1893 Wednesday - / Dank, dark dripping day - / raw, desolate skyed - / and I cant go out - & yet to stay in / means ghostly nights & bogies - for / the first time last night my mementoes / could not rally me - so heavy was the / gloom & feverish my blood - yet I / clung to them, & almost prayed to them / to help me - / but day has come at last - / yesterday affn. Theresa came & stayed 2 / whole hours with me while the long / twilight lasted - & told me much / more than I knew - I liked it, bless / her, she is quite good - but does really / tell more than she ought. how you would / have laughed - prettily she spoke of you / & I think I acted my part pretty well, / considering it was me - I am sure she / doesn't guess one bit what is in me. / She said she was so glad you & I are such / friends - but I kept my tongue from eloquence / and was discreet - & yet I think I did / not overdo it - she said nothing you / would have forbidden, & if she had begun / I should have stopped her - but she has / a high idea of you - God knows & little / I know, no ideal can be too beautiful. / she bewailed age coming & asked me if the / heart died or ceased to be troubled - I / said I could only speak for myself, I / hoped all my trouble was over and I / was still ? at peace - God forgive me / but I must learn to say it, & I practiced / on her, who is easy to practice on - / how shall I prosper with the other one - / well I can but try - but feel assured / the words shall never leave my lips to / to anyone on earth but you. / I am so glad this is the week in which / I have to be unwell - for I must be / well when you come back. / what a beautiful letter you sent me. / how beautifully you write of me and my / devotion - Oh does it really do that / for you - really? Yes, for you never lie / it must be so, how difficult to believe / it & yet I do - & it is the happiness of / my life from now. / Where's me gone to - I have quite lost / him - can't see him anywhere - see me / glorious You only. I dont want to / find him, dont trouble to look, he's / somewhere under your feet, but dont / look - dont set him up on a pinnacle, / he is not worth it. but do what you / like with him - he is quite true, he / has behaved well to you for which I / could almost like him. if he never / fails and is good to the end, & you / bless him & smoothe him at the last / I will even love me. / A dear letter from Olive, agreeing to our / conspiracy to make you strong in spite / of yourself / So on Friday at the days end - about 5 1/2 / or 6 I shall call to see you on my / way to that dinner - rather I think the / dinner is at 7 - if so I will come / much earlier - / & on Sunday I dine with Gladstone. / suppose I mustn't come again to see you / Ralph wouldn't like it. / think I might? / for you see it doesnt follow because / I dine to-day that I am not to dine / tomorrow, does it ? / how is your cold, tell me true. / I would send you Olive's letter, but you / would be so angry to see your health / discussed & ways planned for you live / there many months to come. / the lying down prescribed - ah but I like / that so much - love to see you rest like / that - the stayings at home on wet / cold days, how you would hate it - but / we have made a compact, she & I - / but it is clear she loves you, and I want / as much of that for you as can be got - / from women - Oh I meant from women / I did mean women. men were / never in my thoughts - I do assure you / not once in my thoughts - be hanged / to them you'll never let the nasty / things come near you, will you - will / you?
The archive, which has remained with May Gaskell’s descendants, consists of more than 200 letters dating from 1892 up to the year of Burne-Jones’s death: three albums of intimate letters from the artist to Mrs Gaskell; two albums of illustrated letters to Mrs Gaskell and her daughter, Daphne; and other ephemera such as the artist’s brushes which he used when painting his famous portrait of Amy Gaskell. The letters are one of the most endearing records of all Burne-Jones’s friendships. They recount both his innermost thoughts and feelings and feature a cast of humorous characters, fictitious and real. They have been acquired for £200,000 with major support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF); the Art Fund; the Arts Council England/Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund; the Friends of the National Libraries; and numerous private donations. Two of the albums are on display in the Museum for its Great British Drawings exhibition where they can be seen until 31 August. They will now enter the Ashmolean’s permanent collection. Following conservation, they will be made available as an invaluable resource to students and scholars of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, and they will be published online. The letters will add to the collection of drawings by Burne-Jones bequeathed to the Ashmolean in 1939 by Mrs Gaskell, forming one of the richest Pre-Raphaelite archives in the country. Many of the letters were published by Josceline Dimbleby, May Gaskell’s great-granddaughter, in her acclaimed book, A Profound Secret (2004), which recounts the author’s research into her family’s history. On the occasion of this major acquisition, Josceline Dimbleby will give a Saturday Talk on 8 August at the Ashmolean, in conversation with the curator of Great British Drawings, Colin Harrison. Josceline Dimbleby says: "My discovery of so many intimate and often witty letters from Burne-Jones to my great grandmother May Gaskell, forgotten for decades in an old chest of drawers, was one of the most exciting moments in my life, together with finding, wrapped in old paper and string at the back of one drawer, the paintbrushes he used for his famous portrait of my doomed great aunt Amy Gaskell, still with paint sticking to them. The letters revealed a passion that made it hard to think of this friendship as platonic and I spent a fascinating and happy three years piecing together and writing the story of what was A Profound Secret, feeling that I was getting to know my ancestors, and a very private side of Burne- Jones." Burne- Jones met May Gaskell in 1892, and she became the last in the succession of women with whom he enjoyed especially close, but platonic, friendships. She was the wife of a dull cavalry officer, and, in an unfulfilling marriage, she corresponded with Burne- Jones up to five times a day. The letters include a series of cartoon-like tales featuring characters such as the ‘fat lady’ and the artist himself, caught in mishap and misadventure. Beneath the surface lies the black humour endemic to Burne-Jones’s frequent moods of depression and insecurity. There is, for example, a superb sequence of caricatures of the artist suffering from flu. In the course of their friendship, Burne-Jones became dependent on May, confessing to her that she ‘reached the well of loneliness that is in me’. He also sent whimsical letters to the infant Daphne Gaskell (1887–1966). She was only six when she met Burne-Jones and he took an affectionate and fatherly interest in her, his own children having grown up. His letters to Daphne, written in phonetic spelling, include birds and animals familiar from his other letters to children, and several fantastic inventions such as the ‘Phlumbudge’ and ‘Flapdabble’. The archive also includes some letters to May’s elder daughter, Amy (1874–1910), whom Burne-Jones painted in 1893 in one of the greatest Pre-Raphaelite portraits (collection of Lord Lloyd-Webber). Colin Harrison, Senior Curator of European Art, Ashmolean Museum, says: "May Gaskell was Burne- Jones’s closest friend in his last years. He gave her a selection of his finest drawings, which she in turn gave to the Ashmolean in 1939. The opportunity to acquire the albums of intimate and humorous letters that he sent to May and to her daughter, Daphne, was unmissable; and we are most grateful for the support from the NHMF, the Art Fund, and other bodies, as well as numerous private donors. Their generosity has ensured that the letters have ended up in their rightful home, and that the Ashmolean now has one of the most representative, as well as distinguished, collections of Burne-Jones’s work in the world." Sir Peter Luff, Chair of NHMF, says: “Sir Edward Burne-Jones was the most prominent of the second generation Pre-Raphaelites and his work had an enormous influence. This exceptional collection of letters, which throws light on the last years of his life, was the most important part of his collection in private hands. I'm delighted that National Heritage Memorial Fund investment will mean they can be available for everyone to explore and enjoy.” Stephen Deuchar, Director of the Art Fund, says: "The Ashmolean owns one of the finest collections of works by Burne-Jones in the world, which will be greatly enriched by this important and delightful collection of letters."