be decorated in illustration of that catch-word (3).
Two crockery holy water holders; only one is shown in the photograph (4).
Three medallions under glass, representing, in some kind of plaster, the
Madonna di Oropa (5).
Three crockery examples of "the Virgin with Child" (6).
One only is shown in the photo. One of these is from Oropa where the
Virgin and Child are both black, see "A Medieval Girl-School" in _The
Humour of Homer_. These holy water holders and Madonnas are some of the
cheap religious knick-knacks which are sold at most Italian Sanctuaries.
We often brought back a few and gave them away to Gogin, Alfred, Clark,
and other friends.
Bag for pennies (7).
Miss Savage's kettle-holder (8).
In Oct. 1884 (see the _Memoir_), about four months before her death, Miss
Savage sent Butler a present of a pair of socks which she had knitted
herself, and she promised to make him some more. Butler gratefully
accepted her gift, but
"As for doing me any more, I flatly forbid it. I believe you don't
like my books, and want to make me say I won't give you any more if
you make me any more socks; and then you will make me some more in
order not to get the books. No, I will let you read my stupid books
in manuscript and help me that way. If you like to make me a kettle-
holder, you may, for I only have one just now, and I like to have two
because I always mislay one; but I won't have people working their
fingers out to knit me stockings."
_Miss Savage to Butler_, 27_th_ _Oct._ 1884: "Here is a kettle-holder.
And I can only say that a man who is equal to the control of two kettle-
holders fills me with awe, and I shall begin to be afraid of you. . . .
The kettle-holder is very clumsy and ugly, but please to remember that I
am not a many-sided genius, and to expect me to excel in kettle-holders
_and_ stockings is unreasonable. I take credit to myself, however, for
affixing a fetter to it, so that you may chain it up if it is too much
disposed to wander. My expectation is that it is too thick for you to
grasp the kettle with, and the kettle will slip out of your hand and
scald you frightfully. I shall be sorry for you but you would have it,
so upon your own head be it."
_Butler to Miss Savage_, 28_th_ _Oct._ 1884: "The kettle-holder is
beautiful; it is like a filleted sole, and I am very fond of filleted
sole. It is not at all too thick, and fits my kettle to perfection."
The subject is developed antiphonally between Miss Savage and Butler
throughout several letters, and near the close comes this note made by
Butler when "editing his remains" at the end of his life:
"I need hardly say that the kettle-holder hangs by its fetter on the wall
beside my fire, and is not allowed to be used by anyone but myself. S.B.
January 21st, 1902."
Two small Dutch dolls (9)
Mr. Charles Archer Cook was at Trinity Hall with me. He is mentioned in
the _Memoir_ as having edited _The Athenaeum_ in October, 1885, during
the absence of MacColl, the editor. Butler and I sometimes dined with
him and met his brother, Mr. (afterwards Sir) Edward T. Cook and his
wife. Mr. and Mrs. E. T. Cook came to tea with Butler, and Alfred was
showing them round the sitting room, while Butler was in his painting
room, where he had gone to look for something.
"These are the pictures which the governor does when he is away," said
Alfred, "and these are the photographs which he brings back with him and
the plates and images."
"And please, Alfred, what are these two little dolls among the pictures?"
"Oh, those, ma'am! Those are ---."
"Alfred!" exclaimed the reproving voice of Butler, who although in the
next room, had overheard.
"Well, Sir," replied Alfred, "that's what we always call them."
Alfred was referring to a recent divorce case in which the names of two
ladies had been brought prominently before the public, but Butler did not
approve of the names being blurted out in the presence of visitors.
A brass bowl which my brother Edward brought from India.
It always stood on my table in Staple Inn, and Butler used it as an ash-
tray and played with it and liked the sound it made when he struck it. He
also liked its shape, and was pleased with it for not being "spoilt by
any silly ornament." It is mentioned in the _Memoir_ (II. xliii.) when
Miss Butler comes to my rooms after Butler's death.
A leather (or sham leather) cigarette case from Palermo (but, I am
afraid, made in Germany).
It contains a fragment of a Greek vase picked up on Mount Eryx and given
to Butler by Bruno Flury. He was one of the young men who came about him
in 1892 when he broke his foot on the mountain; he afterwards settled in
Pisa, where I saw him in 1901.
Two of the blue and white wine cups mentioned in _Alps and Sanctuaries_
(ch. xxii.; new ed., ch. xxiii.), "A Day at the Cantine."
"These little cups are common crockery, but at the bottom there is
written Viva Bacco, Viva l'Italia, Viva la Gioia, Viva Venere or other
such matter; they are to be had in every crockery shop throughout the
Mendrisiotto, and they are very pretty."
The Viva is not written in full; it is represented by a double V, which
overlaps, so that it looks like W, but the letter W is not used by the
Italians, so there is no chance of its being mistaken by them for
anything but the symbol meaning Viva.
A small horn and tortoiseshell snuff-box from Palermo.
It contains three coins wrapped in paper and a piece of the pilgrim's
cross at Varello-Sesia. The cross is mentioned somewhere in Butler's
books as being of very hard wood, so hard that the pilgrims have great
difficulty in cutting pieces off it. So had I in cutting off this bit.
The day after Butler's death Alfred came to me with the coins and said:
"I took these out of his pockets, Sir; I thought you ought to have them."
Butler's watch and chain.
Butler used to possess his grandfather's gold watch and chain. He was
robbed of the watch in Hyde Park one night just before starting on one of
his journeys to Canada; he then bought this silver watch at Benson's,
and, if I remember right, wore it with the gold chain. He was robbed of
the chain in Fetter Lane, Oct. 1893 (_Memoir_, II. 167). He then bought
a silver chain, which, with the silver watch, passed under his will to
Alfred. Alfred wore them until 1919, when the watch was declared by an
expert to be beyond repair. I took it from him, giving him in exchange
the watch of my brother Charlie, who had recently died.
The matchbox which Alfred gave to Butler.
When Alfred knew that I was handing Butler's watch and chain on to St.
John's College, he said:
"And then, Sir, they had better have this matchbox which I gave him."
I looked at it and said, "Well, but Alfred, how can that be? It is dated
1894, and he gave your matchbox to the Turk in 1895."
"I know he did, Sir; and when he told me I was very angry and went out
into Holborn and bought this one and had it engraved same as the other."
"With the old date?"
"Yes, Sir, just the same as the one he gave to the Turk." See the _Note-
Books_, p. 286.
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Footnotes:
{8} Joanna Mills in _The Life and Letters of Dr. Samuel Butler_, I. 90.