The Diary for December 1893 has the following entries:
“We came back to a lovely English Spring, the finest for a quarter of a century it is said. In May E. went to Paris for the Salon: I went to Ventnor and Freshwater. Wrote my long article for Harpers’ on ‘The March of Rome in North Africa.’
“At the end of July we went to Scotland: first for three weeks to St. Andrew’s: then to Mrs. Glasford Bells’ at Tirinie, near Aberfeldy in Perthshire: then to Corrie, in Arran, for over a fortnight. Then E. visited friends, and I went to Arrochar, etc. Then at my mother’s in Edinburgh: and on my way south I stopped with R. Murray Gilchrist at Eyam, in Derbyshire.
“In the autumn I arranged with Frank Murray of Derby to publish Vistas. He could afford to give me only £10, but in this instance money was a matter of little importance. Harpers’ gave me £50 for “The March of Rome.” Knowles asked me to do “La Jeune Belgique” for the September number which I did, and he commissioned other work. On the head of it, too, Elkin Matthews and John Lane have commissioned an extension of the essay, and translation, for a volume to be issued in the spring. In Good Words, “Froken Bergliot,” a short story, was much liked: later, in December, “Love in a Mist” (written June /92) still more so. African articles commissioned by Harpers, Atlantic Monthly, Art Journal, Good Words, and provisionally two others.
“Have written several stories and poems. Also done the first part of a Celtic romance called Pharais, from the word of Muireadach Albarmach, “Mithil domb triall gu tigh na Pharais.” Have mentally cartooned Nostalgia (a short one vol. romance) The Woman of Thirty (do. novel), Ivresse (which I have proposed to Lady Colin Campbell for our collaboration in preference to Eve and I): “Passée,” “Hazard of Love”: a collection of short stories, collectively called The Comedy of Woman: and other volumes in romance, fiction, poetry, and drama. Have done part of Amor (in Sonnets mostly as yet): and the first part of “The Tower of Silence.” Have thought out “Demogorgon”: also, projected a dramatic version of Anna Karenina.
“Some time ago signed an agreement with Swan Sonnenschin & Co. to write a new life of Rossetti. It will be out, I hope, next spring. Been getting slowly on with it.
“Besides the bigger things I am thinking of, e. g. in poetic drama “Demogorgon”: in fiction “The Lunes of Youth” (Part 1 of the Trilogy of The Londoners), and the Women series, have thought out The Literary Ideal etc.—and also the philosophical “The Brotherhood of Rest.” Besides, a number of short stories: some with a definite end in view, that of coherent book-publication. In the background are other works: e. g. Darthûla, thought out nearly fully, which I would like to make my chef d’œuvre. In all, I have actually on hand eight books, and innumerable stories, articles, etc.
