The novelist Hall Caine (Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine 1853-1931) met Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1880 and became his secretary for the last couple of years of the poet/artist's life. Rossetti had become almost a recluse in his house which is now 16 Cheyne Walk. Thea Holme in her book 'Chelsea' quotes Caine's recollections of getting Rossetti to take an evening walk on a number of occasions including: 'I seem to remember that on one of our walks along the embankment late at night we passed in the half-darkness two figures which bore a certain resemblance to our own - an old man in a Scotch plaid, accompanied by a slight young woman in a sort of dolman. The old man was forging along sturdily with the help of a stick, and the young woman appeared to be making some effort to keep pace with him. It was Carlyle with his niece, and I caught one glimpse of them as, out on the same errand as ourselves, they went off in the other direction.' Thomas Carlyle, historian and philosopher, died 04/02/1881 and Rossetti 09/04/1882. It may be useful to emphasise that Caine was a novelist but the incident has some resonance with other shades passing along the pavements at the side of this quite new road. This couldn't be far from the point painted by Turner in a picture which was embellished by Whistler. Between the picture being accepted for the Summer Exhibition and its being varnished, Whistler applied the cut-out figure of a dog with its front paws on the parapet to get a better view of J.M.W's magnificent sunset.

O/S Co-ords:2750.7766
Source(s):

Chambers Biographical Dictionary

Chelsea