Chapter 2

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_.