GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 



student to whom his advice would be of real service. Personally, 

 I owe him much : though he was one of the busiest men in London 

 if I sought his counsel, he would find time to write, with his own 

 hand, and make a studio appointment, usually for Sunday morn- 

 ing. Unfortunately, I was not resident in London at the time : 

 in spite of Leighton's saying, " You must be in London, and your 

 friends should know it," circumstances unfortunately prevented 

 me from being so. 



Those who have only seen Leighton House as it is at the present 

 day stripped of all the significant trifles that go to make up the 

 domestic environment of every human being, man or woman- 

 denuded of the pictures by other artists that once clothed the walls, 

 of the bric-a-brac and curios, the rare tapestries and Oriental 

 carpets that formerly filled it can form but a faint conception of 

 its aspect in the Master's life-time. The Arab Hall loveliest 

 souvenir of the East in London, when the sun shines, a veritable 

 dream of beauty otherwise so strangely out of place in the foggy 

 atmosphere of the Metropolis ; and the noble staircase, remain much 

 as in other days ; for the rest, to me the place is a tomb little 

 more than the shell of a habitation, and bare of all save association. 



I can recall one of the first visits I ever paid there, when the Master 

 himself showed me and a friend who accompanied me, all over his 

 beautiful home ; and pointed out the things that he most prized. 



It is a long while ago when I was quite young and still a student ; 

 but I remember what a lovely June morning it was, and that the 

 surrounding trees still wore their early summer dress of vivid green ; 

 that the sun shining, illuminated the pictures in the drawing-room, 

 where there were some fine examples of Corot, and an exquisite 

 George Mason a windy picture of calves, and a girl driving them. 

 Also there was a Paris Bordone. Fresh from his own lessons in 

 composition, I had the temerity to criticize the really faulty arrange- 

 ment of line of the Venetian. Leighton smiled indulgently, and 

 conceded the point ; " but," he said, " we are not all great Colour- 

 ists, like Paris Bordone," and certainly the sumptuous colour of the 

 picture atoned for the defective composition. 



I do not, on this occasion, recall much of the Studio, that occupies 

 the entire upper story of the house, and is about 17 feet high, 

 about 60 feet long by 25. I think I associate it more with later 

 visits. Besides, since Lord Leighton's death I have had to deliver 



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