SAMUEL BUTLER
67. Water-colour: Meien near Wassen on the S. Gottardo. 1896.
We went often to Meien to sketch when we were staying at Wassen on the S. Gottardo. We took our lunch with us, and ate it at the fountain in the village. “The old priest also came to the fountain to wash his shutters, which had been taken down for the summer, and it was now time to bring them out again and replace them for the winter” (Memoir, II. 236). The house on the left is the priest’s house, and the shutters are already up at one of his windows.
68. Pen and ink sketch: Trapani and the Islands from Mount Eryx about 1897.
This sketch is reproduced in The Authoress of the Odyssey, ch. ix. He did it to show the situation of Trapani and the Islands with Marettimo “all highest up in the sea.” In the Odyssey Ithaca is “all highest up in the sea,” and Butler supposed that the authoress in so describing it was thinking of Marettimo.
69. Wash drawing: Trapani and the Islands from Mount Eryx about 1898.
He wished to make a more complete version of no. 68, but this was as far as he could get; there was not enough time and there were too many interruptions.
70. Pencil sketch inscribed, “Calatafimi, Sund. May 13th, 1900. 2 hours. Eleven a.m. is the best light.”
I added “S. Butler.” He could not continue because there came on a terrific scirocco which lasted two or three days.
71. Water-colour: Taormina, the Theatre and Etna. 1900.
This shows the fragments of the stones that are strewn about in the orchestra which Butler said were like the fragments of My Duty towards My Neighbour that lay strewn about in his memory. It would take a lot of work to put them all back into their places and reconstruct the original. (Memoir, II. 292.)
72. Water-colour: Siena. 1900.
73. Water-colour: Pisa, inside the top of the Leaning Tower. 1900.
74. Water-colour: Wassen. 1901.
75. Water-colour: Wassen. 1901.
76. Water-colour: Trapani, S. Liberale and Lo Scoglio di Mal Consiglio. 1901.
See The Authoress of the Odyssey. The Scoglio is the ship of Ulysses which Neptune turned into a rock as she was on her way home to Scheria.
77. Rough sketch by Butler of the islands Marettimo, Levanzo, and Favignana.
Two views showing how Marettimo is hidden by Levanzo when you are below and comes out over Levanzo when you are up Mount Eryx.