Isabel Burton

“ Though the beetle's foot o'er the basil crawl?'
And though Arachne hath webbed her toil.
Shall disgrace attach to the princely hall
And the pearl's clear drop from the oyster-shell,
Comes it not on the royal brow to dwell ?
On the Guarded Tablet was writ by Fate,
A double self for each man ere born,
Who shall love his love and shall hate his hate. ”

“ Captain Burton, who had learnt something of sculpturing when a boy in Italy, took the sculptor's pencil from Mr Papworth's hand, and with a few touches here and there made a perfect likeness and expression. As I stood by, I was very much impressed by this singular coincidence.'
A MOULDED mask at my feet I found,
With the drawn-down mouth and the deepen'd eye,
More lifeless still than the marbles 'round —
Very death amid dead life's mimicry ”

“ Captain Burton had recently returned from Africa. The annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science had just taken place at Bath, and poor Captain Speke's sudden death was still fresh in our memories. "We had been invited by the artist to look at Captain Speke's bust, upon which he was then employed. Mr Papworth said to Captain Burton, "I only took the cast after death, and never knew him alive ”