By Way of Remembrance, p. 384.-To his quartett of sonnets I find the date 870 appended. To one of them, the hird, there is (in a different MS.) the >recise date 23.10.70.'

An Echo from Willow-wood, p. 385. -The title indicates that this sonnet by Christina is based on those sonnets by our brother, named Willow-wood, which were first published in 1869. Christina's sonnet may possibly be intended to refer to the love and marriage of my brother and Miss Siddal, and to her early death in 1862; or it may (which I think far more probable) be intended for a wholly different train of events. The verses were printed in The Magazine of Art, with an illustration by Mr. C. Ricketts. This was in 1890; but, from the association of the sonnet with Willow-wood, I give conjecturally the date circa 1870.'

The German- French Campaign, p. 386. The notice prefixed by the authoress to these two poems is no doubt correct in saying that they were not intended to express political bias.' It is none the less true that she had incomparably more general and native sympathy with the French nationality than with the German.

The King of Sheshach,' p. 386.- It is not every one who has the Bible so much at his fingers' ends as my sister had. The king of Sheshach, a potentate obscure to several of us, is discoverable in the book of Jeremiah, ch. xxv.

To-day for me, p. 387. - Dante Rossetti considered this to be among Christina's noblest productions, and he has probably been not alone in that opinion. This is one more instance of her marked success in carrying one rhyme from end to end of a poem.

Venus's Looking-glass, p. 387.-Mr. Cayley sent to my sister a short MS.

soon afterwards, 13 October 1872, another shorter poem on the same argument. Upon the latter poem she wrote the following note: The longer of these two poems was sent me first. Then I wrote one which the second rebuts. At last I wound up by my sonnet Venus's Looking-glass.' In a copy of her collected Poems, 1875, there is also the following note : Perhaps "Love-in - Idleness would be a better title, with an eye to the next one-i.e. to Love lies Bleeding.

Love lies Bleeding, p. 388. — As Christina associated this sonnet with the preceding one, Venus's Looking-glass, I have kept them together, dating the second circa 1872.' All that I really know of its date, however, is that it got published in 1875.

Days of Vanity, p. 388.-Appeared in Scribner's Monthly for November 1872. Thus I am enabled to fix the date as 'before 1873. Some other cases of the same sort, not always specified in my notes, occur.

Cor Mio, p. 389.-I find this sonnet in my sister's handwriting, endorsed by her the original version of my sonnet.' The reference is to No. 18 in the series named Later Life. In that version the octave (beginning 'So late in autumn half the world's asleep') is entirely changed, while the sextett remains the

same. The present form of this sonnet, being a more directly personal utterance, seems worth preserving.

A Green Cornfield, p. 389.-This and some other compositions are dated by me 'before 1876,' on the ground that they were first printed in the collected volume of 1875.

Valentines to my Mother, p. 391.—I am probably not alone in considering these as very charming compositions of their simple intimate kind. Christina left a pencilled note about them thus: 'These Valentines had their origin from my dearest mother's remarking that she

had never received one. I, her C. G. R., ever after supplied one on the day; and (so far as I recollect) it was a surprise every time, she having forgotten all about it in the interim.' Our mother was born in April 1800, so she was nearly seventysix when the first Valentine was written; she died in April 1886.

Valentine for 1877, p. 391.-The signature C. G. for M. F. R.' means that these verses are spoken as in the person of Maria Francesca (our elder sister) in heaven; she had died in November 1876.

Valentine for 1878, p. 392.-This is marked on the back To the Queen of Hearts,' and the like with all the ensuing Valentines.

Valentine for 1883, p. 393. Here is an evident reminiscence as to the death of Dante Gabriel in April 1882; probably also as to the death of my infant son Michael in January 1883.

Freaks of Fashion, p. 395. -I understand that this was first published in a so-called Girls' Annual, 1878. I date it accordingly.

Parted, p. 397.-In 1880 a volume of poems by Mr. C. B. Cayley was privately printed. One of its items was entitled Moor and Christian, purporting to be taken from a Spanish source,' and expressing the emotion of a Moslem woman severed from her Christian lover. Christina, using the same metre and number of lines, wrote the present composition of course from a very diverse point of view.

To-day's Burden, p. 397.-Comes from Mr. Hall Caine's compilation, Sonnets of Three Centuries, 1882. Date conjectural, but probably not far wrong.

The Key-note, p. 397.-The title is to be understood as meaning that this sonnet was prefixed to the volume A Pageant and other Poems (1881), to serve as its key-note.

Luscious and Sorrowful,' p. 398.—

These words, Luscious and sorrowful are borrowed from a little lyric by Cayley named Noli me tangere, which was published in The Nation, 1866. In that lyric the epithets are applied to the song of the nightingale. See also the Italian poem (p. 450), headed Luscious and Sorrowful.

Johnny, p. 399.-Christina got this pretty anecdote from a book in my possession. The copy is imperfect and titleless, but I have reason to think it is named Recueil d'Actions Héroïques des Républicains Français, par Léonard Bourdon. It contains coloured prints by Labrousse, and explanatory text. The precise account given of 'Johnny' is as follows: He was named Locquet, aged eight, and was born in Paris; his trait de piété filiale' occurred on 15 pluviôse, an His mother being very ill and almost penniless, he ran off to a wig-maker, priced his fine head of hair at twelve francs, received the money, and handed it to his mother, whose illness however proved rapidly mortal. A soldier then adopted young Locquet, in the Decadary Temple of Gratitude. This estimable militaire' refused to allow his name to appear in the narrative.

7.

Hollow-sounding and mysterious, p. 400.-Some readers will recognize this title as being a phrase applied to the sea in a poem by Mrs. Hemans.

Sour Louise de la Miséricorde, 1674, p. 411.-Perhaps it is superfluous to say that this Sour Louise was the loving and lovely Duchesse de la Vallière, the mistress of Louis XIV. The year 1674 appears to be that in which she retired into a Carmelite Convent; she did not assume the veil, and become Soeur Louise, until 1675.

Birchington Churchyard, p. 412.The churchyard in which Dante Gabrie Rossetti was buried in the same month when this sonnet was written.

One Seaside Grave, p. 413.-It would seem to most people that these lines also

relate to Birchington; my belief, however, is that they relate to Hastings, where Charles Cayley lies buried.

Who shall say? p. 414.-The date circa 1884 is presumed, owing to the rough draft of the poem coming on the back of the sonnet, 'Scarce tolerable life,' etc. See the note (p. 469) to that

sonnet.

One Swallow does not make a Summer, p. 414. Was printed in Time Flies, but not reprinted in the Verses, 1893. No doubt my sister considered that it was not admissible into that series of exclusively devotional poetry. The like course was pursued with a few other items of Time Flies.

A Frog's Fate, p. 414.-Was printed as the preceding item. No title was given to the piece by my sister, so I have supplied one.

The Way of the World, p. 415.Comes from The Magazine of Art, July 1894, and must be the latest printed of any verse compositions within my sister's lifetime. Mr. Britten made an illustration to the stanzas. When they were written is quite uncertain to me-possibly at a date even later than that which I have noted.

Brother Bruin, p. 415.-I think this may probably have been written in consequence of a letter I sent, enclosing for Christina a 'history of a maltreated bear, from yesterday's Daily News.'

To my Fior-di-lisa, p. 417.-One of the friends who saw my sister most frequently and affectionately in her closing years was Miss Lisa Wilson. Christina sometimes called her Fior-di-lisa (which is the same as Fleur-de-lys). Miss Wilson, who has a graceful touch of her own both in published verse and in painting, presented to Christina in 1892 a little illuminated book of poems by herself; my sister inserted into it the present lines of response.

To-morrow, p. 417.-This little poem

(the title is mine) comes from The Face of the Deep; it was not reprinted in the Verses of 1893-I hardly see why. It might readily have found a niche in that shrine of sacred song; but, taken singly, it seems more apposite to the section of General Poems than to that of Devotional Poems.

Sleeping at Last, p. 417.-I regard these verses (the title again is mine) as being the very last that Christina ever wrote; probably late in 1893, or it may be early in 1894. They form a very fitting close to her poetic performance, the longing for rest (even as distinguished from actual bliss in heaven) being most marked throughout the whole course of her writings. I found the lines after her death, and had the gratification of presenting them, along with the childish script of her very first verses To my Mother, to the MS. Department of the British Museum.

Poems for Children, and Minor Verse, p. 417.-The term Poems for Children explains itself. By Minor Verse I designate some few things written by my sister which, while I consider them to be well worthy of preservation, are nevertheless of a slight and casual kind, and hardly fitted for being mixed up among In the Poems for

her General Poems. Children the principal item is the series named Sing-song (a title which was proposed by our mother, and immediately adopted, and no doubt liked owing to its origin, by Christina). This series, as it here stands, was compiled by Christina herself, and brought out in 1872 as a separate volume, charmingly illustrated by that fine artist and most estimable and lovable man, Mr. Arthur Hughes. I do not, of course, interfere here with the arrangement adopted by my sister, and therefore the whole of Sing-song has to go among the Poems for Children. But I cannot help regarding this with some regret, as the series includes various lyrics which, though not unadapted for children, are truly in a high strain of

It

poetry, and perfectly suited for figuring among her verse for adults, and even for taking an honoured place as such. may perhaps be as well to specify which are the items that I more especially regard in this light. They are the items which respectively begin (1) ‘Dead in the cold, a song-singing thrush'; (2) I dug and dug amongst the snow'; (3) A baby's cradle with no baby in it'; (4) 'Hope is like a harebell trembling from its birth'; (5) Growing in the

vale'; (6) O wind, where have you been'; (7) What are heavy? Sea-sand and sorrow'; (8) The summer nights are short'; (9) Twist me a crown of wind-flowers'; (10) 'Dancing on the hill-tops'; (11) 'If hope grew on a bush'; (12) Under the ivy-bush'; (13) 'Sing me a song'; (14) The wind has such a rainy sound'; (15) 'Three little children'; (16) Rosy maiden Winifred '; (17) Roses blushing red and white'; (18) 'When a mounting skylark sings'; (19) 'Who has seen the wind?' (20) 'O sailor come ashore'; (21) 'The lily has a smooth stalk'; (22) 'Oh fair to see'; (23) Is the moon tired? she looks so pale'; (24) 'Good-bye in fear, good-bye in sorrow'; (25) Baby lies so fast asleep.'

These, however, are not the only compositions which might, without any impropriety (but for the original form of their publication), be transferred to the class of General Poems.

Sonnets written to Bouts-rimés, p. 417. Our brother Dante Gabriel and myself were, towards 1848, greatly addicted to writing sonnets together to bouts-rimés; most of my verses published in The Germ-and this remark applies not to sonnets alone-were thus composed. Christina did not do much in the like way; but, being in my company at Brighton in the summer of 1848, she consented to try her chance. Like her brothers, she was very rapid at the work. The first sonnet in this present series was done in nine minutes; the ninth in five. After the Brighton days she renewed this

exercise hardly at all. A few of her bouts-rimés sonnets, after the first scribbling of them, were retouched to some, but only a small, extent.

Sonnet vii, p. 419.-This sonnet about a chilly August is certainly not a marked success; but it pictured with some truth the day on which it was written, and I allow it to pass muster.

Sonnet viii, p. 420.-Dante Rossetti, writing on 30 August 1848, said, in relation to one of Christina's bouts-rimés sonnets (I am not certain which): Her other is first-rate. Pray impress upon her that this, and the one beginning Methinks the ills of life' [i.e. No. 8], are as good as anything she has written, and well worthy of revision.'

The Plague, p. 420.-Dante Rossetti's letter above mentioned says of this sonnet: 'I grinned tremendously over Christina's Plague, which however is forcible, and has something good in it.'

Sonnets xa, b, and c, pp. 420, 421.— The sonnet marked was, like I to 9, written at Brighton. At a later date1850, or perhaps earlier-Christina wrote the prose story for girls entitled Maude An incident in (published in 1897).

this story is the competition of three young ladies composing bouts-rimés sonnets; cis pronounced to be the best of the three. The sonnet a (it will at once be observed) is not a true sonnet at all, having lines of unequal length. This was, of course, intentional on Christina's part, to mark the inaptitude of the young lady who is supposed to have indited a. None the less I give the three sonnets together, as showing how readily Christina could utilize the same rhymes for three entirely distinct lines of thought or subject. Two of the phrases in care thus commented in Maude: I have literally seen a man in Regent Street wearing a sort of hooded cloak with one tassel. Of course every one will understand "the Bason" to mean the one in St. James's Park.'

To Lalla, p. 421.-This was a pet name given to Henrietta Polydore, daughter of our Uncle Henry. The name was her own baby invention, I think. She became consumptive, and died in America in 1874, aged about twenty-eight.

Two Enigmas, p. 422.-The answer to the first of these enigmas is 'Jack.' It was published in a little pocket-book named Marshall's Ladies' Daily Remem brancer for 1850, and must apparently (according to the conditions laid down) have been sent in before June 1849. One copy of the Remembrancer was awarded as a prize to the authoress; some other more admired contributors received two copies. The second enigma means Punch,' which was another of the subjects for the Remembrancer of 1850. This second enigma has reached me only in a manuscript copy made by

one of our aunts.

Two Charades, p. 422.-The first means 'Candid,' the second Proserpine.' The latter was published in the Remembrancer aforenamed. There was another unpublished charade, gisthus; but I have not thought it deserving of type.

Portraits, p. 423.-This warm-hearted though light effusion is meant for myself in the first stanza, and for Dante Gabriel and myself in the last. There used to be an intermediate stanza, characterizing him; it is torn out (by his rather arbitrary hand, beyond a doubt), and I do not remember its terms. Many readers now will agree with me in thinking this a great pity. A laudatory phrase or two regarding myself ought possibly to have induced me to exclude the verses, but I cannot make up my mind to do that.

for she was often extremely conversible up to and beyond that date, spite of her pain and languor-and I wrote them down from her lips. When first published (1896), the verses were entitled by me Near the Styx; but I now gather that Christina's own name for them was Charon.

The P. R. B. (1), p. 424.—These lines were sent to me in a letter from Christina (then settled with our parents at Frome, Somerset), saying: "This remarkable morning I commenced a doggerel on the P. R. B.,' etc. And then, after copying out the lines, 'You may guess that at this point of my letter I came to a stand, from the extra finish bestowed on the three last asterisks.' For a few remarks on the substance of the lines, see the following note.

The P. R. B. (2), p. 424.- Was first published in my Memoir of Dante G. Rossetti, 1895. The sonnet was written soon after the election of Millais as A. R. A. The allusions to Woolner, then in Australia; Holman - Hunt, who was projecting to visit Egypt and Palestine ; Dante Rossetti, who had ceased to exhibit his paintings; and Stephens, who had scarcely come forward as an exhibiting artist at all, can be readily understood. The allusion to myself is less perspicuous. It means that I, as art-critic of The Spectator, abused in that paper my fellows in the Præraphaelite Brotherhood, and that no one heeded my reviews. This joke was not historically true; I upheld, with such vigour as was in me, the cause of the Præraphaelites, and my articles, being at first solitary in that tone of criticism, passed not wholly unobserved.

Winter, p. 425.-Mr. Swynfen Jervis, a friendly acquaintance of our father, wrote a quatrain and a half entitled Sir Winter; and he appears to have got Christina to complete the little poem. Christina finished quatrain two, and wrote five others. The third of these five reverts to the idea of Sir Winter'; so I omit it, as being extraneous to the