Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/381

 NOTES BY THE WAY. 305

The grandmother of Mr. Arthur Hill and Mr. William Henry Hill of Bond Street, nee Sarah Ebsworth, was sister of Ebsworth's grandfather. His Christian name was also Joseph. He had a younger brother named George, who was famed as a copperplate printer, so no doubt Ebsworth inherited this special talent from his great-uncle, who was very fond of him.

My first meeting with Ebsworth was on the occasion of my My first father's funeral, April 18th, 1882, when he came up from Molash meeting with especially to be present. On his way, as he walked through East well Park, he gathered spring flowers to place on the coffin. From that date he wrote to me each week, and his letters form His letter to a series of criticisms on English literature. A few extracts will, me. I think, prove of interest.

The first letter after my father's death naturally referred to him. Ebsworth wrote :

" Your father was one of the noblest of men ; a thorough His regard for Englishman in every sterling quality the clear-sightedness of "" business and the clear-sightedness of the true Christian combined ; gentle, yet firm ; of principles that nothing could shake, of affection that quivered to the touch. There was no one on whom we could more fully depend for well-balanced judgment, and, although so well fitted for any leading position in this world of ours, he always seemed to me to be really dwelling in a purer atmosphere than our crowded London, for his citizenship was of a higher region, and he drew his strength from more holy sources than are often recognized amid the pressure of business. He has long given us, calmly and convincingly, the lesson of how to live ; he now has added the lesson how to die."

��DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI.

" Dante Rossetti's letters to Allingham ought to be preserved 1898, Mar. 24. lastingly as the best introduction to his literary work .... Joseph Dante Gabriel Knight's estimable volume in the series of ' Great Writers ' has Rossetti. always seemed to me the only worthy and adequate summary biography .... Quite recently I visited the New Gallery selection of Rossetti's works, and to me, who knew previously nearly all the works of other painters exhibited there, the Rossetti formed the most memorable for retrospect." In reference to later editions of his poems Ebsworth continues : " I by no means think that all, or nearly all, of the later revisions and extensive alterations were improvements on the early published text. Very far from it. The chloral excesses, induced by nervousness, follow- ing the death of his wife, and above all the murderous slanders of Robert Buchanan, weakened his judgment, otherwise he would never have cancelled the exquisite sonnet of ' Nuptial

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