Village books

Butler's health had already begun to fail, and when he started for
Sicily on Good Friday, 1902, it was for the last time: he knew he
was unfit to travel, but was determined to go, and was looking
forward to meeting Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Fuller Maitland, whom he was
to accompany over the Odyssean scenes at Trapani and Mount Eryx.
But he did not get beyond Palermo; there he was so much worse that
he could not leave his room. In a few weeks he was well enough to
be removed to Naples, and Alfred went out and brought him home to
London. He was taken to a nursing home in St. John's Wood where he
lay for a month, attended by his old friend Dr. Dudgeon, and where
he died on the 18th June, 1902.
There was a great deal he still wanted to do. He had intended to
revise The Way of All Flesh, to write a book about Tabachetti, and
to publish a new edition of Ex Voto with the mistakes corrected.
Also he wished to reconsider the articles reprinted in this volume
and was looking forward to painting more sketches and composing more
music.


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