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ROBERT WILLIAMS BUCHANAN (1841-1901)

ROBERT BUCHANAN TIMELINE

3: 1876 - 1885

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1876

1876

Corinne published privately.

January 1876

The serialisation of The Shadow of the Sword begins in the January issue of the Gentleman’s Magazine.
‘A Critical Paper on Æschylus and Victor Hugo’ published in the New Quarterly Magazine.

Buchanan decides to sue The Examiner for libel, claiming £5000 damages.

15 February 1876

In the Common Pleas Division of the High Court an unsuccessful attempt is made by The Examiner’s lawyers to get Buchanan to reveal all of his pseudonymous and anonymous attacks on members of the ‘Fleshly School’ during the past ten years.

19 February 1876

The Examiner scotches the rumour that The Queen of Connaught was written by Charles Reade:
“The authorship of the ‘Queen of Connaught,’ a novel published some little time since, and wrongly ascribed, for no apparent reason, to Mr. Charles Reade, is now believed to be more rightly attributed to a lady a near connection of Mr. Robert Buchanan.”

13 March 1876

Buchanan writes to the Daily News concerning Walt Whitman, who has been reported in the Athenæum as being in dire financial need. Buchanan suggests a subscription scheme be set up in England to acquire copies of Whitman’s new book.

14 March 1876

William Michael Rosetti writes to the Daily News explaining that he wrote the piece about Whitman in the Athenæum and has already instituted a subscription scheme to help the poet.

16 March 1876

Buchanan writes to the Daily News:
“Meantime I take cognisance of the letter from Mr. William Rossetti, published in your columns of to-day, and as that gentleman is, I am glad to see, prepared to undertake the organisation of a fund for the purchase of Whitman’s works, I think all future correspondence, subscriptions, &c., should be addressed to him. For my own part I shall be glad to co-operate in any scheme for Whitman’s benefit.”

April 1876

‘Lucretius and Modern Materialism’ published in the New Quarterly Magazine.

June 1876

Visits John Coleman at the Queen’s Theatre. Coleman invites him to dinner at his house in Wigmore Street where Buchanan is first introduced to Charles Reade.

Coleman recalls the meeting in his book, Fifty Years of an Actor’s Life, published in 1904:

“Next, a remarkable-looking man of forty and a girl scarce half that age, neither of whom I had ever seen before. He was clad in an ample Inverness cape of grey frieze, with a white muffler twisted round his huge neck. His fierce blue eyes asserted themselves defiantly through his blue binoculars. His hair was a mass of golden brown, and his beard of burnished gold. His assertant nose (too prononcé for Greek, yet not enough for Roman) and dilated nostrils, his leonine head and chest, combined with a certain “come if you dare” demeanour, suggested the very image of a Viking on the war-path. The girl was tall, slender, dark-eyed, dark-haired, clad in some dark clinging stuff, and there were even then suggestions of statuesque outlines, which indeed afterwards became more amply and superbly developed. He carried a huge, hideous “gamp,” pointed bayonet-wise at my breast, as if about to charge and pin me to the wall behind. The girl, who had evidently never penetrated Stage-land before, gazed curiously at me and the glittering paraphernalia of armour and jewellery scattered around, as who should say, “Where am I, and what manner of man is this player-king?” While they were doubtless summing me up, I took stock of them; hence I recall thus vividly my first impressions of the author of The Shadow of the Sword and London Poems and his pupil and protegée, the authoress of The Queen of Connaught.”

According to John Coleman’s memoirs his first meeting with Buchanan occurred shortly after the run of his production of Othello, starring Signor Salvini, at the Queen’s Theatre, which was closed on Monday 29th May, 1876.

26 June 1876

Corinne produced at the Lyceum Theatre, London.

29 June 1876

The case of Buchanan v. Taylor opens in the Common Pleas Division of the High Court before Mr. Justice Archibald and a Special Jury. Buchanan was suing Mr. Peter Taylor, M.P., proprietor of The Examiner, for £5000 damages, in relation to The Examiner’s publication of a review of Jonas Fisher falsely attributed to Buchanan, and Swinburne’s letter of 11 December, 1875, entitled ‘The Devil’s Due’.
Lord Southesk takes the stand and admits he is the author of Jonas Fisher. Buchanan takes the stand and the court is adjourned before the conclusion of his cross-examination.

30 June 1876

Second day of the trial. Buchanan’s cross-examination continues. No other witnesses are called and the defence counsel (Mr. Hawkins Q.C.) confines himself to an attack on Buchanan, reading extracts from ‘The Session of the Poets’, White Rose and Red and the original ‘Fleshly School’ article, and also referring to Buchanan’s praise of “the infamously indecent poetry of Mr. Walter Whitman”.

The diary of Edmund Gosse, who attended the trial on 30th June, contains this description of Buchanan:
“We could not help remarking his appearance. A pale dissipated-looking man, with reddish-yellow hair, moustache & whiskers, attired in a dirty white waistcoat & loud trowsers, altogether shabby-genteel and anything but gentleman-like.”

1 July 1876

Final day of the trial. According to the report in The Times, “Mr. Justice Archibald summed up the case at considerable length.” The jury retired for twenty minutes and returned with a verdict in favour of Buchanan but only awarding him £150 in damages.

3 July 1876

The Pall Mall Gazette publishes a satirical poem about the libel case which concludes with the following lines:

“Yes, my boy, this ought to cure you—reverlations such as these.
You will stick to butter, Dudley—butter, bacon, heggs, and cheese,
Rather than become a poet like them two as lately fought,
Bringin’ out their little wash-tubs, stupid-like, in hopen court;
And—to dab each other’s faces with the soapy froth and foam—
Washed their dirty clothes in public, which they might have washed at ’ome!”

8 July 1876

Final performance of Corinne at the Lyceum Theatre.

16 September 1876

An ‘Inaugural Address” written by Buchanan is performed by Miss Leighton (as Clio, the Muse of History) in John Coleman’s production of Henry V at the Queen’s Theatre.

November 1876

The Shadow of the Sword published by Richard Bentley and Son.
Advertised in The Times 30 November, 1876. Reviewed in  The Guardian 1 January, 1877.

1877

January 1877

The Dark Colleen, Harriett Jay’s second novel, published (anonymously) by Richard Bentley and Son.
Advertised in The Times 8 January, 1877.
Reviewed in the Daily News 30 January, 1877.

13 January 1877

A review of ‘The Theatres in 1876’ dismisses Corinne as follows:
“The year has closed as it began, with the performance of Macbeth; but during the temporary absence of Mrs. Bateman a play written by Mr. Buchanan was given, Corinne, though dealing with a dramatic, albeit well-worn subject, the French Revolution, was in itself so weak, both in construction and in writing, and, with one single exception, so worse than indifferently acted, that its life was brief indeed, nor is there much probability of its ever being revived from the limbo to which it was hastily consigned.”

15 January 1877

The Queen of Connaught, an adaptation of Harriett Jay’s novel by Buchanan and Jay, produced at the Olympic Theatre, London, starring Ada Cavendish.

March 1877

Balder the Beautiful published in the Contemporary Review in three parts (concluding in the May edition).

17 March 1877

Final (53rd) performance of The Queen of Connaught at the Olympic Theatre.

June 1877

Balder the Beautiful: a song of divine death published by William Mullan and Son.
Noted in ‘Books Received’ in The Graphic, 30 June, 1877. Reviewed in The Graphic, 21 July, 1877.

September 1877

‘The Newest Thing In Journalism’ published in the Contemporary Review.

Edmund Yates (whose paper, The World, was criticised in the article) responds with a letter, headed  “A Scrofulous Scotch Poet”, which contains a merciless personal attack on Buchanan.

25 October 1877

Letter to Browning (from the Dorset Square address) saying: “I have just returned to Town after a long spell in Ireland.”

Jay places the leaving of Rossport Lodge and Ireland soon after the publication of Balder the Beautiful. The letter to Browning mentions no imminent return, so one could assume that by October 1877, Buchanan and family had settled back in London. According to Jay:
“He took a furnished house in the neighbourhood of the Swiss Cottage, and for several years he continued to live in furnished houses in or near London.”
The Dorset Square address(es) had provided his London base since January 1874 (at least according to the Browning correspondence) and he also wrote from there in February 1878. However one can assume that once work started on his own magazine, Light, that Buchanan had a permanent residence somewhere in London. The return from Ireland and Light were presumably funded by the success of The Shadow of the Sword.

1878

5 February 1878

Writes to Browning asking him to contribute to a new journal which Buchanan intends to publish, starting around March 1st.

9 February 1878

An item in the The Bristol Mercury and Daily Post announces that Herman Vezin will shortly be appearing in the title role of Robert Buchanan’s play, The Flying Dutchman at the Queen’s Theatre, London.

The play never reached the stage. Buchanan, according to an item in The Examiner (22/6/1878), blamed the production of Henry Irving’s Vanderdecken (by W. G. Wills and Percy Fitzgerald) at the Lyceum on June 8th, 1878 for pre-empting his own version.

2 March 1878

The following footnote appears on page 759 of The Letters of Anthony Trollope, Volume 2, edited by N. John Hall (Stanford University Press, 1983):

‘On 2 March Buchanan had written that he would pay £100 for a story of 20,000 words, but asked, “Will you however strain a point for me so far as to add an additional 4000 words for £10?” He added, “I don’t presume to dictate, but we strongly desire a tale with great sexual interest.” (MS Bodleian.) Trollope’s story, “The Lady of Launay,” was the lead item in the first issue of Buchanan’s short-lived periodical Light; it appeared from 6 April to 11 May 1878, and was later reprinted in Why Frau Frohmann Raised Her Prices (1882).”

In 1861, Trollope had provided the London Review (in its first year) with two stories which had caused a bit of a public outcry on the basis of their low moral tone and Buchanan presumably was after something similar to help publicise his new journal.

3 March 1878

Trollope replies to Buchanan:

“Dear Mr. B
     You shall have the 24000 words for £110. A portion, probably the whole of the story shall be in your hands by the 18th. Inst. It shall be divided as you wish into 6 parts. You will, however, understand that when so written it must be published in 6 parts; i e not 5 or 7 or more. Will you please say on what day you will make payment. Each part shall contain 4000 words or not less.
                                                               A. T.”
(MS (Trollope’s copy) Bodleian.) The Letters of Anthony Trollope, Volume 2, page 759.

28 March 1878

Trollope writes to the Countess Von Bothmer:
“My dear Countess Von Bothmer,
     Robert Buchanan, whose name as that of a latter day poet you may know, asked me to write a story for a new periodical he was planning, and as he agreed to my terms, I have written it. That is all I know of the new periodical, which, as I have learned since, is to be called “Light.” If you wish, I will write a line to him saying that you may probably communicate with him.
     There is much in Literature which is just unintelligible. I do not know your other books, but it is to me very strange indeed that the author of German Home Life, should have any difficulty in finding a vehicle for her productions.
     I return the letters and will write to Mr Buchanan if you wish it.
                         very faithfully yours
                                Anthony Trollope”
(MS Parrish Collection) The Letters of Anthony Trollope, Volume 2, page 766.

30 March 1878

An advert for the first issue of Light: A Weekly Journal of Criticism and Belles Lettres in The Examiner lists the contents as:
“Mr. Gladstone’s First Election.
Death of a Czar, by R. D. Blackmore.
A Ballad, by the author of “St. Abe.”
The First Chapters of a New Story, by Anthony Trollope, entitled “The Lady of Launay.”
Criticism, Reviews, Social Essays, &c.”

Future contributors include:
Charles Reade, Anthony Trollope, R. D. Blackmore, Thomas Hardy, ‘The Author of “Ginx’s Baby,” &c., Mrs. Riddell, Mrs. MacQuoid, ‘The Author of “The Queen of Connaught,” &c., John Dennis, Mrs. Oliphant, Hon. Roden Noel, Davenport Adams, G. Barnett Smith, ‘The Author of “St. Abe.”

The advert concludes:
     ‘“LIGHT” will be issued every Saturday, price 6d., and on the first of every month, in Coloured Wrapper (under the title of “LIGHT MAGAZINE,”) price 6d. The Monthly issue will consist of the Feuilletons, or Supplements, alone.”

The offices of Light are located at 157, Strand, London.

An advert for the first issue in The Graphic has a slightly different list of contents:

“Mr. Gladstone’s First Election.
Representative Women.
Death of a Czar. By R. D. Blackmore.
A Ballad. By the author of “St. Abe.”
The Impulsive Lady of Croome Castle. By Thomas Hardy.
Criticisms, Reviews, Social Essays, Open Council.

Also the First Chapter of a New Story, entitled
THE LADY OF LAUNAY.
By ANTHONY TROLLOPE.”

I find it interesting that the adverts for Light have no mention of Robert Buchanan, either as editor or contributor (although his identity as the ‘author of “St. Abe”’ had been revealed five years before).

6 April 1878

First issue of Buchanan’s new weekly journal, Light, is published.

13 April 1878

An advert for the second issue of Light in The Pall Mall Gazette lists the contents as:

“The Tale of a Telegram.
The Rival Secretaries.
The Vestals of St. Jingo.
Twelve Months’ Imprisonment with Hard Labour. By One who has just left Prison.
Public Gossip and Open Council.
Reviews, Essays, Dramatic Criticism.
Also,
“Match-Making in Ireland,” by the Author of “The Queen of Connaught;”
The continuation of “The Impulsive Lady of Croome Castle,” by Thomas Hardy; and
Chapters 3 and 4 of “The Lady of Launay,” by Anthony Trollope.”

September 1878

‘Julia Cytherea’ published in the Contemporary Review.

26 October 1878

Final issue of Light.

5 November 1878

Harriett Jay writes to Blackwood’s Magazine asking if they would be interested in publishing her latest novel (presumably Madge Dunraven). The address on the letter is Croft Villa, 88 Belsize Road, St Johns Wood, (London) which is presumably the Buchanan family home at this time.

As well as the MS. of the novel, Harriett Jay also encloses a letter of introduction from Charles Reade and reviews of her previous works.

1879

1879

According to an article about Harriett Jay published in April, 1888, in The Theatre, “it was in 1879 that Miss Jay first trod the boards with a touring company to get a little insight into theatrical life.”
Harriett Jay’s entry in The Dramatic Peerage: Personal Notes and Professional Sketches of the Actors and Actresses of the London Stage, 1892 adds a few more details:
“Although in receipt of a good income from her pen, she decided to take to the stage. Knowing the manager of a country company, she prevailed upon him to let her join it, and her first part was the Player Queen in Hamlet. She then studied for some time under Mrs. Stirling, and prepared herself to undertake the character of Kathleen in the dramatised version of her own novel, “The Queen of Connaught.”

This is the only information I have on Harriett Jay’s preparation for her new career as an actress.  Her London debut in The Queen of Connaught did not take place until November 1880.

3 January 1879

Harriett Jay writes to Blackwood’s Magazine again, asking for their decision on publishing her novel and complaining about the long delay.

Madge Dunraven was not published in Blackwood’s Magazine.

April 1879

‘The Battle of Isandula’, a poem inspired by the defeat of the British by the Zulus at Isandlwana on 22nd January 1879, published in the Contemporary Review.

Presumably the scale of this defeat, a British force of 1,800 troops overwhelmed by 20,000 Zulus, caused Buchanan to adopt a decidedly jingoistic tone in his poem. It was never included in his later collected works.

3 June 1879

Buchanan writes to Browning asking if he would like to call on him at 97 Burton Road, Brixton:
“The place is very convenient either by cab, bus, or train from Westminster. Cab fare from Charing Cross, 2/- I mention this to show you that, though Brixton sounds a long way off, it isn’t! And it is really very pretty just now.”

Presumably Buchanan moved to the Brixton address from St Johns Wood, and remained there for several months - there is a letter to Nicholas Trübner dated 27th February, 1880, from the same address.

17 June 1879

Buchanan’s final (surviving) letter to Browning repeating the invitation to call.

September 1879

Madge Dunraven, Harriett Jay’s third novel, published by Richard Bentley and Son.
Advertised in The Times 17 September, 1879.
Reviewed in The Graphic 6 December, 1879.

October 1879

Buchanan (and family) visit Ireland again. They arrive in Mulranny, near Westport, County Mayo, on the day when Mr. Sidney Smith, Lord Sligo’s land-agent, had been attacked by an armed gang. The incident was reported in The Times on 3rd. October, 1879.

Jay recounts the incident in Chapter XXI, but places it after the failure of Light (which would have been October 1878.)
The incident in question is very similar to the Devil’s Bridge scene in The English Rose by Buchanan and Sims, produced in 1890.

November 1879

Buchanan and family leave Ireland and return to London.

1880

January 1880

‘Justinian’ published in the Contemporary Review.

27 February 1880

Writes to Nicholas Trübner (from the Brixton address) about publishing The City of Dream. The book is to be published anonymously in three volumes and Buchanan intends to dedicate it to Herbert Spencer.

The City of Dream was not published until April, 1888 by Chatto & Windus. It appeared as one volume, under Buchanan’s name, and was dedicated to John Bunyan.

August 1880

Letter to William Canton from the Isle of Man. Buchanan is there on business and says that they are currently living at Hampton Wick. He writes:
“The details of your letter are very painful to read, and I deeply sympathise with you: the more so, as my own wife is just now dangerously ill with cancer.”

Autumn 1880

Mary Buchanan’s health improves slightly and they move to a furnished house at 5 Larkhall Rise, Clapham.

5 November 1880

The Guardian prints the following announcement:
“Miss Harriett Jay, the novelist, is about to make her début as an actress in the Olympic version of her own novel, “The Queen of Connaught.” She will appear for the first time in London at the Crystal Palace Matinée on November 17, and will play the part originally sustained by Miss Ada Cavendish.”

18 November 1880

Harriett Jay’s London début as an actress in The Queen of Connaught, at a Crystal Palace matinée.

‘Cherubino’ in the The London Figaro reviewed her performance as follows:
“Much curiosity, was awakened by the novelty of an authoress appearing as an actress—an event scarcely paralleled in the present generation. The result, on the whole, warranted the very hazardous attempt, chiefly on account of the young lady’s very unusual personal advantages. Miss Jay is very young, tall, and graceful, with a good voice and expressive face, and her acting, though far from perfect, showed careful study and preparation. At the conclusion, in answer to a boisterous call, Mr Neville led Miss Jay forward, and warmly shook hands with her before the audience. There is no doubt that the lady will be an acquisition to the stage.”

5 December 1880

Writes to George R. Sims (from 5, Larkhall Rise, Clapham) complimenting his Ballads of Babylon.

22 December 1880

The Nine Days Queen, starring Harriett Jay in the role of Lady Jane Grey, has a matinée performance at the Gaiety Theatre.
The review in The Scotsman is favourable towards the play and Harriett Jay:
“The principal character, Lady Jane Grey, was played by Miss Harriet Jay, a lady who, as the authoress of “The Dark Colleen” and “The Queen of Connaught,” has won a high reputation as a novelist. Miss Jay has only once before made her appearance on the stage, and her performance was indubitably one of high promise. She has, as was only to be expected, much to learn, but still her acting is sympathetic and intelligent, and she evidently spares no pains to embody the author’s ideas. With more experience and confidence, and a more entire abandonment of herself to the situation, she will one day be an acquisition to the stage.”

Whereas the critic of Reynolds’s Newspaper is less so:
“Although lavish applause, floral tributes, and numerous calls marked Wednesday morning’s introduction of a new play and a new actress to the London public, it is very doubtful if a “Nine Days’ Queen” will become the proverbial nine days’ wonder, or if Miss Harriett Jay will ever attain that position on the stage which she has done as a writer of fiction. Judging by a single performance, the old saw of a cobbler sticking to his last is in this talented lady’s case singularly applicable. ... Miss Harriett Jay, in the trying part of Lady Jane Grey, if she never quite attained excellence, at least did not fall below mediocrity. Her most successful effort was in the last act, where the short-lived Queen sees her husband being led to the scaffold. Her agony, though somewhat hysterical, bore the stamp of truthfulness to nature. A word of praise is due to the prompter, but for whose distinct delivery a goodly portion of the dialogue would have been unheard.”

1881

14 February 1881

The Nine Days Queen, starring Harriett Jay, opens at the Royal Connaught Theatre.
Buchanan also provides the one-act curtain-raiser, Only A Vagabond, based upon his poem, ‘Attorney Sneak’.

March 1881

A Child of Nature published by Richard Bentley and Son.
Advertised in The Times 3 March, 1881.
Reviewed in The Academy 19 March, 1881.

A Child of Nature was intended to be Buchanan’s first novel, but was rejected in favour of The Shadow of the Sword when he embarked on the collaboration with William Canton. ‘The Fair Pilot of Loch Uribol: A Yachting Episode’ published in The Saint Pauls Magazine, July 1872, forms part of the novel.

12 March 1881

Final performance of The Nine Days Queen at the Royal Connaught Theatre.

21 March 1881

The Nine Days Queen, starring Harriett Jay, is performed for a week at the Gaiety Theatre, Glasgow.

3 April 1881

The date of the 1881 census. Robert Buchanan and Harriett Jay are listed as boarders at the lodging house of George Remnant at 3 Guildford Place, St Pancras, London. Buchanan (39) now lists himself as ‘Author and Dramatist’. Harriett Jay (Authoress & Actress) gives her age as 24 (making her birth year 1857) and her birthplace as Kent. Meanwhile, Mary Buchanan is staying with her elder sister, Eliza Dear, in East Ham.

1881 census returns:

Robert Buchanan and Harriett Jay

Mary Buchanan

8 April 1881

Writes to Augustin Daly suggesting he produce The Nine Days Queen, starring Harriett Jay, in America in the autumn.

“Miss Jay’s books are well known in America, & her power & personal beauty would carry all before her in America. The play has won golden opinions here, & for the actress, she will soon be recognised as at the very top of the tree.
     If you think of it, let me know at once, as other arrangements are pending. I would bring over play & leading actress, & myself superintend production in New York.”

Although there is no year on the letter, the fact that Buchanan is trying to get an American production of The Nine Days Queen off the ground (and also the fact that the address on the letter is ‘Care of Messrs Strahan’) would indicate 1881. As such, it reveals that Buchanan was considering going to America three years before he actually managed the trip.

7 May 1881

The Exiles of Erin: or St. Abe and his Seven Wives (based loosely on Buchanan’s poem), starring Harriett Jay, produced at the Olympic Theatre.
The review in The Graphic (14th May) concludes:
“... the cast received fair recognition from the audience, which, comprising a number of the class who delight in sensational scenes, were at times prodigal of applause, and were laughingly joined in their demonstrations by playgoers who manifestly treated the whole performance as a joke.”

9 May 1881

The Shadow of the Sword produced at the Theatre Royal, Brighton by John Coleman.
The Stage gives it a rave review, whereas The New York Times calls it “a most complete failure”, although it acknowledges that the novel is “quite a modern classic.”

13 May 1881

The title of The Exiles of Erin: or St. Abe and his Seven Wives,  is changed to The Mormons: or St. Abe and his Seven Wives.

Summer 1881

Buchanan and family move to Southend-on-Sea.

2 June 1881

Final performance of The Mormons: or St. Abe and his Seven Wives  at the Olympic Theatre.

3 June 1881

There is a benefit performance for Harriett Jay at the Olympic Theatre, the programme consisting of A Madcap Prince (in which she appears as the heroine, Elinor Vane) and the final act of The Nine Days’ Queen.

July 1881

The Priest’s Blessing, or Poor Patrick’s Progress from this World to a Better by Harriett Jay, published by F. V. White and Co.
Advertised in The Times 29 July, 1881.
Reviewed in The Graphic 10 September, 1881.

September 1881

Harriett Jay tours the provinces with George Rignold’s company in Tom Taylor’s play, Clancarty, appearing in Birmingham and Glasgow.

November 1881

God and the Man published by Chatto & Windus.
Advertised in The Times 7 November, 1881.
Reviewed in The Graphic 10 December, 1881.
The novel includes a dedicatory verse ‘To an Old Enemy’ - an apology to Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Two Men and a Maid by Harriett Jay, published by F. V. White and Co.
Advertised in The Times 19 November, 1881.
Reviewed in The Graphic 17 December, 1881.

According to Jay, God and the Man was first serialised in the Day of Rest magazine.

6 November 1881

Letter to F.J. Furnivall (founder of the Browning Society), enclosing a copy of God and the Man. Buchanan writes:
“Like Browning himself, I have suffered for years from the persecution of a literary Inquisition; and as it is such men as you that scatter light & fight on the side of minorities, I would gladly secure your sympathy in more or less measure.” He goes on to criticise the Athenaeum “a journal which, to my mind, is a synonym for nepotism & cowardly malignity.”
The address on the letter is 38 Queen Anne Street, Cavendish Square, which was presumably Buchanan’s London base at this time.

7 November 1881

Death of Mary Buchanan, aged 36.

10 November 1881

A second letter to F.J. Furnivall from 2 Devereux Terrace, Southend, contains the following:
“I thought to be in Queen Anne St temporarily this week, but on Monday night my beloved wife died here. While this great darkness is upon me, I cannot respond to your kindness as I could wish; but I look forward to seeing you some day soon.”

13 November 1881

Funeral of Mary Buchanan. She is buried in the churchyard of St. John the Baptist in Southend-on-Sea. In a letter to Roden Noel concerning the funeral arrangements (quoted in Jay) Buchanan writes:
“God bless you for your kind words. I see it all as you see it, but ah! so darkly. If this parting is only for a time, I see its blessedness—but if, as I dread and fear, it is a parting forever, what then? Ah, God, what then? ... She looks so beautiful in her coffin. I feel as if she were my child too, child and wife; for she had a child’s angelic disposition.”

c. 1881

Chatto & Windus take over the copyright of Buchanan’s poetry.

1882

1882

According to Chapter XXIII of Jay:
“After the death of his wife he wished to remain quietly at Southend, but instead of following his own inclination he listened to the advice of his friends and again took to roaming. After a few months spent in France he returned to London, settling again in a furnished house, and taking from time to time various trips to Southend, which little town had by association become very dear to him.”

March 1882

Ballads of Life, Love, and Humour published by Chatto & Windus.
Advertised in The Times 23 March, 1882.
Reviewed in The Pall Mall Gazette 8 April, 1882.

The book mainly collects Buchanan’s poems previously published in magazines, although there are a couple of selections from Idyls and Legends of Inverburn. The book is dedicated to Harriett Jay with the following verse:

“TO HARRIETT.

Here at the Half-way House of Life I linger,
Worn with the way, a weary-hearted Singer,
                    Resting a little space;
And lo! the good God sends me, as a token
Of peace and blessing (else my heart were broken),
                    The sunbeam of thy face.

My fear falls from me like a garment; slowly
New strength returns upon me, calm and holy;
                    I kneel, and I atone. . .
Thy hand is clasped in mine—we lean together. .
Henceforward, through the sad or shining weather,
                    I shall not walk alone.”

The book also includes an announcement of the planned reprint by Chatto & Windus of Buchanan’s poetry in five volumes:
Vol. I: London Poems.
Vol. II: Meg Blane, and other narrative poems.
Vol. III: The Book of Orm, etc.
Vol. IV: Balder The Beautiful.
Vol. V: St. Abe, White Rose and Red, etc.

Of the proposed volumes, I’ve only come across Chatto & Windus editions of the following:
The Book of Orm (1882)
White Rose and Red (1882)
London Poems (1883)
 

7 March 1882

A letter from Buchanan published in Study and Stimulants; or, the Use of Intoxicants and Narcotics in Relation to Intellectual Life, as Illustrated by Personal Communications on the Subject, from Men or Letters and of Science edited by A. Arthur Reade (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott and Co., Manchester: Abel Heywood and Son, 1883) gives his views on smoking and drinking:

“I am myself no authority on the subject concerning which you write. I drink myself, but not during the hours of work; and I smoke—pretty habitually. My own experience and belief is, that both alcohol and tobacco, like most blessings, can be turned into curses by habitual self-indulgence. Physiologically speaking, I believe them both to be invaluable to humankind. The cases of dire disease generated by total abstinence from liquor are even more terrible than those caused by excess. With regard to tobacco, I have a notion that it is only dangerous where the vital organism, and particularly the nervous system, is badly nourished.”

April 1882

Selected Poems published by Chatto & Windus.
Advertised in The Pall Mall Gazette 8 April, 1882.
Reviewed in the Liverpool Mercury 26 May, 1882.

This volume mainly contains selections from Buchanan’s other books of poetry (Inverburn, London Poems, North Coast, Orm, Balder and White Rose and Red). It also includes ‘The Ballad of Judas Iscariot’ and ‘The Story of David Gray.’
Buchanan dedicates the book to his late wife:

“TO MARY.

     Weeping and sorrowing, yet in sure and certain hope of a heavenly resurrection, I place these poor flowers of verse on the grave of my beloved Wife, who, with eyes of truest love and tenderness, watched them growing for more than twenty years.

                                             ROBERT BUCHANAN.
Southend, February, 1882.”

8 April 1882

Lucy Brandon (adapted from Bulwer-Lytton’s Paul Clifford) produced at a matinée at the Imperial Theatre, Westminster, with Harriett Jay in the title role. It runs for a week of afternoon performances.

The Shadow of the Sword produced at the Olympic Theatre, following a provincial tour.

In November the managers of the Imperial Theatre, Charles May and Richard Mansell, ended up in the bankruptcy court due to an unpaid debt to Buchanan of £76 in regard to the production of Lucy Brandon.

9 April 1882

Death of Dante Gabriel Rossetti on Easter Sunday.

12 April 1882

Buchanan writes to The Era (from the Imperial Theatre) pointing out that The Shadow of the Sword has been substantially altered by John Coleman. With regard to Lucy Brandon he writes:
“Although some of your contemporaries have been kind enough to attribute the lavish applause on its first production to a claque of friends (who must have been present also on the second afternoon, since the same enthusiasm was repeated and the author called and recalled again), I really think they are exaggerating. If not, I have more friends than I dreamed of. I never counted London dramatic critics among them, however; nor do I expect fair play when gentlemen of the press, on account of some slight inconvenience, loudly proclaim at the doors their intention of having vengeance.”

29 April 1882

The Era publishes a reply from John Coleman and another letter from Buchanan in which he offers two words of advice to his fellow authors. The first:
‘“Never under any circumstances allow an actor or manager, however ‘experienced,’ to alter your text at his own wild will, and never, at any rate, have your name attached to a production which is one-third your own and two-thirds interpolation, which is cast and rehearsed without your supervision, and which, when produced, seems like some hideous nightmare, instead of your own sane invention.” If this advice is listened to, authors will avoid my cruel experience during the performance of The Shadow of the Sword at the Olympic Theatre.’
The second:
‘“Avoid business transactions with managers whom you discover, after a brief acquaintance, to be in pecuniary difficulties.” Some months ago the managers of the Imperial Theatre accepted my play of Lucy Brandon, agreed to mount it liberally, to procure a first-class company, and to “run it for, at least, five weeks.” As a guarantee of good faith they introduced me to their “monied” partner, who also subscribed my agreement. To make a long story short, this man of money turned out in good time to be a man of straw—or a man, at all events, who cared not a straw for his liabilities; and the piece was hardly produced when the storm burst. In the innocence of my heart, I had disbursed considerable sums, to tide the management over “temporary” difficulties while their capitalist was “realising.” Every penny of the first week’s takings was spent in paying old arrears, and when Saturday came there was no “treasury” either for the unfortunate author, who was so much out of pocket, or for the still more unfortunate artistes, who had laboured so zealously to make the drama the success I still affirm it to have been.’

25 April 1882

Robert Buchanan writes to The Era protesting at the rumour which has appeared in several papers stating that he and Harriett Jay have been secretly married in Switzerland.

May 1882

The Martyrdom of Madeline published by Chatto & Windus.
Advertised in The Times 25 May, 1882.
Reviewed in The Graphic 24 June, 1882.
The reviews are generally disappointing and Buchanan is criticised for including characters who are lightly disguised satirical versions of real people.

6 May 1882

Another letter from John Coleman in The Era continues the argument over The Shadow of the Sword and also gives the following account of his own involvement in Buchanan’s theatrical affairs:
‘... I introduced him and his dramas to Mr Neville, who accepted The Queen of Connaught. I brought Mr Buchanan’s sister-in-law on the stage, giving my tuition without fee or reward. I paid him for The Shadow of the Sword before the play was produced in London; in addition to which I gave him my adaptation of The Mormons. “On their own merits modest men are dumb,” and you will doubtless observe that my amour propre as author, adapter, what you will, is not excessive; therefore, when this drama failed, although convinced it would have succeeded under other auspices, I did not think it generous to direct public attention to the (with one or two exceptions) inefficient cast, the injudicious alterations, and bungling stage-management which murdered The Mormons.’

9 May 1882

Buchanan replies (from the Grosvenor Club) to John Coleman’s letter in The Era (published 13th May):
“I owe you my best thanks for your insertion of Mr John Coleman’s last letter in your columns; since I gladly purchase for a little coarse abuse the admission that Mr Coleman did alter and mutilate my play, and that he is the author or adaptor of The Mormons.”

18 May 1882

Writes to Hall Caine from 30 Boulevard Ste Beuve, Boulogne-Sur-Mer, France after reading Caine’s memorial to Rossetti in The Academy:

“I have often regretted my old criticism on your friend, not so much because it was stupid, but because, after all, I doubt one poet’s right to criticise another. For the rest, I have long been of opinion that Rossetti was a great spirit; and in that belief I inscribed to him my ‘God and the Man.’
     I suppose it was lack of courage which kept me from putting his name boldly on the preprint of my book; but had I dreamed he was ill or ailing, how eagerly would I not have done so! Still, I cannot conceive anyone mistaking the words of that dedication. Some people have been foolish enough to take it as addressed to Swinburne; but every line of it is against that supposition. I wonder now, if Rossetti himself knew of, and understood, that inscription? Perhaps you could tell me, and to ask you I write this letter. It would be a sincere satisfaction to me to know that he did read it, and accepted it in the spirit in which it was written.”

Buchanan writes that he is on his way to Paris and gives 30 Queen Anne St., Cavendish Square as a contact address.

During his stay in Paris, Buchanan reads Georges Ohnet’s novel, Le Maitre de Forges, which he then adapts (without permission) for the stage under the title Lady Clare.

This letter is published in Hall Caine, the Man and the Novelist by Charles Frederick Kenyon (London: Greening & Co., Ltd., 1901 - p. 79-80). In Hall Caine’s autobiography, the letter is ‘dramatised’ as Buchanan’s first meeting with Caine.
 

25 October 1882

Charles May and Richard Mansell of the Imperial Theatre appear in the Bankruptcy Court due to a petition from Buchanan for a debt of £76 in regard to the production of Lucy Brandon.

22 November 1882

Harriett Jay appears in a special matinée performance of A Madcap Prince at the Gaiety Theatre. The last act of The Nine Days Queen is also performed.

29 November 1882

Harriett Jay appears in a matinée performance of The Nine Days Queen at the Gaiety Theatre.

December 1882

My Connaught Cousins by Harriett Jay, published by F. V. White and Co.
Advertised in The Times 5 December, 1882.
Reviewed in The Daily News 29 December, 1882.

The Hebrid Isles. Wanderings in the Land of Lorne and the Outer Hebrides. A revised edition of The Land of Lorne published by Chatto & Windus.
Reviewed in The Scotsman 5 December, 1882.

Love Me For Ever published in the Christmas supplement of the Illustrated London News.

1883

January 1883

Buchanan’s novel, The New Abelard, begins serialisation in The Gentleman’s Magazine.

February 1883

Love Me For Ever published by Chatto & Windus.
Reviewed in The Derby Mercury 21 February, 1883.

14 March 1883

Storm-Beaten (based on his novel, God and the Man) produced at the Adelphi Theatre.
First theatrical success for Buchanan.

11 April 1883

Lady Clare (adapted from Georges Ohnet’s Le Maître de Forges) produced at the Globe Theatre, with Harriett Jay in the cast playing her first male role, the Hon. Cecil Brookfield. Of Harriett Jay’s performance the critic of The Scotsman wrote:
“Miss Harriet Jay played a lad with infinite truth and many pleasant touches of humour. This lady has, indeed, rarely been seen in a part which showed her to so much advantage.”

June 1883

Buchanan’s poem, ‘The White Robe; or, Zola in a Nutshell’ (published in The New Rome, 1898) is dated “Paris, June, 1883”, indicating a visit to France around this time.

This is possibly a mistake - Buchanan was in Paris in June 1882..

8 June 1883

Last night of Storm-Beaten at the Adelphi Theatre.

29 June 1883

Last night of Lady Clare at the Globe Theatre.

30 June 1883

Buchanan stages a version of J. B. Buckstone’s 1847 play, The Flowers of the Forest at the Globe Theatre, London. Harriett Jay is in the cast as the gypsy boy, Lemuel.

3 September 1883

First provincial performance of Lady Clare at the New Royal Theatre, Bristol.

October 1883

A Poet’s Sketch-Book. Selections from the prose writings of Robert Buchanan published by Chatto & Windus.
Advertised in The Times 13 October, 1883.
Reviewed in The Pall Mall Gazette 13 November, 1883.

1 October 1883

Lady Clare revived at the Pavilion Theatre, London. Buchanan attended the opening night.

15 October 1883

A Sailor and his Lass (written in collaboration with Augustus Harris) produced at the Drury Lane Theatre. Harriett Jay plays Mary Morton (the ‘Lass’).

23 October 1883

Buchanan writes, from the Drury Lane Theatre, to The Era (27/10/83) in support of Sydney Grundy’s complaints about Clement Scott and theatrical critics. He writes:
‘The protection of us authors, when we are beset by the rancour of the dramatic “ring” and the contumely of the critical coterie, is the fair play of the public at large, and the independence of the newspapers in general.’

November 1883

Through the Stage Door by Harriett Jay, published by F. V. White and Co.
Reviewed in The Graphic 19 January, 1884.

I’ve been unable to find any domestic adverts for Through the Stage Door, but it was listed among ‘the most notable works of fiction to be published in London’ in the New Zealand paper, the Taranaki Herald, on November 2nd, 1883.
The book was the subject of two contrasting reviews in
The Spectator, which caused Harriett Jay to write a letter to the Standard and this incident was later referred to in George Gissing’s New Grub Street.

3 November 1883

The Era publishes:
A letter from Augustus Harris, dissociating himself from Buchanan’s comments on theatrical critics.
A letter from Buchanan accepting full responsibility for his previous letter.
And a letter from Clement Scott in which he writes:
‘A letter appears in your last number signed “Robert Buchanan.” I can add nothing to the chapters of contempt that have been devoted to this writer by the powerful pens of Algernon Charles Swinburne and Edmund Yates, except a public expression of absolute and, I trust, dignified silence.’

26 November 1883

Storm Beaten is produced at the Union Square Theater, New York by Messrs. Shook & Collier.
According to a piece in The New York Times (6th Jan. 1884) Buchanan sold the play for $12,000.

December 1883

Annan Water published by Chatto & Windus.
Reviewed in The Scotsman 28 December, 1883.
The book is dedicated to “Miss Leigh, of the English Mission, Paris.”

8 December 1883

Last night of A Sailor and his Lass at the Drury Lane Theatre.

29 December 1883

The Era publishes two letters pointing out the similarities of the recent production of Georges Ohnet’s Le Maitre de Forges at the Gymnase, Paris, and Buchanan’s Lady Clare, one of which suggests that Georges Ohnet “has been largely indebted to Mr Buchanan’s play.”

1884

5 January 1884

The Era publishes a letter from Georges Ohnet in which he states:
“Lady Clare was taken entirely from Le Maître de Forges. Mr Buchanan, following a common enough custom (against which old English loyalty is constantly protesting, though vainly, I own) confined himself to merely changing the names of the characters in my novel. His work, in fact, is a downright plagiarism.”
And a letter from Buchanan admitting:
‘The English drama (announced by me in the original programmes as “founded on a well-known French romance”) was suggested by M. Ohnet’s highly popular novel, and was written by me in Paris some two years ago.’
And concluding:
‘Lady Clare has now been played in England several hundred times, with almost unvarying success. Since last June it has been the property of Mr Augustus Harris, who “travels” it with beautiful scenery, expressly painted for the tour, and an excellent company. It is important, therefore, to point out in how many cardinal respects it differs from M. Ohnet’s French drama so recently produced at the Gymnase, and how it is in no sense of the word a reduplication of that drama, but a freehand English version of a French novelist’s subject, with new characters, fresh incidents and situations, superadded comedy, and dialogue which I may call (quoting Touchstone) “a poor thing, but mine own.”’
And, finally, a letter from ‘A Dramatic Critic’:
‘The notion of Georges Ohnet, the novelist and dramatist, stealing a plot from Robert Buchanan, poet and playwright, is surely “enough to make a cat laugh.” The boot is I fear on the other leg. But the originality of Robert Buchanan’s Lady Clare was never for one moment in doubt. This upright and virtuous gentleman, who had not the candour to acknowledge the origin of his “new drama of modern society,” was, however, soon detected by one of the gentlemen who, to use his own elegant phrase, “carry a hat in one hand and a bludgeon in the other.” It was a dramatic critic who brought Robert Buchanan to book and unmasked his disingenuity; it was a dramatic critic who pointed out that Lady Clare was nothing more than a barefaced reproduction of Ohnet’s novel; it was a dramatic critic who within twelve hours of the production of the “new drama of modern society” told the public that Buchanan had without authority dramatised a French novel that he knew was being dramatised by its author for the French and English stage; and there is no one more rejoiced at the exposure of Robert Buchanan’s moral principles than one who has so often listened to the virtuous tirades and sanctimonious indignation of this savage Scotchman and calumniating Chadband.’

25 January 1884

75th performance of Storm Beaten at the Union Square Theater, New York.

13 February 1884

Lady Clare produced at Wallack’s Theatre, New York by Lester Wallack.

April 1884

The New Abelard published by Chatto & Windus.
Reviewed in The Times 11 April, 1884.

8 April 1884

Writes to The Pall Mall Gazette in support of Edmund Yates who had been given a four month prison sentence for libel. Buchanan concludes:
“This sending of journalists to prison is at the very best a barbarous business, and unworthy of the civilization under which we live.”

13 April 1884

The following item appears in the Brooklyn Eagle:
“Harriet Jay, the novelist and actress, is going to the United States under the management of Colonel Sinn, of Brooklyn. She will appear in Mr. Robert Buchanan’s historical dramas.”

Although Harriett Jay did not appear in “Mr. Robert Buchanan’s historical dramas” “under the management of Colonel Sinn”, this item does indicate that Buchanan and Jay are considering the American trip at this point. It also marks an earlier connection with Colonel Sinn than the Philadelphia production of Alone in London.

15 April 1884

Buchanan attends the funeral of Charles Reade at Willesden Churchyard.

18 May 1884

The following report appears in The New York Times:
“Mr. Robert Buchanan, the adapter of “Lady Clare,” has written a new comedy which he is trying to get produced in London. Mr. Buchanan is led to this reckless course through the success of “Lady Clare” and the large royalties which have poured into his pocket from this country ever since the production of this piece. In London Mr. Buchanan is not regarded with enthusiasm by theatrical managers. In the first place he has written a large number of pieces, none of which, barring “Lady Clare,” has been successfully performed in the English metropolis. In the second he has a sister-in-law named Harriet Jay, who is the cause of travail and sorrow in managerial circles. Whenever Mr. Buchanan writes a play he insists, as far as he can, upon having Miss Jay perform the principal character. The lady is an amiable and interesting person when she does not try to act. But the quickest preparation for a London exodus lies through the appearance of Miss Jay in public. It is because Mr. Buchanan, metaphorically speaking, goes around with a bundle of manuscript under one arm and his sister-in-law under the other that he is not enthusiastically regarded by English managers.”

12 July 1884

Harriett Jay’s novel, A Marriage of Convenience, begins serialisation in The Lady's Pictorial: A Newspaper for the Home.

16 July 1884

Harriett Jay appears as Lemuel, the gipsy boy, in a scene from The Flowers of the Forest at a matinée benefit for Mr. Charles Kelly at the Prince’s Theatre, London.

August 1884

Buchanan and Harriett Jay go to America.

Although the actual dates of Buchanan’s trip are not known, a report in the Liverpool Mercury of 21st August says that he is “now on his way to New York”. And the New York Times report of his attendance at the Grand Opera House on 25th August says that he is “fresh from London”.

25 August 1884

Buchanan attends a performance of Storm Beaten at the Grand Opera House, New York.

September 1884

Foxglove Manor published by Chatto & Windus.
Advertised in The Times 15 September 1884.
Reviewed in The Academy 20 September, 1884.

1 September 1884

Bachelors (written in collaboration with Hermann Vezin, adapted from a German play by Julius Roderich Benedix) produced at the Haymarket Theatre.

11 November 1884

Constance, produced at Wallack’s Theatre, New York. Buchanan and Jay attend the first night:

“Mr. Buchanan, the ‘author’ of the play, sat in a proscenium box ready to receive the calls for the author. He was not called. His sister in law, Harriet Jay, sat with him. She is very tall, blonde, and has rather sharp features. For some extraordinary reason the audience thought she was Ellen Terry, and the play was forgotten during the half hour following her arrival, while they gazed at her. She shielded her face with a huge white fan, so that people were a long while finding out that it was not Miss Terry.”
                              (Brooklyn Eagle, 16 November, 1884)

Jay makes no mention of Constance in her brief account of the American trip even though it was an adaptation of her novel, A Marriage of Convenience, which was currently being serialised in a London weekly magazine. She also states that the play Buchanan had contracted to provide for Messrs. Shook and Collier was never written. However, a court case, not resolved until 1888, reveals that the play was called A Hero in Spite of Himself, which was a satire on American life and it was rejected by the managers of the Union Square Theatre as being unsuitable for an American audience.

20 November 1884

Lottie (an adaptation of Harriett Jay’s novel, Through the Stage Door) produced at the Novelty Theatre, London. There was no author’s name attached to the play but it was subsequently attributed to Robert Buchanan.

26 November 1884

Harriett Jay makes her American début at a matinée performance of Tom Taylor’s Clancarty at the Madison Square Theatre, New York.

According to an article about Harriett Jay published in The Theatre in April 1888, she had toured the provinces in this play just prior to her performance in Lady Clare in April 1883.

December 1884

The Poetical Works of Robert Buchanan published by Chatto & Windus.
Advertised in The Times 22 December, 1884 as “The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Buchanan. Carefully revised by the Author.”
The only notable omission is Ballad Stories of the Affections: from the Scandinavian, which was essentially a translation. A revised version of Napoleon Fallen (retitled ‘The Fool of Destiny’) is included in the section, ‘Political Mystics’. The Drama of Kings is represented by a section entitled ‘Songs of the Terrible Year’ and is prefaced by a note from Buchanan:
“The ‘Drama of Kings’ was written under a false conception, which no one discarded sooner than the author”.

1885

3 January 1885

Matt: A Novel begins serialisation in The Graphic - issues 788 to 794 (14 February).

5 January 1885

A revival of Lady Clare  is produced at Niblo’s Garden, New York, starring Cora Tanner, with Harriett Jay reprising her role as the Hon. Cecil Brookfield.

February 1885

Stormy Waters (a novelization of the 1883 play, A Sailor and His Lass) published by John and Robert Maxwell.
Advertised in The Times 13 February, 1885.

Matt: A Story of a Caravan (U.S. title: Matt: A Tale of a Caravan) published in London by Chatto & Windus, in  New York by D. Appleton.
Reviewed in The New York Times 24 February 1885.

March 1885

While in Philadelphia preparing for the opening of Alone in London Buchanan visits Walt Whitman at Camden, New Jersey. The poem, ‘Socrates in Camden’ published in The New Rome (1898) is dated: “Indian Rock, Philadelphia, PA., March 1885.”

12 March 1885

Despite the efforts of Buchanan and Jay, The New York Times remained unimpressed:
“Mr. Robert Buchanan has succeeded in disposing of one more play in this country. This piece is called “Alone in London,” and it is to be tried on in Philadelphia some time in May next. If “Alone in London” proves successful it will be brought out in New-York at the beginning of the following season, and after that it will be sent through the general country. “Alone in London” has a material attachment in the shape of Miss Harriet Jay, who appears to be generously thrown in with the most of Mr. Buchanan’s theatrical bargains. Miss Jay is regarded by Mr. Buchanan as the most beautiful woman and the most accomplished actress in the world, and this fact indicates the degree of generosity which induces him to insist that managers who accept his plays shall also receive the further boon of having them performed by the radiant and accomplished Miss Jay.”

21 March 1885

Agnes (a two-act adaptation of Molière’s L’École des Femmes) is produced at the Comedy Theatre, London, as a curtain-raiser to Nemesis in order (according to The Times, “to enable Miss Adelaide Detchon, a young American actress, to make her début in London in an ingénue part.”

30 March 1885

Alone in London (written in collaboration with Harriett Jay) is produced at the Chestnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia by Buchanan himself, having failed to find an American backer for the play. Harriett Jay plays another male role, Tom Chickweed. The play is a success and is acquired by Colonel William E. Sinn, of Brooklyn, for a two years’ tour of the United States and Canada.

May 1885

A Marriage Of Convenience by Harriett Jay, published by F.V. White and Co.
Advertised in The Times 29 May, 1885.
Reviewed in The Graphic 22 August, 1885.

18 May 1885

Col. Sinn’s production of Alone in London, opens at the Park Theatre, Brooklyn, with Cora Tanner in the leading role of Annie Meadows.

25 May 1885

A Sailor and his Lass revived at the Britannia Theatre, Hoxton.

Summer 1885

Return to England.
“On his return to England he went again to Southend, taking this time a house which he furnished himself, so resolved was he to make Southend his home. This house, which had already been the home of Sir Richard Cunliffe Owen and Sir Edwin Arnold, was a quaint old country place with extensive gardens and eight acres of meadow, and it was known as ‘Hamlet Court.’” (Jay, Chapter XXIII).
Henry Murray first meets Robert Buchanan.

Jay gives no date for the return to England but does say that the reason for the return was Buchanan’s ill health.


The meeting with Henry Murray - “in the summer of 1885” - is mentioned in his essay on Buchanan in Robert Buchanan: A Critical Appreciation And Other Essays.

24 August 1885

Revival of Lady Clare at the Pavilion Theatre, London, with Harriett Jay in the cast.

31 August 1885

After the summer recess, Col. Sinn’s production of Alone in London, opens at the Park Theatre, Boston.

September 1885

Buchanan offers the actress Amy Roselle the leading part of Annie Meadows in the English production of Alone in London at a salary of £30 a week, for a guaranteed six weeks.

Reports in The Times of the court case brought by Amy Roselle against the management of the Olympic Theatre in January 1887 provide several details about the initial reception of the play.

October 1885

The Master of the Mine published by Richard Bentley and Son.
Advertised in The Times 23 October 1885.

2 November 1885

Alone in London opens at the Olympic Theatre, London. Harriett Jay repeats her role of Tom Chickweed.

6 November 1885

A letter from ‘The Authors of Alone in London’ in The Times complains about an organised attempt to disrupt the first night of the play.

December 1885

The Earthquake published by Chatto & Windus.
Advertised in The Times 5 December 1885.

This was the first part of the poem. In a Prefatory Note Buchanan wrote: “The present volume, containing the first three days or sections, is practically complete in itself. The second and concluding volume is ready, and will be published  after a short interval.”
The second volume was never published, presumably due to poor sales of the first. It’s also fairly safe to assume that the second volume was never ‘ready’.

3 December 1885

Amy Roselle’s contract terminated. Harriett Jay takes over the part of Annie Meadows (at a salary of £10 per week).

According to the court case, the play was not a success and was losing £200 a week, as a result of which some of the actors (including Amy Roselle) were asked to take a 50 percent cut in their wages. Amy Roselle refused to do this.

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ROBERT BUCHANAN TIMELINE continued

4: 1886 - 1894

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