So many questions about the characters depicted in _Aylwin_ were put
to the editor of _Notes and Queries_ that he suggested that a key to
the novel would he found acceptable. Some weeks after this suggestion
was made there appeared in that journal (7th June 1902) the following
contribution by Mr. Thomas St. E. Hake, an intimate friend of
Rossetti, and of other leading characters of the story. The
republication of it here has been kindly sanctioned by Mr. J. C.
Francis, a name so indissolubly associated both with the _Athenæum_
and _Notes and Queries_. Mr. Hake writes as follows:
Ever since the publication of _Aylwin_ I have, at various times, seen
in _Notes and Queries_, the _Daily Chronicle_, the _Contemporary
Review_, and other organs, inquiries as to the identification of the
characters that appear in that story. And now that an inquiry comes
from so remote a place as Libau in Russia, I think I may come forward
and say what I know on the subject. But, of course, within the limited
space that could possibly be allotted to me in _Notes and Queries_, I
can only say a few words on a subject that would require many pages to
treat adequately. Until _Aylwin_ appeared, Mr. Joseph Knight's
monograph on Rossetti in the 'Great Writers' series was, with the sole
exception of what has been written about him by his own family and by
my late father, Dr. Gordon Hake, in his _Memoirs of Eighty Years_, the
only account that gave the reader the least idea of the man--his
fascination, his brilliance, his generosity, and his whimsical
qualities. But in _Aylwin_ Rossetti lives as I knew 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 has been acting as my
secretary,' as mentioned in _Aylwin_, was my brother. [Footnote] With
regard to the two circular mirrors surrounded by painted designs
telling the story of the Holy 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 Reading-Room
at Oxford. 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. Leyland, 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 'Henry 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 ('Wilderspin'), and others.
[Footnote: This was George Hake, who died in Central Africa a few
years ago.]
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-century manor house was in the joint occupancy of
Rossetti and Morris. '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 Rossetti 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, Sydenham, 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 humorist. 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 'Cyril Aylwin,' that he was never known to
laugh. The pen-picture of him in _Aylwin_ is one of the most vivid
things in the book.
With regard to the most original character in the story, those who
knew Clement's Inn, where I myself once resided, and Lincoln's Inn
Fields, will be able at once to identify Mrs. Gudgeon, who lived in
one of the streets running into Clare Market. Her business was that
of night coffee-stall keeper. At one time, I believe--but I am not
certain about this--she kept a stall on the Surrey side of Waterloo
Bridge, and it might have been there that, as I have been told, her
portrait was drawn for a specified number of early breakfasts by an
unfortunate artist who sank very low, but had real ability. Her
constant phrase was 'I shall die o' laughin'--I know I shall!' On
account of her extra-ordinary gift of repartee, and her inexhaustible
fund of wit and humour, she was generally supposed to be an
Irishwoman. But she was not: she was cockney to the marrow. Recluse
as Rossetti was in his later years, he had at one time been very
different, and could bring himself in touch with the lower orders of
London in a way such as was only known to his most intimate friends.
With all her impudence, and I may say insolence, Mrs. Gudgeon was a
great favourite with the police, who were the constant butts of her
chaff.
With regard to the gipsies, although I knew George Borrow intimately,
and saw a great deal of Mr. Watts-Dunton's other Romany Rye friend,
the late Frank Groome, I did not know Sinfi Lovell or Rhona Boswell.
But I may say that those who have said that Sinfi Lovell was painted
from the same model as Mr. Meredith's Kiomi are mistaken. Sinfi
Lovell was extremely beautiful, whereas Kiomi, I believe, was never
very beautiful. But that they are represented as being contemporaries
and friends is shown by D'Arcy's mention of Kiomi in Scott's
oyster-rooms. The characters who figure in the early Raxton scenes I
cannot speak of for reasons which may be pretty obvious; nor can I
speak of the Welsh chapters in _Aylwin_, which have been a good deal
discussed in recent numbers of _Notes and Queries_. But being myself
an East Anglian by birth--one of my Christian names is St. Edmund,
because I was born at Bury St. Edmunds--I can say something about
what the East Anglian papers call 'Aylwinland,' and of the truth of
the pictures of the east coast to be found in the story, Since
_Aylwin_ was published an interesting attempt has been made by a
correspondent in the _Lowestoft Standard_ (25th August 1900) to
identify Pakefield Church as the 'Raxton' Church of the story, and
the writer of the letter mentions the most remarkable, and to me
quite new fact, that although the guide-books of Lowestoft and the
district are quite silent as to a curious crypt at the east end of
Pakefield Church, there is exactly such a crypt as that described in
_Aylwin_, and that in the early days of the correspondent in question
it was used as a storehouse for bones. The readers of _Aylwin_ will
remember the author's words: 'The crypt is much older than the
church, and of an entirely different architecture. It was once the
depository of the bones of Danish warriors killed before the Norman
conquest.'