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    142 THE DEATH OF MRS. JAMESON.

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    It Is No Common Loss Which, We Have This...

    At thirty years of age , however , she had entered on her literary _careerTbthe publication of notes on foreign travel under the

    name , of the y " Diary of an Enmiyee . " It appeared anonymously , but had a great successand thenceforth her course was fixed .

    About the very same time she married , Mr . Robert Jameson , late Vice-Chancellor of Canada , a man of some talent and artistic taste , but

    so unsuited to her that in spite of many patient efforts onher part , a separation took place . She survived that her her views husband six the years . It

    may not be amiss here to remark , upon marriage question were extremely rigid , and that , in the universal discussion of first princiles which accompanied the passing of the New Divorce

    Bill , she again p and again lifted up her voice in private circles to urge that the best interests of women were involved in the sanctity

    of the marriage tie . Mrs . Jameson ' s literary life may be divided into three epochs ,

    thoug a const h ant of interch course ange in her of richl subject y stored . The mind first there includes was various at all books times

    of foreign travel , containing social and artistic criticism , —also volumes of critical essays . " Winter Studies and Summer

    Rambles in Canada " is one of the most striking books of this series ; and she herself spoke of it as containing some of the best thoughts

    she had expressed . " The Characteristics of Women , " a work full of subtle criticism on the female characters of _Shakespeare , is another ;

    also the " Lives of the Female Sovereigns . " To the second epoch belong her elaborate works on Art proper ,

    Art beginning in and in near 1842 London with , " a and " Handbook carried throug to the h the Public large Galleries and cop of i-

    of ous the ly illustr Monastic ated volumes Orders" of and u Sacred " Legends and Legendary of the Madonna Art , " . " " Legends These

    , delightful volumes are full of true history and of legendary lore , and are enriched by the most beautiful etchings of famous and

    interesting pictures . Compared to other dry critical books , Mrs . Jameson ' s are full of vital warmth and poetry . She used to say

    that a picture to her was like a plain writing ; when she looked at itshe seemed to feel instantly for what purpose it had been painted .

    She , loved to fancy the old artist painting it in his studio ; and the man who bought it to offer it as a votive offering for the health of

    some one he loved , or in commemoration of some one who was dead . If Saints or Fathers were introduced into the compositionshe knew

    , each story by of his their aspect lives , and , and wliy what he was they in had attendance done for , th and . e church could tell . The the

    strange mystic symbolism of the early mosaics was a familiar language to her ; . she "would stand on the polished marble of the

    Lateran floor , or under the gorgeously sombre Basilica of Sta . Maria Maggiorereading off the quaint emblems and expounding the pious

    , little thoughts church of more close than under a thousan the blood d years -stained ago . At hith Rome eatre there of is the a amp

    . Coliseum , dedicated , to St . Clement , the companion of St . Paul .

    142 The Death Of Mrs. Jameson.

    142 THE DEATH OF MRS . JAMESON .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1860, page 142, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041860/page/70/