IN LONDON, THE HARZ MOUNTAINS, ETC.
Early in the year 1872 Caldecott left Manchester for London, "bearing
with him the well wishes of the Brazenose Club and of an extensive
circle of friends." This great change was not decided upon without
considerable hesitation; but, to quote again from a Manchester
letter:--
"Caldecott was greatly encouraged to take this step by the
sale of some small oil and water colour paintings at modest
prices, and by the acceptance of drawings by London
periodicals. The clinking of sovereigns and the rustling of
bank-notes became sounds of the past--the fainter the
pleasanter, so at least Caldecott thought at that time, with
energy, ardour, and the world before him."
In February and March, 1872, he was still drawing for the magazines and
illustrating short stories.
In March, 1872, he exhibited hunting sketches in oil at the Royal
Institution, Manchester.
On the 16th April he went to the Slade School to attend the Life Class
under E. J. Poynter, R.A., until the 29th June.
As this was the turning point in Caldecott's career, it should be
recorded that at this time, and ever afterwards, Mr. Armstrong, the
present Art Director at the South Kensington Museum, was his best
friend and counsellor.[2] He had also the advantage of the friendship
of George du Maurier, M. Dalou, the sculptor, Charles Keene, Albert
Moore, and others.
On the 8th June he records, "A. urged me to prepare caricatures of
people well known," probably with the view of making drawings for
periodicals.
Several drawings of Caldecott's were under consideration by the
proprietors of _Punch_, and on the 22nd June, 1872, the first appeared.
In the same month he exhibited a frame of four small sepia drawings at
the Black and White Exhibition, Egyptian Hall, London.
[Illustration: FIRST DRAWING IN "PUNCH," 22ND JUNE, 1872.]
On the 28th June his diary records, "in the gallery of the House of
Commons attending the debate on the Ballot Bill;" and again on the 8th
July. On the 9th he is "engaged on chalk caricatures all day."
A letter dated 21st July, 1872, to one of his Manchester friends is
worth having for the ludicrous sketch accompanying it. He writes:--
"London is of course the proper place for a young man, for
seeing the manners and customs of society, and for getting a
living in some of the less frequented grooves of human
labour, but for a residence give me a rural or marine
retreat. I sigh for some 'cool sequestered spot, the world
forgetting, by the world forgot.'"
[Illustration: "A COOL SEQUESTERED SPOT."]
About this time it was suggested to him to illustrate a book of summer
travel, and on the 20th August 1872 he enters in his diary:--
"To Rotterdam, Harzburg, &c., to join Mr. and Mrs. B. in the _Harz
Mountains_."
[Illustration: "A TOUR IN THE TOY COUNTRY."]
This was the first book that Caldecott illustrated;[3] the title
suggested was "_A Tour in the Toy Country_," and before leaving London
he made the drawing on the preceding page. Caldecott, being then
twenty-six, started on this journey with great readiness. The idea was
altogether delightful to him; and here, as in every country he visited
in after years, his playful fancy and facility for seizing the
grotesque side of things stood him in good stead.
[Illustration: A MOUNTAIN "BEER GARDEN."]
In a strange land, amidst unfamiliar scenes and faces, he roamed "fancy
free"; in a country so compact in size that the whole could be
traversed in a month's walking tour.
With _Baedeker's Guide_ (English edition) in his pocket, and a dialogue
book of sentences in German and English, he used to delight to
interrogate the wondering natives; the necessary questions difficult to
find, and "the elaborate and quite unnecessary" (as he expressed it),
always turning up. Such little incidents gave opportunity to the
observant artist to study the faces of the listeners; the interviews
conducted slowly and gravely, and ending in a peal of laughter from the
natives.
[Illustration: A "FRAULEIN."]
[Illustration: A MOUNTAIN PATH.]
Life at a German watering-place, as seen on a small scale in summer in
the Harz mountains, was Caldecott's first experience of scenes with
which his name afterwards became familiar in the pages of the _Graphic_
newspaper. In looking at these early sketches we must bear in mind that
they were made at a time when Caldecott, as an "artist," was scarcely
two years old; that although his sense of humour was overflowing, his
hand was comparatively untrained; that with his keen eye for the
grotesque he turned his back upon much that was beautiful about him,
that his sense of the fitness of things, of the requirements of
composition and the like, were in embryo, so to speak.
[Illustration: A WARRIOR OF SEDAN IN A BEER GARDEN AT GOSLAR, 1872.]
Nevertheless, as indicated in the next few pages he has left us work
which, if ever a more complete life of Caldecott should be written,
would form an important chapter in his art career.
Although little fitted for a mountaineer, he could not resist
excursions to the highest points, and with a will which surmounted all
difficulties, reached one evening the summit of the famous "Brocken."
What he saw is recorded in the sketch below.
[Illustration: "THE ARK OF REFUGE."]
There is a legend that when the deluge blotted out man from most parts
of the earth, the waters of the northern seas penetrated far into
Germany, and that the enormous rock which forms the top of the Brocken
formed a shelter and resting-place.
There was no need of a romantic legend to suggest to the mind, at the
first sight of the primitive hostelry on the top of the Brocken, its
similitude to the "ark of refuge." The situation was delightful; we
were in the "toy country" without doubt. There was the identical form
of packing-case which the religious world has with one consent provided
as a plaything for children; there were Noah and his family, people
walking two and two, and horses, sheep, pigs, and goats stowed away at
the great side door.
The resemblance was irresistible, and more attractive to Caldecott's
mind than any of the legends and mysteries with which German
imagination has peopled the district.
[Illustration: THE DANCE OF WITCHES.]
There is "no holding" Caldecott now; on the "Hexen Tanzplatz," the
sacred ground of Goethe's poetic fancy, within sound almost of the
songs of the spirit world that haunt this lonely summit, he sets to
work.
[Illustration: "SPECTRES OF THE BROCKEN."]
The dance of witches, so weird and terrible, (as lately seen on the
Lyceum stage in Henry Irving's production of _Faust_) took a different
form in the young artist's eyes, whose fancy sketch from the Hexen
Tanzplatz is reproduced opposite. He had been properly "posted," as he
expressed it, he had read all that should be read about ghosts,
witches, and spectres, and the result is before us. The last sketch
from the dreary summit, showing the patient tourists waiting to see the
view, was all we could get from him of spectres of the Brocken.
[Illustration: A SKETCH AT SUPPER.]
One or two sketches of the interior of his Noah's ark, when some sixty
travellers had assembled to supper, completed his subjects.
[Illustration: "BACK TO THE VIEW."]
It may be noted that the feeling for landscape which Caldecott
possessed in after years in such a high degree, if it touched him
here, was not recorded in pencil. The magnificent scenery eastward
through the valley of the River Bode, the grim iron foundries and ochre
mines, and the wonderful view from the heights above Blankenberg,
familiar to all travellers in the Harz, was recorded in only two
sketches; one of a roadside inn, where we were invited to stay, the
other of two tourists _en route_.
[Illustration: THE GUIDE AT GOSLAR.]
How, at the little wayside sheds and "drink gardens" scattered on the
mountain paths, the tourists sat persistently back to the view which
they had toiled miles to see, were depicted by the artist in pencil,
and many little incidents on the road were dotted down for future use.
In the old tenth-century city of Goslar, Caldecott's pencil was never
at rest. Taking a guide to save time (whose portrait he gives us, with
a note of a curious sixteenth-century street door) he explores from
morning to night, choosing as subjects always "the life of the place."
[Illustration: PROCESSION OF THE SICK.]
"Drinking the waters at Goslar" in 1872 was a crude effort
artistically, which may be contrasted with his sketches of the same
scenes at Buxton in 1876, but the humour is irresistible. An extract
from our diaries is necessary here to explain the illustration.
"The figures are pilgrims, that have come from far and wide
to combine the attractions of a summer holiday with the
benefits of a wonderful 'cure' for which the city is
celebrated. The promenades and walks on the ramparts lined
with trees, are going through the routine of getting up
early, taking regular exercise and drinking daily several
pints of a dark mixture having the appearance, taste, and
effect of taraxacum or senna. The bottles are supplied at
the public gardens and cafés situated at convenient
distances in the suburbs of Goslar."
[Illustration: DRINKING THE WATERS AT GOSLAR.]
On another day he encounters a school starting for two or three days on
the mountains, the band making hideous noises as the procession passes
out of Goslar. Everything is characteristic here and full of local
colour; the order of march, the costumes and the boots of the boys, and
the general gravity of the company are given exactly--making the usual
allowance for exaggeration. In the background is seen one of the iron
factories and an indication of a bit of Harz scenery; the sketch
recalling the incident with wonderful vraisemblance. The "School on the
March" in its humour and exaggeration may remind the reader of some
drawings by Thackeray.
[Illustration: A GENERAL IN THE PRUSSIAN ARMY.]
Here, as in Belgium, the harnessing of dogs to carts, drawing sometimes
two people over the rough cobble stones of Goslar, excited Caldecott's
pity and anger; he made several sketches of the animals and one
portrait of their master who had just got down to enjoy a pipe at the
corner of a street.
[Illustration: "A SCHOOL ON THE MARCH"--HARZ MOUNTAINS, 1872.]
Sketches at various _table d'hôtes_ in hotels, public gardens and the
like, were plentiful and perpetual. But the majority were destroyed or
put away; out of fifty only one such as "A General in the Prussian
Army" (see page 44) being selected for reproduction.[4]
[Illustration]
At Clausthal we joined a party to explore one of the iron mines, and
Caldecott gives a sketch of the preparations. A note from our diary
will best explain the situation.
"In order to descend the mines at Clausthal, visitors have to divest
themselves of their ordinary costumes and put on some cast-off suits of
ill-fitting garments left at the entrance to the mine for the purpose.
As we approach the mouth of the shaft where the miners are waiting with
lanterns to commence the descent, our party,--consisting of four
Englishmen--a professor of geology, a director of mines, an editor and
an artist--present the somewhat undignified aspect in the sketch. This
change of costume is necessary on account of the wet state of the
mines, the thick caps being a protection against loose pieces of ore
and the wet earth that falls from time to time in the galleries."
Caldecott gives the generally dismal and disreputable appearance of the
party with great verve; his own portrait is presented in a few touches
in the background, hurrying into garments much too big for him.
[Illustration]
On one occasion the artist takes a solitary walk between Thale and
Clausthal, a pathway lined in some parts by rows of trees with
forbidden fruit, a novel and tempting experience. There being no
mention of this route in the guide books, he writes as he says his "own
_Baedeker_" in the familiar practical manner:--
"I start at 3.40 P.M. from the 'Tenpounds Hotel' at Thale to
walk up the valley of the Bode, over a wooden bridge, then
through a beer garden, round a rocky corner," &c. "The way
next through woods of beech, birch and oak; a stream can be
heard but not seen. Treseburg is reached at 5.40; a prettily
situated village by the water side; homely inn, damp beds."
"Leave Treseburg at 9.40 A.M. over a bridge on the right
bank of the Bode. Altenbrack at 10.50, Wendefurth at 11.50.
Rubeland reached at 2.30 P.M., and so on to Elbingerode,
where a halt is made for the night at the 'Blauer Engel,' a
tolerable inn. Women of burden and foresters are the only
wayfarers met with.
"The route hence south-west over high open land with fine
views to the iron works of Rothehütte in an hour. Thence up
a hill for half an hour and through dense fir woods, then
out on the high road again, resting at the 'Brauner Hirsch'
at Braunlage. From thence over hills commanding a vast
extent of country with the familiar form of the Brocken
continually in view. The road descends by easy stages
through a district full of small reservoirs and leads the
traveller in about two hours into the wide, clean, empty
streets of Clausthal."
On the 19th September, 1872, Caldecott is at work again in his rooms at
46, Great Russell Street (opposite the British Museum) arranging with
the writer for some of his Harz Mountain drawings to accompany an
article in the London _Graphic_ newspaper. These appeared in the autumn
of 1872.
[Illustration: AT CLAUSTHAL.]
On the 18th October, the following entry appears in Caldecott's diary:
"Called at _Graphic_ office, saw Mr. W. L. Thomas, who took my
address." This entry is interesting as the beginning of a long
connection with the _Graphic_ newspaper which proved mutually
advantageous.
In November, 1872, the present writer went to America, taking a
scrap-book of proofs of the best of Caldecott's early drawings, a few
of which were published in an article on the _Harz Mountains_ in
_Harper's Monthly Magazine_ in the spring of 1873.[5] His drawings were
also shown to the conductors of the _Daily Graphic_, of New York, which
led to an engagement referred to in the next chapter.
During the latter part of 1872 numerous small illustrations were
produced for _London Society_.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: SKETCH IN "PUNCH," 8TH MARCH, 1873.]