Transcribed by from the 1921 W. Heffer & Sons edition by David Price,
email ccx074@pglaf.org
{Samuel Butler About 1866: p0.jpg}
THE SAMUEL BUTLER COLLECTION
AT SAINT JOHN'S COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE
A Catalogue and a Commentary
BY
HENRY FESTING JONES
AND
A. T. BARTHOLOMEW
CAMBRIDGE
W. HEFFER & SONS LTD.
1921
It seems to me, the more I think of it, that the true life of anyone
is not the one they live in themselves, and of which they are
themselves conscious, but the life they live in the hearts of others.
Our bodies and brains are but the tools with which we work to make our
true life, which is not in the tool-box and tools we ignorantly
mistake for ourselves, but in the work we do with them; and this work,
if it be truly done, lives more in others than in ourselves.
S. BUTLER, 1895.
[THIS EDITION IS LIMITED TO 750 COPIES]
Preface
The Butler Collection was not all given to St. John's at once. I sent up
some pictures and some books in 1917; and at intervals I have sent more,
always keeping a list of what has gone. Now that I have no more to send
seems the proper time for a Catalogue to be issued, and it is made from
the lists which I kept, and which were in part printed in _The Eagle_,
put in order by A. T. Bartholomew and annotated by myself. I am
responsible for the notes and am the person intended when "I" and "me"
occur. Bartholomew is responsible for the classification, for verifying,
for checking, and for the bibliographical part.
In time the collection will no doubt increase as new editions or
translations of Butler's books appear and as further books are published
referring to him. All such I intend to include in the collection; and I
hope that other Butlerians will see fit to make additions to it.
I think that the notes give all necessary explanations; but I may perhaps
say here that many of the pictures were made before Butler contemplated
writing such a book as _Alps and Sanctuaries_. When he was preparing
that book he went to the places therein described and made on the spot
many black and white drawings for reproduction; but he found that this
method would take too long, so he made others of the black and white
drawings from oil and water-colour sketches which he had done previously,
and this is why some of the pictures are dated many years before the book
was published.
Among the books, under _Alps and Sanctuaries_ (p. 18), is Streatfeild's
copy of that work; and under _The Way of All Flesh_ (p. 21) is his copy
of that book. Both these copies are said to have been "purchased." I
bought them from the dealer to whom Streatfeild sold them when his health
broke down and he moved from his rooms. I have no doubt that he would
have given them to me if I had asked for them, but he was not in a
condition to be troubled about business.
St. John's College has contributed 30 pounds towards the expenses of
printing and publishing this catalogue. I offer them my most cordial
thanks for their generosity. I am also deeply indebted to them for
finding space in which to house the collection. I shrank from the
responsibility of keeping it myself. I remembered also that an
individual dies; even a family may become extinct; but St. John's
College, we hope, will enjoy as near an approach to immortality as can be
attained on this transient globe. I am sure that Butler would be pleased
if he could know that during that period this collection will be
preserved and will be accessible to all who wish to visit it.
H. F. J.
120, MAIDA VALE, W. 9,
_December_, 1920.
Contents
I. PICTURES, SKETCHES AND DRAWINGS BY OR RELATING TO SAMUEL BUTLER . . .
1
II. BOOKS AND MUSIC WRITTEN BY BUTLER . . . 15
III. BOOKS, ETC., ABOUT BUTLER . . . 24
IV. BOOKS, ETC., RELATING TO BUTLER AND HIS SUBJECTS . . . 28
V. BOOKS, FORMERLY THE PROPERTY OF SAMUEL BUTLER . . . 32
VI. ATLASES AND MAPS, FORMERLY THE PROPERTY OF SAMUEL BUTLER . . . 39
VII. MUSIC, FORMERLY THE PROPERTY OF SAMUEL BUTLER . . . 41
VIII. MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS, FORMERLY THE PROPERTY OF OR RELATING TO
SAMUEL BUTLER . . . 44
IX. PRINTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS, FORMERLY THE PROPERTY OF OR RELATING TO
SAMUEL BUTLER . . . 47
X. PORTRAITS, FORMERLY THE PROPERTY OF OR RELATING TO SAMUEL BUTLER . . .
49
XI. EFFECTS, FORMERLY THE PERSONAL PROPERTY OF SAMUEL BUTLER . . . 51
Illustrations
SAMUEL BUTLER. ABOUT 1866 . . . _Frontispiece_
From a photograph taken by his sister, Mrs. Bridges, in the garden at
Langar soon after his return from New Zealand.
FACSIMILE OF POST-CARD FROM S. BUTLER TO H. F. JONES, FLORENCE, SEPT. 3,
1892 . . . _face p._ 23
Butler was staying in Florence on his way home from his first visit to
Sicily. The old Greek painting referred to is reproduced as the
frontispiece to _The Authoress of the Odyssey_ (1897). Mlle. V. is Mlle.
Vaillant, as to whom see _the Memoir_. The "nose" belonged to the editor
of a Swiss paper whom I had met at Fusio.
SAMUEL BUTLER WHEN AN UNDERGRADUATE AT CAMBRIDGE. ABOUT 1858 . . . _face
p._ 52
This is taken from a photographic group of Butler and three friends. The
friends are omitted, as I have failed to identify them.
I. PICTURES, SKETCHES AND DRAWINGS
BY OR RELATING TO SAMUEL BUTLER
By his will Butler bequeathed his pictures, sketches, and studies to his
executors to be destroyed or otherwise disposed of as they might think
best, the proceeds (if any) to fall into residue. They were not sold:
some were given to Shrewsbury School; some to the British Museum; one, an
unfinished sketch of the back of the house in which Keats died on the
Piazza di Spagna, Rome, to the Keats and Shelley Memorial there; many
were distributed among his friends, Alfred Cathie taking fifteen and I
taking all that were left over. Alfred lives in Canal Road, Mile End,
and, this being on the route of the German air-raids, he was anxious to
put his pictures in a place of safety. Accordingly it was arranged
between us in 1917 that I should buy them from him. When he heard that I
was giving them to St. John's, he desired that I should not buy all,
because he wished to give two of them himself to the College.
Accordingly, I bought only thirteen, and the remaining two, viz. no. 28,
Leatherhead Church, and no. 59, Chiavenna, 1887, were given to St. John's
College by Alfred.
There are but few sketches or pictures by Butler between 1888 and 1896.
This is because his sketching was interrupted by his having to take up
photography for the preparation of _Ex Voto_. Almost before this book
was published (1888) he had plunged into _The Life and Letters of Dr.
Butler_, and in 1892 he added to his absorbing occupations the problem of
the _Odyssey_. Thus he had little leisure or energy for the labour of
painting; and this labour was always great. He could not leave his
outline until he had got it right, and there was a perpetual chase after
the changing shadows. And when he had got the outline it was so
constantly disappearing under the colour that he took to making "a
careful outline on a separate sheet of paper"; this was to be kept, after
he had traced the drawing on to the paper which was to receive the
colour, and to be referred to continually while he proceeded. When he
met with the camera lucida, which he bought in Paris, and which is among
the objects given to St. John's, he thought his difficulties were solved
and wrote to Miss Savage, 9 October, 1882: "I have got a new toy, a
camera lucida, which does all the drawing for me, and am so pleased with
it that I am wanting to use it continually." To which in 1901 he added
this note: "What a lot of time I wasted over that camera lucida, to be
sure!" It did all the drawing for him, but it distorted the perspective
so that the outlines of the many sketches which he produced with its help
were a disappointment.
The camera lucida having failed, his hopes were next fixed upon
photography, which, by rapidly and correctly recording anything he felt a
desire to sketch, was to give him something from which he could
afterwards construct a picture. So he took an immense number of snap-
shots, of which many are at St. John's, but he never did anything with
them. Nos. 62 and 63, which were done by Sadler from Butler's
photographs, show how he would have proceeded if he had not had too many
other things to do.
It was not until 1896, when _The Life of Dr. Butler_ appeared, that he
was able to return seriously to sketching, and by that time he was over
sixty and too old to be burdened with the paraphernalia necessary for
oils; he therefore confined himself to water-colours.
Some of the pictures in this list were included in the list in _The
Eagle_, vol. xxxix., no. 175, March 1918, and the remainder in the
succeeding number, June 1918. In making the present catalogue I have
corrected such errors and misprints as I noticed in _The Eagle_, and I
have re-arranged and renumbered the items so as to make them run in
chronological order. I have also amplified some of the notes. I have
placed the sketches and drawings in order of date because to examine them
in that order helps the spectator to realise the progress made by Butler
in his artistic studies.
SAMUEL BUTLER
1. Black and white outline sketch: Civita Vecchia, 1854.
Butler went abroad with his family, his second visit to Italy, for the
winter of 1853-4. They travelled through Switzerland to Rome and Naples,
starting in August 1853, and Butler thus missed the half-year at school.
I am sorry that I have not found any more finished drawing made by him on
this occasion.
DOUGLAS YEOMAN BLAKISTON
2. Pencil drawing: Samuel Butler, 1854.
Reproduced in the _Memoir_, ch. iii. On the back of this drawing is the
beginning of a water-colour sketch. It was in a book with others
mentioned in the _Memoir_ as having been given to Shrewsbury School (I.
44). I have no doubt that the sketch on the back is by Butler, and
represents part of the Rectory house at Langar.
The Rev. D. Y. Blakiston was born in 1832. He studied art at the Royal
Academy Schools especially under W. Dobson, R.A. From about 1850 to 1865
he painted in London and at St. Leonard's, and exhibited at the Royal
Academy. About 1865 he entered at Downing College, took Orders in 1869,
and was presented to the living of East Grinstead in 1871, which he held
till his retirement soon after 1908. He died in 1914. Throughout his
life he made a practise of sketching his friends. I suppose he must have
met and sketched Butler on some occasion when Butler was in London
staying with his cousins the Worsleys. The artist's son, the Rev. H. E.
D. Blakiston, when President of Trinity College, Oxford, gave me a
cutting from _The East Grinstead Observer_ containing a full obituary of
him. It is among the papers at St. John's College, and is referred to in
the Postscript to the Preface to my _Memoir_ of Butler.
HENRY FESTING JONES
3. My first attempt at a drawing in pencil and ink of Butler's
Homestead, Mesopotamia, New Zealand.
I did it in 1910 or thereabouts from a faded photograph taken about 1863
and lent to Butler by J. D. Enys. _Also_ Emery Walker's reproduction of
my first attempt which was not used in the _Memoir_.
4. My second attempt, which was reproduced in the _Memoir_.
SAMUEL BUTLER
5. Water-colour: A view in Cambridge.
Probably done when Butler was an undergraduate, and given to St. John's
some years ago. I found it in the book wherein I found Blakiston's
drawing (no. 2).
6. Oil Painting: Family Prayers.
On the ceiling he wrote "I did this in 1864, and if I had gone on doing
things out of my own head instead of making studies I should have been
all right." (_Memoir_, I. 115.) Reproduced in the _Memoir_, ch. xxiv.,
and referred to, ch. viii.
7. Oil Painting: His own head.
"He painted at home as well as at Heatherley's, and by way of a cheap
model hung up a looking-glass near the window of his painting room and
made many studies of his own head. He gave some of them away and
destroyed and painted over others, but after his death we found a number
in his rooms--some of the earlier ones very curious" (_Memoir_, ch.
viii.). This is one of the earlier ones. It is inscribed, "S.B., Feb.
18, 1865." We found also a still more curious one which was given to
Gogin, who was interested in it as being the work of an untaught student.
See also no. 36.
JOHN LEECH
8. Five pencil drawings on one card.
John Leech died in 1864, the year in which Butler returned from New
Zealand. There was a sale of his drawings by his sisters, and I remember
going to see them as a boy, but I do not remember when; it was, no doubt,
soon after the artist's death. The house was in Radnor Place, Bayswater.
His sisters afterwards kept a small girls' school, and my sister Lilian
went there. I have placed these Leech drawings here in order of date on
the assumption that Butler bought them at the sale. He had another
drawing by Leech, which used to hang in his chambers, and was given to
his cousin, Reginald Worsley.
SAMUEL BUTLER
9. Oil Painting: Interior of Butler's sitting-room, 15, Clifford's Inn.
There is something written in pencil on the panelling in the left-hand
bottom corner. I believe the words to be "Corner of my room, Augt. 1865,
S.B." Reproduced in the _Memoir_, ch. xv.
Here are shown Butler's books, including Bradshaw's Guide and Whitaker's
Almanack, of which he speaks somewhere as being indispensable. I admit
that I cannot identify them, but he used to keep them among the books in
these shelves. I do not think he ever possessed that equally
indispensable book the Post Office Directory. But he had more books than
those shown in this painting. Between his sitting-room and his painting-
room was a short passage in which was a cupboard, and this contained the
rest. I do not remember how many there were, but not enough to
invalidate the statement he made to Robert Bridges (_Memoir_ II. 320), "I
have, I verily believe, the smallest library of any man in London who is
by way of being literary."
10. Water-colour: Dieppe, The Castle, 1866.
Butler was at Dieppe with Pauli in 1866. (_Memoir_, ch. viii.)
11. Small water-colour drawing: Dieppe, 1866.
This is in the portfolio of miscellaneous drawings, etc., by Butler,
Gogin, and Sadler, no. 81.
12. Oil Painting: Two heads done as a study at Heatherley's.
I showed this to Gaetano Meo, and he remembered that the man was
Calorossi, a model, whose brother went to Paris and became known as the
proprietor of a studio there. The woman, he said, was Maria, another
model. The background is Dieppe. I suppose that Butler did this study
in the autumn of 1866, using nos. 10 and 11, the water-colours of Dieppe,
or some other sketch made on the spot, for the background. The idea was
to make portraits of two heads with a landscape background in the manner
of Giovanni Bellini.
13. Drawing of a cast of the Antinous as Hermes.
Inscribed "Samuel Butler for probationership, December 28th 1868." Done,
I suppose, at South Kensington.
14. Drawing of a hand and foot.
Probably also done at South Kensington.
15. Black and white drawing of a fir tree.
This, I suspect, was made while Butler was under the influence of
Ruskin's _Elements of Drawing_--say about 1870. He threw off that
influence later.
16. Four water-colour notes in one frame.
One is inscribed "S.B." and another "Kingston, near Lewes." I suppose
that they are all on the South Downs, and they are all early--say 1870.
JAMES FERGUSON
17. Crayon drawing: Butler playing Handel, 1870 (?).
Reproduced in the _Memoir_ (I. ix.). Ferguson was a fellow art-student
with Butler.
SAMUEL BUTLER
18. Oil Painting: The Valle di Sambucco, above Fusio.
The sambucco or sambuco is the elder tree. Butler, writing of this
valley (_Alps and Sanctuaries_, ch. xxvi.; new ed. ch. xxv.), says:
"Here, even in summer, the evening air will be crisp, and the dew will
form as soon as the sun goes off; but the mountains at one end of it will
keep the last rays of the sun. It is then the valley is at its best,
especially if the goats and cattle are coming together to be milked."
19. Water-colour: The Rocca Borromeo, Angera, Lago Maggiore. Entrance
to the Castle. 1871.
The birthplace of S. Carlo Borromeo. It was over this gateway as well as
over the gateway of Fenis (no. 53), that he told me there ought to be a
fresco of Fortune with her Wheel (_Memoir_, ch. xx.) The Rocca Borromeo,
Angera, and Arona are mentioned in _Alps and Sanctuaries_, ch. xxiv. (new
edn., ch. xxiii.), and several times in the _Memoir_, _e.g._ ch. ix.,
xvi.
20. Water-colour: The Rocca Borromeo. A Room in the Castle. 1871.
I am not sure whether or not this is the room in which S. Carlo Borromeo
was born. One view of that room is in _Alps and Sanctuaries_ ch. xxiv.
(new edition, ch. xxiii). This may be the same room looking towards the
left and showing a piece of window-seat and shutter.
21. Water-colour: Amsteg. 1871.
22. Water-colour: Fobello. A Christening. 1871.
This was to have been a picture for the Academy, but he did not finish
it. Here are shown women with short skirts and leggings. They dress
like this so that they can climb into the ash trees and pull off the
leaves which they throw down upon the grass to be mixed up with the hay.
(_Memoir_, ch. ix.)
23. Oil Painting: Varallo-Sesia. The Washing Place. 1871.
"Butler made three oil sketches at Varallo all the same size, about
16x20. One is the washing place outside the town." (_Diary of a
Journey_, p. 16). The other two were both done in the Piazza on the
Sacro Monte. One was given to the Municipio of Varallo-Sesia; the other
to the Avvocato Francesco Negri of Casale-Monferrato.
24. Oil Painting: Monte Bisbino, near Como. 1876.
_Alps and Sanctuaries_, ch. xxi. The white sanctuary on the summit
shines like a diamond in some lights.
25. Oil Painting: From S. Nicolao, Mendrisio. 1876.
_Alps and Sanctuaries_, ch. xxi.
GEORGE McCULLOCH
26. Two lots of studies of women, about 1876.
McCulloch was a friend and fellow art-student of Butler's, and is
mentioned in the _Memoir_, "an admirable draughtsman."
SAMUEL BUTLER
27. Oil sketch: Low wall and grass in front, snowy mountains behind. It
must be a view in the Leventina Valley.
28. Water-colour inscribed "S.B.": Leatherhead Church.
Butler was particularly pleased with the dormer windows, an unusual
feature in a church roof. This must have been done somewhere about 1877,
but there is no evidence. This is one of the pictures given by Alfred.
29. Oil Painting: Montreal, Canada, from the Mountain, about 1877.
30. Oil Painting: Calpiogna, Val Leventina. 1877.
Evening, looking down the valley.
31. Oil Painting: Three sketches on one panel, scenes in the Val
Leventina.
They are near Faido, but I cannot further identify them.
32. Oil Painting: Calonico.
_Alps and Sanctuaries_, ch. v.
33. Oil Painting: Tengia.
_Alps and Sanctuaries_, ch. iv.
34. Oil Painting: Prato.
Other views of Prato appear in _Alps and Sanctuaries_, ch. iii.
35. Oil Painting: Lago Tom, Piora, Val Leventina. 1877.
Ch. vi. in _Alps and Sanctuaries_ is headed "Piora." "Piora in fact is a
fine breezy upland valley of singular beauty, and with a sweet atmosphere
of cow about it." Butler thought he knew what went on in Piora and, as
he proceeds through the valley, he says: "Here I heard that there were
people, and the people were not so much asleep as the simple peasantry of
these upland valleys are expected to be by nine o'clock in the evening.
For now was the time when they had moved up from Ronco, Altanca, and
other villages in some numbers to cut the hay, and were living for a
fortnight or three weeks in the chalets upon the Lago di Cadagna. As I
have said, there is a chapel, but I doubt whether it is attended during
this season with the regularity with which the parish churches of Ronco,
Altanca, etc., are attended during the rest of the year. The young
people, I am sure, like these annual visits to the high places, and will
be hardly weaned from them. Happily the hay will always be there, and
will have to be cut by someone, and the old people will send the young
ones."
The foregoing passage throws light upon that other passage in _Life and
Habit_, ch. ii., about S. Paul, which concludes thus: "But the true
grace, with her groves and high places, and troops of young men and
maidens crowned with flowers, and singing of love and youth and wine--the
true grace he drove out into the wilderness--high up, it may be, into
Piora, and into such-like places. Happy they who harboured her in her
ill report."
After Ernest has received Alethea's money, and while he and Edward
Overton are returning from Christina's funeral, in ch. lxxxiv. of _The
Way of All Flesh_, he tells his godfather his plans for spending the next
year or two. He has formed a general impression that the most vigorous
and amiable of known nations--the modern Italians, the old Greeks and
Romans, and the South Sea Islanders--have not been purists. He wants to
find out what such people do; they are the practical authorities on the
question--What is best for man?
"Let us," he says, "settle the fact first and fight about the moral
tendencies afterwards."
"In fact," said I laughingly, "you mean to have high old times."
"Neither higher nor lower," was the answer, "than those people whom I can
find to have been the best in all ages."
Accordingly Ernest left England and visited "almost all parts of the
world, but only staying in those places where he found the inhabitants
unusually good-looking and agreeable." "At last in the spring of 1867 he
returned, his luggage stained with the variation of each hotel
advertisement 'twixt here and Japan. He looked very brown and strong,
and so well-favoured that it almost seemed as if he must have caught some
good looks from the people among whom he had been staying."
We are not told what particular countries Ernest went to; Japan is
mentioned, but less because Ernest went there than because the name of a
distant place was wanted to justify and complete the echo of the
description of Sir Walter Blunt in I. _Hen. IV._ i. 64:
Stained with the variation of each soil
Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours.
Butler confided to me verbally that Ernest visited, among other places,
Piora, and that he stayed there "when the mowing grass was about." {8}
36. Oil Painting: inscribed, "S. Butler. Sketch of his own head. April
1878."
This is one of the series of portraits of himself referred to in the note
to no. 7. Another of these later portraits was given after his death to
Christchurch, New Zealand; and another to the Schools, Shrewsbury. This
one was given by Butler to me soon after it was painted, and it remained
in my possession till 1911, when I gave it to St. John's College. It is
reproduced as the frontispiece to vol. I. of the _Memoir_.
37. Oil Sketch: Calonico.
_Alps and Sanctuaries_, ch. v. On a panel with no. 38, Rossura, on the
other side.
38. Oil Sketch: Rossura. The altar by the porch of the church. 1878.
On a panel with no. 37, Calonico, on the other side.
39. Oil sketch on a panel: Rossura, from inside the porch looking out.
"I know few things more touching in their way than the porch of Rossura
church." (_Alps and Sanctuaries_, ch. iv.)
"The church is built on a slope, and the porch, whose entrance is on a
lower level than that of the floor of the church, contains a flight of
steps leading up to the church door. The porch is there to shelter the
steps, on and around which the people congregate and gossip before and
after service, especially in bad weather. They also sometimes overflow
picturesquely, and kneel praying on the steps while service is going on
inside." (_Memoir_, I. 284-5.)
In _Alps and Sanctuaries_, ch. iv., is an illustration showing the people
kneeling on the steps while "there came a sound of music through the open
door--the people lifting up their voices and singing, as near as I can
remember, something which on the piano would come thus:" and then follow
a few bars of chords.
In the list which appeared in _The Eagle_, vol. xxxix., no. 175, March
1918, writing of no. 38: "Rossura: the altar by the porch of the church,
1878," I said that it had been removed. On reconsideration, I am not
sure that it has been removed; but I have not been to Rossura for thirty
years or more and cannot now say for certain. I believe, however, that
it is still there, and that when I said it had been removed I was
thinking of the alteration of an opening which there was formerly in the
west wall of the porch, under the portrait of S. Carlo Borromeo, which
hangs between the two windows. This opening is mentioned in ch. iv. of
_Alps and Sanctuaries_, and Butler says that it had to be closed because
the wind blew through it and made the church too cold. It is shown with
the portrait and the two windows in another illustration in ch. iv.
The first illustration in ch. iv. of _Alps and Sanctuaries_ shows how the
chapel with the altar in it (no. 38) is placed in relation to the porch.
This is the chapel he was thinking of when he wrote:
"The church has been a good deal restored during the last few years,
and an interesting old chapel--with an altar in it--at which Mass was
said during a time of plague, while the people stood some way off in a
meadow, has just been entirely renovated; but, as with some English
churches, the more closely a piece of old work is copied, the more
palpably does the modern spirit show through it, so here the opposite
occurs, for the old-worldliness of the place has not been impaired by
much renovation, though the intention has been to make everything as
modern as possible."
In 1878, the first time I was with Butler in Italy and in the Canton
Ticino, he talked a great deal about the porch of Rossura; there is a
passage in ch. xvi. of the _Memoir_ about it. For him it was the work of
a man who did it because he sincerely wanted to do it, and who learnt how
to do by doing; it was not the work of one who first attended lectures by
a professor in an academy, learnt the usual tricks in an art school, and
then, not wanting to do, gloried in the display of his technical skill.
That is to say, it was done in the right spirit. The result of doing
things in this way will sometimes appear incompetent; this never
embarrassed Butler, provided that he could detect the sincerity; for
where sincerity is incompetence may be forgiven; but the incompetence
must not be so great as to obscure the artist's meaning. At Rossura the
sincerity is obvious, and the building is so perfect an adaptation of the
means to the end that there is no suggestion of incompetence.
Rossura porch was thus an illustration of what he says in _Alps and
Sanctuaries_ in the chapter "Considerations on the Decline of Italian
Art." It was more than merely a piece of architecture. When Butler
contemplated it he saw also the chapel with its altar and the people
standing in the meadow during the plague; he saw the same people, after
the pestilence had been stayed, kneeling on the steps in the dimness, the
sky bright through the arch beyond them and the distant mountains blue
and snowy, while the music floated out through the open church door; he
saw through the windows the gleaming slopes about Cornone and Dalpe, and,
hanging on the wall between them, the picture of austere old S. Carlo
with his hands joined in prayer. All these things could be written about
in _Alps and Sanctuaries_, but they could not be brought into the
illustrations apart from the text; and anyone who looks at Butler's
sketches of Rossura may be disappointed. If he does not bear these
things in mind he will not understand what Butler meant by saying that he
knew of few things more touching in their way than the porch of Rossura
church. He will be like a man listening to programme-music and knowing
nothing of the programme.
40. Pencil sketch inscribed: "Handel when a boy. Pencil sketch from an
old picture sold at Puttick and Simpson's and sketched by me while on
view. Dec. 15th, 1879. S.B."
On the same mount with the sketch-portrait of Robert Doncaster, no. 56.
41. Water-colour: Otford, Kent; from inside the church looking out
through the porch. 1879.
42. Drawing in pencil and ink: Edgeware. 1880.
43. Oil Painting: Rimella, Val Mastallone; up the Valley from Varallo-
Sesia.
44. Oil Painting: Eynsford, Kent.
45. Oil Painting: On the S. Bernardino Pass.
46. Oil Painting: Bellinzona, The Castle.
In the same frame with no. 47.
47. Oil Painting: Mesocco, The Castle.
_Alps and Sanctuaries_, ch. xix. Butler always had this and no. 46 in
the same frame.
48. Oil Painting: Bellinzona, The Castle.
He made many sketches of the Castle at Bellinzona, this and no. 46 are
the only two I have found; none was quite satisfactory because there was
no point of view from which the towers composed well behind a good
foreground.
49. Drawing in pencil and ink: The Sacro Monte, Varese, from the seventh
or Flagellation Chapel.
He intended to paint a picture this size, and started by making this
drawing, which is an enlargement of the drawing reproduced in _Alps and
Sanctuaries_, ch. xxiii. (1881), but he did not proceed with the
painting.
50. Drawing in pencil and ink: Boulogne-sur-Mer, La Porte Gayole.
This was a favourite view which he often sketched; but I have only found
this example.
SAMUEL BUTLER AND OTHERS
51. All (except a few which are lost) the original drawings for _Alps
and Sanctuaries_.
Placed here in order of date because the book was published in 1881. Some
of the drawings are by Charles Gogin, who did the frontispiece and the
Madonna della Neve on the title page, and who also introduced the figures
into those of Butler's drawings which have figures; and a few are by me.
There are among this lot also several sketches, etc., by various persons
which Butler collected as illustrating his "Considerations on the Decline
of Italian Art." Some are published in the chapter so headed in the
book, but others were not published.
SAMUEL BUTLER
52. Oil Painting: Portrait of Henry Festing Jones. 1882.
53. Oil Painting: Castello Fenis, Val d'Aosta. 1882.
It was over one of the gateways of this Castle that Fortune with her
Wheel was to appear in a fresco. See no. 19.
HENRY FESTING JONES
54. Oil Painting: View from Butler's room in Clifford's Inn showing the
tower of the Law Courts. 1882.
Drawn with the camera lucida. Reproduced in the _Memoir_, ch. xx.
55. Oil Painting: Unfinished sketch-portrait of Butler. 1882
Drawn with the camera lucida. Referred to in the _Memoir_, I. 135-136,
in letters from which extracts are given below.
_Miss Savage to Butler_.
31_st_ _October_, 1883: I went to the Fisheries Exhibition last week
and spent a rather pleasant day. I was by myself for one thing, and,
for another, took great delight in gazing at a life-size model of a
sea-captain clad in yellow oil-skins and a Sou'wester. It was
executed in that style of art that you so greatly admire in the
Italian Churches, and was so good a likeness of _you_ that I think you
must have sat for it. The serious occupations of my day were having
dinner and tea, and the relaxations, buying shrimps in the fish-market
and then giving them to the sea-gulls and cormorants. My most exalted
pleasure was to look at your effigy, which I should like to be able to
buy, though, as I have not a private chapel in my castle, I hardly
know where I could put it if I had it. Upon the whole I enjoyed
myself, but I am glad to hear that the Exhibition is to be closed to-
day, so that I cannot by any possibility go there again.
_Butler to Miss Savage_.
5_th_ _November_, 1883: I believe I am very like a sea-captain. Jones
began a likeness of me not long since, which I will show you next time
you come and see me, which is also very like a portrait of a
sea-captain.
56. Sketch-portrait of Robert Doncaster.
On the same mount with no. 40. A tracing is among the miscellaneous
papers given to St. John's. This sketch of Robert was done, I suspect,
with the camera lucida, and if so its date must be about 1882-3. Robert
Doncaster was the husband of Mrs. Corrie; that is to say Mrs. Corrie, who
was Butler's laundress in Clifford's Inn, "lost" her husband. After a
suitable interval it was assumed that he was dead and she married Robert
Doncaster and was known as Mrs. Doncaster. Robert, who was a half-witted
old man, used to hang about the place, do odd jobs, and make himself
fairly useful. He died in 1886.
57. Water-colour: Pinner. 1883.
SAMUEL BUTLER
58. Oil Painting: Edward James Jones.
Inscribed thus: "Portrait of E. J. Jones, Esq., of the Indian Geological
Survey, Aet. Suae 24, painted by S. Butler, November, 1883." The date is
not clearly written, but it must be 1883, because my brother Edward, born
5th September, 1859, was twenty-four in 1883, and in November 1883 he
went to Calcutta, having obtained an appointment on the Geological
Survey. Butler painted the portrait just before he started.
59. Oil Painting: Chiavenna. 1887.
It looks in some lights like 1881, but in other lights 1887, and it must
be 1887. Butler did not go abroad in 1881 and he was at Chiavenna in
1887. This is one of the pictures given by Alfred.
THOMAS SADLER
60. Black and white drawing: Butler and Scotto in 1888.
Sadler made this for the _Pall Mall Gazette_ from the photograph which is
reproduced in _Ex Voto_; the drawing was reproduced in an article, and a
cutting from the _Pall Mall_ with the reproduction is with the papers
given to St. John's.
SAMUEL BUTLER
61. Oil Painting: Wembley, Middlesex. Sketch of the back of the Green
Man public-house, since burnt down.
Butler intended to finish this, and send it to the Royal Academy, but he
got tired of it and turned it up.
THOMAS SADLER
62. Water-colour drawing of the Vecchietto in the Deposition Chapel at
Varallo-Sesia.
63. Water-colour drawing in black and white of a boy with a basket at
Varallo.
Sadler made these two drawings about 1890 from photographs taken by
Butler in 1888.
SAMUEL BUTLER
64. Water-colour: copy of a landscape behind a small Madonna and Child
by Bartolomeo Veneto, signed and dated 1505.
I forget the precise date, but I think it was about 1898, when Butler was
searching in real landscape for the original of the castle which appears
in the background of one of the Giovanni Bellini pictures of the Madonna
and Child in the National Gallery, the one with the bird on the tree and
the man ploughing. It may now be attributed to some other Venetian
painter. He would have been pleased if he could have found the original
of the background of any picture by one of his favourite painters. This
copy was made to fix in his mind the castle on the hill, which he hoped
afterwards to identify with some real place. But he never succeeded.
HENRY FESTING JONES
65. Water-colour: Jones's chambers in Staple Inn, Holborn. 1899.
66. Water-colour: another view in the same room. 1899.
In these rooms Butler nearly always spent his evenings from 1893, when I
moved into them, until the end of his life. The frames of these pictures
are veneered with oak from the Hall of Staple Inn, and into each are
inserted two buttons showing the wool-pack, the badge of the Inn, which
is said to be named from the Wool-Staplers.
When Butler and I were on the Rigi-Scheidegg with Hans Faesch in 1900 I
had these two sketches with me, and was showing them to the landlord, who
spoke English. He looked at them and considered them carefully for some
moments. Then he said gravely "Ah I see; much things. That means
dustings; and then breakings; and then hangriness."
SAMUEL BUTLER
67. Water-colour: Meien near Wassen on the S. Gottardo. 1896.
We went often to Meien to sketch when we were staying at Wassen on the S.
Gottardo. We took our lunch with us, and ate it at the fountain in the
village. "The old priest also came to the fountain to wash his shutters,
which had been taken down for the summer, and it was now time to bring
them out again and replace them for the winter" (_Memoir_, II. 236). The
house on the left is the priest's house, and the shutters are already up
at one of his windows.
68. Pen and ink sketch: Trapani and the Islands from Mount Eryx about
1897.
This sketch is reproduced in _The Authoress of the Odyssey_, ch. ix. He
did it to show the situation of Trapani and the Islands with Marettimo
"all highest up in the sea." In the Odyssey Ithaca is "all highest up in
the sea," and Butler supposed that the authoress in so describing it was
thinking of Marettimo.
69. Wash drawing: Trapani and the Islands from Mount Eryx about 1898.
He wished to make a more complete version of no. 68, but this was as far
as he could get; there was not enough time and there were too many
interruptions.
70. Pencil sketch inscribed, "Calatafimi, Sund. May 13th, 1900. 2
hours. Eleven a.m. is the best light."
I added "S. Butler." He could not continue because there came on a
terrific scirocco which lasted two or three days.
71. Water-colour: Taormina, the Theatre and Etna. 1900.
This shows the fragments of the stones that are strewn about in the
orchestra which Butler said were like the fragments of My Duty towards My
Neighbour that lay strewn about in his memory. It would take a lot of
work to put them all back into their places and reconstruct the original.
(_Memoir_, II. 292.)
72. Water-colour: Siena. 1900.
73. Water-colour: Pisa, inside the top of the Leaning Tower. 1900.
74. Water-colour: Wassen. 1901.
75. Water-colour: Wassen. 1901.
76. Water-colour: Trapani, S. Liberale and Lo Scoglio di Mal Consiglio.
1901.
See _The Authoress of the Odyssey_. The Scoglio is the ship of Ulysses
which Neptune turned into a rock as she was on her way home to Scheria.
77. Rough sketch by Butler of the islands Marettimo, Levanzo, and
Favignana.
Two views showing how Marettimo is hidden by Levanzo when you are below
and comes out over Levanzo when you are up Mount Eryx.
HENRY FESTING JONES
78. My first attempt in colour to draw the islands from Mount Eryx.
I saw I should not have time to finish it, and, instead, did no. 80.
79. A volume of thirty-four leaves of drawings in pencil and ink.
I did all these under Butler's auspices, and often he was sitting near
doing another sketch of much the same view. It may be said that they are
the work of his pupil.
80. Drawing in pencil and ink: Trapani and the Islands from Mount Eryx.
1913.
Reproduced in the _Memoir_, ch. xxxii.
SAMUEL BUTLER AND OTHERS
81. A portfolio of miscellaneous drawings, prints, etchings,
photographs, etc., by Butler, Gogin, and Sadler.
This is the portfolio containing the small water-colour of Dieppe, 1866.
I have given that the prominence of a place (no. 11) because it is
interesting to compare it with the more finished Dieppe, no. 10. Possibly
the portfolio contains others (_e.g._ Dinant), which it will be thought
proper to take out and have mounted and framed.
II. BOOKS AND MUSIC WRITTEN BY BUTLER:
AND BOOKS, MAGAZINES, &c., CONTAINING CONTRIBUTIONS BY HIM
For fuller particulars as to Butler's books see the Bibliography prefixed
to Vol. I. of the _Memoir_ by H. F. Jones (1919).
THE EAGLE
1858. Vol. I., no. 1, Lent Term, containing "On English Composition," by
Cellarius, _i.e._ Samuel Butler.
1859. Vol. I., no. 5, Easter Term, containing "Our Tour," by Cellarius,
_i.e._ S. Butler. (These two bound together.)
1861. Vol. II., containing "Our Emigrant" in two contributions (p. 101
and p. 149), by Samuel Butler; used by him in writing _A First Year in
Canterbury Settlement_, and referred to in the Preface to that book.
1894. Vol. XVIII., no. 103 (March). "A Translation (into Greek from
_Martin Chuzzlewit_) attempted in consequence of a challenge."
1902. Vol. XXIV., no. 129 (December). "The Shield of
Achilles."--"Napoleon at St. Helena." _Also_ "Samuel Butler, B.A."
(Obituary by H. F. Jones.)
1910. Vol. XXXII., no. 153 (December). "Mr. Festing Jones on Samuel
Butler." (Report by D. S. Fraser of H. F. Jones's paper on Samuel
Butler, read 16 Nov.)
1913. Vol. XXXIV., no. 160 (March). "Samuel Butler and his Note-Books."
By J. F. H[arris].
1913. Vol. XXXIV., no. 161 (June). "Prospectus of the Great Split
Society."--"A Skit on Examinations." _Also_ "Two Letters of Samuel
Butler" (to W. E. Heitland: with note by W. E. Heitland).
1914. Vol. XXXVI., no. 165 (December). "Samuel Butler's Early Years."
(Review of new edition of _A First Year in Canterbury Settlement_, by J.
F. Harris.)
1916. Vol. XXXVIII., no. 171 (December). "A 'Few Earnest Words' on
Samuel Butler." (Review of J. F. Harris's "Samuel Butler: the man and
his work" (1916), by W. E. Heitland.)
A FIRST YEAR IN CANTERBURY SETTLEMENT
1863. Original cloth, purchased.
1914. New edition with other early Essays. Presentation copy from R. A.
Streatfeild, with two letters inserted.
THE EVIDENCE FOR THE RESURRECTION
1865. One complete copy containing pencil marks made by Butler. Cloth,
original wrappers bound in.
1865. Two mutilated copies used by Butler in making the MS. of _The Fair
Haven_. These were given to St. John's some years ago.
EREWHON
1872. First edition, purchased.
1872. Second edition, purchased. This contains pencil notes by Butler.
1879. Ergindwon. (German translation.)
1901. New and revised edition. Proofs, with corrections by Butler.
1901. New and revised edition--inscribed "H. Festing Jones, with all
best wishes from the author, Oct. 11, 1901. First copy issued."
1901. Colonial issue.
1908. Reprint of New and revised edition.
1920. American edition. With Introduction by Francis Hackett.
1920. Erewhon in French. With an Introduction by the translator, M.
Valery Larbaud. _Also_ the Typescript and Proofs, both with manuscript
corrections by the translator.
THE FAIR HAVEN
1873. First edition, purchased. The first edition contained an errata
slip, which this copy has not got. Longman's re-issue.
1873. Second edition, purchased. Original cloth. Longman's re-issue.
1873. Second edition. This copy contains the errata slip. It is a
special copy cut down and bound as an experiment. Given by Butler to H.
F. Jones.
1913. New edition with Introduction by R. A. Streatfeild. Presentation
copy from R. A. Streatfeild.
1902 (Oct.). Letter to H. F. Jones from Alfred Marks (a brother of Henry
Stacy Marks, R.A.), enclosing copy of Remarks on _The Fair Haven_, made
by some friend of Alfred Marks.
1915 (12 June). A letter from James W. Clark, with separate copy of the
prefatory matter to the Second Edition enclosed, given to him by Butler.
Clark was at Trinity Hall with me, later Fellow of the College, and
afterwards K.C. and Counsel to the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries.
THE CANADA TANNING EXTRACT CO., LTD.
1874-75. Extracts from letters sent by Mr. Foley to the Foreman of the
Works of the Company, and other extracts and letters. Inscribed "Copy of
Laflamme's Copy with Notes," in Butler's writing. I believe the marginal
notes to have been Butler's originally, and then copied by a clerk into
this copy of the pamphlet. _Also_ Another copy, with MS. notes by
Butler.
LIFE AND HABIT
1878. First edition. Presentation copy from Butler, inscribed "H. F.
Jones. S.B."
1878. Second edition. Given to H. F. Jones by A. T. Bartholomew.
1890. A copy of Longman's issue, with MS. corrections by Butler. Cf.
Streatfeild's introduction to new edition (1910).
1910. New edition with Author's Addenda and Preface by R. A.
Streatfeild, and letter from R. A. Streatfeild to H. F. Jones, 29 Nov.
1910.
EVOLUTION OLD AND NEW
1879. "First copy issued."
1879. "Second copy issued," with MS. Note by Butler. Presentation copy.
1882. Second edition with an Appendix and Note, given to H. F. Jones by
Butler, but not inscribed.
1911. New edition (the third) with Author's Revisions, Appendix, and
Index; also Note by R. A. Streatfeild.
UNCONSCIOUS MEMORY
1880. First edition, given to H. F. Jones by Butler, but not inscribed.
1880. Butler's copy, with pressed flowers mounted on the fly-leaves, and
the names of the donors added. Also a few notes.
1910. New edition, with Introduction by Marcus Hartog.
1910. A separate copy of Hartog's Introduction. Inscribed "H. Festing
Jones from his brother in Ydgrun M.H."
1920. Third edition.
ALPS AND SANCTUARIES
1882. The Manuscript, together with the original drawings (cf. p. 10).
1882. First edition (Bogue). Presentation copy from Butler. _Also_
Bogue's prospectus.
1882. Second edition, purchased.
1882. Second edition, with Index in MS. by Butler.
1890. Streatfeild's copy with Longman's title-page, purchased, and a few
spare copies of Longman's title-page.
No date. A copy with Fifield's title-page.
1913. New edition with Author's Revisions and Index, and an Introduction
by R. A. Streatfeild.
GAVOTTES, MINUETS, FUGUES
BY SAMUEL BUTLER AND HENRY FESTING JONES
1884. The Manuscript.
1884. The published work.
SELECTIONS FROM PREVIOUS WORKS
1884. Presentation copy with inscription: "First copy of the book to
leave the binder's, March 12, 1884. S.B."
HOLBEIN
[1886]. Holbein's "La Danse." A Note on a drawing in the Museum at
Basel. Printed on a card. _Also_ Another edition [1889].
LUCK OR CUNNING?
1886. Revises, unbound, with corrections by Butler.
1887. "First copy issued. S.B."
1887. Butler's copy, with notes, pressed flowers, and numerous additions
to the Index, mostly in Alfred's handwriting.
[1908]. Re-issue (Fifield).
1920. Second edition, corrected.
NARCISSUS: A CANTATA
BY S. BUTLER AND H. F. JONES
1888. A copy inscribed by both authors and composers.
EX VOTO
1888. "2nd copy issued, S.B." With 4 pp. "Additions and Corrections"
loose.
1894. In Italian, translated by Angelo Rizzetti. Inscribed, in Butler's
writing, "H. F. Jones. Omaggio dell' Autore."
[1909]. Re-issue (Fifield).
* * * * *
UNIVERSAL REVIEW ARTICLES
1888-90. Butler's set of them, complete with illustrations and bound
together. Table of Contents in Alfred Cathie's writing and a few
accompanying photographs loose.
ESSAYS ON LIFE, ART, AND SCIENCE
1904. Edited by R. A. Streatfeild. Presentation copy with letter from
R. A. Streatfeild. This contains most of the "Universal Review" articles
reprinted, and two Lectures.
1904. A copy of the Colonial issue.
1908. Re-issue (Fifield).
THE HUMOUR OF HOMER AND OTHER ESSAYS
1913. A new edition of the _Essays_, with additions and Biographical
Sketch of Butler by H. F. Jones.
[1913]. Sketch of the Life of Samuel Butler, being a volume of MS. and
typewritten documents showing how the Biographical Sketch mentioned in
the preceding item grew out of the obituary notice which originally
appeared in _The Eagle_, December 1902.
* * * * *
ITALIAN PAMPHLETS (bound together)
1892. Three numbers of "Il Lambruschini," containing papers on Butler's
Odyssey theories.
1893. L'Origine Siciliana dell' Odissea. (Estratto dalla Rassegna della
Letteratura Siciliana.)
1894. Ancora sull' Origine Siciliana dell' Odissea. (Estratto dalla
Rassegna della Letteratura Siciliana.)
* * * * *
ENGLISH PAMPHLETS, ETC. (bound together)
1892. The Humour of Homer.
1893. On the Trapanese Origin of the Odyssey.
No date. Sample passages from a new translation of the Odyssey.
1894. A translation into Homeric verse of a passage from _Martin
Chuzzlewit_: attempted in consequence of a challenge. From _The Eagle_.
No date. Prospectus of _The Life and Letters of Dr. Samuel Butler_.
1887 (27 June). Words of the Choruses from "Narcissus," for performance
at Mrs. Thomas Layton's.
1890 (15 Dec.). Programme of Shrewsbury School Concert, at which some of
Butler's music was performed.
* * * * *
1892. The Humour of Homer. Butler's own copy.
1892-4. Butler's own copies of his Odyssey pamphlets (see above), with
MS. notes. 2 sets.
* * * * *
{Facsimile of post-card from S. Butler to H. F. Jones: p22.jpg}
THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF DR. SAMUEL BUTLER
2 Vols.
1896. Butler's own copy.
1896. A copy, inscribed, in Butler's writing, "H. F. Jones from S. B.
Oct. 2, 1896."
THE AUTHORESS OF THE ODYSSEY
1897. Inscribed, in Butler's writing, "H. F. Jones, with the author's
best thanks (first copy issued). Nov. 1, 1897."
[1908]. Re-issue (Fifield).
THE ILIAD RENDERED INTO ENGLISH PROSE
1898. The Manuscript. This was given to St. John's some years ago by
Butler's literary executor, Mr. R. A. Streatfeild.
1898. Proofs.
1898. First edition. Inscribed, in Butler's writing, "H. F. Jones, with
the author's best love. Oct. 15, 1898."
1914. New impression (Fifield).
SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS RECONSIDERED
1899. Inscribed, "H. F. Jones, Esq. (the first copy issued). Oct. 28,
1899. S. B."
THE ODYSSEY RENDERED INTO ENGLISH PROSE
[1900]. Manuscript of Books I-XII. only, on letter paper. The complete
MS. is at Aci Reale.
1900. Proofs.
1900. Inscribed, "H. Festing Jones. Oct. 18, 1900 (first copy issued).
S. B."
QUO VADIS?