new him; it is
impossible to imagine a more living picture of the man. I have stayed
with Rossetti at 16 Cheyne Walk for weeks at a time, and at Bognor
also, and at Kelmscott--the 'Hurstcote' of _Aylwin_. With regard to
'Hurstcote,' I well knew 'the large bedroom with low-panelled walls
and the vast antique bedstead made of black carved oak' upon which
Winifred Wynne slept. In fact, the only thing in the description of
this room that I do not remember is the beautiful _Madonna and Child_
upon the frame of which was written 'Chiaro dell' Erma' (readers of
_Hand and Soul_ will remember that name). This quaint and picturesque
bedroom leads by two or three steps to the tapestried room 'covered
with old faded tapestry--so faded, indeed, that its general effect
was that of a dull grey texture'--depicting the story of Samson.
Rossetti used the tapestry room as a studio, and I have seen in it
the very same pictures that so attracted the attention of Winifred
Wynne: the 'grand brunette' (painted from Mrs. Morris) 'holding a
pomegranate in her hand'; the 'other brunette, whose beautiful eyes
are glistening and laughing over the fruit she is holding up'
(painted from the same famous Irish beauty named Smith who appears
in _The Beloved_), and the blonde 'under the apple blossoms' (painted
from a still more beautiful woman--Mrs. Stillman). These pictures
were not permanently placed there, but, as it chanced, they were
there (for retouching) on a certain occasion when I was visiting at
Kelmscott. With regard to the green room in which Winifred took her
first breakfast at 'Hurstcote' I am a little in confusion. It seems
to me more like the green dining-room in Cheyne Walk, decorated with
antique mirrors, which was painted by Dunn, showing Rossetti reading
his poems aloud. This is the only portrait of Rossetti that really
calls up the man before me. As Mr. Watts-Dunton is the owner of
Dunn's drawing, and as so many people want to see what Rossetti's
famous Chelsea house was like inside, it is a pity he does not give
it as a frontispiece to some future edition of _Aylwin_.
Unfortunately, Mr. G. F. Watts's picture, now in the National
Portrait Gallery, was never finished, and I never saw upon Rossetti's
face the dull, heavy expression which that portrait wears. I think
the poet told me that he had given the painter only one or two
sittings. As to the photographs, none of them is really satisfactory.

The 'young gentleman from Oxford who