| Title | Diary covering two years, both with significant gaps in the Spring. Crowe works on the subjects of Mary Queen of Scots, Johnson at Uttoxeter, beggars, a Quaker Meeting, Vestal, Going to Church, Old Mortality and Village Fountain. |
| Description | In October and November in both years he makes a long journey around the Midlands and the North, a mixture of work for the South Kensington Museum and sightseeing, and in 1869 the trip also takes in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Bristol and Dublin. Hustings and election fever are described in various towns on the 1868 trip - at Macclesfield there was a public show of hands in favour of the Liberals, at which "the opposite party, who had a most energetic fugleman, who battered his hat fearfully, cheered all the same & asked for a Poll".
Visiting Haworth at the beginning of December 1869 prompts a recollection of Thackeray and Charlotte Brontë: "...when he told us he had written an admiring letter to the author of Jane Eyre; that he had got a reply in a female hand - his idea was that the work was a joint production - semi masculine and feminine, How long after the mystery was cleared up; & I recollect at one of his Lectures, there was a hush and a 'there she is' as the little body passed down the stairs, too rapidly for me to note her features. It is dissapointing to read to read [sic] in Mrs. Gaskell that her nose was large - that so was her intellect a more important consideration to us all".
Other events:
15 January 1868, an account of the Annual Dinner [possibly at the Reform Club], with the toasts proposed.
7-25 February 1868, an account of the illness and death of Crowe's father Eyre Evans Crowe, detailed description of the painful process of removing stones from the bladder. The funeral was on 28 February: "The day was bright & the sky Italian and weather genial, like his life, his writings and his character".
1 September 1868, Crowe comments, "Manet, who called on me the other day, is the Artist who got up a separate exhibition of his own & is a pupil of Couture. He has got to that pass when he must hit or miss the public with some satisfactory work".
14 October 1868, in relation to the French artist Benedict Masson: "I recollect him well at Delaroche's atalier, as a most unpopular dapper dandy (who used to find dead rats carefully popped into his colour box...)".
January 1869, events surrounding the death of Crowe's brother in law Robert Wynne at Bronywendon.
15 June 1869, an account of Brixton Female House of Correction, where "it seems the Matrons take care to keep their backs to the wall always in case of attack".
15 October 1869, Crowe's impression of the new Holborn Viaduct.
Crowe spends much time in the Reform Club with friends, or with his family. A great deal of interest is taken in the career of his sister in law, the famous actress Kate Bateman, who was working in London and later toured America. On 19 December 1868 Crowe describes her performance in Pietra at the Haymarket Theatre, and also the disruptive "loud talking...laughter & other disgraceful conduct" of the Prussian Ambassador's party the night before. |