3 Chesterfield Street,
April 9.
Dear Mr. Leighton,—I was so amused by the little grandson's observation on the picture that I cannot help writing about him. I asked him "what he thought of it"? He said, "Oh! it was beautiful! but you told me it would be beautiful—Mr. Leighton was like a man in a story! you did not look so much at him as Carlotta and I did, but I suppose you have seen him before, and you did not seem to pity the little panther! There was, in the picture, a little young puppy panther, and one of the young brides was coaxing it so tenderly, and looking down at its head; and she was one of the prettiest and kindest looking of all the brides (it was the side of the picture furthest from the screen); and I could not help thinking, 'Ah, my poor little panther! you little know when the brides get into that temple, and she gets married, how she'll forget all about you, and get coaxing other things, her husband and her children'; and I felt quite sorry for the panther." So spoke my grandson (just as I felt sorry for the cripple beggar).
Now, as I am quite sure no one else will take this view of what is the principal interest in your glorious procession of youth and hope, I thought it as well to let you know, that you might give that little panther his due importance (a little leopard, I think he is), and not suppose him a subordinate accessory! That whole procession was tinged with mournfulness in Richard Norton's eyes for that little leopard's sake. I shall see that "Dream of Fair Women" again in the Exhibition, and admire it, as I did to-day, in a crowd of other admirers, I know. I do not mind the crowd. I see over them and under them, and through them, when there is anything so worth being eager about.—Believe me meanwhile, yours very truly,
Caroline Norton.
[2] In a letter from Leighton to his mother, the following sentence occurs:—"Will you please explain to him" (his father) "that I am not going to model the drapery of my figures, but the figures themselves to lay the drapery on, as my models could not fly sufficiently long for me to draw them in the act; it is of course a very great delay, but the result will amply make up for the extra trouble, I hope."
[3] The picture has left the country, but sketches of the complete design are among those in the Leighton House Collection.
[4] Lent by Lady Wantage to the Exhibition, in Leighton House, of the smaller works and sketches in 1903.
[5] Outlook, July 15th, 1905.
[6] When standing with me before Leighton's picture "Wedded" in the studio Robert Browning exclaimed, "I find a poetry in that man's work I can find in no other."
[7] "The Late Lord Acton." The Spectator, July 5, 1902.