. George Meredith; his life and friends in relation to his work. rmet. Violent sports and long walks hedisliked, so literature and the art of cuisine werethe bonds that united him to Meredith, who gavehim the name of The Young Mauritius and tookthis friend as the model for The Wise Youth inRichard Feverel. In these pleasant days at Seafordthe Merediths and FitzGerald used to lodge atMarine Terrace with the village carpenter and wheel-wright, Richard Ockenden by name, whose wife wasa wonderful cook—and the chief attraction for aprolonged stay in Sussex. Mrs Ockendens culinaryfame has been recor
. George Meredith; his life and friends in relation to his work. rmet. Violent sports and long walks hedisliked, so literature and the art of cuisine werethe bonds that united him to Meredith, who gavehim the name of The Young Mauritius and tookthis friend as the model for The Wise Youth inRichard Feverel. In these pleasant days at Seafordthe Merediths and FitzGerald used to lodge atMarine Terrace with the village carpenter and wheel-wright, Richard Ockenden by name, whose wife wasa wonderful cook—and the chief attraction for aprolonged stay in Sussex. Mrs Ockendens culinaryfame has been recorded by her distinguished lodgerspen in several places. In a dialogue sent to MissJanet Duff Gordon, FitzGerald voices the nice con-siderations of one of the Ockenden dinners (for, asSir Francis Burnand states, his well-thought-outarrangement of every meal, breakfast, lunch, anddinner, was the result of calm study, guided by suchsound common-sense), whilst Meredith himselfenacts Poet. FitzGerald translated The Crowned Hippolytus of Euripides, amongother X , OS B 5 « y C-i f> ^ £ a M OK o z THE HOUSE ON THE BEACH 87 But Mrs Ockendens fame is chiefly preserved inMerediths excellent little story, The House on theBeach, wherein she and her husband figure underthe slightly changed name of Crickledon, the villagecarpenter and his wife, with whom lodged theVan Diemen Smiths and Herbert Fellingham atCrikswich, which place is, of course, intended forSeaford. In Fellingham may be detected someresemblance to Meredith himself with his qualitiesof satire and laughter, his similar profession andpleasures—such as a long walk and a good dinnerto follow. Although The House on the Beach was not pub-lished until 1877 (in The New Quarterly Magazine),it was commenced some sixteen years earlier, inthe days when Meredith frequently stayed at Sea-ford, Writing to Mrs Ross in May, 1861, he men-tioned three literary works he then had in hand:Emilia Belloni; A Womans Battle (Rhoda Fleming
Size: 1025px × 2437px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, bookidcu3192401352, bookyear1920
