Lord Ronald Gower writes of Swinburne’s remarkable powers as a talker. Telling of a luncheon at “The Pines” in 1879, he writes:—“Swinburne’s talk after luncheon was wonderful . . . What, far beyond the wonderful flow of words of the poet, struck me, was his real diffidence and modesty; while fully aware of the divine gifts within him, he is as simple and unaffected as a child.” [18]
But conversation at “The Pines” was not
always of the serious things of life. It very frequently partook of the playful, when the hearers would be kept amused with a humour and whimsicality, cauterized now and then with some biting touch of satire which showed that neither Swinburne nor Watts-Dunton had entirely grown up.
Reading aloud was also a greatly favoured form of entertainment. Swinburne was a sympathetic reader, possessed of a voice of remarkable quality and power of expression, and he would read for the hour together from Dickens, Lamb, Charles Reade, and Thackeray. To Mrs. Mason’s little boy he was a wizard who could open many magic casements. He would carry off the lad to his own room, and there read to him the stories which caused the hour of bedtime to be dreaded. When the nurse arrived to fetch the child to bed he would imperiously wave her away, hoping that Swinburne would not notice the action and so bring the evening’s entertainment to a close. On one occasion the child stole down to Swinburne’s room after he had been safely put to bed, where the interrupted story was renewed. When eventually discovered both seemed to regard the incident as a huge joke, and Swinburne carried the child to the nursery and tucked him up for the night.
A great capacity for friendship involves an equally great meed of sorrow. At last the
hour arrived when the friend who was nearer to him than a brother followed those who one by one he had mourned, and of the old familiar faces there were left to him only the two sisters, whose love and devotion had contributed so much to his domestic happiness, and his friend, Mr. Thomas Hake, who for seventeen years had acted as confidential secretary.
CONTENTS
| page. | ||
| Introduction | [5] | |
| I. | George Borrow | [25] |
| II. | Dante Gabriel Rossetti | [69] |
| III. | Alfred, Lord Tennyson | [120] |
| IV. | Christina Georgina Rossetti | [177] |
| V. | Dr. Gordon Hake | [207] |
| VI. | John Leicester Warren, Lord de Tabley | [219] |
| VII. | William Morris | [240] |
| VIII. | Francis Hindes Groome | [277] |