Morning journal and courier., 1886-01-15
CELERRETEES AZ HOME.
Mr. Walter Crane. the ChiIdrenss Ar tist, Rt Beaumont Lodge. Shepherds
 

Hush.
 From the London World
 On the opposite side of the Green to that
 on which thatched cottage, the traditional
 habitation of the once famous Jack Shep pard, still stands there is road leading northward called Wood lane, and at a few hundred yards distance down it you pass
 through the iron gates which admit to the
 circular gravel sweep in front of Beaumont lodge. Traversing the hall and the conser-
 vatory beyond it, you enter garden full of
 lilacs and other towering shrubs, and gener- ally given up to the sweet will of nature; then, after threading a shady walk, you come suddenly to a detached building hid den away among the trees and shrubs This is MT. Walter Cranes studio. Within you
 will find little of the sybaritic luxury of the
 modern art studio affected, beyond 8 huge
 old-fashioned sofa, grand piano, and In
 dian lounging chair of telescopic capabili-
 ties, and few tables filtered with the usual
 paraphernalia of artistic trihes. As you en-
 ter you may perhaps find the artist occu-
 pied on some drawing, seated at 8 table at a
 little distance from the large iron stove
 which serves to heat the well proportioned
 room of some thirty feet long; and enjoying
 
 immense white greyhound, an old friends fitly named 'eGoliah, y who at one time wac
 no mean competitor for the Cambridgeshirt,
 stakes, but whose coursing career was cut
 short by a strained shoulder.
 MT. Crane, though born in Liverpool in
 the year 1S45, is of Chester percentage, his family tracing it's descent from ancestor to whom James I. granted arms. Soon after his birth his family removed to Torquay. where, almost ii his babyhood, he displayed marked artistic talents. Assisted by his father, himself artist, and at one time sec retary of the Liverpool academy, the lad made rapid progress, occupying himself in the evening with the persual of Nash's s'Man- sions of the Olden Time," which perhaps fos- tered in him a taste for antiquarian life and manners; while the contemplation of Taylor engendered a great taste for animal drawing. in which he evinced so much ability as to encourage his friends to hope that he woul make that subject his exclusive study. But on his coming to London in 1857, the sight of some works of the pre-Raphaelite school in the Royal academy, then located ill Ira falgar Square, together with the absorbing study of Ruskin's works, turned his boyish aspirations in another direction. Profting by his reading, at the early age of IA he even earned the commendation of the great art critic by his treatment of a set of illustrations to ''The Lady of Shalott, J which also found such favor with W. J.
 Linton, the wood engraver, as to induce him to offer the young artist his articles. During
 the three years he was in MT. Linton's office
 he learned drawing on the wood, and the
 opportunity of seeing Sandys and some of Sir
 Frederick Leighton's illustrations to
 George Eliots ''Romola" From the back
 windows of the office, which was in Essex
 street, MT. Crane executed during some of
 his more leisure time painting of the old
 fountain in the Middle Temple, with re
 1,la oiyhO 1-1i oh
 ion of MT. s. Read, the artist, at once stamp
 ed young Crane as landscape painter, es-
 timation of his talent which was shortly af
 terward corroborated by his set of drawings
 to J. R. Wise's 'tNew Forest" These re- ceived from MT. G. H. Lewes most fatter-
 ing review in the pages of Cornhill, regard
 ing, as he did, the sketches as perfectly
 phenomenal in lad of 16, thus giving rise
 to the playful assertion that MT. Crane was first discovered between the pages of that magazine. MT, Cranes earliest exhibited
 picture from his favorite poem, s'rhe
 Lady of Shalott," depicting the ''lily maid of
 Astolat' dead in her barge. This appeared
 in the Royal academy in 1S62, ,and was favor ably noticed. The academy steadily reject ed his succeeding works until 1S72, when portrait picture was accepted. It can be we'll understood, therefore, that on the foup- dation of the Grosvenor gallery MT. Crane ceased again to appeal to hanging committee of the Royal academy.
 In 1865 MT. Crane commenced, in connec-
 tion with MT. Edmund Evans, the color
 printer, his series of toy books and he claims l to have been first in the field in regard to the
 ornate or decorative treatment of childrens
 books, the only previous attempt having been
 set of designs illustrating nursery rhymes,
 originally made by Mr. H. S. Marks, R. A., for the panels of a cabinet, which were af- l rewards published as picture book. From the issue of his first contribution to this class