l Mon mou th A . Ca l lzoto by LV. ,

A TON C HU C H , MONU ME NT TO B L ANC H E P A R RY I N B C R HE RE FORD S H I RE QU E EN EL IZ A BETH ’S

A N D O TH E R SK E TC H E S

S Y B I L C U S T

“ AU THOR OF FROM A L ITTL E TOWN-GARDE N

H L ’ L ONDO N ! SMIT , E DER 63 CO .

1 5 WATER LOO P LACE 1 9 1 4

!All rights reserved!

P R E FA C E

TH E kin d reception given to my former

From a Little Town small volume of essays ,

Go rden ff , has encouraged me to o er another series to my readers . These sketches are obviously too miscellaneous to form a con n e cted n W work , rangi g , as ill be seen , from

Fo r Queen Elizabeth to a dormouse . this ' o fier shortcoming I can no apology , but trust to the friendly indulgence o f those into Whose hands my little book may fall . L t — My special thanks are due to . Col . J . A .

C B . . . . Bradney, . , and the Rev C T Brothers , o f Rector Bacton , Herefordshire , for their kind assistance with the history of Mistress

Blanche Parry, and to the Rev . H . F . Westlake f or permission to use his photo ’

o f . graph her tomb in St Margaret s , West t o a Gieseler minster . Also Fr ulein Auguste vii P REFA C E and Frau Niemoeller for their help in obtain ing for me much curious information and several rare old books bearing on the romantic and— to English people— little known history of the principality o f Lippe

Detmold .

SYB IL C U ST.

D ATC HET 1 1 . , J uly 9 4

POSTSCRIPT

w s w e e as b e T HE follo in g page ere compl t d , will e s n ef e t he w w as set o n fire in r adily ee , b or orld f s e r It is n e s n fin Augu st o thi y a . i t re ti g to d that ess P n o f L e n en r P ri n c auli e ipp , more tha a c tu y w e n her e n was in n e b e ago, h littl cou try da g r t wo n n f s se t he n n t wee n threate i g orce , cho tyra y ss o f Napoleon rath e r than that of P ru ia . I regre t that t wo mistakes have re main ed in t he O n I 1 I e s P e M r tex t . page 9 hav tated that et r a tel ed M n B n w e e s h e n e t h e climb o t la c, h r a o ly reach d f t h e Mo n tan v e rt a n d o n e 1 n e 8 glacie r o pag 4 , li ,

fo r ex ile r ead captiv e .

t ber 1 1 . D ATCHE T, Oc o 9 4 C O N T E N T S

QU EEN ELI ZAB ETH ’S G EN T LEWOMAN S OME HE ROE S OF LI P P E FU RSTI N P AU LI NE YE S TERDAY AND TO -DAY I N DETMOLD W K I C M I X A EE N HA ON . FLOWE R I NG S U NDAY AT P E NALLT C H U RCH TRAVELL I N G COMP AN I ON S T OYS FROM OLD DAY S T O NE W A L I TT LE EXP ERI ENCE OF FU RN I S H I NG T HO U G H TS I N A GAR DEN B RYAN ST ON S QU ARE

I L L U S T R A T I O N S

Monumen t to Blan che P arry in Bacton

' ' H Fron tzr zece Church , erefordshire fi

’ Tomb of Blan che P arry in St . Margaret s

W n To a ce P a e 2 8 Church , estmi ster f g

Statue of Herman n o n the G ro ten b urg

Furstin P aulin e of Lippe The Castle of D etmold

K D The rumme Strasse , etmold

P en a llt Old Church in Mon mouthshire

“ ” A Little Village G reen

xi

QUEEN ELIZA BETH ’S GENTLE WO M AN

QU EEN ELIZA BETH ’S GENTLE WO MAN

T H ER E are some who played a distinguished

in part in their day, and moved great historic scen es who m so , history has strangely neglected that they now have passed almost beyond her

o n e reach . Such a is Blanche Parry, a great If English lady of the sixteenth century . we turn back over the years and try to follow in She the way trod , we find that we can , at

first , but just trace her faded footmarks , and o f touch the fringe her shadowy garments .

Then , as we watch , we find we are not too late . Slowly she takes form and life before us she , more and more clearly stands out at last against a bright and gorgeous background , ’ o f the scene her long life s faithful service , o f the Court Queen Elizabeth . NO portrait exists with her name ; but her 3 QUEE N E LI ZA B ET H 'S face and form are known to us o n two grand contemporary monuments and in o n e stained

In glass window . a picture at Hampton Court by the recently discovered painter “ Eworth o f Hans , Queen Elizabeth and the Three Goddesses , Her Majesty is seen issuing from her palace door in splendour outshining their celestial charms ; behind her stand two ladies , richly attired ; and in one , wearing a square headdress, who is evidently o f mature age , it is perhaps not entirely fanciful to trace the features of Blanche

Parry . The longest and most detailed account o f her was written by George Ballard in his M emoirs of se vera l lea rned L a dies of Grea t

B rita in ; yet even he , to his regret it seems , included her as an afterthought , and owns “ sa that he can y but little of her . Yet it might seem very unkind and ungrateful in a lover of antiquities not to insert this worthy gentlewoman in his catalogue of learned t o women , who appears , not only have been o f a lover antiquities herself, but likewise an o f o f encourager that kind learning in others .

Q UEE N ELI Z AB ET H ’ S and shameful courtship Of the Lord High

Admiral Thomas Seymour, which he pur o f sued before the very eyes his wife , the widowed Queen Catherine Parr, and resumed with increased audacity after her death ; but it is probable that to a certain extent the incident warped the child ’s precocious and impressionable mind— she was only fourteen

— - and left its mark on her after life . The scandal was Spread and fostered by those among her so -called friends whom

! . she most confidently trusted Mrs Ashley, her governess , and Thomas Parry, her trea 1 surer ; but they narrowly escaped paying for their heartless treachery with their lives . They were involved as confederates in the charge brought against Seymour in that he “ did by secret and crafty means practise to achieve the purpose of marrying the Lady ” Elizabeth , and with him they were arrested and confined in the Tower . That they came ’ o ut alive was solely due to Elizabeth s earnest

1 Various writers have assumed that this m a n wa s kin s m a n n . wa s w n o n to Bla che There , ho ever, relatio ship that ca n be traced between them . GENTLEW O MAN and touching intercession with the Protector 1 Somerset . o f Sir Robert Tyrwhitt , Commissioner the

Council , was appointed to ascertain how far i the Princess herself was implicated . Th s horrid task he attempted to carry o ut by means o f a written statement addressed to o f the maid honour, which he requested her to show to Elizabeth . We may be sure that Blanche Parry did her part with gentleness and discretion ; but on reading this sinister document , between her shame and perplexity and her generous desire to shield her servants, the Princess broke down and wept . “ Sir It may please your Grace , wrote Robert Tyrwhitt shortly after to the Pro tector Somerset , to be advertised that after my Lady’s Grace had seen a letter (which I devised to Mistress Blanche from a friend of hers) that both MistressAshley and her coff erer she were put into the Tower, was marvel lously abashed and did weep very tenderly a long time .

1 w n H fi in e See her letter, ritte from at eld, the Burl igh P State apers . QUEE N EL I ZA BET H ’ S Thomas Seymour paid the extreme penalty 2 0 1 on March , 54 9 . Gay, beautiful , and fascinating , bad man though he was, he kindled , we believe , the only spark Of real aff ection that the heart of Queen Elizabeth she ever knew ; for never loved again , though she flirted all her life . Blanche Parry came o f a fine o ld stock In the West Country, the Parrys of New Court in the Golden Valley . They gave at least one distinguished soldier to the nation , Harry a ffi a son ffi so n o f p Gri th p Harry ( Of Gri th , ’ Harry) , who fought at Mortimer s Cross . A o f p Harry , the Welsh form the family name, became , through various changes ,

Parry in succeeding generations . These “ modifications Of surnames by shortn esse o f ” speach and change o f some letters were ae very common in medi val documents , and joined to the compilers ’ indiff erence to spelling— for they thought nothing Of writ ing the same word in a dozen diff erent ways

— make many a confusion in family history . ’ Another o f Blanche s kinsmen in her own time was principal huntsman to Queen 8 GENTLEW O M AN

Elizabeth . Through her grandmother Jane ,

She daughter of Sir Henry Stradling , was related to the first Earl of Pembroke , and to the chief families o f her native county . There were marriages also between certain

Parrys her cousins , and cousins of the Cecils , the family of the great treasurer Burleigh ; and he acknowledges this relationship when witnessing her will as executor . With his powerful aid she brought the cause of many who were in want and suff er ing before the Queen . We know through the memorial lines o n her tomb at Bacton that she herself would often move her ’ ” Grace s ear f o r the sake Of some poor servant fallen on evil days ! and moreover that she always knew , in venturing thus, how far she might go without off ence ! but also she had the courage which true pity gives, and she resolutely set her face against what

v appeared to her injustice , e en though she had to reckon with the highest in the land . Among the Cecil papers at Hatfield is a letter from Mistress Blanche Parry to Lo rd 1 8 2 1 6 i Burghley, dated 5 , August . Des res 9 QUEE N EL I ZABET H ’ S

P dr h s o n Of . e n t his favour behalf Mr y , who e wife nursed the Queen , and also is one Of ’ the Queen s tenants of the Manor Of Nor born , County Kent . The bishop of Canter bury has appointed certain persons to carry ’ P en dr th s away Mr . y tithe corn without

— suit commenced in law . From the Court ” o u h at N ns c . Another testimony to her kindness Of heart is contained in a letter she wrote to Sir Edward Stradling on behalf o f one Of her relations ! it runs thus !

To the Right worll . my very loving C — osen Sr . Edward Stradling Knight . After

’ my very harty co m en daéon s unto you tie wheras the Queen es Ma o f her gracious raun ted o f favour . hath heretofore g a patent the gayolershipp o f ! a certain county! to my “h kin sem an D av d y Morgan , w he hath ever sence enjoyed ! for that he is a younger

Of livin e brother, and hath noe other way g , I have thought good to praye you most th r ‘ w o hartely that he maye , y favo and lik a or inge , enjoye the s me by him selfe his 1 0 GE N T LE W O MAN deputye wtho ut troble ; and you Shall have sufficyen t suertyes to save you h arm eles ues according as her Ma sayd graun te doth p urp orte ; and what favor you shall shewe

r d e re u t soe ea t e . him I will be y to q y And , trustin ge that he Shall need noe other helpe bes d b d herein y my request , I y you hartely ‘ well to fare . From the Courte at Win deso r XIIth 1 8 2 — YO the of December 5 . assured loving Cosen , A N C H E A R Y BL P .

Like her mistress , Blanche was deeply influenced by the spiritualistic beliefs and fancies Of those days , and touched by the ’ magician s wand wielded by the hands o f her lifelong crony, that very dubious comrade of the angels , sorcerer, quack and arch impostor, the Welsh astrologer fitly named Dee or

. was o f Black To this man , who beautiful persuasive presence , and went on his crooked “ ’ way robed in a gown e like an artist s ” “ own e e g , with a long b ard as white as ” milke, who could make himself adored by his friends, but was dreaded by the people I I QUEE N E LI Z A B ET H ’ S

for a wizard , Queen Elizabeth bent her com manding intellect in childish credulity . He led her on in her forlorn quest Of perpetual

she youth and beauty, he persuaded her was rightful Sovereign of strange and far- distant thrones , and made the stars in their courses im combine to flatter her . We can well agine the Old maid of honour present when the Queen took dark counsel with Dr . Dee . We can see her standing o n e day beneath the M ’ churchyard wall at ortlake , the magician s home , when Dee , who had that very morning laid his wife in her grave hard by, allowed “ the maiden majesty of England to gaze into his magic mirror . She penetrated no further, however, into the spirit world on

in this occasion , graciously abandoning her tention to visit his library and hold further o ut converse with his shadowy companions , f o regard for his very recent widowhood . The Queen made many a promise o f aid and advancement t o D ec which she did not remember to fulfil . These repeated dis appointments , his evil fame as a conjuror, and his ceaseless journeys on the Continent 1 2

QUEE N E LI ZABE T H ’ S

beyond the occult sciences . She was famous in her day for her mastery of foreign she languages , and was deeply interested in historical and antiquarian research . She Obtained from Sir Edward Stradling his manu script account o f the conquest o f Glamorgan “ ’ o ut o f Welshm en s the hands , for her friend David Powel , who inserted it in his

Historie o Ca mbria f , and in the final paragraph acknowledges her aid

Thus farre the copie o f the winning o f Glamorgan as I received the same at the hands o f Mistris Blanch Parrie , collected by Sir

Edward Stradling , Knight . A glorious light is cast on this great lady from a passage in a very rare book of which o r only three four copies are known to exist , a treatise o n M ost app roved a nd L ong exp eri d W TER WORKE S ence A . , by G Rowland 1 6 1 0 Vaughan , Esquire , . He was her great nephew, and inherited New Court from his mother Joan , daughter and coheir of Miles A p Harry, the brother of Blanche . We see her here reigning supreme over the dazzling I G EN TLEWO MA N

’ o f throng Queen Elizabeth s courtiers , and also in the person o f a somewhat formidable aunt ridding herself of her loa fin g young f or o nephew his go d . He has the generosity, w ho ever, to acknowledge the lofty excellence o f her character eares After I had spent some y , he writes, ’ r in Queene Elizabeth s Cou t, and saw the grea tness and glory thereof under the command o f Mistres Bla nche P a rry (an honourable and vertuous Gentlewoman , my Aunt and Mistresse ) my i rite being too tender to indure the bittern esse of her izawar I was by her careful! (though crabbed austerity) forced

I ris/z into the wars . We must , how

a o f ever, give this young scapegr ce the credit having later in life settled down to at least one sober pursuit , as witness his diligent

In labours on the Water Works . her will o f his aunt, ever mindful her kith and kin , e b queathed to him a hundred pounds . The account of the Queen ’s Purse in ’ Nichol s P rogresres of Queen E liz a bet/z con ’ tains the regular entry o f Blanche Parry s name among the givers o f jewels and other I S QUEEN E LI Z AB ET H ’ S costly presents each New Year’s Day to Her

Majesty . She had an insatiable craving for every description of finery ; and she demanded those tokens Of her servants’ loyalty from them throughout her life . Nothing came “ amiss to her— whether it were a a night

o r coif of cambric , cut work and spangles , a ff o f suite Of ru s cut work , flourished with gold ” o r o f or and silver, one fair pie quinces , even— a frequent off ering from clergymen o f

— In rank ten pounds in gold coin . addition own to her gifts to the Queen , Blanche Parry was the bearer of many from others , both within and without the Royal Household .

o ur As we glance down the pages, we find selves in a blaze o f thousand-coloured lights ; we can see the gem— starred raiment o f ’ - England s splendour loving Sovereign , and hear the clink of golden coins that was ever grateful to her ear . Among these New Year’s gifts are the following ! A . are Delivered to Mrs Blanch pp y, and given by various Knights , sums Of money in crown es dim sov erai n es French in y g , in purses I 6 GE N TL E WO M A N

kn tt of blak silk and silver y in angells , in blak Silk and gold . A book o f the Armes of the Knights of

t n sell. the Garter now being , covered with y A cofer Of wo dde payn ted and gilt with combes carved , glasses and balls , given by

A are . Mrs . Blanche pp y One Square piece un shorn e vellat edged with silver lase . H u n s Given by Mr . William ggy , and delivered to the said Mrs . Blanch , a greate o f t a hata z her swete bag pp with a yp , and a border o f rosses and sphers em brodered with c o f Venice gold and pearles . A p ice fine

cam er k Mrs. Blaun ch A are y , delivered to pp y. Here the Maid o f Honour receives a present from Her Majesty ; a somewhat

o n e ! simple , it would seem Presented by the Mr Bl u h A s. a n c ar o n e Queen , to pp y, guilt stOWpe with a cover . Mrs Presented to the Queen by . Blanche

o f braslett s hedds Parry, a peir of Cornelion , two small perles betwixt every hed , garnished with golde Among j uelles geven to her Majestic at 1 7 B QUEE N ELI ZA B ET H ’ S

° New erstide 1 o n e y , anno 5 regni sui is juell, scri e o f being a pp of mother perle , hanging at chein es three little of golde , and a small

en daun te Blau n h agathe p geven by Mrs . c e P arr e y .

A juell , being a cristal garnished with golde ; Adame and Eve enamelled white ,

Mrs Blau n h P arr c e e . given by . y , broken ° Anno 1 7 a flower o f golde en am u led greene , with three white roses , in either Of s arcke them a p Of rubyes , and the midst t hearof o f a flye , and a smale cheyne golde to hange it by, being broken , given by Mrs .

Blanch Parry . A little box Of golde , and a f little spoone o golde . of braceletts o f A paire golde , given by A r M a r . rs. Blanche p y Among Diverse P arso n es chardged with son drie somes o f readie m on ye is

A ar Mrs . Blanch pp y as given to the ’ ’ Queen s Maj estie at the late Lorde N orthe s howse at the Charter house , by the Merchant

’ adventurers L5 00 . litill o f By Blanche a Parry , a box golde to

cum hetts litill put in p , and a spone of golde , 1 8 G E N TL E WO MAN

f e in oz 1 . o w y gall 3 . qr One long cushion ff tawny cloth of golde , backed with ta ety . The Queen ’s gifts to her household seem usually to have taken the form of plain gold o r silver plate , measured out to them by “ ’ ! weight , as thus Given by the Quene s M aiestie at her H ighn es Manor o f Richmond to gen tilwo m en . l TO . ui te Mrs Blanche Parry in g plate , ” Keele 1 8 o z . qr . Amidst these splendours comes an abrupt reminder of the end o f all earthly thin gs Fo r c Her Majesti ,

M rs. Blanche Apparie for the funera l of ” — Mr . Vaughan , presumably a kinsman Of the ’ r Maid of Honou in the Queen s service , the o f 2 0 money being a token her kindness . Where are they ! all these precious stuff s and glittering toys ! Where is the peir Of brasletts o f hedds cornelion , two small perles ” “ b ed or betwixt every , the juell of golde ” whearin — is sette a white agathe , where is “ ” the litill spone Of golde ! A few yet ’ survive among the country s treasures , but the greaterpart are lost . Manydisappeared in their I QUEE N E LI Z ABE T H ’ S

’ - she royal owner s life time , for had a curious inability to keep them safely attached to her o person . She returned minus a portion f ” them every time she went abroad ; and among the wardrobe memoranda o f Queen Elizabeth are the following entries ’ 1 Lost from Her Majesty s back , the 4th o f 2 1 o n e May, anno , one small acorn and oaken leaf of gold , at Westminster . Lost 2 by Her Majesty, in May, anno 3, two buttons of gold , like tortoises, with pearls in

o n e them , and pearl more , lost, at the same time, from a tortoise . Lost at Richmond , ’ 1 2 th the of February, from Her Majesty s o f back , wearing the gown purple cloth Of o n e o ut o f o f silver, great diamond , a clasp ” gold , given by the Earl Of Leicester .

In gathering up the scattered fragments that go to form the picture of Queen ’ Elizabeth s chief gentlewoman , we must pause to wipe away a stain that never ought to have sullied its fairness . It has been laid there by so o f the hand , usually just and careful , the historian Agnes Strickland ; we are bound , 2 0

QUEE N E L I ZA B ET H ’ S

’ In Miss Strickland s account, before the name of Mistris Blanch Parry she has inserted ’ the mischievous pronoun lzis A moment s reflection must have convinced the writer that even making every allowance for Sir John ’s

o f almost limitless powers gallantry , it is yet inconceivable that Queen Elizabeth ’s fiery and jovial knight , at the brightest moment of his t dashing prime , should have had an in rigue o f - with an old lady seventy one . That there o f was, however, a pleasant tie friendship between these two is shown by an entry in “ her will , in which she leaves To the right

Kn i hte on e honorable Sir John Perrott , g ” o f ei hin e c peece plate w g g forti ounces .

Blanche Parry, herself unmarried , a maid ’ in Court and never no man s wife , served , as we have seen , the maiden Sovereign of

England with loving fidelity to the end . She was quite blind when she gave up her trust .

Some items from her will , dated the year o f 2 1 1 8 her death , June , 5 9 , copied from o n e of the great clasped books at Somerset o f House , may be interest here . Generous 2 2 G E N TL EW O MAN

- i and great hearted , upr ght and imperious , her character shines from the crabbed letters o ld on the mellowed page . The document begins in the way then customary with the confession o f her trust in God and hope o f heaven

Blaun che P arr e o n e o f I , y , the Gentle women of the Que en es Maiesties privye

m n de . Chamber, whole in bodie and y D O make this my testamente and laste will in the name of the E ternall Lyvin ge God and the father the Sonne and the holic Gh oste in whose name I was baptised and in who m e o n l I y hope and believe to be saved ,

Amen .

The words are simply a formality, but ’ none the less significant o f the Church s hold o n her children . “ “ be ueth First, she continues I q my bodie to be buried in the P arishe Churche o f Sainte Margaret within the Cittie o f Westminster if yt please God to call

n eare . me London Item , I give to the Queen es most Excellente Maiestie my Soveraigne Ladie and Mistres my beste 2 3 QUEE N E L I Z ABET H ’ S

Ri hte Diam o n de . I give to the g honor able my very good Lord Sir Christopher Hatton Knight Lord Chau n cello ure o f Eng

Diam o n lande one table de . I give to the righte honorable my very good Lorde the Lorde B urleighe Lorde highe treasurer D of E n glan de my Seconde yam o n de . To my very good Ladie Cobham one Rynge with a poynted Diam o n de and a chayne o f kn obes en am yled worke to my very good Lorde the Lorde Lumley one ringe with a poynted Diam o n de eighte peices o f h an in e g g beinge in my House , two short carpetts and one carpe tt Of foure yardes longe towards the am en dinge and re payringe o f the highewaye betwen e New Court and Hampton in the Coun tie o f Hereford 2 0 pou n de to my cosen Anne Vaghan o n e chayne o f goulde and a girdle which the Queen es M aiestie gave me . I will that my Executors shall best owe the somme o f five hundred p ou n des in p urchasinge o f Landes which e shall be worthe tenne po u n des by yere and to builde a conveniente allm sho use f or fower poore 2 4 GE N TLE WO MA N people to be chosen from tym e to tym e within the parishe of B ackto n in the Coun tie of Hereford ! of the o ldeste and p o o reste within the said parishe whether they be men o r releeved o f women , there to be the pro fitts o f the said Landes for ever the said allm sho use to be builded as n eare the parishe Churche of Backt on as the Land may be provided for that purpose I give to my Cozen Anne Whitney One hundred po u n de which o n e Newton and one

Birde do owe me to Mr . Morgan the pothicarve o n e ringe wo rt he three

n e een p ou d to Mr . Hewes the Qu es Mastics Lyn n en Draper one Ringe o f Go ulde h ' wort e flyve p o un des. There are bequests to every woman servante , and every yeoman who should be in her service at her death , also various moneys from her landed estates, to be paid ’ to her kinsfolk Yerely at the fleaste o f the A n nu n cyaco n of the blessed Virgin Marye ” and Sainte Michael the Archangell. She appoints Lord Burleigh Supravisor o f “ see the her will , entreating him to same 2 5 QUEE N E LI ZA BET H ’ S performed according to the m ean inge of my f ” Desire or charities sake . she In a codicil dated three days later, takes peremptory measures to ensure that there be no wrangling and family jars over “ Y f her gifts . any person or persons to who m e I have by my laste will given or bequeathed any somme o r sommes of money or other t hin ge Do at any tym e after my Decease make any t roble or strife or D O withstan de or goe aboute to o vert hrowe D enye o r annihilate my said will o r shall not ho ulde bym or herself e contented and pleast with the said L egarcys that then they he o r she wh oe shall so troble molest o r incumber my Executors or shall stand to D en ye or withstan de the probation o f the said will shall loose and f orgoe the be n efitt of all suche L egarcys giftes and ” bequests so given o r bequethed. Blanche Parry was obliged to alter the provision made for building the almshouse at Bacton , as is stated in the latest codicil to i her w ll written two months before her death , “ e 2 1 8 . Decemb r , 5 9 Whereas by my will 2 6 G E N TL E W O MAN

I have appoyn ted fyv e hundred p o undes o r thereabouts to be bestowed for the buildin ge o f an allm sho use in Bacton in the Co u n tie rovidin e o f of Hereford , and for the p g tenne po un de Lande yerelie or thereabouts for the f o r same . I do now in Liew thereof that I cannot provide Lande in Backto n aforesaid

buildin e ass n e for g of the said House , y appoyn te and will that my Executors shall purchase so much Landes as shall yealde above all chardges yerelye for ever the n o m ber o f seven score bushells o f com e heate viz . w and rye and to be stored and distributed yerelye am o ngste the poore people Of Backt on and Newton o f for ever, and that the Deane and Chapter Hereford shall from tym e to tym e have the o versighte and distributin ge o f the said corne . she She lies buried as wished , in St . ’ 1 Margaret s Church , Westminster, and over - her resting place near the west door, her

1 Ballard with extraordinary carelessn ess states in his bo ok o n th e Learn ed L adies that Blan che P arry wa s “ ” buried be neath the South Wall of the Chan cel in 2 7 QUEE N E LI ZA BET H ’ S

f w e figy rought in stone and coloured , kneels

- before a Prie Dieu . The face , with its grand simple lines, is a wonderful blend of refinement and determination ; in the thin lipped mouth there is perhaps a trace o f the crabbed austerity that drove young Row land Vaughan across the seas . She wears a u close jewelled cap and long veil, a great p standing ruff and double cable chain of gold ; her dress falls in plain sweeping folds . The figure is perfect— only the praying hands are gone . Underneath , very hard to read in the ! dim light, is the inscription Hereunder is entombed Blanche P arrye dau ! o f Henry P arrye of New Courte within the County o f E s uier Chief e o f Hereford , q , Gentlewoman ’ Queene Elizabe th s most honourable bed ’ uells Chamber, a keper of her Majesty s j , who m e she f aithf ullie served from her High nes birth ! be n eficiall to her kin sf o lke and co untr em en y , charitable to the poore , inso muche that she gave to the poore of Bacton

W n n n n estmi ster Abbey, a stateme t that has, as a yo e who n n c a n no n . has bee i side the abbey tell, se se at all O ne two w w n or later riters , ithout taki g the trouble of

n . verifyi g it, have simply copied his mistake 2 8

GE NT LE W O MAN and Newton in Heref o rdeshiere seaven score bushells Of wheate and rye yerelie for ever with divers somes of money to Westm yn ster f o and other places r good uses . She died a maide in the Eightie Two yeres of her age 1 the Twelfe Februarye 1 5 8

In Atcham Church , near Shrewsbury , are two lovely windows which , placed originally in Bacton Church , were removed thence a hundred years ago by the then vicar’s wife

Of Atcham , who was related to the Parrys . She found the windows much injured and

o n neglected , and has placed their history record in the glass below the east window, but it is a pity that the inscription itself is much broken away and illegible . This win A dow represents Milo p Harry , who built 1 8 8 New Court , and died in 4 , with his lady, and his sons and daughters on either side ;

1 ’ ’ I n the churchwarden s accoun t of St . Margaret s un der the headin g of Forain e R e ceip te s is the followin g n ! I rece ved e n try relati g to this tomb tem y of Mr. P owell o n e of the executors of Mrs . Blan ch P arry for licen se a n d composition with the parish to erect a n d n n n P in sette up a mo ume t for the said Mrs . Bla ch arry — . W i R H F. n the parish Church (Quoted by ev . estlake his rece n t work o n the church . ) 2 9 QUEE N E LI ZA BET H ’ S

their garments are rich and stately, with beautiful embroidered borders . Above their kneeling figures are the Virgin and Child , with saint and angel . The other window shows Blanche Parry herself, kneeling before Queen Elizabeth enthroned with o rb and ff sceptre . She O ers her a book ; and above are four angels holding lyres . The two windows Shine in a soft brightness of golden fight It remains for us yet to visit the tru e shrine o f the Parrys, the little ancient church of

Bacton in Herefordshire , which stands in its peaceful meadows above the Golden Valley . In the porch an o ld notice- board records her bequests to the poor ; and within the church o n the north wall hangs framed a large piece ’ o f embroidery worked by Blanche Parry s o wn hand , and worn by her, tradition says , as part f o one of her Court dresses . The description o f this beautiful relic has been kindly sent o f me by the Rector of Bacton . It is white corded silk, shot with silver and powdered o f over with bunches flowers , very beautifully embroidered in silk amongst the posies 30 GE N TLEW O M AN

be ff o may seen da dils , roses , honeysuckle , o ak leaves and acorns , mistletoe , and other

flowers . Scattered between these is a strange assembly of animals, men in boats , creeping r things , bi ds , and butterflies . In later times , o f shameful to say, this beautiful piece work was remorselessly cut up to fit a very small

Communion Table , which accounts for its present shape . Left Of the altar o n the chancel wall is a o f stone memorial , bearing the figures Blanche

is Parry and her mistress . It a beautiful and - ff touching work , a love o ering from that simple countryside to the memory o f the o o f great and go d lady Bacton . She kneels s be ide the figure of the Queen seated in state , who wears a farthingale sewn and starred with gems and a heavy jewelled chain . The maid o f honour is simply dressed , and wears like ’ Ewo rt h s the lady in picture , a cap with a

t o o f square flat p , a type that recalls the period o f Lady Jane Grey and Mary Tudor m rather than the Elizabethan . Like any Old ladies , Mistress Parry was faithful , it seems , to bygone fashions in her dress . She wears 31 QUE EN E LI ZA B ET H ’ S

long hanging sleeves, a kirtle , and overdress . In her left hand she holds a little boo k ; and something that looks like a jewel in her right . On a tablet above the figures are the f o l lowing verses , which were surely written by o f herself. A few the lines are unusually

f or o n e obscure Elizabethan poetry, but and all they breathe her steadfast and loving Spirit

I P arrye hys do ugh ter B laen che of Newe Covrte B orn e That traenyd wa s in P ryn cys c o vrts wythe gorgion s Wyghts Wh eare Fleetynge hon or sovn ds wythe B la ste of Hom e A cc o vn t P W D l Eac he of e too lace of orlds e yghts.

Am lo dgyd H eere wyth in thys Sto n ye To o m b e My Harpynger ys P a ede i o wgh te of Dve My f ryn ds of Sp eeche heere in doo fyn de m e B oombe Th e whic he in Vaen e e so rea tl e t e th y doo g y ,

For so m oo ch e as b yt ys bvt Th en de of all Thy s Wo rldlye Rowte of State what so they B e The which e vn too the Reste heereafter shall s W h i h As emble thu s ea che yg te n ys Degree . 32 G EN TLE W O MAN

I lyvde allweys a s Han dmaede too a Qven e I n Chamber Chief my Tym e dyd o verp a sse Vnca refvll of my Wellth e ther was i seen Wh llst th e Ro n n y i abode n y ge of my Glasse .

No t dovb tynge wan te whyllste that my Mystres lyvde I n Woman s State whose C radell sa w i Rockte Her Servan te then a s wh en Shee h er Crovne a ttch eeved And so rem aened tyll D eath e my Doore had

kn ockte .

' P refierrynge styll th e Cavsys of cache Wyghte AS farre as i doo rste move Her Grace hys B are For too rewarde D ecerts by c ovrse of Ryghte t s n a h As n eed s Resy te of Sarvy doo e e c e wheare .

SO that my Tym e i thu s did passe awaye ’ A Maede in Co vrte an d n ever n o man s Wyfle Swo rn e of Qven e Ellsb eth s H edd Chamber allwaye ' Wyth e Maeden Qven e a Maede did en de my Lyfle .

On Thursday last , wrote Thomas Markham to his cousin the Earl o f Shrews “ Mrs. a bury, Blanche Parry departed ; bl n d she o n h O e y was here earth , but I p ” the joyes in heven she shall see !

33

S O M E H EROE S OF LIPPE

TH E o f first invader Northern Germany, thirteen years before Christ , was Drusus the

Roman . There is a legend that when he was encamped with his host on the banks of o f the Elbe , at the moment his highest saw success, he in a vision the menacing figure of a woman . She pointed towards the South whence he came, and spoke to him in Latin , “ o n e Retro ! word , Shortly after, Drusus died through a fall from his horse , and his body was taken back for burial in Rome . - A D . Twenty four years later, in the year . 9,

uin tilius another Roman General , Q Varus, prepared to subdue the wild tribes of the

North , and he again was bidden defiance , not this time by a veiled apparition, but by a young hero of flesh and blood , Arminius or

o f . Hermann , chief the Cherusci His name 37 SO ME H E R OE S O F L I PPE is usually given in its Latin form by historians because he had been a Roman citizen and ha d fought in the Roman army, but it is better to keep to the name by which his o wn H — o f country knew him , ermann Man the

— Host for he was heart and soul a Saxon . Five o f the leading races of the North and several o f the lesser tribes went to form his mighty host , that far outnumbered the invaders The earliest fires o f the great rising flickered almost in Sight of the Roman leader — warnings actually reached him in his camp at Aliso ; but yet he took no heed . He was in truth unequal to the task before him . Indolent and weak, incapable of rapid action , a lover Of riches and ease , his powers - were ill matched against a race , of barbarians I I t s true , but barbarians exquisitely cunning, passionate , and brave . He fancied them

- peace loving, simple , easy to win ; and he trusted their leader, Hermann , who had been well known to him in Rome , as a probably ally against the West German princes .

But Hermann deceived Varus , and led him to his destruction by a trick . From the 38 SO ME HE R O E S O F LIPP E several boundaries o f the widespread Roman encampment , full Of false hope , Varus drew his men together ; o n they came over the valleys o f Ems and Weser and the low hills o f o n Osning, from the gates of Minden the North and the Westphalian borders on the

South , through the heavy autumn rains, till they were within range o f the German archers somewhere in the trackless depths o f the

Teu t obur ian g Forest . The exact locality o f the field is not known ; it is a problem that has puzzled the experts for hundreds o f years ; but the majority are in favour o f the region lying east Of the plains of Westphalia , that forms the present f — principality o Lippe Detmold . Where the forest shades were densest C o f appeared before Varus a rowd his allies, an auxiliary contingent o f Saxons ; but their menacing looks soon showed him they were o f traitors , and the flower his cavalry deserted with them . Thus fortune forsook the Roman ’ leader at the very outset Of the three days fight ; his men lost all heart in the pitiless rains that checked and hampered them at 39 SO M E H E R O ES O F LI PPE every turn and ruined their arms ; and so the o f e legions Augustus p rished miserably . Two o f the eagles were captured by the enemy ! o f the bearer the third , who at least showed o f himself worthy his trust , tore it down from its pole and died where he fell, clasp “ ing it in his arms . Varus showed some ” spirit in dying, says the old Roman writer in the bitterness of his heart, though none ” f in fighting, for seeing all was lost he ell on his sword . Thus ended all hope o f Roman supremacy between Rhine and Elbe— the dream o f the

a . C esars True , the struggle was yet to break o ut afresh . For eight long years Hermann o f remained at the head his wild tribes, while all Germany looked to him ; for she had to fear a greater than Varus, his successor in the Roman command , Drusus , surnamed Germanicus in honour of his valour shown o n o f e German soil , nephew Tib rius the

Emperor . From his base on the Rhine Germani ’ cus set out f or the scene of Rome s humilia o f tion . He recaptured two the three lost 40 SO ME HE R O ES O F LI PPE eagles ; he found the bo nes o f his fallen countrymen lying dishonoured on the battle a field and gave them reverent burial , r ising o f over them , it is said , though no trace it

n ow . can be found , a stone memorial He t o returned in triumph Rome , Thusnelda , son the wife of Hermann , with her infant saw whom his father never , being led exile in his train . Both mother and child were to die in exile in Rome . Germanicus , how ever, was not destined to finish his cam

a p ign on the Rhine . Either Tiberius had lost heart over the long strife , or, more a prob bly, he grudged his great captain his rising fame ; and so, from a mean and of spiteful motive , he ordered the recall the forces . The life o f the Saxon leader closed in o f tragedy, sacrificed to the jealous hate a few base spirits among his own people ; but for nigh two thousand years he has been honoured in story and song and in o ur o n o f own day, the summit the Groten of burg, one the principal heights in the Teut obur ian - g range of forest clad hills, the 4 1 SO M E H E R O ES O F L I PP E genius o f the sculptor Ernst von Bandel has raised to him a mighty bronze memorial .

’ The first beginning o f Lippe s history as an independent state carries us o n eleven centuries from the defeat of Varus . Her rulers were Counts of the dynasty of West phalia ; but the word Graf— Count— being f then a general term for an imperial o ficial , the Counts o f Lippe adopted a distinctive L ioeri et signature , and wrote the words N obiles after their names , in token that they were free men , and held their heads high among the Edelherren o f Germany . 1 1 6 Bernhard II born in 4 , stands at the o f head Lippe s roll of fame ; he springs, a glorious figure , from the darkness of the 1 ed buried years . Behind him , dimly descri , are others o f his kin ; the first Bernhard and

Hilde un de his daughter the Abbess g , and

Hermann , father of our hero , who went with

1 I would refer my readers— on ly I fear it is lon g out ' ’ ' ’ ' ' n — D ze L z zselzen E a ellzerren z nz M z ttela lter of pri t to fip , a

Ch n . P in 1 86 0 armi g little history by A iderit, published , ’ a n d Vo n Meysenb ug s accoun t of B e rn ha rd I I in the ' ' L ippe n umber of N z eaersa elzsen . 4 2

S O M E H E R O ES O F L I PP E the conquering army o f Friederich Barbarossa to Rome and died there . He is among the

’ a moszores o f f the Roman Chronicles , but he

so n is outshone by his greater . Shades Of the heroes o f Lippe ! Simon the

First , Bernhard the Seventh , Simon the Sixth , will yo u think yourselves slighted if we give - the Old twelfth century warrior , your mighty o u ! ancestor, the place of honour above y all They send no answer back ; they are resting from a hundred battles ; so we can only hope there is the proper feeling amongst them . For the fame Of Bernhard II spread far beyond his little country . East and West the lands were illumined by the splendour o f fi his ghting days , and the fiery torch he lighted in his o ld age for God . The source o f nearly all we know Of him is a great Latin epic written in his honour o n e ustin ius forty years after his death , by J , o f Li stadt a learned doctor pp , the city founded and fortified by Bernhard o n the fertile banks

Of the river Lippe . In this poem we read that the future ruler 43 S O M E HE R O E S O F L I PPE

’ learnt his first lessons at his father s knee . so n d Then , being a younger , and estined for the cloister, he was sent to pursue his studies Of at the monastery Hildesheim , where his gifts o f heart and mind delighted all his teachers . He had already been advanced to the dignity o f Canon for pro motion in all the walks o f life was rapid in those days , when suddenly the course of his life was changed . The elder brother died and Bernhard was recalled home , to exchange bell , book, and candle for the saddle and the sword . The boy threw himself into his new appren ticeship with his habitual ardour . He left ’ nothing undone to fit himself f o r his life s o f task, and he went to learn the arts war in many lands . Bernhard was twenty-six years old when he became reigning Count o f Lippe . The clouds hung heavy over his little country ; it was racked with fears and surrounded with

ln I enemies . More than once he was to W t fi back by hard ghting from their grasp , lose u it and win it again . He decided at the o t 44 S O ME HE R OE S O F L I PPE set to seek some powerful aid , and found it ’ o ld in his father s comrade , Henry called the

Lion , Duke of Saxony and Bavaria .

- This man , insatiable fighter and arch rebel , took the stripling to his heart It was a fierce kind o f friendship that linked these two together . They were kindred spirits , it o f must be owned , in certain qualities violence and greed . The Lion , however, went further than Bernhard in open revolt against his liege lord the Emperor, for it was not in Bern ’ hard s nature to be a traitor . He quickly rose to the supreme command ’ o f Henry s forces , and was faithful to him till his downfall . The young Edelherr o f Lippe was of beautiful and stately presence , a perfect knight . Everywhere he went the people him cheered . We can almost fancy we hear the trumpets herald his coming and catch the greeting o f the crowd . Thus he appeared be fore the Emperor at a meeting of the Wii rz bur 1 1 6 8 Reichstag at g in , riding at the head o f a brilliant train to the sound of martial music . The Emperor asked in as 45 S O M E HE R O ES O F L I P PE t n ishm en t o what gallant knight it was . Then when he knew, he received him with especial o f honour, which was kind Barbarossa , con siderin gthe young free- lance had already twice disobeyed the summons to his sovereign ’s presence . When the company were gathered round the dai s it was found there were not SO seats for all . the Count Of Lippe and " his nobles took OH their beautiful mantles and sat upon them ; but at the close o f the

o n day they rose and left them the ground . The bystanders drawin g his attention to what f or they took forgetfulness, Bernhard replied that it was not customary in this country for a man to carry his seat away with him . This remark was thought extraordinarily witty by the assembled nobles, who greeted it with a shout of merriment . Bernhard chose his bride from the ancient f o chsta en race o Are and H d . The ruins of their ancestral home still look down from the o f rocky heights above the valley the Ahr, fourteen kilometers from its junction with the Rhine ; and it was a lovely flower the fiery Chieftain gathered ther eight hundred years 4g S O M E HE R O E S O F L I PP E

ustin ius a ago . J pr ises her beauty and her she homely virtues , and says was ever kind t o all in poverty or distress . She bore her husband six daughters and

five sons , who all grew up and prospered . w o f Like all her country omen , the Lady Lippe must have been an admirable house wife , to have successfully reared eleven chil dren in circumstances Of quite exceptional ffi h di culty . For through all those years s e ’ o n e never can have known moment s peace , left to guard her people from thron ging dangers , her spouse incessantly under arms ’ on distant fields— for the Lion s campaigns took him into many lands— save for brief periods when he return ed to fight his foes she at home . We know not how bore her she o r trials, or even whether stayed fled . The o ld Latin scholar did not reflect perhaps that women too can be brave ; for he tells o f us nothing , or almost nothing , the sorrows

e l o n o f H i wig v Are . Bernhard had but little tim e f o r the pleas

For ures o f his domestic hearth . years past Duke Henry had cast covetous eyes on the 47 S O ME H E R OES O F L I PP E

See o f Cologne and the fair lands bordering n o the Lower Rhine . He w prepared for a conquering expedition against the Archbishop — for the great Churchmen were all soldiers in those days— who for his part intended to o f grab the Dukedom Westphalia . There were thus two great divisions among the princes , and between them the land was torn asunder . The Count of Lippe threw in his lot afresh with Duke Henry , and went plundering and destroying through the West . Judged by the correct standards o f the twentieth century , the character of Bernhard the Robber, we confess, leaves something to i w be des red . The t elfth century thought otherwise . There was nothing at all remark ’ ’ able in destroying one s neighbour s property ; it was the ordinary occupation o f a gentle ’ man , although Bernhard s nickname points to his having done it with exceptional thorough ness , even for those days . But there was a greatness in his actions , in the worst as in the best of them , which took the imagina o f i tion men ; and , even wh le they feared , 48

S O ME H E R O E S O F LI P PE o n the vengeance of his sovereign lord whom he had deserted and wronged . Then the sa brave defender gave way . He w there was o f no other means saving the townspeople , o n and , still cheering them , he made a noble surrender .

Bernhard went home . Great in peace as set in war, he himself to the work of restor ing prosperity to his country ; he sowed the desolate fields once more and built up the ruined dwellings . Thirty years later he was to succeed afresh in the same work in the newly conquered lands of the East , for in all things relating to worldly aff airs of those rough times this extraordinary man was supreme . Neighbouring Courts sought his advice on matters of legal procedure and business, and the cities that he founded were the glory o f his country . In the midst of these admirable tasks he o u t ! o f sets , alas in search fresh plunder ; he robs the Church o f Minden ; and we are grieved to find him seizing the prope rty o f a o f so lady, the Abbess Freckenhorst, in much

he that s brought an action against him . But 5 0 S O M E HE R OES O F L I PPE

as it was the end . He w to make his ex piation ; and the time was nearly come . Physically Bernhard of Lippe must have

o f . been a man iron Now, however, the strapa z en — hardships — o f five and thirty years o f fighting began to tell on him ; symptoms o f illness showed themselves and increased with dreadful rapidity ; he became s crippled in all his limb . When he could no longer stand upright , he was carried in a o f litter made osiers , drawn by two horses ;

n and in this way he led many a campaig , the magic o f his presence still cheering o n his men .

But in time the strain became too hard , even for him ; he drew back altogether from the active life and spent some years in retirement .

During his fighting days , at least once at the outset and once towards the close , he had been mindful o f the things o f God ! witness his foundation and endowment of the Augustinian Monastery which still stands at of Lippstadt , and the Cistercian Monastery

Marienfeld . Now in the enforced inaction 5 1 S O ME H E R O E S O F LI P P E o f physical weakness his thoughts gradually turned away from the world ; and he made a solemn resolve that should he recover he ’ his would devote life to God s service . Then a marvellous thing happened . As his spirit thus broke through his fetters , suddenly the o f body too was freed . The burden his disease fell from him like a severed chain , and he was healed .

- The story was far famed as a miracle . We should rather, perhaps , call it an instance a very wonderful instance of spiritual healing . Bernhard was over fifty years o f age when he entered o n the immense labours o f his o remaining thirty years f life . - o f Far to the north east Germany, o n was the shores of the Baltic , there a r wild egion called Livland , inhabited by the o f heathen tribe the Aestii . A band o f n o t Christians, among whom were a few f o r Westphalians, were fighting there the

Cross ; and Bernhard went to join them , with the desire of later becoming a r missiona y. 5 1 SO M E HE R OES O F LI P P E

We know nothing o f this his first crusade .

On his return home , he gathered his children

o f . round him , and told them his resolve H eilwig clung to him with pleading and — ustin ius tears to give J his due , he does

— mention those tears but all in vain . Bern hard drew u p a charter of certain rights and f or privileges his capital city, which is still s o f pre erved in the Archives Detmold , and made over the government to his eldest son as Hermann . Then he went his way, and

Brother Bernhard , a simple monk, he entered the Monastery o f Marienfeld in Westphalia . B Years passed . ernhard spent them in prayer and repentance , and in learning many things. Patiently he went all over the ground o f his forgotten studies at Hilde sheim , till he reached an extraordinary pre f eminence in many kinds o knowledge . At last he was ready f or the task he had set himself to do , and , returning to Livland , he off ered his services t o the Bishop o f Riga . s o f Shortly after, he was cho en Abbot the Cistercian Monastery o f Dii n am ii nde o n the - sea coast . But his mission was not to be 5 3 SO ME H E R OES O F LI P P E

fulfilled by peaceful means . The pilgrim army of the Christians soon called on the great soldier to help them ; and he set o ut o f for the heathen stronghold Fellin .

It was a moment o f triumph for the Cross . The fortress had fallen and the enemy was Aa making in full flight for the River .

Bernhard intercepted them . He threw a bridge and wooden fortification across the stream , shattering the fugitives with lances and arrows ; and a great hymn of rejoicing went up from the church in Livland -but already her skies were clouding over . Foremost in the Christian army was an o f - o f order soldier monks , called Brethren the Sword . They were known by their white habit , bearing a sword and cross worked in red . Covered with glory in the

field , they became grasping and unruly . They rose against the bishop to the extent of disputing with him his own episcopal seat f He o Riga . had to journey to Rome and obtain fresh authority from the Pope before f some measure o order was restored . Dis sensions and delays such as these were the S4 SOM E HE ROE S O F L I P PE

breath of life to the heathen , and the cause o f Christ was in serious jeopardy, when its great champion rose again in his might . He set out westward , preaching and winning “ fresh soldiers for the Cross . In journeying e often , in p rils by the heathen , in perils among false brethren , in weariness and pain ” fulness , he kept his torch burning , an old o f o f man full the spirit the apostles . Now we find him under arms again in Livland winning a great fight with three i six thousand men aga nst thousand . Now he is in Rome , asking the Pope to permit his acceptance of the dignity lately conferred on him by the Bishop of Riga— the See of Felburg in the newly conquered district o f

Se lon ia a . He travels b ck through Germany

a so n to Oldenz al in Guelderland , where his

o f a Otto , Bishop Utrecht, consecr tes his

- — a white haired father as bishop sight, says a contemporary writer, that moved the world to admiration . Bernhard ’s closing years were saddened by the sorrows of the pilgrim army in the East . In an unfortunate moment the Bishop of Riga 5 5 S O ME H E R O E S O F LI PP E

o f had asked the aid of the King Denmark , and , all unknowingly, had brought a serpent into their midst . Madly jealous of the o f advance the Germans in Livland , the King actually encouraged the heathen tribes against o f them , and won over the fickle Brethren the Sword to his side . o f re Bernhard , wearied and out heart, solved to entrust his flock awhile to younger o f 1 2 2 0 hands . During the spring he went o wn home to his country, and , to his joy, he shared in the consecration o f the newly com f pleted Church o St . Mary at Lippstadt . In various works of mercy three years passed by, and then he went back to the distant battle

field .

It was for the last time . Soon his hands became too weak to hold the sword , but still so long as his strength lasted he went with o n wi his soldiers weaponless, leading them th words o f comfort and hope . Bernhard had prayed that he might die in s action ; but his wish wa not fulfilled . He closed his eyes peacefully in his home at -fif th o f Selburg, in the eighty year his age . 5 6

S O ME HE R O E S O F LI P P E o f of Blomberg, the home the Counts of Lippe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries , until it was transferred to Detmold , the present capital . There is a legend regarding the foundation o f o n e Blomberg , that day when the people o f the countryside had chosen the site of their town , they marked out a great square on the ground , with spaces representing the position o f the principal buildings . Then in the evening stillnessGodvisited the place and sowed flowers all over it , that sprang up during the night . When the people saw the wonderful sight at dawn , they knew that He had blessed their choice , and they called the town Blumenberg — City o f Flowers .

Here lived and fought and died Bernhard , o f Bellicosu s seventh his name , called , famous o f - adversary the cruel soldier priest Dietrich ,

Archbishop o f Cologne . For many years Diet

in rich had been engaged a quarrel with Soest , a town that was ever coveted by the Counts o f

Lippe , and had two centuries before withstood a siege by Bernhard the Second . B ellico sus took the part of Soest against the Archbishop , and attempted to win over 5 8 S O ME HE R O ES O F L I P PE

f or the town his own ends , but the citizens of Soest would have none o f him . They pre ferred another man , and they sent the Lipper a written message which as a snub is unsur a e f in o . p ss d , I think, the history the world It runs thus “ w vesten Wettet , dat y den junker Johann hebbet van Cleve lever als juwe , unde werd 1 juwe hiemit abgesagt . Dat Soest , Dietrich stood even a poorer chance with

Soest than did Bernhard . Furious with the ’ Lipper s interference , he gathered together a o f great force Bohemians and Saxons, and went burning and plundering through his lands .

h o n Finally, t rowing himself Blomberg, the Archbishop sacked the towns and massacred the inhabitants . - Hard pressed in his fortress, their brave leader was powerless to save them . Like his great ancestor at Haldensleben , he stood his ground till the last possible moment , and then he had to fly, making his way through a secret

“ 1 Kn w we n n n o , that like the valia t k ight, Joh of n a nd Cleve, better tha you, therefore you are hereby F refused. rom Soest, 5 9 ' SO M E H E R O ES OF L I PPE passage underground to a little wood hard by . Near the great arched entrance to the castle is Shown to this day a door with massive iron hinges, and behind the door a rough opening half concealed by some loose stones . There is believed to be the passage down which the hero Of Blomberg fled to safety . The spot is dreaded by the children , who believe that a

- white robed lady haunts it .

Bernhard was only eighteen . Sixty years of fighting were yet before him ere he was to lay down his sword— for his life was o n e long chain o f ba ttles . But we have seen him though so young in years , yet at his best and bravest, and we will not disturb him further in his

- hard won rest , asleep beside his lady beneath the beautiful Gothic tomb in the Abbey

Church of Blomberg . Yet we are loth to leave him . They were a great race , the Edel o f herren o f Lippe . It needed but a turn ’ the o f Fortune s wheel , says biographer Simon the First, to raise them to a foremost place f among the sovereigns o Germany . Perhaps o n e day some English writer with a vein o f romance will tell their story . We should 6 0 SO M E H E R OE S O F LI P PE like to watch the stern life they led in their fortress homes, and pass in their train through o ld the towns, quiet places now full of brave ’ memories, echoed to their horses feet

6 1

FURSTIN PAULINE

P U RSTI N PAUL I NE

o f young Duke Augustenburg , another side o f her nature peeps out , and she pities her self half whimsically for the unnatural austerities o f her life . In two years I have ” “ she 1 not danced a step , writes in 7 93, but I have read an extraordinary number o f books and written an immense quantity o f ” manuscript . She was just then completing a large collection of poems , and also a

M ora ls or Women o f volume entitled f , part which was afterwards published . But with touching self- forgetfulness she is glad to be o f use With pleasure I have read nothing for several weeks past but a pile o f docu ments taller than myself, and worked late at night at my writing-table ; but it does me be good to useful in any way to my family, for my excellent health allows o f iron in ' du str ezsernen Fleiss y ( ) , and I hope that much business is clearing my brains . To be sure , “ she adds, the Muses and the Graces are ff she coming o badly . Then gives a glance to the outer world and the political horizon , “ and hazards a word o f prophecy It seems clear enough to me that some day perhaps 6 6 FU RSTI N PA ULI NE the lesser German princes will be swallowed up by their mightier neighbours , and the smaller states o f Europe will be the prey o f the greater . It would not cost me one tear e if I ceased b ing a princess . I have very few, very trifling needs, and , as I flatter r myself, resou ces enough I should not

o u t o f n o be place , I think , f matter whither fate should lead me . But about this time circumstances arose that unsettled and distressed Pauline . Her brother married ; the sisters- in - law did not f or understand each other, and some reason her father became estranged from her . At this juncture a former lover renewed his suit ; and she was well content to leave her home as the bride o f the Prince of Lippe Detmold 6 o n 2 1 . January , 7 9 Pauline was delighted with the welcome “ that the people o f D etm o ld gave her . Never was any Princess more kindly, more heartily, ” more joyfully received , she wrote ; all these festivities breathe the people ’s happy

- child like trust in their new mother . The situation o f Detmold is unspeakably lovely ; 6 7 FU RSTI N PAU LI N E whoever first used the word smiling of a landscape stood assuredly o n this side of

Westphalia .

The marriage , which was entirely happy, o f was very short duration . Leopold died 1 8 0 2 in , leaving his widow with two little

boys ; and thenceforth for eighteen years ,

she until the heir attained his majority,

reigned alone . Pauline took over the government o f

Lippe at a perilous time . Between Prussia o n on e o n the hand and Napoleon the other, o f each playing for the leadership Germany, the smaller states , as she in her youthful wisdom had foreseen , stood in danger of being swept o ut o f existence . Hesse was already making overtures to Lippe and

Waldeck , intending to force them into the

North German league with Prussia . To Pauline in this crisis it was clear that her country could not stand alone ; some pro tectio n it must have ; but above all things she dreaded and mistrusted Prussia . The hated alliance with Napoleon appeared to her the lesser evil ofthe two . She turned from the 6 8 FU RST I N PAU LI NE

1 80 advice of all her ministers , and in April 7 he s joined the Confederation o f the Rhine . Those who most bitterly blamed her for h ow this step knew least , perhaps , dear it cost her . She gave her reasons for it at the ' time in an eloquent mémozre j ustzfiea tifi Then she set herself to work to save for her country some measure of independence . Through the charm o f her personality and

as she her shining gifts a hostess , had made a valuable friend in Louis , King of Holland ,

o f brother Napoleon , when he had lately passed through Detmold and been entertained she by her at the Castle . Thenceforth could

o n ff i reckon his good o ces with Bonaparte . t o o Already , , She was known to Dalberg , o f she Primate the Confederation , for had travelled in the depth of the preceding winter, over almost impassable roads , with a small suite and her two boys, to confer with him at ff Ascha enburg . She was greatly attracted by the Primate , and formed a close friendship ff she with him . From Ascha enburg had gone to Mainz , where she had been most warmly received by the Empress Josephine and Queen 6 9 P U RSTI N PAULI N E Hortense Thus the outlook on thewhole was was now favourable , the way prepared ; and she resolved to plead with the Conqueror himself at Paris . ’ She did it f or her country s and her ’ ”

. e n e aller a children s sake J devais Paris ,

She wrote to Louis , who had attempted to “ ’ u avec dissuade her from her intention , q et a oe et beaucoup de regrets contre c ur , ’ ’ é si e n etais e et S il assur ment j m re Tutrice , ’ n e s a issait le g que de mon propre sort, projet ’ ’ e n aurai é m me t pas existé . Mais j ai jur de et ue remplir mes devoirs , aussi longtemps q ’ j e pouvais espérer seulement qu un voyage a lutOt a m es Paris me serait utile ou p enfants , il me semble que n i ma santé n e les désagré ’ ’ m en ts erson n elsn o saien t m em écher e p p . J n e voulais point passer aVo s yeux pour frivole ” et trop prompte . The autumn of that year saw her in the

French capital , where her sojourn proved happy and successful beyond her hopes . She has left in her diary minute and lively o f o f descriptions the sights of Paris , and a tremendous ovation given to Napoleon at a 70 FU RSTI N PAU LI NE

o f sitting the Institut de France . She writes of the gay magnificence o f the Court and her friendly relations with o n e and all there ; with King Jéro m e o f Westphalia and his Queen a i specially fortunate c rcumstance for her, as they were her next door neighbours at home e with Madame M re and Cardinal Fesch , with

M urats the , and also with various German princes and envoys who had come o n the same errand as herself. She was kept waiting three weeks, however, before she was granted her momentous audience o f the Emperor .

Napoleon received her graciously . His idea o f the political relationship between the lesser German states was proba bly extremely hazy, but he took some personal interest in Pauline through the connection o f the Prince o f of Anhalt her father with Catherine II . o f i e Russia . The Princess L pp was moreover an attractive woman with a fine spirit , and these advantages did n o t go for nothing with

Napoleon . He granted certain concessions she f or asked , and ever after , he , the despiser of o f Ffirstin princes , spoke the Pauline with respect . 7 1 FU RSTI N PA ULI N E

But for her part she held her head high , and refused the tyrant that flattery and sub servien ce that princes o f a tamer Spirit paid him . Detmold took no heed whatever of his triumphs , and obeyed none of his regulations ; in the churches his name was never heard . Scarcely a Frenchman was seen in the town ;

‘ FiI rstin o n the , however, strictly enjoined her subjects to treat any who should pass through with kindness and consideration . But the soldiers ofLippe did their duty . They fought under the Corsican ’s flag in Tyrol and in

m o n . Spain , and any died the road to Moscow Throughout those stormy times the ’ Furstin guided her children s training with anxious care , leaving nothing undone that ’ might fit the heir for his life s work , even though the thought was ever present to her mind that her descendants might yet be robbed o f their ancient place among the sovereigns o f Germany . The princes must ” she be brought up in the right way , said , “ though indeed it is almost likely that our grandchildren will live as private citizens .

Yet if their eyes are Opened to . the light o f 7 2

FU RSTI N PA UL I NE was be fore her time In the wisdom and good o f sense all her works of mercy, and in her f discouragement o indiscriminate almsgiving . With the help an d advice of one of the o f greatest authorities her day, General Weerth She Superintendent , brought the educational system o f Lippe to a state o f perfection unsurpassed in her time by any m other state in Ger any . She spared herself ff no pains , no e ort , but was always at her post . In fifteen years she only paid two short visits to her old home at Anhalt . Doubtless the times were many when her

so o n burden borne long alone , weighed her heavily, for we find their traces in her written thoughts , and we know they left their mark o n her daily life ; but she would take heart a again in her own way, finding ever fresh p ths o f work and service “ ” she It seems to me , wrote to a friend ’ o n who had lost her hold life s happiness, that in useful activity, in the peaceful conciousness o f that we are use and at work, we have the ’ best hope o f winning God s approval and the fulfilment o f our wishes and prayers . 74 FU RSTI N PAU LI NE Forgive me when I entreat you to look up

n o t like a child , merely in selfishness and despondency drawing the distance near in o ut dreams , but seeking the love and good ness that are close at hand , and creating them anew o ut o f your inmost being . I live the

o f stern life duty , I have lost those whom I loved my future is shadowed , sorrow leads me on to fresh work , so little prospers with me , and everything that was once my delight has vanished ; and yet I am not cast down . I read the great authors with the highest enjoyment , but I only allow myself ’ that pleasure when my day s work is done ; ’ and even though I may have Matthiso n s ’ o f or newest book poems by me , Goethe s latest work— should a pile o f criminal cases m echan i lie beside it, my hand will reach out cally to them .

then I If have fulfilled my trust , if I have

o n e been true to my calling , yet, though more sorrow come , I fold my hands and am ” resigned . The allusion to the cases in criminal law that came before the Ffirstin is significant of the 75 FU RSTI N PA ULI N E

o f earnest thought she gave to these matters , which in common with many o f the rulers o f

Lippe , but to a degree remarkable in a woman , she s A pos essed expert knowledge . ccording to the custom o f the country all sentences o n ff o enders were drawn up in her name , and her decisions were distinguished by strict justice and shrewd perception , but also by mercy and pity . A few sentences may be given here ! Inasmuch as a son who illtreats his parents is always worthy o f being held in abhorrence , the severity of his sentence must TOO not be relaxed . much forbearance

sin in such cases is against virtue , religion , and ” morality . To a magistrate who had asked whether o n e who had died by his o wn hand should be buried without the rites o f the Church ' ' Eselsbegraonzss— she gives this fiery rejoinder G o d defend us from such antiquated ffl abuses , that only distress the sorely a icted ” survivors still further . “ Again ! Opening letters is an unlawful proceeding . In times of war it is indeed per m itted but , then it must be made known before 76 FU RSTI N PAU LI NE hand that the letters must be closed again with ffi an o cial seal . No w to break open letters and seal them up again in secret is extremely wrong ; even though the intention may be o g od , no object can justify unlawful means . Under my rule such things will never be ; I Shall entertain no further proposals so con ” trar y to my moral sense .

And , lastly, in the following decision we for can trace her minute care her people , not least for the erring ones . A prisoner had been taken seriously ill , and the question arose as to what to do with him ! Economy and humanity alike dictate the postponement ” ’ o f his sentence ; but the man s relations being miserably poor— bettela rrn— to release him and leave him entirely in their charge would mean , though a saving for the prison authorities , a still harder punishment for him “ o u t o f I see no way , it for the wretched man

n who, though he is a crimi al , is a human o f being as well , than to transport him out

- prison to his own sick room , and have him nursed there . The doctor can report on his e condition every w ek to the Court , and the 7 7 FU RSTI N PA U LI N E

rest can be decided later . I send herewith ten soup tablets each o f them will make a good wholesome bowl of soup for a sick person ; they only have to ‘ be melted down and salted , with a few slices of bread added to ” them . One who was well acquainted with the Ffi rstin Pauline in her vigorous prime has left us the following pen— portrait

Her figure was short rather than tall , and for her height she was fairly stout . In her Splendid eyes shone the spirit that dwelt within her, and kindness also , tempered with gravity . There was nothing feminine in her o n o f conversation ; the contrary, it was that an intellectual and highly cultivated man .

She Spoke with much decision , and I firmly believe that o n important matters o f business she very rarely deferred to the opinion o f

Others . With all her tenderness her whole ” appearance was queenly and commanding . The description is a little formidable per haps, but the writer adds a graceful touch Despite this truly masculine temperament she was by no means indiff erent to personal 78 FU RSTI N P AU L I NE OF LI P P E

FU RSTI N PAULI NE

the Council , and to arrange that he would allow us all to come to him instead . You , dear, will be glad , I am sure , to give us a o f table and inkstand , and room to dispose ourselves and the papers as well ; then the o ut Chancellor need not put himself , but will feel much better if he stays in his easy clothes ; while, on the other hand , it would distress me greatly if he were t o overtire ” himself.

On another day we find the Furstin making

-in - a bet with her lady waiting , Fraulein von Biedersee , as to the colour most becoming to ’ Frau Can z lerin s pretty young da me de com p o guie

We were saying on Sunday evening how

die bright Fraulein von G . is looking, and B iedersee thought white suited the young ' lzortensza lady the best, but I maintained that

(hydrangea) takes the place ofhonour with her .

I should greatly like my choice to be approved , but that can only be if you , my dear, will slip the accompanying sarsenet into the young FU RSTI N PAULI NE

’ lady s wardrobe for me . With this request I ff bid you farewell very a ectionately,

The trimming is enclosed with it .

In a letter to the Chancellor, dated New ’ 1 8 0 Year s Day, 9, we read

I write to you for the first time in this

new year, my dear and valued friend , accord

- ing to Old fashioned custom , with my heart felt wish that you will yet enjoy many years in the best of health and undiminished ’ strength ; a wish for this country s sake as well as f or my own . The year just gone by was not pleasant , it brought many trials , but it closes with clearer horizons , and God will help us o n ! The little violet-blue note

Can z lerin is for Frau . Keep me in friendly o f remembrance , and be ever assured my especial esteem and friendship

U I N A PA L .

It is sad to relate tha t the excellent Chan cello r o f died a year after the date this letter . The Fii rstin arranged for his widow to remain 8 1 FU RST I N PA UL I N E o n for eighteen months in the home of her so married life as to lessen , as far as possible , “ ” ! the shock of parting I wished , she wrote , “ to let the first sorrow abate somewhat . I thought it would comfort you to keep the

o ur o n e rooms that dear occupied , to yourself for the present, and to go on living for a year in the house which was clear to you

' through him . Then She explains why she is now obliged to let his successor take possession , with a thoughtful regard for the poor lady’s feelings which might teach a lesson to many who have to turn o ut their “ o ld she dependants ; and adds , I repeat my

n o t entreaty that you will misunderstand me , but rest assured that I shall gladly take every opportunity o f showing you my true good

— will . Your most sincere friend ,

A U I N A P L . MOLD un e 2 1k 1 8 1 D ET , j 5 ,

She writes to Frau Canz lerin f or her birth day

You will allow me , dear friend , to send you my best wishes for the 2 9th o f Septem 8 2

FU RSTI N PAULI N E

in the welfare of Fraulein von G . I entreat f or o f a continuance your friendship , assuring you Sincerely that mine will only end with life . That end was not far distant when she wrote the words . In her latest letters sounds o f now and again a note weariness, for her sands were running low— Pauline did not live to be old . In her last birthday greeting to her friend She regrets her inability to attend the festival -the Germans make much more of such anniversaries than we do— and she adds May the little dinner service give you pleasure ; I hoped it might . When I was choosing it a week ago I was confidently hoping to come, if only for a few minutes, but a very bad relapse has prevented it . I stand in God ’s Almighty Hand and o n am content to live if He wills , but glad and thankful if He soon calls me to ” Himself.

o f A few almost illegible lines farewell , she written two days before died , ends the 8 4 FU RSTI N PA ULI N E

Canz lerin long correspondence with Frau , who survived her dear princess for nineteen years . ’ The highest gratification o f the Furstin s public life , and the greatest proof, perhaps , ’ o f her people s trust in her, came through the citizens of the grand old town of Lemgo, sister foundation with Lippstadt in the eleventh century, who, finding themselves in

financial straits, appealed to her to be their

ff i burgomaster . She accepted the o ce , and despite her failin g strength she put the aff airs o f the town to rights and carried o ut her duties faithfully . 1 8 1 o f That was in 9, near the close her life . About this time She began her pre paration s for handing over the government of Lippe to her so n Leopold ; and as she did so she prayed this prayer !

Grant me three great experiences not generally given to dying sovereigns “ To resign in the undiminished fullness o f my powers ! not to survive them in my To Office o f Regent . reap in my lifetime 35 FU RSTI N PAUL I NE the love that usually blooms only after

see death ; to many things grow and ripen , ” that my hand has planted .

She had only a few months to live when , o n 1 8 2 0 she July 4 , , assembled her ministers around her in the Throne Room o f the Castle o f Detmold and rendered up her trust . She spoke to them as follows

When eighteen years ago I solemnly too k over the government of this country ff how di erent were all things , how narrow, ’ sad ! - how a widow s veil , a deep mourning dress, now , festive robes ; fatherless weeping six children , five and years Old at my side , -u now, my strong grown p sons then , want and scarcity in the land now , cheapness and plenty and shouts o f rej oic ing ! I promised at my accession to devote myself entirely to my country and ' my children , and how many soever my failures have been , my conscience is witness that I have been faithful .

’ She appeals f or her people s loyalty to 8 6

FU RSTI N PAU L I N E

Leopold II . has gone down to history as a

- wise and peace loving ruler . Had Pauline o f Lippe been destined to a larger sphere among the sovereigns o f Europe she would assuredly have held a foremost place . It may truly be said o f her that she combined the best o f both worlds here below . With her genius for administration and the she o f leadership of men , was a woman deep o f and simple piety , brightened by a touch poetic imagination . With her clear eyes she saw t o f the ruth things, the meaning of life and duty “ on e No , she wrote , who truly thinks and feels wanders through his days in a fairy world o f glowing pictures ; they may renew the roses for him when his path is winding through thorns but then their part is done ; they fall away and fade , when his real life begins . We dream and dream , but ’ never live our dreams ! in life s realities the magic colours break apart , the prism changes to common glass ! it can keep no rainbow

own . brightness for its And then , all the more loyal , all the more excellent souls FU RSTI N PA UL I N E

belong to the higher life . Every cloud on earth ’s horizon seems close to their human clasp , but over all the returning

Saturn reigns supreme . It is a familiar consolation that we are but pilgrims here , o ur ! that home is above I know, however, o f so - - none many sided , so all embracing ; for o n a journey how willingly do we endure hardship ; we teach and talk , and gather the wayside fruits , keeping the goal ever in Sight , ‘ while we say t o ourselves At home there is ! ’ rest Now and again we miss our way , but the true child of God looks ever stead fastly to the Father, and the less he feels at

o f ease here below , the nearer comes the day o f the unveiling , and sounds the call his true home ! ”

8 9

YESTERDAY AN D TO-DAY I N DETM OLD

’ IT o f is late in the afternoon a summer s day,

1 9 1 3. The scene is the pathway that leads Gro tenbur or o u t up the g, a mile two of o f Detmold , through deep shadows beech and pine and undergrowth o f heather and reddening bilberry, to the statue of Arminius ,

- the Hermanns Denkmal , on the summit . A great concourse o f people of all ages and degrees are climbing up the narrow road ; it is really a heroic venture f or the old ladies o f in the procession , all whom are carrying wraps and waterproofs, for we are going to sit for three hours under a threatening sky, where umbrellas will be strictly forbidden . We are further encumbered with a numbe r of cracklin g paper bags filled with light

n o f refreshme ts . But the ladies Detmold 93 YE ST E R DAY A ND T O - DA Y

think nothing of climbing , no matter what

iffi o n the d culties may be , foot up their beloved hills . Our destination to-day is not the Denkmal

- however, but about half way up the hill , a kind of circular clearing in the forest— a place anciently fortified , Of mysterious origin “ ” n e rin called the H ii n g. The word H ii n en in early Saxon times stood for the

- dead ; a winding sheet was a H ij n en kleid. H an en Men called their forefathers simply , and when any ancient stonework or fragment of buried buildings came to light they said H ii n en the had made them . These relics of a remote past were often in the shape of tombs and resting- places o f extraordinary o f dimensions , hewn out of great blocks o f H iin en stone ; these were called graves the , and became associated in the imagination of the people with a race of giants . The H an en rin g o n the G ro ten burgis thought to have served them as a place of solemn assembly, but in these days it is sometimes put to gayer uses , for in itself it forms a perfect natural theatre f o r the a lfi‘ eseo plays 94

Y ESTE RDA Y AN D T O - DAY The play runs with admirable vividness and Simplicity through the three days ’ fight that ensues to the final tragedy and triumph . - There is no scene shifting , no delay to break o f o n the thread the story ; only once , a - f or former occasion , was there an unlooked o f interruption , when a wild boar the forest , f or taking her family an airing , crossed the stage with nine little ones . There is no music but the chorus o f grey-haired bards heartening their hero to his task

Du wirst n icht wanken un d n icht weichen

Vo m da s du kiih n erhoht . Amt, dir Die Regu ng wird dich n icht beschleichen D ie dein g etre ues Volk verra th ; D is so S n der Go e u b t mild , o oh tt r, D er Friihlin gkan n n icht milde r sei n Sei e e ein Schlo ssenwetter schr cklich h ut , , 1 U n d B litze las s de i n An tlitz sp ein

1 F n n rom thy great duty o e shall move thee, w n o t n w n o t Thou ilt shri k , thou ilt q uail U n n wh o dau ted thou though those love thee ,

n o wn n a n d . Thi e true people , fai t fail G n a n d n 0 So n H n e tle ki d , of eave , ’ As Spri n gs first Zephyrs mild art thou ; D n fl n n art from thi e eyes the ashi g levi , A n d whelm thy foes in tempest n o w 96 I N DET M O L D

One lurid incident occurs when Thusnelda , the wife of Hermann , a lady of terrific determination , throws Ventidius the Roman legate alive to a bear . The catastrophe is o f mercifully represented unseen , by means groans and a dragging chain .

Tacitus has recorded that Varus , broken

o wn . hearted , died by his hand In the play, however, at the close , he falls in Single

fight with Hermann , whom the princes hail as king of free Germany . The skies have cleared ; the play ends in a burst of sunshine . The audience begins to disperse and vanish down the way they came ; but we have still time before night fall to see that other Herm ann o n his quiet t hill o p . It is a colossal figure in copper standing

U nterla u o n a beautiful sandstone . With o n e foot he crushes the eagle , his left arm leans on his spear, his right lifts the sword

n o high . His eyes gaze over the far horizons f o the wooded hills . It is hard to describe the fascination o f the is n o t Hermann . It that he is perhaps the 9 7 G YE STE R DAY A N D T O - D AY grandest expression in modern plastic art of the Spirit o f hero-worship it is not that he is stained by the years a glorious colour like the green o f his o wn pine- trees in the sunlight ; it is not even that the Sight o f him standing there makes two thousand years seem as so is nothing , living a thing he ; some magic ’ beyond all this draws us up the Grotenburgs familiar pathways to his feet .

In bright starlight we go home to Detmold , through the meadows watered by the Werre , its gay little river, between high , solemn

— beechwood groves . To morrow we will turn a deaf ear to the call o f the hills and remain

dner to fl in the Lange Strasse .

The Castle of Detmold , the ancient home o f her princes, stands in the heart of the town , a little way back from the principal street , amid its own beautiful gardens . Quiet and dreamy they lie , bounded on two sides m ediaaval by remains of fortifications . No o ne actually knows who laid the first stone o f the Castle, but there is a tradition that it was Bernhard VII ; and surely it can have been none other than he , the heroic defender 98

I N DET M O LD o f o f Blomberg, who saved the great tower

Detmold from the same destroyer, and in defiance of Dietrich o f Cologne and his wild men , raised up around it a splendid new home for himself and his heirs . Time and the builders have wrought many

o f changes in the Castle Detmold , but it keeps the spirit of the Edelherren . It has

s four great wings , with four corner tower

n enclosing a ce tral courtyard , and in this o f courtyard the gem the whole building , a

-in roofed gallery hangs , a lovely thing of

o n o ld lightness and grace , the stern wall . Within this gallery are a few curious por traits here a Cistercian monk , an imaginary

o f likeness perhaps Bernhard II , there a king

! o n of Denmark , of peculiarly sinister aspect the back of his picture is inscribed his name in Latin The Very Illustrious Frederick, ” 1 anno 5 39 . Nice faces all , said my guide with a comprehensive gesture , ancestors of ” our Princely House . I cannot trace any connection o f the dynasty o f Lippe with that o f Denmark , but no matter . The Castle contains a treasure chamber 99 YESTE RD A Y A N D TO - DAY richly stocked with rare specimens ofmedie val ’ goldsmiths art , also some famous tapestries in beautiful preservation ; and the bright little state rooms are like a miniature

Windsor . Opposite the Castle entrance in the Lange

Strasse is the Hotel Stadt Frankfurt, once the principal inn of the town . Its front is bright with long strands of petunia , a favourite decoration o f Detmold houses in the flower season , which hangs over the balconies and has white and purple blossoms as large as clematis . This house has memorable asso ciatio n with Brahms , who came to Detmold o f 1 8 with Frau Schumann in the summer 5 5 , and became a great favourite o f the music loving prince Leopold III . In his reign , r 1 8 6 which covered the sti ring events of 4 , ’ ’ 6 6 0 o n e , and 7 , Detmold became Of the chief musical centres in Germany . He established his own private orchestra o f forty

five o f players and a series Court concerts, he took great interest in the new school o f o ut Wagner and Berlioz , and sought and T encouraged promising young talent . he 1 00

YE ST E R DA Y A N D T O - D AY there had been no piano available for him in ’ all the town ; fortunately the Hofmarschall s family found they could let him have their

o n e old , as they were just then moving into a smart new house . From his window in the Stadt Frankfurt young Brahms could see the Dowager Princess and her daughters driving down the street from the beautiful eighteenth— century palace on the banks o f the Werre ; and the young ladies as they passed , perhaps , looked up at him . We may follow yet other footprints in ’ o f Detmold s quiet streets . Some the happiest ’ days o f the composer L ortz in gs broken and disappointed life were passed here ; he appeared in the theatre both as actor and singer, and his earlier operas were performed with great success . Detmold is the mother o f of two poets ; the greater, Freiligrath , She is justly proud— strange child o f hers though o f - o ff o f he was , with his love far things ,

Eastern colour and brightness , and his weird and awful imagination . The British nation should be grateful to him f or his ardent love

o ur of poets , for he translated many English 1 0 2 I N DET M OLD

o f ballads, and even attempted some songs ’ Burn s . His muse s gentler moods are shown in a few simple and lovely lyrics such “ ” as The Picture Bible , the worn brown book seen in his o ld age that brings back to ’ the poet his Childhood s days

O Z du s n en eit , bi t verga g Ein Mah rch en sch ei n st du mir! D er B ilderbibel P ran gen ’ ’ D as laub e g g Aug dafur, Die th euren E e n e lt r beid , ' D er stillz ufriedn e S n n i , D er K n L s un d e e i dheit u t Fr ud , 1 s n n Alle dahi , dahi or he bids us listen to spirit-voices in forest and flowering fields and deep Still water ; o r he sees as in a vision the dying leader o f

1 0 Childhood, lost for ever G n n o e , like a visio by, ’ n The pictured Bible s sple dour, n n The you g, believi g eye, a n d The father the mother, n n n The still co te ted mi d, a n d o The love j y of childhood, n All , all are left behi d — GOSTWI CK . 1 0 3 YE S T E R DA Y AN D T O - DA Y

Israel on the lonely mountain t o p with

God , content now his eyes have once looked o n the Promised Land afar

Ich hab e dich gesehen ! Jetzt ist der Tod mir recht sauselnd se W en , mit lei m eh e e e n en K n e I H rr , hol d i cht

h “ C ristian Grabbe , whose life was as wild ” his as dramas , lived and died in Detmold . He was madly jealous of all the poets o f the world , and fancied himself born to strike out an entirely untrodden path to fame . His ’ life s fit f u l flame burnt itself o ut in five and o n e thirty years , but he has left little fairy “ play called A schen brode l — Cinderella o f which is full fancy and grace . Freiligrath has made him immortal in a great poem ’ ” called Bei Grabbe s Tod . Our reminiscences have taken us a few hundred yards up the street, beyond the lively Market Place lying in the shadow o f o f the fine old Church Calvin , to the first

o n turning our right , the Krumme Strasse , or the Crooked Street . It was originally 1 04

RA E DE TMO D THE KRU MME ST SS , L I N DE T M O LD so-called because each o f the inhabitants they were the o ld aristocracy of Detmold wished t o see a little farther a cross the way his than his neighbour . So he built house jutting out a few feet beyond the o n e beside it, and the street has therefore an irregular crescent shape . This is a common occurrence in North German towns Were I but a poet , how I could sing of the Krumme Strasse ! What a theme for her poet- children ' to have missed The crimson- tiled roofs hang deep-shadowed eaves over the lovely white walls that have mellowed into ivory hues with the years ; many are decorated with a coloured frieze of fans in wood - carvi n g and pious proverbs in o ld black letter over the doorways . A double flight o f stone steps leads to the front entrances o f the

-flun more important houses here , with wide g balustrades o f wrought— iron work that gives them a pathetic air of grandeur and dignity . High overhead on the roof of an ancient inn was n its fixed in years go e by Sign , a chariot and four white horses in painted metal ; it was very conspicuous seen against the sky, 1 05 YE ST E R D A Y A N D T O - D AY and the children o f the Krumme Strasse used to sing !

E s wa r ein P o streite r vo n sieb en dz ig Jahren

D er wollte zum Himmel mit vie r Schimm el fahren . Die S n en chimmel die gi g trab trab , trab trab, ” 1 An w n P d arfe den alten o streiter ab . Two fragments of twisted iron are all that is left of the chariot and its audacious driver, and the children o f t o -day have never learnt the little song . The Krumme Strasse stands in the heart o f Old o f Detmold , surrounded with clusters ancient dwellings so recklessly out of the perpendicular that a stranger passing by might really fear for the safety o f the golden- haired children playing on the doorsteps . One vanished relic o f past life in Detmold will always be treasured in my remembrance , namely , the old Lutheran Church in the

Schil ler Strasse . It was a small octagon building with the pews grouped round the

1 wa s n n - n There a postilio of seve ty seve , Wh o wan ted to drive four white horses to heaven w n Trot, trot e t the horses ; alas for their load ’ ” The poor old postilion fell o fi in the road I C . A. A. 1 0 6

YEST E R D A Y AN D T O - DAY

Pastor Engel was a very handsome man , grave and kind , with a beautiful voice and presence . In the fine new church that stands on the old Site a modest tablet beside the pulpit records his faithful ministry . o f Thirty years ago, before the spirit modern improvement had made any head

in — has way the little town now , it laid its clumsy fingers even on the Lange Strasse and the Krumme Strasse — Detmold was a — o f paradise . To day , in its sweet setting wooded hills , with its shining waterways and

- air of Old time dignity , it is a paradise 1 still . .

1 I I wa s must leave this chapter un fin ished . t w n in M 1 1 . ritte ay, 9 4

1 08 IN C HAM O NIX

A WE EK I N C HA M O NI X coming ; he watched them already breaking over “ many a sweet mountain valley and green place of shepherd solitude that soon should give their secrets up to a throng o f tourists and hotel keepers . This prophesy has been abundantly fulfilled , and it is idle to regret what is gone . One comfort remains , disfi ure that though man may g the plain , he cannot harm the mountains ! n o t even though his little funiculars climb them , and his great railways pierce them to the heart ; and therefore Chamonix’ holy sights ” through all changes are the same . There is a certain grey rock on the slope ’ Bréven t of the hill , which bears Ruskin s name cut on its side . There we may rest and watch the little river Arve threading its white way through the plain below . Above , stretching away eastward , is the wild range of the Aiguilles Rouges , and , guarding the oppo

Of site end the valley, Mont Blanc and his du brethren , Aiguilles Dru , Moine , Grandes

orasses c J , s arred and rent asunder by the frozen highways of the glaciers . The great scene contrasts with sight and sound o f humble I I 2 A WE E K I N C H A M ON I X life around— little school-girls in their six ’ months holiday-time mind the cattle in the meadows , sturdy figures with tidy pigtails , their knitting carried in a tin pail slung round their waists ; a peasant comes out o f his chalet with a great bowl of spaghetti for his guinea

— a pigs, and we laugh at the sight human being o f is eating a yard spaghetti not seen at his best, but a guinea— pig thus engaged is supremely absurd . Silver butterflies with sapphire bodies alight on the sunny wall beside the ’ roadway, and the grasshoppers music never ceases through the drowsy summer day . We spent much time in studying the grasshoppers ; some that appeared tired o ut with excess of j oie de v iv re allowed themselves to be inspected

- o at leisure . The great green armoured n e wears , like the rest of his family, a transverse ” o f piece his coat cut on the cross , as a dressmaker would call it , fitted with the most exquisite precision round his neck ; and he gives a shriller, harsher cry with the friction of his wing— covers than does the dusky-brown locust his cousin , who makes his strange flut tering sing-song by rubbing his ridiculous hind 1 1 3 H A WEE K I N C HA M O N I X legs together . He is coloured like a withered leaf, but changes into sudden glory as he spreads his rose- red wings (that before were folded away out of sight) and soars upwards ; like a plain , meek person going to heaven . Chamonix sixty years ago was merely a hamlet— a few chalets grouped round an inn or two . The village has increased perhaps tenfold since those days , and is now a great cluster of hotels , with their usual accessories o f — gay shops , tea rooms , and all the para f phern alia o restless modern life . We put up at the house which is specially connected with thefinest tradition o f the place— Hotel Co uttet et du Parc , whose windows look straight across the tree tops , only one roof intervening , to

o f Co uttet Mont Blanc . The name is a great

o n e and honoured in Alpine annals, and had far better stand alone in the inscription above the hotel entrance The Parc is a neat garden , arranged around the house on a pretty piece o f elouses o n timbered ground , varied with p , which it is politely requested no visitor should walk . Every evening the tender annuals in the flower beds were sheeted in white muslin 1 1 4

A W EE K I N C HA M ON I X

glaciers, and the brooding sadness of the pines . Close to the poor little bare English church is an open space , where tiny boys of seven or eight play at quoits with extra ordinary grace and dexterity . Passing over the bridge into the principal street and going westward , in a few minutes we arrive at the miniature museum . It co n

- tains the usual heart rending pictures , either o r entirely imaginary, rudely put together from ’ survivors descriptions of Alpine disasters ; battered relics of those who have perished on the mountains , chairs which carried queens over glaciers , and the little wooden gallery o f that once formed part an observatory, which , with incredible pain and labour, the

. so great scientist, Dr Janssen , a man lame that he could barely walk alone o n level set o f ground , on the crown Mont Blanc . The interior was fitted with a huge in stru ment f o r registering altitudes and air pres sure , which was to inaugurate a new era in

Alpine science . We can but admire its in ’ ventor s unconquerable spirit , and his brave words spoken before the French Academy o f 1 1 6 A W EE K I N C H A M O N I X Sciences when he introduced his instrument to 1 8 them in August 94 , and faced , even then ,

labo urs when set the possibility that his , against

o f the destroying forces Nature , might after “ all prove in vain . I do not conceal from ” myself, he said , that notwithstanding the e minute precautions that have b en taken , there must be some degree o f uncertainty about the result . The scheme was hopeless from the

o f very first . Before the base the observa tory was half completed o n its perilous site it began to subside ; yet Janssen did not lose difli cult heart , but was dragged with infinite y ’ by sledge , and by the builder s windlasses ’ o u t when his men s strength gave , three

o n times to the summit to urge the work . It failed through fourteen years the building

as remained , slowly sinking the snow, in the o f warmer temperature its shelter, sank beneath it , till at last only the wrecked timbers were visible . Then the little turret was taken down and transported to the museum at

Chamonix, where it keeps alive a splendid m o f emory courage and hope .

Here , too , is a relic of St . Francois de Sales , 1 1 7 A WEE K I N CHA M O N I X

Bishop and Prince of Geneva , in a great cruci

at fix found La Roche , a village near his home “ o f six in Savoie , whither a child , burning ” with the desire to learn to read , he was sent to school . Lately I have searched in vain for any o f trace him at Geneva , for the town , throne and fortress of the reformed religion , has done its best to forget him ; only the house in which he lived is still standing , opposite the bare and dreary Cathedral . But we might track his footprints over all the land of

Savoie , and before this cross he may first have prayed and learnt his baby tasks . The little parish church in Chamonix o f stands on the site the old Priory, which 1 8 was destroyed by fire in 7 5 . It contains o n e mediaeval relic in the group o f grey stone pillars within the western entrance , which f once formed part o the Lady Chapel . The Priors enjoyed practically sovereign powers over the whole district and ruled their flock e with a rod o f iron . The p asants at their hands suff ered injustice and oppression in many dreadful forms— cruel fines f or petty 1 1 8

A WEEK I N C HA M O N I X

We achieved the crossing of two glaciers they are among the chieflions of Chamonix, the

Mer de Glace and Les Bossons . I shall not try to describe the glaciers , for everyone knows what they are ; or rather, it would be more true to say that no one knows , for it takes the scientists a whole lifetime to understand how God has made them . With their grim companions the deceitful moraines , in their slow unseen motion that has never ceased since first they cleft the primeval hills , they are one Of Nature ’s most strange and awful phenomena , and yet within , down the mighty how cracks and fissures , bright and lovely they l— are even as heaven itself, for there is no earthly thing to compare with the glacier blue . Our way homeward from Les Bossons led through the forest over rough bridges cross a ing mountain torrents , and past a ch let where we rested and had coff ee and bread and honey . A poor woman there in the tourist season made a living for herself and

I said her two baby boys . I thought them “ ! a fine little pair . Vous croyez mais ils I ZO A WEEK I N C H AM O N I X

she . sont turbulents , said The most perfect

o n harmony reigned between them , however , that sunny evening as they played in the aim less way of little children , which has always, we may be sure , some secret plan , among the fallen o f pine needles , building up heaps twigs and

- knocking them over . Their orange coloured socks were darned with scarlet wool and made a vivid patch o f brightness in the forest shade . These fragmentary remin iscences shall close o n the flower-sown pastures of Le

Planet . They shut in the valley of Chamonix at its western end , on the boundary between

Switzerland and France , above the little

Church of Argentiere . The uplands are strewn with great fragments of shattered stone , which form themselves into a vast

- rock garden . Here are wild raspberry, scarlet bearberry, late flowering gentian , yellow Violas with black markings and brave stems ” o ld upward striving , as an German botany

n book describes them , like a good Christia ; arbutus and veronica , thalictrum with its maidenhair foliage , and harebells with four I Z I A WEE K I N C HA M O N I X

o n e blossoms on stalk , like a lady with four daughters to marry . The flower that had come o ut first would be already withering on the stem ! All around the drifts and w hollo s , the grass gleamed with the stemless n or Carline thistle . So perfect a thi g it is, with its gold and purple centre , its double row o f Shining silver petals that close over it

a uro le o f at nightfall , and serrated leaves , it looks like a star just fallen out o f heaven . Its n ame comes from a legend that links this

o f lovely plant with Charlemagne , whom it is told that once , when his army was stricken with pestilence , an angel showed him certain healing powers o f the stemless thistle ; and he and all his host were saved .

The legend is half forgotten now, and the thistles have lost their magic art . Instead , ’ they are seen trimming a lady s hat— ignoble fate ! There is some way o f preserving the flowers for this purpose which prevents their e o n shrivelling . I gather d a few that day Le

Planet , and repented it too late ; they curled their white petals tightly over, hiding their beautiful faces as though they grieved . 1 2 2

FLOWERI NG S UN DAY AT P E N AL LT C H U RC H

WE drove there with Jimmy in the tub . Jimmy is a pretty Old pony with a bright bay coat and a loving fidisp o sitio n ; the tub is his little cart . The distance from home over the Monmouthshire hill- side was only a couple o f miles perhaps ; but we always ffl allow extra time for Jimmy, as he is a icted with an insatiable thirst ; he drags his in du l en t b g drivers , tub and all , into any y ways he fancies , and over any obstacle, if only he can spy his favourite refreshment in a o r pool , a puddle even , shining afar . So we take quite an hour on the journey . The fields are just shimmering with spring o f colours , and the crests the gorse are golden . They put me in mind o f a child who was 1 2 5 FLOWE R I N G SU NDAY asked what flowers he wished to have for his own little garden ; and he said he did not so mind what they were , long as they were ” a l lit o f l . This great wild garden the West would have partly pleased him ; only here and there the flowers are lit , as yet , but they give fair promise o f summer fire ; and in their a l fresco ballrooms the daff odils are

. o ur dancing All around rocky pathway , o f high over the valley the Wye , the moors ” lie bare to God .

is It a wild , enchanted region where one might fancy, as over the Cornish moors , the ’ angels feet have trod , for in many respects this land of holy memories and legends ffi bears a nity to Cornwall ; and its inhabitants, who are neither Welsh nor English , are thought to be descendants of ancient races that are lost to history , and akin to the

West Irish , Cornishmen and Basques . The spirit o f prayers prayed long ago still breathes o f from many a Site Druid worship here . “ Druid ” is a convenient word that Often serves to cover o ur general ignorance o f pre historic faiths . Yet for unnumbered years 1 2 6

FLOWE RI NG SU N DAY

Old - still bears the name , soft sounding like a ’ -D r llis or far away melody, of Cae y , Druids

Field . Until quite recently the country people preserved the Druidical remains with a blending of fear and reverence , weaving round them many mediaeval legends and ghost stories ; but a prosaic and destructiveage ,

o n encroaching even this hallowed ground , has since done away with most of them . A flourishing specimen of the Glastonbury

o n thorn , which really did flower Christmas

Eve , was lately cut down to make room for a motor garage in Monmouth ; and in the same way many o f the Druidical stones have been broken up to mend the roads . An Old inhabitant o f P en allt told me how she had persuaded her husband to save o n e of

o f those that stood in the way his plough . The stones had served in later days as bases to crosses , now mostly destroyed , and the sturdy Protestantism o f the country people came to regard both base and cross as signs o f r the errors of Rome . SO the neighbou s told her that the stone was popish and must 1 2 8 AT P E N A L L T CHU RC H be destroyed but she knew that folk had set she store by it in old times , and had her o f way . The stone was removed to a place safety, where it still stands . ’ Jimmy s diversions on the way to P en allt would provide time for a complete historical survey o f Monmouthshire ; but we have lingered t oo long among the Druids and

— have reached the lych gate at last, disposed o f pony and cart for the time , and entered the churchyard under its “ pleached walk o f pollarded limes .

It is Palm Sunday, called in these parts ” Flowering Sunday , and every grave is decked with flowers . This is a surv ival o f from very old days , a rite probably the ancient British Church , which had its first beginnings in the West , in Monmouthshire and Glamorganshire . SO much at least is almost certain . But there are those , learned in ancient Welsh poetry and Bardic literature , sa who y that flowering the graves , like the

s singing at the wayside cro ses , was a pre

Christian custom . It never spread much farther east in England , but it is met with 1 2 9 I FL OWE RI N G SU NDAY

in other countries of Europe ; Allerseelen ’ Tag (All Souls Day) is thus honoured in

Germany . For the most part the off erings this Flower ing Sunday o n the P en allt graves are very humble , but not one has been forgotten ; all are brightened with a nosegay o f wood or anemone and primrose , a wreath made with the rich green moss that grows in sweet ’ o a luxuriance in the w ods . On a b by s grave

o n e ff is solitary da odil , its broken stalk tied round and round with quite unnecessary tightness , in the way little children do, with a bit of thick black worsted . The churchyard is very peaceful and lovely, waiting in hope and patience for the risen life . A great yew guards the church “ on its eastern side , renewing its eternal ” youth these thousand years and more ; it has seen a thousand spring- times break over the shining river far below, and the woody heights o f Kymin across the gorge ; of and beyond the plain Monmouth , the bea utiful Brecon Mountains . Seen from a little distance down the hill , the old church I 30

AT P E N A L L T C HUR C H and its mighty sentinel stand alone against sk the y. Yews , in the West especially, were so frequently planted in churchyards because o f their legendary power o f absorbing poisono us gases that were believed to rise from the sun graves at set of . The dreaded exhala tions took fearsome shape in the imagination of e s the p ople , and became spirits, gho ts that appeared in the twilight . ’ 0 These gases , or will the wisps , says a seventeenth century writer, divers have seen and believe them dead bodies walking abroad and the solemn yew stood among them as a safeguard and purifier . The origin o f P en allt Church is lost in the on e misty past . No knows even to what saint it was dedicated ; no doubt his blessing on still rests his church , but his very name has vanished . The present building , with its - massive ivy covered buttresses , and decorative n wi dows in the tower, dates only from the fourteenth century ; it is the site probably o f an ancient shrine . An unusually wide pass age in place of the narrow squint so often seen in medie val churches gives an added 1 31 FL OW E RI NG SUNDAY

dignity to the single aisle , and commands the entire chancel .

The Old pews , now replaced by uninterest ing modern benches , were very curious, being all jumbled together anyhow, and so narrow that it was practically impossible to sit in them ; it was a point of honour in P en allt so to possess a pew , they had to be divided when families increased ; o n e was even hung

- o n . the wall , like a bird cage The owners retained them in a kind o f dog-in - the manger spirit ; they seldom occupied them ,

so so but allowed no one else to do , and they remained empty, the few attendants at service sitting in the galleries invisible to all

— except the parson in his three decker . The western gallery was filled by a great table sat with desks , round which the choir and sang without accompaniment . Towards the east end the floor inclines downward , follow ing the fall of the ground . The altar has been raised in recent times , but originally it stood much lower than the level o f the nave . We stand awhile before the bell begins to toll f i in the deep quiet o the chancel . An h 1 32

FLO WE R I NG SUN DA the shadows ; then the little con streamed o ut under the archin g li u o f co m f ortabl Jimmy, mindf l his cut his customary digressions shor went home over the steep hillside .

1 34 VELLI N G C OM PANI ON S

T RAVELL I N G C O M PA NI O NS

instance , as though it were yesterday I had

- seen them , two well dressed ordinary women , mother and married daughter evidently, whom I once met in a London train bound for the

Sussex coast, and remember their trivial talk, their comfortable impedimenta and pair of overfed Pekinese ! I miss my excellent ” Sarah , the younger lady is saying ; she was a maid after my o wn heart ; never said anything ‘ ’ ’ ‘ ’ ’ but Yes m m and No m m ever since I first had her , ten long years ago Then on a certain black Monday she announces her departure ! Going to be married to a dairy man , and wishing to spend a few weeks with her mother first . The young fellow was above reproach , all promised well , so I pulled myselftogether and was most generous— e ct her up with the whole of her crockery and linen f u ur h o m t e e . for the Then , what should the bridegroom do but drive his cart into a motor lorry a week before the wedding day, and break his neck ! She is inconsolable o f course . “ Oh do you think those sort of people ” rea lly take it so much to heart ! said the 1 38 T RAVELLI NG C O M PA NI O NS

o f other lady ; in that rank life , you know .

she Oh yes , does , rejoined her daughter ;

She minds more than you would think . m e is she But the question for , what will do with the crockery and linen ! Will She send it all back to me ! and what o n earth ’ shall I do with it ! with the man s initials so neatly put o n the linen in those little red letters . really it is annoying . They were nearing their destination ; the

Old lady had been gathering up her belongings , and her attention had wandered from the story .

Oh well we will hope it will be better, she o t o ut answered vaguely . The two g at Three Bridges and I was left with a respectable

Old working woman , the only other occupant - Of the second class carriage . She had been crying, and was plainly in some great trouble . I ventured to speak to her and asked her what ff e I it was. She would not be O end d thought ; t o certain people it is very difficult to off er sympathy, it only seems to make matters w o n e orse , but the poor nearly always meet I S9 T RAVELLI NG C O M PA NI O NS half way . I was little prepared f o r the story she told even now after long years , it passes by me at times like a black mark suddenly

o f drawn over some fair tranquil page life , a thing awful in its primitive tragedy , a

n catastrophe such as now and agai , so long as

‘ the world o n o ld lasts , will close the old , story

Ein n n ein en Ju gli g liebt Madch , i hl ” D e hat ei n en An dern erwa t .

The o ld woman was a caretaker in some ffi so o ces at London Bridge Station , and I imagine she had a free pass on the line . Her

o n daughter was in service a Sussex farm , and a young fellow there had tried to win her for

f o r she years , but in vain , cared for another SO man , and this persistent lover wearied her ; that lately she had avoided him , and refused even to let him see her face . At last he gave

she up hope ; but had broken his heart , and he sent her a strange message saying he would o ut o n e not be shut any longer, but day he she was coming right across her way, where could n ot choose but find him . The girl 1 40

T RAVE LLI N G C O M PA NI O NS

she it all . I learnt that was moving too , for the dismal reason that there was a sink o ut o f order in the kitchen , which had given all

- . ! the children blood poisoning Failing , alas

in Miss Octavia Hill , where was the sanitary ! “ ’ ” spector Well I do feel with you ma am , o f she said , with the ready sympathy her ” is - class, it a set out , but I daresay she has changed house several times since that day . Usually of course the poor can only travel within a very small radius , and catlike , they Often come ba ck to the place whence they originally started . I remember, however, meeting one day o n the platform at Notting

a ham man with his wife , and a family like the tail o f a comet ; there were seven boys and four girls , all plainly on the verge o f starvation ; but they were travelling from a remote hamlet in the Midlands to seek their fortune in Exeter . It is a marvel how a poor mother in a family removal o f such magnitude ever gets under weigh at all ; often she loses half her belongings o n the journey ; but I have only once known a ’ ” woman s tender care actually cease to 1 42 T RAVELLI NG C O M PA NI O NS wards the child she bare to the length o f leaving it behind o n the platform . It was ’ holiday time ; the scene was King s Cross ; ur o destination I have forgotten . In the o ffi confusion near the b oking o ce the mother, bewildered , had put the baby down and picked up a portmanteau instead . Just as the train was moving of she realised what a had happened , and there ensued wh t the newspapers call a painful scene as she hung o ut o f half crazy the carriage window , with four older children crying and frightened , clinging to her skirts . These mishaps have a way o f just stopping short o f actual dis so it aster ; was in this instance . A porter r came running up with the baby, and th ew ’ it into its mother s arms ; and we breathed freely once more Suddenly it choked and “ ’ e s went black in the face . H got whoop ” - . sat ing cough , she explained Beside her a young woman with a still smaller and very fragile infant ; she was a neighbour from home , and they were all travelling together, with the reckless indiff erence o f the working o classes about infection . Two kind ld north I 43 T RAVE LLI NG C O MPANI O NS

country farmers were in the carriage with us, and it was beautiful to watch their self-deny ff ing e orts to be of use to this helpless party . One gave up his seat to two o f the children — f or we were packed as tight as herrings in a barrel— and stood during the greater part of the journey in a violent draught in the corridor ; the other, when the window strap , that time-honoured resource o f the travelling baby, failed at last to divert the whooping o ut o f cough child , made a paper fleet for it a ncia l Times his Fin . Of such high qualities are heroes made . On the whole the poor Spoil their children every bit as much as we do , but with far more excuse than we , who get nurses and ffi governesses to do all the di cult work . The poor mother, weary and worried , simply takes the short cut to peace ; it serves for the o f moment . An illustration this system , an extreme case , perhaps, was given me in

n e a little scene o day at Oxford station .

We were travelling to Birmingham , I think .

Into the carriage a woman , hurrying and flustered o f , thrust a baby boy in charge an I 44

T RAVELLI N G C O M PANI O NS There was once a little French governess with whom I travelled to Lyons one day , she and told me her story, being too happy at the time , I think, to keep it to herself.

She was an orphan , alone in the world , and f o r ten years she and her lover had been she separated , he at home , in America , both with the thrifty foresight o f their nation n o n earni g money to be married , and now h s e was going home to him . I can see the light shining in her eyes as she said he would surely meet her at the station , though he had of — not written late she wondered why . In due time we arrived . What had hap ! or pened Had some evil befallen him , had he simply tired o f waiting for her all

! n o t those years I cannot tell , but he was there ; just as my train steamed out of the station I saw her go through the ba rrier alone . As these memories come crowding in before me , some clear, some fainter, some shifting and confused , I pass again over ground that I have lately trod , and compare new days with

old. o f Nowhere , I think , has the luxury 1 46 T RAVELLING C O MPANI O NS railway travelling further advanced than o n the convenient restaurant cars now run o n every main line at home and abroad . Time was when all the food we could depend o n through many empty hours had to be scrambled for at a buff et in a few desperate moments when the train halted at some inter mediate station . Yet this lively interlude had its advantages ; it unstiff ened our limbs and shook up our spirits , adding zest to the long monotony of the journey ; we have lost where we have gained , I think . There is a grim and sooty hideousness , a certain terror even , in the long and diffi cult walk we must take nowadays from our well-appointed com

artm en t p to the restaurant car, over those quaking little bridges and down the mean , draughty corridors . I am forever haunted by a story I once heard of the stout o ld lady o n an express train , who was passing over a bridge when the shivering plates gave way beneath her weight and she fell through o n to the o f o line . The form a little waiter n a journey from Paris to Basle o n e stormy winter evening comes back to me ; he was I 47 T RAVE LLI NG C O MPANI ONS

cou e lits following me past a hundred p , all exactly alike , their blinds already fast o f drawn for the night, with the object obtaining a franc I owed him o n my supper bill . It had to be extracted from my husband , who was at that moment disposing himself to slumber ; and the difficulty of finding him under the circumstances was great . With all possible discretion , I attempted to peer through window after veiled window, going , though

n o t . I knew it , far beyond my goal At length we stood before a fast- closed door ur that barred o way . We made a squalid

— picture in that unlovely place myself, touzled and worn and travel- stained— for only certain very rare forms of female beauty are proof ’ against a twelve- hours railway journey— and the waiter, a petty figure in his absurd white jacket and brass buttons and semi- military trousers , his little soul entirely absorbed in o f that impossible quest tenpence , while all the time the train went rushing through the o f storm ; pale , torn shreds light ever and anon fled past the windows , and the wind shrieked like some wild thing in pain . I 1 48

T RAVELLI NG C O MPA NI O NS

’ n ow deck . He is holding his nurse s hand , and stands as near as he dares to the rails , trying to look over the ship’s awful sides into the sea . The engines are stopping ; the water eddies and seethes around the great posts o f the landing stage , and it frightens him . “ H ow o ff are we going to get the boat , Nanny ! the sea is coming so close ! how ” we going to get o ff the boat !

1 5 0 T O Y S

T OYS

so gardens of the city where he lived , that even in death it might not be quite u n

o f touched by the beauty earth . It may be that such thoughts are merely fanciful . Yet in these days o f elaborate

- so child study , when much heed is paid to o f the influence early surroundings , and immense importance is given to environment o f as a means training, it is surely an extra ordinary fact that we are content to put ugly and vulgar objects, to be its playthings ’ and constant companions , into a baby s hand . I saw a lady recently buying presents for her small children in a famous London toy

n shop . She chose , among other thi gs, a horrible little figure called the mechanical ” ’ advocate , a creature in a lawyer s gown with a ghastly white face and a red blob for a nose , which , when wound up , went through f It diffi o . a series violent gesticulations _ is cult to see what can possibly be gained by giving a child such a plaything as that . of I disliked the whole army golliwogs, now ,

I think , happily defunct , because they were ugly and impossible ; and I would avoid 1 5 4 T OYS nearly everything that has its head to o big

o l for its body . For some d friends of this t peculiar cons ruction , such as Punch and - o ld Humpty Dumpty, we keep , young and , a friendly feeling ; yet it remains something o f a mystery why a figure is supposed to be funny simply because o n e of its members is dis proportionately large . It would be interesting to trace the origin o f this idea . I would banish from every nursery the terrifying masks with which big boys like to frighten

‘ their little Sisters , and all things that are hideous and unnatural . There are many ways in which o ur modern toys are found wanting . In England we have never yet attained to the skill and imagination of the French and German in ventors , their touch of fancy and grace . The Christmas shops here are festooned with o f hundreds transparent net stockings, dis at playing all their contents once , that are “ intended for the hangin g up ceremony t o n Christmas Eve . These seem to me o own defeat their object , for the whole charm and excitement of the stocking surely lies in I SS T OYS

m o f its mystery , in the sense it i parts the unknown , the dive into its dark depths when

n own we wake on Christmas morni g . Our stocking is far the best for this purpose, so

f or there is no need an imitation one at all .

o f There is, indeed , a sad waste trouble in the huge eff orts made nowadays to amuse little children . In these realistic times imagination is crowded more and more o ut o f their world ; the most wonderful skill is spent in reproducing the things o f actual life for them , and the result is failure . I saw a five- year— old boy playing in a garden close by the door of his home .

— a Around him were several toys motor car, o f a few ninepins , and a new box soldiers o f these he took no notice at all . He had

o t o n g a stick, which a leaf was neatly impaled ; and he held it motionless before an iron scraper . Every few minutes he took o ff the leaf, laid it carefully edgewise between o f i the prongs a rake ly ng on the grass, and

o e e put on a fresh n . So absorb d was he in this game , if game it could be called , that I had to ask him twice what he was 1 5 6

T OYS

wearisome reiteration . A mechanical waiter v rattled to and fro o er the boards, bearing a tray of peppermints . That was all ; it was

n o t not a play, it was Cinderella , it was not ro anything . The children , in unending p cession , passed gravely before it . In a show- case was displayed an array of - h snow men , fait fully copied from the original

- article , with boot button eyes and the usual sketchy features . They were solid all o f through , made some thick white woollen material , and they would live for ever, through winter and summer alike, in defiance of the very nature and being o f a snow ’ o f C man , that most fugitive all hildhood s joys , which changes in a moment and dies in the sunlight . Through a crowd of toy carts of every description there passed a lady with a dis bo mally undecided little y. Milk carts o f failed to please him , exact miniatures the real thing, with drivers driving dashing ponies , and great brass cans shining bril l - lian t . y Taxi cabs whizzed past him , motor ’ omnibuses , Lord Mayor s coaches , Irish cars . 1 5 8 T O YS

He turned away from them all , grimly attracted by a dying goldfish in a tank a little farther o n — the only real thing he could

find in all that world of Shams . The mother drew him back again , and they stopped before a coal waggon . At last his eye “ brightened . I should like one of those ’ little black sacks , he said . The poor lady s ’ ou t o f face fell . Oh , they wouldn t sell it “ ’ she the cart , answered ; and it wouldn t be worth buying either . Nannie can make ” ou e y a sack at home . I should like o n o f those little black sacks , he said .

It is open to question , I think , whether small children should be taken to these huge emporiums at all . They are usually quite unable to choose out o f the host o f things be before them , and they get fretful and wildered . Certain primitive feelings , the ” o ld good rule of Me First , the refusal to ’ share , the desire to obliterate one s brothers and sisters , gradually win the day ; peace and goodwill are banished from the scene , to be t o o ! often restored , alas by mistaken means . A mother was explaining to her three little I S9 T O YS sons that she could not aff ord three toy summer-houses ; they might have o n e be tween them ; which should it be ! The discussion took up an immense time ; and , as “ all such discussions will do, it ended in ” “ ’ ”

. Wi tears I want the Ouse th the wailings , “ ’ don t sobbed the youngest infant , but I ’ ” wa nt to ave it between us . The fruitless moments passed , louder grew the voices , more tears were shed At last the mother said something, too low for me to catch , ff which had an instant and magic e ect .

Smiles shone out , and peace reigned once more . A short time after, as I was leaving the shop, the trio with their exhausted parent passed o ut before me . In his arms each

- little boy carried a toy summer house . Among the distractions o f the toy-shop I have wandered from my original point , for the subject takes us far afield , and is less simple than we should believe at first sight . ” Let us entertain primarily with grace , says “ Ruskin ; I insist much o n this word— with ” grace assuredly . We must put grace into the children then as best we may , and no doubt we shall succeed in the end ; but they 1 6 0

M OLD D AY S TO NEW

FR O M OLD DAYS T O N EW sequent way we resent the ending of o n e o f ’ life s chapters , even when we ourselves have written the final word . For we who are grown up and have even passed il mez z o del ca mmin , still remain at heart like little children who say to their mothers time after time Again after some game that has pleased them . l é Tous es d parts attri sten t .

In the deserted home the familiar rooms stand wide and empty now ; the walls with all the ir stored-up memories are vacant an d bare , showing here and there a patch of brighter colour o n the faded paper where pictures or furniture have kept o f the sun

h as light . The house passed with extra ordinary swiftness from the comfort and homeliness begot ten of the long years tha t

o f are gone , to utter desolation . One that solitary and depressing race known as care takers , till the joyful advent of a new tenant , is carrying on a shadowed career in the basement . I know that the little town garden will as o f o ld do its best to Show a brave front , 1 6 6 FR O M O LD DAYS T O NEW to the spring ; yellow faces of aconite inside their green ruff s will look up again to greet it , bluebells will Sing in an impoverished , but still cheerful chorus . The back yard , so however, many years the home of my diligent hens , is empty and silent now, reverting little by little to what it originally

- was , a grass grown orchard . It became a

- o f back yard , despite the presence three a set venerable pple trees , when we up the chicken runs ; and the ground was soon hard as brick , every scrap of vegetation disappearing under the busy feet . The pullets are pursu ing their honourable calling on a neighbour’s premises, but a few aged cocks , beaux of a past generation , their brave plumage but little the worse for a hundred fights , were ff o ered up , indignant , on the culinary altar “ ” and came in for mince ; a petty exit, I

s l grieve to think , for warriors o va iant . On the very eve o f our farewell to the o ur Crescent , Pat , dear Irish terrier, closed a l b ameless life in peace . We mourn him truly , but we do n o t wish him back ; f or he never l has could bear a change . The ast van 1 6 7 FRO M OLD DAYS T O NEW

m rounded the corner, the oments have all run out , and the little house stands forlorn , an empty shell , a still form whence the spirit has

fled . Skirting a reach o f the main road between ’ Windsor and London , a stone s throw from

- a little village green , runs a high red brick ivied wall that hides from view a wide lawn

- and an old fashioned kitchen garden , with meadows and a little copse beyond . Here in the shade o f ilex and copper beeches stands o ur o f new home , a plain Georgian building o f red brick , hidden under a coat yellow paint stained drab and grey by time and weather . Here and there beautiful old crimson colours shine through where the paint is very slowly perishing , but it is good for yet a hundred years . The front of the house is extremely simple, almost childish in design , pierced by fifteen windows all alike . Along side the front a row o f little semi- circular

- n flower beds bordered with box edgi g , the

o f prettiest evergreen edging all , was always bright in past spring- times with primrose and scillas , and in summer with stocks and other 1 6 8

FR O M OLD DAYS T O NEW

“ homely annuals . No such things , says “ Some E n lislz Ga rdens Miss Jekyll in g , look well o r at all in place against a building ; the transition from the permanen t structure to ” v t o o the transient egetation is abrupt , and she advises instead the planting o f som ething more enduring . mostly evergreen . But why ! It is an arrangement after ’ Nature s own heart ; o n e Of those contrasts so that she loves . For the frail wild flowers find o ut the crevices Of the mighty rocks and

i deck the everlast ng hills , like little children ’ playing at an Old man s feet . Many o f the principal living rooms o f the house look north , for the sunlight , slayer of e microb s , that we rightly deem essential to our health and homes in these enlightened

o f ff o ur days , was a matter indi erence to hardier forbears . To them the window tax o ut o f was a far weightier consideration , and respect to it a great part o f the west side of the house was closed up and blind ; only in recent years one of the occupants bethought o f her Opening two windows to the sun . The interior o f the house in Olden days 1 6 9 FR O M O LD DAYS TO NEW

was melancholy and severe . A squat black

o en stove , naked and unashamed , sto d in the ff trance hall , and made an ine ective attempt t o warm the whole of the echoing corridors .

The bedrooms upstairs were deadly cold , and their occupants entrenched themselves behind strong baize doors to keep o ut the draughts . Very little light came through the tall north windows , for a wilderness of scrubby undergrowth without, topped by tall laurels and great brooding yews , obscured the garden spaces . A graceful , tall acacia stood much too near the house , with its infant de sce n dan ts cropping up in hundreds all over the lawn ; it fell in a recent October gale . The walls o f the reception rooms were hung with a crimson “ flock paper of a ff sticky , flu y texture that would not be t olerated n ow ; the pictures had all been sold f ossession when we took p , but their ghosts were still there , irregular patches and squares ff at many di erent levels , with red triangles above them showin g where the cords had

— hung . In the drawing room a few shreds of a very curious Old Japanese paper, that 1 7 0

FRO M O LD DAYS T O NEW

Bedroom . At times I fancy I can hear voices calling from those rooms above , and o f the answering footsteps the prim , old world dependants . The owners o f the place for nearly two centuries were ladies o f noble ancestry and quiet ways of life ; they were all blessed with exceptional length of days , and the latest generation spent theirs in looking for the new

o n reign of Christ earth , which was to begin 1 8 8 2 in , and herald the Millennium . They were led to those conclusions through Piazzi ’ Smyth s monumental researches into the mysteries o f the great Pyramid . Last year we ’ saved from the sale Of the o ld ladies little treasures their copy o f this extraordinary work

Our I nlz erita nce in tlt e Grea t P ra mid y , a faded brown book , with four stars engraved on the

a n d o f cover, the graceful delicate signature

n o n fl — o n e of the ow ers the y leaf. The ' author s abstruse and elaborate reasoning , based on an immense system o f measurements and investigation , speaks from these dead pages with weighty assurance and confident “ ” hope . The Great Pyramid system , he 1 7 2 FR O M OLD DAYS T O N EW

“ says , is full of benevolence and compassion f o r the poor and needy, besides teaching that their anguish and wo es will last but a few years longer ; for then , agreeably with the

Scriptures , Christ himself will again descend f rom Heaven , this time with angels and arch angels accompanying, and will give to man at last that perfect and righteous government which man alone is incapable of so shall the Saviour reign over all nations brought under

o n e his heavenly sceptre , until that millennial termination arrives , when Time shall be no more . Lady Georgiana has drawn a faint pencil o f line beside this passage , in token her approval . Someone , greatly daring, once ventured to take her to task for trying to read the future , and quoted to her the words o f Scripture ! Ye know neither the day nor ” the hour wherein the Son o f man cometh .

She was a lively and resolute old lady, not

o n o n e easily crossed any subject , and this o f all others lay near her heart . She sent not a winged shaft at the speaker . We are

she . told we shall not know the year, said I 73 F R O M OLD DAY S T O NEW

Lady Georgiana and her sister, Lady Alicia , discussed this tremendous theme on many a Sunday afternoon with a great- nephew o f theirs , a little Eton boy, who often came over in the Half to spend an hour with them . The young visitor was just at the age when life looks its brightest , and he viewed the near approach of its end thus presented to him , with much disfavour . He would marshal before the o ld aunts all the argu ments he co uld muster that might tell ’ against Mr . Smyth s conclusions . Occasion ’ ally the afternoon s entertainment would be en ’ livened by the stra ins o f Moody and Sa nkey s hymns , played by the boy on the little cottage piano that stood in the corner of the

- long, low drawing room . I saw the piano o r once twice in later days , when it had long been silent ; it had a beautiful front of gathered crimson silk , the folds simulating rays issuing forth from a brass luminary resplend ent in the centre .

The little Etonian scored in the end , for the year so confidently awaited came and passed with no sign from heaven ; no trumpet 1 74

FR O M O LD DAYS T O N EW

tions o f sisters was a gentle old lady whom I remember seeing o n e day standing in the beautiful Adam doorway , framed in magnolia

o f and wistaria , the one graceful feature the plain , grave building . Lady Selina was very small and slender , and indeed what She lived upon would have barely supported a robin . “ A little chicken , my dear, She said to a hungry young cousin in her teens , who was

she sitting at luncheon with her one day , as lifted the cover before her, and there reposing in its meek white sauce lay one merry thought . No wonder that Lady Selina dwindled and almost vanished o ut o f sight as

o n her ninetieth year drew , but yet her hold o n life remained extraordinarily strong . She she lived four years longer still , and then too was laid to rest in the churchyard close at hand . The house was left tenantless and gradually fell into disrepair, almost decay . The solemn sequence of the seasons passed over it in silence ; the dust of the dead years lay thick in the empty rooms . So it long remained ; and now and again a local con 1 76 FR O M OLD DAYS T O NEW tractor would intrude within the gates and run his cold , speculative eye over the grey build ing standing desolate in the beautiful garden , and talk of pulling down the house , cutting up the property into lines of convenient villas .

These things were not to be . Better days have dawned at last , and the Old place is renewing its youth once more . New life is sprin ging up within it and around ; snow drops are weaving their white wreaths afresh

- at the feet o f the beech trees .

I 7 7

A LITTLE EXPERIENCE OF FU RNISHING

SO M E weeks before that first new spring-time the house was refurnished and ready . There is often a greater c harm and a deeper interest in revivifying an o ld place than in creating a

o n e new so we found it here , but there was o n e a drawback to this advant ge , in that we had not an entirely free hand . It was cer tain ly fortunate that no structural altera tions were needed ; so we did n o t ha ve to adopt the headlong course of throwing the dining ” room into the hall , or the like . But in various respects we were obliged to adapt our own ideas to old and Often difficult con o n ditio n s. I like square landings every

o o ur — fl or, and in new old house there are none ; I like a drawing- room level with the o f t garden instead being put away ups airs , and 1 8 1 A LITTLE EXPERI E N CE windows which open at the top instead of I only at the bottom . These let n a search ing and peculiar draught which is a radically ” different thing from fresh air ; but they were practically never opened at all in the easy o ld days when no o ne worried about microbes . I have gone so far as to put little wheel ventilators into o ne or two window panes ; but they cost fourteen so shillings each , that it is cheaper to remain ff stu y .

We have installed a radiator system , the house without such aid in winter being perishingly cold ; the great wide chimney stacks are mostly built for better security against outside walls , an arrangement which wastes a good third of the heat . The fire-places were quite worn through and useless ; the pretty Old grates , their thin plates adorned with delicate wreaths and o ld garlands , were sold as iron , and carted o ff by the rag and bone man . I was quite sorry to see them go ; they had a pathetic o f look still quenchless welcome , with memories of bright wood fires behind their 1 8 2

A LI TTLE EX PE R I EN CE

n precaution agai st fire , with which we nightly groped our way to bed . Electric light in bed a rooms is indeed boon , and saves that tapping a all over the place in the d rk , and many a pain ful collision with the furniture , in the search -b x - for a match o . Luminous match boxes were a useful invention in their day, but they could not light our way to them , and proved most disappointing when laid by chance the wrong side up . Where there is no electric light in a bedroom the match-box should always reside o n its own little bracket by the door ; but I have never met with that simple device , save in one house , in the whole course o f my life . The great drawback to electric light is that the modern housemaid forgets - the humble match box altogether, although we need it just as much as before for sealing o ur o ur letters and curling hair . H ow wonderful is electricity as familiar to us n ow as daily bread , and yet how few of us can say what it is , this mysterious , captive, ’ mighty force , that obeys a baby s hand , and springs into magic life at our will ! In the ever-widening fields on which it shines no 1 8 4 OF FURN I SHI NG

service is too splendid , none too humble , for ’ it to render ; it lights St . Paul s Cathedral ,

f o r On and boils the kettle our tea . the com mon ground o f every-day life it is en croachin g ever further ; o n e day it will be everywhere used for cooking, and we shall wonder how we put up so long with the cumbrous , smutty , wasteful kitchen range . To the eye of the thrifty housewife there is no more exasperating sight than the kitchen fire roaring away with nothing on it ; a gas is stove , where it can be had , a useful com promise . As a rule , we all make a perfect fetish of switching o ff the light in passages and room s temporarily unoccupied This form of thrift is all very well when we have only ourselves to consider, but should not

o f o ur be practised at the expense guests . Well I remember charging into a wardrobe on a pitch dark landing when o n a visit to a

. saw friend I stars and got a black eye , and did not fo rgive her for a month . If we cannot aff ord to keep a few extra lights burn

o ur ing while their visit lasts , we should take o n guests round the house their arrival , and 1 8 5 A LI TTLE EX PE RI EN CE

Show them where the switches are . These I f pre er made in gun metal , which I think prettier than the common fluted brass knobs , o f and it saves labour in cleaning . Best all , however , is the sunk box with its neat plate flush with the wall ; this can only be con trived where the wall is of a certain thick ness . I chose very pretty plates for my house , perfectly flat and plain , with a little design o f reed and ribbon round the margin to match the decoration on the old- fashioned door furniture . When they were fixed I found they were further ornamented with senseless bumps and excrescences . The elec trician said they would be a dead loss to him if so I insisted on changing them , I must bear with them to the end . For every bedroom a collapsible stand for

- dress boxes should be kept handy . This simple convenience , found in every conti n en tal hotel , is rarely seen in English houses ; yet its use saves us from an infinity of

n o f fatigue , and that feeli g blood to the head and general irritability peculiar to the process o f packing in the ordinary way o n the floor . 1 8 6

A LI TTLE E X PE R IE NCE

or pence each , threepence with trimmed petticoats , while nothing looks more neglected and untidy t han the mutilated half o f a tassel , a sight to which most people are

o n strangely indiff erent . While the subject our of windows , let me plead that dressing tables be placed anywhere but in their usual

- position , where the looking glass obscures the greater part of the light within , and entirely disfi ures g the window without . However pleasm g the picture presented to the beholder

ront a - in the f of looking glass , the back is one o f the plainest objects in the whole range of household furniture . Our curtains in general are now cut o n far less extravagant lines than formerly ; for it is no longer the custom to have them trailing a yard or more on the ground , and looped up by day in an immense mass over the cord . They are still chained like wild beasts to the wall ; no other means h as yet been invented of keepin g those tidy that are made to reach the ground , but they are cut just the requisite length and no more . The sumptuous heavy draperies , however, such as make the splendid 1 8 8 O F FU RNI SHI N G

setting to a Vandyck portrait , were in keeping with the spacious days gone by . As to choice o f materials there should be very

ffi e n d little di culty , now that we have such less variety to select from , reproductions too o f l o d . beautiful designs Birds , perhaps the

moti u n most lovely f in all decoration , are

f o r suitable seats of chairs I think , for I

o f o n never like the idea sitting a bird . Various “ fadeless ” dyes are on the market now, but their claim has yet to be proved , and even if it is they will forfeit a certain charm . Some colours that time has faded are more beautiful than any yet produced by human skill .

Fashion , as we have seen , is retracing her steps in many directions , and looking in quest o f fresh ideas to the fancies and in ven

o f b e o n e tions y g days , but these of course are not all capable of adaptation now , though time has lent them a certain enchantment . f o r I have not yet noticed , instance , any revival o f the bead cushions (always pro “ ” n o un ced cushin ) beloved of our grand of mothers . Some these survive to this day , 1 8 9 A LI TTLE EX PE RI EN CE

i u heavy and cumbersome , the r cr de bright ness undimmed by a hundred years— for it is o f I believe impossible , short total annihilation , for anything to happen to a bead— and the ’ o f touch them as cold as a winter s day . t o o Vanished , and I trust for ever, are the hideously named antimacassars that were painfully worked with blood and tears and

o ur stout red cotton , by infant fingers . Traced upon them were the ghosts of nursery rhymes , cows jumping , a remarkable feat at any time , but doubly so with four crippled

n o t legs , over the moon ; John Gilpin , in the least degree

Like a n arrow swift S an e s n hot by arch r tro g , but pottering on the sorriest of nags through merry Islington ; blurred and bedraggled swains paying court to maidens whose faces had never made their fortunes . They bore not the faintest resemblance to Nature , the smaller outlines being simply impossible to o ur reproduce with big, awkward stitches . Those were the darkest days o f schoolroom 1 90

A LI TTLE E X PE RIEN CE

modern furniture , moreover, is less capable than the old o f withstanding hard usage ; but I fancy we are right in discarding the curious custom of drawing every stick of u o f o f rniture into the middle the r om , which was thought to preserve it when the family were away from home Carpets in those t o days were always laid up the wainscoting , a fusty and unnecessary arrangement still pre vailing in many houses , which undoubtedly produces an accumulation of dust along the walls ; but the wear and tear o f dragging heavy objects so frequently to and fro must surely have outweighed the increased facilities o f o f cleaning . Among the recent advances civilisation can be reckoned a more intelligent warfare against dust ; but the modern house maid has yet to learn that all her eff orts are in vain unless she first damps her m aterials . Watch her trying to sweep a floor with a dry broom ; the dust simply gets up and dances about , to settle down again when her back is o f turned . Valuable furniture requires , course , special treatment . At this point I am brought face to face 1 9 2 OF FU R N I SHI NG with the gigantic bogey of Spring cleanin g ; and even at the risk o f digression I must here pause and lay it low . Surely it is an extra ordin ary fact that so many intelligent people should be c ontent to pass several o f the most delightful weeks in every year in discomfort

so as o ur which , long houses are kept in decent order through the seasons , is wholly unnecessary . I have known one lady actually forced to keep her bed because n o room in her house during this miserable process was habitable . What though the infinite labours of spring cleaning , its tragic passions and desperate energies , inspired first the broom and then the pen of Jane Welsh Carlyle ; what though a late distin guished writer has written a prose epic o n the theme— it remains that in this o f t recurring and terrific upheaval we have a bogey that never should have been suff ered to rise from dead winter ’s shroud to stalk through the fairest hours of spring . We may well be thankful for the invention o f the vacuum cleaner , which does away with the wearisome business o f taking up and I 93 N A LI TTLE E X PE RI E NCE

relaying carpets , and the childish and violent process o f beating them ; also f o r the greatly extended use of matting , which needs very little attention , either when used as what is called in the hideous jargon o f the trade a “ ” o f e surround , or in place a carp t alto gether . Matting has one drawback in that the rougher kinds play havoc with the hem o f o ur ff skirts , and also it is cruel stu to work , prickly and awkward for the poor ’ sempstresses fingers . When laid , however , it proves greatly superior to stained boards , ’ which have to be rubbed and bees - waxed twice a day if we object to seeing grey marks o n them . Parquet is the prettiest flooring — f or also the dearest a smart modern house , o f o f o ld but it is out place, course , in an fashioned setting . Every labour- saving device is o f special value when we consider the present tendency ur to overcrowd o rooms . With its jumble — n of photographs , silver tables , knick k acks , flowers— even o f flowers we can have to o m any— it is almost impossible to move in a

- modern drawing room . Let us call back 1 94

A LI TTLE E XPE RI E N CE a crowd of Japanese figures hurrying under red and orange umbrellas through the rain ;

Paolo and Francesca , clasped in their eternal embrace , are floating through nothingness u close to Q een Victoria in her nightgown , receiving the news o f her accession from the

Archbishop o f Canterbury . What matter is it if we even leave a few spaces bare o n walls and floor ; they are better than a hundred jarring Objects . With the violent over ff emphasis a ected by certain journalists , we were recently advised in the Ladies Page ” of a daily paper to “ avoid a monotonous ” so house like the plague . Well , we can ; and yet preserve some measure o f order and

o ur kinship among household gods . There

o n o n e is , the other hand , apartment in many ordinary houses which does , I think , cry aloud for a little variety and brightness ; I mean the Entrance Hall . This suggestion applies to country houses principally ; f or in the confined space of town houses a narrow o f passage , capable very little adornment, has f or usually to do duty a hall . Why is this feature of our home so seldom pleasing to 1 96 O F FU RNISH I N G

o ! beh ld Why, when every other room in

‘ s the hou e smiles a welcome , are we content with an austere and frowni ng hall — an apart ment given over to the unlovely comradeship o f hat rack and umbrella stand , goloshes and waterproofs ! The b a ll is the first room that greets the stranger as he enters , and the last o n which he looks back in parting ; t i ought, in common with every greeting and

to have a heart in it .

I 9 7

TH OU GH TS IN A G ARDEN

I A M writing in holy December the procession of the months has almost passed

away , and I watch their closing days , lit with o f t a blaze Chris mas candles , vanish into the dark .

For o f f or a few us , not many , the year has gone by with the shifting splendour o f a pageant ; for some it has been simply like a

o r chain hung with small plain beads, a slow train travelling through flat , uninteresting country ; and for others , like a forest track that winds through lonely and shadowed ways towards the light . We used to play as children with an o ld was re toy called the Wheel of Time . It a volving circular cage containing a narrow strip o f o f paper , on which a number little dancing figures representing the seasons were seen in 2 0 1 T H O UG HTS I N A GA R DEN k silhouette . We loo ed through the inter stices and made the mannikins go faster an d

o n e n faster, tripping over another, whirli g m round and round , till they became a so e what Violent allegory o f the fleeting years . The little sermon in the Wheel o f Time fell o n unheeding ears , however ; it would have seemed to us indeed , if we had ever thought about it , extremely untrue to life , which , with its distant shining goal o f growing up appeared t o us then interminably long . f or There would be time everything , we thought ; we know better now ! Yet to us

o ld all , young and , there come December days , real , not dream days I mean , when Time seems not to fly at all , but to potter by with halting feet as he drives his slow team , the

. dull grey hours, along the winter furrows

Then because we talk without thinking, we say that Nature 18 asleep when we well know n ow that she is never less asleep than , her watching time ! holding fast the charge that Is given her, she is keeping her treasures safe till the long days call them . Nature is o f she Is never idle , never really out heart ; 2 0 2

T HO UG HTS I N A GA R DE N

’ MR MA A N I ATI ON S F P R I N . . RS H M S I D C O S G

’ L s o n ord Suffield s Re mark the m .

E lies L a es . ar t . t t

Sn w D c . 2 F b 1 0 o drop appears e 4 e .

Th D . 1 e Thrush si n gs ec 4 Feb . 3 2 2 Hawthorn Leaf Feb . 1 1 April Hawthorn Flowers April 1 3 Ju n e 2 Frog s a n d Toads croak Feb . 2 0 May 4 Sycamore Leaf Feb . 2 2 May 4 B 2 1 irch Leaf Feb . May 4 Elm Leaf March 4 May 6 Moun tai n Ash Leaf March 5 May 2 Oak Leaf March 31 May 2 0 B eech Leaf April 5 May 1 0 Horse Ch estn ut Leaf March 1 0 May 2 Chestn ut Leaf March 2 8 May 1 2 Horn beam Leaf March 7 May 7 A sh Leaf April 2 May 2 6 Ri n gdoves COO D ec . 2 7 March 2 0 Rooks build Feb . 2 March 1 4 Swallows March 30 April 2 6 Cuckoo sings April 9 May 7 Nighti ngale Sin gs April 7 May 1 9 Churn Owl si n gs April 2 9 Jun e 2 6 Y ou n g Rooks March 2 6 April 2 4 Turn ip Flowers J a n . 1 0 Jun e 1 8 Lime Le af March 1 9 May 7 Maple Leaf March 1 5 May 7 Wood An e mo n e blows March 1 6 April 2 2 1 Yellow B utte rfly app ears Ja n . 4 April 1 7

E e e en n e 1 . L es 1 8 00 . arli st y ar m tio d , 735 at t , Som e of these i n dications were observed in 6 2 years. Some in 30 years. 2 04 T H OUGHTS I N A GARDE N

th 4 , that a yellow butterfly has been seen amid the January snows , and that the so rooks, were they piously minded , might lay t heir foundation-twigs on the Feast of the

Purification . ’ Suffield s Lord Remarks have been , I fear,

u n omitted from the original of my chart, less they be all contained in the Simple , ’ yet speaking, testimony to his friend s wonder ful gift of Observation and lifelong watchful ness which is inscribed beneath . We will hope that Mr . Marsham looked his last

‘ o n the world in the season whose earliest and latest tokens he had waited for, year after year , through so many days , and that Spring shed its full radiance o n his passing hence .

I read a curious fact about rooks lately,

sa which was received , I am sorry to y, with derision by all to whom I have since related it , namely, that they love to disperse them selves about the tree- tops down the whole ” o f length an avenue and caw, as it were , in perspective . I recommend the idea to the designer o f the next new concert hall in 2 05 TH OU G H TS ' I N A GA R DEN

London . Avenues are gradually ceasing to

n o exist in our parks and gardens , being ff longer in fashion , and have begun a di erent and petty existence in the suburbs ; so the poor ro o ks are driven to resort in small groups

diminuendo to Single trees , sacrificing the eff ects in music that they love .

The robins are singing . I was annoyed in reading some novel lately by an allusion ’ to the robin s scarlet coat ! when only his breast o f course is red . Probably the writer had never taken the trouble of looking at a robin . In a recent essay by an eminent naturalist it was suggested that the robin’ s o f red breast, like other bright patches colour in the plumage of certain birds , is given him by a thoughtful Providence as an aid to his ’ is wooing . But the robin s breast not bright

— at all , it is a dull orange red . True , it takes on a soft and lovely sheen in sunlight ; still , da z z le o f it would hardly the lady his choice , though it might certainly please her . Some she times , though rarely, is just as well turned out herself, for instances are not unknown o f a hen robin being quite indistinguishable 2 06

T H O UG HTS I N A GA RDEN increasing all the winter through after any stormy spell . For the most part we are not halfenough aware o f light we forget to look

! so o n e for it and , in more senses than the long winters o f our discontent seem darker ’ than they really are . Often it needs a poet s eye to see light shining in unexpected places ; and recently in a beautiful essay o n Colour in Autumn I read o f an eff ect o f light that

o n e all the poets , save , have missed the o f mock sunshine the faded woods . It follows hard o n the pageant o f the dying year , but only Tennyson , I believe , has noted it . Yet any autumn day after the brilliant colours have all burnt themselves away , on some woodland walk by thicket and hedge , we may see what looks at first sight like a sudden drift o f sunlight ; and we shall find that it is only a patch of o ak o r beech under

o f wood , lingering sheltered in a kind bright ness long after the winds have stripped the

o r o r lofty trees ; Sprays of golden bramble ,

o f . tangled fronds bracken , pale and dead o f We Speak autumn tints , but in its usual connection it is the feeblest expression in the 2 08 T H OUGHTS I N A GA R DEN

sa language , for, strange to y, it is his mighty ” n ot fires we mean by tints , the little lights that burn unnoticed long after those have died .

To return to the garden . In a large bed

ask in a sunny corner, though they for no special indulgence , being content with any fairly open position , are planted my Mrs . m Si kins pinks . It is a pity their beauty is so

— short lived , for after a few days they invariably r burst their sides and let thei petals fall about , a weakness shared by others of the carnation family . Little wire waistbands have been f or invented greenhouse carnations , which can be put round the opening buds to keep their shape intact ; but it would take t o o long to m do this to ten thousand Mrs . Si kins . The

Sin kin s real original Mrs . , who was formerly matron of the Slough Workhouse , lives two miles from my home ; I saw her and Mr .

— Sin kin s recently . She told me and I have her permission to write the story down— that o n e day she saw some o f the pinks o n a market stall , and remarked to the salesman how universally they are now grown , and he 2 09 0 T H OU G HTS I N A GA R DEN

Sin kin s agreed and said Do you know Mrs. herself was a very poor woman before she grew rich on her pinks ! Now She drives in ” Sin kin s a carriage and pair . But Mrs . replied ! Y o u are not quite right in either

M Si kin s rs. n ofthose statements , young man . ‘ve She never was a ry poor woman , and is certainly not rich now ; she never drives in a carriage and pair ; and I ought to know , for ” Mrs Si k n n i s. my name is . Indeed she has made no money with her pink She gave it to a great nurseryman , who has made it famous

o n for her . Another day she was standing the platform at Slough Station with her o n e brother ; two gentlemen came by, and

! Mrs said to the other O I do love .

Sin kin s ! “ Do you hear what they are saying !

s . a ked her brother, a little shocked “ ’ It s my flower they mean , not me she said . Sin kin s i Mr . and Mrs . , in the r old age, are enjoying the reflection o f the happiness they have given to the world for theirs is a loved name in every garden . 2 1 0

T H O UGHTS I N A GA RDE N In either case they Show the Christian grace o f contentment . Many o f o u r disappointments in gardening (I speak as a humble amateur) are o f course o f o ur own making ; but I have not yet probed the mystery of an extraordinary reverse I lately experienced . In the spring

I sowed seeds from a hundred packets , each ff di erently named , and most carefully selected as to colour and height in the open borders, and in due time they all came up

N o o f foxgloves . w few sights early summer are more beautiful than the foxgloves ’ graceful t o o spires , but these were ridiculous ; there were hundreds and thousands o f foxgloves ; the garden was the laughing stock o f all beholders . I had many carted away in

- wheel barrows to the wild garden , and o f moved others to the rear the borders , and I wrote to the firm that had supplied me the seeds , relating the occurrence . I received a polite reply, saying they were utterly at a loss to explain the curious circumstance I had kindly com municated to them . Where o ur o wn it is possible , let flowers supply the Z I Z T HO UGHTS I N A GA RDEN

seed , though some may need great care to “ ” ensure its coming true ; for it is always well to begin at the beginning ! we gain the sense o f real achievement then ; and o ur best rewards in life have their birth in the workshop

For where th e old thick laurels grow alon g the thi n red w all, ’ Y fin d th e an d n e s w a re the ou ll tool potti g sh d , hich ” heart of all .

su erin Mr . Phillips , the foreman who p tended the alterations to the house , came back in the following autumn to build o ur new potting sheds . We had missed him greatly in the interval , and felt like children who lose an old nurse and are left to look after their toys themselves . Across the road is a small a nnexe to the garden , which sheltered a curious

o f and melancholy structure unknown origin , decorated with leaded windows and a rough kind of painted tracery that gave it a half hearted ecclesiastical air . It stood in a corner, partly concealed by tall rank stems of the

o n e Jerusalem artichoke , Of the few entirely

n u attractive plants in existence . This build ing was called by Mr . Phillips Simply The 2 1 3 T HO UG HT S I N A GA RDEN

Gothic . One day he and his men attacked it with destroying implements , and its dubious and useless existence ended with a clatter and a groan . But the wood that composed

o f The Gothic was found to be heart oak , and seasoned as wood is rarely seasoned now ; so it went to build the sheds , and two pieces o f rough ornament from the old doorway adorn their homely entrance . Ruggy, a little ff o f grey dog , with a soft white ru like foam the sea round his neck , spends half his valu able time grubbing inside the sheds . During the other half he trots about , a concentrated bou uet q of potting shed . The ingredients are

— easily recognised leaf mould , common soil , string , tar, boxes of seedling tomatoes , mouse trap and mouse , sacks , and many a nameless

own plaything of his , hidden away in dusky corners . In all the growing time Of the year he is to be seen in the neighbouring farmer ’s

his o wn field , with a friend entirely of making

— a m o ld ild man , whose calling is known in

- Buckinghamshire as bird starver . This apparently inhuman title merely means that he frightens the birds away from the young 2 1 4

T H OUG HTS I N A GA RDE N dispatch some o f the fat grey slugs ; f or others we set ready a little fortress made of green

a t tin , containing a mound of bran which

r tracts them with c uel guile , and lets them fall through to drown in a salt water moat below . And so the strife goes o n that sees no ’ ending— Nature s pitiless laws forever at vari ance , it seems , with her kindness ; while the h O e gardener watches and remembers , ever p

o ful ; sowing always in j y, even though he sometimes reap in tears .

2 1 6 B RYANSTO N SQ UARE

B RYANST ON SQUA RE

Of character the whole is unchanged . At o f each corner the Square is a larger, statelier mansion than its neighbours ; these are o f brick and lead up again to another crescendo o f in the middle , superior grandeur and stone facing . We lived in one of the brick houses on the sunny Side . The palings round the Square through which the little Slum children peep are o f o f so black course , as yore ; too are the bushes ! I can recall the sticky feel of those evergreen leaves bravely struggling through

- the fogs to greet the coming spring time .

- The husky , cross voice of the much tried Old gardener calls to me down the ages to

Off o n e keep the grass , and in corner still

- - stands his tool house , pyramid roofed , which remained for us a forbidden place o f vaguely imagined delights to the last . The same o f mounds at each end the garden , adorned with laurel and privet and intersectedwith little winding paths , break the monotony of the landscape— and o f old those always held a certain air of mystery . We fancied that sprites and wizards had their haunts among 2 2 0 B RYA NST O N SQUA RE the bushes there ; but they were a languid

ff o f race , and su ered from the prosaic nature their surroundings . Real , live fairy stories demand f or their setting some measure of privacy ; whereas it was impossible to protect ours from the tall watching windows o f the o f houses on either side the Square , and the inquisitive hansom cabman sitting idle o n his perch outside the gates . The fairies , too, were sadly cramped in Bryanston Square ; for no sooner had you got to the t o p o f o n e scrubby little hill than yo u were at the

- bottom again , in the every day world that knew them not , the dull , wide pathway which formed a promenade for o ld ladies and nursery maids . Just outside the railings, at the southern end of the Square , stands a dingy fountain which has long run dry, and bears a faded inscription to a certain respected o f inhabitant Marylebone , a distinguished journalist who died fifty years ago . The long list o f his Once shining virtues is vanished o ut o f nearly sight, but I could just read

— that this refreshing fountain poor, dusty, Silent thing— was erected to keep his memory 2 2 1 B RYANST ON SQUA RE

green . Beside the fountain , a stern iron o ur placard , new since day , threatens with instant prosecution all performers o f music in the Square . Banished then is the Monday

- German band , and the daily organ grinder , with his tiny monkey dressed in a particularly

- well cut coat ; it fitted him without a wrinkle , o f and gleams yet , a bobbing speck cheerful red , through the misty past . But I am forgetting that the monkey and his poor master would both he dead by this time , even if they had not been driven from the Square ; it is so many years since last we knew them there . Down the long road paces Slow the great yellow watering cart , the little excitement of its appearance break

o n . ing in quiet , dusty summer days I remember the awestruck respect with which

- I regarded its semi sacred calling , for was not “ MARYLEBONE VESTRY ” writ ! large o n its amber sides and I wondered

o n what happened to it Sundays , when Canon

- Fremantle and the white robed choir of St . ’ Mary s took up all the available Space . In those days we were n o t aware that Mary 2 2 2

B RYANST O N SQUA RE

got a little flustered. To this day I can see the two narrow shiny places in the ribbon where it was wont to be tied children notice

o n - such things . It is hard the pew openers of England , a humble , harmless race , that Dickens should have set among them forever M r ff s. o f the unlovely form of Mi , her the “ ” vinegary face and grasping soul ; f or a meek and quiet spirit was the ornament of ’ o f our old friend St . Mary s . But they have climbed the social ladder since her day , for since the old- fashioned pews with doors have

ffi o f - disappeared , the o ce pew opener has o f risen to that Church Attendant . The interior o f the great building is dimly lighted and severe . During the Litany , when I grew tired with kneeling and sat up furtively against the hard straight back o f

o r the pew, when my thoughts , despite all ff would e orts to steady them , wander from the sermon , I had recourse to various pastimes . I would count the little bits of glass in the side windows , arranged in a o f symmetrical design squares and lozenges , - o f and again in squares , faint colour echoes a 2 2 4 B RYAN ST ON S QUA RE kaleidoscope we loved at home ; or looking up to the circle of little gas jets that twinkled like stars in the lofty roof, I wondered how anyone could climb up so high to reach them ; or my little sister and

I , shocking to relate , would start a race with our hymn books , turning over the pages as quickly as we could till we should reach the end ; but this game made a dangerous swish ing noise , and was usually checked before we o t had g very far . When these several dis tractions became exhausted , we were reduced to Shutting o ur eyes and rubbing them round and round with our fingers , when a bright o f and beautiful object , like the eye a pea ’ cock s feather, immediately appeared in the farther corners . I have never yet under stood how o ne can see this lovely thing in the For dark . many years I have searched the D a ily Telegrap lt to see if Sir Ray Lankester would explain the mystery From his Easy

so n o t Chair , but far it does seem to have occurred to him .

The service is ended at last , and I follow the three little sisters out again into the daylight . 2 2 5 P B RYANST O N SQUA RE

1 At No . in the Square lived in solitary a state the Turkish Amb ssador , a gentle , mild o ld man with a passionate fondness f or small cage birds . The glass window case built out o f his great bare reception room was fitted up as an aviary , and the little specks of gay colour brightened the darkest days without . One morning as we came o ur home from walk in the Park , and chanced to look up at the corner house , saw so we the cages still and empty , that “ ” o f lately had been full fluttering love . ’ The servants in a few days absence o f their master had forgotten to feed the birds, and they had starved to death ! The o ld ambassador never recovered his tragic loss , I believe ; it was not long before he followed his little songsters o ut of this a life , and the Emb ssy was transferred to a diff erent part o f London . o ur own We kept a canary of , a bird

— s with very little character, and a dormou e .

There was also a cat called Frank, a Spirited o f animal , although unwieldy Size and fabulous age ; but he despised the tame 2 2 6

B RYANST O N SQUA RE we wore in winter blue coats of an extra ordinarily stout material which were called - Pea jackets , soberly braided down the front ; and in change with those we had Norfolk

u n f ort u coats , a type of garment that has n ate l y survived all these years , though it

o f now , I think, Shows signs extinction ; it o ut ought never to be seen of Norfolk , if it must be seen anywhere Ours were in grey tweed , with a duster pattern in squares of red on it . Children thirty years ago were seldom nicely dressed . Our sister kept her ’ o f forefinger in the first page Dr . Brewer s G id ! u e. is What Heat she asked . Answer came there none ; and she had to “ supply it herself. That which produces ” o f a sensation Warmth . Do you know what a Second is ! Every tim e I ” wink, that is a Second . We were busy putting a fresh cotton -wool lining into the dormouse ’s sleeping apart ment , and for once we did not attend to her . It was a Herefordshire mouse from the o f meadows near Foye , above the valley the

Wye . I grieve now to think how cruel it 2 2 8 B RYANST O N SQUA RE

was to take his freedom from him , as he played over the summer fields , and Shut him

f or ff up life in an incredibly stu y little box ,

five inches square , with a wheel by way of

- exercise , a circular wire frame work like the o f hoops a barrel , which he worked for hours together with his feet . He reached a mar vellous speed in the wheel , flying round and round till his little form was entirely lost , and he appeared a mere wraith , a disembodied

r o f . spi it , a tiny symbol perpetual motion But the idea o f any injustice on o ur part towards the mouse never entered o ur heads ; and we surrounded him with an amount of love and attention that he must have felt positively oppressive at times . His career is surely a record among his fellows ; for he travelled twice to Italy and back , through the St . Gothard tunnel and home by diligence over the Simplon , spending the winters in Florence and Rome ; and all that time he was completely unconscious, rolled up into a tight cold ball , wrapped in sleep . Every

- spring time , after the long rest , we watched for his unfolding tail with a joy o f expecta 2 2 9 B RYA NST O N SQUA RE tion that nothing in life has ever equalled 1 Since . There came a season at last— it was in London— when the awakening of the dor mouse lacked its usual écla t ; we grew very anxious about him , and consulted a celebrated

- bird fancier , who was also experienced in mice ; he gave his serious attention to the case , but all in vain . One summer evening

out o f the little thing fell asleep due time , and then we knew he would not wake again .

Late that night we crept out of bed , unknown to Nannie , to watch beside him till he died at sunrise . His limbs and tail arranged themselves diff erently from the way they had ff in natural Sleep , and grew sti as they had never done before ; so then we knew he was dead , and we buried him in the quietest Spot

e W could find in the quiet square . We never got another mouse ; but replaced

1 My sister says that I am mistaken about the dor ’ mouse s wi n ter sleep ; that the schoolroom in which he n n n n wa n lived bei g ever really cold , he kept co sta tly ki g

a n d fi n n d. up, that this arti cial activity haste ed his e Yet I remember his habits exactly as I have described W e n o n n . them above . shall ever agree the subject ow 2 30

B RYANST ON SQUA RE That autumn we went to Germany and took the frogs with us ; they had to travel of course in the traditional glass jar half full - of water , with a step ladder for them to perch on . Through the long hours in the night train my sister and I took charge of o ur pets diffi by turns , keeping awake with immense culty that we might not topple over and upset them . We had not reckoned , how On of ever, the inevitable dearth flies in to winter, and were forced for several seasons

sus induce the frogs to eat meat instead , pending minute pieces on a hair deftly inserted through the top of the meat safe , which we danced before them in imitation o f a fly . The deception was highly success o ne ful , my little sister cheerfully sacrificing o f long bright red hair, a new one course , ff every day . I forget why I never O ered up o f of any mine ; being no particular colour, it would have served the purpose far better . ’ One incident o f Tim s blameless career was of an alarming and melancholy nature at the time , though fortunately it had a happy

n ending . After lessons were over o winter 2 32 B RYAN ST O N SQUARE

o ur evenings in the hotel at Dresden , favourite amusement was giving the frogs an o n outing the schoolroom table, and letting them disport themselves with their usual grace round the lamp . Suddenly in the midst o f his tiny diversions Tim stretched o ut all his legs , closed his eyes , and lay to all appearance dead . First Aid in various forms was requisitioned , but in vain ; we resigned ourselves to this sudden and unlooked for grief, and laid him in readiness for decent interment the next day , in a pail . When we removed the covering the following morning , behold Tim alive and kicking ; and he was spared for several months to come , in sound and vigorous health . We diagnosed this L am stroke curious case as p , an ailment for tun ately I think unknown to the British pharmacopeia . The following autumn we again went abroad , and were making our final prepara tions f o r the start when my mother sud den ly struck at the thought of taking the m ea tsaf e frogs, the jar, the , and the Japanese garden a second time across Europe, and said 2 33 B RYANST O N SQUA RE

they must all be left at home . We were in despair over this decision , when , in the very

o f a nick time , a famous Oxford naturalist p eared ff p on the scene , and o ered to board and o f our lodge the frogs , free all charge till return . This generous proposal we accepted thankfully . One spring day soon after we came back to our country home in England , my sister and I were sitting o n a bank in the garden out when the servant came to us , bearing in bo x his hand a beautifully perforated tin , ” Live frogs , with Great Care , being inscribed o n the label . I remember thinking then that we had reached the topmost summit o f earthly o ut joy . We opened the box , and jumped first our own familiar Tim ; then Another frog . We looked at each other in Silent dis may, then both spoke at once , three fateful “ ’ ” ! ot Todd words It s n y . Toddy had died from natural causes during the winter ; the kind professor, with immense trouble , had f or procured another mate Tim , never think ing we should know the diff erence . Yet another reminiscence — a very diff erent 2 34

B RYANST O N S QUA RE quavering voice came nearer and nearer o ut o f o n e the shadows in the Square , and no

saw . me , I used to hide in the box room I think some of o ur neighbours took pity on the old woman and fed her ; I am sure my she mother did , and it is good to think that is now at rest . A brighter memory is that of o ur dear nur sery maid , Ann . In these pompous days the

Old an dlaid good word nurserymaid is despised , aside in favour o f the grand and unattractive “ ” o f title second nurse . Ann alone it was who had the nerve to convey us all three with an immense wooden hoop each , across Oxford

o n Street by the Marble Arch , our way to

o f the Park . Take care your hoops , Miss Sybil and Miss Hester I can hear so plainly

she still her kind , anxious voice as landed us “ all safely o n an island before we plunged afresh into the stream . We loved the hoop expeditions , and once we even induced Nannie f to come with us instead o Ann . But the pro portions of Nannie ’s figure were very diff erent

o f o n from those her Slender satellite , and “ arrivin g at the island we found that what 2 36 B RYAN ST O N SQUA RE with o n e thing and another (a favourite ’ expression o f Nannie s that did duty f or all kinds o f emergencies) there was n o t enough room for us all . We brimmed over into the road , with a glorious sensation of adventure ; but the incident remained a somewhat sore subject with Nannie ever after . Those were happy times we spent in the pleasant old roomy house . The least attractive feature , as usual I think in Victorian houses ,

- was the great stately dining room . It was sombrely furnished with chestnut-wood chairs of an extraordinary solidity, and was presided over by a vast haunting picture o f the Dead

Sea , with mysterious veiled figures in the f foreground , who came to me o ten in my o f dreams, hovering amid the desolation the

. o f shore The lower window panes , being ground glass engraved with a firm am en t o f o f stars , completely obscured the view the outer world and gave to the apartment an o f air profound retirement and stillness .

Our nurseries , however, were delightful . I remember the strange yet familiar feel of the rooms when we arrived from the country 2 37 B RYA NST O N S QUA RE

o ur and the caretaker had got tea ready, and everything was a little exciting and u n usual . Brightest o f all the scenes I recall were perhaps those just before bedtime , most ’ o f vivid moments a child s day , when after glorious romps we were undressed “ before ” the fire . Alas for the homes of England ! now suff ering invasion in ever greater numbers by the gas - stove — that mean product of modern ingenuity , a heartless lifeless thing that lacks all charm , and all poetry, and all romance !

No w in th e falli n g of the gloom Th e red fire pai n ts th e e mpty room An d w o n th e armly roof it looks ,

An d flickers o n the backs of books.

Armies march by tower an d Spire Of es n in th e fire citi blazi g, a s I e w n e Till gaz ith stari g yes ,

The es e the s e s. armi fad , lu tr die

Th en on ce agai n the glow re turn s ; Agai n th e phan tom city burn s An d wn th e red- e 10 ! do hot vall y , Th e phan tom armies marchi ng go ! 2 38

B R YAN ST ON SQUA RE a child ’s complete toy equipment thirty years ago , with a few more serious items included . They come to life again before me as I read the entries ; but the toys would look very trifling and simple now beside the elaborate and splendid playthings that are showered o n the children o f to— day On the fly leaf o f the book is inscribed Hester a from Dear Fr u , and the list is as follows

I have got a jumping frog . Pump .

Small cradell.

Japanese box for cards . Kaleido sco p ; little wide

Awake ; paint box, little doll in her bath ; writting desk ; little

basket , a welp

tea urn , tea

kettle , little

erram bu lator p , ’ Throstle s Nest .

1 ” F a n F n Gieseler r u sta ds for raulei Auguste , our n a n d o ur n gover ess dearest frie d . 2 40 B RYAN ST O N S QUARE Sunday Evenin gs with my children (this was the name o f a book we used to read o n Sundays after

tea) , New maps o f

England , and a little man with a dark blue u m berrella a very preety little wire basket which the blind made Kate Greenaway plate little Red Riding b ox Hood , with

o n . heeds it , lotto

pencil line , as shown above , is carefully drawn through the last four lines , which o f represent the title a story apparently, but the continuation rea ds 2 4 1 B RYA NST O N S QUA RE I did not mean t o strat ch o ut Children busy Children glad Children n auty Children sad for I have one , little pussies

o n playing instruments , two little houses , a small cabin et , a beautiful pe acock blue plush box doll Evangeline , be r e art ic . a doll dorathry

— a blue vase there , was another, but

Pussy broke it, little cat look ing into a vase little box which dwindle into quite small , a little doll in 2 42

B RYA NST O N SQUA RE

volcanoes . I have never met another tame geyser before or Since . The front staircase was roofed by a large skylight , which was very cold in winter . Radiators , hot water o f pipes , and such luxuries were unheard

our o n e in time . I remember day , as Nannie stood on the landing, a bit of loosened wood work from above came down o n the top o f

o n her, and she wore two bumps her dear old forehead ever after . This disaster, o n e which was indeed a rather serious , made a most solemn impression o n our minds at the time ; and we came to reckon the events

o r of life as before, after, the Skylight fell upon Nannie . To this day I have a chilly remembrance o f the iron banisters , with my face pressed against them , as my little sister and I watched the ladies and gentlemen o n dinner party nights pass up the stairs below to the

- drawing room . We perched ourselves mid way o n the upper flight . To the right o f o ur the landing, just beneath vantage point , was a tall glass before which the guests ” finally tidied , turning themselves about , 2 44 B RYAN STO N SQUA RE adding little finishing touches before the - o f door was opened , all unconscious four eyes fixed upon them with delighted in terest We had to skew round through the bars somehow , with a most painful

ff was e ort, for this particular scene ; but it

o n e well worth it . There was lady whose coming was always heralded by the un usually elaborate rustling o f her stiff ex pensive skirts ; the clinging soft chiff ons and crepe de chines o f to-day were not then in fashion . I really think she must have been the Auntie o f whom Stevenson sang

W en e n es n h ev r Au tie mov arou d , Her dresse s make a curiou s soun d e n h er th e fl They trail b hi d up oor, An d n tru dle after through the door .

We never failed to guess that lady ; and I can yet see before me a certain pink train as it swept along the passage , and hear the voice of my mother ’s maid from the distant t o n p landi g , saying as her practised eye sur ” ed v e . y its every fold , That gown is dyed Our eldest sister did not share those thrilling vigils . She played a more refined 2 4s B RYANST O N SQUA RE

“ and distinguished part , and was found in the drawing-room when the ladies came up after dinner . Scraps o f conversation come floating down

- to me from those long dead festivities , over heard as the couples went down the stairs to dinner, and we used to make rapid guesses as to whether the gentleman or lady would begin first . “ — I was in the House to day . Never heard the Grand Old Man in finer form . ’ o f ! An amazing bit oratory Still , it s per f e ctly clear that the Government is riding for a fall .

What a charming girl that is of yours , Sir Henry ! Will you lend her to me for the Foreign Office o n Monday ! I hea r She wins all hearts , and now that all my own birds are flown . ’ Wasn t it a lov ely cotillon last night !

I must show you my presents some time . Did you see those two girls Sitting o ut by themselves ! They never got anything . ’ Somehow I didn t think they would .

I was so sorry for them . 2 46

Unive rsity of Calif ornia SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hll a rd Av - g enue , Loo Angeles, CA 90024 1388 Return th is mate rial to the libra ry f m ro wh ic h It was bo rrowed .