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    FROM AN ARTIST'S DIARY. 19

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    No. I. Sojourn I3st The Farm-House By Th...

    her foot right down into the centre of a glorious mass which I _anx _fousied { £ Mary in painting Mary ! " into the niy intruder picture cries . turning round to her sister

    • who follows , , panting , up the steep slope , , " do be careful of the lady ' s plants . You are so carelessdear ! " And turning to meremarks

    , , apologetically of her sister , " that she is so careless ; that she has not sufficient regard for the beauties of nature ; that she actually has

    wished to carry away some of the lovely moss and ferns with which this lovelythis romanticthis sweet pretty spot is filled !"

    , , I , somewhat compassionating the cc snubbed" sister , observe that surely a little moss and a few fern leaves could be spared from ,

    this glen without much harm being done . " Butthenit is such a bad habit to accustom herself to , you

    _, , see , " pursued the eldest sister . C £ Mary always wants to gather flowers—now I adore them , I love to see them wild , the charming ,

    the simple , free children of Nature ! Oh , I adore flowers ! Mary ! Mary ! you silly thingnow _can't you be letting * that blackberry

    , bush alone ! I assure you , " turning again to me , that we adore the country . We live in a farm-house quite , quite in the country ,

    upon the banks of the Thames , a long way from here . It is quite a bower is our house . I make a practice of collecting all the creeping

    things I can meet with , and planting them about the house . We quite require a guide to conduct people into our house , don't we ,

    Mary ? — our c lady ' s bower , ' as they say in poetry . Oh , I wish that you could see our bower ! I adorequite adore all things that

    creep , and everything that crawls ! Oh , ! I adore gardening ! I work hardreally hard ! I don't _apjDrove of gardening with a

    mahoganyhandled , rake , kid-gloves , and a pea-green painted watering-can , do IMary ? Then in an evening we adore the watersand sunset

    and , moonlight , and all the delights of Nature ; we row , ourselves in , a boat on the Thames . And we gather such white lotus-lilies !

    We could believe ourselves lotus-eaters . What was that poem by some poetMarywe react about eating * lotuses ? I assure you that

    we are perfect , ' Arabs , ' in our way . And then the moon ! We adore the full moon so much !—oh , so much !—that the other night here we

    got an old fisherman to take us out in his pretty little skiff upon the sea—oh , it was so romantic ! And may we not see your picture ?

    Oh , we adore painting ! do we not , Mary ? Oh , what a sweet art and pretty science it is , to be sure ! We take such a great interest in

    pictures ! We take in the Illustrated London _JSfeivs on account of the pictureswe always read there about the pictures in Londonand

    what we ; must admire when we go to the Exhibition—it saves , such a lot of time , you know ; is it not a good plan ? Mary , Mary , do come

    away from the lady ' s roots of fern ; do come here and look at her picture ! Now is it not wonderful !—wonderful ! Just there now

    where the sunshine falls . Is it not just like the moonbeam in the mother-o' -pearl ier-mache icture we have at home ? "

    After an hour ' s infliction of p similar gossip close to roy ear , behold ;

    c 2

    From An Artist's Diary. 19

    FROM _AN ARTIST ' S DIARY . 19

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1862, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031862/page/19/