Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Series Editor’s Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction: Frames of Mind
- 1 John Stuart Mill’s Ascent
- 2 Matthew Arnold’s Beatitude
- 3 John Morley’s Impersonal Domesticity
- 4 Robert Browning’s Domestic Gods
- Conclusion: ‘Presentness Is Grace’
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - John Morley’s Impersonal Domesticity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 May 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Series Editor’s Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction: Frames of Mind
- 1 John Stuart Mill’s Ascent
- 2 Matthew Arnold’s Beatitude
- 3 John Morley’s Impersonal Domesticity
- 4 Robert Browning’s Domestic Gods
- Conclusion: ‘Presentness Is Grace’
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
When John and Rose Morley began house-hunting in late December 1885, the couple had intended to secure accommodation close to Westminster. As Member of Parliament for Newcastle upon Tyne, Morley – who had ventured into politics with the by-election of 1883, having distinguished himself as a journalist and editor – found the daily commute from Wimbledon, where the couple had been residing, increasingly onerous. After viewing a number of houses that were centrally located but incommodious and lacking in amenities, however, Morley lamented to his sister, Grace, that the experience was ‘very doleful’. The Morleys settled instead on a suburban property. Morley wrote to Grace in April 1886 to share the news:
The scene of our future glories is to be at Elm Park Gardens – a great pack of dwellings in S. Kensington, about six minutes’ walk from Gloucester Road station, and on the Fulham Road, almost close to the Brompton hospital. There is an immense large garden belonging to all the houses collectively, and the rooms are wonderfully light and bright. The house has never been inhabited, and we have the privilege of choosing our own papers, paint, tiles, etc., etc. – which we like very much. Also we are well pleased to go into a place which has not the heart-sickening smell of old London houses. The servants will have very fair quarters indeed – and on the whole, considering the awful dog-holes of London, we are more than satisfied. The rent is more than I like, but we shall cut down at some other end … We shall migrate as soon as the painters will let us – probably in about a month's time. It is very handsome and mighty genteel, and you will not be at all ashamed to come to see us. (qtd in Hirst 1927: II, 277)
With its excellent transportation links, South Kensington offered spacious, newly constructed houses with modern amenities and rents lower than in central London. In writing about his new residence, Morley does not boast about the location. Rather, he refers to the property's newness and spaciousness and the freedom to express individual preferences in decoration.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Victorian Liberalism and Material CultureSynergies of Thought and Place, pp. 130 - 176Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2018