A Christmas Card.
[CHAPTER X.]
ON THE RIVIERA.
The journey to the Riviera and North Italy, which Caldecott was compelled to make for his health, before Christmas 1876, was as usual prolific of work. Writing from Monaco in January, 1877, he says:—
"This is a beautiful place, and for the benefit of you stay-at-home bodies I will describe it—in my way;" and in four original letters published in the Graphic newspaper in March and April, 1877, there appeared about sixty illustrations containing upwards of three hundred figures, different studies of life and character; and these drawings do not represent probably, one half of the sketches made.
No such pictures of Monte Carlo and its neighbourhood had been sent home before; they were the ideal newspaper correspondent's letters—the sketches abounding in humour and accurate detail; the letters accompanying them being written from personal observation.
It would have been strange indeed if these letters had not attracted general attention and amusement in a newspaper; but they did more than this, they revealed an amount of artistic insight, and suggested possibilities in Caldecott's future career as an artist which his health never permitted him to put to the test.