Letters of James Smetham's School is in Victorian Books.
24th March 1860. A Letter from Rossetti. He is coming to see us before long. He has some fine things at the Hogarth Club, to which he gave me a ticket. There is a man there, Edward Jones [aged 26], whose work you would like amazingly. There is a tall cabinet, seven feet high, designed and painted by him from Chaucer, the legend of the little boy whom the Jews murdered, but who would go on singing "Alma redemptoris, evermore," till some saint, or somebody, put a grain of wheat on his tongue. It might have been done by Giotto, only Giotto could not have done it near so well. Rossetti [aged 31] has Dante and Beatrice in Paradise1; a glorious thing. The sky is gilt, the name is put on scrolls ("Hortus Eden') in the sky, and the names are written near the heads. The background is a rich rose hedge, with birds of Paradise pecking roses, and nestling, and singing birds singing lustily. There is a floor of tall buttercups, hyacinths, and lilies, among which the five figures are treading ankle deep. Coloured calm, "above all pain, all passion, and all pride," reigns in the atmosphere. There they walk in knowledge, love, and beauty evermore.
Note 1. The reference painting appears to be a later work of the same subject.
