The life and literary and artistic activities of Robert Baldwin Ross, 1869-1918

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Content This dissertation has been
microfilmed exactly as received 69-16,542
BOGLE, Edra Charlotte, 1934-
TIIE LIFE AND LITERARY AND ARTISTIC
ACTIVITIES OF ROBERT BALDWIN ROSS,
1869-1918.
University of Southern California, Ph.D., 1969
Language and Literature, modern
University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan
^Copyright by
EDRA CHARLOTTE BOGLE
1969
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THE LIFE AND LITERARY AND ARTISTIC ACTIVITIES
OF ROBERT BALDWIN ROSS, 1869-1918
by
Edra Charlotte Bogle
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(Comparative Literature)
January 1969
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UNIVER SITY O F S O U T H E R N CA LIFO R N IA
THE G RADUATE SCHO OL
U N IV E R S IT Y PARK
LOS ANGELES. C AL IFO K ilA 9 0 0 0 7
This dissertation, written by
...........Edra _Charlotte Bogle.....
under the direction of A.e.r.. Dissertation Com-
mittee, and approved by a ll its members, has
been presented to and accepted by The G radu
ate School, in partial fu lfillm e n t of require
ments fo r the degree of
D O C T O R O F P H I L O S O P H Y
' 771
Dean
Date . 1 9 6 9
Jiairm an
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- • ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
An adequate work on Robert Ross could not have been
written without the help of the Ross family. The gracious
ness of Mr. J. P. B. Ross and his wife, and of Mr. James
Robertson and his father Mr. Giles Robertson, was worthy of
Robbie himself, as was the invitation of and subsequent cor
respondence with Sir Rupert Kart-Davis and his late wife,
with whom the Ross family letters are presently deposited.
The late Vyvyan Holland also kindly shared his memories of
Robbie with me in conversation.
Many libraries have contributed toward this work. Most
important was the William Andrews Clark Library in Los
Angeles, whose collection of Wilde material is unsurpassed,
and whose staff has always been very kind, as was the staff
of the Newspaper Library of the British Museum, the Fitz-
william Museum at Cambridge, and the Bodleian Library at
Oxford. Other libraries -consulted included the Brotherton
Library, University of Leeds; British Museum Reading Room
and Manuscripts Division; University of Texas Library;
U.C.L.A. Research Library; Los Angeles Public Library; Uni
versity of California at Berkeley Library; and of course,
the U. S. C. Library, whose Reference Department, especially
ii
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I4r. Glenn Sunday and Miss Marian Schulman, has turned up
many bits of information I would not otherwise have found.
I should also like to thank the members of my disserta
tion committee/ Dr. David Malone, Mr. James Durbin, and Dr.
Bruce McElderry, and also Dr. John Spalek, Dr. Arthur
Knodel, Dr. John Nichol, and Dr. Richard Trapp, who served
on my examination committee. The editorial assistance I
received from Mr. Durbin was invaluable, as was the encour
agement of Dr. Norma Goodrich, Dean Paul Hadley, and Dr.
Spalek. In addition I should like to thank my supervisor
and employer. Dr. Lewis Stieg, who has cooperatively ac
cepted my irregular schedule and absences while working on
tne degree, and allowed me leave in the summer of 19 66 to
visit Europe and consult original sources.
E.C.B,
111
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS................................. ii
Chapter
I. INTRODUCTION ...................................... 1
II. ANCESTORS, CHILDHOOD, AND YOUTH ............... 22
A Family Tradition of Honor, Courage,
and P r i d e ................................ 22
Robbie's Parents ........................... 25
A Spoiled, Protected Child ................ 31
School Days.................................. 36
Cambridge.................................... 45
A Beginning Writer ......................... 47
Ross's Friends ............................. 49
Scandal...................................... 67
Significance of Ross's Formative Years . . 71
III. THE WILDE Y E A R S .................................. 73
Wilde's Ideal Husband ................... 73
Ross Helps Constance Wilde ................ 74
Trouble Gathers ............................. 75
Did Douglas or Ross Introduce Wilde to
Male Prostitutes?...................... 78
I V
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Chapter ' ' Page
Disaster.................................... 82
Ross's Reaction .............................. 86
Wilde in Prison.............................. 9 6
Other Troubles.............................. 101
Wilde's Financial Problems ................ 105
Ross Meets Wilde Again .................... Ill
The Struggle for W i l d e .................... 115
Some Business Matters ....................... 124
A Short Vacation from Wilde ................ 127
Wilde Returns to Do u g l a s.................. 127
Robbie and Constance....................... 136
Visits and Lectures......................... 138
Other Activities and Fr i e n d s .............. 140
The Years 1899 and 1900 .................... 146
Summary....................................... 160
IV. YEARS OF ACHIEVEÎ-IENT: 1901-1912................ 161
Ross Takes Over the Carfax Gallery .... 161
The Edwardian Art World.................... 163
Ross's First Years at the Carfax ......... 167
Ross's Self-Assumed Responsibility to Wilde 179
Ross's Relationship with Douglas at This
Time....................................... 184
Ross's Personal L i f e ....................... 186
Carfax Becomes Well Established ........... 188
Publication of De Profundis................ 195
V
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Chapter Page
Wilde's Increasing Popularity .............. 201
Ross Meets Wilde's Sons..................... 206
Some of Ross's F r i e n d s ..................... 209
Some of Ross's Art Activities During
These Y e a r s .............................. 221
Ross Edits Wilde's Works .................. 224
Ross's Last Year at the C a r f a x ............ 229
' A Dinner Honoring R o s s ..................... 231
Ross's Accomplishments as of the
End of 1908 234
Trouble with B o s i e ......................... 235
Ross Leaves the C a r f a x ..................... 241
Ross's Morning Post Activities ........... 242
Ross's Critical Beliefs about Painting . . 244
Responsibilities in the Art World......... 253
The Reburial and Tomb of W i l d e ........... 2 57
Ross's Masques and Phases .................. 261
Other Publications by R o s s ................ 271
The First Postimpressionist Exhibit .... 272
Ross Leaves the Morning P o s t .............. 276
A New J o b ..................................... 279
Summary ..................................... 280
V. NEW TRIALS 1912-1914.............................. 282
Ransome's Biography of Wilde .............. 284
De Profundis................................ 286
The Ransome C a s e ........................... 291
vi
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Chapter Page
Douglas Becomes Dangerous .................. 293
The Ransome Trial........................... 299
Douglas Tries to Buy a W i t n e s s ........... 3 01
Ross Quarrels with Some Friends........... 3 03
A Trip to R u s s i a ........................... 305
Ross Appeals for Protection................ 306
Ross Tries to Continue His Usual Life . . . 310
Douglas Tries to Buy Another witness . . . 312
Anxious Waiting .............................. 319
Ross's Friends React ....................... 326
The Preliminary Hearing .................... 331
Crosland's Behavior ......................... 333
The Trial Opens.............................. 335
The Summing U p .............................. 341
Summary....................................... 342
VI. THE WAR YEARS, 1914-1918......................... 344
Business Matters Following the Verdict . . 344
Public Support for Ross ..................... 347
War B e g i n s .................................. 352
Ross's New Home .............................. 354
Ross, the Pacifist and Pro-German......... 355
Ross Breaks with S m i t h .................... 3 59
Ross Prosecutes Douglas for Libel .......... 360
Crosland's Action Against Ross for Malicious
Prosecution.............................. 372
Vll
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Chapter Page
An Honor for Ross........................... 374
Further Actions of Douglas's .............. 376
Ross's Health ................................ 377
The War Affects the Lives of Ross's Friends 379
Ross's Art Activities ....................... 380
Frank Harris's Book on Wilde . 384
Ross and George Moore....................... 385
Other Friends of Ross's.................... 389
Ross's Services to Writers ................ 393
Art Activities............................. 403
Ross and War A r t ........................... 407
Wartime Troubles ........................... 410
A Proposed Trip............................. 414
Ross's Death ................................ 415
Summary....................................... 417
VII. CONCLUSION.................................... 418
APPENDICES
A. A Partial List of the Shows Held at the Car
fax Gallery While It Was Owned by Robert
R o s s ......................................... 421
B. "The Postimpressionists at the Grafton: The
Twilight of the Idols" by Robert Ross . . . 425
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Published Sources: Books ......................... 432
Published Sources : Periodical Articles......... 438
Published Sources : Works by Ross................ 444
Manuscript Collections ........................... 473
Interviews......................................... 493
Vlll
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
When the sum of a man's work is assessed, after his
life is done, the things to be added up are usually the
books he has published, the offices he has held, the museums
in which his paintings are hung. Each field has its items
to be reckoned, and the scientist whose name remains on a
principle or process will achieve immortality, as will the
businessman whose successor reverently commands an author
ized biography of the founder of the firm.
In one field, however, a genius may receive little
honor after his death. He whose energies have been devoted
to making a success of others, whose best ideas have been
given freely to someone else to possess and develop, whose
time has been spent gaining publicity and acclaim for his
friends, may be mentioned gratefully and casually by those
persons when they write their autobiographies, but their
attention is quite properly focused on themselves. Within a
few years there may be no record left of a man such as
Robert Ross except a few warm paragraphs here and there, an
accumulation of old letters, and a legend in his family.
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And this is as Robert Ross would have wished it. In his
life he sought no publicity, preferring that any fame go to
those whose work he hoped to advance. Why then should "some
horrid graduate (Litterae inhumaniores)"^ try to reveal a
man not widely known in his own time, and almost forgotten
today?
Had Ross been either a bit more, or a bit less obscure,
there would be no need for a biography about him. Ross,
however, was one of a series of prominent men who were
involved in the fight for the liberty of an individual to
live his own life and to write about man's situation as he
saw it. In France Gustave Flaubert had, in 18 57, fought for
and won the right to publish his Madame Bovary, which seemed
to the censors an immoral book. Flaubert's battle helped
develop in France a freedom for literature which, for
instance, made it possible for Ross's contemporary, André
Gide, to write honestly about sensuality and about his own
homosexuality, or for Paul Verlaine to receive attention as
a serious poet in spite of his personal life. England, how
ever, restrained by the moral standards of Queen Victoria,
had never had its Flaubert. Most English writers were care
ful to hide scandals in their personal lives, and to have
privately printed any frank books that they wrote. A scan
dal in one's personal life could wreck the career of such a
^Robert Ross, "Mr. Benson's "Pater,'" Masques and
Phases (London: Arthur L. Humphreys, 1909)1 p. 133.
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promising political figure as Sir Edward Dilke, or even a
proven leader such as Ireland's champion, Parnell. Though
writers were allowed somewhat more freedom than men in poli
tics, when Oscar Wilde was revealed as a homosexual, it
caused a great deal of public comment and distaste, and the
withdrawal of his books and plays. Everyone who knew him
was caught in the notoriety, and the young man who had
introduced Wilde to homosexual practises, who refused to
abandon their friendship, who after Wilde's death took
esponsibility for his literary reputation and financial
affairs, had his own reputation severely damaged. Later,
when Ross's own merits had won him a firm place in literary
and artistic London, he was again compelled to risk his
position and peace of mind in order to fight for what was
left of Wilde's good name. This fight made for Ross a
bitter enemy. Lord Alfred Douglas, who did his best, for the
rest of his long life, to see that Ross's name should "go
stinking down the ages."^
Anyone who reads widely in the period finds references
which would almost make it seem that there were two Robert
Rosses. One was extravagantly kind, scrupulously honest,
absurdly chivalrous. The other was a sycophant who lied,
stole, and flattered to raise himself from obscurity to a
^Alfred Douglas to Robert Ross, November 2, 1913, in
Robert Ross, "Statement Prepared for Case of Ross vs. Cros-
land, 1914," p. 2, in the Clark Library.
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minor notoriety. For instance, contrast the description of
him by Vyvyan Holland, Oscar Wilde's son, with that of Frank
Harris, as reported by Samuel Roth:
. . . from the moment that I met Robert Ross, I knew that
I had found a true friend of my own, one who would be
loyal and true and never betray me. And the impression I
had at that moment remained with me until Robbie's untime
ly death almost exactly eleven years later. . . . He
turned out to be smal] . and neat, with a tidy moustache.
The worries of his life had deprived him of a great deal
of his hair, but he had a roguish, almost boyish look that
attracted me at once. He had an infectious laugh which
Ccui.c. very easily. ^
Think of him, Sam, a skinny little man with a head as bald
as an egg, thin, spindly legs, and knees that knocked to
gether every time he got excited. He came to me one night
a trifle tipsy.
"Funny, Frank," he chattered excitedly, "how many peo
ple claim to have had relations with Oscar Wilde. You
knew who was Wilde's real lover?"
"I shook my head and said I didn't know.
"I, Frank," he cried, "I." And so saying, he beat his
meagre chest with his clenched little fists. "It was I, I
tell you, and no one else."
"Poor Ross," I said.
"Poor nothing!" stormed Harris. "The man was a rascal
of the first water. Even vice was a disgusting thing in
him.
His character as seen by Edmund Gosse was equally dif
ferent from that seen by Alfred Douglas.
Robert Ross, who died in his sleep one night in October,
1918, dwells in the thoughts of a multitude of men and
women who feel life emptier for his absence. His charac
ter, which was a very strange one, invites analysis, but
may easily evade it. There was something of Don Quixote
in him, and a little of Malvolio; he was "misplaced in
^Vyvyan Holland, Son of Oscar Wilde (Harmondsworth,
Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1957) , p"I 164.
“ ^Samuel Roth, The Private Life of Frank Harris (New
York: William Faro7 Inc., 1931), pp. 192-193. The punctua
tion in line 8 is his.
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Illyria," as Charles Lamb would say. He loved to support
lost causes and to advance paradoxical opinions; his mind
was almost always out of key with the age we live in. He
had a passionate horror of injustice, and a wild determi
nation to correct it, without any counting of the cost.^
. . . to steal or appropriate letters written by one of
one's friends to another friend, and to keep them secretly
and finally use them against their writer in a law court,
is a wicked, disgraceful and dishonourable action. The
facts as to this business cannot be denied. Ross took my
letters, and his executors or heirs have got them to this
day. . . . He was the High Priest of all the sodomites in
London, and it was he who was held up to the world as the
faithful friend of Wilde (out of the exploitation of whose
cult he had made a fortune).^
Some portrayals of Ross invoke for him almost devilish
power, Roth's picture of Ross is one such portrayal, when he
speaks for himself rather than quotes Frank Harris:
Robert Ross worked much more subtly the evil he instilled
into the lives of these people. It is unbelievable that a
man of such small parts as Ross could have made so weighty
an impression on his generation without the assistance of
diabolic powers. He was small, skinny, dark and aggres
sive, and probably the most conscienceless liar in England
in his day. He had the sort of luck which rarely attends
liars. He was believed throughout the greatest part of
his lifetime. And, when during the trial with Douglas at
old Bailey, in 1913, he was exposed as a defiler of youth
and perhaps the worst male prostitute in London, the Lon
don dailies professed not to be interested in the matter.
. . . When I consider how much damage the publication of
this number may do to the character of Oscar Wilde I am
only consoled by the probability of how much it may do to
wards definitely establishing the blackness, the hideous
ugliness of the character of Robert Ross.^
^Edmund Gosse, "The Hiérarchie of Angels," Books on the
Table (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1921)1 pT 45.
®Lord Alfred Douglas, The Autobiography (London:
Martin Seeker, 1929), pp. 42.
^Samuel Roth, "Dramatis Personae," Two Worlds, I (June,
1926), 400. This issue is devoted to Oscar Wilde.
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Mr. Ervine moreover has invented a demon lover in the
shape of Robert Ross, whom he describes as "the little man
with a wizened soul." Robert Ross was a friend of mine.
When I was young he taught me many things and furnished
much valuable advice: I revere his memory. In no manner
at all did he resemble the creeping devil of Mr. Ervine's
caricature; his was one of the "sweetest souls that ever
looked with human eyes."®
Even recently the contrasts have continued. Rupert Croft-
Cooke's 1963 description was countered by Compton Mackenzie
in 1964.
[Ross] may have been no more of a snob than most young men
of his type and time. . . . It was his life's policy to
cultivate people of talent, of birth and of position, and
he sincerely liked being liked. . . . There is no reason
to think that Ross was anything worse than a vindictive
little queen who had long-fingered habits with other peo
ple's letters.®
Douglas carried on a vendetta in print against Ross of
such viciousness that he was driven into bringing a libel
action against his enemy. On that occasion the jury disa
greed but the malevolent hounding of him by Alfred Douglas
severely affected his health and probably shortened his
life. His devotion to Wilde was not only courageous but
also practical, and nobody deserved less than he the
sneers at him in Mr. St. John Ervine's book, A Present
Time Appraisal of Oscar Wilde.
That book was published in 19 51; now in 19 63 Rupert
Croft-Cooke has written Bosie, which presents Douglas as
the offspring of Sir Galahad and Boadicea. I have no ob
jection to hero-worship provided it does not entail a
silly caricature of those whom the hero did not worship.
To anybody who knew Robbie Ross, Rupert Croft-Cooke's pre
sentation of him is just that.^
®Harold Nicolson, "Poor Melmoth," [review of Ervine's
book, A Present Time Appraisal of Oscar Wilde] Observer,
Sunday, December 9, 1951.
®Rupert Croft-Cooke, Bosie (Indianapolis: Bobbs-
Merrill, 1963), pp. 201, 231.
Compton Mackenzie, My Life and Times, Octave Three,
1900-07 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1964), p. 226.
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7
The dilettante cannot fail to be intrigued by such varied
opinions. The scholar studying the life and character of
one of Ross's friends finds Ross even more of a problem.
My purpose in examining the life of Robert Ross has
been to clarify for future workers in the period Ross's
place in tlie literary, artistic, and social world of his
time. This task has seemed worthwhile because Ross himself
became a controversial figure, and because he played an
important part in the lives not only of Oscar Wilde, but
also of Edmund Gosse, Aubrey Beardsley, Max Beerbohm, Sieg
fried Sassoon, and a host of lesser figures.
My thesis in this dissertation is that Ross was and was
considered by the public and by his acquaintances and
friends to be a respectable, substantial person, an author
ity on art, a witty and delightful writer and speaker, and
someone with whom it was perfectly proper to associate. A
distorted picture of Ross's character, in the years since
his death, has come to be accepted by too many writers and
scholars, who find it difficult to obtain information on
Ross from sources other than Alfred Douglas, since no one
has written a biography of Ross. This distorted view causes
writers to commit errors of omission and commission. Study
of the attitudes toward Ross of persons who knew him often
casts light on the character of those persons, but the
biographer must know enough about Ross to realize the impli
cations of his subject's attitude toward Ross.
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8
Perhaps the least serious errors made by writers on the
period are the omissions of the biographers who take the
easy way out and dismiss Ross in a footnote as Wilde's lit
erary executor, though that fact may have no bearing on his
relationship with their subject. One cannot blame the
writers for not wanting to research intensively a person
other than their subject. Yet, for instance, the brief but
close friendship between George Moore and Ross, the aid
which Moore requested in his writing, and their sudden
quarrel, ostensibly over Ross's pacifism, must surely cast
interesting light on Moore's character, on his revisions of
some of his works, and perhaps on his Story Teller's Holi
day .
John Rothenstein, in Modern English Painters,^ ^ has
discussed at length the cozy mutual admiration society of
Sickert, Steer, and Tonks, and its deleterious effect on
their painting. Yet neither he nor Tonks's biographer,
Joseph Hone, mentions Ross's long-time friendship with Tonks
and slighter acquaintance with the others. Z4ore knowledge
about their relationship might help criticism of Tonks,
especially consideration of whether Ross's ideas about art,
and Ross's wit, could have had any influence on Tonks's pro
duction of the casual humorous oil sketches for which he is
primarily respected today.
^^Modern English Painters, Volume One, Sickert to Grant
(Londonl Arrow Books, 1962).
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permission.
9
More significant omissions are made by persons who knew
Ross well, who befriended him or were befriended by him, and
who, in writing their autobiographies, ignored him com
pletely. Of course they were not obligated to talk about
everyone they knew, but it might replay biographer to specu
late about why some writers ignored Ross. For instance, al-
tnough H. G. Wells gave character sketches of almost every
one he ever knew in his two-volume Experiment in Autobiogra
phy (1934), Wells never mentioned Ross's name. Wells had
testified for Ross's character in court, had written to him
warmly and emotionally after the 1914 trial to ask if there
was anything he could do, and had later joked that Ross's
pacifism would almost destroy Wells's "faith in the harm
lessness of homosexuality."^ ^ Laurence Housman, who had
known Ross since the Wilde days, used him as a character in
Echo de Paris (1923), and who corresponded with him continu
ously throughout the years, never mentioned Ross in his book
of reminiscences. The Unexpected Years (1936). Robert
Graves, whose early letters to Ross are deferential and
friendly, and who owed to Ross his war-time literary con
tacts and his first publicity, mentioned none of this in
Good-bye to All That (1930). Graves's only reference to
Ross was one quotation he attributed to him, the use of
which tended to denigrate Ross.
G. Wells to Robert Ross, July 5, 1914, and several
undated letters, in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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10
Biographies of Wilde, more than any others, have suf
fered from a lack of understanding of Ross's character and a
lack of documentation of his life. When Wilde turned over
his money and his writings to a young man of no particular
accomplishments until that time, did Wilde show another sign
of the irresponsibility that plagued his life, or did he
have the insight to recognize the man who would have the
patience, the self-effacement, and the courage to administer
the estate as no one else could have? If there is to be a
serious attempt to relate Wilde's work to his character and
his life, more evidence about a person as important to him
as was Ross is needed, more than the impressions of such
unreliable judges of character as Frank Harris, Robert
Sherard, and Alfred Douglas; and more even than Wilde's
attitude toward Ross as shown in his letters. First pub
lished in 19 62, these are very valuable, and appeared after
all the major biographies were written. For instance, these
letters show the inaccuracy of Hesketh Pearson's often-
copied description of Ross, in Oscar Wilde; His Life and
Wit (1946), as a flatterer, full of insincere praise, jeal
ous of Douglas rather than concerned with the moral aspects
of Wilde's return to promiscuity and the effect of that
return on Wilde's work. Pearson, too, dismissed Ross's art
work as "occasional articles in high class reviews."^ ^
1 3
(New York: Grosset & Dunlap), p. 159.
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11
other biographers have filled the vacancy with products
of their own poisonous imaginations, creating a completely
false image of Ross's character and personality, and indi
cating a bad influence on others which he could not possibly
have had. St. John Ervine, in his Oscar Wilde: A Present
Time Appraisal (1951), used a caricature of Ross as a vil
lain against whom he could direct his moralisations. Rupert
Croft-Cooke, in Bosie (196 3), imparted to Ross much of
Douglas's own share in Wilde's ruin, Douglas's guilt and
jealousy, almost as well as Bosie himself could have done.
If information about Ross is more readily available, even
unscrupulous authors will have to be more careful about
their errors in fact, if not in interpretation.
Not only studies of Wilde suffer. Some biographers
mention Ross, but accept Douglas's scandalous portrayal of
him at face value. They assume that friendship between Ross
and anyone else must tend to discredit the other person in
volved. Stanley Weintraub's Reggie ^ '* is marred by his mis
understanding of Ross's character. By failing to clarify
the relationship between Ross and Turner, or to show the
true meaning of some of Reggie's actions, he failed to
reveal some of the characteristics that caused Turner to be
such an inferior novelist. As an example, in discussing
Turner's part in the dinner honoring Ross in 1908, Weintraub
says that Douglas and Ross were quarreling at that time
(New York: George Braziller, 1965).
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12
about "the quality and nature of their loyalties to Oscar"
(p. 162). There was a good deal more to it than that, but
Weintraub does not discuss the situation, only implying that
Ross was in the wrong. The important thing was that Reggie
either did not know or did not care that Douglas was trying
to whiten his own reputation at the expense of Wilde's.
Later Weintraub says of Turner:
- Early in 1914 came the complete break in his friendship
with Robbie Ross, a result of the feuding between Ross and
Alfred Douglas. Bitter at the slap, Ross was publicly
free with Reggie's other private opinions, not all of them
repeated accurately. (p. 173)
The only source for this statement is a letter that Turner
wrote to Frank Harris. The important thing here is that
Reggie made no effort to comprehend how really nasty Douglas
was being. There is also no indication in the book that
Reggie and Robbie resumed their correspondence within a year
or two, and continued to write until Ross died. Even
Turner's toned-down account of Wilde's death is accepted
without the least indication that it is just as likely that
Ross's account is true, and that it would be consistent with
Turner's old-maidishness to want to hide unpleasant details.
In Weintraub's Beardsley ^ ^ Ross is introduced as a
twenty-three-year-old art critic named Robert Ross, who
knew such of the famous as Oscar Wilde, and had access to
the drawing rooms of the fashionable. (p. 34)
Unless Mr. Weintraub has found more evidence concerning
^^Beardsley: A Biography (New York: George Braziller,
1967).
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13
Ross's activities in these years than I have, and has not
footnoted it, this was some twelve years before Ross's first
published art criticism. At this period he was writing book
reviews of novels and plays, though he was interested in
art. As I shall show in a later chapter, Wilde was only one
of Ross's acquaintances among "the famous"; what Weintraub
means by the "drawing rooms of the fashionable" is unclear.
If, as the statement seems to me to imply, he means that
Wilde took Ross with him on visits to the wealthy, there
seems to be no evidence of that at all, though Wilde did
take Douglas along. Later on the same page, Weintraub says
that the picture Ross asked Beardsley for in February was
not delivered till I^ay, though in Ross's own book on Beards
ley he says he received it the next time he saw the artist,
"a few weeks later."The May date is not footnoted,
either.
Ross is mentioned on fifteen pages of the book. Five
of these references include Wilde's name, in three cases
(pp. 34, 134, 135) introduced extraneously. Each reference
(also pp. 64, 66) indicates Ross's closeness to Wilde.
Neither of the two references where Ross is mentioned in
connection with Beardsley's mother (pp. 65, 79) indicates
any real friendship between them, her frequent appeals to
him to come and cheer up Aubrey, her shared worries over her
1 6
Aubrey Beardsley (London: John Lane, 1909), p. 17,
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14
son's health, Ross's aid to her in the memorial service or
his efforts to get her a pension in later years. Nor is the
friendship between Robbie and his sister Elise, Aubrey's
sister Mabel, Aymer Vallance, Count Eric Stenbock, and the
rest of this group, mentioned. Instead, the emphasis is on
Ross's connection with Wilde and its "decadent" atmosphere,
wnich puts the whole Beardsley-Ross relationship into a
false light, and indeed, I fear, perverts to some extent the
picture of Beardsley's personality.
Even such a careful v;riter as Montgomery Hyde, when he
wanted to discuss Ross for his Three Trials of Oscar Wilde^^
could cite only Douglas's Collected Satires and Autobiogra
phy, and Brown's Life of T. W. H. Crosland. This lack of
information caused Hyde to believe Douglas about such mat
ters as Ross supposedly advising Wilde to apply for a war
rant against Queensberry (pp. 2 8-29) or the damaging testi
mony in the 1914 case (pp. 372-373) .
Although shortly after his death in 1918 several people
who had known Robert Ross wrote to his brother about the
possibility of writing a biography of him, none was under
taken. There were two difficulties which precluded it. One
was Alfred Douglas, Ross's enemy, who would probably sue for
libel should any mention of his part in Ross's life occur.
The other was the fact that Ross was homosexual, which could
1 7
(New York: University Books, 1956), p. 23, n. 3.
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15
hardly oe concealed in any account both substantial and
true, nor revealed by someone sympathetic to him.
As the years went by, Ross might have been forgotten,
had it not been for Douglas. Douglas lived until 1945, and
young writers interested in the period and in Wilde tried to
make his acquaintance. To some of them Douglas was very
charming, and was willing to reminisce extensively. He also
wrote several books about his own life, never missing a
chance to malign Ross. Even listeners or readers who dis
trusted Douglas had few ways to find out Ross's side of the
story. Finally, after Douglas's death, the Ross family,
which had hoped to avoid further public unpleasantness, came
to feel that it was not fair to Robbie's memory to allow the
slurs against him to remain unanswered. Margery Ross, the
wife of Robbie's heir (his sister's son), although she was
neither author nor scholar, undertook to edit the letters
which Robbie had left, and any others which she could obtain
that would indicate the esteem in which many important men
of art and letters had held him. The letters were finally
published in 1952 as Robert Ross : Friend of Friends.^ ^
Since that time materials for a somewhat more balanced
assessment of Ross have been easily available for persons
who wish to mention him only briefly. But Mrs. Ross's book
did not provide comprehensive information about him. As a
1 8
(London: Jonathan Cape).
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16
relative and as a person brought up in a genteel tradition,
she did not want to go into the unpleasant aspects of his
life, and she decided to eliminate any references to Douglas
or to the legal cases of 1913 and 1914. And by its very
nature, a collection of letters is apt to stress some things
and ignore others of equal importance. It will emphasize
relationships with persons who kept correspondence and ig
nore those whose letters were somehow destroyed or who were
too close to receive letters. Such a collection must give a
very fragmentary and conflicting idea of a personality,
especially when the letters are mostly addressed to the per
son studied rather than having been written by him.
Today the last reason for remaining silent about Robert
Ross's life is gone. Attitudes toward homosexuality have
changed so much in the last few years that it is now pos
sible to be both truthful about and sympathetic toward Ross.
Douglas's statements can be quoted in all their viciousness,
and answered from the evidence which is available, so that
the reader may evaluate them as his own standards and expe
riences dictate. The Ross family and Robbie's friends, both
those who knew him when he was alive and those who have only
become acquainted with him from his writing and from what
others have told them, agree that a comprehensive picture is
now possible, and has long been needed. That attitude which
I have attempted to take is described by Paul Murray Kendall
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17
in his Art of Biographyas follows:
The battle is waged to win, not a cold objectivity— the
biographer is no unmoved god peering through a microscope
— but the kind of love that finds no contradiction between
engagement and truth. (p. 149)
Were it not for Douglas's attacks and for the somewhat
exaggerated interest still taken in Wilde's life, perhaps a
biography of Ross would never have been written. However,
that is not to say that a biography serves no other purpose.
The Carfax Gallery,which Ross ran from 1900 to 1909,
played an important part in the art life of the period. Al
most all the British painters whose reputations have sur
vived were exhibitors at the Carfax, usually before other
galleries were open to them and before their works were
known to the public at large. Max Beerbohm, Augustus John,
and William Orpen are only three of those whose first shows
were at the Carfax, and the paintings of McEvoy, Rothen-
stein, Sickert, Steer, and many others were exhibited and
sold by Ross and his partners. Ross's art criticism, too,
was of considerable influence. He did not originate a
school of criticism and was therefore not of the first
importance. However, his articles and speeches supporting
the right of the painter to be different from earlier work
ers and to have his own means of expression, discussing the
place of subject matter in art, fighting for excellence in
(London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1965).
^°See Chapter IV, p. 161 ff.
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18
all media and for the adoption of good art in public build
ings and memorials, and informing the public in a readable
manner about ancient and current paintings, all played their
part in obtaining new freedom and new opportunities for the
artists of his day and educated the public while charming
it. Ross's appointment as director of several galleries was
blocked only by his connection with Wilde.His work as
London Adviser to the City of Johannesburg Art Gallery and
to the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, and his mem
bership on the Board of the Tate Gallery helped these insti
tutions purchase important Pre-Raphaelite, English Impres
sionist, and other works. His efforts toward the appoint
ment of war artists and at the Ministry of Information were
influential in gaining for art official recognition during
World War I and in the establishment of the Imperial War
Museum.
Though Ross wrote quite a lot of literary criticism and
some essays and stories, his own writing was not of much
importance to literature, either artistically or critically.
However, his aid to other writers was of considerable im
portance. Oscar Wilde was, of course, the person who prof
ited most by Ross's work. Wilde credited Ross with a dis
cussion which gave him the idea for "the first and best" of
his dialogues, and said that another one of them was half
2 1
See Chapter IV, pp. 255-256, and Chapter VI, p. 380.
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19
Ross's.He acknowledged the help he received from Ross's
reading and making suggestions about manuscripts. A note
book kept by Ross of Wilde's conversation contributed to The
Importance of Being Earnest. Wilde adopted many of Ross's
suggestions about The Ballad of Reading Gaol, and entrusted
his posthumous reputation to Ross. After Wilde's death Ross
helped to make Wilde's works available both in England and
in Europe. He edited the only authoritative edition and
identified for this edition many pieces not otherwise known
to be by the writer. His editing and publishing of De Pro-
fundis in 1905 caused a réévaluation of Wilde in England and
helped him once again to become respectable, so that his
works could be read and his dramas played. His administra
tion of the estate so as to pay off the bankruptcy aided the
author's reputation as well as his family. And his continu
ing friendship for and care of Wilde while in prison and
after his release was of incalculable personal value to the
writer.
Less evidence remains about Ross's aid to other auth
ors, though Arnold Bennett called Ross "the most indirectly
creative" person he knew,^^ and fragmentary acknowledgements
from an astonishing variety of persons are available.
Ross's support of the war poets of the First World War,
^^This and the following will be discussed in more
detail later.
2 3
Quoted in Sassoon, Siegfried's Journey, p. 46.
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20
especially of the bitter poetry of Siegfried Sassoon, is
particularly worthy of mention.
Ross's life was remarkable in its variety of friend
ships and interests. Many of the persons whom he knew were
not acquainted with each other, and did not know of his work
in other fields. Artist friends would not know writers, and
neither group would know Ross's personal friends. Therefore
even those who meant to be most commendatory were apt to
underrate him. They knew of the help he had been to them,
of his work in their area, but thought it was not enough to
have filled a worthwhile life. Ross's life, more than most
people's, suffers when one knows only a little about it.
His genius for friendship and skill in cultivating contacts
can be taken for toadyism unless one knows that he never
used these skills to forward himself but always to serve
others. His sharp quick temper, his hatred of injustice,
and his sensitivity to hurts can be taken as quarrelsomeness
unless one knows on what occasions they were provoked. His
diversity of interests can be taken for superficiality
unless one knows the carefully concealed depths of his
knowledge, and the way the different areas fertilized each
other, producing ideas which he passed on to someone else to
cultivate. In some important areas, his exact actions will
probably never be proved. It is most unlikely, for
instance, that evidence as to whether he sent a copy of De
Profundis to Alfred Douglas in 1897 will ever come to light.
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21
Only by knowing Ross in his entirety, what motivated him,
what he did in similar situations, should one form an opin
ion as to his probable actions in this or in other debatable
moments. This work has been written so that I myself, and
others, may know Robbie.
In summary, the purposes of the dissertation are:
(1) to establish and clarify Ross's position in his own
time, and his true character, so that future biographers of
his associates may better understand their own subject's
relationship with Ross; (2) to show Ross's achievements in
art and literature, in order to add a few more details to
the comprehensive history of the period; and (3) to show
Ross as a whole man, so that those actions which cannot be
clearly explicated today can at least be judged within the
context of Ross's other behavior and his entire personality.
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CHAPTER II
ANCESTORS, CHILDHOOD, AND YOUTH
A Family Tradition of Honor, Courage, and Pride
Robert Baldwin Ross's family background had a good deal
to do with the formation of his character. He and his
brothers and sisters were brought up to be proud of the
positions that their father, John Ross, and maternal grand
father, Robert Baldwin, had held in the government of Cana
da. After the death of these two men John Ross's family
became less prosperous, and in England, where Mrs. Ross had
gone to live, their importance in Canada was of little
account. That made it even more essential to the family
that its members should maintain family memories and pride.
That Robbie regarded family tradition as very important
is shown in a letter he wrote to his mother when he was
about ten. His eldest brother. Jack, had just become
engaged, and he said;
I shall be very careful in my will that I leave my prop
erty to Jacks and Mary [sic] children . . . on condition
that they won't go and lose the pedigree for our Jacks
anyhow . . . it is disgrace enough already to have it
loosed. And I shall be very careful if our family extends
to keep up a pedigree so far.^
^Undated letter in the possession of Giles Robertson.
22
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23
Mary, the eldest sister, thought that it was important
enough for her children to know about the life of the family
in Canada that she wrote her autobiography. She transmitted
a sense of family pride so well that in 1918 her son,
William B. C. Jones, legally changed his name to Ross in
order that their family might retain the name,^ since none
of Mary's three brothers had any children.
Robbie's mother brought her children up to admire and
imitate the courageous behavior of her father and her hus
band. Robbie's grandfather, Robert Baldwin, 1804-1858, came
from a leading Canadian family, his own father being both a
lawyer and a physician, and his mother's father a former
mayor of Cork, Ireland, and a Canadian judge. His political
career was marked throughout by his willingness to stand by
his principles, whether steadfastness was politically advan
tageous or not. For instance, in 1836 he was appointed to
the Executive Council of Upper Canada, but he resigned when
the Lieutenant-Governor continued to rule without paying any
attention to the wishes of the council, which thought it was
supposed to be guiding him. In 1840 he was named Solicitor-
General for Upper Canada and in 1842, after it was united
with Lower Canada, Attorney-General for Upper Canada. He
and the Attorney-General for Lower Canada, Sir Louis Lafon-
taine, "became the actual leaders of the government, though
^Deed poll in the possession of J. P. B. Ross,
William's son.
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24
their pre-eminence in the council was not official."^ Bald
win held this position twice, finally leaving it because he
interpreted a motion to investigate a court of chancery as
an expression of lack of confidence in himself. He was made
a companion of the Order of the Bath in 1854, and died in
1858 at the age of fifty-four.
The other side of Bobbie's family was less prosperous
than the Baldwins, but like Robert Baldwin, the Rosses were
also remarkable for courage and enterprise. Robbie's
father's parents emigrated from Ireland about 1819, and
settled on a rather poor piece of land. When, after being
gone from home for several years looking for a better place,
Alexander Ross, Robbie's grandfather, returned and ques
tioned the fatherhood of the youngest child, born after his
departure, his wife told him, "You or I must leave this
^ ■ .
house at once--the same roof may not shelter us both." He
chose to go, and she was left with responsibility for three
children, whom she brought up "to fear nothing and to be
ashamed of nothing but bad conduct and lying" (I, 2).
^T. B. Browning, "Robert Baldwin," Dictionary of
National Biography (London; Oxford University Press, 1901),
suppl. XXII, 110-111. Other information in this section is
taken from George E. Wilson, The Life of Robert Baldwin
(Toronto: Ryerson Press, n.d.).
**Mary Jane Jones, "Memories of My Youth and a Sketch of
the Family History of the Ross-Baldwin Families, by Their
Descendant," unpublished MS in the possession of J. P. B.
Ross, I, 1.
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25
Robbie's Parents
Her middle son, John Ross, 1816-1871, Robbie's father,
was helped by local people and by Robert Baldwin to become a
lawyer. Like his friend Baldwin, Ross became prominent in
politics. After holding several other offices, in 1867 he
was called to the Senate of Canada when it was formed, and
became Speaker of the Senate in 1869. He also made a good
deal of money through his law practice and through invest
ments, such as the Grand Trunk Railway, of which in 1853 he
became the first president.®
John Ross was married twice. His first wife, "the ro
mance of his life," died a fortnight after their son was
born.® Two years later, in 1849, John Ross asked Robert
Baldwin, whom he had known for seventeen years, for his
daughter Eliza's hand. She was eighteen, not beautiful but
with a "lovely complexion, good and graceful figure, beauti
ful arms and neck, hands and feet." Eliza had never been in
love, and was surprised and flattered at Ross's proposal,
accepting him with humble gratitude (I, 26-32).
The character of Eliza Baldwin Ross, Robbie's mother,
had been influenced very greatly by her upbringing. She did
®"John Ross," Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biog
raphy (New York: 1898), 330-331; "John Ross," Macmillan
Dictionary of Canadian Biography, ed. N. Stewart Wallace
(3rd ed.; London: 1963), p. 650; Oscar Douglas Skelton, The
Life and Times of Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt (Toronto: Ox-
ford University Press, 1920), p. 97.
6
Jones, "Memories," I, 7
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26
not have a very happy childhood, because her own mother died
when she was three years old. Her father loved his wife
deeply, and after her death was supposed "never to have
smiled again," absorbing himself in work and politics and
seeing very little of his children, who, perhaps, feared him
more than they loved him (I, 16). Their four children,
Maria, William, Eliza, and Robert, were turned over to their
grandmother, Mrs. William Warren Baldwin. Heiress to "a
good fortune,” handsome, cold, and stately, with an "extra
ordinary knowledge of the Bible," she believed in firm
though distant control of her household. In bringing up
children, she believed the more discipline the better.
For some years it was my Mother's "duty" after break
fast to carry up to her grandmother a large Bible which
lay on a small table by the chair in the parlour. Out of
this my Mother read--and was read to— then the Bible was
laid aside and the little girl was sent downstairs to
bring up a silver mounted snuff box, two handkerchiefs, a
silk one, to protect the silk counterpane, and a white
cambric one were spread on the old lady's knees. She took
one pinch of snuff "for her health's sake," then the hand
kerchiefs were shaken and put away; the snuff-box was car
ried down then, another journey for the little legs was
required that the Bible might be restored to its place,
and then little Eliza was released whilst the lady's maid
dressed her mistress. (I, 18-19)
No matter what little Eliza did, grandmother was apt to
think it was wrong. For instance, if Eliza went into the
kitchen, apparently forbidden territory, the cook was sup
posed to pin a dish cloth to her back, so that as soon as an
adult member of the family noticed, she could be punished.
Perhaps at an early age Eliza decided that her children
should not have their lives made miserable by discipline.
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27
Eliza was neither very good-looking nor very good at
books. Her older sister Maria was both pretty and quick to
learn. Eliza was constantly told of all her defects and
"consequently grew up painfully aware of her own shortcom
ings, and with no self-confidence at all." She received no
training in how to run a household, and had little schooling
till at twelve she was sent to the Ursuline Convent in Que
bec. Consequently she knew little about ordinary family
life, nor did she have any interests in or knowledge of
intellectual pursuits or running a household (I, 10-21).
The weakness of Eliza's nerves was first demonstrated
as the time for her wedding approached. Some of the Bald
wins were not happy about the marriage. They disliked John
Ross's lack of religion, his background, and the help that
he had received from Robert Baldwin. Perhaps in order to
impress these people, an extremely elaborate wedding was
prepared and an expensive trousseau purchased. They went to
such lengths as to order from London three special chairs
for the Governor-General and his family, who were to attend.
But Eliza's nerves were not strong enough to bear the
strain, nor was she brave enough to protest. She became
ill, awaking the day before the wedding with "a violent
attack of what was called erysipelous [sic] that was really
a form of gout in her head." She was in great pain and the
doctors advised that she be married in private and then
retire to rest her nerves and let the swelling subside. So,
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2 8
in the upper hall of her home, dressed in a white crepe-de-
chine wrapper with a scarf over her head, she was married on
February 4, 1851.
The first years after the marriage were prosperous and
happy ones for the growing family. John Ross was a cultured
and sensible man, who had been brought up from an early age
to be self-reliant. He encouraged his older children to be
the same. Their country estate near Toronto he tried to
make as much like an English estate as possible. Several
winters he returned to England on political missions and
came back with oil paintings, the music of the latest op
eras, and new books. He told the children about his visits
to famous European art galleries and his meetings with oper
atic stars. The children also knew that he corresponded
with most of the leading political figures of the day (I,
25-47).
Seven children were born of this marriage. Maria
Louisa, born in 1852, and Robert Baldwin, 1854-1856, died in
infancy. Then came Mary Jane, 1855-1936; John, 1859-1905;
and Alexander Galt, 1860-1927. The last two children were
much younger. Maria Elizabeth Baldwin was born in 1867, and
Robert Baldwin, the subject of this study, in 1869.^ Their
^Family tree in the back of J. P. B. Ross's copy of
Mary's autobiography; and Edward Marion Chadwick, Ontarian
Families (Toronto: Rolph, Smith & Co., 1898), II, 37. The
death dates for John and the dates for the elder Robert
Baldwin are taken from here. Chadwick also says that Maria
Louisa died in 1862, but I doubt this. Mary would have been
seven years old, and her autobiography would mention the
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29
mother
accepted the responsibilities and penalties of wifehood
and motherhood humbly and gratefully. . . . She was, I am
sure, as happy a wife as a woman of her timid and depre
cating nature could be. She adored her children, and
never asked for anything better than to be their nurse and
slave. (I, 22)
By the 1860's John Ross was having financial difficul
ties. There is a family story that he used his own fortune
to pay off the losses of his friends on the Grand Trunk
Railway, which was reorganized in 1862, when he left the
presidency. He told his wife how thankful he was that she
had means of her own with which the children could be
brought up and educated if anything happened to him, so that
ne was free to use the money he had made to preserve his
nonor.® In the fall of 1865 the family left their country
estate and moved into town for the winter, partly to econo
mize and partly to make it easier for the boys to go to
school. More difficulties followed. Eliza Ross had typhoid
fever, and little Alex lost an eye through an accident with
a bow and arrow. John Ross decided to take his family to
Europe where his wife might recover her health and spirits,
where English doctors could be consulted about saving the
death of an elder sister. It seems likely Maria Louisa died
before Mary's birth on July 10, 1855, or the family would
not have given her a name so like her sister's. The family
tree says that Maria Louisa died "in infancy."
®Ethel Jones Sprigge to Margery Ross, December 16,
1949, in the possession of J. P. B. Ross. Ethel was one of
Mary's daughters.
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30
sight of Alex's other eye, and where it would be easier to
economize without the Baldwin family watching.
After a few months in London, the Rosses continued on
to France, settling in Tours, a pleasant country town ac
cording to Mary's descriptions. They made new friends and
were near old ones. Eliza recovered her spirits and so did
the children. However, the family was not used to European
lack of heating and Alex, Mary, and their father were all
ill. While the children recovered with spring, John Ross
was never very well again after what had been considered to
be only an attack of bronchitis.*
Each winter that they were in France, John Ross went
back to Canada to attend to business and to engage in poli
tics . On one of these trips he found that his law partner
had misappropriated much of his property. Ross used more of
his own funds to pay back clients who had lost money through
the firm (II, 61).
The two younger Ross children were born in Tours, Maria
Elizabeth on October 3, 1867, and Robert Baldwin on May 25,
1869. The unsettled condition of international politics
caused the Rosses to leave France nine days before war was
declared before France and Germa y. In October, 1870, after
a few months in London, the Rosses returned to their country
house near Toronto, where John Ross died January 31, 1871
(II, 52).
*Jones, "Memories," II, 1-7.
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31
A Spoiled, Protected Child
Had John Ross lived longer, his younger children would
have had happier childhoods and a better chance for the
calm, well-balanced personalities that the three older ones
possessed. But his death caused a profound change in the
life of the family. Eliza's interests were centered on her
family and her religion, and she had no strength of charac
ter. After the death of her husband, she suffered another
attack of the "gouty eczema" that had ruined her wedding
day, and when she recovered she spent most of her time in
the nursery with the two youngest children, leaving to Mary
the running of the household. The older boys were away at
school. Mary wrote of the treatment of Lizzie and Bobbie:
In past years my father, though very fond of his children
and in many ways indulgent, had kept my mother's inclina
tions to spoil us in check. There was some sense of pro
portion in the way our life was organised. Now there was
none. . . . We could go nowhere and do nothing without
long and deep consideration of what would "suit the chil
dren." (II, 55-66)
Within six months of John's death Lizzie, four, and Bobbie,
two, proved themselves to be real little nuisances on the
family's vacation trip. They must have been even worse
problems when in April of 1872 the Rosses left Canada for
England, in order to carry out John Ross's wish that his
sons should receive an English education, and that Mary
should have a year at an English "finishing school" (II, 56-
72) .
John and Alex were away at school during most of
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32
Robbie's childhood, finally entering Cambridge, John in 1877
and Alex in 1879.^° Mary, after her year at finishing
school, married in 1874. She hints that her marriage was
occasioned as much by desire to get away from home as by
anything else, though she soon came to love and respect her
husband, Charles Jones, very much. He liked Mary's little
brother and sister, and though Lizzie was "jealous of any
one whom my mother cared for," she restrained her bad temper
and egotism for him. Robbie also liked him, and at Mary's
wedding, which took place April 8, 1874, Robbie, almost
five, was "lifted over the wedding cake and sat between
Charley and me."^^
Life with their mother was not always easy for Mary and
the older boys, nor, one can imagine, for the younger chil
dren in later years. The atmosphere of exaggerated family
affection and lack of interest in anything outside the
household must have been stultifying. Eliza really "dis
liked any society except that of relations and old friends"
(III, 36) although she was willing to make the effort for
her children, and was "always charming to young people"
(III, 9). She never dressed well, and her culture seems to
have extended only to painting flowers on silk and making
^°Ross, Alexander Galt," Alumni Cantabrigiensis, comp.
J. A. Venn (Cambridge: University Press, 1922-1953), Ft.
II, V, 360; and "Ross, John," ibid., p. 361.
Jones, "Memories," III, 45.
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33
sealing wax ornaments when she was a girl (I, 19). Her
religious views were founded more on form and emotion than
on thought. She "considered herself a pillar of the Church
of England," and was a firm believer, making religion a real
part of her life.
Mary estimates the family's income in 1872-7 3 as less
than £1000, from which Mrs. Ross hai to pay both living
costs and expensive school fees. She had inherited from her
father land now in the center of Toronto, but at that time
not yet built on. The few business properties had to pay
taxes on the rest, heavy taxes since the land was within the
town limits. Each year the income improved a little, but it
did not become really valuable until about the time Mrs.
Ross died in 1905 (II, 61). Though their English homes, a
succession of furnished apartments, were not as pleasant as
those the family was used to, Mrs. Ross always managed to
keep a parlor maid, a cook, and a nurse for the children
(II, 61; IV, 9). For several years the family lived in Lon
don during the winter and went to a resort area during the
summer, returning to a different house in the fall. Eventu
ally they settled at 85 Onslow Square, a large, respectable-
looking white building on a street of identical edifices,
just off a charming little green square.
Aside from a record that he had measles when only a few
weeks old and was consequently a "delicate child" (II, 43),
the first recorded incident concerning Robert Ross himself.
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34
rather than the Ross family, is a somewhat literary one.
For a weekly column he once described why he adopted the
particular diminutive form of the name Robert by which he
was known to his friends:
I used to see that bleak old sage [Thomas Carlyle] when
I lived as a child in Chelsea. I regarded him with extra
ordinary aversion and fear. Though my parents did not
move in literary circles or in the brilliant artistic life
that was humming around us in Cheyne Walk, they revered
Mr. Carlyle as a Scotsman who shed lustre on the race in
habiting the northern part of this island. They clothed
their minds in intellectual kilts; and I, their child, was
also clothed for a brief period in that revolting costume
which . . . must have attracted the attention of the
author of Sartor Resartus. He patted my head on several
occasions and addressed me in language generally incompre
hensible to my little Cockney ears. One day he inquired
my name. I replied that it was "Bobby." He animadverted
thereon, in words I do not profess to remember, and urged
that it should be "Robbie"— a reminiscence, no doubt, of
Burns. This was faithfully reported by my nurse on
returning home, and from that day I was called "Robbie."
One day I was sent to post a letter. I suppose I was
older; thoroughly unconscious, as always, of anything
ahead, I cannoned into Carlyle. The impact lay me flat on
the pavement, where I yelled for some minutes, though
soothed eventually by England's great thinker. And then—
this is the point of the story— Carlyle dived into his
pockets, produced a halfpenny, and said kindly, "Here is a
bawbee for Bobbie." He had quite forgotten (and this hurt
me) that my name had been changed out of deference to his
opinion. I have the halfpenny to this day. When Mr. Car
lyle died I was put into deep mourning. He was the first,
and perhaps the most interesting, of all my street
acquaintances.^ ^
There are few records of Robbie's childhood, a few let
ters, birthday cards, and incidents he mentioned in adult
life in a somewhat disguised form. He learned to swim well,
to bicycle, row, and play cricket. When he was about nine
^ ^"The Literary Log," Bystander, November 23, 1910.
Carlyle died on February 4, 18Ô1.
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35
he had a large dog, of which he was so fond that he seems to
have insisted not only that it be included in a studio pho
tograph taken of him, but requested and won a separate photo
of the dog.^^ He was probably taught to enjoy literature by
his brothers, and he began to build up the background in art
that proved so useful to him as an adult. His early expe
riences hardly sound stimulating, however. He later told of
a childhood visit to the Doré Gallery:
So many of us when children were taken there as a cor
rective to the more sensational Madame Tussaud's, the ob
jective of the previous half holiday. Recollections of
Marat in his bath, Burke and Hare, Palmer, the Rugby
poisoner and other engaging criminals were dispelled or
were supposed to be dispelled by the contemplation of the
no doubt sublime but not dissimilar art which conceived
"The Dream of Pilate's Wife." . . . The artificially
lighted rooms, the gratified whispers of the visitor on
recognizing some personage from Holy Writ in the pictures
of the "Great Alsatian" (an accepted periphrase for Gus
tave Doré) the murmur of the attendant pressing the ten-
guinea signed artists' proof on Uncle Parker, the hesi
tancy of Aunt Jane over the five-guinea "pulls after let
ters" were all, not as you might suspect nominatives in a
sentence of Mr. Henry James, but vocative symbols of popu
lar art in the late Nineteenth Century. Art and awe were
simultaneously projected into the childish imagination.
The excellent eclairs at Verrey's round the corner seemed
a little tame afterwards. But they were vitiated by the
acrimony and mutual recriminations of our elders over the
purchase of the proofs. Sometimes the moral lesson, too,
was manqué by the fibs of the parents concerning Doré's
picture "Paolo and Francesca," which, to avoid relating
the story to tender ears, they said represented "Ananias
and Sapphira descending into Hell." It was an odd alter
native to have selected; and was totally discredited in
^^Letters, cards, and photographs in the possession of
Giles Robertson, son of one of Mary's daughters.
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36
the schoolroom. ^
School Days
Robbie's schooling was probably fairly typical for a
boy of his class at the time. His early education was given
at home. As an adult he enjoyed quoting, or pretending to
quote, from the very odd textbooks he used. Near Home, or
Europe Described was in the form of a catechism on geography
and customs. According to Ross, one selection read:
Q. What is the religion of the Italians?
A. They are Roman Catholic.
Q. What do Roman Catholics worship?
A. Idols and a piece of bread.
Q. Would not God be very angry if he knew Italians wor
shipped Idols and a piece of bread?
A. God IS very angry.
Another supposed quotation he gives hardly seems more appro
priate for children:
Give the character of Prince Potemki [sic]:
Sordidly mean, ostentatiously prodigal, filthily intemper
ate and affectedly refined. Disgustingly licentious and
extravagantly superstitious, a brute in appetite, vigorous
though vacillating in action. (p. 271)
^“ "'Art Exhibitions: The Doré Gallery," Morning Post,
March 18, 1909, p. 3. The Doré Gallery, 35 New Bond Street,
London, was established in 1868 after an exhibition of
Doré's paintings, and continued till 1889, during which
period it was visited by 2,500,000 persons. Afterwards the
collection was sent on tour throughout the world.
^^Quoted in Ross's "The Elethian Muse," Masques and
Phases, p. 272. The book itself cannot be located, and
elsewhere in the article Ross says that at the time he
wrote, the publisher had no records of its existence. He
may have invented the whole thing, but even much more recent
textbooks are very difficult to locate.
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37
Study from books was supplemented by trips to London, such
as one he described to "Dear oiseau," his mother, in a very
childish handwriting, telling of his trip on the train, how
he was met by his brother Alex at Kings Cross station, and
was taken to the Café Royal. He and his sister Lizzie had a
puppet theatre, and a letter of October 9, 1879, says that
"Lizzie & I got up Bluebird very nicely. Mother & Stewart
looked on we are going to have Jack and the bean stalk at
Christmas." Apparently this interest was shared by his
brother-in-law for he asks Mary is "Charley going to have
Frogey's [sic] wooing at Christmas?"^®
Eventually he left home to attend a school at Landroyd
House, Cobham, Surrey. The classical character of the edu
cation offered and his early interest in literature is shown
in a letter to his brother Jack:
I have begun Euclid. Done up to the fifth Prop, and
also the Alcestis of Euripides and Vergil. Bib. II. I
like them all but Euclid however I suppose I will get on
with it better as I go on with it.^^
In spite of the pleasures of Greek and Latin, the school was
not all pleasant. Robbie hated pretense. "Mr. W. boasts
that he has a Lord here. He is an officious coxcomb."
Also unpleasant was another school to which he was
sent, perhaps because of its location in Edinburgh> The
interest in Scotland cultivated by his mother and encouraged
^®In the possession of Giles Robertson.
Inundated letter in the possession of Giles Robertson.
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38
by the children's Scottish nurse and her sister the cook,
never quite convinced Robbie of the merit of that country
nor of the right of their family to consider itself as very
Scottish, since that branch of Rosses had lived in Ireland
for some time before going to Canada. He wrote to Jack how
provincial he found Edinburgh itself. Some persons there
"think Burne Jones & Rossetti are monstrous I" And he had
been shocked to learn "one of my nice noo friends" [sic] had
a house sixty miles from a railroad and seven from a road,
which could be approached only by boat.^ ®
Ross never listed in Who's Who or Alumni Cantabrigien
sis the schools he attended, but described his education as
"private." The only way one knows about Landroyd House or
Edinburgh is that he addressed letters from them. Some time
after Robbie had left one school, Alex, his brother, found
out that it was notorious for the homosexuality of its head
master and the practices of the boys. It is probable that
Robbie was introduced there to the pattern of sexual behav
ior which he followed all his life.^^ Before he had entered
^®Letter dated November 6, no year date, in the posses
sion of Giles Robertson.
i®Ethel Jones Sprigge to Margery Ross, July 12, 1949,
in the possession of J. P. B. Ross. In another letter dated
May 27, 1949, Ethel, his niece, six years younger than Rob
bie and very close to him, said: "I have a very strong
feeling that he must have been one of those who are tragic
ally turned or rather set in that direction by early influ
ences and not born with the strong tendency thereto, i.e., a
lack of the balance of the masculine and feminine within
them."
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39
his teens he had decided that he would never marry. He
wrote his mother from Landroyd House about John's engagement
to Minnie Macleod, whom John married October 10, 1882, that:
Very soon we shall here [sic] of Alick's engagement.
Then I sincerely hope Lizzie's— and then I sincerely hope
Not mine but will live with you dear Oiseau in a large
house when I gain my reputation by being an oculist and
saving one of the family Royal. Take cataracts off the
eyes of the queen and restore her sight and when my
guineas roll in. That is my life which I have pictured
before myself and to live with you the rest of my days. I
am very glad that Jack has married for the Great house of
Ross will not become extinct. . . . as everyone wants me
to be different things I have decided on an oculist— which
has good pay no fear of being drowned or killed but die in
a good old age saving one of the family royal. Thus will
our name be established from this time forth for ever more
please God. I am just going to bed. Good night dear
oiseau. My work is all right. I hope you do not think
this letter stuff but I will try carefully and carry out
all these things.
Robbie had grown up knowing that he was different from
other people. His mother had started it when he was a baby
that she fussed over and indulged and spoiled, as her Benja-
Undated letter in the possession of Giles Robertson.
This childhood ambition seems too close to a tale told about
Sir William Wilde, Oscar Wilde's father, for the resemblance
to be a coincidence. According to his grandson, in 1854 Dr.
Wilde, who was an oculist, suggested to King Oscar I of Swe
den that he might be able to cure the king's blindness, and
successfully operated on him for cataract. In return for
the restoration of his sight the king agreed to be Oscar
Wilde's godfather, and three years later conferred on Dr.
Wilde the Swedish Order of the Polar Star. (Holland, Son of
Oscar Wilde, p. 15) Yet how could Robbie have known about
this? Dr. Wilde was a well-known man, and stories about him
circulated throughout Dublin. Perhaps this appeared in a
paper, or perhaps someone mentioned the story in conversa
tion. If indeed Robbie had heard the story, and Dr. Wilde
was one of his childhood heroes, the impression which Oscar
Wilde made on him later is even easier to understand.
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40
min, her youngest, her only consolation. Before he was old
enough to think about it, he had absorbed her attitude to
ward herself. No one had loved her or appreciated her when
she was a child, and she expected other people not to like
her. When the family moved to England, no one knew or
respected the names of Baldwin or Ross, and this made her
feel more defensive. Probably she taught her children to
expect this reception from the world. All his life, in
spite of the many close friends he had, and his interest in
other people, Robbie never expected much for himself from
his friends, nor was he surprised when they seemed to betray
him.
Perhaps it was this attitude as much as the over
dependence on his mother, never knowing his father, or the
experimentation that apparently went on in most English
boys' schools of the period, that caused Robbie to be sure
that he was homosexual when he was so young. Here was a
concrete reason for him to be different from other people.
And once this decision was made, there was a real secret to
be concealed from the world.
An important part of the education of a young man was a
knowledge of the languages, art, and culture of the Conti
nent, and the Ross boys too must have their European trip.
Alex finished his B. A. at Cambridge in 1884, and the family
spent much of the next year abroad. Mrs. Ross and Robbie
centered their activities around the Grand Hotel, Vevey,
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41
Switzerland, where they were sometimes joined by other mem
bers of the family, and from which they sometimes left on
sight-seeing trips. Robbie enjoyed the ten days which he
and Jack spent traveling together the most of all, because
they saw and did more things than he could with his mother.
They were even arrested for trespassing among the fortifica
tions at Kayence (Mainz). Since Jack spoke no German and
Robbie very little, they found it difficult to convince the
authorities, who fined them sixty marks, that they were not
spies. Robbie was thrilled by the experience which was
frightening and annoying at the time, but exciting to tell
about afterwards.2 1
However, much of the time was spent with Mother. They
got to know many of the other residents at the Grand Hotel,
and gossiped together about them. Mrs. Ross was not a
strong upholder of the conventions, in spite of her reli
gious beliefs. When one poor girl broke the strict social
code of the times and was ostracized by everyone else for
some Daisy Miller-like action, Mrs. Ross and Robbie took
great pleasure in scandalizing the other residents and in
being kind by continuing to bow to her when she passed.
Sometimes though, Robbie and his mother did not get on so
well. He was bothered when she discharged still another
maid, and when he found that she had packed eight tooth-
21 Robert Ross to Mary Jones, April 30, 1885, in the
possession of Giles Robertson.
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42
brushes for the two of them, Robbie "dared look no fur
ther.
Robbie enjoyed the scenery, especially the Tyrol and
Venice. He enjoyed the works of art they saw even more, and
wrote about them to the members of the family at home.
There is a very beautiful monument of Maximilian the first
of Austria in the church at Innsbruck. It is surrounded
by 24 bronze statues of heroes and kings of the world life
size in which King Arthur of England appears. There are
24 bass [sic] reliefs round the tomb representing the
scenes of his life.^^
I have at last run to earth the Real dance of Death pic
tures. Those beastly things at the Tursaal were not them
at all. I found out that during that time they had been
taken down to be cleaned. . . . They are awfully curious
. . . showing how death is in every grade of Life the King
Queen Pope Nun & worker and end up with a very extraordi
nary last Judgement and defeat of Death who is represented
as a skeleton through the series.^** * - '
Death and religion were much on Robbie's mind. About
this time he became a convert to the Roman Catholic Church.
The cererfony and ritual appealed strongly to Robbie's artis
tic sense. He thought that the Passion Play at Innsbruck
was "the most beautiful and remarkable thing I have ever
seen," and that the seven hours it took to perform seemed
^^Robert Ross to Jack Ross, August 14 [1885] in the
possession of Giles Robertson.
^^Robert Ross to Mary Jones, April 30, 1885, in the
possession of Giles Robertson.
^ ''Robert Ross to Jack Ross, August 14 [1885] in the
possession of Giles Robertson.
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43
like two.^ ^ Another appeal of Catholicism was the possibil
ity of atonement for sin through certain assigned tasks and
repenitence. His mother's Anglicanism had been almost
puritan.
She always spoke as though "Providence" lay in wait to
pounce on the unwary, should they do anything wrong. She
firmly believed that no man could be a great man. General,
Politician, or otherwise, unless he were good as well, and
no examples quoted by her ribald children in after years,
of gentlemen who had successfully managed the Political
and Warlike expeditions of their respective countries
without showing any particular signs of "virtue" in their
lives or conversation, moved her in the least. They had
either not been as "great" as they seemed, or they had
been much "better" as to morals than anyone had guessed
possible.^ ®
Perhaps the adolescent boy, worried about the conflict be
tween his homosexual tendencies and what his mother would
consider to be "good," hoped for guidance and help in
achieving penitence through the confession and through the
rituals of the church. Yet he retained a sense of personal
responsibility for his sins, which led him to feel that suf
fering was inevitable and that perhaps salvation was not for
him. This is expressed in several of the poems he wrote
about death and religion, of which the following is the
best:
The Santa Scala
I knelt upon the holy steps at Rome
The holy stairs on which the Savior trod,
^^Robert Ross to Mary Jones, November 16, 1885, in the
possession of Giles Robertson.
Jones, "Memories," I, 20.
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44
Before he went to his long rest and home
The throne of great Jehovah the great God.
God I was it not sufficient then for thee
To see thy son mocked with sneers and scorns.
Raised upon the accursed tree.
Crowned with a crown of very bitter thorns.
The triumphing Christians kneel upon the stones.
They kiss the blood and long prayers they say.
They rend their hearts with sobbing and groans
Hoping that their Purgatory will stay.
I kneel because a suffering martyr trod,
I pray no prayer for daily leaven.
The son of man I pray and not of God
The steps lead down to hell not up to heaven.
Back in England in 1886, Robbie stayed with Alex in
London for a while, studying for the Cambridge entrance
examinations. Alex was interested in writing, and had be
come one of tiie founders and secretary of the Society of
Authors, through which he knew many prominent literary per
sons. Robbie, now seventeen, was old enough to consider
himself almost an adult. Going about London with Alex,
attending performances and meeting such people was an
exciting contrast to 24rs. Ross's quiet family circle. Rob
bie enjoyed the life thoroughly. After a particularly
depressing reading of Shelley's poetry, Robbie still could
write his sister, from "beneath the critical eyes of the
future satirist, poet, & dramatist of [the] 19th century"
^^Poem in the possession of Giles Robertson. None of
the poems in the typescript from which this is taken are
dated, but from similar poems which have material in them
which indicates a date, it seems likely this poem too was
written at this period.
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45
[Alex] that:
Last Tuesday Alec and I went to the performance of the
Hellas. Mrs. O'Maily was to have gone with us but was un
able to do so. The chief point of the performance was the
people. Robert Browning, Oscar Wilde, Frederic*Harrison,
Walter Pater, Rider Haggard & other celebrities were there
so I enjoyed it immensely.^®
Cambridge
Before he could enter this life for himself, however,
Robbie must attend Cambridge. He entered King's College in
October of 1888. Perhaps the choice of college was not a
wise one, for King’s was one of the most conservative there.
Until about twenty years before, it had been open only to
graduates of Eton who were studying to be priests. Many
Life Fellows, some of them very old and very odd, were resi
dent, taking up so much space in the college rooms that all
the freshmen in 1888 had to live in lodgings, Ross at 13
Mill Lane. Although he possibly missed some of the fun of
college through not living on campus, Robbie took part in a
number of activities, as well as reading history. He joined
a literary society, which had rules against mentioning poli
tics or theology and whose members
confined ourselves therefore, and I think wisely, to such
harrowing topics as the superiority of cricket to round
ers, skating to football, and the advantages of lemonade
^ ®Robert Ross to Mary Jones [November 18, 1886], in the
possession of Giles Robertson. The Times, November 17,
1886, p. 6, col. 6, describes the performance as a "monoton
ous recital of the entire poem."
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46
over the more heady and intoxicating ginger beer.^^
He also "rowed bow in the King's boat which made two bumps
in the Lent Races."^ °
Unfortunately, Ross's interest in writing caused him to
come in conflict with some of the conservative forces in the
college. Shortly after he arrived at King's, he helped pro
duce a magazine called The Gadfly, only one issue of which
appeared. None of the articles were signed, and those that
Robbie wrote (marked on the copy of the issue now belonging
to J. P. B. Ross) were really not offensive, but some other
items, probably by Walter Murray Guthrie, the editor, were
quite scurrilous, especially a fake interview with Oscar
Browning, one of the Fellows. After the forced demise of
Tne Gadfly Guthrie began The Granta, which took an active
part in debate over the appointment of a new Provost and
other administrators. The former Provost, a Dr. Okes, had
been over ninety when he died, but who was to succeed him
was not clear. In the March 1 issue of The Granta Ross
wrote a long article, supporting Oscar Browning for the
Vice-Provostship and bitterly attacking E. H.. Douty, who had
been active in finding out who was responsible for The Gad-
Robert Ross, "English Literary Society," Davos
Courier, January 6, 1894, p. 148.
Bruce Dickins, "Robert Ross at King's," Cambridge
Review, LXXXI (January 23, 1960), 269. The aim of some
races is for the boats at the rear to catch up with those in
front and bump them, upon which the front boat is out of the
race. Two bumps would be considered very good.
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— - 47
fly. Incensed at this article, six undergraduates, includ
ing E. F. Benson and the younger brother of the Junior
Tutor, A. A. Tilley, threw Ross into the college fountain.
According to a contemporary letter from Oscar Browning he
"was seized with a violent brain attack, the result of the
outrage preying on his mind." There were fears for his
reason, and he had to be taken to London by his brother.
Sympathy at once swung round to Ross. . . . At an extraor
dinary meeting of the College Council on March 11 extreme
condemnation of the serious breach of discipline and the
action which had led to it was expressed, but it was de
cided that the best interests of the College would be
served if no further steps were taken in the matter. But
the elder Tilley had to apologize to Ross in hall, a
humiliation from which he is said never to have fully
recovered.^ ^
It seems likely that Ross went back to Cambridge, or this
apology could not have been made, but by July he was living
in London, and did not return in the fall to resume his
studies.
A Beginning Writer
Perhaps it was the attraction of the life he had shared
briefly with Alex that caused Robbie not to be very eager to
go back to Cambridge. When he returned to London to stay,
Alex introduced him to W. E. Henley, editor of the Scots
Observer. Henley, who encouraged and employed on his paper
a group of sports-loving, hard-drinking, nationalistic young
men, hired Robbie to write book reviews. He would send par
cels of new books from his headquarters at Edinburgh, and
also asked Robbie to do other chores in London, such as
3 I
^Dickins, pp. 268-269.
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48
checking to see if the London copies of the paper were
arriving on time, or copying out parts and estimating the
length of volumes in the British Museum for Henley's series
of "Tudor Translations."^^ Reviewing was not much of a job,
but living at home or with Alex was inexpensive, and one had
time to read and to try to write more ambitious pieces, such
as some satiric verses published in the Scots Observer and
in the Saturday Review. The relative freedom of a reviewer
was convenient, too, because Robbie was not very well during
the winter of 1890; and as he was a young man with no
responsibilities, his family felt able to call on him to
accompany the ladies or children when they traveled.
His published work qualified Robbie to join the Society
of Authors. When it began to publish a journal. The Author,
in 1890, he began writing book reviews and occasional sto
ries for it, such as his amusing "How We Lost the Book of
Jasher," a tale of interdepartmental rivalry at "Oxbridge."
His work and personality pleased Walter Besant, the editor,
so well that in July of 1891 Besant asked Robbie for his
help in seating arrangements for the annual dinner, one of
the literary events of the year, "so as to make as few mor
tal enemies as possible." In December Besant offered him
s^w. E. Henley to Robert Ross, December 20, 1889, and
February 28, 1890, in Ross, Friend of Friends, pp. 19-20.
^^Robert Ross to Mary Jones, undated letter in the pos
session of Giles Robertson.
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49
the position of sub-editor, for which he received &2 a
quarter, and was expected to spend two days a week in the
office, as well as a "constant cadging about to get good
stuff and accumulations of notes etc."^**
A photograph taken of Robert Ross about this time shows
him to have been quite handsome, with rather moody dark eyes
and dark hair. He looks quite different in another photo in
which he is seated, reading a book. An oil painting by Will
Rothenstein, however, reconciles the two images, believably
combining the satiric curve of eye and nostril with the
childish fullness of cheek and chin.^^ This blend of the
conventional and the striking was as typical of Robbie's
personality as it was of his appearance.
Ross's Friends
Life was not all work. Robbie was making a number of
diverse personal friends, too. As is appropriate to the
person who in later years would have the greatest influence
on Ross's life, Oscar Wilde had come on the scene the earli
est. Although it does not seem likely that they had met
s^sir Walter Besant to Robert Ross, January 5, 1891;
July 12, 1891; and December 3, 1891, in Ross, Friend of
Friends, pp. 21-23.
^^First photo in Bodleian MS. Walpole d.l8 fol. 147.
Second photo in the possession of Giles Robertson, repro
duced in Letters of Oscar Wilde, ed. Rupert Hart-Davis (Lon
don; Rupert Hart-Davis, 19 62) , opposite p. 223. Painting
reproduced in Ross, Friend of Friends, frontispiece; and in
Croft-Booke, Bosie, opposite p. 224.
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50
when Robbie spoke about how exciting it had been to see
Wilde and the other celebrities at the "Hellas" performance,
they must have met not long afterwards. Alex may have
introduced Robbie to Wilde, for by April of 18 87 Wilde had
been a member of the Society of Authors for some time,^® and
would probably have known its secretary. Mary also seems to
nave known Wilde as early as 1885.®’ When Wilde met Ross he
was thirty-two. He had married in 1884, and his two sons
were born in 1885 and 1886. Wilde was at that time very
well known, though not yet the successful and wealthy play
wright he later became. Nor had he yet had any homosexual
experience. Several sources indicate that he was initiated
by the seventeen-year-old Robert Ross.®®
®®Oscar Wilde to J. S. Little, April 29, 1887, in
Wilde, Letters, pp. 193-194.
®’Robert Ross to Jack Ross, August 14, 18 85, in the
possession of Giles Robertson. This letter tells of an
annoying guest at the hotel who said he knew many prominent
people. But if anyone else said that he knew the person,
too, the guest would disclaim knowledge. He had not known
Henry Irving and Ellen Terry "nor Oscar Wilde nor Madame
Modjesca when Mary mentioned them although he had known them
the day before Mary arrived."
® ®The information about Wilde is taken from Arthur Ran-
some, Oscar Wilde: A Critical Study (New York: Mitchell
Kennerley, 1913), pp. 31-32. Ransome acknowledges most of
the biographical facts about Wilde to have come from Ross,
and says of Wilde: "In 1886 he began that course of conduct
that was to lead to his downfall in 1895" (p. 30). Frank
Harris, always an untrustworthy source, told the even more
untrustworthy Lord Alfred Douglas in 1925 that Ross had told
him Ross was "the first boy Oscar ever had" and that their
relationship began in 1886. (Quoted in H. Montgomery Hyde,
"Appendix E. The Problem of Wilde's Inversion," Trials,
p. 371, n. 2.) And finally, in 1935 Reginald Turner, a
long-time friend of both Ross and Wilde, who was present at
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51
Wilde and Ross did not become close friends very soon.
Later Ross wrote:
. . . I only met him in '86 and only became intimate with
him when he was writing Lady Windermere, in 1891 but
there were long intervals when I never saw him, and he
never corresponded with me regularly until after the down
fall. I stayed with him in '87 for two months . . .^ ^
Only two notes from Wilde to Ross, written in the summer of
1889, survive from the years before 189 2. This makes it
difficult to define the exact nature of their relationship.
Part of it was probably hero worship on Robbie's part.
Brought up in a home lacking any real interest in art or
literature, and with his own cultural interests discouraged
by his mother, he was open to being unduly impressed by the
first man he met who seemed to him to be an expert, and who
encouraged him.**“ Wilde was also delightful to know. Per-
Wilde's death, said that shortly before he died Wilde had
asked him to guess "who it was who had seduced him," and had
told Turner that it was Ross. Turner went on to say that
"when I told Robbie he absolutely denied it & said Oscar was
'romancing.'" Turner speculates Ross didn't want the re
sponsibility, though "one of the last serious conversations
I had with Oscar was on that subject when he said that no
one had any real influence on anyone else." Ross was also
having difficulties with Douglas when Turner discussed the
subject with him and might have denied it because of that.
"Oscar himself did not set much importance by it but told it
to me as a matter of interest & not in any way of fixing any
blame on anybody." (Letters to A. J. A. Symons, August 26,
1935, and September 4, 1935, in the Clark Library.)
^^Letter to Adela Schuster, December 23, 19 00, in
Wilde, Letters, p. 862.
^°This was Bernard Shaw's view, developed from a con
versation with Ross, and printed in his "My Memories of
Oscar Wilde," pp. 345-361 of Frank Harris, Oscar Wilde (New
York: Dell, 1960), pp. 354-355.
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52
son after person has testified to the charm of his conversa
tion and personality. He could give a "sort of enchantment"
to the most ordinary things, revealing his thought and in
sight by the wit and humor of his talk, so that when one was
unhappy and saw him, in a few minutes everything became
pleasant again.
For the fatherless Robbie, the friendship of this
charming and famous older man must have seemed very much
worth having. Wilde did not pay much attention to him, but
Robbie was modest about his own merits, and was content to
share as much as he could in the interesting group that
formed around Wilde. He must have been very pleased to
think his own ideas could be an inspiration to Wilde, who
generously acknowledged the help he received from Ross for
the series of dialogues which he began writing in 188 8.
"The Decay of Lying," which appeared in the January, 1889,
Nineteenth Century, Wilde said was inspired by a conversa
tion with Robbie held during a dinner "in a little Soho
cafe."^^ "The Portrait of Mr. W. H.," in Blackwoods for
July, 1889, was credited by Wilde to Ross as being "half
yours, and but for you would not have been written.
"^Ibid., p. 348; Alfred Douglas, Without Apology (Lon
don: Martin Seeker, 19 38), p. 75.
^^Oscar Wilde to Alfred Douglas [January-March 1897]
("De Profundis") in Letters, p. 428.
[July 1889], in Wilde, Letters, p. 249.
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53
There was a lively circle of young people at the Ross
home, friends of Robbie and of his sister Elizabeth, who had
now dropped her childhood name of Lizzie and insisted on
being called Elise. Robbie liked to write "society verse"
to her and her friends, such as "Lines Addressed to the Fair
Ladies of the Dorcas Society," who are chided for being un
able to sew and therefore unable to perform good works but
can only gossip; "Lines to a Young Lady with a Miniature Box
of Draughts," or "Lines Addressed to a Lady with Red
Hair."‘ “*
Squire Sprigge, who became a lifelong friend of Rob
bie's, was one of Elise's admirers, and was also known to
Robbie through the Society of Authors, where he was first
contributor, then secretary, and finally chairman from 1910
to 1913. Many years after their meeting, in a letter to
Sprigge's son, Robbie called him "an incomparable friend, my
standby in endless troubles, the only one besides Alex to
whom I could always turn."**® His quick wit and his wide
interests in art and literature gave them a basis for
friendship, increased by closer ties when Sprigge married
Ethel Jones, Robbie's niece, in 1905. A medical doctor,
Sprigge was also assistant editor of The Lancet from 1893 to
Poems in the possession of Giles Robertson.
Letter to C. J. S. Sprigge quoted by him in a letter
to Margery Ross dated October 29, 1950, in the possession of
J. P. B. Ross.
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54
1909 and then its editor till he died in 1937, and was
knighted in 1921.“ *^
Another close friend was More Adey, who shared Robbie's
interests in art, literature, and homosexuality. About 1891
Ross and Adey began sharing a lodging, an arrangement which
continued for about fifteen years. They liked Kensington,
and its quiet green streets. At first they lived on Church
Street, though Ross continued to stay frequently with his
family. Later Ross seems to have lived at 13, Phillimore
Gardens, just around the corner from Adey at 24, Hornton St.
Adey had translated and edited several books, and some time
in 1891 Walter Pollock suggested that Ross and Adey should
undertake a new edition of Melmoth the Wanderer, one of the
most famous of Gothic novels. Charles Robert Maturin, the
author, had been a great-uncle of Oscar Wilde's, and Wilde
and his mother helped the editors gather material for the
editorial apparatus, which included a bibliography of re
views of the book, a list of other works by Maturin, a "Mem
oir" of the author, and a "Note" about him. Although the
names of Adey and Ross do not appear in the book, its suc
cessful accomplishment was a real achievement for a young
man of twenty-two. ^
Gerald Horner, "Squire Sprigge," in Dictionary of
National Biography, Supplement 1931-1940; ed. ÎTI G. Wickham
Legg (London; Oxford Univ. Press, 19495 , pp. 329-330.
^Charles Robert Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer : A New
Edition from the Original Text with a Memoir and Bibliogra-
phv of Maturin's Works (London: Richard Bentley & Son,
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55
Another of the Ross children's friends, the somewhat
older Aymer Vallance, like Sprigge was an admirer of Elise.
He was a designer and artist, and later author of such books
as Art in England During the Elizabethan and Stuart Periods,
1908, and English Church Screens, 1936. During December of
1891 Vallance visited Aubrey Beardsley, whose work, as yet
unpublished commercially, had been recommended to Vallance
by a clergyman. Vallance admired both Beardsley's drawings
and his sister Mabel, and immediately set out to know the
Beardsleys better and to introduce Aubrey to people whom he
would like and who would be of use to him. On Valentine's
Day, 1892, Vallance invited a group, which included Robert
Ross, to meet Beardsley. Robbie had been told about him,
but:
I never expected the youthful apparition which glided into
the room. He was shy, nervous, and self-conscious, with
out any of the intellectual assurance and ease so charac
teristic of him eighteen months later when his success was
unquestioned. He brought a portfolio of his marvelous
drawings, in themselves an earnest of genius; but I hardly
paid any attention to them at first, so overshadowed were
they by the strange and fascinating originality of their
author. ' * ®
Somewhere in the course of showing his drawings, Beardsley
became more at ease, and talked with Robbie, More, and the
1892). Also Robert Ross to Edmund Gosse, March 16, 1892, in
the copy of Melmoth in the Brotherton Library, University of
Leeds, and Wilde, Letters, p. 555, n. 1.
®Robert Ross, Aubrey Beardsley (London: John Lane,
The Bodley Head, 1909), pp. 15-16.
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56
others about art and literature, showing a knowledge and an
enthusiasm which appealed to Robbie. Robbie especially ad
mired Aubrey's drawing, "Joan of Arc," and asked to buy it,
but the artist would not let him, saying that he wanted to
keep it and would make Robbie a copy, which he delivered in
a few weeks (p. 17). Robbie and Aubrey soon met each
other's families. Robbie liked Aubrey's mother, Mrs. Ellen
Beardsley, very much, and she respected and trusted him.
Elise and Mabel also became friends, and Count Eric Sten-
bock, who knew them all and bought some of Aubrey's draw
ings, joked with "the fair Elise" and "Mabel with her Thurs
day teas" about their rivalry over Vallance.**^ Neither girl
was to marry him, however. Elise becoming Mrs. Morgan Blake
on February 5, 1896, and Mabel marrying Bealby Wright.
Robbie and Aubrey were alike in many ways. Both of
them were closely tied to their families, sincerely reli
gious, and suffered from poor health. Both were passion
ately interested in art and literature, willing to accept
whatever was good, and impatient with "mutual admiration
societies or . . . literary and artistic cliques" (p. 19).
And both were an interesting blend of the "nice boy . . .
with no nonsense of any kind about him" and the "artificial
manner." Robbie realized that many of Aubrey's more outra
geous actions were caused by a delight in "shocking 'the
4 9
Poem in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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57
enemy'" (p. 28). He did not really like this aspect of
Aubrey's work, or think it worthy of him as an artist, but
considered it to be a "boyish failing for which he may be
forgiven" (p. 28). Ross realized, as others refused to,
that many of Beardsley's improprieties were intended as
criticism, not praise.
Quite wrongly Beardsley's designs had come to be regarded
as the pictorial and sympathetic expression of a decadent
tendency in English literature. But if there was any
relation thereto, it was that of Juvenal toward Roman
Society. Never was mordant satire more evident.
Ross really admired Beardsley's work and was fascinated to
watch its development.
The year 1892 was important to Ross, for in it he met
and became friendly not only with Aubrey Beardsley, but also
with Edmund Gosse, Joseph and Elizabeth Pennell, and two
friends of Wilde's, Max Beerbohm and Reginald Turner.
Edmund Gosse (1849-1928) was one of the leading liter
ary men of the day. From the time of his marriage in 1875
he and his wife had been "at home" to literary London every
Sunday afternoon, holding a tea and choosing a few honored
guests to stay to supper.Gosse's position as translator
^“Robert Ross, "Aubrey Beardsley," Masques and Phases,
p. 153.
s^Each week Gosse recorded the name of every caller in
the "Book of Gosse," which therefore forms an invaluable
record of literary acquaintanceships during the period. The
"Book of Gosse" itself is at Cambridge, and there is a pho
tocopy, which I used, at the Brotherton Library, University
of Leeds, along with the little notebooks in which Gosse
noted his daily social engagements. See also Philip Gosse,
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58
to the Board of Trade, and later as librarian of the House
of Lords, his lectures at Cambridge from 1885 to 1890, and
his many published articles and books, had given him a wide
acquaintanceship, and an invitation to the Gosses' meant a
chance to meet some of the most important scholars and
writers in the country. On June 3, 189 2, when Robbie first
attended lunch at the Gosse house, the guests were:
I4r. Leslie Stephen, Mr. W. E. Norris, Prof. Knight, Mr.
Austin Dobson, Mr. Saintsbury, Mr. Heinemann, Sir George
Douglas, Mr. R. Ross, Mr. Harland, Prof. Butcher, Mr.
Alfred Waterhouse. ("Book of Gosse")
During Ross's three visits in 1892 and seven in 1893, his
name appears with such persons as Arthur Waugh, Walter
Pater, Arthur Symons, Robert Bridges, Coventry Patmore,
Henry James, Thomas Hardy, and George Moore. Probably
through Gosse, too, came such practical benefits as William
Heinemann's invitation to contribute some lyrics to a pro
posed almanac, with a rhyme for each day, as Heinemann had
"heard so much of your amazing capacity for making these."
It was also through Gosse that Ross met the distin
guished engraver and writer Joseph Pennell and his wife
Elizabeth, who helped Robbie develop his knowledge of and
"Introduction," Catalog of the Gosse Correspondence in the
Brotherton Collection (Leeds: The Brotherton Library,
1950), pp. viii-ix.
®^Letter dated February 11, 1895, in Ross, Friend of
Friends, p. 36.
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59
contacts in art.^^ Mrs. Pennell later wrote that in 1892
both Robbie and Alex Ross, artists Aubrey Beardsley,
R. A. M. Stevenson and Charles Purse, and writers Henry Har
land and D. S. MacColl had gone with the Pennells to Paris
for the principal art event of the year there, the opening
of the Salon on April 3 0 . However, other evidence indi
cates that Beardsley did not îneet either the Pennells or
MacColl till 1893,5s so she may have been in error, and Rob
bie may or may not have been present in 189 2. He was cer
tainly there in 1893, when the same group attended, with the
exception of Alex Ross, whose place was taken by writer
Charles Whibley.^® Though most of the others were consid
erably older and more well-established than he, it was a
circle which Robbie found to be congenial. Mrs. Pennell
described their days thus:
All the way along the Quais, or in the bâteau-mouche, to
the Champ-de-Mars, it was talk. In front of every paint
ing, every sculpture, every drawing that attracted their
^^Elizabeth Robins Pennell, The Life and Letters of
Joseph Pennell (Boston: Little, Brown, 1929), Ï1 155.
s^Elizabeth Robins Pennell and Joseph Pennell, The Life
of James McNeill Whistler, 5th ed. (Philadelphia: Lippin-
cott, 1911), p. 306.
s^Ross says Beardsley met Mr. Pennell in December of
1892, in Aubrey Beardsley, p. 23. D. S. MacColl, in "Aubrey
Beardsley," pp. 21-22 of R. A. Walker, A Beardsley Miscel
lany (London: 1949) says that he met Beardsley through Ross
in December of 1892, and then introduced Beardsley to Pen
nell .
SGpennell, Pennell, I, 252.
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60
attention, it was talk, their best aperitif before the
midday breakfast. And again talk on the afternoon excur
sion to Saint-Cloud, Fontainebleau, or during the rambles
along the Quais and to the Odeon and Palais-Roygil book
shops in search of portfolios, like the memorable
”L'Estampe Originale" or books illustrated by men of the
Thirties or men of the day. . . . And talk was renewed
over the good dinner, over the gay visits, often with
Henry Harland as guide, to Salis' Chat Noir, Bruant's
Mirliton, the Tréteaux de Tabarin, the Moulin Rouge, with
the famous La Goulue and her Quadrille, Les Ambassadeurs,
— or was it the Scala?— with Yvette Guilbert and her long
black gloves. (I, 252-253)
The group could be almost childish in its high spirits, as
when they gave a formal luncheon outside the Palais Royal,
at a table set in the gutter, and the police made them move
their elegantly spread cloth and their chairs to a spot less
frequented by horses and carriages.^ ^ A letter to Robbie
from the Beardsleys, Harland and his wife, and some others
is also in this spirit. It summons Ross "to compear before
us within the space of a se'ennight from this date or for
ever after hold your peace (if you can)," is illustrated by
a number of drawings, including those of a plant and of a
house, and is liberally signed by:
Ellen Beardsley (Lady visitor)
Aline Harland (Lady Superintendent)
Mabel Beardsley (Lady visitor) [drawing of a pig]
Alfred Henry Robinson Thornton
Charles Conder, his mark (ordinary limner) [drawing of an
elephant]
Litellus Burrell Goold (the Laird) [drawing of a worm]
H. Harland (Patron)
D. S. MacColl (Scriptor)
In case he had any doubts, they assure him: "N. B. We are
5 7
Weintraub, Beardsley, p. 50.
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61
still sane. Come."^®
Another group of which Robbie was frequently a part was
that centering around Oscar Wilde. Most of Oscar's closer
friends were younger than he was, and Max Beerbohm, Reginald
Turner, and Lord Alfred Douglas were all about Robbie's age.
In 1892 Reggie had just come down from Merton College, Ox
ford, and was reading for the Bar,®® and Max was still at
Oxford when Robbie met them sometime early in the fall.® °
He had probably first met Bosie Douglas earlier that year.
Although Douglas wrote that he and Wilde first had sexual
relations a few nights after the opening of Lady Winder-
mere 's Fan,® ^ which took place February 20, 1892, Wilde said
that they did not get to know each other well till May of
1892 when Douglas's brother appealed to Wilde to help Bosie,
who was jpeing blackmailed. For the next several years, much
of Wilde's time was taken up with Douglas,®^ though he
introduced his old friends to Bosie and shared his senti
ments about the young man with them. In a letter tenta-
®®Undated letter, published without indication of all
the drawings, in Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 34.
®®Weintraub, Reggie, pp. 45-4 8.
®°Max Beerbohm to Reggie Turner, October 10, 1892, in
Max Beerbohm, Letters to Reggie Turner, ed. Rupert Hart-
Davis (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1965), p. 26.
®^Croft-Cooke, Bosie, pp. 55-56.
®^Oscar Wilde to More Adey, April 7, 1897, in Wilde,
Letters, p. 525.
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62
tively dated as May or June of 18 92, he told Robbie that
Bosie "is quite like a narcissus— so white and gold . . . he
lies like a hyacinth on the sofa, and I worship him."^ ^
The group that centered about Oscar considered itself
very daring, very stylish, very liberal. Oscar's conversa
tion, with its paradoxes and aphorisms, its parables and
stories, was imitated by the others to the best of their
abilities. They talked about society and politics, about
the stage, about literature and literary men, about "muli-
erasts" and "certain forms of crime." Their dress, like
their talk and knowledge, had to be up to the minute— in
deed, to set the fashion for others. It was a fascinating
group to be in, and Robbie enjoyed it fully. He nominated
Max and Reggie for the Hogarth Club, which Max described as
cozy and useful in their literary careers, and Robbie as
also cozy and useful. They would all dine at restaurants
together, or attend the theater, especially enjoying Oscar's
plays.
Lady Windermere's Fan, his first success, was produced
on February 20, 1892. A Woman of No Importance premiered
April 19, 1893; An Ideal Husband on January 3, 1895; and The
Importance of Being Earnest February 14, 189 5. The last of
these was written with the help of a notebook in which
®^In Wilde, Letters, p. 314.
®‘ 'Max Beerbohm to Reggie Turner, October 2, 1893, in
Beerbohm, Letters to Reggie, p. 73.
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63
Robbie had written down Oscar's conversation during his 18 87
visit.G 5 It was finished in two months, August and Septem
ber 189 4,^® faster than Wilde's other plays, and when later
published it was dedicated to Ross.®’
Wilde had changed tremendously since Ross had first
known him. His friendship with Douglas and the financial
success of his plays caused him to spend prodigally, to eat
and drink too much, and to react with contemptuous disregard
to any criticism.®® Rumors circulated about him and Doug
las, occasioned by their manner towards each other and by
the type of boys with whom they were sometimes seen. More
and more frequently Oscar v;as shunned by older, conservative
people, and sometimes Robbie, too, felt the consequences.
One night, for instance, there was a scene at Ross's club,
when Wilde faced a member who had risen to leave when Wilde
entered. He made the group of people stay, by pointing out
to them that they were really insulting their fellow club
member.®® But Wilde could not always make people accept
him. When Ross and Wilde attended the 1894 dinner of the
®®Robert Ross to Adela Schuster, December 23, 19 00, in
Wilde, Letters, p. 862.
®®Wilde, Letters, p. 360, n. 2.
®’The titles and dates in this paragraph are taken from
Ransome, Oscar Wilde, pp. 30-32, unless otherwise noted.
®®Harris, Oscar Wilde, p. 117.
®®Pearson, Oscar Wilde, p. 235.
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64
Society of Authors together, they sat opposite an old friend
of Oscar and his mother, Comtesse Anna de Bremont, whose
guest ostentatiously refused to be introduced by her to
eitner Wilde or Ross.^°
Some of Robbie's closest friends did not like Wilde
very much. More Adey, a Catholic like Robbie, objected to
Wilde's association with male prostitutes and to the way he
flaunted himself before the public. More did not want Rob
bie to be influenced too much by Wilde, and later wrote to a
Catholic priest that he had undertaken to save Ross "from
evil."^ ^
There is no evidence that Robbie at this time criti
cized Oscar's activities or companions to Oscar himself.
They were none of Robbie's business. But he may have been
somewhat critical to other people, for in November of 1893
Aubrey Beardsley felt free to write to Robbie about Oscar
and Bosie that "both of them are really very dreadful peo
ple." Beardsley had, that spring, been recommended by
Ross to do the illustrations for Wilde's Salome. Since
Beardsley had received several important commissions by now,
^°Anna de Bremont, Oscar Wilde and His Mother (London:
Everett, 1911), pp. 134-135.
^^S. Bowden to More Adey, June 11, 1895, in the Clark
Library. What "evil" means here is, of course, debatable,
but Adey must have meant homosexuality, since Bowden was
requesting him to try to help Douglas. He may have meant
primarily promiscuity, however.
7 2
Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 29.
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55
and a much-talked of article on him by Pennell had appeared,
Wilde and John Lane, the publisher, had agreed. But the il
lustrations alone were not enough to keep Aubrey's active
mind occupied, and he would have liked to translate the work
from the French in which Wilde had originally written it, a
task which was to be Alfred Douglas's.When, in Septem
ber, Wilde criticized Douglas's translation as being "as un
worthy of you, as an ordinary Oxonian, as it was of the work
it sought to render," Bosie came complaining to Robbie, ask
ing him to use his influence with Oscar to get the transla
tion accepted.This put Robbie in a difficult position,
but he wanted Aubrey to use his limited strength for the
masterful drawing only he could do, and he felt sorry for
Bosie. Oscar later wrote Bosie that Robbie had said he
would be
humiliated at having your work sent back to you like a
schoolboy's exercise; that I was expecting far too much
intellectually from you; and that, no matter what you
wrote or did, you were absolutely and entirely devoted to
me. (p. 432)
The drawings for Salome impressed Robbie very much, as
he watched them develop. He always considered them to be
among Beardsley's best work, saying:
In the illustrations to "Salome," he reached the consumma-
^^Weintraub, Beardsley, p. 46, pp. 56-57; Croft-Booke,
Bosie, p. 81.
[January-I'larch 1897] ("De Profundis") in Wilde, Let
ters , p. 432.
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66
tion of the new convention he created for himself, they
are, collectively, his masterpiece. In the whole range of
art there is nothing like them. You can trace the origin
of their development, but you cannot find anything where
with to compare them; they are absolutely unique. . . .
From the Greek vase painting he learned that drapery can
be represented effectually with a few lines, disposed with
economy, not by a number of unfinished scratches and
superfluous shading. If the "Salome" drawings have any
fault at all, it is that the texture of the pictures sug
gests some other medium than pen and ink, as Mr. Walter
Crane has pointed out in his other work. They are wrought
rather than drawn, and might be designs for the panel of a
cabinet, for Limoges or Oriental enamel.’^
Somehow Robbie managed to remain on good terms with both
Aubrey and Oscar, even after Oscar had seen the caricatures
of himself that appeared several places in the drawings.
The quarrel over the translation, and Wilde's dislike of the
pictures, caused the initial interest of Wilde and Beardsley
in each other to become a strong antipathy.
If Beardsley is carried away in spite of himself by the
superb invention of Salome, he never forgets his hatred of
its author. It is characteristic that he hammered beauty
from the gold he would have battered into caricature.
Salome has survived other criticism and other carica-
ture.^ ®
In addition to his rather complicated relationships
with Wilde and Wilde's friends, Robbie also sincerely liked
Constance Wilde and the two boys, sending her flowers and
the children toys on holidays. She liked him, too, and fre
quently invited him to dinner or to come and visit the
family when they were out of town on vacations. She felt
’®Ross, Aubrey Beardsley, p. 46.
^®Ross, "Aubrey Beardsley," in Masques and Phases,
pp. 153-154.
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67
free to borrow a picture of his when a friend of hers was
arranging a Dante exhibit, and wrote once, after he had just
moved, that she would be glad to come to tea, and "shall not
notice the want of furniture in your delightful company &
with all the charming bits of art that you always have round
you."^ ^
Scandal
In the fall of 189 3 Ross's acquaintance with Douglas
caused him to be part of a scandal of which only the bare
outline remains clear, and which interrupted his life and
work. It nearly stopped the flow of reviews, stories, and
poems that he was writing for the Author, Saturday Review,
and other journals. Douglas, or Ross, or both became in
volved with a schoolboy of good family, who was introduced
to Douglas by Ross. The boy's father, a "noisy military
gentleman," found out about it and took it to his lawyer,
and both Ross and Douglas spent a large part of the follow
ing winter abroad. In 1914 Ross gave his version of the
story. He said that in July of 1893 the young man "stayed
one day with him at his mother's house, in Onslow-Square."
During the day Douglas was introduced to him and the boy
later stayed with Douglas, consequently returning late to
his school in Belgium. Douglas wrote to him at school and
^’Constance Wilde to Robert Ross, April 6, 1893;
April 16, 1893; May 13, 1893; October 15, 1894, in the Clark
Library. - .
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68
the letters were intercepted and read by the schoolmaster,
who wrote to Ross's relatives about Ross having introduced
the boy to Douglas. He was removed from school, and the
master asked the Rosses to compensate him for his lost tui
tion and board and room. They were very unhappy about the
whole thing, and in January of 1894 Robbie wrote to Bosie;
I am not allowed to live in London for two years. As the
purse strings are in their hands, and a stoppage is
threatened, I have to submit. . . . 'Ay elder brother here
gets letters about the disgrace of the family, the social
outcast, the son and brother unfit for society of any
kind, from the people at home.^®
Ross went to Davos, Switzerland, where his elder brother
Jack and his wife were staying. Minnie Ross was at the
mountain resort for her health, and died there two years
later.’® Robbie was the only guest at the Villa Paul, while
Jack and Minnie stayed at the Posthaus.®° Robbie spent his
time tobogganing, reading papers to and debating at the
English Literary Society, and working on a story he had
promised Aubrey Beardsley to write for the first number of
the Yellow Book, but which was not published in its pages.
’®"Lord Alfred Douglas; Prosecutor Cross-Examined,"
Daily Telegraph, Tuesday, November 24, 1914. In Bodleian
Ross d.213, “Press Cuttings Relating to Cases of Lord Alfred
Douglas," p. 81.
Family register in the back of J. P. B. Ross's copy
of Jones, "Memories."
®°Davos Courier, Saturday, January 13, 1894, p. 167.
® ^Aubrey Beardsley to Robert Ross, December 189 3, in
Ross, Friend of Friends, pp. 30-31.
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69
He found it hard to work, for he felt that all his friends
knew about the scandal and were criticizing him. From Lon
don Max tried to console him;
I am afraid that Davos has made you rather morbid or that
people have been exaggerating to you at a distance: ev
eryone that has spoken about you to me seems only op
pressed by your absence and full of affection: indeed
your return would be triumphal. And why "innocent host or
hostess"? And why "pariah"? As a matter of fact I have
never learnt even the cause of your departure: from what
you hint I suppose it was a kind of flight. . . . I really
tnink the scandal is less than you imagine: it is true
that John Lane raised a mystic eyebrow in speaking of you
but he is the only person who seemed at all shocked or
gave me any notion of a tragedy.®^
Max, however, soon knew all about it, if he really didn't at
the time he wrote to Robbie, for on December 19 he outlined
the situation in a letter to Reggie, saying that:
a schoolboy with wonderful eyes, Bosie, Bobbie, a furious
father, George Lewis, a headmaster (who is now blackmail
ing Bobbie), St. John Wontner, Calais, Dover, Oscar Brown
ing, Oscar, Dover, Calais, intercepted letters, private
detectives, Calais, Dover and returned cigarette-cases
were some of the ingredients of the dreadful episode.
. . . The garçon entretenu, the schoolboy Helen "for whom
those horned ships were launched, those beautiful mailed
men laid low," was the same as him of whom I told you that
he had been stolen from Bobbie by Bosie and kept at the
Albemarle Hotel: how well I remember passing this place
one night with Bobbie and his looking up sadly at the
lighted windows and wondering to me behind which of the
red curtains lay the desire of his soul.®®
®^Letter dated only "Wednesday," in the possession of
J. P. B. Ross.
®®Letters to Reggie, p. 84. The editor, Hart-Davis,
explains that George Lewis and St. John Wontner were law
yers, and the quotation from Wilde's "Critic as Artist."
Oscar Browning was the Cambridge Don whose name keeps coming
up in inexplicable circumstances. Wilde was also in the
habit of taking rooms at the Albemarle Hotel to entertain
male guests. In "De Profundis" Wilde says of this time that
Bosie went abroad four days during the fall and Wilde went
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70
Robbie paid a rapid visit to London over the holidays
in December, but had to return to Davos "for fear of a
social relapse" (p. 84). In March he was again in London,
for he attended the Gosse's "Sunday" on the eleventh, and
Constance Wilde asked him to dine on the nineteenth. Per
haps the family was reluctant for Robbie to return to London
in the spring yet, for he spent the months from April
through July in America. He apparently went to New York for
a short time, but primarily he visited the Canadian branches
of the Baldwin and Ross families.
It was interesting to meet some of the relatives he had
heard about, and a relief to feel no one knew about his
recent problems. For some years, Robbie and Jack had
delighted in creating a series of "Baldwin Ballads," satir
ic poems about their Canadian relations and ancestors. As
well as the old disapproval of Eliza Baldwin's marriage to
John Ross, there had been some hard feeling about property
inheritance. Robbie wrote Jack that he was finding out many
things, on his trip to Upper Canada, about the "Laff Dynas
ty," so-named from a relative always called "The Hearty
Laff." He sent Jack several "Baldwin Ballads" which depend
so much on family allusions that they mean little today. A
to Calais to bring him back. (Letters, p. 426.) Later
Wilde says Bosie had gone to Belgium, and had blamed an un
named companion for his trip (p. 434) . In December, appar
ently to escape the scandal, Douglas went to Egypt, not
returning to live in London until some time the next summer.
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71
better example of his creativity follows. The reader needs
only the information that Muscotagh, pronounced to rhyme
with "hay," was a family estate; and that one cousin, Eliza
beth, loved horses.
Whinny, whinny. Cousin Bess
That is where you're at, I guess.
In the stable munching hay
In the yard at Muscotagh. ®
Ross returned to London in August of 1894, and took up his
old acquaintances. As 189 5 began, he was again entering
into London literary life, and any scandal had been forgot
ten or hushed up.
Significance of Ross's Formative Years
In the first twenty-five years of the life of Robert
Baldwin Ross, the patterns summarized below were estab
lished. The rest of this dissertation will show he followed
these patterns the other half of his life. A family tradi
tion of doing the honorable thing, regardless of the person
al cost, was ingrained in him. The early loss of his father
and his mother's spoiling of her younger children influ
enced him to adopt easily the homosexual behavior prevalent
in the school which he attended, and to retain such behav
ioral patterns after an age when they were dropped by other
young men. He met Oscar Wilde, became a friend of his, and
initiated Wilde into homosexual practices. A good educa-
®‘ 'Letter dated April 21, 1894; and poems in the posses
sion of Giles Robertson.
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72
tion, brothers who wrote well, and an unhappy experience at
Cambridge, caused him to turn to literary work for an occu
pation. Ross had begun to achieve some reputation and skill
in writing when a scandal in which Alfred Douglas was also
involved interrupted the even flow of his life.
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C H APTER I I I
THE WILDE YEARS
The years from 1895 to 1900 were eventful ones for
Ross, filled with difficult decisions. He was beginning to
attract some notice as a writer, and to have a wide range of
acquaintances in literary circles. At the beginning of 1895
there seemed no reason why, within a few years, he should
not become well-known and successful. But before that year
was half over, Ross's friendship with Wilde, and his refusal
to break off that friendship when Wilde became involved in a
scandalous legal case, had caused his name to become better
known than he would have desired, and in the most damaging
manner possible.
Wilde's Ideal Husband
Eighteen ninety-five began pleasantly enough, with the
first night of Wilde's An Ideal Husband at the Haymarket
Theatre on January 3. The plot of the drama seems almost
like a carefully disguised speculation on the part of the
author about what would happen if his homosexual behavior
should be revealed. Sir Robert Chiltern, like Wilde, had a
secret. His position and fortune were built on the money he
73
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74
had made selling a governmental secret. Someone who knows
about this begins blackmailing him, and he dares not tell
his pure and puritan wife, nor anyone else excet his friend
Lord Goring. Goring disapproves of the action but remains
sympathetic to the man, and solves the problem, and the wife
learns tolerance for human error. It is difficult not to
see in the trust Sir Robert places in his younger friend a
picture of the friendship between Wilde and Ross. There is
none of the sentimentality in the relationship between the
two characters that there was between Wilde and Douglas.
Perhaps Wilde hoped that Ross, who had introduced him to
homosexuality in the first place, could also take care of
any problems that arose in regard to it, as Goring solved
Chiltern's problems. Indeed, Wilde, Douglas, and Wilde's
wife all relied on Ross to mediate differences between them
and to take care of bothersome business details.
Ross Helps Constance Wilde
Shortly after the opening of An Ideal Husband Wilde and
Douglas left for Algiers, although rehearsals for The Impor
tance of Being Earnest, were in progress. Wilde seemed
willing to neglect his new drama to be with Douglas, and he
quite ignored his wife. While Wilde and Douglas were gone,
Constance Wilde wrote to Robbie asking him to attend to sev
eral matters for her. She was in the middle of moving from
Tite Street to Torquay for a month, and asked Robbie to send
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75
her some reviews of the new play, since they would be diffi
cult for her to get in the country, and to see that Oscar
sent tickets for the first night to some friends of hers.
She also asked him to have Oscar send her fe5 and put more in
her overdrawn bank account, and said that since she didn't
know where her husband would be, she would write him in care
of Ross. Three days later she wrote Robbie again. He had
offered to send her the £5, and she replied that she would
ask him for it if she needed it. She also invited him to
come and spend a week with her and Lady Mount Temple, whose
house she was renting. She thanked him for telegraphing
Oscar's London address and promising to let her know when
Oscar returned to the country.^ Wilde returned in time for
the opening of Earnest on February 14.
Trouble Gathers
Meanwhile, incensed by the rumors that circulated about
Wilde and Bosie, Lord Queensberry was determined to take
some action which would frighten Wilde away from his son.
The previous year he had threatened to horsewhip Wilde, and
Wilde had needed to consult a lawyer about possible legal
action. Unfortunately, his usual solicitor. Sir George
Lewis, was also employed by Queensberry. So he had asked
Ross for suggestions, and Ross had sent him to the firm of
Humphreys, Son & Kershaw, which was very old and well estab-
^Letters dated January 29 and February 1, 1895, in the
Clark Library.
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76
lished, though perhaps not as sophisticated in such matters
as Lewis was.^
After an unsuccessful attempt to create a disturbance
at the opening of Earnest, a few days later the furious
Queensberry left with the porter of Wilde's club a card on
which he had written "To Oscar Wilde posing as a somdomite
[sic]." When Wilde received the card, he wrote at once to
Ross, asking him to come see him that evening.^ When Robbie
arrived, he found that Bosie was also there, and had been
urging Oscar to institute libel proceedings against Queens
berry. Bosie hated his father, who well deserved such
hatred, and he wanted Oscar to act, saying that his family
would be glad to pay the expenses of the case in order to
quiet a man who had caused them all so much trouble.** On
the other hand, Robbie could see the danger in prosecuting
Queensberry for a statement which was true. On previous oc
casions that the lawyer had been consulted, the question had
^Wilde himself said that taking Douglas's blackmail
problem to Lewis had caused a break between them ("De Pro
fundis," Letters, p. 440), but this explanation seems also
valid. It is taken from a letter Reginald Turner wrote to
Dr. Renier, March 22, 1933, in the Clark Library. Turner
should have known the reason, for besides knowing Wilde, he
was at that time a young lawyer in Chambers with a Mr. Bod
kin, and Travers Humphreys, C. O. Humphreys's son, was also
there. Travers Humphreys also became one of Wilde's advo
cates .
^Oscar Wilde to Robert Ross [February 28, 1895], in
Wilde, Letters, and n. 3 on that page.
**Wilde, "De Profundis," in Letters, p. 442.
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77
been one of maintaining order. Queensberry had been threat
ening physical disturbances and making unpleasant allega
tions. Now there was only the question of libel involved.
At least, Ross said, Bosie's eldest brother and his mother
should be told the truth, since they were to risk their
money, and Humphreys should know the facts. Neither Wilde
nor Douglas would allow the family or the lawyers to be
told.^
The next day, Friday, March 1, Wilde, Douglas, and Ross
went to Humphreys's office. Perhaps Ross attended in hopes
of encouraging truthfulness on the part of Wilde. If so, he
was unsuccessful. Humphreys asked Wilde whether the state
ment was indeed untrue, and Wilde assured him that it was.
St-
Douglas promised his family would pay the costs. Humphreys
agreed to take the case and to ask for Queensberry's arrest,
a warrant for which was granted on March 2.®
This was followed by the preliminary hearing on March
9, shortly after which Wilde and Douglas left for Monte
Carlo while Queensberry's detectives gathered evidence for
tne trial, which opened April 3, 1895.^ Although Wilde
surely must have known that his wife was quite ill, too ill
to walk as the result of a fall, and that she was about to
have an operation, he did not give her his address in Monte
®Ross, "Statement," p. 1. ^Trials, p. 29.
^Trials, pp. 34, 46; Wilde, "De Profundis," in Letters,
p. 430.
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78
Carlo. Needing to contact her husband, she wrote Robbie
with an enclosure for Oscar. Robbie immediately telegraphed
her Oscar's address, and asked to see her. Perhaps he tried
to warn her of the possible nature of some of the testimony
at the trial so that it would not be so much of a shock to
her. ®
Did Douglas or Ross Introduce Wilde
to Male Prostitutes?
Many years later Douglas and Ross, no longer friends,
would accuse each other bitterly of having first introduced
Wilde to male prostitutes such as those who gave evidence
against him at his trials. There is no statement by Wilde
about the matter. However, the evidence of Douglas's famil
iarity with persons introduced at the trials is overwhelm
ing, while there is no evidence that Ross knew or had met
any of them, and some evidence that he had not. In a letter
to Ross from prison in November 1896 Wilde mentioned his
"connection with Charley Parker of which you may read a full
account in my trial.Had Ross known Charley Parker, one
of the street-boys, or had Wilde been in the habit of dis
cussing this aspect of his life with Ross, there would have
been no need for Ross to "read a full account."
There is the following evidence about Douglas:
^Constance Wilde to Robert Ross, March 12 & March 15,
1895, in the Clark Library.
^Wilde, Letters, p. 414.
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79
(1) Concerning their meeting, Wilde wrote to Douglas,
"The gutter and the things that live in it had begun to fas
cinate you. That was the origin of the trouble in which you
sought my aid."^°
(2) Frank Harris said that Douglas "flaunted acquaint
ance" with street-boys, but since Bosie was unimportant,
this was ignored. When Wilde met Douglas and began to share
his companions Wilde was talked about since he was well-
known. It was when Douglas was in town that Wilde was seen
with improper associates, according to Harris.In addi
tion to these published statements, Harris wrote privately
to Ross that Wilde had told him Bosie had introduced him "to
the streets."^ ^
(3) Harris pointed out that every incident mentioned in
the trial occurred in 1892 or later, after Wilde had met
Douglas (p. 150). No incidents between 1887 and 1892, when
only Ross knew him, have ever been cited.
(4) Alfred Taylor, who introduced Wilde to many of the
boys, was known by Douglas. He warned Wilde against
Douglas.^ ^
(5) In a letter of April 20, 1894, Wilde mentioned
^°"De Profundis," in Letters, p. 425.
^ipscar Wilde, pp. 101, 104.
^^Letter dated May 10 [1914] in the possession of
J. P. B. Ross.
i^wilde, "De Profundis," in Letters, p. 462.
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80
Edward Shelley to Douglas in a manner which makes it clear
that Douglas knew Shelley and his character (p. 355).
(6) In July or August of 1894 Wilde wrote Douglas
about "Ernesto," probably Ernest Scarfe, who had asked Wilde
for money (p. 360).
(7) In a letter of August 1894, after Douglas had left
Worthing where he had visited Wilde, Wilde wrote to him:
Percy left the day after you did. He spoke much of you.
Alphonse is still in favour. He is my only companion,
along with Stephen. Alphonse always alludes to you as
"the Lord," which however gives you, I think, a Biblical
Hebraic dignity that gracious Greek boys should not have.
He also says, from time to time, "Percy was the Lord's
favourite," which makes me think of Percy as the infant
Samuel— an inaccurate reminiscence, as Percy was Hellenic,
(pp. 362-363)
(8) At the trial Frederick Atkins testified that he
had dined with Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas.
(9) Alfred Wood testified that Lord Alfred Douglas
introduced him to Wilde by telegram. Wood also swore he
first met Douglas at Alfred Taylor's rooms.
(10) An extravagant letter of Wilde's was left in the
pocket of a suit Douglas gave to Wood, and Wood and his
friends tried to blackmail Wilde with it.^®
(11) Harris said that Wilde told him that the most
damaging evidence against him at the trial, that of the
hotel employees, was not concerning something he had done.
^ ‘ 'Trials, p. 206. ^ ^Trials, pp. 201-202, 278.
^ ^Trials, pp. 106-108 .
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81
They were mistaken because they saw him the next morning in
Douglas's room and thought that the room was Wilde's. He
would not bring this out in court and damage Douglas.^ ^
(12) On April 7, 189 7, Wilde wrote More Adey about the
week before he found Queensberry's card. Douglas had
brought to Wilde's hotel "a companion of his own, one whose
age, appearance, public and private profession, rendered him
the most unsuitable companion possible," especially for
Wilde at that time. When Wilde asked Douglas to make the
boy leave, Douglas took him to another hotel, and made Wilde
pay their bills in both hotels. Wilde would have liked to
leave the country when he received the card, but lacked the
money to pay his own bill, and the proprietors wouldn't let
him have his baggage until he paid.^®
(13) On February 27, 1896, Douglas's mother. Lady
Queensberry, wrote to More Adey asking him to impress on her
son the importance of his remaining abroad, as her lawyer
had told her
he had the best possible authority for saying that it
would be highly dangerous for Bosie to come back to either
England or Scotland: he was most emphatic on the subject.
^ ^Although the name of the guilty person is not given
in most editions of Harris, it is included in the introduc
tion to the Trials (p. 80). In De Profundis Wilde mentioned
this incident, and again said to Douglas that the acts of
another had been credited to him. Douglas must have been
the other, for why else would "1% have damaged Douglas at the
trial to have had the truth revealed (p. 452)?
^®Wilde, Letters, p. 526.
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Bosie was not to return for "a long time to come."^® Ross
had been in England for many months at that time.
Disaster
Wilde's libel action against Queensberry took place
April 3 through 5, 189 5. Each day Ross drove to and from
the court with Wilde and was present in the Witnesses' Room,
under a subpoena from Queensberry's solicitors.^° The scene
in court has often been described, most dramatically in the
actual words, the transcript published in the Trials. The
prosecution of Lord Queensberry was presented first. Before
the defense began, Edward Carson had won the case through
his clever cross-examination of Wilde. Sir Edward Clarke,
Wilde's barrister, realized this, and on the morning of
April 5 withdrew the libel action with Wilde's permission.
Clarke made the best of the situation by saying that the
letters and writing read in court might indeed make an upset
father think that Wilde was "posing" as a sodomite, and that
Wilde was therefore willing to withdraw.
When the verdict, that the libel was true and published
in the public benefit,had been announced, Ross went to
i^Typed copy in the Clark Library of a letter in the
possession of Frederick Peters.
^°Ross, "Statement," p. 2. ^ ^Trials, p. 174.
z^ln a British libel trial it is necessary to prove two
things for a successful defense: that the libel, or defama
tory statement, was true; and that there was some benefit to
the public derived through its publication.
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83
tell Constance what had happened in court. She said she
hoped Oscar would go abroad in order to avoid prosecution.^^
Until now Ross had done nothing which attracted public
attention to himself, nothing which any acquaintance or
friend of the family might not have done. But after the
collapse of Wilde's case, with his arrest impending, the
discreet thing would have been to avoid his company. Per
haps his family's tradition of loyalty and honor influenced
Robbie. He would not desert his friend. There were plans
for flight to be made, sympathy to give, arrangements to
undertake.
Shortly before noon that day Ross and Reginald Turner
joined Wilde and Douglas at the Holborn Viaduct Hotel.
After lunch there Ross and Turner went to the bank and with
drew money for Wilde's proposed trip. But Wilde could not
decide what to do. After he visited George Lewis for ad
vice, he rejoined Ross and Turner, who were now at the
Cadogan Hotel where Douglas had been staying. Wilde re
mained there drinking hock and seltzer and suffering from
indecision and nerves until after five o'clock, when the
last train for France left. About five, Thomas Marlowe, a
reporter on the Star, entered the hotel and asked to see
Wilde. The manager knocked on Wilde's door, and Ross agreed
to see the reporter.
It must have seemed a very public conversation for
2 3
Trials, pp. 57, 59.
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84
Robbie, standing on the red-carpeted stairs, before the ser
vants, the other reporters, and the Marquess's detectives,
who had watcjaed the hotel all afternoon. Ross spoke first:
"Mr. Wilde," he said, "is quite unable to see anybody,
but if you will— "
"You are a friend of his?"
"Yes."
"Then I have come to let him know that a warrant has
been issued for his arrest."
Ross reentered the room and gave Wilde the message. Soon he
reappeared.
"Mr. Wilde is so much upset . . . for an hour and a
half he has been quite prostrate. All this time I have
been trying to keep him from breaking down."
"I thought, perhaps, he might wish to say something?"
"Nothing, except to thank you very sincerely for your
kindness, and to say that if he were able to receive any
one he would gladly see you."^^
The warrant had been issued about five o'clock by
magistrate Sir John Bridge, who had perhaps waited this long
to give Wilde a chance to leave England.Douglas went to
the House of Commons to talk to his cousin, George Wynd-
ham.^G About 6:30 the police arrived, and politely re
quested that Wilde go with them. When he asked if they
^‘ 'Morning Leader, Saturday, April 6, 1895, in Bodleian
MS. Ross d.212, p. J3.
^^Trials, p. 59.
^ ®According to the contemporary newspapers, this was
after the reporter had talked to Ross. If this is true, it
was probably to see if Wyndham could do anything to stop the
prosecution. Douglas himself said that he left to find out
from Wyndham if there was to be a prosecution, and had left
before he knew that the warrant had been issued. (Oscar
Wilde and Myself [New York: Duffield, 1914], p. 9271
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85
thought he could arrange to be released on bail, he was told
that it would probably not be possible. "Well," said Wilde,
"if I must go, I will give you the least possible
trouble."^ ^
He stood and picked up his overcoat from the couch, and
Ross or Turner helped him on with it. Taking his gloves,
stick, and a copy of Pierre Louys's novel. Aphrodite, he
asked Ross to go to his house, get a change of clothes, and
send it to the police station. He seemed a bit tipsy from
the afternoon's drinking. "I am now ready, gentlemen, to
accompany you," he said.^®
Ross immediately went to tell Constance of the ar
rest,^® and then went to Wilde's house in Tite street for
the clothes. Finding it deserted except for Alfred, a ser
vant, the two of them broke open the bedroom door, and Ross
packed a small Gladstone bag.®° He took the bag to Bow
Street Police Station, entering through a crowd that was
"shouting indecencies" because it knew Wilde was inside.
There he was refused permission to see Wilde or to leave the
^ ^Trials, p. 60.
^ ®Ibid., pp. 60-61, and The Echo, Saturday, April 6,
1895, in Bodleian MS. Ross d.212, p. 23.
^®Ross, "Statement," p. 2.
®"Pearson, Oscar Wilde, p. 260.
®^Croft-Cooke, Bosie, p. 121.
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86
b a g . Ross then went to his mother's house and collapsed.
Ross's Reaction
Now that there was a real crisis, for which they could
not blame Robbie, the Rosses were sympathetic. Mrs. Ross,
with her usual loyalty to her children, agreed to help pay
for Wilde's defense and to aid Wilde's mother financially.
When Robbie's name appeared in some of the newspapers, how
ever, as being present at Wilde's arrest, she wanted him to
get away from the publicity.There was also the danger
that he might again be subpoened and forced to testify
against Wilde. At first Robbie objected to leaving London,
both from loyalty and because there was business for Wilde
to do. For instance, a few days after the arrest, in ac
cordance with Oscar's written request from Holloway, Ross
returned to Wilde's house in search of some manuscripts.
Though he broke open the library door and found some letters
and manuscripts which he took with him, others he could not
find; these were stolen, either before or during the sale of
Wilde's belongings a few days later.Ross and Adey had
also complied with Wilde's request that they should write
letters for him resigning from his clubs, and answered com
munications such as Edward Burne-Jones's urgent appeal for
^ ^Trials, p. 61. ' ‘^Ross, "Statement," p. 2.
^‘ 'Robert Ross, "Introductory Note," pp. v-x of Oscar
Wilde, A Florentine Tragedy (Boston and London: John W.
Luce & Company, 1908) pp. v-vi.
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87
the return of all the letters he had written to Wilde. When
Ross in return asked for Wilde's letters, he was told that
they had been burnt.Adey, who had not known Wilde at all
we^l, and who therefore could not testify against him, was
willing to remain on the scene and assist Wilde. So, as
soon as he could get away, Ross went to Rouen, where he
remained until late July, except during Wilde's trial from
April 26 through May 1 when he visited Alfred Douglas at
Calais.^®
Since Douglas wrote Adey in 1897 that Robbie "was in no
danger at all" when he left before the trial,and since
there is no evidence that he knew the persons mentioned at
the trial, it seems unlikely that Ross feared his own ar
rest. Fear that he might have to give testimony which would
support Queensberry's case, dislike of more notoriety, sym
pathy for his own family, and knowledge that Wilde was being
taken care of by Adey were probably all supporting Pearsons
for his departure. He heard only through newspapers and
letters of the first trial which ended in a hung jury; of
Wilde's stay with his brother and then with the Leversons
between trials; and of the second trial, from May 20 through
May 25, with its verdict of guilty and sentence of two years
^Spearson, Oscar Wilde, p. 264.
^®Ross, "Statement," p. 2.
3?Copy in the Clark Library of a letter dated July 4,
1897, in the possession of Frederick Peters.
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88
at hard labor. The day the sentence was announced was Rob
bie's twenty-sixth birthday.
Wilde's arrest and trials upset Ross very much. The
1893 situation had already shown him the reactions of his
family to homosexuality, and had forced him to leave London
and his career as a writer. The Wilde trials came just when
he was trying to resume his literary activities. The reac
tion of society to Wilde showed him just how dangerous it
was to be revealed as a homosexual. Even the way his family
rallied around did not make the knowledge much easier. He
stopped working completely for a while. "I do not write
now," he told Max Beerbohm in October.^® Although he had
published several short stories and some poetry before the
Wilde trial, when he resumed writing, he confined himself
almost entirely to criticism and satire, forms in which the
emphasis is on the ideas of the person being criticized, not
on the writer.
Ross never tried to write anything very ambitious,
nothing on a large scale, nor to create something small but
perfect. Most of his pieces were written because a demand
for them existed. He did not write something and then seek
®®Letter dated October 20, 1895, in the possession of
J. P. B. Ross.
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89
a place for it to be published.One wonders if there were
another reason, besides concealment of his personality, in
what seems to be almost a deliberate decision against writ
ing what would make him successful. Not only did his reli
gion make him feel guilty for desires which he could not
help having, but after Wilde's fall, there was always the
added feeling of guilt that had it not been for him, Wilde
might never have begun such activities. Although Robbie had
too much sense really to believe this, he could not help
feeling emotionally responsible. Perhaps his lack of ambi
tion for himself was a subconscious punishment for the
disaster he felt that he had brought to Wilde.
He was also learning that concealing homosexuality was
not an easy matter. It was not enough to avoid statements
or actions expressing admiration for the wrong persons, or
indeed, to avoid romance in general, for one's whole posi
tion in society was influenced by one's plans for marriage
and family life. If one were a writer of fiction or poetry
it would be even more difficult. It takes an unusually
gifted man to imagine how another man might feel toward a
woman who is of no interest to himself, and to enumerate the
qualities which he might find attractive. It takes an
equally vivid imagination to discover the thoughts of a
^^I have never seen a letter from or to Ross showing
him to have submitted unsolicited work for publication,
though I have seen a number asking him for contributions
that he apparently never made.
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90
woman, in whose psychology he had no particular interest and
to whom he might feel some antipathy for just those quali
ties which he needed to Understand in order to write about.
It was a particular handicap to Ross because of his
respect for the opinions of society. Since Douglas cared
nothing about what the common people thought of him, he
could write as he chose. Wilde grew up as a heterosexual,
married, and had children, so he never felt this alienation.
His patterns of thought were set before he had any homosex
ual experience, and after that he found the danger exciting.
He was not afraid when some persons found improper allusions
in Dorian Gray, and he ignored the danger of Mr. W. H. But
when Ross was told to write something "in which the heroine
is not a beautiful boy,"**® he found himself incapable of
writing anything.
While Robbie was off in France recuperating from the
effects on him of Wilde's disaster, Edmund Gosse had written
to him telling him that the important thing now was for him
to forget.That was the sensible thing to do, the thing
for which the world would respect him. But Robbie could not
forget. He had no claim by family or by law which entitled
him to take part in Wilde's business. Those with such ties,
°Aubrey Beardsley to Robert Ross [December 1893], par
tially published in Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 30. Margery
left out this phrase.
* * ^Letter dated May 17, 189 5, in Ross, Friend of
Friends, pp. 36-37.
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91
however, were readier than Ross to ignore Wilde. Constance
Wilde had never been brought up to handle business matters,
and was not at all well. Her family, to which she went for
help, wanted her to have nothing more to do with her hus
band, and eventually had its way, persuading her not to see
Wilde on his release from prison.Wilde's own brother,
Willie, was not a competent person, nor was his mother, who
was in poor health. So there was no one except a firm of
lawyers who had not been employed by Wilde before the case,
and his friends, to see to Wilde's business or personal
affairs.
Robbie's strong sense of responsibility encouraged him
to help Wilde in these matters. Indeed, in prison Wilde
invented one of his parables to demonstrate this aspect of
Ross's character. It was repeated by Ada Leverson as fol
lows :
There was a certain Saint, who was called Saint Robert of
Phillimore. Every night, while the sky was yet black, he
would rise from his bed and, falling on his knees, pray to
God that He, of His great bounty, would cause the sun to
rise and make bright the earth. And always, when the sun
rose. Saint Robert knelt again and thanked God that this
miracle had been vouchsafed. Now, one night. Saint Rob
ert, wearied by the vast number of more than usually good
deeds that he had done that day, slept so soundly that
when he awoke the sun had already risen, and the earth was
already bright. For a few moments Saint Robert looked
grave and troubled, but presently he fell down on his
knees and thanked God that, despite the neglectfulness of
His servant. He had yet caused the sun to rise and make
Holland, Son of Oscar Wilde, p. 108.
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9 2
bright the earth.
At first there seemed to be little that Ross, or anyone
else, could do for Wilde. One possibility was to see if his
sentence could be shortened. The Humphreys firm in June of
189 5 prepared a petition for a reduction of the sentence,
which was not granted.'*'* In November of 1895 some persons
who felt sorry for Wilde, including Ross, Adey, and Bernard
Shaw, who wrote the first draft, framed another petition
asking for Wilde's early release. They hoped that they
could get some prominent people to sign, and for this pur
pose Ross wrote to such persons as William Morris.'*^
Morris, like everyone else approached except one Oxford pro
fessor, refused to sign, and the project had to be aban
doned. ' * ^
As well as working on the petition, Ross and Adey were
concerned about what they could do regarding Wilde's finan
cial affairs. The author's plays had been withdrawn from
the stage and his books taken from the counters, so he had
no income. It was the duty of the Official Receiver in
Bankruptcy to make whatever he could out of any of Wilde's
possessions, for the good of the creditors. One of the
' * ^Quoted in Wilde, Letters, pp. 577-578, n. 1.
‘ *‘ *Hyde, Aftermath, p. 16.
‘ *®Rough draft dated November, 1896, in the Clark
Library.
Hyde, Aftermath, pp. 44-45.
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93
items he offered for sale was Wilde's share in his marriage
settlement. At the time of the marriage of Oscar and Con
stance, an agreement concerning some property had been made,
giving her the income with the provision that should she die
before he did, he would inherit automatically. The settle
ment did not seem to be worth very much because Constance
was younger than Oscar and seemed in better health, but the
Official Receiver had to offer it for sale. Should it be
sold to some stranger, the children might lose the right to
their inheritance. So Ross and Adey went to Constance's
lawyers, the Hargroves firm, to see if they might not buy it
and resettle it on Wilde and after his death on the chil
dren. Hargroves feared the control this might give them
over the children, and so he rejected their offer and put up
a bid of his own for B25. Martin Holman, Ross's and Adey's
solicitor, offered &30. This was the beginning of a series
of negotiations that continued all through Wilde's imprison
ment. * * 7
Perhaps it seemed to Robbie that there were other per
sons whom Wilde would rather see than him, when Wilde was
finally allowed a visit that autumn. There was another,
more self-effacing way of seeing him. On September 24 Ross
visited the building where Wilde waited while the Registrar
decided to adjourn bankruptcy proceedings for seven weeks.
Hyde, Aftermath, pp. 47-48.
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94
A crowd collected to see Wilde, who later wrote:
When I was brought down from my prison to the Court of
Bankruptcy between two policemen, Robbie waited in the
long dreary corridor, that before the whole crowd, whom an
action so sweet and simple hushed into silence, he might
gravely raise his hat to me, as handcuffed and with bowed
head I passed him by.**®
That this action required great courage and that it may have
been of real benefit to Wilde is shown by the contrast of
the silent crowd with the "jeering moo" which watched Wilde
on November 20, when he was transferred from Wandsworth to
Reading Gaol. Ross also attended the bankruptcy session of
November 12, when Wilde was publicly examined by the Offi
cial Receiver and made to go over each item of his expendi
tures in the preceding years, since the sums needed to pay
his debts had not been raised.**®
The year 189 6 began quite differently from the previous
year with its successful premiers. Though Ross had not
spoken to Wilde since his imprisonment, he felt more
strongly tied to him than he ever had before. On January 2,
1896, shortly after returning from a visit to Douglas at
Capri, Ross read in the Daily Chronicle a report of the New
Year's sermon of John Clifford, a prominent Baptist preach
er. Clifford had said that aestheticism was exposed and
condemned by the imprisonment of Wilde, who had broken the
laws of a moral world. Ross, so upset that the handwriting
**®"De Profundis," in Letters, p. 459.
**®Trials, pp. 354-355; Hyde, Aftermath, p. 38.- .
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95
of his rough draft is almost illegible, replied at length in
a letter to Clifford. He made no attempt to justify Wilde's
actions, nor homosexuality in general. His first argument
was for charity toward the condemned. It cannot be a "moral
world" if the "morbid, the uncleanly, and the unnatural
exist." Was it not these sinners whom Christ came to save,
rather than "to redeem the moral from the contamination of
wicked people?" The English condemn the Turks for their
atrocities toward the Armenians, who seem unclean to the
Turks, while the English themselves practice horrible tor
tures upon those prisoners of their own who seem unclean to
them--and even a preacher during the holiday season is not
charitable.
Ross's second argument was against the statement that
"art for art's sake was exposed and condemned by the impris
onment of the high priest of aestheticism." Ross cited a
number of Christian and scientific martyrs as examples of
persons whose ideas had not been "exposed and condemned" by
their deaths, and offered Clifford copies of Wilde's works.
From three of his plays, the moral was so obvious, so
puritanical, that great plays as they were I do not think
even you would have called them aesthetic allowing the
interpretation which you place on that adjective. . . .
Some years ago after the appearance of Mr. Oscar Wilde's
novel Dorian Gray in Protestant and puritan Scotland it
was my good fortune to hear a Presbyterian minister preach
on the moral of that wonderful story. More than one Non-
conformist paper praised the novel on moral grounds &
indeed only the prurient as Mr. Robert Buchanan pointed
out could ever see anything immoral in any of Mr. Wilde's
writings. At all events I would ask you to judge for
yourself & then give your unbiased opinion not on Mr.
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96
Wilde but on his works.^°
To argue on the purely conventional grounds of Chris
tian charity and the propriety of the works was a more
clever approach to take than to defend Wilde's actions, an
approach more likely to convince a Baptist preacher, and one
less damaging to the writer of the letter. Ross was trying
hard to be convincing, but he was not trying to be careful
for himself. "I rejoice to say that I am one of Mr. Oscar
Wilde's greatest friends," he wrote (ibid.). For someone so
willing to implicate himself, a word in defense of homo
sexuality would seem almost inevitable, if the writer at
that time believed it was defensible, and the letter is
therefore as interesting a revelation of Ross's mind in what
it does not say as in what it does.
Wilde in Prison
By the time that Ross finally visited Wilde in prison,
early in 1896, he must have heard some rumors of the change
in Wilde's attitude. Up until the time of his conviction
Wilde had remained in love with Douglas, writing him several
touching letters. Prison soon changed his feelings. It
made suffering seem nasty rather than great and noble. The
thought of Douglas being free to continue the life they had
shared became bitter, and nothing Douglas did seemed right.
^"Robert Ross to John Clifford, c.January 2, 1896,
rough draft in the Clark Library.
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97
neither smuggling in messages under a charming pseudonym,
trying to publish some of Wilde's letters, or offering to
dedicate his first book of poetry to Wilde. However mis
taken these actions may have been, there can be no doubt but
that Douglas thought that they were for the best and that he
was doing his utmost to defend and stand by his friend. On
the other hand, that Wilde and his friends, such âs Ross,
Adey, and Robert Sherard, thought that he was doing consid
erable harm is also understandable. Douglas had been
responsible for the law suit, and once Wilde got out of
prison there was no reason to believe that Queensberry might
not continue to cause difficulty should Wilde and Douglas
live together. Should he do so, Queensberry would be sup
ported by public opinion, which would again look on him as a
father intent on saving his son. Douglas's mother was also
very anxious that Bosie should not associate with Wilde nor
do anything more to connect their names. Douglas also had
extravagant habits and very little money. He was accustomed
to using Wilde's money, but Wilde would have nothing when he
was released. Wilde's chances for future happiness seemed
much greater if he could remain married to Constance and
rejoin her and the children, for whom he cared very much.
The first letter he was allowed had been sent to her through
her solicitor, Mr. Hargrove, and had asked so humbly for
forgiveness that not only Constance, but Mr. Hargrove was
touched, and she gave up her plans for divorce and thought
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98
of their going abroad, changing their name, and eventually
returning to England after Oscar's writing had again found
him a sympathetic audience.For all these reasons Ross,
and other friends of Wilde, while sympathetic to Bosie, did
not want him to correspond with Wilde or for them to plan a
future together.
Ross first visited Wilde on February 25, 1896, accompa
nied by Ernest Leverson, who was helping Wilde financially,
and whose wife Ada was a good friend of Wilde's. They
talked about the purchase of the marriage settlement and
about literary matters, especially the production of Wilde's
Salome, which had taken place in Paris on February 11. A
few days later Wilde wrote Ross, asking him to thank those
responsible for the production. He also asked Ross to have
Leverson get some of his possessions which had been left
with his mother.
On May 22 Ross was accompanied in another visit by
Robert Sherard. The following day Robbie wrote about the
visit in some detail to Adey. Robbie was a bit embarrassed
on the train, since Sherard "seemed anxious that the third
person in the railway carriage should know on what mission
we were bent" and filled in the rest of the conversation
with accounts of "all the murderers he had known, mentioning
s^Wilde, Letters, pp. 871-872.
®^Wilde, Letters, pp. 398-400.
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99
that the last Parisian murderer was an intimate with whom he
had stayed." Ross's letter described Wilde's condition in
some detail and with some asperity. Wilde "wanted to hear
us talk. That, as you know, is very unlike Oscar." Al
though Wilde told them in a low voice, "They treat me
cruelly," Ross was inclined not to believe this but to feel
he "is simply wasting and pining away. . . . Confinement,
apart from all labour or treatment, has made him temporarily
SILLY. That is the mildest word that will describe my mean
ing." He would not be at all surprised to hear of Wilde's
death, and believed that anyone who observed him would
agree, though if Wilde realized that someone was concerned
about him, "Oscar would hastily assume one of his hundred
artificial manners which he has for every person and every
occasion, even when broken as he is now."
After the interview was over, the warden told them that
the two men standing in the yard talking were the governor
of the prison. Major Isaacson, and the prison doctor, and
Ross quickly decided that it would be more important to talk
to Isaacson, who "at first was haughty and impatient, but
became quite polite and amiable after a few minutes. Of
course, I got nothing out of him, but he impressed me
favourably." Ross questioned him about Wilde's mental con
dition and Isaacson assured him that if Wilde became ill in
any way his friends would be notified and he would have good
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100
care.^ ^
During the interview Ross had mentioned that Douglas
was dedicating his first volume of poems to Wilde, and tried
to show him a message from Douglas in a letter. Wilde
refused to look at it or to talk about Douglas, and the next
day wrote Ross asking him to "write to him at once and say
he must not do anything of the kind" about the dedication.
Ross was also to ask Douglas for all of Wilde's letters and
for the books and jewelry which Wilde had given him. Wilde
said that he could not get rid of the memories of the time
he had spent with Douglas, but at least he could see that
Douglas had nothing of his and that they would never meet
5 4
again.
Ross wrote to Douglas as instructed, but Bosie did not
return the letters, which he later burned, nor the books and
jewelry. Instead he wrote saying that regardless of what
Wilde said about him, he would remain his friend, and would
wait until he came out of prison to see what his attitude
would be then.s5
Robbie proudly told More that he "did not break down at
all," though Sherard's nervousness made control very diffi
cult. Robbie had been surprised that Sherard was so
^^Letter dated [May 23, 1896] published in Ross, Friend
of Friends, p. 39.
s^Wilde, Letters, pp. 400-401.
^®Croft-Cooke, Bosie, p. 140.
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101
bothered, "though I know he feels things of course, as much
perhaps as I do." Seeing the miserable surroundings, the
brutal-appearing doctor, and Oscar's mental condition was so
upsetting that "We both of us were very nearly violently
sick afterwards."®®
Other Troubles
The year 189 6 brought other worries and unhappiness to
Ross besides that connected with Wilde. On March 7 Mary's
husband, Charles Jones, died. Charles had been as much of a
father as Robbie had ever known, and his love for his sister
and her cnildren made his sympathy for their loss especially
strong. Robbie probably knew that Charles and Mary and
their older girls had fully realized the implications of his
friendship with and concern over Wilde, and their support
had endeared them even more. Now Charles was gone, at the
comparatively early age of fifty-five.®^
Death at a much earlier age was hanging over another
friend, Aubrey Beardsley. Tubercular from childhood,
Beardsley and his friends had always known he would not live
long. Now twenty-three, he was frequently stricken by
attacks so severe that rumours of his demise circulated. In
the public reaction against anything connected with Wilde,
®®Letter dated [May 23, 1896] in Ross, Friend of
Friends, pp. 39, 43.
®^Family register in the back of J. P. B. Ross's copy
of Jones, "Memories."
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102
Beardsley had lost the art editorship of the Yellow Book,
and fallen from fashion to near unemployment. Attempts to
cheer himself up and to prove his own masculinity had fur
ther undermined his health, which continued to fail through
out the winter of 1895-96.^® On May 2, 1895, Beardsley's
mother wrote asking Ross to go to Brussels whence he should
accompany Aubrey back to England, and said that she would
pay his expenses if he could do so.®® Beardsley soon ar
rived in Twyford, Crowborough, Sussex, where Ross visited
him for a few days early in June, as Beardsley was finding
it very lonely.®®
During that visit there was another tie between the two
beyond those which had first made them friends. Robbie's
life was threatened by kidney trouble. He could remember
being hit by a cricket ball when he was a child,and the
injury had resulted in damage which the doctors decided
necessitated the removal of o'ne of his kidneys. Although
some such operations had been done since the early 1880's,
it was still a new and very serious process, as indeed were
any abdominal openings. Ross's doctor. Sir Frederick
5 8
Weintraub, Beardsley, pp. 127-137.
®®Letter in the possession of J. P. B. Ross. I do not
know whether or not he went.
®®Aubrey Beardsley to Robert Ross, June 6, 1896 and
June 11 [?] 1896, in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
"Death of Mr. Robert Ross," Daily Telegraph, Octo
ber 10, 1918.
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103
Treves, was a leading practitioner, who in 1902 performed
the first appendectomy on a reigning monarch, just fifteen
years after he had been a pioneer in this new and daring
medical development.^^
Knowing that he might not survive, Robbie said farewell
to those persons he cared about. Just before he entered the
hospital, he wrote to Constance Wilde, now living under
another name in Heidelberg, assuring her of his affection
for her and his desire to be her friend. Only a genuine re
gard could have prompted such a letter at such a time.®^
The operation took place about the middle of June, and
was successful, though it took a long time for Robbie to
recover. On June 2 3 Treves wrote Alex Ross that "You may
begin to be easy as to the result."®** After a month in the
hospital, Ross was able to be moved to his mother's house,
but on July 3 Adey was forced to write that "he has contin
ued in a very critical state and still causes the utmost
anxiety," so that he could not be troubled with business
matters.®® By September he was well enough to go to the
seacoast with his mother and Alex, and returned to London in
®^Isaac Harvey Flack [pseud. Harvey Graham], Surgeons
All (London: Rich & Cowan, Ltd., 1939), pp. 380-382.
®®More Adey to Constance Wilde, July 30, draft in Bod
leian MS. Walpole d.l8 fol. 31-34.
® **Letter in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
®®More Adey to Constance Wilde, July 30, draft in Bod
leian MS. Walpole d.l8 fol. 31-34.
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104
October, able at last to see some of his friends and looking
much better, although he remained very thin for some time,
and after his hair had been cut short for the operation, it
never grew properly again. Though only twenty-seven, he
started describing himself as middle-aged and balding.
Ross remained in England for the rest of the winter,
apparently not writing or doing much of anything. He vis
ited Beardsley in Bournemouth, for Beardsley was very lonely
there. Beardsley's health forbade him to leave, and money
problems worried him, though he managed to work steadily
till a serious attack in January nearly killed him. Robbie
offered financial help through Aubrey's mother, but Allen
Beardsley refused it, saying she did not dare tell her son
she had mentioned his difficulties. After the offer she
wrote frequently to Robbie, whom she now addressed by his
first name, keeping him acquainted with Aubrey's condition,
and sharing her worries about her son's health. In the
spring, after she had taken Aubrey to Paris, she sent Robbie
a photograph that she liked because he "looks a nice boy in
®'’Photograph in the possession of Giles Robertson;
Reginald Turner to Max Beerbohm [October 13, 1896], in Beer-
bohm. Letters to Reggie, p. 114, n. 2; More Adey to Oscar
Wilde, [September 25, 1896] in Wilde, Letters, p. 407, n. 2.
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105
it with no nonsense of any kind about him."®^
Wilde's Financial Problems
When Ross was able, after his operation, to take up
Wilde's business again, he found himself in the middle of
serious problems concerning Wilde's future income, espe
cially that which Ross and Adey had hoped he could obtain
from his marriage settlement. Constance's relatives had
taken the efforts of Ross and Adey to buy part of the set
tlement to mean that Wilde was opposing her will and was not
really as contrite as he had seemed to be. In October of
1896 Wilde agreed that he should keep at least a third of
his life-interest, and when Arthur Clifton, acting as
Wilde's lawyer, went to see Mrs. Wilde at this time, she too
agreed.®® In December Wilde wrote to Adey that the Official
Receiver had determined to sell half the interest to Wilde's
friends, and Wilde said that he would trust himself to
Adey's judgment.®® In March of 1897 no conclusion had yet
been reached, and Wilde again wrote asking Adey to let him
know at once if Mr. Hargrove made any more proposals about
®’Ellen Beardsley to Robert Ross, November 19 [1896];
December 2; December 15; January 24 [1897]; February 1;
April 22. All are in the possession of J. P. B. Ross, and
the April one is published in Ross, Friend of Friends,
p . 47.
®®Arthur Clifton to Carlos Blacker, October 8, 1896, in
Wilde, Letters, p. 409, n. 2.
®®Letter dated December 16 [1896] in Wilde, Letters,
p. 415.
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106
it. That Adey was justified in trying to secure some rights
over the children is shown in Wilde's pathetic comment in
this letter:
As regards my children, I sincerely hope I may be recog
nised by the Court as having some little, I won't say
right, but claim to be allowed to see Cyril from time to
time; it would be to me a sorrow beyond words if I were
not. . . . I always was a good father to both my children.
I love them dearly and was dearly loved by them, and Cyril
was my friend. And it would be better for them not to be
forced to think of me as an outcast, but to know me as a
man who has suffered. Pray let everything be done on my
behalf that is possible. A little recognition by the
Court would help me so much.^°
It has been necessary to go into detail concerning the mar
riage settlement because of the letter Wilde wrote to Ross
on April 6, 189 7, bitterly attacking his actions concerning
the purchase of the settlement, and blaming the purchase for
the divorce action which Constance was then proposing to
take. Wilde referred back to his letter of March 1896 when
he had asked that the offer for the settlement be withdrawn.
He said that he gave those instructions to Robbie, rather
than to anyone else, because Ross knew and liked Constance
and she liked Robbie. "I felt sure I could rely on you to
see that my wishes and hers were carried out." Wilde was
angry because Ross and Adey had purchased the marriage set
tlement for a final sum of £175,^^ but Hargroves had found
that the settlement was cancelled if there was a divorce.
^“Letter to More Adey, March 8, 1897, in Letters,
p. 422.
^^Ross, "Statement," p. 21.
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107
and divorce proceedings were now under way. Wilde asked
Ross to see that there was no opposition to the divorce, and
to make his wife a present of the marriage settlement.^^
The final agreement was drawn up in a Deed of Arrange
ment sent to Wilde in Reading on April 10. He was to
receive an income from Constance of £150 a year, as long as
his conduct was good, and Constance agreed not to seek a
divorce because of his past actions. The court had already,
on February 12, 1897, appointed Constance and her cousin
Adrian Hope legal guardians of the children, and restrained
Oscar from communicating with them in any way.^^
The purchase of the settlement does seem to have had
unfortunate consequences. Still, Wilde's blaming Ross and
Adey seems a little unfair in view of Wilde's letters. And
was Wilde's position really any worse in the end than in the
beginning, or was it just formalized, as it would have had
to be by the time that he was released? His rights to his
children had probably always been dependent on his wife's
willingness to let him see them. He had only a small income
that could be stopped if he indulged in disreputable con
duct, but when he entered prison he had no income at all
coming to him through his wife, and it was to be his own
lawyer who would determine what was disreputable conduct.
^^In Wilde, Letters, pp. 518-519.
^^Hyde, Aftermath, pp. 98-99, 121.
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108
In addition, there had been a chance that he might have won
some legal right to either the money or the children through
the actions of his friends. Constance may have become more
alienated from him through their actions, but with her rela
tives and George Lewis counseling her to divorce Wilde, and
with her own experience of life with him as an indication of
what life in the future might be, it is not surprising that
she was not willing to give him any legal rights that she
did not need to. What it really comes down to is that
Wilde was not willing to realize how strong both public and
private feeling was against him, and had to blame something
besides his own actions for the loss of his wife's trust and
of his children. In this instance he blamed Ross and Adey
because they had allowed themselves to become involved in
trying to rescue something for him.
Wilde's two-year sentence was to be completed in May of
1897, and as the time approached, Ross became very involved
with preparations for his future. Wilde's way of life, his
income, his relations with Douglas, and the specific circum
stances of the release all had to be discussed, when Ross,
Adey, and Leverson visited Wilde on February 27, 1897, he
was in good spirits. He had been cheered by the chance to
write a long letter to Douglas, and several people had
promised him money to live on, enough, they told him, to
live on for eighteen months. Before Ross and Adey, this
time accompanied by Charles Ricketts, an artist who had
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109
illustrated some of Wilde's books and who was a personal
friend as well, visited Wilde again on May 11, the author
had become very upset about financial matters. Though he
had been promised &500 from the Queensberrys, and substan
tial sums from Frank Harris and others, all Ross and Adey
actually had for him was &1Q00 from Adela Schuster, given
Wilde when he was out on bail and largely spent by now, and
&150 sent anonymously.
Wilde had known about these sums, and thought that the
money Ross and Adey told him would support him for eighteen
months was in addition to the Schuster money and the B150.
When he learned that this was all there was, that the
Queensberrys and Harris were backing out, and that the fees
of the lawyer over the marriage settlement had to come out
of the &150, he became very upset. In several letters he
bitterly attacked anyone who had anything to do with his
finances— Ross, Adey, Leverson, as well as the persons who
had not given him the money. ^
The financial situation during Wilde's imprisonment is
discussed clearly and concisely in Hyde's Aftermath, pp. 95-
97 and pp. 122-127. Since Wilde's most justifiable com
plaint was about the legal expenses over the marriage
^^Oscar Wilde to More Adey, May 1, May 6, May 12, [May
15], and [May 17, 1897]; Oscar Wilde to Robert Ross, May 13
and [May 17, 1897]; Oscar Wilde to Reginald Turner, [May 17,
1897] (two letters), all in Wilde, Letters, pp. 532-560.
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110
settlement, Ross and Adey offered to pay these expenses
themselves. No evidence shows whether or not they did.
Perhaps some day someone with access to the lawyer's records
will audit the accounts of money received and spent by Wilde
during these years, and in this way solve some of the ques
tions raised by conflicting allegations. Until this is
done, nothing can be proved one way or the other. However
both Adey and Ross evidently did spend a good deal of their
own money on Wilde. On June 23, 1897 Ross wrote Alfred
Douglas that Adey gave &200 to Humphreys for Wilde's de
fense, and that "what he has spent since I am not allowed to
tell you, but I agree with you that it was ridiculous though
I should hardly have called it 'meddling.^^ Later he
wrote that Adey spent the entire amount of a small inheri
tance, either £»300 or L400, on Wilde. The only evidence
as to Ross's expenditures is in a letter to his sister Mary
dated December 12, 1900, in which he says:
It was your generosity which enabled me to help poor Wilde
when he was released and to secure the annuity for him as
I had to meet heavy legal expenses.
These "heavy legal expenses" would seem most likely to have
been the costs of the litigation about the marriage settle
ment. In addition Ross said that his mother contributed to
7 5
In the Clark Library.
^®Letter to Frank Harris, September 6, 1913, in the
Library, University of Texas.
7 7
Letter in the possession of Giles Robertson.
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Ill
the costs of the trial and assisted Wilde's mother, and that
he himself gave Wilde an allowance during 18 9 7-9 8 wher he
was not receiving one from his wife.^®
Wilde was also upset about the conditions under which
his release would take place. Since the month he had served
before his trial was not counted as part of the sentence, it
seemed possible that he might be released earlier than
May 19, the official date. Ross wrote to Sir Edward Clarke,
who had been Wilde's barrister at all three trials, and who
was a friend of the Home Secretary, asking if this might be
arranged. Clarke told him that the remission of part of a
sentence had to be ordered by the Queen, and that in Wilde's
case this would be impossible.^® However, in response to a
letter from Adey, saying that he feared a public disturbance
by Queensberry and his sporting friends, the head of the
Prison Commission agreed to send Wilde to London for re
lease. Wilde was taken from Reading to London the evening
of May 18, 189 7, and released very early in the morning, in
order to avoid reporters.
Ross Meets Wilde Again
Wilde had asked particularly that Ross should not meet
him outside the prison as Robbie wanted to do. "For many
7 8
Ross, "Statement," pp. 2, 5.
?®Sir Edward Clarke to Robert Ross, May 24, 1897, in
Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 46; Hyde, Aftermath, p. 101.
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112
reasons, social, emotional, and others" Wilde preferred they
should first meet abroad.®® Therefore Robbie and Reginald
Turner waited for Wilde and Adey, who had met him at the
prison, at the Hotel Sandwich in Dieppe. Since Oscar was so
busy talking that he missed his train to France, they had a
long wait. From Newhaven Oscar telegraphed them that he was
delighted at the thought of seeing them, and that Ross
should disregard "the foolish unkind letters" he had written
about the money.As Ross and Turner waited, they arranged
the books they had collected for Wilde on the mantelpiece,
and put flowers around the room. The long afternoon passed
in writing letters and drinking citronade. Sandwiches and
wine were ordered for the arrival.®^ Ross described the
next morning as follows:
We met them at half past four in the morning, a magnif
icent spring morning such as Wilde anticipated in the
closing words of De Profundis. As the steamer glided into
the harbour Wilde's tall figure, dominating the other pas
sengers, was easily recognised from the great crucifix on
the jetty where we stood. That striking beacon was full
of significance for us. Then we began running to the
landing stage and Wilde recognised us and waved his hand
and his lips curled into a smile. His face had lost all
its coarseness and he looked as he must have looked at Ox
ford in the early days before I knew him and as he only
looked again after death. A good many people, even
friends, thought his appearance almost repulsive, but the
®°Oscar Wilde to More Adey, May 12, 1897, in Wilde,
Letters, p. 540.
®^Hyde, Aftermath, pp. 139-143; Wilde, Letters, pp.
563-564.
®^Reginald Turner to Max Beerbohm, May 19, 1897, in
Beerbohm, Letters to Reggie, pp. 117-118, n. 4.
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113
upper part of his face was extraordinarily fine and intel
lectual .
There was the usual irritating delay and then Wilde
with that odd elephantine gait which I have never seen in
anyone else stalked off the boat. He was holding in his -
hand a large sealed envelope. "This, my dear Bobbie, is
the great manuscript about which you know. More has be
haved very badly about my luggage and was anxious to de
prive me of the blessed bag which Reggie gave me." Then
he broke into great Rabelaisian sort of laughter. The
manuscript was of course De Profundis.
All Wilde's luggage was new and marked S. M. as he had
decided to adopt the name of Sebastian Melmoth: it was
Turner's gift to him. He used to chaff a great deal about
it and for the next few days in arguments with Turner
always said "I can never forget that you gave me a bag."
This does not sound very amusing and I only mention the
incident as illustrating the childish spirits in which
Wilde was at the moment.
Wilde talked until nine o'clock when I insisted on go
ing to lie down. We all met at twelve for dejeuner, all
of us exhausted except Wilde. In the afternoon we drove
to Argues and sat down on the ramparts of the castle. He
enjoyed the trees and the grass and country scents and
sounds in a way I had never known him to before, just as a
street-bred child might enjoy them on his first day in the
country : but of course there was an adjective for every
thing— "monstrous," "purple," "grotesque," "gorgeous,"
"curious," "wonderful." It was natural to Wilde to be
artificial as I have often said and that is why he was
suspected of insincerity. I mean when he wrote of serious
things, of art, ethics or religion, of pain or of pleas
ure. Wilde in love of the beautiful was perfectly, per
haps too, sincere and not the least of his errors was a
suspicion of simple things. Simplicity is one of the
objections he urges against prisons (cf. letters).®^
When Ross began to read De Profundis, as Wilde asked
him to do, he found it to be a long and bitter attack on
Alfred Douglas, to whom it was addressed. It went thor
oughly into their life together, and discussed Bosie's less
®®This is from an unfinished, unpublished preface to an
edition of Wilde's post-prison letters to Ross, the manu
script of which is in the Clark Library, and which finally
was published in Wilde, Letters, pp. 564-565.
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114
appealing traits of character, blaming all Wilde's troubles
on him. From time to time Wilde mentioned someone else,
frequently Robbie, in order to make Bosie seem even worse by
contrast. Wilde also explained the mental and emotional
state which he had arrived at during his sentence. He spoke
of his disgust for the life which he had been living, the
"slough of coarse pleasures" which were not worthy of an
artist. Now he wanted to live a quiet life, among the
"great simple primeval things." He wanted to learn to ac
cept his experiences and his punishment, he said, and to
feel that he had gained in both his life and art "a still
deeper note, one of greater unity of passion, and directness
of impulse."®** He spoke of going to a little, quiet place
by the sea, where the air would be bracing, and of living
frugally on whatever he was given by his friends and his
wife, until the time when he would be able once more to make
his living by writing.
In search of a small country hotel where he could live
a life such as he had outlined, the group drove through the
country around Dieppe several afternoons, Wilde and Adey in
a carriage, Ross and Turner on bicycles. Ross tried to get
Wilde to try a bicycle, but he could not manage one.®® Adey
had to leave in a few days, and Turner soon afterward, but
In Wilde, Letters, p. 489.
®®Hyde, Aftermath, p. 146; Oscar Wilde to Robert Ross,
[c. March 1, 1899] in Wilde, Letters, p. 7 84.
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115
Rçss stayed on till the twenty-seventh. They had located
the Hotel de la Plage at Berneval-sur-Mer, and moved there
on the evening of the twenty-sixth. "The dinner was excel
lent, and we tried to eat enough for eight as we occupy so
many rooms," Oscar wrote Reggie the next day. Oscar had
tried to purchase scents to fill the bottles of the dress
ing-case that Reggie had given him, until "Robbie detected
me at Dieppe in the market place of the sellers of perfumes,
spending all my money on orris-root and the tears of the
narcissus and the dust of red roses. He was very stern and
led me away."® ®
The Struggle for Wilde
If one wishes to be charitable about Wilde's letters of
the next three weeks, one would say that they record the
disintegration of will of a weak man. If one does not wish
to be charitable, one would say that they show Wilde clev
erly playing off Ross against Douglas, determined to join
Douglas as soon as he could without endangering his income.
The first few days after Robbie left, Oscar wrote him at
great length. He admitted that he could not always maintain
the attitudes he wanted to, and that he was already becoming
lonely. He was worried that letting Robbie join him occa
sionally was selfish. People should, however.
®^Oscar Wilde to Reginald Turner [May 27, 1897] in
Wilde, Letters, p. 575.
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116
. . . see the 'difference between your going about with me
in my days of gilded infamy— my Neronian hours, rich,
profligate, cynical, materialistic— and your coming to
comfort me, a lonely dishonoured man, in disgrace and
obscurity and poverty. How lacking in imagination they
are! If I were rich again and sought to repeat my former
life I don't think you would care very much to be with me.
I think you would regret what I was doing, but now, dear
boy, you come with the heart of Christ, and you help me
intellectually as no one else can or ever could do. You
are helping me to save my soul alive, not in the theolog
ical sense, but in the plain meaning of the words, for my
soul was really dead in the slough of coarse pleasures, my
life was unworthy of an artist; you can heal me and help
me. No other friend have I now in this beautiful world.
I want no other. Yet I am distressed to think that I will
be looked on as careless of your own welfare, and indif
ferent of your good. You are made to help me. I weep
with sorrow when I think how much I need help, but I weep
with joy when I think I have you to give it to me.®’
He hoped that he could accomplish something before Robbie
visited him again, as he wanted his respect as well as his
love. Above all, Oscar said that he didn't want to feel
that he would
spoil your life by accepting the sweet companionship you
offer me from time to time. It is not for nothing that I
named you in prison St. Robert of Phillimore. Love can
canonise people. The saints are those who have been most
loved. I only made one mistake in prison in things that I
wrote of you or to you in my book. My poem should have
run, "When I came out of prison you met me with garments,
with spices, with wise counsel. You met me with love."
Not others did it, but you. I really laugh when I think
how true in detail the lines are.®®
®’Letter dated [May 28, 1897], in Wilde, Letters,
p. 577.
®®Ibid., p. 578. Since Wilde always used the word
"love" for both its emotional and physical manifestations,
one cannot be sure what he meant, but this statement would
tend to support Sherard's insinuation that Ross and Wilde
resumed a sexual relationship after Wilde's release. (Ber
nard Shaw, Frank Harris and Oscar Wilde [New York; Grey-
stone Press, 1937], pp. 217-210.)
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117
He wrote about how good it was for him to be alone, as he
was working.
I, as you, the poem of my days, are away, am forced to
write poetry. I have begun something that I think will be
very good.
This was the Ballad of Reading Gaol. He also determined to
finish the Florentine Tragedy and mentioned it several
times.9 0 He received pictures of his children, and wrote
Robbie "it makes me feel disgraced and evil" not to be able
to see them.9^ Between the more serious lines, he wrote
page after page of delightful description of the small,
everyday events of his life, with jokes running through
them, the sort of thing which must have made him a delight
to be with; and time after time he indicated that Robbie was
his closest friend and chief confidant. About Bosie he
wrote on May 28:
I had hardly any sleep last night. Bosie's revolting let
ter was in the room, and foolishly I had read it again and
left it by my bedside. . . . I have a real terror now of
that unfortunate ungrateful young man with his unimagina
tive selfishness and his entire lack of all sensitiveness
to what in others is good or kind or trying to be so. I
feel him as an evil influence, poor fellow. To be with
him would be to return to the hell from which I do think I
have been released. I hope never to see him again. (p.
577)
Later in the day he wrote that More had sent him a love-
8 9
Letter dated May 31 [1897] in Wilde, Letters, p. 586.
9“Letters dated [June 2, 1897], September 4, 1897, and
[October 1, 1897] in Wilde, Letters, pp. 591, 638, 649.
9^Letter dated [May 29-30, 1897] in Wilde, Letters,
p. 582.
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118
lyric from Bosie. "It is absurd" (p. 579). On May 30 he
said More told him of an interview Bosie gave about Oscar.
Bosie can almost ruin me. I earnestly beg that some
entreaty be made to him not to do so a second time. His
letters to me are infamous. (p. 577)
It must have been about then that Wilde first wrote to Doug
las in a letter that has not been preserved, but which Doug
las did not like and sent back to him with a "bitter" letter
of his own.On June 2 Wilde wrote at length to Douglas,
mostly about literature. On the third he wrote again, and
on the fourth was telling Bosie:
Don't think I don't love you. Of course I love you more
than anyone else. But our lives are irreparably severed,
as far as meeting goes. What is left to us is the knowl
edge that we love each other, and every day I think of
you, and I know you are a poet, and that makes you doubly
dear and wonderful. (p. 595)
Meanwhile he continued to write Robbie disparagingly about
Bosie. On June 2 he said that "Bosie has written, for him,
nicely— on literature and my play" (p. 591). On the third
Oscar said he had requested Bosie never to fight duels, as
"it is a tedious game to be always playing." Oscar told the
cause of the proposed duel was that "They said his costume
was ridicule" (p. 592).
Whether or not Wilde was already intending to ask Doug
las to join him, he began his campaign for a house of his
own on June 1, saying that he wanted to settle in Bernoval
(p. 583). Robbie seems to have suspected something, for
^^As indicated in Wilde's letter to Douglas dated
[June 2, 1897?], in Wilde, Letters, p. 588.
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119
Oscar complained about the business-like tone of his letter
received June 3 (p. 592). Perhaps the request for the
house, or something Adey wrote him from Paris, where he
seems to have been with Douglas, warned Ross, who protested
that a house would be too expensive and would encourage peo
ple to stay with Wilde at his expense. Wilde replied that
he would make them pay their own board at the hotel, where
he would continue to eat, and that:
As regards people living on me in the extra bedrooms ; dear
boy, there is no one who would stay with me but you, and
you will pay your own bill at the hotel for meals, and as
for your room the charge will be nominally 2 fr. 50 a
night, but there will be lots of extras, such as bougie,
bain, and hot water: all cigarettes smoked in the bed
rooms are charged extra; washing is extra: and if any one
does not take the extras, of course he is charged more.
Bain 25 c. Pas de bain 50 c. Cigarette dans la chambre-
à-coucher, 10 c. pour chaque cigarette. Pas de cigarettes
dans Ta chambre-à-coucher, 20 c. chaque cigarette. This
is the système in all good hotels.
In order to rent the house, Oscar needed his money handy, he
said. On June 5 he asked for BlOO to be kept at Dieppe
(p. 595) , and on June 15 he asked that if anyone other than
Robbie had any of his money, it be sent to him (p. 609).
The next day Ross sent B150, in addition to the B40 and &60
sent on June 8 in two checks.®** Some time between the sixth
and the fifteenth Wilde asked Douglas to come and see him on
Saturday, June 18.®®
®®Letter dated June 5 [1897], in Wilde, Letters, p. 598
® * * Account in a notebook in the Clark Library.
®®As indicated in Wilde's letter to Douglas dated
June 16, [1897], in Wilde, Letters, p. 610.
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120
When Wilde's lawyer Hansell heard of the proposed meet
ing, he threatened to resign.Wilde also feared that Lord
Queensberry might arrive and make a disturbance. Very much
upset, he sent away the friends visiting him and wrote Bosie
that they must not meet yet, but must wait till no one was
interested in their actions any more. At present they could
only write to each other;
. . . about the things we love, about poetry and the col
oured arts of our age, and that passage of ideas into
images that is the intellectual history of art. I think
of you always, and love you always, but chasms of moonless
night divide us. We cannot cross it without hideous and
nameless peril.
From the remnants of Bosie's prose which exist today, it
would seem that Oscar could hardly have chosen anyone less
likely to correspond with on such subjects.
When Bosie received Oscar's letter, he immediately
wrote to More Adey asking what he intended to do to "free
Oscar (and myself) from the ridiculously transparent Jewish
trap . . . into which you have guided him,"®® since More had
assured him earlier that their being together would not con
stitute "bad conduct." More was coming down with pneumonia.
®®Oscar Wilde to Robert Ross, June 19 [1897] in Wilde,
Letters, p. 614. Croft-Cooke says that Ross heard of it and
told Hansell (p. 155) but gives no source. Ross would prob
ably have heard through Adey, who seems to have left Paris
and Douglas about this time.
®^Letter dated June 17 [1897] in Wilde, Letters, p.
613.
®®Letter dated June 17, 1897, in Croft-Cooke, Bosie,
p. 156.
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121
and gave the letter to Robbie to answer. Bosie could not
understand, it seems, why he and Oscar should continue to be
separated. If they loved each other and wanted to be to-
getner, nothing else ought to matter— neither Constance and
the children, his own mother, nor his father's threats.
This seems an intensely romantic point of view for a twenty-
six year old, but Bosie had been spoiled all his life. Any
thing he wanted his mother gave to him, and anything he was
denied was denied him by his father, who was demonstrably
evil. So it seemed to him that anyone who went against his
wishes must either not understand or must be evil.
In Robbie's reply to the letter to More, he told Bosie
that he agreed with the decision to keep them apart and had
been partly responsible for it. Bosie, still thinking of
himself as a martyr for having been separated from Oscar for
two years, was infuriated to hear that one of his friends
thought that they should continue to be parted. He replied:
Your letter is rather absurd. The fact of More having a
cold does not alter his responsibility for the extreme
stupidity of the arrangement that he has made by which
Oscar is at the mercy of a Jew solicitor, nor does the
fact that you, personally, happen to agree with the Jew
solicitor make your own part in the business any more ad
mirable. . . . Nothing short of a very serious operation
can atone for More's part in the sale of Oscar's freedom
to the Jews. A mere feverish cold is no good at all. But
operations cover a multitude of sins as you know or ought
to. 9 9
99Copy in the Clark Library of a letter dated June 21,
1897, in the possession of Frederick Peters. The letters
around this time quoted in Bosie are Peters' letters, but I
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122
The correspondence continued on June 23 with a defense
of More's and his own actions by Robbie. He was not amused
by the references to operations and illness, and said that
as long as they were possessed of what wits they were born
with at the time they made the agreement, the references
were irrelevant. However, the important thing was that in
the circumstances the arrangement which was made was the
best possible, and he was working on an account that "gives
the dilemma in which we were placed." If this did not
satisfy Douglas, Ross's lawyer would send him a complete ac
count of the proceedings both about the marriage settlement
and about the separation. In addition, he said. More had
gone to a great deal of expense both of time and money in
handling Oscar's business, although he had never particu
larly liked Oscar before the trial, and Robbie could "cer
tainly have no feeling or regard for you at all until you
withdraw your offensive remarks about More."^°°
The response to this was a letter to Robbie breaking
off their friendship and one to More on June 30 telling
about the previous correspondence. Then, suddenly, Bosie
changed tone in the middle, when he remembered that Robbie
had said he would send a long explanation, and he retrieved
have cited their published form whenever possible. In the
last line quoted Bosie is apparently being nasty about Rob
bie's operation, but I don't understand what he means.
^®°Copy in the Clark Library of a letter in the posses
sion of Frederick Peters.
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123
a big envelope he had thrown away unopened and read the
account.
It was lucky I did. I have read it through & I can only
say that I think you are absolutely blameless and quite
justified (& Bobbie too in that matter). - I can only
repeat that I am very sorry that I wrote to you as I
did.^ °1
Meanwhile, Wilde had resumed writing to Ross about
Douglas in deprecatory terms. On June 2 8 he told Robbie:
Bosie has sent me a long indictment of you and panegyric
of himself, to which I will reply tomorrow. You can
understand in what tone I shall answer him. But for you,
dear friend, I don't know in what black abyss of want I
would have been. (p. 618)
and on July 6:
I have written a long letter— of twelve foolscap pages— to
Bosie, to point out to him that I owe everything to you
and your friends, and that whatever life I have as an
artist in the future will be due to you. (p. 619)
The same day he wrote to More Adey:
Bosie is bombarding from a distance. I have written to
him very plainly about his conduct to Robbie. (p. 620)
If any reproof was sent, Bosie didn't take it very seri
ously, for he continued to attack Robbie in his letters to
Oscar, such as one dated July 22, in which he accused Robbie
of coming to Paris in order to take unfair advantage of his
own absence in conduct with a mutual friend, and of removing
money from a letter. Though he must have known Oscar's
financial situation, Bosie asked him for money so he could
^° ^Ibid. It is curious that, although Croft-Cooke
quotes from Douglas's accusatory letters, he does not men
tion this paragraph at all.
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124
return to Paris.
Some Business Matters
Meanwhile Ross was attending to various business mat
ters for Wilde. He requested Ross and Turner to send some
of his prison friends small sums upon their release, and
asked Ross to allow them to send their letters of acknowl
edgment to his and Adey's address in Horn ton Street.
Ross was also corresponding with a young man named Dixon,
who had written to Wilde telling how he had gotten into
trouble through no fault of his own, and asking for work.^°“ *
Since he said he could type, Wilde considered employing him
to type De Profundis, but decided it would cost too much to
bring him to London and that the manuscript could not be
trusted to him for copying.Contacts with the lawyers
were handled through Ross, especially while Adey was ill.
On July 7 Martin Holman acknowledged a check for &30 from
Ross and said that he would wait for the rest. On July 6
Ross paid Hansell L25 for Wilde.From time to time Ross
^Letter in the Clark Library.
^Letter dated [May 28, 1897] in Wilde, Letters,
p. 578.
^Letter in the Clark Library.
^°^Oscar Wilde to Robert Ross, June 19 [1897] and
July 20 [1897] in Wilde, Letters, pp. 614, 624.
^°®Letter in the Clark Library; check on the National
Bank of Scotland in the Clark Library.
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125
and Adey sent Wilde books, checked on odds and ends such as
whether friends had received letters Wilde had written, sent
a photo of Constance, put an ad in the paper for a friend of
his, and remonstrated with him about his desire to spend
money packing and shipping to Berneval the pictures from his
house that friends had bought at the bankruptcy sale and
given back to him.^°^
Though Ross planned to see Wilde again on August 1, he
was delayed and arrived some time between the fourth and the
tenth. Perhaps the delay was caused by waiting for the
typed copy of the long letter to Alfred Douglas to be fin
ished.^®® Wilde had asked Ross to have two typewritten
copies made and the original sent to Douglas.^®® Later,
fearing that Douglas would try to get rid of the damning
i°^Oscar Wilde to Robert Ross, June 19 [1897]; to More
Adey, July 7 [1897], and June 21 [1897]; to Robert Ross,
July 6 [1897], July 20 [1897], July 23 [1897], and July 26
[1897], in Wilde, Letters, pp. 614, 620, 615, 619, 625, 626,
627.
^°®William Freeman said that Bosie received it on Au
gust 9, according to a note by Ross in his own copy of De
Profundis, and that Ross said he could verify the fact by a
letter from Douglas to himself and George "Newnes" (p. 198).
This would seem to be the copy of D2 now at the Clark Li
brary. But Ross's note does not mention the ninth, only
"August 1897." The letter confirming it was to Sir George
Lewis. (Ross's handwriting is often difficult.) No writer
other than Freeman even speculates on the date, if indeed,
they believe he received a copy at all. In later years
Douglas denied the receipt. (The Life of Lord Alfred Doug
las [London: Herbert Joseph Ltd., 1948], p . 198.)
^°®Letter dated April 1, 1897, in Wilde, Letters,
p. 513.
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126
indictment of himself, the plans were changed so that he
should receive a typed copy. Ross said that he took the two
typewritten copies to Wilde and retained the original, by
Wilde's instructions, since he was to be Wilde's literary
executor, and that Wilde sent one of the typewritten copies
to Douglas.He said that Douglas told Wilde and himself
that he threw the copy into the fire after having begun to
read it.^ ^ ^
Wilde was full of plans for work to be done during
Ross's visit. Charles Wyndham visited him on July 2 3 about
doing an adaptation of a play by scribe. Le Verre d'eau.
Since the play was set at the Court of Queen Anne, he asked
Robbie to "bring Esmond with you, and any Queen Anne chairs
you have: just for the style."After Wyndham saw him,
he told Robbie that "if you work hard ^ shall have a great
success. . . . I have a great deal of work for you to do.
Le Verre d'eau must be reconstructed entirely."That is
the last we hear of the play. Since during the approxi
mately ten days Ross stayed they were joined by Robert She-
rard and dined frequently with Leonard Smithers and several
others, it is possible that there was little time for work.
^^°Ross, "Statement," p. 4. ^ ^ ^Ibid., p. 7.
^Letter dated July 20 [1897] in Wilde, Letters,
p. 624.
^^^Letter dated July 26 [1897] in Wilde, Letters,
p. 627.
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127
A Short Vacation from Wilde
Although he had spent so much time and energy on Wilde
in the last few months, at times Ross was glad to get away
from him, from his demanding personality, and from his cir
cle of friends. After the week or so with Wilde, he prob
ably needed a change, and went to join a very different
group. He and his brother Alex joined the Gosse family on
August 24 in County Donegal, Ireland, at a small resort
called Bundoran, a town of about 800.^^“ * As well as knowing
Mr. and Mrs. Gosse, Robbie was a good friend of their teen-
aged children, Tessa, Philip, and Sylvia. Gosse had once
written him that Ross was "a favourite with every member of
this family."^^^ Bundoran was a good place for swimming,
sailing, and fishing for salmon and trout. It is very
interesting that îîr. and Mrs. Gosse thought so well of Ross
that they were willing to allow him to associate with their
children.
Wilde Returns to Douglas
When Ross returned, about the first of September, from
the trip to Ireland, he immediately heard that Wilde had
seen Alfred Douglas. Although on the twenty-fourth Wilde
had written Robbie that he had neither heard from nor writ-
ii^Dates from the Gosse notebook for 1897 in the Bro-
therton Library, University of Leeds.
^^^Letter dated May 17, 1895, in Ross, Friend of
Friends, p. 37.
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128
ten to Bosie since Bosie told him he could not afford forty
francs for train fare to Rouen, by the twenty-eighth Bosie
seems to have found the forty francs, for they met and
wandered about the town all day "arm in arm, or hand in
hand, and were perfectly happy."Some time during the
day they ran into Reggie Turner, who was staying nearby, and
who promptly wrote and told Max Beerbohm.^ ^ ^
Although Robbie had previously decided he was going to
be too busy to see Oscar again during the year,^^® he
rapidly made a special trip to Rouen to talk to Wilde about
his future. Oscar had made plans to meet Bosie in Italy,
but he did not dare explain this to Robbie, whom he told "he
had not any intention of going to Italy with Douglas.
On September 15 Oscar left for Paris and a few days later
joined Alfred Douglas in Naples.
Robbie was appalled. Until this time he had never
stopped hoping that Wilde might successfully return to writ-
1 1 6
Douglas, Autobiography, p. 152.
^Reginald Turner to Max Beerbohm, August 24, 1897, in
Wilde, Letters, p. 632, n. 1; and Max Beerbohm to Reginald
Turner, September [5], 1897, in Letters to Reggie, p. 122.
ii*Oscar Wilde to Will Rothenstein, August 24, 1897, in
Wilde, Letters, p. 636.
ii^Robert Ross to Frank Harris, May 17, 1914, in the
Library, University of Texas.
i2°0scar Wilde to Reginald Turner [September 15, 1897]
in Wilde, Letters, p. 640; and O'Sullivan, Aspects of Wilde,
p. 180.
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129
ing, resume his life in England, and be reconciled with his
wife, so that he might at least see the children. To Rob
bie, who was fond of children, this seemed very important.
The return to Bosie meant that all this was impossible. The
very week in which Wilde left for Italy, Carlos Blacker, his
wife's cousin, wrote him saying that Constance had agreed to
see him in October.Had Wilde waited another week, it
might have changed everything. Now those v/ho had been
inclined to sympathize with Wilde because of what he had
suffered lost sympathy when he returned to the kind of life
for which he had been punished. Even if Wilde and Douglas
should live blamelessly, no one who had heard the evidence
of the streetboys, the letters read in court, the testimony
of the other witnesses, would be apt to believe in their
innocence. And Robbie knew Bosie's habits too well to be
lieve that he would change, or be any more thoughtful or
less selfish than he had always been. It seemed the willful
sacrifice of the future.
To Robbie it must have seemed a personal betrayal; that
Oscar had lied to him about his plans made it worse. Oscar
tried to soften it by saying, in his first letter to Robbie
from Naples,
I could have lived all my life with you, but you have
other claims on you— claims you are too sweet a fellow to
disregard— and all you could give me was a week of compan-
iziQscar Wilde to Carlos Blacker, September 23 [1897]
in Wilde, Letters, p. 647.
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130
ionship.^ ^ 2
He wrote that Bosie had offered him love, and a life togeth
er, and he could see no other way in which he could live,
not being able to bear loneliness. And "the mere fact that
he wrecked my life" made Oscar love Bosie, he said.
The three letters Robbie wrote him during this time
Milde probably destroyed, calling them "unkind and detest
able. Only one phrase survives: "Remember always that
you committed the unpardonable and vulgar error of being
found o u t . " 124 Robbie could not blame Oscar for being homo
sexual, but he could blame him for flaunting the fact in the
face of the world and then complaining that the world
treated him badly. Robbie believed that one behaved as dis
creetly as possible, and when there was something worth
revealing oneself for— such as his continued association
with Wilde— one accepted the consequences without complain
ing.
Since Oscar preferred Bosie's company to Robbie's,
liked Bosie's way of life better than that which Robbie had
so carefully arranged at Wilde's own request, and would not
trust Robbie enough to tell him the truth about his feelings
^2^Letter dated September 21, 1897, in Wilde, Letters,
p . 644.
^2^0scar Wilde to Reginald Turner [c. October 1, 1897]
in Wilde, Letters, p. 650.
i24Quoted by Wilde in a letter to Leonard Smithers
[December 10, 1897?] in Wilde, Letters, p. 694.
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131
for Bosie when he was expressly asked, it seemed to Robbie
that Oscar must not consider him to be a close or trust
worthy friend. However, Oscar had asked him to be his lit
erary executor, and perhaps their purely literary relation
ship could survive and he could continue to help Oscar in
business matters. To this proposal Oscar, who never minded
Robbie's lectures, replied sweetly that of course he wanted
Robbie's literary help, and his friendship too, and that
Ross had "a perfect right to say what you choose.Rob
bie continued to write him and to keep track of his busi
ness. However, two months after the meeting with Douglas,
Wilde was complaining that "you have not written me for ages
except about the worrying business of my unsaleable
p o e m . "126 j j g once more tried to apologize, this time admit
ting that he, too, had been able to see why the others had
objected:
You tried your best to create a possible life for me, but
it was one my own temperament could not suffer. I could
not live alone, and so inevitably I took the love and com
panionship that was offered to me. It seemed to me to be
the only gate to any life, but I did it conscious of all
the new ruin it might bring on me. I was not blind to
what I was doing. You know what beautiful, wise, sensible
schemes of life people bring to one: there is nothing to
be said against them: except that they are not for
5Letter dated [October 1, 189 7] in Wilde, Letters,
p. 649.
iz^Letter dated November 16, 1897, in Wilde, Letters,
p. 673.
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132
oneself.^ ^ ^
It had taken a long time for Robbie to realize what
Oscar's character was really like. Robbie would do anything
he could for Oscar, and he took it for granted that Oscar
knew he would. It was a shock to find out that Oscar could
not comprehend this kind of love, and that there could be no
mutual trust between them. Robbie's disillusionment had
begun with the angry letters while Wilde was in prison. At
that time, Reggie Turner had reprimanded Oscar:
. . . you must allow me to say something to you about More
and Bobbie, as you have written to me about them. The
most beautiful thing I have ever known is Bobbie's devo
tion to you. He has never had any other thought than of
you; he has only looked forward to one thing, the time
when he would be able to talk to you freely and affection
ately again. It is very rare to find such complete devo
tion, and I fear, dear Oscar, that you have gone very near
to breaking his h e a r t . a
The lying about Bosie and the return to him and to his kind
of life finished Robbie's belief in Oscar. Robbie did not
like being accused of showing Oscar's personal letters to
other people, nor did he appreciate witty remarks such as
"Why you should try and ride the high moral horse I do not
know. You can ride everything— except Pegasus."Never
theless he continued to go to a great deal of bother about
^^’Letter dated November 16, 1897, in Wilde, Letters,
p. 673.
^^®N.d., in Wilde, Letters, p. 557, n. 1.
^^*Oscar Wilde to Leonard Smithers [November] 19, 1897,
in Wilde, Letters, p. 679; Robert Ross to Frank Harris, Sep
tember 6, 1913, in the Library, University of Texas.
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133
Wilde's business, especially the Ballad of Reading Gaol.
While it had been quickly arranged that Leonard Smithers, a
publisher of somewhat doubtful reputation, should publish it
in book form, Wilde hoped to make additional profits through
publication by some magazine or newspaper in America. Amer
ican rights were to be handled by James B. Pinker, whom Ross
consulted several times concerning Wilde's ideas, such as
publication in a journal in England, or syndicating the poem
in America.
Oscar often consulted Robbie about the poem as he
worked on it, telling Smithers on October 22:
I have received from Robbie Ross, whose literary instinct
and judgment has always influenced me, a lot of sugges
tions, and will accept half of them.
Ross did not approve of the "romantic vein" of some parts of
the poem, nor of Oscar's overuse of adjectives, especially
of the "dreadful" and "fearful" variety. He apparently
wanted a more straightforward account of the execution, with
the comments arising out of the substance; disliked fanciful
touches unsuitable to the harsh surroundings, such as the
ghosts that dance while the prisoners wait throughout the
night; and would have preferred the poem to end with the
line, "And outcasts always mourn," rather than going on for
twenty more stanzas of moralizing. He also pointed out
words that seemed to be inappropriate or repetitious, and
13 0
Wilde, Letters, p. 666.
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134
quotations from someone else.^^i One is tempted to wonder
how much the strength of realistic detail, so much more
prevalent in the Ballad than in any of Wilde's other poetry,
was fostered by Ross's advocacy of this type of writing.
When Wilde, anxious for any immediate profit, proposed
that he send the Ballad to Reynolds, a newspaper that "cir
culates among the lower orders, and the criminal classes,"
Smithers wrote Ross threatening not to publish the book ver
sion. Ross agreed with him, and added that publication
in any paper at all would harm the sales of the book so
seriously that he would advise Smithers to forbid it.^^^
The pair in Italy were, as usual, short of money,
though Bosie had about hS a week from his mother, and
Oscar's wife continued to pay his allowance of about B3 a
week till November. When serial publication of the Ballad
seemed unlikely, Robbie even broke down and sent £9 on No
vember 8, in response to Wilde's anguished letters to
i^^Oscar Wilde to Robert Ross [October 3, 1897], pcto-
ber 8, 1897], October 19 [1897], [October 28, 1897], [Novem
ber] 19, 1897, [November 25, 1897], in Wilde, Letters,
pp. 653, 654, 655, 661, 667-668, 680, 684.
i^ZQscar Wilde to Robert Ross, October 19 [1897], in
Wilde, Letters, p. 661; and Leonard Smithers to Robert Ross,
October 23, 1897, in the Clark Library.
^^^Oscar Wilde to Robert Ross, October 30, 1897, in
Wilde, Letters, p. 669.
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135
Smithers and others for m o n e y . he had not softened
his estimation of Oscar's character. When Oscar proposed to
use the lines already quoted, "When I came out of prison
. . . You met me with love" as a dedication to the Ballad,
Robbie wrote Smithers he was sure "dear Oscar meant to tell
me and Douglas and two or three other people that each was
intended. That only amuses me."^^^
By the middle of November Constance, who had threatened
early in October to cut off the allowance, had her lawyer
approach Hansell, who agreed that Bosie was a "disreputable
person" under the terms of the agreement, and that the
allowance should be stopped. At first Oscar admitted the
justice of the action, but soon he was complaining to every
one that it was totally unjustified.^^® Douglas, too,
looked for a way to blame the lack of money on someone else.
He wrote Adey that he thought Robbie was "perfectly capable"
of trying to stop the publication of Wilde's poem if it
would separate the two of them.^ ^ ^ His implicit support by
Wilde was the last straw for Robbie. On November 25 Ross
^®‘ *Oscar Wilde to Robert Ross [November 8, 1897] in
Wilde, Letters, p. 671.
^®®Robert Ross to Leonard Smithers, November 16 [1897]
in Wilde, Letters, p. 678.
^®®Oscar Wilde to Robert Ross, November 16, 1897, in
Wilde, Letters, p. 673; and other letters from Wilde on
pp. 680-686.
^Alfred Douglas to More Adey, November 20, 1897, in
Croft-Cooke, Bosie, pp. 165-66.
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136
wrote to Smithers, sending a copy to Wilde, saying that:
I regret to inform you that I have ceased to be on inti
mate terms with Oscar Wilde or to enjoy his confidence in
business or any other matter. . . . Alfred Douglas has
written to a common friend that I have tried to prevent
any considerable sum being obtained for the poem.^ ^ ®
He did not try to create trouble with mutual friends: on
December 10 Smithers wrote Wilde that the day before Ross
had not seemed angry at Oscar nor at odds with him.He
even sent Wilde a copy of the Weekly Sun, with a review in
it.^**° But he did not write him again until the middle of
Feoruary, and then it was only to forward acknowledgements
and clippings about the Ballad.
Robbie and Constance
Constance seems to have been puzzled as to what atti
tude to take toward Robbie. Her upbringing had taught her
to fear and despise homosexuality. ^^ George Lewis had made
sure she knew about Robbie. Her first reaction had been to
repudiate Ross and Adey, and to require Oscar to have noth
ing to do with such persons in the future.In a letter
^^®In Wilde, Letters, p. 688, n. 1.
i®®Bodleian MS. Walpole d.l8 fol. 12.
^‘ *°Oscar Wilde to Leonard Smithers [December 11, 1897]
in Wilde, Letters, p. 696.
^ ^Constance Wilde to Carlos Blacker, March 10, 1898,
in Wilde, Letters, pp. 716-717, n. 4.
^‘ ‘^Oscar Wilde to More Adey [November 21, 1897] in
Wilde, Letters, p. 681.
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137
of June 21, 1896, she seemed to be unsure how to answer the
letter that Robbie sent her before his operation. She said:
The question whether your desire to be my friend and your
affection for me are genuine I leave to your Conscience
and to God to decide. I have gone through too much and
too much has crumbled beneath my feet for me to be at all
now able to judge of the genuineness of anyone's profes
sions on any subject. I have always had a great affection
for you which I once thought and hoped that you re
turned.
The old affection and trust, however, were still strong
enough that after Wilde's release she corresponded with Ross
against the advice of Adrian Hope.^^^ She followed Wilde's
movements through what Ross told her, and later she sent £40
to Oscar through him. As she told Carlos Blacker, she
thought Ross was right to dole the money out to Wilde
slowly, and she knew that his letters "at any rate are
truthful," while she doubted that Oscar's were. As for
Douglas,
No words will describe my horror of that BEAST, for I will
call him nothing else, A. D. Fancy Robbie receiving abu
sive letters from him.^**^
About two weeks after she wrote this, Constance died in
Genoa, on April 7, 189 8.^“ *®
Hearing of her death, Oscar sent an anguished telegram
i^^Letter in the Clark Library.
‘ 'Robert Ross to Adela Schuster, December 23, 1900, in
Wilde, Letters, p. 861.
^‘ '^Letter dated March 20, 189 8, in Wilde, Letters,
p. 718, n. 1.
^“ '^Wilde, Letters, p. 729, n. 1.
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138
to Robbie, asking him to come to Paris. Oscar had moved
there in February, after Douglas had left him when they ran
out of money. Robbie could not remain cold and businesslike
at such a time. He left for Paris at once. When Ross ar
rived, he found that Oscar was dramatizing a sorrow he did
not really possess. He wrote Smithers about the death that
"Oscar of course did not feel it at all."^**^
Visits and Lectures
Oscar kept Robbie busy on the visit. "It is quite im
possible with Oscar to get anything done," Robbie told
Smithers. Wilde talked bitterly of his life with Bosie,
saying that the most unpleasant stanzas of the Ballad
described life in Naples, not in prison. Wilde blamed Bosie
because he had not had enough money for both of them to live
on, and because Bosie had expected Wilde to raise the money.
Apparently Robbie didn't take the condemnation too seri
ously, for he went to see Bosie, whom he described as "less
interested in other people than ever before, especially
Oscar." He told of their dinner with Frank Harris and Henry
Davray, who was translating the Ballad into French.
Oscar also introduced him to some of his less conventional
i^^Oscar Wilde to Robert Ross [April 12, 1898] in
Wilde, Letters, p. 729; Robert Ross to Leonard Smithers,
April 17, 1898, p. 729, n. 2.
^“ ^^Robert Ross to Leonard Smithers, April 17, 1898, in
Wilde, Letters, pp. 729-730, n. 2; Oscar Wilde to Robert
Ross, [March 2, 1898?], pp. 709-710.
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139
friends, Maurice Gilbert, and Edmond, a streetboy. After
Robbie left, Oscar frequently referred to both of them, but
whether because Robbie had disapproved or had demonstrated
his approval is difficult to tell. When Maurice returned
late in May from a visit to London, Oscar's references to
him in letters to Robbie, Reggie, and Leonard Smithers are
cryptic, insinuating, and unpleasant. The content seems to
be that Reggie, "The Boy-Snatcher of Clements Inn," had been
Maurice's host against Robbie's wishes. However, Oscar men
tioned several other boys to Reggie in familiar terms, while
his letter to Robbie of the same day eliminated such refer
ences.He may just have been trying to embarrass Robbie,
because he was annoyed at him for not agreeing to Oscar's
plan to furnish rooms, so that he would have more freedom
than he would in a hotel or a furnished flat. He ironically
told Smithers that
Dear Robbie, so thoughtful for others, is making arrange
ments for me to live in a cheerful French pension, with
table-d'hote at 6:30 and pleasant ladies' society in the
evening. I am to play dominoes.
The return to Douglas and their final break had, as
Ross feared, marked the end of Wilde's attempts to write or
to lead a decent life. Wilde was now open about his
^‘ *^Oscar Wilde to Leonard Smithers [May 25, 1898];
Oscar Wilde to Robert Ross [May 25, 1898]; Oscar Wilde to
Reginald Turner [May 25, 1898]; in Wilde, Letters, pp. 744-
746.
“Letter dated [May 24, 189 8] in Wilde, Letters,
p. 744.
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140
involvements with the male prostitutes of Paris, about beg
ging for money from all his friends, and about his complete
idleness and continual drinking. As usual, he was deaf to
Robbie's criticisms, saying:
It is a curious thing, dear little absurd Robbie, that you
now always think that I am in the wrong. It is a morbid
reaction against your former, and more rational, estimate
of me.151
He warned Robbie, in connection with the proposed dedication
of The Importance of Being Earnest, "Do not lecture till
after Dec. 7th," or he would be tempted to write: "To R. B.
Ross in recognition of his good advice."i^^ After all, what
could Robbie want to lecture him about except his past or
his present?
I have no future, my dear Robbie. I don't think I am
equal to intellectual architecture of thought: I have
moods and moments; and Love, or Passion with the mask of
Love, is my only consolation."i^^
Other Activities and Friends
Ross did not resume a frequent correspondence with
Wilde in 189 8. When he did hear from Wilde, it was often
for the proof he needed each three months that Wilde was
alive, since Wilde's allowance from his wife's estate came
to him through Ross. In addition to sending Wilde the money
1 5 1
Letter dated [July 1898] in Wilde, Letters, p. 755.
Letter dated [November 25, 189 8] in Wilde, Letters,
15 2
p. 763.
^5^Letter dated December 3 [1898] in Wilde, Letters,
p . 766.
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141
from the estate, Ross continued to help Wilde with money of
his own. Later Ross estimated that from 1895 to 1905 he had
a personal income of about 0500 a year, half of which he
spent on Wilde or in Wilde's interest.
Robbie could hardly lecture Oscar for inactivity if he
were not busy himself. His health was better, and he was
reading manuscripts for Smithers and writing book reviews
for the Lancet and other periodicals.^^^ While Wilde was
still the friend on whom he spent the most time and energy,
perhaps because Wilde needed him the most, other persons
were also important to Robbie. During the storms that sur
rounded his efforts to help Oscar during 1897 and the begin
ning of 1898, Robbie learned to detach himself to some
extent from Oscar, not to mind his criticism too much, and
to go ahead and do what he considered best, whether or not
Oscar objected. After Constance's death, Robbie no longer
visited Oscar so often, or took so personally Oscar's laps
es, though he never stopped trying to get Oscar to resume
^®‘ *Ross, "Statement," p. 40. This figure cannot be
supported from other evidence. Douglas in 1897 mentioned he
thought Ross had an income from his mother of &200 a year
(letter to More Adey, dated July 4, 1897, in the Clark Li
brary.) When Mrs. Ross died in 190 5, Robbie said that he
owed her estate L1600 ("Statement," p. 39) which would have
been an average of B160 a year over a ten-year period. He
may have made the other £140 by writing or by some other
source of income, or Douglas may not have known the exact
figure.
i^^Oscar Wilde to Robert Ross, December 3 [1898] in
Wilde, Letters, p. 766; H. Rider Haggard to Robert Ross,
December 18, 1898, in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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142
his writing and to lead a more regular life.
It must have been hard for him to avoid comparing
Oscar's behavior with that of the other really great artist
whom he knew well, Aubrey Beardsley: Oscar's indolence with
Aubrey's efforts to work in spite of the disease that was
killing him; Oscar's demands for money with Aubrey's refusal
to accept help; Oscar's hedonism with Aubrey's conversion to
Catholicism in March of 1897.
Robbie probably last saw Beardsley in the summer of
189 7, when Beardsley stayed at Dieppe and seemed in compara
tively good health. On his return to Paris he caught cold
and became seriously ill. His mother and sister kept Robbie
informed of his condition. In December of 1897 he was taken
to Mentone in southern France, and died there on March 16,
1898.^
His last work was for an edition of Ben Jonson's Vol-
pone, to be published by Leonard Smithers. After Beards
ley's death, Smithers decided to make the book somewhat of a
memorial volume to Beardsley and asked Ross to write for it
a "Eulogy of the Artist." The book appeared late in 189 8,
and brought Ross complimentary letters from Joseph Pennell
and D. S. MacColl, who had been strong supporters of
^^®Ross, Beardsley, pp. 26-27; William Rothenstein, Men
and Memories (New York: Coward-McCann, 1935), 1:317.
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143
Beardsley's work, as well as from closer personal
friends.The "Eulogy" contains biographical material
about Beardsley, a discussion of the styles, works, and per
sons which influenced him, and an estimation of his stature
as an artist. Although it is open to criticism as lacking
the personal touches, the anecdotes and incidents, which a
book by a friend might well have contained, the somber occa
sion for which it was first written and the critical atti
tude of many of the artists and critics of the time toward
both Beardsley's work and personality, compelled caution,
reticence, and the greatest possible seriousness. The essay
was republished with minor changes in 1909, and an unsigned
review at that time said:
The surprising talent of Aubrey Beardsley could not have
fallen into better hands than those of Mr. Ross . . . in
this excellent little monograph.^®®
Ross could not attend Beardsley's funeral in Mentone,
though he took a major part in arranging a memorial service
held on May 12, 189 8, in London. Beardsley's mother had
returned there, and wrote Ross on April 25 asking him to
usher and thanking him for ordering the cards. On May 13
she wrote again, saying:
My dear Robbie, How can I thank you for all your kindness
^^^Joseph Pennell to Robert Ross, "Wednesday"; D. S.
MacColl to Robert Ross, December 18, 1898; Max Beerbohm to
Robert Ross, December 19, 1898, in Ross, Friend of Friends,
pp. 53-55.
15 8
Burlington Magazine, XIV (January 1909), 247.
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144
yesterday! You managed everything so beautifully, it was
very good of you. I am most grateful to you & I cannot
tell you how deeply touched I am at this evidence of your
affection for my precious boy. . . . Dear Robbie, how you
have worked to arrange the beautiful Service we had yes
terday. . . . I cannot bear that you should be put to such
an expense as paying the half of the cost, so although I
am only sending you a cheque for six pounds it is because
I am afraid without your leave to send more. . . . And
then about the cards we had printed, I have not heard what
they cost. With much love, Yrs affly, Elian A. Beardsley.
And the carriage you were so good as to send. I have not
forgotten it, but I don't know the cost. I was thankful
to have it.^^*
Writing the "Eulogy" took up part of the summer, and
helped him regain the habit of writing. Soon Ross was try
ing to do creative work again. In October of 189 8 he pub
lished in the Cornhill Ilagazine what is probably his best
story. "A Case at the Museum" is delightful from its pun
ning title to its remarkably appropriate ending. Although
it retains the air of the 1890's in its introduction and
style, seemingly more appropriate to an article on museums
than to a piece of fiction, it is still enjoyable today. It
concerns Professor Lachsyrma, a scholar who "among archaeol
ogists is thought a pre-eminent paleographer, among paleog
raphers a great archaeologist." The Professor, on a recent
trip to Egypt, purchased "a number of Graeco-Egyptian anti
quities and papyri," including a mummy in its case, but much
more important, a manuscript containing some of the lost
poems of Sappho, which he announced to the papers he was go
ing to edit. While working alone in his isolated studio.
15 9
Letters in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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145
the Professor received a call from "a scholar, an archaeolo
gist, a paleographer, and— other things besides," as the man
described himself when asked "To whom have I the— duty of
speaking?" The visitor could not be ejected, but insisted
on showing Lachsyrma a manuscript which he pronounced, after
examination, to be a clever forgery. It was not his, how
ever, the visitor said. "You would have been taken in if I
were the author." He then showed another manuscript, this
time forged by himself and containing missing parts of the
Sappho poems already announced for publication. He demanded
fclOOO, upon which the Professor "plunged a long Greek knife
into his back." Now Lachsyrma was faced with the problem of
disposing of the body.
Palaeography and Greek art were obviously useless in the
present instance. He understood at last why deplorable
people wanted to abolish Greek from the University curric
ulum.
Deciding to house the body temporarily in the elaborate
mummy case, Lachsyrma unwrapped the mummy and found a real
manuscript of Sappho's poems under one arm of the corpse.
On referring to "Euterpe," the second book of the Histo
ries of Herodotus, Professor Lachsyrma selected the second
method of embalming as less troublesome and more expedi
tious . The whole matter lasted little longer than the
seventy prescribed days. At the end of which time he was
able, in accordance with his original intention, to depos
it in a handsome glass case at the British Museum the
Mummy of Heliodorus, a Greek settler in Egypt who held
some official appointment at the Court of Ptolemy Phila-
delphus. It is described in the catalogue as one of the
best examples of its kind in Europe. Indeed, it is prob
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146
ably unique. ® °
The Years 1899 and 1900
Other once carefree friends were also becoming more
settled. In the spring of 1899 Ross, Max Beerbohm, Charles
Condor, and Albert Rothenstein witnessed the marriage of
Will Rothenstein to Alice Knewstub.^®^ Max, too, was
engaged, to Kilseen Conover. Max asked Robbie to dine with
tnem on June 3, Reggie's birthday, saying that Kilseen was
"strangely impatient" to meet Robbie.Compton MacKenzie
describes meeting Reggie and Robbie that summer, at the
Earl's Court exhibition, where people gathered to listen to
the band and to chat on warm June evenings. "Alas, dear
Reggie, you and I cannot compete with nymphs," Robbie re
marked as MacKenzie hurriedly followed a family with a
charming daughter.Occasional Sundays and suppers with
the Gosses remained a continuing source of friendship. Ross
and Douglas were again on good terms, so much so that Bosie,
who finally dared return to England in November, 1898,
wrote to More Adey that he "practically lived" at No. 13
“Reprinted in Ross, Masques and Phases, pp. 1-3 2.
^“^Rothenstein, Men and Memories, 1:345.
“ ^Letter dated May 30, 1899, in the possession of
J. P. B. Ross.
“MacKenzie, My Life and Times, 11:268.
^ “ “ 'Croft-Cooke, Bosie, p. 172.
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147
Phillimore Gardens.The next year Lord Queensberry died
and Bosie inherited about 3bl5 , 000 . ® ® Although Robbie
avoided any open quarrel, he was angry at Bosie for his
stinginess, since Bosie refused to help Wilde except for
occasional gifts when they were together.
Ross received his copy of The Importance of Being
Earnest late in February of 1899. Its printed dedication
read: "To Robert Baldwin Ross: In appreciation In affec
tion" and Wilde had inscribed the copy for Robbie: "To the
Mirror of Perfect Friendship: Robbie: whose name I have
written on the portal of this little play. Oscar February
•9 9."168 Wilde never took Earnest very seriously, saying
once that it was a play written by a butterfly for butter
flies, and rather resented Ross's preference for it above
any of his other works. He told Ross:
There are two ways of disliking my plays. One of them is
to dislike them: the other is to like Ernest. I shall
dedicate it to you to prove what a bad critic you a r e . i69
It was therefore Ross's literary taste, as well as his
faithful friendship, which caused his name to appear in con-
i6 8copy of a letter in the possession of Frederick
Peters dated July 3, 1899, in the Clark Library.
168croft-Cooke, Bosie, p. 179.
i6?Ross, "Statement," p. 28.
i68in Wilde, Letters, p. 783, n. 2.
i6 8Quoted by Ross in his preface to the George Alexan
der Souvenir Edition of Earnest (London: Methuen, 1910) ,
p . X .
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148
nection with one of the most perfect of English comedies.
In March of 1899 Wilde went to visit Harold Mellor, a
young Englishman, in Switzerland. After a few weeks he got
very bored, since there were no available boys, little con
versation, and Mellor was over-economical in his household,
committing such enormities as serving Swiss beer with meals
instead of the more expensive wine.^^° So Wilde left for
Genoa about the first of April and settled in a village
called Santa Margherita near there. He again became bored
and wrote Robbie several times asking him if he could pos
sibly come and visit. Ross was ill when he first received
the appeals, but soon appeared, and took Wilde back to
Paris, having paid his debts, bought his railroad ticket,
and spent several days with him.He lectured Oscar so
much about drinking that "he quite reformed for six
months.This was apparently the first time they had met
since the previous April, although in the fall of 1898 Rob
bie and Reggie Turner had visited Italy and they may have
stopped in Paris on the way back.^^^
^^°Oscar Wilde to Frank Harris [March 27, 1899] in
Wilde, Letters, p. 790.
i^^Oscar Wilde to Robert Ross, April 1 [April 7] (four
postcards), undated (two letters), and [c. May 16, 1899] in
Wilde, Letters, pp. 792-794; also p. 794, n.2.
^^^Robert Ross to Adela Schuster, December 23, 1900, in
Wilde, Letters, p. 859.
^^^Oscar Wilde to Robert Ross, October 3, 1898, in
Wilde, Letters, p. 761.
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149
In late October or early November of 1899 Ross went
abroad with his mother, who was in failing health. On their
way to Rome, where they spent the winter, they passed
through Paris and both saw Wilde briefly. Robbie was not
very well himself. "When I get over one thing I start some
thing else," he wrote his sister Mary from Rome in January.
Their mother was "blooming," in spite of a cold she caught
on New Year's Eve in St. Peter's, and Robbie was finding
Mary's daughter Lily a great help in keeping Mother amused.
At this time he owed Mary something between &75 and tlOO,
but was confused because he had money from her for Lily, and
was taking care of all his mother's money.Robbie still
did not feel very well in M a r c h .
Robbie, Lily, and Mrs. Ross remained abroad until June,
visiting Milan in the middle of April, and Venice in early
May.i^^ Mellor had invited Wilde to Italy this winter, and
Robbie and Oscar met in Rome during March and April. Robbie
still lectured upon occasion, especially when he had
i^^Oscar Wilde to Robert Ross [early October 1899] and
January 2, 1900, in Wilde, Letters, pp. 811, 813; Will
Rothenstein to Robert Ross, September 14, 1899, in Ross,
Friend of Friends, pp. 56-57.
^^^Letter dated January 5, 1900, in the possession of
Giles Robertson.
^ ^^William Rothenstein to Robert Ross, March 6, 19 00,
in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
i^^Oscar Wilde to Robert Ross, [April 21, 1900] and
[May 1900] in Wilde, Letters, pp. 823, 827.
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150
received no letters for three months,but seems to have
relaxed his morals for his Italian visit, as Oscar wrote him
freely about various boys, especially Omero, who expected a
letter from Robbie. Oscar wrote he did not give Omero
Ross's real address, but said that some of his friends pre
ferred to write him as "Edmondo Gosse" at the Savile, and
others as "Reginaldo Turner, Avvocato" and others yet as
"Sir Wemyss Reid," so he expects "there will be many inter
esting letters arriving in London.While they were in
Rome, Oscar was very impressed at seeing the Pope, and asked
Ross to find him a~priest to instruct him in becoming a
Catholic. Ross, however, was not at all sure he was really
serious, and feared a relapse. He also felt that it would
be necessary for the priest to be very learned and intelli
gent in order to answer Oscar's questions and allay his
doubts, and he did not know anyone in Rome who would be
qualified.^ ® °
When Robbie returned to London in June, he quickly
began helping a friend of his in religious orders through
tne publication of a book. Designed as an aid to prayer,
Magister Adest is a compilation of bits from the Old Testa-
^ ^^®Oscar Wilde to Robert Ross [February 28, 1900?] in
Wilde, Letters, p. 817.
17 9
[April 21, 1900] in Wilde, Letters, pp. 823-824.
“Robert Ross to Adela Schuster, December 23, 1900, in
Wilde, Letters, p. 859.
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151
ment, with occasional poems and literary quotations. Small
reproductions of religious paintings or statuary are numer
ous, some of them by masters, some of them recent and undis
tinguished, though all of them are so small and so badly
reproduced that their original quality is really irrelevant.
The Preface explains that the book was first gathered for
private use, and the unsigned Introduction, dated from the
Convent of the Good Shepherd, East Finchley, London, ack
nowledges the names of many persons who have given help in
selecting the illustrations. It devotes a paragraph to
. . . express our debt of gratitude to Mr. Robert Ross,
but for whose help, never-failing kindness, and unwearying
exertions, "Magister Adest" would probably never have been
published.
Ross even signed the contract for the book, which specified
he was to furnish the blocks for illustrating and the paper.
The firm agreed to pay the printing bill and to divide prof
its after the printing had been paid.^^i The book was
apparently published some time late in the year, for in a
letter to Mary dated December 2 3 he says that "the new book
is out."182 Although it was popular enough to be published
in America the next year,3 it was typographically and lit-
i®iContract with Regan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.,
dated June 12, 1899, in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
i®^Benziger Brothers: 1901. (United States Catalog:
Books in Print 1902, ed. Marion E. Potter. 2d ed. [Minne
apolis: H. W. Wilson Company, 1903]).
1®^Letter in the possession of Giles Robertson.
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152
erarily a dreadful little book, and Ross's work on it can
only be explained by real religious enthusiasm, or true
friendship.
In 19 00 the family again arranged that Robbie should
accompany his mother in the south during the winter. On the
way to Nice, where she already was, Robbie stopped off in
Paris to see Oscar, who had just had an operation on his
ear. Ross stayed in Paris from October 16 till November 13,
and saw Oscar every day but one. Wilde was in rather poor
health, and recovered only slowly from the operation, per
haps because as soon as he was able to walk, he insisted on
visiting cafés in order to drink absinthe.^®** The doctor,
whom Wilde told he might speak freely to Ross, said that
Wilde "could not live very long unless he stopped drinking
^®“ *This, and all the following information and quota
tions about Wilde's final days, are taken from a long letter
that Ross wrote More Adey on December 14. This letter has
been printed several times, in several editions of Frank
Harris's Oscar Wilde, from which the version in the Wilde
Letters, pp. 847-849, 853-856, was taken. A different ver-
sion appeared in the New York Tribune of March, 1910, which
said that it was translated from the Nord & Sud, probably
the issue of November 15, 1909, which carried Ross's account
translated into German by Max Meyerfeld. Recently the Clark
Library purchased an earlier version, in Ross's own hand
writing. Ross apparently made at least some of the changes
in the printed version himself, for a typescript with most
of the changes exists in the Library, University of Texas,
corrected in Ross's handwriting. The original letter has
not come to light, but the earlier version, varying as it
does in some details, especially in being more critical of
Frank Harris, has an interest of its own. For that reason
much of it is included here. Ross titled it "A Note on the
Last Few Days of Oscar Wilde's Life & the Circumstances of
His Death."
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153
etc." But on the whole Wilde seemed to be in good spirits,
and Ross was surprised at the scene he made when Ross came
to say goodbye.
I never dremt [sic] that he was dying. On Monday 12th of
Nov Reg &. I went to see Oscar. I was leaving the next
day. ft was late in the evening after dinner. Oscar went
over all his financial troubles & the Harris affair. He
had just had a letter from Harris about the Smithers claim
& was much upset. His .speech seemed to me a little thick.
I knew he had been given morphia the previous night & had
driven out alone in the afternoon. He knew I was coming
to say goodbye & paid very little attention when I entered
the room which I thought strange. He addressed all his
remarks to Reggie. While we talked the post arrived with
a very nice letter from Alfred Douglas enclosing a cheque.
It was in response to my letter. Oscar cried a little &
then recovered himself. We then had a friendly discus
sion. Oscar walked about the room & declaimed in a rather
excited way. About 10:30 I said I must go. Oscar asked
Reggie & the nurse to go out of the room for a minute as
he wanted to say goodbye. He rambled at first again about
the £200, the amount of his debts in Paris, then he asked
me not to go away. That he felt a great change had come
over him. I adopted a rather stern attitude as I really
believed Oscar was simply hysterical & nothing more. Sud
denly he broke into violent sobbing & said he would never
see him [sic] again. That he felt everything was at an
end. This lasted about 3/4 hour. He talked about various
not necessary here to repeat. Though it was very harrow
ing I really did not attach any importance & did not
respond to poor Oscars emotion as I perhaps should have
done, especially as he said almost at the last, "Look out
for a little cup in the hills near Nice where I can go
when I am better & you can come & see me." I left for
Nice the following evening Nov. 13th.
Fortunately Reggie Turner was staying in Paris, and went to
see Oscar daily. Two weeks after Robbie had left, he
received a letter from Reggie which indicated Wilde was dy
ing. He decided to move his mother to Mentone, and then go
back to Paris. But the day after the letter came a tele
gram, "Almost hopeless."
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154
I just caught the Express & arrived Paris at 10:30 [Nov.
28] I reached Hotel D'Alsace about 11:15. Dr. Tucker &
Dr. Kleiss the specialist with Reg were there.They
informed me that Oscar could not live more than two days.
Oscar's appearance was very painful. He had become quite
thin, the flesh was livid, the breathing heavy. He was
trying to speak. He was conscious people were in the
room, raised his hand as I asked him to when he understood
& pressed [illegible] our hands. I went in search of a
priest and after great difficulty found Father Cuthbert
Dunne who came with me at once & administered Baptism &
Extreme Unction. Oscar could not take the Eucharist.^®®
I sent wires to Harris Holman (for Hope) & Douglas.
Tucker called again & said he might linger a few days. A
garde malade was requisitioned as the other nurse was
rather overdone. Terrible offices had to be carried out
into which I need not enter. Reggie was a wreck. Reg &
self "slept" in a room upstairs. We were called twice
under the idea that he was actually dying. About 5:30 in
the morning a complete change came over him. The face
altered & I believe what is called the death rattle began.
His eyes did not respond to the light test any longer.
Foam & blood came from the mouth & had to be wiped away by
someone standing by him all the time. At 12 I went out to
get some food, Reg mounting guard & he went out at 12:30.
From 1 o'clock we did not leave the room. It was inex-
pressably painful. The noise from the throat had never
ceased & grew louder & louder. Reg & myself burned &
destroyed letters to keep ourselves from breaking down.
The two nurses were downstairs at lunch & the proprietor
of the hotel had come up to take their place. At 1:45 the
time of his breathing altered & I went to the bedside.
His pulse began to flutter. He heaved a sigh, the only
natural one I had heard since I arrived. The limbs seemed
to stretch involuntarily, the breathing became fainter.
He passed at 10 minutes to 2 exactly.
After winding the body & washing & removing the apall-
ing debris of the bed which had to be burntReg & my-
^®®Ross and Turner paid the 100 francs (about £4) that
Dr. Kleiss charged for each visit (Ross, "Statement,"
p. 30) .
i®®This account is supported by the notes of Father
Dunne, as recently published, though Douglas and others not
there later wrote they doubted Wilde had been conscious.
(Rev. Edmund Burke, C. P., "Oscar Wilde: the Final Scene,"
London Magazine, I (M.ay 1961), 36-43.
18 7
Harris gives more details, about an explosion of the
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155
self & the Proprietor started for the Mairie to make offi
cial declarations.
No one but Ross was available to take responsibility for the
arrangements about the body and the funeral. He had to go
to the officials, and through the legal formalities con
nected with -the death of a non-citizen registered under an
assumed name, an illegal act in France. After spending most
of the afternoon and the next morning on technicalities.
In the afternoon two district doctors called & asked if he
had committed suicide or was murdered. He would not look
at the signed certificates of Kleiss & Tucker. Gesling
had warned me late the previous evening [illegible] per
haps Oscar would be taken to the Morgue. After examining
the body & everybody in the hotel & after a series of
drinks & unseasonable jests the district doctor consented
to sign the permission for burial. Then arrived the re
volting Juge de Paris to seal up the effects. He asked
how many collars Oscar had & the value of his umbrella.
(This is quite true & not a mere tale of mine).
In addition to making all the arrangements, Ross communi
cated with Douglas and Harris and with the lawyers, who
agreed to provide expenses for the funeral,^®® and even con-
body (p. 333). Later, when he was trying to make his book
less favorable to Ross, so that Douglas would allow its pub
lication in England, he said that Ross had told him the
story but that Reginald Turner had denied that it had hap
pened. Since Harris, not Ross, was responsible for the
printing of the details, and since there seems little reason
to invent it but some reason for the rather prudish Turner
to deny it, the supposed invention can hardly be held
against Ross.
^®®Alfred Douglas, in Oscar Wilde and Myself, p. 137,
said that he paid for the funeral. In his "Statement,"
p. 31, Ross says that he received h 2 0 from Douglas to be
applied to the funeral expenses. However on Nov. 29, 1900,
Martin Holman wrote Ross that Hargrove and Co., to whom he
had spoken on the telephone, "very properly seemed to think
it would be their client's duty in the interests of the
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156
sidered paying off the bankruptcy from the estate which
Constance left. However, the attempt to get them to do so
was not s u c c e s s f u l . 189 on December 4 Holman sent 622 to
Ross, the amount that was due Wilde to the date of his
death, and Frank Harris provided 610 through his friend
Thomas Bell on December Ross and Turner were very
glad to get these sums, since they had long since spent all
the cash that they could easily raise. To Ross also fell
the duty of meeting those few persons who came to see Wilde
or to attend the funeral, such as Bell and Comtesse Anna de
Brémont, who described his kindness and tact in announcing
the death to her, then leading her by the hand into the room
where Wilde lay, his face refined and beautified by
death.18 1 Ross wrote:
After the washing I am glad to say dear Oscar looked calm
& dignified as he did when he came out of prison & there
was nothing horrible about the body until about 6:30 in
the evening when decomposition set in rapidly. Gesling
called Sc advised me to have the remains placed in coffin
at once. At 8:30 the people came & round the neck was a
blessed rosary given me by More, on the breast a Francis-
children to provide a respectable funeral." (Letter in the
Clark Library) I do not know if they really paid for it.
iG^Martin Holman to Robert Ross, December 3 and 4,
1900, in the Clark Library.
i8°Thomas Bell to Robert Ross, December 3, 1900, in the
Clark Library. Harris was ill and unable to go. Strangely,
in his book, p. 331, Harris says that Bell's asthma delayed
his trip till too late, and does not say he sent any money.
Both the letter cited, and more recent letters from Bell in
the Clark Library, indicate that the money really was sent.
19 1
Oscar Wilde and His Mother, pp. 189-199.
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157
can medal givey by the Nuns & some flowers placed there by
myself for others & a friend who brought some on behalf of
the children. The coffin was covered with a white sheet &
flowers. A standing crucifix & candles & Holy water stood
on a small table at the side.
Ross and Turner were extremely grateful to the proprietor of
the Hotel, who had paid for things the doctors requested for
Wilde out of his own pocket, and who did not mention how
much Wilde owed him until Ross brought up the subject. Du-
poirier and the hotel employees even sent bead wreaths to
the funeral, which was held on Sunday, December 2, 1900.
The funeral started from the Hotel at 9 o'clock. The
mourners walking to the Church of St. Germain des Près
which is the custom. There was no crowd. Directly behind
the Hearse walked Alfred Douglas, Reggie Turner and myself
in line. Then came the proprietor of the Hotel, Henri the
Hennion & I believe 2 journalists. After Low Mass said by
a vicaire at the Altar of the Sacred Hearth directly be
hind the High Altar the office was read by Father Cuth
bert. The Suisse told me afterwards that there were 56
people present. There were five ladies. The coaches were
three. The first contained Father Cuthbert and the aco
lyte. The next Alfred Douglas, Turner, myself & the pro
prietor of the Hotel. No. 3 contained Madame Stuart
Merrill, Paul Fort, Henri Davray and Sar Luis. One cab
followed containing journalists which had nothing to do
with the funeral. The drive took 1 hour & a half. The
grave is at Bagneux. It is a temporary concession for 5
years purchased in my name.^*^ At the end of that period
or before I can either move the remains elsewhere or pur
chase the ground in perpetuity or hire it for a further
term of years. No one can touch it or place any monument
without my leave.
Afterwards, Ross wrote letters to those friends of Wilde
whom he knew would want to know about his last days. To
More Adey he described the final period of time and the
^^^The plot and gravestone were paid for by Turner and
Ross. (Ross, "Statement," p. 32.)
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158
funeral, and paid special tribute to Reggie.
Reggie Turner had a far worse time of it than I or anyone
had as he experienced all the horrible incertainty, the
apalling responsibility of which he did not know the ex
tent. He only knew my address & could not communicate
with Douglas direct. I will always be a source of com
fort to those who were fond of Oscar that he had someone
like Reggie near him during the last days as long as he
was articulate & sensible of kindness & attention.
To the children, who had not been allowed any contact with
their father or his friends, he wrote in care of the family
solicitors, who rather surprisingly sent the letters to them
to be answered. The reply of Cyril, the older boy, still
exists, and shows that Ross had told them he had sent flow
ers in their names and that their father had loved them and
thought of them although he could not see them.^®^ Ross
also wrote very seriously to Louis Wilkinson, a young man
who had invented a dramatic society and a dramatization of
Dorian Gray in order to correspond with Wilde, and had writ
ten to him throughout 1899 and 190 0 but never met him. In
consolation he said that the death "was in many ways for the
best," as Wilde
was very unhappy, and would have become more unhappy as
time went on. In most cases this is said merely as a mat
ter of form and a convention of comfort but in this par
ticular instance it really can be said with perfect
truth. ^ ® “ *
^*^Cyril Holland to Robert Ross, in the Clark Library,
partially reprinted in Holland, Son of Oscar Wilde, pp. 134-
135. Although Vyvyan Holland apparently did not remember
receiving a letter, the remainder of Cyril's letter shows
the younger boy also had one.
19 4
In Ross, Friend of Friends, pp. 60-61.
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159
As for Ross himself, he wrote to Mary on December 12:
Although it is much better he should have died I feel it
most horribly. One becomes fond of people for whom one
has sacrificed a good deal. As I wrote to Alex I fear I
sacrificed other people's feelings as much as anything
else.
He also told Will Rothenstein, on December 11, that:
I feel poor Oscar's death a great deal more than I should,
& far more than I expected. I had grown to feel, rather
foolishly, a sort of responsibility for Oscar, for every-
tning connected with him except his genius, & he had be
come for me a sort of adopted prodigal baby. I began to
love the very faults which I would never have forgiven in
anyone else.
Rothenstein later wrote that he himself found that
this perfect unquestioning loyalty, continuing through so
many years, in circumstances which were often trying,
sometimes dark, painful, and, at last, sordid and repul
sive even, was to me, to others as well, a touching, aye,
a beautiful thing in Ross. So perfect was his love, that
in Ross's case a prejudice which might have been felt
against one so closely associated with Wilde at the time
of his downfall, was well-nigh turned into praise. (I:
363-364)
Some time before Wilde's death, when he had rejoined
Douglas, Ross had realized that there was little more that
he could do for the living Wilde. At Wilde's deathbed, Ross
promised himself that he would administer the estate so as
to pay off the bankruptcy, to provide the children an
income, and to regain for Wilde his proper literary reputa
tion. ^ ® ?
^Letter in the possession of Giles Robertson.
^®^Rothenstein, Men and Memories, 1:362.
i*^Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 154.
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160
Summary
During the years from 1895 to 1900 Ross's friendship
with Oscar Wilde became a major factor in his life. When
Wilde was convicted of unnatural offenses, Ross continued
their association, took over many of Wilde's business af
fairs, and helped him financially. Wilde's eventual return
to Alfred Douglas disappointed Ross very much, but he con
tinued to help Wilde except during one short period. The
notoriety which Ross suffered because of his continued
friendship with Wilde, the nervous strain which he under
went, and poor health leading to a serious operation, all
caused Ross to interrupt his writing career for a while.
When he finally realized that Wilde could not resume his
literary activities, and that it did little good to lecture
him or to worry about him too much, Ross resumed writing and
being of aid to other people. However he continued to take
responsibility for Wilde's business affairs, was at his
deathbed, made the funeral arrangements, and vowed to admin
ister Wilde's estate.
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CHAPTER IV
YEARS OF ACHIEVEMENT: 1901-1912
Ross Takes Over the Carfax Gallery
After Wilde's death Ross returned to his mother at Men
tone and remained with her during the rest of the winter.
Both her physical and mental health were somewhat poor. She
had a bad cough that caused her to stay indoors much of the
time, and she could be quite childish. Robbie was not very
well, either, and his nerves had been upset by the Paris
experiences, so it was hard to avoid bickering with her.
Mary's daughters helped, reading to her for hours and keep
ing her occupied so that Robbie was free from her continual
demands for attention and could visit museums and churches
to see works of art, or could talk to other English visi
tors . ^
In May the Rosses returned to London.^ Out of touch
witn the persons for whom he had done reviewing, and some-
^Robert Ross to Mary Jones, December 23, 1900, in the
possession of Giles Robertson.
^He was still abroad when Will Rothenstein wrote him on
May 15, 1901, but attended a Gosse Sunday on May 26 ("Book
of Gosse.")
161
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162
what out of practice, Ross felt at loose ends. His winters
air.ong the art treasures of Italy and France had stimulated
his old interest in painting, and when Will Rothenstein told
Ross that he was looking for someone to buy his share of the
Carfax Art Gallery, Robbie was eager for the chance and
raised the money to buy it. He could run Carfax and still
do literary work, and the additional income that Carfax
might bring in would be very useful in paying the lawyer's
fees that his work for the Wilde estate was constantly en
tailing, and in paying off the debts, if no one else would
take the responsibility for them. Some time in the summer
of 1901 Ross paid John Fothergill about &4G0, the sum with
which the gallery had been started in 1899, and took over
the selection of art works, previously Rothenstein's respon
sibility. Arthur Clifton continued to be in charge of busi
ness affairs, and More Adey became manager in place of
Robert Sickert.^
The purpose for which the gallery had been started was
to provide a place where the work of young artists could be
seen. Rothenstein, who after a year at the Slade School
^Rothenstein, Men and Memories, 1:343-345; John Fother
gill to Margery Ross, August 16, 1949, in the possession of
J. P. B. Ross. Fothergill says he thinks the sum was B400
but cannot remember for sure, nor recall the exact date.
Mrs. Arthur Clifton wrote Mrs. Ross on August 26, 1949, say
ing that after the death of her husband she destroyed all
the Carfax and personal papers he left. Also John Rothen
stein, Modern English Painters, Volume One, Sickert to Grant
(Londonl Arrow Books, 1962), pp. 137-141.
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163
had gone to Paris in 188 9, had many artistic contacts both
in France and England; these helped him find exhibitors.
During its first two years Carfax had showed works by Rodin,
Charles Conder, Augustus John, William Orpen, Rothenstein,
and others. After some unpleasantness with Conder, Rothen
stein had begun to feel that it was improper for him both to
exhibit at the gallery and choose the pictures. When Ross
bought the gallery, therefore, it was not only the physical
property he purchased, but also an established business
relationship with a number of the more progressive artists
of the time.
The Edwardian Art World
The Edwardian art world which Ross now entered was
lively and interesting. The newspapers carried regular art
columns, which discussed both current happenings and gave
historical information, and the general cultural magazines
carried regular columns and frequent articles on painting.
Some of the most important art journals began during these
years. The Connoisseur in 1902, and The Burlington Magazine
in 1903.
The scholarly study of paintings was not a very old
field, and the "connoisseur,” an expert in some particular
field, was a respected figure, who might grow very bitter at
attacks from other connoisseurs at his attributions of par
ticular works. Great battles over the proper attribution
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164
not only of minor but many major paintings periodically
rocked the art world, causing factions to join forces behind
their leaders. Ross was particularly impatient with this
sort of thing, often poking fun at it. "When in doubt al
ways attribute Carpaccio to Mansueti," he wrote. "It sounds
learned and opens up abysms of knowledge."^ His story, "The
Hootawa Van Dyck," caricatures a critic who lost sight of
any other goal than attributing paintings to minor artists.^
Ross disliked the ruptures which such discussions caused
among his friends, and usually refused to side with anyone.
The art of the past, that of the "Old Masters," was the
only kind that cultivated persons really agreed on as having
permanent value, but there were a number of candidates for
acceptance among later schools. The officially approved
Victorian and current artists were the members of the Royal
Academy, whose pictures were often reminiscent of the pre-
Raphaelites in aim and technique. Unfortunately the members
lacked that enthusiasm and inspiration the earlier painters
had possessed, and which fifty years ago had not been recog
nized by the Academy. Its annual spring show, comprising
over 3,000 items, was the main event of the artistic year,
to which such conservative papers as The Times devoted long
‘ *"Art and Artists," Morning Post, November 2, 1909,
p. 5.
Spirst appeared in The Academy, LXXIV (January 11,
1908) , 339-340; reprinted in Masques and Phases, pp. 69-82.
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165
reviews. The Academy was in control of the means of recog
nition of artists, especially the Chantrey Bequest, a sum of
money left to buy for the nation outstanding current works
of art, and whose funds were used after 1891 only to pur
chase at high prices works by members of the Royal Academy.
Most of these paintings are worthless today, and the more
liberal critics considered them worthless at the time.
The French Barbizon painters, such as Millet and Theo
dore Rousseau, enjoyed a certain popularity and their works
brought high prices at the auctions. Many of the current
English artists, however, were more influenced by the French
Impressionists, adopting their methods and aims: the con
veying of a momentary view of a subject and the effects of
light and air. The English Impressionists were the most
active and progressive of the English artists, but other
painters continued to use the technique of one or another of
the old masters. Remarkably little influence from what was
currently being done on the Continent was felt in England
until the post-impressionist exhibitions of 1910 and 1912,
which shocked the English, including Ross, immensely.
There were several schools teaching art, the most out
standing being that connected with University College, Lon
don, and usually referred to as the Slade School. Three
Slade Professorships, there and at Oxford and Cambridge, had
been endowed. The holders of the other positions were ex
pected only to give a series of lectures, but the Univer
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166
sity of London had also received money for scholarships "for
proficiency in drawing, painting, and sculpture," so that
school had to give practical instruction. The art depart
ment was headed by the Slade Professor.®
A few small galleries handled the work of individual
painters, but were of little importance at the beginning of
the period. Auctions existed to dispose of paintings which
had belonged to earlier purchasers, but to display and sell
the works of individuals still producing, large annual com
bined shows were the main device. Only a small portion of
the Royal Academy exhibits were by members, who, however,
had the advantage of being more likely to be hung "on the
line," and who did the selecting. For persons whose works
were not likely to be selected, the New English Art Club was
organized in 1885. Its members included nearly all of the
outstanding artists from its founding till the first world
war. Another important group was begun in 189 8, the Inter
national Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Gravers, with
Whistler as its first president and Manet, Monet, Degas, and
Renoir as contributors. Its shows therefore helped the
English public to see French Impressionist works.^ There
were also a number of other groups, joined by an interest in
®Mary Chamot, Modern Painting in England (London:
Country Life Ltd., 1937), p. 37.
^John Russell, "Art," pp. 329-350 of Edwardian England
1901-1914; ed. Simon Nowell-Smith (London: Oxford Univer
sity Press, 1964), p. 330.
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167
a particular medium or subject matter, such as the Society
of Tvfelve, engravers and draftsmen; the Society of Portrait
Painters; or the Society of Painters in Tempera.
The public art galleries as we know them had mostly
been formed during the latter half of the nineteenth cen
tury, usually by gifts from individuals. England was prob
ably the richest country in art masterpieces of the past
held in private hands. For centuries part of the education
of the well-born English youth had been the "Grand Tour" of
the Continent, often occupying a year or more, during which
the traveler frequently bought works of art which he brought
home to decorate his ancestral halls. When a heavy death
duty was instituted, the drain of these treasures out of
England, mainly to America and to Germany, caused much worry
to patriotic Englishmen who wished them to remain in British
hands. From time to time the threatened sale of a particu
lar work would create a public stir, and great efforts would
be made to secure the item for the National Gallery, or for
one of the other public museums. The National Art Collec
tions Fund, organized in 1903, was the means of gaining many
items for the nation. The lack of any effort to secure good
contemporary works, especially those of English painters,
for the public galleries, caused the formation of the Con
temporary Art Society in 1910.
Ross's First Years at the Carfax
The Carfax was one of the first of the small picture
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168
galleries such as today usually handle the work of living
artists, as opposed to the large, velvet-decked, Victorian
establishments, whose very conservative stock changed
slowly. According to a modern assessment, after Ross took
it over, the gallery, like its many successors,
had a note of independence and fine judgement which made
it influential out of all proportion to its size. . . .
the place to look for what is newest and most stimulating
in art.®
After buying the Carfax, Ross immediately began expanding
the operations to include older objects of art, such as the
Russian miniatures he asked Cecil Smith of the British Muse
um to advise him about in August.^ He also arranged for an
exhibit of Beerbohm's caricatures in December. Z4ax was
delighted at this recognition of his work, though he pessi
mistically said that he did not think it would make any dif
ference what per cent of profit Carfax took, as he doubted
his things would sell well. Robbie was inclined to be
overly generous to his artists, and when, before the exhib
it opened. Max showed and sold at home some of the works
meant for the gallery, he told Robbie the proposal that Car
fax should not take a cut "was quite absurd."
Max's show in November and December gained a good deal
8
Ibid., p. 334
*Cecil Smith to Robert Ross, August 14, 1901, in the
possession of J. P. B. Ross.
^°Max Beerbohm to Robert Ross, July 25 [1901] and No
vember 20 [1901] in Ross, Friend of Friends, pp. 71, 73.
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169
of publicity and caused many people to visit the Carfax. A
series of letters from Max to Robbie shows the kind of
details that had to be attended to for each of the shows
that would follow. After selection of the works to appear,
there was the problem of the announcements to be sent out,
which Max wanted printed so one "sees in a flash" what is
being advertised. The frames required more decisions, then
came the hanging, the Press Showing, and the Private View,
to which wealthy patrons were invited. Vallance wrote about
Max's show in the Studio, and I4ax joked with Robbie about
the way he had seemed to apologize for the coming article.
The Daily Mail ran an article with six reproductions on
December 7; the Tatler a caricature of Henley; and Edmund
Gosse wrote Robbie that he had been able to tone down an
unfavorable review in The Times. Carfax itself published a
catalog. One Hundred Caricatures by Max Beerbohm.
Ross also continued to display the works of the artists
for whom the gallery had been created. In the fall there
was an exhibit of the works of William Orpen, then a young
man of twenty-three, just two years out of the Slade School.
There his proficiency in drawing had won him a high reputa
tion among teachers and pupils. In later years Orpen became
i^Max Beerbohm, four undated letters to Robert Ross, in
the possession of J. P. B. Ross, and Nov. 20 [1901] in Ross,
Friend of Friends, p. 73; Edmund Gosse to Robert Ross, De
cember 12, 1901, in Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 73; David
Cecil, Max; A Biography (London: Constable, 1964) , pp.
205-207.
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170
one of the most financially successful of portrait painters,
though his reputation among artists declined.^ ^
Along with the gallery came some of its problems.
Rothenstein was unhappy to hear that an incompetent and dis
honest employee had removed some drawings before he left and
had neglected to pay the coal bills, although Rothenstein
and Clifton had "continually rowed" with him to find out
what bills were due. And Rodin, who had agreed to wait for
payment on a head they had sold, became very anxious for his
money, though the buyer had not yet paid for it. There was
also some sort of fuss about the payments for the gallery,
but Rothenstein assured Ross that "it is absurd there should
ever be a shadow between us because of money matters. I al
ways look upon you as generosity incarnate^^
Although the gallery had acquired "the friendly and ef
ficient Jack Stepney" to look after it most of the day,^**
Ross had to be there regularly during the noon hour and from
4:30 to 6:00 or 7:00.^^ He spent many of his days attending
auctions or visiting owners of items which they desired to
i^Max Beerbohm to Robert Ross, "Thursday," in the pos
session of J. P. B. Ross; Rothenstein, Modern English Paint
ers , pp. 239-256.
’ ■^William Rothenstein to Robert Ross, August 30, 1901,
and undated, in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 84, n. 1.
^®Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, June 10, 1912; July 22,
1902; and December 28, 1902, in Bodleian Ross MS. 4.
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171
sell, or the studios of artists whose work was being consid
ered. The gallery was a few blocks south of Piccadilly, in
an area at that time occupied by quality shops and by
hotels, near Pall Mall with its clubs and private residences
of the wealthy. It was upstairs at 17 Ryder Street, quite
small, and had an even smaller room on the next floor. The
walls, forming the background for the paintings, were an
"old green" and the framing was "usually a pleasing feature"
of the gallery.^® Shows of the work of a single artist,
usually contemporary, were changed as often as every month
during the season from October through June. Other works of
the artists handled were also kept available to be shown to
prospective purchasers, who might also be asked to visit the
artist and see more of his work. Older paintings and
statues were also sold, sometimes for friends such as
Maurice Hewlett or Gosse, who disposed of a Blake, some
drawings, and possibly a Turner through the Carfax in
1902.^ ^
The gallery put Ross into contact with many old ac-
Robert Ross, "Fine Art; Canossa," Academy, LXX
(February 24, 1906), 183, for the walls; and anonymous,
"Calverts at Carfax's Gallery," Athenaeum, April 16, 1904,
p. 505, for the frames.
^^Maurice Hewlett to Robert Ross, October 13, 1903, in
the possession of J. P. B. Ross; Edmund Gosse to Robert
Ross, January 8, 1902, in the possession of J. P. B. Ross,
and Sept. 27, 1902, in Ross, Friend of Friends, pp. 80-81;
Gosse notebook for 1902, October 14, in the Brotherton
Library, University of Leeds.
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172
quaintances among artists, including Charles Ricketts (1866-
1931) and his friend Charles Shannon (1863-1937). Ross
tried to get commissions for Shannon who wanted their por
trait painted, and told Shannon, too, that he would reduce
or forego his own percentage. It would have been to his
advantage to deal with fat ugly men, for Shannon told him
that his scale of prices was:
250 to 300 for 1/2 and 3/4 length of ugly people.
200 to 250 for beautiful ones.
Full length life size fat man 400 guineas.
thin man 3 50 "
Ross asked Ricketts and Shannon to hold a show at the Car
fax, but in 1901 they did not have enough new material
ready.Shannon had come into notice in 1897 when he had
won a gold medal at Munich and had showed in England at the
New English Art Club and the Royal Society of Portrait
Painters.They had agreed shortly after their meeting in
1882 that Ricketts should earn their living and leave Shan
non free to become a great painter. So he was involved, in
1901, with his Vale Press, an attempt to create beautiful
but inexpensive books, for which he designed the type, the
^®C. H. Shannon to Robert Ross, undated, in Ross,
Friend of Friends, p. 72.
i^C. H. Shannon to Robert Ross, November 19, 1901, in
the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
2°E. B. G., Charles Shannon (London: Ernest Benn,
Ltd., 1924), p. 9.
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173
illustrations, the binding, and the layout.^^ He also
painted, designed stage settings, and wrote. The style of
both painters was founded too closely upon classical models
— Shannon on Van Dyck, Titian, and Watteau, Ricketts on
Titian and Delacroix— to be in favor any more. Ross soon
became a close friend, recommending pieces of art which they
might be interested in buying for their carefully assembled
collection, and exchanging tales about painters of the past
and present, especially about the pre-Raphaelites. Later
both artists appeared at the Carfax, Ricketts showing small
bronzes in March of 1906, and a joint show of paintings
appearing in July of 19 07.
Another painter whose style was to a large extent
formed on that of past artists was Charles Conder (1868-
1909) , whose show of oil paintings and fans opened in May of
1902.^2 exquisite Watteau-like scenes, painted in ani
line dyes on silk, were admired greatly when they were new,
but were made of perishable materials, and faded or rotted
years ago, leaving only his less successful drawings and
paintings.Conder himself, one of the legacies of Rothen
stein to the Carfax, proved difficult to get along with.
J. Holmes, Self & Partners (Mostly Self) (New
York: Macmillan Company, 1936), p. 163.
^^Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 78, n. 1.
^^Holmes, Self and Partners, p. 170; John Rothenstein,
The Life and Death of Conder (London: Dent, 1938), p. 132.
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174
The year before, he had asked for money in advance, and had
demanded a show before the gallery was free, so they had
cleared the upstairs room for his works, which had not sold.
The show in May also was unsuccessful, but Ross, for Carfax,
wrote offering him &10 for any of ten fans, so that they
might always have some examples of his work on hand. In
stead of being pleased, Conder withdrew all his items and
refused to lend any to an exhibit at Wolverhampton at which
he might gain publicity. When Carfax lent its own paintings
by him to Wolverhampton, he refused to lend any of his work
to show prospective buyers, and asked Carfax to send cus
tomers to his home in Chelsea, where he quoted lower prices
than those which the gallery was authorized to ask. After
several months of this, Ross removed Conder's name from the
list of artists advertised as handled by Carfax. Conder
then began telling other people what bad treatment he had
gotten from Carfax, and blamed Rothenstein, with whom he was
also quarreling at the moment. Ross, hearing this, wrote to
him telling him why his name had been removed from the ad
vertisement and saying he had taken it off himself. Rothen
stein and he had never discussed either Conder or the situa
tion, Ross said. The calm and patience of which he was
capable in business matters was reflected in the last para
graph of his letter:
I hope very much that you will benefit by the better times
that (let us anticipate) are coming both for artists &
dealers alike. You must always find plenty of the latter
delighted to have your work, and I imagine that it will be
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175
more satisfactory both to you & them that any accident of
personal acquaintance cannot interfere with business
relations.^
Persons closely allied with the New English Art Club
provided three shows in 19 02. Indeed, the Carfax always
dealt with members of this group more than with any other.
A great deal of variety was shown in the work of the indi
vidual artists, but they were to some extent characterized
by a desire for correctness in drawing, and a tendency to
ward impressionism in painting. In April of 1902 the etch
ings of Muirhead Bone appeared. Bone had moved to London
from Edinburgh the previous year. He specialized in build
ings and in city scenes, and had great skill as a draughts
man.^® P. Wilson Steer (1860-1942) showed drawings in
June.^® He has been called "by far the most significant
artist of his generation" in England, was a founder of the
N. E. A. C., and assistant teacher of painting at the Slade
School.Ross often expressed his admiration of Steer's
work, especially his landscape paintings. The last recorded
exhibit of 1902 was of recent pastels by Will Rothenstein.^®
^^Letter dated December 2, 1902, in Rothenstein, Con
der , pp. 212-215.
^ ®"Art Exhibitions," The Times, April 7, 1902, p. 5;
Who's Who 19 50, p. 281.
"Fine-Art Gossip," Athenaeum, June 7, 1902, p. 729.
2?Chamot, Modern Painting in England, p. 34, 123.
^ ®"Mr. Rothenstein's Pastels at Carfax's," Athenaeum,
November 15, 1902, p. 657.
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176
In addition to the work of living artists, a number of
older pieces were handled by Carfax in 1902. In January
drawings and sketches by a number of artists were shown.
Included were Hoppner, Cozens, Richard Wilson, Fuseli, and
Blake among the Englishmen, and Terborgh, Metsu, and Lucas
Van Leyden, as well as works attributed to Piranesi and to
Van Dyck.^^ June brought three cassone panels, two of them
by Jacopo del Sellajo on the subject of Orpheus and Euri-
dice.^° The third was much more important. "The Battle of
the Centaurs and the Lapiths," by Piero di Cosimo (ca. 14 62-
after 1515), now hangs in the National Gallery, the bequest
of Ricketts and Shannon, who purchased it from the Burke
Collection in 1907. Even in 1902 there was some talk that
the painting should be bought for the nation.After the
summer hiatus, October brought another show of the "Works of
Deceased Artists," including some drawings but more paint
ings, the most important of which were by the English art
ists Zoffany, Wilson, and Constable.
A good deal of experimentation with young artists was
done in 1903, as well as one show held by a Royal Academi-
"Drawings' by Old Masters at Carfax's Gallery,"
Athenaeum, February 1, 1902, p. 153.
3°"Florentine Paintings at Messrs. Carfax's," Athenae
um, June 7, 1902, p. 727.
siRoss, Friend of Friends, p. 77, n. 1.
"Minor Exhibitions," Athenaeum, October 11, 1902,
p. 492.
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177
cian, John Singer Sargent, who was, however, trying another
medium than that in which he had gained his reputation. Two
of the artists were doomed to comparative obscurity, Geof
frey Birkbeck, who showed sketches in February, and Garstin
Harvey, whose watercolors appeared in November. The Times
considered the work of both artists to be slight but unob
jectionable. ^ ^ The other young artist, Augustus John (1878-
19 61) went on to become one of the outstanding men of the
period. While a pupil at the Slade School, from 1894 to
1898, "he had become the first draughtsman in England,
and was well-known among artists for his drawings. He had
been less outstanding as a painter, and this was his first
show of paintings, pastels, and etchings. The unsigned
Athenaeum note, probably by their art critic Roger Fry, men
tioned a criticism which would frequently be made in later
years of John's work. The reviewer liked his portrait etch
ings but felt that his pastels were ugly, and that the ugli
ness was deliberately cultivated. Although their subjects
were not stated, many were probably of the plain peasant wo
men or the Welshmen and gypsies that John loved to draw.^^
Early in April came a fortunate occurrence for the lit
tle gallery, when drawings by John S. Sargent (1856-1925)
^^February 23, 1903, p. 4; November 14, 1903, p. 14.
^Rothenstein, Modern British Painters, p. 199.
3 5
"Two Exhibitions," March 21, 1903, p. 377.
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178
were displayed. Sargent was the reigning portrait painter
of the day and a member of the Royal Academy, where his oils
hung each year. Unfortunately his work in other media did
not receive as much critical acclaim as his oils, either
this year or in 1905 when watercolors of Spain and Venice
were shown. While his drawing was conceded to be excellent,
his choice of subject matter and his colors were adversely
criticized.^ ®
Later in April, Fry, the Athenaeum critic, exhibited
about forty drawings and paintings. Though the Athenaeum
reviewed the show warmly, critics usually found that Fry's
wide knowledge and scholarship impaired the spontaneity of
his own paintings.Fry was very pleased at the chance to
exhibit at the Carfax, and had earlier thanked Ross for ad
vising him not to display one of his paintings, saying that
many people were not kind enough to be honest about such
things.38 Several years later, in April of 1909, Fry again
showed at the Carfax, about thirty-eight works on this occa
sion, including a number of scenes from the Inferno and
^^Annual Register 19 03 (London; Longmans Green & Co.,
1904), Pt. II, 104; "Art Exhibitions," The Times, April 3,
1905, p. 8; "Sargents at the Carfax Gallery," Athenaeum,
April 1, 1905, p. 408.
^^"Two Exhibitions," Athenaeum, April 25, 1903, p. 537;
Virginia Woolf, Roger Fry, A Biography (New York: Harcourt
Brace and Company, 1940), p. 119.
^®Roger Fry to Robert Ross, March 29, 1902, in Ross,
Friend of Friends, pp. 76-77.
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179
Purgatory, painted in quiet grays and browns.
Ross's Self-Assumed Responsibility to Wilde
Activities with the Carfax Gallery were not the only
work which kept Ross occupied during these years. He was
also involved with the Oscar Wilde estate. Now that Wilde
himself was gone, Ross had no more responsibility for the
man. But other aspects of Wilde remained, things which had
suffered because of the life Oscar had led. Now, Ross felt,
these were his responsibility. There were the two boys,
fourteen and fifteen years old at Wilde's death, who for the
previous five years had been deprived of their father, their
family, even their name, and who would grow up with a lack
of money that would handicap them almost as much as their
inheritance of notoriety. Otherwise Wilde's family was
gone, his mother, his wife, and his brother having all died
during the dreadful five years. Only Wilde's brother's wife
and her small daughter remained, and Mrs. Willie had remar
ried. When her husband, sculptor Teixiera de Mattos, died
in 1907, Ross, who was by that time the executor of the
estate, fulfilled a somewhat tenuous family responsibility
and provided a monument for his grave. ° There was a link
now between Robbie and the Wilde family almost like that
^^"Art Exhibitions: Carfax Gallery," The Times,
April 23, 1909, p. 8.
"Wilde Account," 1907, debit of 34.17.3 for "monument
for Teixiera de Mattos," in the Clark Library.
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180
provided by marriage, and not only Oscar's temporary grave-
site was rented by Ross, but in 19 09, though both the boys
were of age, the permanent lot was again taken in Robbie's
name, and he left the responsibility for it to his executors
when he died. Today the Ross family is still the legal
owner of the tomb in Paris.
Family duties were not the only responsibility that
Robbie undertook. Wilde's position in England as a writer
was, at his death, scarcely recognized or acknowledged. His
plays were not being produced and practically none of his
books was in print. His name could not be mentioned, and no
one would dream of listing him in groups of important liter
ary men. Because of his own conventionality, Robbie sympa
thized with people's attitude toward Wilde's actions. But
it was not fair to Wilde the writer, who had created many
beautiful and worthwhile things, that these things should be
judged by his personal life. Robbie believed in the merit
of Wilde's writing and thought that it would some day take
an important place in English literature. He vowed that he
would make that day come as soon as possible, sooner than
anyone else would believe. Wilde should once again be rec
ognized as a literary man and his name respected.
This was not as simple as it might have been had Wilde
not been bankrupt. Although Wilde had written Ross in 189 7
that when he was dead he wanted Ross to be his literary
executor and "to have complete control over my plays, books
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181
and papers"**^ and although Ross had been handling much of
Wilde's business, the rights to all Wilde's property
belonged to the Official Receiver in Bankruptcy, Messrs.
Charles Russell & Co. Ross immediately began to negotiate
with them for some control of the copyrights, but was unsuc
cessful, although they did sometimes consult him about the
probable values of items.The officials did not consider
the writings to be worth very much, and in 19 01, when the
creditors had received about fifteen per cent payment, or
about B900, told Ross that the writings "would never command
any interest whatever."This opinion Ross could not take
too seriously, for he knew that Salome was being success
fully played in Germany, and a friend wrote him from Russia
that The Soul of Man under Socialism was on sale in Nijni
Novgorod in four different languages.When Sir George
Alexander offered LlOO each for the complete literary and
dramatic rights to Lady Windermere's Fan and The Importance
of Being Earnest the Receiver accepted, over the protests
‘ '^Letter dated April 1, 1897, in Wilde, Letters,
p. 512.
**^Ross, "Statement," p. 34.
‘ ‘^Robert Ross, speech given December 1, 1908, in Ross,
Friend of Friends, p. 154.
‘ *‘ *Robert Ross, "Note of Explanation," pp. v-x of Oscar
Wilde, The Soul of Man under Socialism (London: Arthur L.
Humphreys, 1912), pp. vi-vii.
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182
both of Ross and of Messrs. Hargroves for Wilde's family.
Alexander perhaps felt guilty about the excellent bargain he
had gotten, for in after years he gave Ross ten per cent of
tne proceeds from both publishing and producing the plays.
He told Ross it was supposed to be a personal gift to him,
but Ross always paid it over to the estate.**®
Not long after Wilde's death, Ross discussed publishing
his works with several companies. Both Grant Richards and
Arthur L. Humphreys offered to put up the money to purchase
publication rights through Ross if they could get all of
them.**^ Ross was also supported in his efforts to buy the
copyrights by Adrian Hope, trustee of Wilde's estate,**® but
failed. Had Ross been able to arrange this purchase, he
intended, when the bankruptcy was paid off, to pay the
French debts (something the English court need not do), ^nd
then turn any further proceeds over to the children, though
Hope told him that he must not say this, as the children
must not "have any official benefit from their father's
* * ® "Memorandxim prepared by the solicitors of Mr. Robert
Ross as the Administrator of the Estate and effects of the
late Mr. Oscar Wilde for Valuation of His Literary and Dra
matic Estate," [1914], typescript in the Library, University
of Texas, pp. 1-2.
**®George Alexander to Robert Ross, December 11, 1900,
in Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 61; and Ross, "Statement,"
p. 38.
* * ^Robert Ross to Adela Schuster, January 3 [1902], in
Ross, Friend of Friends, pp. 74-75.
**®Ibid. , p. 74.
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183
works" (p. 75). Ross was especially anxious to pay M. Du-
poirier, the proprietor of the hotel. Finally he was suc
cessful in getting George Alexander to pay part of the Bill,
and Dupoirier wrote Ross warmly, telling of the death of his
own father, and asking Ross what he should do with Wilde's
books, about which several people had inquired. He added
that since Ross had been so good to him, he would not do
anything about them without Ross's permission.^*
Despite the awkwardness of his lack of any official
position or any real power, people began to come to Ross for
information or action concerning the Wilde estate. At the
end of 1900 he furnished information to Thomas Seccombe, a
sub-editor of the Dictionary of National Biography, on
Wilde's later life, and offered to correct the facts in the
article. He did not, however, receive a copy of it, though
Seccombe agreed to send one. Though Ross was pleased at
Wilde's inclusion in this respected work, he was a bit un
happy about the errors in the article.
During 1902 and 1903 there was little that Ross could
do for the Wilde estate, aside from looking after Wilde's
grave and worrying about the bills. Occasionally he would
hear from Wilde enthusiasts such as Walter Ledger, who wrote
* A typed translation of the undated letter is in the
Clark Library.
*°Robert Ross to Adela Schuster, January 3 [1902], in
Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 75.
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184
first to Alfred Douglas about bibliographical details in
June of 1902 and was referred by him to Ross. Ledger made
it his life's work to assemble a complete collection of the
various editions of Wilde's books, and Ross, who did not
much care for collecting or the finer points of bibliogra
phy, aided him over the years, telling him that
I much prefer that you should have the rarities than that
I should. . . . it is most important that your collection
should be complete.
The collection is now at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, left
to it by Ledger, as the Robert Ross Memorial Collection.
Ross's Relationship with Douglas at This Time
During these years Ross's relationship to Douglas went
through a number of changes. Although Ross had been unhappy
at Douglas's financial treatment of Wilde after Douglas had
received his inheritance, and knew he could not count on
Douglas to pay off any of the debts, they remained on fairly
good terms for a while. Bosie had still cared enough about
Oscar to rush to his death bed. After the funeral he was
unhappy, remembering the pleasant days he and Oscar had
spent together. He had loved Oscar as much as he could love
anyone, but they had grown apart in the last few years.
Both of them could not help remembering it was Bosie who had
incited Wilde to bring the libel action. Now Wilde was
^^Letter dated December 11, 1907, in Bodleian Ross MS.
4.
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185
dead, Douglas determined to remember only the good things,
and he saw no reason to worry about the children, or to
think about the literary estate. If Ross, with his middle-
class background, wanted to bother with lawyers and publish
ing rights, Douglas was glad to leave them to him.^^
Douglas had returned to London to live in January of
19 01 (p. 192) and when he began seeing a girl named Olive
Custance, they used the Carfax Gallery as a meeting place.
Olive, who had published a book of poetry the previous year,
had written Bosie one of the gushing letters she frequently
sent to poets or artists whose work pleased her, and he had
answered suggesting a meeting, which had to be in secret
because of his reputation (pp. 194-195). Though their ro
mance was interrupted by Bosie's trip to America in search
of a rich heiress to marry, and Olive's engagement to anoth
er man, they decided to elope, and were married March 4,
1902. Robbie, Bosie's sister Edith, and Cecil Hayes were
the only persons asked to attend the w e d d i n g . After his
marriage, Douglas more and more entered into the circle of
country squires and minor nobility, and Wilde's name came to
be a social liability. Of course it was nice to think of
himself as Wilde's inspiration for all his best work, and to
s^Douglas, Autobiography, p. 181; Croft-Cooke, Bosie,
p. 157.
®^Croft-Cooke, Bosie, pp. 201-202; Ross, "Statement,"
P. 9.
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186
be recognized as such by others, or approached by admirers
of Wilde for information. But he would not be blamed for
Wilde's troubles. He soon began to try to blame them on
others, especially on Ross. When Douglas met W. B. Yeats on
a weekend in 1902, he volunteered somewhat hysterically that
he had never had a sexual relationship with Wilde, and made
it clear that he hated Ross and considered him to have been
the cause of Wilde's downfall, both before and after
prison.However, Douglas was perfectly willing that Ross
should handle Wilde's literary affairs, and gave Ross's name
to Ledger in June of 19 02 as "nominally" Wilde's literary
executor.^ ^
Ross's Personal Life
The years when he owned Carfax, from 1901 to 1909, were
quiet, busy ones for Ross. There was his work at the gal
lery, attending auctions, evaluating items offered for sale,
deciding on work to be shown. This was supplemented by a
varying amount of reviewing of literature and of art, most
s^w. B . Yeats, The Letters, ed. Allan Wade (London:
Rupert Hart-Davis, 1954). In a letter to Olivia Shakespear
dated July 2, 1929, Yeats tells the substance of the conver
sation and says it was held the only time he met Douglas
(p. 765). In a letter to Lady Gregory of June 16, 1902, he
mentions and dates the weekend. That this was the correct
date, and therefore that Bosie hated Robbie so early, is
substantiated by Douglas's Without Apology, where he too
says this weekend was the only time that he met Yeats
(p. 22) .
®®Alfred Douglas to Walter Ledger, June 3, 1902, in
Bodleian Ross MS. 4.
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187
of it anonymously, in several magazines and papers. Wilde
litigation also took up much of his time, and friendship
with an increasing number and variety of persons filled the
evenings and weekends. Also, in 1903, Ross began a rela
tionship which brought him a more substantial happiness than
that with Wilde had ever done.
Through an old acquaintance, the writer George Ives, so
careful a homosexual that he had once in Paris invited Wilde
to dine with him at a restaurant frequented by coachmen, so
that no one would see them t o g e t h e r , Robbie met young
Frederick Stanley Smith, who was eighteen at the time, and a
clerk in an office. Freddie was an attractive young man of
no particular background or education, who acted with an
amateur group, and was interested in literature and in the
Catholic church, its history and rituals, as was Robbie.
His sense of humor and his youth appealed to Robbie, and his
lack of advantages made Robbie wish to help him.®^ He began
to employ Smith as a secretary, and from 1903 on, some of
Ross's letters are in Freddie's handwriting, or typed with
addresses written by Freddie. In March of 1903 Ricketts
teased Ross about "setting up a new establishment in Shef-
^®Oscar Wilde to George Ives, February 12 and Febru
ary 22, 1900, in Wilde, Letters, pp. 815-816.
®^Robert Le Diable [almost certainly a pseudonym of
Alfred Douglas], "The Past, the Present and the Future:
0. H. M. S.: The Story of Frederick Stanley Smith," The
Winning Post, November 16, 1918. Clipping in the possession
of J. P. B. Ross, no volume or pages. Also Ross, "State
ment, " p. [36] .
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188
field Gardens with your 'newest and dearest friend'" and
retaining Hornton Street "merely to be able to go there and
c o m p l a i n . " 58 But Freddie still was very young, and it was
not until 190 6, when he was twenty-one, that he actually
went to live with R o b b i e .
Ross also suffered two severe losses during these
years, losses which were particularly hard to bear since
tney came so close together. The funeral of Robbie's
mother, Eliza Ross, was held on March 14, 1905. On March 31
John, Robbie's eldest brother, was unexpectedly stricken.
He was barely forty-six. Jack and Robbie had always been
close, in spite of the ten years difference in their ages,
and the rest of the year was darkened by the two deaths.5°
Carfax Becomes Well Established
Several important shows were brought to Carfax in 1904,
although when Sargent took Claude Monet to visit the gal
lery, to explore the possibility of his showing there, Monet
5®March 23, 1903, partially published in Ross, Friend
of Friends, p. 81, in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
Ricketts refers to "No. 10" as the older dwelling, but since
he says later in his letter that he hopes it makes sense as
his trip to Italy had made him unable to speak in any lan
guage, and as No. 10 is the new Sheffield Gardens address
and No. 24 the old Hornton Street one, it seems likely that
he merely mispoke. Reggie Turner also kept rooms in Shef
field Gardens, No. 10, which he occupied when he was in Lon
don (Weintraub, Reggie, p. 147).
5 9
Robert le Diable, "The Past . .
5°Unidentified clippings in the possession of Giles
Robertson.
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189
decided that it was too small, and continued to use the
Dowdeswell's rooms.®^ In May another show of Max Beerbohm's
caricatures was held, featuring the "Poet's Corner" series
in which he commented on living and dead writers in a manner
"equally pretty and comical."*^ This series was published
in book form by Heinemann shortly before the exhibition
opened. Ross was worried that prior publication would cause
the show to fail, and Max offered to cancel it, but after
considerable discussion, Robbie decided to go ahead.Al
together Max held four exhibitions at the Carfax. They were
all fairly successful, gaining reputation and money both for
the artist and the gallery. Drawings from the third show,
too, were published. Held in April 1907, it included a num
ber of persons in public affairs as well as literary fig
ures, and appeared as A Book of Caricatures . ^ * * Beerbohm's
final show at the Carfax was held in April and May of
1908.®^ He then decided that the Leicester Gallery, which
was larger, would offer more room for variety.
®^Claude Monet to Robert Ross, December 14, 1904, and
John Sargent to Robert Ross, undated, in Ross, Friend of
Friends, pp. 90-91.
6 2
Cecil, Max, pp. 189-190.
^Max Beerbohm, undated letters to Robert Ross, in the
possession of J. P. B. Ross.
Cecil, Max, pp. 242-244.
^ ^"Mr. Max Beerbohm's Caricatures," The Times,
April 29, 1908, p. 16.
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1 9 0
In the socially conscious Edwardian period, a show was
sometimes a success more for the family connections of the
artist than for his artistic skill. Neville Lytton, whose
first exhibition was held in June, probably owed his early
popularity to his family, although he afterwards became rec
ognized as a worthwhile painter. Two-thirds of his works
were sold the first day of the show, and it was attended by
a long list of noblemen as well as persons important in art
or literature. Lytton was "the younger brother of the Peer
who is to bring the question of the Chantrey Bequest before
the House of Lords tomorrow afternoon,"^^ so his show was
particularly timely. It included both portraits and land
scapes . ® ^
In November Ross used information gathered from his
friendship with Beardsley to collect the most complete group
of the works of that artist that had yet been assembled.
The reviews of the show were mixed, for the general opinion
was that expressed by The Times, that Beardsley was good at
designing and drawing, but that his subject matter and human
types were decadent and repulsive.®® At this time Ross
®®Newspaper clippings without source or date, in the
possession of Giles Robertson.
®^"Art Exhibitions," The Times, June 21, 1904, p. 4.
® ®"Art Exhibitions," The Times, November 1, 1904, p. 7;
Roger Fry, "Aubrey Beardsley's Drawings," reprinted in
Vision and Design (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1937),
p. 190.
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191
owned much of Beardsley's work, probably including a note
book of Beardsley's early designs, some of the drawings for
Malory's Morte D'Arthur, "Die Gôtterdâmmerung," "The
Toilette of Salome," and others, but he seems to have sold
most of it over the years, except for the self-portrait in
pen and ink, which he presented to the British Museum.®^
A show in February of 1905 displayed the works of some
one who recalled even older memories than did Beardsley.
Walter Crane (1845-1915) had been the leading producer of
picture books during Robbie's childhood, and Robbie once
wrote that Crane's books were
the greatest joy of my childhood. I have preserved them
to this very day. No children's picture-books ever come
up to their standard . . . and they can never be sur
passed, at least in my affection.^
Perhaps Ross himself was the child he told of who
used to pray for the artist every night after the usual
invocations on behalf of family and friends.^ ^
Now Crane wrote to him asking if Carfax would like to show
the sketches which Crane had made of Normandy the previous
summer.^^ The show, held in February, was probably the last
in the rooms on Ryder Street, which had been so cramped for
space. Though still not very large, the new gallery around
®®Ross, Aubrey Beardsley, p. 71, passim.
"Literary Log," Bystander (December 7, 1910).
^ ^"Art and Artists," Morning Post, April 6, 1909, p. 5.
^^Letter dated November 21, 1904, in Ross, Friend of
Friends, p. 88.
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192
the corner, about two blocks away on Bury Street, enabled
Carfax to handle works which would have formerly been too
large, and to show more paintings at one time. Sargent
again displayed watercolors from March 30 through April 29
to open the Bury Street gallery.
In May another standby of the New English Art Club and
personal friend of Ross, Henry Tonks, appeared, with draw
ings and small pictures. Tonks (1862-1937) had trained as a
physician, and had not devoted himself entirely to art until
1892, when he was appointed Assistant at the Slade School.
Many distinguished artists were trained there under the
guidance of Tonks and of the head, Frederick Brown. In his
own painting Tonks believed in realistic methods and in
poetic atmosphere, and his pictures are frequently of roman
tic subjects such as pretty young girls surrounded by sun
light and flowers, although he also did landscapes and in
later years witty caricatures, which today are much more
highly regarded than his more elaborate paintings.As
time passed Tonks became a leader of the conservative forces
in art, but in 1905 he was considered quite progressive. The
Times saying that he was popular "in certain advanced cir
cles" and might be admired by other people too, especially
7 3
Advertisement in The Times, March 27, 1905, p. 1.
^‘ ‘Russell, "Art, " p. 340; Rothenstein, Modern British
Painters, p. 95; pp. 102-104.
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193
for his use of color.
Ross's personal preferences in art were for the pre-
Raphaelites and for the Italian primitives. Therefore the
group which exhibited in June of 19 05 was particularly
attractive to him because it used the medium and often the
technique of the primitives. The Society of Painters in
Tempera wanted to revive the ancient interest in the medium,
and the methods which the early painters had used. However,
the subjects and styles varied greatly, from copies or imi
tations of Italian fourteenth-century works, such as Mrs.
Herringham's copy of Botticelli's "Calumny," to works done
in a contemporary manner. Members included several persons
who had already exhibited alone at Carfax, Walter Crane,
Roger Fry, and Neville Lytton.^^
The first show in the autumn, open from October 21 un
til November 18, again reflected the possibilities of the
new rooms and showed the increased importance and affluence
of the Carfax. This "Exhibition of Some Pictures by De
ceased Painters," rated the top of the column in The Times,
which no previous Carfax show had done, and gained a warm
review by Arthur Symons in another paper. Symons especially
enjoyed the variety of the show and the contrasts in it.
Among its thirty-four paintings were Whistler's "Connie
^^"Art Exhibitions," May 27, 1905, p. 7.
^ ^"Art Exhibitions," The Times, June 20, 1905, p. 16;
Walter Crane, An Artist's Reminiscences (New York: Macmil
lan, 1907) , p. 481.
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194
Gilchrist," Turner's "Lake and Castle of Inveraray," Wil
son's "The Bridge at Rimini" and "Tivoli," James Ward's
"Cornfield," and a small panel by him showing Silenus asleep
with satyrs watching; and several other English works.
European paintings included Goya's portrait of the Duchess
of Alva, a Sienese "Pieta" and "Madonna and Child," and "St.
Anthony the Hermit" of Gerard Dow, as well as other Italian
and Dutch paintings . ^ ’ ’
In December Ross again tried to patch up relations with
Charles Conder. An attack on Conder had appeared in a maga
zine, and Conder had mentioned he thought perhaps Ross had
written it. Hearing of this, Ross wrote him a long, quiet
letter, saying that he was not responsible, that he liked
Conder's work and had advised a relative to purchase some of
it, and that he would appreciate it if Conder would make it
clear to their mutual friends that Ross was not responsible
for the article, if indeed Conder would believe that he was
not. Anyway, Ross said, he was not angry with Conder and
would not be. He must have been pleased when Conder ac
cepted his statement, and agreed to forget the hard feelings
he had displayed in the past.^®
^ ^"Art Exhibitions," The Times, October 23, 1905,
p. 14, and advertisement, p. 1, of the same issue.
^ ®Robert Ross to Charles Conder, December 13, 1905;
typed copy in the possession of Rupert Hart-Davis; Charles
Conder to Robert Ross, undated, in the possession of
J. P. B. Ross.
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195
Publication of De Profundis
Wilde's reputation was now beginning to revive, and
Ross could well feel he was playing a part in the revival.
From time to time he had heard about Wilde's popularity on
the continent, as when in November of 1902 Ledger sent him a
copy of a German Earnest^^ or Claude Phillips wrote that he
had seen a German production of Salome on his recent trip.®°
Salomé was particularly well liked in Germany, and by 1904,
largely through royalties on it, payments of ten shillings
on the pound, with four per cent interest, were made to the
creditors.®^ In that year Dr. Max Meyerfeld heard that Ross
had an unpublished manuscript written by Wilde in prison.
He got in touch with Ross and asked for permission to pub
lish it. Wilde's plays were still not being performed in
London, and "his name was become a synonym for folly,"®^ so
Ross was reluctant to consider the proposal. There was also
the problem of the attacks on Douglas in the manuscript,
attacks which, although probably true, were unkind and
Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, November 28, 1907, in
Bodleian Ross MS. 4.
8 0
August 25, 1903, in Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 83.
®^Mrs. Desda Cornish, "Dinner to Mr. Robert Ross 1 De
cember 1908," copied by Walter Ledger "from the newspaper
lent to me for that purpose by Robert Ross," the Boston
Evening Transcript, 16 December 190 8, in Bodleian Ross MS.
TT.
®^Robert Ross, "Prefatory Dedication," pp. iii-ix of
Oscar Wilde, De Profundis (2nd ed.; New York and London;
G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1909) , p. iii.
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196
unnecessary against the young man who had retired from the
public scene and was spending much of his time fishing on
his father-in-law's estate or gambling abroad.®^ Though
Wilde had hoped that part of the letter would some day be
published, Ross did not think the time had yet come. Meyer
feld, however, pointed out that Wilde's literary position
was better regarded in Germany, and that the European public
would be grateful for another work from the pen of one of
its favorite authqrs. Finally, after repeated urging, Ross
agreed to make selections from the manuscript, which he
would allow no stranger to read in its entirety and would
not let out of his possession, and to put them in a form
suitable for publication.®**
The task brought back painful memories. The comments
on Bosie reminded him of the needless cause of all the pain,
Bosie's hatred of his own father; and the philosophical part
hurt too, since there was such a discrepancy between Wilde's
hopes and promises to himself while he was in prison, and
his actions after his release. How could he have seen
Bosie's faults so clearly, and have returned to him so soon?
And why had Bosie taken the letter so calmly when he
received the copy in August of 1897? Had he really thrown
it away without reading beyond the first few pages? What a
®®Croft-Cooke, Bosie, pp. 204-208.
®“ *Ross, "Prefatory Dedication," pp. iii-v.
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197
pity Bosie had not read it and been so angry at Oscar that
he would have stopped trying to get Oscar to come back to
him. It was even more of a pity that the letter had caused
no change in his character. As Robbie went through the
manuscript again, it must have reminded him strongly of that
summer in 1897 when he had first read it to the typist, and
had removed some of Oscar's nastiest remarks about Bosie and
his f a m i l y . Gs Now everything must be removed that was crit
ical, and only the philosophical state at which Oscar had
arrived and the grueling details of prison that had brought
him to that state must be included. This was not an easy
task, and Robbie postponed it as long as he could, until
finally Meyerfeld's continued letters "of which I frankly
began to hate the sight" compelled him to finish and send
his manuscript off to Germany.®® Ross also suggested the
title De Profundis be used for the selection,®’ since Wilde
had never officially named the work, though he had referred
to it somewhat jokingly as "Epistola: In Carcere et
Vinculis.''®®
®®That this had been done became apparent when the
manuscript was finally opened for public inspection and com
pared with the version published by Vyvyan Holland, taken
from the typescript Ross left to him. (Wilde, Letters,
pp. 423-424, n. 2, and conversation with Rupert Hart-Davis.)
®®Ross, "Prefatory Dedication," p. ix.
8 7
Ibid., p. vi.
®®Oscar Wilde to Robert Ross, April 1, 1897, in Wilde,
Letters, p. 513. Meyerfeld later used this title when he
published a more complete version in the 1920's.
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198
Meyerfeld's translation was published in Die Neue Rund
schau for January and February 1905, along with parts of
four of Wilde's letters to Ross from prison, and later that
year it appeared in book form.^ ^ After Ross had sent off
the copy, he began to wonder about the advisibility of En
glish publication. Perhaps, indeed, the initiative for a
rehabilitation of Wilde's reputation should come from that
account which Wilde had written in order to clear his name
and to explain his behavior and the condition of his soul.
The suffering that had been inflicted on him in prison, the
hopes with which he had greeted his release, the philosophy
with which he had planned to guide his life: surely these
could not bring discredit on him even with conservative peo
ple .
Doubting his own ability to make an impartial decision,
Ross submitted his version of the manuscript to the publish
ing firm of Methuen and Company, who sent it to their
reader, E. V. Lucas. He recommended publication but thought
some additional passages should be eliminated. Lucas agreed
to make these additional cuts, which he worked on during the
month of November 1904. He would not accept payment, tell
ing Ross that he had always felt a bit guilty at not making
any friendly overtures toward Wilde. Lucas said he hoped
that he would have been as faithful as Ross to Wilde's
8 9
Hyde, Aftermath, p. 189.
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199
memory had he known Wilde personally.^®
The contract for De Profundis was signed on November
23, 1904. It provided for a 15 per cent royalty on the
first 3000 copies issued and 20 per cent after that, as well
as 10 per cent on a cheaper edition, should one be issued.*^
The book was published February 23, 1905, and was an immedi
ate success, both critically and in the bookstores. On the
twenty-fourth Methuen wrote Ross that they would have to
print a second edition immediately,®^ and further editions
were published in March, April, and September of 1905, and
March of 190 6.®® Of the more than thirty reviews of the
®°Ross, "Prefatory Dedication," p. v, except Lucas's
name, which is from letters to Ross, November 17, 1904, and
undated, in Ross, Friend of Friends, pp. 87-88. In view of
these comments, and Lucas's later published statement that
he never met Wilde, it is very curious that there exists in
the Clark Library a letter signed "E. V. L." in handwriting
very similar to that of their other Lucas letters dated six
teen years later, which Finzi, in compiling his bibliography
of the Clark letters, took for granted was by Lucas. It
reads: "Dear Oscar, When ^ I to see or hear from you?
I've been twice to St. James's Place but they could give me
no information at all. I am dying to see you. Do write to
me quickly & arrange a meeting. Your own loving EVL. Feb.
24 '94, 34 James Street, Buckingham Gate, S. W." Of course,
this may be by another E. V. L. I have not been able to
find Lucas's address in 1894. But it would seem very pos
sible that Lucas in 1904 dared not acknowledge having known
Wilde.
®i"From the Shorthand Notes of Cherer & Co., . . ."
November 24, 1930, in the Clark Library. This was brought
up in connection with litigation of Vyvyan Holland about the
contract.
9 2
In Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 99.
®®Copyright statement in the 1908 Methuen complete
Wilde edition, vol. 11, reverse of title page.
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200
book in national media, almost all, whether or not they
were favorable, considered Wilde seriously as a literary man
— which they had not always done before his disaster— and
"without emphasizing their natural prejudice against his
later career.Ross was anxious that leading literary
men, clergymen, and old acquaintances of Wilde should
receive the book, and sent out many gift copies, for which
he received letters and notes of acknowledgement, in some
cases very long and warm. Twenty-five of these are re
printed in Friend of Friends, and others exist in the pos
session of J. P. B. Ross. Robbie must have felt pleased and
justified by some of the letters, such as that from Eliza
beth Pennell, which said that "Your publishing it will do
almost more for him than anything that could be done."^® He
saw to it that John Clifford, who had preached the sermon
against Wilde to which Ross had replied, received a copy,
and Clifford acknowledged Wilde's writing in this case to be
"generally noble, elevated and quickening" though his ideas
were "sometimes daring to the point of repulsiveness.
Every correspondent had his own view of the book. Major
s^Hyde, Aftermath, p. 190.
®^Ross, "Prefatory Dedication," p. vi.
^^Letter dated February 26 [1905] in the possession of
J. P. B. Ross.
97To Messrs. Methuen and Company, February 24, 1905, in
Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 97.
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201
J. 0. Nelson (the former Governor of Reading Prison) feeling
Wilde to be "a truly penitent man,"^® and writer and trav
eler R. B. Cunninghame Graham liking the book because "he
never repented";®® or Rev. Henry Scott Holland, Regius Pro
fessor of Divinity at Oxford finding it insincere but
beautiful,^®® and Wilde's old friend Will Rothenstein saying
the book should bring Wilde new respect for his "quite be
wildering honesty."
Wilde's Increasing Popularity
Even before the book was published there were signs
that England was beginning to forgive Wilde. On November
19, 1904, just a few days before Ross signed the De Pro
fundis contract, George Alexander revived Lady Windermere's
Fan at the St. James Theatre.On May 10 and 13, 1905,
Salomé received its English premiere in a performance by the
New Stage Club.^°® It could not be produced commercially
®®Letter dated March 17, 1905, in Ross, Friend of
Friends, p. 95.
®®Letter dated February 22, 1905, in Ross, Friend of
Friends, p. 94.
^®®Letter dated February 26, 1905, in Ross, Friend of
Friends, p. 97.
^Letter dated March 2, 1905, in Ross, Friend of
Friends, p. 107.
^®^Ricketts, Self-Portrait, p. 112.
^®®Oscar Wilde, Salomé (London; Johji Lane [n.d., prob
ably 1906]). This is an uncommon edition, with the cast on
an unnumbered introductory page.
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202
because of its Biblical subject. However, private societies
could give two performances of an unlicensed play, if the
audience was restricted to members. The New Stage Club was
sponsored by the Church of St. James's, near Hornton Street,
and Ross sometimes let them practice at his house, for he
knew Mrs. Gwendolyn Bishop, who managed the group, and
Freddie acted with them.^°“ * Robert Farquharson played Herod
extremely well, and Freddie took the minor part of the First
Jew.^°® Though Robbie apparently did not write a review of
this performance, his pride and affection are obvious in a
review of a similar role played by Freddie the next year,
"Old Age" in The Fool of the World by Arthur Symons.
Salomé received another important performance in 1905
when on December 9 Richard Strauss's opera, using a slightly
cut German translation as the libretto, received its world
premiere in Dresden. Ross travelled there in order to
attend, and though pleased at this recognition of the work,
he did not care at all for the opera. Words were more im
portant to him than music, and Strauss's kind of music,
which he felt drowned out whatever otherwise could have been
^Robert le Diable, "The Past ..."
^°®1906 Salomé edition.
106"The Drama: Mr. Arthur Symons's Morality," Academy,
LXX (April 21, 1906), 383.
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203
heard of the words, distressed him.^°^ Since Ross did not
have much of an ear for music, he could not see that the
psychological situation and the relationships between the
characters were developed by the music, and that even the
bad acting of the cast did not matter so much when there was
music available to call forth the emotions for whose crea
tion a stage play must rely on acting and language. Since
he had disliked the opera so much, but had been pleased by
the recognition of Wilde's work implied in the use of the
play, it must have been with mixed emotions that the next
year he received overtures from a very different composer,
Giacomo Puccini, who considered setting Wilde's Florentine
Tragedy. Finally Puccini decided there was not enough of a
plot there, and instead wrote La Fanciulla Del West.^°^
Although the dramatic version of Salome had been at
tacked by the critics in its English premiere, even Max
Beerbohm finding it unpleasant, it received another amateur
production June 10 and 18, 1907, again with Robert Farquhar
son as Herod; a professional actress, Florence Farr, as
i°^R. R., "Strauss's 'Salome' at Dresden," Westminster
Gazette, December 14, 1905; Robert Ross to Walter Ledger,
December 3(9, 1905, Bodleian Ross MS. 4.
^°®Guiseppe Adami, ed.. Letters of Giacomo Puccini
(Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott Co., 1931), including Puc-
cini to Giulio Ricordi, November 15, 1906, p. 163; Puccini
to Ricordi, n.d., pp. 165-167; Puccini to Tito Ricordi,
February 18, 1907, pp. 168-171; and Puccini to Giulio
Ricordi, November 14, 1906, p. 235. Also Puccini to Robert
Ross, Sett. 11, 1906, in Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 129.
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204
Herodias; and costumes and settings by Charles Ricketts.^°^
The Florentine Tragedy was given with it. Sturge Moore pro
vided an opening scene to that play, since Wilde had not
written one. "It was characteristic of the author," said
Ross, "to have finished what he never began."Moore was
also responsible for the starting of the group which gave
the play, the Literary Theatrp Society.
The success of De Profundis and the productions of the
plays made Methuen eager to publish a complete edition of
Wilde. So Ross began to arrange for the necessary permis
sions. Some of the copyrights Ross bought, including those
for A House of Pomegranates, Intentions, and "Lord Arthur
Savile's Crime," and apparently A Florentine Tragedy. Since
he had no legal status when he purchased these, the money
must have come from his own pocket.Some copyrights had
never been sold and still belonged to the estate, including
some of the poems, especially the Ballad of Reading Gaol;
many reviews and articles; A Woman of No Importance, Vera,
^Ricketts, Self-Portrait, pp. 134-137; Ross, Friend
of Friends, pp. 122-123.
ii°Robert Ross, "Introductory Note," Florentine Trage
dy , p. viii.
^Frederick L. Gwynn, Sturge Moore and the Life of Art
(Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 1951),
pp. 39-41.
^Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, February 20, 1905,
Bodleian Ross MS. 4.
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205
An Ideal Husband, and Salome.^ ^ ^
Ross considered that he personally owned the Duchess of
Padua and De Profundis, and became involved in litigation
over both. When he allowed Meyerfeld to translate the
former into German and publish it in Berlin in 1904, the
*
Board of Trade prosecuted Ross. It was particularly annoy
ing to find himself under attack for this when a prose
translation from the German back into English was being sold
in America and being pirated back in England without any
royalties going to the estate.When the Official Re
ceiver learned that three months after publication of De
Profundis it had already earned BIOOO, he obtained a Court
Order to seize the money. Ross and his solicitors pro
tested, and profits continued to pile up until after over a
year's litigation, on August 14, 1906, Ross finally
received his appointment as administrator and executor of
Wilde's estate. This appointment was made with the under
standing that while he did not give up his claim to De Pro
fundis , he would devote the proceeds from that and the other
works to paying off the English debts and annulling the
bankruptcy. Then he would be allowed to pay the French
113"Memorandum prepared by the solicitors of Mr. Robert
Ross as the administrator of the Estate and effects of the
late Mr. Oscar Wilde for valuation of his Literary and Dra
matic Estate," [1914], p. 3, in the Library, University of
Texas.
^Robert Ross, "Note," vol. 1 of 1908 Methuen edition
of Wilde's Works ; Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, February 20,
1905, Bodleian Ross MS. 4.
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206
debts. When all the claims had been settled, Ross would
administer the estate for the benefit of the children.
Wilde's changing status was reflected by the willingness of
the children's guardian to allow them to receive money from
their father's estate, and to be mentioned in the agreement,
and his initiation of the request for Ross's appointment.
Ross Meets Wilde's Sons
Too, the children were "children" no more. Cyril, the
elder, became twenty-one June 5, 19 06, and about this year
graduated from the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich and
entered the army. Vyvyan, about a year and a half younger,
entered Cambridge in 1 9 0 5 . Their mother's family, the
Lloyds, were dreadfully ashamed of their link with Wilde and
nad never permitted the children any contact with their
fatner's family or friends. In order to make sure both boys
would spend their lives out of England and thus avoid con
taminating the family or coming into public notice, Cyril
nad been put in the Army, and Vyvyan was destined for the
Foreign Service. After two years at Cambridge, the younger
boy was removed and sent to London to enter Scoones', a
cramming establishment for the Foreign Service examinations.
There he met Sir Coleridge Kennard, who was also a student.
Kennard's mother, Mrs. Helen Carew, was a good friend of
i^^Ross, "Statement," pp. 35-38; Cornish, "Dinner."
^^®Holland, Son of Oscar Wilde, pp. 143-153.
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207
Ross, who dedicated volume 13, Reviews, of the 1908 Wilde
edition to her.^^^ Mrs. Carew, who had also known Wilde,
recognized the author's son under his false name and asked
him to her home, where, Holland later wrote,
. . . this was the first time since I had left England
twelve years before that I had ever heard him [Wilde]
spoken of with respect.
When Mrs. Carew asked the young man if he would be willing
to meet Robert Ross, he had no idea of whom she was speak
ing, although by that time, August of 1907, Ross had been
the administrator of the estate for a year and had edited
several of the books. When she explained Ross's activities
to Holland, he enthusiastically agreed to the meeting, and
the next week at her house was introduced to Ross, Max Beer
bohm, and Reginald Turner.
It was a highly emotional meeting, and from the moment
that I met Robert Ross, I knew that I had found a true
friend of my own, one who would be loyal and true and
never betray me. And this impression I had at that moment
remained with me until Robbie's untimely death . . .
(pp. 163-164)
During the rest of that summer, Holland saw a good deal of
Ross, who took him to meet other friends of his father, such
as Adela Schuster and Ada Leverson. When on November 3 he
became twenty-one, his family ignored the occasion, so Ross
held a dinner party for him at Vicarage Gardens. The guests
included Sir William Richmond, Charles Shannon, Charles
ii^p. V of that volume.
ii®Holland, Son of Oscar Wilde, p. 163.
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208
Ricketts, Henry James, Reginald Turner, William Rothenstein,
Sir Coleridge Kennard, Ronald Firbank (a Cambridge friend of
Holland's), More Adey, and Cyril Holland, who had been
introduced to Robbie by Vyvyan (p. 166).
Cyril was very different from Vyvyan. The younger
boy's frequently interrupted schooling had left him ill-
trained for anything, and he disliked the family's choice of
an occupation, since he had wished to be an engineer or phy
sician. But Cyril had taken to the army from the beginning.
He had vowed while still a child that he would remove the
stain from his name through effort and self-discipline, and
he devoted his life to this aim (p. 122). Vyvyan was some
what worried about his brother's reaction to Ross's efforts
in behalf of their father, but he need not have worried.
Ross tactfully conducted their first conversation as a dis
cussion of literature and art (p. 165). Later he and Cyril
became firm friends, and Cyril told Robbie "that by his mag
nificent labours and self-sacrifice he had almost accom
plished my end" (p. 122). For himself, he wrote, on a
Spartan six-month trip through Tibet in 1913,
I am fitting myself for the world, Robbie. They shall not
say "a talker, the son of a talker." I will hold my own
with the best of them. I too have something to inscribe
on the pages of that little history book.^^
About one thing, though, Ross would not talk with either
boy. He was deathly afraid lest one of them should become
1 Inundated letter in Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 248.
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209
homosexual, and would not discuss the topic at all. Howev
er, they both met and liked Freddie, who was about their
age.^ ^ °
Some of Ross's Friends
In January of 1906 Ross moved to a house at 15 Vicarage
Gardens, Kensington,^^^ managed by Mrs. Nellie Burton, who
had been his mother's maid and standby until her death, and
who remained with Robbie the rest of his life. Burton was
quite a character: proud of her cooking, which she liked to
share with Robbie's friends, and warm and motherly to them
all. She called Robbie by his first name and sometimes
scolded him, running the house the way she chose. Of some
intelligence and with a good knowledge of art that she
picked up from Robbie, she was tempted to use a language she
had not completely mastered, as when she spoke of "convict
mirrors" or "refractory tables.The several-storied
Victorian house had a small yard in front, and was located
on a quiet street of similar houses, the sort of street
^^“conversation with Vyvyan Holland; Cyril Holland to
Robert Ross, July 1, 1913, in Ross, Friend of Friends,
p. 248.
iz^The first letter I have seen from Vicarage Gardens
is dated March 30, but "Robert le Diable" says they first
lived together in January of 1906 and since there are no ad
dresses for January or February, I have accepted that date.
i22"j^iss Burton of Half Moon Street," Manchester Guard
ian, Friday, October 11, 1935; "She was Just Miss Burton"
[no date or source] in a scrapbook in the possession of
Giles Robertson.
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210
where one knows one's neighbors by sight and tips one's hat
to them.
To this address, and later to several other similar
houses, came a succession of visitors, some outstanding in
art or literature, some young people beginning to make names
for themselves, some who had gotten into difficulties and
had been befriended by Robbie, who was always quick to help
anyone in trouble. For instance, there was Lord William
Nevill, who in 1898 had been sentenced on a forgery charge,
and in 1907 was accused of replacing with a box of coal a
box of jewels on which he had obtained money from a pawn
broker. After his name appeared in the papers Ross made a
point of writing to him and inviting him to lunch. Nevill's
wife paid the pawnbroker and there was no proof that the
pledge would not have been redeemed, but he was sentenced to
twelve months imprisonment. Apparently he did not serve it
all, for he wrote Ross again in February of 1908 thanking
him for another invitation and for other kindnesses.^^^
Another person taken up by Robbie because of his diffi
culties with the law was Christopher Millard, an Oxford M.A.
and an enthusiastic Wilde fan, who began corresponding with
Ross because of Millard's work on a bibliography of Wilde's
^ ^ ^"Law Report," The Times, April 15, 19 07, p. 14; Bill
Nevill to Robert Ross, "Tuesday," April 5, 1907, and Febru
ary 13, 1908, in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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211
writing. They had not met,^^** and their letters were quite
formal when one morning in May of 19 06 Millard was arrested
at his home in Iffley, near Oxford, for having while drunk
the night before made improper advances to a boy running a
lonely pumping station nearby.Millard, who had already
lost the headship of a Catholic private school for something
of the same sort,^^^ dared not contact his relatives or his
clergyman brother, and wrote to Ross for help instead. Rob
bie's letters to Walter Ledger, another bibliographer, show
that he did not really appreciate the call, but as soon as
he could leave a sick relative he went to Oxford, where he
talked to Millard in jail.^^^ It was a harrowing experience
for Robbie, as it brought back all the old memories of Os
car's arrest and the visits to him. This time, too, the
lawyer turned to Ross, but fortunately Millard's relatives
showed up, proved sympathetic, and took over the case.^^® A
few days later, when it came up in court, Robbie attended to
show his sympathy, but he could not bear to hear the evi-
12 4
Ross, "Statement," p. [53].
^^®Robert Ross to Walter Ledger [May 1, 1906], Bodleian
Ross MS. 4, and clipping enclosed dated only "The Globe from
R. R." in pencil, and headed "Bullingdon Petty Sessions."
i2*Ibid.
^Robert Ross to Walter Ledger [April 30, 1906], Bod
leian Ross MS. 4.
i^*Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, May 1, 1906,
Clark Library.
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212
dence and had to leave after the first hour.^^^ After
Millard's release from a few month's sentence, Ross helped
him find work on the Burlington Magazine, and employed him
to find and edit Wilde's w o r k s , a task that Millard found
congenial, and which Robbie, who disliked such finicky
details, was glad to pass on to someone else. Though Mill
ard tried hard to be friendly after this, Ross's replies to
him remained businesslike and kind but distant for some
years; either Millard's somewhat pedantic mind or his pro
miscuity repulsed Robbie.
Typical of some of the young people Ross knew was
Charles Scott Moncrieff, introduced to him by Millard. Best
known for his later translations of Proust, "the sullen
Scot" was, in 1907, a shy boy visiting London, which he did
not know at all well. He was fascinated by literature and
could only converse on literary topics. After his return
home, he wrote Millard of his visit to Robbie and his time
in London, saying he had used Ross's name frequently at
home, "he being on a slightly more solid foundation than
most of us," and hoping that the time would come when Mill
ard could return from abroad and they could settle down to
gether in a little house "like Robbie & Freddy."Robbie,
izsRobert Ross to Walter Ledger [May 6, 1906], Bodleian
Ross MS. 4.
13 0ROSS, "Statement," p. [53].
13 1c. K. Scott Moncrieff to Christopher Millard, April
17 [1907], U. C. L. A. Special Collections, 170/214.
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213
too, wrote, for the first time addressing the recipient as
"Christopher," describing the visit, and warning him not to
write incriminatingly enthusiastic articles on Scott Mon
crieff to editors, even one with a background like Alfred
Douglas, as the article Millard had sent had stopped publi
cation of some of Scott Moncrieff's poetry. And, Ross
asked, would Millard try to keep Scott Moncrieff's name out
of the Bibliography?^ ^ ^
Edward Warren, whose country estate in Sussex, Lewes
House, Robbie sometimes visited, was originally from Boston,
but had travelled all over Europe. An enthusiastic scholar
of Latin and Greek, he spent much time studying classical
texts or gathering works of art for his own collection or
for the Boston Museum. He was an authority on ancient Greek
vases and collected them as well as Greek bronzes and mar
bles, which he placed around his rooms, furnished with
antique furniture. The quiet, cloistered air of the estab
lishment was made more pleasant by the excellent food and
wine for which Warren was known, and the good horses which
he kept for his guests to ride.^^^
Ricketts and Shannon, too, loved to live with beautiful
things, but lived much more simply than Warren, since they
were artists who lacked his fortune. In Ricketts Ross found
13 2
Letter dated May 5, 1907, in the Clark Library.
^^^Rothenstein, Men and Memories, 1:343; Sassoon, Sieg
fried's Journey, pp. 320-327.
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214
a congenial and stimulating friend. They discussed works of
art and artistic theories by the hour, and Robbie once said
of him that his
art and criticism I love this side of idolatry. Yet I
know of few artists or critics who are so prejudiced,
narrow, and bigoted, and that is why his opinion is so
valuable. ^ ^
Ricketts had known and admired Wilde, and was always glad to
recall memories, to exchange anecdotes about the pre-Rapha-
elite painters, to insult wittily their mutual acquain
tances, as when he described one "expert" with whom he did
not agree as follows:
What a wicked & treacherous old beast he is 1 In the life
to come he will be a decayed Cocotte in a blue satin tea
gown, yellow hair with a Meissonier or a Sevres vase to
sell— nothing else being marketable, no, he is like that
all readyl^^
A different circle of Ross's friends were those he met
at the Reform Club and at the Gosses's, men such as fellow
Refo3rm Club member Henry James, upon whose death in 1916
Gosse wrote Robbie that
From one of "us," Henry James, you will alas! never hear
again. He had the truest esteem and admiration for
you.13 6
Thomas Hardy was a frequent Gosse visitor, and the recipient
of one of Robbie's quick-witted remarks. On a visit to
13 4
Letter in the Academy, August 24, 1907, p. 828.
i3 5undated letter to Robert Ross, in the possession of
J. P. B. Ross.
i3®Letter dated February 16, 1916, in Ross, Friend of
Friends, p. 281.
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215
Hardy's home Ross and Hardy were discussing the ways authors
combatted the tediousness of writing. Hardy said-he had
written one of his early works on his knees. Robbie an
swered him, "we read it on our knees."^^^ H. G. Wells, too,
was a Reform Club member, with whom Ross discussed the dif
ferences between Wilde's Soul of Man and Wells's Modern
Utopia, and for whom he provided an Episcopal dress chart.
Wells and his wife met and liked Freddie and invited him to
parties at their house. Wells thought Ross a practical per
son, whom he asked to be one of the sureties for him in
arranging to administer his father's estate, and to be his
executor should he and his wife die at the same time.^^s
Wells and Ross nominated Arnold Bennett for membership in
the Reform, and Ross later told Compton Mackenzie of Ben
nett's first lunch there, when he appeared in a red and yel
low waistcoat; and worse than that, smoked a cigar in the
atrium— an unheard of thing, which annoyed the rest of the
club members, and embarrassed Robbie, who was lunching with
him.
^Sassoon, Siegfried's Journey, p. 133.
i^°H. G. Wells to Robert Ross, May 5, 1905; Robert Ross
to H. G . Wells, May 14, 1905, in Ross, Friend of Friends,
pp. 115-116.
i^°H. G. Wells to Robert Ross, undated, in the posses
sion of J. P. B. Ross; and August 18, 1914, in Ross, Friend
of Friends, p. 264.
14°Mackenzie, My Life and Times: Octave Three, pp.
271-272.
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216
Someone in 19 08 displayed a sense of humor worthy of
Robbie's own in printing a "Reform Club" menu for a dinner
in honor of Ross. One cannot tell whether it was really
held, or if the menu was completely in jest. Printed on a
card with an official-looking crest, it reads:
The Reform Club
18th February, 1908
Potage d'Avocat
(sous Payne d ' amende) ^ ^
Entree
(sensationelle)
des Revenants de Piccadilly
Max en Cocotte
Omelette au Brun Impériale
Lady Frédèrique sur Canapé ^ ^
(sans l'explorateur)
i^^This would seem to refer to a lawyer called Payne
who had lost a case, but I have not been able to identify
such a person. He may well have been connected with the
many copyright cases Ross was involved in.
i^^This may have referred to a review of Ibsen's Ghosts
entitled "The Drama: En Revenants de la Revue" which Ross
had published in the Academy, March 17, 1906, pp. 262-263.
^“^A particularly ingenious pun. One also wonders if
there was any connection between Somerset Maugham's play
Lady Frederick, and his friendship with Robbie and Freddie.
The content of the play makes the connection necessarily
only a punning one, if there was indeed any connection.
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217
Champagne— Ridge, 1908, extra dry (Cuvée Réservée)
Port— Chateau de Jack Straw
Written with a thought for the Little Ones ^ ^
Robbie even had some highly conventional friends, such
as Sir James Agg-Gardner, a member of Parliament since about
1880, and an extreme Conservative, whom Robbie described as
limiting himself to one pertinent question per session.^**®
Another was Sir William Richmond, whose father had been one
of the circle of Blake's followers and had later developed a
highly successful career in portrait painting, which he had
passed on to his son.^**’ Richmond's artistic views were so
staid that he hated not only the post-impressionists but
practically all the artists whose work Ross handled at the
Carfax. Nevertheless, he and Robbie were on warm terms.
Then there were friends remaining from the '90's, such
as George Street, whom Ross had known since they both worked
for Henley, and who now, heavy and aged, still borrowed
money from Robbie on occasion, when he had borrowed all that
^‘ *‘ *Note that in February that year's vintage would
hardly be ready for use.
i^^There are copies of the menu in the possession of
Giles Robertson and of J. P. B. Ross.
14 6
Sassoon, Siegfried's Journey, p. 49.
S. R. Boase, English Art 1800-1870 (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1959), pT 64.
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218
he could from Alec Ross.^*^® Both Reggie Turner and Max
Beerbohm were spending an increasing amount of time out of
England, but when they were in the country they too saw Rob
bie, and they both corresponded with him occasionally.
Robert Sherard, with whom an interest in Wilde was about the
only common ground, in 1902 wrote a book about Wilde in
which he praised Ross strongly, and dedicated the privately
printed volume to Ross. But in 1904, although he knew the
circumstances, Sherard published in Reynold's Newspaper an
account of the grave being ill-kept and impermanent, and
suggested the body might be removed at any time by the ceme
tery. Ross wrote back to the paper suggesting that the rich
American whom Sherard had mentioned as willing to pay for a
permanent grave though he had never read any of Wilde's
works should use his money to buy the books instead, since
Wilde's work was a much more important memorial than any
tombstone would be. He said that the body would not be per
manently settled till the debts were paid, and added defen
sively that he hired a local florist to tend the grave and
had never noticed it looking any worse than the surrounding
ones. He might have added that it was rather annoying to
find those who had taken no responsibility for Wilde so
^“ *®George Street to Robert Ross, June 3 and June 24,
1903, in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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219
eager to criticize.
Closer to Robbie than any of these friends was his fam
ily. He and his brother Alex were very close, bound togeth
er not only by family ties but through common interests in
literature and art, and a taste for quiet excellence in all
their possessions. Alex, too, never married, although he
did not share Robbie's problem, but he was always sympathe
tic and willing to listen or discuss troubles. Mary's eld
est daughter, Ethel Jones, was only six years younger than
Robbie, and was also a close friend of his, sharing family
responsibilities and many of the same circle of acquain
tances, and her marriage in 19 05 brought an old friend.
Squire Sprigge, into the family g r o u p . Elise, Robbie's
other sister, was married too, and had two young sons, one
of whom stayed with Robbie for some time in 19 07-1908 in
order to go to school, when there were difficulties at
home.All the family "had the same absence of feeling as
to dear Robbie's idiosyncracy"^^^ and knew and accepted
^‘ *®"The Lessee of the Grave at Bagneux, " letter to
Reynold's Newspaper headed "Oscar Wilde's Tomb," circa
August 7, 1904, in Bodleian Ross e625. Also Robert Ross to
Walter Ledger, August 14, 1904, Bodleian Ross MS. 4.
*^°N. Gerald Horner, "Squire Sprigge," Dictionary of
National Biography, 1931-1940, pp. 829-830.
^Robert Ross to Mary Jones, September 14, 1907, in
the possession of Giles Robertson.
is^Ethel Jones Sprigge to Margery Ross, July 12, 1949,
in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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220
Freddie as a member of the family, inviting them and Alex to
Christmas evening with Elise or to spend time with Mary's
family in the country.
By now Ross had lost most of his hair, and as if in
compensation, grown a rather large mustache. This mustache
and what was left of his hair remained dark. The two ladies
who wrote under the name of Michael Field described him as
follows :
Bobby is a curious mixture of wit and Catholic seriousness
— only Catholics seem to know seriousness as a mode of
mind and spirit. At the same time there is something il
lusive about this man, with his romantic kindness, and his
wit, deliberate as a growth. We do not yet understand
him. The face is dark-skinned— square about the jaw— a
little mastiff-like; the black eyebrows have the concave
of Spinoza's— in the eyes there is the character of a
dog's— something kind and fixed and not of men— yet
devout .IS"*
Another woman wrote of his voice in 1909:
I thought at the Ducal party (is that the correct descrip
tion?) where we met last, what a fresh happy voice you had
— rather like a schoolboy's instead of a high toned
critic's.^ ^ ^
He was given to rapid and enthusiastic conversation, punc
tuated with gestures from the long jade cigarette holder
which he continually used.^^® On his left hand he wore a
is^Robert Ross to Mary Jones, December 22, 19 09, and
April 6, 1913, in the possession of Giles Robertson.
is^Pseud. of Edith Cooper and Katherine Bradley, Works
and Days (London: John Murray, 1933), p. 277.
^®^Mrs. W. K. Clifton to Robert Ross, November 2
[1909], in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
1 b 6
Sassoon, Siegfried's Journev. p. 48.
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221
large green scarab ring, which had been Wilde's.His
clothes were always in good taste, and gave him a pleasant,
well-dressed appearance.
In 1910 Freddie was given an independent income by a
relative, and ceased to do Ross's secretarial work and to
draw his salary of B120 per year, though from time to time
he would still write or type letters for Robbie.He was
a particularly good friend of Mrs. Carew and her mother, and
travelled abroad a good deal with them after he had the
money to do so.^^*
Some of Ross's Art Activities During These Years
A number of important shows were held under Ross's
direction at the Carfax gallery during 1906 and 1907. As
well as exhibitions by New English Art Club members such as
W. Graham Robertson, D. S. MacColl, the most important art
critic of the day, and Will Rothenstein, a number of members
of the Royal Academy were asked to send pictures to a show
^^’Osbert Burdett, Memory and Imagination (London:
Chapman and Hall, 1935), p. 146.
^^®Ross, "Statement," p. [36] for 1910 and income;
Robert le Diable, "The Past ..." for £20. He says that
Ross testified that Smith ceased to act as secretary in
1912, but the rest of the article is filled with inaccura
cies, so I have taken Ross's date.
^®®Robert le Diable, "The Past . . Robert Ross to
Mary Jones, December 19, 1910, in the possession of Giles
Robertson.
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222
held in January of 1906.^®° Probably the most important
group of pictures to appear at the Carfax during these years
comprised works by William Blake, one of Ross's favorite
painters. In 1904 Carfax had held the first Blake exhibit
of any size in the last thirty years— a very important trib
ute to the artist, for there were few examples cf Blake's
work in the national collections, and therefore the public
had little chance to become acquainted with him. The 190 6
exhibit was much larger, including thirty-nine pictures pur
chased by Carfax from the collection of Thomas Butts,
Blake's first patron, and a number of works borrowed for the
occasion. At the time of the show, Ross was asked to con
tribute his first article to the Burlington Magazine, an
assessment of "The Place of William Blake in English
Art.''iGi
Unfortunately the Carfax was not doing very well finan-
^®°"Academicians at the Carfax," Athenaeum, No. 4082
(January 20, 1906), p. 85; Russell, "Art," p. 348; "Fine-Art
Gossip," Athenaeum, No. 4085 (February 10, 1906), p. 178;
Kerrison Preston, "Introduction," pp. xvi-xx of Letters from
Graham Robertson (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1953), also
p. 469; "Art Exhibitions," The Times, March 7, 1907, p. 5.
leii'The Literary Week," Academy, LXX (May 12, 1906),
445; "Art Exhibitions," The Times, June 23, 1906, p. 20;
Robert Ross, "The Place of William Blake in English Art,"
Burlington Magazine, IX (June 1906), 162, n. 3; "Blake Ex
hibition and Sale," Athenaeum, No. 2976 (January 9, 1904),
p. 58; Kerrison Preston, ed.7 The Blake Collection of W.
Graham Robertson (London: Faber and Faber, 1952) , p. HT and
passim. Most of the Butts works were sold to Robertson, and
he left most of them to the Tate Gallery where they are
today.
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223
cially, in spite of its reputation for good modern British
art, because too few people were interested in current
w o r k . 1^2 Perhaps to help with finances, Ross was taking an
increasing part in art activities beyond the gallery. He
frequently wrote for the Academy, alternating theatrical
criticism and comments about artistic matters, and he con
tributed to other journals. His tact and his many friends
made him useful for sounding out persons about proffered
jobs, such as Roger Fry, who was under consideration for
head of the National Gallery; and Laurence Binyon, consid
ered for a directorship in Boston.
Ross had also been secretary since 1904 of the Arundel
Club, founded in that year by Sir Martin Conway to make
available photographs of works of art held in private col
lections and therefore not available for study. Ross was
responsible for making arrangements about photographing the
paintings and reproducing the photographs, for collecting
the dues and keeping the list of members. The selection
committee included such well-known names as Sidney Colvin,
Lionel Cust, Claude Phillips, Charles Ricketts, Sir Walter
Armstrong, and Lord Balcarres. Though a small number of
^Herbert Horne to Robert Ross, October 3, 1906, in
the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
^®^Arthur Ponsonby to Robert Ross, January 3, 24, and
25, 1906, in the possession of J. P. B. Ross; Laurence Bin
yon to Robert Ross, September 25 [1906], in Ross, Friend of
Friends, p. 120, and note, pp. 120-121.
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224
members, about 300 in 1905 and less than 400 in 1909, made
finances precarious, the publication of the plates continued
for a number of years; Ross served as secretary until
1910.
Ross Edits Wilde's Works
The appointment of Ross as administrator of the Wilde
estate had made somewhat easier negotiations for the other
copyrights, so that Ilethuen might publish a complete edition
of Wilde's Works, but it was still a long and bothersome
task. Important pieces belonged to half a dozen different
people, and reviews, essays, and poems had appeared in doz
ens of sources. In the work of determining exactly what
Wilde had written, much of it published anonymously, and in
finding and comparing the earliest editions, corrected
copies, and manuscripts, Ross was aided immeasurably by
Walter Ledger and Christopher Millard. Ledger's collection
was already serving as a supplement to Millard's own in
forming a basis for the bibliography of Wilde's works, and
it was valuable both for Ross and for Millard when he took
on such tasks as going through old volumes of the Pall Mall
Gazette, selecting anonymous reviews and then verifying
George Bernard Shaw to Robert Ross, June 12, 1904,
in the possession of J. P. B. Ross; "The Arundel Club," Bur
lington Magazine, VIII (December 1905), 216; F. S. S., "The
Arundel Club," Academy, LXXIV (April 25, 1908), 710-711;
"Art and Artists," Morning Post, February 12, 19 09, p. 9.
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225
them, or editing and arranging the poems for publication and
having them t y p e d . Ross paid Millard about five pounds
per volume for proofreading, and five guineas for editing
the poems.^ ® ®
The edition appeared in fourteen volumes, the first six
published February 13, 190 8, the next five oh March 13, and
the last two on October 1 5 .^^7 view of all the problems
it was remarkable that the edition was ever published. It
even remained close to Ross's original plan for it,^®® in
details as well as in the much more important fact of near
completeness. One change from the first plan was the inclu
sion as volume thirteen of a whole volume of reviews, orig
inally printed in several papers. Methuen had refused to
include Millard's bibliography, originally planned to be
published as volume thirteen, because Ledger, who had a
share in it, wanted too much money, and partly because of
Hillard's arrest.^®® A bibliography of the poems only,
^®®Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, April 23, 1906,
in the Clark Library.
^®®Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, September 26,
1906, in the Clark Library.
^®^Stuart Mason [Christopher Millard], Bibliography of
Oscar Wilde; with a note by Robert Ross (London; T. Werner
Laurie Ltd., 1914), p. 459.
^®®As outlined in Ross's letter to Millard, Septem
ber 26, 1906, in the Clark Library.
^®®Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, May 5, 1907, in
the Clark Library.
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226
"giving particulars as to the original publication of each
poem, with variations of readings and a complete list of all
editions, reprints, translations, etc." was published by
Grant Richards in 1907.
Charles Carrington, who owned the English rights to
Dorian Gray, wanted E425 for permission to let Methuen
include the work, so instead Carrington published it as
volume twelve in the same format as the Methuen edition.
Volume eleven. De Profundis, included some additional mate
rial omitted from the 190 5 edition, the excerpts from the
prison letters that Meyerfeld had published in Germany, and
Wilde's letters to the Daily Chronicle on prison reform. It
v/as also published with these inclusions in an edition
separate from the Works.
Volume fourteen. Miscellanies, Ross found "the most
exciting of all the books" because tliey had found several
previously unknown pieces for it. To it he contributed the
longest introduction of any of the volumes. Ross never
wrote very much about Wilde. He explained his reluctance to
undertake a biography by quoting Wilde's saying that "it is
always Judas who writes the biography." In addition, he
felt he lacked the requisite skill and was ignorant of
“Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, September 26,
1906, in the Clark Library; Robert Ross to Walter Ledger,
January 23, 1908, Bodleian Ross MS. 4.
^Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, December 27,
1907, in the Clark Library.
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227
Wilde's early years. Probably the most likely reason was
Ross's statement that he felt that his personal acquaintance
with Wilde would so influence the book that it would not be
a proper estimate and would lay both the author and the sub
ject of the book open to criticism for undue partiality.
For this reason Ross rarely discussed Wilde's writings in
any detail, except to give background information concerning
their history. In this way, he said, he arranged that the
works should be reviewed and discussed on their own merits,
rather than the reviewers being able to use their space
arguing with the introductions and never getting around to
discussing the works themselves.^^
Most of the introduction to Miscellanies was factual.
Ross mentioned the wide range of interests which the collec
tion revealed, and said that though Wilde would not have
liked the inclusion of some of the pieces, the crediting of
many spurious articles to him had necessitated printing
everything known to be authentic. The only exception was
lectures, of which newspaper accounts were so apt to be
inaccurate that they were given only if Ross had seen a
manuscript of them. So that collectors of Wilde might know
which editions were authorized, a short list of legitimate
English editions was included. Part of the "Rise of Histor
ical Criticism," an essay probably written during Wilde's
i^^Hesketh Pearson, Modern Men and Mummers (New York:
Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1922) , pp. 157-158.
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228
Oxford years, had been included in volume seven, but later
Ross found the rest of it and put it into Miscellanies. He
found it "singularly advanced and mature" for so early a
work, and could not restrain himself from congratulating
Magdalen College at Oxford for not awarding Wilde the En
glish Essay Prize, since the award of the Newdigate Poetry
Prize for "Ravenna" had seemed so embarrassing to Magdalen.
Indeed, Ross said, many persons had felt that Willie Wilde
was more brilliant than Oscar, which only "symbolises the
familiar phenomenon that those nearest the mountain cannot
appreciate its height." One more personal opinion was ven
tured, when Ross pointed out that the public letters to
Whistler showed that he and Wilde had quarrelled very early,
and that the often-repeated charges that Wilde had plagia
rized most of his witty sayings from Whistler could hardly
be true, in view of the date of their break, as indeed the
difference between the characters of the two men and the
qualities of their writing would preclude anyway.
So that the Methuen edition would not face unauthorized
competition, this period of time was also occupied with
prosecutions of publishers pirating Wilde's works. Some of
these editions included spurious works, such as "The Priest
and the Acolyte," a disgusting story both as to style and
content, and Ross was anxious that such rubbish should not
173"Introduction," Wilde, Works, XIV, xi-xvi.
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229
be credited to Wilde, saying that "the ascription of worth
less and obscene books is a posthumous punishment from which
he should be released."Cases included one against
Leonard Smither's widow about The Ballad of Reading Gaol,
and one on the collected poems. In July Ross printed a cir
cular warning booksellers against illicit editions.
Ross's Last Year at the Carfax
In August of 1908 Ross was asked to become art critic
for the Morning Post, one of the leading London newspapers,
with the understanding that if his first three months were
successful, he would receive a permanent appointment and
sever his connection with the Carfax Gallery, which he left
July 1, 1909.176
While he was making arrangements to leave, several more
shows took place at Carfax. Frederick Cayley Robinson
(1862-1927) appeared in November of 1908. He had shown pre
viously with groups, but not alone. His "Deep Midnight,"
shown at the Carfax in 1905 with the Society of Painters in
Tempera, had been compared to Blake, though more frequently
i7‘ *Robert Ross to Clement Shorter, March 10, 1906, in
Ross, Friend of Friends, pp. 118-120.
i7®Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, April 1, 1908, and
May 29, 1908, Bodleian Ross MS. e; F. E. Murray to Robert
Ross, July 30, 1908, in the Clark Library.
^7®Fabian Ware to Robert Ross, July 31, 19 08, in Ross,
Friend of Friends, p. 150; Robert Ross to Walter Ledger,
May iX, 1909, Bodleian Ross MS. 4.
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230
his work showed the influence of Puvis de Chavannes.^^^ He
was also active in designing scenery for the stage, did wall
paintings, and was later elected an Associate of the Royal
Academy.Although The Times did not like his depressing
subjects and narrow range or his occasional anachronisms,
such as placing legionaries around a ruined temple, it
praised the accuracy of his drawing and its quiet atmos
phere. The Athenaeum went further, saying he was one of the
few living persons who really knew how to draw draperies and
how to select the essential qualities of items.
The exhibition in January of 1909 was of another old
friend, C. J. Holmes, at that time Slade Professor at Oxford
and editor of the Burlington Magazine. After an education
at Eton and Oxford, Holmes had spent a few unhappy years in
publishing, then met Ricketts and Shannon and begun to teach
himself art by practice and the study of old masters. He
had managed Rickett's Vale Press from 1896 to 1903, when he
became Burlington editor. Another member of the New English
Art Club, Holmes concentrated on landscapes and factory
scenes in oil and water color.
i7 7"Art Exhibitions," The Times, June 20, 1905, p. 16.
i7®Chamot, Modern Painting in England, pp. 83, 121.
Cayley Robinson's Works at the Carfax Gallery,"
Athenaeum, No. 4231 (November 28, 1908), p. 689.
i80"Art Exhibitions," The Times, January 7, 1909;
Holmes, Self and Partners, passim.; Chamot, Modern Painting
in England, pp. 40~, ÏÏ31
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231
Spencer Stanhope, a late and very minor pre-Raphaelite,
who had died the year before, was given a show in March,
1909. The last show at the gallery while Ross was offi
cially connected with it was again of Neville Lytton, with
sixty-five drawings and paintings, and of a French water
colorist, Charles Geoffroy, whose work was similar to
Lytton's.^®^ Even after Arthur Clifton had taken over the
gallery, however, Ross remained interested in its problems,
and he and Clifton talked over everything that came up.^®^
A Dinner Honoring Ross
By the end of 190 8 the bankruptcy was completely set
tled, the edition was published, and Wilde had regained his
right to consideration as an important author. Some of
Ross's friends decided that his contribution to these
achievements should be honored, and formed a committee to
hold a testimonial dinner. It took place on December 1,
1908, the day after the eighth anniversary of Wilde's death.
The number, nearly two hundred, and variety of people will
ing to pay tribute to Ross for his work on a cause once so
unpopular pleased him both for his own sake and for Wilde's.
Among the guests were several of Wilde's publishers, John
181"Art Exhibitions: The Carfax and Baillie Galler
ies," The Times, May 21, 1909, p. 8; "Other Exhibitions,"
Athenaeum, No. 4257 (May 29, 1909), p. 653.
^®^Arthur Clifton to Alex Ross, October 12, 1918, in
the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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232
Lane, Arthur Humphreys, A. M. S. Methuen; lawyers Martin
Holman and A. D. Hansell; and a number of Wilde's friends,
Sherard and his wife, Stewart Headlam, Oscar Browning,
Turner and Adey, Max Beerbohm, Mrs. Leverson, Mr. and Mrs.
Arthur Clifton, George Ives, Rothenstein, Ricketts and
Shannon, Frank Harris and his wife. Both of Wilde's sons,
Cyril and Vyvyan Holland, were there. Drama critics William
Archer, A. B. Walkley, and H. K. Fyfe, as well as George
Alexander, attended. A number of Ross's friends who had not
known Wilde well if at all included H. G. Wells, Somerset
Maugham, E. V. Lucas, Mr. and Mrs. Gosse, Mr. and Mrs. W. W.
Jacobs, and Aleister Crowley in literature; and Roger Fry,
Claude Phillips, Laurence Binyon, Frank Rinder, Mr. and Mrs.
Walter Dowdeswell, and Mr. and Mrs. Geoffrey Birkbeck in
art. The family was represented by Alex and Mary, by Mrs.
John Ross and Lina Ross, by Squire and Ethel Sprigge, and by
Lilian Jones, and other personal friends were Mabel Beards
ley, Mrs. Carew and her son Sir Coleridge Kennard, Sir J. T.
Agg Gardner, E. P. Warren, Millard, and, of course, F. Stan
ley Smith.
Letters or telegrams from persons unable to attend
included those from Walter Sickert, Agnes Nevill, Max Beer
bohm' s sister Constance and his mother Eliza. From Moscow
came word from Michael Lykiardopulos and the staff of the
Russian Review; from Florence, Italy, a telegram arrived
signed "Loeser Horne Thorold Mannering Geo Mellor;" and from
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233
Germany Max Meyerfeld telegraphed in rhyme,
I like the man whose selfless aim
Has canonised his very name.
Robbie for Ever
and Max Reinhardt, Oscar Bie, and Richard Strauss sent less
lyrical good wishes.
After the opening toast to "His Majesty the King," pro
posed by the Chairman, Sir Martin Conway, H. G. Wells and
William Rothenstein spoke on "Our Guest." Wells's speech,
which Maugham the next day wrote to Ross "might have been
entitled First and Last Things that one would rather have
left unsaid,"1®^ was found by Vincent O'Sullivan the best
speech given that night, because it was "straightforward and
sincere."1®® It complimented Ross for his courageous sup
port of Wilde against public opinion.^®® It was answered by
Robbie, who in a charming and modest manner told of some of
his struggles with the estate during the previous eight
years, complimented Germany on its support of Wilde, and
thanked many other friends of Wilde who had helped the
author in his last days. He ended by announcing the anony
mous gift (by Mrs. Carew) of &2000 to erect a monument to be
^Program and menu of the dinner in the Clark Library,
telegrams in the Clark Library, Sickert letter in Ross,
Friend of Friends, pp. 158-159.
1®^Letter in Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 157.
^ ® ®Qpinions (London: The Unicorn Press, 1959), p. 106.
i®®Cornish, "Dinner."
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234
designed by Jacob Epstein for Wilde's permanent resting
place in the cemetery of Père Lachaise.^®’
"Modern Drama" was then toasted by Gertrude Kingston,
who was opening a Little Theatre in London, and answered by
William Archer; A. B. Walkley, dramatic critic of The Times,
proposed "Literature," speaking of Wilde's excellent por
trayal of society, and Frank Harris responded with an im
pression of Wilde as a speaker. Everyone was getting tired
of talk by this time, and opinions were mixed about Harris's
speech. H. W. Nevinson said it was "such a speech as seemed
to wipe out every previous word with the grandeur of its
praise"1®® but O'Sullivan said the praise was for the Duch
ess of Sutherland at the head table, and that Harris flat
tered her unmercifully while supposedly talking about
Wilde.1®® The final toast was that of Herbert Trench, "The
Chairman," to which Conway replied.^®®
Ross's Accomplishments as of the End of 1908
In the thirteen and one-half years since Wilde had been
sentenced in 189 5, Ross had accomplished much on which he
^®^Speech published in Ross, Friend of Friends,
pp. 155-157.
^ ® ®More Changes, More Chances (New York: Harcourt,
Brace and Co., 1925), p. 291.
^ ® ®Opinions, pp. 106-107.
^®°Cornish, "Dinner." Ledger noted that Ross had told
him this was the best report of the dinner that was pub
lished .
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235
could look with pride. Wilde was reestablished as a writer,
with a complete edition of his works available and individ
ual books reissued frequently. His children were good
friends of Robbie's and were receiving a substantial income
from their father's estate. During these years Ross himself
had achieved a reputation as an art critic. His eight years
witii the Carfax Gallery had taught him much about art, made
him well known, and given him a sense of accomplishment for
his promotion of the newer English artists. His appointment
as principal critic for the Morning Post was increasing his
power and influence in the art world, and he continued to
write reviews and comments on both literature and art for a
number of other journals. Personally, he was living with
someone of whom he was fond, and had a large group of
friends. Even his health, always a bit precarious, was
good.
Ross's life continued in the same pattern for the next
four years, filled with writing, work for the Wilde estate,
art activities of increasing responsibility, and friends.
But from this time on he was bothered by increasingly seri
ous difficulties with Alfred Douglas.
Trouble with Bosie
One old friend of Ross and of Wilde was absent at the
dinner honoring Ross's activities for the author. Though
Alfred Douglas and Ross had not broken off their acquain-
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2 3 6
tanceship, relations between them had been strained for some
time. Several years previously, in December of 19 05, Ross
had begun an association with one of the most respected lit
erary weeklies. The Academy, for which he wrote reviews and
contributed parodies, poems, and flights of fancy. By 1907
the proprietors wished to sell the paper. Harold Child, one
of the assistant editors, suggested that Ross might be able
to find someone to buy it and make Ross editor. When Bosie
wrote from the country that he was bored, had no money, and
wanted something to do, Ross suggested that his cousins. Sir
Edward and Lady Pamela Tennant, might purchase the paper for
him. The Tennants asked Ross to their country house to dis
cuss the purchase and finally agreed to it. About the time
Bosie took over the editorship, Edmund Gosse became editor
of Books, a new review, and Ross promised to write for him,
so he could contribute only occasionally to The Academy. As
time went on, the paper deteriorated, and Ross became some
what reluctant to appear in it. VThen Douglas, tired of the
work connected with the editorship, hired T. W. H. Crosland
as his assistant, the paper grew violent and scurrilous in
its assaults on all it opposed, either in literature, poli
tics, or religion. Crosland, who would not only attack any
thing if it would bring him money, but would convince him
self of the justice of the attack, had after years of news
paper writing scored a success with his Unspeakable Scot, a
vicious criticism of all aspects of that country, and later
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237
founded a series of short-lived papers in which he combined
his interests in literature and in blackmail.^®^
In the spring of 1908 Douglas sent Ross a copy of a
play by Maurice Baring, urgently asking him to review it for
the Academy. Ross later wrote of the incident that:
When the review was published, I found that a perfectly
ordinary criticism of the book in question had been turned
into vulgar and violent abuse of a great personal friend
of mine who were [sic] dragged into the article and mer
cilessly attacked. . . . There was just enough of myself
left in the article to make it clear who was at least one
of the authors. I was deeply offended as well as
annoyed.^ ^ ^
Though Ross's reviews were usually signed, his name had for
tunately been removed from this one. He returned the pay
ment for the article to the manager with a note saying he
would not write for the paper any more, and would not accept
payment for the article, since he had not written most of
it. He asked the manager not to say anything about the
problem to Douglas, for he wanted to avoid a quarrel
(p. [11]).
In August of 1908 Ross met Douglas and his wife, whom
^^^Croft-Cooke, Bosie, pp. 215-218; Ross, "Statement,"
pp. [9-10], 45.
^^^Ross, "Statement," pp. [11], 46. Apparently Douglas
removed any mention of Baring, for I looked through the
entire volume, as well as the index, and have not been able
to identify the article. There are so many attacks on vari
ous persons that it cannot be identified by that, and I
could not recognize anything in Ross's style, though his
friends might well have been able to. If it were one of
those reviews where Ross begins or ends by discussing a dif
ferent subject from the book being reviewed, it would have
been easy enough for Douglas to have separated part of the
review.
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238
he had not seen in months, at a weekend in the country house
of Frank Lawson. Douglas mentioned the article at the din
ner table and Ross
told him that I thought he owed more courtesy to me as an
old contributor to the "Academy" and as the inventor of
his becoming the editor. There was an explosion at the
table on the part of Alfred Douglas. I did not lose my
temper though I apologised afterwards to our host who told
several people that he would never have us in the house
again. Lady Alfred Douglas asked me to be reconciled with
her husband and on her account I invited him to lunch with
me at my club in August 1908. That was the last time I
spoke to him. We parted perfectly good friends. (p. 47)
After this, Douglas printed the somewhat confidential con
tents of a private conversation. Ross had told him about a
letter the Methuen fiirm had received from a prominent Oxford
scholar, who had not thought Methuen should have published
De Profundis. Douglas was annoyed with Methuen because the
company refused to advertise in his paper, and used the
information Ross had given him to attack the firm (pp. 47-
48). Again Ross made no protest, knowing it to be useless.
Douglas was by now determined to be unfriendly, and when he
heard of the testimonial dinner to Ross he "made some very
disagreeable remarks on the subject to various friends"
(p. [12]) and wrote Reggie Turner a letter which Reggie
showed to Robbie.Ross was "deeply offended" that he
received "no word of acknowledgement or congratulation" from
page 49 of his "Statement" Ross mentions the let
ter, but does not say to whom it was sent. Douglas says it
was Turner in a letter to Ross dated March 1, 1909, copied
in the "Statement," p. [16].
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239
Douglas (pp. 48-49) at the climax of all his efforts, but
realized that Bosie was jealous of the honors which Ross
himself was receiving. In addition.
He could not help feeling guilty, I think, that if he had
fulfilled his promise, the difficulties against which I
had successfully contended in bringing Wilde's estate out
of bankruptcy would never have existed— the promise being
that he himself or his family would pay off Wilde's
creditors. (p. [12])
Indeed, Bosie himself had been one of the creditors. The
estate of Lord Queensberry had been among those to receive
the twenty shillings on the pound with four per cent inter
est when the bankruptcy had been paid off. Bosie's quarter-
share amounted to B175 plus interest.
Douglas, who was always hard up, could now see the
financial advantages that would have been his had he agreed
to pay off the debts and buy the copyrights, and had he ac
cepted Ross's offer to administer them. He disliked Ross
for naving proved him short-sighted in his refusal, and
every time he thought of the money he might have made and
the prestige the act would have given him it made him more
angry at Ross.^ ® ^
A few months after the dinner, in February of 1909,
Olive Douglas invited Robbie to lunch, and he replied for-
i*^Note in Ross's handwriting on page 36 of the copy of
The Suppressed Portion of De Profundis (New York: Paul R.
Reynolds, 1913), in the Clark Library.
isspearson. Modern Men and Mummers, p. 159, quoting
Ross. This was also Vyvyan Holland's belief (conversation).
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240
mally that he was already engaged. She wrote back to say
that she was sorry that Bosie and he were "not friends just
now" and asked him to lunch with her on Thursday, because "I
always love to see you."^^®
Robbie's answer was long and rather stiff, but kindly
and reasonable. He told her that he had purposely avoided
Bosie since the incident at Frank Lawson's, though they had
seen each other twice. They differed, he said, "on every
controversial matter discussed by the 'Academy,'" and the
paper attacked Ross's personal friends and the books and
authors he liked. He told her of the publication of the
information about Methuen's, of receiving no congratulations
at the time of the dinner, and of Bosie's supporting pirated
versions of Wilde's works.
I have no hostile feelings whatever because I know Bosie
too well and have known him too long. But I decided some
time ago to deny myself the privileges coincidental to
friendship with him. I do not wish to reopen unneces
sarily matters quite unimportant now to anyone but myself;
I merely wish to explain an attitude which otherwise may
have seemed churlish to yourself for whom my regard may
more adequately be described as homage. Perhaps we may
meet under the hospitable roof of Mrs. Carew.^
The next day he received a long and insulting reply
^^®Copy in Ross, "Statement," p. [13]. Although I have
not seen the original of this letter, surely Ross must have
possessed it or he would not have dared put it into the
statement. Quite probably the original was entered as evi
dence in the courts. The same applies to several other let
ters which I shall quote from the copies in the statements.
^ ^February 28, 1909, copy in Ross, "Statement,"
p. [14].
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241
from Bosie, who had read the letter to Olive. Bosie said
that he and Robbie had never been friends and he certainly
did not wish to keep up a connection with "those who are
engaged in active propaganda of every kind of wickedness
from anarchy and socialism to sodomy.Ross was rather
worried about that statement, and took it to Gosse and to
Sir George Lewis for advice. Both of them told him there
was no use reviving the old Wilde scandal, and that prob
ably, since he had been associated so closely with both
Wilde and Douglas, any action would be futile. Therefore he
let the matter drop, and did not see or hear from Douglas
for some time.
Ross Leaves the Carfax
Ross was probably rather glad to be able to leave the
Carfax, with its demanding and somewhat rigid schedule,
especially since it had never been a great success finan
cially, and since he was writing and speaking frequently
about art matters. Ross sometimes found it difficult to act
as salesman for the same persons he was praising or blaming
in his criticism. One might be suspected of a private in
terest. He did not always enjoy acting as a salesman,
who had to "agree with what everyone said, whether in praise
^^®Letter dated March 1, 1909, copy in Ross, "State
ment," pp. [16-17].
i**Robert Ross, "Non Angeli Bed Angli," in Masques and
Phases, p. 154.
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242
or blame,and wrote a witty little essay about a show of
Max's work, featuring himself as chief subject of the joke,
and a ''Distinguished Client."
D. C. (glancing round). Yes; how very clever they are.
SHOPZ'iAN. Yes; they are very amusing.
D. C. I suppose you have had heaps of People. What a
pity Max cannot draw!
SHOPMAN. Yes; it a great pity.
D. C. (examines drawing; after a pause). But he can draw.
Look at that one of Althorp.
SHOPMAN (trying to look intelligent): Yes; that certainly
is well drawn. . . .
D. C. (after a pause). What a pity he never gets the
likeness. That's very bad of Arthur Balfour.
SHOPMAN. Yes; it is a great pity. No; that's not at all
a good one of Mr. Balfour.
D. C. (pointing to Mr. Shaw's photograph inserted in cari
cature) . But he has got the likeness there. By Jove!
It's nearly as good as a photograph.
SHOPMAN (examining photograph as if he had never seen it;
enthusiastically). It's almost as good as a photograph,
(pp. 194-195)
Another disadvantage to the Carfax was the attitude of
the English to anyone "in trade," even a trade such as pic
ture selling. Indeed, someone who long ago was a casual
acquaintance of Ross, when asked what his impression was, or
what people thought of Ross, said, as if the fact made fur
ther comment unnecessary, that, well, at the time he met
him, Ross sold pictures.
Ross's Morning Post Activities
Ross began writing for the Morning Post in August of
1908. It is impossible to be sure of everything he wrote
^°°Robert Ross, "Ego et Max Meus," in Masques and
Phases, p. 194.
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243
for it, because the paper had two regular writers on art,
Ross and James Greig. Ross said that their duties were dif
ferent, but did not define the duties.Almost all the
articles and news notes were unsigned. The Ross family has
a series of scrapbooks containing writing by Ross. One can
be fairly sure those articles were by Ross which are in
cluded in the scrapbooks, but unfortunately some time peri
ods are not covered. Judging from these scrapbooks, from
the style of the writing, and from comments other persons
made, thanking Ross for his mention of them or for good
reviews, it seems that Ross wrote the more or less weekly
"Art and Artists" column, reviewed art shows, and did occa
sional art and literary book reviews and obituaries. Greig
covered most of the art news, salesrooms, and did office
work. Ross does not seem to have kept regular hours at the
office. After the beginning of 1911 "Art and Artists" al
most disappeared and there were more signed columns by Ross,
frequently on literary themes rather than on art. He con
tinued to cover the exhibitions.
His column was a parallel to the paper's "Music and
Musicians" and similar columns. Ross would usually take the
subject or subjects from something going on at the time— the
announcement of the' creation of a Folk Museum at Croydon
(November 28, 1908, p. 11), a new book on Whistler by the
^Robert Ross to Edmund Gosse, February 15, 1912, in
the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
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244
Pennells (December 1, 1908, p. 2), or a coming exhibition of
the Arts and Crafts Society (August 21, 1909, p. 7). He
would then develop the topic, sketching in its historical
background, giving illuminating and humorous incidents, and
discussing its present and future status.
Ross's Critical Beliefs About Painting
The most striking thing about Ross's criticism of both
art and literature was his willingness to accept good work
of any style or period. However, requiring that work be
"good" necessitated some standards by which it might be
judged. Ross's basic principles he took for the most part
from Ruskin, whom he named "the best deceased writer on
painting . . . above everyone, however wrong in some of his
judgements^°^ A controversial belief in his time, and one
out of fashion today, was that the idea behind a painting is
important. The literary subject, so much favored by the
pre-Raphaelites and the high Victorians, had been attacked
by Whistler and his followers. Ross did not agree with
Whistler. For example, he said,
Whistler's portrait of "His Mother" and of "Carlyle" are
greater pictures than "The Princess of the Porcelain Coun
try" because of the dignity of their subjects, the great
ness of their theme and the greater ambition in their aim.
^Robert Ross, The Connaught Square Catechism (London;
Arthur L. Humphreys, 1914), p. 7 of the copy in the Bodleian
Library, Ross d.l45. Ross wrote this questionnaire concern
ing taste in art, and then filled out the first set of pages
in this copy, which belonged to his friend Gerald Siordet.
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245
Whistler has painted the contradiction of his own the
ories . 2 ° 3
Ross did not mean that a picture should be an allegory, like
those deplorable experiments in the so-called art of the
nineteenth century, . . . Watts' "Hope Sawing Off Her
Head," "Age Cutting the Corns of Life," and all the many
evidences "for not being a Christian," on which Watts
wasted a great talent. (p. 17)
He did not like uninspired reconstructions of history, nor
did he feel a Biblical subject must necessarily make a good
painting. Neither did he care for the "triviality of
motive" he saw on the part of too many of the current art
ists .
We see too much of the shivering model; too much of the
domesticity of the artist, too much of his home-life— too
much of Chelsea; not enough thought. The outlook is too
parochial, and the technique too cosmopolitan. (p. 16)
It was scarcely the subject so much as the approach to it
that Ross felt required imagination and the link with some
great theme or motive.
I think, perhaps you will not agree with me, that there is
an emptiness about most French and Dutch pictures for all
their perfect execution. The imaginative motives, the
variations even on monotonous themes to be found in Ital
ian, Flemish and English pictures are a relief after being
sated with French or Dutch art. . . . Rembrandt appears to
me greater than his fellow-countrymen because of the epic
nature of his inspiration and the presence in his canvases
of motives you rarely find in those of his compatriots.
(p. 12)
It amused him to discover that the same critics who spoke of
form and drawing as the only essential qualities of art were
^Robert Ross, Present and Future Prospects for En
glish Art (Liverpool; Sandon Studios Society, 1911), p. 15
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246
quick to condemn Aubrey Beardsley because of his "unhealthy"
subject matter.
Ross believed very strongly in the necessity of each
country maintaining its own style of art, rather than art
ists in one country following the methods and purposes of
another country's art. Art itself should be related "to the
needs, the ideals, the aspirations, the faith, the scepti
cism, the pleasures and the pains" of the nation,but it
should not follow these aims if they were in any way un
worthy. It could lead the people to a more worthy and more
beautiful life. The function of the critic was to teach the
public and the patrons to appreciate what the artists of
their own day were doing, and to give them a sense of what
constitutes quality in art (p. 25). The critic does not
need to guide the artist, and no good artist pays any atten
tion to the critics. He should instead pay attention to his
own country and his own time, not necessarily copying
details slavishly, but interpreting.
Don't paint your own period; paint your own country, your
own thoughts, your own personality; paint the thoughts and
the aspirations of your contemporaries, which should be
for all time; not their clothes and fashions and follies
that will soon past away. (p. 22)
We do not value the great art of the past because of its
representations of the details of its period or country, he
pointed out, but because it pictures the ideals of its age
^"Aubrey Beardsley," in Masques and Phases, p. 149.
^ ° ^Prospects, p. 31.
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247
or country, and because of its technique.
We value Dutch pictures because they are perfectly
painted, not because they represent seventeenth century
Holland; Velasquez, because of his perfect painting, not
because we are interested in the hideous court of Philip.
. . . The Greek gods have never died, because they em
bodied the great thoughts and passions of Greece. Neither
can the great Christian story ever die even if we unhap
pily ceased to believe, because Christian eikonography
symbolised the great thoughts and aspirations of Europe.
They were for every age and for all time. (p. 22)
On the other hand, the only way in which we can embody these
"thoughts and aspirations," the only way we can understand
them, is through the qualities and characteristics of our
own country and our own past and present.
You often hear of the Universal Language of Art. That is
all nonsense; there are fifty languages of art. The art
of each country should have its own accent, its own lan
guage, whatever it may absorb from others. The charm of
French art consists in its being so French; of mediaeval
German because it is so mediaevally German. I am often
shown a certain kind of picture— pictures of doubtful
provenance. They are chiefly of the late sixteenth cen
tury. No one will hazard a name. They have something
Flemish, something Italian, and something German about
them. More often than not they are by the Flemish forgers
or copyists in Milan or in the Netherlands. . . . But they
are always second-rate. The racial element has disap
peared under the crushing cosmopolitanism of the Nether
lands. You would never hesitate about a Van Eyck or a
Memling, even if you did not recognise the hand of the
artist. A great artist such as Antonello de Messina can
come north and absorb the technical secrets of the Van
Eycks, but he remains an Italian. A Dürer can go to Ven
ice and retrieve some of the softness of Bellini; but he
remains a splendid and sturdy Teuton (I believe of Hun
garian origin). At any rate, he did not lose the nation
ality of his art. Whistler was never so wrong as when he
said "art has no country." (p. 30)
Another of Ross's ideas which betrays Ruskin's parent
age is his frequently stated belief that "architecture is.
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248
of course, the first and most important of all the arts."^°®
It, like painting, should be a national form, reflecting the
needs of the people— "hygiene, space, light, air and beauty"
rather than "the faith and aesthetics of the past," nor
should it change just for the sake of c h a n g e . For
instance, the Italians were wrong to replace solid blocks of
buildings, full of air and shade, and needing only a good
cleaning and better sanitation, by "badly-built ugly shade-
less streets" (p. 5). Architecture more than painting must
consider the needs and wishes of the people who use it, and
it gains by the contact with these people (p. 10). The best
painting is that which is most closely allied to architec
ture .
Painting can never have any part in the promised recon
struction of national life until we have a school of monu
mental artists, e.g., artists who are permitted to carry
out decorations on wall spaces in public buildings. The
English climate, particularly that of London, is unfavour
able to the preservation of fresco (in the Italian sense
of the word); but there are other methods by which the
difficulty can be obviated; the application of canvas or
zinc to the wall; and where the light is fair, the cover
ing of the wall picture by glass. The revived use of
tempera should also be developed for the purpose. Paint
ings in frames, which can be carried about to exhibitions,
removed and sold at the death of the owner, have no rela
tion to national life. They become the sport of the col
lector, the dillettante, the dealer, and the expert.^®®
^°®"There Is No Decay," in Masques and Phases, p. 294.
^° ^Prospects, p. 5.
2 0 8"The Possibilities of Painting and Painters,"
T. P.'s Magazine, pp. 337-338. No date or volume number,
copy in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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249
Ross very seldom discussed the technique of artists, nor had
he the talent of making one see what an artist has achieved
through a variation in a particular method. Perhaps this
weakness in his criticism can be explained by his not being
an artist himself, although he was always eager to deny
Whistler's statement that non-painters could not be good
critics.^®® One must know about technical considerations,
he felt, but that was not all one should look at.
Good drawing, astounding facility, perfection of execution
do not constitute art. They are simply like a number of
rules and resolutions hung up in a frame. . . . Meisson-
nier is deficient in quality. He is merely clever. He is
a brilliant painter; he is not an artist. (p. 25)
Ross might mention the design and composition, the grouping,
the color, and the quality of paint, but rarely does he have
anything illuminating to say about them. For instance, his
discussion of Blake would have been more useful if, in addi
tion to mentioning his "wofully inaccurate" drawing, which
nevertheless has "felicity and daring" he had gone on to
explain how a specific distortion might convey a sense of
movement, of solidity, or contribute to the composition.
Perhaps he noticed these things automatically, and expected
his readers also to note them without much discussion being
necessary. He also believed that discussion of the way in
which artists had solved the technical problems of the past
^ ° ^Prospects, p. 9.
2ioiiThe Place of William Blake in English Art," Bur
lington Magazine, IX (June, 1906), pp. 150-167.
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250
was to some extent unnecessary, and would come to be less
important to the art of the future, because the camera was
in the process of solving these problems mechanically. Even
movement was represented better by the "cinematograph" than
by the futurists. The painter must now do something more
difficult than work out problems of technique, he must use
his imagination and his discrimination, as must the critic
and the public.
Perhaps more explanatory of Ross's usual lack of tech
nical discussion was his belief that the painter chose the
way he painted in order to reveal how he saw what he was
painting, and that therefore the important thing to discuss
was the theme. ior instance, in discussing medieval book
illustration, he said:
Nothing is more interesting than to trace the development
by which illustrations gradually shed all attempts at the
vraisemblable, or to discuss why unknown artists with a
superb technical equipment gradually but deliberately dis
pensed with such obvious apparatus as perspective and an
atomy. The old explanation that they were unable to make
use of them is now generally abandoned, because their age
overcame much greater difficulties both in painting and
architecture. Perhaps Byzantine and mediaeval artists
felt, as we do ourselves, that antiquity, whatever it was
like, in no way resembled contemporary life; and that in
illustrating passages from Holy Writ or romances or
classic literature it was necessary to present une anti
quité stylisée.^ ^ ^
Ross was impatient with those who praised the artistic
conventions of one age at the expense of those of other
2 Introduction," Forty-Three Drawings by Alastair
(London: John Lane, 1914), p. xv.
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251
times. He felt that art developed in cycles, .each age
reacting to and growing out of the art of the preceding
time, and that each was equally worthy.
Painting commences with a childish naturalism, such as you
see on the walls of pre-historic caves. . . . Gradually
this childish naturalism develops into decoration; it be
comes stylistic. The decoration becomes perfected and
sterile; tlien there arises a more sophisticated genera
tion, longing for naturalism, for pictorial vraisemblance,
without the childishness of the cave pictures. And their
new art develops at the expense of decoration; it becomes
perfect and sterile. What is commonly called decay is
merely stylistic development.^^^
However, he did not like the "stylistic development" of his
own time. Art Nouveau, which he called "this atrocious
fashion," examples of which should be "hidden wisely.
This developmental cycle applied to other things be
sides art. The Roman Empire, Ross pointed out, did not
really "decline and fall" but was absorbed religiously "by
the Roman Church." Its government became the basis of that
of many European nations, and its art and literature "was
embalmed in Byzantium" (p. 281) . Byzantine art was not the
debasement of Greek and Roman art, but "really the decora
tive expansion of it." From Byzantine developed Sienese
art, and from that "the Florentine manifestations of Cimabue
and Giotto" (p. 284). Then followed the course of Italian
painting as usually traced down to the great artists of the
2i2"There Is No Decay," pp. 283-284.
^ ^ ^"Art and Artists," Morning Post, August 21, 1909,
p. 7.
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2 52'
high Renaissance, Raphael, Michael Angelo, and Da Vinci.
Ross was not willing to stop there, as he said most of the
critics of his time did, but granted value to the seven
teenth century, to Guido Reni, the Carracci, and on into the
eighteenth century/ with Longhi, Piazetta, and Tiepolo.
Tiepolo, especially, was a favorite of his.
But we know, painters certainly must know if they look at
old masters at all, the Tiepolo, if he was the last of the
old masters, was also the first of the moderns; it was his
painting in Spain which influenced Goya, and Goya is not
only a deceased Spanish master, he is a European master of
to-day. You can trace his influence through all the great
French figure-painters of the nineteenth century down to
those of the New English Art Club, though they may not
have actually known they were under his influence.
(p. 283)
Of course, Ross said, outside forces might interrupt the
normal development of art. Influence from politics and com
merce, the rise of the common man, had caused Romanticism
and a swing back to the realistic. Otherwise the style of
the Renaissance might have continued beyond Baroque and
Rococo to a further conventionalization (p. 284). A new
generation might change the ideals of the old one, or one
medium might be neglected for a while as another developed
(p. 294).
That is why it is so confusing and interesting; but there
is no reason to be depressed about it. Only iconoclasm
need annoy us. In histories of English literature too
often you find the same attitude when the writer comes to
a period which he dislikes. (p. 285)
Ross's own preferences tended to be for the very indi
vidualistic and stylized, but he usually did not let them
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253
upset his judgment. When he filled out a copy of his Cate
chism on art, he mentioned Rembrandt, Titian, and Delacroix
as three great masters whose work he disliked (p. 7), but
from his writing about those painters one would hardly guess
it. Rembrandt in particular he praised time and time again,
and Titian is frequently referred to as a master from whose
work all later painting developed. When Ross was young, he
named his favorite painters as "Blake, Botticelli, and
B u r n e - J o n e s , but later he came to prefer the very styl
ized yet realistically detailed Carlo Crivelli, whose "An
nunciation" he called his favorite picture in the National
Gallery. Crivelli had much in common with Ross's beloved
pre-Raphaelites. Yet, in naming favorite painters from
various countries, he could choose such a variety as Old
Crome, Chardin of the moderns and Enguerand de Charonton of
the primitives, Stefano da Tevio and Tiepolo, Bartolomeo
Vermejo, Der Hamburger Meister, Breughel the Elder, and
Fabritius.^ ^ ®
Responsibilities in the Art World
After his appointment to the Morning Post, Ross's repu
tation as an art critic grew rapidly and caused him to take
on a number of responsibilities and to receive considerable
^^^Robert Ross, "The Drama: Archer v. Artemis and
Another," Academy, LXX (April 14, 1906), 359.
^ ^ ^Catechism, p. [6].
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254
recognition. He was a member of the first committee to head
the Contemporary Art'Society, founded in 1910. During the
first eighteen months of its traveling shows of works by
contemporary British artists, over 250,00 0 people in a num
ber of cities attended the shows. Ross wrote the introduc
tion to some of the catalogues and spoke at the opening of
at least two of these exhibitions.^^® In 1912 Ross became a
member of the committee of perhaps the most important group
in British art life, the National Art Collections Fund.^^^
Also in that year he was named London Adviser to the City of
Johannesburg Art Gallery,^for which he inspected works of
art commissioned by its committee in South Africa, and over
the years recommended the purchase of a number of works now
in their collection, mostly by contemporaries or pre-Rapha
elites. Among his other activities were two lectures he
^^®Russell, "Art," p. 347; "Notes," Burlington Maga
zine , XXIII (April 1913), 58-59; Manchester Courier, Decem
ber 11, 1912; "Art in Newcastle," Newcastle Illustrated
Chronicle, October 19, 1912; "Without Prejudice,*' Leicester
Mail, January 6, 1913. The later clippings are in a scrap
book owned by J. P. B. Ross and page references are not
available.
^^’d . s . MacColl to Robert Ross, December 21, 1911, in
Ross, Friend of Friends, pp. 220-221. MacColl in this let
ter only wished that Ross were a member, but his letter of
August 21, 1912, recommending Ross for another position,
shows that by that time he was on the Committee.
^^®Margery Ross, "Introduction," Friend of Friends,
p. 11.
A. Hendriks, Director, to Margery Ross, April 26,
1951, in the possession of J. P. B. Ross. Margery Ross
gives the date of the appointment as 1912, and this is sup-
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255
was asked to deliver at the Old Blue Coat School in Liver
pool in 1908 and 1910, holding office in the Society of
Authors and the Poet's Club, and service on Committees for
dinners in honor of Sidney Colvin, Charles Aitken, and C. J.
Holmes.22 0
: Ross's name was also mentioned for some important posi
tions which became vacant during this period. In the summer
of 1909 Lionel Cust retired from the Keepership of the Na
tional Portrait Gallery, and Gosse wrote to Ross that "your
friends have been working for the N. P. G."^ ^ ^ However,
C. J. Holmes received the appointment. Holmes himself felt
that Ross was better qualified for the position than he was,
and that Ross failed to win it because Cust and the conser
vative members of the board objected to Ross's connection
with W i l d e . 2 2 2 January of 1911 the same sort of thing
ported by his mentioning the appointment as a reason for re
signing from the Morning Post in 1912. However, on Decem
ber 25, 1910, Hugh Lane wrote Thomas Bodkin about Ross's ap
pointment. Perhaps Lane had advance information, but it
would seem very far in advance. (Quoted in Bodkin, Hugh
Lane and His Pictures [Dublin: Browne and Nolan, Ltd.,
I934j, p. 2Ô.)
2 2°There Is No Decay (Liverpool: Northern Publishing
Company, Ltd., 1908), and Present and Future Prospects for
English Art (Liverpool: Northern Publishing Company, Ltd.,
1910); "The Dinner," Author (April 1912), 109-110; "Poets
Club," The Times, February 18, 1913, p. 9; Ross, Friend of
Friends^ pp. 226-227; "Tribute to Mr. Charles Aitken,'* Morn-
ing Post, June 7, 1910, p. 9; Holmes, Self and Partners,
p. 270.
22^Edmund Gosse to Robert Ross, August 6, 19 09, in the
possession of J. P. B. Ross.
2 2 2jjoimes, Self and Partners, pp. 259-263.
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2 5 6
happened about the Tate, when MacColl left because of his
health.^^ ^
Ross was also involved in a nuinber of controversies
about art during this period. The most amusing, -and one
which demonstrates how important he considered great art to
oe, arose over the flooding of the Temple of Isis at Philae,
in order to build the Assuan"Dam. A letter to the Times de
fended this destruction because of the economic help the dam
would bring Egypt, and said that the writer was sure that if
an art lover, a baby, and the Dresden Madonna were in a
burning garret, any art lover would save the baby rather
than the picture.Ross replied that ^ would save the
picture, and the controversy raged for several days. Ross
ended his part in it by telling the Globe that he really
only hoped that he would save the picture, rather than
either the baby or himself.
Indeed, there are many other works of art for which, sit
ting beside a patent fire extinguisher, I find it easy to
think that I would lay down my life; there are few adults
or babies for whom I would make any such sacrifice.^
Besides, he added, saving the picture would show the great
est courage, for you would have the whole press against you.
N.B., p. 548; Michael Sadler to Robert Ross,
January 31 and February 2, 1911, in the possession of
J. P. B. Ross.
2 2‘ ^Sir Henry Knollys, "Philae Sentiment," The Times,
September 28, 1912, p. 6.
2^^Clipping dated October 5, 1912, in the possession of
J. P. B. Ross.
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257
The Reburial and Tomb of Wilde
Ross became involved in a controversy himself, over the
construction of the tomb for Wilde which Mrs. Carew's gift
had made possible. Ross had always intended that Wilde
should some day be reburied at Père Lachaise, if it were
agreeable to the Wilde boys, and for that reason he had only
rented the lot at Bagneux and placed a small stone on the
grave. He also felt that anything more elaborate would be
inappropriate while the bills remained to be paid.
In July of 1909 Ross took Vyvyan Holland with him and
went to Paris to move Wilde's body. Frank Harris's book on
Wilde contains an involved account of the process, which he
later indicated he had been told by Ross. Harris says that
Ross had been advised to put the body in quicklime, which
was supposed to leave bare bones, but instead the lime had
preserved it in recognizable shape, and that Ross refused to
allow it to be transferred with shovels, but moved the
corpse to the new coffin with his own hands.
^^®Harris, Oscar Wilde, p. 334. Like those of the
scene at Oscar's deathbed, the details of this scene have
frequently been a subject of controversy. Harris was well
known for the invention of stories, and possibly he made up
the whole thing himself. On the other hand, perhaps it
really did happen. The controversy arose because in later
years Harris wrote a "New Preface" denying the two incidents
were true. (Included in the 1930 edition published by Gar
den City Publishing Company, New York, but also published
originally in 1926.) He said that he had learned from Reg
gie Turner that the story of the death was untrue, and that
Turner also denied the burial story, telling Harris that he
could find out the details from Kennard or from Holland.
Harris says he then talked to Kennard, who said that
"Ross's story was imagined? but Harris added that "I have
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258
What Holland did remember is equally detailed, if less
harrowing. He told of the endless bother of paper work,
signatures, and stamps. Regulations forbade the use of the
elaborate coffin Ross had ordered, so a plain one from the
cemetery was substituted. The plate on the lid read "OSCARD
WILDE 1854-1900" and Ross became very angry. Finally the
reason to believe that Ross did move the head at least with
his own hands." He did not specify his reason (pp. xi-
xiii) . The next episode in the tale is Kennard's letter to
Holland of February 21, 1926, in which he says that he was
not in Paris, as Holland knows, and never spoke of the bur
ial to Harris. Harris's tale of discussing it with him "is
an entire fabrication." (Letter in the Clark Library.)
A few days later, Harris wrote to Holland, appar
ently in answer to a letter from him, indicating that Hol
land had told him that "the story as related in 'My Life' is
strictly accurate and errs on the side of baldness. You
said that Robbie Ross didn't tell me one quarter of all that
actually occured." Harris says what he wants is the truth,
and will Holland please give it to him.
He goes on to say that he had written the "New Pref
ace" under the influence of Douglas, thinking he was telling
the truth, and had later found out that other things Douglas
had told him were not true, either. Harris did not add that
he had written it in hopes that Douglas would allow publica
tion of the book in England, and that when publication fell
through he again grew angry at Douglas. (Letter to Holland
March 1, 1926, in the Clark Library. Information about
Douglas and publication from Hesketh Pearson, G. B. S.; A
Full Length Portrait [New York and London: Harper & Bros.,
1942J, pp. 314-31^.)
In conversation with Vyvyan Holland in June of 19 66,
he said that Ross did not allow him anywhere near the grave
during the process, and he could not say what the truth was,
but that Ross had not discussed any such thing with him. Of
course, Ross might not have wished to go into such unpleas
ant details with Oscar's son, of whom he was always rather
protective. Holland's memory did not seem good, and he may
not have remembered what happened. It is odd that he con
tradicted what he said in his letter to Harris in the
twenties.
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259
undertaker hacked out the D with a chisel.When the new
coffin was at last interred, Ross told Holland that they had
"done our best for your father's memory" and that they
should now go and have lunch, so they went to a cafe that
Oscar had always liked, and Robbie told anecdotes about him.
In the afternoon,
Robbie, with the schoolboy enthusiasm which was one of his
most endearing characteristics, insisted that as it was a
brilliant sunny day, we should ascend the Eiffel Tower to
have a look at Paris: I myself had never been in Paris
before except to pass through it to go to Italy and
Switzerland and back. So up we went on the three succes
sive lifts, and we spent an hour on the summit while Rob
bie pointed out all the famous buildings and landmarks to
me, and we behaved like tourists and sent out post
cards .228
It took some time to complete the tomb. rirs. Carew and
Ross both felt that an artist should not be dictated to by
his patron, and gave a free hand to the young sculptor,
Jacob Epstein. Epstein had been introduced to Ross several
years earlier by Bernard Shaw, who said that Epstein re
garded Carfax as "the centre of real art in London.
After several postponements, and a problem about customs
duty, the tomb was completed and shipped to Paris, in the
summer of 1912. Years afterward Epstein, writing his auto
biography, felt he had to defend himself against a statement
Z 2 7
Holland, Son of Oscar Wilde, p. 173.
2 2 8vyvyan Holland, Time Remembered, After Pere Lachaise
(London: Victor Gollancz Ltd. , 196 6) , p"I 14.
^^^George Bernard Shaw to Robert Ross, March 13, 1905,
in Ross, Friend of Friends, pp. 111-112.
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260
about the dealings over the tomb, which he had heard that
Ross had deposited at the British Museum.^^° However, the
manuscript department has no record of any such statement by
Ross. Ross did, however, write the details to Charles Ait
ken of the Tate, who in reply told Ross that he was con
vinced Ross had done everything he could to help Epstein,
and that the artist had no defense for his delays and
demands, except that he was an artist, and could perhaps be
excused on that ground.^^^ When the tomb, a solid block of
granite with a stylized nude flying figure carved on it in
relief, was shown in London, there were no complaints. But
when it was set up in Père Lachaise, the French protested.
One morning when Epstein, there to complete a few details
before the unveiling, arrived to work on the figure, he
found it guarded by a gendarme. He was permitted to finish
his work, but though protests were made by many prominent
persons, the tomb was not permitted to be uncovered. Ross,
too, protested on the grounds that an artist should be per
mitted to work without censorship, but one gathers from the
tone of some of his comments that he did not wholly appre
ciate the statue. When the Prefect refused Ross's offer to
add a fig leaf to the angel, and also asked that a bronze
^30Jacob Epstein, Epstein; An Autobiography (New York:
E. P. Dutton, 1955), p. Ô4. "
^Charles Aitken to Robert Ross, March 31, 1913, in
the Clark Library.
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261
plaque be put on the base, Ross tried to give the statue to
the Luxembourg, since it was too heavy to take back to En
gland. Eventually the outbreak of the war gave the
French something else to think about, and the figure was
unveiled.^ ^ ^
Ross's Masques and Phases
When the Wilde edition was completed in 1908, Ross took
on another job of editing, this time of his own articles.
iiasques and Phases, published in September of 1909, in
cluded a few old pieces, such as "A Case at the Museum"; an
article on Oxford he had written for Compton Mackenzie's
undergraduate magazine, in 1902, "The Brand of Isis";^^"*
and another early story, "How We Lost the Book of Jasher,"
printed first in the Author and then in Douglas's Spirit
Lamp in 189 3.^^® Most of the book was composed of Academy
contributions he had made in 1906 and 1907, and his 1908
lecture, "There Is No Decay." He dedicated the book to
Harold Child, the Academy editor who had accepted his work,
and in his dedication thanked "My Dear Child" for the free-
^^^Robert Ross to M. Léonce Bênedité, July 1913, copy
in the Clark Library.
^Epstein, Autobiography, pp. 51-55; Jacob Epstein to
Robert Ross, August 3, 19l2, In Ross, Friend of Friends,
pp. 230-231.
^ ^ ^Mackenzie, My Life and Times: Octave Three 1900-
1907, p. 117.
^^^Croft-Cooke, Bosie, p. 78.
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262
dom which "took off the bearing-rein from my frivolity.
His purpose in writing these pieces, Ross said, was to re
cord observations of "the psychological effects produced by
works of art and archaeology, by drama and books, on man and
situations" (p. xi). To do this he had adopted a great va
riety of forms— indeed, the table of contents gives a dif
ferent form for each of its twenty-five titles, including "a
tribute," "an introspection," "a round-game," and even, for
"Swinblake," "A prophetic book with home zarathrusts." This
parody of the usual listing occurred because he felt that
the division of literature into genres was artificial, and
that many good writers had ignored it. Surely his journal
ism could do what their literature did, he said, and include
essays . . . cast in the form of fiction; criticism cast
in the form of parody; and a vein of high seriousness suf
ficiently obvious, I hope, behind the masques and phases
of my jesting. (p. xi)
The problem one has reading the book today is the
extreme topicality of most of it. Many of the pieces con
tain references to events or people which require a good
background not only in the important happenings but in the
minor incidents of the time. Even the ingenious puns too
often require a footnote to be understood. Ross's parodies
of Shaw or Stephen Phillips say more than any amount of
criticism could about certain aspects of their work, but he
is perhaps most charming as he briefly parodies Wilde:
2 3 6
Ross, Masques and Phases, p. ix.
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2 6 3
THE DEVIL; (applauding). She is charming. She is quite
charming. Salome, what shall I do for you? You who are
like a purple patch in some one else's prose. You who are
like a black patch on some one else's face. You are like
an Imperialist in a Radical Cabinet. You are like a Tar
iff Reformer in a Liberal-Unionist Administration. You
are like the Rokeby Velasquez in St. Paul's Cathedral.
What can I do for you who are fairer than---
SALOME: This sort of thing has been tried on me before.
Let us come to business. I want Mr. Redford's head on a
four-wheel cab. (p. 232)^37
After the Devil has offered her the heads of all the drama
critics, and she has told him she already has most of their
scalps, and reiterated her demand five more times, he is
forced to admit the truth.
THE DEVIL. Salome, I must tell you a secret. It*is ter
rible for me to nave to tell the truth. The Commander
said that I would have to tell the truth. MR. REDFORD HAS
NO HEADl (p. 234)
This piece, "Shavians from Superman," illustrates another
characteristic of Ross's which is apt to be rather confus
ing. That is the way in which a single article will wander
from one subject to another. Sometimes the first and second
subjects illuminate each other, but at times they seem to
near little relationship. Even Ross's brief reviews may
have an introductory paragraph of seemingly unrelated remi
niscence or comment. This piece is better related than
some, all having to do with current drama. Designed as an
afterword to the "Don Juan in Hell" scene from Shaw's Man
^^^Mr. Redford'was the government official who denied
Wilde's drama a license to be performed, thereby annoying
Ross on both personal grounds and on principle.
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264
and Superman, it begins with comments on Ricketts, who
designed many of Shaw's productions, and on Shaw's stage
directions. Even at the time people had difficulty follow
ing some of the article, as appears from Ross's preface to
his own act of the play.
The point of this travesty will be entirely lost to those
who have not read "Man and Superman." It is the first
masterpiece in the English literature of the twentieth
century. It is also necessary to have read the dramatic
criticisms in the daily press, and to have some acquain
tance with the Court management, the Stage Society, and
certain unlicensed plays; and to know that Mr. Ricketts
designs scenery. This being thoroughly explained, the
Curtain may rise. (p. 226)
The preface, like most of Shaw's, goes on for paragraphs
more before the Devil announces the Statue, who begins a
long political and philosophical speech. The Devil finally
objects that this is not drama, and the Statue explains that
indeed it is not, but more pleasant than drama. General
conversation then begins, climaxed by the discussion with
Salomé, one of the guests in Hell. The final stage instruc
tions read:
The audience long before this have begun to put on their
cloaks, and the dramatic critics have gone away to de
scribe the cold reception with which the play has been
greeted. All the people on the stage cover their heads
except the STATUE, who has become during the action of the
piece more and more like Mr. Bernard Shaw. Curtain
descends slowly. (pp. 234-235)
Another type of invention is demonstrated in Ross's
articles on bad poetry and prose, "The Eleventh Muse," "A
Mislaid Poet," and "The Elethian Muse." Who but Ross would
think of creating an anthology of bad poetry and a muse all
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265
its own, as well as a muse of bad prose?^^® Part one of his
anthology, he said, would be bad verse by unknown authors.
He has some prime samples of this:
With some the mention of Burne-Jones
Elicits merely howls and groans;
But those who know each inch of art
Believe that he can bear his part. (p. 88)
or
Where in the spring-time leaves are wet.
Oh, lay my love beneath the shades.
Where men remember to forget.
And are forgot in Hades. (p. 89)
Part Two
would consist of really bad verses from really great
poetry.
Auspicious Reverence, hush all meaner song,
is one of the most pompously stupid lines in English
poetry. Arnold did not hesitate to quote instances from
Shakespeare: —
Till that Bellona's bridgroom, lapp'd in proof.
Confronted him with self-comparisons.
. . . Tennyson surpassed
A Mr. Wilkinson, a clergyman,
in many of his serious poems. (pp. 89-90)
Ross's reviews and articles, such as "Mr. Benson's
'Pater'" or "Simeon Solomon," often give interesting infor-
2 3®In the 1930's his idea was carried out by D. B.
Wyndham Lewis and Charles Lee in The Stuffed Owl (first pub
lished in 1930 by Coward McCann) and republished in 19 62
[New York: Capricorn Books]). They never mention the idea
was Ross's, though they quote and cite from his article a
particular piece of poetry (p. 12), showing that they were
familiar with his work.
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266
mation about the persons discussed, though they rarely give
strikingly new interpretations of their work. His conunents
on issues of the day, such as "English Aesthetics" or "Abbey
Thoughts" were well thought out, sensible objections
expressed in an attractive manner.
What was once the outstanding characteristic of Ross's
writing was his word play. The following two short passages
have been heavily annotated in an attempt to show Ross's
ability with words. The first example is the end of a
review of an exhibition of paintings by Holman Hunt, whom
Ross thought to be a second-rate follower of the more mere
tricious aspects of the pre-Raphaelites.
Like a good knight and true. Sir William Richmond,
another Bedivere, has brandished Excalibur in the form of
a catalogue for Mr. Hunt's pictures. . . .
Every one knows the view from Richmond,I should say of
Richmond; it is almost my own. . . . Far off Sir Bedivere
sees Lyonesse submerged; Camelot-at-Sea has capitulated
after a second siege to stronger forces. The new
Moonet^**^ is high in the heaven and a dim Turner-like
haze^**^ has begun to obscure the landscape and soften the
outlines. Under cover of the mist the hosts of Mordred
^^^R. A. (1842-1921), to whom Ross's essay is dedi
cated. A Strong conservative in art.
2 4 0"View of Richmond Hill and Bridge," 1808, one of the
Turner paintings in his bequest to the National Gallery.
^Claude Monet (1840-1926) whose painting was just
becoming quite popular. An Impressionist.
M. W. Turner (1775-1851) greatly admired by the
newer artists for his late Impressionistic works.
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2 6 7
MacColl, ^ ^ en-Tate^ ' * ^ with victory, are hunting the
steer^** in the New English Forest.^**® Far off the en
chanter Burne-Jones^'*^ is sleeping quietly in Broceliande
(I cannot bear to call it Rottingdean) . ^ “ * Hark, the
hunt, (not the Holman Hunt) is up in Caledon (Glasgow),
they have started the shy wilson steer: they have wound
the hornel,2so the lords of the international,who love
not Mordred overmuch, are galloping nearer and nearer.
Sir Bedivere can see their insolent penells^^^ waving
black and white flags: and the game-keepers and beaters
(critics) chant in low vulgar tones:
When we came out of Glasgow town
There was really nothing at all to see
^‘ *^Dugald Sutherland MacColl (1859-1948), leading art
critic and author of the first important English book on the
Impressionists.
^ * * ^MacColl had recently been appointed head of the Tate
Gallery.
^“ * ^Philip Wilson Steer (1860-1942), leading English
Impressionist.
^“ *®The New English Art Club had as members most of the
English Impressionists.
^“ *^Sir Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898), a leading pre-
Raphaelite.
^ “ * ®Rottingdean was where Burne-Jones lived.
^**^Glasgow was the home of a distinctive and Impres
sionistic style in painting and other forms of art, taught
at the Glasgow School of Art.
^^°E. A. Hornel, one of the Glasgow school of painters.
^s^The International Society of Sculptors, Painters,
and Gravers, a leading exhibition group, with many members
who were not Impressionists, though some of its exhibitors,
especially the foreign ones, were.
^s^Joseph Pennell (1857-1926), well-known for black and
white drawings, lithographs, etc.
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268
Except Legros and Professor Brown,
But now there is Guthrie and Lavery.^^**
Undaunted Sir Bedivere drags his burden to a hermitage
near Coniston; but he finds it ruined; he bars the door in
order to administer refreshment to the wounded Pre-Rapha
elite; there is a knocking at the wicket-gate; is it the
younger generation? No, he can hear the tread of the
royal sargent-at-arms,^^® his spurs and sword are clanking
on the pavement. Sir Bedivere feels his palette parched;
his tongue cleaves to the roof of St. Paul's. . . . Seiz
ing Excalibur, he opens the door cautiously. "Draw,
caitiffs," he cries; "draw." "Perhaps they cannot draw;
perhaps they are impressionists," said a raven on the
hill; and he flew away. (pp. 178-180)
The other excerpt is from "Swinblake," an account of a
trip to Parnassus occasioned by the thought of Swinburne's
essay on Blake. Theodormon takes the tourist around, grate
ful to him for pushing "my only disciple, Mr. Howlglass,"
off a cliff, and tells him "you shall see what you like, you
shall do what you like, except write my biography" (p. 93).
We came to a printing-house and found William Morris
reverting to type^^® and transmitting art to the middle
classes.
"The great Tragedy of Topsy's^^^ life," said Theodor
mon, "is that he converted the middle classes to art and
religion, but he never touched the unbending Tories of the
proletariat or the smart set. You would have thought, on
^ ® ^Legros and Brown were in charge of the Slade School
of Art at the University of London for many years, and were
quite conservative.
2 James Guthrie and Sir John Lavery, two prominent
members of the Glasgow school.
^ssjohn Singer Sargent (1856-1925).
^ ® ®A reference to Morris's Kelmscott Press.
2 5?Morris's nickname.
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269
homoeopathic principles, that cretonne^would appeal to
cretins." . . .
After turning round a rather sharp corner I began to
ask Theodormon if John Addington Symonds^®® was anywhere
to be found. He smiled, and said; "I know why you are
asking. Of course he here, but we don't see much of
him. He published, at the Kelmscott, the other day, 'An
Ode to a Grecian Urning.^®° The proceeds of the sale went
to the Arts and Krafts Ebbing^^i Guild, but the issue of
'Aretino's Bosom, and other Poems,' has been postponed."
We now reached a graceful Renaissance building covered
with blossoms; on each side of the door were two blue-
breeched gondoliers ^ ^ smoking calamus.^ Theodormon
hurried on, whispering: "That is where he lives. If you
want to see Swinburne you had better make haste, as it is
getting late, and I want you to inspect the Castalian
spring."
The walking became very rough just here; it was really
climbing. Suddenly I became aware of dense smoke emerging
with a rumbling sound from an overhanging rock.
"I had no idea Parnassus was volcanic now," I remarked.
"No more had we," said Theodormon; "it is quite a
recent eruption due to the Celtic movement.The rock
^®®Morris designed fabrics, wallpapers, etc., often
with all-over floral designs on them.
^®®Symonds at this time was not known by the average
person to be homosexual, and his writings were very popular.
The Wilde group, of course, knew about him, but did not seem
to like him very much. Berenson wrote Ross he wondered
"what the great and good public would do if it caught the
drift of your 'insinuendos' about the sainted J. A.
Symonds." (October 1, 190 6, in Ross, Friend of Friends,
p . 136.)
2®°A contemporary term for homosexual, apparently not
in general use or Ross would not have dared be so outspoken.
^®^A combination of the "Arts and Crafts" movement,
appropriate to Morris and the supposed surroundings; and
Kraft-Ebbing, a writer on abnormal psychology.
^®^A reference to Symonds' long-time residence in Italy.
2®®The name of the series of homosexual poems in Whit
man's Leaves of Grass.
^®**The revival of interest in Irish literary material
and methods led by Yeats, Moore, and others.
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270
you see, however, is not a real rock, but a sham rock.
(pp. 94-96)
After George Moore has refused to talk to them, and Yeats
handed them a verse, they go to the Castalian spring, where
the water is very low.
"Yes, we have had to depress the level of the water during
the last few years out of compliment to some of the
bathers, and there have been a good many bathing fatali
ties of a very depressing description."
"You don't mean to say," I replied, "Richard le Galli-
enne?"^ ® ^
"HushK hush! he was rescued."
"Stephen Phillips?"^®® I asked, anxiously.
"Well, he couldn't swim, of course, but he floated; you
see he had the Sidney Colvin^®’ lifebelt on, and that is
always a great assistance."
"Not," I almost shrieked, "my favourite poet, the
author of 'Lord 'a Huzzy don't you fret. Missed we De
Wet. Missed we De Wet?'"^®® (pp. 97-9 8)
Ross even made money on Masques and Phases, "the most
improbable thing to happen to a book of essays." He had
made about £100 on it, he told Mary in December of 19 09.^®®
^®®Ross especially disliked him for editing a pirated
edition of Wilde published in America, which contained
spurious works.
^®®An explanation of dislike for his wretched poetic
drama hardly seems necessary.
^ ® ^Sidney Colvin wrote several articles on Phillips,
whom he thought to be a good poet.
^®®The fourth stanza of Kipling's "Recessional" ends:
"Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet.
Lest we forget— lest we forget!"
Ross did not like Kipling's imperialism, and added a sting
to his parody by referring to the hero of the Boer War,
Christian De Wet, who had defeated the English time after
time.
^®®Robert Ross to Mary Jones, December 22, 1909, in the
possession of Giles Robertson.
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271
Other Publications by Ross
In December of 1908 a separate edition of the eulogy
which Ross had written about Aubrey Beardsley for the 189 8
Volpone was also published. Only a few changes were made in
the text, mostly dropping the stronger judgments or more
personal comments. Aymer Vallance's "List of Drawings by
Aubrey Beardsley" was included to make the fifty-six pages
of text long enough for publication, and the book was dedi
cated to Mrs. Carew's son. Sir Coleridge Kennard.
In addition to writing for the Morning Post, during the
next few years Ross also contributed occasional articles to
other papers; wrote prefaces to the catalogs of at least
three art shows, those of Laura Gosse, Lady Alma-Tadema, and
the Contemporary Art Society show at Leicester, and contrib
uted a weekly column of reviews, reminiscences, and com
ments, "The Literary Log," to the Bystander from October 12,
1910 through April 19, 1911. He provided introductions for
several more editions of books by Wilde; edited an acting
version of An Ideal Husband for George Alexander; wrote a
preface to Alexander's 1910 souvenir edition of The Impor
tance of Being Earnest; and selected for publication pas
sages from Wilde's letters to himself.
2 7°See bibliography for details. The letters were pub
lished only after Ross's death as After Reading, but were
edited during this period, according to the Ross "State
ment," pp. 53-54. Publication was blocked by fear of
Douglas.
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2 7 2
The First Postimpressionist Exhibit
By far the most important event in English art during
the years Ross was writing about it was the first Postim
pressionist exhibition, held from November 8, 1910, through
January 15, 1911. The show was organized by Roger Fry, who
had long been interested in these painters, and who now, as
their prophet, became the leading figure in English art
criticism. Officially called "Manet and the Post-Impres
sionists," it included nine paintings by Manet, illustrating
tendencies which, the catalogue explained, the Impression
ists had developed along one line, and Cezanne and his suc
cessors along others. Twenty-one Cezannes, thirty-seven
Gauguins, and twenty Van Goghs were included, along with a
few paintings each by Matisse, Seurat, Rouault, Picasso, and
others. Although almost all these artists had been seen in
England before, and some Englishmen were aware of them from
visits to the continent, their numbers and their sponsorship
not only by Fry but by a committee which included Lionel
Gust and C. J. Holmes, caused many persons to look at the
Postimpressionists anew, as a school which must be taken
seriously as a real force in current painting. From this
time on one either had to be for Postimpressionism or
against it. Ross chose to be against it.^^^ His review,
^’^Rothenstein, Modern English Painters, pp. 167-168;
Russell, "Art," pp. 349-350; Robert Ross, "The Post-Impres
sionists at the Grafton: The Twilight of the Idols," Morn
ing Post, November 7, 1910, p. 3, partially reprinted in
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2 7 3
most uncharacteristic of him, even went so far as to suggest
that the paintings be destroyed.^^^
Why did Ross so completely abandon his usual liberal
ism, his willingness to consider new ideas, and his respect
for ideas with which he disagreed? The reasons he gave in
his article do not seem sufficient. The technique was not
likely to appeal to him, but only a few months after his
Postimpressionist review he wrote of a Royal Academy show:
We must give up the theory that pictures which do not fit
in with our own [tastes] are necessarily bad, or that when
they are badly painted the painters are insincere. There
is often as much sincerity, labour, and thought in bad
painting as in good.^^^
In the next few years Ross praised occasional items which he
considered to be Postimpressionistic. For instance, in 1912
he spoke of work by a M. George Desvallieres as "more vio
lent, more fauve, and, let it be added, more attractive"
than other pieces. ^ ^ And the same year in March he
admitted that
Ross, Friend of Friends, pp. 188-190, and mostly included as
Appendix B of this dissertation.
^^^See Appendix B for the text of this review. I do
not feel a summary would be useful, since it is the total
effect of the review, the way in which it is organized, the
manner in which even individual words are chosen, which is
of interest in revealing Ross's mind. A bald summary is
untruthful, making Ross's criticisms seem even more short
sighted than they actually were.
^^^"Royal Academy: Oil Pictures," Morning Post,
May 15, 1911, p. 5.
zyitiiArt Exhibitions: The Senefelder Club," Morning
Post, January 23, 1912, p. 5.
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274
Post-Impressionism, as practiced by its high priests, is
harmless to sane people; indeed we know men whose art has
benefited by what is progressive in its methods. Take,
for example, Mr. J. D. Fergusson. . . . The reduction of
representation to essentials has enabled him to extend his
sense of design and colour, to increase the resonance of
rhythm and to reveal the spirit or emotion of his subject.
. . . Representation, which is more in the province of
science than of art, has done more than any other factor
to hinder the development of art in England.
Perhaps his reaction was due to his whole attitude toward
art, that it grows out of the character and life of the peo
ple of a country, and can have a powerful influence on these
people. He had hoped that the Pre-Raphaelites and the En
glish Impressionists were developing a native English art
which could hold its place among that of other nations and
which would have a strong effect for good (in the Ruskinian
sense) on England. Now here was another wave of foreign
ideas, without the emphasis on thought and on ideals that
Ross felt necessary to the highest kind of art, coming along
to take over the minds of the younger painters, and to gain
the commissions and the high prices which the English art
ists should have. Again English art would be drawn aside
from its own development to follow tendencies which, even if
suitable for France, could not be native to and proper for
England. It is for these reasons, I believe, rather than
for anything he saw in the Postimpressionist paintings them
selves, that Ross became so violent about them in his
"Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colour," Morn
ing Post, March 16, 1912, p. 8.
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2 7 5
article.
He certainly did not react in the other direction,
remaining as eager as he had ever been to criticize artists
whom he thought too conventional, regardless of their popu
larity. When Edwin Abbey, R. A., died in 1911, a memorial
exhibit of his work was held, and Ross commented on it
severely. Others, including Sargent and Walter West, wrote
to the paper arguing with him on both artistic and senti
mental grounds, prompting Ross to define the proper work of
a critic:
The critic is concerned only with the point of view of the
collector and the public. No artist ought really to be
concerned as to what any critic says of his own or anyone
else's work. The function of the critic is to stimulate
people to take an intelligent interest in pictures, and
where possible to make them form opinions of their own,
independently of artist or critic. The exhibition of any
artist living or dead, especially when his work is given
the prestige of three rooms at Burlington House, is as
suitable an occasion for free criticism and discussion as
the publication of a book by an author living or dead, or
the policy of a politician living or dead. . . . Michel
Angelo, according to Vasari, on a famous occasion censured
Titian's drawing and that of all Venetians. If the work
has a tithe of the qualities claimed for it by Mr. West,
Mr. Abbey's admirers may console themselves by reflecting
that robust art survives all criticism. And those who
agree with me, or will agree with me in the future, and I
frankly fear there will be many, may console themselves
with the reflection (in the event of their being outnum
bered) , that the critic erred, as Michel Angelo erred, on
a subject of possibly more vital importance.^^®
This seems an even more appropriate comment on Ross's dis
like of tne Postimpressionists.
2 7 6 ' i j y j r . Abbey's Drawings," Morning Post, January 10,
1912, reprinted in Ross, Friend of Friends, pp. 222-223.
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2 7 6
Ross Leaves the Morning Post
As time went on, there were many changes on the staff
of the Morning Post. These were caused by the death of
Algernon Borthwick, Lord Glenesk, who had run the paper
since 1352. He had died shortly after Ross's appointment,
leaving the paper to his daughter. Lady Bathurst. Fabian
Ware, who had become editor several years before Borthwick's
death, resigned in June of 1 9 1 1 . H. A. Gwynne, who re
placed him, instituted a number of changes; Ross felt under
pressure from the proprietors. Ross described what happened
in February of 1912 thus;
What I have been expecting for some weeks & always thought
might happen occurred the day before yesterday. I have
been compelled to resign my position on the Post. Nothing
was done rashly on my part. A pistol was held at my head.
I have nothing to complain of whatever— everything is
decency and order. Of course I was "intrigued" out of the
office just as Ware & Belloc & others have been. Briefly
I was invited either to take a smaller salary or to under
take definite office work from 7-11 P.M. & 3 to 7 P.M. on
alternate evenings. The editor with charming candour said
he never expected I would accept either suggestion. About
a month ago there was a complaint I was "too slow in get
ting art notices in" & "that my colleague had too much to
do." This was quite a reasonable & true charge. But I
was able to point out that in a letter I wrote the former
editor I warned him that I was always a slow worker &
would always be one & that he must accept that among my
other disabilities. That my colleague (whose duties are
different to mine) had too much on his hands, I always
conceded, & pointed out myself to the new editor when he
took the chair. Of course I am very sorry & it is a lit
tle awkward for the moment from a financial point of view.
As I have no technical grievance against the Editor and
^Fabian Ware to Robert Ross, June 14, 1911, in Ross,
Friend of Friends, pp. 212-213; and Robert Ross to Mrs.
Fabian Ware, June 14, 1911, p. 213.
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27 7
Manager I don't want my friends to say I have. I would
rather they said the Post was foolish to let me go. Of
course no one is indispensible but I can claim to have
raised the prestige of his paper as an authority on art
istic questions.^
Gwynne asked Ross to remain an occasional contributor,^’^
and Ross did so, with several articles in the next few
years.
That Ross's position on the Morning Post had become
quite impossible is shown by an incident in his last month.
The Italian Futurists (Boccioni, Severini, etc.) were hold
ing an exhibition, on which Ross wrote a review. He was not
very favorable, but considered their works seriously.
Gwynne, who had also seen the show, decided that the artists
were "either madmen or knaves" and that the paper should not
give them the publicity of a notice. Ross considered this a
lack of confidence in his own opinions and prerogatives as
art critic. He was offended even more when Gwynne told
Greig to answer Ross's objections to the nonappearance of
the article, only later bothering to explain it himself.
There were a number of published comments on Ross's
resignation, and many persons wrote him regretting the loss
^’®Robert Ross to Edmund Gosse, February 13, 1912, in
the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
^’^Letters dated February 14 and February 16, 1912, in
the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
James Greig to Robert Ross, March 4, 1912; and H. A.
Gwynne to Robert Ross, March 5, 1912, in the possession of
J. P. B. Ross.
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278
of his articles. The Burlington Magazine remarked:
Readers of the "Morning Post" who are interested in art
will have learned with regret that after the end of this
month Mr. Robert Ross will no longer be the art critic of
that journal. This regret would be more widespread were
it possible that so eminent a critic could be allowed to
remain silent. Mr. Ross has for a long time been recog
nized as one of the most fearless and outspoken of writers
on art, and his articles have been a source of keen enjoy
ment, not only on account of his views, but for the manner
in which he has expressed them. To him profundity does
not mean dulness, and his articles have united a charm of
style with a wit which has been unique in modern criti
cism. His sympathies are wide, but with a marked prefer
ence for the great Italian schools of the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries and for certain masters of English
art. There is probably no one living whose knowledge and
appreciation of the Pre-Raphaelite movement is greater.
An early article from his pen on Blake appeared in the
Burlington Magazine (Vol. IX, pages 150, etc), and was
followed by another on Rossetti (Vol. XIII, pages 116,
etc), and we are pleased to think that the appreciation
which these articles brought him probably had much to do
in deciding him to devote his energies to art criticism
during the last few years.^®^
When news of his resignation became known, Ross was
asked by J. A. Spender, the editor of the Westminster Ga
zette , to write articles for them which their regular art
critic, who had an official connection, could not do, arti
cles on "the public interests of art" such as purchase of
pictures, architecture of museums and public buildings, and
the Royal A c a d e m y . Reviews of his also began to appear
in the Times Literary Supplement, such as the page-and-a-
^®^"Reviews and Notices," XX (March 1912), 371. Pre
sumably this article is by one of the editors, Lionel Cust
or Roger Fry, or by assistant editor More Adey.
^February 19, 1912, in the possession of J. P. B.
Ross.
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279
half review of The Sacred Shrine, which was the leading
article in the issue of September 12, 1912.^®^
A New Job
Several of Ross's friends began considering possible
positions for him. C. J. Holmes wrote him on February 23
with condolences, and wondered if he would be interested in
the Cambridge Slade Professorship, if it was not too late.
Holmes said that Roger Fry would support Ross for it. How
ever, it was too late, wrote Holmes on the twenty-sixth, and
Ross must think him an idiot, because Edward Prior had al
ready been named to the position. ^ ®
It was not until August that Ross received an appoint
ment as Adviser to the Inland Revenue on picture valuation
for estate duty, with the recommendations of D. S. MacColl,
then head of the Wallace Collection; Sir Charles Holroyd,
Director of the National Gallery; C. J. Holmes, Director of
tne National Portrait Gallery; and others.^®^ In 1909 the
law had been revised in an attempt to stop the drain of
works of art from England, works that were often sold in
order to pay the high death duties on them. The new law
^®^This is not signed, but appears in one of the scrap
books with Ross's initials in his own handwriting at the
end.
“ ^Letters in the possession of J. P. B. Ross; "Art,"
Annual Register, 1912, p. 5.
^®^Letters in the possession of J. P. B. Ross; Mac-
Coll's published in Ross, Friend of Friends, pp. 231-232.
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280
provided that works of artistic or historical importance
should be evaluated, but would not be subject to death
duties unless they were later sold. The work entailed a
good deal of travel, visiting the estates of the wealthy and
examining their works of art. The sums dealt with were
often high, and social skill and tact were very necessary
for the position, as well as, of course, an excellent knowl
edge both of art and of the market values of pictures and
other art objects. Holroyd also asked Ross to let him know
of any paintings that he saw which the National Gallery
might be interested in purchasing.^®®
Summary
During the years from 1901 to 1912 Robert Ross acquired
an excellent knowledge of art, and a reputation for being
able to write delightfully and usefully about that and other
subjects. He first managed the Carfax Gallery, then was
chief art critic for the ilorning Post, and finally became
Adviser to the Inland Revenue on picture valuation for
estate duty. Ross managed the Wilde estate successfully,
winning appointment as legal executor in 190 6; he edited De
Profundis, a complete edition of the Works, and a number of
individual volumes; as well as two books of his own; he
became a good friend of Wilde's sons and after annulling
^®®Charles Holroyd to Robert Ross, August 23, 1912, in
the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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281
Wilde's bankruptcy, saw the estate bring them a good income.
He lived happily with one person, and they shared a large
circle of friends. Only occasional problems about the cen
sorship of Wilde's works, and a growing difficulty with
Alfred Douglas clouded these years.
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CHAPTER V
NEW TRIALS 1912-1914
When Wilde told Ross of the existence of the long let
ter to Bosie which later came to be called De Profundis, he
had written:
Well, if you are my literary executor, you must be in
possession of the only document that really gives any
explanation of my extraordinary behavior with regard to
Queensberry and Alfred Douglas. . . . Some day the truth
will have to be known: not necessarily in my lifetime or
in Douglas's: but I am not prepared to sit in the gro
tesque pillory they put me into, for all time.^
After Wilde's death, Douglas had begun maintaining that he
had been ignorant of Wilde's homosexual practices, and had
been the only friend to help him on his release. But he had
been spreading this tale in private, as when he talked to
Yeats in 1902, and among his own friends and relatives.
After Douglas took over the Academy, and especially after he
and Ross quarrelled, Robbie began to notice references in
the magazine which showed
that Douglas was not contented with being protected from
censure by Wilde's friends, but that he was endeavouring
to establish a legend that he was seduced by Wilde and
^Letter dated April 1, 1897, in Wilde, Letters, p. 512.
282
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283
that he was the victim rather than the occasion of the
scandals of 1895.^
Early in 1910 Frederick Manners-Sutton, who had been a
friend of Bosie's, brought suit for libel against Crosland,
the co-editor of the Academy. Douglas was one of the wit
nesses for Crosland, and when questioned about his relations
with Wilde, said that he had been the only friend to stand
by him, had been his sole support, and had paid his debts
and funeral expenses.^ When Ross heard of this testimony,
ne was so furious that he wrote to Manners-Sutton's lawyer
offering to testify that Douglas's evidence was false
(pp. [20-21]). However, it was too late, as the case was
over. Later Douglas heard of the offer, and wrote More Adey
that Ross had committed "an almost incredible act of vil
lainy."^ Adey refused to be drawn into the quarrel, and
Douglas then began to try to damage Ross by telling mutual
friends, such as Arthur Clifton and Adey that Ross was
"about to be arrested for unnatural offenses"^ and by writ
ing occasional nasty letters about Ross to Ross's employers
or acquaintances.
^Ross, "Statement," p. [20].
^Croft-Cooke, Bosie, p. 226; and Ross, "Statement,"
pp. [19-20].
‘ 'Letter dated May 19, 1910, in the Clark Library.
Adey's reply to Douglas is dated May 22, and is labeled
"notes of letter actually sent." It is also in the Clark
Library.
SRoss, "Statement," pp. [19], [22], 52.
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284
Ransome's Biography of Wilde
Several books on Wilde had appeared, by Robert Sherard,
by André Gide, and by other continental writers. Ross had
never had any connection with these accounts. In late 1910,
however, when Laurence Binyon, poet. Assistant Keeper of
Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, and long-time
friend of Ross's, introduced his cousin Arthur Ransome to
Ross, Ross agreed to provide information for the book that
Ransome wished to write about Wilde.® Ransome wanted the
book to be primarily a literary study, but had found some
biography indispensable.^ He had read the other books on
Wilde and the newspaper accounts of the trials, and from
this background framed questions which Ross agreed to "an
swer or not as I felt inclined,"® during the course of four
interviews. Ross also loaned Ransome the manuscript he had
prepared from Wilde's letters to him after prison, which he
intended to publish. He did not let Ransome, whom he did
not know at all well, see the typescript of the uncut De
Profundis.® One of Ross's first provisions was that there
should be no mention of Douglas in the book (p. [22]). He
®Ross, "Statement," p. [22].
^Ransome, Oscar Wilde, pp. 11-15.
®Ross, "Statement," p. [22].
®Ibid., pp. 53-54. Ross no longer had the manuscript
in his possession. In November of 1909 he had given it to
the British Museum, with the provision that it should not be
opened to the public for fifty years.
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285
did, however, tell Ransome that he felt that Sherard's and
Gide's statements were true: that Naples had been a disas
ter for Wilde, and that Douglas had earlier introduced Wilde
to male prostitutes and had been responsible for the action
against Lord Queensberry (pp. 53-54). When Ransome's book
appeared, in February of 1912, it was dedicated to Ross and
acknowledged his help in a note, as it did the aid of Walter
Ledger and of Christopher Millard, both of whom Ross had
introduced to Ransome.Douglas was not mentioned, but in
discussing De Profundis Ransome said that the letter was
addressed to someone to whom Wilde "felt that he owed some,
at least, of the circumstances of his public disgrace.
Ransome also said that when Wilde first left prison he was
healthy and seemed able to work, but that he then left for
Naples to meet "a man whose friendship had already cost him
more than it was worth" and that as soon as Wilde's allow
ance was cut off, the friend left.^^
^“Millard wished to remain anonymous but is easily
identified. He was introduced by Ross in a note from Ross
to Ransome dated December 15, 1910, in the Clark Library.
Ransome was introduced to Ledger in a note dated April 29,
1911, in Bod. Ross MS. 4, p. 69. Douglas in later years
insinuated Ransome was a friend of Millard's, introduced by
him to Ross, but these notes prove that was not the case.
^^Ransome, Oscar Wilde, first ed., p. 157.
^^Ibid., p. 196.
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286
De Profundis
Douglas's reaction to the book was immediate, and calm
enough, though unexpected. He wrote to Ross saying that
Ransome implied De Profundis was addressed to himself, but
that he had always believed it was addressed to Ross, though
it contained some references to himself which Ross had sup
pressed. If, he said, it was really to himself, it was
another matter, a serious one.^^
Ross had his lawyers reply to Douglas's letter. Lewis
and Lewis told Douglas that indeed Wilde's original letter
was meant for Douglas, and that a copy of it had been sent
him, according to Wilde's instructions, in 189 7. It had
been through consideration for him that his name had been
left off the published work and the passages which referred
directly to him had been omitted.Douglas then saw Sir
George Lewis and told him what he thought of Ross's conduct.
He was still calm, though bitterly critical. He had never
realized, he said to Lewis and also wrote to Ross, that the
1897 letter, which he had destroyed before he had read it
very far, had any connection with De Profundis. Indeed,
perhaps he had not. He might not have realized, in his fury
at its beginning, that the letter was typed and therefore
obviously a copy, and that the original must exist some-
^^Alfred Douglas to Robert Ross, March 6, 1912, copy in
Ross, "Statement," p. [24].
i^March 7, 1912, in Ross, "Statement," p. [25].
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287
where. Perhaps he had believed that he had really destroyed
this evidence against him, though what he thought De Pro
fundis was is hard to guess. He told Ross that if he had
realized the letter was addressed to him he should have used
every possible means to prevent its publication, although
why he should have done so one cannot say. There was no
thing damaging to him in it, and it had done Wilde's reputa
tion much good. Douglas could not believe, he said, that
Wilde had known that these criticisms of him existed at the
time they were living together so happily in Naples. Doug
las told Ross that he would circulate publicly copies of his
letter to Ross.^®
It is hard to understand why Douglas pretended not to
have received a typed copy of the original letter, and many
people have accepted as true his statement that he did not,
because it seems incredible that he would lie so long and so
persistently about the matter. However, it seems even more
unlikely that he was not lying.
In August of 1897, when Ross himself said that he sent
the typed copy to Douglas, his greatest desire was that
Wilde should not go back to live with Douglas. Yet he knew
that Wilde's resolve to live alone was weakening, under a
barrage of promises and affectionate letters from Bosie. If
Bosie were to get a copy of the letter in which Oscar
^^Letter dated March 9, 1912, copy in Ross, "State
ment," pp. [27-28],
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288
attacked him so vigorously, Bosie might very well be less
enthusiastic about Oscar's return to him. If Robbie with
held the letter but told Oscar that he had sent it, he might
make Oscar very angry at him, should Oscar meet Bosie and
discover Bosie had not received it. Oscar would find out
that Robbie had disregarded his wishes, wishes made not only
at the time he left prison, but reinforced in letters of
June 15 and July 2 0 . It certainly was in Robbie's best
interest that Bosie should receive the letter. It seems
ridiculous to think that Robbie purposely withheld it at
this time in order to surprise Bosie with it later. Robbie
did not know that Oscar would die long before Bosie and him
self. He certainly did not know that Bosie, who at this
time was open about his homosexual affairs, would try to set
himself up as a pillar of respectability. Why would he
think about blackmailing Bosie in the future when it was so
important to keep them apart now?
On the other hand, it would fit in very well with
Bosie's character for him to have received the letter, dis
covered that it was disagreeable, and burned it without
looking further at it. Indeed, he always admitted that he
had burnt a letter from Wilde received about this time, but
said that it could not have been the one in question, be
cause it was too short and was in Robbie's writing (as a
1 6
Wilde, Letters, pp. 609, 624.
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289
covering letter for the manuscript may well have been.) It
was stupid and thoughtless to assume that by destroying a
copy he had destroyed the charges, but Bosie was thought
less. If he really did not read the letter, he did not know
that Wilde had traced the whole history of their relation
ship, and that such a history could be damaging to him in
the future. He probably would not have cared at the time,
anyway.
It was not out of character for Oscar to live with
Bosie and profess to love him while knowing that his attack
still existed. Oscar's sense of honor was not keen, and
Bosie was not such an ideal companion that one would wish to
spare him all harm, regardless of how delightful he might be
sometimes. And after all, from Oscar's point of view the
charges in the letter were perfectly true and well founded,
and he had been very kind to Bosie in keeping his name out
of the trial. Of course the letter should continue to
exist, and some day, after everyone concerned was dead, it
would reveal the truth to posterity.
Max Beerbohm and Reggie Turner had apparently seen the
manuscript in 189 7, when Max quoted the "Infant Samuel" pas
sage, and Wilde had apparently shown it to or discussed it
with other friends so that Max Meyerfeld had heard.o £ its
existence. If Max and Reggie had seen it, they must have
known that it was addressed to Bosie, and during the years
it would seem unlikely that no one mentioned this to him.
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290
In 1909, when the second edition of De Profundis appeared,
Ross said in the preface that it was to a friend other than
himself, and the German edition had added that the friend
was Douglas. For Douglas himself to have lived in ignorance
of these facts all these years is most unlikely.
Now, however, in 1912, it would make Douglas seem an
utter fool if he acknowledged that he had received the let
ter, thrown it away without reading it, and afterwards
invited Wilde to live with him. Also, if he acknowledged
receipt of a typed copy, he would have no chance to regain
the manuscript of the letter. And it was important to him
tiiat he should do so. If he had the manuscript he could
either destroy it or delete the damaging parts from it, and
then say that anything that was in the copy had been in
vented by Ross through malice. The manuscript itself was
now worth a great deal of money, and the publishing rights,
which he thought he might be entitled to,^^ had turned out
to be worth even more. He would benefit both morally and
financially could he prove the letter to be his, but he
could hardly prove it his if he admitted previous knowledge
of it. If he could convince people Ross had kept possession
of it illegally, and he had never seen it, he might be able
i?It is difficult to say why Douglas thought he might
be entitled to these publishing rights, since the recipient
of a letter owns only its physical form, not the permission
to publish it. However, that he did believe this is shown
by the case he brought against Methuen, which will be men
tioned in a few pages.
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291
to get it back.
The Ransome Case
A strong attack, Douglas always believed, was the best
defense. He was not going to allow even such guarded
charges as Ransome's to appear against him without doing his
best to defend himself. Spurred on by his friend Crosland,
Douglas instituted proceedings for libel against Ransome,
his publisher Martin Seeker, the printer, and the Times Book
Club which had lent the book to subscribers and refused to
withdraw it. The publisher and printer both apologized be
fore the case came to trial, but Ransome and the book club
refused to apologize, and were sued.^® When Ransome re
ceived his writ he came to see Ross about it, and Ross
advised him to go to Sir George Lewis, who took the case.^®
Ross offered to support the statement with documents in his
possession which Ransome had never seen. It worried him to
do so, however. He feared that publicizing the papers would
damage Wilde's reputation, and that this would not be appro
priate for Wilde's executor. In April of 1912 he wrote to
Martin Holman, the solicitor who handled most of the Wilde
estate legal work, asking him to "take the necessary steps
for relieving me of the administration of Oscar Wilde's lit-
i®H. Montgomery Hyde, Cases That Changed the Law (Lon
don: Heinemann, 1951), pp. 165-166.
1 9
Ross, "Statement," p. [29].
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292
erary estate at the end of this year." His personal inter
est, he said, was likely to conflict with his duties, be
cause of the "intermittent persecution from Alfred Douglas"
which he had suffered during the last three years; this per
secution he had ignored because of Holman's advice, as well
as that of Sir George Lewis and his other friends.
One of these other friends was Edmund Gosse. At first
Gosse was critical of Ross, as were others who knew both
Bosie and Robbie, until these persons became well acquainted
with all the details. In July Gosse wrote, saying that he
wished that Ross could
adopt a policy entirely passive and neglectful. Your un-
happy fondness for litigious struggles and fightings,
sometimes, if you will forgive my saying so,— causes you
to lose a sense of the proportion of things. You say you
are full of anxieties, and I daresay you are, and I am
extremely sorry that you are, but you know that in your
heart you have a love of fighting, and that without some
sort of semi-public quarrel going on with some worthless
degenerate or other, your life would be insipid. I wish
you could lift yourself, for once and all, out of this
circle of ideas and people. As to D. as a serious antago
nist, or as to his grotesque and insane manouevers, I
regard them with contempt; and you should do the same.
He is a criminal, but not a dangerous one, because his
mind is loose and ragged.
2 1
^ °Robert Ross, draft of letter to Martin Holman,
April 1, 1912, in the Clark Library.
^^Letter dated July 29, 1912, in the possession of
J. P. B. Ross, partly published in Ross, Friend of Friends,
p. 229. This paragraph was not included, since Margery left
out everything relating to any of the trials that took place
in 1913 and 1914.
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293
Douglas Becomes Dangerous
Up to this time, indeed, Douglas had been a nuisance,
but not a menace. Apparently what caused him to become
really dangerous was his receiving, as part of Ransome's
justification, the unpublished passages of De Profundis.
The accusations of misconduct in the letter could be disre
garded, could be argued or justified. But more frequent
than these references, indeed the main argument which they
only supported, was an accurate, unflattering dissection of
Bosie's character, in which all the things on which he
prided himself were denied by Wilde.
About the time that he received this material, Douglas
began to act more violently. On November 18, 1912, Ross
wrote to Ada Leverson:
The Bosie case has become (as I knew it would) very seri
ous. He leaves letters here & at my club about three
times a week addressed in the style of the late Lord
Queensberry to Oscar. He also threatens to shoot me &
waves pistols about in front of More Adey with whom he is
on friendly terms. The case is down for hearing but can
not come on till after Xmas. Meanwhile Bosie has brought
another action against Methuen & is claiming the copyright
& all the receipts of De Profundis. I am rather glad
about this because I have no fear about the result of this
absurd action and it proves what I always concluded that
Bosie was after money and nothing else. ^
Sir George Lewis also acted for Methuen, since as Ran
some' s lawyer he had the information in hand. Martin Holman
had told Ross he did not wish to become involved in any lit
igation with Douglas, so Holman turned over to Lewis the
2 2
In the Clark Library.
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294
records of the legal proceedings with the Official Receiver,
and the records of the 1910 pirating case on De Profundis,
in which the rights to the work had been discussed.Ap
parently the case against Methuen was dropped, for I have
not been able to find any further record of it.
The letters which Ross received from Douglas grew
steadily more unpleasant. On November 1 he wrote accusing
Ross of having kept the manuscript of the letter for pur
poses of blackmail, and of instituting the Ransome case only
to bring it out into the open.
As a matter of fact, as I was always aware that you had in
your possession the original of the letter with all its
plain lies and obvious absurdities concocted by the filthy
swine Wilde in prison for the express purpose of giving
him a hold over me and my family, & as I was equally aware
that you were keeping this for the express purpose of
blackmail I was neither surprised nor disturbed by its
production.
Douglas said that he hoped that Ross would enter the witness
box so that he could be cross-examined, and said he was sure
that he himself would win, just as he and Crosland had won
in the Manners-Sutton case.
Quite apart from that it is my intention to give you a
very severe thrashing with a horse-whip. I am bound to
come across you one day or another when occasion serves
and you shall be shipped within an inch of your dirty
life. Also there are other things in store for you but I
won't go into them now. There is a time for everything.
The mills of God grind slowly & yet they grind exceeding
small.
^^Robert Ross to Sir George Lewis, November 17, 1912,
and Robert Ross to Martin Holman, November 17, 1912, carbons
in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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295
Alfred Bruce Douglas
To Robert Ross, Bugger and blackmailer.^'*
Douglas's letter of November 2 added some details justifying
his actions toward Wilde in 189 7, and said that the fact
that Ross had remained a friend of his while keeping the
material would be publicized. "Your name shall go stinking
down the ages & I will make you so that no decent man or
woman in England will sit in the same room with you,"
threatened Douglas, and repeated his promise of -whipping and
"other things^^
Three days later, on November 5, he wrote an even more
offensive letter. His purpose, he made clear, was to try to
get Ross to institute an action for libel against him, and
he made several charges of homosexuality against Ross in
order to try to get him to bring this action.
In order to substantiate these charges, which he also
made against Ross to More Adey, John Lane, and others
(p. [36]), Douglas hired a private detective. On November
14 the detective came to the flats where Ross was living, at
13 Little Grosvenor Street, and
cross-questioned the steward of these flats with regard to
myself and my secretary. He asked if the furniture in the
flat was mine; and from what part of London we had both
come. He professed to be the agent of a trade inquiry of
fice. The steward said that we both lived here; that he
^ November 1, 1912, copy in Ross, "Statement," pp. [30-
31] .
^ ^Letters of November 2 and 5 are copies in the Ross
"Statement," pp. [32-35].
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296
did not know where we came from, and that the agent's em
ployers might be sure that I was financially sound. The
steward told me that he thought the man was probably a
private detective. I gather also that there were words of
a mild description. As I have no debts and there is no
possibility of any one instituting inquiries of the kind,
I assume that the man was either a private detective or a
clerk from Alfred Douglas's solicitors.
Douglas had also mentioned to Lane the relationship between
Ross and Smith, whom Douglas apparently knew, since an arti
cle of Smith's had appeared in the Academy in 1908.
Ross had for some years known and occasionally visited
both Pamela Tennant, now Lady Glenconner, and her sister-in-
law, Margot Asquith. In November of 1912 he received an
invitation from Lady Glenconner to attend an "at Home Friday
29th November to meet the Prime Minister and Mrs.
Asquith."^® He was rather nervous about going, fearing he
would meet Alfred Douglas, but Sir George Lewis and other
friends assured him that Douglas would not be there, and he
accepted the invitation. He had just arrived and started
talking to Mrs. Belloc Lowndes, the novelist, when Douglas
did indeed appear, and came over to him saying; "You have
got to clear out of this: you are nothing but a bugger and
^®Robert Ross to Sir George Lewis, November 17, 1912,
carbon in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
^^Ross, "Statement," p. [36]; F. S. S., "The Arundel
Club," LXXIV (April 25, 1908), 710-711. Though the article
is signed only with initials the subject matter and style
are so much like Ross's that only someone who knew him well
could have written it.
2 8
Card in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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297
a blackmailer." Robbie did not want a scene, and immedi
ately went to Lord Glenconner, asking his permission to
leave. Glenconner led him by the arm to his sister, Margot
Asquith, and explained the situation, whereupon she left the
party and drove away with Ross to No. 10 Downing Street.
Douglas "gave to all and sundry" an explanation of his
anger, but he must have felt thoroughly frustrated by Rob
bie's departure with the guest of honor, and he left soon
afterwards. The next day Ross wrote and apologized to Glen
conner and to Mrs. Asquith, saying that should they like an
explanation of the quarrel they might ask Sir George Lewis,
and that he would never have accepted the invitation had he
known what would happen. He received nice notes back from
both of them, Mrs. Asquith saying that she couldn't "imagine
anyone having Ld. A. D. inside their house" and that "We all
thought you behaved splendidly." He also received another
offensive letter from Bosie.
Apparently spurred on by the rebuff he had received
from the Asquiths and Glenconners, Douglas drew up a state
ment with the aid of a disbarred attorney, charging Ross
with "committing unnatural offences" with Smith, and sent it
2*Ross, "Statement," pp. [36-40], including copies of
Robert Ross to Lord Glenconner, November 30, 1912; Lord
Glenconner to Robert Ross, December 2, 1912; and Alfred
Douglas to Robert Ross, November 30, 1912. Copy of Robert
Ross to Margot Asquith, November 30, 1912, and original of
Margot Asquith to Robert Ross, "Sunday" [December 1, 1912]
in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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298
to Scotland Yard on December 4 or 5. No action was taken on
the s t a t e m e n t . Douglas also got his friend Crosland to
write and publish a long satiric poem called The First
Stone.^ ^ Crosland mentioned Ross only in the preface as the
editor of Wilde, who was his chief target. It was a rather
witty and thoroughly unpleasant attack, quoting bits of De
Profundis, in order to paint a most unflattering portrait of
Wilde's character.
After the episode at the Glenconner's parth, the As
quith family became very friendly with Robbie. He sent one
daughter, Violet, a copy of The Spoils of Poynton, which she
thanked him for as "the first drop of Henry James in this
parched and thirsting house"and a month or so later sent
her flowers for her birthday, although he could not accept
her invitation to her party because it was during the Ran
some case, and he was too busy and tired to attend.^^ Just
before the case came up, he spent a weekend at "The Wharf,"
the Asquith's country home, with the family, as well as
"Mrs. Winston Churchill who is very pretty" and an under
secretary of state for India, a Mr. Montague. But even in
^°Ross, "Statement," p. [41].
(London: Published by the Author, Fourteen Conduit
Street [December] 1912)
^^Letter dated February 12, 1913, in Ross, Friend of
Friends, p. 237.
^^Violet Asquith to Robert Ross, April 20, 1913, in the
possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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299
the pleasant surroundings, Robbie worried. He wrote Mary:
I fear I shall have a very bad time of it if I am put in
the box though I don't think there is any fear about the
result. Indeed I would be enjoying myself very much if my
thoughts were not on that revolting libel action.
The Ransome Trial
The Ransome trial, which was prepared by Sir George
Lewis, and argued in court by Mr. J. H. Campbell, K. C., and
Mr. H. A. McCardie for Ransome, and Mr. F. E. Smith, K. C.,
for the Times Book Club, began on April 17, 1913. Douglas
could afford only a rather young and inexperienced barris
ter, Mr. Cecil Hayes. Ransome's lawyers argued that the
statements in his book were true and that they could be
documented by Wilde's own letters to Douglas. Most of the
time in court was devoted to the reading of documents— the
unexpurgated De Profundis till the jury said it had heard
enough of the manuscript (there under subpoena from the
British Museum), other letters of Oscar's, some of Bosie's
own letters, and an article defending homosexuality Douglas
had written for the Revue Blanche. In addition to documen
tary evidence, only two witnesses against Bosie were heard.
M. Didier, the translator of the Revue Blanche article, tes
tified that indeed it was Bosie's own work, and the British
Museum librarian. Sir Frederick Kenyon, identified the manu
script of De Profundis. Ransome was not put in the witness
3^Letter dated April 6, 1913, in the possession of
Giles Robertson.
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300
box since he could not testify from his own experience as to
the truth of the statements which he had made, and would
have had to say he had gotten his information from Ross.
This might have led to the calling of Ross, which both he
and the lawyers wanted to avoid if possible. They succeeded
in doing so.
Bosie was his own main witness. He based his defense
on the money which he had given Wilde, using his bank book
to prove that he had given him £1200 during the last years
of his life, and saying that he had given him at least twice
that amount in cash. This was to prove that he had not
deserted Wilde when Wilde ran short of cash in 189 7. Howev
er, the situation in 1899, after he had received his inheri
tance, differed from that in 1897. Bosie's only other wit
ness was More Adey, who testified about the £200 which he
had delivered to Wilde from Lady Queensberry in 1897. Doug
las wished to prove that he had not left Wilde till Wilde
had enough money to get along, and that Douglas had given
Wilde those £200 out of the goodness of his heart. Adey,
however, testified that the £200 was part of a "debt of
honour" that had been promised Wilde much earlier for the
costs of the prosecution of Lord Queensberry.
Bosie's behavior in the witness box, where he refused
to listen to the reading of De Profundis in spite of orders
from the judge, and where he did his best to antagonize both
lawyers and judge, did not work in his favor. F. E, Smith,
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301
in summing up, paid tribute to Wilde for his suffering, said
it was a pity to have revived the scandal now that Wilde's
literary merit was again being remembered, and urged the
jury not to give Douglas what would amount to a testimonial
of character by awarding him damages. The instructions of
Mr. Justice Darling to the jury were slanted against Doug
las. After about two hours deliberation, the jury found
"that the words complained of constituted a libel and more
over that they were true." The Times Book Club was found to
have shown no negligence in circulating the book.^s
Douglas Tries to Buy a Witness
Several weeks before the Ransome case came up, Ross had
been visited by a Mr. Norman Farr, a medical student at St.
George's Hospital. Farr told him that Mr. Harold Benjamin,
who had attended school with him at St. Paul's School, had
contacted him on behalf of Alfred Douglas. Benjamin was
Junior Counsel for Douglas in the Ransome case. He asked
Farr if he had ever had immoral relations with Ross, and
said that if he would swear to having done so, he would be
well paid. Farr refused, and told Benjamin he had only met
Ross a very few times. They had been introduced about 1902
at Lady Alfred Douglas's. Farr was then about sixteen, and
^^Hyde, Cases That Changed the Law, pp. 167-174; Fred
erick, Second Earl of Birkenhead, The Life of F. E . Smith,
First Earl of Birkenhead (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode,
1960) , pp. 199-208; Croft-Cooke, Bosie, pp. 241-246.
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302
had said he was at St. Paul's, so Ross had asked him about a
Mr. Digby LaMotte, a teacher at the school. Farr had said
LaMotte was his tutor. A few years later Farr had brought
some pictures to Carfax, where Ross had given him some in
formation about them. Aside from passing him in the street
a few times, Ross had not seen him since this occasion in
1906.3G
Ross let Sir George Lewis know what Farr told him.
About four months later, Farr telephoned Ross, saying that
he wished to see him on an urgent matter. Ross asked him to
his home, where Farr told him that LaMotte, still a teacher
at St. Paul's, had sent for him and told him of a visit
LaMotte had received from Sir Charles Mathews, the Public
Prosecutor, a few days earlier. Mathews had shown LaMotte
a letter from Alfred Douglas charging Ross with having cor
rupted St. Paul's School boys over the last twenty years.
Since Farr was the only person whom LaMotte knew to be ac
quainted with Ross, LaMotte had sent for him. Farr was in
the middle of telling Ross about this when two Scotland Yard
detectives arrived. They questioned Ross's servant but ap
parently did not ask to see Ross. This took place on a
Saturday, and on Monday Farr gave Ross's lawyer a written
statement about his meetings with Ross and questioning by
Benjamin. Farr said that he was willing to testify about
3 6
Ross, "Statement," pp. [49-50].
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303
it, but would much prefer not to, because merely being men
tioned in this sort of scandal would ruin him at the hos
pital. Benjamin had again seen Farr, and had told him "that
it was very foolish of Farr not to have taken advantage of
the offer made on behalf of Lord Alfred Douglas.
Ross Quarrels with Some Friends
The autumn of 1913 was a maze of only partially trace
able quarrels and bickering. Robbie's nerves were on edge
after the four years of persecution by Douglas and the
threat of prosecution on faked evidence. He had been plan
ning to leave for Moscow about the middle of August to
attend the first Russian production of Salome, at the invi
tation of M. Lykiardopulos, head of the Moscow Art Thea
tre.^® But since Sir George Lewis had inquired of Sir
Charles Mathews about the statement Douglas had given
Mathews, and had been told that the matter was now in the
hands of Scotland Yard, Ross postponed his trip for a few
weeks so that it would not look as if he were leaving in
order to escape arrest.®® During the wait, he quarreled
with Freddie. Freddie, too, was traveling abroad, and
wished to close up his two rooms of their flat while he was
3 7
3 8
3 9
Ross, "Statement," p. [50].
Margery Ross's note in Friend of Friends, p. 250.
Ross, "Statement," p. [51].
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304
gone. ° The situation was not an easy one for Freddie,
either. He owed so much to Robbie for his education and his
position that it was difficult to feel an equal, but he was
nearly thirty, and wanted to be thought of as a person in
his own right, with achievements of his own. Knowing that
at any time the details of their relationship were likely to
be publicized by Douglas was enough to make anyone nervous,
and perhaps he thought his own situation was as shaky as
Robbie's. Anyway, Robbie didn't think he was properly sym
pathetic, and accused him to Millard of being
the one friend who shows neither affection nor regard nor
sensibility nor appreciation of my appaling position. The
clerks in George Lewis's office have been kinder to me."
(Ibid.)
Robbie also quarreled with Reggie Turner, who was a
neighbor of his at 13 Little Grosvenor Street. Reggie was a
kindly, superficial soul, whose chief wish in life was not
to get seriously involved in anything. He could not imagine
a destructive hatred and desire for revenge like Bosie's,
and remained sure all his life that Robbie had exaggerated
Bosie's attitude. Earlier Robbie had described him to Ada
Leverson:
The really amusing person to give you . . . different im
pressions of the situation is Reggie Turner. He prophe
cies according to the last person he has seen. After an
afternoon with [illegible] he thinks "Robbie is very
silly!!!" After an afternoon with More Adey he thinks
"Robbie is in great danger." After an afternoon with
Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, September 6,
1913, in the Clark Library.
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305
with George Lewis he thinks "Bosie is in great danger and
also very silly." After an afternoon or evening with me
he announces that "he is going abroad before Xmas. " ^
Max Beerbohm, too, wanted to remain on good terms with
everybody, and had written to Robbie to offer his best
wishes for success in the Ransome case, while shortly before
in his correspondence with Reggie he had mentioned "the old
botherationist Robbie" and continued to make other unpleas
ant comments about him.^^
A Trip to Russia
Ross left for Russia on September 4. When he arrived
in Paris he found that he could not get a sleeper for Moscow
until the fifteenth, so he spent about ten days in Paris.
His hotel was crowded, the weather was hot and stuffy, and
he caught a bad cold. He went to see Adolph Birkenruth, an
artist, and got caught in the middle of a quarrel between
him and Reggie. Trying to feel in a proper holiday mood,
and to get Bosie off his mind, Robbie spent his time visit
ing museums, sometimes with Claude Phillips, former Keeper
of the Wallace Collection. But thoughts of Bosie intruded
even in Paris. Ross was interested to find yet another per
son who had had trouble with Bosie. He met an old acquain-
Letter dated November 18, 1912, in the Clark Library,
* * ^Max Beerbohm to Robert Ross, April 12, 1913, in the
possession of J. P. B. Ross; Max Beerbohm to Reginald Turn
er, December 23, 1912, in Letters to Reggie, pp. 218-219.
Also letters from Beerbohm to Turner of June 3 and October
8, 1913, pp. 227-229.
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306
tance, Rowland Strong, who told him that he had quarreled
with Bosie in the same way that Robbie had. Strong had
written Olive saying that he was not going to visit her any
more because he didn't want to get involved in heated dis
cussions with Bosie. But Strong had been more fortunate
than Ross. After some nasty letters Bosie had left him
alone.Finding that Bosie was difficult with others reas
sured Robbie that the quarrel between himself and Bosie was
not really of his own making, as some of his friends kept
telling him it was.
Finally Ross arrived in Moscow on September 18. It had
been a trying trip and he had been misled by Cook's direc
tions .
I was fortunate in my travelling companions. From Paris
to Berlin a most charming German Jew who seeing my name on
a bag immediately ejaculated the fatal name and pressed me
to stay in Berlin in order to be introduced to his wife!
I very nearly denied my identity as I am so sick of the
subject, but the engine whistled three times and remember
ing St. Peter, I gave way, though I hurried on to War
saw. ' * ' *
Ross Appeals for Protection
When Ross returned home, several friends told him that
they had heard there was a warrant out for his arrest and
that he had gone to Russia in order to avoid it. A week
^^Robert Ross to Alex Ross, September 5 and Septem
ber 15, 1913, partially published in Ross, Friend of
Friends, pp. 250-251.
Robert Ross to Alex Ross, September 18, 1913, in
Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 252.
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307
after his return, on Sunday October 12, an old friend, Alban
Head, wrote asking to meet him at the Reform Club that eve
ning about an urgent matter. Head said that a few nights
earlier he had been in the Cafe Royal and had seen Alfred
Douglas there. Douglas had made a point of talking to him,
and had said that Ross was in Russia to avoid arrest. He
had also shown Head a letter from Mathews, the Public Pros
ecutor, which said he was investigating the charges which
Douglas had brought against Ross. The next evening W . E .
Barber, literary editor of the Morning Post, phoned Ross,
asking for an interview. When he arrived. Barber told him
that one of the reporters from the paper had a few nights
before spread the news around the office of a warrant for
Ross's arrest, and his flight to Russia. The reporter said
that he had heard his news from a Scotland Yard detective,
but could not substantiate it.**^
Now that things had come to such a stage, it seemed to
Ross and to Gosse, whom he told about the situation, that he
had a right to protection from Douglas's unfounded attacks.
On Monday or Tuesday Gosse had a long talk with Lord Hal
dane, the Lord Chancellor, and told him the history of the
Ross-Douglas feud. They arranged that on Wednesday evening
both Haldane and Ross should call on the Asquiths, and the
members of the family should retire, leaving Haldane and
Ross, "Statement," pp. [51-52].
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308
Ross free to discuss the situation. Robbie later wrote
Gosse that
the great Margot had informed me in a stage whisper before
leaving the room that she was going to "have it out" with
Mathews. ®
Ross found Haldane a well-briefed and sympathetic listener,
who could not offer to take any official action but who
promised to do all he could for me in his personal capac
ity & expressed a real hope that he might find himself em
powered to do something. . . .
Haldane asked him to prepare a detailed account of Douglas's
actions in the last four years, and the reasons for Doug
las's behavior. Copies of Bosie's letters to and about Ross
were to be included. Ross and Lewis were both very cheered
by the interview, and set to work preparing the statement.
As he worked on it, Robbie told Gosse:
I have been so remiss in writing to you. My nerves &
brain power have been rather paralysed by the events of
the last two days & I have scarcely been able to wade
through my Somerset House reports. I am so anxious not to
get behind hand again. My chiefs have been such angels
the whole of this year, never murmuring. By all the laws
of precedence I ought to have been hurled out for gross
neglect of duty. Of course Edmund Gosse or someone of the
Asquiths have asked them to make it easy for me. This
makes my obligation to keep up to time all the greater. I
would like above all things to write for the Saturday Re
view but not until next year. I could do neither the edi
tor, nor the proprietor nor myself any justice at present.
Apart from my Somerset House work I am not in a fit state
to discuss Literature or art. My grammar as became [sic]
inaccurate & I have lost any little power of expression I
ever possessed. I believe & hope it will come back all
‘ '^Letter dated October 17, 1913, in the Brotherton
Library, University of Leeds.
“^Ibid.
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309
right. . . . all my keen interests in either past or con
temporary art & letters are choked by the egoism of my
private troubles. (Ibid.)
Douglas had been busy during the year at other activi
ties besides offering bribes to prospective witnesses.
Shortly after the Ransome trial in April, his father-in-law.
Colonel Custance, had won a libel case against Douglas. His
wife Olive had left him and gone back to live with her
father, taking their son Raymond with her, and Custance had
won the right to control his grandson's schooling and three-
fifths of his vacation time. In January Bosie had been
declared bankrupt.**® Perhaps to make money, perhaps only
for revenge, during the summer of 1913 Douglas had supplied
information and documents to Crosland for a book Crosland
wrote to be published under Douglas's name, a book called
Oscar Wilde and Myself. It is hard to say whether the style
or the content of the book was worse, but that did not con
cern Ross. What did concern him was that it quoted from De
Profundis and other copyrighted letters of Wilde's. Through
Lewis he got an injunction against publication of the book,
which did not appear until a year later, without the quota
tions from Wilde. Ross also moved quickly in order to make
sure that Douglas could not publish the book in America. He
arranged with an American publisher, Paul R. Reynolds of New
York, for the printing of fifteen copies of the complete De
Croft-Cooke, Bosie, pp. 233-239
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310
Profundis. Ross sent his old typescript over on the first
possible boat, and the copies were ready in ten days. Two
of them were deposited in the Library of Congress, and a
third copy had to be exhibited for sale in order to fulfill
the copyright requirements. Though Ross set a price of $500
on it, thinking that would discourage the merely curious, an
unknown person entered the showroom and bought it. The
other twelve copies were sent back to Ross in England.
Keeping one for himself, he gave the others to people who
had been concerned with Wilde's literary work of the legal
rights to it, including Viscount Haldane, Sir Edmund Gosse,
A. L. Humphreys, John Lane, More Adey, Algernon Methuen,
G . E . Webster, Sir George Lewis, Christopher Millard, Martin
Holman, and Vyvyan Holland.**^
Ross Tries to Continue His Usual Life
Although it was difficult to think about anything ex
cept Douglas's persecution, other business had to go on as
usual. His work for the Inland Revenue department made it
necessary for him to travel constantly all through the Brit
ish Isles. When he was home, he was busy with his friends
and with helping younger artists and writers. Eric Gill's
work impressed him very much, and he had given Gill the com
missions for the lettering both on the tomb of Wilde and on
‘ '^Croft-Cooke, Bosie, pp. 249-251; Hyde, Aftermath,
pp. 195-196.
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311
the reredos of the tomb of his brother John Ross.^° Though
Gill was making his living as an engraver of letters, he was
also a sculptor, and Ross arranged with him to buy a copy of
a little bronze statue which Gill had exhibited at the
Grafton Gallery, on the condition that Gill would make no
more than six copies of it.^^ Apparently Ross purchased it
for the South African museum. Gill later rather apologet
ically asked Ross if he would mind if Gill made some plaster
copies and painted them, in addition to the bronze ones, and
also received permission for this from Ross.^^ Work for the
Wilde estate also went on. Legal arrangements for the col
lection of French royalties on Wilde works were made,^^ and
a printer was discovered who had a large stock of sheets of
Wilde's works and bound them up whenever he needed money.
When he returned all the copies he had., he was not prose
cuted.^** Felix Bloch, who had the German rights to Earnest,
was threatened with their loss unless he made the transla
tion a little more faithful and removed the two new charac-
^°Evan R. Gill, The Inscriptional Work of Eric Gill;
An Inventory (London; Cassell & Co. Ltd., 1964), p. 37.
^^Eric Gill to Robert Ross, February 7, 1913, in Ross,
Friend of Friends, p. 237.
s^Eric Gill to Robert Ross, April 2, 1913, in Ross,
Friend of Friends, p. 240.
Martin Holman to Robert Ross, December 4, 1913, in
the Clark Library.
®‘ *H. Martin Holman to Robert Ross, December 4 and
December 6, 1913, in the Clark Library.
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312
ters he had added.The portrait of Wilde which Ross had
been advised not to offer the National Portrait Gallery was
instead offered to the National Gallery of Ireland, and one
of their officials said that he was sure that they would be
grateful for it.®*’ And Frank Harris, who was working on his
book about Wilde, wrote Ross asking for information and for
permission to say that he had the right to include Wilde's
letters in his book and that the book was recommended by
Ross. Robbie replied to him that Harris had better not men
tion the letters or his name in the prospectus, or Douglas
would get an injunction against the book.®^ Harris, like so
many others who did not know Douglas well, felt that Ross
was "unnecessarily disturbed" but did agree not to mention
the letters, though he continued to ask for a publicity
statement from Ross.®®
Douglas Tries to Buy Another Witness
When two months had passed since the interview with
Haldane and no action had been taken, Ross became anxious
®®Alexander Teixeira de Ilattos to Robert Ross, Decem
ber 17, 1913, enclosing the letter to Bloch of December 11,
1913, in the Clark Library.
®®Walter Armstrong to Robert Wade, December 18, 1913,
in the Clark Library.
®^Frank Harris to Robert Ross, December 18, 1913, in
the Clarke Library; copy of Robert Ross to Frank Harris,
December 19, 1913, in the Clark Library.
®®Frank Harris to Robert Ross, December 21, 1913, in
the Clark Library.
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313
about the future. He kept hearing that Bosie was still mak
ing unpleasant statements about him, and he did not know who
else Bosie might be trying to bribe, or what other publica
tions he might be preparing. A situation about which Chris
topher Millard kept him informed was also disturbing.
While Ross had been in Russia, Millard had picked up a
boy who was later arrested for soliciting. At the boy's
trial in October, Millard was mentioned, and publicly
reproved by the judge.When Ross heard of this, he told
Hillard that he could no longer use him as secretary.
Hillard understood Ross's fears, and was not angry at the
dismissal. However, he was angry at Douglas, for the spe
cific cause of Ross's action was letters which Douglas sent
to various persons about Millard. Millard wrote Douglas,
telling him that he hoped he was pleased to have "succeeded
in ruining irretrievably a fellow Catholic, who has done you
no injury." Douglas then sought a meeting with Millard,
hoping Millard would now dislike Ross because of his dis
charge. When they met, Douglas said that he wanted to see
on a newspaper poster the heading: "Arrest of Robert Ross."
Then, he said, "anybody would come forward for L5 and swear
to anything." On November 17 Douglas saw Millard again, and
offered to buy any compromising letters of Ross's that he
could get, and any other information he could supply. Bosie
^^Alfred Douglas to Sir George Lewis, October 24, 1913,
copy in Ross, "Statement," p. [58].
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314
told him the letters would be exchanged with Sir George
Lewis for compromising documents that Ross had about Doug
las , and that one of the conditions of the exchange would be
that the unpublished parts of De Profundis should be
burned.® °
Then, on December 10, Millard came to Ross again with
news. The boy Millard .had picked up, Charles Garratt, had
that day been released upon the conclusion of his three-
month sentence. Garratt had immediately gone to see Mil
lard, and had told him that he had twice been visited in
prison by men from the office of lawyer Cecil Holt, on be
half of Lord Alfred Douglaa. On the first visit, in Septem
ber, the interviewer had handed him a photograph, identify
ing it as that of "Walter Ross of Oxford" and had asked
Garratt if he knew the man. When Garratt said he did not,
he was told that Ross had said he was a friend of Garratt's.
Garratt was then asked to make a statement about Millard and
about Robert Ross, but said that he could not do so. The
man who interviewed him told him that if he would make the
statement he would be set up in business or sent abroad.
About a month before Garratt's release a Mr. Fairall,
from Holt's office, appeared. He too asked for a statement,
but Garratt said he did not know Ross. Fairall said that
any time he wanted to make the statement he should get the
^ ° Daily Telegraph, May 15, 1914, in Bodleian Ross d.
213, ppl 65-64l
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315
address of the Holt firm from the prison governor.®^
When Millard had heard the story, he took Garratt to
the office of Sir George Lewis, where the boy repeated it.
Then, apparently, Millard left to tell Ross what had hap
pened. The boy, perhaps disappointed that he had net
received remuneration for his story, immediately went to
Cecil Holt's office, though of course Millard or Ross did
not know it at the time.
When Ross heard this story from Millard, he was more
worried than ever. He wrote Lewis, making it clear that he
was doing so on his own without consulting either Gosse or
Alex, his two main counselors. He said that things could
not go on the way they had for the last four years and he
wished to take the initiative by putting the factc before
the Home Secretary. If no satisfactory action was taken, he
wanted to publish the suppressed portions of De Profundis.
He knew he would be prosecuted for libel if he did, he said,
but he had nothing to gain from secrecy
or by hushing up a scandal which is not about me but about
the Public Prosecutor and the Wyndham and Queensberry
families.
He thought that he would have a better chance before a jury
Daily Telegraph, May 7, 1914, in Bodleian Ross d.213,
pp. 58-59. Douglas received permission for the interview on
the grounds that he was sueing Frank Harris for libel and
that Ross would be a witness for Harris, thereby making in
formation about Ross's character important to Douglas.
(Robert Ross to Frank Harris, April 29, 1914, University of
Texas Library. Croft-Cooke's book does not mention the Har
ris action, so one must assume that it was trumped up for
the occasion.)
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316
as defendant than as prosecutor, and the
world would then know what I want it to know. What I
would rather it did not know it either knows already or
guesses.® ^
He also approached Methuen about the possibility of publish
ing the suppressed parts.Apparently Sir George Lewis
agreed with him to some extent, for on December 18 he ap
pealed for protection to the Home Secretary, who continued
to take no action.®**
These weeks were filled with doubt and worry. Kensing
ton's quiet neighborhoods no longer had the appeal they once
had, now that Ross suspected a detective watching him and
questioning his neighbors. On December 15 he moved to a new
flat in a more urban area, near the Carfax, in Georgian
House, 10 Bury Street.
Then, on Christmas Eve, Ross was faced with the results
of Douglas's activities in the last few weeks. Ross
received a "writ of summons" charging him with indecent
assault on Charles Garratt, on the complaint of the boy's
mother. Ross had never met Garratt, and only heard of him
through Millard, so the whole thing seemed hardly possible.
®^Letter dated December 10, 1913, carbon in the posses
sion of J. P. B. Ross.
®®Robert Ross to A. Methuen, December 11, 1913, copy in
the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
Robert Ross to Edmund Gosse, July 13, 1914, Brother-
ton Library, University of Leeds.
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317
though he realized that it was indeed very serious.®^ The
same day Ross received a formal acknowledgment of his appeal
to the Home Secretary.Later Ross learned how the writ
had come about. On the day of Garratt's release, the boy
had met Douglas and Crosland at their lawyer's office, and
after lunching with them,-had gone, on their urging, to a
police station to make out a complaint against Ross. They
nad promised him money should he do so, saying that Ross
would pay a lot to get out of the charge. They said that
Douglas had a grudge against Ross, and that, as Crosland
said, " W e may as well get LlOOO out of it as not. Ross is
the man to get, as he has the money." They also said glee
fully that Ross would probably lose his job at Somerset
House, or have to leave the country.®^ When Garratt made
his statement, however, he lied about his mother being a
landowner and himself a student. The police checked on him
and found out about his arrests, including one for damaging
the contents of a mailbox for the Suffragettes. So no
action against Ross was taken.®®
®®Robert Ross to Ada Leverson, January 15, 1914, in the
Clark Library.
® ®Robert Ross to Edmund Gosse, July 13, 1914, in the
Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
®^Daily Telegraph, May 7, 1914, in Bodleian Ross d.213,
pp. 58-59": —
®®Daily Telegraph, May 13 and May 14, 1914, in Bodleian
Ross d.213, pp. 6i: 63.
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318
Finding this attempt unsuccessful, Crosland had then
visited the cottage in Leicestershire where Mrs. Garratt, a
charwoman, lived. She had not known why Charlie was in
trouble, but Crosland told her that her son had explained to
him that he had been picked up by two men at a street cor
ner. These two men, supposedly Ross and Millard, had taken
him to have a drink, and Charlie remembered nothing more
till he had awakened, locked up, at three in the morning,
dressed as a woman, with his virtue gone. One would have
thought even Crosland capable of something more than this
variation on Victorian melodrama. Crosland told Mrs. Gar
ratt that Charlie was more to be pitied than censured, and
it was Ross and Millard who should have been put in prison.
He added that Lord Alfred Douglas was interested in helping
her son. Crosland asked her to sign a document which "would
be good for both herself and her son." He explained to her
what it was, she testified three months later, but she could
not remember what it was supposed to have been. Her every
word showed that she was a woman of little intelligence or
education, who had no idea what was going on. Anything that
a well-dressed gentleman like Mr. Crosland, or a real Lord
like Lord Alfred Douglas asked her to do must be all right.
So she signed the document, after Mr. Crosland had assured
her that it would not cost her anything and that it would
help her son get his character back so that he could get a
good job. The document which Crosland gave her was a com-
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319
plaint against Ross, which led to the writ Ross received.
Anxious Waiting
Ross was planning to leave for Scotland for a few days
when he received the writ, and went ahead with his trip.
When he returned to his flat on New Year's Day, he discov
ered that more plotting had been going on. He wrote to
Gosse about it in a letter wnich shows the state of his
nerves and his attitude at the time.
Dear Gosse,
I find a consolation in writing to you though you must
not trouble yourself to answer a letter which requires
none & you will forgive me for realising that consolation.
George Lewis is away on a much needed holiday & I have
been feeling nervous & unhappy perhaps because I have been
in Scotland. I returned on the morning of yesterday (New
Years Day).
For some time, to be precise, since I came to my new
rooms on Dec 15th I have had a singular presentiment that
the servants of the flats were being tampered with. There
was something in their manner which aroused my suspicions.
I did not mention the fact to anyone because I knew that a
number of my friends, (even my dear brother Alex,) were
firmly persuaded that the events of the last five years
had really affected my reason & that I was suffering from
a "folly of persecution." Very fortunately Lewis was
away & I acted on my own instead (which in this particular
matter has always been right.) If I had consulted Lewis I
know what his advice would have been.
I sent for the hall porter— an evil rather typical type
& told him that I was aware people had been enquiring from
him my movements. He was somewhat astonished when I urged
him on any repetition of such enquiries, to give a precise
& accurate account of all my movements & the names of all
my callers. He was disarmed at once & confessed to me not
only that Douglas had been enquiring about me but that he
Daily Telegraph, April 29, 1914, and April 30, 1914,
in Bodleian Ross d.213, pp. 56-57.
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320
had actually taken rooms in the same flats on the same
floor as mine last Monday (when I was in Scotland) & had
cautioned the Hall Porter not to let me know he was here
or had asked about me!
I then sent for the proprietor who was quite charming:
& explained my position to him. He urged that he could
not turn Douglas out tonight but would do so without fail
tomorrow morning. Tonight I pass the night under the same
roof as Douglas who has come with the avowed purpose of
suborning the servants. (I have also purchased a German
waiter who was bribed to steal my papers). I am now writ
ing from the club at 11:30 p.m. I return to my rooms in a
[sic] hour knowing that Douglas is plotting some injury or
insult & that he is protected not merely by Sir Charles
Mathews but (as I now have convinced even my brother)
fortified by the purse of Lady Glenconner. I have reason
to believe but of this I have ^ evidence that Lady G. has
at last detached the Asquith's sympathy from me. This is
AD 1914 and you will not think me either melodramatic or
mock heroic when I tell you that I return to my rooms to
night with firearms. Have you seen the newspapers to
night: Douglas had another triumph in the police courts!
a fitting place for his triumph & the disreputable Lady
Glenconner.
Your unhappy friend,
Robbie Ross^°
Someone at the Reform Club persuaded Robbie to ask the
police for protection instead of relying on his own gun, and
two Scotland Yard detectives spent the night in his flat,
but nothing happened. The next day Douglas left the build
ing quietly, but not before bribing the chambermaid to steal
some of Ross's handkerchiefs, presumably to be planted with
Garratt as evidence.
On January 7 Vyvyan Holland, Oscar's younger son, was
^“Letter dated January 2, 1914, in the Brotherton
Library, University of Leeds.
^^Robert Ross to Ada Leverson, January 15, 1914, in the
Clark Library.
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321
married. Robbie had promised to be his best man before the
Douglas situation had become so serious, and Lewis advised
him not to change the plans, although Robbie would have pre
ferred not to go. He was afraid that Douglas would cause a
scene, and had detectives scattered as guests both at the
church and the reception afterwards. Fortunately nothing
more serious happened than that elderly Comtesse de Brémont
stood at the opposite end of the room from Holland and, hav
ing cleared the way between with imperious gestures, told
him what a pity it was that his father was not there; then
broke down into tears to be comforted and quieted by poor
Robbie.^ ^
January and February of 1914 were very bad months.
Ross knew that his every movement was being watched by Doug
las and by the police, and he lived in constant fear of
arrest, either on the Garratt charge (which apparently was
dropped) or on some other trumped-up complaint. Only
Gosse's influence. Sir George Lewis told him, kept charges
from being made against him. Should he be arrested, "I
could never have recovered my prestige even on acquittal,"
he wrote Gosse.Gosse helped immeasurably in other ways,
too. He was one of the first to take Douglas seriously, and
’ ’^Robert Ross to Edmund Gosse, January 6, 1914, in the
Brotherton Library, University of Leeds; Holland, Time Re
membered, pp. 65-66.
^^Robert Ross to Edmund Gosse, March 10, 1914, in the
Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
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322
wrote Robbie on January 4 that it seemed to him that the
time has now come for reprisals. You cannot continue to
live in an atmosphere of such cruelty and wickedness. ^
He and his wife Nellie frequently had Ross at their home and
offered both sympathy and more practical aid. "Alex tells
me you will not even allow me to regard the cheque a debt,"
Robbie wrote him on March 1 0 . Perhaps the biggest help
was being able to talk and write about his worries to some
one he knew was sympathetic, one who would do everything
that he could to be of aid, and whose advice Robbie trusted.
By March, Robbie was almost desperate. Sir George
Lewis continued to advise against legal action, while Doug
las was still using Mathews's letter as proof that action
was contemplated against Ross, spreading the rumor that it
was Freddie who was preparing charges against him, and
threatening to distribute pamphlets outside the Reform Club
charging Ross with unnatural offenses.
As Counsel said the other day: unless I take action now,
I cannot take action in the future, and that if I take
action now I shall be ruined (so I am assured) in the un
likely event of Douglas being convicted [sic]. . . . No
sympathy of friends, no advice from George Lewis, no in
terference or kind word from those in high positions,
could ever obviate the consequences of Douglas causing a
pamphlet to be distributed outside the Reform Clxib.^®
Robbie felt, and Gosse agreed that he was justified, that it
?^In the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
7 the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
’^Robert Ross to Edmund Gosse, March 4, 1914, in the
Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
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323
had been the Public Prosecutor's business to protect him.
Instead of considering the source of the complaint— a man
convicted of criminal libel on Colonel Custance and the
unsuccessful prosecutor of the Ransome case— Mathews had
offered to investigate and had set an investigation by Scot
land Yard under way. Ross felt sure that it was through the
influence of the Queensberry and Wyndham families that this
had happened, and that they were also helping Bosie finan
cially.^^ Ross also thought that these families had stopped
action on his December petition to the Home Secretary. Now
he proposed to publish that petition, with the hope that it
would cause his prosecution, and thus reveal the way that
Bosie had been protected by his relatives.’®
Lewis, of course, had excellent reason for his reluc
tance to take action against Douglas for libel. The libel
would not be fought on the grounds of disproving Douglas's
statements, such as that Ross was "the most filthy and
’’The only actual evidence of support I have seen is a
letter containing a check which George Wyndham sent Douglas
on April 24, 1913 (copy in the Clark Library). In view of
Wyndham's statement in the letter that he had not taken part
in the Ransome case or the custody matter, it is probably
unfair to believe, as Ross did, that Wyndham had been one of
the principal instigators of Douglas's actions. Wyndham had
somewhat passed out of the political limelight, and there
was no need now, as there had been in earlier years, to
create a diversion with the government prosecuting one homo
sexual in order to draw public attention from its lack of
interest in another.
’®Robert Ross to Edmund Gosse, March 4, 1914, in the
Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
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324
notorious Bugger in London";the possessor of a "dirty
Blackmailer's mind" with "filthy associates who are the scum
of the earth";®® "the foulest dirtiest and meanest skunk
that ever drew the breath of life";®^ one who had "corrupted
and debauched hundreds of boys and young men in your
life."®^ It would be necessary for Douglas to prove only
that Ross was homosexual. If he managed to show evidence
for that, Ross would be ruined and there would be the inevi
table danger of a further prosecution by the government, as
had happened with Wilde. Ross realized the danger, and let
himself be guided by Lewis.
Then in March two things happened which changed the
situation. Bosie, who had promised not to bother his
fatlier-in-law any more, wrote Custance another of his let
ters, accusing him of breaking up his marriage. Custance
took the letter to Lewis, who was his lawyer, too, and Lewis
advised action.®® He applied for a bench warrant to bring
Douglas to court for breaking the agreement not to attack
Custance further. Bosie fled to France on March 4, appar-
Alfred Douglas to Sir George Lewis, October 8, 1913,
copy in Ross, "Statement," p. [57].
®“Alfred Douglas to Robert Ross, November 1, 1912, copy
in Ross, "Statement," p. [30].
® i l b i d .
“^Alfred Douglas to Robert Ross, November 5, 1912, copy
in Ross, "Statement," p. [34].
8 3
Croft-Cooke, Bosie, p. 253.
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325
ently directing from abroad the printing and distribution of
scurrilous pamphlets about both Custance and Ross.®'*
The second thing that happened was that Charlie Garratt
came over to Ross's side. He had spent the last part of
December and all of January at home in the country, where
Douglas was paying his mother ten shillings a week to keep
him.®® He had been thoroughly bored.®® Early in February
Douglas and Crosland sent for him and his mother to come to
London and make another statement, since action on Mrs. Gar
ratt 's earlier statement had now been dropped. When Charlie
got back to London, he finally became frightened. He real
ized that he could get into serious trouble by making false
statements, and he realized that Douglas was not treating
him as well as he would have liked. So, before the police
station opened, he ran off.®^ Later he was again arrested
for prostitution. Back in prison, he told the truth about
the earlier attempts of Douglas and Crosland to bribe him
and his mother to a clerk from Sir George Lewis's office.®®
®'*Ibid., pp. 256-257.
®®Daily Telegraph, April 29, 1914 and April 30, 1914,
in Bodleian Ross d.213, pp. 56-57.
®®Daily Telegraph, May 13, 1914, in Bodleian Ross d.
213, p. 62.
®?Daily Telegraph, April 29, 1914, Bodleian Ross d.213,
p . 56.
®®Daily Telegraph, April 14, 1915, Bodleian Ross d.213,
p . 86.
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326
With the information obtained in that interview, Lewis de
cided that there was enough evidence to prosecute Douglas
and Crosland for conspiracy. A conspiracy case would avoid
the whole tricky question of libel, and with Garratt now on
their side, it should be possible to prove that Douglas and
Crosland had plotted to trump up evidence against Ross,
partly because of Bosie's hatred and partly to make money if
Ross would offer to buy them off. A warrant was issued on
March 24, and while Bosie remained abroad, Crosland was ar
rested on his return from a visit to Douglas at Boulogne on
the evening of Easter Sunday, April 12.®®
Ross's Friends React
Now that the persecution had become so obvious, Ross's
friends, who earlier had been inclined to think he was exag
gerating, rallied around him. The Ransome trial had nearly
exhausted his finances, and several people offered him money
to fight Douglas. To help take his mind off his problems
both George Alexander and Herbert Beerbohm Tree offered him
boxes at their new productions for any night he wished,®®
and Alexander suggested that he work out a version of An
Ideal Husband for a new production, with the out-of-date
®®Daily Telegraph, April 14, 1914, Bodleian Ross d.213,
p. 55.
®"George Alexander to Robert Ross, February 23, 1914,
in Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 259; Herbert Beerbohm Tree to
Robert Ross, March 21, 1914, in the possession of J. P. B.
Ross.
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327
references removed and the melodrama toned down. The unfor
tunate result, from which much of the Wildean sparkle had
also been removed, shows how correct Ross had been in tell
ing Gosse that he could not write these days. He also gave
the same reason for refusing an offer that came through
Laurence Binyon to collaborate with George Calderon on a
revue.However he managed to edit and write a preface for
a little volume of Selected Prose of Oscar Wilde, which ap
peared March 19.9 2
More Adey, who had given testimony in the Ransome trial
and received a nasty letter from Douglas about it at the
time, got another letter in March, which he sent to the
Director of Public Prosecutions, since it was unsealed. He
said that
No one familiar with Lord Alfred Douglas's share in the
Wilde scandals of 1895 and in other disgraceful actions
would dream of paying the smallest attention to what he
says under a sealed envelope
but that others could see what was in an open letter, and
that this letter was indecent. He added that he had prob
ably received it because of the Ransome case in which
9^Laurence Binyon to Robert Ross, January 20 and Janu
ary 22, 1914, in the Clark Library and the possession of
J. P. B. Ross.
9^With a Preface by Robert Ross (London: Methuen &
Co., 1914). The copy in the Clark Library was sent to
Millard by Ross and dated March 19.
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328
I refused to perjure myself in his interests or to confirm
his own perjuries made in the witness box.^^
Frank Harris, always an opportunist, used the occasion
to obtain information from Ross for his forthcoming book on
Wilde, information about Wilde's relationship with Douglas
which Ross might well have been reluctant to provide at
another time. He warmly supported Robbie, telling him that
Crosland was the only man he knew who deserved imprison
ment. ^
Even relative strangers, knowing Ross mainly through
their interest in Wilde, wrote with best wishes. Thomas
Bird Mosher, whose pirated editions Ross frequently prose
cuted booksellers for handling, told Millard that he hoped
Crosland and Douglas got what they deserved, about three
years;9 5 and Michael Lykiardopulos sent good wishes from
Moscow.9 ®
One old friend, however, Reggie Turner, was not a sup
porter of Robbie's in this action. He had been out of the
country too much to follow the situation closely, and he
could not imagine Bosie acting as he had done. There was
9^Letter dated April 2, 1914, in Bodleian MS. Walpole
d.lB fol. 68.
9‘ 'Frank Harris to Robert Ross, April 9, April 27,
April 29, and May 2, 1914, in the Clark Library; and May 10
and May 21, 1914, in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
9 5Letter dated May 22, 1914, in the Clark Library.
9®Letter dated April 15, 1914, in the Clark Library.
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329
also some other cause of hard feelings between him and Ross,
having to do with Adolph Birkenruth and his sister Jose
phine, also an artist, and a Mr. Carew, who later tried to
get information from Ross for Douglas.Reggie thought
that Robbie had acted improperly in keeping De Profundis and
had unnecessarily antagonized Bosie through its publication
and the subsequent revelation in court of the unpublished
passages (although they had been produced on subpoena).
Early in May Robbie went over to Paris for a few days, and
while he was there Maurice Gilbert showed him a letter
Reggie had written. It said:
I had always thought that Ross provoked Douglas & I did
not think Ross ought to have used documents in the Ransome
case which he had received when they were friendly. How
ever I wish him well. I know that Douglas has attacked me
but I don't think he should be treated like ordinary peo
ple. ^ ®
Robbie was amazed at the letter. He had not realized that
people who knew them both could hold such an attitude, and
it almost pleased him in its clarity of expression.
I was aware that this was his attitude but did not realize
he would state it in such cold blooded terms of snobbish
ness. . . . Is there no one who can be trusted?— You said
®^Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, September 15,
1913, in the Clark Library; undated notes in Ross's writing
in the Clark Library.
®®Quoted in Ross in a letter to Christopher Millard,
May 3, 1914, in the Clark Library. Though Turner's original
letter probably no longer exists, this copy is probably ac
curate, since Ross asked Millard to make several copies of
the statement to show others, and he would have had little
reason to falsify something which seemed to hurt him so
much.
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330
not. I thought it was cynical. But you were quite right.
(Ibid.)
When Robbie returned to London, he wrote to Reggie, sadly
rather than angrily, breaking off their friendship.
I suppose it was very stupid of me, but I did not realize
before that you seriously took the side of Douglas & Cros
land. I was aware of course that you were a severe critic
of mine as all my very intimate friends appear to be. I
am also aware that as the years have gone on, & our meet
ings have been fewer (owing to your absences abroad) our
sympathies were out of tune, & have often been in absolute
discord. I am sure the fault was mine. I am also aware
of what a foolish mistake I made in going to Little Gros-
venor Street, & I am really heartily sorry that I caused
you that annoyance. . . .
When I found you had impregnated Birkenruth with your
views (& to my great embarrassment that he acted on them
without the balancing weight of your genuine affection for
me,) I realised that the breach between us had become
serious, & I ceased to correspond with you, I am sure to
your relief. It will I am sure be a still greater relief
to you if I say now that I regard our friendship as having
definitely ceased. The next eight weeks or so will be
very momentous for me, & I write purposely before the
issue is decided. If Crosland is not convicted, you might
be tempted, I am sure out of generosity & genuine feelings
into some expression of friendliness to me which you might
afterwards regret. If Crosland is convicted, you would
have a different kind of temptation to which I would not
care to submit you, & I would be tempted into some expres
sion which I might regret all my life. It is therefore
better to sever at once the thin link which has become
thinner in the last few months. . . .
Yours affectionately
Robbie Ross^®
Ross had not heard from the Asquiths during the months
when it looked as if he were not going to defend himself.
They showed their support again now, inviting him to their
country place the weekend before Crosland was scheduled to
9 9
Draft dated only "May" in the Clark Library.
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331
appear for his preliminary hearing. They had a rule that
disagreeable things were not to be discussed, but Mrs.
Asquith told Ross when he arrived that he was to remember
"nothing mattered," and the Prime Minister ignored the topic
completely.^°° On Monday Robbie lunched with Sir Herbert
Stephen, an old friend of his and Alex's, and was coached as
to how he should behave in court.^ ^
The Preliminary Hearing
The preliminary hearing was a long, drawn-out affair,
opening, after a week's postponement, on April 27, and not
concluding till early in June. Ross's barrister was Ernest
Wild, and Comyns Carr was Crosland's. Magistrate Paul Tay
lor heard the case at the Marlebone Police Court. Douglas
was still abroad, afraid to return, he said, because he
would be arrested in the Custance action.
In court the whole history of the relationship between
Ross and Douglas, and consequently, between each of them and
Wilde, was traced. Crosland testified that when he was
^°°Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, April 19, 1914,
in the Clark Library.
^ °ipbid.; Sir Herbert Stephen to Alexander Galt Ross,
April 6, 1894, in Ross, Friend of Friends, pp. 359-360
(showing old acquaintance). Stephen, Clerk of Assize for
the Northern Circuit from 1889 to 1927, also published sev
eral books about law, including The Law Relating to Mali
cious Prosecution, and therefore his coaching should have
been valuable^ [Who Was Who 1929-1940 [London: Adam &
Charles Black, 1941], p. 1286.)
^ ° ^Globe, April 24, 1914, in Bodleian Ross d.213,
p. 56.
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332
assistant editor of the Academy, Ross's articles had been
full of improprieties, and their removal had caused the
break between Douglas and Ross. He said that Garratt had
come to Douglas and himself and made the statement about
Ross and Millard without any prompting, and that he had no
reason not to think that it was true. He denied Garratt's
testimony that Douglas had said it would be easy for Garratt
to say he knew Ross since he was acquainted with Millard, or
that Douglas had told Garratt that Ross would lose his
appointment or pay a lot of money if Garratt would make the
statement.^°^ Mrs. Garratt, too, appeared, and said that
while Crosland had promised her £1000 if she made the state
ment, she thought she, not Crosland and Douglas, was to get
anything that Ross would pay, and that the money was to be
damages for what her son had suffered, rather than black
mail.
Garratt's testimony contradicted Crosland. He said
that Crosland and Douglas had prompted him to make the
statement, and that he had signed it for money and because
they had told him that nothing would happen to him if he
did. Ross was called forward, and Garratt said that he had
^°^Daily Telegraph, May 30, 1914, in Bodleian Ross
d.213, p. 65.
^°**Daily Telegraph, April 29 and April 30, 1914, in
Bodleian Ross d.213, pp. 56-57.
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333
never seen him before.After further witnesses for both
sides were heard, including both Ross and Millard, the
Magistrate finally committed Crosland for trial. Taylor
said that he saw no evidence that Crosland or Douglas were
motivated by a desire for money, but also that there was no
evidence at all connected Ross with any offense. Crosland
was released on bail. ^ ° ®
Crosland's Behavior
It is really hard to find a convincing explanation of
Crosland's actions in connection with Ross. The view held
by friends of Crosland and Douglas was that Crosland hated
homosexuality, and since Ross was promoting Wilde's work and
was a homosexual himself, Crosland felt that he must attack
Ross. If Crosland had devoted the rest of his life to such
a crusade, perhaps this view would be tenable. But he did
not. Once this case was over, his crusades were directed
wherever he could profit financially by them. It was not,
apparently, the vice he hated as much as the man Wilde. His
letter to Ross of January 4, 1914, supports the evidence
that he hated the dead writer personally. He wrote Ross on
that occasion that Ross had for years been creating a "lit
erary and general reputation" for Wilde which the author
^°^Daily Telegraph, May 7, 1914, in Bodleian Ross
d.213, pp. 58-59.
^°®Daily Telegraph, June 3, 1914, in Bodleian Ross
d.213, pp. 67-68.
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334
would otherwise not have had, and had earned his own reputa
tion while doing so, having "succeeded in foisting him
[Wilde] on the public in the figure of a repentant saint"
through the edition of De Profundis. Crosland added that if
his publishers or the public knew that Ross himself was the
same sort of person, Wilde's reputation would fall back into
nothing. However, since Crosland had nothing against Ross
personally, he said, he would let him alone if Ross would
withdraw your prefaces and other sophistications from
publication and resign your executorship of Wilde's liter
ary estate, and that you should further make some public
statement which would help in the correction of the false
and dangerous conception of Wilde you have been the means
of spreading abroad.
Crosland's hatred of Wilde is even more apparent throughout
Oscar Wilde and Myself, which he ghost-wrote for Douglas.^®®
This hatred makes little sense unless Crosland had some
reason for it, perhaps a reason which he could not acknowl
edge even to himself. One might almost suspect him of
bitter jealousy of the man whom Bosie had loved. There
could be no question of Bosie's caring about Crosland in
that way, nor would Crosland admit he wished Bosie did.
Sometimes those people most vocal in protesting against a
vice are those to whom it has the strongest hidden attrac
tion.
The other explanation for his behavior is the one
^Published in Croft-Cooke, Bosie, pp. 253-254.
i°®Ibid., p. 250.
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335
Robbie believed. He thought that Crosland was in the whole
thing for money. No overt requests were received by Ross,
but the continual talk between Douglas and Crosland of their
lack of funds and Ross's supposed wealth lends weight to
this argument. Crosland undoubtedly believed that Ross had
made a huge profit on the Wilde estate, since he would have
done so in Ross's place. The fact that Lady Queensberry
gave Crosland at least &250 between the time of his arrest
and the end of his case, and that he received other money,
such as expenses to join Bosie in Boulogne for several week
ends, shows that Crosland knew where the immediate profit
lay.109
The Trial Opens
June was a quiet month between trials. The Gosses
returned from a vacation in Portugal and Robbie was the only
guest to stay to supper on Sunday the fourteenth, the day
after their return.Alex paid Lewis and Lewis B2500 for
Robbie's case. Freddie, with whom the quarrel had been
settled for some time, came back from abroad to be with Rob
bie during the crucial days. And everyone waited anxiously
for Saturday, June 27, when the trial was opened at the same
Old Bailey court in which Wilde had appeared.
Perhaps it was the surroundings, perhaps the judge,
^Freeman, Life of Lord Alfred Douglas, p. 239.
^^°"Book of Gosse."
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336
perhaps the miserably hot weather, perhaps the assassination
of Archduke Frederick Ferdinand at Sarajevo the day after
the trial began, but an ominous atmosphere hung over the
proceedings. F. E. Smith, whom Ross had engaged as his
leading barrister, was one of the best-known trial lawyers
and a prominent member of Parliament. However, he seemed
almost to annoy the Judge, Mr. Justice Avory. Smith opened
on Saturday with a summary of the situation, supported in
following days by a clerk from Lewis & Lewis about the
scurrilous letters, a repetition of Mrs. Garratt's testi
mony, and evidence by Garratt and Millard.
Crosland's lawyer, Cecil Hayes, did his best to dis
credit the last two witnesses, to indicate that they were
not the sort of persons who could be believed or whom an
honest man would have testifying for him. Garratt, with his
effeminate appearance, his prison record, his admittedly
false statement, and his independence or insolence to Hayes
and tlie judge, made a particularly bad impression. The
impression Millard made was not much better, when Hayes
showed his 1906 conviction, his work editing Wilde's work
and writing books about it, and his opinion that there was y
no such thing as an immoral book.
Then on Wednesday Ross took the stand. He was worried
and nervous, and his efforts to seem self-confident appeared
to some, including the judge, an annoying jauntiness. Hayes
did his best to discredit Ross, bringing up the 1893 situ-
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337
ation involving Ross's introduction of an unnamed young man
to Douglas, and the letter he had written Bosie at the time,
saying his family had told him he was a disgrace and that
they would not let him return to London; discussing Wilde,
whom Ross said he had begged to leave the male prostitutes
alone; and asking Ross if he was not afraid for his reputa
tion when he associated with someone like Millard. Like
Wilde on the witness stand, Ross could not resist volunteer
ing unnecessary information and making a small joke that
would have been better left unmade. He said he wasn't
afraid, and indeed was dining with Millard that evening. He
didn't need to worry about his reputation because everyone
knew him and knew his character to be as clear as that of
Caesar's wife. "Leave Caesar's wife alone," Judge Avory
reprimanded him. The judge was again annoyed when he
answered the question, "Do you think there can be such a
thing as an immoral book," with: "Yes, I know heaps of
them. Lord Alfred Douglas's poems for instance^^^
In cross-examining the next witnesses, Crosland's law
yer, Hayes, who had handled things very skillfully till now,
brought out a point against his own client and in Ross's
favor. Detective Inspectors McPherson and Nicholls spoke of
^Frederick, Second Earl of Birkenhead, F. E., p. 203.
Other information about the trial is taken from the sur
rounding pages of that book, and from the Daily Telegraph
clippings in Bodleian Ross d.213, especially June 29, 1914,
pp. 68-69; June 30, 1914, pp. 69-70; July 1, 1914, pp. 70-
71; and July 2, 1914, pp. 71-72.
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338
the arrest of Crosland, and of the taking of Garratt's
statement, which had not been followed up because of Gar
ratt 's bad character. Hayes asked if any other inquiries
had been made, and was told that they had been, but nothing
was found to support any charges. This, from the police,
spoke very strongly for Ross's innocence. It also concluded
the case for the prosecution.
Hayes then opened the defense. He was very clever in
his attempts to win the jury, making it clear that he con
sidered himself the underdog, with three of the outstanding
lawyers in the country against him. Hayes told the jury
that Smith, especially, was very subtle and each jury member
would have to evaluate carefully everything that Smith said.
However, Hayes told them, most of the evidence already pro
duced was really irrelevant. The real question was, "Had
Crosland reasonable ground for believing Garratt's state
ment?" He felt that it was clear that Crosland did, since
Ross had willingly allowed his name to be associated with
Wilde's, and had propagated his work. He then called Cros
land to the stand.
Crosland's tale was much as it had been in the prelim
inary hearing, told with a bluntness and an attack which
were very persuasive and apparently honest. He said that he
had always hated Wilde's writings, and that their printing
and propagation was against the public morality. He said
he had first heard of Garratt in connection with Millard,
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339
and that the first time he had seen him was after Garratt's
release, when he had quite willingly made a statement accus
ing both Millard and Ross to Crosland and Douglas, and that
there had been no question of their paying him for it, or no
grounds for believing that it was not true in all
respects.^ ^ ^
The cross-examination on Saturday did not contribute
much to Ross's case. Smith tried to show Crosland's bias
through questions about insulting letters Crosland had writ
ten Ross, such as one that read:
Robert Ross.— How is Fluffy? How is Carlie? How is Scot
land Yard? How is Lewis the Jew? How are you? How is
Millard? How is the Wilde movement?^^^
Smith wanted to show that Crosland's animosity to Ross was
based on personal hatred, but Crosland denied it. "The pub
lic interest is greater than the interest of anyone,” he
said grandiosely. He also answered questions about his own
peculiar relationship with his wife and family, his mis
tress, his trip to France with her after receiving £75 from
the Royal Literary Fund on grounds of poverty, and his own
writing. He said that in a case like this a man might well
be proud of being shown to have a mistress. Hayes began his
^^^Daily Telegraph, July 3, 1914, in Bodleian Ross
d.213, p. 73.
^^^Daily Telegraph, June 29, 1914, Bodleian Ross d.213,
pp. 68-691 and July 6, 1914, p. 74.
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340
final address before the case was adjourned until Monday.
On Monday Hayes finished, and Smith gave his summing
up. He said that he could not see how Crosland could pos
sibly have believed Garratt's story, although if the jury
did think Crosland believed it they would have to find him
innocent. He pointed out that any reasonable man would try
to verify such a story, and that after all their investiga
tion, all that Crosland and Hayes could come up with to
justify any allegation against Ross's character was two let
ters Ross had written over twenty years ago. Ross had lived
in London for the last twenty years, and yet they had failed
to find anyone except Garratt, in an admittedly false
statement, to testify against his character. Though Garratt
had been seen in prison by a representative from Douglas's
lawyer, no one had appeared in court saying that Garratt had
then recognized Ross's picture or mentioned him. And al
though Garratt was not a witness whom one could believe
implicitly, it was most unlikely that he would have invented
such a story against a man whom he did not know, unless he
had been promised some sort of reward for it.
Ross had, when young, been a friend of Wilde's, which
was no discredit to his literary taste, nor to "the ardent
impulses of youth," and had had the courage to stand by
^ ^ “ 'Frederick, Second Earl of Birkenhead, F. E.,
pp. 204-206; and Daily Telegraph, July 6, 1914, in Bodleian
Ross d.213, p. 74
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341
Wilde and to work for the benefit of Wilde's family. Cros-
land and Douglas had hounded Ross, not in the interest of
morality, but to gratify their own dislike, so that they
could enjoy watching him in the witness box trying to defend
his character and justify his complaints against them.^^^
The Summing Up
Then Mr. Justice Avory gave his summing up and instruc
tions to the jury. It hardly seems possible when one con
siders what he said, to believe that Avory was not preju
diced against Ross. This bias might have been from innate
conservatism, or from influence by the Queensberry and Wynd-
ham families.
Avory said that if Crosland had indeed conspired to
invent a charge which he knew to be false, he deserved pun
ishment. On the other hand, the jury had been given quite
another explanation of Crosland's behavior, that he hated
vice and its propagation, that Ross had associated with
Wilde, Millard, and other persons addicted to homosexual
practices, and that Crosland might have very "honestly
tnougnt that he was doing a public service in exposing the
conduct of such a person." Avory repeated Hayes's jibes at
the expert lawyers Ross had hired.
Certainly they were not there to convict anyone merely
because Mr. Ross had secured the services of one of the
^^^Frederick, Second Earl of Birkenhead, F. E., pp.
206-207.
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342
most eminent and eloquent of the counsel at the English
Bar.
Smith had, Avory said, seemed to imply that the jury should
determine whether Crosland satisfied them that he was tell
ing the truth. This was not the question, or else it would
seem that when a defendant went into the witness box he was
there in order to establish his innocence. He must instead
have been proved guilty beyond all shadow of doubt. Cer
tainly they should not think that if they found Crosland
innocent they were making any condemnation of Ross, for that
issue had never been raised. They must
look at the facts which, the defendant said, gave rise to
suspicion in his mind, and which led him to believe that
the story which Garratt told him was true. If a man
allowed himself to be associated with such a person as
Oscar Wilde— he (the judge) did not care what his literary
genius might be— if he chose to run that risk, could he
complain if a person who was not carried away by admira
tion for the literary genius of Wilde said, "A man is
known by his companions?"
After such a speech, it was not surprising that the jury
took only half an hour in which to find Crosland not
guilty.^ ^ ®
Summary
Ross's efforts to defend what remained of Wilde's honor
caused Douglas to come to hate him more and more. When
Douglas failed to gain a conviction for libel of a writer
who had used information Ross had given him, Douglas turned
iiGpaily Telegraph, July 7, 1914, in Bodleian Ross
d.213, p. 75.
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343
to more direct attacks. Ross's writing and art activities
were seriously interrupted by the trouble, though he at
tempted to continue them. Finally Ross prosecuted Douglas
and Crosland for conspiracy because of their efforts to
suborn witnesses, particularly a boy named Charles Garratt.
After a long, expensive, trying court trial, the prosecution
failed.
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CHAPTER VI
THE WAR YEARS, 1914-1918
Business Matters Following the Verdict
The verdict seemed a catastrophe to Ross. When, a day
or two afterwards, Compton Mackenzie visited him to express
his indignation, Robbie was "in something like an hysterical
condition" and told Mackenzie he should not compromise him
self by visiting "such a social outcast."^ Letters poured
in from friends and strangers, but he could not answer them.
There were, however, business letters which must be written.
The first was to Sir Matthew Nathan at Somerset House. Two
of Ross's colleagues had warned him that he must offer to
resign his position if he did "not wish to risk the humilia
tion of being ejected."^ So Freddie reverted to his old
position as secretary and took dictation telling Nathan that
Ross would
place my resignation as Assessor of Picture Valuations to
the Board of Inland Revenue in the hands of the Board if
you consider it to be advisable . . . [and] in the best
^Mackenzie, My Life and Times, Octave 4, p. 220.
^Robert Ross to Edmund Gosse, July 13, 1914, Brotherton
Library, University of Leeds.
344
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345
interests of the Department.^
Ross also wrote to his barristers, F. E. Smith and Ernest
Wild, thanking them for their work on the case. Privately
he felt that "three most important points were not made,
either in my examination or in Crosland's cross-examina
tion,"'* but he knew that "every litigant has a grievance
against his Counsel," so he did not let his annoyance show
in his letters to them.^
There were more conferences on legal matters with Sir
George Lewis, although Alex handled as much of this as he
could, and Robbie was glad to let him. As soon as Crosland
won the case, he entered a writ against Ross for malicious
prosecution. Plans for this case, and for any other action
to be undertaken had to be made. The costs for defense in
the new case, especially if he lost his job, threatened Ross
with bankruptcy. The expense was already frightful. On
July 8 Alex sent Lewis a check for L1200, making a total of
^Robert Ross to Sir Matthew Nathan, July 6, 1914, copy
in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
" * Robert Ross to Frank Harris, July 8, 1914, in the Uni
versity of Texas Library. I cannot prove what these points
were, though one of them probably relates to Douglas's per
jury in the Ransome trial, when he said he did not write the
Revue Blanche article. Ross recovered a manuscript of the
article in Douglas's handwriting, which he thought very sig
nificant, but which the lawyers might have thought beside
the point. (Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, May 5,
1914, in the Clark Library.)
®As shown in their replies to Ross, Smith's undated,
Wild's of July 9, 1914, both in the possession of J. P. B.
Ross.
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346
at least £3800 paid to Lewis that year.® It did not seem to
Robbie that there was any point in prosecuting Douglas for
libel, after such a verdict, but he was willing to let his
brother and Lewis decide that. "I have no intentions & no
plans, only inclinations," he wrote.^ Lewis was consulted
about the offer to resign, and agreed that Ross had done the
correct thing. This was further proved when Nathan answered
that although, as the judge had said, the verdict did not at
all reflect on Ross's character.
On the other hand in view of all the disagreeable features
of the case which you thought it necessary to bring to
trial it will I think be advisable in the best interests
of the government department which I represent that you
should do as you suggest. I am sorry that we should lose
services which your great knowledge of art made so valu
able to us.®
So Ross sent in his official resignation, including an offer
to give his successor any help that he could. He also wrote
nis more immediate supervisor about his resignation, offered
to be of aid if he could, and said that he would return the
unfinished cases the next morning.®
It was horrid to think of Crosland's vindication, and
^Receipts in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
^Robert Ross to Edmund Gosse, July 13, 1914, in the
Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
®Sir Matthew Nathan to Robert Ross, July 8 [1914] in
the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
®Robert Ross, drafts of letters to Sir Matthew Nathan
and A. W. Soward, Esq., July 8, 1914, in the posession of
J. P. B. Ross.
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347
of the glee that he and Douglas were feeling. It was
frightening to think that a judge had made it clear that any
kind of hounding, of private investigation, of effort to
bring into public scandals quite unconnected with the
investigators, was perfectly justified if there was reason
to believe that the person in question had anything irregu
lar in his private life, or if he had friends who had gotten
into trouble. It was appalling to think of the future, with
no deterrent to Douglas's letters and pamphlets, and to fear
that the next time he might be able to buy a more believable
witness than Garratt.
One small cause for comfort was Frank Harris's forth
coming book. It, at least, would show Douglas as he really
was. Since Ross was planning to leave his flat at Georgian
House, he dictated to Freddie a letter asking Harris to use
the Reform Club as an address in the future. Ross added
that he hoped Millard could check the proofs, in the inter
ests of accuracy, as "I am so anxious to be able to say that
there is not a single error in fact in your book."^°
Public Support for Ross
The thought of Wilde recalled the worst anxiety of all.
To someone who had lived through the weeks surrounding the
Wilde trials and seen the public hatred which Wilde
Robert Ross to Frank Harris, July 8, 1914, in the
University of Texas Library.
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348
inspired, someone who had faced the adverse reaction of his
own judge and jury to Crosland's insinuations about himself,
a mortification similar to Wilde's was only to be expected.
The reaction of Nathan reinforced this fear. Ross's
friends, however, immediately began to express their shock
and indignation at the verdict, and their sympathy for him.
Artists, writers, fellow members of the Reform Club, or
employees at the Revenue Office, all wrote their protests,
talking about the "miscarriage of justice" and hastening to
say, as did Hagbert Wright, Librarian of the London Library,
that "no verdict of any Jury can shake the confidence &
trust of those who hold you in honour & esteem."Robert
C. Witt's letter is typical of others, indignant and eager
to do whatever they could to help Ross.
I am still smarting & burning under a sense of terrible
injustice since I read Avory's summing up. The verdict
was of course the inevitable consequence of the judge's
remarks. But it is no good waiting to cool down before
writing to you, as I never shall. These things cut deep
and I am ashamed of my profession. As for yourself it
matters little. You have done your duty. You have been
very brave. You have done all you could to right a wicked
wrong & there the matter ends. But for your friends &
those who believe in you it is only the beginning. And
you must now help us to help you.^
After the week of legal and business cares, on Saturday
Robbie went to spend a few days with his sister Mary and her
1^Letter dated July 6, 1914, in the possession of
J. P. B. Ross.
^^Letter dated July 8, 1914, in the possession of
J. P. B. Ross.
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349
children in her home at Pangbourne, Berkshire. By Monday he
was rested enough to sit down and write some personal let
ters. The first was to Edmund Gosse, explaining why he had
quit his job in spite of Gosse's hasty message not to resign
from anything.Ross wrote that the resignation was not
really Nathan's fault.
Apart from the bitterness which this further triumph for
Douglas & his family means to me, I have to admit that
even if the Board had decided to ignore the issues, I
would have been in an equivocal position owing to the
peculiar nature of my work for the Estate Duty Office &
always open to possible insult when common & ordinary dis
putes take place between the Inland Revenue & the Trustees
of Estates. Even if Crosland had been convicted I should
probably have been invited to resign in due course. I
don't know that that is any consolation.^^
He tnen went on about Crosland's writ and the position that
the verdict had left him in with regard to Douglas.
It is the general impression that Douglas will return &
receive only a nominal sentence for his contempt of court
& a mere caution for his future libel on his father-in-law
& then continue his campaign. I received an obscene post
card from him on Saturday morning before I came here. It
must be recognized & is indeed recognized too well by
Lewis that after Avory's judgment all the machinery of the
authorities is now at the free disposal of Douglas & Cros
land apart from the action which they can provoke against
me. . . .1 recognise of course that poor Millard was the
difficulty for the authorities. But looking at the whole
situation calmly I think it is obvious that both Mathews &
the Home Secretary were not merely not protecting me but
using Crosland & Douglas & propose to do so in the future
by allowing Douglas to return to England. I know this
sounds fantastic but it is the generally held opinion of
many barristers. If the blameless Colonel Custance is not
’ ■^Letter dated July 7 in the possession of J. P. B.
Ross.
1^Robert Ross to Edmund Gosse, July 13, 1914, in the
Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
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350
allowed protection from Douglas or the benefit of his ver
dict how much the less shall I be allowed protection after
the Avory attitude & verdict of last Monday. Avory stated
quite clearly that he thought I had met Garratt though
this was not quoted in the press which has been angelic to
me so far. He said "Douglas probably knew more than Cros
land" & explained to the Jury that was the reason I waited
to proceed until Douglas was out of England. . . . I be
lieve my right course is to go away and return for the
malicious prosecution charge of Crosland & then whatever
the result get as I think I could get MP's on both sides
to raise the whole question in the House or failing that
start a press campaign on the Adolf Beck, Arthur Shee &
[several words illegible] All of these were successful.
The object being not to rehabilitate me— that is impos
sible but at least to rid the country of Douglas & Cros
land & break the influence of the Wyndhams. I know the
world must be as sick of the subject as I am. But Douglas
has become a real danger to the community. (Ibid.)
Perhaps the kindest communication of all to Robbie was
a telegram from the Prime Minister, Henry Asquith, after
Robbie had returned to town. It read:
Losing a case is an awful bore I have got one coming on
which I shall lose you come to our Garden Party we
shall love to have you Asquith
Since Asquith this week was meeting with the King and a
small Conference on Irish home rule, a problem which threat
ened to cause a civil war, his willingness to send a message
through the public telegraph office to the loser of one of
the most scandalous cases of the year was particularly
gracious.
Some time later a letter arrived in Martin Holman's of
fice from Cyril Holland in India. It had been written on
July 1, as soon as he heard of the case. He said that he
1 5
Dated July 23, in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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351
considered the quarrel as much his own as Ross's, and he
wanted all the costs to come out of the Wilde estate. If
the income from the estate was not large enough, he wished
to pay the costs from his own personal income and to compen
sate his brother for the loss of estate money. He also
offered to give the entire Wilde estate to Douglas if Ross
thought it would stop Douglas from future attacks.Ross
did not accept any of his offers.
During his ten days at Pangbourne, Robbie heard again
from Ricketts and from MacColl, whofhad already written with
their sympathy. A meeting of the Board of the National Art
Collections Fund was scheduled for the sixteenth, and Mac
Coll wrote that he wished Ross would attend, not that he
thought there was any danger of Ross's being asked to
resign, but that if any such thing should happen, he would
quit too.^^ The meeting turned out instead to be full of
expressions of sympathy for Ross. Ricketts, also on the
committee, told him that one of the members had said it was
"the sort of beastly chance which might make a man turn to
drink," that MacColl and Witt were proposing
some sort of friendly act which I know will please you
but, about this you are to know nothing at present. I am
i^Typed copies at the Clark Library and at the Univer
sity of Texas Library.
i?D. S. MacColl to Robert Ross, July 15, 1914, in the
possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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352
half blabing [sic] as the news may cheer you.^®
When he had told them about Ross's forced resignation, "All
the British Museum was convulsed with astonishment and sor
row. ..." Ricketts himself found another way to express
his sympathy.
I have been distraught with stupid occupations during the
whole day and may not find the time, tomorrow even, to
post off to you a charming Italian ring with Nero carved
thereon for which I found a small box this morning but no
sealing wax. Nero will see that the other stupid intaglio
behaves itself. (Ibid.)
In a few days MacColl revealed the secret. He suggested a
collection for Ross's expenses might be the best activity
for them to sponsor, since a dinner would be tiring for Rob
bie, and that Sargent said he wâuld do anything but a por
trait. He had spoken to Lord Crawford, Gosse, Sargent, Ait-
ken. Fry, Holmes, and others, and they had all been enthusi
astic. Now it was up to Ross to let them know whether it
was all right, and what they should do. "You have no idea
what devotion you have excited," he added in another note
three days later.
War Begins
Even the most pressing of private problems was about to
seem less important in comparison to what was occurring in
^®Charles Ricketts to Robert Ross [July 16, 1914], in
the possession of J. P. B. Ross, partially published in
Ross, Friend of Friends, pp. 261-262.
S. MacColl to Robert Ross, July 20 and July 23,
1914, in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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353
central Europe. At first England had not paid much atten
tion to the repercussions of the shooting of the Austrian
Archduke on June 28. Ross, like many others, thought that
all wars were criminal, and believed that the Foreign Office
disliked Germany. Several groups of important persons
issued manifestoes against the war, calling it a "sin
against civilisation." But the invasion of Belgium changed
some opinions, as did a statement by Germany about what it
would do if England remained neutral.
August 1 through 3 was Bank Holiday weekend, and Robbie
planned to spend it with Mary. In view of the unrest, a
Conference of bankers asked that the banks remain closed for
three additional days, and provisions were made to guard
strategic points. Worried by all this, Robbie told his
brother on Friday that he wanted to take a large sum out of
the bank, but Alex said that to do so was silly. When the
banks indeed remained closed Robbie left with Mary what
spare cash he had.^° On the sunny Monday afternoon, as Grey
was speaking in Parliament and the nation prepared for war,
Ross drove in a motor car from Pangbourne to Newington, with
George Moore, who refused to talk about the situation, but
instead outlined the book which he was writing about Christ,
^“Robert Ross to Mary Jones, August 6, 1914, in the
possession of Giles Robertson.
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354
The Brook Kerith.^^ The next day, August 4, Britain issued
an ultimatum to Germany, asking her to respect the neutral
ity of Belgium. The request was refused, and war was
declared at midnight.
Ross's New Home
When Ross returned to London, it was to a new flat at
40 Half Moon Street. It was on a short street off Picca
dilly, known as the residence of professional and business
men. Apparently Ross leased the whole building or a sub
stantial part of it, and Mrs. Burton rented out some of the
rooms. His own quarters were on the second floor. A small
wrought-iron balcony opened from the living room out over
the sidewalk. Inside, the main room contained a Persian
carpet and some Chinese prints and pieces of faience, a
painting by Richard Wilson, and a fifteenth-century Italian
cassone front above the fireplace. Opposite was a bookcase,
and in the middle of the room a table.
Merely to enter that room was a discovery of finely
matured artistic judgment, for everything in it gave a
sense of ripened and sensitive selection. The objects
which met one's eyes didn't appear to have been self-con
sciously collected by a dillettante. They were no more
than the casual accumulations of an expert, but they
seemed to have arrived there through a process of inevi
table and decorative fitness. The tones of the room were
^^Robert Ross, "George Moore's New Book on Jesus: A
Review," Daily Mail,sometime in 1916. This clipping in Bod
leian Ross MS. 4, verso p. 92, carries no other date.
^^Most of the war information in this section was taken
from the Annual Register, 1914, pp. 167-174.
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355
mellow and subdued, half Italian and half Oriental, and
yet essentially imbued by London homeliness.^^
Ross, the Pacifist and Pro-German
From there Robbie wrote to Mary on August 6, worrying
about members of the family and friends. Mary's second
child, Edward, and his wife, had been in Munich at the time
that war was declared, and Robbie offered to see if one of
his friends, a former governess of the Asquiths, could help
them if they were in difficulties. But, he said, "the
Bavarians are jolly people & not hostile to the English" .and
he supposed they would have no trouble. Robbie told his
sister he was worried about Mrs. Carew and Freddie Smith,
who had been at St. Moritz. A month later he wrote again,
saying that they still had not returned to England. Mrs.
Carew had gone to Paris, "contrary to all advice," and from
there to Le Havre, and had not been able to get a ship for
England. Robbie was especially anxious since Freddie was of
military age and would be interned as an enemy alien should
the Germans capture Havre, as seemed imminent.It was a
common situation, as many British citizens had been stranded
abroad. Like most of the others, they seem to have somehow
returned to England during early September.
^^Sassoon, Siegfried's Journey, p. 47.
^^Robert Ross to Mary Jones, September 2, 1914, in the
possession of Giles Robertson.
2 s.
'Annual Register, 1914, p. 186
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356
The idea of the war was a hard one for many persons to
face. They had thought that civilization had progressed
beyond the point where war was necessary, and the long peri
od of relative calm in Europe since 1870 had reinforced this
belief. Now they reacted in the other direction. Germany
must have been very evil to start such a thing, and cer
tainly could not be as strong militarily as Britain and
France. Predictions that the war would be over in a few
months were common. On the other hand, so was hoarding of
food, and prices rose rapidly until controlled by the gov
ernment. Those persons still sympathetic to Germany found
themselves very unpopular. And Robbie was one of them.
Germany had been the country which, more than any other, had
shown enthusiasm for Wilde's works. The German sales of
Salome had gone a long ways toward paying off the debts,
before De Profundis was even published. Too, Germany
accepted the work of the more progressive British artists
and bought it when their own country had no interest in
them. Germany had seemed a cultured, artistic, orderly
country, in some ways more appealing than England. Ross
also hated the thought of war, of the killing and the
destruction which it brought.
But Germany's actions soon alienized him to some ex
tent. On August 29 news was published that the Germans had
deliberately destroyed the old town of Louvain, "the Oxford
of Europe," with its art treasures, its library of old
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357
books, its buildings. Stories of atrocities at Leipzig and
on the march through Belgium were heard, and by September 2
Robbie wrote his sister that "I have had to give up my pro-
German sympathies but I am sure they will dictate terms to
England. . . . " ^ few days later he wrote the New States
man, which had been reviled for publishing an article taking
a kindly attitude toward Germany, and said that he was
receiving the same kind of remarks.
I am now assailed by every kind of opprobrious epithet,
chiefly in letters. One of the oldest & certainly the
most loyal & most chivalrous of all my friends has in
formed me that our intercourse must cease . . . [and
others want him to] join in the general hope for a massa
cre of Teutons, & general sack of their cities by
Russians.^ ^
On October 7 a protest of British art lovers appeared.
It was signed by most of the important people in the art
world of the day, including Ross. This petition protested
the destruction of buildings and art treasures which, it
said, belonged to the whole world, and expressed
horror and detestation of the barbarous acts committed by
the army that represents a country which has done so much
to promote and advance the study of art and its history.^®
But much as Ross hated the wanton destruction, he could not
believe that all the right was on the British side, and the
2 6
In the possession of Giles Robertson.
^^"Cowardice" [Robert Ross] to "Sir," editor of the New
Statesman, draft in the Clark Library, September 7, 1914.
^^Newspaper clipping dated October 7, 1914, source not
given, in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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358
exaggerated accounts in the papers of British achievements
only amused him. He began keeping a scrapbook, which he
continued throughout the war years, of some of the more
biased accounts. For instance, one series traced the heroic
advances of the British army backwards until .it was finally
forced entirely out of that sector of battle. Comments from
highly placed clergymen on the merits of slaughtering the
enemy, or bits of plain stupidity like the following, are
equally interesting nowadays. One charming postcard was
sent him by Charles Ricketts. It shows a picture of a
train. Below is printed the legend: "Une locomotive aban
donee devant Thiepville" and its printed English transla
tion: "One locomotive a profligate woman forepart Thiep
ville." Equally amusing to Robbie were pictures or para
graphs open to homosexual interpretations, though obviously
published without that in mind, such as "'Jock' Greets a Pal
in the Approved French Fashion," or an article on the
friendliness between the troops and the French civilians,
with such sentences as "I saw a fine, tall fellow today
smiling almost invitingly at some little French boys."^*
But in spite of the unconscious humor of some of the
situations, the war was a beastly unhappy business, and Ross
hated every minute of it. "Whenever Ross talks about the
2 9
Scrapbook in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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359
war his whole face changes," noted Arnold Bennett.
Ross Breaks with Smith
In addition to the Crosland victory, the coming of the
war, and plans to prosecute Douglas for libel in the late
autumn, which were now under way, some time in late Septem
ber Robbie suffered another blow. Something happened be
tween him and Freddie which caused the final dissolution of
their friendship. Apparently it took place over something
Freddie had done at St. Moritz in August, for he later told
Arthur Clifton he "had been 'off his head'" then, but what
it was cannot be ascertained.^^ The few references to
Freddie which occur in Ross's letters after this date are,
at first, bitter and unhappy; and then, after some time,
rather wistful requests for news about him.
On October 3, 1914, Ross made out a new will, leaving
most of his property to his brother Alex and to Mary's
daughters Lilian and Hilda, his executors. Some drawings
went to the British Museum, other art objects to the Fitz-
william, and his letters from Wilde to Cyril and Vyvyan
Holland. The royalties from any Wilde publications or from
anything he himself might write about Wilde were also to go
Arnold Bennett, The Journal (New York: The Literary
Guild, 1933), p. 630.
^^Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, March 17, 1915,
in the Clark Library.
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360
to them.^ ^
Ross Prosecutes Douglas for Libel
Why Ross and his counselors, his brother Alex, Edmund
Gosse, and Sir George Lewis, decided to go ahead and prose
cute Douglas for libel cannot be said definitely. One rea
son must nave been that, after the evidence given at the
Crosland trial, failure to prosecute would look like a tacit
admission of guilt. Another was undoubtedly to try to stop
Douglas from committing future libels, and from continuing
his letter writing campaign, now enlarged to include com
ments not only about Ross but Millard, Ransome, and the law
yers "Sheeny Lewis" and F. E. Smith, both of whom he accused
of having personal interests in supporting homosexuals.^ ^
Just after the Crosland trial Douglas had published a scur
rilous poem called "The Rhyme of F Double E" in which he
alternated his assaults on Ross and on F. E. Smith, who he
said would do anything for money. Such impudence must be
stopped. A third reason for prosecuting Douglas must have
been knowledge of innocence. Although the Wilde trial had
taken place nearly twenty years before, it was still a
strong memory for Robbie and Alex, and for Sir George Lewis.
They would not have dared prosecute Douglas if there was the
^^Will in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
^^Alfred Douglas to F. E. Smith, August 11, 1914, typed
copy in the Clark Library, Wilde D735L L651 1913.
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361
remotest possibility of Douglas finding the same sort of
streetboys which his father had been able to find to testify
against Wilde. Anyone with a knowledge of guilt would never
have faced as bitter an enemy as Douglas if there were
really persons available who could testify truthfully
against Ross.
On September 2 Douglas returned to England from Bou
logne. As he stepped off the boat he was arrested on Ross's
charge against him, and taken to Taylor's police court,
where he pleaded justification. He was then imprisoned for
libelling Custance, but after five days in a comfortable
jail where he could order his own food and keep his own
clothes, he was again bound over to keep the peace with Cus
tance, and released on bail. Douglas then went out to try
to collect evidence against Ross. ^ H e already knew, from
the investigation that he and Crosland had carried on, that
there was nothing against Ross in recent years. So he went
back to the days when they had both been young and had been
friends. He had kept, and already used, the letter from
Robbie about the 1893 situation. Another possibility was a
man named Edwards, who had gone to Crosland's lawyer in May
and said that during the 1890's Ross had known his son
William, who had later joined the army, fought in the South
Douglas, Autobiography, pp. 270-280.
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362
African war, and died.^® Douglas's exaggeration of inci
dents in his Autobiography is well illustrated by this mat
ter. Though a letter from Crosland makes it clear that
Edwards came forward on his own and volunteered to give evi
dence if his expenses were paid, and though the Daily Tele
graph shows that he testified at the trial, Douglas makes it
all into a very dramatic story. He says he received an
anonymous tip at the last minute that Edwards existed, and
that he was unable to find him at the given address. Then
an angel, disguised as a child and sent by St. Anthony of
Padua, appeared out of nowhere, told him that the house num
bers had been changed, and disappeared before he could be
t h a n k e d . 3 G william Edwards's elder brother, also in the
army, testified, too. The evidence of father and brother
indicated that indeed William had known Ross, had left home,
and had sometimes stayed with Ross. They implied that the
relationship must have been an improper one, although a
young man might well wish to leave a home with a stepmother
in it, and might innocently stay with a friend. No evidence
of any impropriety was produced.
The third possibility for Douglas was to reveal Ross's
s^T. W . H. Crosland to Alfred Douglas, May 5, 1914,
copy in Clark Wilde D735L L651 1913; Douglas, Autobiography,
p. 287; Robert Ross to Mary Jones, December 23, 1900, in the
possession of Giles Robertson; Daily Telegraph, November 27,
1914, in Bodleian Ross d.213, pi 82.
3 6
Douglas, Autobiography, p. 2 86.
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363
relationship with Frederick Stanley Smith. There surely
must be people who had known Freddie when he was poor, and
who were jealous of him for having received advantages which
they had not. Perhaps there were even some who had been
interested in him themselves and were jealous of Ross. That
the young man's reputation and prospects would be ruined by
his being mentioned made no difference to Bosie, though no
one should have known better than he the difficulties of the
situation in which he was putting Smith.
The trial began on Thursday, November 19. Barrister
F . E. Smith was in the trenches in France, serving as
Recording Officer to the Indian Corps.^^ Therefore Ernest
Wild and Eustace Fulton appeared for Ross, and Douglas again
had Comyns Carr and E. J. Purchase. Mr. Justice Coleridge
heard the case at the Old Bailey.
Wild spoke first, for the prosecution. He said that it
was necessary to go back to the 1890's and the Wilde case in
order to understand this one, and gave the pertinent back
ground information. He also mentioned the Custance verdict
against Douglas and his apparent flight to France to avoid
the conspiracy action which Crosland had faced alone.The
next day, Friday, Ross was called. He told about his rela-
^^Frederick, Second Earl of Birkenhead, F. E., pp. 257-
259.
^®Daily Telegraph, November 20, 1914, in Bodleian Ross
d.213, pp. 77-78.
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364
tionship with Wilde and the estate, and the history of Doug
las's persecution of him, saying that he had not prosecuted
before because Douglas was so well-known for libelling
everyone.39 Cross-examination began on Friday and continued
on Monday, November 24, when Carr brought up various old and
unpleasant points about the 1893 situation, questioned Ross
about a New Year's party at which men danced together, about
Millard, and about Ross's production of old letters by Doug
las at the Ransome trial, which Douglas called blackmail
ing. Tuesday continued with reexamination of Ross, during
which Ross said that he had published De Profundis in order
to make money for the estate and to show Wilde as a man of
letters rather than in an attempt to pass him off as a re
pentant sinner. Ross added that Salome had been banned
because it portrayed Biblical figures on the stage rather
than because it was improper; and testified that, if Wilde's
friends were to be divided among those who shared his vices
and those who did not, he himself was to be placed among
those who did not. ^ He then left the witness stand.
^^Daily Telegraph, November 21, 1914, in Bodleian Ross
d. 213, pp. 78-79.
Daily Telegraph, November 24, 1914, in Bodleian Ross
d.213, p. 81.
* * ^Presumably Ross satisfied his conscience by defining
"vices" differently from the definition more generally ac
cepted. That is, he meant that he did not frequent male
prostitutes nor practice profligacy as did Wilde. Of course
this testimony implied to the jury and judge that he was
disclaiming homosexuality, and he must have known that he
was giving them this impression.
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365
The next evidence introduced was letters seized from
Douglas at the time of his arrest, which the prosecution
used to show his character. They included offensive letters
to the King about politics, to the Home Secretary charging
misconduct by a judge, and to Justice Darling about his con
duct of the Ransome case. This ended the case for the
prosecution. They had shown that Douglas had indeed made
the statements complained of, shown why he disliked Ross,
and given evidence of his practice of libelling Custance and
other people.
Douglas himself was the first witness in his defense.
He said that he had known nothing about De Profundis till
the Ransome case, and at that time Ross had told him to be
careful or Ross would publish the whole thing. He consid
ered that blackmailing. There was too much evidence already
introduced or available for Douglas to deny all intimate
connection with Wilde, but he did his best to show that his
sentiments had changed entirely since his marriage in 1902,
and that previously he had been very young and unduly influ
enced by Wilde and Ross. Cross-examination only more firmly
established his excuse that no matter what he had said or
done in the '90's, he now abhorred such actions.On
Wednesday and Thursday Douglas called a total of fourteen
witnesses, including Crosland, who said that Ross's articles
‘ ‘^Daily Telegraph, November 25, 1914,in Bodleian Ross
d.213, pp. 79-80.
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366
submitted to the Academy had contained improper material
which he had removed; Crosland also told of the conspiracy
case. Albert Edwards and his son were called to tell of
Ross's acquaintance with William Edwards. One of Douglas's
solicitors, a Mr. Bell, testified that Garratt could not be
found to appear. One wonders how hard they looked for him,
after his evidence in behalf of Ross at the earlier trial.
Much more damaging to Ross was the evidence of a
Detective Sergeant West, who said that while he was on duty
in the west end of London he had seen Ross walking with boys
whom he knew to be male prostitutes. West had a record of
fifteen years' service at Scotland Yard and two years at
Vine Street Police Station, and his statements must have
carried weight with the jury. There would seem, however, to
be some doubt about their accuracy, for why were these pros
titutes not called to give evidence? A few months later a
writer named Ralph Straus, who apparently knew West, was to
tell Ross how sorry he was about "West's perjury" and say
that had he known at the time, several Scotland Yard men he
knew could have appeared to contradict it. From the rest of
his letter he seems not to have been a person who would
assume that evidence of this sort was false without having
^^Daily Telegraph, November 26 and November 27, 1914,
in Bodleian Ross d.213, p. 82.
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367
good reason for the assumption.'*'* On the other hand, what
West's motive in perjuring himself might have been is also
unknown.
The other really damaging group of witnesses were those
who testified about Ross's relationship with Smith. They
were persons connected with the Literary Theatre Club or St.
James's Church, which sponsored it. They told how Smith had
been a poor boy, a junior clerk in an office, until he met
Ross. A Reverend Robinson said he was not competent to fill
tne position of Ross's secretary. After Smith had become
secretary, he "spoke better, and more refined" and he
"dressed very much better," wearing a ring and perhaps
painting his face. Though he had not had any money when he
was a clerk, with Ross he had a salary of LlO a month, and
had once paid off a church debt. An Emma Rooker told of an
occasion on which Freddie had invited her home with him to
dinner. She told of watching Ross and Smith when they
didn't know she was there. They were bickering about the
way something should be acted, and she saw Robbie put his
arm around Freddie's shoulder and say "Oh, my darling, do
not be so angry." Throughout her testimony and that of the
other witnesses, the envy of persons who had not been able
to learn to speak "better, and more refined" or to earn
enough money to dress well was apparent, possibly influenc-
**‘ ‘Ralph Straus to Robert Ross, April 7, 1915, in the
possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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368
ing the tone, if not the contents, of their testimony.
After the defense had finished its case on Thursday,
Wild called evidence in rebuttal. Now that they knew which
specific incidents Douglas was using in justification of the
libel, specific answers could be made. First Alex was
called to tell about the 1893 situation. He, too, said that
tne problem had not been Robbie's connection with the boy,
but the fact that he had introduced him to Douglas, and that
the Ross family had also objected to Robbie's continued
association with Douglas. Edmund Gosse appeared and gave
character testimony for Ross, as did H. G. Wells, who said
that he also knew Smith, invited him to his home, and that
"there was nothing abnormal about the young man." Vyvyan
Holland gave similar evidence, saying that Freddie was "a
great friend both of himself and his wife" and that Robbie
had been "a second father" to himself and his brother, who
was on active service at the Front.**®
Friday, November 27, was the last day of the case.
After the final speeches of Carr on Thursday and Wild on
Friday, Mr. Justice Coleridge summed up. Not very sympa
thetic to either party, he told the jury that apparently the
quarrel had begun "because both parties seem to have been
clamorous to obtain all the notoriety that could attach to
4 S
Robert le Diable, "The Past, the Present .
‘ *®Daily Telegraph, November 27, 1914, in Bodleian Ross
d.213, pp. 82-83.
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369
Wilde and his writings." This particularly stung Robbie,
who had tried hard to keep himself in the background in his
work for the Wilde estate. Coleridge said that the real
issue was whether the jury believed the testimony of Douglas
or of Ross.
It was only by the irresistible inference to be drawn from
circumstantial facts that truth must be established. It
must be an inference that commended itself as being irre
sistible to the sound judgment of sound and sensible men.
The members of the jury must remember that bare suspicion,
even strong suspicion, fell short of proof, and it was
only when the rational conclusion from facts led the judg
ment to decide that they were inconsistent with an inno
cent interpretation that the proof of guilt could be
brought home.
After an hour and a half of deliberation, the jury came
out with a question about the weight of evidence, and
reported its members were "in two diametrically opposed
camps." They again retired, and came out twenty minutes
later saying that they could not possibly agree on a ver
dict. They were therefore discharged, and the case was
postponed till the next session."*’
Ross now had a difficult decision to make. Should he
try to carry the case through to a new trial? If he did, if
the evidence of West and some of the others was repeated,
and if he got an unsympathetic judge such as Avory had been,
he might very well lose. And should that happen, the gov
ernment might feel it necessary to prosecute him, as it had
"*’Daily Telegraph, November 28, 1914, in Bodleian Ross
d.213, p. 83.
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370
Wilde. Though no single piece of Douglas's evidence was
conclusive, the total effect was pretty bad. The expenses,
too, were mounting up, and the count of Crosland against him
for malicious prosecution was still to come to trial. In
view of all these circumstances, it seemed best that the
prosecution should be dropped. Gosse and Asquith conferred
about it, and Asquith took time out of his busy wartime
schedule to talk to Attorney-General John Simon and ask him
if tne government could not enter a nolle prosequi for Ross.
Simon replied that while he too sympathized with Ross, such
action would not be legally possible, because both parties
to the case must agree in order "to terminate these most
deplorable proceedings by such means."**®
The important thing was that Douglas should agree to
stop issuing libels. If that could be accomplished, the
purpose of the trial would really be achieved. Should Doug
las make an agreement to keep his peace, and then break it,
he could be arrested with no further ado, as he had been
when he had continued to libel Custance.
Would Douglas agree to drop the case and to say nothing
more? If he insisted that his libel must be justified, and
he should lose, he faced the prospect of imprisonment for
two years. The next jury might not be so impressed by
**®John Simon to H. H. Asquith, December 3, 1914, in
letter from Asquith to Gosse, December 4, 1914, in the
Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
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371
twenty-year-old evidence, allegations made against persons
not involved, or hateful charges against a man for whom
prominent witnesses were willing to give character testi
mony. Besides, Bosie probably thought he had achieved his
ends. He had lost' Bobbie his job, had made sure everyone
suspected him of homosexuality, and had made all his libels
without anything worse happening to him than a few days in
pleasant detention. So many people had left him strictly
alone because they considered him homosexual that he was
sure most of Ross's friends would drop Ross.
So, when Lewis and Lewis arranged for Douglas's ex
penses for the trial to be paid, not by Ross but by "rela
tions and friends of his who desire that these proceedings
snail be terminated," Douglas agreed, and on December 8 both
Douglas and Ross signed statements that they would not
repeat charges, issue attacks, or reveal old documents in
the future, except in the Crosland action and in the book in
preparation by Frank Harris.^* On the twelfth Douglas ap
peared briefly before iir. Justice Avory, who had again drawn
the action, to be released from the indictment against him.
Neither Ross nor his lawyers had to make an appearance.
^Statements published in The Globe, April 7, 1916, in
Bodleian Ross d.213, pp. 84-85.
Daily Tribune, December 12, 1914, in Bodleian Ross
d.213, p. 84.
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372
Crosland*s Action Against Ross
for Malicious Prosecution
One more legal battle remained, Crosland*s action
against Ross for malicious prosecution. It was postponed
several times and finally came up on Tuesday, April 13,
1915, before Mr. Justice Bray. Cecil Hayes was again Cros
land *s lawyer, and Mr. Schiller and Mr. McCardie appeared
for Ross. Hayes made a long statement about the history of
the case, and Wednesday and Thursday were occupied by evi
dence from Crosland. The prosecution tried to make its old
point that Crosland had been motivated by a desire to defend
morality, not out of personal malice towards Ross. Ross,
they said, had based his whole case on the statements of
Garratt, who had such a bad character that no reasonable
person could have believed him. They added that Ross was
trying to whitewash his own character through prosecuting
Crosland.
However, this time Crosland did not have as sympathetic
a judge as Avory had been. When Hayes began reading and
attacking Ransome's book on Wilde, Bray suggested he was
getting "rather wide of the mark" and later said that they
were not going to have all of Wilde's works read out in
court. A letter in which Crosland asked Ross to prosecute
him for libel was also commented on adversely by the judge.
On Friday, when the plaintiff finished his case, the judge
listened to Schiller's usual statement saying "there was no
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373
evidence of want of reasonable and probable cause" for
Ross's prosecution of Crosland, and withdrew the case from
the jury, saying that there was no question for them to
decide, since Crosland had not even attempted to prove that
Ross was guilty of the actions with Garratt that Ross had
objected to being charged with. On the question of whether
Ross had taken reasonable care to inform himself of the true
facts of the case, the judge said that there was no evidence
Ross had not, that the material facts did indeed corroborate
Garratt's story, and that Ross had sent his solicitor to get
the statement from Garratt, as was proper. There was there
fore "reasonable and proper cause for instituting the prose
cution" and judgment was given for the defendant, with costs
to be paid by Crosland.
After the other unsuccessful actions, and after warn
ings by his counsel of the possible loss of this one, the
verdict was unexpected and pleasant. The financial relief
was also very welcome, for Robbie was still worried about
the threat of bankruptcy, and felt that "my friends and
relatives had already been bled too much."^^
Daily Tribune, April 14, April 15, April 16, and
April 17T~, 1915, in Bodleian Ross d.213, pp. 85-89 .
®^Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, March 17, 1915,
in the Clark Library; Robert Ross to Frank Harris, March 4,
1915, copy in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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374
An Honor for Ross
Meanwhile, the desire of MacColl, Witt, and others to
do something for Ross to show their support had resulted in
a collection toward a gift or memorial, and an address in
honor of Ross which over 30 0 people signed. Edmund Gosse
was Chairman of the Committee; the Earl of Plymouth, Hon.
Treasurer; and MacColl and Witt the Hon. Secretaries. On
March 29 the address was published in the papers, several of
whicn carried further articles complimentary to Ross.
ADDRESS AND PRESENTATION TO MR. ROBERT ROSS
TO ROBERT ROSS
We whose names are set down below claim to be counted
among your friends or at least your admirers. We desire
in the first place to state publicly our recognition of
your services to Art and Literature. You have long been
distinguished for the justice and courage of your writ
ings, and you have illuminated the expression of your
views with humour and resource.
Your work as a Man of Letters, however, is but a small
part of the useful energy which you have shown in many
directions. You have been conspicuous for the generosity
with which you have put yourself at the disposal of all
who claimed your sympathy or your help. You have been one
of the earliest amongst us to observe new talent, and one
of the most zealous to encourage it.
By these qualities you have earned what we here desire
to record, our esteem and regard for one who has proved a
brave, loyal and devoted friend.
It was signed by an interesting group of names. There
was the Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. H. H. Asquith, M. P., and
the Lord President of the Council, The Earl Beauchamp,
^^The "Address," a letter by the committee dated June
1, and one by Ross dated June 2, are printed in a pamphlet
without date or publisher. A copy is in the possession of
J. P. B. Ross.
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375
K. G., as well as several other members of Parliament; sev
eral lords; the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres; Mary,
Countess of Lovelace; The Earl of Lytton; The Earl Nelson;
and Millicent, Duchess of Sutherland. Literary names
abounded: Sir James Barrie, Bt., Arnold Bennett, E. M.
Forster, Maxim Corky, Thomas Hardy, A. E. Housman, Henry
James, John Masefield, G. Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, and
W. B. Yeats. English and Russian theater were represented
by Sir George Alexander, William Archer, H. Granville Bark
er, F. Chaliapine, Madame Karsavina (the star of the Russian
ballet), H. Lykiardopulos, C. Stanislawsky, and Sir Herbert
Tree. There were a number of scholars from various fields,
such as Lascelles Abercrombie, The President of Corpus
Christi College, Oxford, G. Lowes Dickinson, Prof. Oliver
Elton, J. M. Keynes, Sir E. Ray Lankester, K. C. B ., F. R.
S., Prof. M. E. Sadler, C. B., and Prof. George Saintsbury.
Artists included Muirhead Bone, Augustus John, John Lavery,
A. R. A., Ambrose McEvoy, William Nicholson, William Orpen,
Joseph Pennell, Charles Ricketts, William Rothenstein, J. S.
Sargent, R. A., C. H. Shannon, A. R. A., P. Wilson Steer,
and Henry Tonks; along with art critics or officials Charles
Aitken, Bernhard Berenson, Sydney Cockerell, Roger Fry,
C. J. Holmes, and Sir Charles Holroyd.
Although the cases had been expensive and he was short
of funds, Ross refused to use the sum raised in this way to
defray his own expenses, and asked that it be used for a
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376
scholarship at the Slade School of Fine Art at University
College, London. This offer was accepted by the Senate of
London University, and the Robert Ross Memorial Scholarship
is still awarded there each year to someone who has shown
outstanding promise. At that time the interest would pay
the annual fees of a student with something left over. The
capital was L700. The other L50 or &60 raised was used by
the Committee for the purchase and engraving of a gold
chronometer which bore within one of its lids the names of
every signatory. ^
Further Actions of Douglas's
Douglas, of course, was furious at the failure of his
scheme to make Ross a social outcast. The Reform Club, too,
had decided in December to retain Ross as a member. So
Douglas published two pamphlets. "Striking Tribute to a
Solicitor," was a parody of the Ross presentation as if it
had been given to Sir George Lewis, featuring the names of
some of Lewis's clients who were in prison, as well as most
of the German or Jewish names on Ross's list, and some fic
titious ones such as "Professor Kindsnatcher." This was
hardly something to be taken seriously, nor was the slightly
later "Rossiad," which first appeared in January of 1916.
Purporting to be a letter from Gosse to Ross about the tes-
®‘ 'Conversation with J. P. B. Ross; University of London
catalogue.
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377
timonial, it complained that a few years ago Ross would have
had to leave the country, but today he could get the signa
tures of many persons, half of them implicated themselves in
such activities, and the other half too ignorant to under
stand what they were supporting. It ended with an appeal to
England in its hour of peril to get rid of two menaces, "The
German and the Sodomite."
For the next ten years, till he was frightened by a
term of imprisonment for libelling Winston Churchill, Doug
las continued to lurk about. He completely broke with his
wife and went to live with his mother, hunted and backed
race horses, and occasionally emerged to publish some bit of
nastiness. One gratuitous offering published several weeks
after Ross's death, about Frederick Stanley Smith, who had
not lived with Ross in over four years, lost Smith his posi
tion with the British Embassy in Sweden. Other letters and
articles through the years effectively kept Smith from hold
ing good positions or achieving any sort of success.
Ross's Health
In the autumn of 1914, after the Crosland trial and be
fore the Douglas one, Ross made plans for a trip to America,
in order to have a change of scene and to avoid being
s^croft-Cooke, Bosie, p. 283; conversation with Vyvyan
Holland. This is the "Robert Le Diable" article that has
previously been quoted several times-
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378
bothered by Douglas.There were relatives and family
business in Canada, and the art treasures to see whose sale
to America he had protested so strongly in his writings.
But illness caused a cancellation of the trip.^^ He recov
ered about the time of the Douglas trial, but in the middle
of January came down with a nasty attack of bronchitis which
kept him in bed and too ill to receive letters or to do much
of anything until about the first of March.®® Even after he
felt better, he was too restless to "do anything or read
anything or even go & see anyone."®® The Crosland malicious
prosecution action hung over him, and he missed Freddie,
whom he kept mentioning in his letters. Throughout the next
four years he was subject to attacks of asthma which kept
him from sleeping well,®® and from time to time he would
break out all over with eczema. The prescription of the
doctors was almost as bad as the disease, for it involved
®®Charles Ricketts to Robert Ross [September 1914]
partly published in Ross, Friend of Friends, pp. 264-266,
but not this sentence; Robert Ross to Edmund Gosse, July 13,
1914, in the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds.
® "^Charles Ricketts to Robert Ross, undated, partly pub
lished in Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 267, but not this sen
tence .
® ®Robert Ross to Frank Harris, March 4, 1915, copy in
the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
®®Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, March 9, 1915, in
the Clark Library.
6 0
Sassoon, Siegfried's Journey, p. 52.
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379
complete avoidance of alcohol and of meat or fowl.®^
The War Affects the Lives of Ross's Friends
Tne war hung over everyone's life. Many of the young
men volunteered immediately, and were in France before many
months had passed. The first two casualties of the war to
affect Robbie closely were the death of Hugh Lane on the
Lusitania when it was sunk by a German submarine May 7,
1915, and the death in action of Cyril Holland on May 9.
Only about a month before, Cyril had written Vyvyan,
also in the army in France, with wishes about the disposi
tion of his estate. He had left his share of his mother's
money to Vyvyan, and the Wilde literary estate and "the free
capital not included in our contract" half to Vyvyan and
half to Robbie. To Robbie were also to go "all works of art
collected by me."®^ When the estate came to be settled, the
"free capital" and the "works of art" could not be found,
and Robbie suspected that perhaps their disappearance and
part of Cyril's income was connected with duties for the
secret service, duties which had also occasioned a special
telegram of condolence from the King and Queen used only for
®^Robert Ross to Reginald Turner, May 8, 1916, in the
possession of Giles Robertson.
®^Cyril Holland to Vyvyan Holland, April 15, 1915, in
the Clark Library.
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^ 380
distinguished officers.®^ The Wilde estate itself was much
less valuable than it had been, for with the war the large
income from Germany was completely cut off and the British
royalties dropped greatly. Methuen, for instance, paid
£261 3s lOd in royalties during the period July-December
1913, but only £93 during July-December 1914.®“ *
Ross's Art Activities
The death of Sir Hugh Lane caused a public commotion
which was not to be settled for many years. He had been
interested in the formation of a National Gallery for Ire
land and in the collection of good works of modern art for
it. His own superb collection had been intended for Ire
land, but his will had been changed recently, and was not
properly witnessed. When he died he left the two countries
quarreling about the paintings. His death also left vacant
his position in charge of the Irish National Gallery, and
much intrigue went on about the appointment of his succes
sor. Ross was suggested, and strongly backed by W. B. Yeats
and others, but there was too much opposition for him to be
appointed.G 5 The pictures themselves are now the property
®^Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, September 18,
1915, in the Clark Library.
®‘ 'Typed statement on the Wilde literary estate, drawn
up for death duties, in the Clark Library.
®^W. B. Yeats to John Quinn, June 24, 1915, in Yeats,
Letters, p. 594.
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381
of the London gallery, which loans half of them to Ireland
on a five-year rotating basis.
In November, Ross became involved in consultations
about the headship of another gallery, this time the English
National Gallery. Holroyd was to retire the next summer and
recommended Ricketts as his successor. Holmes and Witt, the
other candidates, agreed to withdraw if Ricketts would take
the position. Asquith sent Ross to find out from Ricketts
whether he would be interested, before anything official was
done. Ricketts, knowing Holroyd's lack of power and forced
subservience to the Board, rejected the post almost without
thinking, a decision he was later to regret bitterly. Ross
then actively backed R. C. Witt, but without success. When,
the next April, Ricketts was offered a position as adviser
to an American museum, he had considered more thoroughly and
wrote Ross asking if any decision had yet been made on the
National Gallery. It was too late, for C. J. Holmes re
ceived the appointment in July, with the understanding that
the Treasury, which was responsible for the gallery, would
be behind him in his struggles with the Board.®®
Ross was doing more writing about art than he had done
while he was at the Estate Duty Office, although it seemed
like nothing in comparison with the column he had ground out
GGRicketts, Self-Portrait, pp. 250-251, 255, 261-262;
Holmes, Self and Partners, pp. 313-317; Charles Ricketts to
Robert Ross, April 6, 1916, in Ross, Friend of Friends,
pp. 285-286.
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382
for the Morning Post. For the Burlington Magazine he wrote
every few months about Pre-Raphaelites or modern painters,
and sometimes strayed as far from his specialties as a long
review of a recent publication on primitive Indian painting,
"Ajanta Frescoes."®^ With the 1915 volume he began writing
the "Art" section for the Annual Register, which he contin
ued till his death.®® He had also found time, even when
under the worst of Douglas's attacks, to write an occasional
preface or introduction to a book of drawings or an art
show, such as his "Note of Exclamation" to Forty-Three Draw
ings by Alastair, line drawings with an odd blend of Art
Nouveau and Expressionism to them; or his preface to An Il
lustrated Catalogue of the Second National Loan Exhibition,
1913-14.®®
In 1915 these more serious publications were supple
mented by two little volumes of questions, designed in the
style of a Victorian confession album. Really and Truly, A
Book of Literary Confessions; Designed by a Late-Victorian
was signed only with the initials "C. F.," which Ross had
used occasionally since Author days, and which stood for
"Christian Freeborn." Consisting of "A Preface without a
Book" and twenty-five copies of a questionnaire that covered
®’XXIX (July 1916), pp. 154-161.
®®Annual Register, 1918, Pt. II, p. 194.
®®(London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1914) and
(n. p., no pub., 1914).
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383
facing pages, the book expressed admiration for the leisured
Victorian era, and suggested itself as an alternative to
talking about the war or playing bridge. The questions
themselves required a broad knowledge of literature in order
to be answered at all, let alone answered thoughtfully,
since they asked for such things as "Your favourite deceased
writer in prose and poetry" for nine different literatures;
"The worst living English poet"; "The greatest stylist apart
from genius" or "The greatest genius without style"; and
"Three recognised great writers in poetry or prose whose
work you thoroughly dislike." The Connaught Square Cate
chism or. Confessions to Mrs. Robert Witt was less anony
mous, as the dedication was signed with the initials "R. R."
No. 27 Connaught Square was the address of the Witts. Cov
ering painting in fresco, tempera, or oil, the questionnaire
required perhaps even a greater knowledge of art than had
its predecessor of literature, since among living persons it
called for "the greatest living painter"; "The worst living
English painter of any repute"; "best living critic or
experts"; "worst living critic or expert," best draughtsman,
landscape painter, and portrait painter. It also had charm
ingly thought-provoking questions such as "Three really
great masters whose work you dislike," "the most underrated
painter living or dead, who has ceased to be in fashion" and
the most overrated, and a space for general observations.
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384
Frank Harris's Book on Wilde
Frank Harris, after several libel actions and other
difficulties with the law, had left for America, where he
was now living, and where his book about Wilde was finally
published in the summer of 1916. As soon as it was out,
Harris sent copies to Ross, to Bernard Shaw, and to George
Moore asking for their comments on it, so that he could use
the comments in the next edition. Shaw and Moore responded
with long letters, which they sent to Ross first, and Ross
agreed to correct any factual errors which he or Millard
could find in the book, but refused to write his own views
of Wilde, as Harris had asked him to do.^°
. . . In the first place, my views of Wilde as a writer
would not be regarded as of any importance; and my views
of Wilde as a man would be regarded as too biased. The
latter objection would hold with regard to his writings,
even if I was accepted as literary critic of any kind.
Douglas and Crosland sought vainly to discover some word
of approval of Wilde or his life among my sparse contrib
utions to the literature on the subject. That they failed
to do so was one of the most gratifying tributes I have
ever received. . . .
My friends, and particularly yourself, have been more
than generous in recognising the success of my efforts but
I really think my function has now come to an end, and if
I feel too complacent it is you and others who have made
George Bernard Shaw to Robert Ross, September 10,
1916 and September 13, 1916; Frank Harris to Robert Ross,
October 24, 1916; November 10, 1916; November 20, 1916;
December 12, 1916; January 9, 1917; Frank Harris to Christo
pher Millard, December 4, 1916; Robert Ross to Christopher
Hillard, undated; the preceding all in the Clark Library.
Also Robert Ross to Frank Harris, November 28, 1916; Febru
ary 3, 1917; both at the University of Texas Library; and
Robert Ross to Frank Harris, February 1, 1917; original at
Texas, copy at the Clark Library.
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385
me so by your exaggerated tributes to me.
I must admit that my attitude is a little like that of
Watts Dunton towards Rossetti. Indeed, in darker moments
I feel another Watts Dunton, without the complementary
Swinburne, to occupy my old age. . . .
I do not, of course, agree with all you say, or your
estimate and criticism of various incidents; but I would
not suggest altering anything materially. The point of
the book is that it is your view. As Wilde said: "Atti
tude in art is everything."^^
Harris later included Ross's and Millard's corrections
in factual matters as a section of his cheaper edition in
1516, and as part of several subsequent editions.
Ross and George Moore
Although Ross had known George Moore since the '90's,
they had never been very close. Indeed, Robbie and Max had
once delighted in making up slightly malicious stories about
Moore's lack of culture and social sense.Now, however,
he and Moore became much better friends. Ross was perhaps
grateful for Moore's invitation to him immediately after the
Crosland trial, and Moore valued Ross's comments on his
books. Ross commented briefly to Moore on his drama, Eliza
beth Cooper, in 1913, but the first book on which he gave
substantial assistance was Moore's next. Their conversa
tions about The Brook Kerith resulted in Ross's reading the
manuscript and discussing both structural and stylistic
^^Robert Ross to Frank Harris, February 1, 1917, copies
in the University of Texas and Clark Libraries. (The carbon
copy at the Clark lacks a few corrections in Ross's writ
ing. )
72
O'Sullivan, Opinions, p. 51.
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386
points with Moore.Next Moore took up the revising of his
1884 novel, A Mummer's Wife. This, Ross told him, was his
favorite of all Moore's novels, because of its "youthful
imagination and a young man's exuberance on coming into his
own for the first time. ..." although Esther Waters
"speaks out of a deeper appreciation of life."^^ Because of
this comment, Moore decided to dedicate the new edition to
Ross, and asked him to read carefully both the book and the
dedication.
I have finished the weeding of A Mummer's Wife, and hope
that I have not pulled up some flowers with the weeds
which were plentiful. I hope that I have not developed
the eccentric lady out of the frame. Of course I do not
think I have, but I would like to have your opinion, in
fact more than anybody else's. You said you would read
the book and if you come to dinner I will point out one or
two passages that were discarded, typical weeds. The best
help you can give me, if you are still minded to help,
would be just to earmark the pages that are not suffi
ciently written. It takes me no time to put things right
and I enjoy doing it in proof, but the expense is dread
ful.
Moore rewrote at least two passages at Ross's suggestion.
7 6
^^George Moore to Robert Ross, April 3 [1915] in Ross,
Friend of Friends, pp. 269-270; undated, p. 277; and pos
sibly other undated letters in the possession of J. P. B.
Ross. (Moore frequently refers to "the book" in his letters
without specifying which one or giving other information so
that the letter can be dated.)
^‘ ‘Quoted in George Moore, "A Dedication to Robert
Ross," Carra Edition (New York; Boni and Liveright, 192 2),
pp. ix-x.
^^George Moore to Robert Ross, January 1, 1916, in
Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 276.
'^George Moore to Robert Ross, January 25, 1917, in the
possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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387
The Dedication he asked Ross to consider "line by line" and
asked his ideas on the choice between the words "perplex
ity," "puzzle," and "doubt";argued over the use of "had"
— Ross thought Moore had too many’®— and "shall" and
"will";^® and pondered the inclusion of "the line you added
when we last met,"®° telling Ross later that "no doubt you
are right . . . I have no fixed opinion, I just thought I
would put the matter before you."® ^ The book appeared in an
American edition in December of 1917.
In addition to questions about his writing, Moore fre
quently consulted Ross on other problems, such as the theft
of some of his manuscripts; a libel action taken by a Louis
N. Seymour for the use of his name in a book, although Sey
mour had been a baby when the book was published; typograph
ical matters; or asking Ross to buy some Victorian glasses
^^George Moore to Robert Ross, "Sunday," in Ross,
Friend of Friends, p. 278.
?®Ibid.; also "Saturday," p. 2 77.
^®George Moore to Robert Ross, July 4, 1917, in Ross,
Friend of Friends, pp. 310-311.
®°George Moore to Robert Ross, February 28 [1917] in
the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
®^George Moore to Robert Ross, March 5, 1917, partly in
Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 29 8, but not this paragraph.
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388
and a tray for him to give as a present.®^
The last book of Moore's with which Ross was involved
was A Story-Teller's Holiday, privately printed in 1918
though not published till 19 21. Ross read the manuscript of
many of the stories and marked anachronisms or oddities of
language, as well as weak passages. Moore told him, of the
rough text of one story, that "your criticism will be as
good as three months and will enable me to see the story in
perspective," so he could get a finished text in much less
time than would otherwise be necessary.®® But at the end of
1917 Moore and Ross quarreled, supposedly about the war,
Moore growing angry with Ross about his pacifism, a strange
thing in view of the lack of comments about the war in
Moore's letters to Ross and to other persons.®**
Other Friends of Ross's
While the friendship with Moore was waxing, another old
friendship from the nineties waned. For some years Max
Beerbohm had made rather critical comments about Robbie in
his letters to Reggie Turner, but on the surface he remained
®^George Moore to Robert Ross, June 11, no year, in the
possession of J. P. B. Ross; "Monday," [1917] in Ross,
Friend of Friends, pp. 313-314; and "Thursday," J. P. B.
Ross ; July 10, T917, p. 311; "Wednesday," J. P. B. Ross ;
March 5, 1917, p. 29 8, but not this paragraph.
®®George Moore to Robert Ross, July 10, 1917; July 13,
1917, in Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 311; December 15, 1917,
p. 321.
e 4
Ross, Friend of Friends, note on p. 264.
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389
cordial to Ross. Robbie tried to be friendly, though in the
fall of 1907 Max had done something which had hurt his feel
ings very much. The critical comments from Max started
then, although Max told Reggie in 1914 he did not know what
he had done at that time to offend Robbie, and said he had
no intention of asking about, much less apologizing for, the
grievance. Robbie had mentioned the undescribed incident in
a letter to Max thanking him for wishing Ross luck in the
Ransome trial. Max sent a small sum to the fund honoring
Ross in 1915, but later wrote Reggie he would not have done
so had he known that Reggie was not going to. However, Reg
gie's name was placed on the list, probably by someone act
ing for him, since communications to Italy were somewhat
awkward at the time. Both Max and Reggie were living in
I t a l y .Gs Later that year the Beerbohms returned to England,
where he and Ross maintained a polite front, mainly for the
benefit of family and friends, such as the Gosses. When
Edmund Gosse heard about the coolness, he insisted that
Robbie make a "definite approach," and Robbie asked Max to
design a cover for one of his confession albums.®® Max re
fused, saying he was no good at designing covers, and also
declined, with a polite excuse, Robbie's invitation to
®®Max Beerbohm to Reginald Turner, February 25, 1915,
in Letters to Reggie, pp. 241-242.
® ®Robert Ross to Reggie Turner, May 8, 1916, in the
possession of Giles Robertson.
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390
l u n c h . The only further correspondence between the two
were two notes to Robbie about Max's 1916 "Enoch Soames; A
Memory of the Nineties." From Max's first note it seems
that he wrote in answer to a review or letter by Robbie.
Max also sent a brief note asking if Ross would care to
attend Max's mother's funeral.®® Other members of the Beer
bohm family were still friendly, though, and Constance,
Max's sister, wrote Robbie a touching thank you letter for
his sympathy on the death of their brother Herbert Beerbohm
Tree in July, 1917. Herbert's wife Maud wrote also, and
Alan Parsons, husband of their daughter Viola, asked Robbie
to write an obituary since some that had appeared were not
very warm and hurt the family. Ross did so, "with great
labour . . . I have lost the habit of writing almost en
tirely."®® In spite of the personal coolness between them,
Ross always mentioned Max kindly in reviews, going out of
his way in the 1915 and 1917 Annual Register articles to
contrast the excellence of Max's work with "the poverty in
humour and execution of all our political and war
®^Max Beerbohm to Robert Ross, September 21, 1915, in
the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
®®Max Beerbohm to Robert Ross, June 10, 1916; June 23,
1916; March 14, 1918, in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
®®Constance Beerbohm to Robert Ross, July 8 [1917];
Maud Tree to Robert Ross, July 21 [1917]; both in the pos
session of J. P. B. Ross ; Robert Ross to Reginald Turner,
July 9, 1917, in the possession of Giles Robertson.
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391
cartoons."^ °
Robbie became reconciled with Reggie Turner in 1916,
after about two years' silence. The occasion was the death
in Florence of Herbert Horne. Reggie contributed in the
names of Adey and Ross, and Robbie wrote to thank him for
doing so.®^ He made his letter warm enough that it gave
Reggie the opportunity to answer it in the manner of their
old friendship, which Reggie was quick to do. He asked
about George Street, Max, and Alex, and requested Robbie to
send him some books and a particular kind of stylograph.
Robbie replied to a question of Reggie's that Alex did not
hate Reggie nor did he, told of his difficulties with Max,
whom he discussed no further with Reggie, and agreed to send
the things.^ ^ From then on they exchanged news between Lon
don and Florence, and Robbie sent Reggie the newest books
and other literary news.
Ross saw less of the Asquiths than he had before, be
cause, he said, he would not learn how to play bridge.
Perhaps the most eventful weekend he spent with them was in
May of 1916. The "multicolored companionship" consisted of
s°1917, p. 135.
^^Robert Ross to Reginald Turner, April 21, 1916, in
the possession of Giles Robertson.
^^Robert Ross to Reginald Turner, May 8, 1916, in the
possession of Giles Robertson.
®^Robert Ross to Reginald Turner, April 10, 1917, in
the possession of Giles Robertson.
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392
a Mrs. Kepell, Mr. and Mrs. Montagu, Count Berkendorff, and
Sir Seymour Fortescue. The talk as usual ranged from the
Irish problem through Asquith's recent visit to Italy to the
prosecution of a murderer. Sunday was the eventful day. It
started quietly enough.
Yesterday morning I motored into Oxford with the P. M.
alone to visit Anthony at his school there. Unhappily the
effect of this was somewhat lost as nobody in the school
knew who I was ! except Anthony & that was not of much con
sequence. However today I motored up to London with the
great man! But alas I fear it will not be noted by the
press. Enough of this drivel . . . ^
he wrote to Millard, leaving out the afternoon's incident.
The whole party went over to visit Lady Ottoline Morrell at
her charming sixteenth-century gray stone house nearby.
When they got there, they walked among the grounds, the yew
hedges and high elms, and happened on a group of servants
swimming in the pool in the garden. At that moment the new
female groom thought herself drowning, screamed, and Ross
jumped into the water with all his clothes on, swam over to
the poor girl, who had- ' ’ ’given up all hope until she saw you
swimming to her rescue,"^® and towed her safely to shore.
The Morrells, neither of whom happened to be on the scene,
thanked him profusely when they heard the accounts by "'Lady
Groom' Lucy" and Mrs. Keppel; and Mrs. Asquith, who was not
*^Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, May 22, 1916, in
the Clark Library.
^^Philip Morrell to Robert Ross, May 22, 1916, in the
possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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393
there either, provided a
still more romantic version which I overheard while dress
ing for dinner in the evening though I was not supposed to
hear it!^®
Lady Ottoline remarked later, "He's always jumping into the
water to pull people out, isn't he?"^?
Ross's Services to Writers
Most of the young men that Ross knew were in the war,
and he spent much time arranging for some of them to come to
the attention of publishers, and making their leaves in Lon
don as pleasant and productive as possible. One of those to
whom he was the most help, and who most appreciated and ac
knowledged his aid, was Siegfried Sassoon. They met at the
Gosses's in 1915, and Sassoon immediately found Ross to be
like
a benevolent and impulsive bachelor uncle with whom one
could feel on easy terms of equality, while consenting to
be guided by his astute and experienced advice.^®
Ross was also one of the few persons to whom he could talk
or write honestly about the war. Once the British were com-
®®Robert Ross to Mary Jones, May 24, 1915, in the pos
session of Giles Robertson. Another source for the incident
is Lady Ottoline Morrell to Robert Ross, May 22 [1916] , in
Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 2 88. Margery Ross's note which
appears here saying the family did not know that Robbie
could swim is strongly contradicted by a list of corrections
in the Robertson papers, which says that it was always known
he was a very good swimmer.
®^Sassoon, Siegfried's Journey, p. 16. The description
of the house and grounds are from p. 12.
9 8
Ibid., p. 9.
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394
mitted to the war, it had become a moral crusade and a "war
to end all wars." Without field experience themselves, and
brought up in the tradition of the heroic old days, most
noncombatants were incapable of comprehending the dirty,
brutal business of trench warfare, and were not about to
learn of it from the young people, whose duty and pleasure
it should be to die for their country. Ross did not feel
that way, and was willing to listen to battlefield experi
ences and their effect on the sensitive young poet, or to
comment on and criticize the decisions of the generals.
When Sassoon returned to England from France on sick leave
in August, 1916, Ross examined his poems— the few pamphlets
he had privately printed before the war, and the peacetime
and wartime poems composed more recently. Ross volunteered
to read some of them to Heinemann, who agreed to publish a
selection to be made by Ross and Edmund Gosse. The Old
Huntsman, published in the spring of 1917, contained some
prewar poems, a number of descriptive and somewhat romantic
war poems, and a few of Sassoon's most recent works, which
satirized the war and the blood-thirsty civilians who sent
young men out to be killed. Gosse was shocked by some of
these, but Ross encouraged Sassoon to continue writing them,
and his next book, Counter-Attack, published in the summer
of 1918 and dedicated to Ross, contained many poems of this
^ ^Ibid., pp. 21-22, also miscellaneous letters from
Sassoon to Ross, in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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395
sort, and caused much comment.
Meanwhile, Ross was trying to promote Sassoon's success
in London literary circles. Lady Ottoline Morrell, who had
written Sassoon admiring the poetry, met him through Ross,
and became a strong supporter. She wished her home at Gar-
sington to be a center of artistic and literary inspiration,
and she eagerly befriended young writers and artists. She
and her husband Philip, a Member of Parliament, were also
ardent pacifists and their comments on the mismanagement of
the war and the unworthy reasons behind it were in agreement
with Robbie's beliefs.
Ross was also active in arranging for his poet friends
to appear at poetry readings at the home of socially promi
nent Mrs. Colefax, who wished to introduce new writers to
the fashionable world. Knowing this sort of celebrity-mak
ing would not be appreciated by Sassoon, that he was shy and
defensive about being shown off to the same groups of people
whom his poetry attacked for backing the war, Ross did not
warn him ahead of time that he was to read, but annoyed him
thoroughly by arranging for a dinner at the Cafe Royal,
where he was to meet Robert Nichols, another war poet, and
then taking them both on to the Colefaxes'.^°° Ross bought
so many copies of The Old Huntsman that Sassoon protested,
and went around giving them to persons who could be of use.
^° °Ibid., pp. 100-102; Robert Nichols to Robert Ross,
November 18, 1917, in Ross, Friend of Friends, pp. 318-319.
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396
"Telling one's friends to buy a book is waste of time," he
remarked airily. "One has to produce it from one's pocket
and press it into their hands. The least one can hope for
is that they'll leave it lying about in their drawing
rooms and talk as though they'd read itl"^°^
Ross was introduced by Sassoon to two of his friends, whom
Ross also aided to some extent. One was Wilfred Owen. When
Owen was on leave in November of 1917, Sassoon introduced
him by letter. Owen at that time had few literary acquaint
ances in London, and was thrilled at Ross's taking him to
the Reform Club, where they lunched with Arnold Bennett and
H. G. Wells.Later Ross suggested that Owen send his
poetry to Heinemann, who would probably ask Ross his opinion
of it. This way, they decided, Ross could further its
acceptance even more than if he took it to Heinemann in the
first place.Ross also introduced him to Osbert Sitwell,
and seven of Owen's poems appeared posthumously in the Sit
well's 1919 collection. Wheels. ^ ° Since Owen was killed in
the last days of the war, Robbie was spared hearing of his
^Sassoon, Siegfried's Journey, p. 83; Siegfried Sas
soon to Robert Ross, August 17 [1917], in the possession of
J. P. B. Ross.
^Wilfred Owen to Susan Owen [November 10, 1917], in
Wilfred Owen, Collected Letters, ed. Harold Owen and John
Bell (London: Oxford University Press, 1967), p. 507; and
Wilfred Owen to Siegfried Sassoon, November 27, 1917,
p. 511.
^Wilfred Owen to Susan Owen [May 20, 1918], in Owen,
Collected Letters, p. 552.
^ °‘ 'Max Wykes-Joyce, Triad of Genius: Pt . I, Edith &
Osbert Sitwell (London: Peter Owen Ltd., 1953) , p"^ 42.
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397
death.
Robert Graves also met Ross through Sassoon, and stayed
at Half Moon Street on his visits to London.Ross ad
vised him about publishers, listened to his comments about
his poems, and gave advice. For instance, he told Graves
and Sassoon to give up their plans for a joint collection of
poetry, jokingly called the "Lyrical Ballads," in 1916. He
also helped Graves select and correct the poetry for his
1917 volume published by Heinemann, Fairies and Fusi
liers .^ ° ^ However, when in January of 1918 Graves married
eighteen-year-old Nancy Nicholson, Ross advised him against
it, since they were both very young and neither of them had
any money. If Graves were to write they would have nothing
to live on. Graves became angry at this advice and broke
off his acquaintance with Ross, though Ross attended the
wedding. The marriage lasted only a few years.^°^
Ross had known Robert Nichols before the war. Young
Nichols, whose family was prominent in London literary cir
cles, felt that it did not appreciate him properly, and
might not be sympathetic to his verse. He diffidently sent
^ ° ^Robert Graves, Good-bye to All That; An Autobiog-
raphy (New York: Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, 1930) ,
p. 325.
^°®Robert Graves to Robert Ross, September 16, 1916, in
Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 290; June 20 [1917] and June 30
[1917], pp. 308-309.
^°^Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 310, note supplied by
Graves.
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398
some to Ross on request, but told him not to "bother about
any of my inanities."^®® Robbie did "bother," however,
receiving and commenting on Nichols's poems; reading the
descriptions of the war Nichols wrote from the front; promi
sing that if Nichols were killed in the war, he would be his
literary executor and take care of the box of manuscripts
which Nichols left with him;^°® and helping to organize a
more elaborate poetry reading than that in which Nichols and
Sassoon had earlier taken part at the Colefaxes. This read
ing, held December 12, 1917, for charity, was organized by
Ross and Madame Vandervelde; chaired by Gosse; and featured
Nichols, the Sitwells, T. S. Eliot, who read his "Hippopota
mus," Graves's poetry read by Gosse, Sassoon's poetry read
by a Miss McLeod, and several others. It was preceded by
several gatherings, a lunch given by Ross on November 25 at
which Gosse met the poets, some of whose poetry he was unac
quainted with, a rehearsal on the tenth, and a dinner party
the night before.
Ever since the nineties Ross had preferred the realis-
Robert Nichols to Robert Ross, April 15, 1913, in
Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 240.
Robert Nichols to "The Executors," December 5, 1918,
in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
Osbert Sitwell, Laughter in the Next Room (Boston:
Little, Brown, 1948), p. 37; Robert Nichols to Robert Ross,
November 18, 1917, in Ross, Friend of Friends, pp. 318-319;
Edmund Gosse to Robert Ross, December 4, Ï9IT; [December 10,
1917] [December 11, 1917] [undated], partially published,
pp. 320-321; Bennett, The Journals, p. 639.
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399
tic, the concrete and specific in poetry over the vague
"poetic" description, and the Swinburnian use of allitera
tion and antiquated language. His own poems were narrative,
describing an incident or expressing an emotion in simple,
clear language, but were marred by his lack of originality
in metaphoric expression and lack of care in finding the
appropriate word. But poor as they are, they belong more to
the twentieth century than to the last part of the nine
teenth. The book of poetry which impressed him the most
during the war years, aside from those by his friends, were
Edgar Lee Master's Spoon River Anthology. He sent a copy of
it to Sassoon in the trenches, and discussed it with E. V.
Lucas and with Edward Marsh.The book occasioned much
comment at the time, for both its realistic language and
free verse, and for its bitter descriptions of the monoto
nous and frustrated lives of the occupants of the cemetery.
With such poetic tastes, as well as his pacifism, it is
not surprising that Ross encouraged the bitter war poets and
the more progressive experimenters in form. His tastes went
beyond those of Marsh, whose five volumes of Georgian
Poetry, appearing from 1912 to 1922, purported to contain
the latest works and those typical of the period, but which
toward the end of their appearance caused the word
^Siegfried Sassoon to Robert Ross, July 9, 1916;
E. V. Lucas to Robert Ross, April 4 [1916]; Edward Marsh to
Robert Ross, March 5 and March 12, 1916; all in the posses
sion of J. P. B. Ross.
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400
"Georgian" to be considered more an expression of opprobrium
than of description. Ross did not think much of the anthol
ogies, because he felt they satisfied the public and allowed
it to feel well-read without buying and keeping up with new
individual volumes by new writers.But Marsh was a good
friend of Ross, and of Sassoon and Graves, to whom he was of
much help.
One of the poets whom Marsh would not accept was Wynd-
ham Lewis. At their first meeting many years before Ross
had promised to help Lewis and did so over the years, sug
gesting that Lewis publish some of his poetry which he had
neglected, giving him advice and aid about painting the war,
and assisting him in his efforts to get a commission.^^^
Ross was also a good friend of the three young Sit
wells, of whom he wrote to his nephew in May of 1918 he saw
more than any other friends. "They give very amusing little
parties where you meet the fierce young post-impressionist
painters and a few but only a few of the poets," he said.^^^
Robbie wrote kindly to Edith Sitwell about her poetry, and
she thanked him for helping her not to mind the bad reviews
^Robert Ross to Cecil S. Spriggs, May 25, 1918, in
Ross, Friend of Friends, pp. 328-329.
^^^Six undated letters from Wyndham Lewis to Robert
Ross, in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
^Robert Ross to Cecil S. Spriggs, May 25, 1916, in
Ross, Friend of Friends, pp. 328-329.
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401
of her recent book.^^^ After his death she used two lines
from his article on Georgina Farrer and dedicated the poem
containing them, "Lady Immoraline," to his memory. Osbert
also benefited from Ross's aid, for his first satires were
submitted by Ross to Massingham, the editor of the Nation,
who published them.^^® Ross also influenced him by his
anti-war stand, and Sitwell's collection of poems written
before, during, and after World War I, Argonaut and Jugger
naut, which appeared in 1919, was dedicated "to the Memory
of Robert Ross."^^^ It was apparently through the Sitwells
that Ross met T. S. Eliot, who was one of the readers at the
Colefaxs', and for whom he later asked Arnold Bennett to
write a recommendation, when Eliot was trying to get into
the Intelligence Service.
The writers whom Ross knew have left a record of their
acquaintance with him, sketchy as it is in most cases. But
from the variety of other names and incidents that appear
casually in letters or journals, it is clear that those per
sons mentioned were only a few of the many who benefited by
his friendly advice, who had their ideas and experiences
^^^Edith Sitwell to Robert Ross, "Saturday," in the
possession of J. P. B. Ross.
^^®Sitwell, Laughter in the Next Room, p. 122.
(London: Chatto & Windus, 1919), p. v.
S. Eliot to Robert Ross, September 4, 1918, in
Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 337, and note.
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402
listened to, who were lunched or dined at the Reform Club
and introduced to whomever Ross thought could be of aid or
interest to them. As he once said to Sassoon;
"You must forgive me for being such an incorrigible chape
ron," he remarked, "but making other people a success is
my only real vocation." This was an understatement. He
had a genius for suggestion, and a prescient instinct for
bringing together those who were likely to stimulate one
another. At the risk of being thought a busybody, he
could insist that certain people should meet, and by this
agency he originated effects of which even those involved
were only partially aware. Arnold Bennett, who valued him
highly, once said to me, in his pauseful oracular manner,
"Our friend Robert is the most indirectly creative charac
ter I have known. He causes works of art and letters to
occur.
Ross could always find time to relate an incident or provide
information for someone whom he thought would profit by it.
For instance, hearing of a comic incident that occurred at
the front, he saved it to tell Ethel Smyth, the opera com
poser, who at once realized its potentiality for a one-act
opera, and several years later the written version she asked
him to give her became the basis of her Entente Cordiale.
Another beneficiary was Hesketh Pearson, to whom Ross told
anecdotes about Wilde, Whistler, Beerbohm, and others which
1 1 9
Sassoon, Siegfried's Journey, p. 46.
^^°Ethel Smyth to Robert Ross, February 11, 1916, in
Ross, Friend of Friends, pp. 280-281; Ethel Smyth, A Final
Burning of Boats Etc. (London: Longmans, Green & Co., Ltd.,
1928), p. 200. Though she says Ross had observed the inci
dent while visiting a base camp near Armentieres, in the
absence of any other information about such a visit I am
inclined to think he merely passed it on.)
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403
Pearson later found useful to relate in his biographies of
many of the prominent figures of the nineties.
Art Activities
In addition to the interest which Ross took in the work
of writers, he continued his efforts in behalf of individual
artists and of the national art collections. The war caused
art to be somewhat neglected. Many of the artists were in
the army or doing other war work, and some of the galleries
were closed so that their space could be used for other
activities. Sales of art dropped greatly, though as the war
went on they slowly increased again. Many of the art activ
ities that did take place had some connection with the war.
Toward the end of 1914 plans were begun for an exhibit
of the works of a Serbian sculptor, Ivan Mestrovic, at the
Victoria and Albert Museum, in order to create sympathy for
Serbia. The British Admiralty transported the sculptures
from Serbia to London, and the National Art Collections Fund
was responsible for arrangements for the exhibition.^^^
Ross wrote a long review of the show for the Burlington Mag
azine . His criticism said that the works were more gener
ally European and the outgrowth of several archaic sources
^Hesketh Pearson to Robert Ross, September 16, 1918,
in the Clark Library; Pearson, Lives of the Wits, p. 182,
pp. 296-297; Pearson, Modern Men and Mummers, pp. 152-160.
i2^Ricketts, Self-Portrait, pp. 226, 241-242; Ross,
Friend of Friends, pp. 262-263 (note by Margery Ross.)
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404
rather than typically Serbian, as others had said. He
praised the sculptures rather m i l d l y . After the exhibit
a committee, on which Ross was active, was formed to raise a
fund to buy examples of Mestrovic's work for England. "The
Deposition," a wooden bas-relief panel whicn Ross had called
"one of the finest things in the exhibition" and chosen to
reproduce with his article, was purchased and presented to
the Tate Gallery.
Another National Art Collections Fund matter in which
Ross was active had to do with the proposed sale of eleven
paintings by Rossetti and three by Madox Brown which had
belonged to a Mr. George Rae. The Rae family and Sir Arthur
du Gros made it possible after much negotiation to acquire
them at a very low price. Ross was involved, too, with the
purchase of Rossetti's "The Passover," of which Sidney
Cockerell had first refusal, but which the N. A. C. F.
finally managed to purchase and present with Rossetti's
other paintings.^ ^ ^
In March of 1917 the Treasury appointed a separate
Board of Trustees for the Tate Gallery. The Tate had long
^^^Ross, "A Monthly Chronicle: Mestroic," Burlington
Magazine, XXVII (August 1915), 205-211.
^ ^ ‘ 'Ibid. , p. 206; Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 278, n.
izsQ. s. MacColl, "The New Rossettis at the National
Gallery," Burlington Magazine, XXIX (May 1916), 80-81; Annu
al Register! 1916, p. 134; cKarles Ricketts to Robert Ross,
three undated letters c. April 5-10, 1916; May 10, 1916; and
May 15, 1916; in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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405
suffered from neglect and disinterest at the hands of the
National Gallery trustees, some of whom were not interested
in modern or in British art, the Tate's special fields. In
1915 a committee had recommended that another board be
established. Officially called "Additional Trustees of the
National Gallery," the ten members were to serve for seven
years. Three of them were also National Gallery trustees,
and the rest of the board consisted of Holmes, Director of
the National Gallery; MacColl, Director of the Wallace Col
lection; Aitken, Director of the Tate; John Sargent, R. A.,
Jr. R. Holliday; Lord Henry Bentinck; and Robert Ross.
Robbie was very pleased by his appointment, especially since
it was under the new administration of Lloyd George, who had
become Prime Minister late in 1916, rather than under that
of his personal friend, Asquith. He rather feared comments
from Douglas, but art news was not the sort of thing that
Douglas noticed, and the appointment passed by without com
ment from h i m .
In 1917 Ross was appointed London Adviser to the Na
tional Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, for which
he was active in purchasing works including:
The Garden of Pan (oil) by Sir Edward Burne-Jones; La
Belle Dame Sans Merci (oil) by Arthur Hughes; Hay Barges
(oil) by J. S. Cotman; The Forum, Rome (oil) by Canaletto;
T. Davies to Robert Ross, March 15, 1917, in Ross,
Friend of Friends, p. 300; Annual Register, 1917, p. 133;
Robert Ross to Reginald Turner, April 24, 1917, in the pos
session of Giles Robertson.
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406
The Rialto, Venice (oil) by the School of Canaletto; Por
trait of a Man (oil) by A. Mancini; Landing at Anzac Cove
(oil) by W. W. Collins.
It was in behalf of Melbourne that he became involved in a
most important Blake sale, that of the main part of the col
lection of John Linnell, Blake's friend and patron. This
sale inspired a number of museums, including the Tate, Fitz-
William, British Museum, Manchester, Birmingham, and Mel
bourne galleries, to combine their offers so as not to drive
up tne prices by bidding against each other, and to be able
to put up a substantial enough sum to win what they wanted,
which included seventy-two drawings for Dante works, mostly
the Divine Comedy, and other items. The galleries then
divided up the works between themselves, and Ricketts con
gratulated Ross on
Your Blake selection which seemed very sound throughout
from every point of view without depriving the set of
[illegible] drawings, one only excepted— the giant.
From the sale Melbourne received thirty-six watercolor il
lustrations to the Divine Comedy, two watercolors to Para
dise Lost, three colored engravings illustrating Blake's
poetic books, and twenty-one engravings for the Book of
Job.
12 7
Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 299, note.
i2 8cbarles Ricketts to Robert Ross, undated, in the
possession of J. P. B. Ross.
i^^Annual Register, 1918, p. 71; Charles Aitken to Rob
ert Ross, March 15, 1918, in Ross, Friend of Friends,
pp. 326-327. Margery Ross says that this letter refers to a
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407
Ross and War Art
It was not until 1918 that Ross became involved with
the recording of the war by artists, although many of his
friends had been doing so to some extent since the war
began. Some painters were in the armed forces and used
their experiences for paintings when they were released or
on leave. Henry Tonks, trained as a physician, went for a
time to serve at a Military Hospital in France, from whence
he wrote Ross telling of the sketches he was making and of
Sargent, who visited the area and for whom he apparently
served as an aide for a while.By 1916 William Orpen was
allowed to enter the army only to paint, and visit the front
line and the trenches as an artist. Also in 1916 Muirhead
Bone was appointed the first official war artist, and others
later received such appointments. Permits to visit battle
sectors were also issued to William Rothenstein, Kennington,
Nevinson, and Nash.
In 1918 the Ministry of Information was formed and
inherited the services of the war artists. Lord Beaverbrook
desired to expand operations, and he and C. P. G. Masterman
and Arnold Bennett formed a committee which decided to com-
Degas sale in Paris which took place the same day. But
negotiations for that were handled by C. J. Holmes, who
attended in behalf of the National Gallery, and who mentions
none of the names that Aitken does. (Holmes, Self and Part
ners , pp. 335-342.)
^^°Henry Tonks to Robert Ross, August 16, 1915, in
Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 273.
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408
mission the outstanding artists to paint pictures, of pre
arranged sizes, which would someday fit into a gallery and
collection ultimately called the Imperial War Museum. Much
of the Ministry staff served without pay, and one such staff
member was Robert Ross. Probably through Arnold Bennett he
became closely involved with the arrangements for the pic
tures, the selection of the artists, and similar matters.
He wrote a long and influential memorandum recommending the
adoption of the size 72" x 125", that of Ucello's "Battle of
San Romano," as the standard size for the larger paintings,
and discussing other matters of technique and scale. Anoth
er report from him was on the subject of sculpture.^^^
Although his exact duties are hard to establish, some
of them can be determined from letters which he received
from artists. William Orpen wrote him in February of 1918
to say that Ross should select whatever he wished for the
Museum from Orpen's war paintings, and listed the work he
had done, saying that "the last thing I want is to make
money out of the sights I have seen out here."^^^ In other
letters Bennett wrote him asking him to tell Kennington the
price and conditions for paintings; Duncan Grant thanked
^ ^ ^Most of the information about the war artists and
about Ross's work is taken from a sheet of information writ
ten by Alfred Yockney, the secretary of the committee, for
Margery Ross. The typed sheet is in the possession of
J. P. B. Ross.
^ ^ ^William Orpen to Robert Ross, February 7, 1918, in
Ross, Friend of Friends, pp. 325-326.
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409
Ross for "all these pains" he had taken for Grant, and dis
cussed the possible subject matter of paintings to be done;
Anna Airy enthusiastically told her plans for painting a
munitions factory and thanked Ross for aid in getting per
mission for her work to be exhibited at the Royal Academy;
William Roberts wrote asking whether studio rental was an
allowed expense; Randolph Schwabe thanked Ross for helping
Schwabe get work making drawings for the Ministry; and
C. R. W. Nevinson thanked Ross after hearing that his ef
forts had led to the acceptance of Nevinson's "The Doctor"
for the War Museum.^The paintings of Roberts, Nevinson,
and some of the others were quite unlike the English Impres
sionists, with simplified and sometimes cubist techniques,
and Ross's willingness to accept and aid their efforts shows
that he still maintained an open mind toward new styles,
little as he might like them personally. In his 1916 Annual
Register article Ross had praised exhibits by Nevinson and
Kennington, saying:
. . . both these exhibitions indicate that modern painters
are wisely leaving to the cinema attempts at realistic
representation of movement or actual reconstruction of
warfare. (p. 137)
^^^Arnold Bennett to Robert Ross, April 10, 1918, in
Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 327; Duncan Grant to Robert
Ross, May~lT, 1918, p"I 328; Anna Airy to Robert Ross, June
8, 1918, pp. 329-330; William Roberts to Robert Ross, un
dated; Randolph Schwabe to Robert Ross, September 9, 1918;
C. R. W. Nevinson to Robert Ross, June 11, 1918, pp. 330-
331. Unpublished letters are in the possession of J. P. B.
Ross.
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410
Wartime Troubles
As the war went on and on, casualties mounted, nerves
grew shorter, and nearly everyone was taken into the service
or put to war duties at home. Though Ross's health caused
him to be certified unfit for any service, he volunteered,
amid a bad series of bombings, as "constable or char or
night watchman" at the National Gallery.Several more
friends and relatives died at the front, including Raymond
Asquith, promising son of the Prime Minister; Gerald Sior-
det, a young writer; and most personal of all, his sister
Mary's eldest son Edward, killed in action in July, 1916.
Robbie wrote telling Mary any expression of his sympathy or
his love for her was of course inadequate, but that
I know he was a good & a happy man & that you were respon
sible for both conditions is I hope a sort of satisfaction
to you & his sisters.
By the beginning of 1918 many of the British were thor
oughly discouraged about the war. It had dragged on, food
shortages and bombings made life miserable, and the news
continued to be bad. Surely there must be a reason for Ger
man success other than German efficiency and power. This
feeling led to another legal case in which Ross, although
not directly involved, took a great deal of interest. In
J. Holmes to Robert Ross, June 28, 1917, in Ross,
Friend of Friends, p. 306.
^^^Robert Ross to Mary Jones, July 14, 1916, in the
possession of Giles Robertson.
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411
January of 1918 a member of parliament named Pemberton Bill
ing found a suitably simple and scandalous reason which
appealed greatly to the people. His little newspaper told
about a book, in the possession of German Prince William of
Wied, the King of Albania, which supposedly contained the
names of 47,000 British citizens, everyone from cabinet
ministers on down, who were being blackmailed by the Germans
because of their sexual irregularities. About the same
time, J. T. Grein, whose Independent Theatre Society had
been the first in England to produce Ibsen and Shaw, decided
to perform Salome with dancer Maud Allan in the title role
and scheduled to dance the dance of the seven veils. Bill
ing's paper carried a notice about this production, under
the title "The Cult of the Clitoris," which said that the
names of many of the 47,000 could be secured if the list of
members of the Society were seized. Maud Allan and Grein
objected to the article, and brought charges against Bill
ing, the trial beginning on May 29, 1918. Billing acted as
his own lawyer, and said in his justification of the libel
that he would prove Salome to be an improper work, attrac
tive only to the perverted, and therefore likely to draw
those persons in the "Black Book," and that he would prove
the existence of the book. Miss Allan seems to have been
the only witness for the prosecution, but Billing produced
many in his defense. Mrs. Eileen Villiers Stuart testified
that she had seen the "Black Book," and that the names of
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412
Justice Darling (the judge on the case), Mr. and Mrs. As
quith, and Lord Haldane were in it. At this point she was
stopped by the Judge from revealing further names. Her evi
dence was verified by a Captain H. S. Spencer. Then a group
of "experts," at least one of whom had never read the play,
testified about Salome. Alfred Douglas appeared and stated
that Wilde had been "the greatest force for evil that has
appeared in Europe during the last three hundred and fifty
years," and managed to get in some comments about Ross dur
ing his testimony. Though the Judge in his summing up tried
to indicate that the question was the libellous nature of
Billing's statement, not the character of Wilde's play, and
though no evidence had been produced against Miss Allan her
self to justify the implication of the title of the article,
the jury quickly gave a verdict of Not Guilty, which was
greeted with loud cheers.^^^
The conclusion of the action did not surprise Ross
after his own experiences with the courts. However, it was
discouraging, especially as performances of Wilde's other
plays were cancelled and books sold more poorly than even
they had been doing. Robbie wrote to Ricketts:
The English, intoxicated into failure, enjoyed tearing
poor Maud Allan to pieces, simply because she had given
them pleasure, and kicking Oscar's corpse to make up for
the failure of the Fifth Army. . . . However, I have not
lost all sense of proportion, and these things are small
^^®Hyde, Cases that Changed the Law, pp. 176-189;
Croft-Cooke, Bosie, pp. 284-289.
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413
compared to the fate of Paris, which will be lost and de
stroyed owing to the vanity and incompetence of the
English generals. On that point I fear I am with the
majority. Every soldier from the Front, wounded or un
wounded, tells the same story.
The case also gave Douglas an excuse to publish a new
attack on Ross, utilizing poor Millard, who had again gotten
into trouble, after serving a term in the army and having to
leave it because of heart trouble aggravated in the
trenches. "I wish I did not mind so much," Robbie wrote of
the pampnlet.^^® Probably it was also Douglas who was
responsible for a visit from the police in March of 1918.
Ever since the events of 1914, Ross had believed and had
occasional evidence that the police were watching him.
On the morning of March 6, Ross told Ricketts,
. . . as I was opening my letters, including one from
yourself. Detectives arrived from Scotland Yard. Informa
tion has been laid against me that:
"Robert Ross, 40 Half Moon Street, is an art critic (!)
and a pacifist, a consorter of the company of conscien
tious objectors, a sympathizer with and a visitor of Ger
man prisoners: a former professed Roman Catholic, and now
a professed and militant atheist. ..."
They were rather flabbergasted when I said it was all
perfectly true, and that I could produce documentary evi
dence to prove it.
It is so grotesque that I am not in the least alarmed,
and would not have recorded the matter to you at all, ex
cept as an explanation of why I cannot, as I intended, do
anything further about the person of whom you wrote, at
all events for the present.
By a brilliant instinct, when the Detectives arrived,
and assuming a search of my rooms, I hurled your letter
^Robert Ross to Charles Ricketts, June 13, 1918, in
Ross, Friend of Friends, p. 334.
^^®Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, April 4, 1918, in Bod
leian Ross MS. 4.
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414
into the fire. I mention this lest you should anticipate
similar enquiries, of which, of course, there is no fear.
But everyone must be careful. I dare say you remember
saying to me about two years ago that the whole world
became German. England certainly has.^^^
A Proposed Trip
Since early in 1917 Ross had been planning to go to
Australia in order to rehang the National Gallery at Mel
bourne and to examine the pictures and the collection. If
his work and ideas pleased the trustees, he was, after the
approximately six months the rehanging would take, to return
to Europe and purchase paintings for them, in order to fill
the gaps in their collection. It would be a chance for him
to show what he could do when in a position of power in a
gallery, and it would be a good way to free himself from
Douglas's attacks and the police surveillance for a while.
However the trip kept having to be postponed because of the
submarine warfare.By the autumn of 1918 naval condi
tions had improved, and more definite plans could be made.
Ross obtained a passport; he was again certified unfit for
any occupation, so that he could leave England with no
trouble for the military service, which was now drafting
persons through the age of fifty; and he purchased a ticket
issRobert Ross to Charles Ricketts, March 7, 1918, in
Ricketts, Self-Portrait, p. 289.
^‘ '“Robert Ross to Reggie Turner, January 26, 1917;
April 24, 1917; June 5, 1917, in the possession of Giles
Robertson.
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415
to sail some time between October 26 and November 3 by way
of New York, San Francisco, Honolulu, and the Fiji
Islands. The trip would take about eight weeks. Ross
still did not feel very well, and was depressed at hearing
the verdict of the medical examiners, who were not being
very particular about standards by now. But he looked for
ward to the new activities and surroundings. He began to
write farewell letters to his friends and to see those who
were in London, before going to visit Mary for a week or so
on October 10.^^^
Ross's Death
The preparations for departure pleased and excited him,
but also tired him, and on the evening of October 4, when
Sassoon stopped in to say goodby, Robbie looked worn out.
Although Ross had planned to spend the evening at home alone
resting, other people arrived and were still there when
Sassoon left about midnight.The next afternoon Ross
went to visit a sick friend,and then returned home to
^Robert Ross to Reggie Turner, September 15, 1918, in
the possession of Giles Robertson.
^Robert Ross, rough draft of a letter which does not
indicate the intended recipient, in the Clark Library.
^Robert Ross to Mary Jones, October 4, 1918, in the
possession of Giles Robertson.
^ “ *Sassoon, Siegfried's Journey, pp. 123-125.
Clifford Smith to Alex Ross, October 7, 1918, in
the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
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416
rest a bit before dinner, as he did every day. When at
seven Burton came to awaken him, she found him dead.^“ *®
An inquest held on October 9 found that "death was due
to syncope with gastritis, associated with chronic bronchi
tis." His funeral was held Friday, October 11, at 3 p. m. ,
at Golders Green.
On November 30, 19 50, in accordance with a wish ex
pressed in Robbie's will, but unfulfilled for so long be
cause of fear of problems with Douglas, Margery Ross, the
wife of Robbie's sister's son, took the urn containing Rob
bie's ashes through the door specially constructed for that
purpose when the tomb was built, and placed it at the foot
of Oscar Wilde's coffin.Though Robbie had lost his
faith in later years, if there really were to be a Resurrec
tion, Robbie wanted to be there with Oscar, who might, as he
had promised, awaken at the sound of the last trumpet, and
turn to Robbie saying, "Robbie, Robbie, let us pretend we do
not hear it. " ^ ^
^‘ *®Capt. W. E. Barber to Reggie Turner, October 6,
1918, in the possession of Giles Robertson.
Times, October 8, 1918; Evening Standard, Octo
ber 9, 1918, clippings in Bodleian Ross MS. 4, p. 9T.
^**®Margery Ross, "A Last Reunion," unpublished manu
script in the possession of J. P. B. Ross.
^ ®Ricketts, Self-Portrait, p. 114.
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417
Summary
Ross's public position and his nerves were severely
damaged by the loss of his case against Douglas. His writ
ing and art activities suffered, though he tried to help
others in their achievements. His personal life was shad
owed by his break with Smith, by poor health, and by his
dislike of the First World War. He was about to take a trip
and to assume an important art position when he died. In
recognition of Wilde's effect on his life, Ross was buried
with Wilde.
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C H A P TE R V I I
CONCLUSION
In this dissertation I have tried to present "the simu
lation, in words, of a man's life, from all that is known
about that man."^ In writing about the life of Robert Ross
I feel I have come to know him as a charming and kind person
who suffered because of his loyalty to his friends, and who
was greatly admired and loved not only for this loyalty, but
also for his abilities and his devotion to literature and
art.
I wish that each reader could go through all the mate
rial which I have accumulated about Ross, and know the other
witticisms, the other acts of kindness, and even the blind
trails which I have not been able to include in this work.
Perhaps the best expression of my feeling about the charac
ter of Ross is this: when I began my research, I consid
ered that Ross must frequently have been in error, since he
had been criticized so heavily, and that his moral character
could not have been particularly good. As I went through
material about him, I have, with one exception, never found
^Kendall, The Art of Biography, p. 15.
418
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419
anything which indicates that he did anything dishonest or
disloyal, and hardly even anything unkind in his life.
Rather than expecting Ross probably to be in the wrong, I
have concluded that Ross was probably trustworthy in any
disputed matter. The one exception noted above is in
regard, of course, to his homosexuality, for which perhaps
he was punished enough in life without being blamed too
bitterly for it after his death.
Ross was not a major figure, and made no important
contributions of his own to literature or art. His criti
cism and creative writing is now too dated to be of general
appeal, although it was very well received at the time he
wrote, and some readers still find it enjoyable. However,
it is impossible to assess the importance of his aid to
Wilde and other writers, and the influence which works in
which he had some slight part might have had on later writ
ers or artists. But he was a delightful man to know, and he
deserves references of a better sort than are made about him
in some biographies and studies of the period. Perhaps he
best assessed himself, when he suggested as his epitaph:
"Here lies one whose name was written in hot water.
■Siegfried Sassoon to Edra Bogle, November 6, 1960
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A P P E N D I C E S
420
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A P P E N D IX A
A PARTIAL LIST OF THE SHOWS HELD AT THE CARFAX GALLERY
WHILE IT WAS OlVNED BY ROBERT ROSS
421
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A P P E N D IX A
A PARTIAL LIST OF THE SHOWS HELD AT THE CARFAX GALLERY
WHILE IT WAS OWNED BY ROBERT ROSS
1901 June.
October.
December,
Charles Conder, recent work
in upper room.
William Orpen.
Max Beerbohm, 100 caricatures
19 02 January.
April.
May.
June.
October.
November.
"Drawings and Sketches by
Deceased Masters."
Muirhead Bone, etchings.
Charles Conder, oils and
paintings on silk.
Wilson Steer, paintings and
drawings, and J. H. M. Furse,
bronzes and sculpture.
"Deceased Painters."
Will Rothenstein.
1903 February.
March.
April-May.
June.
June-July.
Geoffrey Birkbeck, sketches
Augustus John.
Roger Fry.
John S. Sargent, R. A.,
drawings.
M. Simon Buss^, pastels.
422
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423
November. Garstin Harvey, water colors
1904 January.
April.
May.
June.
November.
December.
William Blake, drawings and
oil paintings.
Edward Calvert, paintings.
Max Beerbohm, caricatures.
Hon. Neville Lytton.
Aubrey Beardsley.
W. B. E. Ranken, oils and
water colors.
190 5 February.
March 30-April 29.
May.
June.
October 21-November 18,
December.
Walter Crane.
John S. Sargent, R. A., water
colors.
Henry Tonks, drawings and
small pictures.
Society of Painters in
Tempera.
"Some Pictures by Deceased
Painters."
Mrs. John Talbot and Mr.
Arthur Ponsonby, water
colors.
1906 January.
February.
March.
April.
June-July.
Members of the Royal Academy,
paintings.
Graham Robertson.
Charles Ricketts, bronzes;
and Herr L. Von Hoffmann,
drawings.
D. S. MacColl, water colors.
William Blake.
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424
June-July.
October.
J. Kerr Lawson, panels dis
played at the Alpine Club by
Messrs. Carfax and Co.
A. W. Rich, water colors.
1907 March.
April.
June.
July.
October.
December,
William Rothenstein, paint
ings and drawings.
Max Beerbohm, caricatures.
A. A. McEvoy.
Charles Ricketts and Charles
Shannon, paintings.
Anna Airy, paintings and
drawings.
Augustus John.
1908 March-April.
April-May.
May 30-June.
October.
November.
December.
Francis McComas, water
colors.
Max Beerbohm, caricatures.
John S. Sargent, R. A., water
colors.
Maxwell Armfield, paintings;
and Reginald Wells, bronzes,
terra cottas and pottery.
"Collection of Modern Draw
ings . "
Cayley Robinson.
1909 January.
February.
March.
April-May.
May-June.
C. J. Holmes.
Augustus John.
Spencer Stanhope.
Roger Fry.
Neville Lytton and Charles
Geoffroy.
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APPENDIX B
THE POST-IMPRESSIONISTS AT THE GRAFTON:
THE TWILIGHT OF THE IDOLS
BY
ROBERT ROSS
425
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A P P E N D IX B
THE POST-IMPRESSIONISTS AT THE GRAFTON:
THE TWILIGHT OF THE IDOLS
BY
ROBERT ROSS^
A date more favourable than the fifth of November for
revealing the existence of a widespread plot to destroy the
whole fabric of European painting could hardly have been
chosen. On Saturday accordingly the Press was invited to
the Grafton Gallery— an admirable substitute for the vaults
of Westminster— where the new Guido Fawkes, his colleagues,
and alleged predecessors are exhibiting their gunpowder.
Mr. Roger Fry, I regret to say, has acted the part of Cates-
by, while a glance at the names of the honourary committee
reveals that more than one member of the Upper House is im
plicated. It is the way of modern conspiracies; we all join
them sooner or later. To-day, which is the private view, it
will be decided whether the anticipated explosion is going
to take place. Mr. Edmund Gosse in one of his delightful
prose portraits has recalled how the poet Mallarmé first
came to England in order to try and interest people in
Manet's designs for Edgar Poe's "Raven." "They were re
ceived by us," he confesses, "with undying laughter." Now,
Manet has been long accepted for one of the milestones, one
of the parting points, in the history of Nineteenth Century
painting, was so accepted long before his pictures were re
moved from the purgatorial Luxembourg to the Louvre. Here
at the Grafton the presence of some of his pictures (none,
it will be admitted, of first-rate importance) indicates
that his name is invoked as the brilliant parent, we gather
— of the Post-Impressionists, or "Synthesists" as we must
^Morning Post, November 7, 1910, p. 3; partially re-
printed in Ross, Friend of Friends, pp. 188-190. The only
omissions in this appendix are brief discussions of a few
specific minor paintings and painters.
426
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427
learn to call them. Whether Mr. Gosse and his friends were
wrong about the designs for the "Raven" or not (and I am
inclined to think they were justified) there is no doubt
whatever that the vast majority of the pictures at the Graf
ton Gallery, notably those of I4M. Matisse, Maurice Denis,
and Maurice Flamineck, will be greeted by the public with a
more damning and more permanent ridicule. When the first
shock of merriment has been experienced there must follow,
too, a certain feeling of sadness that distinguished critics
whose profound knowledge and connoisseurship are beyond
question should be found to welcome pretension and impos
ture. It is only comparable to the no less deplorable cre
dulity evinced by serious men of science in the chicanery of
spiritualism, automatic writing, and the narratives of the
neuropath. Public taste has been so often wrong. Its pres
ent idols become the paving stones or macadam of the morrow.
The pariahs of one generation are prophets for its succes
sor. With these lamentable precedents perhaps it is more
regrettable than extraordinary that any charlatanism in art
or literature may now enjoy the privilege of examination
such as should only be accorded to serious new developments.
And it is an error to suppose that because posterity momen
tarily reverses a hostile contemporary opinion the original
opinion was wrong. Fortified with such minatory principles
anyone can derive from the exhibition of the Post-Impres
sionists at the Grafton instruction, pleasure, and amuse
ment.
The preface to the catalogue sets forth in straight
forward language the historical relation of the "Synthe
sists" to Manet. "The Post-Impressionists were not con
cerned with recording impressions of colour, light, or any
thing else exactly. They were interested in the discoveries
of the Impressionists only as far as these discoveries
helped them to express emotions which the objects themselves
evoked; their attitude toward Nature was far more indepen
dent, not to say rebellious." "Anything else exactly" is
particularly naive. I can only reply to the frank admission
of the apologist that the emotions of these painters (one of
whom. Van Gogh, was a lunatic) are of no interest except to
the student of pathology and the specialist in abnormality.
At Broadmoor there are a large number of post-impressionists
detained during his Majesty's pleasure. Their works are,
however, already the property of the state. The National
Arts Collections Fund may sleep in peace.
In the Octagonal Gallery, side by side with the Manets,
may be seen a number of works by Cezanne, who "seized upon
precisely that side of Manet and his followers which Manet
and the Impressionists ignored." To my uninitiated eyes
they appear sketches or under-painting of pictures by some
one who, if he cannot draw very well, sees though he does
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428
not seize the true aspects of nature at rather commonplace
moments. We are told "that he aimed at design which should
produce the coherent architectural effect of the master
pieces of primitive art." All I can say is that he failed;
whether from insufficient knowledge of the manipulation of
paint or an entire misunderstanding of the aims or methods
of the primitives I do not profess to judge. The French are
too progressive, too curious for new experiments, ever to
succeed in the archaistic handling of archaic formulas. M.
Denis in one room illustrates the impossibility of a French
man assimilating the sentiment of the Primitives; Cezanne,
in the other, the hopeless attempt to parody their objectiv
ity. Cezanne is neither coherent nor architectural. Even
the great Puvis, who is both, was never more than haunted by
the Primitives. In the centre of this room is, however, one
of the really beautiful things in the exhibition, a terra
cotta by Malliol, who has much in common with Mr. Epstein.
At all events he produces an effect similar to that of a
naturalistic Egyptian sculpture, though the insistence on
the feminism of the model is alien to the spirit of all
ancient art not deliberately pornographic.
Of the Manets, "Un bar aux Folies-Bergère," for all its
fine painting (note the flowers in the tumbler), is eloquent
of the danger, foreseen by Reynolds, of resting pedantically
satisfied with your own period and ignoring what he called
the universal. What a distressing possession, how unpleas-
ing, how "fashionable." But Manet is a great painter and a
great draughtsman.
In the Large Gallery may be found some justification of
the exhibition, let me say of the enthusiasm, about the new
school of painting, if new school there be. Gauguin is an
artist with a fresh idea, a curious technique, and a fantas
tic vision. He, too, can draw and paint. His fantastic
vision includes, conforms even to, obvious types of beauty,
a rare quantity in modern art. "L'Arlesienne" may not be a
great picture, but of its charm and accomplishment there can
be no two opinions. His colour is a little odd, barbaric
rather than primitive; but when you learn that he emigrated
to Tahiti, which forms the subjects and backgrounds of his
pictures, you realise that he does not hypnotise his admir
ers by mere strangeness and unfamiliarity, on which the
others chiefly rest. He has some of the pattern and inven
tion of Beardsley. . . . a group of large Gauguins, in which
you observe that his peculiar style, which may please or
displease, undoubtedly has the "decorative" qualities
claimed for the school. Like all good decorations, it is
based on something seen, like the famous Britons on the
Roman drop curtain; not mere emotion. Here is Byzantinism
vindicated. He would not have got this effect by gazing at
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429
Russian eikons or early mosaics. The Gauguins should have
been hung together. . . . Van Gogh is the typical matoid and
degenerate of the modern sociologists. "Jeune Fille au
Bleuet" & the "Cornfield with Blackbirds" are the visualised
ravings of an adult maniac. If that is art it must be os
tracised, as the poets were banished from Plato's Republic.
A later blossom of an unsavoury stock has not only dispensed
with chiaroscuro (one of the achievements of Cezanne, I
learn) but has dispensed with painting. The only primitives
he resembles are the woolwork trophies of our great-grand
mothers, though there is less form, less art. To the nega
tive silliness of covering canvas with pigment "La Femme aux
Yeux Vertes" he has added the primitive and more pristine
offence of "modelling." If Van Gogh belongs to the School
of Bedlam, M. Matisse follows the Broadmoor tradition in a
predilection for mere discords of pigment; needless to say,
quite a different thing from discordant colouring. To dis
pense with light and shade, with technique altogether, may
be childish, as the catalogue claims; it has no relation to
the noble failures and successes of the elaborate Primi
tives. If Corot was right when he said "painting is not as
difficult as you make out," it cannot be as easy as M.
Matisse would have us think. To discuss the "pavement art"
of MM. Denis Signac, Henri-Edmond Cross, and Georges Seurat
and others would be a waste of time, for anyone sufficiently
idle and mindless could reproduce them. One is sorry to
find M. Vallotton . . . in such company: M. Jean Puy
. . ., M. Marquet . . ., or the mild French Blake and water,
Odilon Redon, who has joined every movement for the last
twenty years. These are strayed sheep from the gracious up
lands and valleys of art. Whitman has been called an artist
in his very rejection of art. And there have constantly ap
peared in the world of painting geniuses such as El Greco
and Monticelli who ignore the grammar, the architecture, and
the limitations of their medium, as Whitman has done in the
case of language. Both, it must be noted, were proficient
craftsmen, and conformed in their early work to the disci
pline of study. Gauguin, too, is a genius of this kind. He
submitted himself to Nature, exotic Nature, it may have been
— distorted it certainly was when filtered through Cezanne,
who candidly admitted his own failure, an almost unnecessary
avowal. Once in his life every artist must propitiate the
implacable goddess or he can never be initiated to the
Eleusian simplicities of Art. The relation of M. Henri
Matisse and his colleagues to painting is more remote than
that of Parisian Black Mass or the necromantic orgies of the
Decadents to the religion of Catholics. Did Ingres when he
quarrelled with Delacroix foresee the development of Roman
ticism into Post-Impressionism? It is not impossible. If
so he is indeed the great man he is claimed to be by artists
and critics. I can now understand why the German Emperor
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430
dismissed a high official from a Berlin Gallery. And if the
movement is spreading (another boast of the Catalogue) it
should be treated like the rat plague in Suffolk. The
source of infection (e.g., the pictures) ought to be
destroyed.
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B I B L I O G R A P H Y
431
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
B IB L IO G R A P H Y
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G., E. B. Charles Shannon. London: Ernest Benn, Ltd.,
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436
Pearson, Hesketh. Modern Men and Mummers. New York: Har
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(January 20, 1906), p. 85.
"Art Exhibitions," The Times (London
"Art Exhibitions," The Times (London
p. 4.
"Art Exhibitions," The Times (London
p. 14.
"Art Exhibitions," The Times (London
"Art Exhibitions," The Times (London
p. 7.
"Art Exhibitions," The Times (London
"Art Exhibitions," The Times (London
"Art Exhibitions," The Times (London
"Art Exhibitions," The Times (London
p . 14.
"Art Exhibitions," The Times (London
p. 4.
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439
"Art Exhibitions," The Times (London), June 11, 1906, p. 4.
"Art Exhibitions," The Times (London), June 23, 1906, p. 20
"Art Exhibitions,"
p. 15.
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p . 8.
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Carfax Gallery,
27, 1905
advertisement
i , p. 1.
in The Times (London), March
Carfax Gallery,
ber 23,
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1905, p. 1.
in The Times (London) , Octo-
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London), April 22, 1914. (In Bodleian Ross
p. for clipping, but scrapbook p. 55.)
London), April 28, 1914. (In Bodleian Ross
p. for clipping, but scrapbook p. 57.)
London), April 29, 1914. (In Bodleian Ross
p. for clipping, but scrapbook p. 56.)
London), April 30, 1914. (In Bodleian Ross
p. for clipping, but scrapbook p. 57.)
London), May 6, 1914. (In Bodleian Ross
p. for clipping, but scrapbook p. 57.)
London), May 7, 1914. (In Bodleian Ross
p. for clipping, but scrapbook pp. 58-59.)
London), May 13, 1914. (In Bodleian Ross
p. for clipping, but scrapbook pp. 61-62.)
London), May 14, 1914. (In Bodleian Ross
p. for clipping, but scrapbook p. 63.)
London), May 15, 1914. (In Bodleian Ross
p. for clipping, but scrapbook pp. 63-64.)
London), May 20, 1914. (In Bodleian Ross
p. for clipping, but scrapbook pp. 64-65.)
London), May 23, 1914. (In Bodleian Ross
p. for clipping, but scrapbook p. 65.)
London), May 30, 1914. (In Bodleian Ross
p. for clipping, but scrapbook p. 65.)
Daily Telegraph
d.213, n
Daily Telegraph
d.213, n
Daily Telegraph
d.213, n
Daily Telegraph
d.213, n
Daily Telegraph
d.213, n
Daily Telegraph
d.213, n
Daily Telegraph
d.213, n
Daily Telegraph
d.213, n
Daily Telegraph
d.213, n
Daily Telegraph
d.213, n
Daily Telegraph
d.213, n
Daily Telegraph
d.213, n
Daily Telegraph
d.213, n
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441
Daily Telegraph (London
d.213, n.p. for
Daily Telegraph (London
d.213, n.p. for
Daily Telegraph (London
d. 213, n.p. for
Daily Telegraph (London
d.213, n.p. for
Daily Telegraph (London
d.213, n.p. for
Daily Telegraph (London
d.213, n.p. for
Daily Telegraph (London
d.213, n.p. for
Daily Telegraph (London
d.213, n.p. for
Daily Telegraph (London
Ross d.213, n.p
78.)
Daily Telegraph (London
Ross d.213, n.p
79.)
Daily Telegraph (London
Ross d.213, n.p
Daily Telegraph (London
Ross d.213, n.p
80.)
Daily Telegraph (London
Ross d.213, n.p
Daily Telegraph (London
Ross d.213, n.p
83.)
Daily Telegraph (London
Ross d.213, n.p
Daily Telegraph (London
Ross d.213, n.p
, June 3, 1914. (In Bodleian Ross
clipping, but scrapbook pp. 67-68.)
, June 29, 1914. (In Bodleian Ross
clipping, but scrapbook pp. 68-69.)
, June 30, 1914. (In Bodleian Ross
clipping, but scrapbook pp. 69-70.)
, July 1, 1914. (In Bodleian Ross
clipping, but scrapbook pp. 70-71.)
, July 2, 1914. (In Bodleian Ross
clipping, but scrapbook pp. 71-72.)
, July 3, 1914. (In Bodleian Ross
clipping, but scrapbook p. 73.)
, July 6, 1914. (In Bodleian Ross
clipping, but scrapbook p. 74.)
, July 7, 1914. (In Bodleian Ross
clipping, but scrapbook p. 75.)
, November 20, 1914. (In Bodleian
for clipping, but scrapbook pp. 77-
, November 21, 1914. (In Bodleian
for clipping, but scrapbook pp. 78-
, November 24, 1914. (In. Bodleian
for clipping, but scrapbook p. 81.)
, November 25, 1914. (In Bodleian
for clipping, but scrapbook pp. 79-
, November 26, 1914. (In Bodleian
for clipping, but scrapbook p. 82.)
, November 27, 1914. (In Bodleian
for clipping, but scrapbook pp. 82-
, November 28, 1914. (In Bodleian
for clipping, but scrapbook p. 83.)
, December 12, 1914. (In Bodleian
for clipping, but scrapbook p. 84.)
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442
Daily Telegraph (London),'April 14, 1915. (In Bodleian Ross
d.213, n.p. for clipping, but scrapbook pp. 85-85.)
Daily Telegraph (London), April 15, 1915. (In Bodleian Ross
d.213, n.p. for clipping, but scrapbook p. 86.)
Daily Telegraph (London), April 16, 1915. (In Bodleian Ross
d.213, n.p. for clipping, but scrapbook pp. 87-88.)
Daily Telegraph (London), April 17, 1915. (In Bodleian Ross
d72l3, n.p. for clipping, but scrapbook pp. 88-89.)
"Death of Mr. Robert Ross," Daily Telegraph (London), Octo
ber 10, 1918. (Clipping in the possession of Giles
Robertson, n.p.)
Dickens, Bruce. "Robert Ross at King's," Cambridge Review,
LXXXI (January 23, 1960), 268-270.
[Douglas, Alfred]. "The Past, the Present and the Future:
O. H. M. S.: The Story of Frederick Stanley Smith,"
by Robert le Diable, The Winning Post (November 16,
1918). (Clipping in the possession of J. P. B.
Ross, n.v., n.p.)
"Drawings by Mr. Augustus John at the Carfax Gallery,"
Athenaeum, No. 4180 (December 7, 1907), 734.
"Drawings by Old Masters at Carfax's Gallery," Athenaeum,
No. 3875 (February 1, 1902), 153.
The Echo (London), April 6, 1895. (In Bodleian MS. Ross
d.212, p. 23, n.p.)
Evening Standard (London), Death of Robert Ross, October9y
1918. (clipping in Bodleian Ross MS. 4, p. 93,
n.p. )
"Fine-Art Gossip," Athenaeum, No. 3893 (June 7, 1902), 729.
"Fine-Art Gossip," Athenaeum, No. 4023 (December 3, 1904),
772.
"Fine-Art Gossip," Athenaeum, No. 4085 (February 10, 1906),
178.
"Florentine Paintings at Messrs. Carfax's," Athenaeum,
June 7, 1902, p. 727.
The Globe (London), April 24, 1914, p. 6.
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443
The Globe (London), April 7, 1915. (In Bodleian MS. Ross
d. 213, n.p.)
"Law Report," The Times (London), April 15, 1907, p. 14.
"The Literary Week," Academy, LXX (May 12, 1906), 445.
MacColl, Ü. S. "The New Rossettis at the National Gallery,"
Burlington Magazine, XXIX (May 1916), 80-81.
Manchester Courier, December 11, 1912, notice of show of the
Contemporary Art Society. (In scrapbook in the pos
session of J. P. B. Ross, n.p.)
"Minor Exhibitions," Athenaeum, No. 3911 (October 11, 1902),
p. 492.
"Minor Exhibitions," Athenaeum, No. 4198 (April 11, 1908),
p. 458.
"Miss Burton of Half Moon Street," Manchester Guardian, Fri
day, October, 19 35. (Clipping in the possession of
Giles Robertson, n.d., n.p.)
"Mr. Cayley Robinson's Works at the Carfax Gallery," Athe
naeum, No. 4231 (November 28, 1908), p. 689.
"Mr. Max Beerbohm's Caricatures," The Times (London),
April 29, 1908, p. 16.
"Mr. Rothenstein's Pastels at Carfax's," Athenaeum, No. 3916
(November 15, 1902), p. 657.
"Mr. Tonks's Water-Colours at Carfax's," Athenaeum, No. 4047
(May 20, 1905), p. 633.
"M. Bussy's Pastels," Athenaeum, No. 3948 (June 27, 1903),
p. 824.
Morning Leader (London), April 6, 189 5. (In Bodleian MS.
Ross d.212, p. 23.)
Morning Post (London), June 1, 1914. (In Bodleian MS. Ross
d.213, p. 66, n.p.)
Nicolson, Harold. "Poor Melmoth," Observer (London), Decem
ber 9, 1951. (Clipping in the possession of Rupert
Hart-Davis, n.p.)
"Notes," Burlington Magazine, XXIII (April 1913), 58-59.
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444
"Obituaries," The Times (London), October 8, 1918.
"Other Exhibitions," Athenaeum, No. 4257 (May 29, 1909),
653.
"Paintings, Drawings and Etchings by Anna Airy," Athenaeum,
No. 4175 (November 2, 1907), 557.
"Reviews and Notices," Burlington Magazine, XX (March 1912),
Roth, Samuel. "Dramatis Personae," Two Worlds, I (June
1926), 400.
"Sargents at the Carfax Gallery," Athenaeum, No. 404 0
(April 1, 1908), 408.
"She Was Just Miss Burton." (Clipping in the possession of
Giles Robertson, no source or date.)
"Shelley Society," The Times (London), November 17, 1886,
p. 6.
S[mith], F[rederick] S [tanley]. "The Arundel Club," Acad-
emy, LXXIV (April 25, 1908), 710-711.
"Two Exhibitions," Athenaeum, No. 3934 (March 21, 1903),
377.
"Two Exhibitions," Athenaeum, No. 3939 (April 25, 1903),
537.
"Without Prejudice," Leicester Mail, January 6, 1913.
(Clipping in the possession of J. P. B. Ross, n.p.)
Published Sources: Works by Ross
The following is a partial bibliography of writing by
Robert Ross. The Ross family owns a number of scrapbooks
witn clippings in them identified as being written by Robert
Ross. These are not very well organized, and their contents
may not be in chronological order, clippings may not be
identified by page, volume, or even by magazine, and some
time periods are obviously not covered by the scrapbooks
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
445
which I saw.
In addition to the material found in the scrapbooks, I
have checked issues of the Academy, Burlington Magazine, and
Morning Post during the years Ross was writing for them,
have checked the periodical and bibliographical indexes for
the period, and have included materials identified in cor
respondence as being by Ross. While this is probably a very
incomplete list, it does nevertheless give some indication
of the writing which Ross did.
For periodicals to which I had access, I have added the
bibliographical information. For others, not readily avail
able, I have included as much information as I had. If
there is any reason to doubt that something is by Ross, or
if I found the article in a source for which he was writing,
and though anonymous, it seemed to resemble other articles
by him so much that I was reasonably sure it was by him, I
have marked the article with a "?". A descriptive note of
the contents has been added when useful. The form of the
name or pseudonym used has been given for each item. When
no name appears, if the bibliographical information is in
complete and the article taken from a scrapbook, I do not
know if it was published under Ross's name. If no name
appears on an item with complete bibliographical informa-- j.
tion, it was published anonymously.
The following symbols have been used in this list:
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
446
#— taken from the scrapbooks
*— reprinted in Masques and Phases
?— probably by Ross
1889
# "Boy's Books," [review of a novel. Wronged], Scots
Observer, November 16, 18 89.
# "Playnte Dolorous," [poem against William Morris],
Scots Observer, December 7, 1889.
# "For Boys and Girls," Scots Observer, December 21,
1889 .
# [Other undated Scots Observer articles, probably from
1889, include: "Two Translations," "Beau
Austin at the Haymarket," and "A 'Calderon' of
Fish."]
1890
V "A Flemish Festival," Saturday Review, January, 1890.
# "Original Verse: Intimations of Evolution from Recol
lections of Early Childhood." [same as above?]
1891
"In Grub Street," Author, I (January 15, 1891), 245-
247.
* "Hov; We Lost the Book of Jasher," [story]. Author, I
(February 16, 1891), 259-263.
? R., "An English Academy," Author, I, p. 190.
R. R., "Library Secrets," Author, II (June 1, 1891),
22-23.
1892
[Robert Ross and More Adey, eds.] Maturin, Charles
Robert. Melmoth the Wanderer: A New Edition
from the Original Text with a Memoir and Bibli-
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
447
ography of Maturin's Works. London: Richard
Bentley & Son, 1892.
# "Mr. Irving's Evidence," Saturday Review, LXXIII,
April 9, 1892.
# "Succat" [book review], Saturday Review, LXXIII, May 7,
1892.
# "Across the Plains" [review of a book by R. L. Steven-
son], Saturday Review, LXXIII (May 28, 1892),
630.
# "La Statue du Commandeur" [review of a pantomime opera
by M. Adolphe David], Saturday Review, LXXIII
June 25, 1892.
# "A Modern Mandeville" [travel book review], Black &
White, June~ 25, 1892.
n "Dorothy Wallis" [review], Saturday Review, LXXIV
(July 9, 1892), 55.
# "Reviews: The Wrecker" [review of a book by R. L.
Stevenson], Saturday Review, LXXIV (July 16,
1892), 77.
# "Poets & Poetry of the Century," Saturday Review, LXXIV
July 23, 1892.
# "The Magic Ink" [review of a book by William Black],
Saturday Review, LXXIV, July 30, 1892.
# "Stray Records" [review], Saturday Review, LXXIV, Sep
tember 24, 1892. - .
? C. F., "On a New Novelist" [review of two books by
Maarten Maartens], Author, II, 112.
# "Novels" [reviews], Saturday Review, LXXIV, October 8,
1892.
# "The Ivory Gate" [review of a book by Walter Besant],
Saturday Review, LXXIV, October 29, 1892.
# "Who's Who: Clearly Indicated in Verse by the Latest
Would-Be Poet Laureates," Star, October 29,
1892.
# "The Secret of Narcissus" [review of a book by Edmund
Gosse], Saturday Review, LXXIV, November 12,
1892.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
448
# "Christinas Books and Cards, I" [reviews], Saturday
Review, LXXIV, November 26, 1892.
# "King Poppy" [review of a book by Lord Lytton], Pall
Mall Gazette, December 1892.
# "Pierre and His People" [review of a book by Gilbert
Parker], Saturday Review, LXXIV, December 3,
1892.
1893
# "Essays in Miniature" [review], Saturday Review, LXXV,
March 11, 189 3.
# "Novels," Saturday Review, LXXV, April 8, 1893.
# "Poetry," Saturday Review, LXXV, May 6, 1893.
# "Walt Whitman" [review of a book by A. J. Symonds],
Saturday Review, LXXV (May 27, 1893), 456.
V "Reviews: Life of Leigh Hunt" [by Monkhouse], Pall
Mall Gazette, May 29, 1893.
# "Letters of a Portuguese Nun" [review], Saturday Re
view, LXXVI, July 1, 189 3.
# "Guy de Maupassant" [not on a particular work], St.
James's Gazette, July 11, 1893.
"The Two Lancrofts" [review of a book by C. F. Keary],
Saturday Review, LXXVI, August 12, 1893.
1894
# "English Literary Society, paper read by Mr. R. B. Ross
on Jan. 2nd; The Didactic in Art and Litera
ture," Davos Courier (January 6, 1894), pp.
148-150.
# "English Literary Society, paper read by Mr. R. B. Ross
on Jan. 2nd; The Didactic in Art and Litera
ture (continued)," Davos Courier (January 13,
1894) , 161-163..
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
449
189 7
? C. F. "Dreadnaught" [story], Canadian Magazine, VIII
(April 1897), 530-536.
1898
1900
1902
Robert Ross, "The Eulogy of Aubrey Beardsley," Ben Jon-
son His Volpone: or The Foxe. A new edition
with a critical essay on theauthor by Vincent
O'Sullivan and a frontispiece five initial let
ters and a cover design illustrative and deco
rative by Aubrey Beardsley together with an
eulogy of the artist by Robert Ross. London:
Leonard Smithers and Co., 1898, pp. xxv-xlv.
Robert Ross. "A Case at the Museum" [story], Cornhill
Magazine, LXXXII (October 1900), 495-508.
Philogenet. "The Brand of Isis” [article], The Oxford
Point of View, October 1902.
1903
# "William Ernest Henley" [obituary and review of his
Works], New Age, October 3, 1903.
1904
# R. R. "Sienese Art at the Burlington Fine Arts Club,"
Westminster Gazette, June 13, 1904.
# R. R. "The Peacock Room," Westminster Gazette, June
18, 1904.
The Lessee of the Grave at Bagneux, "Oscar Wilde's
Tomb" [letter], Reynold's Newspaper [circa
August 7, 1904. Clipping in Bodleian Ross
e.625.]
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
450
190 5
Robert Ross, éd., "Preface." Oscar Wilde, De Pro-
fundis. London: Methuen and Co., 19o5.
Robert Ross, Hon. Sec. "The Arundel Club" [letter].
The Times (September 26, 1905), 12.
# R. R. "Strauss's 'Salome' at Dresden," Westminster
Gazette, December 14, 1905.
# Robert Ross. "Fine Art: Simeon Solomon," Academy, LXX
(December 23, 1905), 1336-1337.
# R. R. [letter]. Academy, LXX (December 23, 1905),
1340.
1906
Ross, Robert. "A Note on 'Salome,'" Oscar Wilde,
Salome, A Tragedy in One Act; translated from
the French. London: John Lane Company, 19 07
[i.e., 1906], pp. xiii-xviii.
R. R. (Manager of Carfax & Co., Ltd.) "The 'Carfax'
School" [letter], Academy, LXX (January 6,
1906), 21.
Robert Ross. "Aubrey Beardsley," Academy, LXX (January
27, 1906) , 95-96.
Q. V. "English Aesthetics" [letter], Academy, LXX
(January 27, 1906), 99.
Robert Ross. "The Drama: Nero Without Tears" [review
of a play by Stephen Phillips], Academy, LXX
(February 3, 1906), 118-119.
Robert Ross. "The Drama: His House in Perfect Order"
[review of His House in Order by Arthur Wing
Pinero], Academy, LXX (February 10, 1906), 140-
141.
Robert Ross. "Fine Art: Canossa" [review of a show of
"Some Examples of the Independent Art of To
day"], Academy, LXX (February 24, 1906), 183-
184.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
451
Robert Ross. "The Drama: A Close Time for the Peas
ants" [review of The Dynasts, Part Second by
Thomas Hardy], Academy, LXX (March 3, 19Ô6) ,
206-207. --------
Robert Ross. "The Drama: En Revenants de la Revue"
[review of Ghosts by Ibsen and The Vision by
Hon. Eleanour Norton], Academy, LXX (March 17,
1906) , 262-263.
Robert Ross. "The Land-Grave" [poem "adapted from the
Russian of Erick Schweiger"], Academy, LXX
(March 24, 1906), 285.
Robert Ross. "The Drama: Archer v. Artemis and
Another" [comments on William Archer's review
of a play by Sturge Moore], Academy, LXX
(April 14, 1906), 359-360.
Robert Ross. "The Drama: Mr. Arthur Symons's Moral
ity" [review of The Fool of the World], Acade
my, LXX (April 21, 1906), 383.
Robert Ross. "The Place of William Blake in English
Art," Burlington Magazine, IX (June 1906), 150-
167.
* Robert Ross. "A Little Doctored Faust" [parody], Acad
emy, LXX (June 16, 1906), 573-574.
Robert Ross. "The Drama: The Stage Society" [review
of Dr. Metz1er by John Pollock and The Inspec-
tor-General by Gogol], Academy, LXX (June 23,
1906) , 600.
#? "Fine Art: The Paintings of William Blake" [review of
the Carfax exhibition]. Academy, LXX (June 23,
1906) , 600-601.
* Robert Ross. "The Eleventh Muse" [humorous article].
Academy, LXXI (July 7, 1906), 13-14.
* Robert Ross. "Mr. Benson's Pater" [review]. Academy,
LXXI (July 21, 1906), 61-62.
Robert Ross. "The Drama: The Winter's Tale" [review
of Shakespeare's play as if it were written by
John Strange Winter], Academy, LXXI (September
8, 1906), 230-231.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
452
Robert Ross. "Swinblake: A Prophetic Book, with Home
Zarathrusts" [parody], Academy, LXXI (Septem
ber 29, 1906), 307-309.
Robert Ross. "Abbey Thoughts" [article]. Academy, LXXI
(October 6, 1906), 330-331.
Robert Ross. "Fine Art: Mr. Holman Hunt at the Lei
cester Galleries," Academy, LXXI (October 13,
1906), 375-376.
"Critics in Conflict" [review of Correggio by Sturge
Moore], Daily Mail, November 3, 1906.
Robert Ross. "The Eclectic at Large" [story]. Academy,
LXXI (November 3, 1906), 446-447.
Robert Ross. "The Modern Picture-Market (With a Cor
rection)" [letter]. Academy, LXXI (November 3,
1906), 449-450.
Robert Ross. "Fine Art: The Jew in Art" [review of a
show]. Academy, LXXI (November 24, 1906), 527-
529.
1907
Robert Ross. "The Elethian Muse" [humorous article].
Academy, LXXI (January 5, 1907), 15-16.
Robert Ross. "A Literary Causerie: Going up Top,"
Academy, LXXII (January 12, 1907), 40-41.
"A propos of a communication ..." [section of "The
Literary Week"], Academy, LXXII (January 12,
1907), 29.
"Some Doctored Dilemma: A New Epilogue for the Last
Performance of Mr. Shaw's Play," Academy, LXXII
(February 9, 1907), 139-140.
"Last of the Primitives" [review of Perugino by Edward
Hilton], Daily Mail, February 23, 1907.
Robert Ross. "The Jaded Intellectuals: A Dialogue,"
Academy, LXXII (March 16, 1907), 270-271.
Robert Ross. "Blunderbore" [review of On Art and Art-
ists by Max Nordau], Academy, LXXII (April 6,
1907), 340-341.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
453
Christian Freeborn. "Impatience" [comments on reviews
of Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience], Academy,
LXXII (April 13, 1907), 364-365.
Christian Freeborn. "Fine Art; Burlington House"
[satirical mock visit of the King], Academy,
LXXII (May 11, 1907), 467-468.
C. F. "Non Angeli sed Angli," Academy, LXXII (June 1,
1907), 539-540.
Robert Ross. "Shavians from Superman" [parody]. Acad
emy, LXXII (June 15, 1907), 578-580.
C. F. "Fine Art: Mr. Ricketts and Mr. Shannon at the
Carfax," Academy, LXXIII (July 6, 1907), 659-
660.
Robert Ross. "Drama: 'The Eighteenth Century' at the
St. James's," Academy, LXXIII (August 3, 1907),
755.
C. F. "Sir W. S. Gilbert" [letter], Academy, LXXIII
(August 3, 1907), 757.
Robert Ross. "Plain Mannerisms: A Protest" [letter].
Academy, LXXIII (August 3, 1907), 757-758.
Robert Ross. "Drama: 'The Hypocrites'" [review of a
melodrama by Henry Arthur Jones], Academy,
LXXIII (August 31, 1907), 850-851.
Robert Ross. "Painters as Critics" [letter], Academy,
LXXIII (August 24, 1907), 828-829.
Robert Ross. "The Drama: Attila" [review of a play by
Laurence Binyon], Academy, LXXIII (September 7,
1907), 874-875.
"Literature: A Happy Publication" [review of Three
Plays with Happy Endings by St. John Hankin],
Academy^ LXXIII (September 28, 1907), 941-942.
Robert Ross. "Painters as Critics" [letter], Academy,
LXXIII (September 7, 1907), 877-878.
Robert Ross. "Fallacies about Fiction," Academy,
LXXIII (November 9, 1907), 111-112.
Robert Ross. "Drama: Waste." [review of a play by
Granville Barker], Academy, LXXIII (November
30, 1907), 195-196.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
454
Robert Ross. "Ego et Max Meus" [humorous article].
Academy, LXIII (December 7, 1907), 225-226.
1908
Robert Ross. "Introductory Note," A Florentine Tragedy
by Oscar Wilde. Boston and London: John W.
Luce & Company, 1908, pp. v-x.
Robert Ross. "Re Oscar Wilde Deceased. Dear Sir
. . ." [A circular, with list of editions of
Wilde's works which may be sold in Great B r i t
ain.] London: Good, 1908.
* Robert Ross. There Is No Decay: A Lecture Delivered
by Robert Ross, in the Old Blue Coat School,
Liverpool, on February 12th, 1908. Liverpool:
Northern Publishing Company, Ltd., 1908.
Ross, Robert, ed. Works of Oscar Wilde. London:
Methuen and Co., 1908. l4v. Vol. 12 has im
print: Paris: C. Carrington, 1908. [In addi
tion to editorial work, Ross wrote introduc
tions and prefaces for many of the volumes.]
* Robert Ross. "The Hootawa Van Dyck" [story]. Academy,
LXXIV (January 11, 1908), 339-340.
* Robert Ross. "A Mislaid Poet," Academy, LXXIV (March
21, 1908), 581-583.
Robert Ross. "Art in America: Rossetti, An Observa
tion," Burlington Magazine, XIII (May 1908),
116-123.
Robert Ross. "The Franco-British Exhibition: The
British Section," Burlington Magazine, XIII
(July 1908), 195-2ÏÏTn
? "Education in Art," Morning Post, August 4, 1908, p. 3.
? "Tudor Architecture" [reviews]. Morning Post, August 6,
1908, p. 2.
? "Art & Artists," Morning Post, August 7, 1908, p. 7.
? "Art & Artists," Morning Post, August 14, 1908, p. 7.
* Robert Ross. "Dramatic Censorship Once More" [letter],
Daily Telegraph, August 19, 1908.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
455
"Art Guides & Accuracy," Morning Post, August 20, 1908,
p. 2.
"Art & Artists," Morning Post, August 21, 1908, p. 7.
"old Masters for Cambridge," Morning Post, August 22,
1908, p. 4.
"New Picture by Franz Hals," Morning Post, August 26,
1908, p. 4.
"Art & Artists," Morning Post, August 28, 1908, p. 7.
"Art on the Hoardings," Morning Post, August 31, 19 08,
p. 6.
1908, p. 3.
7
"Art & Artists," Morning Post, September 4, 1908, p. 7
7
"Art & Artists,"
p. 2.
Morning Post, September 11 , 1908,
7
"Art & Artists,"
p. 7.
Morning Post, September 18 , 1908,
7
"Art & Artists,"
p. 2.
Morning Post, September 25 , 1908,
7
" The Autumn Salon (from Our Correspondent), Paris,
Oct. 1," Morning Post, October 2, 1908, p. 4.
7
"Art Exhibitions , " Morning Post, October 5, 1908, p. 2
7
"Art & Artists," Morning Post, October 9, 1908, p. 7.
7
"Art & Artists," Morning Post, October 16, 1908, p. 9.
# "The Life of Whistler" [review of a book by E. R. and
J. Pennell], Morning Post, October 22, 1908,
p. 2.
# "Muhammadan Art at Whitechapel," Morning Post, Octo
ber 23, 1908, p. 2.
# "Far Eastern Art" [review of Laurence Binyon's Painting
in the Far East], Morning Post, November 2,
1908, p. 2.
# "Art & Artists," Morning Post, November 3, 1908, p. 4.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
456
# "Society of Portrait Painters: New Gallery Exhibi
tion," Morning Post, November 5, 1908, p. 3.
# "Art & Artists," Morning Post, November 14, 1908,
p. 11.
# "Drawings by Old Masters," Morning Post, November 14,
1908, p. 11.
# "Art & Artists," Morning Post, November 28, 1908,
p. 11.
# "Art S t Artists," Morning Post, December 7, 190 8, p. 2.
T T "The Baillie Gallery," Morning Post, December 11, 1908 ,
p . 8.
# "Royal Academy: Students' Works," Morning Post, Decem
ber 14, 1908, p. 3.
? "Art S t Artists," Morning Post, December 18 , 1908, p. 4.
# "Art & Artists," Morning Post, December 25, 1908, p. 7.
1909
Robert Ross. Aubrey Beardsley. London: John Lane,
' ■ 19 09.
Robert Ross and C. S. Millard. "In Memoriam Oscar
Wilde," London: 1909. 3pp.
Robert Ross, ed. and "Prefatory Dedication." Oscar
Wilde, De Profundis. 2nd ed. New York and
London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, The Knickerbocker
Press, 1909. Pp. iii-ix.
Robert Ross. Masques and Phases. London: Arthur L.
Humphreys, 1909.
Robert Ross, comp. Poems by Oscar Wilde. London:
Methuen and Co., 1909.
Robert Ross, ed. and "Preface." Oscar Wilde, Salome,
La Sainte Courtesane, A Florentine Tragedy.
London: Methuen and Co., 1909. Pp. vii-xix.
"Winter Exhibition at the Royal Academy: New Masters
for Old," Morning Post, January 2, 19 09, p. 2.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
457
# "'Punch' at the Leicester Galleries," Morning Post,
January 5, 1909, p. 3.
# "Scottish Paintings" [review of a book by James Caw],
Morning Post, January 7, 19 09, p. 2.
# A Middle Aged Student. "Decadence in Artistic Taste,"
[letter]. Morning Post, January 8, 1909, p. 3.
# "The New Gallery: International Society of Sculptors,
Painters, and Gravers," Morning Post, January
9, 1909, p. 3.
# "Royal Institute of Painters in Water-Colours," Morning
Post, January 11, 1909, p. 8.
# "Art & Artists," Morning Post, January 12, 1909 , p. 3 .
# "Art & Artists," Morning Post, January 15, 1909, p. 7.
7
"Art & Artists," Morning Post, January 22, 1909, p . 4.
? "Art Exhibitions," Morning Post, February 2, 1909,
p. 4.
# "Modern Society of Portrait Painters," Morning Post,
February 8, 19 09, p. 2.
# "Baillie Gallery: Two Illustrations and an Artist,"
Morning Post, February 10, 1909, p. 5.
# "Art & Artists," Morning Post, February 12, 1909, p. 9.
# "At Messrs. Agnew's Gallery: Water-Colour Drawings,"
Morning Post, February 16, 19 09, p. 5.
I II
# "International Society: 'Fair Women Exhibition,
Morning Post, February 22, 1909, p. 2.
# "Tips to Art Critics," Punch, CXXXVI (February 24,
1909), 134-135. [This is also identified as
being by Ross in the index to the volume.]
# "Grafton Galleries: Women's International Art Club,"
Morning Post, February 26, 1909, p. 3.
? "The Prospects of Fresco Painting" [review of Fresco
Painting by James Ward], Morning Post, March 1,
1909, p. 2. - -
# "Art & Artists," Morning Post, March 3, 1909, p. 4.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
458
? "Acquisitions at the Tate Gallery," Morning Post,
March 5, 1909, p. 3.
# "Art St Artists," Morning Post, March 8, 1909, p, 4.
# "Topographical Art," Morning Post, March 9, 19 09, p. 8.
? "Art Exhibitions: The Doré Gallery," Morning Post,
March 18, 1909, p. 3.
# "Art & Artists,” Morning Post, March 23, 1909, p. 4.
"Art & Artists," Morning Post, March 26, 19 09, p. 9. T T
# "Art Exhibiticns: The Paterson Gallery," Morning Post,
March 26, 1909, p. 9.
# "Royal Institute of Painters in Water-Colours," Morning
Post, March 29, 1909, p. 2.
#
"Art & Artists," Morning Post, April 6, 1909, p. 5.
"Sir Charles Holroyd's Etchings: Japanese Colour
Prints," Morning Post, April 6, 1909, p. 5.
"Burlington Fine Arts Club: Early English Portrai
ture," Morning Post, April 13, 1909, p. 7.
? "The How and Why of Architecture" [review of A History
of Architectural Development by F. M. Simpson],
Morning Post, April 15, 1909, p. 2.
# "Art & Artists," Morning Post, April 16, 1909, p. 4.
# "The Mew Gallery," Morning Post, April 17, 1909, p. 10.
? "Condensed Art" [review of History of Art by Dr. G.
Carotti], Morning Post, April 19, 1909, p. 2.
# "Royal Academy: First Notice," Morning Post, May 1,
1909, p. 6.
# "Royal Academy: Second Notice," Morning Post.
# "Royal Academy: Third Notice," Morning Post.
# R. R. [Letter about English art treasures being sold
abroad, and list of paintings], Morning Post,
May 15, 1909, p. 7.
# "New English Art Club," Morning Post, May 31, 1909,
p. 2.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
459
"The 'Duchess of Milan,'" Morning Post, June 2, 1909,
p. 7.
# "Dickens Exhibition at the New Dudley Galleries," Morn
ing Post, August 9, 1909, p. 8.
# "Mr. Albert Goodwin's Drawings," Morning Post, August
9, 1909, p. 8.
? "Art & Artists," Morning Post, August 13, 19 09, p. 3.
# "The Baillie Gallery," Morning Post, August 14, 1909,
p . 5.
# "Death of Lady Alma-Tadema," Morning Post, August 17,
1909, p. 5.
# "Art & Artists," Morning Post, August 21, 1909, p. 7.
# "Art & Artists," Morning Post, August 28, 1909, p. 5.
# "New Director of the National Portrait Gallery," Morn
ing Post, September 2, 1909, p. 7.
? "Art & Artists," Morning Post, September 3, 19 09, p. 3.
"Painters in Water-Colours: International Exhibition,"
Morning Post, September 6, 1909, p. 2.
# "Whitechapel Art Gallery: Toynbee Art Club Exhibi
tion," Morning Post, September 6, 1909, p. 2.
? "Art & Artists," Morning Post, September 15, 1909,
p. 8.
? "Art & Artists," Morning Post, September 25, 1909,
p. 11.
? "Art & Artists," Morning Post, October 1, 1909, p. 9.
# "Art & Artists," Morning Post, October 5, 1909, p. 4.
? "The National Loan Collection," Morning Post, October
6, 1909, p. 5.
# "Royal Institute of Oil Painters," Morning Post, Octo
ber 13, 1909, p. 3.
? "Yet Again" [review of a book by Max Beerbohm] , Morning
Post, October 18, 1909, p. 2.
# "The Leicester Galleries," Morning Post, October 18,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
460
1909, p. 2.
Ross, Robert.^ "A Recent Criticism of Blake," Burling
ton Magazine, XVI (November 1909), 84-87.
"Art & Artists," Morning Post, November 2, 1909, p. 5.
"Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colour," Morning
Post, November 9, 1909, p. 9.
? "Art Exhibitions," Morning Post, November 9, 1909,
p. 9 .
? "The Berlin Wax Bust," Morning Post, November 11, 1909,
p. 7.
# "Art & Artists," Morning Post, November 13, 1909, p. 5.
# "The Fine Art Society," Morning Post, November 13,
1909, p. 9.
# "New Gallery: Society of Portrait Painters," Morning
Post, November 15, 1909, p. 2.
Robert Ross. [Translation of Max Meyerfeld of "A Note
on the Last Few Days of Oscar Wilde's Life and
the Circumstances of His Death"], Nord und Süd,
November 15, 1909,
# "New English Art Club," Morning Post, November 22,
1909, p. 2.
# "Burlington Fine Arts Club," Morning Post, December 9,
1909, p. 2.
# "Longford Castle Collection: A Model Catalogue," Morn
ing Post, December 9, 1909, p. 2.
"Death of Mr. George Salting," Morning Post, Decem
ber 14, 1909, p. 4.
#? A. K. "2409 A. D." [satire on future archaeologists
finding the wax bust], Morning Post, December
27, 1909, p. 7.
1910
Robert Ross. "Preface," Oscar Wilde, The Importance of
Being Earnest; presented by Mr. George Alexan-
der as a souvenir of his twentieth year of man-
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
461
agement of the St. James's Theatre, February
1st, 1910. London: n.p., 1910, pp. vii-x.
# Robert Ross. "The Possibilities of Painting and Paint
ers," T. P.'s Magazine, pp. 337-338.
# "Old Masters at Burlington House: First Article,"
Morning Post, January 3, 1910, p. 2.
# "Old Masters at Burlington House: Second Notice,"
Morning Post, January 4, 1910, p. 10.
? "Art & Artists," Morning Post, January 7, 1910, p. 10.
# "Art & Artists," Morning Post, January 14, 1910, p. 9.
# Robert Ross. "A Plea for the Peers," The New Age,
January 27, 1910.
Robert Ross. "'Salome' and the Censorship" [letter].
The Times, January 28, 1910, p. 11.
%
Robert Ross. "A Plea for the Peers, II," The New Age,
February 3, 1910.
Robert Ross. [Letter], The New Age, February 3, 1910.
"French Art," Morning Post, February 7, 1910, p. 2.
"The Modern Society of Portrait Painters," Morning
Post, February 7, 1910, p. 2.
"Leicester Galleries: Mr. Maxwell Armfield," Morning
Post, February 16, 1910, p. 3.
? "Art & Artists," Morning Post, February 17, 1910, p. 3.
# "Messrs. Agnew and Son: Exhibition of Water-Colours,"
Morning Post, February 19, 1910, p. 4.
? "Japanese Drawings & Prints," Morning Post, March 1,
1910, p. 4.
? "Art & Artists," Morning Post, March 4, 1910, p. 11.
# Robert Ross. "The Mind of the Artist" [review of a
book by Mrs. Laurence Binyon], Morning Post,
March 7, 1910, p. 2.
? "Grafton Galleries: Women's International Art Club,"
Morning Post, March 7, 1910, p. 2.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
462
? "Constable," Morning Post, March 10, 1910, p. 2.
# "Art & Artists," Morning Post, March 26, 1910, p. 7.
# "The International Society," Morning Post, April 4,
1910, p. 8.
# "Water-Colour Society's Exhibition," Morning Post,
April 7, 1910, p. 3.
# "Mr. Browning's Memoirs," Morning Post, April 11, 1910,
p. 7.
# "Art Exhibitions: Mr. Alfred Rich; Carfax Gallery,"
Morning Post, April 16, 1910, p. 11.
# "Art Exhibitions," Morning Post, April 22, 1910, p. 3.
? "Art & Artists," Morning Post, April 23, 1910, p. 5.
# "The Royal Academy: First Notice," Morning Post,
April 30, 1910, p. 5.
# "The Royal Academy: Second Notice," Morning Post,
May 7, 1910, p. 4.
# "The Royal Academy : Third Notice," Morning Post,
May 9, 1910, p. 3.
# "Lady Alma-Tadema's Paintings at the Fine Art Society,"
Morning Post, May 10, 1910, p. 6.
# "New English Art Club," Morning Post, May 23, 1910,
p. 4.
# "Fair Women at the Grafton Galleries," Morning Post,
May 26, 1910, p. 3.
# "Chinese Porcelain: Sir William Bennett's Collection,"
Morning Post, May 31, 1910, p. 7.
? "Art & Artists," Morning Post, June 1, 1910, p. 7.
? "The Polish Rider," Morning Post, June 7, 1910, p. 7.
? "Art & Artists," Morning Post, June 11, 1910, p. 9.
? "French Art at Brighton," Morning Post, June 15, 1910,
p. 7.
# "Art Exhibitions: The Leicester Galleries," Morning
Post, July 5, 1910, p. 5.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
463
"Lady Tennant's Poems," Morning Post, July 14, 1910,
p. 2.
"New Turner Wing at the Tate Gallery," Morning Post,
July 19, 1910, p. 7.
"Chinese Paintings," Morning Post, August 24, 1910,
p . 7.
"Art & Artists," Morning Post, August 26, 1910, p. 3.
"Art & Artists," Morning Post, September 2, 1910, p. 8.
Robert Ross. "Turner and His Critics: Mr. A. J. Fin-
berg's Study" [review of Turner's Sketches and
Drawings], Morning Leader, September 6, 1910.
# "Death of Mr. Holman Hunt," Morning Post, September 8,
1910, p. 7.
# "Art & Artists," Morning Post, September 10, 1910,
p. 5.
# "Art & Artists," Morning Post, September 17, 1910,
p. 5.
# Robert Ross. "Forget-Me-Not" [humorous article on
Lillian E. Curtis's bad poetry]. Morning Post,
September 17, 1910, p. 5.
# "Mr. Finberg on Turner," Morning Post, September 19,
1910, p. 2.
# Robert Ross. "Mr. Benson's Essays" [review of The
Silent Isle by A. C. Benson], Morning Post,
September 20, 1910, p. 3.
# "Under Five Reigns" [review of Lady Dorothy Nevill's
Reminiscences, p. 2], Morning Post, Septem
ber 22, 1910, p. 6.
# "Society of Portrait Painters," Morning Post, Septem
ber 23, 1910, p. 3.
? "Art & Artists," Morning Post, September 30, 1910,
p. 4.
# "The Future of English Art: Mr. Robert Ross's Ad
dress" [digested version of Present and Future
Prospects for English Art], Liverpool Courier,
October 11, 1910.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
464
# Robert Ross. "The Literary Log," Bystander, October
12, 1910, pp. 84, 86.
# Robert Ross. "The Literary Log," Bystander, October
19, 1910, p. 144.
# "The Goupil Gallery Salon," Morning Post, October 25,
1910, p. 5.
# Robert Ross. "The Literary Log," Bystander, October
26, 1910, p. 192.
# Robert Ross. "The Literary Log," Bystander, November
2, 1910, pp. 251-252.
# "Russian Pictures at the Doré Gallery," Morning Post,
November 3, 1910, p. 3.
# "Melmoth," T. P.'s Weekly, November 4, 1910.
# Robert Ross. "The Post-Impressionists at the Grafton:
the Twilight of the Idols," Morning Post,
November 7, 1910, p. 3.
? Robert Ross. "The Literary Log," Bystander, November
9, 1910.
IL
IT
Robert Ross. "The Literary Log," Bystander, Novem
ber 16, 1910.
Robert Ross. "The New English Art Club," Morning Post,
November 21, 1910, p. 2.
# Robert Ross. "The Literary Log," Bystander, Novem
ber 23, 1910.
# "Specimens of Russian Art on Exhibition at the Doré
Gallery," Bystander, November 23, 1910, pp.
390-391.
Robert Ross. "The Literary Log," Bystander, Novem
ber 30, 1910.
Robert Ross. "The Wertheimer Sargents," Art Journal,
December 1910.
# Robert Ross. "William Morris" [review of his poetry].
Morning Post, December 1, 1910, p. 2.
# Robert Ross. "The Literary Log," Bystander, Decem
ber 7, 1910.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
465
# Robert Ross. "The Literary Log," Bystander, Decem
ber 14, 1910.
# Robert Ross. "The Literary Log," Bystander, Decem
ber 21, 1910, p. 652.
#• Robert Ross. "The Literary Log," Bystander, Decem
ber 28, 1910, p. 706.
? "Art & Artists," Morning Post, December 30, 1910, p. 3.
1911
Robert Ross. Present and Future Prospects for English
Art: A Lecture Delivered Before the Sandon
Studios Society, Liverpool, on October 10th,
1910. Liverpool: The Sandon Studios Society,
1911.
Robert Ross, ed. Selected Poems of Oscar Wilde, In
cluding the Ballad of Reading Gaol. London:
Methuen and Co., 1911.
Robert Ross. "Note on Aubrey Beardsley," "Aubrey
Beardsley," "Simeon Solomon: a Biography," The
Bibelot, XVII (1911), 86, 131, 139. (These are
reprints of articles published earlier.)
# "Goupil Gallery: The Senefelder Club," Morning Post,
January 10, 1911, p. 5.
# "Grafton Galleries: National Portrait Society," Morn
ing Post, January 20, 1911, p. 4.
Robert Ross. "The Literary Log," Bystander, January
25, 1911, p. 204.
# Robert Ross. "The New Machiavelli" [review of a book
by H. G. Wells], Bystander, January 25, 1911,
p. 172.
# Robert Ross. "Dea Dolorosa" [the Wildean story about
Venus, Cupid, Mary, and Christ], Morning Post,
January 28, 1911, p. 4.
# Robert Ross. "Literary Log," Bystander, February 1,
1911, p. 246.
# The New Age, February 2, 1911, suppl., pp. 9-10.
# Robert Ross. "The System of Dr. Ives" [another Wildean
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
466
story]. Morning Post, February 4, 1911, p. 9
# "The Modern Society of Portrait Painters," Morning
Post, February 7, 1911, p. 4.
# Robert Ross. "The Literary Log," Bystander, Febru
ary 8, 1911, p. 300.
Robert Ross. "A Modern Miracle" [story]. Morning Post,
February 11, 1911, p. 5.
# Robert Ross. "The Literary Log," Bystander, Febru
ary 15, 1911, p. 350.
# Robert Ross. "The Literary Log," Bystander, Febru
ary 22, 1911, pp. 404, 406.
#? "Royal Court Theatre" [review of Salome], Morning Post,
February 28, 1911, p. 5.
# Robert Ross. "The Glories of King George's Reign:
English Painting at the Moment of the Corona
tion," March 1911. [This was in a big slick-
paper popular-type journal, and the same arti
cle was reprinted on dull paper as: Robert
Ross. English Painting at the Opening of the
New Reign."]
# Robert Ross. "The Literary Log," Bystander, March 1,
1911, pp. 451-452.
il
TT "Sir Hugh Lane's Titian: Sold for B30,000 to English
Collector," Morning Post, March 6, 1911, p. 7.
Robert Ross. "The Literary Log," Bystander, March 8,
1911, p. 508.
Robert Ross. "The Literary Log," Bystander, March 15,
1911, p. 554.
# Robert Ross. "Two Lady Wrexdales" [story], Morning
Post, March 18, 1911.
# Robert Ross. "Literary Log," Bystander, March 22,
1911, p. 606.
# "Pre-Raphaelite Chestnuts" [review of Ancient Lights by
Ford Madox Hueffer], Morning Post, March 27,
1911, p. 2.
# Robert Ross. "The Literary Log," Bystander, March 29,
1911, p. 660.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
467
# "National Art-Collections Fund: Professor and Mrs.
Sadler's Gifts," Morning Post, March 31, 1911,
p. 7.
# Robert Ross. "A Vision of Damascus" [story]. Morning
Post, April 1, 1911, p. 9.
# Robert Ross. "The Literary Log," Bystander, April 5,
1911, p. 9.
# "Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colours," Morning
Post, April 3, 1911, p. 6.
# Robert Ross. "Literary Log," Bystander, April 12,
1911, p. 84.
# Robert Ross. "The Literary Log," Bystander, April 19,
1911, p. 142. [This was his last article in
this series].
# Robert Ross. "The Retired Governess" [comments on an
1826 book]. Morning Post, April 19, 1911, p. 4.
"Caricatures by Max at the Leicester Galleries," Morn
ing Post, April 22, 1911, p. 5. [Identified as
by Ross in Beerbohm's letter to Reggie Turner,
April 23, 1911, Letters to Reggie, p. 197.]
# Robert Ross. "Royal Academy," Morning Post, April 29,
1911, p. 5.
"Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens" [protest against the
erection of the statue]. Morning Post, May 2,
1911, p. 7.
# Robert Ross. "Royal Academy: Architecture," Morning
Post, May 3, 1911, p. 5.
? "The New AmiCO di Sandro: Mr. Walter Greaves," Morning
Post, May 6, 1911, p. 5.
# Robert Ross. "Royal Academy: Water Colours & Blacks &
Whites," Morning Post, May 11, 1911, p. 3.
# Robert Ross. "Royal Academy: Oil Pictures," Morning
Post, May 13, 1911, p. 5.
# Robert Ross. "Grafton Galleries: A Century of Art,"
Morning Post, June 3, 1911, p. 5.
# Robert Ross. "Burlington Fine Arts Club," Morning
Post, June 7, 1911.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
468
# Robert Ross. "William Morris" [review of his Collected
Works] , Morning Post, June 22, 1911, p. 2.
? "Art in the 'Encyclopaedia," [the 11th edition of the
Britannica], Morning Post, July 3, 1911, p. 2.
? "The Fine Art Society; Chinese Paintings," Morning
Post, July 11, 1911, p. 5.
# Robert Ross. "Their Last Chance" [story]. Morning
Post, July 11, 1911, p. 5.
# Robert Ross. "The Stafford Gallery: Paintings of Mr.
Walter Sickert," Morning Post, July 19, 1911,
p. 5.
Robert Ross. "Rembrandt's 'Mill,'" Morning Post,
July 31, 1911, p. 7.
? "The Post-Impressionists" [review of a book by Lewis C.
Hind], Morning Post, August 24, 1911, p. 2.
# Robert Ross. "National Gallery, New Acquisition: Mas
terpiece by Mabuse," Morning Post, September 1,
1911, p. 5.
"English Paintings at Shepherd's Bush: A General Sur
vey," Morning Post, September 11, 1911, p. 2.
[Identified as byRoss.]
# Robert Ross. "The Little City" [review of a book by
Wilfrid Rowland Childe], Morning Post, Septem
ber 11, 1911, p. 2.
# Robert Ross. "The Late Alfred Stevens: Presentation
of Works to the Tate Gallery," Morning Post,
November 16, 1911, p. 7.
# Robert Ross. "New Art in the Borough: Remarkable Wall
Paintings," Morning Post, September 19, 1911,
p. 5.
# Robert Ross. "Book Reviews : Ave et . . . Atque . . .
et . . ." [George Moore], Morning Post, Octo
ber 30, 1911, p. 2.
# Robert Ross. "Never Again" [review of Zuleika Dobson
by Max Bearbohm], Morning Post, November 13,
1911, p. 2.
# Robert Ross. "The New English Art Club," Morning Post,
November 22, 1911.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
469
# Robert Ross. "The Stafford Gallery" [review of a show
by Gauguin and Cezanne], Morning Post, Novem
ber 27, 1911, p. 3.
# Robert Ross. "Pre-Raphaelite Exhibition at the Tate
Gallery," Morning Post, December 14, 1911,
p. 4.
1912
Robert Ross. "In the glens of Parnassus ..." [ex
cerpt from There Is No Decay], Amphora: A Col
lection of Prose and Verse, Chosen by the
Editor of the Bibelot [Thomas Bird Mosher],
Portland, Maine: Thomas Bird Mosher, 1912,
p. 72.
Robert Ross. "Note of Explanation," Oscar Wilde, The
Soul of Man under Socialism. London: Arthur
lT! Humphreys, 1912. Pp. ^x.
"Mr. MacColl and the National Gallery," Morning Post,
January 1, 1912, p. 3.
Robert Ross. "Alpine Club : Mr. Roger Fry's Paint
ings," Morning Post, January 4, 1912, p. 4.
Robert Ross. "Alphonse Legros: Exhibition of Work,"
Morning Post, January 17, 1912, p. 5.
Robert Ross. "Art Exhibitions: The Senefelder Club,"
Morning Post, January 23, 1912, p. 5.
Robert Ross. "Book Reviews: The Casket Songs" [poems
by E. B. Sargant], Morning Post, February 5,
1912, p. 2.
Robert Ross. "Burlington Fine Arts Club : Early Vene
tian Painters," Morning Post, February 24,
1912, p. 5.
"Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colour," Morning
Post, March 16, 1912, p. 8.
Robert Ross. "Living Artists at the National Gallery"
[letter]. The Times, May 9, 1912, p. 11.
Robert Ross. "A Great Curator, An Appreciation of Sir
Sidney Colvin," Pall Mall Gazette, June 7,
1912.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
470
# "The Sacred Shrine" [review of a book subtitled A Study
of Poetry & Art of the Catholic Church, by
Yrjfi Him] , Times Literary Supplement, Septem
ber 12, 1912, pp. 353-354. [Signed "R. R." in
his own writing in the scrapbook copy.]
# Robert Ross. "Ephemeral Aesthetics" [letter]. The
Times, October 1, 1912, p. 7.
# "The Old Grosvenor Gallery: A Retrospect," The Times,
October 1, 1912, p. 10. [Identified as by Ross
in the Burlington Magazine, XXVII (August
1915), p. 196].
# Robert Ross. "The Dresden Madonna and the Baby" [let
ter], The Globe, October 5, 1912.
# Robert Ross. "Horses and Men" [letter], Westminster
Gazette, October 29, 1912.
1913
Robert Ross, ed. The Suppressed Portion of "De Pro-
fundis," by Oscar Wilde, now for the first time
published by his literary executor, Robert
Ross. New York: P. R. Reynolds, 1913.
# "Apotheosis of the Twilight" [review of The Eighteen
Nineties by Holbrook Jackson], Morning Post,
November 3, 1913, p. 2. [Signed "R. R." in
his own writing in the scrapbook copy.]
1914
Robert Ross. "A Note of Exclamation." Alastair [Hans
Henning Voight], Forty-Three Drawings by Alas
tair; with a note of exclamation by Robert
Ross. London: John Lane, The Bodley Head,
1914.
Robert Ross, ed., and "Preface." Oscar Wilde, An Ideal
Husband: A New Acting Version Produced by Sir
George Alexander at the St. James's Theatre.
London: Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1914.
Robert Ross, ed. and "Preface." Selected Prose of
Oscar Wilde. London: Methuen and Co., Ltd.,
1914.
Robert Ross. "Some Reflexions on the Second National
Loan Exhibition." National Loan Exhibition, An
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
471
Illustrated Catalogue of the Second National
Loan Exhibition, 1913-14. London: National
Loan Exhibition, 1914, pp. 1-4.
# "European Romanesque: A New Theory" [review of Art in
S^ain & Portugal by Marcel Dieulafoy], Times
Literary Supplement, January 22, 1914, pT J5.
Robert Ross. "The Red Cross Society at the Grosvenor
Gallery," Burlington Magazine, XXV (September
1914) , 367^60'.
"Religion and Art" [review of a book by Alessandro
Della Seta], Observer, November 8, 1914.
"Book Reviews: Tantum Religion" [review of above
book]. Morning Post, December 31, 1914.
1915
"Art," Annual Register 1915. London, New York: Long-
mans, Green, 1916. Pt. II, pp. 117-120.
R. R. The Connaught Square Catechism or Confessions to
Mrs. Robert Witt. London : Arthur L. Hum-
phreys, 1915.
C. F. Really & Truly: A Book of Literary Confessions;
Designed by a Late-Victorian. London:
Arthur L. Humphreys, 1915.
Robert Ross. "A Monthly Chronicle: Fine Art Society,"
Burlington Magazine, XXVII (April 1915), 44.
Robert Ross. "A Monthly Chronicle: Walter Crane,"
Burlington Magazine, XXVII (April 1915), 44.
C. F. "The New English Art Club," Burlington Magazine,
XXVII (June 1915) , 127-128.
#? "Fine Arts : The Works of Ivan Mestrovic," Athenaeum,
July 3, 1915, No. 4575, p. 17.
Robert Ross. [Letter on Walter Crane's "Renaissance of
Venus"], Burlington Magazine, XXVII (August
1916) , 19Ü^19'7"
Robert Ross. "A Monthly Chronicle: Mestrovic," Bur
lington Magazine, XXVII (August 1915) , 205-211.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
472
Robert Ross. "A Monthly Chronicle: Mr. Henry James,"
Burlington Magazine, XXVII (September 1915),
251-252.
C. F. "Civic Arts Association," Burlington Magazine,
XXVIII (October 1915), 36-37.
1916
"Art," Annual Register 1916. London, New York: Long
mans, Green, 1917. Pt. II. Pp. 134-138.
Robert Ross. "George Moore's New Book on Jésus: A
Review" [The Brook Kerith], Daily Mail [1916?] ,
[In Bodleian Ross 4, p. 92.]
R. R. "'April Love,' A Note," Burlington Magazine,
XXVIII (February 1916), 171.
Robert Ross. "A Monthly Chronicle: Arthur Hughes,"
Burlington Magazine, XXVIII (February 1916),
204-207.
B. "A Monthly Chronicle: Art and the Public," Bur
lington Magazine, XXIX (June 1916), 135.
[Identified as by Ross in the index to the
volume.]
Robert Ross. "A Monthly Chronicle: The Goupil Gal
lery," Burlington Magazine, XXIX (June 1916),
135.
Robert Ross. "Ajantâ Frescoes," Burlington Magazine,
XXIX (July 1916), 154-161.
1917
"Art," Annual Register 1917. London, New York: Long
mans, Green, 1918. Pt. II. Pp. 133-137.
R. R. "A Monthly Chronicle: Sale of Whistler Litho
graphs," Burlington Magazine, XXX (May 1917),
203.
Robert Ross. "A Victorian Relic in Berlin" [letter
about the wax bust]. The Times, May 28, 1917,
p. 7.
Robert Ross. "Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree," Revue Poli-
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
473
tique et littéraire, LV (August 11, 1917), 510-
511.
1918
"Art," Annual Register 1918. London, New York: Long
mans, Green, 1919. Pt. II. Pp. 69-71.
# "The Art of Miss Sylvia Gosse," reprint from a cata
logue of Exhibition held at Repertory Theatre,
Birmingham, October, 1918.
Robert Ross. "The Artist," Sir John Lavery; with in-
trods. by Robert Ross and C. E. Montague. Pt.
II of British Artists at the Front. London:
Country Life, Newnes, 1918.
Robert Ross. "Ford Madox Brown Water Colours Recently
Acquired for the Nation," Burlington Magazine,
XXXII (January 1918), 3.
# "Professionalism in Art," Times Literary Supplement,
January 31, 1918. Pp. 1-2.
R. R. "A Monthly Chronicle: The Fitzwilliam Museum,
Cambridge," Burlington Magazine, XXXII (April
1918), 164.
(In addition, many other clippings which I could not iden
tify by date or by periodical have been omitted.)
Manuscript Collections
Department of Special Collections, Library, University of
California at Los Angeles.
C. K. Scott Moncrieff to Christopher Millard,
April 17 [1907]
William Andrews Clark Library, Los Angeles, California.
Miscellaneous papers from Thomas Bell
Thomas Bell to Robert Ross, December 3, 1900
D735L L651 1913
T. W. H. Crosland to Alfred Douglas, April 28,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
474
1914 [copy]
T. W. H. Crosland to Alfred Douglas, May 5, 1914
[copy]
Alfred Douglas to F. E. Smith, August 11, 1914
[copy]
Copies of letters of which the original is in the pos
session of Frederick Peters.
F. Sebastian Bowden to More Adey, June 6, 189 5
F. Sebastian Bowden to More Adey, June 9, 1895
F. Sebastian Bowden to More Adey, June 11, 1895
F. Sebastian Bowden to More Adey, June 14, 1895
Alfred Douglas to More Adey, November 30, 1895
Alfred Douglas to More Adey, June 30, 1897
Alfred Douglas to More Adey, July 4, 189 7
Alfred Douglas to More Adey, July 3, 1899
Alfred Douglas to Robert Ross, June 21, 1897
Lady Sybil Queensberry to More Adey, January 28,
1896
Lady Sybil Queensberry to More Adey, February 27,
1896
Lady Sybil Queensberry to More Adey, May 16, 1896
Lady Sybil Queensberry to More Adey, November 18,
1896
Robert Ross to Alfred Douglas, June 23, 1897
Papers purchased from the A. J. A. Symons estate
More Adey, note describing persons from whom they
expected money for Wilde
Charles Aitken to Robert Ross, March 31, 1913
Walter Armstrong to Robert Ross, December 18, 1913
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
475
Constance Beerbohm to Robert Ross, December 1,
1908
Eliza Beerbohm to Robert Ross, December 1, 19 08
John Clifford to Robert Ross, January 6, 1896
J. Dupoirier to Robert Ross, March 21, 1902 [typed
translation]
Frank Harris to Christopher Millard, December 4,
1916
Frank Harris to Robert Ross, December 18, 19J.3-
Frank Harris to Robert Ross, December 21, 1913
Frank Harris to Robert Ross, October 24, 1916
Frank Harris to Robert Ross, November 10, 1916
Frank Harris to Robert Ross, November 20, 1916
Frank Harris to Robert Ross, December 12, 1916
Frank Harris to Robert Ross, January 9, 1917
Cyril Holland to Hargrove and Co., July 1, 1914
[copy]
Cyril Holland to Vyvyan Holland, April 15, 1915
Martin Holman to Robert Ross, December 3, 1900
Martin Holman to Robert Ross, December 4, 1900
C. 0. Humphreys, R. H. Humphreys and J. F. Ker
shaw, Solicitors, to Oscar Wilde, February 28,
1895
"Loeser Horne Thorold Mannering Geo Mellor" [tele
gram] December 1, 1908
Michael Lykiardopulos to Robert Ross, December 1,
1908 [telegram]
Harold Mellor to Robert Ross, December 13, 1908
Harold Mellor to Robert Ross, December 23, 1908
Max Meyerfeld to Robert Ross, December 1, 19 08
[telegram]
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
476
Agnes Nevill to Robert Ross, December 1, 1908
Robert Ross, "A Note on the Last Few Days of Oscar
Wilde's Life and the Circumstances of His Death."
Robert Ross, notebook containing Wilde accounts,
c. 1897
Robert Ross, notebook containing Wilde accounts,
1907
Robert Ross, notes concerning the Birkenruth-
Carew-Turner affair
Robert Ross, "Statement prepared for case of Ross
vs. Crosland, 1914."
Robert
[copy]
Ross to M. Léonce Bénedité, July 1913
Robert
July 6,
Ross
1897
to Hansell and Co., check dated
Robert
[copy]
Ross to Frank Harris;, December 19, 1913
Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, March 30, 1906
Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, April 23, 1906
Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, May 1, 190 6
Robert
1906
Ross to Christopher Millard, September 26,
Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, May 5, 1907
Robert
1907
Ross to Christopher Millard, December 27,
Robert
1913
Ross to Christopher Millard, September 6,
Robert
1913
Ross to Christopher Millard, September 15,
Robert
1913
Ross to Christopher Millard, September 20,
Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, April 19, 1914
Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, May 3, 1914
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
477
Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, March 9, 1915
Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, March 17, 1915
Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, May 22, 1916
Robert Ross, rough draft of a letter probably to
Christopher Millard, describing his trip to
Australia, fall 1918
Robert Ross to Constance Wilde, March 12, 189 5
Robert Ross to Constance Wilde, March 15, 189 5
Robert Sherard to A. J. A. Symonds, June 8, 193 7
Richard Strauss to Robert Ross, December 1, 190 8
[telegram]
A. J. A. Symons, note about Ross being punished
for reading Wilde's Poems
G. Herbert Thring to Robert Ross, September 6,
1910
Reginald Turner to Dr. Renier, March 22, 1933
Reginald Turner to A. J. A. Symons, August 26,
1935
Reginald Turner to A. J. A. Symons, September 4,
1935
Constance Wilde to Robert Ross, April 6, 1893
Constance Wilde to Robert Ross, April 16 , 1893
Constance Wilde to Robert Ross, May 13, 1893
Constance Wilde to Robert Ross, October 15, 1894
Constance Wilde to Robert Ross, January 29, 1895
Constance Wilde to Robert Ross, February 1, 1895
Constance Wilde to Robert Ross, June 1, 1896
Constance Wilde to Robert Ross, June 21, 1896
Wilde Collection
Program, seating chart, menu, and text of speech
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
478
of "Dinner to Mr. Robert Ross, December 1st, 1908"
Typed statement on the Wilde literary estate,
apparently drawn up for death duties some time in
1915, no indication of author
More Adey to Alfred Douglas, May 22, 1910 [draft]
Laurence Binyon to Robert Ross, January 20, 1914
"From the Shorthand Notes of Cherer and Co.," No
vember 24, 1930
Alfred Douglas to More Adey, August 25, 189 5
Alfred Douglas to More Adey, May 19, 1910
Alfred Douglas to Oscar Wilde, July 22, 1897
Frank Harris to Vyvyan Holland, March 1, 192 6
Frank Harris to Robert Ross, April 9, 1914
Frank Harris to Robert Ross, April 27, 1914
Frank Harris to Robert Ross, April 29, 1914
Frank Harris to Robert Ross, May 2, 1914
Cyril Holland to Robert Ross, December 1900
Martin Holman to Robert Ross, July 7, 1897
Martin Holman to Robert Ross, November 29, 1900
Martin Holman to Robert Ross, December 4, 1913
Martin Holman to Robert Ross, December 6, 1913
Sir Coleridge Kennard to Vyvyan Holland, Febru
ary 21, 1926
E. V. L. to Oscar Wilde, February 24, 1894
E. V. Lucas to Robert Ross, October 23 [1910]
E. V. Lucas to Robert Ross, December 14 [1910]
Michael Lykiardopulos to Robert Ross, April 28,
1914
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
479
A- M. S. Methuen to Robert Ross, December 14, 1910
A. M. S. Methuen to Robert Ross, January 7, 1911
Christopher Millard to Frank Harris, May 12, 1919
Thomas Bird Mosher to Christopher Millard, March
7, 1911
Thomas Bird Mosher to Christopher Millard, April
23, 1914
Thomas Bird Mosher to Christopher Millard, May 22,
1914
F. E. Murray to Robert Ross, July 30, 19 08
Robert Ross, unfinished, unpublished preface to
After Reading
Robert Ross to More Adey, July 15, 1895 [telegram]
Robert Ross to More Adey, July 25, 1895 [telegram]
Robert Ross to More Adey, August 14, 189 5
[telegram]
Robert Ross to More Adey, August 21, 1895 [tele
gram]
Robert Ross to More Adey, September 11, 1895
[telegram]
Robert Ross to John Clifford [January 4, 1896?
draft]
Robert Ross to Frank Harris, February 1, 1917
[copy]
Robert Ross to Martin Holman, April 1, 1912
[draft]
Robert Ross to Ada Leverson, November 18, 1912
Robert Ross to Ada Leverson, January 15, 1914
Robert Ross to E. V. Lucas [December 1910]
Robert Ross to A. M. S. Methuen, January 3 [1911]
Robert Ross to Methuen and Co., [December 1910]
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
480
Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, undated
Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, December 15,
1910
Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, May 5, 1914
Robert Ross to Christopher Millard, September 18,
1915
Robert Ross to William Morris [November 1896.
draft]
"Cowardice" [Robert Ross] to "Sir," editor of the
New Statesman, September 6, 1914 [draft]
Robert Ross to Reginald Turner, May [1914 [copy]
George Bernard Shaw to Robert Ross, September 10,
1916
George Bernard Shaw to Robert Ross, September 13,
1916
Alexander Teixeira de Mattos to Robert Ross, De
cember 7, 1913, enclosing copy of a letter to
Felix Bloch of December 11, 1913
George Wyndham to Alfred Douglas, April 24, 1913
[copy]
Brotherton Collection, Brotherton Library, University of
Leeds
Little calendar notebooks in which Edmund Gosse
noted his daily social engagements each year of
his life
Photocopy of "The Book of Gosse," which is at Cam
bridge
Robert Ross to Edmund Gosse, March 16, 1892, in
the copy of Melmoth
Robert Ross to Edmund Gosse, October 17 [19 09]
pasted in the copy of There Is No Decay
Robert Ross to Edmund Gosse, February 13, 1912
Robert Ross to Edmund Gosse, February 15, 1912
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
481
Robert Ross to Edmund Gosse, October 17, 1913
Robert Ross to Edmund Gosse, January 2, 1914
Robert Ross to Edmund Gosse, January 6, 1914
Robert Ross to Edmund Gosse, March 4, 1914
Robert Ross to Edmund Gosse, March 10, 1914
Robert Ross to Edmund Gosse, July 13, 1914
John Simon to H. H. Asquith, December 3, 1914, in
letter from Asquith to Edmund Gosse, December 4,
1914
Bodleian Library, Oxford
Ross Collection
Bodleian MS. Ross #4, "Letters to Walter Ledger
1902-1918," including:
Alfred Douglas to Walter Ledger, June 3, 1902
Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, June 10, 1902
Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, July 22, 1902
Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, December 28, 1902
Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, August 14, 19 04
Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, February 20, 1905
Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, December 19, 1905
Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, April 30, 1906
Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, May 1, 19 06
Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, May 6, 1906
Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, November 28, 1907
Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, January 23, 19 08
Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, April 1, 1908
Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, May 29, 19 08
Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, May 11, 19 09
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
482
Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, November 24, 1909
Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, April 29, 1911
Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, May 25, 1911
Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, June 12, 1911
Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, July 11, 1911
Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, July 27, 1911
Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, October 11, 1911
Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, November 11, 1911
Robert Ross to Walter Ledger, April 4, 1918
Bodleian Ross d.212, "Press Cuttings relating to
the cases of Oscar Wilde"
Bodleian Ross d.213, "Press Cuttings relating to
cases of Lord Alfred Douglas"
Walpole Manuscripts
More Adey to the Public Prosecutor, April 2, 1914
[draft]; Walpole d.l8 fol. 68
More Adey to Constance Wilde, July 30, 189 6
[draft]; Walpole d.l8 fol. 31-34
John Lane to Stephen Phillips, n.d.; Walpole c.3
fol. 28-29
Stephen Phillips to Robert Ross, July 19, 1915;
Walpole c.3 fol. 31
Photo of Robert Ross in Walpole d.l8 fol. 147
Leonard Smithers to Oscar Wilde, December 10,
1897; Walpole d.l8 fol. 12.
Papers in the possession of Giles Robertson
Several photographs of Robert Ross
List of corrections to Friend of Friends
Supposed menu for "The Reform Club, 18th February,
1908"
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
483
Scrapbook and loose clippings
Capt. W. E. Barber to Reggie Turner, October 6,
1918
Eliza Ross to Robert and Elizabeth Ross and
"Stewart," February 1, 1876
Eliza Ross to Robert Ross, May 25, 1881 [birthday
card]
Eliza Ross to Robert Ross, May 25, 188 2 [birthday
card]
Robert Ross, unpublished poetry
Robert
1879
Ross to Eliza. Ross , undated letter circa
Robert
spring
Ross
1882
to Eliza. Ross , undated letter circa
Robert
1882
Ross to Jack Ross, undated letter circa
Robert
1884?]
Ross to Jack Ross, November 6 [1883 or
Robert Ross to Jack Ross, August 14 [1885]
Robert Ross to Jack Ross, April 21, 1894
Robert Ross to Mary Ross Jones, October 9, 1879
Robert Ross to Mary Ross Jones, April 30, 1885
Robert Ross to Mary Ross Jones, November 16, 1885
Robert Ross
18, 1886]
to Mary Ross Jones, [circa November
Robert
1890]
Ross to Mary Ross Jones, [circa winter
Robert Ross to Mary Ross Jones, January 5, 1900
Robert Ross to Mary Ross Jones, December 12, 19 00
Robert Ross to Mary Ross Jones, December 23, 1900
Robert Ross to Mary Ross Jones [circa April 1905]
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
484
September 14, 1907
December 22, 1909
December 19, 1910
December 25, 1910
April 6, 1913
August 6, 1914
September 2, 1914
May 24, 1916
July 14, 1916
October 4, 1918
April 16, 1916
May 8, 1916
January 26, 1917
April 10, 1917
April 24, 1917
June 5, 1917
July 9, 1917
September 15, 1918
Several scrapbooks of clippings and loose clip
pings
Elizabeth Asquith to Robert Ross, July 12, 1914
Henry Asquith to Robert Ross, July 23, 1914 [tele
gram]
Margot Asquith to Robert Ross, "Sunday" [Decem
ber 1, 1912]
Margot Asquith to Robert Ross, May 10, 1914
Margot Asquith to Robert Ross, May 13, 1914
Robert Ross to Mary Ross Jones
Robert Ross to Mary Ross Jones
Robert Ross to Mary Ross Jones
Robert Ross to Mary Ross Jones
Robert Ross to Mary Ross Jones
Robert Ross to Mary Ross Jones
Robert Ross to Mary Ross Jones
Robert Ross to Mary Ross Jones
Robert Ross to Mary Ross Jones
Robert Ross to Mary Ross Jones
Robert Ross to Reginald Turner
Robert Ross to Reginald Turner
Robert Ross to Reginald Turner
Robert Ross to Reginald Turner
Robert Ross to Reginald Turner
Robert Ross to Reginald Turner
Robert Ross to Reginald Turner
Robert Ross to Reginald Turner
the possession of J, p. B. Rosi
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
485
Margot Asquith to Robert Ross, July 13, 1914
Violet Asquith to Robert Ross, April 20, 1913
H. Granville Barker to Robert Ross, July 9, 1914
Aubrey Beardsley to Robert Ross [December 189 3]
Aubrey Beardsley to Robert Ross, June 6, 189 6
Aubrey Beardsley to Robert Ross, June 11 [?] 1896
Mrs. Ellen Beardsley to Robert Ross, May 2, 1896
Mrs. Ellen Beardsley to Robert Ross, November 19
[1896]
Mrs. Ellen Beardsley to Robert Ross, December 2
[1896]
Mrs. Ellen Beardsley to Robert Ross, December 15
[1896]
Mrs. Ellen Beardsley to Robert Ross, January 24
[1897]
Mrs. Ellen Beardsley to Robert Ross, February 1
[1897]
Mrs. Ellen Beardsley to Robert Ross, April 22
[1897]
Mrs. Ellen Beardsley to Robert Ross, April 25,
1898
Mrs. Ellen Beardsley to Robert Ross, May 13, 1898
Mabel Beardsley to Robert Ross, December 14, 1894
Mabel Beardsley to Robert Ross, July 27, 1914
Constance Beerbohm to Robert Ross, July 8 [1917]
Max Beerbohm to Robert Ross, "Wednesday" [Decem
ber 1893?]
Max Beerbohm to Robert Ross, May 30, 189 9
Max Beerbohm to Robert Ross, "Thursday" [fall
1901]
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
486
Max Beerbohm to Robert Ross, 4 undated letters
circa spring 1904
Max Beerbohm to Robert Ross, April 12, 1913
Max Beerbohm to Robert Ross, September 21, 1915
Max Beerbohm to Robert Ross, June 10, 1916
Max Beerbohm to Robert Ross, June 23, 1916
Max Beerbohm to Robert Ross, March 14, 1918
Oscar Bie to Robert Ross, December 1, 1908 [tele
gram]
Laurence Binyon to Robert Ross, January 22, 1914
Gerard Chowne to Robert Ross, July 9, 1914
Arthur Clifton to Alex Ross, October 12, 1918
Mrs. Arthur Clifton to Margery Ross, August 26,
1949
Mrs. W. K. Clifton to Robert Ross, November 2
[1909]
Charles Conder to Robert Ross [December 1905?]
Duchess of Connaught, to Robert Ross, September 5,
1911
Duchess of Connaught, to Robert Ross, November 2,
1911
Duchess of Connaught, to Robert Ross, November
24, 1911
Martin Conway to Robert Ross, July 17, 1914
Henry Cox to Robert Ross, July 17, 1914
Robert de la Condamine to Robert Ross, undated
Robert de la Condamine to Robert Ross, August 28,
1909
Robert de la Condamine to Robert Ross, Decem
ber 29, 1909
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
487
Robert de la Condamine to Robert Ross, August 28,
1910
John Fothergill to Margery Ross, August 16, 1949
Lady Glenconeer to Robert Ross, November 1912
[printed invitation]
Edmund Gosse to Robert Ross, September 29, 1894
Edmund Gosse to Robert Ross, January 8, 1902
Edmund Gosse to Robert Ross, August 6, 1909
Edmund Gosse to Robert Ross, December 5, 1910
Edmund Gosse to Robert Ross, July 29, 1912
Edmund Gosse to Robert Ross, January 4, 1914
Edmund Gosse to Robert Ross, June 4, 1914
Edmund Gosse to Robert Ross, July 7, 1914
Edmund Gosse to Robert Ross, December 4, 1917
Edmund Gosse to Robert Ross [December 10, 1917]
Edmund Gosse to Robert Ross [December 11, 1917]
Edmund Gosse to Robert Ross, undated
James Greig to Robert Ross, March 4, 1912
H. A. Gwynne to Robert Ross, February 14, 1912
H. A. Gwynne to Robert Ross, February 16, 1912
H. A. Gwynne to Robert Ross, March 5, 1912
H. Rider Haggard to Robert Ross, December 18, 189 8
Frank Harris to Robert Ross, May 10 [1914]
Frank Harris to Robert Ross, May 21, 1914
P. A. Hendriks to Margery Ross, April 26, 1951
Maurice Hewlett to Robert Ross, October 13, 1903
C. J. Holmes, August 21, 1912, recommending Ross
for art position
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
488
C. J. Holmes to Robert Ross, May 21, 1911
C. J. Holmes to Robert Ross, February 23, 1912
C. J. Holmes to Robert Ross, February 26, 1912
C. J. Holmes to Robert Ross, February 13, 1914
C. J. Holmes to Robert Ross, July 14, 1914
Sir Charles Holroyd, August 22, 1912, recommending
Ross for art position
Sir Charles Holroyd to Robert Ross, August 23,
1912
Herbert Home to Robert Ross, October 3, 1906
Mary Jane Jones, "Memories of My Youth and a
Sketch of the Family History of the Ross-Baldwin
Families, by Their Descendant," unpublished manu
script with "Family Register" in the back of the
copy
William B. C. Jones, deed poll in 1918 legally
changing his name to William Ross
John Maynard Keynes to Robert Ross, July 9, 1914
Sir George Lewis to Alex Ross, receipts dated in
1914
Wyndham Lewis to Robert Ross, 6 undated letters
Lady Lovelace to Robert Ross, July 13, 1914
E. V. Lucas to Robert Ross, July 7, 1914
E. V. Lucas to Robert Ross, April 4 [1916]
D. S. MacColl to Robert Ross, July 7, 1914
D. S. MacColl to Robert Ross, July 15, 1914
D. S. MacColl to Robert Ross, July 20, 1914
D. S. MacColl to Robert Ross, July 23, 1914
Edward Marsh to Robert Ross, July 6, 1914
Edward Marsh to Robert Ross, March 5, 1916
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
489
Edward Marsh to Robert Ross, March 12, 1916
Sir Roderick Meiklejohn to Robert Ross, July 7,
1914
George Moore to Robert Ross, undated letters
George Moore to Robert Ross, January 25, 1917
George Moore to Robert Ross, February 28 [1917]
George Moore to Robert Ross, March 5, 1917
George Moore to Robert Ross, June 11 [no year]
George Moore to Robert Ross, "Thursday"
George Moore to Robert Ross, "Wednesday"
T. Sturge Moore to Robert Ross, January 17, 1911
T. Sturge Moore to Robert Ross, September 27, 1911
T. Sturge Moore to Robert Ross, January 25, 1912
T. Sturge Moore to Robert Ross, August 26, 1912
T. Sturge Moore to Robert Ross, July 7, 1914
Philip Morrell to Robert Ross, May 22, 1916
Sir Matthew Nathan to Robert Ross, July 8 [1914]
Lord William Nevill to Robert Ross, "Tuesday"
[April 5, 1907]
Lord William Nevill to Robert Ross, February 13,
1908
Robert Nichols to "The Executors," December 5,
1918
William Nicholson to Robert Ross, July 7, 1914
Hesketh Pearson to Robert Ross, September 16, 1918
Elizabeth Pennell to Robert Ross, February 26,
1905
Arthur Ponsonby to Robert Ross, January 3, 1906
Arthur Ponsonby to Robert Ross, January 24, 1906
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
490
Arthur Ponsonby to Robert Ross, January 25, 1906
G. W. Prothero to Robert Ross, July 7, 1914
Odilon Redon to Robert Ross, July 22, 1891
"Reform Club, 18th February, 19 08," supposed menu
Max Reinhardt to Robert Ross, December 1, 1908
[telegram]
W. B. Richmond to Robert Ross, May 30, 1914
Charles Ricketts to Robert Ross, undated
Charles Ricketts to Robert Ross, March 23, 1903
Charles Ricketts to Robert Ross, July 7, 1914
Charles Ricketts to Robert Ross [July 16, 1914]
Charles Ricketts to Robert Ross [September 1914]
Charles Ricketts to Robert Ross [fall 1914]
Charles Ricketts to Robert Ross [3 letters c.
April 5-10, 1916]
Charles Ricketts to Robert Ross, May 10, 1916
Charles Ricketts to Robert Ross, May 15, 1916
Charles Ricketts to Robert Ross [circa March 15,
1918]
William Roberts to Robert Ross, undated
Margery Ross, "A Last Reunion," unpublished manu
script
Robert Ross, comp. A scrapbook on World War I.
Robert Ross, will dated October 3, 1914
Robert Ross to Margot Asquith, November 30, 1912
[copy]
Robert Ross to Max Beerbohm, October 20, 1895
Robert Ross to Frank Harris, March 4, 1915 [copy]
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
491
Robert Ross to Martin Holman, November 17, 1912
[copy]
Robert Ross to Sir George Lewis, November 17, 1912
[copy]
Robert Ross to Sir George Lewis, December 10, 1913
[copy]
Robert Ross to A. Methuen, December 11, 1913
[copy]
Robert Ross to Sir Matthew Nathan, July 6, 1914
[copy]
Robert Ross to Sir Matthew Nathan, July 8, 1914
[copy]
Robert Ross to A. W. Soward, Esq. [draft]
July 8, 1914
William Rothenstein to Robert Ross, March 6, 1900
William Rothenstein to Robert Ross, May 15, 1901
William Rothenstein to Robert Ross, August 30,
1901
William Rothenstein to Robert Ross [summer 1901]
Albert Rutherston to Robert Ross, July 8, 1914
Michael Sadler to Robert Ross, January 31, 1911
Michael Sadler to Robert Ross, February 2, 1911
Siegfried Sassoon to Robert Ross, undated letters
Siegfried Sassoon to Robert Ross, July 9, 1916
Siegfried Sassoon to Robert Ross, August 17 [1917]
Randolph Schwabe to Robert Ross, September 9, 1918
C. H. Shannon to Robert Ross, November 19, 1901
George Bernard Shaw to Robert Ross, June 12, 19 04
Edith Sitwell to Robert Ross, "Saturday"
Cecil Smith to Robert Ross, August 14, 1901
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
492
H. Clifford Smith to Alex Ross, October 7, 1918
F. E. Smith to Robert Ross [July 1914]
J. A. Spender to Robert Ross, February 19, 1912
C. J. S. Sprigge to Margery Ross, October 29, 19 50
Ethel Jones Sprigge to Margery Ross, May 27, 1949
Ethel Jones Sprigge to Margery Ross, July 12, 1949
Ethel' Jones Sprigge to Margery Ross, December 16,
1949
Count Eric Stenbock, poem about "Mabel with her
Thursday teas"
Ralph Straus to Robert Ross, April 7, 1915
George Street to Robert Ross, November 24, 1894
George Street to Robert Ross, December 10, 1894
George Street to Robert Ross, June 3, 1903
George Street to Robert Ross, June 24, 1903
Henry Tonks to Robert Ross, September 9, 1912
Henry Tonks to Robert Ross, September 12, 1912
Henry Tonks to Robert Ross, July 16, 1914
Herbert Beerbohm Tree to Robert Ross, March 21,
1914
Maud Tree to Robert Ross, July 21 [1917]
Viola Tree to Robert Ross, undated
Frederick Treves to Alex Ross, June 23, 1896
H. G. Wells to Robert Ross, undated (several)
H. G. Wells to Robert Ross, July 5, 1914
H. G. Wells to Robert Ross, July 7, 1914
Ernest Wild to Robert Ross, July 9, 1914
Dr. G. W. Williamson to Robert Ross, July 16, 1914
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
493
Robert C. Witt, "Post of the Morning, rich and
able" [printed poem]
Robert C. Witt to Robert Ross, July 8, 1914
Hagbert Wright to Robert Ross, July 6, 1914
Alfred Yockney, typed sheet of information about
the activities of Ross in behalf of war artists
and at the Ministry of Information
Library, University of Texas
"Memorandum prepared by the solicitors of Mr. Rob
ert Ross as the Administrator of the Estate and
Effects of the late Mr. Oscar Wilde for Valuation
of his Literary and Dramatic Estate" [1914],
typescript
Robert Ross to Frank Harris, September 6, 1913
Robert Ross to Frank Harris, April 29, 1914
Robert Ross to Frank Harris, May 17, 1914
Robert Ross to Frank Harris, July 6, 1914
Robert Ross to Frank Harris, July 8, 1914
Robert Ross to Frank Harris, February 1, 1917
Robert Ross to Henry Tonks, September 11, 1912
Interviews
Sir Rupert Hart-Davis, Marske, Yorkshire, May 19 56.
Vyvyan Holland, London, June, 1966.
James Robertson, Cambridge, May 1966.
J. P. B. Ross, Thieux, par Mitry, Seine et Marne, and Lon
don, August 1966.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

Asset Metadata

Creator Bogle, Edra Charlotte (author)

Core Title The life and literary and artistic activities of Robert Baldwin Ross, 1869-1918

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Language and Literature, modern

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Literature, Modern,oai:digitallibrary.usc.edu:usctheses,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c17-188982

Unique identifier UC11351239

Identifier 6916542.pdf (filename),usctheses-c17-188982 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 6916542.pdf

Dmrecord 188982

Document Type Dissertation

Rights BOGLE, EDRA CHARLOTTE

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA