THE MANNERS of MY TIME When the Castle and the Cathedral Were Built

T HE M A NNE RS OF M Y TIM E

\ 8K c ; HA W K INS DE M PS TER

“ A UTHOR OF T HE M ARITI M E ALPS AND THE I R

’ S E ABOA anf E Tc .

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LONDON GR NT RI CHA RD S L TD A .

’ S T M A RTI N S STR E ET

M DCCCCXX PRI NT E D IN GRE A T B R IT A IN I V T H. RIVE RS IDE PR E SS L IMIT E D

E D IN B URG H DEDI CAT ED

MY S IS T E R HE LE N

I d o not know how old Ulysses may have been “ wh e n he boaste d that h e had se e n the m ann ers ” s ha h s t a of his tim e . I s u pect t t t i s ﬁr of gre t t a e e s st ha e b ee e an that he h ad r v ll r mu v n ld erly, d “ a s s ffe e a sea- ch an e as ch as he was l o u r d g , in mu

on h e at as t ec s e b his d o . only, turn ing om l , r ogni d y g am se e t - e h ea s a e and th s I v n y ig t y r of g , in i t h e can la c a t o ha see wilig t of lif I y l im ving n , in ffe e at t u es a a a t th e a e s di r nt l i d , f ir moun of m nn r , and th e a t of a e s m t e . of w n m nn r , of y im I n th s b ha e t e e a S a t o a i ook I v ri d , lik undi l , m rk the b ht h s h ch tha God th e e only rig our , of w i , nk , r has be a e cat e t d a to m e n no l ck . I d di it o y y s s e H e e beca se s he it was wh o sha e th e i t r l n , u r d s t m e e e ces an d b cau se s he t her mo of y xp ri n , e , ill own hea th a e h e m t a th e b e l f il d , elp d e o be r urd n of s c ness i k . I fe e l that my we ight of ye ars mu st re nd er thi s b e t th s ss tha h to be . e e ook l vivid n it oug t I r gr i , bu t s ch as the b is de cate it t o her and u ook , I di , t o th e a e s e t e an s e a e m ny fri nd , g n l d im pl , liv and ea who ha e he ed a se a se d d , v lp , dvi d , mu d or c s e on ol d .

THE AUTHOR .

24 PORTMAN S Q UARE ,

1 9 1 2 .

EDITOR’ S PREFA CE

M iss C . L . H . Dempster died at Cannes on the 8 1 1 bu t w a r th of May 9 3 , owing to the European it has only now become possible to publish Tfi e “ M an ners of my Time. The Sister H elen to whom the volume is dedicated having died in 1 1 9 7 , the task of editing it has fallen to me , the ’ s s authores goddaughter . ’ T o all lovers of the Riviera M i s s Dempster s o Tﬁe M a ritime A l s a nd Meir S eaboa rd is b ok , p , well known . ‘ ’ s Tli e H oiel a u Pet it O f her earlier writing , S t ean Vera [sea /ie B lu e Roses j , , and were popular

- f Vera o . with the novel readers her day , a story w a r o of the Crimean , was translated int Russian , and B lu e R oses was to be found on almos t every booksta ll in America . 1 8 1 e oined o I n 9 M iss D mpsterj the R man Church , and it was the wish of her s i s ter that the proceeds of this volume should be devoted to the Chapel of s e St Charle des Carri res , a little church between Cannes and Le Cannet which M iss Demps ter helped to build for the quarrymen living in that d neighbourhoo .

A LICE K N OX.

2 CADOGAN G R S L . 3 A DEN , ONDON 1 1 9 9 .

CONT EN T S

CHAPT E R PAGE W G I G I . A PENNILESS LASS ITH A LON PED REE

W II . ST ANDRE S

I G D G B III . OUR POOR H HLAN NEI H OURS

V D I . CASTLE LEO V . SOME SCOTCH COUNTRY HOUSES .

V G P I I . A LIM SE OF PAR S UNDE R THE SECOND EM PI RE

- V . T I 1 86 1 86 . II LE TERS FROM N CE , 4 5

T 1 86 6 - 1 86 V III . I ALY IN 7 LETTERS FROM CANNES X . PALMY DAYS OF CANNES

C S 1 88 . D T OF T D K LB ANNE , 4 EA H HE U E A ANY FRENCH COUNTRY HOUSE S I A FLECHERE S . LE C H TEAU DE

X F C III . REN H COUNTRY HOUS ES

2 . THE CASTLE O F ABONDANT XIV L TT RS FR M P RI S CA S . E E O A AND NNE

XV. L POL PRI C F H Z LL R I EO D , N E O OHEN O E N ( )

XV P Z I . L L PRI C F H LL R z EO O D, N E O OHEN O E N ( )

’ V XV II . L EN OY

C H APT E R I

A PENNI LESS LASS W ITH A LONG PEDI GRE E

I t is to Scot land that one naturally turns to ﬁnd c c s a w su h a person , and I a cordingly the light in

Dunnichen H ouse , in the county of Forfar, on l o t h 1 8 Sunday morning , April 3 5 . My father ,

J ames Whitshed H awkins , lived on the family his M rs estates as administrator for mother , H elen a H wkins Dempster , who had fallen into second c o who hildho d , and could not enjoy what had descended to her from her mother , Mrs Burrington , s niece and heires in entail of the last laird , George

Dempster of Dunnichen . w as o I the fourth child of my mother, Charl tte o Dempster of Skibo , daughter of William J hn — c Soper Dempster , and of his wife Harriet , only hild and heiress of J ohn H amilton Dempster , half o br ther to the aforesaid laird of Dunnichen . My s parents were therefore more or les cousins . T o o explain why, th ugh we were born at l Dunnichen , and though my on y brother succeeded to his grandmother, H elen, at her death , we all happened to be brought up in Sutherland it will be s s neces ary to go into some bits of family hi tory . I t “ s is , as Emerson ays , the Past that has baked our ” o l af, yet I will try to make that past as clear and s as little tiresome as po sible . The family of Dempster has always belonged to o - the n rth east province of Scotland , and I do not know how it may have been called before it obtained , o o c or to k the name of an fﬁ e , the Deemster , the

I ! 1 2 TH E MANNERS OF MY TIME offi cer who proclaimed the decrees of the Parliament s and Court of J ustice . The first t ime that we hear 1 200 this word as a surname is in , when the King s K no ckle ith gave to Sir J . Demp ter the lands of s s and of Auchterles in Forfar hire . The family when settled by the King under the Grampians seems to have wearied of a position that offered no outlet either for their energies or their descendants . They migrated always nearer to the s e a Ca rrols t o n M inre s k , to and , to Brechin , and Re s t e nne t h finally to Dundee , Dunnichen and , at nearing the German Ocean Dundee , Arbroath and at Lundy Bay . There are extant wills and 1 2 00 t charters dating back to , but no interes attaches to any of the pers o ns named in them until we come M inre s k to Thomas Dempster of , the historian of u E tr ria . H e was a contemporary of the Admirable o Crichton , and was one of those profess rs who with a horse and saddlebag wandered from one university

town to the other . H e was consequently better

known abroad than at home . Long resident in

I taly , he was the hero of many adventures , not s s alway to his credit , and died a profes or at Bologna , where I have seen his arms in the hall of the old of U niversity , and his tomb in the Church the

Dominicans . I will not here do more than refer to the man s o “ ” familiarly and S O tenderly known as the Old Laird — s 1 6 8 George Demp ter of Dunnichen , born in 7 whose plans and activities for the betterment Of his tenants and property were S O far ahead of his

times .

' At his death the entailed estat e of Dunnichen s his s M rs I as ed , as I have said , to eldest ister , Eu r n n ri g t o . H er daughter H elen married J udge

Hawkins in I ndia , and the eldest of their three sons A PENNILE SS LASS 1 3

was s . my father, James Whitshed Hawkin I must f now turn to the branch o Dempster of Skibo . Captain J ohn Hamilton Dempster was a half brother of the old laird of Dunnichen , and he commanded in the H . E . I . Service , ﬁrst the R E l t I ndiaman os e and then the arl Ta bo . H e married J ean Fergusson of Kilkerran , and had a 5 011 o Ge rge , who , had he lived , would have inherited

Dunnichen , but he died young , and his death opened the way for M rs Burrington and her family . J ohn Hamilton Demps ter had to make an heiress of his illegitimate daughter , H arriet M ilton , who , to judge Plu ne r from her miniature by , must have been a very pretty girl . H er mother had been Olivia Marianne s Devenish of Castle Dana , Co . Ro common , a young lady whose extraction was partly I ris h and s s s partly Circa sian , and who e beauty finally ecured 8 1 0 ff s . for her, in 3 , a union with M r Stamford Ra le o They were married in S t Maryleb ne Church , and s as sailed almo t immediately for Singapore , M r Raffles had just been named first Governor of is s the Straits Settlement . Lord M into in h letter Speaks highly of the merits and p opularity of both ff husband and wife , and when Olivia Ra les died She

was buried under a marble temple at Singapore . is Her grave next to that of J ohn Legden , the poet

friend of Sir Walter Scott , the man to whom he M armion dedicated the second canto of , and of “ whom he s ays t hat a distant and a deadly Shore ’ ” holds Leg de n s cold remains . C H APT E R 11

ST ANDREWS

Thos e who now visit St Andrews g o t here to play golf and to s e e the crowds of people at its west i end . The east end , that of ru ns and crumbling s s lea rn in walls , with the place of hi tory of and of is prayers , not so much cared for , but t e links are gay with week - enders from Edinburgh or from

Dundee , whose carnival time is , of course , the week of the Golf Club Ball . When my mother and her family 1 came from Skibo to live in s t Old St Andrew , tha grey city by the sea wore a very different as pect from its present one . M r Soper - o o Dempster had a tall , grim lo king h use , near the tt e town church and the theatre , a much less a ractiv one t w dwelling than the in South Stree , here

‘ - our grand uncle had spent his declining years . t o of o n Green ﬁelds then came up the gates the t w , and the cows were solemnly walked in and ou t of those portals once a day . O n t wo Sides stretched c t o o - w the German O ean , while far the n rth est , was beyond the estuary of the Eden , the blue horizon made by the hills in Strathm ore . Com mu nicat ion with ot her towns was by mail coach c only, and the life of the ity hinged entirely on its university, while the few Streets gained a wel come bit of colour from the red robes of the students . oarritc/i Public feeling there , like the (Catechism) of k the children , and li e the Confession of Faith of its co was divinity llege , essentially Protestant and

e e at e e a tte He e and er G org , K h rin , Ch rlo , l n G trude . I 4 ST ANDRE W S 1 5

1 8 8 w e Presbyterian , but by 4 , when went to live t wo kirk there , rifts had come in the body of the , i s the church by law e s tablis hed used to be called . The upper clas s e s had begun to marry E ngli s h ladies , and those ladies preferred the services of s c s an Epi copal hapel , while the great Di ruption had caused an amount of excitement and of com

- petition , to which old fashioned Moderatism had long been unaccustomed . Great sacriﬁces were being made by the Free Church party to provide s s churche , manses , school and even colleges for it s votaries ; many eloquent and earnest men came to the front , and progress was in the air , both from the doctrinal and from the intellectual point of view . t o s o I ought add al o from the political standp int , for the Free Church w as the church of a democracy which if it had not yet di s closed its power w as was feeling after it, and hopeful that along this path of di s s ent it might make up with the kirk that had for so long trodden the broad and easy roads of E rastianism and of privilege . Yet in S t Andrews there was ever an element that contrast ed strangely both with t he Moderates and with this arrogant and vigorous movement of dissent . I t was true that on a green hill just outside the city ’ s wall ’ there stood an unsight ly obelisk called the M arty rs M onu ent m , raised to the memory of those leaders of the sixteenth - century Reformation who had witnessed and perished for the sake of their faith . But older than the stones of its ﬁrs t Culdee votaries can s o is the faith that boast of continuity , and s s he S t Andrew bore , and still bears , the indelible marks of a Catholic university 1 and of an Episcopal ’ see . First you see St Regulus s Tower, tall and - wa Slender, a sea mark for miles , which s old already

1 F e 1 1 2 ound d 4 . 1 6 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME when the castle and the cathedral were built . There too s tands the exqui s ite fragment of the ’ s a Grey Friars Church , to y nothing of the College a s Church , with its architecture as beautiful that

s s . of Roslin . The univer ity consists of three college I n the South Street you have the Divinity College - s of St Mary , and in the north ea t angle of the town you ﬁnd the united college s of St Leonard and A S St Salvator. a child of twelve I wondered who s W h Of tho e saints might be , and y , after hundreds s year , their names Should be had in remembrance , s ince in the Catechi s m and in the Gospel Scheme a s they were taught to u s there w as no room s for them , no acknowledged communion of saint , s and no explanation of how , or why , St Regulu , St Leonard and St Salvator had ri s en to public s s s e teem . Their college ﬂouri hed , though life at them might have compared unfavourably with that s of Cambridge , to which univer ity my uncle , George

Dempster , went up when he left Scotland . At college in St Andrew s he had had as friends A rnis t on l Mr Robert Adam Dundas of , my father , his s who was cou in , and at that time pres umptive heir to Dunnichen ; Mr Archibald M cNe il] of

, his s s Colonsay with two more distingui hed brother , afterwards known as the Right H onourable Sir M c Ne ill s J ohn , and the J udge , Lord Colon ay . s s was Profe or Ferrier there , while M r J ulian Young

. D . . s s and Rev J ohn Cook , D , were al o tudents of

. e that date Lif was Simple , and not twenty yard s ﬁs h e rfolk s e a from the colleges the went out to , or

mended their nets at the end of the Market Street . a N ewspapers were few , arch eology was little cared “ ” , wa s v for and though the gouff lo ed , sp ort had

1 One his a e st s S a es as A s t of nc or , ir J m Dund of rni on , m atriculated as a s t e t at S t A e s 1 8 ud n ndr w m 5 5 . ST ANDREW S 1 7 not become the univers al cu lt that it is in what is ’ now the golfer s Mecca . When we children were taken from S kibo to 8 w a s s 1 . St Andrew , i n 45 , it for education We s had ma ters , and George became a day scholar at ’ s it s Bell College . We liked the place , with long s s s s smooth link , and ruin , and mile of ands , and s w e we loved the companion , whom never could have had at Skibo . There were the children of who c Sir Ralph and Lady Anstruther, ame in from B al a c s kie . Bob was my senior, but Lucy and

Harry were of my own age , and masterful half w e s I rish children as we all were , enjoyed ﬁght and fun , and I liked it , even when I got hit with s s their golf clubs . Foemen les worthy of my teel were the s mall children that we knew : the l ittle M iss S a ddae l Campbell of , and the smaller Macgregor i s (a grandchild of K s me , a pretty mite who s with blue eyes , afterward became Countess Of s s w as Man ﬁeld , and Who e father the chief of the once formidable Clan Macgregor. There was an Giblist o n ugly boy at , whom I got to know in later

’ life as Canon Moncrieff Smythe , while at the other end of B ell Street Lord J e rvis w o od had a house for his family H is gifted daughter Rachael and I were much attached to each other ; I did not know then how early I wa s to lose her ! A long s drive from St Andrew , at Largo H ouse , I had my s favourite cou in and playmate , Annie Dundas . s She lived there , the poilt darling of her mother , M rs Lillia s - Dundas Calderwood Durham , the widow ’ s of Aunt Dempster eldest brother, the late amiable s s s Robert Dundas of Arni ton . Thi distingui hed lairdess old Scottish lived in what her uncle ,

Admiral Sir Philip Durham , would have called “ “ s her very good tyle on own estate at Largo , B 1 8 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

s s with a beautiful garden , with old ervant , and in a house full of picture s that greatly pleased me .

I always felt well there , and Aunt Durham , who s s w as indulgent , u ed to let us act charade in the

- back drawing room . I n my childi s h recollections of St Andrews four is ﬁgure s stand out very di s tinctly . The ﬁrst that

D . D . of the Rev . Robert H aldane , H e had been my ’ uncle s tutor, and had later performed the ceremony of his marriage to M i s s J oanne H amilton Dundas

s 1 82 . of Arni ton , in May, 7 Principal of the College w as of St Mary, and Professor of Divinity there , he s - - now a hale , ro y faced and Silver haired old man of

s . more than eighty year of age Bent almost double , as s s of his he w none the les a diligent vi itor poor , and I s eem still to hear the Shuffle of his black gaitered

feet as he went along the Market Street , which had

such a variety of ancient and ﬁshlike s mells . H e s Of s loved children , and made us present book , and as once , a great treat , we were allowed to dine with ’ him at one O clock . We admired the groined ceil s ing of his rooms , and if we trembled before his housekeeper w e had perfe ct conﬁdence in him ; we f picked lowers in his garden , and went for a long ” as walk with him along the Led Braes . H e was

good as gold , pious and Simple , yet shrewd and

- paternal , like a French rural dean . H is colleague ,

Dr Buist , was a great contrast , being a tall , stiff, Silent

man , who had clever sons in I ndia , and who was

counted sound both in theology and in politics . So v was told much , at twel e years old , I about Dr Buist what I knew was that we det ested the Sundays T s a when he ofﬁciated . o y that the reverend doctor (ironed would not be t o do anything like his justice to voice and his method . H ow we ﬁd eted o his g , Ge rge and I , under interminable

2 0 TH E MANNERS OF MY TIME

St Andrews we admired her courage , and felt that there was actually a taste of the “ outland ” about

, her . I loved her then , and I remember her now when from my windows I inspect the s hipp ing s in the port of Cannes . There ﬂy the ﬂag of all s s nation , and there are all kind of modern devices w - s s s hite winged yachts , dirty dredger , fu y motor s tirtanes boat , beautiful , and big , black , ugly , menac

- s s s e e ing torpedo de troyer , yet I would gladly again the gude Ship Hero preparing to round the

Eas t Neuk of Fife . But there was something in St Andrews that I ’ s s loved best of all . To my delicate i ter Gertrude s s t bed ide here often came a tall doctor , a very kind but a very ugly man , with a red face and coal - w a s o black , ill cut hair . Dr J ohn Reid Profess r of Anatomy in the united colleges of St Leonard and

St Salvator , and had a large practice in the city .

H e was as kind as he was clever . U nder his a care Gertrude learned to walk , While to me he p e a re d s p a magician , econd only to Aladdin , since he s s s nd pos e ed an electric battery a a microscope .

H e took a fancy to my fun , and to my love of u s e knowledge . H e taught me to the microscope , s o gave me lesson in botany , and t ok me out on the rocks at low water to look for the wonders of the beach . I was equipped for these expeditions s in an old frock , thick Shoes and a mall covered tin pail to hold my treasures . They consisted - s a s s e a of sea urchin , prickly as hedgehogs , of anemones , which he would detach from the rocks with a card , but not until I had seen them devour o s and swall w tiny crabs . There were al o coral s s s s o s lines , and ponge , and hell , b th bivalve and s u n univalve , and hermit crabs , that pinched their willing landlords ! no t to s peak of seaweeds of many ST ANDREWS 21 hues ; but what I liked best were the zoophytes , that looked like plants , but which were really living s w as s s s organi ms . My joy to po e s a bunch of the S ertu laria s graceful that were alive , and to keep s o them living in my choolro m , where I could watch s the pretty creature moving , blowing out like tiny s s blos oms , and feeding them elves under my eyes . s s I may mention that the feeling of our governe s , s s Mi s Fraser , were not lenient to the big jars of alt c c s water needed for my s ientiﬁ studie , nor indeed

- to any of my evil smelling treasures . Dr Reid taught me much that in later years w as r s s to save me f om ignorance , from un avoury curio ity and from the crude and s illy rationali s m that is apt to attack young people , generally in proportion to —I their ignorance got to think of order , as of ’ H eaven s ﬁrs t law ; of the upward progres s in life which I was afterwards to call evolution ; and to admire the s ilent obedien ce to law which is not c conﬁned to planets , and onstellations , but makes

the tree put on its leaves every spring , and seems to lend an intelligent dignity to the denizen s of the s b deep . The vast and varied re ources of nature e

came early familiar to the purity of a childish mind .

For example , in the matter of reproduction . I could s e e it taking place among my treasures now by s s buds , now by ﬁ ure , now by eggs , now by fecunda

bi- tion , now by the sexual method , and now by esi parthenog en s . I saw matter utilised over and s s over again , and I learned how the death of myriad of creature s rendered the s e a a richer pasture for s s the more highly organi ed form of life . Beginning

to learn I had to begin to think , and I thought s until thought pa sed at length into adoration . ’ s s s Dr Reid wife was a M i Blyth , and with them s I generally found M is Phoebe Blyth , a sister , well 22 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

c c of w known in the academi cir les Edinburgh , here s he was a pioneer in all social and economic move ments , and a friend to the higher education of women . They were uniformly kind to me , and ’ s s t o when , after two year ab ence , I returned St Andrews with my sisters and governess for some s a - s weeks of e bathing , I found the ame welcome in their house in Bell Street . But there was a Shadow on the hous e ; the s hadow feared by men ! The w as Doctor ill , and the Doctor , though still told to

. c hope , felt himself a doomed man An ul er on the s tongue had put on alarming proportions . The gland s of the neck were now engaged he lo t ﬂesh , and was forbidden to speak . But one day Mrs Reid came “ and s aid : The Doctor thinks that the tide will suit ’ k this evening after seven o cloc , and he would like to take you out with him on the rocks . Pray come not a but remember that you must m ke him Speak .

At seven I was with him , and we sallied forth . H e s helped me over the lippery rocks, and across the c salt pools in silen e , and when he picked up a s pecimen for me he would write its name on a s lip of paper before transferring it to my pail . We parted in Silence , and with a tightening at my girlish

- heart . My ﬁrst friend , Mr J ohn H ay Mackenzie c of Cromartie , had si kened and died at midsummer of thi s very year : would this friend also die ? Why ? did people die And what would beco me of Mrs ’ Reid and her little girl after the d octor s death ?

On the following Saturday Mrs Reid came again . S She looked very pale and grave, and he carried a ’ volume that I was familiar with . I t was ﬁ h ns t on s Histor o B ritish Zoo h tes y f p y , the book that her s c hu band used for his resear hes , and that had his o “ pencil n tes and Sketches on the margins . The c Do tor left for Edinburgh yesterday, and he desired ST ANDREW S 23 e k me to giv t his boo to you ; with his love . H e has written your name in it , and you are to keep ” it ; and then the poor woman broke down , and ’ sobbed out : H e is gone to Dr Simpson s 1 house in E dinburgh , for an operation that they think s a — necessary , and which they y will prolong life . The operation on the tongue w as performed suc ces s 2 Of fully by Dr Robert Ferguson London , and it s did prolong life for some month , but they were

- months of such anguish , and of semi Starvation , that

- all his friends , including his fair haired pupil of s fourteen summer , were thankful when , ceasing to s uffer here , Dr John Reid passed to the Land 3 where we Shall know . s St Andrews alway fascinated me , and after I was grown up I w a s delighted to go there once again with my uncle (who happened to be Captain

. s s of the Golf Club that year), for a ball I mi ed s many faces known to my childish day , but I found s s s s plenty of kind friend , e pecially the Er kine of

Cambo , and I enjoyed everything . There were t o s old haunts be visited , and Since tho e early days I O there had arisen ( speak it penly)a new pleasure , in my dress ! I remember wearing at that ball w hite tulle over green , with wreaths of maidenhair

S a s Y S s a t M . D etc the s e e th s on a ir J me oung imp on , B r , . , ., v n of s e e t s on w as at ate e e h is at e w as a b aker. He v n h , born in B hg , wh r f h r was s s e th e U e s t E and dis Profe or of Midwif ry in niv r i y of dinburgh , covere d an d popul ari s e d th e us e of chloroform . A di s t inguish e d a ae st an d - lorist h is s e was a e ez s th e s a s rch ologi folk , hou r nd vou for chol r t e s e e s He e E an d was e t o his of bo h h mi ph r . di d in dinburgh , follow d I never h ad a ett e grave by an imm ens e con cours e of p eopl e . b r e fri nd . 2 L d e a D r Rob ert Fergu s on marri e d Mi s s M ary M ac e o of D unv g n . 3 ’ I a e ea e t s ea t eat eas e t at D e s h v l rn d hi y r, wi h gr pl ur , h r John R id

e ect e a e e t o b e a e at e . r e search es , afte r lying long n gl d , h v com ppr ci d T h e p ap e rs that h e cont ribute d t o s ci ent ific journ al s h ave be e n col e is a e e t o a e ee th e lected and r epubli sh ed , and h cknowl dg d h v b n h e s o e and pion ee r in th e s pe ci al branch of r es e arch which lov d , for whi ch the se a pool s of S t Andrews g ave him s o fine a fi eld . F MY 24 THE MANNE RS O TIME

, ferns , and quantities of dewdrops and being there fore called Undine by some of my partners . On s s s the occasion of my la t vi it , when I went to tay with my Sister, Lady Metcalfe , I had become less s ! s pretty , and le s idle H ere are two letter de scriptive of the interest s and o ccupations of s ome 1 days spent in S t Andrews .

1 sth Aug ust 1 872 .

Y DE LE M AR U N C , To - morrow we are to lun ch With the

. publi sher, old Mr Blackwood H e rents Strath t ru m y , where you remember the lovely Raeburn t portrait of old M rs Che ap e . Plen y of white ” ’ pearline s s [lace] and Rae bu rn s art have made that Old lady immortally lovely ! wrinkles and all . The Dean and Lady Augusta Stanley are to

- s M rs arrive to night , and have got room over ’ Fletcher s library . There is sure to be a great s o crowd to hear him preach in the town church , I have written a note to Principal Tulloch 1 to ask for two places in the g allery for Sunday .

1 7th. ’ c t We dined at the Kinlo hs las night , where we had much music , and I can assure you that Kate , “ c s and Lu y , and Bob Anstruther did rou e the ” nigh t owls with a catch . The luncheon at Strath t yru m ended in my making a conques t of the good

- old red nosed John Blackwood , and he gave me a

1 Mi s s D emp st er corre s ponde d mos t regularly all h er life with Mr De r s ter S th e e h ad a te h is p of kibo , uncl who dop d orph an nieces an d n e )pl e w 3 . Th e Rev. D . D . D ea the T s t e wa s a John Tulloch , , n of hi l , Princip l ’ S t a s e e an d one th e s t s t e s a t es th of M ry Coll g , of mo riking p r on li i in e

S c t a . He w as e t ate t th e Sta e s b u t Church of o l nd v ry in im wi h nl y , th e eat e s h is e wa s M r gr fri nd hip of lif wit h s Oliph ant . W e we re all atta e to and he e t to e t much ch d him , w n Dunnich n o c e l ebrate my ’ s s te s a a e t o Sir T e s Met a e A s t 1 8 6 i r m rri g h ophilu John c lf , in ugu , 7 . ST ANDREWS 2 5 ’ c t M ontalembert opy of Mrs Oliphan s , just published by his house . After luncheon Kate and I s at in his s his s anctum , and turned over proof heets . M a You know that I am never likely to write for ag . as my pen is neither rollicking nor military ! Oddly ’ ’ eno at dinner at the Kinloch s I s at next Clark the printer (of E dinburgh). H e is now a rich man , who his rents B arnton , but he told me that youth had been nearly as hard a struggle as that of f Robert Chambers . H e is a nephew o Adam M P not Black , . but he did know , till I told him , ’ s c the story of his uncle audien e with Pius I I . The Speaker Denison loved to tell how Adam Black His accompanied him to wait on the Pope . ’ H olines s quite unders tood the Speaker s place in w a s s e a a s the world , but he at to the position of P c n r u M . o at the . for E dinburgh , and he actually g ’ lated Mr Clark s good uncle on being Speaker of the Scottish Parliament ! Adam Black w a s furious and when they got out of the pre s ence chamber “ ’ he said angrily to M r Denison N00 ! Caw y e that man infawlible ?

I t is a pity that you did not hear Dean Stanley w as u n preach , for he intensely happy in doing an in s conventional thing , preaching a Pre byterian she w a s s s he wa s pulpit , and very happy, becau e s among the Scotti h friends , and in her native 1 Fife .

1 a A sta St a e was a s s t e th e E a E L dy ugu nl y i r of rl of lgin , of Broom a e and h er t e was a s s O s a D unnikie r h ll , in Fif , mo h r Mi w ld of , in Fife . C H APT E R I I I

OUR POOR HIGHLAND NE IGH BOURS

Of county neighbours in S utherland w e had next Os idale to none , a large sheep farmer at p and some ofﬁcials in Dornoch making up the total of thos e that lived near to us . I n Dornoch there s - u who were two mini ters , the Sheriff Substit te , s inhabited the old palace of the Bi hops , the

- off Procurator Fi s cal and the banker . Much farther s OS S lived , when we were children , Dr J ame R , M . D s whom we di liked immensely , and beyond the

Mound , the Sellers and M r Gunn the Sutherland factor . Mrs Gunn , as a lineal descendant of Flora s was Macdonald , intere ted me , but , as she a big , S he was stout woman , I felt , at ten years old , that not worthy to descend from such a heroine ! Dornoch was not in our time a town with good a villas and a golf course . I t w s a most primitive s but place , where the house were generally of the ben w and the kind , and where the cows andered

- s s about the wide and wind swept treet . The

Cathedral towered above it all , and by day and by night you heard the booming of the waves on s s the Gis ing Brig , the long sandbank which all s I but clo es the estuary of the Dornoch Firth . t is true that cows were more plentiful in the town s - than pa sengers , yet some well known ﬁgures were — C to be met there Alexander the oppersmith , for one ; bent s o double was he that his broad bonnet w s nearly touched his thick ribbed stockings . H e a a cross - tempered man and a bitter Radical ; bu t 26

28 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

“ s was bu t Captain s courageou altruistic , J ohn Bethune of Spinningdale had a strictly pers onal interes t in re the retreat to Corunna . Bethune w a s known in the parish of Creich as the treas ure

s s s , s eeker , the eeker of a poil that had never exi ted and he did look rather sheepi s h when his two boot les s journeys to Corunna were alluded to . I will s s e e tell you his tory , and you will how, long after ’ the poor man s death , he was proved to have been no impostor , and no dreamer of dreams . one I t fell on this way . O n the last day but ’ of Sir John Moore s hurried march to the coas t s s his troop were terribly jaded , and mule for transport were s carce . Sir J ohn gave orders B da s a to have t he military chest thrown into the i s o . it s was s ad I t was nearly empty , and weight a addition to the encumbrances of an army which at any moment might see Soult arrive to attack their ’ s w as Off for rear . A corporal guard told the job , and of that guard J ohn Bethune was a unit . H is s tory ran that the chest was never flung over a little cliff into the river but was buried by the men ’ in charge at a s pot about fifty paces from the river s bank, where five low vineyard walls met . There s a w were no houses near , no Galegos the opera was tion , and J ohn Bethune believed that he now the only survivor of the burying party , since in the battle which took place at Corunna (when Sir John

Moore fell) the British loss had been immense , his s s and companion had nearly all peri hed . S o circumstantial was this H ighlander s tale about the retreat , about the battle and the final embark ’ ation (under Sir David Baird s command) that M r Dempst er made him repeat it to M r Archibald the Cockburn , a member of firm of Co ckburn of who was - w Oporto , a far a ay connect ion o f Lord OUR POOR H IGHLAND NEIGH B OURS 2 9 1 Melville and of Aunt Demp s ter . M r Cockburn s was much truck by the narrative , and he gave ’ Bethune a pas sage from Leith in one of the firm s s s t hip , with money to ake him , after landing at s Oporto , into Galicia , to search along the bank B idas so a s of the for the buried chest . This mu t 1 8 8 have happened about 3 . J ohn believed that was u n he found the exact Spot . E very feature was changed . The little cliff there to remind him of their disobedience to orders : there were the five vineyard wall s s o low and broad reflecting the heat s u n a s of the , and there ran the Shining river , just s he had run on those s ad January days of the a retreat , m king her way down to Corunna , to the s s e a s e t Ship and to the . H e to work . All Spaniard s love treasure - s eeking s o well that they believe in it more as a profess ion than as a pas s a s as time , and those Galego were fond of it any other normally minded Spaniards . They accord in l s s g y oon made work di agreeable for Bethune , s his s omethin a s for ju t as rod touched g that , it w as mi ht neither earth nor rock , g possibly have s been the che t , the attitude of the people turned s o s s from rude to menacing , that thi olitary treasure - seeker from Sutherland w as driven away by their threats . H e returned to Corunna and , via Leith , to Sutherland , where he had to put up with the jeers of his neighbours . These joke s did not , like the ugly words of the Galegos , threaten s o s s life , John ettled down and married , choo ing , who s no doubt , a girl was tactful enough to profe s s belief in the treasure . Some year passed , and his after Bethune became a widower , he put one ’ little girl , Margaret , to live with her mother s

1 Th e st e th e s t s c t M e e was a M s s c b ﬁr wif of ﬁr Vi oun lvill i Co k urn . His sec was L ond ady J an e H ope . 3 0 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

. family , and went again to Lisbon and to Corunna his This time he went at own charges , but he had , alas ! soon to lament that he had ever started on a quest for what had become a sort of obse s sion to him in his quiet H ighland home . H e failed com ple tely to ﬁnd the place where he had before bored for the Chest. Only the little cliff and the river s were recogni able . The ﬁve walls were gone , and a small hamlet of houses mirrored themselve s in B a the id ss oa . I t looked as if new men and new

- manners had come to this river Side territory . his w s Sadly did Bethune take way home ard , to lease a croft from Mr Dempster at Spinningdale . s There he died , unconsoled for that lost trea ure , and there we us ed often to go and s ee his daughter . She was a ﬁne upstanding and good - tempered es woman , who liked us to admire the tall phlox in

o . her garden , and to praise her delightful atcakes ’ The only time that we ever alluded to her father s

- l voyages to Oporto She smiled good hu mou re d y . I t was to her only a far - off memory of something s rather fooli h . There was nothing real about it , neither the retreat nor the battle nor the fallen

General , buried in his military cloak ; nor the s E ngli h Ships , nor the foreign port where the sweet is s o red wine t red . So we dropped the subject . s o s We need not have done , for the trea ure wa s o chest there , th ugh the H ighland seeker never found it . I n 1 908 the Eucharistic Congre s s was held in

London , and on one of those joyous days Mr and M rs Gris e wood were s o thoughtful of me as to make me lunch with them at the Grosvenor H otel , O s o where they kept pen house , as to avoid the fatigue of returning to my home in Portman Square , k only to go bac again to Vespers in Westminster. OUR POOR H IGHLAND NEIGH B OURS 3 1 At their hospitable table I sat next one of their

Gris e w ood . was younger sons , Mr Francis H e at and com that time managing a mine in Galicia , c of plained mu h the roughness of his life there , s s s since the commonest neces arie of life , uch as c o c o tea , offee and t bac o , to say n thing of postage all stamps , and of the coin of the realm , had to be wa s s fetched from Corunna , which di tant about - ﬁve s s o twenty mile , and then by the mo t imp ssible

. u roads Apropos of Cor nna , I said that I had known two generations of the descendants of the S ir e wb th David Baird of N y who , on the death of

Sir J ohn Moore , had assumed the command of the s c E ngli h troops , and had brought them ba k to Gris e woo d s London , and I also told M r the tory

- T w . o of the H ighland treasure seeker years later , and after that the death of his father had obliged Gris e wo od his Francis to leave work in Galicia , and to come to Grasse for the funeral , and to meet t he I d trustees , foun myself again at table seated next to him . “ e Do you rem mber , M iss Dempster , telling me n ’ the story of Sir J oh Moore s military chest , and of the old soldier who believed that he knew where it had been buried ? ” e s ! Oh y poor J ohn Bethune , who went twice ”

s . to Galicia , and never found the trea ure “

. t wa s Well , the man was quite right The ches there sure “ You do not say s o ? I t is like a bit out of ’ B ook o u ied e su e Baline s f B r Tr a r . “ ot When I g back to Galicia , I determined , after what you had told me , to investigate the matter. I found the place , and learned how ’ B e thu ne s ine flect ual visit had put the Galegos on the ni viv e. c was t q A careful sear h hen made , and 3 2 TH E MANNERS OF MY TIME ’ s the chest was found , with ju t eno dollars in it to benefit four or five local people who got rich eno ’ to build thos e new hous es that threw your poor off s H ighlander quite the cent , and so prevented him recogni s ing the s pot when he went back to it s for the second time . The Galego in question did no doubt become greater believers in treasure ” - hunting than all the dwellers in north west S pain .

If poor J ohn Bethune was a travelled man full , s like U lysses , of orrowful experience , let me Show you s s Chri ty Ro s, who in all her seventy years never got farther than the length that her two feet and her crutch stick could carry her . I never knew whence s he came and I have for gotten if s he were a widow or an old maid . She “ w as a lone body , and lived rent free under Ardalt ie s s H ill , in one of the mall peat hut that my

- . wa s s aunt had in her gift She tiny , moke dried ,

- witch like and lame , and also apt to be , what the throu hother at the alle o the neighbours called , g f f Y s moon . e t Chri ty , like many of the disinherited of the earth , yearned for distinction . Materially s s s she could never arrive at it , ince She po se sed , s s s he s be ides the clothe tood up in , a bed , a low cree s py ( tool), her cap , and crutch , and a covered tin pail with which s he went twice a week to fetch broth at the castle . I ntellectually there w a s no chance for a woman who could neither read nor t wo s write , who had probably never received letter who in her life , and did not , like her neighbour ,

s s s s . s Sally H ird , po e a book Sally , who e people had come up from Dartmoor , could always match “ ” any H ighland tales about warnings and fairies with a garbled vers ion of B ot and the Drag on and of the girl who killed as many as seven bride s grooms in succes ion . Christy disliked Sally for OUR POOR H IGHLAND NEI GHB OURS 33

s s her ﬂuency in apocryphal lore , and to as ert her elf thi s poor creature took refuge in s piritual e x pe ri n ce s e . The last witch that ever suffered in Scot w a s at land burnt Dornoch , only ﬁve miles from ’ s s was now Chri ty hut , but that an old story , and a s s in the of witchcraft had ceased to be punishable , Chri s ty might with impunity boas t of her s uper s natural acquaintances . The neighbour inferred , ’ from Christy s temper and tongue , that such s s visitants mu t need be of a diabolical nature , and Chri s ty w a s herself not unwilling to admit an in “ ” M u h t imacy with the s c e e f himself. O ne day s s She ent a mes enger to tell E neas Macintosh , the elder , that She had a communication to make to s s him . H ere again the neighbour had omething to s a s e t y . Did it that cankered bit body to bring s s s ? Macintosh , hone t man , to li ten to her claver s s On their bickering there entered E nea . Anyone who knew the H ighland s in pre - Di s ruption days is familiar with the spiritual authority of those laymen who s who visited and catechi ed , and at the annual ’ celebration of the Lord s Supper supported the ” — minister in his work of fen cing the Table s or as — 1 they phrased it shooing a way s inners . E neas Macintosh was a good specimen of that s piritual w as aristocracy . H e a tall man , rather bent by his s threescore and ten year , and stood covered from head to foot by a long blue cloak , which had a s - huge bras buckle . H e had high low shoes , and ribbed Stockings , but it was his headgear that was His s his so remarkable . long white lock hung on s w as of houlders , his head wrapped in a handkerchief red and blue and yellow hues , while over all there was perched the black Sunday hat that s erved as an

' 1 S hooi n ou g m ean s th e noi se m ade in driving poult ry , or a dog, t of th e garden . 0 3 4 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

s at insignia of his ofﬁce . H e down , and began s o o to groan . Elders al ways groan , and do fr m a ’ mixed sense of other people s Sins and of their own

responsibilities . Christy remained silent , not even

answering groan with groan , While seen through the peat smoke she looked like a big and not very

amiable cat as s he s at curled up on the low bed .

E neas at length got tired of this reserve . N o c f doubt it covered some urious spiritual di ﬁculty, but tra iva ed Loanmore all the same , as he had l from ,

beyond the great wood of Cyder H all , he was tired , ’ and would be glad to know the woman s will , and

to get home again before the darkness fell . H e reminded her that she had s ent for him because She s had omething to tell him . Chri s ty burst into an e lﬁsh laugh . And did you think that I w as going ” the s ? to tell it to like of you Eneas departed ,

still groaning , and convinced that Satan was A rdaltie powerful with Christy Ross of road . Why have I been s o long in speaking of old

Donald Murray, for to understand him , and all he his works , is to understand t mechanism of a

H ighland household . For many a day Donald was the pivot on which our material life at S kibo

. of a s he e turned From the killing p at the farm , to ’ the making of ros e - water in J ane Falconer s still

room , Donald was in charge . H e was a bit of a

veterinary, and as cunning about the broken legs of

our dolls as could be desired . The only trade that

was of - he did not attempt that a shoeing smith ,

which he left to a man with a forge in Clashmore , of

, as s whom we mall children , were horribly frightened , . c be ause of his blackened arms and apron , and of s the parks from his anvil . But who brewed the ? beer Donald . Who made the tallow candles ?

. o ? Donald Who kippered the salm n Donald .

3 6 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

s s , world , as choolmistres es and bank managers but too many of them died early of the con s umption which proved fatal to their father and their Aunt

Nannie . Consumption was ever the scourge of our popu s re lation , of a people su ceptible of culture and

ﬁ ne me nt , and deserving of a much better fate than this , which was entailed on them by poor food ,

poorer housing and by their intermarriages . ? Were they a religious people They were , and they were not . H oly Scripture and religious books s they perused eagerly, becau e such opened for them ’ the chemin de lidéa l which is ever dear to the

Celtic nature . They had their favourite preachers , and would never ﬁnd any sermon too long, not even if it resembled one that I once heard the Reverend c Lewis Rose , of Tain , prea h , which lasted from

M . to 4 P. Yet the doctrines to which they held S O fondly hardly rendered them a moral t people . Evidence taken before a magistra e was s s too apt to be a ti ue of subterfuges , and their commercial creed about bankruptcy left a good deal o to be desired , while the great assemblage of pe ple collected by the annual celebration of the Lord ’ s Supper seldom failed to bring about a number of “ ” accidental births , though whisky and apathy and the want of healthy open - air amusements did keep “ fa irl in o such accidents y season all the year r und . That on this matter there was no proper public opinion must be ascribed to that almos t total deﬁnite failure of religion in the sphere of common life which occurred in the eighteenth century , and t c c which I no i e here only to a knowledge , with how t gratitude , grea is the improvement in this c twentieth entury in village moralit y . Even in our day there was in the parish of Crei ch an able and OUR POOR H IGHLAND NEIGHB OURS 3 7

c energetic minister , the Reverend N eil Ma kinnon . s An I le of Skye man , he was full of courage and of s s w a s goodne , and being also a good doctor he able s o s who to influence pari hi ner , when a case of falling s sicknes occurred , would instantly kill a young cock s and bury it under the floor , or in the neare t cairn , s c a acrifice that used , in Gree e , to be offered to E s cu la iu s p , “ w c I n Dornoch , what ere alled Disruption prin ci le s it s s p had left but a scanty flock to mini ter , and he and his precentor must have looked s adly s s at empty benches . This precentor, Duncan Ro , was as s a man such will never be een again , since now Dornoch , among other marks of progress ,

- possesses an organ and a well t rained choir . H e wi s was old , and wore a brown g , and po sessed the s threadlike remain of a tenor voice , but , if inﬁrm in

s . s wind , he was strong in principle H e di approved of the “ human hymns ” that sometimes replaced the s s P alm of David , nor would he sanction the appear “ ance of a choir , saying that he could not indeed think him s s can that that ingeth ba s , have the grace of ” was s Gode . There , in fact , about the p almody s of Dornoch Cathedral , in the forties and fiftie , a s s strong flavour of the old day when printed book , u n and the reading of them in church , were both s s known . The mini ter would fir t read aloud the four or five verses of the (metrical) p s alm with s s which public wor hip w a s to open . Duncan Ro s s next read out each line In a Sing ong sort of voice , and then he chanted the line , the congregation join — ing in a musical )effort that was very remini s cent of plain chant . The Sutherland family re s erved for itself the east s end of the Cathedral . Some teps led up to a pew w w c t hich covered their vaults , and in hi h hey 3 8 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME o appeared , once every summer , driving ver , with four

s s . s at hor e , from Dunrobin They with their backs to a tall s tatue of the ﬁrst Duke of Sutherland that occupied the s pace where the high altar used to wa s stand . Behind this ﬁgure there a long Slab , with an inscription recording , not the glories of God , ’ but the long lawsuit by which his Grace s heire s s wife, the Countess E lizabeth , had , when early left an orphan , recovered her rights .

The Skibo pew was more modest . I t faced the t - pulpit , and con ained four big red arm chairs , l s s . four ha ocks , and four big Bib es in red covers o Farther back there were f ur benches , for the use old w of children and servants . The Cathedral alls o were washed a lively yell w , and from its many

- s in windows hung cinnamon coloured curtain , tended to break the echo . I have described the s a Opening psalm . Let me y that when the last one

‘ was given out the coachman and footman left to get our carriage , and that the collie dogs began to howl and Show their appreciation of approaching

. lit tle dau ht e r freedom The minister had a . g , and the Gilchrists of Os pidale had t wo girls and two ‘ boys , but we were never allowed to have them for we playmates , and never had a meal at any table in the county till the Batesons settled at Cambus

. s more We used , however , to pay annual vi s it at ’ o s our fact r home at Pulrossie , when our yellow B os sdhu terrier, , always disgraced us by taking up a position in front of t he cupboard where the cakes were kept , and by remaining there ﬁrmly till M rs Forbes s e t some of her home - made dainties before ! him , and us We liked also to s e e the Forbes boys l nisin on old for 1 8 go out g g H ansel Monday , in 43 “ the Gregorian Calendar had not co me abune the

s e s e Gui r or mumm rs . OUR POOR H IGHLAND NEIGH B OURS 3 9 ” Ferry and the Old Style prevailed in Sutherland , as s s o in Russia, and very Arctic tho e gui ing b ys , in s their white overall , running over the snowy earth

o . and the frozen streams , used to lo k Another and s was a very touching friend of mine , who e house near that of Gilbert Ross , w—as J oanna M unro , a name - child of Aunt Dempster pronounced by the — people jehann and s he also was dying of con s u mp o of o tion , in the h me her stepfather, R deric Gunn , a was t in mason . She abou ﬁfteen , very gentle and t elli e nt c g , and She grew to be profoundly atta hed o - to me . When I said g od bye to her on what I felt u st w was m be a last visit , I kissed her face , hich s he already pinched and chill , and looked at me

with such a tender smile . She lingered till the next s s he s he day at sunset . Ju t before died asked her “ mother if s he thought the lady had all the money “ ” as k ? e she required . Why do you You r membe r that before y ou married again we were h . S he S e very poor is an orphan , and I am afraid ” “ i ht . not w off. Wh s is ell , Iassie You should not ’ be Speaking 0 Siller when you are t o be before t he ” “ u a Lord in a few m e en te s . I t is just for th t t hat t t t o I am speaking . The ﬁrs thing hat I mean ask ” s h s of the Lord is that e hould never want . Two “ ” t minu es later J oanna gasped J esus , threw back

her hea d and expired . I have never wanted , and t S O we t wo I will ell J oanna when , after this exile ,

t Of . meet in . he fair ﬁelds paradise C H APT E R I V

CASTLE LEOD i I feel young again when I write the name of the H ighland castle where I s pent the happie s t months dn chns of my girlhood . The whole , or domain , came to the Mackenzies of Cromartie through a M acLe od s s marriage with a heire s , and the ca tle w as built in the ﬁrst decade of the seventeenth century, in the heart of Strathpeffer, and on one s W vis of the las t Spurs of the great mas of Ben y . ’ A s a close student of Sir Walter Scott s poetry my delight may be imagined when , on a day of 1 8 early spring in 5 3 , my aunt unfolded to me the s family plan . My uncle and aunt meant to take my eldes t sister to London to have her presented at Court , and to let her enjoy a season in town , which was to compare favourably with the t wo S he had already had in Dublin where s he had enjoyed s s the Castle the fe tivitie of , in company with her

s . cou in , E llen White I , at nearly eighteen years Old s of age , though too for the choolroom , would h was only ave been in the way of my betters , and therefore to be s ent for three months to Castle M rs Leod , where Hay Mackenzie of Cromartie s had , ince her widowhood , ﬁtted up and arranged Old the castle that was her dower house , and where She lived generally alone . W hen the children of her nephew , Mr J ames Gibson Craig , s hould have left her , She would be very glad of my company . There was no sleep for me that night ! I had CASTLE LEOD 41 not crossed the Meikle Ferry s ince I went up to London with my uncle and aunt to s e e the Great ’ s Exhibition in Sir J oseph Paxton s Cry tal Palace .

Now I was to live three months in another county . was I to dwell in an authentic castle , one that a s ! possessed , I heard , a secret chamber I might k o c loo ver bal onies and climb into turrets , and peep through what the French call des m enrtrikres I O h l s w a s ( O p o e for bowmen). I no longer to be a noun of number in the schoolroom : I might go in and out as I pleased , would on Sundays worship s s s in an Epi copal chapel . I might choose what dre s to wear at dinner, get new wild ﬂower and new s s ketches, see new face and , if I needed new s ! glove , I might write in person to order them ! Oh ! H ow surprising and , how delightful

When I started , under the charge of our house n o keeper , Ja e Falconer, I wondered if I Sh uld really like Mrs Hay Mackenzie . When I had s gone ﬁrst to New Tarbat H ouse , at seven year s ti old , it had been her hu band (Cromar e , as he wh was always called) o spoilt me . I had loved s o k him dearly for doing , and he never came to S ibo s his without insisting on eeing small friend . But Clie fde n s he had died at (April , ju t after witnes s ing from his death - bed the wedding of his only child and heiress , Annie , to the young Marquis s of Stafford , and truly had I grieved for his lo s . who his The lady as wife had been a comely ,

- almost buxom beauty, was now a broken hearted ’ s woman , in a widow cap, and with a pale face that “ was (as Rudyard Kipling expres s es it) as the s s he ? gate of a hundred sorrow . Would like me That was what I as ked myself a s I travelled in a o - yellow p st chaise and as , after changing horses t at Tain , I nvergordon and Dingwall , I turned in o 42 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

f s aw the Strathpef er , and rising in front of me c castle of my dreams . I was very kindly re eived , and given a pretty lit tle room that looked down the avenue where the rebel Earl of Cromartie was walk ! 1 supposed to , without his head H e did not s t disturb me, and I lept with a sense of res and benediction which 'showed that my guardian angel was quite satisﬁed with my new quarters . The routine of my day was soon ﬁxed . Family prayers k s he were at nine , and wea and faint as might a s ix be , the ch telaine daily led her household of servants to realise the responsibility of every t creature to the Creator . She taught them tha only the life of duty enables us to please the God who has willed ou r holiness here and our super natural happiness hereafter . The day thus com me nce d was for her a round of duty towards s God and towards her neighbours , and al o of forgivene s s of all those who had neglect ed or

. S o injured her She was far from tr ng , and I had one day to lift her off the ﬂ oor when some more than usually painful letter had caused her wo to s on . I was free all the mornings t o read or write or draw, or walk as I pleased . Dinner was at t wo ’ we bu llﬁnch o clock, after which fed the , whose cage

- hung in one of the windows of the oak room , and gave fresh water to the ﬂowers . Coffee was then served , and we read aloud some book of hist ory t u or memoirs , and then wen o t to the garden t o ' “ listen t o Lag ie t he gardener s complaint of t hae a ikdaws t c j , or we visi ed the Si k poor . Supper o would s metimes not be till very late , if, with on w e Mrs Hay Mackenzie a pony, had wandered far through the thickets of hazel and of woolly — N . B . He e e was b h n v r e eaded .

44 THE MANNERS OF M Y TIME

l . glen , but luckily nothing came to scare me I dried

s u n i , quickly in the midday , and ran ga ly home . s down through the fragrant cop es , With my trout , w e and ate it for dinner . On every second Sunday u s ed to go to the parish church , and if the minister s Should chance to have a vi itor, Mrs Hay Mackenzie would leave a basket at the manse , containing a

- h chicken or a s alad or a soda cake , to make t eir C a Sunday dinner more of a treat . The h telaine of the Castle Leod was a conﬁrmed Scotti s h E pis co a p lian , for to that church her forbears had belonged at a time when a certain amount of persecution it s c re attached to clients , and her father ould member when they were only permitted to wors hip in an upper room in the old town of E dinburgh . AS s he I said , went to the parish church on every second Sunday , for the sake of example to the s s people , but , on the alternate Sunday , post horse w e were ordered from Dingwall , and proceeded down the s trath to the Epi s copal chapel . I t had

it s . been newly opened , and incumbent , the Rev Mr H utchings (afterward s s o well known at Clewer) w as zealou s ly trying to introduce a number of s noveltie in the way of ritual and conduct , that

- made the whole country side talk . I remember that on one Sunday the little congregation w as illuminated by the extraordinary good looks and ’ the Pari s bonnets of Sir Adam H ay s four hand o f some daughters , all whom I have survived , and w as one of them , Mrs I nge , my very good friend . s On another Sunday we went , after ervice , to lunch Of with a clever old aunt M r Gladstone . She had a good house , and a walled garden full of old

1 T at H a e h as a e eat t a s t o th e h ighl nd gl n now ch ng d gr ly, h nk e a at e e and a dam t it s e e t c s ta a d m nd for w r pow r, , wi h l c ri in ll t ion , now s u p lie s curre nt and power t o th e town s of D ingwall and S t rath e er nd h a e e t s s t at a . p , v n ligh t e an a orium Con n CASTLE LEOD 45 fashioned ﬂowers , but I was even better pleased M rs - when Robertson Showed me her china cupboard , “ ” ” its with pierced Leeds , and its Crown Derby . On yet another Sunday we stopped on the way up the valley to lunch with Lady Stafford ’ s tenants

s - at the h ooting lodge of Fodderty . They were M rs Mr and Beresford Pearse of Bedale , and the s s s 1 elde t of the Bate on brother , with a pretty, delicate wife . These dear people , and their od s brethren , were all to become very go friend of ours , and I have been fated to survive them all . One thing about their tenancy of Fodderty I have is never forgotten , and that that just before they arrived M rs H ay Mackenzie went over the lodge ’ from garret to basement , and over the gamekeeper s s t n e ce s quarters , to assure her elf tha every detail s ary for their comfort was in order . I t was one s how to li e of the many les ons I got from her v , and to help others to live . The pump - room and wells of S t rathpeffer were then small and primitive compared with what they bu t a s — have now become , they smelt just ill like the very best Harroga’ te waters—and I verily believe that this horribly sulphurous smell created a great venerat ion for the well in the minds of the poor t who patien s , from four or ﬁve counties , ﬂocked to “ ” t ath. the S r To them it seemed a sort of Mecca , both a social centre and a fount of gossip , as well “ as a fountain of healing . What did you do at ” the Strath that you enjoyed it s o much ? J ulia Stewart Mackenzie asked one day of a poor man

who was Singing its praises . “ ’ ! dre nk wa Och you just tak a and a lk, and a ’ a dre nk t w lk and a ; and then again , surely , jus tak

1 A te a s S T as at es s e t e S am a e f rw rd ir hom B on , who bro h r m rri d the I sh b ea t s s Flo Ha c c and se tt e ea u s S the a ri u y , Mi n o k , l d n r in u rl nd . 46 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME ” a dre nk and a walk . We have often laughed at s his description , one which applie to all the Spas of

the world . s oc1e t The tone of society, and the manners of y ,

- even at a watering place , were in those Victorian

days very different from what they are now , and profound was th e excitement and disgus t when one su mmer it was di s covered that M r and Mrs Clarence Trelawny were vi s itors at Strathpeffer . The lady wa s the too celebrated friend of Louis Har e tt 1 Napoleon , a M iss Elizabeth y , better known wh o s he as M iss H oward , , if lacked virtue , did not s aw lack either beauty , or wealth , or ambition . I s Ro ie her one day , near the Fall of g , but I could w as the hardly judge of her looks , as it fashion that year to wear black lace dangling round the s e e brim of the hat . What I could was that the s lady had Splendid shoulders , and still posse sed a s hand ome ﬁgure , while over her whole person s ! Fashion wa writ large The Emperor had settled ,

it was said , on her when he married o s Madem iselle de Montijo , but in spite of his be t efforts to be off with the old love who had visited him at Ham , he and his Spanish bride had to put

up with many annoyances from M iss H oward , and t hey must have been glad when M r Trelawny 1 M is s Elizabeth Haryett was in h er girlhood th e ward of a ce rtain c S t e t o h er s t t th e a s t ri h Mr rod , whom , during ormy you h , l dy mu ” a e e a ea t ea t o S ce e s h v giv n good d l of hr d wind, in wh n Loui ’ N apole on m ade h er acquaintance at La dy Bl es s ington s sh e was by r e no m ean s at h e ﬁrst adventure . To Mr S trode th er occurre d a curious ins tance of pres ent im ent . He buil t C amd en H ou s e at Chisle ’ s t and the E e s s e t at W ilh elmshOhe hur , during mp ror impri onm n h e t o t he s o u t t a c am e Empre s t p h t hou s e at h e r di s pos al , for

a s t a n ominal e t . He a e t at e h e was a e lmo r n dd d h , whil building C md n H ou s e h e h ad h ad all along a convict ion th at it would b e r e quire d he t e a te a a e . i ! for Emp ror, f r f ll from pow r S O t turne d ou t In th at e sa e th e t Na e die and t e e the tt e at J ru l m did hird pol on , h r , in li l C holic c S t a ee t a c e to s ee the Chur h of M ry , did Qu n Vic ori om poor young ’ Louloa s COfﬁD s hi laid be ide s father . CASTLE LEOD 47

w as actually married her . Poor Trelawny a fool if he expected ﬁdelity from her . I have heard old M r Munro of Novar declare that women with an “ equivocal past are s o glad t o be made honest t women of, that they generally behave bet er than ” a s was s others , but if Trelawny re soned thu he oon undeceived , and a divorce ensued , which can have surprised no one . They were , however, man and wife when they scandalised Strathpeffer and its a Ch telaine . About this time my hostess and I went for a ’ s four day visit to Beaufort . The Lovats I had was known ever Since I seven years old , but a

ﬁrst visit to a Catholic family piqued my curiosity . o I had a very delightful j urney, seeing two real s it river , the Conan , as swept under Brahan , and the peat - stained Beauly making its way down to s ea c the at the Kesso k Ferry . Lady Lovat took

- me long, delightful drives , to beautiful E ilean Aigas

t o . or up in o the f rest She drove herself, and I E rchles s remember that we one day passed , a house that belonged to the Chisholms and where Old that most delightful H ighland lady , Mrs Wad in n as d t o w . g , born Lady Lovat had a great deal S l of y fun , and I was not afraid of her , but my curiosity about a Catholic household was not much gratiﬁed at Beaufort . The only thing that struck w as me that one of her cousins , a contemporary

of her own , was an ofﬁcer in the Austrian army , becau s e at the period when he came Of age the disabilities Of Catholics forbade his taking s ervice 1 under the E nglish ﬂag . O n my return to Skibo I found the drawing

ette t es e e t o c e and the st E s at c e t e B r im w r om , ﬁr ngli h C holi g n l ' m an to the s c ss was ea e e e a S hold King ommi ion our d r fri nd , G n r l ir Art hur H erb ert (of Llanarth). 48 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

room and dining - room much improved by the bow

window that had been built during our abs ence . o I t gave u s beautiful views up the D rnoch F irth , s s A rdrOS S and up to the Pas over the hill near , s a road that we were ometimes obliged to take , if wind and weather made the M eikle Ferry im

pos s ibl e . That cros s ing was always tiresome at s w as s the be t, and at low water it only by a eries of s tratagem s that one wa s able to get into the boat without wading . I remember one day when w a s m the performance ore than usually lengthy , and when J ohn Patience and his men were more s than usually prolix in Gaelic , and mo t exasperating for us who waited in a squall of rain , that Admiral who s ‘ Lord Clanwilliam , was tanding beside us , “ remarked : I always kn ew that England was a ”

s ee . great maritime power , but now I it At that moment the boat gave an auspicious l urch off a we bank of Shingle into the tideway , and got what ” J ohn Patience called the ferry ower . C H APT E R V

SO M E S COTC H COUNTRY HOUSES

A H ighlander must perforce begin by speaking of s the hou es of H ighland Chieftains . s 1 After the lo t battle of Culloden , in 745 , the s s clan were disarmed , or upposed to be so , and the supreme court of law in Scotland declared that clans n o e e 0 w as had long r any exis t nce. N longer the will of a chief to overrule the common law of the s s land , Catholic prie t were to be hunted down and s the Catholic gentry proscribed , while road were to s s s be made through the di affected di trict , and the new law went on to explain that n othing cou ld belon to or be du e to an man as chie o a cla n g , , y f f a s s s s sore hearing thi for Fra er and for Macdonald , “ s for Murrays and for Macleod , and for the wild wh o s Macraes for all had not , like the Campbell ' and the Mackays , cast in their lot with King ’ s s George , for the tail that wor hipped the eagle s ﬁ ht plume , and that never could have enough of g ’ s was ing their own and their chieftain foe s . I t true that the number of chiefs had been dimini s hed s by death and bani hment . Some , like Lovat , had s s forfeited their head ; ome , like the attainted Earl s s s of Cromartie , had narrowly e caped having to ki s s the block ; ome , like Cluny Macpher on had ﬂed e nalt 1e s to France , but in spite of all the p of the it s s n o t law and of terrible threat , I would have any gentle Saxon reader s uppo s e for a moment wa s that H ighland pride extinct , or that the feel ing between chiefs and retainers had changed very D 49 5 0 TH E MANNERS OF MY TIME

s a s o materially . I can only y that i t had not done n ew rich when I grew up , when the were few and

far between , and not much thought of, and while a certain divinity did still continue to hedge round C or a hieftain , whatever might be his poverty his

s . moral dereliction , or even his political bias I will s give an example . Simon Lord Lovat uffered in

the Tower , because of his Share in the One 1 8 is c day in 5 3 (that , more than a entury after the s rebel lord was eized and taken to London), my s w a s uncle , Mr Demp ter of Skibo , out with H ugh Affr k o his ic . Lord L vat, in ﬁne deer forest of Glen

They had to cros s a little lake . A boat was ready at its marge , rocking among the blue lobelias and s s the reed , but a long discus ion between the boat men seemed to prevent them from taking to their s oars . At last one o f the three peakers turned and

o ff s - walked , wearing a very urly and hang dog “ ” o . was lo k What, asked Mr Dempster , all t s ? wh has that fuss abou , Angu And y he not come with us ? ” The men in the boat looked at each o c other , and after c nsulting in Gaeli , one of them s is S O replied , in E ngli h Lovat deaf, I can answer

. s you We could not put Angu to him in the boat , ’ for wa s it not just Angus s great grandfather that s s s betrayed Simon Lovat to the E ngli h oldier , and after that there came the burning of Beaufort ” Cas tle ; s o Angu s has a bad name whatever ! The feelings of the loyal rowers would not permit s Angus to row their chief, and thi clanni s hne s s o t w o was , I am sure , m re felt by the men in ragged ’ jackets than by Lovat s family . They kept in the ’ Cas tle of Beaufort Hog arth s portrait of their rebel

, ancestor and Lady Lovat , with a smile of dry fun , used to s ay of one of her many young and hand “ some s ons z I really think that there is a family

5 2 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME ” you have to gie u s ? I fancy that the Duke of B en lo a s w as Atholl , old y g , he called , and that ” s Cock of the North the la t Duke of Gordon , were generally admitted to be the bigges t chiefs in the

north . They were both dead before my time , but my aunt and uncle vi s ited a great deal at Gordon s Ca tle , and got from the Duke a pair of the white terriers that were known as the Gordon Castle as breed . They were pretty creatures , white as ” s was now , and the one called Duthie quiet and “ ” w a s amiable , but Catch , the dog, a very spoilt ’ s s o s Of u s pet of my aunt , and jealou children that he frequently secreted him s elf under the bench s a t s s where we at morning prayers , and expre ed his feelings toward s u s by trying to bite our heel s ! wa s The widow of that Duke I knew well . She s M i s Elizabeth Brodie of Brodie , a quiet and child _ s s o f s s le woman , evangelical principle , fo tered by

long residence in Geneva . I n the days when the w e railway reached no farther north than H untly , s were frequently her gue ts at H untly Lodge , which s e t s ad - was a dull and lonely place , among looking

s - s s pruce tree , in the most cold and dreary di trict

of Aberdeenshire . H er society of Free Church ministers and of piou s spinsters offered a great circle s contrast to the rowdy that her predece sor , o s w a s the fam u beauty , J ane Duchess of Gordon , w a s wont to collect round her . H igh play the s s fa hion then , and the story remain of how Duchess J ean said abruptly to the lady with whom s he was “ ” : playing picquet Meg , ye are cheating , and that ’ e the rejoinder was Duchess , y are leein (lying). There was a chieftainess of my day who filled the s o eye and filled the mind , stately was the height , s o commanding the presence , and so varied the k life of Mary Frederica Mac enzie , daughter of the SOME SCOTCH COUN TRY H OUSES 53 last Lord Seaforth . The prophecies of Kenneth , s the seer of Brahan , foretold that when thi and that and the re s t s hould happen in Ross - Shire then the last Lord Seaforth would be deaf, and the pre w ou s a s diction ent to y that both his son would die , ' cu rch and that a dark woman , in a , would come “ ” s s s from the Ea t to be chieftaine of high Kintail . was - She dark eyed , and She came back from I ndia ’ s cu rch S h e with a widow on her head , for had just who lost her husband , Admiral S ir Samuel H ood , s s h e had commanded the tation . I n I ndia created s a great impre sion ; She travelled in all directions , s and was loaded with princely gifts by native rajah , while the King of Oude (for there was one then) s gave her a ring, with a white tone , on which there “ ” wa s . a new name written She explored E llora , s he s s s he s s turned all head , and the gift ama ed were S O Splendid that an order went forth forbidding any officials or their families to receive presents o given to buy fav ur, and to bring about a mis s a s carriage of ju tice , such the native mind delights s in . H er usual companion during this triumphal s progres were Captain Grindlay , the and n s Mountstuart E lphinsto e , a man of accompli h t s he w as men s equal to her own , but knew and known by nearly every man of distinction of her c day . To her se ond husband , H onourable J ames

s he w as . Stewart , profoundly attached She had : w ho two sons Keith Stewart , succeeded her ; and

who s . George , died of con umption H er daughters were Caroline , Mrs Petre ; Mary , Mrs Philip s s rd An truther ; and Loui a , married to the 3 Lord s he Ashburton . I n her castle of Brahan lived s S he patriarchally , with myriads of ervants , and Spoke of all her neighbours—the Mackenzies of c S cat well of Ord , of Coul , of Gairlo h , of , Allan ‘ 54 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

a s the Little M a ckenzies . Grange , and the rest , D u ring some of the summer weeks I s pent at Castle Leod M rs Stewart Mackenzie was al s o a guest there , and I had the pleasure of her immens ely interesting and Stimulating society . We used to s it and work under the great

- o chestnut tree , and there She t ld me , with s s inimitable energy and shrewdnes , many tale of im her very varied life . I think the one that pressed me most wa s how the news of Waterloo came to London . M rs Stewart Mackenzie was on t e rm s of the most intimate friendship with Kitty Pakenham , the girl whom the Duke of Wellington married but of I k did not love . At the time which spea all u i vive Europe was on the q , for Napoleon was s already in Belgium , and the Duke was in Bru sels with men . What was to be the upshot of a meeting between the E mperor returned from Elba and the Allied armies ? E veryone felt that s S O s the re ult , far as Napoleon was concerned , mu t

s . s s be deci ive Rumours were rife , and the Duche was already wretchedly anxious . Mrs Stewart Mackenzie happened t o be engaged on that evening Pr b o s . 6 P M to dine with her cousins the y At . . s he t stepped into her chariot , and left Bru on Street . She had not got three streets farther before s h e fell in with a great crowd , shouting, and apparently c mad with joy . The Mail ame in Sight . I t wa s c covered with ﬂags and laurel bran hes , and with “ who ! people , cried A great victory Mrs Stewart

- Mackenzie pulled the check string , and gave the t o order to go straight back to Bru n Street . Running upstairs s he found the Duchess eating a melancholy the k - cutlet in bac drawing room . I congratulate t K ! o you , my deares atherine Y ur hero is safe , SOME SCOTCH COUNTRY H OUSES 55 “ s and he has won a gloriou victory . O tell me ! H ow do you know ? ” “ Half London knows by s Po i' t mo u t h this time . I have een the s Mail . I t s s is covered with ﬂag and laurel , the people are out h n of their minds with joy. But ow ca you tell t ? “ tha the Duke is safe My dear woman , let me t ell you that when I s aw the Trafalgar Mail o s o come int London , there was houting en ugh s then , but that day the laurel were all Shrouded with crape ! Victory had indeed been ours at s was Trafalgar , but N el on , the victor, dead ! To night there is not an inch of crape to be s een any

Of - ﬁ elds who where ; your hero a hundred battle , ha s is defeated Napoleon , alive . The Duchess sat down and wept . She cried tears of excitement , “ s in which there was al o an element of pain . M y : dearest Mary I know too well how it will be . He will n ot write to me , though he ought to s his his know that I could not urvive death , or ” disaster . Mrs Stewart Mackenzie said as many kind and reassuring things a s s he could think ’ Prob s of, and then went to dine at Lord y . I n bed that night She promised herself to be even ’ with the Duchess s husband and to apply a salve to that ever-rankling wound in the heart of the unloved wife . s he a d Next morning took pen in hand , and dressed to H eadquarters a letter containing many congratulations on the victory of Waterloo . She expressed anxiety about the fate of a young W a s ? friend , Captain he killed Was he ? wounded ? W a s b e safe She would be s o grate ful if the Duke Would in one line s e t her mind “ at ease B u t write it rather to the Du chess and to B ru ton S treet - o , for I go to Brighton to morr w , s and my movement are rather uncertain . I n this 56 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME way your report (whether good or bad) cann ot fail ” 1 to reach me .

M rs Stewart Mackenzie kept her secret , and s went to Brighton for a pretty long vi it . When She returned the Duchess met he r: Congratulate t : is ! me , my deares Mary my hero is all that kind H h n ! You said that he would write . e as writte and I am such a happy woman . Such a proud , happy woman . By the way, there is a message for you in the letter . H e bids me tell you that young s was never had a cratch , and never better in his life . That was how the good news came to Bruton S t reet . Mrs Stewart Mackenzie found a kindred spirit in n The Sir Walter Scott , the known as the author of Lad o the Lake a s y f , and the most agreeable of the many agreeable and witty men at the Edinburgh “ s Bar . The ecret of Waverley was still kept , but c Caber ae it ould not escape the perspicacity of f , ' of the lady of Brahan . She was living t he re o ne was summer alone with her husband , and while he - s occupied in the morning room with estate bu iness , the chieftaines s s at in the vas t porch and read the “ ” was last new Waverley novel . I t a moving tale wa s of poverty , of exile and of true love that for “ ” i s N bidden to ﬁnd t earthly close . O ! surely it must come right in the end , and that gentle Lucy s s s s A hton would ﬁnd happine . To atisfy her curio s ity about Lucy M rs Stewart Mackenzie turned s to the la t chapter , gave a cry , rose to her feet , and “ - ran into the morning room . Stewart ! Stewart ! is s Walter Scott the author of the Waverley N ovel .

1 Sa a e s hes s a e t h er h ero r h J nning , Duc of M rlborough , k p i in much et te t a th e a a at s th e at e a a b r r ining, for in Roy l Libr ry Wind or, l libr ri n , a s e m e th e e e tte s e t o his e Mr Woodw rd , how d p ncil l r cribbl d wif by t h e t B l h vic or of en e im p n t he ve ry ﬁ e ld . Mr Woodward was much te es e In the sce e 1n t St eet as I t i t o him In r t d n Bru on r old t . SOME SCOTCH COUNTRY HOUSES 57 ” — Read that M r Stewart Mackenzie took the book from his wife and read the pas sage s o heart “ rending in its terrible Simplicity : They found the unhappy girl , her nightdress dabbled with blood , crouched like a hare in her form . Yes , cried “ h is s T a . the lady . t a horrible and true tory I t t the befell the daugh er of minister , the Earl of w e d Stair . She murdered her bridegroom on her c was u d ding night , and half S otland said that it a j g s s ment on the minister for the ma acre of Glencoe . Wal t er Scott told me the story one day when I drove him out in my carriage to a garden - party at “ c Dalkeith Palace , and I re—all those words crouched like a hare in its form he u s ed them in describing ’ l that tragic night s work . Wa ter Scott is the author Of u S of Waverley . H ow dull not to have guessed it long ago ! ” s I n the long summer days of the H ighland , when was o s there nly one po t a day, and no motors , and ’ when there wa s daylight till past eleven O clock a t night , there was plenty of time for reading . O ne M rs day Stewart Mackenzie and her clever friend , s a n Lady Louisa Stuart, t to read together a ew book . ’ I M rs t was B yron s Parisin a . Stewart Mackenzie had just read the opening lines

Th ere is a cloud b efore the moon ’ ’ Ti s n s s pas ing, a d twill p a s full s oon ,

s when Lady Louisa Stuart gra ped her arm , and “

: . s cried Stop , Mary Wait till I have hown you s omething . s s Lady Louisa ran up tair , and returned with a “ o n manuscript volume of her w poems . Look at ” s s : s the e line and at their date three year back . s o s There , ure enough , in a p em of ome length , were these word s THE MANNERS OF MY TIME h Th ere is a cloud be fore t e moon , ’ n ss s . Tis pass ing, a d will pa full oon

“ So much for the accusation of plagiarism , “ ” o . laughed their auth r N o , say rather, replied les rands es rits s e M rs Stewart Mackenzie , that g p ” ’ re rencontrent. S ome of Lady Louisa s friends g re t t ed that s he did not publish her poems . H er s of in imit pro e , whenever anyone got Sight it , was c ably witty , and I think Mrs Stewart Ma kenzie deprived the world of something when She advised s s w Lady Loui a not to publi h . H er arguments hich sound very curious to twentieth - century author on esses , were founded a loss of caste , and also on the way in which Lady Louisa would be sure I t to suffer from the critics . t is rue that the case w as of Keats was fresh , and So also the case of E n lish B ards and S cotch Reviewers I g , but still ’ think that Lady Mary Wortley M ont ag u s grand daughter would have had grit enough to survive the most caustic fun of her criti cs . t Before taking leave of the grea lady of Brahan , I s s o I s I where pent many happy days , wi h could do ju s tice to the beauty of the castle s o ﬁtted to be a e ae the setting of the C b rf . I t has the unique woods and position , backed by the great z by the hills that separate the valley of the Conan from the “ ” strath w of the Pfeffer , hile below its River Walk runs the s tream that yields not only salmon but pearls . I n autumn the purple of the mountains adds a tone to the gold of the birch - trees and of the bracken . The house , with its haunted room its s its and pictures , look rather heavy , battlements “ s having been removed after the trouble , but it faces a glorious panorama of hills , and in the time ’ of the old lady s son it was bright with the beauty of her granddaughters , Mary and Julia Stewart

6 0 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

- presence , in the language , place names and legen dary lore of the country . t Countes s E lizabeth married early, and wen to s s Pari s as the wife of the English Amba ador , E arl c s he wa s Gower , and in that capa ity able to be of use to Marie Antoinette , and to send changes of linen to the haples s pri s oner in the Conciergerie .

- She was a clever , dark eyed woman , the late Lady Leigh of Stoneleigh being the only one of her s s descendants who resembled her portrait , portrait

. s that were all that I ever knew of her, becau e , though She had always been kind to my mother s he wa s at Skibo , not only dead before my time but had lived a good deal out of her kingdom . a s s e a s ea She knew it it stretched from to , to say nothing of all those islands that the s ea goes round s on it s wes tern shore . Very clever are her Sketche

s ea - its s of its scenery , of the deep lochs , of cliff and

s - s of its moorland , and of those stack like mountain s u n that look towards the Atlantic , where the at midsummer is not absent for m ore than half- an hour . I s t c This Countess E lizabeth , Du hess of Suther wa s land , advised to make a great and much canvassed change in the management and revenues one of her H ighland estates , which had hardly ceased to be di s cus s ed there when the ecclesiastical excitement of the Disruption came to agitate men ’ s hearts . The straths , or valleys , all most capable

- of cultivation , were full , people said over full , of crofters . Even in them the population was often s underfed , while the vast hill ranges remained de ert and were unproﬁtable at an epoch when deer forests and Shootings were no t in the s ame demand c as in this twentieth entury . The Duchess was s t o t c advi ed clear a grea part of the ounty , and t o SOME SCOTCH COUNTRY HOUSES 6 1

s s cut large Sheep farm out of the hill range , and also out of the lower dist ricts which had been de s s s populated . Many people were ent to the coa t to ﬁs h , but they were quite unable to manage either boats or nets , and a market for their takings , had they made any , must have been far to seek . Many s more were emigrated again t their will , and when c s they left they wept , and they ur ed , if not the s Duches s at least her Saxon advi ers . Among s wa s s s s these la t M r J ame Loch , the Commi ioner , s s s who was at all event di intere ted , and a Mr Sellar , who w a s deeply hated because he and his friend s got pos ses s ion of s ome of the new s heep - run s in s w a s s que tion . Political capital made out of the e Clearin s s s w a s g , ong were made on them , and it remarked that in the eyes of the Duche s s s heep were more valuable than human lives . Some of s the mall crofters came over to Skibo ground , where our entail permitted us to do what the nta — s Sutherland e il did not admit viz . , to give mall

' s a . feu , and grow village population Pardon w a s never in my day extended to the originators of the Sutherland evictions , as I perceived in one of the many winters that H elen and I pas s ed in

s . s Canne Not very many year ago a M r Sellar , s to s and two daughter , arrived pend the winter w a s there . The poor gentleman in bad health , his s the journey had tried trength , and the villa w a s s o when he got into it damp , and within a week of his arrival M r Sellar w a s dead . I rang the bell for my maid , Mary Murray , a girl of about

- twenty four, born and bred at the North Lodge of s Skibo Ca tle . I asked her for a black hat and “ : gloves , and added I have sent for the carriage , for it is but charitable to go and s e e if thos e luck ” less M iss Sellars are in need of a friendly hand . 62 TH E MANNERS OF MY TIME

s a s May cowled She produced my hat , then turning “ s on her heel , She aid They have an ill name to

s s . s them elve , at any rate The eviction were s evidently not forgotten , for the Celt , if they have

s s a s s . faithful memorie , have al o r ncorou one I had another proof of their unchangi n g love for their native glen s . A man from the pari s h of Kildonan emigrated voluntarily to Australia and there grew s rich . Stricken , not only in year but in health , he 1 8 0 as k wrote home , in 7 , to a nephew to come out to him to Victoria . H e would make him his heir , ” bu t , he added , if you come , you must bring me s od s a from Kildonan . I hall die more easily if I die with it on my breast . I will give yet another ’ ins tance of the truth of the poet s saying that “ Still in our dreams w e see the H ebrides . A brother of May Murray was one of the many young men that my uncle started s ucces s fully in s life . H e had become cas hier in a bank in Bueno

Ayres . H e told me that one day a very rough looking man walked into the bank to lodge s ome money . The stranger said that he wa s newly

s - arrived, having ju t landed from a cattle boat . M r “ Murray noticed that on him hung the accents of s s s the H ighland tongue , and uddenly addre ing the “ man in Gaelic he as ked him Which of the glen s ” “ ? Is are you from The man started . it the Gaelic that you will be speaking ? and who are ? ” you I am J ohn M urray , from the North Lodge “ . ! s ! at Skibo Castle E h well , to be ure and how ? are Mr and Mrs Dempster I am H ector Gunn , from Proncy . I got a prize once from Mrs ” ’ wa s Dempster when I at school . The man s face clouded when he learnt that my aunt and uncle had not only gone from S kibo bu t from wo c c this rld of hanges and hances . SOME SCOTCH COUNTRY HOUSES 63 A true H ighlander doe s not even like to live far is s from his dead . Deprived as he , ince the Reforma o s tion , of prayer for their s ul , he has been obliged as it were to place his heart in the grave s which “ he terms the hillocks of truth . M y aunt once implored a solitary old woman to change her dwelling for another more within reach of her ’ neighbours help . Nothing would persuade Mar garet Macrae to remove hers elf and her bed and “ o her porridge pot and her wo den stool N o , h ” 1 “ M e tel . , She replied to every argument N o ; here I am not lonely ; here my father and my

mother and my brethren come to me in the night . s e e s I them , and I peak with them . I am not

afraid to be alone , but I should be afraid in a strange place with none of my own people

round me . The s e traits of H ighland manners have drawn u me too long away from D nrobin , old and new built round the core of the old peel of Robert o f was the Thane Sutherland , the new castle the “ ” B hain work of the Mohr (the great woman), of s s s that greatest all g reat ladie , the M i tres of 2 md s the Robes , Harriet , Duche s of Sutherland . She travelled to s e e all the celebrated homes of s noble families , e pecially those on the Loire , and s s e a thi castle by the is the monument of her taste , s her care and her family affection . I t is the mo t beautiful thing I know , outside and in , most happy outside in it s noble background Of woods and , of purple mountain and in its foreground of terraced s a gardens and ﬂowering e margins . And on these terraces what a goodly company have I seen . There ’ s s on - in - la w might one meet the Duchess s elde t , the

c . Duke of Argyll , that most gifted of S otsmen H e

1 M ehte m dear l m ean s y . 64 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME walks with his ﬁne red hair swept back from his s pale brow, while he talk geology with Sir Roderic s Murchison , and mechanic with Nasmyth (of the steam hammer), and perhaps American politics 1 with M r Sumner . M r Gladstone, then a very s hand ome man , and brilliant in conversation , walks His with Lord Dufferin and Lord Taunton . voice is s s o re onant in the clear air, and is that of M rs is s Norton , who monopoli ing Sir E dwin s s s Landseer, ju t returned from the We t Coa t and s u n from seeing the midnight dip and rise again , a s he s pent his vigil on the white heights of Ben

Arkle . Of all the fair women here the faires t is the s s s younge t daughter of the hou e , Con tance Duchess s s he s s of Westmin ter , and here stand , imple , lovely as s he and smiling , E ve might have smiled when s came fre h from the hand s of her maker . M iss 2 s s Lilah Seymour , with the faultles proﬁle , run her s near, and very effective also are the Villier twins , s charming bride as they both are . Round them buzz the hand s ome Bateson brothers and M r s s s La celles , and Leo Elli , practi ing what he s preaches , that I dlenes , with contentment , is great ”

. s gain Next comes I an Campbell of I lay , with his cau ltin s as g (hazel) tick in his hand , and he walks he croons to him s elf a H ighland boating s —HO ! o M ong r ! airi dhu . Louise Duche s s of s a s Manchester laugh he goes by chanting , and not far from her s tands that Duke of Devonshire is whom She afterwards to marry . H e slouches s along , with his hand in his pockets , looking like a hands ome young noble of the age of the I talian

1 a es S Ch rl umn e r. 2 a a te th e M a s st she was be t Gr ndd ugh r of rqui of Bri ol , tro hed t o e e Leves on Lord Fr d ric Gower . SOME SCOTCH COUNTRY HOUSES 65

s s De pots , and certainly eeming quite unlikely s s s s the applau e of li tening enate to command , s his s ju t as gentle , boyi h brother, Lord Frederick s Cavendish , look unlikely to die a violent death in ’ o s the Ph enix Park , falling by an as assin s hand . What a number of remarkable men ! and what s cosmopolitan women , for here is the matchle s nee who Princesse de Camporeale ( Acton), after M in he t t i s wards married g , and be ide her , boring s s s s her about the wrong of Poland , glide Prince S an u s ko 1 g , and with her her daughter H elen in all

the s plendour of her beautiful youth . The pockets of these t wo Poli s h ladies are full of letters all treasonable enough to cau s e half the nobility of t o Poland to be exiled Siberia , and when they leave Dunrobin they leave all this correspondence behind s them under the pillows of a sofa, which show that — they are but poor conspirators at the best or

worst . Now they are all gone where the Russian police vexes no more—and where the weary are

at rest . When the Volunteer movement began In Suther land it did a little to revive local feeling for a w a s family that s s o cosmopolitan In it tastes . The rd regiment was commanded by the 3 Duke , the grands on of the old Countess who had raised the Sutherland Fusiliers and let them go to I reland ’ ’ s 8 to quell Lord E dward Fitzgerald rebellion in 9 , wh s s s and to kill men o al o poke in E r e . And now C note how times hange , and how animosities die down ! That s weet - faced woman in the carriage s who s his be ide his wife , miles at beauty as he goes s is s he a s pa t , his Sister Caroline , and , the mother of Fitzgerald children and as the wife of the Earl

of Kildare , represents , before these armed H igh

Nee Lubomirska. 66 TH E MANNERS OF MY TIME ’ s 8 his lander that poor hero of 9 , dead before

time . After the Volunteer Review there is always a s are s ball . The doorway wreathed with garland of s heather , neighbour are collected from Sutherland , s Skibo , and the Reay country , and al o from the ’ Duches s s es tate s in Ro s s and Cromartie . Pipes s s s s cream , reel are danced , and the H ighland dre is n S O a s pretty generally wor , and by no one well s s s by Ian Campbell of I s lay . The Duche beckon to me to come and join her in a perpetual jig . Her dres s of white tulle is covered with long trail s ’ s s is a s of the graceful deer gras , which her badge s s Counte of Cromartie in her own right , but the is gown not too long for her present purpose . s s We tart, and very oon people get on the chairs s e e u s S O w e to dance , for nimbly do turn that , many as may be the men who das h in and hope

to cut with us , not one of them can boast at the end of the jig that he has ever got in front of either

s . of us , or has ever een our faces Alas the day ! To this da n cmg and smiling there s ucceeded s quarrels and udden deaths . N ot one familiar hand is now left to grasp mine . Beautiful Stafford House has jus t been s old to the maker of Sunlight who s a s Soap , and there are people y that thi castle of Robert the Thane will go also . To whom , matters not now to me !

68 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME tion very dull . I t requires a long experience of l ife before we get at the weight and worth , and all the merits of dull things in thi s restless world t of ours . We begin to realise tha if we have to arrange for a thing , and have to throw ourselves s a o into , y , the details of a lunche n of dull people , and have to make sure of arranging them properly at table , by the time that we have got to the end of the proto col we are really not as much bored as we expected to be ! Then there is the harve s t of boredom which wisdom ensures to her children , for it is true of boredom what S t There s a said of “ : s have su ered re pain Suffering passe , but to ﬁ S mains with u . Not only would life be more

s o - a tolerable but for its called musements , but the day , and the matter and the manner of boredom s s pa s away , While the fact that every tire ome duty found you at your post remains . People get to trust you when they know that they can reckon on your pres ence and your smile at a dull or quarrel s - ome meeting , at a formal tea party, at a poor ’ s - we t child Sick bed , or at a lugubrious funeral on a morning . They are sure that you will not fail

f - them any more than at a fi th rate charity concert . I am sure that it was to their selfless endurance of such dull things , and to their punctual appearance w wherever they ere expected , that Mrs H ay c Ma kenzie , the Duchess of Vallombrosa , and the Pou rt alés o u Countess Auguste de , owed their p p larit y and their widespread influen ce . Lady t o wa s Ossing n was perhaps as punctual , but She S h who was really a very y woman , brought up when the different classes s aw very little of each who not S other , and did care to be seen by trangers , who ck not o and , being a Bentin , was always l ng w t o or w t suffering i h b res , i h pushing people . O n PARIS UN DER THE SECOND EMPIRE 69 one occasion a pars on bored her h orribly by his hyper - adulation and by his civil s peeches at the opening of one of her many good works in St s s Marylebone . H e kept a uring her over and over ’ s again of his gratitude , and of everybody gratitude, and wound up by telling her that s he might be s ure of his prayers for her well - being and your ladyship knows how availing are the prayers of a righteous man ! Lady Ossington had for some minutes been twitching her bonnet - Strings in a way s that boded evil for the par on , and when She could s s he s tand it no longer hot a quick glance at him , “ and replied : Ye s ; but you know that he must be ” s s s a righteous man . Thi is a digre sion , sugge ted s s by my fir t dull busine s meeting . Out of the

chair Bi s hop Eden w as certainly an agreeable man . H e told me that he s hould much like to see Skibo s a s s s Ca tle , Since bi hop of the most northern dioce e of the Scotti s h E piscopal Church he rather thought s s ! w a s that he ought to po se s it Skibo certainly ,

- s s s in pre Reformation day , the Fulham of the Bi hop s s e e of Sutherland and Caithnes , with their at Dornoch ; whereas he was a Protes tant Bishop of O his s e e s ! Moray and R SS , with at I nverne s So I s aid that I feared he could never make out his case !

After Easter, my brother George , Katherine and I were to go to Pari s with Mr and M rs H enry i s s Reeve . The Viv d of Dover made a quick pa age ; s no one was ill , we were all in excellent pirits , and charmed to Settle into room s at the Vou ille m o nt

w e . H otel , which had engaged for a month Mr s his Reeve had been educated in Pari by aunt ,

Madame de Pontigny , and had completed his or education either at Geneva with the Binets , - k again in Paris with his other, better nown aunt , 7 0 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

1 s w as Sarah Austin . A good lingui t , he by this time a Corre s ponding Member of the French s s o s I n titute , I trembled when I ﬁrst had to peak

French before him , and with all the clever and

- interes ting people who crowded our Sitting room . I had luckily been brought up to write and s peak

French grammatically, and after the ﬁrst few days

I found my feet in society , and was pronounced to have a pretty accent , and enjoyed everything , including my new bonnet (of lilac gauze), and my cups of chocolate . ’ An evening party at Monsieur Gu izot s began my experiences . Long ago , as a little girl at s - St Andrew , I had seen the ex M inister of Louis

Philippe , for he came there with the M inister ,

- in - la w Lord Aberdeen , and his delightful daughter ,

Mary Lady H addo , to Spend the day with her — is e rv wo od . brother, the Scottish J udge Lord J I wa s there playing about with Rachel and Theresa ca n Baillie , and to this day I remember the Short figure and the blazing brown eyes of the first homme d id s s u m i that I ever saw . Now t hose eye eemed s to have lo t but little of their fire . The friendship w as with Mr Reeve of very long standing , dating ’ Gu izo t s back to M . great intimacy with Mrs Austin , which was formed before I wa s born or thought of, and there were few summers when the Reeves s Gu izo t s did not vi it the at Val Richer . Life had ’ Gu izo t s been saddened there by the death of M .

his - s wife , and women folk now consi ted of his two s daughter , Pauline and H enriette , married to two : brothers de Witte and , French fashion , they all kept house together, the grandfather, the married 1 a te an d M rs Ta N : 1 D ugh r of Mr John ylor of orwich born 793 , a e A s t a t th e e e a te t e t - m rri d Mr John u in , u hor of c l br d x book on s e e 1 81 a S . e a t e e e A e a Juri prud nc , in 4 Th ir d ugh r Luci m rri d ir l x nder ” D uﬁ and was th h M rs t R ss t e a e . Gordon , e mo r of (J n ) o PARIS UN DER THE SECON D EMPI RE 7 1

children , and the grandchildren . They were well

read women , but quite without charm or animation , and as their tradition s were all of a Puritan bou r eoisie s o w as s g , their evening party by no mean c n foli ho . I could quite unders tand how dull s s s Princes Lieven found the e worthy ladie . During s s the years of her ﬁne enthu ia m for M . Guizot, She his had perforce to receive daughters occasionally , and would then complain of their want of s avoir s vivre. They scratched her ﬁne tablecloth with s s o : their nails , and aid , every time that they did “

s . What beautiful table linen you have , Prince s I t may easily be imagined that topics in common were lacking between them and the egoti s tical and intriguing foreigner who had managed to inspire ’ their mother s widower with s uch a strange pas s ion . s s s The love letter of M . Guizot are an a toni hing revelation of the heart of a man whom Louis his w ho Philippe used to call tyrant , loved power , ’ and who had had a Puritan s education . Born i n N i s mes while the Protestant Disabilities were in ’ s s force , his parent marriage before a pa tor was not ' legal in the eye of the law ; a fact which he never s s forgave , and though the Portali Act removed thi , s s and many other odiou piece of tyranny , the fact s s rankled , and still rankles in many Prote tant mind .

- is I n these days of anti clerical agitation , it much

to be regretted that too many French Protestants , s animated by old rancour , have lent themselves to the anti - religious movement s of the Freemason s s and J ews , though , better than any other , they s ought to reali e that atheistic schools , where the s very name of God , and of H is Church , are pro u st t he scribed , m be fatal to rising generation in

France . the Spring had come in environs of Paris , and 72 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME very pretty were the woods of Meulan when we went out one morning to lunch with the M aroche tt is at ‘ s the Chet t e a u de Vaux . They were keeping hou e ’ s s s that Spring with the Baronne widowed i ter, the

s . s s Baronne de Sade , and her two girl The Si ter s s were charming co mopolitan women , daughter of a Comte de M au s s io n who had lived a great deal

n Co i n s s . i Scotland , with the de g y and the Stair s w as The elde t girl , Valentine Laure de Sade , in s s all the beauty and fre hnes of her teens , and that wa s s beauty of the true Southern type , uch as one ’ s s might look for in a de cendant of Petrarch Laura , h w as s e . which Valentine , and whose name bore Before very long those s oft brown eye s and that s weet girli s h laugh were to win for Valentine the love of Pierre de Warn , a young French naval 1 a ofﬁcer of the best type . With the Ch teau de It s Vaux w e were enchanted . towers date from the s XL w ho reign of Loui , gave it to one of his de s s s s testable favourites , and clo e be ide it tand the s pari h church , with the village that Slopes down to s the river , along which lies the mo t richly cultivated s land in France . Madame de Sade aid that nearly all the primeu rs rai s ed under inten s ive cultivation w there went to the London market . I n the oods , s s where I gathered violets and anemone , pring was it s ! s u n looking best , but alas though the shone

brightly on them , and on the reaches of the river ,

there happened to be also a very cold east wind , and both my s ister and I contrived to catch such severe chill s that next day w e were very sorry for ’ s Gu iz t s . o w a s ourselve , and M doctor sent for . H e told me that if I went about any longer I

1 ' ’ a ta d e a c a e th e Clotzlae and th C p in W rn omm nd d , during e ’ s eas s t at s h e la e t a s a e t e s sba v s on h y in L i h Ro d , V l n in hu nd i it ed u s e tha ce a mor n on t Ormi ston Hall . PARIS UNDER TH E SECON D EMPI RE 73 “ s : s a w hould have the jaundice And you , whom I ’ iz s h s o . Gu ot t e blonde at M other evening , will s be as yellow as forty quince . This awful threat had the effect of confining me to the house for s ome days ; and in that way I s aw a good deal of his s Mr Reeve and of visitors , ince he , thanks to s the ame malignant east wind , had a pronounced w as fit of the gout in one wrist . M y brother , s s through all the e day of our different ailments , rather to be pitied , because we were not able to go about with him . The sa lon full of ge s ticulating s foreigner bored him , and every now and then he would come into our room where we were nurs ing ours elves under the regime that old Sir H yde Parker used to de s cribe as caution and chicken ” s broth , and there , flinging him elf down , he would exclaim with impatience There is another fellow s s ha s come in ju t now, and he talk more , and s dirtier nail than any of them . I think that the s s was Léonce vi itor thu described M . Lavergne , h a great friend of the Speaker Denison , but w ose eloquence on agricultural and economic ques tions was trying to a young Scottish laird wh o never pretended to be more than what Sir Walter Scott “ ” called an arrant fisher and fowler . We got e to like M . L once Lavergne , in spite of his nails , and to realise the fact that Frenchmen , probably s s Since the Revolution , are generally wor e dres ed than our gardeners . Our favourite among all a s these men of letters w Gustave de Beaumont . His heart was still in mourning for his friend

Alexis de Tocqueville , whose letters he was editing , and he himself had a store of gentle s s K ras ins k wi dom that was delightful . Sigi mund y , ‘ oete an on e w as the son of the p y m , interesting , and - é good looking , while the Comte Melchior de Vogu 74 THE MANN ERS OF MY TIME was the accompli s hed type of the French dip ' n l mat is t littera teur . o , and scholar Xavier Raymo d ' and many others of the staff of the D ebats (which was then accepted as the M oniteu r of the Orleans party)haunted our Sitting - room till milder weather s came , and we all got out again . The Reeve went to a ball at the British E mbassy , and Mr Reeve we dined at the Villa St Georges , though three ladies were not allowed to partake of the hospitality ’ of the Thiers family. We went to Lady Cowley s stall at a charity bazaar , where George averred that he felt more s hy than he had ever done in his life before ; and to a prima sera at old Madame de ’ ’ s Pe ron ne t s Mohl , and to one at Madame de y , ’ e and of course to the theatre . Alfred d Musset s I l n e fau t ju rer de rien ﬁlled us with joy for many s s day to come , since to have een Got , and Coquelin , Re iche m be r t Madeleine Brohan , and g for the ﬁrs M a l e er time w as great gain . The rqu is de Vi l m wa s w e s e e . the rage that spring , and went to it We had not been long seated when a whisper ran round the house : a lady had come into the s tage

- box on the right hand Side , a lady of ﬂashing dark s s eye and of ﬂa hing jewellery . I t was Marguerite ’ t o f Bellanger , the reigning favouri e France s I eria master , the mp of a people who while they

- called her by so high sounding a title , accorded s to Loui Napoleon only the nickname of B adingu et. As for George Sand ’ s play which we had come to s e e I , it disappointed me greatly , and George and would do nothing but laugh during the cris is of her ’ ’ s s hero fate . I under tand now why George Sand s s tales are not suited for the stage . All their fal e sentiment and their highfalutin come into high s s relief, while behind the footlights you mi all that k otta es ma es the beauty of her books , those fr g of

76 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

- d s c . would not otherwi e have ome in contact To ay , s s for example , it mu t have amu ed him to take s s tock of M r H enry Reeve , the author of the mo t s lashing diatribes publi s hed i n The Times again s t his s s : ma ter and him elf a man who , as a friend of

M . Guizot and of Alexis de Tocqueville , and as a s o rn al des Debats corre pondent of the j u , was from his youth upwards a doctrinaire and an Orleanist of the very ﬁrst wat er .

Charles Auguste Louis J oseph Morny , later styled de Morny , and actually Duc de Morny ,

- a s was now in his fifty fourth year. H e w certainly atte ato was his mp , inasmuch as he nearly bald , but figure w a s s o Slight that my first impression was ’ of ri o tenore D Ors a a p m , or of a dandy of the y type . From his mother, Queen H ortense , he had inherited the rather long nose and patheti cally ‘ His w a s arched eyebrows . voice in speaking s on s singularly sweet , as became the of a mu ically gifted woman and of that jeu ne et beau Du nois s who had once , by moving her heart , in pired her Flahau t who 1 8 1 1 song , the Comte de , became , in , the father of M . de Morny . The great fortune of s thi man , his present position , and the palace in

- which we stood to day , were all very unlike the o f s declaration his birth into this world of vici situdes . That document avers that he w as born at midnight 2 2 nd 1 8 1 1 1 of the of October , at 3 7 Rue Mont s f c a ccou cheu martre , in the hou e o Do tor Gardien , r and that the witnesses to this declaration of birth (made before the adjoint Crotte of the 3 rd arron dissement m M iinch ) were La y , a Shoemaker , and , R des e E u e D u cu s N o. a tailor, residing in the x , 3 . H ere were s trange enough precautions taken to inco nito secure an g , yet the names given to the ’ child s imaginary parents were quite as fanciful , PARIS UN DER THE SECOND EMPIRE 77 he being presented as the s on of Louise - E milie Coralie Fleury and of Auguste - J ean - H yacinthe M orn o . s y , a propriet r in San Domingo Needles to s ay that no such pers on s existed in San ! Domingo , or anywhere else Nor must it be s s upposed that the e precautions were uncalled for . ’ H ortense s husband and the Empress Josephine ere were both alive , and Madame m was also there : was to be reckoned with and what worse , Caroline

Murat , who detested the Beauharnais , was ever on T he fa mil the watch . y of J erome , which had never s been friendly to H orten e , also continued their s a persions against her up to the time of her death . So active were they that Prince Napoleon often s s boasted that he had in his posse ion thirty letters , any one of which would dispose of Louis Napoleon ’ s claim to any share of the blood of the B u onapa rt e s 1 ’ s of Ajaccio . H ortense conﬁnement in Paris had therefore to be kept as s ecret as possible s o secret that She had then and there virtually to renounce this child who had a tailor and a Shoemaker for his

s o s . c o s o pons r But Time , whi h w rk w nders , was t i b o be kind to this nconvenient little oy . H is father c ould with safety hand him over to his paternal grandmother, the Comtesse de Souza .

H e was brought up in her house , and there , in the Rue St Florentin , he came to see , and to be seen by, the redoubtable Prince de Talleyrand , whos e relati on to him was supposed to be that of s a grandfather . These things were o strange that when the boy grew to manhood he was justiﬁed “ in repeating the saying of the Goncou rt s that this was not the Age of the Despots , but it was the

1 Wh en King Louis of H oll and was in a b ad tempe r he u se d t o t at s was h is but his h e s e vow h Loui no child of , in Will ol mnly d ecl ared Loui s N apoleon to be h is l egi timate and only s urviving son . 78 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

Flaha u t Age of the Bas tard s . N ot that Comte de

a s s w a s . ignored the child , H orten e obliged to do s s s Though married to a Scotch heires , the Barone 1 his s o n Keith and Nairne , he had to live with him s at T u llie allan . The Stirlingshire neighbour knew s it s that a mall boy played about in woods , and

sailed little boats on its pretty lake . They knew t his w a s hat name Morny, and they took it for granted that he w a s the progeny of a certain French s O housekeeper whose moral , they pined , left a good

deal to be de s ired . s o The child grew to be a youth , and till C mte s de Flahau t had him often with him elf. O ne day when father and s o n were out driving together Morny saw the Count lift his hat to a short and not very pleas ing - looking gentleman who was walking

quietly along Bury Street . N oticing a shade of s deference in the bow , the young man a ked Who “ is that That , replied Comte de Flahaut , is

Prince Louis Napoleon Buonaparte . N othing more - s was said , and the half brother did not meet , or s Shake hands , till ome months later, in Switzerland . Presently a career had to be thought of for

Morny, or as he now called himself, M . de Morny . The Company of J esus at one time seemed to offer an opening , then , through Madame de Rude , he s k formed a friend hip with the young Du e of Orleans . ’ Death cut Short all that prince s hopes and ties , and 1 i s s e ce a te e t h s s t . Mi M r r, d ugh r of Lord K i h by ﬁr wife Born in ’ 1 88 Sh e e a e h r s a a 7 , b c m , on e mother de th , B rones s N airne in h er own

t . S he was an d n ot e a s o t at h er e s righ ugly, v ry popul r, h n ighbour s ee m e d pl eas ed wh en h er fri endship wit h Prin ces s Charlotte cam e t o an a t e n d an d t e s s h brup , h ey w re much urpri ed at er choic e of a

s a . Sh e was a e E 1 81 t o th e te d e hu b nd m rri d , in dinburgh , in 7 , Com Flahaut was s a to b e a s on a e a an d t es s e , who id of T ll yr nd of Com

S za . He was a ea e and t t t e a acte t ou b ldh d d, wi hou for un , ch r r or bir h , b u t a at a a diplom ic c ree r m de up for those de ﬁci e nci es . After b e ing a as s a e an d e a h e was acc e te to the t mb dor in Rom , in Vi nn , r di d Cour S t a es and t of J m , ook a hou s e in Pi ccadilly. PARIS UNDER TH E SECON D EMPIRE 7 9

s s it remained for Morny, after the affair of Stra burg

B ou lo u e s his - and of g , to attach him elf to half brother , and to believe in the Napoleonic legend which w as to make Louis Napoleon ﬁrst President and then

Emperor in France . s u e Years ago , in the day of the Lea , a clever “ Frenchman s aid W e never mount SO II ig h a s when ” w e k do not now where we are going . That might truly have been s aid of de Morny and of all the ’ s s s s who promoter of Loui Napoleon fortune , , if they did not know precis ely where Fate might land s as s a s them , were un crupulous to every step . J u t the T a s che rs and the Beauharnais were to help the ” s prouting ambition of the ﬂat - haired Cors ican till s s then poor and ob cure , so the two son of Hortense were predes tined to originate a s econd E mpire in a country where the people enjoy alternately unbridled ’ ’ co d etat licence and military tyranny . Of the up w as s s M . de Morny the main pring . Two night before it he w as in the Orle anis t s alon of Madame s f de Rude , and the night before it , e caping rom the E e usual circle held at the lys e, he went to the

' theatre . There he chatted gaily during every ’ entracte s and visited the boxes of his friend , wear dilettante s s as s ing his mile , ju t if no cata trophe t wo were impending , as if hundred arrests were not about to be made before daybreak , and as if the s s n t treet of Paris were o to be red with blood .

- u s To day , when the Duc de Morny stood Showing s s was the Chine e poils , it a fancy of mine that the

- s mouth , under its well trimmed mou tache , had a s certain cruelty in its lines , and that , in pite of a s aw s s bland courtesy of manner, I pitiles ne s in his ? wa s eyes The Duke at this moment , after the s E mperor , the mo t important man in the E mpire , and the busiest . H e had fought at the siege of 80 TH E MANNERS OF MY TIME

s s Con tantine , he had been twice Pre ident of the s s - Co uncil and once Amba ador E xtraordinary, While as a leader of society he had the most unparalleled s s s was his s s s ucce . H e a poet at hour , the gla of s fa hion , the arbiter of all claims to elegance or to s was connaiss eur di tinction . H e at once a , a l libre t t is t s a his and a ﬁnancier, to y nothing of bonn es fortu nes . When the Duc de Morny was on his mi s s ion to n s . Russia , to repre ent Napoleon I I I at the coro a s aw tion of E mperor Alexander I I . , he , wooed and w on S er e e vna , Sophie g Troubetzkoy the daughter of Prince Serge Troubetzkoy and of Catherine

P u s hkine . s aw s o I never her , but heard her de cribed as by her aunts , and her friends , a blonde , with a s wonderful hair, and very dark eyes . Perhaps she was was : the fashion , her beauty exaggerated it was certainly not poss es sed by either of her A rax ine aunts , Madame de Bausche or Countess p , A S when I knew them . regards her qualities , an

of - s old French friend mine , an ex ambas ador, s s S he and intri ante a ured me that was a born bred g , s and as uch , on more than one occasion , caused him

. was a great deal of trouble She , of course , very s he much envied for the marriage had made , and if, s he s s he when came to Pari , described some of the ’ E u énie s rostoi s he stars of g Court as p (common), could not complain that s he felt either lonely or

- w s h e w as ex patriated , since the Paris to hich intro du ce d was s s s full of Poli h , Russian , Au trian , Spani h and I talian beauties and of courtiers who had more o wn its than their Share of glories and amusements . who c Among these were her aunts , ertainly kept up, even after the fall of the Empire , the reputation for

1 Anyone who lik es a good l augh mu s t b e grateful to him for th at ' e e de Ch u teamreste ehez lu z v ry funny pi ce, M o / . PARIS UNDER THE SECOND EMPIRE 81 s mart repartee , and all the extravagance of their s was s s bes t day . So much thi the ca e that to me a breakfas t at the Villa Ap ra x ine w as quite a startling s affair . Laughter reigned in an atmo phere thick s with tobacco moke , while the champagne literally ff dripped o the table on to the ﬂoor . “ What J ohn Knox called that foul ﬁend Death w as nevertheles s lying in wait in the palace of

- - thi s over fortunate and over busy man . Worn out

by living , the Duc de Morny died suddenly in the A a Spring of 1 86 6 . S the E mperor w s often annoyed by the pretensions of both de Morny W ale w s k s and y , it had not alway been peace and joy between the sons of Queen H ortense , but

- Louis Napoleon , being the most kind hearted of ’ s s - men , ha tened at once to the Duke death bed , and long held in his own hand s that of the uncon s ciou s s patient . All Paris , especially the Pari of affairs , was his w as moved at his death , While funeral a Sight that every Parisian woman would have

regretted t o have missed . I was at a reception at the Prefe cture of N ice

the day that the bad news came in . The Prefect ,

- - M . Gavini de Campile , said to be profoundly s ad affected by the intelligence , did not appear . Madame Gavini received the condolences of the s General commanding the di trict , of several of the

- s clergy , and of the Procureur General , and of uch ’ s d E s e u ille S I mperiali t friends as old p Baron Nervo , S alve rte D u s e . the Sanson , and the de Rivoli I n sa lon s s her people whi pered about arsenic pill , and s the E ngli h doctor was commented upon , and one w as s s s aware of a general en e of de olation , a s premonition , as it were , of the much darker day in ’ In M orn s Store for the Second E mpire . truth de y last piece of good fortune was to die before the 82 TH E MANNERS OF MY TIME prodigious ediﬁce built up by him collaps ed like a house of cards ; to die at home before the Court fe w s wa s driven into exile . A more year and he would have s een Paris revenge hers elf for that ’ ‘ cou d etat p , and the long carnival of the Second

E mpire clos e with the burning of the Tuileries . his When the Duc de Morny died , widow cut off his s her beautiful hair , and placed it in cofﬁn . Thi was f bu t incident generally felt to be af ecting , very s oon after the funeral the bereaved and Shorn lady ’ s betook hers elf to going over the Duke papers . s f H e had not left many , but till there were su ﬁcient s s r to enlighten her on everal topic . Anger e it placed her grief, though could not replace her s s he s s e t plait of fair hair ; took off her weed , and hers elf to forget the man whom She had recently s he s mourned . Before long united her elf with a s s s relation of the E mpre , the Duque de Se to , with who whom she generally lived in Spain , and proved

. s a kind father to her Morny children One of the e , ’ has declass ee s a daughter, become , the phra e which Pari s ians apply to what they feel to be an abnormal amount of immorality . Before w e left Paris that spring I s a w the s E mperor and E mpres again , for my brother and I went to a review at Longchamp s . I t wa s a beauti s s ful cene in a beautiful etting , all the more s o as s the troops reviewed were exclu ively cavalry . The E mpres s on hors eback charmed me far more than a s She had done in her Sunday bonnet , and for the was - Emperor , if he Stumpy and common looking his s o on foot , he was a demigod on charger , the s s s o s Sight of thi overeign , uperbly mounted and s s o s urrounded by brilliant a taff, haunted my

‘ memory long after his defeat and surrender at

Sedan . I never, of course , heard any good of him

84 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

s s e e his s on die the E mperor of Rus ia to , in N ice , was s who driven by a noble Poli h refugee , was

his P L M . earning living on the . . . Railway The lady added that “ judgment had come up into the hous e of the kin There was some mu s ic in

e s God or Poland . the evening , and t y all ang f This was not my only excurs ion into the Poli s h s e e S a n u s zko world of Pari . I had heard from H l ne g that a s ale was to take place at the HOt e l Lambert M rs for the beneﬁt of the poorer refugees . Reeve s and I went to it , and the scene left uch a profound impression on me that I tried to reproduce it many es year s later in the pages of B lu e Ros . I did not s e e as e e anyone there beautiful as H l ne , but I s remember the great gloomy hotel in the i land , and the s ense of public and private trials lived through it s s s in ombre room , with that melancholy picture ’ es c l e h nneu s on the wall of the a i r d o r. I t hows Christ pointing to his wounds “ in the house of H is s s ! s friend , those which are , ala alway the most painful of all ! I do not know if much money was made at the sale , for it was only to be formally s opened on the following day . I aw ladies busy s articles de ine unpacking screens and pillow , and p c s and many patheti bunches of wedding ring , sent in by poor Polish women who had nothing else t o

- . s sell I left a loui with one of the stall keepers , and old Prin ce s s Adam Czartoryski 1 was s o pleas ed it s he s with that sent me a little pair of Sleeve link , of s made U kraine gold , which I Still posse s .

We left Paris with great regret , were only a s couple of day in London , and then Kate and I went down to N e ws t e ad Abbey to s pend a delight w was ful eek with M r and M rs Webb . I feeling

1 the ce A a za t s was s o ee Widow of Prin d m C r ory ki , who d ply attache to th s eth s d e Empre s E lizab of Ru s ia. PARIS UNDER TH E SECON D EMPIRE 85 very weak and poorly , but that did not prevent it s s Sherwood and dukerie being enchanting , and our taking drives every day . We were very kindly s s aw it s a d received at Thor by , and great oaks , n s e e went another day to Clumber, and a little of ’ s the Duke of Portland s water meadow , and of the o s : outside of his h u e only the facade of Welbeck , while we were burning with curiosity to see the s ubterranean room s and the riding school ! A s for “ ’ s s N ewstead it elf, repentant H enry pride , as it ha s it s been called , we revelled in its beauty and in s one legend , for if H enry built the Abbey as an s a expiation of the murder of Thoma Becket , his another H enry , after attack on the monasteries , “ gave the house and land s to the little Sir John Byron with the long beard ” whose picture hangs

- s a w in the morning room . I n thi w y N e s t e ad came ’ s s into the pos ession of the poet family , though ’ his s s owing to father s impecunious circum tance , and t o the fact of his mother being a Scotti s h his heiress , but little of youth can have been spent Gi ht in this place . I have seen g (which belonged to Mrs Byron), and I have seen , in papers in ’ 1 General Frank Russell s possession , all the sordid details of the family quarrels of Lord Byron ’s parents and of a dismal life in Aberdeen , when the contrast between its grey and windswept streets and the

s - Gi ht turnip ﬁeld and ash trees of g , with beautiful

N ewstead , must have been bitter indeed . The chapel at N ewstead has been restored by the

Webbs , and there they gave decent burial to the

Skull which Lord Byron had desecrated . They

1 A e at on e e e a a s s e t e M . P G n r l Fr nk Ru ll of d n , im . , and a s ta att a é e a e P a l o mili ry ch in B rlin , m rri d hilipp , younger a t e th e ate Rt . e a e e cas t e . An e d ugh r of l . H on H nry B illi of R d l lder f s s e A e w as t s tee t o th e H . M rs m e Ru ll of d n ru on Byron , Gordon of i G g ht . 86 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME sent for a prie s t from Nottingham (whose Mass w a s s served by Alastair Fra er of Lovat), after R I . . which a requiem w as sung . . P They did this becaus e they had been assured that s o long as the w as f s s monk of ended by the mi u age of his Skull ,

Jane Webb would not have an heir , and the place 5 11 would not descend from father to 0 . Jane did

give birth ﬁrst to one boy and then to a second , ! o s but alas that m nk must till bear a grudge , one

trouble after another overtook the family , and on N e ws t e ad has not gone from father to s . One of the things that charmed us most there

was the quadrangle by moonlight . Cleared of s s ruin , and of everything gloomy , all its open space s s s were full of hyacinths and tulip , while up tair the wall s of the quadrangle were covered with prints s w a s and drawing , and there a wealth of tapestries in the different suites of room s that are known a s “ the lodgings of the different E nglish kings who lain w s d e t e a . had , at one period or another, at N A prop os of the uniformity of the doors and of the arrangement of the s e suites on all the four

sides of the quadrangle , Baron Huddleston told me of an incident which he de s cribed to me a s “ the only true ghost story that he c ould vouch ” w a 1 for . I t fell on this y : Colonel Wildman had e w s t ea d quite recently purchased N when he met , s has in H anover Square , a friend who e name call escaped me , and whom I must X . On being his congratulated on purchase , Colonel Wildman “ replied : Yes ; and I am ju s t going down there is with my lawyer , Mr Lushington , for there still o s a go d deal of busines to wind up . Would you care t o have a look at the place ? It would be

1 e c a a a e La M a a et ha te s Colon l Ri h rd Wildm n m rri d dy rg r C r ri , a hte the ss d ug r of Earl of Wemy . PARIS UNDER TH E SECOND EMPI RE 87 s n omething of a picnic , for everythi g is in the is s rough , and Lady Margaret at Go ford for the IS : present . I t an easy journey you take the Mail , M ans ﬁeld s by Nottingham , to Woodhou e , and I ’ can send to meet you there . I can t answer for o the cook , but there is a decent bottle of p rt , or ” two . c X . ac epted the friendly invitation , and ﬁve days later found himself at table with the Colonel and with M r Lushington In what us ed to be Lord ’ Byron s dining room , full of spider legged Sheraton ’ furniture . About ten o clock X . felt sleepy, took o a bedro m candle , and went upstairs to bed .

About eleven M r Lushington did the same , leaving Colonel Wildman to lock away the papers which s they had been con idering. Presently the door O s s s pened and the lawyer, till i n evening dre , w as entered . H e pale , and the candle In his hand ’ a s shook Leporello s does in the play , when he is s terriﬁed by the peech of the stone Commandant . “ What is the matter ? ” ’ I don t feel very well , Colonel .

H ave some brandy , my dear fellow . w a s The brandy swallowed , but the patient “ a s as remained pale and uneasy before . I n fact , wo s my dear Colonel , I think it uld be far wi er for s me to return to town at once . Could you end round to the stables and have me taken a s far a s M an s ﬁeld- Woodhouse ? And from that I could catch the Mail to London . “ ! w I never heard such a thing Why , our ork ”

is s . here , yours and mine , only ju t begun “ That 13 where it is . but I cannot sleep another night 1n thi s hous e . “ God bless my s oul ! What ails you ?

The place does not suit me . I t must be 88 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME t who haunted , and that comes ex ra hard on a man ” knows as much of the Byron family as I do . “ ” The Byrons be hanged , for a bad lot .

o . To cut a long story Sh rt , Colonel I had just gone up to my room that ? I know , but what then O I pened my door, and there , on my pillow , lay a horrible apparition . Lady Byron ? By J ove ! — ’ N o ! a man s face with all the worst passions

- stamped on it . Then a weird looking ﬁgure t o ! appeared rise from the bed , and I ﬂed And I e t ck w really must g the Mail ba to town . I t ould kill me to sleep another night here . I t was horrible ! quite horrible ! t o o At hat m ment the do r opened again , and in s s - o s s wa s dre ing g wn and lipper X . entered . H e c deadly pale , and his bedroom andle also shook ’ and guttered like Lep orello s . ” ? s What next a ked Colonel Wildman . — ” “ —t o ou X I come to to ask y , stammered if it would be possible to send round to the stables .

I t is very late , but if I could only be sent as far as M a ns ﬁe ld - o c Wo dhouse , I could atch the Mail next —I o morning, and return to town c uld not possibly Sleep another night in this h ouse ! “ But that is what Mr Lushington has just t old me . What the devil is the matter with you ” b oth ? “ tt Ma er cried X . There is plenty the t matter wi h my room , or rather with this unh oly house ! ” “ Ah ! I f all t ales are true that is by no means ” unlikely ; but what has happened to you ? ” A S o w t t o you kn w, I en early bed . Ou 1te s o PARIS UNDER TH E SECOND EMPIRE 89 “ ’ And I don t mind adding that , before retiring ” s ! to re t , I said my prayers

Good ! Very proper indeed .

s s n o w . I fell a leep , and lept till O n waking I ’ was horriﬁed to s e e a man s ﬁgure at the foot of his s s s my bed . O n face all the wor t pa ions were s Stamped . I rai ed myself in bed and the apparition s ! was s vani hed I in the dark , but I crambled into some garments to come down and tell you that I ” mu st positively return t o town ! “ Colonel Wildman burs t out laughing . You

c . a s have seen ea h other You , Lushington , Sleepy X ’ s . as an owl , have mistaken your room for . All the doors of all the suites in the quadrangle ’ s s o X s upstair are alike , you went into . room by mistake and s cared him out of his ﬁrst Sleep and his s . s out of wit You have simply een one another . The Byron tragedies have nothing at all to do with

X. s s it , but you , , had better al o have ome brandy and water ! C H APT E R V I I

L TT R FROM N C 1 86 - 1 86 E E S I E , 4 5

[M i s s Demps ter suffered much from the cold and damp of her H ighland home , and was glad to accept the invitation of M rs J ames Knox 1 to spend the winter of 1 864 with her at Nic e ]

HOT L C VI N I C E HAU N, E, d a nu a7 1 6 3r j y 8 5 . M Y E N LE D AR U C , I o w e you a let ter in return for the s s plea ant one you wrote me from Ca tle Leod , s o to - day I will give you an account of the s c s Christmas Eve ervi e at the Rus ian Church , Galit z me which may interest you . Princess called s c for me at seven , and the ervi e lasted till half pas t nine . The church is an upper room well furni s hed and the high altar is in the iconostase apse behind a screen , or of which the arches are covered with Byzantine saints , painted on a gold ground . I n the open space the service

- is chanted at a reading desk , and there are groups s ain of candle on the movable altar , on which the p is b nit . é laid There three candles burn , and there the religious picture is placed to be kissed by the congregation . The E mpress has a chair and is s carpet , and the service more ornately rituali tic than the Roman Catholic one . I t is read in

1 M rs a es nte Ta s a e th H . e J m Knox , ylor of Bifron , m rri d Col on . n h a a e s x, s o t e I st E a . T e J m Kno of rl of R nfurly h ir only child, w s M r A Emily, a s D undas of rni ston .

92 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME s h e touched the ground with her forehead , then s he rising laid her hand on the altar, and kissed the picture : her example being followed by the

greater part of the congregation , including my “ ” was companion . Allelujah then sung, and the

crowd knelt throughout instead of standing . The Sign of the Cross is different in the Rus s ian Church

from what it is in the Latin . The people touch

with two ﬁngers their foreheads , breast and left a s and right shoulders , bowing they do this . After ' Benediction the prie s t s s hook hands with the little

Grand duchess , and the congregation dispersed ,

o o t w o s . having sto d , or knelt , for m re than hour is Princess Galitzine not pretty , but She is a

s - pleas ing little person . H er hu band is aide de

- camp to the Czar, and very good looking , and has

taught me to dance the mazurka . She has no name ! When he married her She w a s called K is s eleff f o c who , r m an old Prin ess had adopted re her , but when one looks at her position , and members the exclusiveness of the Russian Upp er Ten w as o , and that she ad pted by a very great ’ lady of the E mpress suite and that she w as next s s on o s be towed on the of a n ble hou e , you can at s S he lea t guess her parentage , and explain how s brought with her no name , but a plendid portion s t in money ; in fact , gossip aver that she migh ik la na o ev . write herself, Olga N I amused myself well at the Prefecture this

. I c o week dan ed with Albert de R thschild , Raglan s Somerset , Cowper U nwin , M . de La sence , M . ’ w Procureur General Fontanes , ith the (who hails B orde au x M o nbris o n from xwith M . de , and with

a Picardy squire M . de B . You will laugh , but next day this s quire (rather a cub) waited on M rs Knox t o ask for the h onour of my hand ! She 1 86 - 1 86 LETTERS FROM N ICE . 4 5 93 had great difﬁculty in keeping her countenance when from his pocket he drew a s lip of paper on which were enrolled the names of ﬁve young ladies s cc in society with their addres es , and a su inct s w as as account of their fortune . M ine , he under etite mais s zlre ! M rs stood , p , When Knox told “

: . u s me I laughed , and said M de B . must take ’ for the ﬁve fooli s h virgins ! but I don t think any one of us is foolish up to the point of marrying him Thi s is my s econd conquest ! for an I talian who s aw doctor , me at a wedding , came to Mrs k “ Knox next day t o as for my hand . I have a ” beetle s he leetle s o ! , and has a , it will do very well That w as I time I angry , and am terriﬁed of meeting the animal at some corner of the s treet !

n uar 3 1 s t f a y .

I n these carnival days , when we are either c Hashed B all dan ing or talking , as Bessie Dundas

used to call it , I can only write to you about balls . as s The one at the Villa Carlone w e pecially pretty, ' s M rs n ee o is and the hoste s , Baird , G ff, a peculiarly s s lively and ladylike woman . The ho t call kin s o with the Baird of N ewbyth , but th ugh good is looking and gentlemanlike n ot lively . I danced s eleven of the twelve dance , and had thirteen s i o is partner , owing to the N c fashion that another as k dancer may come up , make you a bow , and for

a turn during the valse . I never had such health , s and I uppose I ought to be glad to be in this air , s a s and not in Rome , where they y that even trong

people feel their mus cular s ystem délabré . We are

bidden to a Mat inee at the Prefe ct u re next week .

I do not care for dancing before dinner, for my

- bonnet strings make me hot , and dancing makes t ea k t ! me hotter, and ma es me hottes 94 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME Madame Pantaleone tell s me they have not made s s u s a any plan for the mmer , and truth to y their plans are not easy to make . The Liberal doctor is a s s he s , you know , exiled from Rome , and tell me that they are al s o forbidden to touch Au s trian is ground . Luckily their home at Macerata on neutral ground , since to have to wander with three rather lively boys under twel ve years of age would be ’ Pa n t ale o ne s s trying . Madame account of Macerata , s s s s and of the live of their pea antry , are mo t amu s vil iatu a ing . Her is a case of a legg r in provincial s I taly, and the manner and customs are , to say the s lea t of it , peculiar. E very lady has her established s and recogni ed adorer , and if one lady were to ’ s ro ert hu sbands interfere with the other p p y , the would have to take up the matter They meet in ’ s s each other s garden in the warm evening , and s : dance and ﬂirt , and eat ice they have a little ’ s ca es opera hou e , and the men have their f , but ’ s Pa n t ale on e s u n book , except in Dr house , are s Gior known , and life goe on like in a picture of ’ io n e s . s s g All the girl are brought up in convent , a nd s s all the boy by priest , and Madame Pantaleone s s v c call her neighbour miracles of acan y . H er own m a rria e is g a happy one , and the boys are lively and clever.

2 th M arch 7 .

is s The cold miserable . The hill are white with s s now , and I have a ore throat . At Nervi there is s s a foot of now , and the mail came in covered s is metre with it , and at Lyon I hear it a in depth . “ Albert de Roth s child writes that Paris is fas t ”

s o . . c bound in mi ery and ir n , and M r B D de lares he was never s o cold in his life as on his j ourney ’

. to N ice I don t think him particularly pleasant, 1 86 —- 1 86 LETTERS FROM NICE , 4 5 95

a s is but he having , or has had the jaundice , I

suppo s e w e mu s t make allowances for him . We s M i- Care e danced la t night for the m , hoping to s s keep ourselve warm , but our chaperon , Sitting in s fur, velvet and ealskins , were to be pitied , while the Ru s sians pres ent might have fancied them s elves A s s back in their dear native country . regard s s the dancing partner , I sometimes wi h y had Stayed s s s there , for the Ru sian Fleet end a number of onste s s s is m r into Society . The Navy in Ru ia not s good style , and these ofﬁcers are all hideou , and ma l ev IS s él és . Nothing more curiou than the con s tra t between them and the French N avy, and the two French lieu ten ants de vaisseau that I know look like princes be s ide thes e Kalmucks . Equally s s is curiou , of cour e , the difference between an s s bri a de m a n E ngli h Guard man , or riﬂe g , and a Chasseu r de la Garde I m eri ale French p Altogether , the types of men and women in a cos mopolitan n a erie s mé g like thi are very diverting , and I often s s wish I could draw them , and carry away ketche of the kindreds and tongues that I meet here .

nd a April.

is a nd . Everything packed , leave in two hours Las t night we went to a prima sera at dear old M ’ rs Arabin s . H aving danced for a whole winter we declared that w e really mu st keep it up to the end ! M rs Arabin (at nearly eighty) was good u s s s s natured , and let pu h a ide the chair , and her nephew , Horace Rumbold , equally good natured , s s played val e , and we danced for an hour and a

. wa s s his has half I t rather a wa te of talent , for he his a good voice and better method , and Singing has been one of the delights of my winter in

N ice . . M rs Arabin had an interesting friend 96 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME s a a s t ying with her , not young either, you will believe when I tell you that Madame Paolucci is the widow of one of the General s who met and s s s His was ma tered Napoleon in Ru ia . policy to burn crops and hous es in front of the French line

of march . I n this way the army of Napoleon was w a s deprived of food and shelter all the y to Mo cow , and when it reached that town , hoping for good

s it s - Ro s t o chine winter quarter , Governor General , p , s e t had it on ﬁre . C H APT E R VI I I

ITALY IN 1 866 - 1 86 7

’ F st a e the s es ROM ir n m of world n am , E

S W IN B URNE .

After the sale of Skibo it was settled that w e s as Should go abroad for three month , starting soon a s I w a s strong enough to travel : and that our s s s winter should be pent in Rome . Whil t till in London I remember that w e went out to Chi s wick 1 to s ay good - bye to the Dowager Duches s of Suther wa s land . She then too unwell to go farther from s s Its her doctor than to thi pretty old hou e . tall s s s elm , its brimming river , and its picture que barge delighted me , and I am very glad that we went , w Since we never s a that truly great lady again . w a s s s s She till dres ed in white , though Sicknes had bowed her ﬁgure , and age had wrinkled her face , s h e s s w a s yet never poke of her suffering , and Still s s the ame kind and graceful ho te s s . H er rooms s were full of ﬂower , arranged , not for their rarity ,

rs . s s but for their colou for example , tall Chine e jar standing again s t a pale green wall held mas s e s of s s O ie S s tho e carlet p pp that have big black heart , whil s t again s t a gold background there were placed the longes t purple feather hyacinth s that ever I u s s s have s een . She Showed s ome of the new de ign ’ (that She never tired of making)for M inton s pot t e rie s w e s s , and left with the greate t fear for her

! s s . health , which alas were to be only too oon reali ed 1 Chi s wick H ou s e was famou s as t he re s id ence of t h e wicke d E arl an d te ss S e s et had ee e t th e e th e Coun of om r who b n prov d guil y of murd r, in

e S as O e . F a es H a s t tes s Tow r, of ir Thom v rbury r nc ow rd , ﬁr Coun of

E s s e an d t e tess S e s et e t e e s ace 1 6 2. x , h n Coun of om r di d h r in di gr , in 3 G 98 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME Aunt Dempster al s o went one morning to s e e the s s young Duche s . She found the new mistre s of S tafford H ou s e much excited over the chris tening s s h e of her little girl , the ﬁr t baby that had had for 1 w a s about ten years . I t named Alexandra , and Dr Cumming had jus t performed the chri s tening c eremony , to the delight of the mamma , who “ was averred that Dr Cumming quite apostolic , and that in fact he never s aid anything with which ” she did not perfectly agree ! A S Counte s s of o w n s Cromartie in her right , thi young lady had the pre s entation to over a dozen livings in the countie s s s o s he w a s s of Ros and Cromarty , that perhap s right in cultivating the friend hip of Dr Cumming , s his is but her e timation of him , and of prophecies , s open to question ; in fact , the prophecie have all “ ” s been di proved by Time which trieth Truth . Our tour through France w a s full of s unshine and

. s a n of interest We went to Tour , d to Bourges , to a s Périgueux and Montauban . At Agen I w s o HOt e l d u it s delighted with the Petit St J ean , with proprietors , with their pretty daughter, their garden and the wide river , that I transferred them to my s s ﬁr t novel , publi hed later, by Smith E lder , The Hotel du Petit S A S s t jean . the autumn day s s s s clo ed in , we turned our tep northward , and s w e cros ing the Auvergne , reached Lyons by way E of St tienne . Aix - le s - Bains wa s a place to which I los t my is heart at ﬁrst Sight , and it one to which I have is n ow often and often returned , though it spoilt by

1 a A e a a Leves on e b e a e L dy l x ndr Gow r, who c m a nurse at S t ’ a t e s an d e at A e e a e H A B r holom w , di d rgyl Lodg , C mpd n ill . t th e h mom en t of e r death Lord Archibald C ampbell h ea rd th e hou s e an d a e es t s th e was e e s e g rd n r ound wi h mu ic, origin of which n v r di cov red . He s ea e the a e and th e tw a s rch d g rd n o l ne , bu t no mu s i ci an s were ever t ace t o acc t th e i r d oun for s tra n s .

1 00 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

to General Leboeuf, and of his giving the bride to ’ ‘ I taly (in the shape of three commissioners ) had ot o s o not been accomplished when we g to Ver na ,

things did not always move smoothly there . O ne night a brawl beg an in a café under our windows between some Croatian soldiers and a populace s that s h owed its feeling too freely . Chairs ﬂew

about , shots were ﬁred , and martial law had to be

proclaimed next morning . We awoke to ﬁnd the s bridges and quares full of pickets of armed Croats , roba and all the forbidden banished from the Shops . Even the Veronese praised General J akobs for his o good sense . H e has certainly during his l ng o c occupation of the town , and in the c nstru tion o f c its many frowning forts , won the genuine respe t a e ti n r n r of the inhabitants . Their f c o no S t a ie o c can ever hope to win , and no respe table woman O in Verona has ever pened her house , or received s at her table any of the military. Mo t of the old Verone s e families are self- exiled on account of their s is pre ence . The present bishop a Canossa , and his people still occupy the old Palazzo Canossa in im o ve r the city , but they are poor, having been p ’ s h d i e by Napoleon s wars . We heard a good deal

of the Canossa from our friend , the Canonico ’ l who Giul ari , is a relation of the Bishop s and who c explained the absen e from this beautiful city, not

only of an upper class , but even of a good middle s clas . I ndeed it wo uld be hard to s e e a poorer or more squalid population than that which in the cafés and a t the stall s of the chestnut - sellers and knife - grinders has to mix a little with t he active o looking Cr at s .

s s e e u s The Canonico come to every day, and t w brings us the la est news of the to n . H e says ITALY IN 1 866 - 1 867 1 01

is t the soil of this valley poor , and tha the wine s leaves something to be des ired . The suffering and domes tic miseries of the inhabitant s during these campaigns of independence have been very s great . Our Canonico has had two brothers elf exiled from Verona through the Austrian rule , and they , being marked men , found it impossible for one o s o them , even for day , to enter Ver na , as to close the eyes of their dying mother . She , poor ‘ s lady, died without hearing any of the Song s before Sunri e , or seeing the dawn of a better day in the Veneto , or of safety for her children . There is who s o a fourth brother , doe live in Ver na , but he is s eparated from a s on whom he brought u p h as as an engineer , because that young man gone out with Garibaldi . The Canonico calls the turn of events which has s urrendered Venetia to I taly ro ria isericordia di Dio a p p m , Since no army , in his opinion , could force the Quadrilatero , and he considers that it is only the severe blow lately inﬂicted on her by Prussia that has moved Au s tria to consent to this arrangement .

General Leboeuf is to arrive from Venice to morrow to give away the bride !

o t the From our balc ny , which looked in o court yard of the hotel , H elen and I were able to see s t s thi ceremony , which las ed les than twenty minutes . First , there arrived General Leboeuf,

- a rather vulgar looking man , though much brushed up for the occas ion . H e took his place at the top w as s of the hall . H e oon joined by the Italian commi s sioners entrusted to receive from Leboeuf the keys of the city and of the forts . They were

- o oo o . go d l king young men , in blue unif rms Last 1 02 THE MANN ERS OF MY TIME

s w of all , there talked in General Jakobs , ith a very ld s . O mall staff, all in white That the ﬁne soldier suffered keenly I am convinced : his tall ﬁgure was his s c bent , mou ta he drooped , and no one could have got through the ceremony more quickly than

he managed to do . H e simply gave the great k s ey to Leboeuf, and then withdrew a few paces , “ while these ins ignia of his long responsibility were who handed over to the I talian ofﬁcer, certainly 1 gras ped them with a visible joy .

The servants of this house are one and all anti is clerical . The hotel not like the one we were s in at M ilan , a rendezvou for Kossuth and other

foreign revolutionaries , but the people here judge their clergy s olely from the point of view of the Risor i ento s g m , and even the Bi hop , all Canossa as is s he may be , not too well poken of, and as for s t o o the priest , people complain that there are

many of them , and that they are not all good s Giu lia ri nationalist . For the Canonico they have is nothing but good to say, but that not on account s of his moral qualities , or of his private virtue , but because he once got a month ’s arrest from old ‘ ’ ‘ Ra det s ky : and of such (for the Vero nese) are the kingdom of heaven !

o We were very sorry to leave Ver na , which in s s w e thi lovely weather look beautiful , and felt for it s poor General J akobs , whose hours within walls

are now numbered .

1 e a s a one da I as se a e th e A ch Wh n in C rl b d, y, p d on bridg r duke A a lbert w lking wi th G e n eral J akob s . Th ey mu st h ave h ad m any s e s e a an d Cu s to zza an d e I h ad th ouv nir of V ron of , in common , wh n e eet the A e a es h e t me t at honour of m ing rchduk in C nn , old h poor e e a a bs not s e the e ea e a G n r l J ko did long urviv gri f of l ving V ron .

1 04 TH E MANNERS OF MY TIME 1 ing the winter . Their baby fell ill , and over this 2 s mall morsel of humanity (about three months old), there began a friendship which has lasted for over s o s o forty years , and which has become dear and w a s s valuable to me . Lady Acton exces ively a s as s s s pretty , pretty happine and pearl necklace , and marvellous fair hair could render a young

r . s a s mar ied woman Sir J ohn , the kinde t well as s the most learned of men , lent me book , and H elen and I went occas ionally to s pend an hour with them s s after dinner, to be put to ﬂight ometime by the a s s appe rance of a cardinal , who e servant , cushion

- and red umbrella duly adorned their ante room . The E ngli s h colony that winter w as an unusually s s s intere ting one . The Duke and Duche of Argyll s h e s s were there , , like her mother , very enthu ia tic

about I talian liberty . They had with them their “ s s on s t w o elde t and their elde t girl , creatures in ” the hues of youth who looked as if they were ’ angels s tepped out of some picture of Gu e rcino s s by mistake . I n contra t with their radiant youth s o fulness were Lord and Lady Cardwell , far gone down into the vale of years that they were truly s f glad to re t from o ﬁcial wear and tear . Then s s there were the Arthur Rus ell , who came after s s s s Chri tma , and Mr Odo Ru ell , training for the part that he was to play later, when the Vatican it s s Council held Sitting . Above all , there were Mrs — s Mr and Gladstone the mini ter , out of ofﬁce wa s - s over busy in buying book , and in reading

Homer, and , albeit a Liberal in matters of I talian

1 S E e c D a e A t a t . A e a M P ir John mm ri h lb rg c on , B r , of ld nh m , . . for ’ e t a e h is s a e E s e d Arco a e Bridg nor h , m rri d cou in , M ri uphro yn V ll y, c eate I s r d t B aron Act on . 2 H . a a A t a e e e H e e t s on on M ri c on , m rri d Colon l Bl i rb r , of John H e e t a a t an d A st a a t e and rb r of Ll n r h , of ugu , d ugh r h eires s of Lord and a a L dy Ll nover . ITALY IN 1 866 - 1 867 1 05

not c the politics , always able to resist the harm of cardinals ! Then the re was the Master of Lovat and his newly married wife , Alice Blundell , a representative s E nglish Catholic , and a cou in of the Vaughans ; ’ s s n with Simon si ter Charlotte , ewly married to

s o . Sir Matthew Sausse , al on their wedding tour M rs Horn old habitu s s o M r and y were old é , and E s m ad were the H enry Walpoles and Mr e e . We s the s had al o our friends , Edmund Waller , and

- s our kinsfolk , the Hamilton Fergu ons , and the No rt he s ks , and Dr Grant , of the Scotch College , who tried to convert H elen and me . To the same end laboured Monsignore H oward , whom we had s who known as an ofﬁcer in the Life Guard , and s ciceron e here proved a mo t kind , and M r Barrett , a brother of Mrs B rowning, and Mr and Lady

Charlotte Locker , with their dear little girl 1 Eleanor , a host in themselves . Out of the Villa Giulia came the old M iss Haig s of B e me rs yd e : A rbu thnot s in the Via Gregoriana lived the , who s s o gave pleasant parties , and Mi Lockw od , who ’ knew everyone . H elen and I didn t go into any of the great Roman houses , for our friendship with Donna Gwendolina Doria did not begin till many s year later, but we had one or two Roman dancing s s aw s partner , whom we also at the meet . Their s s ou r~ e ars s name plea ed , and their way of living s u s amu ed s not a little . When I a ked one of them “ : La attina what he did all day long, he replied m prendo u n p oco di cioccolata poi mi rip oso tu tto io w a s s o n il g rno. Another the younger of a s on s a s younger of a great hou e , and such he had

the right to rooms in the family palace , eke to a

1 Now M rs August in e Birrell 2 a e a a t S o ma lia and D e t e c M rri d Gi n Luc , Coun of g pu y for L c o . 1 06 TH E MANNERS OF MY TIME

ﬂ t viz . s o s trattamen o many dishes a day for him elf, and so many more for his s ervant . H e had rooms

on a balcony, and there he carefully cultivated two “ ” - s s camellia tree in pots . Thi real estate brought him in the magniﬁcent annual income of three s a s s pound , the ﬂori ts bought the red and white

- ﬂowers from him for the Roman dinner tables .

We had many friends among the artists , Mr S haks ea re a p Wood among others , who arr nged for our seeing the statues in the Vatican by torch ow s light . I kn that thi is the correct thing to do I in Rome , but am heretic enough to think that the statues do not gain much by this way of seeing s s them . The torches blaze and moke , the effect s s o t o are extravagant, tartling and nearly lurid as lead to that exaggeration which is utterly foreign

to the Greek mind , and to their art under cloudless s Skie . ow t t There was one thing , h ever, ha evening t o that was most original , and most true the nature — wa s of the person and that M r Gladstone . H e was h s s i . at ﬁne t H omer in hand , he talked on in

a frenzy of classical allusions , quotations and as s e rt io ns . H is hat went almost off his head as t he paced the gallery with rapid s rides , while his beautiful and sonorous voice overpowered every h . w o body, and ﬁlled the place Lady Cardwell , was on one side of him , looked fairly cowed by such a drenching oratory and by an enthusiasm

which She was certainly not ﬁtted to follow , or to

share . The Duchess of Argyll hung on his words ’ s he with rapture . I don t think knew a word of ’ — Greek , but that didn t signify had he talked in Double Dutch it would have given her as much s ! M cCallu m plea ure Mohr , in the background , o S hakS e are looked frankly bored , and po r p Wood

1 08 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME would take me ou t there and leave me in charge of her coupé and servants , while She rode away on her horse Gallant , over the rolling country, starred as it then was by the ﬁrst white crocuses c of the spring . For the spring had ome , and we s had een the French ﬂag hauled down , and the “ French t roops le a ve Rome . You will have us ” s ! s - back again cried the e laughing little piou pious , s who had for so long , with their joke and thei r “ s s poodle , and their bottles of wine , cha ed black ” o wn s care from their mind , if not from the Roman

s . c s s street The popula e , not l iking thi la t j oke , retorted I f you do come again you will come like ” s ! the moon , in four quarter I n truth there was o no l ve lost on either Side , yet all the same , there — were s ad scene s at the st ation Angela and s N unzia and Mariuccia obbing , and begging to be allowed to accompany their sweethearts on board Gamer Pana a the and the m , now lying in Civita

- c . s Vec hia But the ca t iron colonels , with the - : s o cast iron faces , would not hear of such a thing bitter were the tears Shed over the p e rﬁdy of Pierre and s J ule , while the streets of Rome knew no more either the Duke of Montebello or the more Gu i o n s popular General j , and after all thi agitation the black party and the white party were alike left s s r s to prepare for po ible and ve y important change . We could not leave Rome without seeing the w H oly Father . I think it as dear Simon Fras er for s A who arranged our pre entation to him . t any rate , one afternoon a big card arrived , naming ou r a day for audience , and we hastened to order s black veils before being presented to Piu I X . de ri u eu r They are g , but when we dined with the Ho rn olds y the night before , and I asked several good Catholics whether we were to wear gloves ITALY IN 1 866 - 1 867 1 9 9

c os . or not , I ould get no p itive answer At the E nglish Court gloves must be worn : on the ot her —s o hand , the —kings of France long as there were any kings would no t permit a glove t o be worn by a woman . I n the presence of the Blessed o Sacrament , and at H oly Communion , nly the hangman is requested to keep his hands covered but none of these were cases in point ! And as w as no information obtainable , we did as we Should have done at Court , we put on our gloves , and hoped for the best . There were not many audi e n ce s s o that morning , we had not long to wait before being sh own into the Presen ce . I n spite of s my lame knee , I managed my three curtsie , and then found myself face to face with H is Holiness . His s is face , be it aid , a very pleasant one , the s features are good , and the expre sion full of benignity, as it ought to be . Time and trouble and treachery have not left any puckers of peevi s h s s nes , or any shadow on it , and the smile is both a s humorous and sweet . The conversation w very

. His stereotyped Then turning to my aunt , “ s : s H oliness aid The e are your daughters , ? “ a! ” madame Si , Santit she replied , with con i v ct io n . So far all had gone well , but the Pope next asked her if She meant to leave her daughters His in Rome . I imagine that H oliness meant was it her intention to marry u s to Roman s husbands , but my aunt , scenting either uch a s s horrible contingency , or, worse till , a Popi h ou t : a! intrigue , cried vehemently No , no , Santit s that The Pope , very little accu tomed to mono t syllable , smiled , and hen with both hands he gave s o her a good pull to help her to rise , and the audience ended .

We were now to leave Rome . We duly drank 1 1 0 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

s at the fountain of Trevi , to en ure a return to the has E ternal City , an event that unfortunately e w e nev r happened to me , and then went to a ball at the Barberini Palace to s ay good - bye s to all s of our friend . The beauty the evening was a 1 who M iss Tucker , an American , came there with 2 s her hand ome aunt, Madame H offmann , but the s ens ation of the evening was the engagement of s s Prince Teano to M i Ada Wilbraham . We dined w e with Miss H osmer for the last time , and left by

the night train . The late moon made the U mbrian m u s s . s Cl t u n hill look beautiful We cros ed y , and s s on a raw , mi ty morning pas ed the lake of ’ s Trasimene , and after a three month absence , we s 2 th found ourselve again in Florence , 5 February 1 86 7 .

1 Now M rs Gordon Clarke . 2 I was afterwards t o s ee a good deal of M ad am e Hoffmann at a es e S h e w as th e h os 1table s t e s s th e at ea d e la C nn , wh n p mi r of Ch u B H r s a w a. e a at e D es e as e te t a occ hu b nd . n iv of r d n , conn c d wi h a New Y th e a e w a s s e e a s b nk in ork , of which n m con id r d ynonym

e and a t . Of t e tw o a t e s one a for ord r honour bili y h ir d ugh r , m rri e d th e a S turm n and t h e t e e a th e B ron von , o h r, M dor , now widow of th e a s de es is th e est M rqui Mor , kind of my fri ends .

1 1 2 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

Gaza naire Monsieur g , the same who , as notary public , had superintended the Signatures the night ! s before . I t is not correct for friend to go to the civil s e e his ceremony , or for the bridegroom to bride S o again . this morning , at eleven , the Bishop of e s his M ade Fr ju , in ﬁne mitre , addressed her as oiselle m , though the law had known her to be M adame for the last t wenty - four hours !

We went early to the church , and had good ro w behind places in the _ the covered benches which were res erved for the nobles témoin s . The bride s s looked plain . Our E ngli h veil , which cover the face and eyes , is a prettier plan than the uncovered

- u s w a s face and the frizzed p head . Mas said after

- the ring and hand plighting . The whole thing

- who took three quarters of an hour , and then all were invited pas s ed through a narrow cobwebby ’ pass age to the big s acris ty (where the Bishop s vestments were being folded up), and where the vic s a ires were gos iping . We next reached the s s sacri ty or ve try, where the bride and bridegroom s té oins stood ide by side , with his m , and her parents , or de ju re parents and témoins . You shake hands with the bride , and bow to the bridegroom , and we s s who hook hand with the Duchesse de Luynes , t t who t s ac ed as her mo her , and invi ed the guest , and then having made a Sweeping bow to the noble t w s he s oin s e t . ém , e caped by other door The ’ s s s w as s Bi hop s di cour e poli hed and worldly , all t 1 s abou their families , and the ﬁne people pre ent s to wish them joy , and nothing was aid about duty , w as or sorrow , or love , or joy , and I rather ashamed lds mids Go . of it before some J ews , like the

I have a long letter from Sir William Gregory ,

1 Th e e e s e e th e a s d e Contades who was brid d c nd d from M rqui , e t i q X ﬁrs t Gov rnor of S rasburg afte r t s con ue st by Loui s IV . LETTERS FROM CANNES 1 1 3

is from Cairo . H e still full of Arabi , an d says that he is s ending another letter to The Times c about this agitation , whi h is ve ry different from the I ri s h one s ! His Galway tenants have till now

bu t s . been exemplary , they have just truck work s low They admit that his rent are , but the Land

League have forbidden them to pay them , and s l they are terriﬁed to be honest , even on the y . . was Lady Donoughmore here yesterday , and she no says there are rents for them In I reland , where things are at a pretty pass .

S u nda 1 th a nuar . y , 5 j y M Y EAR N LE D U C ,

Ye s terday morning broke very ﬁne .

At M r St . Loe Strachey appeared , and not long after came Lady Tavi s tock .

We had a very happy day at Var , and were

charmed with it and with the landscape . The “ beautiful fortiﬁed fenced city l ooked better

s - than ever . H elen ketched the gate way ; Lady s e ane t du Tavi tock did a view of St J Var , and

Mr Strachey and I explored the town . There never was a better companion than St Loe Strachey .

- s ‘ H e is about twenty three year of age , well read s e n thu s i and gentle , and con iderate , and full of as m for knowledge at it s sources : and if he is a good critic it is because he has a ju s t and true

. t o feeling for beauty N eedless say , that in his

- family he is a keen Liberal , but at twenty three

that does not mean party Spite , or mere love of

place , rather a young enthusiasm for freedom , and as s for the greatest good of all ; for , J owett ays , “ a young man is not worth Speaking to who 15 not

a Liberal ; just becaus e he is young . We found c c in a great vaulted pla e , now used as a afé , an H ’ 1 1 4 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME old man who took u s to see s ome ﬁne old stair s - s s s ca es and chimney piece , all ﬂag , and cannon ,

- s and medallions , and full bottomed wig , and carved s balustrades , with ﬂying dragon , and gothic lions , mounting guard where the du Ports and the

Villeneuves and B arcillon s used to come and go . I n one of these rooms Sixty couples could have stood up to dance . All these houses are now in of s a state dirt and di order, for which there are no words , and which one must know the Provencals s to believe . I a ked my young Liberal friend whether he thought that to provide a mediocrity s s s o of mind and manner , and even of want , was much better for the country than the exi s ten ce in s s s it of the greate t variety of ta tes and requirement . Nothing is more curious in the towns and cottages of these Provencal people than the absence of s is manufactured article . The lantern made of s u s e oiled paper . The few cord in are of twi s t ed

- horsehair, and the water bottle is a gourd . The mattresses are stuffed with the sheaths of the I ndian as s corn , regards the hard one , and with wool for

c - the softer ones . The sto kings are hand knitted , and in thi s wa y Shops are not required for anything except for coffee, and knives , onions , and coarse pottery . s s We went to tea with Lord Somer ye terday,

s - his s and aid good bye to pretty daughter . H e i an utterly delightful companion s o gentle and s o truly

s . s arti tic H e hates Gladstone, and say that Palmerston never prevaricated as much as this dreadful ideologist does . H e hopes that Glads tone is s failing , but till he says that , never since the Great Reform Bill troubles did the H ouse meet in such deadly encounter a s thi s Parliament will do in

. o February H e consoles himself that n thing lasts ,

1 1 6 TH E MANN ERS OF MY TIME things that this extraord—inary gifted being has got s o the country into , unless far as I reland was — o - concerned you were to tow it out int mid ocean , and let it Sink . wa s s M r Monteith of Carstairs here ye terday , s Vera is and expres ed his admiration for , which d his is eep on part , and he says it quite tearful on i the part of h s sweet wife . I said that if they went B lu e Ros es on to , his Florence would require - t two pocket handkerchiefs instead of one , for hat it s ad is really a business . All yesterday Cannes agitated itself with the rumours that the Société Francaise Lyonnai s e had t 1 broke , and tha H enri Rochefort had shot Gambetta s s in a duel . The ﬁrst of the e pieces of new is the o m re l ikely to be true , since their operations here bou levard have been extravagance itself, with a big ,

and traction engines , and electric lighting and fabulous prices paid for any ground that cros ses b u leva rd through the line of their o . I take it that c the ruin whi h did not come yesterday , as was s s rumoured , must come ome other day . The Fond c c de Fran e , expe ting the further polite attention of

M r Paul Bert , have been doing a gamble on their

own account in the U nion Générale Company . A certain Monsieur B ont ou t is the Law of this very s of o s big windle , which , three m nths ago , the share

were at a premium . The Marquis de Mores pulled off more than a million and a quarter of francs not s long ago . H ad he deferred till la t week , the result

would have been very different . There are many Ru e u in ca oi Q mp x in France just now . s Sunday and Monday were cold , ra ping days , t o s but I was out get oysters , and other thing for

1 a betta was s t not b H e c e t but a a his G m ho y nri Ro h for , by wom n , s mi tres s . LETTERS FROM CANNES 1 1 7 ’ d S h lik Mrs Holland s luncheon here to ay . e es s o P C conversation , I asked Sir M ontague Smith , . a s he and George Port l , to whom took a liking , his having known uncle . George is as full of is it paradoxes as an egg full of meat , and all did very well , as Sir Montague was an old acquaintance of Mrs Holland ’ s and an old friend of M rs George

P ortal . They sparred a l ittle about decisions in the Judicial Committee , but George cannot argue , t s he only le s off paradoxes like rocket , and Sir

Montague ended by saying quietly Well , it is not s s a s pos ible ei ther to y , or to refute , in one entence s s t o what it takes month to under tand , and get up ! ’ s s for statement in Court . Sir Montague be t story w as of Sir George Rose when dying . H e said he e felt faint and weak , and ask d for some wine or s brandy . The doctor aid his temperature was s o high , it would be better to make it water . N o , ” “ no , doctor , said the patient ; I am not going ” down to Gravesend by water ! To - morrow there is a matin ee dan sante at the ’ s Vallombrosas Con ulate , and an evening party at the , ’ s for their son wedding , for which they have sent us cards and which is to be on the 1 5th . H e marrie s s e M is M dora H offmann , a clever young American , w with a pretty proﬁle , hose parents live in the villa o that used to bel ng to S ir J ohn George Sinclair .

1 0th ar Febru y .

This is the thirty - eight h day with out one drop of w rain , I ﬁnd the dust ruinous to earing apparel . P 1 a o s o uff sent my slips about ten days g , I fancy my article will be out in April . H e says he read it s with the greatest pleasure and interest , and unle s c o co c o wa he uts off s mething in an un ns i nable y , I

1 Mr Henry Ree ve. 1 1 8 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

2 w e t e a ought t o get £ 8 for it . To day had with

The Rose Garden . M iss Peard , the author of She is s who s a plea ant woman , look to be about forty s ha s two . She reside in Torquay , and a mother

s . alive , who eems proud of her She is niece to the “ ’ Colonel Peard who was known as Garibaldi s ’ k Englishman . I told her how Auntie had li ed

her book , but grieved over the fate of Cartouche , and S he bids me s ay that She will never again kill

in . a dog any book , but will rather take a cat ’ O n Wednesday the party at Vallombros as was very pretty and Mademoiselle de S egar sang ’ B oz io s charmingly , with a voice like poor . Last night the s mart ball of the winter was at M rs ’ s s Schenley s , where some of the dre es were really

lovely . Bobby White is a great favourite with

everybody .

S aturda 1 8th y .

t wa Yes erday s delightful at Grasse . I took M iss Pérolle s Gage with me , and the came , and were , as

s k . s they alway are , very ind H e lent me book ,

and showed me papers . For more than ﬁve Pérolle s in hundred years these have lived Grasse ,

as notaries , or men of letters . H is wife , a Made m ois e lle o Maure , has pr perty also in Grasse , and

they married ; and here they are . O ne of the ” XIV papers I saw was Signed Louis by Louis . s I t was about a py , a Capuchin friar , supposed

to be hanging about Antibes . I saw the hotel ’ M ira beau s of bad sister . I t is a bit of Trianon ,

a white and gold interior ; and besides this , we visited several of the houses of the sixteenth t century, and a few remnants of the enth century

buildings . We are very pleased with a pret ty Mademo iselle

1 20 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME k s . girl in face , but not in figure She seems fran and affectionate , and is very, very clever . I am glad to find that Madeleine takes to her , and has had twelve or fifteen people to tea the other day s s to pre ent thi girl to her friends . ’ s s s c s Loui a Deni on ou ins , the Canterburys , are here , and Lady Canterbury had us hunted up and

- brought to her garden party yesterday . She is s lovely, which is always a pleasure at ﬁr t sight , whatever it may prove on further acquaintance . bella la testa ma vu ota Sometimes , you know , it is , Is s o 3 lintelletto. B ut that not bad as Madame F . t wo s t he the s o sons , more ickly one than other , “ ’ that a French lady de s cribed them thus : L nu no ’ ’ garde rien sur l estomac; l au tre no garde rien sur la oitrine et tou s les deu ardent tres eu dans la p , x g p

1 2 th M a rch.

t We had a very busy afternoon yesterday . Firs , ’ co c - c a n ert then a tea party , then a children s dan e ’ n who at the Duchesse de Luy es , has one every

. It is Saturday afternoon always pretty, and you could no t s e e more distinguished - looking girls t t han Lady Cons ance and Lady Blanche H arris , t o C ris and w o e . and the Bennet girls , I da and o B afiu elos c T nita is also very pretty , and Prin ess the Marguerite , daughter of the Duc de Chartres , c is a typical Prin ess , tall and blonde and gracious . t wo The little children have lovely manners , and seem to enjoy their party very much . All the w t wo Princesses in Cannes ere at it , Bourbons and ’ t wo d Orlea ns . 1 c - E dward R oss ame t o s e e us to day . I fear

1 The ch a ﬂe sh t Sc t a son M H at ss a mpion ri o of o l nd, of r or io Ro , s t s a well known por m n . LETTERS FROM CANNES 1 2 1

s s s Edward is far gone . H is eye are o glas y and - his have s uch a far away look in them . H e says is brother Peel at the living of Tamworth , and is Colin , though not any taller, already a grand father ! H e says his father has been in E dinburgh s e e lately, and he is to bring his wife to us some t o day, being, I think , as pleased talk with anyone who has a ﬂavour of p eats as w e were indeed pleased to s e e him . The glory of the weather s : o s goe on cloudless , sunny h urs , and I am orry to think that Auntie has s o much gout and con ﬁne me n t to her room .

2 6th M arch .

’ Vallombros as o At the there were a lot of pe ple , and Lady E mma H amilton wa s enjoying hers elf after her long quarantine , and Mademoiselle de a i S rt g e s after her long mourning . Madame 1 Co nne au was sang, and Madame de Vogué there o o t as a bride , just returned from her h neymo n our to Naples . Prove n al I am getting on with my C papers , and yesterday I wrote one you will like about the old nobility here , and much gossip about M irabeau , s and his bad si ter at Grasse , and about a grandson e e who w as - ﬁfth of Madame de S vign , the twenty

Lord of Veni ce .

1 st Ap ril.

t we Yes erday drove George Portal , at his s the request , and by the express wi h of Arch s e on bi hop of Canterbury , out to P gomas to wait His Grace . We found him and Agnes Tait

1 nn u th e s N a e and D . Co ea e e Widow of , lif long fri nd of Loui pol on , w ho sh ared his impri sonm ent at Ham . 1 22 TH E MANNERS OF MY TIME

s sitting in the garden . Mi s Tait and the married M rs daughter , Davidson , were also with him , and s s the husband of the married one , Mr David on , act 1 is T a s h secretary . he garden was a brilliant carpet - ﬂow e rs s s s s of wall , anemone , a phodel , daffodil ,

s s . pan ie , and ixias We had tea on the verandah , looking down over the Plain of Laval to a peep of the s e a. I thought the Archbishop better s ! is markedly better than la t year , but , oh he so — old for s eventy years of age more like being S ix your father than years your junior , which he ’ is s . H e had been George Portal master at Rugby , and they have kept on affectionate terms ever since . George thoroughly enjoyed the drive , the

s - beauty of the day , the bu h burning in the

s - Tanneron range , the hedge of medlar trees in e s full ﬂower , the blue borag in the ditche , and the cherry orchards in all their beauty , and the who has his kind , grave old man young daughters s writing for him . Agne Tait is a really charming ’ s c c per on , with her father s fa e , his ta t , and his sen s e of humour . — The Cardwells came out to tea a sad Sigh t s as for the Archbi hop , Lord Cardwell and he pas s ed s cholars together at Balliol on the same ’ term day. That poor man s work is over . H is servant has to button his coat for him ; his w is eyes stare , and he does not answer hen he s poken to , though he can talk , and seems to enjoy s the light , the air , and the ight of his friends . I s talked with the Archbi hop of Lady Ruthven , to s s s whom he de ired his best regard , and his utmo t sympathy in her lonely and heroic life .

Philippa Baillie spent the morning with me , and

1 a a D a s A b s a te b s on M R nd ll vid on , now rch i hop of C n r ury , of r a s M u irhous e a D vid on of , n e r Edinburgh .

C H APTE R X

PALMY DAYS OF CANNES

S atu rda 1 th anuar 1 88 . y , 3 j y 3 M Y EAR N LE D U C , I send y ou the li s t of the guests a t

- our party t o day . They were about 1 84 in c number . The rain eased for about three hours ,

s o the thing went off well . The rooms were w c the crowded , and the ﬂo ers , onsidering weather ,

o . m st creditable The guests seemed pleased , and I hear some of them reported themselves as “ t having had a grand par y , and , like Lady “ I s a : Ruthven , could only y Oh , I am so glad ” s to e e them all happy . The grand party did

' c o . I OS s not ost much m ney Waiter , ﬂower ,

I os . 2 S . 2s . o ; ices , and the like , 5 ; curacoa, ; br wn

2 s . can bread , ; and I now feel that I meet all 1 8 c these 4, whether at chur h or market , with a “ clear conscience , owing no man anything . t o Later , in February , we mean have a party for H R H f . . o . Caserta , but that means seating ﬁfty and people , providing music , or charades , or somet hing .

1 6th anu ar j y . Cannes expects to receive Mr Gladstone on

Thursday . H e is coming out to stay with the t o ou t Wolvertons , and be kept of M idlothian . Meta Suttie says she thinks of taking a basket of rotten eggs t o the station . We might be able to PALMY DAYS OF CANNES 1 25 offer her a dead rat that was killed in the kitchen last night ; but other people propos e red cloth and bouquets .

There are balls here every night this week . We are going to one on Friday , and we dine with

- Annie Bentinck to morrow . My J ewi s h manu s cript about the D ou da n letters

- s went to London to day . Lord Acton say he hopes that many will read it with the same interest that c he did . H e adds that I have everything orrect , and that on the J ewish question he cannot offer s o any original uggesti ns , but he points out two or “ ” t riﬂe s : s s three to alter ﬁr t , infringement , in tead “ is of infraction , which the correct word where s o law is concerned . H e recommend for the N e ’ ” s s platoni m of St John s Go pel , to write the N eo ’ ” Platonic tinge of S t J ohn s Gos pel . H e detects a bu t is ! wrong date , and a word left out ; that all Neither he nor the Golds mids have attempted to s is question any of my fact ; which a great point .

0 . ! . K will be furious and our Olga will not be s s he much better plea ed when read s it . I t will s o appear in April for, being ill when I ﬁrst came out to Cannes , I could not get it ready for the T E h R J anuary number of he dinburg eview.

2 2nd a nu ar f y .

We have lovely weather , all sunshine and golden s s mimosa , and I hope that Glad tone will take such s a fancy to it all that he will give up politic , and settle on the Riviera .

2 5 th [anuafy

Lady Wolverton bids us all t o- day at three 0 Ciock t o o a party for M r Gladst ne . Not having any 1 26 TH E MANNERS OF MY TIME

s s ee cold , I will ri k it , for I should like to the order of the day among his worshippers in this new a ch teau . The French news looks bad , and the Roths childs swear they will make such a fall on the ’ funds as thi s Repu bliqu e franpaise will not forget s in a hurry, if the princes are touched . La t Friday s s o o Countes Caserta poke h pefully ab ut them , but

- s to day the papers look less well , and ome people think that the O rleans prin ces will not submit to having a sword hung by a hair over their heads ! in permanence , and that they will go

His We sat for a bit with Lady Cardwell . state s aw w as was never alluded to , which I what She t would prefer , for , with Sir H enry Keating the o her

k . day, she bro e down , and sobbed bitterly

Time and chance happen to every man , and one s learn to resign oneself to them , but every year s s that one lives , the hollowne and insufﬁciency of all human affections , even of kith and of kin , weigh ’ s s more and more on one mind , and brave are tho e who , like Lady Ruthven , can carry on till over s ninety years of age , that generou love of their - s is fellow creature , which by no means lacking in ’ s s per picacity as to men s selﬁsh motive , but gallantly t o s s s lives on , ready di tribute , a giver of kindnes e , s s and civilitie , and hospitalities , and good wishe , “ ” s s s with whom God a uredly mu t be well pleased .

The Prince of Wales arrived yesterday , and the s who E nglish bachelor , give a ball on Thursday , , are mu ch excited at the prospect of his being c present at it . The se retary was here last night , and we are bidden to the Show . I f this week s passes quietly in Paris , it will only be becau e the d o Rothschil s , and the ther great J ew ﬁnanciers ,

1 28 TH E MANNERS OF MY TIME I che de appeared , and sent him to look for the f bu u s s rea . H e in the meantime came down tair , and “

s s . . . he explain ed that , being addre ed to W E G “ they had proposed to keep the bag till W . E . G . ’ came to Sign a re ceipt for it . Lady Wolverton s a s s s s Signature , mi tres of the hou e , was , however, s ﬁnally accepted , and I left her till in parley , taking over duly all the papers that bear on the s ! Egyptian question , and on a few other They w were all sewed into a hite canvas bag , with the “ ” words Foreign Ofﬁce printed in black letters . The chef de bureau was intensely civil and intensely

stupid , and I think they will have worries every

n ow . morning , but they know where to go for redress I learned this trick of the privat e ofﬁce from Sir ' Golds mid o ne da w as J ulian y , and it decidedly

useful . s s s Mr Glad tone was over at the i lands thi morning ,

and had a lovely day for it . We are to go to the ’ s Wolverton again on Thursday . No one would

believe what Cannes has done for her . She arrived s o k s he s it here wea that could not at table , and S wooned two or three times a day, and could not bear eight people in the room ; and I as sure you that n o one enjoys life better than s he is doing

- to day , laughing heartily when she and I explored on foot the back slums and dens of the dirty Cannes t f Pos O ﬁ ce .

ruar 7th Feb y . Owing t o a cold I lost the royal party at the ’ Vallom bros as t o - s not , and day I hall be up to her

Concert , or to the Annual Ball that is to take place of c for the Orphanage , whi h I am one of the Patron

- esses . Some of the high ﬂying Protestants here c s c are s andali ed at us be ause we refused , three PALMY DAYS OF CANNES 1 2 9

s s year ago , to attend a grand demon tration about s s we the Prote tant School , but have made a rule , s s s s s and we tick to it , never to give our name or a i t s at any party movement , and I am delighted to ﬁnd s ha s Dr Sandford , the B i hop of Gibraltar , refused the Pére H yacinthe leave to preach in any of the three Anglican pulpits .

1 8t rua r h Feb y .

To - day the town is placarded with the play - bills ’ ’ s Le Roi s amu se of Victor H ugo , and we are wondering if it is meant for our Prince . But the excitement in the place is much greater about R H . H s W . E . G . than about him . . . drive about O s in a low pen trap , and no ﬂag ﬂie , but there are ' police keeping the gate .

2 2 nd Febru a r y .

s With better weather I have been out , and eeing his something of the world and wife . Poor Count Harry Arnim used to s ay that Cannes wa s the centre de la nu llité hu main e s , but thi winter it gives u s s s s en ation enough , and quite a company of all s sorts and condition of men and women . I t s s appear that we have had in our mid t , quite “ ” s s unbeknownst to all , the head of the I ri h s s I nvincible Murder League , Me sr Burne and T he s s s Wal s h . pre ence of the e two intere ting ’ invalids no doubt explain s the three days vi s it of s Sir Edward H ender on , which put people in Cannes v v on the qui i e. The Prince and Mr Gladstone s s s s o would be big bird for the I ri h I nvincible , both Sir E dward H enders on and Colonel Sir Charles H oward Vincent have been together for three days , and one reads and thinks of nothing 1 3 6 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME but these culprit s . One of them was pointed out to me yesterday quietly sitting between two friend s s on a bench on the Croi ette . H e wore a soft brown hat and looked as if he had never heard is s of a murder . M rs Gladstone , I think , les frightened than a more rational woman would s be . H er di jointed talk is really amazing and

s - would be maddening to ome people . To day “ s he : was holding forth Yes , of course ; all very is — ! Ye s dreadful , it not Quite dreadful , to be is sure , it quite dreadful ; but we had a letter from

- w dearest Lucy to day , such a s eet letter ; all in ! the right tone ; no vengeance , you know But ” there is going to be a row about thi s in London ! and the poor lady wore a face of pathetic astoni s h ment at people in London being s o peculiar as to s K ilma in object to I rish crime , and to Treatie of s s s ham with I ri h criminal . I thought Mr Glad tone s a t looked old , and he down more than he stood ; s t c but he looks les ghastly than when he ﬁrs ame ,

o s . wing to the good air and leep The clergy, who t generally toady him , took the part of s aying away - s o a s t o B radlau h to day , not have to discuss the g

B ill with him . I n general , he may be seen ﬂanked s as on each Side by a par on . There w one clergy

. who man , however , viz , the Bishop of Gibraltar , a s asked us for a lift out to Ch teau Scott , and I a sure I s you that amused myself royally . I t eems that I had said to Mis s Glads tone that Catherine Phillimore s had two wild adoration Charles I . and w as M r Gladstone , and that it very lucky those o persons c uld never meet , except in her heart as the ’ o ne o c cu t s w uld ertainly have off the other head . t s w ho She repea ed thi remark to her father, said ’ Oh no cutt ing off King Charles s head would have ” been murder ! I never could have done that !

1 3 2 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

Vallombrosa , to thank her for accepting my dedication .

I f only we could get hold of a Fenian murderer , and if only a bill of high treason could be brought against Parnell ! I am sure the Wolverton s will be thankful when Mr Gladstone is safe out of a s C nne s . S ir Edward H ender on has had to come S u e rin here , and Colonel H oward Vincent and p s s tendent Williamson , and la t Thur day they had a up the central officer of local police at the Ch teau , and I am told doubled the night watch . On Thurs day a servant who was a stranger stood at — the carriage step as w e went and came I s uppose in a new officer plain clothes , for he was a tall fair s man in the u ual dress of a butler , but he had a light fair mous tache surely Significant of his not being a butler. After we got into the saloon I wa s a s s sitting gainst the wall with Mi Gladstone , s and looking down through both the room , when “ s he said to me : Can you tell me who is s peaking to my father ? Lady Wolverton doe s not know ho is w . he which Showed that they kept a watch , even in the drawing - room or dining - room on a day when fifty people , and as many servants , were s e e drifting about the Villa . You will that M r Gladstone will give H ome Rule to save his own life , and go in the face of the Opposition , and of

- common sense .

lb e r ar z6 F b u y .

The A nnaly s cross to Dublin to - morrow : E mily very unhappy and unwilling . E very time they go into Dublin they must pas s the s pot in the Phoenix Park from which Bobby White tells me that an s amiable populace has picked every blade of gra s . o c This has been d ne to obtain reli s , and also to PALMY DAYS OF CANNES 1 33 leave on the turf t wo long brown marks where the ’ bodies had fallen Lady O Hag an could not s tand ha s it any more , and given up Woodlands on this account .

I t M arch s .

To - morrow I understand that a great treat ha s ' been prepared for u s by the Gurneys . They have as ked u s to dine with them to meet Lord H oughton M rs and M r and H enry Bright . M r Bright is a s c his cou in of the lear Dr Bright and of brother , is Professor H enry Bright of Oxford . H e a “ ” s medicine man , in another ense of the word , for he is a great authority on belles lettres ; and he is travelling with poor old Lord H oughton . The blind Mr Gurney is himself mo s t intere s ting ; he is of the true N orfolk s tock for the las t two years he has been blind , and , of course , talking is his

s . His is one plea ure wife pretty, and gentle , and s ix s o beautifully dressed , but there are children , h that s e cannot be always at hand to amuse him .

T B L C PEG M A M . RR S . E E AN HE , O A , t M ar h 6 h c .

s Our dinner on Saturday had no mi fortunes , and

I think Mr Harri s enjoyed him s elf extremely . I n the evening Lord Acton and Bishop Sandford gave s plea ure to the blind Mr Gurney , while Lord

Acton had the American Colonel , J ohn H ay, for s s s s hi e s pecial olace . We have all lo t our heart to is ha s him . H e very good looking , and such a graceful , fresh and sympathetic mind , full of culti

s o in s . vation , and Simple manner M r H enry is B right a Liverpool man of literature , but , like

L . o t . F . , he has nothing simple ab u his mind I t 1 34 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME is - o u t all the echo of dinners , and diners and of s s s mart aying . Colonel H ay has written a H istory of Lincoln ’ s s Pre idency , but the six volumes that he promises will make a book as much too long for pleasure is as his wife too fat for beauty . She has a lovely o face , but is quite as large as po r Duchess

Con s tance became . O n Sunday we had a visit

from Lord H oughton and his Sister , Lady Galway .

She was very civil , and is a very agreeable woman , whose capabilities and wit would be much more talked about if s he were not overshadowed by her

popular brother . They have ﬁxed on Wednesday to come to lunch here during our stay with M rs has co H olland . H e promised me a py of ’ Tennys on s epitaph on L ord Stratford de ’ Ratcliffe s bust in Westminster Abbey . I will on ou hand it to y , for yourself, and for dear Lady

Ruthven when I get it . H is Lordship , seeing ’ Ren ira o Bentinck s picture in our h use , proved to me that he and we were cousins ! I t is in this ’ : Re nira s o k way aunt , Charl tte H aw ins married o who was his s ! S ir R bert M ilnes , father s cou in wa s c There , after the death of this M ilnes ouple , o s me muddle about the will , and you will not be surprised t o hear that Lord H oughton had much ’ to s a y of Ren ira Bentin ck s h onourable and generous

conduct . Monsieur and Madame Pérolle from Grasse are - P rolle asked to lunch here to day . Madame é is o s the child of that good old n tary , Mon ieur Maure , whom Lady Louisa Percy and I knew at Grasse some years ago ; Monsieur Pérolle represents Six s hundred year of burghership in Grasse . H is ’ grandfather was notary for M ira be au s mad Si s ter

s s . M rs Loui e , up at Cabri I hope Holland will

PALMY DAYS OF CANNES 1 35 take me to see the mills near her house where some handsome red stuffs are made for the dresses It is a t s of the peasants . colder here than Canne ; t but the air is charming . Many lovely in ers ecting w valleys , all of them beautiful and full of wild ﬂo ers , at e m s meet the bridge of P go a , where the old historic road fro m Ant ibes to A ix - e n - Provence

(through Draguignan) starts . The fields at this t moment are scarle with anemones , and the little w e garden , where had tea last April with Archbishop M rs o . o k Tait , is gay with daff dils H olland is l o ing o s at well and handsome . You kn w that She to f r Ary Scheffer as the model o St Monica . Las t night as w e all sat round the olive wood s alon fire , we started her off on the days of her in s he M i ne t Paris , when used to have g , and Thiers , Rému s at and Odilon Barrot , and , de Tocqueville , and that Duches se de Broglie who was Madame ’ wa r de S taéls daughter . Since the the last rags c of such so ial life have vanished from Paris , so she sold her house in the Rue de Lille . Duches se Vallombrosa came t o our evening s s party ju t as the last gue ts were disappearing , s he s he from a dinner to which had been , and told me that no day could be fixed for her tea - party for the Comtesse de Paris yet , as the royal family were busy with the arrival of the p oor Duc de an d Chartres his family , and were getting them his into a villa . I hear grief and anger at not c being allowed to ontinue in the Army are intense , s w as is for above all thing he , and , a soldier. Since he came to Canne s h e has written a note to “ ’ d Orléa ns a friend of ours , signed Robert , Colonel en n on - activité ! ’ d Au male The Duc did not , by the way, write that paper in the Revu e des Deu x M ondes of 1 3 6 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

88 was I s t 1 . February , on the Republic of 3 I t s his done by Mon ieur Lamy , a friend of , and it s s s this is mu t be aid that , even among Republic , a poor one .

u rda 1 th M arch . S a t y , 7 Our luncheon with the Comte de Pari s went off very pleas antly at the Villa St J ean . M rs H olland s s and Alphonse Karr were there , and de Mu y and his s wife , and the three elde t children , and after s s e e s s he coffee the little girl , Prince H l ne , aid s s h e would go and fetch the pug , but must put “ s s s ! on their be t clothe ﬁr t Where do you live , ’ ” s is s ? Mademoi elle , and what your pug name etc . etc . All this mixed up with ﬂoral talk with s Alphon e Karr , and talk about the London dyna

. s s s mite affair The Comte de Pari dete t Gladstone , and s poke of him ye s terday with great interest to ’ M rs me , though I don t think H olland liked it is s much . This thing in it elf a ﬁne epilogue to ’ s s s the debate on Parnell reque t , and Lady Galway “ ’ s s s s s call it a erenade under Glad tone window , given him by a few friends on his return from ” Cannes The Comte s se de Pari s does not look s he ha s s plain Without her hat, for eye of a bright blue and a cheerful manner , but , unluckily , a loud

. s s a s and ugly voice H e look nervou and ill , and s his if, by dint of the many disappointment of life , s s s he would develop a big illne ome day . I cannot w ho help thinking he is a man will die of cance r . w as s She very very kind to me , shook hand with “ s : me twice at parting , and aid twice Remember , s s s I hall alway be glad to e e you here . s ha s Selina Bathur t died of typhoid fever. s s a s s he wa s s he Blind , crippled and helple , will be t more missed han any twelve healthy folk . Did I

1 3 8 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME s o ome pensi n , and they , in the meantime , are very s o lucky to have uch a charming creature , with go d o s looks and good manners , go d E ngli h , and a perfect French accent . The Crown Princess is

very fond of her , and very kind to her , but she says that the children are spoilt . C H APT E R X I

8 T HE K CANNES, 1 84 . DEATH OF DU E OF A LB ANY

2 0th an u ar 1 88 C S . ANNE , j y 4

We have just returned from the weekly tea - party s given by the Duches e de Luynes . I t is always pleasant and amusing ; tea from

to 5 , and from 5 to 7 the children have a rown u s man to play the ﬁddle , and they and the g p s dance . This goes on till Lent begin . The children

- s are delicate looking . H onoré look like the child too s 1 s he of old , old , race , and Lili looks like what is s , the po thumous baby , born after the Duke was ’ s killed in battle . She has magnificent eye , like ’ her mother s in colour , only they have not the s ad s u expre sion , the look of a wo nded deer , which ’ ha s never left the young widow s eyes since they ’ s brought her the new of the Duke s death . H e went into action early on a cold December morning s s s after hearing Ma aid . The dawn began to wa s break . The going bad and very heavy for moblots a s s the they went through some vineyard , ’ and they began to get unsteady under the enemy s “ ! ” fire . The Duke rode ahead . Courage , boys “ s n w ! is he aid . Courage ! Come on o it not as ’ as AS diffi cult it looks ! p arole d honneu r. he it s drew , a Prussian bullet found billet , and he fell with the word honou r on his lips . Among the s s heaps of lain it was hard to recogni e the body , who but at last one of the Vogué brothers , had

’ 1 H é d Alb ert D ue d e n es et de e e s e a e 1 88 onor , Luy Ch vr u , m rri d, 9, ’ S e de Crus s ol d z s imon U e . 2 At ata ea ec 1 0. P y, n r Orlean s, zud D embe r 87 1 40 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

s aw been in action , the Signet ring on his hand , and the corpse was put a s ide to be claimed by the ’ w ho ot s s Duke s mother , g a pa from a Prussian s staff o fﬁcer t o go through their line . No wonder o - the posthum us child is a tiny , plaintive looking ’ s little thing , one for whom some of life saddest S he s aw secrets have been told before the light , and while the Prus s ians were still in the land . This “ phrase s ound s a s if it referred to the H ittites and

the H ivites of the Pentateuch , but it is not inap ro riat e s s p p at thi moment , ince it expresses the feeling with which all who had the enemy within their gate s in 1 870 - 1 have learnt that a young Grand Duke of Mecklenburg - Schwerin is coming to s pend s ! the winter in Canne , for the good of his health ’ I t was against his father s corps that the young D u e de Luynes led his men on that fatal morning , and poor Duches s Yolande turns pale when the advent of the Mecklenburg royalties is mentioned , for it w as also the Duke of Mecklenburg - Schwerin who burnt down the beautiful chét eau of her D u e relation the de Gramont . As for old Baroness J ames Rothschild (whos e villa is oppos ite the Villa Luyne s )she is furious ! She had the Prussians for Fe rriére s h e s many days at la , where say that they did horrors , and had hoped to steal the wonderful Cordova leather hangings which are the glory of s her hou e . H er steward had cleverly had them all that covered with toiles de Vichy , and covered with s s o s s s s s ! picture , that the Pru ian mi ed their prey The same s t eward also kept them s o well s upplied with ﬁrewood that an avenue of elms on which the J ames Rothschild s set great s tore were not cut s down . After the enemy left , the hou e became an was Ambulance , and for long uninhabitable after t w c w all the smallpox , and o her miseries , hi h follo ed

1 42 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

s View over the roadstead of Golfe J uan , and a ked u s to make our acquaintance . To meet at luncheon as s n tle were a M r and M rs H ansard . I t w thi ’ man s grandfather who bought u p the old giirror o Parlia ent Hansard w e f m , and started the that o all know . I t is being managed at this m ment by one of his c ousins . s HOt e l Lady H arington has ju t arrived , and is at t s Liddells s Continen al , be ide the , and Princes i i Barbara Orb el a n .

z u d bru ar Fe y .

O n Tuesday next w e have a dinner - party at home . Lord Acton , Sir George and Lady Cox , s s two Charle Grant , I an Campbell , and Sir H enry

- Keating , and I an Keith Falconer. Sir G . Cox is

I ndian born and bred , and being full of Afghan

- k folk lore , he and Ian I slay can tal H ighland s mythology . For the evening we have a ked Lidde lls Philippa Baillie , Lady Harington , and the , the blind M r J ohn Gurney and his pretty wife , his Count Leonide Pahlen and wife , and one of the Shrop s hire Corbets who (through the Le y ce s t e rs ) s is a cou in of Dean Stanley . H e can talk “ ” who broad Stanley with S ir George Cox , is ’ Fable n Chu rch. s nephew and niece have a o splendid library in their house in C urland , where M itt au c they live near , and grow oriander for Alas h the making of c K immel . Our dinner ought

- t s to do well , and if I an Keith Falconer urn up in time , Sir George Cox will be provided with the third best Semitic s cholar in Britain .

th Febru r s a y . I t all went off well in the end ; but just at ﬁrs t o it seemed to hang ﬁre , for L rd Acton and Sir 1 88 1 CANNES , 4 43 ! C . Cox had to take stock of each other After having done s o they cheered up ! I n the evening u s : s three men failed General Peacock , becau e he had the nettle ras h ! Sir H enry Keating s was becau e the night too cold , and Prince George Orbelia ni o s , because his m ther was too uffering

to be left . r 1 4th Februa y . We sat some time yesterday with old Baroness s James Roth child . H er palace is most beautiful , but things in thi s wicked world are more equal s s ver than they look for Barone s B et y is y ugly , is a s and f st in her chair with the gout , cau ed by too

much appreciation of the four cooks whom s he keeps . s o ne — s kosher There is a purely J ewi h u ed to meat , s and to the di s hes proper for fas ts and festival . is che s s ve e There a f for the Chri tian , a cook for g a nd tables , one for pastry and other bakemeats , with understudies and s cullion s galore ! I n vain doe s Gimbe rt s s s s Dr preach ab tinence , for Barone Bet y

loves good eating . She also , after the manner and o s genius of her race , loves g od mu ic , and sometimes S he was invites us to hear it . Yesterday alone , and gave vent to her feelings about her neighbour Lady ’ 1 Murray s furore for the Mecklenburg - Schwerin s s royaltie . H er head is turned by these German , s s s but if they in i t on getting into my hou e , I will l ” eave Cannes . O ne cannot blame the old lady , ’ for only King William s command s prevented La Ferriere being burnt to the ground by this Grand ’ s Duke of Mecklenburg father . 1 st Fe ruar 1 8 2 b y 84 . Blan che and Granville Smith lunched with u s ~ 1 yesterday . She is looking thin but very pretty .

1 ’ s e a s s ct e h er a a t M rs Curiou ly lik G in borough pi ur of gr nd un , He et y Pug . 1 44 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

a s a s s he is his H e is nearly fair , you know that ’ was s is mother Raglan Somerset Sister , and he a thorough gentleman . They are , in fact , a pair of s e blameles p ople , with no fault but their lack of s s animal pirit . H e has a very good inﬂuence in his regiment (Colds tream Guards) but at this is s o moment his leave nearly up , that they will not ’ be able to be pres ent at her brother Ian s wedding

th - on the 4 of March , but we are to dine to night ’ s with the bride father, Mr R . Bevan , to meet them . s Carnival partie are very brilliant this spring . ’ There wa s Lady M urray s fancy ball of which we wrote to Auntie ( I went a s Pansy) - some one “ ‘ s tres bien meeting me at the top of the stair , said , ” ens e ! s s p é and on the night before la t , Duche s Vallombrosa gave a concert at which s he had seven s s s royal per ons . The e were the Duke and Duche s s s s of Chartres , H er Royal H ighne the Counte s s s of Caserta , and her si ter, Prince s Caroline of s s Clem e nt ine - Bourbon and Prince of Saxe Coburg , c with the two Mecklenburgs . On ac ount of their presence no French military men were asked , nor s s was the poor Duches e de Luyne , but there were a s good many diplomat , a good many Russians and

l h n u z s E n is w ome vi . American , and a few g Lady M rs o Murray , T wnley , Philippa Baillie and M rs beau t Grant , a very fast Mrs Powell (who is the y of the seas on) and our two selves . Madame Co n n e a u s a cco m ang , and Sir Arthur Sullivan a I w a s nie d . p , etc presented to the Grand Duchess 1 - s s of Mecklenburg Schwerin , She is a Ru ian , a Nicola ie vit ch daughter of Grand Duke M ichael , wh is o married a German . She a dream of beauty, s s ix a tately Romanoff, foot tall , with a pale face ,

1 Mo th er of the ex- Crown Prin ces s of Pru s si a:

1 46 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

’ was other . I t hard on Gwendolen that her mother s religious peculiarities would not allow her to go to s e e s o a church , even to her daughter married to H is good a Christian as dear Ian . mother being in e re noble . s at Scotland , I did the m I in the front ’ bench on the bridegroom s side in dark blue satin s s with Japane e embroideries , if you plea e . Covers s - were laid for eventy eight people . H elen had such a bad headache that we did not wait to see the

pair go off, but went home to prepare tea for the e bridesmaids and eight other small persons , Maim

Acton helping us to take care of them . ’ w as V a llombro sas There a great - crowd at the on account of His Royal H ighne s s the Duke of Albany s who has come to stay some weeks in Canne . s H eaps of E nglish were a ked , and as the Duchess s s of St Albans aid , one might de cribe the party as A ll L ondon s A ll Pa ris had it not al o been , and , I

hal New York. added , f Prince Leopold has really

a great look of Charles I . and he cultivates the

beard of the part , only his eyes are of the true

Guelf blue . H e looks delicate , and the fairish hair

is s canty . We went a cheery party of four to ‘ the Villa s s Vallombro a , taking Lady H arington and Loui a

Denison . Lady Harington very smart . What a ’ crowd ! One s elbow ran into a king or a prince at

every turn . The royal ladies were all seated s o that they were safe ! There might be s een King Philip of France (as the Comte de Paris would fain 1 be) and his Queen , and Madame Royale . With H er Royal H ighness of Caserta I had a great deal ha s of talk , and She promised me one of her ’ husband s photograph s for the frontispiece of my

1 es s e e O ea s a e to the t a a n Princ Am li of rl n , m rri d King of Por ug l, d mothe r of King M anoel ; E 1 88 1 CANN S , 4 47

e A l s M a ritim ps . I never could have ettled this with her when we go to her Fridays , for the

- half dozen people in the room make her shy , and they listen with all their ears to all that pas s es : but in a big crowd one can settle anything . Alice Coke had her ﬁrs t drive yesterday in company of ’ s her little new girl , and of Master I an . About Alice conﬁnement I mus t tell you s omething funny ! I t HOt e l e N took place in the de Provenc , ext day PC s old Sir H enry Keating , . ent for the landlady , and complained that one night the P . family over his head had a violent quarrel , and the lady taking s s s s hy teric , creamed for two hour . The next night w as Lady Coke , who was underneath him , brought to bed of an infant , and both mother and child s s s creamed at interval . I t did not uit him , and if it were to occur again he should have to go el s e “ where . Well , Sir H enry , I cannot , of course ,

e s . an s wer for Mrs P . you had better s e e h r your elf ma s a But for Lady Coke , I think I y undertake to y not that it will happen again , at any rate not for a ” year, Sir H enry . We are going with Annie Bentinck to a garden M rs His s s party given by Vyner , for Royal H ighne

! the Duke of Albany , but I began the day with s s a funeral . A poor governes died at the A ile e E vang lique . We both liked her , and She often got to church , thanks to our carriage . I t will be s ix s - s he s u s week to morrow Since la t accompanied , s s enjoying the ervice and the inging , and the drive s s s ! was pa t , and the hip The poor little thing only

- was s twenty four, and the daughter of a mis ionary s wa s in the hill village here . The sun very hot at midday , but though I got a splitting headache by

Standing in it before I had had my midday meal , I am glad that I went , for the poor parents were 1 48 THE MANN ERS OF MY TIME ’ pleased by my presence , and by H elen s basket of t whi e ﬂowers , and I do not like that our four who servants , and the masons are working in our we n eve s lane , should think that r change our dres es “ s a and go out except , as Lady Ruthven would y , to s play our elves . Prince Leopold seems in the best of Spirits , and goes everywhere . O ne Sunday he ’ ins isted on taking Captain Pe rce val s yacht round o n to Monte Carlo , but when the next Sunday he s s : propo ed the same diversion , his ho t Simply said ” “ s ir ? I cannot take you , . Why not I s there anything wrong with the ship The s hip is all S ir right , , but the Queen would be sure to hear of s s he thi , and would be vexed , because it must make ” s uch a bad impre s sion on all the E ngli s h here . s H is Royal H ighne s did not look best pleased , and had to go to church instead , remarking that if the s s o E ngli h here did not stare at them much , the

Royal family would go to church more often . ’ Pe rce vals Life is quite simple in M iss villa ,

- s where her parlour maid wait at table , unless there ’ co an His is mp y , when Royal H ighness s two s servants appear . H e enjoys the view and the s is s 1 ﬂower , and he very kind to Gaynor Simp on (who is s pending thi s winter with M is s Perceval) who s and to the dog Puff, bother him to play at ball with him ! The accounts of his Duchess are is s excellent , and he very anxiou that the expected s n s s baby should be a o . I t eems that he propo ed to H er Majesty that it should be called “ Charles ” ! E dward The Queen , though proud of having s Stuart eyebrow , would not hear of it , but ended by conceding the ﬁrst name . I send you all this gossip .

1 A a c Nas sau s e a e to St Loe gr nd hild of Mr , nior, now m rri d Mr

S t a e the ese t e t The S ecta tor. r ch y, pr n di or of p

1 5 6 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME and observed that from the fourth t o the seventh s century mona ticism , and the dwelling together in con eries it s s g of teacher , offered the only security “ s s o for Christian civili ation . Sir George is broad Church that he dwells with po s itive pleas ure on s the difference and heresies of the early centuries , feeling that the s e render null and void any claim to au thority on the part of the Church ; since even the

’ apostles had their differences . When I hear people was o take for granted that there never , or c uld be , any certain standard of Christian teaching I long “ “ his is to remind them of jesting Pilate , What truth ? ” but as Sir George Cox is my elder and t better I refrained , and only contended tha the dangers from I mperial pers ecution and from the barbarians did give a solidarity to the early s Christians , which may have les ened when they c o o be ame more pr sper us , but as far as orthodoxy is c was here con erned , it precisely that St Vincent of the Le rins did give the test for Chri s tian doctrine “ has That which everywhere , always , and by all ” been believed , and such a deﬁnition is surely hard t o beat . Later in the day I came on Lord Acto n at ’ s s Lady Agne party , and I told him how I wished t o t m side he had been with us at St H onorat , ake y s again t S ir George Cox . H e laughed when I told “ : him of our argument , and said I t seems to me w that you were very ell able to take care of yourself, ” without any help from me . H f H R . o . . the Duke Albany planted a tree i n ’ a Lady Agnes Frank s garden . When this w s over S he who came to me and said that the Duke , had Vera w been speaking of , ished to make my acquaint

S o . ance . I was taken to him H is Royal H igh s ne s shook hands with me , and said he had read both Vera a nd the Hot el du Petit S t jean some 1 88 1 1 CANN ES , 4 5

s years ago, at Baden during an illnes , but that he

s re - V era s had ju t read , and that M is Perceval had s told him how I had been in her villa only la t week . “ B lu e Roses : ! that Of , he said Ah is a wonderful book ! but why did you make it s o s a d Pleas e “ n to make your next o e end well . The next one s ir is will be all right , . I t a Scotch story, and it ” s s ithin doe end well . H e has promi ed to read W ou nd o the S ea s w as S f , which I aid dedicated to

Lady Ruthven . H e liked to hear about Napoleon as in Cannes , and how M r H enry Baillie , a child , s aw I s t 1 8 1 is the landing on March , 5 , and he much s has intere ted in my big book to be . H e evidently ﬁrs t - s s a rate memory, and thi is well for him , ince ’ Hi his is s s . s at be t an invalid life knee tries him ,

but in the meantime , he is very happy , and means s to pend another fortnight in Cannes , where he s told me he mean to build himself a villa , and where he told me that he thought that the weather w a s “ ” “ s ! ! S ir s s alway ﬁne Ah , I replied , in thi ca e ’ ’ s s the Queen children bring the Queen weather , but the truth obliges me to confes s that during thi s s s very week la t year we were sweeping up the now , and that many mimosa - trees s napped under its weight ! Poor Prince s s O rbe liani is as ill tod ay as it is s o n possible for anyone to be , and I fear that her

George , hurrying up from beyond Merv , will be s too late to e e her alive .

ll nda 2 th M ar h 1 88 . i o y , 4 c 4

1 - We lunch with Lady Henrietta Riddell to day,

- and to morrow Lord and Lady Coke , and the W e lle s le s s o Gerald y lunch here , and do Sir Guy

w a s . Campbell and his bride , N ina Lehmann that

1 a H e etta et t a e t o a N ort humbrian s e . Her L dy nri Plunk , m rri d quir t daught er M ary m arri ed Mr Edmund S onor . 1 5 2 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME Wedne s day w e have promi s ed t o lunch with the W elle s le s s y , and on Thur day we have to go early s Orbelia ni to N ice to bury our poor Prince s Barbara , who has been releas ed from her great s ufferings ;

a but alas ! without s eeing her beloved Ge o rg e . Thi s week there will be a big party at the Villa w e Vallombrosa to which will go , as it will be the s la t appearance of our Prince . H e danced at the ’ Golds mids arandou lo ball last week , a f all over the

kne e u house , which sounds rash for his weak

da 2 th . Fri y , 8 M arch 1 884 M Y EAR N L E D U C , You cannot reali s e the shock and the excitement caused by the death of the Duke of s Albany . All sorts of rumour are aﬂoat , but the s a ? fact remains , and what will the Queen y and how will the poor widow bear it ? H e came here ’

s . delicate , to tay in a friend s house H e over

- s exerted himself, he over excited him elf in the hot s u n c is dead ! of Mar h , and he The Chalet N evada , is where he lies , a cottage not much more roomy is than Stack Lodge , and the house , which on a s - s s teep rocky hill ide , is only to be reached by a tair “ case cut i n the rock , the door being really a hole in the wall The road to it runs through pine s n ot wood , it is lit at night , and the villa stands s a good twenty minute from a doctor, and thirty in minutes from help the town . There , if you can

A . M . conceive it , death took this E nglish prince at 3 When w e went to write our names (for I have seen we a great deal of him), found that all the women s s had been ent out of the hou e to Mentone . There were about ten carriages at the door , Sir John 1 Va llombros as Stanley E rrington , the , etc . , etc .

1 - M a e d e a e a Pe s e . rri d M arie T ll yr nd rigord , who urviv d him

1 54 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

t o t o c not o . asked a ball meet him , but we ould g e c We had b en in N i e , and on our knees all morning, s Orbelian i be ide the cofﬁn of Princess Barbara , and were too tired and imp ressionnées for dressing and going to a ball late that evening . N ext day arrived “ s s e d Mrs Behren , much fu s Why had we not gone ? D id we not kn ow that when the list had been His submitted to Royal H ighness , he had put his pen through the name of the Duke of Marlborough , and had added y ours to the list of persons he wi s hed to meet ? I said that I w as deeply sensible of s the honour intended , but that we were invalid too much knocked up by an exhausting day in N ice (which had been a duty) to avail ourselves of the ’ Duke s kindness . Then came the Bat tle of o His t o Fl wers , at which Royal H ighness was c w have been present , and for whi h he ent to his

a s o M . w e room t the club to dres . Ab ut 3 R were

Cors o . on the , and his Dr Royle passed us H e called to me I t is all right about that pet ition for s preserving the I sland . I gave it to the Duke , ” and he has signed it . I thanked Dr Royle , and

Ou r carriage moved on . N ot very long after that the Duke must have had his fall at the Club , and n t hurt his knee . H e did o go to a dinner that o o Ge rge Abercromby , and some thers had got up o for him at the Splendid H tel , but dined alone with

. o ill bu t M iss Perceval H e did not l ok , was under his d a deep impression that days were numbere . “ H e s aid to M i s s Perceval : O ne night my s ister

c . w as Ali e appeared to me in my sleep She smiling .

She told me not to worry, and that very soon I no c Should be where troubles could rea h me . we s e e When , of the house of Guelf each other out o is of the b dy , it a warning that Death is near at hand . I t seems that H is Royal H ighness told 1 88 1 CANNES , 4 55 the same thing to Lady Golds mid three days before w as c his fall , and he evidently quite onvinced that wa s his life soon to terminate , for he went on that s s l his evening to Speak to M i Perceva about wife , and her need of every con s ideration in her pres ent

o . s conditi n M i s Perceval , though feeling cold in s as she s her bone li tened to him , tried to cheer him , and s aid he would live to hold a ﬁne little s on in o his arms ; but the Duke w uld only talk of death . H e said it had been hard on him all his days to be an invalid . H e would have liked to be a soldier . I t was true that the Queen had made him Colonel s of the Seaforth H ighlanders , but did M i s Perceval think that if he died the Queen would let him have s as a military funeral . M i s Perceval said it w too “ ”

s . soon to think of such thing Not too soon , “ said the Duke : and I should like to be carried - 1 P M u on a g u n carriage . Before 1 . . he went p s s tairs to his room . M i s Perceval Showed it to me

one day . I t was the one that Clifton Perceval was generally used , with a little camp bed , and quite small and plain ; seven large photographs of c - his Du hess , and a little watch case being its only

ornaments . Some sort of seizure must have taken

A . M . was place about 3 Dr Royle , who with him , s called to Captain Perceval to get ome brandy. While the Doctor put it to his lips the head fell ’ Pe rce val s was back into Captain hands , and all s over ! I t was still dark outside . The hou ehold

was s oon alarmed . M iss Perceval went to her s nephew , and Dr Royle went to dre s , and got down

through the woods to kn ock up Dr Frank. Last

Sunday he was in church in front of us . H elen , driving M iss Perceval up our hill to lunch with s a : t is the Plunketts , happened to y Wha the Duke ” “ doing t o - day ? H e is gone t o the cemetery 1 56 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

s s e e a t which he wi hed to , and is due at luncheon ’ ” s this his s Lady Camden . By Sunday corp e will s 0 probably have been taken out of Canne . N more regrettable incident could well have happened . I t s s will catter the E ngli h Colony here , and spoil s trade in London for the coming sea on , while the unhappy Pe rce va ls will be abused in every note o f s s w ho the gamut , by the very per on have moved heaven and earth to be invited to their hou s e to s s meet the Duke . H is Royal H ighne died while negotiating the purchase of a beautiful piece of ground at Golfe J uan . H e meant to build a villa and pier for his yacht there . I t would have been s a perfectly charming pot , and when he brought s his s out the Duches and the children , hou e would s s have been a centre for the best Engli h ociety. Alas Alas 0th M a rch 3 .

’ The Queen s first telegram authorised the im ’ o f mediate departure the dead Prince s body , but a second message bade them wait the arrival of s s Colonel Du Plat . I filled a ba ket with the fir t s s white narcissu of the poet , and took it up to the cha lle a dente little p e r to be arranged at Villa N evada . I t lay on a violet cloth in the dining - room of the s s Villa , in a glas coffin , which was sealed and enclo ed was in one of black and silver . The face like wax , bu s s I. t and very like Charle , the arrangement struck me as s o cold ! No cross and no lights ; s o unlike ’ Barbara Orbeliani s wake ! and I s hould have been even glad of the H ighland candle and plate of s alt ! This is the s econd coffin that I have s een on this

March day , for M . Ferdinand Moreau is dead . H e ’ ’ lOrm e s The Castle owned Philibert de masterpiece , o Au st u s f , and had asked to go and stay there and c study it with him . The Duke of Albany was lose

1 58 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME dead body before it had been touched . H e says the face w as beautiful then quite fair and s o quiet .

and A ri p l. We saw the departure of the dead Duke from ’ s s Canne yesterday . Our old landlady s room over look the yard o f the railway station and the turn tables o n which the travelling hearse waited . I liked to s e e all the s e republicans made to bend their backs and spread gravel all along their Streets , and u t s p up barriers , and pre ent arms , and veil their s s lamps with crape . I should think that not le than 6 000 s pe ople were at the station . All the blind w a s were drawn , and black worn , not only of course s by the E nglish , but by many American , and by — the best French black ribbons and violet s worn s everywhere . The Judges from Gra se turned out in robes and mortiers ; the Municipality and all the Vice - Con s ul s were in attendance ; there were two s band with mufﬂed drums , and a guard of honour s at the tation . There had been a Short s ervice beside the cofﬁn , the Prince having marked the prayers that he wished to have read . At this s cou ld s o ervice only a few people be present , small s was the pace in the Villa , but everyone speaks of ’ the Prince s devoted attention to every detail , and ’ his s s of kindne to his brother s friends . At the g u ns from St Marguerite announced

a s c s a li ted. that the body had been , the Fren h y , f H ow eight men managed to get it down the little rocky staircase I cannot imagine , but they did ; and by the time Sixteen guns had been fired it reached the station . The car on which it lay had been originally built to convey the dead Tzarevitch V c s c from N ice to illefran he , as de ribed by me in Vera who , and dilated upon to me by the very man 1 88 1 CANNES , 4 5 9 w as s s now lying on it silent , among ma se of spring s flower , and of white and silver trappings with L s on all the shields . Once in ide the station the leaders were taken off, and it was driven into a little - s s dock and up to the turn table . The Prince tood i beside it , the Comte de Par s was opposite to him , and both were very pale . Then the Mayor of Cannes held back the black velvet curtains of the t ra ve llin ou r on wa s hearse , and a f g filled up with wreaths fe ve n my little bas ket that had been full of violets and narcissus wa s there)and then the hearse ou r on s was locked , attached to two other f g , and

Slipped on to the main line . Our Prince walked into the s ta tion followed by his family and house

. f s s hold The mu ﬂed drums beat , the troop pre ented s arms , and the General and his taff remained w a s s mounted in the court . I t as well that troop s Ca nn ois were pre ent , for the crowd of had got out s of hand . They swarmed into the tation , and over s o s o the roofs , much that on the platform the ’ Prince s suite and his E nglish friends had to link arms , and make a strong guard round him . So eager were thes e republican roughs to s e e the future s King of E ngland , the chief mourner on thi day , d s s which is as s uredly a s a one for Canne . The la t good bye s cannot have been said till about twenty i m nutes later , for H elen and I had time to get home before , in the deep railway cutting under our garden , we heard the scream of the engine which ran ahead of the funeral train . One could not sleep for think ing of its long journey through the night , taking his t o his Prince Leopold back to own land , and s grave among E nglish Kings . What pitiful thought

went out to the Queen , to the young widow and to

the unborn babe of whom he had spoken s o tenderly . C H A PT E R X I I FREN CH COUNTRY HOUSES

‘ I L e . e Chdteau de Flbch res

Among the French country hous es that I know I s Fléchére s must give the ﬁr t place to the Castle of , s I becau e have been there frequently , and because it s s s s host , the General and the Vicomtes e de B erni , s s o and their relation , were all kind to us , that after many years of friend s hip w e grew to s peak of this ’ t ou cl cl la e de B e s couple as e tant rni . The General w a s a cadet of the family that gave a Cardinal to s the Conclave , and an Ambas ador to the H oly See who the man , during the Revolution , tendered the s ame kindly s helter in Rome to M esdames (the V s i s ters of Louis X I . )as he had formerly done to s Prince Charle E dward Stuart , and to H enry

Stuart , afterwards Cardinal York . The family A rdéche came from the , and it had made good s a s s alliance in a country which now , ever , regard e a i e s u n a r . marriage as ﬂ Our hand ome General , s no exception to that rule , had married an heire s , Fe rriére Marguerite , daughter of the Comte de la , whos e wife w as the only daughter (and heiress) of s the last Marquis de Sarran , lord of the manor ’ r s of Fléché e s ; of whom more anon . Marguerite s father, a tall , distingui hed and cultivated man , came of an old Lyone s e family which had B u o napa rt is t sympathies , and he was made a Chamberlain by the

Emperor Napoleon I I I . I have heard him describe his s s his . tours with Napoleon I I I , and vi its , thu t s rendered possible , to places tha , like the Vi itation

1 6 0

1 62 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

Algiers a great sorrow fell on them . They had t m s taken their two children to tha cli ate of extreme , ks S adne and there , far from the green ban of the , t w o where they had ﬁrst seen the light , the little s girl died . Their mother never spoke of a loss which embittered her early life . Then came the

‘ death of her adored mother , and later the fall of the E mpire a crushing blow to people who had s hared “ ” who all the fun of the fair, and had enjoyed all that Court or camp could offer them . General de Bernis w as the offi cer put in charge of the Prince S aarb riick s I mperial at , and I often wi hed that de N euville could have painted t he s cene on that little ’ : his rising ground the lad , with mother s pretty his s a s brows , and lips parted with eagernes he cried See ! See ! We have driven them back ! They ” ! s k run and the hand ome General , in his spic and s w - s c pan uniform , ith his well waxed white mou ta he , ’ and his blue eyes smiling as he watched the lad s itrailleu s es happiness , and the fire of the m which a n had won this very ephemeral victory . I c rejoice to think that thi s blameless soldier was not caught ’ of Du cro t s in the net S edan , since he accompanied His force , and had gone back upon Paris . wife , who was with her father in the Tuileries , lived through that dreadful time of suspense when it was sometimes reported that MacMahon and Bazaine had made a junction , or when again desperately bad accounts filtered through by way of Laon ; ou r ons when f g were being packed in courtyards ,

and the ladies , who all lay down in their clothes , ri s only slept by snatches . Bad health a d trouble of ’ the heart and breathing came to General de B e rn is s w ife after such terrible shocks , and Since the climate S a dne is o of the valley a very rig rous one they had ,

when I ﬁrst knew them , bought a villa in Cannes FRENCH COUNTRY H OUSES 1 63 — in which to spend their winters a plan which suited s wa s them all the better becau e the General , under ’ M ac M aho n s s presidency , put in command of thi k district , and many were the pleasant brea fasts that w s we had at the Villa Leo nie . The General a a s - s s mo t sweet tempered and courteou ho t ; Pierre , s - : their ancient erving man , was a character one of those domestic tyrants w ho allowed no amateur tampering with his wood ﬁres or his colza lamps : it s reinettes it s s the table , with piles of , and parkle s was of red and white wine , admirably served , and w it M ad me la Vico tess e s the of a m was alway biting . M ar his e s Nor ought I to forget p , a very mall - s broken haired dog , whose tantrum of temper amused us extremely , who dared to defy Pierre , and ’ even attack the General s shins . But pleas ant as s w a s w a s all thi , it nothing to the delight of staying Fl h s s éc ére . i with them at I t a grand H enry I I . s hou e , built in the form of the letter H , standing in o the valley of the Sa ne , and facing the range of the mountains of the Beaujolais . To reach it we had to take a train from Paris that stopped at the station

- - a ne of Villefranche sur S fi . There an omnibus had I t w as been sent to meet us . late , and to get s s acro the river, which was wide and heavy with c s w e O tober rain , had to knock up the bridge keeper . H e had gone to bed at the hour of the s hen , but after much knocking and waiting, the bonn guardian appeared , wearing the long , hanging et de coton has now which , I think , disappeared from I E ngli s h manners . B efore had done laughing at w e the comical figure that he presented , had rattled s s up to the ca tle , cros ed the drawbridge , and drawn n ‘ up at the foot of the p erro . At the top of this s s long and wide flight of tep stood the housekeeper . t o t o t S he had been sent welcome us , and ell us that , 1 64 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

w as s s e e as the hour late , we mu t not expect to her always suffering mistress until the next day. Then e s Pierre appear d , and u hered us into the little

morning room , where the General and Madame de la P z M a hi e oe e r s . were sitting , with p , over a wood ﬁre ’ Thi s lady was one of the beauties of E ug énie s had s Court . She by this time lo t the willowy ﬁgure ' c s n ees de la for whi h the three handsome ladie , R h t s o oc elamber . , were celebrated She had grown a nd heavy and dark , seemed to want knowing , is we as the phrase . Then were sent up to our

. was rooms The housekeeper, who again in charge

in . of us , had been more than thirty years the castle She was one of the old Fren ch noblesse ruined by c the Revolution , after whi h her grandmother (an orphan in need of some protection) had married a

working man . This grandchild possessed all the ar uis e papers that proved her to be an authentic m q , s he but did not , like an E nglish housekeeper in a

‘

t k . t grea house , dress in blac Silk She wore a shor

- - o dress , with a checked white and blue verall , and had a big bunch of keys suspended from her A S waist . we followed her we had to cross the in great hall . Just as it would be an old Scottish

keep , the great dining hall was upstairs . I t could o seat three hundred people , had ﬁve windows n

S wa s . each ide , and two stories high The moon s w light treamed across its p arqu et as e walked along .

Our rooms were close together . They contained a o re nchwo m e n great deal of needlew rk , for F of all s generations work diligently there was a ﬁre of log ,

and not much carpet on its red brick ﬂoors , while the doors opened by pres s ing down such a latch as is now in England only to be found in a rough ou t w e house . N ext day explored the castle , in which t here were some magniﬁcent specimens of Louis

1 66 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME t o w tastes , and this day many are the childless omen who o t c c me here to ou h him , and to pray for the s cure of their terility . A little farther up the river is one of the most telling echoes in France . We went with the General one evening to s e e the eel s taken from the ’’ o u s Sa ne , and the General told of the legend of a murdered girl whose unquiet Spirit Still haunts the s pot , and cries in the echo . H e bade me face the “ ive He u e ! I crie d . V nri atr river , and call aloud Q , e c and though Franc be now a democrati country , that echo replied correctly Vive Henri Qu atre ! I have s aid that France was a democratic country, and there is perhaps no more socialistic s s corner o f it than the town of Trevoux . I t tand - an - with its feet in the river , about half hour nearer Fléchere s has o to Lyons than , and it nly one s — indu try viz . beating gold for the Church orna

- ments and jewellery made in that city . Gold beating is not a healthy occupation , but be that as it may , the hand of the folk of Trevoux is against mo s t s s s in titution , and against all thing that savour of r s p operty and of privileges . The prie ts , of course , o come in for much ill will not for d gmatic reasons , but because a village cu ré had a magniﬁcent 2 8 as was living wage of £ a year without , it 1 s it . aid , having done anything to earn - o The river side folk are , h wever , in their own wa s y , quite as uperstitious as the votaries of s A s St Deni of the farmyard . I am writing of ” the manners of my time I will tell a tale that w as T révou x given to me near , and though Dr Charcot could easily have explained it a s a

1 T h e s eparation of Church and S tat e h as re move d thi s c au s e of ffe e and t h e e a e t t a t t o o nc , cl rgy of Fr nc wi hou righ food or s e te ar e t t he h t s wh t s e s h l r e l f o t c ari y of tho e o value h eir rvice . FRENCH COUNTRY H OUSES 1 67 c of a s ase suggestion , it was offered to me the very s best of witchcraft I t fell out on this wi e . Every autumn strings of gipsies , on their way to a fair s c s in Lyons , u ed to ome down through the mar hy s country of Le Dombes . O ne caravan of thes e tinkers used regularly to receive hospitality at the s farm of a certain M . Ambroi e . There they would c sleep a little , sing and dan e a little , and pilfer not a little , and then go on their way to the great city , e s s to s ll pot and pan , tell fortunes and pick up some money at the fair. On one occasion , either because they had pilfered too much at Ambroise ’s s his farm on a former visit , or becau e wife was in s a wor e temper than usual , they were abruptly s s refused helter for the night . The gip y grand mother had such a s plendid reputation as a witch that the herds men implored their mistress to change s on her mind , but her backed her up in her deter a nd S he s mination , aid that they must clear out at ’ L E enne . ti once gyp , as they termed her , asked why She was denied the hospitality on which for years She had been able to reckon . Madame Ambroise replied that they were all thieves and vagabond s ; and that they must decamp . But if we have to travel all night along such s s wet road the little one will be quite ill , and the s s girl and the dog too tired to dance . And if you do n ot dance what is that to me or s o n ? to my H e does not ask to dance with you ,

I believe . s The old hag Shook her stick at Madame Ambroi e , and bade the caravan move on . Then , turning to the is a nd s on S he . i t ou inhospitable mother , cried But y , ”

who s . and not we , will oon have enough of dancing T w o s s s day pa ed , and Sunday came , when the

Ambroise family meant to go over to St Georges , 1 68 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

t a s and to return in the evening . J us they were s s ready to tart Madame Ambroi e began to dance , s on s s her did the ame , and this mania eldom , if s ever, left them during many weeks . The gip y had put a spell on them ! What w a s the fate of s o n wa s the I not told , but the woman died in 1 s s . ho pital , worn to a keleton by incessant dancing

s e t - s s s N ow, as a off to thi rather grote que tory told to me by a person who al s o felt su re that there s s t was omething in werewolve , let us has en to put s s s on our hat , and drive with the Comte e de la Po e z e s ee s to the church , and pre bytery , and all

bienheureu A rs . the relics of the x Curé of H e , ! ha s alas is dead and gone , but everyone heard t s - s Via n of the saintly vir ue of J ean Bapti te e y . His father was a ploughman ; the lad was both

- s o s o poor and slow witted , much that when , at s the end of his terms in the eminary , he went up his t o s as for examination , it seemed the examiner s s if they hardly ought to pa him for Orders . They

- debated the matter . The novice master reported that J ean - Baptiste was what the French call n u bon su et j , pious and quiet , and generally liked . The Superior knew that for his educati on his s s parent had made extraordinary acriﬁces . I t was o then the questi n whether to reject him , and break ’ s w as his parent hearts , or to pass him , Since he a h t e . good young man , and hope for best That

1 ' Ta ra n tis m e s a s s a a a are n ot , or n rvou p roxy m of d ncing m ni , e an d are e e a a s e th e tes th e v ry uncommon , g n r lly c u d by bi of ta ra ntu la s e e are t eat e th e e e pid r. Th y r d by p opl of th e region of t s t s es ra hi s t and s e e s at s Troy wi h rong do of piri , by profu p r pir ion ; “ ” but s s es s s est can e s at ta s t t po ion , or ugg ion , produc uch ck wi hou n An a nnu al a y h elp from the s pide r. e pidemic of dan cing m ania occurring among p er s on s of all ages and both s e xes at th e t im e of a popular fes t ival can h ave its s ymptom s reli ev e d by a preparat ion of ’ s a is be S t t s s a s te e s e . e a zinc, uch of n pr cri d for Vi u d nc Wh n m ny a s a t s are atta e at th e s a e t e the s e e s a c t n pe n ck d m im , c n in hurch ur it int o a real pande monium ;

1 7 0 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME the side of the wooden confessional where he would frequently spend from t welve to ﬁfteen hours at a who c time . This was the peasant feared the fa e o of no man , left no m urner unconsoled , and no s who n ow inner unwarned , and Shares with J eanne , o f e the shepherdess Domr my , the love of the ’ ! d A rc French nation . J eanne and J ean and ’ d A rs ! they will never be forgotten , especially in A rs wa s this old kingdom of Burgundy . originally it s t of a poor hamlet , and meek lit le Shepherd souls t o o r had at the outset very few know to love him , but he began to be loved as a poor man am ong c poor men , since they ould judge for themselves that his presbytery was a s bare as any of their own h s . s t e home Large gift , comin to place after his death , have ﬁlled Ars wit buildings and with s tatues , while a great domed church literally covers over , and preserves , the tiny church where

- s Via ne J ean Bapti te y said his ﬁrst Mass , and his

s one . o la t O n that narr w pallet he expired , when of the ardent love of God and man had made , as

- s it were , a holocaust of the puny and ill nouri hed body . Thousands of mourners followed it to the

- his - - ck grave , and to day blue and white che ed bed c curtains , and his two Straw hairs , have to be

- protected by railings from the zeal of relic hunters .

' his Divine has Like Master , he left no writings s only an example , and the memory of his imple

s . ! sermon , and of his absolute good faith Ah if it could please God to s end three or four such s ! apo tles to France Strong in their simplicity , s s and in their love of oul , they would speak with a tender authority , and France might yet be saved s s s from the gros ne s of her sen uality , and from her still more sinful indifference ; and there would be s uch a revival of faith in her midst as would FREN CH COUNTRY HOUSES 1 7 1

his awaken every man to the realisation of duties . “ A s w e : W ho drove back from Ars , we cried Shall make these dry bones live ? I have said that the Comte s s e de la Po ez e w as h cicerone . s e our that day Now an elderly woman , ha s married her daughter Apollonie to Humbert de h ir Fléchere s e rriere the . e la F , to this fine castle of ’ he being the second s on of Madame de B e rnis s s s urviving uncle . This arrangement cau es her s s s s s s great ati faction , yet adne overhang Madame Po eze s o s h e s de la , loyal is to her two Si ters , and is it s to the Second E mpire . She reticent about s s s tragic clo e , and about those faults and mi take which brought it about . I can never bring myself ' s I s to peak evil of the people whom have erved , ” and who s e bread I have eaten ; that is what s he s s he s s s is ays , and if ever draw on her ouvenir it s - s to peak rather of old , long ago thing than of the great débdcle which s wept away the merry men and s is s s women of that Court . Madame de Berni le s o s he s s reticent , and intelligent that analy e as well a s s w as Fléchére s remember . I again at when wa s s s s there no other Vi itor in the hou e but my elf, ’ till the anniversary of her mother s death brought an old friend of the Comtess e de la Fe rriére to s pend it with her daughter . M . de V . talked much s s s and well , and the conver ation were mo t interest s ing after the lamps were lit . Both the men pre ent k had been in the thic of the fight , the General it s fi s being on the Staff during r t weeks , and s M . de V . with the brave Aurelle de Paladine after s w a s s s Pari inve ted . H e poke a great deal of the s s Duc de Chartre . The French prince had early offered their services to France , and though the s s s Comte de Pari did not cro the Channel , the s s s s nito inco . other came to Pari , more or le g They 1 72 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME met their friend s and supporters (the wisest and ’ best of whom w as the Comte d Hau s s onville ) at ’ 1 Lau e l s s s - ln - the house of M . g si ter law , in the Rue ’ l u s E vé e . . de la Ville q , or el e with M Bocher Their offers having been declined by the provi s ional government , they retired , but in taking leave of M . ’ d Ha u s s o nville the Duc de Chartres said : I f ever u s e I can be of any as a Simple soldier , do not write ‘ s but end someone to say the one word : Come. — Perhaps that word wa s said perhaps it was not : ’ at any rate the Prince s heart burnt within him , and s he arrived , a volunteer , a imple soldier whose name w a s l s Robert e Fort . For some days he pa sed was c unknown . I t winter, and intensely old for who men constantly on the move , and , in front of a vigilant and effective enemy , were in want of nearly every necessary of life . O ne day they got ' s s food and a little helter in a lady s hou e . Robert le as Fort commanded the handful of men , and he took leave and thanked their hostess for her charit s able kindne s , She looked at him very Sharply , and “ said : I t is really curiou s how mu ch you re s emble ” u e s Monseigneur le D de Chartre . The offi cer did ’ - s not lose his self command , but putting the lady : hand to his lips , he replied Madame , this is not the first time that people have been flattering enough to tell me of such a likeness .

To M . de V . he happened to be well known , s was but , needles to say, the secret kept by him , even when he heard it commonly remarked that u st this new volunteer m be rich , for not only were s t s his arm and accou rement very good , but he s o - evidently had lot of p cket money, and was ready — to give away tobac co a thing that had become s s c pricele s . At la t one evening, round a amp ﬁre ,

1 ’ . A st e La e was s ec eta t he Duc d Aum l M ugu ng l r ry o t a e .

1 74 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

! le every day . After that Silence and Robert Fort took his place in every French heart that wa s not bus ied in thinking how to prevent money and power fro m pas s ing out of the hands of an ambitious s bou rgeoi ie. “ a s Yes , continued M . de V there are people who s o are not able to see the wood for the trees , the real France is hidden by the men who make f s Th money by admini s tering her af air . ey are in s s the addle , and they will not di mount in favour of any des cendant of St Louis . They will Sit there s till they are pu hed off by a more hungry , howling , and frenzied democracy . They will then pity themselves but they mu s t not as k me to pity a s k s them Or , I put in , the Duc de Chartre s o to do , for since they have obliged him to leave

- s the army he is a broken hearted man . One see w him every winter in Cannes , and al ays with the ” mos t profound commiseration . We got the General t o s peak of the poor little

Prince I mperial , and of the curious fatality that he ,

like the great Napoleon , should die upon what was s u s E ngli h ground . H e told that the Germans , s s s with que tionable ta te , have marked the pot at a arb ru c S k Where the boy stood to s e e the battle . Not content with erecting a monument that is like a plethoric milestone , they have also engraved on ’ ” L - L s e D u a bronze plate n u s er t s eb t. They ought s at least to be able to neer in good German , and s K not to expre s themselves in au derwels ch. When the convers ation turned another evening on

the Court of the Tuileries , Madame de Bernis took ”

its c . s he up the cudgels in defen e I admit , said , “ that there was extravagance ; that they liked ’ ’ Theres a s songs and Offenbach s pieces ; that Marguerite Bellanger devoured a lot of money ; that FRENCH COUNTRY HOUSES 1 75 such a s ociety made the happine s s of dre s s makers ’ and hairdressers ; that Mademoi s elle S . S cascade of ’ curls took two hours to do ; that the B at des B etes s s left a great deal to be de ired , in its co tumes and it s s ugge s tions but I must be permitted to s ay that such exotics as the C omte s se de Cas tellane and the Princess e Metternich - Sandor were the worst u s offenders . For Frenchwomen I will continue to w e hold a brief, and to maintain that were neither a s as as as ignorant , nor idle , nor rowdy people s s made out . The circle was full of Rus ian , of s s Spaniard , and of Poles , whose manner were not

those of France , though they happened to enjoy ’

s . Po éze s s life in Pari Of Madame de la Si ter , B edo ere s s Madame de la y , it u ed to be aid that her entrance into a room w a s like an illumination ; She

s o s o . was intelligent , and graceful Madame de s L Souza left ﬁfty volume of prose and vers e . a belle M elanie was and is a woman of will and

. s energy and of, p ublic Spirit Nor were the art

neglected . I could Show you many women of my friends who

s s . were good miniature painter , and better mu icians ’ Emile Ollivier s wife w a s a daughter of the literary ’ Comte s s e d Ag ou lt : Madame Co nnea u had not s he wa s s only a beautiful voice , but a ﬁnished arti t , s s he and after her rever e of fortune , found consola

. o w e tion in her art Thus I do not c nsider that ,

the women of the Second E mpire , were more idle and re s tle s s (perhaps even less s o )than the modern beautie s who dine every night at some g argotte or ou r another , to be stared at by men who are not of

- monde. The men and women of to day seem to me ‘ to take every morning a glass of J e xxxx and not ’ t o care for anything but that their au to s s hould take to no e them fast matter wh re , to do no matter what 1 76 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME which is s tupid ! But how come s it that I have not s s s indicated to you already Prince e Mathilde , who e s s wa s rendez tastes were arti tic , and who e house the vou s of all that France held of brightes t and mos t gifted . “ ” “ s s ? w a s s he And the Empre I asked , really intelligent ? “ e s I n her own way , y ; but do not forget that it was wa s he w a s in her own y , and that a Spaniard , s and above all jealou of her influence . H er influence a s over the E mperor , he aged through bad health , w a s unfortunately great , but her influence over Metternich and N igra wa s by no means what s he took it to be ; and tha t wa s proved to her on the ” day of her flight . i Did you w tness it . No I only s aw herfou rgons packing during three ‘ h s S e is i n awa . . o days , and I aid to my father g g y in Metternich left her the middle of the street , and who it was Madame Le Breton hailed a cab , and drove ” away with her , to the house of Evans , her dentist . Princes s e Mathilde wrote of her that the Empress had on the 4th September given up a game that was still playable . Do you think that it was so H ere the General broke in : No ; no ; all was over ; and now there remains for u s nothing t o do P ” ate . but to say the r, and to go very quietly to bed “ e H is wife smiled . I f ever Eug nie could have t B u o na a rt e s s re rieved the fortune of the p it mu t,

I suppose , have been done through Bazaine . You remember that Bourbaki was sent by him to Chis le s hurst to implore the Empres to permit a regency, n n f and to place her s o o the throne o France . She ? refused ; w as it from distrust of Bazaine O r was it from jealousy of her own s on ? Qu e spais je ? as Montaigne used t o say ! I nto the inside of a Spanish

1 78 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME of the s addes t and the mo s t pathetic legend of

l ch s - s F é ere . I n the pre Revolution day people own s lived on their lands , and did their be t without ’ s the advantage of a town life . My wife s grand w as a n father only child , and when his parents took

an abbé to educate him , they admitted to the same s s s o n advantage , and les ons , the of the local notary , t u r d and the son of the nurse . The two lads rje ou s out very differently . The young b rgeoi wa s s re tless ; scoffed at religion , and was not grateful

for the education he had received . H e hated the s his his his young Marqui for title and beauty , for ’ his s . s s on dress , his sword , and fortune The nur e w as s his - quiet and pen ive , loved foster brother , and his s brushes , and , after some training in a Pari ’ s s s s tudio , he did that likene of my wife grandfather,

which you have just been looking at . But pre s ently a s Paris ceased to think of s tudios . I t w in full s s revolution , and the Ba tille had fallen . Lyon

caught the infection , and prominent among its ’ wa s s s on J acobins the notary , speaking every ‘ s : A bas les ars itos / where to great crowd , and calling was s O ne day , it a Friday , to the young Marqui , his who was alone in the castle , there entered old

nurse . “ ‘ - - Nou Good morning, N ou , and what do you bring me here ? ’ “ his s abots The woman laid at feet a pair of , a ’ s s s s workman dre , and a tout stick with a bundle ‘

i . s s t o t . tied U ndre quickly, my dear one Put n is o e s abots . this dr ss , and these There a little bu ndl the e t . s food in , tied to the s aff Take ome L o . e s s . m ney, and get off at once Go into Dombe You w s s ill easily be lo t there , and do not re t till

- e n - you have come out , and reached Bourg Bresse ’ t hrough t he forest that lies t o the s outh of it . FRENCH COUNTRY HOUSES 1 7 9 Is there s uch caus e for haste Can I not make ? ’ s ome defence of thi s cas tle “ ‘ s No defence is pos ible . On Sunday , if not s - s perhap to morrow , all Lyon will be here , led by ’

s s o n . that infamou traitor, the notary s Do not ’ throw away your life by delay . “ The young Marqui s allowed himself to be dre s sed a s s s his a pea ant , put the tick over Shoulder , and His s s s tarted . way led through the mar he by paths m s s pretty fa iliar to him elf, but which mu t prove more than perplexing to persons unaccustomed to s it s s s s Le s Dombe and mora e . “ On Sunday things turned out just a s the old nurs e expected . A furiou s and howling mob pas s ed into the great courtyard . ‘ ’ ‘ A s Give u s the Marqui s ! they cried . bas le ‘ s s A la la nt n ’ ari to er e . and , no doubt , they would have s oon been as good a s their word . They were quite capable of hanging the young aristo before s etting fire to a s much of thi s s olid old cas tle as would b u rn . But where in the meantime was the Marqui s ? “ ’ The notary s s o n had ju s t volunteered to head erron a hunt for him , when at the top of the p a young man appeared . “ ‘ ‘ It is s s he , cried thi modern J uda ; I know his s his s s him by word , and by hoe buckle ; the s u s s ame a s the late Marqui s u ed to wear . Let m aris tos drive him to Lyon s . H e will eet other A bas in the Square where the guillotine stands . ’ laristo ! ’ s The young man stepped forward . My friend , ‘ ? he said , in a firm voice , what brings you here What am I to do for you ? ’ ‘ ’ ! . Ah my fine bird , we want the Marquis ’ Well , here (pointing to his breast) you have 1 80 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

bu t e is a t the Marquis ; he is young , h your ’ s i erv ce . ‘ ’ ’ ’ A bas laristo s , and always led by the notary

Son , the angry crowd swarmed up the long ﬂight s wa s s of step . The young lord of the castle oon

in their power . They dra ged him over the draw his h bridge ; they bound ands behind his back , s and drove him before them , like a heep , along the s A s road to Lyon . S he went along thi Calvary he could s e e the ﬂames ri s ing from the common s of Fl cher s s the Castle of é e . Arrived in Lyon they B u r drove him into the Place e lle co . There they did not even go through the formality of a trial , s but, eizing him , they fastened him , face downward , s o s to the plank , and then pu hed it t ward the ’ u n e e s l tt . There was a moment pause before the knife fell , and a head rolled down into a basket s full of awdust . Then a great and bitter cry went up which s obered even this dancing and yelling it s mob in the middle of unholy joy . I t came from an old peas ant woman who pus hed her way is bo de u stice. up to the j She bent down there , ‘ ! and dipped a handkerchief in the blood . Ah ’ s w s ! s he s he s mi erable retche exclaimed , as hook the cloth in their faces mi s erable and insane people ! You thought to take the Marquis de

s . s Sarran You believed that you had eized him , ! and that you had murdered him . Far from it The Marqui s de Sarran s ha s for three lo ng days been far out of your reach . H e whom you have jus t killed is the only s o n of a poor working ” woman . God will be your judge .

The pre s ent owner ( 1 9 1 1 ) of Flécheres is e o H umbert de la Ferri re , who married Apoll nie

1 82 THE MANN ERS OF MY TIME ’ widowed daughter the Vicomt esse de Thoizy s : Rénée three children , two have one into religion %I a nche s t e r is a nun in a convent in , now that her

Order has been expelled from Lyons , and Raymond has gone into the Company of J esus . Their mother says that two out of three is much to have to resign , but that if there were no pains in parting from them there would be no merit in sacrifice , and no place for true resignation . The care of s sons is now an anxious one for French parent , for boys brought up in a college that is taught by the c t he clergy annot get admittance to army , or the s navy , or to the civil service . Only bu iness is t wo open to them , and these sons of Madame de T hoiz be y had to educated in E ngland , and there com they learnt E nglish , with a view to some me rcial occupation . About Bierre the populace is rather a - religious than irreligious . They are quite indifferent . The o churches are theref re not well attended , and the clergy lead very solitary lives . Raised up from the peas ant class (as in nine cases out of ten they are ) they do not fit in well with the land - owning c dare lass , and their peasantry not take any notice ’ of them . I f a labouring man s old mother lies sick of the palsy he must n ot invi t e the parish priest to w o o visit her , because the fact ould be rep rted (pr b c t o ably by the agnostic s hoolmaster) the mayor , refe ct u re and by the mayor to the p , where a bad mark would be made against his name at the eau bur where votes are registered , and he would k o c become a mar ed man , one wh se daughter ould c c not get a pla e easily in any s hool , and whose s on f would be refused in a post o fice , or on the roads and bridges works . From this it will be w t c d seen ha are the Fren h i eas about liberty , and FRENCH COUNTRY HOUSES 1 83 how i s olation and s ilence must torture a young s s s prie t who already uffers , ince the Separation , s from the most grinding form of poverty . I had an interesting drive from Bierre to Bour ’ e e s s billy , Madame de S vign birthplace . It stand - s among tall spruce tree , and reminded me of the little Aberdeenshire house and e s tate of Pitcaple °

even its architecture might pass for Scotch . The Fra nc u e v ille Baron and Baronne de q live in it , litt ’ when they are not at La Muette . H e is a em tau r s o s he is s of di tincti n , and a ister of the Earl of Selborne : an amiable woman of whom her a s as French neighbours are quite proud well fond .

She received me very kindly , was glad I had ’ always valued her father s collection of clas s i cal s s and devotional piece , and howed me the relics e e in the house of Madame de S vign , and of Jean s de Chantal . They make rather an incongruou w as mixture . I not sure that I liked it , and I w as qu ite s ure that I dis liked the memory of ’ e e s s Madame de S vign s ribald old cou in , Bu sy w a s Rabutin . H e the worst enemy that the dear Fra nc u e ville s woman ever had . After tea with the q we s T ho iz drove home in rain , past the ruin of y s u r s s Ille , a castle from which the ance tor of Roger and Raymond and Rénée de T ho izy went to the ha s s . is Crusade I t now a mere shell , and France s Au tre tem s au tres mceu rs ! It is lo t her faith . p , only God who never changes C H APT E R X I I I

FRE NCH COUNTRY HOUS E S

2 The Cast e o Abondant . l f

There had been a promise of long s tanding that

“ s s in some week of October I hould , after cro sing s the Channel , pay a vi it to the Duke and Duchess s s s of Vallombro a in her hi torical Ca tle of Abondant . w as s H ow historic it I knew , becau e it had s belonged to her grandmother , that Duches of who a s s Tourzel , governes to the children of s Loui XV I . had accompanied them on their ill s starred ﬂight to Varenne . Through her daughter Pauline (whose clothes had been u s ed on that fatal s s s day to di gui e the poor little Dauphin), the land of Abondant had descended to the kind friend whose guest I now hoped to become . The c a counts of her health were disquieting , and had s o s o w a s s been ever since E aster, that I anxiou

. w as u st not again to put , off my visit I only j able s for it , for I had been ill all the summer in Ea t

Lothian , and I felt abominably weak on the day s when I took my tickets for Abondant , which lie - w as on the Paris Granville line . I t on a day in t c early Oc ober , and I was glad that what the Scot h “ ’ gardeners call the back end 0 hairs t w as so sunny and congenial as we ran out by Montfort . ﬁe f it s That is the which gave name to the famous , t or infamous , Simon de Montfort , a cap ain so hated through all the Albigeois region that to this day its peasantry remember the savage refrain of the song 1 84

1 86 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

. c is t south side of the house The park , whi h jus “ ” s is about the size of the Arniston wilderne s , ,

however , more formal , for though there are the s s same ﬁne traight avenue , and long vistas through is the trees , it all separated from the house and s rilles lawn by tall g and by ornamental gates .

Below the park , where at Arniston you would ﬁnd t he the gardens , you here ﬁnd the village and

parish church . As s oon as I got out o f the carriage which had t o ma or- d been sent meet me at the station , the j omo told me that he had orders t o sh ow me at once to c my rooms , whi h , to save me a staircase , were on o the ground ﬂo r , and that tea would be served in ’ - the drawing room at ﬁve o clock . M y rooms were those which the late Duchess e des Cars had always

s . u ed , and they proved to be eleven in number I n w as the centre one , which at the angle of the house ,

w as . a s tove burning French fashion , all the rooms

- (boudoir , bedrooms , bathroom , powdering room ,

boxroom , etc . )opened out of each other, but they had also outer doors that led into a narrow corridor was ceil- de v e. de s er ic That dark , lit only by an

bceuf in each of the doors . There was an ivory tru eau o cruciﬁx beside each bed , m x ver the tall o narrow mirrors , and the hangings were m stly of those Trianon - patterned chintzes which are the

s s . fa hion in French country house As at Arniston , there was a great deal of wainsco ting painted w white . Having rested a little , I ent to tea .

Very kind was the welcome that met me . Claire c cu came in , and arried away with her a p for her n German Frau lei . I found that that lady never was came to meals , and I imagined it thought

wisest not to produce her, lest the country neigh s who o bour , had all had the Prussians billeted up n FRENCH COUNTRY HOUSES 1 87

s t them during the war , hould dislike sitting at mea s with a per on who hailed from beyond the Rhine . With the exception of an I talian cous in of the ’ Duke s , a retired colonel , there were no guests in s wa s the Castle . For thi I grateful , for if I was s weak , and not able for long formal meal , what s at could be said of my dear hostess , who through luncheon and dinner drinking milk, and eating ? s as gluten bread She miled usual , but the sweet face was like ivory , and the hands had become In s h transparent . those autumnal days e went out s very little , except to Ma s in the village every morn

s that . ing at even ; she never missed S ome days , s he if pretty well , would paint , chiefly Watteau

on re - roups furniture , using the newly discovered at c Henri- M artin - f Nan y) gold ground and varnish . s At thi work her daughter would help her, but more often s he wrote . There were letters to be M editations et E levations got through , and all those ’ de lcime which were found in such quantities after s he her death . With these tried to pacify her s heart and her nerves , both terribly tried at thi s on time . H er idolised but quite uncontrollable , es was the Marquis de Mor , at that moment stand ing his trial in America for having shot the cowboy who had deliberately ﬁred into a lamplit room his where he and wife were seated . I am glad t o s a o y that while I was at Ab ndant , a telegram came - in - from her daughter law , announcing that the c proceedings were at an end , and that the verdi t ’ w a s given in Mores s favour . After that message ’ there crept a little more col our into his mother s c lovely fa e , but to no one did she ever reveal what all the cruel suspense had cost her . c t o o it was The Castle , when I ame expl re , at mo t s o once re interes ing, and less , than I had 1 88 THE MANN ERS OF MY T IME

expected, To begin with , there were but few relics c s t of the Du hes of Tourzel , except a quan ity of s O riental china , with her arm and crest , and a “ ” s large T , that now served to ornament the wall

- of the dining room . The Duke explained how , La w after had drawn attention to Oriental trade , it s s s s of had been the fa hion to import uch et china . ” “ So it was in Scotland , I said . Hardly any s s s Scotch family but had , and still po sesse , ervices of china on which Eas tern workmen painted their s arm . “ c Yes , but then besides your hina you have been H able to keep your gold and silver plate . ere we have only one tiny covered s ilver basin that ha s s s escaped ; no one gue ses how . I uspect that in o the years of dearth bef re the Revolution , a good

- deal of family plate got into the melting pot , and

was replaced at table by all this china . Then came

the end , and anything that , for a wonder , the Jacobin s might have left was quite recently s tolen s by the Prussian . Our family pictures were luckily s wa r at Canne during the , and this Tourzel china

did not attract them , though no doubt the German ofﬁcers knew perfectly to whom this castle had s s belonged . The Duche of Tourzel was lucky t o enough , after the Restoration , get back her home , e but with such exceptions as Bonn table , which

belongs to the Rochefoucaulds , few , if any , French families can now show a great collection of valuable

gold and silver plate . To console me for ﬁnding so few relic s of the ran de ou vern ante des en ants de Fran ce g g f , the Duches s of Vallombro s a gave me a copy of her ’ grandmother s Memoirs . They record the life of

- a brave and much tried woman , and I asked myself c o - which experien e had been the m re heart breaking,

1 90 TH E MANN ERS OF MY TI ME Vallombro s a family (which w a s of Spani s h extrac o is tion , and wh se real family name

there is witne s s among the Cas tiglione papers . When the mo s t celebrated beauty of the Second Old u ini s s Cas t 1 l1one E mpire , Virginie , Counte of g , s ent out the lettres de faire part of the death of V e ra s is Ca s t i llone her husband , Count g , the Duke and the Duches s of Vallombro s a are cited among the cou s ins of the defunct : ranking along with ’

o d A ze lio . Cav ur, Spinola , and E mmanuel g This s As inari relation hip came , I fancy , through the

I s t w as . family, to whom the Duke kin The marriage of my ho s t and hos te s s had been a love ’ s match , and it took place after the Duke return s from I ndia , where (being already mitten with her) he collected for her a beautiful s e t of emerald s . The establi s hment in this cas tle is on s uch old fa s hioned French line s as to astoni s h my Scotch s s maid , accu tomed at home to what u ed to be called the wu n ho s s a o e . mm , of a dozen maid ervants H ere s s ha s e e the Duche her maid , and little Am d e has - has Frau lein N ou Nou ; Claire her , and out in the is stable court there an E nglishwoman , the wife

t e at D an d e t h e D e e e to S w e of n unrobin , wh n uk drov him ov r kibo , ” a s e s at e a e a o s e e a man e s ix t childr n , n ch d f rful j y in ing , ov r foo in e t s e at e h ad e an E e He len and I e e a e h igh , who f h r kill d mp ror w r bl t o e eas e his a s t e e h e e giv him pl ur in l y ars , wh n live d in a hot l in a e s e th e h H s t o s it C nn s oppo it lodge of t e Villa Vallombro sa . e u e d ' e e a e ﬁ re t h is a s a muﬁ an d e ea t e s es b for hug , wi h h nd in , r p v r of a e s wa is He s e e t th e s h a te a t . e to e C mo n , who f vouri u hor r fu d n r ’ e Vallomb ro s a s s e bu t I t e m e t t e e his e e t Duk of hou , of n h r n ph w, Coun

e e a e t a e a e . S h e w as e e an d L onid P hl n , wi h v ry ch rming wif cl v r , - e and a e m e a tt e e he r e s t a s at s high br d, g v li l volum of po m , r n l ion from th e s s t s N as s e a h is e Ru ian in o Engli h . Coun t ichol igh d way rugg d s oul early one Nove mbe r and we we re of th e ﬁve mourn ers who burie d t h e e ete a es He h ad t h lon a e s s e him in c m ry of C nn . ( houg for g prof d “ free thinke r)give n m e a t ouching rendezvou s in anoth er life : some ” w her a nd s m h R P e o e ow . . I . .

According t o the Alm an a ch d e Gotha the nam e is M an ca M ai son ” d a e M nca . FRENCH COUNTRY HOUSES 1 91

is of the head groom . That all the femininity , and when one looks at the length of t hese corridors and s taircases one is obliged to confes s that s o much hewing of ﬁrewood , and carrying of water is really s s e x s best left to the tronger . N early all the ervants here are married . You could never get French s people to believe either in the afety , or in the morality of s uch a wu mman hoos e as obtains in s s re Scotch dome tic arrangement . I t would be s s s as s s s pul ive to all cla se , while regard the ma ter s s s s of great hou es , they till pre erve the manner , and ‘ what u s ed to be called les reglemen ts of their for l s . s bear The Catholic Church favour matrimony ,

is s s . which one of her Sacrament , or mean of grace s s s She never inﬂict celibacy on anyone , only in i ting that if a man , or woman (having a vocation for the s s v o w religiou or cloistered life), hould have taken a s he is s of celibacy , he , or , then ab olutely bound to As s s observe it . regards the marriage of ervant , s s ever ince the time of Diocletian , the Chri tian Church has occupied hers elf with rendering the s s s marriage of lave ecure , while more recently St Thomas Aquinas has rubbed it in to the morality n s of Fre ch family life that no ma ter , rich enough to ke e a s ha s as s p ervant , a right ( a matter of Chri tian charity)to deprive that s ervant of what he him s elf s enjoy , the dignity of fatherhood and motherhood , and the joys of the domestic hearth . As I am writing about mann ers I venture to mention the s e

1 ’ e th e a se de - d O éde e to s My fri nd M rqui Forbin pp , in ord r how how s eriou s ly th e old nobih ty of Franc e con s ide re d the m anage m en t of a a e e s ta s e t s e and e te th e Re lemen ts do L ia ncou rt . l rg bli hm n , publi h d di d g Eve ry de ta il of h e r hou s ehold l1fe w as s e t down by a c ertain D uch e s s e de a t it s s a e e e s es an d t he at s e e Li ncour ; c l of xp n , occup ion of v ry h e s e a t as e as he r e t d a and s s e . In S c t a t rv n , w ll of m ho ic l piou lf o l nd eat e t h e t a e s t h e e a s e t e and s e bu t gr b ll in cour nnounc m l of g n l impl , at a c t it a th e a a s an d all e e a e t he Li n our r ng for c nonic l hour , w r c ll d by ’ A e s to e how h sa a a . ng lu r m ember t e angel , entering in , id H il, M ry 1 92 THE MANN ERS OF MY TIME

s thing , which many readers may consider to be s s trivial , but which have the deepe t root in French s ocial life , and which depend upon the teaching of s a Church profoundly maternal , and , in one ense , profoundly democratic . I w as sent over one afternoon with Claire and h e r F au le n m a niﬁ r i to tea at Anet . That is a g s s s cent Renai ance pile , the mo t ornately beautiful of all the hou s es that Diane de Poitiers managed o to acquire , and to dec rate with her monogram s s of the triple cre cent . I t belongs now to the

Ferdinand Moreau family . They are rich , as he the is Dean of Faculty of Paris stockbrokers , and no expens e has been spared by him for setting off s the beauty of the e garden s and rooms . Their Le u s s e daughter has married a son of M . Paul de , s lord of the manor of Reich hofen . She is a sports ' e u i a e woman , and goes out with the ﬁne q p g of s is s which her hu band master , and hunt these s fore ts of Evreux and Dreux . Their trophies of A s s s the chase are wonderful . regard the pread of the antlers I will n ot s ay that I could not s how something a s good on a head that I possess which ’ w a s killed in Lord Lovat s forest , but the weight tin es of the beams , and the number of the , and the great size of the feet all s peak of a weight in the stags far greater than is to be found in any H ighland deer ; and not even in Ben - y - glo could

s . hu res de s an liers the e be matched As for the g , s s their tu ks are imply terriﬁc , and stout of heart must be the hound s that tackle such grizzly m onsters .

O n our way home from Anet , Claire and I got s great spray of the pale yellow maples , and of the

- - s s blood red cherry trees of thi beautiful fore t , and we made what the I talians would call t rophies of

1 94 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME get a train , from Dreux station , to take me back to

s h . town . E verything turned out as e had planned erron s e e I found her on the p to me off, and his Amedee with arms round my dog . We tried s to speak of a happy meeting in Canne , but our close kisses told all our unspoken fears .

The Forest was lovely , and after what seemed s it s only too hort a drive through glades , I reached

is - Dreux . The Castle , which on the right hand s t he o is s ide of r ad , half hidden by tree , and it is s o s small that when all the princes , and their suite , repair thither for a family council , or for a funeral , s it must be a tight fit . The mau oleum is circular , la adaires and round it rise great stone mp , for burning green fires during a solemn obsequy . The 1 is . vault , which under the church , is well lit I t s eemed to me even then to be very full . And alas ! since that day how many more dead have been added ! and of the be s t ! The charred re o f s who mains the Duches of Alencon , perished in the flame s of the Charity Bazaar (with her ros ary in her hands ) now lie there ; and there too is the uncle who never got over the shock of her fiery has death . For the Duke of Aumale , Dubois made a monument of the mo s t eloquent and s u r It s passing beauty . represent an officer lying s t his dead , yet clasping in his iff hands , and over

1 A touching s ouvenir of th e Qu een M ari e Ameli e attach es t o thi s e sh e and s - ﬂ m au s ol e um . Wh n King Loui Philipp e were ying from P ari s to th e coas t t o b e re ce ived on boa rd a n Engli s h boa t (th e E r res s I s t a 1 8 8 t e as s e t e was p )on M rch 4 , h y p d hrough Dr ux, which alre ady t h e S t D e ni s of t h e ir fa mily . Th e irs w as an a s toni shing

O s s e t a e as M . and M a a e e an d s th e a s dy y, r v lling d m L brun , choo ing ro d at ea t the a s e R z ux an th , l ding hrough roy l wood of D r ux , o e d I vry, b ut t a e s ent ed th e e es t a e s e e a two s a t at A e t . f w d ng r , h y m d hour h l n t ile at D re ux th e Que e n we n t down on her kn ees and we pt b es ide th e t s h er two t e e th e e O ea s an d th e omb of gif d childr n , D uk of rl n e s s a e t e e t a a e c she was to re - e te Princ M ri , h n l f ch p l whi h only n r in

1 866 c s . , as a orp e FRENCH COUNTRY H OUSES 1 95

s s ilent heart , the ﬂag of his ﬁr t regiment ; yet that war keen soldier really died , not in or tumult , but jus t of such an intimate and tender sorrow a s his enfeebled frame could not long endure . H ere also , at Dreux , they have quite recently laid the s u Duke of Chartre ; tr e soldier, and true French he is s man , the la t to come into this silent circle , where he can forget all the bitterne s s of his early

le . exile , and the wrongs done to Robert Fort The Duches s of Vallombrosa never returned to s he s s Cannes , to the place where had alway eemed to combine the occupations of Mary and of Martha

- the contemplative and the active virtue s . During that winter I wrote to her every Monday morning , and her husband told me that s he looked anxiou s ly for my letters , full of the news of the town , and of our regrets for her absence . s a w s I her once again in Pari , and then for the w as s o s last time . She wa ted that I could have eas ily lifted her with one hand . I could not have

' s uppos ed it possible for a human body to have dwindled to such an extent ; the clearne s s and the s weetne s s of the mind only bringing out more ’ c forcibly the body s ruin , only ac entuating that divi s ion between the body and the s pirit which would have to go on and on till their ﬁnal s epara tion took place . So great , however , were her powers of re s i s tance that s he actually got back to

t . Abondant , and lived there ill the fall of the leaf s s The summer was pent on a couch under the tree ,

s he wa s s . and busy till the la t Death came , as it s o O — s he ften does , before the dawn but did not encounter it in sleep . The last Sacraments were s he administered to her , and after that lay quite s s silent, hearing and eeing already the thing that

not t t . it is lawful to u er H er niece , Mrs Standish , 1 96 THE MANNERS OF MY TI ME

: f bending over her , said Do you suf er much , dear ” “ ” ? : Not en ou h aunt She whispered g , opened her blue eyes , and then closed them for ever . She died on 1 7th October 1 886 . They laid her in the vault under the pari s h 1 church , and then the family hurried off to Cannes , to prepare the Villa for the tenancy of the Grand u - his d ke hereditary of Baden and wife , and , since s s s their Royal H ighnes es were Prote tants , to hut the chapel . One more Mass had to be said in it , wh o for her dear soul , and to be said by the man , ’ a s c s s a s es her onfe sor for twenty year , and Mor t c s he tutor , knew her bes in the pla e where had ot s lived and laboured . I g a note a king me to

s . be present . I put on a black dres , and went

s o o o - Mon eigneur Guigou , pr t n tary apostolic , and Cu re do en s y of Cannes , said the Mas , the Duke

s . erving it , while Claire played the harmonium

There were present M . and Madame Maxime

Ou t re . s y and their daughter Adeline , M Loui de Geo fro y , and myself, with three servants, and three s who s poor cripples , her pensioner , could peak the ” truth of her before the J udge , on glorious themes . a s k t o The Duke sent to me to go him , and there were tears on both our faces as he told me how s he tenderly had loved me , and had valued , what m s ou l c s o he called y , so mu h that my name had been one of the three last names that ever crossed ’ l s a s s her lips . posse s , her daughter gift , one of those tall mother - Of- pearl cru ciﬁx e s that are made I in J erusalem , and that had often seen on her table . The Villa Vall ombrosa is now a fashionable hotel , kept by a German landlord , and the chapel

1 T he a t e s the fﬁ h as ee t a s e e t o t v ul b ing old , co n b n r n f rr d Poi ou , ’ to lie a the a es her at e s a the D es a s . mong gr v of f h r f mily, C r

C H APTE R XIV

LETTE RS FROM PARIS AND CANN ES

October 1 886.

c S arti e s Yesterday we lun hed with the g , whose ’ hou s e in the Rue de l Ely s ée is built on part of the grounds of what u s ed to be the old Sebastiani S art i s w . . a Palace M de g e s in great force . Of President Grevy he says that he has no intention whatever of resigning ! H e always holds his own s s tongue , and leaves the other to quabble , and lie , ot he r nwhile and contradict each , he will live snug E e c and long at the lys e . War is the topic dis ussed s c s in the papers , to di tract publi discu sion from the s S art i e s s expul ion of the Princes , but M . de g assure 0 me that it will not go further than the papers . N o his Deputy , wishing for a vote , w uld dare to go to s Elector with a tale of promised war . The country is Sick of wars , and of this the heaviest burden of taxation that Fran ce has ever known .

HATE U DE TH Y C A SA ONA ,

2 1 st Octooer 1 886 . EA N E D R U CL , I left Paris yesterday morning and am here till Saturday . I must Spend Sunday in s s e e w ho s Marseille , to some friends will upply the notes I require for the little novel of Ninette which

I have on hand . This estate is on the promontory o o between the two rivers , the Rh ne and the Sa ne , lateau on a hill above the p and Camp of Sathonay , and 40 miles from Lyons . Pierre de Bernis g o t it LETTERS FROM PARIS AND CANNES {99

wi who with his fe , Mlle Thomas , got it from her

s . . is tepfather, Mons Galline Pierre the nephew of the General who gave me the Memoirs of the is s Cardinal , and the younge t brother of that He rvé is of s Marquis who the head the hou e , and ’ represents the Cardinal s branch . They are all s o Royalists , we talk a great deal of treason . Whatever the Comte de Paris may have abstained o n ow fr m doing while he lived in France , he makes no se cret whatever of his wish to upset the s o Republic , and he moves from place to place as his w ho to be within reach of friends , live in s London , Brus els , Vevey and San Remo . These s s e e form a chain of point at which he can , and be has seen by Frenchmen . M y host just returned o s fr m eeing him at Vevey, and in like manner s has M . Gavard , the Orleani t , gone from San

Remo to London . The rock upon which the

Republic will , they hope , go to pieces is the enormous taxation of the country . Between these s s ardent Royalist , and the Orleani ts , I have heard a good deal that is interesting , and there are two people who have asked me leave to send under s cover to thi house , letters that are intended for their political friends . No one can trust the Post f O ﬁce , nor may a Colonel of a regiment take in s e such a newspaper a the S ol il. I am told that the

Comte de Paris is hopeful , and that if he resents his exile he can at least employ it in seeing and meeting people whom he could never s e e or meet in France . H e declares that he could never, like

s . Loui XVI I I , arrive in the baggage train of a “ M oi et mes a llian ces de foreign army, but that , e fa mill will come to pacify affairs , and to repress s s Socialism in France . Of course a hundred pie was watch his comings and his goings , and I able 200 TH E MANN ERS OF MY TI ME to give He rvé de Berni s a hint as to one danger for them in this town which they all s eem to have overlooked ; but which I need not trouble you

s his - in - with . M . de Berni and father law thanked s s me , and aid that they would , on Wedne day , bring the matter before a tru s ted employ é of the Comte

s wh o is s s . de Pari , due in their hou e thi week I t is s s s w e ometime u eful to go , as do , into many s s e e societie here and to belong to none , for you s a great deal of the game . Rents in Canne have s s fallen immen ely since the expulsion of the Prince , s A S and everyone expects a bad sea on . far as I am concerned I have los t s ince las t Eas ter by s expulsion , and by death , Duches Vallombrosa , s s s Ra dolins k Barone Jame de Rothschild , Count y , s s K e mball M rs M i Wallace , Vere , and M r and E s ine t t w e s aw p , whom every week for many s s a years at the A ile . I y nothing of dear Robert nd e s s NO V . 2 te e . F d s An truther Tue day , , is the M arts M orts s ' , and they (the ) will eem more in is s number than the living . There a Funeral Mas u s s s for D che s Vallombro a arranged for Wedne day , and to which I Shall go . The Duke and Claire will have to come here for a few days to prepare their s s s house for letting, and at thi moment the eal are a s s s on everything , the Duke and the Duche married Co mu n au t des biens under the régime of m é , and the trustees appointed for such of the children as are ’ s r minor own thei mother s part of the property . N o s doubt , by her will , the Duke can repre ent them , and in this way he will be able to settle without los s of time .

S u nda ih November 1 y , 7 886 .

s H R. H a t . . s I a little with of Caserta ye terday. a s s he is She was kind and nice as always to me . s e s s S he feel the d ath and the losse here very sadly ,

202 THE MANNERS OF MY T IME

t c s of the presen risi European affairs , are simply

. w o boundless M r Ashmead Bartlett , h m I saw on wa s o Christmas Eve , very gl omy , and still more so wa s Lord Emly , who was here yesterday . God o save the Ship of England in this c ming year , ’ called of the Queen s J ubilee !

VI LLA RE Y,

o a t m M nd a r o 1 88 . y , 4 h/ ry 7 M Y EA N E D R U CL , We wen t ou t at half- past ten this morn ing to see the consecration of the Russian Chapel ’ in Monsieur Tripet S krypit zine s h ouse . I t is quite small and could not conveniently hold more than

0 . 3 people I t , and everything in it , had to be s w as con ecrated , beginning with the Altar, which a - w as plain four legged deal table . I t ﬁrst washed and dried , and then tied ﬁrmly over with a clean who linen cover . The lady founded the church , S kr it zine Mde Tripet yp , and the young Grand Michaelo vna Duchess , Anastasia stood inside the c Sacrarium , until that pla e , and the Altar, had c c : ou t been onse rated they were then turned , and n o w now foot of woman , or hand of oman may ever h t e c . o be inside holy pla e A processi n of banners , c o o pi tures , cr sses , and h ly vessels , carried by the t t o o pries s (generally on heir f reheads), went all r und

o c . was the house and c urtyard , and stair ase There c much hanting , and then each article of plate , and all the boo ks were consecrated separately . Then c t he ame prayers for I mperial family , and for the founder , and so they ﬁnally got the whole place to ! we their minds M ass was next said , and were t o rein ain t o asked luncheon after the service , which had lasted one and a half hours , but most unluckily we were already engaged and had t o hurry away . LETTERS FROM PARI S AND CANNES 2 03

- t o We have a dinner party on hand , and are is have people in the evening . The dinner to the W nfords y , Sir Algernon and Lady Borthwick , Lord s Acton , Profe sor Bryce , and M r George Seton . s Lord Acton walks about with Profe sor B ryce , s o and he will , I daresay , continue to do until the oo c pr f sheets of a forth oming , and very Radical ’ work of the Professor s on American Democracy is ready, because he has done for it what he did for Proven al my c volume , namely, he has read the s s s w a s proof . I told Profe or B ryce that it high s w as time that uch a book brought out ; ﬁrst , because it is s o long s ince de Tocqueville did thi s 2 ndl s for France ; y , becau e the new electors in Scotland (some of whom cannot read) tell me that “ s s they prefer American in titution , about which they know exactly nothing ! H e asked me if I had ” a bad opinion of French democracy . So bad , I “ has replied , that for twelve years it been my s s how amazement how bu ines gets done at all , and any s ane E nglishman can wi s h to grow s uch weeds ” “ s s ! of wickedne in British ﬁelds H e said , Do s you think that election are , or will be , invalidated by the evils you s peak of will the best men cease ” “ ? who to be elected I f you call the Deputies , and scold , and howl , spit , and all but bite each other best men in the Chamber at present , I daresay that o men as go d as these will , for some time to come , t ele ct ional be returned . B ut ake as a specimen of purity that of the Mayor of N ice . M onsieur ’ B rig lio ne s s election is worth looking into . I n - c September O tober last it cost francs , and that s u m was paid for it by the Gambling H ouse of Monte Carl o ; and for very good private s reason too . H e admitted that very soon in England also the 204 THE MANN ERS OF MY TIME edu cated man like himself would be obliged to retire from the contest s of a political career ; no man capable and cultivated could stand for two or t hree s election . not t N o , I daresay , but in the old corrup days such a man as yourself would have been returned s unopposed for Woodstock or Knutsford , or ome quiet place . You must admi t the plan had a good ” side t o it .

I ruar I ”: ﬁ b y . f O ne thinks O nothing but the riots in London . ’ The stationer s s hop at the cros s - corners near to ’ 1 s Kate s house in J ohn Street , Mayfair, seem to ’ have had the worst of the mob s attack , and I am s h e thankful that was safe in a country house , and not having her windows broken . The object of this ’ s di graceful day s work is just to ring the chap el bell. The I ri s h have been taught to intimidate the powers 1n that be , and to defy the law order to get what they want , and the London mob proves to be , as “ s o Portia would say , not dull but that they cannot ” learn . I am glad that the new Cabinet will have a ft e r t h is to clean up e rioters . I t suitable work for them .

I E zbru ary . I had rather an interesting conversation with M r s E velyn A hley on Saturday . We had take n Laura ’ M rs s Dundas to a tea at H ope Barton , and after s s his s s tea M r A hley and I met . H e bewail lo of a seat after thirty years of parliamentary life . I t s had become more than econd nature to him , so ’ ’ s s - his s his wife ick room , father executory , and his ’ s s father memoir (to be written by him , ) do not “ ” “ seem to sufﬁce . Not , he added , that I would

1 t a e Lady M e c lf .

2 06 TH E MANNERS OF MY T I ME

s s e x s pa sion , hardly of , let alone of patrioti m , and even party seems to be held s econd to the s uccess ” s that he wishes to score for his per onal aim . s H e talked about the J ew , and their inﬂuence , ’ Gold s mid s s s and of S ir J ulian pro pect , and I said I was glad that Lord Rosebery had got a J ewes s a s for his wife , her people would try to keep him

straight . The J ews are never ignorant and never s ra h , and we might see fewer Egyptian campaigns , s u s a and other eccentricitie in f ture . I Should y that M r A s hley w a s a little jealous of Lord Ro s ebery ; but the man he really execrates is “ ha s Lord Randolph Churchill . That yman been B e acons ﬁe ld thoroughly demoralised by , he

declares .

K e mball s Sir Arnold was here ye terday , and we had a good deal of t alk about the late riots and the unemployed poor . Talking of developing

what each poor man , or woman , can make , or do , I Spoke of our Village I ndus tries Exhibition for s seven parishe . S ir Arnold read over our pros

pectus , and both he and Lady Borthwick were

much struck with the Committ ees . We had slaters , and plumbers , and parish councillors, and colliers , and ladies of quality all pressed into the s s o s ervice . H e carried off the Ormi ton pr spectu , u s e t o and says that it will be of real him . I am S O shocked to read of poor Principal ’ — T ullo ch s death to day . I t seems only yesterday ’ w a s s that he in George house , and married my sister to Sir Theo Metcalfe . About a month ago ’ s I an Campbell old friend , Mr Mackenzie of s Letterewe , a ked Tulloch to come out here , and c it s to be his guest , but the do tors thought hopeles for him to make the journey . Perhaps he was LETTERS FROM PARIS AND CANN ES 2 07 spared worse and darker days by dying s o quickly .

M r Harris , the Consul , is due to lunch here on w e Saturday, and Shall have his chaperonage to go ’ and see the memorial s tone of St George s Church t laid by the Prince on Sa urday .

M arch 1 8 , 8 7 . N ow for a very ﬁne affair ! H elen and I for once broke our rule not to cross our own threshold on Sunday , as we were directly and personally invited to go to congratulate Prince s s Amelie of France on the Occas ion of her marriage to the ’ King of Portugal . We went at ten o clock and

found a great gathering at the Villa Luynes . The s s girl looked very hand ome . For the ﬁr t time she had on a low dres s (white over blue) with one or wa s two diamond pins , her front hair curled , and s her s pirits were excellent . H er voice is alway is a s as low and sweet . She tall H enrietta s he H amilton , but unlike her, Stands very well s h O over her feet . As e s tood at the pening of s he one of the rooms , held a big bouquet of white ’ an ce camellias that her ﬁ had given her, and the

- s ugly fair haired little man w a by her side . They s eemed to have had plenty of fun together , but Hele n who s u n , was pre ented to him , found him is a commonly dull . She really very happy mixture M ad a e Ro a le de Fran ce of a good girl and of m y , s s and eemed delighted to talk to her friend , big

and little . I n the light of all the tragical events in Portugal it is s trange to recall her word s that ’ “ evening to Tonita B aiiu elo s ! Yes ! he is very entil we g , and everyone is very kind , but of the H ouse of Orleans are famou s p orte- ma lheu rs wher

ever we may go . She knows her own mind too ,

for when the Princess de Sagan came up , expecting 2 08 THE MANNERS OF MY TI ME to be acknowledged , the girl quietly put both her s hand behind her back , and looked the lady in who s bu t s the face , had thu nothing to do to pa s ! s on ashamed She hook hands with me , thanking me for going to in s cribe mys elf for her and for her s s n ot happine , and regretting to have been at “ s home when I came . I alway remember your s ho w s s vi it . And is your dog My ister has lo t ” s wa s her . Do you know that it stolen ! I told H w a s s H R . . . that my dog afe and well , and that his mistre s s reminded him of the bouquet of red carnation s that she had thrown to him at the las t d Bataille e s Fleurs .

The Comte de Paris looks thin , and very grave , s as expulsion is talked of every day . H e hook s s hands with me , and aid he wi hed he had seen “

w as . me , and asked what I writing now Oh , ” “ s Sire , I aid , I am not writing , for I have been ’ alade et ce u i de lu s es t s s m , q p , c e t que notre pay ’ e s t en core lu s a lade e t le o s p m , l on a c eur trop gro ” ’ s e pour travailler . C e t la m me chose partout “ s Then I replied , Vraiment , nou sommes tous ” m e t s . alades , Sire , votre pauvre France au si “ s e s Vous avez raison , mai vous tes plu malade , ’ e t le e s t parce qu ici partout , peuple plus ou moins s s cc le s s fou . Mai chez vou , sont grands qui ont s ! I ls s ont ou s I fou And he added bitterly , f les ran ds rand Talking of g , there was one g in o s s who the ro m , the Duke of We tmin ter , was very much amu s ed because the French here think that he will be too much frightened to go back to on London . We are to go to tea with him

Thursday .

6ih M arch.

H is new Duchess is kindness and s weetness s he itself, and will not I am sure take any Share

C H APT E R XV

LE LD R N E F ENZ LLE RN I O P O , P I C O H O H O ( )

[The following sketch of Prince Leopold of H ohenzollern throws an intere s ting light on the much dis puted cau s e of the Franco Prussian War and w—ill be read with interest by s tudents of those time s B u j

c - Anton , Prin e of H ohenzollern Sigmaringen , B u r raf his and g of Nuremberg , had for wife s e c Jo phine , a prin ess of Baden , and to them there w as 2 2 nd 1 8 s o n born , on the of September 3 5 , a w a for whom a curious destiny was prepared . H e s his not , like brother Karol , to become a king in was Of Roumania , but he to refuse the crown Spain , 1 8 0 and during two summer months of the year 7 , his name was to be in every mouth , as the real , or s s s the pretended , cau e of the Franco Pru ian War . During the cour s e of that terrible struggle this quite unbellicose prince was to be made an ins t ru ment for wreaking upon France Germany ’s long cherished rancour for the campaign of J ena, and s for the sorrow of Queen Louisa . I t was this s Leopold , a near relation of Loui Napoleon , and (through the marriage of his s i s ter Frida with the Marqui s Pepoli)a connection of the Duches s e de M u rat s Dino and of the , and therefore of Caroline t —it wa s this s Buonapar e young man , alway a ersona rata who s p g at the Tuileries , was to assi t at s s t the proclamation , in Ver aille , of the ﬁrs Emperor w as s of Germany . H e al o fated , as the head of the elder no n - reigning Catholic branch of the D R 1 1 LEOPOL , PRINCE OF HOHENZOLLE N 2

o s s H ohenzollerns , to bury b th the ﬁr t and the econd s E mperors , and then , after this brief and un ought wa s i for notoriety, he to be qu ckly forgotten , even 1 0 s s s s s before , in 9 5 , a sudden and noi ele ummon took him out of this troublesome world into Res t

E ternal . Let us look at the man in whom these unlikely s as s condition met . H e strikes one lender , without being graceful , though people who can remember e n s his grandmother, St phanie Beauhar ai , Grand s a duchess of Baden , in her old age at N ice , do y is that he is like her . There no dignity in the : is ﬁgure , because it is too Short all the dignity in is the head , which forceful , and ﬁnely modelled . is s s The nose aquiline , with delicate no tril , and between the brows there is that deep furrow which was s o remarkable on the forehead of the Crown

Prince Frederic . One s ee s that the s e two men are relations a s well as clos e friends ; indeed Prince s F ritz s Leopold look like een , not through a s s s magnifying gla , but through a dimini hing one . s The two Side of the face are not quite alike , the s s s eye are brown , and they expre a gentle and c is reﬂective nature . The note of the ountenance s c grave rather than gay , though when thi affe tionate father talks Swabian with his younger s o n he can s be merry enough . H e peaks French like a s s Frenchman , and if in peaking Engli h there be a s s perceptible accent , he peak without the guttural s and explo ive noises , or the facial contortions of

s . is the Teuton in conver ation H is life simple , and s s bu y , and dutiful , and there are never any candals about a man who is loyal to women ; especially to the gracious mother who bore him , and to the most o o beautiful princess in the w rld , wh m he married 1 86 1 at Lisbon , in September , . 2 1 2 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

s s Let me peak ﬁrst of the mother, ince one ia n no t really understand the s o n till one has met er .

s aw s 1 888. We her at Cannes , in the pring of s s There had ju t been a gathering of her de cendants , F a ilien - Ta el and a m f in her honour, and every right had s he to be a proud woman when s he s s counted tho e head . She received H elen and r ! s he s o me ve y kindly , but alas is deaf, that inter wa s s s he course not ea y , even when bent down her head with its pointed coif of black crape . The conversation turned chieﬂy on the recent sale of s picture , etc out of H amilton Palace , about which s h e indicated a great deal of annoyance . A glance s he showed that was half a Frenchwoman , though wa s of the expression of the face that reserve , and of a veiled pathos . She lost a son at Sadowa , and one could feel how antipathetic to her spirit , and to ’ w a r s s her nerves , and war alarm must be . Like h s o n s e . her , is not tall , and her complexion is pale s Perhaps as the wife of one whom the Parisian , s le ere Antoine with their u ual irreverence , called p s for she had known ome stormy weather , her hu s band was a B u rgraf of a mediaeval pattern : s uch as Browning might have sketched in his Flight of the Du chess . s who Thi Prince Anton , had become the head of the elder and Catholic branch of the w a s his H ohenzollerns , an able man , known for

oa - br d minded and patriotic views , and had held the 1 portfolio for War in the Schleinitz Cabinet . H e wa s s collectionneu be al o a noted r, both because Diire rs a appreciated the , and the medi eval armour and the jewels that he had brought together in his palaces , and because he had a pleasurable sense of the value of the treasures amas sed at S igmaringen .

1 t A e a e S c e tz et e 1 86 1 e 1 88 . Coun l x nd r von hl ini r ir d in July, di d 5

2 1 4 THE MANNERS OF MY TI ME

Duchess , who , on receiving it , swooned away into s Poeze who told me the arm of the Comtesse de la , this incident ! What it needed no Comtesse de la Po ez e to tell me was the fact of the extraordinary ’ likeness of the Duchess of H amilton s eldest s on to the existing silhouette of the face and ﬁgure of “ the wild boy of N uremberg . N o such likeness o could , however, be traced am ng the children of f s e o . her ister, Princess J os phine H ohenzollern

They have the H ohenzollern type , though into the house of H ohen zo llern - Sigmaringen another type was t o be brought through the marriage of Leopold

with the fair haired I nfanta Antonia of Portugal , whose father was a prince of the H ouse of Saxe

- C o burg Gotha . s o o s All royal per ns are c u ins , and as such they tu to er s a t y each other, but let me y a word abou the t s ad circumstances , swee yet , that led up to Donna ’ Antonia s marriage . wa s ok When Louis N apoleon lo ing for a wife , w a lady was suggested to him , one later kno n to

the world as Carola Vasa , Queen of Saxony . H er s charms , like her virtue , were undeniable , but someone hin t ed that her health was more delicate

than might be wished . Napoleon felt alarmed , and he sent Doctor Conne au to Germany to make ’ s oc s inquirie , and the d tor report not being appar ently of such a nature as to allow the E mperor to a s hope for a long line of C esar , he decided not to

go further in that direction . A bride for him was

not ea s y to ﬁnd . What wo nder then that he be c of thought himself of a nie e Carola Vasa , and of o wn a relative of his , an ideally good and lovely e o s s girl , St phanie of H ohenz llern , a i ter of Prince s Leopold . O vertures were made . H er parent ,

having heard . of the collapse of Prin cess Carola N LEOPOLD , PRINCE OF H OHENZOLLER 2 1 5

’ ’ s s s s - Vasa hope , and of M i H oward s long standing s s influence over Loui Napoleon , went very cautiou ly to work , for fear of any affront to a girl in the firs t lustre of her youth and of her unsunned l oveline s s . s At la t they gave their consent , and accepted for s o s a child near to the Beauharnai , the hand of ’ s o n Hortense s , the present ruler of France . w as s This , however, fated to be a ca e of a slip s between the cup and the lip . The parent had , a s t I said , felt their way cautiously , until hey fancied them s elves to be sure of their ground in s s s Paris . There they tru ted them elve to a very D rou n s old friend , a niece of Madame y de Lhuy , s a s a certain Baronne de Franck . But a tute that w a s s old lady , and keen to serve the young prince s w a s was and her family , she foiled . There another s h e os fair candidate in the field , who , if did not p s e s s either the family importance or the maidenly s s s e grace of the Prince St phanie , was beautiful , s s s ambitious , and well steered by hrewd advi er . Thi s was no le s s a pers on than Mademoiselle

e . Eug nie de Montijo H er friends , having heard that an ofﬁcial had' strict orders to personally s s conduct M is H oward to E ngland , and reali ing that Loui s Napoleon was s uper - s ensitive to any s repulse , determined to put the cautious , perhap he s itating Hohenzollern parents in the wrong with their master . ’ S ince Stephanie s parents had t oo long p ondered w as their answer , it determined further to delay Fo u ld their reply . The two brothers captured the letter from Sigmaringen , and by the time that m it was permitted to emerge fro their drawer, the

E mperor , both nettled and impatient had already be au t lfu l thrown the handkerchief to the Spaniard . s M . Morier de cribed her at the time of her 2 1 6 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

a s - betrothal , fair and young , with an eager to please manner . I t w as now the turn of Anton and J o s ephine of

H ohenzollern to feel annoyed , and they remained s o till they were able to a fﬁ a n ce their daughter to the young King Loui s of Portugal . The bride had to go out to Li s bon to be married under the care of her brother , Prince Leopold , and on their s s way thither they paid a ﬂying vi it at Wind or . s There had always been , of cour e , the closest relation s hip between our Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg - Gotha and the German husband of Donna

- - s o Maria di Gloria , by both Queen Victoria and was by her consort , the future Queen of Portugal t c tenderly gree ed , and on both this harming young brother and s ister made the most favourable im s pres ion . Their arrival in the Tagus was an h o . wa s s s e vation The girl nervou , but need not s o s cou de have been , for K ing Loui received the p 1 ou d e s s f r at the ﬁr t ight of the promised bride . H er marriage promi s ed to be both happy and s s s popular . But the lease of happine for thi gentle Queen Stephanie as wife and a s mother w a s but s a hort one . H er baby died of diphtheria, and as S h e persi s ted in ki s s ing the waxen lips and the

r - pale face of her ﬁ s t born he r own death ensued . The chapter of a Portugue s e Alliance w a s only t o open again at Sigmaringen when Prince Leopold wooed and won the I nfanta Antonia . I despair of giving an adequate description of

s a w . her as I ﬁrst her H er face , with its crown of hair, is an inspiration for a painter , that hair being of the colour of ripe corn , while her ﬁgure , with its

1 These d e tail s were give n to m e by th e B aronn e de Franck

e s e . S h e w as a S t e and a t t o th e a a e de e h r lf R my, un M d m Bonn a s wh h m in o captured t e heart of Boulang er .

2 1 8 TH E MANN ERS OF MY TIME

c s world while , to Prin e Charle of H ohenzollern

Donna Antonia has bequeathed all her beauty , the fair head , the tall , shapely ﬁgure , and the

Winning smile . I met the Prince of H ohenzollern for the ﬁrst ’ ri a s era ranck s 1 time at a p m at the Baronne de F .

H e made himself very agreeable , but one would c have alled his manner nervous rather than genial . For mys elf I must confess to s ome emoti on on seeing for the ﬁrst time the cau su s belli (real or

s - as umed) of the Franco Prussian War . I t was t o u s not till long after , and when he had ceased e in co nito the name of the Count of Berg , an g intended on ﬁrst settling in Cannes to s oothe the s s s u ceptibilities of the French , that we ever poke t a s n on this subject . I w then at his o w table that “ : as k he said to me O nce and for all , I you to believe that I had not , and never had , anything to do with the deci s ion to accept or to refuse the

c . rown of Spain The incident fell , as you know , about midsummer , and I had gone , with my s Princes , for a long ramble in the Alps . While s s we cro sed pas es on foot , and my wife added to her collection of wild flowers , General Prim came ’ ’ r N to Sigmaringen . The Yes o the o depended s s fir t on my father , and then on the Spani h Cortes , h wa s 2 0t . which to meet by July M y father did , s — in the first in tance , accept that is quite true and then , for reasons that you can quite well suppose , h s a nd s o 1 0t . wa s he refu ed , he did before J uly I au en blicklich then , and I am now ( g ) in good faith in saying that I had no wish to be a king in s Madrid . The Spanish people were un ettled .

1 h his e at a e the On t e occas ion of w dding Sigm ring n in July , s ffe E e e e t th e E es s t a a e the u ring mp ror Fr d ric, wi h mpr Vic ori , m d i great effort of going t o b e pres ent at t . 2 1 LEOPOLD , PRINCE OF HOHENZOLLERN 9 The king of one day might be a fugitive the day s after . I con idered Prim to be a man of little stability . I was a near relation of the Emperor w as Napoleon , and I never a friend of wa r K rie es reund ( g f ), neither had I any reason for s wi hing to leave my Swabian home , or to take ” my boys away from it . O nly a few days after this convers ation (which HOt e l took place at luncheon , at the Beau Séjour), Madame de Franck showed me a thing every way ’ c s corroborative of the Prin e s last tatement . I t was a cutting from a local paper, printed at Sigmaringen s during that memorable ummer, and it contained a “ touching petition from the pe ople of his Swabian ” home . They implo red the Prince not to exchange their old F ra nconian loyalty for Spanish capri ces : not to become a mere piece on the che s s board of European politics ; but to remain among his own his s s people , and to bring up on in a home where c s — he , and they, ould trust and re t love and be beloved . Poss ibly the great game of chess had few attrae tions for Prince Leopold at all eve nts the great r game of wa had none . H e had lost a brother at Sadowa (Koniggratz)and it was only loyalty to his ’ country s defence , and a deep devotion to the Crown s s Prince , with all who e view he was in accord , that made him go s o heartily into the struggle round

Paris . An ofﬁcer in the Guards , he was quartered s s for some weeks at Creil , but it was only at Ver aille , when the King of Prussia was to be proclaimed and crowned E mperor of a united and triumphant was Germany, that he able to congratulate the ' a t Crown Prince . H e was also that moment ’ obliged to measure B ismarck s dislike to himself. c of e s There in the amp the b iegers , where he lived 220 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

s Garde O icier the imple life of ﬁ , he appeared in the “ ” eye s of the man of blood and iron as the person s who had , by refu ing the crown of Spain , jeopardised his - s : best laid cheme though , thanks to French s chauvini m , that plan had , in the end , answered beyond all expectation . Was this the only motive , or had B i s marck s ometime s found le pere Antoin e

too hard a nut to crack , and had he later transferred his dislike to the s on ? For these or for other reason s ( s ay for a too great partiality for the views s of the Crown Prince) Bi marck , who always knew full well by whom his scheme s had been foiled or opposed , marked Prince Leopold down for a snub . So when at Vers ailles the roll of royal and mediatised s tatu s princes was being gone over , and their in the new Empire rearranged , he asked that the title of Royal H ighnes s might not be continued to

Prince Leopold . The Crown Prince declared that

s . ﬁe f the thing was impo sible When the little , with the tower of H ohenzollern , had been sold by Prince

Anton to the youn er and Protestant branch , to the Kings of Pru s s ia %who felt a wis h to posse s s the S tam S chloss m of their race), the style of Royal H ighne s s had been granted as an equivalent to the was t o s elder branch , which obliging enough re ign s their ancestral home . King do not go back on ’ s o S their word , the Chancellor little piece of malice was failiire a , and Prince Leopold and his heirs L o Wir eo old . . could c ntinue to write , p , etc , etc During three successive winters at Canne s we s aw a great deal of the Prince and Princess ' Of ﬁv H ohenzollern . Sometimes he would appear at e ’ ’ ra nck s was o clock tea at Madame de F , or he to ’ B orthwick s be met at a concert at Lady . Lady B l ths w oo d Campbell of y had him as a guest . One Sunday he did us the honour t o call when he knew

222 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

I reland wa s carefully avoided , as indeed were all

c c s . politi s , only Dante and Floren e were discus ed I t appeared that the Grand Duke (héritier) of s u ites Baden had also dined there , and the different seemed t o be quite delighted that their Herrs chaften at least shared between them the onu s o f having

s a t G . t at meat with W . E . , whose Separa ism is s like a red rag to the friend of this new , and not s s s yet too stable , German unity . Germany pos es e s - s a great many I relands , and if Schle wig H ol tein ,

s - H anover, Po en , Alsace Lorraine , and even Bavaria

were asked to separate , this ﬁne new Empire would s a not live to become an old one . N eedless to y

- that ex M inis ter Dr Ge ffcke n abhors W . E . G . and s his keep out of way . war I can perceive that between rumours of , ’ s s dome tic unrest , and the Crown Prince health , n ot s s Germans of the best sort do leep well , ince the frequent economic crise s s trengthen the hand s of the Socialists . Our hosts of yesterday are

Catholics , and I fancy that they are relieved , s Centre since Bi marck , discovering that the is the party in the Reich s tag mos t able and willing to has s keep down Socialism , seen ﬁt to expre s himself more civilly towards the Vatican . Prince Leopold d id not attempt to hide from me that c all hopes of a strong , pea eful , useful , and really con s titutional rule for Germany (and therefore of peace for Europe) will depend on the life of the man whom the Berlin doctors a s sert to have such a dis ease as must debar a H ohenzollern from k t reigning ; albeit Dr M . Mac enzie s ill hopes that this is not the case . ar I st Febru y .

Ge ffcke n - M inister lunched here to day , and s o did Lord Acton and Dori Massenbach , which 2 2 LEOPOLD , P RINCE OF H OH ENZOLLE RN 3

' s T he e x - s made it almo t a German party . mini ter is pleasant , quiet and plain , and rather like an old s Scotch doctor , to look at you would not su pect ’ him of being a strong opponent of Bi s marck s war s policy, and still more of an eccle iastical attitude which can only lose to the government the support s of the Centre. H e long repre ented at Frank is hic s . ra fort the H ansa town Now he a , and certainly valued as such for his brand new s ympathy s with that brand new policy, which (thank to the ’ Crown Prince s inﬂuence on his mind) has turned “ ” is him into the Cavour of the Zollverein . H e s s The E din bu r h very co mopolitan , u ed to write in g Review s , correspond with M . Morier and M r Reeve , and now occas ionally voices him s elf in the Con te his m orar . s p y Having lo t tail in the Zollverein , he now only prai s e s other tailles s people of whom s s s - s o he actually ﬁnd ome in Al ace Lorraine , he begged me to read the memoirs of a certain Turck w as s heim , who Prefect there under King Loui s s Philippe . Those volume would , he aid , prove to me the strong ties always existing between Al s ace Tiirckhe im and Germany . I replied that the I s s knew had been the la t Governor of Stra burg , his and that now , for love of France , he and were Hei a h s e m t lo living in Cannes and Montreux . “ Ah ! none the le s s the Al s atian s de s ired to ” s become German , and they enjoy it . “ I fear that 18 becaus e the true Al s atians have

s . left the country , and that only the J ew remain

You have over J ews in Al sa ce alone . I s s know ome of them , and they send me new s paper which do , I admit , sometimes echo your m ” s e n t 1 e nt s .

s Apropos of politic , S ir Algernon Borthwick s o think m st gloomily of the European prospect , 2 24 THE MANN ERS OF MY TI ME

has a s his o and Prince Leopold , far as br ther K ing is s s ad Karol of Roumania concerned , the ame s prognostications . E ver since the Ru sian success war in the Plevna , they have meant to annex s w Bulgaria and the Balkan . I t is true that e tied s ean their hand at St Stefano , but they m to get their hands free 1 The ques tion for E urope is : of the three Great Powers which is to fight Ru s s ia ? They can ea s ily puni s h Austria in Galicia if she In were to fight . the Baltic provinces they can is punish Germany , and I ndia our vulnerable point , if we were to offend them . Sooner or later this Near Eastern question is u n e qu erelle a vider : but in the meantime I pray H eaven that Lord Salisbury “ ” can plait a threefold cord s trong enough to tie up the dogs of war . of Did I tell you how the Empress B razil , armed with a letter from the Pope , went to the Great ? s s s Chartreuse She not only cro ed the thre hold , s h but e went to the midnight Office . Things might have passed off quietly had s he not brought with

s s - in - her a uite of two ladie waiting , and of ﬁve ’ s - ! lady maids O ne of the ladies fainted , and the monks were s o worried and upset by the wh ole affair that the Superior said he would rather pay I francs to the poor than have another woman s s i nside the Great Chartreu e . All thi the Emperor ’ the s narrated to Countess of Caserta aunt , the Archduches s Marie - Caroline (wife of Archduke w e Rainer), and when met that great lady at tea this week s he told the s tory with considerable

hum our. is very kind and simple in of manner , and much attached to the Duchess s he Albany. She told us how had been to tea with s he s her at Claremont , and prai ed Philippa Baillie ,

1 H c s t s ea s a te E ast e 1 1 . ow uriou ly hi r d f r r, 9 3

2 26 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME

s Vallombrosa for this winter . Both hu band and

wife seem to be very delicate . Yu That audien ce has come off. o may supp ose that I had my heart in my throat as I got out at o t the Villa Vall mbrosa , and wen up into the rooms s s o s s o where I have pent many happy hour , met s s o r s many friend , and many inte e ting people , sure e e ’ at all times of Duchess G nevi ve s sympathy ,

res pect and good will .

- w as The half hour there indeed a trial , as it seemed to drive home the pain of a loss never to ! s s be made good that of a courteou , tru tful and always helpful friend . The idea of an Audience

with a stranger did make my heart ache , but into the familiar room entered the Prince s s Hilda ! \

She was very kind . Did my eyes look woeful , I wonder ? for she took me by the hand and bade me s s he s be seated be ide her , saying that felt ure that it must be painful t o true friend s of the dead Duchess to ﬁnd themselves in t he old s etting when wa s the jewel absent for ever . I thanked her . Then she said that they hoped there was a little lull in the sufferi ngs of their dear patient at San

- in - la Remo . Her father and mother w are now HOt e l settled in Cannes , at the Pavilion , after a journey s outh during which their train had been more than on ce brought t o a stands till by snow ! I do not think that I have t old you how much we enjoyed s eeing the e clip s e of the moon from the ’ Bl t hs w o o ds is terrace of the y Villa , which high up , e s s is above the Fr ju road . H is great tele cope all s s that money and kill , and devotion to a tronomical s s w a s his re earch can make it , and our good ho t in element showing it off to the scientiﬁc E mperor of how is Dom Pedro Brazil , and explaining it I 2 2 LEOPOLD , P R NCE OF HOHENZOLLERN 7 moved by a clockwork timed to the pace of our ’

o s . was s k gl be motion There not a cloud in the y , and so we saw My la dy M oon move smiling into ’ her hour of darkness from the Earth s shadow ju s t as we s move unwittingly into ome great sorrow , — thrown on us by s ome familiar friend one who “ ” w as u s to what the Scripture calls a Companion . was s as was s The Sight as sugge tive it impre sive , s s the land cape beneath taking no hare in it , but we

- were told that later , when the huge copper coloured s hadow rolled Off the m oo n ww e might s e e the outline of the Andes range projected upon her a s face . I t was chilly out on the terrace , and we s - -be - s waited to catch thi never to forgotten ight , I walked up and down with the Prince of H ohen a nd zollern , we agreed that it had never occurred ’ to u s before that s omewhere our Earth s shadow s mu t be ever falling , though it is only made per cept ible to u s as a fact when it chances to roll

- - s in . we acros our lady waiting , the moon Then

' spoke reverently of H im in wh om t he re is no “ ” s His s s . darkne at all , and no hadow in turning Speaking of the dark and shadowed days of human life I quoted M rs Browning ’ s lines

h t he ass a t a T ink , p in g of ri l T the at e s u e o n ur mo t ndon , Like the sha dow on the dial u n Proves th e prese n ce of th e S . I n the villa a table had been set for Dom Pedro and s o n for the Prince of H ohenzollern , and for a of the ’ ’ 1 d E u s s Comte , a grand on of the E mperor , while a bu et s s s ﬁ , drawn acro the upper end of the room , erved for the re s t of the company . We were about ﬁve and wa s twenty in number , and the whole thing , which

1 S ce a r e to P ce s s M a a - Pia d e the in m r i d rin ri Bourbon , of Two

S icilies . 2 28 THE MANN ERS OF MY TI ME admirably arranged by one of the best ho s tesse s o I have ever known , must have given a go d deal a s of trouble , seeing that their villa , delightful “ ” is the an observatory , really at back of beyond , and can only be reached by a s teep and extremely

bad road . I was sorry for Sir Archie , as between s s royal guests and ignorant sight eer like oneself, ’ he cannot have had a moment s peace to make

scientific notes , but as we drove home we con gratulated the moon on having recovered her looks ! and ourselves on having had s uch a de lightful evening ! We went last night to a Reu nio n the ball at the Club , where Prince of s 15 Wale lodged . Before very long a great s torm t s of thunder and ligh ning cra hed over our heads , w s filling the ballroom ith blue flashe , and the s carriages out ide with hailstones . H elen and I carried off M ary Clive Bayley early , for fear lest our mares , not being roughshod , might not be k able to ta e us home , and I had no mind to walk , s s in thin hoes , up the Gra se road . s t I en Auntie an account of the Waverley Ball , ot who g up by Lady Murray for the E mperor , s admires Sir Walter Scott immen ely . H elen , who ’ s fis hwife s s s had ent to Edinburgh for her dre , went “ M u ckle backit was as Maggie , and the Emperor s the much plea ed with her, inspecting many fish

- (cardboard) in her creel . Mary Clive Bayley s s made a pathetic Lucy A hton , and the old Empres grinned as s he touched the lethal weapon that thi s

Bride of Lammermoor wore hanging at her side . I had made my dress and hair a copy of the p 1ct u re of ( Margaret Sinclair)Lady Arniston that hangs in Oakroom t her the here , and as it was daughter who ’ s married that unhappy heroine brother , I think “ ’ I might feel sure that I was true to the period .

23 0 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME f i t o . oac daugh er the faithful chamberlain M de N , a girl who has gone ou t a little to ball s and parties

with H elen and me through this winter . She has is d e s e i rv ce. no mother , and her father always s There was a great crowd . A quiet E ngli h lady

- at the station (dowdy and middle aged , come over from Mentone for the day) was frightened and amazed at the mass of people , at the coming and - was going , the curtsies , and the hand kissing that “ s going on , and she a ked me if it was about ” anybody in particular ? I replied that many ” s he persons in particular were there , and asked as me to be so kind to point them out to her . I “ : is said H alf the Almanach de Gotha present .

That dumpy little woman in black , with an ear trumpet and a long nose is actually a daughter of King Loui s - Philippe ; an old story now ! She is s s Clem e n t ine os the Prince , wh e son you see behind s her ; he al s o has a large nose . H e s it uneasily as s K ing of Bulgaria . Tho e three people in a group Of s are three grandchildren the great E mpres , — Maria Theresa the lame and ugly one is the

E mpres s of B razil . The tall man with the white u is beard and the bl e eyes the E mperor of Brazil , s who is the most tudious man in the world , and o u s e e s y that , in deﬁance of all etiquette , he carrie a s heaf Of newspapers and pamphlets under his arm , to keep him quiet in the train . The gentle man with bad knees and a red ribbon in his

- le - buttonhole is Robert fort , Duc de Chartres , who brother of the Comte de Paris , ought to be h the King of France . That is is wife in the green s s s s s dre , and be ide her is their daughter , Prince e an who is u n Margu rite of Orleans . The m covering a s he give s his arm to the E mpres s is s the hu band of her niece , the I nfanta Antonia . I 2 1 LEOPOLD, PR NCE OF HOH ENZOLLERN 3

is Of s H e Prince Leopold H ohenzollern , a cou in ’ s of the German E mperor and , through a relation his s of mother, of Loui Napoleon . That pale lady is his in black mother , with her daughter the who Comtesse de Flandres , will reign one day in 1 s c Belgium , as her grand on , Prin e Ferdinand of

H ohenzollern , will re ign one day in Roumania . That young couple in deep mourning are the

nephew and niece of the German E mperor, and

the grandchildren of the E mperor William , the his s hereditary Prince of Baden , and wife , a Princes

of N as sau .

The E nglish lady stared at me , and well she ’ might , for it sounded—like an April fool s tale . Yet it was very true and very curiou s and in t e re s t in a s s s s g , all tho e person pu hed along , and

s . talked , and laughed , and ki sed All were very u s old kind to , and the good E mperor did not s forget that he had been twice our gue t , as he ” S Shook hands with u and said Farewell .

mi careme . Thursday will be , and after that ,

things here will go very quietly, but on Thursday

8t h . , we are giving a luncheon for Prince Leopold ’ s We are to have Lord Mayo widow, Colonel and M rs Leo Seymour, Lord Acton , Captain E dward Ou t re Law! and a M . y , a French diplomat , married

s n ée u s . to an American friend of our , R sell I hope s ! s s it may go off well , but there are , ala many lip between what 15 organi s ed and what befalls a poor s ho tess .

8th M a rch.

- Our luncheon party , for a wonder, came off as w a s onl u s t it planned , but as you will hear , it y j

1 A as ! sh e e e as a I n th e te 1 1 2 . l n v r did ; dying, widow, win r of 9 2 S e e e E e and a e t o s s H e e inc b com Lord ll nborough , m rri d Mi rmion

Schenley . 23 2 THE MANNERS OF MY TI ME

s o ! s did You know who were to be our guest , s u ite but all the day before , the H ohenzollern kept u s s Hoheit frightening , becau e their had been s s ummoned to San Remo , and they were ure that he would never get back in time to keep his engagement with u s ! A s soon a s we were s eated the Prince broke it s u s to me that he only had an hour to tay with , his and that he had told cab to wait for him . The ’ new s from Berlin of the old E mperor s state was s o alarming that immediately after this luncheon , s which he had done everything not to mis , he must s e e his s go and cou ins of Baden , who expected s another telegram . I f the new were to be wors e then he might have to s tart for Berlin i n a few o u rv cou rt e ou s s hours . I felt very sorry for gue t , s w ho looked fu sed and nervous . H e s poke a good deal about the future , and of the changes that the death of the old Emperor must make , while he admitted that a forced journey to Berlin in winter would be a seriou s ri s k for his beloved s e e patient . As he talked I could fail to that he felt keenly on three points . In. oTt hat the Crown w as s Prince really under entence of death , but s that he had , for the moment made a vi ible rally , lIt tle s 2 and might yet live for a pace . . That Prince William was far from being as black as he was often painted . 3 . That if the old E mperor ’ his s came to die , ( Leopold ) place might be for a few ceremonial hours in Berlin , and then most assuredly at San Remo , beside his kinsman , if so s be that , God permitting , the crown might re t for even a few weeks on that suffering and beloved head . s s Be ide his ignature in my album , Prince w t M 8t h Leopold rote the da e , arch , and his family

23 4 THE MANNERS OF MY TI ME ” t o s her in her pre ent solitude . H er good man is by this time in Berlin . Meantime the German Colony in Cannes wish to have a memorial service for their gallant old 1 8 2 E mperor, a thing which in 7 they dared not have done in any Fren ch town : s o y ou s e e that o Time , which trieth Truth , can als Skin over the s mo t terrible wounds . Helen and I put on black s was bonnet , and went to a church which nearly full when we arrived . There were , of course , all the German hotelkeepers , some doctors , and a few s French Prote tants , like my dear , saintly Madame e e Of S v rin , who is , I think , a relation the equally s saintly Pa tor Schmidt . H e is one of the best o ' men I ever knew, and not nly does he live to t o his glorify God , and edify neighbours , but he K elln e s keeps the rich hotelkeepers and the poor r , and the poorer governesses in the way that they s hould go : and he does (u np aid) all the work that - o s ought to be done here by a German Vice C n ul . This memorial servi ce was as inoffens ive as T wo possible , and perfectly simple . branches of lights veiled in crape burned beside a catafalque on which were worked in white a large “ W ” and c an I mperial Crown . I ould not quite agree with ’ ’ the good Pas tor s glowing version of the E mperor s c his s mentality, and from this Servi e all Al atian Leu s s e s B ou rcarts T achards victims , the , the , the , and the T u rkh e im s were absent : and for the best ! of all reasons Still there was , as in whatever o s s c t Past r Schmidt ay , mu h tha was excellent in

the sermon . The double row of mourners was

interesting . They arrived in detachments , and were s hown to their places by t w o chamberlains who had had to think out their precedence a c o K a s e cording to their nearness of kin t the lat e i r. D N LEOPOL , PRINCE OF HOHENZOLLER 23 5

h is The chief mourners were grandson , the H eredi 1 his s tary Prince of Baden , and wife , Princes H ilda s with a uite of three persons . N ext came a great

- nephew , the Grand Duke Frederic Franz of - his s s Mecklenburg Schwerin , and wife , Ana ta ia M ika ilo vna s s s was , a Ru ian , who e mother a : Baden with a suite of three . These were placed

- on the right hand benches . I n the front row , on wa s s the left , the Princes of H ohenzollern , with a ’ s -in - n ee s uite of two , and her mother law ( Princes s e s o n e J o phine of Baden) with a uite of . Behind ’ s at d Alca nt ara them Don Pedro , E mperor of his Brazil , uncle to Donna Antonia , with grandson , and a suite of three : and las tly the Archduke ’ his n ee Rainer of Austria , and wife , Bourbon of S icilies s s s the Two , cou in of the late E mpre s of s t w o Brazil , with a uite of ; these two being Ida s von H unyadi , and the Baron de Vaux . The la t named had fought at Sadowa , and therefore execrated the very name of a Pruss ian ! H e looked very s ulky under the panegyric of the s a s Victor in that momentou battle , and he went s s his out he made a grimace at me , expre ive of s ! di gust These mourners went out in a string , bowing as they pas sed to the pers on s who bowed to them , and in ﬁve minutes more time they were

- s ix s all , twenty in number , out ide , in the dirty s a t s Boulevard d u Cannet . H elen and I had be ide ’

s s M ilns t e r we s a w . the Counte Olga , and her home 1 It wa s h is a t e a e t o ces s s e ss a at f h r , m rri d Prin Loui of Pru i , who e s a es 1 th a a 1 8 1 a s e h is ce th e c a at V r ill , on 7 J nu ry 7 , r i d voi for pro l m ion e of the G e rm a n Empire and Emp ror . 2 s o a was a at t at e t b u t we not a t at e Thi po r l dy f ding h mom n , did n icip b s h w th at t h e n ext fun e ral s ervice in th at church would e h er . S e as t h e daught e r of t hat Coun t M iin s ter who was for long Pru s s i a n A as sa and a e as h is s e e a mb dor in London , who m rri d , cond wif , L dy i s s t t o h a s s t a te a s e Harr e t S t a e t e E . Cl ir, i r rl ofRo lyn Coun , f rw rd Princ , M iins te r and h is a t e t e s s a e h ad e e s et t e s e , d ugh r, Coun M ri , b n l d for om ti e at th e e a E as s a s e e th e A a ire D re us e a . m G rm n mb y in P ri , b for f yf b g n 23 6 THE MANN ERS OF MY TI ME To day the accounts of E mperor Frederi ck hO in are beyond all p g , for good . Long may it las t ! I t is of the utmos t importance for the E mpress Victoria that her hu s band Should be able to settle a jointure on her suited to her new station , s ince the s u m settled on her at the time of her wedding would be cruelly inadequate .

M onda I th . y , g

Though this day is splendidly fine , the air is like ice s moving , and I hear that there were 9 degree of frost in Berlin on Friday , with a bitter east s s wind , so that funeral proce ion must have cost s a good many live . Yesterday Donna Antonia got a telegram from her husband about E mperor ’ s Frederick s health , which was aid to be very fair , but he never utters as it makes him cough if he ” s s peak . I understand that not a mouthful of solid w n s food can now be s allowed , and that mea a life carried on at high pre s s ure of work and preoccupa s s fi tions , and yet under uch circum tances of dif culty and malnutrition as never Kaiser experienced s before . The day of Frederick the dumb will long s be remembered . Even the French here peak s his with tendernes and admiration of state , and of his s s s fir t public manife toes , for tyranny and blu ter s s will never be sanctioned by thi new ma ter , and his cou s in Prince Leopold ha s just the same horror s s of tho e methods , and of the hectoring manner which have come to be synonymous with the word

Pru ssian .

1 th A r l o p i .

A number of people came on Sunday to s a y

- s s good bye to u s . The Duches e de Luyne brought s Vo u e nee Contade s her nice cou in , Marie de g , de ,

238 THE MANNERS OF MY TI ME

c reinfor ed by the doctor from Sigmaringen , who ,

although his name be Koch , is not the great man , the Dr Robert Koch of the celebrated tu bercu lin

s eru m . I found an opportunity to ask him about was rathe ra the health of the Empero r . I simpleton c o to do this , as Koch can , of ourse , only say ab ut is thi s topic what he allowed to say . What he did s ay w a s that it was thought that the last increase in suffering was due to a change of the tube in the ’ E mperor s neck rather than to any increase in the ’ s malady . H e added , what support the Empress s no atholo ical roo o its view of the case , that p g p f f ali nant natu re has ever been ou nd m g f , while the patient d oes n o t present t he lemon - coloured com

plexion , or th e skin texture , or the breath of a s person afﬂicted with cancer . H ere I end you , s s stated in two sentences , ea y to be under tanded of ' s any unprofe sional person , the gist of the exceedingly loud and bitter controversy between the English ’ Phys i cian of the E mpress s choice and the German

o s . d ctor I t still rages round Frederick the Dumb , and the only thing that is but too certain is that it c e t annot be wag d much longer, as far as tha noble life is concerned . ook t Prince Leopold l ed hin and very nervous , and restless , and he admitted that the ground s o was burned under his feet , anxious he to go s s north , and to judge for him elf of the tate of his kinsman , his peerless friend of the last thirty 1 years . 1 Aft e r the vi ctory of S adowa th e Crown Prince wrote to the King a a : You can a e 1n t s ca ai I s s e of Roum ni im gin how hi mp gn mi d you ,

e a a es . e w as a e e s s t i h d h d r Ch rl L opold w lcom ub tute . He a t e O t t s e e w ar at s t a and h e was a eat t ppor uni y of ing ﬁr h nd, gr comfor t o m e in t h e d ay s wh e n I h ad t o s truggl e b etween my grief for t he d eath of my li tt le Sigi s mund and the making Of mos t impo rtan t deci s ion s . C H APT E R XV I

LE LD RIN E F H H ENZ LLE RN 2 O P O , P C O O O ( )

“ It is certa inly through thi s chastening whi ch looks dark and st e s to u s e e t at we ar my riou h r , h e t o b e pre pare d for a high e r ” - a . Letter o the Crow n Prince to the K in o Rou ma nia 1 8 c lling f g f , 79 .

s s From the e letters written home , it will be een how much my s tory has been allowed to gather of ’ the hope s and fears of the Emperor Frederick s ’ art is a ns ' a nd his s s p , of cousin s regret that it hould ever be a que s tion of parti s anship in a Germany that owed s o much to t he ' s word of it s Crown

Prince . For the J unker party the present moment was indeed a critical one , and they knew it to be

s o . s The new and uffering Kaiser had actually , his contrary to their hopes , outlived father, and by doing s o had succeeded to a marvellous heritage ° s ? s at but under what circumstance There he , a s bent and stricken man , occupying , on ﬁne day , a chair in the garden Of a dull litt le villa in San

Remo , unable to do more than listen to the oranges s falling to the ground with a oft thud , he who had once taken over the command of the 3 rd Army

Corps , wherein nearly every race of Teuton blood wa s represented , when his men had cheered “ ” Unser Fritz to the echo , and when he alone ' calm a nd wore a sad face . That was a great pas t to compare with this s re bitter pre s ent . H e might con ole himself by m e mbe rin s g that between him elf and his father, that brave , straightforward , if not too intelligent soldier , there had been a perfect understanding , 240 THE MANN ERS OF MY TI ME s o that the peace of their mu tual relations had

. w a s made for the national strength But now , it poss ible to s a y that the s ame feelings exi s ted s his ? between him elf and heir H ardly , Since an enemy had done this evil thing of coming between s s them , and becau e the enmity of B i marck , like s wa s a s the di ease in his own throat , unforgiving and as cruel as death . Yet why should the Chancellor have hated a Crown Prince who had ‘ s never done amiss , who e courage had been proved s o s s on many field , who e ability and loyalty had 1 s been te ted during a Regency , and whose tact had amalgamated the princes of the Catholic south s with the northern , the Protestant , and the Pru sian ? force s Born on the anniversary of Leipzig 1 8th o ( Oct ber), had he not come as an augury of ’ Germany s new birth to unity and to power ? s Stately and fair , had he not hown to the world the ideal Teutonic type ? What fault had the Chancellor ever found in him ? The causes of offence were twofold . The Crown Prince had a ’ - os high tempered and gifted wife , wh e mother s policy the Chan cellor took upon himself to dislike O and to ppose . Between man and wife he had ve n t rie d s ow s e to di cord , but having failed , the Chancellor could only pray that they might never his t o reign , while in the meantime he did best ’ 2 w s combat the ife influence over M r Morier , who enjoyed the confidence of the royal pair . To add to their Offences the Crown Prince and the Crown

Princess were sincere Liberals . Plainly the ﬁrst

1 ce A t H e e the e a e a Prin n on of oh nzoll rn , whom Crown Princ c ll d t at t s a t s e e : The e h as h ad an horough p rio , id of hi R g ncy Crown Princ s He is e to ca th e e e t almos t impos s ible t a k . oblig d rry on gov rnm n ’ nd t a a t hi according t o his fath e r s wi s h e s , a ve ry of en to act g in s s ” s own convi ct ion . 1 Afterwards Sir Robe rt Mori e r .

242 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME Bazaine This informati o n as to the greatest blunder ever known to history , the Crown Prince had gleaned from an E nglish news paper which had s copied it from the Temp . On reading it he had per ceived at a glance that not a moment must ’ c be lost in intercepting the Marshal s mar h , in preventing any junction near Metz , and in driving ’ M ac M ahon s last and ill - provisioned army over the n o Belgian frontier . To one would the Crown s s Prince trust the intelligence that he pos es ed . H e took for his s ole companion that old General 1 s u e rin Leonhard , Count Blumenthal , to whose p tenden ce he had been c ommitt ed as a young and who w a s unmarried ofﬁcer in the Guards , and head of his Staff when he marched out of Silesia to join forces with the King at Sadowa . was The third forced journey , out of San Remo , n w o to begin . Time and space must be again as as s far possible obliterated , but thi time it had to be done in mid - winter and not in a brilliant s s sunshine that lit up gloriou cohort . N either was s it to be made on hor eback , a beautiful charger n s and a perfe ct rider movi g almo t as one . I t had to be in a heated railway carriage with a doctor - — was in s tead of an aide de camp . I t a march upon

- ﬁlle d snow Berlin , and upon a vacant throne , if that his s vacant could be called where , in du ky robes , and in the grimmest silence , the King of

Terrors s at . When they told Emperor Frederick that his tra in was in readiness he came out of the Villa Zi s d rio . a The orange groves looked , and the roadstead looked empty, for the E nglish frigate that had swung there for s o many weeks of winter was already on her way to Portsmouth . She had

1 he F e - a s a w s 1 1 00 T i ld M r h l a born 81 8, di ed 9 . RI OF LEOPOLD , P NCE HOHEN ZOLLERN 243

s : a preciou freight on board a wooden box , s s s s addre ed to the Queen at Wind or Ca tle , which had been given over to the captain ’ s safe keeping s s Pe r i na 1 by the ever tru tworthy Mademoi elle de p g . The box holds the forty manus cript volume s of the ’ s Crown Prince Diary . Life was ﬁni s hed for him ju s t at the point where his reign ought by rights to s have begun , but these forty volume , all in his own s s handwriting , will , when the authori ed date arrive ,

tell to Germany and to the world , not only the deeds but what were the Opinions and motive s of

. s the Crown Prince They will manife t , at the bar s of hi tory , what may have been ever the thoughtful s w ho w a s circum pection of the soldier , if he not

was s - a very clever man , j u t , and God fearing and 2 loyal , in no common degree . s s At the tation there were but few pectators . w a s s The E mperor pale but calm , and he mu t have been glad that the martyrdom of the Villa Zirio w as s s s s ﬁni hed at la t . The face of the E mpre wa s O Victoria hidden by her crape veil , and nly the Prince s s es had large bunches of Parmao viole t s in as their black jackets . Their train w timed to s its make only two halt on way , once to allow the King of I taly to board it , and again to let him de s cend from it after a vi s it of re s pect and s s ympathy . Then , in a blinding snow torm , it s rushed on through the night , but it afely reached

1 O a t e the te de Per i na and s s t e nly d ugh r of Vicom p g of Mi Whi ﬁ ld , a We s t Indian h eire s s an d a s i s t e r of t h e late Vicomt e s s e de

e et . at a e a es a e a s a o and P yronn Th l dy di d in C nn m ny y r g , a e s e e d e Per i n a a a th e es t a t es had M d moi ll p g , wom n of ﬁn qu li i , who ee e es s to th e a te s th e E e e e h as b n gov rn d ugh r of mp ror Fr d rick , con t e to e a e s an d e s t e e I h er as t es s . inn d liv in C nn , now li h r n l illn 2 Of gre at int e res t will al s o b e th e corres pondence of th e Crown ce t h is e and s a P e a H e e n Prin wi h fri nd kin m n rinc K rl of oh nzoll r , now a a s e e t h th e S c es - H s te King of Roum ni , who rv d hroug hl wig ol in camp aign . 244 THE MANNERS OF MY TIME t Berlin , where the ravelling days of the Emperor

Frederick ended . Prince Leopold met him at the station and led him gently up t o the cofﬁn of t he

ﬁrst German E mpero r .

Of the few but grizzly weeks that followed , I s : retain two touching souvenir one , of a letter

written to me by Prince Leopold , from Sigmaringen , his s o n describing the wedding of eldest , Prince

William , to the daughter of the Comte de Trani , of o S icilie s the h use of Bourbon of the Two , at which both the E mperor and the Count of Caserta , the ’ 1 head of the bride s family, were present . The other had a more tragic interest . s a nd I n Pari , through many long months , a banker had been dying of the same malady as the

c . s E mperor Frederi k By the pring this poor man , who was sinking into death , had a Sister of Charity w as to nurse him . The patient a Frenchman born who s and bred , one had gone through the iege in s w a s s Pari , and said to have contracted thi mortal d isease owing to the trials , the exposure and the

od f s ad . s rough fo o those months H is nur e , who wore the wide white corn ette of the S isters of St t was Vincen de Paul , the daughter of a French

o . duke , a pious and a charming w man Both patient and nurs e had for l ong followed with intense o sympathy , and with constant intercess ry prayers the sufferings of the invalid of San Remo , now the w s econd German Emperor . They ere aware that he had a tube in his throat and could only swallow s k liquid food . The banker wore a tube al o , but , li e

the Soeur , he had become convinced that in several respects his tube was of a better make than the one 1 The e ce a a t b ad ea t ca e te to wif of Prin Willi m , f lling in o h l h , m of n H r s te h e e s s a e s and e t e e a c 1 0 . e e e t a t P C nn , di d h r , M r h , 9 9 ld d ugh r, rinc A sta ct a has th e S 1 1 et t e e s e t o ugu Vi ori , , in pring of 9 3 , b ro h d h r lf

M a e th e e e P t a . no l, xil d King of or ug l

246 THE MANNERS OF MY TI ME be his purpose in publishing them ? The ex o minister replied that n thing could be so simple , s his s o ince the late E mperor , regretted friend , had C f s given him a Opy o the page in question . Worse and

wors e ! cried the authorities . H ad this delinquent s s ? s o perhaps any more page to di close I f , how many ? s ? pages And above all , on what theme B ismarck w a s furious , the young E mperor gravely concerned . s s o Were the E mpre Vict ria and her friend , the u s jo rnali t , M r Stead , implicated by the translation now on s ale in London ? The only thing quite - s certain , and which the rash ex mini ter did not wa s Ge ffcke n au thor deny, that never had Dr been is ed to print this matter . H e accordingly found s s O f him elf in pri on , for a political f ence . The pages s which he had publi hed did not , luckily , refer to recent and painful topics , but they did refer to the ’ Crown Prince s succe s sful efforts to s ecure the ’ co - operation in Prus s ia s struggle with France of the provinces of South Germany . E veryone was “ ” w in his aware that Fritz did them over to side , and that his reception in Bavaria and W u rt e mbe rg s had really exceeded his hopes , but from the e extracts from the D iary it appeared that he had his once written to the King , father , that if his best s efforts should be unsuccessful , and if the outhern principalities did not choose to come into line with s Prus ia with a good grace , they would be made to “ s o s do , and that by no very gentle mea ures . wa s Geffcke n H ere a case ready made against Dr . H e could be no true friend to the new Germa n it s o who unity or to new E mper r , tried to make bad blood between the N orth and the South . The object mu s t be to diss olve it s unity in the hands of

it s . cc young ruler The a usations , made in anger , and prompted by the virulent personal bias of D I LEOPOL , PR NCE OF H OH ENZOLLERN 247

Bismarck , were far wide of the mark . I t was pre cis e ly Professor Ge ffcke n (as he then w as ) who s 1 860 ﬁr t , in , pointed out to the Crown Prince that he would be obliged to aim at the annexation of the s s maller tates of Germany . Why then accuse him of reactionary treachery towards that very hege mony of the E mpire which he had long ago fores een and advocated ? H is own convers ion to imperialism ’ had made him more than a nine days wonder in W a s the Zollverein . it probable then that he would con s pire agains t the new E mpire ? So little probable did this s eem to his judge s that Dr Ge ffcke n w as acquitted by the tribunal of

Leipzig . O - We had ften met the ex minister in Cannes , s o s and had had him everal times in our h u e there , and I had met him at dinner at Dr H einrich ’ Fe lbe rm a nn s s t s a hou e in Kensing on , to y nothing of his having met u s once at the table of their Royal H ighnes s es the Prince and Princes s of s Hohenzollern . I al o know , through their lady in - s s s waiting , that their Royal H ighnes e , anxiou as f to keep me a riend , had planned a match ff k n for me with Dr Ge c e . When Dori von s s Ma senbach told me this , I laughed , and di abused s her of any such hope . Being French in my s s sympathie and E ngli h by my nationality , I did s not s e e my elf stuck in Berlin , in a vile climate and a hideou s villa in the Thiergarten in a coterie

O f angry politician s . Whatever might be their s Of s t aims , or the way thinking of the e importan s s wa s per on , there one point on which they were — certain to agree namely , in disliking and annoying wa s an E nglis hwoman . I f this shown by the case of the Crown Princess Victoria , that which they did in the green tree , they would do in the dry . 248 THE MANNERS OF MY T I ME

A s for the polite elderly gentleman himself, I realis ed the depth of his devotion to the Crown s s hi Prince , and I a uredly never thought of m as s s s of a chemer , fal e to his own idea of a unified fire b ra n ds Germany , and capable of throwing about in an atmosphere not positively proof again s t s combustion . I am convinced that between distres for s s the eclip e of Liberali m , and for the death of ’ s s E mperor Frederick , this poor man heart welled with indignant grief when he s a w his countrymen s s u n wor hipping the rising , rather than mourning cu t for the life that had been off too soon . H e s had , perhap to a morbid extent , an idea that Germany did not feel grateful enough for the s succes ful work of her unification . After his trial and imprisonment this faithful servant only s aw in his disgrace an additional proof of a want of loyalty t o his his dead friend and master, and if brain gave way it was less by reason of his own revers es than because of his bitter regrets for one who had been s u n s t o him as and moon and star . wa s I at luncheon beside Prince Leop old , when he asked me : H ave you heard anything lately of M inister Ge ffcke n “ S ir N othing more , , than what is already known n that the poor man is o longer quite sane . s ad is has H ow that is . H family just written t o n ot to me Sign a testimonial In his favour . I t is exactly easy . “ s ? What can be aid , sir H e published certain u s has pages without a thori ation , and it given great offence , and might do a great deal of harm . I wonder that it did not occur to a sensible man that these are rather early days to touch the u nity of the E mpire . I have heard George de Bunsen speak with wonder o f the manner in whi ch it was

25 0 TH E MANN ERS OF MY T IME

s cannot grapple as before with ervice , with travel ,

with sorrows , and with the approach of age . What make - weights are there for such trial s as befell E mperor Frederick and his devoted friend ? ’ o There are n ne , only when Pandora s box of life ha s been riﬂed , when we have learned to call no

one good but God , and have realised that here s then there is nothing truly great or table , our s s s ~ happine come to us throug h our Faith . We are convinced that life and history cannot be arranged re a lis a for the gratiﬁcation of our feelings , or the s s s tion of our plan , ince a tremendou uncertainty ’ s s attaches to any re s ults . God s highe t promi e to is His s s H is children neither power nor plenty . on “ still learn obedience by the thing s that they His s suffer , but reward are with them , and those s s reward are an increa ing likeness to H imself here , s s and re t hereafter , in the clear vi ion of H im who

wa s is . liveth , but dead , and alive for evermore L ’ E NVOY

I finish this book with many mi s givings as to e whether it has been really worth writing, b caus e s s a pinster can only look at life through the window , and is only now and then permitted a place a t it s ’ it s table and fireside . Then this spin s ter s life has e b en a long one , and the lengthy and varied nature of her impre s s ion s may have reduced her book s to the level of a mi cellany . I t is true that the ancients were great admirers of the genu s s s M i cellany , and Plutarch poke of them as of “ meadows enamelled with flowers . But when wa s s s Plutarch a king among author , book were s o few and far between that they did w e ll to offer a little of many things . Modern taste rejects s s is now mi cellanie , since of books there no lack . I can therefore only hope that my readers will not be annoyed to find them s elve s hus tled from s Sutherland to the Riviera , from Pari to Rome , and I trus t that they will consent to take a good humoured interes t alternately in H ighland crofters s and kings in exile . Such as the book is , it mu t now go out , and take its fate . I might have made it more amus ing if I had filled it up with gos s ip about the jealou s ies of fine ladie s and the indiscretion s of royal pers ons ; to s s s s ay nothing of a general nobbi hne s . But I do s not care to traffic in those ware . They can always s The S even D evils be had cheap at the ign of , a s Shop that has branche in every capital , and eke s s in every village . Slander and malice and go ip 2 5 1 25 2 THE MANN ERS OF MY TI ME

s parlance do , I admit it , add a harp sauce to any s s memoir , I suppose becau e of the perver e nature s a s s of human pettines , but I have re ented them s all my life , I do not wi h to bottle them for use after my death . I have therefore kept my pen s from evil tale , and when I could not precisely wa s s indite of a good matter, it often pos ible to lo mot ﬁnd p ou r rire. I wa s laughing heartily one day with a Ru s s ian s : friend . She put her hand on my arm and aid “ You laugh ! but how under your laughter one ” s s wa s s o feel your tear . That true , I hope that being written from my heart , my book may reach h s t e hearts of o ther .

I have not , of course , written here of the things t s tha belong to the sanctuary of the oul , and I keep l O d s . clear of satire . I am too to be atirical Satire is the cry of the young soul when , through the s s t pangs of its early di illu ions , it ﬁrs awakes to a criticism of Life . With more experience w e wake to a criticism of ourselve s ! and gaining greater patience , we realise that the reason why charity never faileth is that it is the very core of that s f divine wi dom which we term the H eart o G o d.

I have avoided complaining of anyone , Since to one s as a s s forgive perfectly, mu t , far is po sible , al s o forget : and I , s hould greatly grieve to disturb s the quiet of certain grave . s Being run , therefore , on the l ines of lea t offence , ha s s this book been a plea ant one to write . As ?

. s . s J P . Richter aid that the mo t beautiful dawn that a mortal can behold is the dawn of a new C s w ompo ition , so the course of a ork ought also to be delightful .

is . There no labour in it naturally, but the mere c o s act of reation is virile and joy u , while life lived

I NDE X

AB ERCROM BY e e 1 1 AM D E a 1 6 , G org , 54, 57 C N , L dy, 5 A t 1 2 1 1 1 20 2 2 1 Cam e 1 1 c on , Lord, 5 , 3 , 53 , 3 , pb ll , Sir Guy, 5 a e 1 6 Ian s a 6 1 2 M im , 4 , of I l y , 4 , 4 S 1 0 B l thswood a 2 20 ir J ohn , 3 of y , L dy, a H 6 a te A s 1 2 1 A . R. H the e 1 lb ny , . Duk of, 4 , C n rbury, rchbi hop of, x 1 2 a e 1 0 47 , 5 C rdw ll , Lord, 4

as H R H . the C tess A e t A e 1 0 e ta . . lb r , rchduk , 3 C r , oun A me e ess 1 6 20 1 26 1 6 2 00 li , Princ , 4 , 7 , 4 , a H de 1 1 A as tas a M ichaelovna a t e s . R. H. Due n i , Gr nd Duch Ch r r , , 35 , 5

ess , 202 A a 1 2 Chea e M rs 2 nn ly , Lord , 3 p , , 4 A s t u t e M rs a 206 n r h r, Philip, 53 Churchill , Lord R ndolph , S a 1 e - a e a 22 8 ir R lph , 7 Cliv B yl y, M ry, A t a n anta t a 2 1 e a 1 n oni , I f of Por ug l , 5 , Cok , L dy , 47 2 1 6 2 2 6 sa 1 6 , 33 , 3 Colon y, Lord , A e ss 1 06 Conneau a a e 1 rgyll , Duch of, , M d m , 75 e 6 Con t ade s a em s e e de 1 1 1 Duk of, 3 , M d oi ll , A s t sa a S e e 1 2 1 hbur on , Loui , L dy, 53 Cox, ir G org , 4 , 49 A s e E e 20 C ma t e C t es s 8 hl y, Mr v lyn , 4 ro r i , oun of, 9 Crombez a ame 2 2 , M d , 5

AV I DS O M rs 1 22 D N , , AI LLI E a 1 22 a a 1 2 2 B , Philipp , R nd ll , t a 1 2 e s te e 1 2 Vic ori , 3 D mp r of Dunnich n , a M rs S 1 1 1 B ird , , 93 of kibo, , 5 an e s ta 1 20 20 2 2 e s sa 1 6 B u lo , Toni , , 7, 9 D ni on , Loui , 4 a t e t t A s ea 2 02 e s e ke 6 B r l , hm d, D von hir , Du of, 4 art M rs H e 20 u as A e 1 1 1 B on , op , 4 D nd , nn , 7 , 9 at s t S e a 1 6 e t A am 1 6 B hur , lin , 3 Rob r d , e an e a e it e B ll g r, M rgu r , 74 e e t Ida B nn , , 1 20

Co risande , 1 20 e t A e 1 22 1 ED E s 6 B n inck , nni , 47 , N , Bi hop , 9 e s e e a de 1 60 1 62 1 E e M rs ohn 1 1 B rni , G n r l , , , 77 ld r, J , 4 e e de 1 8 E d 201 Pi rr , 9 mly, Lor tesse d e 1 60 1 6 1 1 E t S Sta e 1 2 Vicom , , , 74 rring on, ir J ohn nl y, 5 a A am 2 E s es am 2 Bl ck , d , 5 r kin of C bo , 3 t A e 20 E u énie E 1 Bor hwick , Sir lg rnon , 3 g , mpress , 76 a 220 L dy, a E e 2 26 2 0 Br zil , mp ror of, , 3 F E ess 22 2 0 mpr of, 4 , 3 t ess H e 1 ALCO ER I an e t 1 1 Brigh , Prof or nry, 33 F N , K i h 9 e ess 20 erriére H e t de la 1 80 Bryc , Prof or, 3 F , umb r , s t 1 8 a a e de la 1 6 1 Bui , Dr, M d m , I N DE X 5 5

Flahaut mte de 8 , Co , 7 a es t esse d e 2 1 Fl ndr , Com , 3 a a e de 2 1 8 2 1 LABOUCII ERE H e 1 8 Fr nck , B ronn , , 9 , nry , 9 F a a A es 1 e oe General 1 01 r nk , L dy gn , 49 L b uf, , D 1 1 1 e ma M rs 1 8 , 53 , 55 L h nn, , 4

e er i H R . e e ma e . H . n e 1 8 Fr d ick, Crown Pr nc of G r ny, L opold , Pri c , 4 22 2 2 2 6 - ince H e er 2 1 0 222 5 , 3 , 3 of oh nzoll n, , , Em e 2 2 1 2I§ p ror, 39 , 4 ; e and a ar tte 1 0 Lock r, Mr L dy Ch lo , 5 at a Lov , L dy, 47 as te 1 0 M r of, 5 es ess e de 1 1 1 1 20 1 Luyn , Duch , , , 39, ALI TZI E ess 0 22 G N , Princ , 9 9 Gaza naire s e 1 1 2 g , Mon i ur, Ge ﬂcken 222 2 , Dr, , 45 Giuliari a , C nonico , 99

a st e . E . 6 1 0 1 06 1 1 ACK E ZI E M rs Ha 1 Gl d on , W , 4, 4, , 5 , M N , y , 4 2 2 1 M te H . rs a t on S w r , 53

M rs W . E . 1 0 a u e te ess 1 20 , 3 M rg ri , Princ , Goldsmid a 1 a b e 1 , L dy, 55 M rl orough , Duk of, 54 Grise w ood a s 1 as senbach 222 , Fr nci , 3 , Dori , se ne 1 6 M cCa llu m 1 06 Guigou , Mon ig ur, 9 Mohr, e 1 2 ec e ur - Sc e e 1 0 Gurn y, John , 4 M kl nb g hw rin, Duk of, 4 e e t 1 1 M rci r, Ru h , 9 e t a e a 2 M c lf , L dy , 4 S ir e s 206 Th ophilu , n e a 201 Moly ux, L dy , HAI G s s 1 0 ea e an 1 6 , Mi , 5 Mor u , F rdin d, 5

H a a e Rev. R. 1 8 M orés a s de 1 8 1 ld n , , , M rqui , 7 , 97 H a t a e ess 2 1 e 2 0 mil on, M ri , Duch of, 3 Mori r, Mr, 4 H a and M rs 2 D ue de 6 nbury , Mr , 33 Morny , , 7 H a n t a 1 u ste te ss O a 2 ri g on , L dy, 45 M n r, Coun lg , 35 Ha s a a e 1 20 a S ir a es 1 rri , L dy Bl nch , Murr y , Ch rl , 53 a sta e 1 20 L dy Con nc , ’ Hatis er as ar 2 1 , K p , 3 Ha e 1 y , Colon l J ohn , 34 H e e s S E ar 1 2 nd r on , ir dw d, 9 H a ess a e 22 6 O RBE LI A NI e e e 1 ild , Princ , of B d n , , Princ G org , 43 H ffm a a a e de 1 1 0 ess a a a 1 2 1 1 - 1 2 o nn , M d m , Princ B rb r , 4 , 5 5 H e n o e n e 2 2 2 Oss n t a 6 oh z ll rn, Pri c of, 7 , 47 i g on , L dy , 9

e e a 2 1 Outre . and a a e 1 6 Princ F rdin nd of, 3 y , M M d m , 9 H a M rs 1 1 1 oll nd , , 5 , 3 5 H est ar 86 uddl on , B on ,

AHLE t 1 1 8 J P N , Coun , 37, 9 a ta e e a ame P n l on , M d , 94

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