It may be noticed that Keats's own eyes were brown, and not blue, as
stated by Mrs. Proctor to Lord Houghton. Mrs. Speed showed me a note to
that effect written by Mrs. George Keats on the margin of the page in
Lord Houghton's Life (p. 100, vol. i.), where Mrs. Proctor's description
is given. Cowden Clarke made a similar correction in his Recollections,
and in some of the later editions of Lord Houghton's book the word 'blue'
is struck out. In Severn's portraits of Keats also the eyes are given as
brown.
The exquisite sense of colour expressed in the ninth and tenth lines may
be paralleled by
The Ocean with its vastness, its blue green,
of the sonnet to George Keats.
THE AMERICAN INVASION
(Court and Society Review, March 23, 1887.)
A terrible danger is hanging over the Americans in London. Their future
and their reputation this season depend entirely on the success of
Buffalo Bill and Mrs. Brown-Potter. The former is certain to draw; for
English people are far more interested in American barbarism than they
are in American civilisation. When they sight Sandy Hook they look to
their rifles and ammunition; and, after dining once at Delmonico's, start
off for Colorado or California, for Montana or the Yellow Stone Park.
Rocky Mountains charm them more than riotous millionaires; they have been
known to prefer buffaloes to Boston. Why should they not? The cities of
America are inexpressibly tedious. The Bostonians take their learning
too sadly; culture with them is an accomplishment rather than an
atmosphere; their 'Hub,' as they call it, is the paradise of prigs.
Chicago is a sort of monster-shop, full of bustle and bores. Political
life at Washington is like political life in a suburban vestry. Baltimore
is amusing for a week, but Philadelphia is dreadfully provincial; and
though one can dine in New York one could not dwell there. Better the
Far West with its grizzly bears and its untamed cow-boys, its free open-
air life and its free open-air manners, its boundless prairie and its
boundless mendacity! This is what Buffalo Bill is going to bring to
London; and we have no doubt that London will fully appreciate his show.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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