DOI chapter:
Chapter VIII: The Last
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62482#0377
CHAPTER VIII
THE LAST
Watts had a presentiment that he would die in the year 1904.
On May 16th I saw him in the crowded Queen’s Hall when
Joachim was receiving the ovation of thousands on the occa-
sion of his jubilee. As I spoke to Watts the feeling came to
me that the end was near. It was not that he looked more ill
—indeed I have seen him at times look more weary and more
exhausted ; but there was on that evening the peculiar look
of failing life in the face which is unmistakable. Among the
stalwart musicians and the vigorous physiques of the import-
ant personages gathered together, he looked so very small
—so pathetically fragile. He seemed to be conscious of some
incongruity, for he began saying to me apologetically, “No
personal motive would have brought me here—” I lost the
rest, as I had to move on to introduce a friend to Joachim.
I am glad that that was not the last time I saw Watts.
This was some ten days later, when he was working in his
garden on the figure of his equestrian statue, “Vital
Energy.” When he saw the bronze cast placed in the quad-
rangle of Burlington House, he had discovered many things
in it he thought he might improve, so he began working again
on the original tow and plaster statue from which the cast was
taken. Very old he looked, but the light in the eye was
kindled afresh with the fire of aspiration as he laboured on.
Yes—he was right when he wrote but a few weeks before, “ I
think aspiration will remain as long as there is consciousness.”
207
THE LAST
Watts had a presentiment that he would die in the year 1904.
On May 16th I saw him in the crowded Queen’s Hall when
Joachim was receiving the ovation of thousands on the occa-
sion of his jubilee. As I spoke to Watts the feeling came to
me that the end was near. It was not that he looked more ill
—indeed I have seen him at times look more weary and more
exhausted ; but there was on that evening the peculiar look
of failing life in the face which is unmistakable. Among the
stalwart musicians and the vigorous physiques of the import-
ant personages gathered together, he looked so very small
—so pathetically fragile. He seemed to be conscious of some
incongruity, for he began saying to me apologetically, “No
personal motive would have brought me here—” I lost the
rest, as I had to move on to introduce a friend to Joachim.
I am glad that that was not the last time I saw Watts.
This was some ten days later, when he was working in his
garden on the figure of his equestrian statue, “Vital
Energy.” When he saw the bronze cast placed in the quad-
rangle of Burlington House, he had discovered many things
in it he thought he might improve, so he began working again
on the original tow and plaster statue from which the cast was
taken. Very old he looked, but the light in the eye was
kindled afresh with the fire of aspiration as he laboured on.
Yes—he was right when he wrote but a few weeks before, “ I
think aspiration will remain as long as there is consciousness.”
207