Rosamund Marriott Watson (née Ball; 6 October 1860 – 29 December 1911) was an English poet, nature writer and critic, who early in her career wrote under the pseudonyms Graham R. Tomson and Rushworth (or R.) Armytage. Early life and education Rosamund Ball, known as Rose, was born in London on 6 October 1860, the fifth child of Benjamin Williams Ball, an accountant and amateur poet, and Sylvia (Good) Ball. Her older brother Wilfrid Ball became a painter of landscapes and marine subjects who helped introduce her to London's literary circles, including John Lane, the influential publisher of The Yellow Book. Her mother died of cancer when she was just 13, and she would later recall as one consequence of this that she had an unusual amount of freedom for reading and writing. No records of any formal education for her have been found. She initially intended to become a painter, but her father forbade it; her aesthetic sensibilities would later shape her writing about gardens and interior design. Career Watson began her writing career in 1883, with a column on modern fashion for The Fortnightly Review. She followed this up with other magazine writing, and by 1886 she had her first poems printed in the American periodicals Scribner's Magazine and The Independent. These early works were mostly published under one or other of the Armytage pseudonyms, which she adopted following her 1879 marriage to George Francis Armytage, a rich Australian. Their daughter Eulalie was born the following year, but by September 1884, when their second daughter, Daphne, was born, the couple had parted ways and would later divorce. Around 1886, she eloped with the artist Arthur Graham Tomson, shortly afterwards dropping the Armytage pseudonym in favor of "Graham R. Tomson". During her years with Tomson, they lived in London and often summered in Cornwall. She later divorced Tomson as well and lived with the novelist H. B. Marriott Watson until her death; they never married, although some of her obituaries referred to her as his wife. They had a son, Richard, who was killed in the First World War. Watson's major success came from her poetry, which stood in the lineages of Alfred Lord Tennyson and Dante Gabriel Rossetti without, at its best, being derivative. Technically accomplished, Watson deployed a wide range of poetic forms and methods, including sonnets, ballads, rondeaux, villanelles, poems in dialect and translations. Her subject