Eliza Fanny Manning's Artwork, 1880

Back in November I blipped a beautiful portrait in pastels of my great-great-grandfather, Captain William Henry Williams. It was drawn by his niece, Miss Eliza Fanny Manning, his sister's daughter and my first cousin, thrice removed.

Eliza was a published illustrator and is one of a number of artists who provided illustrations to a poetry collection called Moral Poems and published in 1880. The author of the book is Mrs C F Alexander - probably best known for her children's hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful - and the Victorian poems are typically devout, peopled by 'weary women who stay to their task' and 'wives who sweep the hearthstone bright'.

My blip shows Eliza's illustration to The Little Sister Left in Charge, that begins

Sleep, little brother, you must not awaken,
Till mother comes back to her baby again:
Weary and long is the way she has taken,
Over the common, and through the green glen.
Up the steep hill, by the path that is nearest,
Thinking of you, as she hurries along,
Sleep then, and dream that she's watching you, dearest,
Rocking your cradle, and singing her song.

And that is just the first verse of four!

I like all the little background details in this drawing, particularly the cat on the window sill washing its face with one paw, which suggests that she was a cat-lover - something that runs (and purrs) in the family. You can see where 'Mother is coming' home, illustrating the same poem, in my Extras.

In the index Eliza's artwork is credited to Miss E F Manning, and my second Extra is another of Miss Manning's illustrations, this one to accompany The Shepherd Boy, in idyllic, romantic, pastoral pose -

Upon the mountain's sunny side,
Far up the grassy steep,
All day the little shepherd boy
Keeps watch beside his sheep.

- and so it continues for a further 13 verses.

My third Extra shows Eliza's handwritten dedication to her uncle. Altogether, she contributed ten illustrations to the book. Perhaps another rainy day, I'll blip more.

Incidentally, over two years ago, I blipped a torn pencil drawing, which I'd inherited signed HM. I didn't know then who'd drawn it, but now that I've been investigating my ancestry, I suspect it was drawn by Eliza's mother, Honoria Manning, nee Williams. (It also negates a line in my poem - there is an HM on my family tree!)