This is another picture for my backs of houses series. This is the back of the C18th Carlyle's House in Chelsea, which I visited with Leen. The house is unchanged since he lived there and so peaceful with a small walled garden.
I had not really heard of Thomas Carlyle before so found out more in the excellent book Thomas and Jane Carlyle: Portrait of a Marriage by Rosemary Ashton.
Thomas came from Dumfriesshire and went to the same school as Alistair! He was an extremely famous literary personality, historian and social commentator in the C19th. He was a critic of modern capitalist, industrial life but as he grew older became more reactionary with some very conservative and racist writings which have tarnished his reputation.
Jane and he had a long and tumultous marriage. He was self obsessed and grumpy and she was self pitying and a hypochondriac, but they both had brilliant minds and somehow it mostly worked. Together they entertained all the great minds of the Victorian age in their modest house from Charlotte Bronte to Darwin.
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