3954. Thomas Woolner to RB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 23, 194–198.
27 Rutland Street N.W.
Jan. 5 –57.
My dear Mr Browning,
As I know you always say what you really mean and as you gave me permission to give a friend an introduction, I did so and gave my friend Sir Charles Nicholson a line to you: [1] he started in November for Egypt intending to take Italy on his return and was rejoiced at the notion of seeing you and Mrs Browning. He was a very kind friend to me during my sojourn in Sydney, [2] in fact did all for me that he could. He is Chancellor of the Sydney University and ex-Speaker of the Legislative Council; a patron of literature, science, art, and all that tends to the advancement of his adopted country, where he is a great magnate. I think that you will be pleased with his society, for he is a man of great knowledge, goodnatured and amiable to the highest degree.
I had an invitation from Mrs Carlyle two days ago to meet some friends of yours whom you introduced me to. I do not know the name exactly, but think it something like Twissledon: [3] you said the lady was an American: unfortunately I had made an engagement for that particular evening and could not accept the invitation. I judge that Mrs Carlyle is well again, by her receiving company; when I saw her last she was much too unwell and looked dreadfully worn and weak. [4]
Mrs Cust a friend of yours called upon me some time ago for me to cast her hand, which she wanted to give a sister [5] who was going to India. I found that she was an old friend of the Trevelyans and came from their part of the country. [6]
I have scarcely done anything since I saw you but work upon my bust of Tennyson, which takes so long that I am almost out of patience with it; but having begun to work it up to the highest pitch I must finish in the same way. As it is I have worked upon it closely for nearly 9 weeks and have fully a month’s work yet before it can be completed. In a wholesome state of art such a time would be thought nothing to bestow in producing a respectable work, but art, particularly sculpture, is made such a commonplace business of that work is knocked off much after the manner of bricks or muffins, and the consequence is such productions are respected about as much as bricks: what then?—they turn in the money, and what else do men in business work for? This lusting for lucre is more the cause of mediocrity in art with us than want of intellect even, I think; for you will find men with a tolerable share of sense seemingly; yet when you examine their works they seem to be done by fools, and the excuse is “O it wont do to spend much time on them, it doesn’t pay.” I think among sculptors, I know but two who really do their best to work up to their ideal of right. [7]
Gabriel Rossetti is soon going to paint an altar-piece for Llandaff Cathedral, I believe: [8] Seddon [9] the architect who is repairing the place was with me today and said that Rossetti was going to accompany him to Wales in a few days for the purpose of examining the position and light &c., so that probably he will not be long before he commences it—but as to finishing?——
I have no gossip worth telling; nothing doing of consequence that I hear. I promised David Masson to ask you if you would tell me in what magazine or paper that article you wrote upon Chatterton was to be found, [10] for he is deeply interested in whatever relates to him and of course particularly in what you would have to say upon the subject.
There was a good joke I heard of Thackeray from a Glasgow man the other day. Thackeray several weeks ago delivered his 4 lectures upon the “Georges” in Edinburgh for which he received £200. The Committee of the Glasgow Athenæum wrote to ask if [he] would deliver his lectures in their town for the benefit of the Athenæum, in part, as it was considerably in debt, for the sum of £125. Thackeray consented, and the agreement was mutually signed. Nothing could be more plain and fair than this. But when the lectures were commenced they proved to be more successful than either the Committee or Thackeray had anticipated, and the Committee, who cleared £300, intended making T. a present of another £100: but unluckily they found that he had been about abusing them in the most violent manner, said that he had been done, sucked in, and a lot of other reproachful things. At the end of the lectures a gentleman rose and proposed a vote of thanks to the lecturer, who bowing stiffly said, “He felt obliged to the Glasgow public for their attention,[”] and as regards the Athenæum Committee, he said “I have every reason to believe that they have profited by me”. This created such a wide-spread titter of laughter, for all the town had heard of Thackeray[’]s abuse of the Committee, that he felt what a mistake he had made. The finest joke is that the Committee were so disgusted at being abused so unjustly—for the gains were devoted to a public object, not a private affair at all, that they altered their intention and gave Thackeray only what they had agreed to give. [11]
I do not hear much spoken of in the literary way except Aurora Leigh: it is one of the first questions everywhere, Have you read or what do you think of Aurora Leigh? I find them divided into two classes, the first who think it “very clever, oh, very clever, very clever book,” these admirers are the largest class … but the other class, which I think Mrs Browning would care the most for, do not know what to say upon it, “Such a marvellous book” they say. The truth is, that such a flood of originality and inspiration as that book must take a long time before it can at all be fully appreciated by those whose minds are constituted to receive the ideas, and until a thing has fairly taken root and become part of a person’s nature, how is it possible it can blossom and bear fruit. I think this is why so many, who really can distinguish between star and lamplight, know not what to say but call it “Such a marvellous book.” I feel envious and malignant to think that she does not live in England.
When you have a few minutes to spare do write me just a little note to say something about yourself and Mrs Browning and your sweet little boy, for you know how delightful it would be to me: I do not want a long letter mind, only a few words to say how you all are and when you mean to return to living civilization—now you dwell among dead civilization—and such things; and I will write again and tell all the things that you may choose to enquire about. I do not know much that I think will interest you, but hope to find out in the course of time.
Sir C. Nicholson said he thought that about February he should visit Florence. I think those old serious paintings which you have there will probably do his taste some good; for I am inclined to think he is somewhat too Rubensy and has not enough respect to the Pre-Raphaelite style of art. He says that when he returns to London he shall try to get up a subscription for a statue among his Australian friends, and if he does he will give it me to execute; he thought of having my Bacon done in marble for the great hall of the Sydney University: but my faith in getting the execution of a statue is not strong, for I have had it shaken too often. [12]
We have vile weather in London; for a few days so cold that the earth seems hard as iron, suddenly it will change to soft, slack, enervating drizzle that makes one feel like a flaccid worm, with the same amount of elasticity and energy: and as you may suppose the Doctors are in high glee and say they rarely ever knew so much illness, for scarcely any constitution can stand such sudden changes. Well, every one for himself, they will say.
I fear you will say that I have given you rather a long dose for once, and think the most practical amends to make is to leave off– Hoping this will find you well–
With kindest wishes–
Ever devotedly yours
Thomas Woolner.
Publication: The Connoisseur, December 1948, pp. 101–103.
Manuscript: Trinity College, Cambridge.
2. From October 1852 until July 1854, Woolner was in Australia. He first stayed in Melbourne with the family of Dr. Godfrey Howitt (1800–73), the younger brother of William Howitt. Beginning in November, Woolner spent the next six months prospecting for gold but with limited success. After leaving the gold fields, he returned to sculpture and began casting medallions of prominent citizens, first in Melbourne and later in Sydney.
3. Woolner refers to Edward Twisleton (1809–74) and his wife, Ellen (née Dwight, 1828–62); see letter 3152, note 2.
5. Mrs. Cust was one of six sisters, of whom five were living at this time. We have been unable to determine which sister was “going to India.”
6. “Their part of the country” refers to an area near Morpeth, Northumberland. Sarah Jane Cust’s family estate was Meldon Park, about five miles west of Morpeth (see vol. 18, p. 353). Wallington, a further six miles west, was one of the seats of Sir Walter Calverley Trevelyan. “In 1853 he refurbished Wallington … as a Pre-Raphaelite showpiece, aided by his artistic wife [Pauline]” (ODNB).
7. One of the two was probably John Henry Foley (1818–74), perhaps best known for the statue of Prince Albert for the Albert Memorial (1863–72). In a 27 March 1859 letter to Emily Tennyson, Woolner expresses pleasure that Foley was in charge of “the arrangement of the sculpture” at the 1859 Royal Academy exhibition (Amy Woolner, Thomas Woolner, R. A., Sculptor and Poet: His Life in Letters, 1917, p. 168). Years later, writing of Foley’s burial in St. Paul’s, Woolner refers to him as one of the “sterling artists” (Thomas Woolner, p. 298). The other sculptor may have been Alexander Munro (1825–71). Along with John Ruskin, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Thomas Woolner, Munro was among the original art faculty of the Working Men’s College, founded in 1854 (The Working Men’s College 1854–1904, ed. J. Llewelyn Davies, 1904, pp. 70–71). Munro’s work was said to represent Pre-Raphaelite style, and he was a friend of both Woolner and Rossetti.
8. Rossetti’s triptych, executed for Llandaff Cathedral (1858–64), is titled “The Seed of David.” The centerpiece is the Adoration of the Magi, flanked by two images of David, on the left as a young shepherd ready to do battle with Goliath and on the right as king of Israel.
9. John Pollard Seddon (1827–1906), Gothic Revival architect and author of several books on architecture, was a younger brother of the landscape painter Thomas Seddon. In 1852 he met John Prichard, diocesan architect of Llandaff, who offered him a partnership (which lasted until 1869). Together, they designed schools, parsonages, and churches and accepted commissions for church restorations, including Llandaff Cathedral.
10. RB’s thoughts on Thomas Chatterton were an integral part of his unsigned review of Richard Henry Wilde’s Conjecture and Researches Concerning the Love, Madness, and Imprisonment of Torquato Tasso (2 vols., New York, 1842), which appeared in The Foreign Quarterly Review for July 1842 (pp. 465–483). The review was first reprinted as RB’s work in Browning’s Essay on Chatterton, ed. Donald Smalley (Cambridge, Mass., 1948).
11. Thackeray had delivered his lectures on The Four Georges (i.e., the English kings George I–George IV) in America from autumn 1855 to spring 1856 (see letter 3697, note 9) and later adapted them for England and Scotland. His diary for November 1856 records the date of each lecture at Glasgow: “George I” on November 20, “George II” on November 21, “George III” on November 25, “George IV” on November 28 (The Letters and Private Papers of William Makepeace Thackeray, ed. Gordon N. Ray, Cambridge, Mass., 1945–46, 3, 687–689). In a letter to his daughters, dated 8–11 November 1856, Thackeray wrote: “The wretches at Glasgow who give me only 100£ are going to make 400 by me” (Thackeray, 3, 630). The Glasgow Herald, reporting the second through fourth lectures, praised Thackeray, as well as the brilliant audience in the City Hall, where the lectures were delivered. Upon being thanked for the “very handsome manner in which he had performed,” Thackeray responded, “I am much obliged to you, my Lord Provost and gentlemen, for receiving my lectures so favourably, and I believe that the Athenæum has profited by them” (“Mr. Thackeray’s Concluding Lecture,” Glasgow Herald, 1 December 1856). The newspaper account does not mention audience response to Thackeray’s comment.
12. Woolner’s limestone statue of Francis Bacon (1857), for the University Museum at Oxford, was his first public commission. Evidently, Woolner received no commission for a statue from the University of Sydney.
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