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M I SS B E T H A M E D W A RD S
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P OR TR J I TS A N D OTH ER I L L USTRA TI ON S
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1
9
1 1
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EN
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C H A R D CL A Y 8: So n
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B R E A D ST R E E T H IL L
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.
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T H E F I R S T B A R ON T A U C H N I TZ
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WB
.
N OTE P R E FATO R Y
S O M E of these ske t c hes have appeared in Eng
'
lish and American periodicals others are now
published for the first time I make no apology
for the introduction of one living personage into
a little portrait gal lery devoted to figures mostly
long passe d away The founder of the S alvation
Army may be said to have belonged to history for
already a quarter of a century
M y best thanks are due to R D Cooper E sq
of Nee dham M arket for kindl y permitting a
photograph of the cartoon in the apple chamber
also to M r A White photographic artist
Ipswich for his admirable reproduction of the
same The S u ffolk views were taken for me by
his la t e father a few years ago The portrait of
W
F ox was presented to me ( 1 8 68-7 0) by his
daughter the late Mrs G F o x
,
.
.
.
,
.
.
.
,
,
-
,
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,
,
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,
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.
v ii
.
C ON TEN TS
I
BARO N
P
A GE
TA U C H N ITz
M A I D A B ET H AM
A M EL IA A D F RD E DWA R D S
IV O N TR A M R E
T L
II
BL
I II
VE
C
N
Y P
MA DA ME
O
T
O
B O D I CH O N
VI W I LL IA M A LL I N G H A M
VII A N A F T ERN OO N W I T H L O R D H R USSELL
VIII TE A W IT H C H R I S T I N A RO SSETTI
H B R AB A O N (
)
OW E M EREDI T T H F I RS T E A R
H ER B ER T S EN C ER I N S OC I ET
X II G EO R G E M AC D O N A L D
X III G ENER A L B OOT H
X IV I D I TA N T U M ! —C H A RLES D IC ENS
X V U NE G R A N D E D A M E—MM E ( B LA N C) T H
X VI A G R O U O F F RENC H F R I EN D S
X VII
E A E H EW
DA
JO
IX
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21
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247
Con t en t s
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L I ST
I L L UST RA T I O N S
OF
T H E SE CO N D BA R O N A H I
F
F I RS T B A R O N
S I R W I LL I AM E H A M U LS T ER I
A RM
B T H AM HU R C H
B EH A M H A
W E E R F I E D H A LL
W ES ER F I EL D C HU R C H A N D RE CTO R
A S T R E T I N NEE D H AM M A R E T
H I LL FA R M C REET I N G S T TER S
T H E CA R TOO N I N T H E A LE C H AM B ER
A COTTAGE A H A M 8 9
T H D R I FT E E R F I E D
B A R B A R A L I G H S MI T H
GA TE 8 67
A G REA T NE H E W D A
T
UC
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B
K N G-A T-
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w
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N TZ
TA U C H N I Tz
TH E
To f
p age
B AR O N
P L E ASAN T
TA U
CH N I TZ
the recollection of intercourse
on paper with the H ouse of Tauchnitz that of a
soj ourn under its princely and hospitabl e roof
must be counte d among the re d -letter days of
literary life Every circumstance connected with
this great publishing firm brings agreeable
associations to my mind I f a tribute to the living
affords satisfaction equally so does the o ppo r
t u n it y of acquitting a debt of gratitude to the
dead !
I t was the late George H enry Lewes who
introduced me then a young writer to the first
B aron Tauchnitz Ever kindness itsel f readiest
of the ready to encourage conscientious workers
he gave me a l etter of introduction which I pre
sented on my first Visit to Leipzig in 1 8 7 1 S inc e
that time my works have regularly appeared from
the Tauchnitz press greatly to my own a dv an
tage and as I hope not without amusement and
instruction to continental readers O ne fact let
me affirm Had Baron T auchnitz never paid
as
is
,
.
.
,
,
,
,
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,
~
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,
,
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,
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~
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3 2
3
F ri e n d l y F a c e s
English authors a penny their gain would al l the
same have been immense H e obtaine d for them
a vast an unimaginabl y vast public N o author
says the wise browe d Goethe shoul d write
unless he can count his readers by the mil lion
The Leipzig press brings us our million !
I was staying at E isenbach in 1 8 80 when an
invitation reache d me from S chloss Kle i n s cho che r
N othing coul d be more agreeabl e than the
prospect of two or three days in a country house
j ust then The season was J une woods and
breezy walks lie within reach of Luther s t own
but the place itsel f was becoming hot crowded
and noisy P ianoforte practice rendere d the hotel
insupportable by day and supper parties in the
gardens adj oini n g made sleep impossible til l long
past midnight At the Leipzig station B aron
Tauchnitz met me little change d since I had seen
him j ust ten years before But for the Slight
accent of his otherwise excel lent E nglish you
might have taken the great publisher to be an
English country gentleman Hal f an hour s drive
through a pleasant country brought us to a mansion
worthy of a more musical name
I was never in a more beautiful house ; far and
,
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,
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”
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-
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-
’
IR
TH E F
ST B
AR
ON T A U C
H I
N TZ
[ To /a c e
15
.
4
B aron T a u c hni t z
wide stretches a woode d park whilst immediately
around are fl owe r-gardens and sweeps of turf s o
velve t y as to recall our own lawns And every
thing i s o f a piece within We realise at on c e
that we are not only in a most sumptuous home
but in one of the happiest and most culture d
Not that luxury is al l owe d to lend a material
aspect At S chloss Kle in s cho che r we breathe a
literary atmosphere as compl etely as in the
modest draw m g-rooms of savants and littéra t eurs
O n the tables of salon and bou doir
at L eipzig
lay the latest and best works in E nglish F rench
and German The hostess a grey haired tal l
graceful lady with very gentle manners and her
—
daughter who welcomed me s o kindly alas with
her parents this dearly —love d daughter i s no
—
longer among the l ivi n g t e st ifi e d by their con
versation to the widest culture When Baron
Tauchnitz— then the younger— with his charming
wife j oine d us at the two o clock family dinner
we talke d — and of course in English— o f books
music and the drama The drama indeed
forms so impo rtant an element in German life
that it may be said to be part of daily e x istence
B aron Tau chnitz with a smile soon re m inded me
,
.
.
,
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.
,
,
-
,
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,
,
.
.
-
,
,
,
’
.
,
,
,
.
F ri e n d l y F a c e s
of this and also of another fact namely of his
excel lent memory
When you stayed in Leipzig he said (j ust
ten years before ) you witnesse d L o hen gri n
To night i f agreeable my daughter wil l ac c om
pany you to s e e P re c i o s a
True enough a seat in the T auchnitz opera
box had been placed at my disposal on my former
visit and in company of the Baron and his son I
had then enj oye d a fi rs t rate performance of
Wagner s opera but it surpri sed me to find the
incident remembere d by one so busy A s troll
in the gardens a Visit from the grandchildren
tea and the opera filled that firs t pl easant day
at S chloss Kle in s c hoc he r— S chloss Tauchnitz
I feel incline d to cal l it
Now you shall see m y library the real Tauch
nitz library said my host next morning leading
me to a large handsome room devote d to the
volumes known under that name At the
time I write of the number was much less but
already made a goodly Show the lit t le volumes
being all neatly yet handsomely bound in maroon
calf with gilt lettering and edges and place d in
a handsome bookcase reaching from floor t o c eil
,
,
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6
F rien d l y F a c e s
international copyright The little Tauchnitz
volume so portabl e so inexpensive s o well
printed forms a kind of literary currency : it
prevents the E nglish resident abroad from feel
ing exiled ; it passes from hand to hand spread
ing a knowledge alike of our classics and c on
temporary authors ; l astly it has been a powerful
protest against the piratical principle the notion
that Sharpness in business may wel l take the place
of straightforward dealing To au t hors the gain
has been twofold the Baron not only adding ve ry
considerably to their incomes but also establish
ing their reputation on the Continent
Hardly less interesting than his Tauchnitz
library at S chloss Kle in s cho che r is my host s
collection of portraits and autograph letters
The photos of many E nglish authors are here
whilst from all whose works are incl ude d in the
Continental S eries the Baron has receive d letters
Take the fol lowing St e rn e an line from
Thackeray
Don t be afraid of your English ; a letter
containing ,6 S d is always in pre t t y style
Equally characteristic is the crabbed u t t eran ce
of Carl le
y
.
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,
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’
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’
”
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8
B aron T a u c hni t z
N o transaction coul d be handsom er on your
part
The money account concerns me
F riend
P lease attend to that as already said
lin e ss and help canno t be paid but money can
and always Shoul d
H ow warm -hearte d the frank sentences of
Dickens !
I have t oo great a regard for you and too high
a sense of your honourable dealings to wish to
depart from the custom we have already observed
What ever price you put upon the book wil l satisfy
me
The author of L o t/z air wrote with equal cordi
ality but in a wholly di fferen t style
The sympa t hy o f a great nation is t he mos t
precious reward of authors and an appreciation
that is o ffere d us by a foreign people has some
thing o f the character and val ue which we att ri
bute to the fiat of prosperity I accept your
liberal encl osure in the spirit in which i t i s o ffered
for it comes from a gentleman whose prosperity
always pleases me and whom I respect and
regard
Here is an amusing e x tract from Longfellow
Your v e rY Se n e rou s addition to the ori g inal
'
,
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”
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3’
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“
9
F rien d l y F a c e s
sum agreed upon between us is pleasant t o me
l ess for the sum itsel f than for the trait of char
acter it reveals in you and the proof of your
liberal dealing The con t ingency you al lude to
namely o f my empl oying another continental
publisher is about as remote as that of one of
Dickens characters who bought at an auction a
brass door plate with the na m e of Thomp s on on
it thinking it possible that her daughter might
marry some one of that name !
The great publishing house familiar to every
English -speaking traveller on the Continent is
not to be confounded with an earlier and famous
business of the same name S o early as 1 7 9 6
Christopher Tauchnitz s e t up a printing press in
Leipzig from which later were issued the cheap
and handy
,
,
.
,
,
’
,
-
,
,
“
Li l G r k book wi h h f unny y p
Th y g up w ll L ip ig
tt
e
e
ee
et
t
s
e
at
t
e
t
e
e,
”
z
,
of which the rather boring Bishop B lougram
speaks These classics are still published b V the
million
A nephew of this Christopher Bernhard B aron
von Tauchnitz was destined to be not only a
.
.
,
,
10
,
B aron T a u c hni t z
great publisher but what the la t e Cotter M orrison
calle d— A moral inven t or
Born in 1 8 1 6
following the trade of his uncle he began hi s
Continental S eries in 1 84 1 of which
had
appeare d in the following fifty years E nnobled
in 1 860 this prince of pioneers was created one
of the few S axon life peers in 1 8 7 7 H e die d
in 1 89 5 surrounde d b y
,
”
“
,
.
,
,
.
,
-
.
T ha whi c h ho u l d a cc ompan y ol d g
hon our lov ob d i n c roop of fri n d
“
As
t
s
a
e,
‘
,
e,
e
e
e,
t
s
the noble and ennobling traditions of
being carrie d on by the present Baron
II
e
s,
his
.
”
house
II
MATI LDA
P oet
,
Mi n i at u re
BET H A M
P ai n t e r,
an
p
d B i o gra he r
S IR
\V I LL IA M B ET
HAM
R
U L ST E
A
K I N G -A T -
R
[ To/h ea p
MS
.
1
5
II
MA TIL DA
B E TH A M
W H A T a link with t he past does the name of
my aunt and godmother call up ! A S a child in
the nursery t o have been taught to take my thumb
out of my mouth and make a curtsey by a friend
of Charles and M ary L amb by one who had
collogued with the great D e S ta el whose daily
intercourse had been with Coleridge and the great
gods of a clean cen t ury ago
A few prefatory words concerning
the
measureless B e t ham s of whom Charles Lamb
wrote so humorously but not always with good
humour
There was literature in the family Three
nineteenth -century B e t ham s figure in the great
D i c ti o n ary of N a zi o n a l B i ograp hy namely my
grandfather the Rev William Betham compiler
of The Ge n e alo gi c al T a b le s of tire So v e re ign s o/
the W o rld and other works still to be found on
bookstalls ; my uncle S ir William Betham
U lster King at -Arms whose works on Celtic
,
,
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“
”
,
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.
‘
,
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,
,
,
,
,
-
,
15
,
Fri e n d l y F a c e s
arch aeology and in The P arli am e n tary H i s t o ry o f
En glan d displaye d much research and ingenuity ;
thirdly the subj ect of the present memoir
H er literary forbears however went much
farther back The P re c e p ts of Warre trans
late d into En glys h by P eter Betham London
1 554 occurs in Lowndes D i c t i o n a ry
Two other
literary B e t ham s or D e B e t ham s are name d in
our great Dictionary I t was a J esuit father of
the name who accompanie d J ames I I into e x ile
at the Court of S t Germains
The family have ever entertained a passion for
pedigrees
Unfor t une d in other matters they
.
,
,
,
“
1
,
”
,
,
’
,
.
.
.
.
2
.
,
b y E rn B ham (gr a n ph w
f
of M a il d a ) J ld S on 9 3—4 giv man y in r
ing m morial of h famil y
Th B h m
or D B h m
an an c i n W
morlan d famil y ( B u rn H i y f W t m l d for
no i c of h D B h m of B ham ) an d in h li l
c h u r c h of B hom n ar K n d al
h r c umb n fi gur
in on of S ir Thoma d B ham an d hi wif ill in
ol ra b l pr rva ion hough d a ing from h r ign of
R i c har d I I I F or v ral hun d r d y ar h B h m
w r bap i d an d buri d in M orlan d Chur c h om d i
an c
h nor h of B ham an d al hough h manor o f
B ham h long in c pa d in o o h r han d ill la l y
mall a r main d in h famil y d a ing from ha arl y
p rio d Th pr n wri r i a d augh r of h li l
B ar b ara m n ion d in h pag who af rwar d marri d
1
A H ou s e
t
et
s,
t
s
e
est
a rro
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e
2
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ese
16
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t
0
1
et
t
s
t
e
e
tt e
e
M at i l d a
Be t ham
have never lacke d heraldic treasure One might
suppose from this cleaving to genealogy that as
in Biblical days a bar Sinister was drawn across
every u n ge n e alogi c al man woman and child in
the kingdom We read ( Ezra ii 6 2 ) These
sought their register among those tha t were
reckoned by genealogy but they were not found ;
therein were they as polluted put from the priest
hood
.
,
,
,
.
.
,
,
,
” 1
.
E d war d E d war d
H all n ar Ip wi c h
wh r h w bo n
A
h lin
pr par d for h pr I
ha
h
ju prohibi d E ngli h
h G rman G ov rnm n
p c h in S amoa h i lan d c ooll y han d d ov r
G rman y b y h la Lor d S ali b u r y O n mall c al
hi ann x a ion w
d pl y f l b y h E ngli h Om
muni y B i mar c k i ur of A l a c Lorrain by i
F r n c h inhabi an
of h arli
l r in
O
S v n on i lan d hom 8 55
a n ph w of S ir
William B ham who no l pa iona l y c lung hi
na ionali y han h F r n c h
D uring h roubl
e
of a d o n y ar ago hi book an d h mo c h ri h d
h irloom h po
d nam l y hi p d igr w r d ro y d
b y h na iv L arning ha h la y hop l l y ill d
ha h lo gr a l y d i r d him on hi c hil d r n
a cc oun I ha il y d i pa c h d m y own b gé é l gi q
A pia by po Th gif r ac h d m y dy ing kin man
whil h w
ill a b l m n all y an d b o d il y r joi c
my
in i an d ampl y d i d hi m ag r pa y h lo
e e s
1
t
s
t
e
s
ee
e
r
as
ese
t
t
as
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te
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.
st
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to
t
17
es
s
e
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an
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ue
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to
e
s
t
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ee,
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a r re
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s et t e
.
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to
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1
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.
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te
.
ess
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et
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te
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a re
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W e s t e rfi e ld
.
es
e
e
t
of
s,
e
t
e
ss
e
to
e
F rien d l y F a c e s
a seafaring Betham who arouse d Charles
Lamb s I re by recounting again and again a won
How I wish that the Shark
de rf u l story of a shark
had eaten him up ! w as the humorist s regret
The handsome rollicking dare devil captain
in the
thus castigated was one of my
eleven uncles and aunts most of them in stature
recalling the words
there were giants in those
days
This much married sailor must have possesse d
other fascinations besides the comeliness of
Absalom M augre his wandering hazardous
topsy turvy career he wooed and won in turn
three attractive and amply dowere d ladies The
scapegrace it must be confessed was a bit of a
fortune hunter— i n the Betham pedigree twelve
centuries of record no other delinquency stains
the family annals ; Violent deaths many of them
met but it was by the axe on Tower Hill as
Victims n ot by the rope at Tyburn One noble
deed covers Captain John s many lapses A
magnificent Silver trophy was presented to him
by a shipping company for having alone unaided
It wa s
’
.
’
.
-
,
,
,
“
”
.
-
,
,
.
-
,
.
,
,
-
,
,
,
.
,
’
.
lf Th d o c um n will now
d c n d an
se
es
e
.
e
ts
e
t
.
I8
be
d ou b l y valuabl
e
to
hi s
M at il d a B e t ham
saved one of their shipwrecke d crews from drown
ing Gifted with a knack of verse he wrote and
publishe d an imitation of H n di bra s called P a d dy
H e w Another brother Charles by name migrated
—
to what was then calle d Crim Tartary what
coul d those s ix or seven Si x footers of a poor
?
clergyman do at home When examining Arthur
Young s voluminous correspondence some years
ago I came upon some interesting letters from this
Betham dealing with agricultural proj ects What
became of his schemes I do not know but earlier
I was enable d to refute the charges of parasitism
and dependence made against him in L an dor s
L e t t e rs
The offensive passages were afterwards
deleted
Two younger brothers both sailors and in
the flower of their youth perished together at
,
.
,
,
.
’
,
.
,
’
.
.
,
,
se a
.
The pillar of the house the prop of his family
was S ir Wil liam B etham a veritabl e
I ddo the
seer concerning genealogies
I never s aw him
or remember seeing any of my uncles who were
all middle age d at my birth
A high minded m an perfect in every domestic
relation his dignified laborious and ofttimes
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
-
.
-
,
,
C 2
,
19
F rien d l y F a c e s
much trie d career is a fact to remember with
pride
-
1
.
I a dd from h Ti m o f J un 8 4 5 h li o f biblio
graphi c al c urio ol d af r hi d a h Wha lf d nial
mu a c h of hi purc ha impl y for h w n v r ri c h
an d ha d a l gion of c laiman on hi g n ro i y
— Th c uriou an d valuabl
T
B E T H AM M
c oll c ion of manu c rip c oll c d d uring a long li rar y
c ar r by ha d i ingui h d h ral d h la S ir William
B ham for man y y ar U l r King f A rm w r on
h hamm r
T hur d a y la b rough
h room of
M r S o h by an d Wilkin on an d on a cc oun of h ir
in r ing na ur w r ag rl y c omp d for in mo i
an c
x raor d inaril y high pri c Th 98 lo pro
d
an d w r b ough c hi fl y by S ir F r d
d n arl y £9
ri c k M a dd n ( for h B ri i h M u um ) D r N ligan
B oon H amil on U pham an d H B ohn A a p c im n
of h pri c p upon ol d wri ing b y c oll c or w i
an c h v r y c hara c ri i c holograph l r of O liv r
Cromw ll (l
a dd r d F or m y onn H arr y Crom
w ll whi c h
c ur d by M r M on c k on M iln M P
for £ 7 A mong h o h r c urio i i w hall c on n
our l v by c i ing m r ly h mo in r ing wi h h ir
—
A hd ll
pri c
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6
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3 5 vol
4
a dd r d h h ral d b y hi c on mporari a l c ion
of whi c h woul d form a r a d a b l volum £ 3 5 L 7
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M a t il d a B et ham
S ir William had never I believe studied at a
,
university
each of his works on arch ae ology
AS
.
,
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Coun i P ala in in Ir lan d £8 L 6 B h m
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33
B ook n ir l y in hi au ograph an d c on aining among
o h r c uriou n ri a c omplain of h inju i c of M r
S c r ar y C c il making W min r k l m
William Cam d n Clar n c u x King of A rm o v r h h a d
of h ol d o ffi c r £ 7 L 43 Con c ilium G n ral
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5
—
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D om d a y B ok of Dy ly C i i
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by S ir W B ham £ 9 L 54 D ublin Ca l S a
L r B ook in
probabl y
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L
64
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in hi own han d wri ing £4
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F rien d l y F a c e s
appeared the dons endeavoure d to write him
down
Undaunted by sneers u n ru ffi e d by
attacks he pursue d his way leaving behind a
record much more precious than the pedigree
dating from Alfre d the Great by which his
S amoan nephew set such store !
M atil da Betham his senior b y a year or two
was in her prime when receiving the accompa n ying
let t ers
,
.
,
,
,
,
,
c op y of h Commi ion r R por a d o c um n o f na ional
impor an c an d whi c h
cu r d for h na ion b y S ir
Th O riginal
F M a dd n for £ 3 Lo 8
87
E n ri o f R c ogni an c in h Iri h Chan c r y
wr
pur c ha d b y M r B oon for £38 L 8 8 O riginal
M S of h O r d r in Coun c il for Iri h A ffair d uring h
P ro c ora S ir F M a dd n c ur d for £6 6 L 8
Lo d g H i ori c al Coll c ion for Ir lan d ran c rib d
from h original for whi c h h G o v rnm n ga v hi
wi d ow an annui y of £ 5 for lif
pur c ha d b y
M r B oon for £ 5 L 38 S y of h H ol y
T y y
an E ngli h M S of h 5 h c n ur y £
L
Iri h E ngli h D i c ionary wi h
O R illy
4
num rou M S a dd i ion by P rof or C ll £ 9
L
P o m in h a u ograph of P a y n F i h r
58
P o Laur a O liv r Cromw ll £ 3 L 6 Q l
D i v in F an c i
in h po au ograph £ 5
L
R g i d Wal ham Comp n d ium M oral
67
M S of
h
B i hop
68
4 h c n ur y on v llum
£ 7 L
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unpu bli h d £
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,
M at il d a B e t h a m
I return you by a careful hand the
wrote Charles Lamb
Did I not ever love
your verses ? The domestic half wil l be a swee t
heirloom to have in the family Ti s fragrant
with cordiality What friends you must have
had or dreamed of having ! and what a widow s
cruse of heartiness you have dole d among them
I remember wrote S outhey to her in 1 8 1 5
that I did n ot s ay half as much about your
po em as I ought t o have done ; but this Shall be
made amends for in proper place for I like it
s o much that it will give me very Sincere pleasure
to say how goo d it is in a manner that may be
serviceable F rom Allan Cunningham came the
following enthusiastic eulogium of the same work
T he L ay of M ari e
How coul d you suspect my
admiration and love of poetry by apologising for
gratifying me with the perusal of a poe ms o full
of fine feeling and fancy beautiful description
and imagery impressive morality and melting
pathos ?
Posterity did not endorse the poet s verdict ;
the name of M atilda Betham only recal ls one who
was a strong minded woman when to be thus
named implied singularity and who enj oyed the
“
“
.
’
.
.
’
”
“
,
,
“
,
3’
.
,
:
,
,
,
”
’
“
”
,
23
F rien d l y F a c e s
conversancy and friendship of the immor t al
brother and Sis t er Charles and M ary Lamb
M any people have thought me natural ly a
singular and perhaps imprudent person because
I rhymed and venture d into the worl d as an
artist s he wrote ; but I belonge d to a large
family and dreade d dependence M y mother s
handsome fortune was lessened by the expense
of a Chancery suit of eleven years standing M y
father s hopes of preferment were one by one dis
appointe d by death and translation of bishops
and once by having delayed a request because he
woul d not cal l about it on a S unday The destina
tion o f his children therefore became modifie d
by existing circumstances
I n my visits to
L ondon I had learned F rench The desire of
knowing I talian had been kindled by reading
H o o le s M e ta s tas i o and I took advanta ge of an
invitation to Cambridge to have a hal f year s
ins t ruction from Agostino I sola a delightful ol d
man who had been the preceptor of Gray the
poet P i t t and others
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H an d om in ho d ay an d u n d r ho c ir c um
an c Th d augh r f a F r n c h m r c han a Hu gu no
r f ug h d owr y w £
1
st
e
s
es
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ee,
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e
er
t
se
te
as
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o
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I o oo
24
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t,
se
e
t
F rien d l y F a c e s
was said hersel f to be a born artist S ir J oshua
Reynolds remarke d when l ooking at her ske t ches
I t is a pity s he cannot be brought up as an
artist
But in those days to do more than toy
with art or literature was not cons i dered becoming
in l adies of position and in her early letters She
says of herself I feel something within me cer
tain latent powers that had my destiny left me as
you are single and independent of control woul d
I think have made me enter the l ists of fame in the
painting way ; but situated as I am my imagina
tion works but I have no time or opportunity
to acquire that method and precision of design
which though the inferior part o f the art are
nevertheless necessary to our defence if once we
outstep the privacy of a family or friendly circle
and expose ourselves to the cold criticism o f the
public
Lady B e din gfi e ld s letters are delight
fu l compositions alike those written in girlhood
middle life and ol d age They were published
a few years ago
M atil da went to London and had a brief bril
liant period of literary and artistic success S he
wrote a B i ograp hi c al D i c ti o n ary 0/ C e le bra t e d
W o m e n the first of its kind— truly the work of
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26
M a t il d a B e t ham
a pioneer— a work of much usefulness in its day
and compiled with considerable taste and care
Her pictures were exhibi t ed at S omerset H ouse
and besides portrait pa i nt i ng s he found time to
contribute poetical pieces to the M o n thly and
other magazines S he also gave S hakespearean
readings I t was at this time that her friend
ship commence d with celebrated contemporaries
S he visite d the S outheys at Keswick the cele
b rat e d Ladies of L langol len in Wales Mrs
Sc hi m m e lp e n n in c k at B ath and was constantly
a guest of the B arb au lds at S toke N ewington
and the Lambs in the Temple S he met M adame
de S ta el and was much struck with the fine eyes
and audacious vanity of that great woman
Each day of this happy time in London was
marke d by some pleasant event as the following
entries in her diary testify : S upped with the
Lambs
S pent the evening with the B ar
b au lds
A t the Lambs and with them to the
play
Had a party Mr and Mrs Lamb M r
Hazli t t etc
Dined with Barbara at the
The Barbara in question was her
youngest sister as I have said my mother (after
wards Mrs E dwards) to whom M ary Lamb wrote
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F rien d l y F a c e s
one of the most charming letters ever written to
a child— here given
L e t t e r fro m
M a ry L a m b
(
a
d
e
g
1
t o B arb ara B e t ha m
4)
N ov
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2, I 8 I 4
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It is very long since I have met with such an
agreeable surprise as the Sigh t of your letter my
kind young friend afforded me S uch a nice
le t ter as it is too ; and what a pretty hand you
write ! I congra t ulate you on this attainment
with great pleasure because I have s o often
felt the disadvantage of my own wretche d hand
writing
You wish for L ondon news I rely upon your
Sister Ann for gra t ifying you in this respect ye t
I have been endeavouring to recollect whom you
might have seen here and what may have hap
pened to them Since and this effort has only
brough t the image o f little Barbara Betham u n
connec t ed with any other person s o strongly
before my eyes that I seem as if I had no o ther
subj ect to wri t e upon Now I think I see you
with your feet proppe d upon the fender your
—
two hands spread out upon your knees an atti
tude you always chose when we were in familiar
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28
M a t il d a B e t ham
confidential conversation together— telling me
long s t or i es of your own home where now you say
you are moping on with the same thing ever y
day and which then presente d nothing but plea
sant recollections to your mind How wel l I
remember your quiet steady face bent over your
—
book One day conscience stricken at having
waste d s o much of your precious time in reading
and feeling yourself a s you prettily said quite
u s eless t o m e you went to my drawers and hunted
an dke rc h
i e f s and by
o u t some unhemmed pocket h
no means coul d I prevail upon you to resume
your story -books til l you had hemmed them all
I remember too your teaching my little maid
to read your sitting with her a whole evening to
console her for the death of her sister and that
Sh
e in her turn endeavoured to become a com
for t er to you the next evening when you wept
at the sight of Mrs Holcroft from whose school
you had recently eloped because you were not
partial to sitting in the stocks Those tears and
a few you once dropped when my brother t eased
you about your supposed fondness for an apple
dumpling were the only int errup t ions to the
calm con t entedness of your uncloude d brow
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29
F rien d l y F a c e s
We still remain the same as you l eft us
neither taller nor wiser nor perceptibly ol der but
three years must have made a great alteration in
you How very much dear Barbara I shoul d
like to see you !
We stil l live in Templ e Lane but I am now
Sitting in a room you never s aw S oon after you
left us we were distressed by the cries of a cat
which seemed to proceed from the garrets adj oin
ing ours and only separated from ours by a
locked door on the farther side of my brother s
bedroom which you know was the little room at
the top o f the kitchen stairs We had the lock
forced and let poor puss out from behind a panel of
the wainscot and She l ived with us from that time
for we were in gratitude bound to keep her as s he
had introduce d us to four untenanted unowned
rooms and by degrees we have taken possession
of these unclaimed apartments first putting up
lines to dry our clothes then moving my brother s
be d into one of these more commodious than his
own rooms ; and l ast winter my brother being
unable to pursue a work he had begun owing to
the kind in t erruptions of friends who were more
at leisure than himself I persuaded him that he
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30
M a t il d a B e t ham
might write at ease in one of these rooms as he
could not then hear the door knock or hear him
sel f denied to be at home which was sure to make
him call out and c o nvict the poor maid in a fib
Here I said he might be almost really not at
home S o I put in an ol d grate and made him
a fire in the largest of these garrets and carried
in his own table and one chair and bid him write
away and consider himself as much alone as if he
were in a lodging in the midst of S alisbury Plain
or any other wide unfrequente d place where he
coul d expect few Visitors to break in upon his
solitude I left him quite delighted with his new
acquisition but in a few hours he came down
again with a sadly dismal face H e coul d do
nothing he s aid with those bare whitewashed
walls before his eyes H e coul d not write in that
dull unfurnished prison !
The next day before he came home from his
ofli c e
I had gathere d up various bits of ol d c ar
peting to cover the floor and to a little break the
blank look of the bare walls I hung up a few
ol d prints that use d to ornament the kitchen ; and
after dinner with great boast of what improve
ment I had made I took Charles once more into
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31
F rien d l y F a c e s
his new study A week of busy labours followed
in which I think you woul d not have dislike d to
be our assistant ; my brother and I almost covered
the walls with prints for which purpose he c u t
out every print from every book in his ol d library
coming in every now and then to ask my leave
to strip a fresh poor author which he might not
do you know without my permission as I am
el der sister There was such pasting such c o n
upon these portraits and where the
s u lt at i o n
series of pictures from O vid M ilton and S hake
speare woul d Show to most advantage and in
what obscure corner authors of humble rank Shoul d
be all owed to tel l their stories All the books
gave up their stories but one a translation from
Ariosto with a delicious s e t of four and twenty
prints and for which I had marke d out a c o n
s p i c u o u s place ; when 10 we found at the moment
the scissors were going to work that a part of the
poem was printed at the back of every picture !
What a crue l disappointment To conclude this
long story about nothing the poor despised garret
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Thi O v i d d nu d d of pi c ur
M ar y Lam b M a il d a B ham an d
po ion
1
s
,
to
s se s s
t
e
e
t
et
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32
,
es,
pr n d b y
in h au hor
w as
is
ese
t
e
te
t
’
s
L
L L
\
7
r
The following letter addressed by Charles
Lamb to M ary B etham concerne d a small legacy
left to his sister by Anne Norman (n e e Betham)
It was communicated to the A c a d e m y some years
ago by Amelia B landford E dwards to whom I
had presented it as a precious relic Amelia
my senior added a charming recol lection of
M atilda as known by her in her later years
Lamb s letter she wrote is curiously illus
t rat i v e of the warmth impulsiveness and irre s o lu
tion of the writer Touched even to tears he
begins by disclaiming the legacy At first he will
none of i t not a penny Next he proposes to
halve it with M atilda who was the least pros
e
r
o
u s of her family
Lastly
as
the
ink
cools
in
p
his pen he proposes that his sister and he Shall
share it with M atil da in three equal parts The
letter occupies the first page of a sheet of fools
c ap
Had he written a few more lines and turne d
the leaf he woul d probably have ended by takin g
the whole
Dear M ary Betham I remember you al l and
tears come out when I think on the years that have
separated us That dear Anne Shoul d s o long
have re m e m b e r d us affects me M y dear Mary
my poor sister is not nor will be for two months
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34
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perhaps capable of appreciating the hi n d o ld
lo n g m e m o ry of clear Anne
B ut not a penny will I take and I c an
answer for my M ary when s he recovers if the s u m
left can contribut e in any way to the comfor t of
Ma t ilda
We will halve it or we will take a bit of
it as a token rather than wrong her S o pray
consider it as an amicable arrangement
I
write in great haste or you won t get it before
you go
W e d o n o t wan t the m o n e y; but if dear
Matilda does not much want it why we wil l take
our thirds God bless you
C L AM B
I am not at En fi e ld but at Mr Walden s
Church S treet E dmonton M iddlesex
The letter i s not dated but bears postmark
of June 5 1 8 3 3 I t is addressed to M iss M ary
Betham 2 7 King S treet Cheapside ; or to the
care of S ir Wm B etham Dublin
M y own recollection of M atilda Betham
wrote Amelia i s particular ly vivid When I
was a very young girl s he used to drop in occa
s i on a ll
y to my mother s tea table on a summer
evening and charm us with talk about M adame
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D 2
35
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F ri e n d l y F a c e s
de St aé l Coleridge S outhey and the days of the
great F rench Revolution S he lodge d at that
time I think in L amb s Conduit S treet which
She like d for its proximity to the British M useum
where She wa s a constant student in the old
Reading Rooms of dismal memory S he gener
ally carrie d a big basket and a Brobdingnag
umbrella
F rom the depths of this basket
which
besides
the
writing
materials
s
h
e
had
been
(
using at the M useum contained her c ap and all
kinds of m i scellaneous marketings) s he would
sometimes bring out some magazine of many years
gone by and read aloud with not ungraceful
emphasis a poem of her own S he had a large
round j ovial face bright blue eyes a mobile
mouth and somewhat short grey hair which
strayed from under her c ap all round her neck in
silvery slips like a man s
I n fact s he was not unlike the portraits of
Coleridge Her eccentricities of dress were pro
v e rb i a l
M y father once met her in a frequented
London thoroughfare serenely walking in crim
son velvet slippers and followe d by a train of
l ittle ragam u ffi n s to whose chaff She was good
hu m o u re dly indi fferent
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36
M a t il d a B e t h a m
F rom earliest childhood I received notes from
my godmother and those letters wri t ten micro
s c o p i c ally on odd fragments of paper were always
about books and authors S he coul d rarely if
ever bring hersel f to condemn a work s o dearly
did She love al l books but She never tired of
admiring the best S he wrote to her eight -year
ol d godchild of Dryden P ope Addison and
chatted of the great writers her contemporaries
and friends Her mind was saturate d with litera
ture and She very early imbue d her namesake
with the same taste M y first recollection of her
is vivid despite the long interval of years for I
was a mere child when s he died
S he was a ready
—
wit and nothing neither narrow means checks
literary disappointments nor the in fi rm it ie s of age
—coul d embitter that smooth temper nor subdue
those cheerful Spirits B less her memory ! The
heedless chil d who did not even preserve those
lett ers She was at such pains to write in her ol d
age coul d as She reached maturity realise the
service thus rendere d to her and the good seed
thus sown in her mind
Her declining years were spent in London A t
H enry Robinson s and other literary g atherin g s
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37
F rien d l y F a c e s
the oddly dressed ol d woman who was wont to
en t er leaning on a stick her face beaming with
animation and intelligence was usually sur
rounded by a little court
I would rather t alk
to M a t ilda Betham than to the most beautiful
young woman in the worl d said one of her
youthful admirers of the other sex at this time
Those who listened to her bright sallies her
piquant stories her apt quotations forgo t t he
o ddness o f dress and appearance F rom her
father who live d to be ninety two and possesse d
his faculties uncloude d to the last s he seems to
have inherited her humour Almost the last
words he ut t ere d were a pun H e was walking
up and down the room leaning on his youngest
daughter s arm the day before he died and said
smiling I am walking Slowly yet I am going
fast
The wise must die as wel l as the foolish
and I won t be poisoned said M atilda B etham
in her declining years and no persuasion or
entreaty coul d ever induce her to touch physic
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Thi gallan r mark i parall l d in h fi r an d d
ligh ful volum o f D i ra li li f ju
Wri ing o f an
ag d la dy m
G i b ral ar h y ou h for h w no mor
ay Y woul d hink y ou w r c harming awa y h
hour wi h a b looming b au y o f M ay fair
1
t
s
t
e
s :
s
s
e t at
e
s
e
“
t
ou
e
t
t
e e
’
e,
s
,
t
e
t
s t o ut
t
e
,
.
8
3
e
as
e,
t
”
t
st
t
.
e e
e
e
e
M a t il d a B e t ham
S he died in
1
and
8 52 ,
buried at H ighgate
was
Ceme t ery
L ike the romantic poetry of M iss Landon and
l ater the Hon Mrs Norton the L ay o f M ari e
belonged to a fashion which was destined to pass
away ; b u t some of her smal ler pieces possess a
touching grace and pathos deserving of a bet t er
fate ; the following for instance which has been
translated in t o German
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“
H ow ol mn i h i c k man room
To f ri n d or kin d r d ling ring n ar
P oring on h un c r ain gloom
In il n h a v in an d f ar !
H ow d hi f bl han d in hin
Th
ar of v r y pul
har
Wi h painful ha a c h wi h d ivin
Y
f l h hop l n of c ar !
To urn a i d h full f ra u gh y
L ho fain orb p r c iv h ar
To b ar h w igh o f v ry igh
L i houl d r a c h ha wak f ul
In h d r a d illn of h nigh
To lo h f ain fain oun d o f br a h ;
To li n in
i d a ff righ
T o d pr c a a c h hough of d a h !
A n d wh n a mov m n c ha d ha f ar
A n d gav hy h ar bloo d l a v fl w
h pra y r
In hrilling
h ar
Thro ugh h c lo d c ur ain m m d low
s
e
e
sa
e
t
e
S
s
e
e
e
es s
s
,
st
e
ee
t
e
t
ee
t
e
e
t
e
to
se
e st
t
t
t
t e
st
e
re s t ra n
e
te
e
t
e
t
e
aw e
t
e
t
e ar '
t,
s
t
e
t,
t
t
e
t s
e
to
se
39
t
t
t
e
e
t
e
se
’
e
;
,
e
t
e
te
e
e
’
e
t
s
t
t,
e,
e
t
ess
t e
e
e
t
;
e
e
e
e
ste
,
s
t
e
s
se
es s
t e
t
e
e
s
e,
e
se
e
e st
t
e,
s
e e ss
e
s
,
e
st e e
et
e
t
e
t
t
e
s
t
s
t
s
’
e
e
e
to
,
o
,
,
ur
’
ur
;
F ri e n d l y F a c e s
pra y r o f him who hol y ongu
H a d n v r y xc d d ru h
guar d ian c ar h h u ng
U pon who
Th whol d p n d n c of hy y ou h
Who nobl d aun l frank an d mil d
for hi v r y goo d n f d ;
W
B lo v d wi h fon d n lik a c hil d
A n d lik a bl d ain r v r d
I ha v known fri n d b who c an f l
u c h a fa h r kn w !
Th kin d n
I rv d him ill wi h n d r al
kn w
h n how mu c h
B
d
The
e
e
e
et
e
ee
e
e
e
e
t
as ,
s
esse
e
e
es s
e
ut
t
t
n ot
e
t
,
e
e e
.
ut
s
st
e
t
te
,
ear
e
s
s,
;
’
es s ,
es s
e
t
,
,
e
t
e
se
ess
;
t
e
e
e
as
e
e,
,
t
t
e
se
e
t
se
ee
e
e
e
z e
,
w as
e
ue
S ome years ago her pretty song M anuel I do
,
,
not Shed a tear translated into L atin and pub
li she d by an academic j ournal was forwarde d to
me by an anonymous correspondent How happy
woul d such a compliment have rendere d the
author !
But M atilda B etham knew neither envy nor
repining The common things of li fe did not at
all trouble her One day a cal ler found her
lunching rather dining at mid day off a frie d
herring an d a pineapple o ffering of some opulent
friend ! The complacency with which s he was
sitting down to both gave the key to her character
Both the herrings and pineapples of life fi gu ra
t iv e ly s peakin g were taken as matter s of cour s e
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40
III
AM E LI A B L AN D FO R D E D W AR D S
FR E S H
in my mind a s if it happene d yesterday
is the recol lection of our first meeting in my
W e s t e rfi e ld Hall Ipswich
Chil dhood s home
hersel f j ust entering her teens the country
cousin a chil d in the nursery V isits from uncles
and aunts were great occasions at that time and
always p repared for by a grand baking of cakes
rusks and appl e turnovers ; the family silver and
china woul d be got out and besides tea of the
strongest and best served with cream ol d harvest
beer clear as sherry and twice as strong ham
pickle d at home after elaborate S u ffolk fashion
in strong home brewe d spice and sugar potte d
—
meats o f course home made also— and other
dainties light and substantial regale d the guests
Ne x t moon or the moon after next was the
way in which invitations were given and accepte d
When folks had to drive ten or twe l ve mi l e s
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43
F rien d l y F a c e s
across country often through fiel ds and lanes
they paid visits either in the longest days of the
year or when the moon was at the ful l
As it happened the younger W e s t e rfi e ld chil
dren of whom I was one had no S u ffolk cousins
nearly of their own age ; the aunts and uncles who
came to tea in gigs were bachelors and maiden
ladies Al l the more exciting therefore was the
prospect of seeing this one now on a holiday visit
with father and mother
V isitors arrive d early about three or four
o clock in the afternoon s o as to a fford the uncles
time for a stroll round the farm Upon this
occasion the party came later and we coul d only
guess what the L ondoner was like till after tea ;
sh
e of course with our el der Sisters taking hers
in t he best parlour -drawing room and dining
room were unheard o f names in those days The
family live d an d took meals in what was called
the keeping room
The nursery governess o f
my childhood did not possess the acquirements
now obligatory Reading writing arithmetic and
a smattering of F rench was al l I got from teachers
at W e s t e rfi e ld B ut goo d nature al l these threw
i nto the b argain and I wel l remember how the
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,
F rien d l y F a c e s
—
dialect that
to imbibe the
dragging sing song
I t has been
s o diffi cult to get rid of in after life
said that one Su ffo lke r c an recognise another even
from a word or two uttere d on the top of a
L ondon omnibus Be this as it may Amelia s
correct careful E nglish characterise d her at this
early period and ne x t to the pigtail and the
throwing of the bread out of the window c on
stitute d my earliest impressions
H er parents were figures not to be forgotten by
a chil d either : the spare upright Peninsular
officer taciturn yet n ot uncheerful exact to
punctiliousness the soul of probity and honour ;
and his clever lively I rish wife F rom her father
Amelia inherited those businesslike qualities s o
handsomely acknowl edge d by an e ditor of the
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A c ad e m y
M i s s E dwards was in truth a model c on
—
tributor never declining a request punctual to
her promises writing in a clear bol d hand and
considerate of the convenience of printer as wel l
as e ditor
I dare aver that m y uncle was never a second late
for anything in his life H e became indeed almost
automatic by this habit of perpetual ly regarding
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,
A m eli a Blan d for d
Ed wa r d s
the clock ; and perhaps punctual i ty carrie d to
excess cost hi s daughter her life When lec t uring
in America rather than break an engagement she
gave a lecture immediately after an accident to
her wrist and as soon as this was over travelled
several hundred miles in order to deliver another
ne x t day Her health decline d from that date
B ut a stern unflinching sen s e of duty was not
the paramount characteris t ic of the old sol dier
by reason of health at fifty condemned to a
C ivilian s life When the Crimean War broke
ou t although verging on threescore and ten he
sent in his name to the War O ffi ce as able and
wil ling to s erve
The sound of the trumpet had
stirred his blood H e woul d fain have donned
sword and tunic His miniature and Penin sular
medal won at Coru na had ever the place of
honour in his daughter s study
The paternal pedigree if homely was no
despicable one I Shal l take the reader by and by
to the fine ol d church of Gosbeck where amid
wil dflowers and grass stand the handsome tombs
of Thomas and M argaret E dwards parents of
the numerous family of whom Amelia s father
came I believe third The Edward se s are as
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47
F rien d l y F a c e s
numerous in S uffolk as t he J oneses in Wales
Our grandparents belonged to the class later on
but never in their own time call ed gentlemen
farmers i e occupiers of land on a l arge scal e
which they rented
On the maternal side She inherited more bril
liant gifts wit great versatility rapid powers of
acquirement an d expression al so the perilous
dower of personal fascination No one ever
exercised stronger influence and it was hardly her
fault if at t imes She awakened intere st or affection
She coul d not return F rom her mother also came
practical qualities The highly complexioned
bright —eyed l arge featured little Irishwoman
—
descendant o f the Walpoles although a e com
as
the
word
accomplishment
was
then
li
s
h
e
d
p
understood possessed talents invaluabl e to the
wife of an o ffi cer l iving on hal f pay S he was
a Skilled housewife and extraordinarily clever in
making the most of small means As if prescient
of her only chil d s literary distinction She forbore
to give her the domestic training she had hersel f
received The first woman Egyptologist never
threade d a needle or made a cup of tea in her
life S he certainly never confected an apple
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A melia B lan d for d Ed war ds
pudding although She woul d not have puzzle d
her brains as did George the Third concerning
the deep mystery enveloping the business
I may here mention that the London cousin
had already attaine d a literary reputation When
only nine years ol d She had seen in a penny
j ournal the announcement of a prize o ffered for the
best temperance story F ire d with ambition the
authoress in pinafore s e t secretl y to work and
to her own intense delight and the far intenser
pride of her parents carrie d off the palm
Throughout these early years till she attaine d
womanhood her principal teacher was her
mother Little — except in the matter of music
She ever owed to schools and professors S he
always said that She coul d teach hersel f an y
subj ect better than learn it of others
Neither at Creeting nor B aylham her holiday
resorts in S uffolk had the youthful Visitor c om
panions of her own age F ew chil dren perhaps
At home in London
ever lived l ess with children
sh
e was her mother s constant companion whilst
on these count ry Visits she was the pride the
wonder and I may add the terror of bachelor
uncles and maiden aunts F rom her love of
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49
F r i en d l y F a c e s
escapade they never knew what to e x pect and
the more she tormente d the more adorable She
became Upon one occasion she turne d the tap
of a cask of ol d harvest beer and when the trick
was discovere d half the contents had run out
At another time She lo oke d up a somewhat
precise el derly aunt for hours in the pantry
These freak s were overlooke d on account of the
phenomenal acquirements of their niece A chil d
who had gained the prize for a sto ry at nine years
of age coul d hardl y be expecte d to behave as
others ! As we Shall see her exploits were not
all of a disturbing nature One at least is
noteworthy among recorde d j uvenile achieve
ments
Creeting S t P eter s one Creeting of a group
is about a mile and a hal f from N ee dham M arket
cleanest neatest of the many neat cl ean towns
of S uffolk You might in local phraseology eat
off the pavements of that town The one long
winding street is by no means monotonous ; beau
tiful ol d timbere d houses with white or pinkish
wal l s gables and carol windows break the
uniformity and very striking is the fine ol d church
in dark grey stone
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50
Fr i en d l y Fa c e s
P assing
under the railway arch on the road to
Creeting we obtain a sweet View of the Sleepy
ol d worl d townling ; it rises above the meadows
the little river Gipping winding by pollard
wil lows towards S towmarket on either side
pastures bright with cowslips wood anemones
and la dys m oc ks the whole rustic and pastoral as
wel l can be That delicious path reaches from
S towmarket to Ipswich— no prettier twelve mile
walk in eastern England N o sooner are we out
o f N eedham M arket than w e are in Creeting
and what a new worl d here for the quick eyes of
the little Londoner ! Even in 1 89 2 the place
seeme d to me rusticity itsel f hardly change d
indeed from the Creeting of my childhood The
road lies amidst c orn fi e lds in the month of M ay
emeral d green and stretches of brown fal low
here and there a neat thatche d cottage with white
washed wall s breaking the so litude
The farm houses hereabouts are all of a pattern
brown roofed white wal led at some distance
from the road yet fronting it as if the buil ders
wishe d to give a peep of the outside worl d
There i s no attempt at picturesqueness or e ffect
On either side are farm buil dings and horsepond
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52
A m e li a B l a n d for d Ed w a r ds
flower garden and orchard being out of Sight the
whole indeed of unpoetic appearance B ut when
w as the count ry unpoet i c to a happy petted
urban chil d ? We can fancy the l arge eyed
Amy— as s he was called later although the name
—
was unsuite d to her strong character being
lifted out of Uncle V Villiam s gig and taking in
everything the kitchen spacious spick and span
from the roof hanging home cured hams pickl ed
in ol d harvest beer and spice the frothing milk
pails being brought in from the dairy the keep
ing room with it s appetising board everything
of the best and everything home made the
greatest novelty of all being the j ug of harvest
beer and goblets invariable adj uncts of the farm
house tea -table
There were a few books stowed away in cup
—
boards Clari s s a H brlo we I remember ferreting
out among others when I was twelve years ol d
But more attractive than any l ibrary was the
ol d fashioned garden at the back of the house
Here I found nothing changed except that a few
trees have been plante d F rom the walle d in
fruit and vegetable garden with its borders of box
we pass into the orchard she love d s o well in
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53
F rien d l y F a c e s
which perhaps the happiest hours of her happy
childhood were spent At the time of my visit
above —
named the fruit trees showed delicate white
and pink blossom a n d the long damp grass was
dotted with cowslips ; but in those summer holi
days mother a n d daughter woul d almost live out
of doors some cool spot of orchard or garden
being chosen and diversio n never wanting ; the
ha rvest fiel d the duck pond the poultry yard
close by rustic Sights and sounds making the
London home seem far off and dreamlike When
wet weather drove the happy holiday makers
indoors there was yet distraction enough and to
spare The author of P h ra o hs Fe lla/i s an d
Ex p lo re r never receive d a lesson in drawing
except from her mother til l she Visited Rome
years later That She possessed a very remark
able t a lent for drawing the accompanying
illustration will Show
Leading out o f the best bedchamber (bed
room it was never called in those days) is a bare
whitewashed cupboard with a window and which
was used as a box room in winter as an apple
chamber During one of Amelia s Visits she set
to work upon what seemed a presumptuous under
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54
F ri e n d l y F a c e s
our Uncle Henry and Aunt Betsy w as a holiday
resort loved no less The annual visit was divided
between both farm houses Baylham being by far
the more poetic of the two
I f Creeting is rusticity itself what shoul d be
said of Baylham ? Here and there through the
trees peep whitewashed thatche d cottages with
little fl ow e r-gardens and bee hives the broad
expanse of cornland and pasture set round with
lofty hedges st ately ol d el ms and pollard oaks
winding lanes and banks starre d with wil d
fl o w e rs — such is the landscape that wel comes the
traveller now and such it was in Amelia s chil d
hood A wondrous sense of peace pastoralness
and permanence takes possession of us amid these
scenes N o spot throughout the length and
breadth of England surely had been less changed
within hal f a century
Lane upon lane w e passed farm house upon
farm house each with barns and duck pond ; yet
it seeme d as if w e shoul d never reach the especial
one we were in quest of M y own recollections
dated from my twel fth year my companion s
from his fifth for a cousin still living in those
parts had kindly acted as C icerone S oon we
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56
A m e l i a B lan d for d Ed war ds
came in Sight of a grey -towered church crowning
a hill and both of us exclaimed Then the farm
house must be close by
We s o wel l remem
bere d the hot walk to church on S unday morn
ings To shorten the road our driver whose
no t ions were of the vaguest had turned into a
cartway leading from fiel d to fiel d j ust bright
with cowslip and lady smock many a wayside
P ast snug ol d
pool fl aun t in g its marigol d
worl d farmsteads we strol led each as it seeme d
at the world s end and again and again I said
Here we are
M y companion however had clearly impresse d
on his memory one feature which as yet I had
not identified This was a larg e wide pond tha t
made a curve at one end touching the road the
outer edge lost amid the overarching apple trees
of the orchard At last the right farm was found
and slowly bit by bit the once familiar place
came back to me M ost picturesque is the aspect
from the road although the fascination to a
chil dish mind woul d lie beyond All the rusticity
of Creeting with a touch of added charm are
here You step out of the front door to find your
sel f i n a littl e ol d fashione d flower garden bee
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F rien d l y F a c e s
hives placed under the thick hedges Leading
out of this green paths wind about the beautiful
piece of water the low boughs of apple and pear
trees making you stoop at every turn That wide
clear pond with its reflections grassy banks Shift
ing lights and Sh adows w e may be sure was a
favourite haunt of the L ondoners perhaps to
Amelia even afforde d a first Vivid impression of
natural beauty And close by whenever mother
and daughter felt inclined for a stroll lay scenes
—
b
equally sweet and rustic y paths through the
rustling corn that led to the church on the hill
little larch woods bright as emeral d under the
blue Sky thatche d cottages with deep roofs and
flower gardens Again and again in the midst of
absorbing interests and occupations s he yearne d
for a sight of S uffolk N ot many years ago we
proj ected a little j ourney that shoul d be devoted
to reminiscences of our early life ; but time and
opportunity were wanting to both
I have mentioned that our paternal grand
p arents are buried at Gosbeck and this also was
to have formed a feature of our pilgrimage N o
one ever set more store by lineage than Amelia
S he rej oiced in her descent on her mother s side
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58
A melia B lan d for d Ed war ds
from the illustrious family of Walpole and any
thing she coul d learn of the more modest pat ernal
ancestry intereste d her extremely I t was not
ve ry much
I t i s a beautiful drive from Needham M arket
to Gosbeck interesting alike to arch ae ologist and
artist By B os m e re with its lovely little lake
surrounded by meadows and pollard elms we
reached Coddenham as pretty a Village as E ng
land can Show I t i s indeed a gem of gems ; it s
picturesque houses alike mansion and cottage set
in pretty gardens or richly wooded grounds are
graceful ly groupe d around the church here as
elsewhere in S uffolk place d on a hill or rather
hillock hil ls in my native county being unknown
The church itsel f which fortunately is always
Open
has a very fine s t one roof and a quite
remarkable in t erior ; the ceiling of ol d carved
timber the ancient marbles and brasses the
curious bas relief of the Vestry
these are wel l
worth a visit
F ew country churches have more
to Show alike within and without P retty thatched
cottages clean and trim as S wiss ch alets fine ol d
manor houses wi t h richly -wooded grounds lie on
the farther side of the church ; but as we approach
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F rien d l y F a c e s
Gosbeck the scenery changes The road now
winds amid level fields and meadows nothing to
break the monotony the chil l east wind blowing
keenly across the plain
Gosbeck church stands on one of the col dest
sites in this part of England As we climbe d the
wind tossed cowslip dotted Slope the easterly
blast blew piercingly ; what must church going
here be in winter seeing that in the last f e w days
of April we longe d for furs the warm winter
wraps left behind ? H owever we battled with
the wind manfully ; a young niece who ac c o m
an i e d u s gathering cowslips with happy u n c o n
p
cern whil st we inspecte d the moss covered
weather -staine d tombs of Amelia s grandparents
and my own A group of E dwards gravestones
are clustere d here conspicuous among these the
solid roofed in tombs of Thomas E dwards and
M argaret his wife the former burie d in 1 8 1 6 the
latter a little later M argaret D ove came of
highly respectable S u ffolk stock and bore her
husband a numerous family of sons and
daughters Amelia s father being one of the el der
chil dren
As we continue our drive we catch si ght o f a
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60
F ri e n d l y F a c e s
people as remote corners of Africa H al f a
century ago P entonville was by no means deemed
uninhabitable I sl ington possessed suburban
charm To live within a stone s throw of the
Angel or Eagle might sound ol d fashioned that
was all Amelia s first home and I believe
bi rthplace was No 1 Westmoreland P lace City
Road The Situation suite d her father who
having retired from the army in consequence of
il l health had procure d a post in a city branch
of the London and Westminster Bank Later a
much pleasanter house was taken in Wharton
S treet P ercy Circus But my first acquaintance
with my cousin s London life began at West
moreland P lace
M rs Edwards must have been more than
mortal had she conceal ed her pride in her darling
The achievements of the youthful story teller
artist musician and very clever actress were freely
vaunte d in her presence I t would hardly have
surprised us had maternal adulation lowered her
daughter s standard of excel lence This was
never the case F rom first to last Amelia set
before her an ideal and strove to reach it What
e gave to the worl d was ever the best she coul d
sh
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A melia
B lan d for d Ed war d s
M eans were limite d in these days but fi rs t rate
housekeeping and rigi d economy gave the home
an air almost of opulence One relaxation and
one only was freely indulge d in namely the
play S adler s Wel ls and minor theatres were
frequented This love of the drama fostere d in
earliest years remaine d undiminishe d with Amelia
to the last
P erhaps theatre going may be regarde d in the
light of a reaction Admirable as were the moral
qual ities of the ol d P eninsular o ffi cer his fireside
influence was not In s pIrIt m g M y uncle was a
taciturn man and combined with his quiet almost
pensive habits a regularity carrie d to excess H e
ro se read the Ti m e s breakfasted starte d for the
bank suppe d and went to bed by the clock F or
society he had little taste No wonder that his
lively high spirite d wife found some kind of
stimulus necessary The ardent play —goer was
also a great reader and her books as wel l as her
rec reations were share d by her little girl
After this outburst of premature authorship
music became her abs orbing occupation I t
seemed indeed at the time as if Amelia woul d
make a name as pianist composer or even
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63
,
Frien d l y F a c e s
vocalist When about fifteen she w as place d
under the then well -known teacher Mrs M ounsey
Barthol omew and for many years devote d hersel f
entirely to pianofo rte organ singing and b ar
mony I have known her practise eight hours
a day
besides giving time to counterpoint At
eighteen She wa s a good musician and earning
money by music l essons S he also o ffi ciated as
organist at a suburban church I t is curious that
later in life not only did She give up music alto
gether but the ve ry love of it seemed to desert
her Long before Egyptology was taken up She
had cease d to touch even the harmonium that
stood in her study Whenever we spent a few
days in London together we went every evening
to the play ; She never suggeste d a concert or
pianoforte recital by way of variety
H er early musical stories which appeared in
Cha m b e rs s [ on rn a l woul d be acceptable to many
youthful readers E specially charming is A li c e
H ofl m a n in which we trace the germ of B arb ara s
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H i s t o ry
I n the admirable obitua ry notice signed S C
in the A c a d e m y (April 2 3
occurs the
following passage
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.
F rien d l y F a c e s
an Admirable C richton A n accomplishe d
musician and composer a skille d draughts
woman a clever caricaturist a capital actress a
successful novelist a good elocutionist above al l
a connoisseur of English language and literature
what was there that She coul d not do ? Eve ry
day brought its surprise
I t was a somewhat alarming outbreak of cholera
that gave us the society of our cousin and her
mother for many weeks in the ol d manor house
already described P erhaps Amelia never spent
happier more careless days The warm harvest
weather admitted of out o f —d oor life with my
brothers and sisters— al l alas ! like their brilliant
comrade long since sleeping in the tomb S he
rode drove rambled rusticated the life and i dol
of the party
One S unday afternoon to the intense admira
tion of the household and farming folk she under
took the duties of organist at Witnesham close
by I well remember how she varie d the c u t and
drie d programme and how the congregation
lingere d spell -bound at the close of the service
S he was playing us out with a voluntary of Bach s
but nobody stirred till the notes ceased M u sic
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66
F ri e n d l y F a c e s
been reading Keats that evening and s he wishe d
to see how far I had been impresse d
And it was the same with personal enthusiasms ;
she fel l in love and out of love with persons as
wel l as with pursuits
What was She like this el der cousin standing
candle in hand mischievously waking me from
midnight sleep ?
A beautifully Shaped rather small head a
fine rounde d forehead dark eyes and hair a
sensitive mouth pal lid complexion— suc h is the
portrait I have in mind O f medium height s he
had nothing of the family spareness I speak
here of her paternal re lations ; even in girlhood
she was of robust proportions S he was always
excessively neat in dress A stranger woul d at
once have noted her clear enunciation and correct
somewhat amplified E nglish
That pure English u n d e fi le d was not always
intel ligible to our rustic neighbours as the fol low
ing anecdote will show I was walking with her
one day near our aunt s at Claydon S uffolk when
she turned to a hobbledehoy at work close by and
aske d the nearest road to Bramford Church The
lad stare d agape not understa n ding a syllable ; I
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A m e li a B l a n d for d Ed wa r ds
went to the rescue and put the same query in
genuine S u ffolk brogue whereupon he alertly
gave the information needed
Ah those were happy days days of i n t e lle c
tual stimulus also ! Each and all were e n c o u r
age d and helped in their especial pursuit by this
youthful monitress I well remember how when
I was fifteen she s at by my side at the piano
day after day till I performed certain of M en
d e ls s ohn s S ongs Without Words to her liking
On our later and never interrupte d friendship
I have t ouched e lsewhere
I may add that Amel ia B landford E dwards
was an honorary member of the Anti V ivisection
S ociety and an adorer of birds To her second
surviving pet cockatoo She left an annuity by will
S he was burie d in the beautiful little church
yard o f H enbury near Bristol beside her lifelong
friend Mrs E llen B rays he r and her daughter
On her coffin was laid a triumph of the fl ori s t s
art— a hieroglyph in exquisi t e pansies s ym b o lis
ing I mmortality The memorial was place d by
the companion of her lecturing tour in America
M iss Bradbury afterwards wife of the well
known Egyptologist Ll ewellyn Grifli t hs who
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69
F rien d l y F a c e s
survived her friend by a few years only As is
matter of history with the material results of her
l ecturing tour in America she founde d a chair of
—
Egyptology at University College the first in
England since the days of Dorothy Wadham
founde d by a woman Thus she too belo n gs
to the noble band of pioneers
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7O
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IV
C O V E N TR Y
P AT M
O RE
MO R E j ustifiably perhaps than J ean
P aul
Richter might Coventry P atmore be style d the
only one
The German prose poet after all
was not out of place in the eighteenth century
F atherland The other seemed a cont emporary
of Dante Calderon even of the Troubadours ;
little indee d of the V ictorian gentleman was there
about him but his dress The F ranciscan garb
in which he chose to be burie d symbolised
medi aevalism of life and character With D on
Quixote Coventry P atmore had come into the
worl d three hundred years too late Our epoch
as he was perpetually lamenting possessed neither
distinction romance nor magnanimous o pp or
t u n it y
S orry medium indee d for any child of
song ! Yet s o ruthless is the logic of facts hi s
—
bes t may we not aver his only enduring work ?
belongs essential ly to the modern spirit he
repudiated
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73
F rien d l y F a c e s
F or the wri t er
is not of his o wn epoch is
identifiable with none M ysticism here had dried
the springs of artless fancy A unique a brilliant
personality remained The sweet Singer in I srael
was lost to the worl d
About thirty fi v e years ago Coventry P atmore
settled at H astings
I am now living in the very
house I have longed for al l my life were almost
the first words with which he greete d me
A noble old house it is Georgian in date its
red brick frontage b eau t ifi e d by a trellised mag
nolia stretching on the left and raised high above
the road possessing a spacious well woode d plea
—
s au n c e
garden hardly seems an adequately
descrip t ive word Fe w such dwel lings are to be
found near a large town nowadays and the new
tenant of The M ansion as it was then called
revel led in a sense of amplitude retirement and
dignity Dignity indeed characterised the poet s
household ; distinction was the atmosphere tha t he
brought with him
I t w as soon after the poet s settling down that
I was invite d to a luncheon given in honour of the
event On entering the drawing room my eyes
immediately rested on a sumptuous woman stand
who
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74
F ri e n d l y F a c e s
did any more completely wield all the rule one
empire Thus for many years Coventry P atmore
submitted to both spiritual and domestic sway
The autocratic rul e of his househol d during that
period was strictly a feminine one
D ays of struggle material and spiritual were
well over Wedde d to a rich handsome and in
every respect sympathetic wife with hersel f for
once and for all become an ardent Romanist
Coventry P at m ore s lines were n ow cast in plea
sant places But prosperous circumstances left
him in one respect what he had ever been Like
S hakespeare s Tiresias he chose to be where wit
was stirring
To him as to rare Ben J onson
a keen wit was as dear as his nutriment The
open sesame of The M ansion was lively intellect
mental alertness suggestiveness ; rank opulence
fashion coul d not turn the key Within its wal ls
you breathe d an air of literary eclecticism and
simple refinement
The principal meal of the day— dinner in fact
took place at twelve o clock the countryman s
hour light draught ale being served with u n pre
t e n t i o u s but excellent dishes
After an equal ly
plain supper partaken o f at seven o clock the
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76
Co v en t r y P a t more
t—
poet would retire saying to his gues seldom
indeed was The M ansion without some congenial
spirit from outside
Now come into my study
and have a pipe and a glass of beer
The pipe and glass might be declined but the
A fi rs t rate
t et e a t et e w as of course irresistible
story -teller full of l iterary reminiscence an
original and epigrammatic but wayward critic
Coventry P atmore only needed a suggestive
remark or apt question and his talk would flow in
a brilliant unbroken s t ream As the blue tobacco
fumes curle d upwards and the strange lank sar
donic figure of the speaker became par t ly ob
s c u re d his listener woul d forget the man in the
potency of the voice— a voice mysterious pene
t ra t i n g Dantesque by itself belonging not t o one
of ourselves but to the olden time an echo of the
grand old days the days that are no more
Here are a few j ottings mere crumbs from the
rich man s table which may give some idea of his
table talk He had known Carlyle well and was
fond of talking about him Why I aske d one
evening Should Carlyle have written his Fre n c h
R e v o lu ti o n in the chaotic parenthetic style of
J ean Paul Richter every sentence being a Chinese
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77
F rien d l y F a c e s
puzzle ?
Why ? he replied
Because to pu t
—
al l that he had to say in clear matter o f fact prose
would have required twenty pages instead of one
His book suited the theme ; it is in itself a
revolution
The lack of our age is distinction he said
at another time
What opportunity is there in
these days for heroism or in literature for really
great work ? Writers cannot say what they woul d
S ome of the great books of the worl d are coarse
Look at Othel lo Dante Cal deron— who in the
present time coul d venture to write as freely ?
Then sadly enough he went on to tell me that
the manuscript of a mystical poem— his best work
—
he considered i t had lately been burnt
My
spiritual adviser disapproved of publication
he added with a rueful face and deep drawn
sigh
I t was in the mo dern novel that Coventry P at
more found mental recreation not in stories
written with a purpose but in natural pictures o f
life The super sensuous psychological fiction
now in fashion had not as yet supplante d former
i deal s and would most assuredly have been
anathematised by the poet With one or two
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78
F rien d l y F a c e s
The duologue had perhaps turned upon sub j ects
too s a d and solemn for the family board
Coventry P atmore delighted t o give people
little shocks One day at table all present being
fel low converts to Romanism but myself he burst
out with Nothing is a greater mistake than to
think that religion makes folks happy ; it makes
them miserable Look at my own case I had
planne d a delightful little spree in town with X
naming
a
boon
companion
we
were
going
to
;
(
)
see this that and the other and have a grand
lunch together at the Criterion when 10 ! I dis
covered that the day fixe d upon was F riday a fast
day ! S o I had to telegraph to X and mope at
home over eggs and potatoes !
H e set as much store by genial in t ercourse as
did M ontaigne Whilst living at the beautiful
ol d house at Hastings which he had covete d all
his l ife a kind of a Harol d Ski m p o le from
America contrived to make the poet s acquaint
ance
I said to mysel f he tol d me
M y fine
fellow you are worth fifty pounds to me ; beyond
that I Shall not go He was very good company
and used t o tell me most amusing stories of his
own adventures in di fferent parts o f the worl d by
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80
Co v en t r y P at more
the yard not a word of any I l l vouch for it being
true I paid some of hi s bills for him but when
he aske d a loan of several hundred pounds I
wished him good day
That fellow was one of the cleverest I ever
came across Mr P atmore continued
O ne day
in the early part of our acquaintance he came to
me for my advice His wife had purchased a c o s
tume at one o f the principal local drapers but
when an assistant was sent for to make certain
alterations s he packed it up and carrie d it back
?
to the shop What shoul d he do
Go to
Z
I said naming my lawyer ; and off he
started S ummon the people said Z
that
is what you had better do — but wait have you
paid for the dress ? I f not send a cheque and
summon them afterwards
O n my word I
never thought of that exclaimed the other inno
and as I don t happen to have my purse
c e n t ly
j ust oblige me with your cheque for the amount
And I ll be hanged adde d Covent ry P atmore
chuckling if he didn t bamboozle the lawyer
I nstead of stepping over the way he went straight
home The dress was never paid for and Z
never got b ack his money '
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81
F rien d l y F a c e s
To the very last C o ventry P atmore w o rshipped
at the Shrine of grace and beauty A few years
before he die d he was introduce d at my house to
a charming young lady and whenever w e met
afterwards he became dithyrambic about her
S he married a little later and I begged his auto
graph for a copy of his poems I had bought as a
we dding gift H e thus quoted himsel f under a
pretty inscripti o n
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y ou
mor han kin d
\V h
fon d p r v r i y d r
S o mu c h impli c i y of min d
In u c h a pomp of lo v lin
N a ur
t
e
w as
to
at
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e
e
s t
t
to
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es s
t
s
s
ess !
e
But the compliment wa s felt to be overw helming
and the volume did not appear with the other
wedding gifts
A f ew years later the waters of S hiloah that
go softly were rudely disturbed The M ansion
had changed hands and was wanted as a residence
by its n e w owner Al l the heavier fel l the blow
because over against his much loved home
Coventry P atmore had raise d a handsome church
in memory of his second wife thus creating a
little Catholic centre in which he naturally o c c u
pied a foremost place He had made many
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82
F rien d l y F a c e s
a talker he always spurre d on other folk s
wit ; and although a bottomless gulf of antipodean
opinion divided us we were ever the best possibl e
friends
You must come again in the summer my
—
host said at parting we were in mid October
I will then take you for a long country ramble
and we will have bread and cheese and a glass of
beer in an ale house by the way
But before the summer came he was borne to
his last rest in the monastic garb symbolising not
the sweet story teller in verse but the mystic
whose most cherishe d work had been condemne d
by priestly counsel to an a u t o d a
I f the gaiety of nations was not eclipse d by the
death of Coventry P atmore as I have said the
town which he had distinguished by residence
keeps his memory green Not certainly after the
good F rench fashion
With ourselves l ittle
except military or naval history is inculcate d by
street nomenclature The poet s sea Side home
has as yet no street named after him but an
admirable likeness hangs in the local museum
And here a word or t wo may wel l be given to
the literary scientific and artistic progress of
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84
Co v e n t r y P a t mor e
Hastings within the last twenty years Native
enterprise and devotion to intellectual obj ects
have more than atone d for the supersession or
rivalship of other health resorts The M useum
originated and indeed founde d by the in s t ru
mentality of one energetic H as t in gs e r M r W V
Crake and housed in the Brassey I nstitu t e gift o f
Lord Brassey ; the N atural H istory S ociety
founded in 1 893 by another H as t in gs e r a distin
i
P
u
ornithologist
M
r
T
arkin
F
s
h
e
L
S
d
g
etc
now numbers four hundred members
and has done incalculable service as a stimulus to
the stud y of science ; the Egyptological S ociety
organised last year ; the Literary S ociety ; the
Dickens F e llows hip— all these form centres of
in t ellect ual activity also of social intercourse irre
s e c t iv e o f circumstances and render the premier
p
Cinque Port something more than a pleasan t
place for ol d ladies and gentlemen with moderate
incomes to live in
Thus has the place been
satirical ly described by a great novelist
N or must the great services of our curator
M r Ruskin B u t t e rfi e ld be forgotten to whom
the M useum i s immensely indebted
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85
B
A R A RA
B
89
L EIG H
S M IT H
B OD IC H O N
F rien d l y F a c e s
Although marrie d to a F renchman and Spend
ing much time in F rance B L S B as She ever
signe d hersel f had never mastere d her husband s
language Preoccupied rather possesse d by one
leading i dea namely the educational and political
advance of her s e x and pursuing with equal
ardour though with less success an artistic career
being alternately and actively interested in every
great social or international movement scant
time had she for F rench grammar With other
leading women she had su ffere d at the hands of
incompetent teachers languages with other sub
e c t s having been neglected
j
Here are a few of her poin t e d sayings— woul d
that I coul d remember more
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O f novel s
F olk must die in real life
in novel s I never coul d s e e
,
why
they Shoul d die
.
O f friends
S ome of our friends are roses some are cab
bages Mrs
is a fi rs t rate cabbage To
—
this another witty friend has added And some
are thorns !
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I n our S panish travels I had excuse d extortio n
90
M a d a me
Bo di c ho n
on the part of a guide because he was a very ol d
—
man S he retort e d Ol d age i s no Vi rtue
.
.
On F rench amiabili t y
The reason o f F rench goo d nature is that chil
dren in F rance are always allowe d their own way
their tempers not being soure d by perpetual
crossing and nagging
,
.
O n a prematurely age d and beardless man
—
So and s o
-
looks like the mummy of a boy
.
On a book of travel and dealing with art gal
le rie s wri t ten by one uninitia t e d in art
The point that struck me abou t the book was
the sk i ll with which you have concealed your
ignorance
,
.
O n the new novel of a friend
Your story has only one fault there is no
point in it
.
On s up e rfl u it ie s
The other day George E liot and mysel f were
looking at the shops in Bond S treet We both
agree d that we saw nothing that we in the least
wante d or desired to possess
.
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or
F ri e n d l y F a c e s
On men s choice of wives
What men like in women is something that
smiles M any prefer little rags of women
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O n her sex s l ot
’
Chil dbearing is the battlefiel d of women
.
On a sentimental lady saying after revisiting
the scenes of her early youth that she felt as if
by a longer stay s he Shoul d recover her chil dish
innocence
I hope you have not lost it have you ?
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O n V ictor H ugo s dramas
’
To my thinking they are as fine as S hake
speare s
On Z ola and his school
S uch stories are the reverse of realism They
are non realistic because they do not represent
life as i t i s
O n marriage
N o t hing delights me more than to hear of any
man being refused by a woman S uch e x p e ri
e n c e s put men in their right pl ace
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On George E liot
I suppose the time will come when al l educated
folks will write like George E liot
.
92
F rien d l y F a c e s
Take my advice and regularly devote one hour
a day to the reading of a good book Yo u wil l
find therein a sovereign remedy for ennui and the
feeling of emptiness you complain of
On a Christmas present
I sent the X
family a turkey I t was the
only kind of present they woul d understand and
appreciate
.
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.
On Darwin s Earth W o rm s
What a wonderful book ! W ho after perusal
c an help believing in Evolution and that every
?
w
thing improves as e go on
’
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O n misapplied especially wasted faculties and
,
,
talents
A penknife Shoul d never be use d for the pur
pose o f cutting a rope
This remark of my friend recal ls a passage in
Se lde n s T a b le T a lia
Little things will do great
works when the great things will not I f I Shoul d
take a pin from the ground a little pair of tongs
wil l do it when a great pair will not
On the vague description of a flowery Algerian
plain in a friend s book
F air and fragrant c hil dren of the waste
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94
Bo di c ho n
M a d ame
Bosh ! Why not have taken the trouble to name
a flower or two ?
Here she recalls a maxim of Horace as to the
value of particularisation Bosh it may be men
t i o n e d was a fa vourite expletive with her serving
the purpose o f M r B u rc he ll s F udge !
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O n table talk to a friend
Your own gift that
interesting questions
w ay
is that you ask most
.
On a bit of wretchedly crampe d handwriting
No one with any greatness of soul woul d write
such a hand as that
.
On a group of highly esteeme d people
F irst rate folks but dull as ditchwater
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This remark recall s Kinglake s witty verdict
on a great statesman A good man of the worst
description and M ilton s line on S atan s fit of
sel f reproach
S tupidly good
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On converts to Romanism
When any friends of mine go over to Rome a
gulf yawns between us I n a sense they are
wholly lost to me
.
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95
F ri e n d l y F a c e s
On high thought and smal l snobberies
I lunche d the other day at the Deanery (with
D ean and Lady Augusta S tanley) to meet M r
Gladstone There was serve d a cut gooseberry
pie That pie doing doubl e duty is a standing
lesson to my housekeeper and now she has to
bring to table pies that have been begun
.
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,
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O n other snobberies
My leg
—
mutton
dinners as I call them I
began in Algeria W henever rich people dined
with me I gave them j ust anything When poorly
paid F rench functionaries were invite d I always
provided a sumptuous repast
I n L ondon the leg o f mutton dinners were also
the rule and not perhaps always accepted with a
good grace When the table was set the hostess
woul d a l so go round with a bottle of water and
well dilute the hal f fi lle d decanters of Sherry and
clare t
M me B o dic hon had a rough and ready way of
treating practical details When travelling with
her in S pain She found me puzzling over pesetas
and doubloons and the rest
Why trouble your head about S panish
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95
-
F rien d l y
Faces
sighte d either in political matters or in j udging
character
Thank H eaven She said e x uberantly when
J ohn Bright s motion according votes to the agri
cultural labourer was passed
we shall see no
more Tory re gi m e s in England
The Act was followe d by twen t y years of
Conservative Government !
M isreading of character or rather enthusiasm
carrie d to the point of infatuation w o ul d lead to
disill usion Upon one occasion she was thus
nonplussed
After a prolonge d eulogy of some new
p ro te ge e whose numberless gifts and charms
were to raise her to social and intel lectual
eminence— who was indeed t o set the worl d
on fire in many places an interlocutor asked
mil dly
What has this paragon this feminine
Admirabl e Crich t on achieved thus to raise your
e x pectations ?
S he thought for a momen t or two and at last
got out
”
Well she has given birth to a beautiful bab y
M y dear friend retorted the other s he wi l l
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98
M a d ame
B o di c ho n
not attain immo rtality by becoming the mother
of a baby however beau t iful
Like Herbert S pencer whom she knew wel l
she love d to propound questions
Thus especiall y to younger f riends She woul d
put the ethical problem
Woul d you rather possess beauty or be the
?
cause of beauty in others
S he said that with herself the l atter choice
woul d kick the beam meaning that the gift of
physical at t ractions and charm of ms t he t i c gif t s
opportunities and surroundings woul d be out
weighed by the power of putting al l these in some
measure within reach of others n ot thus endowe d
We can generally appraise folks i e thinking
folks by their ma x ims A favour ite ci t ation with
her was from the Koran
I f you have only
enough money in your purse wherewith to buy
flowers or bread choose flowers and let t he
bread g0
Yet intense as was her l ove of beauty She
ever remaine d practical of the practical W ith
B L S B in the words of the great Locke know
ledge was seeing With a few wil d flowers in her
hand She would make children or the unini t ia t ed
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2
Frien d l y F a c e s
understand points of vegetable physiology not
easily got at through books
And as there are limitations even in the highest
devel opments of intel lect and character s o was it
here H erbert S pencer somewhere says that the
propos ition two paral lel lines can never meet is
‘
u n v e ri fi able because two parallel lines can never
be fol lowe d infinitely With M me B o dichon
knowledge was seeing as far as it went but there
ever remaine d the beyond the u n v e rifi ab le
H ad her brother Benj amin L eigh S mith as
sh
e fondly hope d
discovere d the North P ole in
—
1 870 1
her first que ry on his return woul d have
been
Well B en and what lies beyond ?
Like the immortal V at he k of England s
richest s o n s he wished to know every thing ;
even sciences that did not exist
O n the Gran d P e u t etre of Rabelais the ques
tions that have occupied philosophers and mystics
since Pl ato s t d o She remained silent s o
beset was s he not by a sense of her rights but o f
her duties that like Wilberforce s he had no
time to think about her soul
Confident in the
causes for which She had sacrificed s o much
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I oo
F ri e n d l y F a c e s
l iving soul mind heart full to overflowing with
warmest sympathies and lofty ideals
Ten years later she was suddenly stricken
down becoming a wreck a mere shadow of her
former self ; from that time unto the end which
did not come til l fifteen years later she remained
a confirme d invalid entirely ou t o ff from former
activities and the cheerful ways of men
One of her last acts was to send a cheque to
the Women s F ranchise S ociety and by her will
subj ect to certain annuities the larger por t ion of
her fortune accrue d to Girton College
Turning to the pages of that fi rs t rate com
n di u m
e
of
knowledge
c
h
a
m
b
e
r
s
n
c
l
o
C
s
E
p
y
p e di a 1 89 2 under the head of Girton Col lege
and Women s Rights ( the articles being written
by a woman ) I vainly look for even the name of
Barbara B o dic hon Certes it is not the gratitude
of women towards each other that will s e t any
poe t mourning
A word or two concerning the personality of
this educational and social pioneer steadfast
uphol der of noble causes born internationalist
and gifte d water colourist
F or as was the case with Amelia B landford
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1 02
M a d ame
B o di c ho n
E dwards she s t rove after eminence in t oo many
fiel ds Had for instance all her energies been
devote d to painting she woul d very likely have
a t taine d the recognition and sta t us passiona t ely
longed for but never attained Her charming
hastily dashed -off impre s sions lacke d learning
and solidity S he paid the price of a many -facete d
mental i t y
B arbara B odic hon s port rait is in every E uro
pean picture gallery was wont t o say a much
travelle d friend of her childh o od Titianesque
indeed were her superb colouring gol den hair
blue eyes perfec t ly Shaped mou t h and propor
tions humanly not classicall y beautiful There
was no col d s t ately classicism ab out fea t ures or
figure life exuberant and exuberating to the very
full emanate d from her presence an a fi lat u s once
calling forth Browning s ej aculation
M adame B o dichon what a benedict ion t o s ee
you
And a benedic t ion to how many was her friend
Ship !
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1 03
VI
W ILLI AM LLI N GH AM
A
A P O E T of unfulfilled promise a delightful
talker an u n gru dge fu l but t o o assiduous c u l
t iv at o r of bigger men than himself was thi s close
friend
A S t he s hadow of a spreading oak keeps ligh t
and air from Slenderer growths below s o the
near neighbourhoo d and potent influence of giant
genius may prove fatal t o those less gifted Had
the young I rish poet o f E nglish not Celtic
origin remained on the banks o f his beloved
Ballyshannon instead of becoming a Londoner
and fairly prosperous man of letters comrade of
Ro ss ett i and his s e t a worshipper o f George
E lio t Tennyson and above all Carlyle he might
have attained the position he longe d for but
misse d
I thank you for still regarding me as a poet
he wrote to me a few years before his death and
upon ano t her occasion in writing he deplored
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1 07
F ri e n d l y F a c e s
his apparent indolence due to lack o f aspira
tion
He began wel l
L a u re n c e B lo o m fi e ld in
I reland al l but attaine d the for t une of another
book go d -fathered by Gladstone Who now -a
days reads or even has ever heard of that pretty
narra t ive poem in five thousand decasyllabic
lines ? I ts appearance did indeed at t rac t t hat
reat
and
brought
the
poet
a
Civil
s tatesman
g
List pension which he enj oye d al l his life and
a pos t in the Excise
The firs t flush of success the fair if not bril
liant aurora had grown dim when I use d to walk
and talk with William Allingham for five hours
a t a s t retch
Our acquaintance began in the I sle
of Wight in 1 8 6 8— 1 believe or thereabou t s— his
l ocation as a Custom House Commissioner then
being at Yarmouth By this time he had already
passed Dante s climacteric and was within a few
year s of fifty Already too he was ful l of
whimsies which his hos t s had to put up with often
to t heir great inconvenience F rom the date of
his removal to London soon after our first meeting
until his marriage in 1 8 7 4 he was many times my
fellow -guest of M adame B o dicho n at Roberts
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1 08
W illi a m A llin gham
bridge Long rambles during the day with a
companion were not enough for him As soon as
the househol d was asleep privileged with a house
key he woul d sally forth as Dr B o di c hon used
—
to s ay p o u r c he rc he r d e s i n s p i ra ti o n s a seeker
most often in vain after poetic Vision I t woul d
not unusual ly be long after midnight when he
woul d return noisily making hi s way to t hepantry
and there helping himsel f t o anything that took
his fancy
A little time before noon sometimes indee d
between ten and eleven o clock he would quit his
bedroom of course a special breakfast having to
be prepared for him Upon one occasion he
returned from a late afternoon e x pedition in the
—
—
rain with as he feare d damp socks Before
the kitchen fire a goose was spitte d for the seven
o clock dinner
Cool ly removing the ol d —fashioned roas t er
with outstretched unboote d feet he seated him
sel f till perfectly reassure d on the matter of damp
foot gear S o delightful was hi s company that
hos t ess and F rench host let him go his own way
unrebuked
He clearly loved a thunderstorm I wel l
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1 09
F ri e n d l y F a c e s
remember setting out with him for the railway
station a mile and a quarter off when a terrific
thunderstorm with a persistent downpour came
on
Complacently he trudged along chatting o f
books and things the most enticing weather coul d
not have improved his Spirits or his conversation
With a much surprise d lo o k he asked as I started
at a blinding fl ash
D o you mind this ?
The thought o f taking shelter at one of the
co t tages passe d on the way never occurre d to him
and we continued our walk
A s a young man he visite d Weimar and thus
he was characterised by an E nglishman who had
been his friend and C icerone in the little Thurin
gian Athens
I seemed to revive my own youth
in William Allingham s personality said the
Grand Duchess s English secretary M r M arshall
to me in 1 8 7 1
H e is no echo was George E liot s appraise
ment
Wi t hou t being a wit or brilliant talker he had
happy turns and as a critic his generosity knew
no bounds
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I Io
Frien d l y F a c e s
talk with us two in those later interviews recalled
the famous dictum of La F ontaine
“
La d i pu
d un bon c our
S an ll on d ormirai n c or
s
s
e
te
’
e st
se
t
e,
e
e
s
”
.
We rarely agree d and never got heate d in
discu s sion
B ut with Liberalism and a certain ever i n c re as
ing faddiness had not vanished the ol d charm
and affectionateness
D ear William Allingham ! H e never made a
fourth with Browning S winburne and Tennyson
but coul d he revisit the scene of early hopes and
ambitions woul d doubtless feel satisfied S everal
of his smaller poems for once and for all are
incorporated into E nglish literature are now
—
indee d on the way to their cen t enary i n Dr
J ohnson s opinion the earnes t and seal of
imperishabl e fame
I t is now si x ty years since his D ay an d N ight
A memorial edition of
So n gs first appeared
favourite pieces is yet to come meanwhile few
anthologies are without a posy from the Alling
ham garden H ere are lines worthily c om m e m o
ra t ed by a fastidious and witty critic ( Birrel l s
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I n t he N a m e
o
f
t he B o d le i a n )
II
2
W i ll i a m A llin gham
F our d u c k on a pon d
A gra bank b y on d ;
A blu ky of pring
Whi c lou d on h wing
H ow li l a hing
To r m mb r f or y ar
To r m mb r wi h ar !
“
s
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ss
e
S
e
s
te
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t
s
e
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e
e
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t
tt e
e
e
s
e
te
t
e
”
s
One of my own especial favourites is Wayside
F lowers
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h wa y i d fl ow r
P lu c k
I i
h rav ll r
d ow r
A hou an d pa r b y
I
b au i ma y p y
M a y win a ou c h of b l ing
F rom N a ur mil d c ar ing
Th
d of h ar p r c iv
A v iol un d r l v
Lik om fr h bu dd ing hop
Th primro
on h lop
Lik po o f un hin d w ll
A n d c h r f ul m ag ll
O f kin d r n wing pow r
Th no dd ing blu b ll
dy
I d rawn f rom happ y ky
Th n par h wa y i d fl ow r
I i
h ra v ll r
d ow r
n ot
t
s t
s
e
e t
t
ts
t
e
e
’
s
e
t es
es
e s
sa
et
ess
t
e
e
e s
e
e
e
ea
es ,
e
t
se
ts
s
ee
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s
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s
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1 13
’
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s
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S
e
s,
te s
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t
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es s
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V II
A
N
A FT
ER N OO N
WI
T
H LORD
J
R U SS E LL
OHN
in the summer of 1 8 6 8 that I had the
honour of meeting the Lycurgus of the Lower
House as S ydney S mith cal led the great little
man of t he famous P u n c h cartoons
A few mon t hs after making my home in Ken
Sing t on I received a note from S ir E dwin Chad
wick t o thi s e ffect— M igh t he drive me on a cer t ain
afternoon to an indus t rial school— I forget the
—
name where Lord and Lady Russel l would j oin
The obj ect of the visit was to Show the
us
P rime M inister over the institution
O f S ir E dwin Chadwick a word or two may be
necessary No man was ever more useful in his
especial fiel d and perhaps no man has been more
completel y forgotten
—
The great authority on sanitation rather I
should cal l him the inventor of the science
was an ol d friend of M adame B o di chon and at
her house in S ussex I had j ust before made his
IT was
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1 17
F rien d l y F a c e s
acquaintance Like all or most enthusiasts he
was an interminable talker on his own subj ect
and during our two or three days co guestship I
had become pretty well indoctrinated with some
of his theories
Never was a more thorough going reformer
H e was the M ohamme d of drain pipes the
Columbus of conduits alike the prophet and
apostle of concrete The late learne d but little
known Hellenist M r W at ki s s L loyd used to s ay
that if ever S ir E dwin lost his mental balance he
woul d imagine himself to be a universal drain
pipe the conduit of the universe But that solid
head of his could take in more ideas than one
and as secretary to the P oor Law Board for fi v e
an d t wenty years he had worked hard in the causes
of children s labour education and preventive
disease At the time I mention he was an inde
fatigab le member of the S ocial S cience Associa
tion and of the S tatistical S ocie t y N umbers for
this extraordinary man possessed an overweening
fascination I n listening to him one almost
became convince d that the salvation of societ y
lay in statistics Hence his invitation to Lord
J ohn Russell The great statesman was to s ee for
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1 18
F rien d l y F a c e s
Through every part we were conducted under a
running fire of volubly uttere d facts and figures
H is visitor was to go away enlightene d as to
every particular of installation management and
above all o f cost The arithmetical totals s u m
totals and averages n ow poure d into L ord
R ussel l s patient ear must have recalled Budget
night A patient ear did I s ay? I f the listener
only from time t o time put in a brief query it was
simply because he had no opportunity of doing
more
Whether he sympathised with his interlocutor s
views it was impossible to s ay As S ir E dwin
Chadwick dilate d on the subj ect at that time
—
uppermost in his mind namely the economy of
the system here illustrate d the immense saving
of such schools on an enormous scale— the other
remained passive
B ut it was when we reache d the dormitories
that hal f a dozen words revealed the man the
all saving common sense and practical wisdom
characterising the great politician
With more than his usual e x uberance S ir
E dwin now pointe d to the scores upon scores o f
snowy beds in one enormous Sleeping room it s
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1 20
A ft ernoon wi t h L or d J ohn
R u ss ell
lofty proportions its numerous windows reaching
from ceiling to floor and facing due south
Those large windows facing so u th arrested
Lord Russel l s att ention Turning to his host
he aske d quietly
What about the chil dren s eyes ?
Unprovide d with Shutters curtains or anything
in the Shape of a blind this dormitory woul d be
flooded with light during many months half of
the night being thus turne d into dazzling day
L ord Russell s quick unerring and ever ready
intelligence eviden t ly calle d up a picture of tired
youngsters tossing restlessly on their pillows of
weak eyes inj ured perhaps for life of ophthalmic
cases here engendered And all for want of a lit t l e
of what S terne call s househol d good sense !
Lady Russell if I remember rightly had also
something to say on the subj ec t but whether or
no S ir E dwin was struck by his Visitor s criticism
and W hether any practical result came of i t I do
not know The incident remained in my memory
illustrating as it forcibly did not only the multi
f ari o u s channels into which a great intellect wil l
flow but the limitations so often found in genius
I n his own fiel d the apos t le of the drain pipe
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F ri e n d l y F a c e s
might fairly be s o styled Yet a merest common
place connected with his own special subj ect had
thus escaped him and was le ft to the statesman
to find out What more important in orphanages
?
h
than t e care of chil dren s e y es
I never saw Lord John Russel l after the
courteous leave -taking that summer afternoon ;
but many years later I took tea and dined with
S ir E dwin Chadwick and his wife and daughter at
R ichmond S o far back as 1 8 54 his great services
as a social and administrative worker had been
rewarde d by a Government pension H e was
now enj oying to the ful l M acbeth s ideal of old
age goo d repute affectionate intercourse easy
circum stances and the consciousness of having
nobly served his coun t ry in pacific wa lks
The summer afternoon was superb and til l the
dinner -bell rang hosts and guests remained in the
pre tt y suburban garden I t was a pleasant picture
to carry away in one s memory the veteran t e
former chatting quietly with this friend and t hat
ami d his roses the fire of propagandism burnt
o u t in s tead his eyes beaming with the tempered
radiance of wel l -earned repose
H e was no longer the untiring pioneer of sanit a
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I 22
F rien d l y F a c e s
passion for the public good ; and nearly the whole
of his time is devote d to it in one form or
ano t her
I t i s something to have known men like S ir
E dwin Chadwick something is it also to have s o
much as listened t o men like M ill I suppose
there are not many now who like myself heard
the great apostle of L iberty speak at S t James s
Hall in the Sixties S tereotype d on my memory
is that s t upendous personality I n the look of
—
unshakabl e conviction s o admirably rendere d in
both por t rai t s accompanying the Co rre s p o n d e n c e
— o f a thinker whose mind upon the weightiest
subj ects was irrevocably made up from whose
ethical verdicts was no appeal his countenance
had something sublime even awful o f rigidity and
adamant implacableness I felt as I gaze d that
chance destiny inclination and weakness coul d
e x ercise no kind of sway over this man that here
were the iron will the unflinching self oblivion
of which the L uthers S avonarolas and S ir John
E liots are made
O f the ever -regrette d misses in life this
souvenir recall s one
M il l and S pencer it has been my privilege to
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1 24
A ft ernoon wi t h L or d John
R u ss e ll
see if not to know ; that other one who had the
name among the three mighties of thought and
wisdom I once missed by j ust fi v e minu t es
J ust fi v e minutes sooner and you would have
found Carlyle here e x claime d Wil liam Alling
ham one afternoon when I called upon him and
his wife then living in Trafalgar S quare Chelsea
This by the way I n Lord F it z m auri c e s valu
able L ife of L o rd Gra n v i lle which work is indee d
a P arliamentary history of E ngland from 1 8 1 5
to 1 8 9 1 occurs the fol lowing citation Under
date November 2 4 1 86 7 the late Lord Coleridge
wrote t o a friend
I had a very pleasant dinner with L ord J ohn
on Wednesday
We were but seven— Lowe
Bruce Lord Granville B aines J owett Lord
Russell himself and I H e s at me beside hi m
and was mos t court eous and a great deal more
kindly and genial than I expecte d to find him
After dinner he made us a little speech about
education which he (right ly I think) considers
t he question of the day and e x plaining and re
commending some resolutions of his which he
purposes to move in the House of Lords I was
more s t ruck with his simplicity and a certain
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1 25
Fr i en d l y Fa c e s
nobleness of thought about him than with his
cleverness His ideas were commonplace enough
but when Lord Granvil le said that he feared
that forcing some point on m ight break up the
party Lord R ussel l said quite simpl y that
nothing woul d ever be done if people were afraid
of such consequences an d that a great party
coul d n o t fail more nobly than in trying for the
attainment of such an obj ect ; but I sa w quite
enough to be sure that he was very sel f wi lle d
which is perhaps almost as bad
I n an earlier page of these deeply interesting
volumes Lord Granville speaks of J ohnny s
grea t speech on E ducation which he adds did
not he feared advance matters much This was
in 1 8 56
L ike many ano t her statesman this one had
literary ambitions He was a voluminous writer
and among the long list of his works are a novel
and t wo t ragedies now forgotten S ome second
rate verses are inserte d in S ir S pencer Walpole s
e x cellent biography
I n Gryll Gran ge 1 8 59 the last but not least
diverting of Peacock s subacid novels Lord J ohn
Russel l is travestie d under the title of Lord
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1 26
VI I I
T E A W I T H C H R I ST I N A RO SSE TT I
F rien d l y F a c e s
from childhood but was here growing in profusion
B eyond this beautiful but homely pleasance were
.
“
P la c of n ling gr n for po
e st
es
ee
ets
ma d
e
”
.
—
none led
—
footways
Little
paths there were
into
coppice woods wil d strawberries now ripe gleam
ing ruby re d among the moss hazel trees showing
rich clusters honeysuckle and wil d rose scenting
the air Above this brilliant foliage the colour
deepened sombre green merging into purple
Shadow We were indeed hemmed round by
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b l d woo d of S u x I c an h ar h m ill
aroun d m
Wi h h ir l a fy i d of gr n r y ill rippling u p h
win d
The
esse
s se
s
t
e
,
st
e
e,
t
t
e
t
e
ee
e
st
e
t
e
”
.
I n the rear stood a rose embowere d cottage its
chimney corner showing a goodly rol l cal l O n
the walls poets painters philosophers and
political economists had left their sign manual
Here with their noble minde d hostess M adame
B o di c hon
George Eliot and George Henry
Lewes had hel d high discourse Here the great
F rench painter Daubigny had dashe d in his auto
graph accompanying i t with a tiny landscape
Here Dante Rossetti W illiam M orris and Wil
liam Allingham had discussed poetry and art
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1 32
T ea wi t h Chri s t ina
R o ss e t t i
Here the blind P rofessor F awcett had discusse d
with his hos t ess political economy And here
o f the first women s
was ma t ured the scheme E
—
university opened in England namely Girton
College
Our little party numbered four These were
the hostess who was then as William Rossetti
has recently described her in the plenitude of
mental and physical powers her abundant golden
hai r a glory to behold with a nobility of face
much more s t riking than mere beauty M rs
Rossetti the poetess and myself
O f her mother I remember nothing Christina
a
was t this time about for t y a plainly dressed
gaunt rather j erky woman s hy in manner and
very reticen t S uch at least was my impression
Herse lf an inspiring talker our hostess could
always s e t Shy folks at their ease On this occa
sion She naturally chatted of suggestive t opics
gardening , flowers (she was a very good bo t anist
in the practical sense) the beauty of her environ
ment and s o on M adame B o dic hon was also a
very clever artist and she next Spoke of a
beautiful sunrise she had lately seen
Then the poetess by her Side broke Si l ence
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F rien d l y F a c e s
I have never seen t he s u n rise in my life
sh
e observed quietly
The confession came to me as quite a little
shock Tha t a poetess shoul d reach middle life
without having once behel d Nature s great pageant
seemed unbelievabl e of one moreover who had
written how
”
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an d ar look d own
By fi t s
st
ts
t he
s
waking
sun
”
.
O n second thoughts the matter was easy of ex
planation Town born and town bred an invalid
and untravelle d her opportunities o f seeing the
Her genius
s un rise had perhaps been few
moreover was rather subj ective than given to
outward impression ; inner life especially devo
t i on a l life appealing to her more than the worl d
around Yet in some of her happiest moods She
coul d write charmingly o f Nature as in The
Lambs of Grasmere
I cite two verses
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“
uplan d fl o c k gr w ar v d an d hinn d
T h ir h ph r d c ar c c oul d f d h lamb
Who milkl mo h r b u d h m
O r who w r orphan d o f h ir d am
a hir for mo h r milk
Th lamb
F ill d ll h pla c wi h pi ou oun d
T h ir mo h r bon ma d whi f or mil
w
pa ur gro u n d
Th pa ur l
The
e
e
s
e
e
e
a
t
e
e
st
t
tte
e
t
e
e s
t
st
’
e ess ,
t
e
et
13
st
4
e
t
e
s
e
e
,
e
s
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’
,
te
e
es
t
ee
e s
e
t
s,
t
e
e
s
t
ess
se
e
s
st
e
s
s
s
s
te
e-
;
es
.
;
s,
1x
B
.
B R A BAZ O N
B
R
A
BB
Y
(
)
F rien d l y F a c e s
interest M r Brabazon kindly invite d him to j oin
us for his benefit beginning the Show over again
That ordinary -looking stranger proved not only
to be a fine art critic but as afterwards turned
out to possess the gift of prophecy
His delight in the lovely suggestions of I talian
—
skies and sunsets Mr Brabazon was returning
—
from the S outh knew no bounds ; perhaps in
deed savoure d of intemperance
A second Turner a Turner ! he reiterate d
with the fervour of Gratiano s
a second Daniel
a Daniel
Even later and after attaining recognition no
one woul d have more keenly relucte d at the com
parison than the artist himsel f At the time it was
spoken the eulogium merely evoke d a smile and
in after years he never alluded to the incident
I t was a case of Ships that pass in the night
That chance -met conj urer of F ortune s most
cherished gift to genius namely deserve d fame
with a Thank you from my heart sir and a
warm handshake passed out of his ken and as it
seemed memory
But up to a certain point the vaticination b e
came fact Happy throughout every circum
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I 40
,
H
B
.
B
rabb
(
y)
Br a ba z on
.
stance of his life M r Brabazon was most for
t u n at e in this : he appeare d precisely when
wan t ed neither a day too soon nor a day too
—
late F or it is with genius o f which he certainly
—
possesse d a touch as with flowers and fruit the
ill time d chestnut blossoms fl av ou rle s s straw
berries at Yuletide The a p ro p o s here as in every
phase of human endeavour f orms a t urning
point a keynote of success using the word in
i t s best sense
I mpressionism was in the air A S
a kindred spirit he was immediately receive d
into the brotherhood
To return however to those days of pure
delight in hie aTt of perpetual revel ling in natural
beauty I wel l remember how after that hal f
hour j ust described he s e t out sketch book in
hand halting to dash in an impression whenever
the humour seized him Unlike Mr Hamert on
and M r Augustus Hare he never during hi s
travels enj oye d the distinction of an arrest
s
Coul d indeed a py scare d outside B edlam have
discovered in dear B rab b y s l ovely vaguenesses
the faintest similitude to fortress or strategic de
?
fences It might indeed be said of some of
hi s Sketches that you may find anything you like
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141
F rien d l y F a c e s
therein j ust as al l kinds of scenes may be picture d
in hot C inders To detectives M r Brabazon and
hi s Sketch book woul d appear mere E ngl ish
eccentricity Anyhow whil st the equal ly ha rm
less authors o i R o u n d m y H ou s e and of s o many
useful guide books were taken before the F rench
police on a charge of espionage the afterwards
famous impressionist got off s oot free A spoilt
chil d of fairy godmothers being born to a hand
some estate he was spoiled wherever he went I n
Rome and other I talian towns he love d t o be
l ocked inside churches whilst the sacristans retire d
for dinner and these ever humoure d him doubt
less imagining that they had to do with a pietist
or perhaps lunatic who nevertheless had s en s e
enough to reward them for their pains !
What a perpetual ecstasy were his entire eighty
and o dd years V ery li t tle of the time was spent
in his beautiful S ussex home auspiciously having
a brother i n law to take the burdens of prope rty
off his shoul ders being abso l utely free able to
give every moment of his time to S outhern
sunshine art music and the society of kindre d
spiri t s Now he woul d be in S pain financing
some musical p ro t e ge now in Rome on the same
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1 42
F r i en d l y
Fac e s
enforce in s o far as in him lay the great Aristo
t e le a n dictum that art consis t s in capture of the
beautiful
S ome human l ives are a drama others are an
unsolve d chord others— alas ! the maj ority— a
mere accompaniment to the tune of G0 and get
your hair c ut or the latest music -hall ditty
B rab b y s was a lyric simple rounded o ff mel li
fl u o us as that perfect l ittle song in a forgotten
drama
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’
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“
A unn y haf
F rom ky
A n d poi d h
S w b ir d
s
t
s
se
t
e et
P ensive
d i d I b hol d
ar h i lan d
r in a b ir d b ol d
ho u w r n c han d !
e
to e
S
,
,
,
e e
t
,
t S
te
so
,
t
,
e
t
,
te
e
even grief - stricken moments of
course were his as every one s ; tragic e x periences
I Shoul d s ay he misse d altogether Artistic dis
illusions and the pathetic in art woul d ever bring
tears to his eyes P erhaps one of his greatest
m ort i fi c at i o n s was the fact of never having heard
Liszt play ! Cordial and prolonge d as was the
intercourse of the two the great Virtuoso as a
virtuoso at the time had become an age d worn
out man and on no account coul d any one even
his most intimate friends beg him to touch the
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1 44
H B Bra ba z on (Brabb y)
.
.
piano Mr Brabazon s eyes woul d fill whenever
I allude d to my own privileges a decade and a
hal f before I had often heard Liszt s i n de s crib
able playing when at Weimar in 1 8 7 1 M y ol d
friend loved to hear of the magician although t he
rela t ion woul d bring poignant regret
Another matter for grieving to which he would
refer years after was a missed summer in Algeria
I t hap pened I think in 1 869 that his great friend
M adame B o di chon then living at M ustapha
S upérieur had lent her handsome Villa conj ointly
to Mrs Bridel l F ox hersel f no mean artist and to
an ol d Anglo F renchman a fol lower of F ourier
and his wife M r Brabazon was include d in the
invi t ation but for some reason or other di d not
accept i t
What a mistake I made I have never forgiven
mysel f
he use d to say
W hat sunsets what
e ffects what impressions I shoul d have obtained
And then the society ! That dear ol d M H awke
and his wife ever harping on the gol den age
before u s and not behind ; no never again shall
I have such an opportunity
The golde n age is before and n ot behind u s
was the watchword of the F o u ri éri st community
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L
1 45
F r i en d l y
Fa c e s
The various organisations founded by F ourier and
his followers came to naught I n Hawthorne s
romance The B li the d a le R o m an c e their dreams
will long l ive And in every forward social move
ment we discern the ideas of men regarded by
their contemporaries as craze d fanatics
With the regeneration of the worl d economic
civic and political M r Brabazon had nothing to
do His energies concerned things intangible
transcendental of having a mission he never cer
t ai n ly dreame d
Al l the same to this most modes t
na t ure to one who always spoke of doing this or
that in my littl e way with what j oy came
praise and renown ! With what surprise too
came the Seal of both the final the indispensable
the delightful attestation of value Not only were
his sketches now lau dat e d exhibited in every
body s mouth they fetche d mone y the least
interpre t ative scenes had their price
The last fifteen years of his long life — he was
far on t he way to ninety when he peacefully
—
passe d away formed a triumphal progress A
B rabazon Exhibition was now an annual artistic
event Before he died selections of his work had
been purchased for the B ritish M useum and the
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1 46
1
1
C
1
d L C b
J
caretaker The pretty village of S edlescombe
it may be added lies within three miles of Battle
H ow woul d our dear B rab b y have rej oice d in
the anticipation of such a remembrancer ! I t is to
be hope d that its originator will find her e fforts
appreciated and that the glorified tithe barn will
especial ly attract scores and hundre ds of the
uninitiate d in art those who cannot run to town
j ust to take a turn in the galleries and whose
art education is in its elementary stage
I n his recently published correspondence J ohn
S t uart M il l dwell s almost solemnly on the n e c e s
s i t y of cultivating the imaginative faculties of the
masses Writing in 1 8 52 to a casual correspond
ent on the subj ect of t eaching social science to
the uneducated he says
What the poor as well as the rich require is
not to be indoctrinated not to be taught other
people s Opinions but to be induce d and enabled
to think for themselves
They cannot read
too much especial ly geography voyages travels
romances which must tend to awaken their
imagination
I n F rance the idea carried out by loving i n it i
ative at S edlescombe is being brought to fruition
by Vil lage municipalities Thus the village of
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I 48
,
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B B ra ba z on (Brabby)
Bourron on the eastern border of F ontainebleau
H
.
.
f orest and describe d by me elsewhere has now
its l ittle museum gifts by native ar t ists and loans
swiftly making up a very respectable picture
gallery
What wrote one promoter of the
scheme does not F rance owe to her villages
her greatest landscape painters R ousseau Corot
Daubigny M illet and the rest ? We al l love our
Villages but hitherto in this respect have quite
neglecte d them L et alike artists li t téra t eu rs
and residents combine making of their modest
town halls artistic centres thus devel oping in the
peasan t a love of the beautiful
O ur own l ocal councils do not possess town
hall s ; the Brab azon M useum in the tithe barn
shoul d all the same prove an obj ect -lesson
Accommodation woul d surely be forthcoming for
such col lections Country folks woul d not
grudge their threepences
Mrs Harvey Combe has s e t a fine example
The springs of charity need not he stayed ; all the
same our rich rural centres might surely poss ess
their modest art gallery and museum F lowers
as well as bread might be dispense d by those
overburdened with both
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1
Ea s t
o
f
P a ri s ,
H ur an d B la c k
st
et t
.
X
O W E N M E R E DI T H— LO R D L YTTO N
endearing personality and a charming host
was the author of L u c ile I t was during the
Centennial Exhibition of 1 889 that with many
other E nglish Visitors I enj oyed the hospitality
of the B ritish E mbassy in P aris O ffi cial re c oga
n i t i on of this grea t anniversary had been tabooed
at home
With the F rench Revolu t ion and t he
R ights of M an had cynically s aid L ord S alis
bury the E nglish nation had naught to do
A S a pri vate individual Lord Lytton who love d
F rance and was a very popular Ambassador
coul d appreciate the occasion F or myself and
doubtless for many others hi s courtesy and
friendly welcome then rendered a visit to P aris
doubly attractive
We were a numerous company at that animate d
luncheon in the F aubourg S t Honoré j ust twenty
t w o years ago
The gracious hostess and her
beautiful daugh t er had receive d their guests and
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1 53
F rien d l y F a c e s
we were al l sea t ed at tabl e when the Ambassador
leisurely strolling in took the vacant chair beside
my own
O wen M eredith so I love to cal l him and
s o perhaps he woul d have preferred to be brought
to mind— was j us t fifty O f fastidious ra t her
than striking appearance he suggested the poet
rather than the diplomat Al l the mental al er t
ness of a gifted man in his prime was there but
not the physical vigour Lethargic movements
an occasional look of weariness betokened failing
health
Every one presen t was bound for the grea t Show
on the Champ de M ars and at first conversation
was general and topical
S oon however my host
dropped the Exhibition and we plunged into a
literary tet e -a-tét e
Na t ural ly we discu s sed I bsen and Tol s t oi j ust
then foremost names in contemporary letters I
e x pressed my surprise at I bsen s hol d upon young
men and women his gloomy outlook upon life
and suicidal pessimism being so antagonistic to
all that we connect with youth
I t is the novelty the newness of the thing
L ord L ytton replied
Therein you have the
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1 54
F ri e n d l y F a c e s
Tuileries Gardens at the same time the weather
was deliciously warm and sunny
Throughout my visit I coul d not help contrast
ing the obj ective with the subj ective existence of
the speaker
Here was a man whose dearest ambition had
been foiled by over kindness of F ortune B orn
apparently to a poet s lot he became a diplomat
i n stead swiftly and with comparative ease attain
The gift by which he set
in g prize after prize
most store was withhel d : poetic supremacy he
failed to win
Yet his gifts were remarkable P ossessed of
a charming fancy a most musical ear and a rich
vocabulary he has perhaps left nothing incor
— nothing that has
r
o
a
t
e
d
into
our
literature
p
become part and parcel of English poetry N or
during his lifetime did he attain the recognition
of men far less gifted than himself H ow came
this about ?
A glance at hi s biography solves the enigma
I t is easy as we read to understand why C lyt e m
n e s t ra written in early life shoul d h
ave heralded
fulfilment and Gle n a v e ri l publ ished half a
century later shoul d have knelle d failure B e
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1 56
M ere d i t h —
Owen
Lor d Ly t t o n
tween the two periods in what a whirl had Lord
Lytton lived ! Entering the diplomatic service
when a lad of eighteen he became by turns
Attaché at Washington F lorence The Hague
S t P etersburg V ienna and Constantinople later
on he became Acting Consul General at Bel
grade S ecretary of L egation at Copenhagen at
Athens and Lisbon ; later stil l he filled the post
of S ecretary to the E mbassies of V ienna and
P aris ; was named Ambassador at Lisbon ; final ly
V iceroy of I ndia and Ambassador in Paris where
he died Under these circumstances might not
the poet have applied M atthew Arnol d s lines to
his own muse
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“
Wha h l r grow rip i our
Wha l i ur grow wi
t s
e te
to
t
e s
e
e
to
s
s,
se
And throughout Lady Betty Bal four s deeply
interest ing biography of her father we realise a
sense of disillusion on his part a pathetic yearn
ing and looking back I n the personality of the
V iceroy of I ndia and Ambassador in P aris that
of Owen M eredith had su ffere d eclipse Born
for the poet s career he had followed another and
wholly incongruous vocation
’
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1 57
F rien d l y F a c e s
After that first brief acquaintance in 1 8 89 Lord
Lytton and myself were in close correspondence
S truck with the charm of his lyrics and Shorter
poems I prepare d a little anthology in which he
took the live liest interest Every note penned by
the Ambassador showe d in what a turmoil his
days were spent
,
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1
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.
F or weeks past he wrote on M arch
”
,
2 8 , 1 8 90 ,
I have been wishing to write to you about the
selection you have s o graciously and fl att e rin gly
undertaken from my di s j e c ta m e m bra for the
Canterbury e dition But my good intentions
have all gone to enlarge that infernal causeway
which is said to be paved with such things
A continuous stream of unexpecte d interruptions
and occupations has been running between
me and them and the time has slipped by like
water
The letter finishe d a few days later thus
wound up
These
suggested
poems
for
the
little
(
volume in question) have been selecte d under
“
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“
P ubli h d in 89 in h Can rbur y P o
d i d by h la William S harp
1
e
te
s
t
e
e
1
0
t
e
“
te
te
.
1 58
et s
S ri
e
es ,
Fr i en d l y Fa c e s
excell ent health and spirits seems to be enj oying
—
her stay at Aix I dare say for the same reason
—
that makes mine so welcome to me the freedom
and rest of it F or the weather which was warm
and bright has turned dark and cold and the
p lace looks like a deserted Vil lage Fe w of the
Shops are as yet opened al l the usual places o f
amusement closed the very mountains shut in
mud and snow and with the exception of her
M aj esty s immediate family and o ffi cial entourage
nobody here but Lady S and Lady D ; and he
added
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.
M ay I end this letter with a note of interroga
tion by asking you a question for which my excuse
must be that I regard you as the most competent
authority in Europe on the subj ect of it ? S houl d
you s ay from your personal knowledge of the
F rench peasant that Z ola s portrait of him and
his— i n L a T e rre is a perfectly truthful one free
from all exaggeration ?
’
-
,
”
The selection appeared in October of the same
year and evidently gave Lord Lytton much pleas
ure His satisfaction at seeing his poems in a
,
.
1 60
—
wen
M
re
d
i
t
h
L or d L y t t on
e
O
p opular reprint was however somewhat marred
by the fact of certain printers errors Despite
the store s e t by poetic fame he had not found
the necessary leisure for proof correction But
he heartily thanke d hi s e ditress
There is a bond between us he said
—
Somewhat sadly I thought whe n bidding me
farewel l the last time I was the guest of the
Embassy
A few months la t er he died pen in hand He
was engage d upon a poem when the fatal seizure
came
As an ofli c ial of the F rench Government wrote
to me Lord L ytt on s death was universal ly re
r
e
t
t
e d in
F rance
F renchmen wrote this
g
correspondent unfortunately divided about most
matters are unanimous in regretting your late
Ambassador
Every possible honour was shown to his
remains as they were borne from the P rotestant
Church to the Gare S t Lazare
I subj oin a few verses from one of the sweetest
and most natural poems included in the little
volume of my own editing They are cited from
The Near and the F ar
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M
161
F rien d l y F a c e s
“
O h n ar on d ar on ! y ou in who righ t han d
O ur own r t c alm ; who fai t hful h ar t all d a y
e
,
es ,
e
se
es
se
es s
s
s
e
Wi d op n wai ill ba c k from d i an lan d
Though h ir d rav ll r w n d hi hom war d
w y
H lpma an d h ar h ma gla dd n r of gon y ar
T n d r c ompanion of our riou d a y
Who c olo u r wi h y our ki
mil an d ar
Lif warm w b wov n ov r won d wa y
Y oung c hil d r n an d ol d n igh b o u r
an d ol d f ri n d
O l d rvan — y ou who miling c ir c l mall
G row lowl y mall r ill la i n d
Wh r in h grav i room nough f or all
O h hu h worl d
f rom h h ar y c h r !
Tho ugh mall h c ir c l of y our mil ma y b
n ar
Th worl d i d i an an d y our mil
T hi mak y ou mor han all h worl d m
t, t
e
e
t,
t
st
t
e
t
e
e
e
,
t
s
s
e
s
e
e s
e
a
tes
e
e
t -
e
e
tes ,
se
s
t
’
e s
e
e
s S
t
e e
,
t t
s
se
e
s
t
es
st
t e
e
1 62
s,
s
s
t
e
s
t
e
ee
ou
e,
es
e s a re
s
t
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e
t
s,
e
e
t
e
s
e
st
s
e
te
s
at
t
out
e
s
s
e
e
s
e
,
te
s,
e
,
ts
se
es ,
e
e
s,
s,
s
sse s , s
e
e
e
,
to
e
”
.
XI
H ER B ER T
S P EN
C ER I N
S
O CIE
TY
in the spring of 1 8 7 3 that I met the
greatest thinker of the nineteenth century What
writer no matter his fiel d has wiel de d such i n fl u
ence upon thought what writer s works have been
s o universally translated ?
N ot only in every
European language but in the principal Oriental
tongues are his works to be read the S ynthetic
P hilosophy being now the possession of the entire
thinking worl d
M y first impression was somewhat disconcert
ing We happene d to be fell ow —guests at an
evening party in Hyde P ark S quare no literary
conversazione but something more than a gather
ing of cultivate d peopl e among the crowd being
several leading figures Literature art science
law and politics were also represented by wel l
known even eminent names
But Herbert
S pencer was not to be found among kindred
IT was
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1 65
,
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F rien d l y F a c e s
spirits Here is the picture indelibly printe d on
my memory
S tanding in the middl e of the room were two
guests engage d in conversation the one a fair
slender type of the Angl o S a x on i n ge n u e S he
wore a simple white muslin dress as fashion then
ordained displaying pretty shoul ders and a rms
By her side stood a man whom at first sigh t one
woul d have pronounce d of quite commonplace
appearance
The founder of the S ynthetic P hilosophy was
j ust fi ft y three S ol idly built of average pro
portions whiskere d after M id V ictorian fashion
his figure coul d be called typical ly English O nly
physiognomists woul d have a t once charac t erise d
the head as that of a profound thinker B ut
indeed for the fact of recognition I might have
passed him by as a very ordinary person one of
those numerous men of leisure who divide the
day between C lubs and society Or I might have
set him down as an el derly flirt for whom t he
e rs ifl a e with a pretty girl of eighteen was here
p
g
the supreme attraction But Herbert S pencer s
life was of a piece arrange d on a rigidly c on
sistent plan H aving lately carefully studie d his
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1 66
F rien d l y F a c e s
and character in evolution Hence the magnetism
of a girl j ust out of the school room and hence
his well known fondness for chil dren H ere
moreover is the explanation of an existence spent
for the most part in boarding houses
I give one or t wo citations testifying to this
Argus eyed criticism of ordinary life : T o be
come a pleasure yiel ding person is a social duty
What sermons innumerabl e might be preached
upon this subj ect ! Daily do we see home life
spoiled fi re s i de s rendere d uncongenial family
circles made depressing or indeed broken up by
n o n a e c o gn i t io n of this duty
The very roots
indeed of everyday comfort and happiness are
here touched I t is not in everybody s power to
be a goo d talker nor c an al l of us boast of high
spirits sunny disposition or social accomplish
ments But every one in the full possession of
his faculties can curb a sullen or vindictive
temper The professional invalid so often a
blight upon domestic cheerfulness is the product
of sel f indulgence I t is j ust by littl e ignoble
defects and weaknesses within our own mastery
that daily life may be not only soure d but
rendered almost insupportable
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I 68
H er b er t Spen c er
in
So c i e t y
But S pencer s criticism of men and women as
social units goes much deeper I t is not only with
right and wrong with the altruist and the egoist
that he deals but with the seemly and the boorish
the delicate minde d and the coarse Here are
one or two quotations that Show how minutely he
had studie d everyday life and manners manners
in his eyes ever being but another name for
morality I n P art V on N egative B e n e fi c e n c e
we read
A game of Skil l is being played with one
whose little boy is a spectator The father s
play 1 8 such as makes his antagonist tolerably
certain of Victory shoul d he put out his full
strength But if he 1 5 adequately swayed by the
sentiment of negative b e n e fi c e n c e he wil l not
obtrusively but in a conceale d way play below
his strength s o as to let the father beat him H e
will feel that such small pleasure as triumph
might bring woul d be far more than counter
balance d by sympathy with the annoyance of the
father at being defeated in presence of his s o n
and by sympathy with the s on on finding his
father not s o superior as he suppose d Though
in this course some insincerity is implied yet that
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F rien d l y F a c e s
evil is trifling in comparison with the evil s other
wise entailed I n like manner none will doubt
that he who in a d iscussion or wit combat might
be easily overcome may even though at t imes
unwort hy of considera t ion be rightly let off under
particular circums t ances S ay for instance that
his fi an c é e is present To show that he is ignorant
or that he is illogical or t o u tt er a wi t ticism at his
expense woul d be cruel All but the unusual ly
callous will s e e that to shame him before a witness
with whom he stands in such a rel ation woul d be
an improper e x ercise of intel lectual power An
interlocutor who is swaye d by due fellow feeling
will in such a case consent to seem himsel f ill
info rmed and stupid rather than inflict t he pain
which woul d fol low any other course
The entire chapter on Restraints in Displays
of Ability in which these passages occur is wor t h
poring over To some purpose was s o much of
the philosopher s life spent in middle cl ass board
ing houses !
And in the second volume of his work under
head of S ocial B e n e fi c e n c e occurs a Significant
passage A S we read the fol lowing lines we c an
understand how it came about that in an assembly
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70
F rien d l y F a c e s
from the P ri n c i p le s of Ethic s shoul d not be
publishe d in a handy form N o better treatise
on the conduct of life coul d be put into the hands
of young men and women But although the
writer s style is always crystal C lear like Rous
seau he does not undertake to be unders t ood by
those who will not take the trouble
read
attentively
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I72
XI I
G
E O RGE
MACD O NALD
F rien d l y
Fa c e s
Host and guest were equal to the situation
The host whispere d in his wife s ear and straight
way a bottle of champagne was fo rthcoming
gl asses chinked healths were d runk and a merry
l ittle e n tr ac t e put us all at our ease I do not
remember a Single word that droppe d from the
humourist s lips ; what I have never forgotten
was the unfailing tact and b o n ho m i e with which
the m ort ifi c at io n of his hosts and their chil dren
was staved off and a l ittle social fiasco averte d
Humour begets humour and none present coul d
afte rwards have wishe d things to turn out differ
ently Alas those three youthful actresses fade d
away one by one in the flower of their youth
George M acdonald whom I knew very intim
ately during his second residence at H astings
was a man of many homes Till his final settling
in I taly he had been a wanderer on the face of
the earth ; he the most domestic of mankind live d
like a bird on the branch B etween the years of
the acquaintanceship that speedily ripene d into
friendship and his winter departure for the
Riviera his various homes c an hardly be tol d on
the fi n ge rs— Kensington Hammersmith Bourne
mouth and Hastings are among the number
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1 76
G eorge M a cd onal d
W hen that good gift of
a year Civil List
pension came which he enj oye d for the remainder
of his l ife and a friend presented him with a
freehol d villa at Bordighera S cotchman although
he was and S co t ch novelist par ex c e lle n c e he
bade adieu to a permanen t residence in England
and let us hope for the rest of his days
enj oyed freedom from daily hourly carking
care
I remember well one of hi s daughters telling
me with happy unconcern about 1 8 7 2 when the
family adopted chil dren and guests about twenty
in all were packe d into t wo small houses i n
Halloway P lace Hastings P apa is writing two
novel s at a time (each a three volume one ); he
gets through one volume a month but he uses a
di fferen t pen for each
Just t hink of it ! Two
—
three volume novel s at a time the mental stress
to say nothing of the physical labour thereby
entailed
O nce about this time he said to me— surely the
most pa t hetic utterance that coul d emanate from
—
the mouth of talent or genius
I have never
been able to do my best
How indeed coul d
it be othe rwise ? E leven chil dren to rear and
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F rien d l y F a c e s
educate ; adopte d waifs and strays to do the same
by perpetual e x ercise of the most generous hos
and
last
but
not
least
poor
health
i
a li t
t
y
p
By no means a strong writer neither fi rst rate
poet novelist nor thinker George M acdonal d
nevertheless enj oye d immense popularity To
tens of thousands indeed he was a second
E merson a spiritual and moral guide piloting
them throughout daily probl ems and a ffording
steady support
I t was in N onconformist circles that his i n fl u
ence may be sai d to have marked an epoch
broadening the views of those who sat at his feet
l ifting to higher l evel s alike their social and
religious aspirat ions O ne of these has lately
written— Thirty fi v e years ago I heard George
M acdonal d preach at a smal l Congregational
Church in Camden Town S ince that time I
have heard hundreds of preachers and l istene d to
thousands of sermons but the memory of that
one lingers yet
M uch of his teaching ha s long been superseded
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F rom a ympa h i c an d in r ing l c ur on G org
M a cd onal d giv n by W S la d E q
h H a ing
L agu of P rogr iv Though in J un 9 9
1
t
s
et
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e
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te est
e,
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ess
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1
78
s
t
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at
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e
e
e
st
s
F rien d l y F a c e s
beatitude of other kind F irst uplift your fallen
brother or sister socially moral ly physical ly
transform the reprobate and the street -walker into
decent men and women before trying to turn
them into s aints
D on t ask your discharge d prisoner to pray
before you fil l hi s belly is a S alvationist ma x im
a highly suggestive commen t on the great
General s career
George M acdonal d s teaching is not onl y nebu
lous i t savours of over muchnes s and religio s i t y
Here as elsewhere he faile d to draw the mean to
bear in mind S chiller s gol den rule
The secret
of l iterature is to know what to l eave out
There are nevertheless things of his that wil l
remain maybe an early story or two certainly
some Short poems Who having once heard can
forget the music and wisdom of the fol lowing
lines
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hou hy v iol
P rfum affor d
O r no o d our will hou g
F rom i li l hoar d
V ex
not
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t
t
et
to
e
,
t
ts
tt
et
e
the much -admired little poem Baby
is neither good poetry nor insight Alas ! woul d
P e r c o n tra ,
.
I 80
G eorge M a cd on a l d
that a mere fraction of
true !
“
t he
final verse were
how d i d y ou c om
y ou d ar ?
G o d ho u gh abou y o u an d I am h r
B ut
e
t
t
t
to
,
us ,
e
so
e e
’
.
Coul d a cynic have written anything le s s war
ranted by e x perience
A swee t singer and a guileless engaging per
s on a li t y all who knew George M acdonal d love d
him and al l somehow unders t ood the pathos of
hi s life of that unutterably sa d yet resigned
verdic t on himsel f and his career
I have never
been able t o do my best
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181
GE N E
RA L
—A C H ARA C T E R
B OOT H
S KE T C H
H U MA N I TY
lost it s title —deeds and M on t esquieu
found then was writ t en of the author of the
Es p ri t d e s L o i s
I thought that the same might
be sai d of General B ooth on the sth of July
1 90 4 and as I gazed on the tens upon tens of
thousands of S alvationists making the grounds of
the Crystal Palace black all swayed by a word
from their leader I said General there are two
men you remind me of in your power o f organisa
—
tion and command of men v iz Ignatius Loyola
and Napoleon
The veteran leader did n ot
deny the soft impeachment Truly after that
plea s ant tea in the club rooms the spectacle
was one t o move the coldest N ot a policeman
could be seen amid t hose seething multitudes
Not a rough gesture not an unseemly word met
eye or ear N o sanctimoniousness characterise d the
great Arm y either not a trace of the conventicle
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1 85
F ri e n d l y F a c e s
wha t struck the spectator was the robust honest
good humoure d spirit of both men and women
— truly a host of which England coul d be
proud !
The absence of police and of any approach t o
ro ys t e rou s n e s s was o f course attributable to the
General s order F or one day not a Singl e drop
of beer wine or spirits was sold on the premises
of the glass palace
The final muster the massing of bands and
battalions the cheers that rose up as t he General
in a motor car was wheeled to t he stand were
things not to be forgotten Then the waves
—
rather billows o i sound that rose up from the
forty nine bands ! Wha t pen can give any idea
?
of these
General B oo t h has taken to hear t
S hakespeare s lines
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The
man ha
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ha s
no mu i c in
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his
s
oul
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etc.
M en and women must have e x citement the mat t er
is to give them elevating excitemen t ; and how
the musicians gathere d from the four quarters of
—
the globe enj oyed themselves their audience
also ! M any of the S alvationists were country
folks who with their families had come from
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1 86
F ri e n d l y F a c e s
ashen pal lor the t al l attenuated figure lethargic
in its movements Quietly too unemotionally
he will chat for a while on his own subj ect The
listener is almost ready to conclude that t his i n
domi t able fighter has become quiescent tha t his
energies are fairly spent ; b u t let some poin t o f
vital in t erest be touched upon then his face ligh t s
up his eyes kindle his limbs lose their limpness
hi s voice becomes resonant full of tone thoughts
that breathe and words that burn hold his
audience spel l bound The startlingly pi c t u r
esque and original costume too—braide d coat
—
and red j ersey well s e t off a figure Rem
brandt woul d have delighted to immor t alise on
canvas
I n language every word of which tel ls the
General will recount some marvellous e x perience
or illustrate his methods by some homely but
striking figure And whether it is the evangelist
or the social reformer who come s to the fore one
is s t ruck by his knowledge of human nature
his keen insight into the springs of human
action
H ere is an instance The subj ect of be t ting
was t ouche d upon
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1 88
G ener a l B oo t h
Now sai d General Booth take a m an who
has only one shilling in the world That shilling
he bets upon a horse and loses He gets another
shilling bets again a n d again loses But the
excitement is worth more to him than the money
P eople must have excitement
M usic is a form of e x citement that replaces
betting in t he S alvation Army ; and there is no
doubt that the part played by music in the work
of social regeneration is enormous for we must
remember that General Booth s forces are by no
means a merely preaching body The plan is
not to put new wine into ol d bottles S alva
tion by the Army is two -fold social as wel l as
religious The body is thought of as wel l as the
soul
The point is this said General Booth after
narrating some of his extraordinary experiences
among the vagrant and criminal classes
What
we have to do in dealing with these poor creatures
is to make them understand that we love them
Cruel debauched drunken foul mouthed v e r
minous they must be brought to understand that
we love them
Then you do not consider any class of human
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1 89
,
F rien d l y F a c e s
beings utterly hopeless ? I asked The answer
No followed by a passionate
wa s an emphatic
appeal to all present on behal f o f the sel f
abandoned an d despairing
And as I hearkened to that ol d man elo
quent and watched his thin worn features
aglow with the enthusiasm of pity and his eyes
fire d with apostolic fervour I began t o compre
—
hend his succe s s i n one sense a stupendous
success
Wherever the English tongue is spoken in the
farthermost corners of the globe the S alvation
barracks are now to be found rallying point o f
the Anglo S axon race haven of rest to the exile
and the wanderer connecting l ink be t ween the
motherland and her scattere d children No
other country has anyth i ng like it ; no fo rmer
civilisation c an show its counterpart By the si de
of this astounding organisation all other schemes
and systems having similar aims Sink into com
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v
p
i n s ign i fi c an c e
.
Yet not s o many years ago one of the acutes t
intellects of our time devoted newspaper columns
to satire on what he chose to cal l corybantic
Christianity
The Hanging Committee of the
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1 90
F rien d l y F a c e s
In rna ional H a d q uar r Lon d on
te
t
te
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s,
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Mi
B ham -E d war d
V illa J ulia
H a t ing
ss
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et
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EC
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5th Ap ri l,
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D E AR MA D AM
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,
M any thanks for your kind remembrance
and goo d wishes received on my birthday
The past year has been one o f trouble but
with gratitude to my H eavenly F ather I find
mysel f with a measure o f vigour at the beginning
o f a new one and full of hope that I Shal l be able
to fill it up with work honouring to my M aster
and profitable to my generation
Grateful for your continued interest in the
work I am t rying to do
B elieve me
Yours sincerely
W ILLI AM B OO T H
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How good of you to keep me in remembrance
M ay the best blessings of Heaven be with you
I have been v e ry poorly but am better praise
God
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192
,
XIV
VI
D I TA N T U M C H A R LE S
D I C KE N S
F rien d l y F a c e s
one of ourselves familiar in his walks to most
Londoners my memory goes far very far back
I t was in the summer of 1 8 5 1 when j ust fifteen
that I heard him read the story of littl e E m ly
from D a v i d C o pp e rfi e ld at S t J ames s Hall
F ifteen is not a very impressionable age and the
marvel s of London being Visite d by a country girl
for the first time somewhat dwarfe d this event
by comparison s ay to M adame Tussaud s Wax
works the sight of the young Queen opening
P arliament or the fireworks at V auxhall
M ore
over the man whose name has long been a house
hol d word throughout the entire civilise d worl d
was as yet only the most popular the most
belove d of English story -tellers H ere I will
quote an apropos saying of a homely ol d aunt
concerning a certain sister -i n -law who was weep
ing and wailing over the loss of a husband she
had nagge d at t hroughout we dde d life
Ah my dear said this homely observer
one must die to become a darling
S o it is with mighty spirits D eath and
Time only accord a man his place among the
immortal s
When with other young folks I sat through
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1 96
V i d i T an t u m
—
Charle s Di c ken s
Dickens s most moving selections I do not
remember being particularly stirre d by the story
i t sel f We do not easily weep over dramatic
recitals at fifteen The spel l cast upon the
hushed audience the a ffl at u s of genius the com
m u n i c at i on of the reader s passion to his l iste n ers
the overmastering power of a mighty spirit who
was ye t a mere mortal with ourselves— these were
the impressions which I carrie d away And I
have a V ery clear memory of Dickens as he
appeared ; the commanding b u t rat her dandyish
figure then in hi s Splendid prime wearing black
velvet much befrilled Shirt -front and sparkling
diamond pin studs and rings Never di d any
man pay more attention to his personal appear
a n ce upon such occasions ; and might not such
dandyism be a kind of asser t ion a protest against
that wretched chil dhoo d to which he never
recurre d in speech but which must have been ever
present with him and is immortalised in D a v i d
Co pp e rfi e ld ? P erhaps also the diamonds gave
him pleasure for Dickens was no aesthete
Human l ife stood to him for Art did duty for
Art Literature S cience and the rest But neither
velve t coat frilled Shirt front nor sparkling
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F ri e n d l y F a c e s
j ewel s coul d detract from the force and com
I t was sai d of
m an di n gn e s s o f his presence
Burns that he possessed eyes of superlative
brilliance and beauty N ever folks said had been
seen such glorious e v es With D ickens it must
have been the same his eyes matching B urn s s
I well remember the piercing glance he bestowed
upon some heavy footed late comers And it is
recorde d that during his lecturing tour in America
a look from him transfixed a huge audience
thereby saving hundre ds of lives The globe of a
gas -burner had fal len with a crash on to the plat
form ; the folks rose in a mass for a stampede
when D ickens remaining motionless mesmerised
the crowd with a fixed stare ; then finding that
he had awe d every one he quietly resume d his
reading The incident is recorde d in F ors t e r s
delightful biography
H ow different was the D ickens of 1 8 5 1 to that
of l ater portraits I n those early days of triumph
upon triumph of fame and wealth s o rapidly
acquire d as to outdo the history of Walter S cott
he had not the lines grey hair and prematurely
aged look of later readings I rej oice at having
gaze d on this giant of letters ere time had dealt
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1 98
F rien d l y F a c e s
memory of personal as wel l as of intel lectual
kingship
I never behel d him again for my early visits
to London were few and far between ; but how
well do I remember the I o th of June 1 8 7 0 ! I
was then living in a littl e street at the back of the
H igh S treet Kensington and had left home for
the purpose of making some purchases The firs t
sh
Op I en t ere d was that of a stationer ; on stating
my wants the shopman l ooked at me blankly and
without taking any notice whatever of my request
said in a broken and almos t reproachful voice as
if Shocke d at my look of unconcern
Dickens is dead
Never shal l I forget that day A great hush
seeme d to have fall en over the city I n the streets
Shops gardens in public conveyances people
coul d talk of nothing else As M r J ustin
Mac art hy writes in his H i s to ry of o u r o wn Ti m e s
M en s minds were suddenly turne d away from
though t of political controversy to a coun t ry
house near the Gad s Hill of S hakespeare where
the most popular author of his day was lying dead
The news brought a pang as of personal sorrow
Dickens was n o t of an
i n t o a l m os t eve ry home
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200
—
Charle s
V i d i T an t u m
Di c ken s
age to die ; he had scarcely passed his prime not
being far in his fi ft y ninth year N o author of
his own time came near him in popularity To
an immense number of men and women he stood
for li t era t ure ; t o not a few his cheery teaching
was s ufli c i e n t a s philosophy and even as religion
Londoners were familiar with Dickens s personal
appearance as wel l as his writings and certain
L ondon s t ree t s did not seem quite the same when
his striking face and energetic movements coul d
be seen t here no more I t is likely that he over
w orke d his e x uberant vital energy and his superb
resources of physical health and animal spirits
H e was buried in Westminst er Abbey ; the
national cemetery claimed him
Writing to Charles E l iot Norton from Avignon
in J une 1 8 7 0
S M il l added The deat h of
D ickens is indeed like a personal loss to those
who only knew him by his writings
It was really wonderful that Dickens s animal
spirits and health of mind did n ot fail him when
we consider the terrible experiences of his early
life and af t er domes t ic disquie t udes His
marrie d life if to u se his own words regarding
Mr an d M rs Wil fer in Ou r Mu tu a l Fri e n d it
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20 1
F rien d l y F a c e s
did not go to the tune of the Dead M arch in
F ireside incompatibilities
Sau l w a s not happy
doubtless account for the long catalogue of nag
—
ging worser halves in his novel s Mrs Wil fer
the Ipswich magistrate s wife and the rest
I will now turn to quite another feature in
—
D ickens lore one not very generally realised
We hear a good deal about the E ntente Cordiale
now a days and doubtless politics and writers of
the last thirty years have helped tow ards such an
understanding Dickens I am almost tempte d to
cal l the foremost factor in Anglo F rench friend
li n e s s
N o E nglish author not S hakespeare him
self is hal f s o dear to F rench readers Trans
lated again and again his works are the j oy
not only of literary folks but of the masses A
volume of favourite scene s was brought out not
long ago I know more than one F rench admirer
who coul d pass a severe e x amination in his works
Here is a sto ry bearing out this assertion I had
it from the lips of a F rench General of high
position who knows his Dickens in excellen t
t ranslations as he knows his military code
When I was in garrison at Rouen many years
ago (this Woul d be about thirty years back he
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F rien d l y F a c e s
I n F rench garrison and public l ibraries trans
lat io n s of Dickens are always found twenty to
one I shoul d s ay to Thackeray s masterpiece
The touchstone of genius has written a F rench
cri t ic is geniality and Dickens is above al l
things genial O ne very popular F rench novelist
Alphonse Daudet creator of the immortal brag
gart Tartarin acknowledged himsel f a disciple
of D ickens ; but his Dickens reading country
people never for a moment admit that the disciple
comes anything like up to his master
I n the person of the author of P ickwick it mav
be said that J ohn Bull is not only familiar but
belove d by our good friends and near neighbours
N ever even in S hakespeare s country writes
another F rench author has human life and
individual character been delineate d with more
breadth colour and feeling The renown in
a u urat e d by the P i c h
w
i
c h P a p e rs h
increase
d
a
s
g
with time n ot only in England but in other
coun t ries F or ourselves D ickens s personages
are familiar as our friends his scenes seem part
and parcel of our own lives
I t has been urged agains t his novel s that they
are overcharge d with sentimentality ; but as
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204
V i d i T an t u m
Charle s Di c k e n s
-
Dryden observes in his famous essa y on Dramatic
Poetry the genius of eve ry age i s di fferent
As well quarrel with the coarseness of F iel ding
The one
as with the sentimentality of Dickens !
phase as wel l as t he other were in the air when
both writers lived O f real pathos without a
touch of sentimentality I will only note two or
three instances S earch English fiction through
and you wil l n ot find three passages a few l ines
only in each that more nearly touch the deepest
depths of human sympat hy I allude t o the tears
of D ick Swiv e lle r when learning of the
M archioness s devotion ; the meeting between
Trooper George and his mother ; and the scene
in H ard Ti m es when Louisa tries moral l y to save
her brother
I t i s of course as ever y noveli st knows much
eas ier to make readers c ry than laugh The
cheapest pathos will do the former I remember
a very young man once saying to me : What I
prefer in novel s are death -bed scenes M y young
friend s taste c an be gratifie d at very trifling
labour to novelists Death -be d scenes for
uncritical readers can be had like Gilbert and
S ullivan s dukes at three a penny R eal humour
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2 05
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F rien d l y
Fa c e s
true pathos are the rarest of rare literary gifts ;
and here Dickens reigns supreme Turveydrop
making an elaborate toilet because he feel s it his
duty to show himsel f ; or simple P ickwick when
consulte d by his friend at the I pswich el ection
telling him to Shout with the crowd But if there
are two crowds ?
Then shout with the big
gest
The I f threepence is not respectable
what is ? of the itinerant showman ; h0w delicious
are such touches hundre ds thousands of them
scattere d through his pages !
And throughout alike in the humorous as well
as in the pathetic scenes ever runs a vein of
humanity and P uri t anism the term use d here by
me in it s highes t sense N o tain t e d money passe d
those hands N o l ine coul d reproach him in his
later years except perhaps his ill treatment of
ol d maids and M ethodists s o called Not for a
Singl e momen t were fame and fortune sought by
bemired ways H e live d in the open and wrote
al ike for young and ol d for wise and simple
Dickens s gallery of feminine portraits has
often been arraigned An amateur critic once
remarked to me sadly t hat there were no good
women in D ickens s novels
M y dear sir I
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Frien d l y F a c e s
sympathy a touch of kinship with those beyond
the pale and who are alike the curse and most
often the victims of our social systems
I t is the fashion now a days to smile at the once
much bewept story of Dora the chil d -wife But
Dora has only submitte d to the fate of obsolete
heroines from F i e ldi n g s S ophia who blushingly
simpere d out : I ndee d M r J ones I must leave
—
ou
to name the day
J ane Austen s M iss
y
Bennetts who felt life a burden when the officers
quitted their town— Trol lope s Lily D ale who
took to her be d when j ilted by a cad— down to
—
others of the same category The type we will
hope s o— has die d out ; but does that fact in the
slightest degree a ffect the immortality of the por
traits ? Poor silly little Dora lives as lives
S hakespeare s equally Silly Hel ena who hunted
down Bertram and marrie d him wretched man
wil ly n illy
Nothing is great that is not true
wrote Lessing the greatest German critic ; and the
delineation of Dora is great because it is tru e
—
There is one class of E nglish peop le that
perhaps the most solid the most important and
certainly yiel ding t o none in high moral tone and
dignity which this sovereign na t ure and master
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2 08
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V i d i Tan t u m
Charle s Di c ken s
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mind whol ly failed to understand Dickens
utterly misread Nonconformity I nheritor as he
—
may be cal led of P uritanism s o pure are his
novels that they may be put into the hands of
boys and girls— he yet rendere d no homage to the
Nonconformist conscience The St iggin s e s and
the Chadb an ds in his eyes represente d what is now
the pith alike spiritual moral and intellectual
of our nation But again to quote Dryden no
man c an resist the spirit of his age ; and he was a
contemporary of S ydney S mith whose scurrilous
essay on M ethodism ought to be confiscated And
did not that good woman and e x alted lady who
occupie d the English throne for Sixty years and
whose le t ters have been lately published write in
disma y A dissenter in Parliament !
One or two remarks only I wil l make on hi s
works considere d purely from the literary point
of View I t is sometimes urge d that Dickens had
no style B ut for what reason in Heaven s name
did he want style ? Did S cott did Balzac wan t
style ? A S said Bu ffon the grea t naturalist a
hundre d and fifty year s ago
S tyle i s the man himsel f
Coul d all the sty lists English l iterature boasts
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209
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J
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L V
L L
J
of from S wift Addison S teele M acaulay de
Quincy down to the superfine P aters of our own
day have taught Dickens anything ? The smal ler
litera ry fry have nee d of such masters ; for the
giants the cross row and the Bible amply s u fli c e
F or instance coul d that appeal of Louisa to her
guilt y brother be improve d by living writers o f
goo d prose ? Coul d the ablest critic add alter
or remove a word ?
Di fferentiation in talk is one of the highest and
rarest attainmen t s in fiction The late S amuel
B ran dra m use d to recite from memory many of
S hakespeare s plays never naming the various
interlocutors The speech of each proclaime d
one and al l N ow if any one were to take up one
of D ickens s masterpieces say P i c /ewi c h or
N i c ho las N i c kle by and read a page of conversa
tion who woul d be in doubt as to the i dentity of
the Speakers ? J ingle is always J ingle ; M icawber
is alwa y s M icawber ; the inimitable Turveydrop is
ever Turveydrop We c an no more confuse them
than we coul d have confuse d Haml et and
P olonius Brutus and Cassius at a B ran dram
recital
That novelist whose characters are not
thus di fferentiate d has faile d in one perhaps the
first essential of a story —
teller
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2 10
,
F rien d l y F a c e s
E c ap
h r ill
S om proof h ing r prop r lif w n a h
T h lif hi
ong x hi b i ; hi a h a h
To ha ; a pa ion an d a knowl d g far
Tran c n d ing h maj i c h y
S moul d r d hi la y w b an pi o d
I
h b ar d
li f
s
t
e
e
e
s
t
n
st
e
’
s
e
t
ts
e
t
;
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s
est
e
ut
as
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as
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e
t
t
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e
ese ,
as
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ss
e
e e
S
s
s
t
t
e
t
es
t
a re ,
e
e
s
e
”
.
And nothing in its way can be finer than this
man s career ; his fearful childhood his troubled
domesticities being overmastere d by manly c he e ri
ness S ome of the letters to his son Henry when
a student at one of the universities afford nobl e
lessons to the young ; whilst for his compeers he
had ever an uplifting supporting word To a
friend under cruel bereavement he wrote after
a ffectionate words of condolence
We must fil l
up the ranks and march on — march on as he
had ever done himsel f through days alike evil
and good in the paths of high endeavour n u
swerving integrity and fellowship with humanity
the l east of whom was to him a brother or a sister
I add that to the M aster of English fiction I
owe early encouragement I n my girlhood he
accepte d for A ll the Y e ar R o u n d my narrative
poem
The Gol den Bee now include d in
Anthologies of our Council S chool s and many
others
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212
XV
G R A N DE
M M E (B L A N C )
.
TH
DA M E
.
B EN TZ O N
F rien d l y F a c e s
English and American trippers find their way to
M eudon B el levue for the sake of the wonderful
panorama obtained from its restaurant but during
several soj ourns at the historic M eudon I never
remember to have encountered a single tourist
Hither with her maid came the ever busy con
tributor to t he R e v u e d e s D e u x M o n d e s during the
long vacation We lodged together in a ladies
school ; e x cept for ourselves and sometimes one
or two o t her boarders tenantless at this time of
t he year
M adame Th B e n t z o n would be busily writing
til l the mid -day collation ; that over and a littl e
rest taken by us both we spent the remainder
of the day together s t rolling abroad calling on
neighbours taki n g tea in the garden from which
we behel d Paris spread before us as a map — and
chat ting always ! It was not a perpetual duo
logue for the gra n d e d a m e s friends were legion
an d one or two generally droppe d in to tea But
for hours and hours I often enj oyed the privilege
e
of a t t e a tet e listening delightedly to remi
n i sc e n c e
criticism and anecdote every phrase
utt ered in exquisite F rench and in a soft melodic
untiring voice
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216
,
U ne
G ran d e Dame
Think of thus hearing one who had been George
S and s guests at Nohant who had met F laubert
who knew Napoleon I I I as few ou t siders knew
him and to come to recent times who had visited
Tolstoi in his Russian home !
But wholly apart from such glamour and speak
S
in g not of fascinating talkers how true are
M ill s remarks on F rench speech generally ! I n
his recently publishe d and deeply interesting
Correspondence he dilates on the charm— the
—
habitual charm o f conversation in F rance and
which is not only charac t eristic of one class but
of all O f all social accomplishments in F rance
s peech bears the palm
—
M adame Th B e n t z on I ever addressed her
by the familiar n o m d e p lu m e— has been aptly
charac t erised as u n e gran d e da m e This She was
indeed one o f the last gra n d es d am e s of t he
nineteenth century At the time of our M eudon
rencon t res She had passe d her S i xt i eth year an d
was already in failing health Our acquaintance
had ripened into friendship twenty fi v e years
before but if the handsome vivacious much
sought -after P arisian hostess of the Avenue V ictor
Hugo was hardly recal led by the holiday com
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21
7
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F rien d l y F a c e s
panion of the P ension S ainte M arie added dig
swee
ness
and
a
most
communicative
sense
t
n it
y
of composure more t han atoned for vanishe d
spirit and beauty
H er life had been one of conflict and u n in t e r
mittent literary effort M arried at fif t een a
mo t her twelve months later and oblige d to seek
divorce soon after the birth of her child proudly
conscientiously and with quiet but highly honour
able recognition s he had lived by the pen
Th B e n t z on m us t also be enrolle d among t he
pioneers With her great forerunner M adame
de S ta el she was a literary internationalist ; and
having a t tained the enviable position of con
tribu t or to the R e v u e d es D e u x Mo n d es She in t ro
du c e d O uida Bret Harte and other E nglish and
Transa t lantic writers t o the F rench public F or
American litera t ure and the American people She
e n ter t aine d enthusiastic admiration and l iking
M ore t han once She visited the Unite d S t ates and
Canada such soj ourns supplying the material for
volumes if not profound or lastingly valuable
welcome an d fructifying in their da y Her
American friends were legion and by the best
beloved of these She was tended at the las t
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218
F rien d l y F a c e s
date as the arrival of Z acch aeus the publican in
the heart of Gascony ! Afterwards canonised as
S aint R ocamadour his Shrine is visited by thou
sands o f pilgrims yearly in that most won derful
little town
An event of such kind for the lady teachers
of S acré Coeur woul d naturally eclipse Duke
William s raid with his sixty thousand fi lib u st e rs
half a century later ; apropos of which a F rench
wit once remarke d to me
How y our gen t ry c an ever boast of coming in
with the Conqueror is a perpetual puzzle to us
over here seeing that he was a brigand leading
the scum of Europe !
A devout Catholic in political questions like
her friend M Bruneti ere a consistent reaction
ary M adame B e n t z on had ever the courage of her
opinions The following story here s e t down
word for word as related to me by herself is
highly characteri s tic both of the narra t or and one
of her great gods
After a long conversation with Tol stoi She
said
he paused and looking at me pene
t rat i n gly asked
M adame B e n t z o n tell me have
you the courage to avow yourself a believing
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2 20
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U n e Gran d e Dam e
Catholic
I also paused But I could not tell
a lie
I am I answere d
F rom that moment hi s look voice and whole
attitude changed towards me I felt that I had
l ost caste in his eyes that he no longer regarded
me as one to whom he coul d talk freely
Co n s tan c e perhaps her best -known novel
shows the unswerving sacerdotalism of this warm
hearted generous woman F or her divergences
of political and religious belief were so many
fi x ed principles She never allowed them to inter
fere with affectionate intercourse and even closest
friendship The heroine of the above name d
story throws aside love happiness and i s also
prepared to fling morality to the wind s rather
than wed an honourable man who without lapse
of his own i s divorced F urthermore she offers
to live with him as hi s mistress and thus become
the mother of illegitimate chil dren b u t for the
scruples of her suitor and the counsels— mark the
inconsist ency —o f a P rotestant pastor to whom
She goes for advice would have taken such a
step I n the eyes of Constance V idal— that is to
—
say of M adame Th B e n t z on a V atican rescript
was the sole guide of conscience
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22 1
Frien d l y Fa c e s
To a popular reprint of this story issue d fifteen
years after its appearance in the R e v u e d e s D e u x
M on d e s M Bruneti ere wrote a long preface his
introduction being not only a bi t of F rench as
perhaps only that great critic would write it but
at t he same time as delightful a tribute as ever
woman received from the other s e x
F ormed
in the school of la b o n n e da m e d e N o han t he
writes y ou have taken to heart George S and s
words to Gustave F laubert : We must not write
for twenty readers for three t housand or for a
hundred thousand W e m u s t wri t e f or e v e ry o n e
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who
c a n re a d a n d
who
c an
p r fi t by
o
a
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g
bo o/
e
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”
This dear madame is what you have done
A great novelist M adame Th B e n t z on was not
and no author was ever more conscious of per
sonal limitations or more j udicial when passing
verdic t on sel f Nor was any novelist ever more
alert to admire those essentials of fiction She
lacke d hersel f namely v e rv e and originality I t
is as an interpreter of exotics the critic and trans
lator of Anglo S axon imaginative literature that
she wil l ever be hel d in honour As a pioneer in
this fiel d the field of peace and internationalisa
tion her life work has indeed been invaluable
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2 22
Fr i en d l y Fa c e s
in an impersonal sense every corner recalling the
great past of M eudon— were not the only things
to remember
M adame Th B e n t z o n like al l gifte d peopl e
carried her atmosphere with her every day being
marke d by social intercourse alike music and the
arts being represented in these most genial and
informal gatherings
E specially on S unday afternoo n s woul d the
little lawn overlooking all P aris become animated
F riends woul d drop in from P aris neighbours
from the other M e n dons the alfresco five o clock
tea sometimes winding up with music and sing
ing indoors During t he vacation a young
American lady an accomp lishe d musician had
supplie d a grand piano her own performances
and those of an equal ly accomplishe d vocalist— a
young Belgian diplomat— making up a charming
programme
We had also for neighbours t wo sculptors :
the world famous Rodin for whose studio my
ho s t ess possessed the open sesame and the late
eminent Gustave Cra n k whose noble statue of
Coligny is one of the finest modern monumen t s
that n ow adorn P aris M Crau k died a year af t er
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2 24
Une
G ran d e Dame
my last M eudon visit that is t o say in 1 9 0 6
and his appreciative townsfolk have splendidly
house d a collection o f their sculptor s works The
M usée Crank does honour to Lille no great manu
f a c t u ri n g centre in F rance surpassing it in the
richness and number of its local art collections
M Cra n k s studio I s aw in P aris M Rodin s
al so ; the former indeed never worke d at home ;
but besides his M eudon studio his neighbour that
whol ly modern and tremendously busy and
—
creative artist suitable impersonation of his own
P e n s eu r— has two P arisian studios both sights to
s e e and to remember
B ut i f a Titan in art as a man M Rodin is
Simplicity and naturalness p e rs on ifi e d— no for
overpowering airs about this great genius
m i dably—
no mystifying hauteur or aloofness
N othing coul d be more unaffecte d and cordial
than his reception of my introducer a lady and
ol d American friend ; but I must begin at the
beginning
An appointment had been made
several days beforehand and knowing the sculp
tor s exactitude to s ay nothing of courtliness what
was M iss S s surprise to find the two big studios
empty untenanted save by dozens scores of
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2 25
F rien d l y F a c e s
works in marble and plaster M Rodin the
porter explained had hurried out an hour before
leaving no message
F eeling sure of his speedy return we wandere d
at will among the somewha t eerie people crowding
the two l on g lofty studios ; here admiring the
bust of some lovely American there the half
fi n i s he d figure of the newly born awakening Eve
on every side daring and highly original creations
What a contrast moreover to the traditional
classicism of M Cra n k ! Little wonder that the
two neighbours failed to appreciate each other s
work !
Then in order to refresh our eyes we strolled
outside M Rodin having secured not only twin
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studios but a bit of wild garden turf Shepherd s
purse daisies and trees in mid P aris And whilst
strolling up and down and admiring flowers
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weeds and welcome umbrage for the day was
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sultry in walked M Rodin
Excuse me ladies he said after cordial
b u t a sale of curios was j ust
handshakes
taking place an obj ect I had s e t my mind upon
possessing was to be put up ; hoping to be back in
time for your visit I rushed off to the sale room
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2 26
F rien d l y F a c e s
I am bound to M eudon he said and shall
be delighte d to accompany madame
Which he did obligingly carrying my cloak and
chatting all the while
I am M Rodin s secretary he proudly i n
formed me before we quitted company The
youthful secretary had perh aps acquire d that
charming urbanity and help fulness from his em
ployer An English lad might have felt the same
willingness to help a strande d F renchwoman but
woul d shyly hesitate
Yet another year— 1 90 5— I re -V isited M eudon
this time for a day only a last full and m e m or
abl e day F or some time my frien d had been
in very parl ous health but She was still her
ol d sel f and stil l at work Amongst other
topics we discussed Gresset whose monumental
tablet I had j ust before inspecte d in Amiens
cathedral S he brought out a delightful little
edition o f the unhappy humourist and made
me read his inimitable L u trin V i v a n t then
talked of the admirabl e and s o modern play
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M e c ha n t
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At parting s he put the two volumes in my hand
saying
228
,
G ran d e D a m e
Une
Take these with you and if you do not find
me nex t year keep them as a souvenir
A S we al l know Gresset was hounded down by
the sacerdotalists on account of his immortal
V e rt V e rt published in 1 7 3 3 when a student at
a Jesuit col lege Quitting the habit later he
live d in the worl d throwing off one brilliant piece
after another finally falling under the influence
of an arch obscurantist 3 Bishop of Amiens ; he
publicly repudiate d all his printe d works burnt
those in manuscript and die d in the odour of
sanctity
M adame Th B e n t z o n s little volumes bound in
leather with re d edges and having what look like
royal book plates without motto were published
by E douard Ke lm arn e c h Londres
at
that time V e rt V e rt being tabooed in F rance
A fe w months after that S eptember Visit Th
B e n t z on died in 1 9 0 6 having receive d the Legion
of Honour as She Sadly said to adorn my
co ffi n !
The tardigrade recognition however
gave pleasure and especially to her friends
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229
XV I
A
G
R OU P
R
OF F E N C H
RI END S
F
—for
FO N DLY
cherished little Gemeaux
so
many years holiday home of its E nglish chronicler
an idlesse al l the day amid bucolic scenes and
dear but foreign friends their foreignness l ending
romance and charm
I t is j ust upon a generation ago Since that
Chinese wall the F rench dwelling here yiel de d
to B ri t annic intrusion Gemeaux to day appears
like a dream s o much having happene d since
those far off experiences The fi ft e e n —year old
lad who during two wet days fast as tongue
could read aloud novels for the amusement of his
grandmother and her guest is now a long estab
li s he d advocate
My B ernard is j ust preparing
for his bac c a lau re a t and his brothers are fas t
growing up he wrote to me the other day The
first and second cousin s who dance d together on
S unday evenings h ave all married and gone their
separa t e ways ; the ranks of their parents have
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23 3
F rien d l y F a c e s
been much thinned whilst the earl ier generation
has entirely passed away D oubtless the place
itsel f and in some respects the inhabitan t s
remain W hat it was in the opening years of the
Third Republic F rench vil lages no more than
F rench in t eriors give way to love of change O ur
neighbours however intellectually fastidious are
—
n ot
an expensive people the worst machines
indeed ever invented in the worl d for spending
money wrote the original and witty M De m o liu s
The fine ol d church neglecte d alike without
and within the substantially built houses of
bourgeoisie and small vintager s o ou t of da t e as
to convenience and accommodation the furniture
and fittings deemed good enough for succes
sive genera t ions the s t ock —stil l standards mental
material and social al l illustrated a spirit of con
s e rv at i s m here and there in F rance proof agains t
innova t ion
I n his work L En e rgi e Fran cais e M Hano t au x
somewhat paradoxical ly describes nineteenth
century L aon the dead alive little city with the
superb cathe dral familiar to many S wiss bound
travel lers The historian s picture of society here
recalls B al zac s immo rtal scene The fo s silised
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23 4
F rien d l y F a c e s
—
i
l
his hero writes from P icardy
C
r 1 7 20 1
Civility is ve ry much in use in F rance and
especially to strangers
But the gist of civility with our neighbours lies
in the fact that as shoul d charity do it begins at
home N othing more struck me during what I
will call my F rench novitiate than this point To
Defoe s sentence above cited I Shoul d add
and
to seniority
The respect paid to age I notice d
in all classes even a rustic imp in sabots baring
his head be fore his grandmother
I n N adau d s famous ballad
Les Trois
Hussars one of the trio on coming within sight
of his native village for a holiday learns that his
l ove is dead Renouncing furlough he turns
back C harging a messenger to excuse himsel f to
his mother c h p au b s i e hat in hand The
touch i s highly characteristic
M anual s of
eti q uette had appeared in F rance long before
Antoine de Co u rt in s Trai te d e Ci ili te 1 6 7 1
P oliteness good manners etiquette have for
centuries formed a very important branch of
F rench education I n the collective circl e at
Gemeaux rules of precedence were as strictly
observed as in diplomatic receptions To our
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236
A G ro u p o f F ren c h F rien d s
own free and easy rough and ready selves the
minuti ae observed among my friends woul d appear
something more than superfluous The members
of the various families al l being related or C losel y
connected and all living within a few minutes
walk of each other used to meet after dinner for
cards dancing and chat Gloves were always
worn by the ladies upon these occasions I magine
middle class E nglish grandmothers and aunts
putting on gloves before cal ling upon grandson
or nephew next door ! Artificial as at first sight
might appear such ceremonial I soon discovered
that it had a Vital meaning
These modest country houses containe d t wo or
three families in some cases each having separate
rooms and service the various members only
meeting in the garden or after meal s in others
grandparents an uncle or aunt making one of the
group Thus with one genial Darby and J oan
and their growing up chil dren were always settle d
for the l ong vacation both paternal and maternal
grandmothers The household of which I may
say I formed a member
was tripartite U nder
the same roof but keeping house apart lived my
hostess s s o n daughter in law and their boy
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23 7
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F rien d l y F a c e s
S haring the dowager s table and W ing of the house
’
was her widowe d son -i n law a man al most as ol d
as hersel f A third househol d consiste d of parents
and four chil dren with only the addition of the
husband s father And when October came
and the clan move d into their respective
flats at D ij on similar arrangements were main
rained
I t will easily be imagine d that only by aid of
e x treme politeness reserve and sel f control coul d
such collective groups hol d together Among
—
ourselves a dual to say nothing of a tripl e or
—
quadruple family circle woul d surely break up
in a week !
E conomy ever a predominant factor in F rench
life and ingraine d habits of restraint and courtesy
render the daily sacrifices involved possible
nay easy Concessions to independence and
privacy are more than compensate d by save d
expense one roof tree doing duty for several
families
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II
Who woul d have supposed that this tranquil
little seat of fairly distributed wealth had wit
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2 38
F rien d l y F a c e s
had ever spoken And nai vely She put the
query
Just tell me M adame l A n glais e do you
P rotestants believe in God ?
I n the circle I had j oined no P rotestant al liance
had ever occurre d within recorde d memory The
patriarchal group had kept itsel f as pure from
heretical taint as does Anglo American stock from
negro bl ood At Dij on P rotestants and Catholics
never came into social contact The theological
line of demarcation forme d a veritable equator
I must add that with regard to my hosts and
their relations and connections strictest politeness
and reserve characterise d their attitude towards
the Visitor Never once was I unpleasantly t e
minde d o f my heterodoxy not once did I hear an
il l timed remark on the subj ect Were a question
or two aske d concerning the Reforme d doctrine
and ritual it was ever from motives of curiosity
or in order to obtain information The peasant
born c u re always welcomed a chat with me and
from the same point of View To him I presente d
a study doubtless as diverting and unfamiliar as
Montesquieu s P ersian or V oltaire s Huron to the
P arisians of their period
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2 40
A G ro u p o f F ren c h F rien ds
I now reach the illustration of S tuart M ill s
text and the gist of this paper
S ome fifteen years since national archives
alike the rural and the urban were o ffi cial ly
thrown open for the purposes of research His
t ori an s were not Slow to seize such opportunities
with the result that floods of light have been she d
upon administrative and domestic annal s Now
a -days
indeed can F rench history be really
written I nert as seemed my Burgundian Village
from an intellectual point of V iew it has found
its historian B efore me lies the little work o f
a diligent and scrupulously j udicial Ge m e o i s
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U n V i lla ge B ou rgi n gn o n
s ou s
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l A n c i e n R e gi m e ,
par A Huguenin 1 89 3 each statement of fact
being gathered from the municipal archives As
we know centuries before the Revolution
Vil lagers deliberate d on local affairs voting the
communal budget electing the beadle and school
master and discussing di fferences between
seigneur and feudatory : hence the in t erest of
such records
H ere is the passage which renders M
H u gu e n in s work priceless as a contribution to
history It is cite d textually from the parchmen t s
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24 1
F rien d l y F a c e s
of the M i i or town hall in other words the
communal archives the writer being a certain
—
P ri e u r a prior stood next in dignity to an abbo t
name d Guillaume
I n the year 1 68 5 the King by his declaration
in August suppressed the edict of Nantes grante d
by his grandfather Henry the F ourth for the e x e r
cise of the Reforme d religion s o called This
declaration being registere d in the Dij on parlia
ment on F riday All S aints Day of that year I
received at Gemeau x the abj uration of twent y
seven families professing the said religion s o
cal led three hundre d persons in all
A list gives signatures to the number of fifty
four the remainder being minors the bedridden
and t he in capabl e N ow no less than three heads
of t hose houses bore the patronymic of my hosts ;
the familiar Ultramontane circle therefore of
1 8 80 had to the last member Huguenot blood
in their veins P rotestantism at Gemeaux and
throughout the neighbouring Vil lages had been
as completely stamped out as the reform of the
Hussites and Albigeois centuries before
Until that fatal action of a senile and priest
ridden despot and worn out voluptuary P rotes
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F rien d l y F a c e s
Catholic priests received S tate pay I n Algeria
the M ahommedan population was similarly
recognised Al l this has now been change d
I n the local archives j ust cited are other items
of interest B esides the wages of school -master
beadle and bell ringer the commune was obliged
to repair church presbytery and school house also
the village oven and fountains the municipal
budget amounting to five hundred and odd francs
With regard to church repairs a curious point
is mentioned The nave was kept in order by
the commune the chancel at the cost of clergy and
seignory P erhaps this fact explains the contrast
presente d by the two portions the first Showing
excessive Simplicity the latter often super
abundant decoration
Not without natural charm was this Burgundian
vil lage and its surroundings H ere is a picture
of my ol d friend s garden ; neither care nor plan
in the acre or two facing south a spontaneous
creation it seemed homely little self made E den
P ell mel l in direst yet most amicable confusion
vegetable elbowe d vegetable fruit tree hustle d
fruit tree flower pushed against flower each
nevertheless getting plenty of sun and shower
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2 44
A G ro u p o f F ren c h F rien ds
The over -full condition of this garden was due
to the fact that here one crop is never wholly
gathered before its successor is ripe W hen
grapes b egin to ripen ruby —re d gooseberries stil l
hang on the stem ; tomatoes are in full glory long
ere t he red and white currants are strippe d ; plums
greengages and peaches are in turn neglected
for the small common sun ripened grape The
flowers seeme d t o bloom Simply for their own
pleasure unplucked untende d hardly glance d at
—
roses carnations zinnias and the rest took care
of themselves from M ay til l O ct ober
But the vegetation of this supremely favoured
region requires a volume t o itsel f one district
very much resembling another W el l may the
F rench poet write of his native t e rre ge n e re u s e
!
the
generous
soil
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AN N
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S G
RA
E T -N EP H EW
[ To/a c e p
2 49
F ri e n d l y F a c e s
mayor of his native
town and ofli c i e r d e l i n s tru c ti o n p u bli q u e Our
acquaintance began under exceptional circum
stances An English novel the protagonist o f
”
which was Carl yle s Titan of Revolution had
been dramatised by a F rench enthusiast living at
R eims the first performance taking place in the
Grand Theatre of that city on F ebruary 2 8 1 8 9 8
Natural ly the novelist was present and having
l earne d that Danton s collateral descendant
woul d be there also Reims being within easy
distance of Arcis I had ensure d an introduction
F or this however there was no necessi t y
B efore the curt ain rose two figures seat e d
themselves in the dress circle near my friends
box Certain F rench callings are unmis t akably
physiognomic H ere beyond doubt was the ex
a
i
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p
x
with
him
being
his
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p
or deputy I ntroducing mysel f at the close of
the first act we immediately entered into lively
conversation
M Hippolyte S ardin coul d not be said to
have inherite d a trace of his great uncle s her
c u le an propor t ions
leonine features or voice of
thunde r
c o n s e i lle r
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A G rea
t N
ephew o f Dan t on
O f middle stature regular fea t ures and still
adhering to the whiskers of a former generation
and of the legal s t atus he was typically bour
e
i
s
o
fairly
representing
that
class
best
describe
d
g
by t he words humdrum respectability English
writers on F rench middle class life are apt to
deny its quint essential charac t eristic namely a
constant and ever wakeful regard to convention
a li t i e s
Respectability is indeed the fetish of
bourgeois F rance by the term being understood
domestic rectitude and a goodly provision laid by
for chil dren and chil dren s children
M S ardin although eminently representat ive of
a humdrum section was not himsel f common
place
F rom ordinariness he was save d by a
great tradition and he live d up to the heritage
never for a m o m e n t forge t ting that he belonged
to history
At the same time no Dan t on i s m
was affected either in speech or deportment
to him that tremendous personality remaining
historic
When in 1 8 7 1 I use d to take tea with Goethe s
daughter i n law and grandson at Weimar I heard
the German O lympian always al luded to as der
Not s o here
vater and der gross vater
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251
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F rien d l y F a c e s
Danton not my great —uncle wa s spoken of
in our many conversations
M eantime there was a comic Side to the eagerly
awaited play P rovincial Grand Theatres are not
over rich in the matter of costumes and decora t ion
What was our surprise to behold the stage Danton
in Sky blue military coat with t ails tricolour sash
—
and top boots precisely habited indeed as a
B leu in the V endean w ar ! Nor were melo
dramatic incidents without drol lery By way of
giving realistic effect an age d peasant woman
bearing seigneurial tithes in kind to the ch ateau
was accompanied by a live donkey ; no sorry
bare ribbed beast but the plumpest possible
Again a fascinating l ady of the a n c i e n re gi m e
dashes across the stage in a coach and pair of
course to be s e t upon by highwaymen Dan t on
—
the monster l proving her rescuer
Barring these trifling disenchantments M
S ardin and needless to say the author greatly
relishe d the performance M y companion s re
fl e c t i on s must have savoured of irony
As burst
upon burst of applause greeted Danton s some
what flamboyant speeches he doubtless recalled
the time when the very name was a reprobation in
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2 52
.
F rien d l y F a c e s
myself he had been for some years a widower
that it was s o On the very day o f arrival I fell
seriousl y ill and for nearly a week kept my bed
being taken the best possible care of by my
friends and an excellent m e d e c i n d e c am p agn e
no perpetual harper upon graveyard topics like
Balzac s terribly depressi n g hero but a cheery
man of the worl d who seemed t o prosper e x ceed
i n gly upon his absurdly modest fees
The j u ge d e p aix live d opposite ; fruit game
anything he coul d offer were at my disposal and
as soon as I was wel l enough his company M
S ardin woul d then drop in relieving the tedium
of bedridden hours by the sovereign reme dy for
almost al l the ills that flesh is heir to namely
conversation The Revolution D anton M adame
Roland Robespierre coul d any t opics be more
hypnotic to us two ? F or the last name d I
confess t o a qualified admiration Did not the
muse loving a v oc a t of A 1 1 3 5 nobly pl ead for the
e w and the Slave and did he not as Lord B acon
J
?
said every gentleman shoul d do love his dog
Cert ainly those chambered days savoure d of
piquancy To hol d receptions in be d like an
eighteenth century p re c i e u s e to be entertained
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2 54
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A G rea t -N ephew o f Dan t on
by a collateral descendan t of the great rev o lu
t i o n ary criticism reminiscence anecdote making
the hours fly here was a Situa t ion at least of
considerable unusualness
M Sardin s seventy and odd years had not
been entirely spent at Arcis I ci t e an amusing
story he tol d me of ol d D umas the great the
humane as Henley calls him
Whilst stationed as j u ge d e p aix at Com
i
e
n
e
he said Alexander Duma s staye d some
p g
time there in a hotel
The bargain with mine
host was this : the great romancer had be d and
board— the best of both— free and in re t urn like
Turveydrop he Showe d himself once a day
No one was permitte d to accost him as he took
his airings in the park adde d my friend he
was simply to be looked at hi s a
dmirers flocking
from far a n d near for the privilege I frequentl y
s aw him discreetly gazed at by these pilgrims
The hotel keeper doubtless was no loser as
strangers woul d naturally patronise his house
The thought occurre d to me how many humble
followers in the great man s footsteps would de
li ght e d ly accept an agreeable v i lle ggi a tu ra on the
same terms J ust think of it ! At least hal f —a
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2 55
F rien d l y
Fa c e s
guinea per day saved and by the mere grat ifi c a
tion of harmless vanity !
But most of al l we talked of D anton
S trange it is said my visitor that the very
best life as yet written of Danton shoul d be the
work of an Englishman
The speaker al lude d to the late M r A H
B e e s ly s B i o gra p hy a work now use d as a text
book i n our universities and which may be con
Among tributes receive d from
s i d e re d a classic
F rench writers was the high appreciation of M
Aulard the first authority on the Revolution
Danton entertaine d an immense admiration
for E nglish institutions and leaders of thought
There was therefore no incongruity in the fact
that his best biographer shoul d be an E nglish
man
An alliance with E ngland was the key
note o f Danton s foreign policy in
writes
the historian j ust named a policy he had i m
bib e d from M irabeau
Locke B lackstone H ume Adam S mith were
favourite authors of the great c o n v e n ti on n e l O f
high and varie d culture a devotee o f Racine
Corneil le Tasso and Ariosto our own literature
perhaps prove d the most formative influence
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2 56
F rien d l y F a c e s
—a
chil d of four when his father s head fell
quite well remembered one of these dinner parties
at which Robespierre was present The little boy
dining of course with his parents according to
F rench fashion had let fall his bread or some
other eatable Robespierre ever fastidious of
the fastidious somewha t sharply bade him
pick it up
H ere anyho w was disprove d that t errible
calumn y penned alas ! b y a really nobl e woman
N o wretched advocate more burdened with
debts than briefs whose wife declared that She
coul d not keep house without a weekly twenty
fi v e francs from her father was the advocate o f
Arcis ; instead the busy employer o f two clerks
besides his professional earnings possessing land
and funde d property to the value of several
thousand pounds Dan t on s househol d e ffects
were confiscate d after condemnation but were
restored to his family by the decree of 1 4 F loréal
an I I I and in the following year the value of his
entire estate with forfeite d interest was handed
to the children s trustees
The service of plate my host informe d me
was restored intact with the rest but u n fort un
s on
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2 58
A G reat
-
N ephew
o f D a n t on
ately little store seems to have been set by it as
such ; it was used every day and bit by bit most
of the precious pieces disappeared These are
all I have
Then t he heirlooms were replaced and another
even more treasured relic was brought out
This was a beautifully execute d miniature of
Danton presented by himself to hi s friend Brune
that heroic general s o brutal ly done to death by
royalist bravoes in the White Terror
B y the general s descendants the portrait had
been given to the family
It must not be supposed from such carelessness
with regard to the plate that Danton s sons t e
u di at e d their great father
Despite the oppro
p
b ri u m heape d upon the name they bore they
persistently defended it and in 1 8 4 6 conj ointly
publishe d a memoir opening thus : Nothing i s
dearer to us than the memory of our father Our
most ardent desire has ever been to see him
vindicated
S uch V indication neither of them lived to s e e
F ran cois Georges the younger brother died in
1 8 4 8 Antoine lived ten years longer
Both men
spent their q uiet honest lives at Arcis Realising
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2 59
F rien d l y F a c e s
their modest patrimony they here set up a
stocking manufactory
I t w as not till 1 8 8 8 tha t D anton s statue result
of a national subscription was unveile d with great
pomp and ceremony at Arcis Danton s her
r
e
e
n
c u le an figure in bronze with oratorical
p p
—
—
dicular hand to quote Walt Whitman rises
from a marble pediment ; on the north and
south sides of this are engrave d those famous
utterances that straightway became history :
,
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’
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’
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“
,
,
”
D e l au da c e
’
’
l au d ac e ,
p i
p pl
la
a n
eu
e
et
,
la P a tri e
l i n s tru c ti o n
l au dac e
de
e n c o re
’
’
es t
'
es t
le
t o u j o u rs
,
s au v e e ,
pr m i
e
A
p re
b e s oi n
du
and
’
er
de
s
.
And Since my second and last visit in 1 90 3 the
municipality have place d a memorial tablet on the
big handsome house fronting the river I t is
thus inscribed : L e c o n v e n ti o n n e l D an t o n n e
,
,
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'
,
A rc i s -s u r-A u b e le
a v ri l,
an
1
a
i
b
t
h
a
,
4
79
3 0 m a rs ,
1
7 94
o c t o b re ,
26
c e tte
1
7 59
m ais o n d u
1
,
3
m o rt le
il
avr
,
1
5
1
79
,
.
Upon this occasion the house was let I did
not again find myself in that upper chamber at
the window of which the great figure was seen by
his fellow citizens night after night before his
.
,
2 60
F rien d l y F a c e s
antagonists M adame R oland and Danton have
left descendants O f the beautiful but i m plac
able Queen o f the Gironde numerous great great
grandchildren are living The youthfu l S outh
American who was registere d a s a F rench citizen
a t his birth can boast of an unassailable claim to
such ancestry his dodecasyl labic name— Louis
Antoine Me n ue l Dacunha S ouza
may prove
less of a handicap through life than the glorious
s i x lettere d DA N T O N
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26 2
XV I I I
A NECD OTI CAL
F ri e n d l y F a c e s
immediately underneath my companions and my
own every nigh t s at S ir J oseph Hooker and a
fellow -savant L ong after the dinner -table was
cleare d— indeed till the lights were put o u t— the
learned pair animatedly and doubtless most
interestingly discusse d Darwinism U nder o t her
circumstances to play the legitimate par t of caves
dropper woul d have been delightful and mos t
instructive But a s e a l ife to the uninitiate d
induces somnolence and to this day I remember
those eager voices the recurrence of scien t ific
terms and names— mus t I confess i t ?— how in
my desperate attempts to Shut out the sounds I
wished Darwinism an d all concerned at the
bo tt om of the sea !
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M
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B
RU N E T I ER E
AT
HOM E
An audience of the late learne d editor of L a
R e v u e d e s D e ux M o n d e s was a ceremonious
affair t he sombre palatial buil ding of itself
inspiring timorous folk
I confess that it was not without awe that a few
years back I was passe d on from porter to usher
or
footman
from
usher
to
clerk
from
clerk
to
(
)
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2 66
A ne cd o t i c al
under secretary from under secretary to secre
tary al l moving on tiptoe on carpete d floors and
was finally introduce d to the editor of the greatest
review in the world M Bruneti ere s at at a large
tabl e in what was really an immense library the
wall s being lined from ceiling to floor with
volumes of the review from it s beginning t o the
latest issue Laying down his pen he received
hi s Visitor and gave a few precious minutes to a
friend s friend S light with a peculiar sensi
tive face courteous to stateliness speaking the
choicest F rench in the voice celebrated for its
power the famous critic and unrivalle d l ec t urer
left upon my mind a l asting impression
And three or four years later that wonderful
organ was gone With a wail of despair he
exclaime d to a close friend
Would that I had
lost my sight my hearing any sense but my
voice
A history of the R e v u e de s D eu x M o n d e s
woul d make a deeply in t eresting volume One
striking episod e of it s career is connec t e d with
the terrible winter of 1 8 7 0—
1
Through
those
7
tragic months whilst P aris was completely c u t off
from the outer worl d whil st rich as wel l as poor
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26 7
Frien d l y Fa c e s
ate bread compare d with which our prison loaf
were a luxury W hils t al l t he wealth of the Roth
schilds could not have purchase d a cauliflower
or a pat of fresh butter regularly as before on
t he I s t and 1 5t h of each month appeare d the
grea t R e v u e N o inciden t in t he universal
history of l i t erature is surely more remarkable
t han this
O f late years M B runeti ere had become an
obscuran t is t and under the guise of fiction 3
reactionary propaganda was carried on in his
review the l egisla t ion of the Governmen t being
s everely at t acke d This att itude seems indeed
to have warped the great critic s j udgment
Otherwis e how accoun t for that unhappy e x pres
” ?
sion o f his t he bankruptcy of science
The
bankrup t cy of science forsooth in t he da y s of
a erial t elegraphy the X -rays radium M Pas
t e u r s discovery of t he silkworm parasite threaten
in g the grea t silk indus t ry of F rance tha t
achievemen t alone enriching the na t ion by t wo
hundred mil lions sterling the sum of Bismarck s
indemnity and how many more wondrous
achievements
Le t us ho pe we may soon s e e chan g es in the
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268
A ne c d o t i c a l
greatest F rench review U ntil to -day however
the same spirit is seen in every page react ionary
an t i -progressive ultramontane doctrines being as
ever in the ascendan t
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FOX
.
As a writer in the W e s tm i n s t e r Gaz e tt e (April
ob
erves
it
is
rather
remarkable
that
the
1910
s
)
biography of a man who at one time fille d s o
prominent a posi t ion Sh oul d s o l ong have
remaine d unwritten A great Unitarian preacher
and leader a trenchant pamphleteer and orator
an ardent social reformer the whilom member for
O l dham is hardly so much as a name to the
present generation The s t ory of this sel f m ade
man and true friend of the cla s s from which he
sprang was well worth recording
There are few perhaps who can conj ure up the
figure of tha t ol d man eloquent
It was in 1 8 60 that I spent two da y s under his
roof in S ussex P lace where separated from his
wife he was living with his daughter a clever
1
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A propo of Th Lif f W
la D r G arn an d E G arn
1
te
s
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e
et t
e o
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et t :
2 69
Fox , 1 7 8 1 —
1 864 ,
Lan
e,
191 0
.
by
t he
F rien d l y F a c e s
artist and her husband F rederic Lee Bridell who
is represente d in the N ational Gal lery On arriv
ing I found a figure that forcibl y recal le d Gilray s
caricature of Gibbon so out of al l proportion were
his bo dy and lower limbs The fine head with its
long silvery Slips the brilliant black eyes
and benevolent expression soon effaced that first
impres s ion
You see I am taking my walks abroad he
said as he pace d the drawing room I think that
he sel dom went out of doors at that time Then
anxious to se t the litt le unsophisticated country
girl at c ase he talke d amusingly
I have been debating in my mind as to a n o m
d e p lu m e for a series of political papers I am
—
asked to write and at last have hit upon one The
Detonating Oyster What do you think of it ?
At dinner some dish was serve d said to be of
doubtful digestibility
N ever mind he said to me if anything
happens we will give you a Christian burial
After a game or two of backgammon came ani
mated stor y -telling Bridell — alas ! poor fellow
already in the early stages of consumption— very
dramatically repeated a tale he had heard in Italy
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270
Frien d l y F a c e s
being his coachman— but he did not do his duty
and turn the King over !
The littl e volume
H ymns and Anthems
use d in S outh P lace Chapel con t ains some beau
tiful poems by the preacher
Here i s a little psalm of life
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I
Th S ag hi c up of h mlo c k q u a ff d
A n d c alml y d rain d h f a al d raugh
S u c h pl dg d i d G r c ian ju i c giv
T o who a u gh h m how liv
II
Th Chri
in pi y a ur d
Th angui h o f H i Cro
n d ur d
S u c h pang d i d J wi h bigo y
O n H im Who augh
how di
III
M i d pri on wall h S ag c oul d ru
Tha m woul d grow mor wi an d ju
F rom Calvar y M oun h Chri c oul d
Th d awn o f immor ali y
e
e
e
s
t
e
e
e
e
s
ss
e
t
e
e
t
s
t t
t
t
.
t
st
se
e
e
e
e
en
s
.
to
e
’
.
ts tr
t us
s
e
,
s
t
’
e
.
e
e
to
ss
s
s
t
e
et
,
t
e
st
t t
st ,
e
e
e
t
on e
st
e
s
e
s
to
s a re s
.
e
t
an d know d i
h ir riumph high
an d pri c ra f ban
G o d in man !
e,
ess
e
st
e
a re
s
t
e
to
e,
t
est
st
;
see
IV
Who know liv
Th ir oul
af
P ow r ma y oppr
J u i c an d fai h
,
t
.
,
A ne cd o t i c a l
L O R D H O U GH TO N
A kind friend a poet of real feeling and spon
t an e i t y whose songs will live
a literary inter
nationali s t to whom esprit and sympathy di d duty
for kinship Lord Houghton— Dickie M ilnes as
Owen M eredith a ffectionately calle d him— was
also a wit readiest of the ready in speech
Thus a lady novelist for one of whose works he
entertaine d high admirat ion had publish e d during
hi s absence abroad a novel slightl y touching on
S ocialism M ee t ing her at George Elio t s in the
summer of 1 8 7 1 he asked
—
Wel l your last story how did it go off
Not at all well was the reply the Commune
and the incendiarie s in Pari s were against i t
Ah ! was the quick retort I underst and
Your book fel l with the Tuileries
I n the eyes of Lord Lytton D ickie M ilnes
rank position partisanship did not count The
tie that bound him to his fel low men and women
was tha t of mind and charact er A t his celebrat ed
luncheons poets novelists politicians were ever
at their best the host radiantly looking on and
listening
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2 73
,
F rien d l y
Fa c e s
S taunch in his friendship the present writer
,
owes a debt of grati t ude to Lord Houghton Her
modest tribute is paid to one who was among the
firs t according the golden gift of recognition
H is famous witticism
That branch of the
Civil S ervice calle d the Church of E ngland
should surely be foll owed by the words so
called thousands of clergymen now hol ding
preferments openly fol lowing Roman ritual and
teaching R omish dogma
.
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DR
.
M AR TI
NE
AU
lofty a moral l esson as I have ever listened
to I heard from the great Hugueno t theologian
then in his ninetieth year The occasion was a
commonplace one a mere social gathering of
U nitarian teachers and scholars by whom recita
tions were given with music at interval s D r
Mart ineau I had m e t some years at l east a
decade before bu t how little was he changed !
The commanding thoroughl y F rench face the
clear sonorous logical utterances the piercing
glance were still there And this is the upsho t
of hi s addre s s t o an audience intent upon ca t ch
As
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2 74
F rien d l y
TA
L KER S A LL
Fa c e s
E D W I N A R N O L D AN D HIS S EC O N D
FA T H ER -IN L A W W H CH A N N I N G
,
SIR
-
.
,
.
I n that choice but alas ! uncleansable pearl
As no one who
Tri s tra m Shan dy we read
knows what he is abou t in good company woul d
venture to talk al l s o no au t hor who understands
the j ust boundaries of decorum and good breeding
woul d presume to think all
Wel l I have thank God been much in good
company and have yet here and there come upon
wel l bre d folks who for the life of them coul d not
help being talkers all and although I hol d no
disparaging theories as to mere man I must
confess tha t the culprits have be longed to the
other s e x I add that the greediest mos t vora
c i o u s most speechful beings within my ken have
been men
I well remember a talking bout be t ween a poet
and a preacher S ir E dwin Arnol d and his father
i n law W H Channing which well illustrates
my theorem
Both men were personalities and l eastways in
their own day centres of thought and activity
A S highly florid editor of the D a i ly T e le grap h
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2 76
A ne cd o t i c al
and later as author of The L i ght of A s i a t he
younger man had a very large fol lowing The
el der cousin of the famous American preacher
was also on a much more limited scal e a leader
of men his leadership being spiritual only
—
D uring my brief residence in London 1 8 6 7 7 I
I used to attend his Unitarian services hel d in
an ancient red brick house H igh S treet Kensing
There on S unday mornings about fifty men
t on
and women met their place of worship being an
ol d fashione d drawing -room their only magnet
4 might al most s ay the inspira
t he en t husiasm—
Little enough of those
t ion— o f the preacher
impassione d an d improvised addresses coul d be
re t ained even by an e x cellent memory B ut a
moving and salutary impression was always
carried away F or Dr Channing s theme woul d
ever be of peace universal bro t herhood and of
a Golden Age on earth as he waxe d warm his
coun t enance wearing a look of transcenden t faith
and goodness
The two men had occasionally met in London
and they now called on me at Hastings with
benevolent in t ent What author young ol d or
middle aged does not hol d with the Wisest that
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277
,
F ri e n d l y F a c e s
prai s e is comely
They had run down from
town on purpose to discuss my la t est book
Alas ! N ot for five consecutive momen t s was
one gol den mouthed speaker al lowed to resolve
hi s chords in other words to round his periods
and complete the especial View of any question in
hand F ast as tongue coul d go flowe d S ir E dwin
Arnol d s flowe ry sentences ; equal ly fluent but
more sobered were Dr Channing s interpolations
the expansiveness and a certain nebulosity of both
speakers quite preventing their listener from
following either Perhaps indeed what both had
to s ay woul d have passe d through a sieve without
leaving much residuum behind B u t it was mort i
fyi n g all the same An hour or more of e n t hu s i
as t i c criticism an d hardly five words for t h
e b e are r
to carry away !
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278
XIX
THE Ex -E
M RE S S
P
I
E U GEN E ,
1
—
8 55 7 0
called— visited
Windsor with his S panish bride I was improving
myself in a seminary for young ladies at P eck
ham Rye The m ISt re ss wishing presumably to
inspire patriotic feelings among her boarders
also amiably enough to give them a holiday had
clo s ed school rooms on the day of the royal
and imperial sigh t -seeing at the Crystal P alace
Where we s t ood or s at awai t ing the cort eg e how
long we wai t ed and how far general expectations
concern i ng I ts splendour were realised I have
clean forgotten O f the intensely an t i c Ipat e d
and almos t countless e x citements crowded into
a school girl s long summer day al l but one are
as if they had never been completely washed
from memory
But that one
V ivid as a coruscation blinding the eyes a few
minute s ago present to my mental Vision as if
witnes s ed the day on which I write is the figure
W H E N the Third
—
Napoleon
so-
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28 1
F ri e n d l y F a c e s
o f the Empress as she flashed by F or hardly
more than a flash was the sight half a dozen royal
carriages j ogging at regulation pace along the
road before us S o near indee d were we that
the blaze of her beauty seemed to leave a trail
behind
As we fancy we stil l behol d a meteoric Spl en
dour only j us t seen a few seconds before s o that
ineffabl e loveliness lingere d when lost to View
I ne ffable is the word suggesting that feminine
paragon— the blonde S paniard— features com
ple x ion eyes touched with the gol denness of
golden hair Under such a spell who had eyes
for the matronly little lady by her Side or the
pseudo Napoleon whose face was a perpetual
mask Sitting opposite ? The E mperor s white
me t allic hue was intensified by heavy hanging
moustache and dark questioning eyes eyes ever
coas t ing round his interlocutors— to u se 3 S hake
s p e are an phrase attribute d to R
L S tevenson
as i f endeavouring t herein to read their verdic t
upon himsel f
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A hom l y S c o c hwoman who w a goo d d al of
N apol on I I I wh n in 8 6 6 h vi i d A lgi r ai d m
H i c ompl x ion for all h worl d m d ar
lik a
y
p w rp
1
e
“
s
e
t
e
e
e
sa
1
e
t
e
t e - ot
282
s
te
,
e
e
e
s s
,
w as
to
e,
e
F rien d l y F a c e s
use a hackney carriage N o b le s s e o b lige is a
motto never lost Sight of by monarchs i n v o lu n
—
One and al l per
t ari ly re t ired from business
haps the most e ffective teaching of their careers
they meet misfortune bravely
To Show
shame of face has been out of date since
S ennacherib s downfall
The Empress was soon after her arrival j oined
by the little prince and his tutor and for many
weeks the trio stayed in a cheap quiet little hotel
near the Fi shm arke t in what indee d has been
described as the Wapping end of Hastings I n
fine weather the littl e party woul d climb the E ast
Hill evidently enj oying the fine air and splendid
view N o one intruded on their privacy their
presence was considerately— or it might be from
in diffe re n c e ign o re d and on the eve of departure
t he unfortunate heir of the B onapartes visited the
mayor thanking him for the privacy thus enj oyed
The little hotel no longer exists and on the
sale of e ffects a pair of minia t ure bust s E mperor
and Empress in bronze was purchased for a few
shillings whilom gift of the latter to her host
before departure
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2 84
XX
A T R I O O F P I O N EE R S
Fri e n d l y F a c e s
V ictorian epoch memorialised within these walls
a foreign opera singer !
A benevolent admirable woman in her way was
the S wedish Nightingale and her voice was a
goodly gift of nature What tittle of a claim
in H eaven s name had J enny Lind afterwards
F rau Goldschmidt to Westminster Abbe y ?
The greatest thinker of the nineteenth century
—
one of its most illustrious novelists a poe t famous
a s those two shut out of the national Pantheon !
an alien p ri m a d o n n a being adj udged wor t hier of
place therein by sacerdotal authorities ! What
will posterity think of the anomaly ?
M y almost life long friend Rose D avenport
Hill belonged to that innumerable C lan of Hills
heade d by their C hieftain the great S ir Rowland
Without tal e are the public workers of this v e rit
able tribe and without tale — i e innumerable
are the family ramifications There are D aven
port Hills B irkbeck -Hills Berkeley -H ills also
Australian Hil ls these again subdivided by
affi x es
And one of the second dynasty herself an in
defatigable pioneer is still among us let us hope
to live yet many b e n e fi c e n t happy and beloved
,
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2 88
,
A T rio o f P ioneer s
years F lorence Davenport -Hill ( daughter of t he
wel l known eminen t Recorder of Birmingham)
will ever be remembere d as the friend and
champion of workhouse children and later on as
an active supporter of Chil dren s Courts S he
also for many years filled the office of guardian
of the poor
M y business here however is not with c on
temporaries
Her sister s work on the London S chool Board
is t oo well known to e ducationalists to nee d
recapitulation One of several women elected to
the first b ody greatly to S M ill s rej oicing (see
his recently publishe d Correspondence 2 vols
retained her seat for many years
sh
e
aiding the cause of national education with u n
failing devotion ploddingness and marvel lous t o
relate gusto !
Therein lay the gist of her career To this
enthusiast came no disillusion
The S chool
Board remaine d dear and engaging to the last
Day after d ay s he woul d s e t out from Belsize
Avenue neither hail rain snow or blow nor black
ness Tartarean damping her ardour returning t o
the seven o clock dinner as alert as when starting
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U
2 89
F rien d l y F a c e s
and ever with something piquant to relate The
humour of routine and red tape woul d be delight
fully brought out by one who nevertheless was
hersel f a routinist N o innovator no inventor
was this l oyal member ; her business as s he use d
to say was to support the policy of the Board
—
This was ever done whole heartedly and from
high standpoints
H er wit woul d occasional ly enliven very sleepy
Sittings A S She never made unnecessary speeches
She used to put a piece of knitting in her bag
plying her needles whilst listening On being
criticised for such unconventional proceeding
M iss Davenport Hill remarke d
This i s the first time that I remember hearing
o f a woman reproache d for using her tongue too
little and her hands too much
A s a constant visitor to the Brentford I ndustrial
S chools her work was more especially valuable
An d with what a glow she must have received the
many tributes from ol d boys in after years !
Not many months before her death one of these
wrote from the Colonies
You have been as a
mother to me and my star t in life and present
Coul d any fame or
wel l -being are your doing
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2 90
F rien d l y F a c e s
age E lizabeth Blackwell who began life as a
teacher of the pianoforte thereby supporting her
younger sisters coul d have made an identical
reply to Similar overtures Retiring from practice
soon after reaching her Sixtieth year s he purchased
a pretty little residence at Hastings therein enj oy
ing ease and dignity for yet another generation
N o woman of V ictoria s reign has bequeathed a
finer more practical more disinterested lesson to
her younger sisters
The wise and witty Bagshot of the W e s t
m i n s t e r Gaz e t t e lately disserte d with much finesse
and pertinence on the happy ending
F rances P ower Cobb e s life story is an illustra
tion of the felicitous d e n ou e m e n t the happy end
ing M ost of us know how She devoted herself
to the cause of helpless animals— in other words
the cause of anti -vivisection With indomitable
courage and unshaken faith s he pursue d her way
having taken to hear t the Platonic the final
—
lesson
As you properly conceive light an d
sight to be like the s u n b u t n o t to be the s u n s o
you must conceive knowledge and truth to be of
the nature of the S upreme Good but not either
the one or other of them to be that S upreme
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29 2
A T rio o f P ioneer s
Good (R e p u b li c Book V I Whewel l s Tran s la
tion) I have ever held this passage of P lato an
u nanswerable argument against vivisection in any
form
I mpaire d health loss of a beloved life -long
c ompanion diminishe d income coul d not depress
such a nature as hers but the happy ending
came welcomely al l the same
O ne morning s he opene d a letter from an u n
known solicitor saying that a deceased client like
herself an ardent anti vivisectionist had b e
a
e
h
her
a
handsome
fortune
S
o
for
the
ue
t
d
q
rest of her days not only coul d She enj oy ease
comfort and t he luxury of benevolence but also
th
e power of propaganda
The capital at her
death was willed to the cause for which she had
sacrificed s o much
Not very long before the end came I received
a n affectionate mid —
winter invitation to her Welsh
re t reat one of the many invitations alas ! most
regre t fully refused by me of late years North
Wales in the season of snowfall s ! Not even the
blazing logs and geniality of such a hostess coul d
have warme d me there in December
But how happy we shoul d have been together
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2 93
F rien d l y F a c e s
With what q uips cranks and wanton wiles should
I have been beguile d ! What interminable talks
of
ol d friends ol d travel and o f the causes so
dear to both ! And we appreciate d each other
that being once said of intercourse al l is said !
I cannot do better than precede my colophon
with this noble life -story o f the happy ending
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T H E EN D
R i ch
a rd Clay
So n s , L i m i ted , L o n d on
a nd
B u ri e d }
.
F REN C H
M EN
,
BO O KS
AN D
Wit h
W O M EN
Portrai ts
lo
6
/
ithnat te llitesc tua autl he n er r y ltitheisrary hfam e mwani llyreymeiarn ds
h
h
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h a t r e n wl ed e
f
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n
ds
Fr e n c h
h s tu d i e s c e r a e y w i d e e ld an d d ea l w it h
fr e sh an d a ttrac ti e su j e c t —
The
no on e
ago .
!
T
e
so
.
g b ook
as
.
b rig t v olu m e
g of
o
won
D a i ly C ron i c le
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.
UN F RE Q UEN TED F R A N C E
R IV E R D M E AD D W
“
BY
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U N IV ER S ITY O F C A L I FO R N IA A T L O S A N G EL ES
T H E U N IV E R S IT Y L IB R A R Y
T
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