A Chelsea Interior is on the endpapers of The Carlyles at Home. Robert Tait painted it in 1857 and it now hangs in Carlyle’s House. Although one would not expect a married couple to be grinning rapturously at each other, there is something quite sad and sombre about this painting – a little like the aftermath of Christmas. (The Persephone Forum is brilliant – as usual – about The Carlyles at Home.)