Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910Richards, Laura Elizabeth Howe
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Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910
Richards, Laura Elizabeth Howe
Authors, American -- 19th century -- Biography; Feminists -- United States -- Biography; Howe, Julia Ward, 1819-1910
"Miss Marston's, Onslow Sq., 4 P.M. Anti-vivisection. Met Dudley
Campbell. A day of rest, indeed. I wrote out my anti-vivisection
argument for to-morrow, and finished the second letter to the Chicago
'Tribune.' Was thus alone nearly all day. Dined at Brentini's in my old
fashion, chop, tea, and beer, costing one shilling and fivepence."
She remembered with pleasure an evening spent with the Duke and Duchess
of Devonshire at Devonshire House. A ball at Mr. Goschen's was another
evening of enchantment, as was also the dinner given for her at
Greenwich by Edmund Yates, where she had a good talk with Mr. Mallock,
whose "New Republic" was one of the books of that season. She managed,
too, sometimes to be at home; among her visitors were William Black,
John Richard Green, and Mr. Knowles, editor of the "Nineteenth Century."
The London visit lasted nearly two months; as the engagements multiply,
its records grow briefer and briefer. There are many entries like the
following:--
"Breakfast with Lord Houghton, where met Lord Granville and M.
Waddington, late Minister of Education in France. Garden party at
Chiswick in the afternoon. Prince of Wales there with his eldest son,
Prince Albert Victor. Mrs. Julian Goldsmith's ball in the evening."
It is remembered that she bravely watched the dancers foot it through
the livelong night, and drove home by daylight, with her "poor dancing
Maud"!
Madame Waddington was formerly Miss King, the granddaughter of Mr.
Ward's old partner. Our mother was always interested in meeting any
descendants of Prime, Ward & King.
With all this, she was writing letters for the Chicago "Tribune" and the
"Woman's Journal." This year of 1877 saw the height of the Æsthetic
movement. Mrs. Langtry, the "Jersey Lily," was the beauty and toast of
the season. Gilbert and Sullivan's "Patience" was the dramatic hit of
the year, and "Greenery yallery, Grosvenor Gallery" the most popular
catch of the day.
She found it hard to tear herself away from England; the visit (which
she likened to one at the house of an adored grandmother) was over all
too soon. But July was almost gone; and the two travellers finally left
the enchanted island for Holland, recalling Emerson's advice to one
going abroad for the first time: "A year for England, and a year for the
rest of the world!"
The much neglected Journal now takes up the story.
The great Franz Hals pictures delighted her beyond measure. She always
bought the best reproductions she could afford, and valued highly an
etching that she owned from his Bohémienne. She never waited for any
authority to admire either a work of art or a person. She had much to
say about the influence of the Dutch blood both in our own family and in
our country, which was to her merely a larger family connection. All
through Holland she was constantly noting customs and traditions which
we seemed to have inherited; and she felt a great likeness and sympathy
between herself and some of the Dutch people she knew.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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