Chapter L

I tire of country life, and visit America, and its principal
cities—I return to England; make an excursion to Jersey, then
settle down in Grosvenor Street—I am invited to take charge of
Lord Ripon’s health and move to Putney Heath—At his death I
take a house in Spring Gardens—Later, I settle at Roehampton,
for some years, and for some more years in Parson’s Green;
finally I move to St. John’s Wood, and there I remain—Such are
the gaps to be yet filled in with travels many, and adventures
few, of forty more years—Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence at Boston—Their
ministerial residence in London—Mr. Lawrence a man of the
world, Mrs. Lawrence a lady of the United States—Her estimate
of Sir Charles Lyell’s progress towards civilization—Mr.
Prescott—I am asked to give a lecture—The medical men of
Boston—Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft—A visit to Quebec—A party at
the Governor-General’s—Mr. Lawrence—Messrs. Middleton at New
York—_Terrapine_ at Philadelphia 188

LI.

The death of Lord Ripon—Spring Gardens—The West London
Hospital—I continue my medical services with Lady Ripon—The
noble character of that lady—The Disbrowes—The Gordons of
Ellon—Mr. Wellesley, afterwards Lord Cowley—Count Pozzo di
Borgo—A young Buonaparte—The Duchess of Somerset—Lord Edward
and the Earl St. Maur—I prove myself a good diagnostic, when
agnostics were in their infancy 196

LII.

My researches on the bones in scrofula—Dr. Baly—The
Medico-Chirurgical Society—The Earl and Countess de Grey and
Ripon—The present Lord Ripon’s public services—His descent
from both Hampden and Cromwell—Other representatives of
Cromwell—Mr. Field and Count Palavicini—Dr. Marcet—The Chemical
Society—Dr. Faraday—Mr. Davies Gilbert—My paper on “Vital
Force”—Contributions to the medical press—My research on the
powers of the alphabet—A new cosmogony—On Drapery—My work
on “Varicose Capillaries,” published in 1839, and forgotten,
resuscitated in 1890 by the Pathological Society 201

LIII.

Lady Ripon’s declining health—I frequently visit her at Putney
Heath, and I settle at Roehampton—Her friends and guests—Sir
Charles and Lady Douglas—Mrs. Charles Lushington—George Borrow
my frequent guest—Dr. Robert Latham—D. G. Rossetti—My visits to
Nocton Hall, the country place of Lady Ripon—My poem of “The
Lily of the Valley” describes Nocton Wood—How I came to write
“Old Souls”—A volume printed for private circulation, called
“The World’s Epitaph,” sprang from these poems—How the work
fared—The impression it made on Rossetti 204

LIV.

Dr. Latham—He brings Mr. Theodore Watts to see me—I introduce
Watts to George Borrow—We stroll over Richmond Park—Latham
has a wish to meet Borrow, which I arrange—Latham’s behaviour
towards my guest—His assumption—The finale 208

LV.

A dinner at Rossetti’s—Mr. W. B. Scott, Mr. Sidney Colvin,
Mr. Joseph Knight, Mr. William Rossetti, Dr. Hüffer, Dr.
Westland Marston and his son Philip, Mr. Madox Brown and Dr.
Appleton—Rossetti’s poetry, his life, the artistic colouring of
his mind—The nobility of his nature while in health, his change
of character through disease—His poetry and paintings are one;
both suffer by separation—The cause of his success as a poet—A
critical view of his “Blessed Damozel” 213

LVI.

Opinion of “Sister Helen”—The “lascivious pleasing” of the
sonnets—Rossetti’s poetry introspective—His companionable
nature, his justice, freedom from jealousy and readiness
to serve a friend—Residence in Perthshire with Rossetti in
1872—Stobbs Castle—Crieff—Rossetti at Kelmscott—At Bognor 218

LVII.

Mr. Noble, the sculptor—His recumbent statue of Lord Ripon
in Nocton church—My visits to Nocton—The healthiness of
Lincolnshire and the Eastern counties in summer—Rossetti’s
generous review of “Madeline” in _The Academy_—He introduces
my work to Dr. Westland Marston, who reviews it in _The
Athenæum_—The costs of publication—Mr. Eden—“Madeline” and
Theodore Watts 230

LVIII.

The origin of “Madeline”—Theodore Watts—His many endowments—Now
a leading critic—His review of my work, “New Symbols,” in
the _Examiner_—Harrison Ainsworth—The novel in general—The
origin of “Parables and Tales”—Rossetti, Hüffer, and “The
Cripple”—“The Blind Boy,” and Morley’s _Fortnightly Review_—I
go to Bath—Beckford’s cemetery and tomb—Proceed to Germany—The
wonders of Stassfurt—The old Saxon church—Dr. Dupré, my
son-in-law, at Stassfurt 233

LIX.

My daughter’s marriage—The breakfast and the wedding guests—The
likeness of Mr. Dupré, the elder, to the Bonapartes—His
relationship to that family by descent—The French family
of Dupré; the Buckinghamshire branch—Salt-water in England
confined to the coast—Germany soaked in it—The drinking
pilgrims—Their bodily sins—Family rambles—My youngest son,
Henry, a student at Giessen, joins me in Turin—An autumn in
Genoa 241

LX.

The Riviera Levante—Nervi—Its charm of scenery and colour,
which commissions me to write “The Painter”—The Palazzo
Rosso—The coast of Genoa spoilt by its fortifications—The
vineyards and villas—The Villa Paganini—A feast of grapes—A
knife-fight—The Via Nuova—The statue of Columbus—We proceed
to Spezia—Lerici, Shelley’s last home but one—The Temple of
Venus—The marble hills of Carrara—Florence once more—Old
friends replaced by new—Madame Mazzini, now the wife of Signor
Villari, a senator and Minister of Education—My longings to see
Florence again—The Tuscans—Their bright intellects and fine
faces—The kindness and attentions of the Italians to strangers
244

LXI.

At Florence after forty years—My pleasant apartments on the
Lungarno—I repeat my old walks—I still receive reviews of
“Parables and Tales,” always in their favour—My visit to
Rossetti at Kelmscott—I describe his home while there in a
poem—“Reminiscence”—My next work, “New Symbols”—Rossetti’s
remarks on certain stanzas of “The Birth of Venus,” and
“Michael Angelo”—William Rossetti reviews “New Symbols” in _The
Academy_, in 1876 248

LXII.

The music of sympathy—Friends at Florence—Professor
Schiff—Capponi and a dog that would bay the moon—Madame Schiff
and her circle—I prepare “Ecce Homo” here, also “Lucella”—My
studies for “Michael Angelo”—My poem of “Pythagoras”—In 1874,
still at Florence, I wrote an article on Schiff’s work for _The
Practitioner_—My correspondence—The friends I leave behind 251