1 CHAPTER I CHAPTER II CHAPTER III CHAPTER IV CHAPTER V CHAPTER VI CHAPTER VII CHAPTER VIII CHAPTER IX CHAPTER X CHAPTER XI CHAPTER XII CHAPTER XIII CHAPTER XIV CHAPTER XV 'Indiscretions' of Lady Susan 2 'Indiscretions' of Lady Susan [Lady Susan Townley] D. APPLETON AND COMPANY NEW YORK MCMXXII Copyright, 1922, by D. APPLETON AND COMPANY Printed in the United States of America. * * * TO STEVE THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED, BEING SOME MEMORIES OF TWO HAPPY LIVES IN WHICH HE PLAYED A GREAT PART * * * CONTENTS * CHAPTER I LOOKING BACK I raise the Curtain with tales of my grandfather, and stories of my father and his family, including myself. [Lady Susan Townley] 3 * CHAPTER II LISBON Lisbon in the days of King Carlos People I met there, and how I once diplomatically fainted to avoid trouble with a German swashbuckler. * CHAPTER III BERLIN Berlin society as I knew it Recollections of the Emperor Frederick, and of the ex-Kaiser before and after he came to the throne How Cecil Rhodes directed the Kaiser's ambitions towards Baghdad What the English in Berlin suffered during the Boer War, and how the Kaiser wanted to show us how to win it. * CHAPTER IV ROME We are transferred to Rome The tragedy of King Humbert I see the pagan relics of Rome with Professor Boni, and have a private audience with the Pope. * CHAPTER V [Lady Susan Townley] 4 PEKING The fascination of China Humours of my Chinese cooks that were not always amusing I become friendly with the famous Empress-Dowager and am admitted to the intimacy of her Palace The pitiful little Emperor The belated, fantastic funeral of Li Hung Chang A lightning trip, and the bet I won of Sir Claude Macdonald. * CHAPTER VI AN INTERLUDE * CHAPTER VII CONSTANTINOPLE Constantinople from within Abdul Hamid, the little wizened old despot, his subtle cruelties and cowardice in private and public life The secrets of the harem, and the bitter cry of the Turkish women. * CHAPTER VIII IN THE HOLY LAND A tour through the Holy Land [Lady Susan Townley] 5 Wonders of the Holy City A caravan journey to Damascus Pilgrims returning from Mecca How the Kaiser looted Palestine. * CHAPTER IX AMERICA Washington, the Mecca of diplomatists We are eulogized at first by the American Press What America is like Its hurry and social ambition American wives and their husbands A visit to the Bowery Opium dens A lost Englishwoman How I offended some American journalists What they said of me and what I think of them. * CHAPTER X THE ARGENTINE Racing in the Argentine "The wickedest city in the world" [Lady Susan Townley] 6 The prudishness of Argentine women Love-making as it is done A delightful visit to a great estancia A remarkable Devonshire family and how the father of it was tamed. * CHAPTER XI BUCHAREST When Carmen Sylva was Queen of Rumania What she did for her people The beauty and charm of Princess Marie, now Queen of the Rumanians Social life Peculiar views of marriage The Huns in Bucharest Mr. Lloyd George on M. Clemenceau, and M. Clemenceau on Mr. Lloyd George. * CHAPTER XII PERSIA To Persia Strange tales of Shah Nasr-ed-Din The boy who did not want to be king [Lady Susan Townley] 7 His coronation Pictures of Teheran An exciting and perilous journey to London and back. * CHAPTER XIII BELGIUM My work for the Censorship in London We go to The Hague British prisoners of war A visit to Zeebrugge I follow up the retiring Germans Bruges The underground club of the U-boat officers An eye-witness of how Captain Fryatt went to his death The devastation of War The tragic glory of Ypres, and how the King of the Belgians re-entered the martyred town. * CHAPTER XIV HOLLAND The end of the War How the fugitive ex-Kaiser came to Maarn, and how by chance I saw him arrive [Lady Susan Townley] 8 The story of the little Dutch soldier who would not let him cross the frontier The outcast Emperor Where the Germans had been Rejoicing in Antwerp and Brussels The Belgian King has his own again Tales of the German Revolution Threats of revolution in Holland Queen Wilhelmina's courage That tired feeling. * CHAPTER XV THE 'INDISCRETIONS' OF LADY SUSAN ---- INDISCRETIONS OF LADY SUSAN ---- CHAPTER I 9 CHAPTER I LOOKING BACK I raise the curtain with tales of my grandfather, and stories of my father and his family, including myself. MY grandfather, George Keppel, sixth Earl of Albemarle, was born in 1799. I remember him quite well. He was always a delightful raconteur, and many is the yarn we heard from him at Quidenham, when in the winter evenings he gathered us round him before the old library fire. He would tell us how as a child he had been frightened into obedience by the cry of " Boney is coming!" and he recalled quite clearly the alarm produced in England by the avowed intention of Napoleon to invade our country. As a boy he often stayed in London with his maternal grandmother, the Dowager Lady de Clifford, who was governess to the Princess Charlotte of Wales. She lived at No. 9, South Audley Street, within a stone's throw of Mrs. Fitzherbert, the wife of George, Prince of Wales. It was in this house that he was first presented to the Prince, afterwards George IV, a tall, good-humoured man with laughing eyes, pouting lips and a well-powdered wig with a profusion of curls and a very large pigtail attached to it. The last pigtailed Englishman, within my grandfather's recollection, was William Keppel, his father's first cousin, who was equerry to George IV, in whose graces he held a very high place. The Duke of York once said to him, apropos of his hirsute adornment, " Why don't you get rid of that old-fashioned tail of yours? ' "From the feeling," he replied with ready wit, " that actuates your Royal Highness in weightier matters the dislike to part with an old friend!" My grandfather spent his Easter holidays at St. Anne's Hill, Chert sey, with Charles Fox. The aged statesman used to wheel himself about in a chair, out of which he was never seen. All the morning he was invisible, transacting the business of his office, but at one o'clock, the children's dinner-hour, he appeared in their dining-room for his daily basin of soup. Lunch over, he became for the rest of the day their exclusive property. CHAPTER I 10 They adjourned to the garden, where trapball was the favourite game. As Fox could not walk he of course had the innings, the children fagging and bowling. The great statesman loved these games and laughed with glee when he sent a ball into the bushes to add to his score, but when bowled out he argued shamelessly to prove that he never ought to have been! It was in Mr. Fox's carriage that my grandfather was sent after the Easter holidays to his first school. He was then barely seven. He subsequently went to Westminster School, where he spent seven years, during which he used to get week-end leave for visiting in turn his two grandmothers, Lady de Clifford, above mentioned, and the Dowager Lady Albemarle, whom he described as a kind-hearted woman, but not attractive to her grandchildren. He remembered having his ears boxed by her after his return from the Waterloo campaign. But Lady de Clifford, very unlike the Berkeley Square grandmother, was a staunch ally of her little grandson and fought his battles against all comers. In January, 1805, when the Princess Charlotte of Wales had completed her ninth year, an establishment was formed for her education and placed under the control of Lady de Clifford. Grandfather was for years after that a constant playmate of the Princess, of whom he had many a curious anecdote to tell. She was excessively violent in her disposition, but easily appeased, very warmhearted, and never so happy as when doing a kindness. From her he received his first watch, his first pony and many a top. When she went out shopping with Lady de Clifford, she thought it very amusing to assume an alias, and on these occasions would take the name of young Keppel's sister Sophia; but her own free and easy demeanour was in such contrast with the reserved and timid manner of the little girl whose personality she borrowed, that nobody who knew them both could possibly have been deceived. CHAPTER I 11 On Saturdays Keppel was generally the guest of the Princess, but on Sundays she returned his visits either at his father's house at Earl's Court, Brompton, or at Lady de Clifford's villa at Paddington. On one of these occasions the Prince of Wales honoured Lady de Clifford with his company at luncheon. He was fond of good living, and considered her cook an artiste in her own line. But that day luncheon was unaccountably late, and the old lady rang the bell violently. When the meal was eventually served, the mutton-chop was so ill-dressed that it was quite uneatable. On inquiry it was discovered that the Princess had acted as cook and young Keppel as her scullery maid. In her visits to Earl's Court the Princess usually came in Lady de Clifford's carriage, and remained, at her own wish, as far as possible incognito. But once she arrived in her own, and the scarlet liveries soon betrayed her presence to the curious crowd without.
Details
-
File Typepdf
-
Upload Time-
-
Content LanguagesEnglish
-
Upload UserAnonymous/Not logged-in
-
File Pages244 Page
-
File Size-