Canto ix. The weird ghastly figure of Despair nearly nude, with clasped

hands, unkempt hair, and deeply sunk eyes, sits in the centre of the cave, staring out abstractedly at the spectator. A stabbed corpse, with up–turned eyes and an agonised expression of face, lies on the left; whilst on the right is a Red Cross knight, typical of resolution under awe–inspiring circumstances. Behind him is the terror–stricken face of another spectator. This picture, apart from its gruesome realism and subject, is of considerable artistic merit, and is certainly one to “haunt” those who have been fortunate or unfortunate enough to see it.

There are a number of other pictures by the same artist. One of the most interesting of these pictures is a portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte, which tradition says was painted from a sketch made on the artist’s thumb nail during a personal audience.

It was here at Guy’s Cliff, when a young girl of seventeen, in the autumn of 1772 and early part of 1773, that Sarah Kemble, afterwards to become famous as Mrs. Siddons, stayed as a companion.