Project Gutenberg's Notable Women Authors of the Day, by Helen C. Black
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Title: Notable Women Authors of the Day
Biographical Sketches
Author: Helen C. Black
Release Date: January 17, 2012 [EBook #38596]
Language: English
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NOTABLE WOMEN AUTHORS OF
THE DAY.
Printed at the University Press,
AND PUBLISHED BY
DAVID BRYCE AND SON, GLASGOW.
LONDON:
SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO., LTD.
NOTABLE WOMEN AUTHORS.
Notable
Women Authors
of the Day
_Biographical Sketches_
By Helen C. Black
With Portraits
Glasgow
David Bryce and Son
1893
TO MY
BELOVED AND ONLY DAUGHTER.
These sketches originally appeared as a series in the
"Lady's Pictorial" and are republished with the Editor's
kind permission.
They are now revised, enlarged and brought up to date.
Helen C. Black
CONTENTS.
_From Photographs by_ PAGE
_MRS. LYNN LINTON_, BARRAUDS Ltd., London, 1
_MRS. RIDDELL_, C. VANDYK, S. Kensington, 11
_MRS. L. B. WALFORD_, BARRAUDS Ltd., London, 26
_RHODA BROUGHTON_, BARRAUDS Ltd., London, 37
_JOHN STRANGE WINTER_, BARRAUDS Ltd., London, 45
(_MRS. ARTHUR STANNARD._)
_MRS. ALEXANDER_, ELLIOTT & FRY, London, 58
_HELEN MATHERS_, WALERY, London, 68
_FLORENCE MARRYAT_, LONDON STEREOSCOPIC CO. Ltd., 81
_MRS. LOVETT CAMERON_, MAYALL & CO. Ltd., London, 96
_MRS. HUNGERFORD_, GUY & CO., Cork, 107
_MATILDA BETHAM EDWARDS_, BARRAUDS Ltd., London, 120
_EDNA LYALL_, G. CHURCHILL, Eastbourne, 133
_ROSA NOUCHETTE CAREY_, S. J. POOLE & CO., Putney, 145
_ADELINE SERGEANT_, H. S. MENDELSSOHN, London, 157
_MRS. EDWARD KENNARD_, SPEIGHT, Market Harboro, 172
_JESSIE FOTHERGILL_, WARWICK BROOKES, M'chester, 184
_LADY DUFFUS HARDY_, J. RUSSELL & SONS, London, 198
_IZA DUFFUS HARDY_, J. RUSSELL & SONS, London, 204
_MAY CROMMELIN_, J. THOMSON, London, 210
_MRS. HOUSTOUN_, 223
_MRS. ALEX. FRASER_, W. & A. H. FRY, Brighton, 234
_HONOURABLE MRS. HENRY CHETWYND_, MAULL & FOX, London, 247
_JEAN MIDDLEMASS_, T. FALL, Baker St., London, W. 260
_AUGUSTA DE GRASSE STEVENS_, VERNON KAYE, London, 270
_MRS. LEITH ADAMS_, J. H. BLOMFIELD, Hastings, 286
_JEAN INGELOW_, BARRAUDS Ltd., London, 299
NOTABLE WOMEN AUTHORS.
[Illustration: E. Lynn Linton]
MRS. LYNN LINTON.
A blue sky and a bright sun belie the typical foggy month of November,
and while entering the elevator which glides rapidly and smoothly to the
eighth floor of the gigantic pile of buildings once cynically termed
"Hankey's Folly"--now Queen Anne's Mansions--you feel justified in
anticipating a glorious view over the great city. You step out into a
corridor where are arranged a stand of grenades with a couple of
hydrants, backed by printed directions for their use, and are shown into
the library of the distinguished author; but ere there is time to look
around, the door opens, and Mrs. Lynn Linton enters.
Her personality may be described thus: tall, upright, and stately in
appearance, the keen, but kindly bright blue eyes smiling through the
gold-rimmed glasses which she always wears. She is clad in a suitable
black dress, trimmed with jet, a white lace cap partially covers the
thick grey hair, which escapes in a tiny natural curl or two on each
side of the smooth, intellectual forehead. The eyebrows--far apart--are
straight and level, but shaded off so delicately that they impart a look
of benignity and softness to the aristocratic nose, while the curves of
the well-cut lips indicate straightforwardness, sincerity of
disposition, and power. Can it be possible that you had felt a momentary
trepidation before meeting the gifted woman for whose genius you have
ever entertained the greatest reverence? But Mrs. Lynn Linton will have
none of it! Her kind and friendly greeting puts you at once at ease. She
says that she has an hour or two to spare, that her work is well on, and
that there is no immediate fear of her being disturbed by an emissary
from the printers, so you settle down to have a good talk, and to learn
from your hostess some particulars of her early life, and her subsequent
eventful career.
Mrs. Lynn Linton was born at Keswick; her father being the vicar of
Crosthwaite, Cumberland. When only five months old, her mother (a
daughter of Dr. Goodenough, Bishop of Carlisle) died, leaving a family
of twelve children. She was brought up plainly and frugally, with no
particular advantages of education; nevertheless, at an early age she
developed a strong taste for reading and a thirst for knowledge. Casting
aside her childish story books, she dived into such ancient literature
and chronicles as she found on her father's book-shelves, and at the age
of eleven determined to train herself to be a writer. About this time
she became keenly interested in Polish affairs, in which her favourite
brother took an active part. In those days there were not the same
facilities for procuring books as in later years, but the young
child-student managed to overcome all obstacles, and educated herself,
mastering French, German, and Italian. The one aim and end to which her
ambition was directed buoyed her up through early years of what were
somewhat rough times to the shy, nervous, short-sighted girl, who always
seemed in everyone's way.
To this repression and self-training may be attributed the independence
of thought, the thoroughness, the originality of idea, as well as the
deep sympathy with young and struggling authors which are Mrs. Lynn
Linton's prevailing characteristics. One of her earliest recollections
is of the poet Southey, and that to this day she can recall to mind his
peculiar face, his dark eyes, full of fire, his eagle nose, and thin
figure. She wrote her first novel, "Azeth, the Egyptian," when she came
to London, at the age of twenty-three, and from that day to this has
supported herself entirely by her pen; but she says that this "first
book" gave her a whole year's hard work to write, and she thinks it is
now probably "unreadable." For her second, "Amymone," she will ever have
the tenderest memories, and the blue eyes kindle when she remarks that
it was the means of bringing her into contact with Walter Savage Landor,
and securing for her his lasting sympathy and friendship. She says he
was her literary father, her guide, philosopher, and friend, and that
one of her dearest treasures is a large packet of letters from the poet,
beginning "My dear daughter," and signed "Father" only, or "Your
affectionate father," as well as those verses which he addressed to
her, ending with the line, "Pure heart, and lofty soul, Eliza Lynn."
Between the production of "Realities: a Tale," in 1851, and "Witch
Stories," there was a gap of ten years, which the young writer devoted
principally to journalism. She was, indeed, the first of women
journalists. She contributed to several of the daily papers and
magazines. Presently a series of pungent and clever essays began in the
_Saturday Review_, which increased its fame, and took the world by
storm. "The Girl of the Period," "The Shrieking Sisterhood," "Paying
One's Shot," "Mature Sirens," have now passed into proverbs. They made a
famous topic of conversation at dinner-tables, and proved a decided hit.
For many years a certain lady of rank had the credit of the series,
until at last, after many futile efforts, Mrs. Lynn Linton was allowed
to collect her own papers and publish them under her own name.
"I never mind how much I slash," says Mrs. Lynn Linton, "because I
always feel I am not slashing at a personality, but at a type. Thackeray
never drew Becky Sharp from one individual; we all know a Becky Sharp."
In 1858 the young writer married Mr. Linton, the well-known wood
engraver, and in 1861 began again the interrupted series of fifteen
novels, amongst which were "Under which Lord?" "Patricia Kemball," "The
True Story of Joshua Davidson," "Lizzie Lorton of Greyrigg," "Sowing the
Wind," "The Atonement of Leam Dundas," "The World Well Lost," "The Rebel
of the Family," "My Love," "Paston Carew, Miser and Millionaire," "Jane
Stewart," "Through the Long Night," and "Christopher Kirkland." This
last is deeply interesting, as a history of the author herself, her
theories, philosophy, and religious opinions.
The writing table in the cosy library--or as Mrs. Lynn Linton often
calls it, "the workroom"--is placed slantways to catch the best light,
and commands a beautiful view from the windows, full south over the
Surrey hills.
The cut-glass inkstand has been in constant use for over fifty years.
Papers, reviews, and books of reference are tidily heaped up; the table
is full, but in perfect order; commenting on this to your hostess, she
says it is "part of her nature, she could find anything in the dark."
She is altogether a believer in method, regularity, and punctuality,
which last quality gained for her from Charles Dickens the remark that
she was "good for anything, and thoroughly reliable."
Opening a well-worn "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities" lying on
a side-table close at hand, Mrs. Lynn Linton remarks it was bought with
nearly her first earnings, and that she has by degrees purchased nearly
all the books, which seem to occupy every available recess. The two deep
cases opposite are filled with treasures of literature, and the tall
revolving bookstand contains chiefly her collection of favourite
poets--Landor, Arnold, Swinburne.
A Persian carpet of subdued tints covers the floor; on a large round
table, over which hangs a lamp of graceful design, is heaped, with
extreme precision, a mass of journals, magazines, and periodicals; not a
paper is awry. The great accumulation of literature has indeed
necessitated the fitting up of two tall, narrow recesses at the other
end of the room, each neatly hidden by a long tapestry curtain. A tender
light comes into Mrs. Lynn Linton's face as she points out three
photographs hanging on the wall. The first is of her beloved brother,
"without fear or favour," who died of a broken heart after the death of
an adored wife; the second is of her "father" Landor; and the third is
of Mr. Linton--"brother, father, husband," she says, with infinite
tenderness for the memory of all three.
Asking to be allowed to see the famous view from the drawing-room, which
it is said "looks over St. James's Park and Carlton Terrace, and
embraces the whole of the park from Buckingham Palace to the Horse
Guards," "_Did_ embrace it," amends Mrs. Linton, mournfully, "but come
and see." She leads the way to the opposite side of the flat, into a
rather long drawing-room, the windows of which look due south over the
uninterrupted view one might reasonably have expected to see. Alas! a
tall and ugly erection of bricks and mortar has sprang up to the left,
obscuring a portion of the prospect. "They have given me only a vista,"
says Mrs. Lynn Linton, "where I once had a view." What is left, however,
is very fine, and from the great height above ground the people look
like pigmies dotted about. Queen Caroline once talked of shutting up
this lovely park, and converting it into a noble garden for the palace.
She consulted Walpole as to the probable cost; the witty minister
replied, "Only three crowns, your Majesty," and the idea was abandoned.
There is a peculiarly long, narrow frame hanging on the opposite side of
the wall, and as Mrs. Lynn Linton permits an inspection of everything,
you examine it carefully, while she explains the subject. It is nearly
four yards long, and represents the Parthenon frieze--the Panathenaic
procession--and the fight of the Amazons and Athenians, reduced and
restored by John Herring. As the slate matrix was broken, it is now
extremely valuable. It is in plaster of Paris, mounted on red, and is
the property of Mr. Linton, who has bequeathed it to the National
Gallery in America. The small statuette of "Margaret," modelled by
Geefs, is another and very rare gem. Mrs. Lynn Linton is also the
possessor of a quaint grey vase, a relic of the Great Exhibition of
1851. On one little table, covered with an Oriental cloth, crowded with
favourite photographs, the portrait of a graceful, pretty girl occupies
a prominent place. "That is my Beatrice, my Bee, my dear adopted
daughter," she says, "dear as if she were my own; and these," pointing
to two large framed pictures, "are both likenesses of my friend Mr.
Fuller, a nephew of Sir Arthur Helps. We first became friends through
correspondence. He sent me his book, 'Culmshire Folk.' His wife invited
me to Ireland last year, and the result was my first and last political
work about that country."
You ask Mrs. Lynn Linton to tell you about some of the celebrated people
whom she has met. After musing awhile, she mentions Captain Maconochie
(the convicts' friend), Sir Charles Babbage, Kinglake, Miss Jane Porter,
Mrs. Milner Gibson--"she was my social godmother; but these all belonged
to a past generation. In later years I was more or less on intimate
terms with Harrison Ainsworth, George Eliot, Sir Henry Layard, Sir Henry
Rawlinson, Tom Taylor, Thackeray, Dickens, Yates, Wilkie Collins,
Swinburne, Sir Roderick Murchison, Rider Haggard, Dr. Elliotson, and
William Spottiswoode, late President of the Royal Society. _He_ was a
prince among men, and I loved and reverenced his noble character."
Unlike many literary women, Mrs. Lynn Linton is a great adept with her
needle. The beautiful silk embroideries--of which she is very
proud--cushions, chair seats, and the handsome fire-screen are all the
work of her skilful fingers, and made from her own designs. The big
green frog and the swallows hanging on the left are a present from Mr.
Oswald Crawfurd, the famous consul at Oporto. The Tunis plates and
various photographs indicate that your hostess has made sundry journeys
abroad, and travelled in many foreign lands where she has picked up a
few picturesque "bits" as mementos of the places which she visited; but
she says her most cherished possession is the gold cinquecento basket
standing yonder, the gift of Walter Savage Landor.
Yet more books! Each recess in the opposite wall is well filled, also
the low dwarf bookcase under the large mirror, and another under the
Herring "slate."
You are curious to know if Mrs. Lynn Linton reads and is influenced by
criticisms on her works? She says she has never striven for popularity,
and has boldly put forth her opinions, without caring for the
consequences. She was once called "selfish." _Selfish!_ Have you not
known, and been told by a score of young authors, that they owe their
success and a deep debt of gratitude to her! In despair, one after
another has taken to her an article, a story, a three-volume novel, a
play; what not? With patience she would pore over a crabbed manuscript,
word by word, suggesting, correcting, improving, advising. She has a
large number of young friends, who confide all their troubles, hopes,
and wishes to her, with the certainty of absolute sympathy and wise
counsel. Far from being stern or severe, as some of her books might lead
one to think, she is bubbling over with the milk of human kindness, and
her chief desire is to be of use or help to some one. The tender,
motherly manner casts its spell over you too, and you find yourself
presently pouring out confidences as if she were an old acquaintance.
Mrs. Lynn Linton generally enjoys the best of health. She keeps early
hours, works in the morning, takes plenty of exercise, and "plain
living" keeps the _mens sana in corpore sano_ for "high thinking."
Although in her sixth decade, she possesses a splendid physique, of
which she is pardonably proud. She says she finds residing in her
exalted flat far preferable to a house. There she is out of the reach of
burglars and beggars; she lives at less expense, combined with
incomparably more comfort; whilst the servants of the gigantic
establishment all respect her, and "Ellen," who has been there for
eleven years, she calls her "child," and looks upon her as a personal
friend.
But the clock strikes. You have been unconscionable. The time has sped
so rapidly that the promised hour has doubled itself. You say good-bye,
and as Mrs. Lynn Linton kindly asks you to come again on her "Saturdays,
to one, or to all," you look down on the small white hand which holds
yours, and notice the long slender fingers. The memory of its hearty
clasp remains on your mind as you are conveyed down the eight stories of
Queen Anne's Mansions, and so, into the street, where you become one of
the aforenamed "pigmies."
[Illustration: Charlotte Eliza Riddell]
MRS. RIDDELL.
The sleepy little village of Upper Halliford, Middlesex, has one
peculiar charm. Though within ten minutes' walk of Walton Bridge, it
lies quite off the main line of traffic, and is consequently free from
the visits of Cockney tourists, affording in this, as in many other
respects, a striking contrast to Lower Halliford, which, situated on a
lovely reach of the Thames, welcomes annually thousands of visitors.
There the inevitable steam-launch cuts its swift way through the water;
there boating-men, clad in all the colours of the rainbow, are to be met
with, on or after Good Friday, when the "season" begins; there
persistent fishermen, seated in punts warily moored, angle day after
day, and all day long, for the bream, roach, and gudgeon, to be found in
such abundance; there furnished houses let at high rents; willows dip
their branches in the river, and from thence the trees of Oatlands show
well on the upland on the opposite sides of the glistening Thames.
It was between Lower Halliford and Walton Bridge--half of which is in
Surrey and half in Middlesex--that, at a point called the Coway Stakes,
Julius Cæsar is believed to have crossed the river. The name "Coway
Stakes" originated in the fact that there Cassivelaunus fortified the
banks, and filled the river with sharp-pointed stakes to prevent the
enemy from crossing the stream, but notwithstanding these precautions
the Roman leader and his legions accomplished their purpose, and, a
little way above where the Ship Hotel (so well known to boating-men),
now stands, a terrible battle was fought in the year 54 B.C. between the
Britons and Romans. Several relics have been dug up about this part of
the Thames, also a number of the stakes taken from the bed of the river,
black with age, but still sound.
Any one who cares to walk on to Walton should make a point of visiting
the old Church of St. Mary--an edifice of great antiquity--in order to
see a curious relic, dated 1632, a scold's bit, or bridle, bearing the
following inscription:--
"Chester to Walton sends a bridle
To curb women's tongues that talk too idle."
Upper Halliford, unlike Lower Halliford, or Walton, has nothing to show
in the way of beauty or relic. It boasts no history, it has no legend,
or old church, or historic mansion. It is only a quaint little hamlet,
which might be a hundred miles from the bustle and roar of London;
there, however, the famous author of "George Geith of Fen Court" has for
the last seven years made her home, where she lives in absolute
seclusion.
Her little cottage stands slightly back from the high road. It is built
flush with the ground, and covered with trellis-work, which in summer
time is concealed by clustering white roses and clematis. The porch is
in the centre, and the rooms on each side have broad bay windows. There
is a large field in front, and so many evergreens about the cottage,
that, when snow comes, the place looks like a winter "transformation
scene."
A great, old-fashioned garden stretches far out at the back, and it was
chiefly the tranquillity and privacy of this delightful garden, with its
grand old hedge of holly, now bright with red berries, which attracted
Mrs. Riddell, and decided her to settle down, away from the world, after
long and fierce buffeting with the stormy seas of sorrow,
disappointment, losses, and bereavement, of which she has had so large a
share.
The gentle, quiet face tells its tale of early struggles, heavy burdens,
severe trials; yet time has not laid its ruthless hand over-harshly on
the author. Not a silver hair is visible on the soft, brown hair, which
is simply rolled into a neat coil, high on the back of her head, and
fastened by a large tortoise-shell comb. The deep grey eyes are
undimmed, and wear a look of peace and resignation, nobly won; while
"ever and anon of griefs subdued, there comes a token" which recalls the
past. But Mrs. Riddell can smile sweetly, and when she smiles, two--yes
two--absolutely girlish dimples light up the expressive countenance. She
is tall, has a good carriage, and is dressed in black; she has worn no
colours for over ten years.
The little room is very simply but prettily furnished. It is lighted by
one bay window reaching to the ground in front, and a glass door at the
side. Soft, white rugs lie here and there on the dark red carpet, and an
old-fashioned bookcase contains the works of her favourite authors.
There are no particular curiosities or decorations to be seen, save one
valuable bit of old Dresden china, two or three plates of ancient Crown
Derby, together with a couple of quaint Delhi-work salvers, and a few
pictures hanging on the walls. Of these last, two are particularly
attractive. One is the Head of a Christ crowned with thorns, beautifully
painted on copper; the other, over the fire place, represents the Castle
of Carrigfergus, which, though built nearly a thousand years ago, is
still strong enough to hold a troop of soldiers.
Mrs. Riddell was born in Ireland, at The Barn, Carrigfergus. She was the
youngest daughter of Mr. James Cowan, who held the post of High Sheriff
for the county of that town.
"Yes, I am from the north--the black north," says your hostess in a low,
soft voice. "My grandfather was in the navy, and my great-grandfather
fought at Culloden, so I may fairly claim to be English, Scotch, and
Irish. My mother, Ellen Kilshaw, was a beautiful, graceful, and
accomplished English woman. On most subjects people have two opinions,
but I never heard a second opinion about my mother. Even amongst those
who only knew her in later life, when stricken with disease, and changed
by long years of sorrow, she stands out a distinct personality, as one
of those possessed of the manners, appearance, and ideas, that we
associate with the highest bred women of the past!"
"And she was good as she was beautiful. I wish you could hear how rich
and poor who knew her in the old time at The Barn still speak of her. As
for me, while I speak, the grief of her death seems sharp and present as
on that sixteenth of December when she left me."
Last autumn, after a lapse of twenty-five years, Mrs. Riddell revisited
her native place. "Such of our old friends as were left," she says, "I
found as kind as ever."
It must have been sad, yet sweet, for the author to recall the old
reminiscences of her girlish home as she saw once more the pretty
bungalow-like house, with its gardens, hot-houses, and vineries, and to
visit again the spot where, at the age of fifteen, she remembers writing
her first story.
"It was on a bright moonlight night," she says--"I can see it now
flooding the gardens--that I began it, and I wrote week after week,
never ceasing until it was finished. Need I add it was never published?"
She goes on eloquently to tell you of yet further recollections of the
old house, the memory of her father's lingering illness, and the low,
sweet tones of her mother's voice as she read aloud to him for hours
together. "From my father," says Mrs. Riddell, "I think I got the few
brains I possess. Undoubtedly he was a very clever man, but _I_ never
knew him at his best, for as far as my memory goes back he was always
more or less a sufferer, blessed with the most tender and devoted wife
man ever had."
On her father's death, the property passed into other hands, and with
but a small jointure the broken-hearted widow and her daughter left
their old home. They lived afterwards, for a while, in the charming
village of Dundonald in the County Down, where the young author
subsequently laid the scene of her novel, "Berna Boyle," and then, after
a good deal of meditation, they decided to come to London. In later
years she wrote three other Irish stories, "The Earl's Promise," "The
Nun's Curse," and "Maxwell Drewitt," which last contains an exciting
account of an election at Connemara.
"I have often wished," says Mrs. Riddell "we never had so decided, yet
in that case, I do not think I ever should have achieved the smallest
success, and even before we left, with bitter tears, a place where we
had the kindest friends, and knew much happiness, my mother's death
was--though neither of us then knew the fact--a certainty. The illness
of which she died had then taken hold of her. She had always a great
horror of pain mental and physical; she was keenly sensitive, and
mercifully before the agonising period of her complaint arrived, the
nerves of sensation were paralysed; first or last, she never lost a
night's sleep the whole of the ten weeks, during which I fought with
death for her, and--was beaten."
Mrs. Riddell's first impressions of London are well worth recording.
Coming as strangers to a strange land, throughout the length and breadth
of the great metropolis, she says, "We did not know a single creature!
During the first fortnight, indeed, I really thought I should break my
heart. I had never taken kindly to new places, and, remembering the
sweet hamlet and the loving friends left behind, London seemed to me
horrible! I could not eat; I could not sleep; I could only walk over the
'stony-hearted streets' and offer my manuscripts to publisher after
publisher, who unanimously declined them." The desolation of her spirit
can be more easily imagined than described. Conceive the situation of
the young girl, burning to earn a living by her pen, knowing that it was
within her to do so, yet unacquainted with a single literary or other
person; friendless, unknown, with an invalid mother, and terribly
insufficient means! And when, at last, she sold a story, called "Moors
and Fens," that beloved mother had passed away; and your eyes moisten as
the daughter mentions the touching and filial use to which her first
twenty pounds were applied.
But Mrs. Riddell has something pleasant to say for those who declined
her MSS., and it must be related in her own words: "Looking back I
_must_ say, as a rule, they were all very kind to me. I was too ignorant
and heartsore to understand how gracious they were to my simplicity,
even more than to my youth. Yet I shall never forget how charming Mr.
George Bentley's manner seemed the first day I saw him. His father--the
kindest, most impulsive, most sympathetic of men--was alive then, and
for many a year afterwards; but it so happened that Mr. George Bentley
was the partner whom I saw, and," she adds smiling, and naïvely, "though
he, like everyone else, refused my work, still I left his office not
unhappy, but thinking much more about how courteous and nice he was
than of how entirely the wrong person in the wrong place I seemed to be.
Ere long, with some publishers I became quite on friendly terms, and I
have now known three generations of the Bentleys."
After a short silence Mrs. Riddell resumes the subject, saying, "I must
name also Mr. Charles Skeet, of King William Street, who was good enough
to keep my mother supplied with books. Long as it is since he retired
from business, our friendship remained unbroken until his death. He was
most kind to me always. He published 'The Rich Husband,' 'Too Much
Alone,' 'The World and the Church,' and 'Alaric Spencer.'"
"I could always, when the day was frightfully cold--and _what_ a winter
that was when I first came to London--turn into Mr. Newby's snug and
warm office in Welbeck Street, and have a talk with him and his 'woman
of business.' I am glad to mention her name--Miss Springett. She was a
lady, always kind, nice, and capable; she remained with him till her
death, I believe. Everyone was good to me in those days; but, indeed, I
have received, all my life through, an enormous amount of kindness, and
have not a word to say against a world which has treated me far better
than I deserved."
A year after the death of her mother the young author married. Mr.
Riddell belonged to an old Staffordshire family, a branch of the Scotch
Riddells, of long descent and gentle blood. "Courageous and hopeful,
gifted with indomitable energy," says his widow, "endowed with
marvellous persistence and perseverance; modestly conscious of talents
which ought to have made their mark, he, when a mere lad, began his long
quest after fortune, one single favour from whom he was never destined
to receive."
Gifted with much inventive genius, Mr. Riddell was also possessed of
considerable general knowledge, and was deeply versed in literature,
medicine, science, and mathematics. To him his wife turned for all the
information she needed in her novels; the chemistry in "Too Much Alone,"
the engineering in "City and Suburb." He supplied all the business
details in "George Geith," and "The Race for Wealth"; while in
"Mortomley's Estate" Mrs. Riddell says she has "but told the simple
story of what, when in ill-health and broken in spirit, he had to
encounter before ruin, total and complete, overtook him." Too early in
youth overweighted with a heavy burden, under which a strong man might
have found it hard to stagger, she declares that, "in spite of harassing
trouble and continuous misfortune, their twenty-three years of married
life were happy as few lives are, simply by reason of his sweet, patient
temper, and his child-like faith." Suddenly and unexpectedly, the end
came, and the crowning sorrow of a much-tried life was laid upon the
devoted wife when death claimed her gifted husband. Over that grief a
veil must be drawn. Suffice it to say that it is a sorrow which will
ever be keen in her remembrance "Until the day break and the shadows
flee away."
"I never remember the time," Mrs. Riddell says, "when I did not compose.
Before I was old enough to hold a pen I used to get my mother to write
down my childish ideas, and a friend remarked to me quite lately that
she distinctly remembers my being discouraged in the habit, as it was
feared I might be led into telling untruths. In my very early days I
read everything I could lay hands on, the Koran included, when about
eight years old. I thought it most interesting."
Mrs. Riddell describes the way in which the situations and characters of
her books are often suggested. She observes everything almost
unconsciously; but if asked, directly after, her impressions, she could
scarcely describe them. Later on, perhaps, when between the border-land
of sleep and waking, scenes, words, people whom she has noticed seem to
be photographed on the brain; sentences form themselves, and in the
morning she is able to reproduce them at length.
The intimate knowledge of the city possessed by this novelist is the
result of personal experience. Whilst on her once fruitless expeditions
to publishers she learnt every short cut, every alley and lane by heart.
Little as she relished these excursions at the time, they laid the
foundation for many a scene afterwards so faithfully depicted in "George
Geith," "City and Suburb" (in which most of the poetry was quoted from
the works of her young sister-in-law, a genius who died at the age of
nineteen), "Daisies and Buttercups," "The Struggle for Fame," "Mitre
Court," "My First Love, and My Last Love," "The Earl's Promise," and
also that entrancing book, "The Senior Partner," in which the old Scotch
merchant, M'Cullagh, "plain auld Rab," worthy but saving old gentleman,
is a distinct creation. "In all the old city churches and graveyards,
such, indeed, as are left," Mrs. Riddell says, sorrowfully, "you could
take no better guide than myself; but, alas! many of the old landmarks
are now pulled down to make room for the ever increasing business of the
great metropolis."
"Austin Friars" described her first home after her marriage, when,
without much practical knowledge of business, she was greatly impressed
by the lives of business men. This old house is now a thing of the past,
and the Cannon Street railway runs over the place where it once stood.
The author's latest work--a story of seaside life, and her twenty-ninth
novel--is called "Grays Point," and will be brought out in three volumes
in the coming year. She lately was invited to write an article for _The
Lady of the House_, a new journal which appeared in Dublin last year,
and this is the first time that she has ever written a line for an Irish
paper. Of her own books, Mrs. Riddell says that she prefers "The Mystery
in Palace Gardens" and "Too Much Alone." The latter she considers made
her name, though the first edition was only a short one, and but four
copies were sent out for review. "A Mad Tour, or A Journey Undertaken in
an Insane Moment through Central Europe on Foot," in one volume, is a
recent work, and describes accurately her own experiences in company
with a young friend. It gives a bright and amusing account of their
misadventures.
Mrs. Riddell's latest published novel in three volumes, "The Head of the
Firm," fully bears out the high literary reputation of the author of
"George Geith." Carefully and conscientiously worked out, each
character is drawn with an unerring hand, and sustains its interest to
the final page, whilst here and there are not wanting those touches of
humour which have always distinguished her works.
After a snug luncheon in the comfortable dining-room, in which, by the
way, unexpected little steps and deep cupboards seem to be built
promiscuously--as, indeed, they are throughout the cottage--your hostess
takes you round the garden, which is well worth seeing, mid-winter
though it be. She points out the great height of the holly hedge, and
laments that she has been obliged to have twelve feet cut off the top.
Notwithstanding, it is still twenty feet high. The japonica is the
admiration of passers-by in the early spring, being then covered with a
mass of scarlet flowers. The apricot tree is sadly in want of root
pruning, but, as she says, "I cannot persuade the old gardener to do it,
and as I am never equal to arguing, I let him take his own way." There
is an extraordinary plant which you have never seen before; its flowers
are green, and Mrs. Riddell says that she never saw one like it except
in her old home. The huge weeping ash, although now bereft of leaves, is
a great feature, and the high box borders divide large squares of
ground, wherein good old bushes of lavender, rue and lad's love grow
profusely.
Your hostess points out the adjoining cottage, the home of her old
gardener, aged eighty, and remarks that another old man who preceded him
begged from a neighbour enough elm to make him a coffin. It was given to
him, and the hitherto unnecessary article made. He kept the gruesome
object for some time, but finding it took up too much room in his small
abode, he altered it into a cupboard.
A turn round the last walk leads to the poultry-yard, which is a great
delight to Mrs. Riddell. She has several fine breeds of fowls and geese,
amongst which last are two handsome but noisy specimens from Japan. One
little peculiarity of interest must be noticed. The wall which supports
the granary steps is pierced by two holes for dog kennels, an
arrangement of great antiquity.
Mrs. Riddell loves walking. The church she attends lies rather more than
two miles away towards Laleham, which place Arnold left with so much
regret, and where Matthew Arnold is buried. She speaks of Littleton in
the neighbourhood as being the village she described in "For Dick's
Sake," and says, laughing, "It has stood still for over two hundred
years. There is no resident rector or squire, or doctor, or lawyer, or
publican, or farrier, but it is a sweetly peaceful spot, and the woods
in primrose time are a sight to behold, whilst at Sunbury," she adds,
"to show you how little change may take place, in one hundred years
there have been only two vicars, and one of them is alive now!"
But it is getting dark, and tea is ordered as a preparation for your
cold journey; whilst sipping it, she says that as you are so much
interested in her own early "struggle for fame," she will mention one
more anecdote _à propos_ of Mr. Newby, as it is amusing, and she relates
it thus: "In those early days he--Mr. Newby--was good enough to take a
book of mine. Of course he only knew me by my maiden name, because
after my mother's death Welbeck Street lay quite out of my way, and I
fear I ungratefully forgot the cheerful fire, and the talks about
authors, which were once so pleasant.
"For this reason he knew nothing of my doings. The years came and the
years went, till after the crash came in our affairs; when I was looking
about me for every five-pound note I could get, I bethought me of this
and another old book, which I can never sufficiently regret
republishing. Well, I found I could sell both of them, and forthwith
repaired, after all that time, to Mr. Newby's, where nothing looked much
changed, and no one seemed much older, except myself, who had lived many
lives in the interval.
"Of course both Mr. Newby and Miss Springett had a vague memory of me,
when I reminded the former that he had published 'Zuriel's Grandchild.'
What I wanted was a copy of the book. He feared he had not one, but
promised to ascertain. I can see them both now in that warm, comfortable
back room, into which, as a girl, I had often gone shivering.
"He took a seat on one side of a large table, she on the other. I sat
facing Mr. Newby--a most anxious woman, yet amused.
"'Have you,' he said delicately, 'gone on at all with literature?'
"'Oh, yes,' I answered.
"'Have you--published anything?' with great caution, so as not to hurt
my feelings.
"'Several books,' I replied.
"'Indeed!!!' _amazed_. 'Might I ask the names?'--tentatively.
"'Well, amongst others, "George Geith."'
"A dead silence ensued, during which I had the comfort of feeling that
they both felt sure I was saying what was not true. I sat quite quiet,
and so did they. If I had not been so burdened with care I must have
laughed out loud. As it happened, I comported myself, as I have often
done since, in many difficult and humorous positions, with decent
gravity, and then this came from Mr. Newby, the while the ribbons on
Miss Springett's cap were tremulous:
"'_If_--you _really_ wrote "George Geith," _then_ indeed you have
achieved a success!'"
And so you part; with loving tender sympathy. Though the morn of this
distinguished woman's life has been so clouded, the noon so stormy, the
noble, self-reliant spirit has battled through it bravely and patiently,
and you leave her with the inwardly-breathed prayer that "at evening
time there shall come light!"
[Illustration: L. B. Walford]
MRS. L. B. WALFORD.
A thick fog obscures the whole of London. You grope your way through
Liverpool Street station with considerable risk, now colliding with a
truck full of luggage, anon canoning against an angry passenger. Not a
yard can be seen in advance, more by good luck than good guiding the
right train is somehow found, and, half an hour later, it is delightful
to find the enemy is left behind, and that there is once more cheerful
daylight. The sun at first looks like a sullen ball of fire, but
presently, shaking off, as it were, the heavy clouds, he begins to shine
out brightly, as, after a drive of something under a mile from the
station, the carriage turns into the old-fashioned lodge gates of
wrought iron on the left. A long road between two low wire fencings,
running nearly straight through the park, which is dotted about with
clumps of trees and spinneys, suddenly rounds into a wide space in front
of the house, and breaks off into one of those quaint old rights-of-way
which are so common in this part of Essex.
Cranbrooke Hall is a substantial red-brick, many-windowed building,
dating nearly two centuries back, but it has been greatly added to
and improved during recent years. The lofty, spacious entrance-hall,
laid down with parquet, branches out into five reception rooms, opening
one into another, all facing south, and overlooking some
seven-hundred-and-fifty feet of lawn, bordered by a lake formed of
clear, running water, the overflow of a spring which is a
hundred-and-fifty feet deep, and has never yet been known to run dry.
This is, in its turn, bounded by a shrubbery, which leads round to one
of the principal features of the Cranbrooke Gardens, the "Lovers' Walk,"
an ivy colonnade, carpeted with thick, soft moss.
Passing through the ante-room, a door opens on the left, and the picture
which presents itself to the eye is a thoroughly domestic one. A huge
fire, heaped with acacia logs, blazes brightly in the low deep grate,
flanked with brass dogs; tall standard lamps shed a soft light over a
merry family group; a silver urn stands on the cosy five o'clock tea
table, where a young, fair girl presides. A few guests are present, and
two younger daughters of the house are flitting in and out with plates
of Scotch scones, cakes, and muffins. The three nursery little ones have
come down to say good-night; the youngest, a fair-haired, blue-eyed
little maiden of four years, is nestling on her mother's lap. Rising
from amidst them, Mrs. Walford comes forward to welcome you. She wears a
pretty steel-blue tea-gown, richly embroidered in silks by her own hand;
for your hostess loves needlework, and looks on it as a great resource
for a weary brain. She has a clear, fair complexion, dark brown hair,
and laughing grey-blue eyes; and the bright, sunny smile, which in
childhood gained for her the pet name of "the laughing girl," lights up
her expressive countenance, and just reveals two rows of white, even
teeth. She gives you the impression of being a thoroughly happy,
contented, and sweet-tempered woman, and her subsequent conversation
assures you that your judgment has been correct.
Mrs. Walford is of Scottish birth. Her father was the second son of Sir
James Colquhoun, the tenth Baronet of Luss, to whom Burke wrote on one
occasion that he was "_the_ Baronet of Scotland, just as Sir William
Watkin Wynn was _the_ Baronet of Wales." For seven hundred years the
Colquhouns of Luss have held the same lands, and, unlike those of many
other ancient families, they are still in as flourishing, or, rather,
more flourishing condition, than they have ever been. The Sir James
Colquhoun who--with four of his keepers and a ghillie boy--was drowned
in Loch Lomond, nearly seventeen years ago, was a widower with an only
son, the present baronet. Mrs. Walford's mother was the daughter of Mr.
Fuller-Maitland of Stanstead, Essex.
Whilst the other visitors are leaving, the opportunity arises of
examining the room more minutely. The polished oak floor is covered here
and there with Persian carpets; near the door is a lovely Dutch
marqueterie bureau, a husband's gift to a busy wife, and at which most
of her well-known novels were written. Mrs. Walford says they
"furnished their home as a jackdaw does his nest, stick by stick. From
many an old farm-house and wayside inn they collected piece after piece,
handsome old oak cabinets, chests and chairs, scarcely a single article
having passed through the dealers' hands," indeed, you shrewdly suspect
that the large carved settle whereon you are seated has been part of
some despoiled church or sacred edifice.
On a table yonder stands a miniature set of china under glass, "Jane
Eyre's own doll's tea service," by which Mrs. Walford sets great store,
as she became possessed of it when visiting the house of Charlotte
Brontë. The dainty, antique spinning-wheel known as "Lady Helen's wheel"
(it belonged to an ancient dame of the Colquhoun family) is so old that
the woodwork has begun to crumble away; but a more modern specimen
opposite, covered with a cloud of flax, is often used by your hostess's
own nimble fingers. The relic she treasures above all, however, is a
gold "mazer," inherited by Mr. Walford through a long line of ancestors.
This is a real curiosity, there being but few of these "mazers" now left
in England. The little "silver table" holds many a prized bit of old
Highland silver, including one which was picked up on the field of
Bannockburn. Big bowls of Oriental china are filled with _pot-pourri_,
which gives out a delicious fragrance. This, Mrs. Walford adds to afresh
every year from an old recipe. Her children laughingly declare that
"whenever they go out to gather flowers for the tables, mother, with a
pair of scissors in hand, has snipped off all the finest roses and
quietly slipped them into her pocket."
Mrs. Walford has inherited her literary tastes. Her father's well-known
book, "The Moor and the Loch," now in its eighth edition, and full of
spirited engravings, is considered as a classic amongst sportsmen; and
who has not read and laughed over, in by-gone days, "Holiday House," and
other delightful stories, by her grand-aunt, Catherine Sinclair,
daughter of Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster, himself one of the most
distinguished men of his day? In spite of Catherine Sinclair and her
sister being authors (the latter was known as the "good" Lady Colquhoun,
and the writer of many religious books for the Scottish poor), so little
was literary reputation then thought of by some members of the family
that, when Sir Walter Scott appeared at Rossdhu to take notes for "Rob
Roy," he was shown round _by the butler_, and never forgave the affront.
In consequence he never mentioned the Colquhouns in that great romance
or in the "Lady of the Lake."
Speaking of Rossdhu, you tell your hostess that you have been taken over
those ancestral halls and round the great picture galleries, and had
noticed with much surprise that there was no portrait of her to be seen.
This omission may however some day be repaired.
Mrs. Walford remarks that it was not until after her marriage that she
took seriously to novel writing. Whilst yet in her teens she was wont to
steal out into the shrubbery with paper and pencil and write short
stories, one of which was called "Macgregor, our Chieftain," but as she
burnt these early effusions as fast as they were written, nothing
remains of Macgregor's adventures. In 1872 delicacy of health prevented
her pursuing the active out-of-door life which she had always enjoyed;
so, as the necessity arose for finding vent for her energy, the young
author spent a long period of bodily rest in mental activity, its first
fruits being "Mr. Smith: A part of his Life." This character was drawn
from life; even the name was the same, and he was found dead as
described in the book. She sent the MS. anonymously to Mr. John
Blackwood, the late distinguished editor of _Blackwood_, who--much
struck with its promise--at once accepted and published it.
Brought up from her childhood in the stately homes of her own people,
now in Scotland, now in England, and reared in the atmosphere of healthy
country life, Mrs. Walford has been enabled to write with the frankness
and accuracy which make her books so thoroughly characteristic and
enjoyable.
_A propos_ of "Mr. Smith," an amusing anecdote is told. The Queen had
had the story read to her twice, and, being much interested in it,
expressed a wish to see the author. She was presented on her marriage by
the Duchess of Roxburghe, who on the occasion happened to take the place
of the Mistress of the Robes, absent from indisposition. It is said that
as the young novelist made her curtsey before the Royal presence, the
Duchess softly breathed into Her Majesty's ear the words, "Mr. Smith."
A series of short stories soon followed this first success and appeared
in _Blackwood_, beginning with "Nan, a Summer Scene," and under this
name they have since been collected and published in one volume.
"Pauline" next ran through the same magazine as a serial; "Cousins" was
written in 1879; "Troublesome Daughters" followed in the ensuing year.
"The Baby's Grandmother," which is perhaps the most popular of all, was
written in 1885. Then came "A Stiff-necked Generation," "A Mere Child,"
"A Sage of Sixteen," "The Havoc of a Smile" "The Mischief of Monies."
The latter book is more on the lines of "Mr. Smith" than any of Mrs.
Walford's recent works of fiction, and proved a great success in
_Longman's Magazine_. Then came "A Pinch of Experience," and later on,
she wrote a series of Biographical studies on "Famous Authoresses of
Bygone Days," for _Far and Near_, an American Magazine. This is coming
out as a Christmas gift or prize book. A little volume of Christmas
Tales illustrated by T. Pym (Mrs. Levett) is shortly to appear, and will
be called "For Grown-up Children," being stories _about_ children _for_
grown-up people. Besides this, she is a constant contributor to the _St.
James's Gazette_. She also writes a weekly letter for the American
_Critic_ on literary subjects; one called an "Epidemic of Smartness"
made a special sensation; and she has, in addition, stories in two
Christmas numbers, _The Queen_ and _Atalanta_.
One great aim of this author has ever been to make herself thoroughly
acquainted with all the details of her subject. So particular is she to
ensure absolute accuracy, that every item of military life is submitted
to one or other of her soldier brothers (two of these were respectively
in the 4th Dragoon Guards and the 42nd Black Watch), and every detail of
sport to her father; indeed, so well up was she in the latter, that a
reviewer of "Mr. Smith"--when the sex of the author was yet
unknown--caustically observed, that the writer was "more up in woodcock
shooting than in religion!" the young author not having yet learnt to
verify a quotation, even from Holy Writ.
An ardent lover of the old Scottish kirk, Mrs. Walford says that she
"would go any distance to hear a good, long sermon from some of its
divines." She is an indefatigable walker, and has traversed on foot
twenty-three miles, from Arrochar to Inveraray--"from milestone to
milestone" she is careful to add, knowing what Scotch and Welsh miles
are supposed to be. She is extremely fond of poetry, and has a good
collection of her chief favourites, whilst she keeps habitually on her
own table copies of Tennyson, Jean Ingelow, and Coventry Patmore's work.
In earlier days your hostess gave much of her time to water-colour
drawing, but her children have claimed for the decoration of their
schoolroom all her pictures, the majority of which, they proudly remark,
were "exhibited and hung on the line in the R.A. of Edinburgh." Mrs.
Walford is just saying that she was married at St. John's, Edinburgh,
when the door opens and in comes the bridegroom on that occasion. He is
a native of another part of Essex, in which county his forefathers have
held lands for several centuries, his grandfather having been High
Sheriff in the famous "Waterloo year." He is a magistrate for the part
in which he now lives, and, amidst the claims of a busy life, he finds
time to sit on the bench perhaps oftener than do many of his less
occupied colleagues. Looking at the noble, genial face, you secretly
wonder if he can ever find it in his heart to pass severe sentences on
offenders. He is extremely popular, has made a distinct mark for himself
in his own circle, and it is his wife's pride to recognise that he will
never be known as "Mrs. Walford's husband."
An hour later you are taken into the dining-room, through the ante-room,
in the latter, a table near the great bay windows is filled with all the
newest books and magazines; these are regularly changed and brought up
to date by Mrs. Walford, and are a constant source of attraction to
visitors. On your left at dinner sits your host's elder son,
"Desborough," a fine manly young fellow, just of age; he is full of
intelligence, and possesses great powers of observation. He is
delightfully entertaining throughout the meal, and asking him about the
pictures, which literally cover the walls, he explains that they are a
complete collection of Boydell's fine old Shakespearian engravings, and,
he adds modestly, these, and all the many etchings and pictures in the
house, were framed by his father.
It is quite apparent in this happy home that there is perfect love and
sympathy between the parents and the children. The children are as proud
of their good, distinguished-looking father as they are of their pretty,
gifted mother; the elder ones are keenly interested in her books, and
look out eagerly for the new copies, each confiscating one for his or
her own room. Mr. and Mrs. Walford have ever been in touch with each
individual member of their family. The children have never been put
aside for her work, and they are constantly with their mother. They have
all inherited her talent for drawing, and many of them bid fair to be no
mean proficients in the art.
On the following morning your hostess announces that she has "given
herself a holiday," and she proposes to take you out for a turn. The
season is late and, though within but a very few weeks of Christmas, the
sun is shining brightly over the grounds and the air is pleasantly warm.
What was once said of a famous lawn at Oxford may well be applied to
Cranbrooke Hall. A stranger inquired of a solemn old gardener what was
done to keep it so fine and smooth? "Well, sir," was the reply, with the
utmost gravity and good faith, "first we sows the seed, and then we
rolls it and we mows it for three hundred years." Skating will soon be
largely indulged in on the glittering lake, and many merry moonlight
parties are looked forward to during the coming severe weather, which is
predicted by the great holly trees covered with red berries. After a
stroll round the pleasant demesne, and a peep into the vineries, in
which is the old black Hamburg vine, sister of the famous one at Hampton
Court, you return through the billiard-room into the Camellia house,
which, a little later on will be a mass of bloom, sometimes as many as
two thousand being in flower at a time, in every variety of colour.
The billiard table is decorated at the sides with groops of
hand-painted flowers, exquisitely designed, and the cues are arranged in
a round oak niche, which you feel sure once contained the image of a
saint in some old cathedral. Just above the seat backs, and extending
all round the room, is a perfect picture gallery of friends'
photographs, placed closely side by side, and above these there is a
wealth of engravings and etchings which would take days to examine.
Mrs. Walford has had three old-fashioned predecessors in the paths of
literature in her own neighbourhood, namely, Thomas Day, who, exactly a
hundred years ago, wrote "Sandford and Merton," at the little village of
Aybridge, within half a dozen miles of Cranbrooke; Anne and Jane Taylor,
whose "Original Poems" were, according to Sir Walter Scott, "known to
four continents."
Before leaving, you ask to see your hostess's own special portrait
gallery of her seven children. First comes "Desborough," then the eldest
daughter, in her _débutante's_ drawing-room dress of last season; next,
two young girls yet in the schoolroom,
Standing with reluctant feet
Where the brook and river meet,
and then the three "nursery" children, one of whom is taken in her
mother's arms. Lastly, you are shown a faded portrait of the famous
author herself, taken at the age of fourteen, and called "A
Yellow-haired Lassie," and, in the bright, radiant smile, you recognise
the appropriateness of her childish cognomen of "The Laughing Girl."
[Illustration: Rhoda Broughton]
RHODA BROUGHTON.
The ancient and historic village of Richmond is too well known to need
much description. It is thronged with kingly memories. Entering the old
park by Kew Bridge, you drive past the large and beautiful Royal
Gardens, extending along the banks of the Thames to Richmond, which were
cultivated under the immediate superintendence of King George III. The
old manor garden became Crown property in the reign of Edward I., when
it was known as Shene, and was converted into a palace by Edward III.;
but, being destroyed by fire in 1498, it was rebuilt with great
splendour by Henry VII., who changed the name to Richmond, after his
title of Earl of Richmond, ere he ascended the throne. Here was Philip
I. of Spain right regally entertained. Here was the Princess Elizabeth
shut up by her sister Mary, and here occasionally resided Charles I. On
the right stands the Observatory, built by Sir William Chambers two
centuries ago. When the road turns into the New Park south of Richmond,
the coachman points out the massive brick wall encompassing the eight
miles of its circumference, and remarks that in the reign of George II.
an attempt was made to exclude the public, which was frustrated however
by an enterprising inhabitant, who, pluckily going to law, recovered
the right of way, and thus secured the everlasting gratitude of later
generations.
It is for this picturesque and attractive place Miss Rhoda Broughton has
deserted her quiet little home at Oxford, where she had lived for twelve
years. On the high ground overlooking the Terrace Gardens, she and her
sister, Mrs. Newcome, have established themselves in the quiet and peace
they both love, in a comfortable house, standing back from the road,
which commands an extensive view of the river, winding serpent-like
through a forest of trees. Ushered upstairs into the drawing-room, where
the author receives you with much cordiality, the first thing which
strikes you is the sweet rich voice in which her welcome is uttered.
Standing facing the setting sun, with its golden light reflected on her,
you observe that she is above the middle height, and graceful in figure;
the hair, rolled back from the low broad strong-looking forehead, is
becomingly tinged with grey over the right temple, harmonizing well with
the darker shades on the neat, well-shaped head. The mouth and chin
indicate firmness and resolution. In repose, the expression might almost
be called sad, but as she speaks, the frankness in the grey eyes, set
well apart, at once dispels the idea, and the pleasant musical laugh
betrays the vein of fun and wit--entirely of an original kind--which
runs through her books. She is dressed in some fabric of dark green,
with velvet sleeves and bodice; the latter relieved at the upper part
with a paler shade of embroidered vest. The windows open on to a broad
trellised verandah, which runs the whole length of the house; and,
stepping out to it, Miss Broughton bids you look at the exquisite view.
It is a lovely day in latest autumn, the trees, turned to every shade of
gold, copper, and brown, are shedding their leaves profusely. The
sinking sun is leaving the sky deeply tinged with waves of pink and
purple, and the river looks like a silver stream, with here and there a
tinge of reflected colour, unbroken by a single boat. The air is pure
and still, with a faint suspicion of a coming frost. For a few moments
you both stand in rapt silence admiring the beautiful prospect, yet
sighing to think that the winter is so near at hand; then your hostess
leads the way back into the drawing-room, where tea is served, and as
you settle comfortably in a luxurious couch covered with tapestry of the
first Empire, and sip the fragrant beverage out of a cup of old Spode,
the eye travels round the quiet restful room, and notices the many
little knick-knacks that fill it.
On the right stands an antique writing table, with pigeon-hole drawers,
and old blue china grouped over the top. The two ancient oak cabinets
are covered with pretty "bits"; growing in a cunningly-concealed basket
is an immense pyramid of ferns and palms, which are Miss Broughton's
particular delight. On the little plush-covered table by the side of a
delicately wrought iron Italian stand--whereof the copper bowl is filled
with autumnal flowers--lies a business-like work-bag, filled to
overflowing, which gives a home-like look to the room and indicates that
it is useful as well as ornamental. On asking Miss Broughton for a peep
into her sanctuary, she smiles indulgently, and begs you to descend. The
white-painted fresh-looking staircase is partially covered with Persian
carpet of warm colour, and, throughout, the dado is composed of Indian
matting, above which hang many engravings and photographs. The large
black-and-white lozenge-shape tiles give the hall an indescribably
bright appearance, which here and there the long Indian rugs subdue, yet
throw up into relief. You enter the room sacred to the gifted authoress,
and look round. Where are the manuscripts, the "copy," the "proofs,"
which might reasonably have been expected? There is no indication of her
work on the old oak knee-hole writing-table beyond a single blank sheet
of paper reposing on a large wooden portfolio, exquisitely painted on
both sides by her friend Mrs. Andrew Spottiswoode at Dresden. A solitary
penholder lies on a china inkstand, flanked by a pair of large green
jars from Hyères. She half guesses your look of interrogation, and
remarks that she is "resting" awhile, now that her latest book "Alas!"
is published, before launching another, entitled "Mrs. Bligh." _Elle
recule pour mieux sauter_, but at the present moment, as she kindly
causes it to be understood that no encroachment is being made on her
valuable time, you do not hesitate to ask for some details of her
literary life.
Rhoda Broughton was born at Segrwyd Hall, Denbighshire. Her father was a
clergyman, and held the family living in Cheshire, where her childish
days were passed, varied by visits to her grandfather, Sir Henry
Broughton, at Broughton Hall, Staffordshire. Her father was a student,
and himself grounded her in Shakespeare and the English classics, and
imparted also the rudiments of Latin and Greek. She was brought up
strictly, and the hours of study were long, but made interesting by her
scholarly instructor. Asking Miss Broughton if her father had been an
author, she replies, "only of his sermons, and I do not believe any of
my relations wrote a line in their lives." It is a surprise to hear that
her great gifts, her originality of style, her wonderful descriptions of
scenery, her subtle humour, are not hereditary. Keenly interested, you
ask her how then the idea of writing occurred to her.
She says she remembers a certain wet Sunday afternoon when she was about
twenty-two; she was distinctly bored by a stupid book which she was
trying to read, when "the spirit moved her to write." It was on the
leaves of an old copy-book lying at hand that she delivered her soul of
the ideas which poured in on her brain. Day after day, night after
night, she wrote swiftly and in secret, until at the end of six weeks
she found a vast heap of manuscript accumulated, to which she gave the
title of "Not Wisely, but Too Well." Miss Broughton kept it by her until
January, 1865, when she crossed over to Ireland on a visit to her
uncle-in-law, Mr. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, then editor of the _Dublin
University Magazine_; she selected two chapters at random and read them
aloud to him. He at once prognosticated the success of the book;
accepted it as a serial, and later on, suggested to Mr. Bentley that he
should bring it out in three volume form. Here, however, a check
occurred. The reader pronounced so unfavourably of its merits, that Mr.
Bentley held off. But the inspiration, once set in motion, could not be
stopped, and soon found vent in a new work, "Cometh up as a Flower."
This was well received. A couple of columns of favourable criticism in
the _Times_, and various eulogistic notices in other papers, soon caused
it to become such a marked success that Mr. Bentley reconsidered the
matter. His deliberation happily ended in the purchase of "Not Wisely,
but Too Well" from Tinsley, so that the two books were actually brought
out in the same year. The home of Miss Broughton's ancestors, Broughton
Hall, built in the reign of one of the old Tudors, is so well depicted
in "Cometh up as a Flower," that none who have read the book and seen
the place can fail to observe the absolute truthfulness of the
description.
_A propos_ of this novel, Miss Broughton tells an amusing anecdote:--"It
was claimed by other people," she says; "a lady told an acquaintance of
mine that her son had written it, which diverted me much."
The fame of these books went far afield. Some years ago a graceful
tribute was paid to the author. Captain Markham, of H.M. ship _Alert_,
begged to be introduced, and told her that in a remote Arctic region
they had by common consent christened an icebound mountain, "Mount
Rhoda," in grateful acknowledgment of the pleasure which her books had
given the officers of the ship on their perilous voyage.
"Temple Bar" secured her next two novels, "Red as a Rose is she" and
"Goodbye, Sweetheart." About once in two years Miss Broughton delights
the world with a new book. "Nancy," "Twilight Stories," "Joan," "Second
Thoughts," "Dr. Cupid," "Belinda," followed at about these intervals,
but her latest work, "Alas!" must take a high stand, if only for her
faithful delineation of life in Florence, her intimate knowledge of all
things artistic, her scenes laid in Algeria, which place she visited
last year, and her vivid and graphic descriptions of those lovely
countries, which are an education in themselves. And the humorous
touches! How much everyone sympathises with the meek, but excellent
"Amelia," whom no one thoroughly appreciates until after her death.
Uneducated in art, she appeals pitifully in the following words to her
lover, who finds out her worth too late.
"And now, where shall we go? that is the next thing--not to any gallery
or church, I think, if you don't mind. I say such stupid things about
art, and the more I try the stupider they are; let us go somewhere into
the country. I can understand the country, I am not afraid of saying
stupid things about it."
You tell her later of an observation made to you quite lately by her
sister author, Miss Braddon, ever keenly appreciative of the gifts of
another, on reading a striking description in "Alas" of the sea after a
storm, which runs thus:--"A sea even more wonderful than radiant; no
servile copy of the sky and clouds to-day, but with astonishing colours
of its own; a faint yet glorious green for a part of its watery
breadth; then what our poverty compels us to call blue; and then a great
tablecloth of inky purple, which looks so solid, that the tiny white
boats which are crossing it seem to be sailing on dry land." Miss
Braddon remarked, "Rhoda Broughton is a genius and a prose poet." Your
hostess is charmed with the kindly speech.
No solitary copy can be seen, in the well-filled book-cases, of the
author's works. She says that she sells them out and out at once, and
then has "done with them"; but, "Come," she adds, "we have talked long
enough about my books; let me show you a few of my treasures," and she
points out a small sketch by Hamilton Aidé, two busts of Lord Wolseley
and Mr. Carlyle, presented to her by Sir Edgar Boehm; presentation
copies from Matthew Arnold, Lord Lytton, Henry James, Andrew Lang, etc.,
etc., and an ornamental plate rack, by which she sets great store, from
Adelaide Kemble (Mrs. Sartoris); a very ancient engraving of Titian's
"Danaë" hangs over the mantelpiece opposite three lovely photographs of
"Garrick between Tragedy and Comedy." The floor of this delightful room
is covered with peacock-blue felt and a few rugs of Eastern manufacture;
a small aviary of birds stands by the window, which is open, for your
hostess is a "great believer in plenty of fresh air and a good fire."
Ere taking leave, you ask if the two fine pugs basking on the rugs are
especial pets. "Yes," says Miss Broughton, "but," mournfully, "they are
a degenerate race; and not the dear dog heroes of my books. _They_ are
all dead and gone!"
[Illustration: H. E. V. Stannard]
MRS. ARTHUR STANNARD
("JOHN STRANGE WINTER").
Emerging from the Earl's Court Station, where once stood the old manor
house of the De Veres, and glancing at the noble row of buildings across
the road, which until quite lately was the site of a _maison de santé_,
it seems impossible to realise that it was at the end of the last
century a miniature private zoological garden. Yet here the great
anatomist and surgeon, John Hunter, kept a collection of rare and
foreign animals; here, too, was the kitchen and the great cauldron in
which he performed the gruesome operation of boiling down the giant
O'Brien, whose skeleton can be seen in the museum of the College of
Surgeons. It is to be hoped that the ghost of the big Irishman was
safely laid when the work of destruction was carried on! Turning to the
left, you go down Trebovir road, past the great red-stepped house of the
well-known and successful "crammer" and army coach, Captain Pinhey,
which leads out into Nevern square. Perhaps in nothing more than in the
present style of building does the growing artistic spirit of the day
assert itself. Although the houses are not erected with the solid
masonry of other days, which seemed to defy the hand of time, they
rejoice in more picturesque effects, and certainly the handsome,
spacious Nevern-square, with its large gardens, its three well-kept
tennis courts, and its fine red-brick dwellings, is a striking instance
of the fact. It is barely a decade and a half of years since this site
was occupied by large nursery gardens, through which a winding country
lane lead to St. Mathias' Church yonder; now it is surrounded by stately
mansions, broad roads, and pleasant gardens. On the south-side a ruddy
gleam of fire-light through the red window-blinds marks the residence of
the popular author, John Strange Winter. Passing through the outer and
inner entrance doors, with mounted antlers, and Swiss carvings hung
between them, you reach the long, narrow hall, where the tesselated
black-and-white paving is covered for the most part with heavy Wilton
carpets; the rich, deep-red walls are profusely decorated with quaint
old prints, whose sombreness is relieved by Nankin and Spode china. A
later inspection shows these to include some choice engravings by
Morland, a few miniatures, and a group of family silhouettes. ("Had we
any more black relations?" Mrs. Stannard, when a child, once asked her
mother on being told which members of her family they portrayed.)
Entering the dining-room on the right, your hostess is discovered,
deeply engaged in dressing dolls for an approaching juvenile festivity,
when each little guest is to receive some gift. Clouds of filmy muslin,
embroidery, lace, and silk lie before her, and several of those already
attired repose in a row on the sofa. She extends a firm, white hand in
cordial greeting, and as there is only one more doll to complete the
set, you settle down beside her to watch the process, and notice the
deft and nimble fingers, as they swiftly run up a flounce or adjust a
tiny trimming. She is dressed in a black and grey tea-gown, which looks
like fine tapestry, with grey satin sleeves, panels, and front.
Mrs. Arthur Stannard is a tall, handsome young woman. She has fine, dark
brown eyes, which sparkle with intellect and humour, level eyebrows, and
dark hair curling over her low forehead, and well-shaped head; she has a
pretty but firm little mouth, and clear-cut chin, indicative of strength
of will. Her face has settled somewhat into gravity as she pursues her
occupation, for she has put into this apparently trivial matter, just as
she does in greater things, her very best efforts with that thoroughness
which characterises her; but as she suddenly looks up, and catches you
intently watching her, she smiles a sweet, bright smile, and laughs a
low, rippling laugh, as she seems to guess exactly what are your
thoughts. "It is for the children," she says softly, and in those few
words she betrays at once the sympathy of her nature, that sympathy with
these little ones which has caused the children of her pen to live so
vividly in the hearts of her readers.
It is a large, lofty room, pale green in colour, with carved oak dado. A
bright, clear fire blazing in the wide, tiled hearth makes the heavy,
polished brass fender and "dogs" glisten like gold. On the high, black,
carved "chimney shelf," as Mrs. Stannard calls it, stand three valuable
old blue jars, and the low, broad overmantel is composed of genuine
Dutch tiles, three hundred years in age, framed in wood. Over this is
grouped a collection of ancient blue Delft; the walls are hung with a
few good proof engravings; at night the room is amply lighted by the
huge hanging, crimson-shaded lamp, which casts a soft, becoming glow
over every corner; the floor is covered with a thick Axminster carpet of
subdued colouring, and with the exception of a handsome old carved oak
dower-chest and grandfather clock, with loud and sonorous strike, which
both date back into the last century, the rest of the furniture is
mahogany; pieces picked up here and there, restored, modernised, and
chosen with an eye to effect as well as to comfort.
Mrs. Stannard is the only daughter of the late Rev. Henry Vaughan
Palmer, rector of St. Margaret's, York. For some time Mr. Palmer had
been an officer in the Royal Artillery before his convictions led him to
lay down his sword and enter the church militant; he had come of several
generations of soldiers, and to the last day of his life found his
greatest pleasure in the society of military men; this perhaps accounts
for Mrs. Stannard's almost instinctive knowledge of army men and army
ways. Asking her if, when a child, she loved books, and gave promise of
her brilliant gift, she says, smiling, "Well, as regards my lessons,
most emphatically no! I was a restless, impatient sort of child, who
tired of everything before it was half done. I think, like all very
enthusiastic people, that I was never as happy as with books, that is to
say, novels. I was just eleven when I went to my first school, but I had
read Thackeray, Dickens, Charles Reade, and Whyte Melville up to date,
besides many others, and I was never restricted in my reading; I never
remember in my life my father or mother telling me not to read any
particular book, and," speaking very impressively, "I am all the better
for it. Years afterwards, when my father died--I was twenty-one then--I
felt that the few stories I had written and sold up to that time, were
but child's play. Then I began to work in real earnest, studying certain
authors that I might clearly realise the difference of their method and
style." But the thought at once arises, that the touching and simple
pathos of her style is entirely original, and born of no earthly model.
And then, as ofttime happens when two women are sitting together in
friendly converse, a word is dropped about her married life. Ah! here,
though much could be said, in deference to your hostess's wishes the pen
must be stayed. All who know Mr. and Mrs. Stannard know how complete and
perfect is their union. Mr. Stannard is a civil engineer, and at one
time served under the late General Gordon. He is very pardonably proud
of his clever wife, and efficiently transacts all her business
arrangements, the two--so perfect an one--working, as it were, hand in
hand.
Her _nom de guerre_, "John Strange Winter," was adopted by the advice of
the publishers of her first books, because they thought it wiser that
works so military as "Cavalry Life" and "Regimental Legends" should be
assumed by the world to be written by a man, and that they would stand a
better chance of mercy at the hands of the critics than if they went
forth as the acknowledged writing of a woman, and for a time it was so
assumed; but when "Booties' Baby" made such a success, and people wanted
to know who the author was, and where he lived, it soon became known
that "he" was a woman, although, as she did not add her name to the
title-page, it was a good while before it was generally believed. It may
here be remarked that Mrs. Stannard holds very strongly the opinion that
there should be "no sex in art," and whilst never desiring to conceal
her identity, deprecates the idea of receiving indulgence or blame on
the ground of her work being that of a woman, as both unjust and absurd.
In private life she carries out her ideas on this point so effectually
that few acquaintances would gather from her conversation (unless it
were necessary to "talk shop") that she was a literary woman at all, as,
except to a fellow worker, she would rather talk on any subject under
the sun than literature.
"The author to whom," according to Ruskin, "we owe the most finished and
faithful rendering ever yet given of the character of the British
soldier" can portray, too, in a wonderful degree the beauty of
child-life. Of modern creations there can be none better known to the
public, or which have excited more sympathy, than "Mignon" and
"Houp-là."
Correct in detail, as those can prove who were in India at the time of
the terrible mutiny of 1857, she might have written "A Siege Baby" on
the spot had it not been that she was only born on the thirteenth of
January in the previous year, and at that time was an infant in arms.
Fertile in imagination, acute in observation, sprightly and wholesome in
style, there is a freshness and life in her books which charm alike old
and young, rich and poor, at home and abroad; and that her popularity is
fully maintained is testified by the gratifying fact that a late story,
"He went for a Soldier," one of the slightest of her efforts, had a
larger sale during the first month after publication than any previous
work from her pen in the same period. One practical result of this book
must be mentioned. The scene is laid at Doverscourt, a few miles from
Mr. and Mrs. Stannard's pretty summer home at Wix. She had been greatly
distressed, when visiting that seaside place, by the sight of the
overloaded hackney-carriages, with their poor, broken-down horses.
Immediately after her indignant comments on this fact in her story,
bye-laws were passed bringing these vehicles under effective police
supervision.
Besides those already named, amongst some two or three and twenty
novels, which are all so well known as not to need description--for are
they not to be found in every library and on every railway bookstall in
the United Kingdom?--"Beautiful Jim," "Harvest," "Dinna Forget," and a
most pathetic story called "My Poor Dick," remain fixed on the memory.
This last is perhaps the author's own favourite. "Booties' Baby," as all
the play-going world knows, was dramatised and brought out four years
ago at the Globe Theatre in London. It has been on tour ever since, and
there seems no intention of terminating its long run, dates having been
booked far into the year. A late story, entitled "The Other Man's Wife,"
has been running in a serial in various newspapers, and is now issued
in two-volume form. One great element in the author's success and
world-wide literary reputation is undoubtedly to be found in her
creations of the children of her military heroes, alike among the
officers' quarters and those "on the strength." She has the happy knack
of depicting them at once simple, natural, and lovable.
"I never begin a novel," says Mrs. Stannard, "until I have got a certain
scene in my mind. I cannot write any kind of story without having one
dramatic scene clearly before me; when I have got it, I work up to that;
then the story arranges itself. But this is only the germ, the first
conception of the tale. As I write one thread after another spins itself
out, to be taken up afterwards to form a consecutive, concise whole.
Sometimes I lose my original story altogether, but never any dramatic
situation towards which I am working, and the end is often quite
different to what I had intended. When this happens I very seldom try to
fight against fate. I think all stories ought more or less to write
themselves, and it seems to me that this must make a tale more like real
life than if it were all carefully mapped out beforehand, and then
simply padded up to some requisite length."
By this time the last doll is finished and added to the row on the sofa.
They all look as if they had been turned out of a first-class milliners'
establishment. Mrs. Stannard suggests a move to her study, and leads the
way up the wide staircase, the handrail of which is protected by a broad
and heavy brass guard, put there for the sake of the little children of
the house. A broad settee on the wide conservatory landing invites you
to rest awhile and look at all the odds and ends which your hostess says
are so precious to her. Here are two handsome Chippendale chairs picked
up in Essex, many photographs of the house at Wix, a dozen pieces of
Lancashire Delph porcelain, made specially as a wedding present for Mrs.
Stannard's grandmother in 1810, some Staffordshire hunting jugs, and
some quaint little figures, "all rubbish," she says, smiling, "but
precious to me." There is, however, a Spode dinner service in blue which
is emphatically not rubbish, and a set of Oriental dishes, blue and red,
which are very effective. The landing is richly carpeted; the windows
and the doors of the conservatory are all of stained glass, while above
hangs an old Empire lamp of beautiful design filled in with small
cathedral glass. The first door on the left leads into the author's
study. It is a charming room, small but lofty, with pale blue walls hung
with many little pictures, plates, old looking-glasses, and chenille
curtains of terra-cotta and pale blue softly blended. A pretty inlaid
bookcase stands opposite the window, filled with a few well-selected
books. The horseshoe hanging yonder was cast in the Balaclava charge.
She has indeed a goodly collection of these, and owns to a weakness to
them, declaring that her first great success was achieved on the day
that she picked one up at Harrogate. There must be many hundreds of
photographs scattered about in this room, and it would be a day's
occupation to look through them all; but each has its own interest for
her, and most of them are of people well known in the literary,
scientific, artistic, and fashionable world. "I never sit here," she
says. "It is my work-room, pure and simple. Sometimes my husband comes
up, and then I read to him all my newly-written stuff, but this I do
every day."
The next door opens into the drawing-room, where there is a rich harmony
in the details of the decoration and furniture, which suggests the
presence of good and cultivated taste, combined with a general sense of
luxury and comfort. The entire colouring is blended, from old gold to
terra-cotta, from Indian red to golden brown. On the left stands a
cabinet crowded with choicest bits of china, in the middle of which is
placed the bouquet, carefully preserved, presented to the author by Mr.
Ruskin on her birthday. A lovely Dutch marqueterie table contains a
goodly collection of antique silver, and among the pictures on the walls
are a painting by Lawrence Phillips, Batley's etching of Irving and
Ellen Terry, also one of Mrs. Stannard, and a series of all the original
and clever pen-and-ink sketches in "Bootles' Children," by Bernard
Partridge, drawn as illustrations to the story in the _Lady's
Pictorial_.
After lingering long over afternoon tea, you express a wish to see the
children before they sleep. Mrs. Stannard leads the way first to a room
next her own, which is occupied by a fair little maiden, seven years of
age, with grey-blue eyes, sunny hair, and a wild-rose complexion, who
asks you to "go and see the twins." Accordingly their mother takes you
on to a large night-nursery, where the two little ones, boy and girl,
are being prepared for bed. They are just turned four, and are called
Eliot and Violet Mignon, after two of the characters in Mrs. Stannard's
books. They are perfectly friendly, and as you bend to kiss the baby
girl last, she looks reproachfully out of her great dark eyes, and
sternly commands you to "kiss Gertie, too." (Gertie is the under nurse.)
This raises a hearty laugh, under cover of which you hastily retreat.
Above all things, Mrs. Stannard is a thoroughly domestic woman. Popular
in society, constantly entertaining with great hospitality, she yet
contrives to attend to every detail of her large household, which
consequently goes like clockwork. She writes for about two hours every
morning, and keeps a neat record book, in which she duly enters the
number of pages written each day.
Presently Mr. Stannard comes in, and soon suggests an adjournment to his
study downstairs, a snug, business-like room, half filled with
despatch-boxes, books, and MSS. On a table stands a large folio-like
volume, which is Mrs. Stannard's visiting book, containing many hundreds
of names. She looks ruefully at a clip containing some sixty unanswered
letters, and candidly confesses that she finds considerable difficulty
with her private correspondence and her calls, both of which accumulate
faster than she can respond to; though, as she says, her many friends
are very indulgent to her on those scores, and are "quite willing to
make allowance for a poor woman who has the bulk of her literary work
cut out for a year or two in advance, three little children, and a
houseful of servants to manage; but, happily," she adds, "good servants.
I have been so lucky in that way."
Just now, indeed, she claims especial indulgence in respect to social
observances, for, as though so busy a life were not enough to exhaust
her energies, early in 1891 she added a new burden to her indefatigable
pen, by starting a penny weekly magazine under the title of _Golden
Gates_, subsequently altered to _Winter's Weekly_ in deference to the
opinion of those who objected to the somewhat religious sound of the
former name. The little paper was the first weekly periodical that was
ever exclusively owned, edited, and published by a popular novelist, and
its fortunes have been watched with vivid interest by all who know how
treacherous and adventuresome are such enterprises. The fresh, frank
individuality of _Winter's Weekly_ has, however, made friends for the
journal wherever it has gone, and if John Strange Winter can keep it at
its present point of unconventional interest, it may consolidate into a
valuable property. Already it seems to have suggested the publication of
new journals on similar lines, though no other woman novelist has yet
had the courage to follow suit.
Later works of this favourite writer are "Mere Luck," "My Geoff,"
"Lumley, the Painter," also a powerful and pathetic novel, in two
volumes, entitled "Only Human." Her last is a story called "A Soldier's
Children," which she has given for the benefit of the Victoria Hospital
for Children, Chelsea.
But with all this accumulation of business, these domestic cares, and
social claims, somehow Mrs. Stannard never seems in a hurry. The kind
and hospitable young couple are always ready to do an act of kindness,
and to welcome with help and counsel a new aspirant to fame in the
thorny paths of literature. Small wonder that they are so much sought
after in society, and so heartily welcomed wherever they go--and one is
seldom seen without the other. You go on your way with every hearty good
wish that each year may bring them ever-increasing prosperity and
success, for in such union there is strength.
[Illustration: Annie Hector]
MRS. ALEXANDER.
About three miles north-west of St. Paul's lies a comparatively new
suburb of the great metropolis, which but forty years ago was described
as "a hamlet in the parish of Marylebone," and through which passes the
Grand Junction Canal, almost reaching to Kilburn. London, with her
ever-grasping clutch, has seized on the vast tract of ground, which
erstwhile grew potatoes and cabbages for the multitude, and, abolishing
the nursery and market-gardens, has transformed them into broad streets,
of which one of the longest is Portsdown-road.
Not altogether inartistic is the row of substantially built houses where
Mrs. Alexander Hector has been for some years located. It is far enough
away to enable the popular authoress to pursue her literary vocation in
peace and quiet, yet sufficiently near to keep her in touch with the
busy world of literature and art, wherein she is deservedly so great a
favourite. The blue fan, serving as a screen for the window, is a sort
of land-mark distinguishing the house from its fellows. You are shown
into the library, where Mrs. Alexander is seated at a handsome oak
writing-table, busily engaged in finishing the last words of a chapter
in her new story. She looks up with a smile of welcome, and is about
to discontinue her occupation; but you hastily beg her to go on with her
work, which will give you time to look around; and as she complies with
the request, she says pleasantly, "Well, then, just for three minutes
only."
Your glance lights again on the gentle author herself, and you watch the
pen gliding easily over the page, which rests on a diminutive shred of
well-worn blotting-paper. The face is fair and smooth, the hair,
slightly grey, is simply parted back from the forehead, and the
three-quarter profile, which presents itself to your gaze, is straight
and well-cut. She wears a little white cap, and a long black gown,
trimmed with jet, and close by her side lies an enormous Persian tabby
cat of great age.
The study is divided from the adjoining room by heavy curtains drawn
aside and a Japanese screen. It is all perfectly simple and
unpretending, but the rooms are thoroughly comfortable and home-like.
The chapter being finished, your hostess rises, declares herself
entirely at your service, and mentions that she is now engaged on a new
three volume novel, which is to come out early next year in America, and
is as yet unnamed.
Mrs. Alexander was born in Ireland, though no touch of accent can be
detected. She never left that country until after her nineteenth
birthday. Her father belonged to an old squirearchal family, the
Frenches of Roscommon. He was a keen sportsman, and a member of the
famous Kildare Hunt. The few old pictures which hang on the wall are all
family portraits. One represents a paternal ancestor, Lord Annaly,
painted in his peer's robes. He was one of the Gore family, of whom no
less than nine members sat at the same time in parliament shortly before
the Union. Another picture of a comfortable-looking old gentleman in a
powdered wig is the portrait of a high legal dignitary, well known in
his day as Theobald Wolfe, a great-uncle of Mrs. Alexander. A third is a
seventeenth-century portrait of Colonel Dominic French, who looks manly
and resolute, in spite of his yellow satin coat, flowing wig, and lace
cravat, drawn through his buttonhole. This gentleman was the first
Protestant of the family, and is credited with having given up his faith
for love of his wife, who simpers beside him in an alarmingly
_décolletée_ blue dress, suggestive of the courtly style in the time of
the Merry Monarch. Her husband, with the ardour of a convert--or a
pervert--raised a regiment of dragoons among his tenantry, and fought on
the winning side at the Battle of the Boyne.
Mrs. Alexander remarks that her "kinsfolk and acquaintance in early
life, were, if not illiterate, certainly unliterary." "I always loved
books," she adds, "and was fortunate, when a very young girl, barely out
of the schoolroom, in winning the favour of a dear old blind Scotchman,
whose wife was a family friend. He was a profound thinker, and an
earnest student before he lost his sight. My happiest and most
profitable hours were spent in reading aloud to him books, no doubt a
good deal beyond my grasp, but which, thanks to his kind and patient
explanations, proved the most valuable part of my very irregular
education. In reading the newspapers to him, I also gathered some idea
of politics, probably very vague ideas, but so liberal in their tendency
that my relatives, who were 'bitter Protestants' and the highest of high
Tories, looked on me, if not as a 'black sheep,' certainly as a 'lost
mutton.' The tendency has remained with me, though my consciousness of
the many-sided immensity of the subject, has kept me from forming any
decided opinions."
The only bits of ancestry she values, Mrs. Alexander says, are her
descent from Jeremy Taylor, the celebrated Bishop of Down and Connor,
and the near cousinship of her grandmother to Lord Kilwarden, who was
the first victim in Emmet's rising; that high-minded judge, whose last
words, as he yielded up his life to the cruel pikes of his assailants,
were, "Let them have a fair trial."
The above-mentioned Jeremy Taylor, and the Rev. Charles Wolfe--whose
well-known poem, "The Burial of Sir John Moore," was so greatly
appreciated by Lord Byron--were the only literary members of the family
on her father's side; on her mother's, she can claim kindred with Edmund
Malone, the well-known annotator of Shakespeare.
On leaving Ireland, Mrs. Alexander, with her parents, travelled a good
deal, both at home and abroad, occasionally sojourning in London, where,
while still young, she began to write. Her first attempts were made in
the _Family Herald_ and _Household Words_, beginning with a sketch
called "Billeted in Boulogne." This is an account of their own personal
experience, when they endured the inconvenience of having French
soldiers quartered on them.
It was about this time that she was introduced to Mrs. Lynn Linton, by
the late Adelaide Proctor, with whose family she was on terms of some
intimacy, and with whose charming grandmother, the once well-known and
admired Mrs. Basil Montague, she was a prime favourite. From this
introduction arose the long, close friendship with the brilliant author
of "Joshua Davidson," which Mrs. Alexander values so highly, and of
which she is so justly proud.
In 1858 she married Mr. Hector, and wrote no more until she became a
widow.
Mr. Hector was a great explorer and traveller. He had been a member of
Landor's expedition to seek the sources of the Niger, and immediately
after his return to England he joined General Chesney in his attempt to
steam down the Euphrates to the Persian Gulf. He was also with Layard
during his discoveries in Nineveh, and spent many years in Turkish
Arabia. A man of great enterprise and ability, he was the pioneer of
commerce, and was the first who sent from London a ship and cargo direct
to the Persian Gulf, thereby opening up the trade between the two
countries.
It was after her husband's long illness, which terminated fatally, that
Mrs. Alexander again turned her thoughts to literature, to seek
distraction from her bereavement. It was then she wrote "The Wooing
o't." The book was a great success; it ran first through the pages of
_Temple Bar_; it was then published in three volumes, passed through
many editions, and has a world-wide reputation.
"I always write leisurely," says Mrs. Alexander; "I never will hurry, or
write against time. No, I have not much method," she answers, in reply
to your question, "nor am I quite without it. My stories are generally
suggested to me by some trait of character or disposition, which I have
adapted rather than produced. My people are rarely portraits, they are
rather mosaics; and, I _must_ say, I am exceedingly shy of dealing with
my men. Women I _do_ understand. Character to me is all-important. If I
can but place the workings of heart and mind before my readers, the
incidents which put them in motion are of small importance
comparatively. Of course, a strong, clear, logical plot is a treasure
not to be found every day! I am not a rapid writer; I like to live with
my characters, to get thoroughly acquainted with them; and I am always
sorry to part with the companions who have brought me many a pleasant
hour of oblivion--oblivion from the carking cares that crowd outside my
study door."
There is one point on which you would fain differ from the author. An
intimate knowledge of her books convinces you that her power of dealing
with her "men" is very great, and that her habits of observation have
stood her in good stead, whilst depicting with ready wit and
considerable skill the characters of her heroes. As you follow step by
step the career of the fascinating Trafford, in "The Wooing o't," and
watch the workings of his mind, the struggles between his natural
cynicism and pride, and his love for the humbly-born but high-souled
little heroine Maggie; his graceful rejection of the hand and fortune of
the proud heiress, and the final triumph of love over pedigree, you can
with truth echo the author's words, and feel that you too are "sorry to
part" with him and his wife, and would gladly welcome a sequel to their
histories.
Mrs. Alexander observes that there _is_ one character in that book drawn
from life, but adds, with a laugh, she "will not tell you which it is."
You have, however, a suspicion of your own.
"Her Dearest Foe" was the author's next work. It is constructed on
entirely different lines, but it is equally absorbing. The varied
fortunes of the brave heroine of the "Berlin Bazaar," of the masterful
Sir Hugh Galbraith, and the faithful cousin Tom, keep up an engrossing
interest from the first line to the last.
Her husband's Christian name being Alexander, she elected to write under
that appellation, fearing that her first book might be a failure. Having
begun with it, she has ever since kept the same _nom de plume_, and she
remarks, "It does just as well as any other."
The great success which attended these two books justified Mrs.
Alexander's further efforts. "Maid, Wife, or Widow," a clever little
story, is an "Episode of the '66 War in Germany"; "Which Shall it Be?"
"Look Before You Leap," and "Ralph Wilton's Weird" were brought out
during the next few years. They were all favourably reviewed, and many
of them passed into several editions. These were followed at intervals
by "Second Life," "At Bay," "A Life Interest," "The Admiral's Ward," "By
Woman's Wit." Mrs. Alexander wrote "The Freres" during a long residence
in Germany, whither she went for the education of her children. The
fact that she was on intimate terms with many of the good old German
families enabled her to write graphically from her personal knowledge of
the country.
In "The Executors" Mrs. Alexander broke new ground. The life-like
delineation of Karapet is drawn from her own observation and experience
of Syrian Christians, but the incidents are, of course, imaginary.
"Blind Fate," "A Woman's Heart," "Mammon," "The Snare of the Fowler,"
followed in due course, also some clever little shilling stories. The
author's latest published work in three volumes is called "For His
Sake," a pleasant and interesting novel, well worthy of the writer of
"The Wooing o't."
Mrs. Alexander's great ambition originally was to write a play; indeed,
her first few stories were planned with that object in view, but she
soon abandoned the idea, and says she "turned them into novels instead."
That there was some dramatic power in a few of her earlier efforts is
evident, as she was applied to for permission to dramatise "Her Dearest
Foe" and "By Woman's Wit." "Though," she adds, "it seems to me that the
latter is not suited to the stage."
Mrs. Alexander writes best in England. She says that London "inspires
her." She holds strong views upon education, and maintains that girls,
as well as boys, should be trained to follow some definite line in life.
She would have any special talent, whereby its possessor could, if
necessary, earn her own living cultivated to the utmost; and,
consistently following out her principles, she has sent her youngest
daughter, who has a decided genius for painting, to work in one of the
best-known studios in Paris, where she takes a fairly good place, and by
her diligence and ardour for her art at least deserves success. Another
daughter fulfils the onerous task of being "mother's right hand." But
she has yet a third, who has found a happy career in the bonds of
wedlock, and has made her home at Versailles. She is now on a visit to
her mother, and whilst you are conversing, the door opens, the young
wife comes in with a lovely infant in her arms, and the "first
grandchild" is introduced with pride. He is a perfect cherub, and makes
friends instantly.
Asking Mrs. Alexander about her early friends in literature, she
mentions with grateful warmth the name of Mrs. S. C. Hall, "whose ready
kindness never failed." "To her," she says, "I owe the most valuable
introduction I ever had. It was to the late Mr. W. H. Wills, editor of
_Household Words_. To his advice and encouragement I am deeply indebted.
His skill and discrimination as an editor were most remarkable, whilst
his knowledge and wide experience were always placed generously at the
service of the young and earnest wanderer in the paths of literature,
numbers of whom have had reason to bless the day when they first knew
Harry Wills."
Mrs. Alexander is pre-eminently a lovable woman. In the large society
where she is so well known, and so much respected, to mention her name
is to draw forth affectionate encomiums on all sides. You venture to
make some allusion to this fact; a faint smile comes over the placid
countenance, as she says inquiringly, "Yes? I believe I have made many
friends. You see, I never rub people the wrong way if I can help it, and
I think I have some correct ideas respecting the true value of trifles.
Yet I believe I have a backbone; at least I hope so, for mere softness
and compliance will not bear the friction of life."
[Illustration: Helen Reeves]
HELEN MATHERS.
(MRS. REEVES.)
Although it is but two o'clock in the afternoon, the streets are black
as night. With the delightful variety of an English climate, the
temperature has suddenly fallen, and a rapid thaw has set in, converting
the heavy fall of snow, which but two days before threatened to cover
the whole of London, into a slough of mud. It is a pleasant change to
turn from these outer discomforts into the warm and well-lighted house
which Mrs. Reeves has made so bright and comfortable.
You have judiciously managed to arrive five minutes earlier than the
hour appointed, in the hope of being able to make a few mental notes
before Helen Mathers comes in, and your perspicacity is rewarded, for a
bird's-eye glance around assures you that she possesses a refined and
artistic taste, which is displayed in the general arrangement of the
room. Lighted from above by a glass dome, another room is visible and
again a glimpse of a third beyond. The quaint originality of their shape
and build suggests the idea, of what indeed is the fact, that the house
was built more than a century and a half ago.
The first room is very long, and its soft Axminster carpet of amber
colour shaded up to brown gives the key-note to the decorations, which
from the heavily embossed gold leather paper on the walls to the
orange-coloured Indian scarves that drape the exquisite white
overmantels (now wreathed with long sprays of ivy, grasses, and red
leaves), would delight the heart of a sun-worshipper as Helen Mathers
declares herself to be.
As she now comes in, she seems to bring an additional sense of the
fitness of things. She carries a big basket of China tea-roses, which
she has just received from a friend in the country, and the long white
cachemire and silk tea-gown which she wears looks thoroughly
appropriate, despite the inclement season. It is her favourite colour
for house wear in summer or winter, and certainly nothing could be more
becoming to her soft, creamy complexion, and the natural tints of the
thick, bright copper-coloured hair, which, curling over her brow, is
twisted loosely into a great knot, lying low on the back of her head.
The conversation turning upon the peculiar structure of the rooms, Mrs.
Reeves proposes to take you into the one innermost which is truly a
curiosity. A very old cathedral glass partition opens on to a square and
lofty room, used as an inner hall, with great velvet shields of china
and brasses on its gold leather walls, and quaint old oak chairs,
cabinets, and high old-fashioned clock. A portrait in sepia of Mrs.
Reeves, done by Alfred Ward, hangs over a paneled door on the left. It
was to this picture that Mr. Frederick Locker wrote the following
lines:--
"Not mine to praise your eyes and wit,
Although your portrait here I view,
So what I may not say to you
I've said to it."
Opposite is a very wide, high door that opens into the oak-panelled
room, which may well have been a banqueting hall of the last century. It
is lighted from above, and each pane of glass has in its centre, in
vivid colours, the initials of the royal personage who, if the coats of
arms abounding everywhere are to be trusted, may have occupied this room
over a hundred years ago. By the way, the harp is absent from these
armorial bearings.
One entire side of the room is filled by a vast mirror, set in a
magnificently carved oak frame, and supported on either side by colossal
winged female figures, that are matched (and in the glass reflected) by
the caryatides who appear to hold up the massive carvings above the
door, which is itself covered entirely by superb carvings of beast and
bird, and laughing boys playing at Bacchus with great clusters of
grapes. Round this unique room runs an oak paneling of about five feet
in height, surmounted by a ledge, now decorated with trails of ivy, and
above the oak cupboards are panels representing a boar hunt, and worth,
it is said, a fabulous sum. But the glory of the room is the
mantelpiece, reaching to the roof. It was probably once an altar piece,
as the centre panel represents the Crucifixion. Two busts--one of Queen
Elizabeth, the other of the Earl of Leicester--frown down on you from a
great height, and do not please you half as well as a bronze Venus of
Milo below. The hearth itself (of an incredibly old pattern, with heavy
iron fender, which suggests a prison) has on either side two odd-looking
figures, that are supposed to represent Joan of Arc and her keeper. He
carries a knotted whip in one hand, and seems to look ferociously on
poor Joan in her half-manly, half-feminine garb.
"I am very fond of these two," says Mrs. Reeves, looking affectionately
at them, "and often dust their faces, but I am not at all fond of
sitting in this room. I much prefer my sunny quarters upstairs, and
these high carved oak chairs are uncomfortable to sit in, especially at
dinner!"
But pleasant as it is, there is other business on hand, and you cannot
linger over these beautiful antiquities; the afternoon is wearing on,
and Mrs. Reeves leads the way to the drawing-rooms, which are also oddly
shaped, and open one out of the other, like those downstairs; but those
rooms are very different to look upon, and are, in your hostess's
opinion, "much more cheery." You can step from the long windows on to a
flower-filled balcony that looks up and down Grosvenor Street. The
hangings of the first room are of yellow satin, of the second room pink;
the furniture is merely of basket work, but made beautiful and
comfortable by many soft cushions; and a long glass set in a frame of
white woodwork, its low shelf covered with rare old yellow china and
flowers, reflects the gold and cream leather walls, and the overmantel
crammed with a lovely litter of china, pictures, and odds and ends, in
the centre of which is a horseshoe. "Picked up by my boy, Phil," says
Mrs. Reeves, as you examine it, "and we always say it has brought us
luck."
But when you ask to see her writing-room--for there is not a sign of
pen, ink, and paper to be seen on a modest white escritoire behind the
door--she shakes her head and laughs.
"I have no writing-room and no particular table," she says, "indeed I
can't say in the least how my books get written. I jot down anything
that I especially observe, or think of, on a bit of paper, and when I
have a great many pieces I sort them out, and usually pin them together
in some sort of a sequence. At home, where I had an immense room to
write in over the library, the boys used to say no one must speak to me
if my 'authoress lock' were standing up over my forehead, but if I ever
display it nowadays, nobody," she adds, ruefully, "is deterred by it!
Often, just as I have settled down to do a good morning's work, and have
perhaps finished a page, someone comes in and puts letters or account
books on it, or my boy Phil rushes up and lays his air gun or his banjo
on the table, or my husband brings in some little commission or a heap
of notes to be answered for him. I always tell them," laughing, "that
everyone combines to put out of sight the story which is being written,
and often it is not touched again for a week; but my composition, when
really begun, is very rapid, and my ideas seem to run out of my pen. At
my old home they used to say I wrote the things that they thought, which
was a good, lazy way of getting out of it."
This leads to the subject of her "old home," and Mrs. Reeves imparts
some interesting details of her youthful days. She was born at
Misterton, Somersetshire, in the house described in "Comin' thro' the
Rye," and she has always most passionately loved it. Mrs. Reeves was one
of twelve children, who spent the greater part of their time in outdoor
sports and amusements, in which the girls were almost as proficient as
the boys. Their father was a great martinet, and never permitted any
encroachment on the regular lesson hours with their governess. "When I
was only eight years old," says your hostess, "our grandmamma Buckingham
(after whom I take my second Christian name) sent us a biography of
famous persons, arranged alphabetically. I looked down the list to see
if a Mathers were amongst them. It was not, and I took a pencil, and
made a bracket, writing in my name, Helen Mathers, novelist; so the
ruling idea must have been in me early."
The colour of her hair was Helen Mathers's greatest trouble in her
childhood. It was a rich red, and in the familiar home circle she was
called "Carrots," to her great annoyance, until she was sixteen. She
says:--"It gave me such genuine distress that before I was nine years
old, I had written a story depicting the sufferings of a red-haired girl
who wanted to marry a man who was in love with her golden-haired sister.
I inscribed this in an old pocket-book, looking out the names and places
in the _Times_ each day, and afterwards, in agonies of shyness, I read
it aloud to the assembled family, who received it with shouts of
mirth!"
At the age of thirteen, she was sent to Chantry School, and,
unfortunately for her, she was placed at once in the first class,
consisting of girls many years older than herself. Always ardent and
ambitious, she worked so hard that quite suddenly her health broke down,
and she became deaf--an affliction which has partially remained to this
day. No doubt this trouble drove her more into herself, and helped her
to concentrate her thoughts on literature. She wrote and wrote
incessantly for pure love of it, and before she was sixteen had
completed, her poem, "The Token of the Silver Lily." This she gave to a
friend of her family who was acquainted with Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The
great man read it, and sent her a message to the effect that, if she
persevered, she bid fair at some future day to succeed. This highly
delighted the girl, who was always working while the others played in
the beautiful place to which her parents had removed when they left
Misterton. This later home is described as "Penroses" in her late novel,
"Adieu!" which previously ran as a serial in a monthly magazine.
Her first appearance in print is thus described:--"It was hay-making
time, and everybody, boys and girls, children, servants, and all, were
down in the hayfield, when someone brought me a shabby little halfpenny
wrapper with the magic word 'Jersey' at the top. I gave a sort of whoop,
and fled down the lawn and across the orchards, and into the bosom of my
family like one possessed. 'Boys, girls!' I cried; 'it's
_accepted_--it's here in _print_! Look at it!' And never did a prouder
heart beat than the heart under my white frock that day for my
first-born bantling of the pen. I had been yachting with my
brother-in-law, Mr. Hamborough, a short time previously, with this
result, that I wrote a sketch of him and his wife and the place, and,
signing it 'N.'--short for 'Nell'--I took counsel with Mr. George
Augustus Sala, whom I did not know in those days, but who was very kind
in replying to me, and he despatched it to _Belgravia_. When it _did_
appear Jersey was very angry, and declared it was libelled, and I should
not have ventured to go over there again for a long while!"
About three years later she produced her first novel, "Comin' thro' the
Rye." It proved a great success, and was rapidly translated into many
languages; indeed, a copy in Sanscrit was sent to her. This work was
written unknown to her family. "My poor father," says Mrs. Reeves,
sadly, "I got him into the story, and though I did not mean to be unkind
or disrespectful, I could not get him out again. I hardly drew a free
breath for months afterwards, fearing someone would tell him I had
written it, and that he would be grievously offended; but I was young
and foolish, too young a great deal I often think to succeed, but it
makes me feel a sort of Methuselah now."
A story is told that many years ago a very youthful writer supplemented
a story of her own with several pages of this book, and wrote to Messrs.
Tillotson, saying she had written the twin novel to "Comin' thro' the
Rye," and would they buy it? The publishers told Mrs. Reeves of this
application. She was much amused, and in high good humour wrote back to
say that she had always understood twins appeared about the same time,
and that she had never heard before of one arriving seven years after
the other.
In 1876 Helen Mathers married Mr. Henry Reeves, the well-known surgeon
and specialist on Orthopædics. He has been on the staff of the London
Hospital for nearly twenty years, and he, too, is an author, but his
works bear more stupendous and alarming names than those of his wife,
such as "Human Morphology," "Bodily Deformities"--sad, significant
title! But not only as the skilful surgeon, the renowned specialist, the
student, and author, is Henry Reeves known. There is another section of
the world--amongst the poor and suffering, the over-worked clerk, the
underpaid governess, the struggling artist, where his name like many
another in his noble profession, is loved and revered, and where the
word "fee" is never heard of, and the "left hand knoweth not what the
right hand doeth." Did you not know all this from personal experience,
it is almost to be read in the kind, benevolent face. His wife says,
laughing, that "he is so unselfish, he never thinks of himself, and I
have always to be looking after him to see that he gets even a meal in
peace"; and she adds, in a low and tender tone, "but he is the kindest
and best of husbands." They have but one child--"Phil"--a bright,
handsome boy of fourteen. He is the idol of their hearts, and like
quicksilver in his brightness. His mother says when he was only three,
he was found sitting at her desk, wielding a pen with great vigour, and
throwing much ink about, as he dipped his golden curls in the blots he
was making. "What are you doing?" his mother asked. "Writing ''Tory of a
Sin,'" he said, with great dignity; and now that he is older he composes
with great rapidity.
"He is at school now," says Mrs. Reeves, "and the house is like a tomb
without him. If it were not for my needlework (my especial vanity) I
could not get through the long weeks between his holidays. Children,
flowers, needlework--these are my chief delights; and as I often have to
do without the first two, my needle is often a great comfort to me."
Shortly after her marriage, Mrs. Reeves again took up her pen, and
during the next few years she wrote several novels and novelettes,
selecting peculiarly attractive titles. Amongst these books are "Cherry
Ripe," "As He Comes up the Stair," "The Story of a Sin," "The Land of
the Leal," "My Lady Greensleeves," "Eyre's Acquittal," etc., etc.
Referring to a character in the last of these, you ask to see the book;
but there is not a single volume visible; they are all conspicuous by
their absence.
Mrs. Reeves remarks that she "has done nothing to speak of lately,
feeling she has had nothing to say." Some months ago the inclination to
begin a new story came back to her, and she set diligently to work while
it lasted. A great catastrophe occurred. The first volume was finished
when, having occasion to go on other business to her publisher, she had
the manuscript put into the hansom which was to convey her to his
office. After a long conversation, she suddenly remembered that the
parcel had been left in the cab, and from that day to this she has never
recovered it. At the time she did not take the matter seriously, feeling
sure the precious packet would be found at Scotland Yard; but, though
rewards were offered and handbills circulated by the thousand, all was
of no avail. Mrs. Reeves adds, "the Press most kindly assisted me in
every possible way. Either the cabman threw it away, in total ignorance
of its value, and then was afraid to come forward and confess it, or
some dishonest person who next got into the cab may have sold, or used
the story, in America probably, or elsewhere. _Nous verrons!_ I have
written it over again. It took me a few weeks only, without notes,
without a scrap of anything to help me, save my memory, and never in my
life did I sit down to a harder task."
The author is very modest in her own opinion of this last book, and adds
ruefully, "I feel miserable over it, but I never _am_ at all satisfied
with my work, and when I sent it to my publishers, I told them that they
had much better put it into the fire--it fell so entirely short of what
I had intended." They however, happily took quite a different view of
its merits, and the novel will shortly be brought out in three volumes.
Helen Mathers is a great needlewoman. Not only are the long satin
curtains, the pillows, cushions, and dainty lamp shades all made by her
own hands; but she can cut out and sew any article of feminine apparel.
She has, indeed, a very pretty taste in dress, and many of her friends
are in the habit of consulting her in that line--from the designing of
their smartest gowns to the little economies of "doing up the old ones
to look like new." "And yet," says Mrs. Reeves plaintively, "people call
me extravagant. Why! I have not even got a fashionable dressmaker. All
my makings and mendings and turnings are done at home by a clever little
workwoman, under my own superintendance, and I am most careful and
economical. When a child, I was never taught the value of money, but I
learnt it later by experience, and experience, after all, is the best
teacher. I look upon myself as a sort of 'Aunt Sally,' at whom Fate is
always having a 'shy,' chipping off a bit here, and a bit there, but
never really knocking me off my perch."
A great solid silver donkey with panniers which must hold a pint of ink,
stands on a table close to an oval Venetian glass framed in gold and
silver. Mrs. Reeves observes that though she has no writing-table, that
is her especial ink-stand, which is carried about from room to room. It
was given to her when very young, and, she laughingly adds, "You can
imagine all the complimentary remarks the boys at home made to me about
it." She goes on to say, "I always loved a good laugh, even though it
were against myself. We were such a happy united family in the big old
house. We are all scattered now," she remarks sadly; "some are dead,
some are abroad, and one sister, who married a son of Dr. Russell, of
_Times_ renown, is in China with her husband."
Mrs. Reeves is essentially a domestic woman. She cares comparatively but
little for society, and is never as happy as when at home, with her
husband sitting on the other side of the fire-place, like "Darby and
Joan." She is excellent company, and a brilliant conversationalist. She
possesses that good gift, a low, sweet voice, which glides on from topic
to topic--now gay, with flashes of wit and mirth, now subdued to gravity
or pathos. Albeit, she is a good listener, and has the happy knack of
drawing out talk. Yet, though constantly conversing on people and social
matters, not one unkindly word or suspicion of scandal escapes her lips.
She has a good word to say for all, and speaks with affectionate
gratitude of many. She prefers the company of woman, and says that her
best friends have been those of her own sex. But the charm of her
society has beguiled you into a long visit, and whilst bidding her
good-bye the feeling arises that if a friend in need were wanted, a
friend indeed would be found in "Helen Mathers."
[Illustration: Florence Marryat]
FLORENCE MARRYAT.
Battling with a fierce snowstorm, and a keen east wind, which drives the
flakes straight into your face like repeated stings of a small sharp
whip, a welcome shelter is presently found in Florence Marryat's pretty,
picturesque little house in St. Andrew's Road, West Kensington. Two
bright red pots filled with evergreens mark the house, which is built in
the Elizabethan style of architecture, with a covered verandah running
along the upper part. By a strange coincidence, the famous author has
settled down within a stone's throw of the place where her distinguished
father--the late Captain Marryat, R.N.--once lived. Until three months
ago, there stood in the Fulham Palace Road, a large, handsome building
enclosed in ten acres of ground, which was first called "Brandenburg
Villa," and was inhabited by the celebrated singer Madame Sontag. It
next fell into the hands of the Duke of Sussex, who changed its name to
Sussex House, and finally sold it to his equerry Captain Marryat, who
exchanged it with Mrs. Alexander Copeland for the Manor of Langham, in
Norfolk, where he died. For some years past Sussex House has been in
Chancery, but now it is pulled down; the land is sold out in building
plots, and the pleasure grounds will be turned into the usual streets
and rows of houses for the needs of the ever-increasing population. The
study--or as Florence Marryat calls it, her "literary workshop"--is
very small, but so well arranged that it seems a sort of _multum in
parvo_, everything a writer can want being at hand. It has a look of
thorough snugness and comfort. The large and well-worn writing table is
loaded with books of reference and a vast heap of tidily-arranged
manuscript, betokening the fact that yet another new novel is under
weigh. A massive brass inkstand, bright as gold, is flanked on each side
by a fierce-looking dragon. Two of the walls are lined with bookshelves
from floor to ceiling, filled with books which must number many hundreds
of volumes. Over the fireplace hangs an old-fashioned round mirror set
in a dull yellow frame, mounted on plush, around whose broad margin is
displayed a variety of china plates, picked up in the many foreign
countries which Miss Marryat has visited, and the effect is particularly
good. The room is lighted at the further corner by glass doors opening
into an aviary and conservatory, which is bright with many red-berried
winter plants; this little glass-house opens on to the big kennels where
Miss Marryat's canine pets are made so comfortable.
But the door opens. Enters your hostess with two ringdoves perched
familiarly on her shoulder. She is tall in stature, erect in carriage,
fair in complexion: she has large blue eyes--set well apart--straight,
well-formed eyebrows, and an abundance of soft, fair fluffy hair. She
is dressed very simply in a long black tea-gown with Watteau pleat, very
plainly made, but perfect in cut and fit, and looking quite unstudied in
its becoming graceful simplicity.
Florence Marryat is the youngest of the eleven children of the late
well-known author, Captain Marryat, R.N., C.B., F.R.S. Her mother, who
died at the good old age of ninety--in full possession of all her
faculties--was a daughter of Sir Stephen Shairp, of Houston, Linlithgow,
who was for many years H.B.M. Consul-General and _Chargé d'Affaires_ at
the Court of Russia. One side of the little study is dedicated to the
relics of her father, and in the centre hangs his portrait, surrounded
by trophies and memories. The picture is painted by the sculptor Behnes,
in water-colours, and represents a tall, fair, slight, though
muscular-looking man leaning against the mast of his ship, _Ariadne_,
dressed in the full uniform of those days, a long-tailed coat, white
duck trousers, and cocked hat held under his arm. Two smaller pictures
of him are pen-and-ink drawings by Count D'Orsay and Sir Edward Belcher
respectively.
Entering the service at a very early age, and in troublous times,
Captain Marryat gained rapid promotion, and had been in no less than
fifty-nine naval engagements before he was twenty-one, and with the
single exception of Lord Nelson he was the youngest Post Captain ever
known, having indeed attained that rank at the age of twenty-four. After
the first Burmese war, in which he took so distinguished a part, he was
offered a baronetcy as a reward for his services, but refused it,
choosing instead a crest and arms to commemorate the circumstance, with
the stipulation that the arms should be such as his daughters might
carry. This was accordingly done, and at the present moment there are
only eleven women in England who possess the same right, of which number
Miss Marryat and her sisters make five. The crest, with arms (a
fleur-de-lis and a Burmese boat with sixteen rowers on an azure ground,
with three bars argent and three bars sable) is framed, and hangs close
to what she calls her "Marryat Museum." Just below the portrait is an
oval ebony frame containing an etching of a beaver done on a piece of
ship's copper by her father, a morocco case close by holds all his
medals, which were bequeathed to her, including the Legion of Honour
bestowed on him by the Emperor Napoleon, and the picture of the dead
Emperor, sketched by the gallant sailor, and published by Colnaghi,
which is considered the best portrait of him ever taken. His daughter
remarks:--"It was always said of my father that he ever displayed to
perfection that courage, energy, and presence of mind which were natural
to his lion-hearted character. Unlike the veteran who 'shouldered his
crutch to show how fields were won,' he never voluntarily referred to
exploits of which any man might have been proud. He was content to _do_,
and know that he had _done_, and left to others the pride which he might
justly have felt for himself."
Independent of his nautical career, Captain Marryat had other great
talents. His writings will never be forgotten, from "Peter Simple" and
"Midshipman Easy" down to "Masterman Ready," the much-beloved books of
children. His "Code of Signals" is so celebrated that reference must
just be made to it. Shortly before he was elected a Fellow of the Royal
Society, he invented and brought to perfection the code which was at
once adopted in the Merchant Service, and is now generally used by the
British and French navies, in India, at the Cape of Good Hope, and other
English settlements, and by the Mercantile Marine of North America. It
is also published in the Dutch and Italian languages, and, by an order
of the French Government, no merchant vessel can be insured without
these signals being on board. Rising, Miss Marryat puts the original
work into your hands, and you observe, with something like awe, that it
is all written in the deceased sailor's own hand; the penmanship is like
copper-plate, the flags and signals are painted, and each page is neatly
indexed. Needless to say, it is regarded as a priceless treasure by his
daughter.
Born of such a gifted father, it is small wonder that the child should
have inherited brilliant talents. She was never sent to school, but was
taught under a succession of governesses. "On looking back," she says
with compunction, "I regret to remember that I treated them all very
badly, for I was a downright troublesome child. I was an omnivorous
reader, and as no restriction was placed on my choice of books, I read
everything I could find, lying for hours full length on the rug, face
downwards, arms propping up my head, with fingers in ears to shut out
every disturbing sound, the while perpetually summoned to come to my
lessons. I may be said to have educated myself, and probably I got more
real learning out of this mode of procedure than if I had gone through
the regular routine of the schoolroom, with the cut-and-dried
conventional system of the education of that day."
Florence Marryat has been twice married: first at the age of sixteen to
Captain Ross Church, of the Madras Staff Corps, and secondly to Colonel
Francis Lean of the Royal Marines. By the first marriage she had eight
children, of whom six survive.
The first three-volume novel she published was called "Love's Conflict."
It was written under sad circumstances. Her children were ill of scarlet
fever; most of the servants, terror-stricken, had deserted her, and it
was in the intervals of nursing these little ones that, to divert her
sad thoughts, she took to her pen. From that time she wrote steadily and
rapidly, and up to the present date she has actually turned out
fifty-seven novels besides an enormous quantity of journalistic work,
about one hundred short stories, and numerous essays, poems, and
recitations. She says of herself, that from earliest youth she had
always determined on being a novelist, and at the age of ten she wrote a
story for the amusement of her playfellows, and illustrated it with her
own pen-and-ink sketches (for be it known, the accomplished author has
likewise inherited this talent from her father, and to this day she will
decorate many a letter to her favourite friends with funny and clever
little illustrations and caricatures). But she wisely formed the
determination that she would never publish anything until her judgment
was more matured, so as to ensure success, that she "would study people,
nature, nature's ways, and character, and then she would let the world
know what she thought"; and in this piece of self-denial she has shown
extreme wisdom, and reaped her reward in the long record of successes
that she has scored and the large fortune she has made, but which, alas!
she no longer possesses. "Others have spent it for me," she says
plaintively; but she adds generously, "and I do not grudge it to them."
Part of it enabled her, at any rate, to give each and all of her
children a thoroughly good education, and she is proud to think that
they owe it all to her own hard work. Miss Marryat is always especially
flattered to hear that her novels are favourites with women, and she had
a gratifying proof of this when visiting Canada in 1885. She was waited
on by a deputation of ladies, armed with bouquets and presents, to thank
her for having written that charming story called "My Own Child."
"Gup," which had an extensive sale, is entirely an Anglo-Indian book,
not so much of a novel as a collection of character sketches and tales,
which her powers of observation enabled her to form out of the life in
Indian stations. For the benefit of the uninitiated, the word "Gup"
shall be translated from Hindustanee into English: "Gossip." "Woman
Against Woman," "Veronique," "Petronel," "Nelly Brooke," "Fighting the
Air," were amongst the earliest of the eighteen novels that she brought
out in the first eleven years of her literary career. These, together
with her "Girls of Feversham," have been republished in Germany and
America, and translated into Russian, German, Swedish, and French. Miss
Marryat says: "I never sit down deliberately to compose or think out a
plot. The most ordinary remark or anecdote may supply the motive, and
the rest comes by itself. Sometimes I have as many as a dozen plots, in
different stages of completion, floating in my brain. They appear to me
like a set of houses, the first of which is fully furnished; the second
finished, but empty; the third in course of building; till the furthest
in the distance is nothing but an outline. As soon as one is complete, I
feel I _must_ write it down; but I never think of the one I am writing,
always of the next one that is to be, and sometimes of three or four at
a time, till I drive them forcibly away. I never feel at home with a
plot till I have settled the names of the characters to my satisfaction.
As soon as I have done that they become sentient beings in my eyes, and
seem to dictate what I shall write. I lose myself so completely whilst
writing, that I have no idea, till I take it up to correct, what I have
written." Judging by the great heap of MSS. alluded to on her
writing-table, there seems but little for the writer to correct. At your
request, she hands you half a dozen pages, and you notice but three
alterations amongst them; the facile pen, the medium of her thoughts,
seems to have known exactly what it had to write. The novel is called
"How like a Woman," and will shortly make its appearance.
Her latest published works are "On Circumstantial Evidence," "A Scarlet
Sin," "Mount Eden," "Blindfold," "Brave Heart and True," "The Risen
Dead," "There is no Death," and "The Nobler Sex." With respect to Miss
Marryat's book, "There is no Death," many people have pronounced it to
be, not only the most remarkable book that she has ever written, but the
most remarkable publication of the time. To the public it is so full of
marvels as to appear almost incredible, but to her friends, who know
that everything related there happened, under the author's eyes, it is
more wonderful still. The amount of correspondence that she has received
on the subject ever since the book appeared in June, 1891, is
incalculable. Even to this date she has seven or eight letters daily,
all containing the same demand, "Tell us how we can see our Dead." This
book has done more to convince many people of the truth of Spiritualism
than any yet written. Florence Marryat numbers her converts by the
hundred and they are all gathered from educated people; men of letters
and of science have written to her from every part of the world, and
many clergymen have succumbed to her courageous assertions. It is
curious and interesting to know that Miss Marryat's experiences are not
only those of the past, but that she passes through just as wonderful
things every day of her life, and the spirit world is quite as familiar
to her as the natural one, and far more interesting. Whether her readers
sympathise with her or not, or whether they believe that she really saw
and heard all the marvels related in "There is no Death," the book must
remain as a remarkable record of the experiences of a woman whose
friends know her to be incapable of telling a lie and especially on a
subject which she holds to be sacred. "I really do not care much," says
Miss Marryat with a smile, "if my readers believe me or not. If they do
not it is their loss, not mine. I have done what I considered to be my
duty in trying to convince the world of what _I_ know to be true, and to
which I shall continue to testify as long as I have breath."
"Tom Tiddler's Ground" is the history of her own adventures while in
America. Many of her books have been dramatised, and at one time nine of
these plays were running simultaneously in the provinces. She says, "The
most successful of my works are transcripts of my own experience. I have
been accused of caricaturing my acquaintances, but it is untrue. The
majority of them are not worth the trouble, and it is far easier for me
to draw a picture from my own imagination, than to endure the society of
a disagreeable person for the sake of copying him or her."
But Miss Marryat's talents are versatile. After a long illness when her
physicians recommended rest from literature, believing an entire change
of occupation would be the best tonic for her, she went upon the
stage--a pursuit which she had always dearly loved--and possessing a
fine voice, and great musical gifts, with considerable dramatic power,
she has been successful, both as an actress and an entertainer. She
wrote a play called "Her World Against a Lie" (from her own novel),
which was produced at the Prince of Wales' Theatre, and in which she
played the chief comedy part, Mrs. Hephzibah Horton, with so much skill
and _aplomb_, that the _Era_, _Figaro_, _Morning Post_, and other
papers, criticised her performances most favourably. She also wrote
"Miss Chester" and "Charmyon" in conjunction with Sir Charles Young.
She was engaged for the opening of the Prince of Wales's (then the
Princes') Theatre when she played "Queen Altemire" in _The Palace of
Truth_. She has toured with D'Oyly Carte's _Patience_ companies, with
George Grossmith in _Entre Nous_, and finally with her own company in
_The Golden Goblet_ (written by her son Frank). Altogether Miss Marryat
has pursued her dramatic life for fifteen years, and has given hundreds
of recitations and musical entertainments which she has written for
herself. One of these last, called "Love Letters," she has taken through
the provinces three times, and once through America. It lasts two hours;
she accompanies herself on the piano, and the music was written by
George Grossmith. Another is a comic lecture entitled, "Women of the
future (1991); or, what shall we do with our men?" She has also made
many tours throughout the United Kingdom, giving recitals and readings
from her father's works, and other pieces by Albery and Grossmith.
For the last seven years Miss Marryat has never looked at a criticism on
her books. She says her publishers are her best friends, and their
purses are her assessors, and she is quite satisfied with the result.
She has an intense love of animals, and asks if you would object to the
presence of her dogs, as this is the hour for their admittance. On the
contrary, it is what you have been longing for, and two magnificent
bulldogs of long pedigree are let in. Ferocious as is their appearance,
their manners are perfect, and their great brown eyes seem human in
their intelligence as each comes up to make acquaintance. Meantime the
two doves have gone peacefully to sleep, each perched on a brass dragon,
and the dogs eye them respectfully, as if they were all members of "a
happy family."
A neat little maid comes in with a tea-tray, but ere she is permitted to
lay the prettily embroidered cloth, Miss Marryat directs attention to
the table, which is a curiosity. It is a small round table, made from
the oak planks of the quarter deck of H.M.S. _Ariadne_. This was sent to
her by a gentleman who never saw her, with a letter saying that she
would prize the wood over which her father's feet had so often trod. It
bears in the centre a brass inscription, as follows:--"Made from the
timbers of H.M.S. Ariadne, commanded by Captain Marryat, R.N., C.B.,
1828."
Miss Marryat, probably wishing to pay you a peculiar honour, pushes
forward her own special revolving writing chair; but no, you had
surreptitiously tried it whilst waiting for her, and unhesitatingly
pronounce it to be the most uncomfortable piece of furniture ever made.
It is constructed of wood, is highly polished, and has a hard seat, hard
elbow rests, and a hard unyielding back. She laughs heartily, and
declares she will hear no word against her "old arm-chair"; she says she
has got used to it; it has been, like herself, a great traveller; she
has written in it for twenty years, and it is a particular favourite.
Miss Marryat wears a diamond ring, which has a peculiar history, and is
very old. During the first Burmese war in which her father was engaged,
the natives were in the habit of making little slits in their skin, and
inserting therein any particular stone of value they wished to conceal.
One of these men was taken prisoner, and on being searched, or felt
over--for there was not much clothing to search--a small hard lump was
found on his leg, which at once revealed the presence of some valuable.
A slight incision produced a diamond, which was confiscated, set, and
presented by the good old sailor to his sister-in-law, Mrs. Horace
Marryat, whose only son, Colonel Fitzroy Marryat, gave it to his cousin,
the author.
She takes you into the adjoining room to see two oil-paintings of
wrecks, _chef d'oeuvres_ of the great Flemish seascape painter, Louis
Boeckhaussen, and valued at a high figure. There is a story attached to
these also. They belonged originally to the Marryat collection at
Wimbledon House, and were given to her brother Frederick by his
grandmother on his being promoted to be first lieutenant of the
_Sphynx_, and were hanging in his cabin when that ship was wrecked off
the Needles, Isle of Wight. They remained fourteen days under water, and
when rescued were sent to a Plymouth dealer to be cleaned. Lieutenant
Marryat, for his bravery on that occasion, was immediately appointed to
the _Sphynx's_ twin vessel, the ill-fated _Avenger_, who went down with
380 souls on the Sorelli rocks.
After this catastrophe, the dealer sent the paintings to the young
officer's mother, saying it was by his instructions, and that he had
refused to take them to sea again, as he declared that they were "much
too good to go overboard." Miss Marryat also possesses a painting by
Cawno, from "Japhet in search of a Father," which was left to her by the
will of the late Mr. Richard Bently, the publisher, and this she prizes
highly. She has several presentation pens, one of porcupine quill and
silver, with which her father wrote his last five novels; another of
ivory, coral, and gold, inscribed with her name and presented by Messrs.
Macniven and Cameron; a third of silver, and a fourth of gold and ivory,
given by admirers of her writings; fifthly, and the one she values most
and chiefly uses, a penholder of solid gold with amethysts, which
belonged to an American ancestress of the family, for Miss Marryat's
paternal grandmother was a Boston belle. This was a tribute from her
American relations when she crossed the Atlantic, with the words that
she was "the most worthy member to retain it." A noise of barking and
scratching at the door is heard outside. Florence Marryat opens it, and
many tiny, rough, prize terriers rush in. She laughs at your exclamation
of surprise at the number of her dog friends and answers, "They are not
all kept entirely for amusement. I sell the puppies, and they fetch
large prices. It is quite the fashion to be in trade now-a-days, you
know. One lady runs a boarding-house, another, her emporium for
furniture, a third, her bonnet shop, a fourth, her dress-making
establishment, so why not I, my kennels? I love dogs better than
bonnets, or chairs, or people, and so I derive pleasure as well as
profit from my particular fancy, and I should be lonely without these
pets."
But, as though talking of old reminiscences had changed her mood from
gay to grave, she asks you to look at a few very special treasures in
her writing room. "I call this my room of home memories," she says with
exceeding softness and pathos. "There are my children's pictures;
those," pointing to a small shelf, "are my best friend's books." "_Here_
are portraits of all whom I love best, my living, and my dead!"
[Illustration: Emily Lovett Cameron]
MRS. LOVETT CAMERON.
Nestling between Knightsbridge on the north, and Brompton Road on the
south, lies a quiet, old-fashioned square, which the organ-grinder and
brass band are no longer permitted to disturb. Everything is so still
that it is difficult to realise that it is within a few minutes' walk
from a busy, noisy thoroughfare. So near and yet so far from London's
"madding crowd." In summer time when the ancient trees, which are said
never to have been disturbed for generations, are in full leaf, the
little square might indeed be a slice out of the country itself; and
even now, with bare and leafless branches, it presents a peaceful, rural
appearance, for the hoar frost has covered every bough and shrub with a
million of glittering particles, which sparkle like diamonds in the
wintry sunshine. In the centre of the north side of Montpelier Square is
Mrs. Lovett Cameron's home, a cheerful-looking little house, gay with
window boxes, and fleecy muslin curtains draped with bright coloured
ribbons. An application at the brass horseshoe knocker is promptly
responded to, and you are admitted into the hall and vociferously
greeted by "Nancy," a handsome fox-terrier, the pet of the house, a
treasure-trove from the Dogs' Home. The first object which attracts
the eye, and, as it were, overshadows you, is the head of a gigantic
Indian buffalo, so sleek and life-like in appearance, with its huge
horns, that you involuntarily shudder to think what a formidable
opponent the savage monster must have proved in the flesh ere he became
the trophy of that gallant sportsman, the late Hector Cameron.
Ascending the staircase, the walls of which are hung with a series of
Colonel Crealock's spirited hunting sketches, you are ushered into the
drawing-room, which is divided midway by a carved white wood archway of
Moorish design. Large palms, tall arum lilies, and graceful ferns, are
grouped here and there about the room; no sound is heard save the song
of caged birds. The Oriental bowls and jars are filled with great double
chrysanthemums of golden brown, and other winter flowers; but a light
step approaches; the door softly opens, and the author enters: seeing
her framed in the doorway, clad in the soft folds of a simply-made
violet velvet tea-gown, the first glance conveys to the mind an
immediate impression that she is in thorough harmony with her
surroundings.
Mrs. Lovett Cameron is a fair, slight woman, a little below the middle
height; her large blue eyes have a very thoughtful, gentle expression;
her broad low brow is crowned with bright chestnut coloured hair. Her
habitually serious look changes, however, when having settled you into a
corner of the couch, with a cup of steaming coffee, she enters into
friendly conversation. Meanwhile you cast furtive glances around the
room. A bright fire blazes cheerfully on the blue and brown tiled
hearth. The carved white mantelpiece, with side recesses, is covered
with delicate specimens of old Dresden china, and surmounted by a broad
shelf, on which stand five exquisite antique Japanese jars, the _bleu
poudré_ and deep crimson being thrown into relief by the soft tints of
the "buttercup" coloured wall paper.
Amongst the pictures which adorn the walls is a portrait, after Sir
Godfrey Kneller, of Sir Edmund Verney, an ancestor of the family,
bearing the inscription "Standard Bearer to Charles I., who lost his
life in the Battle of Edghill." The original painting is at Liscombe,
Buckinghamshire, a property which still belongs to the Lovett family.
Further on is a lovely copy of the Madonna Caracci, in the Dresden
Gallery. Several pieces of valuable old blue china, quaint bits of
Oriental flat figures, together with a plate or two of old Dutch ware
decorate the walls, and an ancient convex mirror of great antiquity. Two
antique corner cupboards (Dutch) with flat glass doors disclose many
little treasures of enamel, old Worcester and Nankin, which Mrs. Cameron
says that she prizes as much from association as for their own intrinsic
value. An Italian cabinet inlaid with ebony and ivory occupies one side
of the wall, and, unlocking its doors, she takes out some priceless
scraps of old lace of cobweb-looking fabric, which she inherited from a
maternal ancestress, together with a few pieces of the Queen Anne silver
which are scattered on the tiny marqueterie table yonder. Amongst these
there is a richly-chased tankard, on which is the inscription, "Oration
Prize adjudged to Verney Lovett, of Trinity College, Cambridge, in the
year 1774." There is an amusing story told of another of Mrs. Cameron's
ancestresses. She was a Huguenot, a Mademoiselle de Bosquet, and, at the
time of the persecution of the French Protestants, when only a little
girl, she was packed up in a basket, smuggled out of France and sent
over to England to ensure her safety.
The long, dwarf bookcase on the right is filled with literary treasures,
inherited from the "Oration Prize" winner. Mrs. Cameron takes out
several, and mentions that they are valuable editions of "Montaigne,"
"Chesterfield's Letters," the "Tattler," the "Spectator," etc., but the
gem of the collection, and one that she greatly values, is a complete
set of the poems of Edmund Waller, dated 1729, in good preservation,
each poem headed with engravings by Vertue, chiefly portraits of the
Stuart family. The bookcase opposite contains several presentation
copies from brother and sister writers. Amongst them you look in vain
for the author's own works, but she says that they shall all be seen
presently in her own study below, and as she leads the way thither, past
the conservatory, you pause to admire the picturesque grouping of the
flowers and palms, some so high that the cages of the feathered
songsters are half concealed. Your hostess remarks that she "delights in
flowers, and is always lucky with them."
Turning to the right, she opens the door of her cosy little
writing-room. The dark red walls, with a frieze of large Japanese
flowers, are hung with etchings, photographs, and pictures, all of
which have their own story. Here is a complete series of Aitken's
"First Point to Point Race"; there portraits of the "Prize Fox-terriers
of England," presented to her by the late Sir John Reid. Also sundry
winners of the Derby, and many a pet dog and horse. Mrs. Cameron points
out her husband's favourite hunter, "Roscommon," and his wonderful pony,
"Tommy Dod," who "jumped like a cat," and carried him for many seasons
in Leicestershire, and who, with his master, was often mentioned with
honour in _Baily's Magazine_. A few sketches of the Thames indicate her
favourite resort for leisure hours, many summer days and autumn holidays
being spent on the river, in quiet nooks and corners, where, under the
able tuition of her barrister brother, Norman Pearson, late of Balliol,
and coach of the "Kingston Eight," Mrs. Lovett Cameron has achieved
considerable dexterity in sculling and canoeing.
Antlers and deers' heads, ranged high near the ceiling, testify further
to the sporting proclivities of the family. Over a quaint little corner
cupboard a big stuffed hawk looks down with an absurdly wise expression.
A high, three-cornered, and somewhat ascetic-looking chair is pushed
aside from a proportionately high and business-like writing table--a
handsome old English piece of furniture, which is loaded with manuscript
and books of reference, denoting the occupation in which Mrs. Cameron
was probably engaged when summoned to receive you, and you hastily begin
a word of apology; but she turns it aside and observes that she was
"quite glad to be interrupted, as she had been working beyond her usual
hour."
Over the table hangs a venerable canary, _ætat_. fourteen, who has
learnt to be mute in business hours. Opposite the window stands a large
antique Chippendale bookcase with glass doors, filled with hooks of
history, travel, biography, English poets, and old dramatists. One shelf
is reserved for another purpose, and here can be read the names of
fourteen three-volume novels, well known to the world, written by Mrs.
Lovett Cameron. Her husband has had them all bound alike in Russian
leather, and looks on them as his own especial property. This shelf is
now nearly full, and Mrs. Cameron remarks laughingly that "by rights she
ought to die when it _is_ full, as there will be no room for any more in
the cupboard." Of these novels, the first, "Juliet's Guardian," made its
bow to the public in 1876, having previously appeared in the pages of
_Belgravia_, "Jack's Secret" ran as a serial through the same magazine,
having been applied for, when _Belgravia_ changed hands, by the present
owner "to bring him luck." Taking out one after another of these
daintily-bound volumes--"Deceivers Ever," "Vera Nevill," "Pure Gold," "A
North Country Maid," "A Dead Past," "In a Grass Country," "A Devout
Lover," "This Wicked World," "Worth Winning," "The Cost of a Lie," "Neck
or Nothing," and other short stories--you see that most of them have
passed through several editions, and in "In a Grass Country," "ninth
edition," proving the special popularity of that particular book, which
chiefly made Mrs. Lovett Cameron's literary reputation. Her latest
additions to these entertaining works of fiction are "A Lost Wife,"
"Weak Woman," and "A Daughter's Heart."
It is always deeply interesting to hear about the early days of such a
well-known writer. Explaining to Mrs. Cameron that not only in Europe,
but also in the Colonies where her books are as largely circulated, that
she has many friends and admirers who will love to hear all about her
first literary efforts, she kindly consents to gratify you, and says,
that "to begin at the beginning," she was sent at the early age of six
to Paris, to acquire the language; she was placed in the family of the
late M. Nizard, an academician, and a man of some literary repute, who
later on became a member of the Senate. She has a vivid recollection of
the house--since demolished--surrounded by a large garden in the Rue de
Conscelles, where her childish days were spent. Amongst such
surroundings, it was natural that the girl should become imbued with a
love of reading, which, though carefully guided, was stimulated to the
utmost, and when, later on, after some further years at a school in
England, she returned home, she found herself in constant disgrace,
because she was always reading and hated needlework. As her mother and
sister were enthusiastic in this feminine accomplishment, and were
constantly engrossed in the embroidering of church altar-cloths and
linen, they were inclined to look on books as an excuse for idleness.
It was at this time that the young girl-student secretly wrote several
short stories, and, although very shy of these efforts, she one day
confided to her elder sister that she "felt certain she could write a
novel." With the honest candour of a family circle towards each other,
she was promptly extinguished with the remark, "That is nonsense. If you
had any talent for writing, it would have shown itself before this."
Thus discouraged, she laid aside the idea, and never resumed it until
after her marriage, when the talent which had lain dormant could no
longer be hidden. The story of the launching of her first novel is most
interesting, as showing the courage and perseverance of the young
author.
She had no acquaintance with a single member of the literary
profession--no interest with any editor or publisher; nevertheless, on
the completion of "Juliet's Guardian," she took up, by chance, the
nearest book at hand; reading therein the names of Chatto and Windus,
she then and there packed up her MS., and without any introduction, but
with many qualms, made her way to their office. She was courteously
received, and informed that she might leave it, and after a brief period
of anxious waiting, the good news came that it was accepted. Shortly
after, it was brought out, and the young author's first step to fame was
accomplished.
Rising to replace this volume, you inadvertently press against a panel
in the lower cupboard, which falling open, dislodges a large and
somewhat discoloured roll of newspapers, and hastening to gather them up
with a murmured word of regret for the accident, Mrs. Cameron remarks
with a laugh that they are copies of a paper, the _City Advertiser_,
which she and her two brothers started, and actually kept going for six
months, the three meeting once a week to carry it on. It was a source of
endless amusement to them, until the scattering of the family caused it
to die a natural death.
The easel yonder holds a large framed photograph of the head of an
Apollo, discovered when digging under the streets of Athens; and
opposite stands a portfolio full of sketches and maps, descriptive of
the route taken by her brother-in-law, Commander Lovett Cameron, the
well-known African traveller, who nearly seventeen years ago went on
foot across Africa with a small party of friends, but, alas! came back
alone. He was the only survivor of the intrepid band, the rest all
succumbed to the perils of the expedition. He it was who surveyed the
southern portion of Lake Tanganyika, proving it to be a lake, and
discovered the river Lukuga, which is the outlet thereof. Pursuing his
travels further, he also proved Lualaba and Congo to be one river, and
later discovered Lake Kassali and the sources of the Zambesi.
But whilst following out the route on a well-worn map, and listening to
these interesting details, youthful voices are heard outside, which
recall the fact that it is the first day of the holidays, and a tap at
the door is followed by the entrance of Mrs. Cameron's two fine, bright
boys, accompanied by their father.
The elder lad, "Verney" is at Winchester, the "school for scholars," and
he has already evinced a distinct talent for composition, combined with
a fund of humour, which has found vent in one or two clever, though
childish stories, which betoken the probability that he has inherited
his mother's gift of writing, but the younger boy, "Hector," bravely
tells you he "likes play better than lessons, and he means to go abroad
and shoot elephants." As he is, however, only twelve years old his
parents feel no immediate anxiety on _that_ score.
Mrs. Lovett Cameron seldom writes after two o'clock. She uses a pen
placed in a funny little stump of a broken mother-of-pearl holder, and,
handing it to you, she says, "I have a superstition about it. Every one
of my novels has been mainly written with it, and I often say that if I
use another penholder, I write badly. I have told my husband to put it
into my coffin."
She is a capital woman of business, and remarks that she "bought all her
experience for herself."
Those who do not know Mrs. Cameron well, think that she is cold and
proud. Truly, she does not wear her heart on her sleeve; but not to all
is revealed the true nature of the woman. Do you go to consult her on a
tiresome bit of business, to take a tale of deserving charity, to
confide a personal grief? Though in the midst of writing a sentence, the
busy pen is thrown aside, as she straightens the tangled web, opens her
purse to the pitiful story, or, with tender sympathy, enters into the
sorrow.
The good old "grandfather" clock in the corner is a very ancient and
much-treasured relic; its hands, however, mark that it is time to go;
but Mrs. Lovett Cameron asks you to "stay a moment." She runs lightly
upstairs and returns with a bunch of the gold and brown chrysanthemums,
which she puts into your hands; then, casting a last look at the fierce
buffalo, you pass out into the quiet little square, and in less than
five minutes find yourself again in the noisy region of cabs and
omnibuses.
[Illustration: M Hungerford]
MRS. HUNGERFORD.
It is well worth encountering the perils of the sea, even in the middle
of winter, and in the teeth of a north-east wind, if only to experience
the absolute comfort and ease with which, in these space-annihilating
days, the once-dreaded journey from England to the Emerald Isle can be
made. You have resolved to accept a hospitable invitation from Mrs.
Hungerford, the well-known author of "Molly Bawn," etc., to visit her at
her lovely home, St. Brenda's, Bandon, co. Cork, where a "hearty Irish
welcome" is promised, and though circumstances prevent your availing
yourself of the "month's holiday" so kindly offered, and limit an
absence from home to but four days, it is delightful to find that,
travelling by the best of all possible routes--the Irish Mail--it is to
be accomplished easily and without any fatiguing haste.
Having given due notice of your intentions, you arrive at Euston just in
time for the 7.15 a.m. express, and find that by the kindness of the
station-master a compartment is reserved, and every arrangement,
including an excellent meal, is made for your comfort. The carriages are
lighted by electricity, and run so smoothly that it is possible to get a
couple of hours' good sleep, which the very early start has made so
desirable. On reaching Holyhead at 1.30 p.m. to the minute, you are met
by the courteous and attentive marine superintendent, Captain Cay, R.N.,
who takes you straight on board the _Ireland_, the newest addition to
the fleet of fine ships, owned by the City of Dublin Steam Packet
Company. She is a magnificent vessel, 380 feet long, 38 feet in beam,
2,589 tons, and 6,000 horse-power; her fine, broad bridge, handsome
deck-houses, and brass work glisten in the bright sunlight. She carries
electric light; and the many airy private cabins indicate that, though
built for speed, the comfort of her passengers has been a matter of much
consideration. She is well captained, well officered, well manned, and
well navigated. The good-looking, weather-beaten Captain Kendall is
indeed the commodore of the company, and has made the passage for nearly
thirty years. There is an unusually large number of passengers to-day,
for it is the first week of the accelerated speed, and it is amusing to
notice the rapidity with which the mails are shipped, on men's backs,
which plan is found quicker than any appliance. Captain Cay remarks that
it is no uncommon thing to ship seven hundred sacks on foreign mail
days; he says, too, that never since these vessels were started has
there been a single accident to life or limb. But the last bag is on
board, steam is up, and away goes the ship past the South Stack
lighthouse, built on an island under precipitous cliffs, from which a
gun is fired when foggy, and in about an hour the Irish coast becomes
visible, Howth and Bray Head. The sea gets pretty rough, but luckily
does not interfere with your excellent appetite for the first-class
refreshments supplied. The swift-revolving paddles churn the big waves
into a thick foam as the good ship _Ireland_ ploughs her way through at
the rate of twenty knots an hour, "making good weather of it," and
actually accomplishes the voyage in three hours and fifteen minutes--one
of the shortest runs on record. The punctuality with which these mail
packets make the passage in all weathers is indeed truly wonderful--a
fact which is experienced a few days later on the return journey.
Kingstown is reached at 6.10 p.m. (Irish time), where the mail train is
waiting to convey passengers by the new loop line that runs in a curve
right through "dear dirty Dublin," as it is popularly called, to
Kingsbridge, and so on to Cork, where you put up for the night at the
Imperial Hotel.
Another bright sunshiny morning opens, and shows old Cork at her best.
Cork! the old city of Father Prout's poem, "The Bells of Shandon," which
begins thus:--
With deep affection and recollection
I often think of Shandon bells,
Whose sounds so wild would in days of childhood
Fling round my cradle their magic spells,
On this I ponder where'er I wander,
And thus grow fonder, sweet Cork, of thee;
With the bells of Shandon
That sound so grand on, etc., etc.
The river Lee runs through the handsome little city, and has often been
favourably compared with the Rhine. But Bandon must be reached, which is
easily managed in an hour by rail, and there you are met by your host
with a neat dog-cart, and good grey mare; being in light marching
order, your kit is quickly stowed away by a smart-looking groom, and
soon you find yourself tearing along at a spanking pace through the
"most Protestant" town of Bandon, where Mr. Hungerford pulls up for a
moment to point out the spot where once the old gates stood, whereon was
written the legend, "Let no Papist enter here." Years after, a priest in
the dead of night added to it. He wrote:--
Whoever wrote this, wrote it _well_,
The same is written on the gates of _Hell_.
Then up the hill past Ballymoden Church, in through the gates of Castle
Bernard, past Lord Bandon's beautiful old castle covered with exquisite
ivy, out through a second gate, over the railway, a drive of twenty
minutes in all, and so up to the gates of St. Brenda's. A private road
of about half a mile long, hedged on either side by privet and hawthorn
and golden furze, leads to the avenue proper, the entrance gate of which
is flanked by two handsome deodars. It takes a few minutes more to
arrive at a large, square, ivy-clad house, and ere there is time to take
in an idea of its gardens and surroundings, the great hall door is flung
open, a little form trips down the stone steps, and almost before the
horse has come to a standstill, Mrs. Hungerford gives you indeed the
"hearty Irish welcome" she promised.
It is now about four o'clock, and the day is growing dark. Your hostess
draws you in hastily out of the cold, into a spacious hall lighted by a
hanging Eastern lamp, and by two other lamps let into the wide circular
staircase at the lower end of it. The drawing-room door is open, and a
stream of ruddy light from half-a-dozen crimson shaded lamps, rushing
out, seems to welcome you too. It is a large, handsome room, very lofty,
and charmingly furnished, with a Persian carpet, tiny tables, low
lounging chairs, innumerable knick-knacks of all kinds, ferns, winter
flowers of every sort, screens and palms. A great fire of pine-logs is
roaring up the chimney. The piano is draped with Bokhara plush, and
everywhere the latest magazines, novels, and papers are scattered.
Mrs. Hungerford is a very tiny woman, but slight and well-proportioned.
Her large hazel eyes, sparkling with fun and merriment, are shaded by
thick, curly lashes. She has a small, determined mouth, and the chin
slightly upturned, gives a _piquante_ expression to the intelligent
face--so bright and vivacious. Her hair is of a fair-brown colour, a
little lighter than her eyelashes, and is piled up high on the top of
her head, breaking away into natural curls over her brow. She is clad in
an exquisite tea-gown of dark blue plush, with a soft, hanging, loose
front of a lighter shade of silk. Some old lace ruffles finish off the
wrists and throat, and she wears a pair of little high-heeled _Louis
quinze_ shoes, which display her small and pretty feet. She looks the
embodiment of good temper, merry wit, and _espièglerie_.
It is difficult to realize that she is the mother of the six children
who are grouped in the background. One lovely little fairy, "Vera," aged
three and a half, runs clinging up to her skirts, and peeps out shyly.
Her delicate colouring suggests a bit of dainty Dresden china. Later on,
you discover that this is actually the pet name by which she is known,
being indeed quite famous here as a small beauty. "Master Tom," a
splendid roly-poly fellow, aged sixteen months, is playing with a heap
of toys on the rug near the fire and is carefully watched over by a
young brother of five. The three other girls are charming little
maidens. The eldest, though but in her early teens, is intellectual and
studious; the second has a decided talent for painting, whilst the
third, says her mother, laughing, "is a consummate idler, but witty and
clever."
By and bye your hostess takes you into what she calls her "den," for a
long, undisturbed chat, and this room also bears the stamp of her taste
and love of study. A big log fire burns merrily here, too, in the huge
grate, and lights up a splendid old oak cabinet, reaching from floor to
ceiling, which, with four more bookcases, seems literally crammed with
dictionaries, books of reference, novels, and other light literature;
but the picturesque is not wanting, and there are plenty of other
decorations, such as paintings, flowers, and valuable old china to be
seen. Here the clever little author passes three hours every morning.
She is, as usual, over-full of work, sells as fast as she can write, and
has at the present time more commissions than she can get through during
the next few years. Everything is very orderly--each big or little
bundle of MSS. is neatly tied together and duly labelled. She opens one
drawer of a great knee-hole writing table, which discloses hundreds of
half sheets of paper. "Yes," she says, with a laugh; "I scribble my
notes on these: they are the backs of my friends' letters; how
astonished many of them would be if they knew that the last half sheet
they write me becomes on the spot a medium for the latest full-blown
accounts of a murder, or a laugh, or a swindle, perhaps, more
frequently, a flirtation! I am a bad sleeper," she adds, "I think my
brain is too active, for I always plan out my best scenes at night, and
write them out in the morning without any trouble." She finds, too, that
driving has a curious effect upon her; the action of the air seems to
stimulate her. She dislikes talking, or being talked to, when driving,
but loves to think, and to watch the lovely variations of the world
around her, and often comes home filled with fresh ideas, scenes, and
conversations, which she scribbles down without even waiting to throw
off her furs. Asking her how she goes to work about her plot, she
answers with a reproachful little laugh--"That is unkind! You know I
never _have_ a plot really, not the _bonâ fide_ plot one looks for in a
novel. An idea comes to me, or I to it," she says, airily, "a scene--a
situation--a young man, a young woman, and on that mental hint I begin
to build," but the question naturally arises, she must make a beginning?
"Indeed, no," she replies; "it has frequently happened to me that I have
written the last chapter first, and so, as it were, worked backwards."
"Phyllis" was the young author's first work. It was written before she
was nineteen, and was read by Mr. James Payn, who accepted it for
Messrs. Smith and Elder.
Mrs. Hungerford is the daughter of the late Rev. Canon Hamilton, rector
and vicar choral of St. Faughnan's cathedral in Ross Carberry, co. Cork,
one of the oldest churches in Ireland. Her grandfather was John
Hamilton, of Vesington, Dunboyne, a property thirteen miles out of
Dublin. The family is very old, very distinguished, and came over from
Scotland to Ireland in the reign of James I.
Most of her family are in the army; but of literary talent, she remarks,
it has but little to boast. Her principal works are "Phyllis," "Molly
Bawn," "Mrs. Geoffrey," "Portia," "Rossmoyne," "Undercurrents," "A
Life's Remorse," "A Born Coquette," "A Conquering Heroine." She has
written up to this time thirty-two novels, besides uncountable articles
for home and American papers. In the latter country she enjoys an
enormous popularity, and everything she writes is rapidly printed off.
First sheets of the novels in hand are bought from her for American
publications, months before there is any chance of their being
completed. In Australia, too, her books are eagerly looked for, whilst
every story she has ever written can be found in the Tauchnitz series.
She began to write when very young, at school taking always the prize in
composition. As a mere child she could always keep other children
spellbound whilst telling them fairy stories of her own invention. "I
remember," she says, turning round with a laugh, "when I was about ten
years old, writing a ghost story which so frightened myself, that when I
went to bed that night, I couldn't sleep till I had tucked my head under
the bedclothes. This," she adds, "I have always considered my _chef
d'oeuvre_, as I don't believe I have ever succeeded in frightening
anyone ever since." At eighteen she gave herself up seriously, or
rather, gaily, to literary work. All her books teem with wit and humour.
One of her last creations, the delightful old butler, Murphy, in "A Born
Coquette," is equal to anything ever written by her compatriot, Charles
Lever. Not that she has devoted herself entirely to mirth-moving
situations. The delicacy of her love scenes, the lightness of touch that
distinguishes her numerous flirtations can only be equalled by the
pathos she has thrown into her work every now and then, as if to temper
her brightness with a little shade. Her descriptions of scenery are
specially vivid and delightful, and very often full of poetry. She is
never didactic or goody-goody, neither does she revel in risky
situations, nor give the world stories which, to quote the well-known
saying of a popular playwright, "no nice girl would allow her mother to
read."
Mrs. Hungerford married first when very young, but her husband died in
less than six years, leaving her with three little girls. In 1883 she
married Mr. Henry Hungerford. He also is Irish, and his father's place,
Cahirmore, of about eleven thousand acres, lies nearly twenty miles to
the west of Bandon. "It may interest you," she says, "to hear that my
husband was at the same school as Mr. Rider Haggard. I remember when we
were all much younger than we are now, the two boys came over for their
holidays to Cahirmore, and one day in my old home 'Milleen' we all went
down to the kitchen to cast bullets. We little thought then that the
quiet, shy schoolboy, was destined to be the author of 'King Solomon's
Mines.'"
Nothing less than a genius is Mrs. Hungerford at gardening. Her dress
protected by a pretty holland apron, her hands encased in brown leather
gloves, she digs and delves. Followed by many children, each armed with
one of "mother's own" implements--for she has her own little spade and
hoe, and rake, and trowel, and fork--she plants her own seeds, and
pricks her own seedlings, prunes, grafts, and watches with the deepest
eagerness to see them grow. In springtime, her interest is alike divided
between the opening buds of her daffodils, and the breaking of the eggs
of the first little chickens, for she has a fine poultry yard too, and
is very successful in her management of it. She is full of vitality, and
is the pivot on which every member of the house turns. Blessed with an
adoring husband, and healthy, handsome, obedient children, who come to
her for everything and tell her anything, her life seems idyllic.
"Now and then," she remarks laughing, "I really have great difficulty in
securing two quiet hours for my work"; but everything is done in such
method and order, the writing included, there is little wonder that so
much is got through. It is a full, happy, complete life. "I think," she
adds, "my one great dread and anxiety is a review. I never yet have got
over my terror of it, and as each one arrives, I tremble and quake
afresh ere reading."
"April's Lady" is one of the author's lately published works. It is in
three volumes, and ran previously as a serial in _Belgravia_. "Lady
Patty," a society sketch drawn from life, had a most favourable
reception from the critics and public alike, but in her last novel, very
cleverly entitled "Nor Wife, Nor Maid," Mrs. Hungerford is to be seen,
or rather read, at her best. This charming book, so full of pathos, so
replete with tenderness, ran into a second edition in about ten days. In
it the author has taken somewhat of a departure from her usual lively
style. Here she has indeed given "sorrow words." The third volume is so
especially powerful and dramatic, that it keeps the attention chained.
The description indeed of poor Mary's grief and despair are hardly to be
outdone. The plot contains a delicate situation, most delicately worked
out. Not a word or suspicion of a word jars upon the reader. It is not
however all gloom. There is in it a second pair of lovers who help to
lift the clouds, and bring a smile to the lips of the reader.
Mrs. Hungerford does not often leave her pretty Irish home. What with
her incessant literary work, her manifold domestic occupations, and the
cares of her large family, she can seldom be induced to quit what she
calls, "an out and out country life," even to pay visits to her English
friends. Mr. Hungerford unhesitatingly declares that everything in the
house seems wrong, and there is a howl of dismay from the children when
the presiding genius even suggests a few days' leave of absence. Last
year, however, she determined to go over to London at the pressing
invitation of a friend, in order to make the acquaintance of some of her
distinguished brothers and sisters of the pen, and she speaks of how
thoroughly she enjoyed that visit, with an eager delight. "Everyone was
so kind," she says, "so flattering, far, far too flattering. They all
seemed to have some pretty thing to say to me. I have felt a little
spoilt ever since. However, I am going to try what a little more
flattery will do for me, so Mr. Hungerford and I hope to accept, next
Spring, a second invitation from the same friend, who wants us to go to
a large ball she is going to give some time in May for some charitable
institution--a Cottage Hospital I believe; but come," she adds, suddenly
springing up, "we have spent quite too much time over my stupid self.
Come back to the drawing-room and the chicks, I am sure they must be
wondering where we are, and the tea and the cakes are growing cold."
At this moment the door opens, and her husband, gun in hand, with muddy
boots and gaiters, nods to you from the threshold; he says he dare not
enter the "den" in this state, and hurries up to change before joining
the tea table. "He is a great athlete," says his wife, "good at cricket,
football, and hockey, and equally fond of shooting, fishing, and
riding." That he is a capital whip, you have already found out.
In the morning you see from the library window a flower garden and
shrubbery, with rose trees galore, and after breakfast a stroll round
the place is proposed. A brisk walk down the avenue first, and then back
to the beech trees standing on the lawn, which slopes away from the
house down to a river running at the bottom of a deep valley, up the
long gravelled walk by the hall door, and you turn into a handsome
walled kitchen garden, where fruit trees abound--apple and pear trees
laden with fruit, a quarter of an acre of strawberry beds, and currant
and raspberry bushes in plenty.
But time and tide, trains and steamers, wait for no man, or woman
either. A few hours later you regretfully bid adieu to the charming
little author, and watch her until the bend of the road hides her from
your sight. Mr. Hungerford sees you through the first stage of the
journey, which is all accomplished satisfactorily, and you reach home to
find that whilst you have been luxuriating in fresh sea and country air,
London has been wrapped in four days of gloom and darkness.
[Illustration: M Betham-Edwards]
MATILDA BETHAM-EDWARDS.
A winding road from the top of the old-fashioned High Street of Hastings
leads to High Wickham, where, on an elevation of some hundred feet above
the level of the main road on the East Hill stands a cottage, which is
the abode of a learned and accomplished author, Miss Betham-Edwards. The
quaint little "Villa Julia," as she has named it after a friend, is the
first of a terrace of picturesque and irregularly-built houses. A
tortuous path winds up the steep ascent, and on reaching the summit, one
of the finest views in Southern England is obtained.
The vast panorama embraces sea, woodland, streets, and roads, the
umbrageous Old London coach-road, above, the grassy slopes reaching to
the West and Castle hills. Far beyond may be seen the crumbling ruins of
the Conqueror's stronghold (alas! this historic spot is now defaced by
an odiously vulgar and disfiguring "lift!"), and further still, the
noble headland of Beachy Head and broad expanse of sea, on which the
rays of sunshine glitter brightly. Between the East and West hills, a
green environment, lies nestled the town, with its fine old churches of
All Saints' and St. Clement's. On a clear day, such as the present,
no view can be more exhilarating, and the ridge on which Miss
Betham-Edwards's cottage stands is lifted high above the noise of the
road below. Behind stretch the gorse-covered downs leading to Fairlight,
from whence may be seen the coast of France, forty miles off, as the
crow flies. Close under the author's windows are hawthorn trees made
merry by robins all through the winter, and at the back of the house may
be heard the cuckoo, the thrush, and the blackbird, as in the heart of
the country. Truly, it is a unique spot, inviting to repose and
inspiring cheerfulness of mind.
The interior of the Villa Julia is in thorough keeping with the
exterior. The little study which commands this glorious view is
upstairs. It is a charming room, simplicity itself, yet gives evidence
of taste and culture. There is nothing here to offend the eye, and no
suggestion of the art-decorator, but it is all just an expression of its
occupant's taste and character. "I have a fancy," says Miss
Betham-Edwards, "to have different shades of gold-colour running through
everything. It is an effective background for the pictures and pottery";
accordingly, the handsome Morocco carpet, bought by herself in the
Bazaar at Algiers, is of warm hue. The furniture and wall-paper have the
prevailing delicate tints; an arched recess on each side of the
fireplace displays lovely specimens of brilliant pottery from Athens and
Constantinople, with many shelves below, filled with volumes in various
foreign languages. On the mantelshelf stand statuettes of Goethe and
Schiller, remembrances of Weimar; the walls are hung with water-colour
sketches by Mdme. Bodichen and many French artists. Long low dwarf
bookcases fill two sides of the room, the top shelves of which are
lavishly adorned with more pottery from Germany, Italy, Spain, and
Switzerland, the whole collected by the author on her foreign travels.
Her choice little library contains first and foremost the great books of
the world, and, besides these, a representative selection of modern
literature. "It is in a small compass," she remarks, "but I keep it for
myself, eliminating and giving away useless volumes which creep in." On
a neatly arranged writing table stand a stationery-case and a French
schoolboy's desk, which is rather an ornamental contrivance of
_papier-maché_. "I invariably use it," says Miss Edwards, "it is a most
convenient thing, and has such a good slope. When one is worn out I buy
another. I do not like things about me when I write; I keep a clear
table, and MSS. in the next room. I rise early, and work for five hours
every morning absolutely undisturbed: my maid does not even bring me a
telegram."
From the window just below on the left can be seen the house of one of
Miss Betham-Edwards's _confrères_, Mr. Coventry Patmore, the poet. A
little further on is the picturesque villa which Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell
(the first woman doctor) inhabits. "As remarkable and good a woman as
ever lived," she adds. "I do not go much into society, for I find the
winter is the best time for writing. I lead a completely retired
literary life, but I have a few kindred spirits around me, and I
occasionally hold little receptions when we all meet."
In person Miss Betham-Edwards is about the medium height, middle-aged,
and slender in figure. She is fair in complexion; has hazel eyes, and a
mass of thick, dark hair, grey over the temples, and worn in a twist at
the back, the ends dispersed neatly round a small and compact head. She
is wearing black for the present, being in mourning, but is fond of
warm, cheerful colours for habitual use. "But, indeed," she says,
smiling, "I have not much time to think of dress, and I was greatly
amused by the remark of a former old landlady who, anxious that I should
look my best at some social gathering, remarked austerely to me,
'Really, Madam, you do not dress according to your talents!' Upon which
I replied 'My good woman, if all folks dressed according to their
talents, two-thirds, I fear, would go but scantily clothed.'"
Matilda Barbara Betham-Edwards is a countrywoman of Crabbe, R.
Bloomfield, Constable, Gainsborough, and Arthur Young. She was born at
Westerfield, Suffolk, and in the fine old Elizabethan Manor House of
Westerfield, Ipswich, her childhood and girlhood were spent. There was
literature in her family on the maternal side, three Bethams having
honourably distinguished themselves, viz., her grandfather, the Rev. W.
Betham, the compiler of the "Genealogical Tables of the Sovereigns of
the World"; her uncle, Sir W. Betham, Ulster King of Arms, the learned
and ingenious author of "Etruria Celtica," "The Gael and the Cymri,"
etc.; and lastly, her aunt and godmother, Matilda Betham, the author of
"A Biographical Dictionary of Celebrated Women," and other works, and
the intimate friend of Charles and Mary Lamb, Southey, and Coleridge.
From the paternal side Miss Betham-Edwards inherited whatever mother-wit
and humour she displays; her father, for whose memory she entertains the
deepest affection, was like Arthur Young, an agriculturist, and
possessed a genuine vein of native humour. Left motherless at a very
early age, she may be called self-educated, her teachers being plenty of
the best books, and with her first story-book arose the desire and fixed
intention to become herself a story-teller.
In these early days among the cowslip meadows and bean fields of
Westerfield, books were the young girl's constant companions, although
she had the happiness of having brothers and sisters. By the time she
was twelve, she had read through Shakespeare, Walter Scott, "Don
Quixote," "The Spectator," "The Arabian Nights," Johnson's "Lives of the
Poets"; then, _inter alia_, Milton was an early favourite. As she grew
up, the young student held aloof from the dances and other amusements of
her sisters, writing, whilst yet in her teens, her first published
romance, "The White House by the Sea," a little story which has had a
long life, for it has lately been re-issued and numerous "picture-board"
editions have appeared. Amongst new editions, cheaper and revised, are
those of "Disarmed," "The Parting of the Ways," and "Pearls." By
request, some penny stories will shortly appear from her pen. "John and
I" and "Dr. Jacob" were the result of residences in Germany, the former
giving a picture of South German life, and dates from this period, and
the latter being founded on fact.
"On arriving at Frankfort," says Miss Betham-Edwards, "to spend some
time in an Anglo-German family, my host (the Dr. Paulus of 'Dr. Jacob'),
almost the first thing, asked of me, 'Have you heard the story of Dr.
J---- which has just scandalized this town?' He then narrated in vivid
language the strange career which forms the _motif_ of the work." That
novel too has had a long existence. It was re-issued again lately, the
first edition having appeared many years ago. The personages were mostly
taken from life, "a fact I may aver now," she says, "most, alas! having
vanished from the earthly stage." On the breaking up of her Suffolk
home, the author travelled in France, Spain, and Algeria with the late
Madame Bodichen--the philanthropist, and friend of Cobden, George Eliot,
Dante Rossetti, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, and Herbert Spencer--herself a
charming artist, and writer of no mean power, but best known, perhaps,
as the co-foundress with Miss Emily Davis of Girton College. "To the
husband of this noble woman," she continues, "I acknowledge myself
hardly less indebted, for to Dr. Bodichen I owe my keen interest in
France and French history, past and present, and I may say, indirectly,
my vast circle of French friends and acquaintances, the result of which
has been several works on French rural life, and the greatest happiness
and interest to myself."
"Kitty," which was first published in 1870 in three volumes, later on,
in one volume, and which is, perhaps, the most popular of Miss
Betham-Edwards's stories, belongs to this period. In Bishop Thirlwall's
"Letters to a Friend" occurs the following from the late Lord Houghton:
"'Kitty' is the best novel I have ever read."
A compliment the author valued hardly less came from a very different
quarter. Messrs Moody and Sankey, the American revivalists, wrote to
her, and asked if she could not write for their organ a story on the
lines of "Kitty," but with a distinctly Evangelical bias. The request
was regretfully refused. Each character in this original and delightful
book is drawn to perfection and sustained to the end, which comes all
too soon. The genuine novel-lover, indeed, feels somewhat cheated, for
did not the author almost promise in the last page a sequel? A new
edition has just been published.
"Kitty" was followed by the "Sylvestres," which first ran through _Good
Words_ as a serial. Socialistic ideas were not so much in evidence then
as now, and many subscribers to this excellent family journal gave it
up, frightened by views which are at the present moment common property.
No story, nevertheless, has brought Miss Betham-Edwards more flattering
testimony than this; especially grateful letters from working men
pleased a writer whose own views, political, social, and theological,
have ever been with the party of progress. The books already mentioned
are, without doubt, her most important novels, though some simple
domestic stories, "Bridget" for instance, "Lisabee's Love Story," "The
Wild Flower of Ravenswood," "Felicia," and "Brother Gabriel," are
generally liked; whilst in America several later works, "Disarmed," and
particularly the two German Idylls, "Exchange no Robbery" and "Love and
Mirage" (which last novel originally appeared as a serial in _Harper's
Weekly Magazine_ in America), have found much favour. Of this novel,
indeed, Miss Betham-Edwards received a gratifying compliment from Mr.
John Morley, who wrote to her, saying: "'Love and Mirage' is very
graceful, pretty, interesting, and pathetic. I have read it with real
pleasure." It has twice been translated into German. Of later years many
editions have been reproduced in one volume form. Another American
favourite is the French idyllic story, "Half-Way," now re-issued in one
volume.
In 1891 Miss Betham-Edwards received a signal honour at the hands of the
French Government, viz., the last dignity of "_Officier de l'Instruction
Publique de France_." She is the only English woman who enjoys this
distinction, given as a recognition of her numerous studies of rural
France. Her last and most important work in this field is in one volume,
"France of To-day," written by request and published simultaneously in
London, Leipzig, and New York. In fiction her most recent contributions
are "The Romance of a French Parsonage" in two volumes, "Two Aunts and a
Nephew" in one volume, and a collection of stories, entitled "A Dream of
Millions." Of this the late lamented Amelia B. Edwards wrote to her
cousin: "It is worthy of Balzac."
Miss Betham-Edwards has devoted herself entirely to literature, and is
an excellent linguist. "I have been again and again entreated," she
says, "to take part in philanthropy, public work, to accept a place on
the School Board, etc., but have stoutly resisted. A worthy following of
literature implies nothing less than the devotion of a life-time.
Literary laziness and literary 'Liebig,' _i.e._, second-hand knowledge
or cramming, I have ever held in disesteem. If I want to read a book I
master the language in which it is written. If I want to understand a
subject I do not go to a review or a cyclopædia for a digest, but to the
longest, completest, most comprehensive work to be had thereon. In odd
moments I have attained sufficient Latin and Greek to enjoy Tacitus and
Plato in the original. French, German, Spanish, and Italian I consider
the necessary, I should say the obligatory, equipments of a literary
calling. It seems to me that an ordinarily long life admits of reading
the choicest works of the chief European literatures in the original,
and how much do they lose in translation!"
An early afternoon tea is served in the snug little dining-room below,
in which stands a magnificent inlaid Spanish oak chest, occupying nearly
the whole side of the wall. This is a treasure heirloom, and is dated
1626, the time of Charles I.'s accession to the throne. Two quaint old
prints of Ipswich and Bury St. Edmunds are also old family relics. On
the table is a German bowl from Ilmennau--Goethe's favourite
resort--filled with lovely purple and white anemones, which have just
arrived from Cannes, and in other little foreign vases are early
primroses and violets, for Hastings has enjoyed a long continuance of
bright sunshine and mild weather. Whilst at tea, the conversation turns
on music, celebrated people whom your hostess has met, and many social
subjects. Miss Betham-Edwards says, "Music has ever been one of my
recreations, the piano being a friend, a necessity of existence, but, of
course, a busy author has not much time for pianoforte playing. _Vidi
tantum!_ I have known and heard the great Liszt. I have also spent a
week under the same roof as George Eliot and G. H. Lewes. I have watched
the great French artist, Daubigny, paint a flotilla of fishing boats
from a window at Hastings. I have heard Gambetta deliver an oration,
Victor Hugo read a speech, the grandson of Goethe talk of _den
Grossvater_ in the great poet's house at Weimar. Browning, too, I used
to meet at George Eliot's and Lord Houghton's breakfast parties.
Tourgenieff, Herbert Spencer, and how many other distinguished men I
have met! It is such recollections as these that brace one up to do, or
strive to do, one's best, to contribute one's mite to the golden
store-house of our national literature, with no thought of money or
fame!"
Miss Betham-Edwards is a first cousin of the late Miss Amelia Blandford
Edwards, the distinguished Egyptologist, and author of "Barbara's
History," etc. The author of "Kitty" is a Nonconformist, and holds
advanced opinions. She is an ardent disciple of Herbert Spencer, a keen
antagonist of vivisection, and has written on the subject, the only
social topic, indeed, which ever occupies her pen. She divides her time
between her cottage residence on the hills above Hastings and her
beloved France, where she has as many dear friends as in England. Of her
own works, the author's favourite characters are the humorous ones. The
Rev. Dr. Bacchus in "Next of Kin," Anne Brindle in "Half-way," Polly
Cornford in "Kitty" ("Where on earth," Lord Houghton asked her, "did you
get the original of that delightful woman!"), and Fräulein Fink in "Dr.
Jacob," a study from life. As works of imagination, perhaps "Love and
Mirage" and "Forestalled" are, in her estimation, the best. "The Parting
of the Ways," "For One and the World," are also among a long list of
Miss Betham-Edwards's works. She has written a great many short stories,
whilst four charming volumes of travel must not be omitted; they are
entitled "The Roof of France," "A Winter with the Swallows," "Through
Spain to the Sahara," and "Holidays in Eastern France." These journeys
are all described with much brightness, reality, and graphic
word-painting, and betoken so thorough a knowledge of the scenes and
people that they form most pleasant and instructive reading. Many of the
works above mentioned have been translated into French--"Kitty" has just
gone into its second edition in that language--German, and Norwegian,
and all are published in Tauchnitz.
"I am always glad," remarks the author, "to hear of cheap editions. I
should like to see good books brought out at a penny. I have had various
publishers, and never quarrelled with any of them. I know Mr. George
Bentley well. He is a man of great literary culture, and is always
kindness itself to me. The late Mr. Blackett, too, was a great friend."
Miss Betham-Edwards holds such decided and sensible views on one of the
great questions of the day that they shall be given in her own words. "I
consider," she says emphatically, "cremation to be an absolute duty
towards those to come, and support it on hygienic and rationalistic
grounds. Each individual should do his or her best to promote it."
The conversation of this sympathetic and intellectual woman is so
fascinating that you are loath to leave without hearing somewhat of her
own principal reading. Expressing the wish to her, she smiles
pleasantly, and says: "My favourite English novels are 'Villette' and
'The Scarlet Letter,' both perfect to my thinking, and consummate as
stories and works of art. In German, my favourite novelist is Paul
Heyse. George Sand I regard as the greatest novelist of the age. George
Eliot's sombre realism repels me, whilst I fully admit her enormous
power. 'Don Quixote' in Spanish, with some other favourite works, I read
over and over again, Lessing's 'Nathan the Wise,' Schiller's 'Æsthetic
Letters,' these, and some of Goethe's smaller works I re-read regularly
every year; they are necessary mental pabulum. Spinoza is also a
favourite, second only to Plato. Of contemporary writers, Spencer,
Harrison, Morley, and Renan stand first in my opinion; whilst of the
living novelists I can only say that I endeavour to appreciate all. For
the stories of the late Mrs. Ewing I entertain the highest admiration;
also I delight in the graceful author of 'The Atelier du Lys.' Tolstoi,
Ibsen, Zola, and that school, I find repulsive in the extreme.
Imaginative literature should, above all things, delight. With the
sadness inherent in life should be mingled a hopeful note, a touch of
poetry, a glimpse of the beautiful and of the ideal."
Miss Betham-Edwards has one faithful and cherished companion, who always
accompanies her in her walks, and who sits quietly beside her when she
writes. This is a white Pomeranian dog, very intelligent and
affectionate, who will certainly never be lost while he wears his
present "necklace," bearing the following inscription:--
My name is Muff,
That's short enough;
My home's Villa Julia,
That's slightly peculiar;
On the east side you'll find it,
With Fairlight behind it;
My missus is a poet,
By this you should know it.
Ere the train leaves there is a good hour to spare; so, taking leave of
the gifted author, you employ the time in sauntering about the town, and
first go to see the fine church of St. Mary Star-of-the-Sea, founded by
Mr. Coventry Patmore; also some ancient buildings of quaint
architecture, in which the notorious Titus Oates is said to have lived.
The Albert Memorial is the most prominent object in the town, occupying
a central position at the junction of six roads, and close by are the
renowned Breach's oyster rooms, where the temptation to taste the
Whitstable bivalve in the fresh white-tiled shop is not to be resisted;
but whilst there the great clock on the Memorial warns you to be up and
away. There is much food for meditation on the return journey to town;
and on reflecting over all that Miss Betham-Edwards has learnt and
achieved, the poet's lines involuntarily suggest themselves:
"And still the wonder grew,
That one small head should carry all 'she' knew."
[Illustration: Ada Ellen Bayly, "Edna Lyall"]
EDNA LYALL.
To the befogged Londoner there is perhaps no greater treat than to
escape for forty-eight hours to the seaside even in the depths of
winter, and whilst spinning along by the London, Brighton, and South
Coast express, there is a pleasurable sense of excitement in the feeling
that you are going to breathe the fresh sea air of Eastbourne untainted
by smuts and smoke. "The Empress of watering-places," as a well-known
journalist has named it, is now seen in its best aspect. It presents
quite a different phase in August and September, when the residents,
almost to a man, desert the town, having previously with great prudence
let their houses at a high figure, and the place is given over to the
holiday-makers, nigger minstrels, braying bands, and itinerant beach
preachers. Now its genial, pleasant society is in full swing, and merry
golf parties are the order of the day. Few places have increased with
more rapid growth during the last fifteen or twenty years, or become
more popular as a residence than Eastbourne, partly owing to the
excellent train service, partly to the well-organised supervision over
every detail in the whole town, and again probably more to the bright,
healthy atmosphere, which registers three hundred days of sunshine as
against sixty-nine in London.
In one of the prettiest roads in this pleasant seaside town stands--a
little way back from the red-and-black tiled pavement--a large brown
creeper-covered house with red tiled roof built in the Gothic style of
architecture. Though it has only been constructed during late years, the
gables and points give it an old-fashioned and picturesque look, but
beauty and variety of style are studied at Eastbourne, and each house is
apparently designed with a view to artistic effect. College Road is
bordered on either side by Sussex elms. The approach is by gates right
and left which open into a garden filled with shrubs. On seeking
admittance you are taken up to a bright, cheerful room which faces the
west, and has all the outward and visible signs of being devoted to
literary and artistic pursuits. As the young author, Edna Lyall, rises
from the typewriter in the corner opposite the door, with kindly
greeting, you are at once struck with her extremely youthful appearance.
She is about the medium height, pale in complexion, with dark hair
rolled back from a broad forehead which betokens a strongly intellectual
and logical cast of mind. She has well-defined, arched eyebrows, and
very dark blue eyes, which light up softly as she speaks. Her manner is
gentle and sympathetic, and her voice is sweet in tone. She wears a
simply-made gown of olive-green material, relieved with embroidery of a
lighter colour.
The room seems exactly what one would expect on only looking at her. It
is the room of a student who prefers books to society, and every part of
it bears evidence of the simplicity, refinement, and quiet comfort of
her tastes. It is square and low, with a broad cottage window,
commanding a lovely view over the Downs, which have somewhat of an
Alpine look, the high hills in the distance, and the furthermost broad
belt of trees in the grounds of Compton Place are tipped with snow, as
also are those in the foreground, belonging to some private gardens. The
whole scene, now flooded in sunshine, is a constant delight to Edna
Lyall, who says that she "rejoices in the knowledge that it can never be
built out." Over the window hangs a wrought-iron scroll-work fern
basket, which looks like Italian manufacture, but is in reality made by
the boys of St. John's, Bethnal Green Industry, developed by Miss
Bromby. Under this is a broad, low shelf, covered with terra-cotta
cloth, which is the repository of many little treasures. The floor is
covered with Indian matting, strewn about with a few brightly-coloured
Indian and Persian rugs; and in the centre is a comfortable couch with a
guitar lying on it. The pretty American walnut-wood writing-table
against the wall on the right has a raised desk and little cupboards
with glass doors, which reveal many good bits of china. On the further
side is a handsome revolving table filled with books, and in the corner
stands an old grandfather clock of the seventeenth century. There is a
neat arrangement for hiding manuscripts out of sight, a tall piece of
furniture with little narrow drawers, also a piano opposite, and a
variety of quaintly-shaped chairs; but the feature of the room is a
large ornamental book-case on the left, filled with a hundred or so of
standard volumes. On the mantelshelf, amongst odds and ends of china,
stand some favourite portraits, and the author particularly calls
attention to a photograph of her great friend, Mrs. Mary Davies, whom
she describes as "a woman of most beautiful character." Another is of
Captain Burges, R.N., who was killed at Camperdowne, a third is a
platinotype head of George Macdonald, a fourth is of Frederick Denison
Maurice, the theologian, the others represent some of her principal
heroes, Sir Walter Scott, Algernon Sydney, John Hampden, and Mr.
Gladstone. There are many good pictures on the walls, a few pretty
landscapes in water-colours, a fine photograph of Sant's "Soul's
Awakening," and an Irish trout stream in oils; two are especially
attractive, the large and beautifully-executed photograph over the
fireplace of Hoffman's "The Child Christ in the Temple," and "The Grotto
of Posilipo," the grotto described by Edna Lyall in her novel, "The
Knight Errant."
Ada Ellen Bayly (Edna Lyall) was born and educated at Brighton. Her
father, Mr. Robert Bayly, barrister-at-law, of the Inner Temple, died
when she was eleven, and three years later she lost her mother. Always a
thoughtful, studious child, at the age of ten she had already written
some short stories, which were read and thought promising by her
parents, who, however, wisely made her understand that story-writing
must stand second to her own training. From that time forward she was
always preparing for her future profession. After losing both her
parents the young girl made her home with a sister, who had married
Canon Crowfoot, of Lincoln. It was shortly after leaving school that she
wrote her first book, "Won by Waiting," a story of home life in France
and England. It is a charming story, simple in sketch and style, with
some clever bits of character-painting, in which, as her later books
show, she excels.
There is a peculiar interest in her second novel, "Donovan." This work
was written at intervals during three years. "When beginning it," says
the young author, "I had very little notion of what I had undertaken.
Sometimes I wrote easily; sometimes I was at a standstill." But the
reason is easily explained. It was about that time that she began to
experience a great mental conflict. Profoundly religious by nature, she
entered deeply into the theological questions of the day, and though the
struggle was deep and painful, she never rested until her mind was
satisfied. "No one can regret," says Edna Lyall, "having been forced to
face the problems which 'Donovan' had to face, and I am very thankful to
have had that struggle. I wished to draw the picture of a perfectly
isolated man and his gradual awakening. He had, of course, to begin by
professing himself an atheist and a misanthrope; but very soon he begins
to love a child, then a dog, then a woman. By these means he comes to
realize his selfishness, and to detest it; he begins to love humanity,
to pity and help his worst enemy, and finally to 'love the highest'
when he sees it. Someone made me laugh the other day by saying that 'it
was stated on the best authority that Edna Lyall had cried most bitterly
at the thought of having written "Donovan" and "We Two," and would give
anything to recall them.' I can only tell you that all that makes life
worth living came to me through writing those books. So much for gossip!
The struggle is one which we have each to go through. We must think it
all out for ourselves," she goes on to say softly, whilst a bright, glad
smile illumines her face; for light and peace have come to her, and she
describes herself as having surmounted the storm, and achieved the haven
of rest and happiness in her belief. "Won by Waiting" and "Donovan" had,
according to the author, "fallen flat."
In 1884 she introduced "We Two" to the world. This book, which is a
distinct story, is yet in a sense a continuation of the former, and was
the outcome of all that she had lived through in the preceding years. It
was so well reviewed in all the leading journals, and became so much
talked about, that people began to ask for "Donovan" so extensively,
that it took a new lease of life, and was soon as popular as or more so
than its sequel. These two works were brought out by Messrs. Hurst and
Blackett.
In September, 1884, Edna Lyall came to Eastbourne, and established
herself with her sister, Mrs. Jameson, whose husband, the Rev. Hampden
Jameson, is attached to the handsome church, St. Saviour's, standing
close by, and she is herself a member of the congregation. Soon after
her arrival a new book was begun; this is a historical novel, and the
author gives an interesting account of the facts which suggested the
work. "Shortly after I had finished 'We Two,'" she says, "I happened to
visit an uncle and aunt of mine, whose charming old house in
Suffolk--Badmondisfield Hall--was connected with some of the happiest
days of my very happy childhood. The place had always been an ideal
place for dream stories and old-world plays. I knew every nook of the
quaint old hall and garden and park, and now the spell laid hold of me
again, and the characters of Hugo and Randolph, with whom I had had such
delightful imaginary games in old days, started into life once more. One
morning, pacing to and fro beside the bowling-green between the house
and the moat, the thought flashed into my mind that the time of the Rye
House plot would best develop the character of my hero--a naturally
yielding and submissive boy, whose will was held in bondage by the
stronger will of his elder brother. Little by little the outline of the
story shaped itself in my mind. Every history of England to be found in
the ancient bookcases was pulled down, old papers relating to the old
house and its owners looked through, old pictures studied, and the
possibility of Hugo's escapade in the musician's gallery at the end of
the dining-hall tested by an inch tape and elaborate calculations."
On leaving Suffolk, Edna Lyall went up to London to study the reign of
Charles II in the reading-room of the British Museum. The story was
published in 1885 under the title of "In the Golden Days"--"a title
which," she says, "some people fancied I had meant seriously, but which,
of course, referred to the first line of the 'Vicar of Bray.'" In this
work are undoubtedly some of the finest characters of Edna Lyall's
creation. The chapter headed "The Seventh of December" contains a most
touching account of the patriot Algernon Sydney's death. Whilst still
engaged on this book the author spent many weeks yachting in the
Mediterranean, and during one visit to Naples and its neighbourhood used
some of the experience she had gained during former visits to Italy to
begin and think out the plot of "Knight-Errant." "The motive of that
book," she remarks, "is, I think, so distinctly expressed that I need
not say much about it. The motto I chose for the title-page shows that
in its central idea--reconciliation--it is the completion of 'Donovan'
and 'We Two,' though, naturally, as a story of stage life, it is quite
unlike them in plot and surroundings. I dislike 'novels with a purpose'
as much as any one," she adds, "but at the same time it seems to me that
each book must have its particular _motive_."
"Knight-Errant" is a book of thrilling adventure and absorbing interest;
the account of the attack on the hero, Carlo, in the Grotto of Posilipo,
is so powerfully drawn that it keeps the reader in breathless suspense.
Norway, too, is one of her favourite haunts, and in the land of the
mountain and the fjord she is quite at home. Intensely fond of nature,
she has depicted, in her latest three-volume novel (Hurst and Blackett),
"A Hardy Norseman," in most realistic language, the exquisite scenery
that she witnessed during some of her long, solitary carriole drives.
She spent many very happy days with her friends, Presten Kielland
(brother of the well-known Norwegian author, Alexander Kielland) and his
charming wife and children. "He and his eldest daughter," says the young
author, "are excellent English scholars, and I owe to them an
introduction to Norwegian life which as a mere tourist I could never
have gained."
None who read Edna Lyall's books can fail to be struck by her tender and
vivid word-painting of animals (the faithful dog, "Waif," is familiar to
all) and of little children, but here she can draw from the life, as
there are eight little nephews and nieces downstairs whom she adores,
and with whom she is a great favourite.
But the mid-day sun is high in the heavens, and your hostess proposes to
take you for a stroll round the grand extension parade below the Wish
Tower, and as you walk she beguiles the time with pleasant conversation
on personal incidents. Referring to a little sketch published in the
form of a shilling book by Messrs. Longmans in 1887, called the
"Autobiography of a Slander," "Ah!" she says smiling, "that _was_
written 'with a purpose,' and was suggested by a very disagreeable
incident. On returning from one of our delightful Norwegian tours, I was
greeted on every side by a persistent report that had been set afloat to
the effect that I was in a lunatic asylum! We found out at this time
that an impostor had been going about announcing that she was 'Edna
Lyall,' and that in Ceylon, and during her voyage home, she had
deceived many people. The only possible explanation of the lunatic
asylum slander seems to be that this woman was in reality mad. But the
episode was decidedly unpleasant, and set me thinking on the birth and
growth of such monstrously untrue reports. During the autumn of 1886 I
wrote the little story, taking different types of gossip for each stage
in the Slander's growth and baleful power--the gossip of small dull
towns, of country life, of cathedral precincts, of London clubs, and the
gossip of members of my own profession in search of 'copy.'"
By this time you have reached a spot called by the inhabitants Mentone.
The broad tiled walk is sheltered by the great cliff, behind which is a
steep embankment prettily planted with shrubs, and traversed here and
there by steep little zigzag paths running upwards to the heights,
whilst before you rises the grand outline of Beachy Head. The sky is
brilliantly blue as far as eye can reach all around. The sun (which you
had not seen in town for six weeks) is shining brightly, casting its
radiance on the calm sea, the little wavelets are gently breaking over
the pebbles below, and the fresh, pure air is most exhilarating. A few
invalids in bath chairs are being drawn slowly along, and all the beauty
and fashion of Eastbourne are out enjoying a sun-bath. Amongst the
_habitués_ you recognize many well-known faces. That tall, graceful,
Madonna-like woman, with her fair young daughter, surrounded by a group
of friends, is Mrs. Royston-Pigott, widow of the eminent scientist. The
handsome soldierly man with the benevolent face is General Buchanan, of
cavalry renown, and close to him strolls his youngest daughter, radiant
in the beauty of youth. Edna Lyall observes that Mr. Balfour is
occasionally to be seen on the links enjoying a game of golf. Everyone
seems revelling in the warmth of this January sunshine, but time
presses, and you may not linger. If aught could compensate for turning
away from such a scene, it is the charm of your hostess's conversation,
as she walks with you and speaks of her favourite poets--Tennyson, Mrs.
Browning, and Whittier, whilst she declares her favourite characters in
prose fiction are "Jeanie Deans" and Thackeray's "Esmond." Asking her
which are her special pets in her own books, she says laughing, "As
Anthony Trollope said when asked a similar question, 'I like them all,'
but perhaps Carlo the best, so far. You asked me just now, when we were
interrupted, how my books succeeded. 'Won by Waiting' had a very small
sale. It was favourably reviewed in several papers, and cut into
mincemeat by a very clever weekly journal, so wittily, that even a
youthful author could only laugh! Then it 'joined the majority.'
'Donovan,' in spite of many excellent reviews, shared the same fate;
only 320 copies sold, then he, too, sank into oblivion temporarily. It
was a hard time, and I could not resist weaving some of my memories of
those literary struggles into my latest story--a little sketch called
'Derrick Vaughan, Novelist,' published first in _Murray's Magazine_,
later, in one volume form, by Methuen. Since May, 1889, I have been
unable to write at all, owing to my long attack of rheumatism and fever,
but now that I am growing strong, I hope to set to work again"; and as
you bid adieu to this gifted and interesting woman, you heartily
re-echo the wish.
_Sic transit gloria mundi._ A couple of hours later the train has borne
you swiftly from the glorious sunlight and sea into the persistent gloom
and obscurity of London. The speed slackens, you glide into the station,
your brief holiday is at an end.
[Illustration: Rosa Nouchette Carey]
ROSA NOUCHETTE CAREY.
Although a sad change has come over the ancient and historic village of
Putney, and it has lost much of its quaint and picturesque environment
since the destruction of the toll-house and the dear old bridge of 1729,
with its score of narrow openings--at once the delight of artists and
the curse of bargees--there is still a bit left which has escaped the
hands of the Philistines. Unique and fair is the view from the
magnificent, though aggressively modern, granite structure which now
spans the river; and how many memories of the past are aroused! The grey
old church of St. Mary's, Putney, and the massive tower of All Saints,
Fulham, flank either end. This latter edifice, originally built as a
chapel of ease to Wimbledon, is of great antiquity, and has been twice
rebuilt, once in the reign of Henry VII. and again in 1836, when the
grand old tower, which gives such a prominent feature to the landscape,
was restored. On one side is the fine terrace of lofty houses known as
The Cedars, with their wide breezy gardens overlooking the river, so
short a time since the scene of many pleasant garden parties, when a
well-known and popular author occupied one of these houses. Now, alas!
they are all empty and deserted; cranes and stones and heaps of rubbish
have transformed their time-honoured lawns into desolation. No scheme of
utilization seems to suggest itself, and meanwhile the noble site is
unused, and these handsome tenements are rapidly solving the question,
and, abandoned to all the ravages of time, are dropping into obtrusive
decay. On the other side of the bridge there is a glimpse of the shady
grounds of Fulham Palace, the leafy foliage of the Bishop's Moat and
Avenue, and a view of a lovely line of trees on the shore skirting the
grounds of old Ranelagh--now given up to the building fiend--and
Hurlingham, while the broad silvery river itself, and its slow-moving
barges and boats with brown and red sails, give life and colouring to
the scene. At night, when the lights only of unlovely Hammersmith are
gleaming across the water, the effect is decidedly picturesque.
In a second the mind involuntarily travels back a few centuries, and
pictures to itself the appearance of this same spot when the army under
Cromwell made it their head quarters, while the King was a prisoner in
Hampton Court; when forts were standing on each side, and a bridge of
boats was constructed across the river, by order of the Earl of Essex,
during the Civil War, on the retreat of the Royalists after the battle
of Brentford. But the imaginary panorama fades, and your thoughts return
to the present age as you drive a few hundred yards further on, and
reach the top of a long terrace of small but artistically built
red-brick Elizabethan houses, where in one which is semi-detached, the
well-known writer, Miss Rosa Nouchette Carey, has made her home with her
eldest widowed sister and her family. The author meets you at the
threshold of her study at the top of the staircase, and takes you into
what she calls her "snuggery," a simple, but tastefully furnished room,
looking out into a large garden, where birds of all sorts are encouraged
to come; a thrush sings melodiously, and is among many singing birds a
daily visitor. An oak knee-hole writing-table, with raised blotting-pad,
stands in the corner by the window, and on it is a vase full of bright
scarlet geraniums and ferns. Everything is arranged with great neatness,
and each spot seems to have its use. Little and big lounging chairs, a
low spring couch, one or two small tables, a bookcase filled with
well-bound books, and a cabinet covered with photographs and pretty
little odds and ends of china, all combine to make a cheerful,
comfortable, and attractive whole. A cage is on the floor, and perched
on the top is a beautiful cockateel, or Australian Joey bird, of the
parrot type, with grey top-knot, yellow tuft and pink feathers on the
sides of the head, which give it the odd appearance of a fine healthy
colour on the cheeks. This intelligent bird is a great pet of your
hostess, and walks up and downstairs in answer to her call.
Miss Rosa Nouchette Carey is tall, slender, and erect in carriage. She
has large blue-grey eyes with long lashes, and her soft dark hair, in
which a silver thread may be seen here and there, is parted smoothly
over her brow, and plaited neatly round her head. She wears a black
dress with brocaded velvet sleeves, and is cordial and peculiarly gentle
in manner.
"We have lived here six years," she says, in a low, tuneful voice; "but
Putney is getting quite spoilt. They have pulled down and built over the
grand old Jacobin House, which stood close by in the Richmond Road, with
its seven drawing-rooms, subterranean passages, and lovely gardens which
were a joy to us, also Fairfax House, with its pleasant garden and its
fine old trees."
There are other, not a few, historical recollections of Putney. Queen
Elizabeth used often to stay at the house of Mr. Lacy, the clothier, who
also entertained Charles I. It was the birthplace of Edward Gibbon,
author of "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"; of Thomas
Cromwell, who was made Earl of Essex by Henry VIII.; and of Nicholas
West, Bishop of Ely, who originally erected the small chantry chapel in
the old church near the bridge; but though this has been removed from
the east end of the south aisle to the east end of the north side, the
old style has been carefully preserved. Many eminent people have lived
here. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, widow of Shelley, had her residence at
the White House by the river; Leigh Hunt lived and died in the High
Street. Among others, Theodore Hook, Douglas Jerrold, Henry Fuseli, the
painter; Toland, the friend of Leibnitz; James Macpherson; and last, but
not least, Mrs. Siddons. Putney also witnessed the death of William
Pitt, Earl of Chatham.
Rosa Nouchette Carey was born in London, near Old Bow Church, but she
has only vague memories of the house and place. She was the youngest but
one of a large family of five sisters and two brothers. Her father was a
ship-broker, and afterwards had vessels of his own. He was a man of
singularly amiable character, and his integrity and many virtues made
him universally beloved and respected. Her childhood was passed at
Hackney in the old house at Tryons Place, where many happy days were
spent in the room called the green-room, overlooking a large
old-fashioned garden well filled with shady trees. "It was a simple,
happy, uneventful life," says Miss Carey. "Being a delicate child, my
education was somewhat desultory. My youngest sister and I were left a
good deal alone, and I remember that my chief amusement, besides our
regular childish romps, was to select favourite characters from history
or fiction, and to try and personify them. I was always the originator
of our games, but my sister invariably followed my lead. I used to write
little plays which we acted. I began a magazine, and wrote several
pieces of poetry, of the most foolish description probably," she adds,
smiling, "for I am sure I could not write a line now to save my life! My
greatest pleasure was to relate stories to this same sister over our
needlework or under the shade of the old trees."
In this way the whole of "Nellie's Memories" was told verbally, when
still in her teens, and was only written down seven years afterwards.
"My mother was a strict disciplinarian and was very clever and
practical," she continues. "As a girl I was singularly dreamy, and spent
all my leisure time in reading and writing poetry; feeling the
impossibility of combining my favourite pursuits with a useful, domestic
life, and discouraged by my failures in this respect, I made a
deliberate and, as it afterwards proved, a fruitless attempt to quench
the longing to write, while at the same time I endeavoured to be more
like other girls, but this unnatural repression of a strong instinct
could not last, and after some years I gave it up. I am not aware that
my mother knew of this strange conflict, but she was the first to
rejoice at my literary success. My literary taste is not inherited,
except in one solitary case, my father's cousin, Christopher
Riethmüller, author of "Teuton," "Legends of the Early Church," "The
Adventures of Neville Brooke," and "Aldersleigh."
Later on the family moved to South Hampstead, where Rosa Carey's
schooldays began, and it was whilst at school that she formed an
enthusiastic friendship with Mathilde Blind, afterwards the clever
translator of Marie Bashkirtseff's Journal, and author of "The Descent
of Man," and other works. This friendship, which was a source of great
interest to both girls, was only interrupted by a divergence of their
religious opinions. Mathilde Blind was brought up in the most advanced
school of modern freethought, but Rosa Carey, adhering to the simple
faith of her childhood, could not follow her there, and the friends
drifted apart, sorrowfully, but with warm affection on each side.
The next change in her life was the death of her father, after which
terrible bereavement the widowed mother and three daughters lived
together, but the gradual breaking-up of the once large family had set
in. After their mother's death, the youngest daughter's convictions led
her to embrace a conventual life, and she entered the Anglican
Sisterhood of St. Thomas of Canterbury. The death of their mother
occurred on the same day which three years before had witnessed their
father's end. After this sad event Miss Rosa Carey says her real
vocation in life seemed to spring up, and she and her remaining home
sister went to Croydon to superintend their widowed brother's household.
Three years later the circle was again narrowed. Her sister married the
Rev. Canon Simpson, vicar of Kirkby Stephen, Westmoreland, on the Valley
of the Eden, a most lovely spot, where the author for eleven years
regularly paid an annual visit, and where she laid the scenes depicted
in vivid and eloquent words in her novel "Heriot's Choice." Rising, she
points out four pictures, reminiscences of Westmoreland, which hang over
her writing-table. One is a view of great beauty, a second the exterior
of the church, a third is the handsome interior, which looks more like a
cathedral with its massive pillars and groined roof, and the fourth
represents the vicarage. Her brother's death soon left the orphan nieces
and nephew to her sole care. "The charge somewhat tied my hands," said
Miss Carey, "and prevented the pursuing of my literary labours as fully
as I could have otherwise done. Interrupted by cares of house and
family, the writing was but fitfully carried on. Six years after,
however, circumstances tended to break up that home. Three of my charges
are married, and one of my nephews is a master at Uppingham. These six
years have been my first leisure for real work."
The launching of "Nellie's Memories" threatened at first to cause the
young writer some disappointment. Quite unacquainted with any
publishers, and without any previous introductions, she took the MSS. to
Mr. Tinsley, who at first declined to read it. Some months later she
consulted Mrs. Westerton, of Westerton's Library, who good-naturedly
undertook to induce him to do so. "I am glad to name her," says Miss
Carey. "I shall always remember her with gratitude, for, on hearing that
the reader's opinion was highly favourable, she hurriedly drove from
some wedding festivity to bring me the good news. I can even recall to
mind the dress that she wore on the occasion."
Not to many girl-authors is it given that her first novel shall bring
her name and fame, but this simple, domestic story of English home-life
speedily became a great favourite. Though free from any mystery or
dramatic incidents, the individuality of the characters, the pure
wholesome tone, and the interest which is kept up to the end, caused
this charming story to be widely known and to be re-issued in many
editions up to the present date. The next venture was "Wee Wifie," which
Miss Carey pronounces to have been a failure; but as that work has been
quite lately demanded by the public, it is possible that she may have
taken too modest a view of its merits. On being applied to for
permission to bring it out again, she at first refused, thinking that it
would not add to her literary reputation; but subsequently, however, she
rewrote and lengthened it, though without altering the plot, and it has
passed into a new edition.
Her next five novels--entitled respectively "Barbara Heathcote's Trial,"
"Robert Ord's Atonement," "Wooed and Married," "Heriot's Choice," and
"Queenie's Whim"--came out at intervals of two years between each other,
and were followed by "Mary St. John." Then came a delightful book
called "Not Like Other Girls," which was a great success. This is a
spirited and amusing story of a widowed mother and her three plucky
girls, who, in the days of their prosperity, were sensibly brought up to
make their own frocks, and who, when plunged into poverty, turned this
excellent talent to such good account that they set up in business as
dressmakers, being employed alike by the squiress at the Hall and by the
village butcher's wife, and there is as much of quiet humour described
in their interview with this worthy dame, and their attempts to tone
down her somewhat florid taste, as there is in the discussions and
opinions of the neighbours and friends of the family about the venture
of these wise and practical girls. Since Miss Carey came to Putney she
has brought out "Lover or Friend," "Only the Governess," "The Search for
Basil Lyndhurst," and "Sir Godfrey's Grand-daughters." She is also on
the staff of the _Girl's Own Paper_, and, whenever she has time, sends
short stories, which run as serials for six months in that journal
before being issued in single volume form. Four of these tales have
already appeared.
It is quite obvious to the readers of Miss Carey's works that she is
fond of young people--she has, indeed, at the present time a regularly
established class for young girls and servants over fifteen years of
age, which had already been formed in connection with the Fulham Sunday
School, in which she takes a great interest--and that the distinctive
characteristic throughout all her books is a tendency to elevate to
lofty aspirations, to noble ideas, and to purity of thought. With great
descriptive power, considerable and often quiet fun, there is a delicacy
and tenderness, a knowledge and strength of purpose, combined with so
much fertility of resource and originality that the interest never
flags, and the sensation, on putting down any of her works, is that of
having dwelt in a thoroughly healthy atmosphere. "Heriot's Choice" was
originally written for Miss Charlotte Yonge, and was brought out as a
serial in the _Monthly Packet_ before being issued in three-volume form,
but all Rosa Nouchette Carey's books are published by Messrs. Bentley.
"My ambition has ever been," says the gentle author, "to try to do good
and not harm by my works, and to write books which any mother can give a
girl to read. I do not exactly form plots, I think of one character and
circle round that. Of course, I like to meditate well on my characters
before beginning to write, and I live so entirely in and with them when
writing that I feel restless, and experience a sense of loss and blank
when a book is finished, and I have to wait until another grows in my
mind. I have sometimes rather regretted a tone of sadness running
through some of my earlier stories, but they were tinged with many years
of sorrow. Now I can write more cheerfully. Like many authors, I only
work from breakfast to luncheon, sometimes at the table, more often with
my blotting-pad on my knee before the fire, and I cannot do without
plenty of air and exercise, and often walk round Putney Heath. More than
twenty years ago I was introduced to Mrs. Henry Wood, who used often to
come down to the old Jacobin House, of which I spoke just now. Our
acquaintance ripened into an intimacy which only ended with her life.
She was very quiet, interesting, and unlike anyone else, but no one ever
filled the niche left by her death. Some of my favourite books are
'Amiel's Journal,' Currer Bell's works, George Eliot's, and biographies;
also psychological works, the study of mind and character, whilst in
poetry I prefer Jean Ingelow and Mrs. Browning."
The long-standing friendship with Helen Marion Burnside--the well-known
writer of many clever tales for children, booklets, verses, and
songs--began when they were in their early womanhood. Eighteen years ago
Miss Burnside became an inmate of Miss Carey's house, and ever since
they have shared the same home, living in pleasant harmony and
affection.
Presently comes an invitation to join the family five o'clock tea-table.
Glass doors in the drawing-room lead into the conservatory, whence
issues the soft cooing of ring-doves. The pretty marqueterie cabinets
disclose a set of Indian carved ivory chessmen and many quaint bits of
china, whilst on a sofa, in solitary state, sits a knowing-looking
little tame squirrel with a blue ribbon round its neck. After tea, on
the arrival of some visitors, you are so lucky as to get a few minutes'
private conversation with Miss Burnside, and you learn a few facts
concerning your hostess that could never have been gleaned from one of
such reticence and modesty as she. "I do not think," says Helen Marion
Burnside, "that I have known any author who has to make her writing--the
real work of her life--so secondary a matter as has Rosa Carey. She has
so consistently _lived_ her religion, so to speak, that family duty and
devotion to its many members have always come first. She never hesitates
for a moment to give up the most important professional work if she can
do anything in the way of nursing or comforting any of them, and she is
_the_ one to whom each of the family turns in any crisis of life. Having
had so much of this, and rather weak health to struggle against, it is
the greatest wonder to me that she has been able to write as many books
as she has done, and in so bright a spirit as many are written. Of
course, real womanly woman's work _is_ the highest work, but I think few
writers put it so entirely above the professional work as she does. I
have often been surprised at her surprise when some little incident has
brought her public value home to her. Even now she does not in the least
realize that she has her place in the literary world as other
contemporary authors have. It is really quite singular and amusing to
come across such a simple-minded 'celebrity.' I wonder if you found it
out for yourself," she adds quaintly.
Certainly no better words could be found to describe the sympathetic,
gifted, and lofty-souled Rosa Nouchette Carey.
[Illustration: Adeline Sergeant]
ADELINE SERGEANT.
Despite the proverb that "comparisons are odious," there is a great
fascination to those who love to explore the old quarters of London, and
to hunt up the records of people who have lived and died there, leaving
their mark whether for good or evil, and then to note the difference
that a hundred or so of years have made in its buildings and
inhabitants. Take old Bloomsbury for instance--by no means an
uninteresting stroll--described by Evelyn in 1665 as "a little towne
with good aire." Pope alludes to this once fashionable locality thus:--
"In Palace Yard at nine, you'll find me there,
At ten for certain, sir, in Bloomsbury Square."
According to Timbs, in his interesting work on London, this "little
towne" was the site of the grand old Domesbury Manor, where the kings of
England in ancient days had their stables. Yonder great corner house was
built by Isaac Ware, editor of _Palladio_, originally a chimney-sweep,
of whom it was said, that "his skin was so ingrained with soot, that to
his dying day he bore the marks of his early calling." By the way, that
particular trade would appear to have been extremely lucrative in those
days, as it is well known and authenticated that two great squares--not
a hundred miles away--were entirely built by one David Porter, "who held
the appointment of chimney-sweep to the village of Marylebone."
A few hundred yards further on to the north-west, and you reach the
quiet thoroughfare of Chenies Street, which connects Gower Street and
Tottenham Court Road, and here, indeed, a transformation has taken
place. Where are the solid, but dull, old, grey houses which erstwhile
stood on this spot? Within the last few years they have all been swept
away, and the street is vastly improved by the imposing block of
red-brick mansions which has been erected, and which bears outside a
brass plate, inscribed "Ladies' Residential Chambers." A long-felt want
is here supplied. In an age when hundreds of women of culture and of
position are earning their living, and whose respective occupations
require that they should dwell in the metropolis, a necessity has arisen
for independent quarters, such as never can be procured in the ordinary
lodgings or boarding-house, where, without being burdened with the cares
of house-keeping, the maximum of comfort and privacy with the minimum of
domestic worry can be obtained. All this is amply provided for within
these walls. Touching an electric button without, the door is opened by
the porter--the only man in the house--who wears on his breast the Alma,
Balaklava, Inkerman, and Sebastopol medals, you enter a spacious hall,
which opens on all sides into a number of self-contained flats. In the
centre is a vast well staircase running up to the top of the building.
On the present occasion business takes you only to the first floor,
where, rounding the great corridor, are separate little vestibules, each
containing a complete suite of rooms, and Miss Adeline Sergeant's
chambers are reached. They are so exquisitely arranged, and display so
much artistic taste and refinement, that a few words must be said in
description of them. The outer door is covered inside with a striped
Moorish _portière_, and leads into a little hall faced by the study, and
opening into the drawing-room on the right. The blue and white walls, on
which hang half-a-dozen pictures, are of conventional floral design,
relieved by cream-coloured mouldings, which throw up the rich Oriental
draperies of the couch and Japanese screen near the door. The floor is
laid down with peacock-blue felt and a few Persian rugs of subdued
tints, whilst a white Siberian wolf, mounted on a fine black bearskin
forms the rug. The broad bay windows are hung with soft cream-coloured
muslin and guipure curtains, peeping out from the folds of oatmeal cloth
hangings of the same shade of blue. Three dwarf bookcases are fitted
into recesses, and are well filled with all the books necessary to a
woman of letters. A clear fire blazes and sparkles in the tiled hearth,
and throws out a ruddy glow over the bright brasses. The fireplace is
draped with wine-coloured brocaded velvet curtains; the mantelshelf is
high, and the long oblong mirror, in plain black narrow frame, is raised
just sufficiently to show off the beautiful Oriental china, Benares
brass vases, and Indian jars standing thereon. Over it hangs a single
plaque, framed in dark oak, copied by Miss F. Robertson, in _violet de
fer_ on china, from the original engraving of "Enid, a Saxon Maiden."
There are flowers everywhere--pots of lilies of the valley, ferns and
palms, alike on the little hexagonal ebonised table in the windows and
the small cabinet, whilst cut daffodils and anemones are grouped in
vases in other parts of the room. The great Arabian brass salver, with
its mystic scrolls and ebonised stand, forms a suitable tea-table
alongside the comfortable American rocking-chair. The copper-coloured
brocaded silk gown, with a tinge of red, which Adeline Sergeant wears,
with leaves of darker and flowers of lighter pattern woven in, is in
unison with the prevailing tints by which she is surrounded. A black fur
boa is carelessly thrown round her shoulders, she is rather below the
middle height, dark grey eyes, with a mischievous twinkle in them, can
be discerned behind the _pince-nez_ which she habitually wears, her good
colouring betokens a healthy constitution her extremely thick hair,
lightly touched with grey, is loosely rolled back from her forehead, she
has a merry, bright smile, and laughs with silvery sweetness on being
told you had nervously expected, from her pictures, to see a
strong-minded, austere-looking woman; but until a sun-portrait can
produce rich colouring, earnestness of purpose, combined with an
ever-changing, laughing expression, she will appear to those who have
only seen her photograph as being somewhat severe and stern.
Adeline Sergeant was born at Ashbourne, in Derbyshire. Her father
belonged to an old Lincolnshire family who had lived since the sixteenth
century, at least, on the same ground, and had inhabited for many years
a long, low, rambling house, of which he used to delight to tell her
stories. When yet but a child she went with her parents to Selby,
Easingwold, Weston-super-Mare, Worcester, and Rochester, where, when she
was nineteen years of age, her father died, and their wanderings
practically ended.
"My mother was a quiet, delicate, refined, sensitive woman," says Miss
Sergeant, while a look of sadness comes over her face. "She spent most
of her spare time in writing, and from her, I suppose, I inherit some of
my taste for writing, though it comes from my father's side too, for a
cousin of mine is a literary man, and several of my relations dabbled a
little in literature. My mother wrote verses and religious stories
chiefly; she had a very high ideal of style, and one of my earliest and
latest recollections of her is seeing her covering scraps of paper with
her peculiarly beautiful handwriting in pencil, and afterwards copying
them most carefully in ink at her desk. She had a long illness; she died
of consumption, after eight years of confirmed invalidism and gradually
wasting away. I remember it now as a remarkable fact that I never knew
her to complain or to have anything but the sweetest, brightest smile.
Her sense of the ridiculous was acute to the very last, and she was
always ready to enjoy a good story. Her appreciation of literature was
very great, and it was from her that I learned to enjoy Browning as well
as the older masters of verse. After my father's death we removed to the
suburbs of London, and my mother died fifteen months later. We were
united heart and soul, and her death was the greatest sorrow of my life,
especially as I had been much separated from her by school and college
life, and had been promised that I should live at home and care for her
when my elder sister married, but my mother died four months before the
wedding, and that dream--hers as well as mine, I think--was never
realized."
Adeline Sergeant began to write at the very youthful age of eight. Her
first published verses appeared when she was but thirteen, and a volume
of verse when she was sixteen years of age. "It always seems to me," she
continues, "that I owe a great deal to the influences of the free
country life of my early childhood when we lived at Eastington, near
Stonehouse, for two years. I believe that modern teachers would say that
I wasted my time, for I went to no school then, but 'did lessons' with
my mother in a desultory fashion." Rambling for hours in the fields and
lanes by herself, sometimes with a book and sometimes without, the young
author used conscientiously to set herself her own tasks; she wrote
innumerable stories, had no playfellows, and no children's books, but
she had the run of her father's library. Here she read Shakespeare until
she knew him by heart; next to Shakespeare her favourite book was
Addison's "Spectator"; after these came Byron, Mrs. Hemans, and many
earlier poets, Prior, Gay, Dryden, etc. Here, from the age of eleven to
fifteen, she also studied theological writers like Chalmers, Butler, and
Jeremy Taylor; whilst a set of Encyclopædias, in twenty-two volumes,
gave her many happy hours. It is no wonder that Adeline Sergeant
declares this to have been one of the most fructifying periods of her
life, and that her impressions of landscape, cloud scenery, effects of
light, shade, sound, etc., are still coloured by her remembrances of
that time.
"I think," she observes, smiling, "that this was better bracing for the
mind than the indiscriminate devouring of story-books, which is
characteristic of young folks nowadays. But I must also add that at
Weston, our next place of residence, I simply gorged myself on novels of
all sorts, as I had the command of every circulating library in the
place, and no control was ever exercised over my reading."
At sixteen Miss Sergeant went to Laleham, Miss Pipe's well-known school
at Clapham; and at eighteen to Queen's College, Harley Street, where she
held a scholarship for some time. The death of her sister two years
after her marriage left the young girl very much alone in the world. For
some years she lived with very dear and kind friends, whose two
daughters she had some share in teaching. Having much time free, she
went on with her literary work, which had been suspended for a long
while after her bereavements, when she had no heart to write anything.
After leaving college, Adeline Sergeant devoted herself entirely to
study for the Cambridge and other examinations. After taking her First
Class Honours Certificate in the women's examination, she gave up her
time to teaching, writing, and parochial work of all sorts; she played
the organ in church, held Sunday and week-day classes for village
children, trained the choir, and so on. A temporary failure in health
made a winter in Egypt a real boon to her about that time, and it was on
her return that she gave herself up more to literary work.
"I was not at all successful at first," says Miss Sergeant in a cheerful
tone of voice. "My first novel has never seen the light to this day. My
second was also refused, but has since been re-written and re-issued,
under the name of 'Seventy Times Seven.' I wrote little stories for
little magazines, and a child's book or two. But I had no success for
many years. In 1880 I competed for a prize of £100 offered by the Dundee
_People's Friend_ for a story, and gained it, to my great delight. I
have kept up my connection with this paper ever since, and am always
grateful to the editor for the help he gave me at a critical time. This
story was 'Jacobi's Wife.' When I heard the good news I was in Egypt,
where I was spending a winter at the invitation of my friends, Professor
and Mrs. Sheldon Amos. On my return I wrote 'Beyond Recall,' which
embodies my impressions of Egyptian life. I went on writing for the next
two years, and doing other work as well, but in 1883 I made up my mind
to throw myself entirely into literature."
Miss Sergeant's next step was to write and consult the kindly Dundee
editor on this subject, and in return she received a proposition from
the proprietors that she should go to live in Dundee and do certain
specified literary work for them. She did so, and counts it as one of
the most fortunate occurrences of her life, as she made many friends and
led a pleasant and healthful life, first at Newport, in Fife, and then
in Dundee. Two years later, however, it seemed better to her to return
to London, though without severing her connection with Dundee. Since
1887 Adeline Sergeant has lived more or less in London, although she
spends a good deal of time at the seaside, in the country, and in
Scotland, or in visiting at friends' country houses in different parts
of England.
Besides the works already named, Adeline Sergeant has produced several
highly interesting novels, notably, "An Open Foe," "No Saint," "Esther
Denison," and "Name and Fame"--this last was written in collaboration
with A. S. Ewing Lester--"Little Miss Colwyn," "A Life Sentence," "Roy's
Repentance," "Under False Pretences." Her later works are "Caspar
Brooke's Daughter," "An East London Mystery," and "Sir Anthony." "Esther
Denison" and "No Saint" are, perhaps, the author's own favourites,
although she frankly says that she thinks that they have not found as
much favour with the public as some of her more "sensational" stories,
though the critics generally liked them better, and, indeed, compared
them with George Eliot and some of Mrs. Oliphant's works. Both these
books contain many transcripts from her own personal experiences.
"Esther Denison" is, indeed, largely autobiographical. It is evident
that Miss Sergeant has put her whole heart in this story. A somewhat
caustic wit is pleasantly relieved by the earnest tone which runs
through it. Without being a theological novel, the description of the
struggles of the high-souled but sympathetic heroine is powerfully and
faithfully drawn. Many of these books contain strong dramatic incidents;
they are all full of interest, and are characterized by the exceeding
good taste and the excellent English in which they are written. They are
all popular in America, where they are published by Messrs. Lowell &
Son.
"I have sometimes been misunderstood by critics," Miss Sergeant
observes, "on account of the absence of any _data_ to my books. Having
disposed some years ago of many of the copyrights, I see them issued as
if they were freshly written, which is not always the case. A weekly
reviewer expressed great surprise at the publication of 'Jacobi's Wife'
_after_ 'No Saint.' As a matter of fact it had been written and sold
some years earlier. My own works seem to me to fall into two classes:
the one, of incident, when I simply try to tell an interesting story--a
perfectly legitimate aim in art, I believe--and the other, of character,
with the minimum of story. I like to analyze a character 'to death,' so
to speak, and I look on my stories of this sort as the best I have
written."
Of one of Adeline Sergeant's late novels, "An East London Mystery," no
single word of the plot shall be hinted at, nor shall the intending
reader's interest be discounted beforehand. Suffice it to say that from
the first page to the last it is full of deeply-absorbing matter. Each
character is drawn with a masterly touch, and is admirably sustained
throughout; it may be safely predicted that when taken up it will
scarcely be laid down until the last leaf be turned.
A peculiar interest is attached to a book which has lately come
prominently before the public, and which has created much sensation,
called "The Story of a Penitent Soul" (Bentley & Son), to which Adeline
Sergeant's name was not affixed, but of which she now acknowledges
herself to be the author. It deals with a sad subject handled in a
powerful but most delicate manner, and is quite a new departure from her
former works. For some time the critics, whilst mostly praising it
warmly and at once recognizing that it was written by no ''prentice
hand,' were somewhat puzzled as to the authorship. Gradually the secret
leaked out, and Miss Sergeant relates in a few eloquent words her
reasons for the concealment of her identity with the story. "Every now
and then," she says, "I feel the necessity of escaping from the trammels
imposed by publishers, editors, and the supposed taste of the public. I
want to say my own say, to express what I really mean and feel, to
deliver my soul. Then I like to go away 'into the wilderness' and write
for myself, not for the public, without caring whether anybody reads and
understands what I write, or whether it is published or not. That is how
and why I wrote 'The Story of a Penitent Soul.' It was written because
it _had_ to be written; it wrote itself, so to speak. Work done in this
way is the only work that seems worth doing and is in itself a joy, but
it cannot be done at will, or every day."
Novel-making, however, does not absorb all this industrious author's
time. She is an ardent novel reader in three languages. Her favourite
writers in English are Thackeray, George Eliot, and Meredith. As she
reads French authors more for style than for subject she is not afraid
to avow that she greatly admires Daudet, Pierre Loti, Flaubert, and
Georges Sand; the Russian novelists Tolstoi, Dostorievski, and
Tourguénieff are also much to her liking, and she reads American modern
writers such as Howell, Henry James, and Egbert Craddock, with pleasure.
"But I read other things besides novels," she says. "Even as a child I
was always of a metaphysical turn, and my delight in books of that sort
is so great that I hardly dare touch them when I am trying to write
fiction. They fascinate and paralyse me. Economics and some kinds of
theological speculation are also a favourite study."
Her love for economics and the discussion of social problems has led
Adeline Sergeant to join the Fabian Society, in which she takes great
interest. Her religious tendencies are all in the direction of what is
called "Broad Church," and she is an ardent believer in Women's
Suffrage. She is a member of the committee of the Somerville Club for
women, and is on two sub-committees. She is the co-secretary for the
Recreative Evening Schools Association in St. Pancras District, and an
Evening School Manager for north and south St. Pancras. "I must say that
I have a great deal too much to do," she adds, "and I cannot get through
half as much business as I ought. I have a rather large circle of
friends, and I find it difficult to keep up with my social duties. I
generally write all the morning, but I like to write and can write all
day. At St. Andrews, for instance, where I have just spent two months, I
wrote and read for quite nine or ten hours every day. One cannot do that
in London." As a recreation Miss Sergeant prefers music to any other,
and, indeed, used to play a good deal once, but has now no time to keep
up any pretence at _technique_. The same reason has caused her to
discard her old pastime of pen-and-ink drawing, of which she is
passionately fond, but which she found to be rather too trying to the
eyes to be pursued with advantage. "I have done some elaborate
embroidery in my time," she says, "but now I never use my needle for
amusement; only for necessity. Any sort of philanthropic work that I
undertake is purely secular. I love foreign travel, though I have not
gone abroad very lately. I have been in Holland, Belgium, Germany,
Italy, and France, besides in Egypt. Switzerland I reserve for a future
occasion. It may interest you to hear my unknown American readers every
now and then send me kind letters, with requests for autographs or
photographs, and that this last likeness, which misled you to think me
'severe and stern,' was taken chiefly in order to be reproduced for the
benefit of American as well as English readers. I wonder if it will have
the same effect on them," she adds, laughing.
The little study beyond must be visited, and here are Miss Adeline
Sergeant's _secretaire_ and library. It contains a fairly good
collection of English authors, and much French literature; but she has
moved about so constantly from place to place, that she has been unable
to collect as many books as she would have liked. The great broad couch
by the window is a comfortable lounge for a weary writer, and the rest
of the furniture is all snug and suitable. Miss Sergeant imparts some
interesting information about this unique establishment, which was
founded for gentlewomen only, of different occupations. The number of
rooms in each flat varies from two to four or five, according to
requirements. The whole concern is conducted entirely upon the
principles of a gentleman's club, with the great advantage that the
tenants can be as much at home and enjoy as absolute a privacy as they
desire. The _cuisine_ and all domestic details are under the management
of an experienced housekeeper. Breakfasts, luncheons, and dinners are
served in the great club-room below during stated hours, each allowing a
good margin for the convenience of the members, whilst an adjoining room
is reserved for their private parties. This is a gala day at the
"Ladies' Residential Chambers." There is a large afternoon "At Home,"
which is an annual entertainment. Each lady has sent cards to her
friends and the guests are beginning to flock in. The coloured-tiled
corridors and window-ledges are gaily decorated with palms, ferns, and
flowers. A hospitable custom prevails. Wherever a hall-door is found
open it is a signal that visitors to the other residents are permitted
to enter and look round the rooms. Should any lady be unable to receive
she "sports her oak." Ample refreshments are provided in the club-room,
and as many doors are invitingly thrown open, you take advantage of the
implied permission, and are kindly received by each hostess. There are
members of many professions within these walls. Two sets of chambers are
occupied by practising medical women, a third by a busy journalist, a
fourth by an artist, a fifth by a young musician, a sixth by a fair and
gentle girl, who modestly tells you that she is a high-school mistress,
and, with kindling eyes, adds, "there is a glorious independence in
earning one's own bread." There is a happy _camaraderie_ prevailing in
this big hive of scholarly, industrious women. Such things as quarrels
or petty jealousies are unknown, and when it is stated that these
mansions have only been built for four years, and that all the
twenty-two sets of chambers which they contain are inhabited, it will be
readily understood how much the comfort and freedom of this cheerful
club life is appreciated. But the three or four hundred guests are
dispersing, and you take leave of Miss Adeline Sergeant, with a sense of
gratitude for an entirely novel and interesting entertainment.
[Illustration: Mary E. Kennard]
MRS. EDWARD KENNARD.
There is great wailing and lamentation at Market Harboro'. King Frost
holds the ground in an iron grip. Fresh snow falling almost daily
spreads yet another and another layer, and all is encrusted hard and
fast, but far around it sparkles like a sea of diamonds, emitting the
colours of a rainbow in the radiant sunshine. Horses are eating their
heads off and are ready to jump out of their skins; hounds are getting
fat and lazy; the majority of the sportsmen have long ago taken
themselves off to London, Monte Carlo, and elsewhere, and the few who
remain spend their days in skating, toboganning, and curling.
While the barometer averages nightly ten to twenty degrees of frost,
perhaps the most favourable moment has arrived to find one's hunting
friends freed from the daily labour they so cheerfully undergo for the
sake of sport. As in ordinary weather a protracted hunt with Mr.
Fernie's hounds, or a long day with the Pytchley, would at this season
have kept Mrs. Edward Kennard to a late hour in the saddle, you gladly
seize the opportunity afforded, and accept a kind invitation to visit
her at "The Barn." A two-hours' run from St. Pancras to Leicestershire,
with a change at Kettering, lands you at Market Harboro' station,
where a neat brougham, drawn by a pair of handsome brown horses (with no
bearing reins), waits to convey you to Mr. Edward Kennard's hunting box,
which stands back between two fields of ridge and furrow in the main
road from Kettering to Market Harboro'. A straight avenue, bordered on
either side by lime and fir trees, breaks into a circular grass front,
where the drive divides, the right road leading to a substantial,
comfortable-looking red-brick house, with sloping roof, tall gable over
the entrance-hall, and sides picturesquely covered with ivy, whilst the
left turns to the stables (that essential part of a sporting
establishment), which, with the kitchen gardens and paddocks, are in the
rear. In usual circumstances a fine vista of undulating pasture, and
extensive views of the happy hunting-fields of Northamptonshire and
Leicestershire, can be seen, in which are several historical
fox-coverts; but now, in the snow-bound condition of the earth,
everything is white, save for the line of dark intersecting hedgerows,
and the delicate tracery of leafless trees standing in black silhouette
against the sky. As the afternoon advances, a grey haze creeps over the
far-famed Harboro' Vale, shrouding alike "bullfinches" and
"double-oxers," into which sinks a golden sun behind a bank of crimson
and purple clouds.
But the carriage stops. The broad stone steps lead into the entrance
hall, where, facing you, stands a black, long-haired, stuffed sloth
bear, hugging the sticks and umbrellas, and an oak case, full of English
game-birds. Glass doors open into the broad, lofty, central hall, giving
outlet to numerous rooms, which are all draped with heavy _portières_
on each side. The first to the right opens, and Mrs. Edward Kennard
comes out to bid you welcome to "The Barn," and leads the way into the
drawing-room, which is bright with a huge, blazing fire and tall lamps.
She is above the middle height, and her slight, well-built figure shows
to as much advantage in the neatly-fitting brown homespun costume as it
does in her well-cut "Busvine" habit. She has a small head, well set on,
with dark hair curling over her brow, and dark eyes which, owing to her
being short-sighted, have somewhat of a searching expression as she
looks at you, and the kindest of smiles. A woman of peculiar grace,
gentleness, and refinement, her pluck and skill which are so prominent
in the chase and lead her to delight in all field sports, in no way
detract from her womanly characteristics in the home circle and other
relations in life.
Mrs. Edward Kennard is the second daughter and fourth child of a
well-known public man, Mr. Samuel Laing, late member for the counties of
Orkney and Shetland, and formerly Finance Minister of India.
"I believe," says your hostess, as you sit at tea, "that I took to
scribbling principally through finding time hang heavy on my hands and
seeking occupation. I fancy that any small love of literature which I
may possess is hereditary, since my father, who is now chairman of the
Brighton Railway, has written several important works, notably, "Modern
Science and Modern Thoughts," "Problems of the Future," etc., whilst my
grandfather, Mr. S. Laing, was also well known as an author in his day,
and wrote a famous book of Norwegian travel, still considered one of
the best extant. In the schoolroom (we lived at Hordle, Hants, then) I
was regarded as the dunce, and my childish recollections are always
embittered by thoughts of scoldings, punishments, and admonitions from
our various governesses.
At the age of fifteen the young girl was sent to a private establishment
at St. Germains, when, under a different system of tuition, she began to
take an interest in her studies, and to work in earnest. Two or three
years later she returned to England, and shortly after married Mr.
Edward Kennard, Deputy-Lieutenant and Magistrate for the counties of
Monmouthshire and Northamptonshire, son of the late Mr. R. W. Kennard,
M.P. He, too, has literary as well as sporting tastes, and is the author
of "Fishing in Strange Waters" and "Sixty Days in America," besides
being a contributor to the _Illustrated London News_, _Graphic_, and
_The Chase_. He is also an artist, and every part of the house is
decorated with his clever, spirited sketches in oils and water-colours.
Mrs. Edward Kennard's first literary efforts were a series of short
stories, which she wrote for her two boys. These were afterwards
collected and published in one volume called "Twilight Tales."
Subsequently, when the little fellows had to be sent to school, and she
describes herself as "having felt lost without them," during a long
period of indifferent health, she turned her attention to authorship.
Her first novel, "The Right Sort," was produced in 1888, and was
followed by "Straight as a Die," "Twilight Tales," and "Killed in the
Open." Next came "The Girl in the Brown Habit," "A Real Good Thing," "A
Glorious Gallop," "A Crack County," "Our Friends in the Hunting Field,"
"Matron or Maid," etc., etc. These are all sporting novels, as most of
their names indicate, and contain the graphic account of many a stirring
and exciting run depicted with the vividness and fidelity born of
accurate knowledge of hounds, horses, and huntsmen, and long experience
in the field. All these works are very popular at home and in the
colonies, and most of them have passed into many editions. "Landing a
Prize" is the result of several seasons spent in Norway on the Sandem,
Stryn, Etne, Aurland, Gule, Förde, and Aäro rivers. This book relates to
quite another kind of sport, for the author who can so successfully
negotiate a real Leicestershire flyer--a high blackthorn fence with a
ditch on either side of it--with such ease and grace, and has ridden
first flight in this county and in Northamptonshire since her marriage,
is equally at home in salmon-fishing, and last year, with considerable
dexterity and skill, wielded her seventeen-foot rod of split cane to
such good purpose that she landed a thirty-six pounder, a feat of which
her husband and sons are justly proud; but you must go to Mr. Kennard to
get details of his wife's prowess, for she says, modestly, "It is so
very difficult to say anything much of oneself. I like hunting, of
course, but look upon it purely as an agreeable physical amusement, and
not the _one_ business of life, as it is considered in this
neighbourhood, a thing to which all other interests must be sacrificed.
Marrying very young, it has since been my fate to reside in a hunting
county, and therefore I have had few opportunities for gratifying my
love for travel and seeing fresh scenes. For the last few years,
however, we have spent our summers in Norway, and I have become almost
as fond of salmon-fishing as of riding."
The scene of the author's late work is laid in Germany, and in "A
Homburg Beauty" she gives a vigorous narrative of a steeplechase which
she witnessed in that place. The last two novels she produced are
entitled "That Pretty Little Horse-Breaker," and "Wedded to Sport."
Mrs. Edward Kennard is as clever with her needle as is her husband with
his paint-brush, and many are the evidences of her capacity in this
feminine accomplishment in the room. The curtains, cornices,
mantel-cloths, together with several screens and cushions--even the
window blinds--are all exquisitely embroidered by her industrious
fingers. There are many priceless pieces of very old Japanese bronze,
china, and ancient lacquer work scattered about the room. On one table
is a perfect model in soapstone of an Indian burying-ground, and above
the dado is a narrow terry velvet ledge on which are strewn lovely bits
of Japanese ivories and other ornaments. The walls are hung with
water-colour paintings of scenes in Egypt, by Mr. Kennard, and the whole
room looks cosy and comfortable in the slow of warm firelight and
coloured lamp-shades.
An hour or so later you are all sitting at a large round dinner-table,
which is artistically decorated with quaint dried sea-weeds and shells
of delicate tints and shades, grouped on an arrangement of "Liberty"
silks, and the effect is as original as it is pretty. There are only
the family party present: your kind, genial hosts and their two
sons--Lionel, a handsome young Militia officer reading for a cavalry
commission; and Malcolm, a naval cadet, who has just passed out of the
_Britannia_ with eight months' sea time. Both are promising youngsters,
the pride and joy of their parents, and either can hold his own against
the "grown-ups" in the hunting field. The silver bowl yonder is a prize
gained by "Rainbow" and "Ransom," two fox-hound puppies walked by Mr.
Kennard; and a large painting hanging opposite attracting your
attention, Mrs. Kennard explains that it was executed by Bassieti, and
was exhibited amongst the Old Masters at Burlington House, and that the
original study was purchased out of the Hamilton collection by the
National Gallery, where it now hangs. Dinner over, an adjournment to the
billiard-room is proposed. The walls are hung with trophies of sport, a
forest of stags' horns, including wild fallow, wapiti, red-deer,
chamois, and roebuck. Your eye is first caught by the monster salmon,
painted on canvas and stretched over the model of the great fish on the
spot where Mrs. Kennard landed it, and above it hangs a picture of the
scene at Tower Sloholen where the feat was accomplished. The principal
painting in this room is of the author on "Rhoda," long since defunct, a
celebrated mare by Zouave, who carried her several seasons without a
fall. Near this is Lionel when a child, on his first pony, "Judy," who
is still alive, and spending a happy old age in the paddock. This pony
and the handsome fox-terrier following his mistress round the room, both
figure in "Twilight Tales." But old "Skylark" must not be forgotten,
and here hangs his portrait, representing his wonderful jump--owner
up--over water, a distance of twenty-eight feet from take-off to land. A
curious object lies on the side table, a British officer's sword, with
crest, monogram, Queen's crown, and V.R. on it, which has been turned
into a barbaric weapon, and is encased in a rude leather scabbard with
silk tassels. On the mantelpiece stands a great bronze six-armed
monster, with open mouth, and on a lighted match being secretly applied
behind its back to a tiny gas tube within, you turn round to find a long
thin flame issuing therefrom, at which the gentlemen light their cigars.
Below this is a border, beautifully embroidered in silks by Mrs.
Kennard, representing hounds in full chase after a fox. A pleasant game
of billiards finishes the evening.
On the morrow Mr. Kennard suggests a further inspection of other
interesting parts of the house, and promises that at noon, when the
horses are dressed, his wife shall act as cicerone, and do the honours
of the stables. Accordingly, first Mrs. Edward Kennard's summer study is
visited. It lies between the dining and drawing rooms, and looks bright
and cheerful, with its amply-filled bookcases, comfortable
lounging-chairs, and little tables. The writing-table stands in front of
the window, from whence there is a fine view, which in summer inspires
the author to write some of her happy bits of scenery; but the
peculiarity of this room is the extraordinarily large collection of
china ranged in tiers round the walls. It is, indeed, a complete dinner
service of fifteen dozen plates, designed and painted by Mr. Kennard,
and brought out by Mortlock, and is quite unique.
On the other side of the hall is a glass case containing a splendid
silver-grey fox, stuffed, and carrying a dead pheasant in its mouth.
This was a tame fox, reared from a cub. Just at the foot of the great
open staircase is the weighing chair and book recording the weights of
all the hunting people in these parts. The broad, lofty staircase walls
are laden with an _olla podrida_ of curiosities, notably some barbaric
necklaces and armlets studded with uncut gems, and several full-dress
suits of Arab and Nubian ladies, made of grasses and strips of leather,
which on breezy days might be considered somewhat too scanty to please
the British matron. There are fine old paintings here by Albert
Bierstadt, Maes, and Van der Helst, and higher up hangs a more modern
one of a hunt in the early days of the author's married life, when dogs
supplied the place of children. Amongst a museum of stuffed crocodiles,
catamarans, a parrot fish from the Dead Sea, sundry Egyptian warlike
implements, musical instruments, and mediæval deities painted on glass,
there hangs a solitary broken stirrup leather which has a story. It is
the one by which the famous horsewoman was dragged at a gallop over a
ridge-and-furrow field, breaking her arm in two places, the horse she
rode failing to jump a stiff stile out of a wood. This, and another bad
fall--when she was lost to sight in a ditch beneath the heavy body of a
fifteen-stone weight-carrier--Mr. Kennard declares to be the two worst
accidents he ever witnessed in the hunting-field, "but," he adds, "they
have in no way shaken her nerve."
There is just time before keeping tryst with your hostess to peep into
her second writing room, formerly the nursery, but now devoted to
literature and fine art. From the window, which looks out to the
south-east, can be seen the rifle range and tobogganing ground. The next
is the large photographing room (in which art the whole family are
deeply interested), but noticing a negative plate lying buried under two
inches of ice in a dish, you prudently and promptly beat a retreat,
though not before noticing the lovely effect of the hoar-frost on the
deep ruby-coloured windows lighted up by the sun. Noon strikes, and
descending the staircase you find your hostess in the hall (both her
hands are full of lumps of sugar for her pets), and _en passant_ pause
to examine a splendid old Italian cassonè over seven feet long,
supported on two animated-looking griffins. This is one of the finest
sixteenth century walnutwood carvings, or rather sculptures in high
relief, in Europe, and is complete and uninjured.
The long passage at the back of the lower rooms of the great house opens
out into a large square red-brick courtyard, with coach-house, forge,
and two stables on the right and left, where the good stud-groom Butlin
is waiting. This faithful and trusted retainer is greatly valued by his
employers. He has been in their service for a great many years, adores
his horses, and is as proud of Mrs. Kennard's riding as are her husband
and boys. He opens the door on the left, where there are four stalls and
two loose boxes, in which stand "Roulette," a fine bay mare; "Bridget,"
a dun pony who goes in harness, and carries the younger boy to hounds;
"Leicester" and "Blackfox," who are both harness horses and hunters.
The magnificent black-brown animal yonder is "Quickstep," a gift from
Mrs. Kennard's father; she says, "He does not know what it is to refuse
or turn his head, and is one of the boldest and freest horses that ever
crossed Leicestershire. I rode him twenty-seven times last season, and
he never had a filled leg." In the stable on the right you find "Diana,"
a handsome bay mare with black points, standing 16.1, and "Grayling,"
both fine bold fencers; "Grasshopper," and "Magic," a bay mare by
"Berserker," and a marvellous hunter. Lastly, "Bobbie," by "Forerunner,"
who is a great pet, and inherits his natural jumping qualities from his
dam, Rhoda. Out of this fine collection "Bobbie" and "Quickstep" are
Mrs. Kennard's favourite mounts, though she often rides most of the
others. But you are particularly enjoined to see old "Skylark," who
occupies a summering box in the smaller yard. This grand old hunter,
though twenty years old, can still hold his own after hounds, indeed,
Butlin observes that "there is not a horse in the country who can jump
or gallop against him for a four mile run." Returning by the side of the
field, he points out old "Judy," and a promising filly, "Rosie," who
come trotting up to their mistress, in anticipation of their daily
sugar.
There is a large and merry party of frozen-out fox-hunters at luncheon,
after which everyone goes off to the tobogganing ground. Mrs. Edward
Kennard is to the fore here too. She seats herself daintily in the
little vehicle, and glides down the great hill swiftly and gracefully,
though many of the party get an awkward spill, or land ignominiously in
a hedge full of twigs. By and by comes the news that a thaw is
imminent, which sends up all the spirits of the hunting community
delightfully, and great are the preparations and arrangements. If this
state of things continue, ere many days have elapsed the brave and
fearless writer will once more be in the saddle doing three, and
occasionally four, days a week, mounted alternately on her good little
"Bobbie" or the equally gallant "Quickstep." Then, although skating and
curling may have kept the sportsmen and women, who did not forsake
Market Harboro', fairly amused, there will be great jubilation, and once
more the delights of the chase will come as a fresh sensation after a
stoppage of so many weeks. Before long the shires will again be in their
glory, hounds will race over the purified pastures, foxes will run
straight and true, in that best of all hunting months February, and it
is just possible that the end of the season may yet atone for the
disappointments, inaction, and last, but not least, the expense which
for so long characterised it, and to the "music of hound and ring of
horn" you leave the gentle and clever author.
[Illustration: Jessie Fothergill]
JESSIE FOTHERGILL.[1]
[1] Since the serial publication of these sketches the death
of the gifted writer has taken place.
With a vivid recollection of the comforts enjoyed on a recent trip to
Ireland to visit Mrs. Hungerford, you again trust yourself to the tender
mercies of the London and North-Western line with the intention of
calling on Miss Jessie Fothergill, author of "The First Violin," etc.,
in her own home. Starting at 10.10 a.m. from Euston, and having
prudently taken another of the young writer's works, "Kith and Kin,"
to beguile the time during the long journey, you arrive punctually at
2.20 p.m. at the busy, bustling town of Manchester, having found that
with the fascinating novel, combined with the smoothly-running and
comfortable carriages and a good luncheon basket, four hours have passed
like one; so deeply absorbing is the story that you have lost all count
of time, and utterly neglected to notice the scenery through which you
have been so rapidly carried. Proposing, however, to repair this
omission on the return journey, you select a tidy hansom, with a
good-looking bay horse and an intelligent-faced Jehu, desiring him to
point out the principal objects of interest to be seen. Having an
hour to spare, there is time to make a _détour_, and drive round the
exterior of the great Cheetham Hospital, which, with its college and
library, are famous relics of old Manchester, and are in the immediate
neighbourhood of the Cathedral, and in a moment you seem to be
transported from the bustle and roar of life into the quiet and peace of
the old world cloisters.
Presently, driving past St. Peter's Church, the open door invites a peep
at the famous painting of the "Descent from the Cross," by Annibal
Carracci, which adorns the altar, and, finally, passing on the left
Owens College, the principal branch of the Victoria University, the cab
pulls up at Miss Fothergill's door.
It is a quiet street lying off Oxford-street, one of the main
thoroughfares of Manchester; and the house, one of a modest little row,
is small and ordinary. The rooms are larger than might have been
expected from its exterior, notably Miss Fothergill's own "den," as she
calls the place where she spends nearly all her time. It is upstairs,
and has two windows facing south; between them stands a large writing
table, from which the author rises to welcome you. It is literally
covered with papers and manuscripts. "You think it looks extremely
untidy," she says with a bright smile, after the first greetings are
over. "It is not untidy for me, because I can put my hand on everything
that I want. I am much cramped for space, too, in which to arrange my
books as I would have them. I have a great many more than these, and
they are scattered about in different other rooms in the house, which is
only my temporary home, and everything is in disorder now, as I am on
the eve of departure for sunnier climes."
The furniture is arranged with the greatest simplicity, but it is all
very comfortable; there are several easy chairs, a good resting couch,
and plenty of tables, heaped up with the books, papers, and magazines of
her daily reading. Over the fireplace is a large and very good autotype
of Leonardo da Vinci's "Monna Lisa," with her mysterious smile and
exquisite hands. There are likewise many photographs of Rome, and the
art treasures of Rome. On another wall are two of Melozzo da Forti's
angels, after those in the Sagrestia dei Canonici at St. Peter's, Rome,
and a drawing of Watts' "Love and Death," made by a friend.
"It is all extremely simple and rather shabby," Miss Fothergill remarks
placidly, "but it suits me. I rarely enter the downstair rooms except at
the stated hour for meals, and, though I detest the dirt and gloom of
Manchester, and am always ill in this climate, yet for luxury I do not
care. Sumptuous rooms, gorgeous furniture, and an accumulation of 'the
pride of life' and 'the lust of the eye' would simply oppress me, and
make me feel very uncomfortable."
It is only fair to remark that on this occasion Manchester has put on a
bright and smiling appearance. Though the fogs and rain can be as
persistent as they are in London, the latter indeed much more frequent,
the sun to-day shines brilliantly over the great city, and "dirt and
gloom" are conspicuous by their absence.
In person the author is moderately tall and slight in figure. She is
pale and delicate-looking, with dark brown curly hair brushed back from
her forehead, and fine grey eyes, which have a sparkle of mirth in them,
and indicate a keen sense of humour. "I have a keen sense of fun," she
replies in answer to your remark, "and see the ridiculous side of
things, if they have one. It is a blessed assistance in wending one's
way through life. My mother and all her family possessed it, and we
inherit it from her." She wears a soft black dress, trimmed with lace
and jet embroidery, and she is so youthful in her appearance that she
looks like a mere girl.
Jessie Fothergill was born at Cheetham Hall, Manchester, and is of mixed
Lancashire and Yorkshire descent. Her father came of an old Yorkshire
yeoman and Quaker family, whose original home--still standing--was a
lonely house called Tarn House, in a lonely dale--Ravenstonedale,
Westmoreland. From there, in 1668, the family, having joined the Society
of Friends, removed to a farmhouse, which some member of it built for
himself in Wensleydale, Yorkshire, a district which until lately has
been quite remote and little known, but which is now beginning to be
sadly spoiled by the number of visitors from afar, who have found it
out, and who are corrupting the primitive simplicity of the inhabitants
of the dale. This old-world farmstead was called Carr End. It is still
in existence, but has passed out of the possession of its former owners.
"My father spent his childhood there," says Miss Fothergill, "and used
to keep us entranced, as children, living in a stiff Manchester suburb,
with accounts of the things to be seen and done there--of the wild
moors, the running waterfalls, the little lake of Semirwater hard by
filled with fish, haunted by birds to us unknown, and bordered by grass
and flowers, pleasant woods and rough boulders. I never saw it till I
was a grown woman, and, standing in the old-fashioned garden with the
remembrance of my dead father in my heart, I formed the intention of
making it the scene of a story, and did so." But ere she has finished
speaking you recognize the whole description in the volume of "Kith and
Kin" which you had been reading in the train.
Miss Fothergill's father spent his early manhood in Rochdale, learning
the ins and outs of the cotton trade, the great Lancashire industry,
settling with a friend as his partner in business in Manchester. He was
a Quaker, and on marrying her mother, who was a member of the Church of
England, he was turned out of the Society of Friends for choosing a wife
outside the pale of that body. His Nonconformist blood is strong in all
his children, and not one of them now belongs to the Established Church.
Mrs. Fothergill was the daughter of a medical man at Burnley, in
North-East Lancashire, another busy, grimy, manufacturing town.
"I, however," says your young hostess, "knew very little of these
northern towns, or the characteristics of their people, the love of
which afterwards became part of my life, for, though my father's
business was in Manchester, our home was at Bowdon, a popular suburb
some eight or ten miles on the Cheshire side of the great city, and as
utterly different from its northern outskirts and surroundings as if it
belonged to another world."
Misfortune soon brought the young girl in contact with other scenes.
When she was a mere child at school, and all her brothers and sisters
very young, her father died. Much reduced in circumstances, the family
went to live (because it appeared best, most suitable, and convenient)
at an out-of-the-way house appertaining to a cotton mill, in an
out-of-the-way part of Lancashire, in which her father and his partner
had had a business interest.
"There must have been something of the artist," continues Jessie
Fothergill, "and something also of the vagabond in me, for I quite well
remember going home to this place for the first Christmas holidays after
my father's death and being enchanted and delighted--despite the sorrow
that overshadowed us--with the rough roads, the wild sweeping moors and
fells, the dark stone walls, the strange, uncouth people, the
out-of-the-worldness of it all. And the better I knew it the more I
loved it, in its winter bleakness and its tempered but delightful summer
warmth. I loved its gloom, its grey skies and green fields, the energy
and the desperate earnestness of the people, who lived and worked there.
I photographed this place minutely under the name of Homerton in a novel
called 'Healey.' Here I passed a good many years after that
turning-point in a 'young lady's' career--leaving school. Alas! there
was little of the 'young lady' about me. I hated company, except exactly
that in which I felt myself at home. I loved books, and read all that I
could get hold of, and have had many a rebuke for 'poring over those
books' instead of qualifying myself as a useful member of society.
Almost better, I loved my wild rambles over the moors, along the rough
roads, into every nook and corner of what would have been a beautiful
vale--the Tadmorden Valley--if man had but left it as God had made it.
But I liked the life that was around me too, the routine of the great
cotton and flannel mills, the odd habits, the queer sayings and doings
of the workpeople. It was only when compassionate friends or relations,
wishing to be kind and to introduce me to the world, insisted upon
appearing in carriages, presenting me with ball-dresses, and taking me
to entertainments that I was unhappy. I wove romances, wrote them down,
in an attic at the top of the house, dreamed dreams, and lived, I can
conscientiously say, far more intensely in the lives and loves of my
imaginary characters, than even in the ambition of some day having name
and fame."
Both of Jessie Fothergill's two first books "Healey" and "Aldyth,"
according to her own account "fell flat and dead to the ground." Nothing
daunted, however, by their failure, she paused for a while before
writing anything more. Soon after their publication, she paid two visits
to the Continent as the guest of friends, delighting much in all the new
and wonderful things she saw. But the real enjoyment of foreign life
came on a subsequent journey, when, with a sister and two young friends,
she found herself established in a German boarding-house at Dusseldorf,
on the Rhine, utterly without any of the luxurious hotels, drives,
dinners, or any correct sight-seeing which she had enjoyed on her former
visits, but with a thousand interests brought by the opening of a new
life, the wonderful discovery of German music, the actual hearing of
all the delightful things she had previously only heard of, which
naturally inspired her imagination and fancy. At Dusseldorf she began to
write "The First Violin," weaving into the scenes which passed every day
before her eyes a series of imaginary adventures of imaginary beings. It
was written "in spasms," she says--often altered, again completely
changed in plot and incident several times, and it was not actually
finished for a very long time after it was begun.
During the fifteen months spent at Dusseldorf she took every opportunity
of studying the German language and life, and at the expiration of that
time she went back to England--"to the house at the end of the world,"
she says, smiling; "and soon after my return I took a secretaryship, my
heart in my books, making several efforts to get some enterprising
publisher to take 'The First Violin.' I went to the firm who had brought
out my two first unlucky efforts, but they kindly and parentally advised
me, for the sake of whatever literary reputation I might have obtained,
not to publish the novel I submitted to them. Much nettled at this, I
replied, somewhat petulantly, that I acknowledged their right to refuse
it, but not to advise me in the matter, and I _would_ publish it. Next I
took it to another firm who made it a rule never to bring out any novels
except those of some promise. If it were possible to grant the premises
of my story, the action itself was consistent enough, but it was up in
the clouds and (though so elevated) was below their mark. Finally Mr.
Bentley took pity on it, and brought it out in three-volume form, first
running it through the pages of _Temple Bar_. Since that time I have not
experienced any difficulty in disposing of my wares, though continuous
and severe ill-health has been a constant restraint on their rapid
production, and has also kept me quiet and obliged me to seek rest and
avoid excitement at the expense of many an acquaintance and many a
pleasure I should have been glad to enjoy."
On looking back, Jessie Fothergill cannot remember anything which caused
her to write beyond the desire to do it. Her first attempts began when
she was a mere child. Passionately fond of fairy tales, or any other,
good, bad, or indifferent, she read them all, literally living in them
when doing so. Then at school she used to instigate the other girls to
write stories, because she wished to do so herself. She would tell them
marvellous romances, which she had either read or invented. Her talent
for writing fiction cannot be called hereditary, since the only family
literary productions of which she is aware are a volume or two of
sermons preached by some Fothergill who was a Friend, a missionary, and
a man of note in his time. "Then, long ago," says the author, "there was
a celebrated Dr. John Fothergill in London. I came across his name in
one of the volumes of Horace Walpole's letters. He not only made a
fortune, but wrote books--purely professional ones, I imagine. My
father's people were brought up narrowly as regards literature and
accomplishments, as was the fashion in his sect in that day, but he
himself was an insatiable devourer of novels and poetry, and introduced
me to the works of Dickens and Walter Scott, exacting a promise that I
should not read more than three chapters of any given book in one day, a
promise which was faithfully kept, but with great agony of mind."
Jessie Fothergill forms her plots as follows: She imagines some given
situation, and works round it, as it were, till she gets the story, all
the characters except the two or three principal ones coming gradually.
Next she writes them out, first in a rough draft, the end of which often
contradicts the beginning, but she knows what she means by that time.
Then it is all copied out and arranged, as she has settled it clearly in
her mind. She is quick in composing, but slow in deciding which course
the story shall take, as all the people are very real to her, and
sometimes unkindly refuse to be disposed of according to her original
intentions. "I write much more slowly," says Miss Fothergill, "and much
less frequently now that my health is so indifferent. As a child I
learnt very quickly, and sometimes forgot equally quickly, but never
anything that really interested me. I remember winning one prize only at
a very early age, and choosing the most brightly bound of the books from
which I had to select. It has always been my great regret that I did not
receive a classical education. If I had, I would have turned it to some
purpose; but when I was a child, music, for which I had absolutely no
gift, was drummed into me, and a little French, German and Italian I
have learnt for myself since." "The Lasses of Leverhouse" was her third
book, but "The First Violin" scored her first success. It went through
several editions, and was followed by "Probation," "Kith and Kin," "The
Wellfields," "Borderland," "Peril," and "From Moor Isles." Most of these
passed first through _Temple Bar_ before being issued in book form, and
each has been warmly welcomed and favourably reviewed. Some have
appeared in Indian and Australian journals, and nearly all her works are
to be found in the _Tauchnitz_ edition. "A March in the Ranks" is the
author's latest book. Besides these, she has written numerous short
stories, among them, "Made or Marred," "One of Three," and a great many
articles and essays for newspapers and magazines.
Full of interest and incident, carefully and conscientiously worked out,
there is one prevailing characteristic running through all Miss
Fothergill's novels. She is thoroughly straightforward and honest.
Hating shams of all kinds, she pictures what seem to be things that
happen, with due license for arranging the circumstances and
catastrophes artistically and dramatically. "The First Violin" is a book
for all time; "Probation," "Kith and Kin," "Peril" and "The Wellfields,"
are decidedly nineteenth century stories, as many of the interesting
questions of the day appear in them, and it is evident that the said
questions occupied the gifted writer's mind not a little. "I have
absolutely no sympathy," she says, "with what is often called realism
now, the apotheosis of all that is ugly in man's life, feelings, and
career, told in a minute, laborious way, and put forth as if it were a
discovery. Life is as full of romance as Italy is full of roses. It is
as full of prose as Lancashire is full of factory chimneys. I have
always tried to be impartial in my writings, and to let the pendulum
swing from good to bad, from bad to good; that has been my aim when I
could detach myself enough from my characters." Here Miss Fothergill
draws off a seal ring which she long ago had engraved with the motto she
chose to guide her through life. "Good fight, good rest," she adds. "It
embodies all I have of religious creed. It means a good deal when you
come to think of it."
Miss Fothergill is a great reader. She delights especially in Ruskin,
Darwin, Georges Sand, and George Eliot's works, which she says have
solaced many an hour of pain and illness. In lighter literature she
prefers some of Anthony Trollope's novels, and considers Mrs. Gaskell's
"Sylvia's Lovers" one of the masterpieces of English fiction, and
"Wuthering Heights" as absolutely unique and unapproachable. Herbert
Spencer and Freeman are great favourites, whilst in poetry Browning
stands first of all in her affections, and next to him, Morris, Goethe,
and bits of Walt Whitman. Of her own works she remarks modestly, "It
seems to me that I have not much to say of them. What little I have done
has been done entirely by my own efforts, unassisted by friends at
court, or favour of any kind. It has been a regret that owing to my
having never lived in London I have not mixed more with scientific or
literary people, and that I only know them through their books."
The author having studied her "Lewis' Topographical Dictionary" to such
good purpose, is thoroughly conversant with her own native city, and
its doings past and present, she has therefore much interesting
information to impart about its ancient history, the sources of its
wealth, and the origin of the place, which is so remarkable for the
importance of its manufactures and the great extent of its trade.
Manchester may be traced back to a very remote period of antiquity. It
was once distinguished as a principal station of the Druid priests, and
was for four centuries occupied by the Romans, being amply provided with
everything requisite for the subsistence and accommodation of the
garrison established in it. It was as long ago as 1352 that the
manufacture of "Manchester cottons" was introduced, and the material was
in reality a kind of woollen cloth made from the fleece in an unprepared
state. In that period Flemish artisans settled in the town, where,
finding so many natural advantages, they laid the foundations of the
trade and brought the woollen manufacture to a great degree of
perfection. Nor is the industrious city without later historical
reminiscences. In 1744 Prince Charles Edward visited Manchester, where
he was hospitably entertained for several weeks at Ancoat's Hall, the
house of Sir Edward Moseley, Bart., returning the following year at the
head of an army of 6000 men, when he took up his quarters at the house
of Mr. Dickenson in Market Place. In 1768 Christian, King of Denmark,
lodged with his suite at the ancient Bull Inn. Early in the present
century the Archdukes John and Lewis of Austria, accompanied by a
retinue of scientific men, spent some time in the place, and in 1817 the
late Emperor of Russia, then the Grand Duke Nicholas, visited
Manchester to inspect the aqueducts and excavations at Worsley, and was
escorted all over the principal factories.
But the shades of evening draw on; London must be reached to-night, and
having likewise been "hospitably entertained," you bid Jessie Fothergill
good-bye, with an earnest hope that under southern skies, and in warmer
latitudes, she may soon regain her lost health and strength.
[Illustration: Mary Hardy]
LADY DUFFUS HARDY.
IZA DUFFUS HARDY.
At the uppermost end of the long Portsdown Road, which stretches from
near St. Saviour's Church away up to Carlton Road, and runs almost
parallel with Maida Vale, there stands a large and lofty block of flats
known as Portsdown Mansions. In one of these, a cosy suite of rooms on
the parlour floor, arranged so as to form a complete maisonette, an
industrious mother, Lady Duffus Hardy, and her only child, Iza, tread
hand in hand along the paths of literature.
Whilst mounting the broad stone steps which lead to the entrance door,
and ere pressing the electric bell, a fierce barking is heard within,
but it is only the big good-natured black dog "Sam," keeping faithful
watch over his mistresses. The hall door opens, and displays a half-bred
pointer whose well-groomed, satin-like coat gives evidence of the care
and attention lavished upon him. He is a great pet, and is generally
known as the "Household Treasure" or "Family Joy." He inspects you, is
apparently satisfied with his scrutiny, wags his tail, and solemnly
precedes you into the pleasant home-like drawing-room, where he first
keeps a furtive eye on you as you glance around, and presently, in the
most comical way, brings up his favourite playmate, an equally
jet-black cat, to be stroked and petted, and then departs as if to fetch
his mistress. It is all very bright and cheerful: a fair-sized, lofty
room, the prevailing tints of pale sage green, with heavy damask
curtains, which do not, however, exclude the brilliant glow of sunlight
streaming in through an unusually broad window, for Lady Duffus Hardy
likes plenty of light, and wisely maintains that people, like plants,
thrive best in sunshine.
She certainly justifies her belief. The door opens, and, duly escorted
by "Sam," a tall, portly gentlewoman of commanding and dignified
presence, with cordial and hearty manner, enters. Her gown of violet
velvet harmonizes well with her nearly white hair, which contrasts so
favourably with her dark eyebrows and brown eyes. These last have a
sparkle of merriment and fun in them, for Lady Hardy is of that pleasant
and genial disposition, which loves to look on the best side of people
and things, and she is consequently popular with old and young alike.
She tells you that she is a Londoner _pur et simple_; that she was born
in Fitzroy Square, when that part of town was in its zenith, and was a
favourite locality for great artists, Sir W. Ross, R.A., the celebrated
miniature painter, and Sir Charles Eastlake, late President of the Royal
Academy, being among their number.
With the exception of a few years spent at Addlestone, where her
daughter was born, Lady Hardy has passed all her life in London,
residing for many years in the pretty house, standing in the midst of a
large and well-wooded garden in St. John's Wood, where she used to give
delightful Saturday evening parties, which are still pleasantly
remembered by her friends.[2]
[2] Since the serial publication of these sketches the death
of the much beloved and respected writer has taken place.
Lady Hardy was an only child. Her father, Mr. T. C. McDowell, died five
months before her birth, at the untimely age of twenty-six, when on the
threshold of a promising career, and her early-widowed mother, resolving
that she should never be sent to school, had her educated entirely at
home under her own eye, and only parted with her on her marriage with
Mr., afterwards Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy, D.C.L., Deputy Keeper of Her
Majesty's Records (first at the Tower and later at the Rolls House), who
died in 1879. "Rarely," says Lady Hardy, "has there been a man at once
so learned and so good." Whilst wading in the deep fields of historic
research, he did not disdain some of the lighter portions of literature;
indeed, the prefaces to many of his historical collections were written
in such an entertaining and pleasant vein, that they by themselves would
make delightful essays in any magazine of the present day. With all his
laborious occupation--for which he used to declare the year was so short
that he must make it into fourteen months by stealing the balance out of
the night--Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy maintained that the busiest people
have ever the most leisure, and he always had time to spare to enjoy the
society of his friends. It may be truly said of him that seldom did
twenty-four hours pass without his showing some act of kindness to one
or other of them. This sympathetic and amiable trait of character has
caused his name to be remembered with lasting affection and respect,
not only by the erudite scholar, but among his personal friends.
Though always fond of writing, Lady Hardy did not actually set to work
seriously at story-making until after her marriage. Then, living in an
atmosphere of literature, she began to occupy her leisure hours with her
pen, and, having taken much trouble to collect her materials, she wrote
"Two Catherines" (Macmillan) and "Paul Wynter's Sacrifice," which went
well, and was soon translated into French. This success encouraged her
to write "Lizzie," "Madge," "Beryl Fortescue," and "A Hero's Work," all
of which were published in three volumes by Messrs. Hurst and Blackett.
"Daisy Nicholl" was brought out first by Sampson Low and Co., and then
in America, where it was received with much favour, and had a large
sale. Her latest novel, "A Dangerous Experiment" (Mr. F. V. White), came
out in 1888. During the last two or three years Lady Hardy has written
many short stories for high-class magazines and Christmas numbers, which
are all bright in dialogue and vigorous in design.
Full of indomitable energy, the author has lately turned her attention
to journalism, and is writing a series of articles on social subjects,
"which interest me so deeply," she says, laughing, "that I sometimes
think of leaving novel-making entirely to Iza." Two of these papers
recall themselves particularly to mind at the moment as possessing
singular merit--one called "The Morality of Mercy" and the other "Free
Pardon." The former was quoted and much complimented in Mr. Donald
Nichol's book, "Man's Revenge," an interesting work on the reform of
administration of the criminal law, a subject in which Lady Hardy and
her daughter take a keen interest.
At this juncture Miss Iza Duffus Hardy comes into the room. She is
dressed in a flowered "Liberty" silk tea-gown, with black facings. She
bears a striking likeness to her late distinguished father. She, too, is
tall, but slight and fragile-looking, pale in complexion, with soft
hazel eyes, and brown hair worn in coils round her head. Whilst she does
the honours of the tea-tray, you have leisure to look around. Lady
Hardy's Chippendale writing-table stands in the window, and her
ink-stand is a beautiful bronze model of Titian's own, and was sent to
her from Venice. There is a carved Venetian bracket on each side of the
fireplace; on one stands some fancy glass work, and on the other a
lovely Cyprus vase, a perfect _replica_ of the third century model. The
richly-carved jar, flanked on either side by terra-cotta statuettes, is
handsome in itself and is treasured because it was a gift from the late
Mr. S. C. Hall, who, together with his wife, was an intimate and valued
friend of your hostesses. Yonder, on a cabinet, is a large bust of
Clytie, also in terra-cotta. Amongst the pictures are, notably, a little
gem in oils by Ernest Parton, and a fine water-colour drawing of Durham
by Mr. W. H. Brewer. The bookcase is filled with autograph copies by
many of their friends, principally Julian Hawthorne, the late Mr.
Hepworth Dixon, Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall, Mr. P. B. Marston, and Mr.
Cordy Jeaffreson. It also contains a goodly collection of Lady and Miss
Hardy's favourite poets which are evidently often used. There are
volumes of Rossetti, Browning, Morris, Swinburne, and some by Philip
Bourke Marston, the blind poet, son of Dr. Westland Marston. Over the
couch is spread a large patchwork coverlet, which was made and
embroidered by Miss Hardy, who is as much at home with the needle as
with the pen.
A year after their bereavement, the mother and daughter having long
entertained a desire to visit America, determined to make a trip across
the Atlantic in 1880. After passing several pleasant weeks in Canada,
enjoying delightful glimpses of the social life in Ottawa and Toronto,
they visited Niagara Falls, stayed awhile in New York, and then
travelled over the Rocky Mountains to San Francisco, "where," says Miss
Hardy, "we spent a thoroughly pleasant winter, and received so much
genuine kindness and hospitality that it has endeared the name of the
country to us ever since," and she goes on to tell you that, amongst
many acts of courtesy shown to them--the courtesy which is so freely
displayed to women travelling alone in America--there was one from a
fellow-traveller, who did not even know their name, until by chance it
transpired, when the discovery was made that he had been intimately
acquainted in his youth with Sir Thomas Hardy, who had given him his
first start in life forty years before, and of whose letters he
possessed a large packet. On their return journey they visited Boston,
where they made the acquaintance of Oliver Wendell Holmes, and spent a
delightful day with the poet Longfellow at his country residence at
Nahant.
In the following spring Lady and Miss Duffus Hardy returned home, but a
year later the restless spirit of travel again took hold of them, and
they decided to make a second tour in America, this time embracing the
Southern States, and visiting the chief cities of Virginia, South
Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, on their way to New Orleans, where they
met General Beauregard, the renowned Confederate leader, whose thrilling
reminiscences of the great struggle of 1863-5 Miss Hardy says they can
"never forget, any more than they can forget his unfailing kindness and
attention." The experiences of all these expeditions were embodied by
Lady Hardy in her books "Through Cities and Prairie Lands," and "Down
South," both of which were successful and well received.
[Illustration: Iza Duffus Hardy]
Inheriting talent from both parents, and reared among literary
surroundings, Iza Duffus Hardy naturally turned to writing at a very
early age. Before she was fifteen she had planned and begun a novel.
Always of a retiring and studious nature, she describes her lessons as
having been no trouble to her, and her greatest punishment would have
been to deprive her of them. Being an only and delicate child, her
parents did not like her to be much away from home, so she was only sent
to school for about two years, receiving all the rest of her education
at home. "But I think," says Miss Hardy, "that I learned more from my
father than from all my teachers put together."
Her choice of reading was carefully guided, and an early determination
was made that before all things she would be thorough and conscientious
in her work.
Her two first novels, "Not Easily Jealous" and "Glencairn," were
followed in rapid succession by "A Broken Faith," "Only a Love Story,"
and "Love, Honour, and Obey." These two last were originally brought
out by Hurst and Blackett, but have been since published by Mr. F. V.
White in a single volume. Then came a short rest, after which the young
author wrote "The Girl He Did Not Marry," of which Messrs. Hutchinson
are about to produce a new edition in their "Popular Series." Then the
first journey to San Francisco gave Miss Hardy fresh ground to break,
and suggested the leading ideas of the incidents and graphic description
of the life in the beautiful Californian valleys, so charmingly depicted
in "Hearts and Diamonds" and "The Love that He Passed By" (F. V. White).
"The nucleus of this plot," says Iza Duffus Hardy, "was a story told to
me by a fellow-passenger on the cars, who had been governor of the gaol
at the time of the attack by the Vigilantes. I connected that with
certain incidents in a celebrated murder trial which was going on about
that time, and built up all the rest of the story around those scenes."
"Love in Idleness" is a picture drawn from the life, of a winter spent
among the orange groves of South Florida, a happy and peaceful time of
which Lady Hardy and her daughter speak most enthusiastically, and
declare to have been quite idyllic, the days gliding away in dream-like
fashion, boating on the lakes, driving through the open woods of the
rolling pine lands, and lounging on the piazzas, enjoying the exquisite
effects of the morning sunshine, the sunset hazes, or the glorious
tropical moonlight. Besides these books, Iza Duffus Hardy has also
embodied her American experiences in two interesting volumes, "Oranges
and Alligators" (Ward and Downey) and "Between Two Oceans." The former
in particular made such a decided hit that the first edition was
exhausted in two or three weeks. This work, widely noticed and quoted,
was strongly recommended by many papers to the attention of parents
about to send their sons abroad, as giving a fair and true picture,
showing both sides of life in Florida.
Asking Miss Hardy for a peep at her study, she leads the way to a
comfortable little room at the back of the house, which she calls her
"cabin." Here she works from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. daily, though she
confesses to taking occasionally an extra hour or two late in the
afternoon, and, the conversation turning on plots, she tells you how she
constructs her own. "I always," she observes, "have the story completely
planned out before I begin to write it. I often alter details as I go
on, but never depart from the main lines. My usual way of making a plot
is to build up on and around the principal situation. I get the picture
of the strongest scene--the crisis of the story--well into my mind. I
see that this situation necessitates a certain group of characters
standing in given situations towards each other. Then I let these
characters speak for themselves in my mind, and if they do not
individualize themselves, I never feel that I can portray them
satisfactorily. Having got the characters formed, and the foundation of
the story laid, I build up the superstructure just as an artist would
first get in the outline of his central group in the foreground, and
then sketch out the background and the details."
Miss Hardy's later work, "A New Othello," ran first as a serial through
_London Society_, and was afterwards published by Mr. F. V. White in
three volumes. It deals largely with hypnotism, and not only to those
readers who are interested in this subject, but also to the genuine
fiction-lover, it is evident that she has handled the matter in a
masterly and skilful style, and has put excellent work into it. Before
beginning this book she fully read up the details of hypnotism, studying
all the accounts of Dr. Charcot's experiments, whilst Dr. Morton, of New
York, personally related to her the interesting episodes from his own
experience, which are so ably worked into the story. The author is also
an occasional contributor of a biographical article, or a fugitive poem,
or a short sketch, to various magazines, and she has just finished
another book, called "Woman's Loyalty," now running through the pages of
_Belgravia_, which she says has been somewhat delayed, owing to a sharp
attack of inflammation of the eyes, from which she has now happily
recovered.
And so the busy days glide on, in peaceful contentment; not that these
interesting, amiable gentlewomen shut themselves from society. On the
contrary, their receptions are crowded with friends well known in the
world of fashion, of literature, and of art. Work alternates with many
social pleasures and amusements. Both being worshippers of music and the
drama, concerts and theatres are an endless source of enjoyment to them.
Perhaps one secret of their popularity may lie in the fact that they
always have a good word to say of everyone, and it is well known to
their many friends that they may rely as confidently upon their loyalty
as upon their sympathy.
Over the well-filled bookstand in the dining-room hangs the picture of
Lady Duffus Hardy, taken in her early married life. Except that the
figure is slender and the hair dark, the likeness is still excellent. On
one side of this painting there is a large-sized engraving of a portrait
of Admiral Sir Thomas Hardy, of the Blue Squadron, painted in 1714, and
on the other is a portrait of the late Lord Romilly, whose memory is
treasured by your hostess as that of a kind and valued friend. The
cuckoo clock opposite used to hang in Philip Bourke Marston's study, and
was bequeathed to Miss Hardy, together with some other souvenirs, in
memory of their life-long friendship.
A photograph of Mr. Henry Irving occupies a prominent place, and leads
Lady Hardy to speak of the theatre. "I am very fond of the drama," she
remarks, "and though I can thoroughly enjoy a good melodrama once in a
way, yet I prefer plays of a more serious kind. I am a great admirer of
Mr. Irving. Few actors, in my opinion, excel as he does both in tragedy
and comedy. I think that the most intellectual treat I ever had was in
witnessing the performances of _Othello_ when Henry Irving and Edwin
Booth alternated the characters of Iago and Othello. Irving's Iago
struck me as a subtle and masterly study. Salvini, too, realised most
thoroughly my conception of Othello. He is indeed the ideal Moor of
Venice. In New York we used to enjoy immensely the classic plays which
are too seldom seen in London, such as _Coriolanus_, _Julius Cæsar_, and
_Virginius_."
A visit to the theatre is in contemplation this evening; so, having been
beguiled into making an unusually long but most enjoyable visit, you
take leave of Lady and Miss Duffus Hardy, with sympathetic admiration
for the happy home life in which daily work is sweetened by harmony and
affection. As Miss Hardy quoted the noble utterance, "Justice is the bed
rock of all the virtues," you cannot help feeling that here are two
women who at least endeavour to act up to their ideal.
[Illustration: May Crommelin]
MAY CROMMELIN.
The story of May Crommelin's life may be said to be divided into three
parts. First, the period of her childish and girlish days in Ireland;
next, that, when after the beginning of Irish land troubles, her family
were enforced absentees, and suffering from anxieties and prolonged
illness; and thirdly, during the last four years, when her London life
began. The following is a brief account of her first home:--
On the east coast of Ireland there lies a long narrow neck of land,
which, jutting out at the entrance to Belfast Lough, curves down by the
coast of Down, and is called The Ards. Midway in it, where for an Irish
mile "and a bit" the ground slopes upward from the shore, a tower rising
just above the woods is a landmark for ships at sea. This is Carrowdore
Castle, the home of the late Mr. de la Cherois-Crommelin, where May
Crommelin (his second daughter and one of a large family) was reared.
The house, now belonging to her only brother, looks away at a dark blue
belt of Irish Sea, across which on clear days after thunderstorms the
Scotch coast and even houses are visible. Ailsa Craig has the appearance
of a haycock on the northern horizon, and lying more southward the
Isle of Man seems but a blurred mass. Behind is the salt backwater of
Strangford Lough, and this arm of sea keeps the temperature so moist
that snow rarely lies long, and the humid nature of the soil causes the
garden of Carrowdore facing south to luxuriate in giant tree-myrtles,
sweet verbenas, and even hot-house flowers growing out of doors. It is
somewhat lonely in winter when the wind blows over the bare low hills
that have caused The Ards to be compared to "a basket of eggs," but
pleasant in summer and picturesque when its environing woods are green,
when the corncrakes call from the meadows on June evenings, and the
Orange drums beat along the lanes.
Such was May de la Cherois-Crommelin's early home. Her present abode is
a pretty flat near Victoria Street. It seems quite appropriate that a
well-filled bookcase should be the first thing that greets the eye as
the hall door opens and admits you into a long carpeted passage, lined
with a high dado of blue-and-white Indian matting, above which,
on art paper of the same colours, hang several framed photographs,
reminiscences of the Rhine, Nuremberg, and the Engadine. A little
way down on the left is Miss Crommelin's writing-room, which is
laid down with Indian matting, and contains an unusually large,
workmanlike-looking writing-table, replete with little drawers, big
drawers, and raised desk. The principal feature of this room is a carved
oak fireplace, reaching nearly to the ceiling, and which is quite
original in design and execution. There is a handsome old oak dower
chest standing near the window, here an antique "ball-and-claw" footed
table, and there a few good Chippendale chairs.
But whilst you are taking a brief scrutiny around, Miss Crommelin
enters. It is very easy to describe her. She is certainly above the
middle height, but looks taller than she really is by reason of her
absolutely faultless figure. It is exquisitely moulded, and every
movement is graceful. The good-shaped head and slender neck are well set
on her shoulders, fair chestnut-coloured hair curls over a low, wide
brow. The eyes, large and of the real Irish grey, are fringed with long
lashes, she has a straight nose, and the expression of mouth and chin is
that of dignity and repose. Her manner is peculiarly gentle and sweet,
and her voice is pleasant to the ear. The long, dark blue velvet
tea-gown that she wears, with its paler blue satin front folded in at
the shapely waist, becomes her well, and harmonises with the artistic
decorations of her pretty little drawing-room into which she has taken
you. The curtains are made of some art blue fabric, the walls are pale
yellow with a lighter frieze above, and are encrusted with memories of
the last three or four years, when the author first set up housekeeping
in London. All the woodwork is of dark walnut, as are the overmantel and
_étagère_, the doors are panelled with Japanese raised paper, a long
carved bracket has an excellent background of choice photographs, and
there is a delightful little "cosy corner," draped with dark terra-cotta
and blue tapestry, over which is a carved rail and shelf filled with
odds and ends of china, pet bits of blue Dutch delft, and quaint little
old brasses and bronzes from Munich and Florence. There is an Innocenza
framed in box-wood, and on the small tables yonder are some little
carved wooden _stovi_ such as are used in Holland, an old-fashioned
brass Lucernina, and many more little souvenirs, all of which she has
gathered together on foreign excursions. Amongst the pictures there is
one which Miss Crommelin particularly values--it is a large and
beautiful etching of Joan of Arc, by Rajon, who presented it to her
shortly before his death, with an inscription in his own handwriting.
Some photographs of Carrowdore on the table close by lead you to ask her
for some particulars of her people. "Mr. Smiles remarked to me," she
says, "'Yours is a historical name' (he has written about us in his
'Huguenots'). I will try to think about some little family incidents,
though I am afraid that to talk about my family will rather bore you,
but I can briefly tell you the first that we know of them is in the
archives of Ghent. In 1133 the Count of Flanders concluded an 'Accord'
between the Abbot of St. Pierre de Gand and Walter Crommelin concerning
the domain of Testress. In 1303, one Heinderic Crommelin was three times
burgomaster of Der Kuere, near Ghent. I have been told it is strange
that simple burghers had a surname in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries."
Later on came those terrible times of the persecutions in the
Netherlands, when women were buried alive, and men were burned at the
stake for their faith. The Crommelins fled to France, and a pious
ancestor of that day wrote the history of their adventures, which record
is preserved in the British Museum. It begins, "_Au nom de Dieu. Armand
Crommelin et sa femme vivoient dans le Seizième Siécle, dans un tems de
troubles, de guerres, de persécutions cruelles, etc._" This was their
first flight. In France they prospered exceedingly by special favour of
Henri IV., until came the Edict of Nantes. But acting on the old
Huguenot motto, "Mieux vaut quitter patrie que foi," they chose exile
rather than renounce their religion. This time, one brother escaped with
difficulty to Holland, where his descendants still reside, but another,
Louis Crommelin, offered his sword to William of Orange, crossed with
him to England, and finally settled in the north of Ireland, where he
brought Huguenot weavers and taught the linen trade, which is one of the
greatest sources of Ulster's commercial prosperity. To this day his name
is honoured as a benefactor, and he received a Royal grant from William
III., which founded anew the fortunes of his family.
The de la Cherois, who were of a noble family in Champagne, also fled
with difficulty from France. They and the Crommelins were closely
connected by marriage, and also married into other families of the
little Huguenot colony in Ulster. "Perhaps this keeping to themselves
preserved their foreign characteristics longer and their faith
stronger," says your hostess. "Then one ancestress--we have her picture
at home, taken in a flowing white gown, and piled-up curls--married the
last Earl of Mount Alexander. At her death she left the present County
Down estate to my great-grandfather. He first, I think, took unto
himself a wife of the daughters of Heth. She was a beautiful Miss Dobbs,
of the family now living at Castle Dobbs in County Antrim. I must show
you a photograph of her portrait. Would it not make a lovely fancy
dress?--the grey gown with puffed sleeves and neck-ruffle, and wide
riding-hat and feathers. Then my grandfather married the Honourable
Elizabeth de Moleyns, Lord Ventry's daughter. You see her picture is
scanty skirted, with the waist under the arms. My grandfather must have
been rather too splendid in his ideas. Some of these were for improving
the country generally, as well as his own estate, but he lost many
thousands in trying to carry them into practice. I must tell you that an
ancestress, Judith de la Cherois, escaped from France with her sister by
riding at night across the country, their jewels sewn in their dresses.
She lived to be 113, and was quite strong to the last, and though she
lived fifty years in Ireland she could never speak English, which she
said, with vexation, was because people laughed rudely at her first
attempts.
If it be true that the girl is mother to the woman (to change the
proverb), then May Crommelin still retains some characteristics of her
childhood. A shy child, sensitive to an intense degree, and shrinking
from the observation of strangers, her great delight when small was to
be allowed to run almost wild about the woods and fields with her little
brothers and sisters, and to visit all the tenant-farmers' houses, where
the children from the Castle were always warmly welcomed, and regaled
with tea, and oatmeal or potato cakes, in the parlour. In these later
years she still retains the intense love of nature that she had then,
and her descriptions of scenery have ever been praised as word-painting
of rare fidelity. Taking in her impressions early she produced them
later in a book called "Orange Lily," which proved how well she knew the
peasant life of Ulster, a work which was declared by good judges to be
absolutely faithful, while she herself was proud to find the farmers on
her father's estates in Down and Antrim had copies of the book sent home
from America, where it could be bought cheap, and where the many
immigrants from the "Ould Country" welcomed it.
At five years of age she could read fluently, and thenceforth through
childhood she read so ardently that, having then defective vision,
though unfortunately it was unnoticed, it probably contributed to a
delicacy of eyesight that still troubles her. All the children used to
improvise, and from seven years old there hardly ever was a time when
May and her elder sister had not a story, written on their copybook
paper, stuffed into their pockets to read to each other at night. The
girls did not go to school, but were educated by foreign governesses,
and Miss Crommelin has not forgotten the miseries she and her sister
went through under the tuition of one whom she calls "that charming
fiend," and there is somewhat of indignation in her gentle voice as she
recalls her experiences.
"I believe," she says, "that one's character is greatly influenced for
life by the events of one's childhood. Mine was. A boy may be made or
marred at his public school, a girl likewise looks back to her governess
as the mistress of her mind and manners. We had one for three or four
years who was so plausible that I am not surprised in later years, our
mother used to say with regretful bewilderment she could not understand
how it was that she never knew our sufferings. Ulster was gay in those
days, and our parents were often absent on visits of a week or so, all
through the winter. Our mother was highly accomplished, and we were
always anxious to be praised by her for progress in the schoolroom. Our
tormentor devised a punishment for us when she was offended (and she
seemed to hate us because we were children) of not correcting our
lessons. For weeks we blundered at the piano or brought her our French
exercises--returned with a sneer--while swallowing our indignant tears,
knowing well how our dulness and inattention would be complained of on
our parents' return. She poisoned our innocent pleasures, and I can
still remember how our hearts stood still at that catlike footstep,
but," Miss Crommelin adds, with a laugh, "I put her into one of my
books, 'My Love, she's but a Lassie,' under the guise of a cruel
stepmother!" A curious incident happened to this smiling hypocrite. The
servants execrated her, and one day in the nursery, when the poor little
girls had whispered some new woe into the ears of two or three of the
warm-hearted maids, one of them exclaimed, slowly and solemnly, the
while pointing out of the window to the enemy standing below: "Madam
Mosel, I wish you an illness that may lay you on your back for months!"
Soon afterwards the malediction was fulfilled. The governess became
ailing, took to the sofa for weeks, and was obliged to leave. Both
servants and children were much awed, and quite convinced that it was a
"judgment."
Next came a kindly German, who found the children eager to be taught,
and she was not loath to gratify them, but rather beyond their
expectations. "I remember," says Miss Crommelin, "after a long morning
and afternoon's spell of lessons, her idea of a winter evening's
recreation was for my sister and self to read aloud 'Schiller's Thirty
Years' War.' Meanwhile, the wind would be howling 'in turret and tree,'
making such goblin music as I have never heard elsewhere. We were happy
for two years under this good woman."
When about sixteen years of age, May and her sister began secretly to
contribute to a paper which kindly offered to print beginners' tales on
payment of half-a-crown. Alas! that bubble burst, as many a youthful
writer has found out for herself.
Reared in the very heart of the country, and growing up with little or
no society of other young people, the children were warmly attached to
each other. May Crommelin describes her elder sister as clever, ardent,
with flashes of genius; but never, unfortunately, finishing any tales,
and exercising much of the same sort of influence over her as Emily
Brontë over her sister Charlotte. By and by, when schoolroom days ended,
came the usual gaieties of a young girl introduced into Irish county
society, much livelier then than during later years. There were the
usual three-days' visits to the country houses of Down and Antrim
through the autumn, when pheasants were to be shot; or merry
house-parties met by day at hunt races and steeplechases, and filled
roomy carriages at night to drive courageously many miles to a ball. The
canny northern farmers allowed no foxes to be reared, but still there
was a good deal of sport to be had with the little pack of Ards
harriers, of which Mr. Crommelin was master, and the long, cold springs
were sometimes broken by a season or two in Dublin.
Her first introduction to county society inspired May Crommelin to write
"Queenie." She did this secretly, and about that time she went over to
England on a visit to a kind uncle and aunt, to whom she was much
attached. Alone with them, she confided the secret of her literary
venture, and coaxed her uncle to take her MSS. to a publisher whose name
caught her eye. This he did, but declined to give the name of the young
author. She waited in breathless expectation, and "thought it strange
that a whole week elapsed before their reply came." It arrived on a
Sunday morning--unluckily--because it was a good and wise custom of the
house, that no business letters should be opened on that day. It was
accordingly placed in a locked cabinet with glass doors, where she could
at least gratify herself by looking at the address, and never was a
letter more tantalizing. The next morning, however, her hopes were
rewarded by the joyful news of the publishers' acceptance, with a
substantial sum of money down and a promise of so much more if the
edition sold out, which it did. On returning home she in great
trepidation told her father. He was somewhat of a disciplinarian, and
had rigid ideas on feminine dependence and subordination, and though he
did not actually forbid her writing, he never encouraged it. Thenceforth
she wrote steadily in her own room, sending her MSS. to the same
publishers, who had promised to take all the future works she would
send them, whilst another offered to reprint in the same way cheaper
editions.
"Black Abbey" also followed; but shortly before Miss Crommelin wrote "A
Jewel of a Girl," which was the result of a visit to Holland, the head
of the Crommelin family settled there wrote and asked his distant
kinsman to renew the acquaintance dropped for so many years. This laid
the foundation of future friendship and other mutual visits, though such
little breaks were few and far between, from the island bounded by "the
melancholy ocean."
As yet May Crommelin's longings from childhood had been unfulfilled. She
desired to travel, to see new scenes, to become acquainted with
literary-helpers, critics, or advisers. Of these she knew not one,
excepting that Lord Dufferin, on his rare visits at Clandeboye, had
always a cheering word of encouragement for his young neighbour. The
late Amelia B. Edwards, too, a friend of some relatives in England, sent
her some letters of most gratefully received advice, and the Rev. Dr.
Allon, editor of the _British Quarterly Review_, having once, by chance,
met the young writer for two hours when he was on a visit to Ireland,
became an occasional kind correspondent and a lasting friend. Others
there were none during these years.
But dark days were coming. What seemed apparently trifling accidents,
through horses, led to bad results. First of all, Mr. Crommelin had a
fall when out hunting, the effects of which prevented his following for
ever after his favourite sports, and his health declined. Then a
carriage accident was the beginning of his wife's later always
increasing illness. Their eldest daughter had not been strong, when she,
too, met with a mischance. Her horse ran away with her, and she
experienced a shock from which she never wholly recovered. The Irish
land troubles had begun; no rents were to be expected for two years;
servants and horses had to be reduced. So, like other neighbours, they
resolved to be absentees for a while in a milder climate, rather than
endure the loneliness of the country, far from town or doctors, and they
removed to Devonshire for two years, during which time May's eldest
sister died after a summer at Dartmoor.
Meantime the young author was not idle. She wrote "Miss Daisy Dimity,"
"In the West Countree," and "Joy." These two last are both full of
lovely descriptions of moorland scenery and air, and heather scent. Then
Mrs. Crommelin became rapidly worse. She could not bear the journey to
Ireland, so they moved to Clifton, where, after a long period of
suffering, she passed away, followed a year later by her husband. These
years of hopeless illness were a terrible strain on the family;
nevertheless, during the intervals of watching and nursing, Miss
Crommelin wrote "Brown Eyes," a remembrance of Holland, which little
work was an immense favourite; also a sketch called "A Visit to a Dutch
Country House," and this was translated into several Dutch papers. Then
came "Goblin Gold" in one volume, and "Love, the Pilgrim," begun before
her father's death, and finished under the difficulties of temporary
homelessness. Left thus free to choose an abode on her brother's
returning to take possession of his Irish home, May Crommelin at once
resolved to come to London, and established herself in her present home
in the cosy little flat. She describes this as "by far the happiest
period of her life." Surrounded by the literary and artistic society she
had always wished for, a favourite with all, enjoying also the
companionship of a sister, and having opportunities for travelling when
it suits her, she declares herself quite contented.
Since coming to London she has written a charming and spirited novel,
"Violet Vivian, M.F.H.," of which she supplied the leading idea of the
tale and two-thirds of the story, the more sporting part excepted; also
"The Freaks of Lady Fortune." "Dead Men's Dollars" is the strange but
true story of a wreck on the coast opposite her old home. Next came
"Cross Roads," and "Midge," considered by many as her best book. Later
"Mr. and Mrs. Herries," a sweet and pathetic story, and lastly "For the
Sake of the Family." To the readers of May Crommelin's novels it is
quite apparent that the idea of Duty is the keynote. Whilst all her
works are remarkable for their refinement and purity of thought and
style, she almost unconsciously makes her heroes and heroines (though
they are no namby-pamby creations) struggle through life doing the duty
nearest to hand, however disagreeable the consequences or doubtful the
reward. She holds Thoreau's maxim that to _be_ good is better than to
try and _do_ good; indeed, the first and greater proposition includes
the latter, and from her youth up she has loved and taken for her motto
the lines of Tennyson:--
"And because right is right, to follow right
Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence."
[Illustration: M Houstoun]
MRS. HOUSTOUN.[3]
[3] Since the serial publication of these sketches, the death
of the venerable writer has taken place.
One particular Monday, near Christmas, will long be remembered as being
perhaps the most terrible day hitherto experienced in an abnormally
severe winter. The heavy pall of dense fog which has settled over London
has disorganized the traffic and caused innumerable accidents. Great
banks of snow are piled up high at the sides of the roads, a partial
thaw has been succeeded by a renewed severe frost, making the pavements
like ice, and causing locomotion to become as dangerous as it is
detestable. Arriving at Victoria District Station early in the
afternoon, with the intention of paying a visit to the veteran novelist,
Mrs. Houston, in Gloucester Street, you find yourself in Cimmerian
darkness, uncertain whether to turn to north or south, to east or west.
A small boy passes by, from whom you inquire the way, and he promptly
offers his escort thither in safety. He is as good as his word, and
after a quarter of an hour's walk you arrive at your destination.
Thankfully presenting him with a gratuity, and expressing surprise at
his finding the road with such unerring footsteps, the child replies in
a cheerful voice, "I live close by here. I have been blind from my
birth; darkness and light are both alike to me"; and he goes off
whistling merrily.
The septuagenarian author is upstairs in the drawing-room, lying on a
long, low, comfortable spring couch, from which, alas! she is unable to
move, some affection of the muscles having caused a complete uselessness
of the lower limbs. She is bright and cheerful, notwithstanding; serene
and patient. Her intellect is undimmed, her memory is perfect, her
conversation is delightful, and her dress is suitable and picturesque.
She wears a black velvet gown, which is relieved by a full frill of old
lace gathered up round the wrists and throat, a crimson silk shawl on
her shoulders, and a lace cap with a roll round it of the same coloured
ribbon. Her hair, for which she was famous in her childhood, is still
soft and abundant, and only changed from "the great ruddy mane of her
youth," as she calls it, to the subdued brown and grey tints of her
present age. Her eyes, of grey-blue, are bright, and light up with keen
intelligence as she converses, and her voice is low and sweet. She is
_grande dame_ to the tips of her fingers, and the small,
aristocratic-looking hands are white and well-shaped. With an old-world
courtesy of manner she combines a juvenility of thought, and being a
great reader, she is as well up in the literature of the day as she is
in the records of the past. A brilliant _raconteuse_, Mrs. Houston
possesses a fund of anecdote, as original as it is interesting.
On each side of her couch stands within her easy reach a little table,
containing her favourite authors and some writing materials, and her
caligraphy is particularly neat, small, and legible. A broad verandah
runs along the front of the house; in summer it is her particular care,
as she superintends the training of the creepers over the wide arches,
and also the arrangement of a small conservatory, which can be seen
through the heavy Oriental _portières_ which divide the two rooms.
There, a fine plumbago creeper, with several Australian plants and ferns
flourish, which give it quite a tropical appearance.
There is a great variety of old Dresden china on the mantelpieces; a
Japanese screen stands near the further door. The book-cases in both
rooms are well filled, and so is the large round table at the side
yonder; they are kept in such method and order that Mrs. Houstoun has
only to order "the eighth book on the top of the shelf at the right," or
"the tenth book on the lower shelf at the left," to ensure her getting
the needed volume. She calls attention to her pictures, which are mostly
of considerable value. Over the piano hangs, in a Florentine frame,
Sasso's copy of the Madonna del Grand Duca, a painting by Schlinglandt,
which is remarkable for its extraordinary attention to detail, and
others by Vander Menlen and Zucarilli. A vacant space on the wall has
lately been occupied by one of Bonnington's best seascapes, which she
has kindly lent for exhibition.
Mrs. Houstoun is the daughter of the late Edward Jessé, the
distinguished naturalist. The family is of French extraction. He was the
representative of a younger and Protestant branch of the _Barons of
Jesse Levas_, one of the oldest families in Languedoc, who emigrated
after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes to England, and bought an
estate in the county of Wilts, but when they became English country
gentlemen they dropped, like sensible people, not only the distinctive
_de_, but the accent on the final _e_, which marked their Gallic origin.
Her grandfather was the Rev. William Jesse, incumbent of the then only
Episcopalian church of West Bromwich, Staffordshire. "I have no very
distinct personal recollection of him," she observes, "but I have reason
to believe that his value, both as a good man and a learned divine, was
duly recognized. Bishop Horne, author of 'Commentaries on the Psalms,'
was at one time his curate." In 1802, Mr. Jesse (then twenty years of
age) was chosen by Lord Dartmouth to be his private secretary, and four
years later, through his influential chief, he obtained an appointment
in the Royal Household. The duties which his post as "Gentleman of the
Ewry" entailed were of the slightest, consisting merely of an attendance
in full Court dress on great State occasions, to present on bended knee
a golden ewer filled with rose-water to the Sovereign. The royal fingers
were dipped into it and dried on a fine damask napkin, which the
"gentleman" carried on his arm. For this occasional service the yearly
pay was three hundred pounds, together with "perquisites"; but though
the absurd and useless office was long since done away with, whilst it
existed its influence over Mr. Jesse's prospects in life was very
considerable, as it enabled him to marry the beautiful daughter of Sir
John Morris, a wealthy Welsh baronet. Mrs. Houstoun's childish days were
spent first at a house in the prettiest quarter of Richmond Park, and
later on at a cottage close to Bushey Park. "Those were the days before
the then Duke of Clarence became king, and the Sailor-Prince showed
himself to be one of the most good-natured of men," says Mrs. Houstoun.
"He often joined my father and me in our rides about the Park, and on
one occasion he inquired of my father concerning the future of his only
son."
"What are you going to do with him?" asked H.R.H.
"Well, sir," was the reply, "he has been ten years at Eton, a rather
expensive education, so I entered him yesterday at Brazenose----"
"Going to make a parson of him, eh? Got any interest in the Church?"
"None whatever, sir, but----"
"Might as well cut his throat," said the Duke. "Why not put him into the
Admiralty? I'll see he gets a clerkship."
The royal promise was faithfully kept. Young John Heneage Jesse got his
appointment almost immediately, and worked his way up the different
grades, always standing high in the opinion of his chiefs, until after a
long period of service, he finally retired on a pension, and is well
known in the literary world as the author of "The Court of England under
the Stuarts and Houses of Hanover," and sundry historical memoirs.
Reverting to these long bygone days, your hostess says she can remember
the famous philanthropist, William Wilberforce, in whose unflagging
efforts to effect the freedom of the West Indian negroes, her aunt, Mrs.
Townsend, was so zealous and able a coadjutrix; she recollects to this
day the childish grudge she felt against them both, when after the visit
of the great emancipator all cakes and puddings were strictly _tabooed_,
as they contained West India sugar, and therefore to eat them was a sin.
Living close to the home of her father's old friend, John Wilson Croker,
she became acquainted with many world-famed and literary men; amongst
them she mentions Theodore Hook, Sir William Follett, the poet Moore,
Sir Francis Chantrey, and Sir Thomas Lawrence, subsequently Samuel
Rogers, Mr. Darwin, Wordsworth, the gifted Mrs. Norton, and James Smith,
the most popular and brilliant of the authors of "Rejected Addresses."
At the early age of sixteen she became engaged, and shortly after
married Lionel Fraser, whose father died when he was Minister
Plenipotentiary at Dresden, but in less than a year she became a widow.
Mr. Fraser, just before leaving Cambridge, had met with an accident. In
a trial of strength, an under-graduate threw him over his shoulder: the
lad fell on his head, and was taken up for dead, but after a while
recovered, and was to all appearance the same as before; but the hidden
evil had been slowly though surely working, and the rupture of a small
vessel in the brain brought to a sudden close the young life of so much
promise. Inconsolable, the young widow returned to her father's house,
where she lived in close seclusion for nearly four years, and then
became engaged to Captain Houstoun, of the 10th Hussars, second son of
General Sir William Houstoun, Bart. His son George, who succeeded him,
added the name of Boswall on marrying an heiress. _A propos_ of that
engagement, Mrs. Houstoun has an amusing story to tell. "Another of the
friends," she says, "to whom we were indebted for many pleasant hours,
was that courtly Hanoverian soldier Baron Knesbeck, equerry to the Duke
of Cambridge. We were riding on Wimbledon Common, and I was mounted on
the second charger of my betrothed, when the old Duke, on his stout bay,
joined our party; my engagement had not at that time been announced, and
I therefore parried, as best I could, the Duke's questions as to the
horse and its owner. At last, however, the climax came, for with a wink
of his eye, more suggestive than regal, His Royal Highness put the
following leading question as we rode slowly on: 'Sweetheart, hey?'
There was no resisting this point-blank query, and the soft impeachment
had to be owned at last."
After her second marriage Mrs. Houstoun and her husband lived for a year
in their yacht "Dolphin," during which time they visited Texas and the
Gulf of Mexico. Later on they spent two winters at New Orleans before
slavery was abolished. Then came a tour on the Continent, where they
travelled from Paris to Naples in their own britska, taking four horses
and two English postillions. When they stayed for any length of time at
any place, the horses were saddled, and they would ride forty or fifty
miles a day, revolvers in saddle pockets, into the wildest parts of the
country. After a roving and adventurous time, escaping hairbreadth
dangers, for Mrs. Houstoun says her husband was "as bold as a
buccaneer," they returned home, where Captain Houstoun, after trying
various places, finally took on a long lease Dhulough Lodge, about one
hundred square miles of ground in the west of Ireland, and there for
twenty years she found her lot cast. In sheer weariness of spirit she
took to her pen. As a girl she had always been accustomed to correct her
father's proofs, and had written some short stories and poems, but she
then wrote her first novel, "Recommended to Mercy." It was so well
reviewed in the _Times_ that, encouraged by her success, Mrs. Houstoun
followed it with "Sink or Swim," "Taken upon Trust," "First in the
Field," "A Cruel Wrong," "Records of a Stormy Life," and "Zoe's Brand,"
which last book M. Boisse, editor of the _Revue Contemporaine_, asked
permission to translate into French, but by some omission his
application was never answered, and the project fell through. Some time
later she wrote "Twenty Years in the Wild West" and several other
novels, and she has lately finished a new story in two volumes, entitled
"How She Loved Him," published by Mr. F. V. White, of whom she remarks
with warmth, "He stands high amongst the publishers I have known for
liberality and honour, and is one of my best and kindest friends."
"Amongst other books," says Mrs. Houstoun, "I look back with
thankfulness to my novelette, entitled 'Only a Woman's Life,' the
writing of which was successful in obtaining the release, after twelve
years of convict life, of an innocent woman, who had been originally
condemned to death on circumstantial evidence for the murder of her
child. Of the death sentence I was so happy, at the eleventh hour, as to
obtain a commutation."
But it is difficult to get the lonely old lady to talk much of her
books, and though her memory is perfect in everything else, both past
and present, she declares that she has forgotten even the names of some
of her own works. She infinitely prefers to speak about those of her
friends. She is devoted to Whittier's poems, and to Pope, and can quote
passages at great length from this great favourite; whilst among modern
novelists she prefers Mrs. Riddell and the late George Lawrence, though
she says, laughing, she fears that this last shows a somewhat Bohemian
taste.
"I am sure I was born to be a landscape gardener," remarks Mrs.
Houstoun. "That was my real vocation in life. If you had but seen our
home amongst the Connaught Mountains when I first saw it! The 'wild
bog,' as the natives call the soil, reached to my very doors and
windows. A wilderness of moist earth-bog myrtle and stunted heather
alone met the eye, very discouraging to such a lover of dainty well-kept
gardens and flowers as I am. Towering above and beyond our roughly-built
house was a mountain called Glenumra, over 3,000 feet in height, whilst
in front was Muelhrae, or King of the Irish Mountains (as it is the
loftiest), and a part of it effectually concealed from us all the
glories of the setting sun. The humid nature of the soil was favourable
to the growth of plants. I designed and laid out large gardens, and had
only to insert a few feet or inches, as the case might be, of laurel,
fuchsia, veronica, or hydrangia into the ground, and the slips took
root, grew and flourished. Long before we left there were fuchsias
thirty feet high; the veronicas, over six feet, blossomed in November.
Then I built a stove-house and conservatory, where my exotic fernery was
my great delight, and I spent much of my time there. All the money I
earned by my writings I spent on my ferns and plants."
But the damp of the climate, the constant sitting up at night with their
poor sick dependents, at whose beck and call she was ever ready, and the
impossibility of procuring any medical attendance, laid the seeds of a
severe neuralgic affection of the joints, from which she has never
recovered, and a terrible fall resulted in a hopeless injury to both
knees. She says that during her twenty years' residence in that
distressful country she never knew the blessing of really good health.
Mrs. Houstoun is extremely hospitable and sociable in disposition. One
of her chief regrets in being so completely laid by is that she is no
longer able to give the pleasant little weekly dinners of eight in which
she used to delight. She enjoys nothing more than visits from her
friends, who are always glad to come in and sit with her and listen to
her amusing and interesting conversation. She is a great politician and
an extreme Liberal, "though," she adds, "not a Gladstonian." At the
present moment she is deeply absorbed in the Stanley controversy, and,
as she is a cousin of the late Major Barttelot, and was much attached to
him, she naturally remarks that she "never knew anything but good of
him."
But though this venerable lady is unable to entertain her friends in her
former manner, she does not forget the poor and suffering. She gives
little teas and suppers to aged men and women, whose sad cases have from
time to time been recommended to her, at which charitable gatherings,
with doors rigidly shut to exclude the smell of the poor old men's
tobacco smoke, she allows them to indulge in the luxury of a pipe.
Though enduring constant pain and many long sleepless nights, she avows
that she is never dull or miserable. No word of complaint or murmur
passes her lips at her crippled condition. On the contrary, she
expresses the deepest content and thankfulness for her many comforts and
blessings, amongst which, she remarks, are her three maids, all sisters,
who are as devoted to her as if they had been born in her service. They
carry her up and down stairs, and wait on her, hand and foot, with
tender care. "And only think," she concludes cheerfully and with a
smile, "what a mercy it is that I retain my memory so well, and that my
mind is so clear, whilst I lie here useless!" "Nay, not useless," is
your reply, as you rise to leave, "they also serve who only stand and
wait."
[Illustration: Mrs. Alexander Fraser]
MRS. ALEXANDER FRASER.
A rapid run of about an hour and a half in duration from Victoria, with
just a change of carriages at Three Bridges, but no delay, and you are
set down one bright, fresh morning at the pretty and picturesque station
of Faygate, Sussex, which presents a curiously countrified and even
primitive aspect, considering the many large properties and cottages
that lie in its close vicinity. A well turned-out little carriage and
pair of handsome, high-stepping chestnuts has been sent to convey you to
Carylls, the lovely home of Mrs. Alexander Fraser of Durris.
The whole place is bathed in sunshine, and the air, though somewhat
frosty, is wonderfully exhilarating, as you are carried swiftly along a
good winding road, with trees on either side, the branches meeting
overhead. Here and there, as the horses go more slowly up a gentle
acclivity, you turn round to reconnoitre a little, and find that there
is a charming view behind. On the left, Leith Hill, with a tower
crowning it, rises up in purple tints against the horizon. On the right
lies a lovely view of undulating country, broad green fields, trim
hedges, brown brakes and hollows, with a background of luxuriant wood.
After a short drive, the carriage turns into a gate flanked by two
high turreted walls, and a neat little lodge with diamond-paned windows,
peeping out of a mass of ivy, stands just within. Leaving it on the
left, you go up a wide gravelled drive through an avenue of poplars; the
lawns, which are undulating, and cover about three acres of ground, are
laid out with low terraced walls, over which in summer time the roses
trail in rich profusion, and edged with a row of weeping ash and elm
trees, they lie on both sides right up to the entrance of a big red
brick house, lavishly covered with ivy, wisteria, and roses, with quaint
gables and many-shaped chimneys, which is altogether most picturesque. A
large conservatory unites the right and left wings, and once within this
conservatory it is difficult to realize that it is still winter. Heated
to a pleasant temperature, full of bright and rare bloom, the gentle
breath of sweet-scented gardenias and tuberoses pervading the
atmosphere, cages of many-coloured foreign birds, a gleam of Moorish
lamps against the greenery overhead, comfortable lounges, wickerwork
tables, Turkish rugs strewn on the tesselated floor--all combine to make
it a delightful place in which to while away the time, with book or
work, in friendly converse, or perhaps in solitary day dreaming.
At the present moment it is passed in friendly converse. Mrs. Alexander
Fraser has received you with much cordiality, and whilst lingering
amongst the flowers and the ferns, the talk drifts away to India,
America, and the Continent of Europe, where she tells you the earlier
part of her life was spent, and that for many years past her home has
been at Carylls. She is fair and rather pale, her eyes are brown, and
have a slight droop of the lids, which gives them a soft expression. The
profile is just a trifle aquiline, is delicate in form, and the mouth
and chin are well cut. Her hair--a little lighter in colour than the
eyes, is worn in a loose, curly roll over her brow, and a thick coil on
the nape of her neck. She is attired in a most becoming and well-fitting
gown of black velvet and grey fur, and her manner is frank and informal.
Carylls is a very old place; a part of it, indeed, was built in 1640,
but so well have all the additions and improvements of later years been
carried out that the two form a truly artistic whole. Originally
belonging to the well-known Roman Catholic family of Caryll, it is
mentioned in Pope's poems, several of which he wrote under the old oak
trees, and it is considered quite one of the show-places of this part of
Sussex. Mrs. Fraser says that it suits her in every way. The air is
splendid, the society is good, and she is not far enough away from town
to feel out of the world. The conservatory glass door opens into a very
large and lofty drawing-room with oak ceilings and great bay windows. It
looks more like a foreign than an English room. An immense Indian carpet
is spread over the floor, the sea-green walls are hung with many mirrors
in black and gold frames, several lovely old cabinets, and plenty of
Dresden, Sèvres, Chelsea, and Capo de Monti, are to be seen everywhere.
Two superb silver _repoussé_-work Lucknow bowls are especially
attractive; one, containing a many-leafed palm, stands on the grand
piano, and in its fellow is a large fern, the delicate fronds drooping
over a beautiful alabaster "Magdalen" close by.
"I admire these more than anything else in the room," says Mrs. Fraser,
pointing to some photographs on an inlaid iron table. "These two are my
sons, both of them very good-looking, as you see," she continues,
smiling with very pardonable pride as she places the pictures in your
hand. And truly she has a good right to feel proud of these handsome,
noble-looking young men, one of whom is in the uniform of the Gordon
Highlanders. Here, too, is a portrait of the Prince of Wales, with his
autograph below, presented by his Royal Highness to General Fraser,
which is a much-valued gift, and the others are pictures of different
Indian viceroys and their wives, all given by themselves, Lord and Lady
Dufferin, Lord and Lady Lytton, the latter in a frame designed by
himself, which is quite a work of art, with a coronet in blue-and-white
enamel. An hour is passed very pleasantly amongst the many curiosities
which Mrs. Fraser has brought chiefly from foreign lands. The room is,
in fact, quite a small museum. Going back through the conservatory into
the other wing of the house, an open door gives a peep of the
dining-room in passing. It is a good-sized room, with oak ceiling,
crimson walls, and a quantity of carved oak furniture.
But Mrs. Fraser's own particular favourite is just beyond--she calls it
her tea-room, not her study. "Not very large," she says, "but always
bright and cheerful, and the view is so lovely from this window. That
wood was gorgeous in its autumnal tints, and on a very clear morning
Leith Hill looks as if it were close to us. My rose garden is just to
the right here. I wish it was summer, that you might see it in all its
glory." And the view is lovely now, as the sun peeps in and out amongst
the great trees, which stand in clumps, with rustic seats beneath them.
After admiring it for a while, you turn round to have a survey of the
room, and certainly endorse Mrs. Fraser's opinion. It has an oak
ceiling, like the other reception rooms, and pale-green walls, that show
off to advantage a number of oil paintings framed in dark crimson velvet
and gold. Two are especially fine, "The Golden Horn," and "Morning on
the Dutch Rivers," by an artist of some note, Fryar; and you fall in
love with two exquisite little bits of Brittany, by Gregory. A large
mirror in an elaborately carved frame surmounts the mantel-piece, which
is laden with Satsuma ware and other Japanese, Chinese, and Indian
curios. An old French marqueterie cabinet full of books stand in a
recess _vis-à-vis_ to a handsomely inlaid writing bureau with a silver
basket of hothouse flowers on it.
Mrs. Fraser here calls attention to a number of silver vases, loving
cups, hunting flasks, gongs, etc., all of which are prizes won by her
sons' ponies and fox-terriers. These lie so perilously near the window
as to suggest a remark to the effect that they might be stolen, but Mrs.
Fraser declares that the people are wonderfully honest down in these
parts of the country, and that no burglary has been heard of for thirty
years or more.
Later on, whilst being regaled with all sorts of cakes and hothouse
grapes, the conversation turns on literary matters. "I have no
particular writing-room," says your hostess, "I generally write in the
evening after dinner, with my people chattering all the time, but I am
too much accustomed to that to be disturbed by it. My first essays in
fiction were magazine stories. I suppose I have written over four-score
of these, and they always seemed to find a good deal of favour with the
leading provincial journals. I sold a story called 'Manoeuvring' for a
very nice little sum to a French editor for translation into _L'Etoile_,
and I was very much pleased when I got a requisition for a tale from the
_Lady's Magazine_ in Philadelphia, but of later years I have written
about five-and-twenty three-volume novels. The first of these was called
'Faithless.' The next two: 'Denison's Wife,' and 'Not While She Lives.'
After that 'Her Plighted Troth,' 'A Maddening Blow,' 'A Thing of
Beauty,' and 'A Fatal Passion' came out. These are names which recur to
me at the moment out of all that I have written. I like the last best,
and next to it 'A Leader of Society,' and 'The Match of the Season,'
perhaps because I took the heroes and heroines from real life. More
recently Mr. F. V. White has brought out my books, and they have all
more or less been excellently noticed, especially 'Daughters of
Belgravia,' 'The Last Drawing Room,' and 'The New Duchess,' all of which
have gone into two or three editions. Occasionally I send a piece of
poetry to the magazines, and it generally gets a little _kudos_ from the
Press, and some little time ago I wrote a sacred song called 'Calvary's
Cross,' which gained much popularity; a copy of it was very graciously
accepted by the Queen." The latest of all is "A Modern Bridegroom."
Mrs. Fraser observes that she has often been asked what is her "method"
in writing, and that on one occasion she received a letter from a
clergyman in Nottingham, begging her to "describe it exactly." "I
laughed when the letter came," she continues, "and I am ashamed to say I
never answered it, because I have no method. I simply write straight on,
and never copy my MSS., and pity the poor printers who have to decipher
my hieroglyphics. I am very fond of recitations, too, and some years ago
I studied elocution under Mrs. Stirling. Once, in her unavoidable
absence, I recited two of her pieces before a large audience in St.
George's Hall. I felt horribly nervous, but I suppose I did the "pathos"
pretty well, for I noticed a good many people crying, and was much
pleased to see them do so! I have recited several times in America also,
but now I never exert myself beyond writing a novel or a short story
just when I feel inclined for it."
After tea Mrs. Fraser proposes a stroll through the grounds. "It is very
cold, but dry," she says, "so we might venture; but first come into the
billiard-room, which is our usual postprandial resort." Passing through
the hall and another conservatory, with vines thickly intersecting
overhead, and full of splendid specimens of maidenhair ferns, with the
vivid scarlet of geraniums between them, she takes you into a large and
lofty room, panelled in oak. At the further end a flight of oaken steps
leads up to a sort of daïs, from which the game can be well surveyed.
The furniture is all of carved oak and crimson velvet, with the
exception of two great easy chairs, whose backs and arms and legs are
composed of buffalo horns, beautifully polished and mounted. These were
sent to her from Russia, and are the admiration of the neighbourhood.
All round the walls hang pictures of the celebrated American trotting
horses, whose performances in Central Park, New York, were a daily
delight to Mrs. Fraser. A tall bookcase, carved quaintly, stands in a
recess, but she tells you not to expect to see any of her own novels in
it, as she invariably gives them all away, except one copy of each,
which her mother, who lives with her, always confiscates, and values as
her dearest possessions. This lady must have been one of the loveliest
of women in her youth, and she is still wonderfully handsome and
young-looking.
Mrs. Alexander Fraser comes of a good old stock. Her grandmother was a
sister of Sir Wolstan Dixie, descended from the Sir Wolstan Dixie who
settled at Bosworth, Leicestershire, in the time of Queen Elizabeth. On
her mother's side she is related to the ancient house of Dunboyne,
dating as far back as Sir Thomas Butler, or Le Botelier, in the reign of
Edward II.; and she is a connection of William Makepeace Thackeray. Of
this she declares herself to be "most proud," and adds:--"I consider his
'Becky Sharp' is one of the most able studies of character that was ever
written. How much I should delight in his power of reading character,
though perhaps he took somewhat too caustic a view of it occasionally!"
A stand close by contains the whole set of Mrs. Lovett Cameron's
novels--"I enjoy her writing so much," says your hostess. "When I was
younger I was _fanatica_ on Ouida; but though I still admire her
marvellous command of language, especially in description of scenery, I
have grown too sober and prosaic and practical in my ideas and views of
life to appreciate her works as I used to do."
Losing her father at a very early age, when only fifteen, Mrs. Fraser
went to India, after spending two years at a school in Paris, and at the
age of sixteen she married Captain, now General Alexander Fraser, C.B.,
sometime Member of Council, for many years Secretary to the Government
of India, and only surviving brother of the late Bishop of Manchester.
She describes her life in India in glowing colours. "I liked India
immensely," she remarks. "Most women do, I fancy. They are so hospitable
out there, and there is so much fun and 'go' in the society. Besides,"
she adds, laughing, "one has so much attention that one feels in a
delightfully chronic state of self-complacency!"
A door at the further end leads through the fernery to the western side
of Carylls, which is perhaps the prettiest part of the place. It is
curiously decorated with Sussex tiles, and has an ivy-clad gable and
long window in stained cathedral glass. Turning to the right, your
hostess takes you round a tastefully-laid-out rosery, at the extremity
of which is a glasshouse over a hundred feet in length, which is full of
peach, apricot, nectarine, and other big trees. Emerging at the other
door, you find yourself in a great double garden with an archway
between, and the whole is enclosed within high walls covered with
fruit-trees. Here are vineries and hot-houses, all in most exquisite
order, for this is Mrs. Fraser's particular hobby. The day is so clear
that the view all around is seen to perfection, extending to the Surrey
Hills, and dotted here and there with a few white houses shown up
against the dark green of the masses of firs which seem to abound in
these parts. Expressing a wish to see the stables, Mrs. Fraser leads the
way thither through the courtyard. Four good-looking horses stand in the
stalls, and as she opens a small square window near, the black velvety
muzzle of the sweetest little pony rubs against her shoulder, whilst he
eagerly devours the carrot she has brought for him. "I drive this little
fellow myself," she says. "I had a pair of them, 'Blink' and 'Wink,' but
poor 'Wink' has gone over to the majority, I grieve to say."
A little further on are some picturesque kennels, and the inmates greet
their mistress vociferously. These are the fox-terriers who won the
prizes in the drawing-room. They are animals of long pedigree and long
price, and are pretty well known at all the shows in England. "They are
not only ornamental but useful," says your hostess. "Some are loose at
night, and I pity the individual who approaches them."
Whilst leisurely rambling here and there, you stroll up to some broad
stone steps (overshadowed by oaks, and with pillars on either side
surmounted by large vases of flowering berberis) that lead past an
upper lawn enclosed by a shrubbery, in which syringas and _Gloire de
Dijon_ roses hold prominent places. "These two tennis courts are in
constant use in summer time," observes Mrs. Fraser, "but I really am a
bit of a recluse, eschewing society as much as possible, though I
thoroughly enjoy a quiet tea with my favourite neighbours. When I lived
in town," she adds, "I had a charming house in Clarges-street, and used
to like my Wednesday afternoons, when a number of diplomats generally
looked in, and there used to be a Babel of languages going on, but long
residence in the country makes one grow daily more of a stay-at-home,
and I have so much to do that I never find the day too long."
Close by on the lawn lies a carefully-kept grassy mound. This is the
grave of three favourite dogs, and a much deplored grey parrot. One of
these dogs was a Schipperke, the breed kept by the bargemen of Belgium
to guard their goods and chattels. "He was a real beauty," says your
hostess, sadly, "and he travelled with me all over the Continent, then
across the Atlantic, and back again. I think one really grows to care
for a dog or a horse as much as for a human creature, and this pet was
almost human in his intelligence."
Mrs. Alexander Fraser is warmly attached to her beautiful home, and
takes the keenest interest in the improvements. She brought the design
of the low double walls from the Park at Brussels, and herself
superintended their building, as also the re-arrangement of the lawns.
She rarely goes to town, and then only on a flying visit just to see her
lawyers, or her publishers, "all the while longing to get home again,"
she says. She promises herself, however, to go up to stay with some
friends in the season, in order to do the opera and theatres, confessing
that she dearly loves a good drama. "Something that makes me weep
copiously," she adds, laughing. "I dislike comic pieces."
After a stroll round the lawns to watch the glories of the setting sun,
you return towards the house, passing by a piece of water enclosed by
low walls, fringed all round with large weeping willows, and enter
through a heated conservatory on the eastern side, not yet visited. Here
is a wealth of tea roses in every shade of colour. Mrs. Fraser
ungrudgingly cuts a handful of the choicest buds, and gives them to you,
a welcome present indeed at this season. "Flowers," she says, "are a
passion with me. I like to have them everywhere, and always have a big
bunch on my table when I write." The eastern side door leads into a
little room containing many Oriental treasures, notably a carved screen
of sweet-smelling sandal-wood, a curious "neckbreaker" used by Indian
dacoits, and some rare ivory and enamels. Conspicuous among them there
stands a small inlaid table, and on it lies an evidently cherished
volume, "The Life of Bishop Fraser," together with a photograph of him,
in a costly frame. "He was my best friend," says Mrs. Alexander Fraser,
in a low tone and with much pathos; "and my _beau idéal_ of a man both
personally and mentally. I felt his loss from my heart, and I am sure
that thousands have done the same."
But the carriage is announced, and Mrs. Alexander Fraser gives a
whispered order to the butler, which results in a basket of large,
purple hothouse grapes being brought, "to cheer you on your way back,"
she says. During the drive to the station she hospitably invites you to
"come again when the strawberries are ripe and the roses are in bloom."
[Illustration: Julia B. Chetwynd]
THE HON. MRS. HENRY CHETWYND.
There is an old house in a quiet old-world street leading out of Hans
Place, called Walton Place, where the Emperor Napoleon III. used to live
after he left King Street, St. James's, and which was the scene of some
of his famous political dinner-parties. This house, which is back to
back with Jane Austen's home in London, once stood in its own gardens,
but the ground was too valuable to spare for the picturesque, and it has
long since been turned into a row of neat dwelling-places. Standing well
back from the noisy thoroughfare and the incessant roar of traffic in
the Brompton Road, there is a sense of peace and quiet about it
externally which prepares you to find that within it is a home of
talent, of refinement, of domestic harmony and affection.
Whilst ascending the stairs a fresh, sweet soprano voice is heard,
giving thrilling expression to Tosti's lovely song, "Love Ties." On
being shown into a fair-sized double drawing-room, your first impression
leads to the belief that there are some good old bits of carved oak
furniture to be studied, but there is more to learn about that
presently. Mrs. Chetwynd is busily engaged in finishing a large coverlet
of art needlework, which she puts aside as she rises to greet you with
much grace and cordiality. She is very fair in complexion, with large
blue eyes and softly shaded eyebrows. The hair, parted smoothly on a
broad forehead, is gathered up at the back, and brought round the head
in a plait, worn in coronet shape in front. She is dressed in black with
a scarf of old black lace knotted becomingly round her throat, and a
bunch of violets nestles in the folds. She has an air of high breeding,
combined with an irresistibly sweet and pleasant manner.
The musician is Mrs. Chetwynd's youngest daughter, and you cannot resist
the temptation to beg her to indulge you with yet another verse of the
song. She good-naturedly complies, rendering the melody with much skill
and pathos. On your thanking and complimenting her, she tells you that
she is a pupil of Madame Bonner, and has never had any other teacher,
and truly she does credit to her instructress.
There is an artistic simplicity about these bright, cheerful rooms which
is very fascinating. The walls are hung with gold-coloured paper, copied
from a pattern at Hampton Court, and taken from an Italian palace.
Carpets of electric-blue colour cover the floors, and tapestry curtains
of the same shade, with inner ones of cream-coloured guipure, shade the
windows; close to your hostess's chair there is an enormous Moorish
brass tray mounted on a Moorshebar stand. This was sent home by a dear
absent naval son for his mother's afternoon tea-service, but as it is so
heavy that it would require two servants to carry it, Mrs. Chetwynd has
turned it into a most appropriate work-table. Large plants of the
"Sacred Lily of Japan" are flowering beautifully yonder, a big Japanese
screen stands near the door, armchairs of every shape and degree of
comfort, together with a broad couch, are placed apparently exactly
where they ought to be; nearly everything else in the room has a story,
and now the secret of the old oak furniture is learned. You could have
declared it was a production of the seventeenth century. The material is
of cypress wood, and Miss Katherine Chetwynd is now carving some oak,
which was a gift, and which is old, very old, inasmuch as it was taken
out of the Thames, at Blackwall, and formed part of the planks and
stakes driven in there to keep out the Spanish Armada. It is black with
age, but still sound. It would appear to be a curious present for three
young girls, but Mrs. Chetwynd's daughters have a genius for
wood-carving; collecting old designs, they actually made the fire-place
entirely by themselves, with its rich, broad pattern on each side, the
Rose and the Shamrock for their father, and the Thistle entwined in
compliment to their Scottish mother, and with the help of their brother
they even fitted and placed it without the aid of a carpenter. Several
tables, too, carved in a variety of designs, are the manufacture of
their clever fingers, and their talents do not end here, for on one of
these tables you recognize a life-size portrait, in red crayons, of the
fair young musician herself, executed with masterly and skilful touch by
her elder sister. The painted panels of the outer and inner doors as
also of those which divide the rooms, are the work of these young
artists, in thoroughly correct Japanese style, the rising sun, the
storks, and the tall flowers in raised gilt, being all perfectly
orthodox. This talent is inherited from their mother, for every picture
on the walls is from her own brush. On the right hangs her large
painting from Siegert's "Liebesdienst," in the Hamburg Gallery, and she
was very proud of obtaining permission to copy it, as it was then only
the second copy allowed. On one side of the fireplace there is her
portrait in oils of the beautiful Miss Bosville, afterwards Lady
Macdonald of the Isles, Mrs. Chetwynd's great-grandmother; on the other
"The Holy Margaret," copied in the Dresden Gallery, a Madonna after
Rotari, and a cherub after Rubens, in all of which pictures it is easy
to see that she excels in flesh tints, and has a fine eye for colour.
Mrs. Chetwynd is the daughter of the late Mr. Davidson of Tulloch, by
his first wife, the Hon. Elizabeth Macdonald, one of the lovely
daughters of the late Lord Macdonald of the Isles. Mr. Davidson
inherited, besides the family place, Tulloch Castle, the deer forest of
Inchbae, and many thousands of acres on the West Coast, which he sold to
Sir John Fowler, Mr. Banks, and others. He was first in the Grenadier
Guards, then member for the county, and, finally, Lord-Lieutenant of
Ross-shire. He was noted for his handsome person and his great kindness
to everyone around him; a most popular landlord, he possessed a great
charm of manner, and was much in advance of his day, especially in the
matter of education. Though he was the best and kindest of fathers, he
was strict in discipline. His daughters were made to learn Latin and
mathematics, and, besides a resident English and foreign governess, the
village schoolmaster came to teach them history and geography every
evening.
"It was impossible," says Mrs. Chetwynd, "to have had a happier
childhood than ours, particularly up to the time of my mother's death.
Though I think that education was perhaps a little overdone, we had a
great deal of exercise on horseback and on foot to counteract it. We
were made to keep very early hours, to be in the schoolroom at six
o'clock every morning in summer and seven in winter. The piper's walking
up and down playing in front of the old place at eight o'clock was the
signal for our breakfast, of which we had great need, having previously
studied for two hours. We then worked hard at our books till noon, when
my mother always appeared at the schoolroom door with peaches, grapes,
or something good in her hand; then we rode for two hours in all
weathers, dined at two o'clock, worked till four, out again till six,
then tea, preparation, and to bed."
It is probably just the regularity, order, and method of the happy,
healthy country life of her girlhood, and the constant out-of-door
exercise, which have preserved Mrs. Chetwynd's constitution so
excellently, that until four years ago, when she met with a severe
accident at Rugby Station--from which she has never quite recovered--she
could walk long distances, and go out at night afterwards without
feeling any fatigue. "The walks and rides," she continues, "that we were
accustomed to take in the elastic Highland air, sound wonderful to
those who have not experienced the ease with which one can walk there.
We, as girls, would tramp seven miles to a luncheon party, join in any
expedition, and return the whole way on foot easily. We have often
ridden twenty-five miles, (sending other horses on early, and changing
halfway), gone out with the friends with whom we spent the afternoon,
and ridden home in time to dance at a gillies' ball."
Another great excitement in their youth was the acting of French and
Italian plays, which were adapted for their own capacities from
_Molière_, _Goldoni_, etc., by the foreign governess, enjoying
thoroughly the applause, the dressing-up and the arranging of the
costumes, which were made in strict keeping. "But what we did not
enjoy," adds your hostess, smiling, "was the trouble of our long and
thick hair, which as often as not was powdered for these juvenile
performances, and I can remember to this day how unmercifully our cross
French maid used to pull and tug at it next morning."
The autumn holidays were often spent up at the West Coast place or on
the Continent. The former was, however, the favourite holiday resort of
these happy, hardy young people, where they boated, fished, and bathed
to their hearts' content, often going off to one of the many islands on
the coast, taking books, work, and provisions; then, sending away the
boat, they would spend half the bright, warm days swimming about in the
sea. When these vacations were spent abroad the opportunity was seized
to give them the best masters to be found; "and, though we enjoyed
foreign life very much," says Mrs. Chetwynd, "we always felt we were
being cheated out of our holidays. In later years my uncle, General
Macdonald (known as Jim Macdonald) lived at the Ranger's Lodge in Hyde
Park, and going there was always a great pleasure. He was so clever and
entertaining, never too busy to enter into anything affecting his
family, so overflowing with wit of the best kind, that he made one see
the amusing side of the most commonplace things."
The excellent education she received, the beautiful scenery in which she
was reared, the clever people (George Eliot among them) with whom she
was brought in contact--all conspired to expand the young girl's mind,
and to pave the way for her subsequent career as a novelist. She
describes their charming supper-parties at St. Andrews which were
constantly joined by such learned men as Principal Tulloch, Professors
Aytoun and Ferrier, and Sir David Brewster, who used to talk to her in
the most fascinating manner about astronomy and other science, as "being
an education in itself." Thackeray, too, gave her the greatest
encouragement, and showed her much kindness. But the girlish days were
coming to a close. In February, 1858, she married Lieutenant, now
Post-Captain, the Hon. Henry Chetwynd, brother of Viscount Chetwynd, by
whom she has a family of four sons and three daughters. Her first
literary effort was a play, written at the early age of twelve, in which
she acted with her brothers and sisters. It was really a wonderful
production for so young a child, and a few years later she wrote several
society verses, which were printed, and read with much amusement by her
father, to whom, however, she had not the courage to disclose the
secret of their authorship. For some years after her marriage Captain
Chetwynd held some appointments enabling her to be constantly with him,
but when the dreaded moment for separation came, and he was ordered on
foreign service, first to the West Indies, and then to Mexico, Mrs.
Chetwynd felt the solitude of the long evenings to be so oppressive
after the little ones were gone to bed, that for distraction she took to
her pen and wrote her first novel, called "Three Hundred A Year." It had
a good sale, though on looking back on it now the author pronounces it
to have been "excessively silly." Encouraged by this success, she wrote
"Mademoiselle d'Estanville," which was translated into French, and had a
good run. Then came "Janie" and "Life in a German Village," which passed
into several editions. "Bees and Butterflies" came out first in the
_Pictorial World_ before being published in three volumes. This book the
author considers to have been the most successful, financially, though
"Sara" is her own favourite, and was the result of a long study. The
story is founded on fact, and the incidents relating to the discovery of
South End smugglers were drawn from the life, Mrs. Chetwynd having been
a witness to the scene when the great cask, supposed to contain wine,
was opened, and found full of white satin shoes, valuable lace, and
other contraband articles. Scenes, too, in the Highlands are well
depicted in this book, whilst the sketch of Sara is carefully worked
out, from her first introduction as the "dethroned princess" in all her
ignorance and absorption in her supposed "Gift of Poetry," to the final
page when, after many vicissitudes of fortune, her soul is awakened by
the love of a good man, and her really fine and noble character is fully
developed. Other books written by Mrs. Chetwynd are entitled "A March
Violet," "The Dutch Cousin," and "Lady Honoria's Nieces," but though
want of space prevents much comment on them, they can confidently be
recommended as most pleasant reading, and all are characterized by the
kindly nature, the refinement, and the noble spirit of this
distinguished gentlewoman's mind. She modestly says of her works, "When
I think of the great competition nowadays, I am surprised that they have
held their own at all, and directly a new book is out, I always feel
that I should like to recall it. I have sold the copyright of most of my
stories, but some are still in my own hands, and I have long since
handed over all my literary business affairs to Mr. A. P. Watt, which I
have found a perfectly satisfactory arrangement." The author was
considerably amused a few days ago on hearing that a former old servant
takes in _Bow Bells_ regularly in order to read her late mistress's
novels, which have been reproduced and are now coming out weekly in that
periodical. Her two last books are called "Criss-Cross Lovers" and "A
Brilliant Woman."
On asking Mrs. Chetwynd about her plots and taste in literature, she
says: "I generally build up characters from my own experiences, a bit
here, and a trait there, but I do not deliberately set to work to take
pictures of people. I think that most persons have some particular
characteristic that comes out in everything they do, and to create is
better than to copy. My favourite novels are written by the Gerards,
and by Mrs. L. B. Walford--I find all hers charming. Besides these, I
admire George Meredith's books more than any others, the one drawback
being that when I have re-read one of his I cannot interest myself in
anything else for a long time. I delight in history, too, history of all
nations. Things which really happened absorb me intensely. I remember
when a child I had curious punishments; for being untidy I had twenty
lines of _Henriade_ to learn by heart, or a French fable. As I could
repeat the _Henriade_ from beginning to end, I must have been untidy
pretty often. The English governess for punishment used to make me read
twenty pages of Alison's "History of Europe" aloud in the play-hours, a
fact which I once told the learned historian, and it amused him greatly.
The historical punishment, however, has not deprived me of my love for
history. My favourite poets are Wordsworth, Tennyson, Shelley, and
Burns. I am a great needlewoman, too, and when I am ruffled by anything
I take refuge in sewing a plain seam. This coverlet is from a Munich
pattern, and I have finished it for my sister, Mrs. Carnegy of Lour, who
began it; the tablecover is for my other sister, Mrs. Craigie-Halkett of
Cramond."
It is through one of her daughters that you learn of Mrs. Chetwynd's
great musical gifts. She was a pupil of Garcia, had a beautiful voice,
and used to sing at many amateur concerts. She still keeps up her
pianoforte playing, for which she won a gold medal, and will improvise
on the piano by the hour together. Her husband and children are very
proud of her performances. She has lately invented a fire-escape, which
is approved of by experts and engineers, and of which more will soon be
heard.
After tea, at which the party is joined by a beautiful thoroughbred
Dachshund called Freda, you are taken down into the dining-room, and, in
passing, just peep into a little room on the stairs, which your hostess
calls her "girls' workshop," where all the wood-carving is carried on.
There is a little point of interest in the dining-room which must be
noticed as betokening the versatile gifts of this accomplished family. A
friend had sent them a roll of paper from Japan, but, as it was found
insufficient to cover the whole of the walls, Mrs. Chetwynd and her
daughters put their heads together to consult as to how the balance
required could be eked out. The result was, that they first distempered
the uncovered part of the wall to the exact shade of the colour, and
then painted it in such close imitation of the Japanese pattern, even to
the native mark, that it is quite impossible to discover which is the
original and which the imitation. Among the many books is a copy of
"Freytag's Reminiscences," translated by Mrs. Chetwynd's second
daughter, and considered by good judges to be one of the best
translations from the German that has appeared for a long time. There is
a picture of that grand old Highlander, Mr. Davidson of Tulloch, taken
in the days when he, with your hostess's uncle, Cluny Macpherson, Fox
Maule, afterwards Earl of Dalhousie, and the Duke of Abercorn, danced
the first reel that the Queen ever saw in Scotland at Taymouth. By the
way, Mrs. Chetwynd herself was a great performer in that line in her
youth, and at some juvenile festivity she and another young Highland
friend danced the reel before the late Prince Consort.
But you had forgotten thoroughly to inspect the picture of Tulloch
Castle, so Mrs. Chetwynd sends for it. "I am sure," she says, "that my
old home is the loveliest place in the world. Part of it is very old,
and it has been (through the female line) in our family since 1300." It
has an old keep, and what was once the dungeon is now a wine cellar. The
house stands very high up, though almost at the foot of Ben Wyvis, and
over the park you see the far-famed Strathpeffer, framed in the distance
by the West Coast hills. On the other side, also over the well-wooded
park, are the Cromarty Frith, and Dingwall nestling at its bend. The
gardens are very large, and a good many acres are now not kept up. The
approach to the front door is under a very old archway; and though a
great part of the place was destroyed by fire some years ago, the walls,
some of which are six feet thick, are intact. Facing the south, it
catches all the sunshine, and as the hills rise behind it everything is
sheltered from the colder winds, and flowers and shrubs grow most
luxuriantly. Some scarlet rhododendrons of great height blossom in the
winter out of doors. The place is now in the possession of Mrs.
Chetwynd's nephew.
Your hostess recalls one little incident which she says was "an event in
our lives. My father and Cluny Macpherson received the Queen on the
occasion of her visit to Badenoch. She went to Ardverikie, then rented
from Cluny by the Duke of Abercorn. My father took forty gillies with
him, Cluny had as many more, and they met her majesty on the edge of
the property, and escorted her in true Highland fashion. Ardverikie was
afterwards sold by Cluny to Sir John Ramsden. The Queen went to Cluny
Castle, and examined the many relics of 'Prince Charlie' kept there with
an interest which pleased all the family much. Some of the sisters were
there with my father."
You are rising regretfully to leave, when the door opens, and Captain
Chetwynd comes in. This fine old sailor greets you in the same genial
manner which characterises the rest of the family. He is the chief
inspector of the Royal National Life-Boat Institution. He is a great
organiser, is deeply interested in his work, and his wife delights to
think that his talents are now turned to saving, not to destroying life.
She had previously confided to you, that not only is he one of the
cleverest and best of men, but also one of the most straightforward and
appreciative. The good, benevolent face carries its own testimony to the
fact. A more happy, united family it would be impossible to find; mutual
love and confidence reign supreme; when cares and anxieties come, as to
whom do they not? they are shared by all, and thus is the burden
lightened.
[Illustration: Jean Middlemass]
JEAN MIDDLEMASS.
Among the many quiet, shady nooks and corners to be found in the "busy,
toiling, but ever pleasure-loving Metropolis," where, if a student
desire, she can be in the world, and yet out of its distracting roar,
Brompton Square can claim to be one; not that it is really a "square" at
all, but merely two long rows of houses, connected at the further end by
a semi-circle composed of three or four larger houses. The gardens which
separate the two lines of old-fashioned, solidly built dwellings, are
thickly planted with shrubs and grand old trees, that in summer time
quite shut out any view of the opposite neighbours, and ensure a
delightful privacy, whilst the twittering of birds, and the cawing of
the rooks, who have built their nests therein, undisturbed for many
generations, would almost cheat a stranger into the belief that it is a
bit out of a country village. Alas! for the poor little buds which had
struggled feebly into life before the devastating blizzard! They were
all untimely nipped. Spring has lingered so long in the "lap of winter,"
that the summer greenery is somewhat backward, yet, at last, the green
shoots which have slept "through the long night" are beginning to burst
out into strength, and the gummy, swelling buds of the great lilacs
within the railings are coming out, and are already casting a delicious
perfume around the peaceful and old-world enclosure.
Nearly every house in Brompton Square is associated with the names of
men and women who have left their mark in the history of London, chiefly
of those who belonged to the theatrical and musical professions. On
yonder side Mr. John Baldwin Buckstone, the well-known author-actor,
entertained merry parties of wits. A few doors further on stands the
house which Mr. Edward Fitzwilliam--famous in his day as a musical
composer--inhabited. Spagnoletti, the leader of the Italian Opera
orchestra, lived on the opposite side, and was succeeded in his tenancy
by a famous and accomplished actress of those days, Mrs. Chatterly. Mr.
James Vining, a much respected actor, owned the house which was
afterwards occupied by the late Mr. Shirley Brooks. George Colman, the
younger, lived and died there. Mr. William Farren, the elder, occupied
one house, and owned another, which was the residence of Mr. Payne
Collier, who, as Croker says in his interesting "Walk from London to
Fulham," gave to the public several editions of Shakespeare, and who was
long distinguished by his profound knowledge of dramatic literature and
history, and his extensive acquaintance with the early poetry of
England. In contradistinction to these more amusing personages, there
lived in a house on the east side a man of solid and profound learning,
Sir John Stoddard, who, within these walls, wrote at the age of
eighty-five, a Polyglot grammar, which was much in use at schools of
that period.
In addition to these world-known and histrionic names may be added those
of the late Mr. Yates, Mr. John Reeve, Mr. Robson, Mr. Liston, the
comedian, and Mr. Henry Luttrell, termed by Lord Byron "the great London
wit," once well known in the circles of literature, the author of many
epigrams, and of a volume of poetry. These have all been residents in
Brompton Square, whilst, in later years, Mr. and Mrs. Keeley inhabited a
house on the south side, and Mr. and Mrs. Chippendale lived a few doors
further on.
What could be more appropriate than that Miss Jean Middlemass, author of
"Dandy," "Patty's Partner," "A Girl in a Thousand," and many other
bright and interesting stories, should take up her abode in this
time-honoured locality, so full of literary and dramatic associations?
She has settled herself in one of the larger houses in the bend of the
semi-circle at the top, which was erstwhile the dwelling-place of Mr.
Alfred Wigan. A spacious hall opens into two good-sized and lofty rooms,
which are divided by massive doors, folded back, and draped with heavy
Moorish curtains of subdued colouring.
It is all so old-fashioned as to be in thorough keeping with the
exterior; but though old-fashioned, the comfortable rooms are by no
means dull or gloomy. A flood of sunshine steals in through the long,
high windows, lighting up the crimson coverings of the furniture, and
casting a bright ray on the picture of a head of Rembrandt, by himself,
which is set in a handsomely-carved oak frame of great antiquity over
the mantelshelf, on which stand three old and valuable Spode jars. On
one side hangs a painting by Bowden of a lovely child, the son of
Frederick Reynolds, the dramatic writer, and near it is one of Rivière's
elaborately finished and exquisite miniatures of the author's mother
taken in her youth. There are some choice bits of Dresden on a carved
corner bracket, and scattered about here and there are several Japanese
and Chinese curiosities, which have just been sent to Miss Middlemass
from the East, including a magnificently carved junk, correct in every
minute detail. Surely the very smallest writing-table at which author
ever sat belongs to Jean Middlemass; but that, too, was a present, and
was originally made tall enough for her to write at while standing, but
as that position was found to be quite too fatiguing it has been cut
down to suit her present requirements. There is a beautiful old oak
mounted carving on the wall--so old that she "can remember nothing about
it or its subject," she says, "beyond the fact that we always seem to
have possessed it, and it has been greatly admired." Above it some
delightfully quaint old china is arranged in a half circle; on either
side hang four antique engravings of great value, classical subjects
from Boucher, the French artist's paintings. But the picture which she
prizes more than all is a life-size portrait in oils, the last work that
was ever finished by the artist Jackson. It represents the author's
grandfather. He held an appointment in the Treasury, and was the one
member of the family who had any connection with literature, being
intimately acquainted in his youth with Sir Joseph Banks, Mdme. de
Stael, Lady Blessington, and other people of letters.
There is a look in Miss Middlemass which proclaims the relationship.
She is above the middle height, very upright, with a good figure, fair
complexion, grey curly hair, and keen, bright-blue, short-sighted eyes.
She is dressed in black, relieved by a little rose-coloured ribbon round
the wrists and throat, tied in a bow on one side. She is sprightly and
merry in nature, full of pleasant conversation, and genial in manner.
Jean Middlemass is Scottish by descent. She was born in one of the
pleasant terraces surrounding Regent's Park. Naturally a clever,
intelligent girl, she began to write at a very early age, and, to
encourage her in this taste, when yet quite a small child her father
started a magazine for private circulation only, to which she, her
brothers, and several other Harrow boys used to contribute scraps and
stories, aided by pieces from a few older persons to encourage the
juveniles. She describes herself as having been quick at learning by
heart, quick in everything, and fond of study. Plays were her chief
delight, and at eight years old she had read and could repeat pages of
Shakespeare, often astonishing her parents by apt quotations given with
considerable dramatic power. Her youthful enthusiasm in this direction
soon, however, received a check, for on one occasion, being rebuked by
her mother for some trifling fault, and told how much better people
would think of her if she behaved well, she pathetically replied--coolly
substituting a word at the end of the first line which she considered
more suitable:--
Amen; and make me die a good old age!
That is the butt-end of a mother's blessing;
I marvel that her Grace did leave it out.
For this piece of childish and precocious impertinence, as it was
deemed, she was punished by the prompt confiscation of her beloved
Shakespeare, whereat she wept copiously.
"I was kept hard at my lessons," says Miss Middlemass; "no expense or
pains were spared to educate me well, and I enjoyed them. My father was
a great student, and himself instructed me in Latin and the rudiments of
Greek. I used to attend M. Roche's French classes, and constant
residence abroad has enabled me to speak French and German as fluently
as English. Music I disliked from the first, and when a tiny child, if
my mother were singing, I used to cry out, 'Speak it, speak it!' I do
not care for music to this day, and rejoice in the exceeding thickness
of the old walls of this house, which causes even the sound of
neighbouring pianos to be quite undisturbing. History and biographies
were always favourite studies, and I prefer reading French to English.
For some years I wrote in a desultory sort of fashion, and it was not
until after my mother's death, about fourteen years ago, that feeling
lonely--for my four brothers all died young--I adopted writing as a
profession."
At the age of eighteen, being emancipated from the school-room, Miss
Jean Middlemass was brought out, made her _début_ at an early Drawing
Room, and enjoyed the gaieties of two London seasons, but after the
death of her father the family moved to Brighton, where, later on, her
inherent talent for acting asserted itself; she studied recitation and
elocution, and constantly took part in amateur theatricals, sometimes
playing in as many as four parts in one evening at the Royal Pavilion,
coached by Mrs. Stirling. On one occasion she recited "Lady Macbeth"
before a full audience at the Dome, and she was always in great request
at private parties, where she used to arrange and take part in tableaux,
charades, proverbs, and such like entertainments.
Miss Middlemass never acted in a theatre, though she may have had a
strong desire to do so, and she smilingly confesses to being perhaps a
little of the Bohemian at heart, inasmuch as she dislikes formalities
and conventionalities, and loves freedom of action. She has played
Esther in _Caste_, Pauline in _Delicate Ground_, Lady Aubrey Glenmorris
in _School for Coquettes_, Lady Constance in a scene from _King John_,
besides others too numerous to mention. Her most successful recitations
have been selections from the works of Dante Rossetti, and Tennyson,
Hamilton Aidé's "Lost and Found," and Hood's "Dream of Eugene Aram";
also scenes from plays--Beatrice in _Much Ado About Nothing_, and
Pauline in the _Lady of Lyons_. Her memory being excellent, her
_répertoire_ was very large, and, according to those who witnessed her
performances, her histrionic powers entitled her to a prominent position
in the Thespian temple of fame, for in all that she undertook, whether
in acting or reciting, she worked with indomitable energy, exhibiting
the conceptions of a discriminating and educated mind, marked by the
influence of a rich and cultivated taste.
"After a few years," says Miss Middlemass, "I began to publish some of
my stories, and as the love of writing grew upon me more and more, I
found I could not write and act too, so as the histrionic amusements
were gradually abolished, I turned my attention more exclusively to my
pen, and wrote my first novel, 'Lil.' My mother used to like my stories
when they were out, though she never enjoyed them whilst in process of
being written. I generally make out a vague plot of half a page, then
draw it out into chapters, and arrange the characters. I prefer writing
stories of middle or low class life, I don't know why; it came to me,
and I often pick up ideas of the lower London life from standing about
here and there to listen. I compose and write very quickly, going over
it all several times; and I have never had much help, but have just
struggled on through it alone. At night, when I go to bed, I work out
all the thoughts and ideas which have suggested themselves during the
day; often going to sleep in the middle of it, but in the morning it all
comes back to me, and I write it out readily and rapidly."
"Lil," which is well calculated to keep alive the interest of the
reader, and has, moreover, the merit of being animated in dialogue, was
soon followed by "Wild George," in which the beautiful but dangerous
French adventuress and her faithful old soldier servant play so
prominent a part. Next came "Baiting the Trap," "Mr. Dorillon," "Touch
and Go," succeeded by "Sealed by a Kiss" and "Innocence at Play." In all
these works there is much insight into human nature, and the French
scenes are particularly bright and life-like, betokening the author's
intimate knowledge of foreign cities. "Four-in-Hand" was the sporting
title of a volume of short stories. "Sackcloth and Broadcloth" contains
some capital sketches of clerical life and its surroundings, about which
Miss Middlemass has had considerable experience. Perhaps up to that date
she scored her greatest success with "Dandy," written in 1881; of this
book the critics and the public were unanimous in their applause.
Penetrating into the haunts of the poorest section of humanity in order
to depict naturally and truthfully the scenes so touchingly described
therein, she gained an unusual insight into their words and ways, their
occasionally high, their too often low standard of morality.
"Patty's Partner" is a delightful and interesting tale of the porcelain
manufacture works in the West of England, where Miss Middlemass is as
much at home as she is in the scenes in "Dandy." It is full of humour
and clever writing. Among other of the author's works may be mentioned
"Poisoned Arrows," "By Fair Means," "The Loadstone of Love," and "Nelly
Jocelyn, Widow." A three-volume story published lately, entitled "Two
False Moves," contains some powerful pieces of writing, and the
characters of Derek Home, Ruth Churchill, and the Rev. John Eagle are
drawn to the life. Her last work in one volume is entitled "How I Became
Eminent."
In poetry Miss Middlemass does not as much incline to modern writers as
to the ancient classics in which she was so early instructed. In
politics she is a strong Conservative. Until the last year or two she
was, as may be supposed, a frequent visitor at the theatre, but being,
unfortunately, so short-sighted, the necessity for using strong glasses
temporarily strained her eyes, so that pleasure is partially laid aside
for the present.
Miss Middlemass is, as usual, full of literary engagements. A new novel
is being meditated, though it may not actually be begun; several short
stories are in requisition, and one appeared in an early number of John
Strange Winter's weekly paper. Among other enjoyments, Jean Middlemass
delights in travelling; "Not in the sea part of it," she adds, smiling;
"I am an especially bad sailor, and do not like being on the water. I
always take the shortest sea-routes." She has made many journeys on the
Continent, and in former days lived for a year in Paris. She knows her
Paris well, and loves it so dearly that she has often felt that she
would like to make her home in that gay and festive capital. She is
equally familiar with Brussels, and has been a good deal in Germany, but
only on the Rhine, passing some time at Wiesbaden, and paying what she
describes as a "delightful visit to the old city of Nuremberg."
"I keep on my quarters in town," continues your hostess, "principally as
a _pied-à-terre_. The severity of the long winter, then the sudden
change of spring for a few days in February, following those dreadful
fogs and frosts, and then the terrible gales and east winds, were all
most trying, and I am again contemplating a trip abroad to more
seasonable climates; first, a short tour in Holland, then on to Paris
for a few weeks, and later, into North Italy, perhaps on to Venice, if
the weather then be not too hot."
The brightness and vivacity of foreign life suit well Miss Jean
Middlemass's happy disposition and sunny nature. Blessed with good
spirits, full of clever anecdote and harmless repartee, with great
conversational power, her prevailing characteristic is an utter absence
of selfishness and affectation. She has a soft, merry laugh, and a kind,
warm heart. With this good gift, it is almost needless to say that she
goes through life making no enemies, and many friends. In her ready wit
there is no sting. Before all things scandal and backbiting are an
abomination to her; it has been truly quoted of this talented and
amiable woman, as it has been said of many great and famous persons,
"Though knowledge is power, yet those who possess it are indulgent to
weaker intellects, and become as one of them in sociability and
friendship."
[Illustration: A. de Grasse Stevens]
AUGUSTA DE GRASSE STEVENS.
Among the younger American authors who have made their mark on the
literature of the day, Augusta de Grasse Stevens takes a high stand.
Highly educated and deeply read, as well versed in the political and
civil history of her own country as in that of the land of her adoption,
her mind expanded by much continental travel, and inheriting the talents
of her brilliantly gifted parents, it is no wonder that she should have
attained the depth of thought, the originality of idea, and the fluency
of expression which characterise her writings. The young author, who is
_petite_ in stature, and slight in figure, with grey-blue eyes and brown
hair, was born in Albany, on the Hudson River, the capital city of New
York, a quaint old Dutch town that bears to this day many marked
peculiarities of its rich founders, whose manor lands, granted by royal
patent, stretched far and wide along the river banks. Her father was the
Hon. Samuel Stevens, one of the most brilliant lawyers the American bar
has ever produced; his opinions are still quoted in legal matters on
both sides of the ocean. He was a man of the keenest intellect, and most
wonderful memory; a power wherever he appeared, and one who had the
reputation of never losing a case. The courtesy title was bestowed upon
him by the State Legislature in recognition of his great services to
that body. He was the life-long friend of such men as Chancellor
Walworth, Henry Clay the statesman, and Daniel Webster, who declared
that "in his opinion Mr. Stevens as a lawyer stood first in the United
States, and that as a colleague he welcomed him in every case, but as an
opponent he hoped each case would be the last." From Mr. Stevens'
conduct of so many cases, involving important inventions, he has been
called unanimously "The Founder of American Patent Law."
"Mr. Phelps, the late U.S. Minister, has often told me," says Miss
Stevens, "that he, as a young man, used to travel miles to hear my
father argue a case, such a lesson was it in eloquence and profound
legal knowledge, and he retained as one of his happiest memories the
remembrance of certain interviews he had had with him in which he
learned more from my father than in hours of study and private research.
My paternal grandmother was of French birth and lineage. She was Mdlle.
Marie de Grasse, the daughter of Pierre de Grasse, who was a brother of
the famous Admiral Comte de Grasse, the intimate friend of La Fayette,
whose patriotism, like his own, was devoted to the American cause. Her
parents left France in the seventeenth century, and established
themselves in a country home not far from Albany. My grandmother was
very beautiful, and retained her beauty to an advanced age, and it is
from her we take the name of De Grasse. My great-grandfather was an
ardent patriot, and I have often heard my aunt say, that stored away in
the attic of their house were trunks full of 'national paper bonds,' not
worth the paper on which they were printed, but which represented the
sums that he had advanced to the American Government during the War of
Independence, and which afterwards they were unable to redeem. My father
married rather late in life, my mother being only a girl of eighteen at
the time. She was very charming in manner and appearance and highly
educated." On the maternal side, Miss de Grasse Stevens can trace her
descent back without a break to that brave Simon de Warde who fought
with the Conqueror and who fell at Hastings, and whose name is engraved
on the Battle Abbey Roll, among those for whom "prayer perpetual is to
be offered up" within the Abbey walls. The Wards emigrated to America
some time in the year 1600, and settled in New England. They were
staunch Puritans and patriots, and begrudged neither life, nor money,
nor substance to the cause. General Artemas Ward, one of Washington's
chief generals, early distinguished himself in the service, and he was
but one in a long line of similar instances. It was while walking
through an old churchyard in Connecticut that the late Samuel Brown,
coming upon General Artemas Ward's tomb-stone, first saw the name that
he afterwards adopted and made world-famous in a far different fashion.
Miss Stevens can remember well her great-grandfather Ward, though she
was only a child when he died. He was a typical gentleman of the old
school, and wore to the day of his death his hair tied in a _queue_,
the knee breeches, silk stockings, low shoes with gold buckles, fine
cambric frill, and neckerchief of his time. Her childish recollections
are full of pictures of him, and she can shut her eyes and recall
without effort the long, sunny drawing-room, so still, and full of a
certain awe, the trees outside bending in the summer wind, the warm
crimson hangings at the wide windows, the fire on the open hearth,
burning there all the year round, and the great arm-chair drawn close
within its rays, in which was seated the dignified figure of her
great-grandfather, Dr. Levi Ward, his beautiful clean-shaven face,
slightly stern when in repose, breaking into a kindly smile at the first
sound of his daughter's voice. By his side on a little table lay the
great Bible, always open, which he knew literally by heart, and from
which, when the blindness of old age came upon him, he could repeat
chapter after chapter with unfailing accuracy. "My great-grandmother,
his wife, I cannot remember," says Miss Stevens, "but she, too, was a
remarkably handsome woman, and one who throughout her whole life held a
distinguished position in society as well as being a leader in all
philanthropic and charitable undertakings. Their beautiful home, Grove
Place, Rochester, New York, was the perfection of a country seat, and
about it cluster many tender memories and associations. Their daughter
married my grandfather, Mr. Silas Smith, whose daughter in turn became
my father's wife, and went with him to his home in Albany, where she
soon won for herself a position of much responsibility, and became, puny
as she was, a recognised power in all social matters. My father died
when I was very young, and my earliest recollections do not date beyond
his death. My mother, a young widow, returned with her little family to
her father's home, Woodside, just out of Rochester, and with that dear
and beautiful home all my happiest, fondest memories are knit up
indissolubly. Woodside was a typical home; a large and spacious mansion
set in the midst of acres of park land, gardens, and meadows. I think
there never was just such a home! Everything that refinement,
cultivation, and wealth could procure surrounded us, yet all was
distributed and governed with so just and wise a hand that luxurious
ostentation and wastefulness were never known amongst us. Here I grew
from babyhood to girlhood, and to the fond remembrance and recollection
of life there my thoughts turn always when I speak or think of--_home_."
The young American author describes her mother and her system of
education in touching and eloquent words. Her mother, she says, was
possessed of one of those rare, unselfish natures to whom personal grief
was unknown. Even in her early widowhood her first thought was for her
children, and to their care and education she devoted herself
unsparingly. Possessing a gifted mind and great personal attractions, a
voice of unusual sweetness and power, and a heart that literally did not
know the meaning of the word self, she called forth in everyone with
whom she came in contact the greatest admiration and affection. "Her
children loved her passionately," says Miss Stevens. "How well I can
remember when I was but a tiny mite of five, how she would gather us
all around her in the grey winter afternoons, and with me nestled close
at her knee, read to us by the hour together, but not fairy tales or
story books. She went straight to the big heart of Shakespeare, of
Longfellow, of Tennyson, of Thackeray, of Dickens, and opening the
treasure-houses of their genius, read them to us with only such
explanations and changes as necessity required to meet the status of her
youthful audience. I cannot remember the time when Shakespeare was
unknown to me, or when the Poet Laureate, and Campbell, and Dickens,
were not dear, familiar friends. Out of this galaxy of riches, _The
Tempest_, _Midsummer Night's Dream_, _Hiawatha_, and _Dombey and Son_,
stand out clearest in my mind. Then she would sing to us, play to us,
and so we became familiar with Mendelssohn, Mozart, Schubert, and with
all the plaintive, old English ballads and Scotch border songs; and in
the morning hours, while she was busy with a large correspondence and
literary work, my dear grandmother taught us, my sister and me, to sew,
cut out, and knit, inculcating meantime many a goodly lesson in charity,
kindliness, and thoughtfulness for others. To my dear mother, indeed, I
owe all that I am. She is gone from me now, but to her clear mind, wise
criticism, and sound judgment is due whatever literary reputation I may
have earned. I wrote for her, _she_ was my public!"
This beloved home was ever one of open hospitality, and to it came at
all times guests of every kind. Here, Miss Stevens tells you, her
grandfather had welcomed Talleyrand and Louis Napoleon, and here in
later days gathered many a company of literary giants whose names are
now household words. After six years of widowhood her mother married the
late Mr. John Fowler Butterworth, a man who was universally beloved and
respected, of high position, wealth, and great personal attractions. "We
all went with them to the new home in New York," adds Miss Stevens. "He
was the only father I have ever known, and I loved him most tenderly."
From this time the family spent much of their time on the Continent of
Europe. Miss Stevens and her sister were educated in Paris, having for
their instructress a very charming and capable woman, who had been
_gouvernante_ to the Orleans Princesses. It was their habit to spend at
least three months of every year abroad, and in this way the young girl
saw much more of foreign countries than her own. Italy, Switzerland,
France, Germany, the Tyrol, each were visited in turn, and such was the
method of their travelling that every country and town were indelibly
and individually impressed upon her memory. Rome, Florence, Geneva,
Verona, Turin, Munich, Innspruck, each one and all are to her bright
with particular associations. After her stepfather's death Miss Stevens
and her mother settled permanently in London, where they had many
friends and many family ties, her sister having married and made her
home in England.
The young author's first literary efforts were begun at a very early
age. "I can scarcely," she says, "remember a time when I did not
scribble. My first attempt was a sermon on the text 'God is Love,' and I
distinctly recollect how and where I wrote it, crouched behind a long
swinging glass in my mother's bed-room, printing it off in capital
letters--writing being then far beyond my attainments--and getting very
hot and flushed in the effort." Her next attempt was a decided advance.
Her sister and two cousins had established a small home newspaper,
called the _Dorcas Gazette_, price one halfpenny, circulation strictly
private and confidential, its end and aim being the helping of the
"Dorcas Society," a body formed to make clothes for the poor. The
circulation amounted to six copies a week, each of which had to be
written out in fair round hand on two sheets of foolscap paper. To this
ambitious venture she was invited to contribute, and for two years was
writer in chief, furnishing serials, short stories, and anecdotes, her
sister doing the political and poetical parts. "I have still," says Miss
Stevens, smiling, "one or two of those old 'gazettes,' time-stained and
yellow; I look on them with the utmost respect, and feel that for
harrowing plot and thrilling adventure, my 'serial' in five chapters,
called 'Blonde and Brunette,' beats the record of any of my subsequent
work!" Her first book, written when she was seventeen, was a small
novelette called "Distance." It was published by Appleton, of New York,
and was well received and reviewed. On coming to London, Miss de Grasse
Stevens was asked by the proprietor of the principal American journal,
the _New York Times_, to prepare for them a series of articles upon
English art and artists, and for ten years she filled the position of
special art critic to that paper, her letters upon London artists and
their studios being the first of the kind ever written, while her
account--a two-column article--of the private view and pictures at the
Royal Academy, which appeared in the morning edition in New York the
next day, was the first "art-cable" sent across the wires. Her first
short story, written long ago, appeared in _Harper's Magazine_. She
wrote it secretly, and sent it off furtively. It was called "Auf
Wiedersehn," and was subsequently translated into German, and reprinted
in many English papers. "After sending it off," she relates, "I waited
in sickening suspense for ten long days, and when at last a letter came
bearing the well-known Franklin-square stamp, I dared not open it. When
I did I fell upon the floor and cried bitterly from bewildering joy! It
contained a satisfactory cheque, and a request for 'more matter of the
same sort.' From that moment the spell of literature held me as in a
vice. I have never known a moment of purer, more unalloyed joy than
that, and to it I owe my perseverance in the 'thorny path.'"
Miss De Grasse Stevens's first three-volume novel was called "Old
Boston." It was originally published by Sampson Low & Co., and has since
been brought out in one volume edition. Its reception was more than
flattering, and the reviews upon it were such as a much older and more
experienced writer might be pleased to win. The story is partly
historical, and is founded on the events just preceding the siege of
Boston and the declaration of American Independence. Keenly attracted
beyond aught else by history, especially by the history of her own
country, in which there is stored away such treasures of romance, of
reality, of poetry, and of pathetic prose--the young American writer
has, in this delightful romance of a hundred years ago, given clear
evidence of her thorough knowledge of her subject; each character is
strongly individualised; true pathos and purity of style mark every
page; you are carried back a century, yet can feel with unflagging
interest that the persons described are living fellow-creatures. The
descriptive writing is artistically fine, the love story is tenderly and
pathetically told, whilst the whole betokens careful study and research.
This book gained for Miss de Grasse Stevens countless kind and
flattering letters from old and, as yet, unknown friends. "Some of my
dearest and most trusty friendships," she says, "I owe to it; first and
foremost in which was that of the late Mr. Kinglake. I had known his
family in Taunton for some time, but to 'Old Boston' I owed the
friendship of the author, which ended not with his death, for I am
certain such friendships are eternal." She contemplates some day writing
a sequel to this book, bringing the history part of it down to the
famous battle of Valley Forge and the bombardment and surrender of New
York.
The author's next work, "Weighed in the Balance," was a short story
written for Mr. W. Stevens's _Magazine of Fiction_, and was of the
sensational school. Over a hundred thousand copies were sold, and for
this, too, she received so much praise and so many letters that she
declares herself to have been "greatly surprised"; among them were two
which she prized highly, one from the late Earl Granville and the other
from the late Earl Spencer, who both wrote that the scenes being laid
at Deal, the book was particularly interesting to them, especially the
parts relating to the Goodwin Sands, and the historic, but decayed old
town of Sandwich. This book was followed by one that caused a good deal
of stir--a historical monograph called "The Lost Dauphin," in which the
writer took up the mysterious fate of little Louis XVII., and advanced
the theory that he did not die in the Temple but was stolen from there
and carried to America, where he was deposited with the Indian tribe of
the Iroquois and was eventually taken East, educated and trained as a
missionary under the name of Ealeazer Williams. The book is illustrated
by three portrait engravings. It called forth a storm of controversy and
a great number of reviews amongst all the leading journals, the majority
of which frankly accepted her hypothesis. Innumerable letters poured in
from all sorts and conditions of people, mostly scholars and men
interested in out-of-the-way questions. The late Mr. Kinglake was
particularly keen on it, and Miss Stevens has a large packet of highly
prized letters from him, devoted to the discussion of the theory that
she had advanced and in which he thoroughly believed. This, from so
great a scholar as the author of "Eöthen" and "The Crimea," was praise
worth having. The late Robert Browning was another _litterateur_ who
wrote in commendation of the book, as did Mrs. Gladstone, Henry James,
Mr. Russell Lowell, Miss Sewell, Mr. Phelps, and many others.
"Miss Hildreth" is the name of Miss de Grasse Stevens's next
three-volume novel, which, following as it did closely after the
sensation made by "The Lost Dauphin," attracted great attention both in
France and England. The scenes are laid in St. Petersburg and New York,
amidst the society with which she was most familiar. The plot is
original, the story is conspicuous by the ability with which it is
written, and proves how thoroughly and conscientiously she studies the
subject that she has on hand. Very powerfully drawn is the account of
the fortress prison of Petropavosk, the descriptions of scenery show how
entirely the author is in touch with nature in her every aspect, while
the scene of the trial betrays the logical mind and power of argument
which she has inherited from her distinguished father. "Miss Hildreth"
is moreover from "start to finish" deeply interesting and exciting, and
displays the same experienced pen and graceful language, free from any
exaggeration or straining after effect that is so conspicuous in "Old
Boston." Mr. Gladstone, in his letter to her about "Miss Hildreth,"
after expressing his deep interest in its _motif_, writes, "I thank you
very much for the work you have been so good as to send me. Both your
kindness and the subjects to which it refers, make me very desirous to
lose no time in beginning it." The young author has just finished a new
novel in one volume, called "The Sensation of a Season," which will
shortly be published, and is completing another to be called "A Romantic
Inheritance." The former work is absolutely different in style, and
deals chiefly with American society in London. Besides fiction, Miss
Stevens writes several weekly articles for American syndicates, and is
a contributor to a South African magazine on more abstruse subjects. She
has written, on and off, special articles, by request, for the _Saturday
Review_ since 1885, notably among these, papers on "Old American
Customs," and on "The position of needlewomen in London," bearing upon
the work depôt established in Cartwright Street, Westminster, by the
Hon. Mrs. William Lowther and Miss Burke; also an amusing account of
"Christmas in America fifty years ago," in the Christmas number of a
weekly paper, and she has for a long time been a regular writer on the
_Argosy_ staff. Mention must not be omitted of a particular article
called "The Beautiful Madame Grand, Princesse de Talleyrand," for which
Mr. Cassell sent specially to Versailles to copy the portrait in the
Grand Gallery for the frontispiece of the magazine. This was followed by
a series of illustrated biographical sketches in the _Lady's
Pictorial_--"American Ladies at Home in London."
When engaged on a novel Miss Stevens puts no pen to paper. "I think it
all out in my head," she says, "before writing a word, chiefly when
travelling; the movement of the train has a peculiar fascination for me.
I make no notes. When it is all complete in my brain, I write straight
away with no effort of memory." But with all her increasing literary
work, Miss de Grasse Stevens finds time for a little recreation in
exercising her talents for modelling and painting. In both of these arts
she is no mean proficient. The gift is inherited from her lamented
mother, who painted much for the Royal Family, and who counted among her
personal friends H.R.H. Princess Louise, Marchioness of Lorne. Sir
Frederick Leighton, another valued friend, used to say that her power of
colouring was especially wonderful. The young author is a very early
riser, and is up and out of doors every morning before seven. She writes
from ten till three, and divides her time between her sister's beautiful
country home in Kent and the pretty little house at West Kensington,
where she stays with a dear aunt and uncle, Dr. Hand Smith, well known
in the scientific world of London for his discovery of the endolithic
process, about which the late Sir Edgar Boehm was so enthusiastic an
admirer. This little abode may be briefly described as distinctly
artistic. The rooms are olive-green in colour, and contain several
cherished reminiscences of her mother. The great "Alexandre" American
walnut-wood organ--both reed and wind--reaching to the ceiling, is quite
unique. On a draped easel stands a large mounted plaque of gorgeous
Florida poinsettias, painted by her mother in a method discovered by
herself, a _replica_ of the design she furnished to the Queen. Another,
almost as beautiful, of different-coloured pansies, by the same beloved
hand, adorns the mantelshelf. Many well-used volumes of Tennyson,
Browning, Whittier, Thackeray, and of Mrs. Lynn Linton fill the
bookshelves. "I delight in Mrs. Lynn Linton's books and papers," says
your hostess; "I call her the Modern Crusader, and read everything that
she writes with much pleasure." Among these works you notice an "In
Memoriam" monograph by Miss Stevens of William Kinglake, illustrated
with his portrait, and a picture of his home, Wilton House, Taunton,
both of which he gave to her. There are a few good pictures on the
walls: two of Morland's are especially attractive, _lunette_ in shape,
first proofs before letters engraved by Nutter. Yonder hang a couple of
paintings of her sister's Kentish home, an old red-brick Elizabethan
building, with the peculiar white facings and low white door belonging
especially to the Tudor days, surrounded by park lands, lawns, and very
old fruit orchards, which are at this season bright with yellow
daffodils. Tradition assigns to it a veritable ghost, whose uneasy
spirit walks every All Saints' Eve! A packet of letters from great men
lies on a little table near. From them Miss Stevens selects some from
Gladstone, Kinglake, and Irving. This last was written on the appearance
of her papers in the leading Boston and New York journals on the subject
of "Macbeth." She has new and pleasant work now on hand as art editor of
the _Novel Review_, in which her late biographical monograph upon "John
Oliver Hobbes" elicited more than ordinary comment from the general
press; also a fresh and important post in connection with a smart New
York society journal. "I particularly like the prospect opened out in
this new field of journalism," remarks Miss de Grasse Stevens quietly,
"as it gives me greater freedom of subject as well as of treatment. I am
delighted, too," she adds, smiling, "with the mere thought of grappling
with any little difficulties that may arise on the subject."
And to these "little difficulties" you leave the bright young American
writer, feeling sure that her clever brain will guide her able pen to
solve them aright.
[Illustration: Bertha Leith-Adams]
MRS. LEITH ADAMS
(MRS. LAFFAN).
It is a lovely day in early springtime. A gentle south-west wind is just
stirring the meadows, and the young birds are chirping gaily in the
hedgerows which are beginning to put forth their tiny buds. All nature
seems awake and smiling; truly a fitting morn on which to visit
Stratford-on-Avon, the place so fraught with memories of the immortal
bard. You have been so fortunate as to make the long journey from London
in the company of the well-known and popular Captain Gerard, late of the
23rd Welsh Fusiliers, and as he has been for some years a resident in
these parts, he has given you the _carte du pays_ and much useful and
interesting information.
The town of Stratford-on-Avon is beautifully situated on the south-west
border of Warwickshire on a gentle eminence rising from the bank of the
Avon. As the train glides into the station, Mrs. Leith Adams is seen
standing on the platform. She has come to meet you, accompanied by many
dogs, who insist on jumping into the carriage as an escort home. On
leaving the station the road runs past the hospital, down the
wonderfully broad High-street of the town with its venerable houses
on either side, and as the beautiful old porch of the Guild Chapel (of
which Mr. Laffan is incumbent) comes into view, the pony turns down
Chapel-lane and draws up at the School House.
Entering the porch into the hall you face the Head Master's study on the
left, a charming room and evidently the haunt of a scholar. The next
room on the same floor has two French windows opening on to the garden.
In a nook by one of these windows Mrs. Leith Adams does her writing with
the shades of George Eliot looking down on her, and a fine photograph of
her youngest son now in Australia. Wandering about the grounds into
which these windows look are six beautiful peacocks, a comical cockatoo,
a seagull, so tame that it comes up when called, two white broken-haired
terriers, and a wise-looking pug. On the left stands a tree with
cocoanuts tied upon it, where countless blue-eyed tits congregate all
day long. The wide winding staircase leads up to the drawing-room, where
you find yourself among shades of olive green, and a roving glance is
caught by two magnificent old china jars, standing on either side of the
fire-place, once full of unguents belonging to the Knights of St. John
of Jerusalem, and found in the vaults under the palace at Malta. The
side window looks across the School gardens to the Memorial Theatre, a
fine domed building on the banks of the river, and the three windows in
the front look over New Place Gardens where lie the foundations of the
house where Shakespeare died, and where in 1643 Henrietta Maria, Queen
of Charles I., was hospitably received and entertained for three days by
Shakespeare's daughter.
It was as the wife of the late Surgeon-General A. Leith Adams, F.R.S.,
LL.D., M.D., that the author of "Aunt Hepsy's Foundling" (by which story
the name of Mrs. Leith Adams is best known to the public) entered on her
career as a novelist. Having been much struck during a visit to Scotland
by the character and personality of a venerable minister of the
Presbyterian Church, she resolved to attempt to make him the centrepiece
of a short story. Of this resolve the result was "Keane Malcombe's
Pupil," since republished under the title of "Mabel Meredith's Love
Story." Her first essay in fiction met with instant success. Without any
previous acquaintance with, or introduction to, the present Mr. Charles
Dickens, the author offered her MS. to _All the Year Round_. It was at
once accepted and published in the year 1876, from which time up to the
present Mrs. Leith Adams has been continuously a member of Mr. Dickens's
staff.
A more ambitious effort followed in the year 1877 when "Winstowe," her
first three-volume novel, was brought out. It bore marks of great
inexperience, but had a certain limited sale in England and a wider one
in America. In the following year "Madelon Lemoine" was issued, a book
which has made its way steadily among a section of the community, and is
looked upon by many critics as the foremost among the author's earlier
works; but it was not until the publication of "Aunt Hepsy's Foundling"
that her name came prominently before the public. A remarkable notice in
a leading journal resulted in a second edition being promptly called
for. This has been followed by two other editions, each in one volume,
also one in America and one in Germany. In writing this book Mrs. Leith
Adams was inspired by the recollections of life in New Brunswick, in
which country she had spent nearly five years with her husband's
regiment--the 1st Battalion "Cheshire." The novelty of the scene and the
freshness of its treatment secured for the work a prompt success, and it
was spoken of by a weekly review as "an almost perfect novel of its
kind."
The author has enjoyed very exceptional advantages as preparation for a
literary career. Married at an early age, when the impression of a
girl's life are peculiarly vivid, she was but six months in Ireland with
the "Cheshire" when that regiment was ordered on foreign service. Her
presentation at the Irish Vice-Regal Court, over which the scholarly
Lord Carlisle then held sway, the brilliant festivities at the Castle,
_réunions_ at the house of Sir Henry and Lady Marsh, where she met all
the men of letters in Dublin, the happy _camaraderie_ of regimental
life; all these things, so new to her, passed like a flash, and were
exchanged for the troopship, and ultimately for lands and societies
strangely differing the one from the other.
The sunshine, orange groves, and military pomp and glitter of life in
Malta were succeeded by the sound of the sleigh bells over the snow, the
wonders of the sudden springtime, and the gorgeous "fall" of New
Brunswick, and, after nine years' wandering, the beautiful coast scenery
of Guernsey; then once again the delights of soldiering in Ireland, this
time in the South, where the lovely climate, devoted friends, and the
charm of being near home once more, have, as your hostess expresses it,
"all made the memories of those days most dear to me."
Mrs. Leith Adams did not begin to write whilst still a very young woman.
She says of herself that although the idea may have been in her mind,
she wished to wait until she had great stores of experience and
observation upon which to draw. Some of these experiences have been of
an intense and exceptional character. During the great cholera epidemic
which visited the island of Malta in 1866--after sending home to England
her only little child for safety--she devoted herself to the care of the
sick and dying in her husband's regiment, in company with a band of
soldiers' wives, who gladly and fearlessly gave themselves to the good
work. Many of her experiences during this awful time are to be found in
the pages of "Madelon Lemoine," but in one instance (not there alluded
to) it may be said that Mrs. Leith Adams ran extraordinary and perilous
risk, such as rendered her entire immunity from harm little short of
miraculous, whilst she also had the satisfaction of seeing the woman
whom she was attending gradually recover from the fell disease that so
seldom spares the victim that it has once attacked.
After twenty-five years' service with the old regiment, Dr. Leith Adams
obtained a Staff appointment connected with the recruiting department at
the Horse Guards, and this brought himself and his wife to London, where
they continued to reside for some years.
It was during this period that her literary career began. At the time
of her husband's death she was under an agreement to supply a serial
story to a leading magazine, in fact she had one, and only one, chapter
written towards that weekly instalment of "copy" necessary during such a
process, "but," she says, "I shall ever remember with the deepest
gratitude, the prompt generosity with which the editor, on hearing of my
bereavement and of my subsequent illness, made arrangements to give me
time." As soon as she was able to resume her pen, Mrs. Leith Adams
completed and published "Geoffrey Stirling," first in the pages of _All
The Year Round_, and then in three-volume form. This story has had its
share of popularity, and a "picture-board" edition of it has been issued
lately.
"Amongst the many other advantages I enjoyed," she remarks, "I rank by
no means least the society of the many eminent and scientific men that
my husband's tastes and attainments opened to me. I can look back upon
gatherings round the hospitable board of Sir Joseph and Lady Hooker at
the Royal Society Gardens, which included such men as the late William
Spottiswoode, P.R.S., Professor Huxley, Professor Flower, and of foreign
_savans_ not a few, occasions on which I would gladly have found myself
possessed of not two ears alone, but twenty, and when to listen to the
conversation of the charmed circle was indeed a liberal education. At
the _soirées_ of the Royal Society I used to delight in meeting all the
talent of this and many another country, and I hold the very strongest
opinions as to the unspeakable advantage that it is to a woman to listen
to highly gifted and deeply learned men discussing questions and
knowledge of the greatest and most vital importance."
In the autumn of 1883, Mrs. Leith Adams married, _en secondes noces_,
the Rev. R. S. de Courcy Laffan, M.A., eldest son of the late
Lieut.-General Sir Robert Michael Laffan, K.C.M.G., R.E., Governor of
the Bermudas. Mr. Laffan is head-master of King Edward VI. School at
Stratford-on-Avon, the school at which Shakespeare received his early
education. He is a refined scholar, a most able preacher, and on his
staff are men of high university degrees and much culture, so that, as
Mrs. Laffan, the author's lines are still cast among intellectual
surroundings.
She has thrown herself into the interests of school-life as earnestly as
she did into that of a regiment, and of social life in London, and
amidst all the claims of her literary work contrives to find time to
give the most minute care to the health, comfort, and happiness of the
boys under her husband's roof. It is impossible to see her in their
midst, whether they be tall striplings preparing to become defenders of
their country or little fellows in sailor suits just introduced to the
surroundings of school, with its pleasures and its trials, without
recognising, as they cluster about her in their own sitting-rooms, or in
her drawing-room, that she has completely won their hearts and that her
influence among them is one of the factors in the rapidly increasing
success of the school. At the annual speech day, Mrs. Laffan personally
designs all the costumes of the play, Shakesperean or otherwise, and on
the last occasion of this kind wrote the play for the junior boys and
composed the music incidental to it.
One of the later novels by Mrs. Leith Adams (who prefers to retain her
former name in her literary capacity) is "Louis Draycott," in which the
reader will find many traces of the influence of school life, and the
study of the characteristics of boys. "No one but a woman could have
filled in these tiny canvases," remarked a critic; "nor are evidences
wanting of her being surrounded by the classic traditions of
Stratford-on-Avon. Thoroughly imbued with Shakespeare, she has
judiciously, to a certain extent allowed him to influence her diction,
but never obtrusively."
It is only natural that the author should miss in her country home the
literary, musical, and artistic society of London, where she has so many
friends, but she has made acquaintances too in Warwickshire, where she
has the privilege of meeting men and women eminent in the world of
letters. Stratford-on-Avon is of itself a shrine to which so many
distinguished pilgrims, especially Americans, are drawn, that charming,
unexpected meetings often take place and friendships are cemented when
she takes her many visitors to see the interesting places in the town.
"Bonnie Kate, A Story from a Woman's Point of View," was the writer's
next work. It had a successful career, and was followed by "A Garrison
Romance," wherein military reminiscences figure largely and many
characters are sketched from life. A story in the same line, entitled
"Colour-Sergeant No. 1 Company," is shortly to appear, also a novel in
three volumes called "The Peyton Romance." A late small volume, "The
Cruise of the Tomahawk," was written by Mrs. Leith Adams in
collaboration with her husband and a friend; the poems with which it is
interspersed and the small illustrations are from the pen of Mr. Laffan.
At the Church Congress held at Cardiff in 1889 she read a paper upon
"Fiction viewed in relation to Christianity," and she says that she has
some intention of giving a lecture during the present year on the
subject of "Literature as a Profession for Women."
As regards her mode of work, she remarks: "The plots which I find the
easiest to work out are those which have been thought over the longest:
the word 'long' here stands for a great deal. The plot and characters of
'Bonnie Kate' have been under consideration, and the subject of the
accumulation of constant notes for the last eight years, dating from a
visit to a Yorkshire farmstead for the express purpose of obtaining the
colouring and atmosphere necessary to the delineation of 'Low Cross
Farm.'"
Of Mrs. Leith Adams' minor works, it may be said that "My Land of
Beulah" has had a quite exceptional popularity, and "Cosmo Gordon," with
its delightful self-made man, Mr. Japp, has had its full share of
admirers. "Mathilde's Love Story," published two years ago in the spring
number of _All The Year Round_, is a memory of Guernsey, and "Georgie's
Wooer" is a reminiscence of life in the South of Ireland.
Mrs. Leith Adams is an ardent musician and accomplished pianist, and as
there are several good violinists among the masters and boys of
Shakespeare's School, concerted music is often the order of the day,
more especially at her Thursday afternoon "at homes."
There is a long gap between the publication of "Geoffrey Stirling" and
that of "Louis Draycott," but various causes combined to make this so.
Further very heavy bereavements, variable health, anxiety as to the
health of her son (Mr. Francis Lauderdale Adams, now well known as poet
and journalist in Australia), the necessity for his leaving England, the
same long anxiety with the same results in the case of her younger
son--a most promising boy, whose health broke down just when his
prospects seemed brightest: all these causes militated for some years
against continuous mental effort. The pen is now, however, once more
resumed, and no doubt a group of what may be called "later novels" will
be the result. In addition to the high value she places upon long
consideration of a projected novel, Mrs. Leith Adams holds that to write
well, you must read well. She is convinced that the style and tone of
what people read thoughtfully, sensibly affects their own diction. "I
am," she observes, "a devoted admirer of Mrs. Carlyle, and have read
again and again those thrilling letters in which all a woman's innermost
life and sorrows, and heart story are laid bare. I am of opinion that
had Jane Welsh Carlyle seen fit to make literature a profession, that
she would have taken rank second only to that apostle of female culture
and ambitions, George Eliot. Shakespeare, Browning, Tennyson, and all
biographies of great men, are the reading that I love best. Carlyle
himself only comes second to his wife in my estimation, and at the feet
of Charles Dickens I worshipped in my girlhood. (This influence is
distinctly traceable in much of her work.) Mrs. Gaskell, Miss Austen,
Charlotte Brontë's 'Jane Eyre,' and many of Miss Broughton's works,
George Meredith, Baring Gould, and, above all, George Eliot--these among
English fiction are my favourites, whilst in French, Dumas' _Chevalier
de la Maison Rouge_, and many of Octave Feuillet's are my companions. If
I like a book I read it again and again; if I like a play I go to see it
again and again. It is like learning to know more and more of one whom
you love."
Like most writers, Mrs. Leith Adams has had some strange and funny
experiences in letters from people unknown and never to be known, and in
the calm impertinences--probably not intended--of people absolutely
ignorant of literary knowledge, as for instance when a peculiarly
_banale_ woman remarked to her, "I'm sure I could write novels quite as
well as you _if I were not so weak in the wrist_," which was assuredly
locating the mental faculties rather low down; and another, a perfect
stranger, who called upon her in London and said with startling candour,
"I want to make some money, I'm going to write a novel. _How do you
begin?_"
Later on, a visit to the schools is suggested, and, escorted by your
hosts, you make a tour round these interesting premises. The schools,
the chapel, and the vicarage house form three sides of a quaint
old-world quadrangle, in which it is easy to forget for a moment the
nineteenth century, and to dream oneself back into the middle ages. The
Guild Chapel, one of the most interesting buildings in Stratford, was
founded by the brethren of the Guild of the Holy Cross. The chancel
dates from the thirteenth century, but the nave is of more recent
construction. The next building bears an inscription, "King Edward VI.
School," though its real founder was Thomas Jolyffe, one of the priests
of the Guild, who built the Old Latin Schoolroom in 1482. The
unpretending exterior scarcely prepares you for the quaint beauty of the
interior. On entering you find yourself in a long panelled room, which
is the Old Guild Hall, where the Earl of Worcester's players gave their
representations in Shakespeare's day. On the same floor is a class room
called the Armoury with Jacobean panelling, and a fresco of the arms of
the Kings of England. A narrow staircase leads to a little room on the
left, where a few years ago several 16th century MSS. were discovered.
Then comes the Council Chamber with its splendid oak roof and Jacobean
table, and on the wall there are two curious frescoes of roses painted
in 1485 to commemorate the termination for ever of the terrible wars of
the Roses. Next to it is the Mathematical Room, but it is on leaving
that, and entering the Old Latin Room, that you feel impressed with the
great antiquity and beauty of the building. The roof is one of the
finest specimens of the open roof in the country. It was in this and the
adjoining room that the poet received his education, and from it the
desk which tradition assigns to him was taken. It now stands in the
museum at the birthplace, which place you are duly taken to visit and
also the Church of Holy Trinity, where at the entrance to the altar, on
a slab covering the ashes of the poet, is an inscription written by
himself, together with his bust painted into a strict likeness, even to
the complexion, the colour of the hair and eyes, and you leave all these
interesting relics with a strong conviction that no better cicerone
could be found than Mr. and Mrs. Laffan to do the honours of the ancient
and historic buildings of Shakespeare's School and the "sacred places of
Stratford-on-Avon"--
"Where sleep the illustrious dead, where lies the dust
Of him whose fame immortal liveth still
And will live evermore."
[Illustration: Jean Ingleow]
JEAN INGELOW.
"Talent does what it may; Genius, what it must." To no one could the
definition apply more appropriately than to the well-known and gifted
poetess, Jean Ingelow. She came into the world full-blown; she was a
poet in mind from infancy; she was born just as she is now, without
improvement, without deterioration. From her babyhood, when she could
but just lisp her childish hymns, she was always distressed if the rhyme
were not perfect, and as she was too young to substitute another word
with the same meaning, she used simply to make a word which was an echo
of the first, quite oblivious of the meaning. Every trifling incident, a
ray of sunlight, a flower, a singing bird, a lovely view--all inspired
her with a theme for expression, and she had a joy in so expressing
herself.
Jean Ingelow was born near Boston, Lincolnshire. She was one of a large
family of brothers and sisters; she was never sent to school, and was
brought up entirely at home, partly by teachers of whom she regrets to
say she was too much inclined to make game, but more by her mother, who,
being a very clever woman of a poetical turn of mind, mainly educated
her numerous family herself. Her father was a banker at Suffolk, a man
of great culture and ability. "It was a happy, bright, joyous
childhood," says Miss Ingelow; "there was an originality about us, some
of my brothers and sisters were remarkably clever, but all were droll,
full of mirth, and could caricature well. We each had a most keen sense
of the ridiculous. Two of the boys used to go to a clergyman near for
instruction, where there was a small printing machine. We got up a
little periodical of our own and used all to write in it, my brothers'
schoolfellows setting up the type. It was but the other day one of these
old schoolfellows dined with us, and reminded me that he had put my
first poems into type."
Many of these verses are still in existence, but the girl-poet had yet
another place, and an entirely original one, where in secret she gave
expression to her muse. In a large upper room where she slept, the
windows were furnished with old-fashioned folding shutters, the backs of
which were neatly "flatted," and formed an excellent substitute for
slate or paper. "They were so convenient," she remarks, smiling. "I used
to amuse myself much in this way. I opened the shutters and wrote verses
and songs on them, and then folded them in. No one ever saw them until
one day when my mother came in and found them, to her great surprise."
Many of these songs, too, were transmitted to paper and were preserved.
Whilst on a visit to some friends in Essex, Jean Ingelow and some young
companions wrote a number of short stories and sent them for fun to a
periodical called _The Youth's Magazine_. She signed her contributions
"Orris," and was delighted when she received an intimation that they
were accepted and that the editor "would be glad to get more of them."
Meantime, she went on accumulating a goodly store of poems, songs, and
verses; many were burnt and others directly they were written were
carefully hidden away in old manuscript books, but the day was fast
approaching when they were to see the light. In the affectionate give
and take of a witty, united, and cultured family, her brothers and
sisters used to laugh merrily at her efforts and often parodied
good-naturedly her poems, though secretly they were proud of them. The
method of bringing out this book, which was her first great success and
was destined shortly to become so famous, was very curious. A brother
wishing to give her pleasure offered to contribute to have her MSS.
printed. This was done, and the next move was to take them to a
publisher, Mr. Longman. "My mother and I went together," says Miss
Ingelow; "she consented to allow my name to appear; we were all rather
flustered and excited over it, it seemed altogether so ridiculous." Very
far from "ridiculous," however, was the result. Mr. Longman at first
looked doubtful, but soon recognising the merits of the work, took up
the matter warmly, with the excellent effect that in the first year four
editions of a thousand copies each were sold and the young poet's fame
was secured. The book bore the simple and unpretending title, "Poems, by
Jean Ingelow."
"It was a long time before I could make up my mind if I liked it or
not," says the author. "I could not help writing, it is true, but it
seemed to make me unlike other people; being one of so many and being
supposed to be sensible, and to behave on the whole like other people,
and trying to do so, and delighting in the companionship of my own
family more than in any other, I am not at all sure that I was pleased
when I was suddenly called a poet, because that is a circumstance more
than most others which sets one apart, but they were all so joyous and
made much fun over it."
This first volume of poems has been re-published and yet again and
again, until up to the present time it has reached its twenty-sixth
edition, in different forms and sizes. One of these was brought out as
an _édition de luxe_, and is profusely illustrated. Jean Ingelow's
poetry is too well known and widely read to need much comment. In this
remarkable volume, probably the most quoted and best recollected verses
are to be found under the title of "Divided," "Song of Seven," "Supper
at the Mill," "Looking over a Gate at a Mill," "The Wedding Song,"
"Honours," "The High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire," "Brothers and a
Sermon," "Requiescat in Pace," "The Star's Monument," yet when this is
said, you turn to another and yet another, and would fain name the last
read the best. Where all are sweet, sound, and healthy; where all are
full of feeling, bright with suggestions, and thoroughly understandable,
how hard it is to choose! And who has not read and heard over and over
again that exquisite song which has been set to music no less than
thirteen times, "When sparrows build"? Also, "Sailing Beyond Seas,"
with the beauteous refrain:--
O fair dove! O fond dove!
And dove with the white breast,
Let me alone, the dream is my own,
And my heart is full of rest.
To the most superficial reader the tender and real humanity of these
entirely original poems is evident, while to the student who goes
further into the fascinating work, deeper treasures are discovered; you
realise more and more her own personality, her own distinctive style,
and get many a glimpse of the pure heart and lofty aspiration of the
gifted singer.
But to return to the original issue of this first published book. In
consequence of its success, Mr. Strahan made an immediate application
for any other work by the same pen; accordingly Jean Ingelow's early
short tales, signed "Orris," were collected and published under the
title of "Stories told to a Child." This, too, went through many
editions, one of which was illustrated by Millais and other eminent
artists. A further request for longer stories resulted in the production
of a volume called, "Studies for Stories."
These delightful sketches, professedly written for young girls, soon
attracted children of much older growth. While simple in construction
and devoid of plot, they are full of wit and humour, of gentle satire
and fidelity to nature. They are prose poems, written in faultless style
and are truthful word-paintings of real everyday life.
Jean Ingelow has ever been a voluminous writer, but only an odd volume
or so of her own works is to be found in her house. She "gives them
away, indeed, scarcely knows what becomes of them," she says. Among many
other of her books is one called "A Story of Doom, and other Poems,"
which has likewise passed into many editions. Here stand out
pre-eminently "The Dreams that come true," "Songs on the Voices of
Birds," "Songs of the Night Watches," "Gladys and her Island," ("An
Imperfect Fable with a Doubtful Moral,") "Lawrance," and "Contrasted
Songs." "A Story of Doom" may be called an epic. It deals with the
closing days of the antediluvian world, while its chief figures are
Noah, Japhet, Amarant the slave, the impious giants, and the arch-fiend.
Her portraiture of these persons, natural and supernatural, is very
powerful and impressive. "Lawrance" is unquestionably an idyll worthy to
be ranked with "Enoch Arden." Told, at once, with much dramatic power
and touching simplicity, there is a fresh, pure atmosphere about it
which makes it intensely natural and sympathetic. One of the poems in a
third volume, republished four or five years ago, is called "Echo and
the Ferry," which is a great favourite and is constantly chosen for
recitation. In the "Song for the Night of Christ's Resurrection,"
breathes the deeply devotional and sincerely religious spirit of the
author who was brought up by strictly evangelical parents, yet is there
no trace of narrowness or bigotry in Jean Ingelow or her writings. She
is large-hearted, single-minded, and tolerant in all matters.
"It may seem strange to say so," observes your gentle hostess, whilst a
smile illuminates the speaking countenance; "but I have never been
inside a theatre in my life. I always say on such occasions, that
although our parents never took us, and I never go myself out of habit
and affectionate respect for their memory, I do not wish to give an
opinion or to say that others are wrong to go. We must each act
according to our own convictions, and must ever use all tolerance
towards those who differ from us. We had many pleasures and advantages.
There was no dulness or gloom about our home, and everything seemed to
give occasion for mirth. We had many trips abroad too, indeed, we spent
most winters on the Continent. I made an excursion with a brother who
was an ecclesiastical architect, and in this way I visited every
cathedral in France. Heidelberg is very picturesque, and suggested many
poetical ideas, but all travelling enlarges one's mind and is an
education."
One event which caused the keenest amusement to these happy young
people, all blessed with excellent spirits, sparkling wit, and general
enjoyment of everything, occurred when a pretty, kindly, appreciative
notice appeared in some paper of a person called by her name. There was
hardly a single item in it that was really true, even to the description
of her birthplace, which was described vaguely as being stationed on the
sea-beach and flanked by two lighthouses, "between which the lonely
child might have been seen to wander for hours together nursing her
poetic dreams, dragging the long trails of seaweed after her, and
listening to the voice of the waves." This supposititious little
biography was productive of the greatest merriment to her brothers and
sisters. The first impulse was to answer it, to disclaim the solitary
wanderings and poetic dreams, and to describe the place correctly; but
although urged by friends to do this, Jean Ingelow on reflection decided
to let it pass, and in the end the laughter died out. "To a poetic
nature," she remarks, "expression is a necessity, but once expressed,
the thought and feeling that inspired it may often be forgotten. I am
sure that I could not repeat one of my own poems from beginning to end
just as I wrote it. I have a distinct theory too, that one is not
taught, one is born to it. I was never able to make a great effort in my
life, but what I can do at all, I can do at once, and having thought a
good deal on any subject I know very little more than I did at first.
Things come to me without striving, besides I am quite unromantic. I
never wrote in a hurry. We might all be laughing and talking together,
yet if I went up to my room and sat alone, I could at once write in a
most sad and melancholy strain. I was not studious as a child, though I
remember a great epoch in my life was reading 'The Pilgrim's Progress,'
when I was seven years old, and I was perfectly well able to perceive
the deep imaginative powers of it, but I always wanted to study what was
not in books."
But if Jean Ingelow's books are sold by thousands in England, they are
sold by tens of thousands in America. Her publishers there for many
years used to send her a handsome royalty on their sales; some years
ago, however, five other American publishers brought out her poetical
works simultaneously, since which time she has received nothing! She is
probably the first woman-poet who has met with not only world-wide
popularity, but who might if it had been needful, have lived very well
by the proceeds of her verse alone. A few years ago Messrs. Longman
brought out, by request, a new edition of her books. Altogether, she
declares herself to "have been a very fortunate woman, and almost always
happy in her publishers, too."
In later years Jean Ingelow has written many prose works of fiction,
notably "Off the Skelligs," "Fated to be Free," "Don John," "Sarah de
Berenger," "Mopsa, the Fairy," "John Jerome," etc. "Off the Skelligs"
was the first novel by the author whose name had hitherto been almost
exclusively associated with verse, and it was received with more than
ordinary interest. The book teems with incident; the poetic vein may be
traced in the realistic pictures of child life, in the description of
the lovely scenery depicted in the yachting trip, and in the graphic and
stirring account of the burning ship and rescue of its passengers.
"Fated to be Free" is a sequel to the previous work. The book opens with
a powerful description of an old manor house and family over whose head
hangs the mysterious blight of some unknown misfortune, which is
cleverly indicated rather than described, and though tragical in the
main, the sorrow is not allowed to overshadow the story too heavily, for
here and there humour and wit sparkle out, while the whole betrays the
writer's deep intuitive knowledge of human hearts and human lives.
"Mopsa, the Fairy" has been called "A poem in prose, for the use of
children," and a better name for it could not be found. It is, as the
title implies, a tale of fairyland in its brightest aspect, and is told
with the purity of conception and the excellence of execution which
characterise the gifted author's writings.
A few words must be said in description of the pretty house in
Kensington where Miss Ingelow lives with her brother, and into which,
some thirteen years ago, they removed from Upper Kensington to be
further out and away from so much building. Since this removal she says,
"three cities have sprung up around them!" The handsome square detached
house stands back in a fine, broad road, with carriage drive and garden
in front filled with shrubs, and half a dozen chestnut and almond trees,
which in this bright spring weather are bursting out into leaf and
flower. Broad stone steps lead up to the hall door, which is in the
middle of the house. The entrance hall--where hangs a portrait of the
author's maternal great-grandfather, the Primus of Scotland, _i.e._,
Bishop of Aberdeen--opens into a spacious, old-fashioned drawing-room of
Italian style on the right. Large and lofty is this bright, cheerful
room. A harp, on which Miss Ingelow and her mother before her played
right well, stands in one corner. There is a grand pianoforte opposite,
for she was a good musician, and had a remarkably fine voice in earlier
years. On the round table in the deep bay windows in front are many
books, various specimens of Tangiers pottery, and some tall plants of
arum lilies in flower. The great glass doors draped with curtains at the
further end, open into a large conservatory where Miss Ingelow often
sits in summer. It is laid down with matting and rugs, and standing here
and there are flowering plants and two fine araucarias. The verandah
steps on the left lead into a large and well-kept garden with bright
green lawn, at the end of which through the trees may be discerned a
large stretch of green-houses, and a view beyond of the great trees in
the grounds of Holland Park. On the corresponding side of the house at
the back is the billiard-room, which is Mr. Ingelow's study, leading
into an ante-room, and in the front is the dining-room, where the
author's literary labours are carried on. "I write in a commonplace,
prosaic manner," she says; "I am afraid I am rather idle, for I only
work during two or three of the morning hours, with my papers spread all
about the table." Over the fireplace hangs a painting on ivory of her
father, and above it a portrait of her mother, taken in her early
married life. This portrait, together with one of the poet herself when
an infant, is in pastels, and they were originally done as door panels
for her father's room; the colouring is yet unfaded.
The conversation turning upon memory--for Jean Ingelow holds pronounced
theories on this subject--she leads the way back to the conservatory and
points out the picture of her grandfather's house, called Ingelow House
after her, with which her very earliest recollections are associated,
and her memory dates back to when she was but seventeen months old! She
says that "friends smile at this and think that she is romancing, but if
people made attempts to recollect their very early days, certain visions
which have passed into the background for many years would rise again
with a distinctness which would make it impossible to mistake them for
inventions, and also make it certain that the records of this life are
not annihilated, but only covered." She took some trouble to collect
facts as to "first recollections" of many people, and found that two at
least could remember events which were proved to have happened at the
age of eighteen and twenty-two months respectively. In further support
of this theory she relates an amusing and curious incident of dormant
memory in early childhood which actually happened in her own family.
Miss Ingelow's mother went on a visit to her own father, who lived in
London, accompanied by her infant son aged eleven months and his nurse.
One day the nurse brought the baby into his mother's room and put him on
the floor, which was carpeted all over, where he crept about and amused
himself whilst she dressed her mistress. When the toilet was completed,
a certain ring which Mrs. Ingelow generally wore was missing. Search was
made but it was never found and shortly after the visit ended, and the
matter was almost forgotten. Mother and child again went on the same
visit exactly a year later, accompanied by the same nurse, who took the
boy into the same room. His mother saw him look around him, and
deliberately walk up to one corner, turn back a bit of the carpet and
produce the ring. He never gave any account of it nor did he seem to
remember it later; he had probably found it on the floor and hidden it
for safety--it could hardly have been for mischief--and had forgotten
all about it until he saw the place again, as he was too young when the
ring was missed to understand what the talk and search about it meant.
"He was by no means a precocious child," adds Miss Ingelow, "nor did he
show later any remarkable qualities in his powers of learning or
remembering lessons."
She lost her mother thirteen years ago, and her father passed away
before the publication of her first book of poetry--the book of which he
would have been so proud. "It was a joy to me," says the poetess, "when
I found that people began to read my verses, and I can never forget too
my pleasure when first introduced to Mr. Ruskin and he asked my mother
and me to luncheon at his house. Of course, I was far too modest to be
willing to talk to him, especially in my mother's presence; but after
luncheon I got away from them, leaving them in high discourse, and
surreptitiously stole down to look at a bush of roses which were very
much to my mind. Mr. Ruskin presently came up to me, and entered into a
charming conversation. He gathered some of the flowers and gave them to
me--I kept them for a long time--then we walked round a meadow close at
hand which was just fit for the scythe, and afterwards he took me to see
a number of the curiosities that he had collected. We soon became loving
friends and his friendship has been one of the great pleasures of my
life. Sir Arthur Helps, too, was for many years a dear friend."
Miss Ingelow is, as may be supposed, a great reader, though she
observes, "that few people take as long a time in reading a book as she
does." Her preference is for works of a religious tone, chiefly those of
eminent divines. "I do not want to use the word 'fastidious,'" she
adds, "but perhaps I am more _bornée_ than most people in my taste in
literature. Even some of Sir Walter Scott's and many of Thackeray's
novels I cannot read, but I am fond of 'Vanity Fair,' and Dickens, and
delight in several of Shakespeare's masterpieces, reading them over and
over again."
She is "resting" for a while now. The poetic vein, she says, is not
strongly upon her for the moment, but it invariably returns. Meantime it
is to be hoped that the day may not be far distant when the public will
rejoice to welcome yet more sweet strains from the pen of the great and
gifted poet.
* * * * *
The pleasant task of writing these simple biographical sketches of
writers of the day is at an end. With those who were previously friends
the friendship has been deepened, the few who were as yet strangers have
become friends. In thankfully acknowledging the great kindness and
cordiality shown by all, it must be added, that in future days no
remembrances can be happier than the delightful hours spent with the
"Notable Women Authors."
For a few brief mentions of historical facts in one or two of
these sketches the writer is indebted to "Lewis' Topographical
Dictionary."
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