[9] This drawing was a remarkable example of the artist being altogether unacquainted with the necessary requirements in making a drawing on wood for the engraver's purposes. In this Rossetti made use of wash, pencil, coloured chalk, and pen and ink, producing a very nice effect, but the engraved reproduction of this many tinted drawing, reduced to the stern realities of black and white by printers' ink, failed to satisfy him. Indeed, Rossetti appears to have made up his mind that it would be a failure, for in writing to his friend Allingham, after explaining the difficulty he had experienced in making the drawing, he says: "As to the engraving, I suppose it is hardly possible that I can be satisfied."
It is further interesting to note in Mr. Malcolm Bell's work of "Sir E. Burne-Jones: A Record and Review," that on seeing the engraving, "Elfin-Mere," it revealed to him for the first time the "World of radiant, many-coloured lights; of dim, mysterious shadows, of harmonies of form of line; that far-off World of Art into which he has made his way and brought back visions of delight to show his fellow man."
[10] Of this drawing, the St. Cecillia, his brother, Mr. W. M. Rossetti, writes: "It must be said that himself only and not Tennyson was his guide. He drew just what he chose, taking from the author's text nothing more than a hint and an opportunity. The illustration to St. Cecillia puzzled Tennyson not a little, and he had to give up the problem of what it had to do with his verses."
[11] Sir John Millais, in his letter on page [100], calls this the "Importunate Widow."
[12] The drawings here alluded to are by Thomas Dalziel, he having contributed about a dozen illustrations to the book.
[13] This refers to some drawings he had undertaken to do illustrating "Pollock's Course of Time," to be published by Messrs. Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh.
[14] An illustration to Sir Walter Scott's poem of "Rokby" to be published in "The Poets of the Nineteenth Century."
[15] Referring to drawings he was doing for an illustrated edition of "Poems by Barry Cornwall," published by Chapman and Hall.