Burne-Jones was a frequent visitor to Sandroyd in the 1860s, and the landscape furnished the background for his painting The Merciful Knight (1864), the design of which Stanhope’s I Have Trod the Winepress Alone is said to resemble. The move was intended to offer an improved environment for Stanhope’s chronic asthma. When his condition was not alleviated, he turned to wintering in Florence. In the summers, he at first stayed at Burne-Jones’s house in London and later at the Elms, the western half of Little Campden House on Campden Hill, the eastern half of which was occupied by Augustus Egg. In 1867, at the age of seven, Mary died of scarlet fever and was buried in at the English Cemetery in Florence. Her father designed her headstone. Though his family accepted his occupation as a painter and took a great interest in art, Evelyn’s parents disparaged the achievements of “poor Roddy” and regarded the painters with whom he associated as “unconventional.” Considered among the avant-garde of the 1870s, Stanhope became a regular exhibitor at the Grosvenor Gallery, the alternative to the Royal Academy. Stanhope moved permanently to Florence in 1880. There he painted the reredos of the English Church, and other work in the Chapel of Marlborough College. In 1873, he bought the Villa Nuti in Florence, where he was visited frequently by De Morgan and where he lived until his death. De Morgan’s sister, A.M.W. Stirling, wrote a collection of biographical essays called A Painter of Dreams, including reminiscences of her uncle, “the Idealist, the seer of exquisite visions.” During the 19th and early 20th century, the extended Spencer-Stanhope family included several artists, whose ties were the theme of a 2007 exhibition, Painters of Dreams, part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the opening of Cannon Hall to the public as a museum. Featured were paintings by Stanhope and De Morgan, along with ceramics by her husband, William De Morgan; bronzes by Gertrude Spencer-Stanhope; and the ballroom at Cannon Hall and “Fairyland” in the pleasure grounds, which were designed by Sir Walter and his daughter Cecily. Works Paintings and other works by John Roddam Spencer Stanhope include: Penelope (1849) Sir Gawaine and the Damsels at the Fountain (1857), Oxford murals Thoughts of the Past (1859) Robins of Modern Times (c. 1860; Collection of Ann and Gordon Getty) Juliet and Her Nurse (exhibited at the Royal Academy 1863) The Wine