Forty years of 'Spy'

by Sir Leslie Ward

SIR ALBERT ROLLIT, 1886.

One day while I was at the Beefsteak Club, in conversation with Colonel Napier Sturt, he suggested his friend, Lord Northbrook, as an excellent subject for a caricature. I said that I had already observed him in the House of Lords, and the Colonel responded that he was sure that if I cared to see Lord Northbrook's pictures he would be delighted to show them to me at any time, which would give me a further opportunity of noticing him. Shortly after Colonel Sturt took me to Lord Northbrook's to luncheon, and when we entered the house in Park Lane, to my astonishment, Colonel Sturt said, "Let me introduce my friend 'Spy' to my old friend 'Skull,'" his nickname for Lord Northbrook.

This Colonel always posed as the poor younger son, being a brother of the late Lord Alington. He affected a watch without a chain, the old-fashioned key of which aggressively hung from his waistcoat pocket.

My first cartoon of the Duke of Beaufort (for I drew him twice for Vanity Fair) was anything but a complimentary caricature, and represented him as I had seen him standing by his coach at Ascot. He was the finest gentleman I ever came across.

I had never seen the second Lord Lytton before I walked into his room at Claridge's Hotel. I knew a good many people who knew him, and I was interested in seeing him, as I had heard so much of him years before when visiting Knebworth. Although a much shorter and fairer man than his father, he was not unlike him in feature, and had the same curious light-blue eyes. He also affected the same cut of trouser. When I went in it seemed to me that he was inclined to attitudinize in the orthodox pose of a statesman, and I felt that he was not himself. When I took my pencil out to make notes, I felt it wiser to drop it until he was natural. He was very pleasant and affable, and when the time came to leave I couldn't find my hat. "Oh," he said, "I think I know—you left it in the other room—I'll get it for you." He was going out and had put on an overcoat with an astrachan collar, and in his walk I perceived at once the resemblance to his father; he had the same stoop from the neck, and he took short steps. In this way I got him into my head and went straight home and made my caricature.

I had satisfied myself with the caricature, but Millais, who was painting his portrait at the time, said, "If you would like to have another look at him he is coming to me to-morrow to give me a last sitting, and I am sure he wouldn't mind you looking on."

This also gave me an interesting opportunity of seeing the manner in which Millais painted a portrait, which to me was something quite novel, for instead of placing his easel some little way from his sitter he put it actually by the side of him, and instead of looking straight at his model he walked to the cheval glass which was the length of the room away, and looked most carefully at the model's reflection in the mirror and making a dash for the canvas painted his sitter from the reflection.

Old Lord Londonderry hearing that he was not to be allowed to escape my eagle eye, sent me an invitation to visit him at Plas Machynlleth, he promised that I should have every opportunity of making a caricature, and at the same time he begged that I would not let him off in any way. So in due course I went down to Wales, and well do I remember the first morning of my visit. I came down a trifle earlier than the hour announced for breakfast, and walked absent-mindedly down the stairs and into the hall, and had said, "Good morning" before I realized that I had stepped into the midst of family prayers. I felt an awful fool. However, in spite of the episode I spent quite a long and most enjoyable time at Plas Machynlleth. Lord Londonderry was a most delightful host, he showed me his estate and took me to every place of interest near, and both he and Lady Londonderry were so kind that the pleasant time I spent there remains in my memory. While there I made a drawing of Lady Eileen Vane Tempest, now Lady Allandale, which was much appreciated by her mother. As Lord Londonderry had expressed a wish that I should not spare him in any detail I drew him taking snuff as was his habit, and even his gouty knuckles are suggested in the caricature. His lack of self-consciousness and refreshing sense of humour completed a personality that was for me at any rate delightful.

THE FOURTH PARTY. LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL. MR ARTHUR BALFOUR. SIR DRUMMOND WOLFE. SIR JOHN GORST.