' CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Cornell University Library DA 565.N52A5 1910 Under five reigns / 3 1924 028 344 319 The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028344319 UNDER FIVE REIGNS A PAGE FROM THE PAST UNDER FIVE REIGNS BY LADY DOROTHY NEVILL V ')-VXV BV HER SON W'T2! 'ii.rTRSJt !'J.03T«JITJOKS FOURTH EDITION METHUEN & CO. LTD. 1 * E -'> S \i \ S T R E E 1 W.C. I ON DON UNDER FIVE REIGNS BY LADY DOROTHY NEVILL EDITED BY HER SON WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS FOURTH EDITION METHUEN & CO. LTD. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON First Puhltsked . . . Sepiemder zsnd igio Second Edition . . . September 28th igro Third Edition . . October 6th 1910 Fourth Edition . . . October igio INTRODUCTORY NOTE THIS volume has been written in the hope that it may prove of interest to the many readers who welcomed my Reminiscences published four years ago. Since that time I have come across further notes and letters connected with the social life of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, a number of which it seemed to me might not prove unacceptable to that indulgent public which accorded my previous effort such an encouraging and kindly reception. CONTENTS Old days in Dorsetshire — Children of the past — Amateur authors — Sir John Mitchel— Mr. Bellendon Ker — Coaching dajre — ^Puddletown Church — Ruthless re- storation — Election humour — ^A cool tailor — ^The butler's mistake — ^Anecdotes — Old country life — ^The " Grand Duke " — Old-fashioned Radicalism — Political turncoats — ^The Peerage — "L'appetit vient en mangeant " . . . . . . i II The last post-boy — ^The Derby Dilly — Steam packets — TraveUing abroad — A silent duke — Pretty customs — — Picturesque Bavaria — An appropriate punishment — ^Anecdotes — An unfortunate inscription — ^Thiers and his schoolmaster — Prince Demidofi — "The common lot " — Lady Strachan's villa — Rome under Papal rule — II Conde Halifato ... 34 III The cult of gardens — ^A sensible baiUfi — Old Hampshire ways — Cardinal Manning — Bishop Wilberforce — ^His son — ^Mr. Cobden — Letters — A scandal about Lord Palmerston — Samuel Warren — Letter " franks " — Dicky Doyle — Some unpublished drawings — Geology and botany — Digging for the ipfinite — ^Mr. Edmund Gosse — Letters from Mr. Darwin . . -79 IV A South African letter — Australian Walpoles — A link with the past — Old days in Sussex — Deal luggers and Hastings Gospel ships — Sussex pigs — Black sheep viii UNDER FIVE REIGNS PAGE ; — Mormonism in Sussex — ^Trugs — A romantic relic — Chicken-fatting— The last carrier's cart— Shingling — ^The convent at Mayfield . • ■ • "3 The conquest of the West End— Two favourite topics^ Thi "Smart set" — Its Characteristics — ^The social life of to-day — Successful financiers — Anecdotes — Bibulous butlers— The end of " Society " — Prominent figures — Conversationalists — General Gallifet — Un- changing woman — Lady Cardigan and her Recollec- tions—Lord Ward — Maria, Marchioness of Ailesbury — Anecdotes of social celebrities .... 140 VI The uses of the season — Extravagance of the Present compared with the Past — Pleasant dinner givers — Lord St. Heliers — ^Lord Russell of KiUowen — ^Mr.Choate — Lord James — Invercauld — A real harvest home — Some friends — Anecdotes — ^Two great soldiers^- Sir Henry Wolff— Dr. Wolfi— Anecdotes . .172 VII PoUtical friends — Lord Iddesleigh — Mr. Chamberlain — Letters — ^His charming wife — Lady Chesterfield — Mr. Bright — Victorian Radicalism — Two great leaders — ^Lord Beaconsfield — Letters — ^Mrs, Brydges WiUyams — Favourite flowers — Lord Sherbrooke — Mr. John Bums — Sir George Dibbs .... 205 VIII Some clever Victorians — Thackeray — The first Lord Lytton. — His son — Letters — Muscovite Russia — ^Lady Dorchester — Lord Lovelace — Anecdotes — Matthew Arnold — Renan's quotation — Ouida^-Her letters^ Recollections of plays and players — La Grande Duchesse — Mario — A forgetful composer — A graceful tribute to the memory of Madame Sontag . . . 237 CONTENTS ix IX PAGB Horace Walpole's opera ticket — Mr. Montagu Guest — Print collectors — ^A wanted museum — Unconsidered trifles — Lord Clanricarde — The late Mr. Salting — A Sussex gentleman — Some well-known judges of art — Old glass — Anecdotes — ^Mr. Whistler — Victorian art — A real Red Lion Square — A discouraging sweep — Itahan image-men .... 280 X A relic of Queen Victoria — Old cards and menus — Anec- dotes—My sister. Lady Pollington — The Aerhedon — Boring the Admiralty — Changes of last sixty years — Pekinese dogs — A bored Pasha — English Burgundy — Lord Wemyss — Blue coats and brass buttons — Lord Brougham's trousers — Shawls and crinolines — ^Lady Charlotte Lyster — Some old letters — Llandrindod in 1 8 13 — Setting out for the wars — ^A Pedagogue's epistle — Under five reigns — Conclusion . . . 306 Index . .... . . . 351 viii UNDER FIVE REIGNS PAGE — Mormonism in Sussex — Trngs — ^A romantic relic — Chicken-fatting — ^The last carrier's cart — Shingling — ^The convent at Mayfield . . • • "S The conquest of the West End — Two favourite topics — Th6 " Smart set " — Its Characteristics — ^The social life of to-day — Successful financiers — ^Anecdotes — Bibulous butlers — ^The end of " Society " — Prominent figures — Conversationalists — General Gallifet — Un- changing woman — Lady Cardigan and her Recollec- tions — Lord Ward — Maria, Marchioness of Ailesbury — Anecdotes of social celebrities .... 140 VI The uses of the season — Extravagance of the Present compared with the Past — Pleasant dinner givers — Lord St. HeUers — Lord Russell of Killowen — ^Mr.Choate — Lord James — Invercauld — A real harvest home — Some friends — Anecdotes — Two great soldiers — Sir Henry Wolff— -Dr. Wolfi— Anecdotes . . 172 VII Pohtical friends — Lord Iddesleigh — ^Mr. Chamberlain — Letters — His charming wife — ^Lady Chesterfield — Mr. Bright — Victorian Radicalism — ^Two great leaders — ^Lord Beaconsfield — ^Letters — ^Mrs. Brydges WiUyams — Favourite flowers — Lord Sherbrooke— Mr. John Bums — Sir George Dibbs .... 205 VIII Some clever Victorians — Thackeray — The first Lord Lytton — His son — ^Letters — ^Muscovite Russia — ^Lady Dorchester — Lord Lovelace — Anecdotes — Matthew Arnold — ^Renan's quotation — Ouida — ^Her letters — Recollections of plays and players — La Grande Duchesse — Mario — A forgetful composer — A graceful tribute to the memory of Madame Sontag . . . 237 CONTENTS ix IX PAGB Horace Walpole's opera ticket — Mr. Montagu Guest — Print collectors — A wanted museum — ^Unconsidered trifles — Lord Clanricarde — ^The late Mr. Salting — A Sussex gentleman — Some well-known judges of art — Old glass — Anecdotes — ^Mr. Whistler — Victorian art — A real Red Lion Square — A discouraging sweep — Italian image-men .... 280 X A relic of Queen Victoria — Old cards and menus — ^Anec- dotes — My sister, Lady Pollington — ^The Aerhedon — Boring the Admiralty — Changes of last sixty years — Pekinese dogs — ^A bored Pasha — EngUsh Burgundy — Lord Wemyss — Blue coats and brass buttons — Lord Brougham's trousers — Shawls and crinolines — ^Lady Charlotte Lyster — Some old letters — Llandrindod in 1 81 3 — Setting out for the wars — A Pedagogue's epistle — Under five reigns — Conclusion . . . 306 Index 351 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS A Page from the Past Taken from one of Lady Dorothy Nevill's Albums Reginald Nevill From a Water-Colour Sketch made at Eiidge in 1814 Letter from Mr. George Cadogan Letter from Richard Doyle Sketches by Richard Doyle Frontispiece FACING PAGB • 36 74 94 100 108 112 122 Memorial to Mrs, Atkyns in Ketteringham Church . Two OF the Old School (the Second Duke of Welling- ton AND Lord Leconfield) . . . .190 Mr. Chamberlain and his Grandson, Xmas 1908 . 212 Lord Beaconsfield as a Young Man . . .222 Lady Dorothy Nevill and Mr. John Burns at the Opening of the Victoria and Albert Museum . 234 (By permission of The Taller) Lady Dorothy Nevill in 1865 . . . -336 UNDER FIVE REIGNS Old days in Dorsetshire — Children of the past — Amateur authors — Sir John Mitchel — Mr. BeUendon Ker — Coaching days — Puddletown Church — Ruthless restoration — Election humour — A cool tailor — The butler's mistake — Anecdotes — Old country life — The "Grand Duke" — Old-fashioned Radicalism — Political turncoats — The Peerage — " L'appetit vient en mangeant." MUCH of my childhood was spent in Dorset- shire, at Ilsington House, a fine old place, with a porch and walls on each side down to the road. The Walpoles had long owned this estate, though they had seen very little of it. For years before we went to live there it had been let to a General Garth — a great friend of King George iii, and here was brought up the General's adopted son, Thomas Garth, of sporting celebrity. Those were the days when bad taste reigned supreme — poor satin-wood furniture enjoyed a great vogue. There was a great upholsterer, called Dowbiggin, who must have profited hugely by this, for most of the splendid old furniture in number- less country houses was either consigned to the attics or sold, its place being taken by tasteless 2 UNDER FIVE REIGNS satin-wood suites. My father shared the prevailing craze, though he abstained from discarding some very beautiful French tapestry chairs and sofas at Wolterton, our Norfolk home. Well do I remember pondering over the designs from ^Esop's Fables which ornamented the seats and backs. This was the suite"which fetched some six thousand guineas at the Amherst sale last year — Lord Amherst had bought it at my father's death about fifty years ago for something under five hundred pounds. At Ilsington my father conducted his operations in much the same way as in Norfolk, but there he could not do. so much harm, as, with the exception of three magnificent pieces of tapestry, there was little of value to discard. Eventually, however, he did remove these tapestries, evidently designed for the room in which they hung, to Norfolk. They are now, I must add, in the possession of Colonel Walpole, of Heckfield Place, Hants. EmbeUished with an ornate border, and bearing the Walpole arms, the designs represent various phases of the battle of Solebay, the ships engaged in that sea-fight being most artistically depicted. These tapestries are English, and, I beheve, were woven at Mortlake, being signed Poyntz, as is a similar piece of tapestry, which does not bear the Walpole arms, at Hampton Court. This latter piece, I may add, is the only other tapestry of this kind of which I have ever heard. Ilsington had once been famous for its many gardens, but as I remember the place as a child, ILSINGTON 3 there was but one dear little garden surrounded by a box hedge. The estate, together with another at Heanton, in Devonshire — sold long ago — had come into our family through a marriage with Baroness Clinton and Trefusis, and had been rather neglected by the Walpoles, who were always more attached to Norfolk. The eccentric Lord Orford, who sold the Houghton gallery, never saw his property in Devonshire at all — he did once deter- mine to make an expedition to these domains, and ordered his seats in the West country to be aired and prepared for his reception, his lawyer, Lucas, being dispatched to notify his arrival and invite the neighbouring gentry to the ceremony of in- auguration. Lord Orford himself followed, but never got any farther than the town of Puddletown, where he changed his mind and returned to his favourite abode, a parsonage hovel in the fens at CrisweU, in Suffolk. The Devonshire property ceased to belong tb our family long ago, but Lady Chnton told me that relics of the Walpoles, in the shape of coats of arms and the like, stiU remain there. Ilsington my brother sold to the late Mr. Br5mier, and so ended our connection with a county which has always been very dear to me. My brother parted with this property for no pressing reason. He did not share my sentimental attachment to the place. As a matter of fact, not a few owners of old domains seem to set less value upon the associations connected with them than is generally supposed. Many even, when forced to sell, bear the loss of their ancestral acres with 4 UNDER FIVE REIGNS considerable fortitude. Perhaps, as was once wittily said, they have a lively sense of how little they have done for their estates, and in consequence part with them with a proportionate degree of indifference. Our main amusements at Ilsington consisted in long and delightful rides, which my sister and I took with my father all over the lovely wild country, as it was in those far-away days before it had been defiled by horrible villas and worse cottages — lovely breezy rides they were, and fuU of interest to us children, who loved to explore the spots frequented by smugglers in the good old days. How beautiful Dorsetshire seemed to us, with its breezy commons and heaths purpled over with the bloom of the heather, or shining with the golden blossoms of that English furze, before which Linnaeus fell down in admiration on his knees, when he first beheld what had been to him an unknown plant, " to thank God for its beauty." One of our greatest pleasures, I remember, was to ride over to Frampton, a charming old house, formerly belonging to Sir Colquhoun Grant, whose only daughter had married Mr. Sheridan. The latter, a most delightful, courtly-mannered man, was the brother of the three beautiful sisters who became the Duchess of Somerset, Lady Dufferin, and Mrs. Norton, all three of them most gifted women. Children at that time were kept in great order, and generally forbidden to do an5rthing they par- SEVENTY YEARS AGO 5 ticularly liked — more, I think, on general principle than for any sufficient reason. Their books were then of a totally different sort from those of to-day ; most of them contained poetry, or rather versifica- tion, inculcating good behaviour, especially with regard to that moderation which childhood usually, and perhaps not unnaturally, abominates. The highly salutary precepts enjoined in books such as Mrs. Turner's Cautionary Stones, were in great favour with parents. Some of the lines in this volume with regard to gluttony are highly char- acteristic of infantile education as it was understood in the past — " Mamma, why mayn't I, when I dine. Eat ham and goose, and drink port wine ? And why mayn't I, as well as you, Eat pudding, soup, and mutton, too ? " Then comes the quiet dignity of the reply — " Because, my dear, it is not right. To spoil the youthful appetite." The daily Ufe of a chUd seventy years ago or so was of a far simpler description than at present, when even quite small children are in something of touch with public events. UnUke the young people of to-day, who regard their elders with good- humoured toleration, if not with a feeling of positive superiority, we stood in awe of our older relatives ; as for our parents, their wishes were regarded more or less as irrevocable decrees. My father was an autocrat, whose rule over his family was absolutely unquestioned. Well do I 6 UNDER FIVE REIGNS remember how, at breakfast (which all of us were always expected to attend), my mother would on certain days catch my eye and significantly look down at her plate where her knife and fork had been carefully crossed — a sign to the family that its head was*in no mood for conversation. My father, though a most good-natured man, was at times easily roused to temporary fury by anything which clashed with his mood. How angry he got, for instance, when Sir John Mitchel (a neighbour of ours in Dorsetshire, and married to our cousin) sug- gested that he should purchase a copy of a historical novel which he had just published, Henry of Mon- mouth, or the Field of Agincourt. It was in three volumes, which cost a guinea and a half, a price which aroused in my father the most excessive expressions of indignation. In those days amateur authors, who wrote books, did all they could to seU them amongst their friends, who were, much to their disgust, coerced into bupng them. At Ilsington we used to see something of a Mr. Bellendon Ker, who in 1837 pubhshed a work which Lord Brougham described as being either a dream or a miracle. Mr. Ker, though a most amiable and good-natured man, was from a social point of view something of an infliction, for he was so deaf that it was painful to converse with him. However, this disturbed him little, for what he liked best was for others to sit and listen. One of his favourite theories was that aU Dr. Johnson's derivations were wrong, and that in consequence of his researches an entirely new dictionary of the A LOVER OF THE TURF 7 English language must be written. He also made considerable researches into the history of nursery rhymes, as to the origin of which he held some very original theories. Though fond of everything connected with his estates, my father cared little for a rural existence. He was full of superabundant nervous energy, which found httle outlet in the country, and therefore took the form of house alteration, building, or cutting down or planting trees — he was never at rest. A great deal of his time, when not engaged in carrying out some new plan, was passed with my sister and myself — his babies, as he called us — with whom he constantly went for long rides, and whose studies he supervised — a somewhat queer occupation for one whose principal interest really lay in the racehorses which proved so disastrous to his pocket. His thoughts were always running on the turf, and pleading some excuse or other, he would, fuU of eagerness, dash off by the coach on his way to London and to Newmarket, the ever-delusive Mecca of his dreams. Here, as a general rule, alas ! his race- horses failed to win. This, however, he bore with cheerful equanimity, though at times he had very bad luck, being second in a great many races. So much so was this the case, that when one of his horses did win a big race, he made the remark, "I see I am out of my place." This cheerfulness about his horses was, however, more conspicuous abroad than at home, and his love of the Turf caused us aU some very gloomy moments — in fact, so vivid are my recollections of the unpleasant 8 UNDER FIVE REIGNS impressions produced by his racing defeats, that I have ever since retained a great dislike for this very costly sport, which has been the ruin of so many old families. My father, I must add, owing to the vivacious originality of his disposition, did not give hipiself the best possible chance of proving a successful owner. At times he would even go so far as to run his horses when they were quite out of condition, whilst, when in the mood, he would back very indifferent animals, provided they were his own, for sums quite out of proportion to their chance of winning. Nevertheless, he had his occasional triumphs — he won one or two classic races, and was only just beaten for the Derby. Like most people fond of excitement he took care not to remain in the country for any length of time, though he thought it an admirable place for his famUy. In spite of the failings I have described we were devoted to him, and looked for- ward to his coming. How carefully we studied the time of the Magnet coach's arrival in order to rush across the fields to greet him ! At that time the glories of the road had not entirely departed, though coach proprietors had ceased to make large sums of money, as in the days when the old Wey- mouth Union left London at three o'clock in the afternoon and snailed it down to Weymouth at three the next day, a rate of progression which caused the stock to last for years. At one time a stage or two of a coach was a regular little fortune, and it was notorious that a certain Mayor on the Western Road got about forty GORGEOUS DRAGOONS 9 miles of an old coach's journey as his wife's dowry. My father was very unconventional in his ways, and never troubled to move his household during the constant alterations which he Uked making in his country houses. At Ilsington he set afoot a veritable internal reconstruction, and took away all the old windows, through the unglazed frames of which the wind used to blow clouds of dust. The only reception room for a time was our school- room, and here he received Colonel Chatterton and his wife, who came over from Dorchester, where the former commanded the 6th Dragoon Guards (now the Carbineers). The gallant soldier in ques- tion must have been considerably astonished at the sort of house to which a noble Earl invited them. Well do I remember how delighted we children were when we rode into the old Dorset- shire town to see the red coats of the soldiers, for in those days (1836) these Dragoons were not dressed in blue, which they only assumed some twenty years later for the purpose, it was said, of putting money into the pockets of some mihtary tailor who managed to influence the authorities. The of&cers' fuU dress at that time was gorgeous — huge golden epaulettes and crested Roman helmets. It is sad to think that of all these magnificent warriors who so pleased my childish eyes not one can be alive now. The neighbourhood round Ilsington was very primitive in its ways at that time, many of the villagers being employed in the button industry — 10 UNDER FIVE REIGNS "buttony," of which I spoke in my former volume. Within recent years some attempt has, I believe, been made to revive button-making near Bland- ford, but the modem hand-made buttons cannot, of course, be compared with the old ones produced by workerg who were carrying on artistic traditions bequeathed to them by their ancestors of hundreds of years ago. Not very far from Ilsington is the quaint old town of Puddletown, which, I believe, took its name from the de Pydeles, one of those Norman families which came into England with the Conqueror. The church is particularly interesting, being one of the very few imrestored ones in Dorsetshire — a. county which has suffered terribly at the hands of the restorer. But a short time ago I was pained to hear a rumour that this dear old church, with its old- fashioned oak seating and pews (in one of which, belonging to Ilsington House, I sat as a child over seventy years ago), was about to undergo restoration, and I trembled for the quaint gallery bearing the Royal arms in which, as I perfectly remember, sat the village talent which contributed the music. I was, however, somewhat relieved to learn that the proposed alterations were to consist merely in the prolongation of the chancel and side aisle to their (supposed) original length. The ancient interior fittings, I was told, would be left practically tmtouched, whilst the sounding-board which was formerly suspended over the pulpit is to be replaced. At the time I am writing I have THE RUTHLESS RESTORER ii still some hope that the hand of the restorer may be altogether stayed — amongst others my friend Sir Frederick Treves, the author of a most delightful book about Dorsetshire, has publicly protested against what seems in reaUty to be an uncalled-for alteration. How much harm, alas ! has been done to English village churches by weU-meaning people, only too frequently clergymen, animated by the desire of setting their mark upon some ancient building, where the handiwork of successive genera- tions conveyed the impression of an unbroken continuity. If only because Puddletown Church is the church of Mr. Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd, it should be left untouched. Nothing is more deplorable than the havoc which has been wrought by restorers upon village churches, and as a rule they have been absolutely ruthless as regards the quaint old inscriptions, many of them no doubt the work of an unlettered muse, which nevertheless possessed an old-world charm of their own which caught the attention and perhaps served their purpose of teaching the rustic moralist to die. , There is indeed much truth in the saying that when the restorer comes in by the door good taste and sense generally fly out of the window. Restorations generally entail the destruction of much that recalls the life of the past ; too often, indeed, woodwork of the highest artistic value is ruthlessly discarded, — witness the case of the fine panelling in the Winchester College Chapel, which 12 UNDER FIVE REIGNS some thirty years ago was ruthlessly discarded in favour of modern so-called Gothic work. The fine old panelling in question is now one of the principal art treasures of Hursley Park, not very many miles away from Winchester. The memory of the vandahsm. displayed by the College authorities in this matter should be kept green as a warning to all restorers. In Puddletown Church is the tomb of the last of the Martins, a family founded by " Martin of Tours/' which occupies the south-west corner of the chapel of St. Mary Magdalene, known as the Athelhampton aisle. Within recent years the chapel in question^ which had been sadly neglected by successive generations, has been once again placed in thorough repair by the owner of Athelhampton Hall, Mr. de La Fontaine, who has enriched it by a beautiful window of stained glass. The tomb of Nicholas Martin, with its three monkeys or " martins segeant," bears this epitaph, " Nicholas ye first and Martin ye last. Good-night, Nicholas." A somewhat humorous but sad contrast to the pious inscription on the brass to an earlier member of the family. Churches are often restored in memory of some celebrated person who attended service there, the main object, as a rule, seemingly being to obliterate everything connected with the individual somewhat dubiously honoured. Thus St. Nicholas's Church, Brighton, was entirely transformed in memory of the great Duke of Wellington, and the church at Burn- ham Thorpe presents quite a different appearance A PICTURESQUE MANSION 13 to that which it did in Nelson's day. In most cases the very pew in which some celebrated individual sat has been cut down or removed — surely a strange and inappropriate way of honouring the illustrious dead ? Athelhampton Hall, not very far away (now, owing to its owner's good taste, again one of the most picturesque and beautiful houses in Dorset- shire), was for a time the property of the fifth Earl of Mornington, great-nephew of the " Iron Duke." This house, it is curious to note, has only changed hands three times through purchase since it was built at the end of the fifteenth century. As a child I remember it a deserted and seemingly ruined building used as a farm. The garden was a wilder- ness, through which cattle roamed right up to the door. The whole of the ancient structure, however, was then in existence, and as lately as the year 1862 the house and quadrangles seem to have remained practically untouched. In that year, however, the chapel gatehouse, together with the enclosing walls of the two front quadrangles, and part of the house were pulled down — the present stables being built from the stones of the gatehouse. During my childhood at Ilsington the vicar of Puddletown was of the fox-hunting sort, quite different to the modern conception of a clergyman. He was popular enough with his parishioners, though I suspect he never saw half of them tiU they came up to be buried. Country Ufe was very different in those days. The whole time and attention of the country gentry and farmers were absorbed in local affairs. 14 UNDER FIVE REIGNS to them a source of pleasure as weU as of profit. It was a prosperous period, and the leisure which prosperity engendered had not yet begun to give that taste for luxuries which is such a feature of the present age. The men fished, shot, hunted, raised and sold stock, sowed and reaped, and in their own " way looked after their f amiUes ; this, with a little parish business, and an occasional county election, made up their life. On the whole, though party feeling ran high, faint interest was taken in pohtics as compared with now. Elections, however, were lively enough, so hvely, indeed, that they often degenerated into a sort of saturnalia. The rough humour which was such a prominent feature of old-time elections is how more or less a thing of the past, politics being taken more seriously than of yore. Occasionally, however, a humorous incident enlivens party warfare. We have all heard of the old lady who, attending a funeral, and being told Mr. Gladstone was present, said, " Oh, I do hope he won't make a disturbance ! " At Ipswich during the present elections (January igro) curiously enough an old lady also distinguished herself in somewhat the same way. Great crowds having assembled, she was convinced that this was caused by the opening of the Quarter Sessions. " They are only waiting for Mr. Balfour," said an acquaintance. " WeU," rephed she, " I suppose if the poor man has done anything wrong he'll have to suffer for it now." Great famihes used formerly to regard certain THE INDIVIDUALISM OF THE PAST 15 seats in Parliament almost as their own property, and Peers often forced their eldest sons into politics against their wiU. Directly my father determined that my eldest brother should stand for the division of Norfolk over which he exerted considerable political in^ fluence, the latter wrote from Dresden, where he then was, that Ulness prevented his return to England. This caused considerable annoyance to an impatient electorate, anxious to catch a glimpse of their new member, who, himself hating politics, was not at all eager to see them. My brother was not the only unwilling aspirant for parliamentary honours. At that time the sons of peers were often practically forced to stand by their fathers for constituencies which they had never visited, for which reason the Tories were often twitted by the Whigs for electing, what they called, " in- visible members." Such men of the people who took any serious interest in political matters were generally self- educated — strong, rugged individuals, personalities of which the type has to-day become extinct. When the State left children to themselves — and a great many parents followed the example of the State — there was, no doubt, a great deal of ignorance and a large tract of brain lay fallow. Here and there, however, as if to compensate for this, a boy or man took the work into his own hands, and educated himself; and of aU modes of education this, if not the best, is the most fruitful in results. The spirit of the age favoured individualism i6 UNDER FIVE REIGNS far more than is the case to-day, and independence of character was to be found amongst every class. A conspicuous example of this was the tailoi who, after a great pohtical meeting in a country town, pushed his way up to Sir WiHiam Harcourl and Mr. CardweU, both of whom had for some reason exhibited nervousness in the course of their speeches, and said^ " You thought too 'ighly of 'em, gentlemen. When I speaks to such a crowd, I treats them just as so many cabbage stalks." The landowners in Dorsetshire lived on very pleasant terms with the peasantry in old days, and mutual sympathy prevailed, which is now, I fear, somewhat rare. Only a short time ago I heard that the present owner of a certain country house had created a most unfavourable impression in the district. In former days a number of aged women of the village close by were allowed, after a storm, to collect the wood and sticks which had been blown down in the garden. This kindly permission has now been revoked, and when, after a gale, the aged dames arrived according to custom, they were roughly ordered away by the new squire, who declared that he was not going to have any widows on his lawn. It is by acts such as this that socialists are created, and the good feeUng formerly prevailing between landlord and tenant destroyed. There was a good deal of originality, which sometimes merged into eccentricity, amongst the county gentlemen of the Victorian Age. One of A BUTLER'S MISTAKE 17 these, an old baronet, noted for his contempt of convention, arrived from a visit to London one autumn evening to find that the temperature was distinctly low. Seized with a bright idea, he bade the coachman, who had come to meet him in a dog- cart, take off his livery greatcoat, which the baronet put on, and drove off, the coachman being told to remain in the waiting-room tiU the trap and his greatcoat were sent back to fetch him. Arrived at his mansion, the owner, who, it should be added, had on a top-hat, was greeted by the butler at the door with "Well, what have you done with the old devil ? I suppose he's missed the train." " I am the old devil," was the reply, " and you go to-morrow." Knowing the pompous character of the baronet, the incident amused me very much — a good deal more than it did a friend of mine, a rather straitlaced peer, at whose luncheon table I once mentioned it, with the result that my host and his family seemed very shocked — the only person, indeed, who showed any signs of amusement was the French governess, whose eyes twinkled as, following the example of her very-weU-brought-up charges, she looked down at her plate. There were many queer characters v^ho lived in the country in those days, and some of the in- dividuals who had, owing to their worldly means, contrived to push through the barriers with which at that time the aristocracy still fenced themselves in, were absurdly pompous. Such an one was a certain landowner who, himself of plebeian descent, had married the daughter of a peer — he was so 2 i8 UNDER FIVE REIGNS proud of this that he made it an invariable rule to speak of his wife as Lady . If a neighbour asked him, " How's your wife ? " it was weU known that the reply would be, " Lady , I thank you, is in perfect health," or " Lady , I thank you, is shghtly indisposed," as the case might be; but one thing* was certain, he would never speak of her as " she" or " my wife," for her title was sacrosanct to this gentleman, who was a good deal of a dandy, always wearing lavender kid gloves and rather affecting to despise country ways and habits, for which reason the countryside was vastly amused at a great rebuff which he received. Having business to transact in the local town, this gentleman deigned to take lunch at the local hostelry, an old inn presided over by a landlord of considerable character, who was by no means prepared to regard this visit as the great conde- scension which his fine visitor considered it to be. Drawing off his lavender gloves he somewhat disparagingly surveyed the room, and after a few inquiries for dishes which could not be provided, ordered a pint of wine and a chop. When, how- ever, this arrived he found it anything but to his taste, and, sending for the landlord, told him it was execrable. The latter, who was in no way impressed by his guest, declared that aU the local squires had lunched at his inn, and were satisfied with what was served to them. " As, however," he added, " you don't appear to like our cooking, and kick up such a fuss about this chop, I shan't charge you anything — I make you a present of it." OLD-WORLD WAYS 19 Completely horrified at the man's assurance, the visitor was about to make a dignified reply, when, to his horror, a bumptious old waiter entered and said, " Your missus 'as called for you," an an- nouncement which filled the poor dandy's cup of sorrow to the brim. In the vanished past, not only did all classes below the highest aristocracy mix and mingle much more easily than they do now, but the trading classes in country towns, at least, and the working class approached very closely to each other, an association which is unheard of at the present day. There was, indeed, no great social gap between a weU-to-do merchant and his housemaid or shop boys. They all dined together in the kitchen, and often passed the evening in the same apartment. The middle class in the country had not yet taken that upward bound which has carried it to the very top of the tree, and the labouring classes had not yet begun a descent which has brought the great mass of them to a condition perpetually verging upon pauperism. The old-fashioned agricultural labourer, though receiving a very scant wage, lived happily enough — ^his wants were few, and landlords were kind to him in many small ways, which were highly appreciated. A number of these labourers working for small farmers were fed in the houses of their employers, who were not much superior to them in manners or in education. It was the period, perhaps, when the relations of the farmer and the labourer were closest to each other. The time was yet to come when they were to drift into the present 20 UNDER FIVE REIGNS condition of latent antagonism. The farmer of to-day has a hard struggle to maintain his position, and the more enterprising spirits eventually relin- quish agriculture for some more profitable calling which enables them to rise in the social scale. The agricultural labourer, on the other hand, tends to sink into apathetic pauperism, for he has little chance of laying by a sufficiency for his old age, though in recent times his wages have become larger, whilst the conditions of his existence have been greatly improved. Many things, however, have occurred to make him discontented with his lot, and the hfe of cities attracts him as a candle does a moth. Formerly the countryman rather despised town life, and owing to various causes his existence was more satisf3dng than it is to-day, when the unexciting news of the countryside has ceased to arouse anything but a languid interest amongst the well- to-do. Every Httle country town was formerly a real centre of vitality, and its shops did a thriving business, which enabled their owners to live and die weU assured of their own and their children's moderate prosperity. In a great measure, of course, they depended upon the local gentry for support, who in turn depended upon the land. To-day the local gentry, when able to reside on their estates, procure most of their supplies from the huge emporiums in town, and the village shops generally find considerable difficulty in maintaining a mere existence. Many of these modest establishments had passed for generations from father to son, bi;t AN OLD LETTER 21 this state of affairs, except in rare instances, has also ceased, for young men of intelligence are naturally eager to go out into the world and attempt to snatch a prize from the lucky-bag of urban toil and excite- ment. In the thirties and forties of the last century there was a good deal of poverty amongst the labouring classes. The following letter, written to my mother-in-law about 1839, touches on this question, and suggests a remedy which a certain number of landed proprietors were already trying to adopt — AsHGROVE Cottage February 25th Your letters are always most welcome to me, dear Mrs. NeviU, as they never fail assuring me of his Lordship's good health, which we drank last Thursday, I don't doubt in unison with many who must be praying for its longest possible continuance. Certainly there are few whose power extends so far and wide as Lord Abergavenny, in employing great numbers of people upon his estates, but if aU Pro- prietors of Land would do the same in Proportion we should not be stunned by such lives of poverty as at present, and which I fear are in general but too weU founded. At the same time I am always sorry to read our neighbour. Lord Stanhope's, inflammatory speeches on the subject, which are indiscreet and dangerous. His temper is so violent, that if he begins right he is sure to end wrong. We had a letter from his Lady a while ago to announce their Expectation of an Heir Lady Mahon 22 UNDER FIVE REIGNS is in the way to produce, which they have been in anxious Hopes and Fears about for some time. People are looking out now for Lord Essex's marriage with Miss Stephens which has been so long pre- dicted and they say will certainly take place. If she shduld produce him an Heir it will be a terrible Blow upon the Capels. I saw him last year at Cashiobury and he really does not appear as old as the Peerage makes him by a dozen years at least. Miss Stephens was staying in the House. She has very pretty pleasing Manners and I daresay has good sense enough to make her way very well in the great World. Lord Essex was very kind to my poor crazy Cousin Sir John Lade, and particularly so in helping forward his Petition for a Continuation of his Pension, which he was in the utmost Anxiety about the last Time I saw him in Town just before I came here the End of October and both Lord Anglesea and Lord Sefton were always kind Friends to him. Poor Creature, his Case indeed was truly de- plorable ! Reduced by Vice and FoUy to a state of actual Poverty, for the last five-and-twenty years of his Life, or even more — after coming into the World with a Strength of Constitution and a Splendor of Fortune that it took nearly sixty years of his mad Career to destroy ! This very severe Winter has carried off a great many in delicate Health, both of young and old, Henry, Earl of Abergavenny, spoken of in this letter, was a weU-known character in Sussex. As THE " GRAND DUKE " 23 an old man he seldom left the precincts of Eridge Park, and when he drove out did so in the old style of a coach and four. A confirmed valetudinarian, he was nevertheless of autocratic character, which had procured him the nickname of the "Grand Duke." He thoroughly realised the responsibilities which a large landowner should undertake, and took the greatest interest in the affairs of the country, as the following, written by a cousin, Mr. Edward Walpole, shows — You did not teU me on what day the Ash- burnham dinner was to take place. I am well pleased, for the credit of the Grand Duke, that he screwed up his courage to send the invitation, tho' as we say at the theatre, on a very short notice, because, as he has ridden the race over a course 82 years long Hke a perfect gentleman, one would be sorry he should flag, when (as in the course of nature he must be thought to be) he is within a distance of the winning post. I rather regret the prophet was not of the party : for I am sure he merits every mark of grace and attention from the Grand Duke. I think I should have substituted his name for that of Dr. Thomp- son, but I suppose the Grand Duke resembles another celebrated Governour, namely, Sancho Panza, and cannot dine, unless his physician be present. The steam engine first roused the countryside from its old condition of not unprosperous torpor. 24 UNDER FIVE REIGNS and now the motor car is completing the work, and soon in all England no sleepy hollow will be left. The opposition to railroads was not confined to any particular class, and agriculturists were particularly violent against them. At first there were a good many cases of cattle straying on to the line, 'which produced violent denunciations from local papers, one of which once became so excited that it said that, owing to the new-fangled invention, an inoffensive cow had been cut into calves ! The staunch old Tories of the past who looked askance at the progress of steam were in some respects not so short-sighted as they seemed — they maintained that railways would destroy the old EngUsh country life which, with but sKght change, had endured for generations, and time has proved that they were right. The pleasant relations which formerly existed between landlord and tenant are now, except in a few instances, things of the past, whilst the time seems rapidly approaching when class will regard class with feelings of disUke on the one side, and hatred on the other. The good fellowship formerly prevailing between high and low is gone. Some sixty or seventy years ago Radicals were looked upon by the county gentry as dangerous and ferocious men, with principles nearly allied to Atheism and Repubhcanism. The local con- ception of a Radical had been formed in the early days of the nineteenth century, when Crown and Church and Aristocracy were aU-powerful, and the THE OLD-FASHIONED RADICAL 25 excesses of the French Revolution had created such a strong feeling against popular concessions that a group of men had arisen who had been driven into the opposite extreme of thinking that liberty could only be secured by a Republic, and that Monarchy was another name for despotism. Never- theless, such Radicahsm was of quite a harmless kind, it was often merely academic and literary, rather than political. It showed itself in quotations from MUton, and, above aU, from Shakespeare and the classics, to which no one would probably listen in these days. On the other hand there were a certain number of fighting stalwarts who Hved almost isolated lives in an unsympathetic age. Such Radicals as these remembered times when their forefathers had to contend with real dangers to hberty, of which a later generation remembered little, and were prepared to " champion " their principles to the bitter end. Exile and imprison- ment, if not worse, were always in the probabilities of the " old Radical." No wonder they were a little stern and sour, and looked with a certain contempt on the Radicals of a later age, who had never known a Pitt or Castlereagh, nor faced an Ellenborough. The old Tories would have regarded some of our modern Conservatives as violent revolutionaries. Compromise was not a popular word with them, and to do them justice they were thoroughly in earnest when they defended their somewhat narrow political convictions. Those who did change their 26 UNDER FIVE REIGNS principles did not dp so in the cynical manner of some latter-day politicians. Within the last few years a certain number of Conservatives, perhaps inspired by the not very edifying example of Mr. Winston Churchill, have changed pamps and become active workers for the Radical cause. The wife of a peer of this sort, now as ardent an admirer of the principles of Mr. Lloyd George as she had once been of those of Lord Salisbury, canvassing amongst her husband's tenants, met an old farmer to whom she expressed the hope that he was going to vote for the right side. " And what be that, my lady ? " inquired the old man. "Why, the Liberals, of course," was the reply. " Well, my lady," said he, turning back the lapel of his coat and showing a Primrose badge, " twenty years ago you told me to vote for the Conservatives, and Conservative I be going to remain. I can't keep changing sides as easily as some people." For a few political turncoats there is real excuse. One can hardly blame those whom one ministry have seen fit to throw overboard for having the strength to swim to the other side. Then as now, of course, there were people who changed their pohtical convictions on occasion, but they were more exposed to hearing unpleasant reflec- tions upon their behaviour than is the case to-day. Lord Alvanley once administered a ratlaer crushing rebuke to Sir Francis Burdett, whose political views had changed. The liveries of both were light blue and silver, and one day Lord Alvanley said — THE PEERAGE 27 "We're always mistaken for each other. Couldn't we hit on a way to prevent it ? " " I'm willing," replied the baronet, " if I only knew how." " Then I'll tell you," said Alvanley. " Make your people foUow your own example and turn their coats — that will do it." Much is heard as to the not very reputable origin of the large properties belonging to certain peers and dukes whose ancestors are supposed to have obtained them by no very scrupulous methods. As a matter of fact, most of the founders of wealthy families amassed their fortunes in quite respectable, if prosaic, trade, having been merely shrewd investors. The great Grosvenor fortune is a con- spicuous instance of this. To cite some other examples, the families of CornwaUis and Coventry, the Earls of Radnor, Essex, Dartmouth, Craven, Warwick, TankerviUe, Pomfret, are respectively descended from a City merchant, a London mercer, a silk manufacturer, a City alderman, a member of the Skinners' Com- pany, a merchant tailor (the " Flower of wool- staplers " GreviUe was called, from whom the Earl of Warwick is lineaUy descended), a mercer, and a Calais merchant, for such was Fermour, the ancestor of the Earls of Pomfret. He it was who had Will Somers in his service before the latter became fool to Henry the Eighth. This Ust might be enlarged to a very large extent, for good plain London citizens have been the ancestors of many peers of compara- tively ancient creation. Peerages have sonaetimes been acquired in 28 UNDER FIVE REIGNS curious ways. When the head of a weU-known West country family was raised to the Upper House a good deal of surprise was expressed at such a distinction Ijeing conferred upon him, for he had not rendered any particular services to his party, having lost practically every election he had contested. Lord Beaconsfield furnished me with the key to this enigma. " Well," said he, " we really did not know what to do with him, for he was positively doing us 'harm. Wherever he stood he was beaten, so at last we thought the best way to get rid of him would be to send him to the Upper House." Many political peers have gone somewhat un- willingly to the Upper Chamber. Mr. Lowe was a case in point. There was, I think, something of the Louis Quatorze spirit about Mr. Gladstone, and with a certain amount of reason he believed him- self to be different from the ordinary run of humanity. At the end of his career, before Mr. Lowe was made Lord Sherbrooke, Mr. Gladstone said to him, " You are too old to be in the Government ; not but that you are younger than I — but then I am an exception ! " I fancy a good many politicians got their peer- ages because they were considered past work. During the latter years of the Victorian Era a tendency to regard the Second Chamber as a place of retirement for politicians whose work was done began to increase, and it gradually became recognised THE HOUSE OF LORDS 29 as a convenient retreat for men who were deemed ripe for the shelf. After all, as an optimistic member of the House of Commons once remarked, the House of Lords is but a political long home, and we can aU comfort ourselves that, though peers cannot return to us, we may aU go to them. Science and learning, though represented in the House of Lords, have not, some people think, obtained their due share of recognition. In aU probability, in the case of the latter, this has done no great harm, for very learned men are not always fitted to exercise rule. In the case of science, however, it is a different matter, for the whole pro- gress of the modern world reaUy rests upon scientific discovery, invention, and organisation, the latter especially being of the highest importance, and surely a great biologist or authority on pubhc health is fully as worthy of having a voice in the affairs of the nation as a successful manufacturer or employer of labour. Of late years, however, I think the creation of certain peerages has impaired the prestige which was formerly attached to membership of the Upper House. Some of the comments as to prospective peerages passed in modern days are instructive as to the way in which such matters are regarded. " I hear so- and-so is to be made a peer," we hear some one say. " Impossible," repHes another, " he is really too bad ; why, he can hardly speak EngUsh. Still, he has lots of money, and I am told is quite a nice 30 UNDER FIVE REIGNS man. Besides, he is no worse than lots of others, and at any rate his wife is charming ! " * Unquestionable qualifications, perhaps, for social popularity, but scarcely defensible credentials for being accorded a perpetual vote in deciding ques- tions which may affect the destinies of the English people. • In old days there were occasional murmurings (and worse at the time of the first Reform BiU in 1832) against the House of Lords ; but at heart the spirit of the country, with a certain number of fanatical exceptions, was scarcely hostile to the existence of such an institution. A great propor- tion of the peers were large landowners, and through various channels thoroughly in touch with the ideas of the inhabitants of certain tracts of country. To-day, except in a limited number of instances, aU this is changed, and a totally different class has gradually assumed the functions of hereditary legislators. The enormous increase in the number of peers within the last hundred and fifty years is very striking. In 1778 there were but two hundred and three, increased to two hundred and seventy-j^ve by 1798, which caused a contemporary cynic to say that, at a period when scarcity was becoming general, there was at least one great reason to be thankful — ^the absolute impossibiHty of its extending to ti\e members of the House of Lords. Since then the list of peers has been gradually further augmented, till at the present time there are more than eight hundred upon the roll. A SCANDAL 31 Bath political parties, it is to be feared, have favoured the bestowal of an honour which should be reserved only for really distinguished men upon those who, in not a few instances, could show but weU-filled money-bags as their credentials. Except from the point of view that party funds must be kept in a flourishing condition at all costs, many creations of the last fifty years must seem totally unjustifiable, especially during an epoch which has boasted that it ever set worth before wealth. There is some excuse, perhaps, for rewarding conspicuous services to one or other of the two great political parties with a peerage. A man who has fought many elections, and given his health and strength to such campaigns, may perhaps justly be considered worthy of being accorded a place in the gilded chamber as a reward for a strenuous career ; but the bestowal of a peerage upon some rich millionaire of small attainments, or of no attainments at aU, must seem to thoughtful people little short of a disgraceful scandal. With- out doubt, it is the not infrequent occurrence of this sort of thing which has produced a certain feeUng that the whole constitution of the Second ChaJTiber requires revision. If peerages are to be bought, as some have been, merely by money, the transaction should be openly tolerated, and a regular tariff set up, so that rich manufacturers, newly naturaUsed millionaires, and successful business men might, if they desired some 32 UNDER FIVE REIGNS form of distinction, pay their money and take their choice. " L'appetit vient en mangeant," and this apphes to titles as well as other things. Years ago, when I was in close touch with a good many people wielding some influence in the political world, the wife of a friend of mine (a very clever man I should add, now dead) came to me, and time after time besought me to use any influence I might possess to obtain a knighthood for her husband. " Not," said she, " that he cares for such a very ordinary distinction, but, as you know, a title of any kind is likely to do him great good in the business circles in which he is now getting on so well." In course of time, though I fear not through any efforts of mine, the knighthood was obtained. A few years passed, and once more my friend's wife began to speak of the good which a tactful word might do in assisting to get her husband a baronetcy. " The fact is," said she, " he regrets having ever accepted a knighthood, for so many nobodies get this sort of thing nowadays that he finds it a positive disadvantage. As you know, we are above the vulgarity of caring for distinctions of rank, still, at the same time, when so many people, much inferior to my husband, have been given baronetcies, it seems hard that he should be left out in the cold " ; and he was not, for he got his baronetcy, and eventually becoming a baron, would no doubt have ended as an earl had he hved, for he was very, very rich. I must in justice, however, add that the peer THE STORY OF A TITLE 33 in question, a man of high ability, thoroughly deserved the honours which his wife had worked so hard to obtain for him. He left no successor, so there is as Uttle harm in this anecdote as there was in his peerage. II The last post-boy — The Derby Dilly — Steam packets — Travelling abroad — A silent Duke — Pretty customs — Picturesque Bavaria — An appropriate punishment — Anecdotes — An unfortunate in- scription — Thiers and his schoolmaster — Prince DemidofE — "The common lot " — Lady Strachan's villa — Rome under Papal rule — II conde HaUfato. A SHORT time ago I read that the oldest and really the last post-boy — John Wilson, of Dartford — had died at the age of ninety-six in Dartford Workhouse. He was described as having been a quaint figure, standing scarcely five feet, upon legs much bowed from many years of riding, during which he had been post-boy to the late Queen on several occasions on journeys from Dover to London. He worked at the Bull Hotel in Dartford, the famous old coaching house, stiU standing, I believe, with a gallery round the courtyard Ultra Conservatives Hke Lord Brougham con- sidered posting an agreeable relaxation. ' ' Formerly, ' ' said he, " I could go eight or ten miles an hour along excellent roads, stay at excellent inns, could stop when convenient, and sleep when convenient." Had he survived to the present age of motor cars, this nobleman would have found all his requirements THE 3EGINNING OF RAILWAYS 35 once more realised, with the exception of excellent inns, of which there is indeed a sad lack in small country towns. It is curious that English hotel- keepers in general have not grasped the great opportunities for making money which modern accommodation and good, simple food would afford. Motorists in general, I fancy, would be prepared to spend a good deal more if their requirements were attended to in an attractive manner. The last of the regular mail coaches would seem to have been the old Derby maU, which made its final journey out of Manchester in 1858. When the rivalry of rails and steam had run aU other coaches off the road, the " Derby Dilly " still held its own, and the well-known route through Buxton and Bakewell to Rowsley could still boast its " four-in- hand," though the " team " was hardly equal to what had been seen when coaching was in its best days. It was thought that railways would not find their way through the Peak, but the Midland line pene- trated as far as Rowsley in a short time, and in due course the London and North - Western reached Whaley Bridge on the other side, leaving but a short Hnk to be filled up, when the last of the old four-in-hand mails succumbed to the com- petition of the iron horse. In the early days of railways the population generally mistrusted the new mode of conveyance. Some of the poetical effusions which figured on triumphal arches during Royal visits in the early days of railways expressed this feeling. An 36 UNDER FIVE REIGNS enthusiastic Birmingham tradesman, for instance — probably with a painful recollection of his own railway experiences — put up the following distich outside his shop — Hail to Prince Albert, the pride of the nation ! May l|ts journey be safe when he goes from the station ! Looking through an old chest of letters some time ago I came upon one which brought vividly to my mind those far-away days when railways hardly existed, and when travellers were exposed to in- conveniences and adventures quite undreamt of at the present time. It was sent by my father to my sister and myself, at that time enjoying the delights of Ilsington, the sweet Dorsetshire home, which has now, alas ! passed out of the possession of our family. The letter ran thus — Aix LA Chapelle 5th July 1838 My Dearest Babies, — You wiU be sorry to hear that I have lost everything brought with me from Dresden. My old family repeater, seals, £2$ in gold and notes, several trinkets, all my papers and letters, plans of Ilsington estate, etc., with a good many clothes ; they were in a portmanteau strapped behind, and safe tiU within a quarter of an hour from this town, when a peasant was seen to cut the straps about 5 o'clock in the day; since which nothing has been heard of them— numerous carts were passing and many persons at work on and near the roads. It is a very serious REGINAI,D NEVILL (from a water-colour sketch made at ekidge in 1814) STEAM PACKETS 37 loss to me, and added to a slight tendency to cholera has much annoyed me. The loss of my things will perhaps detain me here for a few days, and delay my arrival in London ; and what with illness, and these annoy- ances, I am quite unequal to any exertion. Should anything be heard from Munich of the Countess of Richtberg's servant, Schmidt, let me know, for it is useless having such a fool as Newstead ; the former ought not to have more than i6, or at most 17 florins per month with clothes and board. My best love to all. — Yours affection- ately, Orford In the early days of steam people regarded voyages in vessels propelled by the new method as hazardous in the extreme. In 1838 my future husband, Mr. Reginald Nevill, set out on a voyage in one of the new steam packets. His relatives were quite alarmed for his safety, as the following extract from a letter written by his uncle, Mr. Edward Walpole, shows. He wrote — To tell the truth, before Reginald started, I was rather fidgety at the thought of his crossing the Bay of Biscay in a steamer, and am now the more thankful at his having done so with safety, as it appears a steam vessel called the Royal Tar, which lately sailed from Falmouth for Gibraltar, met with a violent storm in the bay and was all but lost. . . . Passports were the curses of the traveller on the 38 UNDER FIVE REIGNS Continent in old days. No one can imagine the con- stant inconvenience andwony caused by the necessity of having these somewhat cumbersome certificates of respectabiUty signed and countersigned by pompous and often none too civil officials. Only in the late fifties did the very stringent regulations as to pass- ports begin to be relaxed, but for years afterwards travellers were obUged to carry them, and even after all pressing need for taking passports had ceased, old-fashioned people continued to carry them, and this lasted in some cases up to the early eighties of the last century. What discomfort travellers suffered at inns. One of the most unpleasant experiences of this sort I remember was when travelling on the Continent with my parents in the early forties of the last century. In the course of our wanderings we had to stop at Rastadt, in Bavaria, at which town we arrived at two in the morning, when there was not a hving creature in the streets. Having groped our way up the staircase of the inn, the landlord appeared half-dressed at the top, looking angry and fierce, said he had but two rooms, and seemed Ul-disposed to bestir himself about supper. He was probably offended at the evident disgust with which we shrank back from the first room he threw open, smelling strongly of mice, and the beds ready made up with sheets that had doubtless served many a traveller. The second room was so far better that the beds were not sheeted. On the outside of these we lay down in our clothes until six, and then, still fasting, except a piece of bread since breakfast the day before, we A DUKE'S ADVENTURE 39 resumed our journey. How glad we were to get away, and how pleased to reach the next stopping- place, where we were able to obtain bread, butter, and eggs, which sustained us until we arrived at Salzburg in the evening. The greatest carelessness prevailed in most German inns as to bedroom accommodation, which was occasionally worse than scandalous. At Salzburg we stayed at the Goldener Schiff, having failed to obtain rooms at the best inn next door, called the Herzog Karl. Every apartment here was occupied by two famiUes, that of a young Hungarian Countess two months married, and the PoUsh Potoskas, who were waiting the arrival of the Minister of Naples to complete the marriage of their daughter. In due course the bridegroom arrived, and we saw the fair young bride in her wreath and flowing veil returning with a party of gaily-dressed, smiling, congratulating friends, from the private chapel in the Cardinal- Archbishop's palace, where the marriage ceremony had just been performed. While the wedding feast was spread in one part of the inn, the corpse of the scarcely older bride was laid out in another. After four days' iUness the young Hun- garian lady had died, at the age of eighteen, and one day, at noon, we saw her carried to the cemetery, a long train of the townspeople, male and female, following the hapless stranger to her foreign grave. Death apparently was Ughtly regarded by innkeepers. The father of the fourth Duke of Devonshire, like his brother. Lord George Cavendish (great-grand- 40 UNDER FIVE REIGNS father of the present duke), was a very silent man. When travelling through Germany, on stopping at an inn, they were told that they could only be accommodated with a chamber containing three beds, one of which was already occupied. They made no reply, but quietly retired to the apartment. They, however, felt some curiosity, and drawing aside the bed curtains, each took a momentary peep. They then immediately got into bed and slept soundly. Next morning, after they had breakfasted and paid their biH, the duke merely said to his brother, "George, did you see the dead body?" " Yes," was the reply, and they both got into their chaise and proceeded on their journey without another word. Bavaria, notwithstanding unpleasant experiences hke the one I have described, was at that time a most interesting country, retaining cis it did many features connected with a past age. The difference between travelling in those days and now can hardly be realised by the present generation. Railways scarcely existed, and there were no huge hotels, one exactly like another, filled with Germans, English, and Americans. You saw the country through which you passed in its every-day natural state, the people living their own hves in repose, unspoilt as yet by a constantly moving herd of travellers. Everything then seemed full of its own identity, and Europe was not ground down to one general level. For the most part the peasantry in the country districts were honest and simple, very religious, and very THE CULT OF JASMINE 41 fond of their country and local traditions. In Switzerland and Bavaria the spirit of TeU and of Hofer still lived. Life seemed to afford endless variety, for every district seemed to differ. The table d'hote, now everywhere a copy of a pre- tentious meal, was literally what it professed to be : the master of the house presided, gave you the best he had, and told you aU the news of the country round. Occasionally his wife or children were there, and often when one drove away flowers and fruit were put into the carriage. The traveller's arrival was a great excitement, and his departure a regret. Instead of the pecuUarly ugly, common, and ill-dressed figures which one now sees working in the fields, every creature, man, woman, or chUd, generally wore some more or less picturesque dress. In Switzerland you could teU whenever you got into a new canton by a complete change in the costume. How pretty were many of the customs of the peasantry all over the Continent in old days, especially in Italy. The Tuscan girls, for instance, invariably wore a nosegay of jasmine on their wedding-day ; they had a proverb which said that a bride worthy of wearing such a nosegay was rich enough to make the fortune of a good husband. This cult of jasmine arose, it is said, from a Duke of Tuscany who was the first possessor of the jasmine in Europe, and he was so jealously fearful lest others should enjoy what he alone wished to possess, that strict injunctions were given to his gardener not to give a slip, nor so much as a single flower, 42 UNDER FIVE REIGNS to any person. To this command the gardener would have been faithful, had not love wounded him by the sparkling eyes of a fair but portionless peasant, whose want of a little dowry and his poverty alone kept them from the hymeneal altar. On the bifthday of his mistress he presented her with a nosegay, and to render the bouquet more acceptable, ornamented it with a branch of jasmine. The girl, wishing to preserve the bloom of this new flower, put it into fresh earth, and the branch remained green all the year. In the following spring it grew, and was covered with flowers. It flourished and multiplied so much under the fair one's cultivation, that she was able to amass a little fortune from the sale of the precious gift which love had made her, when, with a sprig of jasmine in her breast, she bestowed her hand and wealth on the happy gardener of her heart. In Bavaria the peasantry stUl adhered to their old dress, which was picttuesque in the extreme in the case of the men, who wore long-tailed coats reaching to their heels, cocked hats, and Hessian boots. The postilions in particular caught our fancy ; they had a gay and clean appearance rare among foreign post-boys, being dressed in bright Bavarian blue, trimmed with silver lace, their shiny hats decked with a taU blue and white feather. Alas ! I fear all this has long ceased to be — such things have no place in the practical German Empire of to-day. During this journey we passed some time at Munich, a town inseparably connected in my A CURIOUS WEDDING 43 mind with the recollection of a very curious wedding which we attended between an EngHsh lady and a Bavarian^ celebrated according to the rites of the English Church. The bridegroom was quite ignorant of English, on account of which Mr. Lons- dale, an attache at the Legation, stood by him during the service, repeating his responses for him, while the bridegroom kept murmuring " AU dis I say," the only words of our language which he knew. At Munich we saw a good deal of Mr. Hallam and his family, with whom we visited the Palace, which had only recently been finished. The old King of Bavaria, in spite of some faults, amongst which, I suppose, the chief was his in- fatuation for Lola Montez, was a kindly old man. One day a woman fainted in one of the streets of Munich. An elderly gentleman who approached the spot where she was lying requested some of the persons present to go and fetch a medical man. They aU replied that they knew not where to find one. " WeU, then," said he, " I wiU go myself," and in a few moments he returned with a doctor, who applied the proper remedies to the poor woman. The kind-hearted old gentleman was King Louis of Bavaria. I think that the following act of generosity was also supposed to have been performed by this monarch — it was either he or the King of Prussia. Resolving to relieve the needs of one of his poor but brave aides-de-camp he sent him a small portfolio, bound like a book, in which were deposited five 44 UNDER FIVE REIGNS hundred crowns. Some time afterwards he met the officer, and said to him, " Ah, well, how did you like the new work which I sent to you ? " " Exces- sively, sire," replied the colonel ; " I read it with such interest that I expect the second volume with impatience." The king smiled, and when the officer's birthday arrived, he presented him with another portfolio, similar in every respqct to the first, but with these words engraved upon it — " This book is complete in two volumes." Even at that time the pubUc gardens in Germany were well kept up, and great care taken to preserve their amenities. At Frankfort, for instance, some mischievous wretch shot a nightingale in the beautiful public gardens, and was caught in the act. His punishment was characteristic : his hands were tied behind him, and a label setting forth his crime was fixed on his breast. In this guise, with a poUce officer on each side, he was marched all round the gardens, and made the circuit of the city, pursued by the hisses of the populace and the abhorrent looks of the upper classes. He was not otherwise punished; but he never again made his appearance in the town. During our travels we made the acquaintance of the young Duchess of Nassau. Six months after we had met her, we learnt with sorrow of her death. When we had said good-bye she had been rejoicing in the prospect of an heir, though occasionally indulging in melancholy presentiments as to her confinement. They were unfortunately reahsed. When the time drew near the young duke was in HOTEL LIFE 45 high spirits, sa3ang repeatedly, " Our baby will soon be born now." It was born, but dead, and soon afterwards, to his extreme consternation, he was told his beloved wife was dying too. She herself had no idea of danger, and when the Greek priest entered to prepare her for death, she said, " Why do you come now ? I never sent for you." The poor man was so overcome that he fainted away, and had only just time to administer the last sacraments to the expiring duchess. She made but one request in dying, that her body might never be put underground. The poor husband was at first inconsolable. He visited her corpse and the infant's every day ; and said to a favourite attendant, pointing to them, "There lies aU my happiness." Though many modern hotels are, I behave, most luxurious palaces, my early experiences have always made me disUke the idea of people hving anywhere but in a house of their own. Anyone hving in an hotel is Hke a grape-vine in a flower-pot — movable, carried round from place to place, docked at the root, and short at the top. Nowhere can any individual get real root-room, and spread out his branches till they touch the morning and the evening, but in his own house. We went to some queer places during our travels. Once we crossed the Brenner Pass in carriages by the old road — a new one which was then being made was fast progressing — and before reaching Landeck encountered a terrible storm . Continuing our j oumey we breakfasted at St. Anthon, where we found fleas in the butter, fleas in the mUk, and dirt everjrwhere. 46 UNDER FIVE REIGNS but a very good new piano ! This was a wretched post-house in Vorarlberg, where the Kellnerin assured us Herrschaft never came. We afterwards com- menced the ascent of the Adlersberg ; the view from the snow-clad summit was magnificent. Our postiUon v^as one of the merriest creatures imagin- able. As he walked beside his horses up the hiU he whistled, sang, and trumpeted by turns. When we had reached the top he set off full trot, never stopping tiU he reached the post-house at the bottom, looking round into the carriage at every sharp turn of the winding descent to see how far his reckless speed was approved of. I remember my father enjoying this immensely, nodding and laughing in answer to the postilion's triumphant "Sind sie jetzt zufrieden/' thereby encouraging him to greater daring. The crossing of the Splugen Pass was another adventure. The master of the post assured us the road was perfectly good and safe, and that though the carriages must be put on sledges, they would not be required for more than half an hour. How he deceived us ! Some of us went in a britschka ; I myself, however, chose the coach. We had eleven men with us, besides the postilions, and three sent forward to clear the road. About half an hour after quitting the village they began to remove the wheels of the carriages, and put them on sledges, so narrow and apparently insufficient that my father remonstrated, and thought we could do better without, but the post-master, who had himself come with us to see all rightly done, insisted ; and CROSSING THE SPLUGEN 47 one of the men gravely told us that higher up we should find the snow no joke. They were right: the zig-zags began, and for a time all went on well ; but the higher we got, the deeper became the snow, and the narrower the httle track which alone remained to show the direction of the road. The snow, half-way up the mountain, was higher than the tops of the tall posts that marked the line of road. The heavy boxes had aU been taken off the carriages and put on sledges, but the carriages themselves requiring all the attention of the eleven men, there were none to attend to the luggage sledges, and the first disaster occurred by one of the horses turning a corner too sharply, and tumbhng over the boxes with two of the menservants, who were seated on them, into the snow. This accident only excited a laugh ; but a minute or two afterwards the fourgon was overturned — a far more serious affair. AU the men ran to assist in raising the ponderous vehicle. The next alarm was given by the heavy coach, which was so nearly overturned that my mother durst no longer remain in it. She got into the britschka, and I and she sat upon the sledges convejdng the boxes. Every moment, as we wound higher, the road grew more dangerous ; aU track was soon lost, for it seems snow had fallen in the night, and obliterated it towards the summit. Our guides haUooed to the men who were gone before, and to those who Uved at the top of the mountain to keep the road, to be quick, and clear away the snow. They owned to us there was danger, but promised to do their utmost for our 48 UNDER FIVE REIGNS safety, and so I believe they did. The heat of the sun softened the snow so much that the men at the sides, holding up the carriages, sank frequently up to their knees ; yet they jumped from side to side, being sometimes obliged to hang on with all their weight to. pre vent the carriage from rolhng over — so active and invaluable that I blessed them for their care. Many a vow we made never to cross a high pass again, many a silent prayer we breathed for our preservation. We did not feel safe tiU we had gained the summit, 6814 feet above the sea, and 1800 above the village from which we started in the morning. In descending we met the sledges conveying the dihgence, and lower down a long train of mules laden with wine, bales of goods, and the like. A Uttle beyond the Austrian frontier, which we passed without any delay, the carriages were again put upon wheels, and during the operation I heard a distant roar, and the guides pointed to a lofty rock from which an avalanche was falling. Afterwards I saw several — small ones, and at a safe distance. And now the wonders of the road began. We passed in a rapid but safe descent through many galleries, some more than a thousand feet long, cut out of the sohd rock ; some hghted by arched openings, some supported on pillars, some with shelving roofs to conduct the avalanches into the gulf below. Emerg- ing from these we looked down some thousand feet upon the village of Isola, in the vaUey under our very feet, and here we passed the lovely cascade of the Medessino, which leaps down perpendicularly 800 feet, one of the finest in the Alps. WIESBADEN 49 In the course of our wanderings we stayed some time at Wiesbaden, where we were invited to see Sir Frederick Trench's sketches, all of which had some little story connected with them. An inde- fatigable worker, he sketched everything, even to curious cliimney-pots and grotesque extinguishers. He also showed us his plans for improving Piccadilly, the Royal Academy, and the banks of the Thames. Lady Ashbrook, who came to see us, also brought some beautiful sketches on the Moselle done by her daughter. Altogether our six weeks' stay was most agreeable, for there were many nice English people in the place. After this we spent a month at Mayence, where I went a good deal to the theatre with my dear governess. Miss Redgrave. We went alone, but never experienced any inconvenience. Once, on entering a box, there was one front place vacant — a gentleman and lady occupied the others — the gentleman immediately resigned his place to leave two front seats for us. Another time, when the house was very full, aU the back seats in the box we sat in were occupied by officers of the Prussian garrison, but nobody molested us, nor attempted to occupy the vacant place in the front row beside us. We ever found the Germans a most weU-bred people. They still retained, however, a hatred of the French, for many who remembered the invasion of Napoleon's troops were aUve. Some of his generals had been very ruthless in their proceedings, especially General Vandamme, who, during the march of the grande armee to Russia, had had the garden of his house at Cassel surrounded by iron 4 50 UNDER FIVE REIGNS railings of different patterns taken from German churches, and he had levied contributions on various German convents to fiU his cellars with wine. During the same campaign the French had erected a monument in the market-place of Coblentz on which wa's placed the following inscription — Anno 1 8 12. Memorable par la Campagne centre les Russes, sous le Prefecture de Jules Douzan. Two years later, when the historic retreat from Moscow had taken place, the following biting addition was subjoined — Vu, et approuve, par nous. Commandant Russe de la Villa de Coblentz, le i Janvier, 1814. How benighted the condition of most of the little Continental towns would seem to the up-to-date traveller of to-day. The inhabitants, for the most part, were entirely absorbed in their own affairs, and even local interests stirred them but little. As for the outside world, what happened there did not matter to them a jot. Even some of the larger cities knew little of men famous in the political world. This is well shown by a story of M. Thiers, stopping at Luxemburg whilst on a journey. The burgomaster came forth to do him honour, and by way of com- plimenting him, mentioned that an old man, a MarseUlais, had performed the functions of school- master in the town for about twenty years. The ex-Minister desired to be introduced to him, when the following dialogue ensued. Thiers commencing — THIERS AND HIS SCHOOLMASTER 51 " Do you know me ? " " No, sir." " You don't remember little Adolphe Thiers, one of your scholars at Marseilles ? " " Wait, wait — ^yes, I do recoUect such a name ; a sly little monkey who used to play such pranks." " Just so." " Ah ! it is you ? I am very glad to see you. Have you succeeded ? Have you made your fortune ? " " Sufficiently so, I thank you." " So much the better — so much the better ! Pardon my curiosity ; I should like to know what you have been doing. Are you a notary, banker, merchant ? " "I have retired from business, but I have been a minister." " Protestant ? " asked the old man. " And this is glory ! " said Thiers. He had never heard of Thiers, Minister oi the Interior — Thiers, Minister of Commerce^ Thiers, Minister of Foreign Affairs — or of Thiers, author of the History of the Consulate and Empire ! Those were the days when picturesque ceremonial was very conspicuous abroad. The public attend- ance of the military at High Mass, for instance, is in France and Italy at least a thing of the past. This function I saw at Bologna in 1843. Walking about noon towards the Piazza di Nettuno, it was evident, from the open, draperied windows and the throngs of people, that some- thing was going on. Just as I reached the front of S. Petronio a discharge of musketry startled me : the Piazza was crowded with soldiers, and full of smoke ! Inside the church High Mass was being performed, the organ pealing, and a thousand voices joining in the anthem. The immense church was f uU : down the side aisles were ranged, in files of 52 UNDER FIVE REIGNS four deepj five or six hundred soldiers — ^these were unarmed and bareheaded : the centre aisle was lined also with soldiers, but fully equipped. On the elevation of the Host, at the loudly uttered word of command (how strange it sounded in the house of God !) down dropped all the soldiers on their knees, grounded their arms, and touched their hats. The muskets in the Piazza were discharged simultane- ously — and every head bowed, every knee bent. It was impossible not to be moved ! When the service was ended, the authorities of the town, of&cials and ofi&cers of the regiment, defiled down the centre aisle. The order to " March " again resounded through the church, the soldiers' regular tramp succeeded, and after them the crowd poured out to hear the martial music which immediately struck up. It was the celebration of the Feast of the Purification. Military ceremonial in particular was especially dignified and impressive. I remember hearing of a most striking funeral of this kind — ^that of a French vivandiere belonging to one of the regiments of the Garde Imperiale. The cof&n was covered with a black paU, on which was embroidered a white crucifix. On the bier were placed her miUtary coat and red petticoat, a poniard, and a small round hat orna- mented with a plume of feathers. This young girl was greatly beloved and respected in the regiment. She had accompanied the corps all through the Crimean campaign. Her kind attentions to the wounded, her benevolence, and many good qualities had endeared her to aU. She was carried to her last home with the same military honours as if she had A FUNERAL AT VERONA 53 been a comrade, amidst the tears and regrets of many a veteran soldior. In the old Italian cities much of the Middle Ages still survived. For instance, when we were at Verona, I remember the coffin of a poor man's child, attended by two or three little boys bearing torches, was carried into the church close to our inn. A few minutes after, the deep sounds of the bassoon, and the solemn funeral h5niin, attracted us again to the window. The child of a rich man was now carried past, and laid beside the other little corpse. A long train of white-robed priests and torch-bearers at- tended. The coffin was covered with a paU of green and gold, with wreaths of artificial flowers upon it, and four boys walked at the four corners of the bier, wearing helmets with gaudy plumes, and a pair of immense wings flapping at their backs ! Scarcely had we ventured to our seats, and begun to com- ment on what we had seen, when a third procession approached the church with all the pomp and pecxoliarities of the second, and a third corpse was laid in the chamber of the dead. The effect was solemn, almost alarming; it seemed as if we were in a city of the plague. At some Italian cities travellers on arrival were greeted by a band of blind performers playing on stringed instruments. At Florence, where we passed many happy days, enjoying the many delights of the beautiful city, elaborate festivals were common. June 23rd, 24th, and 25th were (and I suppose still are) great f 6te days. The chariot races which formerly took place in the 54 UNDER FIVE REIGNS Piazza S. M. Novella were very interesting. Every house was hung with damask of brilUant colour, the centre of the Piazza opposite the church being occupied by a stand for the Corps Diplomatique. This, filled with brilliant uniforms and draped with silk hangings of crimson and gold, presented a brilliant appearance. The circuit of the Piazza was formed into an amphitheatre, with seats reach- ing up to the first-floor windows of the surrounding houses, every upper window and roof being also crowded with spectators. Guards cleared the way for the race in a quaint manner. Advancing slowly in a hue, the crowd receded as slowly before them, till it was compressed into a very narrow space, when it was finally dispersed into the adjacent streets and avenues by the prancing and whirling round of the horses; everything, however, was very gently done and with good-humour. Four chariots, shaped like those of the Greeks of old, then appeared ; these were gilded and painted, each drawn by two gaily caparisoned and befeathered horses, driven by a charioteer with two appro- priately dressed attendants. We were told that the winner was selected beforehand, the prize being divided among the competitors. At the start the first chariot, the driver in pale pink and silver, was much behind the others, but, gradually gaining ground, appeared to win very fairly at the end of the third round, upon which the victor was crowned with laurels and a flag hoisted in his car. The crowd then surged into the Piazza, and the chariots triumphantly defiled before the Court Pavilion or A CHEERFUL CONVENT 55 stand. In the evening fireworks, largely consisting of fire ballons with fiery parachutes, were sent up. There were also many ceremonies, one of which consisted in the Grand Duke offering tapers before the silver shrine. I remember also a convent near the Porta San Frediano, where the nuns were dressed in purple and wore white veils, the superior of which was over eighty, and was treated with the greatest respect, especially by the younger nuns, who knelt when they received her orders or spoke to her. A holy family in Court suits, given by the Grand Duchess, was a great treasure of this convent ! The nuns were amiable and cheerful to excess, laughing at everything. There were several pianos for the use of pupils, and I was asked to play on one. I said I knew none but worldly tunes, but they wUlingly listened to some waltzes of Strauss. Our house — the Palazzo St. Clemente — at Florence, Hke many of the Palazzi of the Florence of that day, was situated in the filthiest of streets ; where groups of dirty and half-naked children played about, and where, without great care, you stumbled over cabbage stalks, or heaps of sweepings, and lumps of horrid hair thrown out of a barber's shop, and threatening to attach itself and its inhabitants to your petticoats. Enter the house, which towards the street presented no remarkable exterior, walk up to its saloons or terraces, and there burst upon you a sense of loveliness indeed ! A garden of park-like size, graced with noble trees in spring's own richest, brightest fohage, whole banks of clustering roses, oUve-crowned hills 56 UNDER FIVE REIGNS covered with white villas, and a distant glimpse of the snow-capped Apennines in aU their purple softness. Our landlord, the Marquis Torregiani, was above eighty years old. TaU, thin, and per- fectly erect, he was to be seen early every morning walking aijaong the groves of his own planting, sheltered by a green silk parasol. Local rumour said that in his youth he had loved a country girl, but pride had prevented a marriage. She died ; and her noble lover btult in his grounds a lofty tower, from the battlements of which he could see the distant village, doubly interesting to him as containing her home, and her grave. Amongst other social amusements we often met to hear recitations from Dante at Lord Vernon's and Colonel Lindsay's. At Florence we used to see a good deal of Prince Demidoff, in his way a most original character, and a confirmed wag, never able to resist playing practical jokes. So great was his reputation for this form of amusement, that when his wife received the news of his death, she treated it as a hoax— another of the Prince's pleasant jokes — but it was no joke this time. The Prince had often made sport of death, but now death had made sport of him. He once made a number of doctors in Vienna absolutely furious by an extraordinary prank. He sent to each of the doctors separately, requesting them to visit him and report upon some disease under which he laboured. About a score of them obeyed the summons, and each gave him a written opinion on his complaint. As he expected, they were all THE COMMON LOT 57 different, no two of them agreed. This was exactly what he wanted. He called all the doctors together in a body, read their conflicting opinions to them, set them aU by the ears, and laughed in their faces. How happily the days passed amidst a round of amusements, diversified by pleasant rides with dehghtful people, for Florence was then the gayest of cities. Every one was very kind to me, and as was the fashion, a number of people wrote verses in a little book which I kept, and which I still retain. Looking through it the other day I found the fol- lowing verses — dated 23rd March 1843 — signed Montgomery. Alas ! I cannot now recall who this Mr. Montgomery was. I do not think that it could have been Mr. Alfred Montgomery, though he was clever man enough. The lines are so pretty that I give them — THE COMMON LOT Once in the fliglit of ages past There lived a man — and who was he ? Mortal, howe'er thy lot be cast, That man resembled thee. Unknown the region of his birth. The land in which he died, unknown. His name has perished from the earth. This truth survives alone. That joy and giief, and hope and fear Alternate triumphed in his breast ; His bUss and woe — a smile — a tear, ObUvion hides the rest. The bounding pulse, the languid limb. The changing spirit's rise and fall. We know that these were felt by him. For these are felt by all. 58 UNDER FIVE REIGNS He sufiered — but his pangs are o'er ; Enjoyed — ^but his delights are fled ; Had friends — his friends are now no more ; And foes — his foes are dead. He loved — but whom he loved, the grave Hath lost in its unconscious womb. Oh, she was fair — but naught could save He/ beauty from the tomb. He saw whatever thou hast seen. Encountered all that troubles thee ; He was — whatever thou hast been; He is — what thou shalt be. The rolling seasons, day and night, Sun, moon, and stars, the earth and main, Erewhile his portion, life and Ught, To him exist in vain. The clouds and sunbeams o'er his eye That once their shade and glory threw. Have left in yonder silent sky No vestige where they flew. The annals of the human race. Their ruins since the world began. Of him afiord no other trace Than this — there lived a man. Florence was, I remember, full of rather scan- dalous gossip, much of which concerned the priests and monks, who in those days were much more in evidence than is now the case. One story I remember of a certain priest in a rich abbey in Florence, who had been a fisherman's son. It had been his habit to cause a net to be spread every day on a table in his apartment in order to put him in mind of his origin, and when his abbot died this dissembling humility was the means of his being chosen abbot: The net was AN ECCENTRIC MONK 59 now used no more. Some one who knew the story asked the new abbot why he had altered his habits. " Oh," replied he, " there is no occasion for the net now the fish is caught." There was also another story about a some- what eccentric monk who, on St. Stephen's day, was appointed to pronounce a long eulogium upon the saint. As the day was pretty well advanced, the priests, who were getting hungry, and were appre- hensive of a tedious paneg5nic, whispered to their comrade to be brief. The monk mounted the pulpit, and, after a short preamble, said — " My brethren, it is only about a year since I told you aU I knew about St. Stephen. As I have heard nothing new with regard to him since that time, I shall add nothing to what I said before." And so, making the sign of the cross, he walked off. Amongst other places in Italy we stayed some time at Padua, from which I paid my first visit to Venice, going as far as Mestre by the railroad, and across the Lagune in a boat. The arches which were to support the railway bridge across the lagoon were already finished, and the romantic isolation of the Queen of the Adriatic was soon to come to an end. Venice, beautiful, wonderful, strange, more than answered my expectations ! Paintings and views have not exaggerated its brilliant beauty. Its gorgeous colouring, grand and picturesque archi- tecture, the noiseless gliding of its luxurious gondolas, its historic interest, and romantic legend- ary fame, all conspired to dazzle and deHght. It 6o UNDER FIVE REIGNS was like a glimpse of Fairyland. On returning to our inn at Padua we found the Duke of Bordeaux and a small suite had arrived ; he was on his way to the mud baths of Albano, recommended for his lameness. He passed once or twice through the common sitting-room, which we, while the only guests, had appropriated. I would gladly have thought him princely, but he looked only amiable. Twelve days passed very pleasantly at Padua. We rode generally every evening, and found the surrounding country rich and fertile, though not pretty. Near the baths of Albano it improves in beauty by the background of blue, sharply defined hiUs beyond. We had several days of intense heat, and many thunderstorms. To the others of our party it was a wearisome place, but the facility of admission to draw in the churches made it very agreeable to myself and my dear governess. During the burning heat of noontide it was pleasant to sit in St. Antonio, opposite some favourite fresco or interesting monument, enjoying the dolce far niente, and long- reveries occupied the hours when exertion was, or seemed, impossible. \\Tien a storm, or the approach of evening, had cooled the air we rode forth to explore the fiat and dreary suburbs. The town always looked empty, as the few inhabitants walked under the arches ; but we used to see the students taking their evening exercise on the ruined ramparts, like a flight of c^ows on the wedls and heights. Primitive ways and customs prevailed in the Italy of those distant days. A DUKE OF NORFOLK 6i On the outside of the Church of San Zaccaria, at Venice, a curious handbill was posted, which, after lamenting the prevalence of the sin of swear- ing in Venice, invited aU the devout to pray for the repentance of those addicted to this grievous sin against their own souls, fixing the hour of prayer at three daily, when the church bell, toUing for vespers, would remind all who heard it, wherever they might be, and however employed, to pause and offer a petition for their erring brethren. At Venice we saw a great deal of Mr. Rawdon Browne, a great authority upon art and anti- quities. He gave a veryinteresting account of hisrecovery, after great labour and difficulty, and his successful removal, of the gravestone with armorial bearings which once covered the bones of Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, banished by our Richard ii for his quarrel with BoUngbroke, who, after much fighting Against black Pagans, Turks, and Saracens, And toil'd with works of war retired himself To Italy, and there at Venice gave His body to that pleasant country's earth. And his pure soul unto his captain, Christ, Under whose colours he had fought so long. About two hundred and fifty years after the death of the exUe his bones were claimed by a descendant, who, it is said, was of a parsimonious turn, and drove a hard bargain for their transport to England. Mr. Browne, looking over some heraldic emblazon- ments of the tablets in St. Mark in an old book. 62 UNDER FIVE REIGNS saw one which he immediately recognised as the arms of the Dukes of Norfolk. Conjecturing that this was the tombstone of the exiled duke, and that the parsimony of the transporter of his remains had not been willing to pay for the carriage of it along with the j3ones, he began a search for it, and when nearly in despair, luckily obtained a clue in some accounts of the reparation of the pavement, and found the tombstone at last, broken, but not other- wise injured, with the inscription downwards, forming part of the restored pavement. He ob- tained leave to remove it, on substituting a new stone in its place, and afterwards sent it, on their earnest request, to the Howards of Corby Castle. When at Naples we went to see the viUa of Lady Strachan, called, from her ItaUan possessions, Marchesa di Salsa. It was on the Strada Nuova, or at least the entrance was there. We had a winding descent to follow for a quarter of an hour, among rocks carpeted with flowers and canopied with vines, before we reached the Httle dwelling on the sands of the seashore. The high road passed over the garden, carried across an immense arch, through which was a lovely view of the sparkUng sea and distant mountains, with a foreground of aloes and pines. Lady Strachan met us in the garden, and showed us first the interior of her villa, or cottage, as she persisted in calUng it. All the arrangements had been made with a view to coolness : the floor with painted tiles, and furnished with hght chintzes. The Villa-Rocca Matilda, as it was called, after one of the owner's daughters, was washed on three LADY STRACHAN'S VILLA 63 sides by the sea. From her bed Lady Strachan could see the sun rising behind Vesuvius, or watch, at night, the flickering flames on its truncated cone ; a balcony in the drawing-room actually overhung the sea ; from the dining-room windows we looked at several caves, accessible dry-shod in summer, and at the spot where, tradition says, LucuUus fed the muraense with the flesh of his slaves. Here we were refreshed with some Leman's biscuits and claret, before beginning our walk over the grounds. Two years before, this beautiful spot had been a wild, neglected vineyard, and the cottage a roofless ruin. The taste of its owner planned the restora- tions and improvements. In the picturesque garden, where was every variety of rock and cave, flowery bank and verdant deU, roses, geraniums, verbena, mignonette, jasmine, and myrtle, with many exotics whose names I did not know, were aU in blossom ; and the gardener, at her desire, gave each of us a bouquet of flowers, growing in the open air, close to the seashore, in December. The view of Naples from some points of this garden was perfect. My dear governess. Miss Redgrave, who was a very talented artist in water-colours, and myself, each made a Httle sketch of the villa, through the arch. I had seldom seen so lovely a place. It was about half an hour's drive from the Chiaja, where Lady Strachan had her town residence, and she told us she came nearly every day, in winter, to watch the progress of her flowers. The viUa and its grounds formed a deUghtful retreat of quite a unique kind. 64 ' UNDER FIVE REIGNS Sixty or seventy years ago Italy, or rather the various states which were afterwards unified into the present kingdom, was thought of by EngUsh people in a totally different way to that which prevails to-day, when the political intrigues which formerly abounded there have long become things of the past. Much has been written of the greater figures who moulded modern Italy, but many of the minor poUticians of a past epoch are now forgotten. Amongst these is that curious character, Baron Ward — the Yorkshire groom — who in the fifties of the last century played such a conspicuous part in Italian poHtical life, and became Prime Minister of Parma. Ward left Yorkshire as a boy in the pay of Prince Lichtenstein of Hungary, and after a four years' successful career on the turf at Vienna as a jockey, he was employed by the then reigning Duke of Parma. He was at Lucca pro- moted from the stable to be valet to the Duke, in which comparatively humble position he remained up to 1846. About that period he was made Master of the Horse to the Ducal Court, and eventu- ally became Minister of the Household and Minister of Finance, which office he held when the Duke abdicated in 1848. Ward then became an active agent of Austria during the revolution. As Austria triumphed he returned to Parma as Prime Minister, and negotiated the abdication of Charles 11, and placed the youthful Charles iii on the throne, who met with a tragic fate, being assassinated before his own palace in 1854. It should be observed that, as soon as Charles iii came to the throne, the then BARON WARD 65 Baron Ward was sent to Germany by his patron as Minister Plenipotentiary, to represent Parma at the Court of Vienna. This post he held up to the time of his royal patron's tragical end. When a new Duchess-Regent assumed state authority. Ward retired from public hfe, and took to agricultural pursuits in the Austrian dominions. Without any educational foundation he contrived to write and speak German, French, and Italian, and conducted the affairs of state with considerable cleverness, if not with remarkable straightforwardness. Baron Ward was married to a humble person of Vienna, and left four children. Perhaps no man of modern times passed a more varied and romantic life than Ward the groom, statesman and friend of Sovereigns. From the stable he rose to the highest office of a Uttle kingdom, at a period of great European political interest. He died in retirement, pursuing the rustic occupations of a farmer, and carried with him to the grave many curious State secrets which wiU now never be revealed. Italy in former days was frequented by numbers of painters and architects. Many of the former had studios, where they spent much time copying the works of the old masters to seU to rich EngUsh travellers, then highly addicted to spending money on this kind of art. As for the architects, they roamed about the country taking sketches of buildings and bits of buildings in order to incorporate ornamental details in their own designs and plans. Too often, alas ! the methods some of the EngUsh architects 5 66 UNDER FIVE REIGNS pursued produced very incongruous effects, for adaptations of ornate Italian fagades are rarely satisfactory in our own country. In some instances, however, the result has been good. I have been told that for the design of the river front of the Houses of Parliament Barry borrowed largely from the Spedale Maggiore at Milan, founded by Francesco Sforza and his Duchess Maria in 1456, the centre of which immense building is beautifully ornamented with terra-cotta and red brick. My father and mother were both somewhat artistic in their tastes, and consequently we visited a great many studios in the course of our wanderings. The most agreeable of these, I think, was at Antwerp, where we went to see the atelier of Keyser, who lived in a large and handsome house a la vieilh bourse. A long, cool passage led from the porte cochere into a square court filled with flowers, and a broad marble staircase of mosaic to the living rooms. After waiting a few minutes, while my father sent in his name, in a pleasant parlour decorated with fine engravings and a number of good water-colour sketches, collected within a large frame, a pretty, civil maidservant pointed out the atelier in the court. It was a large, lofty room with an open chimney, hung with many fragments of rich tapestry, and the bare parts of the walls covered with armour, pictures, casts, curious old utensils, handsome pieces of antique furniture, chairs, and cabinets. The painter ad- vanced from his easel to receive us, a handsome young man of good address, his hair and beard A CHARMING STUDIO 67 trimmed after the fashion of Vandyke, and his dress rather fanciful, without being affected. He was employed on a picture representing Rubens in the midst of his family and friends. One of the party, with an old clasped volume resting on his knees, was reading aloud, as was the custom in the domestic circle of the great painter, the others in various attitudes of attention. The faces were all portraits. Among them was the famous " Chapeau de faille." Two figures only were finished; but the rest of the picture was forward enough to enable us to see its great merit. The grouping was good, the colouring rich. The painter, in an easy, fluent manner, explained his ideas and inten- tions, then reverted to the state of the arts in England, inquired after our exhibitions and institu- tions, and mentioned several fine private collections with which he was acquainted. He seemed much pleased with my father, and showed his sketches very willingly. For the picture he was painting he was to have 10,000 francs. We comphmented him on the tasteful arrangement of his painting- room, and he described to me how it was his intention further to decorate it with gilt leather hangings, so as to give it the appearance of an atelier of the Middle Ages. " He is a man of taste," we mutually agreed, as we retraced our steps through his cool court of flowers, and passed again at the foot of the marble staircase, and near the pleasant parlour, " well-born, no doubt, from his graceful manners and perfect self-possession before strangers, and highly educated, as his classic know- 68 UNDER FIVE REIGNS ledge, general information, and fluent, elegant French plainly showed." Not at all! Our guide told us his history as we went along. He was like Giotto, a shepherd boy, and tended his sheep in the Polders, when some painter of animals came to study cattle from nature. The yet undeveloped artist watched the progress of the painter, and when he was absent, tried to imitate what he had done. He succeeded so well that another painter, chancing to see the sketches he had made, took him to Antwerp, introduced him to the Academy, where in two years he carried off all the prizes, and soon attained the excellence we saw. We also went to see the works of Overbeck, the German painter, who only received visitors on Sundays or saints' days. We found his rooms thronged with people, examining a number of cartoons, and one or two designs in chiaroscuro. The painter was present— a thin figure, past the middle age, and looking as if he himself had walked out of a frame, so quaint and picturesque was his costume. It was difficult, on account of the crowd, to examine attentively any of the subjects, but they seemed to be fuU of religious feehng, and a serious majesty that was very pleasing. A cartoon of The Wise and FooHsh Virgins represented an old subject treated in a very original manner. A large sketch in brown of a picture (I think sent to Dusseldorf) contained portraits of the most cele- brated old masters. One of the most curious collections we visited was at Pesaro, where we went to see the Cavaliere A JOYLESS COLLECTOR 69 Massa's Urbino porcelain, or Raphael ware. The plates were nailed against the waU hke pictures, some of them framed. The whole suite of apart- ments was decorated in this manner. The owner, a man of ninety-four, sat motionless and soUtary in one of the rooms, with his back to the waU, in a melancholy state of helplessness and imbecility. How sad to outlast one's faculties, still sadder to outUve wife, children, friends, and be thus, in the extremity of old age, alone ! I felt almost dis- gusted with collections of art and virtu, thus power- less to amuse, serving only to expose the joyless possessor to the pity of strangers. At Rome we, of course, went to numberless studios. Well do I recall that of Flatz, a painter who had a studio at the top of the Sala Palace. He was a most sympathetic man, and told us his simple history. In his younger days he had been a father, but wife and children were all dead, and he now lived only for his beloved art. on which, together with his pupU — Fink, a Ti^plese — he bestowed aU his affections. He was painting an enormous pictiure for a convent in Schwatz, in the T3n:ol, for which his remuneration was to be very sHght, for the monks were poor. Deeply imbued, however, with reUgion and love of art, he preferred making an offering of his very best to sending work merely proportionate to his pay. The whole appearance of his studio, so orderly and clean, with his few cartoons and studies, his shelf of grave and well- worn books, his neat and plain dress and furniture, betokened the hermit-like character of the man. 70 UNDER FIVE REIGNS Here was no air of fashion or vestiges of lounging amateurs avid of sketches of favourite models or fashionable beauties. His was an art which sprung more from mind and feeling than from Hving nature — intellectual and spiritual rather than physical beauty was his aim. Other studios which we frequented were those of Macdonald (who had just completed a pleasing bust of Mrs. Somerville, the paragon of female learning of her day, whom, as a great privilege, I was taken to see), Rinaldi, a pupil of Canova, Finelli, and Gibson, who was at work on a bust of Queen Victoria, preparatory to making a whole-length figure. From Roerich, a German caster in bronze, my father ordered a cast of the celebrated Dancing Faun. Blaise, a Tyrolese artist, painted my mother's portrait ; he had done some pretty sketches of spots in the grounds of the Villa Borghese, and was considered a good artist. Tenerani was another sculptor who enjoyed a great vogue. He had just finished a colossal statue of the Angel of the Last Judgment for the tomb of the Duchessa di Lanti ; and another colossal statue of the King of Naples, to be put up at Messina, had just returned from Munich, where King Ludwig had desired it might be sent to be cast in bronze at his foundry. Buckner, then a very young man, drew my portrait. He possessed the talent of beautifying his sitters amazingly, and therefore enjoyed an assured popularity. , Very unattractive was Lord Compton's studio, CARDINAL GUISEPPE ZACCHiEA 71 which was disappointing by its bareness and lack of taste. There were, however, signs of talent, which were perhaps more to the purpose. His rough sketches of scenes in Sicily were clever, though they showed lack of study. At that time we had apartments in the Palazzo Valiambrini. The works of art in the Vatican were a never-faiUng source of dehght to us, and my youthful attention was, I remember, particularly drawn to the Minerva Pudicitia, whose face bears a stern and proud expression. The drapery is beautiful. It had an especial interest for us on account of the statue of Lady Walpole in West- minster Abbey being modelled after it. Especially did we admire the statue of St. Bruno, by HoudoUj in the vestibule of the Church of Santa Maria degU Angeli. This statue, much larger than life, was a great favourite with Clement XIV, who used to say it would speak if the rules of the Order did not forbid. At that time, of course, the Pope was actual ruler of the Papal States. The Governor of Rome, Cardinal Guiseppe Zacchaea, was very kind to me, and gave me some relics, amongst others one of St. Dorothy, which I still have. A sketch of this governor, in his quaint costume of a past age, is also amongst my treasured possessions, recalling as it does many happy days amidst old-world surround- ings and customs, now for ever passed away. Under Papal rule, aU the of&cial personages of the Holy City were priests of some grade or other. Not a few resembled certain of our modern 72 UNDER FIVE REIGNS politicians in one respect, which was that they would fill any office tendered to them, even to the command of the Roman navy, if such a force had existed. In the course of our sojourn we were intro- duced to mpst of the English who were more or less permanent residents. The best known of these was General Ramsay, a rather portly old gentleman, who exercised a sort of absolute rule amongst English visitors to the Eternal City. He was always accompanied by a favourite poodle, which never left him. So much so was this the case that people habitually spoke of General Ramsay and his dog as if they were one entity. Of original character, the general had a peculiarly designed visiting card, on which his poodle was represented near a portfolio bearing his owner's name, the background filled with fragments of some ruined edifice of classical design. The Eternal City was then a very different place to what it is to-day, when practical and utilitarian alterations have robbed it of much of its charm. Besides this, nearly aU the state and elaborate ceremonial of the days of Papal rule have dis- appeared. After Easter Day the illumination of St. Peter's was a particularly beautiful sight. All the outlines of the building and colonnades were first illuminated with paper lanterns ; and we were early enough to see this gradually done as the twilight deepened into darkness. On the striking of the great bell to announce the second hour of the night, a ST. PETER'S BY NIGHT 73 thousand torches, dispersed over the edifice, burst, as if by magic, into a blaze, as if noonday had suddenly succeeded to the pale light of the stars. Nothing could be more startling and beautiful. We afterwards drove to the Pincio, to see St. Peter's from thence. It had the appearance of a fairy palace. I thought the effect most beautiful from the Ponte St. Angelo, whence the paper lanterns looked like an outline of burnished silver sur- rounding the golden light of the torches. To illuminate the baU and cross was a work of so much danger that the workmen confessed and took the sacrament before they went up, and, we were told, were persuaded that if they should be kUled in so holy a work, they would go straight to Paradise. Accidents, however, seldom occurred; but it was very nervous work watching the placing of the paper lanterns by men hanging to ropes, and looking no larger than spiders at the end of their threads. Of course we went to see the Colosseum by moonlight, and a large party we were. On our way we found all the chandlers' shops illuminated very brilliantly, the bacon adorned with strips of coloured paper and coarse gilding, the butter moulded into various devices, one of which was an extremely well executed Pieta — the Virgin being in pale butter, the dead body in yellower. The group was tastefully placed on a mound of turf, besprinkled with daisy-roots in blossom. We had torches to ascend the ruins, and got as high as the plebeian range of seats, a giddy eminence now that no railing or breastwork exists, where 74 UNDER FIVE REIGNS in many places large holes startle the unwary, and great masses have fallen down, leaving but a narrow footing. The oval shape of the amphi- theatre, and its immense size, showed well from above. Parts of it are in wonderful preservation, and I have no doubt it would have remained nearly perfect to this day had man left it alone. Altogether, what with excursions to ancient monuments, visits to studios, and pleasant friends, I passed many happy days in the "Eternal City," then little touched by the modernising hands which have since so altered its aspect. One of our great friends was M. de la Tour Maubourg of the French Embassy. Cardinal Guiseppe Zacchsea and General Ramsay, of whom I spoke before, were everything that was nice to me — so much so was this the case that my cousin, George Cadogan, drew Uttle pictures of them on a letter which is reproduced. The top- most climber of the design, I should add, represents Dwarkanauth Tagore,^ a distinguished Indian well known in society years ago. He took a great fancy to my sister and myself, and I still treasure a coral necklace which this agreeable Oriental gave me shortly before he died. The people of Rome used to be very fond of pleasure, but highly superstitious. At the end of the carnival the Corso was one long blaze of moving lights with the " moccoli " — small waxen tapers — which every one carried, whilst at the same time trying to extinguish those of others, and keeping their own alight. ' The subject of one of Count D'Orsay's most successful portraits. XE C'OifT^ ^fi 9, % .V A PRETTY LETTER ►Cairijiof. THE SWISS GUARD 75 During one of our daylight visits to the Colos- seum a monk was preaching with great gesticulation. He reproached the people, gathered in numbers in the large area, with their negligence in refusing to avaU themselves of " the bath of our Saviour's blood," a homely but powerful expression. Then, holding up a crucifix, every one of his hearers fell on his knees on the damp ground, and the men uncovered their heads. In the subsequent pro- cession from altar to altar the large black cross was carried by a very weU dressed woman. We walked round the galleries of the Colosseum, saw the spot where HeUogabalus was murdered, traced the imperial entrance, and saw many a beautiful fragment of piUar and pUaster with its green crown of ivy and the dehcate leaved finocchio. Though the Pope has ceased to leave the Vatican since he was stripped of his temporal power, within the precincts of his voluntary prison things are much as they were of old, and the Swiss Guard still keep watch and ward in their beautiful old- world costume, in' which but slight modifications have been made. I beUeve, however, that they no longer wear a hat with feathers, which formed part of their equipment at the time of our visit some sixty-fiye years ago. Many a happy hour did we spend in St. Peter's, enjoying its delicious temperature, which never varies, whether the Tramontana chiUs or the Sirocco burns without. Wandering among the grand monuments of the popes, lost in pleasing 76 UNDER FIVE REIGNS reverie, one realised the impressive nature of this marvellous building, so fuU of varied details, and forming so perfect a whole ! So vast is it, that however numerous the concourse of people (on ordinary days), one may always find a place to be alone. Tiie groups we saw were curious enough. Here a procession of priests in their rich dresses — there a train of youths in white surplices, kneeling round the tomb of St. Peter, where lights are ever burning. At some favourite altar men and women in picturesque costumes, kneehng and telling their beads; on the steps of another a man making brooms ; farther off, on a bench, two or three more asleep; parties of EngUsh, with the never-failing handbook, listening to the music, and talking loud, or a solitary amateur in raptures before the masterpiece of Canova, the glorious tomb of Clement xiii. There is a great deal of miser- able sculpture in St. Peter's — monuments in bad taste, and faults in the architecture, which even an unlearned eye can detect ; but as a whole it is a glorious place. EngUsh tourists were great offenders in the way of chipping off portions of old monuments, and writing their names in all sorts of inappropriate places. One individual created a most unplea- sant impression in Norway. He took the trouble to be rowed out to beneath a certain famous cUff in an indiarubber boat, and, when he arrived there, the man with him held the boat tight with a rope while the Briton paddled over the pool. Without looking at the stupendous column which rose from AN IMPUDENT SCOTCHMAN 77 where he was to the clouds, he pulled out of his pocket a small pot of white paint and forthwith commenced painting his initials on the rock, to prove, as he said, that he had been there ! Probably, however, a Scotch tourist afforded the greatest instance of impudence on record. This man, whilst in an ItaUan city, stopped a re- ligious procession in order to Ught his cigar from one of the holy candles. Before the procession had recovered from its astonishment the audacious smoker had disappeared. The dignified and impressive surroundings which are connected with the audiences given by a Pope not infrequently completely disconcert visitors who are accorded such a privilege. A weU-known piUar of society, noted for his self-possession in ordinary life, being at one of these audiences, did not answer a single word when addressed by Leo xiii. " Why did you not make any reply to his Hohness ? " inquired a friend as they were leaving the precincts of the Vatican. " To teU you the truth," was the avowal, " I could not for the hfe of me remember whether I ought to say saint pere or sacri. pere, and so thought it best to hold my tongue." When Sir WiUiam Harcourt, at that time Chancellor of the Exchequer, was on a visit to Rome, he was shown over the Vatican Library by an Enghsh student who had perpetual permission to make researches there. As they were leaving, one of the Vatican of&cials inquired who the dis- tinguished stranger might be. " The EngUsh 78 UNDER FIVE REIGNS Minister of Finance," was the reply. " Ah, I under- stand," said the Itahan, " II Conde HaUfato." He took Sir William, staunch pillar of Protestantism as he was, for Lord Halifax, whose name was well known at the Vatican. Ill The cult of gardens — A sensible bailiff — Old Hampshire ways — Cardinal Manning — Bishop Wilberforce — His son — Mr. Cobden — Letters — A scandal about Lord Palmerston — Samuel Warren — Letter " franks " — Dicky Doyle — Some unpublished drawings — Geology and botany — Digging for the infinite-^Mr. Edmund Gosse — Letters from Mr. Darwin. DURING the mid-Victorian Era the cult of gardens had fallen somewhat into decay, horticulture being then regarded rather from a utilitarian point of view, whilst little effort was made to produce colour effects such as are now so thoroughly understood. The herbaceous border, except in rare instances, was unknown, whilst carpet bedding with squares, stars, cubes, and triangles of differently coloured flowers, was in high favour. Altogether gardening from an artistic point of view was little understood. Nevertheless, there were a number of very interesting gardens, one in particular, at Carshalton, belonging to Mr. Smee, and another near Weybridge, to which a clever friend of mine, Mr. Wilson, devoted much care and study. These, however, were gardens belonging to scientific men, and the general run of people troubled themselves little about their flowers, being well content if their gardeners fur- 8o UNDER FIVE REIGNS nished them with a sufficient supply — pergolas, rock gardens, and the like were caviare to such as these. The general popularisation of gardening in its best form has been principally due to the admirable books on the subject written by experienced people like Miss JekyU, clever Mrs. Earle, and Mr. Robinson. Women in particular seem to have developed a real aptitude for artistic horticulture, several of them, like Lord Wolseley's daughter at Glynde, being thoroughly practical gardeners, able to give most valuable and expert instruction. For this reason the garden has come to be looked upon rather as a special province of woman, who, as a matter of fact, can scarcely be better occupied than in the cultiva- tion of flowers, which have ever been associated with feminine charm. Personally I always appreciated the herbaceous border, and I introduced something of the sort into our garden long before it had become generally popular. Other of my delights were our hot- houses, which were celebrated in Hampshire. So much so was this the case that parties of people used to come specially to view them, who were formed into groups, and conducted round by gardeners specially detailed for the purpose. Most of the prominent horticulturists of the day either came to see the rare plants we had gathered together, or corre- sponded with us about them. Amongst others, Mr. Darwin wrote me many letters, some of which wUl be given in this chapter. Besides my garden I had many other things A SENSIBLE MAN 8i with which to pass my time, including a model farm with a Dutch dairy, situated amidst the lovely surroundings. In a little wooded hoUow, not far from the house, stood a fair-sized cottage, and here I estabhshed a model laundry, where a certain number of poor girls were trained for domestic service, not always, I am bound to say, with very satisfactory results. The recollection of one matron, who was anything but fond of supervision, lingers with me yet. She was always anxious as to when we were going to return to London, and in honeyed though anxious tones would inquire, " I hope we are not going to lose your ladyship yet ? " Our baihff was a fine specimen of the English yeoman of other days. He lived tiU about a year or two ago. After Mr. Nevill's death, when our estate was sold, he set up farming on his own account. Much is heard of agricultural depression, but it does not seem to have affected him, for he left a very comfortable fortune when he died not so very long ago. UnHke many others, he adhered to the simple mode of life which he had practised when he first came to us more than half a century ago. When we first went to live in Hampshire, the beautiful country close to us on the borders of Surrey was far more wild and rural than is to-day the case. Liss, where now are mtiltitudes of villas, was quite a tiny place, and parts of the district remained in much the same condition as they had been in for centuries. On the other side of us loomed the restful outlines of the South Downs, 6 82 UNDER FIVE REIGNS between which and our home, called Dangstein, the gently undulating country abounded in peace- ful-looking homesteads, well-farmed fields, and delightful woods, here and there intersected by the swift flowing Rother, in places the most picturesque of streams. The countryside was wrapped in the peaceful semi-slumber which had prevailed with but short interruptions since the advent of the Conqueror's knights, many of whom slept their last long sleep beneath the stones of the quaint old village churches, as yet little affected by the destructive craze for the most part miscalled " restoration." Alas ! as the nineteenth century began to wane, sinister signs of destruction began to manifest themselves in most of the village churchyards, which became encumbered with sheds and tool huts, whilst workmen hammered and hacked the old churches according to the whims and fancies of iconoclastic architects. Rogate Church near us (in its untouched condition an ideal old Enghsh village church) was almost completely stripped of its picturesqueness by such vandals, who, in addition to robbing the church of much that was interesting to the lovers of the past, also contrived to mingle the grave- stones of those buried in the churchyard in such inextricable confusion that the tombstones of one family were in some cases either re-erected over the graves of others or, worse stOl, lost altogether. This gross carelessness naturally produced much irritation amongst surviving relatives of the dead. THE STOCKS 83 Many old ways and customs still prevailed in the neighbourhood, and as late as June 1859 the town of Midhurst witnessed the somewhat brutal sight of " a man in the stocks " for six hours, for non-pajrment of the trumpery fine of five shillings for being drunk. The culprit was rather noisy at the commencement of his durance vile ; but, as the hours wore on, his enjoyment of exposure — forced and fixed — to an easterly wind, although accompanied with sunshine, did not increase. The stocks, were placed in the market-place, in order that the exhibition should be as public as possible. In justice to the occasional bystanders, it was reported that they appeared to enjoy the spectacle as little as the offender himself. The clergy, though many were kindly and earnest men, were quite different to the energetic clerics of to-day. They had, however, very queer parish- ioners to deal with in those days, before universal education was thought of. A certain vicar, whom I remember, whose spiritual activity was rather ahead of his age, was upbraiding one of his rustic parishioners for lax attendance at church, whilst holding up another yokel who chanced to be standing by as an example. "You always come to church. Tommy, don't you ? " said the good man. " Yes, sir, indeed I do. It's just beautiful, for when I gets there I puts my feet upon the bench and thinks a nothing." A good many people thought practically of " nothing " in those days, but not a few thought 84 UNDER FIVE REIGNS a very great deal. Such a one was Cardinal Manning, who used to Uve near us when rector of West Lavington Church, in the churchyard of which Richard Cobden lies. This church was originally built in order to supplement the older Lavington Church, close to the walls of which his brotfier-in-law. Bishop Wilberforce, is buried. It was in West Lavington Church, on the Sunday after Cobden' s funeral, that Thorold Rogers, then a clergyman of the Church of England, preached a sermon in memory of his friend. In the same church, some fifteen years before. Manning had preached his last sermon in Anglican orders. The grandfather of Cardinal Manning, I have heard, lived within a few doors of Mr. Basevi, the grandfather of Lord Beaconsfield, in BiUiter Square, and there is a tradition that the ancestors of the great statesman and of the Cardinal were friends. William Manning himself, a bank director by profession, is said to have had Jewish blood in his veins. Anyhow, he had not Jewish shrewdness, for he failed in business. His firm, originally Manning & Vaughan, was highly respected, and much sympathy was expressed at its failure. The house in which Mr. Manning lived was at No. 8 BiUiter Square, a typical City merchant's abode, and had been built in the early part of the eighteenth century. It was puUed down about 1877, when the mahogany doors, panelling, and chimney-piece were removed to a mansion in South Audley Street, where possibly they stiU remain. " ABIDE WITH ME " 85 It is rather a curious fact that Cardinal Manning it was who administered the last consolations of religion to Mr. Lyte, author of the beautiful hymn, " Abide with me." Mr. Lyte was at Nice at a time when there was no English clergyman or chaplain, but as it happened, Mr. Manning, then Archdeacon of Chichester, happened to arrive in the place, and soothed the latt moments of the author of what is, perhaps, the most appealing hymn ever written. I knew the good Cardinal pretty weU, and used sometimes to go and see him in his last days in London. He asked me to find out from Lord Randolph Churchill some details of a BiU in which he was interested. I obtained a copy of the draft of this for him, and in return received the following — Archbishop's House Westminster, S.W. zyth January 1890 Dear Lady Dorothy, — I thank you for your kindness in sending me Lord Randolph ChurchiU's draft Bill ; and I would ask you to thank him in my name. He has evidently given great attention to the subject, which is one of the most vital to the welfare of the people. The Drink Trade and bad housing have destroyed their domestic Ufe. And when this is gone, neither Criminal Law nor Edu- cation can save us : for the domestic life of the people is the foundation of the Commonwealth. 86 UNDER FIVE REIGNS I wiU do my best to understand the Bill. — Believe me, yours faithfully, Henry E., Card. Archbp. Having known Cardinal Manning in his self- sacrificing life, I went to pay a last tribute of respect at his funeral service, which was celebrated at the Brompton Oratory. Unfortunately it was disturbed by a most disgraceful incident, which I witnessed with much pain — a well-dressed woman being in such a state of intoxication that she had to be removed by two policemen, after making herself most disagreeable to two ladies, close to whom she had insisted upon taking up her position. The scandalous interruption in question seemed the more distressing, owing to the fact that, during the good Cardinal's lifetime, the cause of temper- ance had been one of those social reforms for which he had fought with strenuous fervour. Curiously enough, both Cardinal Manning and Bishop Wilberforce, whom I also knew, were connected through their wives with a Sussex tragedy, which in the past had created great stir. In the early part of the last century a highway- man, or rather a footpad, infested the roads be- tween Arundel and Chichester, and eased the farmers of their purses as they returned home from market, with the result that he became a terror to the western part of the county. This man's name was Allen, and he had been a footman in the service of the Lennox family. His robberies BISHOP WILBERFORCE 87 became so frequent that eventually the militia were called out to effect his capture, and at last he was pressed so closely that he took refuge in a pond at Graffham, near Midhurst. His pursuers, however, discovered him, and a young Mr. Sargent, a son of a neighbouring landowner, who was a fine young man, and a captain in the gth Regiment of Foot, called upon the man by name to give himself up. The reply was a shot from Allen's pistol, which laid the unfortunate officer dead on the spot, after which a volley from the soldiers killed the robber. The nieces of young Sargent were co-heiresses of the Lavington estate, and it was their fate to become the wives of Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford and of Winchester, and of Henry Manning, in latter years a Cardinal of the Church of Rome. Bishop Wilberforce was a man of most con- ciliatory spirit, and the grace with which he held a sort of balancing pole on the tight-rope of widely divergent views earned for him the nickname of Soapy Sam. For a time he would appear to tend towards Ritualism, and then with a spring reseat himself in public favour, at that time not too favourable to the High Church movement. On the whole the good Bishop leaned towards the latter, but, as I have said, held the scale most evenly between High and Low as an ecclesiastic of his high sense of justice should do. As a friend the good Bishop was one of the most charming and agreeable personalities I ever met, whilst his powers as a preacher were extra- 88 UNDER FIVE REIGNS ordinary. These have in some degree been in- herited by his son, the present Archdeacon of Westminster, who is also a friend of mine, and I have passed very pleasant hours as a guest at his hospit- able board, which have by no means been impaired by the complete absence of every form of alcohol from his table, for the Archdeacon is a teetotaller of the most staunch description. Once when he was at death's door he resolutely declined the entreaties of doctors to imbibe a little stimulant, and much to their surprise triumphantly recovered. Within the last year a great grief has clouded the Archdeacon's life, his beloved wife having been taken from him, to the great sorrow of many friends, who appreciated the bond of mutual love by which this sympathetic couple were bound. There were not many Radicals in Hampshire in the days when we lived in that county, or if there were, most of them kept pretty quiet. The lot of those of independent views in the past was not a very happy one, for they had to contend against circumstances and the jealousy of neighbours, and the doubts and indifference of friends and relations ; above all, against the pride and superciliousness of the local gentry, which set its face against their principles. Mr. Cobden, for instance, though not as extreme as these, was practically boycotted by the squirearchy who lived in his neighbourhood. He was, however, a man of most independent char- acter, and cared nothing at all for this. In later years when his high-minded character and single- COBDEN'S AMUSEMENTS 89 ness of purpose began to be recognised> the Duke of Richmond offered to make him a Deputy Lieutenant, but this he refused to accept. With old Lord Lecon- field, known as the King of West Sussex, he was on better terms, and the latter used to send him game. For shooting, or indeed for sport of any kind, he cared not at all, nor did he take any interest in games. The practical side of gardening also had no attractions for him, but he loved Sussex, and enjoyed the country as a place of rest from the turmoil of political life. About the only amuse- ment for which I think he manifested the slightest liking was billiards, and he was fond enough of an occasional game, in which he resembled Mr. Lowe. Though Mr. Cobden, owing to his pohtical opinions, was perhaps hardly popular in his own county, he loved everything connected with it, and even regarded an opponent, provided he were a Sussex man, with a feehng of cordiaUty. There was, for instance, a good deal of kindly feehng between him and Lord Henry Lennox. The following letter alludes to this — DuNFORD, zoth November 1867 My Dear Lady Dorothy Nevill, — Some friends are coming to stay with me on Friday for a few days, and I am sorry that my wife and I can't accept your kind invitation. There is one of your expected guests with whom I should have hked very much to have had a quiet gossip about things in general at Dangstein. My friend, who is coming with his quaker wife to see me, is a member of this. go UNDER FIVE REIGNS good-for-nothing government (Mr. Gilpin of the Poor Law Board), and therefore must not join the t6te-a-t6te with Lord Hy. Lennox, but pray tell the latter that if he can contrive to ride across the county, to call on me, we wiU contrive to have a little treason together. He and I have generally voted in opposite lobbies, as you know, but yet there has been a certain geniahty between us, — I suppose because we are Sussex men ; for in these days of " nationalities," people of the same county become in a certain sense partisans. My wife sends her kind regards and thanks. — With best comph- ments to Mr. Nevill, I remain, very truly yours, R. COBDEN With Mr. Nevill and myself he was on the best of terms, and we used to see a good deal of him, for he came often to visit us, and I used to go to Dun- ford. In my former volume of reminiscences I have given several of his letters — these, however, were more or less serious in tone, whereas the following is in a different vein — DuNFORD, 2()th October 1863 My Dear Lady Dorothy Nevill, — Many thanks for your kind present of a hare and a brace of pheasants, which reached whilst I was absent in London, filling for the first and last time in my life the post of chairman at a pubhc dinner at the City of London Tavern. Otherwise I should have thanked you sooner. I suppose you have heard of the extravagant A SCANDALOUS RUMOUR 91 and incredible scandal about which, everybody is talking in London — no less than a charge of crim con against old Lord P. — just as he enters his 8oth year ! The account that I hear is as follows, but, of course, I don't believe a word of it — It is said there is a suit commenced in the Divorce Court, in which the wife of an Irish parson named O'Kane is respondent and Lord P. co-respondent, — that letters from Ld. P. to the Lady are in the hands of the plaintiff, and that bank notes which have passed from him, Ld. P., to her have been traced, — ■ that the damages are laid at ^£20,000, — that the affair is so recent as the last three months, — and the name of the plaintiff's solicitor is given ; — aU this and a great deal more was told me when I was in London, by a highly credible person, who said he got his information from a clerk in the Divorce Court through whose hands all the papers had passed. If Bernal Osborne is in London, he ought to teU you all about it. The most knowing people in the Clubs say there is something in it. But it is too monstrous ! — Ever yours truly, R. COBDEN As a matter of fact, there was nothing in this scandalous rumour. It is characteristic of Mr. Cobden's generous character that though he was in every way opposed to Lord Palmerston, he would not for one moment credit the reports circulated by malicious rumour, and, thinking it monstrous, would not believe a word. Though from time to time attacks of aU sorts 92 UNDER FIVE REIGNS were levelled against Lord Palmerston and his ways, there was one thing connected with him which every one agreed to be above all criticism, and this was his knowledge of good cooking. A distinguished diplomat, it was said, after a dinner at Cambridge House, once very much astonished some one who had dehvered a violent tirade against Palmerstonian methods, by quietly remarking, " Peut-6tre, mais on dine fort bien chez lui," whilst one of his most violent parliamentary opponents wrote, "Lord Palmerston is redeemed from the last extremity of political degradation by his cook." I weU remember Lord Palmerston, and the de- Ughtful parties which he and his most clever wife used to give at the mansion in Piccadilly, which is now the Naval and Military Club. He was pos- sessed of a faculty for apt phrases, and I think was the author of the famous definition of dirt, as being only "matter in the wrong place." Lord Palmerston had such an objection to smoking that he wrote a sharp rebuke to the young attaches at Constantinople because their dispatches smelt of tobacco, and desired the Ambassador to have the notice stuck up in the office, and to see that its injunctions were attended to. An extraordinary hatred of tobacco character- ised many great men of the past. Goethe hated tobacco. Balzac, the great French romantic writer, could not bear it under any shape or form — pipes, cigars, and snuff were equally NON-SMOKERS 93 abhorrent to his feelings. He, however, took coffee to excess. Henry Heine did not smoke, but Byron did. Neither Victor Hugo nor Alexandre Dumas ever smoked ; while, on the other hand, Alfred de Musset, Eugene Sue, George Sand, Merim^e, Paul de St. Victor, and others, smoke or did smoke. It is said that it was one of Balzac's mysterious and fair friends who imposed upon him this supposed antipathy to tobacco. On the other hand, Lord Clarendon and the first Lord Lytton were both great smokers ; the latter, it was said, a far more inveterate smoker than any character described in his works. Smokers of another age often used china cigar- holders. My cousin, Lord Abergavenny, remembers having seen my father-in-law, the Hon. George Nevill, born 1760, smoking a cigar through a china holder, about the most uncomfortable method of smoking possible. These old-fashioned china cigar- holders were often elaborately painted. I fancy that they have now become rare. Except Mr. Cobden, as far as I remember, not very many politicians lived near us in the country, but Samuel Warren (the author of Ten Thousand a Year, which in its tirne created such a sensation), whom I knew very well, once stood as a red-hot Conservative for Midhurst, and got in. A Mr. Davis had been a most active worker in his interest, and when Warren was triumphantly elected, he said, " Well done, Davis, you shall have my first frank." At that time members of Parliament and 94 UNDER FIVE REIGNS peers had the right of franking letters, that is to say, they wrote their names upon the envelopes, which then went through the post free. As far as I remember, they were limited to a certain amount a day, but I fancy they often exceeded this. My father was always being bothered to frank letters for economically-minded or impe- cunious people, and I remember that on one occasion, when we were in Norfolk, he being away, a member of the household actually went so far as to copy his handwriting and produce a fraudulent frank which, as a matter of fact, was, I believe, an offence which made the pepetrator liable to very severe punishment. People had a positive mania for getting their lelters franked. I once thought of making a collection of old franked envelopes, and I have a few stUl. My great friend. Lady Chesterfield, however, formed a very large and interesting collection, which I suppose is at Bretby. Samuel Warren is chiefly remembered for his literary work; but he was a clever barrister, and very effective as a cross-examiner, especially on one occasion. A case as to the presumed forgery of a wiU was being tried, and the highly respectable individual who was to profit, were the will declared valid, put in the box. Taking up the will and placing his thumb over the place where such docu- ments have a seal, Warren said — " I understand you saw the testator sign this_ will, and acted as a witness ? " " I did." " Was it sealed with red or black wax ? " DICKY DOYLE 95 "With red." " You saw it sealed with red ? " "Yes." " The testator was, I understand, in bed when he signed and sealed this will. Pray how long was the piece of sealing wax he used ? " " About three inches long." " And who gave the testator the piece of wax ? " " I did." In reply to further questioning the witness averred that he had, from the drawer of the testator's desk, obtained the wax which had been melted by a candle out of a cupboard in the room, lit by a match from the mantelshelf. The candle, he said, was four or five inches long. Mr. Warren now paused, and holding up the wUl, recapitulated the evidence, ending up with : " Once more, sir, upon your solemn oath you did all this?" " I did," was the reply. " My lord," said Warren, turning to the judge and removing his thumb, " you will observe this will is sealed with a wafer. Mr. Richard Doyle — Dicky Doyle, as he was familiarly called — ^the well-known artist, was a frequent guest at our Hampshire home. On one occasion, when he had set out with Sir William Harcourt to catch a train at Petersfield station, a wheel of his fly broke, in consequence of which he and his fellow-traveller were considerably de- layed on their journey to town. Shortly afterwards he sent me some humorous pen-and-ink sketches of his adventures, together with the following letter — 96 UNDER FIVE REIGNS Thursday, April i8th, 1867 Dear Lady Dorothy, — I must send you some account of our adventures on Monday last after leaving Dangstein. Our fly broke down, and we did not reach Petersfield tUl long after the train had gone, and had to wait two hours at the station. *But there is always a compensation in things — on the one hand we both wished to get to London early, and were disappointed, but then we had time to inspect the town of Petersfield, its Church and its equestrian statue, we were able to purchase no end of newspapers ; and another extenuating circiimstance was that the Holfords arrived for the next train and came with us to town. — Yours very sincerely, Richard Doyle As a rule, when we had visitors stajdng with us, much time was spent in the gardens, where I had a special enclosure for the Ailanthus silkworm, in which I took great interest, besides many horti- cultural curiosities interesting to scientific people. During such walks the air would resound with mysterious music produced by my pigeons, to whose tails Chinese pigeon whistles had been attached. The late Professor Owen was much struck with these, as the following shows — ^yd November 1874 Dear Lady Dorothy,— So far from forgetting you, it was but yesterday I was describing your grove of Ailanthus and your magic music of the DRAGONS 97 air, and somewhat sadly thinking such ephemeral visits, with glimpses of your paradise, must soon pass away from the memory of the Mistress-creative genius of the place ! I pass daily, pendulum-wise, between Sheen and Bloomsbury, Uving two Uves, my vegetative one in the elm-shaded cottage, my intellectual Hfe at the British Museum. Most of my sunny holidays are memories and hopes. WiU a grateful country ever pension me off ? Shall I ever be free to go whither I would ? More than doubtful, experiencing as I daily more and more do the strong puU of dragons. But I will bear the truly kind and hospitable wish of Mr. NeviU and yourself in grateful memory, and show my sense of it by fulfilling those wishes : trusting, some April or May day, I may see you both as well as when I last was at Dangstein, and be in as good condition as I was when I enjoyed its hospitahty. — Most truly yours, Richard Owen Professor Owen used to talk much to me of the prehistoric dragons in which he took such an interest, and had some years before sent me a carefuUy executed drawing of one of these queer Pterodactyls — Sheen Lodge, Richmond Park ^th August 1869 Dear Lady Dorothy, — The dragon was de- spatched to teU of my return home before I received the evidence of your prompt and kind action in returning the spectacles, which reached me safely, 7 98 UNDER FIVE REIGNS but it is hardly fair that you should be fined for my carelessness. You will have another instance of the need of flappers for Laputans when you go to church next Sunday ; only, as the Httle prayer-book has been worn out, in my service, I would ask that it might be bestowed on any little boy or girl of that end of the parish who may think it worth acceptance. I would tell Mr. Nevill, in relation to economy of numbers in " half-time " teaching, that in Switzerland the children are collected at the practicable ends of the valleys in a large light sort of wagonette, and returned within easy or practic- able reach of their homes in the same " Cantonal vehicle." It is probable that the results to the morality and intelligence of the rising generation of a parish might make an " Omnibus " for conveying children to and from a central school (for a 150) not a bad investment. — Sincerely yours, Richard Owen I beg to be kindly remembered to Miss Nevill. Both Sir William and Sir Joseph Hooker were great friends of mine, and Sir William did me the honour of dedicating a volume of the Botanical Magazine to me, at which time he wrote a charming letter — Royal Gardens, Kew Nov. nth, 1857 My Dear Lady Dorothy, — I think I must claim to myself something of a A SIAMESE REQUEST 99 prophetic spirit in dedicating that particular volume of the Bot. Magazine to you, which contains the figure of the Aralia papyxifera, thereby indicating that you also would soon have the honour of flowering it. When I penned the httle dedication I knew you deserved the trifling compliment, but I am much more conscious of that now that I have seen Dangstein. And what I admire in your Ladyship more even than your love of plants, is your great desire that others should partake in the pleasure of seeing these beauties of nature's creating, improved by the art of man. I am afraid it is the case that only fruits are admitted into the horticultural shows at this season — but I have written to ask. If you do not hear further from me in a day or two you will take for granted that flowers are not admitted. If they are I will write to say so. I was to have dined to-day with the Duchess of Orleans and the Comte de Paris ; but last night on my return from paying my respects to the Siamese ambassadors I found a note from the Marquis de Beauvois giving me the astounding news of the death of the Duchesse de Nemours. How terribly that family is tried with sorrow. You will smile at the appUcation of the premier ^ King of Siam for a plant from our Gardens — the Lombardy Poplar ! ! which would neither bear the voyage, nor grow with their awful heat. I beUeve too he expects a full-grown one. — Most truly and faithfully, my dear Lady Dorothy, yours, W. J. Hooker 1 There was then a dual kingship in Siam. 100 UNDER FIVE REIGNS Sir William took much interest in my method of preparing skeleton leaves, and also in the cult of silkworms, which was once my especial hobby — Royal Gardens, Kew ^ April xgth, 1861 My Dear Lady Dorothy, — Our poor friend Henslow is still lingering on, and we are in daily, I may truly say hourly, expectation of hearing of his decease. You have excelled in preparing skeleton leaves, I know, and I have seen, I think, some foliage in the early stage of the operation, in vessels of soft rain-water, to remove by a putrefying process the pulpy substance. A lady friend of mine wants to know the further process for removing all the decaying matter and leaving the fern in the beauti- fully clean state when the operation is finished ? Is it chloride of lime, or some bleaching fluid ? I have at length a goodly number of cocoons sent out by the French Govt., to the Ionian Islands, of the new Chinese silkworm. Your nephew, I think Mr. Drummond Wolff, Civil Secretary there, and President of the " Ionian Association," I presume for the culture of this insect, has done me the honour to make me an " honorary Vice-President " of the Society, — I hope with the understanding that I am never required to act in that capacity. M. Guerin Meneville, too, in return for a little service rendered him, has sent me a most beautiful case with the preserved insects in all their various stages, and samples of the ^f;-M^^ y^y dJ^aH-^vi^q IV- Ji. £1^1^ KJi: U J-tJL'^ ea't-^xa y 9 DWARF TREES loi silk, raw and manufactured, and begged me to ascertain if our Queen would accept a similar one. I showed her mine, and she is so charmed that she has commanded me to inform M. Meneville that she will graciously accept his offer. I believe small sets are sold in Paris, and they are extremely interesting. I have just sent off another Collector to Japan. He goes out with Mr. Oliphant, and under the most favourable auspices. — Yours my dear Lady Dorothy, most faithfully, W. J. Hooker A few years later, when some of the first dwarf trees ever sent from Japan had arrived in this country. Sir William wrote me a description of them — Royal Gardens, Kew February xst, 1881 My Dear Lady Dorothy, — You are most generous to me with your game, and your present just now reminds one of the last Rose of Summer, only in the Game line. I have been interested to-day in opening three Waidian cases, which have come for the Queen from Japan, and they are to go to the Isle of Wight. There are some curious dwarfed things among them, especially Thuja dolabrata with variegated leaves, and a most remarkably new Damarra, also with variegated leaves, very singular. The trunk is thicker than a man's arm, and the whole tree not a foot and a half high, quite covered with its handsome foliage and innumerable little 102 undE;r five reigns crooked branches, the trunk is everywhere grafted, and every branch grafted again and again, and every one tied into its place with wire, in such a manner that no trunk can be seen. Some of the pines thus dwarfed have died on the passage, and I wonder everjrthing is not kUled, for scarcely a pane in the three cases remained unbroken. Mr. Veitch junr. was at Jeddo when these came away, and he recommended to the Consul General what should be sent. I suspect he has sent home to Exeter and Chelsea a fine set of things, and he is now himself on his way home by way of the Philippine Islands. I hope neither you nor your plants have suffered this very severe winter. Many of our tenderest shrubs look very brown, but I do not think we have lost much. With kind regards to Mr. Nevill, believe me, my dear Lady Dorothy, faithfully yours, (Signed) W. J. Hooker Another of our scientific visitors was Sir Roderick Murchison, who was ever the most welcome of guests. He was, however, terribly hard worked, and could get away but little. Torquay, April 26th, 1859 Dear Lady Dorothy, — I have just got your kind letter re-inviting me to pay you a visit at Dangstein, and I am really quite mortified at being compelled by dire necessity to decline your proposal. SIR RODERICK MURCHISON 103 I am (as you know, perhaps) President of the Geographical Society, and it is my business to prepare a long discourse, etc. — ^the progress of geography all over the world in the last year, scarcely one word of which is now written. In coming here I hoped to do a little in the holidays, whilst on a visit to Miss Burdett Coutts ; but my hostess is so hospitable, that what with dinners and sight-seeing and caverns with fossil bones, I see that I shall return empty-handed as regards my geographical concerns. In short I must slave continuously to get ready for the 23rd May. Besides this oppressive nightmare I have to prepare for the press a long paper on the geology of the North of Scotland. You will see from the mere mention of these hors d'ceuvres (to say nothing of my official duties as Director of the Geographical Survey), that I am too much oppressed with work to be able to enjoy another holy day in the Spring. With many thanks and my compliments to Mr. NevUl. — Yours very devotedly, RODK. E. MURCHISON Sir Roderick Murchison was, as is after aU but befitting in a great geologist, a most serious man, and one who understood no jokes about science. When Darwin's theory of the origin of species was arousing great discussion, some one flippantly remarked that, as far as he could see, there seemed no particular reason why a jelly-fish, after passing 104 UNDER FIVE REIGNS through various stages, and transformations, should not become Archbishop of Canterbury. Sir Roderick gravely assured him that it was utterly impossible that any such development should take place. The great men of the Victorian Era were, many of them, very much more serious in their demeanour than the moderns. They seemed to consider that any relaxation would impair their dignity. They were, indeed, so absorbed in their own particular subjects that even their children became permeated with the phraseology which was constantly ringing in their ears. Some ladies, walking in the garden of an eminent divine classed amongst the transcendentaUsts, saw his little boy scraping up the gravel path with an old spoon. " What are you doing, my little boy ? " inquired one of the ladies. " Oh," said the young offshoot of transcendentalism, " I'm digging after the Infinite." My friend Mr. Edmund Gosse has given a most admirable picture of the relations between a clever, serious father and an equally clever son, though of a totally different disposition, in his book Father and Son, one of the most interesting volumes I ever read. It has often been remarked how much the sons of distinguished men differ from their parents ; and the son of a certain eloquent and philanthropic leader of the Ten Hours' Movement was no exception. Before canvassing the electors at Hull, he was brought forward as a candidate by the ORCHIDS 105 Church and State interest, who supposed that he would be as pious as his father. Several clergymen accompanied him in his canvass, when one of the electors asked him if he did not think it wrong of Lord Palmerston to sanction the bombardment of Canton ? To which the youthful aspirant for parliamentary honours replied — " Why, hang it, what could he do ? " The shock which this gave to his clerical companions can easily be imagined. Formerly people in general troubled themselves very little about horticulture, and great ignorance prevailed. When orchids first began to be the rage, there was an amusing story of a traveller who pretended to have spent some time in Mexico, and happening to visit a famous private garden in Florence, the owner, who had a very fine collection of plants, talked of cactuses, until the visitor's knowledge, which appeared to be limited, was totally exhausted. Suddenly, the old gentleman remarked, " I suppose you must have seen a great many of the 'Orchids' in Central America ? " " Why, no," was the reply, " I didn't go much into society there — in fact, merely passed through." " Eh ! what ? " inquired the deaf man, holding his hand to his ear. "No!" stammered the traveller, " I did not meet any; I did not go into society at all ! " " Society ! " screamed his host, " why, bless your soul, you don't find orchids in society; they grow on trees ! " This was very much in the style of the lady who, about the time the first camelopards io6 UNDER FIVE REIGNS were brought over, was asked by a friend, " Have you seen the giraffes ? " " No," said she, '' I don't know them at all ; they are a French family, I believe ! " Orchids, insectivorous plants, some of them of a rare kind» were our especial hobby at Dangstein, and owing to this I was able to furnish Mr. Darwin with a good many specimens, which I hke to think were of use to him in his wonderful researches. He took a great interest in the contents of our hothouses, and for years kept up an intermittent correspondence with me, though I never could induce him to pay us a visit — he very rarely left his Kentish home at Down. Darwin was a man of the utmost simplicity of life, and his household was a very haven of tranquillity. On one occasion, when there was a question of my paying the Darwins a visit of some days, Mrs. Darwin wrote to me, saying that she understood that those who moved much in London society were accustomed to find their country-house visits enlivened by all sorts of sports and practical jokes — she had read that tossing people in blankets had become highly popular as a diversion. " I am afraid," her letter ended," we should hardly be able to offer you any- thing of that sort." I did pay Darwin a visit at Down, but as ill- luck would have it he was just at this time suffering from a violent attack of the malady — for it amounted to that — which he had contracted during his voyage on the Beagle, when he had become a martyr to sea-sickness, which never afterwards MR. DARWIN 107 entirely left him, and throughout his tireless life of investigation intermittently rendered his exist- ence a burden. I carried on a correspondence with Mr. Darwin for some years, and later on, when I left Hampshire, he used occasionally to come and see me during visits to London. Our gardens at Dangstein contained many curious plants, which were of use to the great- evolutionist in his researches, and I was only too proud to furnish him with anything he might require. Most of Mr. Darwin's letters dealt with his horticultural research . As, however, everything con- nected with this great man is now of interest, I subjoin a few of the letters in question. The following referred to Venus' Sun Trap (Dionea) and to the Sun Dew, of which English and tropical spfecies exist — Down, Beckenham, Kent 2rd September 1874 Dear Lady Dorothy Nevill, — I am much obliged for your Ladyship's extremely kind letter. I have nearly finished my work On Dionea, and though a fine specimen would have been of much use to me, I shall manage pretty well with some poor plants which I have. " I have never seen Drosera dichotoma, and should much like to make a cursory examination of it. Will you be so good as to tell your gardener to address it to C. Darwin, Orpington Station, S.E.R. To be forwarded immediately by a foot messenger io8 UNDER FIVE REIGNS I will return the plant as soon as my observa- tions are finished, and I hope it will not be injured. I have so often heard of the beauty of the gardens of Dangstein, that I should much enjoy seeing them ; but the state of my health prevents me going an5Avhere. Pray believe me, your Ladyship's truly obliged, Charles Darwin As Mr. Darwin said, his indifferent health kept him practically a prisoner within his own grounds. So much so was this the case that for many years after he had taken up his residence in Kent he remained unknown to many of his neighbours, who, at last, seeing him on the road, asked who the new arrival might be. The following refers to the insectivorous plants, a number of which we kept in our hothouses. They had, I remember, curious tastes, manifesting a violent repugnance to cheese, and not at all averse to alcohol — Down, Beckenham, Kent September i8th, 1874 Dear Lady Dorothy Nevill, — I am so much obliged to you. I was so convinced that the blad- ders were with the leaves, that I never thought of turning the moss, and this was very stupid of me. The great, solid, bladder-like swellings almost on the surface are wonderful objects, but are not the true bladders. These I find on the roots near the surface, and down to a depth of 2 inches in the sand. They are very transparent under glass, V ':Li: (^La/\.C of /AjL ^'ra^)^. U/AjLjIlL INSECTIVOROUS PLANTS 109 — from ^ to T^ of an inch in size, and hollow. They have all the important points of structure of the bladders of the floating English species, and I felt confident I should find captured prey. And so I have to my delight in two bladders, with clear proof that they absorbed food from the decajmig moss. For Utricularia is a carrion-feeder and not strictly carnivorous, like Drosera, etc., etc. The great solid bladder-like bodies, I believe, are reservoirs of water like a camel's stomach. Mr. Cook and I have made a few more observations. I mean to be so cruel as to give your plant no water, and observe whether the great bladders shrink and contain air instead of water. I shall then, also, wash all earth from all roots and see whether these are true bladders for capturing subterranean insects down to the very bottom of the pot. Now shall you think me very greedy if I say the suffer- ing to species is not very precious and you have several, will you give me one more plant, and if so, please to send it to " Orpington Station, S.E.R., to be forwarded by foot messenger." I have hardly ever enjoyed a day more in my life than this day's work ; and this I owe to your ladyship's great kindness. The seeds are very curious monsters : I fancy of some plant allied to medicep ; but I will show them to Dr. Hooker. — Your Ladyship's very grateful, C. Darwin In former days there was generally an aviary in large gardens, and we kept a good many birds no UNDER FIVE REIGNS in ours, amongst them love-birds in a large, covered wire enclosure, carefully shielded from draughts. We were very successful with them, and one pair produced no less than twenty little ones, which much interested Mr. Darwin to hear. In the following .letter he referred to this — Down, Beckenham, Kent 2gth December, 1874 Dear Lady Dorothy Nevill, — I thought that I had reported on the Utricularia, and I certainly ought to have done so. The large swellings on the roots or rhizomes certainly serve to store up water, and it is wonderful how long the plant can exist in quite dry earth, these swel- lings or tubers gradually yielding up their water. But the minute bladders have interested me most. I have found in four of them on your plant minute decayed animals ; and in the dried bladders of plants from their native country a much larger number of captured creatures, commonly mites. The bladders are lined with quadrified processes, consisting of most delicate membrane ; these are empty and transparent in ^:he bladders which have caught nothing, but are filled with granular, spontaneously moving protoplasm in those which have lain for some time in contact with decayed animal matter. Therefore I feel sure that the plant is adapted for catching live animals, and feeds on their remains when decayed. I am much obliged to you for telling me the very curious anecdote about the love-birds. CRUEL NATURE iii When in London during the winter I hope that I may be so fortunate as to have the honour of seeing your Ladyship. — I beg leave to remain, yours faithfully and obliged, Charles Darwin My son, who has written this from my dicta- tion, is pleased that you were interested by his article. Mr. Darwin paid me several visits when he came to London, which was seldom, for town was little to his taste, his mind being entirely absorbed by those studies which have rendered his name illustrious throughout aU time. In the later seventies he devoted much time to investigating the habits of insect-catching plants, and again I afforded him some shght assistance, which he acknowledged as follows — Down, Beckenham, Kent j^th January 'L%'jy Dear Lady Dorothy Nevill, — I am much obhged for aU the trouble which you have so kindly taken. One of your references relates to the Apognice catching Lepidoptera, and this is the most gratuitous case of cruelty known to me in a state of nature, for apparently such captures are of no use to the plant, and assuredly not to the wretched butterfly, or moth, or fly. — Your Lady- ship's truly obliged, Charles Darwin Alas ! there is much suffering and cruelty in 112 UNDER FIVE REIGNS the world which seems to us meaningless and unnecessary ; but after all, human intelligence is but finite, and in aU probability everything is designed for the best. The last note I got from the famous evolutionist was one in answer to my request that he would inscribe his name upon a httle birthday book of mine which contains the signatures of most of the great Victorians — Down, Beckenham, Kent (Railway Station Orpington, S.E.R.) Nov. 2gth, 1881 Dear Lady Dorothy Nevill, — I have had much pleasure in signing the httle book. I rarely come to London, but on the two last occasions, I had hoped for the honour and pleasure of calling On you. Time and strength, however, failed me, I am glad that you have been at all interested by my book on earthworms. — I beg leave to remain, your Ladyship's faithfully and obhged, Charles Darwin I never heard from him again. CL i-