New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-05-12
JEAN INGELOw.
Some Account of Her by Laura Curtis
BuIIard.
From the Golden Age.l


From the Golden Age.l
Jean IngelOw lives in the western part Of
London, that great sprawling city, as
Robert Browning aptIy calls it, which
spraWls every year over a wider and wider
area. The home of the pOetess is In one Of
the dingy rows of unpretending dwellings
which line the miles and miles of London
streets, and which differ from each other
only IN their degrees of age and consequent
dinginess. There is nothing cheerful about
the exterior of any London house. This is
a mild way of stating the fact that OF all
dismal-lOOking abOdes for the human race
those erected for and occupied by the Lon
don citizen are the most dismal
every Englishman's house is his castle"
as we all know; for the true Briton, whether
at home or abroad, takes especial delight in
reiterating this truth for the instruction of
the stranger and foreigner. Every Lon
doner's house is his prison." is the free
translation of this statement, which the
stranger is inclined to make for himself, as
he sees for the first time the blank walls,
substantial, grim and grimy, behind which
the British householder entrenches himself
II, in the vain attempt to add a little cheer
fulness to these sOmbre habitatiOns, some
of the LondOners do fill the balconies out
side their windows with flowers, the
bright blossoms only bring the heavy
background into more vivid contrast
and make the gray, dirty bricks behind
them look dirtier and grayer than before.
Miss IngelOw is too sensible person to
be betrayed into any weakness of this sort.
Though pOetess. she is pre-eminently
judiciOus woman, with "nO romance" about
her; so she leaves the exterior of her house
to its own native ugliness, and makes of
the interior as coy and comfortable nest
as we would desire to see. The little par
Tor is bright with warm hued furniture and
a cheerful coal fire; books and needle-wOrk
lie side by side on the centre-table; pic
lures, birds and flowers betray the taste of
the wOmanly woman who has made the
place such a comfortable, cheerful and
tasteful spot, so full of the atmosphere of
home, that a return to a hotel seems to
the chance guest, from sheer force of con-
trast, so dreer a necessity as to be almost
uncomfortable.
Miss Ingelow herself is buxom, fine
looking woman, somewhere near her for
ties. She has an abundance of soft brown
hair, which she winds in a graceful fashion
of her own about her head; bright, dark
eyes, and a lovely changing color, which
comes and goes in her cheeks at the slight
est prOvOcation. She is shy, delicate and
reserved, and has true English aversion TO
being looked at, and still greater hOrrCI
of being written about. Miss IngelOw is a
thorough conservative in ideas as well as in
tastes. She is Mortified by the commune
and all its works. For the French republic
she has little sympathy, while for the Eng
lish Liberal party she harbors sentiments as
nearly approaching detestatiOn as it is in
her gentle nature to feel toward any person
or thing. She shares the convictions of the
loyal BritOn, which are briefly these: That
the English government, as it now exists,
is as near to perfection as any humanly-de-
vised form of government can be. This, of
course, explains the national dread of any
change in the old landmarks.