GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 
of themselves, might the capitalist and wealthy employer of labour 
hope to benefit those beings less fortunate than himself. Hence 
the artisan’s blue shirt, that, on one occasion at least, he wore 
at the Congress. But why, one is inclined to ask, should a 
strong and original genius, on an occasion like that described, 
run counter to the harmless prejudices and customs, of the 
class to which he himself actually belonged, when those whom 
he desired to serve, could in no wise benefit by his action ? 
He might, if he chose, in his passion for work, and urged by 
his resolve to let nothing be done in his workshops that he 
could not with his own hand do himself, rise at daybreak, and 
be at his loom ten minutes after waking. Sharp work certainly, 
but he wasted no time over an unnecessary toilette; for he 
never looked in a mirror, and indeed would not have one in 
his bedroom, or in any of the downstairs rooms. In his own 
house and garden, he might dress as he pleased; and at Queen 
Square or Oxford Street show his chintzes and papers to 
customers, himself making out the bill to purchasers, in any 
costume, that his taste or common-sense, suggested as appropriate. 
It might be wise to mingle with his workmen and with his fellows 
on the Socialist League to all appearance one of themselves, but 
surely it was unnecessary to appear before an audience of his 
equals looking like a working man, for he was not a working 
man except in the restricted sense of being an indefatigable 
worker. 
Everybody present knew this; knew that he was well-born and 
wealthy ; had been educated at Marlborough and Oxford, and 
had originally intended to enter the Church; that a visit to the 
Continent, where he fell in love with the grand Gothic churches 
of France, made him resolve to become an architect—that he 
entered Street’s office and remained a year; that, urged by 
Rossetti, he had had thoughts of adopting painting as his profession, 
but that, after all, impelled by the overmastering wish to make 
things, and make them well and beautifully—the selling of them 
being of secondary importance—and aware that to do so on any 
extensive scale would necessitate co-ordination of labour, he became 
a manufacturer. It was also common knowledge that he had a 
lovely house on the Upper Thames, and a comfortable London 
residence with a large and charming garden at Hammersmith. 
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