Mr Lear

by Jenny Uglow

  After that he slipped into unconsciousness. He died just after two in the morning. ‘It was most peaceful,’ Mrs Hassall told Constance Strachey, ‘the great good heart simply ceasing to beat.’

  *

  Lear was buried among the cypresses and crumbling tombs in the cemetery of San Foce where light flashes off the sea beyond the wall and at noon insects hum and at dawn and dusk the birds sing. Italian law demanded a quick funeral, but it was sad, thought Mrs Hassall, that for a man who had so many friends, none could be there. Frank Lushington rushed out as soon as the telegram arrived and arranged for a headstone. Lear had wanted only his name and dates, but Frank thought ‘none of his friends would have wanted him to rest without something more’. His inscription, describing Lear as ‘landscape painter in many lands’, ends with lines from Tennyson’s ‘To E. L., on his Travels in Greece’.

  – all things fair,

  With such a pencil such a pen,

  You shadow’d forth to distant men

  I read and felt that I was there.

  His grave is next to the memorial to Giorgio and Nicola, their headstones matching. Lear is not with the ‘Colony’, the rows of British expats who have a large space of their own. He is just round a corner, on a separate path. Slightly apart.

  There was an Old Person of Hove,

  Who frequented the depths of a grove

  Where he studied his books, with the wrens and the rooks,

  That tranquil Old Person of Hove.

  Pax vobiscum, Mr Lear.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Like all admirers of Edward Lear, I am indebted for her work on his nonsense, art, life, and letters to the late Vivien Noakes, whose papers are now at Somerville College, Oxford. I have gained enormously, too, from current scholars, especially Hugh Haughton on nonsense, letters and language and Bob Peck on Lear’s natural history; and it has been an extra pleasure to feel surrounded by enthusiastic colleagues like James Williams, Matt Bevis and Sara Lodge, who are all writing on Lear’s poetry and intellectual culture. My sense of being part of a collaborative venture has been heightened, by the support of Marco Graziosi, who is not only transcribing Lear’s diaries, but runs the ‘Blog of Bosh’, which contains bibliographies, guides to manuscripts, updates on recent sales and many articles.

  I am grateful to the Lushington family, as heirs to the estate of Franklin Lushington, for permission to quote from unpublished Lear material, and to Dr Peter Gillies and Dr David Michell for permission to use documents in their possession. I would also like to thank the owners who have allowed me to reproduce paintings, as noted in the List of Illustrations, and the archivists, curators and dealers who have helped my search, particularly Ann Manuel at Somerville College, Oxford; Grace Timmins at the Tennyson Research Centre, Lincoln; Hope Mayo at the Houghton Library, Harvard; Charles Harrison and Katherine Wodehouse at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

  This has been an adventure, and I have many people to thank. Clem Fisher took me into the back rooms of the Liverpool World Museum, and showed me the ‘types’ of Lear’s birds and animals. Charles Lewsen has been warmly interested throughout; conversations with Sara Lodge have stirred me on, and I have enjoyed my correspondence with Susie Wintergreen, who is writing on Sarah Lear’s life in New Zealand. The Rt Hon. the Earl of Derby kindly allowed me to see his collection and reproduce paintings and drawings; Stephen Lloyd guided me round Knowsley and Christina Kokosalakis provided welcome assistance. Stephen Pollock gave expert advice on the nature of Lear’s epilepsy; Charles Nugent shared his knowledge of Lear’s watercolours and travels in the Lake District; Stephen Duckworth his experience of Athos; and David Cobham his research into the Lushington family. For ideas, talk and other good things my thanks go to Christine Carswell, Mary Evans, Will May, Wendy Rowland, Rona Sulkin, Peter Swaab and Marina Warner. And I am more than grateful to Nick Roe, who read the text with meticulous attention.

  At Rogers, Coleridge and White, my agent Gill Coleridge has guided me through with great warmth, and Matt Turner is always invaluable. At Faber & Faber I am indebted to Julian Loose, my editor for many years, and since his departure I feel lucky to have been edited by Mitzi Angel, a fine publisher and ever-encouraging presence. I could not do without Kate Ward, who always manages the intricacies of production with skill, humour and grace. I’m grateful too to Pedro Nelson, Donna Payne and Kate Burton, and to Eleanor Rees and Peter McAdie for copy-editing and proofreading, Sarah Ereira for the index, and Stephen Page for his support. In New York I am grateful to Melanie Jackson, to Jonathan Galassi for his much-appreciated encouragement, and to all the team at Farrar Straus.

  I owe special thanks to Julian Barnes, who gave me the push I needed to begin, and to the memory of the late Pat Kavanagh. Alison Samuel has always been a great person to talk to. And above all, thank you again, to Hermione Lee, best of readers and best of friends, and to John Barnard. My children and grandchildren have been tolerant allies, reading nonsense aloud with gusto, and my deepest thanks go to Steve, for untangling family histories, for travelling with me to Lear places at home and abroad, and, indeed, for everything.

  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

  Unless noted below, all works are by Lear, and illustrations to the limericks, alphabets, stories, botany and nonsense songs are taken from early Nonsense books. Lear’s drawings, watercolours and oils are scattered between many galleries and libraries. Several collections are now digitised in part or in full, notably those of the British Museum Department of Prints and Drawings; the Victoria & Albert Museum; the Ashmolean, Oxford; the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale Center for British Art; and the Houghton Library, Harvard University. The Houghton’s great landscape archive is based on Northbrook’s collection of c.3530 drawings, bought in the 1930s by W. B. O. Field, still in Lear’s two wooden storage cabinets, plus additional gifts from the former curator, Philip Hofer. The main categories are Drawings of Animals and Birds, c.1831–6 (MS Typ 55.12); Landscape Drawings, 1834–84 (MS Typ 55.11, MS Typ 55.26, TypDr805.L513), and Miscellaneous Drawings, 1849–1866 (Typ 55.14), while other files contain drawings and proofs of the nonsense, and music.

  9 ‘Brother Chicken’, Queery Leary Nonsense (2nd edition, 1911)

  13 Bowman’s Lodge, Holloway

  19 Portrait of Edward Lear, by Ann Lear (c.1821). Peter Lear, Gillies Collection, photo Stephen A’Court.

  31 Hexandria Monogynia MS Typ 55.4, Houghton Library, Harvard University

  33 ‘There was an old person so silly’, Duncan manuscript (1864), Bosh & Nonsense, (1982)

  35 Peppering House (1829). Private collection

  46 Feather and business card. Courtesy of Charles Nugent. Photo Guy Peppiatt Fine Art

  51 Red and Yellow Macaw, Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots (1832)

  55 ‘Parrots and People’ (c.1830–2). MS Typ 55.9 Houghton

  59 Culminated Toucan, from John Gould, A Monograph of the Ramphastidae (1834)

  60 Eagle Owl, from John Gould, The Birds of Europe (1837)

  62 Heads of Ara Ararauna (Linn.) Courtesy of the Rt Hon. the Earl of Derby, 2017

  66 Silhouette of Edward Lear, aged around twenty. National Portrait Gallery, London

  69 Spectacled Owl, watercolour. Courtesy of the Rt Hon. the Earl of Derby, 2017

  69 Wattle-crowned Crane, watercolour. Courtesy of the Rt Hon. the Earl of Derby, 2017

  69 Quebec Marmot, watercolour. Courtesy of the Rt Hon. the Earl of Derby, 2017

  70 Malayan Giant Squirrel, watercolour. Courtesy of the Rt Hon. the Earl of Derby, 2017

  72 ‘Portraites of the inditchenous beestes of New Olland’, Pierpont Morgan Museum and Library, New York, Gift of Mrs Paul Pennoyer, 1963

  75 Knowsley Hall, September 1835. Courtesy of the Rt Hon. the Earl of Derby, 2017

  81 Head of a Chimpanzee (17 October 1835). MS Typ 55.12, Houghton

  82 Ephialtes (Scops-eared owl). Courtesy of the Rt Hon. the Earl of Derby, 2017

  84 ‘When I dreamed I was young and innocen
t’. Pierpont Morgan Library, New York

  87 Miss Maniac, Houghton MS Typ 55.6, Houghton

  89 Robin Grey, H. W. Liebert, Lear in the Original, 1975

  90 St Kiven and the Gentle Kathleen. Donald C. Gallup, 1973

  95 ‘There was an Old Man of Tobago’, H. W. Liebert, Lear in the Original, 1975

  98 Umbrellifera, MS Typ 55.14, Houghton

  103 Scafell Pike from Styhead Pass (1836). British Museum

  109 Rome from Monte Pincio (1841) from Views in Rome and its Environs (1841)

  116 Temple of Venus and Rome, (1840). Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund

  119 Campagna of Rome from Villa Mattei, from Views in Rome and its Environs (1841)

  123 Amalfi (1838). Victoria & Albert Museum, London

  126 Penry Williams, Civitella Gazette, 1839. British Museum

  128 Edward Lear by Wilhelm Marstrand (1840). National Portrait Gallery

  131 ‘Caius Marius in the marsh’ (1841). Courtesy of Justin Schiller

  135 Romulus and Remus (1841). Frederick R. Koch Collection, Beinecke

  136 Mr Lear recovers his hat (1842). Frederick R. Koch Collection, Beinecke

  137 ‘L discovers Captn Hornby’s office’. H. W. Liebert, Lear in the Original, 1975

  139 ‘L … considers his horse far from tame’. British Museum

  142 Lago di Fucino, from Illustrated Excursions in Italy (1846)

  145 San Vittorino (1845). MS Typ 55.26. Houghton

  151 Cover of A Book of Nonsense (1861)

  160 ‘There was an Old Man of New York’, Frederick R. Koch Collection, Beinecke

  166 Syracuse quarries (1847). MS Typ 55.26, Houghton

  168 Palizzi, from Journals of a Landscape Painter in Southern Calabria (1852)

  169 Child in Calabrian costume. Northbrook folios, Liverpool Central Library

  172 Ann Lear by Mrs Arundale, 1847. Peter Lear Gillies Collection, photo Stephen A’Court

  175 Avlona (detail), from Journals of a Landscape Painter in Albania (1851)

  177 Athens (1848). MS Typ 55.26, Houghton Library, Harvard University

  181 Monastir, from Journals of a Landscape Painter in Albania (1851)

  185 Khimara, from Journals of a Landscape Painter in Albania (1851)

  187 Suli, from Journals of a Landscape Painter in Albania (1851)

  191 Outside the Walls of Suez (1849). Yale Center for British Art, Gift of Donald C. Gallup

  192 Near Wadi el-Sheikh (1849). MS Typ 55.26, Houghton

  194 Franklin Lushington, c.1840. Private collection.

  201 Lear at the RA Schools, Strachey, Letters

  210 The Mountains of Thermopylae, 1852. Bristol Museum and Art Gallery

  213 ‘Illyrian woodlands’, Akhrida, Albania. MS Typ 55.7 Houghton

  220 ‘The vast Akrokeraunian Walls’, Khimara, Albania. MS Typ 55.7 Houghton

  222 ‘Morn broadened.’ Civitella di Subiaco (Italy). MS Typ 55.7,

  228 Philae (1863). Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

  234 A shepherd at Kerkira (1856). MS Typ 55.26, Houghton

  236 Corfu from Ascension (1862). Yale Center for British Art, Gift of Donald C. Gallup

  243 The Monastery of Zografu. Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

  244 Lear, Lushington and friends. Lushington Family Album, MS Typ 1181, Houghton

  247 Nuneham (1860) Berger Collection, Denver Art Museum, Colorado

  248 Lear and Fortescue at Ardee (1857). Strachey, Letters

  251 Edward Lear by Holman Hunt (1857). Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool

  259 The theatre, Petra (1858). Private collection

  260 Masada (1858). Legion of Honour Museum, San Francisco

  262 ‘A was an Ass’, Tatton alphabet (1849), facsimile 1926

  263 ‘W was a whale’, Gertrude Lushington alphabet, MS Typ 55.14, Houghton

  265 ‘B was once a little bear’. MS Typ 55.14, Houghton

  265 ‘M was once a little mouse’. MS Typ 55.14, Houghton

  268 ‘Thistles & Moles’, MS Typ 55.14 Houghton

  283 ‘There was an Old Man of Lodore’, Duncan manuscript (1864), Bosh & Nonsense (1982)

  284 Oscar Gustave Rejlander, The Tennysons at Farringford (c.1862). Museum of Reading

  286 Farringford (1864). Tennyson Research Centre, Lincoln.

  290 The Temple of Apollo at Bassae (c.1854–5). The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

  300 ‘There was a young lady of Lucca’. MS Typ 55. Houghton

  311 Lear the artist. Strachey, Letters

  312 Cedars of Lebanon (1862). Private collection: photo Charles Nahum Ltd

  316 Beachy Head (1862). Private collection

  318 Lear’s Corfu gallery. Strachey, Letters

  320 ‘There was an old man with a Book’. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

  323 Cape Lefkada (Cape Ducato), from Views in the Seven Ionian Islands (1863)

  326 Palaiokastritsa, Corfu, from Views in the Seven Ionian Islands (1863)

  331 Mount Ida from Phre (1864). British Museum

  337 Oneglia, Riviera di Ponente, 1864. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

  338 Venice (1865). By kind permission of David Reid: photo Bonhams

  344 Augusta Bethell. Private collection, Royal Academy Catalogue, 1985

  354 Lear in Egypt. Courtesy of Henry Sotheran Ltd.

  355 Near Gau el Kebir (1867). Yale Center for British Art, Gift of Donald C. Gallup

  357 Abu Simbel (1867). Yale Center for British Art, Gift of Donald C. Gallup

  360 Letter to Anna Duncan, 1865. Beinecke

  383 Calico Pie (1868). MS Typ 55.14, Houghton

  386 Gertrude Lushington, 1870. Lushington Family Album, MS Typ 1181, Houghton

  391 The Forest of Bavella, Corsica (1868). MS Typ 55.26, Houghton

  393 Ajaccio, from Journal of a Landscape Painter in Corsica (1870)

  398 Manypeeplia Upsidownia. MS Typ 55.14, Houghton

  403 The Goodnatured Grey Gull. MS Typ 55.14 Houghton

  414 ‘There was a young lady in white’. MS 55.1, Houghton

  418 ‘Lear shows his name’. Strachey, Later Letters

  424 Lear and Foss. Strachey, Later Letters

  425 Villa Emily (1870s). Strachey, Later Letters

  427 Mr Lear Stamps & Dances for Joy (1871). Somerville College, Oxford

  428 Lear watering the flowers. Strachey, Later Letters

  430 Lear in a tree, Strachey, Later Letters

  435 Lear and Giorgio on an elephant (1873). Strachey, Later Letters

  436 Lucknow (1873). MS Typ 55.26, Houghton

  441 Benares (1873). MS Typ 55.26, Houghton

  442 Tollygunge, Calcutta (1873). Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

  444 Kinchenjunga from Darjeeling (1875–7). National Museum of Wales, Cardiff

  446 ‘There was an old man whose Giardino’. New York Public Library

  469 ‘There was an old person whose tears’. New York Public Library

  470 Monte Rosa from Monte Generoso (1878). MS Typ 55.26, Houghton

  474 ‘How pleasant to know Mr Lear’ (1879). British Library

  478 ‘The Stripy Bird’, Queery Leary Nonsense (1911)

  480 ‘For all remembrance is an arch’. MS Typ 55.7, Houghton

  482 Letter to Evelyn Baring. Queery Leary Nonsense (1911)

  485 Letter to Emily Tennyson, 1855. Beinecke

  488 Kasr es Saàd (Egypt) (1856). Legion of Honour Museum, San Francisco.

  490 ‘Athos – all things fair’. The Monastery of St Dionysius, MS Typ 55.7, Houghton

  491 ‘A looming bastion fringed with fire’, Coast of Travancore, India. MS Typ 55.7, Houghton

  493 Sketch for Enoch Arden’s Island. Tennyson Research Centre, Lincoln

  494 A walk on a windy day, 5, 1860. Beinecke

  495 Letters received and answered. Diary, 1880. MS Eng 797.3, Houghton

  496 Lear as Archbishop. Strachey, Later Letters

  498 Giorgio Kokali. Strachey,
Later Letters

  501 The Heraldic Blazon of Foss. Nonsense Songs and Stories (1898)

  508 The garden of Villa Tennyson (1881). Strachey, Later Letters

  510 Uncle Arly, rough draft. Beinecke

  517 Lear in 1887. Strachey, Later Letters

  519 Foss’s grave. Strachey, Later Letters

  521 Gravestones of Giorgio and Nicola Cocali, and Edward Lear, San Remo. Strachey, Later Letters

  Every effort has been made to trace or contact all copyright holders.

  The publishers would be pleased to rectify at the earliest opportunity any omissions or errors brought to their notice.

  ABBREVIATIONS

  AT Alfred, Lord Tennyson

  EL Edward Lear

  ET Emily Tennyson

  Ann Ann Lear

  CF Chichester Fortescue

  FC Fanny Coombe

  FL Franklin Lushington

  GC George Coombe

  HC Hubert Congreve

  HH Holman Hunt

  Lady W Frances, Lady Waldegrave

  Archives, Galleries and Collections

  Baring Baring Archive, Moorgate, London

  Ashmolean Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

  Beinecke Beinecke Library, Yale University

  BL British Library, London

  BM British Museum, London

  Bodleian Bodleian Library, Oxford

  CUL Cambridge University Library

  Fitzwilliam Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

  Glasgow Glasgow University Special Collections

  Houghton Houghton Library, Harvard University

  HRC Harry Ransom Center, Austin, Texas

  Huntington Huntington Library, San Marino

  John Rylands John Rylands Library, University of Manchester

  Liverpool Liverpool Central Library Archives

  LMA London Metropolitan Archives (including Guildhall Library)

  Morgan Pierpont Morgan Library, New York

  NLS National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh

  NMM National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

  NMS National Museum of Scotland