9- s. ix. JUNE 7, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
461
by painted
2
circular mirrors surrounded
designs telling the story of the lioly Grail,
"in old black oak frames carved with
knights at tilt." I do not remember seeing
these there. But they are evidently the
mirrors decorated with copies of the lost
Holy Grail frescoes once existing on the
walls of the Union Heading - Room at
Oxford. One of these mirrors has been
photographed, and is given in Mr. Ma-
rillier's charming book on Rossetti. These
beautiful decorations I have seen at " The
Pines," but not elsewhere. I have often
seen "D'Arcy" in the company of several
of the other characters introduced into
'Aylwin'; for instance, " De Castro" and
" Symonds " (the late F. R. Ley land, at that
time the owner of the Leyland line of
steamers, living at Prince's Gate, where was
the famous Peacock Room painted by Mr.
Whistler). I did not myself know that
quaint character Mrs. Titwing, but I have
been told by people who knew her well that
she is true to the life. With regard to " De
Castro," it is a matter of regret to those who
knew him that, after giving us that most
vivid scene between " D'Arcy " and " De
Castro " at Scott's oyster - rooms (a place
which Rossetti was very fond of frequenting
in those nocturnal rambles that caused " De
Castro" to give him the name of Haroun
al Raschid), the author did not go on and
paint to the full the most extraordinary man
of the very extraordinary group, the centre
of which was Rossetti's Chelsea house.
Rossetti was a well-known figure at Scott's
and at Rule's oyster-rooms at the time he
encountered "Aylwin." That scene at Scott's
is, in my opinion, the most living thing in
the book a picture that whenever I turn
to it makes me feel that everything said and
done must have occurred. "De Castro"
seemed to belong not merely to the Rossetti
group, but to all groups, for he was
brought into touch with almost every
remarkable man of his time, and fascinated
every one of them. Literary and artistic
London was once full of stories of him, and
no one that knew him doubted he was what
must be called a man of genius although
a barren genius. Among others, he was
brought into close relations with Ruskin,
Burne-Jones, and, I think, Smetham ("Wil-
derspin "), and others. Rossetti used to say
that since Blake there has been no more
visionary painter in the art world than
Smetham.
Rossetti had a quite affectionate feeling towards Smetham, and several of his pictures (small ones) were on Rossetti's studio walls.
I remember one or two extraordinary pictures
of his especially one depicting a dragon in
a fen, of which Rossetti had a great opinion ;
and I believe this, with other pictures of
Smetham's, is in the hands of Mr. Watts-
Dunton. The author of ' Aylwin ' would have
been much amused had he seen, as I did, in
an American magazine the statement that
" Wilderspin " was identified with William
Morris a man who was as much the opposite
of the visionary painter as a man can be.
Morris, whom I had the privilege of knowing
very well, and with whom I have stayed at
Kelmscott during the Rossetti period, is
alluded to in 'Aylwin' (chap. ix. book xv.)
as the " enthusiastic angler " who used to go
down to " Hurstcote " to fish. At that time
this fine old seventeenth - centurv manor
house was in the joint occupancy or Rossetti
and Morris. Afterwards it was in the joint
occupancy of Morris and (a beloved friend of
the two) the late F. S. Ellis, who, with Mr.
Cockerell, was executor under Morris's will.
But " Wilderspin " was Smetham with a
variation : certain characteristics of another
painter of genius were introduced, I believe,
into the portrait of him in ' Aylwin ' ; and
the story of " Wilderspin's " early life was
not that of Smetham. The series of " large
attics in which was a number of enormous
oak beams " supporting the antique roof was
a favourite resort of my own ; but all the
ghostly noise that I there heard was the
snoring of young owls a peculiar sound that
had a special fascination for Rossetti; and
after dinner Rossetti, my brother, and I
would go to the attics to listen to them.
But a more singular mistake with regard to ' the * Aylwin ' characters than that of Morris being confounded with "Wilderspin" was that of confounding, as certain newspaper paragraphs at the time did, " Cyril Aylwin " with Mr. Whistler. I am especially able to speak of this character, who has been inquired about more than any other in the book. I knew him, I think, even before I knew Ros- setti and Morris, or any of that group. He was a brother of Mr. Watts-Dunton's Mr. Alfred Eugene Watts. He lived at Park House, Sydenharn, and died suddenly either in 1870 or 1871, very shortly after I had met him at a wedding party. Among the set in which I moved at that time he had a great reputation as a wit and humourist. His style of humour always struck me as being more American than English. While bringing out humorous things that would set a dinner table in a roar, he would himself maintain a perfectly unmoved countenance. And it was said of him, as " Wilderspin" says of
