
Luke Batterham
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Rossetti's correspondent may be Georgina Cowper-Temple of Broadlands, with whom Rossetti stayed in the summer of 1876 while working on his predella for Dante's Dream; in a letter to his mother written during this stay he refers to her as 'Mrs Temple' rather than the style 'Cowper-Temple' more usually adopted (see his letter of 24 August 1876 from Broadlands in which he tells his mother that 'Mrs Temple is simply an angel on earth', in Michael Rossetti, Dante Gabriel Rossetti: His Family Letters). She was married to William Francis Cowper-Temple, later first Baron Mount-Temple, natural son of Lord Palmerston, from whom he inherited Broadlands. Both husband and wife were religious enthusiasts, holding annual gatherings at Broadlands. Georgina was to present Rossetti's Beata Beatrix to the National Gallery in memory of her husband. A vegetarian and total abstainer herself, she was solicitous of the wayward Rossetti's health.