James Payn was an English novelist and editor. He wrote many popular novels and edited periodicals including Chambers's Journal and the Cornhill Magazine.
James Payn
Walter's Word
3 vols. Tinsley Brothers, 1875.
At a little before three o'clock...Walter Litton presented himself at the lodge-gate of Willowbank. A carriage-drive that wound among a pretty shrubbery just clothed in its first summer tints, so as to suggest the notion of extent to what was - for London - in reality a considerable frontage, led to the entrance-door of the mansion; its principal windows, however, looked upon a smooth, shelving lawn, which sloped down to the water, and was, even at that season, gay with parterres of flowers. To left and right of it were more shrubberies, interspersed with some fine, if not stately, trees; nor was there anything to suggest that the place was within miles of the Great Metropolis, except that solemn, far-off roar, which might well be taken for the murmur of the summer sea...
Willowbank is 'one of those large houses standing in extensive grounds of their own, on the banks of the ornamental water', and its owner is anxious to buy a painting that Walter is exhibiting at the Royal Academy. Taking a dislike to the man Walter refuses to sell, but eventually agrees after the intervention of the owner's beautiful daughter. 'She led the way out of doors..."This view from the lawn, Mr. Litton, we think is very pretty," were her first words..."Some people object to its looking out upon the Park with its nurserymaids and children, but I am not so exclusive"'.
Dinner parties at Willowbank take up much of volumes 1 and 2; later there is a visit to the Botanical Gardens.