nd House. The
marriage, however, was irksome, both to the middle-aged painter and the
vivacious child of sixteen, whose words, taken from her autobiography,
are the best comment we possess on this incident:

"Many inaccurate stories have been told of my brief married
life, and I have never contradicted them--they were so
manifestly absurd. Those who can imagine the surroundings into
which I, a raw girl, undeveloped in all except my training as
an actress, was thrown, can imagine the situation.... I
wondered at the new life and worshipped it because of its
beauty. When it suddenly came to an end I was thunderstruck;
and refused at first to consent to the separation which was
arranged for me in much the same way as my marriage had
been.... There were no vulgar accusations on either side, and
the words I read in the deed of separation, 'incompatibility
of temper,' more than covered the ground. Truer still would
have been 'incompatibility of _occupation_,' and the
interference of well-meaning friends.

"'The marriage was not a happy one,' they will probably say
after my death, and I forestall them by saying that it was in
many ways very happy indeed. What bitterness there was effaced
itself in a very remarkable way." (_The Story of My Life_,
1908.)

In 1867, at the age of fifty, without his application or knowledge,
Watts was made an Associate, and in the following year a full Member, of
the Royal Academy. Younger men had preceded him in this honour, but
doubtless Watts' modesty and independence secured for him a certain
amount of official neglect. The old studio in Melbury Road, Kensington,
was pulled down in 1868, and a new house was built suited to the painter
who had chosen for himself a hermit life. The house was built in such a
way as would avoid the possibility of entertaining guests, and was
entirely dedicated to work. Watts continued his series of official
portraits, and many of the most beautiful mythical paintings followed
this change. Five years later, Watts was found at Freshwater in the Isle
of Wight, and in 1876 he secured what he had so long needed, the
sympathetic help and co-operation in his personal and artistic aims, in
Mr. and Mrs. Russell Barrington, his neighbours.

In 1877 Watts decided, in conformity with his views on patriotic art, to
give his pictures to the nation, and there followed shortly after,