Females of Note

Dearest Emily,

HAPPY FOURTH BIRTHDAY!

Now you are four- so grown up with a little sister to look after. I love this pic that Mummy shared when you got Annabel's new shoes.

When people ask me what you are like, it is quite hard not to seem biased seeing as how I'm your Grand-mother. However, I say with all confidence in my partiality that you have all the makings of a Woman of Note. My reasons for this are:-

1.Your sense of humour.

2. The way you address everybody you meet and include them in your world.

3. Your confidence and fearlessness.

4. Your sense of fairness.

5. Your kindness to others.

6. Your generosity.

7. Your appreciation of the efforts of others.

8. Your strong sense of self and doing things your own way.

9. Your whacky take on subjects.

10. Your trust in others who you know love you.

Those are stirling qualities my little one, I trust you shall use them well.

In fact, I could apply each and every-one of those to the lady whose photographs you and Mummy admire so much, and here's the one I have chosen for your birthday. I'm sure you remember- it is called 'The Rosebud Garden of Girls'.

 

Julia Margaret Cameron is a leading example of a Woman of Note. So much so, Em that there's a little band of us banging a drum to have here as our new £20 note portrait figure. There's her groundbreaking work of course- and you will be one who knows this well, having grown up around it. Wishfully, if the campaign proves successful, so will many more on our own British Isles. It's a sorry state that JMC is known and appreciated better in the States for example, on account of the Getty museum buying up so many of her prints. 

When the legendary Patti Smith played a private gig at Farringford a few years ago- her vocal appreciation of JMC as one of her muses, alongside Rimbaud, made it clear to me how across the Pond many grew up knowing her work as a matter of course.

That all aside Em, what was Julia really like as a person? Well, I shall relate some anecdotes from my studies of her, prompted by the qualities I admire in yourself...

Julia was often observed in letters by contemporaries as having a great sense of enjoying herself, and making others enjoy themselves too. Her 'other favourite poet' Henry Taylor remarked upon this in his autobiography. More-over he described Dimbola as a place where everybody was welcome, and laughter, and enjoyment abounded.

Julia presided matriarchal, commending the beauty around her, be it flower, maid or hat-box.

Dances were held in the 'Ball-room' (euphemistically called Em, and how she fitted in the musicians, and dancers one can only guess.) however, on long full-moon-lit summer evenings, these young guests, laughed and danced and spilled out onto the Down, the girls having been told to let their hair down by Tennyson- who declared it suited them better.

Mrs C was not afraid to speak her mind. A gathering in Mortlake included Tennyson and Ruskin, the latter being most voluble on declaiming that Photography was 'not Art'. This was too much for Julia, who argued the pro case vociferously, and Ruskin as vociferous back. A heated Julia, clumped him on the back, and he turned tail and fled, Julia following, bonnet ribbons trailling behind her.

They both returned arm in arm sometime later.

Anne Thackeray Ritchie gave testament to her sense of the comedic, her benevolence unbounded.

She was considered 'bossy' and her husky voice boomed, and cajoled others to do her bidding.

She once decided that Edward Lear needed a Piano up at Farringford, and promptly despatched hers, carried by several burly men, up Bedbury lane without waiting for agreement.

The Henry Taylor's returned home from holiday once, to find that Julia had been in and redecorated a room as a gift!

Marianne North, admired her cashmere shawl when she stayed with her in Ceylon, so Julia tore it in half and gave one half to Marianne, pulling her remaining half closer around her shoulders.

She nursed the dying Phillip Worsley who lived two doors away, and looked out for the young children of Horatio Tennyson, living at Terrace House, since their mother's death- who appeared to her a pallid colour and needed attention.

She adopted several children, invited her maids to table to dine, and generally threw convention to her bohemian wind.

Dressing in a style confined to her and her society 'Pattle' sisters, who had grown up in colourful India and chic Versailles, she did not fit in with the Crinolined and Corsetted fashion of the day. Ann Thackeray mentions her 'funny red open work shawl' for example. Her dresses were made by hand in the company of her sisters, from vibrant silks. Bright dye had just been invented and Julia loved a bright colour. She marked her waistline simply by a tasseled cord, more normally seen on a curtain.

My last anecdote today, is about her desire to please her adored invalid husband Charles Hay Cameron. Charles appears to have been a semi-invalid most of the time, fruitlessly applying for a governance post- having been a part of Macaulay's fall-out of favour over rule in India. Julia quietly kept the family purse together, with a mixture of extravagant largesse, under-cover earnings from her 'amateur' photography, and money from lodgings in a half of her house. 

Never embarrassing her husband as 'Head of the Family' she earned herself, and an example of her desire to please follows-

Charles liked to walk around the garden, as a semi recluse, he did not go out much, but liked to walk and study the classics.

Julia used stealth and planning, and whilst he slept had a great expanse of lawn laid overnight, to please her older husband whom she heralded as-

'Behold! The most beautiful old man on earth'

Here he is photographed by her,

I reckon she was a rather lovely force of nature Emily,

as I think you are too, birthday girl!

Your ever-loving Grandmother,

GiGi xxx