Page:Constable by C. J. Holmes.djvu/15

 In 1800, during one of his visits to Suffolk, Constable had made the acquaintance of a little girl, the granddaughter of Dr. Rhudde, the rector of Bergholt, and daughter of Charles Bicknell, Solicitor to the Admiralty. This acquaintance by the year 1811 had ripened into a warmer attachment, which met with active opposition from the lady's relatives. Dr. Rhudde was not on good terms with Golding Constable, and objected, not altogether without reason, to the limited means and uncertain prospects of the young painter. Mr. Bicknell does not seem to have opposed the union so strongly, but he did not wish his daughter to be disinherited by her grandfather, who was very rich, and so was bound to side with Dr. Rhudde.

The correspondence of the two lovers as given by Leslie should be read in extenso by all who are interested in Constable's personality, and is of no little interest as a human document. It is amusing to contrast the two young people. The artist is ardent, hopes and despairs alternately, turns for a time to portrait-painting as a means of making money, but is always intent upon bringing matters to a climax. Maria Bicknell's attachment is of a more sober and practical kind; her sentiments are the sentiments of a young lady who has been well brought up, and takes a quite proper view of filial duty and the discomforts of love in a cottage. "Indeed, my dear John," she writes on one occasion, "people cannot live now on four hundred a year—it is a bad subject, and therefore adieu to it." And again, when Dr. Rhudde found out by accident that Mr. Bicknell was allowing Constable to pay occasional visits to his house: "The Doctor has just sent such a letter that I tremble with having heard part of it read. Poor dear papa, to have such a letter written to him! He has a great share of feeling, and it has sadly hurt him ... I am sure your heart is too good not to feel for my father. He would wish to make us all happy if he could. Pray do not come to town just yet." What a picture Miss Austen might have drawn of poor Mr. Bicknell's dilemma between his daughter's happiness and his father-in-law's money!

The Gordian knot was cut in 1816 by Constable's friend, Archdeacon Fisher, who brought matters to a crisis. Miss Bicknell's answer to Constable's proposal is characteristic: "Papa is averse to everything I propose. If you please, you may write to him; it will do neither good nor harm. I hope we are not going to do a very foolish thing ... Once more and for the last time it is not too late to follow papa's advice and wait ... Notwithstanding all I have been writing, whatever you deem best I do. This enchanting weather gives one spirits." There can be little doubt as to the tenor of Constable's reply. The two were accordingly married by the Archdeacon at St. Martin's Church on 2nd October 1816, and went down after the wedding to stay with him at his vicarage of Osmington, near Weymouth.

Archdeacon Fisher, the eldest son of Dr. Fisher, Master of the Charterhouse, had become Constable's greatest friend, though sixteen years his junior. He was chaplain to his uncle, the Bishop of Salisbury, and spared neither his influence nor his purse to help the struggling artist. His letters show him to have been gifted with unusual knowledge, taste, and enthusiasm in matters of art, and also as a man of an