 
 
 225, 227 
 Gould, G. A., xviii, xxviii 
 Goyon, General, 169 
 Graham, The Rt. Hon. Sir J., 
 
 200 
 Graham, Dr., in 
 Granville, second Earl, 128 
 Gray, Dr., of the British 
 
 Museum, xviii, xxviii 
 Greece, Lear's visit to in 1848, 
 
 9 ff 
 Greek, Lear's study of, 33, 43, 
 
 67, 87, 212 
 Grenfell, Henry, M.P., 212, 222, 
 
 248, 250 
 Grey, Sir George, 195 
 Gully, Dr., 115 
 
 Hamilton, Chichester, 54 
 Hamilton, Lord Claud, 151 
 Hamilton, Jerrick, 198 
 Hamilton, John, 54, 57 
 Hampden, Bishop, 276 
 Hansen, Lear's servant, 265 
 Harcourt, C, 232 
 Harcourt, Egerton, 126 
 
 323 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Harcourt, Lady Frances, 126 
 Harcourt, George, 35, 126, 191, 
 
 211, 213 ff. 
 Harcourt, William, and Mrs., 
 
 272 
 Hare, Mrs., mother of Augustus 
 
 J. C. Hare, 131, 132 
 Harford, J. B., 152, 153, 221 
 Harrowby, Earl of, 201 
 Havelock, Sir Henry, 58 
 Hay, Robert, 124, 128 
 Headfort, second Marquis and 
 
 Marchioness of, 69, 71, 72, 
 
 77, 79, 80, 84 
 Hebron, 100 
 Henchel von Donnesmarck, 
 
 Count G., 226 
 Hendon, Miss, 67 
 Herbert, Colonel and Mrs., 84 
 Herbert, Mrs. G., 6 
 Herbert, R. G. W., 152 
 Herbert, Sidney, 49, 147 
 Hewitson, — , 175 
 Heywood, Arthur, 134, 150 
 Highgate, Lear's old home at, 
 
 292 
 Holland, Sir Henry, 81 
 Hornby, Captain Geoffrey, 228 
 Hornby, Colonel, 198 
 Hornby, J., of Winwick, 15, 
 
 113, 146 
 Hornby, Mrs., 136 
 H ornby , Admiral Sir Ph ipps, 1 37 
 Hornby, Robert, 20, 221 
 Horton, Miss W., 6 
 Hunt, W. Holman, xvi, 
 
 xxxix, 34, 48, 49, 50, 85, 
 
 in, 117, 119, 136, 148, 153, 
 
 170, 196, 221, 231, 239 
 Husey-Hunt, B., 85, 113, 119, 
 
 152, 221 
 
 Indian Mutiny, the, 86 
 Inglis, General Sir John, 223, 
 
 226, 228, 257 
 Ipeica, 3 
 
 Jaffa, 95 
 
 Jardine, Sir William, xviii, xxviii 
 Jerusalem, letters from, 94, 
 no ; the Holy City de- 
 scribed, 96, 106, 107 ; Lear's 
 picture of, 99, 132, 133 ; 
 factions in, 103 ; the 
 Bishopric question, in 
 Jocelyn, Lord (Earl of Roden), 
 
 Joinville, Prince de, 178 
 "Journals of a Landscape 
 Painter," xxix, 19, 22 
 
 Kennedy, Dr., headmaster of 
 
 Shrewsbury, 163 
 Kestner, Chevalier, 270 
 Kinglake, A. W., 238, 304 
 Kirkwall, Viscount, 283 
 Knight, C., 124, 128 
 Knight, Isabella, 124, 128 
 Knight, Margaret (Duchesse de 
 
 Sermoneta), 124, 128 
 11 Knowsley Menagerie," the, 
 
 xviii, 14 
 Knowsley, 15 
 Kokali, Basilia, 306 
 Kokali, Christo, 308 
 Kokali, Giorgio, xxxiv, xxxv, 
 
 46, 124, 129, 163, 167, 233, 
 
 265, 297, 308 
 Kozziris, Lady Emily, 35, 83, 
 
 209, 233, 241 
 Kozziris, L. J. E., 68 
 
 Labouchere, Henry, see Taun- 
 ton, Lord 
 
 Lamoriciere, General, 171, 251 
 
 Lansdowne, fourth Marquess 
 of, 200, 259, 272 
 
 Lascelles,Tne Hon. Emma, 287 
 
 Leake, Colonel, 167 
 
 Lear, Ann, xvii, 20, 97, 115, 119, 
 i5°> !53, i54i W 208, 232, 
 291 ; her last illness and 
 death, 182 ff. 
 
 Lear, Edward, quality of his 
 humour, xiii ; the editor's 
 memories of him, xv ; his 
 
 324 
 
Index 
 
 birth and education, xvi ; his 
 " Family of the Psittacidce," 
 xvii ; his work for Lord 
 Derby, xviii ff., xxviii ; his 
 drawing-lessons to Queen 
 Victoria, xx, xxi, xxix ; Mr. 
 Wilfrid Ward's story of him, 
 xxi, xxii ; beginning of his 
 friendship with Fortescue, 
 xxii ff. ; Ruskin's gratitude 
 to him, xxvi ; an autobio- 
 graphical letter, xxvii ff . ; his 
 life after 1864, xxx ff. ; his 
 Villa Emily, xxxii, and Villa 
 Tennyson, xxxiv ; his resting- 
 place, xxxv ; an appreciation 
 of his art by Mr. Henry 
 Strachey, xxxvi ff. 
 
 Lear, Ellinor, 191, 223, 271 
 
 Lear, Harriett, 140, 144, 145 
 
 Lear, Mary, 154, 187 
 
 Lear, Sarah, 153, 154, 170 
 
 Lear, Sophy, 154 
 
 Lebanon, 108, 109 
 
 Leeds, the Dowager Duchess 
 of, 285 
 
 Lever, C. J., 195 
 
 Lever's novels, 290 
 
 Leycester (Penrhyn), Edward, 
 116, 183 
 
 Lindsay, Coutts, 63 
 
 Lindsay, Miss, 6 
 
 Luard, — , 222 
 
 Lucian, 75 
 
 Lushington, Dr., 214, 221, 225 
 
 Lushington, Franklin, 14, 18, 
 34, 40, 44, 47, 65, 76, 79, 85, 
 92, in, 113, 125, 148, 170, 
 172, 197, 208, 221, 228 
 
 Lydford, 17 ft. 
 
 Lyle, — , 175 
 
 Lyons, Lord, 120 
 
 Lytton, Sir E. Bulwer, 89, 121, 
 
 195 
 
 Macbean, — , 152 
 Macdonald, Norman, 69 
 Macfarlane, Mrs., 79 
 
 Macguire, — , 147 
 Madox-Bromley, Sir Richard, 
 
 84 
 Malcolm, Mrs., 217, 221 
 Malta, a letter from, 243 ff. 
 Manning, Cardinal, 132, 170, 
 
 171 
 Marcoran, Sir George, 251, 258, 
 
 288 
 Marguerite, Princess of Parma, 
 
 223 
 Maria Nicolowiena, Grand 
 
 Duchess, 128 
 Marriage, Lear's views on, 29, 
 
 135, 136 
 Mar Saba, 108 
 
 Marshall, James, 128 
 
 Martineau, R. B., 148 
 
 Masada, Lear's painting of, 70, 
 
 86, 99, 100, 132 
 Massala, 3 
 
 Mathews, Bertie, 124, 128 
 Maude, Colonel, 210, 222 
 Merivale, Under-Secretary, 89, 
 
 91, 112, 172 
 Metaxa, Count Jean-Baptiste, 
 
 286 
 Middleton, George, 148 
 Millais, Sir J. G., xl, 34, 136 
 Montalembert, Comte de, 118, 
 
 120 
 Montefiore, Sir Moses, 104 
 Morier, Robert, 64, 74, 116, 
 
 152, 194, 195 
 Mortara, Edgar, 165 
 Munich, Lear at, 203 
 Murray, Lady, 197 
 Murray, Miss, 84 
 
 Napoleon III., 133, 157, 158, 
 
 196 
 Napoleon, Eugene Louis, 
 
 Prince Imperial, 297 
 Naylor, Mrs., 225, 227 
 Nevile, Rev. C, 251 
 Nevill, W., 114, 152, 221, 226 
 Newcastle, fifth Duke of, 172, 
 
 248, 293, 296, 299, 300, 304 
 
 325 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Newcastle, Co. Down, 55 
 Newton, Sir Charles, 153, 163, 
 
 166, 168 
 Nightingale, — , of Emley, 138 
 Normanby, Lady, 193 
 Northbrook, first Earl of (T. 
 
 Baring), xxxiii, 5, 6, 9, 14, 50 
 
 O'Brien, Smith, 278 
 O'Donoghue, the, 182, 218 
 Omnium, J., 245 
 Ormonde, Lady, 43, 44 
 
 Pakington, Rt. Hon. Sir J., 91 
 
 Palgrave, F. T., his "Golden 
 Treasury," 192 ; goes to live 
 with Woolner, 199 ; his Art 
 Handbook, 245 
 
 Palmer, William, of Magdalen, 
 127 
 
 Palmerston, Viscount, 88 ff., 
 130, 139, 161, 166, 192, 241 
 
 Paris in 1858, 123 
 
 Paris, Comte de, 178, 181, 223 
 
 Parnassus, Lear's painting of ,27 
 
 Parry, Gambier, 59 
 
 Patragik, 11 
 
 Pattle, Virginia, 30 
 
 Peel, Major John, 209 
 
 Peel, Sir Robert, 188 
 
 Penrhyn, see Leycester, Ed- 
 ward 
 
 Pentini, Cardinal, 195 
 
 Percy, Lady Susan, 5, 7 
 
 Perkins, Mrs. Mary Ridge, 128 
 
 Perugia, sack of, in 1859, 164 
 
 Petra, 100, 101 
 
 Petraja, Villa, Lear's painting 
 of, 185, 186, 189, 196, 199, 
 200, 211, 216 
 
 Philae, Lear's painting of, 35 
 
 Phillimore, Mrs. R. J., 191 
 
 Philpotts, Bishop, 104 
 
 Pius IX., Pope, 5 
 
 Platcea, 10 
 
 Platides, Sir Plato and Lady, 258 
 
 Plato, 75 
 
 Plumer, Mr. and Mrs., 201 
 
 Plutarch, 75 
 Pollington, Lord, 164 
 Potter, Sir John, 114 
 Potter, the Misses, 148 
 Preraphaelites, the, Lear's re- 
 lation to, xxxix 
 Prescott, W. G., 253 
 Preta, Cardinal Viale, 165 
 Proby, John, Lord, 2, 3, 119, 120 
 Proby, Lady Isabella, 119 
 " Psittacidae, Family of the," 
 
 xvii, xxvin 
 
 Ramleh, 95 
 
 Ravensdale, 51, 52 
 
 Redgrave, Richard, 259 
 
 Reggio, revolution at, 4 ; Lear's 
 painting of, 26 
 
 Reid, Sir James, 47, 65, 66, 73, 
 88 
 
 Renan's " Vie de Jesus," 285, 
 299 
 
 Rendlesham, fifth Baron, 164 
 
 Reynolds, Major, 167, 229 
 
 Ricasoli, Count, 188, 191 
 
 Rimbault, Dr., 115 
 
 Robinson, Admiral Sir Spen- 
 cer, 255 
 
 Roden, Earl of, see Jocelyn, 
 Lord 
 
 Roebuck, J. A., 191 
 
 Rogers, Sir F. L., 304 
 
 Rome, unrest in, in 1847, 5 ; 
 society in, in 1848, 6, in 
 1858-9, 123 ff. ; social and 
 moral atmosphere in i860, 
 162 ff. ; disturbance at Gari- 
 baldi's birthday, 168, 169 
 
 "Rome and its Environs," 
 xxviii 
 
 Ross, David, of Bladensburg, 
 163 
 
 Ross, Mrs., of Bladensburg, 168 
 
 Ross, Lady Mary, 7 
 
 Ruskin's gratitude to Lear, 
 xxvi 
 
 Russell, Lord John, 89, 91, 147, 
 161, 169, 296, 308 
 
 326 
 
Index 
 
 Russell, Odo, 127, 131, 169 
 Ruxton, Mrs., 7, 45, 53 ff., 61, 
 126, 190, 263 
 
 St. Albans, tenth Duke of, 
 
 267, 278 
 St. Leonards, letters from, 
 
 144-156 
 San Remo, Lear's studio and 
 
 villas at, xxxi ff . 
 Sandwith, Humphrey, 50 
 Sargent, Sir Charles, 207, 222, 
 
 237, 258, 272, 274, 275, 286, 
 
 298 
 Sartor is, Mrs., 6 
 Saunders, Sir Sydney Smith, 
 
 159, 160, 161 
 Schimmelpenninck, Mrs., Life 
 
 of, 150 
 Scott, Sir Francis, 2, 4, 150 
 Seaton, Lord and Lady, 57, 58 
 Seddon, Thomas, 48 
 Senior, Nassau, 82 
 Sermoneta, Duchesse de, 124, 
 
 128 
 Seymour, Alfred, 38, 40, 48, 
 
 198 
 Seymour, Lord, 275, 278 
 Seymour, Admiral Sir Michael, 
 
 181 
 Shaftesbury, seventh Earl of, 
 
 213 
 Shakespear, Major and Mrs., 
 
 47, 78, 79 
 Shelley, Sir Percy, Lady, and 
 
 Florence, 278, 280 
 Simeon, Cornwall, xxvii ff., 20 
 Simeon, Sir John, 33, 35 
 Smith, Major Webber, 246 
 Somers, Earl and Countess, 30, 
 
 63 
 Spencer, fourth Earl, 82, 83 
 Spooner, — , 193 
 Stanley, A. P., Dean of West- 
 minster, 116, 125, 199, 200, 
 224, 228, 230 
 Stanley, Lord, 89, 91, in, 117, 
 119, 120, 135 
 
 Stanley of Alderley, second 
 Baron, 51 
 
 Stanley, Mary, 116 
 
 Stanley, Mrs., 232 
 
 Stisted, Mrs., 291 
 
 Stocker, Captain, 279 
 
 Storks, Sir Henry, 125, 131, 
 152, 210, 211, 224, 251, 258, 
 266, 267, 273, 274, 277 ff., 
 283, 286, 288, 292, 298 ff., 
 302 ff., 307 
 
 Strahan, Aide-de-Camp, 302 
 
 Strangford, seventh Viscount, 
 69 
 
 Stratford de Redcliffe, Lord, 
 
 "» 7 1 , 125, 127, 131 
 Street, C. H., 222 
 Strong, Archibald, 59 
 Stuart de Rothesay, Lady, 211 
 Swanston, Professor, xviii 
 Swinburne, A. C, 198 
 Syracuse, 3 ; Lear's painting of, 
 
 27,59 
 
 Tait, Archbishop, 120 
 
 Talbot, Colonel, 71, 82, 266 
 
 Taunton, Lord, 50, 62, 83, 91 
 
 Taylor, Tom, 250 
 
 Tempe, Lear's water-colour of, 
 xv 
 
 " Tempest, The," Greek trans- 
 lation of, 112 
 
 Tennyson, Lady, 138, 197, 226 
 
 Tennyson, Lord, Poet Laureate, 
 xv, xxi, 15, 22, 34, 39, 43, 44, 
 113^,137,138,145,166,213, 
 228, 229, 235 ; a visit to 
 Farringford described, 138 
 
 Thebes, 10, 11 
 
 Therapia, the Embassy at, 12 
 
 Thermopylae, Lear's painting 
 of, 9, 10, 26, 27, 254, 255 
 
 Thirlwall, Bishop, 189, 276 
 
 Tisdall, Mrs., 219 
 
 Trieste, letter from, 200 ff . 
 
 Troy, Lear at, 38, 39, 42 
 
 Tullamore Park, 56 
 
 Tyrwhitt, R. St. John, 163 
 
 327 
 
Letters of Edward Lear 
 
 Urquhart, D., 138, 140 
 Urquhart, Mrs., 87, 140 
 
 Valsamachi, Lady, 71,209, 240, 
 
 244, 258 
 Venosa, Lear's painting of, 26 
 Vere, Aubrey de, third son of 
 
 Sir Aubrey de Vere, 128, 209, 
 
 257 "} , - 
 
 Vere, Mrs. Aubrey de, 257 
 
 Vere, Major F. H. de, 228 
 
 Vergine, Monte, 3 
 
 Vernon, Captain, 220 
 
 Vernon, Lady Selina, 221 
 
 Victor Emmanuel I., 169, 185, 
 196, 208 
 
 Victoria, Queen, Lear's drawing- 
 lessons to, xx, xxi, xxix 
 
 " Views in the Ionian Islands," 
 xxx 
 
 Villafranca, Treaty of, 147, 157; 
 story of the echo, 167 
 
 Vitalis, Mrs., 79 
 
 Volture, Monte, 3 
 
 Waldegrave, Frances Coun- 
 tess, 35, 50, 70, 83, 85 ff., 90, 
 114, 126, 136, 164, 165, 184, 
 191,211, 2i3ff., 223, 231,232, 
 294, 300, 301 ; letters from 
 Lear to, 51 ff., 97 ff., 132, 133, 
 *72, *73> 254, 255, 260 ff., 
 275-9 > Lear's letter on the 
 death of Mr.Harcourt, 215 ff., 
 227 ; her engagement to 
 Chichester Fortescue, 247, 
 254, 255 ; her marriage to 
 him, 265, 267 
 
 Waldegrave, The Hon. George, 
 127 
 
 Waldegrave, Sarah Countess 
 (widow of the eighth Earl), 
 284 
 
 Wales, Prince of (King Ed- 
 ward VII.), 131, 134, 224, 
 228, 280 
 
 Walrond, 116 
 
 Walton - on - Thames, Lear's 
 
 letters from, 174 ff., 180 ff. 
 Ward, Lord, 8 
 Ward, Wilfrid, xxi 
 Waterford, Marchioness of, 211 
 Wentworth, Mrs., xvii, xxviii 
 Westbury, first Baron, see 
 
 Bethell, Sir Richard 
 Wilberforce, Samuel, Bishop 
 
 of Oxford, 213 
 "Will," Tennyson's, translated 
 
 by Lear into Greek, 236, 237 
 Williams, Dr. Rowland, 2 14, 225 
 Wilson, Edward, 287, 293 
 Wilton, second Earl of, xix 
 Wilton, Countess of, 136 
 Wimppfen, Mme., 202, 203 
 Win wick, 15 
 Wiseman, Cardinal, 164, 251, 
 
 285 
 Wodehouse, Lord, 300 
 Wolff, Sir Henry Drummond, 
 
 131, 206, 207, 222, 231, 238, 
 
 251, 258, 266, 272 ff., 279 
 Wolff, Lady, 272 
 Wolff, Rev. Joseph, 240 
 Wood, Sir Richard, 160 
 Woodward, Rev. — , Chaplain 
 
 at Rome, 129 
 Woolner, Thomas, 199, 245 
 Wyatt, Sir Digby, 198 
 Wyatt, T., 202 
 Wyndham, — , 79 
 Wynne, Colonel and Mrs., 241 
 Wythenshawe, 15 
 
 Xenophon, 77 
 
 Xidian, 251, 257, 285, 286, 288 
 
 Young, Sir John, 8, 35, 37, 39, 
 48, 65, 76, 125, 131, 211 
 
 Young, Lady, 65, 69, 70, 77, 82, 
 83, 88, 211 
 
 Young, Major, 269 
 
 Zambelli, Sir Themistoclesand 
 Lady, 258 ^%M 
 
 UNVVIN BROTHERS, LTD., THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON. 
 
m 
 
 
 *•*"' V 
 
 
 *.£*^ 
 
 ' - ' !/>■'■ 
 
 1 ■- 
 
 is; ■ 
 
 
WBSm 
 
 IB 
 
 Jan^^^n 
 paHrawn 
 
 fflffi 
 
 
 ■i 
 raHfal 
 
 ■■■■ 
 
 pin 
 
 am i 
 
 BHpf