Janet Ann Ross (née Duff Gordon; 1842–1927) was an English historian, biographer, and Tuscan cookbook author.
Early life Janet Duff Gordon was the daughter of Sir Alexander Duff-Gordon and Lucie, Lady Duff-Gordon.Ross (née Duff Gordon), Janet Ann – entry from Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (subscription required) Her father held a number of government positions, including Commissioner of Inland Revenue and her mother wrote the classic Letters from Egypt. She had a brother, Maurice and a sister, Urania.
She was the granddaughter of Sarah Austin, a famous translator, and the influential legal philosopher John Austin.
She grew up in a highly cultured atmosphere among England's leading intellectual and literary figures. Her parents' friends and regular visitors to her home included: William Thackeray, Charles Dickens, Thomas Macaulay, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Caroline Norton, Tom Taylor, and Thomas Carlyle.Beevor, Kinta, A Tuscan Childhood (hereafter "Tuscan Childhood) at 91 (Pantheon Books 1993)
Janet's first years were spent at her family home at 8 Queen Square, Westminster, a house with a statue of Queen Anne at one end, since renumbered as 15 Queen Anne's Gate. Her parents subsequently moved to Esher. Her memoirs do not reference formal education, aside from mentioning some tutors.Her informal home-schooling apparently left some gaps. In her autobiography, her grand niece, Kinta Beevor, recounts Janet asking the explorer Filippo de Filippi what the equator was. When he responded that it was an imaginary line circling the earth, she scornfully replied: "'Imaginary line? … I've never heard of anything so ridiculous.'" Tuscan Childhood, supra at 93. She did travel to Paris and Germany for extended periods of time to learn French and German. She makes it clear that she preferred the company of adults and their conversation from a very young age.
Her family's connections certainly augmented her education. For example, Dickens encouraged her reading early on and gave her one of her first books.Ross, Janet, The Fourth Generation ( hereafter "Fourth Generation") at 7 (Charles Scribner's Sons 1912). She remembers her fifth birthday party, sitting on the knee of Thackeray while he drew a sketch on the frontispiece of her copy of his novel Pendennis.Fourth Generation, supra at 12–13. Charles Babbage, the inventor of the difference engine, a precursor to the modern computer, invited her to his office to show her his newest calculator. The French philosopher Jules Barthelemy-Saint-Hilaire tutored her in French and became a lifetime correspondent.See, e.g., Fourth Generation, supra at 18–19, 29–30, 37, 42–44, 89, 172–73, 175, 179, 187, 188–89, 191–92, 206–07 242, 249, 277–79, and 284. She likewise befriended Sir Austen Henry Layard and began an adolescent correspondence with him that continued through her life.See, e.g., Fourth Generation, supra at 32, 63,65, 68,71, 77–78, 81, 83, 94–95, 107, 109, and 286. She recalls Tennyson telling her that her mother had inspired him to write The Princess.Fourth Generation, supra at 16. Alexander Kinglake, author of Eothen, would take her riding, and likewise became a correspondent.Fourth Generation, supra at 80–81. At the age of thirteen, her knowledge of German was such that Kinglake asked her to translate a German book for him.
Life in Egypt
In 1860, she married a banker, Henry Ross,Prior to the marriage, Henry had lived and travelled extensively throughout the Middle and Far East. Ross, Henry, Letters From The East (J. M. Dent 1902) who was aged 40 to her 18. In 1861, they moved to Alexandria, Egypt, where Henry was a partner in a British bank, Briggs and Co., located in Cairo.Fourth Generation, supra at 89. While in Egypt, she continued cultivating relationships with learned and influential people. Early on she befriended Said Halim Pasha who gave her a wedding present of a Bay horse.Fourth Generation, supra at 89 Halim was the son of Muhammed Ali of Egypt, who is regarded as the father of modern Egypt. He had inherited his father's palace at Choubra. Halim later became Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.In 1861 Janet was visited by Sir James Outram.Fourth Generation, supra at 110. She also befriended Ferdinand de Lesseps who took her on an early tour of the construction of the Suez Canal.Fourth Generation, supra at 106 and 123–30. Sir Henry Bulwer, former British ambassador to Istanbul, visited her in 1863.Fourth Generation, supra at 151.
Janet's "many social connections and essential nosiness positioned her as an ideal observer of foreign affairs" and she was briefly the Egyptian correspondent for The Evening Mail before becoming the Egyptian correspondent for The Times.Dictionary of Nineteenth Century Journalism at 545 (The Contributors 2009). There is, however, speculation that it was not her but her husband Henry who was The Times correspondent.Janet herself claims that she was the correspondent in her autobiography. See Fourth Generation, supra at . Jean O'Grady also wrote an article heralding her as the first female Times correspondent. See O'Grady, Jean, "The Egyptian Correspondent of the Times", Victorian Periodical Review at 145–53 (Vol. 27 Summer 1994). In a subsequent article, however, Eamon Dyas argues that it was in fact Henry Ross who was the correspondent. See Dyas, Eamon, "The Mystery of the Egyptian Correspondent of The Times", Victorian Periodical Review (Vol, 28 Spring 1995). O'Grady replied to Dyas' article, noting that The Times obituary for Janet itself stated she had been the Egyptian correspondent, and that even if it had formally been Henry, the de facto correspondent was Janet. See O'Grady, Jean, "More Egyptian Correspondence" Victorian Periodical Review (Vol. 29 Spring 1996). Both Dyas and O'Grady overlook a 1 June 1863 letter from Kinglake to Ross commenting on her appointment as correspondent to The Times. See Ross, Janet, Early Days Recalled at 186 (Chapman & Hall 1891). Janet travelled extensively in Egypt. She sailed up the Nile to Luxor, toured the temple Medinet Habu, and the Theban temples at Denderah.Fourth Generation, supra at 93–94. She made an excursion to the tombs of the Mamluk Sultans.Fourth Generation, supra at 98. In 1863, she travelled by camel to Tall al Kabir to see the fete of Abou Nichab. While on the trip she dressed in bedouin garb, lived in a tent, and went hawking.Fourth Generation, supra at 139–47.
Life in Italy In 1867, the Egyptian banking system underwent a crisis that diminished Henry Ross's investments and ended his banking career. Given their reduced circumstances Henry and Janet decided against returning to England because of the high cost of living. Instead they explored living on the continent, looking initially at an estate in France. Henry and Janet eventually moved to Florence, Italy, leaving their only child, Alexander (Alick) to be educated in England.
They initially lived in a couple of apartments in Florence, on the Lungarno Acciaiuoli and the Lungarno Torrigiani.Fourth Generation, supra at 183. They tried to buy Fenis Castle near Aosta, Italy, but could not afford it.Fourth Generation, supra at 183. They ultimately rented Villa Castagnolo seven miles west of Florence in Lastra a Signa from its owner: Marchese Lotteringo della Stufa. The capital city of Italy was relocating from Florence to Rome, and the Marchese moved with it to take a government position. The Marchese was extremely knowledgeable about agriculture and taught Janet much about farming. In turn, Janet also began implementing more modern agricultural methods at the villa especially in the areas of viticulture and cheese-making. One year she supervised the making of olive oil, an experience she would find useful when she later purchased her own villa.Fourth Generation, supra at 202. Henry, essentially retired at this point, occupied himself by raising orchids.This was no casual hobby. His orchid "collection was computed to contain nearly a thousand species, and to be the finest ever got together in Italy… ." The Orchid Review, Vol. 10 at 283 (January 1892). A number of orchid species were named after him, including: Lycaste Rossiana (aka Lycaste cruenta), Paphiopedilum X Rossianum, and Cycnoches Rossianum. Ibid. Janet also befriended a local sculptor, Carlo Orsi, who resided at Orsi Villa. Henry encouraged Orsi to do more sketching, and Janet ultimately used him to illustrate many of her books.Fourth Generation, supra at 196. While at Castagnolo, Janet had a falling out with the British novelist Marie Louise Rame, who wrote under the pseudonym Ouida. Ouida was wooing the Marchese and believed Janet's relationship with him was more than platonic. In her novel Friendship she included an unflattering portrait of a character transparently based on Janet. Janet responded by placing a copy of the novel, sans covers, in the bathroom for appropriate use.The feud between the two divided the Florentine expatriate community into pro-Janet and pro-Ouida factions. There was even a rumour that Janet had publicly horsewhipped Ouida. See Castle in Italy, supra at 43–45. Lee dressed in mannish clothes and adopted an openly lesbian lifestyle that may have offended Janet's Victorian sensibilities. See Castle in Tuscany, supra at 120.
In 1884, the Rosses travelled to Apulia in Southern Italy, where they stayed with Sir James Lacaita at his estate (Villa Leucàspide) near Taranto.Fourth Generation, supra at 213–23. Lacaita was an Italian scholar and politician. While there, Janet travelled extensively throughout the region. The trip inspired her book Land of Manfred prince of Tarentum... (1889), which she dedicated to Lacaita. In 1888, the Rosses acquired the Villa di Poggio Gherardo (Italian) outside Florence, near Settignano.Benjamin, Sarah, A Castle in Tuscany: The Remarkable Life of Janet Ross (Pier 9 2006) . The villa had been in the Gherardo family for some 450 years, and purportedly was the one famously referenced by Boccaccio in the Decameron.The Decameron opens with ten men and women fleeing the plague in Florence, to a villa on a hill near Fiesole. Hutton, Edward, Country Walks About Florence at 13–18 (Charles Scribner's Sons 1907). It came with three attached farms (poderes) and operated under the mezzadria system whereby the tenant farmers (contadini) paid rent to the padrona consisting of half their production. Janet Ross was a capable businesswoman who managed the estate well and sold its produce at an adequate profit. She imported fortified white wine from Sicily, added sugar and a number of herbs, producing a vermouth that was in considerable demand in England. She claimed the vermouth recipe was a secret one handed down to her by the last of the Medicis.Leavitt, David, Florence, A Delicate Case at 45 (Bloomsbury 2002) .
She was also an occasional dealer in art. She discovered the painting The School of Pan by Luca Signorelli and later sold it at a substantial profit.Castle in Tuscany, supra at 63–67. She purchased a drawing by early Renaissance painter Andrea del Sarto that was a study for his painting Deposition From the Cross.Castle in Tuscany, supra at 63. She also acquired a painting that Bernard Berenson identified as being Madonna and Child by the Renaissance painter Alesso Baldovinetti.Castle in Tuscany, supra at 130.