"THE SPIRIT OF THE SUMMIT." 1894[ToList]
STUDY FOR "LACHRYMÆ." 1895[ToList]
All who were present must ever remember the last "Music" in the March before, when (contrasting so strongly in colour and sentiment) "Lachrymæ" and "Flaming June" stood on the easels, and for the first time the silk room was open, hung with the work of Leighton's friends; how, through all the beautiful strains from Joachim and the rest, a tragic note rang out to tell, as it seemed, of the waning life of the centre of it all. No one said it, but all felt that the last chapter was ending of those many, many perfect pages in life known as "Leighton's music."
A voice sang with emotion Charles Kingsley's soul-stirring verse—
"When all the world is old, lad,
And all the trees are brown;
And all the sport is stale, lad,
And all the wheels run down,
Creep home, and take your place there,
The spent and maim'd among;
God grant you find one face there
You loved when all was young."
Cruelly pathetic did it seem that one who had ever had the vitality of a boy, who had ever been the inspirer and support of those weary overwrought ones whose wheels had run down before their time, should himself be stricken, creeping home "the spent and maimed among."