PRE-RAPHAELITE LINKS
By SIR GEOFFREY MANDER, M.P.
INTEREST in the pre-Raphaelites is reviving, and by a chain of circumstances I happen to have been brought into touch with a number of survivors who remember the great men of those days.. I do not refer to such well-known figures as Dr. and Mrs. Mackail and their daughter Mrs. Thirkell, whose works and deeds speak for them- selves ; Mackairs Life of Morris will for ever be a mine of informa- tion as regards all associated with that period. Nor am I thinking of that distinguished veteran, Sir Sydney Cockerell, the possessor of a wonderful collection of Morrisiana, and a mind stored with memories, many of which have appeared in print ; he is never so happy now as :istening to a debate in the House of Commons from under the gallery. Then in the House of Commons we have Admiral Sir William James, so like his famous and handsome grandfather Millais, and that early portrait "Bubbles," for which he was the model. Nor of Sir Max Beerbohm, whose memorable article in Even Now on No. 2 The Pines is an everlasting delight. Nor of G. B. S.
I mention first, as she is the oldest, and has now passed away, Mrs. Gill, the youngest sister of Morris, whom I saw at Tonbridge just before the war, at the age of 94. Since she married a Devon- shire squire her life was cut off from that of her brother William soon after she grew up, but she remembered days at the Water House, Walthamstow,mhen, both Oxford undergraduates, Burne-Jones used to come to see William Morris. She recalled how her brother, when buying a handkerchief in Bond Sueet, was once taken for a sailor, to his great amusement. This was a well-known characteristic of Morris's, and I remember Ramsay MacDonald also describing to me his swinging gait. Walthamstow is proud of its famous citizen, and if you ask any child in its streets who William Morris was they will know all about him, though they may never have heard of many eminent statesmen of the present day.
Then there are three of Rossetti's nieces Miss Rossetti, Mrs. Angeli and Mrs: Agresti, the last-named famous as one of the most brilliant of League of Nations interpreters. They are all daughters of William Rossetti, one of the seven original members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. It may not be generally known that Rossetti's sister Christina, famous as a poetess, was also a painter. I am the happy possessor of one of her few paintings in oils, entitled "A Candlemas Dialogue." May Morris is no longer with us, attended and guarded by the startling figure of Miss Lobb in male attire. I remember once looking with her at the famous trellis wall- paper of her father's design. She pointed out a particular bird, and remarked that in her nursery it had frightened her, and she had always called it the "naughty bird." When I mentioned that it had been designed by Philip Webb she at once countered that her father could design birds too. She would admit no superior. A delightful story is told of two young children who, on a visit together, became deeply attached to each other ; when the little girl had to go away the boy was deeply affected, knelt down, and burst into tears at the prospect of separation. The little girl was May Morris, the little boy became Lord Baldwin of Bewdley.
Mrs. Michael Joseph, daughter of Holman Hunt, is vigorous and active, and has many memories of the past. She recalls as a young girl reading from ICipling's A Fleet in Being to Ruskin at Brantwood, his mind then clouded, and how in a sudden flash of clarity and remembrance she was able to convey to him a message from her father. She recalls walking to the window with him and his pointing in silent admiration to a rainbow that was visible. Mrs. Joseph frequently visited No. 2 The Pines,. where she knew the Watts- Duntons very well. She often met Swinburne as he walked up to Putney Heath for his daily tramp across the Common to the "Rose and Crown." She recalls, as others have done, his striking appearance, the wideawake hat, the flowing red hair, short trousers. The poet, muttering and walking on his toes, never seemed to see or speak to anyone, except occasionally to children.
I have met, too, Dr. White, a remarkable figure of 86, who for years was medical attendant at the Pines. It was during Swinburne's last illness that a typical example of Watts-Dunton's influence occurred. He himself was ill in bed, but on hearing that Swinburne had pushed aside the oxygen which was to be administered to him to ease the pneumonia from which he was suffering, he sent a message to say that oxygen was in the nature of a sea breeze, and should be looked upon as a breath from the coast. This immediately caused Swinburne to take it with the utmost readiness. While it is no doubt true that Watts-Dunton thoroughly enjoyed keeping alive a genius for thirty years, I think that the whole episode is a remarkable example of genuine friendship and unremitting devotion. When, just before the war, Mrs. Watts-Dunton, who was more than fifty years younger than her husband, died, various articles from the house passed into the possession of the National Trust, among them a large cupboard and a bed with reproductions of Rossctti's paintings by his assistant, Treffry Dunn. Also by the same artist were replicas of the famous Oxford Union frescoes, the glass of the windows being replaced by small circular mirrors.
Others with intimate associations of the period are Miss Susan Lushington, who possesses numerous and most interesting relics and works of art ; De Morgan's sister-in-law, Mrs. Stirling, who, with her husband, has established that notable collection of both de Morgan pottery, and his wife Evelyn's painting at Old Battersea House. It was, of course, only at the age of 67 that De Morgan discovered that he could write, and became a best seller. Then there is Miss Winifred Holiday, noted as an accomplished musician, whose memory goes back to all these days, and her distinguished father, Henry Holiday's associations therewith. Mr. and Mrs. Stephenson at Kelmscott House, Chiswick, maintain the traditions and interest of Morris's residence on the lower Thames, while Oxford University keeps it in grateful charge at Kelmscott Manor on the high reaches of the same river.
I might mention here that "Red House," built by Philip Webb for Morris in 1859, at Bexley Heath, still stands, and when I visited it before the war its then occupier had been attracted thither by the fact that it had been advertised as possessing a bowling green— he himself had won, bowling championships all over the world. Little did the Pre-Raphaelites think in the early sixties of the attrac- tion this feature of the house was to prove more enduring than their oak settles and very uncomfortable furniture. I always think there is interest in living links with the great of the past, and I treasure greatly a rose known as "The Poet's Rose," descendant of one that grew outside the window of the tapestry room at Kelmscott Manor, and another, "The Seven Sisters' Rose," that Rossetti painted, amongst other plants characteristic of the garden there. Also a fuchsia, a box hedge, and white jasmine from North End House, Rotting- dean, Burne-Jones's garden ; besides plants from Tennyson's garden at Farringford, and a hydrangea and ferns from No: 2 The Pines.
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