On Vacation with H. H. Richardson: Ten Letters from Europe, 1882

The Smithsonian Institution

On Vacation with H. H. Richardson: Ten Letters from Europe, 1882Author(s): James F. O'Gorman and H. H. RichardsonSource: Archives of American Art Journal, Vol. 19, No. 1 (1979), pp. 2-14Published by: The Smithsonian InstitutionStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1557420 .

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2

On Vacation With

H. H. Richardson:

Ten Letters From

Europe, 1882

Edited by James F. O'Gorman

To the memory of Joseph Priestley Richardson (1913-1979).

H. H. Richardson's "lightening" (his ad- jective) trip to London, Paris, southern France, northern Italy, and northern Spain in the summer of 1882 is known from Mrs. Van Rensselaer's Chapter V, based upon the account given her by Richardson's traveling companion, Her- bert Jaques. In addition, Mrs. Van Rens- selaer quoted briefly from the architect's own letters home.' The ferret may also have found the supplementary information contained in Phillips Brooks's Let- ters of Travel.2

The letters quoted more or less ac- curately by Mrs. Van Rensselaer are ten running chronicles penciled in haste and sent en route to Mrs. Richardson, the former Julia Hayden. They have de- scended with the papers of Richardson's firm, the present Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson and Abbott of Boston, and since 1975 have been officially on deposit at the Department of Printing and Graphic Arts of the Harvard College Li- brary. Although they are also available on microfilm at the Archives of Ameri- can Art, they are here published extensively for the first time."

I have in the following excerptions occasionally regularized punctuation, but I have not-sought, as did Mrs. Van Rensselaer following the conventions of her day, to smooth out the traveler's quick jottings or avoid unpleasant personal references. What I have omitted is repetitious or too trivial to deserve printing.

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H. H. Richardson in Paris in the 60's. Henry Hobson Richardson Papers, Archives of Amer- ican Art.

There is another source of information about the trip in the photographs from Richardson's office preserved in the Loeb Library of the Harvard Graduate School of Design.4 This collection de- serves more attention that can be voted to it here, but a couple of observa- tions are in order. Hitchcock has already noted that it contains much material il- lustrative of styles other than the ex- pected Romanesque-. The structures represented range widely from the vari- eties of Gothic to the Renaissance, Ba- roque, Moorish, Oriental, Egyptian, Mexican, and Pre-Historic. The common denominator is the basic material of the works photographed. The selection pow- erfully demonstrates the architect's interest in the best of stone building of all times and places. It is obvious that some of these images were gathered at other times, but much was acquired during the summer of 1882. The letters are filled with references to them; they in turn re- flect the buildings Richardson comments upon. Some of my illustrations are se- lected from this photographic collection.

The historian with narrow architectural interests may find these letters more tantalizing than informative, but he should remember that they are impressions meant primarily for the architect's family, for Julia and the "babies," not for the professional. We should not ask too much of them; we are given more than we might hope. These are the personal reflections of a family man about his precarious health and the trivia of travel. People and costumes occupy

much space; so do the weather, a new body servant, shopping for himself and his clients, a gondola ride in Venice, a bull (or, as he insists, cow) fight in Barce- lona, and casual meetings with other travelers, including one in which his pride at descending from Joseph Priest- ley wells forth. He shows the traveler's obsession with precise time.

In these letters we find Richardson the man in his human dimension, sur- rounded by his ample friends from Bos- ton, New York, London, and the Conti- nent. Ample indeed! The trio of Richard- son, -Brooks, and McVickar would have made the "front four" of the New Eng- land Patriots football team look puny. They averaged better than 300 pounds apiece (as we learn here from the architect himself); McVickar stood six and a half feet tall. We have known this from other sources too. But Richardson's circle was impressive in other ways as well. His London contacts included the Queen's physicians and America's famed poet-diplomat, James Russell Lowell. We can now share with Richardson his thrill at being called "our most original Archi- tect" by the poet. In his own realm he was warmly received at the top, by William Morris, William De Morgan, Ed- ward Bume-Jones, and others. Few Amer- ican architects of the 1880s could enjoy such a reception in London.

Still, there is much here for the architectural historian. Those who like to quote Richardson's reputed desire to design a steamboat might be surprised to find him so apparently unresponsive to the marvels of a new, steel-hulled, and incandescently lighted Cunarder. His remarks (and those of Phillips Brooks) dwell upon the Servia's record-setting capacity to absorb first-class passengers. And the food!

London meant shopping, and the study of contemporary architecture too. We do not learn from these letters what he saw of his colleagues' buildings in Paris, but in London he viewed and com- mented upon works by his friend Spiers, by Shaw and Godwin, and by Burges, long recognized as an architect of special interest to Richardson. The reaction to Burges's own house we have here in the architect's own words is kinder than what we have been led to believe from Jaques's remarks quoted by Mrs. Van Rensselaer. Richardson collected on this trip photographs of the work of his Eng- lish peers.

Paris he knew; it did not detain him. He hurried into the South where, as we have known, St. Gilles and St. Trophime excited him. His remark about the different effect of St. Gilles in photographs and in fact seems to confirm that he had not visited this area during his student days. He does not in the fragment of the letter preserved mention the Pont du

James O'Gorman is the Grace Slack McNeil Professor of American Art at Wellesley Col- lege. He has recently become a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Archives of American Art Journal.



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Fig. 1. The Cunarder Servia. Courtesy of the Peabody Museum of Salem, Massachusetts.

Gard, but he certainly saw it. A fine photograph of the monument is found in his collection. This image merged with the Florentine palazzi he was to visit on this trip and other sources in his cul- minating design three years later for the Marshall Field Wholesale Store in Chicago.6

For Italy we have just one short letter delighting in Venice, and must rely upon Jaques, Brooks, and the photographs to fill in the gaps. From these sources we learn that he also visited Genoa, Leghorn, Pisa, Florence, Siena, Orvieto (but not Rome), Bologna, Ra- venna, Padua, Chioggia, Verona, and Milan.

For Spain on the other hand, the record is intact (four of the ten letters originate there), and it is there that we find him continuing the hot pace he be- gan in France. Richardson's speed of travel required him to buy photographs rather than sketch (does this qualify him as the honorary founder of the "click-

and-run" crowd?), but it seems surprising that when he did pause to make a graphic architectural notation it was the small scale, fussy brickwork of Zaragoza Cathedral that arrested him. At Le6n the new work on the old cathedral caused this builder to wish for more time; in Madrid it was the Prado that engaged this collaborator of La Farge, St. Gaudens, and Bartholdi. We have too his (predict- able) reaction to the rococo.

Spain seems to have offered Rich- ardson more inspirational material at this phase of his career than the other countries he visited. As Jaques remarked, the cathedral at Avila was to be reflected in his project of the next months (but mentioned already in these letters) for the Albany Cathedral. And he found in the gargantuan voussoirs of Avila and Zaragoza a new dimension in monu- mental stonework that he was to deem appropriate for the Pittsburgh public buildings.

By the summer of 1882 Richardson had developed into a major American architect with a body of mature work to his credit which clearly established the independence and freshness of his style. This trip permitted him the opportunity to take stock of his accomplishments, to measure them against past and contemporary work, and to recharge his creative faculty by direct contact with the lithic traditions he aspired to adapt to the New World. Through direct observation and by collecting and studying photographs, Richardson prepared himself for the great works of his final four years. This vacation was of immense personal and professional importance.

In these artless accounts of that vacation we come closer to Richardson as an architect, but more importantly, we move closer to him as a husband, father, companion, and mortal. Richardson as a total being emerges clearly from the following pages.



4

1. Ocean Voyage

On Board the Steam Ship Servia7 [fig.1] Thursday - June 22 - 1882 - 2.30 P.M.

My own dear Julia - . Everything is favorable-awn-

ings are stretched over the decks. Men & women are sitting about in their sea chairs, and the only thing that would make it more comfortable would be just "blow" enough to send all the women ? & most of the men to their cabins. The crowd is terrible -nearly if not quite 500 -five hundred first class passengers. Our party has settled itself down to seven of us -Dr. Brooks, Mr. McVickars [sic] of Phila., Mr. Trask (a friend of Mr. Olmsted & brother in law to John C. Ropes), John Ropes, Rev. Mr. Franks, Mr. Jaques & myself.8 We have coffee at 6.30 A.M., breakfast from 8 to 10, lunch 1 to 2, dinner 5 to 7 & supper from 9 to 10 o'clock after which nothing can be served from the galley. ... I was up at or before 6 this morning & have done nothing that I can note but eat since ex- cepting being introduced to a Mr. Biddle of Phila. who has been traveling in Spain lately & gave me some hints about the ways &c which may be very useful to me.9. . .. It seems impossible to read & one only waits for a meal & when that is over longs for the next.... Friday- June 23. Weather continues fine. ... Rose at 7 breakfasted at 8. Long talk with Mr. Biddle of Phila. about construc- tion of libraries. ... Saturday - June 24-3.15 P.M. Weather still fine.

.... Mr. Brooks, McVickar &

Franks came to my stateroom & looked over photographs.... Monday June 26-about 5 P.M .... I am perfectly well eating 5 meals a day & sleeping splendidly. . .. Mr. Brooks & others talk of going to Auvergne & Spain with me. Tuesday-June 27-about 3 P.M. ... So far our party is most interesting & we have had very pleasant discussion & talks. John Ropes an invaluable man for a sea voyage with his active brain & easy tongue. Major Branett . . . is a pleasant man & a McCleman[d] man & it is amusing to hear the war talk between him & Johnm.1o Our trip to Au- vergne & Spain with Mr. Brooks, Mc- Vickar & Franks seems now a settled thing. They will go to Belgium for 10 or 15 days while Mr. Jaques & I are in Britain & join us in the southern part of France. I think of you of your care of me & miss you terribly. My truss so far has worked well, and given me no trouble.11 ... The ship is superb but too crowded 543 first class passengers the largest number that ever crossed in one ship. The life is frightfully lazy all one does or can do is to eat & sleep. As McVickar

says we will be built up by the time we reach Liverpool our combined weight (Mr. Brooks, McVickar & myself) being now 912 pounds.12 Our plan now is to go as I said to Auvergne & through southern France together thence into Spain (Bur- gos, Leon, Santiago, Salamanca &c[)] to Madrid thence to Cordova, Granada, Se- ville, Cadiz take the steamer to Gibalter & sail along the beautiful eastern coast of Spain for Genoa on our way to Ven- ice.13 It will be pleasant & instructive to travel with non professional men & such intelligent men and compare in the evenings our different impressions received during the day, & I wouldn't change a man in our party but would like to add Charles Sargent & Fred Ames.14 ... Remember me most affectionately to Mr. Andrews & Mr. Warren & Mr. Rutan & kindly to the others.15 I want a helio- type taken of the drawing of the perspec- tive of great west stairway of the new Capital & printed from Gelatine & have 6 copies sent to me to London. Also the photograph of the drawing of Town Hall Springfield.16 . .. Goodbye darling I love you dearly. Kiss all the Babies & recollect to write often. .... Give my love to Mr. & Mrs. Sargent.... Wednesday June 28th 10.30 A.M.17.. Have been remarkably well during the voyage & can see no bad effects of the trip.... Love to all. Yours Hal.

2. London

Monday July 3-11 P.M. Mr. Brooks, McVickars & Frank [sic]have just left my room. They arrived in London tonight. I think I told you in the note I mailed this morning18 that Sir James Paget 19 had called & how nice he had ... been. After he left me I called on James Russell Lowell20 who was very kind to me.... He gave me two such charming letters that I must copy them as models. The first is to Mr. D. I. Reed who was with Mr. Lowell during his whole stay in Madrid as our Minister & is now the Chief Secretary of the Legation at Ma- drid. It is thus . . . Dear Reed be as kind as you can to Mr. Richardson for my sake .... (sig) J. R. Lowell. The other is to a Spanish lady of rank one of the bright- est women in Madrid & I believe quite a remarkable person. It is as follow[s]- (Her name as well as I can read the address is-Dona Emilia Gayangos de Riafio- )

Dear Dona Emilia, You know I never send any-

body to you that I do not particularly value. Therefore I send my friend Mr. Richardson our most original Archi-

tect. All I wish him to see in Spain is Dona Emilia.

Yours always faithfully (sig) J. R. Lowell 21

Aren't they lovely. I have just rec'd a note from Sir William Gull22 fixing 10 o'clock for me to see him tomorrow morning. I will breakfast at 11, be ready for the truss maker who is to come at 1 & at 2 ...23

3. London

Friday - July 7 - 1882 - Midnight These jottings are explained on page 3

Just returned from Spiers-24

Truss maker came in morning-

Spiers lunched with me-at 1 P.M. Went to Merton Abbey (Morris & Co.) 25 Ludgate Hill Station at 2.55 .. Today-Visited Heating & Ventilating

apparatus of Houses of Parliament - 26 To Pooles tailor27 Shopping- Dined at Bristol 28 to Spiers at 8.30 & just back- Saturday July 8, 1882. 10 P.M.- Truss maker will not be ready until Mon- day to try on. Given up spring & came back to my old arrangement. Saw Sir Wm. Gull at about 11 A.M. Examined my heart. Sound. Is not sure about Brights disease.29 Gave something to diminish thirst (Iron I think with lemon). To call again Wednesday, -next. To Baring Bros.30 then to Bradley I. Batsford 52 High Holbom London W.C. & looked over quite a number of books. Costly. We lunched at the "Criterion"31 then to Cording 125 Regent Street to buy water- proof overcoat- & other things. This morning engaged Henry Hiscock as my body servant to come on Monday next July 10.... Sunday- 9 July- 1882 . . We started to see William Morris Kelmscott House Upper Mall, Hammer- smith. Mr. Morris rec'd us very cordially & showed us upstair[s] into a large room about 35 [feet] long hung with his blue bird tapestry & about 18 feet wide. I can't describe Mrs. Morris. Pre-Rapha- elite to a degree.32 Dined at Claridges with Mr. Jaques. In evening Sam Ham- mond & Dwight called.33 Good time. Sam to get permit to visit Holland House.34 I was more than pleased with Morris his straight forward manner &c. Monday- July 10-1882- Took Hiscock to get him a coat to travel

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To Pooles-about my clothes. To Claridges breakfasted about 11.30 Spiers came at 4 before 12.



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Fig. 2. A detached house, Bedford Park Estate. HHR photo collection, Harvard Graduate School of Design.

We drove to Marks where I found Morris looking at the Persian rug he was very enthusiastic about it & promised to write me about it.35 Thence to book store about architectural books. I thought of buying them now but on the whole will postpone it until I come back. After driving about the newly built part of London seeing "The White House" where Whistler used to live0 &c &c & going through Sir Robert Collier's house by Spiersa7 we drove to Bedford Park [fig. 2] passing by Lowther Lodge & stopped at the "Tabard" inn & had some tea & bread & butter.38 Back to Burne- Jones." Home to dinner . . . My man Hiscock I think will turn out very useful He certainly is very willing so far. I am going to have my monogram with a ser- pent biting its own tail cut on the big seal something like this [sketch4]. Went to the Royal Institute of British Archi- tect[s] & looked over their collection of Books &c. Later say about 4 o'clock I went to 36 Cheyne Row to see William De Morgan41 & his tiles, plates &c. You know that handsome red jar I bought for Oly Ames42 well that is the work & De Morgan is the maker also those fine deep blue tiles in my study on your left as you come in from the Parlour. Some of his work is astounding. We drove home

through the Park & I found a letter from Bishop Doane about his new Cathedral in Albany-offering me $1000 to complete my drawings to be ready about the 15 of January-next.43 ... I go to Paris Thursday morning to meet our Spanish party & start for the South of France Friday. Tomorrow I am going to an Eng- lish party at R. Phene Spiers 31 Bernard St., Russell Square. I ought to tell you about Mrs. Morris & the Misses Morris. Mrs. Morris was dressed (this was last Sunday) in crushed, cranberry-color'd silk, Baby waist, full puffed sleeves & green necklace. No! I'd rather wait till I come home & tell you the whole thing it was surprising. I have a price for the window for Mrs. Dr. Amory & the subject will be two angel[s] one on each side one Humility & the other Justice.44... I am to see Sir William Gull again tomorrow morning. Did I tell you of my first visit to him on Saturday. He made another careful examination of my heart & said it was remarkably sound. He has prescribed as my drink claret, lemon juice, & warm water-no sugar.45 I take no sugar in my tea or coffee. I eat regularly & Mr. Jaques says he never saw me looking in such good condition ... I am a little annoyed about Bishop Doane having written me about his Cathedral as I can't

help thinking about it but I won't let it worry me.... Mr. James Russell Lowell sent for the photographs of my works & has just returned them to me with a charming note in wh[ich] he says that he did not know that they owed Brattle Sq. tower to me. It is wonderful how that tower seems to have won its way. .... Where will Hiscock sleep when he comes home. In the barn? probably. I do hope he will turn out all right for it will be a great comfort to me. ... This seems like old times writing to you long letters & I don't feel as old as I did then."... Wednesday July 12. Midnight. My man Hiscock has just been & told me that I am all packed for Paris. I have just returned from Spiers where he has had a curious evening party such funny cus- toms & doings I haven't time to write about them [but] will tell you all when I see you. This morning I called for last consultation with Sir William Gull before leaving for Paris & found out at last why he has been making such careful examination of ... my heart. After his usual very careful examination of my heart this morning he told me abruptly that my trouble did not proceed from the heart. He said you have a good heart & bad cases, cases that cannot be treated of Bright's disease, start from the heart. Yours he said is from the other side & to do more with your digestion & can be treated. He then preached prudence & care & regularity of living. He says I must be careful. He said that there.was large quantities of Albumin in my urine but was not always there showing that it depended on the digestion. He said that my Kidneys were not altogether unfaith- ful servants for [although] they did those things which they ought not to do (that is throw off quantities of Albumin) they did not leave undone those things which they ought to do that is performing their proper function & leaving the urine of its proper weight which they the doctors seem to give great weight to. He says I must be very careful & I am trying to although Claret, lemon juice & warm water is not very palatable.47 ... In the afternoon ... I called on Mr. Pullan, Mr. Burgess [sic] brother in Law who showed me all over Burgess's house. Very interesting."8 I was surprised at some things, but greatly pleased on the whole. Every- body has been very polite to me. Marks the bric a brac man called about seven o'clock & showed me a rug he had sold to a Mr. Salting.49 Came home dined about 8 o'clock & went to Spiers until 11 o'clock. .. . The climate here is terrible. People wear furs in the street walking. It has rained every day I have been here that is since a week ago from last Satur- day-almost two weeks. That's why Englishmen always carry an umbrella.

S. . My man Hiscock still continues good, & very useful. I don't know where



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Fig. 3. Clermont-Ferrand, Notre-Dame-du-Port. HHR photo collection, Harvard Graduate School of Design.

a thing of mine is now. Don't expect such a consecutive epistle when I start travelling but I will do the best I can, but with Brooks & McVickar to be continually talking & occupying the same parlour I will find I imagine little time to write. ... Good night darling. ... Kiss the children. ....

Your loving Hal. I haven't said anything about the Egyptian War the papers here is [sic] full of it.50 Goodbye.

4. France

Paris - Hotel de L'Empire - Rue Dounau Ancienne Rue Neuve St Augustin- Friday-July 14 1882--51

My dear here I am alone the other[s] having just gone out to see the illumina- tions & sights as today is the great Na- tional fete day and all Paris is ablaze. .... Yesterday evening Mr. Jaques & I left London & arrived in Paris at 8 o'clock in the evening. ... Paris seemed as gay as ever & I felt quite at home although there are great changes. This morning I had coffee in bed about 8.30 (I forgot to say we found the rest of our party, Brooks, McVickar & Franks here waiting for us). . . . We propose starting for

Chartres tomorrow morning at 10.25 & then going to Le Mans thence to Bourges & then to Clermont-& through the Auvergne country Issoire, Brioude &c &c-reaching Bayonne where I hope to find letters waiting me. ... Hiscock my man is very useful & I don't see how I c[oulkd have got along without him. ... There is no use in my trying to write regular letters & this sort of thing in pencil is all you must expect & even that when we get travelling fast may be diffi- cult. I really have not yet begun sight seeing as in London I was very busy & did not attempt it & here I know my Paris & am too tired to go out. Give my love to Charles Sargent & Mrs. Sargent. Goodnight dear. I think of you constantly. ... It is now Sunday July 16 & we are at Le Mans a town west of Chartres.... I went to bed Friday night before the rest returned from their walk & sight seeing. The men & women danced all night in the street in front of our Hotel. We started from Paris at 12.50 for Chartres. Before starting I took Mc- Vickar & Jaques to St. Germain des Pres & then I went to Charriere & got two pair of elastic stockings merely as a pre- caution. We arrived at Chartres about 3.15 (Saturday). Saw the Cathedral &

town & started for Le Mans at 10 last night ... This morning we visited the Cathedral, & two churches all very interesting but I cannot begin to describe them by letter. .... We start tomorrow at 7.05 for Clermont-Ferrand.... Nimes- Sunday- July- 23. 1882 52

I must go back to when we were in Clermont-Ferrand which I think was last Sunday. No we passed Sunday in Le Mans & left early Monday morning for Clermont-Ferrand arriving ... about 10 o'clock Monday nght .... [We] started out early Tuesday to see the great church Notre Dame du Port [fig. 3].s All this & the quaintness of the town I must hurry through ... In the evening we drove to Royat a French watering place-hot springs-where we dined & had a pleasant evening. We left Clermont Ferrand on Wednesday ... and reached Issoire ... and saw the church of which I have a large photograph.54 We drove to St. Nec- taire where we spent the night & saw the church [fig. 4],55 returning to Issoire Thursday. We left again for Brioude arriving that Thursday night spent the night saw the church & started ... for Nimes, arriving here Friday ... today we have been visiting the sights & buildings - the old Amphitheater & Maison Carre [sic] Roman baths &c are all very very interesting, but the weather has been in- tense ... I don't think I ought to go into Spain unless I remain in the north ... It will be a great disappointment to me but I think I will have to give it up & try Spain some other time.... Genoa-Italy- Sunday-6 July 30th about 11 o'clock in the morning. . . . we have been traveling so rapidly that evenings-the only time I have for writing-I am so tired that I have felt the need of all the rest I could get to prepare for labor of sight seeing the following day. Where was I when I wrote last-at Nimes last Sunday wasn't it? Yes that lovely old town crowded ... 57 [We] started from Avi- gnon for Arles at about 8 o'clock in the morning arriving at Arles at about 10 ... Saint Trophimes [sic] is by far the most interesting portal we saw & the cloister was charming full of the nicest feeling with two sides round arched & two pointed, coupled columns & the whole most delightful. The women wear a most beautiful costume & are noted for their beauty. In the afternoon . . . we drove to St Gilles a place noted only for its or the remains of its most superb abbey church of St Gilles. It is glorious & the ruins of the apse impressed me more than anything I have seen & I don't for- get the magnificent west entrance which for so many years has been my great admiration & to think that I have seen it & felt its influence so differently than one does from a photograph. Tell Sargent that I feel as if I were being mentally &



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Fig. 4. St. Nectaire. HHR photo collection, Harvard Graduate School of Design.

sentimentally stuffed with pate-de-foie- gras. I expect to have an artistic indi- gestion the rest of my life unless he shakes it down a little for me when I get back. I must not indulge in nonsense if I expect to catch up with my writing. Where was I. At St. Gilles. .

5. Venice [fig. 5]

Venice. Aug. 12 We left Florence Mon- day Aug 7th early for Bologna reaching Bologna about 10 AM. .... saw the sights as rapidly as we could & proceeded to Ravenna the following morning ... But before going further let me say that I am now in Venice & am writing in a Gon- dola [fig. 6] on my return from Torcello & Burano. It is now Saturday . . We started in our Gondolas this morning... and are now on our way back & fortu- nately I put my writing materials aboard ... It does seem impossible to take my time from seeing what is to be seen except sufficient to rest for the next thing

& hardly that. Well I will go back so as to make a continuous story ... As I said we started from Bologna Tuesday ... and arrived at Ravenna ... A wonderful place. Historically probably the most so I have visited. Had a most delightful day & saw from my window a performance in the open air. Wednesday we made a very early start for Venice ... arrived on the same day ... & since that I have been in a sort of dream land." We have engaged two Gondolas for the week. Our Gondo- liers are dressed in white with broad blue collars & very broad blue sashes hanging down below their knees with white or white & gold fringe. The whole thing is so different from what one has ever been accustomed to & so delightful that I hate to think of going away even after a week's stay. St Marks alone is enough to study the whole time & much more than I have alotted. We live in our Gondola, going out about 9 & coming home about 7.30, then take coffee in the Great Place of St Marks & lis- ten to the band & watch the people until bed time ... taking as a night-cap a superb orange water-ice. We are just ap- proaching Murano an island between Torcello & Venice & where glass & Sal- viati ware is made." ... I am so well & am having such a splendid rest & only hope I can crowd everything into my time. I can never have such an opportunity again.... Of the painting, architecture & everything I won't try to say anything. Today is Sunday. We had service in my room McVickar reading. Then we went to mass at St Marks but were too late. I walked about Venice then lunched in the place of St. Mark, went to Vespers at St Marks at 2, then to see

Fig. 5. HHR's bold script on the envelope of the letter from Venice. Harvard College Library.

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Tintoretto's painting & tonight have been following in my Gondola a great barge with a full band.... Your own Hal.61

6. Spain

Barcelona- Spain-Aug 25, Friday 1882 My own dear Julia

At last in Spain and splendid weather. We had a beautiful ride from Per- pignan here right on the cliff of the Mediterranean overlooking the sea. We got here 12 midnight but the place was wide awake and the Rambla in front of my room was crowded with people.... About coming home I am not entire master. I have taken my passage for Sept 27 on the "Cephalonia" Cunard Steamer sailing direct to Boston.6 But Sir William Gull wishes to see me again in London & so does my truss maker. Still I think nothing will interfer with my sailing on the 27th

... we visited the

Cathedral with its cloisters & fine old glass & paid the old priest 1 franc for letting us in-for here everything is closed from 12 to 3. Persons are supposed to be taking their breakfast & nap. I enjoy the Cathedral. So different from what we have been seeing. I then went shoping that is buying photographs & then drove about the place & saw other churches & sights. .... My health is splendid. I had a slight drawback in Milan but am allright [sic] now. But it is very hard trying to take care of ones self travelling particularly travelling as I do -at lightening rate.... We have dined, and dined well, it being now about 8.30 or 20 minutes of 9. Such Malaga grapes. I never knew what a grape was until a moment ago. ... You haven't said anything about my bringing Hiscock home.

He is very willing & a good servant & I think will be valuable to us & save you much trouble by taking entire charge of all my clothes, mending all, putting away, &c &c, packing for all my trips &c. I pay him $60 a month & he finds himself [and] pays all his own hotel bills & board which I think very cheap consider- ing the extra expense he must be put to by my always going to the best places & travelling so rapidly. Good night dear. I miss you very much & my home, but I know the trip is doing me good. Your Hal.

7. Spain

Zarogoza-Aug. 27- Sunday- 1882 My own dear Julia

After a most enjoyable ride (on the whole) I arrived here about 9 o'clock last night having been in the cars all day from 9 in the morning. We passed through Lerida. You can find it on the map. Zaro- goza or Zarogosa or Saragossa (it is spelt all three ways) is a most interesting town more so historically than artistically although there are some very fine things about the Cathedral." The general feeling in the interior is noble & big & it has a most charming octagonal dome beautifully studied in brick & tile & a very interesting treatment of a wall surface with slight panels made by projecting brick & the back of panels laid in cement mortar & tiles (round green tiles). Something like this [fig. 7]. The whole side of the north east wall is covered with it & bor- ders very delicately made with green, black & yellow tiles all delightfully toned down by time." All the peasants are in town with their gala dresses particularly the men who wear brightly

colored turbans, short open jackets of black velvet with trousers slashed below coming to their knees with a very broad bright purple sash around their waist, long stocking, & queer sandals with two broad black ribbons going from the toes & tying around the ankles. . .. I had coffee at 7 this morning & went out about 9 first to the bridge-a splendid old Bridge -then to the Cathedral then to St. Pilas a horrible roccoco [sic] thing built in the worst times. I then walked about the town & bought one pitcher- large one- & two plates all for 271h Cents & they are very pretty indeed. ... About bringing home things I think the less I bring the better. ... I have picked up some few things at out-of-the-way places one or two peasants crosses & the like which I think besides being very pretty have an interest beyond their money value. Pho- tographs & books will take most of my money. I told you I have having my monogram cut on the big seal with two strange beasts round the edge both biting at a piece of forbidden fruit. Something like this [sketch65]. It is well done [and] it will be very good. I call it forbidden, it may not be. . .. I have answered a note from Bishop Doane of Albany accepting the terms of competition he enclosed to me in London but I wish the matter kept quiet until my return. The program is a superb one & the drawings are to be ready by November. Don't you tell any one about it. There is only one competi- tor besides myself." I know that I am getting great good from my trip but at the moment in the midst of it I feel as if I were in a whirl although I am doing things as thoroughly as I can by careful reading up before visiting places & then reading while sightseeing & studying again in the evening. To attempt to sketch would be folly as I have hardly time to thoroughly see things which is a preliminary & indispensable [sic] fore- runner to an intelligent sketch. I have seen so many sketches that were telling evidence that the sketcher had never properly seen what he thought he was drawing. I am constantly surprised at the lack of intelligence shown in choosing parts to be photographed, but probably I look upon it as a specialist ... It is curious to see the peasants come in with their great baskets on their donkeys filled with all kinds of things & wares marketing bedding furniture & finally the women themselves get into the baskets with their babies [fig. 8]. Every- body from the archbishop down seems to have a donkey. We saw a very handsome carriage with servants & [word illegible] in gold livery with two splendid mules. Great black fellow. It was the carriage of state of the Archbishop of Zarogoza. You seldom see a horse although I did see a superb one this morning. Goodbye dear. Your fond Hal. . . . Sunday evening. I



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went to what they call a Bull fight and saw one poor cow - really a cow - killed, and am thoroughly ashamed of having stayed through such a disgusting performance. Before that we had a pleasant drive & I have enjoyed Zaragoza very much & will leave it with regret. Good- bye dear. I will enjoy getting home to you again. Your own Hal. Kiss the Babies.

8. Spain

Zamora- Spain- Sept, 4th- 1882 My own dear Julia-

I arrived here from Salamanca last night about midnight after a long but not unpleasant ride in a private diligence that I hired. The regular diligence left at 10 o'clock at night which would have made an all night affair of it. So I started with my own turn out at 5 in afternoon and arrived as I said at midnight. We had four horses or rather 2 horses & 2 mules. Hiscock & the Spanish guide "Patrick" outside the baggage on top & Mr. Jaques & I inside. We had two roast chickens in our lunch bag a bottle of wine & a bottle of water. I enjoyed it notwithstanding the chickens were so tough that we could not eat them. We passed the usual number of peasants riding on asses with great baskets & saddlebags. I must go back now to Zaragoza where I last wrote & give an account of myself. It was Sun- day & I had just returned from the Bull or Cow-fight. Such a farce I never saw. Monday morning August the 28th we left Zarogoza for Madrid ... It was really cold & I put on double undershirts & the conductor of train had on an Irish Ulster (Spain in August). The Cathedral &

Bridge [at Zaragoza] are both very interesting & also some of the towers built in bricks. On our way to Madrid we had some very striking scenery, desolate, bold & grand, but now & then we saw some of the most superb peaches & great black figs growing by the way. A curious village-Salillas [de Jal6n]-is built entirely underground & all we saw of the village when the train stopped were the chimneys coming through the ground. A most dirty, forlorn set of people as ever you imagined. I saw some pretty women. One selling water to the passengers in the train was very pretty. ... Madrid a great uninteresting place very like any great European capital only not as good. I stayed in my room all

morning Tuesday Aug 29 until 4 o'clock looking at & choosing photographs & then took a drive ... Wednesday Aug 30 Mr. Jaques & I went with a guide to the lower parts of the city &

saw. the poor

people buying & selling &c &c. Our guide is named Patrick Vasas. At 10 o'clock we went to the picture gallery6 & for the first time regretted that we must leave Madrid so soon. There you have almost everybody except the early Italian school. Velazquez, Murillo, Paul Veronese, Raphael, Michelangelo (only one however) Rubens (ad infinitum) Durer Holbein, Tenier, Gorregio [sic] &c &c &c. Titian & Tinteretto [sic] Van Dyke &c &c. I saw there one of the best portraits by Raphael I ever saw-Cle- ment the VII I think6s-but although I went back again to the gallery I had no time to see it but very superficially.... Thursday morning Aug 31 we went to Toledo with our guide drove through & about the town seeing all there was to see in my limited time. The Cathedral is very noble & big, & some other very interesting churches but in very bad condition. A good bridge & guarded by the old Moorish gate-Puerto del Sol. I saw there more Moorish work than anywhere else. ....

We started Friday morning at 8 o'clock for Salamanca via Avila & Medina-del-Campo, arrived at Avila at 2.30 where we stopped over until 9 same evening & had a most delightful time. The cathedral is charming, beautifully studied & altogether quite captivated me." There are many things here to detain one but I had to go on & saw San Vicente [fig. 9] & the Dominican convent by lying to the monks & telling them we were Catholics-as I learned afterwards. . . . At Salamanca ... we went out after having some bad coffee & goat's milk to see the Cathedrals new &

Fig. 8. Richardson's sketch of a donkey laden for market. A indicates shaven patches; B, un- shaven. Harvard College Library.

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Fig. 10. Salamanca, "Casa de Dofia Maria la Brava." HHR photo collection, Harvard Graduate School of Design.

old. Such a contrast between the two- the one, small, old, simple & beautiful & the other the contrary. We walked about the curious old town until 12 & then breakfasted & slept till 4 in the afternoon. About 5 we took a drive around the fortified walls of the place which with its round turrets every now & then & picturesque houses [fig. 10] was very interesting, & I got a splendid view of the old Cathedral, which composes very well with the New from the other side of the river Tormes. I haven't time to write in detail of the picturesque & quaint costumes of the peasants, their great leather belts &c &c. Here ... I met a very pleasant & intelligent Spanish gentleman named Emilio Nieto & went to the theatre with him, he translating ... After the play there was a ballet & I felt as if I had never seen a real ballet before. It was beautiful. They all played the castinettes while dancing. Sunday Sept 3 I1 spent in my room reading and writing until 5 o'clock when I started in diligence for Zamora where I am supposed to be writing from now but really I am writing from Toro a small town between Zamora & Medina-del-Campo . .. Za- mora was very enjoyable. A lovely old

Cathedral very similar to the old Cathe- dral at Salamanca & about the same date. As we get north the dress changes but always very graceful & picturesque.... Toro has another Cathedral [fig. 11] very like the ones at Zamora & Salamanca & this morning I climbed to the top (by stairs) of the clock tower, bought a pair of saddle bags & came home to breakfast this aftemoon. We are going to take a drive. I am pushing now for Paris. To- night we go to Leon via Palencia & Venta de Bafios. In Bayonne I expect to find letters. ... Goodbye dear. I will enjoy getting home to you & the babies. Good- bye. Your fond Hal.

9. Spain

Burgos-Spain- Sept. 8th, 1882 Friday Aftn-

My own dear Julia- I am sitting at my window here in

Burgos with my overcoat on, my skull cap & wrapped in my great red blanket shivering while I am writing. We left Toro at 7.42 for Medina-del-Campo having had a most pleasant time visiting the

old Cathedral & the old palace of the Marquis of Santa Cruz in which there is a room with a very curious & interesting moorish ceiling. The room is of some historical value having served as the place of meeting of the (Cortes de Toro) Spanish Congress in 1371, 1442 & 1505. Toro was once a city of considerable importance but now no better than an Irish village. The Cathedral however is very fine. It is called the 'The Collegiata." It is Romanesque & its most striking fea- ture is its great central tower, domed in- ternally, and of 16 sides externally -very like Salamanca & Zamora. It is in very bad condition & may fall. We reached Medina del Campo (a railroad junction) at 11 o'clock at night & left for Venta da Bafios where we arrived about 3 in the morning ... I slept till 5 ... and took the train for Leon at 9.50 arriving... Sept. 6. In the car I met a Spaniard who spoke a little French & was very polite to me when he found out I was an architect he was highly delighted & shook me warmly by the hand. ... Leon to my sur- prise is a small place about 10000 popu- lation. Its principal attractions to me were the Cathedral, San Isidoro & San Marcos, the two first being the most in-



11

teresting. After a hurried lunch at the station we drove to the Cathedral in a stage & found or rather the guide Patrick said that we could not get in until 2.30. We then went directly to San Isidoro & were shown over the church by a priest who was very much surprised & I think or did think at the time angry that I re- fused the Holy Water when he offered it to me as we entered. He couldn't under- stand it. I forgot to say that they told us we were the first Americans who had ever been there. The South door to Aisle & Elevation of South Transcept & Ap- sidial end of South Aisle were very interesting & full of beautiful detail of which I could only get very poor photographs. The interior was very much damaged by later work & alterations & was all white- washed with Capitals & some parts picked out in yellow-very disagreeable. The tower which stands away & iso- lated from the church is good but has a bad modem roof with small dormers.

The most attractive thing interiorly about the building is the Pantheon or small chapel built out at northwest cor- ner where San Isidoro and a lot of Kings & Queens are buried. It is very old & was once the church all the rest having been added later. Some very good but rather heavy wrought iron grills separate it from the cloister. We then started back for the Cathedral it then being nearly 2.30 and I wanted very much to get away that night for Burgos.... the Cathedral ... is undergoing serious repairs, in fact the whole interior is scaffolded & work going on. A gentleman told us to ask at the office of the works & we would get in. Which I did & was very politely shown all over the works, which was very interesting as I saw everything in process of execution, was shown the models for a very elaborate & ingenious scaffolding & then taken to the Archi- tect's office (who was absent) & shown all the working plans, some of which I got photographs of [fig. 12].70 I hurriedly left & started for the train without even seeing San Marcos but that I did not mind but would have liked to stay longer at the Cathedral. I took train back to Venta da Bafios at 11.30 & ... took 8.50 morning train for Burgos ... Burgos is quite a place for Spain, probably the most im- portant town in the north about 25000 inhabitants. On the Arlanzon [River] & for a long time the Capital of Castile & Leon. Here we have a very fine old Ca- thedral, & some other churches, also a little way from the town the nunnery of the Huelgas & the convent of the Cartuja de Miraflores-both interesting. The former hardly visible to men being the retreat of noble women &c, but I saw the entrance & got a glimpse of the church through an iron grating [fig. 13]. The lat- ter has a fine door but is in a sad want of

repair, only 27 monks now living there. But that I believe is an improvement for there were only a few perhaps 5 or 6 monks. I met an Englishman (a clergy man) . . .and offered him a seat in my carriage back to Burgos. He was on his way for a years stay in Spain. He knew all about Dr. Priestley & was very polite.71 I gave him my Spanish guide in French. .... Patrick Vasas went back today. Such a guide. I can't tell you all about him till I see you. .... A thorough liar but a useful man as he spoke the language. Today have felt very much fatigued ... Tomorrow I start for France & then soon for London & then for home which I will thoroughly enjoy. I have been travelling at a fearful rate & must feel the effects of it soon. But the voyage will rest me .... Your fond Hal.

10. France

Poitiers-France-Sept. 11, 82 -Monday- 8.30 P.M.

My own dear Julia I finished writing to you last Friday

evening & Saturday ... that was Sept 9 ... we started for Bayonne ... (enroute for Poitiers) arriving . .. at 11 at night ... I went to the Cathedral & was surprised to find it so good. The cloisters were very good but are now all cut up for smaller chapels &c &c & ruined. ... off again for Poitiers at 1.45 where I arrived last night ... A woman with 3 children got into our compartment just before reaching Bordeaux yesterday & such a time as we had. She nursed them, & spanked them, and fed them with greasy meat, & they did everything that children usual[ly] do

Fig. 11. Toro, Colegiata. HHR photo collection, Harvard Graduate School of Design.

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& ought not to do .... This morning I ... started for Notre Dame La Grande & have had a most enjoyable day. The town is full of interest for me. Notre Dame La Grande alone was enough to study all day [fig. 14] but I had Saint Radegonde, St. Hilaire, St Porchaine & a lot others beside the civic work. . . . I start for Paris tomorrow ... How long I will stay there I don't know but hardly more than 3 or 4 days.73 My time is getting short & I must have a week or more in London for the Doctors & my truss makers. I have not given up my passage on the Cephalonia . . . I would like to see Amiens, Beauvais, Rouen & Rheims before sailing but may not be able to. Still I have seen so much more than I thought I could that I cannot complain.... Good- bye. I will be with you soon now.74 Kiss all the babies. What will I do for a room for Hiscock? Your fond Hal



13

NOTES 1. M. G. Van Rensselaer, Henry Hobson Rich-

ardson and his Works, Boston, 1888, pp. 26-34 (here- after cited as VR). In subsequent notes I have excerpted Jaques's remarks where they seem pertinent. See also Henry-Russell Hitchcock, The Architecture of H H Richardson and his Times, Cambridge, Mass., 1966, pp. 245 ff., and J. F. O'Gorman, H. H. Richardson and his Office, Cambridge, Mass., 1974, passim.

2. P. Brooks, Letters of Travel, New York, 1893. See also Alexander V. G. Allen, Life and Letters of Phillips Brooks, New York, 1901, II, pp. 460 ff.

3. The correspondence (catalogued as "75M- 7[13] at Harvard) is not preserved complete. I am grateful to Joseph P. Richardson for permission to publish these letters, and to Eleanor Garvey and David Becker of Harvard College Library for their cooperation.

4. Thanks to Christopher Hail of the Loeb Li- brary for his cooperation.

5. H.-R. Hitchcock, "An Inventory of the Ar- chitectural Library of H. H. Richardson," Nineteenth Century, I (January-April, 1975), pp. 27 ff. and 18 ff. In the following notes the architect is referred to by his initials (HHR).

6. J. F. O'Gorman, "The Marshall Field Whole- sale Store," Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, XXXVII (October, 1978), pp. 175-194.

7. The Cunarder Servia, 7,391 tons, 532 feet overall length. Maiden voyage Liverpool to New York, November 26, 1881. Scrapped in 1901. See E. W. Smith, Passenger Ships of the World, Boston, 1963, pp. 244-245. The Servia was "the first big steel-hulled ship on the Atlantic, and the first to be lighted by incandescent electric lamps. .... She was designed to carry a greater number of first-class passengers than any other ship. ....

Some of her staterooms were ... fitted with Broadwood's patent lavatories. .... The Servia soon became the arche- type of the 'comfortable' ship." (J. M. Brinnen, The Sway of the Grand Saloon. A Social History of the

North Atlantic, New York, 1971, pp. 272-273). 8. Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), rector of Trinity

Church, Boston, and later Episcopal Bishop of Mas- sachusetts; William Neilson McVickar (1843-1910), rector of Holy Trinity Church, Philadelphia, and later Episcopal Bishop of Rhode Island; (Charles?) Trask (of New York?); John Codman Ropes (1836- 1899), Boston lawyer and military historian; James Potter Franks, rector of Grace Church, Salem, and Brooks's in-law; and Herbert Jaques (or Jacques) (1857-1916), then a draftsman in HHR's office, later a partner in the Boston architectural firm of An- drews, Jaques, and Rantoul. Jaques's account of the trip is given in VR; for excerpts from Brooks's letters see following notes. Olmsted is, of course, Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect.

9. See below in this letter. This was either Arthur Biddle (1853-1897), lawyer and author, active in establishing the Philadelphia Free Library, or Clement Miller Biddle (1838-1902), merchant and philanthropist, abolitionist and promoter of educa- tion.

10. Branett is not further identified. HHR apparently refers here to John Alexander McClemand (1812-1900), Union general and Democrat. He pre- sided over the Democratic National Convention in 1876. My thanks to Geoffrey Blodgett of Oberlin College for decyphering this name.

11. HHR suffered from, among other things, a hernia.

12. The following is excerpted from Julia Rich- ardson (Mrs. George F.) Shepley, "Reminescences of her Father," an undated typescript on deposit at Harvard College Library, and available on microfilm at the Archives of American Art (roll 643):

"•There are many stories of his trip to Europe with Bishop Brooks and Bishop McVickar, three enormous men; my Father the smallest just under six feet weighing 330 pounds. ...

"On one occasion they were tempted to bathe at the Lido near Venice. My Father tried for a bath- ing suit but nothing was large enough, and when he reported his failure to the others they thought it

would be a fine joke to try again at intervals of fifteen minutes, which they did, and the frantic attendant was beside himself when the third came....

"Another time in France they went to a lecture on America where the lecturer remarked that the Americans were deteriorating and becoming a puny race. They quietly separated, each one rising and protesting in a different part of the hall. ... and all three marched out in apparent indignation much to the amusement . .. of the audience [and] the poor lecturer was completely confounded."

13. This differs from the itinerary eventually followed, and that suggests that HHR had done little planning before leaving home.

14. Charles Sprague Sargent (1841-1927) first director of the Arnold Arboretum and HHR's neighbor, and Frederick Lothrop Ames (1835-1893), HHR's North Easton patron.

15. Robert D. Andrews (1857-1928), H. Lang- ford Warren (1857-1917), and Charles H. Rutan (1851-1914) all worked for HHR. Andrews was later Jaques's partner.

16. HHR means the Hampden County Court- house.

17. Cf. Phillips Brooks to John C. Brooks, June 28, 1882: ". .. we have had a bright, sunny, happy time. McVickar and James [Franks] and I and Rich- ardson and John Ropes make up a sort of party who sit together at the cabin table, and smoke together in one comer of the deck, and talk about whatever chooses to turn up." And to William Brooks the same day: ". .. what a splendid great ship this is ... we have four hundred and fifty passengers, are aw- fully over-crowded ... It is all delightful and con- fused, and as funny as an ocean voyage always is.... I think we are likely next week to turn our steps southward . . . Richardson will probably join us there, and architecture be the main interest ... But art, life, and scenery shall not be forgotten." (Brooks, Letters of Travel, pp. 191-193).

18. This has not survived. 19. Sir James Paget (1814-1899), sergeant-sur-

geon to the Queen and, in 1882, president of fhe

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14

International Congress of Medicine. 20. James Russell Lowell (1819-1891), poet and

diplomat, U. S. Minister to Spain, 1875-1880, and to England, 1880-1885. In a letter to F. L. Olmsted of November 26, 1876, HHR writes that Lowell and Charles Eliot Norton had visited Trinity Church "and were pleased." This letter is among the de- posited material at Harvard College Library.

21. This letter is preserved with HHR's own at Harvard College Library (*75M-7[71). For Lowell's relationship with Dona Emilia see M. Duberman, James Russell Lowell, Boston, 1966.

22. Sir William Withey Gull (1816-1890), au- thority on renal disorders and Physician Extraordi- nary to the Queen. He was a member of the staff of Guy's Hospital. To be examined by Gull was one reason the ailing HHR made this trip. See below in the next letter, and note 47.

23. The remainder of the letter is missing. 24. Richard Phen6 Spiers (1838-1916), archi-

tect and scholar, had met HHR at the Ecole des Beaux-arts in the early 1860s.

25. William Morris (1834-1896), poet, artist, and manufacturer, had in 1881 moved his establish- ment to Merton Abbey near Wimbleton.

26. VR, p. 28. HHR used the knowledge gained from this inspection at the Allegheny County Court House in Pittsburgh.

27. Poole & Co., Regent Street, were among the city's most fashionable tailors.

28. The Bristol Hotel, Burlington Gardens, north of Piccadilly.

29. See note 47. 30. The bankers. 31. The Criterion, Piccadilly Circus. 32. Jaques (VR, p. 28) notes that Morris "seemed

to take great interest in Mr. Richardson ... The visit to Morris's house, and the five-o'clock-tea there on the following Sunday with the various 'aesthetes,' was an experience long remembered." Mrs. Morris was, of course, Jane Burden. See below in this letter.

33. Dwight appears in other of these letters but is unidentified. There is little specific information about Samuel Hammond (1835-1896) either, other than that he was a Bostonian and a friend of the architect. My thanks to Mason Hammond of Harvard University for help identifying his grandfather.

34. Holland House, Kensington, early seven- teenth century.

35. The dealer was Durlacher and Marks. Both the carpet and the letter from Morris to HHR are now owned by the Department of Textiles of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The carpet came to the Museum from the estate of F. L. Ames in 1893, a provenance which suggests that HHR was buying objects of decorative art for clients while on this trip.

36. The White House, Chelsea, 1878, designed by E. W. Godwin (1833-1866).

37. Judge Robert Porrett Collier, Lord Monks- well (1817-1886) erected his house on Chelsea Em- bankment.

38. Lowther Lodge, Kensington Gore, 1872- 1875, by R. N. Shaw (1831-1912). Shaw's work had been influential in HHR's career at least since his William Watts Sherman House at Newport. Bedford Park, the earliest planned garden suburb in England, was begun by Shaw in 1877. The inn and some of the houses are of this design.

39. Sir Edward Bumrne-Jones (1883-1898), Pre- Raphaelite painter and friend of William Morris. Jaques (VR, p. 28) says he received HHR "most cordially." There are Bume-Jones windows in Trinity Church.

40. J. F. O'Gorman, H. H. Richardson and His Office, p. 58, where the sketch is reproduced.

41. William F. De Morgan (1839-1917), artist, specialized in lusterware pottery. Jaques (VR, p. 28) says he "showed him great attention and Mr. Rich- ardson had an unbounded enthusiasm for his work."

42. Oliver Ames (1831-1895) of North Easton, Massachusetts, an HHR client and later Govemrnor of the state.

43. O'Corman, H. H. Richardson and His Of- fice, pp. 52 ff.

44. Neither the window nor the client have yet been identified.

45. See note 47.

46. HHR here refers to letters written to Julia, then his fiancee, from Paris during his student days. They are excerpted in VR, pp. 10 ff. but apparently no longer extant.

47. Guy Lacy Schless, M.D., of the Pennsyl- vania Hospital examined HHR's notes on his condition and supplied the following information. Gull prescribed claret as a vasodilator to improve circula- tion, lemon and water to appease the thirst associated with kidney disease. "Gull felt that HHR's manifestation of Bright's Disease had not so much secondarily affected his heart as it did his stomach and liver. The classic findings of large quantities of albumin (protein) in the urine was increased by the digestion of meat and protein. HHR's kidney's were still able to concentrate the urine properly so that the Specific Gravity was normal. Thus, HHR had Bright's Disease of the kidneys which caused the albuminuria and associated symptoms of indi- gestion, abdominal swelling, and edema, but spared in his case the heart. If HHR also had an excessive alcoholic intake, a diseased liver, in addition to the diseased kidney, would worsen the prognosis."

Despite Gull's warnings to be careful HHR apparently slowed down neither his work nor his play in the years after returning to Brookline, and it was Bright's Disease that killed him in April, 1886.

48. William Burges (1827-1881) was recently deceased. According to Jaques (VR, p. 28) HHR was "rather disappointed" with his house in Melbury Road. "It did not come up to his ideal."

49. Salting is not further identified. 50. On July 9 the British Navy bombarded

Alexandria and later occupied Egypt in order to de- fend her interests in the new Suez Canal.

51. Phillips Brooks to "Gertie" from the Hotel de l'Empire, July 14: "It is all excitement here, be- cause this is a great Fete Day ... The streets today are full of flying flags, and there are bands of music going all about town ... This evening, the city is going to be illuminated, and there will be fireworks everywhere." Letters, p. 195.

52. Phillips Brooks to William Brooks from Nimes, July 23: "After we left Paris, we traveled somewhat rapidly through France. .. What we saw specially was a group of churches in Auvergne ... in which Richardson is especially interested, and which indeed give the key to a great deal that is Trinity. They are very curious ... Besides, we saw one or two funny little French watering-places and some fine scenery . . . next week [we] shall very possibly start for Spain ... but our plans are uncer- tain." Letters, p. 196.

53. Jaques (VR, p. 28) reports that "Notre-Dame- du-Port ... aroused all his enthusiasm."

54. This photograph appears as the frontispiece to H.-R. Hitchcock, Richardson as a Victorian Ar- chitect, Baltimore, 1966.

55. Jaques (VR, p. 29) says that HHR "was much interested in the little church in the clouds, and walked up the steep path twice to see it. He fairly raved over it as an example of early work."

56. Phillips Brooks to William Brooks from Genoa, July 30: "Since last Sunday we have strolled through southern France, seen Provence with its wealth of old Roman remains, and sailed, with the lovliest passage, across from Marseilles to this delightful town. Tomorrow, we start by steamer for Leghomrn, Pisa, and Florence. Northemrn Italy will have the next three weeks." Letters, p. 197.

57. The letter lacks at least one page. 58. The remainder of the letter is lost. Jaques

(VR, p. 29) fills the gap: "At Marseilles [following St. Gilles] we rested .. . and Richardson spent the time in shopping. ... Then we took the steamer to Leghorn [see below] and the train to Pisa ... The tower, cathedral, and baptistry pleased him im- mensely, and he studied them carefully from every point of view, and said that as a whole the group was the finest thing he had seen .... We settled down for a full week at Genoa... [and] explored all the out- of-the-way comrners .... The next joumrney brought us to Florence, where we made a stay of several days. What with architecture, sculpture, and painting, and ice-cold lemonade... Richardson's cup was full to the brim. ... He was much impressed with the stair- case and court of the National Museum [Bargello]. S... From Florence an excursion was made to Siena

and Orvieto. It was a great temptation for Mr. Richardson to go to Rome ... but he was deterred by the terrible heat. Bologna was then visited and a flying trip made to Ravenna. ... From Ravenna back to Bologna and then to Padua and Venice. ... Sight- seeing by day and traveling by night."

From Phillips Brooks's letter to William Brooks from Florence, August 6, we learn that "since last Sunday we have had a pretty sail from Genoa to Leg- horn, a bright day in Pisa, a nice three days in Flor- ence, and a visit to Sienna [sic] and Orvieto. Just think of Orvieto, where we slept Friday night, within two hours and a half of Rome! ... Tomorrow morning we are off for Bologna, Ravenna, and then Venice. ... Our party has held together beautifully, and there has been lots of fun." Letters, p. 198.

Brooks's account of a trip from Genoa to Leg- horn makes better geographical sense than Jacques's of a trip from Leghorn to Genoa.

59. Jaques (VR, p. 30): "From early prowls almost at daylight until the midnight carnival on the Grand Canal, he was out and about and seemed to begrudge a moment's rest."

60. Jaques (VR, p. 30): "Richardson wanted to buy the whole place, and could hardly be restrained from at least buying Salviati out."

61. In Phillips Brooks's Letters of Travel (pp. 199-202) are letters from Venice on August 13, Chioggia on the 16th, and one to William Brooks from the Hotel Continental in Milan dated August 20: "Florence, Bologna, Venice, Verona, we have been to all of them. . . . Here our summer party be- gins to go to pieces. Mr. Richardson and Mr. Jacques [sic] start tomorrow morning for Marseilles and Spain. .... Our journey together has been delightful. Richardson is full of intelligence and cultivation in his own art, and Jacques is a pleasant fellow.... We shall miss them both exceedingly."

62. Cephalonia, 5,517 tons, 440 feet overall length. Maiden voyage Liverpool to Boston, August 23, 1882. Sunk 1904 (E. W. Smith, Passenger Ships of the World, p. 53). HHR did return on her.

63. VR, pp. 33-34, quotes extensively if not with complete accuracy from this letter.

64. Jaques (VR, p. 30): "Richardson was tre- mendously enthusiastic over the brick mosaics on the wall of La Zeo, and also with La Longa, which he called superb. It was here that we measured some brick-work and found the bricks one and one-eight inches thick, while the joints were one and one- fourth. .... And here too we found doorways with voussoirs eight feet long-in the Pittsburgh jail one may see the effect .... Saragossa ... whetted Mr. Richardson's appetite to press on."

65. O'Gorman, H. H. Richardson and His Office, p. 58.

66. O'Gorman, Richardson, pp. 52-59. 67. The Prado. 68. Modem scholarship is not certain. 69. Jaques (VR, p. 31): "Richardson was fairly

overcome with delight in the cathedral; the spacing of the columns in the aisles in the apse was curious and most lovely, and it was here that he made the scheme for the plan of the Albany cathedral .... The whole of Avila was charming, and great gates with eight or ten foot voussoirs abounded."

70. Jaques (VR, p. 32): "At Leon they were re- storing the cathedral, and we were received very kindly at the architect's office, shown the working drawings and taken all over the building."

71. Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), English clergy- man and chemist, was HHR's great-grandfather.

72. Jaques (VR, p. 32): At Poitiers "Richardson was fairly wild with delight. Notre-Dame and the houses alike filled him with admiration, and he raved over carvings and details for hours."

73. Jaques (VR, p. 32): "From Poitiers we came to Paris,where we passed a week. Mr. Richardson looked up his old friends, especially [the architect Adlophe] Gerhardt, and had long talks with them

. about their giving up the old cut-and-dried- course and working out their own Architecture ... Of course we spent much time at the School [the Ecole des Beaux-arts], in the Louvre, Notre-Dame, and various churches ..

74. Jaques (VR, p. 32): "There was a social week in London, and the steamer [Cephalonia] for home was taken on September 27th."



Documents

On Vacation with H. H. Richardson: Ten Letters from Europe, 1882