PRIVATE BIOGRAPHIES.

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of the Italian's execution-Buranelli's. The tears rolled down Carlyle's cheeks-he, who talks of shooting Irishmen who will not work.

"Mrs. Carlyle asked Annie various questions as to how she first met me, etc., etc., to all of which Annie naïvely replied in full. Mem :-This is how Mrs. Carlyle gets possessed of the private biographies of half London."

When staying away from six Great Cheyne Row, Alexander Gilchrist received a lively letter from Jane Carlyle :

"31st July, 1861, 5, Cheyne Row, Chelsea. "MY DEAR MR. GILCHRIST: A thousand thanks for your kind thought about us!-tho' fated to remain 'a devout imagination' on your part! We are no longer on the Farm-House quest,-' anything BUT!' (as my maid says.) In fact Mr. Carlyle is become so enamoured of the retirement he enjoys-beside the water-barrel, under that ten shillingsworth of calicothat I don't think a farm-house even within a stone cast of the sea, warranted free from cocks, dogs, and donkies, would tempt his imagination! And certainly on the principle of letting WELL be'-letting sleeping Dogs lie' --and that sort of thing, for nothing in the world would I unsettle him, when he is so peaceable !-Just come and see; the next time you are up! For myself the backcourt is by no means country. . . . I am speculating about going with Geraldine Jewsbury for three days to Ramsgate! I do so need a change?

"Your house seems to be taken most perfect care ofbut! Oh the noise of that stumping wooden leg!-it

gets up so early too! [An old soldier acting as caretaker at number six.]

"My kind love to your wife when you see her or write to her I miss her dreadfully.

"I went to see Fechter the other night and found myself between Lewes and Miss Evans !-by Destiny and not by my own Deserving. At least Destiny in the shape of Frederick Chapman who arranged the thing. Poor soul! there never was a more absurd miscalculation than her constituting herself an improper woman. She looks Propriety personified! Oh so slow! Yours very truly,

JANE CARLYLE."

A

CHAPTER IX.

DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI.

[1861. AGE 33.]

LEXANDER GILCHRIST met D. G. Rossetti in the spring of 1861; correspondence began over the "Life of William Blake."

The poet-artist took a keen interest in the illustrations for the Life; he writes about them April 20.

"MY DEAR GILCHRIST: I have been thinking that if you are still unprovided with a satisfactory copyist (or a sufficiency of such) for the Blakes,— Mrs. Edward [Burne] Jones would be very likely to succeed. This occurred to me shortly after seeing you the other day, but I did not see her till to-day, when I mentioned the matter to her. I hope I did not do wrong, but she is too intimate a friend to make it awkward for me if you and Linton cannot entertain the idea. She says she would be happy to try-is very diffident, but I believe in her capabilities fully, as she really draws heads with feeling, and could give the expression-besides, Jones would be there to give help without trouble to himself.

"My great anxiety about my wife lasts still. She has

the best.

a doctor in whom I have confidence, and an excellent nurse, and we have also seen Dr. Babington, head of the Lying-in Hospital, so I feel sure all is being done for She has too much courage to be in the least downcast herself; and this is one great point, nor is her strength unusually low. So we can but wait, and trust for a happy termination.

"With kind remembrances to Mrs. Gilchrist

"

On the second of May, D. G. Rossetti says:"Swinburne and I will be with you on Saturday. "This morning my wife was confined-Our fears were correct in one respect, as the child was still-born-In all other respects she fares as yet, thank God, better than we had ventured to hope. Still of course anxiety cannot be at an end yet.

"I will try and come to the Cheese' on Thursday, though perhaps rather later than six, but I dare say I should find you till nearly seven." [The "Cheshire Cheese," a well-known tavern in Wine Office Court, out of Fleet-street.]

"I believe I am going to Macmillan's afterwards and perhaps you will bear me company. I send him the book to-day, and when I see him shall add your salutary stipulation, as to a fortnight's grace for decision. Patmore has written me most encouragingly concerning opinion of the book." [The book in question was "The Early Italian Poets, from Ciullo D'Alcamo to Dante Alighieri."] "I shall lend you a copy, if you have time to look at it. Of course I mean to beg your acceptance of one as soon as it has the etchings and is otherwise completed."

WEIGALL SITS FOR BOSWELL.

"My wife goes on well, and gets out daily."

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In a letter (June 18, 1861), Gabriel Rossetti speaks of being troubled with " an ulcerated sore throat, with fever, to which I am subject. I used a remedy I have used before, and am now better. I wish I were with you to get the benefit of some sun, and should much better even like it for my wife, but we must see; she has been working very hard these few days, and made a beautiful water-colour sketch, but is none the better for it : . ."

"Smith and Elder have made me the offer of taking all expenses, but will not give a halfpenny, furnishing a calculation similar to Macmillan's, proving that the speculation would not in that way be a convenient one at all. I think I shall close with them now (though I deferred my answer), as I should only hear the same from Chapman's, and perhaps unaccompanied by so decent an offer; I see Ruskin has much influenced S. and E. in my favour. They propose, as the only way, to sell the book for 12s. in one vol., and without the etchings, if I do not think them worth making, unpaid; but I almost think I shall make them for the book's sake. What say you? Have you any suggestion?

"P.S.-Weigall brought me (when he came to sit for my Boswell yesterday !) another plate he is doing for your book, a Job border with the America headpiece in the middle. I have asked him for the future to let me see his first drawing."

In a long letter, describing his late friend Woodward, Rossetti speaks of a visit to Oxford with the architect: -"Going there one day in his company to see the