Note 87 — Chapter VI · ToC
Reading edition
Mr. Percy Fitzgerald wrote the following:—
"Being in the same club with Lord Leighton, I could note many instances of his good humour and sweetness of temper. I am happy to think, for it was a high compliment from him, that he made my acquaintance, not I his. He had always a pleasant word; as when, entering the writing-room with his hasty tramp, he looked over at me, seated at the window pencil in hand, and rushed over in his impetuous way: "Ah, one of our trade, I see!" He was particularly interested in a museum or institute at Camberwell, and one day thanked me most warmly for having gone down to lecture there, and that it was appreciated by the people, &c. This was good-natured.
"The day he received his title, an old gentleman of the club, who did not know him, congratulated him as he passed by in high-sounding Italian. He was delighted, and poured out a reply in the same tongue, adding some pleasant remark. This little incident quite illustrates his bonhomie. It is just what Dickens would do. I gave him a copy of Sir Joshua's Discourses, a presentation one to Burke. It was fitting that the modern President should have it.
"How tragic were his last appearances at the Academy soirée! How jaded, shrunk and haggard looked the once handsome painter! He must have suffered cruelly, and at the end seemed worn out. There was something of a likeness to the lamented Irving, the same sweetness of manner, the same grace and romantic view of things. His dress was characteristic, somewhat showy, yet not scrupulously neat like a dandy. His clothes, like Irving's, seemed old friends, and lay about him in roomy fashion. His somewhat unkempt beard left some traces on the lapels of his favourite snuff-coloured coat with the flowing tails. The blue or red silk, its ends flying free, was a note of colour. Three men of mark, and on some points resembling each other, had each this fancy for a somewhat theatrical attire.
"I noticed that a nervous guest innocently presented to the porter a ticket for some artistic soirée, which was declined, to the embarrassment of the visitor. But Leighton promptly stepped forward, and kindly came to his rescue. It was curious that those three eminent artistic beings, Dickens, Leighton, and Irving, should have perished from outwearing their nervous systems, Leighton and Irving from heart-failure, Dickens from an overtaxed brain."