Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/630

 Vulliamys were of Swiss Huguenot origin [see ]. After a few weeks at Pear Tree Cottage, Bursledon, Meredith and his wife took lodgings and then a lease of Kingston Lodge, Norbiton, almost opposite the gates of Norbiton Hall, where Hardman resided. Meredith was at the moment full of schemes, 'laying traps for money.' He had hopes of conducting a review, writing rambling remarks, an autobiography. He settled down in a chastened frame of mind to complete 'Rhoda Fleming,' but in the meantime he had improved has position with Chapman & Hall. His enthusiasm for Norbiton, where his son, William Maxse, was born on 26 July 1865, cooled down as buildings began to close in his horizon, and at the end of 1867 he moved to Flint Cottage, facing Box Hill, near Burford Bridge, in Mickleham. There, the scene of Miss Austen's 'Emma,' his opportunities of seeing and knowing people who were useful to him as types were ever enlarging. He became attached to the literary associations of the place, its connections with Keats, with the French exiles of Juniper Hall, and with the Burneys. He knew mid-Surrey extraordinarily well, and, devoted to outdoor life, he acquired a detailed and intimate knowledge of the natural history of the countryside (cf., in Pall Mall Gazette, May 1904). He is probably the closest observer of nature among English novelists. At the top of the sloping garden, about four minutes' remove from Flint Cottage, he put up in 1875-6 a Norwegian chalet where, in one of the two rooms, he slung his 'hammock-cot,' and could live alone with his characters for days together. On the terrace in front of the chalet, whence he descended to meals, he was often to be heard carrying on dialogues with his characters and singing with unrestrained voice. Whimsical and sometimes Rabelaisian fabrications accompanied the process of quickening the blood by a spin (a favourite word with him) over Surrey hills. There he wrote his master-works, 'Beauchamp's Career' and 'The Egoist,' and welcomed his friends, often reading aloud to them in magnificent recitative, unpublished prose or verse.

After his second marriage Meredith mainly devoted himself to 'Vittoria,' the sequel of 'Emilia,' Marie, his 'capital wife' and 'help-meet,' copying the chapters. G. H. Lewes, editor of the 'Fortnightly,' eventually offered 250l. for the serial rights, and 'Vittoria' in an abbreviated form ran through that Review (January-December 1865). Meanwhile he completed a new novel, 'Rhoda Fleming.' He had promised upon his marriage to 'write now in a different manner,' and 'Rhoda' (originally 'The Dyke Farm'), expanded and much altered in process of construction, yet written consistently against the grain, was the fruit of this conformity. It was adequately reviewed on 18 Oct. 1865 in the 'Morning Post,' with whose proprietor Borthwick his relations were cordial, and hardly anywhere else. 'Rhoda Fleming' is, comparatively speaking, a plain tale, mostly about love, and concerned primarily with persons in humble life. He attempts the delicate task of describing the innate purity of a woman after a moral lapse.

In May 1866 Meredith was sent out by the 'Morning Post' as special correspondent with the Italian forces then in the last phase of the war with Austria. He stayed at the Hotel Cavour in Milan, and afterwards at the Hotel Vittoria in Venice, awaiting events and forgathering with the other special correspondents at the Cafe Florian. Hyndman was there, and Charles Brackenbury, and G. A. Sala, an antipathetic figure, with whom Meredith was nearly drawn into a serious quarrel. He saw something of the inconclusive operations in Italy and addressed thirteen interesting and vivid letters in plain prose to the paper, the first dated Ferrara, 22 June 1866, and the last Marseilles, 24 July 1866 (reprinted in memorial edition, vol. xxiii. and privately printed as 'Correspondence from the Seat of War in Italy'). For a time Meredith had some hopes of becoming 'The Times' correspondent in Italy, Paris, or elsewhere. As he went home over the Stelvio pass and then by way of Vienna, where he met Leslie Stephen for the first time, he collected fresh material for the revision and expansion of his 'Fortnightly' novel, 'Vittoria' (or 'Emilia in Italy'), which was published on his return to England in 1866. This novel of the revolution of 1848-9 has a complex plot in which Charles Albert, Mazzini, and other historic persons figure; the opening scene on the summit of Monte Motterone, walked over in company with 'Poco,' ranks with that of 'Harry Richmond' or 'The Amazing Marriage.' On its publication the style of the book was complained of as that of prose trying to be poetry, and the author in essaying the novel of history was warned against handicapping himself by extra weight. Swinburne, however, overflowed with generous praise. In 1867 Mr. John